JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Peres showing slight improvement after stroke, doctors say-China sends message of support to former president who remains ‘serious but stable’ as medical team continues treatment-By Times of Israel staff September 22, 2016, 4:05 pm
Former Israeli president Shimon Peres saw “slight improvement” on Thursday but remained in serious condition after suffering a major stroke nine days earlier.The 93-year-old Peres was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv on September 13. He has been under sedation since then, with his condition consistently described as serious but stable.“The medical status of the ninth president Shimon Peres is stable and there has been a slight improvement in his breathing,” his spokesperson said.The spokesperson added that doctors were continuing to monitor his neurological state.The Chinese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Ming visited the Sheba Medical Center Thursday morning to pass on wishes of support to Peres and his family from Beijing, calling Peres the father of Sino-Israeli ties.“The Chinese people admire and respect Shimon Peres just like the rest of the world. He is a great and important friend to the Chinese people and we have immense respect and deep appreciation for him,” Zhang said.Although Peres remains sedated, his medical team decided on Sunday to gradually reduce the respiratory support as well as the level of anesthesia currently being administered.Also on Sunday a senior neurologist at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem said Peres’s condition had likely moved “from the acute to the chronic” — meaning he was likely no longer in life-threatening danger but now faced more protracted health challenges.Prof. Avinoam Reches told the Walla news website Saturday that “when a man suffers such massive bleeding there is immediate danger to his life. I am not the doctor in attendance and his medical file is not open to me, but according to reports coming from the hospital, our friends in Sheba worked correctly and succeeded in stabilizing his condition, so the immediate danger has passed.“Peres,” Reches said, “is still in danger, but his main enemies now are the inevitable infections coming from a long hospitalization and the development of an edema around the hematoma in his head [a swelling around blood vessels affected by the stroke].”Peres is the elder statesman of Israeli politics, one of the country’s most admired symbols and the last surviving link to its founding fathers.Over a seven-decade career, he’s held virtually every senior political office, including two stints as prime minister and extended terms as foreign, defense and finance minister. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reaching an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians.Long a divisive personality in Israeli politics, Peres finally became one of Israel’s most popular public figures in his later years.World leaders have sent wishes of a speedy recovery to the former president, recalling his achievements and warm personality.
Obama: Israel cannot ‘permanently occupy, settle Palestinian land’-In final, wide-ranging UN address, US president also says Palestinians must reject incitement, recognize ‘legitimacy of Israel’-By Times of Israel staff and Agencies September 20, 2016, 6:53 pm
US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that while the Palestinians should reject terror and incitement, Israel must recognize that it cannot “permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”“Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land. We all have to do better,” the US president said at the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.In his wide-ranging address, Obama sought to use his last appearance before the global body to define how his leadership had put the world on a better trajectory over the last eight years. At the heart of that approach, Obama said, is the notion that conflicts are best solved when nations cooperate.The president cited his administration’s outreach to former adversaries Cuba and Myanmar as key examples of progress. He also cited the resolution last year “of the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy” as a key achievement over the past eight years.In his address, Obama spoke of a “less violent” and “more prosperous” world but one rife with “uncertainty, unease and strife,” as nations struggle with a devastating refugee crisis, terrorism and a breakdown of order in the Middle East.“Despite enormous progress, governing has become more difficult, and tensions are more quick to surface,” he said, adding that the world now faces a choice, to “press forward with a better model for cooperation and integration, or retreat into a world that is sharply divided.”“This is the paradox that defines the world today,” Obama said. “We must go forward, and not backward.”The US president also conceded that “bloodletting” throughout the Middle East will not be easily resolved and insisted the Syrian civil war could only be ended through diplomacy.“The mindset of sectarianism and extremism and bloodletting that has been taking place [in the Middle East] will not be quickly reversed,” Obama said adding that “no external force is going to force communities to coexist,” and that the international community must “work with those who seek to build, rather than destroy.”In Syria, where the civil war has claimed the lives of over 300,000 people, Obama said that there was “no ultimate military victory to be won,” and that the world must pursue the “hard work of diplomacy and humanitarian assistance.”He added that the there was a was a “military component – it means being united and relentless against ISIL [the Islamic State terror group].”In a subtle reference to Republican nominee Donald Trump, Obama also bemoaned how terrorist networks had spread their ideology on social media, spurring anger toward “innocent immigrants and Muslims.”“We must reject any forms of fundamentalism, or racism or a belief in ethnic superiority” that is “irreconcilable with modernity,” said Obama.Earlier on Tuesday, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told the UN General Assembly that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for both sides.“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.
Top EU lawyer says Hamas should be dropped from terror list-Advocate general says decision to blacklist Palestinian Islamist group shouldn’t have been made based on ‘media reports and the internet’-By AFP and Times of Israel staff September 22, 2016, 4:05 pm
A top EU lawyer on Thursday said Islamist movement Hamas and Sri Lankan rebel group LTTE should be taken off the bloc’s terror list because procedural mistakes invalidated the decision to put them on it.Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston of the European Court of Justice said Thursday that a European judicial body was correct to remove Hamas and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from the list in 2014.The European Union imposed travel bans and asset freezes against Hamas and the LTTE under 2001 rules. The groups subsequently contested being kept on the bloc’s terrorist black list.The General Court, second to the ECJ, found in their favor in 2014 on the grounds the EU had based its decision on publicly available information, not on a finding by a competent authority.In a statement at the time, the court explained the EU’s blacklisting of Hamas had been based on “factual imputations derived from the press and the internet” instead of “on acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities.”Stating that the European Council, which placed Hamas on the terrorism list in 2001, “did not produce the obligatory judicial effects for the designation,” the court scrapped it but kept sanctions in place for another three months pending appeal.The European Council of the 28 member states in turn appealed that finding.Sharpston said Thursday that the EU “cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than in decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing.”Given that “some of the reasons advanced could not justify the decision to maintain the listing of LTTE and Hamas,” the General Court was correct to dismiss the EU appeal when it could find no other sufficient reasons for their listing.Accordingly, the ECJ “should annul the measures maintaining Hamas and LTTE on the EU list of terrorist organizations on procedural grounds.”Washington, which already defines the Hamas organization as a “foreign terrorist organization,” added Hamas politburo member Fathi Hamad to its terror blacklist last week, meaning that US citizens and companies are banned from doing business with him and any assets he holds in areas under US jurisdiction will be frozen.According to the US State Department, which issued the designation, during his time as Hamas interior minister in Gaza Hamad used his position to “coordinate terrorist cells.”The State Department said that Hamad had founded Al-Aqsa TV, “with programs designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.”Advocates general of the ECJ are regularly called on to give their view on a case before a final ruling and in most instances their opinions are followed.Officials said they could not comment on Sharpston’s opinion and would wait until the final ruling in the case.For the moment, nothing has changed and Hamas and LTTE remain listed.The ECJ is expected to deliver a final ruling in the coming months.
Hollande: France still wants peace conference this year-At UNGA, French president says Paris seeks relaunch of negotiations between Israel, Palestinians; FM says ‘this week must be a moment of political mobilization’-By Agencies and Times of Israel staff September 20, 2016, 9:44 pm
French President Francois Hollande expressed hope Tuesday that Paris would still be able to host a peace conference between Israel and the Palestinians this year.Speaking to the UN General Assembly in New York, Hollande said: “On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, France wants to convene a conference for negotiations by the end of the year.”The statements echoed those of his Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault who said at a briefing earlier Tuesday, on the sidelines of the General Assembly, that “this week must be a moment of political mobilization that we can reach that goal.”Ayrault’s push for an international conference follows an announcement by Russia’s Foreign Ministry on September 8 that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed “in principle” to meet in Moscow for talks.But the wide gaps between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas raise doubts about the prospect for any meeting — and, if there is one, whether they would make any progress.Abbas demands that Israel halt all settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, and release about two dozen Palestinian prisoners before any meeting. Netanyahu rejects the preconditions, charging that the Palestinian leadership must stop the incitement and support for terrorism.Ayrault said several countries, including Egypt, Russia and the United States, are trying to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians. He said he told them that “all efforts are in fact complementary of the French initiative.”A statement from Secretary of State John Kerry’s office said Kerry met Abbas in New York Monday to discuss “our shared goal of a two state solution.”It said Kerry voiced “concern over trends on the ground, including the recent surge in violence and settlement activity.”France hosted an international meeting in Paris in June attended by more than two dozen Western and Arab countries to try to come up with a new strategy for Mideast peace and revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have been all but dead for over two years. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were not invited.The participants welcomed the “prospect” of a conference with both parties later this year.Ayrault hosted a closed meeting Monday for officials from the countries that attended the June conference.
UN chief: One-state solution for Israeli-Palestinian conflict would ‘spell doom’-In last address as secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon criticizes ‘illegal settlement expansion,’ and ‘growing polarization and hopelessness’; Danon slams ‘UN obsession with Israel’-By Times of Israel staff September 20, 2016, 5:40 pm
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for both sides.Speaking at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York for the final time as UN chief, Ban gave a wide-ranging address focused largely on the Syrian civil war, which has claimed the lives of over 300,000 people since March 2011.On stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Ban said that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel “are being lowered by the day.”“It pains me that this past decade has been lost to peace. Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness,” he said, adding that West Bank settlements were “obstacles to progress.”“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon criticized some of Ban’s comments, charging that “the real madness is of the UN’s.”“Instead of slamming the incitement and the terror [on the part of Palestinians], instead of bringing [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to the negotiating table, the secretary general has chosen once again to attack Israel,” he said in a statement, adding that this is a “crazy obsession regarding Israel and it must stop.”“At a time when Palestinian terror has returned to Israeli streets, the secretary-general has chosen to attack Israel and not the terrorism and has ignored the direct responsibility of Abu Mazen [Abbas] and the Palestinian leadership who continue to incite terror,” Danon added.At least six Israelis were injured in the most recent wave of Palestinian attacks over the past week, one of them seriously.The UN chief opened his address with a call to end the Syrian civil war. Railing against “powerful patrons that keep feeding the war machine,” Ban said such countries “also have blood on their hands,” urging “all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started.”“Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all sides of the Syria conflict against Syrian civilians,” he said, adding that “many groups have killed innocent civilians — none more so than the government of Syria.”In his address, Ban denounced the “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack” on an aid convoy in Aleppo province on Monday and confirmed that the United Nations had suspended deliveries of humanitarian assistance.“Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower,” he added.The UN chief hailed the aid workers on the convoy as “heroes” and said “those who bombed them were cowards” before calling for accountability for crimes committed in the war.Both Syria and Russia denied they were behind the raid on the convoy near the northern city Aleppo, which the Red Cross said killed “around 20 civilians” including an employee of the Syrian Red Crescent. Air raids and shelling meanwhile pounded key battlefronts across the country — dimming hopes that the fraught ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington could be revived.Ban blamed all sides for killing innocent people, but “none more so than the government of Syria, which continues to barrel bomb neighborhoods and systematically torture thousands of detainees.”The former South Korean foreign minister is stepping down as UN secretary-general on December 31 after 10 years.AFP contributed to this report
Republican senators push to expand military aid to Israel-Lawmakers slam ten-year agreement, which forbids Jerusalem from accepting extra funds from Congress, as curtailing their powers-By Times of Israel staff and AP September 21, 2016, 3:30 am
Four Republican senators are promising a showdown with the White House over the ten-year, $38 billion military aid deal signed between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government earlier this month.The lawmakers, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, John McCain and Ted Cruz, told a news conference Tuesday that they are planning to introduce legislation in the Senate that would overturn a provision of the deal, formally called the Memorandum of Understanding, that prevents Israel from receiving any additional funds beyond those allowed under the agreement, and even requires it to return any added funds granted to it by Congress, Reuters reported.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent the past week defending the deal in the face of critics on the Israeli center-left. It is not clear how Israel will handle a fight between Congress and the White House over a deal it has already signed.According to the lawmakers, they are acting to protect Congress’s control over federal spending, which they said was curtailed by the US-Israel aid agreement.According to Reuters, the senators said they were proposing a bill Tuesday that would enable Israel to receive $1.5 billion in additional military aid, as well as renewing some American sanctions on Iran that were removed in last year’s nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.Three other GOP senators, Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt and Mark Kirk, are cosponsors of the new bill.“This is a very dramatic moment in the US-Israel relationship between Congress and the state of Israel. Congress is not going to sit on the sidelines,” Graham, who holds significant sway over the US foreign aid budget as chairman of a Senate Allocations subcommittee, was quoted as saying.Last week, Graham used a conference call arranged by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs to chastise Israeli leaders for accepting the agreement. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would have been more generous, he insisted, adding that both Republicans and Democrats in Congress support upping the military aid.“They left money on the table,” Graham said of Israel.The Obama administration was trying to “neuter” Congress by undercutting its ability to appropriate money, he charged. “I will not stand for that.”Graham seemed to draw further support from Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said in a statement last week that the agreement “sends an important signal about our long-term commitment to Israel,” but the amount of money “is ultimately up to Congress to decide.”The agreement was signed last week in Washington after over three years of on-and-off negotiations.Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice, who witnessed the signing, called it a signal of Washington’s “unshakable commitment” to the security of the Jewish state. It is the largest such deal ever offered by Washington to a foreign state.The total includes $33 billion in foreign military financing funds — which is money used to buy materiel and ammunition — as well as $5 billion in missile defense funding. Under the previous arrangement, Congress approved funds for Israeli missile defense systems, including Iron Dome, separately and on an annual basis.The old agreement, set to expire by the end of 2017 and be replaced by the new one in early 2018, allowed Israel to use 26.3 percent of the aid to buy products from its own domestic defense industry. The new deal phases out that amount over several years, until all US-granted aid is spent on American-made products.The new agreement also eliminates Israel’s ability to spend a fraction of the funds on fuel for its military.In his comments last week, Graham said lawmakers wanted to give Israel $600 million for missile defense — $100 million more than the agreement proposes to provide in 2019, as well as a $300 million hike in the foreign military financing account.Republican lawmakers have said that Israel was pressured into signing the agreement out of fear of growing Iranian power in the wake of the nuclear deal and growing Iranian assertiveness throughout the region.
Israeli minister slams ‘naive and messianic’ Obama-Comments by Netanyahu confidant Hanegbi come day after leaders broadcast friendly ties in meeting; US envoy says administration ‘disappointed’ with lack of progress on 2-state solution-By Raoul Wootliff September 22, 2016, 2:57 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israeli minister Tzachi Hanegbi slammed US President Barack Obama’s efforts to foster Israeli-Palestinian peace Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a cordial meeting with the American leader and trumpeted warming relations between the two.Speaking a day after what was likely the last meeting between Netanyahu and Obama in their current positions, Hanegbi, a close confidante of the prime minister, told Army radio that the US president was “naive and messianic” in his dealings with Israel.“At the moment Obama is not acting like the most powerful man in the world,” he said, “instead he is behaving like someone working in Hillary Clinton’s campaign office.”In their public remarks on Tuesday, Obama and Netanyahu displayed a jovial camaraderie with the US president only briefly mentioning peace efforts with the Palestinians and concerns over settlement building.But behind closed doors, senior Obama administration officials claimed Obama was more pointed, raising “profound US concerns” that settlement-building was eroding prospects for peace.Netanyahu challenged that notion, said one official, adding that the two leaders had not “papered over” their differences.However, a senior Israeli official said the issue was only point of contention between the two leaders, as they sought to put a history of testy ties behind them.Hanegbi’s comments highlighted lingering discomfort in Israel’s government with Obama’s efforts to push for a two-state deal with the Palestinians, despite attempts by Netanyahu to smooth out ruffles between Washington and Jerusalem.In 2014, then defense minister Moshe Ya’alon called US Secretary of State John Kerry “obsessive and messianic,” drawing loud protests from the US administration. Ya’alon later apologized, after Netanyahu expressed unhappiness with the comments.Hanegbi was not alone to show cracks in the relationship Thursday, US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro saying that Obama was “disappointed” in the lack of progress towards a two-state solution under the Israeli leader.While Obama still believes there is a possibility for positive developments in the three months left before he leaves office, he has accepted that he will not achieve the significant progress he had originally hoped for, Shapiro told Army Radio in an interview from the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.“Obama aspired to help Israel achieve its goal of two states for two peoples. There is disappointment over what was not achieved but at the same time there is still a will and an obligation to move forward, however possible, in the right direction,” Shapiro said.“In the last eight years they haven’t held back from discussing the things they disagree on and that’s a sign of good relationship, that they are not afraid to speak about the important things,” he added.Addressing the General Assembly on Tuesday, Obama said that while the Palestinians should reject terror and incitement, Israel must recognize that it cannot “permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”“Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land. We all have to do better,” Obama said.“There are things that Israel can do to improve the situation,” Shapiro said Thursday, echoing Obama’s words.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
EZEKIEL 38:1-7
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:TOBOLSK)
4 And I (GOD) will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
EZEKIEL 39:1-22
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)(EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye (MIGRATING BIRDS IN ISRAEL) shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.(RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS)
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I (GOD-JESUS) will set my glory among the heathen,(WORLD NATIONS) and all the heathen (WORLD NATIONS) shall see my judgment that I have executed,(AGAINST ISRAELS ENEMIES) and my (GODS) hand that I have laid upon them.(ISRAELS HATER ENEMIES)
22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
In sign of thaw, top diplomat meets South African foreign minister-On sidelines of UN assembly, Dore Gold discusses bilateral ties with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who in 2013 said Pretoria ‘curtails senior leadership contact’ with Israelis-By Raphael Ahren September 22, 2016, 3:18 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
NEW YORK — The director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry met on Wednesday with the Foreign Minister of South Africa, who three years ago infamously said that officials from her country do not engage with Israel.Dore Gold’s meeting with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who has been Pretoria’s minister of international relations and cooperation since 2009, took place at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting took place but initially kept mum about its content. Gold tweeted a photo of him shaking hands with Nkoana-Mashabane, adding that he was “[e]xploring the ties between our nations.”“We consider the very fact that this meeting was held an extraordinary achievement,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told The Times of Israel on Thursday.During the meeting, Gold discussed the importance of South Africa-Israel relations, particularly in the context of Jerusalem’s renewed push to engage with all countries on the continent, the official added.In 2013, Nkoana-Mashabane said that due to the Palestinians’ plight, South African officials refuse to engage with Israel.“Ministers of South Africa do not visit Israel currently. Even the Jewish Board of Deputies that we engage with here, they know why our ministers are not going to Israel,” she said at the time.Exploring the ties between our nations with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, #SouthAfrica-'s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation @UN pic.twitter.com/duZzTkK13b— Dr. Dore Gold (@DoreGoldMFA) September 22, 2016-Nkoana-Mashabane further said that South Africa has “agreed to slow down and curtail senior leadership contact with that regime until things begin to look better… The struggle of the people of Palestine is our struggle,” she declared.Nkoana-Mashabane’s comments caused a stir, and the South African cabinet later asserted that it had not imposed “a ban on travel to Israel by government officials.”Relations between Jerusalem and Pretoria have long been fraught over the latter’s harsh criticism of Israeli policies and its staunch support for the Palestinians. Last year, the African National Congress — the country’s ruling party — hosted the leader of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, a move protested by Israel.Earlier this year, Gold embarked on a three-day visit to South Africa, meeting with Jewish community leaders and government officials.“The meetings were a very important start. To say that we’re about to have a completely different relationship is premature. But there was a readiness to hear our arguments,” Gold told The Times of Israel at the time. “There’s potential. Now, everything is in the follow-up.”On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with about a dozen leaders from African countries, part of a push to forge stronger trade and diplomatic ties with the continent. It is not clear whether South African officials will be present.During his current trip to New York, Gold also meet with the foreign ministers of Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia and Rwanda.South African President Jacob Zuma is currently in New York, where he addressed the UN General Assembly Wednesday. In his speech, he said that the lack of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “remains a major concern for us.” It is time for the UN to “carry out its historic mission” and help resolve the conflict, which he called one of the “longest outstanding decolonization and occupation issues.”
Assad blames US for Syria truce collapse-In interview, Syrian president takes no responsibility for atrocities, accusing enemies of the state of all killings-By ian phillips and Zeina Karam September 22, 2016, 4:13 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — President Bashar Assad rejected US accusations that Syrian or Russian planes struck an aid convoy in Aleppo or that his troops were preventing food from entering the city’s rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, blaming the US for the collapse of a ceasefire many had hoped would bring relief to the war-ravaged country.In an interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, Assad also said deadly US airstrikes on Syrian troops last week were intentional, dismissing American officials’ statements that they were an accident. Assad said the US lacked “the will” to join forces with Russia in fighting extremists.Assad, who inherited power from his father and is now in his 16th year in office, cut a confident figure during the interview — a sign of how his rule, which once seemed threatened by the rebellion, has been solidified by his forces’ military advances and by the air campaign of his ally Russia, which turned the tables on the battlefield last year.He said his enemies alone were to blame for nearly six years of devastation across Syria, and while acknowledging some mistakes, he repeatedly denied any excesses by his troops. He said the war was only likely to “drag on” because of continued external support for his opponents-“When you have many external factors that you don’t control, it’s going to drag on and no one in this world can tell you when” the war will end, he said, insisting Syrians who fled the country could return within a few months if the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar stopped backing insurgents.He spoke Wednesday in Damascus’ Muhajireen palace, a white-stone building where he often receives guests, nestled among trees on the foothills of Qasioun Mountain. The Syrian capital, seat of Assad’s power, has stayed relatively untouched throughout the conflict, spared the devastation inflicted on other, opposition-held areas of the country. In recent months, Assad’s forces have taken rebel strongholds in suburbs of the capital, bolstering security and reducing the threat of mortar shells.The attack on the aid convoy outside Aleppo took place Monday night, hitting a warehouse as aid workers unloaded cargo and triggering huge explosions. Footage filmed by rescuers showed torn flesh being picked from the wreckage. Witnesses described a sustained, two-hour barrage that included barrel bombs — crude, unguided explosives that the Syrian government drops from helicopters.A senior US administration official said the US believes with a very high degree of confidence that a Russian-piloted aircraft carried out the strike. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and asked for anonymity.Assad dismissed the claims, saying whatever American officials say “has no credibility” and is “just lies.”Like Syria, Russia has denied carrying out the convoy bombing.Syria and the United States have been at loggerheads since the September 17 US airstrike last week that hit Syrian troops in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. US officials said the attack — its first direct hit on Syrian forces since the civil war began — was accidental and that the warplanes thought they were targeting Islamic State group positions. Russia said the strikes killed more than 60 Syrian troops, and afterward, IS militants briefly overran government positions in the area until they were beaten back.Assad said he did not believe the American account and said that attack targeted a “huge” area constituting many hills.“It wasn’t an accident by one airplane… It was four airplanes that kept attacking the position of the Syrian troops for nearly one hour, or a little bit more than one hour,” Assad said in the interview. “You don’t commit a mistake for more than one hour.”“How could they [IS] know that the Americans are going to attack that position in order to gather their militants to attack right away and to capture it one hour after the strike?” Assad asked. “So it was definitely intentional, not unintentional as they claimed.”The strikes contributed to the collapse of the ceasefire, which had already been marred by numerous violations on both sides of the conflict. They also cast serious doubt on chances for implementing an unprecedented US-Russian agreement to jointly target militants in the country.Assad said the United States lacked the will to work with Russia against extremists in Syria. “I don’t believe the United States will be ready to join Russia in fighting terrorists in Syria,” he said.Despite extensive evidence to the contrary, Assad repeatedly denied that his forces were besieging opposition-held eastern Aleppo, which has become a symbol both of resistance and also the high price civilians are paying in the war.He flatly denied claims of malnutrition and a chronic lack of medical supplies.“If there’s really a siege around the city of Aleppo, people would have been dead by now,” Assad said, asking how rebels were able to smuggle in arms but apparently not food or medicine.The ancient city, now partly destroyed, has been carved out into rebel and government-controlled areas since 2012. Rebel reinforcements broke a hole in the blockade in August. But in heavy bombardment over the following weeks, more than 700 civilians were killed. Earlier this month, Syrian troops backed by Russian airstrikes retook the roads and the siege resumed.Since then, the UN has accused Assad’s government of obstructing aid access to the city, despite an agreement to allow aid in during the week-long ceasefire. During the brief ceasefire, trucks carrying aid sat idle by the nearby Turkish border, awaiting permits and safety guarantees.Throughout the conflict, Assad’s forces have been accused of bombing hospitals and civilians and choking opposition cities. Millions have fled Syria, some of them drowning at sea in the Mediterranean.The war has been defined by gruesome photos and video posted in the aftermath of bloody attacks or documenting the plight of children in particular. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and once thriving cities have been ravaged, with entire blocks reduced to rubble. The images have galvanized public opinion worldwide — but Assad, while acknowledging that the war had been ‘savage,’ said eyewitness accounts should not be automatically believed.“Those witnesses only appear when there’s an accusation against the Syrian army or the Russian [army], but when the terrorists commit a crime or massacre or anything, you don’t see any witnesses… So, what a coincidence,” he said.Assad scoffed at the idea that Syria’s “White Helmets” — civil defense volunteers in opposition held areas seen by many as symbols of bravery and defiance — might be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize after a nomination earlier this year.“What did they achieve in Syria?” he said. “I would only give a prize to whoever works for the peace in Syria.”The group shared this year’s Right Livelihood Award, sometimes known as the “Alternative Nobel,” with activists from Egypt and Russia and a Turkish newspaper, the prize foundation announced Thursday.Asked about his methods, including the use of indiscriminate weapons, Assad said “when you have terrorists, you don’t throw at them balloons, or you don’t use rubber sticks for example. You have to use armaments.”
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Peres showing slight improvement after stroke, doctors say-China sends message of support to former president who remains ‘serious but stable’ as medical team continues treatment-By Times of Israel staff September 22, 2016, 4:05 pm
Former Israeli president Shimon Peres saw “slight improvement” on Thursday but remained in serious condition after suffering a major stroke nine days earlier.The 93-year-old Peres was hospitalized at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv on September 13. He has been under sedation since then, with his condition consistently described as serious but stable.“The medical status of the ninth president Shimon Peres is stable and there has been a slight improvement in his breathing,” his spokesperson said.The spokesperson added that doctors were continuing to monitor his neurological state.The Chinese Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zhang Ming visited the Sheba Medical Center Thursday morning to pass on wishes of support to Peres and his family from Beijing, calling Peres the father of Sino-Israeli ties.“The Chinese people admire and respect Shimon Peres just like the rest of the world. He is a great and important friend to the Chinese people and we have immense respect and deep appreciation for him,” Zhang said.Although Peres remains sedated, his medical team decided on Sunday to gradually reduce the respiratory support as well as the level of anesthesia currently being administered.Also on Sunday a senior neurologist at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem said Peres’s condition had likely moved “from the acute to the chronic” — meaning he was likely no longer in life-threatening danger but now faced more protracted health challenges.Prof. Avinoam Reches told the Walla news website Saturday that “when a man suffers such massive bleeding there is immediate danger to his life. I am not the doctor in attendance and his medical file is not open to me, but according to reports coming from the hospital, our friends in Sheba worked correctly and succeeded in stabilizing his condition, so the immediate danger has passed.“Peres,” Reches said, “is still in danger, but his main enemies now are the inevitable infections coming from a long hospitalization and the development of an edema around the hematoma in his head [a swelling around blood vessels affected by the stroke].”Peres is the elder statesman of Israeli politics, one of the country’s most admired symbols and the last surviving link to its founding fathers.Over a seven-decade career, he’s held virtually every senior political office, including two stints as prime minister and extended terms as foreign, defense and finance minister. He won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reaching an interim peace agreement with the Palestinians.Long a divisive personality in Israeli politics, Peres finally became one of Israel’s most popular public figures in his later years.World leaders have sent wishes of a speedy recovery to the former president, recalling his achievements and warm personality.
Obama: Israel cannot ‘permanently occupy, settle Palestinian land’-In final, wide-ranging UN address, US president also says Palestinians must reject incitement, recognize ‘legitimacy of Israel’-By Times of Israel staff and Agencies September 20, 2016, 6:53 pm
US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that while the Palestinians should reject terror and incitement, Israel must recognize that it cannot “permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”“Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land. We all have to do better,” the US president said at the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.In his wide-ranging address, Obama sought to use his last appearance before the global body to define how his leadership had put the world on a better trajectory over the last eight years. At the heart of that approach, Obama said, is the notion that conflicts are best solved when nations cooperate.The president cited his administration’s outreach to former adversaries Cuba and Myanmar as key examples of progress. He also cited the resolution last year “of the Iranian nuclear issue through diplomacy” as a key achievement over the past eight years.In his address, Obama spoke of a “less violent” and “more prosperous” world but one rife with “uncertainty, unease and strife,” as nations struggle with a devastating refugee crisis, terrorism and a breakdown of order in the Middle East.“Despite enormous progress, governing has become more difficult, and tensions are more quick to surface,” he said, adding that the world now faces a choice, to “press forward with a better model for cooperation and integration, or retreat into a world that is sharply divided.”“This is the paradox that defines the world today,” Obama said. “We must go forward, and not backward.”The US president also conceded that “bloodletting” throughout the Middle East will not be easily resolved and insisted the Syrian civil war could only be ended through diplomacy.“The mindset of sectarianism and extremism and bloodletting that has been taking place [in the Middle East] will not be quickly reversed,” Obama said adding that “no external force is going to force communities to coexist,” and that the international community must “work with those who seek to build, rather than destroy.”In Syria, where the civil war has claimed the lives of over 300,000 people, Obama said that there was “no ultimate military victory to be won,” and that the world must pursue the “hard work of diplomacy and humanitarian assistance.”He added that the there was a was a “military component – it means being united and relentless against ISIL [the Islamic State terror group].”In a subtle reference to Republican nominee Donald Trump, Obama also bemoaned how terrorist networks had spread their ideology on social media, spurring anger toward “innocent immigrants and Muslims.”“We must reject any forms of fundamentalism, or racism or a belief in ethnic superiority” that is “irreconcilable with modernity,” said Obama.Earlier on Tuesday, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon told the UN General Assembly that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for both sides.“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.
Top EU lawyer says Hamas should be dropped from terror list-Advocate general says decision to blacklist Palestinian Islamist group shouldn’t have been made based on ‘media reports and the internet’-By AFP and Times of Israel staff September 22, 2016, 4:05 pm
A top EU lawyer on Thursday said Islamist movement Hamas and Sri Lankan rebel group LTTE should be taken off the bloc’s terror list because procedural mistakes invalidated the decision to put them on it.Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston of the European Court of Justice said Thursday that a European judicial body was correct to remove Hamas and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam from the list in 2014.The European Union imposed travel bans and asset freezes against Hamas and the LTTE under 2001 rules. The groups subsequently contested being kept on the bloc’s terrorist black list.The General Court, second to the ECJ, found in their favor in 2014 on the grounds the EU had based its decision on publicly available information, not on a finding by a competent authority.In a statement at the time, the court explained the EU’s blacklisting of Hamas had been based on “factual imputations derived from the press and the internet” instead of “on acts examined and confirmed in decisions of competent authorities.”Stating that the European Council, which placed Hamas on the terrorism list in 2001, “did not produce the obligatory judicial effects for the designation,” the court scrapped it but kept sanctions in place for another three months pending appeal.The European Council of the 28 member states in turn appealed that finding.Sharpston said Thursday that the EU “cannot rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet, rather than in decisions of competent authorities, to support a decision to maintain a listing.”Given that “some of the reasons advanced could not justify the decision to maintain the listing of LTTE and Hamas,” the General Court was correct to dismiss the EU appeal when it could find no other sufficient reasons for their listing.Accordingly, the ECJ “should annul the measures maintaining Hamas and LTTE on the EU list of terrorist organizations on procedural grounds.”Washington, which already defines the Hamas organization as a “foreign terrorist organization,” added Hamas politburo member Fathi Hamad to its terror blacklist last week, meaning that US citizens and companies are banned from doing business with him and any assets he holds in areas under US jurisdiction will be frozen.According to the US State Department, which issued the designation, during his time as Hamas interior minister in Gaza Hamad used his position to “coordinate terrorist cells.”The State Department said that Hamad had founded Al-Aqsa TV, “with programs designed to recruit children to become Hamas armed fighters and suicide bombers upon reaching adulthood.”Advocates general of the ECJ are regularly called on to give their view on a case before a final ruling and in most instances their opinions are followed.Officials said they could not comment on Sharpston’s opinion and would wait until the final ruling in the case.For the moment, nothing has changed and Hamas and LTTE remain listed.The ECJ is expected to deliver a final ruling in the coming months.
Hollande: France still wants peace conference this year-At UNGA, French president says Paris seeks relaunch of negotiations between Israel, Palestinians; FM says ‘this week must be a moment of political mobilization’-By Agencies and Times of Israel staff September 20, 2016, 9:44 pm
French President Francois Hollande expressed hope Tuesday that Paris would still be able to host a peace conference between Israel and the Palestinians this year.Speaking to the UN General Assembly in New York, Hollande said: “On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, France wants to convene a conference for negotiations by the end of the year.”The statements echoed those of his Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault who said at a briefing earlier Tuesday, on the sidelines of the General Assembly, that “this week must be a moment of political mobilization that we can reach that goal.”Ayrault’s push for an international conference follows an announcement by Russia’s Foreign Ministry on September 8 that Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed “in principle” to meet in Moscow for talks.But the wide gaps between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas raise doubts about the prospect for any meeting — and, if there is one, whether they would make any progress.Abbas demands that Israel halt all settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, and release about two dozen Palestinian prisoners before any meeting. Netanyahu rejects the preconditions, charging that the Palestinian leadership must stop the incitement and support for terrorism.Ayrault said several countries, including Egypt, Russia and the United States, are trying to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians. He said he told them that “all efforts are in fact complementary of the French initiative.”A statement from Secretary of State John Kerry’s office said Kerry met Abbas in New York Monday to discuss “our shared goal of a two state solution.”It said Kerry voiced “concern over trends on the ground, including the recent surge in violence and settlement activity.”France hosted an international meeting in Paris in June attended by more than two dozen Western and Arab countries to try to come up with a new strategy for Mideast peace and revive Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, which have been all but dead for over two years. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders were not invited.The participants welcomed the “prospect” of a conference with both parties later this year.Ayrault hosted a closed meeting Monday for officials from the countries that attended the June conference.
UN chief: One-state solution for Israeli-Palestinian conflict would ‘spell doom’-In last address as secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon criticizes ‘illegal settlement expansion,’ and ‘growing polarization and hopelessness’; Danon slams ‘UN obsession with Israel’-By Times of Israel staff September 20, 2016, 5:40 pm
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be a two-state solution, and that the one-state option would “spell doom” for both sides.Speaking at the 71st session of the UN General Assembly in New York for the final time as UN chief, Ban gave a wide-ranging address focused largely on the Syrian civil war, which has claimed the lives of over 300,000 people since March 2011.On stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Ban said that prospects for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel “are being lowered by the day.”“It pains me that this past decade has been lost to peace. Ten years lost to illegal settlement expansion. Ten years lost to intra-Palestinian divide, growing polarization and hopelessness,” he said, adding that West Bank settlements were “obstacles to progress.”“This is madness. Replacing a two-state solution with a one-state construct would spell doom: denying Palestinians their freedom and rightful future, and pushing Israel further from its vision of a Jewish democracy towards greater global isolation,” said Ban.Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon criticized some of Ban’s comments, charging that “the real madness is of the UN’s.”“Instead of slamming the incitement and the terror [on the part of Palestinians], instead of bringing [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas] to the negotiating table, the secretary general has chosen once again to attack Israel,” he said in a statement, adding that this is a “crazy obsession regarding Israel and it must stop.”“At a time when Palestinian terror has returned to Israeli streets, the secretary-general has chosen to attack Israel and not the terrorism and has ignored the direct responsibility of Abu Mazen [Abbas] and the Palestinian leadership who continue to incite terror,” Danon added.At least six Israelis were injured in the most recent wave of Palestinian attacks over the past week, one of them seriously.The UN chief opened his address with a call to end the Syrian civil war. Railing against “powerful patrons that keep feeding the war machine,” Ban said such countries “also have blood on their hands,” urging “all those with influence to end the fighting and get talks started.”“Present in this hall today are representatives of governments that have ignored, facilitated, funded, participated in or even planned and carried out atrocities inflicted by all sides of the Syria conflict against Syrian civilians,” he said, adding that “many groups have killed innocent civilians — none more so than the government of Syria.”In his address, Ban denounced the “sickening, savage and apparently deliberate attack” on an aid convoy in Aleppo province on Monday and confirmed that the United Nations had suspended deliveries of humanitarian assistance.“Just when you think it cannot get any worse, the bar of depravity sinks lower,” he added.The UN chief hailed the aid workers on the convoy as “heroes” and said “those who bombed them were cowards” before calling for accountability for crimes committed in the war.Both Syria and Russia denied they were behind the raid on the convoy near the northern city Aleppo, which the Red Cross said killed “around 20 civilians” including an employee of the Syrian Red Crescent. Air raids and shelling meanwhile pounded key battlefronts across the country — dimming hopes that the fraught ceasefire brokered by Moscow and Washington could be revived.Ban blamed all sides for killing innocent people, but “none more so than the government of Syria, which continues to barrel bomb neighborhoods and systematically torture thousands of detainees.”The former South Korean foreign minister is stepping down as UN secretary-general on December 31 after 10 years.AFP contributed to this report
Republican senators push to expand military aid to Israel-Lawmakers slam ten-year agreement, which forbids Jerusalem from accepting extra funds from Congress, as curtailing their powers-By Times of Israel staff and AP September 21, 2016, 3:30 am
Four Republican senators are promising a showdown with the White House over the ten-year, $38 billion military aid deal signed between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government earlier this month.The lawmakers, Lindsey Graham, Kelly Ayotte, John McCain and Ted Cruz, told a news conference Tuesday that they are planning to introduce legislation in the Senate that would overturn a provision of the deal, formally called the Memorandum of Understanding, that prevents Israel from receiving any additional funds beyond those allowed under the agreement, and even requires it to return any added funds granted to it by Congress, Reuters reported.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent the past week defending the deal in the face of critics on the Israeli center-left. It is not clear how Israel will handle a fight between Congress and the White House over a deal it has already signed.According to the lawmakers, they are acting to protect Congress’s control over federal spending, which they said was curtailed by the US-Israel aid agreement.According to Reuters, the senators said they were proposing a bill Tuesday that would enable Israel to receive $1.5 billion in additional military aid, as well as renewing some American sanctions on Iran that were removed in last year’s nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.Three other GOP senators, Marco Rubio, Roy Blunt and Mark Kirk, are cosponsors of the new bill.“This is a very dramatic moment in the US-Israel relationship between Congress and the state of Israel. Congress is not going to sit on the sidelines,” Graham, who holds significant sway over the US foreign aid budget as chairman of a Senate Allocations subcommittee, was quoted as saying.Last week, Graham used a conference call arranged by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs to chastise Israeli leaders for accepting the agreement. Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would have been more generous, he insisted, adding that both Republicans and Democrats in Congress support upping the military aid.“They left money on the table,” Graham said of Israel.The Obama administration was trying to “neuter” Congress by undercutting its ability to appropriate money, he charged. “I will not stand for that.”Graham seemed to draw further support from Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee, chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said in a statement last week that the agreement “sends an important signal about our long-term commitment to Israel,” but the amount of money “is ultimately up to Congress to decide.”The agreement was signed last week in Washington after over three years of on-and-off negotiations.Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice, who witnessed the signing, called it a signal of Washington’s “unshakable commitment” to the security of the Jewish state. It is the largest such deal ever offered by Washington to a foreign state.The total includes $33 billion in foreign military financing funds — which is money used to buy materiel and ammunition — as well as $5 billion in missile defense funding. Under the previous arrangement, Congress approved funds for Israeli missile defense systems, including Iron Dome, separately and on an annual basis.The old agreement, set to expire by the end of 2017 and be replaced by the new one in early 2018, allowed Israel to use 26.3 percent of the aid to buy products from its own domestic defense industry. The new deal phases out that amount over several years, until all US-granted aid is spent on American-made products.The new agreement also eliminates Israel’s ability to spend a fraction of the funds on fuel for its military.In his comments last week, Graham said lawmakers wanted to give Israel $600 million for missile defense — $100 million more than the agreement proposes to provide in 2019, as well as a $300 million hike in the foreign military financing account.Republican lawmakers have said that Israel was pressured into signing the agreement out of fear of growing Iranian power in the wake of the nuclear deal and growing Iranian assertiveness throughout the region.
Israeli minister slams ‘naive and messianic’ Obama-Comments by Netanyahu confidant Hanegbi come day after leaders broadcast friendly ties in meeting; US envoy says administration ‘disappointed’ with lack of progress on 2-state solution-By Raoul Wootliff September 22, 2016, 2:57 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israeli minister Tzachi Hanegbi slammed US President Barack Obama’s efforts to foster Israeli-Palestinian peace Thursday, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a cordial meeting with the American leader and trumpeted warming relations between the two.Speaking a day after what was likely the last meeting between Netanyahu and Obama in their current positions, Hanegbi, a close confidante of the prime minister, told Army radio that the US president was “naive and messianic” in his dealings with Israel.“At the moment Obama is not acting like the most powerful man in the world,” he said, “instead he is behaving like someone working in Hillary Clinton’s campaign office.”In their public remarks on Tuesday, Obama and Netanyahu displayed a jovial camaraderie with the US president only briefly mentioning peace efforts with the Palestinians and concerns over settlement building.But behind closed doors, senior Obama administration officials claimed Obama was more pointed, raising “profound US concerns” that settlement-building was eroding prospects for peace.Netanyahu challenged that notion, said one official, adding that the two leaders had not “papered over” their differences.However, a senior Israeli official said the issue was only point of contention between the two leaders, as they sought to put a history of testy ties behind them.Hanegbi’s comments highlighted lingering discomfort in Israel’s government with Obama’s efforts to push for a two-state deal with the Palestinians, despite attempts by Netanyahu to smooth out ruffles between Washington and Jerusalem.In 2014, then defense minister Moshe Ya’alon called US Secretary of State John Kerry “obsessive and messianic,” drawing loud protests from the US administration. Ya’alon later apologized, after Netanyahu expressed unhappiness with the comments.Hanegbi was not alone to show cracks in the relationship Thursday, US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro saying that Obama was “disappointed” in the lack of progress towards a two-state solution under the Israeli leader.While Obama still believes there is a possibility for positive developments in the three months left before he leaves office, he has accepted that he will not achieve the significant progress he had originally hoped for, Shapiro told Army Radio in an interview from the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.“Obama aspired to help Israel achieve its goal of two states for two peoples. There is disappointment over what was not achieved but at the same time there is still a will and an obligation to move forward, however possible, in the right direction,” Shapiro said.“In the last eight years they haven’t held back from discussing the things they disagree on and that’s a sign of good relationship, that they are not afraid to speak about the important things,” he added.Addressing the General Assembly on Tuesday, Obama said that while the Palestinians should reject terror and incitement, Israel must recognize that it cannot “permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land.”“Surely Israelis and Palestinians will be better off if Palestinians reject incitement and recognize the legitimacy of Israel. But Israel must recognize that it cannot permanently occupy and settle Palestinian land. We all have to do better,” Obama said.“There are things that Israel can do to improve the situation,” Shapiro said Thursday, echoing Obama’s words.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
EZEKIEL 38:1-7
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:TOBOLSK)
4 And I (GOD) will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
EZEKIEL 39:1-22
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
9 And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
10 So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire: and they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord GOD.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)(EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN THE JORDAN VALLEY)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye (MIGRATING BIRDS IN ISRAEL) shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.(RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS)
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I (GOD-JESUS) will set my glory among the heathen,(WORLD NATIONS) and all the heathen (WORLD NATIONS) shall see my judgment that I have executed,(AGAINST ISRAELS ENEMIES) and my (GODS) hand that I have laid upon them.(ISRAELS HATER ENEMIES)
22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
In sign of thaw, top diplomat meets South African foreign minister-On sidelines of UN assembly, Dore Gold discusses bilateral ties with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who in 2013 said Pretoria ‘curtails senior leadership contact’ with Israelis-By Raphael Ahren September 22, 2016, 3:18 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
NEW YORK — The director general of Israel’s Foreign Ministry met on Wednesday with the Foreign Minister of South Africa, who three years ago infamously said that officials from her country do not engage with Israel.Dore Gold’s meeting with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who has been Pretoria’s minister of international relations and cooperation since 2009, took place at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting took place but initially kept mum about its content. Gold tweeted a photo of him shaking hands with Nkoana-Mashabane, adding that he was “[e]xploring the ties between our nations.”“We consider the very fact that this meeting was held an extraordinary achievement,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told The Times of Israel on Thursday.During the meeting, Gold discussed the importance of South Africa-Israel relations, particularly in the context of Jerusalem’s renewed push to engage with all countries on the continent, the official added.In 2013, Nkoana-Mashabane said that due to the Palestinians’ plight, South African officials refuse to engage with Israel.“Ministers of South Africa do not visit Israel currently. Even the Jewish Board of Deputies that we engage with here, they know why our ministers are not going to Israel,” she said at the time.Exploring the ties between our nations with Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, #SouthAfrica-'s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation @UN pic.twitter.com/duZzTkK13b— Dr. Dore Gold (@DoreGoldMFA) September 22, 2016-Nkoana-Mashabane further said that South Africa has “agreed to slow down and curtail senior leadership contact with that regime until things begin to look better… The struggle of the people of Palestine is our struggle,” she declared.Nkoana-Mashabane’s comments caused a stir, and the South African cabinet later asserted that it had not imposed “a ban on travel to Israel by government officials.”Relations between Jerusalem and Pretoria have long been fraught over the latter’s harsh criticism of Israeli policies and its staunch support for the Palestinians. Last year, the African National Congress — the country’s ruling party — hosted the leader of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, a move protested by Israel.Earlier this year, Gold embarked on a three-day visit to South Africa, meeting with Jewish community leaders and government officials.“The meetings were a very important start. To say that we’re about to have a completely different relationship is premature. But there was a readiness to hear our arguments,” Gold told The Times of Israel at the time. “There’s potential. Now, everything is in the follow-up.”On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with about a dozen leaders from African countries, part of a push to forge stronger trade and diplomatic ties with the continent. It is not clear whether South African officials will be present.During his current trip to New York, Gold also meet with the foreign ministers of Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia and Rwanda.South African President Jacob Zuma is currently in New York, where he addressed the UN General Assembly Wednesday. In his speech, he said that the lack of progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “remains a major concern for us.” It is time for the UN to “carry out its historic mission” and help resolve the conflict, which he called one of the “longest outstanding decolonization and occupation issues.”
Assad blames US for Syria truce collapse-In interview, Syrian president takes no responsibility for atrocities, accusing enemies of the state of all killings-By ian phillips and Zeina Karam September 22, 2016, 4:13 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — President Bashar Assad rejected US accusations that Syrian or Russian planes struck an aid convoy in Aleppo or that his troops were preventing food from entering the city’s rebel-held eastern neighborhoods, blaming the US for the collapse of a ceasefire many had hoped would bring relief to the war-ravaged country.In an interview with The Associated Press in Damascus, Assad also said deadly US airstrikes on Syrian troops last week were intentional, dismissing American officials’ statements that they were an accident. Assad said the US lacked “the will” to join forces with Russia in fighting extremists.Assad, who inherited power from his father and is now in his 16th year in office, cut a confident figure during the interview — a sign of how his rule, which once seemed threatened by the rebellion, has been solidified by his forces’ military advances and by the air campaign of his ally Russia, which turned the tables on the battlefield last year.He said his enemies alone were to blame for nearly six years of devastation across Syria, and while acknowledging some mistakes, he repeatedly denied any excesses by his troops. He said the war was only likely to “drag on” because of continued external support for his opponents-“When you have many external factors that you don’t control, it’s going to drag on and no one in this world can tell you when” the war will end, he said, insisting Syrians who fled the country could return within a few months if the US, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar stopped backing insurgents.He spoke Wednesday in Damascus’ Muhajireen palace, a white-stone building where he often receives guests, nestled among trees on the foothills of Qasioun Mountain. The Syrian capital, seat of Assad’s power, has stayed relatively untouched throughout the conflict, spared the devastation inflicted on other, opposition-held areas of the country. In recent months, Assad’s forces have taken rebel strongholds in suburbs of the capital, bolstering security and reducing the threat of mortar shells.The attack on the aid convoy outside Aleppo took place Monday night, hitting a warehouse as aid workers unloaded cargo and triggering huge explosions. Footage filmed by rescuers showed torn flesh being picked from the wreckage. Witnesses described a sustained, two-hour barrage that included barrel bombs — crude, unguided explosives that the Syrian government drops from helicopters.A senior US administration official said the US believes with a very high degree of confidence that a Russian-piloted aircraft carried out the strike. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and asked for anonymity.Assad dismissed the claims, saying whatever American officials say “has no credibility” and is “just lies.”Like Syria, Russia has denied carrying out the convoy bombing.Syria and the United States have been at loggerheads since the September 17 US airstrike last week that hit Syrian troops in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour. US officials said the attack — its first direct hit on Syrian forces since the civil war began — was accidental and that the warplanes thought they were targeting Islamic State group positions. Russia said the strikes killed more than 60 Syrian troops, and afterward, IS militants briefly overran government positions in the area until they were beaten back.Assad said he did not believe the American account and said that attack targeted a “huge” area constituting many hills.“It wasn’t an accident by one airplane… It was four airplanes that kept attacking the position of the Syrian troops for nearly one hour, or a little bit more than one hour,” Assad said in the interview. “You don’t commit a mistake for more than one hour.”“How could they [IS] know that the Americans are going to attack that position in order to gather their militants to attack right away and to capture it one hour after the strike?” Assad asked. “So it was definitely intentional, not unintentional as they claimed.”The strikes contributed to the collapse of the ceasefire, which had already been marred by numerous violations on both sides of the conflict. They also cast serious doubt on chances for implementing an unprecedented US-Russian agreement to jointly target militants in the country.Assad said the United States lacked the will to work with Russia against extremists in Syria. “I don’t believe the United States will be ready to join Russia in fighting terrorists in Syria,” he said.Despite extensive evidence to the contrary, Assad repeatedly denied that his forces were besieging opposition-held eastern Aleppo, which has become a symbol both of resistance and also the high price civilians are paying in the war.He flatly denied claims of malnutrition and a chronic lack of medical supplies.“If there’s really a siege around the city of Aleppo, people would have been dead by now,” Assad said, asking how rebels were able to smuggle in arms but apparently not food or medicine.The ancient city, now partly destroyed, has been carved out into rebel and government-controlled areas since 2012. Rebel reinforcements broke a hole in the blockade in August. But in heavy bombardment over the following weeks, more than 700 civilians were killed. Earlier this month, Syrian troops backed by Russian airstrikes retook the roads and the siege resumed.Since then, the UN has accused Assad’s government of obstructing aid access to the city, despite an agreement to allow aid in during the week-long ceasefire. During the brief ceasefire, trucks carrying aid sat idle by the nearby Turkish border, awaiting permits and safety guarantees.Throughout the conflict, Assad’s forces have been accused of bombing hospitals and civilians and choking opposition cities. Millions have fled Syria, some of them drowning at sea in the Mediterranean.The war has been defined by gruesome photos and video posted in the aftermath of bloody attacks or documenting the plight of children in particular. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and once thriving cities have been ravaged, with entire blocks reduced to rubble. The images have galvanized public opinion worldwide — but Assad, while acknowledging that the war had been ‘savage,’ said eyewitness accounts should not be automatically believed.“Those witnesses only appear when there’s an accusation against the Syrian army or the Russian [army], but when the terrorists commit a crime or massacre or anything, you don’t see any witnesses… So, what a coincidence,” he said.Assad scoffed at the idea that Syria’s “White Helmets” — civil defense volunteers in opposition held areas seen by many as symbols of bravery and defiance — might be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize after a nomination earlier this year.“What did they achieve in Syria?” he said. “I would only give a prize to whoever works for the peace in Syria.”The group shared this year’s Right Livelihood Award, sometimes known as the “Alternative Nobel,” with activists from Egypt and Russia and a Turkish newspaper, the prize foundation announced Thursday.Asked about his methods, including the use of indiscriminate weapons, Assad said “when you have terrorists, you don’t throw at them balloons, or you don’t use rubber sticks for example. You have to use armaments.”
