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
Jewish Home MK: 'The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel'-Outpost bill passes Knesset hurdle in first reading-With vote of 58 to 51, lawmakers advance controversial proposal legalizing thousands of settler homes built on private Palestinian land-By Raoul Wootliff December 7, 2016, 10:38 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Lawmakers took a further step Wednesday towards legalizing thousands of settler homes built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank, approving the first reading of the controversial Regulation Bill in a late night vote that followed a five-hour Knesset debate.Knesset members voted by 58 to 51 in favor of the bill, which was both praised by supporters and castigated by opponents during the plenary session as the first step towards full Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.Following a raucous preliminary vote on Monday that saw lawmakers screaming and ripping up copies of the proposed legislation, Wednesday’s debate was, for the most part, a comparatively subdued event.The requisite shouting that faced Jewish Home MK Shuli Moalem as she presented the proposal quickly died down as over 50 opposition and a handful of coalition MKs took to the podium one-by-one to detail their delight over or concerns about the bill to a mainly empty plenum.Moalem said that the law was an important step in taking control of parts of Israel that have been “lawless” for over 50 years. “The Land of Israel belongs to the People of Israel. We returned after 2,000 years and established a state,” she said.Hitting back at criticism that the move would break international law, Moalem said that a nation “can’t be an occupier in its own land,” and that Israel was free to make its own laws over the territory.Originally designed to avert the court-ordered demolition of the illegal outpost of Amona, the Regulation Bill was initiated by lawmakers from the national-religious Jewish Home and the governing Likud parties.On Monday, harried government efforts to reach a compromise saw a clause that would retroactively override a High Court ruling to raze Amona by December 25 dropped from the bill. The bill would, however, recognize other settlements built on private Palestinian land.But Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit has warned that the bill still breaches both local and international law, and indicated that the High Court is likely to strike it down. Some officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who voted for the bill along with all but one member of his coalition — have warned that the law could see Israeli officials prosecuted in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.Last week coalition chairman David Bitan said the bill was expected to pass its final readings by December 14. Asked Wednesday by The Times of Israel if that still applied given that preventing the December 25 demolition of Amona is no longer part of the bill, a spokesman for Bitan said the coalition could not guarantee the original timetable.Among the first to mount the podium was veteran Likud MK Benny Begin, who said he would again break ranks and vote against the first reading of the bill, as he did in the preliminary vote in a move that led to his suspension from a key Knesset panel.Begin said that while he believes the Jewish people have a natural right to all of the Land of Israel, the bill would only damage the state and the settlement project.“This bill is not smart, responsible or stable, and that is why the government is still looking for other options,” he said. ”I can therefore not support it and will vote against it.”On Tuesday, Bitan suspended Begin from the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee a day after he twice voted against the preliminary version of the bill.Speaking at Wednesday’s debate, Meretz MK Tamar Zandeberg said the bill constituted government theft of private property.Settlement watchdog Peace Now says the Regulation Bill will legalize 55 outposts and 4,000 housing units in existing outposts and settlements in the West Bank, cast over some 8,000 dunams (3 square miles) of privately-owned Palestinian plots.The legislation stipulates that settlement construction in the West Bank that was carried out in good faith, namely without the knowledge that the land was privately owned, would be recognized by the government provided the settlers had some kind of state assistance — which in some cases could be as simple as having existing infrastructure, since most infrastructural services fall under the purview of state ministries.The proposed legislation notes that the government support may be explicit or implicit, from the start or post facto, and that the backing of local municipalities is considered state support.Under the bill, the government will be able to appropriate land for its own use if the owners are not known. If the owners are known, they will be eligible for either yearly damages amounting to 125 percent of the value of leasing the land, a larger financial package valued at 20 years’ worth of leasing the plots, or alternate plots.The legislation explicitly refers to structures in three settlements that have been subject to legal efforts to demolish buildings constructed on private land — Eli, Netiv HaAvot and Ofra. It says that all administrative proceedings in these three settlements will be frozen with the enactment of the law, and within the first 12 months, the government must determine whether these structures were built in good faith and with government assistance. If they are — the Regulation Bill will apply to these areas, it stipulates.Unsurprisingly, the legislation has been slammed by the US, EU and UN as a breach of international law.The US State Department on Tuesday called the legislation “profoundly damaging to the prospects for a two-state solution.”“We’ve also been troubled by comments that we’ve heard by some political figures in Israel that this would be the first step in annexing parts of the West Bank,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. “We hope that it does not become law. We certainly hope that changes or modifications can be made to it.”Marissa Newsman contributed to this report.
Fresh Amona rehousing plan envisions new West Bank settlement-40 families to be temporarily quartered in neighboring Ofra settlement until another community can be founded-By Times of Israel staff December 7, 2016, 7:18 pm
The residents of an illegal West Bank outpost set for eviction later this month will reportedly be rehoused in the neighboring settlement of Ofra until a new settlement can be founded.According to a Ynet report published Wednesday, the 40 families living in Amona, which the High Court of Justice ordered demolished because it was built on private Palestinian land, will be accommodated in temporary housing in Ofra. A permanent settlement will be established seven miles to the north, next to the existing Israeli settlement of Shvut Rachel.The details of the plan were being finalized by the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration, the military organ responsible for governing the West Bank.The Amona outpost is due to be demolished by December 25, according to a High Court of Justice judgment from 2014. The families who live in the outpost, the subject of some 15 years of legal wrangling, are slated to be transferred to three plots of land located just dozens of meters from the current site of the outpost. The new location will house the families for eight months while permanent alternatives are arranged.According to Ynet, the plan entails putting up 20 families in temporary houses on open plots in Ofra, while another 20 families will reside in a school. The attorney general’s office told the website that the plan was still being assessed, and that the Defense Ministry was still planning alternatives. A defense official said that the above-mentioned plan was the most realistic option.An earlier plan to relocate Amona residents hit a legal snag Tuesday, less than three weeks before a court-ordered evacuation.But that plan, conceived by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, was reportedly off the table after the anti-settlement group Yesh Din lodged legal appeals against two of the three prospective future sites, Channel 2 news reported.The plots in question belong to “absentee” landlords, a term usually referring to Palestinians who left the country before or during Israel’s capture of the area in 1967 and whose identities are unknown. They are administered by the state’s Custodian of Absentee Properties, a legal status that Mandelblit suggested would make the temporary use of the lands less problematic under law.Channel 2 cited a “senior legal source” as saying it was almost certainly not possible to overcome the appeals by the late-December deadline.The hiccup marks the latest stumble in a saga that has roiled the coalition government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Knesset on Monday advanced a special Regulation Bill that would, if passed, resolve future cases similar to Amona’s — where settlements are built on land that later turns out to be privately owned — in favor of the residents.The latest version of the Regulation Bill excludes Amona from its new arrangements, but would allow future outposts to be “regulated” by empowering the state to forcibly lease the land from its Palestinian owners in exchange for monetary compensation. If the bill becomes law it is may well be struck down by the High Court.
US calls Regulation Bill ‘profoundly damaging’-State Department hopes outpost legalization bill, which has received preliminary approval, ‘does not become law’-By AFP and Times of Israel staff December 7, 2016, 1:14 am
The US State Department on Tuesday expressed concerns over an Israeli bill to legalize thousands of settler homes in the West Bank, calling the legislation “profoundly damaging.”Israeli lawmakers gave the bill preliminary approval late Monday amid a chorus of domestic opposition and international criticism that it was an illegal land grab.Strong supporters of the bill, including those who outright oppose a Palestinian state, rejoiced in the initial vote and said they hoped it could lead to eventual Israeli annexation of most of the West Bank.“Enacting this law would be profoundly damaging to the prospects for a two-state solution,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.“We’ve also been troubled by comments that we’ve heard by some political figures in Israel that this would be the first step in annexing parts of the West Bank.”The bill must pass three more votes in parliament before it becomes law, with the first likely to be held on Wednesday.“We’re deeply concerned about it,” Toner said.“We hope that it does not become law. We certainly hope that changes or modifications can be made to it.”The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry earlier called on the US to officially recognize the state of Palestine and support a UN resolution against Israeli settlements in the West Bank in response to the bill.The so-called Regulation Bill, which was slammed by Israeli opponents as a “land grab” and has been harshly criticized by the US, EU and UN as a breach of international law, sailed through the Knesset in a preliminary reading, clearing its first legislative hurdle by a count of 60 MKs to 49. Israel’s attorney-general, Avichai Mandelblit, has warned that the bill breaches local and international law, and indicated that the Israeli High Court is likely to strike it down.The Palestinians said in a statement they “welcomed” recent international criticism of Israeli settlements, “especially” by US Secretary of State John Kerry, before the preliminary approval of the Regulation Bill.Kerry on Sunday harshly criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing the Israeli leader of not taking the required risks to reach a two-state solution, and calling the settlements “an obstacle to peace.”The Palestinian ministry called on the US to “translate its positions into practical steps that will save the two-state solution of peace and opportunity. This would include the immediate cessation of settlement building through the US recognizing the State of Palestine and supporting the draft resolution against settlements in the UN Security Council.”One hundred and thirty-seven countries have already officially recognized the state of Palestine.Kerry, however, also said Sunday that Washington would continue to oppose “any resolution that is unfair and biased against Israel.” Outgoing President Barack Obama is said to have been mulling various steps to cement his legacy on the peace process, but “there’s been no decision made about any kind of step that may or may not be taken in that regard,” Kerry said.Originally designed to avert the court-ordered demolition of the Amona outpost by December 25, the Regulation Bill was initiated by lawmakers from the national-religious Jewish Home party. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of Jewish Home, hailed the bill’s approval as “a path of extending sovereignty to Judea and Samaria,” his party’s stated goal.The bill’s current version no longer includes a controversial clause that would have allowed the overriding of a High Court ruling requiring Amona’s demolition, but will recognize other settlements built on private Palestinian land.Attorney General Mandelblit, however, opposes the most recent version as well, which suggests that, if passed, it may not survive a challenge in the High Court.Settlement watchdog Peace Now said the bill would legalize 55 outposts and 4,000 housing units in existing Jewish outposts and settlements in the West Bank, cast over some 8,000 dunams (3 square miles) of privately owned Palestinian plots.Dov Lieber, Marissa Newman and Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.
MIGRATING BIRDS IN ISRAEL EATS HUMANS FLESH FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL-JERUSALEM
EZEKIEL 39:17-21
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl, 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 RUSSIAN/ISLAMIC HORDES AGAINST ISRAEL)
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 shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.
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 will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.
22 So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God from that day and forward.
REVELATION 19:17-18
17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;(AGAINST ALL NATIONS ARMIES THAT COME AGAINST JERUSALEM AND ISRAEL)
18 That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
Fly and feed: Tens of thousands of cranes winter, and eat, in Israel’s north-Hula Valley gives refuge to birds who, choosing not to continue to Africa, feast on eight tons of corn a day-By Times of Israel staff December 7, 2016, 9:33 pm
It may be the height of the winter migration season from Europe to Africa, but tens of thousands of migratory birds have opted to remain in the north of Israel over the winter months, rather than continue on their journey.Scientists estimate that some 42,500 Gray cranes stayed this winter in the Agamon Hula Lake, feasting on crops and nesting in an artificial lake. To protect farmers’ livelihood, the government feeds the cranes up to eight tons of corn a day.With hundreds of bird species passing through each year, the Hula Valley in northern Israel is one of the prime bird-watching spots in a country that has gained a reputation as a place of pilgrimage for ornithologists.The Hula Valley became a prime bird-watching spot by accident. Drained of its swamps in the 1950s, the valley was re-flooded four decades later when KKL-JNF realized the drainage had damaged the local ecosystem. Farmers began planting corn and peanuts in the newly re-moistened soil — exactly the crops cranes like to eat.With a location at the nexus of three continents, and a climatic diversity that ranges from arid desert in the south to a cooler mountainous region in the north, Israel draws about 500 million birds annually from 550 species.The entire continent of North America, which is 1,000 times Israel’s size, sees barely twice as many species.JTA contributed to this report.
LAND FOR PEACE (THE FUTURE 7 YEARS OF HELL ON EARTH)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people(ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(UPROOTED ISRAELIS AND DIVIDED JERUSALEM)(THIS BRINGS ON WW3 BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED,WARNING TO ARABS-MUSLIMS AND THE WORLD).
THE WEEK OF DANIEL 9:27 WE KNOW ITS 7 YRS
Heres the scripture 1 week = 7 yrs Genesis 29:27-29
27 Fulfil her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.
28 And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week:(7 YEARS) and he gave him Rachel his daughter to wife also.
29 And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his handmaid to be her maid.
DANIEL 11:21-23
21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
23 And after the league made with him he shall work deceitfully: for he shall come up, and shall become strong with a small people.
24 He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE ANIMAL SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
PM says yes to Abbas talks… if France drops peace confab-As Netanyahu calls Hollande to say he won’t come to Mideast conference, PA president says he had no invite for Paris anyway-By Times of Israel staff and Raphael Ahren December 7, 2016, 7:26 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected an invitation by French President Francois Hollande to take part in a summit with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on the sidelines of a conference on the peace process, his office said Wednesday.The prime minister called Hollande to tell him that he would not be going to Paris, but said he would be willing to meet with Abbas under other circumstances, his office said in a statement.“Netanyahu told Hollande if there were not an international conference in Paris, the prime minister would meet with Abbas for direct talks without preconditions,” the statement said.“Israel will not take part in the international conference, which won’t contribute to bringing peace.”Abbas and foreign ministers from nearly two dozen countries are expected to meet in Paris on December 21 to try to jump start peace efforts. But the Palestinians said Wednesday that Abbas never received an invitation to Paris, neither for the conference nor for direct talks with Netanyahu.“Palestinians have received neither an official invitation to attend the French-sponsored international peace conference nor any other meeting,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.Earlier, Netanyahu’s spokesperson David Keyes reiterated Israel’s objections to the conference, saying that Israel does not believe an international gathering is the way to achieve peace.“Peace will be achieved through direct negotiations with our Palestinian neighbors, not through international conferences. Our position has not changed. Israel will not attend the French conference because it will push peace further away. Prime Minister Netanyahu is ready to begin direct peace talks anytime, anywhere without preconditions,” he told The Times of Israel.The French have been pushing an initiative aimed at revitalizing the moribund peace process between Palestinian and Israelis. While the Palestinians have welcomed the initiative, Israel has remained critical.Netanyahu has repeatedly said he is willing to meet with Abbas anytime and anywhere. However, one unnamed Israeli diplomat told the French newspaper Le Monde he thought Netanyahu would decline the conference invitation without making a “big affair” out of it, explaining it would make no sense to hold the meeting with the seemingly pro-Israeli US President-elect Donald Trump about to take office.Abbas has also expressed willingness to meet with Netanyahu, without the oft-cited preconditions of a total freeze of a settlement construction and release of Palestinian prisoners promised during previous negotiations. In September, Abbas said he had agreed to meet with Netanyahu in Moscow at the behest of the Kremlin, and it was the Israeli leader who asked that the meeting be delayed.Since a peace summit in June in Paris officially kicked off the French initiative, Le Monde said in its report Tuesday that three groups have been tasked with examining avenues to propel the peace process forward. One group has looked at building the institutions needed for the establishment of a Palestinian state; another has studied the economic incentives peace would bring for those involved, in particular for the European Union; while a third group worked on enhancing the participation of civil society in the process.The French are aware that it is currently impossible to get Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate in earnest, let alone reach a peace agreement, officials in Paris said. The proposed international conference is not intended to force either side into concessions or even to formulate a framework for a future agreement.Rather, one of its core goals is to get both parties, as well as regional and international actors, to restate clearly their commitment to the two-state solution.
Wrong from the start: Why John Kerry failed to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace-Op-ed: The indefatigable, well-intentioned secretary couldn’t have cut a deal, but he could have made progress-By David Horovitz December 6, 2016, 6:41 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Watching John Kerry deliver his indictment of Israel’s settlement enterprise at the Saban Forum in Washington, DC, on Sunday, my strongest feeling was one of sorrow — sorrow for him, but mainly for us, at the wasted time and the wrongheaded approach that doomed the indefatigable, well-intentioned secretary of state’s approach to peacemaking.Kerry calculated that he has spent 130 hours in formal discussions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his near four years as secretary of state, and visited Israel a staggering 40-plus times.And yet for all that time and effort, as his valedictory jeremiad again made plain, he never internalized why he was unable to clear the obstacles to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. And in the one key area where Sunday’s presentation showed a belated appreciation of where he had gone wrong, clarity has arrived long after the damage was done.The first, foundational mistake was to believe, like a long line of global statespeople before him, that he could succeed where others had failed in trying to strong-arm the two sides into an accord on a rapid timetable, when it is tragically and undeniably obvious that the deadline-based approach cannot work.Many, perhaps most, Israelis recognize an imperative to separate from the Palestinians in order to maintain a state that is both Jewish and democratic. But In today’s treacherous Middle East, they need more persuasion than ever that relinquishing territory will bring guaranteed tranquility, rather than escalated terrorism and new efforts to paralyze, and ultimately destroy, the country.The lesson that Kerry refused to learn, but that his successors would be wise to, is that you cannot broker peace when the people on one side of the negotiating table do not so much as acknowledge the right of the people on the other side to be there-While Kerry and President Barack Obama assured Israelis they could afford to take the risk of territorial compromise, we have watched countries all around us descend into chaos, and seen every unsavory terror group you can name, and some you can’t, gain footholds in the neighborhood — from Syria, to Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza and Egypt. We have watched Iran grow emboldened and richer, thanks to a lousy accord that did not fully dismantle its rogue nuclear program. We saw Hezbollah fill the vacuum when we left southern Lebanon. We watched Hamas take over when we left Gaza, and we have since endured rocket fire and intermittent conflict as the reward for our withdrawal, even as we have been battered internationally for fighting back. We have witnessed Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank Palestinian hierarchy encourage hostility to Israel, lie about our plans for the Temple Mount, and rewrite the previous Muslim narrative that acknowledged the historicity of Jerusalem’s Jewish temples in favor of a revisionist creed that denies all Jewish connection to the holy city and thus delegitimates Israel’s very presence.The lesson that Kerry refused to learn, but that his successors would be wise to, is that you cannot broker peace when the people on one side of the negotiating table do not so much as acknowledge the right of the people on the other side to be there. Or to put it more constructively, if you want to create a climate in which an accommodation might one day be possible, you have to work bottom up as well as top down, and promote education — via social media, spiritual leadership, schools and political leadership — that provides an honest narrative, encourages moderation, and marginalizes extremism. More succinctly still, when the Palestinians’ schools start teaching the Jews’ holy land history as well as their own, you might legitimately feel the beginnings of optimism about peacemaking.Kerry, and his president, compounded that foundational error by continually underestimating Israel’s security concerns. At its narrowest point, Israel is nine miles wide. It is extremely strong and — thanks in no small part to the Obama administration — it maintains its qualitative military edge. But assuring Israel that it can dare to relinquish substantial parts of the West Bank by talking up sophisticated fencing in the Jordan Valley, or detailing provisions by which Israeli troops can be rapidly deployed to West Bank trouble spots at times of crisis, is inadequate. Over the decades, we have endured conventional war, a strategic onslaught of suicide bombings, car-rammings, stabbings and rocket attacks. And the only reason we’re not in the midst of a far more crippling terror war right now is that Israel’s security forces maintain freedom of movement throughout the West Bank. They have thus been able to prevent the reconstruction of the network of terrorism — the bomb factories and the training facilities that enabled Hamas and Fatah cells to terrorize Israel on a daily basis a decade and a half ago, after we had left the major West Bank cities under the Oslo accords.This is not to say that Israel can never compromise its military freedom of access. But it certainly can’t, and won’t, until that previous necessity is met, and the Palestinians have credibly turned toward genuine coexistence.Self-complicating his impossible mission still further, Kerry served in an administration that did not radiate the strength and purpose that Israel needs from its key ally in order to contemplate territorial concessions.The Obama administration allowed Hosni Mubarak to fall in Egypt, and has not strongly backed the current Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, in his efforts to resist another descent into Muslim extremism and to encourage Islam’s clerical authorities to speak out against the death-cultists. The US administration stayed away when protesters attempted to oust the ayatollahs of Iran, and it entrenched their oppressive regime with the nuclear deal. It failed to intervene effectively in Syria, even after President Bashar Assad crossed Obama’s own red line and started gassing the Syrian people — and thus signaled to the pitiable people of Syria that nobody was going to save them, prompted millions more to flee, intensified Europe’s refugee crisis, and in turn boosted the outraged European right.As the US administration held back, others moved to fill the vacuum — including Iran and Vladimir Putin’s Russia. For the confidence to make peace, Israel needs to see a strong, committed America in the Middle East, working to uphold the freedoms it emblemizes, partnering Israel in the battle against Islamic extremism. Not an America hesitant or absent.To judge by Kerry’s bitter summation on Sunday, all those fundamental errors still seem to have gone unrecognized. Where he did appear to have just possibly internalized a major misstep, however, was when it comes to the settlement enterprise. For the first time that I can remember, the secretary publicly highlighted what he said were the 90,000 Jews who now live in settlements on the far side of the security barrier that Israel built to stop the suicide-bomber onslaught in the early years of this century. Twenty thousand of them, he said, had moved there since President Obama took office. He called that barrier an Israeli “security line,” publicly implying, to my mind at least, a greater sympathy for those Israelis living to the west of that line, in the settlement blocs and in Jerusalem’s post-1967 neighborhoods.The failure to draw a distinction between new housing in, say, Jerusalem’s Gilo and in an isolated settlement outpost deep inside the West Bank, has been a hallmark of the Obama administration. Every new planned home over the pre-1967 lines — whether in an area Israel would never contemplate relinquishing, or in an area Israel cannot anticipate retaining if it ever wishes to separate from the Palestinians — was routinely castigated by the administration as a crime of equal gravity, discrediting the criticism in the eyes of the Israeli mainstream, and by extension discrediting the administration too. The focus should always have been on the outlying settlements, on the building that entangles Israel self-defeatingly deeper among the Palestinians, on helping save the Jewish state from its short-sighted Greater Israel ideologues.In today’s Middle East, in the dangerous climate in which it fell to Kerry to attempt diplomacy, brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians was always going to be a long-term mission, rather than a quick fix. Kerry never accepted this, and therefore never actually began that mission. But even where he and the president rightly recognized and stressed the imperative to keep the eventual option of a two-state solution open, his administration undermined that goal by failing to distinguish between settlements in areas that Israel would need to relinquish and those in areas Israel will seek to maintain. Ironically, coming as Israel advances untenable legislation seeking to retroactively “legalize” dozens of outposts on the far side of that “security line,” realization might now have dawned upon Kerry, many years too late.
We are trying to prevent the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction'-Liberman on Syria strikes: Israel keeping WMDs from Hezbollah-In rare admission, defense minister tells EU ambassadors IAF active in Syria, says peace with Palestinians far off-By Judah Ari Gross and Raphael Ahren December 7, 2016, 5:26 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman acknowledged that Israel was responsible for recent attacks in Syria, saying on Wednesday that they were meant to prevent “advanced weapons, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction” from reaching Hezbollah.Speaking to ambassadors from the European Union, Liberman did not specify what incident or incidents he was referring to, speaking only about “what was done in Syria,” according to a statement from his office.“We are working, first and foremost, to defend the safety of our citizens and to protect our sovereignty, and we are trying to prevent the smuggling of advanced weapons, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction from Syria to Hezbollah,” he said.His office refused to expand on what weapons of mass destruction Hezbollah may have been trying to acquire. In the past, however, Israeli officials, including former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, have expressed concerns that the terrorist group may specifically receive chemical weapons from the Syrian regime.During the meeting with EU officials, the defense minister also laid out his view for how Israel would like to see the Syrian civil war resolved and his skepticism at the prospects of a peace deal with the Palestinians in the near future.One EU ambassador told The Times of Israel that a “good, constructive conversation” had been held with Liberman, but expressed “deep concern” over the so-called regulation bill, which would legalize some Israeli settlements built on private Palestinian land.“They entire world is watching” what Israel is doing with this bill, the ambassador said, requesting anonymity.On Wednesday morning, a bombing near a Damascus military airport was blamed on Israel.“At 3:00 a.m., the Israeli enemy fired several surface-to-surface missiles from inside occupied territory,” the Syrian state news agency SANA said, citing a military source. The report said the Israeli missiles caused a large fire but no injuries or deaths.Last week, Israeli planes also reportedly struck both a weapons site near the Syrian capital and a Hezbollah convoy, causing some large explosions but also no casualties.Israel generally does not officially admit to carrying out attacks deep inside Syria, though it has publicly maintained it will not allow advanced weapons to be transferred to Hezbollah.In his remarks, the defense minister insisted that Israel is not interested in getting involved in the Syrian civil war, but will work to defend itself.Regarding an eventual resolution to the civil war, which has been raging since 2011 and has caused the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of people, Liberman said he would be amenable to any peace deal — so long as it does not include Iran and Syrian President Bashar Assad.“When I am asked, time after time, what a possible future agreement with Syria will be like, I say that my position is that regardless of what agreement will be in Syria — the Iranians and [Syrian President Bashar] Assad have to be out of Syria and not be a part of any deal,” Liberman said.The defense minister also dismissed the possibility of a peace agreement with the Palestinians anytime soon, calling it “unrealistic and impossible” for one to be reached at the point in time.“The notion of a permanent solution will have to be postponed for at least a few years, and in the meantime, we need to ensure normal lives in Judea and Samaria for both Jews and Palestinians,” Liberman said, using the biblical term for the West Bank.The defense minister scolded European leaders in general for considering Israeli settlements to be “the biggest problem in the world,” pointing to deadlier conflicts around the world.“At least five hundred people are killed each day in the Middle East, from South Sudan to Iraq, which is much more serious and important than what is happening in Amona, but this is something you don’t see in the European press,” he said.Addressing the EU ambassadors directly, he said: “The fact that you are always talking about the settlements is hypocritical. I’m waiting for you to start talking about North Korea and the Iranians’ ballistic missiles.”
Analysis-In Syrian skies, Israel flies a tricky path-2 alleged Israeli strikes on Syrian army sites in one week indicate growing Israeli concern, but IAF careful to avoid a confrontation with Russian planes-By Avi Issacharoff December 7, 2016, 5:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
For the second time in a week, Lebanese and Syrian media have reported Israeli strikes deep inside Syria against military targets. The alleged attacks come after months of relative quiet from Israel. So what’s changed? Last Wednesday, it was reported that Israeli planes attacked two targets, a weapons depot belonging to the 38th battalion of the fourth division (which is commanded by Bashar Assad’s brother, Maher) and a Hezbollah convoy as it was making its way along the Beirut-Damascus Highway.And a week later, on Wednesday morning, Syrian state media alleged that Israel fired several surface-to-surface missiles from inside the Israeli Golan Heights at a military airbase near Damascus. The impact from the missiles caused a huge fire but no injuries, and the explosions could be heard from a great distance away. Both strikes were reported to have occurred in the early hours of the morning.Several scenarios could explain the sudden uptick in strikes.Perhaps the recent series of military successes and achievements by Bashar Assad’s army has re-whetted the Syrian president’s appetite: firstly, to restart manufacturing new weapons and rockets in factories located in the territories he has recently reconquered, and secondly, and most importantly, to renew the transfer of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah.Civilians fleeing rebel-held east Aleppo 'detained and conscripted' by Syrian forces https://t.co/h5AYNs7q5P via @telegraphnews-— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) December 7, 2016-The deployment of Russian radar in Syrian territory is probably making it difficult for the Israeli Air Force to operate freely and there is always the risk of confrontation with Russian aircraft, despite the “hot line” that is meant to prevent any misunderstandings between the two militaries.So, if Israel has decided to carry out attacks in Syrian territory despite these dangers, it appears that someone on the Syrian side, or in Hezbollah, has crossed a few of Israel’s clear red lines — specifically, the transfer of sophisticated or very precise weaponry from Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon.Additionally, the two recent attacks were reportedly carried out from outside Syrian airspace before dawn. This may be a coincidence but it seems that this is a clear attempt by Israel to avoid any confrontation with the Russian air force, which operates predominantly in the daytime. Moreover, the Syrian air force is also mostly active during daylight hours, which has increased the number of civilian casualties. Israel, on the other hand, would prefer to avoid casualties.The problem is is that it is difficult to predict what kind of a response there will be from Assad, or Hezbollah.So, for Israel, this is a tightrope walk, and it’s very difficult to know when it will break.In the past Assad opted for restraint after the bombing of the nuclear facility under construction (according to foreign reports, of course) and other similar attacks. And the claim by the Syrian military Wednesday morning that Israel had attacked from within the Jewish state’s own airspace, rather than Lebanese or Syrian, indicates the regime is trying to avoid having to carry out a counterattack.Meanwhile, Hezbollah has responded with limited force in the past to an attack on one of its convoys (Janta, February 2014, on the Lebanese-Syrian border) and on its men (Imad Mughniyah, in January 2015, and Samir Quntar in December 2015).Israel always faces the possibility, though, that the Syrian president or Hezbollah will suddenly strike back in a way that changes the rules of the game.
