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
Arabic daily claims Trump to announce Netanyahu-Abbas talks during Israel visit-Al-Hayat says US president gearing up to launch new peace process; PA leader reportedly asked Trump to base negotiations on 2008 Olmert offer-By Times of Israel staff May 10, 2017, 12:57 pm
US President Donald Trump will announce the resumption of peace talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his upcoming visit to the region, an Arabic daily reported Wednesday.According to the London-based Al-Hayat, Trump is expected to announce a trilateral summit with the two leaders during his one-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority on May 22.Palestinian officials told the paper that a joint US-Palestinian committee had begun laying the groundwork for Abbas and Trump’s second meeting, after he hosted Abbas at the White House on April 3.The officials said they expect Trump to call for direct talks between the Israel and the PA over the course of 9 months to a year.At the White House last week, Abbas reportedly told Trump that his negotiations with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert nearly a decade ago should form the basis of any future peace talks with Netanyahu.A Palestinian spokesperson told the Haaretz daily on Tuesday that Abbas showed Trump documents and maps with the details of the 2008 Olmert proposal.Olmert said in 2015 that during his negotiations with Abbas he had offered a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank, proposing that Israel retain 6.3% of the territory in order to keep control of major Israeli population centers. He said he offered to compensate the Palestinians with Israeli land equivalent to 5.8% of the West Bank, along with a link to the Gaza Strip — another territory, relinquished by Israel in 2005, that Palestinians seek as part of a future Palestinian state.He also said he offered to withdraw from Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and place the Old City — home to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy sites — under international control. He described the offer to give up Israeli control of the Old City as the hardest day of his life.The PA leader ultimately balked at Olmert’s 2008 offer, and later cited the then-prime minister’s legal troubles at the time as the primary reason for his refusal. Olmert would later resign to fight corruption allegations, and Abbas doubted the Israeli leader had the political clout to see the deal through. Olmert is currently serving a 26-month jail sentence on various corruption charges.Abbas told Israel’s Channel 10 in 2015 that he supported the idea of territorial swaps, but ultimately rejected the offer because Olmert pressed him into agreeing to the plan without allowing him to study the proposed map. He also said Olmert’s offer to accept a symbolic number of Palestinian refugees into Israel did not resolve the refugee issue.On Monday, The Times of Israel asked Abbas’s foreign affairs adviser Nabil Shaath whether the PA president had shown the maps to Trump, but the veteran negotiator said he couldn’t confirm that detail.But Shaath did say the so-called final status issues raised since the Oslo peace process in the 1990s would be a part of the negotiations, including Jerusalem, borders, refugees and settlements.Earlier this week, Abbas said he was ready to meet Netanyahu as part of Trump’s efforts to restart the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process.As he hosted Abbas in Washington, Trump last week confidently predicted that a peace agreement was within grasp, brushing aside the complexities of a decades-old conflict that has bedeviled successive US leaders.
Netanyahu discusses peace process, Syria with Putin-Phone call comes day before scheduled meeting between PA President Abbas and Russian leader in Sochi-By Alexander Fulbright May 10, 2017, 6:00 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the ongoing civil war in Syria in a Wednesday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian officials said.“Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu discussed current bilateral cooperation matters, the situation with the Middle East peace settlement and the Syrian crisis,” the Kremlin said without elaborating.The Kremlin said that the phone call, which came a day before Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet with Putin in the Russian resort town of Sochi, was initiated by Israel.Abbas’s meeting with Putin in Moscow comes amid efforts by US President Donald Trump — who is set to visit Israel and the West Bank city of Bethlehem later this month in his first trip abroad as president — to revive the long-dormant peace process.Palestinian envoy to Moscow Hafiz Nofal told the TASS news agency earlier this month that Abbas and Putin will discuss the results of the recent Arab League summit and the PA president’s meeting at the White House with Trump.Both Netanyahu and Abbas have voiced support for Trump’s interest in reviving talks, although the two have also sought to cast blame on each other for the past lack of progress.In an interview with the Israeli Russian-language Channel 9 earlier this month, Netanyahu said that he speaks with and meets often with Putin, first and foremost in order to prevent a clash between the two countries’ militaries while carrying out airstrikes in Syria.Russia entered the Syrian civil war in 2015 in support of the regime of President Bashar Assad, carrying out bombing runs against rebel groups fighting against Damascus.While Israel has rarely acknowledged carrying out its own airstrikes in Syria, a number of attacks against weapons transfers have been attributed to Jerusalem.Despite the coordination between the two countries, reported Israeli airstrikes in Syria on weapons convoys have led to tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow.Last month, Moscow summoned Israel’s ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren, to protest a reported Israeli strike that nearly hit Russian troops stationed in the area. Syria’s ambassador to the UN later said that Russia had changed its policy and no longer grants Israel freedom of action over Syrian skies.Netanyahu subsequently denied reports Moscow had told Israel to end airstrikes in Syria, vowing that the IDF would continue attacking weapons convoys.A number of airstrikes since have been attributed to Israel.Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.
Hamas assures critics Israel’s destruction still a goal-Rejecting pushback over new policy paper, group’s co-founder says ‘no negotiations’ over right to all of historic Palestine-By AFP and Times of Israel staff May 10, 2017, 6:42 pm
Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar clarified Wednesday that his terror group’s new political program, which some interpreted as accepting the idea of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines, would not preclude Hamas from seeking to liberate all of historic Palestine, including Israel.“If we liberate Palestine though the resistance until the 1967 borders, we will go directly to liberate the rest of Palestine and the territories of 1948, and there will be no negotiations,” Zahar said at a conference in Gaza addressing international reactions to the new policy document, according to the Hamas-linked al-Resalah news site.Zahar was likely responding to hardline critics of Hamas’s new program, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.“As partners with our Hamas brothers in the struggle for liberation, we feel concern over the document,” Islamic Jihad’s deputy leader, Ziad al-Nakhala, said Saturday.“We are opposed to Hamas’s acceptance of a state within the 1967 borders and we think this is a concession which damages our aims,” he said in a statement on Islamic Jihad’s website.On Wednesday Zahar stressed that Hamas was not walking back its original principals, asserting, “If Hamas liberated 99.9% of the land of Palestine, it will not give up on the rest.”He added: “We cannot religiously, morally or nationally give up on one inch of the land of Palestine.”Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and the EU, adopted the new document on May 1 in an attempt to improve its standing in the international community.The document, however, contains glaring contradictions.It accepts the idea of a Palestinian state in territories captured by Israel in the Six Day War of 1967 but simultaneously reiterates the imperative to destroy Israel. It also dismisses the establishment of the State of Israel as “illegal,” asserting a Palestinian claim to the entire Land of Israel, and a so-called right of return for all descendants of refugees. It also reserves the right to wage “resistance and jihad for the liberation of Palestine.”Israel has dismissed the new document as an attempt to “fool the world.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Full text of MK Avi Dichter’s 2017 ‘Jewish State’ bill-The latest version of the proposed ‘Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People’-By Raoul Wootliff May 10, 2017, 1:35 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Ministers gave their go-ahead Sunday to a controversial and long-debated proposal to officially define Israel as a Jewish nation-state.The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted unanimously in favor of throwing coalition support behind Likud MK Avi Dichter’s Jewish state bill, which, for the first time in Israeli law, would enshrine Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people.” If passed in the Knesset, the law would become one of the so-called Basic Laws, which like a constitution guide Israel’s legal system and are usually more difficult to repeal than regular laws.Israel’s national identity is mentioned in a number of the country’s laws, but the 11 existing Basic Laws deal mostly with state institutions and Israel’s democratic character. The nation-state bill, proponents say, would put Jewish values and democratic values on equal footing. Critics, however, say the bill effectively discriminates against Israel’s Arab and other minority communities.According to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation decision, the bill will not go forward as a private member bill, but will instead be reformulated within two months as a government proposal, a move likely to ease its passage through the Knesset.What follows is a full translation of the bill as presented by Dichter to the cabinet committee:Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People- 1 — Basic principles A. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which they realize their aspiration to self-determination in accordance with their cultural and historical heritage. B. The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people. C. The provisions of this Basic Law or any other legislation shall be interpreted in light of what is determined in this paragraph. 2 — Purpose-The purpose of this Basic Law is to defend the character of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, in order to anchor in Israel’s Basic Laws the State of Israel’s values as a Jewish and democratic state, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. 3 — The symbols of the state A. The state anthem is “Hatikvah.” B. The state flag is white with two blue stripes near the edges and a blue Star of David in the center. C. The state emblem is a seven-branched menorah with olive leaves on both sides and the word “Israel” beneath it. 4 — The capital-Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. 5 — Language-A. The state’s language is Hebrew. B. The Arabic language has a special status, and its speakers have the right to language-accessible state services in their native language, as will be determined by the law. 6 — Return-Every Jew has the right to immigrate to the land [of Israel] and acquire citizenship of the State of Israel in accordance with the law. 7 — Ingathering of the exiles-The State shall act to gather in the exiles of Israel. 8 — Connection to the Jewish people in the Diaspora-A: The State shall act to strengthen the affinity between Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora.B: The State shall act to preserve the cultural and historic heritage of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. C: The State shall stretch out a hand to members of the Jewish people in trouble or in captivity due to the fact of their Jewishness. 9 — Preserving heritage-A. Every citizen of Israel, regardless of their religion or nationality, has the right to actively preserve their culture, heritage, language and identity. B. The State may allow a community, including followers of a single religion or members of a single nationality, to establish a separate communal settlement. 10 — Official calendar-The Hebrew calendar is an official calendar of the State. 11 — Independence Day and memorial days A: Independence Day is the national holiday of the State.B. Memorial Day for the Fallen in Israel’s Wars and Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day are official memorial days of the State. 12 — Days of rest-The established days of rest in the State of Israel are the Sabbath and the festivals of Israel, during which no employee shall be employed except under conditions set in law. Members of [religious] community groups recognized by law may rest on their festivals.13 — Hebrew law-Should the court encounter a legal question that demands a ruling and be unable to find an answer through [existing] legislation, legal precedent, or direct deduction, it shall rule in light of the principles of freedom, justice, integrity, and peace contained in the heritage of Israel. 14 — Protection of holy site-The holy sites shall be protected from desecration and all other harm, and from anything that may hinder access to their holy places for members of a religion, or that may offend their sentiments toward those places. 15 — Immutability-This Basic Law shall not be amended, unless by another Basic Law passed by a majority of Knesset members.
Author of controversial ‘Jewish State’ bill insists it’s unprejudiced and fair-Avi Dichter has been working for six years on legislation to define Israel as a Jewish state. Now, with government backing, he says he’s certain it will pass — to Israel’s abiding benefit-By Raoul Wootliff May 10, 2017, 1:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
In June 2011, Avi Dichter, then an opposition Knesset member with the centrist Kadima party, started collecting signatures for a proposal he had been working on to officially define Israel as a Jewish state and enshrine that definition in the country’s Basic Laws.Reaching out to both hawkish Likud MKs and left-of-center Labor Party members, Dichter was able to garner 39 signatures, including from 20 of Kadima’s 28 MKs, and seemed on the way to securing the votes needed to turn the proposal into law. But before a Knesset vote could take place, then-Kadima chair Tzipi Livni pressured Dichter to shelve the bill over concerns it could upset the careful balance between the Israeli state’s Jewish and democratic characteristics.Six years later, Dichter, now in Likud, says the bill — which has since been proposed in numerous permutations that have caused massive political fallout, even threatening to bring down the previous government — is now just weeks from becoming law.“We’ve waited 2,000 years, but we’ll have to wait just another month or two,” he told The Times of Israel in an interview Monday in his Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee chairman’s office. “This time, it’s going to pass,” he insisted, a day after the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted unanimously in favor of throwing coalition support behind the proposal.Judaism is already mentioned throughout the country’s laws, and religious authorities control many aspects of life, including marriage. But the 11 existing Basic Laws deal mostly with state institutions like the Knesset, the courts and the presidency, while Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty defines Israel’s democratic character. The nation state bill, proponents say, would put Jewish values on equal footing with democratic values.According to the language of the bill, the law is needed “to protect the status of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people in order to anchor in Israel’s Basic Laws the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.”-Growing opposition-Despite vehement opposition from Arab and liberal-leaning MKs, the “Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” bill began squarely in the political center. While Dichter’s abortive 2011 bill was the first to be proposed by a Knesset member, it was not the first draft of the proposal.The Institute for Zionist Strategies, a small Jerusalem think tank made up of professors and former security officials, produced the first draft of the bill. In 2009, IZS published a paper on the subject, and in the 2009 elections, the call for a nation-state bill made it into Kadima’s official platform.After the election, IZS scholars met with Dichter, who adopted the initiative eagerly. From the summer of 2009 through 2010, Dichter and the IZS worked to craft a final version of the bill before finally presenting it in the Knesset in the summer of 2011.In the years since it was first proposed, however, it has been taken on as an ideological mission of the Israeli right and been derided by the left as the embodiment of insensitive and even segregationist policies toward the county’s Arab minority.After Dichter’s 2011 legislation was shot down by Livni, and following his subsequent ousting from the Knesset in the 2013 elections, several attempts were made to revive the proposal, but all fell short of garnering full coalition support.In 2014, after hardline versions of the bill were presented by Dichter’s fellow Kadima-turned-Likud MK Ze’ev Elkin and MK Yariv Levin (Likud), along with Jewish Home’s Ayelet Shaked, who is now justice minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed his own draft. Arguing that the state lacked “adequate expression” of Israel’s “existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” the prime minister presented the cabinet with 14 principles that were to form the basis of the legislation.Although Netanyahu’s draft gained cabinet support, then-ministers Livni and Yair Lapid strongly opposed the bill and threatened to bolt the coalition over the issue, preventing the proposal from advancing to the Knesset.After his reelection in March 2015, Netanyahu vowed that his new government would pass a softened version of the bill. But the proposal was again shelved after Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who chairs the coalition party Kulanu, reportedly expressed his opposition to it.-‘Jewish and democratic’-According to Dichter, the new version passed on Sunday includes several changes aimed at “widening the basis of support” for the bill and removing any suggestion of prejudice.The first draft, he points out while holding both the original and updated versions, identified Israel only as “the national home of the Jewish people.” Democracy, however, did not constitute part of the state’s identity, but merely, in the words used by the bill, “its form of government.”Passing the law would ‘constitute an overwhelming response to all those who deny the deep connection between the Jewish people and their land,’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says“Some legal experts said it made the Jewish element seem more important, so we wrote it together, on one line, so neither will have preference over the other,” Dichter said. The new text, he stressed, is based the language of the 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which, for the first time in Israeli law, described Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.”“We have deliberated over every letter of this bill,” Dichter said, noting a months-long debate that resulted in changing the clause on the state calendar from “The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state” to “The Hebrew calendar is an official calendar of the State.” It is a phrase that is more comprehensive but still gives preference to the Jewish element, Dichter said.And the changes seem to have worked: Kahlon dropped his original opposition and Kulanu ministers voted Sunday in favor of advancing the bill.Netanyahu threw his own support behind the new bill on Monday, telling his Likud faction meeting that it “flies in the face of everyone who tries to deny our right to Israel.”Passing the law would “constitute a decisive response to all those who deny the deep connection between the Jewish people and their land,” the prime minister said, adding that it would be brought to the Knesset within 60 days and he “expects all the Zionist parties to support it.”According to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation decision, the bill be formulated, within two months, as a government proposal, a move that will ease its passage through the Knesset. Dichter said he had been in regular contact with Netanyahu over the proposal and the prime minister had given his go-ahead for the bill to be presented now.-‘Declaration of war’-Responding to those who have said the proposal is discriminatory toward Israel’s Arab and other minority populations, Netanyahu said Monday that “there is absolutely no contradiction between the Jewish state bill and equal rights in Israel.”‘Discrimination has received a legal stamp. The danger in this law in that it establishes two classes of citizen — Jewish and Arab, says Joint (Arab) List chair Ayman Odeh-Critics, however, say that the bill still gives preference to Jewish Israelis. Joint (Arab) List chairman Ayman Odeh issued a harsh condemnation of the legislation, calling it a “declaration of war” on Israel’s Arab citizens. “Discrimination has received a legal stamp. The danger in this law in that it establishes two classes of citizen — Jewish and Arab.”According to the language of the proposal, while every individual has the right “to preserve his culture, heritage, language and identity,” the right to realize self-determination “is unique to the Jewish people.” In another controversial clause, Arabic is changed from an official language to one with “special status,” which would ensure its speakers the “right to language-accessible state services.” Notably, that clause was left out of Netanyahu’s 2014 version.Dichter rejected the notion that his bill is discriminatory.“It does not give preference to Jews over non-Jews. It gives preference to the Jewish state by preventing it from becoming something else,” he said emphatically. “It will not be Muslim and democratic, not Christian and democratic and not Hindu and Democratic. It is a Jewish and democratic state and everyone knows that.”Slamming the criticism of the Hebrew language clause, Dichter said it was “bullshit” to suggest his bill downgraded Arabic.With no legislation defining the status of either Arabic or Hebrew, Israeli law relies on a British Mandate ruling defining both as official languages of Mandatory Palestine. “So we said, let’s just go with the current reality,” Dichter said. “Hebrew is the language of the state but Arabic should have a special status above other languages. And that’s exactly what we wrote.”-Garnering support, again-Despite Dichter’s assertions, the bill still has a distance to go before its final approval.While Kulanu may have voted in favor in the Ministerial Committee, party spokesman Omri Arush told The Times of Israel that its lawmakers would only support the final government proposal if it “met the standards they required.” According to Arush, who declined to elaborate on what those standards were, Kulanu did not give the proposal a blank check and would have input into the final version.If Kulanu were to withdraw support, Dichter would need once again to turn to his left-leaning colleagues on the opposition benches in order to gain a majority in the Knesset. In case that happens, Dichter has also presented the proposal as a private members’ bill that can progress through the Knesset, albeit slower, independent of a government decision.But opposition leader Isaac Herzog said at a press conference Monday that the current version of the bill “tramples on the delicate balance between Jewish and democratic.” Similarly, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said he supported the idea of a nation-state bill to define Israel as a Jewish state, but could not back the law in its current form.Lapid and Herzog both said they supported a version of the law presented by Likud MK Benny Begin, which is just a short, paragraph-long declaration of the Jewish nature of the state.Begin’s draft, which was presented in June 2015 and is based on a proposal by former Yesh Atid MK Ruth Calderon, strikes a more moderate tone than the original version, stating that “Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, based on the foundations of freedom, justice and peace as envisioned by the prophets of Israel, and upholds equal rights for all its citizens.”It also asserts Israel as a democracy and calls for the anthem, flag and national symbol to be a matter of law. According to the legislation, the text is based on the 1948 Declaration of Independence and aims to embed Israeli symbols into Israel’s Basic Laws, giving them constitutional backing.“If the coalition is serious and it really wants to pass a nation-state bill with wide support, then we will support it,” Lapid said.On the specific changes required for Dichter’s bill to receive the support of the party, Yesh Atid MK Yael German told The Times of Israel that it would need to enshrine, in writing, “equal rights for all citizens.”Dichter, responding directly to Lapid’s and Herzog’s statements, said that Begin’s bill reminded him of an Arabic adage that says “there is no point telling people there are fish in the sea.”“Just to declare Israel as a Jewish state and nothing more — in my eyes it doesn’t say anything at all,” Dichter said.Asked if he would be willing to incorporate any further changes to the bill during the government and Knesset deliberations, Dichter said that while he was happy with the current version, he has always sought a text that can appeal to as many people as possible.“For six years I have been changing and softening this bill where I think it appropriate in order to widen the base of support,” he said. “This not Avi Dichter’s bill, it’s the State of Israel’s. At the end of the process it will not be in my bookshelf, it will be in the book of laws of Israel.”
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
Arabic daily claims Trump to announce Netanyahu-Abbas talks during Israel visit-Al-Hayat says US president gearing up to launch new peace process; PA leader reportedly asked Trump to base negotiations on 2008 Olmert offer-By Times of Israel staff May 10, 2017, 12:57 pm
US President Donald Trump will announce the resumption of peace talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his upcoming visit to the region, an Arabic daily reported Wednesday.According to the London-based Al-Hayat, Trump is expected to announce a trilateral summit with the two leaders during his one-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority on May 22.Palestinian officials told the paper that a joint US-Palestinian committee had begun laying the groundwork for Abbas and Trump’s second meeting, after he hosted Abbas at the White House on April 3.The officials said they expect Trump to call for direct talks between the Israel and the PA over the course of 9 months to a year.At the White House last week, Abbas reportedly told Trump that his negotiations with former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert nearly a decade ago should form the basis of any future peace talks with Netanyahu.A Palestinian spokesperson told the Haaretz daily on Tuesday that Abbas showed Trump documents and maps with the details of the 2008 Olmert proposal.Olmert said in 2015 that during his negotiations with Abbas he had offered a near-total withdrawal from the West Bank, proposing that Israel retain 6.3% of the territory in order to keep control of major Israeli population centers. He said he offered to compensate the Palestinians with Israeli land equivalent to 5.8% of the West Bank, along with a link to the Gaza Strip — another territory, relinquished by Israel in 2005, that Palestinians seek as part of a future Palestinian state.He also said he offered to withdraw from Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and place the Old City — home to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy sites — under international control. He described the offer to give up Israeli control of the Old City as the hardest day of his life.The PA leader ultimately balked at Olmert’s 2008 offer, and later cited the then-prime minister’s legal troubles at the time as the primary reason for his refusal. Olmert would later resign to fight corruption allegations, and Abbas doubted the Israeli leader had the political clout to see the deal through. Olmert is currently serving a 26-month jail sentence on various corruption charges.Abbas told Israel’s Channel 10 in 2015 that he supported the idea of territorial swaps, but ultimately rejected the offer because Olmert pressed him into agreeing to the plan without allowing him to study the proposed map. He also said Olmert’s offer to accept a symbolic number of Palestinian refugees into Israel did not resolve the refugee issue.On Monday, The Times of Israel asked Abbas’s foreign affairs adviser Nabil Shaath whether the PA president had shown the maps to Trump, but the veteran negotiator said he couldn’t confirm that detail.But Shaath did say the so-called final status issues raised since the Oslo peace process in the 1990s would be a part of the negotiations, including Jerusalem, borders, refugees and settlements.Earlier this week, Abbas said he was ready to meet Netanyahu as part of Trump’s efforts to restart the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process.As he hosted Abbas in Washington, Trump last week confidently predicted that a peace agreement was within grasp, brushing aside the complexities of a decades-old conflict that has bedeviled successive US leaders.
Netanyahu discusses peace process, Syria with Putin-Phone call comes day before scheduled meeting between PA President Abbas and Russian leader in Sochi-By Alexander Fulbright May 10, 2017, 6:00 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the ongoing civil war in Syria in a Wednesday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian officials said.“Mr. Putin and Mr. Netanyahu discussed current bilateral cooperation matters, the situation with the Middle East peace settlement and the Syrian crisis,” the Kremlin said without elaborating.The Kremlin said that the phone call, which came a day before Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to meet with Putin in the Russian resort town of Sochi, was initiated by Israel.Abbas’s meeting with Putin in Moscow comes amid efforts by US President Donald Trump — who is set to visit Israel and the West Bank city of Bethlehem later this month in his first trip abroad as president — to revive the long-dormant peace process.Palestinian envoy to Moscow Hafiz Nofal told the TASS news agency earlier this month that Abbas and Putin will discuss the results of the recent Arab League summit and the PA president’s meeting at the White House with Trump.Both Netanyahu and Abbas have voiced support for Trump’s interest in reviving talks, although the two have also sought to cast blame on each other for the past lack of progress.In an interview with the Israeli Russian-language Channel 9 earlier this month, Netanyahu said that he speaks with and meets often with Putin, first and foremost in order to prevent a clash between the two countries’ militaries while carrying out airstrikes in Syria.Russia entered the Syrian civil war in 2015 in support of the regime of President Bashar Assad, carrying out bombing runs against rebel groups fighting against Damascus.While Israel has rarely acknowledged carrying out its own airstrikes in Syria, a number of attacks against weapons transfers have been attributed to Jerusalem.Despite the coordination between the two countries, reported Israeli airstrikes in Syria on weapons convoys have led to tensions between Jerusalem and Moscow.Last month, Moscow summoned Israel’s ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren, to protest a reported Israeli strike that nearly hit Russian troops stationed in the area. Syria’s ambassador to the UN later said that Russia had changed its policy and no longer grants Israel freedom of action over Syrian skies.Netanyahu subsequently denied reports Moscow had told Israel to end airstrikes in Syria, vowing that the IDF would continue attacking weapons convoys.A number of airstrikes since have been attributed to Israel.Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.
Hamas assures critics Israel’s destruction still a goal-Rejecting pushback over new policy paper, group’s co-founder says ‘no negotiations’ over right to all of historic Palestine-By AFP and Times of Israel staff May 10, 2017, 6:42 pm
Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar clarified Wednesday that his terror group’s new political program, which some interpreted as accepting the idea of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines, would not preclude Hamas from seeking to liberate all of historic Palestine, including Israel.“If we liberate Palestine though the resistance until the 1967 borders, we will go directly to liberate the rest of Palestine and the territories of 1948, and there will be no negotiations,” Zahar said at a conference in Gaza addressing international reactions to the new policy document, according to the Hamas-linked al-Resalah news site.Zahar was likely responding to hardline critics of Hamas’s new program, such as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group.“As partners with our Hamas brothers in the struggle for liberation, we feel concern over the document,” Islamic Jihad’s deputy leader, Ziad al-Nakhala, said Saturday.“We are opposed to Hamas’s acceptance of a state within the 1967 borders and we think this is a concession which damages our aims,” he said in a statement on Islamic Jihad’s website.On Wednesday Zahar stressed that Hamas was not walking back its original principals, asserting, “If Hamas liberated 99.9% of the land of Palestine, it will not give up on the rest.”He added: “We cannot religiously, morally or nationally give up on one inch of the land of Palestine.”Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and the EU, adopted the new document on May 1 in an attempt to improve its standing in the international community.The document, however, contains glaring contradictions.It accepts the idea of a Palestinian state in territories captured by Israel in the Six Day War of 1967 but simultaneously reiterates the imperative to destroy Israel. It also dismisses the establishment of the State of Israel as “illegal,” asserting a Palestinian claim to the entire Land of Israel, and a so-called right of return for all descendants of refugees. It also reserves the right to wage “resistance and jihad for the liberation of Palestine.”Israel has dismissed the new document as an attempt to “fool the world.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Full text of MK Avi Dichter’s 2017 ‘Jewish State’ bill-The latest version of the proposed ‘Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People’-By Raoul Wootliff May 10, 2017, 1:35 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Ministers gave their go-ahead Sunday to a controversial and long-debated proposal to officially define Israel as a Jewish nation-state.The Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted unanimously in favor of throwing coalition support behind Likud MK Avi Dichter’s Jewish state bill, which, for the first time in Israeli law, would enshrine Israel as “the national home of the Jewish people.” If passed in the Knesset, the law would become one of the so-called Basic Laws, which like a constitution guide Israel’s legal system and are usually more difficult to repeal than regular laws.Israel’s national identity is mentioned in a number of the country’s laws, but the 11 existing Basic Laws deal mostly with state institutions and Israel’s democratic character. The nation-state bill, proponents say, would put Jewish values and democratic values on equal footing. Critics, however, say the bill effectively discriminates against Israel’s Arab and other minority communities.According to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation decision, the bill will not go forward as a private member bill, but will instead be reformulated within two months as a government proposal, a move likely to ease its passage through the Knesset.What follows is a full translation of the bill as presented by Dichter to the cabinet committee:Basic Law: Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People- 1 — Basic principles A. The State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people, in which they realize their aspiration to self-determination in accordance with their cultural and historical heritage. B. The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people. C. The provisions of this Basic Law or any other legislation shall be interpreted in light of what is determined in this paragraph. 2 — Purpose-The purpose of this Basic Law is to defend the character of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, in order to anchor in Israel’s Basic Laws the State of Israel’s values as a Jewish and democratic state, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel. 3 — The symbols of the state A. The state anthem is “Hatikvah.” B. The state flag is white with two blue stripes near the edges and a blue Star of David in the center. C. The state emblem is a seven-branched menorah with olive leaves on both sides and the word “Israel” beneath it. 4 — The capital-Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. 5 — Language-A. The state’s language is Hebrew. B. The Arabic language has a special status, and its speakers have the right to language-accessible state services in their native language, as will be determined by the law. 6 — Return-Every Jew has the right to immigrate to the land [of Israel] and acquire citizenship of the State of Israel in accordance with the law. 7 — Ingathering of the exiles-The State shall act to gather in the exiles of Israel. 8 — Connection to the Jewish people in the Diaspora-A: The State shall act to strengthen the affinity between Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora.B: The State shall act to preserve the cultural and historic heritage of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. C: The State shall stretch out a hand to members of the Jewish people in trouble or in captivity due to the fact of their Jewishness. 9 — Preserving heritage-A. Every citizen of Israel, regardless of their religion or nationality, has the right to actively preserve their culture, heritage, language and identity. B. The State may allow a community, including followers of a single religion or members of a single nationality, to establish a separate communal settlement. 10 — Official calendar-The Hebrew calendar is an official calendar of the State. 11 — Independence Day and memorial days A: Independence Day is the national holiday of the State.B. Memorial Day for the Fallen in Israel’s Wars and Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day are official memorial days of the State. 12 — Days of rest-The established days of rest in the State of Israel are the Sabbath and the festivals of Israel, during which no employee shall be employed except under conditions set in law. Members of [religious] community groups recognized by law may rest on their festivals.13 — Hebrew law-Should the court encounter a legal question that demands a ruling and be unable to find an answer through [existing] legislation, legal precedent, or direct deduction, it shall rule in light of the principles of freedom, justice, integrity, and peace contained in the heritage of Israel. 14 — Protection of holy site-The holy sites shall be protected from desecration and all other harm, and from anything that may hinder access to their holy places for members of a religion, or that may offend their sentiments toward those places. 15 — Immutability-This Basic Law shall not be amended, unless by another Basic Law passed by a majority of Knesset members.
Author of controversial ‘Jewish State’ bill insists it’s unprejudiced and fair-Avi Dichter has been working for six years on legislation to define Israel as a Jewish state. Now, with government backing, he says he’s certain it will pass — to Israel’s abiding benefit-By Raoul Wootliff May 10, 2017, 1:08 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
In June 2011, Avi Dichter, then an opposition Knesset member with the centrist Kadima party, started collecting signatures for a proposal he had been working on to officially define Israel as a Jewish state and enshrine that definition in the country’s Basic Laws.Reaching out to both hawkish Likud MKs and left-of-center Labor Party members, Dichter was able to garner 39 signatures, including from 20 of Kadima’s 28 MKs, and seemed on the way to securing the votes needed to turn the proposal into law. But before a Knesset vote could take place, then-Kadima chair Tzipi Livni pressured Dichter to shelve the bill over concerns it could upset the careful balance between the Israeli state’s Jewish and democratic characteristics.Six years later, Dichter, now in Likud, says the bill — which has since been proposed in numerous permutations that have caused massive political fallout, even threatening to bring down the previous government — is now just weeks from becoming law.“We’ve waited 2,000 years, but we’ll have to wait just another month or two,” he told The Times of Israel in an interview Monday in his Knesset Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee chairman’s office. “This time, it’s going to pass,” he insisted, a day after the Ministerial Committee for Legislation voted unanimously in favor of throwing coalition support behind the proposal.Judaism is already mentioned throughout the country’s laws, and religious authorities control many aspects of life, including marriage. But the 11 existing Basic Laws deal mostly with state institutions like the Knesset, the courts and the presidency, while Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty defines Israel’s democratic character. The nation state bill, proponents say, would put Jewish values on equal footing with democratic values.According to the language of the bill, the law is needed “to protect the status of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people in order to anchor in Israel’s Basic Laws the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.”-Growing opposition-Despite vehement opposition from Arab and liberal-leaning MKs, the “Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People” bill began squarely in the political center. While Dichter’s abortive 2011 bill was the first to be proposed by a Knesset member, it was not the first draft of the proposal.The Institute for Zionist Strategies, a small Jerusalem think tank made up of professors and former security officials, produced the first draft of the bill. In 2009, IZS published a paper on the subject, and in the 2009 elections, the call for a nation-state bill made it into Kadima’s official platform.After the election, IZS scholars met with Dichter, who adopted the initiative eagerly. From the summer of 2009 through 2010, Dichter and the IZS worked to craft a final version of the bill before finally presenting it in the Knesset in the summer of 2011.In the years since it was first proposed, however, it has been taken on as an ideological mission of the Israeli right and been derided by the left as the embodiment of insensitive and even segregationist policies toward the county’s Arab minority.After Dichter’s 2011 legislation was shot down by Livni, and following his subsequent ousting from the Knesset in the 2013 elections, several attempts were made to revive the proposal, but all fell short of garnering full coalition support.In 2014, after hardline versions of the bill were presented by Dichter’s fellow Kadima-turned-Likud MK Ze’ev Elkin and MK Yariv Levin (Likud), along with Jewish Home’s Ayelet Shaked, who is now justice minister, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed his own draft. Arguing that the state lacked “adequate expression” of Israel’s “existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people,” the prime minister presented the cabinet with 14 principles that were to form the basis of the legislation.Although Netanyahu’s draft gained cabinet support, then-ministers Livni and Yair Lapid strongly opposed the bill and threatened to bolt the coalition over the issue, preventing the proposal from advancing to the Knesset.After his reelection in March 2015, Netanyahu vowed that his new government would pass a softened version of the bill. But the proposal was again shelved after Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, who chairs the coalition party Kulanu, reportedly expressed his opposition to it.-‘Jewish and democratic’-According to Dichter, the new version passed on Sunday includes several changes aimed at “widening the basis of support” for the bill and removing any suggestion of prejudice.The first draft, he points out while holding both the original and updated versions, identified Israel only as “the national home of the Jewish people.” Democracy, however, did not constitute part of the state’s identity, but merely, in the words used by the bill, “its form of government.”Passing the law would ‘constitute an overwhelming response to all those who deny the deep connection between the Jewish people and their land,’ Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says“Some legal experts said it made the Jewish element seem more important, so we wrote it together, on one line, so neither will have preference over the other,” Dichter said. The new text, he stressed, is based the language of the 1992 Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, which, for the first time in Israeli law, described Israel as a “Jewish and democratic state.”“We have deliberated over every letter of this bill,” Dichter said, noting a months-long debate that resulted in changing the clause on the state calendar from “The Hebrew calendar is the official calendar of the state” to “The Hebrew calendar is an official calendar of the State.” It is a phrase that is more comprehensive but still gives preference to the Jewish element, Dichter said.And the changes seem to have worked: Kahlon dropped his original opposition and Kulanu ministers voted Sunday in favor of advancing the bill.Netanyahu threw his own support behind the new bill on Monday, telling his Likud faction meeting that it “flies in the face of everyone who tries to deny our right to Israel.”Passing the law would “constitute a decisive response to all those who deny the deep connection between the Jewish people and their land,” the prime minister said, adding that it would be brought to the Knesset within 60 days and he “expects all the Zionist parties to support it.”According to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation decision, the bill be formulated, within two months, as a government proposal, a move that will ease its passage through the Knesset. Dichter said he had been in regular contact with Netanyahu over the proposal and the prime minister had given his go-ahead for the bill to be presented now.-‘Declaration of war’-Responding to those who have said the proposal is discriminatory toward Israel’s Arab and other minority populations, Netanyahu said Monday that “there is absolutely no contradiction between the Jewish state bill and equal rights in Israel.”‘Discrimination has received a legal stamp. The danger in this law in that it establishes two classes of citizen — Jewish and Arab, says Joint (Arab) List chair Ayman Odeh-Critics, however, say that the bill still gives preference to Jewish Israelis. Joint (Arab) List chairman Ayman Odeh issued a harsh condemnation of the legislation, calling it a “declaration of war” on Israel’s Arab citizens. “Discrimination has received a legal stamp. The danger in this law in that it establishes two classes of citizen — Jewish and Arab.”According to the language of the proposal, while every individual has the right “to preserve his culture, heritage, language and identity,” the right to realize self-determination “is unique to the Jewish people.” In another controversial clause, Arabic is changed from an official language to one with “special status,” which would ensure its speakers the “right to language-accessible state services.” Notably, that clause was left out of Netanyahu’s 2014 version.Dichter rejected the notion that his bill is discriminatory.“It does not give preference to Jews over non-Jews. It gives preference to the Jewish state by preventing it from becoming something else,” he said emphatically. “It will not be Muslim and democratic, not Christian and democratic and not Hindu and Democratic. It is a Jewish and democratic state and everyone knows that.”Slamming the criticism of the Hebrew language clause, Dichter said it was “bullshit” to suggest his bill downgraded Arabic.With no legislation defining the status of either Arabic or Hebrew, Israeli law relies on a British Mandate ruling defining both as official languages of Mandatory Palestine. “So we said, let’s just go with the current reality,” Dichter said. “Hebrew is the language of the state but Arabic should have a special status above other languages. And that’s exactly what we wrote.”-Garnering support, again-Despite Dichter’s assertions, the bill still has a distance to go before its final approval.While Kulanu may have voted in favor in the Ministerial Committee, party spokesman Omri Arush told The Times of Israel that its lawmakers would only support the final government proposal if it “met the standards they required.” According to Arush, who declined to elaborate on what those standards were, Kulanu did not give the proposal a blank check and would have input into the final version.If Kulanu were to withdraw support, Dichter would need once again to turn to his left-leaning colleagues on the opposition benches in order to gain a majority in the Knesset. In case that happens, Dichter has also presented the proposal as a private members’ bill that can progress through the Knesset, albeit slower, independent of a government decision.But opposition leader Isaac Herzog said at a press conference Monday that the current version of the bill “tramples on the delicate balance between Jewish and democratic.” Similarly, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid said he supported the idea of a nation-state bill to define Israel as a Jewish state, but could not back the law in its current form.Lapid and Herzog both said they supported a version of the law presented by Likud MK Benny Begin, which is just a short, paragraph-long declaration of the Jewish nature of the state.Begin’s draft, which was presented in June 2015 and is based on a proposal by former Yesh Atid MK Ruth Calderon, strikes a more moderate tone than the original version, stating that “Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, based on the foundations of freedom, justice and peace as envisioned by the prophets of Israel, and upholds equal rights for all its citizens.”It also asserts Israel as a democracy and calls for the anthem, flag and national symbol to be a matter of law. According to the legislation, the text is based on the 1948 Declaration of Independence and aims to embed Israeli symbols into Israel’s Basic Laws, giving them constitutional backing.“If the coalition is serious and it really wants to pass a nation-state bill with wide support, then we will support it,” Lapid said.On the specific changes required for Dichter’s bill to receive the support of the party, Yesh Atid MK Yael German told The Times of Israel that it would need to enshrine, in writing, “equal rights for all citizens.”Dichter, responding directly to Lapid’s and Herzog’s statements, said that Begin’s bill reminded him of an Arabic adage that says “there is no point telling people there are fish in the sea.”“Just to declare Israel as a Jewish state and nothing more — in my eyes it doesn’t say anything at all,” Dichter said.Asked if he would be willing to incorporate any further changes to the bill during the government and Knesset deliberations, Dichter said that while he was happy with the current version, he has always sought a text that can appeal to as many people as possible.“For six years I have been changing and softening this bill where I think it appropriate in order to widen the base of support,” he said. “This not Avi Dichter’s bill, it’s the State of Israel’s. At the end of the process it will not be in my bookshelf, it will be in the book of laws of Israel.”
