NIR BARAKAT WINS 2ND TERM AS JERUSALEMS MAYOR

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

ISRAEL YOU BETTER PROTECT JERUSALEM FOR JESUS WHEN HE COMES TO LITERALLY RULE IN JERUSALEM FOREVER-VERY SHORTLY NOW.

ISAIAH 9:6-7
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:(JESUS 1ST COMING) and the government shall be upon his shoulder:(JESUS 2ND COMING AS RULING KING FROM JERUSALEM FOREVER AT THE END OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION) and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his (JESUS) government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David,( IN JERUSALEM) and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

PSALMS 48:1-3

1  A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.(JERUSALEM)
2  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion,(JERUSALEM) on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.(JESUS-MESSIAH-KING-GOD OF ALL ON EARTH)
3  God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

PSALMS 46:4-5

4  There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,(JERUSALEM) the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.(JERUSALEM)
5  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

HEBREWS 11:10

10  For he looked for a city which hath foundations,(JERUSALEM) whose builder and maker is God.

Jerusalem mayor faces a council as fragmented as his city

Nir Barkat may have won a second term in office, but his party holds only four seats out of 31 at City Hall

By Stuart Winer October 23, 2013, 2:46 pm 0-The Times of Israel

Jerusalem's City Hall (photo credit: Abir Sultan/Flash90)

The reelected mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, was looking Wednesday at a city council in which his own party controlled only a small portion of the 31 seats around the big wooden table at City Hall.Following Tuesday’s municipal elections, the biggest faction in the capital’s new council is the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, which maintained the eight seats it held in the previous five-year term. Another ultra-Orthodox party, the Sephardic Union (Shas), won five seats, one more than it held before.Barkat’s own party, Jerusalem Will Succeed, dropped from six to four seats. The Hitorerut Yerushalayim (Wake Up Jerusalem) faction quadrupled its representation, winning four seats. Meanwhile, the Yerushalmim party, led by council member Rachel Azaria, scooped up two seats, double its previous number.Alongside its failed campaign to unseat incumbent Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and replace him with its own candidate Moshe Lion, the Likud-Beytenu party only managed to preserve its single seat on the council.Barkat said in his victory address early Wednesday that he intended to leave “no sector” and “no tribe” behind in running the city. Recalling that he had led a near wall-to-wall coalition over the past five years, he urged all parties to work together with him for the development of the capital.Later Wednesday, Barkat said he would “naturally” reach out first to those parties that had backed him for mayor, and then “expand from there” in building his coalition.Lion said he intended to stay in Jerusalem, at least for the time being, Walla news reported overnight. However, the defeated mayoral candidate, who hails from Givatayim, declined to comment on his long-term plans or if he intended to take up that council seat.The remaining seven seats were grabbed by a number of smaller parties, including two seats for the left-leaning Meretz-Labor party, led by veteran city councilman Pepe Alalu, which lost one of its previous three. The new right-wing Yerushalayim Meuhedet (United Jerusalem) party secured two seats, which it may have gained from the national religious faction, currently known as Jewish Home, which fell from three seats to one.The Bnei Torah ultra-Orthodox party and a representative from the Pisgat Ze’ev neighborhood earned one seat apiece.Israelis voted nationwide in local elections on Tuesday with a turnout of only 42.6 percent. Turnout in Jerusalem was 35.9%.

Israelis vote to keep big-party politics out of the local mix

In city after city, the electorate firmly rejected efforts by challengers from national parties to enter the municipal fray

By Haviv Rettig Gur October 23, 2013, 11:28 am 2-The Times of Israel

Israel’s local elections ended Tuesday night with a resounding victory for the status quo.Analysts saw low turnout as a harbinger of victory for upset candidates such as Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz in Tel Aviv or Likud candidate Moshe Lion in Jerusalem. Indeed, national parties took an unprecedented interest in the elections, investing political standing and public relations efforts in an attempt to show they can deliver victories at the local level.But it was not to be. Voters throughout Israel largely rejected national parties, national politics and ideologically charged challenges to sitting mayors. Even the ostensible political bases of the challengers — whether Sephardi Haredim in Jerusalem or disaffected young leftists in Tel Aviv — were neither mobilized behind the candidates who tried to speak for them nor particularly eager for change.

Even in towns such as Ramat Hasharon and Bat Yam, where incumbents faced serious charges of corruption or other malfeasance, voters preferred incumbency to change.For sitting mayors in Israel’s two major cities, the elections are a vindication. Tel Aviv’s Ron Huldai, now entering his fourth term in City Hall, is considered a successful chief executive of Israel’s iconic modern city. And Tel Aviv’s immense wealth gaps, which formed the bulk of the Horowitz campaign’s challenge to Huldai’s long-standing rule, were not to be laid at the mayor’s doorstep, voters seemed to say.

Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat celebrates with supporters after winning a hard-fought reelection race, Wednesday, October 23, 2013 (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In Jerusalem, the satisfaction in Kikar Safra, Jerusalem’s city hall, is even greater. Incumbent Nir Barkat is entering his second term as Jerusalem’s “secular alternative” to Haredi rule of the city, secure in the knowledge that there are also many Haredim who want him to continue running their city. Despite fierce efforts to unseat him on the part of Shas chairman Aryeh Deri and, reportedly, the party’s late spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (whose “last decree,” we are told, was a call to vote for Barkat’s challenger Moshe Lion), the ultra-Orthodox campaign against him failed even to mobilize the Haredi street. Barkat could not have won with the meager 36 percent turnout if at least some Haredi residents had not decided to either stay home or actively vote for him.Jerusalem is also a city where ethnic extraction matters. Large neighborhoods of Mizrahi, or “eastern,” Jews whose parents and grandparents came to Israel from the Muslim world, are supposed to feel an instinctive opposition to an elitist Ashkenazi, or European, candidate. Barkat is as elitist — a multimillionaire investor — and, culturally, as Ashkenazi as they come. But he’ll be starting a second term in Kikar Safra with the satisfying knowledge that even many Mizrahi Jews are happy, or at least not overly unhappy, with his stewardship of their city.As always, it is important to note that Jerusalem’s Arab residents, comprising as much as one-third of the city’s population, once again refused to vote in the municipal elections in protest over Israel’s control of the city.The losses sustained by the challengers in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem are also indicative of another trend seen widely in these elections: the rejection of “parachute” national candidates. Cities are not stepping-stones in a political career focused elsewhere, voters seemed to say.Thus, perhaps with the exception of Ze’ev Bielski, who returned from a failed Knesset bid to win his former seat as Ra’anana mayor, candidates from national politics were largely rejected by voters: Lion, who moved to Jerusalem just months before the municipal elections; Horowitz, who refused during his campaign to say whether he would leave the Knesset to serve on Tel Aviv’s city council even if he failed to win the top job; Carmel Shama Hacohen, who sought to win Ramat Gan after failing to return to the Knesset in January on the Likud list; former Yisrael Beytenu MK Lia Shemtov in Upper Nazareth; and even MK Hanin Zoabi in Nazareth, one of the most high-profile of Israeli Arab leaders.

Meanwhile, in Beit Shemesh

Beit Shemesh residents arguing over politics in the lead-up to elections (Photo credit: Yaakov Lederman/ Flash 90)

It is worth remembering this nationwide rejection of the nationalization of local politics before turning to Beit Shemesh.On Wednesday morning, when it was clear he had lost to incumbent mayor — and Haredi rabbi — Moshe Abutbul, Beit Shemesh mayoral challenger Eli Cohen lamented that the race had taken on religious overtones, telling Army Radio that he, too, was a “traditional” Jew.Of course, his own campaign worked hard to warn Beit Shemesh voters (or at least reporters) of the threat of continued Haredi rule of the city. But faced with the loss, he did not lament the victory of a Haredi Beit Shemesh over a secular one. Rather, his about-face suggested that his own assessment of the results saw Beit Shemesh voters rejecting first and foremost the transformation of their municipal race into an arena for Israel’s national identity battles.

Bad information

No accounting of these elections would be complete without a word about the dismal handling of information, from voting instructions to elections results, by the Interior Ministry. The website offering Israelis instructions on voting rules and ballot stations was not translated into Arabic, Russian, English, French, Amharic or any other language spoken by large numbers of Israelis.The ministry failed to publish the lists of candidates until just a few short days before the elections — and then did so in a bizarre downloadable Excel spreadsheet that ran into thousands of dense entries. The voting results were published hours after figures had already appeared on municipal websites, and in the same unreadable format — even as many municipalities (for example, Jerusalem and Modiin) managed to publish more accessible figures.The ministry also repeatedly lamented the low turnout and repeatedly called on Israelis to go vote, but did not feel election day should be made a national holiday, as is done for elections to the Knesset.Local elections are profoundly important to Israeli public life. Key services, including education, welfare and public health, are handled largely in local government. If voters can be said to have sent any message on Tuesday, it was that they wanted their local governments to remain local and concerned with these administrative functions, rather than becoming embroiled in the divisive ideological and identity politics of the Knesset.With the Interior Ministry’s handling of the elections, it might be fair to complain that the national government seems, in its turn, less than committed to the flourishing of local politics.

NETANYAHU REACHES OUT TO HEBRON JEWS

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

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: 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)

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.

On eve of Kerry meeting, PM reaches out to Hebron Jews

Netanyahu set to talk peace process and Iran in Rome on Wednesday, but message to settlers might complicate matters

By Lazar Berman October 22, 2013, 11:49 pm 0-The Times of Israel

A general view of Hebron with the Tomb of the Patriarchs (photo credit: Najeh Hashlamoun/Flash90)

On the eve of talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter of support to the Jewish community in the contested West Bank city of Hebron — where several hundred settlers live in the city of 170,000 Palestinians.“Our deep connection to Hebron, in permanent and temporary settlement, in the journeys of pilgrims and the longing of worshippers, never stopped and never ceased,” Netanyahu wrote, according to Maariv.“The resumption of Jewish settlement in Hebron after the Six-Day War forged another link in the chain stretching across generations. The adherence of the sons in the ‘city of the fathers’ withstood the test of exile, and proof of this is the renewed and blossoming settlement in Hebron,” the prime minister continued.“Not for nothing the Israeli government included the Cave of the Patriarchs in its list of national heritage sites.”Netanyahu’s message came days before the Sabbath during which Jews traditionally read the “Chayei Sarah” Torah portion, which features the story of the Biblical Abraham’s purchase of Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs as a burial ground for his wife Sarah.On Wednesday, Netanyahu will meet with Kerry to discuss the nuclear talks with Iran and the ongoing peace talks with the Palestinians.On Tuesday evening, Netanyahu held talks with his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta in Rome.Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, arrived in Rome Tuesday, having left Israel after voting in the Jerusalem municipal elections in the morning, and were dining together in the Italian capital late Tuesday.

Speaking in Paris on Monday after a meeting with the Arab League, Kerry said talks between Israelis and Palestinians were intensifying and that all core issues were on the table.Kerry was briefing the 22-member organization on the progress of peace talks, which resumed in July.“The two parties have been engaged now in 13 meetings — serious meetings. They had three meetings in the last four days,” Kerry told reporters. “All the core issues are on the table. And they have been meeting with increased intensity.”He also used the opportunity of a joint press conference with the Qatari foreign minister to announce that Qatar was forgiving $150 million in Palestinian Authority debt.

Abbas says he’s ready to meet with Netanyahu

The Palestinian leader has been trying to rally European leaders to denounce Israeli settlement construction

By Stuart Winer October 23, 2013, 12:43 pm 0-The Times of Israel

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared he’s prepared to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for direct peace talks.“I’m always willing to meet with him,” Abbas said in an interview with the German newspaper Rheinische Post Tuesday. The Palestinian leader laid down no preconditions for talks but strongly condemned Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, which he said was illegal and undermined the peace process.Abbas was in Germany as part of a visit to several European countries that began last week. The Palestinian leader has been appealing to the West to apply more pressure on Israel to halt settlement construction.Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Abbas in Berlin last Friday and called on Israel to restrain its settlement activities, which she said were jeopardizing the newly renewed peace talks with the Palestinians.Although in the interview with the Rheinische Post Abbas admitted that there had been no significant progress in the talks, comments he made in a TV interview on Saturday indicated he had not given up hope.“The negotiations are difficult, but they haven’t reached a dead end,” he told Deutsche Welle. “They are still in the initial stage and we have enough time to further deal with the main issues that turn out to be difficult.”In late August Abbas similarly stated that he is willing to meet with Netanyahu.“There is nothing that prevents a meeting with Netanyahu when the time comes for that and there is a need to meet,” he said.Two months earlier, Netanyahu had declared his own readiness to talk with Abbas face to face, saying that “if [US] Secretary [of State John] Kerry… were to pitch a tent halfway between [Jerusalem] and Ramallah — that’s 15 minutes away driving time — I’m in it, I’m in the tent. And I’m committed to stay in the tent and negotiate for as long as it takes to work out a solution of peace and security between us and the Palestinians.”Abbas’s current European trip comes almost three months into renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Kerry is the only party authorized to comment on the content of the negotiations, but insiders have been quoted repeatedly in Israeli and Palestinian media as saying that little headway is being made. Each side is blaming the other for the impasses.

On Tuesday night, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations said “tangible progress remains elusive” in the talks. Israel’s UN envoy, who spoke after his Palestinian counterpart, said “the real obstacle” to peace is the Palestinians’ insistence on the right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to what is now Israel.The Associated Press contributed to this report.

10/22/2013 VATICAN INSIDER

“Benedict XVI was very surprised by Gotti Tedeschi’s ousting”

Benedict XVI with Gotti Tedeschi (LaPresse)

The Prefect of the Papal Household, Archbishop Georg Gänswein revealed this in an interview with Italian newspaper “Il Messaggero”

Andrea Tornielli vatican city Pope Benedict XVI was clearly in the dark about the clamorous ousting of the former president of the Vatican bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi. The circumstances surround his dismissal and the way this took place were a first in the history of the Holy See. Attempts were made to besmirch his personal and professional reputation, as mentioned in the list of reasons the Vatican bank’s (IOR) board gave for Gotti Tedeschi’s dismissal. The document was signed by Carl Anderson, chairman of the board of the Knights of Columbus.Georg Gänswein, Prefect of the Papal Household and Benedict XVI’s secretary, confirmed this in an interview with Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, published in today’s issue. “I remember that moment well. It was 24 May. It was the same day Benedict XVI’s former butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested. Contrary to what many people think, there is no link between the two events. It was just an unfortunate and diabolical coincidence.”Fr. Georg’s statement is important. The tough dismissal document sent to Gotti Tedeschi which was deliberately leaked to the press said one of the reasons why he was being let go was the fact that he could not explain how newspapers managed to get hold of some of the IOR’s confidential documents and internal correspondence and publish them. This implied that the president of the IOR’s involvement in the Vatileaks scandal. Inquiries carried out by the Vatican police, however, revealed that the photocopy archive found in Paolo Gabriele’s house also contained leaked confidential email correspondence regarding Vatican transparency laws. “Benedict XVI, who appointed Gotti as head of the IOR to carry on the [Vatican’s] transparency policy, was surprised, very surprised at the no confidence vote against the professor. The Pope held him in high esteem and was fond of him but he chose not to interfere at the time, out of respect for those who were responsible for dealing with such matters. After the no-confidence vote, even though he was not able to meet with Gotti, the Pope kept in touch with him in a discreet and appropriate way,” Ratzinger’s secretary said.It is likely Mgr. Georg acted as a go-between in these exchanges. A rumour went round after Benedict XVI’s resignation, about the ousted president undergoing some kind of “rehabilitation”, but this was never proven. Gotti Tedeschi has still not been heard by the commission Pope Francis tasked with gathering information on the Vatican’s finance.

SIGNS IN THE SUN, MOON AND STARS-CHEMICAL WEAPONS

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences;(BIOLOGICAL/CHEMICAL/NUCLEAR) and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

Norway mulls taking bulk of Syria chemical arsenal

50 metric tons of mustard gas and some 300-500 metric tons of chemicals designated for weapons to be destroyed

By AP October 22, 2013, 11:33 pm 0-The Times of Israel

STAVANGER, Norway — Norway said it is considering a request to take the bulk of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile for eventual destruction.Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund said the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which are charged with destroying the deadly arsenal, would like the stockpile destroyed in one country outside Syria, and have asked Norway to do that.

Imerslund told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Norway would consider accepting Syria’s chemical precursors and mixed chemicals such as mustard gas, but not chemicals loaded onto weapons such as warheads, which would be very dangerous to handle.The ministry said that, according to the latest UN estimates, Syria has 50 metric tons of mustard gas and some 300-500 metric tons of chemicals needed to make deadly nerve agents.

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

AMOS 1:5
5  I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

Arab MK Praises Pro-‘Intifada’ Hamas Speech

MK Sarsour’s anti-Israel incitement continues with praise for Hamas speech calling for terror against Israel.

By Dalit Halevy, Maayana Miskin-First Publish: 10/22/2013, 10:42 PM-Israelnationalnews

Hamas PM Ismail Haniye-Israel news photo: Flash 90

MK Ibrahim Sarsour (Ra’am Ta’al) has come out with yet another virulently anti-Israeli statement. This time, the MK has praised a speech by Hamas head in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh which included a call for “popular resistance” against Israel – a phrase which Hamas uses to refer to terrorism.In his October 19 speech, Haniyeh slammed the talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as “harming the cause of resistance,” and called to prepare for “the big campaign in which all of Palestine will be liberated.”Hamas includes all of modern-day Israel in its definition of “Palestine.”Haniyeh also praised the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit as a “historic victory.”In a media statement Sarsour praised Haniyeh’s plan for reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas, and quoted a particular passage of the speech in which Haniyeh called for “agreement on the national plan” and “decision-making regarding Palestinian politics” – and then continued on to call for “a plan to fight the occupation, and resistance to its attacks on our people, our land and our holy places using every possible means.”Sarsour argued, “The solution to the Palestinian crisis lies with Ramallah’s responsiveness to Ismail Haniyeh’s call.”Haniyeh set down “logical basic principles,” he continued. “Allah [God], the Palestinian people, and history will not forgive the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah if it prefers to follow blindly after the false illusion provided by Israel and the United States instead of reaching an understanding with Hamas based on the principles Haniyeh stated.”Sarsour recently termed Jews “prophet murderers.” A short time later, he declared that the Biblical forefathers of the Jewish nation actually practiced Islam.Sarsour has previously met with jailed terrorists, including a Hamas leader responsible for the Park Hotel massacre, has praised Hezbollah for “defeating” Israel in 2006, and has called to establish an Islamic Caliphate centered in Jerusalem.

Ashton calls for military-grade drones in EU airspace

Today @ 18:03-OCT 22,13

By Nikolaj Nielsen

BRUSSELS - A security strategy paper by EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton says EU countries should use military-grade drones for border surveillance.The EU chief is set to debate security ideas with MEPs in the plenary chamber in Strasbourg on Wednesday (23 October).Her plan, which outlines priorities in the lead up to an EU summit on defence in December, notes that there is “an urgent need to prepare a programme for the next generation” of so-called Medium Altitude Long Endurance (Male) drones.
It adds that: "The objective is to promote a European approach for developing this key future capability." Germany, France, Italy and the UK already have the machines, but only use them in military-led operations.
But industry wants to make drones that can be used for both military and civilian operations, such as border control, but also for monitoring agriculture, civilian infrastructure and natural disasters.The idea is to allow authorities to easily switch MALE equipment according to mission type.Big EU defence companies are already lining up.In June, France's Dassualt, Franco-German firm EADS and Italy's Finmeccanica signed a joint declaration to launch their own European MALE programme.The companies want to make the drones more suitable for EU airspace by addressing outstanding issues which prevent them from flying alongside commercial airliners on a regular basis.

Crime fighting drones

EU-based industries are not alone.Global weapons manufacturer Israel Aerospace Industries has received EU funding to help an EU-led project to develop crime-stopping drones.The idea is to create drones that can stop moving cars and boats by “non-lethal” means.Called Aeroceptor, the three-year-long €4.8 million project, kicked off in January.Project co-ordinators are unable release any information on how the flying machines can stop a boat at sea without destroying it because they are still in the initial stages of the study.
“We are in the phase of selection of the actual systems (payloads) that may potentially be suitable for the intended use of the system, which is slowing down and stopping the non-cooperative vehicles,” an Aeroceptor contact told this website in an email.

Regulatory hurdles

MALE drones, which can fly at the same altitude as normal passenger airliners, face a number of technical, safety and regulatory hurdles.Eurocontrol, the Brussels-based European air traffic control body, say they can be flown over places like the Mediterranean Sea but only in pre-designated and segregated airspace.
Allocating airspace for the drone’s flight path is easier over the Mediterranean than over mainland Europe because there is less air traffic.“If you want to operate on the border of Africa and the southern part of Europe, I don’t think you will have a lot of people you are intervening or blocking there,” said Mike Lissone, who manages Eurocontrol’s integration division of unmanned aerial systems and air traffic management.
Integrating the drones into EU commercial airspace, however, is a major obstacle.The UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which sets global aviation rules, will not allow drones to fly at the same altitudes as manned aircraft without getting permission from national authorities.

New EU rules in the works

A EU source told this website the European Commission is currently working on EU legislation to get around ICAO restrictions.New EU rules are to be introduced on aircraft certification, on remote pilot licensing and on operator certification on safety. Other rules are set to cover issues like security, data protection and privacy.The source noted that the commission is set to adopt its drone policy “in the coming weeks.”
The policy paper will outline the regulatory work and research needed to get the machines flying over EU fields and cities without any problems.Integrating drones and overcoming other outstanding issues over EU airspace is likely to take years, however.A tentative 2028 deadline is foreseen to have everything complete for drones that weigh less than 150 kilos.Safety issues are a key issu.The military-grade drones lack reliable anti-collision systems, in a glitch which is technically difficult to overcome.Drones fly at different speeds and are much smaller, making them more difficult to detect and avoid by a pilot sitting in a normal airliner, such as a Boeing 737.“If you have something that flies at 100 knots between all the big ones, nobody will accept it,” said Eurocontrol's Lissone.Pilots operating the drones from ground stations are unable to feel turbulence or the roll and pitch of the aircraft.They also rely on a data link – or digital umbilical chord - between the aircraft and the ground station.Lissone estimates 20,000 drones weighing less than 150 kilos have already been sold in the EU.Around 10 member states have no laws on small drones flying below the 150 metre mark, escaping strict regulations in place elsewhere, he added.“This is going extremely fast and this is also the concern for the public,” he said of the smaller vehicles flying at low altitudes.

EU budget a step closer after €2.7bn deal

Today @ 09:53-OCT 22,13

By Benjamin Fox

BRUSSELS - Lawmakers have moved a step closer to a deal on future EU spending, despite growing ill will among institutions.The Lithuanian EU presidency, which is brokering the talks, said late on Monday (21 October) that EU countries agreed to give the European Commission an extra €2.7 billion for 2013.
The European Parliament responded by calling a snap meeting of its budgetary affairs committee on Tuesday, with a view to voting through the funds on Thursday.For his part, parliament chief Martin Schulz said he had been contacted by European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso, who warned him of the need for a quick decision.“By mid-November the commission will no longer be in a position to shoulder its financial obligations," Schulz told MEPs in his opening address to this week's session in Strasbourg.He added that he is “bound to take it [Barroso's warning] seriously."The commission says the budget shortfall is due to a 20 percent drop in its revenue from EU countries' customs duties.It has tabled nine separate "amending budgets" this year totalling over €15 billion.The €2.7 billion drama is part of wider talks on EU spending for 2013, 2014 and for the 2014-to-2020 budget.An official from the EU Council, which represents EU member states in Brussels, said Barroso's top-ups have created "a tense atmosphere" in the EU capital.MEPs were originally expected to vote on the 2014-to-2020 budget in Strasbourg this week.But the vote was postponed because MEPs first want member states to approve a separate top-up request for 2013, worth €3.9 billion."We don't want to go to war with the parliament," the Council source said.He noted that "time is really pressing" and that "we could be in a mess if we can't resolve this" quickly.But he added that crisis-hit countries' chancelleries are unlikely to approve extra funds for EU activity in the current economic climate.
"The figures for the MFF [multi-annual financial framework] will not change and everybody knows this," he said.

Gay couple uses tribal law to marry in Oklahoma

By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo News 2 hours ago-OCT 22,13-yahoonews

A same-sex couple successfully applied for a marriage license in Oklahoma despite the state’s strict rules against gay marriage. The pair used a legal loophole to get the license last Friday under tribal law, which doesn't fall under the state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as occurring only between a man and a woman. They plan to wed Oct. 31.Darren Black Bear, a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, was able to get a marriage license to wed his partner of nine years, Jason Pickel, because the tribe’s legal system does not specify two people must be of different genders to be wed.Rosemary Stephens, the editor in chief of the tribes’ Tribal Tribune, told Yahoo News another gay couple in the tribe wed in December 2012 under the law, but did not make their union public. At least one person in the couple must be an enrolled member of the tribe in order to get a marriage license, however. Stephens said no one in the tribe has raised any objections to the practice of giving out marriage licenses to both straight and gay couples. “They’re held in high esteem,” Stephens said of Black Bear and Pickel.While Oklahoma won’t recognize the marriage, the federal government most likely will, thanks to last June's Supreme Court decision that struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act. The court said the federal government must recognize same-sex marriages, but said states are free to ignore and prohibit them if they want. There is still confusion about what the ruling means for the rights of same-sex married couples who live in states that don’t recognize them, which will most likely be worked out in future court battles.Pickel plans to take Black Bear’s last name, and the two hope to file their federal taxes jointly, Stephens said. The men are marrying in Watonga, Okla.“When we have equality in all 50 states and all U.S. territories, that is when we'll have true equality,” Pickel told a local TV station. “That's when I will be truly, truly happy.” Pickel didn't immediately return a request for comment from Yahoo News.The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes have nearly 12,500 members, about 60 percent of whom live in Oklahoma.

ISRAEL BETTER VOTE A PRO TEMPLE-PRO PRAYER MOUNT JERUSALEM MAYOR IN

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

RABBI STEVEN DENOON WARNS ISRAELI LEADERS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQTm_kkg62A&feature=c4-overview&list=UU3q-ByZ2eoOikcEiajMYXXA

ISRAELIS AND JEWS BETTER VOTE IN A PRO TEMPLE-PRO ISRAELI PRAYER ON THE MOUNT MAYOR.IF USE WANT TO OBEY THE TRUE ONE GOD USE CLAIM TO LOVE.THE BIBLE SAYS YOU GET WHOEVER YOU VOTE IN.THE THING IS.YOU USE WISDOM AND MAKE SURE THE ONE YOU VOTE FOR IS GODLY AND AGREES WITH YOUR BELIEFS.IF NOT DON'T VOTE.BECAUSE WE GIVE ACCOUNT TO GOD EVEN FOR THE VOTE WE DO.IF IT AGREES WITH GOD-ITS GREAT.IF NOT THEN WE DON'T VOTE FOR ANY OF THE LEADERS. 

Polling booths close as municipal elections end

Less than half of eligible voters showed up to vote for their mayors and city council members, with turnout highest in Arab sector

By Joshua Davidovich, Stuart Winer and Gavriel Fiske October 22, 2013, 11:09 pm 0-The Times of Israel

The elections for Israel’s mayors and municipal council members drew barely 42.6% of voters by 8:30 p.m. Turnout was especially low in Tel Aviv (22%) and Jerusalem (32%), though Jerusalem’s numbers are dragged down by the refusal of hundreds of thousands of Arab residents to vote in protest at Israel’s control of the city.Only a few major cities showed a turnout as low as Jerusalem, with Holon, Bat Yam and Rishon Lezion’s turnout reaching just 19% by 7 p.m., Netanya and Tel Aviv showing 21%, and Beersheba, Ramat Gan and Rehovot reaching 23%.Arab cities, on the other hand, saw a very high turnout, led by Kafr Kara with 94% by 7 p.m., Sakhnin with 78%, Hurfeish with 77%, and a number of cities in the mid-to-low 70% range.Local governments are elected for five-year terms and have significant influence over major public services, including education, welfare and urban planning.Final results are expected to be published early Wednesday, though reports indicate results are already available for Haifa, where incumbent Yona Yahav has reportedly won reelection in a city that saw, at last count, over 40 percent turnout.Voter turnout for local elections is traditionally much lower than national polls, but there were a number of hotly contested races around the country, including in Jerusalem, where incumbent Nir Barkat hoped to retain his mayoral seat against newcomer Moshe Lion.The Jerusalem contest was marked by bitter accusations and attempts to influence voters through mass SMS messages and phone calls.One text sent around at 8:15 p.m. urged Jerusalemites to go out and vote because “the Haredim are voting en masse.” It warned that “this is the last chance to stop the kombina” — a reference to the Lion candidacy.Less than an hour later, text messages received by thousands and bizarrely signed by “the Barak (sic) campaign” purported to reassure voters in Barkat’s name that “we have won the elections. We’ll meet for another five years of action and Jerusalem will succeed.” The senders of the messages appeared to be trying to convince Barkat voters who had not yet voted that there was little reason to go to the polls.Ten minutes later, another text message, this time from the Barkat campaign, warned, “Don’t be fooled by the spin. The battle is very tight. Every vote counts. Run and vote for Barkat now, and save Jerusalem. The polls close at 10.”Arab residents of Jerusalem largely continued the tradition of boycotting the city’s elections. In the Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Safafa, just one voter had cast a ballot by mid-afternoon.MK Meir Sheetrit (Hatnua), a former cabinet minister and mayor of Yavne, said in the Knesset today that low turnout numbers are caused by a widespread belief that local elections are unimportant, and suggested those who don’t vote should be fined.“We need to fine citizens who don’t vote,” he said, adding that he had proposed a law instituting such a fine. “I suggested that whoever doesn’t vote won’t get a day off, but it seems that it’s… easier to fine citizens who don’t vote.”

Moshe Lion a little lost on his new home turf

His ostensible partnership with Shas’s Aryeh Deri is the ‘kiss of death’ for some voters at the Old Katamon polling station where the Likud-Beytenu underdog cast his ballot

By Raphael Ahren October 22, 2013, 4:05 pm 1-The times of Israel

Moshe Lion may or may not be the better mayoral candidate, but the man from Givatayim evidently doesn’t really know his way around in Jerusalem — not even the neighborhood where he now lives… and votes.

On Tuesday morning, Lion and his wife drove through the Old Katamon neighborhood to cast their votes. Exiting a shiny silver BMW — which was later parked in a prohibited location, causing a mini-scandal — the city’s would-be first couple, surrounded by reporters, supporters and volunteers for the opposing candidate, strode confidently along the sidewalk and straight past the entrance of the school in which their polling station is located. Onlookers near the school’s entry watched and wondered where the candidate was going, until someone realized the error and forced the Lions and the knot of people around them to effect an inelegant turnaround.As of earlier this year, Lion, the official candidate of Likud-Yisrael Beytenu, officially resides on Jerusalem’s Keren Hayesod Street, and was assigned to cast his ballot at the nearby Beit Hahinuch School on Kaf Tet BeNovember Street. Most polls predict Lion will lose the race against Mayor Nir Barkat, and anecdotal evidence from Lion’s polling station in this upscale neighborhood in central Jerusalem did nothing to undermine the notion. Several residents said they saw him as both an outsider and a puppet of Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman and Shas chairman Aryeh Deri, his two most prominent backers. Lion is also said to have the backing of most — but not all — of the city’s Haredim, thanks to what Barkat alleges is a kombina (a sordid political ploy) engineered by the ultra-Orthodox Deri and the fiercely secular Liberman.

“I lived here for 40 years, he’s been here for all of three months. He simply doesn’t know his way around here,” said Alex Ragen, a native New Yorker who immigrated to Israel in 1971, of Lion. “He’s a sleazy politician,” Ragen, a skullcap-wearing former software developer, added. “And he has the backing of Shas, which is the kiss of death for any politician.”Out of more than a dozen voters interviewed outside the school, one said he had voted for Lion. “It’s not because of what the rabbis commanded. Of course I’d never go against what they say, but this time I understand them,” said Yehuda, a 23-year-old Haredi student at Hebron yeshiva. “Lion will be better for the residents. I voted for him both because of the rabbis’ order and out of my own reasoning.”Barkat’s supremacy on Lion’s new home turf was unmistakable. The polls opened at 7 a.m., and for the first two hours, campaigning at the school and its surroundings was tightly in the hands of about a dozen teenage volunteers for the Barkat ticket. The noise they made caught the attention of a group of toddlers playing in the kindergarten across the street. The teenagers chanted “Nir, Nir for mayor,” and the two and three-year-olds, slightly misunderstanding the message, yelled back, “Bibi for mayor.”

Later, volunteers for several other lists seeking seats on the city council — including Jerusalemites, Awakening and Meretz-Labor — arrived to lobby. But Lion’s campaign stand was a pitiful sight. Until about 9:15, two high school girls sat at a table, hardly moving and certainly not trying to convince anyone to vote for Lion. “Nobody stopped by to say ‘good job’; the only thing people say to me is that it’s ‘awful and appalling [that we're here],’” said Tamar, 18, who said she was only present because she was getting paid. Then, five additional Lion backers arrived. They tried to chant a few slogans, and were promptly shouted down by a much larger group of Barkat supporters.

When Inbar, a 35-year-old volunteer for Rachel Azaria’s Jerusalemites party, asked an approaching voter if she might suggest a vote for “Nir and Rachel,” the voters replied: “Barkat is obvious.”

Outside the Old Katamon polling station where Moshe Lion cast his ballot (photo credit: Raphael Ahren/Times of Israel)

Anat Koren, a nonreligious Jerusalem resident in her 30s, said she’d voted for Barkat simply because he’s secular and Lion is not. “That’s the only reason.”Orthodox voters, too, were clearly with the incumbent. “Barkat contributed a lot to the city in the realm of culture and many other things,” a 35-year-old lawyer sporting a knitted skullcap said. “But more importantly: Whoever has Deri’s support doesn’t have mine.”

Before arriving here to vote at around 10:10 a.m., the Orthodox Lion had prayed at the fresh grave of Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and asked for divine assistance at the Western Wall. The secular Barkat was there at around the same time. Lion’s schedule, handed out to reporters on Monday, read “Prayer at the Western Wall” while the mayor’s program spoke of a “visit” there. But photographs seemed to show he prayed too.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat prays at the Western Wall on October 22, 2013, during Israel’s municipal elections. (photo credit: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After exercising his civil duty, Lion plunged into a day full of campaign stops, most of them in areas where he likely has more supporters. First, two hours in the northern neighborhoods of Ramot and Pisgat Ze’ev and even the far-flung Neve Yaakov. Then, after a lunch break, the Western part of the city — a school in Kiryat Moshe, a community center in Ir Ganim and three schools in Kiryat Yovel. Toward the evening, he was set to head south to Talpiot and Armon Hanatziv. At a polling station on Derech Bethlehem in Talpiot, with a diverse mix of middle-class, working-class, Orthodox and secular residents, and a fair number of Ethiopian immigrants voting, his supporters were certainly louder and more numerous at mid-morning than the rather cowed Barkat camp.Meanwhile, Barkat voted at the WIZO school in his Beit Hakerem neighborhood, and embarked from there on a similarly busy day trying to woo the undecideds, with a lunch stop at “Falafel BeMoshava” in the German Colony.Neither was planning to spend time in the Haredi strongholds, despite that community’s potential for determining the race. Lion was originally banking on the support of the entire Haredi community, and did gain the backing of the United Torah Judaism party, but several Hasidic factions decided at the last minute to withhold their endorsement. “Bnei Torah,” a Jerusalem-based rogue wing of the ultra-Orthodox Degel Hatorah party, went so far as to field its own candidate for mayor, Haim Epstein. Backed by the influential Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, he is expected to garner several thousand votes.

Talking to residents on the streets of Mea Shearim and adjacent Haredi neighborhoods, it quickly emerged that the city’s ultra-Orthodox community is everything but monolithic.The more anti-Zionist Haredim don’t vote at all, since the elections are being organized by a regime they reject on religious grounds.Yekutiel Kirschenfeld, a 23-year-old from Har Nof, did vote — UTJ for city council and Lion for mayor. Why? “Because he promised to lower arnona [municipal tax].” Kirschenfeld, who works in a Mea Shearim housewares store, said he can’t afford to pay NIS 7,000 (about $2,000) every year and hopes for a serious reduction, even for Haredim who work. “I’m not sure that Lion will really do it, but he promised.”

Yehuda Riss, who owns a nearby fish store, said he voted for Shas and Lion, mostly because “Barkat is anti-Haredi.” Eliyahu, one of his employees, voted for the accountant from Givatayim simply because the rabbis said so. Did he know what Lion promised to do differently than Barkat? No, but that wasn’t not important, he said. “I’m a Litvak, I do what Rabbi [Aharon Leib] Shteinman and Rabbi [Haim] Kanievsky say.”Eliyahu Weiss, a Haredi man in his 50s, said he voted UTJ for city council — and no one for mayor. “My rabbi didn’t say anything [about whom to vote for], so I didn’t vote for anyone.”Avraham Soloveitchik, a scion of the rabbinical dynasty who was born and raised in Jerusalem, said he doesn’t ever vote. Not because it’s a forbidden legitimization of Zionism but mainly because of a dictum issued by one of his late ancestors. “Voting is neither a mitzvah [commandment] nor an aveirah [sin], the Brisker Rav said. So I prefer not to get involved.”

Beit Shemesh votes in the shadow of religious war

Situated halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and divided between ultra-Orthodox and secular and modern religious camps, the city has mayoral stakes that are unusually high

By Mitch Ginsburg October 22, 2013, 5:42 pm 0-The Times of Israel

“Our holy Torah prohibits participation in the unholy elections,” read one stern black-and-white placard on Levi Eshkol Street in the Yefe Nof neighborhood. Nearby was another one, proclaiming in red and yellow that the inhabitants of the house do not own any sort of device that allows access to the Internet or to movies. “Here we do not chase away the Divine Presence, God forbid,” it read.The majority of the signs, though, were in favor of the incumbent, Moshe Abutbul, the Shas party representative who has been at the center of the religious conflict.“The extremists who put up those signs are a tiny minority,” said Chaim, an ultra-Orthodox resident of the neighborhood and a kashrut supervisor at a nearby matzah factory. “They are 100 people and they cause me to suffer too. They know no limits. And besides,” he said, “they put the signs in the window and then send their wives out to vote.”

A derelict playground in Beit Shemesh, October 22, 2013. (photo credit: Times of Israel/Mitch Ginsburg)

For his part, Chaim had just cast a ballot for Abutbul, a once secular father of eight who has served on the city council since 1993. He asserted that after years of negligence the city had come back to life under the first-term mayor. “He built new sidewalks in the neighborhood, established a well-baby clinic and a new road out of the city to cut back on traffic,” he said.All around Chaim was garbage: stuck in bushes, in the corners of the playground and alongside the newly constructed buildings. A nearby playground featured an uprooted slide and was littered with glass and bricks. “It’s a private area. That’s why it isn’t cleaned,” Chaim said.

Mayor Moshe Abutbul on the morning of the elections (Photo credit: Yaakov Lederman/ Flash 90)

Chedva, in modest but colorful dress, walked down the nearby stairs on Ben Kisma Street. She was once a moderate ultra-Orthodox voter, she said, but as the neighborhood grew more extreme she felt increasingly isolated. “No one here lets you live as you see fit,” she said. Her boys, who wear knitted head coverings, were constantly excluded. “In the end, we left,” she said, noting that she now lives in Jerusalem but still votes in Beit Shemesh.Outside the neighborhood voting center, at a childcare center, an ultra-Orthodox immigrant from Boro Park, New York, a father of nine, explained his rationale for supporting Abutbul. “I used to get 1,900 shekels ($540) childcare from the government. Today I get 1,000,” he said. Yisroel, who refused to give more than his first name, said that if Abutbul’s primary rival, Eli Cohen, was elected, the municipality would do locally just what the government without the ultra-Orthodox parties did nationally, cutting the state support for families with many children. An employee of the chevra kadisha burial society, who pays municipal taxes but refrained from taking Israeli citizenship, he said, “I will not turn the other cheek to Eli Cohen.”A thin young man with a wispy red beard and clear plastic glasses came out of the voting booth. He, too, had voted for Abutbul. “I’m a Gur Hasid,” he said. “The rebbe said to vote for him. That’s it. I don’t look to the right and I don’t look to the left. There are no issues that are important to me. What’s important to me is what he said.”A pair of young religious boys with short sidelocks and sneakers came up to one of the Hassidic parties’ tables and tried to bum a cigarette off one of the young men. They couldn’t have been more than 10 years old. Asked if there was a soccer court or somewhere else for them to spend their free time after school, they chuckled. “Abutbul’s a cheapskate,” one said.In a more secular part of town, the Water Tower neighborhood, Dmitry Diga stood outside and tried to convince passersby to vote for the secular Cohen for mayor and Yelena Konianski for city council. A security guard on the Jerusalem light rail system and an immigrant from Ukraine who converted to Judaism while in the army, he said there was nothing for young people to do in Beit Shemesh. “All you have here are corner stores and parks to get drunk in.”Rosa Reich, seated nearby, herself an immigrant from Ukraine, said “the city is dirty. There are no community centers. There are no after school activities for the kids. There is no tennis. And on Shabbat I don’t even go out of the house.”Maybe, Diga said, noting the deep secular-religious divide, “we should just split into two cities.”But in the Scheinfeld neighborhood, home to many English-speaking religious residents, there was no talk of disengagement and plenty of spirited campaigning. “The issue is, will this city be a place for all or just for certain segments?” said Jonathan Duker, a religious educator whose son goes to the boys branch of the Orot School that was at the center of a December 2011 uproar, when extremist factions from within the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood were filmed spitting and cursing at the eight-year-old Na’ama Margolese on her way to school. “Every parent had to deal with that kind of behavior,” said Duker. His son added, “They threw fish at me.”

Na’ama Magolese and her mother shortly after the extremists’ harassment became public (Photo credit: Uri Lenz/ Flash 90)

Shortly after Duker asserted that Abutbul had tried to “stifle religious Zionist culture,” Cohen showed up at the Uziel Elementary school to cast his vote. The crowd of supporters began chanting and Cohen told them to “save it” for later. “Now: rabota, rabota,” he said, using the Russian word for work.Speaking briefly to The Times of Israel, Cohen said he assumed that most English speakers in Beit Shemesh want “a normal life, in a normal, clean city. No one here is looking for a religious war,” he said, “at least not me.”Finally, after speaking with Tilahon Mula, an Ethiopian immigrant who said he supported Cohen because Abutbul had not followed through on his promise to build a synagogue for members of the community, The Times of Israel reached Beit Shemesh’s most famous resident over the phone. Rabbi MK (Yesh Atid) Dov Lipman, who was pushed into politics by the rising tide of extremism in the city, said the two primary issues at stake were “overall mismanagement” and the ceding of control to extremists.Asked which way it would go in this closely contested and pivotal race, Lipman said, “I think it all comes down to the percentage of secular voters who come out to vote. The norm is 50 percent, in which case Eli [Cohen] can’t win. If we get 70 percent [turnout], then I think he will.”

WIND TURBINES CAUSE STRANGE HEATH PROBLEMS

KING JESUS IS COMING FOR US ANY TIME NOW. THE RAPTURE. BE PREPARED TO GO.

AND US IN CANADA ARE INTO THIS DANGEROUS WIND TURBINE CULT.ABOUT 40 MILES FROM ME IS SOME.AND THEY ARE WANTING TO BUILD SOME ALL OVER ONTARIO. THANK GOD SOME PLACES HAS TURNED DOWN THIS ENVIROMENTAL CULT- DANGEROUS WIND TURBINE CULT TAX GRAB-PEOPLE KILLING OBSSESSION.

Wind Turbine Syndrome' Blamed for Mysterious Symptoms in Cape Cod Town

Oct. 21, 2013

By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES-Digital Reporter

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wind-turbine-syndrome-blamed-mysterious-symptoms-cape-cod/story?id=20591168&singlePage=true 

Sue Hobart, shown here with her husband Edward, said she was so sickened by the wind turbines near her house that they abandoned it.Courtesy Sue Hobart.Sue Hobart, a bridal florist from Massachusetts, couldn't understand why she suddenly developed headaches, ringing in her ears, insomnia and dizziness to the point of falling "flat on my face" in the driveway."I thought I was just getting older and tired," said the 57-year-old from Falmouth.Months earlier, in the summer of 2010, three wind turbines had been erected in her town, one of which runs around the clock, 1,600 feet from her home."I didn't put anything to the turbines -- we heard it and didn't like the thump, thump, thump, and didn't like seeing them, but we didn't put it together," she told ABCNews.com.Hobart said her headaches only got worse, but at Christmas, when she went to San Diego, they disappeared. And she said the same thing happened on an overnight trip to Keene, N.H."Sometimes at night, especially in the winter, I wake up with a fluttering in the chest and think, 'What the hell is that,' and the only place it happens is at my house," she said. "That's how you know. When you go away, it doesn't happen."

Medical mystery: 19 teens develop Tourette's syndrome-like symptoms.

Hobart and dozens of others in this small Cape Cod town have filed lawsuits, claiming that three 400 feet tall, 1.63 megawatt turbines (two owned by the town and one owned by Notus Clean Energy) were responsible for an array of symptoms. A fourth, much smaller turbine, is owned by Woods Hole Research Center, but it receives fewer complaints.The wind turbines have blown up a political storm in Falmouth that has resonated throughout the wind energy industry. Are these plaintiffs just "whiners," or do they have a legitimate illness?

In 2011, a doctor at Harvard Medical School diagnosed Hobart with wind turbine syndrome, which is not recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The name was coined by Nina Pierpont, a John Hopkins University-trained pediatrician, whose husband is an anti-wind activist, criticizing the economics and physics of wind power. Pierpont, who lives in upstate New York, calls wind turbine syndrome the green energy industry's "dirty little secret." She self-published "Wind Turbine Syndrome" in 2009, including case studies of people who lived within 1.25 miles of these "spinning giants" who reportedly got sick.But her wind-turbine research has been criticized for improper peer review (Pierpont reportedly chose her reviewers), and for its methodology -- small sample size, no control group and the fact that she did not examine her subjects or their medical records but interviewed them by phone.Neither Pierpont nor her husband, Calvin Luther Martin, responded to ABCNews.com's request for comment.Hobart and her husband, Edward, filed a nuisance claim last Feb. 5 in Barnstable Superior Court against Notus Clean Energy and its owner, Dan Webb. According to the Hobarts' lawyer, Democratic State Rep. Brian Mannal, they are seeking between $150,000 and $300,000 in damages for loss of value of their home, and for medical bills.They filed an earlier nuisance complaint against the town in July 2012, but the judge granted the defendants' motion to dismiss on Dec. 3, 2012."The heart of the issue is that they have been pushed off their land," said Mannal. "They have erected these enormous industrial-scale turbines -- larger than a 747 -- in close proximity to residences. They have had to leave their house because they couldn't live there anymore."

Mannal, who took on the Hobarts' suit before running for public office, said he "had a feeling about this case since it first came to me that this is one of the most important things I will do in my professional life. These are people who have been put upon and are suffering under this thing with no avenue for escape."This is an industry that has pushed to make wind happen, and I am not against that, but you do it responsibly," Mannal said. "It goes all day and night. My initial take was that [she] was being a hypochondriac, but I went to their house two years ago with a little skepticism and within 10 minutes of being in the house, I could feel it and hear it. ... It acts like a drum and pounds on the house."In its answer to the court on May 20, Webb's attorney, Michael J. O'Neill, denied all of Hobart's allegations, saying that Notus' application for an operating permit was "subject to rigorous review" by Falmouth's Zoning Board of Appeals. O'Neill also said that Notus had submitted a "thorough noise assessment by a qualified consultant in support of its application," and that the wind turbine project had complied with all applicable standards and regulations. "Scientific research and studies have shown that wind turbines such as Notus do not cause a nuisance or adverse health effects," said O'Neill in the court filing.Webb did not comment on the Hobarts' lawsuit but defended wind energy in an email to ABCNews.com, saying that its wind turbine generates approximately 5 million kWh of electricity annually."In three years of operation, it has prevented emissions of more than 7,000 tons of carbon dioxide from conventional generation plants," he wrote. "The nearest home to the Notus turbine is approximately 1,700 feet from the turbine. The minimum setback distance recommended by a state model bylaw is three times tip height, or a distance of 1,197 feet. So our setback distance to homes is substantially greater than specified in the state model bylaw."Neil Andersen and his wife, Betsy, were big fans of alternative energy, but when two town-owned turbines arrived within 1,320 and 2,320 feet of their house, they, too, said they developed symptoms.Andersen, 60, said that within a week and half, he developed a "very uncomfortable feeling.""First, it was pressure in my ears -- they were just popping as I was standing out in the front yard doing landscaping," he told ABCNews.com. "Within two months, my ears started ringing with tinnitus, and now I have clenching of my teeth -- bruxism."He said he had headaches, shortness of breath, sensitivity to sounds and heart palpitations."At times, I even have confusion over what is the pulse of the turbine and which is my heartbeat," he said.He said his wife had suffered migraines so severe that she wrote in a journal she keeps on her symptoms and the wind turbine operations, "Never stops, never stops. Headache. HELP."

More than 45 Falmouth residents have complained to the town's Board of Selectmen, which curtailed the hours of its two turbines at night. The board said it's the pressure of infrasound -- sounds with frequencies below 20 Hz -- which are on the low end of audible for humans.But others say many who live near the wind turbines suffer no ill effects, and there's research that suggests these unexplainable symptoms could be psychogenic, or "contagious." In a phenomenon known as the nocebo effect -- the opposite of the placebo effect -- people can convince themselves that something is producing harm.One 2013 study on the wind turbine effect published in the journal Health Psychology examined the power of suggestion and concluded it may have caused the reported health problems.In the study, researchers exposed 60 participants to 10 minutes of infrasound and then silence. Beforehand, half the group was shown television footage of people who lived near wind farms and were recounting the harmful effects. Within this group, the people who scored high for anxiety developed symptoms, even if they were exposed to sham infrasound."Some people are more suggestible," said Dr. Elizabeth Bowman, a psychiatrist and adjunct professor at Indiana University, who is not familiar with the Falmouth cases. "This is not conscious, it's unconscious."What can happen across time is people think maybe this is real, my neighbor's got it," said Bowman. "They start to tune in more to their bodies and amplify and misinterpret normal body sensations."Andersen, however, said he had no idea his neighbors were suffering when his symptoms began."Just come in to my house and feel the walls shaking," he said. "They say it's the nocebo effect, but people who sit on my front porch have to leave within a half hour -- they felt it. Early on, I had a financial adviser sit in my kitchen and within five minutes he was complaining about ear popping."Something is going on here, and it's affecting a lot of us physically and mentally," explained Andersen, who said he could no longer work in construction."They don't believe us," he said. "It's a very sad situation."ABCNews.com called the town of Falmouth several times and sent emails, but the calls were not returned and the emails were not answered. The town's lawyer, Frank K. Duffy, also did not return calls.According to Kim Fish, who is Duffy's paralegal, there are "just so many lawsuits."The clerk at Barnstable Superior Court confirmed there were numerous lawsuits against the town and its Board of Health.

The Andersens have filed three lawsuits. The one in Barnstable Superior Court alleges the town violated the zoning bylaw, did not go through the proper permitting process for installing the wind turbines and did not hold "one single public meeting."The second is a nuisance complaint that was initially denied by the building commissioner, but that decision was later overturned by the zoning board of appeals. "We are in the middle of proceedings for an injunction to stop the turbines until the case is heard," Andersen said.A third private nuisance lawsuit was filed in federal court in Boston.The Massachusetts Departments of Environmental Protection and Public Health recently commissioned a panel of experts to analyze existing research on the effects of noise, vibration and flicker of wind turbines on health. They concluded that wind turbines present little more than an "annoyance" to residents, and that limited evidence exists to support claims of devastating health impacts.Earlier this year, the selectmen voted unanimously to take down the wind turbines as "the right thing to do," but when the town put the measure to a vote in April, it didn't pass, according to the Cape Cod Times.Many Falmouth residents said they're baffled by the complaints."My neighborhood is 4,000 feet from the big ones, and we have zero effect," said Tom Stone, who spoke on behalf of the Woods Hole Research Center, where he is a scientist emeritus. Woods Hold Research Center owns the smaller turbine, which has not been the subject of lawsuits. "Houses are being sold on my street, and new houses are being built. It's not an issue.""My son has been house-sitting one of the families who complained, and it doesn't bother their children but bothers their parents. I don't know what to make of it. Is it one of these things that bothers you if you are sensitive to it, or is it a stress reaction?"One woman complained about the turbine at the research center, said Stone, but the turbine was not even in operation at the times she logged her symptoms.

Wind turbines are the most popular form of new energy in the United States and are seen widely not only in coastal Massachusetts but throughout California, Texas and Wisconsin.The American Wind Energy Association, which represents the industry, said that wind power was "an inexhaustible resource," which did not harm the environment and provided a "direct health benefit by reducing air pollution and related health impacts, including asthma."Spokeswoman Lindsay North, who did not comment on the Falmouth cases, said health complaints were "rare."A 2010 study by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council found no negative effects from wind turbines.But Dr. Steven Rauch, director of the Balance and Vestibular Center at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and the doctor who diagnosed Sue Hobart, said he was "unwilling" to rule out wind turbine syndrome as a real medical condition.Rauch said he had diagnosed only one other patient besides Hobart, but he believed infrasound was a "plausible" explanation for their complaints."We don't know enough about it to totally accept it or blow it off," he told ABCNews.com. "When these patients came to me I could not find any other abnormalities to explain their symptoms. I am trying to give them the benefit of the doubt."Hobart, who was referred by Pierpont, said she saw Rauch in July 2011, after she had left her house and was living with a friend.He did a full otology exam and checked on her gait and hearing, she said, and recommended physical therapy for her gait problems but prescribed no medication."He said I was recovering well and to just stay away from the wind turbine," she said. "It was a huge relief to have a doctor of his caliber affirm my situation."Rauch said he consulted with Pierpont and Alec Salt, an otolaryngology specialist at the Cochlear Fluids Research Laboratory at Washington University in Louis suggests the level of infrasound generated by a wind turbine one mile away could be harmful.

"He tried to lay out the scientific basis for low-frequency pressure affecting the inner ear," said Rauch. "It seems to do something to other parts of the body, and it persuaded me, that at least in animal research, there is proof. We know that animals are pretty good models of differential susceptibility to noise exposure."

The big question is why some live near wind turbines with no ill effects, and others are crippled by symptoms, such as debilitating migraines."Migraines alter the way the brain processes sensory information -- light, stimulation, sound touch, bellyaches and sleep disturbances," said Rauch. "If you put someone with migraine disturbances in an environment with throbbing low-pressure pulse, that affects the autonomic nervous system or inner ear balance organs. It may be likely that those patients, because of general susceptibility, have intensified distorted reactions."Rauch also cautions against those who say complaints are psychological in nature."That's a slippery slope, blaming the patient in medicine," he said. "I am not a wind industry businessman or a policy maker. I am a doctor, and I take care of my patients."As for Sue Hobart, she has had to give up her floral work and now lives miles away from Falmouth's wind turbine towers in neighboring Bourne. Her house by the wind turbines is up for sale, she said, but because she disclosed her health problems to potential buyers, its value has dropped by half. . "We tried to keep our house -- we built it ourselves," she said. I had six acres, planted trees and flowers and bought a bobcat and a backhoe and built the rock walls myself. It was my pride and joy. Every time I think about it I cry."Hobart's headaches are gone, but depression has set in."I didn't know anything about wind turbine syndrome," she said. "It made me abandon my house. I had everything I ever wanted and I can't live there."ABC News' Karin Halperin contributed to this story.