EVENTS IN TIME (BIBLE PROPHECY LITERALLY FULFILLED)(BY GOD)

I WRITE NEWS ABOUT AND PUT NEWS ARTICLES ABOUT ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM PERTAINING TO BIBLE PROPHESY HAPPENINGS.JOEL 3:20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)-WE CHRISTIANS ARE ALL WAITING PATIENTLY FOR THE PRE-TRIBULATION RAPTURE TO OCCUR.SO WE CAN GO TO JESUS AND GET OUR NEVER DYING BODIES.SO WE CAN RULE OVER CITIES OURSELVES.WHILE JESUS RULES FROM DAVIDS THRONE FOREVER IN JERUSALEM.

Friday, October 23, 2015

HURRICANE PATRICIA COMING ON THE SHORES OF MEXICO TO DESTROY TODAY. LOOKOUT EL-CHAPO AND DRUG LORDS IN MEXICO-GOD MIGHT TAKE REVENGE ON USE WITH THIS HURRICANE.

I saw the angel pouring over Mexico and two oceans joining together- the Atlantic and the Pacific.If this prophecy were to be fulfilled tonight.\it would mean MEXICO WOULD BE COMPLETELY FLOODED.TO JOIN THE ATLANTIC AND PACIFIC OCEANS.We Pray it does not happen tonight.Or millions would possibly die-if this prophecy is fulfilled tonight.-pic-wikispaces.com

UPDATE HERE AT OCT 23,15-FRI-12:34PM

Catastrophic Landfall Expected in Mexico Friday; Patricia Becomes Strongest Hurricane Ever Recorded-Published Oct 23 2015 11:26 AM EDT-weather.com

Patricia The Strongest Hurricane in History-Hurricane Patricia has become the strongest hurricane ever measured in the Pacific.A potentially catastrophic landfall is expected Friday evening as a very powerful and dangerous Hurricane Patricia moves towards Mexico's Pacific coast. Hurricane Patricia became the most powerful tropical cyclone ever measured in the Western Hemisphere on Friday morning as its maximum sustained winds reached an unprecedented 200 mph (320 kph).The hurricane is forecast to make landfall in the Mexican state of Jalisco Friday evening as a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane capable of causing widespread destruction. Residents and authorities in Mexico are rushing to prepare for what will likely be the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall on that country's Pacific coastline.At 10 a.m. CDT, the eye of Hurricane Patricia was about 125 miles (255 kilometers) southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico, and was moving north at 10 mph (16 kph).In addition to its unprecedented 200-mph (320-kph) sustained winds, Hurricane Patricia now holds the record for lowest pressure in any hurricane on record. With a minimum central pressure of 880 millibars (25.99 inches of mercury) at the 4 a.m. CDT advisory, Patricia broke the record of 882 millibars set by Wilma almost exactly 10 years ago.Data from an Air Force Hurricane Hunter airborne reconnaissance mission late Thursday night provided critical data demonstrating the extreme intensification of Hurricane Patricia in near-real time.Another Air Force Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance mission is scheduled for Friday afternoon.-Unprecedented Among Pacific Hurricanes-Hurricane Patricia became the strongest Pacific hurricane on record shortly after midnight CDT early Friday. Air Force Hurricane Hunters had flown through the eye of Patricia and reported a sea-level pressure of 894 millibars as measured by a dropsonde inside the eye itself. Wind measurements suggested that the pressure measurement was not in the exact center of the eye and was probably not the absolute lowest pressure, prompting NHC to estimate the minimum central pressure at 892 millibars in its special 12:30 a.m. CDT advisory.Current wind reports at selected cities in Mexico. Some sites do not report at all times of day. Enhanced satellite imagery shows the cloud pattern in and around the hurricane.Tropical cyclone strength comparisons are typically based on minimum central pressure. At 892 millibars, Patricia shattered the Eastern Pacific basin's previous record of 902 millibars set by Hurricane Linda in 1997.While a number of typhoons in the western North Pacific have been stronger, Patricia is by far the strongest hurricane in any basin where the term "hurricane" applies to tropical cyclones – namely, the central and eastern North Pacific basins and the North Atlantic basin, which includes the North Atlantic Ocean itself plus the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.-Exceptionally Dangerous Situation in Mexico-The eye of Patricia is expected to move onshore either late Friday afternoon or Friday evening in the Mexican state of Jalisco, which includes the popular coastal resort city of Puerto Vallarta as well as the inland metropolis of Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.The adjoining states of Colima and Nayarit will also feel the effects of Hurricane Patricia, which in addition to catastrophic winds will also bring a formidable flood threat. Depending on the exact track of Patricia's eye, the resort city of Manzanillo may experience destructive winds, and is very likely to see flooding rainfall, dangerous storm surge and large, battering ocean waves breaking onshore.Watches and warnings remain in effect for parts of Mexico's Pacific coast: A hurricane warning includes the Pacific coast of Mexico from San Blas to Punta San Telmo. This warning includes the major coastal resort cities of Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo.A hurricane watch is in effect east of Punta San Telmo to Lazaro Cardenas.A tropical storm warning is also in effect from east of Punta San Telmo to Lazaro Cardenas, as well as north of San Blas to El Roblito.A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected in the warning area within 48 hours. A watch means hurricane conditions are possible in the watch area.Tropical storm conditions are possible early Friday in the warning areas, and hurricane force winds are expected to reach the warning area Friday afternoon or evening.While the resort area of Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo may see heavy rainfall associated with Patricia, there are no watches or warnings for tropical storm or hurricane conditions there. Acapulco is also not under any watches or warnings for Patricia.This map shows areas with at least a 50 percent chance of experiencing sustained winds of at least 39 mph (orange), 58 mph (red) or 74 mph (purple) within the next five days.Patricia is forecast to remain a Category 5 hurricane at landfall, making it capable of causing catastrophic wind damage.The good news is that Category 5 winds are occurring over a very small area near the center, about 15 miles across. Otherwise, hurricane force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 175 miles.Only one Category 5 hurricane has ever been known to make landfall on Mexico's Pacific coast. That hurricane followed a path similar to that of Hurricane Patricia and struck near Puerto Vallarta in late October 1959, causing some 1,800 deaths.With Patricia less than 12 hours away from landfall, this is the first time a Category 5 hurricane has posed an imminent threat to land in North America since Hurricane Felix approached Nicaragua in September 2007.Forecast Track-The red swath indicates the area through which the center of Hurricane Patricia is most likely to travel. Dangerous impacts may occur even outside the red area.Patricia is expected to dump 8 to 12 inches (200 to 300 millimeters) of rain over the Mexican states of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero. Life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides are possible. Localized amounts as high as 20 inches (500 millimeters) are possible.A dangerous storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the right of where the center of Patricia makes landfall. In addition, Mexico's national water commission, CONAGUA, warned Thursday that waves of up to 12 meters (39 feet) may crash onto beaches near the landfall point.Once this system moves inland, mid-level moisture and energy from it may get pulled into the south-central U.S. This may add more fuel to a heavy rain and flooding threat in Texas and nearby states this weekend.-Impressive Rapid Intensification-Patricia rapidly organized and intensified from Wednesday night through early Friday. Maximum sustained winds with the storm increased 115 mph in a 24-hour window from 85 mph at 4 a.m. CDT Thursday to 200 mph at 4 a.m. CDT Friday.During that same time, the minimum central pressure of Patricia also decreased 100 millibars, from 980 millibars to 880 millibars.This places Patricia among the most rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones ever witnessed anywhere in the world since the advent of modern meteorology.
Latest Storm Status and Satellite Image

HURRICANE PATRICIA READY TO DESTROY THE DRUG LORDS IN MEXICO AND AREA-pic-weather.com

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UNESCO VOTES TO STEAL RACHELS TOMB FROM ISRAEL AND GIVE IT OVER TO THE MUSLIMS.AND THE MUSLIMS WANT THE WESTERN WALL AS THEIR TERRITORY ALSO.NUTS IN THE HEAD.THE ARAB-MUSLIMS AND USELESS UNITED NATIONS.I HAVE A FEELING ISRAEL WILL HAVE A WAR WITH THE ARAB-MUSLIMS AROUND THEM.AND ISRAELWILL GET SOME OF THE PROMISED LAND GOD PROMISED THEM.

THE DOW WAS UP 320 POINTS YESTERDAY.

THE TEMPLE COMPLEX WAS A SERIES OF CONCENTRIC CIRCLES OF PURITY.

First century BCE Greek inscription from Jerusalem's Temple Mount forbidding the entry of Gentiles to the Temple precinct, reading “..no foreigner shall enter…” (© The Israel Museum, Jerusalem)

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE

REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a(MEASURING) reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out,(TO THE WORLD NATIONS) and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.(JERUSALEM DIVIDED BUT THE 3RD TEMPLE ALLOWED TO BE REBUILT)

DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant 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 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.

MICAH 4:1-5
1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.
5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

DANIEL 11:31
31 And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.(3RD TEMPLE REBUILT)

DANIEL 12:11
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away,(AT THE MIDPOINT OF THE TRIBULATION PERIOD)(3RD TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED BY DICTATOR) and the abomination that maketh desolate set up,(TO WORSHIP THE DICTATOR OR DIE) there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.(1,290 DAYS)(AN EXTRA 30 DAYS AT THE END OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD FOR JESUS TO DESTROY THE ARMIES AGAINST JERUSALEM.AND TO JUDGE THE SHEEP AND GOAT NATIONS OF MATTHEW 25:31-46-HOW THEY TREATED ISRAEL DURING THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND THEN I BELIEVE JESUS WILL REBUILD THE 4TH TEMPLE 25 MILES FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT.AND THEN JESUS RULES FOR THE 1,000 YEARS-THEN FOREVER FROM THAT 4TH TEMPLE.)

MATTHEW 24:15-16
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)(THE DICTATOR SITS IN THE REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE CALLING HIMSELF GOD AT THE MIDPOINT OR 3 1/2 YEAR PERIOD OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.OR 7 YEAR PEACE TREATY BETWEEN ISRAEL-ARABS AND MANY OF DANIEL 9:27)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

The Temple complex was a series of concentric circles of purity, each area limited to a more select group of people-Ancient Temple Mount ‘warning’ stone is ‘closest thing we have to the Temple’-Carved in bold Greek letters, 2,000-year-old Herodian inscription marked off the section of Jerusalem’s most sacred site where gentiles couldn’t go — and shows they were welcome elsewhere in holy area By Ilan Ben Zion October 22, 2015, 3:22 pm 25-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

The unassuming slab of limestone doesn’t look like much. It’s crudely fractured and chipped on the sides, pockmarked with age, and is perched not too prominently on a shelf at the Israel Museum. But its smoothly hewn face and crisply etched Greek letters still bearing faint traces of red paint belie monumental significance. “If we talk about the closest thing to the Temple we have,” said David Mevorach, senior curator of Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Archaeology, “on the Temple Mount, this was closest.”Two millennia ago, the block served as one of several Do Not Enter signs in the Second Temple in Jerusalem, delineating a section of the 37-acre complex which was off-limits for the ritually impure — Jews and non-Jews alike. Written in Greek (no Latin versions have survived), they warned: “No foreigner may enter within the balustrade around the sanctuary and the enclosure. Whoever is caught, on himself shall he put blame for the death which will ensue.”There are actually two extant copies of the warning notices — a partial one here in Jerusalem at the Israel Museum, and a second, complete, one in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum — and they are among a small handful of artifacts conclusively belonging to the shrine built by Herod toward the end of the first century CE. Contemporary accounts mentioned their existence, and 1,800 years after the Temple’s destruction, a French archaeologist found a complete copy that had been incorporated into the wall of a Muslim school in Jerusalem’s Old City.“It is remarkable that this stone that… comes from the ancient Jewish Temple hasn’t been carried away far from from its original location,” Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau wrote about his 1871 discovery. “Indeed, the place where I found it is only 50 meters away from the Haram al Sharif, the sanctuary of the Jews.”Shortly after that stone was found it vanished, only to reappear — “mystérieusement,” Clermont-Ganneau wrote — in Istanbul 13 years later. It has remained there ever since. Decades later, the second copy, the partial inscription found in the Israel Museum today, was found during a 1935 excavation being used as spolia in a tomb outside the Lion’s Gate.When it stood, the Temple was the epicenter of religious worship; the place on which it stood remains the holiest site for Jews. But Temple Warning Inscriptions point to universal inclusion — not exclusion — of gentiles on the Temple Mount. (Whether or not Jewish authorities could execute violators, or whether the warning was meant metaphorically, a curse to those who breach the cordon, remains the subject of fierce academic debate.)-The sole literary accounts providing detailed descriptions of the Second Temple’s layout — Josephus’s Jewish War and Jewish Antiquities and Tractate Middah of the Mishna — mention an internal courtyard inside the Temple Mount complex which contained the altar and Holy of Holies. The rabbis of the Mishna, which was compiled and redacted in the century after the Second Temple’s destruction in 70 CE, said the boundary wall (in Hebrew “soreg”) stood roughly three feet high. Josephus gave a detailed description of the warnings placed along it.“Josephus was a priest who was on the Temple Mount a lot and must have gone past this on a weekly basis,” Jonathan Price, a professor of Classics at Tel Aviv University who specializes in Jewish life in the Roman Empire. “When he’s recalling it, he uses a different Greek word each time, but they all mean foreigner, a non-Jew.”Together they provide archaeologists with precise archaeological context and “physical evidence of what [Josephus] said,” according to Price.Scholars are uncertain of where exactly this balustrade ran (or where precisely the Temple’s inner shrine stood on the Temple Mount, as The New York Times edified in a recent article), what it looked like, or what exactly it was made of. The Israel Museum’s scale Second Temple model features a low fence running around the central sanctum, but that’s merely the artist’s interpretation, Mevorach said. “The important thing is that it divides the Temple Mount into secular and holy, into Jewish and international.”The Herodian Temple was a massive undertaking that it took decades to complete and was funded both from the royal coffers and by international donations. Like any public institution in Israel nowadays, the complex was likely covered with dedicatory inscriptions to patrons who donated funds for Herod’s undertaking. One such inscription, now housed at Haifa’s Hecht Museum, was found in a pile of debris to the south of the Temple Mount. It honors a Paris, son of Akeson of Rhodes for helping fund the paving of the Temple complex in 18 or 17 BCE.“The level of destruction on the Temple Mount was so extensive that it’s lucky we even have those fragments,” Price said.Herod decked out the already five-century-old Jewish sanctuary in Classical splendor by engineering an enormous platform atop the hill and ensheathing the refurbished sanctuary in a colossal peristyle courtyard in Greco-Roman fashion. He aimed for that complex, which is today referred to as the Temple Mount and comprises a sixth of the Old City, to be showcased to all.“The Temple Mount shows us very, very clearly how Herod does his dance between Rome and Judea, between internationalism and Judaism, between his patrons and the people he rules,” said Mevorach, who curated the Israel Museum’s Herod the Great exhibit. “It’s his greatest achievement, he knows that. He wants everyone to come and he wants to host them and show them.”Contrary to a recent New York Times report which stated that Herod’s Temple was “surrounded by partition walls that were meant to separate gentiles and Jews,” the warning was meant to protect “not the whole Temple Mount, but the inner sanctuary, the inner courtyard,” Price said. The modern notion “that the entire area is somehow holy is contrary to the original purpose and status of this huge plaza of the Temple Mount.”Gentiles were not only welcome to ascend the Temple Mount, they were also permitted, if not encouraged, to donate animals for sacrifice. Josephus recounts how Marcus Agrippa, Emperor Augustus’s right hand man, visited Jerusalem shortly after the Temple was built and offered up a hecatomb — 100 bulls — as a sacrifice on the altar. Likewise daily sacrifices paid for by the Roman state were offered up for the welfare of the emperors. Philo records in his Embassy to Gaius that on no fewer than three occasions “we did sacrifice, and we offered up entire hecatombs, the blood of which we poured in a libation upon the altar, and the flesh we did not carry to our homes to make a feast and banquet upon it, as it is the custom of some people to do, but we committed the victims entire to the sacred flame as a burnt offering.”Marcus Agrippa and other gentiles could enter the Temple compound, just not the area where holy rituals took place.“It was not ethnic or race as much as [ritual] purity,” Price said. “Jews who were not purified or ritually impure could not pass the soreg either.” Unlike gentiles from across the Roman Empire, Jews were expected to know better than to enter the holy sanctum when impure.Jewish law required any adherent who entered the Temple to be ritually pure, and forbade the entrance of Jews who hadn’t bathed in a mikveh or sprinkled with the purifying ashes of a red heifer since coming in contact with the dead or other defiling agents.The Temple complex was a series of concentric circles of purity, each area limited to a more select group of people. The innermost, the Holy of Holies, was only accessible to the high priest, and only on the holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement.Second Temple-era Judaism had deemed gentiles “intrinsically impure” based on interpretation of a passage from Numbers 18:7, Matan Orian, a PhD student at Tel Aviv University who just completed his dissertation on the Temple Warning Inscription, told The Times of Israel over the phone. Consequently, they were in theory banned altogether from the Temple. Josephus recounts that the Seleucid monarch Antiochus III, father of the villain of the Hannukah story, issued an edict banning “any foreigner to enter the enclosure of the Temple which is forbidden to the Jews, except to those of them who are accustomed to enter after purifying themselves in accordance with the law of the country.” Herod changed that. He wanted to exhibit the grandeur of his compound, the largest temple in the ancient world, but not enrage his Jewish subjects.“The exclusion of the gentiles, according to the inscription, is a kind of compromise between allowing them into the Temple but still excluding them from the inner temple, which is the properly holy ground,” Orian said.“Reality necessitates compromise in different aspects of Jewish law,” he said. But “even if they were not viewed as impure, they would still be excluded from the [inner sanctum] of the Temple.”Despite the Herodian-era status quo, in which gentiles and Jews mingled atop the Temple Mount, most rabbis today maintain the tradition that the entire complex is holy ground and Jewish entry is forbidden. That ban stems from uncertainty over where precisely the Holy of Holies stood.Echoing the ancient Temple Warning Inscriptions, Israel’s Chief Rabbinate published warning signs, including one on the Mughrabi Bridge leading to the Temple Mount, after Israel assumed control of the site in 1967. “According to the Torah,” these signs stated, “it is forbidden for any person to enter the area of the Temple Mount due to its sacredness.”

Jordan king warns Israel over Temple Mount status quo-After meeting with UN’s Ban, Abdullah II calls for an end to the violence, new efforts to achieve a two-state solution-By AFP and Times of Israel staff October 22, 2015, 7:45 pm 15

Jordanian King Abdullah II warned Israel Thursday against any move to change the status quo at Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound, while reiterating calls for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The king, whose country operates the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf which has custodial rights over the Temple Mount, made his remarks in a statement after a meeting with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.Ban has already met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a bid to get the two leaders to rein in violence that has killed dozens of people in recent weeks.Spurred by allegations that Israel is seeking to change the rules governing the site, angry Palestinians clashed with Israel police over several days in September, sparking the latest wave of violence. Jordan has previously denounced alleged Israeli actions at the compound which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, saying they amount to “aggression” against Arab and Muslim nations.The king warned against “any attempt to change the status quo,” which Netanyahu has repeatedly promised to preserve. Israel has denied that it intends to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, asserting that such accusations amount to “incitement.”The Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, is revered as the location of both the ancient Jewish temples. It is also the third-holiest site in Islam, known as the Noble Sanctuary.He added that “achievement of a just and comprehensive peace, on the basis of a two-state solution, is the only way out of the crisis in the region.”For his part, according to a statement from the royal palace, Ban stressed what he said was the “responsibility of the international community… to achieve a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian question.”US Secretary of State John Kerry, who met with Netanyahu in Germany Thursday in an effort to coax an end to the violence, is expected to travel on to Jordan for a meeting with the king and Abbas.The recent wave of Palestinian violence has seen 10 Israelis killed in the past month and a half, along with more than 40 Palestinians — almost half of them killed in the act of attacking Israelis. Many of the others were killed in clashes in the West Bank and at the Gaza border.Until 2000, the entry of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount was coordinated with the Waqf. The area was then closed to Jews for three years until 2003 as the Second Intifada raged. Since it was reopened to Jewish visitors, the Israel Police has overseen the visits by Jewish groups. Under Israel’s regulations, imposed after the Old City was captured in the 1967 war, Jews are allowed to visit but not to pray on the Temple Mount.

The Gaza border fence won’t protect you, but the IDF will-Palestinians have broken through the southern barrier several times this month, but some 20-year-old chain links aren’t the last line of defense against terrorists-By Judah Ari Gross October 22, 2015, 11:55 pm-the times of israel

Over the course of the past month, the fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip has been breached by Palestinians multiple times in multiple locations along the border. But that’s not necessarily cause for concern.The threat of terrorists infiltrating Israel from Gaza is certainly a real one, as is the sniper fire that drove the IDF to recommend that farmers near the border stay at least one kilometer (0.6 miles) from the border. This is especially troubling when you consider that there are Israeli communities, like Nahal Oz, located barely two kilometers (1.25 miles) from Gaza.Many have therefore wondered why it possible, even easy, for Gazans to cut through the barrier separating Israel from the Strip.But the IDF’s 20-year-old chain-link fence along the border was never designed to prevent that by itself. It is merely one element in the border security — an undoubtedly important element, but not the sole protector of Israel’s southern communities.A combined effort of surveillance systems, boots on the ground and the fence has successfully repelled the numerous attempts by Palestinians to enter Israel during violent riots along the border.The original fence was built following the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords, aimed at demarcating the Palestinian control over the Strip and preventing terrorists from sneaking into the surrounding Israeli communities. Parts of that fence were destroyed in 2000 in the early days of the Second Intifada.The IDF rebuilt those parts of the barrier in 2000-2001. For the past 15 years, the bulk of the improvements and upgrades have not been to the chain link, razor wire-topped fence, but to the security systems surrounding it.The 60-kilometer (37-mile) barrier is now covered in sensors that detect breaches, and a command center — staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week almost solely by female soldiers — monitors the border via a series of closed circuit cameras equipped with night vision.When those lookout soldiers, known in Hebrew as tatzpitaniot, spot a person or group approaching the buffer zone — a one kilometer (0.6 mile) area surrounding the border where Palestinians were forbidden to enter — from the Gaza side, they quickly alert IDF troops on patrol in the area.According to official IDF protocol, those entering the zone would first receive a verbal warning, then a warning gunshot in the air and finally, a gunshot to the legs or lower body to halt their approach. There are, however, exceptions to that protocol, notably one that allows the IDF to fire at anyone seen crawling toward the fence at night.Unmanned vehicles called Guardiums also patrol the border both autonomously and under the control of nearby operators. They can also be equipped with loudspeakers to warn potential infiltrators, and even with guns and other weaponry.With this combined effort — surveillance, fence and troops — the IDF has successfully blocked the dozens of Palestinians who have broken through the border fence in the past month.The more troubling threats to Israel’s border communities remain the same as the ones from last summer’s Operation Protective Edge — undergrounds tunnels and infiltration from the sea.Though most of the information surrounding the project is still being kept secret, the IDF announced in April that it was advancing its research and installing tunnel detection systems along the borders.Since the infiltration of Hamas naval commandoes into the shores of Zikim near Ashkelon in the early days of the Gaza war, the Israeli Navy has stepped up its patrols along the coast. That front remains difficult to control as the vastness of the sea gives Gazan ships sufficient room to evade capture and detection, but newly installed cameras and underwater surveillance systems may help to end that danger.The growing number of riots and demonstrations on the Gaza-Israel border is problematic not primarily because of the threat to the Eshkol region in southern Israel. The true threat comes from the possible development of an additional front for the IDF and the rest of Israel’s security forces to handle.An increasingly complicated dynamic is unfolding in Syria, especially with the addition of Russian and Iranian troops in the region, and the IDF is devoting more and more resources to blocking the outburst of full-scale, violent rioting in the West Bank.For now, Hamas is actively working to prevent other terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip from firing rockets and carrying out other attacks against Israel. But should those riots along the border increase, it would require more military resources to control and potentially distract the IDF from its other fronts.But regardless, the IDF has already announced plans to replace the aging fence with one similar to the barrier along the Israel-Egypt border in the coming months. That fence is 7 meters (21 feet) high at its tallest point and contains an even greater number of sensors and surveillance cameras.

UN fires Palestinian aid workers over incitement claims-Monitoring group had identified UNRWA employees who used social media to call for attacks on Israelis-By Stuart Winer October 22, 2015, 11:51 pm 3-the times of israel

A United Nations monitoring group said on Thursday that several employees of the UN’s aid agency for Palestinian refugee have been disciplined, including “suspension and loss of pay,” over expressions of sympathy for attacks against Israelis.The UN Watch organization, which first raised the concerns over United Nations Relief and Works Agency workers’ comments posted to social media, welcomed the development while accusing the UN of trying to gloss over the firings.UN Watch said in a statement that the information about the employment terminations were “buried deep in a UN transcript” published on Tuesday, rather than publicly announced in a separate document.In a daily briefing, the UN secretary general deputy spokes person Farhan Haq explained the action against the workers.“Already, working closely with Facebook’s legal team, UNRWA has brought about the removal of more than 90 impostor or unauthorized Facebook pages,” Haq said. “In some cases, it has determined the alleged ‘UNRWA staff’ are not in fact UNRWA employees or are no longer UNRWA employees.“However, and very regrettably, in a number of cases so far, the agency has found staff Facebook postings to be in violation of its social media rules,” Haq continued. “These postings have been removed and the staff have been subject to both remedial and disciplinary action, including suspension and loss of pay. The remaining allegations are under assessment.” Last week UN Watch published a report claiming that UNRWA employees were inciting Palestinians to commit terror attacks against Israelis from social media accounts on which they explicitly identify as UN workers.“We need to know, first, which of the UNRWA teachers identified in our reports were suspended, what were the findings, and whether the UN investigations found any additional incitement to anti-Semitic violence,” UN Watch director Hillel Neuer said of the suspensions.“Second,” Neuer continued, “In light of the above, UN Watch is demanding a full apology from UNRWA spokeswoman Chris Gunness for his McCarthyite tirade against what he called UN Watch’s ‘baseless allegations about antisemitism’.”Neuer claimed Gunness had made an appeal to journalists to ignore the story and launched a verbal assault on UN Watch to discredit it.In the report, Neuer cited nine UNRWA employees and presented screenshots of what the group said were inciting posts from their Facebook pages that call for the murder of Jews, or promote conspiracy theories claiming terrorists killed by Israeli security forces were innocent.Neuer had last week submitted the report to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, to UNRWA chief Pierre Krähenbühl and to US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power. The US, according to the United Nations monitoring group, is the largest funder of UNRWA with $400 million annually.

White House pans Netanyahu’s ‘inflammatory’ mufti remarks-Obama spokesman says there’s no doubt Germany was behind Holocaust, calls for an end to statements that ‘can feed the violence’-By Times of Israel staff October 22, 2015, 10:49 pm 21

The White House warned Benjamin Netanyahu against “inflammatory rhetoric” Thursday, in a sharp response to a statement by the Israeli prime minister to the effect that a Palestinian religious leader had provoked the Holocaust.Netanyahu on Tuesday suggested Adolf Hitler was not planning to exterminate the Jews until he met Jerusalem Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini, a Palestinian nationalist, in 1941.“I don’t think there’s any doubt here at the White House who is responsible for the Holocaust that killed six million Jews,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in his response to the controversial claim, which Netanyahu has since attempted to walk back.“We here continue to stress publicly and privately… the importance of preventing inflammatory rhetoric, accusations or actions on both sides (that) can feed the violence,” he added. “We believe that inflammatory rhetoric needs to stop.”Netanyahu’s comments were widely criticized, with Palestinian leaders and the Israeli opposition accusing him of distorting the past. Meanwhile, Holocaust experts and survivors slammed the comments as historically inaccurate and serving the interests of Holocaust deniers by lessening the responsibility of Hitler and the Nazis.“Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time. He wanted to expel the Jews,” Netanyahu had said in a speech to the World Zionist Congress. “And Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said: ‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’ ‘So what should I do with them?’ he asked. He said: ‘Burn them.’”Netanyahu was apparently trying to use the anecdote to illustrate his claim that Palestinian incitement goes back decades, is rooted in anti-Semitism, and is not related to Israeli policies.On Wednesday, standing alongside Netanyahu in Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel emphasized her nation’s inherent responsibility for the Holocaust. “Germany abides by its responsibility for the Holocaust,” she said. “We don’t see any reason to change our view of history.”Netanyahu backpedaled on the claim, denying that he was exonerating Hitler of the responsibility for the Holocaust. He said the “responsibility of Hitler and the Nazis for the extermination of 6 million Jews is clear to fair-minded people.”At the same time, he insisted that the Grand Mufti’s role should not be forgotten. “He told the Nazis to prevent the fleeing of Jews from Europe and he supported the Final Solution,” insisted Netanyahu.He reiterated his belief that Palestinian incitement was fueling recent unrest of the past few weeks, which have seen almost daily shooting and stabbing attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians across Israel and in the West Bank.Netanyahu pointed to Abbas’s refusal to condemn the attacks, and his accusations to the effect that Israel has been changing delicate prayer arrangements at Jerusalem’s holiest site.“Abbas joined the Islamists in inciting the recent wave of violence,” Netanyahu said and accused the Palestinian leader of “false” claims that Israel was “seeking to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque” on the Temple Mount.The flashpoint compound, which is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, is located in the southeastern corner of the Old City in Jerusalem. Muslims call it Al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) while Jews revere it as the Temple Mount which housed the first and second temples.AFP and AP contributed to this report.

Kerry: 'Cautious measure of optimism' after talks with Netanyahu on ways to defuse violence-By Matthew Lee, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS

BERLIN - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday expressed a "cautious measure of optimism" following a four-hour meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about proposals that could help defuse the deadly wave of recent violence in Israel.Kerry, his voice hoarse after an overnight flight and the lengthy talks, told reporters that he planned to raise the proposals with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah in meeting Saturday in Jordan's capital, Amman."I come directly from several hours of conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu and I would characterize that conversation as one that gave me a cautious measure of optimism that there may be some things that may be in the next couple of days put on the table which would have an impact — I hope," Kerry said."I don't want to be excessive in stating that, but I am cautiously encouraged."Before their talks, both Kerry and Netanyahu condemned the wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Kerry urged an end to all incitement and violence. Netanyahu repeated earlier accusations that Abbas was to blame, saying the Palestinian leader was "spreading lies" about Israel and the status of the holy site at the centre of the tensions."There is no question this wave of attacks is driven directly by incitement, incitement by Hamas, incitement from the Islamist movement in Israel and incitement, I am sorry to say, from President Abbas and the Palestinian Authority," Netanyahu told Kerry."I think it is time for the international community to say clearly to President Abbas to stop spreading lies about Israel," he said. "Lies that Israel wants to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, lies that Israel wants to tear down the Al-Aqsa Mosque, lies that Israel is executing Palestinians. All of that is false."Netanyahu, however, has himself infuriated Palestinians by comments about a former Palestinian leader inspiring Hitler's Holocaust.Netanyahu said Israel was committed to keeping the status quo at the Jerusalem site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism and home to the biblical temples. For Muslims, it is the Noble Sanctuary, home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam and a national symbol for the Palestinians. The site, captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war, is a frequent flashpoint of violence.The Palestinians accuse Israel of trying to change the status quo at the site, which allows Jews to visit but not to pray. They point to a growing number of Jewish visitors who seek an expanded Jewish presence and prayer rights at the site.Netanyahu rejected those claims and said ending incitement was the only way to ease tensions."To generate hope, we have to stop the terrorism," he said. "To stop the terrorism, we have to stop the incitement and I think it's time the international community told President Abbas to stop the incitement and hold him accountable for his words and his deeds."Kerry was more circumspect and did not single out Abbas for blame. But he also did not address Netanyahu's Holocaust comments."We have to stop the incitement, we have to stop the violence," Kerry said. He said he had spoken to Abbas and Abdullah, who is charged with overseeing the Jerusalem site, in the past day and both assured them of their commitment to calm."I believe people want this to de-escalate," he said.Kerry added that these conversations would be "very important to settle on the steps that can be taken beyond the condemnation and beyond the rhetoric" to end the violence.Kerry has said he wants clarity about the status quo about the site, but officials say he doesn't believe that needs to be in writing.With only a general outline of goals in these discussions, Kerry embarked on his five-day trip to Europe and the Middle East intending to listen as much as talk, as he steers attempts to restore relative calm in Israel and the Palestinian territories and revive efforts to spark a political transition in Syria.After Kerry's meetings with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Berlin on Thursday, he planned to go to Vienna for meetings Friday with the foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia about Syria.___Associated Press writers David Rising and Geir Moulson contributed to this report.

OTHER STORIES TODAY-EUROPE-CANADA ELECTION ETC
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2015/10/new-europes-return-to-dark-ages.html

NEW EUROPES RETURN TO DARK AGES.

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)

DANIEL 7:23-24
23 Thus he said, The fourth beast (EU,REVIVED ROME) shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth,(7TH WORLD EMPIRE) which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.(TRADING BLOCKS-10 WORLD REGIONS/TRADE BLOCS)
24 And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings(10 NATIONS-10 WORLD DIVISION WORLD GOVERNMENT) that shall arise: and another shall rise after them; and he shall be diverse from the first, and he shall subdue three kings.(THE EU (EUROPEAN UNION) TAKES OVER IRAQ WHICH HAS SPLIT INTO 3-SUNNI-KURD-SHIA PARTS-AND THE REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE IS BROUGHT BACK TOGETHER-THE TWO LEGS OF DANIEL WESTERN LEG AND THE ISLAMIC LEG COMBINED AS 1)

LUKE 2:1-3
1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
2 (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)
3 And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

New Europe's return to the Dark Ages By Dalibor Rohac-OCT 22,15-EUOBSERVER

WASHINGTON D.C., Today, 17:39-The widely expected victory of Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice Party (PiS) in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Poland Sunday (25 October) will mark the end of an era in the history of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia - or "New Europe", to use a term coined by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.After the fall of communism, political elites in the four countries were long united in their commitment to European integration and the strengthening of transatlantic ties.That time is over now. Some of the most significant pro-Western personalities have passed away, including Václav Havel and more recently, Árpád Göncz.Others, including Slovakia’s reformist ex-prime minister, Mikuláš Dzurinda, or the former foreign minister of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, have left politics. And the remaining ones, including the Czech Republic’s former presidential candidate Karel Schwarzenberg, are on their way out.So who is replacing them? In Hungary, power is firmly in the hands of Viktor Orbán, a pariah of European politics. And, in the 2018 election, Orbán’s challengers will be coming from the far right - namely from the neo-Nazi Jobbik party.Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico, nominally a Social Democrat, has learned quite a few tricks from Mr Orbán’s book. Like his Hungarian counterpart, Mr Fico never misses an opportunity to appeal to radical cultural conservatism, xenophobia, or anti- American sentiments in order to boost his popularity at home, even if it alienates Slovakia from its western partners.In the Czech Republic, the political parties formed along traditional ideological divisions are being replaced by amorphous populist groupings, sometimes created by local oligarchs, such as the agro- tycoon-turned-finance-minister Andrej Babiš, with the sole purpose of bringing their founders to power.And in Poland, this weekend’s election will, in all likelihood, result in the PiS’ nominee Beata Szydło taking over as prime minister from the ailing Civic Platform.But nobody epitomises the new version of Central European politics better than PiS’ leader, Mr Kaczyński.Deep-rooted prejudices-Just last week, in one of several controversial pronouncements on the refugee crisis, Kaczyński warned against migrants bringing tropical diseases to Europe, citing cholera, dysentery, and protozoan infections as examples.It would be easy to dismiss these as the ramblings of an old man, if they did not reflect deep-rooted prejudices shared widely across the societies of Central Europe.The platform of populist political groups in the region, including PiS, can be best described as a revolt against the modern world, which is becoming increasingly globalised, integrated and mobile.Their rejection of immigration resonates with extremely homogenous, insular societies. In the economic realm, a complete lack of responsibility is the trademark of the new Central European politics.Mr Kaczyński’s party promises more welfare spending and lower taxes, all of it financed by levies targeted on the financial industry and large, foreign-owned, corporations - not dissimilar to those used by Mr Orbán’s government in Hungary.Needless to say, populism tends to go hand in hand with high-level corruption, siphoning away resources from public budgets and EU funds into the pockets of oligarchs loyal to the party.Corruption not new to New Europe-Corruption and populism are not new to Central Europe. What makes the problem so acute is the international situation and the fact that Central European countries are increasingly expected to be responsible stakeholders within the geopolitical structures that they joined over a decade ago.The EU in particular is under unprecedented stress. To keep the Eurozone going, European leaders need to complete its fiscal and political integration. If the freedom of movement is to survive the current refugee crisis, the EU will have to agree on a common immigration, asylum, and border protection policy.And the West, including the EU, will have to think carefully about how to deal with the Russian threat, extending from the Baltic to the eastern Mediterranean.One of the characteristics distinguishing the brand of politics embodied by Messrs Orbán, Kaczyński, and Fico, is its ruthless and narrow-minded pursuit of what they perceive as 'national interest.'They see neither the euro, nor the refugee crisis, nor Russia’s war against Ukraine, as their problems nor as European problems. The EU is there to supply financial assistance to infrastructure spending and to guarantee our access to European markets. NATO is there to protect us. But heaven forbid either asks for anything in return!-Hope prevails-There is hope. The region has stronger institutions of civil society, better journalists, and more pro-Western intellectuals than ever before.Countless organizations and individuals lambast the region’s corruption, government waste, and bad policy.And there still remain a handful of political leaders - such as Slovak President Andrej Kiska - who are using their positions to do the right thing.Unfortunately, as the looming PiS victory in Poland suggests, things will probably have to get worse before they get better.Dalibor Rohac is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Twitter: @daliborrohac.

OPEC nations plan to join U.N. climate drive-By Alister Doyle | Reuters – OCT 22,15-YAHOO NEWS

BONN, Germany (Reuters) - OPEC members Iran and Saudi Arabia, the top greenhouse gas emitters yet to submit national strategies for tackling climate change, say they will do so before a U.N. summit in December in a sign of widening participation even by oil producers.More than 150 governments of almost 200 nations worldwide have issued plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions - mainly from fossil fuels - and adapt to changes such as more heatwaves, floods, or storms, meant as the building blocks for a deal at the summit in Paris from Nov. 30-Dec. 11.At a final round of U.N. talks in Germany to prepare the deal, delegates from OPEC members Iran, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, as well as other outsiders including Pakistan and Egypt, told Reuters they would all submit plans before the Paris meeting.Those submissions would push the global total of emissions covered by national plans to more than 90 percent from 87 percent by an informal U.N. deadline of Oct. 1, and calm concern that OPEC will stay on the sidelines of a plan that threatens fossil fuel use."There is a sense that everybody is on board. I think that's a major shift and bodes quite well for Paris," said David Waskow of the World Resources Institute (WRI) think-tank.Even so, many national plans for action beyond 2030 are vague."There's no agreement among OPEC to be slow on this - no common position," said Emmanuel Oladipo, a member of the Nigerian delegation. He said Nigeria, which has worked to curb gas flaring, would soon issue a plan.On Thursday, the United Arab Emirates became the third OPEC member, after Algeria and Ecuador, to submit a plan, saying it would initially raise the share of nuclear and renewables in its energy mix to 24 percent by 2021 from 0.2 percent in 2014.Iran, the world's number 10 greenhouse gas emitter and the biggest not to have submitted, said it would be able to do far more to curb emissions if Western powers quickly lift sanctions imposed over its nuclear program."The lifting of these unjustifiable and unjust sanctions would have a significant impact on what we are likely to achieve," said Majid Shafie-Pour, head of Iran's delegation in Bonn, Tehran aimed to issue the plan in mid- November. Saudi officials also confirmed that their country, the number 14 emitter on an WRI ranking, would submit a plan before Paris. They declined to give details."The wide participation is very encouraging," said Elliot Diringer of the U.S. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.An Egyptian delegate said the country was planning increased use of renewable energies, a phase-out of fossil fuels and improved public transport.(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

Balkan summit highlights Juncker-Tusk leadership gap By Eric Maurice-OCT 22,15-EU OBSERVER

Madrid, Today, 09:09-By calling a mini summit on Sunday (25 October), European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has decided to push forward the Commission's role in addressing the migrant crisis.By doing so, he has also highlighted an apparently widening gap with the president of the European Council Donald Tusk, a fellow member of the centre-right EPP party.The Commission announced on Wednesday that "Jean-Claude Juncker has called a leaders' meeting to discuss the refugee flows along the Western Balkans route.""The objective of the meeting will be to agree common operational conclusions which could be immediately implemented," the Commission's statement said.Leaders from Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Slovenia will participate in the meeting. They should be joined by Tusk and Luxembourg's foreign affairs and migration minister Jean Asselborn, who holds the EU Council rotating chair.  The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, and the heads of the EU Asylum Support Office (EASO) and Frontex, the EU border agency, are also invited."We have been in contact with leaders of the Balkan route countries for days and we thought we had to meet and try to go further," an EU official told EUobserver. "We wanted a smaller, more operational format."Protocol-In Madrid, where Juncker and Tusk arrived on Wednesday evening to participate in the EPP congress with EU leaders such as Germany's Angela Merkel, party members pointed out that such a summit should have been organised by Tusk.As president of the European Council, Tusk convenes regular EU summit and "special meetings of the European Council when the situation so requires", the EU treaty says.Juncker's summit will gather only 8 out of 28 EU member states and 2 non-EU countries, an unusual formal which is, of course, not anticipated by the texts.But Juncker's initiative demonstrates the high political profile he has maintained since taking office last year, during the Greek crisis in the spring and in the migrant crisis since the summer, sometimes at the detriment of the more discreet Tusk.For some in the EPP, the urgency of the situation can justify Juncker's initiative."Juncker is sincere, he certainly has been touched by the images of thousands of refugees stranded in Slovenia," former commissioner Michel Barnier told EUobserver."The protocol is not important in these moments, there is an emergency to address".But the differences between Juncker and Tusk on style and often on substance is now resented within their own EPP party."Tusk is too floppy," a top party MEP told EUobserver."The European Council doesn't work well. We have a real problem in decision-making," the MEP said. "Juncker is right to take the bull by the horns"Not an export product'An EPP official admitted it would not be the first issue between the two institution presidents.Since he took his position almost a year ago, Tusk has been criticised for being too remote, compared with Juncker and some EU national leaders.His uncertain command of English has sometimes been cited as a reason for this low profile position. Others say he is too focused on issues which are of interest to Poland, his home country, like energy union or the war in Ukraine, and that there is not enough focus on other major issues such as Greece or the migrant crisis.But some in the EPP see the problem as a more personal one.Although Tusk was a strong Polish PM before becoming Council president, "he's not an export product," the MEP said. "We had the same problem with Prodi. He was a great Italian PM but a weak Commission president."Tusk's two-and-a-half-year mandate runs until 31 May 2017. The question of whether to give him a new mandate has not yet been raised. But "seen from the European Parliament, there a general feeling inside the EPP... We think we have a Tusk problem," the MEP told this website.In a speech at the congress on Wednesday evening, Tusk's predecessor Herman Van Rompuy tried to put on a display of party unity.Juncker and Tusk are "both strong men of action", he said.

Erdogan's EU victory wins fans among Turks in Germany By Dave Keating-OCT 22,15-EUOBSERVER

BERLIN, Today, 09:22-When Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan emerged from last week's EU Council with major concessions from the EU in hand, it did not come in a political vacuum.Turkey is holding a general election on 1 November, its second this year. The vote was called after Erdogan's AKP party failed to secure a majority in an election in June.The Turkish president, known for his strongman tactics and populist appeal, desperately needs to shore up his support in order to cross the majority threshold this time around, and the 5 percent of Turkish voters living outside the country may be crucial to this effort.For the sizeable Turkish community in Germany, which makes up about half of the expatriate voting bloc, Erdogan's aggressive diplomacy last week in Brussels may win him new fans.He was able to extract major concessions on Turkey's long-stalled EU integration in exchange for an agreement to stem the flow of migrants leaving Turkey for EU countries.These include up to €3 billion in aid, new EU visa privileges for Turkish citizens, and a restart of talks on Turkey's accession to the EU.Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, travelled to Ankara last week to affirm this commitment, despite the fact that, just a few weeks earlier, she had reiterated her strong opposition, shared by France and most other EU states, to Turkey ever joining the bloc.Early voting has been taking place at the Turkish embassy in Berlin for several weeks, and the turnout appears to be high."I'm voting for AKP because Erdogan is making Turkey stronger," says Burak, a Turkish immigrant who works in a small store in Berlin."He stands up for Turkey."This is the sentiment of many Turkish emigrants around Europe, who tend to be fairly religious and conservative. They were only given the right to vote in Turkish elections three years ago, after the Turkish parliament passed a new law.-Calculated move- Many saw it as a calculated political move by Erdogan, at that time the country's prime minister, because his AKP party enjoys majority support among Turks abroad. In the June election, it won just under 50 percent of the vote.But the Turkish community in Germany is not politically homogeneous. It shares many of the deep divisions now present back home. The centre-left Kurdish minority party, the HDP, stunned observers in June by coming second in the expatriate vote with 21 percent.Back home, the party for the first time passed the threshold to enter the Turkish parliament, which was the decisive factor in AKP losing its majority."Most of the people that live here in Germany want to have a democratic Turkey, and see democratic values develop in Turkey," says Hakan Tas, a member of the German parliament from the leftist Die Linke party who is part of the country's Turkish minority."But people from Turkey living in Europe have voted extensively for Erdogan's party, so they have a majority in Europe. The people from Turkey living in Europe, most of them are conservative. This group of people see Erdogan as a strong leader and that's why they follow his lead. The other group of people, who didn't vote for the AKP party, they see Erdogan's policies as authoritarian and dictatorial and they do not support him."Erdogan's strongman persona is not appreciated by all. Many are concerned over the Turkish president's crackdown on democratic freedoms, such as freedom of the press.After his party failed to win a majority in June, he warned that it would lead to instability. The country then suffered a series of politically-motivated bombings, and the various political factions are blaming the bombings on each other.The latest incident came earlier this month, when a bomb killed at least 102 people attending a pro-Kurdish peace rally in Ankara. It was Turkey's deadliest-ever terrorist attack.The government blames Kurdish separatists or Islamic militants. But many pro-democracy advocates, who dislike Erdogan's increasingly autocratic rule, think the AKP allowed the bombings to happen in order to increase the feeling of insecurity in Turkish society.Erdogan's opponentsThose Turkish citizens in Germany who are strongly opposed to Erdogan tend to come from middle class, educated backgrounds.Emre Yesilbas, a Turkish student studying in Berlin, says he is voting for the HDP, even though he is not Kurdish. He sees it as the only party that can knock Erdogan's AKP from absolute power."Most of the people who vote for Erdogan's party who live in Germany, they would vote for left parties here because they have the immigrant identity and they know that they shouldn't vote for conservative parties," he says." But when they vote in Turkish elections, they choose Erdogan's party knowing it’s a conservative party.""The HDP is the only party that embraces all of Turkey's different ethnicities, sects, women and the LGBT community as well," he adds."They project a different understanding of democracy in Turkey that people in Turkey aren't used to. Also, it’s the only party right now that is speaking of peace. All the other parties are not even talking about it in those terms. Lots of my friends are voting for HDP as well. For the young generation it is a new hope for Turkish democracy, so there are lots of [ethnic] Turks willing to vote for the party as well."In this context, could Erdogan’s recent manoeuvres in Brussels, which could restart the Turkish accession process and bring benefits to Turkish citizens in the EU, win over some of those younger, educated Turkish expatriates? "I think that’s very unlikely because people who are critical of Erdogan, they don’t buy into that," says Yesilbas."They don’t see him as a person who is good at diplomacy. So, even the idea that Turkish people would get a visa to the EU more easily, that wouldn’t be as convincing for them. Right now, Turkish society, both people living here and in Turkey, they are very decisively separated, pro- Erdogan and against Erdogan."-High tension-Tensions are running high ahead of the 1 November election, which observers are saying could be one of the most pivotal in recent Turkish history.For his part, Yesilbas believes the theory the Turkish government may have allowed the recent bombings to take place because the feeling of insecurity plays into its hands.But many Erdogan supporters believe the official line the Kurdish guerrillas did it to undermine the government.Because the issues at stake are so serious, few in Germany’s Turkish community are unhappy about being asked to vote again just five months after the last election."I don’t think anyone's annoyed by that because everyone is very frustrated because of the bombings and lots of people dying in Turkey right now," says Yesilbas."People are looking forward to voting again and to show what they are supporting."Whether or not Turkey’s EU accession is actually about to speed ahead, there is no denying that the situation in Syria has thrust Erdogan’s Turkey into a pivotal place in European politics.For the large Turkish community living in Germany, the international issues at stake in this election could have significant long-term implications, but it remains to be seen whether it will change their voting habits.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe quits after election performance-By Julien Arsenault, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS

MONTREAL - Gilles Duceppe, the Bloc Quebecois' first-ever MP and the man who dominated the party for nearly 15 years, stepped down as leader Thursday after a less than stellar performance in this week's election.Duceppe's departure comes four months into his second spell as head of the sovereigntist party following a 14-year stint between 1997 and 2011."I am turning the page, the last page, of a passionate political adventure," he said at party headquarters.The Bloc won 10 out of Quebec's 78 ridings on Monday, leaving it two short of the 12 seats required for official party status.Compounding its woes was another double whammy — Duceppe losing his Montreal riding for the second election in a row and the party garnering just 19.3 per cent of the popular vote in Quebec.After stating earlier this week that the numbers weren't good enough, Duceppe said Thursday the 10 MPs will provide the party with stability until the next election."This time the Bloc's future was on the line," he said. "And my return (last June) was aimed at saving this party, which is important for the 817,000 Quebecers who voted for us."With the election of 10 MPs, the future of the party is guaranteed for the next four years."I obviously would have liked more and to have won my riding. But overall, I'm leaving with the feeling of a sense of accomplishment."Duceppe will be replaced on an interim basis by Rheal Fortin, who was elected in a riding north of Montreal on Monday.Duceppe first stepped down in 2011 when the party won just four seats and he lost his Montreal riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie after holding it since 1990.He became leader again this summer when language-activist Mario Beaulieu stepped aside to make way for the more widely known and respected politician.Parti Quebecois Leader Pierre Karl Peladeau said Wednesday he wanted Duceppe to stay on, saying the BQ leader had a handle on federal issues as well as a good knowledge of federal intrusion into provincial jurisdiction.The Bloc also announced that Louis Plamondon, who has been a Bloc MP since 1993, will be caucus chair, while Beaulieu will remain president and Luc Theriault will become house leader."We ended the election with a slight surplus, which will allow us to maintain a central office (in Montreal) at least until March," said Plamondon."We'll then organize fundraising drives."

Justin Trudeau's team begins transition to power-CBC – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS

Still basking in the glow of victory, Justin Trudeau and his inner circle have already begun the complex business of transitioning to power.The prime minister-designate was making the rounds on Parliament Hill Wednesday, accepting congratulations and holding meetings, including one with his former chief rival and the man he will succeed, Stephen Harper.Extending courtesy and gaining guidance are crucial to the Liberal transition period.Don Boudria, a longtime cabinet minister under Jean Chrétien and an expert in parliamentary procedure, expects some of the groundwork has already been done behind the scenes. But the transition team will be working long hours to get it right, because the early days of a mandate are critically important to set the tone and shape public perception."No one in the early days wants to see the government drop the ball," he said.Creating cabinet, hiring staff-Boudria said the transition team — led by Peter Harder and said to include trusted campaign advisers Gerry Butts, Katie Telford and Cyrus Reporter — will work out a detailed strategy for the days ahead, from crafting the structure and mandate of the cabinet and proposing a date to recall Parliament and deliver a throne speech, to listing off names of potential senior staff.This will all be planned around a busy series of international meetings including for the G20 and Asia- Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) scheduled for the fall."The government is a train that's moving. The transition team is the way to get these passengers on board the moving train without them falling off," he said. "The train slows down a bit, but it doesn't stop."Former Liberal deputy prime minister Sheila Copps, who is travelling in Asia, said the Liberal win is being celebrated across Canada and abroad. She believes "big change" is on the way."We will start talking about citizens again, instead of simply taxpayers," she told CBC News. "The team will be young, as Trudeau has succeeded in recruiting a great number of new faces, and some terrific women from across the country."Trudeau's vision is very inclusive, and I think the Paris climate change meeting will send a strong message to the world that Canada is getting serious about sustainability in the environment."Conservative strategist Geoff Norquay, who served as a senior adviser to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, said the biggest challenge for Trudeau is facing expectations that are "enormous and unmeetable.""The Liberals won a huge and resounding mandate for change, and that means that not only regions but cities and different sectors of the economy are going to be lining up saying, 'Here's what you promised — where is it? And how quickly will you make me happy?'"As one of the first orders of business, Trudeau will need to "seize the agenda" by mapping out which policy promises to deliver on fast, which to phase in, and which from the Conservative government to revoke.Fresh faces-Monday's historic election that led to Trudeau's majority mandate brings many fresh faces to the House of Commons.There are 215 new MPs, including 15 who are returning to office after serving in the past but not the last Parliament. That's the highest number in 22 years, when 205 new MPs arrived on Parliament Hill after the 1993 election. An orientation session has been set for Nov. 3, which will be administrative in focus. Another session geared to procedural matters will be held closer to the return of Parliament.There is much on the to-do list for the outgoing MPs and prime minister, too.Norquay said that aside from the necessary business of tendering an official resignation to the Governor General, sorting out cabinet documents and vacating official residences at 24 Sussex Drive and Harrington Lake, Harper will likely hold one last meeting with his cabinet and another with his caucus."That will be a difficult and emotional final goodbye," he said.

With stakes high, Clinton meets face-to-face with Republican-led Benghazi committee-By Matthew Daly And Bradley Klapper, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton firmly defended her actions on Benghazi as she came face-to-face Thursday with the Republican-led special investigation of the 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic mission in the Libyan city, hoping to put to rest the worst episode of her tenure as secretary of state and clear an obstacle to her presidential campaign.Democrats have assailed the investigation as a ploy to derail Clinton's White House bid, noting that it is the eighth congressional investigation into the attacks.The hearing comes at a moment of political strength for Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. On Wednesday, a potential rival for the nomination, Vice-President Joe Biden, announced he would not join the race. Clinton also is riding the momentum of a solid debate performance last week.Contentious moments during the hearing included questions and accusations about the Obama administration's shifting early public account of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks, which killed four Americans including the first ambassador in more than three decades.Republicans pressed for answers on her record in the lead-up to the attacks on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and a nearby CIA compound, and how engaged she was on the deteriorating security situation in eastern Libya. The atmosphere remained mostly civil until a fiery back-and-forth with Rep. Jim Jordan, who accused Clinton of deliberately misleading the public by linking the violence to an Internet video insulting the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.Clinton said only that "some" people had wanted to justify the attack based on that video and that she rejected that justification. The argument went to the origins of the disagreement over Benghazi and how President Barack Obama and his top aides represented the attack in the final weeks of his re-election campaign."There were probably a number of different motivations" for the attack, Clinton said, describing a time when competing strands of intelligence were being received and no clear picture had yet emerged. Speaking directly to Jordan, she said: "The insinuations that you are making do a great disservice."Beyond that exchange, however, there were no gaffes for Clinton and few contentious exchanges. She never raised her voice as she did at a Senate hearing on Benghazi in January 2013.Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina started the hearing with a series of questions that he said remained unanswered: Why was the U.S. in Libya, why were security requests denied, why was the military not ready to respond quickly on the 11th anniversary of 9-11 and why did the Obama administration change its story about the nature of the attacks in the weeks afterward? She stressed a need for diplomats to advance U.S. interests in the world, even in dangerous places, and said perfect security can never be achieved.The U.S. military campaign against Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 helped prevent "genocide," Clinton asserted, noting the Libyan dictator's threat to hunt down opponents like "cockroaches." The American-led intervention came after requests for assistance from allies in Europe and the Arab world, and extensive study and discussion by the U.S. government, she said.The Republican criticism has included contentions by some lawmakers that Clinton personally denied security requests and ordered the U.S. military to "stand down" during the attacks, or that her agency was engaged in an elaborate gun-running scheme in eastern Libya. None of these were substantiated in an independent ordered by Clinton after the deadly incident, and seven subsequent congressional investigations.Gowdy is engaged in his own balancing act, portraying the panel as focused on the facts after comments by fellow Republicans describing the inquiry as an effort designed to hurt Clinton's presidential bid.On Thursday, Democrats on the panel immediately focused on several, long-debunked allegations regarding the response of Clinton and the Obama administration to the series of attacks on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi and a nearby CIA compound. Although Republicans pressed for answers, there were no confrontations with Clinton in the early rounds of questioning.The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, described the entire probe as a partisan campaign replete with implausible conspiracy theories.The hearing was expected to last the whole day, with breaks. Clinton was certain to face questions about her use of a private email account and server while serving as President Barack Obama's chief diplomat, another issue that has beset her campaign.A new Associated Press-Gfk poll shows the public mixed on Clinton and Benghazi. Four in 10 say they neither approve nor disapprove of how she has answered questions about the attack, while 20 per cent approve and 37 per cent disapprove.Americans also are divided on Clinton's email practices, which have raised security concerns. More than half of those polled view her use of a private server as a minor problem or no problem at all, compared with 1 in 3 who think it is a major problem. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans call it a major problem.In the weeks after Benghazi, Clinton took responsibility for the incidents. In recent months, she has said her use of a private email server was a mistake.___Follow Matthew Daly: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Clinton defends her Benghazi record in face of Republican criticism-By Jonathan Allen and John Whitesides | Reuters – OCT 22,15-YAHOONEWS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday deflected harsh Republican criticism of her handling of the deadly 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, and urged her questioners in Congress to put U.S. national security ahead of politics.At a sometimes bitter day-long hearing, Republicans accused the front-runner in the 2016 Democratic presidential race of misinforming the public about the cause of the attack by suspected Islamic militants that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi.Clinton, 67, calmly avoided the fray during the most heated exchanges between Republicans and her Democratic allies, and stayed composed under sometimes hostile and aggressive questions from Republican lawmakers.But hours of questioning uncovered no new revelations in a deadly incident that has been the subject of a half-dozen other congressional investigations and an independent inquiry.In one of the most pointed exchanges, Republican Representative Jim Jordan said Clinton had misleadingly implied after the attack that it was a reaction to an anti-Muslim video. Clinton, who denies suggesting the video was the cause, called Jordan's accusation "personally painful.""I've thought more about what happened than all of you put together," she told the Republican-led panel. "I've lost more sleep than all of you put together. I've been racking my brain about what could have been done, should have been done."The appearance before the Benghazi panel was a political test for Clinton, who has been on a hot streak with a strong performance in last week's first Democratic debate and the news on Wednesday that her strongest potential challenger, Vice President Joe Biden, will not seek the Democratic nomination for the November 2016 election.The hearing also follows weeks of political brawling over whether the House committee's real goal was to puncture her front-running presidential prospects. The committee is made up of seven Republicans and five Democrats.Clinton told the panel the attacks must not discourage U.S. action globally and said the incident already had been thoroughly investigated."We need leadership at home to match our leadership abroad, leadership that puts national security ahead of politics and ideology," Clinton said in her only early reference to the political controversy that has dogged the panel.Opinion polls show Americans deeply split along partisan lines over the probe. A Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found 35 percent of respondents viewed the Benghazi hearings as mostly or completely valid. The percentage among Republicans was 67 percent, independents 39.6 percent, and Democrats 16.5 percent.17-MONTH-OLD PROBE-The panel has spent 17 months looking into the attacks that killed J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans at the U.S. mission compound.At one point, Clinton impassively stacked papers while Republican Chairman Trey Gowdy and senior Democrat Elijah Cummings argued loudly over Cummings' request that the closed-door testimony of Clinton friend Sidney Blumenthal be publicly released.Clinton listened intently, head in hand, as Gowdy heatedly questioned her about the constant emails she received from Blumenthal. Republicans noted that ambassador Stevens did not even have Clinton's email address."You didn't need my email address to get my attention," Clinton said.Cummings said congressional Republicans set up the panel for a partisan witch hunt."They set them loose, Madame Secretary, because you're running for president," he told Clinton, calling for an end to the "taxpayer-funded fishing expedition." He said the committee had spent $14.7 million of taxpayer money over 17 months. Clinton defended her leadership in Libya as America's top diplomat and denied longstanding Republican allegations that she personally turned down requests to beef up security in Benghazi."He did not raise security with me. He raised security with the security professionals," Clinton said of Stevens.Republican Representative Peter Roskam told Clinton she was the chief architect of U.S. policy in Libya and that "things in Libya today are a disaster," but Clinton said President Barack Obama made the final call on U.S. Libya policy.Clinton's long-awaited appearance before the panel follows months of controversy about her use of a private home email server for her State Department work, a set-up that emerged in part because of the Benghazi committee's demand last year to see her official records.GOWDY ON THE DEFENSIVE-Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, has been on the defensive over a series of comments from his fellow Republicans implying the committee's real aim was to deflate Clinton's poll numbers."Madame Secretary, I understand some people - frankly in both parties - have suggested this investigation is about you. Let me assure you it is not," Gowdy told Clinton."Not a single member of this committee signed up for an investigation into you or your email system."Clinton refrained from questioning the panel's motives, which she has done in recent public statements on the campaign trail."Despite all the previous investigations and all the talk about partisan agendas, I’m here to honour those we lost and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still," she said.She said the emails being made public and examined by the committee did not encompass all of the work she did as secretary of state."I don’t want you to have a mistaken impression about what I did and how I did it," she said. "Most of my work was not done on emails with my closest aides, with officials in the State Department, officials in the rest of the government."She cited communications through secure phone calls, in-person conversations and top-secret documents.The committee's Democrats, who may discuss abandoning the inquiry after Clinton's appearance, say they think there is little left to unearth on Benghazi.A 2012 report by a government accountability review board sharply faulted State Department officials for providing "grossly" insufficient security in Benghazi, despite upgrade requests from Stevens and others in Libya.(Additional reporting by Ginger Gibson, Alana Wise and Megan Cassella; Editing by Howard Goller)