JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Amid election hacking feud, US hits Russia with new sanctions-Outgoing Obama administration blacklists five Russians, including senior law enforcement official close to Putin-By deb reichmann and Eileen Sullivan January 10, 2017, 2:52 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (AP) — The outgoing Obama administration on Monday blacklisted five Russians, including a senior law enforcement official close to President Vladimir Putin, as the two nations’ feud over US election hacking escalated. The founder of WikiLeaks, publisher of the election-related emails, denounced last week’s US intelligence report about the hacking as a “press release.”The economic sanctions against the five Russians are not related to the US intelligence agencies findings, officials said, and instead are connected to a 2012 US law punishing Russian human rights violators. Americans are now banned from doing business with the men and any assets they may have in the United States are now frozen.But the symbolic effect of the new penalties was more significant, following weeks of accusations that Moscow spearheaded a campaign designed to help Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton in November’s presidential election. And their timing was unmistakable: Just three days after US intelligence agencies connected Putin directly to the hacking of Democratic accounts.According to US intelligence agencies, Russia provided the emails to WikiLeaks. The website’s founder, Julian Assange, denies that is the case, but Democrat and GOP lawmakers have largely backed the accusation and many have demanded a sterner response for meddling in America’s democratic process. Monday’s action could go some way to answering those calls.Trump, however, could repeal these sanctions when he takes office next week. The billionaire businessman has expressed an interest in warming relations with Russia and has voiced skepticism about the intelligence agencies’ conclusions.The most prominent individual targeted by the US is Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s main investigative agency. Bastrykin and Putin attended the same university together.The Investigative Committee under Bastrykin investigated Russian whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky’s death in prison in 2009. It determined that Magnitsky died in detention and closed the case after determining that there was no evidence of a crime.Two of the Russians placed on the Treasury Department’s list Monday have been accused of trying to help cover up Magnitsky’s death. Britain blames the two others for the London murder of a former Russian spy.Forty-four Russians have now been subjected to US sanctions under the so-called Magnitsky law, the State Department said.In late December, President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia directly tied to the election accusations, expelling 35 of the country’s diplomats and shutting down Russian retreats in New York and Maryland that the US said were used for intelligence purposes. He also targeted two Russian intelligence services, the GRU and the FSB. The GRU’s chief and three deputies were individually blacklisted, too.Before the new penalties were announced, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that the Kremlin still believes the US accusations of election hacking had no substance.“They are amateurish and are hardly worthy of the high professional standards of top intelligence agencies,” Peskov said. “We categorically rule out the possibility that Russian officials or official bodies could have been involved. We are tired of such accusations. This is beginning to remind us of a full-fledged witch hunt.”The report accused Russia of hacking into the email accounts of the Democratic National Committee and individual Democrats like Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta. Russia also used state-funded propaganda and paid “trolls” to make nasty comments on social media services, it said, although there was no suggestion such operations affected the actual vote count.It also explicitly tied Putin to the hackings, calling them the “boldest effort yet” to influence a US election.Assange on Monday brushed aside the allegations. He called the report a politically motivated “press release” that provided no evidence Russian actors gave WikiLeaks hacked material.The report lacked details about how the US learned what it says it knows, such as any intercepted conversations or electronic messages from Russian leaders, including Putin. It also said nothing about specific hacker techniques or digital tools the US may have traced back to Russia in its investigations.A still-classified version of the report was shared late last week with President Barack Obama, Trump and top lawmakers in Congress.
Bomb threats made at 16 JCCs in 7 states, hundreds evacuated-All-clears given as no explosives found at facilities from New Jersey to California; similar hoax calls made to Jewish institutions in UK-By Stuart Winer January 9, 2017, 10:02 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Bomb threats were called in at no fewer than 16 Jewish community centers in at least seven US states on Monday, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of students and staff.Threats were reportedly received in Miami Beach and Jacksonville, Florida (see video above), as well as Rockville, Maryland; Nashville, Tennessee (see video below); South Carolina and California. Authorities were also investigating a bomb threat in a New Jersey JCC, a New York NBC affiliate reported.The calls were prerecorded in some cases and live in others, with the caller using voice disguising technology, and likely came from a single source, said Paul Goldenberg, the director of Secure Community Network, the group affiliated with the Jewish Federations of North America that coordinates security for the Jewish community.All the alerts were false, Goldenberg said, and designed to produce maximum disruption.Similar threats were phoned in to several Jewish schools in Britain. Community officials responded by sending out a national alert that saw emergency procedures implemented at some institutes.Police and emergency services in both countries combed through buildings, but no explosives were found.It was not clear if the calls were a coordinated hoax.Alder JCC Evacuation in SW Miami Dade. Parents lined up to reunite with kids after bomb threat was called in. @nbc6 pic.twitter.com/EvLvfDkYa3— Keith Jones NBC 6 (@KeithNBC6) January 9, 2017-Two community centers in Miami were evacuated following calls at around 11:00 a.m.CBS Miami reported that a call from a local number was made to the Dave and Mary Alper Jewish Community Center.Police were alerted and some 300 children evacuated to a tennis court close to the complex. Parents who arrived at the scene were prevented from approaching the children until police secured the building and made sure there were no explosives inside.Another call was made to the Miami Beach Jewish Community Center on Pine Tree Drive, and officers gave the all clear at that location around an hour later. There were only a few people in the center at the time.The Tennessean reported that a call was made to the Gordon Jewish Community Center at 10:30 a.m. prompting an evacuation of the building.“We’ve taken all the necessary precautions that you would in a situation like this,” said Mark S. Freedman, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, according to the report. “This is a threat against the entire community,” he said. “Everyone should be aware of that.”Following a bomb threat that forced about 100 people to evacuate. The Gordon Jewish Community Center is now clear. @NC5 pic.twitter.com/Tv1h9l5gRg— Sarah McCarthy (@NC5_SMcCarthy) January 9, 2017-WISTV reported a threat was made to the Katie and Irwin Kahn Jewish Community Center. A search found no evidence of a bomb.The JCC Association of North America, the convening organization of JCCs across the continent commended the staff around the affected centers who “responded quickly, calmly and professionally by implementing well-practiced evacuation procedures and ensuring that no one was harmed,” said David Posner, the organization’s director of strategic performance, according to a press release.Posner further thanked “federal and local law enforcement for their quick and thorough response today.”The JCC Association said it was working with the Secure Community Network, which focuses on security for Jewish institutions throughout North America, and the Department of Homeland Security to determine the source of the calls.In Britain, the Jewish Chronicle daily reported on its website that threats were telephoned in to schools in Roehampton, Ilford and Brent, all in London.According to UK Jewish Chronicle, at one Jewish elementary school, pupils were told to go into the “sleeping lions” position — a safety precaution used in emergency situations. Other schools went into lock-down preventing anyone from entering or leaving the premises.Pupils were not evacuated from any of the UK schools.The Metropolitan Police said in a statement that “police were alerted at around 10:30 a.m. on Monday, 9 January, to phone calls made to schools in Roehampton, Ilford and Brent, in which bomb threats were made.”“Police officers attended the schools. All three incidents were stood down a short time later. An investigation into the threat will be conducted.”The Community Security Trust, the organization that oversees security for British Jewry, put out a national alert.“A small number of Jewish schools across the country received bomb threats, as did a small number of non-Jewish schools,” the CST said.“The Jewish schools followed security procedures, and CST and police immediately responded. All of the sites have been searched, and declared safe and secure. CST thanks school staff, pupils and parents for their calm response to these calls.”JTA contributed to this report.
Security cabinet orders arrests, closure of Jerusalem terrorist’s village-After truck-ramming attack which killed four, police increase presence in Jabel Mukaber, ministers call to destroy family home as soon as possible-By Times of Israel staff January 8, 2017, 11:40 pm
In response to Sunday’s truck-ramming terror attack, the security cabinet decided late Sunday on a series of measures intended to deter new Palestinian attacks.After convening Sunday night at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, the committee of 10 ministers voted to deny the release of the terrorist’s body to his family, in order to prevent the family from holding a public funeral at which his actions would be celebrated.Fadi al-Qunbar, 28, a father of four from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, rammed his truck into a group of IDF soldiers touring the Jerusalem’s Haas Promenade in the city’s south.Among the responses chosen by the ministers, the Qunbar family home will be destroyed at the earliest possible time — limited only by possible court appeals available to the family.Standing family — unification requests by members of the Qunbar family to allow relatives from Gaza to come live with them in Jerusalem will be denied.The neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, from which multiple terror attacks have originated over the past year, has been encircled by security forces, who placed a cordon on the village and begun carrying out security checks for anyone leaving the area toward other parts of Jerusalem.The cabinet also ordered the security services to detain and investigate anyone found praising or celebrating the attack, after claims surfaced that some residents of East Jerusalem cheered and distributed sweets to passersby after the attack.It also gave permission for security agencies to place anyone who expresses support for Islamic State, as Qunbar reportedly did, in administrative detention, a controversial counter-terror measure that allows the indefinite detention of terror suspects without trial.Nine people were arrested in the immediate aftermath of the attack, including five family members of the terrorist. Police carried out multiple raids into Jabel Mukaber in the afternoon and evening hours.Palestinian media reported that Qunbar was affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a secular terror group, but Qunbar’s family insisted he was “religious,” and Israeli intelligence believes he supported the Islamic State jihadist group.The four soldiers who were killed in the attack were named on Sunday evening: Yael Yekutiel, 20, Shir Hajaj, 22, Shira Tzur, 20, and Erez Orbach, 20. All will be buried on Monday at military cemeteries around the country. Sixteen more people were injured, two of them very seriously.
The tensions that fuel terror attacks haven’t gone away-What motivates an employed father of four, without help and with no apparent affiliation to any terror group, to drive a truck murderously through a crowd of soldiers?-By Avi Issacharoff January 9, 2017, 12:22 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The terrorist who drove his truck into a group of soldiers on Sunday at the Armon Hanatziv promenade in Jerusalem, killing four before being shot dead by the soldiers and a tour guide, has been identified as Fadi al-Qunbar, 28, from the nearby East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.Qunbar was married and the father of four, different from the general profile of previous “lone” attackers in the recent wave of stabbing and car-ramming attacks.This is not the first time in the last year and a half that there have been older terrorists (including a 72-year-old woman from Hebron) who left behind families. Even so, the vast majority were young and single.Qunbar had a seven-month-old daughter. He was not unemployed, and actually worked with the same truck he used to kill four and wound 16.He had a blue permanent residency identity card, and according to his family had never been detained by Israeli security forces, contrary to the initial report in Arabic-language media that said he was a recently released security prisoner.His sister told a group of reporters outside their house on Sunday that he never belonged to any Palestinian organization or political group, and that he had even called his wife shortly before the attack and asked her to make him lunch.It’s not yet clear what or who incited him to carry out the attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was a supporter of the Islamic State. There are no clear indications from his social media activities that this was true. It is possible that Netanyahu’s statement could actually encourage IS to claim responsibility for the attack, but it is doubtful if there was any direct connection between the group and Qunbar. The assertion, at any rate, helps Netanyahu’s claim to the West that “Islamic State is here,” and the group’s claim that it has a presence in “occupied Palestine.”For now, it appears that Qunbar acted according to the same modus operandi we have seen before in Jerusalem: a terrorist with no organizational affiliation, inspired by the news media, a mosque or social media, who carries out an attack without outside assistance. Afterwards, the terror organizations claim him as their own in order to ride the wave of his “success.”Unsurprisingly, Hamas and Islamic Jihad both praised the attack, and in Gaza even organized a parade to celebrate this first attack of 2017.It is no secret that Hamas wants a violent uprising in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and it wants to make the most of Sunday’s attack after several months of relative quiet. Such attacks can inspire public support — and even copy-cat terrorists in the coming days and weeks.Recent months have seen a steep decrease in the number of attacks. There are several reasons for this, including the efforts of Israeli security forces, a new emphasis on monitoring social media, a certain drop in incitement in official Palestinian media, and the hard work of the Palestinian security forces, among others.But the key tension that led to the original outbreak of violence in October 2015 remains: the lack of any diplomatic prospect, ongoing frustration with the Palestinian Authority, anger toward Israel, and continued robust incitement on social media. In recent days, for example, Hamas has run a campaign calling on Palestinian youths to emulate a notorious Hamas bomb maker, the “engineer” Yahya Ayyash. Last week marked the 21st anniversary of his assassination by Israel.All this creates a tense atmosphere, permeated with hate, that could at any moment lead to further “spontaneous” attacks.
Top PA imam: Moving US embassy to Jerusalem a ‘declaration of war’ on Islam-‘In matters of religion, faith, values, ethics, and history, there can be no compromises,’ warns Mahmoud al-Habbash-By Times of Israel staff January 8, 2017, 11:01 pm
If the incoming US administration of President-elect Donald J Trump fulfills its campaign promise to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, it would be considered “a declaration of war” on all Muslims, the Palestinian Authority’s supreme Sharia judge Mahmoud Al-Habbash declared on Friday.“The new American administration intends to transfer its embassy to Jerusalem. In a simple, calm, and rational manner, in clear words that need no explanation and which are unambiguous: Such a step, for every Muslim, is a declaration of war on all Muslims,” said Habbash in a Friday sermon broadcast on official PA TV, and attended by PA President Mahmoud Abbas.The speech was translated by an Israeli watchdog of Palestinian media, Palestinian Media Watch.Habbash, who is also a top aid to Abbas, added, “We are no one’s enemies, and we do not want to be. We are not enemies of the US and we do not want to be. However, when something harms our faith and our existence, we cannot stand by and do nothing.”He continued: “Occupied Jerusalem is our eternal capital, the capital of our existence and the capital of our state. In politics, there can be compromises here and there… In politics there can be negotiation. However, in matters of religion, faith, values, ethics, and history, there can be no compromises.”Trump and his team have spoken repeatedly of his intention to relocate the embassy to Israel’s capital, leading to wall-to-wall condemnations from Palestinian leaders, and even a warning from outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry.On Friday, in an interview with CBS News, Kerry said that moving the US embassy to Jerusalem would cause “an explosion, an absolute explosion in the region, not just in the West Bank, and perhaps even in Israel itself, but throughout the region.”The Jordanian government issued a similar warning on Thursday, with Jordanian Information Minister Mohamed Momani saying an embassy move would be a “red line” for Jordan, would “inflame the Islamic and Arab streets” and would serve as a “gift to extremists.”On Friday, Abbas warned Trump not to move the embassy.He invited Trump to visit the Palestinian territories, but also said: “We call on you not to implement your statement… because we consider it as an aggressive statement, when you say you want to move the embassy to Jerusalem.”The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their intended capital. An American decision to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would signal US acceptance of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The status of Jerusalem is one of the core issues that would need to be resolved in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on Palestinian statehood.Israel annexed East Jerusalem and the Old City after capturing the areas in the 1967 war. The UN Security Council last month branded all such land as occupied Palestinian territory — a designation furiously rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who ridiculed the notion that the Temple Mount and Western Wall could be defined as not part of Israel. The US abstained in the vote, allowing the resolution to pass, which infuriated Israel, and drew criticism from Trump.Palestinian negotiator Erekat said last month that he will resign, the peace process will be over for ever, the PLO will revoke its recognition of Israel and the US will be forced by Arab public opinion to close all its embassies in the Arab world, if the Trump administration moves the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Trump’s campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said on December 12 that moving the embassy “is a very big priority for this president-elect, Donald Trump.” Conway told radio host Hugh Hewitt in a lengthy interview: “He made it very clear during the campaign, and as president-elect, I’ve heard him repeat it several times privately, if not publicly.”
Jerusalem terrorist’s sister says family ‘thankful’ for his ‘martyrdom’-Family members insist Fadi al-Qunbar, 28, was ‘religious,’ did not tell them about any plans to attack Israelis-By Dov Lieber and Times of Israel staff January 8, 2017, 10:17 pm
The sister of a Palestinian terrorist who rammed a truck into a group of soldiers in southern Jerusalem Sunday, killing four and wounding another 15, said the family was “thankful” for the attack and called her brother’s death “the most beautiful martyrdom.”The sister, 28, whose name is Shadia, according to Maan, and who spoke to the Palestinian news site Quds News Network, said Fadi al-Qanbar was not part of any terror group, but had carried out the attack of his own volition. Maan also reported that she said Israeli forces had detained al-Qanbar’s wife Tahani, his parents Ahmad and Minwa, and two of his brothers, Muhammad and Munther.Qanbar drove his truck at high speed into a crowd of cadets and officers who were touring Jerusalem’s southern Haas promenade, and then reversed back over some of them, killing four and wounding at least 16 before being shot dead.The Hamas terrorist organization on Sunday hailed the attack as a “heroic” act and encouraged other Palestinians to do the same and “escalate the resistance.”Qanbar was a resident of the nearby Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of East Jerusalem, which was placed under a closure after the attack. Police raided the family home, arresting Qanbar’s parents, sister and at least two other family members.While Hamas praised the attack, it stopped short of claiming responsibility.A composite photo of the four Israeli soldiers killed when a terrorist rammed his truck into a group of cadets on January 8, 2017 in Jerusalem. Clockwise from left, IDF Lieutenant Yael Yekutiel, IDF Cadet Shir Hajaj, IDF Cadet Erez Orbach, IDF Cadet Shira Tzur. (Handout photos from IDF spokesperson) Hamas spokesman Abdul-Latif Qanou called it a “heroic” act. Qanou said Sunday’s attack proved the wave of Palestinian violence had not ended, despite a recent lull. “It may be quiet, it may linger, but it will never end.”Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, is pledged to Israel’s destruction.Also, in Gaza several youths could be seen giving out candies and sweets to passersby to celebrate the attack.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Qanbar, a married father of four, was an Islamic State supporter and that there could be a link between his attack and truck rammings at a Berlin Christmas market last month and in Nice, France earlier in the year.His sister said Qanbar was “religious,” but did not belong to any groups.When asked by a reporter for the Quds News Network what she thought of the attack, Qanbar’s sister responded, “God chose him for this martyrdom. Thank God. We are patient and we thank God for this… It is the most beautiful martyrdom.”Qunbar was in his late 20s, was married and reportedly had four children. Channel 2 said he had served time in Israeli prison, a claim some family members have denied.The sister said her family found out about her brother’s attack from Facebook and the media, and did not know about Qanbar’s plans ahead of time.
Rushed confirmation hearings for cabinet posts latest Trump clash with Democrats-GOP-led Senate coordinates with transition team to cram in 9 hearings this week amid calls to slow process-By Michael Mathes January 10, 2017, 2:18 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON, United States — The top Democrat in the US Congress blasted Donald Trump on Monday for seeking hasty confirmation of cabinet nominees without sufficient ethics and security vetting, as the president-elect expressed confidence that “they’ll all pass.”The confirmation hearings for Trump’s top picks were emerging as flashpoints between the incoming administration and critics including minority Democrats in Congress who want more time to thoroughly study and vet the nominees.Trump’s choice for US attorney general, Senator Jeff Sessions, will be in the hot seat beginning Tuesday, as will homeland security secretary designate John Kelly, a retired Marine general.Four more hearings begin on Wednesday, including that of secretary of state pick Rex Tillerson. The Republican-led Senate coordinated with the Trump team to cram in nine confirmation hearings this week despite Democrats’ calls to slow the process.“Confirmation is going great,” Trump told reporters in an unexpected appearance Monday in the lobby of his New York building. “I think they’ll all pass.”But the rush has drawn flak from ethics officials.“The announced hearing schedule for several nominees who have not completed the ethics review process is of great concern to me,” Walter Shaub Jr, director of the Office of Government Ethics, wrote to Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.The schedule has created “undue pressure” to rush the reviews, he said, noting that several nominees had “potentially unknown or unresolved ethics issues” as they headed into their hearings.“I am not aware of any occasion in the four decades since OGE was established when the Senate held a confirmation hearing before the nominee had completed the ethics review process,” Shaub said.Schumer accused Trump’s team of colluding with Senate Republicans to jam the nominees through.He took to the Senate floor Monday to read a 2009 letter from Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell, who expressed similar concerns about President Barack Obama’s nominees.Republicans at the time demanded that the picks have their ethics reviews, FBI background checks and financial disclosure statements completed before their hearings.“These are common sense standards,” Schumer said. But “several if not most of the (Trump) nominees have actually failed to meet the qualifications laid out by this letter, given the hearing schedule.”-‘Grow up’-Democrats have little chance of derailing the nominees, who require a simple majority in the 100-seat Senate, unless some Republicans defect and oppose their president-elect’s picks. Republicans control 52 Senate seats.Trump’s team wants several nominees confirmed by Inauguration Day on January 20.“Everybody will be properly vetted as they have been in the past, and I’m hopeful that we’ll get up to six or seven… in place on day one,” McConnell, now the Senate majority leader, said Monday after meeting with Trump.On Sunday, McConnell told CBS’s “Face the Nation” talk show that Democrats were acting out of “frustration” that they lost the election, and that they needed to “grow up.”First up is Sessions, a 70-year-old former federal prosecutor who grew up in the segregated Deep South, and whose confirmation may be among the most controversial.The mild-mannered Alabaman will face questions not just about Trump’s campaign pledges, including his call to jail Hillary Clinton over her emails, but about his own civil rights record.Sessions’ federal judgeship nomination collapsed in the 1980s amid accusations he made racially insensitive comments as a prosecutor.They included statements that the NAACP, the nation’s largest grassroots-based civil rights organization, was “un-American” and did “more harm than good.”Trump was confident Sessions would win confirmation.“I think he’s going to do great. High quality man,” he said.NAACP president Cornell Brooks was among six protesters who were arrested last week during a sit-in at Sessions’ office where they demanded he withdraw his name for consideration for attorney general.Brooks is scheduled to testify against Sessions at his confirmation hearing.
Netanyahu orders ministers to attend funerals after all skip out on terror victims-Families of four IDF soldiers buried in one day decry absence of government officials-By Times of Israel staff January 9, 2017, 11:39 pm
After bereaved parents complained that not a single government minister showed up to any of the four funerals for soldiers killed in Sunday’s terror attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered new rules drawn up to avoid a similar situation in the future.The funerals of Lt. Yael Yekutiel, 20, of Givatayim, Lt. Shir Hajaj, 22, of Ma’ale Adumim, 2nd Lt. Erez Orbach, 20, of Alon Shvut, and 2nd Lt. Shira Tzur, 20, from Haifa, took place in quick succession on Monday. Hundreds attended each of the ceremonies, the first of which began at 11 a.m. and the last at 3 p.m.The four victims were among a group of IDF officer cadets who were hit by a truck driven at them by Palestinian Fadi al-Qunbar in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem. Two of the soldiers, Orbach and Tzur, were American citizens.Qunbar, 28, was shot and killed by soldiers and an armed tour guide at the scene.Netanyahu instructed Cabinet secretary Tzachi Braverman to “put together a directive obligating the participation of government members — ministers and their deputies — to attend funerals of soldiers killed during operations or in terror,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement Monday.The prime minister, who was reportedly discontented after hearing reports of parents’ unhappiness, himself visited several wounded soldiers in the hospital on Monday morning, before the funerals, and then held a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset.MKs and city mayors were present at the funerals, but no government ministers or deputies. Representatives for Orebach’s family told the Hebrew-language Walla news website that Education Minister Naftali Bennett had planned on attending the funeral, held in the West Bank community of Kfar Etzion, but was asked to stay away to keep media attention to a minimum.The government secretary explained in a statement that currently “minsters are not obligated to attend the funerals of soldiers, each minister acts at his own discretion.”Herzl Hajaj, Shir’s father, criticized the government for its callous treatment of the families.“I don’t expect anything,” he said according to the Walla report. “It seems that we weren’t famous enough for it and not attractive enough, if they didn’t think it fitting to come. None of them called either. There were representatives from the army and some members of Knesset. Nothing special — she was just a girl who was run over. Who does that interest?”“The important thing is that the family of the terrorist is pleased,” he added, referring to media reports that Qunbar’s sister, Shaida, had said she was happy her brother had become a martyr. Eli Ben-Shem, chairman of Yad Lebanim organization that offers support for bereaved families, threatened to mobilize parents to demonstrate against the government’s attitude that, he claimed, has for a long time been derisory.“Since the Yad Lebanim organization was established, we bereaved parents have not taken to the streets to protest. This time we won’t hesitate to take to the streets.”Ben Shem vowed to keep the matter in the public eye.“In another week they will forget about it, but we have promised that we will not agree to this any more. I call on the government and the speaker of the Knesset to lay down the procedures for the sake of the memory of the fallen, the deceased of Israel’s battles.”Four of the 16 soldiers injured in the attack remained hospitalized in moderate condition on Monday afternoon. Several others who suffered minor wounds were released overnight.On Monday, the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court released Qunbar’s father Ahmad and sister Shaida after ruling there was not sufficient evidence to keep the two in custody, and released them under restrictive conditions. The two were arrested along with several others hours after the attack.The remand of five suspects — brothers Hamza, 31, and Muhammad, 28, cousin Muhammad, 30, and two residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber, where Qunbar lived — was extended for a further seven days on suspicion that they knew in advance about Qunbar’s plan to carry out the attack and did nothing to prevent it.Police are considering charges of conspiracy to carry out a terror attack, after they were said to have evidence that Qunbar identified with the Islamic State terrorist group, Channel 2 reported.
Our moon may have formed from multiple small ones, Israeli research shows-Technion scientists say series of cosmic collisions may have led to mini-moons that, over millions of years, clumped together to make one large one-By Maricia Dunn January 10, 2017, 3:22 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A series of cosmic collisions may have spawned multiple moonlets that morphed into the one big moon we know today.Rather than one giant impact that knocked off part of early Earth and created the moon, a number of smaller collisions may have produced lots of mini-moons, Israeli scientists reported Monday.And those mini-moons, over millions of years, may have clumped together to make one large one.The researchers conducted nearly 1,000 computer simulations and estimate about 20 impacts could do the job. They say that would explain why the moon seems to be composed of material from Earth, rather than some other planet, too.It’s actually an old theory revitalized now by the Weizmann Institute of Science’s Raluca Rufu in Rehovot, Israel, and his team. Their findings were published in Nature Geoscience.“Our model suggests that the ancient Earth once hosted a series of moons, each one formed from a different collision with the proto-Earth,” said co-author Hagai Perets of the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.Rufu added in the same statement: “It’s likely that small moons formed through the process could cross orbits, collide and merge.”Small collisions like this were common in the early solar system, and support their premise. But a London scientist not associated with the study — Imperial College’s Gareth Collins — is urging more evidence on both sides of the moon-forming argument.Some of the moonlets surely were lost in space or did not merge properly with what was to become today’s moon, Collins said in a companion article, and so many more impacts may have been required. That, in turn, would make the multi-impact theory “far less probable than any of the more exotic single-impact scenarios,” he wrote.Rufu and his colleagues agree more work is needed to understand how moonlets might indeed merge into one final moon.
