Friday, December 22, 2017

ARAB MURDERERS HAMAS TERROR CELL SOUGHT TO KIDNAP LIKUD MK YEHUDAH GLICK.

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

Israel, US team up to try to block UN vote on Jerusalem-While Trump threatens to cut aid to countries voting against US, Israeli officials reach out to friends new and old in bid to weaken support for General Assembly resolution-By Josef Federman-TOI-21 December 2017

AP — Israel is intensively lobbying countries around the world to oppose a UN resolution criticizing US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Israeli officials said Wednesday.Thursday’s vote in the UN General Assembly will indicate whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has succeeded in his efforts to drum up new pockets of support in the developing world, as well as the extent to which Israel and the US are — or are not — alone on the question of Jerusalem.The Palestinians have turned to the General Assembly after the US vetoed a resolution this week in the Security Council calling on Trump to rescind his decision. While General Assembly votes, unlike Security Council resolutions, are not binding, they serve as a barometer of international sentiment on key issues.The US and Israel are both placing great weight on Thursday’s vote. US Ambassador Nikki Haley threatened UN member states with possible retaliation if they support the resolution, saying Trump takes the vote “personally” and the US “will be taking names.” Critics accused the US of intimidation.Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, said that the US and Israel were making “immense efforts” to block the resolution.“We have a very, very simple message: Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years and the capital of Israel for almost 70 years,” she told Channel 10.An Israeli Foreign Ministry official confirmed the government was making a “very vast” lobbying campaign to minimize the resolution’s impact.He said Israel is trying to persuade allies to abstain or even vote against it. He also said that Israel has asked Jewish organizations in certain countries to lobby their governments on Israel’s behalf.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing sensitive diplomatic contacts, refused to identify which countries Israel has approached or say how he expects them to vote. But he said he thinks the campaign will be “successful to a certain extent.”In some ways, the vote is a test of Netanyahu’s foreign policy. In recent years, the Israeli leader has invested great efforts to look beyond Israel’s traditional allies in Washington and Western Europe and cultivate ties with developing nations that have traditionally been supportive of the Palestinians.He has portrayed these efforts as both a savvy strategy aimed at opening new markets for Israeli technology exports, as well as countering what Israel says is a deep-seated bias against it at the United Nations.This year alone, Netanyahu has visited China and hosted India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi. He also has attended two summits in Africa, meeting with a host of leaders from across the continent, and in September, became the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit Latin America with stops in Argentina, Mexico and Colombia.The votes cast by these countries will provide an indication about whether the diplomatic outreach is paying off.Votes by other key allies with traditionally close ties to Israel, including Germany, Britain, Australia, Canada and smaller European countries like the Netherlands, Poland and Hungary, could also provide valuable indicators about support for the US-Israeli approach.Many of these countries either abstained or opposed a landmark 2012 vote in the General Assembly that recognized Palestine with upgraded status as a non-member state.The Israeli official said a single vote at the UN on Thursday would not determine the success of Israel’s diplomatic outreach. But he said “this is certainly part of it.”A draft of the UN resolution obtained by The Associated Press calls for affirming that any actions that “have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem” have no legal effect and must be rescinded. It also calls upon all states “to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions” in Jerusalem.Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki, who was in New York for the vote, called the US threats “dangerous” and predicted that they would not have a major impact. “We believe that there is world consensus against the US decision on Jerusalem. This was clearly reflected in the Security Council, despite the US veto,” he told the AP.Trump shattered decades of US neutrality on Jerusalem on Dec. 6 when he recognized the holy city as Israel’s capital and said he will move the US embassy there.Trump said the move was not meant to prejudge negotiations on the final borders of the city, and instead merely recognized reality since Jerusalem already serves as Israel’s capital. He said he did not express a view as to where a possible future border between an Israeli half of Jerusalem and a Palestinian one might pass.But the announcement was widely perceived as taking the side of Israel in the most sensitive issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.The Palestinians claim East Jerusalem, home to key Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites, and which Israel captured and annexed in 1967, as the capital of a future state. The international community has said the status of Jerusalem should be decided in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.Netanyahu has repeatedly praised Trump’s decision and said he expects other nations to follow suit. But so far, the announcement has triggered mostly denunciations and demonstrations around the world.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement and other groups have organized mass protests while its rival, the Gaza-based Hamas, has called for a violent uprising against Israel. In all, eight Palestinians have been killed, including two killed in airstrikes on a Hamas base and a Palestinian shot dead after stabbing a soldier.The unrest continued on Wednesday as dozens of Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where protesters burned a large American flag and hurled stones at the Israelis. Demonstrators also scuffled with Israeli police in East Jerusalem and along the Gaza border.Abbas has said that the US can no longer serve as the sole Mideast mediator, and he has been trying to rally support in Europe and the Arab world.On Wednesday, Abbas was meeting with leaders of Saudi Arabia, an influential country believed to have low-level but warming ties with Israel, before heading to France.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Hamas terror cell sought to kidnap Likud MK Yehudah Glick-3 charged with plotting against lawmaker and IDF's Arabic spokesman Avichai Adraee, before deciding that targeting a soldier or settler would be more feasible-By TOI staff-21 December 2017

Three Hamas terrorists were indicted Wednesday for planning to kidnap Likud MK Yehudah Glick and the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson.Last week, Shin Bet security service arrested the head of the cell, Mo’ad Eshtiya, 26, along with 19-year-old twin brothers Mohammed and Ahmad Ramadan in the Palestinian village of Tel near Nablus.According to the incident filed against the three in the Samaria Military Court, the suspects backtracked on their original plans to abduct Glick and the IDF’s Avichai Adraee and were instead plotting to kidnap an Israeli soldier or settler.Eshtiya looked up information on Glick and Adraee on the internet before deciding that kidnapping a soldier or settler would be more feasible, the indictment said.Following the arrests, the Shin Bet said that the Nablus-area cell had been in contact with officials from the terror group in the Gaza Strip, which was financing the operation.According to Israel Radio, the terror cell’s goal was to use the attack to advance negotiations for the release of Palestinian security prisoners currently in Israeli jails.Glick, an activist for Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount, though not at the expense of Muslim prayer at the disputed holy site, was shot four times at close range by a Palestinian assailant in 2014 and was severely injured. After recovering, he went on to become a Likud lawmaker.Speaking to The Times of Israel Wednesday, Glick thanked the security forces for their work in apprehending the terror cell members. “We must always remember that the quiet that exists in Israel is due to their efficient and dedicated activity,” he said.Glick pledged to continue serving the public “with all my strength.”“I am not afraid, but I certainly will continue to take all the necessary precautions,” the lawmaker added.

Spate of anti-Semitic cartoons seen in Arab media after Trump’s Jerusalem move-Anti-Defamation League documents rash of caricatures alleging Jewish and Israeli control over US politics-DEC 21,17-TOI

There has been an upsurge in anti-Semitic cartoons in Arab media in the wake of  US President Donald Trump’s declaration recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said on Tuesday.The ADL said that the issue had prompted a surge of “editorial cartoons suggesting Jewish and Israeli domination of the United States.”The ADL highlighted cartoons from Arabic-language publications in Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iran. They ranged from portraying Trump as a circus elephant balancing the globe on its trunk on the command of its Israeli trainer, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulling the arm of a blindfolded US raising a wand shaped as the Star of David, to Trump driving off a cliff in a car marked with a Star of David.Other images depicted the Israeli flag on top of an Uncle Sam top hat, Uncle Sam throwing away his hat to reveal a Jewish skullcap, and a Jewish figure giving the US a thumbs-up as it declares Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.“These cartoons resonate with an age-old anti-Semitic theme of malevolent Jewish power found in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated document purporting to show Jews scheming to achieve world domination,” the ADL said in its statement.In an address December 6 from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace, a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality. He also said the US embassy would move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem but did not give a schedule for the relocation.Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.The announcement was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. It was criticized by many countries, condemned by the Arab world, and infuriated Palestinians, whose leadership called for “days of rage” leading to violent demonstrations in the West Bank and on the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel.

Shunned by Palestinians, Trump envoy tells Netanyahu he’s still working on peace-Jason Greenblatt joined by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman for talks said to focus on 'peace efforts which will benefit both Israelis and Palestinians'-By AFP and TOI staff-21 December 2017

US President Donald Trump’s chief negotiator Jason Greenblatt met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday as part of the administration’s efforts to advance peace, the American official said.The meeting took place as tensions with the international community and the Palestinians remained high in the wake of Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.The Palestinians said the move disqualified the United States from its historic role as peace broker with the Israelis.Greenblatt was accompanied by US ambassador to Israel David Friedman in what the peace negotiator called in a Tweet “a check-in as the Administration continues with its peace efforts which will benefit both Israelis and Palestinians.”Together with @USAmbIsrael, met with Prime Minister @netanyahu as a check-in as the Administration continues with its peace efforts which will benefit both Israelis and Palestinians.— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) December 20, 2017-Officials from Netanyahu’s office offered no further information on the meeting.On Tuesday, Greenblatt met with the European Union’s special representative for the Middle East, Fernando Gentilini, as well as with Israeli Major General Yoav Mordechai, head of the COGAT defence ministry unit responsible for activities in the Palestinian territories, the US envoy said on Twitter.Greenblatt is a key member of a small team appointed by Trump who have been holding meetings in the region for months as part of efforts to relaunch the moribund diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians.Met with Special Representative Fernando Gentilini to hear his thoughts on recent developments, to discuss Gaza and the US peace efforts. Looking forward to continuing to work together.— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) December 19, 2017-Greenblatt’s visit to Israel was meant to precede that of Vice President Mike Pence, who was due to arrive on Wednesday but postponed the trip to January citing a need to attend a crucial Senate vote in Washington.Breaking with decades of US policy, Trump said on December 6 that he would move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And, in comments that further angered the Palestinians, a White House official said Friday that the US could not “envision any situation” under which the Western Wall would not be part of Israel.Met with Gen. Poli Mordechai @cogat_israel to discuss security and economic initiatives as well as catch up on other matters.— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) December 19, 2017-The moves were welcomed by Israel but have stirred widespread condemnation and sparked angry protests across Arab and Muslim countries, as well as deadly clashes in the West Bank and Gaza. Trump stressed that the city’s borders should be agreed upon between the sides under a peace deal, and that access to holy sites must not be impeded.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Palestinian officials would not meet US political officials, and called on China and Russia to take a greater role in creating a peace process instead.An aide to Abbas told The Times of Israel this week that the PA president would not meet with Kushner or any other member of the Trump peace team, in an open-ended boycott. Majdi al-Khalidi said that Greenblatt did not request a meeting with the Palestinians, with whom he has met on numerous occasions in the past. Greenblatt “knows that no meeting will happen, even if he asks,” said Khalidi.Abbas himself was meanwhile received in Saudi Arabia by King Salman on Wednesday, where the monarch pledged his country’s support for East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Palestinian minister slams US ‘threats’ ahead of UN Jerusalem vote-Turkish sponsor expects 'strong support' for General Assembly resolution slamming Trump's recognition of Israel's capital-By AFP and TOI staff-21 December 2017

ISTANBUL, Turkey – Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki on Wednesday accused Washington of “threatening” member countries of the UN General Assembly ahead of a vote on rejecting the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Malki said American officials were “committing another mistake when they have distributed this famous letter trying to threaten countries, (and) threaten their sovereign decision to choose how to vote.”He spoke at a press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Istanbul, shortly before both men left for New York.On Tuesday, Nikki Haley, Washington’s UN envoy, warned countries that she would report back to US President Donald Trump with the names of those who supported a draft resolution rejecting the US recognition.The UN General Assembly will hold an emergency session on Thursday to vote on the proposed measure, after the US vetoed a similar resolution for the Security Council.“This is really a new definition of world order in politics and it seems that the American administration… are putting their stamp on a new political reality that many countries will reject,” Malki said.Turkey and Yemen requested the urgent meeting on behalf of the Arab group of countries and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).The two countries circulated a draft resolution on Tuesday that mirrors the vetoed measure, reaffirming that any decision on the status of Jerusalem has no legal effect and must be rescinded.Malki said the UN session would show “how many countries will opt to vote with their conscience.”“They will vote for justice and they will vote in favor of that resolution that was presented by both Yemen and Turkey on behalf of the Arab group and OIC,” he said.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to lead Islamic condemnation of Trump’s Jerusalem plan, calling a summit of the leaders of Muslim nations last week in Istanbul, who urged the world to recognize East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 war and later annexed, in a move not recognized by most of the international community.In a December 6 address from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace, a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.The move was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.Cavusoglu said his country expected “strong support” for the Palestinian Authority in the UN General Assembly. “Everyone with a conscience … is against this decision that usurped Palestine’s rights,” he said.The foreign minister said any honorable country would not bow to US pressure, urging Washington to reverse its mistake.“God willing, I believe we will obtain a good result tomorrow (Thursday)”, he added.

IDF chief visits Gaza attack tunnels, amid lingering tensions-After defense minister says period of near-daily rocket fire is over, Eisenkot heads to southern Israel to congratulate his generals-By Judah Ari Gross-TOI-DEC 21,17

IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot on Wednesday toured two of the recently discovered attack tunnels dug by Palestinian terrorist groups from the Gaza Strip into Israel-The visit came amid lingering tensions with the coastal enclave, following a two-week period of near-daily rocket attacks from the Strip.During Eisenkot’s trip to the area, he met with the head of the IDF Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir, Israel’s chief military liaison to the Palestinians, Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, the head of the Gaza Division, Brig. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, and the commander of the Northern (Gaza) Brigade, Col. Avi Rosenfeld, the army said.In addition to hearing briefings from the officers and holding a “situational assessment,” Eisenkot also entered what remains of the two tunnels and inspected some of the newly developed military hardware used to locate and map them.On Tuesday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman declared that there would be no more attacks.“The ‘drizzle'” — the term used for sporadic rocket attacks — “is not continuing. We’ve already had one day of total quiet,” Liberman said on Tuesday, following a meeting with the heads of mayors and regional council leaders from the communities surrounding the Gaza Strip.On October 30, the Israel Defense Forces blew up one tunnel, which belonged to the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group. The tunnel was started in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and extended into Israeli territory, ending near Kibbutz Kissufim. In the blast, 12 members of the group were killed, including two senior officers, along with two members of Hamas.The Islamic Jihad vowed revenge and carried out a mortar attack against an Israeli military position northeast of the Strip exactly one month later. No IDF soldiers were injured, but the shelling caused damage.On December 10, the IDF destroyed yet another tunnel that began in Khan Younis, this one belonging to Hamas, which reached hundreds of meters inside Israel, the army said. The military used another, secret technique — not explosives — to destroy this second attack tunnel.“The Chief of Staff expressed his great appreciation of the Southern Command’s officers for their operational methods and preventive activity, which combines intelligence, operational and technological capabilities in dealing with the underground threat from the Gaza Strip, which has led to the recent achievements,” the army said in a statement.In the nearly two months since the army destroyed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad tunnel, there have been heightened tensions and a frequency of rocket attacks that haven’t been seen since before the 2014 Gaza war.Liberman on Tuesday described the increased rocket fire as being the “price” Israel had to pay for US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Some two dozen rockets have been fired at Israel by salafist terrorist groups since Trump made his proclamation on December 6. Israel has responded by targeting sites belonging to the Hamas terrorist group, which controls the Gaza Strip, with the hope that Hamas will work to stop the more radical groups.“We knew that the recognition by the US president would have a price,” Liberman said, adding that the price was worth gaining legitimacy for the city as Israel’s capital.But he said that this period of near-daily rocket attacks had come to an end.Liberman credited the military’s “unprecedented preparedness” with being the reason why Hamas ultimately decided to take action in recent days against the groups in the Gaza Strip who have been firing rockets.“That’s why we’ve seen thousands of salafists getting arrested by Hamas. And, in my view, after the interrogations they’ll go through in Hamas custody, no one will come back to attack, if they come back at all,” the defense minister said, alluding to the terror group’s brutal torture tactics.Until this point, it has not been clear if Hamas was tacitly supporting the rocket attacks or was simply not actively preventing them for political or strategic reasons.

Wars getting longer, more complex, UN chief warns-Competing global alliances, cyber threats, scarce resources and multiplying political factions and armed groups are making conflicts more intractable, Guterres says-By AP-TOI-DEC 21,17

UNITED NATIONS — Conflicts today are longer — more than 20 years on average — and often involve multiple armed groups competing for control of government institutions, natural resources and territory, the UN chief said Wednesday.Secretary General Antonio Guterres told a Security Council meeting on the growing complexity of challenges to international peace and security that “we are seeing not only a quantitative but also a qualitative change.”“The perils of nuclear weapons are again front and center, with tensions higher than they have been since the end of the Cold War,” he said.Guterres didn’t name any countries but he has repeatedly urged North Korea to halt its escalating nuclear and ballistic missile tests.The secretary-general also said “cybersecurity dangers are escalating,” climate change has emerged as “a threat multiplier” and water scarcity is “a growing concern.”He further warned that inequality and exclusion are feeding “frustration and marginalization.”While there has been a long-term decline in the number of armed conflicts, Guterres said “conflicts have surged” in the Middle East and parts of Africa.Conflicts are also “becoming more intractable,” he said, and they are becoming more regional and international.Guterres said political factions and armed groups are also multiplying, with hundreds of armed factions in Syria alone.“External military and financial support to conflict parties prolongs civil wars — and fuels wider tensions as local fights become proxies for larger rivalries,” Guterres said.“Conflicts are more linked with each other, and with the worldwide threat of terrorism,” he said. “And transnational drug smugglers and human traffickers perpetuate the chaos and prey on refugees and migrants.”Guterres said the UN must rethink its approaches to respond to the changing nature of conflicts — and prevention must be the key.He said achieving UN goals, such as ending extreme poverty, promoting economic development, protecting the environment, addressing climate change and achieving equality for women, are among the best “instruments of prevention.”

Trump warns over UN, but he likely can’t stop feeding the hand that bites-Slashing aid would be a strategic blunder, but the threat to countries that vote against the US signals that it may take other action over a resolution seen as beyond the pale-By Eric Cortellessa-TOI-DEC 21,17

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump’s threat to cut aid to countries that vote for a UN resolution condemning his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is likely just that — a threat.But in merely issuing the warning, the president managed to both assert what he expects from allies in exchange for the money and highlight the importance of this particular issue for the White House — even at the expense of national security commitments normally seen as sacrosanct.And even if he doesn’t actually cut aid money, he still might take other types of revenge in the international arena, former US officials said Wednesday.On Wednesday, Trump followed a comment by UN envoy Nikki Haley that the US would be “taking names” of who supports a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Washington’s Jerusalem decision by cautioning that aid could be cut as a result.“They take hundreds of millions of dollars and even billions of dollars, and then they vote against us. Well, we’re watching those votes. Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care,” Trump said at his last cabinet meeting of the year.An actual slashing of funds, though, could seriously impact the national security interests protected by aid money, particularly that which goes to Arab allies Egypt and Jordan — nations that are all but certain to back the resolution.It is “inconceivable” that the Trump White House would cut aid to either country, said Elliott Abrams, who held multiple high-level positions in the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush administrations.“In the case of Jordan, it’s a country with a friendly government that is now supporting a million Syrian refugees, that from a security point of view is an ally of ours when it comes to Iraq and Syria and Israel,” he told The Times of Israel. “So cutting off military aid to Jordan would be senseless from a point of American security interests in the Middle East. I don’t think that’s seriously being contemplated.”With Egypt, the US made clear in 2015 how important it considers aid to its ally when it reinstated military aid that had been frozen two years earlier in response to the overthrow of president Mohammed Morsi by current leader Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi.The funding slash had led to worries that Egypt could cancel its peace accord with Israel, destabilizing the Middle East.Jordan and Egypt each get over $1 billion a year from the US in military and other aid, according to the Congressional Research Service, money dwarfed only by the over annual $3 billion Israel gets. The money is considered as both humanitarian aid and a strategic investment, keeping the countries in Washington’s sphere of influence. Were it cut, the vacuum could be filled by Russia or other powerful countries.One former diplomat, however, said if countries were not backing the US in international forums, they might be better off investing it elsewhere.“Why not spend money for the same reason on countries that are prepared to work with the United States in the field of international affairs?” Richard Schifter, the former assistant secretary of state for humanitarian affairs in the Reagan and Bush administrations,  as well as an ex-US envoy to the UN’s Commission on Human Rights, told The Times of Israel. “I’m not suggesting that we cut it all off, but factor UN votes into this and then make the appropriate allocations.”Egypt has been one country that has consistently voted in favor of the myriad UN resolutions condemning the Jewish state for years, including a Security Council vote last year on Resolution 2334, which criticized Israel for its ongoing settlement enterprise in the West Bank.The Security Council resolution that condemned Trump’s Jerusalem move was supported by 14 states before being vetoed by Haley on Monday was drafted by Cairo. But the US has never publicly threatened to cut aid to it over votes at the UN.With Trump’s threat on Wednesday, nevertheless, the US may be following the playbook of Israel, which has become intertwined with Washington in this battle at the UN.Last year, after the UN Security Council passed its resolution condemning Israeli settlements, Israel cut aid to some African countries that supported the measure and leveled other diplomatic punishments at Western allies, such as recalling ambassadors, summoning foreign envoys on Christmas and reportedly canceling high-level meetings.Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that there are times when the US deems UN votes significant enough to inform decisions over where to allocate aid, but one vote is usually not the deciding factor.“Historically, we have sometimes considered UN votes when allocating aid,” he told The Times of Israel. “But it’s usually not about just one issue or one vote. So this would, I believe, be a precedent. It would also be a very bad idea because it would be trying to dictate to other countries how they should think about a specific issue that involves many matters of diplomatic strategy.”And yet, Abrams, for his part, said the resolution up for a vote on Thursday is different from past resolutions.“We have vetoed in the past plenty of resolutions and we have lost plenty of votes in the General Assembly that condemn Israel for something in a way that we think is very unfair,” he said. “But this isn’t about Israel. The United States made a decision about its diplomacy and the location of its embassy. We are being condemned. That’s what’s different about this.”-What could the US actually do, though?-While Abrams, a figure of the Washington establishment and pro-Israel community, who is often billed as a neoconservative, doesn’t deem it likely Trump would actually rollback American aid to its allies that vote for the Thursday resolution, he said there are other ways to make those countries pay.“There have been occasions when we have taken a harder line. I can remember occasions during the Bush administration when people on the White House Staff called foreign ministers and prime ministers and made it very clear that a particular vote had affected the bilateral relationship, and that it was now worse than it had been the day before,” he said.Instead of doing something that could damage US interests, the former diplomat said the next time the foreign minister or prime minister of one of these countries wants to meet with the US secretary of state or Trump’s national security adviser, they could just just say no; or the next time the secretary of state is due for a visit in the region, they could skip a stop in the capital of that country.“There are ways of showing displeasure that don’t destroy a relationship but that make the countries know that this is not something you can do without damaging the bilateral relationship,” Abrams said.“When people seek a World Bank loan or an IMF program, friends of ours, they will often come to the United States and say, ‘This what we’re asking for. We assume we’ll have your support.’ That’s the kind of thing where we could say, ‘Well, we assumed we’d have your support in the General Assembly. We’ll think about it,'” he continued.Actions like that, Abrams indicated, could be more efficacious than hollow threats that can’t be delivered on, like pulling aid from key US allies in the region.“What you really want them to do is that the next time somebody tries this, they work with us to avoid such a vote,” he said. “The goal here is not just to say, ‘We’re angry.’ The goal is to say, ‘We’re angry and this better not happen again.'”

Trump celebrates after Congress wraps up massive tax package-$1.5 trillion bill provides generous cuts for corporations and the wealthy, smaller cuts for middle- and low-income families-By Stephen Ohlemacher and Marcy Gordon-TOI-21 December 2017

WASHINGTON (AP) — US President Donald Trump cheered a massive overhaul of US tax laws Wednesday, saying “we broke every record.”Flanked by Republican lawmakers, the president took a bow outside the White House shortly after the House finished its last-minute re-vote to pass the $1.5 trillion bill that provides generous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans while providing smaller cuts for middle- and low-income families.Democrats call the legislation a boon to the rich that leaves middle-class and working Americans behind.Trump said the effort had “been an amazing experience” and claimed it resulted in “the largest tax cut in the history of our country.”Actually, Trump’s cuts are nowhere near the largest in US history.The vote was 224-201 and came hours after the Senate’s early morning passage along party lines.Republicans cheered when the vote tally hit the magic number for passage, and again when the final vote was announced. One Democrat yelled, “Do over!”It is the first major overhaul of the nation’s tax laws since 1986.On Twitter and in White House remarks, Trump hailed the outcome, his own efforts and the work of GOP allies, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who had drawn the president’s wrath for the Senate’s inability this past summer to dismantle the health care law.“Our team will go onto many more VICTORIES!” Trump tweeted.Congressional Republicans have cast the bill as a blessing for the middle class, an argument they will stress in their drive to hold onto their congressional majorities in next year’s midterm elections. But one comment by Trump could complicate their messaging.In praising the bill, Trump cited the deep cut in the corporate tax rate, from 35 percent to 21%.“That’s probably the biggest factor in our plan,” the president said at the White House.Within minutes, during a House debate at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, Rep. Richard Neal, a Massachusetts Democrat, jumped on Trump’s remarks, calling it proof that Republicans were never interested in passing meaningful tax cuts for the middle class.In a statement, Trump said: “By cutting taxes and reforming the broken system, we are now pouring rocket fuel into the engine of our economy.”The Senate used a post-midnight vote Wednesday morning to approve the measure on a party-line 51-48 tally. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, insisted Americans would respond positively to the tax bill.“If we can’t sell this to the American people, we ought to go into another line of work,” he said.In an eleventh-hour hiccup Tuesday, the Senate parliamentarian found that three minor provisions violated Senate rules, forcing lawmakers to strip them out.House Republicans had passed the bill Tuesday with all voting Democrats in opposition. Because of the language the Senate removed, the House had to revisit the measure Wednesday because each chamber must approve identical legislation before it can be signed into law.“People have been hit by the media and the Democrats on their TV screen that everyone is getting a big tax increase, and that’s just not the case,” Ryan said Wednesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”Starting next year, families making between $50,000 and $75,000 will get average tax cuts of $890, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Families making between $100,000 and $200,000 would get average tax cuts of $2,260, while families making more than $1 million would get average tax cuts of nearly $70,000, according to the analysis.But if the cuts for individuals are allowed to expire, most Americans — those making less than $75,000 — would see tax increases in 2027, according to congressional estimates.Ryan said Wednesday the GOP is willing to risk running up deficits with the aim of getting a higher annual economic growth rate.Trump is aching for a big political victory after 11 months of legislative failures and nonstarters. The president tweeted his congratulations to GOP leaders and to “all great House Republicans who voted in favor of cutting your taxes!”Congressional Republicans, who faltered badly in trying to dismantle Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, see passage of the tax bill as crucial to proving to Americans they can govern — and imperative for holding onto House and Senate majorities in next year’s midterm elections.“The proof will be in the paychecks,” Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, said during the Senate’s nighttime debate. “This is real tax relief, and it’s needed.”Not so, said the top Senate Democrat as the long, late hours led to testy moments Tuesday night.“We believe you are messing up America,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer told Republicans, chiding them for not listening to his remarks.The GOP has repeatedly argued the bill will spur economic growth as corporations, flush with cash, increase wages and hire more workers. But many voters in surveys see the legislation as a boost to the wealthy, such as Trump and his family, and a minor gain at best for the middle class.Tax cuts for corporations would be permanent while the cuts for individuals would expire in 2026 to comply with Senate budget rules. The tax cuts would take effect in January, and workers would start to see changes in the amount of taxes withheld from their paychecks in February.The top tax rate for well-off individuals would be lowered from 39.6% to 37%.The legislation repeals an important part of the 2010 health care law — the requirement that all Americans carry health insurance or face a penalty — as the GOP looks to unravel the law it failed to repeal and replace this past summer. It also allows oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.The $1,000-per-child tax credit doubles to $2,000, with up to $1,400 available in IRS refunds for families that owe little or no taxes.The bill is projected to add $1.46 trillion to the nation’s debt over a decade. GOP lawmakers say they expect a future Congress to continue the tax cuts so they won’t expire. That would drive up deficits even further.

Thursday, December 21, 2017

MY WOODBINE 2017 HARNESS RACE PREDICTIONS RD 37

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)

MY MOHAWK-WOODBINE HANOVER 2017 HARNESS RACE PREDICTIONS RESULTS
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/08/my-2017-mohawk-woodbine-harness-race.html

WOODBINE STANDARDBREAD HARNESS RACEWAY 2017 - RESULTS AS OF THU DEC-21,2017 - DAY-37

WOODBINE PICKS
01-4-8-7-2 W-6.30
02-8-6-2-5
03-3-2-1-9
04-3-9-1-6
05-7-9-5-4
06-8-2-1-6 W-3.20, P-3.50, EX-14.40
07-3-5-10-8 W-7.90, P-3.60, EX-20.50
08-3-1-9-4 4TH (9-1)
09-1-6-7-2 W-6.30
10-3-7-1-5-6 S-3.90
MONEY WON-$69.60 - OATOT $9,242.05

STANS PICKS
01-8-4-7-10 MY 7 WAS 5-1
02-6-8-4-7 MY 7 WAS 8-1, MY 4 WAS 12-1
03-2-3-1-9 P-2.80 - MY 1 WAS 5-1, MY 2 WAS 10-1
04-1-9-3-4 W-17.90
05-6-7-10-9 P-3.80 - MY 10 WAS 28-1
06-6-8-2-1
07-1-5-7-3 P-3.60
08-3-4-8-6 MY 3 WAS 5-1, MY 4 WAS 9-1
09-6-5-7-2 MY 2 WAS 10-1
10-3-5-7-1-10 MY 1 WAS 8-1, MY 10 WAS 71-1
MONEY WON-$28.10 - OATOT $9,590.40

ACTUAL RACE RESULTS
01-4-7-2-3
02-9-7-3-4
03-1-3-4-2
04-1-8-6-5
05-5-7-4-10
06-8-2-5-9
07-3-5-6-10
08-6-3-5-4
09-1-4-2-7
10-6-3-1-4-10

(WOODBINE PREDICTIONS)-RECORD 2017

01-120-BIG-$22.30 (NOV 06-10TH) (10-1)
02-064-BIG-$09.70 (NOV 10-8TH) (11-1)
03-046-BIG-$09.60 (NOV 03-4TH) (32-1)
04-056-BIG-36-1 (NOV 16-9TH)
1DD-04-BIG-$15.50 (NOV 02-2ND)
S EX-28-BIG-$82.50 (NOV 06-10TH)
S TRI-03-BIG-$62.10 (NOV 11-3RD)
S SUP-02-BIG-$42.45 (NOV 23-3RD)
M EX-20-BIG-$73.40 (NOV 27-2ND)
M TRI-24-BIG-$244.50 (NOV 11-7TH)
M SUP-19-BIG-$634.90 (DEC 09-7TH)
P3 (1-3)-02-BIG-$26.55 (NOV 02-3RD)
P3 (2-4)-02-BIG-$14.90 (NOV 10-4TH)
P3 (3-5)-01-BIG-$21.10 (DEC 04-5TH)
P5 (1-5)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
P3 (4-6)-02-BIG-$54.25 (NOV 18-6TH)
P3 (5-7)-01-BIG-$15.20 (NOV 02-7TH)
P4 (4-7)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
P3 (6-8)-02-BIG-$17.30 (DEC 15-8TH)
P3 (7-9)-01-BIG-$11.20 (DEC 15-9TH)
P3 (8-10)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
P4 (7-10)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
10TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$0.00
10TH -P5 (HF)-M-01-BIG-$212.90 (NOV 16-10TH)
2DD-01-BIG-$04.90 (NOV 16-10TH)
5-1+ LONG-(05)-126-23.0%
LONGEST-32-1 (NOV 03-4TH)
OALTCI-(17)-547
TOP 4 PICKS EACH RACE-01-03,02-00,03-03,04-02,05-03,06-02,07-03,08-02,09-03,10-02=23-40-OATOT-888-1480-60.0%

(STANS PREDICTIONS)-RECORD AT WOODBINE 2017

01-098-BIG-$37.60 (NOV 03-8TH (17-1)
02-053-BIG-$08.20 (NOV 23-1ST) (14-1)
03-051-BIG-$12.50 (OCT 28-7TH) (47-1)
04-041-BIG-59-1 (DEC 14-9TH)
1DD-05-BIG-$60.30 (OCT 20-2ND)
S EX-17-BIG-$86.70 (DEC 02-9TH)
S TRI-03-BIG-$53.90 (DEC 07-1ST)
S SUP-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
M EX-12-BIG-$81.70 (DEC 01-10TH)
M TRI-16-BIG-$172.90 (OCT 28-9TH)
M SUP-16-BIG-$1,125.95 (OCT 23-4TH)
P3 (1-3)-01-BIG-$25.40 (NOV 30-3RD)
P3 (2-4)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
P3 (3-5)-02-BIG-$21.10 (DEC 04-5TH)
P5 (1-5)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
P3 (4-6)-02-BIG-$45.40 (NOV 03-6TH)
P3 (5-7)-02-BIG-$131.90 (NOV 03-7TH)
P4 (4-7)-01-BIG-$816.15 (NOV 03-7TH)
P3 (6-8)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
P3 (7-9)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
P3 (8-10)-01-BIG-$17.30 (OCT 26-10TH)
P4 (7-10)-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
10TH -P5 (HF)-S-00-BIG-$00.00 (DEC 00-0TH)
10TH -P5 (HF)-M-01-BIG-$304.50 (NOV 13-10TH)
2DD-03-BIG-$29.20 (OCT 26-10TH)
5-1+ LONG-(04)-165-30.2%
LONGEST-51-1 (NOV 03-5TH)
OALTCI-(17)-547
TOP 4 PICKS EACH RACE-01-02,02-02,03-03,04-01,05-02,06-02,07-02,08-03,09-02,10-02=21-40-OATOT-838-1480-56.6%

OALTCI-OVERALL LONGSHOT TOTAL THAT CAME IN THIS RACE SEASON 5-1+.
T4 P-ER-TOTAL 4 PLACINGS EACH RACE.
OATOT-OVERALL TOTAL TOP 4 PLACINGS. THIS RACE SEASON.

THE DOW WAS DOWN 28 POINTS WEDNESDAY-YESTERDAY.

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)

HOARDING OF GOLD AND SILVER

JAMES 5:1-3
1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

REVELATION 18:10,17,19
10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.(IN 1 HR THE STOCK MARKETS WORLDWIDE WILL CRASH)
17 For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
19 And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

EZEKIEL 7:19
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed:(CONFISCATED) their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

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.

REVELATION 13:16-18
16 And he(THE FALSE POPE WHO DEFECTED FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH) causeth all,(IN THE WORLD ) both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:(MICROCHIP IMPLANT)
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark,(MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the name of the beast,(WORLD DICTATORS NAME INGRAVED ON YOUR SKIN OR TATTOOED ON YOU OR IN THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT) or the number of his name.(THE NUMBERS OF HIS NAME INGRAVED IN THE MICROCHIP IMLPLANT)-(ALL THESE WILL TELL THE WORLD DICTATOR THAT YOUR WITH HIM AND AGAINST KING JESUS-GOD)
18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast:(WORLD LEADER) for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.(6-6-6) A NUMBER SYSTEM (6006006)OR(60020202006)(SOME KIND OF NUMBER IMPLANTED IN THE MICROCHIP THAT TELLS THE WORLD DICTATOR AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER THAT YOU GIVE YOUR TOTAL ALLIGIENCE TO HIM AND NOT JESUS)(ITS AN ETERNAL DECISION YOU MAKE)(YOU CHOOSE YOUR OWN DESTINY)(YOU TAKE THE DICTATORS NAME OR NUMBER UNDER YOUR SKIN,YOUR DOOMED TO THE LAKE OF FIRE AND TORMENTS FOREVER,NEVER ENDING MEANT ONLY FOR SATAN AND HIS ANGELS,NOT HUMAN BEINGS).OR YOU REFUSE THE MICROCHIP IMPLANT AND GO ON THE SIDE OF KING JESUS AND RULE FOREVER WITH HIM ON EARTH.YOU CHOOSE,ITS YOUR DECISION.

1 KINGS 10:13-14
13  And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.
14  Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred threescore and six talents of gold,

GENESIS 49:16-17
16  Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.
17  Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

REVELATION 6:5-6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.(A DAYS WAGES FOR A LOAF OF BREAD)

DOCTOR DOCTORIAN FROM ANGEL OF GOD
then the angel said, Financial crisis will come to Asia. I will shake the world.

BANK RELATED INFORMATION
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2015/09/bank-related-links.html 
CURRENCIES
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/currencies
COMMODITIES
http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities 


UPDATE-DECEMBER 21,2017-12:00AM

DOW MARKET THURSDAY-DECEMBER 21,,2017
09:30AM-5.07
10:00AM-74.16
10:30AM-93.16
11:00AM-103.18
11:30AM-114.25
12:00PM-101.67
12:30PM-96.90
01:00PM-110.18
01:30PM-117.39
02:00PM-97.70
02:30PM-88.61
03:00PM-98.28
03:30PM-91.25
04:00PM-55.64+ 24782.29 - S&P +5.32 2684.57 - NASDAQ +4.40 6965.36
HIGH +123 LOW +05
TSX +22.96 16,182.63 - GOLD $+00.94 $1,266.52 - OIL $+0.24 $58.33

EARTHQUAKES

EZEKIEL 37:7,11-14
7  So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.(POSSIBLE QUAKE BRINGS ISRAEL BACK TO LIFE-SO NOISE AND SHAKING-QUAKES WILL ALSO DESTROY ISRAELS ENEMIES)
11  Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.
12  Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.
13  And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14  And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places,(DIFFERNT PLACES AT THE SAME TIME) and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

UPDATE-DECEMBER 21, 2017-11:55PM

1 Day, Magnitude 2.5+ U.S.21 of 21 earthquakes in map area.

    4.8-60km SSW of Hirara, Japan-2017-12-21 21:05:13 (UTC)-35.0 km
    2.5-87km SSE of Homer, Alaska-2017-12-21 20:31:42 (UTC)-24.0 km
    4.6-5km SW of Andalucia, Colombia-2017-12-21 19:26:40 (UTC)-156.3 km
    4.3-60km W of Ravar, Iran-2017-12-21 18:33:43 (UTC)-10.0 km
    4.1-48km SSW of Jarm, Afghanistan-2017-12-21 17:58:10 (UTC)-208.0 km
    5.2-51km WNW of Ravar, Iran-2017-12-21 17:04:46 (UTC)-10.0 km
    4.9-89km WSW of San Antonio, Chile-2017-12-21 14:20:59 (UTC)-10.0 km
    3.6-32km NNE of Anchor Point, Alaska-2017-12-21 11:46:08 (UTC)-35.1 km
    3.5-94km NNW of Talkeetna, Alaska-2017-12-21 10:13:02 (UTC)-124.5 km
    3.0-6km SSW of Langston, Oklahoma-2017-12-21 08:05:26 (UTC)-3.1 km
    4.4-40km SSE of Jarm, Afghanistan-2017-12-21 07:28:36 (UTC)-147.5 km
    2.5-18km SSW of Cantua Creek, CA-2017-12-21 06:27:52 (UTC)-10.1 km
    2.5-17km SE of Pahala, Hawaii-2017-12-21 06:08:08 (UTC)-34.6 km
    3.4-81km S of Homer, Alaska-2017-12-21 05:25:57 (UTC)-23.9 km
    4.5-149km N of Calama, Chile-2017-12-21 04:39:24 (UTC)-137.6 km
    3.4-8km SW of Langston, Oklahoma-2017-12-21 04:22:24 (UTC)-10.0 km
    5.1-98km E of Nishinoomote, Japan-2017-12-21 03:40:57 (UTC)-30.7 km
    5.0-13km W of San Pedro Jicayan, Mexico-2017-12-21 03:23:39 (UTC)-14.1 km
    5.7-249km NNE of Chichi-shima, Japan-2017-12-21 03:00:19 (UTC)-16.2 km
    4.4-14km NW of Sarpol-e Zahab, Iran-2017-12-21 02:50:15 (UTC)-10.0 km
    5.2-244km N of Chichi-shima, Japan-2017-12-21 01:56:53 (UTC)-7.8 km
    4.9-240km N of Chichi-shima, Japan-2017-12-21 00:42:35 (UTC)-10.0 km
    5.0-239km N of Chichi-shima, Japan-2017-12-21 00:40:12 (UTC)-10.1 km
    3.7-50km SSE of Amukta Island, Alaska-2017-12-21 00:10:51 (UTC)-42.3 km

STOCK MARKET AND EARTHQUAKE NEWS
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-down-37-points-tuesday.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-points-monday-yesterday.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-up-143-points-friday-new.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/weekend-quake-results-for-december-16.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-down-76-points-thursday.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-up-80-points-wednesday.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-up-118-points-tuesday.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-up-56-points-monday.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/the-dow-was-up-117-points-friday-new.html 
http://israndjer.blogspot.ca/2017/12/weekend-quake-results-for-december-09.html   

NORTH KOREA TESTING BIOLOGICAL WARHEADS FOR ITS MISSLES.

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

As Christmas nears in Bethlehem, Trump’s Jerusalem shift looms large-Locals in the West Bank birthplace of Jesus say protests against the US recognition of Israel's capital have driven away tourists-By AP and TOI staff-DEC 20,17

BETHLEHEM, West Bank — US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital looms large in Christmas festivities this year in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.Some food vendors, sellers of holiday trinkets and a leading hotelier in biblical Bethlehem say Palestinian protests, triggered by what many here view as a provocative show of pro-Israel bias, have hurt their Christmas business.Yet Bethlehem also offers a stage for a Palestinian rebuttal: Banners proclaiming Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Palestine have been draped over facades on Manger Square as a backdrop for Christmas TV broadcasts to a global audience.The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is keenly felt — perhaps even more so at Christmas — in Bethlehem, just a few miles (kilometers) south of contested Jerusalem.Israel’s West Bank security barrier — built by Israel to thwart a strategic onslaught of Palestinian suicide bombers in the Second Intifada 15 years ago — cuts into Bethlehem and a segment of it has become a tourist magnet in its own right. Its cement slabs are covered with works by international graffiti artists such as Banksy and pro-Palestinian slogans left by visitors.While Palestinians try to draw attention to the barrier when foreigners pour in for Christmas, Trump’s policy shift on Jerusalem two weeks ago has emerged as the dominant theme this year. It went against an international consensus that the fate of the city should be determined in negotiations. Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem houses major Jewish, Christian and Muslim shrines, and Palestinians seek it as a future capital.In an address December 6 from the White House, Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace, a new approach was long overdue. He described his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.The move was hailed by Prime Minister Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. But the declaration was condemned worldwide, and triggered clashes in the Palestinian territories between stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers.The Hamas terror group, which seeks Israel’s destruction, called for a new intifada against Israel and allowed thousands of Gazans to clash with Israeli troops at the Gaza border fence in the days that followed the announcement. Eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire, most on the Gaza border, and scores were wounded during the clashes.In Bethlehem, the fallout was felt immediately.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was to have received US Vice President Mike Pence, a devout Christian, in Bethlehem, but canceled after the US pivot on Jerusalem. The snub came as Abbas shifted from cooperating with the US to rejecting Washington as a peace broker.Meanwhile, Bethlehem’s flagship luxury hotel, the 250-bed Jacir Palace, closed because of frequent nearby clashes.General manager Marwan Kittani said the hotel had been fully booked for Christmas, but that he is now assessing day by day if he can reopen.Palestinian activists have called for more protests.In Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity built over Jesus’ traditional birth grotto, some merchants blamed Trump for a drop in business.Two souvenir shop owners selling nativity scenes and tree decorations carved from olive wood said they hadn’t had any customers by early afternoon.Mahmoud Salahat, who sells pomegranate juice on the square, said his main source of income — Arab citizens of Israel — largely stayed away from Bethlehem during the past two weeks, apparently fearing trouble on the roads.Palestinian officials took a more upbeat view.The Christmas season caps a banner year for tourism in the Palestinian territories, with 2.7 million visitors in 2017, compared to 2.3 million in 2016, said Tourism Ministry official Jiries Qumsieh. Despite some cancellations, Bethlehem’s 4,000 hotel rooms were more than 90 percent booked for Christmas, he said.Christmas also offers an annual opportunity for Abbas to court international sympathy for longstanding Palestinian demands for statehood in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, lands Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war. Abbas rival Hamas, which dominates Gaza, seeks a state in all of historic Palestine, including what is now Israel.The vast majority of Palestinians are Muslims, but Abbas — like the late Yasser Arafat before him — values close ties with the Christian minority, regularly attending Christmas Eve mass at the Church of the Nativity, which is broadcast live.This year, TV footage will likely show two large banners hanging from roofs in Manger Square, reading: “Jerusalem will always be the eternal capital of Palestine.”Activists also plan to circulate a petition to Christmas visitors in support of Palestinian claims to Jerusalem and distribute stickers reading: “We (heart) Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine,” said organizer Munther Amira.Earlier this week, two dozen protesters assembled near the square’s towering Christmas tree, holding white candles and photos of Pence and Jason Greenblatt, a member of Trump’s Mideast team.“Bethlehem welcomes the messengers of peace, not the messengers of war,” read the captions under the photos.The protesters the held the candles to the photos and burned them.Amira said it was a protest against US policy, not the American people.Some tourists seem baffled by the politics and are mainly drawn to the Nativity basilica, currently under renovation and partly covered by scaffolding.German pilgrim Ludmilla Trifl said she reserves judgment because she doesn’t know enough about the conflict.The security barrier at the entrance to Bethlehem “does not look good,” she said. Israel says the barrier is to keep out Palestinian terrorists, while Palestinians call it a land grab.Along the barrier, a different type of tourism has emerged.The area around the Walled-Off Hotel, a Banksy-linked guesthouse that opened in March, has become a center for political street art. A recent wall piece said to have been created by Banksy shows two angels, one with a crowbar, on either side of a gap between cement slabs, each trying to widening the opening.A nearby shop called “Wall-Mart” offers stencils and spray paint — with prices for slogan sizes ranging from $14 to $26 — to help visitors to leave their mark.On a recent morning, Australian Farzanah Fazli shook spray cans, filling in a stencil she had taped to the wall. Slowly, the words “Once upon a time, there was humanity” emerged — meant to express her view that Israeli policies have dehumanized the Palestinians.Fazli, 30, a London-based accountant, said leaving that message was the highlight of her Middle East trip, even if it is eventually painted over by others.Graffiti shop employee Wanda Handal, 21, said artists have transformed her neighborhood.“Back in the day, it was the creepy street,” she said. Now, “the street is alive, art everywhere.”

800 Palestinians riot in West Bank over Jerusalem recognition-Another 'day of rage' called over US declaration on Israel's capital; heaviest clashes take place near Qalandiya-By Marissa Newman-TOI-DEC 20,17

3:22 pm-800 Palestinians riot in West Bank over Jerusalem-Some 800 Palestinians are taking part in violent demonstrations across the West Bank, following calls by Palestinian leadership for another “day of rage” in response to US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.“Over the past few hours, riots have erupted across Judea and Samaria,” an army spokesperson says, using the biblical name for the West Bank.The largest demonstration is taking place at the Qalandiya Crossing, outside Jerusalem, where hundreds of the Palestinians are clashing with Israeli troops.In the riots, protesters are throwing Molotov cocktails and rocks at troops and set tires on fire. The soldiers are responding with less-lethal riot dispersal weapons, like tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets. The army spokesperson says soldiers have not fired live rounds at protesters.As a result of the Qalandiya clashes, the crossing — the West Bank’s largest — has been shut down, the army says.— Judah Ari Gross-3:00 pm-Egyptian forces clash with jihadists near Sinai airport-Egyptian officials say security forces have clashed with jihadists near the airport of the northern Sinai city of el-Arish, killing five of them a day after a missile hit the facility during a visit by the defense and interior ministers.The officials say an army captain was killed in Wednesday’s fighting in olive orchards near the airport. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.The clashes came a day after a missile hit the airport during a previously unannounced visit to el-Arish by Defense Minister Sedki Sobhy and Interior Minister Magdy Abdel-Ghaffar, who is in charge of police.— Agencies-2:54 pm-Abbas meets Saudi king in Riyadh over Jerusalem-Palestinian Authority President meets with the Saudi King Salman in Riyadh to discuss the recent decision by US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.“During their meeting, the president briefed [Salman] on the latest developments and contacts being made by [Abbas] to protect Jerusalem from the dangers posed by the announcement by US President Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” the PA’s official news site Wafa says of the meeting.After the private summit, a luncheon meeting was held between Saudi and Palestinian delegations, the report says.Abbas was also slated to meet with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman later, according to Wafa.— Dov Lieber-2:36 pm-Ahmadinejad’s VP sentenced to 63 years in prison-Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency says a former vice president has been sentenced to 63 years in prison over misuse of public funds while in office.The sentence against Hamid Baghaei is the longest for a former official in Iran in decades. Tehran’s Justice Department says the verdict was reached on Tuesday.Baghaei was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s vice president in charge of executive affairs. He was briefly detained in 2015, and his trial on corruption charges began later that year but he wasn’t in custody.In May, Baghaei applied to run for president but was rejected. He has 20 days to appeal.The verdict comes against the backdrop of frequent criticism by Ahmadinejad and his allies against the judiciary.Ahmadinejad on Tuesday called Iran’s chief justice, Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani, “incompetent.”— AP-2:19 pm-Turkey slams UAE over ‘forefathers’ jab-Turkey’s president is railing against the United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister, who retweeted a post that accused the Turkish leader’s Ottoman “forefathers” of mistreating Arabs and stealing manuscripts from the holy city of Medina.Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday calls on UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al Nahyan to “know (his) place!” without naming him directly.Erdogan says the Ottoman pasha who governed Medina between 1916 and 1919 was protecting the holy city and its treasures, adding: “O you poor (man) who is slandering us, where were your ancestors at the time?”The squabble comes at a time when Turkey has sided with Qatar in a diplomatic dispute with the UAE and other Gulf nations over Doha’s alleged support for extremists and overly warm ties to Iran.— AP-2:03 pm-Vatican envoy: Unilateral moves on Jerusalem threaten peace-The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land says the status of Jerusalem should not be altered by “unilateral decisions,” amid protests over the US recognition of the city as Israel’s capital.Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa says in a statement that “unilateral decisions will not bring peace, but rather will distance it. Jerusalem is a treasure of all humanity. Any exclusive claim — be it political or religious — is contrary to the city’s own logic.”— AP-2:02 pm-Turkish FM will travel to UN to vote on Jerusalem resolution-Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says he will travel to New York with his Palestinian counterpart to attend the UN General Assembly vote seeking to reject US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Cavusoglu tells reporters in Baku, Azerbaijan, that Turkey wants the United States to reverse its “wrong and unacceptable” decision.Cavusoglu says he and Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki will depart from Istanbul later in the day for the vote on a non-binding resolution on Jerusalem, which is due on Thursday.The General Assembly session was called after the United States vetoed a Security Council resolution that would have required the Trump administration to rescind its Jerusalem decision.Ankara has been among the most vocal critics of Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem.— AP.

Child labor encouraged as Israeli teens excavate 1,500-year-old Byzantine church-Ahead of Ramat Beit Shemesh expansion, discovery of wonderfully preserved compound that was 'swept under the carpet' by later Islamic-period agriculture-By Amanda Borschel-Dan-TOI-DEC 20,17

Contrary to the statement in the Book of Ecclesiastes, in the world of Israeli archaeology there is much new under the sun — under the House of the Sun, the literal translation of the name of central Israel city Beit Shemesh, that is.In the course of salvage excavations in the central Israel city of Beit Shemesh, archaeologists discovered a massive Byzantine-era church complex of unprecedented size and apparent wealth for the region. Used from circa 150 CE, it was abandoned during the 7th century and eventually used as farm land by early-Islamic period farmers.Prior to routine test trenching ahead of planned construction during the expansion of the Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood, archaeologists “had absolutely no clue” that the compound lay beneath the surface, said Israel Antiquities Authority director of the excavations Benyamin Storchan on Wednesday.As the archaeologists began uncovering massive stone walls, “we knew we had something big,” Storchan said, adding, “The smoking gun was when we uncovered the decorative mosaic floor.”While the excavation is still in early stages, the site’s significance can be seen in its enormous size along with the presence of imported marble from Turkey. Hundreds of coins were uncovered, as were rare materials, such as glass, which were also used for decorations. Additionally, the structure had a surprisingly large number of windowpanes and ceramic roof tiles, which indicates its high status as a public building, Storchan said.All of these riches were “swept under the carpet” and preserved when the structure was covered with earth by farmers who obliterated the Christian presence and went on to cultivate the land following the church’s abandonment, he said.Storchan’s ongoing dig, funded by the Construction and Housing Ministry and implemented by the CPM Corporation managed by Anatoly Snider, is being conducted with the help of over 1,000 teenagers.For the past three years, the IAA has made a major effort “to make use of teenagers as the manual labor force,” said the US-born Storchan, half-jokingly. Since the current excavation began this summer, it has been “completely staffed by teens, groups from schools, volunteers, summer job kids and pre-army kids. They’ve done all the digging. I haven’t found anything, I’m just putting it together,” he laughed.-Unprecedented preservation-Storchan’s dig is being conducted ahead of a controversial Ramat Beit Shemesh expansion, which has been marked by clashes between ultra-Orthodox residents, developers and environmental groups, as well as archaeologists.In 2013, the discovery of ancient Jewish graves and fear of their desecration led to violent protests in the city and Jerusalem. A fringe group of ultra-Orthodox extremists beat up Haredi businessman Aryeh Golobinzitz, one of the project’s managers, in his Jerusalem home.Although they can slow the construction of the neighborhood, discoveries such as the 2014 find of an ancient Christian church and oil and wine presses a 10-minute walk to the west from Storchan’s site have been met with less controversy, and plans are underway to display the archaeology within the residential development.Excavation and research are ongoing at Storchan’s site, but preliminary findings are promising for future recognition of the site’s importance to the heritage of the Land of Israel.“We were surprised by the wonderful state of preservation of the ancient remains, and the richness of the finds being uncovered. During the excavation, we uncovered before our eyes the remains of walls built of large worked stone masonry and a number of architectural elements including a marble pillar base decorated with crosses and marble window screens,” said Storchan in an IAA press release.“The marble artifacts were brought from the region of Turkey and further inland by wagon. In one of the rooms we uncovered a beautiful mosaic floor decorated with birds, leafs, and pomegranates,” said Storchan.A number of ancient churches and monasteries have been discovered in the Judean Shephelah region, including during the Ramat Beit Shemesh expansion. This compound is significant for its “outstanding preservation” and massive size.“The artifacts found in the large building, which seems to be a monastic compound, may indicate that the site was important and perhaps a center for ancient pilgrims in the Judean Shephelah region,” said Storchan.Ahead of further excavation, the archaeologists are now able to draw up a reconstruction of the main building’s plan based on their findings and other similar structures throughout the Byzantine Empire.“In the ancient Byzantine period, we can typify two types of churches: local community and larger, possible pilgrim sites which were not just the day-to-day [churches] to serve the community,” said Storchan.The east-west orientation of the Ramat Beit Shemesh church and the discovery of two side aisles also point to plans typical of important structures such as those found in large regional seats Caesarea, Jerusalem, and Ashkelon.-Unexpected cross-cultural connections-Among the 1,000 students working on the site, some were using their salaries to fund a class trip to Poland to learn about the Holocaust and the decimation of the historic Jewish communities there.Along the way, the students began encountering firsthand a period of Israeli history little taught in public schools.According to 16-year-old Hadas Keich, a student at the Sde Boker Field School, “Little by little we uncovered here exciting finds, which helped to connect us to our country and its history. It is amazing what is hidden here beneath our feet.”Archaeologist Storchan said that as the excavations proceeded, “I realized that much of the Israeli youth, when it comes to after the Roman period, the history of Israel is basically a vacuum until the Ottoman period.”As the students dig up their homeland, the hands-on work has connected them to a culture and religion that, while not their own, are now part of their national narrative.“The finds here have been so exquisite, and the students are so excited, that week after week as we’ve uncovered more, I’ve realized that they’ve really related to it as the history of their country,” said Storchan.

EU: Brexit transition period to finish at end of 2020-Chief negotiator says free immigration for EU nationals, subservience to European Court of Justice must continue until deadline-By Danny Kemp-DEC 20,17-TOI

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Commission said on Wednesday that a Brexit transition period during which Britain must obey EU rules should last until the end of 2020.The development comes after EU leaders last week signed off on the first stage of Brexit negotiations, ending more than a year of stalemate over Britain’s bill for leaving the bloc, as well the fate of the Irish border and EU expatriates.Unveiling the EU executive branch’s new negotiating guidelines, chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that during the transition period, Britain would remain part of the bloc’s single market, which includes freedom of immigration for EU nationals.It would also be subject to the European Court of Justice, while playing no role in decision-making in the bloc during the transition period lasting from the day Britain leaves the union on March 29, 2019.Britain had indicated that it wanted a longer transition period of around two years — three months longer than the new EU deadline.“The transition period is useful and will enable Britain to get prepared for the kind of challenges that they will have to face, and to prepare also for the complications of the new relationship,” Barnier told a press conference in Brussels as he unveiled new Brexit negotiating guidelines.Formal talks on a transition period are due to start in January, with negotiations on the future relationship between Britain and the EU, including steps toward an eventual trade deal, in March.The guidelines spell out in detail how Britain would be required to follow EU rules, including new laws, and for the first time spell out exactly how long the commission believes the transition should last.“The transitional arrangements should apply as from the date of entry into force of the Withdrawal Agreement and should not last beyond 31 December 2020,” the guidelines said.As she presses for the quick transition deal, Prime Minister Theresa May faces opposition from hardline euroskeptics in her Conservative Party over the EU’s terms.May has already accepted in theory the continued jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and that London will have no legal basis to conclude its own trade deals during the period.Influential pro-Brexit lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg slammed this demand as “rather hostile,” leaving the UK “no more than a vassal state, a colony, a serf of the European Union.”May insisted to British lawmakers on Monday that the transition is necessary as it would provide continuity for businesses and individuals until the future relationship could be resolved.She repeated that Britain would be leaving the EU’s single market and customs union, but said the transition arrangements were “a practical matter that most people will understand and appreciate.”The next phase comes as Barnier ruffled feathers in London on Tuesday with a warning that any ties after Brexit would inevitably result in Britain’s financial companies losing full rights to trade across the bloc.This was a consequence of “the red lines that the British have chosen themselves. In leaving the single market, they lose the financial services passport,” Barnier told a group of European newspapers.

9,000-plus died in battle for Mosul — nearly 10 times more than thought-NGO figures show Iraqi or coalition forces responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths in war against Islamic State-By SUSANNAH GEORGE, Qassim Abdul-Zahra, MAGGIE MICHAEL and Lori Hinnant-DEC 20,17-TOI

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was between 9,000 and 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported. The number killed in the nine-month battle to liberate the city from the Islamic State marauders has not been acknowledged by the US-led coalition, the Iraqi government or the self-styled caliphate.But Mosul’s gravediggers, its morgue workers and the volunteers who retrieve bodies from the city’s rubble are keeping count.Iraqi or coalition forces are responsible for at least 3,200 civilian deaths from airstrikes, artillery fire or mortar rounds between October 2016 and the fall of the Islamic State group in July 2017, according to an Associated Press investigation that cross-referenced independent databases from non-governmental organizations.Most of those victims are simply described as “crushed” in health ministry reports.The coalition, which says it lacks the resources to send investigators into Mosul, acknowledges responsibility for only 326 of the deaths.“It was the biggest assault on a city in a couple of generations, all told. And thousands died,” said Chris Woods, head of Airwars, an independent organization that documents air and artillery strikes in Iraq and Syria and shared its database with the AP.“There doesn’t seem to be any disagreement about that, except from the federal government and the coalition. And understanding how those civilians died, and obviously ISIS played a big part in that as well, could help save a lot of lives the next time something like this has to happen. And the disinterest in any sort of investigation is very disheartening,” Woods said, using an alternative acronym for IS.In addition to the Airwars database, the AP analyzed information from Amnesty International, Iraq Body Count and a United Nations report. AP also obtained a list of 9,606 names of people killed during the operation from Mosul’s morgue. Hundreds of dead civilians are believed to still be buried in the rubble.Of the nearly 10,000 deaths the AP found, around a third of the casualties died in bombardments by the US-led coalition or Iraqi forces, the AP analysis found. Another third of the dead were killed in the Islamic State group’s final frenzy of violence. And it could not be determined which side was responsible for the deaths of the remainder, who were cowering in neighborhoods battered by airstrikes, IS explosives and mortar rounds from all sides.But the morgue total would be many times higher than official tolls. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi told the AP that 1,260 civilians were killed in the fighting. The US-led coalition has not offered an overall figure. The coalition relies on drone footage, video from cameras mounted on weapons systems and pilot observations. Its investigators have neither visited the morgue nor requested its data.What is clear from the tallies is that as coalition and Iraqi government forces increased their pace, civilians were dying in ever higher numbers at the hands of their liberators — from 20 the week the operation began in mid-October 2016 to 303 in a single week at the end of June 2017, according to the AP tally.Abdel-Hafiz Mohammed, who kept his job as undertaker throughout the militants’ rule, has carved approximately 2,000 headstones for the al-Jadidah graveyard alone since October 2016, the month the battle began.After the city fell to IS in 2014, undertakers like him handled the victims of beheadings and stonings. There were men accused of homosexuality who had been flung from rooftops. But once the operation to free the city started, the scope of Mohammed’s work changed yet again.“Now I carve stones for entire families,” Mohammed said, gesturing to a stack of four headstones, all bearing the same name. “It’s a single family, all killed in an airstrike,” he said.-Dying at home, on the front-Mosul was home to more than a million civilians before the fight to retake it from IS. Fearing a massive humanitarian crisis, the Iraqi government dropped leaflets or had soldiers tell families to stay put as the final battle loomed in late 2016.Thousands were trapped as the front line enveloped densely populated neighborhoods.Blast injuries, gunshot wounds and shrapnel wounds killed thousands as the Mosul operation ground westward, according to morgue documents.When Iraqi forces became bogged down in late December, the Pentagon adjusted the rules regarding the use of airpower, allowing airstrikes to be called in by more ground commanders with less chain-of-command oversight.At the same time, Islamic State fighters took thousands of civilians with them in their retreat west. They packed hundreds of families into schools and government buildings, sometimes shunting civilians through tunnels from one fighting position to another.They expected the tactic would dissuade airstrikes and artillery. They were wrong.As the fight punched into western Mosul, the morgue logs filled with civilians increasingly killed by being “blown to pieces.”By early March, Iraqi officials and the US-led coalition could see that civilian deaths were spiking, but held the course. The result, in Mosul and later in the group’s Syrian stronghold of Raqqa, was a city left in ruins by the battle to save it.Most of the civilians killed in west Mosul died under the weight of collapsed buildings, hit by airstrikes, mortars, artillery shells or IS-laid explosives. The morgue provided lists of names of civilians and place of death. Names often included entire families.The coalition has defended its operational choices, saying it was Islamic State that put civilians in danger as it clung to power.“It is simply irresponsible to focus criticism on inadvertent casualties caused by the Coalition’s war to defeat ISIS,” Col. Thomas Veale, a coalition spokesman, told the AP in response to questions about civilian deaths.“Without the Coalition’s air and ground campaign against ISIS, there would have inevitably been additional years, if not decades, of suffering and needless death and mutilation in Syria and Iraq at the hands of terrorists who lack any ethical or moral standards,” he added.Civilian deaths in the second half of the battle reflected the looser rules of engagement for airstrikes and the sheer numbers of trapped residents. From October 17 to February 19, the AP tally found at least 576 deaths by coalition or Iraqi munitions.From February 19 — when the fight crossed the Tigris River — to mid-July, there were nearly 2,400 civilian deaths. That total is in addition to the 326 confirmed by the coalition in the city. The US and Australia are the only two coalition countries to acknowledge civilian deaths, although France had fighter jets and artillery and the UK also carried out airstrikes.Of the nearly 10,000 names listed by the morgue, around 4,200 were confirmed as civilian dead in the battle. The AP discarded names that were obviously those of Islamic State fighters, and casualties brought in from outside Mosul. Among the remaining 6,000 are likely some number of Islamic State extremists, but the morgue civilian toll tracks closely with numbers gathered during the battle itself by Airwars and others.Neither toll includes thousands of people killed by Islamic State who are believed to be in mass graves in and around Mosul, including as many as 4,000 in the natural crevasse known as Khasfa.Imad Ibrahim, a civil defense rescuer from west Mosul, survived the battle to retake the city and is now tasked with excavating the dead. He mostly works in the Old City, where on a recent day the streets still reeked of rotting flesh.“Sometimes you can see the bodies, they’re visible under the rubble; other times we dig for hours and suddenly find 15 to 30 all in one place. That’s when you know they were sheltering, hiding from the airstrikes,” Ibrahim said.Behind him, an excavator dug through jagged cement blocks, searching for the body of a woman who was hiding in her home when it was hit by an airstrike.Ibrahim said he spent years waiting for liberation, but that the victory itself was hollow.“Honestly, none of this was worth it.”-Digging into death-By dawn, dozens of Mosul families begin to line up outside the civil defense office each day. One by one, they flatly describe their personal tragedies. “We buried my cousin’s body in the garden under the tree.” “My mother was hiding in the back of the house, near the kitchen, when the airstrike hit her home.” “We buried my father in the street in front of our home after he was shot.”Radwan Majid said he lost both his children to an airstrike in May.“There were three Daesh in front of my house, so when the airstrike hit it also killed my children,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for the group.“We can see their bodies under the rubble, but we can’t reach them by ourselves,” he said. “All I want is to give them a proper burial.”Reports of civilian deaths began to dominate military planning meetings in Baghdad in February and early March, according to a senior Western diplomat who was present but not authorized to speak on the record.After allegations surfaced that a single coalition strike killed hundreds of civilians in Mosul’s al-Jadidah neighborhood on March 17, the entire fight was put on hold for three weeks. Under intense international pressure, the coalition sent a team into the city to investigate.Iraq’s special forces units were instructed that they were no longer allowed to call in strikes on buildings. Instead, the forces were told to call in coalition airstrikes on gardens and roads adjacent to IS targets.A Whatsapp group shared by coalition advisers and Iraqi forces coordinating airstrikes previously named “killing daesh 24/7” was wryly renamed “scaring daesh 24/7.”“It was clear that the whole strategy in western Mosul had to be reconfigured,” said the Western diplomat.But on the ground, Iraqi special forces officers said that after the operational pause, they returned to the fight just as before.The Whatsapp group’s name was changed back to “killing daesh.”The Pentagon investigation into the March strike concluded that a US bomb resulted in the deaths of 105 civilians but ultimately blamed secondary explosions from IS-laid bombs.The 500-pound (227 kg) bomb, the investigation concluded, “appropriately balanced the military necessity of neutralizing (two IS) snipers.” Witnesses and survivors told AP that IS had not set any explosives in the house that was hit, which was packed with families sheltering from the fighting.At the time, just two American officers were fielding all allegations of civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria from a base in Kuwait. The team now has seven members, though none sets foot inside the city or routinely collects physical evidence.The Americans say they do not have the resources to send a team into Mosul. An AP reporter visited the morgue six times in six weeks and spoke to morgue officials and staffers dozens of times in person and over the phone.Because of what the coalition considers insufficient information, the majority of civilian casualty allegations are deemed “not credible” before an investigation ever begins.Col. Joseph Scrocca, a coalition spokesman, defended the coalition figures in an interview in May, saying they may seem low because of a meticulous process designed to “get to the truth” and help protect civilians in the future.“I do believe the victims of these strikes deserve to know what happened to their families. We owe them that,” Scrocca said.Daoud Salem Mahmoud survived the fight for the Old City by hiding with his family in a windowless room deep inside their home.With the fight over, Mahmoud now returns to his neighborhood daily to retrieve the dead. He has recovered hundreds of bodies of extended family members and neighbors.A large, imposing figure, Mahmoud breaks down in tears when asked to describe specific days or events at the height of the violence. But without a moment of hesitation, he said he believes the fight to retake the city was worthwhile.Despite the death and destruction, he said he now feels like his family has a chance at a future brighter than his own.“Everything can be rebuilt, it’s the lives lost that cannot be replaced,” he said, then shaking his head, added, “this war, it turned Mosul into a graveyard.”

PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)

REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).

REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18 By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)

HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)

LUKE 17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4 billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37 And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40 Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
41 Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.

North Korea testing biological warheads for its missiles — report-Japanese newspaper says Pyongyang's research focused on ensuring deadly anthrax spores will survive extreme heat during long-range missile strike-By Stuart Winer-TOI-DEC 20,17

North Korea is carrying out tests toward arming its long-range missiles with deadly anthrax spores and other biological weapons, the Japanese Asahi newspaper reported Wednesday, citing a a South Korean intelligence source.The source, who was not identified in the report, said that Pyongyang is conducting heat and pressure experiments to find ways of protecting biological agents in the intense conditions a warhead experiences during reentry. As long-range missile warheads plummet back from space through the atmosphere toward their targets, they can experience temperatures of over 7,000º C, the paper said.An unconfirmed intelligence report suggested some of the tests have been successful.The South Korean intelligence source assessed the North Koreans are looking at developing biological weapons as they do not yet have the ability to hit all of the US mainland with nuclear weapons.On Monday US President Donald Trump released his first National Security Strategy, declaring that “North Korea is also pursuing chemical and biological weapons which could also be delivered by missile.”According to the Asahi report, the US has known about North Korea’s anthrax research for a while. As a precaution, US troops serving in South Korea have been vaccinated against smallpox and anthrax since around 2004.At the end of November, nuclear-armed North Korea test-fired a new ICBM, which it says brings the whole of the United States within range.The isolated and impoverished North has staged six increasingly powerful atomic tests since 2006 — most recently in September.The North has boasted that the Hwasong 15 ICBM it tested is capable of delivering a “super-large” nuclear warhead anywhere in the US mainland.Analysts agree that the latest test showed a big improvement in potential range, but say it was likely achieved using a dummy warhead that would have been quite light.They say a missile carrying a much heavier nuclear warhead would struggle to travel as far.The North’s widely-condemned nuclear and missile programs have made significant progress under leader Kim Jong-Un, who has overseen four nuclear tests and dozens of missile launches since taking power in 2011.A months-long nuclear standoff between Kim and Trump — as well as their trading of personal insults — has fueled concerns of another conflict, more than six decades after 1950-53 Korean War that left much of the peninsula in ruins.But even some Trump advisers say US military options are limited when Pyongyang could launch an artillery barrage on the South Korean capital Seoul — only around 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the heavily-fortified border and home to 10 million people.AFP contributed to this report.

Europe plays 'vital' role in Trump geopolitics By Andrew Rettman-EUOBSERVER

BRUSSELS, 19. Dec, 19:30-Europe is a "vital" US ally in its rivalry with China and Russia, according to Donald Trump's geopolitics.But the US president's "America first" vision is anti-European on climate change and reduces the EU to a footnote.Trump's ideas were laid out in a National Security Strategy on Monday (18 December) which said "a strong and free Europe is of vital importance to the United States.""The United States is safer when Europe is prosperous and stable, and can help defend our shared interests," it said.The paper designated "the revisionist powers of China and Russia" as the main threats to US supremacy.It said the Chinese military "seeks to displace the United States in the Indo-Pacific region" and that Russia "seeks to restore its great power status and establish spheres of influence near its borders".It noted that China was using state investments to gain a "strategic foothold" in central and eastern Europe, Latin America, and Africa.It also said Russia was "using subversive measures to weaken the credibility of America's commitment to Europe, undermine transatlantic unity, and weaken European institutions and governments"."With its invasions of Georgia and Ukraine, Russia demonstrated its willingness to violate the sovereignty of states in the region," it said."Russia, too, projects its influence ... through the control of key energy and other infrastructure throughout parts of Europe," it added.In response, the Trump document said "the United States and Europe will work together to counter Russian subversion and aggression"."The Nato alliance of free and sovereign states is one of our great advantages over our competitors, and the United States remains committed to Article V of the Washington Treaty," it added, referring to Nato's mutual defence clause."We will work with our allies and partners to diversify European energy sources to ensure the energy security of European countries," it said.-Reading Trump-US officials wrote the 68-page paper over the past 11 months based on Trump's public statements.The president, in a break from normal practice, launched it with a speech on Monday, standing beside a fighter jet and a giant American flag."From this day forward, it's going to be only America First, America First," he said, repeating his campaign slogan. "America is coming back strong," he said.The Chinese foreign ministry reacted in wounded tones on Tuesday, saying: "We urge the US to stop intentionally distorting China's strategic intentions and to abandon the ... Cold War mentality".The Kremlin bemoaned the "imperialist character" of Trump's "unipolar" world view.But parts of the document might also make sad reading for European governments.The paper excluded any mention of climate change as a US priority, in a blow to EU efforts to lead world action on global warming.Instead, it said Trump wanted the US to be "an energy-dominant nation" by "unleashing abundant energy resources", referring to fossil fuel exports.It also described "climate policies" as "an anti-growth energy agenda that is detrimental to US economic and energy security interests".Trump withdrew the US from the Paris accord on climate change earlier this year. He also binned a free trade treaty with the EU in favour of protectionism.The paper called Europe America's "most significant trading partner", but its bulky economic section focused on combatting "unfair foreign trade practices" and on rebuilding "our [US] economic strength".It envisaged world affairs as being conducted by "strong, sovereign, and independent nations", not by multilateralism.In that spirit, the paper relegated the EU to just one mention, saying: "The United States will work with the European Union ... to ensure fair and reciprocal trade practices and eliminate barriers to growth."-Realism-Commenting on the text, Carl Bildt, a former Swedish foreign minister who works with the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank in London, said: "The previous US National Security Strategy in 2015 favoured a 'rules-based international order'. That concept is totally absent from the new document".He said the Trump paper "argues that sovereign states competing with each other is the best hope for a peaceful world. It can be argued that history speaks otherwise."But Dmitri Trenin, a Russia expert with the Carnegie Europe think tank in Moscow, said the Trump doctrine "recognises the reality of return of great-power rivalry and the demise of Pax Americana … The document is realist rather than isolationist."The paper's omissions on climate and multilateralism aside, it also said nothing explicit on Russia's help in getting Trump elected last year.It warned that "Russia uses information operations as part of its offensive cyber efforts to influence public opinion across the globe. Its influence campaigns blend covert intelligence operations and false online personas with state-funded media, third-party intermediaries, and paid social media users or 'trolls'."Those words described what Russia did to help Trump win, amid an ongoing probe by the FBI into whether he colluded with Moscow to do it.

Fierce California winds expected as crews fight to tame wildfire-[Reuters]-By Steve Gorman-YAHOONEWS-December 20, 2017

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Crews battling a devastating California wildfire that now ranks as the state's second-largest on record may face another round of fierce winds on Wednesday after they made progress corralling the flames.Wind gusts were expected to whip back up to 50 mph (80 kph) on Wednesday evening and into Thursday morning as the so-called Thomas fire burned in the coastal mountains, foothills and canyons of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties northwest of Los Angeles, the National Weather Service said in an advisory.On Tuesday, officials scaled back evacuation orders, cut firefighting personnel to 6,800 from about 8,500 and reported improved air quality.Higher humidity combined with diminished winds and temperatures to ease the firefighters' job since Sunday. But the region remains "critically dry," a group of agencies said in a statement.More than 1,000 homes and other buildings have gone up in flames and about 18,000 structures remained listed as threatened from a late-season firestorm that has kept crews on the defensive for the better part of two weeks.One firefighter died last Thursday near the town of Fillmore in Ventura County.Still, fire managers were "cautiously optimistic" that they have gained sufficient ground this week to protect populated areas against the return of the high winds forecast.By Tuesday night, firefighters had carved containment lines around 55 percent of the blaze's perimeter - up from 50 percent earlier in the day. But the fire has still spread by several hundred acres a day since the weekend.In total the fire has scorched 272,000 acres (110,074 hectares) of drought-parched chaparral and brush since igniting on Dec. 4, covering an area equivalent to nearly a third of Rhode Island.The latest tally makes the Thomas blaze second only in scale in California to the 2003 Cedar fire in San Diego County, which consumed a record 273,246 acres and killed 15 people.The Thomas fire was initially stoked by hot, dry Santa Ana winds blowing with rare hurricane force from the eastern desert, spreading flames across miles of rugged coastal terrain faster than firefighters could keep up.(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

U.S. investigators seek answers from train crew in Washington derailment-[Reuters]-By Tom James-YAHOONEWS-December 19, 2017

DUPONT, Wash. (Reuters) - U.S. safety inspectors probing the deadly wreck of a passenger train that careened off a bridge onto a highway in Washington state are eager to question the engineer and a conductor-in-training who were in the cab of the locomotive, officials said on Tuesday.National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials hoped interviews with all crew members would shed light on why Train 501 on Amtrak's Cascades line was going more than twice the speed limit around a curved stretch of track when it derailed on Monday.The accident occurred during the train's inaugural run on a new, slightly quicker route between Olympia and Tacoma, with 86 people aboard, 80 of them passengers, Amtrak said.NTSB officials said they planned to interview all the crew members in the next two days, once they sufficiently recover from injuries suffered in the wreck, including the conductor-in-training who was with the engineer at the time.Safety board member T. Bella Dinh-Zarr told reporters that NTSB investigators would seek to determine, among other factors routinely examined, whether the engineer was distracted while driving the ill-fated train."Distraction is one of our most-wanted-list priorities at the NTSB," she said.She also said investigators had determined that the train's emergency brakes were automatically activated while the derailment was occurring, rather than engaged manually by the engineer.In addition, she confirmed that a safety system known as positive train control (PTC), which automatically slows trains if they go too fast, was not installed on the rail line. She said Congress had extended a mandatory deadline for having the PTC system installed on all passenger railways to 2018.None of the crew has been identified. All were hospitalized, Dinh-Zarr said.Three people aboard the train were killed when all 12 carriages and one of the train's two locomotives tumbled off the rails onto Interstate 5 near the town of DuPont, about 50 miles south of Seattle, officials said. Another 100 people were taken to hospitals, 10 with serious injuries.Some motorists were among the injured, though nobody on the highway died.Recorded data recovered from the rear locomotive showed the train was going 80 miles (129 km) per hour on a bend in the track where the speed limit was 30 mph (48 kph), NTSB officials said on Monday night. The board said it was investigating whether other circumstances besides speed were involved, such as track conditions, signals, mechanical issues and human factors.Speaking at an afternoon news conference on Tuesday, Dinh-Zarr said that a conductor "who was getting experience and familiarizing himself with the territory" was present in the locomotive cab with the engineer. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson described that second Amtrak employee as a "conductor-in-training."Dinh-Zarr said it was not unusual for conductors who are learning a new train route to ride in the cab with the engineer. She said another conductor was posted in the passenger section of the train at the time.The derailment placed Amtrak, the country's main passenger rail service, under renewed scrutiny following a series of fatal incidents.SEEKING TO REOPEN HIGHWAY-Meanwhile, workers lifted mangled train cars onto flatbed trucks from the wreckage site, using two towering cranes in wet, windy weather as they sought to reopen the southbound lanes of Interstate 5, a major West Coast highway stretching from the Canadian border to Mexico.They expected to remove five of the cars and the locomotive by Tuesday afternoon and take them to a nearby U.S. military base for further examination, officials said.The locomotive alone weighs more than 270,000 pounds (120 tonnes) and will require an extra-large truck to move, Dan Hall, the regional commander for the Washington State Patrol, said at a news conference.The southbound stretch of Interstate 5 will remain closed for several days, the Washington State Department of Transportation said.At least two of the three people who died in the derailment were transit enthusiasts who wanted to see the maiden run of a new route for the train line, said Abe Zumwalt, director of policy research for the Rail Passengers Association.Jim Hamre and Zack Willhoite were members of the association, the Washington, D.C.-based organization said in a statement identifying the two men as victims of the wreck. Willhoite worked for a local transportation agency, Pierce Transit, as a customer service support specialist."They were best friends and they took all kinds of trips together, and given that yesterday was an inaugural run on a service that both had advocated for tirelessly, it made sense that they were on board," Zumwalt said in a phone interview.(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York and Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles. Writing by Jonathan Allen and Steve Gorman; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Cynthia Osterman)

TRUMP-PENCE ADMINISTRATION BLESSED SO THEY CAN BLESS AMERICAN CITIZENS.THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN GOD IS PLEASED WITH YOU FOR SAYING JERUSALEM IS ISRAELS CAPITAL ONLY. YOU WILL BE BLESSED FOR BEING BRAVE ENOUGH TO GO AGAINST THE GOD-ISRAEL HATERS.AND ARAB SUCK UPS.

House to vote again on tax bill; Trump on verge of win-[Reuters]-By David Morgan and Amanda Becker-YAHOONEWS-December 20, 2017

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday was expected to give final approval to a sweeping tax bill and send it to President Donald Trump to sign into law, sealing his first major legislative victory in office.In the largest overhaul of the U.S. tax code in 30 years, Republicans in mere weeks steamrolled over the opposition of Democrats to slash taxes for corporations and the wealthy, while offering mixed, temporary tax relief to working American individuals and families.The Senate approved the bill in the wee hours of Wednesday morning on a 51-48 vote, but had to send it back to the House, which had passed it on Tuesday, for another vote due to a procedural foul-up that embarrassed Republicans, but was not expected to change the outcome. The vote was expected to take place before noon in the House on Wednesday.The sprawling, debt-financed legislation cuts the U.S. corporate income tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent, gives other business owners a new 20 percent deduction on business income and reshapes how the government taxes multinational corporations along the lines the country's largest businesses have recommended for years.Millions of Americans would stop itemizing deductions under the bill, putting tax breaks that incentivize home ownership and charitable donations out of their reach, but also making tax returns somewhat simpler and shorter.It keeps the present number of tax brackets, but adjusts many, though not all, of the rates and income levels for each one. The top tax rate for high earners is reduced. The estate tax on inheritances is changed so far fewer people will pay.In two provisions added on to secure needed Republican votes, it also repeals part of the Obamacare health system and allows oil drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.Democrats have railed against the legislation as a giveaway to the wealthy and the business community that will widen the income gap between rich and poor, while adding $1.5 trillion over the next decade to the $20 trillion national debt, which Trump promised in 2016 he would eliminate as president.Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said the bill "will harm millions of middle-class families ... It contains huge, permanent giveaways for big banks and corporations, and asks our children, millions of working Americans and senior citizens, and future generations to pay the price."A few Republicans, whose party was once defined by its fiscal hawkishness, have protested the deficit-spending encompassed in the bill. But most of them have voted for it anyway, saying it would help businesses and individuals, while boosting an already expanding economy they see as not growing fast enough.“We’ve had two quarters in a row of 3 percent growth. The stock market is up. Optimism is high. Coupled with this tax reform, America is ready to start performing as it should have for a number of years,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell after the chamber's vote.Despite Trump administration promises that the tax overhaul would focus on the middle class and not cut taxes for the rich, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington, estimated middle-income households would see an average tax cut of $900 next year under the bill, while the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans would see an average cut of $51,000.The prospect of a Republican victory was tinged with embarrassment. House lawmakers initially voted 227-203, largely along party lines, to approve the bill on Tuesday afternoon.The measure went to the Senate, where the parliamentarian ruled three minor provisions in violation of an arcane Senate rule. To proceed, the Senate deleted the three provisions and then approved the bill.Because the House and Senate must approve the same legislation before Trump can sign it into law, the Senate's late Tuesday vote only ping-ponged the bill back to the House.The measure was expected to pass again in a vote by midday.In an overnight post on Twitter Trump said he would hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) if the House approves it.Democrats pounced on the mistake as evidence of the hurried, often secretive process used by Republicans in developing the bill. Ignoring Democrats and much of their own rank-and-file, Republican congressional leaders and White House officials drafted the bill behind closed doors, unveiling it on Sept. 27.No public hearings were held and numerous narrow amendments favored by lobbyists were added late in the process, tilting the package more toward businesses and the wealthy."When future generations look back at the short and messy history of the Republican tax bill, its most enduring lesson will be what it has taught us about how not to legislate," said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor."After only a few months of frantic backroom negotiations by only one party, we are left with a product as sloppy and as partisan as the process used to draft it ... What a disgrace."U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan defended the bill in television interviews on Wednesday morning, saying support would grow for the tax plan after it passes and Americans felt relief."I think minds are going to change," Ryan told ABC's "Good Morning America" program.(Reporting by David Morgan and Amanda Becker; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan and Susan Heavey; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Jeffrey Benkoe)

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