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)
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Number of Israelis injured by terrorism jumps 284% in 2015-Shin Bet figures show 28 killed and 239 wounded, compared to 20 killed and 174 wounded in 2014-By Adiv Sterman and Judah Ari Gross February 23, 2016, 8:21 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
In 2015, Israel saw a 284 percent increase in the number of injuries resulting from terror attacks compared to 2014, even though the number of actual attacks slightly lessened, according to figures released by the Shin Bet on Tuesday.A total of 239 people were wounded in terror attacks in 2015, compared to 63 the year before, the agency said. The majority of the 2015 injuries, 174 of them, occurred in the final three months of the year, as part of the wave of violence that continues to rock the country.Twenty-eight people were killed in 2015 terrorist attacks, as opposed to 20 fatalities in 2014. Four more people have been killed in attacks since the start of 2016.The majority of last year’s fatalities occurred in attacks in the southern West Bank (12) and in Jerusalem (10). Two people were killed in Beersheba, two in Tel Aviv, and two in the northern West Bank.Overall, 1,719 terror attacks were carried out in 2015, down from 1,793 in 2014.In 2015, the Shin Bet, along with the army and police, arrested 3,100 Palestinians, a third of them Hamas members. Israel indicted 1,933 Palestinians for a variety of charges.Security forces seized 143 rifles, 34 handguns, dozens of pipe bombs, tens of kilograms of explosive material, and shut down three bomb-making labs, according to the Shin Bet.In addition, 41 Israeli citizens were arrested in 2015 for supporting the Islamic State.There was no change in the number of Jewish terror attacks between 2014 and 2015 — 16 in both years. However, “there has been an increase in the severity of the attacks, and in the number of those injured, as a result of Jewish terror,” the Shin Bet stated, specifically noting the Duma firebombing attack, which left a Palestinian infant and his parents dead.Three terror attacks were carried out by Arab Israelis in 2015.
Dead Sea Scrolls project will use latest tech to solve ‘ultimate jigsaw’-Ambitious collaboration aims to make sense of 20,000 fragments of 2,000-year-old texts that have baffled researchers for decades-By Times of Israel staff February 23, 2016, 6:16 pm
Israel on Tuesday announced an ambitious new project aimed at finally piecing together some of the thousands of fragments of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls that have mystified experts since their discovery in the 1940s and 1950s.The $1.75 million project aims to utilize the latest digital tools to help researchers identify connections between fragments, the Israel Antiquities Authority said. It also involves unprecedented cooperation between key scholars, computer science experts, and archives in Israel and overseas.Ultimately, said the IAA, the aim is to publish a new generation of digital editions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, “rich in information and updatable” on the basis of the evolving research and technical advances.Some 16,000 of an estimated 20,000 fragments have been digitally imaged to date, Pnina Shor, curator and director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority, told the Mail website on Tuesday, with scientists constantly developing improved tools to piece together them together. “It is the ultimate jigsaw puzzle.”The IAA hailed what it described as “a new collaborative research partnership” to advance research and understanding of “one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century.”Noting that the conservation laboratory of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem looks after thousands of the approximately 2000-year-old scrolls fragments, discovered almost 70 years ago, it said latest technological developments would allow “more innovative analyses and insights into these ancient manuscripts.”The new collaborative project is being funded to the tune 1.6 million euros (some $1.75 million) by the Deutsch-Israelische-Projektförderung (DIP). It will see cooperation involving the IAA and the universities of Haifa, Tel Aviv and Göttingen in Germany. Databases and resources will be linked between the Qumran-Lexicon-project at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library of the IAA to create “an enhanced hands-on virtual workspace that will allow scholars around the world to work together simultaneously,” the IAA said, “as well as a new platform for collaborative production and publication of Dead Sea Scrolls editions.The new project comes two years after the IAA launched an upgraded online archive of the Dead Sea Scrolls, enabling web users to view thousands of high-quality images of the ancient texts along with explanations and translations into various languages.The enhanced new website is the second incarnation of the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library and has over 10,000 photographs of the ancient texts that were found in a series of caves at Qumran in the Judean Desert in the 1940s and 1950s.For the site, images were rendered using multispectral photographic methods that reproduce the documents in exceptionally high quality. The site — available in English, German, Arabic, and Hebrew versions — also provides commentary and explanations on some of the more famous scrolls including a book of Exodus written in paleo-Hebrew script, the books of Samuel, the Temple Scroll, Songs of Shabbat Sacrifice, and New Jerusalem.The scrolls, thought to have been written or collected by Jews who left Jerusalem for the desert in the time of the Second Temple two millennia ago, were one of the great archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. They shed important light on ancient Judaism, the birth of Christianity, and the evolution of the Bible.There are some 900 texts that are kept in a specially controlled dry environment to simulate the desert conditions in which they survived for thousands of years.
Minister says Netanyahu stole credit for Sinai border fence-Ex-general Yoav Galant says he keeps hearing ‘lie’ that prime minister initiated NIS 1.6b, 400-km Israel-Egypt frontier barrier-By Tamar Pileggi February 23, 2016, 4:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Housing Minister Yoav Galant claimed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took credit for his idea in 2010 to overhaul the border fence along Israel’s border with Egypt, according to a recording published Tuesday.“It did take me some time to convince the government to build it, and yes, Bibi put down the big money, but ever since then I keep hearing this lie that Bibi built the fence,” Galant, a former head of the army’s Southern Command, can be heard saying on a recording broadcast by Army Radio on Tuesday.Netanyahu at the time touted the five-meter-high barbed wire fence as a means to curb the growing number of African migrants and refugees from entering Israel via Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.However, following the 2011 Egyptian revolution that resulted in an upsurge in jihadist terror activities across the border, Israel upgraded the steel barrier to include cameras, radar and motion detectors.The prime minister has repeatedly touted the fence as a keystone of Israel’s security apparatus in the south.In 2010, Galant was instrumental in creating the specialized Rimon commando unit, which was tasked with thwarting threats from Sinai.“He realized before anyone else that there would be a need to deal with the southern border,” an officer who served under Galant told the Haaretz daily in 2011.Galant had been a top candidate to take over the military in 2010, but withdrew his name following a scandal involving the use of public land for his own purposes outside his home.Earlier this month, Netanyahu made headlines after he announced his intention to “surround the entire State of Israel with a fence,” including sealing off openings in the West Bank security barrier.Speaking during a February 9 tour of the Jordan border area in the south, Netanyahu said the extensive, “multi-year” plan would also address the potential threat of cross-border tunnels into Israeli territory.Netanyahu pointed to the 2014 conflict between Israel and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas, in which the group’s militants used a network of subterranean passages to infiltrate Israeli territory, launch attacks and in one case, kidnap the body of an IDF soldier.“In our neighborhood, we need to protect ourselves from the predatory animals,” Netanyahu said in an apparent reference to extremist Islamist movements in the region.Earlier this year, construction began on a long security fence along the Jordanian border, Israel’s only internationally recognized frontier currently without a full barrier.In accordance with a 2015 government decision, approximately 30 kilometers (18 miles) of fence is initially being built, from the southernmost resort town of Eilat to beyond a new international airport currently under construction in the Timna Valley. This portion of the project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and will cost approximately NIS 300 million ($77 million), which will be drawn from the Defense Ministry budget.In 2013, the 400 kilometer (245 mile) Israel-Egypt border fence was completed at an estimated cost of NIS 1.6 billion ($400 million), making it one of the largest construction projects in Israel’s history.
Haifa mayor urges PM to move chemical plant threatened by Hezbollah-Yona Yahav says ammonia storage tanks, which Nasrallah boasted his group could target, are a ‘ticking time bomb’-By Tamar Pileggi February 23, 2016, 6:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assist in protecting the industrial city from a “ticking time bomb” in the form of the city’s ammonia storage facility, which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to attack last week.“Several days ago we all witnessed Nasrallah’s speech in which he boasted that an attack on Haifa’s ammonia tanks would result in casualties equivalent to those that would be caused by a nuclear attack,” Yahav wrote in a letter to the prime minister.“Approximately one million people live near this ticking time bomb,” he said, appealing to Netanyahu for his “personal intervention in the matter.“Now is the time to act,” he urged.Yahav said he has been trying to address the environmental and security threats surrounding the ammonia facility and an oil refinery since taking office in 2003. Last week he said wryly that he was “happy for [Nasrallah’s] help” in putting the issue on the agenda, “even if it comes from a frightened man hiding in his bunker.”In his speech last week, Nasrallah claimed that while his group isn’t currently seeking war with Israel, it could defeat the Jewish state in a future conflict since Israel “feared” the group’s cache of rockets, which are capable of striking the northern city.“Our rockets combined with the ammonia storage facility in Haifa will create the effect of a nuclear weapon,” he claimed, boasting that such an attack would result in tens of thousands of fatalities.Despite Hezbollah suffering significant losses in the Syrian civil war, Nasrallah asserted the Shiite terror group was continuing to boost its military capabilities along Lebanon’s border with Israel.Hours after Nasrallah issued the explicit threat on the Israeli city last Tuesday, Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabbai said he had ordered that the ammonia storage facility be moved to the Negev desert.The following day, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman agreed the storage facility needed to be moved, and told a Knesset committee his office was discussing options to move the facility to southern Israel.The Environment Protection Ministry last week said plans to move the facility to the Negev were in the works, but did not provide additional details.
Herzog visits settlement Ariel, says Israel must retain it-Opposition leader calls for fence to separate the major settlement blocs from the Palestinian population-By Times of Israel staff February 23, 2016, 5:25 pm
Continuing an apparent shift to the right, Israel’s opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Tuesday visited the West Bank settlement city of Ariel, and declared that it should be retained by Israel under any future peace agreement, along with the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim to Jerusalem’s East.With a population of some 20,000, Ariel is the fourth largest settlement (after Modiin Illit, Beitar Illit and Ma’aleh Adumim) and is situated in the heart of the northern West Bank.Herzog, who has recently been pushing a unilateral separation plan having declared that a two-state solution is not currently feasible, said during the visit that the residents of Ariel had the same rights to security as those of Tel Aviv.He said a fence separating the major settlement blocs from the Palestinian population would prevent terrorist infiltration while also signaling a red line beyond which Israel would not build. “The fence around Ariel is not a luxury,” said Herzog. “It’s a security obligation that the state owes its citizens.”Reiterating his position on peace prospects, Herzog said: “If it isn’t possible today to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, it’s at least possible to separate the two peoples. We have to create a boundary beyond which there is no construction, otherwise the conflict will only worsen.”Last month Herzog, who chairs the Zionist Union faction, surprised many observers with what was seen as a rightwards turn by announcing that the two-state solution, long advocated by his center-left party, was currently unrealistic and that the best way forward was to focus on security arrangements rather than a deal with the Palestinians.“There is a need to initiate security measures that match the reality on the ground and that means separation from the Palestinians,” he told Army Radio at the time.On February 7, the Labor Party (which forms part of Zionist Union together with Hatnua) officially adopted Herzog’s proposal to disengage from the West Bank.His plan echoed a similar proposal floated by another leader of a centrist party, Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, earlier in the year.
Weapons seized, 19 arrested in overnight West Bank raids-Palestinian youths reportedly injured in clashes with soldiers; army says 5 Hamas operatives detained-By Raoul Wootliff February 23, 2016, 11:36 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
IDF troops arrested over a dozen Palestinian terror suspects and uncovered two weapons caches during raids across the West Bank, the army said Tuesday morning.A total of 19 Palestinian suspects were arrested, including five men described as Hamas members. Seven of those arrested are suspected of direct involvement in recent attacks on civilians and security forces, the IDF said.During the raids soldiers seized weapons including M16 rifles, handguns, hand grenades and combat gear presumed to be held in preparation for terrorist attacks in two caches in Nablus and near Jenin.The suspects were transferred to the Shin Bet security agency for interrogation.Several Palestinians clashed with soldiers during operations in the West Bank town of Nablus, according to Palestinian news site Wafa.Eight people were reportedly injured by rubber bullets fired at the youths.The report also said that one teenager was run over by a military vehicle patrolling the streets during the raids. The army confirmed soldiers had been in the city but did not release information about clashes.The operations also included the army demolition of two homes belonging to the families of Palestinians accused of carrying out twin deadly terror attacks in November.IDF engineers accompanied by Border Police officers destroyed the homes of Raed Masalmeh, 36, in the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, and Mohammed Abdel Basset al-Kharoub, 24, in village of Dir Smat, also near Hebron, the military said in a statement.Masalmeh admitted stabbing to death Reuven Aviram, 51, and 32-year-old Aharon Yesiav, and wounding a third person in an attack on Jewish worshipers at the Panorama office building in south Tel Aviv on November 19. He has been indicted for murder at Tel Aviv District Court.Al-Kharoub killed three people and injured seven others the same day in a shooting attack at the Gush Etzion Junction.Both attackers are in Israeli custody.The practice of demolishing the family homes of terrorists has been criticized by non-governmental groups, but government officials have defended its use as a deterrent against attacks. Critics claim that in addition to being a form of collective punishment, house demolitions could motivate family members of terrorists to launch attacks themselves.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Avoid Lebanon’ Saudi Arabia and UAE tell citizens-Move follows Riyadh’s $4 billion cut to Lebanese army; Emirates to pull diplomats out-By AP February 23, 2016, 8:01 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday urged their citizens not to travel to Lebanon, days after Riyadh cut $4 billion in aid to Lebanese security forces.The Saudi Foreign Ministry’s announcement, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, urged citizens already there to depart or to be in contact with the Saudi Embassy in Beirut. It gave no reason for the warning other than unspecified safety concerns.The United Arab Emirates said it would pull most of its diplomats out of Lebanon and warned its own citizens not to travel there, according to a statement carried by the state-run WAM news agency. It did not elaborate or offer a reason for the decision.Saudi Arabia announced Friday that it was halting deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting Lebanese security forces in retaliation for Lebanon siding with Iran in the Sunni kingdom’s spat with the Shiite power.Lebanon’s main political divide pits a Sunni-led coalition against another led by the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement. Lebanon has seen a series of militant attacks in recent years linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.
Likud boots its own scandal-ridden MK from Knesset panels-Oren Hazan suspended after he failed to appear for a parliamentary vote and thus prevented coalition from passing bill-By Times of Israel staff February 23, 2016, 7:15 pm
The scandal-plagued Likud MK Oren Hazan was removed Tuesday from the Knesset’s House and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees at the request of members of his own party, after he skipped a plenum session on Monday night, resulting in a loss for the coalition in a vote on a bill submitted by Likud MK Anat Berko.The newcomer Likud MK Amir Ohana, who was sworn into the Knesset in late December 2015, will replace Hazan on the committees.“For a while, MK Oren Hazan has been absent on purpose from many votes at the Knesset plenum,” Tzachi Hanegbi, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, wrote in statement explaining Hazan’s suspension. “This displays clear disregard for the members of the faction, who every Monday and Wednesday face the opposition, often late into the night.“The last straw came last night, when his unjustifiable absence… while ignoring attempts by faction members to verify his arrival, cost a bill to establish the position of military courts, an important proposal that our friend Anat Berko, with the backing of the government, worked on diligently.”After his suspension, Hazan hit back at the Likud members who pushed for his removal from the committees, specifically criticizing Hanegbi, who he said was frustrated at not being a cabinet minister.“In light of the fact that the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is not functioning, discussions do not take place, and the relevant parties do not appear, and in practice [the committee] has no influence, I can only say thank you to Hanegbi who made time for me to for temporary committees that are important and actually function such as the Finance Committee and the State Control Committee, where I could continue and have an influence on the Israeli public’s behalf,” Hazan said.“It’s sad that coalition chairman Hanegbi is covering his failures, which result from frustration over the fact that Netanyahu didn’t appoint him a minister, so he scapegoats me. Out of 59 Knesset sessions I attended 55, and when I missed the sessions, I was taking care of my health.”Hazan was at the center of a number of scandals over recent months after television exposés accused him of sexual assault, soliciting prostitutes and using crystal meth when he managed a casino in Burgas, Bulgaria, before being elected to the Knesset.An investigative report by Channel 2 last year quoted hotel guests, Hazan’s driver and a local madam who all recalled Hazan bringing the women to the Burgas casino. Other guests recalled doing crystal meth on the street with Hazan.Hazan denied the allegations and subsequently sued reporter Amit Segal for libel, but the report prompted Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to block Hazan, a deputy speaker, from presiding over any Knesset meetings “until further notice.”The freshman lawmaker’s lack of diplomacy and uncouth behavior have resulted in public scrutiny over various reports of wrongdoing, including when he was roundly criticized for mocking a disabled fellow MK during a plenum session in December.Days later, a state comptroller report on party spending during primary campaigns said Hazan failed to report his expenditures and accused him of lying in an affidavit declaring his expenses, a crime that can carry up to a three-year custodial sentence.Following a series of complaints leveled against him, Hazan was suspended for a month from parliamentary and committee debates.
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
GENESIS 12:1-3
1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I (GOD) will shew thee:
2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
3 And I will bless them that bless thee,(ISRAELIS) and curse (DESTROY) him that curseth thee:(DESTROY THEM) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
ISAIAH 41:11
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee (ISRAEL) shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing;(DESTROYED) and they that strive with thee shall perish.(ISRAEL HATERS WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED)
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Number of Israelis injured by terrorism jumps 284% in 2015-Shin Bet figures show 28 killed and 239 wounded, compared to 20 killed and 174 wounded in 2014-By Adiv Sterman and Judah Ari Gross February 23, 2016, 8:21 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
In 2015, Israel saw a 284 percent increase in the number of injuries resulting from terror attacks compared to 2014, even though the number of actual attacks slightly lessened, according to figures released by the Shin Bet on Tuesday.A total of 239 people were wounded in terror attacks in 2015, compared to 63 the year before, the agency said. The majority of the 2015 injuries, 174 of them, occurred in the final three months of the year, as part of the wave of violence that continues to rock the country.Twenty-eight people were killed in 2015 terrorist attacks, as opposed to 20 fatalities in 2014. Four more people have been killed in attacks since the start of 2016.The majority of last year’s fatalities occurred in attacks in the southern West Bank (12) and in Jerusalem (10). Two people were killed in Beersheba, two in Tel Aviv, and two in the northern West Bank.Overall, 1,719 terror attacks were carried out in 2015, down from 1,793 in 2014.In 2015, the Shin Bet, along with the army and police, arrested 3,100 Palestinians, a third of them Hamas members. Israel indicted 1,933 Palestinians for a variety of charges.Security forces seized 143 rifles, 34 handguns, dozens of pipe bombs, tens of kilograms of explosive material, and shut down three bomb-making labs, according to the Shin Bet.In addition, 41 Israeli citizens were arrested in 2015 for supporting the Islamic State.There was no change in the number of Jewish terror attacks between 2014 and 2015 — 16 in both years. However, “there has been an increase in the severity of the attacks, and in the number of those injured, as a result of Jewish terror,” the Shin Bet stated, specifically noting the Duma firebombing attack, which left a Palestinian infant and his parents dead.Three terror attacks were carried out by Arab Israelis in 2015.
Dead Sea Scrolls project will use latest tech to solve ‘ultimate jigsaw’-Ambitious collaboration aims to make sense of 20,000 fragments of 2,000-year-old texts that have baffled researchers for decades-By Times of Israel staff February 23, 2016, 6:16 pm
Israel on Tuesday announced an ambitious new project aimed at finally piecing together some of the thousands of fragments of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls that have mystified experts since their discovery in the 1940s and 1950s.The $1.75 million project aims to utilize the latest digital tools to help researchers identify connections between fragments, the Israel Antiquities Authority said. It also involves unprecedented cooperation between key scholars, computer science experts, and archives in Israel and overseas.Ultimately, said the IAA, the aim is to publish a new generation of digital editions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, “rich in information and updatable” on the basis of the evolving research and technical advances.Some 16,000 of an estimated 20,000 fragments have been digitally imaged to date, Pnina Shor, curator and director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority, told the Mail website on Tuesday, with scientists constantly developing improved tools to piece together them together. “It is the ultimate jigsaw puzzle.”The IAA hailed what it described as “a new collaborative research partnership” to advance research and understanding of “one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century.”Noting that the conservation laboratory of the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem looks after thousands of the approximately 2000-year-old scrolls fragments, discovered almost 70 years ago, it said latest technological developments would allow “more innovative analyses and insights into these ancient manuscripts.”The new collaborative project is being funded to the tune 1.6 million euros (some $1.75 million) by the Deutsch-Israelische-Projektförderung (DIP). It will see cooperation involving the IAA and the universities of Haifa, Tel Aviv and Göttingen in Germany. Databases and resources will be linked between the Qumran-Lexicon-project at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library of the IAA to create “an enhanced hands-on virtual workspace that will allow scholars around the world to work together simultaneously,” the IAA said, “as well as a new platform for collaborative production and publication of Dead Sea Scrolls editions.The new project comes two years after the IAA launched an upgraded online archive of the Dead Sea Scrolls, enabling web users to view thousands of high-quality images of the ancient texts along with explanations and translations into various languages.The enhanced new website is the second incarnation of the Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library and has over 10,000 photographs of the ancient texts that were found in a series of caves at Qumran in the Judean Desert in the 1940s and 1950s.For the site, images were rendered using multispectral photographic methods that reproduce the documents in exceptionally high quality. The site — available in English, German, Arabic, and Hebrew versions — also provides commentary and explanations on some of the more famous scrolls including a book of Exodus written in paleo-Hebrew script, the books of Samuel, the Temple Scroll, Songs of Shabbat Sacrifice, and New Jerusalem.The scrolls, thought to have been written or collected by Jews who left Jerusalem for the desert in the time of the Second Temple two millennia ago, were one of the great archaeological discoveries of the 20th century. They shed important light on ancient Judaism, the birth of Christianity, and the evolution of the Bible.There are some 900 texts that are kept in a specially controlled dry environment to simulate the desert conditions in which they survived for thousands of years.
Minister says Netanyahu stole credit for Sinai border fence-Ex-general Yoav Galant says he keeps hearing ‘lie’ that prime minister initiated NIS 1.6b, 400-km Israel-Egypt frontier barrier-By Tamar Pileggi February 23, 2016, 4:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Housing Minister Yoav Galant claimed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took credit for his idea in 2010 to overhaul the border fence along Israel’s border with Egypt, according to a recording published Tuesday.“It did take me some time to convince the government to build it, and yes, Bibi put down the big money, but ever since then I keep hearing this lie that Bibi built the fence,” Galant, a former head of the army’s Southern Command, can be heard saying on a recording broadcast by Army Radio on Tuesday.Netanyahu at the time touted the five-meter-high barbed wire fence as a means to curb the growing number of African migrants and refugees from entering Israel via Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.However, following the 2011 Egyptian revolution that resulted in an upsurge in jihadist terror activities across the border, Israel upgraded the steel barrier to include cameras, radar and motion detectors.The prime minister has repeatedly touted the fence as a keystone of Israel’s security apparatus in the south.In 2010, Galant was instrumental in creating the specialized Rimon commando unit, which was tasked with thwarting threats from Sinai.“He realized before anyone else that there would be a need to deal with the southern border,” an officer who served under Galant told the Haaretz daily in 2011.Galant had been a top candidate to take over the military in 2010, but withdrew his name following a scandal involving the use of public land for his own purposes outside his home.Earlier this month, Netanyahu made headlines after he announced his intention to “surround the entire State of Israel with a fence,” including sealing off openings in the West Bank security barrier.Speaking during a February 9 tour of the Jordan border area in the south, Netanyahu said the extensive, “multi-year” plan would also address the potential threat of cross-border tunnels into Israeli territory.Netanyahu pointed to the 2014 conflict between Israel and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas, in which the group’s militants used a network of subterranean passages to infiltrate Israeli territory, launch attacks and in one case, kidnap the body of an IDF soldier.“In our neighborhood, we need to protect ourselves from the predatory animals,” Netanyahu said in an apparent reference to extremist Islamist movements in the region.Earlier this year, construction began on a long security fence along the Jordanian border, Israel’s only internationally recognized frontier currently without a full barrier.In accordance with a 2015 government decision, approximately 30 kilometers (18 miles) of fence is initially being built, from the southernmost resort town of Eilat to beyond a new international airport currently under construction in the Timna Valley. This portion of the project is expected to be completed by the end of the year, and will cost approximately NIS 300 million ($77 million), which will be drawn from the Defense Ministry budget.In 2013, the 400 kilometer (245 mile) Israel-Egypt border fence was completed at an estimated cost of NIS 1.6 billion ($400 million), making it one of the largest construction projects in Israel’s history.
Haifa mayor urges PM to move chemical plant threatened by Hezbollah-Yona Yahav says ammonia storage tanks, which Nasrallah boasted his group could target, are a ‘ticking time bomb’-By Tamar Pileggi February 23, 2016, 6:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav on Tuesday called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to assist in protecting the industrial city from a “ticking time bomb” in the form of the city’s ammonia storage facility, which Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to attack last week.“Several days ago we all witnessed Nasrallah’s speech in which he boasted that an attack on Haifa’s ammonia tanks would result in casualties equivalent to those that would be caused by a nuclear attack,” Yahav wrote in a letter to the prime minister.“Approximately one million people live near this ticking time bomb,” he said, appealing to Netanyahu for his “personal intervention in the matter.“Now is the time to act,” he urged.Yahav said he has been trying to address the environmental and security threats surrounding the ammonia facility and an oil refinery since taking office in 2003. Last week he said wryly that he was “happy for [Nasrallah’s] help” in putting the issue on the agenda, “even if it comes from a frightened man hiding in his bunker.”In his speech last week, Nasrallah claimed that while his group isn’t currently seeking war with Israel, it could defeat the Jewish state in a future conflict since Israel “feared” the group’s cache of rockets, which are capable of striking the northern city.“Our rockets combined with the ammonia storage facility in Haifa will create the effect of a nuclear weapon,” he claimed, boasting that such an attack would result in tens of thousands of fatalities.Despite Hezbollah suffering significant losses in the Syrian civil war, Nasrallah asserted the Shiite terror group was continuing to boost its military capabilities along Lebanon’s border with Israel.Hours after Nasrallah issued the explicit threat on the Israeli city last Tuesday, Environmental Protection Minister Avi Gabbai said he had ordered that the ammonia storage facility be moved to the Negev desert.The following day, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman agreed the storage facility needed to be moved, and told a Knesset committee his office was discussing options to move the facility to southern Israel.The Environment Protection Ministry last week said plans to move the facility to the Negev were in the works, but did not provide additional details.
Herzog visits settlement Ariel, says Israel must retain it-Opposition leader calls for fence to separate the major settlement blocs from the Palestinian population-By Times of Israel staff February 23, 2016, 5:25 pm
Continuing an apparent shift to the right, Israel’s opposition leader Isaac Herzog on Tuesday visited the West Bank settlement city of Ariel, and declared that it should be retained by Israel under any future peace agreement, along with the Etzion Bloc south of Jerusalem and Ma’aleh Adumim to Jerusalem’s East.With a population of some 20,000, Ariel is the fourth largest settlement (after Modiin Illit, Beitar Illit and Ma’aleh Adumim) and is situated in the heart of the northern West Bank.Herzog, who has recently been pushing a unilateral separation plan having declared that a two-state solution is not currently feasible, said during the visit that the residents of Ariel had the same rights to security as those of Tel Aviv.He said a fence separating the major settlement blocs from the Palestinian population would prevent terrorist infiltration while also signaling a red line beyond which Israel would not build. “The fence around Ariel is not a luxury,” said Herzog. “It’s a security obligation that the state owes its citizens.”Reiterating his position on peace prospects, Herzog said: “If it isn’t possible today to reach an agreement with the Palestinians, it’s at least possible to separate the two peoples. We have to create a boundary beyond which there is no construction, otherwise the conflict will only worsen.”Last month Herzog, who chairs the Zionist Union faction, surprised many observers with what was seen as a rightwards turn by announcing that the two-state solution, long advocated by his center-left party, was currently unrealistic and that the best way forward was to focus on security arrangements rather than a deal with the Palestinians.“There is a need to initiate security measures that match the reality on the ground and that means separation from the Palestinians,” he told Army Radio at the time.On February 7, the Labor Party (which forms part of Zionist Union together with Hatnua) officially adopted Herzog’s proposal to disengage from the West Bank.His plan echoed a similar proposal floated by another leader of a centrist party, Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid, earlier in the year.
Weapons seized, 19 arrested in overnight West Bank raids-Palestinian youths reportedly injured in clashes with soldiers; army says 5 Hamas operatives detained-By Raoul Wootliff February 23, 2016, 11:36 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
IDF troops arrested over a dozen Palestinian terror suspects and uncovered two weapons caches during raids across the West Bank, the army said Tuesday morning.A total of 19 Palestinian suspects were arrested, including five men described as Hamas members. Seven of those arrested are suspected of direct involvement in recent attacks on civilians and security forces, the IDF said.During the raids soldiers seized weapons including M16 rifles, handguns, hand grenades and combat gear presumed to be held in preparation for terrorist attacks in two caches in Nablus and near Jenin.The suspects were transferred to the Shin Bet security agency for interrogation.Several Palestinians clashed with soldiers during operations in the West Bank town of Nablus, according to Palestinian news site Wafa.Eight people were reportedly injured by rubber bullets fired at the youths.The report also said that one teenager was run over by a military vehicle patrolling the streets during the raids. The army confirmed soldiers had been in the city but did not release information about clashes.The operations also included the army demolition of two homes belonging to the families of Palestinians accused of carrying out twin deadly terror attacks in November.IDF engineers accompanied by Border Police officers destroyed the homes of Raed Masalmeh, 36, in the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, and Mohammed Abdel Basset al-Kharoub, 24, in village of Dir Smat, also near Hebron, the military said in a statement.Masalmeh admitted stabbing to death Reuven Aviram, 51, and 32-year-old Aharon Yesiav, and wounding a third person in an attack on Jewish worshipers at the Panorama office building in south Tel Aviv on November 19. He has been indicted for murder at Tel Aviv District Court.Al-Kharoub killed three people and injured seven others the same day in a shooting attack at the Gush Etzion Junction.Both attackers are in Israeli custody.The practice of demolishing the family homes of terrorists has been criticized by non-governmental groups, but government officials have defended its use as a deterrent against attacks. Critics claim that in addition to being a form of collective punishment, house demolitions could motivate family members of terrorists to launch attacks themselves.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Avoid Lebanon’ Saudi Arabia and UAE tell citizens-Move follows Riyadh’s $4 billion cut to Lebanese army; Emirates to pull diplomats out-By AP February 23, 2016, 8:01 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday urged their citizens not to travel to Lebanon, days after Riyadh cut $4 billion in aid to Lebanese security forces.The Saudi Foreign Ministry’s announcement, carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, urged citizens already there to depart or to be in contact with the Saudi Embassy in Beirut. It gave no reason for the warning other than unspecified safety concerns.The United Arab Emirates said it would pull most of its diplomats out of Lebanon and warned its own citizens not to travel there, according to a statement carried by the state-run WAM news agency. It did not elaborate or offer a reason for the decision.Saudi Arabia announced Friday that it was halting deals worth $4 billion aimed at equipping and supporting Lebanese security forces in retaliation for Lebanon siding with Iran in the Sunni kingdom’s spat with the Shiite power.Lebanon’s main political divide pits a Sunni-led coalition against another led by the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah movement. Lebanon has seen a series of militant attacks in recent years linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria.
Likud boots its own scandal-ridden MK from Knesset panels-Oren Hazan suspended after he failed to appear for a parliamentary vote and thus prevented coalition from passing bill-By Times of Israel staff February 23, 2016, 7:15 pm
The scandal-plagued Likud MK Oren Hazan was removed Tuesday from the Knesset’s House and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committees at the request of members of his own party, after he skipped a plenum session on Monday night, resulting in a loss for the coalition in a vote on a bill submitted by Likud MK Anat Berko.The newcomer Likud MK Amir Ohana, who was sworn into the Knesset in late December 2015, will replace Hazan on the committees.“For a while, MK Oren Hazan has been absent on purpose from many votes at the Knesset plenum,” Tzachi Hanegbi, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, wrote in statement explaining Hazan’s suspension. “This displays clear disregard for the members of the faction, who every Monday and Wednesday face the opposition, often late into the night.“The last straw came last night, when his unjustifiable absence… while ignoring attempts by faction members to verify his arrival, cost a bill to establish the position of military courts, an important proposal that our friend Anat Berko, with the backing of the government, worked on diligently.”After his suspension, Hazan hit back at the Likud members who pushed for his removal from the committees, specifically criticizing Hanegbi, who he said was frustrated at not being a cabinet minister.“In light of the fact that the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee is not functioning, discussions do not take place, and the relevant parties do not appear, and in practice [the committee] has no influence, I can only say thank you to Hanegbi who made time for me to for temporary committees that are important and actually function such as the Finance Committee and the State Control Committee, where I could continue and have an influence on the Israeli public’s behalf,” Hazan said.“It’s sad that coalition chairman Hanegbi is covering his failures, which result from frustration over the fact that Netanyahu didn’t appoint him a minister, so he scapegoats me. Out of 59 Knesset sessions I attended 55, and when I missed the sessions, I was taking care of my health.”Hazan was at the center of a number of scandals over recent months after television exposés accused him of sexual assault, soliciting prostitutes and using crystal meth when he managed a casino in Burgas, Bulgaria, before being elected to the Knesset.An investigative report by Channel 2 last year quoted hotel guests, Hazan’s driver and a local madam who all recalled Hazan bringing the women to the Burgas casino. Other guests recalled doing crystal meth on the street with Hazan.Hazan denied the allegations and subsequently sued reporter Amit Segal for libel, but the report prompted Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to block Hazan, a deputy speaker, from presiding over any Knesset meetings “until further notice.”The freshman lawmaker’s lack of diplomacy and uncouth behavior have resulted in public scrutiny over various reports of wrongdoing, including when he was roundly criticized for mocking a disabled fellow MK during a plenum session in December.Days later, a state comptroller report on party spending during primary campaigns said Hazan failed to report his expenditures and accused him of lying in an affidavit declaring his expenses, a crime that can carry up to a three-year custodial sentence.Following a series of complaints leveled against him, Hazan was suspended for a month from parliamentary and committee debates.
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