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)
ISAIAH 56:5
5 Even unto them (ISRAELIS) will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name,(ISRAEL) that shall not be cut off.
ISAIAH 51:3-4
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion:(JERUSALEM) he will comfort all her waste places;(FROM NUCLEAR WAR) and he will make her wilderness like Eden,(I BELIEVE THE EZEKIEL-4TH TEMPLE WILL BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT AFTER JESUS RULE FOR THE 1,000 YRS FROM JERUSALEM) and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.(PRAISE TO JESUS IN THE DESERT-COULD BE THE NEW JERUSALEM-4TH TEMPLE BUILT 25 MILES INTO THE DESERT FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT.SINCE EZEKIELS TEMPLE IS WAY TO BIG FOR THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT)
4 Hearken unto me, my people;(ISRAEL) and give ear unto me, O my nation:(ISRAEL) for a law shall proceed from me,(JESUS IN JERUSALEM) and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.(ISRAEL AND THE WORLD)
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
US, UK, Germany slam Israel’s West Bank land appropriation-Declaration of 580 acres near the West Bank city of Jericho as ‘state land’ undermines peace prospects, three countries say-By Times of Israel staff, AP and JTA March 16, 2016, 8:51 pm
The US, UK and German governments criticized Israel’s recent land appropriation of 580 acres near the West Bank town of Jericho.US State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked about the conversion during a briefing Tuesday afternoon with reporters and said the United States was “concerned,” noting it was a “significant increase” over two conversions in 2014: nearly 1,000 acres near Bethlehem in the Gush Etzion bloc and another 250 acres in the same area.“This decision is, in our view, the latest step in what appears to be an ongoing process of land expropriations, settlement expansions and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution,” Kirby said.“As we have said before, we strongly oppose any steps that accelerate settlement expansion, which raise serious questions about Israel’s long-term intentions. And as we’ve repeatedly made clear, we continue to look to both sides to demonstrate with actions and policies a genuine commitment to a two-state solution. Actions such as these do just the opposite.”On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon approved the designation of 580 acres as Israeli state land, according to Army Radio.A spokeswoman for Germany’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday Berlin fears the expropriated land will be used to expand Israeli settlements and make it harder to forge a peace deal with the Palestinians.Sawsan Chebli said that “the German government regrets this decision and hopes that it will be reversed.”Chebli said the Israeli decision “sends a wrong signal at the wrong time.”The UK’s Foreign Office also released a statement on Wednesday, saying the Israeli move damages peace prospects with the Palestinians.“We condemn the Israeli government’s decision to take over 585 acres of land in the West Bank as ‘state land’. Such steps clearly damage the diminishing prospects for a two state solution. The UK and our international partners have consistently called for an end to settlement expansion, which is illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace,” it said.“If the Israeli government is truly committed to a two-state solution then it will reverse its decision,” it added.The move comes amid heightened tensions with the European Union, which earlier this week said in a declaration that its agreements with Israel didn’t extend over the Green Line, angering Jerusalem.The declaration was signed March 10 by the head of the IDF Civil Administration during a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority by US Vice President Joe Biden.The land, now empty desert, runs on both sides of the major North-South highway Route 1 as it nears the Dead Sea. Some of the land is located inside the Jewish settlement of Almog, which has a plan to build 358 housing units there, according to Peace Now. There is a 45-day appeals process.Israel has previously used an 1858 Ottoman law stating that land which lies fallow for several years could revert to government property as the legal basis for such moves.The Israeli NGO Peace Now slammed the declaration in a statement Tuesday.“This declaration is a de facto confiscation of Palestinian lands for the purpose of settlement,” the group said. “Instead of trying to calm the situation, the government is adding fuel to the fire and sending a clear message to Palestinians, as well as to Israelis, that it has no intention to work towards peace and two states. Netanyahu proves yet again that settler pressure is more important to him than the deteriorating security situation.”
West Bank car-rammer was former Hamas member-Qassem Fared Jaber, 31, was involved in two failed attacks during Second Intifada, assisted in other deadly attacks-By Dov Lieber March 16, 2016, 9:35 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Hamas’s military wing on Wednesday said a Palestinian assailant, recently killed during a car-ramming attack on Israeli soldiers near Hebron, was a former member of a West Bank terror cell.Qassem Fared Jaber, 31, along with Amir Fouad al-Janadi, 22, both from Hebron, plowed their car into a hitchhiking post on Monday near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, emerged from the vehicle, and opened fire. One soldier was lightly hurt by gunfire.Troops at the scene shot the attackers and killed them, the IDF confirmed in a statement.Jaber, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam statement said, once belonged to a West Bank sleeper cell during the Second Intifada.The cell, named “swift death” or “Eztion,” was formed late in 2004 and disbanded by Israeli security forces early in 2006.Jaber, according to Hamas, took part in four terrorist attacks while in the cell. Two of the attacks failed and in two attacks, in which Israelis were killed, he served in a logistical capacity, the terror group said.The first attempted attack was a shooting on Israeli soldiers inside the Old City of Jerusalem. The terrorist’s weapon failed to fire and he ran away after Israeli soldiers returned fire. Jaber also took part in an earlier attempted attack near Kiryat Arba while a member of the terror cell. According to Hamas, Jaber drove a group of gunmen near the West Bank settlement. The gunmen targeted a civilian car, but once again, their weapons jammed and they escaped unharmed from the scene.Jaber later reportedly took on a logistical role in two attacks near his hometown: a drive-by shooting near the village of Jabal al-Sanadis in which an Israeli was killed and another shooting attack near the Israeli settlement Beit Hagai, in which two Israel soldiers were killed.According to a statement from the Shin Bet internal Israeli security service, Jaber was arrested twice for his work with Hamas, from 2001-2003 and from 2006-2009.Army spokesman Peter Lerner, contacted by AFP, said the Hamas claim on Wednesday “doesn’t come as such a huge surprise.”“We do see an attempt by Hamas to take advantage of the violence in the region. We have seen this in several attempts to establish new infrastructure” in the West Bank, Lerner said.Jaber’s partner in last Monday’s attack, al-Janadi, had no prior criminal record according to the statement. The two had worked together in the same vegetable shop in Hebron.Some 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks since October. Some 190 Palestinians have been killed, around two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report
Four suspected jihadists arrested in Paris raids-One of the detainees was thought to be planning ‘violent acts,’ French interior minister says-By AFP March 16, 2016, 10:52 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Four suspected jihadists were arrested Wednesday in the Paris region, one of whom was thought to be planning “violent acts,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.“We received information about one individual… that he might commit violent acts in France,” Cazeneuve said on French television.“So this morning he was arrested along with three members of his entourage and checks are under way. I call on everyone to be extremely prudent regarding reports that are circulating about an imminent violent act.”Police sources said earlier that three men and a woman were arrested in the dawn raid who were not thought to be planning an imminent attack but were “of interest.”They said one was placed under house arrest under the state of emergency that has been in force in France since the November 13 attacks in Paris that claimed 130 lives.The four had been under surveillance by French intelligence on suspicion of a “possible plan to attack” but the threat has not been confirmed, the sources said.Police raids have turned up no weapons, but computer hardware and data have been seized for analysis, they said.“You can’t at this stage talk about a plan of imminent attack,” one police source said.The arrests were carried out at dawn in two Paris districts and the rundown northern suburb of Saint Denis, the scene of a massive raid after the November 13 attacks during which the suspected ringleader, Abelhamid Abaaoud, was killed.
World’s best teacher’ returns home to Palestinian pride-After winning million-dollar prize, Hanan al-Hroub says she wants to offer scholarships to encourage kids to become teachers-By AFP March 16, 2016, 8:43 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian woman who this week won a $1 million “World’s Best Teacher” award returned home Wednesday and pledged to use part of her winnings to help students and educators.Hanan al-Hroub, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem and now teaches at a school near Ramallah in the West Bank, was awarded the Global Teacher prize at a Nobel-style ceremony in Dubai on Sunday.She received congratulations from Pope Francis, who announced the winner in a video message.Upon her arrival back in the West Bank, Hroub, carrying her golden trophy, looked amazed at the reception she was given in the city of Jericho.She said she wants to offer scholarships to encourage students to become teachers. Hroub also wants to help finance teaching programs that adopt her methods. Describing her philosophy, she said it was important for students to learn through play.“Through planned and educational play, change will come,” she said.She said behavioral improvement coincides with educational achievement, adding that when a child is behaving badly, playfulness is the best approach.“Through playing, a student is entertained at the same time as learning,” she said.Detailed in her book “We Play and Learn”, Hroub’s approach has “led to a decline in violent behavior in schools where this is usually a frequent occurrence,” the Varkey Foundation, which organizes the award, said in a statement on Sunday.Hroub, a second-grade teacher in a school in el-Bireh near Ramallah, is not teaching in normal circumstances.Palestinian teachers regularly complain their students have behavioral problems, particularly when exposed to violence.Hroub said she had noticed huge differences in children who have seen or been subjected to violence.“This is an obstacle in the classroom and we were able to change their lives at home and at school.”Palestinian education minister Sabri Saidam called Hroub a “message of peace.”He said Hroub’s victory was a message to Israel that the “current situation has to end.”The $1 million award is paid in installments and requires the winner to remain a teacher for at least five years.
At Trump rally, pastor calls for Bernie Sanders to ‘meet Jesus’-Pastor Mark Burns excoriates Jewish Vermont senator ‘who doesn’t believe in God,’ says he’s ‘gotta get saved’-By Times of Israel staff March 15, 2016, 2:52 am
At a Monday rally for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, a North Carolina pastor called on the lone Jewish candidate in the primaries to “get saved” and “meet Jesus.”Pastor Mark Burns was speaking to rally-goers while waiting for Trump to arrive at the event in Hickory, North Carolina. Trump was running late after landing outside the city due to fog, and Burns used the time to praise “our great leader” and rail against his critics and opponents, especially Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.After calling for Clinton to “go to jail,” he turned to Sanders, the Jewish, independent, self-described “socialist” senator from Vermont.“Bernie Sanders who doesn’t believe in God, how in the world we gonna let Bernie — I mean, really?” Burns began.“Listen, Bernie gotta get saved. He gotta meet Jesus. He gotta have a comin’ to Jesus meeting.”Burns also criticized Sanders’s economic proposals. “Well, we’re not a socialist country. We’re a democratic country. And we believe in small business and we believe in small government. And we believe in big states and local rights.”The comments soon drew criticism.“It is profoundly un-American to use a campaign platform to denigrate and demean the faith of a candidate for president, it is unbecoming of a member of the clergy to do so when these rallies have increasingly resulted in violence toward religious and racial minorities,” Rabbi Jack Moline, head of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance and a former director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said in a statement.“Like almost no other campaign in recent memory, this election cycle has demonstrated just how easily rhetoric that abuses Americans of all kinds can turn into incitement and violence,” Moline added.
With Trump addressing AIPAC, Republican debate called off-Fox News cancels Utah event as front-runner announces he won’t attend; Cruz, Clinton, Biden also set to speak at pro-Israel gathering-By AFP and Times of Israel staff March 16, 2016, 10:16 pm
US network Fox News on Wednesday called off a Republican debate next week after front-runner Donald Trump announced he wasn’t taking part.The debate — being organized in partnership with the Republican Party — would have been held Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah.“The Salt Lake City debate is canceled,” said a statement from Fox News’ executive vice president of news, Michael Clemente.“I think we’ve had enough debates,” Trump had told the same network earlier.Already on Friday, the billionaire had told reporters he thought it was time to end the debates.Twelve Republican debates have been held since August. Trump already boycotted one such forum held in Iowa in late January, also hosted by Fox News.“I think we’ve had enough. How many times can the same people ask you the same questions?” Trump said. “So I was very surprised when I heard that Fox called for a debate, nobody told me about it, and I won’t be there, no.”Instead of taking to the stage in Utah, Trump said he would be delivering a speech in Washington at an annual conference held by AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group. Top Democratic White House contender Hillary Clinton is also due to speak at the gathering, as will Vice President Joe Biden. AIPAC announced on Twitter Wednesday that Republican candidate Ted Cruz had also confirmed he would address the conference.Ohio Governor John Kasich had let it be known that he probably wouldn’t participate in the debate either in the absence of Trump.“Donald Trump’s decision to scuttle the Salt Lake City debate is disappointing, but not surprising. His values are out of step with the people of Utah,” said Kasich’s chief strategist, John Weaver.“We had hoped to contrast Governor Kasich’s positive, inclusive approach to problem solving with Trump’s campaign of division. If he changes his mind, we will be there.”Remaining rival Ted Cruz has also decided to back out of the debate, according to broadcaster CBS.“Ted Cruz has expressed a willingness to debate Trump or Kasich — or both. But obviously, there needs to be more than one participant,” Clemente said.The number of debates this year is in fact less than in previous election seasons after the schedule was taken in hand by the party. Around 20 were organized during the Republican primaries in 2012 and 2008.In 2007 and 2008, Barack Obama and Clinton also faced off more than 20 times.
Israel emerges as campaign issue ahead of voting in 3 big Jewish states-Republican front-runner Donald Trump hammered by opponents for saying he would be a neutral broker in Mideast peace process-By Ron Kampeas March 15, 2016, 3:11 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel has prominently emerged as a presidential campaign issue ahead of critical primary contests in five states on Tuesday, three of which – Ohio, Illinois and Florida – have substantial Jewish communities.Israel was the subject of a heated exchange in the Republican debate last week in Miami, with front-runner Donald Trump hammered by his opponents for saying he would be a neutral broker of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Trump has defended his position as essential to achieving a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but his three remaining rivals for the Republican nomination said they would stand with Israel and that no peace agreement is possible.“The policy Donald has outlined, I don’t know if he realizes, is an anti-Israeli policy,” Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who desperately needs a win in his home-state primary, said at the debate. “Maybe that’s not your intent, but here’s why it is an anti-Israeli policy: There is no peace deal possible with the Palestinians at this moment.”The real-estate magnate parried the criticism by noting his love for Israel and his daughter Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism when she married Jared Kushner, the scion of another real-estate family. Trump said there was no one “on this stage that’s more pro-Israel than I am,” citing his role as grand marshal of the 2004 Salute to Israel Parade in New York, which prompted some laughter in the audience. And he defended his promise of neutrality, saying it was essential to achieving a peace deal.“If I go in, I’ll say I’m pro-Israel and I’ve told that to everybody and anybody that would listen,” Trump said. “But I would like to at least have the other side think I’m somewhat neutral as to them, so that we can maybe get a deal done.”The Israel discussion was the most expansive one on the subject in any Republican debate this season, and it continued even after the debate concluded. Rubio’s campaign sent an email blast immediately after with the subject line “Trump Is No Ally to Israel.” The next day, surrounded by prominent Jewish backers — including Adam Hasner, a close colleague of Rubio when they were both in the Florida Legislature, and Dan Senor, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration — Rubio took aim at Trump in an appearance at a West Palm Beach synagogue.“We are electing the next commander-in-chief, and when the one leading in the polls will not take sides, imagine if he were president?” Rubio said Friday at Temple Beth El.“For people in the Orthodox community, and more broadly in the pro-Israel community, who have a view they are unhappy with the Obama administration because Obama’s approach has been more neutral, Trump talking in those terms is not reassuring,” said Nathan Diament, the Washington director for the Orthodox Union.On Sunday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, also needing a win in his home state on Tuesday, notably pivoted on a key Israel-related issue, saying on the Fox News Network that he now favors suspending the Iran nuclear deal. Until now Kasich, like Trump, has said the deal is a bad one, but that he would first consult with experts before suspending it. Kasich said his mind was changed by Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests.Ted Cruz, the last of the four remaining contenders for the Republican nod, took his pro-Israel message to voters through social media, a campaign official told JTA, reminding them of his pro-Israel activism in the Senate. Cruz’s Jewish surrogates have appealed to Jewish voters whose names they compiled from synagogue membership lists and made appearances at Jewish voter events in South Florida.Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the Democratic race, has also been reaching out to Jewish voters ahead of the Florida primary. But her message has emphasized not so much her differences with Bernie Sanders, the Independent Jewish senator from Vermont who has mounted an unexpectedly tough challenge for the nomination, but to the threat Trump poses to Israel.Sarah Bard, Clinton’s national Jewish outreach director, said Trump’s incendiary rhetoric had helped their efforts to mobilize campaign volunteers.“Where we had a hard time pushing volunteers out the door, he does make our job easier,” Bard said.Clinton has been leading in Florida polls, but after last week’s upset in Michigan, she is leaving nothing to chance. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Florida, a Clinton supporter and the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, held a conference call Monday with hundreds of rabbis across the country. Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, is speaking Monday with Jewish students at Florida Atlantic University on Clinton’s behalf. And Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, held a call Sunday with Jewish leaders organized by the Clinton campaign.Another Clinton surrogate, Robert Wexler, a former congressman from Florida, in a weekend op-ed in the state’s Sun-Sentinel newspaper, warned that neither Sanders nor Trump has the understanding necessary to handle the Middle East, though he didn’t name either candidate.No candidate understands “the nuances and sensitivities of the Middle East as well as the former secretary of state,” Wexler wrote. “Just look at the statements we’ve heard in the campaign as of late, with one candidate saying he’d be ‘neutral’ concerning Israel and another calling to ‘normalize’ relations with Iran. Both positions are naive, betraying a lack of understanding in general and about the Middle East in particular.”Sanders has called for the normalization of ties with Iran in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal reached last year.Deutch said in his pitches to Jewish voters, he contrasts Trump’s “neutrality” with Clinton’s record.“After hearing the comments that Donald Trump has made, I have found that, with Secretary Clinton’s strong support for Israel, her very clear position that the United States, both during speeches and in debates, that the United States will stand with Israel, they found these very reassuring,” he said.Trump does have Jewish backers. Philanthropist Jacob “Hank” Sopher ran a full-page ad in the Miami Herald on Sunday calling for Jewish support for Trump, calling him “a man of integrity, a friend of the Jewish people, a friend of Israel.”
Obama’s Supreme Court nominee emotionally recalls Jewish roots-In acceptance speech, Merrick Garland credits grandparents, who fled anti-Semitism in early 20th century, ‘hoping to make a better life for their children in America’-By JTA March 16, 2016, 8:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
New Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland credited his Jewish grandparents, who he said fled to the US from anti-Semitism in Russia, for putting him in position to be nominated.“My family deserves much of the credit for the path that led me here. My grandparents left the Pale of Settlement at the border of western Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, fleeing anti-Semitism and hoping to make a better life for their children in America,” he said, choking up Wednesday morning in the White House Rose Garden as he accepted President Barack Obama’s nomination.Born to a Jewish mother and a Protestant father, Garland was raised as a Jew.Garland said his father, who ran a business from the basement of his family home, impressed upon him the “importance of hard work and fairness,” and his mother’s volunteer work taught him the value of community service.“For me there can be no higher public service than serving as a member of the US Supreme Court,” said Garland, now the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. “This is the greatest honor of my life other than Lynn agreeing to marry me 28 years ago. It’s also the greatest gift I’ve ever received, except, and there’s another caveat, the birth of our daughters, Jessie and Becky.”Obama called for Garland to be confirmed in a timely fashion, so he could sit with the court in the fall and fully participate in the court’s proceedings. He would fill the Supreme Court seat held by Antonin Scalia until his death last month.“I simply ask Republicans in the Senate to give him a fair hearing and then a vote up or down,” Obama said. “I have fulfilled my constitutional duty. It is time for the Senate to do theirs.”The Senate will go on a two-week recess at the end of the week.Garland, 63, a Chicago native, has worked in Washington, D.C., since the 1970s, first as a Supreme Court clerk, then a private lawyer, an assistant US attorney and, since 1997, a federal judge.He was named to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and became chief judge in 2013. He reportedly was on Obama’s short list for a place on the Supreme Court when a seat opened in 2009, but Obama ultimately nominated Sonia Sotomayor.Garland is a graduate of Harvard Law School and clerked for US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. In 1987, he married fellow Harvard graduate Lynn Rosenman in a Jewish ceremony at the Harvard Club in New York. Rosenman’s grandfather, Samuel Rosenman of New York, was a state Supreme Court justice and a special counsel to two presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.If confirmed, Garland would be the fourth Jewish justice on the nation’s highest court, which is comprised entirely of Jews and Catholics. The three current Jewish members are Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elana Kagan and Stephen Breyer.After finishing his Supreme Court clerkship in 1979, Garland became a special assistant to the US attorney general before joining the Washington law firm Arnold & Porter. He later served as an assistant US attorney for the District of Columbia and a deputy assistant attorney general until his appointment as US circuit court judge.Clinton first nominated him in 1995, but the Republican-controlled Senate dragged its feet on confirming him. After Clinton won reelection in 1996, he renominated Garland. The judge was confirmed in March 1997 by a 76-23 vote, with the backing of majorities in both parties, including seven current Republicans senators.
Latvia’s Nazi veterans join controversial annual march-Procession through Riga includes elderly ex-fighters of Waffen SS; Jewish groups say parade glorifies Nazism-By AFP March 16, 2016, 9:26 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Latvian veterans who fought for Nazi Germany against the Soviets in World War II staged a controversial march through Riga Wednesday to mark a key 1944 battle.Police said more than 1,000 people paraded through the Latvian capital’s Old Town amid a heavy security presence.Jewish groups, Moscow and many in Latvia‘s large ethnic Russian minority see the parade as glorifying Nazism because the Latvian Legion, founded in 1943, was commanded by the Waffen SS, the Nazi party’s elite police force.A quarter of Latvia‘s two million people identify themselves as Russian.Efraim Zuroff of Jerusalem’s Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center told AFP: “It’s a very sad day to see these people marching and to see Waffen-SS troops glorified as freedom fighters.“Anyone who fought for the victory of the Third Reich shouldn’t be a hero.”Latvian Legion veterans have marched in Riga every March 16 since Soviet rule ended in 1991. The date marks the key 1944 battle in which the force ultimately failed to repel an advance by Moscow, leading to nearly half a century of communist occupation.Veterans insist they were trying to defend their homeland against Soviet occupation.“I’ve faced death — in the Legion and when I was sent to Norilsk (a Soviet prison camp). Since returning, I see every day as a gift to be appreciated,” Eduards Zirdzins, 95, told the Latvijas Avize newspaper.Moscow seized Latvia under a 1939 deal with Berlin that divided eastern Europe between the two powers, subsequently deporting tens of thousands of Latvians to Siberia.Germany drove out the Red Army when it reneged on the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.Some Latvians hailed the Nazis as liberators despite killing 70,000 of the country’s 85,000 Jews with assistance from local collaborators.The Soviets recaptured Riga in October 1944 and ruled the country until the USSR collapsed in 1991.
Putin: Netanyahu to visit Kremlin for defense talks-Israeli president meets counterpart in Moscow days after surprise pullout from Syria announced; both leaders hail strong ties-By Times of Israel staff and Raphael Ahren March 16, 2016, 7:25 pm
Hosting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would also visit soon for regional security and trade talks.Putin said Russia and Israel “have a large number of questions to discuss linked with the development of bilateral trade and economic relations and questions of the region’s security,” according to Russian reports. “I hope that we’ll be able to discuss them in the short run with the Israeli prime minister with whom we have made arrangements for a meeting,” he added.Regarding a future Putin-Netanyahu confab, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that “over the last few months we had regular contact with the Russians at the highest level, and that will continue.” The official assumed that there will be a meeting sometime soon.Rivlin was the first foreign leader to meet with Putin since news of Russia’s surprise pullout from Syria, announced Monday. The Israeli president on Tuesday had said he would ask Putin about the military withdrawal during their meeting.The two leaders hailed ties between Russia and Israel in a joint press conference ahead of their meeting.“The ties between our countries are based on friendship and mutual understanding,” Putin said. “We spoke on a variety of issues during our meeting, and we also spoke by phone with the prime minister and agreed to revisit these topics again.”Putin noted Israel’s sizable Russian minority, and hailed the growing tourism between the two countries.In his remarks, Rivlin told Putin the Jews would never forget how Russia saved them in World War II, adding that “many Holocaust survivors all over the world remember being liberated by the Red Army.”“Today, we also both face terror and fundamentalism,” Rivlin said, and urged greater bilateral cooperation between the two countries in various areas.The two leaders were slated to hold a short private meeting before a working dinner, both of which were closed to the press.On Tuesday, Rivlin said he intended to discuss the implications of Russia’s sudden military disengagement from the Syrian civil war.“We want Iran and Hezbollah not to emerge strengthened from this entire process,” Rivlin told reporters during the flight to Russia on Tuesday. “Everybody agrees that the Islamic State organization is a danger to the entire world, but Shiite Iranian fundamentalist Islam is for us just as dangerous.”A senior Israeli official said on Tuesday that while Israel understands Russia’s interests in the region, it has yet to fully account for Putin’s surprise partial pullout from Syria.Israel has also been anxiously watching reports that Moscow is about to deliver sophisticated S-300 missile defense batteries to Tehran.During Rivlin’s two-day trip to Russia, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the president will also meet with the local Jewish community and visit Russian and Jewish cultural sites.
5 Even unto them (ISRAELIS) will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name,(ISRAEL) that shall not be cut off.
ISAIAH 51:3-4
3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion:(JERUSALEM) he will comfort all her waste places;(FROM NUCLEAR WAR) and he will make her wilderness like Eden,(I BELIEVE THE EZEKIEL-4TH TEMPLE WILL BE BUILT 25 MILES FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT AFTER JESUS RULE FOR THE 1,000 YRS FROM JERUSALEM) and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.(PRAISE TO JESUS IN THE DESERT-COULD BE THE NEW JERUSALEM-4TH TEMPLE BUILT 25 MILES INTO THE DESERT FROM THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT.SINCE EZEKIELS TEMPLE IS WAY TO BIG FOR THE CURRENT TEMPLE MOUNT)
4 Hearken unto me, my people;(ISRAEL) and give ear unto me, O my nation:(ISRAEL) for a law shall proceed from me,(JESUS IN JERUSALEM) and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.(ISRAEL AND THE WORLD)
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
US, UK, Germany slam Israel’s West Bank land appropriation-Declaration of 580 acres near the West Bank city of Jericho as ‘state land’ undermines peace prospects, three countries say-By Times of Israel staff, AP and JTA March 16, 2016, 8:51 pm
The US, UK and German governments criticized Israel’s recent land appropriation of 580 acres near the West Bank town of Jericho.US State Department spokesman John Kirby was asked about the conversion during a briefing Tuesday afternoon with reporters and said the United States was “concerned,” noting it was a “significant increase” over two conversions in 2014: nearly 1,000 acres near Bethlehem in the Gush Etzion bloc and another 250 acres in the same area.“This decision is, in our view, the latest step in what appears to be an ongoing process of land expropriations, settlement expansions and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution,” Kirby said.“As we have said before, we strongly oppose any steps that accelerate settlement expansion, which raise serious questions about Israel’s long-term intentions. And as we’ve repeatedly made clear, we continue to look to both sides to demonstrate with actions and policies a genuine commitment to a two-state solution. Actions such as these do just the opposite.”On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon approved the designation of 580 acres as Israeli state land, according to Army Radio.A spokeswoman for Germany’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday Berlin fears the expropriated land will be used to expand Israeli settlements and make it harder to forge a peace deal with the Palestinians.Sawsan Chebli said that “the German government regrets this decision and hopes that it will be reversed.”Chebli said the Israeli decision “sends a wrong signal at the wrong time.”The UK’s Foreign Office also released a statement on Wednesday, saying the Israeli move damages peace prospects with the Palestinians.“We condemn the Israeli government’s decision to take over 585 acres of land in the West Bank as ‘state land’. Such steps clearly damage the diminishing prospects for a two state solution. The UK and our international partners have consistently called for an end to settlement expansion, which is illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace,” it said.“If the Israeli government is truly committed to a two-state solution then it will reverse its decision,” it added.The move comes amid heightened tensions with the European Union, which earlier this week said in a declaration that its agreements with Israel didn’t extend over the Green Line, angering Jerusalem.The declaration was signed March 10 by the head of the IDF Civil Administration during a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority by US Vice President Joe Biden.The land, now empty desert, runs on both sides of the major North-South highway Route 1 as it nears the Dead Sea. Some of the land is located inside the Jewish settlement of Almog, which has a plan to build 358 housing units there, according to Peace Now. There is a 45-day appeals process.Israel has previously used an 1858 Ottoman law stating that land which lies fallow for several years could revert to government property as the legal basis for such moves.The Israeli NGO Peace Now slammed the declaration in a statement Tuesday.“This declaration is a de facto confiscation of Palestinian lands for the purpose of settlement,” the group said. “Instead of trying to calm the situation, the government is adding fuel to the fire and sending a clear message to Palestinians, as well as to Israelis, that it has no intention to work towards peace and two states. Netanyahu proves yet again that settler pressure is more important to him than the deteriorating security situation.”
West Bank car-rammer was former Hamas member-Qassem Fared Jaber, 31, was involved in two failed attacks during Second Intifada, assisted in other deadly attacks-By Dov Lieber March 16, 2016, 9:35 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Hamas’s military wing on Wednesday said a Palestinian assailant, recently killed during a car-ramming attack on Israeli soldiers near Hebron, was a former member of a West Bank terror cell.Qassem Fared Jaber, 31, along with Amir Fouad al-Janadi, 22, both from Hebron, plowed their car into a hitchhiking post on Monday near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, emerged from the vehicle, and opened fire. One soldier was lightly hurt by gunfire.Troops at the scene shot the attackers and killed them, the IDF confirmed in a statement.Jaber, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam statement said, once belonged to a West Bank sleeper cell during the Second Intifada.The cell, named “swift death” or “Eztion,” was formed late in 2004 and disbanded by Israeli security forces early in 2006.Jaber, according to Hamas, took part in four terrorist attacks while in the cell. Two of the attacks failed and in two attacks, in which Israelis were killed, he served in a logistical capacity, the terror group said.The first attempted attack was a shooting on Israeli soldiers inside the Old City of Jerusalem. The terrorist’s weapon failed to fire and he ran away after Israeli soldiers returned fire. Jaber also took part in an earlier attempted attack near Kiryat Arba while a member of the terror cell. According to Hamas, Jaber drove a group of gunmen near the West Bank settlement. The gunmen targeted a civilian car, but once again, their weapons jammed and they escaped unharmed from the scene.Jaber later reportedly took on a logistical role in two attacks near his hometown: a drive-by shooting near the village of Jabal al-Sanadis in which an Israeli was killed and another shooting attack near the Israeli settlement Beit Hagai, in which two Israel soldiers were killed.According to a statement from the Shin Bet internal Israeli security service, Jaber was arrested twice for his work with Hamas, from 2001-2003 and from 2006-2009.Army spokesman Peter Lerner, contacted by AFP, said the Hamas claim on Wednesday “doesn’t come as such a huge surprise.”“We do see an attempt by Hamas to take advantage of the violence in the region. We have seen this in several attempts to establish new infrastructure” in the West Bank, Lerner said.Jaber’s partner in last Monday’s attack, al-Janadi, had no prior criminal record according to the statement. The two had worked together in the same vegetable shop in Hebron.Some 29 Israelis and four foreign nationals have been killed in Palestinian terrorist attacks since October. Some 190 Palestinians have been killed, around two-thirds of them while attacking Israelis, and the rest during clashes with troops, according to the Israeli army.Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report
Four suspected jihadists arrested in Paris raids-One of the detainees was thought to be planning ‘violent acts,’ French interior minister says-By AFP March 16, 2016, 10:52 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Four suspected jihadists were arrested Wednesday in the Paris region, one of whom was thought to be planning “violent acts,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said.“We received information about one individual… that he might commit violent acts in France,” Cazeneuve said on French television.“So this morning he was arrested along with three members of his entourage and checks are under way. I call on everyone to be extremely prudent regarding reports that are circulating about an imminent violent act.”Police sources said earlier that three men and a woman were arrested in the dawn raid who were not thought to be planning an imminent attack but were “of interest.”They said one was placed under house arrest under the state of emergency that has been in force in France since the November 13 attacks in Paris that claimed 130 lives.The four had been under surveillance by French intelligence on suspicion of a “possible plan to attack” but the threat has not been confirmed, the sources said.Police raids have turned up no weapons, but computer hardware and data have been seized for analysis, they said.“You can’t at this stage talk about a plan of imminent attack,” one police source said.The arrests were carried out at dawn in two Paris districts and the rundown northern suburb of Saint Denis, the scene of a massive raid after the November 13 attacks during which the suspected ringleader, Abelhamid Abaaoud, was killed.
World’s best teacher’ returns home to Palestinian pride-After winning million-dollar prize, Hanan al-Hroub says she wants to offer scholarships to encourage kids to become teachers-By AFP March 16, 2016, 8:43 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Palestinian woman who this week won a $1 million “World’s Best Teacher” award returned home Wednesday and pledged to use part of her winnings to help students and educators.Hanan al-Hroub, who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp in Bethlehem and now teaches at a school near Ramallah in the West Bank, was awarded the Global Teacher prize at a Nobel-style ceremony in Dubai on Sunday.She received congratulations from Pope Francis, who announced the winner in a video message.Upon her arrival back in the West Bank, Hroub, carrying her golden trophy, looked amazed at the reception she was given in the city of Jericho.She said she wants to offer scholarships to encourage students to become teachers. Hroub also wants to help finance teaching programs that adopt her methods. Describing her philosophy, she said it was important for students to learn through play.“Through planned and educational play, change will come,” she said.She said behavioral improvement coincides with educational achievement, adding that when a child is behaving badly, playfulness is the best approach.“Through playing, a student is entertained at the same time as learning,” she said.Detailed in her book “We Play and Learn”, Hroub’s approach has “led to a decline in violent behavior in schools where this is usually a frequent occurrence,” the Varkey Foundation, which organizes the award, said in a statement on Sunday.Hroub, a second-grade teacher in a school in el-Bireh near Ramallah, is not teaching in normal circumstances.Palestinian teachers regularly complain their students have behavioral problems, particularly when exposed to violence.Hroub said she had noticed huge differences in children who have seen or been subjected to violence.“This is an obstacle in the classroom and we were able to change their lives at home and at school.”Palestinian education minister Sabri Saidam called Hroub a “message of peace.”He said Hroub’s victory was a message to Israel that the “current situation has to end.”The $1 million award is paid in installments and requires the winner to remain a teacher for at least five years.
At Trump rally, pastor calls for Bernie Sanders to ‘meet Jesus’-Pastor Mark Burns excoriates Jewish Vermont senator ‘who doesn’t believe in God,’ says he’s ‘gotta get saved’-By Times of Israel staff March 15, 2016, 2:52 am
At a Monday rally for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, a North Carolina pastor called on the lone Jewish candidate in the primaries to “get saved” and “meet Jesus.”Pastor Mark Burns was speaking to rally-goers while waiting for Trump to arrive at the event in Hickory, North Carolina. Trump was running late after landing outside the city due to fog, and Burns used the time to praise “our great leader” and rail against his critics and opponents, especially Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders.After calling for Clinton to “go to jail,” he turned to Sanders, the Jewish, independent, self-described “socialist” senator from Vermont.“Bernie Sanders who doesn’t believe in God, how in the world we gonna let Bernie — I mean, really?” Burns began.“Listen, Bernie gotta get saved. He gotta meet Jesus. He gotta have a comin’ to Jesus meeting.”Burns also criticized Sanders’s economic proposals. “Well, we’re not a socialist country. We’re a democratic country. And we believe in small business and we believe in small government. And we believe in big states and local rights.”The comments soon drew criticism.“It is profoundly un-American to use a campaign platform to denigrate and demean the faith of a candidate for president, it is unbecoming of a member of the clergy to do so when these rallies have increasingly resulted in violence toward religious and racial minorities,” Rabbi Jack Moline, head of the Washington-based Interfaith Alliance and a former director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said in a statement.“Like almost no other campaign in recent memory, this election cycle has demonstrated just how easily rhetoric that abuses Americans of all kinds can turn into incitement and violence,” Moline added.
With Trump addressing AIPAC, Republican debate called off-Fox News cancels Utah event as front-runner announces he won’t attend; Cruz, Clinton, Biden also set to speak at pro-Israel gathering-By AFP and Times of Israel staff March 16, 2016, 10:16 pm
US network Fox News on Wednesday called off a Republican debate next week after front-runner Donald Trump announced he wasn’t taking part.The debate — being organized in partnership with the Republican Party — would have been held Monday in Salt Lake City, Utah.“The Salt Lake City debate is canceled,” said a statement from Fox News’ executive vice president of news, Michael Clemente.“I think we’ve had enough debates,” Trump had told the same network earlier.Already on Friday, the billionaire had told reporters he thought it was time to end the debates.Twelve Republican debates have been held since August. Trump already boycotted one such forum held in Iowa in late January, also hosted by Fox News.“I think we’ve had enough. How many times can the same people ask you the same questions?” Trump said. “So I was very surprised when I heard that Fox called for a debate, nobody told me about it, and I won’t be there, no.”Instead of taking to the stage in Utah, Trump said he would be delivering a speech in Washington at an annual conference held by AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobbying group. Top Democratic White House contender Hillary Clinton is also due to speak at the gathering, as will Vice President Joe Biden. AIPAC announced on Twitter Wednesday that Republican candidate Ted Cruz had also confirmed he would address the conference.Ohio Governor John Kasich had let it be known that he probably wouldn’t participate in the debate either in the absence of Trump.“Donald Trump’s decision to scuttle the Salt Lake City debate is disappointing, but not surprising. His values are out of step with the people of Utah,” said Kasich’s chief strategist, John Weaver.“We had hoped to contrast Governor Kasich’s positive, inclusive approach to problem solving with Trump’s campaign of division. If he changes his mind, we will be there.”Remaining rival Ted Cruz has also decided to back out of the debate, according to broadcaster CBS.“Ted Cruz has expressed a willingness to debate Trump or Kasich — or both. But obviously, there needs to be more than one participant,” Clemente said.The number of debates this year is in fact less than in previous election seasons after the schedule was taken in hand by the party. Around 20 were organized during the Republican primaries in 2012 and 2008.In 2007 and 2008, Barack Obama and Clinton also faced off more than 20 times.
Israel emerges as campaign issue ahead of voting in 3 big Jewish states-Republican front-runner Donald Trump hammered by opponents for saying he would be a neutral broker in Mideast peace process-By Ron Kampeas March 15, 2016, 3:11 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Israel has prominently emerged as a presidential campaign issue ahead of critical primary contests in five states on Tuesday, three of which – Ohio, Illinois and Florida – have substantial Jewish communities.Israel was the subject of a heated exchange in the Republican debate last week in Miami, with front-runner Donald Trump hammered by his opponents for saying he would be a neutral broker of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Trump has defended his position as essential to achieving a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, but his three remaining rivals for the Republican nomination said they would stand with Israel and that no peace agreement is possible.“The policy Donald has outlined, I don’t know if he realizes, is an anti-Israeli policy,” Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who desperately needs a win in his home-state primary, said at the debate. “Maybe that’s not your intent, but here’s why it is an anti-Israeli policy: There is no peace deal possible with the Palestinians at this moment.”The real-estate magnate parried the criticism by noting his love for Israel and his daughter Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism when she married Jared Kushner, the scion of another real-estate family. Trump said there was no one “on this stage that’s more pro-Israel than I am,” citing his role as grand marshal of the 2004 Salute to Israel Parade in New York, which prompted some laughter in the audience. And he defended his promise of neutrality, saying it was essential to achieving a peace deal.“If I go in, I’ll say I’m pro-Israel and I’ve told that to everybody and anybody that would listen,” Trump said. “But I would like to at least have the other side think I’m somewhat neutral as to them, so that we can maybe get a deal done.”The Israel discussion was the most expansive one on the subject in any Republican debate this season, and it continued even after the debate concluded. Rubio’s campaign sent an email blast immediately after with the subject line “Trump Is No Ally to Israel.” The next day, surrounded by prominent Jewish backers — including Adam Hasner, a close colleague of Rubio when they were both in the Florida Legislature, and Dan Senor, a veteran of the George W. Bush administration — Rubio took aim at Trump in an appearance at a West Palm Beach synagogue.“We are electing the next commander-in-chief, and when the one leading in the polls will not take sides, imagine if he were president?” Rubio said Friday at Temple Beth El.“For people in the Orthodox community, and more broadly in the pro-Israel community, who have a view they are unhappy with the Obama administration because Obama’s approach has been more neutral, Trump talking in those terms is not reassuring,” said Nathan Diament, the Washington director for the Orthodox Union.On Sunday, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, also needing a win in his home state on Tuesday, notably pivoted on a key Israel-related issue, saying on the Fox News Network that he now favors suspending the Iran nuclear deal. Until now Kasich, like Trump, has said the deal is a bad one, but that he would first consult with experts before suspending it. Kasich said his mind was changed by Iran’s recent ballistic missile tests.Ted Cruz, the last of the four remaining contenders for the Republican nod, took his pro-Israel message to voters through social media, a campaign official told JTA, reminding them of his pro-Israel activism in the Senate. Cruz’s Jewish surrogates have appealed to Jewish voters whose names they compiled from synagogue membership lists and made appearances at Jewish voter events in South Florida.Hillary Clinton, the front-runner in the Democratic race, has also been reaching out to Jewish voters ahead of the Florida primary. But her message has emphasized not so much her differences with Bernie Sanders, the Independent Jewish senator from Vermont who has mounted an unexpectedly tough challenge for the nomination, but to the threat Trump poses to Israel.Sarah Bard, Clinton’s national Jewish outreach director, said Trump’s incendiary rhetoric had helped their efforts to mobilize campaign volunteers.“Where we had a hard time pushing volunteers out the door, he does make our job easier,” Bard said.Clinton has been leading in Florida polls, but after last week’s upset in Michigan, she is leaving nothing to chance. Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Florida, a Clinton supporter and the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, held a conference call Monday with hundreds of rabbis across the country. Rep. Steve Israel, D-New York, is speaking Monday with Jewish students at Florida Atlantic University on Clinton’s behalf. And Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, held a call Sunday with Jewish leaders organized by the Clinton campaign.Another Clinton surrogate, Robert Wexler, a former congressman from Florida, in a weekend op-ed in the state’s Sun-Sentinel newspaper, warned that neither Sanders nor Trump has the understanding necessary to handle the Middle East, though he didn’t name either candidate.No candidate understands “the nuances and sensitivities of the Middle East as well as the former secretary of state,” Wexler wrote. “Just look at the statements we’ve heard in the campaign as of late, with one candidate saying he’d be ‘neutral’ concerning Israel and another calling to ‘normalize’ relations with Iran. Both positions are naive, betraying a lack of understanding in general and about the Middle East in particular.”Sanders has called for the normalization of ties with Iran in the wake of the Iran nuclear deal reached last year.Deutch said in his pitches to Jewish voters, he contrasts Trump’s “neutrality” with Clinton’s record.“After hearing the comments that Donald Trump has made, I have found that, with Secretary Clinton’s strong support for Israel, her very clear position that the United States, both during speeches and in debates, that the United States will stand with Israel, they found these very reassuring,” he said.Trump does have Jewish backers. Philanthropist Jacob “Hank” Sopher ran a full-page ad in the Miami Herald on Sunday calling for Jewish support for Trump, calling him “a man of integrity, a friend of the Jewish people, a friend of Israel.”
Obama’s Supreme Court nominee emotionally recalls Jewish roots-In acceptance speech, Merrick Garland credits grandparents, who fled anti-Semitism in early 20th century, ‘hoping to make a better life for their children in America’-By JTA March 16, 2016, 8:09 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
New Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland credited his Jewish grandparents, who he said fled to the US from anti-Semitism in Russia, for putting him in position to be nominated.“My family deserves much of the credit for the path that led me here. My grandparents left the Pale of Settlement at the border of western Russia and Eastern Europe in the early 1900s, fleeing anti-Semitism and hoping to make a better life for their children in America,” he said, choking up Wednesday morning in the White House Rose Garden as he accepted President Barack Obama’s nomination.Born to a Jewish mother and a Protestant father, Garland was raised as a Jew.Garland said his father, who ran a business from the basement of his family home, impressed upon him the “importance of hard work and fairness,” and his mother’s volunteer work taught him the value of community service.“For me there can be no higher public service than serving as a member of the US Supreme Court,” said Garland, now the chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. “This is the greatest honor of my life other than Lynn agreeing to marry me 28 years ago. It’s also the greatest gift I’ve ever received, except, and there’s another caveat, the birth of our daughters, Jessie and Becky.”Obama called for Garland to be confirmed in a timely fashion, so he could sit with the court in the fall and fully participate in the court’s proceedings. He would fill the Supreme Court seat held by Antonin Scalia until his death last month.“I simply ask Republicans in the Senate to give him a fair hearing and then a vote up or down,” Obama said. “I have fulfilled my constitutional duty. It is time for the Senate to do theirs.”The Senate will go on a two-week recess at the end of the week.Garland, 63, a Chicago native, has worked in Washington, D.C., since the 1970s, first as a Supreme Court clerk, then a private lawyer, an assistant US attorney and, since 1997, a federal judge.He was named to the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and became chief judge in 2013. He reportedly was on Obama’s short list for a place on the Supreme Court when a seat opened in 2009, but Obama ultimately nominated Sonia Sotomayor.Garland is a graduate of Harvard Law School and clerked for US Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. In 1987, he married fellow Harvard graduate Lynn Rosenman in a Jewish ceremony at the Harvard Club in New York. Rosenman’s grandfather, Samuel Rosenman of New York, was a state Supreme Court justice and a special counsel to two presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman.If confirmed, Garland would be the fourth Jewish justice on the nation’s highest court, which is comprised entirely of Jews and Catholics. The three current Jewish members are Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elana Kagan and Stephen Breyer.After finishing his Supreme Court clerkship in 1979, Garland became a special assistant to the US attorney general before joining the Washington law firm Arnold & Porter. He later served as an assistant US attorney for the District of Columbia and a deputy assistant attorney general until his appointment as US circuit court judge.Clinton first nominated him in 1995, but the Republican-controlled Senate dragged its feet on confirming him. After Clinton won reelection in 1996, he renominated Garland. The judge was confirmed in March 1997 by a 76-23 vote, with the backing of majorities in both parties, including seven current Republicans senators.
Latvia’s Nazi veterans join controversial annual march-Procession through Riga includes elderly ex-fighters of Waffen SS; Jewish groups say parade glorifies Nazism-By AFP March 16, 2016, 9:26 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Latvian veterans who fought for Nazi Germany against the Soviets in World War II staged a controversial march through Riga Wednesday to mark a key 1944 battle.Police said more than 1,000 people paraded through the Latvian capital’s Old Town amid a heavy security presence.Jewish groups, Moscow and many in Latvia‘s large ethnic Russian minority see the parade as glorifying Nazism because the Latvian Legion, founded in 1943, was commanded by the Waffen SS, the Nazi party’s elite police force.A quarter of Latvia‘s two million people identify themselves as Russian.Efraim Zuroff of Jerusalem’s Nazi-hunting Simon Wiesenthal Center told AFP: “It’s a very sad day to see these people marching and to see Waffen-SS troops glorified as freedom fighters.“Anyone who fought for the victory of the Third Reich shouldn’t be a hero.”Latvian Legion veterans have marched in Riga every March 16 since Soviet rule ended in 1991. The date marks the key 1944 battle in which the force ultimately failed to repel an advance by Moscow, leading to nearly half a century of communist occupation.Veterans insist they were trying to defend their homeland against Soviet occupation.“I’ve faced death — in the Legion and when I was sent to Norilsk (a Soviet prison camp). Since returning, I see every day as a gift to be appreciated,” Eduards Zirdzins, 95, told the Latvijas Avize newspaper.Moscow seized Latvia under a 1939 deal with Berlin that divided eastern Europe between the two powers, subsequently deporting tens of thousands of Latvians to Siberia.Germany drove out the Red Army when it reneged on the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.Some Latvians hailed the Nazis as liberators despite killing 70,000 of the country’s 85,000 Jews with assistance from local collaborators.The Soviets recaptured Riga in October 1944 and ruled the country until the USSR collapsed in 1991.
Putin: Netanyahu to visit Kremlin for defense talks-Israeli president meets counterpart in Moscow days after surprise pullout from Syria announced; both leaders hail strong ties-By Times of Israel staff and Raphael Ahren March 16, 2016, 7:25 pm
Hosting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would also visit soon for regional security and trade talks.Putin said Russia and Israel “have a large number of questions to discuss linked with the development of bilateral trade and economic relations and questions of the region’s security,” according to Russian reports. “I hope that we’ll be able to discuss them in the short run with the Israeli prime minister with whom we have made arrangements for a meeting,” he added.Regarding a future Putin-Netanyahu confab, an Israeli official told The Times of Israel that “over the last few months we had regular contact with the Russians at the highest level, and that will continue.” The official assumed that there will be a meeting sometime soon.Rivlin was the first foreign leader to meet with Putin since news of Russia’s surprise pullout from Syria, announced Monday. The Israeli president on Tuesday had said he would ask Putin about the military withdrawal during their meeting.The two leaders hailed ties between Russia and Israel in a joint press conference ahead of their meeting.“The ties between our countries are based on friendship and mutual understanding,” Putin said. “We spoke on a variety of issues during our meeting, and we also spoke by phone with the prime minister and agreed to revisit these topics again.”Putin noted Israel’s sizable Russian minority, and hailed the growing tourism between the two countries.In his remarks, Rivlin told Putin the Jews would never forget how Russia saved them in World War II, adding that “many Holocaust survivors all over the world remember being liberated by the Red Army.”“Today, we also both face terror and fundamentalism,” Rivlin said, and urged greater bilateral cooperation between the two countries in various areas.The two leaders were slated to hold a short private meeting before a working dinner, both of which were closed to the press.On Tuesday, Rivlin said he intended to discuss the implications of Russia’s sudden military disengagement from the Syrian civil war.“We want Iran and Hezbollah not to emerge strengthened from this entire process,” Rivlin told reporters during the flight to Russia on Tuesday. “Everybody agrees that the Islamic State organization is a danger to the entire world, but Shiite Iranian fundamentalist Islam is for us just as dangerous.”A senior Israeli official said on Tuesday that while Israel understands Russia’s interests in the region, it has yet to fully account for Putin’s surprise partial pullout from Syria.Israel has also been anxiously watching reports that Moscow is about to deliver sophisticated S-300 missile defense batteries to Tehran.During Rivlin’s two-day trip to Russia, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two countries, the president will also meet with the local Jewish community and visit Russian and Jewish cultural sites.
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