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)
COUNTRIES WITH ISRAEL AND THE ENEMIES OF THE WEST
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say,(RUSSIA,ARAB,MUSLIMS) I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA)(JORDAN) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLAND,ENGLISH SPEAKING shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
PSALMS 83:3-7 (COUNTRIES AGAINST ISRAEL)(EXCEPT JORDAN)
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
ISRAEL-WEST ENEMIES EZEK 38:4-6,15-19
4 And I (GOD) will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts,(RUSSIA-ARAB/MUSLIMS) thou, and many people with thee,(AFRICAN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES) all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
DANIEL 11:44 (CHINA WITH RUSSIA-MUSLIMS)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
EZEKIEL 39:1-6 ISRAELS ENEMIES DESTROYED
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Activists planning Passover sacrifice at Temple Mount banned from Jerusalem-Authorities seek to prevent far-right elements from exacerbating tensions at the highly volatile site ahead of holiday-By Times of Israel staff April 22, 2016, 6:37 am
Authorities have banned several right-wing activists from entering Jerusalem during the Passover holiday, which begins Friday evening, citing information that they intended to carry out sacrificial rituals on the Temple Mount, Walla news reported.Two members of a group called “Return to the Temple Mount,” which advocates the construction of a Third Temple, have been barred from the city for the duration of the holiday. Members of the group had reportedly planned to carry out a ritual slaughter of a sacrificial animal at the site, as was customary on Passover in ancient times.Jewish visits to the Temple Mount are allowed by agreement between Israel and the Jordanian custodians of the site, but worship at the site is forbidden.Th Temple Mount has been at the center of months-long tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, who fear growing Jewish presence at the site that is also home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Israel is concerned that Jewish visits during the week-long Passover holiday to the Mount could trigger further Palestinian unrest.Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich on Sunday announced a renewed open-ended ban on Israeli lawmakers visiting the flashpoint location.The directive was issued in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Alsheich wrote: “In light of attempts by many extremist elements from both sides to create provocations… I surmise that at this time, ascent to the Temple Mount by Knesset members is likely to result in an exacerbation of tensions and an escalation of incidents that would cause a real endangerment of the security of the state.”Netanyahu warned last week that “extremist elements” were attempting to sow unrest in Jerusalem and other areas in efforts to renew violence between Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the Passover holiday.The prime minister said security forces would increase their readiness to counter those attempts amid a wave of Palestinian attacks that began more than six months ago and has lately been ebbing.Israel also closed off the West Bank at midnight on Thursday night, amid fears of attacks by the Hamas terror group during the holiday. The Islamist terror organization was behind Monday’s suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that wounded 20 people. The closure is to last until Saturday night.
7 held for attempting Passover goat sacrifice in J’lem-Authorities say the Jewish men tried to ‘disturb the peace’ in Old City; animal control takes the 3 unharmed kidsBy Judah Ari Gross April 22, 2016, 1:20 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Police detained seven Jewish men suspected of planning to sacrifice goats in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday in honor of the Passover holiday, which begins at sundown.Two of the young men were picked up on Friday morning on their way to carry out the sacrifice, but were stopped by police before they could do so. Upon their arrest, police spotted a second goat that had been left unattended, which they later connected to a third suspect who was subsequently detained.Just a few hours later, officers picked up another four people — all minors — who had a third goat they intended to sacrifice, police said.The charge against the seven suspects was “disturbing the peace,” a police spokesperson said.In ancient times, Jews used to sacrifice a lamb on Passover Eve and eat it as part of the traditional seder meal. Nearly all Jews forego this ritual today. However, members of the Samaritan religion still carry out this practice.The three goats confiscated by police on Friday were unharmed and have been handed over to the municipality’s animal control department, the police said.Authorities had banned several right-wing activists from entering Jerusalem during the Passover holiday, which begins Friday evening, citing information they intended to carry out sacrificial rituals on the Temple Mount.“The police are working and will continue to work with determination against any attempt to disturb the public peace and security, without favoritism,” the Jerusalem police said.“We expect the public discourse during the holiday period to display tolerance and mutual respect,” the spokesperson added.Two members of a group called “Return to the Temple Mount,” which advocates the construction of a Third Temple, have been barred from the city for the duration of the holiday. Members of the group had reportedly planned to carry out a ritual slaughter of a sacrificial animal at the site, as was customary on Passover in ancient times.Jewish visits to the Temple Mount are allowed by agreement between Israel and the Jordanian custodians of the site, but worship at the site is forbidden.The Temple Mount has been at the center of months-long tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, who fear a growing Jewish presence at the site that is also home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Israel is concerned that Jewish visits during the week-long Passover holiday to the Mount could trigger further Palestinian unrest.Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich on Sunday announced a renewed open-ended ban on Israeli lawmakers visiting the flashpoint location.The directive was issued in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Alsheich wrote: “In light of attempts by many extremist elements from both sides to create provocations… I surmise that at this time, ascent to the Temple Mount by Knesset members is likely to result in an exacerbation of tensions and an escalation of incidents that would cause a real endangerment of the security of the state.”Netanyahu warned last week that “extremist elements” were attempting to sow unrest in Jerusalem and other areas in efforts to renew violence between Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the Passover holiday.The prime minister said security forces would increase their readiness to counter those attempts amid a wave of Palestinian attacks that began more than six months ago and has lately been ebbing.Israel also closed off the West Bank at midnight on Thursday night, amid fears of attacks by the Hamas terror group during the holiday. The Islamist terror organization was behind Monday’s suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that wounded 20 people. The closure is to last until Saturday night.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Eager for their exodus, Ethiopian Jews prepare world’s largest Seder-It takes a village to bake 50,000 matzahs in Gondar, but that’s what you do when you’re really hoping for ‘next year in Jerusalem’-By Melanie Lidman April 21, 2016, 1:42 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
GONDAR, Ethiopia — The smell of matzah baking wafts over the blue and white corrugated steel fence of the synagogue in the Ethiopian city of Gondar, which is preparing to host what it says will be the biggest Passover Seder in the world on Friday night.Inside the synagogue, 25-year-old Atenkut Setataw, the community’s cantor, holds a digital stopwatch and yells in Amharic, “Go!”Twenty men spring into action. They mix water and mounds of carefully sifted flour, expertly rolling out the dough and using a special rolling pin to punch regular holes in it, then cutting the dough into circles using a big cookie cutter.They have eight minutes to complete the task before the women bring the cut matzah dough to a dozen separate fires, where the matzahs are baked on circular metal sheets (like a saj for baking pita over a fire) in under 10 minutes. Kosher matzah must be prepared, from start to finish, in 18 minutes or less.The finished matzahs are transferred to a room that has been transformed into a matzah storage center, while Setataw makes careful notation of the number of matzahs baked in each round in his notebook.It takes a community to hand-bake 50,000 pieces of matzah for Gondar’s 6,000 Jews. More than 40 people work from sunup to sundown for a week before Passover to ensure that there is enough of the crunchy stuff for Seder night and the rest of the week.Also on the shopping list for Seder night: 2,000 eggs, 300 kilograms of potatoes, 400 kilograms of bananas, and 40 kilograms of raisins to make homemade wine in two large trash barrels.More than 3,000 people are expected at the Seder on Friday night, making it likely the largest Seder in the world. The next largest Seder is thought to be at the Chabad house in Nepal, which is expecting 1,500 backpackers this year, similar to previous years.What makes this Passover different from all other Passovers that the Ethiopian Jews have celebrated in Gondar? This time “Next year in Jerusalem” won’t just be something they say.“This Pesach is different because the Israeli government has decided to bring 9,000 Jews [to Israel],” said Ambanesh Tekeba, 32, the head of the Jewish community, who has served in her elected position for the past three years. “We are very happy. Everybody thinks, ‘maybe this is our last Passover here.’”Ethiopian Jews in Gondar celebrated the Israel’s November decision to approve the immigration of 9,000 Jews from Ethiopia. The approval faltered three months later when the Prime Minister’s Office refused to implement the program because the $1 billion needed to fund the absorption baskets was not in the state budget.Two Likud members of Knesset, David Amsalem and Avraham Neguise, refused to vote with the coalition for two months until the Knesset approved the plan to bring the 9,000 Jews to Israel, at the rate of 1,300 per year. The coalition government has a one-vote majority in the Knesset.Although the Jewish Agency announced the end of Ethiopian aliyah in August 2013, there are still thousands of people who identify as Jewish but did not qualify for immigration to Israel due to various bureaucratic reasons.The Ethiopian Jews still left in Ethiopia are called “Falash Mura,” meaning they are descended from Jews who converted to Christianity, often under duress, generations ago.About 135,000 Jews of Ethiopian descent are living in Israel. Tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1992. Since that time, 50,000 additional Ethiopian Jews have moved to Israel, at a rate of about 200 per month.The aliyah process sometimes split families, forcing parents to leave their older children behind when they moved to Israel, since anyone over 18 needed to be approved individually. Ethiopian Israelis have staged demonstrations seeking family reunification for years, brandishing photos of their family members still awaiting aliyah.After Operation Protective Edge, two Ethiopian soldiers in elite units demanded their siblings be brought to Israel in a case that captured headlines but took months of bureaucratic struggles to resolve.The aliyah of the “last” 9,000 Ethiopian Jews is expected to begin in June. While obstacles remain, including deep-seated racism against Ethiopians in Israel, Gondar’s Jewish community is beginning this Passover season full of optimism.“I feel just like our forefathers, and just as they went to Israel [in the Passover story] so we also will go to Israel,” said Gashaw Abinet, 29, also a community cantor. “We’re in a difficult situation, just like our forefathers. Everything is hard. I’m young, but I am trying to continue in my faith. It’s hard to be religious here, and it’s hard to keep our faith.”According to Rabbi Menachem Waldman, who has acted as a Jewish educator and spiritual advisor to the Ethiopian Jewish community for the past 35 years, there are approximately 6,000 Jews in Gondar, a city in northern Ethiopia, and 3,000 Jews in the capital of Addis Ababa.Abinet, the cantor, knows that there are people in Israel who doubt his community’s connection to Judaism, or believe that they are Christians trying to go to Israel for economic reasons. All of the Jews remaining in Ethiopia are required to undergo a conversion process after making aliyah, because they are not considered Jewish according to halacha (Jewish law). This may be because their Judaism comes from their father’s side rather than their mother’s side, or because they descended from Jews who converted to Christianity.“We are all the nation of Israel, we all left the Holy Land,” said Abinet. “Now, with God’s help, this is the time to return to Israel.”The hindrances arising from government ministries or other naysayers are only temporary, Abinet believes. “They can’t stop the Nation of Israel from bringing us together,” he said. “Maybe they can stop us for a short amount of time, but not forever. I know that God made a miracle for the Jews in Egypt, now He should do it for us as well.”“To the government of Israel: we believe that God will help us, but it’s good if you will help us also,” Abinet added. “Time is passing, and it’s a new era now.”Two days before Passover begins, as the afternoon light turns golden, the massive matzah operation winds down after a week of frantic work.Tomorrow, the mixing of haroset and boiling of 2,000 eggs will commence. The Passover preparation is an operation that requires the strength of a village, and is one of the Ethiopian Jewish traditions that will be lost when the community moves to Israel.“We are born here, we grew up here, we are Ethiopian, so yes, I will miss it,” Abinet says of the communal Passover preparation. “But even more than I will miss [Ethiopia], my soul now misses the Holy Land. God’s promise is in my heart, and that’s what keeps me strong.”
Israeli jets scramble after Egyptian plane fails to identify-Communications belatedly resume, and fighter planes escort civilian aircraft to safe landing at Ben Gurion Airport-By Times of Israel staff and AFP April 23, 2016, 9:10 am
The Israeli Air Force scrambled jets Saturday morning to intercept a civilian jetliner from Egypt, after the pilot failed to identify before entering Israeli airspace, as is standard procedure.When normal communications with the Air Sinai plane were established, the two warplanes stood down, but continued to escort the aircraft until it landed safely at Ben Gurion Airport.“Earlier this morning, two Israel Air Force aircraft accompanied a foreign aircraft planning to land at Ben Gurion Airport which did not identify itself when entering Israeli airspace,” a military spokeswoman said.“The aircraft landed safely at Ben Gurion Airport as planned,” she added, without giving further details.Israel Radio said that in Saturday’s incident the Air Sinai aircraft was flown by pilots new to the route and unfamiliar with the usual radio identification procedure when approaching Israel.“The Egyptian company was asked to make the procedures clear to its pilots,” the radio said.News website Ynet, however, said that the pilot’s radio silence was “apparently due to a technical fault.”Israeli officials are likely more wary of the safety of Egyptian flights after a Russian plane that took off from the Sinai resort-town of Sharm el-Sheikh was brought down by an Islamic State bomb on board last year, killing all 224 passengers and crew.Meanwhile in late March, a plane traveling from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and taken to Cyprus by a passenger threatening to blow himself up. The hijacker was arrested and the case was later ruled out as a terror attack.
With new outposts and quadrupled forces, Hamas patrols its border with Egypt-Gaza’s terror rulers bid to improve ties with Cairo, strained since Morsi was ousted; Israel ‘closely watching developments’-By AFP April 23, 2016, 6:54 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
GAZA STRIP — As peace offerings go, prefabricated metal huts on a sand dune may seem unimpressive, but they are what the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has chosen.Hamas has set up dozens of new border posts and military checkpoints along the enclave’s border with Egypt in an attempt to improve relations with Cairo after three years of acrimony.The move will be seen as the latest attempt to improve relations with Cairo that have been strained since the overthrow of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.Cairo regularly accuses Hamas, which is allied with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, of supporting jihadist attacks inside Egypt.Morsi was a close Hamas ally, and the army chief who toppled him, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, is now Egypt’s president.Cairo has largely closed off the border, and Egyptian forces have also destroyed hundreds of Palestinian tunnels used to smuggle commercial goods, cash, people and, allegedly, weapons in both directions.Now the Hamas-run National Security Force in Gaza has deployed an additional 600 soldiers along its 13-kilometer (eight-mile) southern border to bolster security.And where that frontier adjoins the border with Israel, Hamas has for the first time established three checkpoints within a few hundred meters of Israeli lookout towers.On a tour of some of the new sites, officials cited their wish to rebuild relations with Cairo and ensure security along their border as the reasons for the developments.“We have established 60 bases and military points along our borders with our brothers in Egypt to control the border and to ensure against any penetration,” Major General Hussein Abu Aazara told AFP during the tour.“At the behest of our Egyptian brothers, we have increased the number of troops to 800 from about 200,” he said.He said three bases had been established close to the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel.The Israeli army said it was “closely watching the developments in Gaza and Hamas’s recent activities, including the addition of outposts along the fence.”Addressing hundreds of troops, Hamas official Tawfiq Abu Naim told them that Egypt’s security was Hamas’s security.Egyptian soldiers watched from observation towers as Hamas installed the trailers on the dunes along the desert border.Khaled al-Batsh, a leader in the Islamic Jihad movement in the Palestinian territory, said his group was also committed to Egypt’s security.“The factions reject any interference in Egyptian affairs — our project is resistance to occupation and the freedom of our nation,” he said.Gaza, wedged between Israel and Egypt’s vast Sinai desert, has little access to the outside world as political disputes mean its borders are largely sealed.Israel has maintained a blockade of Gaza since 2006, to prevent Hamas from importing weaponry, and recently banned the supply of cement and construction materials for the private sector, citing security concerns. Hamas has used construction materials delivered to Gaza in the construction of attack tunnels under the Israeli border.Hamas initially refused to accept Egypt’s Sissi, accusing him of carrying out a coup against Morsi, but Mukhaimer Abu Sada, professor of political science at Gaza’s Al Azhar University, said there had been a “shift in policy” in recent weeks.A delegation headed by Hamas political bureau member Mussa Abu Marzouk held talks in Egypt last month aimed at normalising relations.“Hamas and Egypt have agreed to look to the future and try to forget about the past,” Abu Sada said.“Hamas was asked by the Egyptians to control the border area between Gaza and Egypt — to stop infiltration of Palestinians and weapons from Gaza to Egypt and Salafists from Sinai into the Gaza Strip.”In exchange, he said, Egypt will consider easing border restrictions at the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, the territory’s only transit point not controlled by Israel.The Hamas interior ministry said 2015 was the worst year for access in recent years, with Rafah open for just 21 days in total.“Hamas’s ultimate goal is to improve the relationship with the Egyptians to the point where they open the Rafah crossing as it was when Morsi was in power,” Abu Sada said.Interior ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum called on Cairo to open the crossing to alleviate the suffering of the Gazan people.Abu Sada said that while Hamas was still ideologically wedded to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, it had largely broken off its political relationship.“They still belong to the same ideology but they are, in a way, being practical.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Russian forces fired on Israeli jets at least twice’-Rivlin reportedly raised Syrian border incidents on Moscow trip last month; Netanyahu said to discuss them with Putin on Thursday-By Times of Israel staff April 22, 2016, 9:32 am
Russian forces fired on Israeli Air Force planes at least twice in recent weeks, according to a Friday morning report in the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.The paper said that President Reuven Rivlin brought up the issue with President Vladimir Putin during his visit last month to Moscow, and that Putin said it was the first he’d heard of the incidents, despite coordination between the two militaries.Israel and Russia established a mechanism meant to coordinate between their air forces in Syria after Russia began carrying out airstrikes to help Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has said his forces are battling Islamic militants and other “terrorists.” Assad’s government often refers to all opposition fighters as terrorists.There was no indication from the unsourced report that any Israeli planes were hit, nor were any dates given for the incidents in question.The report said that the incidents were the reason behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Moscow Thursday to meet with Putin and Russia’s defense minister.Hebrew media on Tuesday also reported an irregular aerial incident that occurred in recent days when Israeli fighter jets encountered Russian warplanes along the Syrian frontier.Information regarding the alleged incident was limited, and reports Thursday were conflicting.According to one account on the Ynet news website, a single Russian jet was scrambled to meet an Israeli military aircraft operating along the northern border. The report stated that it was unclear why the Russian fighter was launched. It noted that the two planes did not make contact and that the Israeli fighter continued on its course unobstructed.A second report on Channel 2 news claimed that the incident occurred between Russian and Israeli squadrons, as Israeli jets flew along the Syrian coastline. The two fighter groups reportedly approached each other, and very nearly confronted each other. However, contacts between Israeli and Russian officials — through a coordination body set up last year — prevented a more serious incident.Finally, Channel 10 military reporter Alon Ben-David appeared to combine the two accounts, tweeting Thursday that a single Russian jet was scrambled to meet an Israeli squadron over the Syrian coast. He too noted that the incident never became a full-blown confrontation, and that none of the planes had locked onto each other throughout the event.Whatever the details of the occurrence, it appeared to have taken place several days before Thursday’s meeting between Netanyahu and Putin, which focused in part on coordination between the two militaries along the Syrian border, and which the Israeli premier called “very successful.”Netanyahu said the two countries reached understandings over issues that had previously not been sufficiently clarified.“I set the goal of the meeting as strengthening coordination between Russia and Israel to prevent mishaps,” Netanyahu said. “I think we clarified some matters, and that is very important.”The issues of the Syrian civil war and the ownership of the Golan had been expected to top the agenda at the meeting. Russia has been carrying out air raids in Syria in support of Assad since September of last year. And although Moscow recently announced it would withdraw many of its troops from the war-torn country, Russian planes still regularly fly sorties there.In November, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said a Russian jet had breached Israeli airspace, and that the matter was “immediately fixed through communications channels” between the two countries. And late last month King Abdullah of Jordan told American lawmakers that Israeli and Jordanian jets together confronted Russian warplanes in January over southern Syria and warned them away from crossing their shared border.Netanyahu said Thursday that Israeli and Russian military officials had discussed coordination between their armies.“I think [such coordination] is crucial because we have to keep the freedom of movement for the army and the air force in the places that are important to us in terms of our security, and I think that this essential,” he said.Israeli airstrikes in Syria have also been the topic of previous high-level meetings between Moscow and Jerusalem. A number of airstrikes in Syria have been attributed to Israeli efforts to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah.The prime minister announced he will return to Russia on June 7.During the meeting, Netanyahu informed Putin of his “red lines” regarding the security of Israel’s northern borders, and stressed that the Jewish state was determined to maintain its control of the Golan Heights.“I have come to Russia to step up coordination on security matters, to prevent mistakes, misunderstandings,” Netanyahu said as the two leaders met. “We are not going back to the days when rockets were fired at our communities and our children from the top of the Golan… and so, with an agreement or without, the Golan Heights will remain part of [Israel’s] sovereign territory.”The prime minister stressed that Israel would do “everything” in its power to block Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah from obtaining advanced weapons, and was working to assure that no new “terror front” appeared on the Golan Heights.Israel is interested in making sure that Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed terror groups are not able to use a power vacuum on the Syrian side of the Golan to set up a base near the border for attacks against Israel.AP contributed to this report.
North Korea reportedly tests submarine-launched missile-Pyongyang seeks to take nuclear strike capabilities to new level, including the potential to retaliate for nuclear attack-By AFP April 23, 2016, 4:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday tested what appeared to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile in the Sea of Japan, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.“North Korea launched a projectile which was believed to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) around 6:30 pm (0930 GMT) in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) near the northeastern port of Sinpo”, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.“We are keeping close tabs on the North Korean military and maintaining a full defense posture,” he said.It was not immediately known whether the launch was a success, he added.The SLBM’s engine ignited after it was ejected from a 2,000-tonne Sinpo-class submarine but was airborne for “a couple of minutes,” South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said citing a government source.North Korea has been pushing to acquire SLBM capability that would take its nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and the potential to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack.It has conducted a number of what it says were successful SLBM tests, but experts question the claim, suggesting Pyongyang had gone little further than a “pop-up” test from a submerged platform.The test-firing comes as North Korea gears up for a rare and much-hyped ruling party congress early next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country’s nuclear weapons program to new heights.Numerous analysts have suggested the regime might carry out a fifth nuclear test as a display of defiance and strength just before the congress opens.Tension has been high on the divided Korean peninsula since Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test in January and rocket launch a month later that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.The UN Security Council responded by imposing its strongest sanctions to date over the North’s nuclear weapons program.Pyongyang has responded by staging a series of short- and mid-range missile tests and claiming a series of significant technical breakthroughs in its nuclear strike capability.It claimed it had miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on a missile and successfully tested an engine designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile that could reach the US mainland.While some experts say the claims are exaggerated, most acknowledge that the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs have made significant strides.
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say,(RUSSIA,ARAB,MUSLIMS) I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA)(JORDAN) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLAND,ENGLISH SPEAKING shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
PSALMS 83:3-7 (COUNTRIES AGAINST ISRAEL)(EXCEPT JORDAN)
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
ISRAEL-WEST ENEMIES EZEK 38:4-6,15-19
4 And I (GOD) will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts,(RUSSIA-ARAB/MUSLIMS) thou, and many people with thee,(AFRICAN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES) all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
DANIEL 11:44 (CHINA WITH RUSSIA-MUSLIMS)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
EZEKIEL 39:1-6 ISRAELS ENEMIES DESTROYED
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Activists planning Passover sacrifice at Temple Mount banned from Jerusalem-Authorities seek to prevent far-right elements from exacerbating tensions at the highly volatile site ahead of holiday-By Times of Israel staff April 22, 2016, 6:37 am
Authorities have banned several right-wing activists from entering Jerusalem during the Passover holiday, which begins Friday evening, citing information that they intended to carry out sacrificial rituals on the Temple Mount, Walla news reported.Two members of a group called “Return to the Temple Mount,” which advocates the construction of a Third Temple, have been barred from the city for the duration of the holiday. Members of the group had reportedly planned to carry out a ritual slaughter of a sacrificial animal at the site, as was customary on Passover in ancient times.Jewish visits to the Temple Mount are allowed by agreement between Israel and the Jordanian custodians of the site, but worship at the site is forbidden.Th Temple Mount has been at the center of months-long tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, who fear growing Jewish presence at the site that is also home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Israel is concerned that Jewish visits during the week-long Passover holiday to the Mount could trigger further Palestinian unrest.Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich on Sunday announced a renewed open-ended ban on Israeli lawmakers visiting the flashpoint location.The directive was issued in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Alsheich wrote: “In light of attempts by many extremist elements from both sides to create provocations… I surmise that at this time, ascent to the Temple Mount by Knesset members is likely to result in an exacerbation of tensions and an escalation of incidents that would cause a real endangerment of the security of the state.”Netanyahu warned last week that “extremist elements” were attempting to sow unrest in Jerusalem and other areas in efforts to renew violence between Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the Passover holiday.The prime minister said security forces would increase their readiness to counter those attempts amid a wave of Palestinian attacks that began more than six months ago and has lately been ebbing.Israel also closed off the West Bank at midnight on Thursday night, amid fears of attacks by the Hamas terror group during the holiday. The Islamist terror organization was behind Monday’s suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that wounded 20 people. The closure is to last until Saturday night.
7 held for attempting Passover goat sacrifice in J’lem-Authorities say the Jewish men tried to ‘disturb the peace’ in Old City; animal control takes the 3 unharmed kidsBy Judah Ari Gross April 22, 2016, 1:20 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Police detained seven Jewish men suspected of planning to sacrifice goats in the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday in honor of the Passover holiday, which begins at sundown.Two of the young men were picked up on Friday morning on their way to carry out the sacrifice, but were stopped by police before they could do so. Upon their arrest, police spotted a second goat that had been left unattended, which they later connected to a third suspect who was subsequently detained.Just a few hours later, officers picked up another four people — all minors — who had a third goat they intended to sacrifice, police said.The charge against the seven suspects was “disturbing the peace,” a police spokesperson said.In ancient times, Jews used to sacrifice a lamb on Passover Eve and eat it as part of the traditional seder meal. Nearly all Jews forego this ritual today. However, members of the Samaritan religion still carry out this practice.The three goats confiscated by police on Friday were unharmed and have been handed over to the municipality’s animal control department, the police said.Authorities had banned several right-wing activists from entering Jerusalem during the Passover holiday, which begins Friday evening, citing information they intended to carry out sacrificial rituals on the Temple Mount.“The police are working and will continue to work with determination against any attempt to disturb the public peace and security, without favoritism,” the Jerusalem police said.“We expect the public discourse during the holiday period to display tolerance and mutual respect,” the spokesperson added.Two members of a group called “Return to the Temple Mount,” which advocates the construction of a Third Temple, have been barred from the city for the duration of the holiday. Members of the group had reportedly planned to carry out a ritual slaughter of a sacrificial animal at the site, as was customary on Passover in ancient times.Jewish visits to the Temple Mount are allowed by agreement between Israel and the Jordanian custodians of the site, but worship at the site is forbidden.The Temple Mount has been at the center of months-long tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, who fear a growing Jewish presence at the site that is also home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Israel is concerned that Jewish visits during the week-long Passover holiday to the Mount could trigger further Palestinian unrest.Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich on Sunday announced a renewed open-ended ban on Israeli lawmakers visiting the flashpoint location.The directive was issued in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Alsheich wrote: “In light of attempts by many extremist elements from both sides to create provocations… I surmise that at this time, ascent to the Temple Mount by Knesset members is likely to result in an exacerbation of tensions and an escalation of incidents that would cause a real endangerment of the security of the state.”Netanyahu warned last week that “extremist elements” were attempting to sow unrest in Jerusalem and other areas in efforts to renew violence between Israelis and Palestinians ahead of the Passover holiday.The prime minister said security forces would increase their readiness to counter those attempts amid a wave of Palestinian attacks that began more than six months ago and has lately been ebbing.Israel also closed off the West Bank at midnight on Thursday night, amid fears of attacks by the Hamas terror group during the holiday. The Islamist terror organization was behind Monday’s suicide bombing on a Jerusalem bus that wounded 20 people. The closure is to last until Saturday night.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Eager for their exodus, Ethiopian Jews prepare world’s largest Seder-It takes a village to bake 50,000 matzahs in Gondar, but that’s what you do when you’re really hoping for ‘next year in Jerusalem’-By Melanie Lidman April 21, 2016, 1:42 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
GONDAR, Ethiopia — The smell of matzah baking wafts over the blue and white corrugated steel fence of the synagogue in the Ethiopian city of Gondar, which is preparing to host what it says will be the biggest Passover Seder in the world on Friday night.Inside the synagogue, 25-year-old Atenkut Setataw, the community’s cantor, holds a digital stopwatch and yells in Amharic, “Go!”Twenty men spring into action. They mix water and mounds of carefully sifted flour, expertly rolling out the dough and using a special rolling pin to punch regular holes in it, then cutting the dough into circles using a big cookie cutter.They have eight minutes to complete the task before the women bring the cut matzah dough to a dozen separate fires, where the matzahs are baked on circular metal sheets (like a saj for baking pita over a fire) in under 10 minutes. Kosher matzah must be prepared, from start to finish, in 18 minutes or less.The finished matzahs are transferred to a room that has been transformed into a matzah storage center, while Setataw makes careful notation of the number of matzahs baked in each round in his notebook.It takes a community to hand-bake 50,000 pieces of matzah for Gondar’s 6,000 Jews. More than 40 people work from sunup to sundown for a week before Passover to ensure that there is enough of the crunchy stuff for Seder night and the rest of the week.Also on the shopping list for Seder night: 2,000 eggs, 300 kilograms of potatoes, 400 kilograms of bananas, and 40 kilograms of raisins to make homemade wine in two large trash barrels.More than 3,000 people are expected at the Seder on Friday night, making it likely the largest Seder in the world. The next largest Seder is thought to be at the Chabad house in Nepal, which is expecting 1,500 backpackers this year, similar to previous years.What makes this Passover different from all other Passovers that the Ethiopian Jews have celebrated in Gondar? This time “Next year in Jerusalem” won’t just be something they say.“This Pesach is different because the Israeli government has decided to bring 9,000 Jews [to Israel],” said Ambanesh Tekeba, 32, the head of the Jewish community, who has served in her elected position for the past three years. “We are very happy. Everybody thinks, ‘maybe this is our last Passover here.’”Ethiopian Jews in Gondar celebrated the Israel’s November decision to approve the immigration of 9,000 Jews from Ethiopia. The approval faltered three months later when the Prime Minister’s Office refused to implement the program because the $1 billion needed to fund the absorption baskets was not in the state budget.Two Likud members of Knesset, David Amsalem and Avraham Neguise, refused to vote with the coalition for two months until the Knesset approved the plan to bring the 9,000 Jews to Israel, at the rate of 1,300 per year. The coalition government has a one-vote majority in the Knesset.Although the Jewish Agency announced the end of Ethiopian aliyah in August 2013, there are still thousands of people who identify as Jewish but did not qualify for immigration to Israel due to various bureaucratic reasons.The Ethiopian Jews still left in Ethiopia are called “Falash Mura,” meaning they are descended from Jews who converted to Christianity, often under duress, generations ago.About 135,000 Jews of Ethiopian descent are living in Israel. Tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984 and Operation Solomon in 1992. Since that time, 50,000 additional Ethiopian Jews have moved to Israel, at a rate of about 200 per month.The aliyah process sometimes split families, forcing parents to leave their older children behind when they moved to Israel, since anyone over 18 needed to be approved individually. Ethiopian Israelis have staged demonstrations seeking family reunification for years, brandishing photos of their family members still awaiting aliyah.After Operation Protective Edge, two Ethiopian soldiers in elite units demanded their siblings be brought to Israel in a case that captured headlines but took months of bureaucratic struggles to resolve.The aliyah of the “last” 9,000 Ethiopian Jews is expected to begin in June. While obstacles remain, including deep-seated racism against Ethiopians in Israel, Gondar’s Jewish community is beginning this Passover season full of optimism.“I feel just like our forefathers, and just as they went to Israel [in the Passover story] so we also will go to Israel,” said Gashaw Abinet, 29, also a community cantor. “We’re in a difficult situation, just like our forefathers. Everything is hard. I’m young, but I am trying to continue in my faith. It’s hard to be religious here, and it’s hard to keep our faith.”According to Rabbi Menachem Waldman, who has acted as a Jewish educator and spiritual advisor to the Ethiopian Jewish community for the past 35 years, there are approximately 6,000 Jews in Gondar, a city in northern Ethiopia, and 3,000 Jews in the capital of Addis Ababa.Abinet, the cantor, knows that there are people in Israel who doubt his community’s connection to Judaism, or believe that they are Christians trying to go to Israel for economic reasons. All of the Jews remaining in Ethiopia are required to undergo a conversion process after making aliyah, because they are not considered Jewish according to halacha (Jewish law). This may be because their Judaism comes from their father’s side rather than their mother’s side, or because they descended from Jews who converted to Christianity.“We are all the nation of Israel, we all left the Holy Land,” said Abinet. “Now, with God’s help, this is the time to return to Israel.”The hindrances arising from government ministries or other naysayers are only temporary, Abinet believes. “They can’t stop the Nation of Israel from bringing us together,” he said. “Maybe they can stop us for a short amount of time, but not forever. I know that God made a miracle for the Jews in Egypt, now He should do it for us as well.”“To the government of Israel: we believe that God will help us, but it’s good if you will help us also,” Abinet added. “Time is passing, and it’s a new era now.”Two days before Passover begins, as the afternoon light turns golden, the massive matzah operation winds down after a week of frantic work.Tomorrow, the mixing of haroset and boiling of 2,000 eggs will commence. The Passover preparation is an operation that requires the strength of a village, and is one of the Ethiopian Jewish traditions that will be lost when the community moves to Israel.“We are born here, we grew up here, we are Ethiopian, so yes, I will miss it,” Abinet says of the communal Passover preparation. “But even more than I will miss [Ethiopia], my soul now misses the Holy Land. God’s promise is in my heart, and that’s what keeps me strong.”
Israeli jets scramble after Egyptian plane fails to identify-Communications belatedly resume, and fighter planes escort civilian aircraft to safe landing at Ben Gurion Airport-By Times of Israel staff and AFP April 23, 2016, 9:10 am
The Israeli Air Force scrambled jets Saturday morning to intercept a civilian jetliner from Egypt, after the pilot failed to identify before entering Israeli airspace, as is standard procedure.When normal communications with the Air Sinai plane were established, the two warplanes stood down, but continued to escort the aircraft until it landed safely at Ben Gurion Airport.“Earlier this morning, two Israel Air Force aircraft accompanied a foreign aircraft planning to land at Ben Gurion Airport which did not identify itself when entering Israeli airspace,” a military spokeswoman said.“The aircraft landed safely at Ben Gurion Airport as planned,” she added, without giving further details.Israel Radio said that in Saturday’s incident the Air Sinai aircraft was flown by pilots new to the route and unfamiliar with the usual radio identification procedure when approaching Israel.“The Egyptian company was asked to make the procedures clear to its pilots,” the radio said.News website Ynet, however, said that the pilot’s radio silence was “apparently due to a technical fault.”Israeli officials are likely more wary of the safety of Egyptian flights after a Russian plane that took off from the Sinai resort-town of Sharm el-Sheikh was brought down by an Islamic State bomb on board last year, killing all 224 passengers and crew.Meanwhile in late March, a plane traveling from Alexandria to Cairo was hijacked and taken to Cyprus by a passenger threatening to blow himself up. The hijacker was arrested and the case was later ruled out as a terror attack.
With new outposts and quadrupled forces, Hamas patrols its border with Egypt-Gaza’s terror rulers bid to improve ties with Cairo, strained since Morsi was ousted; Israel ‘closely watching developments’-By AFP April 23, 2016, 6:54 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
GAZA STRIP — As peace offerings go, prefabricated metal huts on a sand dune may seem unimpressive, but they are what the Islamist Palestinian movement Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, has chosen.Hamas has set up dozens of new border posts and military checkpoints along the enclave’s border with Egypt in an attempt to improve relations with Cairo after three years of acrimony.The move will be seen as the latest attempt to improve relations with Cairo that have been strained since the overthrow of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohammed Morsi in 2013.Cairo regularly accuses Hamas, which is allied with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, of supporting jihadist attacks inside Egypt.Morsi was a close Hamas ally, and the army chief who toppled him, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, is now Egypt’s president.Cairo has largely closed off the border, and Egyptian forces have also destroyed hundreds of Palestinian tunnels used to smuggle commercial goods, cash, people and, allegedly, weapons in both directions.Now the Hamas-run National Security Force in Gaza has deployed an additional 600 soldiers along its 13-kilometer (eight-mile) southern border to bolster security.And where that frontier adjoins the border with Israel, Hamas has for the first time established three checkpoints within a few hundred meters of Israeli lookout towers.On a tour of some of the new sites, officials cited their wish to rebuild relations with Cairo and ensure security along their border as the reasons for the developments.“We have established 60 bases and military points along our borders with our brothers in Egypt to control the border and to ensure against any penetration,” Major General Hussein Abu Aazara told AFP during the tour.“At the behest of our Egyptian brothers, we have increased the number of troops to 800 from about 200,” he said.He said three bases had been established close to the Kerem Shalom border crossing with Israel.The Israeli army said it was “closely watching the developments in Gaza and Hamas’s recent activities, including the addition of outposts along the fence.”Addressing hundreds of troops, Hamas official Tawfiq Abu Naim told them that Egypt’s security was Hamas’s security.Egyptian soldiers watched from observation towers as Hamas installed the trailers on the dunes along the desert border.Khaled al-Batsh, a leader in the Islamic Jihad movement in the Palestinian territory, said his group was also committed to Egypt’s security.“The factions reject any interference in Egyptian affairs — our project is resistance to occupation and the freedom of our nation,” he said.Gaza, wedged between Israel and Egypt’s vast Sinai desert, has little access to the outside world as political disputes mean its borders are largely sealed.Israel has maintained a blockade of Gaza since 2006, to prevent Hamas from importing weaponry, and recently banned the supply of cement and construction materials for the private sector, citing security concerns. Hamas has used construction materials delivered to Gaza in the construction of attack tunnels under the Israeli border.Hamas initially refused to accept Egypt’s Sissi, accusing him of carrying out a coup against Morsi, but Mukhaimer Abu Sada, professor of political science at Gaza’s Al Azhar University, said there had been a “shift in policy” in recent weeks.A delegation headed by Hamas political bureau member Mussa Abu Marzouk held talks in Egypt last month aimed at normalising relations.“Hamas and Egypt have agreed to look to the future and try to forget about the past,” Abu Sada said.“Hamas was asked by the Egyptians to control the border area between Gaza and Egypt — to stop infiltration of Palestinians and weapons from Gaza to Egypt and Salafists from Sinai into the Gaza Strip.”In exchange, he said, Egypt will consider easing border restrictions at the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, the territory’s only transit point not controlled by Israel.The Hamas interior ministry said 2015 was the worst year for access in recent years, with Rafah open for just 21 days in total.“Hamas’s ultimate goal is to improve the relationship with the Egyptians to the point where they open the Rafah crossing as it was when Morsi was in power,” Abu Sada said.Interior ministry spokesman Iyad al-Bozum called on Cairo to open the crossing to alleviate the suffering of the Gazan people.Abu Sada said that while Hamas was still ideologically wedded to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, it had largely broken off its political relationship.“They still belong to the same ideology but they are, in a way, being practical.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
Russian forces fired on Israeli jets at least twice’-Rivlin reportedly raised Syrian border incidents on Moscow trip last month; Netanyahu said to discuss them with Putin on Thursday-By Times of Israel staff April 22, 2016, 9:32 am
Russian forces fired on Israeli Air Force planes at least twice in recent weeks, according to a Friday morning report in the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.The paper said that President Reuven Rivlin brought up the issue with President Vladimir Putin during his visit last month to Moscow, and that Putin said it was the first he’d heard of the incidents, despite coordination between the two militaries.Israel and Russia established a mechanism meant to coordinate between their air forces in Syria after Russia began carrying out airstrikes to help Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has said his forces are battling Islamic militants and other “terrorists.” Assad’s government often refers to all opposition fighters as terrorists.There was no indication from the unsourced report that any Israeli planes were hit, nor were any dates given for the incidents in question.The report said that the incidents were the reason behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Moscow Thursday to meet with Putin and Russia’s defense minister.Hebrew media on Tuesday also reported an irregular aerial incident that occurred in recent days when Israeli fighter jets encountered Russian warplanes along the Syrian frontier.Information regarding the alleged incident was limited, and reports Thursday were conflicting.According to one account on the Ynet news website, a single Russian jet was scrambled to meet an Israeli military aircraft operating along the northern border. The report stated that it was unclear why the Russian fighter was launched. It noted that the two planes did not make contact and that the Israeli fighter continued on its course unobstructed.A second report on Channel 2 news claimed that the incident occurred between Russian and Israeli squadrons, as Israeli jets flew along the Syrian coastline. The two fighter groups reportedly approached each other, and very nearly confronted each other. However, contacts between Israeli and Russian officials — through a coordination body set up last year — prevented a more serious incident.Finally, Channel 10 military reporter Alon Ben-David appeared to combine the two accounts, tweeting Thursday that a single Russian jet was scrambled to meet an Israeli squadron over the Syrian coast. He too noted that the incident never became a full-blown confrontation, and that none of the planes had locked onto each other throughout the event.Whatever the details of the occurrence, it appeared to have taken place several days before Thursday’s meeting between Netanyahu and Putin, which focused in part on coordination between the two militaries along the Syrian border, and which the Israeli premier called “very successful.”Netanyahu said the two countries reached understandings over issues that had previously not been sufficiently clarified.“I set the goal of the meeting as strengthening coordination between Russia and Israel to prevent mishaps,” Netanyahu said. “I think we clarified some matters, and that is very important.”The issues of the Syrian civil war and the ownership of the Golan had been expected to top the agenda at the meeting. Russia has been carrying out air raids in Syria in support of Assad since September of last year. And although Moscow recently announced it would withdraw many of its troops from the war-torn country, Russian planes still regularly fly sorties there.In November, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said a Russian jet had breached Israeli airspace, and that the matter was “immediately fixed through communications channels” between the two countries. And late last month King Abdullah of Jordan told American lawmakers that Israeli and Jordanian jets together confronted Russian warplanes in January over southern Syria and warned them away from crossing their shared border.Netanyahu said Thursday that Israeli and Russian military officials had discussed coordination between their armies.“I think [such coordination] is crucial because we have to keep the freedom of movement for the army and the air force in the places that are important to us in terms of our security, and I think that this essential,” he said.Israeli airstrikes in Syria have also been the topic of previous high-level meetings between Moscow and Jerusalem. A number of airstrikes in Syria have been attributed to Israeli efforts to prevent advanced weapons from reaching Hezbollah.The prime minister announced he will return to Russia on June 7.During the meeting, Netanyahu informed Putin of his “red lines” regarding the security of Israel’s northern borders, and stressed that the Jewish state was determined to maintain its control of the Golan Heights.“I have come to Russia to step up coordination on security matters, to prevent mistakes, misunderstandings,” Netanyahu said as the two leaders met. “We are not going back to the days when rockets were fired at our communities and our children from the top of the Golan… and so, with an agreement or without, the Golan Heights will remain part of [Israel’s] sovereign territory.”The prime minister stressed that Israel would do “everything” in its power to block Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah from obtaining advanced weapons, and was working to assure that no new “terror front” appeared on the Golan Heights.Israel is interested in making sure that Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed terror groups are not able to use a power vacuum on the Syrian side of the Golan to set up a base near the border for attacks against Israel.AP contributed to this report.
North Korea reportedly tests submarine-launched missile-Pyongyang seeks to take nuclear strike capabilities to new level, including the potential to retaliate for nuclear attack-By AFP April 23, 2016, 4:48 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Saturday tested what appeared to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile in the Sea of Japan, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.“North Korea launched a projectile which was believed to be a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) around 6:30 pm (0930 GMT) in the East Sea (Sea of Japan) near the northeastern port of Sinpo”, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.“We are keeping close tabs on the North Korean military and maintaining a full defense posture,” he said.It was not immediately known whether the launch was a success, he added.The SLBM’s engine ignited after it was ejected from a 2,000-tonne Sinpo-class submarine but was airborne for “a couple of minutes,” South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said citing a government source.North Korea has been pushing to acquire SLBM capability that would take its nuclear strike threat to a new level, allowing deployment far beyond the Korean peninsula and the potential to retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack.It has conducted a number of what it says were successful SLBM tests, but experts question the claim, suggesting Pyongyang had gone little further than a “pop-up” test from a submerged platform.The test-firing comes as North Korea gears up for a rare and much-hyped ruling party congress early next month, at which leader Kim Jong-Un is expected to take credit for pushing the country’s nuclear weapons program to new heights.Numerous analysts have suggested the regime might carry out a fifth nuclear test as a display of defiance and strength just before the congress opens.Tension has been high on the divided Korean peninsula since Pyongyang’s fourth nuclear test in January and rocket launch a month later that was widely seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.The UN Security Council responded by imposing its strongest sanctions to date over the North’s nuclear weapons program.Pyongyang has responded by staging a series of short- and mid-range missile tests and claiming a series of significant technical breakthroughs in its nuclear strike capability.It claimed it had miniaturized a nuclear warhead to fit on a missile and successfully tested an engine designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile that could reach the US mainland.While some experts say the claims are exaggerated, most acknowledge that the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs have made significant strides.
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