JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
LUKE 21:28-29
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Republicans okay platform excluding ‘two-state’ language-Party committee unanimously votes to omit references to a Palestinian state alongside Israel as solution to conflict-By Ron Kampeas July 12, 2016, 11:49 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Republican Party’s Platform Committee unanimously agreed to language on Israel that omits references to a two-state solution — a change that came with little resistance from AIPAC.The committee meeting Tuesday in Cleveland voted on the language approved Monday by its national security subcommittee. A voice vote carried only “ayes” and no votes against, earning the sponsor of the language, Alan Clemmons, a representative in the South Carolina State House, a standing ovation from other delegates.The two-state concept has long been a pillar of both Democratic and Republican policy in the region, and a stated policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although not of his government.For decades it has also been a mainstay of pro-Israel activism and of the pro-Israel lobby, including its leader, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Yet in contrast with 2012, when AIPAC reportedly opposed the language, this year it did not offer resistance and praised the platform.“The US seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, to be negotiated among those living in the region,” the platform says.“We oppose any measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms, and call for the immediate termination of all US funding of any entity that attempts to do so,” it also says, a reference to Palestinian Authority efforts to seek statehood status outside the framework of negotiations. “Our party is proud to stand with Israel now and always.”In introducing the language, Clemmons emphasized that it does not preclude US support for a two-state outcome should Israel choose that path.The language must be approved by the full Republican National Committee ahead of the convention in Cleveland next week.Other language on Israel “reject(s) the false notion that Israel is an occupier” and describes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and “indivisible,” both changes from the 2012 platform.Clemmons, who attempted to introduce similar changes in the 2012 platform, said he was rebuffed that year at the behest of delegates who were heeding AIPAC.This year, the same AIPAC official who was present in 2012, Brad Gordon, the director of policy and government affairs, was in the room, but Clemmons said he did not encounter any resistance from AIPAC to the change.“There was no overt interference I felt from AIPAC in this round,” Clemmons told JTA.AIPAC welcomed the language in both the Democratic and Republican platforms.“We appreciate that both parties’ platforms have now included strong pro-Israel language which is reflective of the broad bipartisan consensus in support of the Jewish state,” its spokesman, Marshall Wittmann, told JTA in an email.J Street, a liberal Jewish Middle East policy group that is dedicated to the two-state outcome, decried the language, saying it is “dangerous and irresponsible.”“It breaks with over half a century of bipartisan US consensus on Middle East policy and disavows the important achievements of previous Republican presidents in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” the group said in a statement. “It would place the Republican Party to the right of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who continues to maintain that he supports the two-state solution.”The Democrats also included pro-Israel language in their platform, approved over the weekend in Orlando, after delegates loyal to nominee Hillary Clinton rebuffed bids by delegates backing her challenger, Bernie Sanders, to include language critical of Israel for its occupation of the West Bank.However, the Democratic platform retained the party’s commitment to the two-state solution.“We will continue to work toward a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiated directly by the parties that guarantees Israel’s future as a secure and democratic Jewish state with recognized borders and provides the Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity,” it says.Driving the changes in the GOP platform is a new political action committee, the Iron Dome Alliance, which seeks to distinguish Republicans as friendlier to Israel than Democrats.Jeff Ballabon, a founder of the super PAC – so named because it may solicit unlimited donations – said the differences between the parties were now clear.“While the Democrats are arguing to what extent Israel should be called out for occupation, Republicans are denying that Israel is an occupier,” he told JTA.
US funds aided 2015 campaign to oust Netanyahu, Senate probe finds-Bipartisan inquiry determines resources that ended up in V15’s hands not illegal, but State Department chided for seeking to influence internal politics of ally-By Raphael Ahren July 12, 2016, 10:26 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The US government supported a group that tried to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year to the tune of nearly $350,000, or NIS 1.3 million, a Senate inquiry published Tuesday found, though it cleared the State Department of any wrongdoing.The bipartisan probe found no illegal activity in funding the OneVoice group, which became the V15 campaign to oust Netanyahu, though its report chided the State Department for having failed to prevent state funds being used, albeit legally and indirectly, to influence an allied country’s internal political process.According to the report, authored by the permanent subcommittee on investigations of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the State Department gave grants totaling $349,276 to One Voice’s Israeli and Palestinian branches “to support peace negotiations” over a 14-month grant period that ended in November 2014.After that period, the organizational infrastructure created with these funds was used by V15, a group that actively called on Israel’s to vote for “anyone but Bibi [Netanyahu]” during last year’s general election.Netanyahu urged the Knesset to vote to dissolve itself on December 2, 2014, leading to new elections in March of 2015. V15 spent considerable efforts trying to convince Israeli voters that Netanyahu had to be replaced by a candidate for the center-left. Netanyahu’s Likud party and other right-wing groups derided the group at the time for using “foreign funding” to try to unseat him.OneVoice, V15’s parent organization, did not violate the terms of its State Department grant, the Senate investigation determined. But the campaign infrastructure and resources it had established partially with State Department funds were subsequently used to support V15’s anti-Netanyahu campaign, the probe found.-US taxpayer dollars were used to build a campaign infrastructure that was later deployed against the leader of our closest Mideast ally’-“In service of V15, OneVoice deployed its social media platform, which more than doubled during the State Department grant period; used its database of voter contact information, including email addresses… and enlisted its network of trained activists, many of whom were recruited or trained under the grant, to support and recruit for V15,” the inquiry stated.This “pivot to electoral politics” was part of the strategy OneVoice informed the State Department about in advance, though the US diplomat who was received the plan said he never reviewed it.Spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday night the State Department had not had time to study the report closely.“The report makes it clear that there is no evidence that OneVoice spent any funds to influence the Israeli election,” he added.The document, authored by Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), found OneVoice’s actions were not illegal and did not violate the grant agreement it had signed with the State Department, since Foggy Bottom has placed no limits on the post-grant use any resources built during the grant period.However, the State Department should have been alerted by OneVoice’s political activism during the previous Israeli elections, in 2013, the report stated.McCaskill stressed that “no wrongdoing” could be found by the administration, though she told Politico that the probe “certainly highlights deficiencies in the Department’s policies that should be addressed in order to best protect taxpayer dollars.”Portman, the report’s Republican co-author, was harsher in his judgement.“The State Department ignored warning signs and funded a politically active group in a politically sensitive environment with inadequate safeguards,” he said, according to Politico. “It is completely unacceptable that US taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed — immediately after the grant ended — against the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East.”In a statement, OneVoice highlighted that the report found no wrongdoing by the group and said that it was “forthright” in reporting its work to the State Department.“One Voice will continue its important work promoting peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians,” the statement said.Yet the report found that US diplomats “failed to take any steps to guard against the risk that OneVoice could engage in political activities using State-funded grassroots campaign infrastructure after the grant period,” the report stated.“OneVoice Israel’s conduct fully complied with the terms of its agreements with the State Department and governing grant guidelines,” the 30-page report read. “The experience under the OneVoice grants, however, reveals the ease with which recipient organizations can repurpose certain public-diplomacy resources for political activities.”The State Department can be blamed for failing to predict and protect itself against such occurrences, the investigation stated. OneVoice was open about its previous political activity and about its intention to use the money given to by the government to build an infrastructure that could be used for partisan political activities even after the grant period had elapsed, it added.“Despite the fact that influencing a foreign election is across a ‘red line’ for US grantees, all of this activity was permissible under Department guidelines and the terms of the grants,” the report concluded.The V15 campaign, which was ultimately unsuccessful, was dogged by charges during the campaign of being linked to US President Barack Obama and a covert administration effort to push Netanyahu out of office.Some of those accusation revolved around Jeremy Bird, a former national field director of the Obama campaign who worked for the OneVoice-V15 campaign.Days after the March 2015 election, a senior Israeli official accused the White House of being directly involved in trying to oust Netanyahu.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Times of Israel at the time that “it’s no secret” that the Obama administration attempted to influence the outcome of the election, having been partially motivated by a desire for revenge over Netanyahu’s polarizing speech before Congress earlier that month, which sought to undermine the president’s key foreign policy initiative – a nuclear deal with Iran.“The White House is driven by three main motives,” the senior official said. “The first is revenge [over the Congress speech]. The second is frustration: It’s no secret that they were involved in an attempt to bring down the Netanyahu government – something that we have clear knowledge of – and failed. The third [motive] is the administration’s attempt to divert attention from the negotiations with Iran to the Palestinian issue.”Rebecca Shimoni Stoil and Avi Issacharoff contributed to this report.
Fearing ramming attack, police fire at car, killing Palestinian-Officers were raiding a weapons workshop in West Bank town of al-Ram when vehicle began accelerating toward them, army says-By Times of Israel staff July 13, 2016, 9:04 am
Border Police officers operating in the Palestinian town of al-Ram north of Jerusalem early Wednesday morning opened fire on a vehicle that officers said was accelerating toward them, killing one Palestinian passenger.A second person in the car was wounded. A third was unhurt, and was arrested by police and taken for questioning.One of the border policemen opened fire, according to the army, after he “felt in danger.”An IDF statement said the incident was being investigated.The operation uncovered a weapons workshop in the town, the army said. Security forces have launched a major crackdown on underground arms workshops in the West Bank, closing 16 since the start of the year, according to the IDF.Separately, 13 Palestinians were arrested overnight, including one Hamas activist near Tulkarm.A wave of Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank since October last year has killed 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.At least 215 Palestinians have been killed, most of them while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.Others were shot dead during protests and clashes, while some were killed by Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.AFP contributed to this report.
Iran likens opposition rally in France to ‘stinking corpse’-Tehran government calls exiles’ organization an ‘annihilated terrorist group’ and says it will condemn any state that backs it-By AFP July 12, 2016, 11:37 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Iran on Tuesday condemned a rally in France by an exiled opposition group it labeled a “stinking corpse” and said it would denounce any country that backed it.The National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) claimed that 100,000 Iranians had attended its annual rally at Le Bourget, near Paris, on Saturday.“The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to confront this hypocritical little group and will condemn any government” that supports it, government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told the official IRNA news agency.He described the NCRI as an “annihilated terrorist group” and a “stinking corpse.”Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the rally a “political game” where attendees “take part every year and support terrorists.”Iranian media reported that Prince Turki al-Faisal, former intelligence chief of Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, attended the event.Zarif said: “A person who is the creator of both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and has had a very disgraceful role in the history of the Saudi regime in the region” had attended the rally.He did not mention Faisal by name.The NCRI is a political umbrella coalition of five Iranian opposition groups that includes the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK).The MEK, formed in the 1960s to overthrow the shah of Iran, fought the rise of the mullahs in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic revolution.The US State Department listed it as a “terrorist organization” in 1997.It was removed from terrorist watchlists by the European Union in 2008 and the United States in 2012.
US voices concern for free speech over Israeli NGO bill-After EU criticizes legislation, State Department says newly passed law could ‘have chilling effects’ on groups’ activities-By Times of Israel staff July 12, 2016, 11:28 pm
The US State Department on Tuesday expressed concern that a law recently passed by the Knesset to brand foreign-funded NGOs could impinge free speech and association in Israel.The law — approved by Knesset late Monday night — mandates that non-government organizations that receive more than half their funds from foreign governments or state agencies disclose that fact in any public reports, advocacy literature and interactions with government officials, or face a NIS 29,000 fine ($7,500).State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing that some of Washington’s concerns regarding the bill were alleviated by amendments made before it was finally passed by Israeli legislators.Nonetheless, he expressed the White House’s concerns “not just about free expression but association and dissent.”“We are deeply concerned that this law can have a chilling effect on the activities that these worthwhile organizations are trying to do,” he said.The Israeli government has defended the law as a way to increase transparency of foreign government intervention in Israeli affairs, but has been widely pilloried by critics in Israel and abroad who see it as targeting leftist groups and clamping down on free speech..Supporters of the law, including one of its authors, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, said Monday that it was intended to create public awareness about large-scale foreign governmental intervention in Israel’s domestic politics. The law’s authors charge that advocacy groups funded by foreign governments “represent in Israel, in a non-transparent manner, the outside interests of foreign states.”The law was passed a day before a bipartisan Senate report found that the V15 campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015 was indirectly funded by US State Department dollars.Likud minister Zeev Elkin said Tuesday that the Senate’s findings were proof “of how correct the laws of transparency in foreign state funding of NGOs is.”Critics, meanwhile, maintain the law unfairly targets left-wing and human rights organizations, many of which receive funding from European countries.Earlier in the day, the European Union said the law goes “beyond the legitimate need for transparency,” appears to be aimed at limiting the activities of certain groups, and risks undermining Israel’s democratic values.“The reporting requirements imposed by the new law go beyond the legitimate need for transparency and seem aimed at constraining the activities of these civil society organizations working in Israel,” the European Union said.“Israel enjoys a vibrant democracy, freedom of speech and a diverse civil society which are an integral part of the values which Israel and the EU both hold dear. This new legislation risks undermining these values,” it added.The 28-nation bloc also urged Israel “to refrain from actions which may complicate the space in which civil society organizations operate and which may curtail freedom of expression and association.”The German government last week said it was “concerned” about the “one-sided” legislation.According to a Justice Ministry analysis of the law’s effect, nearly all the roughly two dozen existing Israeli organizations that are expected to be affected by the new rules belong to the left, including anti-occupation advocates B’Tselem and Yesh Din, as well as pro-Palestinian groups like Zochrot, which advocates for the return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Some Arab groups that advocate for equality for the Arab minority will also be subject to its stipulations.Nonprofit organizations that stand to be affected by the NGO law slammed it as unfair and antidemocratic.The New Israel Fund, which helps fund many of those groups, said in a statement: “This legislation targets organizations working for human rights and democracy, while allowing ultranationalist organizations to keep their sources of funding hidden despite their claim that the law increases ‘transparency.'”The law has been criticized by Israeli opposition lawmakers for failing to include donations from private individuals. Most right-wing advocacy groups enjoy significant support from Jewish or Christian donors or activist organizations abroad.“The only thing transparent about this law is its true purpose: to intimidate and silence the civic sphere, and those advocating for an end to the occupation in particular,” NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch said.“This is a deeply anti-democratic move, and Israelis from all sectors of civil society are already feeling its chilling effect. Those of us committed to a vision of Israel as a democracy that offers complete equality to all of its citizens as envisioned in the Declaration of Independence must redouble our efforts. Not only is freedom of expression for Israelis on the line, so is Israel’s standing as a liberal democracy. The stakes are high, and so is our commitment to working toward the future we believe in.”Sari Bashi, who now serves as the Israel and Palestine Country Director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, echoed the NIF’s criticism, saying the new law “targets and burdens human rights and left-wing groups by imposing onerous reporting requirements and hefty fines for noncompliance. If the Israeli government were truly concerned about transparency, it would require all NGOs to actively alert the public to their sources of funding – not just those that criticize the government’s policies.”Bashi is a co-founder of Gisha, one of the groups whose funding sources make it subject to the new rules.The veteran anti-occupation group Peace Now vowed to appeal the law to the High Court of Justice.Calling it “a blatant violation of freedom of expression,” the group said its “true intention is to divert the Israeli public discourse away from the occupation and to silence opposition to the government’s policies.” The law was part of a trend of “severe deterioration in Israel’s democracy,” the group said in a statement.“We will continue to fight this anti-democratic wave in the streets and intend to challenge the NGO law’s validity before the [High] Court.”
In bid to curb violence, IDF takes aim at West Bank guns-Army says it has seized 200 guns and shuttered 16 illegal arms factories since start of year-By Tia Goldenberg July 12, 2016, 9:38 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has seized dozens of weapons, shuttered arms-making factories and arrested weapons dealers in a crackdown in the West Bank meant to quell an ongoing spate of Palestinian violence, an Israeli military official said Tuesday.Col. Roman Gofman, a commander of a West Bank brigade, said the crackdown is making it more difficult and expensive to carry out attacks with guns.Gofman said the 10-month outburst of violence had reached a new intensity with an increasing amount of attacks using guns. Last month, two Palestinian attackers killed four people when they opened fire on a Tel Aviv restaurant, and earlier this month, a man was killed after his car was shot at in the West Bank. Most of the violence has been carried out by knife-wielding Palestinians.He said some 200 guns had been seized since the start of the year and that 16 factories forging crude weapons had been closed.The crackdown has raised gun prices, Gofman said. For example, a crude gun based on the Swedish “Carl Gustav” submachine gun cost around $500 a few months ago, whereas now it can cost upward of $2,500, he said.He said that weapons makers were also becoming more hesitant to sell arms to potential attackers out of a fear that they could be tracked down by the military.Some 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans have been killed in the wave of violence. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, the majority identified as attackers by Israel. The rest were killed in clashes with Israeli troops.Israeli leaders say that Palestinian incitement, including on social media, has fueled the violence. The Palestinians say that nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation and a lack of hope for gaining independence are driving youths to carry out attacks. The attackers have overwhelmingly been in their teens or 20s, often acting alone, making it difficult for Israeli forces to stop them.Earlier Tuesday, the office of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said it blocked an Israeli delegation from traveling to the West Bank because the Palestinian officials it was to meet included Mohammed al-Madani, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas overseeing outreach to Israeli society.Liberman has accused al-Madani of “subversive activities.”The Israeli delegation was from the Geneva Initiative, a group that promotes a negotiated peace agreement with the Palestinians. It included Yossi Beilin, a former Cabinet minister and peace negotiator, and members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party.Gadi Baltiansky, the group’s director, accused Lieberman of using security as a “pretext” for pushing a political agenda.
Hezbollah finds fighting in Syria less popular than battling Israel-A decade after waging war against the Jewish state, support for Bashar Assad in Syria is bleeding the Lebanese Shiite group and discontent over its intervention is growing-By Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam July 12, 2016, 8:44 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AYNATA, Lebanon (AP) — In front-line villages of south Lebanon, the posters of Hezbollah members killed fighting Israel 10 years ago still stand, but have faded. Now rising up around them is a new generation of posters, bearing the faces of young fighters from the militant group killed in Syria.They reflect the Shiite group’s radical shift from decades fighting Israel, a cause that at one time earned it soaring popularity across the Arab and Muslim world, to the far less popular role fighting fellow Arabs in defense of Syria’s president, Bashar Assad.It is a venture that is proving costly. The war in neighboring Syria is bleeding Hezbollah, considered a terror group by Israel, of fighters and experienced military commanders, and has left the group more vulnerable to accusations of complete subservience to Iran, which rallied Hezbollah to intervene in the war. So far, more than a thousand of the group’s fighters, including several founding members, have been killed in Syria, a toll higher than the one incurred by the group in nearly two decades of fighting Israeli forces.-Rumblings of discontent-Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria has also changed the public discourse around the group in the Arab world. At home in Lebanon, its domination of politics is unshaken: With a bloc of allies in the Cabinet and parliament, it vetoes any decisions it doesn’t approve of, including preventing parliament from electing a new president. But it is much more openly criticized. Public opinion is sharply polarized among those who see the group as dragging Lebanon into the Syria morass, and others who support it.“I think that we’re seeing rumblings of discontent. I mean some families obviously aren’t happy. We’ve heard a lot of stories about families saying why are our kids dying in Syria, we can understand them dying in the fight against Israel but why are they dying in the fight in Syria,” said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.But whatever criticism of Hezbollah exists among Lebanese Shiites, it tends to remain inside the Shiite community. Public support for the group so far appears intact because the majority of Shiites still see supporting Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect that is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, as crucial and vital to their interests.That’s in part because of how Hezbollah frames the war to its supporters. The group has depicted itself as battling Sunni extremists intent on wiping out Shiites, arguing it must fight them in Syria to keep them away from Lebanon. It also calls the war an extension of its fight against Israel, saying that Syria is under attack from Western powers seeking to eliminate Assad as a “center of resistance” to Israel.“Syria has been the worst imaginable piece of news for Hezbollah. A challenge that has transformed the party into something it does not want: the perception of a Sunni killer,” said Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council.It is difficult to measure sentiment within Hezbollah, a highly secretive and disciplined organization. On the 10th anniversary of the 2006 war with Israel, an Associated Press team gained rare access into the homes of slain fighters in south Lebanon, where relatives grieved but said they supported the group’s justifications for fighting in Syria.In one home, the socks and boots stained with the blood of a Hezbollah fighter killed in 2006 are on display in the sitting room of his parents’ house. In another, the military uniform worn by a fighter killed in Syria lay on his bed, laid out carefully by his grieving mother.“Khalil was my soul but I won’t hide my son and say, let other people send their children,” said Hanan Ibrahim, whose son Khalil was killed near Damascus on Dec. 27, 2013. “He should go (fight in Syria), and my other son too and if I had a third son I would also send him,” she said, speaking in her living room, decorated with a giant picture of her son Khalil on a front line in Syria.Hezbollah’s popularity across the Arab world and in Lebanon had taken a major hit beginning in 2005, when it was accused by some of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri with a massive bombing in Beirut. In 2008, the group briefly seized several Sunni neighborhoods of west Beirut after the government closed down its secret telecommunications network, pointing its weapons internally for the first time since the end of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.-Israeli deterrence 10 years later-Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war has, according to its critics, left the group looking even more like an Iranian tool fighting for its own self-interest.It is a far cry from back in 2000, when Hezbollah was celebrated across much of the Arab world, including among Sunnis, for its guerrilla campaign that eventually forced Israeli troops to pull out of a slice of southern Lebanon they had occupied for 18 years. And despite some criticism, the group was supported by the majority of Lebanese during the 2006 war with Israel, which began with a cross-border Hezbollah raid that kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, triggering a massive Israeli air and ground campaign.The 2006 fighting killed about 1,200 Lebanese, including hundreds of civilians, and about 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. The war failed to neutralize the group’s rocket threat, and Israeli officials say Hezbollah’s improved missile arsenal is now capable of striking virtually anywhere in the country.Israeli political and military leaders, however, say that the war succeeded in re-establishing Israeli deterrence and provided a decade of quiet on its northern front — and gleefully note that the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is still in hiding 10 years later.Israeli officials also acknowledge that as a group, Hezbollah is amassing more combat experience and has more than replenished its arms via smuggling from Syria. That pipeline is one key reason why preserving the existing Syrian regime is seen as so existential for Hezbollah.In the front-line village of Aynata, only few miles away from the Israeli border, residents vividly recall the 2006 war. The village was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters. Fourteen Hezbollah fighters and 28 civilians were killed.Since Hezbollah began sending fighters to Syria in 2012, six other fighters from the village have died.“What is common between these two wars is that they are existential wars against Hezbollah, and to be more precise, it is a war against Shiites,” said Hisham Khanafer, whose two younger brothers, Moussa and Abbas, were killed — one fighting Israel in 2006 and one in Syria last year.Abbas, who was 25, had planned to marry his fiancee as soon as he returned from Syria. Moussa was 29, his third daughter born on the day he was killed.Khanafer wears a yellow shawl, the color of the Hezbollah flag, with portraits of his slain brothers on each side. “Every war has a price,” he says.Hezbollah first began sending fighters in small numbers to Syria in 2012, to help protect Shiite shrines near the capital, Damascus, and has gradually escalated its involvement, dispatching fighters to ever more distant places to shore up the battered forces of Assad. Nearly 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed in one single battle around the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border last month.“For Israel, this is a dream scenario. All its enemies are killing each other in Syria… without them having to fire a bullet or place even one soldier in the line of fire,” said Yahya of the Carnegie Middle East Center.She said although Hezbollah’s overall control is not as tight as it used to be, the group is nowhere near a breaking point yet.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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
Republicans okay platform excluding ‘two-state’ language-Party committee unanimously votes to omit references to a Palestinian state alongside Israel as solution to conflict-By Ron Kampeas July 12, 2016, 11:49 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Republican Party’s Platform Committee unanimously agreed to language on Israel that omits references to a two-state solution — a change that came with little resistance from AIPAC.The committee meeting Tuesday in Cleveland voted on the language approved Monday by its national security subcommittee. A voice vote carried only “ayes” and no votes against, earning the sponsor of the language, Alan Clemmons, a representative in the South Carolina State House, a standing ovation from other delegates.The two-state concept has long been a pillar of both Democratic and Republican policy in the region, and a stated policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, although not of his government.For decades it has also been a mainstay of pro-Israel activism and of the pro-Israel lobby, including its leader, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Yet in contrast with 2012, when AIPAC reportedly opposed the language, this year it did not offer resistance and praised the platform.“The US seeks to assist in the establishment of comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East, to be negotiated among those living in the region,” the platform says.“We oppose any measures intended to impose an agreement or to dictate borders or other terms, and call for the immediate termination of all US funding of any entity that attempts to do so,” it also says, a reference to Palestinian Authority efforts to seek statehood status outside the framework of negotiations. “Our party is proud to stand with Israel now and always.”In introducing the language, Clemmons emphasized that it does not preclude US support for a two-state outcome should Israel choose that path.The language must be approved by the full Republican National Committee ahead of the convention in Cleveland next week.Other language on Israel “reject(s) the false notion that Israel is an occupier” and describes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and “indivisible,” both changes from the 2012 platform.Clemmons, who attempted to introduce similar changes in the 2012 platform, said he was rebuffed that year at the behest of delegates who were heeding AIPAC.This year, the same AIPAC official who was present in 2012, Brad Gordon, the director of policy and government affairs, was in the room, but Clemmons said he did not encounter any resistance from AIPAC to the change.“There was no overt interference I felt from AIPAC in this round,” Clemmons told JTA.AIPAC welcomed the language in both the Democratic and Republican platforms.“We appreciate that both parties’ platforms have now included strong pro-Israel language which is reflective of the broad bipartisan consensus in support of the Jewish state,” its spokesman, Marshall Wittmann, told JTA in an email.J Street, a liberal Jewish Middle East policy group that is dedicated to the two-state outcome, decried the language, saying it is “dangerous and irresponsible.”“It breaks with over half a century of bipartisan US consensus on Middle East policy and disavows the important achievements of previous Republican presidents in seeking peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” the group said in a statement. “It would place the Republican Party to the right of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who continues to maintain that he supports the two-state solution.”The Democrats also included pro-Israel language in their platform, approved over the weekend in Orlando, after delegates loyal to nominee Hillary Clinton rebuffed bids by delegates backing her challenger, Bernie Sanders, to include language critical of Israel for its occupation of the West Bank.However, the Democratic platform retained the party’s commitment to the two-state solution.“We will continue to work toward a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiated directly by the parties that guarantees Israel’s future as a secure and democratic Jewish state with recognized borders and provides the Palestinians with independence, sovereignty, and dignity,” it says.Driving the changes in the GOP platform is a new political action committee, the Iron Dome Alliance, which seeks to distinguish Republicans as friendlier to Israel than Democrats.Jeff Ballabon, a founder of the super PAC – so named because it may solicit unlimited donations – said the differences between the parties were now clear.“While the Democrats are arguing to what extent Israel should be called out for occupation, Republicans are denying that Israel is an occupier,” he told JTA.
US funds aided 2015 campaign to oust Netanyahu, Senate probe finds-Bipartisan inquiry determines resources that ended up in V15’s hands not illegal, but State Department chided for seeking to influence internal politics of ally-By Raphael Ahren July 12, 2016, 10:26 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The US government supported a group that tried to unseat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year to the tune of nearly $350,000, or NIS 1.3 million, a Senate inquiry published Tuesday found, though it cleared the State Department of any wrongdoing.The bipartisan probe found no illegal activity in funding the OneVoice group, which became the V15 campaign to oust Netanyahu, though its report chided the State Department for having failed to prevent state funds being used, albeit legally and indirectly, to influence an allied country’s internal political process.According to the report, authored by the permanent subcommittee on investigations of the Senate’s Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, the State Department gave grants totaling $349,276 to One Voice’s Israeli and Palestinian branches “to support peace negotiations” over a 14-month grant period that ended in November 2014.After that period, the organizational infrastructure created with these funds was used by V15, a group that actively called on Israel’s to vote for “anyone but Bibi [Netanyahu]” during last year’s general election.Netanyahu urged the Knesset to vote to dissolve itself on December 2, 2014, leading to new elections in March of 2015. V15 spent considerable efforts trying to convince Israeli voters that Netanyahu had to be replaced by a candidate for the center-left. Netanyahu’s Likud party and other right-wing groups derided the group at the time for using “foreign funding” to try to unseat him.OneVoice, V15’s parent organization, did not violate the terms of its State Department grant, the Senate investigation determined. But the campaign infrastructure and resources it had established partially with State Department funds were subsequently used to support V15’s anti-Netanyahu campaign, the probe found.-US taxpayer dollars were used to build a campaign infrastructure that was later deployed against the leader of our closest Mideast ally’-“In service of V15, OneVoice deployed its social media platform, which more than doubled during the State Department grant period; used its database of voter contact information, including email addresses… and enlisted its network of trained activists, many of whom were recruited or trained under the grant, to support and recruit for V15,” the inquiry stated.This “pivot to electoral politics” was part of the strategy OneVoice informed the State Department about in advance, though the US diplomat who was received the plan said he never reviewed it.Spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday night the State Department had not had time to study the report closely.“The report makes it clear that there is no evidence that OneVoice spent any funds to influence the Israeli election,” he added.The document, authored by Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), found OneVoice’s actions were not illegal and did not violate the grant agreement it had signed with the State Department, since Foggy Bottom has placed no limits on the post-grant use any resources built during the grant period.However, the State Department should have been alerted by OneVoice’s political activism during the previous Israeli elections, in 2013, the report stated.McCaskill stressed that “no wrongdoing” could be found by the administration, though she told Politico that the probe “certainly highlights deficiencies in the Department’s policies that should be addressed in order to best protect taxpayer dollars.”Portman, the report’s Republican co-author, was harsher in his judgement.“The State Department ignored warning signs and funded a politically active group in a politically sensitive environment with inadequate safeguards,” he said, according to Politico. “It is completely unacceptable that US taxpayer dollars were used to build a political campaign infrastructure that was deployed — immediately after the grant ended — against the leader of our closest ally in the Middle East.”In a statement, OneVoice highlighted that the report found no wrongdoing by the group and said that it was “forthright” in reporting its work to the State Department.“One Voice will continue its important work promoting peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians,” the statement said.Yet the report found that US diplomats “failed to take any steps to guard against the risk that OneVoice could engage in political activities using State-funded grassroots campaign infrastructure after the grant period,” the report stated.“OneVoice Israel’s conduct fully complied with the terms of its agreements with the State Department and governing grant guidelines,” the 30-page report read. “The experience under the OneVoice grants, however, reveals the ease with which recipient organizations can repurpose certain public-diplomacy resources for political activities.”The State Department can be blamed for failing to predict and protect itself against such occurrences, the investigation stated. OneVoice was open about its previous political activity and about its intention to use the money given to by the government to build an infrastructure that could be used for partisan political activities even after the grant period had elapsed, it added.“Despite the fact that influencing a foreign election is across a ‘red line’ for US grantees, all of this activity was permissible under Department guidelines and the terms of the grants,” the report concluded.The V15 campaign, which was ultimately unsuccessful, was dogged by charges during the campaign of being linked to US President Barack Obama and a covert administration effort to push Netanyahu out of office.Some of those accusation revolved around Jeremy Bird, a former national field director of the Obama campaign who worked for the OneVoice-V15 campaign.Days after the March 2015 election, a senior Israeli official accused the White House of being directly involved in trying to oust Netanyahu.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Times of Israel at the time that “it’s no secret” that the Obama administration attempted to influence the outcome of the election, having been partially motivated by a desire for revenge over Netanyahu’s polarizing speech before Congress earlier that month, which sought to undermine the president’s key foreign policy initiative – a nuclear deal with Iran.“The White House is driven by three main motives,” the senior official said. “The first is revenge [over the Congress speech]. The second is frustration: It’s no secret that they were involved in an attempt to bring down the Netanyahu government – something that we have clear knowledge of – and failed. The third [motive] is the administration’s attempt to divert attention from the negotiations with Iran to the Palestinian issue.”Rebecca Shimoni Stoil and Avi Issacharoff contributed to this report.
Fearing ramming attack, police fire at car, killing Palestinian-Officers were raiding a weapons workshop in West Bank town of al-Ram when vehicle began accelerating toward them, army says-By Times of Israel staff July 13, 2016, 9:04 am
Border Police officers operating in the Palestinian town of al-Ram north of Jerusalem early Wednesday morning opened fire on a vehicle that officers said was accelerating toward them, killing one Palestinian passenger.A second person in the car was wounded. A third was unhurt, and was arrested by police and taken for questioning.One of the border policemen opened fire, according to the army, after he “felt in danger.”An IDF statement said the incident was being investigated.The operation uncovered a weapons workshop in the town, the army said. Security forces have launched a major crackdown on underground arms workshops in the West Bank, closing 16 since the start of the year, according to the IDF.Separately, 13 Palestinians were arrested overnight, including one Hamas activist near Tulkarm.A wave of Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank since October last year has killed 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese.At least 215 Palestinians have been killed, most of them while carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, according to Israeli authorities.Others were shot dead during protests and clashes, while some were killed by Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip.AFP contributed to this report.
Iran likens opposition rally in France to ‘stinking corpse’-Tehran government calls exiles’ organization an ‘annihilated terrorist group’ and says it will condemn any state that backs it-By AFP July 12, 2016, 11:37 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
Iran on Tuesday condemned a rally in France by an exiled opposition group it labeled a “stinking corpse” and said it would denounce any country that backed it.The National Council of Resistance in Iran (NCRI) claimed that 100,000 Iranians had attended its annual rally at Le Bourget, near Paris, on Saturday.“The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to confront this hypocritical little group and will condemn any government” that supports it, government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told the official IRNA news agency.He described the NCRI as an “annihilated terrorist group” and a “stinking corpse.”Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the rally a “political game” where attendees “take part every year and support terrorists.”Iranian media reported that Prince Turki al-Faisal, former intelligence chief of Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, attended the event.Zarif said: “A person who is the creator of both Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and has had a very disgraceful role in the history of the Saudi regime in the region” had attended the rally.He did not mention Faisal by name.The NCRI is a political umbrella coalition of five Iranian opposition groups that includes the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran (MEK).The MEK, formed in the 1960s to overthrow the shah of Iran, fought the rise of the mullahs in Tehran following the 1979 Islamic revolution.The US State Department listed it as a “terrorist organization” in 1997.It was removed from terrorist watchlists by the European Union in 2008 and the United States in 2012.
US voices concern for free speech over Israeli NGO bill-After EU criticizes legislation, State Department says newly passed law could ‘have chilling effects’ on groups’ activities-By Times of Israel staff July 12, 2016, 11:28 pm
The US State Department on Tuesday expressed concern that a law recently passed by the Knesset to brand foreign-funded NGOs could impinge free speech and association in Israel.The law — approved by Knesset late Monday night — mandates that non-government organizations that receive more than half their funds from foreign governments or state agencies disclose that fact in any public reports, advocacy literature and interactions with government officials, or face a NIS 29,000 fine ($7,500).State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing that some of Washington’s concerns regarding the bill were alleviated by amendments made before it was finally passed by Israeli legislators.Nonetheless, he expressed the White House’s concerns “not just about free expression but association and dissent.”“We are deeply concerned that this law can have a chilling effect on the activities that these worthwhile organizations are trying to do,” he said.The Israeli government has defended the law as a way to increase transparency of foreign government intervention in Israeli affairs, but has been widely pilloried by critics in Israel and abroad who see it as targeting leftist groups and clamping down on free speech..Supporters of the law, including one of its authors, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, said Monday that it was intended to create public awareness about large-scale foreign governmental intervention in Israel’s domestic politics. The law’s authors charge that advocacy groups funded by foreign governments “represent in Israel, in a non-transparent manner, the outside interests of foreign states.”The law was passed a day before a bipartisan Senate report found that the V15 campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015 was indirectly funded by US State Department dollars.Likud minister Zeev Elkin said Tuesday that the Senate’s findings were proof “of how correct the laws of transparency in foreign state funding of NGOs is.”Critics, meanwhile, maintain the law unfairly targets left-wing and human rights organizations, many of which receive funding from European countries.Earlier in the day, the European Union said the law goes “beyond the legitimate need for transparency,” appears to be aimed at limiting the activities of certain groups, and risks undermining Israel’s democratic values.“The reporting requirements imposed by the new law go beyond the legitimate need for transparency and seem aimed at constraining the activities of these civil society organizations working in Israel,” the European Union said.“Israel enjoys a vibrant democracy, freedom of speech and a diverse civil society which are an integral part of the values which Israel and the EU both hold dear. This new legislation risks undermining these values,” it added.The 28-nation bloc also urged Israel “to refrain from actions which may complicate the space in which civil society organizations operate and which may curtail freedom of expression and association.”The German government last week said it was “concerned” about the “one-sided” legislation.According to a Justice Ministry analysis of the law’s effect, nearly all the roughly two dozen existing Israeli organizations that are expected to be affected by the new rules belong to the left, including anti-occupation advocates B’Tselem and Yesh Din, as well as pro-Palestinian groups like Zochrot, which advocates for the return of Palestinian refugees and their descendants. Some Arab groups that advocate for equality for the Arab minority will also be subject to its stipulations.Nonprofit organizations that stand to be affected by the NGO law slammed it as unfair and antidemocratic.The New Israel Fund, which helps fund many of those groups, said in a statement: “This legislation targets organizations working for human rights and democracy, while allowing ultranationalist organizations to keep their sources of funding hidden despite their claim that the law increases ‘transparency.'”The law has been criticized by Israeli opposition lawmakers for failing to include donations from private individuals. Most right-wing advocacy groups enjoy significant support from Jewish or Christian donors or activist organizations abroad.“The only thing transparent about this law is its true purpose: to intimidate and silence the civic sphere, and those advocating for an end to the occupation in particular,” NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch said.“This is a deeply anti-democratic move, and Israelis from all sectors of civil society are already feeling its chilling effect. Those of us committed to a vision of Israel as a democracy that offers complete equality to all of its citizens as envisioned in the Declaration of Independence must redouble our efforts. Not only is freedom of expression for Israelis on the line, so is Israel’s standing as a liberal democracy. The stakes are high, and so is our commitment to working toward the future we believe in.”Sari Bashi, who now serves as the Israel and Palestine Country Director for the New York-based Human Rights Watch, echoed the NIF’s criticism, saying the new law “targets and burdens human rights and left-wing groups by imposing onerous reporting requirements and hefty fines for noncompliance. If the Israeli government were truly concerned about transparency, it would require all NGOs to actively alert the public to their sources of funding – not just those that criticize the government’s policies.”Bashi is a co-founder of Gisha, one of the groups whose funding sources make it subject to the new rules.The veteran anti-occupation group Peace Now vowed to appeal the law to the High Court of Justice.Calling it “a blatant violation of freedom of expression,” the group said its “true intention is to divert the Israeli public discourse away from the occupation and to silence opposition to the government’s policies.” The law was part of a trend of “severe deterioration in Israel’s democracy,” the group said in a statement.“We will continue to fight this anti-democratic wave in the streets and intend to challenge the NGO law’s validity before the [High] Court.”
In bid to curb violence, IDF takes aim at West Bank guns-Army says it has seized 200 guns and shuttered 16 illegal arms factories since start of year-By Tia Goldenberg July 12, 2016, 9:38 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has seized dozens of weapons, shuttered arms-making factories and arrested weapons dealers in a crackdown in the West Bank meant to quell an ongoing spate of Palestinian violence, an Israeli military official said Tuesday.Col. Roman Gofman, a commander of a West Bank brigade, said the crackdown is making it more difficult and expensive to carry out attacks with guns.Gofman said the 10-month outburst of violence had reached a new intensity with an increasing amount of attacks using guns. Last month, two Palestinian attackers killed four people when they opened fire on a Tel Aviv restaurant, and earlier this month, a man was killed after his car was shot at in the West Bank. Most of the violence has been carried out by knife-wielding Palestinians.He said some 200 guns had been seized since the start of the year and that 16 factories forging crude weapons had been closed.The crackdown has raised gun prices, Gofman said. For example, a crude gun based on the Swedish “Carl Gustav” submachine gun cost around $500 a few months ago, whereas now it can cost upward of $2,500, he said.He said that weapons makers were also becoming more hesitant to sell arms to potential attackers out of a fear that they could be tracked down by the military.Some 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans have been killed in the wave of violence. More than 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, the majority identified as attackers by Israel. The rest were killed in clashes with Israeli troops.Israeli leaders say that Palestinian incitement, including on social media, has fueled the violence. The Palestinians say that nearly 50 years of Israeli occupation and a lack of hope for gaining independence are driving youths to carry out attacks. The attackers have overwhelmingly been in their teens or 20s, often acting alone, making it difficult for Israeli forces to stop them.Earlier Tuesday, the office of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said it blocked an Israeli delegation from traveling to the West Bank because the Palestinian officials it was to meet included Mohammed al-Madani, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas overseeing outreach to Israeli society.Liberman has accused al-Madani of “subversive activities.”The Israeli delegation was from the Geneva Initiative, a group that promotes a negotiated peace agreement with the Palestinians. It included Yossi Beilin, a former Cabinet minister and peace negotiator, and members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party.Gadi Baltiansky, the group’s director, accused Lieberman of using security as a “pretext” for pushing a political agenda.
Hezbollah finds fighting in Syria less popular than battling Israel-A decade after waging war against the Jewish state, support for Bashar Assad in Syria is bleeding the Lebanese Shiite group and discontent over its intervention is growing-By Bassem Mroue and Zeina Karam July 12, 2016, 8:44 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AYNATA, Lebanon (AP) — In front-line villages of south Lebanon, the posters of Hezbollah members killed fighting Israel 10 years ago still stand, but have faded. Now rising up around them is a new generation of posters, bearing the faces of young fighters from the militant group killed in Syria.They reflect the Shiite group’s radical shift from decades fighting Israel, a cause that at one time earned it soaring popularity across the Arab and Muslim world, to the far less popular role fighting fellow Arabs in defense of Syria’s president, Bashar Assad.It is a venture that is proving costly. The war in neighboring Syria is bleeding Hezbollah, considered a terror group by Israel, of fighters and experienced military commanders, and has left the group more vulnerable to accusations of complete subservience to Iran, which rallied Hezbollah to intervene in the war. So far, more than a thousand of the group’s fighters, including several founding members, have been killed in Syria, a toll higher than the one incurred by the group in nearly two decades of fighting Israeli forces.-Rumblings of discontent-Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria has also changed the public discourse around the group in the Arab world. At home in Lebanon, its domination of politics is unshaken: With a bloc of allies in the Cabinet and parliament, it vetoes any decisions it doesn’t approve of, including preventing parliament from electing a new president. But it is much more openly criticized. Public opinion is sharply polarized among those who see the group as dragging Lebanon into the Syria morass, and others who support it.“I think that we’re seeing rumblings of discontent. I mean some families obviously aren’t happy. We’ve heard a lot of stories about families saying why are our kids dying in Syria, we can understand them dying in the fight against Israel but why are they dying in the fight in Syria,” said Maha Yahya, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.But whatever criticism of Hezbollah exists among Lebanese Shiites, it tends to remain inside the Shiite community. Public support for the group so far appears intact because the majority of Shiites still see supporting Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect that is an offshoot of Shiite Islam, as crucial and vital to their interests.That’s in part because of how Hezbollah frames the war to its supporters. The group has depicted itself as battling Sunni extremists intent on wiping out Shiites, arguing it must fight them in Syria to keep them away from Lebanon. It also calls the war an extension of its fight against Israel, saying that Syria is under attack from Western powers seeking to eliminate Assad as a “center of resistance” to Israel.“Syria has been the worst imaginable piece of news for Hezbollah. A challenge that has transformed the party into something it does not want: the perception of a Sunni killer,” said Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council.It is difficult to measure sentiment within Hezbollah, a highly secretive and disciplined organization. On the 10th anniversary of the 2006 war with Israel, an Associated Press team gained rare access into the homes of slain fighters in south Lebanon, where relatives grieved but said they supported the group’s justifications for fighting in Syria.In one home, the socks and boots stained with the blood of a Hezbollah fighter killed in 2006 are on display in the sitting room of his parents’ house. In another, the military uniform worn by a fighter killed in Syria lay on his bed, laid out carefully by his grieving mother.“Khalil was my soul but I won’t hide my son and say, let other people send their children,” said Hanan Ibrahim, whose son Khalil was killed near Damascus on Dec. 27, 2013. “He should go (fight in Syria), and my other son too and if I had a third son I would also send him,” she said, speaking in her living room, decorated with a giant picture of her son Khalil on a front line in Syria.Hezbollah’s popularity across the Arab world and in Lebanon had taken a major hit beginning in 2005, when it was accused by some of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri with a massive bombing in Beirut. In 2008, the group briefly seized several Sunni neighborhoods of west Beirut after the government closed down its secret telecommunications network, pointing its weapons internally for the first time since the end of Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.-Israeli deterrence 10 years later-Hezbollah’s involvement in the Syrian war has, according to its critics, left the group looking even more like an Iranian tool fighting for its own self-interest.It is a far cry from back in 2000, when Hezbollah was celebrated across much of the Arab world, including among Sunnis, for its guerrilla campaign that eventually forced Israeli troops to pull out of a slice of southern Lebanon they had occupied for 18 years. And despite some criticism, the group was supported by the majority of Lebanese during the 2006 war with Israel, which began with a cross-border Hezbollah raid that kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, triggering a massive Israeli air and ground campaign.The 2006 fighting killed about 1,200 Lebanese, including hundreds of civilians, and about 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers. The war failed to neutralize the group’s rocket threat, and Israeli officials say Hezbollah’s improved missile arsenal is now capable of striking virtually anywhere in the country.Israeli political and military leaders, however, say that the war succeeded in re-establishing Israeli deterrence and provided a decade of quiet on its northern front — and gleefully note that the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah is still in hiding 10 years later.Israeli officials also acknowledge that as a group, Hezbollah is amassing more combat experience and has more than replenished its arms via smuggling from Syria. That pipeline is one key reason why preserving the existing Syrian regime is seen as so existential for Hezbollah.In the front-line village of Aynata, only few miles away from the Israeli border, residents vividly recall the 2006 war. The village was heavily damaged by Israeli airstrikes and ground fighting between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters. Fourteen Hezbollah fighters and 28 civilians were killed.Since Hezbollah began sending fighters to Syria in 2012, six other fighters from the village have died.“What is common between these two wars is that they are existential wars against Hezbollah, and to be more precise, it is a war against Shiites,” said Hisham Khanafer, whose two younger brothers, Moussa and Abbas, were killed — one fighting Israel in 2006 and one in Syria last year.Abbas, who was 25, had planned to marry his fiancee as soon as he returned from Syria. Moussa was 29, his third daughter born on the day he was killed.Khanafer wears a yellow shawl, the color of the Hezbollah flag, with portraits of his slain brothers on each side. “Every war has a price,” he says.Hezbollah first began sending fighters in small numbers to Syria in 2012, to help protect Shiite shrines near the capital, Damascus, and has gradually escalated its involvement, dispatching fighters to ever more distant places to shore up the battered forces of Assad. Nearly 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed in one single battle around the city of Aleppo near the Turkish border last month.“For Israel, this is a dream scenario. All its enemies are killing each other in Syria… without them having to fire a bullet or place even one soldier in the line of fire,” said Yahya of the Carnegie Middle East Center.She said although Hezbollah’s overall control is not as tight as it used to be, the group is nowhere near a breaking point yet.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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