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
China warns Trump: Iran nuclear deal must stand-Implementation of 2015 agreement ‘should not be affected by any changes in the domestic situations of the countries concerned,’ Beijing says-By AFP December 5, 2016, 6:39 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
BEIJING — Implementation of the Iran nuclear deal should not be “affected by any changes in the domestic situations” of countries involved, China’s foreign minister warned Monday, responding to US president-elect Donald Trump’s threats to abandon it.The agreement, signed in Vienna in July 2015 and in force since January 2016, was the signature diplomatic breakthrough of Barack Obama’s second term. It calls on Tehran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief from the US and other nations.Trump has promised to tear up the nuclear deal once in office, calling the agreement under which it was implemented — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the “worst deal ever negotiated.”The agreement’s implementation is the “joint responsibility and duty of all parties” and “should not be affected by any changes in the domestic situations of the countries concerned,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told a press conference after meeting his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.He said, “What is important is to honor commitments and place emphasis on good faith when it comes to differences or possible differences” over the deal, to which China was one of the signatories.In another possible stumbling block for the deal, the US Congress last week voted to renew longstanding sanctions linked to Iran’s ballistic missile tests and human rights record. These pre-date the controversy around Iran’s nuclear ambitions.Washington says these 10-year sanctions have nothing to do with the nuclear agreement, but Iran says the continuing restrictions breach its spirit, particularly since they have discouraged international banks from returning to the country.“We will not allow any party to unilaterally undertake any actions that are in violation of the nuclear agreement,” Zarif said.He also said he spoke with Wang about increased cooperation on energy, transport, science and technology, national defense and counter-terrorism initiatives.“We have no reservation and no ceiling for our relations with China, because we share common principles and a common agenda for the future of the global system,” Zarif said.President Xi Jinping visited Iran in January on what both foreign ministers hailed as a “historic” visit, signing a series of agreements that aim to build economic ties worth up to $600 billion within the next 10 years. It was the first such trip to Iran by a Chinese president in 14 years.Beijing has long taken a back seat to other diplomatic players in the Middle East. But analysts say the region is crucial to Xi’s signature foreign policy initiative — known as “One Belt One Road” and touted as a revival of ancient Silk Road trade routes.China, the world’s second-largest economy, also relies heavily on oil and gas from the Middle East.
Iran warns of ‘strong reaction’ if US renews sanctions bill-Tehran nuclear chief joins president and others in urging Obama to veto measure that would extend penalties for 10 years-By Times of Israel staff and Agencies December 5, 2016, 6:56 pm
VIENNA — A senior Iranian official warned the US of a “firm and strong reaction” if it persists in actions he says are endangering a nuclear deal aimed at curbing programs Tehran could use to make atomic arms.Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi’s comments Monday alluded to a bill before US President Barack Obama that would extend US sanctions by 10 years. The bill was submitted to Obama after the US Senate voted to extend it last week.The deal, signed in July 2015, lifted international sanctions in exchange for limitations on the Iranian nuclear program. But US sanctions remain and will expire on December 31 if Obama doesn’t sign the extension into law.Speaking at a nuclear security conference, Salehi urged Washington on Monday to desist from “irrational and provocative” moves.Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also demanded that US President Barack Obama not sign the extension of US sanctions on Sunday, saying the bill is a violation of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.Speaking in an open session of Iran’s parliament Sunday, Rouhani said Obama is “obliged” to let the sanctions expire.Rouhani promised a “prompt response” from Iran if the US sanctions are extended.“We are committed to an acceptable implementation of the deal but in response to non-commitment, violation or hesitation in its implementation, we will act promptly,” he said.Also on Sunday, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani called on lawmakers to adopt reciprocal measures in response to the sanctions, Iran’s state-run IRNA news website reported.The comments came two days after Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the extension of sanctions against Iran and said the act is a clear violation of the landmark nuclear deal reached between Iran and the world powers last year.“The US president has agreed within the framework of the nuclear deal that he would use his authority to prevent the legislation and enforcement of any measures in violation of the deal, such as the recent act by the Congress,” said Bahram Ghasemi, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman.Earlier in November, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, warned that, “Definitely, the Islamic Republic of Iran will react” if the US sanctions were renewed.President-elect Donald Trump has promised to tear up the Iranian nuclear deal once in office, calling the agreement under which it was implemented — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the “worst deal ever negotiated.”
New poll finds high support for Trump among Israelis-83% deem US president-elect ‘pro-Israel,’ though few believe he’ll follow through on promise of moving embassy to Jerusalem-By Times of Israel staff December 5, 2016, 5:13 pm
A new poll found that the vast majority of Israelis believe US President-elect Donald Trump will be a “pro-Israel president.”According to the poll, 83 percent of Israelis view Trump, a Republican who has made statements putting him in line with many of the Israeli government’s right-wing policies, as pro-Israel.The poll, which surveyed 500 Israelis and was conducted by the Dialog polling firm on behalf of the Ruderman Family Foundation, did not define “pro-Israel,” though it is usually used in such contexts as shorthand for being supportive of Israeli government policies.Trump has said he will seek to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, while statements by him and advisers have painted him as supporting or being willing to tolerate settlement building and recognize a unified Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, two issues on which the Benjamin Netanyahu government often clashed with US President Barack Obama over the last six years.The poll found that 48% of Israelis believe there is no chance that Trump’s election will lead to a peace deal with the Palestinians, while another 47% said there is a “possible chance.”On Trump’s promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, only 22% said they believe that there is a high probability he will make the move, while 49% said there is a “possible chance” and another 26% said there is no chance.Most Israelis polled also said they were not overly concerned with fears of a rise in anti-Semitism in the US in the wake of Trump’s victory, which has emboldened some racist and anti-Semitic groups, part of the so-called “alt-right.”While 32% of Israelis polled said there was concern, another 32% reported only slight concern and 20% said there was no concern. Only 16% said they were very concerned.“Israelis are optimistic that President-elect Trump will be a friend of Israel while at the same time they are concerned about the growing incidents of anti Semitism in the United States and its impact on the American Jewish community,” Ruderman Foundation head Jay Ruderman said in a statement.In regards to the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump said during the campaign he would tear up, calling it one of the worst agreements in history, 42% of Israelis believe there is no chance he will scrap the nuclear accord, with only 13% saying there is a high chance he will tear up the deal.A poll released four days prior to the election found that 49% of Israelis believed that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton would be a better candidate, whereas as only 32% preferred Trump.The preference of Clinton among Israelis was largely explained by the long history she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, had with Israel and the familiarity of Israelis with their positions, whereas Trump was viewed by many as a wild card due to his lack of foreign policy experience and contradictory statements.
Averting crisis, coalition agrees to push outpost bill but leave out Amona-Jewish Home party backs down after settlers promised plots on absentee land nearby; Knesset to vote on controversial bill later Monday-By Times of Israel staff December 5, 2016, 5:12 pm
The government is expected to vote Monday on controversial legislation that would give the country backing to legalize settlements built on private Palestinian land, but will not include a clause to save the outpost of Amona, slated to be razed later this month.The move came after an 11th-hour compromise was reached among coalition members which will see the outpost’s residents moved to a nearby parcel of land, averting a government showdown and possibly paving the way for the peaceful evacuation of the West Bank site, which was built on private Palestinian land.The nationalist-religious Jewish Home Party, which sponsored initial legislation intended to save Amona, backed down on its demands that a clause be inserted to allow the overriding of a High Court ruling demanding the demolition of the outpost, a source in the party said.However, party leader Education Minister Naftali Bennett still painted the measure as a victory, calling it the first step toward Israeli annexation of the West Bank.“Today, the Israeli Knesset shifted from a path to establish a Palestinian state, to a path of extending sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. Let there be no doubt, the regulation bill is what will spearhead the extension of [Israeli] sovereignty,” a smiling Bennett said.The measure is expected to go before the Knesset for a preliminary reading later Monday, and will move toward passage in subsequent readings as early as Tuesday.The coalition is also attempting to convene the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for an emergency meeting Monday night to get coalition backing for the new measure, ensuring it sails through the Knesset.The last minute-deal comes a week after the Knesset passed a preliminary reading of a similar controversial bill, though with an option for the clause saving Amona added in.That version of the so-called Regulation Bill faced repeated objections from Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay the vote. Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) said that his party would abstain from the vote if the bill contained the clause which undermined a Supreme Court ruling, setting the stage for a possible coalition crisis.After negotiations Sunday night, the Knesset will now vote on a revised version of the bill which will not prevent the evacuation of Amona but which will prevent evacuations of other outposts in the future.It appears that the new legislation will be based upon a solution proposed by Mandelblit whereby the evacuees of Amona would be housed temporarily on three plots of land administered by Israel’s Custodian for Absentees’ Property.The move would mean evacuees would have a place to stay near the original settlement, which the courts and other government bodies have repeatedly ruled was built illegally on private Palestinian land, while their new homes are completed in another settlement in the northern West Bank.The Amona outpost, founded in 1995 on a hill near Ramallah in the central West Bank, is home to about 40 families. It is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts — built without permission but generally tolerated by the government — that dot the West Bank.The outpost is slated to be evacuated by December 25, though settlers there have vowed to resist the order, leading to fears of a repeat of violent clashes when homes were razed there in 2006.Speaking at the Likud faction meeting in the Knesset Monday, Netanyahu said he and his party “understand the difficult plight of the residents, and we value their dedication.”Netanyahu explained that the government sought new solutions that remained within the law in order to solve the issue.“True, they will have to move a few dozen meters, but they will be able to remain in the area and that is very good news,” Netanyahu said.Kahlon said that he had proven his own leadership qualities by not allowing legislation that would have undermined the court ruling.“You cannot protect the settlers without protecting the rule of law,” he said at the start of the weekly Kulanu faction meeting.MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), one of the sponsors of the original legislation to save Amona, said that he has mixed feelings about the bill.“It is not perfect, but it is certainly an achievement,” he said.Marissa Newman and Raoul Wootliff contributed to this article.
Jeremiah Kerry laments an Israel that wouldn’t heed his warnings-A better, safer future is available, the secretary argues in a bitter valedictory appearance, but the settlers and their champions are destroying it-By David Horovitz December 4, 2016, 11:29 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
It seems increasingly unlikely, though not impossible, that the Obama administration will lend its hand to a resolution that might discomfit the Israeli government at the UN, or otherwise seek to bequeath a framework for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry did a great deal more than discomfit the prime minister and his coalition on Sunday, however. In remarks at the Saban Forum in Washington, DC, Kerry unloaded almost four years of bitter frustration at Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleagues, warned that Israel is heading toward “a place of danger,” and cited the settlement enterprise as the central catalyst for that potential disaster.A different, brighter future, he indicated, was attainable for Israel. But the settlers were destroying it, he said. And his unfortunate role, he made sadly clear, had been to serve these past four years as the prophet who can see the tragedy approaching, but whose warnings go unheeded.No, said the secretary, ceding a point to Netanyahu, who had spoken by satellite just before him, the settlements “are not the cause of the conflict.” But, Kerry repeated several times, they most certainly constitute a core “obstacle” to its solution. “Let’s not kid each other here,” he advised. “You can’t just wipe it away by saying it doesn’t have an impact. It does have an impact.”He didn’t blame Netanyahu personally for utilizing settlements with the deliberate goal of ensuring that there can be no two-state solution. But the Israeli right, Kerry said, was strategically bringing more and more Jews into the West Bank, and locating them in very specific locations, with precisely that goal — to ensure that there could be no viable Palestinian state. And Netanyahu was presiding over the process.Twenty-thousand more Jews now live in the settlements than when President Barack Obama first took office, he said, dozens of illegal outposts were in the process of being legalized, and this ongoing process “narrows and narrows the capacity for peace,” he lamented.Plainly determined to use the event, one of his last opportunities as secretary, to set out his vision and the reasons for his failure to bring it to fruition, Kerry insisted that he spoke as a friend of Israel, as a diplomat who had never sought to impose a solution, and as a strategic ally who had always respected Israel’s security needs.The way he told it, his has been a thankless task — essentially trying to save Israel from itself, and specifically from the short-sighted, right-wing settlement-builders, the advocates of Greater Israel who will either cost Israel its Jewish majority or its democracy, or both, by gradually preventing separation from the millions of West Bank Palestinians. “Sometimes there’s a proclivity to shoot the messenger,” he observed wryly.Most of the current Israeli ministers are on record opposing Palestinian statehood, he noted unhappily. And the settlements are their tool. The ongoing building is backed by the right “because they don’t want peace,” he said flatly. “They want to block peace,” said Kerry. “That’s the history of the settler movement, my friends.”Vouchsafing new details of his 2013-2104 deal-making efforts, now that he’s so close to the end of his term, Kerry detailed some of the security provisions that, he argued, could enable a substantial Israeli withdrawal, and facilitate a small, demilitarized Palestinian “city state” in the West Bank. The Jordanians were ready to build a sophisticated security fence on their side of the Jordan Valley, and the Palestinians on their side. Israeli troops would have been able to helicopter to trouble spots in minutes. There were “all kinds of ways” for Israel to deploy its soldiers in times of crisis, he said, referring to the proposals memorably castigated by then defense minister Moshe Ya’alon in 2014 as “not worth the paper they’re printed on.”Plainly still unpersuaded that Israel’s objections were truly based on concerns about extremist forces filling any West Bank vacuum left by a departing IDF, the secretary referred vaguely to “political decisions” in Israel that had thwarted his efforts — apparently suggesting that Netanyahu, though he recognizes the dangers of a binational state, has lacked the will to face down the hawks in the wider interests of the country. Stability and tranquility were not out of reach for Israel, Kerry suggested, but wouldn’t be attained if “all the time you are building up your presence” in what the Palestinians see as their state. And as for that idea beloved by Netanyahu of a regional Arab peace first, and accommodation with the Palestinians somewhere down the line, forget about it. “There will be no separate peace with the Arab world,” he insisted.And was it too late for two states, now, he was asked? “We haven’t (passed the tipping point),” he sighed, “but we’re getting…” He trailed off.In resisting the Obama-Kerry effort, Ya’alon had reportedly declared in January 2014 that Kerry was “messianic” and “inexplicably obsessive” in his quest for an accord and that “all that can save us is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.” Kerry didn’t get his Nobel, of course, and Israel, it would appear, managed to deflect him quite effectively.Kerry never dented Netanyahu’s conviction that today’s Middle East, with its vicious unpredictability, is no place for high-risk territorial compromise. And Netanyahu never dented Kerry’s belief that Israel’s fundamental self-interest requires working energetically toward a two-state accord. With Netanyahu’s satellite time from Jerusalem concluding just before Kerry spoke, Sunday thus marked possibly the last round in their dialogue of the deaf.
Knesset committee moves to cut men’s IDF service to 30 months-Proposal will go to plenum for final readings before becoming law; plan expected to decrease number of soldiers-By Judah Ari Gross December 5, 2016, 12:58 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
A plan to shorten the mandatory army service for men from 32 to 30 months was approved by the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, putting it on track to being signed into law.The proposed amendment will now move to the Knesset plenum, where it must pass second and third readings before it can become law. If accepted, the shortened service time would go into effect beginning in 2020.It is the second cut to service requirements proposed in recent years. Beginning in July 2015, male soldiers had their required service time decreased from 36 to 32 months, as part of the army’s attempts to streamline. Neither the current bill nor the previous one affects the mandatory service for women, who serve for two years unless they’ve volunteered for units that require an extended service.According to army forecasts, both the current drop to 32 months and the further decrease to 30 will result in a noticeable reduction in the number of male soldiers serving in the IDF in the coming years.Figures presented by the IDF’s Manpower Directorate last month showed a drop in many crucial positions as a result of the new 32-month service, including in the number of combat soldiers, drivers, soldiers in cyber units and officers.Yet Brig. Gen. Eran Shani, head of human resources in the Manpower Directorate, assured the committee members that Israel’s security would not be affected by the decrease in the overall number of conscripted soldiers, as the army’s total fighting force is more than two-thirds reservists.“Wars are decided by the reserves, not by the standing army,” Shani told the committee last month.“The army would be happy to have soldiers… but there are other things the country needs,” he said.Committee members Amir Ohana and Rachel Azaria, from Likud and Kulanu, respectively, praised the measure, noting its potentially positive influence on the Israeli economy as more people would join the workforce, as well as its immediate impact on individual soldiers.“These are good tidings for the Israeli market. An early release to the workforce will strengthen the market and will help with the State of Israel’s economic challenges,” Azaria said in a statement.“This is good news for those serving and for Israeli society — and it is without harming the security of the nation,” Ohana said.However, though the legislation has advanced, it was not without criticism.Throughout the debate on the topic, committee member MK Eyal Ben-Reuven (Zionist Union), a former IDF general, expressed reservations at approving such a bill when the army’s General Staff has yet to conduct a thorough investigation into its full ramifications.“Without proper staff-level work by the IDF that defines what it wants and what it needs for the years in question, it’s not right to pass this law now,” Ben-Reuven said during a discussion on the issue last month.
Top Arab MK seeks incitement probe against Netanyahu over arson claims-Ayman Odeh to ask attorney general to investigate PM’s statements that seemed to implicate Arabs in rash of blazes-By Times of Israel staff December 5, 2016, 5:06 pm
The leader of the opposition Joint (Arab) List announced on Monday that he would seek to have Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu investigated for incitement over remarks he made that seemed to accuse Arab Israelis of deliberately setting fires.Ayman Odeh said he would issue a formal request for Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to probe Netanyahu for incitement.Odeh was responding to remarks made by officials during the recent wave of devastating fires that appeared to implicate Arabs as arsonists.He said that if any of the blazes were deliberately set, the arsonists should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.However, despite claims by politicians, fire and police officials say it is not clear how many of the rash of fires that wreaked havoc across the country were set deliberately.During the course of six days which saw firefighters battling 1,773 blazes across the country, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio that almost half the fires were caused by arson.However, fire officials said they could not confirm those figures.During the fires, which finally died down on November 27, Netanyahu said several times that some of the fires were arson, which he termed “terrorism.” He and others pledged to work to strip anyone found guilty of their residency.“Anyone who tries to burn parts of the State of Israel will be punished severely,” he said last month.Around 35 people were arrested on suspicion of committing arson or inciting others to do so. All were Arabs.However, Channel 2 revealed Saturday that just 10 people were still in custody for suspected arson, and the rest of the detainees were released unconditionally.Only two indictments have been filed, one of them for burning garbage.There were no suspects in large fires in Haifa and Zichron Ya’akov, the channel reported, nor were there any suspects — or even definitive proof that arson was involved.Herzl Aharon, the head of the investigation into the fires, suggested people should downplay claims that the blazes were started deliberately, casting doubt on politicians’ cries of “arson terrorism” during and in the aftermath of efforts to contain the flames.“When I don’t know, I say I don’t know. I’m not embarrassed – even ‘I don’t know’ is an answer,” Aharon told Channel 2.“We still don’t know anything. I wish I had a direction,” he said.“I go to a place and get an insight — and then I go to another place and everything changes. This is what you call a illusion of the topography, the bedlam of the mountainous region, and it is very difficult to investigate.”Yoram Schweitzer, an expert in counter-terrorism at the Institute for National Security Studies, said, “We would do well to dispense as much as possible with the widespread tradition in Israel of determining whether something is a terrorist incident long before it is proven to be so.”“We should wait patiently, despite the mob clamor for blood and the fervor of politicians to point the finger at entire groups when it is clear that these were acts by individuals, as this only helps those who want to cause provocation.”Some 527 apartments were totally destroyed in Haifa, the worst-hit area, from which 75,000 people had to be evacuated at the height of the blazes.Odeh also slammed a bill that would ban mosques from using loudspeakers to broadcast the early morning call to prayer, saying it’s a “decree that the community will not be able to withstand.”And he maintained that the so-called Regulation Bill, which would legalize some West Bank outposts built with state assistance, would lead Israeli leaders to be sued at the ICC, as Netanyahu has reportedly warned.“I recommend they hire lawyers,” he said of Israeli politicians spearheading the legislation.
US lawmakers look to expand definition of anti-Semitism for schools-House legislation, mirroring Senate bill passed last week, would outline when Israel criticism crosses into anti-Semitism-By JTA December 5, 2016, 6:23 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan slate of leading members of the US House of Representatives introduced a bill that would expand how the Department of Education defines anti-Semitism in advising learning institutions on how to identify discrimination.The bill introduced December 2 by Reps. Peter Roskam, R-Ill, and Ted Deutch, D-Fla, replicates a similar bill passed last week by the Senate, which was sponsored by Sens. Tim Scott, R-SC, and Bob Casey, D-Pa.The bill has the backing of senior House members, including Reps. Eliot Engel, D-NY, Nita Lowey, D-NY and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.The bill expands previous guidelines sent periodically to educational institutions receiving federal funding to define anti-Semitism according to a definition first published by the State Department in 2010.That bill adopts the European Parliament Working Group on Anti-Semitism’s definition: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”Both definitions also outline when criticism of Israel crosses into anti-Semitism, citing the “three Ds” first advanced by Natan Sharansky, the Israeli politician and former prisoner of the Soviet Gulag: demonization, double standard and delegitimization.The Anti-Defamation League, which has led lobbying for the legislation, said the bill, should it become law, “addresses a core concern of Jewish and pro-Israel students and parents: When does the expression of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Zionist beliefs cross the line from First Amendment protected free expression to unlawful discriminatory conduct?”A number of left-wing and pro-Palestinian groups have criticized the legislation, saying the Israel-related language is too vague and would inhibit debate on campus about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.“It mis-classifies criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism and aims to ensure that the Department of Education will investigate and suppress criticism of Israel on campus,” said a statement by Open Hillel, a loose network of campus groups that reject restrictions on engagement with other students that exist under the aegis of the more established Jewish student umbrella, Hillel.
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
China warns Trump: Iran nuclear deal must stand-Implementation of 2015 agreement ‘should not be affected by any changes in the domestic situations of the countries concerned,’ Beijing says-By AFP December 5, 2016, 6:39 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
BEIJING — Implementation of the Iran nuclear deal should not be “affected by any changes in the domestic situations” of countries involved, China’s foreign minister warned Monday, responding to US president-elect Donald Trump’s threats to abandon it.The agreement, signed in Vienna in July 2015 and in force since January 2016, was the signature diplomatic breakthrough of Barack Obama’s second term. It calls on Tehran to curb its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief from the US and other nations.Trump has promised to tear up the nuclear deal once in office, calling the agreement under which it was implemented — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the “worst deal ever negotiated.”The agreement’s implementation is the “joint responsibility and duty of all parties” and “should not be affected by any changes in the domestic situations of the countries concerned,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi told a press conference after meeting his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.He said, “What is important is to honor commitments and place emphasis on good faith when it comes to differences or possible differences” over the deal, to which China was one of the signatories.In another possible stumbling block for the deal, the US Congress last week voted to renew longstanding sanctions linked to Iran’s ballistic missile tests and human rights record. These pre-date the controversy around Iran’s nuclear ambitions.Washington says these 10-year sanctions have nothing to do with the nuclear agreement, but Iran says the continuing restrictions breach its spirit, particularly since they have discouraged international banks from returning to the country.“We will not allow any party to unilaterally undertake any actions that are in violation of the nuclear agreement,” Zarif said.He also said he spoke with Wang about increased cooperation on energy, transport, science and technology, national defense and counter-terrorism initiatives.“We have no reservation and no ceiling for our relations with China, because we share common principles and a common agenda for the future of the global system,” Zarif said.President Xi Jinping visited Iran in January on what both foreign ministers hailed as a “historic” visit, signing a series of agreements that aim to build economic ties worth up to $600 billion within the next 10 years. It was the first such trip to Iran by a Chinese president in 14 years.Beijing has long taken a back seat to other diplomatic players in the Middle East. But analysts say the region is crucial to Xi’s signature foreign policy initiative — known as “One Belt One Road” and touted as a revival of ancient Silk Road trade routes.China, the world’s second-largest economy, also relies heavily on oil and gas from the Middle East.
Iran warns of ‘strong reaction’ if US renews sanctions bill-Tehran nuclear chief joins president and others in urging Obama to veto measure that would extend penalties for 10 years-By Times of Israel staff and Agencies December 5, 2016, 6:56 pm
VIENNA — A senior Iranian official warned the US of a “firm and strong reaction” if it persists in actions he says are endangering a nuclear deal aimed at curbing programs Tehran could use to make atomic arms.Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi’s comments Monday alluded to a bill before US President Barack Obama that would extend US sanctions by 10 years. The bill was submitted to Obama after the US Senate voted to extend it last week.The deal, signed in July 2015, lifted international sanctions in exchange for limitations on the Iranian nuclear program. But US sanctions remain and will expire on December 31 if Obama doesn’t sign the extension into law.Speaking at a nuclear security conference, Salehi urged Washington on Monday to desist from “irrational and provocative” moves.Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani also demanded that US President Barack Obama not sign the extension of US sanctions on Sunday, saying the bill is a violation of a landmark nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.Speaking in an open session of Iran’s parliament Sunday, Rouhani said Obama is “obliged” to let the sanctions expire.Rouhani promised a “prompt response” from Iran if the US sanctions are extended.“We are committed to an acceptable implementation of the deal but in response to non-commitment, violation or hesitation in its implementation, we will act promptly,” he said.Also on Sunday, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani called on lawmakers to adopt reciprocal measures in response to the sanctions, Iran’s state-run IRNA news website reported.The comments came two days after Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the extension of sanctions against Iran and said the act is a clear violation of the landmark nuclear deal reached between Iran and the world powers last year.“The US president has agreed within the framework of the nuclear deal that he would use his authority to prevent the legislation and enforcement of any measures in violation of the deal, such as the recent act by the Congress,” said Bahram Ghasemi, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman.Earlier in November, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, warned that, “Definitely, the Islamic Republic of Iran will react” if the US sanctions were renewed.President-elect Donald Trump has promised to tear up the Iranian nuclear deal once in office, calling the agreement under which it was implemented — the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the “worst deal ever negotiated.”
New poll finds high support for Trump among Israelis-83% deem US president-elect ‘pro-Israel,’ though few believe he’ll follow through on promise of moving embassy to Jerusalem-By Times of Israel staff December 5, 2016, 5:13 pm
A new poll found that the vast majority of Israelis believe US President-elect Donald Trump will be a “pro-Israel president.”According to the poll, 83 percent of Israelis view Trump, a Republican who has made statements putting him in line with many of the Israeli government’s right-wing policies, as pro-Israel.The poll, which surveyed 500 Israelis and was conducted by the Dialog polling firm on behalf of the Ruderman Family Foundation, did not define “pro-Israel,” though it is usually used in such contexts as shorthand for being supportive of Israeli government policies.Trump has said he will seek to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, while statements by him and advisers have painted him as supporting or being willing to tolerate settlement building and recognize a unified Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, two issues on which the Benjamin Netanyahu government often clashed with US President Barack Obama over the last six years.The poll found that 48% of Israelis believe there is no chance that Trump’s election will lead to a peace deal with the Palestinians, while another 47% said there is a “possible chance.”On Trump’s promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, only 22% said they believe that there is a high probability he will make the move, while 49% said there is a “possible chance” and another 26% said there is no chance.Most Israelis polled also said they were not overly concerned with fears of a rise in anti-Semitism in the US in the wake of Trump’s victory, which has emboldened some racist and anti-Semitic groups, part of the so-called “alt-right.”While 32% of Israelis polled said there was concern, another 32% reported only slight concern and 20% said there was no concern. Only 16% said they were very concerned.“Israelis are optimistic that President-elect Trump will be a friend of Israel while at the same time they are concerned about the growing incidents of anti Semitism in the United States and its impact on the American Jewish community,” Ruderman Foundation head Jay Ruderman said in a statement.In regards to the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump said during the campaign he would tear up, calling it one of the worst agreements in history, 42% of Israelis believe there is no chance he will scrap the nuclear accord, with only 13% saying there is a high chance he will tear up the deal.A poll released four days prior to the election found that 49% of Israelis believed that former secretary of state Hillary Clinton would be a better candidate, whereas as only 32% preferred Trump.The preference of Clinton among Israelis was largely explained by the long history she and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, had with Israel and the familiarity of Israelis with their positions, whereas Trump was viewed by many as a wild card due to his lack of foreign policy experience and contradictory statements.
Averting crisis, coalition agrees to push outpost bill but leave out Amona-Jewish Home party backs down after settlers promised plots on absentee land nearby; Knesset to vote on controversial bill later Monday-By Times of Israel staff December 5, 2016, 5:12 pm
The government is expected to vote Monday on controversial legislation that would give the country backing to legalize settlements built on private Palestinian land, but will not include a clause to save the outpost of Amona, slated to be razed later this month.The move came after an 11th-hour compromise was reached among coalition members which will see the outpost’s residents moved to a nearby parcel of land, averting a government showdown and possibly paving the way for the peaceful evacuation of the West Bank site, which was built on private Palestinian land.The nationalist-religious Jewish Home Party, which sponsored initial legislation intended to save Amona, backed down on its demands that a clause be inserted to allow the overriding of a High Court ruling demanding the demolition of the outpost, a source in the party said.However, party leader Education Minister Naftali Bennett still painted the measure as a victory, calling it the first step toward Israeli annexation of the West Bank.“Today, the Israeli Knesset shifted from a path to establish a Palestinian state, to a path of extending sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. Let there be no doubt, the regulation bill is what will spearhead the extension of [Israeli] sovereignty,” a smiling Bennett said.The measure is expected to go before the Knesset for a preliminary reading later Monday, and will move toward passage in subsequent readings as early as Tuesday.The coalition is also attempting to convene the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for an emergency meeting Monday night to get coalition backing for the new measure, ensuring it sails through the Knesset.The last minute-deal comes a week after the Knesset passed a preliminary reading of a similar controversial bill, though with an option for the clause saving Amona added in.That version of the so-called Regulation Bill faced repeated objections from Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and efforts by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay the vote. Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) said that his party would abstain from the vote if the bill contained the clause which undermined a Supreme Court ruling, setting the stage for a possible coalition crisis.After negotiations Sunday night, the Knesset will now vote on a revised version of the bill which will not prevent the evacuation of Amona but which will prevent evacuations of other outposts in the future.It appears that the new legislation will be based upon a solution proposed by Mandelblit whereby the evacuees of Amona would be housed temporarily on three plots of land administered by Israel’s Custodian for Absentees’ Property.The move would mean evacuees would have a place to stay near the original settlement, which the courts and other government bodies have repeatedly ruled was built illegally on private Palestinian land, while their new homes are completed in another settlement in the northern West Bank.The Amona outpost, founded in 1995 on a hill near Ramallah in the central West Bank, is home to about 40 families. It is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts — built without permission but generally tolerated by the government — that dot the West Bank.The outpost is slated to be evacuated by December 25, though settlers there have vowed to resist the order, leading to fears of a repeat of violent clashes when homes were razed there in 2006.Speaking at the Likud faction meeting in the Knesset Monday, Netanyahu said he and his party “understand the difficult plight of the residents, and we value their dedication.”Netanyahu explained that the government sought new solutions that remained within the law in order to solve the issue.“True, they will have to move a few dozen meters, but they will be able to remain in the area and that is very good news,” Netanyahu said.Kahlon said that he had proven his own leadership qualities by not allowing legislation that would have undermined the court ruling.“You cannot protect the settlers without protecting the rule of law,” he said at the start of the weekly Kulanu faction meeting.MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), one of the sponsors of the original legislation to save Amona, said that he has mixed feelings about the bill.“It is not perfect, but it is certainly an achievement,” he said.Marissa Newman and Raoul Wootliff contributed to this article.
Jeremiah Kerry laments an Israel that wouldn’t heed his warnings-A better, safer future is available, the secretary argues in a bitter valedictory appearance, but the settlers and their champions are destroying it-By David Horovitz December 4, 2016, 11:29 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
It seems increasingly unlikely, though not impossible, that the Obama administration will lend its hand to a resolution that might discomfit the Israeli government at the UN, or otherwise seek to bequeath a framework for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry did a great deal more than discomfit the prime minister and his coalition on Sunday, however. In remarks at the Saban Forum in Washington, DC, Kerry unloaded almost four years of bitter frustration at Benjamin Netanyahu and his colleagues, warned that Israel is heading toward “a place of danger,” and cited the settlement enterprise as the central catalyst for that potential disaster.A different, brighter future, he indicated, was attainable for Israel. But the settlers were destroying it, he said. And his unfortunate role, he made sadly clear, had been to serve these past four years as the prophet who can see the tragedy approaching, but whose warnings go unheeded.No, said the secretary, ceding a point to Netanyahu, who had spoken by satellite just before him, the settlements “are not the cause of the conflict.” But, Kerry repeated several times, they most certainly constitute a core “obstacle” to its solution. “Let’s not kid each other here,” he advised. “You can’t just wipe it away by saying it doesn’t have an impact. It does have an impact.”He didn’t blame Netanyahu personally for utilizing settlements with the deliberate goal of ensuring that there can be no two-state solution. But the Israeli right, Kerry said, was strategically bringing more and more Jews into the West Bank, and locating them in very specific locations, with precisely that goal — to ensure that there could be no viable Palestinian state. And Netanyahu was presiding over the process.Twenty-thousand more Jews now live in the settlements than when President Barack Obama first took office, he said, dozens of illegal outposts were in the process of being legalized, and this ongoing process “narrows and narrows the capacity for peace,” he lamented.Plainly determined to use the event, one of his last opportunities as secretary, to set out his vision and the reasons for his failure to bring it to fruition, Kerry insisted that he spoke as a friend of Israel, as a diplomat who had never sought to impose a solution, and as a strategic ally who had always respected Israel’s security needs.The way he told it, his has been a thankless task — essentially trying to save Israel from itself, and specifically from the short-sighted, right-wing settlement-builders, the advocates of Greater Israel who will either cost Israel its Jewish majority or its democracy, or both, by gradually preventing separation from the millions of West Bank Palestinians. “Sometimes there’s a proclivity to shoot the messenger,” he observed wryly.Most of the current Israeli ministers are on record opposing Palestinian statehood, he noted unhappily. And the settlements are their tool. The ongoing building is backed by the right “because they don’t want peace,” he said flatly. “They want to block peace,” said Kerry. “That’s the history of the settler movement, my friends.”Vouchsafing new details of his 2013-2104 deal-making efforts, now that he’s so close to the end of his term, Kerry detailed some of the security provisions that, he argued, could enable a substantial Israeli withdrawal, and facilitate a small, demilitarized Palestinian “city state” in the West Bank. The Jordanians were ready to build a sophisticated security fence on their side of the Jordan Valley, and the Palestinians on their side. Israeli troops would have been able to helicopter to trouble spots in minutes. There were “all kinds of ways” for Israel to deploy its soldiers in times of crisis, he said, referring to the proposals memorably castigated by then defense minister Moshe Ya’alon in 2014 as “not worth the paper they’re printed on.”Plainly still unpersuaded that Israel’s objections were truly based on concerns about extremist forces filling any West Bank vacuum left by a departing IDF, the secretary referred vaguely to “political decisions” in Israel that had thwarted his efforts — apparently suggesting that Netanyahu, though he recognizes the dangers of a binational state, has lacked the will to face down the hawks in the wider interests of the country. Stability and tranquility were not out of reach for Israel, Kerry suggested, but wouldn’t be attained if “all the time you are building up your presence” in what the Palestinians see as their state. And as for that idea beloved by Netanyahu of a regional Arab peace first, and accommodation with the Palestinians somewhere down the line, forget about it. “There will be no separate peace with the Arab world,” he insisted.And was it too late for two states, now, he was asked? “We haven’t (passed the tipping point),” he sighed, “but we’re getting…” He trailed off.In resisting the Obama-Kerry effort, Ya’alon had reportedly declared in January 2014 that Kerry was “messianic” and “inexplicably obsessive” in his quest for an accord and that “all that can save us is for John Kerry to win a Nobel Prize and leave us in peace.” Kerry didn’t get his Nobel, of course, and Israel, it would appear, managed to deflect him quite effectively.Kerry never dented Netanyahu’s conviction that today’s Middle East, with its vicious unpredictability, is no place for high-risk territorial compromise. And Netanyahu never dented Kerry’s belief that Israel’s fundamental self-interest requires working energetically toward a two-state accord. With Netanyahu’s satellite time from Jerusalem concluding just before Kerry spoke, Sunday thus marked possibly the last round in their dialogue of the deaf.
Knesset committee moves to cut men’s IDF service to 30 months-Proposal will go to plenum for final readings before becoming law; plan expected to decrease number of soldiers-By Judah Ari Gross December 5, 2016, 12:58 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
A plan to shorten the mandatory army service for men from 32 to 30 months was approved by the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, putting it on track to being signed into law.The proposed amendment will now move to the Knesset plenum, where it must pass second and third readings before it can become law. If accepted, the shortened service time would go into effect beginning in 2020.It is the second cut to service requirements proposed in recent years. Beginning in July 2015, male soldiers had their required service time decreased from 36 to 32 months, as part of the army’s attempts to streamline. Neither the current bill nor the previous one affects the mandatory service for women, who serve for two years unless they’ve volunteered for units that require an extended service.According to army forecasts, both the current drop to 32 months and the further decrease to 30 will result in a noticeable reduction in the number of male soldiers serving in the IDF in the coming years.Figures presented by the IDF’s Manpower Directorate last month showed a drop in many crucial positions as a result of the new 32-month service, including in the number of combat soldiers, drivers, soldiers in cyber units and officers.Yet Brig. Gen. Eran Shani, head of human resources in the Manpower Directorate, assured the committee members that Israel’s security would not be affected by the decrease in the overall number of conscripted soldiers, as the army’s total fighting force is more than two-thirds reservists.“Wars are decided by the reserves, not by the standing army,” Shani told the committee last month.“The army would be happy to have soldiers… but there are other things the country needs,” he said.Committee members Amir Ohana and Rachel Azaria, from Likud and Kulanu, respectively, praised the measure, noting its potentially positive influence on the Israeli economy as more people would join the workforce, as well as its immediate impact on individual soldiers.“These are good tidings for the Israeli market. An early release to the workforce will strengthen the market and will help with the State of Israel’s economic challenges,” Azaria said in a statement.“This is good news for those serving and for Israeli society — and it is without harming the security of the nation,” Ohana said.However, though the legislation has advanced, it was not without criticism.Throughout the debate on the topic, committee member MK Eyal Ben-Reuven (Zionist Union), a former IDF general, expressed reservations at approving such a bill when the army’s General Staff has yet to conduct a thorough investigation into its full ramifications.“Without proper staff-level work by the IDF that defines what it wants and what it needs for the years in question, it’s not right to pass this law now,” Ben-Reuven said during a discussion on the issue last month.
Top Arab MK seeks incitement probe against Netanyahu over arson claims-Ayman Odeh to ask attorney general to investigate PM’s statements that seemed to implicate Arabs in rash of blazes-By Times of Israel staff December 5, 2016, 5:06 pm
The leader of the opposition Joint (Arab) List announced on Monday that he would seek to have Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu investigated for incitement over remarks he made that seemed to accuse Arab Israelis of deliberately setting fires.Ayman Odeh said he would issue a formal request for Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to probe Netanyahu for incitement.Odeh was responding to remarks made by officials during the recent wave of devastating fires that appeared to implicate Arabs as arsonists.He said that if any of the blazes were deliberately set, the arsonists should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.However, despite claims by politicians, fire and police officials say it is not clear how many of the rash of fires that wreaked havoc across the country were set deliberately.During the course of six days which saw firefighters battling 1,773 blazes across the country, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio that almost half the fires were caused by arson.However, fire officials said they could not confirm those figures.During the fires, which finally died down on November 27, Netanyahu said several times that some of the fires were arson, which he termed “terrorism.” He and others pledged to work to strip anyone found guilty of their residency.“Anyone who tries to burn parts of the State of Israel will be punished severely,” he said last month.Around 35 people were arrested on suspicion of committing arson or inciting others to do so. All were Arabs.However, Channel 2 revealed Saturday that just 10 people were still in custody for suspected arson, and the rest of the detainees were released unconditionally.Only two indictments have been filed, one of them for burning garbage.There were no suspects in large fires in Haifa and Zichron Ya’akov, the channel reported, nor were there any suspects — or even definitive proof that arson was involved.Herzl Aharon, the head of the investigation into the fires, suggested people should downplay claims that the blazes were started deliberately, casting doubt on politicians’ cries of “arson terrorism” during and in the aftermath of efforts to contain the flames.“When I don’t know, I say I don’t know. I’m not embarrassed – even ‘I don’t know’ is an answer,” Aharon told Channel 2.“We still don’t know anything. I wish I had a direction,” he said.“I go to a place and get an insight — and then I go to another place and everything changes. This is what you call a illusion of the topography, the bedlam of the mountainous region, and it is very difficult to investigate.”Yoram Schweitzer, an expert in counter-terrorism at the Institute for National Security Studies, said, “We would do well to dispense as much as possible with the widespread tradition in Israel of determining whether something is a terrorist incident long before it is proven to be so.”“We should wait patiently, despite the mob clamor for blood and the fervor of politicians to point the finger at entire groups when it is clear that these were acts by individuals, as this only helps those who want to cause provocation.”Some 527 apartments were totally destroyed in Haifa, the worst-hit area, from which 75,000 people had to be evacuated at the height of the blazes.Odeh also slammed a bill that would ban mosques from using loudspeakers to broadcast the early morning call to prayer, saying it’s a “decree that the community will not be able to withstand.”And he maintained that the so-called Regulation Bill, which would legalize some West Bank outposts built with state assistance, would lead Israeli leaders to be sued at the ICC, as Netanyahu has reportedly warned.“I recommend they hire lawyers,” he said of Israeli politicians spearheading the legislation.
US lawmakers look to expand definition of anti-Semitism for schools-House legislation, mirroring Senate bill passed last week, would outline when Israel criticism crosses into anti-Semitism-By JTA December 5, 2016, 6:23 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan slate of leading members of the US House of Representatives introduced a bill that would expand how the Department of Education defines anti-Semitism in advising learning institutions on how to identify discrimination.The bill introduced December 2 by Reps. Peter Roskam, R-Ill, and Ted Deutch, D-Fla, replicates a similar bill passed last week by the Senate, which was sponsored by Sens. Tim Scott, R-SC, and Bob Casey, D-Pa.The bill has the backing of senior House members, including Reps. Eliot Engel, D-NY, Nita Lowey, D-NY and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.The bill expands previous guidelines sent periodically to educational institutions receiving federal funding to define anti-Semitism according to a definition first published by the State Department in 2010.That bill adopts the European Parliament Working Group on Anti-Semitism’s definition: “Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”Both definitions also outline when criticism of Israel crosses into anti-Semitism, citing the “three Ds” first advanced by Natan Sharansky, the Israeli politician and former prisoner of the Soviet Gulag: demonization, double standard and delegitimization.The Anti-Defamation League, which has led lobbying for the legislation, said the bill, should it become law, “addresses a core concern of Jewish and pro-Israel students and parents: When does the expression of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Zionist beliefs cross the line from First Amendment protected free expression to unlawful discriminatory conduct?”A number of left-wing and pro-Palestinian groups have criticized the legislation, saying the Israel-related language is too vague and would inhibit debate on campus about Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.“It mis-classifies criticism of Israel as anti-Semitism and aims to ensure that the Department of Education will investigate and suppress criticism of Israel on campus,” said a statement by Open Hillel, a loose network of campus groups that reject restrictions on engagement with other students that exist under the aegis of the more established Jewish student umbrella, Hillel.
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