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
YESTERDAY BENJAMIN NETANYAHU PHONED DONALD TRUMP. I HOPE TRUMP GOES TO ISRAEL QUICK TO GET THE AMERICAN EMBASSY CHANGED FROM TEL AVIV TO JERUSALEM. WHICH WOULD FINALLY TELL THE WORLD. JERUSALEM IS ISRAEL-AND ONLY ISRAELS CAPITAL. ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM-TOGETHER FOREVER. RULING UNDER JESUS THE MESSIAHS RULE FOREVER-NEVER ENDING-WORLD WITHOUT END AMEN AND AMEN.AND NETANYAHU SOME TIME IN FEBRUARY WILL BE COMING TO WASHINGTON TO MEET WITH TRUMP.
Israel's Netanyahu to speak with Trump on Sunday, Iran on agenda-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-sJanuary 22, 2017
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would later in the day hold his first conversation with Donald Trump since his inauguration as U.S. president."A telephone conversation will be held this evening between President Trump and me. Many matters face us, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the Iranian threat," Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks at the start of the Israeli cabinet meeting.(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Potter)
Ultimately 'vision' is for all settlements to come under Israeli sovereignty, Netanyahu reported to say-Netanyahu promises unrestricted construction in East Jerusalem-PM tells ministers he will remove all obstacles to building in capital, will soon announce extensive construction in settlement blocs-By Times of Israel staff January 22, 2017, 8:55 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the high-level security cabinet Sunday he will soon announce expanded construction in the settlement blocs and ease all building restrictions in East Jerusalem.The prime minister said he will remove any political obstacles from regional and local planning committees in order to ease construction in East Jerusalem, according to Hebrew media reports. He added that wide-scale building will soon be green-lighted in the settlement blocs as well.The prime minister also told ministers that his “vision” is that all of the settlements in the West Bank will ultimately come under Israeli sovereignty in any accommodation, Channel 2 news reported.Netanyahu’s declaration on Sunday convinced ministers from the settlement-backing Jewish Home party to postpone a cabinet vote on a bill to annex a West Bank settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem for at least a month, according to the Haaretz newspaper.The controversial bill, presented by Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, would extend Israeli sovereignty to Ma’ale Adumim.Instead, the cabinet voted unanimously not to approve the proposed legislation until after an expected meeting between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump next month.Netanyahu told the ministers the Trump administration asked him to avoid any “surprise” unilateral measures, according to the Walla news website.“I support Israeli sovereignty over Ma’ale Adumim,” the prime minister is quoted as saying. “There is no question about Ma’ale Adumim, and in any future accord it will be under Israeli sovereignty. But right now, at the request of the US administration, we were asked not to surprise them but to formulate a joint policy.”Trump was set to speak with Netanyahu by phone at 8:30 p.m. Israel time on Sunday, the White House said.Although the ministers decided not to present the bill to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, sources told the Ynet news site that they formulated a clear policy to the satisfaction of Bennett..Bennett has long proposed that Israel annex Area C (the parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian and military control) and extend a type of semi-autonomy to Palestinians in the rest of the territory, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state in that area poses a threat to Israel’s existence.Netanyahu’s assurances came as the Jerusalem Municipality approved the construction of 566 new homes in East Jerusalem on Sunday, in a vote that had been pushed back from December in order to avoid angering the outgoing administration of former US president Barack Obama. The Palestinians condemned the decision as an explicit violation of a recent anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations.While much of the international community considers these residential areas as settlements, Israel considers them neighborhoods of Jerusalem and argues that they will be part of Israel in any negotiated peace agreement.The announcement of construction projects in East Jerusalem throughout Obama’s eight-year term repeatedly led to diplomatic scuffles between Washington and Jerusalem, most notably the announcement of the approval of over 1,000 homes in Ramat Shlomo in 2010 during a visit by then-vice president Joe Biden.On Thursday, Bennett asserted the Trump administration would see a shift in Israel’s West Bank policies, including the annexation of Ma’ale Adumim, a city with some 40,000 residents.But on Saturday, Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, a close ally of Netanyahu, rejected suggestions that Israel may unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank, saying such a course of action would be “a disaster” for the country.Israel has controlled the West Bank since capturing it in the 1967 Six Day War, but has never moved to annex any of the territory beyond extending sovereignty to East Jerusalem. It later applied Israeli law to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria.Most experts see Israel’s policy of extending sovereignty, in moves widely unrecognized by the international community, as tantamount to annexation.Trump has assured Israel that things will be different after he takes office, lamenting last month that the Jewish state was “being treated very, very unfairly” by the international community after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2334, which took aim at Israeli construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Netanyahu says Palestinians can have a ‘state minus’-PM tells ministers that his version of two-state solution is one the PA refuses to accept; Palestinian official slams remark-By Times of Israel staff January 22, 2017, 6:53 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told cabinet ministers Sunday that he was prepared to give the Palestinians a “state minus.”“What I’m willing to give the Palestinians,” the prime minister said in the weekly meeting, according to Hebrew reports, “is not exactly a state with full authority, rather a state minus. This is why the Palestinians do not agree.”Netanyahu did not elaborate further. In the past, the prime minister has said that he would be in favor of a demilitarized Palestinian state if the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.Netanyahu was responding to Science Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud), who told the ministers that he opposes the prime minister’s position and rejects a two-state solution. The minister insisted that this is also the official stance of the Likud party, according to the Haaretz daily.“If you would listen to the details of my position I’m sure that you would not oppose it,” the prime minister told Akunis.Palestinian official Mustafa Barghouti slammed Netanyahu’s comments in an interview with the Palestine News Network.He compared the plan to the Bantustans, homeland areas set aside by apartheid South Africa governments in order to concentrate members of designated ethnic groups into autonomous nation-states within the country.Barghouti said Palestinians will not be satisfied with a state in name only. The Palestinians demand a country with full sovereignty and borders and not to be living under “an apartheid state that continues the occupation,” he said.Earlier this month, former US president Barack Obama challenged Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution. He charged that Netanyahu’s actions indicate that he doesn’t support a two-state solution with the Palestinians, pointing to the acceleration of settlement construction in recent years “that was not compelled by Israel’s security.”US President Donald Trump has signaled that his administration will take a more friendly approach to the Netanyahu government’s policies.
Abbas meets Jordanian king on possible US embassy move-Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh heads to Cairo for talks as he drums up support to lead terror group’s political bureau-By Avi Issacharoff January 22, 2017, 8:45 pm-the times of israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met Sunday with King Abdullah II of Jordan to discuss the repercussions should the United States move its embassy to Jerusalem, while a top official from the rival Hamas organization prepared to meet with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday.The two meetings come amid warming ties between Egypt and Hamas, the terror organization and de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.The official Wafa Palestinian news agency reported Abbas and the king discussed US President Donald Trump’s declared intention to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have condemned and Amman has called a “red line.”The two leaders, who have met before, also discussed steps needed to revive the peace process with Israel. The meeting was held in Hussein palace. The get-together came ahead of a gathering of the Arab League in Amman in March.After the meeting, Abbas said that the two sides agreed upon “a series of steps we’ll take if the US moves the embassy to Jerusalem,” without elaborating.Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was considered the leading candidate to become chairman of the Hamas political bureau, and was scheduled to hold talks with senior Egyptian officials on Monday, Palestinian sources told the Times of Israel.Haniyeh’s visit to Egypt is unusual and came after he spent four months abroad. For most of that period, Haniyeh was in Qatar although he also visited various Arab states, including Saudi Arabia. Haniyeh’s visit to Cairo comes in the shadow of strained tensions between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, in part because of Cairo’s cozying up to Hamas.Egypt has recently opened the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, even allowing goods into the Palestinian enclave from Sinai.Among other things, Egypt has permitted the import of materials that are used by the Hamas military wing to build tunnels and to manufacture various weapons. In the past, the tunnels have been used to build a defense network inside Gaza for use against any Israeli incursions, for smuggling between Gaza and Sinai, and to launch deadly terror attacks inside Israel by burrowing under the Israeli-Gaza border fence.The meetings with Haniyeh are expected to strengthen his position in Hamas, which for the past month has been engaged in preparations for elections to the chairmanship of the political bureau. Haniyeh’s main rival in the contest is Moussa Abu Marzouk.His Majesty King Abdullah II receives Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas #Jordan http://pic.twitter.com/PjcJfxwulV— RHC (@RHCJO) January 22, 2017.
US in ‘very beginning of even talking about embassy move’-Israeli officials hail statement from White House as sign that long-sought step underway, despite warnings of violence and diplomatic fallout-By Joshua Davidovich January 22, 2017, 8:15 pm-the times of israel
The Trump Administration is only in the beginning stages of discussing moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Sunday.The statement contrasted with reports over the last several weeks that the announcement of the move could come as early as this week, but also confirmed that the administration intends to at least seriously entertain the move, despite warnings from the international community that it could significantly ramp up tensions in the volatile region.“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” Spicer said in a statement Sunday, according to Reuters.The statement came about an hour before Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were set to hold their first phone conversation since Trump became president Friday.While far from a full announcement of the move, as some had expected would be in the offing, the statement still represented the most serious commitment by a sitting US president to transfer the embassy, a move Israeli officials have pushed for over decades.Like many presidential candidates, Trump promised to make the embassy move. But presidents have avoided following through on that pledge in part because of concerns that it would inflame tensions in the Middle East.In Israel, the statement was interpreted as confirmation that the embassy would be moved.“US Embassy on the way to Jerusalem,” read a chyron at the top of Channel 2’s main news program at 8 p.m.Several Israeli officials quickly reacted to the statement by thanking Trump for transfering the embassy from Tel Aviv.“Trump proves that he is a true friend of the state of Israel that makes good on his promises,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement.Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin said he “welcomed the Trump administration making the campaign promise a reality.”Trump vowed to move the embassy during his address at last year’s AIPAC Policy Conference, and he has indicated during his transition that he will follow through on that promise.However, the plan has brought warnings of far-reaching diplomatic repercussions, as well as the possibility of violence.Palestinian and Arab leaders have warned that relocating the embassy could lead to mass protests and unrest.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated he could revoke the PLO’s recognition of Israel and Abbas’s Fatah party warned the move “would open the gates of hell.”On Thursday, Spicer told reporters to “stay tuned” and that “there will be a further announcement on that,” when asked about the possibility of the embassy move.In December, reports emerged that Trump’s advisers were already in the process of planning the relocation, though Spicer’s statement seemed to counter that narrative.Campaign manager and soon-to-be White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has said it is “a very big priority for him.”Earlier on Sunday, Channel 2 News reported that a Trump administration announcement on moving the embassy could come on Monday morning.Israeli officials have loudly pushed for the embassy move, seeing it as long-sought US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.The move will “send a clear message to the world that Jerusalem is the united capital of the State of Israel,” Barkat said in a message last week.On Friday, a large billboard appeared in a residential neighborhood of the city thanking Trump for the move.In 1995, Congress adopted a resolution, led by former House speaker and current Trump confidant Newt Gingrich, that called on the president to move the embassy. But each presidency since then has repeatedly used the prerogative granted to them to delay implementation of that demand.The current waiver expires in May 2017.Each president since then, including Obama, has maintained that the future status of Jerusalem should be settled in final negotiations between the parties, as both Israelis and Palestinians claim the holy city as their rightful capital.Israeli daily Israel Hayom on Thursday morning quoted Trump saying that he “did not forget” about the commitment he made as a candidate. “You know that I am not a person who breaks promises,” he said.On Thursday, Spicer supplemented those remarks in his press conference, saying, “The president has made clear that Israel has not gotten the respect it deserves,” he said.Eric Cortellessa, AP contributed to this report.
Israel municipality approves hundreds of settlement homes in east Jerusalem-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-January 22, 2017
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Jerusalem municipality approved building permits for more than 560 housing units in three East Jerusalem settlements on Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump took office in the United States.Chairman of Jerusalem city hall's Planning and Building committee Meir Turgeman told Israel Radio the permits were held up until the end of the Barack Obama administration, which was critical of Israeli settlement activity.(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Potter)
This is a needed first diplomatic step in the era of President Trump'-Challenging Netanyahu, senior minister floats annexation of Jerusalem-area settlements-Yisrael Katz pitches proposal after PM, citing a request from US administration, seeks delay of bill to annex Ma’ale Adumim-By Times of Israel staff January 22, 2017, 11:37 am
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a senior member of the cabinet from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said Sunday he would bring a plan to the cabinet for Israel to annex most of the West Bank settlements surrounding Jerusalem, in a move that appeared designed to challenge Netanyahu and outflank Education Minister Naftali Bennett.Katz’s proposal, posted on his Facebook page, came hours after a reported attempt by Netanyahu to delay an effort by pro-settlement lawmakers to annex large settlement blocs in the wake of the election of US President Donald Trump. Until now the effort has been spearheaded by Bennett, whose Jewish Home party is pushing for Israel to annex the Ma’ale Adumim settlement just to the east of Jerusalem.But Katz’s proposal goes much further than Bennett’s and would include large settlement blocs to the north and south of Jerusalem too.“Jerusalem first,” Katz wrote in his post. “Today I will propose at the security cabinet that we pass the ‘Greater Jerusalem Law’ that includes extending Israeli sovereignty to the surrounding communities of greater Jerusalem: Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Beitar Illit and the Etzion Bloc, while joining them to the city of Jerusalem and strengthening it by adding territory and Jewish population.”“This is a needed first diplomatic step in the era of President Trump,” he wrote.Israel’s right-wing government has been eagerly awaiting the Trump administration after eight years of tension with Barack Obama’s White House, largely over its opposition to continued settlement activity.But while Trump has indicated he will adopt a completely different approach to the issue of settlements and Jerusalem, on Sunday there were mixed messages about what his administration actually expects.Netanyahu has reportedly asked Bennett, the main backer of the initiative, to take his proposed annexation bill off the agenda of Sunday evening’s meeting of the powerful Ministerial Committee for Legislation.Netanyahu reportedly explained to Bennett that he had spoken with advisers to Trump, who asked that Israel not “surprise” the US with any unilateral move before the two leaders have a chance to meet, likely in early February.But Army Radio reported that senior White House officials had been in touch with a senior Israeli minister and told them that the new administration has no intention of stopping Israeli plans to annex Ma’ale Adumim.“We need to tell the American administration what we want and not wait for orders from it,” said Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), who co-chairs the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.“The administration is friendly; there is no reason not take unilateral steps that we think are correct. We have to change the rules of the game, including by extending Israeli sovereignty to Ma’ale Adumim, or through significant strategic changes,” she told the radio station.Ma’ale Adumim, a city of some 40,000 residents, straddles a ridge east of Jerusalem. Palestinians say it effectively divides the West Bank into two non-contiguous sections north and south of the city, and thereby makes a viable future Palestinian state less attainable.The bill to apply Israeli sovereignty and civil law to the city was proposed by Likud’s MK Yoav Kisch and Jewish Home’s MK Betzalel Smotrich.According to some reports, Bennett has refused to push off the debate in the cabinet committee. A longtime backer of Israeli annexation of large swaths of the West Bank, Bennett has argued that Trump’s term in the White House offers a rare opportunity for Israel to take a decisive stand against any future Palestinian state. Bennett opposes such a state, calling it a threat to Israel’s existence.The ministerial legislation committee, jointly headed by Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), votes on granting government support to legislation. Such support is usually decisive in enabling a bill to pass into law.“I’m getting a message from Trump not to jump to the front,” Netanyahu told Bennett on Friday, according to quotes from their conversation carried by the Haaretz daily.But Bennett has reportedly demanded that the larger issue of Israel’s West Bank policy during the Trump term come up in other cabinet forums on Sunday as a precondition to any delay in considering the Ma’ale Adumim legislation.Israel has controlled the West Bank since capturing it in the 1967 Six Day War but has never moved to annex any of the territory beyond extending sovereignty to East Jerusalem. It later applied Israeli law to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria.The plan proposed by Katz goes significantly beyond that of Bennett, to include Givat Ze’ev to the north; the huge, predominantly ultra-Orthodox city Beitar Ilit; and the Etzion settlement bloc. Those areas are currently home to some 130,000 Israelis.It’s not clear how many Palestinians would be annexed into Israel under Katz’s plan, but the number likely reaches into the tens of thousands.“I expect that [Zionist Union leader Isaac] Herzog and (Yesh Atid leader Yair) Lapid and everyone who sees these communities as an integral part of the State of Israel in the future will support this bill,” Katz wrote. “The support of world Jewry and our friends in the US, who see Jerusalem as the historic capital of the Jewish people for thousands of years, is assured.“There is nothing more appropriate that this bill to mark 50 years since the liberation and unification of Jerusalem,” he said.Bennett, whose party counts the settlement movement as a major part of its voter base, ran in the past two elections on a platform of de facto annexation of Area C (the parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian and military control) and extending some form of autonomy to Palestinians in the rest of the territory.After the US abstention on an anti-settlements resolution at the UN Security Council last month, Trump assured Israel that things would be different under his watch. He lamented that the Jewish state was “being treated very, very unfairly” by the international community.Speaking to reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate on December 29, Trump lambasted the UN for condemning Israel, saying that “horrible places, that treat people horribly, haven’t even been reprimanded” by the international body.Though refusing to directly answer specific questions regarding West Bank settlements, Trump called himself “very, very strong on Israel.”The president-elect also lashed out on Twitter at the Obama administration for treating Israel with “such total disdain and disrespect” following the UN vote, and indicated the US was no longer “a great friend” to the Jewish state.Netanyahu has said that he looks forward to working with Trump, his administration and the US Congress to reverse the Security Council resolution, although it is unclear how this would be accomplished, as such resolutions cannot be canceled.In addition to the annexation initiatives, a controversial bid to authorize some illegal West Bank outposts — previously postponed until after Trump enters the White House — was put “back on the table” following the US’s failure to veto the Security Council resolution, and may also advance in the first weeks of the Trump presidency.Fearing repercussions from the Obama administration, a final vote on the so-called Regulation Bill, which would legalize some 4,000 Israeli homes in the West Bank built on privately owned Palestinian land, had been shelved until Obama left office.But after the US abstention in the UN vote, “We are done playing nice,” a coalition source told The Times of Israel in late December. “It’s back on the table.”Bennett has called the outpost bill the first step toward annexing the rest of the West Bank.
I feel close to my congregants because almost all of them are at a march somewhere'-Reflecting the Torah portion, joyous rebellion as women march-Spirituality and tikkun olam are strong themes among Jews simultaneously protesting and celebrating Shabbat in Washington-By Dina Kraft January 22, 2017, 7:54 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON — Wrapped in a tallit, Rabbi Riqi Kosovske looked out onto a sea of pink-hatted marchers and hoisted her “Nasty Woman Rabbi” sign high.“I’ve never felt more challenged as a Jew, a woman, a mother or a spiritual leader than during this election. I felt it was really important to be with these people, and I was emboldened by Rabbi Joshua Heschel, who said he felt like he was praying with his feet when he marched with Martin Luther King in Selma,” said Kosovske, 48.The female cleric had traveled almost 400 miles to the Women’s March on Washington from Northampton, Massachusetts with her partner and 12-year-old son.At first when contemplating the journey, she had hesitated, reluctant to leave the Reform synagogue she leads on the weekend of the president’s inauguration.“But I feel close to my congregants because almost all of them are at a march somewhere,” she said.Just minutes later she shouted out in delight to a woman walking by in the march. They rushed to hug one another. It was one of her congregants, Alisa Greenbacher.Above the chants of the crowd, Greenbacher shared, “I’m here first as a woman, then as a Jewish woman and then as a Jewish American woman.”An estimated half a million people gathered for the Women’s March on Washington, with the crowd exceeding expectations to such an extent that the planned march to the White House had to be rerouted. People clogged the city’s broad avenues and streets, spilling across the National Mall in thick crowds, and stood for hours straining to hear the speeches.On the first day of President Donald Trump’s new administration people had come to rally for a variety of reasons, but they stood together as a unified front for women’s rights and equal rights for others in America.Gloria Steinem, the 82-year-old feminist icon, told the gathering, “This is the upside of the downside, this is an outpouring of democracy like I’ve never seen in my very long life.”Lorraine Coffey, 62, an editor from Silver Spring, Maryland, looked at her “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” sign and shook her head. “I cannot believe we have to say this again,” she said.Coffey, who is Jewish, grew up in the Washington area attending civil rights marches and, later, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations here.“In times of despair this sense of solidarity is just utterly necessary. Otherwise you can feel alone with no hope,” she said.Debra Young, a 40-year-old mother of two, came to the march on a bus with her synagogue from Rockville, a Maryland suburb of Washington. She was one of about 1,000 Reform Jews who came together for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s event, “Nosh, Pray, March,” which started the day’s activities early, offering up blessings like “shehechiyanu”, traditionally said to mark the first time an event occurs.“It was a nice way to bring us all together,” said Young. “This is tikun olam, trying to leave the world better than it started.”About 2,000 Jews marched together as a bloc, setting out after Shabbat morning services at Sixth & I Synagogue, singing a mix of Hebrew songs like “Oseh Shalom” and American folk songs, and hoisting signs in both Hebrew and English.“It was an impressive show from the Jewish community. We did not come as several different groups or organizations, we came as one Jewish community. It was really, really moving to see, and it was fun and uplifting and spirited. I honestly cannot remember a time that I felt that much togetherness with the community,” said Amanda Lang, director of marketing and communications for the National Council of Jewish Women.Adrienne Mandel, 80, a Jewish former Maryland state delegate said, “I’m here because you can never stop being active and caring and believing, as long as you can walk, talk, and breathe. I know America is great and we have to keep it that way and to resist anything that erodes our issues, because women’s issues are human issues.”Kosovske said this week’s Torah portion was especially apt for the march, which fell on Shabbat. The selection tells about the midwives who stood up to Pharaoh, delivering Jewish babies despite instructions to kill them. It was due to their courage that Moses was saved and the nation redeemed.“We are finding that same sense of power now,” said Kosovske.
Anti-Trump women’s marches draw 2 million across US-In a message of defiance to new president, over 1 million said to attend DC rally, with hundreds of thousands at sister protests-By Thomas WATKINS and Michael Mathes January 22, 2017, 10:55 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (AFP) — More than two million people flooded US cities on Saturday as women opposed to Donald Trump led a peaceful, stunning rebuke against the new US president that was echoed in sister protests around the world.As a sea of demonstrators brought downtown Washington to a standstill, streaming past the White House in a joyous parade of pink “pussyhats,” Trump launched a withering attack on the media, accusing it of downplaying attendance at his swearing-in a day earlier.Trump did not acknowledge the mass protests that marked his first full day in office.But their scale illustrated the depth of resistance to the Republican hardliner, who many fear will roll back the rights of women, immigrants and minorities.Although the US capital does not release crowd counts, organizers of the main protest, the Women’s March on Washington, told AFP they estimated turnout at one million — quadrupling initial expectations — with some 600 sister protests held around the globe.“I’m part of history, and one day will tell my children about this,” said 16-year-old Maria Iman, who traveled to Washington with fellow high school students from Illinois. “It feels amazing.”A tide of women and men — teens, pensioners, parents with toddlers on their shoulders — swelled into the streets around the National Mall for hours before flowing towards the White House in a determined show of unity.“Women won’t back down,” “Women’s rights are human rights” and “Thank you Trump — you turned me into an activist,” read some of the thousands of handmade signs held aloft in the capital.Educator Tanya Gaxiola, 39, who flew in from Tucson, Arizona, expressed concern that Trump will seek to restrict abortion laws and otherwise clamp down on women’s rights.“He’s a narcissist and seeks approval, and this is a big display of disapproval,” Gaxiola said. “Hopefully, it catches his attention.”More than half a million people packed the streets of Los Angeles, according to police there, and similar numbers gathered in New York. Other marches took place in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, St. Louis, Denver and elsewhere.-‘Fight back!’-In Boston, where up to 175,000 people demonstrated, fiery Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren took aim at Trump’s campaign of “attacks” on women and minorities.“We can whimper. We can whine. Or we can fight back!” Warren said to a loud roar.Saturday’s rallying cry was heard far beyond America’s shores, with protests held from Paris to Prague, Sydney to Johannesburg, and in some 20 cities across Canada.One of the largest was in London, where tens of thousands of women, men and children marched chanting “Dump Trump.”The human tide flooding Washington appeared to dwarf the throngs of Trump supporters in red “Make America Great Again!” caps who had cheered his swearing-in.The knitted “pink pussyhats” they wore were an allusion to Trump’s videotaped boasts of being able to grab women’s genitals with impunity.Trump’s defeated rival Hillary Clinton tweeted her support to the protesters, while former secretary of state John Kerry was spotted in the crowd — a day after leaving office — with his dog on a pink leash.Celebrities Scarlett Johansson and Michael Moore were among the speakers, and pop diva Madonna made an impromptu appearance on the Washington protest stage to deliver an expletive-laden indictment of the president.“Welcome to the revolution of love,” the 58-year-old intoned, wearing her own black pussyhat. “To the rebellion. To our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny.”-‘1,000 percent’-A day after assuming the world’s most powerful office, the 70-year-old Trump attended a prayer service and visited the headquarters of the CIA, an agency he feuded with bitterly in recent weeks.“I am with you 1,000 percent,” Trump said in a short address to CIA staff — which he also used to deliver an assault on the media for their reporting on crowd sizes for his swearing-in, which by most estimates were markedly lower than for Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.His press secretary, at his first White House briefing, doubled down with a bitter broadside against the media, claiming despite photographic evidence to the contrary that “this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period!”Trump’s inaugural speech on Friday set the tone for his presidency: proudly populist, fiercely nationalist and determined to break with the legacy of his Democratic predecessor.His first act in office — signing an executive order aimed at freezing Obama’s signature health care law — was a potent gesture in that direction, with more such actions expected to follow.But if Friday was Trump’s day — though marred by sporadic outbreaks of vandalism and more than 200 arrests — Saturday belonged to demonstrators, fired up by fresh memories of the sex assault allegations that tainted his campaign.The Women’s March began with a simple Facebook post from Hawaii grandmother and retired lawyer Teresa Shook to about 40 friends — but word traveled quickly and the event took on a life of its own.
Ministers to debate bill granting PM immunity from prosecution-Legislation designed to protect a sitting premier proposed by Likud MK amid Netanyahu corruption investigations-By Tamar Pileggi January 22, 2017, 12:16 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday will debate a bill that would give Israel’s sitting prime minister immunity from certain types of police investigations and criminal prosecution.A ministerial vote on the bill, proposed by Likud MK David Amsalem after the announcement that police have launched criminal investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would be delayed to allow coalition partners to coordinate positions on the legislation, The Marker business daily reported on Sunday.Amsalem’s bill would amend Israel’s Basic Law to prohibit police from investigating an incumbent premier for fraud, bribery and breach of trust. It would not offer protection from security, sex, violence or drug-related offenses.The legislation would allow sitting prime ministers, who in Israel have no term limit, to serve out the remainder of their tenure before police could launch open an investigation into suspected wrongdoing.In announcing his bill earlier this month, Amsalem claimed media “eagerness” surrounding the latest Netanyahu probe was threatening Israel’s democratic foundations.He linked the current corruption investigation to efforts to oust the prime minister and his right-wing government from power. Still, the bill would not affect the current probes against Netanyahu.The prime minister is being investigated in two separate cases. The first pertains to recordings of conversations between him and Israeli media mogul Arnon “Noni” Mozes in which the pair allegedly negotiated an illicit quid pro quo.The second investigation into Netanyahu is probing claims that he and his family received hundreds of thousands of shekels’ worth of luxury gifts from businessmen, including Israeli Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan.Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly stressed that nothing will come of the criminal investigations.Justice Minister Ayalet Shaked from the Jewish Home party has expressed cautious support for Amsalem’s legislation, saying it could allow the prime minister to “handle state affairs appropriately.”Both Shaked and Amsalem pointed to similar immunity laws that exist in France as precedent for the bill.France’s president, who has a five-year term limit, cannot be prosecuted for most offenses aside from high treason, though French lawmakers recently moved to ease impeachment rules as a way of allowing criminal prosecutions to move forward.Even if Amsalem’s bill were to pass all three Knesset readings and become law, it would not be applicable retroactively, and wouldn’t offer Netanyahu protection from the current police investigations.Earlier this year, Amsalem floated another version of his bill that offered the premier immunity for “minor transgressions” that generally hold a sentence of under six months in prison.That proposal was met with widespread criticism, and a statement from the Likud party at the time said the legislation “was not coordinated with the prime minister and was made without his knowledge.”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
YESTERDAY BENJAMIN NETANYAHU PHONED DONALD TRUMP. I HOPE TRUMP GOES TO ISRAEL QUICK TO GET THE AMERICAN EMBASSY CHANGED FROM TEL AVIV TO JERUSALEM. WHICH WOULD FINALLY TELL THE WORLD. JERUSALEM IS ISRAEL-AND ONLY ISRAELS CAPITAL. ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM-TOGETHER FOREVER. RULING UNDER JESUS THE MESSIAHS RULE FOREVER-NEVER ENDING-WORLD WITHOUT END AMEN AND AMEN.AND NETANYAHU SOME TIME IN FEBRUARY WILL BE COMING TO WASHINGTON TO MEET WITH TRUMP.
Israel's Netanyahu to speak with Trump on Sunday, Iran on agenda-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-sJanuary 22, 2017
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would later in the day hold his first conversation with Donald Trump since his inauguration as U.S. president."A telephone conversation will be held this evening between President Trump and me. Many matters face us, the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the situation in Syria, the Iranian threat," Netanyahu said in broadcast remarks at the start of the Israeli cabinet meeting.(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Potter)
Ultimately 'vision' is for all settlements to come under Israeli sovereignty, Netanyahu reported to say-Netanyahu promises unrestricted construction in East Jerusalem-PM tells ministers he will remove all obstacles to building in capital, will soon announce extensive construction in settlement blocs-By Times of Israel staff January 22, 2017, 8:55 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the high-level security cabinet Sunday he will soon announce expanded construction in the settlement blocs and ease all building restrictions in East Jerusalem.The prime minister said he will remove any political obstacles from regional and local planning committees in order to ease construction in East Jerusalem, according to Hebrew media reports. He added that wide-scale building will soon be green-lighted in the settlement blocs as well.The prime minister also told ministers that his “vision” is that all of the settlements in the West Bank will ultimately come under Israeli sovereignty in any accommodation, Channel 2 news reported.Netanyahu’s declaration on Sunday convinced ministers from the settlement-backing Jewish Home party to postpone a cabinet vote on a bill to annex a West Bank settlement on the outskirts of Jerusalem for at least a month, according to the Haaretz newspaper.The controversial bill, presented by Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett, would extend Israeli sovereignty to Ma’ale Adumim.Instead, the cabinet voted unanimously not to approve the proposed legislation until after an expected meeting between Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump next month.Netanyahu told the ministers the Trump administration asked him to avoid any “surprise” unilateral measures, according to the Walla news website.“I support Israeli sovereignty over Ma’ale Adumim,” the prime minister is quoted as saying. “There is no question about Ma’ale Adumim, and in any future accord it will be under Israeli sovereignty. But right now, at the request of the US administration, we were asked not to surprise them but to formulate a joint policy.”Trump was set to speak with Netanyahu by phone at 8:30 p.m. Israel time on Sunday, the White House said.Although the ministers decided not to present the bill to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, sources told the Ynet news site that they formulated a clear policy to the satisfaction of Bennett..Bennett has long proposed that Israel annex Area C (the parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian and military control) and extend a type of semi-autonomy to Palestinians in the rest of the territory, arguing that the creation of a Palestinian state in that area poses a threat to Israel’s existence.Netanyahu’s assurances came as the Jerusalem Municipality approved the construction of 566 new homes in East Jerusalem on Sunday, in a vote that had been pushed back from December in order to avoid angering the outgoing administration of former US president Barack Obama. The Palestinians condemned the decision as an explicit violation of a recent anti-settlement resolution at the United Nations.While much of the international community considers these residential areas as settlements, Israel considers them neighborhoods of Jerusalem and argues that they will be part of Israel in any negotiated peace agreement.The announcement of construction projects in East Jerusalem throughout Obama’s eight-year term repeatedly led to diplomatic scuffles between Washington and Jerusalem, most notably the announcement of the approval of over 1,000 homes in Ramat Shlomo in 2010 during a visit by then-vice president Joe Biden.On Thursday, Bennett asserted the Trump administration would see a shift in Israel’s West Bank policies, including the annexation of Ma’ale Adumim, a city with some 40,000 residents.But on Saturday, Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi, a close ally of Netanyahu, rejected suggestions that Israel may unilaterally annex parts of the West Bank, saying such a course of action would be “a disaster” for the country.Israel has controlled the West Bank since capturing it in the 1967 Six Day War, but has never moved to annex any of the territory beyond extending sovereignty to East Jerusalem. It later applied Israeli law to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria.Most experts see Israel’s policy of extending sovereignty, in moves widely unrecognized by the international community, as tantamount to annexation.Trump has assured Israel that things will be different after he takes office, lamenting last month that the Jewish state was “being treated very, very unfairly” by the international community after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2334, which took aim at Israeli construction in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Netanyahu says Palestinians can have a ‘state minus’-PM tells ministers that his version of two-state solution is one the PA refuses to accept; Palestinian official slams remark-By Times of Israel staff January 22, 2017, 6:53 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told cabinet ministers Sunday that he was prepared to give the Palestinians a “state minus.”“What I’m willing to give the Palestinians,” the prime minister said in the weekly meeting, according to Hebrew reports, “is not exactly a state with full authority, rather a state minus. This is why the Palestinians do not agree.”Netanyahu did not elaborate further. In the past, the prime minister has said that he would be in favor of a demilitarized Palestinian state if the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state.Netanyahu was responding to Science Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud), who told the ministers that he opposes the prime minister’s position and rejects a two-state solution. The minister insisted that this is also the official stance of the Likud party, according to the Haaretz daily.“If you would listen to the details of my position I’m sure that you would not oppose it,” the prime minister told Akunis.Palestinian official Mustafa Barghouti slammed Netanyahu’s comments in an interview with the Palestine News Network.He compared the plan to the Bantustans, homeland areas set aside by apartheid South Africa governments in order to concentrate members of designated ethnic groups into autonomous nation-states within the country.Barghouti said Palestinians will not be satisfied with a state in name only. The Palestinians demand a country with full sovereignty and borders and not to be living under “an apartheid state that continues the occupation,” he said.Earlier this month, former US president Barack Obama challenged Netanyahu’s commitment to a two-state solution. He charged that Netanyahu’s actions indicate that he doesn’t support a two-state solution with the Palestinians, pointing to the acceleration of settlement construction in recent years “that was not compelled by Israel’s security.”US President Donald Trump has signaled that his administration will take a more friendly approach to the Netanyahu government’s policies.
Abbas meets Jordanian king on possible US embassy move-Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh heads to Cairo for talks as he drums up support to lead terror group’s political bureau-By Avi Issacharoff January 22, 2017, 8:45 pm-the times of israel
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met Sunday with King Abdullah II of Jordan to discuss the repercussions should the United States move its embassy to Jerusalem, while a top official from the rival Hamas organization prepared to meet with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Monday.The two meetings come amid warming ties between Egypt and Hamas, the terror organization and de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.The official Wafa Palestinian news agency reported Abbas and the king discussed US President Donald Trump’s declared intention to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which the Palestinians have condemned and Amman has called a “red line.”The two leaders, who have met before, also discussed steps needed to revive the peace process with Israel. The meeting was held in Hussein palace. The get-together came ahead of a gathering of the Arab League in Amman in March.After the meeting, Abbas said that the two sides agreed upon “a series of steps we’ll take if the US moves the embassy to Jerusalem,” without elaborating.Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was considered the leading candidate to become chairman of the Hamas political bureau, and was scheduled to hold talks with senior Egyptian officials on Monday, Palestinian sources told the Times of Israel.Haniyeh’s visit to Egypt is unusual and came after he spent four months abroad. For most of that period, Haniyeh was in Qatar although he also visited various Arab states, including Saudi Arabia. Haniyeh’s visit to Cairo comes in the shadow of strained tensions between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, in part because of Cairo’s cozying up to Hamas.Egypt has recently opened the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, even allowing goods into the Palestinian enclave from Sinai.Among other things, Egypt has permitted the import of materials that are used by the Hamas military wing to build tunnels and to manufacture various weapons. In the past, the tunnels have been used to build a defense network inside Gaza for use against any Israeli incursions, for smuggling between Gaza and Sinai, and to launch deadly terror attacks inside Israel by burrowing under the Israeli-Gaza border fence.The meetings with Haniyeh are expected to strengthen his position in Hamas, which for the past month has been engaged in preparations for elections to the chairmanship of the political bureau. Haniyeh’s main rival in the contest is Moussa Abu Marzouk.His Majesty King Abdullah II receives Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas #Jordan http://pic.twitter.com/PjcJfxwulV— RHC (@RHCJO) January 22, 2017.
US in ‘very beginning of even talking about embassy move’-Israeli officials hail statement from White House as sign that long-sought step underway, despite warnings of violence and diplomatic fallout-By Joshua Davidovich January 22, 2017, 8:15 pm-the times of israel
The Trump Administration is only in the beginning stages of discussing moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Sunday.The statement contrasted with reports over the last several weeks that the announcement of the move could come as early as this week, but also confirmed that the administration intends to at least seriously entertain the move, despite warnings from the international community that it could significantly ramp up tensions in the volatile region.“We are at the very beginning stages of even discussing this subject,” Spicer said in a statement Sunday, according to Reuters.The statement came about an hour before Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were set to hold their first phone conversation since Trump became president Friday.While far from a full announcement of the move, as some had expected would be in the offing, the statement still represented the most serious commitment by a sitting US president to transfer the embassy, a move Israeli officials have pushed for over decades.Like many presidential candidates, Trump promised to make the embassy move. But presidents have avoided following through on that pledge in part because of concerns that it would inflame tensions in the Middle East.In Israel, the statement was interpreted as confirmation that the embassy would be moved.“US Embassy on the way to Jerusalem,” read a chyron at the top of Channel 2’s main news program at 8 p.m.Several Israeli officials quickly reacted to the statement by thanking Trump for transfering the embassy from Tel Aviv.“Trump proves that he is a true friend of the state of Israel that makes good on his promises,” Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement.Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin said he “welcomed the Trump administration making the campaign promise a reality.”Trump vowed to move the embassy during his address at last year’s AIPAC Policy Conference, and he has indicated during his transition that he will follow through on that promise.However, the plan has brought warnings of far-reaching diplomatic repercussions, as well as the possibility of violence.Palestinian and Arab leaders have warned that relocating the embassy could lead to mass protests and unrest.Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has indicated he could revoke the PLO’s recognition of Israel and Abbas’s Fatah party warned the move “would open the gates of hell.”On Thursday, Spicer told reporters to “stay tuned” and that “there will be a further announcement on that,” when asked about the possibility of the embassy move.In December, reports emerged that Trump’s advisers were already in the process of planning the relocation, though Spicer’s statement seemed to counter that narrative.Campaign manager and soon-to-be White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has said it is “a very big priority for him.”Earlier on Sunday, Channel 2 News reported that a Trump administration announcement on moving the embassy could come on Monday morning.Israeli officials have loudly pushed for the embassy move, seeing it as long-sought US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.The move will “send a clear message to the world that Jerusalem is the united capital of the State of Israel,” Barkat said in a message last week.On Friday, a large billboard appeared in a residential neighborhood of the city thanking Trump for the move.In 1995, Congress adopted a resolution, led by former House speaker and current Trump confidant Newt Gingrich, that called on the president to move the embassy. But each presidency since then has repeatedly used the prerogative granted to them to delay implementation of that demand.The current waiver expires in May 2017.Each president since then, including Obama, has maintained that the future status of Jerusalem should be settled in final negotiations between the parties, as both Israelis and Palestinians claim the holy city as their rightful capital.Israeli daily Israel Hayom on Thursday morning quoted Trump saying that he “did not forget” about the commitment he made as a candidate. “You know that I am not a person who breaks promises,” he said.On Thursday, Spicer supplemented those remarks in his press conference, saying, “The president has made clear that Israel has not gotten the respect it deserves,” he said.Eric Cortellessa, AP contributed to this report.
Israel municipality approves hundreds of settlement homes in east Jerusalem-[Reuters]-YAHOONEWS-January 22, 2017
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Jerusalem municipality approved building permits for more than 560 housing units in three East Jerusalem settlements on Sunday, two days after President Donald Trump took office in the United States.Chairman of Jerusalem city hall's Planning and Building committee Meir Turgeman told Israel Radio the permits were held up until the end of the Barack Obama administration, which was critical of Israeli settlement activity.(Reporting by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Potter)
This is a needed first diplomatic step in the era of President Trump'-Challenging Netanyahu, senior minister floats annexation of Jerusalem-area settlements-Yisrael Katz pitches proposal after PM, citing a request from US administration, seeks delay of bill to annex Ma’ale Adumim-By Times of Israel staff January 22, 2017, 11:37 am
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, a senior member of the cabinet from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, said Sunday he would bring a plan to the cabinet for Israel to annex most of the West Bank settlements surrounding Jerusalem, in a move that appeared designed to challenge Netanyahu and outflank Education Minister Naftali Bennett.Katz’s proposal, posted on his Facebook page, came hours after a reported attempt by Netanyahu to delay an effort by pro-settlement lawmakers to annex large settlement blocs in the wake of the election of US President Donald Trump. Until now the effort has been spearheaded by Bennett, whose Jewish Home party is pushing for Israel to annex the Ma’ale Adumim settlement just to the east of Jerusalem.But Katz’s proposal goes much further than Bennett’s and would include large settlement blocs to the north and south of Jerusalem too.“Jerusalem first,” Katz wrote in his post. “Today I will propose at the security cabinet that we pass the ‘Greater Jerusalem Law’ that includes extending Israeli sovereignty to the surrounding communities of greater Jerusalem: Ma’ale Adumim, Givat Ze’ev, Beitar Illit and the Etzion Bloc, while joining them to the city of Jerusalem and strengthening it by adding territory and Jewish population.”“This is a needed first diplomatic step in the era of President Trump,” he wrote.Israel’s right-wing government has been eagerly awaiting the Trump administration after eight years of tension with Barack Obama’s White House, largely over its opposition to continued settlement activity.But while Trump has indicated he will adopt a completely different approach to the issue of settlements and Jerusalem, on Sunday there were mixed messages about what his administration actually expects.Netanyahu has reportedly asked Bennett, the main backer of the initiative, to take his proposed annexation bill off the agenda of Sunday evening’s meeting of the powerful Ministerial Committee for Legislation.Netanyahu reportedly explained to Bennett that he had spoken with advisers to Trump, who asked that Israel not “surprise” the US with any unilateral move before the two leaders have a chance to meet, likely in early February.But Army Radio reported that senior White House officials had been in touch with a senior Israeli minister and told them that the new administration has no intention of stopping Israeli plans to annex Ma’ale Adumim.“We need to tell the American administration what we want and not wait for orders from it,” said Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home), who co-chairs the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.“The administration is friendly; there is no reason not take unilateral steps that we think are correct. We have to change the rules of the game, including by extending Israeli sovereignty to Ma’ale Adumim, or through significant strategic changes,” she told the radio station.Ma’ale Adumim, a city of some 40,000 residents, straddles a ridge east of Jerusalem. Palestinians say it effectively divides the West Bank into two non-contiguous sections north and south of the city, and thereby makes a viable future Palestinian state less attainable.The bill to apply Israeli sovereignty and civil law to the city was proposed by Likud’s MK Yoav Kisch and Jewish Home’s MK Betzalel Smotrich.According to some reports, Bennett has refused to push off the debate in the cabinet committee. A longtime backer of Israeli annexation of large swaths of the West Bank, Bennett has argued that Trump’s term in the White House offers a rare opportunity for Israel to take a decisive stand against any future Palestinian state. Bennett opposes such a state, calling it a threat to Israel’s existence.The ministerial legislation committee, jointly headed by Shaked and Tourism Minister Yariv Levin (Likud), votes on granting government support to legislation. Such support is usually decisive in enabling a bill to pass into law.“I’m getting a message from Trump not to jump to the front,” Netanyahu told Bennett on Friday, according to quotes from their conversation carried by the Haaretz daily.But Bennett has reportedly demanded that the larger issue of Israel’s West Bank policy during the Trump term come up in other cabinet forums on Sunday as a precondition to any delay in considering the Ma’ale Adumim legislation.Israel has controlled the West Bank since capturing it in the 1967 Six Day War but has never moved to annex any of the territory beyond extending sovereignty to East Jerusalem. It later applied Israeli law to the Golan Heights, captured from Syria.The plan proposed by Katz goes significantly beyond that of Bennett, to include Givat Ze’ev to the north; the huge, predominantly ultra-Orthodox city Beitar Ilit; and the Etzion settlement bloc. Those areas are currently home to some 130,000 Israelis.It’s not clear how many Palestinians would be annexed into Israel under Katz’s plan, but the number likely reaches into the tens of thousands.“I expect that [Zionist Union leader Isaac] Herzog and (Yesh Atid leader Yair) Lapid and everyone who sees these communities as an integral part of the State of Israel in the future will support this bill,” Katz wrote. “The support of world Jewry and our friends in the US, who see Jerusalem as the historic capital of the Jewish people for thousands of years, is assured.“There is nothing more appropriate that this bill to mark 50 years since the liberation and unification of Jerusalem,” he said.Bennett, whose party counts the settlement movement as a major part of its voter base, ran in the past two elections on a platform of de facto annexation of Area C (the parts of the West Bank under Israeli civilian and military control) and extending some form of autonomy to Palestinians in the rest of the territory.After the US abstention on an anti-settlements resolution at the UN Security Council last month, Trump assured Israel that things would be different under his watch. He lamented that the Jewish state was “being treated very, very unfairly” by the international community.Speaking to reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago estate on December 29, Trump lambasted the UN for condemning Israel, saying that “horrible places, that treat people horribly, haven’t even been reprimanded” by the international body.Though refusing to directly answer specific questions regarding West Bank settlements, Trump called himself “very, very strong on Israel.”The president-elect also lashed out on Twitter at the Obama administration for treating Israel with “such total disdain and disrespect” following the UN vote, and indicated the US was no longer “a great friend” to the Jewish state.Netanyahu has said that he looks forward to working with Trump, his administration and the US Congress to reverse the Security Council resolution, although it is unclear how this would be accomplished, as such resolutions cannot be canceled.In addition to the annexation initiatives, a controversial bid to authorize some illegal West Bank outposts — previously postponed until after Trump enters the White House — was put “back on the table” following the US’s failure to veto the Security Council resolution, and may also advance in the first weeks of the Trump presidency.Fearing repercussions from the Obama administration, a final vote on the so-called Regulation Bill, which would legalize some 4,000 Israeli homes in the West Bank built on privately owned Palestinian land, had been shelved until Obama left office.But after the US abstention in the UN vote, “We are done playing nice,” a coalition source told The Times of Israel in late December. “It’s back on the table.”Bennett has called the outpost bill the first step toward annexing the rest of the West Bank.
I feel close to my congregants because almost all of them are at a march somewhere'-Reflecting the Torah portion, joyous rebellion as women march-Spirituality and tikkun olam are strong themes among Jews simultaneously protesting and celebrating Shabbat in Washington-By Dina Kraft January 22, 2017, 7:54 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON — Wrapped in a tallit, Rabbi Riqi Kosovske looked out onto a sea of pink-hatted marchers and hoisted her “Nasty Woman Rabbi” sign high.“I’ve never felt more challenged as a Jew, a woman, a mother or a spiritual leader than during this election. I felt it was really important to be with these people, and I was emboldened by Rabbi Joshua Heschel, who said he felt like he was praying with his feet when he marched with Martin Luther King in Selma,” said Kosovske, 48.The female cleric had traveled almost 400 miles to the Women’s March on Washington from Northampton, Massachusetts with her partner and 12-year-old son.At first when contemplating the journey, she had hesitated, reluctant to leave the Reform synagogue she leads on the weekend of the president’s inauguration.“But I feel close to my congregants because almost all of them are at a march somewhere,” she said.Just minutes later she shouted out in delight to a woman walking by in the march. They rushed to hug one another. It was one of her congregants, Alisa Greenbacher.Above the chants of the crowd, Greenbacher shared, “I’m here first as a woman, then as a Jewish woman and then as a Jewish American woman.”An estimated half a million people gathered for the Women’s March on Washington, with the crowd exceeding expectations to such an extent that the planned march to the White House had to be rerouted. People clogged the city’s broad avenues and streets, spilling across the National Mall in thick crowds, and stood for hours straining to hear the speeches.On the first day of President Donald Trump’s new administration people had come to rally for a variety of reasons, but they stood together as a unified front for women’s rights and equal rights for others in America.Gloria Steinem, the 82-year-old feminist icon, told the gathering, “This is the upside of the downside, this is an outpouring of democracy like I’ve never seen in my very long life.”Lorraine Coffey, 62, an editor from Silver Spring, Maryland, looked at her “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” sign and shook her head. “I cannot believe we have to say this again,” she said.Coffey, who is Jewish, grew up in the Washington area attending civil rights marches and, later, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations here.“In times of despair this sense of solidarity is just utterly necessary. Otherwise you can feel alone with no hope,” she said.Debra Young, a 40-year-old mother of two, came to the march on a bus with her synagogue from Rockville, a Maryland suburb of Washington. She was one of about 1,000 Reform Jews who came together for the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s event, “Nosh, Pray, March,” which started the day’s activities early, offering up blessings like “shehechiyanu”, traditionally said to mark the first time an event occurs.“It was a nice way to bring us all together,” said Young. “This is tikun olam, trying to leave the world better than it started.”About 2,000 Jews marched together as a bloc, setting out after Shabbat morning services at Sixth & I Synagogue, singing a mix of Hebrew songs like “Oseh Shalom” and American folk songs, and hoisting signs in both Hebrew and English.“It was an impressive show from the Jewish community. We did not come as several different groups or organizations, we came as one Jewish community. It was really, really moving to see, and it was fun and uplifting and spirited. I honestly cannot remember a time that I felt that much togetherness with the community,” said Amanda Lang, director of marketing and communications for the National Council of Jewish Women.Adrienne Mandel, 80, a Jewish former Maryland state delegate said, “I’m here because you can never stop being active and caring and believing, as long as you can walk, talk, and breathe. I know America is great and we have to keep it that way and to resist anything that erodes our issues, because women’s issues are human issues.”Kosovske said this week’s Torah portion was especially apt for the march, which fell on Shabbat. The selection tells about the midwives who stood up to Pharaoh, delivering Jewish babies despite instructions to kill them. It was due to their courage that Moses was saved and the nation redeemed.“We are finding that same sense of power now,” said Kosovske.
Anti-Trump women’s marches draw 2 million across US-In a message of defiance to new president, over 1 million said to attend DC rally, with hundreds of thousands at sister protests-By Thomas WATKINS and Michael Mathes January 22, 2017, 10:55 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
WASHINGTON (AFP) — More than two million people flooded US cities on Saturday as women opposed to Donald Trump led a peaceful, stunning rebuke against the new US president that was echoed in sister protests around the world.As a sea of demonstrators brought downtown Washington to a standstill, streaming past the White House in a joyous parade of pink “pussyhats,” Trump launched a withering attack on the media, accusing it of downplaying attendance at his swearing-in a day earlier.Trump did not acknowledge the mass protests that marked his first full day in office.But their scale illustrated the depth of resistance to the Republican hardliner, who many fear will roll back the rights of women, immigrants and minorities.Although the US capital does not release crowd counts, organizers of the main protest, the Women’s March on Washington, told AFP they estimated turnout at one million — quadrupling initial expectations — with some 600 sister protests held around the globe.“I’m part of history, and one day will tell my children about this,” said 16-year-old Maria Iman, who traveled to Washington with fellow high school students from Illinois. “It feels amazing.”A tide of women and men — teens, pensioners, parents with toddlers on their shoulders — swelled into the streets around the National Mall for hours before flowing towards the White House in a determined show of unity.“Women won’t back down,” “Women’s rights are human rights” and “Thank you Trump — you turned me into an activist,” read some of the thousands of handmade signs held aloft in the capital.Educator Tanya Gaxiola, 39, who flew in from Tucson, Arizona, expressed concern that Trump will seek to restrict abortion laws and otherwise clamp down on women’s rights.“He’s a narcissist and seeks approval, and this is a big display of disapproval,” Gaxiola said. “Hopefully, it catches his attention.”More than half a million people packed the streets of Los Angeles, according to police there, and similar numbers gathered in New York. Other marches took place in Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, St. Louis, Denver and elsewhere.-‘Fight back!’-In Boston, where up to 175,000 people demonstrated, fiery Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren took aim at Trump’s campaign of “attacks” on women and minorities.“We can whimper. We can whine. Or we can fight back!” Warren said to a loud roar.Saturday’s rallying cry was heard far beyond America’s shores, with protests held from Paris to Prague, Sydney to Johannesburg, and in some 20 cities across Canada.One of the largest was in London, where tens of thousands of women, men and children marched chanting “Dump Trump.”The human tide flooding Washington appeared to dwarf the throngs of Trump supporters in red “Make America Great Again!” caps who had cheered his swearing-in.The knitted “pink pussyhats” they wore were an allusion to Trump’s videotaped boasts of being able to grab women’s genitals with impunity.Trump’s defeated rival Hillary Clinton tweeted her support to the protesters, while former secretary of state John Kerry was spotted in the crowd — a day after leaving office — with his dog on a pink leash.Celebrities Scarlett Johansson and Michael Moore were among the speakers, and pop diva Madonna made an impromptu appearance on the Washington protest stage to deliver an expletive-laden indictment of the president.“Welcome to the revolution of love,” the 58-year-old intoned, wearing her own black pussyhat. “To the rebellion. To our refusal as women to accept this new age of tyranny.”-‘1,000 percent’-A day after assuming the world’s most powerful office, the 70-year-old Trump attended a prayer service and visited the headquarters of the CIA, an agency he feuded with bitterly in recent weeks.“I am with you 1,000 percent,” Trump said in a short address to CIA staff — which he also used to deliver an assault on the media for their reporting on crowd sizes for his swearing-in, which by most estimates were markedly lower than for Barack Obama’s 2009 inauguration.His press secretary, at his first White House briefing, doubled down with a bitter broadside against the media, claiming despite photographic evidence to the contrary that “this was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period!”Trump’s inaugural speech on Friday set the tone for his presidency: proudly populist, fiercely nationalist and determined to break with the legacy of his Democratic predecessor.His first act in office — signing an executive order aimed at freezing Obama’s signature health care law — was a potent gesture in that direction, with more such actions expected to follow.But if Friday was Trump’s day — though marred by sporadic outbreaks of vandalism and more than 200 arrests — Saturday belonged to demonstrators, fired up by fresh memories of the sex assault allegations that tainted his campaign.The Women’s March began with a simple Facebook post from Hawaii grandmother and retired lawyer Teresa Shook to about 40 friends — but word traveled quickly and the event took on a life of its own.
Ministers to debate bill granting PM immunity from prosecution-Legislation designed to protect a sitting premier proposed by Likud MK amid Netanyahu corruption investigations-By Tamar Pileggi January 22, 2017, 12:16 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday will debate a bill that would give Israel’s sitting prime minister immunity from certain types of police investigations and criminal prosecution.A ministerial vote on the bill, proposed by Likud MK David Amsalem after the announcement that police have launched criminal investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would be delayed to allow coalition partners to coordinate positions on the legislation, The Marker business daily reported on Sunday.Amsalem’s bill would amend Israel’s Basic Law to prohibit police from investigating an incumbent premier for fraud, bribery and breach of trust. It would not offer protection from security, sex, violence or drug-related offenses.The legislation would allow sitting prime ministers, who in Israel have no term limit, to serve out the remainder of their tenure before police could launch open an investigation into suspected wrongdoing.In announcing his bill earlier this month, Amsalem claimed media “eagerness” surrounding the latest Netanyahu probe was threatening Israel’s democratic foundations.He linked the current corruption investigation to efforts to oust the prime minister and his right-wing government from power. Still, the bill would not affect the current probes against Netanyahu.The prime minister is being investigated in two separate cases. The first pertains to recordings of conversations between him and Israeli media mogul Arnon “Noni” Mozes in which the pair allegedly negotiated an illicit quid pro quo.The second investigation into Netanyahu is probing claims that he and his family received hundreds of thousands of shekels’ worth of luxury gifts from businessmen, including Israeli Hollywood film producer Arnon Milchan.Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and repeatedly stressed that nothing will come of the criminal investigations.Justice Minister Ayalet Shaked from the Jewish Home party has expressed cautious support for Amsalem’s legislation, saying it could allow the prime minister to “handle state affairs appropriately.”Both Shaked and Amsalem pointed to similar immunity laws that exist in France as precedent for the bill.France’s president, who has a five-year term limit, cannot be prosecuted for most offenses aside from high treason, though French lawmakers recently moved to ease impeachment rules as a way of allowing criminal prosecutions to move forward.Even if Amsalem’s bill were to pass all three Knesset readings and become law, it would not be applicable retroactively, and wouldn’t offer Netanyahu protection from the current police investigations.Earlier this year, Amsalem floated another version of his bill that offered the premier immunity for “minor transgressions” that generally hold a sentence of under six months in prison.That proposal was met with widespread criticism, and a statement from the Likud party at the time said the legislation “was not coordinated with the prime minister and was made without his knowledge.”Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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