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
Iran denies it delivered missiles to Yemen rebels-Foreign minister says comments by Kerry ‘completely baseless,’ insists military power ‘merely for defense purposes’-By AFP August 26, 2016, 11:43 am-the times of israel
Iran on Friday denied US accusations it has delivered missiles to Yemeni rebels, retorting it was US support for a Saudi-led coalition backing the government that had prolonged the conflict.Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the comments by Secretary of State John Kerry on a visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday were “completely baseless.”“Iran has repeatedly said that Iranian military power will never be a threat to any country and is merely for defense purposes,” Zarif said in a statement on the ministry’s website.“The US administration with such remarks is itself becoming a partner in the child killings and war crimes committed by the Saudi regime against the innocent people of Yemen.“Undoubtedly, Mr. Kerry knows better than others that the Saudi government in the past year and half has consistently and seriously blocked all efforts made to establish a ceasefire in Yemen.”The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March last year after the rebels and their allies overran most of the country, prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.The UN brokered three months of peace talks in Kuwait but they were suspended earlier this month when the government reacted angrily to the rebels’ appointment of a new ruling council in Sanaa.Kerry announced a fresh peace initiative on Thursday aimed at forming a unity government but hit out at Iran for what he said was its support for the Shiite rebels.“The threat potentially posed by the shipment of missiles and other sophisticated weapons into Yemen from Iran extends well beyond Yemen and is not a threat just to Saudi Arabia and… the region,” he told reporters.
Palestinian who ran at troops shot dead near West Bank settlement-Soldiers fire on Palestinian who refused to stop after running at guard post near Silwad; no soldiers injured in incident-By Judah Ari Gross and Ilan Ben Zion August 26, 2016, 1:39 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
A Palestinian man was shot dead by IDF troops Friday morning when he ran toward a guard post near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah.Initial reports said that the man opened fire on the post and Israeli troops returned fire, but this was later proved to be incorrect. The IDF said it appeared that the suspect was not armed when he approached the guard post near the adjacent Palestinian village of Silwad. He did not heed the soldiers’ repeated orders to halt and was shot, Army Radio reported.According to the IDF, troops stationed outside Silwad identified a suspect running toward them and opened fire, killing him. The details of the case are being investigated, an army spokesperson said.Palestinian media reported that the man, identified as 38-year-old Ziad Zakaria Hamed, died after suffering a critical gunshot wound. #صور | من مكان إصابة شاب فلسطيني برصاص الاحتلال على المدخل الغربي لبلدة سلواد شرق #رام_الله. pic.twitter.com/yjL7fzCrc3-— Pal.Info.Center (@PalinfoAr) August 26, 2016-No Israeli soldiers were injured.
In Paris, Jewish students find public schools a no-go zone-With pervasive anti-Semitism from teachers and pupils, the last 15 years has seen a drastic shift towards private Jewish education-By Cnaan Liphshiz August 25, 2016, 5:12 am-the times of israel
PARIS (JTA) — Twenty-five years after he graduated from a public high school in the French capital, Stephane Tayar recalls favorably his time in one of the world’s most thorough education systems.As for many other French Jews his age, the state-subsidized upbringing has worked out well for Tayar, a 43-year-old communications and computers specialist. Eloquent but down to earth, he seems as comfortable discussing the complexities of French society as he is adept at fighting — curses, threats and all — for his motorcycle’s place in the brutal traffic here.“You learn to get along with all kinds of people — Muslims, Christians, poor, rich,” Tayar said in recalling his school years. “You debate, you study, you get into fistfights. It’s a pretty rounded education.”But when the time came for Tayar and his wife to enroll their own boy and girl, the couple opted for Jewish institutions — part of a network of dozens of private establishments with state recognition, hefty tuition and student bodies that are made up almost exclusively of Jews.“Enrolling a Jewish kid into a public school was normal when I was growing up,” Tayar said in a recent interview as he waited with two helmets in hand to pick up his youngest from her Jewish elementary school in eastern Paris. “Nowadays forget it; no longer realistically possible. Anti-Semitic bullying means it would be too damaging for any Jewish kid you put there.” ‘Enrolling a Jewish kid into a public school was normal when I was growing up. Nowadays, forget it’This common impression and growing religiosity among Jews in France are responsible for the departure from public schools of tens of thousands of young French and Belgian Jews, who at a time of unprecedented sectarian tensions in their countries are being brought up in a far more insular fashion than previous generations.Whereas 30 years ago the majority of French Jews enrolled their children in public schools, now only a third of them do so. The remaining two-thirds are divided equally between Jewish schools and private schools that are not Jewish, including Catholic and Protestant institutions, according to Francis Kalifat, the newly elected president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities.The change has been especially dramatic in the Paris area, which is home to some 350,000 Jews, or an estimated 65 percent of French Jewry.“In the Paris region, there are virtually no more Jewish pupils attending public schools,” said Kalifat, attributing their absence to “a bad atmosphere of harassment, insults and assaults” against Jews because of their ethnicity, and to the simultaneous growth of the Jewish education system.‘In the Paris region, there are virtually no more Jewish pupils attending public schools’-Whereas most anti-Semitic incidents feature taunts and insults that often are not even reported to authorities, some cases involve death threats and armed assaults. In one incident from 2013, several students reportedly cornered a Jewish classmate as he was leaving their public school in western Paris. One allegedly called him a “dirty Jew” and threatened to stab the boy with a knife. A passer-by intervened and rescued the Jewish child.The increase in schoolyard anti-Semitism in France, first noted in an internal Education Ministry report in 2004, coincided with an increase in anti-Semitic incidents overall. Prior to 2000, only a few dozen incidents were recorded annually in France. Since then, however, hundreds have been reported annually. Many attacks — and a majority of violent ones — are committed by people with a Muslim background, who target Jews as such or as payback for Israel’s actions in what is known as the “new anti-Semitism.”In 2012, payback for Israel’s actions in Gaza was the stated motivation of a jihadist who killed three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Since then, Jewish institutions across Europe and French Jewish schools especially have been protected by armed guards — most often soldiers toting automatic rifles.In neighboring Belgium, the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism has documented multiple incidents that it said were rapidly making Belgian public schools “Jew-free.” Some blamed Belgian schools for being more reluctant than their French counterparts to punish pupils for anti-Semitic behavior.In Brussels, classmates allegedly sprayed a Jewish pupil with deodorant cans in the shower to simulate a gas chamber-The latest incident there involved a 12-year-old boy at a public school outside Brussels. Classmates allegedly sprayed him with deodorant cans in the shower to simulate a gas chamber. The boy’s mother said it was an elaborate prank that also caused him burns from the deodorant nozzles.In April, another Jewish mother said a public school in the affluent Brussels district of Uccle was deliberately ignoring systematic anti-Semitic abuse of her son, Samuel, in order to hide it. She enrolled him specifically at a non-Jewish school because she did not want him to be raised parochially, the mother said, but she had to transfer him to a Jewish school due to the abuse.In addition to charting anti-Semitism among students, watchdogs in France and Belgium are seeing for the first time in decades a growing number of incidents involving teachers — as victims and perpetrators.Last month, the Education Ministry in France began probing a high school teacher who shared with her students anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Facebook — including ones about the clout of the Jewish lobby in the United States and another about French President Francois Hollande’s Jewish roots (he has none).In 2012, a teacher from a suburb of Lyon said she was forced to resign after her bosses learned that she had suffered anti-Semitic abuse by students. Days later, two teenagers were arrested near Marseilles on suspicion of setting off an explosion near a teacher who had reported receiving anti-Semitic threats at school.The atmosphere is pushing many French Jewish parents to leave for Israel, which is seeing record levels of immigration from France. Since 2012, 20,000 Jews have made the move. Their absence is already being felt in Jewish schools and beyond, said Kalifat, because “the people who are leaving are exactly the people who are involved in the Jewish community.”Some of those who left were responsible for developing France’s Jewish education system long before anti-Semitism became a daily reality for French Jews, said Kalifat. More than 30 years ago he enrolled his own two children in a Jewish school “not because of anti-Semitism, which was not a problem back then, but simply to give them a more Jewish education,” he said.Jewish immigrants from North Africa to France had a major role in the growth of Jewish schools from a handful in the 1950s and ’60s to the formation of Jewish education networks with dozens of institutions, said Kalifat — himself an Algeria-born Jew and the first North African Sephardi to be elected CRIF president.Arriving in a country where a quarter of the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, the Jewish newcomers from former colonies of France were more traditional and religious than many French-born Jews.‘[North African Jews] developed all sectors of Jewish life, but Jewish schools more than anything’“They developed all sectors of Jewish life, but Jewish schools more than anything,” Kalifat said.The effort has paid off in several ways. Last year, Jewish schools topped two French media rankings of the country’s approximately 4,300 high schools. One was a Chabad institution; the other was part of the more liberal Alliance network.Some French Jews, including Yeshaya Dalsace, a Conservative rabbi from Paris, say the rise of Orthodox religious schools and other institutions is part of a trend toward insularity that comes at the expense of openness at a time when Jews should be more engaged in French society than ever.But to Tayar, the growth of Jewish schools amid anti-Semitism is a much-needed silver lining.“That parents like me effectively can’t send their children to public schools is tragic,” he said. “The only positive aspect I can see here is that anti-Semitic hatred drives us to make the financial sacrifice that will raise a generation that has much more Jewish culture and knowledge than our own.”
Water shortages hit West Bank Palestinians, provoking war of words-[Reuters]-By Sabreen Taha-August 23, 2016-YAHOONEWS
HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - At the peak of a searing summer, Palestinians living in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank are suffering from severe water shortages, prompting a war of words between Palestinian and Israeli officials over who is responsible.The Palestinians say Israel is preventing them from accessing adequate water at an affordable price, and point out that nearby Israeli settlements have plentiful water supplies. Israel says the Palestinians have been allocated double the amount they were due under an interim 1995 agreement, and have refused to discuss solutions to the current problem.For Palestinian Nidal Younis, the head of the Masafer Yatta village council near Hebron, in the south of the West Bank, getting hold of water has become prohibitively expensive."The cost of a cubic meter for residents is 12 times higher than the normal price," he said, shaking his head. "When water is available, it normally costs four shekels (about $1) per cubic meter, but now it costs 50 shekels."Israeli settlements are scattered on hillsides all around Masafer Yatta, a low-stone village on dry, rocky land. The settlements, with gardens and greenery, receive water from the Israeli utility provider via dedicated pipelines.Younis said there was water in the ground near his village, home to around 1,600 people and many animals. But he said Israeli authorities prevented villagers from accessing the water by denying them permits to dig. Israel says unregulated digging of wells would do severe damage to the water table.The villagers have approached the Palestinian Water Authority, which said it had made appeals to the Israelis, but the requests were apparently unanswered.Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a branch of the military that administers Palestinian civil issues, said Israel provides 64 million cubic meters of water to the Palestinians annually, even though under the 1995 Oslo accords it is only obliged to provide 30 million.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the Palestinians had consistently refused to meet to discuss water issues or work to resolve the long-standing problem."The Palestinian allegations... are simply a lie," he said. "Under the Oslo accords we agreed to establish together a joint working committee on water. Unfortunately, the Palestinian side has refused systematically to participate."He added that the water needs in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a state together with East Jerusalem and Gaza, are greater than the infrastructure can handle.Mazen Ghuneim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, said the Palestinians had halted water negotiations with Israel five years ago because Israel had not frozen settlement building.-RURAL SHORTAGES-The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which is working with the Palestinian Authority and Italian aid agency GVC to provide water to impoverished areas, has warned that up to 35,000 Palestinians are at risk because of the shortages.Gregor von Medeazza, the head of UNICEF's water program, said Israel had prevented villagers from building water-retention facilities and that 33 such structures had been demolished this year because they were built without permits.Palestinians living furthest from urban areas have been the hardest hit, he said, often having to pay large sums to get private companies to truck water to their villages.Some Israeli settlers have grown concerned about the lack of water available for Palestinians."Israel has not... made an effort to plan a long-term program for the next 10, 20, 30 years that will take into consideration population growth," said Yochai Damari, head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council, a settlement body."Thank God Israel doesn't have a shortage of water -- there is desalinated water, there is water that is located elsewhere that needs to be drilled and extracted using pipelines and infrastructure that will provide water to the Arab community, and of course to the Jewish community."(Writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Luke Baker and Dominic Evans)
Israel army nets arms in West Bank factory raids-[AFP]-August 23, 2016-YAHOONEWS
Jerusalem (AFP) - The Israeli army carried out a series of raids on weapons manufacturers in the occupied West Bank overnight in the largest such operation in years, the army said Tuesday.Soldiers raided seven sites in the Palestinian territory, finding a number of weapons manufacturing machines, a senior army official said without giving his name.An army video posted online showed a large number of confiscated rifles and ammunition."In six of the seven warehouses we found advanced weapons technology," the official said."This is not someone who has a weapon in their garage, these are people that make a living from it."By shutting down those factories, we believe that the price of weapons will go up and (fewer) people will be able to get their hands on weapons."It was the largest such operation in several years, he said, with two alleged weapons dealers arrested.Since the beginning of 2016, the Israeli forces have closed down 29 weapon manufacturing workshops in the West Bank, according to police.Palestinians living in the West Bank are not allowed to have guns unless part of the security services.The military official estimated there were still thousands of guns in the Palestinian territory.A wave of violence since October has killed 220 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP tally.Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say, with the majority of them from the West Bank.Separately the United Nations' body for Palestinian refugees said on Monday it was "gravely concerned" about the killing of a Palestinian refugee on August 16 during an Israeli military incursion into the Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron."A reportedly unarmed 19-year old Palestine refugee from Fawwar camp was killed after being shot in the chest by live ammunition rounds reportedly fired by an Israeli sniper stationed approximately 100 meters away," UNRWA said.
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
Iran denies it delivered missiles to Yemen rebels-Foreign minister says comments by Kerry ‘completely baseless,’ insists military power ‘merely for defense purposes’-By AFP August 26, 2016, 11:43 am-the times of israel
Iran on Friday denied US accusations it has delivered missiles to Yemeni rebels, retorting it was US support for a Saudi-led coalition backing the government that had prolonged the conflict.Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the comments by Secretary of State John Kerry on a visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday were “completely baseless.”“Iran has repeatedly said that Iranian military power will never be a threat to any country and is merely for defense purposes,” Zarif said in a statement on the ministry’s website.“The US administration with such remarks is itself becoming a partner in the child killings and war crimes committed by the Saudi regime against the innocent people of Yemen.“Undoubtedly, Mr. Kerry knows better than others that the Saudi government in the past year and half has consistently and seriously blocked all efforts made to establish a ceasefire in Yemen.”The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in March last year after the rebels and their allies overran most of the country, prompting President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi to flee into exile.The UN brokered three months of peace talks in Kuwait but they were suspended earlier this month when the government reacted angrily to the rebels’ appointment of a new ruling council in Sanaa.Kerry announced a fresh peace initiative on Thursday aimed at forming a unity government but hit out at Iran for what he said was its support for the Shiite rebels.“The threat potentially posed by the shipment of missiles and other sophisticated weapons into Yemen from Iran extends well beyond Yemen and is not a threat just to Saudi Arabia and… the region,” he told reporters.
Palestinian who ran at troops shot dead near West Bank settlement-Soldiers fire on Palestinian who refused to stop after running at guard post near Silwad; no soldiers injured in incident-By Judah Ari Gross and Ilan Ben Zion August 26, 2016, 1:39 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
A Palestinian man was shot dead by IDF troops Friday morning when he ran toward a guard post near the West Bank settlement of Ofra, north of Ramallah.Initial reports said that the man opened fire on the post and Israeli troops returned fire, but this was later proved to be incorrect. The IDF said it appeared that the suspect was not armed when he approached the guard post near the adjacent Palestinian village of Silwad. He did not heed the soldiers’ repeated orders to halt and was shot, Army Radio reported.According to the IDF, troops stationed outside Silwad identified a suspect running toward them and opened fire, killing him. The details of the case are being investigated, an army spokesperson said.Palestinian media reported that the man, identified as 38-year-old Ziad Zakaria Hamed, died after suffering a critical gunshot wound. #صور | من مكان إصابة شاب فلسطيني برصاص الاحتلال على المدخل الغربي لبلدة سلواد شرق #رام_الله. pic.twitter.com/yjL7fzCrc3-— Pal.Info.Center (@PalinfoAr) August 26, 2016-No Israeli soldiers were injured.
In Paris, Jewish students find public schools a no-go zone-With pervasive anti-Semitism from teachers and pupils, the last 15 years has seen a drastic shift towards private Jewish education-By Cnaan Liphshiz August 25, 2016, 5:12 am-the times of israel
PARIS (JTA) — Twenty-five years after he graduated from a public high school in the French capital, Stephane Tayar recalls favorably his time in one of the world’s most thorough education systems.As for many other French Jews his age, the state-subsidized upbringing has worked out well for Tayar, a 43-year-old communications and computers specialist. Eloquent but down to earth, he seems as comfortable discussing the complexities of French society as he is adept at fighting — curses, threats and all — for his motorcycle’s place in the brutal traffic here.“You learn to get along with all kinds of people — Muslims, Christians, poor, rich,” Tayar said in recalling his school years. “You debate, you study, you get into fistfights. It’s a pretty rounded education.”But when the time came for Tayar and his wife to enroll their own boy and girl, the couple opted for Jewish institutions — part of a network of dozens of private establishments with state recognition, hefty tuition and student bodies that are made up almost exclusively of Jews.“Enrolling a Jewish kid into a public school was normal when I was growing up,” Tayar said in a recent interview as he waited with two helmets in hand to pick up his youngest from her Jewish elementary school in eastern Paris. “Nowadays forget it; no longer realistically possible. Anti-Semitic bullying means it would be too damaging for any Jewish kid you put there.” ‘Enrolling a Jewish kid into a public school was normal when I was growing up. Nowadays, forget it’This common impression and growing religiosity among Jews in France are responsible for the departure from public schools of tens of thousands of young French and Belgian Jews, who at a time of unprecedented sectarian tensions in their countries are being brought up in a far more insular fashion than previous generations.Whereas 30 years ago the majority of French Jews enrolled their children in public schools, now only a third of them do so. The remaining two-thirds are divided equally between Jewish schools and private schools that are not Jewish, including Catholic and Protestant institutions, according to Francis Kalifat, the newly elected president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities.The change has been especially dramatic in the Paris area, which is home to some 350,000 Jews, or an estimated 65 percent of French Jewry.“In the Paris region, there are virtually no more Jewish pupils attending public schools,” said Kalifat, attributing their absence to “a bad atmosphere of harassment, insults and assaults” against Jews because of their ethnicity, and to the simultaneous growth of the Jewish education system.‘In the Paris region, there are virtually no more Jewish pupils attending public schools’-Whereas most anti-Semitic incidents feature taunts and insults that often are not even reported to authorities, some cases involve death threats and armed assaults. In one incident from 2013, several students reportedly cornered a Jewish classmate as he was leaving their public school in western Paris. One allegedly called him a “dirty Jew” and threatened to stab the boy with a knife. A passer-by intervened and rescued the Jewish child.The increase in schoolyard anti-Semitism in France, first noted in an internal Education Ministry report in 2004, coincided with an increase in anti-Semitic incidents overall. Prior to 2000, only a few dozen incidents were recorded annually in France. Since then, however, hundreds have been reported annually. Many attacks — and a majority of violent ones — are committed by people with a Muslim background, who target Jews as such or as payback for Israel’s actions in what is known as the “new anti-Semitism.”In 2012, payback for Israel’s actions in Gaza was the stated motivation of a jihadist who killed three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse. Since then, Jewish institutions across Europe and French Jewish schools especially have been protected by armed guards — most often soldiers toting automatic rifles.In neighboring Belgium, the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism has documented multiple incidents that it said were rapidly making Belgian public schools “Jew-free.” Some blamed Belgian schools for being more reluctant than their French counterparts to punish pupils for anti-Semitic behavior.In Brussels, classmates allegedly sprayed a Jewish pupil with deodorant cans in the shower to simulate a gas chamber-The latest incident there involved a 12-year-old boy at a public school outside Brussels. Classmates allegedly sprayed him with deodorant cans in the shower to simulate a gas chamber. The boy’s mother said it was an elaborate prank that also caused him burns from the deodorant nozzles.In April, another Jewish mother said a public school in the affluent Brussels district of Uccle was deliberately ignoring systematic anti-Semitic abuse of her son, Samuel, in order to hide it. She enrolled him specifically at a non-Jewish school because she did not want him to be raised parochially, the mother said, but she had to transfer him to a Jewish school due to the abuse.In addition to charting anti-Semitism among students, watchdogs in France and Belgium are seeing for the first time in decades a growing number of incidents involving teachers — as victims and perpetrators.Last month, the Education Ministry in France began probing a high school teacher who shared with her students anti-Semitic conspiracy theories on Facebook — including ones about the clout of the Jewish lobby in the United States and another about French President Francois Hollande’s Jewish roots (he has none).In 2012, a teacher from a suburb of Lyon said she was forced to resign after her bosses learned that she had suffered anti-Semitic abuse by students. Days later, two teenagers were arrested near Marseilles on suspicion of setting off an explosion near a teacher who had reported receiving anti-Semitic threats at school.The atmosphere is pushing many French Jewish parents to leave for Israel, which is seeing record levels of immigration from France. Since 2012, 20,000 Jews have made the move. Their absence is already being felt in Jewish schools and beyond, said Kalifat, because “the people who are leaving are exactly the people who are involved in the Jewish community.”Some of those who left were responsible for developing France’s Jewish education system long before anti-Semitism became a daily reality for French Jews, said Kalifat. More than 30 years ago he enrolled his own two children in a Jewish school “not because of anti-Semitism, which was not a problem back then, but simply to give them a more Jewish education,” he said.Jewish immigrants from North Africa to France had a major role in the growth of Jewish schools from a handful in the 1950s and ’60s to the formation of Jewish education networks with dozens of institutions, said Kalifat — himself an Algeria-born Jew and the first North African Sephardi to be elected CRIF president.Arriving in a country where a quarter of the Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, the Jewish newcomers from former colonies of France were more traditional and religious than many French-born Jews.‘[North African Jews] developed all sectors of Jewish life, but Jewish schools more than anything’“They developed all sectors of Jewish life, but Jewish schools more than anything,” Kalifat said.The effort has paid off in several ways. Last year, Jewish schools topped two French media rankings of the country’s approximately 4,300 high schools. One was a Chabad institution; the other was part of the more liberal Alliance network.Some French Jews, including Yeshaya Dalsace, a Conservative rabbi from Paris, say the rise of Orthodox religious schools and other institutions is part of a trend toward insularity that comes at the expense of openness at a time when Jews should be more engaged in French society than ever.But to Tayar, the growth of Jewish schools amid anti-Semitism is a much-needed silver lining.“That parents like me effectively can’t send their children to public schools is tragic,” he said. “The only positive aspect I can see here is that anti-Semitic hatred drives us to make the financial sacrifice that will raise a generation that has much more Jewish culture and knowledge than our own.”
Water shortages hit West Bank Palestinians, provoking war of words-[Reuters]-By Sabreen Taha-August 23, 2016-YAHOONEWS
HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - At the peak of a searing summer, Palestinians living in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank are suffering from severe water shortages, prompting a war of words between Palestinian and Israeli officials over who is responsible.The Palestinians say Israel is preventing them from accessing adequate water at an affordable price, and point out that nearby Israeli settlements have plentiful water supplies. Israel says the Palestinians have been allocated double the amount they were due under an interim 1995 agreement, and have refused to discuss solutions to the current problem.For Palestinian Nidal Younis, the head of the Masafer Yatta village council near Hebron, in the south of the West Bank, getting hold of water has become prohibitively expensive."The cost of a cubic meter for residents is 12 times higher than the normal price," he said, shaking his head. "When water is available, it normally costs four shekels (about $1) per cubic meter, but now it costs 50 shekels."Israeli settlements are scattered on hillsides all around Masafer Yatta, a low-stone village on dry, rocky land. The settlements, with gardens and greenery, receive water from the Israeli utility provider via dedicated pipelines.Younis said there was water in the ground near his village, home to around 1,600 people and many animals. But he said Israeli authorities prevented villagers from accessing the water by denying them permits to dig. Israel says unregulated digging of wells would do severe damage to the water table.The villagers have approached the Palestinian Water Authority, which said it had made appeals to the Israelis, but the requests were apparently unanswered.Israel's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, a branch of the military that administers Palestinian civil issues, said Israel provides 64 million cubic meters of water to the Palestinians annually, even though under the 1995 Oslo accords it is only obliged to provide 30 million.Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the Palestinians had consistently refused to meet to discuss water issues or work to resolve the long-standing problem."The Palestinian allegations... are simply a lie," he said. "Under the Oslo accords we agreed to establish together a joint working committee on water. Unfortunately, the Palestinian side has refused systematically to participate."He added that the water needs in the West Bank, which the Palestinians want for a state together with East Jerusalem and Gaza, are greater than the infrastructure can handle.Mazen Ghuneim, head of the Palestinian Water Authority, said the Palestinians had halted water negotiations with Israel five years ago because Israel had not frozen settlement building.-RURAL SHORTAGES-The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), which is working with the Palestinian Authority and Italian aid agency GVC to provide water to impoverished areas, has warned that up to 35,000 Palestinians are at risk because of the shortages.Gregor von Medeazza, the head of UNICEF's water program, said Israel had prevented villagers from building water-retention facilities and that 33 such structures had been demolished this year because they were built without permits.Palestinians living furthest from urban areas have been the hardest hit, he said, often having to pay large sums to get private companies to truck water to their villages.Some Israeli settlers have grown concerned about the lack of water available for Palestinians."Israel has not... made an effort to plan a long-term program for the next 10, 20, 30 years that will take into consideration population growth," said Yochai Damari, head of the Mount Hebron Regional Council, a settlement body."Thank God Israel doesn't have a shortage of water -- there is desalinated water, there is water that is located elsewhere that needs to be drilled and extracted using pipelines and infrastructure that will provide water to the Arab community, and of course to the Jewish community."(Writing by Ori Lewis; editing by Luke Baker and Dominic Evans)
Israel army nets arms in West Bank factory raids-[AFP]-August 23, 2016-YAHOONEWS
Jerusalem (AFP) - The Israeli army carried out a series of raids on weapons manufacturers in the occupied West Bank overnight in the largest such operation in years, the army said Tuesday.Soldiers raided seven sites in the Palestinian territory, finding a number of weapons manufacturing machines, a senior army official said without giving his name.An army video posted online showed a large number of confiscated rifles and ammunition."In six of the seven warehouses we found advanced weapons technology," the official said."This is not someone who has a weapon in their garage, these are people that make a living from it."By shutting down those factories, we believe that the price of weapons will go up and (fewer) people will be able to get their hands on weapons."It was the largest such operation in several years, he said, with two alleged weapons dealers arrested.Since the beginning of 2016, the Israeli forces have closed down 29 weapon manufacturing workshops in the West Bank, according to police.Palestinians living in the West Bank are not allowed to have guns unless part of the security services.The military official estimated there were still thousands of guns in the Palestinian territory.A wave of violence since October has killed 220 Palestinians, 34 Israelis, two Americans, an Eritrean and a Sudanese, according to an AFP tally.Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks, Israeli authorities say, with the majority of them from the West Bank.Separately the United Nations' body for Palestinian refugees said on Monday it was "gravely concerned" about the killing of a Palestinian refugee on August 16 during an Israeli military incursion into the Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron."A reportedly unarmed 19-year old Palestine refugee from Fawwar camp was killed after being shot in the chest by live ammunition rounds reportedly fired by an Israeli sniper stationed approximately 100 meters away," UNRWA said.
