7 YEAR PEACE TREATY SIGNING: November 2016

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

JIM MERRIAMS HIT PIECE ON DONALD TRUMP AND HIS FOLLOWERS-TRUMPS BAT DUNG ANTICS FRIGHTENING SNOWBIRDS.

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)

BREAKING NEWS FOR THE GODLESS-ISRAEL SUPPORTER TRUMP IS THE 45TH PRESIDENT OF AMERICA BY A LANDSLIDE OF 306 - 232 STATE TOTAL.

BACK IN 2005 OR 2006 WHEN I LIVED IN OWEN SOUND. I WOULD GO TO THE HOMELESS SHELTER TO HAVE A COFFEE AND TALK BIBLE PROPHECY WITH A FEW OF THE PEOPLE THERE. SO ONE DAY JIM MERRIAM WAS WRITING A STORY ABOUT THE HOMELESS SHELTER. I HAPPEN TO BE READING PROPHECY BOOKS THAT DAY THERE WHILE DRINKING MY COFFEE. MERRIAM DECIDED TO INTERVIEW ME ABOUT MY BELIEFS IN PROPHECY. THEN THE NEXT DAY I LOOKED IN THE OWEN SOUND SUN TIMES. AND IT WAS A HIT PIECE OF HOW I SAID THE WORLD WOULD END. WHICH I NEVER SAID TO HIM IN THE INTERVIEW ONE BIT. AND DO NOT BELIEVE. BUT THIS IS HOW THE MEDIA TAKES YOUR WORDS OUTTA CONTEXT. I CAN NOT FIND THE STORY ON THE INTERNET. BUT HERES A TYPICAL LIBERAL-DEMOCRAT-PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN HATER JIM MERRIAM WHO NOW WRITES FOR THE HANOVER POST OPINION PAGE CURRENTLY. SO WE CAN SEE WHY HE PUT OUT A HIT PIECE HERE ON DONALD TRUMP. HES A TYPICAL MEDIA CHRISTIAN-JEW HATER. YOU CAN GUARENTEE JIM MERRIAM IS A TYPICAL LIBERAL-DEMOCRAT-PROGRESSIVE HITLER 2ND CLINTON SUPPORTER OF-BABY MURDERS OF ABORTION-SODOMITE RAINBOW GROUPERS GAYS AND ISLAMIC SEX FOR MURDER DEATH CULT MUSLIM SUCK UPS.

Trump's bat-poop antics frightening snowbirds-By Jim Merriam, Toronto Sun-Monday, October 17, 2016 6:28:13 EDT PM

It's obvious that Donald Trump has finally gone round the bend.Although the so-called Republican is unlikely to get elected to the U.S. presidency next month, his crazy antics should be of concern to all Canadians.To use a rural phrase laundered for family newspapers, his recent actions are nothing short of bat-poop crazy.The concern among Canadians is becoming more pronounced, particularly for the snowbirds who spend at least part of each winter in the sunny south.The fact that Trump's scorched earth approach to the final few weeks of the campaign won't get him anywhere near the White House is a relief for people with even a smidgen of intelligence.However, the aforementioned snowbirds and others are concerned what kind of a United States will greet them even when Trump is defeated.Since the Donald has shown himself to be the king of conspiracy theorists, many of his homies are from the ranks of loonies and losers.You know -- the ones who believe the moon landing was actually filmed on a Hollywood back lot.Also, they know folks who can't get a job because of immigrants. They ignore the fact the new Americans are more likely to bother to show up on time.Since thousands of Trumpsters are beyond the reach of reason, snowbirds are afraid for their safety when the Donald falls short.The fact Trump has nobody to blame but himself matters not a whit. No one who has witnessed his narcissistic behaviour throughout this campaign can seriously believe he will accept any personal responsibility.Trump already is suggesting a Clinton/news media/establishment conspiracy to stop him and the interests of John Q. Public that he pretends to represent.As if the egos in any of the three alleged anti-Trump plotters could ever reach agreement on where to eat lunch, let alone a takeover of the U.S. election.Because of this conspiracy nonsense, Trump will not go quietly into the night and there's little reason to suspect his supporters will disappear either.Getting back to Canadians, for the most part even the ultra conservatives in rural Ontario have turned their backs on Trump. Certainly he has a few supporters, mostly among a handful of hate-filled bigots who are shaking in their boots over refugees and other boogeymen that apparently are hiding behind every second tree from Toronto to Timmins.They continue to support a man whose actions show lack of character, moral fibre, judgment or intelligence. Even worse, are the candidate's neo-fascism and demagoguery.Certainly Hillary Clinton is far from perfect. But every time she is attacked by Trump she appears to grow in both stature and poise, thus attracting more supporters by the day.The most recent Trump tirades about Bill Clinton's sordid sexual past are new to modern presidential campaigns.If it weren't so pathetic it would be funny to watch Trump insist every Clinton accuser is telling the truth, while every Trump accuser is a liar and a media pawn.This issue of sexual impropriety is the juncture at which Trump's insane approach to the campaign became glaringly clear. Anyone with a modicum of sense would know that skeletons in his own closet should preclude him from accusing others.However, nothing as sensible as that will ever stop the Donald. At heart, he is a bully and bullies only experience peace when they are cruel. Their blood pressure drops the moment they beat the kid on the playground.Snowbirds have every reason to be concerned. As should we all.jmerriam@bmts.com

BEGLEY-IS THE END OF THE WORLD NOW-BEGLEY HES A FALSE DECIEVER LIAR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZnpXaKL12I&index=3&list=UU4SH8rh0OjYV3zwqnIfqNbA
Holy Word-57 minutes ago-OCT 27,16-Yes I am serious. You remind me of a barker at what you think is a carnival. May the Lord rebuke you. It is , very well the end, and I'd advise you sir to spend it on your knees rather than this comedy show you are promoting. We can read and watch the news ourselves. I'd love to see Jesus walk in that room with your sign behind you and all your props. Surely You can't believe that ppl are watching this for your wise words. Rather, they are making fun of you and using this as another tool to make Christianity a joke.Well done Paul. don't be the pastor with a whole flock of blood on your hands to account for. Repent

I HAVE GOT TO ADD HERE THAT 2 PETER 3:10-12 AND REVELATION 21:1 ARE AT THE SAME TIME. EXACTLY 1,000 YEARS AFTER JESUS HAS BEEN RULING FROM JERUSALEM ON EARTH. FROM AT THE END OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD.AND JUST AFTER JESUS JUDGES THE LOST. AND THEY ARE CAST INTO THE LAKE OF FIRE. WITH SATAN AND ALL HIS DEMONIC ANGELS FOREVER. NEVER TO BE HEARD FROM AGAIN ON EARTH. AND JESUS RULES ON EARTH FOREVER OVER HIS ISRAELIS AND HIS JUDIAN-CHRISTIAN KINGDOM FOREVER. NEVER TO END ETERNALLY.

THE EARTH (WORLD) NEVER ENDS (AS WORLD ENDERS-CONSPIRACY THEORISTS CLAIME)(THE END OF THE AGE OF GRACE ONLY)(DECIEVERS CLAIME THE END OF THE WORLD-NOT ME)

LUKE 21:08,11,25 - END OF WORLD CROWD CLAIM ASTEROIDS-NIBURU-WILL KILL EVERYBODY ON EARTH.
08- And he (JESUS) said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time (THE END OF THE WORLD) draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
11- And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
25-And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

REVELATION 21:1
1 And I saw a new (kainos-a remodeling) heaven and a new (kainos-a remodeling) earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.(THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE REMODELED-REGENERATED-NOT A TOTALLY NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH-AND WE CHRISTIANS LIVE ON THE REMODELED EARTH FOREVER WITH JESUS-NEVER-ENDING AFTER THE THOUSAND YEAR REIGN)

MATTHEW 19:28-EARTH REMODELED-(REGENERATION) NOT DESTROYED
28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration (kainos-here means a REMODELING-not totally new earth)(neos-is a new total earth) when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
regeneration - forming again (especially with improvements or removal of defects); renewing and reconstituting-re-formation-reconstruction - the activity of constructing something again.

ACT 3:21-EARTH REMODELED-(REGENERATION) NOT DESTROYED
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution (kainos-here means a REMODELING-not totally new earth)(neos-is a new total earth) of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
restitution - A return to or restoration of a previous state or position. from Latin to rebuild, from re- + statuere to set up]-(General Physics) the return of an object or system to its original state.

LUKE 1:32-33
32 He (JESUS) shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:(IN JERUSALEM)
33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob (ISRAEL) for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.(THATS RULING FOREVER FROM JERUSALEM JESUS DOES)

AND SPEAKING OF THE END OF THE WORLD CULT. THEY ALWAYS USE 2 PETER 3 TO EXPLAIN HOW THE WORLD WILL BE ENDING. AND SINCE IT TALKS ABOUT THE HEAVENS. THIS IS WERE THEY DREAM UP EVERY EAR TICKLING CONSPIRACY THEORY ABOUT ASTEROIDS-NIBURU AND EVERY OTHER SPACE OBJECT. HOW THE WORLD WILL END.

2 PETER 3:3-12
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:(THE WORLD NEVER PERISHED-THE PEOPLE ONLY)
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.(THIS TIME BY FIRE-PEOPLE WILL BE KILLED ON EARTH-BUT THE EARTH ITSELF IS NEVER DESTROYED)
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.(THE EARTH WAS CREATED IN 7 DAYS-THE AGE OF GRACE GOES ON 7,000 YEARS)(THEN THE PEOPLE WILL DIE BY FIRE FOR THEIR GOD-JESUS AND ISRAELHATE)
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us–ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.(WERE DO YOU LOOK IN A DICTIONARY TO FIND NUCLEAR ATOMIC WEAPONS)(YOU LOOK UNDER ELEMINTS)(SO IT WILL BE BY NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS THAT THE 4 BILLION PEOPLE OF EARTH WILL BE MOSTLY KILLED OFF IN WARS OF FIRE.)
11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,(NOTICE GOD USES THE WORD DESOLVED HERE)(ATOMIC BOMBS DISOLVE THE BODY OF PEOPLE)
12 Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? (THIS FINAL VERSE SAYS FOR SURE IT WILL BE ATOMIC BOMBS THE 4 BILLION PEOPLE ARE KILLED ON EARTH FROM-ELEMENTS IS THE ATOMIC BOMB GOING OFF WHICH CAUSES FERVENT HEAT AND MELTING. WHICH DISOLVES PEOPLE FROM THE EXPLOSIVE FIRE.

I HAVE GOT TO EXPLAIN 2 PET 3:10-12. BECAUSE I THINK THIS IS TALKING ABOUT THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD AS A WHOLE. THEN AGAIN IN REVELATION 21:1. 4 BILLION ON EARTH DIE FROM NUKES DURING THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD. THEN IN REVELATION 20 AGAIN-ONE THOUSAND YEARS LATER. SATAN AND HIS ARMIES COME AGAINST JESUS AND THE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS IN JERUSALEM AGAIN. AND SATAN AND HIS REBELLION FOLLOWERS ARE CAST IN THE LAKE OF FIRE. AFTER BEING BURNT UP. THEN ALL THE REST OF THE LOST ARE JUDGED AND THROWN IN THE LAKE OF FIRE. THEN THE EARTH IS CLEANSED PURE AGAIN WITH FIRE BY GOD. AND WHILE THE EARTH AND HEAVENS IS BEING REFURBISHED OR CLEANSED BY FIRE. WE CHRISTIANS AND JEWS WILL BE SAFE IN OUR MANSIONS IN THE NEW JERUSALEM. THEN AFTER JESUS REFURBISHES THE HEAVENS AND EARTH BY PURIFYING FIRE. THE CHRISTIANS IN THE NEW JERUSALEM MANSIONS WILL HOVER OVER THE ISRAELIS JERUSALEM ON EARTH WERE JESUS WILL BE RULING FROM FOREVER AFTER THIS REFURBISHED CLEANSING OF EARTH AND HEAVENS BY FIRE FROM GOD. SINCE ALL THE LOST AND SATAN WILL BE THROWN IN THE LAKE OF FIRE BEFORE THIS HAPPENS. THERE WILL BE NO SINNERS TO BURN UP LIKE DURING THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD. SO IT WILL NOT BE NUKES THAT BURNS THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH TO PURIFY AND REFURBISH IT. SO GOD WILL DO THE CLEANSING THIS 2ND TIME AROUND SUPERNATURALLY-I BELIEVE. BUT THE WORLD WILL NOT END. GOD WILL JUST REFURBISH OR CLEANSE IT FROM THE SIN THAT WAS INGRAVED IN IT FOR THE 7,007 PLUS YEARS. BECAUSE WE DO NOT KNOW EXACTLY HOW MANY YEARS OR MONTHS OR DAYS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION WILL START AFTER THE CHRISTIANS GET RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.

ONE MORE THING I HAVE TO EXPLAIN. AT THE END OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD. BEFORE JESUS STARTS HIS THOUSAND YEAR RULE ON EARTH. SATAN IS BOUND AND PUT IN A PIT FOR THE 1,000 YEARS. SO THE SIN WILL NOT BE AS BAD AS IT WOULD BE IF SATAN WAS STILL LOOSED ON EARTH. BUT SINCE HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION THAT LIVED THREW THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD. WILL STILL HAVE HUMAN BODIES. AS WELL AS ALL THE ISRAELIS ON EARTH. PEOPLE WILL STILL BE SINNING. AS THE HUMANS WILL STILL BE BARING CHILDREN DURING JESUS' THOUSAND YEAR RULE ON EARTH. BUT AT THE END OF JESUS' 1,000 YEAR RULE. SATAN WILL BE LOOSED ON EARTH FOR A BRIEF TIME AGAIN. TO TEST ALL THE PEOPLE BORN DURING THE THOUSAND YEARS. TO SEE IF THEY WERE TRUELY SAVED DURING THE 1,000 YEARS.OR WERE THEY JUST PRETEND SAVED SINCE JESUS WAS RULING OVER THE EARTH WITH A ROD OF IRON OR STRICKNESS. BY LOOSING SATAN-THIS WILL SEPARATE THE TRUE SAVED. FROM THE REBELERS. AND MILLIONS LEAD BY SATAN WILL REBEL AGAINST JESUS. AND COME AGAINST JERUSALEM AGAIN. JUST LIKE THEY DID A THOUSAND YEARS EARLIER. AT THE END OF THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD. IN BOTH INSTANCES. THE ONES AGAINST JERUSALEM WILL BE BURNT UP. THE FIRST TIME BY ATOMIC BOMBS. AND THIS SECOND TIME BY GOD SENDING SUPERNATURAL FIRE FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH TO BURN THE HUMAN BODIES UP. WHO CAME AGAINST JERUSALEM AND JESUS' RULING KINGDOM. THIS CROWD AS WELL AS SATAN GO DIRECTLY IN THE LAKE OF FIRE. THEN THE REST OF THE LOST ARE THROWN IN THE LAKE OF FIRE AFTER THEY STAND IN FRONT OF JESUS AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT. THEN JESUS BURNS WITH FIRE. AND REFURBISHES THE HEAVENS AND EARTH WITH FIRE SUPERNATURALLY. AND THEN THE NEW JERUSALEM MANSIONS 1,500 MILES WIDE AND HIGH. COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN. WERE THE CHRISTIANS WILL BE LIVING FOREVER. AND ON EARTH. THE JEWS WILL BE LIVING FOREVER ON EARTH UNDER JESUS' RULE FROM THE 4TH TEMPLE.SINCE JEWS WILL STILL HAVE HUMAN BODIES UNTIL THEY DIE. AND GET THEIR NEVER DYING BODIES LIKE THE CHRISTIANS DID AT THE RAPTURE 1,007 YEARS EARLIER. OR GOD WILL AT THE END OF JESUS' THOUSAND YEAR RULE. JUST CHANGE ALL ISRAELIS BODIES INTO NEVER DYING BODIES. ONLY GOD KNOWS WHAT WILL HAPPEN THAT WAY. BUT EITHER WAY. WHEN THE HEAVENS AND EARTH ARE REFURBISHED AT THE END OF JESUS' THOUSAND YEAR RULE. EVERYBODY LIVING AT THAT TIME WILL HAVE NEVER DYING BODIES. AND OVIOUSLY THE WOMEN WILL STILL BE ABLE TO HAVE CHILDREN WITH THEIR NEVER DYING BODIES. OR THE ONLY PEOPLE ON EARTH WOULD BE THE ONES THAT SURVIVED THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION PERIOD. AND ALL THE ONES BORN DURING THE ONE THOUSAND YEAR MILLENIUM PERIOD. BUT I BELIEVE MYSELF. ONLY THE ISRAELI WOMEN WILL BE HAVING CHILDREN FOR ALL ETERNITY. SINCE ALL THE CHRISTIANS WILL HAVE THEIR NEVER DYING BODIES. BUT THE BIBLE SAYS THE CHRISTIANS WILL NOT BE ABLE TO HAVE CHILDREN.SO IT MUST MEAN ONLY THE ISRAELI WOMEN WILL BE HAVING CHILDREN FOREVER DURING ETERNITY AND JESUS' RULE FOREVER. BUT I AM NOT SURE HOW THAT WILL ALL WORK. ALL I KNOW IS WE CHRISTIANS SAVED WILL BE LIVING IN THE NEW JERUSALEM MANSIONS FOREVER HOVERING OVER THE EARTHLY JERUSALEM. WERE JESUS WILL BE RULING OVER THE ISRAELIS LIVING ON EARTH IN JERUSALEM FOREVER AFTER THAT.

THESE END OF THE WORLD CONSPIRACY THEORISTS. SAY THE EARTH WAS DESTROYED BY WATER THE FIRST TIME. BUT THE WORLD WILL END IN FIRE FROM ASTEROIDS THIS TIME. WELL DO I HAVE BREAKING NEWS AND NOT SENSATIONALIZED SO I GET YOUTUBE HITS. OR TO BEG FOR MONEY BY GETTING PEOPLE TO COME TO MY SITE. WELL THE WORLD NEVER ENDED WHEN THE FLOOD WATERS COVERED THE ENTIRE EARTH. ITS WAS ONLY THE PEOPLE ON THE EARTH THAT WERE KILLED. DUE TO THE SIN ON THE EARTH. THE EARTH SURE NEVER ENDED OR NOAH AND THE ARK AND ALL ON IT WOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED ALSO. GOD GOT RID OF ALL THE PEOPLE ONLY. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WILL HAPPEN AGAIN IN THE FUTURE BY FIRE. THE PEOPLE-4 BILLION OR HALF ON EARTH WILL DIE. BUT THE EARTH WILL STILL BE HERE. IT NEVER ENDS. SO THIS IS A REDICULAS BELIEF WHEN THESE END OF THE WORLD BUNKER CROWDS-BELIEVE THE EARTH WILL BE TOTALLY DESTROYED. WHEN GOD ONLY KILLS OFF THE SINNERS OF PEOPLE ON EARTH. NOT THE EARTH ITSELF. 2 PET 3:7 EVEN TELLS US THIS.

ECCLESIASTES 1:4
4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.(AND EVER)(WORLD NEVER ENDS)(END OF THE AGE OF GRACE ONLY,NOT THE END OF THE WORLD)

PSALMS 104:5
5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.(NO END OF THE WORLDERS NONESENSE HERE)

MATTHEW 5:5
5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.(FOREVER,NOT HEAVEN)

PSALMS 37:29
29 The righteous shall inherit the land,(ON EARTH-NOT HEAVEN) and dwell therein for ever.

ISAIAH 45:17
17 But Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an everlasting salvation:(FOREVER) ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.(JERUSALEM ISRAEL ON EARTH FOREVER-NEVER ENDING)

EPHESIANS 3:21
21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

ISRAEL AND JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN TOTALLY THEY SURVIVE FOREVER ON EARTH-GODS PROMISE.

JOEL 3:20
20 But Judah (ISRAEL) shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.(THATS ISRAEL-JERUSALEM WILL NEVER BE DESTROYED AGAIN)

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

IRAN SAYS IT HAS MOVED 11 TONS OF HEAVY WATER TO OMAN.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

IS EUROPE'S FAR RIGHT EXPIERENCING A TRUMP EFFECT.

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

Minister backs Bannon, thanks him for ‘friendship with Israel’-Agriculture chief Uri Ariel writes letter to new White House strategist, hails his opposition to Iran deal, Israel boycotts-By Times of Israel staff November 20, 2016, 5:38 pm

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel has written a letter of support for Stephen Bannon, the recently appointed White House strategist who has been accused of harboring anti-Semitic views, thanking him for his “friendship with Israel.”The text of the letter was reprinted by Breitbart News, a right-wing news website formerly run by Bannon.In the letter, the Jewish Home minister wrote that although he does not know Bannon personally, “dear friends of mine including Rabbi Shmuley Boteach have shared with me your strong opposition to the Iran nuclear agreement, which threatens Israel’s survival, your opposition to BDS and your opening of a Jerusalem bureau in Israel while head of Breitbart in order to promote Israeli point of view in the media.”Since Trump announced Bannon’s appointment — along with naming Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus to be his chief of staff — some Republicans, Democrats and various Jewish organizations have denounced the decision, saying that Bannon represents a brand of populist nationalism that emboldens racists and should not be near the Oval Office.But Israel’s ambassador to the US Ron Dermer said last week Jerusalem was “looking forward” to working with the entire White House administration, including Bannon.As executive chairman of Breitbart News from 2012 to 2016, Bannon pushed a nationalist agenda and turned the publication into what he called “the platform for the alt-right,” a movement associated with white supremacist ideas that oppose multiculturalism.The right-wing minister also wrote that although he and Bannon do not see eye-to-eye on every issue, they both agree that “Israel, as the Middle East’s only democracy, must always have the strongest international support.”Since Trump’s election, some on the Israeli right have lauded the president-elect as staunchly pro-Israel, citing statements made by an adviser that the settlements are not an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians and that under a Trump administration, the US will not force Israel into a peace deal.During the election campaign, Breitbart News was accused of publishing racist and anti-Semitic remarks. In one instance, it ran an article calling conservative political commentator Bill Kristol a “renegade Jew.”Bannon himself has also been accused of making anti-Semitic remarks. His ex-wife claimed in divorce papers that he did not want his daughters going to an elite Los Angeles academy because he “didn’t want the girls going to school with Jews.” Bannon has denied the allegations against him.Ben Shapiro, a Jewish former editor-at-large of Breitbart News, said last week that he never saw “any direct evidence that Bannon was an anti-Semite” when he worked with him, but witnessed his comfort with “pandering” to the publication’s fringe readership, many of whom are accused of holding racist and anti-Semitic views.In an interview with The Wall Street Journal published Saturday, Bannon denied the charges of anti-Semitism leveled against him, saying that “Breitbart is the most pro-Israel site in the United States of America.” He pointed to the website’s Jerusalem bureau, its stance against the boycott movement and rising anti-Semitism in Europe, as well as his Jewish partners and employees, as proof that he is not an anti-Semite.

Netanyahu bans ministers from speaking to Trump administration-PM’s order for contact only via PMO or DC embassy follows publication of letter from cabinet minister Uri Ariel to Stephen Bannon-By Times of Israel staff November 21, 2016, 8:58 pm

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned government ministers from speaking with President-elect Donald Trump or members of his administration.Cabinet Secretary Tzachi Braverman sent a letter on Monday to ministers instructing them not to speak with the nascent government.The letter instructed ministers that all contact must be either through the Prime Minister’s Office or the Israeli Embassy in Washington.This highly unusual move follows the publication of a letter on Saturday written by Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) to Stephen Bannon on the Breitbart website. Ariel thanked Bannon for his support of and friendship with Israel.Ariel specifically mentioned Bannon’s opposition to the Iran nuclear agreement, his opposition to BDS boycotts of Israel, and Breitbart opening a Jerusalem bureau “to promote Israeli points of view in the media.”Netanyahu orders ministers not to make any contact w @realDonaldTrump administration without coordination w PMO or @AmbDermer https://t.co/rwlxJTWolP— Tal Shalev (@talshalev1) November 21, 2016-Bannon, who was appointed as President-elect Donald Trump’s chief strategist, has been roundly condemned by many Israeli and Jewish groups for his alleged support of the white nationalist alt-right movement.Last week, as the results of the election were announced, Netanyahu instructed his government not to speak publicly about the new president-elect. However the instruction was issued only after several right-wing ministers had praised Trump in the media for his supposed support for Israeli activity in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as his promise to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.Netanyahu himself congratulated Trump shortly after the results were announced.“The bond between the US and Israel is based on shared values, shared interests and a shared future. I am sure that President-elect Trump and I will continue to strengthen the special alliance between Israel and the US and we will bring them to new heights,” he said.The prime minister also released a video after the election congratulating Trump.Israeli ambassador to the US Ron Dermer met with Trump in New York on Thursday, and declared that Jerusalem was looking forward to working with his entire team — including Bannon.“Israel has no doubt that President-elect Trump is a true friend of Israel,” Dermer told reporters in the lobby of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

IDF stands by integration of women, after spate of condemnations-Army spokesman Moti Almoz praises female soldiers’ motivation and desire to contribute, says they are fully part of people’s army-By Times of Israel staff November 21, 2016, 10:45 pm

Israel Defense Forces’s official spokesman Brig. Gen. Moti Almoz weighed in Monday on an ongoing row over women’s role in the military, and specifically the Armored Corps, taking to Facebook to celebrate the inclusion of female fighters in Israel’s army.“In recent years we have opened many positions for women and this has proven” to be successful, Almoz wrote, praising the motivation of women and their desire to contribute to the State of Israel. He also clarified that the IDF is currently experimenting with the integration of women into certain combat units within the Armored Corps, and it is premature to discuss the issue until after the trial is completed.Almoz stressed that the IDF is the army of the nation, and that women, as part of the nation, have a crucial role to play within it. He also pointed out that women serve as instructors for the Armored Corp, learning and teaching every role within the tanks. He wrote that this is one of the most sought-after IDF roles by women.“Before taking a position we should always find out the facts,” Almoz wrote to end his Facebook post.His comments followed many controversial statements about integrating women into these units. Last week, Brig. Gen. Eran Shani mentioned the army was conducting research to see if positions for women could be expanded, including in the Armored Corps and elite 669 rescue unit.However, the current head of the Armored Corps, Brig. Gen. Guy Hasson came out strongly against allowing women a greater role.In a recent conversation with The Times of Israel, conducted prior to Shani’s talk, Hasson indicated that the fundamental issues preventing integration of tank units — the physical requirements and social concerns — had yet to be addressed. However, he also noted that even if they were, he would oppose such an effort on the grounds that having female soldiers would harm the “image” of the corps — which is already one of the least popular units for recruits.Hasson attributed this lack of interest in the tank corps to people’s view that it’s not as tough as the more sought after infantry brigades: Golani, Givati, Paratroopers, Nahal and Kfir. Having women integrated within the corps will only exacerbate the problem, he claimed.The debate regarding women’s role within the military became even more heated after a radio interview on Sunday, in which former general Yiftach Ron-Tal claimed the proposal to integrate women into tank brigades is a “scandal,” and part of a conspiracy by far-left organizations to harm the Israel Defense Forces.Though he subsequently apologized for his comments he ignited a storm and his comments were swiftly denounced by members of Knesset, including Kulanu MK Rachel Azaria and Zionist Union MK Merav Michaeli, who are both often at the forefront of gender issues.Also Monday, the High Court of Justice temporarily suspended the appointment of Col. Eyal Karim as the new IDF chief rabbi, saying that before he could assume the post he had to clarify remarks he made over a decade ago that were perceived as condoning rape of non-Jewish women during wartime.Karim maintains that he was speaking entirely theoretically about a Biblical passage.He has also said that it is “entirely forbidden” for women to serve in the army for reasons of modesty, and has opposed women singing at army events as contrary to halacha (Jewish law).Today, some 92 percent of army positions are available to women, according to the IDF. The remaining 8% include the tank and infantry brigades, which the IDF Medical Corps determined had physical requirements that female physiology could not handle.

Why ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is an allegory about anti-Semitism-First outing in Harry Potter spin-off series alludes to the rampant xenophobia and fear of the post-war 1920s-By Gabe Friedman November 21, 2016, 11:29 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

JTA –The first spin-off from the Harry Potter film series, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” is a thrilling and at times darkly sinister adventure. The movie, which launched a new five-film franchise with new characters, has already cast a spell over Potter fans, raking in a box office best $75 million in its opening weekend.It also happens to be an allegory of the perils of anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and a general fear of the other in modern society.The film’s plot follows Newt Scamander — a young “magizoologist” who has traveled the world studying exotic magical creatures, played by Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne — around New York City in 1926.Along the way, as he attempts to find some “beasts” who have escaped from his magical suitcase, Newt befriends three characters who are presumed to be Jewish: Tina Goldstein, who works for The Magical Congress of the United States, her sister Queenie, and Jacob Kowalski, a World War I veteran who wants to open a bakery on the Lower East Side (he bakes confections from recipes passed down from his presumably Jewish grandmother).J.K. Rowling always avoids identifying religions in her works, but an establishing shot of an Orchard Street sign in the heart of the Lower East Side — which was New York’s Jewish immigrant epicenter in the early decades of the 20th century — feels like a crystal clear hint.However, the deeper Jewish undercurrent in “Fantastic Beasts” comes in a second storyline, which involves a black cloud that terrorizes the city. The viewer learns that this powerful dark mass, or “Obscurus,” which can destroy streets and buildings in its way, is actually the product of societal oppression. As Newt explains, when children born with magical powers hold in (or obscure) their identities, this dark force is unleashed. An Obscurus child usually dies before the age of 10.An obvious parallel is the rampant xenophobia and anti-Semitism of the 1920s. The mass immigration of Jews and southern and eastern Europeans led to a backlash in the United States, with laws passed in 1921 and 1924 severely limiting immigration. The Russian Revolution fueled fears that foreign “radicals” would sneak in with the new arrivals. Henry Ford was funding an anti-Semitic newspaper. Jewish quotas at prestigious American colleges were well underway. As a result, many American Jews hid their cultural and religious identity for fear of discrimination.“As Jews were admitted to executive suites they were expected to emulate the other occupants of those exalted quarters, that is, to become less obviously Jewish,” is how the late Jewish sociologist Daniel J. Elazar described the phenomenon. Jewish observers have debated the effects of such assimilation on the Jewish community and Jewish psyche ever since.Rowling told The New York Times that her story was inspired by the recent rise of populism around the world. Her screenplay is set in a world of economic anxiety and distrust of the Other, where the investigation into what is behind the dark cloud is explicitly called a witch hunt, and Newt is arrested by a Magical Congress looking for a scapegoat.It will be interesting to watch if the next four “Fantastic Beasts” movies tackle similarly political themes — and if Eddie Redmayne’s charming character makes any more Jewish friends on his adventures.

Seething Erdogan accuses Israel of ‘barbarism’ in TV interview timed to mark warming of ties-‘I don’t agree with what Hitler did and I also don’t agree with what Israel did in Gaza,’ says Turkish president, when asked about his 2014 comparison-By Times of Israel staff November 21, 2016, 11:21 pm

In his first interview with the Israeli press in over a decade, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday walked back a 2014 assertion that Israel’s military offensive in Gaza was more barbaric than Hitler, but made no apology for invoking the Nazi leader’s name in the context, said he was “well aware” of the sensitivities, and again condemned Israel’s “barbarism” against the Palestinians.Erdogan spoke to Channel 2’s Ilana Dayan in Turkish in a sweeping, and frequently tense, interview that covered Israel-Turkey relations, the Gaza Strip and the failed coup attempt in Turkey over the summer. The interview, apparently intended to mark a new, warming era in bilateral ties, began politely, but later featured passages where Erdogan, seething, leveled bitter criticism at Israel, especially regarding its policies regarding the Palestinians. At one point in the interview, Erdogan snapped at Dayan, and told her she couldn’t pressure him and wouldn’t be able to maneuver him “into a corner.”“I don’t agree with what Hitler did and I also don’t agree with what Israel did in Gaza. Therefore there’s no place for comparison in order to say what’s more barbaric,” Erdogan said when asked about his 2014 comments.Asked if he was conscious of the shock his reference to Hitler caused among Jews, Erdogan said “I’m very well aware… But is the Jewish community aware of what is done (in Gaza)? Thousands of people bombed in Gaza and Palestine” in the 2014 war with Hamas.The Turkish president dismissed categorizing Hamas as a terrorist organization, calling it a legitimate political party, and a “refugee movement born out nationalism” that must be part of any future peace deal. He called for Palestinian elections, saying Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s ruling Fatah party has been ineffective. He placed the onus for the failure of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks squarely on Israel, saying he would be willing to broker talks, but that Israel has refused such overtures. He also said he was in “constant contact” with Hamas.He accused Israel of failing to respect the holiness of Jerusalem, accusing it of trying to change the status quo at the Al-Aksa compound (the Temple Mount). “Jerusalem is holy to three religions. You have to respect that,” he said.Erdogan said he successfully negotiated peace talks between Israel and Syria in 2008, under then-prime minister Ehud Olmert, and that the two sides were on the verge of signing the deal when Operation Cast Lead broke out between Israel and Gaza, scuttling the initiative.Israel and Turkey are close to an agreement to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip, he also said, indicating that such a move would further hasten the normalization of Israel-Turkey ties. Asked whether he was confident Hamas would not abuse the lifting of the blockade in order to import weaponry, Erdogan switched the focus to Israel, and castigated “your use of weapons against Gaza.”He noted that Hamas did not have the “nuclear and conventional weapons that Israel has.” The deaths caused in Israel by Hamas rockets, he indicated, paled by comparison to the “thousands” killed by Israel in Gaza.When it was put to him that Hamas indiscriminately targets Israeli civilians, Erdogan did not directly address the question. He called for a negotiated solution to bring tranquility to the area.Asked about the remains of two Israeli soldiers from the 2014 war held by Hamas, he noted that Israel holds “thousands” of Hamas and other Palestinian prisoners in its jails, and suggested an exchange.Israel and Turkey signed a detente agreement earlier this year to restore diplomatic relations after a five-year chill. Last week, Israel and Turkey exchanged ambassadors in the final stage of an agreement signed in the summer to end the breakdown in relations sparked by 2010’s Mavi Marmara incident.Erdogan said “it is impossible to believe” that the Israeli soldiers who boarded the Mavi Marmara tried to avert bloodshed. (The Mavi Marmara was a Turkish ship leading a protest flotilla to the Gaza Strip in 2010, where Israel maintains a security blockade to prevent ruling terror group Hamas from importing weapons. Israeli naval commandos boarded the ship, were attacked by activists who were waiting for them, and responded with gunfire, killing ten. Ten Israelis were wounded. The incident soured relations between Jerusalem and Ankara for years.)“We have all of the documents and evidence,” Erdogan said, and “it’s impossible” that the soldiers were acting in self-defense. “Regrettably, 10 of our brothers were martyred there,” he added.Erdogan dismissed footage of the incident that showed the Turkish activists assaulting the soldiers with metal rods and clubs. “We have all [of the evidence],” he told Dayan. “Speak correctly. The fact that you’re a journalist shouldn’t prevent you from speaking correctly.”Under the terms of the reconciliation agreement, Israel paid a “lump sum” of $20 million in compensation to the victims. Individual Israeli nationals, including army officers, also would not be held criminally or financially liable for the incident, the deal stipulated. The thaw also paved the way for Israel and Turkey to ramp up cooperation on natural gas development in the Mediterranean.

Is Europe’s far right experiencing a ‘Trump effect’?-The impact of US election on would-be populist presidents Le Pen, Wilders and Nofer depends on who you ask-By Cnaan Liphshiz November 21, 2016, 11:40 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

JTA — European far-right politicians were quick to hold up Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election as a harbinger of their own impending triumphs.Marine Le Pen, head of France’s far-right party, said that what Europeans call “the Trump effect” — that is, right-wing nationalism fueled by anger toward political elites and mistrust of immigration — heralds the upset she is seeking in her own country’s presidential elections in May. She called Trump’s election “good news” for France.Geert Wilders, a far-right Dutch politician whose party is leading polls ahead of March’s general elections, called Trump’s victory a “revolution” that will come to the Netherlands.And Norbert Hofer, the far-right candidate many believe will win Austria’s December 4 presidential election, cited Trump’s victory in predicting his own.But nearly two weeks after Trump’s success, little evidence suggests that these statements are more than posturing by career politicians eager to rebrand themselves as change-makers despite the fact that they are viewed, even by many of their supporters, as obsolete or deeply compromised.In Le Pen’s case, polls conducted before and after Trump’s victory project that she will receive about 25 percent of the vote. And while this would certainly be a new record for her National Front party, it is difficult to tie such a result to Trump’s victory.Indeed, there is reason to believe that Le Pen’s solidarity with Trump is a double-edged sword. In an Odoxa poll conducted among 1,004 French adults a day after Trump was elected, 76 percent of respondents said they lamented his election. Even among National Front voters, the poll found only 54 percent supported him.In the Netherlands and Austria, Trump’s election also revealed no discernible shift in polls. Wilders’ Party for Freedom, which is running neck and neck with the center-right ruling party, dropped by one point after Trump’s victory in one poll (I&O Research), remained unchanged in another (Politieke Barometer) and rose by one point in a third poll (Maurice de Hond).As for Hofer, Wilders’ counterpart in Austria, he rose by one point in polls since Trump’s election, remaining within the margin of error in a race pollsters have said is too close to call.The polls further show no correlation between the popularity of far-right parties like National Front and the “Brexit” referendum of last June, when British voters supported leaving the European Union.Undoubtedly, there are some similarities between the message of Europe’s rising far right and Trump’s campaign strategy. Both leverage financial insecurity while warning about Muslim immigration and jihadism in campaigns themed around nostalgia, xenophobia and popular resentment of the seemingly detached ruling elite.But there are also considerable differences.Both Wilders’ Party for Freedom and Le Pen’s National Front are seeking greater taxation on some earners (Le Pen wants to raise the income tax on high earners as much as 46 percent) than the policy favored by the countries’ ruling governments. In this regard, the European far right diverges significantly with Trump.Additionally, Trump was an outsider to American politics; Le Pen, Wilders, Hofer and most of their counterparts elsewhere in Europe have been in politics for at least a decade. Even to potential supporters, they are associated with the very political structures they have for years been promising to tear down.In France, Le Pen has been trying to mainstream her party and move it away from the more radical anti-establishment message of her father and party founder, Jean-Marie Le Pen. When she kicked him out of the party last year for saying the Holocaust was insignificant — a statement for which he was convicted of genocide denial – it cause a split within the party, costing her the votes of many supporters who now view her as a sellout. As for Wilders, he agreed in 2010 to briefly join a coalition led by Holland’s centrist ruling party — a compromise that disappointed many of his hard-core supporters.Nevertheless, Trump’s victory is invigorating supporters of these far-right parties who are finding themselves in the spotlight of left-wing media that are now much more willing to “listen to angry white voters,” as the Dutch NRC Handelsblad put it last weekend.“If the Americans did it, so can we!” one National Front voter and activist, a former train conductor in his fifties named Fredy Deguin-Dawson, told Le Monde. The article surveyed attitudes toward Trump’s victory in the Hauts-de-France region, which is France’s rust belt with 14% unemployment.Even he, however, recoiled from some of Trump’s xenophobic remarks. “That Trump called Mexicans thieves and rapists … No. I find it unacceptable,” said Deguin-Dawson. His rejection of racism, typical of many Europeans with bitter memory and collective guilt over the Holocaust, is another social inhibitor for the far right.Still, it is not difficult to see why Europe’s far right, which is eager to project an image of success, would like to portray itself as a continuation of the Trump effect. And the mainstream European media is hesitant to bet on the status quo after failing to foresee both Brexit and Trump’s victory.Jewish community leaders, along with leaders of other minorities, are also wary about the meaning of Trump’s victory.“We are not the only ones, we hear this all over Europe,” Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, told JTA last week. “There’s concern of the rise of the extreme right on the coattails of the Trump victory.”While such alarm is understandable coming from vulnerable minorities, centrist and left-wing politicians have also warned about a “Trump effect.”French Prime Minister Manuel Valls shocked many of his citizens when he said last week during a visit to Berlin that “Le Pen could become president in 2017.” He injected Trump into the equation by adding: “Of course, I’m not comparing: Trump headed the Republican Party, which already controlled Congress and numerous states, but of course his rhetoric and proposals are disturbing.”Valls, a Socialist, may have political reasons to establish a connection between Le Pen and the “Trump effect.” After all, French centrists, worried about the National Front, have for decades rallied voters to vote for other candidates just to keep that party out of power. It’s such a common strategy that it even has a name — the “Republican Front” — and it has allowed both the Socialists and their center-right rivals to increase voting participation and keep the National Front in opposition.Olivier Faye, Le Monde’s expert on the far right, says he does not recognize any “Trump effect” in French politics at this time.“It’s difficult to draw conclusions on any effect, negative or positive, of Trump’s victory on how Le Pen will perform in the French presidential elections,” he wrote last week. What is clear, he said, is that “she’ll happily use any populist victory abroad“ to her advantage.

Trump’s top Pentagon pick said settlements were creating ‘apartheid’-Retired Marine Corps general James Mattis, seen as front-runner for defense secretary post, also insisted the US pays a price in Middle East for its support of Israel-By Eric Cortellessa November 20, 2016, 7:51 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

WASHINGTON — One of President-elect Donald Trump’s leading candidates for secretary of defense has said Israel’s settlement project could turn the country into an apartheid state and that the United States pays a price for its support of Israel.Retired Marine Corps general James Mattis met with the incoming president Saturday at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to reportedly discuss a cabinet post.According to CNN, Trump was extremely impressed by Mattis, who is now his top choice to run the Defense Department, a position whose power over the US military is second only to that of the president.Mattis’s resume includes over two years heading the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) under President Barack Obama from August 2010 to March 2013, a post that has command authority for all US forces in the Middle East.During Mattis’s tenure, he held a commanding presence in the war theaters on Afghanistan and Iraq, experiences for which Trump offered high praise after their hour-long meeting. “All I can say is he is the real deal,” he said. “The real deal.”When Trump was asked by reporters if Mattis would have a role in the upcoming administration, he said: “We’ll see. We’ll see. He’s just a brilliant, wonderful man. What a career. We are going to see what happens, but he is the real deal.”In July 2013, shortly after leaving his post running CENTCOM, Mattis said the current situation in Israel was “unsustainable” and that settlements were obstructing the possibility of a two-state outcome between Israelis and Palestinians, comments that seem to fly in the face of Trump’s position as reported by his Israel advisers.“The current situation is unsustainable,” Mattis told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer during a panel discussion at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado when asked about the peace process.“It’s got to be directly addressed. We have got to find a way to make the two-state solution that Democrat and Republican administrations have supported,” he added. “We’ve got to get there, and the chances for it are starting to ebb because of the settlements, and where they’re at, they’re going to make it impossible to maintain the two-state option.”Mattis specifically warned that if Israel continued to expand its settlement presence, its long-term character as a Jewish and democratic state would be at risk, ultimately leading to Israel becoming an apartheid state.“If I’m in Jerusalem and I put 500 Jewish settlers out here to the east and there’s 10,000 Arab settlers in here, if we draw the border to include them, either it ceases to be a Jewish state or you say the Arabs don’t get to vote — apartheid,” he said.“That didn’t work too well the last time I saw that practiced in a country,” he added, presumably alluding to South Africa. “So we’ve got to work on this with a sense of urgency.”In that same conversation, Mattis told Blitzer that the US paid a price for its support of Israel and the perception of bias it broadcasts to the rest of the Arab world.“I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CENTCOM because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel,” he said, “and that moderates, all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can’t come out publicly in support of people who don’t show respect for the Arab Palestinians.”Trump’s position on Israeli settlements is unclear, but many in Israel and the US see him as willing to tolerate at least some Israeli settlement building in much the way past Republican administrations have.In an interview in May, he seemed to back Israeli building in settlements.During his campaign for the presidency, he said Jerusalem was Israel’s undivided capital and vowed to move the US Embassy there, a move that would break with Washington’s policy of not recognizing Israel’s de facto annexation of East Jerusalem.A day after Trump was elected president, his adviser Jason Greenblatt told Israel’s Army Radio that the president-elect “does not view the settlements as an obstacle to peace.”Mattis’s comments are not out of sync with others who’ve held his role. His predecessor, General David Petraus, once told the Senate Armed Services committee the “conflict foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of US favoritism for Israel.”If Trump selected Mattis to head the Pentagon, his 2013 retirement from the military would require a Congressional waiver to grant him eligibility for the position. US statutes require any retired officer to spend at least seven years outside the military before obtaining extensive responsibilities within the Department of Defense.Given the Republican control of both houses of Congress, it is highly likely that permission would be granted.

Facebook CEO vows to fix fake news problem-After accusations that false articles may have affected US election outcome, Mark Zuckerberg promises new tools for reporting ‘misinformation’-By Ben Fox November 20, 2016, 5:50 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urged world leaders meeting in Peru on Saturday to help get more people online to improve global living standards while separately announcing new measures to cut down on fake news stories on the social network that some suggest could have helped sway the US presidential election.The Facebook founder took on the role of an evangelist for “connectivity” as he spoke at an Asian-Pacific trade summit, lamenting that half the world has no access to the online world and is being deprived of its economic potential as well as advances in science, education and medicine. He urged leaders to work with his company and others to close that gap.“If we can connect the 4 billion people who aren’t connected we can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty,” Zuckerberg said as he addressed business and government leaders at the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.But as he was promoting the benefits of the online world in the speech, he took to his Facebook page to address one of the downsides of the internet: the rapid dissemination of bogus news stories on social networks.Zuckerberg said in a post late Friday that his company was taking measures to curb what he said was a “relatively small” percentage of deliberately false stories. The measures include developing new tools to detect and classify “misinformation” and to make it easier for users to report the material.He said the company also is looking into the possibility of working with established fact-checking organizations to evaluate content and into the feasibility of warning labels for stories flagged as false.Critics have complained that a surge of fake news stories on Facebook may have swayed some voters to back President-elect Donald Trump. The company said on Monday that it was clarifying its advertising policy to emphasize that it won’t display ads — thus cutting revenue — for sites that run information that is “illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news.” That followed a similar step by Google, which acknowledged that it had let a false article about the election results slip into its list of recommended news stories.“The bottom line is: we take misinformation seriously,” the Facebook CEO said in his post. “Our goal is to connect people with the stories they find most meaningful, and we know people want accurate information.Zuckerberg’s comments came after President Barack Obama, who is also attending the APEC summit, and others have been sharply critical of the spread of fake news online.In a news conference Thursday in Berlin, Obama called bogus stories disseminated on Facebook and other social media platforms a threat to democracy. The president decried “an age where there’s so much active misinformation and it’s packaged very well and it looks the same when you see it on a Facebook page or you turn on your television.”Zuckerberg called the problem “complex, both technically and philosophically.” It is also sensitive issue for a company that does not want to censor content such as legitimate political satire that some people find offensive. Facebook sees itself not as a traditional publisher, but as a facilitator of global communication.It was that lofty vision of the company that was on display as Zuckerberg spoke at the APEC forum.He described Facebook efforts in artificial intelligence programs that could lead to advancements in medicine and education, as well as a high-altitude solar-powered drone, still in the development stage, to provide online access to places with none. He also described a program to work with local operators around the world to provide free basic internet.“We can’t afford to leave anyone behind,” he said.The Facebook CEO said that investment in such infrastructure is necessary to address the gap between rich and poor that has become a source of rising anxiety. “As we are learning this year in election after election, even if globalization might grow the overall pie of prosperity, it also creates inequality,” he said. “It helps some people and it hurts others.”Investing in “connectivity,” he said, can address some of the consequences of globalization. “We can disconnect, risk less prosperity and hope jobs that are lost come back. Or we can connect more, try to do more great things, try to work on even greater prosperity and then work to aggressively share that prosperity with everyone.”

Monday, November 21, 2016

RUMORS MIKE HUCKABEE TO BE ENVOY TO ISRAEL.WILL MOVE EMBASSY HEADQUARTERS FROM TEL AVIV TO JERUSALEM.

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

Mike Huckabee said set to be US envoy to Israel, tasked with moving embassy to Jerusalem-Ex-Arkansas governor meets Trump; transition source says Huckabee, a bitter opponent of Palestinian nationalism, ‘is going to see through’ embassy relocation-By Times of Israel staff and Stuart Winer November 18, 2016, 11:14 pm

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly sending former Arkansas governor and failed Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee to be his ambassador to Israel, where Huckabee will be charged with overseeing the relocation of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.Britain’s Daily Mail on Friday quoted an unnamed source in the Trump transition team confirming both the appointment and that the embassy move would be a first item of business for ambassador Huckabee. “That’s going to happen,” the transition source said. “Governor Huckabee is going to see it through.”Huckabee met with Trump on Friday at Trump Tower in New York City, but did not comment on the rumors of his posting to Israel, and there was no official confirmation from the Trump team. “I’m just here for the Starbucks,” Huckabee quipped before going into his meetings.Huckabee is a strong supporter of Israel, and a frequent visitor.He is also a bitter opponent of Palestinian nationalism. “I have to be careful saying this, because people get really upset—there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian,” Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, told a rabbi in Massachusetts in 2008, according to the New Yorker. “That’s been a political tool to try to force land away from Israel.”Last year, in similar vein, he told the Washington Post, “The idea that they have a long history, dating back hundreds or thousands of years, is not true.”Jason Greenblatt, a top adviser to Trump on Israel, said earlier this month that the president-elect would follow though on campaign promises to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — a campaign claim made by previous presidential hopefuls but never acted on.During the campaign, Trump called Jerusalem “the eternal capital” of Israel and said he was “100 percent for” moving the embassy there.Congress passed a law in 1995 mandating the move of the embassy to Jerusalem, but allowed the president a waiver. Each president since then has routinely exercised the waiver, citing the national security interests of the United States, despite repeated campaign promises. For Trump to break with decades of precedent would put Washington at odds with nearly all United Nations member states.“I think if he said it, he’s going to do it. He is different for Israel than any recent president there has been, and I think he’s a man who keeps his word. He recognizes the historical significance of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, unlike, say, UNESCO,” Greenblatt said.Last month the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) approved a controversial resolution that ignored Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount. The decision came a week after a similar resolution was approved by the body and elicited angry responses from Israel, several world leaders and even the body’s own director-general.In the wake of the UNESCO resolution, Huckabee wrote on his website that UN stands for “utterly nuts.”“We rightly excoriate Holocaust deniers, so why do we offer money and support to an organization that is hardly any less anti-Semitic in its absurd denial of the Jewish people’s historic and religious heritage?” Huckabee wrote. “It’s time for America once again to stand up forcefully beside our staunch ally, Israel. The last time we were silent in the face of attempts to erase Jews from the pages of history, it didn’t turn out well.”Many right-wing Israeli politicians have hailed Trump’s victory as an opportunity to have the embassy relocated, and to expand settlement construction. Education Minister Naftali Bennett even said Trump’s election meant Israel could officially drop its commitment to the two-state solution.The current US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, is an Obama administration stalwart, who has worked with the president for more than eight years, ever since Barack Obama was originally campaigning for the presidency.

Jerusalem chief rabbi calls homosexuality an ‘abomination’-Gay rights activist files police complaint against Shlomo Amar for comments during interview in which he also takes aim at Reform Jews-By Times of Israel staff November 18, 2016, 6:17 pm

Jerusalem’s chief rabbi lashed out at Israel’s gay community in an interview released Friday, calling homosexuality an “abomination” and earning himself a police complaint for incitement.Shlomo Amar, who previously served as the country’s Sephardi chief rabbi, told Israel Hayom newspaper that homosexuality is an “abomination,” and that Jewish law advocates the death penalty for those who choose to engage in same sex relationships.“I call it a cult. It’s a cult of abominations, it is obvious. It’s an abomination,” he said. “The Torah says it is punishable by death. It is in the first rank of severe offenses… They say ‘leaning,’ ‘perversion’ – this is nonsense. There is lust, and a person can overcome it if they want to, like all lusts. This is among the most forbidden lusts, the most severe. ”Amar said he declined to attend a memorial service for a teenage girl stabbed to death by an ultra-Orthodox zealot during last year’s Gay Pride parade in Jerusalem, after her family declined to read aloud his condemnation of homosexuality.“When Shira Banki was killed, they commemorated the thirtieth day of her death. They asked me to attend, and I would not. I wrote to them a letter expressing great sadness and opposition in the strongest terms to the deeds” of her killer, Yishai Schlissel,” he said.“On the other hand,” he said he wrote to Banki’s family, “‘I call on you, if you want to elate her soul to the heavens, to repent from your evil ways. It is forbidden by the Torah.\ I gave them a condition that they read my letter in full [and then I would attend]. They wanted to read half. I did not agree [to attend].”Amar said that his attendance would have “blasphemed the name of God.”He also came out against rabbis trying to build bridges with the LGBTQ community: “There is no such thing, to show understanding or tolerance for this. A simple truth needs to be stated – there is a severe prohibition, and there is no allowance for it.”The rabbi emphasized he would not budge on his position, even at the price of estranging secular Jews from religious life.Amar’s comments were met with fury by members of the LGBTQ community and champions of civil liberties in Israel.Oded Fried, a gay rights activist and former head of the Israeli LGBT Taskforce, filed a complaint with Israel Police, saying Amar’s comments constituted incitement to bigotry.Meretz MK Michal Rozin, co-chair of the Knesset’s Gay Caucus, wrote to Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked following the interview, calling for her to take action against Amar.“Statements such as these fuel and strengthen violent attacks against the LGBTQ community and the pluralist Judaism community, especially when made by municipal rabbis. In light of these comments, I ask that you consider disciplining the rabbi, according to your jurisdiction to do so, following his comments,” Rozin wrote.Rabbi Noa Satat, manager of the Reform Center for Religion and State, accused Amar of “unjustified hatred” that harmed the very people whose taxes pay his salary.“Rabbi Amar proves once again that he is unworthy of the title of chief rabbi of the city of Jerusalem,” she said. “His comments, which constitute nothing more than unjustified hatred seasoned with ignorance, hurt Israeli men and women, Jewish men and women who finance his salary, paid for by public funds. Rabbi Amar is cursing just before Shabbat, his comments push more and more people from the medieval Judaism he represents.”Amar also took aim at Reform Judaism, telling the newspaper that there was only a small number of Reform Jews in Israel and saying that “in recent years, they have been importing it, this culture.”He accused Reform Jews of “inciting” against the Torah for political gain and vowed to resist any moves to include the stream in Israeli Jewish life.“It’s not a matter of personal distress, it is politics. I will not agree to change what the Torah says,” Amar said. “I say what is written in verses such as ‘Move back from the tents of these wicked men.'”He also said unequivocally that public transportation could not be allowed on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest, and said he was against civil marriage for Jews in the State of Israel.

Trump win spurs plans for Jerusalem building spree over Green Line-Officials unconcerned by potential rebuke from outgoing Obama administration, say new housing will ‘send message’ to president-elect-By Tamar Pileggi November 20, 2016, 3:39 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

The Jerusalem municipality is set to authorize the construction of thousands of new housing units over the Green Line in the wake of Donald Trump’s election, city officials said Sunday.Some 1,400 new apartments in the capital’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood would be approved by the Jerusalem Municipality Planning and Construction Committee later in the day, city officials told Channel 2, hailing Trump’s victory as an opportunity to expand Jewish building in the eastern part of Jerusalem unhindered.“In Jerusalem, it’s as if Trump is already in office,” a committee member told the TV station. “The problem is that nobody knows what his policies will actually be.”“There’s an understanding between us that whatever we’ll be able to accomplish in the coming months may not always be an option later,” the official said. “Even if the [current] State Department of White House issues a condemnation, it won’t be worth much at this point.”“We must send a message to Trump that in Jerusalem, we build,” he added.While Israel has continually maintained its right to build in areas of East Jerusalem, construction there has always been met with international condemnation, especially from the US, which does not recognize Israel’s de facto annexation of the eastern half of the city.Last week, committee chairman Meir Turgeman told Channel 2 that Israeli fears of antagonizing Washington delayed the municipality’s approval of wider construction plans for Jerusalem that would see some 7,000 housing units built over the Green Line.In addition to the 1,440 apartments in Ramat Shlomo, the plans include an additional 3,000 units in Gilo and 2,600 in the planned Givat Hamatos neighborhood.“Now that Trump [won], I hope we will put Jerusalem as a priority, I hope we are heading for a fresh start,” Turgeman said last week. “All these plans in Givat Hamatos, Gilo, Ramat Shlomo, all these have been waiting for two years at least.”While much of the international community considers these neighborhoods as settlements, Israel considers them neighborhoods of annexed East Jerusalem and argues that it will be part of Israel in any negotiated peace agreement.Trump’s vocal support of Israel’s settlement enterprise is at odds with traditional US opposition to construction beyond the Green Line.The Obama administration routinely and bitterly criticizes the Netanyahu government for building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, since it considers such construction to undermine efforts for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.In 2010, a major diplomatic rift was sparked when the Interior Ministry approved new housing in Ramat Shlomo while US Vice President Joe Biden was visiting.Senior officials said the move was made without Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s knowledge. According to a diplomatic cable leaked earlier this year, Netanyahu turned to European leaders to help patch up ties with Obama in the wake of the affair.Trump, however, has called Jerusalem Israel’s undivided capital and vowed to move the US Embassy there, essentially offering support for Israeli moves there.He has also indicated he will more receptive to building in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, with Israel’s defense minister calling last week for Jerusalem to reach an agreement with the US allowing for construction in mainline settlement blocs in exchange for a freeze elsewhere, reviving a George W. Bush-era understanding.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Jerusalem said to welcome Trump’s ‘pro-Israel’ security picks-Source says incoming CIA chief Pompeo and national security adviser Flynn are both supporters of Israeli policies, Army Radio reports-By Times of Israel staff and JTA November 19, 2016, 8:00 pm

Israel welcomed US President-elect Donald Trump’s new round of appointments to top administration positions, a source in Jerusalem said Saturday, as a former general known for his anti-Islam rhetoric and a strident opponent of the Iran nuclear deal were tapped for top defense positions.The source specifically hailed both Rep. Mike Pompeo, the incoming CIA chief, and new national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn as supporters of Israeli policy, according to Army Radio.Pompeo has been one of the leading critics of last year’s deal with Iran that traded sanctions relief for a nuclear rollback, aligning him with much of the centrist and right-wing pro-Israel communities. He is a reliable backer of Israel and last November had high praise for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after they met on an Israel tour.Pompeo tweeted on Thursday: “I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.” Pompeo had warned last year that the agreement is “empowering an Iranian regime that is intent on destroying America.”I look forward to rolling back this disastrous deal with the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. https://t.co/bifC97jWpY— Mike Pompeo (@RepMikePompeo) November 17, 2016-The Kansas Republican backed the House vote this week for a 10-year extension on Iran sanctions, many of which are currently under presidential waiver because of the nuclear deal.“Extending sanctions on Iran’s weapons programs is an important part of keeping Americans safe,” Pompeo said in a statement. “Re-authorizing existing prohibitions for an additional 10 years provides President-elect Trump and Congress a solid foundation from which to pursue additional action against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”During the election campaign, Trump also described the nuclear deal as “disastrous” and said it would be his “number one priority” to dismantle it.While Pompeo has expressed saber-rattling views on how to deal with Iran, he also is the single choice Trump made Friday that attracted friendly noises from the establishment — even from Democrats.“While we’ve had our share of strong differences, I know he’s someone who is willing to listen and engage, both key qualities in CIA Director,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif. on Twitter. The Jewish lawmaker is his party’s most senior member on the US House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, where Pompeo also serves.Meanwhile, Flynn — a Defense Intelligence Agency chief sacked by President Barack Obama because of his allegations that the agency was in disarray — has been one of Trump’s most incendiary surrogates.The former general shares Trump’s disdain for nuance in criticizing militancy among Muslims. Unlike the majority of Republicans, who single out “Islamists” or “radical jihadists” or some variation thereof, Flynn emphatically targets the entire faith. In August, he spoke at an event in Dallas hosted by the anti-Islamist group Act for America, calling Islam a “cancer” and a “political ideology” that “definitely hides behind being a religion.”“Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL,” he said in one February Tweet now making the rounds.Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL: please forward this to others: the truth fears no questions… https://t.co/NLIfKFD9lU— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) February 27, 2016-More troubling for Jews, in July, Flynn retweeted a tweet attached to a CNN story in which the Clinton campaign blamed the theft of emails from the Democratic National Committee on Russia.Flynn’s comment attached to the retweet was incendiary but not untypical: “The corrupt Democratic machine will do and say anything to get #NeverHillary into power. This is a new low.”What was shocking was that the tweeter whom Flynn was approvingly retweeting, “Saint Bibiana,” bearing an icon showing a Confederate soldier, was not just blaming Democrats: “’The USSR is to blame!’” said Saint Bibiana. “Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore.”Flynn deleted his tweet and apologized.In security briefings with Trump, Flynn reportedly has alarmed intelligence officials who have blamed cyberattacks on Russia. Flynn has been paid for a speech in Moscow and attended an official dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The closeness of a national security adviser to a regime that has joined Iran in a loose military alliance with the Assad rule in Syria is sure to rattle some in Israel’s security establishment.“The president-elect would be better served by someone with a healthy skepticism about Russian intentions,” Schiff said in a statement.Flynn’s consulting firm has also done work for Turkish clients. Flynn said that he would divest himself of the company should he go into government service.A number of Israeli politicians, including Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, have seized on Trump’s victory by asking him to make good on his promises to recognize the city as Israel’s undivided capital and move the embassy there, breaking with long-standing US policy to await a final status agreement. Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing, pro-settler Jewish Home party, said that Trump’s win was also a chance to end of any possibility of a Palestinian state.

Security, not cronyism, behind submarine deal, PM insists-Amid growing calls for an investigation, Netanyahu says defense concerns ‘only consideration’ for multi-billion shekel plan to purchase German vessels-By Tamar Pileggi and Raoul Wootliff November 20, 2016, 12:53 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday denied allegations that personal interests played a role in a multi-billion shekel deal to purchase German submarines, saying bolstering Israel’s long-term security needs was his “only consideration” for the purchases.The statement came as the prime minister has found himself icnreasingly under fire, with some lawmakers demanding an investigation after it was revealed that Netanyahu’s personal lawyer represents the German shipbuilder selling Israel the vessels.Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing or conflict of interest amid a tangle of claims and counter-claims by former and current defense officials over whether the submarines were actually needed.“The security of Israel necessitates the purchase of new submarines, and the renewal of the naval fleet,” Netanyahu said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday.“These strategic weapons systems guarantee [the navy’s] future, and I assure you, will safeguard the existence of Israel for the coming decades,” he said. “Strengthening the security of Israel was my only consideration in deciding to purchase the submarine. It is the consideration that always guides me and no other.”On Tuesday, Channel 10 reported the prime minister’s longtime attorney David Shimron had a stake in the NIS 6 billion ($1.5 billion) defense deal with the German shipbuilder.According to the report, Shimron serves as a local representative of the Germany-based conglomerate ThyssenKrupp, and Netanyahu in recent months has been pushing for Israel to buy several ThyssenKrupp submarines against the will of the IDF and former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon.Over the weekend, opposition MKs demanded an official investigation be launched to review the allegations.On Saturday, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid called on Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to open a criminal investigation into the Netanyahu-backed deal, while Mertetz’s Michal Rozin urged the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to hold an “urgent” hearing to review the matter.Ya’alon last week also urged a “thorough probe by the relevant authorities” into the “very disturbing” allegations made in the report.Last month, Netanyahu announced in a cabinet meeting that Israel was in the process of negotiating the purchase of three new submarines for the Israeli Navy, which currently maintains a fleet of five underwater vessels, with another slated to be delivered in coming years.The new submarines — valued at around NIS 6 billion ($1.5 billion) — were intended as replacements for the military’s older models.But according to Channel 10, neither Ya’alon, who served as defense minister when the deal was first proposed, nor the IDF was in favor of purchasing the new submarines — somewhat of a change of pace in the normal narrative of the defense establishment fighting for acquisitions — as the decision did not fit with the Defense Ministry’s multi-year plan for the army.Shimron’s alleged involvement has raised questions about a possible conflict of interest for both him and the prime minister, especially given Netanyahu’s determination to complete the deal despite the reported IDF opposition.Netanyahu is said to have started dealings with the German government without informing Ya’alon, who only learned of the plan after news of it leaked out.Apparently furious, the then-defense minister sparred with Netanyahu in the Prime Minister’s Office, with the two reportedly shouting at one another over the issue.Ya’alon succeeded in torpedoing the plan, but once he stepped down as defense minister in May, Netanyahu renewed the negotiations with the Germans for the new submarines.After the report aired last Tuesday, Netanyahu denied that he had any prior knowledge of Shimron being involved in the deal, and said the negotiations were done in an “orderly, professional manner with no outside influence and with the recommendation of all the professional bodies in the Defense Ministry, the IDF and the National Security Council.”Shimron also denied a conflict of interest, saying he “did not discuss these matters with the prime minister,” and denied any effort to influence a decision over the deal.According to a Channel 2 report, the state prosecution’s office announced that it would look into the matter.

France vows to follow through with international peace summit-Merkel says she’ll seek reelection in 2017; invoking Trump, officials say thousands of housing units planned for E. Jerusalem-By Elie Leshem November 20, 2016, 1:47 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

15:01-Man critically stabbed in Petah Tikva-Magen David Adom medics are trying to resuscitate a man who is in critical condition after being stabbed in Petah Tikva, MDA says.The man, 35, was stabbed during an altercation, according to reports.14:44-Merkel says she’ll seek reelection in 2017-German Chancellor Angela Merkel tells her conservative party that she wants to seek a fourth term in elections next year, according to national news agency DPA.After months of feverish speculation, she tells leaders of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) that she is prepared to carry the party banner into the poll, expected in September or October 2017.Merkel is due to hold a news conference at her party headquarters this evening.— AFP-14:33-France vows to follow through on peace summit-France is denying reports that it has shelved plans to hold an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Paris next month.Recent reports quoted President Francois Hollande as saying he is facing difficulties convening the summit, in light of the results of the US election and Israel’s vehement opposition to the conference.“As President Hollande reaffirmed in his speech to the UN General Assembly on September 20, our goal is to convene an international conference in order to help relaunch the Middle East peace process,” a spokesperson from the French Foreign Ministry says. “We are working closely with our partners and in collaboration with the parties to that end.”Paris’s special envoy to the planned conference, Pierre Vimont, recently visited the United States, days after he came to Jerusalem and Ramallah for talks with senior officials.“He will continue this work during his upcoming visits to our main partner countries,” the statement reads.— Raphael Ahren-14:05-Hamas warns Israel ‘playing with fire’ in bid to quiet mosques-Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, in a statement to the official Turkish news agency Aandolu, says a bill up for debate in Israel that would cap the volume of mosques’ calls to prayer is “playing with fire.”“What the Israel occupation state is doing at the Al Aqsa Mosque, as well as preventing the call to prayer in Jerusalem, is playing with fire,” he says. “This created a fierce reaction in the Palestinian community and the entire Islamic nation.”Mashaal adds, mirroring an earlier statement this month, that there can be no “stability in the region without the Palestinians attaining their rights and the departure of the occupation.”— Dov Lieber-13:49-5 Jewish minors detained for ‘violating regulations’ at Temple Mount-Police in Jerusalem detain five Israeli minors at the Temple Mount.An Israel Police spokesperson says the five were taken in for questioning after they “violated the regulations” at the holy site, where Jews are allowed to visit but not pray.-13:48-Thousands of new apartments planned for E. Jerusalem-Jerusalem City Hall is set to authorize the construction of thousands of new housing units in Jewish neighborhoods over the Green-Line in the wake of Donald Trump’s election in the US, municipal officials say.Some 1,400 new apartments in the capital’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood are expected to be approved by the Jerusalem Municipality Planning and Construction Committee, the officials say.“In Jerusalem it’s as if Trump is already in office,” one official tells Channel 2. “The problem is that nobody knows what his policies will actually be.”“There’s an understanding between us that whatever we’ll be able to accomplish in the coming months may not always be an option later,” the official adds. “Even if the [current] State Department or White House condemns it, it won’t be worth much at this point.”— Tamar Pileggi

Ultra-Orthodox minor, men arrested for anti-IDF draft attacks-3 held in Beit Shemesh for taking part in 2 incidents earlier this month, including assault of Haredi soldier-By Stuart Winer November 20, 2016, 1:36 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

Three people in the central city of Beit Shemesh were detained over separate violent assaults to protest the drafting of ultra-Orthodox conscripts into the IDF, police said Sunday.An ultra-Orthodox teen, 14, was arrested for attacking a soldier, as were two men alleged to have hurled stones during a violent protest against the draft, injuring a police officer.Both incidents occurred earlier this month and the arrests took place in the overnight hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning.As cops moved in to make the arrests they also prepared to counter any attempts by local protesters to hinder the operation, police said in a statement. The arrests came after “a complicated and determined investigation” that included an undercover operation “to gather precise information and evidence,” police said.The suspects were taken in for questioning and are expected to be arraigned in Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court and kept in custody.Many in the ultra-Orthodox community shun the mandatory military service that applies to most Israelis, and the community has historically enjoyed blanket exemptions in favor of religious seminary studies.Reforms passed in the Knesset in 2014 — later rolled back in 2015 — sought to do away with the exemptions and gradually increase ultra-Orthodox recruitment.Although many Haredi men have joined the IDF, their service is often reviled by other members of the community, leading to incidents of assault on ultra-Orthodox soldiers.“Police will not hesitate to continue to take a firm hand against anyone who attacks those in uniform anywhere, and will act to take criminal proceedings against them and bring them to justice,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in the statement. “Police are working hard to deal with the trend, by gathering intelligence information against perpetrators of the attacks and incitement against those in uniform, in order to preemptively identify and, as much as possible, prevent offenses being committed.”According to police, on November 11 an ultra-Orthodox IDF soldier walking in Beit Shemesh was set up on by a crowd of Haredi protesters. During the assault another IDF soldier, a serving ultra-Orthodox officer who was on leave from the army, was driving past with his family and stopped to help.He left the vehicle and went to extract the other soldier but the crowd then attacked him and his vehicle instead, throwing stones at the car and preventing him from driving away.Police did not report any injuries in the incident but opened an investigation.A week earlier earlier, during a protest against the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox draft-dodger, dozens of Haredi men blocked roads and threw stones, injuring a policeman in Beit Shemesh. Similar protests were held at the same time in Bnei Brak and Jerusalem.Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Palestinian leadership struggle tangled in deadly infighting-Gunmen loyal to Abbas rival battle with PA security forces in refugee camp over control of future of Fatah-By Mohammed Daraghmeh November 20, 2016, 3:29 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

BALATA REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Hatem Abu Riziq used to prowl the narrow alleyways of the West Bank’s largest refugee camp battling the Israeli army. But these days he is turning his gun’s barrel toward the Palestinian leadership.With the long-ruling Palestinian Fatah faction torn by rivalries, fierce shootouts between Palestinian security forces and Fatah-aligned gunmen have erupted in recent months, plunging the Balata camp into unrest and lawlessness.The violence, much of it directed at a Fatah leadership seen as corrupt and out of touch, comes as the movement prepares to hold an overdue leadership conference at the end of the month and reflects a combustible power struggle between the faction’s aging leader, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and exiled rival Mohammed Dahlan, a former top aide who has the backing of some gunmen and disaffected Fatah activists.“I no longer want to fight Israel. I’m not willing to die for these officials who are only taking care of their families and letting us suffer,” said Abu Riziq, 30, who spent nearly seven years in an Israeli prison for assisting in a suicide bombing.The violence has left about a dozen people dead this year. Observers warn it could spiral out of control the longer that Fatah remains divided.Abbas, 82, is pushing for leadership elections in his Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization, an umbrella movement dominated by Fatah, before the end of the year, as part of what officials say is largely an elaborate attempt to cement his power and block Dahlan’s return.Abbas has no plans to step down or designate a successor, despite a recent health scare in which doctors ordered an unscheduled heart exam prompted by complaints of fatigue. Those elected to top Fatah and PLO posts could form a pool of potential successors, though none would likely challenge Abbas as long as he is in office.The last Fatah convention was held in 2009, and one should have taken place in 2014. Abbas repeatedly delayed it, both because Dahlan still enjoyed strong support and because the Palestinian leader had no great interest in making changes. Since then, many Dahlan followers have been purged from Fatah.Abbas’ fierce opposition to Dahlan’s return is both personal and political.The two men, who had been close for years, fell out after Dahlan made thinly veiled corruption allegations against Abbas’ two businessman sons, Yasser and Tarek, in 2010. A Palestinian court has since convicted Dahlan in absentia on corruption charges, and he would face arrest if he attempted to return to the West Bank without Abbas’ blessing. He now lives in exile in Abu Dhabi.Fatah leadership elections are tentatively set for November 29, to be followed a month later by a vote for the PLO’s main decision-making body, the Executive Committee.While the internal elections are being held to revive the flagging appeal of Fatah and the PLO, organizations seen as stale and ossified, the upcoming convention is whipping up the tensions that have sparked waves of internecine violence around the West Bank. Clashes have spread to Jenin, another city in the northern West Bank, and to the Amari refugee camp near Ramallah.“The fighting in the streets is a sign of the fighting within the movement, and it’s a small scenario of what will happen if the succession battle takes place,” said Jihad Harb, a Palestinian analyst.The clashes have also been fueled by the tough economic situation in the West Bank, where the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, the area’s largest employer, can no longer dole out jobs to its supporters the way it used to.Each side is believed to be pumping funds to supporters, among them armed men, in a bid to buy loyalty. Palestinian officials have accused Dahlan, who receives financial support from the United Arab Emirates, of purposely fomenting chaos to pressure Abbas.Palestinian police say their incursions into Balata, a teeming slum of 20,000 people crammed into just one square kilometer (less than half a square mile), are an attempt to arrest 10 gunmen wanted for a number of crimes, including murder.Gunmen like Abu Riziq have defended their turf, and the resulting clashes have struck fear in the camp’s residents. On Wednesday, a gun-battle between Palestinian police and gunmen in the nearby city of Nablus killed a 39-year-old woman caught in the crossfire.Akram Rajoub, the governor of Nablus, said the raids are meant to arrest criminals whom the gunmen are protecting. He said the gunmen are fighting the police “in an attempt to weaken the Palestinian Authority,” adding that “they are being provided with expensive guns and ammunition to fight us.”He did not provide evidence or say where the guns have come from, but residents agree outside forces are involved because of the steep price of the weapons.The Palestinian Authority has struggled to disarm militants since the end of the second Palestinian uprising in 2005, and some parts of the West Bank are still flush with weapons.Israel has been cracking down on weapons in Palestinian hands, shuttering gun-producing factories and seizing caches, but illicit trade continues nonetheless. Military-grade M16s, bought from the Israeli underworld or produced in makeshift Palestinian factories, are the weapon of choice, but gunmen also use handguns and more crude arms based on the Swedish “Carl Gustav” sub-machine gun.The gunmen deny Dahlan is providing the money for their weapons. They described gun buying and selling as a legitimate occupation for men who “are jobless and need to make a living.” But with the Israeli crackdown driving up prices, it remains unclear how these men can afford M16s that cost upward of $15,000 apiece.Dozens of M16 guns were displayed in a recent parade in the camp to mark the death of Fatah’s founder, the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Abu Riziq delivered a speech during the event, surrounded by men armed with M16s, as he criticized the Palestinian Authority for the raids into the camp.Abu Riziq and other gunmen are digging in their heels, vowing not to lay down their arms so long as Abbas remains in power.“We will never vote for Abbas again,” said Abu Riziq. “If he remains, we will remain suffering.”

Palestinian leadership may choose Abbas’s successor, and tear itself apart-An imminent Fatah congress in Ramallah will shape the future of the Palestinian movement, laying bare its rivalries and its rifts-By Avi Issacharoff November 20, 2016, 3:23 pm-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL

On November 29, in the muqata’a in Ramallah, 1,400 members of Fatah will hold the organization’s Seventh General Congress in the recently opened Ahmad Shukeiri Conference Hall, which is named for the Palestine Liberation Organization’s first chairman. On the third day of the conference, they will elect Fatah’s leadership, the Central Committee, which — it seems likely — will, at some subsequent stage, decide who Mahmoud Abbas’s successor will be.This is not as it should be. According to Palestinian law, if the president is unable to continue in the position, the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, the parliament, is supposed to stand in for him, at least until general elections are held. But the Palestinian Legislative Council has not met since 2007, and its speaker happens to be Sheikh Aziz Duwaik — a high-ranking member of Hamas. No one in Fatah plans to allow Duwaik to serve as president, not even temporarily.It is therefore quite likely that President Abbas’s “temporary” replacement, who could become permanent, will be chosen by the PLO’s Executive Committee, the organization’s leadership. That PLO’s Executive Committee, in turn, is composed mainly of Fatah delegates. Hence the significance of the Fatah Central Committee elections: These Palestinian leaders will choose a candidate for the PLO leadership — and, for all practical purposes, for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority as well.At this month’s congress, 18 Fatah Central Committee will be chosen. Soon afterwards, they themselves will choose four additional Fatah members to join the committee. Abbas himself, chairman of Fatah and chairman of the PLO, will also join, making a total of 23 members. They will elect a secretary-general of the Central Committee, who will be considered the acting chairman of Fatah. Whoever is chosen for this position will naturally become one of the leading candidates to be appointed Fatah’s chairman after Abbas’s departure, and to succeed him as rais.Who, then, is likely to win the coveted post of secretary-general of the Fatah Central Committee? Who will be the members of that committee? It’s far from clear. Quite a few names are being mentioned, none of them surprising.One thing we can say for certain is who will not be at the general conference or serve on the Central Committee: Abbas’s great rival, Mohammad Dahlan.Indeed, one of the unstated goals of the upcoming conference is to keep Dahlan’s associates out — and it seems that Abbas has so far succeeded in doing so. He recently threw dozens of Dahlan’s supporters out of Fatah and told Egypt that he was not willing to postpone the conference — acts that have led to a severe increase in tension between Cairo and Ramallah.The bottom line: Dahlan’s camp, and Dahlan himself, will be kept out of the assembly and out of the circle of Fatah’s decision-makers.Dahlan, whom Abbas expelled from the Palestinian territories in early 2011, is considering how to respond. At one point, his supporters in Gaza threatened to hold their own conference in the Strip to parallel the general conference in Ramallah. But now Dahlan’s associates are quietly indicating that they are looking into the option of establishing a whole new movement. Refusing to call it a split within Fatah, they are talking of calling themselves the “original Fatah.”If this threat should be carried out, it could constitute a historic split within Fatah. Dahlan would try to recruit prominent Fatah activists from all over the West Bank who are on his side, such as Jamal Tirawi and Jihad Tummaleh. He would also likely present it as a temporary movement, to operate until Abbas is removed from power.But this would be a high-risk strategy for Dahlan. If Fatah’s next leader should turn out to be an ally of Abbas or a long-time rival of Dahlan’s, such as Jibril Rajoub, he could be sentencing himself to long-term exile.-The soccer chief-Jibril Rajoub, meantime, has emerged as a prominent contender in the elections for the Central Committee, and also for the position of secretary-general. The Palestinian Football Association Chairman, Rajoub has used the sport to build himself up politically in recent years, acquiring many fans among Fatah’s members. The largest number of delegates to the Ramallah conference will be coming from the Hebron sector, Rajoub’s home court. (He was born in Hebron-area Dura.)-Ex-security chief Rajoub has also allied himself with other figures who are considered highly influential in Fatah’s upper ranks, such as Mahmoud Aloul, Hussein al-Sheikh, and, some say, Palestinian intelligence chief Majid Faraj. While Faraj is not running for a seat on the Central Committee, he may still be brought on board by the Central Committee’s elected members as one of the four appointees. Former top PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat may also be appointed to one of those four positions due to his closeness to Abbas.Another important camp in these elections is that of Marwan Barghouti, the would-be Abbas successor who is serving five life-terms in Israeli jail for orchestrating Second Intifada murders.Two of his close associates, Qadura Fares and Ahmed Ghanem, are seeking seats on the Fatah Central Committee.But the most important camp is that of Abbas himself. While it is not yet fully clear who he wants to bring into the Central Committee, several of his “recommended ones” will likely be elected, as happened at the previous congress in 2009. Erekat and Faraj are worth watching in this regard.Several more independent figures, such as Yasser Arafat’s nephew Nasser el-Qidwa, Mohammad Shtayyeh, and Tawfik Tirawi, are also seeking Central Committee seats.Elections for the second most important Fatah body, the Revolutionary Council, will also be held at this congress. Quite a few unknowns are running, as are journalists (how could they not?). Among them are Amira Hanania, a well-known presenter on Palestinian television, and Nasser Abu Baker, a reporter for Radio Falastin. Abu Baker, who used to maintain close ties with his Israeli colleagues, has boycotted Israeli journalists since he began nurturing his political career.There will also be a rearguard action at the congress by the members of the old generation, such as Abbas Zaki and Zakariya Al-Agha, who are trying to keep themselves in the leadership, though they have little chance of doing so. Zaki, for example, is holding many parlor meetings and assemblies in the Hebron sector in hopes of boosting his status.How does the Palestinian public regard this congress? With a great deal of indifference, and in some cases outright hostility. Fatah has not managed to improve its status or image in the public’s eyes over the past several years, giving rise to the demand by Barghouti’s camp to “update” its platform. Barghouti’s supporters want Fatah to issue a statement at the close of the conference in support of “resistance by peaceful methods” (al-muqawama al-silmiyya) — in other words, demonstrations.-A divorce from the Arab world-As noted, a dark cloud looms over the upcoming congress and the elections — the threat of a possible split the next day if Dahlan and his supporters should decide to form a competing movement. But Abbas and the PA have an even bigger problem than Dahlan or his emissaries in the West Bank, who have been trying to heat things up against the PA in many refugee camps.A severe, unprecedented crisis has broken out between the Palestinian Authority and the moderate Arab world. Abbas is close to cutting off relations with the Sunni Arab states, Egypt and Saudi Arabia first among them. Cairo stands behind Dahlan and encourages his various activities. Saudi Arabia has suspended its financial aid to the PA. The United Arab Emirates is giving Dahlan official protection, and Jordan could not care less about what happens in Ramallah.Together only with part of Fatah, Abbas, 82, stands alone, in near-isolation, against Hamas, the State of Israel, the Arab countries, and his own enemy from within — Mohammad Dahlan.And yet there is no shortage of would-be successors.

Canada's national bird loon-acy: Twitter reacts to the whisky jack-[CBC]-November 19, 2016-YAHOONEWS

After a countrywide vote, the Royal Canadian Geographical Society has ended its two-year National Bird Project and unveiled its pick for Canada's newest national symbol.In the end, the whisky jack — also known as the grey jay or the Canada jay — prevailed over the common loon, black-capped chickadee, snowy owl and Canada goose.The loon actually led the national poll with nearly 14,000 votes out of the 50,000 cast. The grey jay didn't even make second place — that went to the snowy owl, with the jay falling third.But a spokesperson said staff vetoed the loon and snowy owl because they are already provincial symbols in Ontario and Quebec.The decision, of course, ruffled some feathers with Canadians.The society will now lobby the federal government to adopt the whisky jack as the nation's official bird to mark Canada's 150th birthday in 2017.With files from Lien Yeung.

Best weather satellite ever built rockets into space-[The Canadian Press]-November 20, 2016-YAHOONEWS

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The most advanced weather satellite ever built rocketed into space Saturday night, part of an $11 billion effort to revolutionize forecasting and save lives.This new GOES-R spacecraft will track U.S. weather as never before: hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, volcanic ash clouds, wildfires, lightning storms, even solar flares. Indeed, about 50 TV meteorologists from around the country converged on the launch site — including NBC's Al Roker — along with 8,000 space program workers and guests."What's so exciting is that we're going to be getting more data, more often, much more detailed, higher resolution," Roker said. In the case of tornadoes, "if we can give people another 10, 15, 20 minutes, we're talking about lives being saved."Think superhero speed and accuracy for forecasting. Super high-definition TV, versus black-and-white."Really a quantum leap above any satellite NOAA has ever flown," said Stephen Volz, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's director of satellites."For the American public, that will mean faster, more accurate weather forecasts and warnings," Volz said earlier in the week. "That also will mean more lives saved and better environmental intelligence" for government officials responsible for hurricane and other evacuations.Airline passengers also stand to benefit, as do rocket launch teams. Improved forecasting will help pilots avoid bad weather and help rocket scientists know when to call off a launch.NASA declared success 3 1/2 hours after liftoff, following separation from the upper stage.The first in a series of four high-tech satellites, GOES-R hitched a ride on an unmanned Atlas V rocket, delayed an hour by rocket and other problems. NOAA teamed up with NASA for the mission.The satellite — valued by NOAA at $1 billion — is aiming for a 22,300-mile-high equatorial orbit. There, it will join three aging spacecraft with 40-year-old technology, and become known as GOES-16. After months of testing, this newest satellite will take over for one of the older ones. The second satellite in the series will follow in 2018. All told, the series should stretch to 2036.GOES stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite. The first was launched in 1975.GOES-R's premier imager — one of six science instruments — will offer three times as many channels as the existing system, four times the resolution and five times the scan speed, said NOAA program director Greg Mandt. A similar imager is also flying on a Japanese weather satellite.Typically, it will churn out full images of the Western Hemisphere every 15 minutes and the continental United States every five minutes. Specific storm regions will be updated every 30 seconds.Forecasters will get pictures "like they've never seen before," Mandt promised.A first-of-its-kind lightning mapper, meanwhile, will take 500 snapshots a second.This next-generation GOES program — $11 billion in all — includes four satellites, an extensive land system of satellite dishes and other equipment, and new methods for crunching the massive, nonstop stream of expected data.Hurricane Matthew, interestingly enough, delayed the launch by a couple weeks. As the hurricane bore down on Florida in early October, launch preps were put on hold. Matthew stayed far enough offshore to cause minimal damage to Cape Canaveral, despite some early forecasts that suggested a direct strike.___Online:NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov/ NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/ Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press.

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