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
Old City bathed in blue and white ahead of Jerusalem Day-It’s the start of a busy week for the holy city, which is also bedecked in US flags as the country gears up to host President Trump-By Times of Israel staff May 21, 2017, 12:33 am
The walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were bathed in the blue and white of the Israeli flag on Saturday night, as Israel entered a week of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the reunification of the city.The eve of May 23 marks the beginning of Jerusalem Day, which commemorates that capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, reuniting the city and bringing the Temple Mount and Western Wall back under Jewish control.During Saturday night’s event, a sound and light show was projected onto the walls of the Old City, including the Israeli flag and iconic images from the war.It’s the start of a busy week for the city, which is also bedecked in American flags as the country gears up to host US President Donald Trump, who is due on Monday.There was hope that Trump might announce the moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, or recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, during the visit, but recent indications point to him not fulfilling his campaign promises in en effort to get peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians back on track.The Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.
Arab MK visits Temple Mount despite lawmaker ban-Masud Ghnaim says he was participating in pre-Ramadan event, denies provocation ahead of Trump visit-By Times of Israel staff May 20, 2017, 11:48 pm
An Arab-Israeli lawmaker visited the Temple Mount on Saturday, defying a ban on Knesset members going onto the holy site, before being escorted away by Israeli police.MK Masud Ghnaim of the Joint List’s Islamic Movement Faction said he went up to the Temple Mount as part of an annual event preparing the site for the Muslim holy moth of Ramadan which starts Friday.Knesset lawmakers have been banned from visiting the Temple Mount since November 2015 as part of an attempt to reduce tensions amid an uptick in terror attacks against Israelis that included car-ramming and stabbing attacks.Ghnaim said he went up to “bless the dozens of Arab volunteers who came to Al-Aqsa to renovate and clean ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, an even that has been held every year for a long time and to fulfill my right to pray in the mosque.”Ghnaim said he objects to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ban on lawmakers going up because “the Al Aqsa compound is occupied territory and a holy site to Muslims and this decision infringes on out freedom of religion and worship in a site that is holy to us.”In September 2015, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians escalated into near-daily attacks amid false speculation that Israel sought to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, under which Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray, at the site. Israel has repeatedly denied seeking any change to these long-standing understandings which have been in place since 1967. The site is managed by an Islamic foundation under the auspices of Jordan — the Waqf — but Israel controls access.The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest site in Islam. High-profile visits by Israeli officials and rumors of changes to the status quo have preceded outbursts of violence.On Saturday, Ghnaim was spotted by Israeli police who escorted him off the site. Israeli officials believe he was trying to stir up tensions ahead of the visit of US President Donald Trump, who arrives in Israel on Monday.Trump is set to visit the Western Wall in a private visit the following day.Ghnaim denied he was stirring up trouble.“I don’t see any provocation in Arab lawmakers wanting to go into a mosque and pray there,” he said, adding that “there is no connection between my visit and the planned visit of President Trump.”In late March, Netanyahu indicated he would consider lifting the ban on lawmakers entering after three months — a period that would avoid a series of sensitive dates including the Trump visit, Ramadan and Israel’s celebrations of capturing Judaism’s holiest site in the 1967 Six Day War.Netanyahu’s statement came after a Jewish lawmaker from his party, Yehudah Glick, appealed to the Supreme Court over the ban.
In Western Europe, Israel went from darling to divisive in 50 years-A vulnerable Jewish state in 1967 garnered widespread support on the Continent. Today’s strong and viable country is highly criticized — but not in Russia-By Cnaan Liphshiz May 21, 2017, 1:26 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Shortly after the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967, Ronny Naftaniel was soliciting donations on the street and putting a lot of money into a box emblazoned with the words “for Israel.”An Amsterdam Jew who was 19 that year, Naftaniel was one of many pro-Israel activists across Western Europe who collected the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars from individuals supportive of Israel in its fight against Arab neighbors who were widely perceived as the more powerful aggressors.In Holland especially, the war triggered a popular mobilization by ordinary citizens that featured massive blood drives, group prayers at churches, solidarity rallies and a bumper sticker campaign that was so successful that for a time it rendered ubiquitous the slogan “I stand behind Israel.” Dutch corporations and trade unions mobilized their members to raise millions for Israel.“There was a genuine anxiety in society for Israel’s fate and relief when it prevailed,” recalled Naftaniel, the longtime head of the Hague-based Center for Information and Documentation on Israel until his retirement in 2012. “Both led to extraordinary affection and goodwill, also in the media. It was universal and unifying.”Today, however, Israel is a divisive issue in the Netherlands and across Western Europe, where the mainstream media occasionally question Israel’s very right to exist amid criticism over its perceived occupation of Palestinian land captured in 1967. On the street, expressions of solidarity with Israel often invite attacks by pro-Palestinian Muslims and the left, and are dwarfed by mass demonstrations against Israel that regularly feature anti-Semitic chants.Meanwhile, the continent’s east has made the opposite journey: Whereas in 1967 merely mentioning Israel could lead to imprisonment, the Jewish state is now widely cherished in Eastern Europe and Russia as an ally and model for success.These profound shifts, which may affect the future of European Jewry, are rooted in changes far wider than merely how certain societies view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, they reflect dramatic developments in the value systems, demographics and economies both of Israel and of the continent to which it has strong cultural ties.‘We were deeply worried about Israel’s future and this anxiety was something shared across Norwegian society’Ervin Kohn, a Jewish community leader in Norway, was preparing for his bar mitzvah when the Six Day War broke out.“In my family we were deeply worried about Israel’s future before and during the war, and this anxiety was something shared across Norwegian society,” he said. “Today, it would be different.”Last week, Norway’s largest workers’ union escalated its anti-Israel rhetoric to include a call for a total boycott of the country. And in Holland, where trade unions in 1967 donated millions to Israel’s defense, members of the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions in January debated boycotting Israel during a workshop (no decision was made and the federation has no policy of boycotting Israel). Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators regularly hold rallies calling for a boycott of Israel opposite the main entrance of the Bijenkorf department store in Amsterdam, which in 1967 collected funds for Israel.Radical changes also happened in Sweden, where Israel was so popular in the 1960s that it was a preferred destination for thousands of volunteers to kibbutzim and for decades to come. Last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Sweden is “not a noted friend of Israel” after its foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, blamed Israel for “executing” Palestinians who tried to kill Israelis and accused Israel of motivating terrorist attacks in Europe.Kohn traces the change in attitude on Israel primarily to how “Israeli governments were dragging their feet” in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians, he said. Kohn advocates applying equal pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to make peace, but in Norway Israel is “not perceived as having done what they could to fulfill the Palestinian national aspirations,” he added.Across Western Europe, activists critical of Israel have called the Jewish state on its treatment of Palestinians, including in exhibitions held in churches about the detention of children, alleged torture and the slaying of civilians during rounds of fighting with Palestinian and other terrorist groups.But the Dutch chief rabbi, Binyomin Jacobs, who was 18 in 1967, sees the changing attitudes to Israel as owing also to demographic changes inside Western Europe that have little to do with Israel.The increase in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment in Western Europe cannot be understood, Jacobs argued, without taking into account the arrival there since the 1970s of millions of Muslim Arabs and Turks.“The people who riot at anti-Israel rallies, who throw firebombs on houses with Israeli flags, who chant ‘Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas’ on the street, they do not act out of frustration with this or that policy,” he told JTA. “They are often immigrants from Muslim countries where anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism is just a normal part of upbringing.”In 2014, demonstrators at an anti-Israel demonstration in Belgium shouted about killing Jews in Antwerp. The Hague in the Netherlands, France, Germany and many other places saw other anti-Israel events. That year, as Israel was fighting Hamas in Gaza, a woman who flew an Israeli flag in her Amsterdam home had firebombs hurled at her balcony. Nine synagogues in France were also attacked during hostilities.While public attitudes toward Israel have soured in Western Europe, they have improved beyond recognition in the formerly communist east, according to Jehoshua Raskin, a Chabad rabbi who works in Russia and was born in 1948 in Nizhny Novgorod east of Moscow.Raskin and his mother were called traitors by KGB officers who threatened to have them jailed in 1967 over the Raskins’ request to leave Russia for Israel.“Now Israel, which was demonized during communism as an archenemy of ‘our Arab brothers’ and as a capitalist villain, is synonymous with success in Russia,” said Raskin, who was 18 when the war hit.Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations at a a festive event at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Upon his arrival in the Russian capital, Netanyahu was greeted with a red carpet and marching band. His wife, Sara, was given pink flowers.“We have a solid foundation of trust and understanding to rely on as we make plans for the future,” Putin said during the visit.Under Putin, “Jewish communities that once distanced themselves from anything Israeli to stay safe are now celebrating cultural events with Israeli flags,” said Chaim Chesler, founder of Limmud FSU, a Jewish educational group that has been working in the former Soviet Union since 1992.‘Jewish communities that once distanced themselves from anything Israeli are now celebrating cultural events with Israeli flags’Soviet hostility to Israel also has made Israel popular with enemies of Russia across Eastern Europe, Chesler said. The same applies to Finland, added Gideon Bolotowsky, a former leader of that country’s Jewish community. Widespread sympathy for Israel exists to this day in Finland, he added, where pro-Israel rallies organized by Christian supporters of the Jewish state typically dwarf anti-Israel events.“You have to remember that in comparison to other European countries, Finland has very few Muslims,” Bolotowsky noted. (According to a US State Department report from 2016, Finland has 65,000 Muslims, constituting about 1 percent of the population).In Western European countries with larger Muslim populations, hostility toward Israel is being adopted increasingly by politicians seeking Muslim votes.In the Netherlands, the general elections in March saw a radical pro-Islam party win parliament representation for the first time. The party, DENK, supports a blanket boycott of the Jewish state, and its leader last year refused to shake Netanyahu’s hand during a visit to the Hague.And in France, the current leader of the Socialist Party, Benoit Hamon, spoke with surprising candor about the need to factor in Muslim sensibilities in devising a policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.In a 2014 interview, Hamon said that supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state was the Socialists’ “best way to recuperate our electorate in the suburbs and the neighborhoods” – code for Muslim voters — “who did not support the pro-Israeli position taken by President Francois Hollande.”‘When Israel emerged as a powerful and robust entity, the Palestinians took on that role’In Sweden, Israel was popular in ’67 because it was perceived as the underdog, according to George Braun, the leader of the Jewish community of Gothenburg.“Then, when Israel emerged as a powerful and robust entity, the Palestinians took on that role,” he said. Additionally, “the media in Sweden have become biased against Israel.”Yet Braun says he does not miss the days when Israel was more popular in Sweden.“It was nice to have everyone on your side, of course,” he said, “but I prefer a heavily criticized Israel that is strong and viable than a weak and uncertain one that is universally loved.”
Palestinian cleric says US, Israel try to control Arabs’ mood with drugs-Anti-Semitic tirade aired on official Palestinian TV includes bizarre moments of praise for Israeli, Jewish scientific achievements-By Times of Israel staff May 20, 2017, 12:29 am
A Palestinian cleric alleged that the US and India are involved in a global plot to harm Muslims and Islam through the use of narcotics, while pointing the main finger of blame at Israel, in a tirade mixing classic anti-Semitism with bizarre expressions of esteem for the Jewish State’s achievements.Cleric Imad Hamatu began his address, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV last week, by calling on Muslim not to take allies among the Jews and Muslims.In his address, translated and edited by the NGO Middle East Media Research Institute, Hamatu called Israel an “alien state and cancerous tumor.”He lamented that “many intellectuals are now talking about coexistence with it, and about extending a hand in peace, saying that Israel is a part of the region.”Hamatu notes that the Arabs and Palestinians have “started listening to Arab Idol and similar shows, which originated in the West and were marketed in an Israeli packaging, so that our sons would accept them, and we would engage in those televised contests, to the point that our minds and our culture began to coexist with that occupier. They Judaized the land, then the culture, and the danger now is that they will Judaize the Arab mind.”He said the Jews and Israelis’ “mode of operation has always been to spread corruption upon the land.”The Jews, Hamatu continued, “own the media, the finances, and the press. They are behind all plans.”He subsequent comments seem to be complimentary: “5.5% of Israel’s budget goes toward scientific research. They have reached outer space and have obtained the secrets of all the countries. They have managed to put the media to good use.”Hamatu’s address goes on a tangent into some bizarre and conspiratorial allegations:What have the [Jews] been doing in order to spread this corruption? They have methods that they have put into use: First, they instigate unrest and domestic wars in the Arab world. Second, they spread sectarian fanaticism in the [Arab] family, home, and country. Then, they spread corruption, prostitution, and sex. There is a unit in the global American intelligence agency, which is called “the Unit for Controlling the World’s Mood.” What do they designate for Gaza, Jordan, and the Levant? Tramadol, narcotic pills, sex, the soccer of Barca and Real Madrid, fashion houses… They pump it for hours through the media. An economy expert told me that the Tramadol is manufactured in special factories in India, then it is shipped to Israel, and from Israel, it is spread, through the Sinai, to the entire region. [This is the work of] “the Unit for Controlling the World’s Mood.” [They control] what you and your children think.He laments that “our nation” – it is unclear whether he is referring to the Palestinians or to the pan-Arab “ummah” – “today is at the tail end of the list: We have no science and no education.”Then his address returns to seeming praise: “At a time when 32 Israeli scientists have won the Nobel Prize in various scientific fields, only six Arabs have received these accolades. Why is our nation backward?”His answer to this rhetorical question: “Because we follow the Israelites in the exact way Allah has warned us against.”
Palestinian teen shot during alleged car-ramming dies of wounds-Fatima Jibrin Taqatqa, 16, was hit by IDF gunfire when she plowed into a bus stop at the Etzion Junction in March-By Times of Israel staff May 21, 2017, 4:56 am
A Palestinian teenager who was shot by soldiers in March, allegedly while attempting to ram Israelis with a car at the Etzion Junction in the central West Bank, died Saturday in a Jerusalem hospital.The girl, 16-year-old Fatima Jibrin Taqatqa of the nearby village of Beit Fajjar, was hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center with a severe head wound after the incident.Her death was reported by Palestinian media and confirmed to The Times of Israel by a hospital worker.No Israelis were injured in the incident, though a 28-year-old Israeli woman in “advanced stages of pregnancy” was taken to a hospital after experiencing a panic attack, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.Taqatqa was critically injured from the crash and IDF gunfire, according to Arab media. She received medical treatment from the Israel Defense Forces before she was taken to the hospital, MDA said at the time.Surveillance footage from the scene, first posted on social media and later released by the IDF, showed the car veer across multiple lands of traffic and crash into the metal bollards surrounding the bus stop.According to the military, Taqatqa specifically targeted the troops stationed at the junction, but both soldiers and civilians could be seen standing at the bus stop.The Etzion Junction’s bus stop and hitchhiking post was the scene of a number of terror attacks in late 2015 and early 2016, including both car-rammings and shootings.The busy junction sits at a major crossroads in the Etzion settlement bloc, between Jerusalem and Hebron.Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
28 And when these things begin to come to pass,(ALL THE PROPHECY SIGNS FROM THE BIBLE) then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption (RAPTURE) draweth nigh.
29 And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree,(ISRAEL) and all the trees;(ALL INDEPENDENT COUNTRIES)
30 When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.(ISRAEL LITERALLY BECAME AND INDEPENDENT COUNTRY JUST BEFORE SUMMER IN MAY 14,1948.)
JOEL 2:3,30
3 A fire devoureth (ATOMIC BOMB) before them;(RUSSIAN-ARAB-MUSLIM ARMIES AGAINST ISRAEL) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(ATOMIC BOMB AFFECT)
ZECHARIAH 14:12-13
12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their eyes shall consume away in their holes,(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB) and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.(DISOLVED FROM ATOMIC BOMB)(BECAUSE NUKES HAVE BEEN USED ON ISRAELS ENEMIES)(GOD PROTECTS ISRAEL AND ALWAYS WILL)
13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.(1/2-3 BILLION DIE IN WW3)(THIS IS AN ATOMIC BOMB EFFECT)
EZEKIEL 20:47
47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein.
ZEPHANIAH 1:18
18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD'S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.
MALACHI 4:1
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;(FROM ATOMIC BOMBS) and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
And here are the bounderies of the land that Israel will inherit either through war or peace or God in the future. God says its Israels land and only Israels land. They will have every inch God promised them of this land in the future.
Egypt east of the Nile River, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, The southern part of Turkey and the Western Half of Iraq west of the Euphrates. Gen 13:14-15, Psm 105:9,11, Gen 15:18, Exe 23:31, Num 34:1-12, Josh 1:4.ALL THIS LAND ISRAEL WILL DEFINATELY OWN IN THE FUTURE, ITS ISRAELS NOT ISHMAELS LAND.12 TRIBES INHERIT LAND IN THE FUTURE
Old City bathed in blue and white ahead of Jerusalem Day-It’s the start of a busy week for the holy city, which is also bedecked in US flags as the country gears up to host President Trump-By Times of Israel staff May 21, 2017, 12:33 am
The walls of the Old City of Jerusalem were bathed in the blue and white of the Israeli flag on Saturday night, as Israel entered a week of celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of the reunification of the city.The eve of May 23 marks the beginning of Jerusalem Day, which commemorates that capture of East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War, reuniting the city and bringing the Temple Mount and Western Wall back under Jewish control.During Saturday night’s event, a sound and light show was projected onto the walls of the Old City, including the Israeli flag and iconic images from the war.It’s the start of a busy week for the city, which is also bedecked in American flags as the country gears up to host US President Donald Trump, who is due on Monday.There was hope that Trump might announce the moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, or recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, during the visit, but recent indications point to him not fulfilling his campaign promises in en effort to get peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians back on track.The Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.
Arab MK visits Temple Mount despite lawmaker ban-Masud Ghnaim says he was participating in pre-Ramadan event, denies provocation ahead of Trump visit-By Times of Israel staff May 20, 2017, 11:48 pm
An Arab-Israeli lawmaker visited the Temple Mount on Saturday, defying a ban on Knesset members going onto the holy site, before being escorted away by Israeli police.MK Masud Ghnaim of the Joint List’s Islamic Movement Faction said he went up to the Temple Mount as part of an annual event preparing the site for the Muslim holy moth of Ramadan which starts Friday.Knesset lawmakers have been banned from visiting the Temple Mount since November 2015 as part of an attempt to reduce tensions amid an uptick in terror attacks against Israelis that included car-ramming and stabbing attacks.Ghnaim said he went up to “bless the dozens of Arab volunteers who came to Al-Aqsa to renovate and clean ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, an even that has been held every year for a long time and to fulfill my right to pray in the mosque.”Ghnaim said he objects to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ban on lawmakers going up because “the Al Aqsa compound is occupied territory and a holy site to Muslims and this decision infringes on out freedom of religion and worship in a site that is holy to us.”In September 2015, tensions between Israelis and Palestinians escalated into near-daily attacks amid false speculation that Israel sought to change the status quo at the Temple Mount, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque, under which Jews are allowed to visit, but not pray, at the site. Israel has repeatedly denied seeking any change to these long-standing understandings which have been in place since 1967. The site is managed by an Islamic foundation under the auspices of Jordan — the Waqf — but Israel controls access.The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism and the third-holiest site in Islam. High-profile visits by Israeli officials and rumors of changes to the status quo have preceded outbursts of violence.On Saturday, Ghnaim was spotted by Israeli police who escorted him off the site. Israeli officials believe he was trying to stir up tensions ahead of the visit of US President Donald Trump, who arrives in Israel on Monday.Trump is set to visit the Western Wall in a private visit the following day.Ghnaim denied he was stirring up trouble.“I don’t see any provocation in Arab lawmakers wanting to go into a mosque and pray there,” he said, adding that “there is no connection between my visit and the planned visit of President Trump.”In late March, Netanyahu indicated he would consider lifting the ban on lawmakers entering after three months — a period that would avoid a series of sensitive dates including the Trump visit, Ramadan and Israel’s celebrations of capturing Judaism’s holiest site in the 1967 Six Day War.Netanyahu’s statement came after a Jewish lawmaker from his party, Yehudah Glick, appealed to the Supreme Court over the ban.
In Western Europe, Israel went from darling to divisive in 50 years-A vulnerable Jewish state in 1967 garnered widespread support on the Continent. Today’s strong and viable country is highly criticized — but not in Russia-By Cnaan Liphshiz May 21, 2017, 1:26 am-THE TIMES OF ISRAEL
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Shortly after the outbreak of the Six Day War in 1967, Ronny Naftaniel was soliciting donations on the street and putting a lot of money into a box emblazoned with the words “for Israel.”An Amsterdam Jew who was 19 that year, Naftaniel was one of many pro-Israel activists across Western Europe who collected the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars from individuals supportive of Israel in its fight against Arab neighbors who were widely perceived as the more powerful aggressors.In Holland especially, the war triggered a popular mobilization by ordinary citizens that featured massive blood drives, group prayers at churches, solidarity rallies and a bumper sticker campaign that was so successful that for a time it rendered ubiquitous the slogan “I stand behind Israel.” Dutch corporations and trade unions mobilized their members to raise millions for Israel.“There was a genuine anxiety in society for Israel’s fate and relief when it prevailed,” recalled Naftaniel, the longtime head of the Hague-based Center for Information and Documentation on Israel until his retirement in 2012. “Both led to extraordinary affection and goodwill, also in the media. It was universal and unifying.”Today, however, Israel is a divisive issue in the Netherlands and across Western Europe, where the mainstream media occasionally question Israel’s very right to exist amid criticism over its perceived occupation of Palestinian land captured in 1967. On the street, expressions of solidarity with Israel often invite attacks by pro-Palestinian Muslims and the left, and are dwarfed by mass demonstrations against Israel that regularly feature anti-Semitic chants.Meanwhile, the continent’s east has made the opposite journey: Whereas in 1967 merely mentioning Israel could lead to imprisonment, the Jewish state is now widely cherished in Eastern Europe and Russia as an ally and model for success.These profound shifts, which may affect the future of European Jewry, are rooted in changes far wider than merely how certain societies view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, they reflect dramatic developments in the value systems, demographics and economies both of Israel and of the continent to which it has strong cultural ties.‘We were deeply worried about Israel’s future and this anxiety was something shared across Norwegian society’Ervin Kohn, a Jewish community leader in Norway, was preparing for his bar mitzvah when the Six Day War broke out.“In my family we were deeply worried about Israel’s future before and during the war, and this anxiety was something shared across Norwegian society,” he said. “Today, it would be different.”Last week, Norway’s largest workers’ union escalated its anti-Israel rhetoric to include a call for a total boycott of the country. And in Holland, where trade unions in 1967 donated millions to Israel’s defense, members of the Dutch Federation of Trade Unions in January debated boycotting Israel during a workshop (no decision was made and the federation has no policy of boycotting Israel). Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian demonstrators regularly hold rallies calling for a boycott of Israel opposite the main entrance of the Bijenkorf department store in Amsterdam, which in 1967 collected funds for Israel.Radical changes also happened in Sweden, where Israel was so popular in the 1960s that it was a preferred destination for thousands of volunteers to kibbutzim and for decades to come. Last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Sweden is “not a noted friend of Israel” after its foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, blamed Israel for “executing” Palestinians who tried to kill Israelis and accused Israel of motivating terrorist attacks in Europe.Kohn traces the change in attitude on Israel primarily to how “Israeli governments were dragging their feet” in reaching a peace agreement with the Palestinians, he said. Kohn advocates applying equal pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to make peace, but in Norway Israel is “not perceived as having done what they could to fulfill the Palestinian national aspirations,” he added.Across Western Europe, activists critical of Israel have called the Jewish state on its treatment of Palestinians, including in exhibitions held in churches about the detention of children, alleged torture and the slaying of civilians during rounds of fighting with Palestinian and other terrorist groups.But the Dutch chief rabbi, Binyomin Jacobs, who was 18 in 1967, sees the changing attitudes to Israel as owing also to demographic changes inside Western Europe that have little to do with Israel.The increase in anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment in Western Europe cannot be understood, Jacobs argued, without taking into account the arrival there since the 1970s of millions of Muslim Arabs and Turks.“The people who riot at anti-Israel rallies, who throw firebombs on houses with Israeli flags, who chant ‘Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas’ on the street, they do not act out of frustration with this or that policy,” he told JTA. “They are often immigrants from Muslim countries where anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Semitism is just a normal part of upbringing.”In 2014, demonstrators at an anti-Israel demonstration in Belgium shouted about killing Jews in Antwerp. The Hague in the Netherlands, France, Germany and many other places saw other anti-Israel events. That year, as Israel was fighting Hamas in Gaza, a woman who flew an Israeli flag in her Amsterdam home had firebombs hurled at her balcony. Nine synagogues in France were also attacked during hostilities.While public attitudes toward Israel have soured in Western Europe, they have improved beyond recognition in the formerly communist east, according to Jehoshua Raskin, a Chabad rabbi who works in Russia and was born in 1948 in Nizhny Novgorod east of Moscow.Raskin and his mother were called traitors by KGB officers who threatened to have them jailed in 1967 over the Raskins’ request to leave Russia for Israel.“Now Israel, which was demonized during communism as an archenemy of ‘our Arab brothers’ and as a capitalist villain, is synonymous with success in Russia,” said Raskin, who was 18 when the war hit.Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated 25 years of diplomatic relations at a a festive event at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. Upon his arrival in the Russian capital, Netanyahu was greeted with a red carpet and marching band. His wife, Sara, was given pink flowers.“We have a solid foundation of trust and understanding to rely on as we make plans for the future,” Putin said during the visit.Under Putin, “Jewish communities that once distanced themselves from anything Israeli to stay safe are now celebrating cultural events with Israeli flags,” said Chaim Chesler, founder of Limmud FSU, a Jewish educational group that has been working in the former Soviet Union since 1992.‘Jewish communities that once distanced themselves from anything Israeli are now celebrating cultural events with Israeli flags’Soviet hostility to Israel also has made Israel popular with enemies of Russia across Eastern Europe, Chesler said. The same applies to Finland, added Gideon Bolotowsky, a former leader of that country’s Jewish community. Widespread sympathy for Israel exists to this day in Finland, he added, where pro-Israel rallies organized by Christian supporters of the Jewish state typically dwarf anti-Israel events.“You have to remember that in comparison to other European countries, Finland has very few Muslims,” Bolotowsky noted. (According to a US State Department report from 2016, Finland has 65,000 Muslims, constituting about 1 percent of the population).In Western European countries with larger Muslim populations, hostility toward Israel is being adopted increasingly by politicians seeking Muslim votes.In the Netherlands, the general elections in March saw a radical pro-Islam party win parliament representation for the first time. The party, DENK, supports a blanket boycott of the Jewish state, and its leader last year refused to shake Netanyahu’s hand during a visit to the Hague.And in France, the current leader of the Socialist Party, Benoit Hamon, spoke with surprising candor about the need to factor in Muslim sensibilities in devising a policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.In a 2014 interview, Hamon said that supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state was the Socialists’ “best way to recuperate our electorate in the suburbs and the neighborhoods” – code for Muslim voters — “who did not support the pro-Israeli position taken by President Francois Hollande.”‘When Israel emerged as a powerful and robust entity, the Palestinians took on that role’In Sweden, Israel was popular in ’67 because it was perceived as the underdog, according to George Braun, the leader of the Jewish community of Gothenburg.“Then, when Israel emerged as a powerful and robust entity, the Palestinians took on that role,” he said. Additionally, “the media in Sweden have become biased against Israel.”Yet Braun says he does not miss the days when Israel was more popular in Sweden.“It was nice to have everyone on your side, of course,” he said, “but I prefer a heavily criticized Israel that is strong and viable than a weak and uncertain one that is universally loved.”
Palestinian cleric says US, Israel try to control Arabs’ mood with drugs-Anti-Semitic tirade aired on official Palestinian TV includes bizarre moments of praise for Israeli, Jewish scientific achievements-By Times of Israel staff May 20, 2017, 12:29 am
A Palestinian cleric alleged that the US and India are involved in a global plot to harm Muslims and Islam through the use of narcotics, while pointing the main finger of blame at Israel, in a tirade mixing classic anti-Semitism with bizarre expressions of esteem for the Jewish State’s achievements.Cleric Imad Hamatu began his address, which aired on Palestinian Authority TV last week, by calling on Muslim not to take allies among the Jews and Muslims.In his address, translated and edited by the NGO Middle East Media Research Institute, Hamatu called Israel an “alien state and cancerous tumor.”He lamented that “many intellectuals are now talking about coexistence with it, and about extending a hand in peace, saying that Israel is a part of the region.”Hamatu notes that the Arabs and Palestinians have “started listening to Arab Idol and similar shows, which originated in the West and were marketed in an Israeli packaging, so that our sons would accept them, and we would engage in those televised contests, to the point that our minds and our culture began to coexist with that occupier. They Judaized the land, then the culture, and the danger now is that they will Judaize the Arab mind.”He said the Jews and Israelis’ “mode of operation has always been to spread corruption upon the land.”The Jews, Hamatu continued, “own the media, the finances, and the press. They are behind all plans.”He subsequent comments seem to be complimentary: “5.5% of Israel’s budget goes toward scientific research. They have reached outer space and have obtained the secrets of all the countries. They have managed to put the media to good use.”Hamatu’s address goes on a tangent into some bizarre and conspiratorial allegations:What have the [Jews] been doing in order to spread this corruption? They have methods that they have put into use: First, they instigate unrest and domestic wars in the Arab world. Second, they spread sectarian fanaticism in the [Arab] family, home, and country. Then, they spread corruption, prostitution, and sex. There is a unit in the global American intelligence agency, which is called “the Unit for Controlling the World’s Mood.” What do they designate for Gaza, Jordan, and the Levant? Tramadol, narcotic pills, sex, the soccer of Barca and Real Madrid, fashion houses… They pump it for hours through the media. An economy expert told me that the Tramadol is manufactured in special factories in India, then it is shipped to Israel, and from Israel, it is spread, through the Sinai, to the entire region. [This is the work of] “the Unit for Controlling the World’s Mood.” [They control] what you and your children think.He laments that “our nation” – it is unclear whether he is referring to the Palestinians or to the pan-Arab “ummah” – “today is at the tail end of the list: We have no science and no education.”Then his address returns to seeming praise: “At a time when 32 Israeli scientists have won the Nobel Prize in various scientific fields, only six Arabs have received these accolades. Why is our nation backward?”His answer to this rhetorical question: “Because we follow the Israelites in the exact way Allah has warned us against.”
Palestinian teen shot during alleged car-ramming dies of wounds-Fatima Jibrin Taqatqa, 16, was hit by IDF gunfire when she plowed into a bus stop at the Etzion Junction in March-By Times of Israel staff May 21, 2017, 4:56 am
A Palestinian teenager who was shot by soldiers in March, allegedly while attempting to ram Israelis with a car at the Etzion Junction in the central West Bank, died Saturday in a Jerusalem hospital.The girl, 16-year-old Fatima Jibrin Taqatqa of the nearby village of Beit Fajjar, was hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center with a severe head wound after the incident.Her death was reported by Palestinian media and confirmed to The Times of Israel by a hospital worker.No Israelis were injured in the incident, though a 28-year-old Israeli woman in “advanced stages of pregnancy” was taken to a hospital after experiencing a panic attack, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service.Taqatqa was critically injured from the crash and IDF gunfire, according to Arab media. She received medical treatment from the Israel Defense Forces before she was taken to the hospital, MDA said at the time.Surveillance footage from the scene, first posted on social media and later released by the IDF, showed the car veer across multiple lands of traffic and crash into the metal bollards surrounding the bus stop.According to the military, Taqatqa specifically targeted the troops stationed at the junction, but both soldiers and civilians could be seen standing at the bus stop.The Etzion Junction’s bus stop and hitchhiking post was the scene of a number of terror attacks in late 2015 and early 2016, including both car-rammings and shootings.The busy junction sits at a major crossroads in the Etzion settlement bloc, between Jerusalem and Hebron.Judah Ari Gross contributed to this report.
