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)
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people(ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(UPROOTED ISRAELIS AND DIVIDED JERUSALEM)(THIS BRINGS ON WW3 BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED,WARNING TO ARABS-MUSLIMS AND THE WORLD).
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)
Former US Negotiator: Stop Giving PA Free Rein-US chief negotiator Dennis Ross pens NYT op/ed calling on the EU to 'stop giving Palestinians a pass.'-By Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 1/6/2015, 11:30 AM-israelnationalnews
The European Union (EU) and others in the international community need to stop enabling the Palestinian Arabs to make demands without making concessions, Dennis Ross, US peace talks mediator from 1993 to 2001, stated in an Op/Ed in the New York Times Sunday. Ross, who resigned from his post as Middle East adviser in 2011, relates that he met with a European official recently who praised the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s unilateral moves against Israel in international agencies and organizations, specifically the draft resolution PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas submitted to the United Nations (UN) Security Council last week.But Ross countered that a true Palestinian state depends, in his words, on the global community "giving Palestinians a pass" - and noted that the PA has rejected three separate peace deals, in 2000, in 2008, and in 2014."Palestinian political culture is rooted in a narrative of injustice; its anticolonialist [sic] bent and its deep sense of grievance treats concessions to Israel as illegitimate," Ross explained. "Compromise is portrayed as betrayal, and negotiations - which are by definition about mutual concessions - will inevitably force any Palestinian leader to challenge his people by making a politically costly decision.""But going to the United Nations does no such thing," he argued. "It puts pressure on Israel and requires nothing of the Palestinians. Resolutions are typically about what Israel must do and what Palestinians should get.""If saying yes is costly and doing nothing isn’t, why should we expect the Palestinians to change course?"Ross urged European leaders to "raise the cost of saying 'no' or doing nothing at all" for the PA in future negotiations - and, at the very least, to offer a "balanced" proposal for a peace deal which included land swaps, but also allowing "security arrangements that leave Israel able to defend itself by itself" and a resolution concretizing Israel's own character as a Jewish state. Ross added that he believes that the PA would nonetheless reject such a proposal, and demanded that it bear consequences in terms of international support after so many failed attempts to bring peace.
PA Formally Recognizes ICC Jurisdiction for Gaza War-In latest move to file war crimes charges against Israel, PA accepts Hague's jurisdiction for Operation Protective Edge.By Arutz Sheva Staff-First Publish: 1/6/2015, 8:06 AM-israelnationalnews
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday said the Palestinian Authority had formally recognized the court's jurisdiction to investigate crimes allegedly committed during last summer's Gaza war, according to AFP.The legal declaration would allow the ICC to scrutinize offenses allegedly committed since June 13, 2014, the start of Israel's military operation, but does not mean the court would automatically launch an investigation, it said.The Palestinian Authority (PA) have formally requested to join the Hague-based court in a move which opens the way for them to file suit against Israeli officials for alleged war crimes in Judea-Samaria, a request that has infuriated Israel.Acceptance of the ICC's jurisdiction differs from accession to the Rome Statute, the Court's founding treaty. The UN is still reviewing documents submitted by the Palestinian Authority to join the Court."On 1 January 2015, the Registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Herman von Hebel, received a document... by the Palestinian government declaring Palestine's acceptance of the jurisdiction of the ICC since 13 June 2014," the ICC said in a statement.It was on June 13 that Israel began a massive crackdown on terror in the PA after the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teenagers, triggering a series of events which led to a seven-week Gaza war."Acceptance of the ICC's jurisdiction does not automatically trigger an investigation," the court added.The ICC can prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 1, 2002, when the Rome Statute came into force.The ICC only has jurisdiction from that date onwards, but those joining after that time may nonetheless separately accept the authority of the court for the period before the statute entered into force for them.
Tit for tat?
The Palestinian Authority (PA) formally presented a request to the United Nations on Friday to join the ICC, in a move firmly opposed by both Israel and the United States. On Friday, Israel delayed the transfer of $127 million to the PA in retaliation for the initial step.Israel's freezing funds apportioned to the PA has been used as a political tactic before, as the PA is already struggling to dig itself out of at least $4.8 billion in debt. The PA regularly fails to stand by its agreements, and owes Israel staggering sums, including over 1.4 billion shekels (over $360 million) in unpaid electric bills.Similarly, the US said it is "reviewing" its $440 million aid package to the PA over the move, although technically membership to the ICC does not incur punishment - only a war crimes suit against Israel does, under American law.The PA has stated intent to file those charges against Israel in the Hague, and sources say that Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his aides are already preparing material to do so.However, Israel has already filed counter-suits; on Monday, legal rights group Shurat Hadin filed three more war crimes charges against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the terror group behind the PA, in the ICC. The PLO already faces criminal charges being levied against it in the US court system for terror attacks it committed during the early 2000s. But even if the PA files charges against Israel, legal rights experts say that having the ICC enter the fray of the Israeli-Arab conflict will ultimately harm the PA, Hamas, and the ICC itself - not Israel.In a recent interview, the PA's envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) admitted the PA has no hope of pressing charges against Israel in international courts - because Palestinian Arab terrorist groups are far worse violators of international law themselves.The desperate move follows the PA exhausting other international means of prosecuting Israel, after its draft resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem failed in a UN Security Council vote last week.
Israel: EU support for Palestine is 'biggest challenge'-05.01.15 @ 09:28-euobserver-By Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman has described EU support for Palestine as Israel’s top diplomatic challenge after a UN vote on withdrawal from the occupied territory.Speaking at a meeting of Israel’s European ambassadors in Jerusalem on Sunday (4 January), he said: "Our biggest challenge is not the Palestinian Authority and the Arab states, but Western countries … The best example here is the [UN] Security Council vote. Of its members, three EU countries participated in the vote and two voted with the Palestinians, France and Luxembourg, while one country, Britain, abstained”.He described Germany as the “principal anchor” of Israeli-EU relations.He noted that Israel should cultivate better ties due to its trade dependence on the bloc: "In terms of Israeli exports, Western Europe has this big market … We will have to deal with Western Europe, with the EU".But he accused some European politicians of anti-Semitism by comparing their statements to appeasement of Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II."Some European nations' conduct is reminiscent of 1938, just before the Munich Agreement … The conduct by countries like Sweden and Ireland is reminiscent of how [European powers] abandoned Czechoslovakia to its fate. Now they are making all kinds of excuses to abandon Israel”, he said."Sometimes, you are just amazed by the amount of lies, fabrications, and the distortion of reality you find in the records of meetings held by European parliaments. It's like another chapter in 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’.”The protocols are a fake Jewish “manifesto” for world domination circulated by 1930s Germany as justification for its purges. Lieberman spoke after the UN Security Council, following a US veto in a vote on Friday, rejected a Jordanian resolution calling on Israel to withdraw troops to 1967 lines.France is working on its own resolution giving Israel and Palestine two years to reach an accord or face French recognition of Palestinian statehood.Sweden recently became the first sitting EU state to recognise Palestine, while a string of national EU parliaments called for similar measures if there is no progress.For her part, the EU’s new foreign relations chief, Federica Mogherini, in a communique on the UN vote urged “both parties to resume negotiations urgently and to refrain from any action further undermining the viability of the two-state solution.”But Palestine’s bid, filed also on Friday, to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in order to prosecute Israeli soldiers for war crimes, met with a harsh reaction.Israel, in retaliation, froze transfers of more than €100 million of Palestinian tax revenues and has called on US lawmakers to suspend the €330 million a year in US aid which helps the Palestinian Authority pay its civil servants.The moves are set to leave the EU, which pays around €1 billion a year in aid to Palestine, as its only Western sponsor.Lieberman added the ICC development leaves Israel free to abandon its commitments to the Oslo process, a 1990s template for creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.“The first conclusion that can be made from the Palestinian Authority’s move is that the Oslo accords have collapsed,” he said.Israel’s intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz, noted in remarks on Army Radio that “if the Palestinian Authority doesn’t take one step back, I believe that we need to take much more drastic steps up to the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority”.
France warns Palestinians over escalating crisis with U.N. bid-Reuters-jan 6,15-yahoonews
PARIS (Reuters) - France warned the Palestinians on Tuesday against escalating a diplomatic battle with Israel after President Mahmoud Abbas said he would resubmit to the U.N. Security Council a resolution calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.The United States helped defeat the resolution, which also demands an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank, in a Security Council vote on Dec. 30. Abbas said on Sunday he hoped to resubmit the resolution "perhaps after a week".France, one of the Council's five permanent members, backed the resolution despite some reservations. France's parliament also backed Palestinian independence in a symbolic vote on Dec. 2 that underlined Europe's impatience with a stalled Middle East peace process.But Paris signaled concern that Abbas' diplomatic offensive -- he has also signed up to 20 international conventions including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court -- could harm chances for peace by antagonizing Israel."We are against the logic of letting this spiral (out of control)," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters."While we think the Palestinians have the right to move the status quo, at the same time there has to be an effort to find a consensus solution. Once you set this cycle off, you get results that you don't want one way or another."Abbas hopes that new countries which joined the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 1 will be more sympathetic to the Palestinian resolution, which demands an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and independence by late 2017.France had been working prior to the Dec. 30 vote on a separate resolution with Britain and Germany that aimed to set the parameters and a time frame for new peace talks."We worked on this resolution believing we could achieve a consensus but it wasn't possible," he said, indicating that France was likely to back a new Palestinian resolution provided the text remained broadly unchanged.However, Fabius questioned the wisdom of resubmitting the resolution, adding he would discuss the issue in coming days with Jordan, Egypt and other regional players."The real question is to understand what is behind this move. Is it to get an American veto with a new U.N. Security Council composition? Is it to reaffirm an attitude towards the Israeli government? I don't know."The United States, which has veto power as a permanent Council member, has pledged to block Abbas's plan, calling it one-sided and unproductive.(Reporting By John Irish and Marine Pennetier; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Hamas man sentenced by Israel to life for teen killings that led to Gaza war-Reuters-jan 6,15-yahoonews
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli military court on Tuesday sentenced a Palestinian to life imprisonment over the killing of three Israeli youths, whose abduction in the occupied West Bank set off a chain of events leading to the 50-day Gaza war last summer.The court found that Hussam Kawasmeh, a member of the militant Hamas Islamist group, planned the abduction in which Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, were shot dead while hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank in June.Kawasmeh was arrested in August and charged with murder. A three-judge panel sentenced him to three life terms, according to a court document released to the media.Two Hamas operatives suspected of having killed the youngsters after picking them up on a road near a Jewish settlement died in a firefight with Israeli forces at their West Bank hideout in September.The bodies of the three Israelis were found in the West Bank nearly three weeks after their disappearance.In an alleged revenge attack in July, a Palestinian teenager, Mohammed Abu Khudair, was abducted and burned to death in Jerusalem by three suspected Jewish assailants, who have since been charged with his murder.Khudair's death and sweeping arrests by Israel of suspected Hamas men across the West Bank led to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in East Jerusalem and cross-border rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.A seven-week-long Gaza war ensued in July and August in which, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were also killed.(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Jeffrey Heller/Jeremy Gaunt)
What Does Israel's Declaration of Independence Look Like?-Rare glimpse of declaration scroll given as it is photographed with special advanced technology to preserve original appearance.By Arutz Sheva Staff-First Publish: 1/6/2015, 5:47 PM-israelnationalnews
Israel's Declaration of Independence was removed from its special preservation facility on Tuesday in a rare event meant to photograph the cornerstone document establishing the renascent modern Jewish state of Israel.The scroll, which enshrines Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic country, was removed in a joint initiative of the Israel State Archives and Israel Antiquities Authority. It was photographed with special technology developed for the Dead Sea scrolls so as to preserve the original appearance of the scroll for future generations.An advanced multi-spectral photographic system that allows shooting different exposures at various wavelengths - from the visible to the near infrared region of the spectrum - gives information ranging from the texture of the scroll's material to its ink and surface topography.The near infrared exposure will allow characters that have faded over time to be seen as well, showing a precise image of the scroll as it was at its creation - and the creation of the modern state."Today the scroll is stored in an environment with special lighting and temperature conditions, in a secure and guarded facility of the Israel State Archives," said State Archivist Dr. Yaacov Lozowick. "Until a decision is made regarding how the scroll is to be exhibited to the public, we will continue performing various operations aimed at documenting, revealing and preserving the scroll for future generations."Explaining the procedure on Tuesdsay, Lozowick said "today’s photography is another step in this process after last year when the archive, with the assistance of the Israel National Heritage - Landmarks program, digitally photographed the scroll in collaboration with Google.”"With the unique technology we developed at the Israel Antiquities Authority together with the best scientists in the world, and generous assistance of the Leon Levy and Arcadia Foundations, we are happy to help not only in preserving the material heritage from the distant past but the recent cultural heritage as well," said Pnina Shor, director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority.Shor remarked on the symbolism of the photographing, saying "it is exciting and symbolic to document the Declaration of Independence today, one of the cornerstones of the State of Israel, with technology developed specifically for the Dead Sea scrolls - the earliest Hebrew texts, two thousand years old, which were first discovered on the eve of the establishment of the state, at the time when the Declaration of Independence was written."Dr. Mordechai Naor, a writer and historical researcher, described the ceremony proclaiming the state of Israel in his recent book "Great Friday."In it, he noted "because the ceremony was held in Tel Aviv, some of the signatories were unable to arrive because Jerusalem was under siege, and they signed the scroll only a month later, in 'spaces' that were left them specifically for this purpose.""Because the guest lists have not been found to this day, it is not known exactly who the 300 individuals were that were invited to the ceremony proclaiming the state. One person that was almost not allowed to enter was the designated Minister of Justice Pinchas Rosenblüth (Rosen) who forgot to bring his invitation. It was only after Ze'ev Sherf, Secretary of the Situation Committee, intervened was he permitted to enter and thus was also able to sign the Declaration of Independence," revealed Naor.The Declaration of Independence is the first document declaring Jewish sovereignty since the time of the Hasmonean kingdom over 2,000 years ago.The scroll was read as a proclamation of independence, on Friday, the 5th day of Ayar, 5708 (May 14, 1948) in the Tel Aviv Museum, then located at 16 Rothschild Street in the house of the city’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. Twenty-five members of the Provisional State Council signed the declaration and twelve others who were in besieged Jerusalem signed it later. The scroll is 117 cm long and 29.7 cm wide. It is made in three parts, and bound on the side with an interwoven thread and a wax seal.Amos Ben Gershom, GPO
ISAIAH 33:8
8 The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)
JOEL 3:2
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people(ISRAEL) and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.(UPROOTED ISRAELIS AND DIVIDED JERUSALEM)(THIS BRINGS ON WW3 BECAUSE JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED,WARNING TO ARABS-MUSLIMS AND THE WORLD).
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)
Former US Negotiator: Stop Giving PA Free Rein-US chief negotiator Dennis Ross pens NYT op/ed calling on the EU to 'stop giving Palestinians a pass.'-By Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 1/6/2015, 11:30 AM-israelnationalnews
The European Union (EU) and others in the international community need to stop enabling the Palestinian Arabs to make demands without making concessions, Dennis Ross, US peace talks mediator from 1993 to 2001, stated in an Op/Ed in the New York Times Sunday. Ross, who resigned from his post as Middle East adviser in 2011, relates that he met with a European official recently who praised the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s unilateral moves against Israel in international agencies and organizations, specifically the draft resolution PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas submitted to the United Nations (UN) Security Council last week.But Ross countered that a true Palestinian state depends, in his words, on the global community "giving Palestinians a pass" - and noted that the PA has rejected three separate peace deals, in 2000, in 2008, and in 2014."Palestinian political culture is rooted in a narrative of injustice; its anticolonialist [sic] bent and its deep sense of grievance treats concessions to Israel as illegitimate," Ross explained. "Compromise is portrayed as betrayal, and negotiations - which are by definition about mutual concessions - will inevitably force any Palestinian leader to challenge his people by making a politically costly decision.""But going to the United Nations does no such thing," he argued. "It puts pressure on Israel and requires nothing of the Palestinians. Resolutions are typically about what Israel must do and what Palestinians should get.""If saying yes is costly and doing nothing isn’t, why should we expect the Palestinians to change course?"Ross urged European leaders to "raise the cost of saying 'no' or doing nothing at all" for the PA in future negotiations - and, at the very least, to offer a "balanced" proposal for a peace deal which included land swaps, but also allowing "security arrangements that leave Israel able to defend itself by itself" and a resolution concretizing Israel's own character as a Jewish state. Ross added that he believes that the PA would nonetheless reject such a proposal, and demanded that it bear consequences in terms of international support after so many failed attempts to bring peace.
PA Formally Recognizes ICC Jurisdiction for Gaza War-In latest move to file war crimes charges against Israel, PA accepts Hague's jurisdiction for Operation Protective Edge.By Arutz Sheva Staff-First Publish: 1/6/2015, 8:06 AM-israelnationalnews
The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday said the Palestinian Authority had formally recognized the court's jurisdiction to investigate crimes allegedly committed during last summer's Gaza war, according to AFP.The legal declaration would allow the ICC to scrutinize offenses allegedly committed since June 13, 2014, the start of Israel's military operation, but does not mean the court would automatically launch an investigation, it said.The Palestinian Authority (PA) have formally requested to join the Hague-based court in a move which opens the way for them to file suit against Israeli officials for alleged war crimes in Judea-Samaria, a request that has infuriated Israel.Acceptance of the ICC's jurisdiction differs from accession to the Rome Statute, the Court's founding treaty. The UN is still reviewing documents submitted by the Palestinian Authority to join the Court."On 1 January 2015, the Registrar of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Herman von Hebel, received a document... by the Palestinian government declaring Palestine's acceptance of the jurisdiction of the ICC since 13 June 2014," the ICC said in a statement.It was on June 13 that Israel began a massive crackdown on terror in the PA after the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Israeli teenagers, triggering a series of events which led to a seven-week Gaza war."Acceptance of the ICC's jurisdiction does not automatically trigger an investigation," the court added.The ICC can prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed since July 1, 2002, when the Rome Statute came into force.The ICC only has jurisdiction from that date onwards, but those joining after that time may nonetheless separately accept the authority of the court for the period before the statute entered into force for them.
Tit for tat?
The Palestinian Authority (PA) formally presented a request to the United Nations on Friday to join the ICC, in a move firmly opposed by both Israel and the United States. On Friday, Israel delayed the transfer of $127 million to the PA in retaliation for the initial step.Israel's freezing funds apportioned to the PA has been used as a political tactic before, as the PA is already struggling to dig itself out of at least $4.8 billion in debt. The PA regularly fails to stand by its agreements, and owes Israel staggering sums, including over 1.4 billion shekels (over $360 million) in unpaid electric bills.Similarly, the US said it is "reviewing" its $440 million aid package to the PA over the move, although technically membership to the ICC does not incur punishment - only a war crimes suit against Israel does, under American law.The PA has stated intent to file those charges against Israel in the Hague, and sources say that Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his aides are already preparing material to do so.However, Israel has already filed counter-suits; on Monday, legal rights group Shurat Hadin filed three more war crimes charges against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the terror group behind the PA, in the ICC. The PLO already faces criminal charges being levied against it in the US court system for terror attacks it committed during the early 2000s. But even if the PA files charges against Israel, legal rights experts say that having the ICC enter the fray of the Israeli-Arab conflict will ultimately harm the PA, Hamas, and the ICC itself - not Israel.In a recent interview, the PA's envoy to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) admitted the PA has no hope of pressing charges against Israel in international courts - because Palestinian Arab terrorist groups are far worse violators of international law themselves.The desperate move follows the PA exhausting other international means of prosecuting Israel, after its draft resolution calling for Israel to withdraw from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem failed in a UN Security Council vote last week.
Israel: EU support for Palestine is 'biggest challenge'-05.01.15 @ 09:28-euobserver-By Andrew Rettman
BRUSSELS - Israeli FM Avigdor Lieberman has described EU support for Palestine as Israel’s top diplomatic challenge after a UN vote on withdrawal from the occupied territory.Speaking at a meeting of Israel’s European ambassadors in Jerusalem on Sunday (4 January), he said: "Our biggest challenge is not the Palestinian Authority and the Arab states, but Western countries … The best example here is the [UN] Security Council vote. Of its members, three EU countries participated in the vote and two voted with the Palestinians, France and Luxembourg, while one country, Britain, abstained”.He described Germany as the “principal anchor” of Israeli-EU relations.He noted that Israel should cultivate better ties due to its trade dependence on the bloc: "In terms of Israeli exports, Western Europe has this big market … We will have to deal with Western Europe, with the EU".But he accused some European politicians of anti-Semitism by comparing their statements to appeasement of Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II."Some European nations' conduct is reminiscent of 1938, just before the Munich Agreement … The conduct by countries like Sweden and Ireland is reminiscent of how [European powers] abandoned Czechoslovakia to its fate. Now they are making all kinds of excuses to abandon Israel”, he said."Sometimes, you are just amazed by the amount of lies, fabrications, and the distortion of reality you find in the records of meetings held by European parliaments. It's like another chapter in 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’.”The protocols are a fake Jewish “manifesto” for world domination circulated by 1930s Germany as justification for its purges. Lieberman spoke after the UN Security Council, following a US veto in a vote on Friday, rejected a Jordanian resolution calling on Israel to withdraw troops to 1967 lines.France is working on its own resolution giving Israel and Palestine two years to reach an accord or face French recognition of Palestinian statehood.Sweden recently became the first sitting EU state to recognise Palestine, while a string of national EU parliaments called for similar measures if there is no progress.For her part, the EU’s new foreign relations chief, Federica Mogherini, in a communique on the UN vote urged “both parties to resume negotiations urgently and to refrain from any action further undermining the viability of the two-state solution.”But Palestine’s bid, filed also on Friday, to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague in order to prosecute Israeli soldiers for war crimes, met with a harsh reaction.Israel, in retaliation, froze transfers of more than €100 million of Palestinian tax revenues and has called on US lawmakers to suspend the €330 million a year in US aid which helps the Palestinian Authority pay its civil servants.The moves are set to leave the EU, which pays around €1 billion a year in aid to Palestine, as its only Western sponsor.Lieberman added the ICC development leaves Israel free to abandon its commitments to the Oslo process, a 1990s template for creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel.“The first conclusion that can be made from the Palestinian Authority’s move is that the Oslo accords have collapsed,” he said.Israel’s intelligence minister, Yuval Steinitz, noted in remarks on Army Radio that “if the Palestinian Authority doesn’t take one step back, I believe that we need to take much more drastic steps up to the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority”.
France warns Palestinians over escalating crisis with U.N. bid-Reuters-jan 6,15-yahoonews
PARIS (Reuters) - France warned the Palestinians on Tuesday against escalating a diplomatic battle with Israel after President Mahmoud Abbas said he would resubmit to the U.N. Security Council a resolution calling for the creation of a Palestinian state.The United States helped defeat the resolution, which also demands an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank, in a Security Council vote on Dec. 30. Abbas said on Sunday he hoped to resubmit the resolution "perhaps after a week".France, one of the Council's five permanent members, backed the resolution despite some reservations. France's parliament also backed Palestinian independence in a symbolic vote on Dec. 2 that underlined Europe's impatience with a stalled Middle East peace process.But Paris signaled concern that Abbas' diplomatic offensive -- he has also signed up to 20 international conventions including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court -- could harm chances for peace by antagonizing Israel."We are against the logic of letting this spiral (out of control)," Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters."While we think the Palestinians have the right to move the status quo, at the same time there has to be an effort to find a consensus solution. Once you set this cycle off, you get results that you don't want one way or another."Abbas hopes that new countries which joined the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 1 will be more sympathetic to the Palestinian resolution, which demands an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories and independence by late 2017.France had been working prior to the Dec. 30 vote on a separate resolution with Britain and Germany that aimed to set the parameters and a time frame for new peace talks."We worked on this resolution believing we could achieve a consensus but it wasn't possible," he said, indicating that France was likely to back a new Palestinian resolution provided the text remained broadly unchanged.However, Fabius questioned the wisdom of resubmitting the resolution, adding he would discuss the issue in coming days with Jordan, Egypt and other regional players."The real question is to understand what is behind this move. Is it to get an American veto with a new U.N. Security Council composition? Is it to reaffirm an attitude towards the Israeli government? I don't know."The United States, which has veto power as a permanent Council member, has pledged to block Abbas's plan, calling it one-sided and unproductive.(Reporting By John Irish and Marine Pennetier; Editing by Gareth Jones)
Hamas man sentenced by Israel to life for teen killings that led to Gaza war-Reuters-jan 6,15-yahoonews
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli military court on Tuesday sentenced a Palestinian to life imprisonment over the killing of three Israeli youths, whose abduction in the occupied West Bank set off a chain of events leading to the 50-day Gaza war last summer.The court found that Hussam Kawasmeh, a member of the militant Hamas Islamist group, planned the abduction in which Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, both 16, were shot dead while hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank in June.Kawasmeh was arrested in August and charged with murder. A three-judge panel sentenced him to three life terms, according to a court document released to the media.Two Hamas operatives suspected of having killed the youngsters after picking them up on a road near a Jewish settlement died in a firefight with Israeli forces at their West Bank hideout in September.The bodies of the three Israelis were found in the West Bank nearly three weeks after their disappearance.In an alleged revenge attack in July, a Palestinian teenager, Mohammed Abu Khudair, was abducted and burned to death in Jerusalem by three suspected Jewish assailants, who have since been charged with his murder.Khudair's death and sweeping arrests by Israel of suspected Hamas men across the West Bank led to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in East Jerusalem and cross-border rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.A seven-week-long Gaza war ensued in July and August in which, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were also killed.(Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Jeffrey Heller/Jeremy Gaunt)
What Does Israel's Declaration of Independence Look Like?-Rare glimpse of declaration scroll given as it is photographed with special advanced technology to preserve original appearance.By Arutz Sheva Staff-First Publish: 1/6/2015, 5:47 PM-israelnationalnews
Israel's Declaration of Independence was removed from its special preservation facility on Tuesday in a rare event meant to photograph the cornerstone document establishing the renascent modern Jewish state of Israel.The scroll, which enshrines Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic country, was removed in a joint initiative of the Israel State Archives and Israel Antiquities Authority. It was photographed with special technology developed for the Dead Sea scrolls so as to preserve the original appearance of the scroll for future generations.An advanced multi-spectral photographic system that allows shooting different exposures at various wavelengths - from the visible to the near infrared region of the spectrum - gives information ranging from the texture of the scroll's material to its ink and surface topography.The near infrared exposure will allow characters that have faded over time to be seen as well, showing a precise image of the scroll as it was at its creation - and the creation of the modern state."Today the scroll is stored in an environment with special lighting and temperature conditions, in a secure and guarded facility of the Israel State Archives," said State Archivist Dr. Yaacov Lozowick. "Until a decision is made regarding how the scroll is to be exhibited to the public, we will continue performing various operations aimed at documenting, revealing and preserving the scroll for future generations."Explaining the procedure on Tuesdsay, Lozowick said "today’s photography is another step in this process after last year when the archive, with the assistance of the Israel National Heritage - Landmarks program, digitally photographed the scroll in collaboration with Google.”"With the unique technology we developed at the Israel Antiquities Authority together with the best scientists in the world, and generous assistance of the Leon Levy and Arcadia Foundations, we are happy to help not only in preserving the material heritage from the distant past but the recent cultural heritage as well," said Pnina Shor, director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Project at the Israel Antiquities Authority.Shor remarked on the symbolism of the photographing, saying "it is exciting and symbolic to document the Declaration of Independence today, one of the cornerstones of the State of Israel, with technology developed specifically for the Dead Sea scrolls - the earliest Hebrew texts, two thousand years old, which were first discovered on the eve of the establishment of the state, at the time when the Declaration of Independence was written."Dr. Mordechai Naor, a writer and historical researcher, described the ceremony proclaiming the state of Israel in his recent book "Great Friday."In it, he noted "because the ceremony was held in Tel Aviv, some of the signatories were unable to arrive because Jerusalem was under siege, and they signed the scroll only a month later, in 'spaces' that were left them specifically for this purpose.""Because the guest lists have not been found to this day, it is not known exactly who the 300 individuals were that were invited to the ceremony proclaiming the state. One person that was almost not allowed to enter was the designated Minister of Justice Pinchas Rosenblüth (Rosen) who forgot to bring his invitation. It was only after Ze'ev Sherf, Secretary of the Situation Committee, intervened was he permitted to enter and thus was also able to sign the Declaration of Independence," revealed Naor.The Declaration of Independence is the first document declaring Jewish sovereignty since the time of the Hasmonean kingdom over 2,000 years ago.The scroll was read as a proclamation of independence, on Friday, the 5th day of Ayar, 5708 (May 14, 1948) in the Tel Aviv Museum, then located at 16 Rothschild Street in the house of the city’s first mayor, Meir Dizengoff. Twenty-five members of the Provisional State Council signed the declaration and twelve others who were in besieged Jerusalem signed it later. The scroll is 117 cm long and 29.7 cm wide. It is made in three parts, and bound on the side with an interwoven thread and a wax seal.Amos Ben Gershom, GPO
