PEACE ENVOY TO ISRAEL NEXT WEEK

REBUILT 3RD TEMPLE

REVELATION 11:1-2
1 And there was given me a(MEASURING) reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out,(TO THE WORLD NATIONS) and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.(JERUSALEM DIVIDED BUT THE 3RD TEMPLE ALLOWED TO BE REBUILT)

DANIEL 9:27
27 And he( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant with many for one week:(1X7=7 YEARS) and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease,(3 1/2 yrs in TEMPLE SACRIFICES STOPPED) and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Activists Demonstrate Against Temple Mount Discrimination

Hundreds of Jews protest prolonged closure of Temple Mount to non-Muslims; "If this passes quietly, it will get worse for the Jews.”-By Kochava Rozenbaum-First Publish: 8/7/2013, 5:43 PM-inn

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yMeCauZhs 

Temple Mount-Yossi Alkaslasy

In wake of Tuesday’s decision by police officials in charge of the Temple Mount to ban non-Muslims entrance to the holy site, some two hundred protesters stood Wednesday morning at the foot of the Mugrabi entrance seeking to reverse their exclusion.The mass protest was prearranged following an announcement by Police Commander Avi Bitton that the Temple Mount will remain closed to Jews and tourists at least until after the end of Ramadan’s closing festival of “Eid” which is to be next Sunday, the 11th of August.During this current Ramadan, many Jews who have ascended to the Temple Mount have been inexplicably turned away or even harassed by threats from Muslim extremists.  Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel, Zeev Elkin, was among a group of Jews who were chased off the Temple Mount on the eve of the day commemorating the Temples' Destruction, the 9th of Av.On the 9th of Av itself, Jews were banned completely from ascending.Since the Mount’s closure to all non-Muslim visitors, activists have decided to take action and convene at the holiest site of the Jewish people at the beginning of the Hebrew month of Elul, a month dedicated to repentance.  For many of the activists, showing solidarity today was a reminder that this is in fact the holiest place for the Jewish people.“People have come far to be here early in the morning to make this statement, to make this prayer to the Almighty, as we begin this special month of repentance"  said said Rabbi Chaim Richman the international director of the Temple Institute.“The one place where that relationship [to God] is manifest is the place of the Holy Temple. ronically this is the one place where Jews are currently prohibited from entering," he added.The Women in Green, a grassroots Zionist movement, declared in a statement that it took the decision of the officials very seriously:
“It seems the police are throwing a trial balloon. They are tryng to see if the Temple Mount is important to a large Jewish population, or only to some "crazies". It is obvious that if this passes quietly, it will get worse for the Jews.”The hundreds of individuals who arose early to attend the prayers and vigils outside of the Temple Mount seek the same privileges as Muslim visitors, who have unrestricted access to the site. Jewish visitors, however, are subjected to severe restrictions, including a total ban on conducting prayers or any other religious rituals, despite the site being the holiest place in Judaism. The ban on Jewish prayer has continued despite numerous court rulings that such restrictions are illegal.

US peace envoy to come to Israel next week

Former ambassador Martin Indyk will meet with diplomatic officials; PLO factions are refusing to support scheduled negotiations

By Haviv Rettig Gur, Elhanan Miller and Stuart Winer August 7, 2013, 5:40 pm 1-the times of israel

Sources in Jerusalem told The Times of Israel on Wednesday that Martin Indyk, who was hand-picked by US President Barack Obama to be Washington’s point man at the talks, is scheduled to meet with officials from the Prime Minister’s Office, the Foreign Ministry, and members of Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s negotiating team.The PMO would not confirm the reports and it wasn’t clear if Indyk, a veteran diplomat who twice served as US ambassador to Israel, would meet in person with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Livni.Meanwhile, with peace talks progressing, a ministerial committee tasked with overseeing the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners — a confidence-building gesture by Israel to ease the talks — will meet for the first time on Sunday.The five members of the panel will decide on the identity of the 25 prisoners to be released in the first of four phased releases, all of whom have been imprisoned since before the 1993 Oslo peace accords.The committee that will handle the prisoner release process is composed of Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Livni, Science Minister Yaakov Peri and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch. It will decide which prisoners on the list of 104 will go free at what stage, determine whether they will be allowed to return to their homes or be sent abroad, and oversee the implementation.Last month the cabinet approved the prisoner releases, which were a Palestinian precondition for peace talks, and while the decision was widely pilloried by politicians on the right and the Israeli public, Netanyahu said it was for the “good of the country.”Peri, a dovish former Shin Bet security agency head from the Yesh Atid party, was a last-minute addition meant to ensure Netanyahu a majority in the small panel in the event that Ya’alon and the more hardline Aharonovitch decided to torpedo aspects of the deal.Earlier this week, the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, declared that the first batch of prisoners would be released by mid-August. Livni said that another round of peace talks would be held in Israel by the second week of August after negotiations were restarted in Washington at the end of last month. Livni noted that some prisoners would already have been released by the time the second round of talks commenced.

PLO factions refuse to back talks

Meanwhile, all Palestinian factions belonging to the PLO with the exception of Fatah have refused to take part in a committee to oversee negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian due to their principled rejection of negotiations, London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported on Wednesday.One week ahead of the resumption of negotiations in Jerusalem, no Palestinian oversight committee is yet in place, senior Palestinian sources told the daily.“This committee was meant to be headed by President Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] and include the secretary generals of the factions as well as a few members of the [PLO] Executive Committee. But all the factions in the PLO refused; the Democratic Front, the Popular Front, the People’s Party, and others,” a source was quoted as saying.Peace negotiations are set to resume in Jerusalem’s King David Hotel on August 14 in complete secrecy following a three-year hiatus, with meetings taking place in Jerusalem and Jericho intermittently.Even before the first meeting between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in Washington July 30, most Palestinian factions had reportedly rejected them.

The Palestinian oversight committee is meant to advise the negotiating team throughout the talks, and will likely be formed at any event and include Abbas’s close circle of officials and negotiators.“[The committee] will be a formality, because it will only representing those conducting the negotiations,” the source said.

In an interview with Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya on July 31, PLO secretary Yasser Abed Rabbo, one of only two Palestinian officials appointed to comment on negotiations, said the prospects of their success are quite low.“I would not advise anyone to be optimistic about the success of negotiations,” Abed Rabbo told the channel. “We understand that there are tremendous difficulties facing us, especially considering the right-wing Israeli government and the growing power of the settlers, in addition to the unrest in the Arab world.”Hamas has long blasted Fatah for resuming “pointless” talks with Israel, with deputy political bureau chief Moussa Abu Marzouq calling them “a miscalculated adventure.” Hamas accused Fatah of succumbing to American pressure to negotiate, thereby destroying reconciliation talks with the Islamic faction.

EU, Israel headed for showdown over settlement rules

Brussels insists it won’t back down on West Bank ban, as Jerusalem considers balking at research cooperation program

By Raphael Ahren August 7, 2013, 1:57 pm 23-the times of israel

Despite heavy criticism from Israel, the European Union will not cancel, modify or delay the implementation of recently published guidelines that block EU funding from Israeli institutions either located or maintaining any links beyond the Green Line, a top EU official said this week.“The guidelines will take effect as they are. This is how they were published [in the EU’s Official Journal], as a legal act, and that’s how it will be,” Ambassador Andreas Reinicke, the EU’s special representative to the Middle East peace process, told The Times of Israel last week. In certain areas where the guidelines are still unclear, “a closer look” at the details might be have to be taken, he allowed. But their main points will not be changed and will take effect by January 2014 as planned.The EU’s directive, published last month, mandates a denial of European funding to, and cooperation with, Israeli institutions based or operating over the Green Line, and a requirement that all future agreements between Israel and the EU include a clause in which Israel accepts the position that all territory over the Green Line does not belong to Israel.The exact formulation of this so-called territorial clause has yet to be determined and will likely be the subject of heated discussions between Israeli and European officials.Brussels is also determined to introduce a labeling regime for settlement products by the end of 2013.‘I’ve spoken to lots of European foreign ministers. Most of them said, that’s not what we intended’In the wake of the new funding guidelines, the Israeli government is currently discussing whether to participate in a multibillion-dollar scientific cooperation program under EU auspices called Horizon 2020.

While Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett reportedly advocates nixing all cooperation with the EU – even it that means financial losses — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to consult with other key cabinet ministers and professionals and make a final decision next week.Academics warn that if Israel opted out of Horizon 2020, the negative impact on the country’s scientific standing would be “devastating.”

Israelis from across right to center-left on the political spectrum protested the EU’s new guidelines. An angry Netanyahu said Israel “will not accept any outside diktat about our borders.” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon instructed troops to halt cooperation with EU representatives in the West Bank and Gaza. President Shimon Peres asked the EU to “delay” the decision at least until after the current round of US-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians.Deputy Foreign Minister Ze’ev Elkin, however, said the guidelines’ publication was a “classic case of enthusiastic clerks taking something too far,” suggesting that top EU diplomats themselves were overwhelmed by the decision and are currently considering changing the wording to make it more acceptable to Israel.“I’ve spoken to lots of European foreign ministers. We spoke to the ambassadors. Most of them said, that’s not what we intended,” Elkin told The Times of Israel in an interview last month. “Clearly it doesn’t represent all the EU members,” he said, adding that some foreign ministers told him they didn’t mean to paralyze Israeli-European cooperation and that if that were the outcome of the move, then it had to be reviewed.Indeed, not all European capitals were enthusiastic about the issuance of the funding guidelines. The German government, for instance, distanced itself from the move, with the ruling CDU party’s foreign policy spokesman saying it was “purely ideological and symbolic,” as evidenced by the fact that in the past seven years, only 0.5 percent of the €800 million in financial assistance that Brussels gave to Israel went to projects beyond the Green Line.

But Reinicke told The Times of Israel that several EU foreign ministers explicitly welcomed the funding guidelines at the July 22 Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, and asserted that they were merely the implementation of existing EU legislation. The EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the 1967 lines, and last year’s promotion of Ariel University Center, located in the West Bank, to a full-fledged university prompted the need to issue clear guidelines regarding funding Israeli institutions. While Ariel University’s elevated status wasn’t the only reason for the new guidelines, it was “certainly an important trigger for this entire discussion,” Reinicke said.

Chancellor of the Ariel University Yigal Cohen Orgad, left and Minister Yuval Steinitz at a cornerstone-laying ceremony for the new Faculty of Science building at the school in January. (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)

The fact that any agreement between the EU and Israeli recipients must state their inapplicability to territories outside the 1967 lines by no means preempts the outcome of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, Reinicke also said.

Andreas Reinicke, the European Union special envoy for the Middle East peace process, speaking at an Institute of International and European Affairs event in Dublin, January 2013. (photo credit: IIEA via JTA)

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is correct when he says that the borders between Israel and Palestine will not be imposed from outside but that they will determined by both parties,” Reinicke said. “That’s also our position. If there will be an agreement, our definition of Israel’s territory will change. Until that moment — and that is not only the position of the EU but that of the entire international community except Israel – [Israeli sovereignty of territories beyond the 1967 lines] is not recognized.”Brussels’ insistence that the funding guidelines will not be amended means Israeli leaders will have to decide whether to go ahead with the Horizon 2020 agreement, which pumps money into research and innovation cooperation. According to Hebrew media reports, the EU is willing to leave out or rephrase the so-called territorial clause, making it easier for Israel, the only non-European country invited to join the program, to sign a bilateral agreement. But this has not been confirmed.If Israel signs, it will have to contribute a certain amount of money but can expect about 1.3 shekels in return for every shekel invested. According to EU officials, Israel stands to gain more than €100 million over the course of six years. A decision against joining the program would thus result in Israeli scientists forfeiting millions of shekels.Even more than a financial loss, though, will be the forfeiture of the chance to collaborate with Europe’s research community, according to Prof. Isaiah (Shy) Arkin, vice president for research and development at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

A breast cancer research lab at Hebrew University’s medical faculty at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem. (photo credit: Keren Freeman/Flash90)

“The interaction between European scientists is of utmost importance to us and to Israel as a whole,” he told The Times of Israel. “It is not only the direct funding, the monetary impact, but in addition to that — and more importantly — the collaboration and the access to scientific knowledge and infrastructure in Europe.”

Along with the United States, Europe is the one of the world’s most important scientific hubs, Arkin said. “And for us not to be closely and intimately associated with the European scientists will be devastating to our capabilities.”Israeli scientists and their European counterparts could still talk to each other and cooperate on projects even if Jerusalem decided to withdraw from Horizon 2020, Arkin allowed. “But the amount of research that will take place between Israelis and Europeans will drop dramatically.”

Israelis fleeing from north and south, heading for West Bank hills

Study shows steady decline in Negev and Galilee, population hike in settlements; MK in charge of strengthening the ‘periphery’ blasts government

By Haviv Rettig Gur August 7, 2013, 12:01 pm 26-the times of israel

 

The northern city of Safed (photo credit: Alana Perino/Flash90)

A Knesset study reveals that over the past 10 years, Israel’s Jewish population has been trickling out of the northern and southern regions of the country and into the center and West Bank.According to the Knesset Research Department, in the years 2001-2010, 30,200 residents of the country’s north left the area, and 25,300 left the south, while 38,880 went to live in the West Bank. It is not clear how much of the West Bank’s population rise came from people leaving the north and south.The study, based on Housing and Construction Ministry figures and submitted this week to the Knesset Finance Committee, also found a population decline in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as Israelis increasingly move into neighboring suburbs.The figures are a blow to the country’s longstanding policy of trying to promote growth in peripheral areas, though some officials charge that the goal has been abandoned, as evidenced by a state funding priorities map released this week which added several West Bank settlements.The figures in the report reflect primarily the movement of the Jewish population, according to Knesset researchers. The Arab population in the north and south is remaining in those areas, according to the Maariv daily, which first reported on the study Wednesday.“The center of the country is pulling the young people away from the periphery,” noted Shlomo Buhbut, mayor of the northern town of Maalot Tarshiha. “Most of the high-tech industry is centered on Herzliya, Raanana, Kfar Saba, in the country’s center.”“The Israeli government has given up on the Galilee and the Negev,” he charged on Wednesday. “The benefits have dried up.”“I am personally an example of a person who had to leave the Galilee, my hometown Safed, for Jerusalem because of the desperate lack of employment in the north and south for many years,” said MK Hilik Bar (Labor), the chair of the Knesset Caucus for Strengthening the Periphery.Bar blamed successive Israeli governments for favoring settlements over poorer periphery communities.“The right-wing governments that have ruled Israel for the past 20 years have taken funds that could have developed the Galilee and Negev and created work and housing, and invested them in places [in the West Bank and Gaza] that only heighten the conflict and threaten the two-state solution,” Bar said.It was a policy, he said, “that contradicts the Zionist dream and a Jewish state of Israel.”Funding for isolated settlements created a fracas in the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, as ministers sparred over adding several isolated settlements into the government’s National Priority Areas map.

The new map, which was approved by the cabinet on Sunday, counts 600 towns and regions as priority areas, including 90 over the Green Line. Several outlying West Bank settlements were included, some of them for the first time, due to the dangerous security situation outside the West Bank’s major settlement blocs.The map contains some 20 communities not on the previous map from 2009, including nine new settlements. Among these are Rehelim and Bruchin, which until recently were illegal outposts. Other new settlements are Eshkolot and Sansana in the southern Hebron hills, Alon Moreh near Nablus, Maaleh Michmash near Jerusalem and Nofim in central Samaria.

At Sunday’s meeting, Environment Minister Amir Peretz (Hatnua) lamented the fact that a number of poorer towns closer to the economic center of the country were left off the list while the settlements were added.

“It’s inconceivable that Kiryat Gat and Kiryat Malachi are not included in the map because they are close to Israel’s center — despite the fact that their socioeconomic situation is dire — but settlements outside the major blocs that were until recently illegal are included because they face security threats.”No ministers voted against the new map, but four members of the 22-member cabinet abstained: Livni and Peretz, both of the left-leaning Hatnua party, and Yesh Atid’s two dovish cabinet members, Science Minister Yaakov Peri and Health Minister Yael German, a former Meretz mayor of Herzliya.