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.
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Egypt's Sisi Demands Israel Recognize 'Palestine'-Ex-army chief and likely future president demands recognition of 'Palestine' with capital in Jerusalem, gives lip service to Israel treaty.
By Ari Yashar-First Publish: 5/7/2014, 11:18 AM-IsraelNationalNews
Egypt's ex-army chief and leading presidential candidate Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi declared that if Israel won't recognize the "state of Palestine," with its capital in Jerusalem, he will never visit Israel. Speaking in a TV interview on Saturday, Sisi added "Egypt is a country whose policy, history and honor to contracts and treaties is firmly rooted. I'm part of the country, and will respect all international treaties and contracts, including the peace treaty with Israel."Sisi's lip service to the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1979 comes as the treaty has been increasingly put in question since the 2011 "Arab Spring."Addressing the Israeli government, Sisi said "a true opportunity is before you to have a true peace treaty with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is necessary to open the 'gate of hope' in the (Middle East) region."Peace talks with the PA were torpedoed after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas refused to recognize Israel as the Jewish state, breached talk conditions by applying to 15 international conventions, and signed a unity deal with the terrorist group Hamas.For his part, Sisi promised on Monday that the Muslim Brotherhood would not be allowed to exist in Egypt if he wins the upcoming May 26-27 elections, in which he is strongly favored over his lone contender. The Muslim Brotherhood is associated with Hamas, and Egypt has recently banned both groups.An Egyptian court last month passed death sentences on 683 Muslim Brotherhood members. In another case in which 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were sentenced to death the month before, the judge upheld 37 death sentences but reversed the death sentences sentences of the other 492, commuting most to life in prison. Most of the people sentenced were tried in absentia.
Shots Fired at Homes in Psagot, Setting Off 'Code Red' Alarm-All Psagot residents warned to stay inside and wait for an all-clear until shooters - presumably, terrorists - can be apprehended.-By Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 5/7/2014, 9:45 PM / Last Update: 5/7/2014, 9:51 PM-IsraelNationalNews
The 'code red' alarm sounded in the Samaria community of Psagot Wednesday, after shots were fired at several homes, Kol B'Rama reporters on the scene stated. Psagot residents have been warned to stay in their homes, lock their doors and close their windows. The hotline for the Binyamin Region is 1208, officials said. The shots appear to be emanating from Ramallah, officials say. More updates to follow as events develop.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) 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 ANIMAL 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.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
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)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Top Netanyahu aide: Here’s proof Abbas deliberately destroyed peace talks-In letter to White House, EU and world ambassadors, PM’s national security chief presents ‘damning evidence’ of sabotage by Ramallah-By Yifa Yaakov May 7, 2014, 12:29 pm 24-The Times of Israel
A letter reportedly sent by Israel’s national security chief to the White House, the EU and numerous ambassadors blames the Palestinians for the collapse of peace talks, and claims to include hard proof that PA officials were devising measures to thwart the process even before Israel refused to release a fourth round of Palestinian prisoners at the end of March.In the April 22 letter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Yossi Cohen, revealed that chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat wrote a policy paper in March in preparation for a Palestinian rejection of American mediation efforts and Israeli overtures — nearly a month before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made a unilateral move to sign 15 international conventions, ostensibly in response to Israel’s refusal to honor its commitment to release the final round of prisoners, Haaretz reported Wednesday.In fact, Cohen said, according to a copy of the latter published alongside the report (PDF here), Erekat had planned the maneuver weeks before Israel announced its refusal to release the prisoners — timing that, according to Cohen, demonstrates that the Palestinian leadership never intended to follow the peace talks through.Cohen attached Erekat’s policy paper to his letter, copies of which were reportedly sent to his US counterpart Susan Rice, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, all Israel-based EU ambassadors, and ambassadors from China, Russia and other countries. He appealed to the recipients to peruse the Erekat document and “draw conclusions” as to the Palestinians’ “bad faith” and responsibility for the failure of the latest round of peace talks.According to Cohen, the 65-page Erekat document, which contained a “highly selective” account of the peace talks held since July and a “series of recommendations” for unilateral Palestinian actions, was presented by Erekat to Abbas on March 9, prior to Abbas’s visit to the United States and his meeting at the White House with US President Barack Obama on March 17.The paper, Cohen said, serves as proof that Palestinian policymakers had recommended a strategy of unilateral moves “outside of the agreed negotiation framework” to Abbas as early as March, nearly two months before the April 29 deadline for the completion of the talks. Thus when Obama tried at their White House meeting to persuade Abbas to make progress at the negotiations, Cohen indicated, the PA president was already bent on torpedoing the talks and following a unilateral course.“The document serves as damning evidence of bad faith on the part of the Palestinian side,” Cohen wrote. “It suggests that plans to reject American proposals and pursue unilateral actions were in place well in advance, despite the unwavering commitment shown by Secretary Kerry and his team in facilitating these negotiations, and the seriousness which Israel has demonstrated throughout the negotiation process.”In the document, Erekat recommended that the Palestinian Authority apply to international treaties such as the Geneva Convention.He also recommended reconciliation with Hamas, revealing that the push for a unity government with the terrorist organization, which does not recognize Israel, began long before negotiations with Israel reached a stalemate.This, Cohen said, proved that the Palestinians’ unilateral moves, ostensibly direct responses to perceived Israeli intransigence, were actually “premeditated” and “calculated” steps aimed at sinking the peace process and hindering American mediation efforts.The Palestinians have blamed Israel for the failure of the talks, saying that if Israel had released the prisoners as planned, they would not have made unilateral moves, culminating with the Fatah-Hamas pact, that saw Israel suspend the negotiations and the April 29 deadline pass with no substantive progress and no agreement for further talks.Israel had conditioned the release of the fourth batch of prisoners, some of them Arab Israelis, on the continuation of talks past their April 29 deadline. The Palestinians refused, and made a unilateral move for international recognition.“This document refutes the current Palestinian claim that the decision to apply for accession to the conventions – in direct violation of Palestinian obligations and of the understandings that enabled the resumption of negotiations in July 2013 – was taken strictly in response to what they considered a delay in the release of the fourth tranche of prisoners,” Cohen wrote in the letter.“Similarly, it indicates that advancing the reconciliation process with Hamas and bringing Hamas into a new government was under active consideration at the very time intensive negotiations were meant to be under way,” he continued.“The document points to premeditation and to Palestinians’ calculations to renege on their commitments and pursue a unilateral strategy regardless of the release of prisoners, in a manner that would gravely endanger if not destroy the negotiation process.”American officials were quoted last weekend, in an extensive account of the negotiations published by Yedioth Ahronoth, overwhelmingly blaming Israel for the failure of the talks. It was later claimed that Kerry’s special envoy Martin Indyk was the prime source for the report, which highlighted Netanyahu’s settlement policies as “the primary sabotage.” An official was quoted in the report telling Israel, The Palestinians are tired of the status quo. They will get their state in the end — whether through violence or by turning to international organizations.”
Poll: 68% of Israeli Jews Support End to Peace Talks-Monthly "Peace Index" survey sees majority wary to Hamas-Fatah agreement - and disagree with US blaming Israel for the talks' failure.By Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 5/7/2014, 6:21 PM-IsraelNationalNews
A large majority of the Jewish public in Israel (68%) support the government's decision to halt peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) following its unity pact with Hamas, a poll revealed Wednesday.The Guttman Center and Evens Program for Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University (TAU) conducted the poll, a monthly "Peace Index" part of the Israel Democracy Institute.According to the poll, 68% of the Jewish public supported the State's decision to curtail talks with the PA, but the results were heavily polarized by political affiliation. Of respondents who answered that they supported the move, 82% identified as "right-wing," 59% identified as "moderates" and only 26% identified themselves as "left-wing."The public is also heavily divided on what stalled peace talks mean for Israel's future. Of respondents, slightly more believe that the talks could be harmful to Israel in the short-term (36%-41%) rather than in the long term (34%-40%). 57.5% of the public believed that the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation pact endangers Israel security - the same percentage of people who disagree with the EU's notion that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's involvement makes the agreement more inclusive and, therefore, more legitimate. 56% of the Jewish public believes US President Barack Obama is "incorrect" for assigning blame to both Israel and the PA for the failure of talks, according to the survey. However, of those, respondents are widely polarized by political affiliation; 70.5% of self-identified "left-wing" respondents agreed with Obama's assessment, compared to 54% of "centrists" and just 27.5% of "nationalists."
Ex-ICC prosecutor warns Palestinians on anti-Israel war crimes effort-‘Palestine’ now eligible to join International Criminal court, says Luis Moreno-Ocampo, but legal effort against Israel could backfire-By AP May 7, 2014, 8:53 pm-The Times of Israel
The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, on a visit to Israel, urged the Palestinians to proceed with caution as they consider pursuing war crimes charges against Israel. He said it would be preferable for the two sides to work out their differences directly.Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the Palestinians should not rush ahead with a case against Israel, saying they could expose themselves to the same accusations.The Palestinians were accepted as a nonmember state in the UN General Assembly in 2012, an upgraded status that allows them to qualify for membership in dozens of international conventions and agencies.Most worrisome for Israel is the Palestinian threat to join the International Criminal Court and pressing war crimes charges against Israel. The Palestinians allege that Israeli crimes range from actions carried out by its military to construction of Jewish settlements on occupied land captured in the 1967 Mideast war.When he was the court’s chief prosecutor, Moreno-Ocampo turned down a request by the Palestinians to join the court. But as a nonmember state, they are now eligible, he said. If they accepted its jurisdiction, however, the Palestinians could also be investigated for Hamas rocket attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.“The obstacle they had in the past is gone, it is removed,” he told the Associated Press. “The best would be if Israelis and Palestinians create a common approach to prevent future activities.”Moreno-Ocampo, currently a professor at Yale University, is visiting the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to speak before students in its Transitional Justice program.He refused to speculate whether war crimes have been committed by either side. Regardless, he recommended the sides avoid the court and find a “creative” way to resolve their differences.“Everyone feels they are victims,” he said. “If you don’t want to be at the ICC, do something before — don’t wait.”
Peres to Rice: World must pressure Hamas to recognize Israel-Visiting US national security advisor urges continued peace talks, says Peres will visit White House next month-By Marissa Newman and AP May 7, 2014, 7:44 pm-The Times of Israel
President Shimon Peres issued an appeal Wednesday for international pressure to coerce Hamas into accepting the Quartet terms and recognizing Israel, a move that he said would allow for the resumption of the suspended peace negotiations.In a meeting with United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Peres insisted, “We must find a way to restart the negotiations between us and the Palestinians.” While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is “someone that we can negotiate with” and “wants to achieve peace,” the main obstacle in reviving the talks, Peres said, is the recently forged reconciliation deal between Abbas’s Fatah and the Gaza terror group. However, while the agreement came as a surprise and necessitated the suspension of the negotiations, “that is not a cause to stop,” he insisted.“What is necessary is international pressure on Hamas to accept the basic conditions laid down by the Quartet,” Peres said. “The world is united on those conditions and I believe that Hamas must be given no choice: If they want to be helped, no one should pay for their missiles and tunnels.”Peres had vowed in an Independence Day interview with The Times of Israel to galvanize international pressure on Hamas to moderate its positions.Rice — who said Peres would visit the White House on June 25, shortly before he steps down — opened her visit to Israel by telling leaders Wednesday that peace with the Palestinians can only be reached through direct negotiations leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.Rice, in Israel for strategic talks, is the first senior American official to visit Israel since nine months of U.S.-brokered talks fizzled out late last month. No progress was made during the talks, and Israel and the Palestinians have been blaming each other for the breakdown.Rice told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that while negotiations have hit a pause, the US “remains convinced that lasting peace can only be secured through direct negotiations that lead to two viable, independent states living side by side in peace and security,” according to a statement released by the White House.US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which began last summer, ended abruptly in April without an agreement.After nine months of negotiations, Israel suspended further negotiations over the unity agreement between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas reached two weeks ago.The president also addressed the Iranian nuclear negotiations brokered by the P5+1, praising the sanctions but maintaining that the Islamic Republic’s leadership is not “being fully honest.”“I believe the sanctions are useful, the leadership in Iran aren’t being fully honest but they wouldn’t say what they’re saying without sanctions,” he said.Whether Iran is serious about dismantling its program remains to be seen, he maintained. “We are coming to the critical moment when we will discover if they are just offering words or are really serious about change. The world will judge upon actions not words.”Rice, who met with Netanyahu on Wednesday afternoon, stressed that the US will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and maintained that the diplomatic process was the most effective way to reach a viable agreement with Iran. The Obama administration will continue to consult with Israel as the negotiations continue, she said.Netanyahu and Rice also discussed the security cooperation between the two countries, and the situation in Ukraine and Syria, according to a statement from the White House.The US and its negotiating partners — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — reached an interim nuclear accord with Iran late last year and are now holding delicate discussions on a final deal. Nuclear experts from each country were meeting in New York this week ahead of higher level talks scheduled in Vienna next week.While the talks have yielded some positive signs, the toughest issues must still be negotiated and any deal could fall apart.Obama and other top US officials have sought to convince Israel that the talks represent the best option for resolving the international community’s dispute with Iran peacefully. Israel sees the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat and has resisted any suggestions that Tehran could be left with some nuclear capacity.Times of Israel staff and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Holocaust and the Vatican Pimpernel
May 5, 2014, 6:52 pm 0 By Jonathon Van Maren-The Times of Israel
There is perhaps no conflict with as many unsung heroes as the Second World War, where the sheer enormity of the evil being perpetrated across Europe brought much opportunity for righteous response. From well-known heroes such as Oskar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom to lesser known, but equally noble resistors such as Nicholas Winton and Raoul Wallenberg, men and women responded to the wickedness committed beneath the symbol of the twisted Nazi cross to save the lives of their imperiled neighbors. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty was one such man. His story has been largely forgotten in recent decades, although his life has been memorialized in both book and film, and one poet wrote admiringly of him:“Not all houses here are painted black, not yet, there are those that walk a Righteous track and won’t forget that blood runs red but Hope is Scarlet,The Vatican veils a modest man, the Spectrum’s Saviour, Come to fight the Final Plan with a flash of colour. Blood runs red but Hope is Scarlet.”Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, the Irish priest also known as the Vatican Pimpernel, is credited along with his colleagues for saving the lives of more than 6,500 people in Rome, smuggling Allied prisoners of war as well as endangered Jewish citizens to safety via an intricate escape organization.O’Flaherty, ironically, was not a man people would suspect for the role he eventually filled. He was known as a patron of Rome’s high life, a well-respected Vatican diplomat who had served in Haiti, San Domingo, Czechoslovakia and Egypt, and a regular attendee of all the most expensive and prestigious parties. Obsessed with golf, he was known to shoot rounds with Mussolini’s son-in-law and Alfonso, the former king of Spain.However, when the Second World War broke out, things began to change quickly. In the fall of 1942, the Italians (under pressure and with assistance from their German allies) began sweeping arrests of Jews and high-ranking dissenters to Mussolini’s fascist regime. O’Flaherty, a man in possession of diplomatic immunity due to the 1929 Lateran Treaty between Mussolini and the Vatican granting the Vatican independence, realized immediately that his duty was to help the persecuted to the greatest extent possible. O’Flaherty began sending Jews and other refugees to convents, monasteries, and churches for safety, and when he began to run out of space, he hid people in both the residences of his wealthy friends and the Vatican itself.The following year, everything changed. Italy’s fascist army crumbled under the pounding of Allied forces, and on September 8, 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies and thousands of former Allied prisoners of war poured out of unguarded Italian concentration camps. The victory, however, was short-lived. Days later, Nazi troops marched into Italy to retake the country and protect their flank from the Allies. Suddenly, thousands of American and British POW’s were back in hostile territory. The dreaded SS and Gestapo entered Rome, led by men such as Colonel Herbert Kappler, who began deporting Jews to Auschwitz, and Pietro Koch, a sadist famous for devising the most cruel torture methods.O’Flaherty’s small organization now began to balloon in size, and former POW’s all over Italy heard the word that the Vatican Pimpernel could help them. O’Flaherty ignored the German-imposed curfew, Fascist patrols, and even the severe disapproval of Vatican officials to hide refugees everywhere from private apartments to abandoned warehouses. O’Flaherty always refused payment—a Jewish couple once gave him a solid gold chain in payment for hiding them. The priest hid them, obtained false documents, and managed to keep them hidden for the duration of the war. At war’s end, O’Flaherty gave them their gold chain back—he had tossed it in his desk drawer and left it there! When asked by one incredulous colleague how he could be so nonchalant with something of such worth, O’Flaherty replied, “Nobody here will steal it.”The SS under Colonel Herbert Kappler soon took notice of O’Flaherty—not only because it became apparent that he was smuggling and concealing refugees, but because of his sheer audacity. Nearly every single evening, O’Flaherty stood at the top of the steps of St. Peter’s, saying his prayers and waiting for anyone who might seek refuge with him—in full view of the Nazi soldiers patrolling the Vatican City border, marked by a white painted line. Kappler ordered O’Flaherty captured—but the Irishman responded by going about his work in a series of clever disguises, escaping time and time again in spite of many close calls.At war’s end, thousands of Allied prisoners of war as well as Jewish and anti-fascist Italians owed their lives to O’Flaherty and his organization. For the most part, he refused to talk about what he had done, and thus we do not know precisely how many people his organization saved. Pietro Koch, the Torturer of Rome, was killed by Italian partisans attempting to flee the city. Col. Kappler was sentenced to life in prison—and every single month, he had one persistent visitor: Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who in 1959 baptized Kappler in prison.O’Flaherty story gives us much to admire and much to emulate: Humility, courage, graciousness, and selflessness. He was willing to risk everything, time and time again, because he knew and held dear a a very important truth: There is nothing quite so valuable as a human person.
South Korea warns North Korea over new nuke test-New Straits Times-May 7,14
NEW YORK: South Korea’s foreign minister warned North Korea on Tuesday that the cost of keeping and testing nuclear weapons will be so high that it could threaten the survival of Kim Jong Un’s regime.Yun Byung-se told a standing-room audience of diplomats, U.N. officials and Korea-watchers at the International Peace Institute that the North will pay “the heaviest price” in new sanctions if it defies the international community and goes ahead with a new nuclear test.Many experts — and the South Korean government — had suspected the North would conduct its fourth nuclear test during President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Seoul. North Korea has said it still may go ahead and test a new kind of nuclear device following Obama’s visit.“Our assessment is that North Korea is ready to undertake a test whenever they make the necessary political decision,” Yun said.A call to North Korea’s U.N. Mission seeking comment was not answered.He explained that a new test “will make a great impact on the strategic landscape in our part of the world” and could undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of global nuclear disarmament efforts. North Korea has pulled out of the treaty.Faced with this challenge, Yun said South Korea has been making intensive diplomatic efforts to deter the North from carrying out a new test with the other parties to the stalled six-party nuclear talks aimed at reining in the North’s nuclear program, Security Council members, the European Union and Asian nations.In the event of a new test, he said, the U.N. Security Council must fill all loopholes in the four rounds of sanctions it has already imposed on the North over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and individual countries must take similar tough measures.As long as North Korea relies on nuclear weapons to make threats, Yun warned, “then we, South Korea, together with our partners in the Security Council, will make the cost of having these nuclear weapons very very high, very very heavy, so that could backfire to the regime — the survival of the regime.”At the same time, Yun stressed that South Korean is seeking to build a peaceful and “new Korean peninsula.”He reiterated President Park Geun-hye’s proposals last month to reunify Korea, which has been divided along the world’s most heavily fortified border since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.“It takes two to tango,” he said. “We hope North Korea will respond positively to our genuine proposals.”Yun said South Korea “recognises that our journey for reunification will be long and bumpy” but he said a nuclear-free and unified Korea would alleviate security threats in northeast Asia and stabilise the region.“The geopolitical plate of the region is going through what I would call tectonic shifts,” he said. “We are witnessing a rising China, a resurgent Japan, an assertive Russia and an anachronistic North Korea which is simultaneously pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.”Yun said conflicts over history, territory and maritime security, among others, are raising concerns “that even a military confrontation owing to miscalculations may become a reality.”At the heart of these conflicts, he said, is “a trust deficit.”Yun said that’s why South Korea is seeking to unify the two Koreas and build a new Asia and a new world.Yun said he is “rather optimistic about this unification” because there are changes inside North Korea and many changes outside including China and Russia now saying publicly for the first time that they are in favor of peaceful reunification of the Koreas.“We have to be prepared for that possibility, or any scenario that will be unfolding in the coming months and years,” he said.He recalled the day 23 years ago when East Germany and West Germany replaced their two nameplates at the United Nations with a single nameplate that said Germany.“Likewise, I do believe the day is approaching, perhaps much faster than we may all realise, for the two Koreas to replace their respective nameplates with one single nameplate that simply says Korea,” Yun said. --AP
ISRAEL SATAN COMES AGAINST
1 CHRONICLES 21:1
1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
ISRAELS TROUBLE
JEREMIAH 30:7
7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;(ISRAEL) but he shall be saved out of it.
DANIEL 12:1,4
1 And at that time shall Michael(ISRAELS WAR ANGEL) stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:(ISRAEL) and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation(May 14,48) even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro,(WORLD TRAVEL,IMMIGRATION) and knowledge shall be increased.(COMPUTERS,CHIP IMPLANTS ETC)
Egypt's Sisi Demands Israel Recognize 'Palestine'-Ex-army chief and likely future president demands recognition of 'Palestine' with capital in Jerusalem, gives lip service to Israel treaty.
By Ari Yashar-First Publish: 5/7/2014, 11:18 AM-IsraelNationalNews
Egypt's ex-army chief and leading presidential candidate Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi declared that if Israel won't recognize the "state of Palestine," with its capital in Jerusalem, he will never visit Israel. Speaking in a TV interview on Saturday, Sisi added "Egypt is a country whose policy, history and honor to contracts and treaties is firmly rooted. I'm part of the country, and will respect all international treaties and contracts, including the peace treaty with Israel."Sisi's lip service to the peace treaty signed with Israel in 1979 comes as the treaty has been increasingly put in question since the 2011 "Arab Spring."Addressing the Israeli government, Sisi said "a true opportunity is before you to have a true peace treaty with the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is necessary to open the 'gate of hope' in the (Middle East) region."Peace talks with the PA were torpedoed after PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas refused to recognize Israel as the Jewish state, breached talk conditions by applying to 15 international conventions, and signed a unity deal with the terrorist group Hamas.For his part, Sisi promised on Monday that the Muslim Brotherhood would not be allowed to exist in Egypt if he wins the upcoming May 26-27 elections, in which he is strongly favored over his lone contender. The Muslim Brotherhood is associated with Hamas, and Egypt has recently banned both groups.An Egyptian court last month passed death sentences on 683 Muslim Brotherhood members. In another case in which 529 Muslim Brotherhood supporters were sentenced to death the month before, the judge upheld 37 death sentences but reversed the death sentences sentences of the other 492, commuting most to life in prison. Most of the people sentenced were tried in absentia.
Shots Fired at Homes in Psagot, Setting Off 'Code Red' Alarm-All Psagot residents warned to stay inside and wait for an all-clear until shooters - presumably, terrorists - can be apprehended.-By Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 5/7/2014, 9:45 PM / Last Update: 5/7/2014, 9:51 PM-IsraelNationalNews
The 'code red' alarm sounded in the Samaria community of Psagot Wednesday, after shots were fired at several homes, Kol B'Rama reporters on the scene stated. Psagot residents have been warned to stay in their homes, lock their doors and close their windows. The hotline for the Binyamin Region is 1208, officials said. The shots appear to be emanating from Ramallah, officials say. More updates to follow as events develop.
DANIEL 9:26-27
26 And after threescore and two weeks(62X7=434 YEARS+7X7=49 YEARS=TOTAL OF 69 WEEKS OR 483 YRS) shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary;(ROMAN LEADERS DESTROYED THE 2ND TEMPLE) and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.(THERE HAS TO BE 70 WEEKS OR 490 YRS TO FUFILL THE VISION AND PROPHECY OF DAN 9:24).(THE NEXT VERSE IS THAT 7 YR WEEK OR (70TH FINAL WEEK).
27 And he ( THE ROMAN,EU PRESIDENT) shall confirm the covenant (PEACE TREATY) 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 ANIMAL 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.
JEREMIAH 6:14
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
JEREMIAH 8:11
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
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)
JERUSALEM DIVIDED
GENESIS 25:20-26
20 And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22 And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23 And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24 And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25 And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26 And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)
ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Top Netanyahu aide: Here’s proof Abbas deliberately destroyed peace talks-In letter to White House, EU and world ambassadors, PM’s national security chief presents ‘damning evidence’ of sabotage by Ramallah-By Yifa Yaakov May 7, 2014, 12:29 pm 24-The Times of Israel
A letter reportedly sent by Israel’s national security chief to the White House, the EU and numerous ambassadors blames the Palestinians for the collapse of peace talks, and claims to include hard proof that PA officials were devising measures to thwart the process even before Israel refused to release a fourth round of Palestinian prisoners at the end of March.In the April 22 letter, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Yossi Cohen, revealed that chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat wrote a policy paper in March in preparation for a Palestinian rejection of American mediation efforts and Israeli overtures — nearly a month before Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas made a unilateral move to sign 15 international conventions, ostensibly in response to Israel’s refusal to honor its commitment to release the final round of prisoners, Haaretz reported Wednesday.In fact, Cohen said, according to a copy of the latter published alongside the report (PDF here), Erekat had planned the maneuver weeks before Israel announced its refusal to release the prisoners — timing that, according to Cohen, demonstrates that the Palestinian leadership never intended to follow the peace talks through.Cohen attached Erekat’s policy paper to his letter, copies of which were reportedly sent to his US counterpart Susan Rice, US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro, all Israel-based EU ambassadors, and ambassadors from China, Russia and other countries. He appealed to the recipients to peruse the Erekat document and “draw conclusions” as to the Palestinians’ “bad faith” and responsibility for the failure of the latest round of peace talks.According to Cohen, the 65-page Erekat document, which contained a “highly selective” account of the peace talks held since July and a “series of recommendations” for unilateral Palestinian actions, was presented by Erekat to Abbas on March 9, prior to Abbas’s visit to the United States and his meeting at the White House with US President Barack Obama on March 17.The paper, Cohen said, serves as proof that Palestinian policymakers had recommended a strategy of unilateral moves “outside of the agreed negotiation framework” to Abbas as early as March, nearly two months before the April 29 deadline for the completion of the talks. Thus when Obama tried at their White House meeting to persuade Abbas to make progress at the negotiations, Cohen indicated, the PA president was already bent on torpedoing the talks and following a unilateral course.“The document serves as damning evidence of bad faith on the part of the Palestinian side,” Cohen wrote. “It suggests that plans to reject American proposals and pursue unilateral actions were in place well in advance, despite the unwavering commitment shown by Secretary Kerry and his team in facilitating these negotiations, and the seriousness which Israel has demonstrated throughout the negotiation process.”In the document, Erekat recommended that the Palestinian Authority apply to international treaties such as the Geneva Convention.He also recommended reconciliation with Hamas, revealing that the push for a unity government with the terrorist organization, which does not recognize Israel, began long before negotiations with Israel reached a stalemate.This, Cohen said, proved that the Palestinians’ unilateral moves, ostensibly direct responses to perceived Israeli intransigence, were actually “premeditated” and “calculated” steps aimed at sinking the peace process and hindering American mediation efforts.The Palestinians have blamed Israel for the failure of the talks, saying that if Israel had released the prisoners as planned, they would not have made unilateral moves, culminating with the Fatah-Hamas pact, that saw Israel suspend the negotiations and the April 29 deadline pass with no substantive progress and no agreement for further talks.Israel had conditioned the release of the fourth batch of prisoners, some of them Arab Israelis, on the continuation of talks past their April 29 deadline. The Palestinians refused, and made a unilateral move for international recognition.“This document refutes the current Palestinian claim that the decision to apply for accession to the conventions – in direct violation of Palestinian obligations and of the understandings that enabled the resumption of negotiations in July 2013 – was taken strictly in response to what they considered a delay in the release of the fourth tranche of prisoners,” Cohen wrote in the letter.“Similarly, it indicates that advancing the reconciliation process with Hamas and bringing Hamas into a new government was under active consideration at the very time intensive negotiations were meant to be under way,” he continued.“The document points to premeditation and to Palestinians’ calculations to renege on their commitments and pursue a unilateral strategy regardless of the release of prisoners, in a manner that would gravely endanger if not destroy the negotiation process.”American officials were quoted last weekend, in an extensive account of the negotiations published by Yedioth Ahronoth, overwhelmingly blaming Israel for the failure of the talks. It was later claimed that Kerry’s special envoy Martin Indyk was the prime source for the report, which highlighted Netanyahu’s settlement policies as “the primary sabotage.” An official was quoted in the report telling Israel, The Palestinians are tired of the status quo. They will get their state in the end — whether through violence or by turning to international organizations.”
Poll: 68% of Israeli Jews Support End to Peace Talks-Monthly "Peace Index" survey sees majority wary to Hamas-Fatah agreement - and disagree with US blaming Israel for the talks' failure.By Tova Dvorin-First Publish: 5/7/2014, 6:21 PM-IsraelNationalNews
A large majority of the Jewish public in Israel (68%) support the government's decision to halt peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) following its unity pact with Hamas, a poll revealed Wednesday.The Guttman Center and Evens Program for Conflict Resolution at Tel Aviv University (TAU) conducted the poll, a monthly "Peace Index" part of the Israel Democracy Institute.According to the poll, 68% of the Jewish public supported the State's decision to curtail talks with the PA, but the results were heavily polarized by political affiliation. Of respondents who answered that they supported the move, 82% identified as "right-wing," 59% identified as "moderates" and only 26% identified themselves as "left-wing."The public is also heavily divided on what stalled peace talks mean for Israel's future. Of respondents, slightly more believe that the talks could be harmful to Israel in the short-term (36%-41%) rather than in the long term (34%-40%). 57.5% of the public believed that the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation pact endangers Israel security - the same percentage of people who disagree with the EU's notion that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's involvement makes the agreement more inclusive and, therefore, more legitimate. 56% of the Jewish public believes US President Barack Obama is "incorrect" for assigning blame to both Israel and the PA for the failure of talks, according to the survey. However, of those, respondents are widely polarized by political affiliation; 70.5% of self-identified "left-wing" respondents agreed with Obama's assessment, compared to 54% of "centrists" and just 27.5% of "nationalists."
Ex-ICC prosecutor warns Palestinians on anti-Israel war crimes effort-‘Palestine’ now eligible to join International Criminal court, says Luis Moreno-Ocampo, but legal effort against Israel could backfire-By AP May 7, 2014, 8:53 pm-The Times of Israel
The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, on a visit to Israel, urged the Palestinians to proceed with caution as they consider pursuing war crimes charges against Israel. He said it would be preferable for the two sides to work out their differences directly.Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the Palestinians should not rush ahead with a case against Israel, saying they could expose themselves to the same accusations.The Palestinians were accepted as a nonmember state in the UN General Assembly in 2012, an upgraded status that allows them to qualify for membership in dozens of international conventions and agencies.Most worrisome for Israel is the Palestinian threat to join the International Criminal Court and pressing war crimes charges against Israel. The Palestinians allege that Israeli crimes range from actions carried out by its military to construction of Jewish settlements on occupied land captured in the 1967 Mideast war.When he was the court’s chief prosecutor, Moreno-Ocampo turned down a request by the Palestinians to join the court. But as a nonmember state, they are now eligible, he said. If they accepted its jurisdiction, however, the Palestinians could also be investigated for Hamas rocket attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.“The obstacle they had in the past is gone, it is removed,” he told the Associated Press. “The best would be if Israelis and Palestinians create a common approach to prevent future activities.”Moreno-Ocampo, currently a professor at Yale University, is visiting the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to speak before students in its Transitional Justice program.He refused to speculate whether war crimes have been committed by either side. Regardless, he recommended the sides avoid the court and find a “creative” way to resolve their differences.“Everyone feels they are victims,” he said. “If you don’t want to be at the ICC, do something before — don’t wait.”
Peres to Rice: World must pressure Hamas to recognize Israel-Visiting US national security advisor urges continued peace talks, says Peres will visit White House next month-By Marissa Newman and AP May 7, 2014, 7:44 pm-The Times of Israel
President Shimon Peres issued an appeal Wednesday for international pressure to coerce Hamas into accepting the Quartet terms and recognizing Israel, a move that he said would allow for the resumption of the suspended peace negotiations.In a meeting with United States National Security Advisor Susan Rice, Peres insisted, “We must find a way to restart the negotiations between us and the Palestinians.” While Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is “someone that we can negotiate with” and “wants to achieve peace,” the main obstacle in reviving the talks, Peres said, is the recently forged reconciliation deal between Abbas’s Fatah and the Gaza terror group. However, while the agreement came as a surprise and necessitated the suspension of the negotiations, “that is not a cause to stop,” he insisted.“What is necessary is international pressure on Hamas to accept the basic conditions laid down by the Quartet,” Peres said. “The world is united on those conditions and I believe that Hamas must be given no choice: If they want to be helped, no one should pay for their missiles and tunnels.”Peres had vowed in an Independence Day interview with The Times of Israel to galvanize international pressure on Hamas to moderate its positions.Rice — who said Peres would visit the White House on June 25, shortly before he steps down — opened her visit to Israel by telling leaders Wednesday that peace with the Palestinians can only be reached through direct negotiations leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.Rice, in Israel for strategic talks, is the first senior American official to visit Israel since nine months of U.S.-brokered talks fizzled out late last month. No progress was made during the talks, and Israel and the Palestinians have been blaming each other for the breakdown.Rice told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that while negotiations have hit a pause, the US “remains convinced that lasting peace can only be secured through direct negotiations that lead to two viable, independent states living side by side in peace and security,” according to a statement released by the White House.US-brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which began last summer, ended abruptly in April without an agreement.After nine months of negotiations, Israel suspended further negotiations over the unity agreement between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas reached two weeks ago.The president also addressed the Iranian nuclear negotiations brokered by the P5+1, praising the sanctions but maintaining that the Islamic Republic’s leadership is not “being fully honest.”“I believe the sanctions are useful, the leadership in Iran aren’t being fully honest but they wouldn’t say what they’re saying without sanctions,” he said.Whether Iran is serious about dismantling its program remains to be seen, he maintained. “We are coming to the critical moment when we will discover if they are just offering words or are really serious about change. The world will judge upon actions not words.”Rice, who met with Netanyahu on Wednesday afternoon, stressed that the US will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and maintained that the diplomatic process was the most effective way to reach a viable agreement with Iran. The Obama administration will continue to consult with Israel as the negotiations continue, she said.Netanyahu and Rice also discussed the security cooperation between the two countries, and the situation in Ukraine and Syria, according to a statement from the White House.The US and its negotiating partners — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — reached an interim nuclear accord with Iran late last year and are now holding delicate discussions on a final deal. Nuclear experts from each country were meeting in New York this week ahead of higher level talks scheduled in Vienna next week.While the talks have yielded some positive signs, the toughest issues must still be negotiated and any deal could fall apart.Obama and other top US officials have sought to convince Israel that the talks represent the best option for resolving the international community’s dispute with Iran peacefully. Israel sees the Iranian nuclear program as an existential threat and has resisted any suggestions that Tehran could be left with some nuclear capacity.Times of Israel staff and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Holocaust and the Vatican Pimpernel
May 5, 2014, 6:52 pm 0 By Jonathon Van Maren-The Times of Israel
There is perhaps no conflict with as many unsung heroes as the Second World War, where the sheer enormity of the evil being perpetrated across Europe brought much opportunity for righteous response. From well-known heroes such as Oskar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom to lesser known, but equally noble resistors such as Nicholas Winton and Raoul Wallenberg, men and women responded to the wickedness committed beneath the symbol of the twisted Nazi cross to save the lives of their imperiled neighbors. Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty was one such man. His story has been largely forgotten in recent decades, although his life has been memorialized in both book and film, and one poet wrote admiringly of him:“Not all houses here are painted black, not yet, there are those that walk a Righteous track and won’t forget that blood runs red but Hope is Scarlet,The Vatican veils a modest man, the Spectrum’s Saviour, Come to fight the Final Plan with a flash of colour. Blood runs red but Hope is Scarlet.”Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, the Irish priest also known as the Vatican Pimpernel, is credited along with his colleagues for saving the lives of more than 6,500 people in Rome, smuggling Allied prisoners of war as well as endangered Jewish citizens to safety via an intricate escape organization.O’Flaherty, ironically, was not a man people would suspect for the role he eventually filled. He was known as a patron of Rome’s high life, a well-respected Vatican diplomat who had served in Haiti, San Domingo, Czechoslovakia and Egypt, and a regular attendee of all the most expensive and prestigious parties. Obsessed with golf, he was known to shoot rounds with Mussolini’s son-in-law and Alfonso, the former king of Spain.However, when the Second World War broke out, things began to change quickly. In the fall of 1942, the Italians (under pressure and with assistance from their German allies) began sweeping arrests of Jews and high-ranking dissenters to Mussolini’s fascist regime. O’Flaherty, a man in possession of diplomatic immunity due to the 1929 Lateran Treaty between Mussolini and the Vatican granting the Vatican independence, realized immediately that his duty was to help the persecuted to the greatest extent possible. O’Flaherty began sending Jews and other refugees to convents, monasteries, and churches for safety, and when he began to run out of space, he hid people in both the residences of his wealthy friends and the Vatican itself.The following year, everything changed. Italy’s fascist army crumbled under the pounding of Allied forces, and on September 8, 1943, Italy surrendered to the Allies and thousands of former Allied prisoners of war poured out of unguarded Italian concentration camps. The victory, however, was short-lived. Days later, Nazi troops marched into Italy to retake the country and protect their flank from the Allies. Suddenly, thousands of American and British POW’s were back in hostile territory. The dreaded SS and Gestapo entered Rome, led by men such as Colonel Herbert Kappler, who began deporting Jews to Auschwitz, and Pietro Koch, a sadist famous for devising the most cruel torture methods.O’Flaherty’s small organization now began to balloon in size, and former POW’s all over Italy heard the word that the Vatican Pimpernel could help them. O’Flaherty ignored the German-imposed curfew, Fascist patrols, and even the severe disapproval of Vatican officials to hide refugees everywhere from private apartments to abandoned warehouses. O’Flaherty always refused payment—a Jewish couple once gave him a solid gold chain in payment for hiding them. The priest hid them, obtained false documents, and managed to keep them hidden for the duration of the war. At war’s end, O’Flaherty gave them their gold chain back—he had tossed it in his desk drawer and left it there! When asked by one incredulous colleague how he could be so nonchalant with something of such worth, O’Flaherty replied, “Nobody here will steal it.”The SS under Colonel Herbert Kappler soon took notice of O’Flaherty—not only because it became apparent that he was smuggling and concealing refugees, but because of his sheer audacity. Nearly every single evening, O’Flaherty stood at the top of the steps of St. Peter’s, saying his prayers and waiting for anyone who might seek refuge with him—in full view of the Nazi soldiers patrolling the Vatican City border, marked by a white painted line. Kappler ordered O’Flaherty captured—but the Irishman responded by going about his work in a series of clever disguises, escaping time and time again in spite of many close calls.At war’s end, thousands of Allied prisoners of war as well as Jewish and anti-fascist Italians owed their lives to O’Flaherty and his organization. For the most part, he refused to talk about what he had done, and thus we do not know precisely how many people his organization saved. Pietro Koch, the Torturer of Rome, was killed by Italian partisans attempting to flee the city. Col. Kappler was sentenced to life in prison—and every single month, he had one persistent visitor: Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, who in 1959 baptized Kappler in prison.O’Flaherty story gives us much to admire and much to emulate: Humility, courage, graciousness, and selflessness. He was willing to risk everything, time and time again, because he knew and held dear a a very important truth: There is nothing quite so valuable as a human person.
South Korea warns North Korea over new nuke test-New Straits Times-May 7,14
NEW YORK: South Korea’s foreign minister warned North Korea on Tuesday that the cost of keeping and testing nuclear weapons will be so high that it could threaten the survival of Kim Jong Un’s regime.Yun Byung-se told a standing-room audience of diplomats, U.N. officials and Korea-watchers at the International Peace Institute that the North will pay “the heaviest price” in new sanctions if it defies the international community and goes ahead with a new nuclear test.Many experts — and the South Korean government — had suspected the North would conduct its fourth nuclear test during President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Seoul. North Korea has said it still may go ahead and test a new kind of nuclear device following Obama’s visit.“Our assessment is that North Korea is ready to undertake a test whenever they make the necessary political decision,” Yun said.A call to North Korea’s U.N. Mission seeking comment was not answered.He explained that a new test “will make a great impact on the strategic landscape in our part of the world” and could undermine the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, the cornerstone of global nuclear disarmament efforts. North Korea has pulled out of the treaty.Faced with this challenge, Yun said South Korea has been making intensive diplomatic efforts to deter the North from carrying out a new test with the other parties to the stalled six-party nuclear talks aimed at reining in the North’s nuclear program, Security Council members, the European Union and Asian nations.In the event of a new test, he said, the U.N. Security Council must fill all loopholes in the four rounds of sanctions it has already imposed on the North over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs — and individual countries must take similar tough measures.As long as North Korea relies on nuclear weapons to make threats, Yun warned, “then we, South Korea, together with our partners in the Security Council, will make the cost of having these nuclear weapons very very high, very very heavy, so that could backfire to the regime — the survival of the regime.”At the same time, Yun stressed that South Korean is seeking to build a peaceful and “new Korean peninsula.”He reiterated President Park Geun-hye’s proposals last month to reunify Korea, which has been divided along the world’s most heavily fortified border since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.“It takes two to tango,” he said. “We hope North Korea will respond positively to our genuine proposals.”Yun said South Korea “recognises that our journey for reunification will be long and bumpy” but he said a nuclear-free and unified Korea would alleviate security threats in northeast Asia and stabilise the region.“The geopolitical plate of the region is going through what I would call tectonic shifts,” he said. “We are witnessing a rising China, a resurgent Japan, an assertive Russia and an anachronistic North Korea which is simultaneously pursuing nuclear weapons and economic development.”Yun said conflicts over history, territory and maritime security, among others, are raising concerns “that even a military confrontation owing to miscalculations may become a reality.”At the heart of these conflicts, he said, is “a trust deficit.”Yun said that’s why South Korea is seeking to unify the two Koreas and build a new Asia and a new world.Yun said he is “rather optimistic about this unification” because there are changes inside North Korea and many changes outside including China and Russia now saying publicly for the first time that they are in favor of peaceful reunification of the Koreas.“We have to be prepared for that possibility, or any scenario that will be unfolding in the coming months and years,” he said.He recalled the day 23 years ago when East Germany and West Germany replaced their two nameplates at the United Nations with a single nameplate that said Germany.“Likewise, I do believe the day is approaching, perhaps much faster than we may all realise, for the two Koreas to replace their respective nameplates with one single nameplate that simply says Korea,” Yun said. --AP
