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)
NOT SO FAST ON THE SO CALLED HOSTAGE CEASEFIRE DEAL - HAMAS RENEGES ALREADY. AFTER NOT A DAY IS GONE.
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.
Isaiah 57:21
21 There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
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.
Ephesians 2:2
2 Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience:
NOT SO FAST
ON THAT SO CALLED HOSTAGE, CEASEFIRE DEAL. AFTER NOT A DAY HAMAS IS
RENEGING ALREADY. WANTING TO MAKE A LIST OF THE TERRORISTS THEY WANT
RELEASED BY ISRAEL.BENJAMIN NETANYAHU I SAY DON'T DO A DEAL WITH BIDEN
AND HIS BUNCH OF HAMAS SUCK UP LEADERS. DO THE HOSTAGE DEAL WITH TRUMP
AND HIS NEGOTIATORS. THEY WON'T SUCK HOLE UP TO HAMAS AND ALL THE
TERRORISTS. THEY WILL DO A FAR DEAL FOR THE HOSTAGES. IT BETTER BE ONE
FOR ONE. INSTEAD OF 100 FOR 1 HOSTAGE. IF HAMAS REJECTS. USE A SMALL
NUKE IN GAZA AND THE WESTBANK. AND GO AFTER IRANS NUKE SITES AND OIL
REFINERIES. TEACH THESE ARAB, MUSLIMS A LESSON. YOU GO BY TRUMPS DEAL OR
YOUR HISTORY.
Netanyahu's office: Terror group
creating 'crisis' in deal-Israel holds off on approving hostage deal,
accusing Hamas of reneging on details-Cabinet vote on deal delayed amid
dispute on identities of prisoners to be freed; Hamas denies
backtracking; official not in PMO says Netanyahu stalling over
‘coalition politics’By Amy Spiro-and Jacob Magid-Today, 3:22 pm-JAN
16,25
Israel was still holding off on Thursday afternoon from
officially declaring that a ceasefire-hostage release deal announced a
day earlier by mediators had been reached with Hamas, insisting that
details remained to be finalized and that Hamas was throwing last-minute
wrenches into the negotiations.Mossad chief David Barnea, the head of
Israel’s negotiating team who was dispatched to Doha on Saturday night,
was still in the Qatari capital as of Thursday afternoon, according to
an official familiar with the talks.Both the US and Qatar — who brokered
the agreement — proclaimed on Wednesday evening that a deal had been
reached to end the 15-month war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’s October 7,
2023, onslaught, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held off on
publicly commenting, saying he would only do so when the terms were
finalized.Nevertheless, most Israeli officials indicated the agreement
was all but a done deal, with the focus moving to the internal political
battle playing out ahead of the expected cabinet and security cabinet
votes, which were delayed by at least several hours.The Prime Minister’s
Office issued a statement Thursday morning accusing Hamas of backing
out of some agreements and creating a “crisis” in finalizing the
deal.“Hamas is reneging on the understandings and creating a last-minute
crisis that is preventing an agreement,” the PMO said in a statement
issued in both English and Hebrew. “The Israeli cabinet will not convene
until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements
of the agreement.”Other reports in Israeli media suggested instead that
the delay in convening the cabinet was due to attempts to gain the
support of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has
threatened to quit the government along with National Security Minister
Itamar Ben Gvir if the war is ended.Overnight, the PMO specified that
the dispute related to the release of Palestinian security prisoners,
describing “a last-minute attempt by Hamas to withdraw from a clause in
the agreement that grants Israel veto power over the release of mass
murderers who are symbols of terrorism.” It said Hamas was “demanding to
dictate the identity of these murderers,” contradicting agreed-upon
terms.A leaked copy of the deal, whose authenticity was later confirmed
to The Times of Israel, said prisoners would be released “based on lists
agreed upon by both sides.”Following the Israeli government statement,
senior Hamas official Izzat el-Risheq said that the terror group is
committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by mediators on
Wednesday.An Israeli official not from Netanyahu’s office suggested that
the premier is making announcements about breakdowns in negotiations
and holding off on announcing the agreement his negotiating team signed
off on yesterday while he works to keep his coalition intact.The Israeli
official acknowledged to The Times of Israel that details are still
being finalized in negotiations but insisted that the disagreements are
relatively minor and will be solved in the coming hours.Asked to explain
Netanyahu’s conduct since the deal was announced, the Israeli official
chalks it up to “coalition politics.”Separately, a senior diplomatic
official denied to reporters on Thursday that Israel had agreed to
gradually pull out of the Philadelphi Corridor along the border between
Gaza and Egypt from the start of the ceasefire.The official said Israeli
troops will remain in the area “throughout the entire first stage, all
42 days.” The number of troops deployed there will remain the same, the
official said, “but will be distributed in a different manner, including
outposts, patrols, observation points and control along the entire
route.”Only on day 16 of the first stage, the official added, will
negotiations begin over the end of the war, and “if Hamas does not agree
to Israeli demands to end the war, Israel will remain in the
Philadelphi Corridor also on the 42nd day and also the 50th day.”In
practical terms, the official contended, “Israel is staying in
Philadelphi until further notice.”The leaked copy of the agreement
states that the Israeli side “will gradually reduce the forces in the
corridor area during stage 1 based on the accompanying maps and the
agreement between both sides.” On day 42, the deal says, “Israeli forces
will begin their withdrawal and complete it no later than day 50.”Under
the terms of the deal, the initial six-week first phase of the
ceasefire will see the gradual release of 33 Israeli hostages —
including two who have been held in Gaza for many years.During that
phase, Israel is slated to gradually withdraw from the densely populated
areas in the Gaza Strip, including the Netzarim Corridor in its center,
and deploy to a 700-meter-long perimeter on the Gaza border. The Rafah
Border Crossing with Egypt will open for civilians and wounded to leave
Gaza for abroad after the release of all the female hostages in the
first phase, and civilians will be able to start returning to northern
Gaza a week into the deal.On the 16th day of the first stage,
negotiations are slated to begin on the terms of the second phase of the
deal, which is expected to see the release of the remaining 65
hostages.Hamas-led terrorists kidnapped 251 hostages during their
October 7, 2023, onslaught, and 105 were released during a November 2023
temporary truce, while four were freed earlier and eight have been
rescued alive by troops from Gaza.The bodies of 40 hostages have been
recovered from the Strip, and of the 94 captives believed to still be
held, 34 have been confirmed dead by Israeli officials. The fate of many
of the others is unknown.Agencies and Times of Israel staff contributed
to this report.
Analysis-With hostage deal, Netanyahu is going
all in on Trump-The prime minister is risking a schism with his closest
political allies to advance a deal with Hamas. He has good reason to
think it’s worth the gamble-Haviv Rettig Gur-By Haviv Rettig Gur-Today,
4:38 pm-JAN 16,25
At the time of writing, the deal between Israel
and Hamas for a hostage release and temporary ceasefire in Gaza has
not, despite much fanfare around the world, actually been signed and
sealed. Claims of last-minute demands from Hamas have prevented a formal
announcement.On Hamas’s side, the last hiccup seems to be the
identities of some of the terrorist prisoners Israel will be required to
release under the terms of the deal.But there may be an Israeli hiccup
too — a complication that emerges from Netanyahu’s political fears of
losing the far-right factions of his coalition.Otzma Yehudit party
leader Itamar Ben Gvir has already declared he will leave the government
if the deal is signed. While he appears resolved to that outcome,
Netanyahu has worked hard to keep the Religious Zionism chief, Finance
Minister Betzalel Smotrich, from doing the same. On paper, Netanyahu’s
coalition could survive without them for some time, but it would be a
far less stable coalition, and a far less loyal one.Netanyahu has spent
much of the week trying to convince Smotrich that the deal will not mean
an end to the war, even if outgoing US President Joe Biden has insisted
otherwise.The argument he’s been making behind closed doors emerged
into public view on Thursday in a media statement credited to an unnamed
“senior official” — more often than not, journalistic code for a
Netanyahu spokesman or even Netanyahu himself.“Contrary to distorted
reports,” the statement read, “Israel won’t be leaving the Philadelphi
Corridor” that runs along the Egypt-Gaza border. “Israel will remain on
the Corridor throughout phase 1, for all 42 days.” Though IDF forces
would redeploy in some parts, “the scale of forces will remain the same,
including outposts, patrols, observation sites and control of the
entirety of the Corridor.”And then the statement made a dramatic
promise: “If Hamas doesn’t agree [in talks over phase 2] to Israel’s
demands for an end to the war (the fulfillment of the war’s goals), then
Israel will remain in the Philadelphi Corridor on the 42nd day as well,
and certainly on the 50th. In other words, in practical terms, Israel
remains in Philadelphi until further notice.”It’s a strange statement,
with the parenthetical about “the fulfillment of the war’s goals”
seeming to suggest that phase 2 would depend on Hamas agreeing to
surrender or exile after phase 1 — a clear message to Smotrich and the
far right — but made by someone trying to phrase it vaguely enough so as
not to trigger new obstacles in the negotiations. Embarrassment-There’s
a reason Netanyahu seems to be struggling to speak clearly — and in
fact, has not yet spoken openly to the public about what’s going on in
the talks.A large majority of Israelis, including majorities of both
Jews and Arabs, support the hostage deal. Some 58% support the deal in
full, including at the cost of leaving Hamas in power in Gaza, according
to an Israel Democracy Institute poll released Tuesday. Another 12%
support the first phase of the deal — 33 hostages released without a
full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — and then want a return to fighting.
Some 70%, in other words, want the prime minister to sign on the dotted
line.But Netanyahu’s problem lies with the 23% who do not — who support
continuing the military campaign, believe it will lead to a better deal
down the road, and are nearly all voters for his coalition.A great many
Israelis, especially on the right, are horrified at the costs Israel
will pay in the first phase: a thousand Palestinian prisoners released,
some of them arch-terrorists and murderers. The hunt for Hamas in Gaza —
that long, painful degradation war that has exacted a high cost from
Israeli soldiers and families and a much higher one for Gazans and, they
believe, must not end with Hamas still in power — will grind to a halt
and may not be easy to restart.If the deal is signed, these Israelis
believe, Hamas will survive the war, its forces will be bolstered, its
reputation restored, its future control of Gaza all but assured.If you
don’t think your leaders can deliver a victory, you become far more
likely to support a negotiated end, even if it leaves a hated enemy in
power-What of Netanyahu’s oft-repeated (and oft-mocked) promise of
“total victory?”This is not a small question for him. One of the main
drivers of support for the deal is the widespread distrust among many
Israelis, measured in many polls, that Netanyahu is either unwilling or
incapable of achieving a successful outcome for the war. If you don’t
think your leaders can deliver a victory, you become far more likely to
support a negotiated end, even if it leaves a hated enemy in power.
Distrust of Netanyahu in the political center and left is a major driver
of opposition to continued fighting.Netanyahu cannot afford to create
the same impression of incapacity and dishonesty on the far right.The
second deal-All of which begs the question: Why would he be committing
to a deal that has so many political risks for him? The deal now on the
table is not, despite Biden’s claims, the same deal offered in May. Key
Israeli demands that Hamas refused in the spring have now been met,
including the rate of hostage release and the significant Israeli
presence in Philadelphi in phase 1.But why would Hamas suddenly be
willing to make those concessions? And why would Netanyahu, who has
clung tightly to his coalition’s rightist flank for 16 months, suddenly
be willing to risk a political showdown? Enter Trump.There are two deals
on the table this week: Netanyahu’s deal with Hamas and Netanyahu’s
deal with the incoming Trump administration. We know a great deal about
the first and very little about the second.Netanyahu’s change of heart
seemed to come in conversations with Trump officials, from the
president-elect himself down to Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff —
so much so that some Arab officials have suggested that one meeting on
Saturday between Netanyahu and Witkoff did more to bring Netanyahu
around than a year of Biden administration cajoling.(It must be said for
those who take this to mean that Netanyahu was the chief obstacle to a
deal: Hamas had never actually agreed to any previous version of this
deal.) But what could the Trump team have offered Netanyahu to make a
showdown with Smotrich and Ben Gvir suddenly palatable? Publicly, the
answer seems to be a promise to resume the war. In his Senate
confirmation hearing for his appointment as secretary of defense, Pete
Hegseth told the senators bluntly, “I support Israel destroying and
killing every last member of Hamas.”And in an interview with the Call Me
Back podcast, incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz said Trump
sought to fundamentally change the dynamic that encouraged terrorist
groups to take hostages.“Terrorist groups and rogue states have been
taking Americans hostage, and they’ve only seen upside [for doing so
for] the last four years,” Waltz charged. “So why not take more? Why not
take as many as you can and see what you get? With President Trump, he
made it very clear very early — not just with Hamas, with groups around
the world — there’ll be nothing but downside.”Hamas, Waltz told
interviewer Dan Senor, “has to be destroyed to the point that it cannot
reconstitute. ”Could Netanyahu be channeling a solemn commitment from
Trump when he promises Smotrich a resumption of the war after phase 1?
Speaking to Fox News on Wednesday evening, moreover, Waltz specified
that the US will back Israel if it needs to reenter Gaza. “We’ve made it
very clear to the Israelis, and I want the people of Israel to hear me
on this: If they need to go back in, we’re with them,” he said. “If
Hamas doesn’t live up to the terms of this agreement, we are with
them.”Playing nice-Hamas desperately needs a deal. It acquiesced to
Israeli demands it has long rejected out of hand, such as leaving
Israeli forces in Philadelphi during phase 1, where they will be able to
prevent its rearming through the border tunnels to Egypt for the
duration of at least that stage of the ceasefire.Over the past 16
months, it lost its chief backers, Hezbollah and Iran. Its Houthi allies
in Yemen have gone from devoted ally to cautionary tale for the rest of
the region. Israeli airstrikes in Hodeida and Ras Issa in the
war-wracked country have all but eliminated the Houthi capacity to
export oil and gas.And Trump, of course, reshuffles the deck. Israelis
are convinced they will have a freer hand against their enemies in the
region after January 20.And so this deal marks a softening of Hamas’s
demands — including the rather significant previous demand for an
Israeli commitment in advance not to resume fighting after phase 1. The
rebuilding of Gaza will also only begin in the later phases.Why would
Hamas accept this truce, that is so much less than the strategic removal
of the Israeli presence it had held out for since November 2023? Why
would it leave Israel able and apparently eager to roar back into the
war the moment 33 hostages are in Israel’s hands? Perhaps for the same
reason Netanyahu seems so keen on a deal: Trump.Trump’s arrival has
fundamentally changed the dynamic. Given the comments of Hegseth and
Waltz, Netanyahu can reasonably expect to have American backing for any
future escalation.But Trump has repeatedly criticized the Israeli war
effort for being slow, indecisive and “losing the PR war.”And so a new
dynamic is in play.Israel can do what it takes to win, but Trump, it
appears, wants it to show it is willing to try a ceasefire, publicly and
clearly. When Hamas inevitably tries to rearm or launch a rocket,
Israel will have its excuse to return to fighting, perhaps better
prepared and with better intelligence penetration of the Hamas ranks
than on October 8, 2023.And in the meantime, it will have handed Trump
his political win in the form of a ceasefire, and won his backing for a
more intensive fight against Hamas.If that’s the basic dynamic, it
explains much of Netanyahu’s and Hamas’s actions over the past two
weeks.It explains why Netanyahu is standing up to far-right resistance.
Smotrich and Ben Gvir’s public anger serves to highlight the
conciliatory stance Netanyahu wants to project to the incoming Trump
administration. Hamas understands this moment as well as Netanyahu. It
needed to obtain just enough from an agreement to be able to claim a
victory, and then to adhere to whatever is obtained in order to deny
Netanyahu the political cover with Trump for a return to war.Ironically,
that’s a position of weakness for Hamas, and Netanyahu appears to have
taken advantage of it — and so there are more hostages coming out, a
slower Israeli redeployment and no guarantees of an end to fighting.Yet
Hamas retains one great advantage over Netanyahu: Its bar for “victory”
is extremely low. It doesn’t need to win; it doesn’t need to rebuild its
capabilities. It only needs to be able to claim it survived, even if
what survived is a bare fragment of the original organization, now
reduced to sending teenagers to fight, overseeing a ruined economy and
unable to rebuild Gaza. The simple fact that it still exists is
“victory.”Netanyahu will almost certainly sign the deal. Hamas will too.
Netanyahu will eat a lot of political crow, especially from his
rightist base. Hamas will declare victory and parade through the streets
of Gaza.Trump has already taken credit, and Netanyahu will continue to
credit him.And Hamas will play by the rules as well as it possibly
can.And in the meantime, Israel will work ferociously to build out the
kind of intelligence infiltration in Gaza that it possessed in Lebanon.
It will spend the ceasefire preparing the offensive Netanyahu seems to
believe will be permitted him at the end of phase 1.If this is indeed
Netanyahu’s calculation, then the deal he will soon sign is a reasonable
gambit and a serious strategy.
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