Tag Archives: Israel

Two Palestinians shot dead after wounding Israeli soldier, military says

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Two Palestinians stabbed and wounded an Israeli soldier and were then shot and killed on Thursday outside a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, the military said.

Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 187 Palestinians, 126 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.

In an initial statement, the military said an Israeli woman was wounded in the attack at a road junction near the settlement of Ariel, and evacuated for medical treatment. It later identified her as a soldier.

“Forces at the scene responded to the attack and shot the assailants, resulting in their deaths,” the statement said.

The surge in violence has been partly fuelled by Palestinian frustration over the collapse of U.S.-sponsored peace talks in 2014, the growth of Jewish settlements on land they seek for a future state, and Islamist calls for the destruction of Israel.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Joel Richardson Warns, “There is a Storm Brewing”

On our first exciting evening service for the prophetic conference here at Morningside, Joel Richardson began his message with one clear word on the prophetic.

“You don’t need to be a prophet to understand the big picture. For the finer details, yes you might need to be one, but in terms of understanding what’s unfolding right now all over the world, it is actually very simple. There is a storm brewing.”

Joel Richardson knows when a storm is coming. As the son of a fisherman, he grew up in an area plagued by hurricanes, Now he lives in the midwest where storms can come up quickly and produce destructive tornadoes. Joel explained that hurricanes begin as a tropical storm, far away, The storm is out there, swirling in the ocean. Then 2 , 3 or 4 days down the road you see the entire coast engulfed in this massive storm system and on alert. You can look on a map and see the hurricane swallowing half of the country.

According to Pastor Richardson, “If we want to understand the story of what is happening in our world right now we have to begin by understanding the basic story of the Bible, which is this: The God of Heaven and Earth has made a promise, He has made vows, He has actually made vows unto death, and these promises have to do with what is happening right now. These promises involve a very specific piece of real estate; a very specific spot on the map that is called the city of Jerusalem, in the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel is like a tropical storm right now, and the storm is beginning to brew and to swirl.”

Richardson explained that the scriptures teach that eventually the storm that begins around Jerusalem, the rage of Satan against the fulfillment of God’s promises, will pull every nation on earth into its destructive power.

“The storm is already beginning, we are already starting to feel the winds of this storm. This is a storm that eventually will affect everyone on this earth. This will be an economic storm, it will be a storm that will affect nature with natural disasters, it will be a military storm, there will be very real wars. Beyond that it is a theological storm, an ideological storm. This storm will involve deception and this is one of the first things that we need to be made aware of.”

Joel stressed that before we feel the winds of decimation we will, even in the church, feel the winds of deception. He warned against the danger of believing in replacement theology. A theology that states in effect, that the church has superseded Israel; that God has transferred his plans and purposes from Israel to the church. When in fact, God made these promises to Jerusalem over and over in His Word. Israel is his Jewel and it in the city of Jerusalem that Jesus will have His throne.

Listening to Joel speak is always compelling.The biblical knowledge on Israel and on her enemies are an incredible gift to understanding God’s plans. Joel describes Jesus as sitting on the right hand of God, now, interceding for us. He is waiting…His heart is burning. He wants to come back more than WE want him to come back. And it is almost time.

In closing, Joel Richardson tells us all to keep our eyes on the Middle East and be wary of the winds that we feel from there.

“It is right in front of us, the battle… the storm. Watch Israel. Watch Jerusalem.”

There is a storm brewing.

 

Our Prophetic Week DVD is now available containing every taping of the Jim Bakker Show with all of our amazing guests, as well as Morningside’s inspirational evening services including Joel Richardson during Prophetic week 2016.                                 

Germany, France criticize Israel for seizing West Bank land

BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) – Germany and France on Wednesday criticized Israel’s decision to appropriate large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank, saying the move violated international law and contradicted a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israeli Army Radio said on Tuesday the land was near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian city of Jericho.

Israel says it intends to keep large settlement blocs in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a viable country.

“This decision sends a wrong signal at the wrong time,” the German Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Especially in the current tense situation, both parties in the Middle East conflict are called on to take steps for a de-escalation and to find ways that lead to an urgently needed resumption of peace negotiations,” it said.

In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal said France was “extremely concerned” by the Israeli decision.

“Settlements constitute a violation of international law and contradict commitments made by Israeli authorities in favor of a two-state solution,” the spokesman said.

Palestinians have cited Israeli settlement activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes negotiations could be revived any time soon.

Germany, which has forged close relations with Israel in the decades since the Holocaust, has repeatedly criticized Israel for its settlement plans.

“All people in Israel and Palestine have a right to live in peace and security. Only a clear political perspective for a sustainable two-state solution can guarantee this in the long term,” the ministry said.

Paris is lobbying for an international peace conference before May that would outline incentives and give guarantees for Israelis and Palestinians to resume face-to-face talks before August and try to end the decades-long conflict.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat on Tuesday called on the international community to press Israel to stop land confiscations. Most countries view Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

Israel’s Peace Now movement, which tracks and opposes Israeli settlement in territory captured in the 1967 war, said the reported seizure of 579 acres represented the largest land confiscation in the West Bank in recent years.

(Reporting By John Irish in Paris and Michael Nienaber in Berlin; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Israel seizes large tracts of land in occupied West Bank, Army Radio says

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel has appropriated large tracts of land in the occupied West Bank near the Dead Sea and the Palestinian city of Jericho, Israeli Army Radio said on Tuesday.

Israel’s Peace Now movement, which tracks and opposes Israeli settlement in territory captured in a 1967 war, said the reported seizure of 579 acres represented the largest land confiscation in the West Bank in recent years.

The group said plans for expanding nearby Jewish settlements and building tourism and other commercial facilities in the area were already on Israel’s drawing board.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, in a statement, called on the international community to press Israel to stop land confiscations. Most countries view Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

The U.S. State Department criticized the land seizure, saying ongoing expropriations and settlement expansions were “fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution.”

“We strongly oppose any steps that accelerate settlement expansion, which raises serious questions about Israel’s long-term intentions,” State Department spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing.

Asked about Army Radio’s report of the land confiscation, Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon’s office said in an email to Reuters: “We are not relating to the issue.”

Photos of a de facto Israeli confiscation notice – a Hebrew map and accompanying documents titled “A declaration of government property” – were tweeted, however, by the Palestine Liberation Organization on Tuesday.

Dated March 10, it listed 2,342 dunams, or 579 acres, and carried the signature of an official identified on the map as Israel’s “supervisor of government property and abandoned property in Judea and Samaria”, Hebrew terms for the West Bank.

Such an appropriation would be the largest since August 2014, and larger than the 380-acre area that Israel first said in January it planned to designate as government property near the Dead Sea. News of those plans drew international condemnation at the time.

Israel says it intends to keep large settlement blocs in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians. Palestinians, who seek to establish a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, say they fear Israeli settlement expansion will deny them a viable country.

Palestinians have cited Israeli settlement activity as one of the factors behind the collapse of U.S.-brokered peace talks in 2014, and a surge of violence over the past five months has dimmed hopes negotiations could be revived any time soon.

Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 184 Palestinians, 124 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.

(Additional reporting by Ori Lewis and Ali Sawafta, Writing by Jeffrey Heller, Editing by Hugh Lawson and Chizu Nomiyama)

Three Palestinians shot dead after attack on Israelis in West Bank

KIRYAT ARBA, West Bank (Reuters) – Three Palestinians carried out back-to-back gun and car-ramming attacks on Israelis near a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday and were shot dead by the army, it said.

Two of the Palestinians, armed with a handgun and an improvised machine-pistol, were killed after opening fire at civilians and soldiers who were waiting at a bus stop outside Kiryat Arba settlement, the army said. One soldier was wounded.

Minutes later, the third Palestinian rammed a car into an military vehicle at the scene and was shot, the army said. Two soldiers were hurt in the second incident, the army said, adding that two knives were found on the motorist’s body.

Since October, Palestinian street attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 184 Palestinians, 124 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.

The surge in violence has been partly fueled by Palestinian frustration over the collapse of U.S.-sponsored peace talks in 2014, the growth of Jewish settlements on land they seek for a future state, and Islamist calls for the destruction of Israel.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Michael Perry)

U.S. looking for way to move forward on Israel, Palestinian peace

PARIS (Reuters) – The United States is looking for a way to break the deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, acknowledging that by itself it could not find a solution.

Having twice failed to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Obama administration is discussing ways to help preserve the prospect of an increasingly threatened two-state solution, U.S. officials have told Reuters.

At the same time, France is seeking support for an initiative to relaunch talks between the two sides this summer and prevent what one French diplomat has called the risk of a “powder keg” exploding.

Last year France failed to get the United States on board for a U.N. Security Council resolution to set parameters for talks between the two sides and a deadline for a deal. Since then, the stance of former foreign minister Laurent Fabius, to recognize a Palestinian state automatically if the new initiative fails, has been toned down.

“Obviously we’re all looking for a way forward. The United States and myself remain deeply committed to a two state solution. It is absolutely essential,” Kerry said when asked whether the U.S. was ready to cooperate with Paris’ efforts.

“There’s not any one country or one person who can resolve this. This is going to require the global community, it will require international support,” he said speaking alongside European foreign ministers in Paris.

A former ambassador to Washington, Pierre Vimont, is heading France’s diplomatic push and will be in Israel, the Palestinian territories and the United States this week to discuss the French initiative.

With U.S. efforts to broker a two-state solution in tatters since in April 2014 and Washington focused on this year’s election, Paris is lobbying countries to commit to a conference before May that would outline incentives and give guarantees for Israelis and Palestinians, seeking face-to-face talks before August.

“The conflict is getting worse and the status quo cannot continue,” France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said.

U.S. officials have no expectation peace talks will resume before the end of U.S. President Barack Obama’s term in January 2017 and have played down the odds of any quick decision on how the White House might help preserve a two-state solution.

“We’re talking about any number of different ways to try to change the situation on the ground in an effort to try to generate some confidence,” Kerry said. “So we are listening carefully to the French proposal.

“At the moment it’s a difficult one, because of the violence that has been taking place, and there are not many people in Israel or in the region itself right now that believe in the possibilities of peace because of those levels of violence.”

(Reporting by John Irish; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Israeli official links Netanyahu’s canceled U.S. trip to defense aid hold-up

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A hold-up over a new U.S. defense package for Israel was behind Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to forgo a meeting with President Barack Obama in Washington this month, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely’s remarks contrasted with a statement by Netanyahu that cited his reluctance to risk being drawn into the U.S. presidential campaign as the reason for declining a White House offer to host him on March 18.

Current U.S. military grants to Israel, worth about $3 billion annually, expire in 2018.

Israel, which last year requested $5 billion in future annual aid but whose officials have since set their sights on $4 billion to $4.5 billion, says it needs to expand its military, rather than just upgrade technologies, given spiraling arms procurement it anticipates by arch-foe Iran and Arab states.

U.S. officials have given lower target figures of around $3.7 billion. The dispute prompted Israeli officials to hint that Netanyahu may bank on Obama’s successor for a better deal.

“There was a decision not to go to the president as long the agreement over the compensation package is not concluded,” Hotovely told Israel Radio, using a term linking the future U.S. aid to last year’s international nuclear deal with Iran, which brought sanctions relief that Tehran may use for arms purchases.

“The prime minister wants to honor the U.S. president by going when there is a basis, good news on the matter of the U.S. aid package,” she said. “This really has to be taken seriously.”

U.S. officials say they still hope for an agreement before Obama leaves office next January.

FRAUGHT RELATIONSHIP

The White House’s announcement on Monday that Netanyahu had turned down the meeting with Obama was seen as the latest episode in a fraught relationship that has yet to recover from deep differences over the Iran nuclear deal.

Some U.S. sources assessed that Netanyahu wanted the MOU concluded before meeting Obama and that the lag was among the reasons for not coming to Washington, where he was to have addressed the annual conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.

Vice President Joe Biden, in Jerusalem on Wednesday for discussions with Netanyahu that included the “Memorandum of Understanding” (MOU) on defense aid between 2018 and 2028, appeared to acknowledge Israel’s terms.

“We’re committed to making sure that Israel can defend itself against all serious threats, maintain its qualitative edge with a quantity sufficient to maintain that,” Biden said.

It was not clear if that signaled a deal was close.

U.S. negotiators have made clear that, while they want Israel to maintain a technological advantage over its neighbors, they differ over the level of risk of increased quantities of less-advanced arms in the hands of Washington’s Arab allies who seek to counter Iran.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Gareth Jones)

U.S. hopes to preserve two-state outcome for Israel, Palestinians

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Having twice failed to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace, the Obama administration is discussing ways to help preserve the prospect of an increasingly threatened two-state solution, U.S. officials said.

One possibility under discussion is to issue an outline of a deal to end the nearly 70-year-old conflict on such matters as borders, security, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Such an outline could range from a brief description of core tradeoffs the two sides might need to make to a detailed set of “parameters” like those that former U.S. President Bill Clinton laid out for the parties in late 2000.

Under one scenario, the outline could be enshrined in a U.N. Security Council resolution to give it greater international standing for a future U.S. president or the parties whenever they might resume peace talks that collapsed in April 2014.

“It’s one of the ideas that they are talking about,” said a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Resorting to a U.N. resolution would require a major shift in long-standing U.S. policy, which has mostly opposed use of the United Nations as a forum for pressuring Israel. The United States has repeatedly insisted it is up to the two sides to directly negotiate over their differences.

Another possibility would be for U.S. President Barack Obama to make a speech laying out his principles for a settlement.

U.S. officials have no expectation peace talks will resume before the end of Obama’s term in January 2017 and they played down the odds of any quick decision on how the White House might help preserve a two-state solution.

“People in the government are asking the question what can we do to keep the two-state solution alive, and they’re generating ideas,” said a senior U.S. official.

The ideas had not yet risen to senior White House staff and Obama is focused on other issues including Islamic State, Iran and Cuba, the officials said.

Two separate peace efforts, by George Mitchell and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, have failed during Obama’s seven years in office.

TWO-STATE SOLUTION DYING ON OBAMA’S WATCH?

A two-state solution long seen as the most internationally acceptable outcome envisages a Palestinian state on most of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, lands Israel captured in a 1967 war, and an Israeli state that absorbs some of the settlements Israel built on occupied land in return for mutually agreed land swaps.

Such a solution appears remote because of ongoing Jewish settlement building; a split between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions; preoccupation within the Palestinian Authority about who may succeed 81-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas; and a wave of Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings of Israelis.

The Palestinian attacks have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens since October, while Israeli forces have killed at least 179 Palestinians, 121 of whom Israel says were assailants.

Current and former U.S. officials have warned that a failure to break the impasse could lead to greater conflict and that continued occupation of Palestinian land puts at risk Israel’s character as a Jewish and democratic state.

Former officials also cite a deepening cynicism on both sides regarding peace, making it ever harder to achieve.

“In the absence of negotiations, actions on the ground are making it more and more difficult to see how a two-state solution could be achieved,” said Martin Indyk, Obama’s former special envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

“I think there is a real concern on the part of the president and the secretary of state,” said Indyk, who is now executive vice president of the Brookings Institution think tank, “that instead of achieving a breakthrough to a two-state solution, the two-state solution will die on their watch.”

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Howard Goller)

Biden says his family was near scene of Tel Aviv attack

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday his wife Jill and their grandchildren were dining on a Tel Aviv beach when a Palestinian killed an American tourist with a knife and wounded 11 other people on the seafront “not very far” away.

Since October, Palestinian stabbings, shootings and car rammings have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. Israeli forces have killed at least 179 Palestinians, 121 of whom Israel says were assailants. Most others were shot dead during violent protests.

“I don’t know exactly whether it was a hundred meters or a thousand meters,” Biden, on a visit to Israel, told reporters about Tuesday’s assault.

“It brings home that it can happen, it can happen anywhere, at any time,” he said, after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Violence has surged since Biden’s arrival in Israel on Tuesday as part of a regional visit. Two Palestinians, who Israel said opened fire and wounded one man in Jerusalem on Wednesday, and a Palestinian who the military said tried to stab soldiers in the occupied West Bank, were killed by Israeli forces.

On Tuesday, Biden was meeting former Israeli President Shimon Peres several blocks from where the Palestinian was running along the Tel Aviv beachfront stabbing pedestrians and motorists stuck in traffic.

Taylor Force, a 28-year-old Vanderbilt University graduate student and a U.S. military veteran who Biden said served tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, was killed and 11 people were wounded before police shot the attacker dead.

“Let me say in no uncertain terms, the United States of America condemns these acts and condemns the failure to condemn these acts,” Biden said, with Netanyahu at his side, in remarks that appeared critical of Palestinian leaders.

Palestinian leaders say many Palestinian attackers have acted out of desperation in the absence of movement toward creation of an independent state. Israel says they are being incited to violence by their leaders and on social media.

Later in the day, Biden, who has visited the Gulf during his trip and plans to travel to Jordan next, was due to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Iran tests more missiles, says they are capable of reaching Israel

DUBAI (Reuters) – Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired two ballistic missiles on Wednesday that it said were designed to be able to hit Israel, defying U.S. criticism of similar tests carried out the previous day.

State television showed footage of two Qadr missiles being launched from northern Iran which the IRGC said hit targets 1,400 km (870 miles) away. Tests on Tuesday drew a threat of new sanctions from the United States.

“The reason we designed our missiles with a range of 2,000 km is to be able to hit our enemy the Zionist regime from a safe distance,” Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh was quoted as saying by the ISNA agency. The nearest point in Iran is around 1,000 km from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Iranian agencies said the missiles tested on Wednesday were stamped with the words “Israel should be wiped from the pages of history” in Hebrew, though the inscription could not be seen on any photographs.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israel Radio the tests showed Iran’s hostility had not changed since implementing a nuclear deal with world powers in January, despite President Hassan Rouhani’s overtures to the West.

“To my regret there are some in the West who are misled by the honeyed words of part of the Iranian leadership while the other part continues to procure equipment and weaponry, to arm terrorist groups,” Yaalon said.

The IRGC maintains dozens of short and medium-range ballistic missiles, the largest stock in the Middle East. It says they are solely for defensive use with conventional, non-nuclear warheads.

Tehran has denied U.S. accusations of acting “provocatively”, citing the long history of U.S. interventions in the Middle East and its own right to self-defense.

INTERNAL RIFT

The United States said it would raise Tuesday’s tests at the U.N. Security Council, where resolution 2231 calls on the Islamic Republic not to develop missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Washington also imposed sanctions against businesses and individuals in January over another missile test in October 2015. But the IRGC said it would not bow to pressure.

“The more sanctions and pressure our enemies apply… the more we will develop our missile program,” Hajizadeh said on state television.

The missile test underlined a rift in Iran between hardline factions opposed to normalizing relations with the West, and Rouhani’s relatively moderate government which is trying to attract foreign investment to Iran.

Rouhani’s popularity has soared since the nuclear deal in January, under which Tehran won relief from international sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear research. The president’s allies made strong gains in recent elections to parliament and the body that will elect the next supreme leader.

Foreign business delegations have since flocked to Tehran, but hardliners including senior IRGC commanders have warned that economic ties could strengthen Western influence and threaten the Islamic Republic.

Some criticized a $27 billion deal between the government and Airbus to add 118 planes to its aging civilian fleet, saying the money should be used to create jobs locally.

The Tasnim agency, which is close to the Guards, carried a photograph of reporters in front of the missile before launch. It quoted an IRGC officer as saying: “Some take photos with the French Airbus, but we take photos with native Iranian products”.

Washington said Tuesday’s missile tests would not themselves violate the Iran nuclear deal.

(Reporting by Sam Wilkin and Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Additional reporting by Dan Williams in Jerusalem and Andrea Shalal in Washington; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Andrew Heavens)