• > Bolton: U.S. not discussing recognition of Israel’s Golan hold
• > Police investigating report of Israeli assault against two Palestinians

Settlement Regulation Law to save homes like in Modiin Illit in the West Bank, 2017. (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

The United States’s failure to condemn West Bank settlement activity encourages such building and threatens regional security, PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said on Thursday.

He spoke after Israel published tenders and advanced plans for more than 2,000 settler homes in Area B and Area C of the West Bank during the last two weeks.

“Israel’s latest settlement announcement reaffirms the commitment of the Israeli government to colonization and apartheid,” Erekat said.

“And by refraining from condemning such colonial illegal plans, the US State Department is, in fact, encouraging Tel Aviv to continue with its violations of international law that threatens peace and security in our region,” he added.

On Thursday, the Israel Land Authority published tenders for 420 houses, including 211 units for Ma’aleh Efraim in the Jordan Valley, according to Peace Now. The other tenders are for homes located in: Givat Ze’ev – 54 units; Beit Aryeh – 52; Ariel – 42; Karnei Shomron – 25; Alfei Menashe – 24; and Elkana – 12.

The ILA tender followed Wednesday’s approval of 1,010 new houses by the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria.

On August 14, two new tenders were issued for 511 units in the Beit Aryeh settlement and for 603 Jewish homes in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood of east Jerusalem, Peace Now reported.

Separately, the Ministry of Construction and Housing advanced plans last week for 250 new homes in Beit El north of Ramallah.

Settler and right-wing politicians have argued that the numbers of advancement and authorizations are low, and that Netanyahu must do more to authorize such building. They were particularly perturbed that plans to authorize two outposts were removed from the Higher Planning Council’s agenda at the last moment.

In a meeting with settlers in the Har Bracha settlement MK Makhlouf “Miki” Zohar (Likud) called on Netanyahu to annex Judea and Samaria. He argued that the “Land of Israel without Judea and Samaria is like a body without a soul.”

He spoke the same week that US President Donald Trump warned Israel that it would have to pay a heavy price for the relocation in May of the US Embassy to Jerusalem.

But Zohar said that in spite of the media headlines about Trump, he believes the US President was a strong friend of Israel’s.

“Now is the time to apply sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, to build and to strengthen the settlements,” he tweeted.

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel (Bayit Yehudi) on Thursday visited the northern Samaria region, and called for 400 new units to be built there.

Erekat said that such building was a “grave violation of international human rights law, “but a war crime that would not be taking place if the international community didn’t treat Israel as a state above the law.”

“It is long overdue time for the international community to impose sanctions on Israel until it recognizes and fulfills its obligations under international law and UN resolutions,” he said.

The European Union also condemned the settlement activity. The spokesperson for the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that construction of the settler homes “would further jeopardize the prospect of a contiguous and viable future Palestinian state.”

The EU is strongly opposed to Israel’s settlement policy which is illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace,” the spokesperson said.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Palestinians-lash-out-at-US-for-Israeli-settlement-activity-565698

The post Palestinians lash out at U.S. for Israeli settlement activity first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Palestinians protests America’s Israeli embassy move first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

More than 35,000 protesters amassed at a dozen locations along the security fence, with many engaging in skirmishes that pushed the death toll Monday to the highest in Gaza since a 2014 cross-border standoff between the militant group Hamas and the Jewish state, according to the Associated Press.

Gaza health officials told the news agency that 52 people so far have been killed in Monday’s violence, and at least 1,200 have been wounded.

May 14, 2018: Palestinian medics and protesters evacuate a wounded man during a protest at the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel, east of Khan Younis, Gaza Strip.  (AP)

The relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv, a key campaign promise of President Trump, has infuriated the Palestinians, who seek east Jerusalem as a future capital.

“An IDF patrol foiled a bomb-laying attack by a cell of three armed terrorists near Rafah, close to the border,” the Israeli military said Monday. “This is a particularly violent protest point. The troops responded with fire at the terrorists. The terrorists were killed.”

Israel also said its aircraft targeted a Hamas post in Jabaliya after troops in the area came under fire. None of the Israeli soldiers were hurt. Later in the day, Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF) said a fighter jet struck five Hamas military training facilities in northern Gaza.

“Rioters are hurling pipe bombs and firebombs at IDF troops, burning tires, throwing stones and burning objects, with the intention of setting fires in Israel and hurting IDF troops,” a member of the Israeli army was quoted by The Times of Israel as saying.

Footage posted online by the IDF purportedly showed Palestinians pressed up against the border fence throwing over objects that were on fire.

The demonstrations Monday — dubbed the “Great March of Return” by Palestinian media — are reported to be part of a campaign led by Hamas to break the decade-old border blockade of the territory imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007. Since weekly border marches began in late March, dozens of Palestinian protesters have been killed and more than 2,300 wounded in clashes.

Israel’s security service, Shin Bet, claimed Monday that Hamas is encouraging Palestinian civilians to flood the border, with their own gunmen waiting in the wings to break through if a fence is breached.

Shin Bet said it received that information during interrogations of members who already have been captured after crossing the security fence in recent weeks, The Times of Israel reported.

May 14, 2018: Palestinian protesters burn tires during a protest on the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel.  (AP)

“There is a prohibition for Hamas operatives to approach the border, from a fear that they will be killed or captured by IDF troops, unless the security fence falls and then they must enter, armed, into Israel under the cover of the masses and carry out terror attacks,” the agency said. “From the information we have, it appears Hamas is encouraging and sending protesters to the border fence in order to carry out violent acts and damage security infrastructure.”

Shin Bet also claimed that Iran is providing funding to Hamas for these border flare-ups, but did not elaborate.

A senior figure in the group, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., said Monday that the border protests will continue until Palestinians have won back their rights.

“We will continue on this path until the rights of the Palestinian people are achieved,” Ismail Radwan said, according to the Associated Press.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman, said the army had set up additional “layers” of security in and around communities near the border to defend Israeli civilians in case of a mass breach. He said there already had been several “significant attempts” to break through the fence.

“Even if the fence is breached, we will be able to protect Israeli civilians from attempts to massacre or kidnap or kill them,” he said.

In the West Bank, several thousand people gathered in the center of Ramallah, while hundreds marched to the Qalandiya crossing on the outskirts of Jerusalem, where protesters threw stones at Israeli troops.

The U.S. said it chose today’s date for the embassy opening to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel’s establishment.

May 14, 2018: Palestinians clash with Israeli troops following a protest against the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem.  (AP)

But it also marks the anniversary of what Palestinians call their “nakba,” or catastrophe, a reference to the uprooting of hundreds of thousands who fled or were expelled from what is now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s independence.

Most of the casualties Monday were in the southern Gaza towns of Khan Younis and Rafah. Israeli forces were firing volleys of tear gas to disperse the crowds, and the sound of heavy gunfire could be heard. Sirens were constantly wailing as the wounded were evacuated on stretchers to nearby ambulances. Groups of young activists repeatedly approached the fence, but were quickly scattered by gunfire and tear gas.

In one of the border areas east of Gaza City, Mohammed Hamami, a 40-year-old civil servant, joined a crowd of hundreds of protesters, along with his mother and five children.

“Today we are here to send a message to Israel and its allies that we will never give up on our land,” he told the Associated Press.

Clouds of black smoke from burning tires was also seen rising into the air. Earlier Monday, Israeli drones dropping incendiary material had pre-emptively set ablaze some of the tires collected in advance by activists.

Protesters have used the thick smoke as cover against Israeli snipers perched on high sand berms on the other side of the border. The army accuses Hamas of using the protests as cover to plan or carry out attacks.

Leaflets dropped over Gaza by army jets warned that those approaching the border “jeopardize” their lives. The warning said the army is “prepared to face all scenarios and will act against every attempt to damage the security fence or harm IDF soldiers or Israeli civilians.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/05/14/israel-says-three-armed-terrorists-among-52-reported-dead-in-gaza-border-clashes.html

The post Israel says three ‘armed terrorists’ among 52 reported dead in Gaza border clashes first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

As the U.S. Embassy in Israel is set to be moved to Jerusalem in a Monday ceremony, President Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, called the controversial decision a “recognition of reality.”

Bolton said Sunday that relocating the embassy from Tel Aviv will “make it easier” to eventually reach a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, even though the region is bracing for large protests.

“If you’re not prepared to recognize that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and that’s where the American Embassy should be, then you’re operating on a completely different wavelength,” Bolton told ABC’s This Week. “Recognizing reality always enhances the chances for peace.”

Trump announced in December his decision to keep a campaign promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and began the process to move the U.S. Embassy there. West Jerusalem is where Israel’s government is based. Palestinians view east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

For that reason, every U.S. president since Israel’s founding in 1948 has located the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv.

The decision to move the embassy has been greeted with anger from Palestinians. Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement urged tens of thousands of people to join Monday’s protest to coincide with the embassy opening. The Israeli military said it beefed up forces along the Gaza border and dropped leaflets into the Gaza Strip urging residents to keep their distance from the border fence, the Associated Press reported.

Gaza health facilities said they were preparing for possible mass injuries. Shifa hospital spokesman Ayman Sahbani said Sunday that tents with medical equipment were being set up outside the facility to ease pressure on its 20-bed emergency ward, the AP said. Since late March, 42 Palestinians have been killed in weekly clashes with Israel along the Gaza border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted the U.S. delegation after it arrived Sunday, including the president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. Nethanyahu praised President Trump’s “bold decision” to move the embassy to contested Jerusalem.

The U.S. delegation also includes Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan, U.S. Ambassador David Friedman, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, plus Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Dean Heller of Nevada.

More: U.S. Embassy to open in Jerusalem amid Palestinian outcry

More: U.S. plans to move Israel’s embassy to Jerusalem on May 14

More: Trump will begin process to move U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, officials say

“We will pray for the boundless potential of the U.S.-Israel alliance & we will pray for peace,” Ivanka Trump wrote on Twitter ahead of the visit.

Monday’s ceremony — which takes place on the 70th anniversary of Israel declaring its independence — for now means moving the ambassador and a small staff to the U.S. consular compound in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Arnona and rededicating the building as the American Embassy.

Most of the 850 embassy workers in Tel Aviv won’t move to Jerusalem until a new embassy building is constructed, which could take up to nine years. U.S. consular services, such as issuing visas, will also continue at the Arnona site.

The State Department said in a statement that the administration remains committed to brokering a lasting peace deal.

“We are not taking a position on final status issues, including the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, nor on the resolution of contested borders,” the statement said.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/05/13/u-s-embassy-jerusalem-john-bolton-trump/605898002/

The post Trump adviser John Bolton calls U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem ‘a recognition of reality’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post U.S. Embassy Move to Jerusalem ‘Will Come at a Price,’ Israeli Defense Chief Says first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Turks, Saudis, UAE said to pump quarter billion dollars into East Jerusalem first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Guatemala raised its flag at the site of its new embassy in Jerusalem on Tuesday, ahead of its official opening next week following the inauguration of the United States’ own new mission in the city.

The official opening of Guatemala’s new embassy at the the Malcha Technology Park in Jerusalem will take place on May 16, two days after the US cuts the ribbon on its own new embassy on May 14.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is likely to attend the event, Haaretz reports.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the new Guatemalan mission to Jerusalem, saying he was “moved” to see the Guatemalan flag raised in Israel’s “eternal capital.”

“I was moved to see the flag of Guatemala waving in Jerusalem in advance of the opening of the Guatemalan embassy later this month. Dear friends, welcome back to our eternal capital,” Netanyahu said.

Yuval Rotem, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote on Twitter: “Wonderful to see Guatemala’s flag flying proudly above the new Guatemalan embassy in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem. Looking forward to seeing many more flags joining Guatemala’s in the city of peace.”

Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington DC on March 4 2018.
Haim Tzach/GPO

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales first announced the move of the country’s embassy to Jerusalem in his speech at the AIPAC policy conference in Washington this March.

“I’m sure many more countries will follow suit shortly,” Morales said.

Romania, the Czech Republic, Paraguay, and Honduras have all also indicated that they were considering moving their embassies to Jerusalem — a city claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as their capital.

In December 2017, US President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced his intention to move the American embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv to the holy city.

The decision upended decades of careful US policy towards the disputed city, the status of which is one of the most contentious issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Until now, the US embassy has been located in Tel Aviv with a separate consulate general located in Jerusalem that represents US interests in the Palestinian territories.

The new American embassy is set to be initially located in a US consular building in Jerusalem’s Arnona neighborhood while Washington searches for a permanent location.

The new US mission is set to open on May 14, coinciding with Israel’s celebration of the 70th anniversary of its independence — a day marked by Palestinians as the “Nakba”, or “Day of Catastrophe”.

---

Source: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/173746-180502-guatemala-raises-flag-over-new-jerusalem-embassy-site-ahead-of-official-opening

[Disclaimer]

The post Guatemala raises flag over new Jerusalem embassy site ahead of May 16 opening first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

–Al-Qaida condemns Trump’s Jerusalem move, calls for action
–Nasrallah calls for support of new Palestinian intifada

Two rockets fell inside the Gaza Strip but set off sirens in Hof Ashkelon and Sha’ar HaNegev regional councils. A third fell in an open area in Israel but set off no alarms.

The IDF confirmed it struck two Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said.  The strikes came in response to three missiles launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel earlier in the evening.

Two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip fell inside the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and did not reach Israeli territory, but set off rocket sirens in the Hof Ashkelon and Sha’ar HaNegev regional councils, as well as the city of Sdreot.

A Jihadist Salafi group in Gaza called the Al-Tawheed Brigades – which does not heed the call from the enclave’s dominant force, Hamas, to desist from firing rockets – claimed responsibility for the first two launches.

Israel holds Hamas responsible for all activity happening in the Gaza Strip.

A third rocket, of unconfirmed origins, was fired toward Israel and landed in Israeli territory in an open area, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed. Since the rocket did not approach an urban center it did not set off rocket sirens in the Negev communities near the Gaza Strip.

The IDF confirmed the use of a tank and an IAF aircraft to strike Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Gaza residents said there were no casualties from the Israeli attack and that two unmanned lookout posts were hit.

The day after US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was marked by Palestinian protests across the West Bank and Gaza Strip, resulting in the closure of the Gilboa Crossing in the West Bank.

-Anna Ahronheim and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Al-Tawheed-Brigades-claims-responsibility-for-Gaza-rockets-517391

The post IDF Retaliates to three rockets fired at Israel by striking hamas targets first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.