"WHY SUCH TERRIBLE JUDGEMENTS" IN THE GREAT TRIBULATION BY NORMAN MANZIN FROM "RAPTURE READY"?

The Great Tribulation: Why Such a Terrible Judgment?

By Norman Manzon

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Much effort has gone into understanding the sequence of events of the Great Tribulation, but very little has gone into examining the reasons for it. This study is an attempt to examine the reasons for such a terrible judgment.

 A Summary of Man’s Rebellion
As a whole, Man has rejected every opportunity that God has given him to demonstrate his trust in Him by obedience to Him. The rejection of God and His guidance is the “mother” of every other form of evil, key aspects of which are dealt with in this study.

Rejection of God and His Guidance

Man’s rejection of God and His guidance began when our first parents rejected the one command that God had given them. It continued with Cain’s rejection of God’s admonition to offer up the proper sacrifice for sin, and on through Cain’s murder of Abel until the wickedness on earth was so great that God destroyed mankind with a flood except for Noah, his wife, their three sons and their three wives.

Continuous Mass Murder of Millions Created in God’s Image and Likeness

Having begun afresh with a new and righteous patriarch, God commanded, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man”(Genesis 9:6), thereby putting the fear of capital punishment into mankind for murder. Yet, man has never ceased to murder and kill by means of abortions, because of personal vendettas, and on mass scales with the most modern weaponry. 

Rejection of Capital Punishment for Murder

Despite God’s command to execute murderers, by the end of 2012, eighty-six of the world’s two hundred countries had departed from the Noahic mandate and abandoned the death penalty for all crimes. [1]

The Beginning of Institutional Occultism and False Religions                                                          The Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:9) was built to seek guidance from the stars instead of the Creator; and Romans 1:21-23 in conjunction with 1 Corinthians 10:19-20 tells us that it is only a step from the turning to creation for guidance to idolatry and the worship of Satan and demons. The Tower of Babel was the institutional fountainhead of all the false and demonic religions and philosophies in the world.

The Call and the Failure of Israel
With the Tower of Babel, God divided mankind into nations by means of multiplying their languages, and out of those nations He called out the nation of Israel to be His fountainhead of holiness and salvation to the rest of the world. Though Israel brought forth the Scriptures and the Messiah, they fell into idolatry for protracted periods of time and rejected their Messiah.

Rejection of the Necessity to Bless IsraelThough Israel rejected their Messiah, God has not rejected them (Romans 11:29) and He will yet use them mightily. Because of His special call on Israel, He announced to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3). Scripture records that God did bless and curse individuals and nations according to the manner in which they treated Israel and individual Jews (e.g., Genesis 39:1-5, 41:55-57; Obadiah 1:10; Zechariah 12:9), and Jesus prophesied that He will judge the sheep and goat Gentiles on the basis of how they will treat “these brothers of mine” (Matthew 25:31-46).

FULL ARTICLE AT: http://www.raptureready.com/soap/mazon2.html

AN ISRAELI IDF SOLDIER IS STABBED TO DEATH BY A 16 YEAR OLD PALESTINIAN BOY!!

16-Year-Old Palestinian Stabs to Death IDF Soldier

Posted by: Staff Writer November 13, 2013 , 4:31 pm

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The Israeli police and its different units responded when there was a terrorist attack that took place at the Afula central bus station, killing Eden Atias.

An Israeli soldier has been stabbed to death by a Palestinian teenager on a bus in northern Israel, police say.

The 18-year-old soldier was stabbed multiple times in the neck and upper body as the bus from Nazareth stopped in the town of Afula, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

He was rushed to hospital in a critical condition, but died of his wounds.

The attacker, a 16-year-old from the West Bank town of Jenin who was working in Israel illegally, is in custody.

Other passengers on the bus subdued him before handing him over to the security forces, according to the Jerusalem Post newspaper.

Israel's northern police commander, Roni Attia, said: "By his account, his uncles are in prison in Israel and this is the reason he decided to carry out the terrorist attack."

The violence comes as the US attempts to revive faltering peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a halt to controversial plans for the construction of 24,000 new homes at Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Mr Netanyahu said the plan, announced by his housing minister, had caused unnecessary conflict with the international community at a time when Israel is pressing for a tougher stance on Iran's nuclear programme.

Funeral Update on Wednesday: 

Thousands of grief-stricken Israelis gathered at the Nazereth Illit military cemetery on Wednesday for the burial of 18 year old Eden Atias, who was stabbed to death while sleeping on a bus by a Palestinian youth earlier that day.

Earlier Wednesday, some 150 people protested outside the Afula Bus Station where Atias had been stabbed in the neck repeatedly. The gathering, according to The Times of Israel, was to protest the government’s handling of the current peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. The objectors noted that this was simply the latest in a long line of attempted and executed terrorist attacks since the talks had begun in July.

Eye witnesses told authorities that Atias had been asleep when he was attacked by the terrorist. The Palestinian youth was captured by other bus passengers and handed over to authorities.

“The bus stopped and people had stepped out,” an eyewitness who gave her name as Yaffa told Channel 2. “A female soldier was left on the bus, along with the soldier [who was stabbed] and the terrorist. Suddenly the female soldier started screaming for help, she ran outside, she was shaking. The terrorist had stabbed the soldier, he was covered in blood.”

Atias had enlisted in the IDF just two weeks ago and was still in the midst of basic training. He was survived by his parents and two brothers, aged 24 and 18. His mother, Ilia, was quoted by Walla as saying that he had insisted on volunteering for a combat unit.

The attacker is a 16-year-old Palestinian resident of Jenin. “We heard shouting in the bus, and screaming,” Tomer, a worker at a nearby kiosk who witnessed the attack, told Yedioth Ahronoth. “Soldiers then jumped [the attacker], I saw them take him off the bus and then security guards waited with him. He looked like a child.”

The assailant, according to Israel Radio, told his interrogators that he sought to avenge two of his family members who are jailed in Israel for terrorist activities. The killer said he was enraged by the fact that his extended family was not allowed to visit his relatives.

In response to the stabbing, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said peace cannot occur if this type of Palestinian incitement continues.

“Surrounding the murderer is an education system, official Palestinian Authority newspapers, mosques and other places in Palestinian society that are full of incitement,” Netanyahu said. “If we want real peace, the incitement has to stop.”

"NETANYAHU WILL NOT BE CAUGHT OFF GUARD" by JIM FLETCHER FROM "RAPTURE READY" AND "ISRAEL WATCH".

Netanyahu Caught Off-Guard?

It’s getting thick in here, this idea that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been duped by the Americans and the UN, who are feverishly rushing to Geneva to engage in “talks” with Iran, ostensibly to get the Islamic terror state to trim its nuclear ambitions.

There are dupes in this story, all right, but Netanyahu is not one of them.

For reasons I’ll outline below, I believe that the worry/idea that Netanyahu has been caught off-guard by the international political and diplomatic corps is patently absurd. David Horovitz wrote about all of this in The Times of Israel:

“He vowed in that speech that Israel would ‘not allow’ Tehran to get the bomb. But now the entire international community is publicly lined up in search of an accord with the ostensibly newly moderate Iran. If a deal — however “bad” and ‘dangerous’ — is being done by diplomats led by the United States, can Israel seriously contemplate defying the world and taking on Iran militarily? To paraphrase those comments he made at his father’s funeral, the prime minister will be asking himself whether he proved incapable of identifying the danger and drawing the necessary conclusions in time.”

Dear reader, keep your focus only on one thing: in the face of an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities—which I thoroughly believe Israel will target—there is a great deal of disinformation flying around. An attack requiring this level of sophistication (D-Day, I think, is not too much a stretch by way of comparison) would necessarily require those with the spine steely enough (Israel) to feign surprise, dismay, etc., at every duplicitous turn by “allies” such as Barack Obama. 

In any event, there are three reasons I believe Netanyahu is going to hit Iran, and do it successfully (and Obama will find out about it when you do):

1)    The Israeli premier was raised on Zionism, and has actually put his life on the line many times for his people. Remember, much of the Israeli political leadership came from this environment. When Netanyahu makes a momentous decision to strike an existential threat like Iran, he is aided by, among others, former Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Both served in the same elite counter-terrorism unit (Barak having led the Unit during the “Spring of Youth” operation to find and kill the Black September terrorists who slaughtered 11 Israeli athletes at Munich), and Netanyahu was wounded in a 1972 rescue of hijacked airline passengers; he also served in the Yom Kippur War. Now at 64, he has faced his own mortality more than once, and this type of hard reality will be the key in pulling the trigger on Iran, so to speak.

2)    At the infamous Wye negotiations in 1998 (where Bill Clinton brought Netanyahu together with Yasser Arafat to hammer-out a major deal), the American president proved duplicitous, promising the Israelis that if they signed, they would take imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard home with them. As bags were being packed, Netanyahu was informed that Clinton was reneging. Those of us in the American south, who knew Clinton was a swamp rat, were not surprised, but I believe at the time, Netanyahu was genuinely caught off-guard. He won’t be again. Been there, done that.

3)    When Netanyahu’s famous history scholar father, Benzion, died last year at 102, he left a legacy of Zionism that, in my opinion, cannot be broken. Yes, the son has made decisions that angered people (the release of terrorist prisoners, agreeing in public to a two-state solution), but in the family dining room in Benzion’s Jerusalem home, there is a bronze bust of oldest son Jonathan, who fell leading the Entebbe raid. It was there that many, many conversations about the history of their people over took place. I do not believe the second son of Benzion and Cela Netanyahu will endanger his people by standing-down on Iran.

In my opinion (and I have no inside information, of course), when the time comes, Netanyahu will act. Further, I believe the Israelis have known for some time the date they will act, and how they will act. It will be daring, innovative, and a complete surprise.

And the international community will be caught off-guard.

jim@prophecymatters.com

"CALLING BRITAIN TO HER KNEES" BY JOURNALIST AMANDA RUTH THOMAS FROM "CHRISTIAN MIDDLE EAST WATCH ONLINE"!

Calling Britain to Her Knees

by CMEWONLINE • NOVEMBER 9, 2013

This is a guest post by journalist Amanda Ruth Thomas.

As a Brit myself, and one who is not Jewish but who has lived and worked in the Jewish State, it pains me to say that a real arrogance has characterised our treatment of Israel throughout history, but especially while carrying out our Mandate for Palestine.

Film director Hugh Kitson devotes his life and work to the reversal of this sad fact. On behalf of Love Never Fails, an alliance of 22 British Christian organisations, Kitson apologised Sunday evening to an audience of Israelis who were touched in some way by British wrongdoing during the Mandate years, 1917-1948.

The apology followed the premiere of Kitson’s film, ‘The Forsaken Promise’, re-released with Hebrew subtitles, at the Jerusalem Begin Heritage Centre, one day after the 96^th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. The film traces the Mandate period against the backdrop of Christian Zionism in the U.K., and within the context of the rise of Nazism in Europe.

“From a political standpoint, it is absolutely true to say that if it wasn’t for the British Mandate, there would be no State of Israel today,” said the award-winning film maker. “However, the eventual rebirth of the Jewish State happened in spite of Britain rather than because of us.

“Because of the White Paper of 1939, which was an abrogation of the Mandate, we in Britain have Jewish blood on our hands.

“The British government policy of keeping the Yishuv unarmed while arming and training the Egyptians and the Jordanians could have resulted in a genocide of the Jewish people here just three years after the end of the Holocaust.

“This betrayal resulted in the deaths of an untold number of Jewish people, who were unable to escape the Nazi Holocaust and come here to your ancient Promised Land – Eretz Yisrael.  A few of those thousands of Christians from Britain who carry this sense of shame and sorrow are here tonight.”

One of those Christians, Geoffrey Orr, was a British army officer in the Royal Signals who was stationed on Mount Carmel in the final year of the Mandate. Orr, who flew to Israel especially for the occasion, sat with his head in his hands while the speeches were delivered. Indeed, it was humbling for all of us – as British people – attending the screening, alongside some of Israel’s heroes.

One of these heroes, veteran Zionist Shlomo Hillel, former Knesset Speaker and founder of the Ayalon Institute, followed Mr Kitson with his own greeting. The Begin Centre’s Director, Herzi Makov, said of Hillel that the “story of his life is the story of the redemption of Israel in modern days”. The ninety year-old whose underground factory armed the fledgling Jewish resistance under the noses of 14000 British soldiers, brought a positive angle to the evening, calling the film a “masterpiece”. The grace with which Hillel spoke, characterises many of Israel’s brave, but humble warriors. These are men who do not hold hatred in their hearts towards Britain, but who simply risked their lives for their homeland.

“When I think of our relationship with Great Britain,” he said, “I try to think of people like Arthur James Balfour, without whom there would have been no Balfour Declaration, I try to think about Winston Churchill, about Wingate, and from now on I am going to add your name – Kitson – to this noble list. Thanks to you I continue to believe in mankind.”

British journalist Melanie Philips agreed with this sentiment: “It is the duty of a British patriot like Hugh Kitson to expose this shocking legacy, before it is too late.” Philips explained that the “current malice” in the British media and public towards Israel is rooted in a complete revision of history and the resulting contortion of truth, history and justice. She said that the documentary needed to be shown widely in Britain.

Keynote speaker Professor Robert Wistrich, of the Hebrew University, author of ‘The Longest Hatred’, was passionate in his retelling of the background of British anti-Semitism in the Middle Ages, continuing into the Mandate period and deep seated within the British administration. He said that the documentary contained “two rare qualities that are in short supply, not least in academia: honesty, and moral clarity”.

While Wistrich acknowledged the philo-Semitic tradition in his native Britain, born in the Protestant Reformation, and “without which there would have been no Balfour Declaration”, he outlined the pattern of British complicity in Arab revolts, from 1920 onwards, and later in the deaths of those who were unwanted by the nations. He gave the reason the British military stood by while Jewish inhabitants of the land were brutally murdered and the cry went up, ‘The Government is with us; kill the Jews!’ The reason, he said, was that the Jews “presented a challenge to British authority”.

The problem was ours: our arrogance. This was not even our land.

Even at Atlit, where we imprisoned the refugees on the shores of Palestine itself, we see that the Jewish Resistance would not rest until they had rescued every one of the first group which was due to be sent back to Europe. This was, of course, the correct attitude. Britain itself had been given the awesome responsibility of “establishing a national home for the Jewish people”. And here we were, sending Holocaust survivors back to Germany. What kind of arrogance was this, that we could not only defy the mandate given to us by the League of Nations, but that we could treat the very people of God this way. Father, forgive us.

One of the most poignant lines in the entire film, is given by the late Holocaust survivor Anny Gronner, of Blessed Memory. She says of her time imprisoned in Mauritius, “They stole me five years of my life. I was twenty years old. For what? I can’t understand”.

Anny’s son Danny and his family were present at the film premiere, along with Sir Ronald Cohen and Lady Sharon Harel Cohen, representing her father, the late Yossi Harel of Blessed Memory, Commander of the Exodus. Harel’s powerful interview for the documentary exposes clearly the “stupid and revolting policy” of the British, in our use of two warships to capture an old vessel containing 4500 precious Jewish lives.

Kitson, himself a descendant of King Edward I, under whose reign the British Jewish community was expelled in 1290, called for action on the part of the British government, to officially acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of lives (at least) which could have been saved, or whose deaths could have been prevented, during the Mandate years. He conceded that he felt that only one strategy would work. “The only way is to actually shame the Government,” he said. “We need exposure.”

It is true that there is a pattern emerging, referred to on the night by Professor Wistrich, of the former empire beginning to crumble as we dealt badly with the Jewish nation. By betraying our spiritual heritage, he said, Britain “betrayed its own soul”. As we divided God’s land, so the United Kingdom is becoming divided. And as we shamed the broken Auschwitz survivors by searching them and ‘disinfecting’ them on their arrival in their Promised Land, so the British leadership must be brought to its knees.

You can find out more about the film “The Forsaken Promise” on the website of HaTikvah Film Trust. You can also see a seven minute preview of the film here.

MAN IS THE CAUSE FOR FAMINE, WAR, SUFFERING, CRIME, HOMELESSNESS, DESPAIR, ETC!!!

BE BLESSED AS YOU LISTEN TO MORGAN CRYAR SINGING "WHAT SIN"!

THE BEAUTIFULLY HAUNTING SONG "WHAT SIN" BY MORGAN CRYAR.

ACCOMPANIED BY SUPERBLY MOVING VIDEO, AND FULL LYRICS.

"WHAT SIN?" THE LORD SAYS THEY WERE FORGOTTEN THE MOMENT YOU CONFESSED!!

WHAT A FANTASTIC SAVIOUR WE HAVE!!

JUST OPEN THE LINK BELOW FOR SOME REALLY TRUE BLESSING (NEV).

http://youtu.be/yFSNQyTnPmM

"THE TROJAN HORSE OF BRITISH SECULARISM" BY THE WELL INFORMED MELANIE PHILLIPS!

The Trojan horse of British secularism

Once again, the impression has been created that secular values are a) the embodiment of civilisation and b) value neutral. Both assumptions are mistaken.

A senior English judge, Sir James Munby, President of the Family Division, has rejoiced in his view that Christianity no longer informs the judgements handed down in the courts, which now must serve a multicultural community of many faiths. 

Judges, he said, must not weight one religion against another. The courts had now 

‘by and large moderated their claims to speak as the defining voices of morality and of the law of marriage and the family’ 

because there was no longer one definition of right and wrong in the wake of the sexual revolution. He observed:

‘Happily for us, the days are past when the business of judges was the enforcement of morals or religious beliefs.’

The learned judge does not seem to realise that – as he himself unwittingly demonstrates – today’s judges see it as very much their business to enforce secular beliefs. 

The idea that ‘oppressive’ Christian morality and ethics have been replaced – hurrah! – by a nirvana of freedom and tolerance is very wide of the mark. Traditional moral codes have merely been replaced by the modern religion of human rights, of which the English judiciary is its high priesthood.

For far from secularism being value-neutral, it promotes hyper-individualism. And far from expanding freedom, this diminishes it. For it sets up a perpetual fight for supremacy between interest groups, arbitrated in the courts by judges promoting secularism. 

This actively and aggressively destroys the common bonds of history, tradition and morality that keep a society together. And it means that the weakest groups, of whom Christians are paramount, often find that their rights to uphold their own religious traditions are trampled down. For as a former Lord Chief Justice once remarked, human rights law inescapably favour minorities over the majority, which is seen (wrongly) as innately oppressive. Thus blind justice is replaced by a culture of human wrongs.

The reality – counter-intuitive as it may seem to some – is that individual liberty is only upheld and safeguarded by legal, social and cultural traditions embedded in the ethics of the Bible. Indeed, western liberty is unique in the world precisely because of those biblical roots. 

Contrary to Sir James’s implication, the courts never acted as if Britain was a theocracy. But they did play a vital role as informal guardians of that Biblically-based western  culture, helping transmit the common values which, as everybody understood, bound society together and helped form its identity. 

If the courts have abandoned that role and are promoting instead the creed of secularism which divides rather than unites, social cohesion will inevitably fracture and the identity of a shared culture based on individual liberty will disintegrate. And onto that vacated terrain will come another creed altogether – one bent on cultural colonisation and the destruction of human rights – which will seize its opportunity to use secularism as its Trojan horse.

This is already happening. Yesterday the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, announced that Britain would become the first western country to issue a government-backed, Shariah-compliant ‘sukkuk’ Islamic bond.

Like Gordon Brown before him, the Prime Minister David Cameron has said he wants London to become the global centre of Islamic banking. All these men can see are the £ signs dancing before their eyes. As the FT reports:

‘The government hopes the £200 million Sharia-compliant bond or sukuk will enable the City to grab a major slice of the Sharia investment market which is estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion globally.’

But this money comes with a price. And that price is Britain’s identity as a western country. For ‘sharia-compliance’ is not like, say, compliance with health and safety rules. Sharia is the Islamic system of jurisprudence which does not acknowledge any legal authority other than itself and demands adherence to its own precepts. 

As UKIPDaily comments: 

‘For the Sukuk to remain Sharia compliant, it necessarily surrenders itself away from the jurisdiction of the UK civil courts to the Islamic courts.’

As Paul Goodman has so aptly observed on Conservative Home, sharp and urgent questions and concerns aired in Parliament when the power to issue such bonds was first mooted have never been addressed. Those questions and concerns were aired by the then Conservative opposition to a Labour government which seemed indifferent to the fact that it was proposing to sell Britain to Islam. Now those Conservatives are in power and are proposing to do just that – and their own questions still remain unanswered.

Maybe Sir James Munby would maintain that his secular courts would see off any such threat. But what odds would you give Sir James Munby and his fellow judges against the forces of shariah? 

TURKEY (THE KING OF THE NORTH) TRYING TO "PROVOKE AN INCIDENT"! WITH ISRAEL IN THE MED WHICH COULD HAVE STRATEGIC REPERCUSSIONS!!

Fowl: Turkey Trying To ‘Provoke An Incident’ With Israel In The Mediterranean ‘That Could Have Strategic Repercussions’

10/31/2013ICALeave a commentGo to comments

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Looks like Turkey is trying to play a game of chicken …

Ezekiel 38:1-3a, “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog …”

• Recommended: What Is The War Of Gog-Magog?
• Recommended: Religious Jews In Israel: Only Messiah Can Save Israel During Gog-Magog, ‘The Next Leader Will Be The Messiah’

Revelation 2:13: The region of Turkey is “where Satan’s throne is” and “where Satan dwells”

World Tribune – “Turkey has been challenging Israel’s military throughout the Mediterranean.

Military sources said Turkey has used its Navy and Air Force to disrupt Israeli operations around the Mediterranean. They said the Turkish Air Force and Navy harassed Israeli warplanes during patrols and exercises over the last six months.

‘They are trying to provoke an incident with us that could have strategic repercussions,’ a source said.

The sources said the Turkish military was ordered by Prime Minister Recep Erdogan to disrupt Israeli operation near waters or air space claimed by Ankara, including those around the Republic of Cyprus. They said this has hampered recent exercises in the eastern Mediterranean with Greece, including one that took place earlier this month.

‘The Turks view us as they do the Greeks, which means that the Turkish military flexes its muscles at every opportunity it gets,’ the source said. ‘In the air, Turkish warplanes are playing a game of chicken with our forces.’

The sources said Ankara has been dismayed by Israel’s growing militarycooperation with Greece. They said the Israeli cooperation, which included military exercises, training and arms projects, replaced Turkey with Greece as a leading defense partner of the Jewish state. In November, Israel plans to host three NATO members in the largest international exercise in the country.

‘Erdogan thought that Turkey could isolate Israel militarily, particularly in NATO, when the opposite has taken place,’ another source said. ‘Israel has more military exchanges than ever with individual NATO members while Ankara has been marginalized.’” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey Boiling

• Israel: Turkey Will Become Mideast ‘Superpower’
• Turkey’s Erdogan Blames Israel for Mideast Insecurity
• Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan — The Man Who Could Trigger A World War
• Turkish PM Claims ‘Israel Is A Terrorist State’ And Is Guilty Of The ‘Mass Killing Of Muslims’
• Aggressive Emerging Islamist Autocracy May Soon Become ‘The Greatest Threat To Israel’
• Turkey Installs New Military Tech Allowing Warplanes, Ships to Target Israel As The Enemy
• Turkey: Israel No Longer A ‘Friend’, ‘It’s Time For Israel To Pay The Price’, Israeli Ambassador And Diplomats Expelled

PALESTINIANS AND THEIR PRESIDENT REJOICE AS ISRAEL OFFERS UNDESERVED RELEASES TO ATROCIOUS TERRORISTS!!

Palestinian President Celebrates Released Terrorists’ Returns in Ramallah

Posted by: Doni Kandel October 30, 2013 , 2:25 pm

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Let not them that are wrongfully mine enemies rejoice over me; neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause. (Psalms 35:19)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas waves with released Palestinian prisoners coming from Israeli jails during celebrations at Abbas’ headquarter in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Tuesday. (Photo: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Among the thousands gathered in Ramallah to welcome the 26 murders Israel released as a good-faith measure late Tuesday night, was Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to The Times of Israel. All 26 were convicted murderers, most of them jailed for crimes committed before the 1993 Oslo Accords.

A raucous crowd welcomed the released men home while wielding Fatah and Palestinian flags and AK-47 rifles. The prisoners were greeted in front of Yasser Arafat’s mausoleum next to the Palestinian Authority headquarters in Ramallah by assorted Palestinian dignitaries, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, who kissed and embraced each of the men in succession.

Addressing the assembled Palestinians, Abbas said there would be no peace treaty so long as there are Palestinian prisoners behind lock and key in Israel. He promised to continue in his efforts to free all the prisoners from Israeli incarceration.

“Today is a day of joy for the family and for all of Palestine,” said Tayser Shubair, whose brother Hazem was jailed in 1994. “My brother is a freedom fighter and we are proud of him and we thank the president [Abbas] for his effort to get him out.”