The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Jerusalem

  • Brazil moving its embassy to Jerusalem matter of when, not if – Netanyahu

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro told him that it was a matter of “when, not if” he moves his country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.

    The far-right Bolsonaro, who takes office on Tuesday and is hosting Netanyahu and the leaders of other countries for his inauguration, has said he would like to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump and move the embassy.

    But he has come under intense pressure from Brazil’s powerful agriculture sector not to do so, as it could hurt Brazilian exports to Arab nations.

    Such a move by Bolsonaro would be a sharp shift in Brazilian foreign policy, which has traditionally backed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    The Arab League had told Bolsonaro that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be a setback for relations with Arab countries, according to a letter seen by Reuters earlier in December.

    “Bolsonaro told me it was “when, not if” he moves the embassy to Jerusalem,” Netanyahu said on Sunday during a meeting with leaders of Brazil’s Jewish community in Rio de Janeiro.

    “We attach enormous importance to Brazil, and Brazil in the context of Latin America,” he added. “This heralds a historic change.”

    Netanyahu, who met with Bolsonaro on Friday, said that the Brazilian accepted his invitation to visit Israel, a trip that is likely to take place in March.

    Netanyahu is the first Israeli prime minister to visit Brazil.

    After he met the Israeli leader, Bolsonaro said that “we need good allies, good friends, good brothers, like Benjamin Netanyahu.” (Reuters/NAN)

  • Israel has not cut ties with Paraguay– FM

    Israel said on Thursday the decision to close its Embassy in Paraguay does not mean it has broken off all ties to the South American Nation.

    The action amounts to a diplomatic downgrade and another Israeli embassy on the continent will take over the duties of the embassy in Asuncion, a source in Jerusalem said.

    Israel announced on Wednesday that it was shuttering its embassy after Paraguay reversed its nearly four-month old decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

    The Foreign Ministry in Asuncion said the change of plan was due to concerns that the relocation to Jerusalem would have a negative impact on peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.

    Read Also: Two dead, 68 ill from West Nile virus outbreak- Israel

    Luis Castiglioni, who became Paraguay’s foreign minister after President Mario Abdo Benitez was sworn into power in August.

    He said that the embassy’s decision had been taken unilaterally and without proper consultation.

    Paraguay announced in May it was following the United States and Guatemala in moving its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

    The move by Washington was denounced by much of the world as prejudicing possible peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, who claimed the eastern half of Jerusalem for their future capital.

  • Israel blames Palestinians for cancellation of Argentina friendly

    Israel on Wednesday blamed Palestinian pressure for Argentina’s cancellation of its World Cup  warmup against Israel, a match that had been set for contested Jerusalem.

    The Palestinians accused Israel of using the fixture and the participation of Barcelona ace Lionel Messi to underpin its disputed claim to Jerusalem, which U.S. President Donald Trump recognised in 2017 as Israel’s capital in a break from international consensus.

    The Israeli Embassy in Argentina confirmed the cancellation on Twitter, saying it was saddened by the news following the threats directed at the players.

    The embassy expressed its hope that the players would come to Israel soon.

    “The threats and provocations directed at Lionel Messi, which logically aroused the solidarity of his colleagues and fear of playing the friendly, are no strangers to the daily life of Israel’s civilian population whose sporting stars, to put it simply, have been on numerous occasions the targets of violence and attacks,” the embassy wrote.

    “The friendship between Argentina and Israel, which will soon celebrate its 70th anniversary, is not about a football match. The democratic country and plural state (composed of Jews, Muslims and Christians), will always eagerly await the chance to receive one of the stars of Argentine sport.”

    The match at Jerusalem’s Teddy Kollek Stadium was to be Argentina’s last before they kick off their World Cup campaign in Russia on June 16.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Argentinian President Mauricio Macri on Tuesday night to ask him to persuade the team not to cancel their visit, but a diplomatic official said the chances of salvaging the fixture were very slim as Macri can’t force the players to come to Israel.

    Read Also: Israel Minister threatens to end Assad’s rule

    “Macri has some influence, but it’s their decision and they’re afraid to come in the current climate,” the official added. “Israel is still pressuring them to reverse the decision.”

    In a second conversation Tuesday night, Macri told Netanyahu he had no influence on the matter.

    Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev received updated from the game’s producer, Danny Ben Naim, on the efforts to reverse the Argentinean decision.

    The minister was informed that since Argentina had announced their arrival for a friendly with Israel, different terror organisation had started sending messages to the players and their family members with explicit threats, as well as images and videos of children’s bodies.

    Addressing claims that the Argentinean team refused to arrive because of the decision to move the game to Jerusalem, the sports minister said: “That’s nonsense which legitimizes terror and the BDS campaign.

    Unfortunately, we have trojan horses in the Knesset who supporting terror.”

    President Reuven Rivlin said in response to the cancellation, “This really is a sad morning for the fans, including some of my grandchildren, but there are values that are even bigger than Messi.

    “I’m very concerned in the politicisation concealed in the Argentinean move. Even in the most difficult times, we made every effort to leave considerations which were not pure sport out of the soccer fields, and it’s a shame the Argentine team failed to do it this time.”

    The visit of twice world champions Argentina has attracted huge interest among Israeli fans, mainly because of Barcelona great Lionel Messi’s planned participation.

    Palestinians celebrated the cancellation.

    In Gaza, people cheered and in Ramallah in the West Bank, the Palestinian Football Association issued a statement thanking Messi and his colleagues for cancelling the game.

    NAN

  • Iran, Jerusalem, N. Korea: Trump badgers on

    Swashbuckling and stumbling lately, the United States has been drifting and rolling without gathering any moss on the international circuit. From tearing down an internationally acclaimed and duly negotiated deal over Iran nuclear programme, to stirring up international retributions for the needless transfer of U.S Embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem and now cancelling the over-hyped summit between the U.S and North Korean leader earlier scheduled for 12 June, in Singapore, President Trump’s Washington seems to walk the atrophy street; but not without the revisionist chest thumping of America’s first rhetoric. It has now appeared that the haranguing clouds of surreal ideological bigotry have significantly coloured the U.S retreat from serious and meaningful international engagement.

    The Joint comprehensive plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated and agreed in 2015 as the foremost international mechanism to keep Iran’s nuclear program from any prospect of weaponization and also allow Iran, a normal international intercourse with removal of sanctions, were widely recognized as running its course smoothly, with Tehran keeping to its end of the bargain. The trouble even for the United States is that the Trump administration, even before Mr. Trump took office has disparaged the deal as “horrible” and “the worst ever.” A journalist, who interviewed Mr. Trump on the day the deal was signed, remembered recently, how he denounced it without seeing the document, let alone reading and understanding its contents. Mr. Trump’s evident bias against the Iran’s nuclear deal is more ideological than the deal’s practical purpose of deterring nuclear proliferation.

    In tearing down the deal recently, he invoked the familiar mantra of regime change, believing in the discredited and bankrupt neo-conservative ideological delusions that ever more earth-scorching squeeze of the Tehran will trigger a popular domestic revolt that will overthrow the Iranian regime.

    However, far less worried at Washington’s bellicosity as it was largely expected, Iran has now turned the heat on the international  community especially U.S ally, the European Union to show course why they should deserve the respect of multilateral engagement.

    Earlier attempts by Europe major countries- Germany, France and Britain to persuade Mr. Trump to stay in the deal was contemptuously rebuffed. Europe is vowing to stay the course of the deal, a trend that might turn the U.S into a pariah, if the strong pronouncements from European capitals are any meaningful guide. Iran takes the global shine of an international respecter of rules and for circulating around major global capitals, Iran’s foreign minister Mr Javid garners goodwill and assurance that increasingly make the U.S wish for Iran’s isolation look ever more forlorn. From the Iran’s nuclear deal fiasco, Mr Trump stumbled into an intractable Mid-East conflict of the Palestinian and Israel face-off with a thoroughly unhelpful escalation.

    Despite the nominal and largely symbolic gesture of several embassies operating from Tel-Aviv in Israel, the Israeli government conducts its administration and international engagement in Jerusalem. For all intents and purpose, Jerusalem which is sensitive to the final settlement of the conflict between the Israeli and Palestinians have been the putative capital of Israel but without much of international recognition. It is basically symbolic and does nothing to stop Israeli government from conducting its affairs in Jerusalem. So in moving the U.S embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem, the Trump administration achieved nothing except to instigate international provocations and outrage, something that appear now to be the only standard measure of the success of Mr. Trump’s agenda. Apart from its value in reinforcing President Trump’s ideological intransigence and bizarre new politics, there is nothing in the relocation of the U.S embassy to Jerusalem that will add value to its work or detract from the U.S long-standing Pro-Israel policy in the region. Choosing the 70th anniversary of the creation of Israel  which the Palestinians mark as the origin of their national catastrophe of dispossession and expulsion, President Trump symbolic relocation of U.S embassy to Jerusalem only damaged U.S long-standing, though, largely questionable status of  an impartial mediator  in that persistent conflict. Again, the U.S took a course that seriously undermined the substance of her key transatlantic alliance which left Europeans flushed, at the ruthless deconstruction of their strategic platform. For a world struggling to come to terms with Mr. Trump’s implacable hostility to the Iran nuclear deal, the Jerusalem edition of the Washington solo orchestra gave up any hope that the U.S under Mr. Trump can be taken serious as an international partner.

    Now the over-hyped US and North Korea’s summit that is expected to bring President Trump and Chairman Kim Jong-Un face to face is dependent on the changing mood of the U.S leader. A meeting that has already been set for the 12th of June in Singapore, President Trump suddenly announced that it is no longer going to hold as scheduled, claiming that intemperate rhetoric from Pyongyang was the culprit and even added that China’s unseen hand is helping to scuttle the process. This is not withstanding that his National Security Adviser, Mr. John Bolton first threw Washington’s hat in the ring for provocative banters.

    Mr. Bolton, an un-reconstructed ideologue far behind the contemporary trend of emerging multi-polarism has interjected  that North Korea would be served better with the Libyan treatment, a tease reference to the former Libyan strongman, Col. Gaddafi who dismantled his rudimentary nuclear programme only to be violently toppled and assassinated by the Washington-led NATO military alliance. His view was reinforced by Vice President Mike Pence, whom the North Koreans called “political-dummy”, and warned that any comparison with Libya is a function of U.S naivety. Pyongyang made clear that unlike Libya’s rudimentary nuclear programme that never really took off, North Korea is already established nuclear power that can cause the United States to experience a kind of pain, it has never imagined. However, to demonstrate a commitment to talks though, without “begging” the U.S for talks, North Korea went ahead to destroy its nuclear test sites as it has earlier scheduled.

    But following the visit of South Korea’s President Mr. Moon Jae-In to Washington and a summit he held with Mr. Kim Jong-un, President Trump has suddenly reinstated the June 12, Singapore summit between him and Chairman Kim.

    This is however, the measure of chaos and confusion that the Trump’s Washington spews, triggering speculations that the sole hyper-power is on desperate meltdown.

    If eventually the June summit in Singapore happens, given the recent track record of Washington, it may mean nothing more than a meet-and-greet to the world; an anticlimax.

    From sacking his emissary to Africa while still airborne in obvious contempt to the continent that welcomed his former Secretary of State, Mr. Tillerson with open arms, to the half-hearted trade war with China, to snubbing longstanding European allies, and to the elaborate Washington’s theater of dragging Russia to its internal election headache, the United State is proving a nominal bystander and heavily clay-footed to the powerful current of forces that is re-shaping and re-configuring the international system and energizing it in the direction of a community of shared future for all mankind.

     

    • Mr. Onunaiju, is director, Centre for China Studies, (CSS) Abuja.

  • ESCORP: Where is the environmental Jerusalem you promised?

    If anyone is in doubt why I insist every and any project coming to the town must have a development DNA with sustainability etched on it, he/she should read the piece Port Harcourt Is Slowly Being Taken Over By Black Soot And We Need To Pay Attention,  written by Olarenwaju Eweniyi.  The article reads in part: “Environmental pollution is a reality that many Nigerians have always had to live with, especially those resident in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria.  But since November  2016, residents of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, have been facing a new kind of danger: rising black soot particles in the air- leaving soot residue on surfaces in and out of  their homes.  The black soot which is believed to cause respiratory diseases, and even cancer, led Nigeria’s ministry of environment to declare an air pollution emergency in the affected areas…”  I do not have all the patience to watch disaster strike my town to rubbles, before raising my voice, to elicit the right response from concerned authorities, aimed at nipping such disasters in the bud or mitigate their effects should they catch the people unprepared and occur.

    At this juncture, I became more apprehensive my Google search did not yield anything substantial to be cheery about the project promoters.  “It’s an Environmental Uniform job in Nigeria. It’s a foot soldiers’ job to complement the work of other Nigerian Environmental agencies or policies. To help government eradicate environmental problems. To enlighten people more about environment and Ethics, modifying social behaviour in an ethical way. Bring surveillance and enlightenment about Safety. Training interested youth in a quality way to become Environmental Marshals.” In summary, ESCORP, which primary concern is sanitation and hygiene, was first inaugurated in 2009 and was re-inaugurated by the Federal Government as an environmental ethics and safety corps with much emphasis on the role of human behavior on the environment in August 27, 2013.

    If this is all, I asked myself, could this be why the promoters have earmarked a landmass enough to house a university?  Could they not achieve the above aims without being present in the town?  Are these people 419ners? Do they have local collaborators or are they merely capitalizing on our communal large-heartedness and naivety at the same time? Why do they need our land to achieve the foregoing objective?

    Not satisfied, I dug further into Google and other search engines.  And, found that ESCORP is partnering with a US-based company Millenniumblok to build 11,700 ‘green houses’ across the country.  Wikipedia explains greenhouse as a structure with walls and roof made mainly of transparent material, such as glass, in which plants requiring regulated climatic conditions, are grown.  They are also known as hothouse or glasshouse and are places where flowers and vegetables are grown.

    According to Hope For Nigeria Online, ESCORP’s Coordinator-General, Emenike Eme, who disclosed this to newshounds in Abuja, also revealed the houses would be built from waste materials.  He said that the organisation had already entered into an agreement with the investors to build houses to address the housing needs of its marshals (staff).

    Millenniumblok employs green technology to develop low cost, patented building blocks using recycled materials to fabricate strong, safe and efficient buildings.

    “All we need to do is to talk to the government to provide the land and give the assurance that their investment is safe in the country. We are going to develop 500 housing units in each of the 22 states that we are currently working in, and 700 units in the FCT,” he said.

    Eme further noted that the materials to be used for the project would be sourced from waste products, and as such, cheaper houses than those built with cement blocks would be delivered. He remarked that despite the nature of the materials that would be used, there would not be a compromise on quality and called on the federal government to support the activities of ESCORP, noting that with this method, the government could equally create jobs in the environment sector.”

    I was a bit relaxed after making this find, but my anxiety again heightened when I read that greenhouses would be built from recycled materials and that the agreement ESCORP had with Millenniumblok was to erect houses to address the housing needs of its marshals.  Now, combine this with the breakdown of the citing of the houses and you will understand why I was enraged at this point: 500 housing units in each of the 22 states that ESCORP is currently working in, and 700 units in the FCT.  This would translate to nearly 24 houses per state, as currently covered.

    I make bold to ask at this point: Is Imo State among states with the ESCORP footprint? Is the Owelle Rochas Okorocha government involved in the imminent coming of ESCORP to Ihiteowerri? Is ESCORP going to make Ihiteowerri its headquarters?  If yes, how many of the green houses are coming to the town that would justify the hectares of land already earmarked for the project?  Since your green houses, ESCORP, are going to be made from waste materials, what kind of wastes do you have in mind?  Please, you need to be specific on this. Where would you source the waste materials and how do you wish to transport them to the recycling destinations? And, where are these destinations?  What waste materials do we expect to issue from your operations and processes?  How environmentally healthy are these and what guarantees do we have that our fauna and flora, as well as lives and livelihoods are safe and secure, on a sustainable basis?

    I do not hold anything against ESCORP and their collaborators.  In fact, they and, indeed, other investors and partners, with compelling value propositions, are welcome to invest in Ihiteowerri, if their investment/projects will create jobs, generate wealth, and leave the town on a sustainable development trajectory.  Otherwise, they are not welcome and I have no apologies to offer them for this stance. Yes, previous governments (with the exception of the Government of the Eastern Region, under late Sir Michael Iheonukara Okpara, that established an oil mill in the area), neglected Ihiteowerri in the citing of industries, schools and other infrastructure, thus making the town a super-qualified candidate for the establishment of these, but we are not in a hurry to embrace these from both the public and private sectors, without a solid guarantee that these would improve lives and livelihoods and ensure sustainability of the environment.

    What kind of infrastructure do we need in Ihiteowerri?  We need telecommunications base stations and cell sites to improve voice, video and data services in the town and adjoining communities, we need ICT innovation centres to help the youth learn and hone their skills and talents for national development, we need banks and ubiquitous ATMs to reduce the commute time and resources wasted in accessing these over long distances, usually not below 8kilometres radius, we need government intervention, since gulley erosion is threatening to bring down the town and infrastructure built by communal efforts, we need pipe-borne water, as our rich springs are threatened by gulley erosion and contaminated by flood water, we need markets to sell the produce from the local farmers, we need storage facilities to minimize wastage of farm produce, we need uninterrupted power supply and prepaid meters for every home, instead of the estimated billing method that my people have been subjected to over time, that has not helped their pockets. What else do we need? We need sporting facilities for recreation and vocation, our local farmers need seedlings to improve their yield, they need extension workers to explain agriculture and agro-allied phenomena that are strange to them and good practices for them to embrace, they need fertilizers at subsidized rates directly without going through both real and imagined deceptive middle men and middle women.

    In concluding this narrative, I would like to say ESCORP and their collaborators are welcome if their intervention is within the framework of the Great Green Wall initiative.  According to Wikipedia, “The Great Green Wall, or Great Green Wall of the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative, is Africa’s flagship initiative to combat the effects of climate change and desertification.  Led by the African Union, the Initiative aims to transform the lives of millions of people by creating a great mosaic of green and productive landscapes across North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn.

     

    • Agugoesi wrote from Lagos. cliffordagugoesi@gmail.com.
  • U.S. embassy will move to Jerusalem within a year

    U.S. embassy will move to Jerusalem within a year

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said that the U.S. will move its embassy from Tel Aviv  to Jerusalem within a year.

    The prime minister’s timeline drastically differs from that offered earlier by White House officials, who said the move would take at least three to four years due to stringent security measures and other requirements.

    Netanyahu made this known to Israeli reporters on a flight from Dehli to Gujarat during a state visit to India, the Times of Israel reported.

    A spokesman for the prime minster confirmed the content.

    “My confident assessment is that it will move much faster than people think, within a year from today,” Netanyahu said, according to the Times of Israel.

    President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Dec. 6 and initiated a process to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

    Read Also: Israel set to cede parts of Jerusalem in peace deal

    Israel occupied the eastern half of Jerusalem in 1967 and later annexed the territory in a move that was not internationally recognised.

    Israel has long claimed that Jerusalem as its “undivided capital,” while the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.

    Trump’s controversial decision sparked protests in some countries and was rejected in a non-binding UN General Assembly resolution.

    The recognition was welcomed in Israel, and Guatemala has since announced it will follow the US in moving its embassy to the city.

    Arab foreign ministers are set to meet on Feb. 1 in Cairo to discuss steps against Trump’s recognition, the Arab League had earlier said.

    dpa/NAN

  • Indonesian islamists accuse Facebook of discrimination

    Indonesian islamists accuse Facebook of discrimination

    Several hundred Indonesian Islamists held a protest outside Facebook ’s headquarters in Jakarta on Friday, accusing the social media giant of discrimination.

    The protesters, many dressed in white and including members of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front ( FPI ), marched from a mosque to Facebook’s offices in the capital of the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country.

    They also accused Facebook of blocking some pages operated by hardline groups for allegedly spreading hate.

    “We want to remind Facebook to remain neutral and balanced,” Slamet Maarif, a spokesman for FPI, told reporters.

    “There are many accounts that spread hate about Islam, ulamas, that are allowed to operate. There are accounts that talk about Islamic humanitarian aid, those are blocked,” said Maarif.

    He said that the group still planned to use Facebook and intended to open new accounts.

    Facebook said its policy was to delete content that violated its community standards.

    “Our community standards are made to prevent organizations or individuals that urge hate speech or violence against those who hold different views,” said a company representative, who declined to be identified.

    A spokesman for Indonesia’s communications ministry, Semuel Pangerapan, said, “We have never requested that FPI’s accounts be closed.”

    Some Islamist groups in Indonesia use social media extensively and FPI usually has about 100 accounts on Facebook, as well as on other social media platforms such as Twitter.

    The rally was peaceful, though more than 1,200 police officers were brought in to guard the offices, media said.

    Indonesians are avid users of social media and Facebook had 115 million users in the second quarter of 2017, according to media citing its country manager, ranking the country fourth globally after the United States, India and Brazil.

    Some of the protesters on Friday made live video streams of the rally to air via Facebook.

    The vast majority of Indonesians practice a moderate form of Islam, though a reputation for religious tolerance has come under scrutiny as hardline groups muscle their way into public and political life in the young democracy.

    President Joko Widodo has expressed concerns over hoax stories and hate speech spread online and has pledged to “clobber” any group threatening to destroy Indonesia’s tradition of pluralism and moderate Islam.

    Also Read: Facebook to train 50,000 Nigerian SMEs in 2018

    At a rally late 2017 in Jakarta by Muslims opposing President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a body of Muslim clerics urged a boycott of U.S. and Israel products if Trump did not revoke his action.

    So far there has been no indication the measure will gain traction and Indonesia’s vice president said calls to stop using U.S. goods and technology were misguided.

    (Reuters/NAN)

  • Over 20 Palestinians injured in anti-Trump protest – officials

    Over 20 Palestinians injured in anti-Trump protest – officials

    Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of Gaza and West Bank for the fourth Friday in a row in protests against U.S. President Donald Trump ’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

    Palestinian health officials said at least 20 protesters were wounded by live fire, mostly along the Gaza border.

    An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers had shot at “main instigators” who posed a direct threat to the troops and who were trying to damage the border security fence.

    The spokesperson said about 4,000 Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza, some throwing rocks and fire bombs and setting tires alight, confronted Israeli soldiers who responded mainly by firing tear gas.

    In Gaza, demonstrators chanted “Death to America, death to Israel, and death to Trump” and militants fired rockets into Israel, drawing strikes by Israeli tanks and aircraft.

    The military said it targeted posts that belonged to Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Palestinian enclave, after intercepting two of the three rockets fired into Israel.

    Police said the third struck a building, causing damage.

    No casualties were reported in those incidents.

    Trump outraged Palestinians and sparked anger in the Middle East and among world powers with his Jerusalem declaration on Dec. 6.

    That reversed decades of U.S. policy on one of the most sensitive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

    Israel considers Jerusalem its eternal and indivisible capital.

    Palestinians want the capital of an independent Palestinian state to be in the city’s eastern sector, which Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East War and annexed in a move never recognised internationally.

    Most countries regard the status of Jerusalem as a matter to be settled in an eventual Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, although that process is now stalled.

    A UN General Assembly resolution passed on Dec. 21 rejected Trump’s Jerusalem declaration.

    However, a total of 128 countries voted for the UN resolution, nine opposed it and 35 abstained while 21 countries did not cast a vote.

    (Reuters/NAN)

  • Russia, Vatican disagree with Trump over Jerusalem

    Russia, Vatican disagree with Trump over Jerusalem

    Russia and the Vatican disagree with the decision of President Donald Trump to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv, Alexander Avdeyev, the Russian ambassador to the Vatican City has said.

    Avdeyev recalled that Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, in one of his recent statements said that the status quo of Jerusalem, which is a place of pilgrimage and worship for Jews, Christians and Muslims, should be respected.

    “This is a city of three Abrahamic religions and it should not be politicised by recognition as a capital.

    “I draw attention to the fact that this statement was made by the Pope, who usually expresses his position very carefully in order not to offend anyone.

    “So we can see a clear disagreement with the U.S. decision here. We have the similar position,” Avdeyev told Sputnik.

    On December 6, Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and instructed the State Department to launch the process of moving the U.S. Embassy, which is currently located in Tel Aviv, to Jerusalem.

    The step has prompted criticism from a number of states, first and foremost Middle Eastern states and Palestine, and triggered a wave of protests in the region.

    On December 7, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on Jerusalem’s legal status.

    The document called on UN member states to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the city.

    The diplomat also said that Russia and the Vatican share similar views on the world and the threats posed to it in the 21st century.

    “We have much in common in our vision of the threats and dangers of the 21st century. This is an important issue that unites us.

    “First of all, I speak about the threat of any terrorism, criminal, religious or separatist one. The second threat is the weakening of non-proliferation regimes.

    “Of particular concern is the drug trafficking and the separation into rich and poor in the world,” Avdeyev said.

    The Russian diplomat added that the two states also had a common view on the threats posed by social and economic inequality and terrorism, which were behind migration.

    According to the diplomat, unregulated globalisation that was closely tied with neoliberal values could result in “a significant deformation of the civil societies.”

    Avdeyev added that the two states were supportive of sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and backed the negotiating process and dialogue as a path toward these goals.

    The ambassador also said that the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church were concerned over the destruction of the moral and ethical values of the Christian civilisation.

    (Sputnik/NAN)

  • The Greatest Christmas Gift in 2017

    The Greatest Christmas Gift in 2017

    The greatest Christmas gift in 2017 is the recognition of Jerusalem as the eternal capital of Israel by the United States of America.

    The Czech Republic also followed the footsteps of the US and said it recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel.

    This unprecedented event can be explained in the context of a consistent jubilee cycle in operation over Jerusalem in modern times, whereby every fifty years something dramatic is happening to release the Jerusalem further into its prophetic destiny.

    This includes the discovery of the original city of David by Charles Warren in 1867; the liberation of Jerusalem by General Edmund Allenby in 1917 and the reuniting of Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty in 1967.

    With Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, it is now being released even further into its redemptive destiny, and tremendous impact will be seen in the global Church as well.

    This event was not among the so called wildest promises of Donald Trump though it was one of his campaign promises like previous American Presidents. But history shows that Trump followed the footsteps of President Truman in 1948.

    While announcing on December 6, 2017 that the US is moving Embassy to Jerusalem, President Donald Trump told regional leaders he intended to declare Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish State.

    Citing a 1995 law, the Jerusalem Embassy Act, compelling the president make the move absent national security risks, Trump said the time had come to recognize what everyone already knows to be true. “Jerusalem is the capital the Jewish people establish in ancient times,” he said. “Today Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government.”

    “This is nothing more or less than a recognition of the reality,” he added as a matter of fact.

    Nobody saw this coming. Not even the Calendar of 2017 by ‘’The Economist’’ of London. The closest to it on its comment regarding coming developments in the Middle East is that Mr. Trump must choose between his isolationist instincts and his promise to ‘’bomb the shit’’ out of Islamic State.

    The reason for this Christmas season and previous ones , Two Thousand and Seventeen years ago is the truth that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son to die for the sin of the world and that anyone that believes in Him should have eternal life.

    Jesus’ birth, the mysterious contraction of divinity into humanity is explained in Galatians 3:13, 14.

    ‘’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.’’

    Who is likely to benefit from this action? The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu on 6th December 2017 while acknowledging the historic recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel by the United States of America concludes his speech in these words. ‘’The Jewish people and the Jewish state will for ever be grateful’’

    The Jewish people are Christians

    ‘’For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God’’.

    So, the praise of the real Jew is not an expectation from the confirmation of man but from God.

    Furthermore the ‘’Jewish people…’’ in Natanhahu’s speech contains common parlance and conceit in poetic jingo.

    In prophetic and spiritual contexts, Christians who are the largest religious group in the world as in 2015, making up nearly a third (31%) of Earth’s 7.3 billion people, according to a new Pew Research Centre demographic analysis are the real Jews who will benefit from this because of the place of Jerusalem in human destiny.

    2017 is a record of Hall of Fame of Revolutionaries in the history of the world. It is the Centenary of the Bolshevik who took over in Russia. It is also the 150 years since the publication of Karl Marx’s ‘’Capital’’. It is 50 years since Che Guevaria died. A man whose signature black beret and T-Shirts means revolution.

    Coming closer home to the theme of this write up in a broad sense, is the 500th anniversary of Marthin Luther’s 95 theses which he nailed to a church door inWittenberg Castle that gave birth to the Protestant Reformation, which has snow balled to the Charismatic movement in all denominations.

    We may see a greater revolutionary impact by this singular development in the closing days of 2017 and beyond. The UN has already voted 14 to 1 to condemn the act.
    But ‘’The Economist’’ did editorialize that 2017, ‘’… will not be hard to find parallels between the conditions that produced upheaval in the past and the rebellious mood in the year ahead. Americans have already voted for game –changing disruption.

    The dramatic election of Donald Trump as President means that the insurrection will be led from the White House, with both chambers of Congress also in Republican hands;…Mr. Trump’s stunning victory will send shock waves around the world’’.

    The shock waves have started wafting. Trump made the announcement despite fierce opposition from America’s closest allies in recent days. European and Arab world leaders alike, including Britain, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the pope, said that he was recklessly challenging a delicate status quo over the city, in which the international community has insisted its future must be determined in direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians themselves.
    Trump said, “We want an agreement that is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians.”

    An official said. “Certain parties are going to react the way they need to react. We expect bumps along the way– but we believe there is an historic opportunity.”
    Trump castigated past presidents as cowardly for failing to make the move earlier, “under the belief that delaying recognition of Jerusalem would advance the cause of peace.”

    “The record is in,” he added. “After two decades of waivers, we are no closer to a lasting peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.”
    “Old challenges demand new approaches. My announcement today marks the beginning of a new approach,” Trump said in his announcement from the White House diplomatic reception room, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, who has pushed for the move. Pence will be visiting Israel later this month.
    Netanyahu said, “there is no peace that does not include Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

    “This decision reflects the president’s commitment to an ancient and enduring truth,” he added.
    President Trump was toeing a prophetic pattern. Despite pressure from the US State Department not to recognize Israel lest America offend Arab oil-producing nations, President Harry S. Truman was the first to recognize the State of Israel on May 14, 1948.

    Americans especially Evangelicals who are strong supporters of Trump have not lost sight of an eternal covenant God made with Abraham and all who will be the spiritual seed of Abraham.

    “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:1-3.

    This marks not just one of the signs of the end time but authenticates the truth of Biblical prophetic history for all Christians or Jews who, ‘’ Pray for the peace of Jerusalem! that, “May they be secure who love you! Peace be within your walls and security within your towers! For my brothers and companions’ sakeI will say, “Peace be within you!” For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your good’’. Psalms 122:6-9
    Pray for the peace of Jerusalem as a must labour.

    The greatest challenge may be men trying to understand and proffer answers to spiritual matters from a secular perspective. The answer remains the force of spiritual power.