KERRY’S SPOKESWOMAN HAS TROUBLE EXPLAINING HIS “APARTHEID” COMMENTS
by Elad Benari (Arutz Sheva News)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s comments that Israel will become an “apartheid state” if a peace agreement is not reached with the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been met with outrage, and his spokeswoman had trouble explaining them on Monday.

The Washington Free Beacon noted that State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, stumbled when asked to acknowledge the offensiveness of Kerry’s remarks.

All Psaki could come up with to justify the statement was that it was part of Kerry’s support for the “two-state solution” and that “many officials have used similar phrases”.

“I think his meaning of any comments he makes is his support for a two-state solution and his belief that it’s hard to see how the parties can prosper without it,” she said when asked about Kerry’s comments by Associated Press reporter Matt Lee.

When Lee pressed her on the comments, asking if any other American officials had used such a loaded term during a negotiation, Psaki replied, “Well, Matt, he certainly didn’t say ‘is,’”.

“You’re saying that the secretary does not believe that. Can I ask you why he does not share the views of those pro-Palestinians?” asked Lee.

“Because he believes that Israel is a vibrant democracy with equal rights for its citizens,” Psaki replied.

Lee kept on, asking if the State Department understood that not every person living under Israeli authority is an Israeli citizen and that, since many Palestinian Arab people view Israel as being similar to an “apartheid” state, whether Kerry realized he’d angered two groups of people simultaneously.

Psaki, visibly annoyed at the line of questioning, replied, “I’m just not going to give any analysis on that, Matt.”

The Daily Beast website first reported about Kerry’s comments on Sunday. The remarks were made during a closed-door meeting, and the website received a recording of them.

In addition to the apartheid statement, Kerry also suggested that a change in either the Israeli or Palestinian leadership could make achieving a peace deal more feasible, and lashed out against Israeli construction in Judea and Samaria.

Kerry also said, according to The Daily Beast, that both Israeli and PA leaders share the blame for the current impasse in the talks.

He further declared said that at some point, he might unveil his own peace deal and tell both sides to “take it or leave it.”

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud) sharply criticized Kerry’s comments on Monday, connecting them to Holocaust Memorial Day.

“Holocaust Day ceremonies. We hear terrible descriptions of how the Nazis and their collaborators, drenched in hate and race theory, turned millions of defenseless Jews into dust and ashes – and the world stood by in silence,” Katz wrote, in a Facebook post.

“And now the Secretary of State describes Israel as an ‘apartheid state,'” Katz lamented. “Us? The Jewish state, which was established to protect itself after it was intimidated with threats of extermination?”

“Kerry, shame on you!” he concluded. “There are things you just can’t say.”

Katz was preceded by Dani Dayan, Chief Foreign Envoy of the Council of Judea and Samaria, who also slammed Kerry over the remarks.

“John Kerry has outdone himself this time, demonstrating a total lack of understanding of the Middle-East conflict,” said Dayan. “His equation of the democratic State of Israel and Apartheid South Africa is a new low in American diplomacy and an insult to the people of Israel and South Africa. Had Secretary Kerry come to Judea and Samaria, he would have learned about the potential for coexistence without the need for incendiary comments.”

Dayan said that Kerry’s comments smacked of blackmail – that Israel would be blamed for any failure of the talks.

“Peace will not be made at gunpoint, nor will it be made through American pressure on Israel to capitulate,” Dayan said. “The time has come for the American administration to quietly exit this failed process before they further raise unrealistic expectations and their prophecies of Palestinian violence become self-fulfilling. These dangerous prophecies are American ammunition for the Palestinian Hamas unity government to use against Israel as another excuse for their continued intransigence.”

NETANYAHU VOWS: “NO SECOND HOLOCAUST”
by Arutz Sheva staff

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu compared the existential danger posed by Iran to Israel with the Nazi war machine, and vowed that a Holocaust will not take place again.

This is the text of his speech at the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day ceremony at Yad Vashem on Sunday:

“The last time I visited Yad Vashem was with the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper, a great friend of Israel and the Jewish people. We went through the exhibition rooms which present heartbreaking documentation of the destruction of European Jewry.

“Today in my office, I met Felah, an 82-year-old Holocaust survivor. It was important to her to tell me, on this day of all days, how her memories as a child of seven who was forced to leave her two year old sister behind to die, how those memories are always with her. She told me, ‘I don’t remember what happened yesterday or the day before that, but as is the way of memories from that age, I remember the tearing, sad eyes of my two year old sister.’

“I met Shalom, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, who told me how he left home at 13. He was 13 and the conditions in the ghetto were deteriorating so he, a young boy, decided to leave. He said, ‘Mother objected and wailed and Father was quiet. He stood and put his hand on my heart and blessed me and told me to save myself.’

“All the exhibition rooms here are filled with such heartbreaking stories. When we left Yad Vashem, I told the Canadian Prime Minister that the primary duty of the Prime Minister of Israel is to ensure that there will be no more memorial sites like this, that there will never be another Holocaust.

Identifying an existential threat in time and taking action

“I have said many times in this place that we must identify an existential threat in time and take action in time. Tonight, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, I ask myself: why, in the years preceding the Holocaust, did the overwhelming majority of world leaders and Jewish leaders fail to detect the danger in time? In retrospect, all the warning signs were there: the strengthening of the Nazi regime year after year; the horrific anti-Semitic propaganda which grew stronger with each passing month; and the murderous attacks on Jews which began as a trickle and transformed into a huge wave.

“In retrospect, there is a direct line connecting the racial laws and the gas chambers.

“Very few world leaders understood the enormity of the threat to humanity posed by Nazism. Churchill was one of them. Few among our leaders, primarily Jabotinsky, warned against the imminent destruction facing our nation, but they were widely criticized and their warnings were disregarded, and they were treated as merchants of doom and war mongers.

“So I ask: How is it possible that so many people failed to understand the reality? The bitter and tragic truth is this: it is not that they did not see it. They did not want to see it. And why did they choose not to see the truth? Because they did not want to face the consequences of that truth.

“During the 1930s, when the Nazis were gaining momentum, the influence of the trauma of the First World War was still fresh. Twenty years earlier, the people of the West experienced a terrible trench war, a war which claimed the lives of 16 million people. Therefore, the leaders of the West operated on the basis of one axiom: avoid another confrontation at any cost, and thus they laid the foundation for the most terrible war in human history. This axiom of avoiding conflict at any cost, this axiom was adopted not only by the leaders. The people themselves, primarily the educated ones, shared it too.

The West’s feeble attitude vis-à-vis the rise of Nazism

“In 1933, for example, the year Hitler rose to power, there was a meeting of the Oxford University student organization – an institute from which generations of British leaders had emerged. Following a heated debate, the students voted for a resolution stating that they “would under no circumstances fight for their King and Country”. This resolution passed by an overwhelming majority only ten days after Hitler entered the Chancellery of Germany.

“And believe me: that message reverberated in Berlin.

“This example illustrates the West’s feeble attitude vis-à-vis the rise of Nazism.

“Month after month, year after year, more and more information was received in London, Paris and Washington regarding the capabilities and intentions of the Nazi regime. The picture was becoming clear to everybody. However, ‘they have eyes, but cannot see; they have ears, but cannot hear’ [Psalms 115].

“When you refuse to accept reality as it is, you can deny it. And this is precisely what the leaders of the West did. They dismissed the murderous Nazi rhetoric as internal German politics; they downplayed the seriousness of the danger of the military build-up of the Nazis, claiming that it was the result of the natural will of a proud nation, that it should be taken into consideration, that it should be accepted.

“The reality was clear, but it was cloaked in a bubble of illusions. This bubble was burst by the stealth attack by the Nazis on Europe. And the price of the illusion and desire was very heavy because by the time the leaders of the West finally acted, their people paid a terrible price. World War II claimed the lives not of 16 million people, the unimaginable number of victims during World War I, but of 60 million, including one third of our people, who were butchered by the Nazi beast.

Iran is calling for our destruction

“Citizens of Israel, my brothers and sisters, “Has the world learned from the mistakes of the past? Today, we are again facing clear facts and a tangible threat.

“Iran is calling for our destruction. It is developing nuclear weapons. This is the reason it is building underground bunkers for the enrichment of uranium. This is the reason it is establishing a plutonium-producing heavy water facility. This is the reason it continues to develop inter-continental ballistic missiles that can carry nuclear warheads to threaten the entire world.

“Today, just like then, there are those who dismiss Iran’s extreme rhetoric as one that serves domestic purposes. Today, just like then, there are those who view Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the result of the natural will of a proud nation – a will that should be accepted.

“And just like then, those who make such claims are deluding themselves. They are making an historic mistake.

“We are currently in the midst of fateful talks between Iran and the world powers. This time too, the truth is evident to all: Iran is seeking an agreement that will lift the sanctions and leave it as a nuclear threshold state, in other words, the capability to manufacture nuclear weapons within several months at most.

“Iran wants a deal that will eliminate the sanctions and leave their nuclear capabilities intact. Such a deal, which will enable Iran to be a nuclear threshold state, will bring the entire world to the threshold of an abyss.

“I hope that the lessons of the past will be learned and that the desire to avoid confrontation at any cost will not lead to a deal that will exact a much heavier price in the future.

“I call on the leaders of the world powers to insist on a full dismantling of Iran’s capability to manufacture nuclear weapons, and to persist until this goal is achieved.

‘I do not hesitate to speak the truth to the world’

“In any event, the people of Israel are strong. When faced with an existential threat, the situation of our people today is entirely different than it was during the Holocaust.

“Today, we have a sovereign Jewish state. As Prime Minister of Israel, I do not hesitate to speak the truth to the world, even when faced with so many blind eyes and deaf ears. It is not only my right, it is my duty. It is a duty I am mindful of at all times, but particularly on this day, in this place.

“On the eve of the Holocaust, there were Jews who avoided crying out to the world’s nations out of fear that the fight against the Nazis would become a Jewish problem. Others believed that if they kept silent, the danger would pass. The kept silent and the disaster struck. Today, we are not afraid to speak the truth to world leaders, as is written in our Bible: ‘I will speak of your testimonies before kings, and I will not be ashamed…listen, for I will speak noble thoughts; the opening of my lips will reveal right things’ [Psalms 119].'”

“Unlike our situation during the Holocaust, when we were like leaves on the wind, defenseless, now we have great power to defend ourselves, and it is ready for any mission. This power rests on the courage and ingenuity of the soldiers of the IDF and our security forces. It is this power that enabled us, against all odds, to build the State of Israel.

“Look at the remarkable achievements we have made in our 66 years of independence. All of us together – scientists, writers, teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, employees, artists, farmers – the entire people of Israel, each one in their own field – together we have built a glorious state. The spirit of the people of Israel is supreme, our accomplishments tremendous. Seven decades after the destruction of the Holocaust, the State of Israel is a global wonder.

“On this day, on behalf of the Jewish people, I say to all those who sought to destroy us, to all those who still seek to destroy us: you have failed and you will fail.

“The State of Israel is stronger than ever. It is a state that seeks peace with all its neighbors – a state with a will of iron to ensure the future of its people.”

He ended his speech with a quote from the Book of Numbers, Chapter 23: “The people will arise like a lion cub and raise itself like a lion; it will not lie down until it consumes prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.”

RUSSIA WANTS TO START WORLD WAR THREE
by Tova Dvorin (Arutz Sheva News)

Rhetoric escalated between Moscow and Kiev Friday, as a tense standoff ensues in eastern Ukraine between armed pro-Russian demonstrators and the Ukrainian military.

“Attempts at military conflict in Ukraine will lead to a military conflict in Europe,” Acting Ukrainian Prime Minister Artseniy Yatsenyuk told the interim cabinet, in remarks on a live broadcast. “The world has not yet forgotten World War Two, but Russia already wants to start World War Three.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rebutted in a sharp criticism of Kiev over their role in the ongoing conflict.

“They (Kiev) are waging a war on their own people. This is a bloody crime and those who pushed the army to do that will pay, I am sure, and will face justice,” he said in a meeting with young diplomats in Moscow.

Lavrov also warned that pro-Russian demonstrators in Donetsk “will be ready” to lay down arms and vacate the buildings “only if Kiev authorities get down to implementing the Geneva accords, clear out that shameful Maidan (central square) and liberate the buildings that have been illegally seized.”

The US threatened Russia with more sanctions on Thursday, after disturbing reports surfaced that the bodies of two Ukrainian men – one a parliamentarian – had been found, mutilated and presumably tortured, near the Donetsk city of Slaviansk.

Eastern Ukraine in particular has been the seat of pro-Russian tensions since earlier this month, when neighboring Crimea held a controversial referendum vote and was annexed by Moscow after a de facto military invasion of the region.

A landmark deal reached Thursday night between Russia, the US and the European Union (EU) called for the separatists, who have been seizing government buildings in eastern Ukraine for several days, to disarm and stand down – in exchange for amnesty.

The pro-Russian protesters have largely ignored the deal, however, claiming early Friday that the agreement does not apply to them.

OBAMA GIVES ABBAS A “SLAP ON THE WRIST”
by Ari Yashar (Arutz Sheva News)

US President Barack Obama on Friday summarized Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s unity deal with the terrorist organization, sealed Wednesday, as being “unhelpful.”

Obama added that his administration would not be deterred by Israel suspending the peace talks on Thursday in response, and would instead continue backing US Secretary of State John Kerry’s push to force through a peace deal, reports AFP.

Nevertheless, Obama acknowledged the need for a “pause” in the talks.

The mild criticism of the PA echoes State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki, who said Thursday equivocated by saying that both the PA and Israel had taken “unhelpful steps.”

“There have been unhelpful steps from both sides throughout this process, whether it’s settlements or the UN or whatever it may be. So they are both – they have both been guilty of that.”

Kerry, for his part, called for “compromises” from both sides on Thursday, saying “we will never give up our hope or our commitment for the possibilities of peace.”

The equivocation and weak statements on Abbas’s joining forces with an internationally recognized terrorist organization have reportedly sparked fury among senior ministers and sources in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s office.

“It’s clear that assertiveness is needed from the US to prevent the talks from collapsing. There’s anger against the Americans, because they needed to make a firm statement telling Abbas not to make a deal with Hamas and instead to make a deal with Israel,” one source revealed.

Another government source told Arutz Sheva, “Abbas chose to sign an agreement with a murderous terror organization that acts against men, women and children, and yearns to harm all citizens of Israel regardless of who they are – it’s very strange to get a response like that from this great friend of Israel.”

USA BACKS ISRAEL’S MOVE TO CANCEL TALKS WITH PA
by Elad Benari (Arutz Sheva News)

The United States on Wednesday expressed support for Israel’s decision to cancel a planned session of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, in the wake of an announced Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal.

“It’s hard to see how Israel can be expected to negotiate with a government that does not believe in its right to exist,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, according to AFP.

She added that any Palestinian government must commit “unambiguously” to the principles of non-violence and to Israel’s existence.

The deal between Hamas and Fatah aims to put an end to a long and bloody rivalry, which boiled over seven years ago when Hamas seized control of Gaza from the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority, murdering PA security guards in cold blood and even pushing them off the roofs of tall buildings. The few that remained alive found refuge in Israel.

PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to issue a “presidential decree” announcing the dates for elections, which PA officials said would likely take place within the next six months.

Meanwhile in Israel, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu announced Wednesday evening that he would be convening the inner diplomacy-security cabinet Thursday morning, to discuss the agreement between Fatah and Hamas and whether or not to continue contacts with the PA.

Earlier Wednesday evening, Netanyahu called U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who had pushed the sides back to the negotiating table back in July, and presented Israel’s position regarding Hamas-Fatah deal.

Netanyahu told Kerry that the pact “shows that the Palestinians are repeating a familiar pattern” of “running away from decisions.”

He repeated his public statement to the effect that “whoever makes peace with Hamas cannot make peace with Israel.”

On Tuesday, Abbas repeated his threats to disband the PA if peace talks remain stuck, and also demanded a three-month Israeli construction freeze as a condition for talks to continue.

ABBAS-HAMAS DEAL “A TRAGIC GAME CHANGER”
by Gil Ronen

Dore Gold, who has been described as one of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s closest foreign policy advisors, called the reconciliation between Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) “a game changer” in a CNN interview Wednesday.

Gold, who served in the past as advisor to Netanyahu and Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, and currently heads the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has reportedly recently returned to serve as a part-time advisor to the Prime Minister.

Hamas, he said, “is recognized by the world as an international terrorist organization; by the European Union, by the United States, by Canada and many others. And [PA head] Mahmoud Abbas has been working very hard with Secretary of State John Kerry, as our Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has worked hard, and all of a sudden, it seems that in the last month, Abbas just simply does not want a negotiated solution.

“He said ‘no’ to President Obama. He said ‘no’ to even discussing with Israel in the future the possibility of them recognizing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people – we’re asked to recognize a Palestinian state – and now he turns to hug Hamas. He wants a deal with Hamas and doesn’t want peace, and that’s a tragic development.”

While the PA can “hire some suits” to talk about making peace, Hamas is “in the back room” controlling things, he explained.

Asked if the peace process is dead, Gold said it is still possible to revive the process, but only if Abbas pulls back from the deal with Hamas. “He cannot embrace Hamas and say that he’s for peace with Israel. It’s a contradiction in terms.”

USA TO “RECONSIDER” AID TO PA IF IT JOINS WITH HAMAS
by Gil Ronen

The United States would have to reconsider its assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) if Fatah and Hamas form a government together, a senior U.S. administration official said on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Hamas and PA-Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas announced a unity pact on Wednesday, complicating his U.S.-brokered peace talks with Israel that were already floundering.

“Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to non-violence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements and obligations between the parties,” the U.S. official told the news agency.

“If a new Palestinian government is formed, we will assess it based on its adherence to the stipulations above, its policies and actions, and will determine any implications for our assistance based on U.S. law,” the official said, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

After seven years of internecine fighting and competition, the Fatah-Hamas deal involves establishment of a unity government within five weeks and general elections six months later.

However, providing U.S. aid to a unity government that includes Hamas would comprise assistance to a group the United States lists as a terrorist organization.

“We are following reports of Palestinian reconciliation efforts,” the U.S. official who spoke on Thursday said. “We have been clear about the principles that must guide a Palestinian government in order for it to play a constructive role in achieving peace and building an independent Palestinian state.”

PLO Deputy Secretary Yasser Abed Rabo told Palestinian radio it was too soon for the US to sanction a government that had not been formed yet. “There’s no need for the Americans to get ahead of themselves over this. What happened in Gaza in the last two days is just a first step which we welcome and want to reinforce,” he said.

ABBAS CAN HAVE PEACE WITH ISRAEL OR HAMAS – NOT BOTH!
by Tova Dvorin (Arutz Sheva News)

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed flailing attempts to rekindle peace talks with the Palestinian Authority (PA) Wednesday, during a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.

“You’re coming at an important time,” he told Kurz. “We’re trying to re-launch the negotiations with the Palestinians.”

“Every time we get to that point, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas stacks on an additional condition which he knows that Israel cannot give,” he explained. “So instead of moving toward peace with Israel, he’s moving toward peace with Hamas.”

“He has to choose,” Netanyahu mused. “Does he want peace with Hamas or peace with Israel? You can have one but not the other. I hope he chooses peace, but so far he hasn’t done so.”

After torpedoing peace talks by applying to 15 international conventions, threatening to disband the PA, and approaching Hamas for a unity pact, Abbas reiterated more demands to Israel on Tuesday – this time insisting on a three-month construction freeze in Judea and Samaria prior to renewing peace talks.

The move sparked outrage among several ministers, including Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis, who declared “Abbas is (former PA Chairman Yasser) Arafat in disguise.”

“The Palestinian leadership under Abbas just changed its tone and not its essence,” he argued. “Under the honey-coated words and diplomacy is hiding an extremist leadership which is not interested in peace or an agreement, but rather in endless extortion of terrorist releases, concessions and withdrawals by Israel – just as a condition to have peace talks.”

ISRAELI AIR FORCE BOMBS TERROR SITES IN GAZA AFTER ROCKET ATTACKS
By JPOST.COM STAFF

IDF holds Hamas accountable for violence on border, including 7 rockets fired into southern Israel; IAF hits 3 targets inside southern, central Strip.

The Israel Air Force bombed three terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip on Monday following an attack on IDF forces and rocket attacks on Israel.

Fighter jets struck three targets accurately and returned to base, the IDF Spokesman’s Office said.

Reuters cited medical sources in Gaza as saying Israel’s retaliatory strike had left two Hamas militants lightly wounded.

Earlier on Monday, terrorists in Gaza fired seven rockets into Israel during the last day of the Passover holiday.

The first three projectiles struck uninhabited areas in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council, activating “Code Red” sirens. No damage was reported in the attack.

Another two rockets launched from the coastal enclave caused light damage in Sderot.

“Israeli civilians celebrating the Passover Holiday woke up this morning to the sound of Code-Red alarms and rockets. It is our obligation to seek out and target those who wish to attack our civilians and soldiers and to eliminate their capabilities. Hamas rocket terrorism is an intolerable reality Israelis should not have to accept,” IDF Spokesman Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner said in light of Monday’s attacks.

According to the IDF, 100 rockets fired from Gaza have hit southern Israel since the beginning of 2014.

In addition to the rocket attacks, the IDF reported that an RPG was launched toward IDF forces early Monday morning on the border with the Strip, but no injuries were reported.

IDF forces later shot warning shots into Gaza. The shots caused no known injuries inside Gaza.

THE TOMB IS EMPTY AND JESUS IS ALIVE!

On this Resurrection Day may you and your family celebrate the most wonderful news of all human history – JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE – and He is coming again! He promised to come again (John 14:1-6) and made it clear that He alone is the way to heaven!

If you have not settled your relationship to Him as your Lord and Savior, why not turn to Him NOW! Are you willing to confess your sins, and repent of sinful behavior? Are you ready to call upon His Name, believing that He died for your sins (all of them!), and rose again from the dead, thus guaranteeing our own future resurrection!

GIVE HIM ALL THE GLORY AND PRAISE and welcome to the family of God through Jesus Christ our Lord!