Report From Israel – Thursday, December 17, 2015

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Report From Israel – Thursday, December 17, 2015

Israel is experiencing more and more attempted stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks against Israelis.

A Palestinian terrorist tried to run over IDF soldiers at the Hilhul Junction near Hebron today. Troops thwarted the attack, firing at the assailant, resulting in his death. Soldiers found a very large knife on his body.

Meanwhile, Israeli security forces tracked down the man who rammed his car into a group of soldiers near Beit Aryeh in Samaria Wednesday, injuring four.

A joint overnight operation by the Shin Bet, an undercover IDF unit and several police units located the driver, a Hamas operative and resident of a nearby Arab village. The terrorist told investigators he rammed the soldiers to avenge the “murder of Palestinian children” and defend the al-Aksa Mosque, which according to the Palestinian Authority, Israel intends to destroy.

Three of the four soldiers injured in the attack remained hospitalized Friday morning, while the fourth was well enough to be discharged.

Security forces located the abandoned car used in the attack and found an M-16 rifle and a stun grenade inside.

A day earlier, terrorists opened fire on an Israeli couple on their way home from a family Hanukkah celebration as they drove near Tulkarm. Authorities found 23 bullet holes in the car. The husband remains hospitalized in serious condition after suffering extensive head injuries in the crash. The wife is recovering from bullet wounds to her extremities.

Also on Wednesday, terrorists stabbed a soldier and a civilian near Beit Hadassah in Hebron.

Just two days after a poll showed that two-thirds of Palestinians support the current wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon accused Israel of bringing the trouble on itself.

Ban said that the attacks are “bred from nearly five decades of Israeli occupation.”

The daily terror attacks against Israeli Jews are “the result of fear, humiliation, frustration and mistrust. It has been fed by the wounds of decades of bloody conflict, which will take a long time to heal. Palestinians youth in particular are tired of broken promises and they see no light at the end of the tunnel,” Ban said.

The U.N. leader was speaking at a conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, organized by the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation on the Question of Jerusalem.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon said there is no justification for terror.

“Instead of wasting your time trying to rationalize Palestinian terrorism, the United Nations should confront the Palestinian Authority to eradicate incitement coming from its highest echelons, permeating into the education system and social networks,” Arutz-7 quoted Danon.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research released a poll earlier this week showing that 67 percent of Palestinians support the current wave of stabbings.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY) Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) Sen. Marco Rubio (R–FL) will Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)

The US House of Representatives passed a sanctions bill Wednesday that would enhance sanctions against the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah and its supporters.

In a 425-0 vote, lawmakers approved mandatory sanctions on banking institutions that knowingly conduct transactions for the terror group. A similar bill in the Senate, authored by Senators Marco Rubio and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), was unanimously passed last month.

“We need to send a clear message to companies getting tangled up with this terrorist group,” Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the top Democrat in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was quoted by The Hill as saying. “And that message is: Walk away, or face the consequences of the United States of America.”

The new bill is meant to instruct the Obama administration on reporting measures of Hezbollah’s activities, including drug trafficking and organized crime around the world. Companies that conduct business with Hezbollah’s television station, Al-Manar, would also come under scrutiny.

According to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA), the new bill is also meant to send a warning to the Iranian regime, a known sponsor of Hezbollah.

“This legislation represents an important first step in pushing back against Iran and Hezbollah and repairing the damage that the administration’s sanctions relief for Iran has done to our nation security,” Royce stated.

The sanctions outlined by the new bill will be terminated only after Hezbollah is no longer blacklisted by the US government as a terrorist organization.

The White House worked closely with lawmakers to draft the sanctions bill, The Jerusalem Post reported, which received broad bi-partisan support. US President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill into law imminently.

“The president will sign this bill,” a senior administration official told The Jerusalem Post. “For many years we have worked with Congress to intensify the pressure against the Hezbollah terrorist organization, and we look forward to working closely with them in implementing these new authorities.”

President Obama gives an address at a naturalization ceremony for 31 immigrants on Dec. 15, 2015. (Photo: YouTube Screenshot)

At a Washington, DC ceremony naturalizing 31 new immigrants as US citizens on Tuesday, American President Barack Obama compared today’s Syrian refugees to Jewish Holocaust survivors after World War II.

Obama, who is battling opposition against his plan to settle thousands of refugees from war-torn Syria in the US, drew comparisons between modern and historical immigrant communities, urging the audience to see in the Mexican immigrant “the Catholic immigrant of a century ago”, and in the Syrian refugee “the Jewish refugee of World War II.”

He invoked America’s history of accepting immigrants and outsiders, saying, “In these new Americans, we should see our own American story.”

In a thinly veiled criticism of political opponents who have been outspoken against accepting Syrian refugees, Obama reminded the crowd of the US’s internment of Japanese citizens during the Second World War, and said that the country had then “succumbed to fear.”

He warned today’s Americans against making the same mistake today. “One generation passes, two generations pass, and suddenly we don’t remember where we came from,” he said. “We need to resolve never to repeat mistakes like that again.”

Obama is not the first to draw the comparison between Syrian and Jewish refugees. Many in recent weeks have made the argument that rejecting Syrian refugees is paramount to the US turning away Jewish refugees during World War II, though many others have furiously rejected the analogy.

Critics of the comparison have pointed out that unlike the Jews rejected by America during World War II, Syrian refugees are not fleeing imminent death, and that refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, while not boasting high-quality conditions, are simply not analogous to death camps like Auschwitz.

Others have noted that when Jews applied to the US for refuge in 1939, there was no established Jewish state which could have taken them in, whereas today, there are a considerable number of wealthy Arab states which have the potential, if not the desire, to take in Syrian refugees. Of course, no Arab state has shown any interest in doing so, and some have categorically refused.

Perhaps most persuasively, many have argued that refugee Jews did not represent any kind of terrorist threat to the US, whereas there is evidence that at least some of the Syrian refugees now seeking to settle in the US and Europe have been radicalized by violent Islamic groups like ISIS.

An Egyptian air force F-16 Fighting Falcon. (Photo: Staff Sgt. Amy Abbott/ U.S. Air Force)

In an unprecedented move, Egyptian aircraft have entered Israeli airspace while en route to attack ISIS affiliates in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula on several occasions in recent months, Ynet revealed on Tuesday.

The fighter jets, which flew through Israel’s airspace in order to bomb ISIS targets in the El Arish and Sheikh Zuweid regions of the northern Sinai, likely did so with the knowledge and permission of the IDF, as the violations garnered no response from the military.

It is probably the first time since Egyptian fighter pilots flew into Israel as enemies during the 1973 Yom Kippur War that Egypt’s air force has entered Israeli airspace.

The flights mostly took place in the triangular border area between Israeli territory, Egyptian territory, and the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel first started to allow Egypt to enter the Sinai from Israel’s easternmost border about four years ago, when Islamist forces began to grow in strength and clashes with the Egyptian military in the region became more frequent. The permission was given in accord with the military clause of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel.

The Egyptian forces have used this permission to strike terrorist targets in the area with fighter planes and helicopters. Some of their targets are located mere kilometers away from the Israeli border.

The ISIS-affiliated terror group in the Sinai is estimated to number at least 8,000 members, and is one of ISIS’s most effective offshoots in the Middle East, attacking Egyptian military forces almost daily and killing dozens of security forces monthly. In October, it claimed to have brought down a Russian airliner in the region.

The mode of operation for the Sinai-based ISIS group makes gathering intelligence on their actions and plans difficult, as it rarely uses phones or computers and acts more as a group of individual terror cells than as an organized force. Recently, the IDF and Israel’s intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, have begun to increase efforts to gather intelligence on the Egyptian border.

Read more at http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/56372/egyptian-fighter-jets-using-israeli-airspace-to-bomb-isis-idf/#CvKlw5EF1kRiRjlh.99

With the help of Santa, a city worker distributes Christmas trees outside of the Old City. (Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

On Wednesday, the Jerusalem Municipality announced that it would distribute free Christmas trees in the city on Monday, December 21, continuing an annual tradition of giving out the festive trees, gifted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), to those celebrating the Christmas holiday in the holy land.

About 200 trees will be distributed at the Jaffa gate to the Old City, where the Christian Quarter is annually festooned with lights and decorations in honor of the holiday, between the hours of 9 am and 12 pm.

Every year, the JNF distributes Christmas trees to institutions celebrating the holiday, including churches, monasteries, convents, embassies, foreign journalists, and the general public.

According to the JNF, the trees used for Christmas trees are Arizona cypresses. Each JNF forest is divided into “stands” of trees identified by date of planting, tree type, and growth rate.

As Christmas approaches, Arizona cypress plots will undergo a process called “thinning”, in which Jewish National Fund foresters remove undergrowth, trimming tree tops and cutting down dead or diseased trees, in order to prevent forest fires from spreading and to encourage healthy growth in the forests.

The process also yields many beautiful and high-quality cypress trees to be used as part of a traditional Christmas celebration. As for lights, ornaments, and tinsel, holiday revelers are on their own – but decorations aren’t hard to find, especially at Christian sites like Nazareth and Bethlehem, where annual Christmas celebrations are held for thousands of visitors.

Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat also announced that he will be hosting the city’s annual New Year’s event for leaders and representatives of Israel’s different religious communities on January 21, in the municipality City Hall.

Report From Israel – Thursday, December 17, 2015

Report From Israel – Thursday, December 17, 2015

Major News In Brief – November 18, 2015

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Major News In Brief – November 18, 2015

SAINT-DENIS, France – Paris is still being rocked with terrorism. Wednesday in France amid gunfire and explosions, police raided a suburban Paris apartment where the suspected mastermind of last week’s attacks was believed to be hiding. The siege ended with two deaths and seven arrests.

The dead were a woman who blew herself up with an explosive vest and a man hit by projectiles and grenades at the end of the raid, which began before dawn and continued for more than seven hours at the apartment building in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the raid was launched after information from tapped telephone conversations, surveillance and witness accounts indicated that the suspected attacks planner, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, might be in a safe house in the district.

Authorities could not immediately confirm whether Abaaoud, a Belgian Islamic State militant, was killed or arrested Wednesday morning.

France – and the rest of Europe – remain on edge four days after the attacks. Two Air France flights bound for Paris from the U.S. were diverted Tuesday night – one to Salt Lake City and one to Halifax – because of anonymous threats received after they had taken off. Both were inspected and cleared to resume their journeys.

In the German city of Hannover, a soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands was canceled at the last minute and the stadium evacuated by police because of a bomb threat.

Lower Saxony state Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said the match was called off after “vague” information that solidified late in the day.

No arrests have been made and no explosives found. Pistorius said this may be because the plot was called off after the game was canceled.

“We won’t know what would have happened if we didn’t cancel it,” he said.

President Obama called the terror attacks on Paris a “terrible and sickening setback” in the fight against the Islamic State.

Yet, he’s making it clear the United States will not change its strategy or even expand it’s military campaign against ISIS.

The Islamic State released a new video today warning Washington, D.C., would face similar attacks to those in Paris.

On the video Islamic State terrorists vow that countries taking part in airstrikes against Syria will suffer the same fate as Paris and warns it will attack Washington D.C.

The nearly 12-minute video begins with news footage of the aftermath of Friday’s attacks in Paris, which killed 129 people.

It calls on Muslims in France to “ignite and kill soldiers and tyrants.”

One fighter says Muslims should strike in the West because the U.S.-led coalition is targeting ISIS in Iraq.

“We swear that we will strike America at its center in Washington,” the jihadist vowed.

The group also threatens that ISIS is coming to Europe with “booby traps and explosives.”

Despite new concerns among Americans, Obama forcefully defended the vast majority of Muslims at press conference at the G20 Summit today.

“ISIL does not represent Islam. It is not representative in any way to the attitudes of the overwhelming majority of Muslims,” he said. “To the degree that anyone would equate the terrible acts in Paris to the views of Islam, those kinds of stereotypes are counterproductive, they’re wrong.”

Less than 3 percent of the Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far are Christian and 96 percent are Muslim, the result of a referral system that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton says “unintentionally discriminates” against Christians.

State Department figures released Monday showed that the current system overwhelmingly favors Muslim refugees. Of the 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far, only 53 are Christians while 2,098 are Muslim, the Christian News Service reported.

After the attacks in Paris, concerns are growing about the Syrian refugees about to be admitted to the United States. In fact, an increasing number of states are refusing to accept the refugees.

Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush suggests only Christian refugees facing slaughter by ISIS should be let into the country. Other candidates say the United States shouldn’t accept any refugees from the Middle East, citing national security concerns.

Obama called those suggestions “shameful” and un-American.

Less than 3 percent of the Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far are Christian and 96 percent are Muslim, the result of a referral system that Republican Sen. Tom Cotton says “unintentionally discriminates” against Christians.

State Department figures released Monday showed that of the 2,184 Syrian refugees admitted to the United States so far, only 53 are Christians while 2,098 are Muslim.

The Russian Federal Security Service is offering $50 million for information leading to the arrest of those behind the downing of a Russian jetliner over Egypt.

President Vladamir Putin is vowing to hunt down the culprits.

The increased manhunt comes after Russian security leaders confirmed that a homemade bomb placed on board “caused the plane to break up in the air.”

Metrojet Flight 9268 crashed over Sinai on October 31. All 224 passenger and crew were killed.

BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal dropped out of the 2016 race for president Tuesday, ending a campaign that failed to gain much support, especially in early-voting Iowa.

“I’ve come to the realization that this is not my time,” Jindal said on Fox News Channel as he announced the decision to suspend his campaign.

The 44-year-old governor said he wasn’t ready to endorse another candidate, but intended to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee.

The nation’s first elected Indian-American governor, Jindal focused his entire campaign effort on the early voting state of Iowa, first courting evangelical voters and then trying to broaden his appeal as a candidate with conservative policy plans that others weren’t offering.

But he never won much support in Iowa or elsewhere against higher-profile Republican candidates such as Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Jindal’s low poll numbers kept him off the main debate stages where he could have drawn more attention, and his fundraising lagged. He was facing a major cash crunch to keep the campaign going, after wrapping up the last fundraising period with $261,000 on hand.

And here’s a pinch to grow an inch – again from Yahoo news…..

Have you heard of the drone dentist, and, please, don’t try this at home! 

Back in June, Paul Borrud’s nephew Bruno asked him to help pull out a loose tooth. Instead of using the old doorknob-and-string method, they decided to use Borrud’s drone.

Twenty-four hours later, they were ready to complete their drone tooth pull. They tied some dental floss to Bruno’s tooth, and then it was time for liftoff. Borrud said in the video description that he double-checked with Bruno one last time before the drone took off.

All went smoothly and the tooth came out easily. Afterward, Bruno was all smiles. What a champ!

Major News In Brief – November 18, 2015

Major News In Brief – November 18, 2015

Report From Israel with Ray – November 16, 2015

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Report From Israel with Ray – November 16, 2015

Report From Israel

The Bataclan concert hall in Paris, site of an Islamist terror attack in which 89 people were killed Friday among 129 deaths across six coordinated attacks. Credit: Céline via Wikimedia Commons. (Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org)

 The Bataclan concert hall—site of the deadliest of Friday’s six coordinated Islamist terror attacks in Paris, with 89 people killed—was under Jewish ownership for four decades and had received frequent threats in the past for that reason.

Sold only two months ago by co-owners Pascal Laloux and Joel Tuitto, the venue is still under their responsibility.

“One of the managers called me and began to tell me about the disaster that was taking place,” Tuitto, who recently moved to Israel, told Israel’s Channel 2. “I could hear the gunshots and the voices in the background….The terrorists were inside the theater, and I heard the gunshots, but I couldn’t do anything.”

Tuitto said he had co-owned the Bataclan since the 1970s, and that according to the terms of the sale, he remains responsible for it until September 2018.

The French magazine Le Point reported that in 2011, a terrorist told French security services that “we (the Army of Islam terrorist group) had planned an attack against the Bataclan because its owners are Jews.”

The Bataclan, which regularly hosted Jewish and Israeli events, also received serious threats in 2007 and 2008. Tuitto said a group of masked Palestinians had even come to the venue two years ago demanding its closure due to its “fundraising for Israel and the IDF,” and warning of an attack if their demand was not met, but nothing came of the threat.

The band playing at the Bataclan the night of the brutal attack, Eagles of Death Metal, played a concert in Tel Aviv this past summer.

Around the world, authorities are on high alert to prevent any more strikes by Islamic terrorists.

In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron announced Monday that seven terror attacks have been foiled in Britain over the past six months.

President Barack Obama and other world leaders are meeting at a G-20 summit in Turkey, working on the next steps to end the war in Syria and respond to the escalating ISIS threat.

And in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that radical Islam is responsible for terrorism around the world.

“In Israel, as in France, terrorism is terrorism and standing behind it is radical Islam and its desire to destroy its victims,” Netanyahu said. “The time has come for the world to wake up and unite in order to defeat terrorism.”

Following the attacks in Paris, Netanyahu repeated what he has said for years, “militant Islamic terrorism attacks our societies because it wants to destroy our civilization and our values.”

The Paris attacks happened just hours after a Palestinian terrorist murdered Rabbi Ya’akov Litman and his 18-year-old son, Netanel, in a shooting attack on their vehicle. His wife, three daughters and another son had minor injuries. The family was on their way to celebrate a pre-wedding Sabbath with their fourth daughter and her soon-to-be in-laws.

Netanyahu said it’s time for the world “to condemn terrorism against us to the same degree that they condemn terrorism everywhere else in the world.”

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attacks in France. Netanyahu said it would be appropriate for Abbas “to condemn ruthless terrorism against innocent people in Israel and fight the incitement that motivates it.”

Israeli security services arrested the perpetrator of the attacks on the Litman family. Netanyahu said the terrorist is a member of Islamic Jihad. Apparently his father and brother turned him in due to Israel’s policy of destroying the homes of terrorists.

Netanyahu said Israel is no more blame for the terror against it than France is.

“It is the terrorists who are to blame for terrorism, not the territories, not the settlements and not any other thing. It is the desire to destroy us that perpetuates this conflict and drives the murderous aggression against us,” he said.

“The terrorists who attack us have the same murderous intent as those in Paris. Thanks to our aggressive policy against terrorism – to control the ground, go into the villages, demolish terrorists’ homes and take preventive action against the infrastructures of terrorism – along with the determined action of the IDF and the security services in carrying out this policy, we succeed many times in frustrating and preventing more serious disasters,” Netanyahu said.

In a separate case on Monday, two Palestinians and a third wounded when they opened fire on Israeli troops who had arrived to destroy the home of a terrorist from an earlier attack.

Education Minister and Jewish Home party leader Naftali Bennett delivered a strong speech at Ariel University in Samaria Monday, excoriating both his domestic political rivals and Western states for appeasing terrorism, while warning that the presence of Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria are Israel’s first line of defense against Islamic State as it gobbles up territory to the east.

“Either you will be here, or ISIS will be,” Bennett told students. “A world war has begun between radical Islam and the free world.”

Bennett noted that the same Western countries calling on Israel to make massive territorial and other concessions in response to attacks by Muslim terrorists against Israeli citizens would never react similarly to attacks on their own soil.

“If France were to offer half of Paris to the Muslims, would that lessen terrorism or encourage it?” he asked. “If (France) would free terrorists, would that lessen or encourage (terrorism)?”

The ongoing wave of Arab terror in Israel “is not because the Palestinians lost hope or because they have hope. A Palestinian state… is a central part of their plan” to destroy Israel “in stages,” he insisted.

Only by dispelling any hope of them achieving the destruction of the Jewish state – in stages or otherwise – could Palestinian terrorism ever truly be defeated, he said.

By contrast, enacting a “two-state solution” and establishing a 23rd Arab “Palestinian state” in Judea and Samaria “is a strategic mistake we must uproot” from the public discourse, Bennett added.

Turning to his rivals, he noted that the Jewish Home party is the only party in the Knesset which firmly opposes such a plan.

“The Likud led by Prime Minister Netanyahu supports a Palestinian state. (Yisrael Beytenu party leader Avigdor) Liberman also supports a Palestinian state. (Yesh Atid party leader) Yair Lapid supports the Saudi Initiative. That’s how they are leading the State of Israel and the world astray.”

“We will never establish in the heart of Israel a Palestinian state. Period,” he vowed of his party.

Bennett also urged people to stop trying in vain to “explain” terrorism, and instead focus on fighting and defeating the groups responsible.

“When a rapist rapes, we don’t try to ‘understand’ him. We punish him! We are fighting this phenomenon.”

Bennett also derided public and legal figures who discouraged punitive action against terrorists and their families – such as demolitions of terrorists’ homes – by claiming it was ineffective or even counterproductive.

Noting that the family of the terrorist responsible for Friday’s double murder of a father and son near Hevron gave him up to security forces precisely because they feared Israeli retaliation, Bennett mused: “The problem is that the family of the terrorist from Otniel did not hear these ‘conclusions,’ and insisted on turning over to the IDF the terrorist who killed two Jews in order that their house wouldn’t be destroyed.”

JERUSALEM, Israel — Israel and U.S. congressmen are strongly condemning a new European Union regulation labeling Israeli products made in disputed areas, saying they’re not made in Israel.

Israeli officials and the congressmen say it’s a political decision to delegitimize Israel and will hinder peace with the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was furious over the decision, saying it brought back dark memories.

“Europe should be ashamed of itself. It took an immoral decision,” Netanyahu said. “Of the hundreds of territorial conflicts around the world, it chose to single out Israel and Israel alone, while it’s fighting with its back against the wall against the wave of terror.”

Products made in Israeli factories and businesses in areas disputed between Israel and the Palestinians will no longer say “made in Israel.” That includes products from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), the Golan Heights and even in the eastern sector of Jerusalem – areas promised to Israel in the Bible.

Ironically, those businesses often employ Palestinian workers and provide a much better income than they’d receive from Palestinian employers.

“The European Union is not going to hurt the Israeli economy. It’s strong enough to weather this, but it’s the Palestinian workers in Israeli enterprises in Judea and Samaria that will be hurt,” Netanyahu said. “This will not advance peace; it will certainly not advance truth and justice. It’s wrong. Europe should be ashamed of itself.”

Earlier this week, 36 U.S. senators co-signed a letter to E.U. Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini. They expressed concern over the guidelines, saying they appeared to be “intended to discourage Europeans from purchasing these products and promote a de-facto boycott of Israel, a key ally and the only true democracy in the Middle East.”

“We believe strongly that these efforts are unwarranted, dangerous and damaging to the prospects of a negotiated solution to this conflict,” the senators said in the letter.

Some Israelis went even further in their condemnation.

“This is outrageous because this is using double standards, you know. You can ask yourself, there are plenty of territorial debates and regional debates in the world and this patient treatment of labeling products is kept only for the Jewish state,” Israeli Energy and Infrastructure Minister Yuval Steinitz told CBN News.

Former Israeli U.S. Ambassador Michael Oren called it “anti-Semitic.”

“We have to understand that the decision by the European Union to label Israeli products from Judea and Samaria and the Golan Heights is an anti-Semitic decision.  It just is,” Oren told CBN News.

The E.U. defended the decision, saying it was technical and not political. But E.U. parliament member Roger Helmer said it’s just plain wrong.

“Boycotts of that sort are simply unacceptable,” Helmer said. “We wouldn’t have any trade left at all if we wouldn’t trade with people where we had some sort of problem or issue.

Helmer believes the labeling may actually have positive kickbacks.

“There’s a large Jewish community in many European countries and also others who might sympathize with the Israeli cause who certainly won’t be boycotting and indeed might be inclined to look for such products,” he said.

Israeli businessman Sam Green told CBN News it’s the E.U.’s loss.

“Israel should ignore that and we should move ahead and develop markets, open new markets towards the East — China, India, Asian nations, much greater potential there for Israeli technology transfer and knowledge transfer and if Europe wants to isolate themselves from that movement, it’s their loss,” he said.

JERUSALEM, Israel – Three dozen U.S. senators co-signed a letter to current E.U. foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini criticizing the decision to label Israeli products manufactured or grown outside the 1948 armistice lines.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the pending practice elicits “historical memory of what happened when Europeans labeled Jewish products,” referring to the years leading up to the Nazi genocide of World War II.

“As allies, elected representatives of the American people and strong supporters of Israel, we urge you not to implement this labeling policy, which appears intended to discourage Europeans from purchasing these (Israeli) products and promote a de-facto boycott of Israel,” the letter read, the Israeli daily YNet reported.

The letter went on to say labeling Israeli products “play[s] into the narrative of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is an effort to delegitimize Israel rather than promote a resolution of outstanding issues between Israel and the Palestinians.”

In a veiled warning, the senators implied the practice could affect U.S.-E.U. negotiations to cancel customs taxes, an issue the European Union is interested in.

Critics say labeling Israeli products will put thousands of Palestinian Arabs out of work, while rewarding terrorism and encouraging the BDS movement.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely traveled to several European capitals this week to discuss the implications of labeling Israeli products with E.U. officials.

“As far as we’re concerned, all of Israel faces the threat of boycott,” Hotovely said during a visit last week to the industrial park at Barkan in southern Samaria.

JERUSALEM, Israel — The mayor of London called boycotters of Israel “lefty academics” who wield no real influence. Boris Johnson is visiting Israel hoping to strengthen economic ties between Tel Aviv and London.

His visit comes at a time when the BDS campaign in Europe is gaining strength.  BDS is an acronym for boycott, divestment and sanctions.  The pro-Palestinian movement calls for boycotting and sanctioning the Jewish state on behalf of the Palestinians.  Opponents say the ultimate goal of BDS is to delegitimize the Jewish state and bring about its demise.

Johnson said, “I cannot think of anything more foolish” than to boycott “a country that when all is said and done is the only democracy in the region, the only place that has in my view a pluralist open society.” He said the boycotters are “a very small minority.”

The European Union is set to begin labeling Israeli products that are made in Judea and Samaria, a.k.a. the West Bank, as a means to increase pressure on the Jewish State.  But some say the move may backfire and actually prompt Israeli-supporters to buy blue and white.

JERUSALEM, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the American Jewish community to unite in support of Israel.

Speaking at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, Netanyahu reaffirmed U.S.-Israeli ties, saying “no matter what disagreements there are between Israel and the United States, Israel has no better friend than America and America has no better friend than Israel.”

He called for Jewish unity in the face of his fierce opposition to the Iranian nuclear deal, which many felt drove a wedge between Jewish organizations and some of their leaders.

“No matter what disagreements there have been within the Jewish community, maintaining the unity of our people is of paramount importance,” Netanyahu said. “There is only one Jewish people. There is only one Jewish state. And now, more than ever, we must work together to unite the Jewish people and secure the Jewish state.”

Israel, he said, is the only nation in the region where the Christian population is growing and where gay rights are protected. It’s a nation founded on egalitarianism.

“You see it in an Arab schoolboy who knows that – or school girl – they can grow up to be Knesset members or ambassadors or a Supreme Court justice,” he said. “We have an Arab Supreme Court justice, in case you didn’t know. And it’s the only truly independent court in a very, very large radius.”

Netanyahu said he’s working to ensure that Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews can all feel at home in Israel.

“As prime minister of Israel, I will always ensure that all Jews can feel at home in Israel – Reform Jews, Conservative Jews, Orthodox Jews – all Jews,” he said. “And now, for the first time, the government of Israel is joining with the Jewish Agency to invest in strengthening Reform and Conservative communities within Israel.”

An “unshakeable bond” unites Jewish people, he said.

“It’s a bond of hope – not the shallow hope of wishful thinking, but the deep wellspring of confidence that comes from a people who have forded history’s most turbulent rivers and emerged triumphant on the other side in the Promised Land,” Netanyahu said.

Two Jewish families graced Ben-Gurion International Airport’s Arrivals hall on Monday afternoon, becoming the first Jewish families arriving in Israel from France since the Islamic State (ISIS) attack which killed 129.

Both families, Paris natives, immigrated via the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ).

“After the attack, people were afraid to leave their homes,” Daniel Bentura, who came to Israel with his wife and two children, stated upon leaving. “There were police everywhere. It was simply terrifying.”

“For two years we have lived without security and have wanted to immigrate to Israel,” Bentura added. “Anti-Semitism in Paris has greatly increased.”

“I would not want my children to live, learn and get married in France,” he continued. “Life in Israel is far safer than the current situation in Paris.”

“We have family and friends here; for us, this is our home. “

Both the Bentura family and Sergei Uzan, who also returned to Israel Monday after making Aliyah 20 years ago and having returned to France, are moving to Netanya.

The IFCJ has helped hundreds of French immigrants receive financial support, help finding employment, immigration and acclimation assistance for families, and other services.

“The IFCJ is committed to protect the Jewish communities in need around the world and help those who want to immigrate from these communities,” President Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein stated.

The move is the latest in a mass wave of French Aliyah, being sponsored in part by the Israeli government. 7,000 French Jews made Aliyah in 2014 as part of the three-year program, and a recent poll suggests some 80% of French Jewry are considering leaving, primarily to Israel.

 Report From Israel with Ray – November 16, 2015

Report From Israel with Ray – November 16, 2015

Matt Kern came face-to-face with Jesus Christ

http://reachmorenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/undisputed28.jpg

Imagine being seventeen and placed in a maximum security prison with a sentence of sixty years. That’s what happened to Matt Kern. Getting tougher all the time with an extremely hard heart, Matt came face-to-face with Jesus Christ. How did that happen? What was Jesus doing in a maximum security prison? And what happened then? See this true story from CBN yourself. –Ray


Matt Kern came face-to-face with Jesus Christ

Matt Kern came face-to-face with Jesus Christ

SPECIAL REPORT FROM RAY: ISIS IS IN AMERICA NOW READY TO STRIKE

SPECIAL REPORT FROM RAY: ISIS WARNS IT IS IN AMERICA NOW AND READY TO STRIKE

A free service of Jesus Christ is Lord Ministries

News written and delivered by Ray Mossholder

Saturday August 16, 2014

 

Hello America. Hello world.

From the headquarters of reachmorenow.com in Fort Worth, Texas, this is Ray Mossholder, and this is the news:

For many years, I have deeply enjoyed the out-of-the-box humor of cartoonist Gary Larson. His many books called “The Far Side” have kept me roaring while looking at each and every page. I do have a favorite of all his cartoons that I would award the “Funniest of All” among many hundred amazing choices. It’s the cartoon of a deer with a huge bull’s-eye on his chest. A second deer turns to him and says “Bummer of a birthmark, Hal!”

 

Tonight America is wearing a huge bull’s-eye on its chest that most in our country seem totally unaware of. They go right on “marrying, and given in marriage” – something Jesus described as the condition that would be going on when He would return for His believers. The point Jesus was making was that when He returns, life will be going on very much as it always has with people who have gotten too busy to observe the signs of the time.

 

For those of you without a theological background regarding the Bible, you may not know that there is great disagreement among Christians as to whether Jesus Christ will return at the beginning of the last seven years of the world when terror will be constant all over the globe – a seven-year countdown of destruction that is known as “The Tribulation” when all hell will literally break loose on this planet; – or if He will come “mid-trib,” after the first 3 1/2 years of that earthly hell; or will he come at the end of those seven years when the world reaches its final destruction at the battle of Armageddon, and a New Heaven and New Earth replace the ones we know now.

 

My only concern is that those who follow the teaching of my great friend Hal Lindsey, and so many other scholars who fully believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, might be in error. And if we begin into the kind of merciless horror Iraq and other nations that surround her are experiencing now, only much much worse, Christians who have fully accepted the fictional “Left Behind” series as gospel truth, might suddenly believe that their Christian faith has been false too and abandon Christ in fear for their lives, not realizing that there are other teachings, especially in the book of Revelation, which give rise to the thought that the pre-rapture teaching could be wrong.

Ray will be narrating the entire series of “Left Behind”

very soon

 

I have no disrespect for any American young person who does not want to go to Iraq and fight Isis, or go to any other land to fight terrorists. Nor do I have any disrespect for parents and loved ones who don’t want them to go either and would do almost anything to keep them from it. America is sick of the wasted lives that our government interventions in foreign lands have caused.

Arlington National Cemetery

 

Since World War II (and some now question that), it cannot be said that America has “won a war.” Instead, we have caused the spilling of the blood of our military, and often the loss of their body parts, without any lasting effect. During our previous attempts at defeating enemies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, and other what are called “smaller skirmishes, ” all turned meaningless and tragic for our efforts.

Our US military in the rice paddies of Vietnam

 

The killing fields of Cambodia; the tense division between North and South Korea; the body bags right now still coming home almost daily with more dead heroes from Afghanistan; and the war many knowledgeable military leaders and war scholars say we actually won but quit, as we often do, too soon to prove ourselves the winners, leaving our military to be spit on when they came home; are all vivid testimony to far the most Americans that no matter what president was leading us, we should not have been involved.

President Obama is not going to send our troops back into Iraq. Politically, that would be the very worst thing he could do. Not only that, but in spite of being mired in Afghanistan, and the drones he’s used in Pakistan to kill a few of the Taliban, and in spite of whatever leadership he gave in the death of Osama bin Laden, he is pacifistic, and most of the United States is thankful for that.

 

So, while millions die, and millions of children are buried alive, or crucified along with their parents, in Iraq; and thousands of girls are kidnapped, raped and sold into slavery; and thousands starve to death or thirst to death on a mountaintop or elsewhere, America “Marries and given in marriage” it isn’t even seeking an answer to help rescue them.

Children in Iraq 2014

 

President Obama said yesterday from Martha’s Vineyard that his advisors have told him the crisis on that mountain top in Iraq isn’t serious enough to further bother ourselves about, so he is calling off the aid that we were bringing to the people there. That is happening while others on that mountain top report that hundreds of people are dying daily, so many in fact that there is no time to bury them all, and more and more corpses are rotting in the sun.

The terrorists in many countries are growing at an astounding rate and fighting battles they intend to win so that Islam and Shariah law will ultimately rule the whole world.

And Americans are married and given in marriage.

**********

What was the purpose of my saying all that? Because of a warning from the same White House that will not return our troops to Iraq and at this moment is shrinking our troops to pre-Second World War size.

The news sources whether they be television, newspapers, radio, or any other source unless they are tabloid or loony (and tabloids are almost always loony), avoid causing their readers or listeners any fear at all. So when all the sources begin saying relatively the very same thing, and it’s something warning America of disaster, it’s time to pay close attention to what they are saying. That’s even more true when a news story is suddenly deleted without explanation as to why they have taken it off. That did happen. And only CBN has had the courage to leave it on their website.

Today suddenly all reliable news media sent a danger sign to the United States that could be imminent. It is a suspected to be a message from Isis, the most brutal, gore-loving, cruel, sadistic, Christian-hating, American hating, terror organization in the world that delights in burying children alive. A terror group so evil that even most of Al Qaeda has separated itself from them and denounced them. Isis has posted a picture on Twitter of a hand holding up the Isis black flag in front of the White House in Washington DC. The Secret Service ISN’T keeping this a secret and is taking this as serious as Ebola.

Under the flag there is a caption. It reads: “A message from Isis. We are in your state. We are in your cities. We are in your streets. You are our goals anywhere.”

Isis is now considered “the most potent military force” of any terrorist organization in the world. United States counterterrorism officials have dramatically raised immediate red flag warnings about this Tweet. It is known at this hour that Isis is more than likely planning terror attacks on both Europe and the United States. Because the major purpose of Isis is to spread fear, they include no definite time for their chaos to begin.

Isis is extremely wealthy with millions and millions of dollars to spend that they have gladly taken from all banks in the many many towns they have conquered in Iraq and elsewhere. They have new men joining them daily from every part of the world, including America. They have full capabilities with United States state-of-the-art weaponry they simply picked up when Iraqi troops and other Iraqis fled and left them behind. That includes everything from two Iraqi airbases – hundreds of tanks, heavily armored Humvees, assault rifles, and rocket propelled grenade launchers – everything a boy would want in their toy soldier collection, only these aren’t toys.

Isis is capable of almost anything. If this Tweet is legitimate, America is sorely unequipped for such devastation with a leader who draws red lines in the sand and Windows lines across does nothing. And an administration full of scandals.

When Americans hear a word like “Caliphate” and they are busy driving, or minding the kids, or at work, or making dinner, the best almost any of them do is to remark “Say what?” The Muslims know what it means. They can tell you it means an Islamic state led by one supreme religious leader who is declared the successor to Mohammed and is meant to be recognized by every Muslim everywhere on Earth as the Calif, God on Earth, and whatever the Caliph tells them to do they would be subject to Allah’s terrible wrath if they did not do it.

A Caliph to a Muslim could be compared to Jesus Christ to a Christian. Only, the Caliph is right here in the flesh as a human on planet Earth. Isis, or Isil, or the Islamic State, has a Caliph who declared himself a Caliph while in Iraq earlier this year. And that Caliph fully intends to bring the whole world under Shariah law. Those terror groups who have denounced Isis nevertheless have that exact same goal. And according to the Tweet, they are all over America now and ready to take control of it.

And Americans are married and given in marriage.

I hope with all my heart that the rapture will take us out of this before Isis strikes, but I warn you again that that may not be what the end time biblically prophesies. I do know once we get through this, however long it takes, the best is yet to come.

**********

There are so many wars that are taking place in this world right now, So which war shall I cover first? –

Ukraine, where the death toll has doubled from two thousand eighty-six to four thousand nine hundred and fifty-three in the past two weeks?

Ukraine now

 

Or Israel, where a cease-fire once again puts on pause the Israeli/Hamas war. I could call it a conflict to be politically correct, but when two thousand people are killed by military involvement in less than a month, it looks a lot more like war to me than it does a conflict.

From left to right on top then bottom:

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal

Hamas deputy chief Mouse Abu Marzouq

Fatah leader Mahamoud Abbas

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

 

Or Afghanistan, where on Sunday a Taliban suicide car bomber attacked a NATO convoy in Kabul, killing four civilians and wounding 35?

 

Or Iran, where there is no reported war yet because they are still building their nuclear bomb? And where members of Isis in the same prison with our American Pastor Saeed have now vowed to kill him?

 

Or North Korea, where they lobbed three rockets toward South Korea Thursday, the last one landing just thirty-five minutes before Pope Francis arrived there?

 

Or Iraq, that has a brand new president with Isis knocking on Baghdad’s door? And where Isis has captured its biggest prize yet.

 

Or Syria, where terrorists have captured two more towns?

 

Or Libya, that has cried out for help from the United Nations because of uncontrolled violence so fierce so that thousands of Libyans have fled that country, scores of embassies have closed, and international organizations have shut their offices?

 

Or South Sudan, where the United Nations are threatening to impose sanctions because of South Sudan’s total disregard for human rights?

 

Or Egypt, where the top Muslim cleric has warned that Isis is a danger to Islam? And where Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has gone to Russia, where Russia is selling him a treasure trove of state-of-the-art weapons.

 

Or Russia itself, where Vladimir says he is prepared 2000 tons of humanitarian aid to the war-torn country of Ukraine that Ukraine won’t allow in?

 

Or Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia where each country is fighting a war against the Ebola virus that is still spreading and where more than one hundred doctors have died fighting the epidemic?

 

Or Brazil, where the war there is between presidential candidates. The candidate who was considered most likely to win the presidency has been killed in an airplane crash.

.

But first let’s look at news from our own nation:

Michael Brown with his little brother Andre

In our last newscast, I told you about the riots that broke out Saturday afternoon in a Saint Louis suburb – Ferguson, Missouri. Well, the rioting got a one night breather, Thursday night in fact. But last night in Ferguson wasn’t fun unless you think that rioting is fun. The riots broke out again BIGTIME. The part of town young Michael Brown lived in has almost been destroyed since he was shot to death a week ago today.

 

Calm seemed to come Thursday night after the Missouri Highway Patrol replaced the exhausted Ferguson and St. Louis police. But Friday the Ferguson police released pictures of Michael, who until now has been regarded as a model example of the black community, strong-arming a lady clerk at a convenience store. He and his friend, according to the Ferguson police and the friend, stole a box of cigars worth less than fifty dollars. But here’s the strange part. The shooting of Michael Brown had nothing at all to do with the theft even though it took place within five minutes after the cigar box was tucked tightly under his friends arm.

 

Michael’s family and friends say the pictures and a video that is also been released are attempts to smear Michael Brown’s name and avoid the real truth that a policeman killed an unarmed black teenager who in just two more days would have been entering college.

 

 

 

 

This is a battle being fought on American soil. And it isn’t just the 500 people in Ferguson who are rioting, but others joining with them from other parts of the nation including congressman and MSNBC talkshow host, Charlie Rangel, who makes a habit of showing up at such times. Together with the hometown crowd the outsiders are fanning the riots into the kind of flames that burned out the convenience store where the clerk had called the police after Michael had used force on her.

 

 

 

Many across our nation have been comparing Michael’s death to the death of Treyvon Martin, but those murders shouldn’t be compared. They were two very separate incidents.

 

Democrat Congressman John Lewis, a staunch civil rights watchman, being interviewed on MSNBC, called on President Obama to declare martial law in Ferguson “because of the constant blunders of the police force there.” He said the police responded to a largely peaceful protest, with excessive force that reminds him of the race riots in the 60′s.

 

 

Lewis went on to say “My own feeling is that right now President Obama should use the authority of his office to declare martial law and federalize the Missouri National Guard to protect people as they protest. People should come together – reasonable elected officials, community leaders – and address what is happening there.”

 

He went on to speak directly to the President, “If you fail to act, the fires of frustration and discontent will continue to burn, not only in Ferguson, Missouri, but all across America.”

 

“It’s unbelievable, it’s unreal, to see what the police are doing there. Ferguson, Missouri, is part of the United States. People have a right to protest, they have a right to dissent, they have a right to march in an orderly, peaceful, nonviolent fashion, and the press has a right to cover it. It takes me back to the 40s, the 50s, the 60s.”

 

John Lewis pointed out that Ferguson is a majority black town that has just three black policeman out of fifty-three members on the force. He asked “How can you have a city and expect to have peace and order when there are very few symbols of representatives of the people making up the public safety department of the city?”

 

Democrat Missouri Governor Jay Nixon, promised Thursday that there would be a different tone in Ferguson Thursday night. Nixon promised “operational changes.” He then appointed Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson and his officers to replace the extremely exhausted Ferguson and St. Louis police.

 

Captain Johnson began by explaining, “We are going to have a very different approach, that we are all in this together.” The fact that Captain Johnson is a black man and could relate to the black rioters was a tremendous help in bringing an end to the then raging hostilities. Thursday night was the first time since Saturday afternoon that the town of Ferguson was calm.

 

 

Missouri State Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson at a press conference with Governor Nixon standing behind him.

 

 

Democrat Missouri Governor Jay Nixon

 

 

Speaking from Martha’s Vineyard, President Obama yesterday told reporters “There is never any excuse for excessive force by police. Or for looting or violence aimed at the police. The police have a responsibility to be open and transparent about the events that led up to the shooting by a police officer of a black teenager in Ferguson on Saturday. Put simply, we all need to hold ourselves to a high standard, particularly those of us in positions of authority.”

 

 

 

Our President further said “Here in the United States of America, police should not be bullying or arresting journalists who are just trying to do their jobs and report to the American people on what they see on the ground.”

 

Mister Obama was referring to the arrest Wednesday night of a Huffington Post writer and a writer from the Washington Times. Both journalists were quickly released.

 

The President continued, “There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism and looting. There is also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights.”

But the Director of the Fraternal Order of Police, Jim Pasco, in an interview with The Hill, strongly criticized what President Obama had said. Pasco said “I would contend that discussing police tactics from Martha’s Vineyard is not helpful to ultimately calm the situation. I think what he has to do as President and as a Constitutional lawyer is remember that there is a process in the United States that is being followed, for good or for ill, by the police and by the county and by the city and by the prosecutor’s office.”

 

Director of the Fraternal Order of Police, Jim Pasco

 

 

 

Pasco reminded his interviewer of the President’s response in 2009, when Obama criticized on national television a Massachusetts police officer for arresting Harvard professor Louis Gates, when the professor was trying to break into his own home. Obama said the officer had “acted stupidly.” Later more was discovered that completely exonerated the officer. That was one where the President spoke precipitously without all the facts. The current situation is a much larger and more tragic incident.”

 

Pasco further reminded everyone “I’m not there, and neither is the president. That is why we have due process in the United States. And this will be sorted out over time. But right now, I haven’t seen anything from afar – and maybe the President has – that would lead me to believe the police are doing anything except trying to restore order.”

 

 

Time magazine carried an op Ed today that quoted recent statements made by Libertarian Rand Paul who is the front runner right now for the race for the Republican candidate for president as a Republican in 2016.

 

Related to the Ferguson shooting, Rand said “Anyone who thinks race does not skew the application of criminal justice in this country is just not paying close enough attention. If I had been told to get out of the street as a teenager, there would have been a distinct possibility that I might’ve smarted off. But, I wouldn’t have expected to be shot. Our prisons are full of black men who made mistakes in their youth and are still being held. The police should be demilitarized.”

 

                                            Senator Rand Paul

 

Scroll down and see the group of pictures from Ferguson I’ve assembled and you’ll see why Rand Paul said this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

Missouri Governor Nixon and Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson have together imposed a nighttime curfew in Ferguson until further notice. Captain Johnson is a very heroic leader. His love for the people and deep understanding of their feelings of hopelessness shines through everything he says. I’ll bring you up-to-date on this story and everything overseas in my next newscast which I am working on even now.

                                                                                                           **********

                                                                                                                            

While the cat’s away the mice will play. With both the President and Congress away from any hope of making tighter border controls because they are on vacation, all borders between Mexico and America are continuing a steady parade of illegal immigrants coming through except for the border of Texas. Governor Rick Perry’s appointment of National Guard troops to guard its border, is beginning to make a real difference. The cost of putting the Guards on the border is twelve million dollars a month.

 

 

                                                                            THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

 

Maybe America would not be in such a mess today if the Indians had adopted stricter immigration laws.

 

**********

 

I invite you to leave a comment in the comment box that follows the text and pictures of this newscast. One of my very favorite things is to hear from people just like you.

If you like the way I do the newscasts, would you please let me know by clicking LIKE on your computer? I’d LIKE that.

And you can know whenever I do new newscast as soon as I get it on reachmorenow.com by clicking SUBSCRIBE on your computer. As one of the few things left that are free in this world.

So until the next time, this is Ray Mossholder praying for you, my friend. May you have a miraculous day!

 

SPECIAL REPORT FROM RAY: ISIS IS IN AMERICA NOW READY TO STRIKE