France to recognize Palestinian state if international peace conference fails

An archive photo from August 24, 2013, shows Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, and France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius shaking hands following their meeting in Ramallah REUTERS PHOTO

REUTERS

JERUSALEM. The proposal on Friday by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius for an international peace conference was the latest sign of Western frustration over the absence of movement toward a two-state solution since the collapse of U.S.-brokered negotiations in 2014.

Fabius said that if the French plan did not break the deadlock, Paris would recognise a Palestinian state.

Such a step would raise concern in Israel that other European countries, also long opposed to its settlement-building in occupied territory, would follow suit.

In public remarks to his cabinet, Netanyahu did not explicitly reject the notion of an international conference - an aide said Israel would examine such a request once it was received - but he made clear that reported details of the plan made it a non-starter.

Netanyahu said a "threat" to recognize a Palestinian state if France's peace efforts did not succeed constituted "an incentive to the Palestinians to come along and not compromise".

"I assess that there will be a sobering up regarding this matter," Netanyahu added. "In any event, we will make effort so that there is a sobering up here, and our position is very clear: We are prepared to enter direct negotiation without preconditions and without dictated terms."

On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the French proposal, telling an African summit in Ethiopia that "the status quo cannot continue".

But Washington responded with caution to the French move, saying it continued to prefer that Israel and the Palestinians reach an agreement on final-status issues through direct talks.

While aware the initiative may struggle to get off the ground, French officials said Paris had a responsibility to act now in the face of ongoing Israeli settlement activity and the prospect of continued diplomatic inaction as the United States focuses on a presidential election in November.

And, the officials said, Netanyahu had gone a step too far in accusing U.N. Secretary of State Ban Ki-moon of giving a "tailwind to terrorism" by laying some of the blame for four months of stabbings and car rammings by Palestinians at Israel's door. Ban angered Israel by saying last week that it is "human nature to react to occupation".

The United States, European Union - Israel's closest allies - have also issued unusually stern criticism of Israel in recent weeks, reflecting their own frustration with the policies of Netanyahu's right-wing government.

The criticism, particularly about the settlements, where some 550,000 Jews live in around 250 communities scattered across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, has raised Palestinian hopes that world powers might finally be minded to support a U.N. resolution condemning Israel's policy outright.

Netanyahu's chutzpa knows no bound

Here we go again, Prime Minister Netanyahu blasts UN Secretary General Ban for comments he made on the recent violence. In translation, Netanyahu didn't like to hear the bitter truth. What is all the fuss about? Here is what Ban said:

Ban called for equal justice for both Israelis and Palestinians alike who commit such crimes.

"Palestinian frustration is growing under the weight of a half century of occupation and the paralysis of the peace process. Some have taken me to task for pointing out this indisputable truth. Yet, as oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism," he said.

The UN chief said that "Progress towards peace requires a freeze of Israel’s settlement enterprise."

"Continued settlement activities are an affront to the Palestinian people and to the international community. They rightly raise fundamental questions about Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution," he said.

He also addressed the situation in the Gaza Strip, condemning Hamas rocket fire, and warning that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remains perilous.  "I continue to strongly believe that conditions in Gaza pose a severe threat to long-term peace and security in the region"

I don't see anything here other than the truth, the whole truth and nothing else but the truth. In response to Ban' statement, Netanyahu continues to repeat the canard that Palestinian violence is because "they want to murder Jews for being Jews".  Not because there is a suffocating illegal occupation that seems to be in perpetuity or because their lands and rights are being denied to them but because "they want to murder Jews for being Jews". 

A tiresome rhetorical exercise devoid of substance of which we all know he is quite good at.  

Netanyahu goes on to say:

The secretary-general's remarks provide a tailwind for terror. There is no justification for terror. Those Palestinians who murder do not want to build a state, they want to destroy a state and they say this openly,"

To me this statement is the height of chutzpah. Somehow the remarks of the Secretary General is providing the "tailwind for terror" not the actions of Israel? It is difficult to comprehend the level of hubris and denial in the head of that man. He sees ZERO culpability for Israel. This has been his routine for years - to blame everyone under the sun on the deteriorating situation and completely ignore where most of the responsibility truly lies - in his hands.  

He continues with his insolent tone, this time directed at the UN institution:

"The United Nations long ago lost its neutrality and its moral force, and the secretary's remarks do no improve its standing."

The standing of Israel has hardly improved under his leadership. In fact, poll after poll continue to show Israel is becoming less favorable and more isolated.

Let me also add, the Palestinians are not free from any blame. Their grievances are legitimate and they do have the moral high ground in this regard - and international law is on their side. Violence will only serve Israeli interest. They need to stop the violence. They need to resist peacefully, no doubt, they need to unite, no doubt, and they need to seek support from wherever they can find it. Most of all, they need to have a plan that all parties can and must unite under. This is difficult to impossible to do with the Palestinian factions so divided.

It is a tough dilemma to be in but the Palestinians need to find a way to unite.

Otherwise, Israel will continue to play out this tragedy for another century. They are clever and their job is made so much easier with idiots like Fatah and Hamas.

The next slogan coming out of Israel will be, " there are already two states".

Recent violence in the occupied territories and Israel

The violence continues unabated in Israel and the occupied territories.  On one side you have settlers terrorizing the Palestinians and the IDF doing it's usual measure of shootings - in the name of security( of course), and on the Palestinian side they have gone mad with their stabbing spree attacking Jews - in the name of resistance( of course) - and one wonders where will this end? The death toll to date is 161 Palestinians dead versus 22 Israeli's.

Let me express how sickened I am by reading about this latest wave of violence. How can it be a 13 yr old girl actually set out to stab an Israeli guard? Is that to be believed - was the knife planted next to her - but nevertheless, it is very shocking and highlights the madness that is the occupied territories. Here is what the headlines say regarding this incident:

They go on to report that:

Jerusalem: 

A 13-year-old Palestinian girl tried to stab an Israeli guard at a West Bank settlement Saturday and was shot dead, the latest bloodshed in a months-long wave of attacks, police said.

Since I can't verify the authenticity of the second photo, was it photo-shopped or not, not going to comment on what happened but clearly one has to question whether or not there weren't other means to subdue her.

If this was not bad enough, days later anther bizarre headline appeared:

Palestinian twin sisters accused of making bombs for attacks

One 18-year-old learned how to make explosives from online videos, second helped hide them in their house, Shin Bet says

Israeli security forces arrested 18-year-old bomb-making twin sisters from Shwaika, outside the Palestinian city of Tulkarem in the West Bank last month, the Shin Bet security service announced Monday

Just when you think it's couldn't get any more crazier, another stabbing incident occurs the next day:

I have only scratched the surface. There are many more incidents where Palestinians stab or attempt to stab Israeli's and where the IDF is shooting Palestinians.  Some of course are justifiable shootings but many are not - and there are many cases of settlers terrorizing the natives. No way to sugarcoat this unfolding tragedy and madness. The Palestinians while under international law do have the right to resist the occupation such suicidal acts by women and children going up against armed Israeli's in no way shape or form can be justified. It is madness. It is counterproductive. It is futile and suicidal. It is dumb and stupid. Most of all, it will not advance the Palestinian cause or bring the two people closer to peace or ending the occupation. If Palestinian leadership is so inept not to offer their people a solution other than send their women and children out on desperate suicide missions then it is time to get new leadership.  There has to be a better way. I intentionally refuse to get into the moral question behind Palestinian attacks - and God knows it troubles me to no end to see any civilians killed - but the moral card is best left to those in a position to make moral judgements. I see two people tied in a knot that neither can escape from on their own. Although, I see Israel with the power to shape reality and facts on grounds - for better or worse - and sadly since it's being ruled by right wingers it's being shaped to the detriment of both Israeli's and Palestinians. I see the Palestinians hopelessly dysfunctional, traumatized and damaged ( the same can be said of Israeli's) as a people with failed leadership. They are the gang that can't shoot straight even with 20/20 vision. They always miss the forest from the trees. Israel is not giving them a way out. What follows is madness. You are watching madness before your very eyes. Israeli's unfortunately will not see such acts as anything more than "they want to kills the Jews". Some Israeli's will scream out we told you the so called " peace and quiet" is an illusion. People like Gideon Levy or Amira Haas or those who for years saw the suffering on the other side knew this day was coming. Yet, Israeli's will do what they always do,  shut their eyes, time to be scared and flex more muscles - and of course time to "mow the lawn".  

Home demolitions and settlement expansion is a recipe for co-existance? I think not.

The sad reality is that demolition of Palestinian homes is a ongoing process. It never stops. The colonial march towards eradicating the non-Jewish natives and replacing them with Jews is a 24/7 death march. As we read and are able to observe the growth of Israeli settlement expansion, another side of the same coin, is the daily demolition of Palestinian homes. This is the horror of what natives face against the onslaught of colonial expansion. The indigenous people are in the way of the colonizers grandiose scheme of racial/religious supremacy and purity. You can't have a "Jewish state" unless you remove the non-Jews from the land. To complicate matters, despite all of Zionist efforts for the past 70 years, the non-Jewish population remains the majority if you count from the Jordan sea to the Mediterranean. This artificial creation of a Jewish state is doomed to be involved in a perpetual struggle forever. A secular one state might be the answer but getting Israeli's and Palestinians to agree on this might prove impossible.
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Israel demolished three Palestinian-owned homes in the Jerusalem area early Thursday morning, forcibly rendering 20 people homeless. Dozens of Israeli soldiers raided Jabal al Baba, situated east of the Jerusalem-area village of Al Ezarriya, and declared the area a closed military zone. Three families, those of Hajja Hamda Abu Kateba, Ali Abu Kateba and Ghassan al Jahaleen, were forced out of their homes, which were then demolished under the pretext of construction without Israeli-issued permits. The Jahaleen local committee responded that 55 additional families, comprising some 300 people, are also under threat of home demolition in the area.

My life is over

Just yesterday Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah slammed the displacement of Palestinian Bedouin communities. In a statement the prime minister said he "deplore(s) the illegal transfer" of the Palestinian Bedouin community, highlighting the issue in the Jerusalem area specifically. "Israel's systematic violation of international laws is no longer acceptable by the international community," Hamdallah was quoted as saying. On Tuesday, the Coordinator for Humanitarian and United Nations Development Activities for the occupied Palestinian territories, Robert Piper, and UNRWA’s West Bank operations director Felipe Sanchez called for “an immediate end” to Israeli plans to displace Bedouin communities in the Jerusalem area. “Under international law, Israel is responsible for meeting the needs of Palestinians living under its occupation and for facilitating humanitarian assistance, not for obstructing aid and pressuring residents to leave so that Israeli settlements can expand,” Piper said in a statement.

Painful to watch

In other news, one Palestinian was critically wounded in the Nablus-area village of Tal in the northern West Bank Thursday morning. Israeli troops conducted an arrest raid in the village when clashes broke out with local residents, two of whom were shot with live bullets. As noted, one remains in critical condition.

Israeli forces further raided the Bethlehem-area refugee camp of Deheishe Thursday morning, arrested two local residents. The camp itself was declared a closed military zone, as was the rode leading from Deheishe to Bethlehem

Human Rights Watch issued this statement back in August 2015:

(Jerusalem) – The Israeli military unlawfully demolished at least 39 structures in Bedouin Palestinian communities in the West Bank on August 17 and 18, 2015. The demolitions left 126 people homeless, 80 of them children. Four of the communities where the demolitions took place are targeted by an Israeli government plan to forcibly “relocate” 7,000 Bedouin.

Such destruction of private Palestinian property and the forcible transfer of Palestinians violate Israel’s human rights obligations and the laws of occupation. The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from destroying private property or forcibly transferring the protected population unless strictly necessary for military reasons. Israel does not claim the demolitions or planned relocations are justified for military reasons.

“This escalation of these unlawful Israeli demolitions comes at a time when the situation in Palestine is under the International Criminal Court’s scrutiny,” said Balkees Jarrah, senior international justice counsel. “The ICC prosecutor should look carefully at these demolitions as part of her preliminary examination into serious crimes committed in or from Palestine.”

The August 17 demolition of the homes in the four Bedouin communities, which are located in or around an area called E-1, left 78 people homeless. This is the largest number of Palestinians displaced in a single day in more than three years, according to United Nations officials. E-1 lies between Jerusalem and the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim, which like all Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international humanitarian law. The four communities are among 46 Bedouin communities across Area C, the area of the West Bank under full Israeli control, that Israel plans to relocate to three other sites in the West Bank. On August 18, the Israeli military demolished homes in the Jordan Valley village of Fusa’il, leaving another 48 people homeless, according to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz.

Israel justifies these demolitions on the grounds that the structures lack Israeli-issued building permits. However, the Civil Administration, the unit in the Israeli military responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank, routinely rejects virtually all Palestinian requests for such permits, usually on the basis that these areas have not been zoned for construction. Israel has zoned less than 1 percent of Area C for Palestinian construction. In contrast, Israel has approved master plans for Jewish settlements covering 26 percent of Area C. According to information the Civil Administration provided to the World Bank, between 2000 and 2012 Israel rejected more than 94 percent of Palestinian construction permit requests.

Human Rights Watch has documented how the cumulative impact of Israeli restrictions on Palestinian construction and related demolitions, along with other restrictive policies, have resulted in the forcible transfer of Palestinians. Palestinians who are unable to build homes are compelled to move to areas of the West Bank under Palestinian Authority control or to emigrate from Palestine altogether. The August 17 and 18 demolitions in the very communities Israel has earmarked for “relocation” suggests a close relationship between Israel’s zoning, construction, and demolition policies and the forcible transfer of Palestinians, Human Rights Watch said.

Israel carried out the most recent demolitions despite concerted international pressure to keep it from carrying out demolition orders against the entire village of Susiya, in the southern West Bank. So far those demolitions have not occurred.

The ICC statute classifies as a war crime an occupying power’s transfer of its own civilians “directly or indirectly” into territory it occupies. The deportation or transfer of people in the occupied territory from their homes to other locations within or outside this territory is also a war crime under the ICC statute. Since the beginning of 2011, Israeli demolitions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have left more than 4,652 Palestinians homeless, including 1,103 in 2013 and 1,215 in 2014.

V for victory? This is ground zero everyday for too many Palestinians.

"Hello"

"Where are you"?

" I'm in my house"

Now where is my bedroom?

130 Palestinians arrested for posting on Facebook and "Social Media acitvities" in 2015

No one said maintaining an illegal occupation was easy. You have to make sure the imprisoned and oppressed natives don't get too riled up. There are no easy answers. The occupation creates a culture of resistance - it's natural for people to be want to be free and for some to fight for it - and therefore for Israel to claim what is happening is a case of "incitement" misses the mark completely.   Social media is another tool but the problem is not Facebook or Twitter - it's the occupation stupid!!

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PPS: "Israel Kidnapped 130 Palestinians For Social Media Activities in 2015"

Wednesday January 20, 2016 12:47author by IMEMC News Report

The Palestinian Detainees Committee has reported, Wednesday, that the Israeli Authorities have kidnapped 130 Palestinians, in 2015, for social media activities, deemed by Israel to be “incitement.”

  

The Committee said 27 of the detained Palestinians faced “incitement and supporting terrorist groups” charges in Israeli courts, and many others were imprisoned under Administrative Detention orders, without trial. Most of the arrests were focused in occupied Jerusalem, especially due to the escalating Israeli violations, demolition of homes and ongoing attacks against worshipers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, including the repeated invasions and provocative tours into the holy site.“Such arrests and violations are carried out while Israel continues to ignore racist Israeli social media posts, photos and statements by extremists who openly call for killing the Arabs, for executing them and for removing them out of their homeland.”

The Israeli army and police also targeted Palestinians who expressed solidarity with families of Palestinians, killed by soldiers and settlers, the detainees and the wounded, in addition to those who voicing opposition to Israel’s home demolition policies. The Committee further stated that Israel did not only arrest social media activists, but also forced many of them out of their city, Jerusalem, for different periods, in addition to imposing high fines, and issuing many house arrest orders

Palestinians seek UN Security Council resolution declaring West Bank settlements illegal

This is not the first time we heard rumblings coming from Abbas
regarding going to the UN or going to the ICC or going to speak to God personally to seek assistance in stopping Israel's illegal expansion, but he always backs down or it proves futile going against America. He is weak and feckless. Having said that, I can see him trying to get something out of Obama in his last year. This should be interesting. I highly doubt Obama will do anything at the UN that in any way puts Israel in legal jeopardy over settlements or any other illegal activities they are involved with in the occupied territories. What is interesting,  recently we heard his Ambassador to Israel, Mr. Shapiro, make critical comments of how the settlers go unpunished when they are involved in violence or hooliganism against the Palestinians.
Maybe that was a warning shot across the bows. Stay tuned.
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As Palestinian leadership works to muster international support, Netanyahu set to discuss  matter with Kerry and Biden in Davos amid fears regarding U.S. veto.

By Barak Ravid and Jack Khoury | Jan. 21, 2016 | 8:24 AM |  8

The Palestinian Authority is trying to advance a resolution in the UN Security Council that will condemn the settlements in the West Bank and declare them illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace. Senior Palestinian and Israeli officials say that the PA has been in contact with France, Spain and Egypt, all members of the Security Council, to get them to draw up such a resolution and support it. Several weeks ago Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki visited Paris, where he met with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and discussed submitting such a resolution. Fabius himself has been weighing such a move for several months, and raised it for the first time at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Middle East Quartet (United States, Russia, UN and EU) that took place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at the end of September. Ten days ago Maliki visited Cairo and discussed the move with Egyptian Foreign Minister Samech Shoukry. Egypt recently became a member of the Security Council, replacing Jordan as a representative of the Arab world. While in Cairo, Maliki also met with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and updated him on his discussions with Fabius in Paris. Maliki asked Jubeir to pressure France to advance the resolution in the Security Council.

At the same time, PLO Executive Committee secretary Saeb Erakat met with Arab League Secretary- General Nabil Elaraby to begin discussing a draft resolution that would get Arab support. This week Maliki was in Madrid to discuss the resolution with his Spanish counterpart. Israel fears that Fabius will want to advance a Palestinian-related resolution as one of the last things he does before leaving his post in a few weeks. Senior Israeli diplomats who recently visited Paris said that the message they got from senior French Foreign Ministry officials was that no decision has been made on submitting a Security Council resolution – neither on the settlements nor on principles for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On the other hand, the French inserted a clause into the resolution on distinguishing Israel from the settlements adopted by the EU foreign ministers earlier this week, calling for the weighing of actions in the UN Security Council in an effort to formulate a multilateral approach to the peace process. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum, will be meeting on the sidelines of that conference Thursday with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and will have a separate meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Palestinian efforts to advance resolutions 

in the Security Council are expected to be discussed.

The big question mark is what the U.S. position will be. The White House hasn’t yet decided whether to resume involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian issue during the last year of President Barack Obama’s term. Meetings at the White House and the State Department have come up with various proposals but 

Obama has yet to hold any discussions on the matter.

Senior Israeli officials noted that Jerusalem fears that during his last year in office Obama may not veto a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian issue in the Security Council, particularly given the increasing U.S. 

criticism of Israeli settlement policy. Palestinians, on the other hand, believe America will scuttle any resolution on settlements, either by pressuring member countries to vote against it, or by vetoing it.

In February 2011 the United States vetoed a similar resolution on the settlements, even though the wording of the resolution was almost totally congruent with the administration position on the issue. 

Since then the United States has blocked at least three efforts to pass Security Council resolutions on the Palestinian issue. In 2012, it was a Palestinian-Arab initiative to vote on accepting Palestine as a full member of the UN; in 2014 it was a French initiative to advance a resolution that would present principles for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the third time, also in 2014, 

it was a Jordanian-Palestinian effort to advance a similar resolution, which came to a vote but was defeated without the United States having to veto it.

ISIS destroys Iraq's oldest Christian Monastery

Iraq’s Oldest Christian Monastery Reduced to Field of Rubble

St. Elijah’s monastery stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years

ENLARGE

In this Nov. 7, 2008 photo, U.S. Army soldiers tour St. Elijah's Monastery on Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Associated Press

Jan. 20, 2016 5:50 a.m. ET

ERBIL, Iraq—Satellite photos obtained by the Associated Press confirm what church leaders and Middle East preservationists had feared: the oldest Christian monastery in Iraq has been reduced to a field of rubble, yet another victim of Islamic State group’s relentless destruction of heritage sites it considers heretical.

St. Elijah’s Monastery stood as a place of worship for 1,400 years, including most recently for U.S. troops. In earlier millennia, generations of monks tucked candles in the niches, prayed in the chapel, worshiped at the altar. The Greek letters chi and rho, representing the first two letters of Christ’s name, were carved near the entrance.

This month, at the request of the AP, satellite imagery firmDigitalGlobe tasked a high resolution camera to grab photos of the site, and then pulled earlier images of the same spot.

Before it was razed, a partially restored, 27,000-square-foot stone and mortar building stood fortresslike on a hill above Mosul. Although the roof was largely missing, it had 26 distinctive rooms including a sanctuary and chapel. One month later photos show “that the stone walls have been literally pulverized,” said imagery analystStephen Wood, chief executive of Allsource Analysis, who pinpointed the destruction between August and September 2014.

“Bulldozers, heavy equipment, sledgehammers, possibly explosives turned those stone walls into this field of gray-white dust. They destroyed it completely,” he said from his Colorado offices.

ENLARGE

U.S. Army soldiers tour St. Elijah's Monastery in this Nov. 7, 2008, photo. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

On the other side of the world, in his office in exile, in Erbil, Iraq, Catholic priest Rev. Paul Thabit Habib, 39, stared in disbelief at the before- and after- images.

“Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically leveled,” he said in Arabic. “We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land.”

‘Our Christian history in Mosul is being barbarically leveled. We see it as an attempt to expel us from Iraq, eliminating and finishing our existence in this land.’

—Rev. Paul Thabit Habib

The Islamic State group, which now controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, has killed thousands of civilians in the past two years. Along the way, its fighters have destroyed whatever they consider contrary to their interpretation of Islam.

St. Elijah’s joins a growing list of more than 100 religious and historic sites looted and destroyed, including mosques, temples, tombs, shrines and churches. Ancient monuments in the cities of Nineveh, Palmyra and Hatra are in ruins. Museums and libraries have been pillaged, books burned, artwork crushed—or trafficked.

U.S. troops and advisers had worked to protect and honor the monastery, a hopeful endeavor in a violent place and time.

“I would imagine that many people are feeling like, ’What were the last 10 years for if these guys can go in and destroy everything?’” said U.S. Army reserve Col. Mary Prophit, who was deployed there in 2004 and again in 2009.

ENLARGE

This photo taken in the 1920s shows a ceremony at the Mar Matai monastery in Mosul, Iraq, where a Christian community thrived for centuries. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Built in 590, tragedy struck at St. Elijah’s in 1743, when as many as 150 monks who refused to convert to Islam were massacred by a Persian general. In 2003 St. Elijah’s shuddered again—this time a wall was smashed by a tank turret blown off in battle. Iraqi troops had already moved in, dumping garbage in the cistern. The U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division took control, painting over ancient murals and scrawling their division’s “Screaming Eagle,” on the walls. Then a U.S. military chaplain, recognizing its significance, began a preservation initiative.

Roman Catholic Army chaplain Jeffrey Whorton, who celebrated Mass on the monastery’s altar, was grief-stricken at its loss.

“Why we treat each other like this is beyond me,” he said. “Elijah the prophet must be weeping.”

Copyright 2016 the Associated Press.