Archive for month: April, 2018

Terrorists Killed
The IDF killed three terrorists yesterday who were attempting to infiltrate into Israel from Gaza. Two of the terrorists threw explosives at soldiers before being shot. Later on, the IDF apprehended two terrorists with knives and wire cutters who managed to cross into Israel from Gaza.

For further reading click here.

Syria Attacked
The Syrian army has reported that military bases near Hamas and Aleppo were attacked by missiles over the weekend. The Syrian opposition said 38 regime soldiers were killed and 57 were injured in the attack. It also said that one of the locations hit was an army base known as Brigade 47 near Hama city, widely known as a recruitment center for Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias who fight alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces. The Iranian news media denied that any Iranian fighters were killed.

Israel’s Defense Minister Lieberman stated yesterday, “We will keep our freedom of operation in all of Syria. We have no intention to attack Russia or to interfere in domestic Syrian issues. But if somebody thinks that it is possible to launch missiles or to attack Israel or even our aircraft, no doubt we will respond and we will respond very forcefully.”

PM Netanyahu convened the Security Cabinet for an unplanned meeting at the Kirya IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv today.

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Pompeo Visits
New US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Israel yesterday and told PM Netanyahu that President Trump “will withdraw from the Iranian nuclear agreement” if it cannot be fixed. “It’s pretty straightforward.” At a news conference Pompeo said that the US remains “deeply concerned about Iran’s dangerous escalation of threats towards Israel and the region.” He said, “Strong cooperation with strong allies like you is critical to countering Iran’s destabilizing and malign activities. The United states is with Israel in this fight and we strongly support Israel’s right to defend itself.” Netanyahu praised Trump and called Pompeo and true friend of Israel.

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Pollard Release
According to an Israeli TV report, President Trump is considering allowing Jonathan Pollard to leave the US and move to Israel. Pollard served nearly 30 years for spying for Israel, and since being paroled in 2015 has been prohibited from leaving US soil. Last October, PM Netanyahu reportedly asked Trump to allow Pollard to move to Israel.

Trump may also attend the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem next month. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is currently set to lead the 250-member delegation for the event, which will include 40 members of Congress and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump. Other media reports have suggested that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could lead the delegation, in lieu of a Trump arrival.

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School Raided
Police investigators raided the Bnei Zion pre-military academy yesterday and confiscated computers and documents as part of their investigation into the deaths of the 10 students who were tragically killed on a school trip by a flash flood. The academy’s principal Yuval Kahan, who is suspected of negligent homicide, was arrested on Friday.

A 25 year old instructor, herself a former student of the school, claimed during questioning that she warned authorities and asked for the trip to be canceled due to possible floods. She added she shared her concern with her father, deputy commander of the search and rescue unit that was rushed to scene after the disaster, and that he had also attempted to get the trip canceled—but his warnings went unheeded as well. The instructor was released on house arrest. Another instructor, Aviv Bardichev, 27, was also arrested.

The State Comptroller has indicated that he will open an investigation into the tragic incident.

Meanwhile, thousands attended the funerals of the 10 teens as well as memorial services and gatherings.

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No Expulsions
The state gave official word to the Supreme Court yesterday that it will refrain from issuing further expulsion orders to Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers, and that all orders already served will be rescinded. The decision came in response to two petitions calling on Israel to halt the dissemination of expulsion orders and the holding of hearings for the African migrants, seeing as no country has agreed to take them in as yet.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announced that following Uganda and Rwanda’s refusal to take in migrants under the terms Israel demanded, immediate preparations for the reopening of detention facilities will commence.

The Population and Immigration Authority released a statement saying, “The state will continue working on the issue of infiltrators, including encouraging their willing departure or unwilling deportation, in accordance with the possibilities the law affords.”

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Terror Kites
The Palestinians seem to have found a new method of terror to use against Israel: kites. Over the last couple of weeks kites carrying incendiary devices have been unleashed over Israeli farms from Gaza. When the kites land on a field they set the dry fields on fire.

One farmer who lives in a community near the Gaza border said, “We’re dealing with a new phenomenon, one which is destructive, dangerous and quickly gaining momentum. We see kites flying towards us on a nearly daily basis. We monitor them to see that they don’t land in fields just now—during the harvest—when everything’s dry and highly combustible. It may seem like a gimmick to a lot of people, but for us it’s a serious threat.”

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Terrorist Body Returned
The body of a Hamas scientist killed last week in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia will be repatriated to Gaza for burial. Egypt has agreed to allow the body to be returned through its border. Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman had appealed to Egypt to refuse the Palestinian request for the body’s return. Palestinians are blaming Israel for the assassination.

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No Phones
The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that that holding a mobile phone while driving, even if not using it, is illegal. The court ruling was in response to an appeal by someone convicted for driving while holding his phone. If you’ve driven in Israel you’ve probably noticed that many drivers are busy doing several tasks while driving, including drinking coffee, reading, arguing, sleeping, or trying to prevent other drivers from getting in front of them, which no doubt has something to do with the high number of road accidents and fatalities. Let’s hope Israeli drivers get the message and start focusing on their driving. It’ll save lives.

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Green City
According to a study by online travel specialist TravelBird, Tel Aviv is the 16th greenest city in the world. Overall, about 23% of Tel Aviv is comprised of green space. The city is also home to more than 260,000 trees covering some 20 square miles. That comes out to around 5,000 trees per square kilometer. And city officials continue to increase green space by refurbishing pedestrian walkways and planting shrubs and trees in empty lots. Not too bad for a city founded on sand dunes just over 100 years ago.The number one city on the list is Reykjavik, Iceland.

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EU Blocks Funding
The European Parliament in Brussels has passed legislation preventing the transfer of funds from the EU’s PEGASE (the funding mechanism for the Palestinians) to the Palestinian Authority, if those funds are to be used for education to hatred. The new legislation determines that classes and instruction programs using EU funds must reflect shared values such as peace, liberty, tolerance and non-discrimination in the education system.

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Terror Averted
On Wednesday, A Palestinian man driving a truck carrying “powerful” explosives was arrested trying to enter Israel through a northern West Bank checkpoint. Security guards found the explosives embedded in the truck’s air conditioning system during a routine check of its roof. The truck was carrying products marked as “intended for border communities” and agricultural goods for rural communities in central Israel. Police sappers diffused the bomb. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said the IDF would “hunt the bastards who planned this attack during our holiday. They will not sleep until we find them.”

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Prize Refused
The Genesis Prize Foundation, which awards what it calls the “Jewish Nobel,” announced it was canceling its prize ceremony in Israel in June after 2018 recipient Natalie Portman said she would not take part in light of “recent events.” Portman remarked that, “recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable participating in any public events in Israel” and that “she cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony.”

Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem, holds dual US and Israeli citizenship, and has said that she is proud of her Israeli roots and Jewish heritage. She directed and starred in a Hebrew-language adaptation of Israeli novelist Amos Oz’s memoir, “A Tale of Love and Darkness.”

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Israel Prize Winners
Sixteen men and women were honored yesterday with receiving the Israel Prize, the countries highest civilian honor. The list including seven professors, four former MKs and two former ministers.

To read about all of the winners, click here.

Startup Rankings
Israeli business publication Calcalist has published its annual ranking of Israel’s 50 most promising startups. To see the full list and read about the startups, click here.

Music Video
Check out this awesome Yom Ha’atzmaut video featuring Shlomo Shabat and around 20 audience members.
Click here to watch.

Tunnel Busting
The IDF neutralized a massive Hamas tunnel over the weekend by pouring cement into it. The tunnel crossed around 20 meters into Israeli territory in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman tweeted about the incident, saying, “We’ve opened the week with an impressive intelligence and operational achievement with the destruction of another tunnel, the longest and deepest exposed thus far. “Millions of dollars were invested in its excavation, money that would have been better served mitigating the plight of residents but has now sunk into the sand. Gaza residents, Hamas is frittering away your money on tunnels leading nowhere. We will get to them all.”  

The IDF has destroyed 8 terror tunnels in the last few months and expects to locate and destroy more in the future. An IDF spokesman said, “The army has been carrying out a methodical, operational, intelligence and technological mission to locate terror tunnels while construction on the barrier is ongoing to defend Israelis and the country’s sovereignty.”

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said that “Israel is the first in the world capable of locating and intercepting tunnels underground.”
  
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Heated Exchange
Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat wrote a letter to all foreign diplomats stationed in Ramallah, denouncing US negotiator Jason Greenblatt and urging the diplomats to press the International Criminal Court at The Hague to charge Israel over “ongoing Israeli crimes against Palestine”. He wrote, “During the past few weeks, Mr. Jason Greenblatt, President Trump’s envoy, has released several statements on the ongoing attacks on Palestinian civilians in Gaza whereby he has assumed the role of spokesperson of the Israeli Authorities.”

In response, Greenblatt tweeted, “Saeb Erakat’s personal attack on me is a symptom of the difficulties in the path to peace. Saeb knows there’s no truth to his accusation. This outburst, like all his recent outbursts, is merely intended as a distraction from the important work that lies ahead. But this empty, self-indulgent rhetoric won’t stop us from trying. Saeb: It’s time to time to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Or, you can continue to run in circles, and get pretty much nowhere!”

For further reading click here.

Saudi King
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman kicked off an Arab League summit yesterday by criticizing US President Donald Trump’s decision to transfer the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. He said, “We reiterate our rejection of the US decision on Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is an integral part of the Palestinian territories.”

The king also said, “Saudi Arabia announces $150 million grant to support the administration of Jerusalem’s Islamic property.” Let’s hope they put that money to good use.

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Dead Sea
The Prime Minister’s Office announced Sunday that it would be investing NIS 417 million shekels ($118.5 million) over the next four years to help Dead Sea area communities deal with the increasing problem of sinkholes and their negative impact on tourism.

The Dead Sea shoreline is receding by about one meter (three feet) per year thanks to natural evaporation, diversion of water from the Jordan River to the north for agricultural purposes, and the pumping out of water at the southern end by the Dead Sea Works for the extraction of salts and minerals. As the shoreline is increasingly exposed, freshwater rushes in and dissolves what used to be underwater layers of salt, causing the surface earth above these layers to collapse inwards.

Today, there are more than 6,000 sinkholes on the western side of the Dead Sea, with new ones showing up daily. The sinkholes have destroyed the public beaches in the northern part of the sea and are responsible for the loss of nearly 40 places of employment in the economically depressed area.

For further reading click here.

Northern Stimulus
Israel will allocate $27 million (NIS 95 million) to establish food-tech research and activity in Kiryat Shmona, the northernmost city near the Lebanese border. The planned food-tech hub will include the establishment of a new 161458.66-square-foot (15,000 square meters) micro industry hub, a national food tech research institute, and a startup accelerator. Part of the budget will be used to incentivize startups and companies to launch activity in the region.

The Israeli government approved the plan on Sunday, as part of an economic development plan that will see the establishment of seven dedicated tech hubs in areas of the country that are far from Tel Aviv.

For further reading click here.

Moscow Call
The Arabic-language Sputnik news website reported yesterday that the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Israel’s Ambassador to Moscow Gary Koren for a consultation in the wake of the attack against a Syrian air base that was allegedly carried out by Israel.

The Israeli Embassy in Moscow declined comment, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem said “We have ongoing conversations with the Russians all the time, and the ambassador will indeed meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov today.”

For further reading click here.

Iranian Casualties
According to a report by the private Tasnim news agency, 7 Iranian military personnel were killed in Sunday’s attack on a Syrian airbase that Syria and Iran accuse Israel of launching. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the allegations.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitor, said at least 14 people were killed in the raid, some with foreign nationalities.

The Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful military force, have been fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar Assad for several years. More than 1,000 Iranians have been killed in Syria’s civil war, including senior members of the Guards.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the Syrian army chemical attack saying, “The Syrian regime continues to perpetrate crimes against humanity in using these outlawed weapons. The latest attack joins a long series of similar attacks using chemical weapons perpetrated by the regime since Assad undertook to disarm from such weapons. The attack shows clearly that Syria continues to possess lethal chemical weapons capabilities and even to manufacture new ones. In so doing Syria is grossly violating its obligations and the decisions of the international community in this matter,”

For further reading click here.

Irish Mayor Rejected
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri announced Tuesday evening that he had instructed authorities to stop the mayor of Dublin, who was scheduled to land in Ben Gurion Airport during the night, from entering Israel. The mayor was scheduled to pass through Israel on his way to Ramallah to be hosted by the Palestinian Authority.

Deri justified his decision saying, “He [the mayor] acts in any way possible against Israel. He initiated condemnations against us and yesterday he led a resolution to expel our ambassador in Ireland. Now, he wants to enter PA territory in order to continue to incite and harm Israel. I instructed that he be prevented from entering so that he cannot harm the state. I will continued to use my authority against anyone who tries to harm the State of Israel, including senior public officials.”

Unfortunately, soon after the announcement by Deri the mayor tweeted that he was already in Ramallah. An Interior Ministry spokesman revealed that border control officials had failed to stop him, because the order had apparently spelled his name wrong.

A day before the mayor’s departure for Israel, the Dublin City Council adopted a resolution to expel the Israeli ambassador for the deaths of Palestinians during the March of Return violent demonstrations near the border with Gaza. The resolution has has no practical consequence, but is purely declarative. The Dublin City Council, with the mayor leading the way, has been an outspoken advocate for the Palestinians against Israel. Last year it flew the Palestinian flag over its building for a month.

For further reading click here.

Holocaust Day
Holocaust Memorial Day will begin tonight at 8pm at the Warsaw Ghetto Square in Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. The day’s events will be collectively titled, “Holocaust survivors shape memory and build a state”, interweaving with Israel’s upcoming 70th Independence Day. President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will speak at the ceremony and six Holocaust survivors will light torches to remember the 6 million Jews murdered.

To read about their individual stories of survival, click here.

Jewish Numbers
According to figures released by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, there are currently 14,511,000 Jews living in the world, compared to 16,600,000 on the eve of World War II. The current number is the same as the Jewish population number in 1922.

The data indicate that there are currently 6,446,000 Jews in Israel, 5,700,000 in the US, 456,000 in France, 390,000 in Canada, 290,000 in Britain, 181,000 in Argentina, 176,000 in Russia, 117,000 in Germany, and 113,000 in Australia.

For further reading click here.