Israel News for 10-18-17
Breaking News
A terrorist with knife attacked soldiers near Gush Etzion junction. The terrorist was shot and injured by the soldiers and was arrested and taken to hospital. No soldiers were injured.
Security Raids
Last night, IDF and Shin Bet forces raided eight media and production companies providing services to Palestinian television channels affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The IDF shut down several companies, impounded equipment and arrested two suspects. The actual TV channels are located in Lebanon and Gaza, so they continue to operate.
In other operations, security forces arrested 18 Palestinian terror suspects.
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No Negotiations
The Security Cabinet has voted to halt all negotiations with the Palestinians until Hamas disarms and meets several other preconditions.
The Prime Ministers Office issued a statement explaining the decision saying:
“Pursuant to previous decisions, the Israeli government will not politically negotiate with a Palestinian government in which Hamas, a terrorist organization calling for the annihilation of Israel, takes part, so long as the following conditions are not met:
1. Hamas must recognize Israel and cease terrorism as per the Quartet’s terms.
2. Hamas must disarm.
3. Bodies of IDF soldiers and living Israeli civilians must be returned from Gaza.
4. The Palestinian Authority must exert full security control over Gaza, including in border crossings and smuggling prevention, and must continue foiling Hamas’s terror plots in the West Bank.
5. Hamas must disengage from Iran
6. and, finally, only finances and humanitarian equipment from the Palestinian Authority will be allowed to enter Gaza.”
The cabinet decision comes after the Palestinian Authority and Hamas signed a reconciliation agreement to form a unity government that will take control over Gaza on December first.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who was a driving factor behind the decision, stressed that security cooperation between Israel and the PA will continue.
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Iran in Syria
In the aftermath of the destruction of a Syrian anti-aircraft missile battery by Israeli fighter jets this week, Iranian military chief of staff General Mohammad Baqeri visited Damascus to meet with the Syrian Defense Minister.
Baqeri said, “We are in Damascus to assert and coordinate and cooperate to confront our common enemies, the Zionists and terrorists,. We drew up the broad lines for this cooperation.” He added, “It is not acceptable for the Zionist regime to violate Syria anytime it wants.”
PM Netanyahu had reacted to the Israeli attack saying, “Whoever strikes at us, we strike at them. Today they tried to harm our planes—unacceptable.The air force acted precisely and swiftly, destroying what needed to be destroyed. We will continue to act in the space as much as necessary to defend Israel’s security.”
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Jewish Work
The Jerusalem Magistrates Court found the Jewish only employment site Avoda Ivrit (Hebrew Work) guilty of discriminatory practices and fined it NIS 40,000 plus legal fees. The lawsuit was filed by the Israel Religious Action Center and the Mossawa Center Arab Citizen Rights in Israel and was later joined by Welfare and Social Services Ministry’s Equal Employment Opportunities Department.
Judge Einat Abram Muller stated, “The service provided in the ‘Avoda Ivrit Job Board’ constitutes religion-or-nationality-based discrimination.” She added, ”Service given in the public sphere to Jews alone while being withheld from non-Jews constitutes discrimination.”
The lawsuit requested that the website also be removed from the internet, but the court explained that doing so is not within its jurisdiction.
The term Avoda Ivrit was used by Zionist leaders during the early 1900’s when Israel (then Palestine) was still under Ottoman and British control, in order to encourage Jewish farms and businesses to employ Jews instead of Arabs, in order to help build a Jewish workforce in Israel.
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Israel in UN
Despite heavy opposition from Palestinian diplomats and several Arab states, an Israeli representative has been elected by the UN General Assembly to sit on the UN’s “Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space” (COPUOS). Israel will join Mexico, Brazil, Poland, South Africa and Indonesia in leading the 84 member organization.
COPUOS is charged by the UN charter with “governing the exploration and use of space for the benefit of all humanity, reviewing international cooperation in peaceful uses of outer space, encouraging space research, and studying legal problems arising from the exploration of outer space.”
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