Israel News for 2-11-19
Act of Terror
After a thorough investigation, the Shin Bet (Israel’s version of the FBI) has determined that the brutal murder of 19 year old Ori Ansbecher in Jerusalem last Thursday was in fact an act of terrorism.
The terrorist, Arafat Irfayia, 29, left his home in Hebron carrying a knife, say the young woman in the forest and murdered her. He is believed to be affiliated with the Hamas terror group and was previously imprisoned for possession of a knife and illegally residing in Israel. During his interrogation in 2017 he said, “I want to be a Shaheed (martyr).” When the interrogator asked him how he intended to become a Shaheed, he replied, “I will do it again, I will buy a knife again and I will come back here to go to jail or be a Shaheed. I will do anything in order to go to jail. And if you release me, I’ll come here with a knife and I’ll be a Shaheed.”
A gag order has been placed over other details from the investigation.
The Border Police’s counterterrorism Yamam unit hunted down the terrorist, based on security camera footage, and captured him in a building next to a mosque in Ramallah.
PM Netanyahu personally relayed the Shin Bet’s conclusion to the Ansbacher family during a condolence call he made with his wife, Sara, at their home in Tekoa, south of Bethlehem, on Sunday evening. The victim as in the midst of her year of national service.
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Terror Payments
PM Netanyahu has promised to implement a law, passed in July 2018, to deduct payments to terrorists from tax money Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
The PM said, “By the end of the week, the staff work necessary for implementing the law on deducting terrorists’ salaries will be completed. Next Sunday. I will convene the Security Cabinet, and we will approve the necessary decision to deduct the funds. Let nobody doubt it, the funds will be deducted starting next week.”
Under the new law, which was sponsored by MKs Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) and Avi Dichter (Likud), money that would otherwise go to pay stipends to roughly 35,000 families of Palestinian terrorists and their families will be automatically frozen in accordance with the Paris Protocol—without the need for a special approval from the Cabinet.
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Gaza Violence
Hamas resumed violent clashes against the IDF along the Gaza border after months of quiet. Last night dozens of Gazan’s launched firecrackers and fireworks at IDF forces east of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. The Israeli forces used crowd dispersal measures to keep the rioters away from the border fence.
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Iranian Scientist
According to British newspaper The Sunday Express, a 47 year old Iranian nuclear scientist was reportedly smuggled out of Iran to the UK in a joint operation of the British Intelligence Agency MI6, the CIA and the Mossad. The Mossad reportedly smuggled the scientist from Iran to Turkey, where he was transferred to MI6. The scientist reportedly helped orchestrate the assassination of another Iranian nuclear scientist who was killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran in 2012.
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UK Flights
British airline Virgin Atlantic will begin daily Tel Aviv – London flights in September. In June 2018, Israeli Shai Weiss was appointed CEO of Virgin Atlantic.
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Holocaust Collaborators
According to a report published by Dr. Efraim Zuroff, chief Nazi-hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, 1,408 Finns volunteered with the Waffen SS Division Wiking, and participated in massacres against “Jews, Civilians and Prisoners of War in Ukraine and the Caucasus Region” between 1941 and 1943 while serving on the Eastern Front.
Zuroff praised Finland for its “willingness to investigate and expose a dark chapter in its history, which had previously never been revealed, is an example of unique and exemplary civic courage… and for their determination to expose the historical truth even if it was painful and uncomfortable.”
He said, “Throughout Eastern Europe, we are witnessing systematic attempts to rewrite the narrative of World War II and distort the history of the Holocaust to hide the crimes of local Nazi collaborators in a shameful manner. In the Nordic countries, the role played by local SS volunteers has never fully been examined. Finland’s course of action regarding the role of local Waffen-SS volunteers is an example of the opposite, one which we hope will be emulated elsewhere.”
According to the report, between July and August 1941, at least 10,000 civilians, over 6,000 of which were Jews, were believed to have been killed by these units. The massacres took place in dozens of locales, including Hrymailiv, Ozerna, Skalat, Tarnopol, Zboriv, Zolochiv and Krivichi.
The report was primarily based on the diaries of 76 Finnish SS volunteers.
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