Israel News for 7-18-17
Traffic Tragedies
Two separate traffic accidents in Israel yesterday claimed the lives of four people and injured several others. In one accident, 23 year old Capt. Binyamin Rosenblum, an IDF officer in charge of a desert reconnaissance unit, was killed when his vehicle was struck by a bus near Eshkol, in southern Israel. The bus driver and a passenger were lightly injured.
In the other tragic accident, a car carrying a family of six on vacation collided with a truck on Route 70 in the western Galilee near Avdon, not far from the Lebanese border. The father, Elon Mukhtar, 47, seven year old son Yoel Shalom and a 12 year old daughter were killed in the crash. The mother, Sarah, 47, is fighting for her life in the Galilee Medical Center’s intensive care unit. Two other children, Yonatan, 16, and Aviyah, 14, were less severely injured. The family’s other young daughter was not in the vehicle at the time of the accident. The Mukhtar family is from Kfar Adumim. The funerals will be held today.
According to the National Road Safety Authority, the death toll since the beginning of the year stands at 213, compared with 203 in the same period last year. Since the beginning of July, a total of 17 people have been killed on the roads.
Israel has done, and continues to do, an amazing job and invest a tremendous amount of resources in fighting terror. Now it needs to invest in the battle against road fatalities. That includes driver education, road safety and more police on the roads to make sure that drivers are being safe.
But the government can only do so much. It’s up to every driver to be responsible when driving. That means focusing on the road and not on talking or texting on a phone, smoking, drinking, reading (often all at the same time), arguing, sleeping or trying to prevent other drivers from passing you. It also means following the basic rules of the road like staying in your lane, not getting too close to the car in front of you, and being courteous to other drivers.
Most accidents are caused by negligence or unsafe driving. Too many lives have already been lost, and unfortunately there will be more injuries and fatalities if we don’t take this seriously and make the necessary changes.
Just a day or two ago Smadar Kafri, an Israeli woman who saw the car her husband and baby daughter were driving in smashed on its side at an intersection, wrote a Facebook post describing the importance of vehicular and car seat safety. The post has gone viral.
To read the post click here.
Internet Control
The Knesset has passed a new law that gives police the authority to restrict or block internet sites that encourage or perpetrate criminal offenses, such as prostitution, drug dealing, gambling and incitement. The new law will provide the police with the necessary tools to combat criminals and instigators who have transferred their activities online.
Speaking after the vote, Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan said, “Today we corrected a deficiency in enforcement that has been around for years, years in which the existing law was unable to deal with the trend of crime transitioning to the online space.”
For further reading click here.
No German Subs
Germany has postponed the signing of an agreement for the sale of three submarines to Israel, scheduled for next week, because of an Israel police investigation into possible corruption surrounding the $1.5 billion deal. Defense Ministry Director-General Udi Adam recently flew to Germany for a meeting with his German counterpart in order salvage the deal and to prevent its total nullification.
For further reading click here.
Fiery Words [Video]
There was a fire last week in the northern city of Tsfat. A scribe who lives next door to where the fire occurred and was in the midst of writing a Torah scroll when the fire broke out. When he returned to get the Torah scroll he was writing, he was shocked to see the words in the verse that he stopped at when the fire broke out. It says that (paraphrase) you shall hear the word of God emanating from the fire.
Coincidence?
To watch the video click here.
