Israel News for August 16, 2016
No Forgetting
The Shin Bet, Israel’s version of the FBI, has a long memory when it comes to terrorists, and will keep hunting them no matter how long it takes. Yesterday, they arrested a 21 year old terrorist over two and a half years after he a stabbed and wounded a policeman.
The Shin Bet said in a statement that it will “continue to operate with all its available resources to prevent terror attacks and to bring the perpetrators to justice, even when a long time has gone by since the attack was committed.”
You can run, but you can’t hide from the long arm of the Shin Bet.
For further reading click here.
Terrorist Demolition
Early yesterday morning Israel security forces destroyed the floor of the home where the terrorist who murdered 13 year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel lived. In accordance with government policy, the entire house was not destroyed. Dozens of Palestinian protesters tried to disrupt the demolition by attacking soldiers with rocks and firebombs. The soldiers responded with stun and gas grenades.
After the demolition, Hallel’s mother Rina Ariel said, “So long as the entire house is not demolished and the family expelled, there isn’t enough real deterrence and there is nothing to prevent the next terror attack. It’s very easy to rebuild a floor of the house. The real answer would be expelling the family and settling the house with Jews. If the hostile population knew every house of a terrorist will be given to Jews, it would cause great deterrence.”
For further reading click here.
Temple Mount
On Tisha B’av, seven Jews who visited the Temple Mount were detained by police for violating the visitation rules. That means they were probably caught praying, or at least moving their lips in what looked like prayer. Their act of extremism didn’t go over well in the Arab world.
King Abdullah of Jordan, considered to be the custodian of the Muslim and Christian sites in Jerusalem (although its not so clear whether the Christians would agree with his custodianship), was quick to lash out against Israel for allowing Jewish extremists to enter the mount and vowed to defend the mosque with all the means at his disposal.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry also condemned Israel for its reprehensible behavior. How dare Israel allow Jews to pray at Judaism’s holiest site?!
For further reading click here.
Israeli US Votes
While PM Netanyahu has pledged to remain neutral in the upcoming US presidential elections, the 300,000 US citizens living in Israel will be allowed to cast their absentee ballots for their favorite candidate. And both parties are not taking those votes for granted.
Yesterday, the Israeli branch of the U.S. Republican party began a campaign to get American voters living in Israel to cast absentee ballots in favor of Donald Trump. The Israel branch claims that about three quarters of the eligible voters in Israel will vote for Trump.
The Democrats don’t agree. The Israeli branch of the Democratic party will soon be launching its own campaign, claiming that at least half of eligible voters in Israel will vote for Clinton.
Game on.
For further reading click here.
Air Force
An advanced training exercise called Red Flag, during which fighter jets simulate combat involving coalition forces, will take place at the Nellis Air Force base in Nevada. Israel will take part in the exercise. So will Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates. Last year Israel participated in the joint exercise with Jordan.
For further reading click here.
Big News
On the night after Tisha B’av, the religious Israeli radio station Kol Achai decided to air its own version of the War of the Worlds, except that they did it about the coming of the Mashiach (Messiah). They ran an entire broadcast complete with fake news reports and real interviews with a slew of respected rabbis and other experts to simulate what might happen when the Mashiach finally does arrive.
It was pretty cool, at least initially, to hear news broadcasts reporting on miraculous events that would lead up to and usher in the Messianic era. But it was obviously all fake.
Wait. Have you been reading the headlines during the past 70 years? Here are a few examples you might want to take note of: State of Israel declared after nearly 2,000 years of exile just three years after the end of the Holocaust; fledging Jewish army defeats the armies of a dozen Arab nations; Israeli army reunites Jerusalem; millions of Jews from the four corners of the globe move to Israel; the Iron Curtain suddenly collapses and over one million Jews from the USSR move to Israel; tens of thousands of Ethiopian Jews airlifted to Israel; the majority of world Jewry now resides in Israel, the Jewish homeland.
Do I need to go on? Are the headlines not clear enough? How about the flourishing State of Israel?
No simulation is necessary. The Messianic area is clearly upon us — but it’s a process that is spread over many years, and we haven’t yet reached the final climax. But it’ll happen, hopefully sooner than later. I’d really like to be around to see it. Wouldn’t you?
Summer Lag
You might have noticed that August is a very slow time for Israel news. The Knesset is on vacation, as is most of the country. We’re trying our best to find stories that we think you’d like to read. But as they say, no news is good news, especially in Israel.
