Israel News for November 27, 2015
More Terror
At around 7:30am today, a Palestinian rammed his car into the bus stop where soldiers were standing near Maaleh Adumin. He then exited his car a ran at the soldiers with a knife but was shot and killed. Two soldiers were lightly injured.
At around 12:30pm today, a Palestinian rammed his car into soldiers at the entrance to the Beit Ummar refugee camp near Kiryat Arba, wounding four moderately and one lightly. The attacker was shot and wounded.
For further reading click here.
Terror Denier
The sixteen year old Palestinian terrorist who was shot last week after brandishing scissors in Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem is filing a complaint against the police officer who shot her. She and her fourteen year old friend stabbed a seventy year old Palestinian (thinking he was a Jew). Her friend was shot dead at the scene.
The girl told investigators that her friend asked her to go with her to Jaffa street. She claimed she had no intention of hurting anyone when suddenly her friend pulled out scissors and scratched someone. “Then people started screaming “terrorist” at me. I got scared they would attack me so I pulled out scissors in self defense and suddenly they shot me”.
After the attack the police said that the officer acted according to procedure. But once the complaint is filed they will review the facts to make sure.
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Israel in UAE
Israel will be opening an official diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The mission won’t be an embassy or consulate. It will be accredited to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), which is based in Abu Dhabi. It will be the first time an Israeli foreign ministry official is permanently stationed in the Gulf state. But it still doesn’t mean that Israel has diplomatic relations with the UAE.
For further reading click here.
Israel Replaces Turkey
As tensions heat up between Russia and Turkey over the shooting down of a Russian bomber by Turkish fighters, it looks like Israel might actually gain from the crisis.
Yesterday, Russia announced that it would tighten its supervision of food imports from Turkey, claiming that they were repeatedly violating food safety standards. Russian Minister of Agriculture Alexander Tkachyov said that at least 15% of Turkish agricultural produce imported by Russia did not meet Russian standards in both nitrate levels and the use of various pesticides banned in Russia. Turkish vegetables currently account for 20% of the total Russian imports of vegetables.
Tkachyov said that he would consider substituting Turkish imports with produce from Israel, Morocco, Iran and Uzbekistan.
This could mean a lot more business for Israeli farmers.
For further reading click here.
Missile Defense
Israel successfully tested its new Barak 8 surface-to-air missile defense system yesterday. The Barak 8 system can be deployed at sea or on land and was designed to destroy threats from the air such as drones, fighter jets, missiles, and rockets, including in the event of multiple simultaneous launches.
Israel believes that Hezbollah now possesses sophisticated Russian made missiles, which makes Barak 8 all the more vital to Israel’s security.
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Ashkenazic Money
You probably can’t name most of the people whose pictures are on Israeli money (at least without looking). But there’s one thing you can be sure of: they’re all of Ashkenazic descent.
New banknotes that were approved a couple of years ago and will be released soon will commemorate famous Israeli poets, but only Ashkenazic ones. Aryeh Deri, the head of the Shas (Sephardic Haredi) party and the Minister for the Development of the Periphery, the Negev and the Galilee, has requested a special government debate about the new banknotes not including any Sephardic poets.
Deri said, “People of Mizrahi (Sephardi) descent make up half of the Israeli population and it’s not appropriate or reasonable that they should wait dozens of years for the next round of new banknotes.” He added that, “For 67 years the Mizrahi public has not been represented in state symbols in proportion with its relative population size, nor in prize committees or curricula.”
He’s got a point.
For further reading click here.
Wedding of Strength
Just two weeks after her father and brother were murdered in a terror attack, Sarah Tehiya Litman married Ariel Beigel in Jerusalem last night. Thousands of people participated in the celebrations, which were filled with joyous singing and dancing. The two Chief Rabbis of Israel and the head of the Merkaz Harav yeshiva took part in the wedding ceremony.
Sarah Netanyahu came to congratulate the couple and show her support. She said, “I embrace you on behalf of myself, the Prime Minister and entire Nation of Israel, you and your younger brothers and wish for you to build a beautiful home in the Nation of Israel.”
Sarah Tehiya said, “There isn’t a moment that I don’t miss Netanel’s smile, or father’s humility and modesty, and that will always accompany me. But precisely from the pain in the month of courage before Hanukkah we will, together with all the nation of Israel, spread a great light of joy, giving and love that the nation of Israel has inundated upon us.”
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