Israel News for December 14, 2015
Terror Attack
A Palestinian woman tried to stab an Israeli in the Givat Avot neighborhood of Hebron yesterday. She was shot and critically wounded by soldiers. No Israeli casualties were reported.
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IDF Vet in ISIS
An Israeli security official confirmed a media report that an IDF veteran has joined ISIS in Syria. Wallah News identified the man as a Muslim from an Arab village in northern Israel who served in Givati, the elite infantry brigade that often operated in Gaza. Recent ISIS videos have featured Hebrew speaking Arab terrorists, presumably from Israel. Now they’ve scored one with some quality military experience. Let’s hope he doesn’t live long enough to use it.
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Gaza Strikes
The Israeli air force last night struck two targets affiliated with Hamas in Gaza in response to a rocket that was fired from Gaza into Israel earlier Sunday. Although the rocket exploded in an open field and did not cause any damage, it did force residents of the Israeli border communities to seek shelter and rattle their general sense of security. Israel’s message to Hamas was clear: you will be held responsible for everything that happens in your territory.
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Cop Investigated
A counter terrorism police officer who shot and killed a sixteen year old female terrorist and injured her fourteen year old cousin in Jerusalem’s Mehane Yehuda market on November 23 is being investigated by the department’s internal affairs division for using excessive force. The two assailants stabbed and injured a seventy year old man with scissors.
The investigation was initiated by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein based on allegations that the policeman continued shooting even after the terrorist no longer posed a danger. Footage of the incident shows the officer continuing to shoot at the terrorist while she is lying on the ground motionless.
The police officer’s defense attorney said that he followed standard protocol. He saw that the terrorists posed a clear and present danger and took action to neutralize them. He was also concerned that they might be wearing hidden explosives. The officer was released from questioning without any restrictions and was allowed to hold on to his firearms, an indicator that he will not be indicted.
Jewish Home MK Shuli Muallem and Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Leiberman vociferously opposed the investigation. Paraphrasing a Talmudic phrase, Leiberman said that “those who have mercy on a terrorist with scissors will in the end be cruel to the many Israelis who will be stabbed by those scissors…”
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Commish Lights
Israel’s newly appointed police commissioner Roni Alshich lit the menorah at the kotel on the eighth night of Hanukkah along with Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef and Chief Rabbi of the Kotel Shmuel Rosenbaum. Before the actual candle-lighting, Alshich presented a special Book of Psalms (Tehilim) to Naor Shalev, a 13 year old boy who was badly injured in a terror attack at Pisgat Ze’ev two months ago.
Alshich was also joined by representatives and officers of the Israel police force, whom he praised saying, “Even when we are in our own independent state we must continue to fight to protect our citizens. This is a good opportunity for me to light the menorah on behalf of the brave people doing this – the police who respond at all times to those who seek to make our people their targets of murder. Our defense forces fight the darkness, allowing our people to add light.”
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First Lady
First Lady Sarah Netanyahu lit the eighth night’s Hanukkah candles with Holocaust survivors at a home for senior citizens in Jerusalem. She was joined by her son Yair and Minister of Social Equality MK Gila Gamliel.
Sarah told the residents that she and her husband were committed to supporting Holocaust survivors, and that their welfare and happiness was of utmost importance to them. She also recounted how her father was the sole survivor of his family during the holocaust and how she grew up with that knowledge as a child. She said that it was our duty to never to forget and to not let something like that ever happen again.
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Fire Compensation
Five years after the worst fire in Israel’s history, which killed 44, displaced 17,000 and burned down millions of trees in the Carmel forest, the State has agreed to compensate municipalities and businesses that suffered losses in the fire. The total compensation sum is 58 million shekels. Recipients of the funds include the municipality of Ein Hod, businesses in Daliat El Carmel (a large Druze town) and Osafia, Hotel Ya’arot Hacarmel, Kibbutz Beit Oren and several insurance companies.
The massive and deadly fire caused the government to reorganize and greatly improve the country’s fire fighting resources.
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Snow Rail
If you count on the Jerusalem light rail to get around the city, you better hope for good weather. The operators of the light rail have announced that the rail will not be able to operate in more than 5 centimeters of snow. That is, unless the municipality makes sure that the snow is cleared off the rail lines. The chances of that happening are even worse than … hell freezing over? But the light rail folks promise to try their hardest to keep it operational and on schedule. What more can you ask?
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Jordan Confirms
Last week we told you about a story where Jordanian border guards snatched the kippot off the heads of a family of Israeli tourists and did not permit them to enter Jordan with them. Yesterday, a Jordanian diplomatic source admitted, in an interview with a Jordanian newspaper, that Jordanian security forces routinely prohibit Israelis with “Jewish symbols” from entering the country. He said that Jordan has had this policy for many years and that the Israeli Foreign Ministry is well aware of it. He added that Jordan has the right to enforce any policy it sees fit relating to entrance into its borders.
So if you want to express your Jewish identity in the open, save that trip to Jordan for better times. There are plenty of other places to visit, which frankly, are a heck of a lot nicer and more fun (fyi, we’ve been to Jordan).
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