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Israel News for October 27, 2016

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Child Terrorists
Two eight year old Palestinian boys carrying knives were arrested by IDF soldiers at the entrance to Migdal Oz, in Gush Etzion. The boys told investigators that they had been dropped off at the settlement by a man who gave them the knives and instructed them to commit a stabbing attack. Since they’re under 12, which is the minimum age for criminal responsibility, the boys were returned to their families.

For further reading click here.

Kotel Controversy
Israel’s Supreme Court has given the government a November 17 deadline to explain why it has not implemented its agreement to create a new non-Orthodox prayer space at the southern end of the Kotel.

The deadline was set in response to a petition submitted by the Reform and Conservative movements, the Women of the Wall and several other Israeli organizations. The petition demanded that the government either build a new egalitarian space at the southern part of the Kotel as promised in the compromise agreement or create separate egalitarian spaces at the existing Kotel prayer area.

Over the High Holiday period, government leaders reportedly received 20,000 emails from around the world urging them to follow through with their agreement to create the new Kotel prayer space. The emails were part of an organized campaign by the non-Orthodox movements to pressure the Israeli government into action.

The leaders of the world Reform and Conservative movements will be in Jerusalem next week attending the annual Board of Governors meeting of the Jewish Agency. The keynote speaker at the opening session will be Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who will undoubtedly be asked to explain the government’s position on the Kotel matter. The Reform and Conservative leaders will also participate in a morning prayer service at the Kotel, organized by Women of the Wall.

The Supreme Court will also be hearing an appeal by the Liba Center, a pro-Orthodox non-profit group, against the Kotel compromise agreement.

For further reading click here.

Jerusalem Construction
The Jerusalem municipality and the government will be launching a massive eight year construction project around the area of the Binyanei Hauma. The project will include building 230,000 square meters in industrial space, 130,000 square meters of hotels, and 49,000 square meters in commercial, entertainment, and leisure space. There will be 24 new buildings, including 14 skyscrapers with at least 24 stories each and nine buildings with 36 stories.

There will also be major new transportation projects including a massive five story underground parking lot with 1,300 spaces, and two new light rail stations. The Central Bus Station and the Central Railway Station will also be renovated.

The projects are estimated to create over 40,000 jobs.

For further reading click here.

Tefillin in Moscow
Israel’s Minister of Science, Technology and Space Ofir Akunis (Likud), who is leading the Israeli delegation to an international technology conference that began in Moscow yesterday, paid a visit to Moscow’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar. A photo of the visit was spread via WhatsApp. A friend of the minister’s who saw the photo immediately responded to Akunis saying, “Warm regards to Rav Lazar with love from Israel. There’s no way you’re getting out of there without the rabbi putting teffilin on you…”

What do you think happened next?

To watch a video click here.

Israel News for September 9, 2016

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No Preconditions
Last week we reported that Russian President Putin had invited both PA President Abbas and PM Netanyahu to meet for direct talks in Moscow. Abbas had seemingly accepted the offer, marking a departure from his ongoing policy of rejecting any direct talks with Israel. This was viewed as a potential breakthrough, but now it looks like it might have been a bit premature. Sources say that Abbas has placed preconditions on the talks, and that’s unacceptable to Israel. Now the Palestinians are claiming that Israel has rejected the offer to meet in Moscow.

At a press conference in the Netherlands, PM Netanyahu addressed the issue saying, “I am ready to meet with Abbas at any time without preconditions for direct talks. It’s something I’ve said a hundred times and I’m repeating it here. I’m not picky about the place, it can be in the Netherlands or in Moscow, no problem. It can certainly be Moscow. I’ve said that to President Putin and I’ve said it to the Russian envoy Bogdanov.”

“The main question is if Abbas is ready to meet without preconditions. We hear conflicting versions. Just yesterday, a Palestinian spokesman made it clear that they are willing to meet, but they have conditions such as the release of prisoners and they want to know in advance what the results of the talks will be. If Abbas wants to meet without preconditions for direct talks, I am ready anytime. I’ve been calling on him to do it for seven years, so if he agrees, there could be a meeting.”

For further reading click here.

Body Found
Rescuers have found the fifth body in the rubble of the building parking garage that collapsed this week in Tel Aviv. Meanwhile, the Labor and Welfare Committee of the Knesset held an emergency session on Thursday with the CEO of the construction company that built the structure.

Kulanu MK Elie Elalouf, the committee chairman, said, “The committee sadly foresaw this. We held seven hearings on the situation. We saw that there is serious negligence in the construction sector. No one held a discussion on the required preparations for the massive amount of construction going on in the country, which is only expected to grow. We’ve also seen the lack of preparedness on the part of government ministries.”

For further reading click here.

Chief Rabbi Speaks
Israel’s Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef participated last night in a night of Torah study held near the gravesite of Rabbi Abraham Yitzhak Hakohen Kook, on the anniversary of Rabbi Kook’s passing. R. Kook was the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi in Israel during the British Mandate, and is considered to be the father of “Religious Zionist” ideology.

At the event R. Yosef praised R. Kook as one of the great rabbis of his generation and spoke about several contemporary issues in Jewish law, invoking the opinion of R. Kook as support for his positions. He spoke about the need for gender separation in religious youth groups and said, “Rabbi Kook demanded separation between males and females in youth groups and at school.” He also used R. Kook to reinforce his stringent positions relating to conversions saying, “I had an argument with one of the head politicians who was trying to get me to be lenient in conversions. Rabbi Kook fought against this.”

Finally, R. Yosef reiterated his opposition to Jews ascending the Temple Mount saying, “How often did Rabbi Kook say not to ascend the Temple Mount; the rabbis as a whole, too, strongly opposed this practice. In a judgment on the matter by the Rabbinical Committee it was decided that most Rabbinical Authorities of the generation oppose Jews ascending the Temple Mount. There are some who allow it, but majority rules. It is a serious prohibition. He who ascends the Temple Mount…needs to repent.”

For further reading click here.

Kotel Collections
During the last three years, citations have been issued by police to eleven people caught asking for charity at the Kotel. The Chief Rabbi of the Kotel, Rabbi Rabinowitz, who is seen as the main enforcer of the policy, has come under fire from Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who is considered to be the most senior rabbinic authority in the Haredi community. R. Kanievsky has remarked that stopping Jews from asking for charity at the Kotel goes against Jewish tradition.

R. Rabinowitz claims that the beggars disrupt people’s prayers and create a “Chillul Hashem” (desecration of God’s Name) by their often aggressive attempts at collecting. He also claims that he previously consulted with R. Kanievsky as well as with Rabbi Elyashiv, the previous senior rabbinic leader, who both agreed that beggars should not be allowed to interrupt prayers or to solicit (and bother) non-Jews at the Kotel.

For further reading click here.

Newman Returns
It’s been almost 20 years since the hit comedy Seinfeld aired its final episode, but apparently Israelis have not forgotten it. That’s probably why Ikea in Israel decided to create a commercial featuring Newman, the unlikeable mailman from the series. In the commercial Newman plays a mailman (what else?) who hates his thankless job except for on one day a year — the day he gets to deliver the Ikea catalogue. The commercial is in English, accept for one word in Hebrew. You’ll have to watch it to find out what the word is.

To watch the short commercial click here.

Israel News for June 8, 2016

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IAF Strikes
Syrian military sources quoted on a Syrian opposition sponsored news site claim that Israeli planes attacked a military position 13 kilometers north of Homs, which is about 100 miles north of Damascus just north of Lebanon.

The sources report that the IAF attack, which occurred two days ago, was directed against Hezbollah weapons caches. The caches were destroyed, while the Syrian government anti aircraft battery in the same location was left unscathed.

Sounds about right.

For further reading click here.

PM in Moscow
Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Russian President Putin in Moscow yesterday, marking 25 years since the renewal of diplomatic relations between the two countries back in 1991. That was also the year that the massive aliyah of over 1 million Jews from the former Soviet Union began.

After the meeting, Putin spoke about the deepening relationship between Russia and Israel and the potential for economic development between the two countries. He also recalled that the Soviet Union was the first country to vote in favor of Israel’s establishment during the momentous vote in the UN in 1947.

The PM echoed Putin’s remarks and expressed Israel’s gratitude for the role that the Red Army played in defeating the Nazis in WWII.

Putin also gave Netanyahu a personal tour of the Kremlin along with a lengthy history lesson, something the PM most likely appreciated given his own propensity at giving history lessons to other leaders (remember the one he gave Obama).

As a sign of the deepening relations between the two countries, an agreement is expected to be signed which will enable citizens who moved from former Soviet Bloc countries to Israel in 1992 to be eligible for Russian pensions. Those Jews were forced to give up their Soviet citizenship in order to leave, which made them ineligible to receive their pensions. The agreement will correct that injustice.

The agreement will also in effect fulfill Avigdor Liberman’s demand of the government to increase the pensions of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, without costing Finance Ministry a shekel. Nice.

For further reading click here.

Electricity to Gaza
Minister of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Yuval Steinitz recently approved a plan to supply more electricity to Gaza to enable the Gazans to operate their new sewage treatment facility. The plant will lower the level of pollution in the sea, which will benefit the Israeli desalination plant in Ashkelon. The Ashkelon desalination plant’s operations have been disrupted several times in the past few months due to heavy water pollution.

Sounds like a win-win situation, as long as Gaza pays its electric bills, which they haven’t been so good at doing in the past.

For current reading click here.

Church Repair
For the first time in over 200 years repairs have begun to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem. The project is focused on reinforcing and preserving the ancient chamber which, according to Christian tradition, houses Jesus’ tomb.

The landmark church is shared and managed by the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, which have big trouble agreeing on just about anything. Agreeing to the current renovation was no simple matter. Could it be a sign? Probably not.

For further reading click here.

Auschwitz Items
The Auschwitz Museum has announced the recent discovery of 50 boxes containing around 16,000 personal items that belonged to Jews in the camp. The items include flatware, brushes, pipes, lighters, kitchenware, penknives, buttons, jewelry, watches, keys, stamps, medical kits, shoes and documents. They will be transferred to the museum to be analyzed and eventually displayed.

For further reading click here.

Holocaust Hero Honored
The city of Netanya named a street in honor of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese consul in Lithuania who issued visas to Jews enabling them to escape Lithuania and travel across the Soviet Union to Japan.

Sugihara’s actions, which were made without the permission of the Japanese government, allowed 6,000 Jews, including the entire Mir Yeshiva, to escape the Nazis. Sugihara began issuing the visas in late July 1940, writing them day and night until he closed the consulate about a month later. Even as he left he was writing visas and handing them out the window as his train pulled away, bowing and apologizing to those who still remained on the platform.

Sugihara was forced to resign by Japan’s Foreign Ministry for his actions, which were contrary to official government policy. He died in obscurity in 1986. But his memory and heroism will forever hold an honored place in Jewish history, and in the streets of Netanya.

To watch a video clip of the ceremony, click here.

Israel News for October 20, 2015

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Breaking News
A masked Palestinian stabbed an Israeli officer in the face during a violent demonstration near the Jewish settlement of Negohot near Hebron. The officer, a captain in the tank corps, suffered light wounds. The terrorist, 24 year old Mohammed Masalma from the nearby village of Kfar Ava, was shot and killed.

For further reading click here.

In another incident, Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli car near the Palestinian refugee camp of Al-Fawar south of Hebron. The 50 yr. old driver got out of his vehicle and was hit by a car and killed. It’s still unclear who hit him and whether it was intentional.

For further reading click here.

Israeli forces arrested 35 Palestinian terror suspects in the West Bank last night, including a top Hamas official, Hassan Yousef.

For further reading click here.

A Tragic Case
The tragic death of an Eritrean man who was mistakenly identified as a terrorist and shot by a security guard and beaten by a mob of bystanders is raising condemnation and calls for action by Israeli government officials. The Prime Minister condemned the vigilante violence and sent his condolences to Zerhom’s family.

The victim, Habtom Zerhom, a 20 something Eritrean migrant ran into the bus station to seek cover from the terrorist attack when he was shot by the security guard, who yelled, “terrorist!” Security cameras captured footage of Zerhom laying on the ground in a pool of his own blood while Israeli bystanders kicked him in the head and rammed him with a wooden bench. A police officer and some bystanders tried to protect him from the mob, even though they too believed that he was a terrorist.

Members of the mob who were interviewed said that had they known that Zerhom was not a terrorist they would also have protected him, but they trusted the call of the security officer. One man said, “If I would have known he wasn’t a terrorist, believe me, I would have protected him like I protect myself. I didn’t sleep well at night. I feel disgusted.” Police are reviewing the security video to identify the members of the mob, and have begun calling in witnesses and suspects for questioning.

Upshot
Some are blaming Jerusalem Mayor Barkat and other officials who have urged civilians to carry weapons and help the security forces. More likely, Zerhom’s death was the result of a tragic case of mistaken identity combined with people furious from constantly living in fear of unexpected terror attacks.

Citizens should obviously be allowed, and encouraged, to defend themselves, but lynching anyone, even a terrorist, doesn’t seem very kosher. As the PM said, “People at the scene of these incidents should evacuate the area and allow security and rescue services to work.We are a law-abiding country. No one should take the law into their own hands.”

For further reading click here.

Bedouin Security Guards
The fact that the Beersheva terrorist was an Israeli Bedouin is impacting other Bedouin, in a bad way. It seems that a large number of Bedouin work as security guards throughout the city, including at the central bus station where the attack occurred. At least one private security company has dismissed Bedouin guards who work in schools. Other security companies are feeling uneasy and might also decide to dismiss workers. For the guards that are still on duty, the suspicious looks thrown their way are not making for a pleasant work environment.

For further reading click here.

ISIS Rallies Palestinians
ISIS is trying to get involved in the wave of terror in Israel. The group released a series of videos urging Palestinians to carry out attacks against the “Jews” using every means at their disposal, including knives, vehicles, poison and explosives.

In a video titled “Return Terror to the Jews,” a masked fighter praised Arabs who are attacking Israelis, describing them as “lone wolves who refuse to be subdued and who spread fear among the sons of Zion.”

ISIS has also published several articles by prominent writers in the group to incite more anti Jewish terror. It looks like they’ve launched a full blown content marketing campaign that, combined with all the social media incitement, is turning this terror wave into a digital marketing driven horror show. Blocking their Facebook and Twitter access and jamming their internet connections might be more effective than concrete barriers and assault rifles. It’s certainly worth a try.

For further reading click here.

Are You Kidding?
Unfortunately, this is no joke. If you had any doubts about the UN being anti Israel, this should pretty much make up your mind. UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural body, is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a proposal to declare the Western Wall (Kotel) a Muslim holy site. Yup. Six Muslim Arab countries submitted the UNESCO proposal on behalf of the Palestinians, referring to Jerusalem as, “the occupied capital of Palestine.”

Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, condemned the proposal, saying, “This shameful and deceitful Palestinian attempt to rewrite history will fail the test of reality.” But when did “reality” ever play a role at the UN? If Saudi Arabia can chair the UN Human Rights committee, is anything real?

For further reading click here.

Scandinavian Airlines
Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has announced that they will be canceling their four weekly flights between Tel Aviv and Copenhagen due to “political instability”. They’re also canceling their flights to Moscow and Ankara. The airline did state that it would resume flights to Israel in the winter of 2016. Who wants to go to Scandinavia in the winter anyway?

For further reading click here.

Humus Peace
Is Humus the secret weapon in the search for Arab-Israeli peace? A restaurant in Kfar Vitkin, near Netanya, is testing it out by offering a 50% discount on Hummus served to mixed tables of Arabs and Jews. Management says that several tables have already taken advantage of the offer. Perhaps this test just shows how far both Arabs and Jews are willing to go to get a discount? Maybe we’re not that different after all.

For further reading click here.

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