Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
Monday, Jan. 04 '16, Tevet 23, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. ARMED AND DANGEROUS: NEW PIC OF TEL AVIV TERRORIST DISTRIBUTED
2. VICTIM'S FATHER REJECTS 'REVENGE': 'ARE WE BARBARIC ANIMALS?'
3. MANHUNT FOR TEL AVIV SHOOTER ENTERS FOURTH DAY
4. STABBING ATTACK THWARTED AT TAPUACH JUNCTION
5. ISRAEL ASKED PA FOR HELP IN TRACKING DOWN TEL AVIV GUNMAN
6. CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM SEEKS TO 'REBRAND' AS NUMBERS PLUMMET
7. 45 JEWISH MOHAMMEDS IN ISRAEL?
8. IDF DEMOLISHES HOMES OF THREE JERUSALEM TERRORISTS
1. ARMED AND DANGEROUS: NEW PIC OF TEL AVIV TERRORIST DISTRIBUTED
by Gil Ronen
The police and ISA released on Monday a 2013 photo of Tel Aviv terrorist Nashat Melhem, after public criticism over the failure to do so earlier.
It is still not clear why the authorities took so long to distribute a relatively clear and up-to-date photo of the murderer, who is at large, armed and dangerous.
According to Ha'aretz, the Israel Security Agency (ISA or Shabak) initially thought it would be better to look for the terrorist without publishing his name and photo at all. Police Commissioner Roni Alshech, who was Deputy Head of the ISA until recently, initially agreed with the ISA but then changed his mind.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Monday that there is no reason to think that Melhem was still in Tel Aviv, three days after Friday's attack in the city, rather than in another part of the country.
On that note, he stressed that he could not give further details regarding the investigation of the incident. "I can understand the concern, but Tel Aviv now has unprecedented security and the public should continue in their daily routine."
Meanwhile, police forces, along with Shin Bet agents, are continuing their extensive searches in Tel Aviv in an attempt to track down the terrorist, who killed Shimon Ruimi and Alon Bakal this past Friday in Tel Aviv.
Nashat Melhem is suspected of also killing the taxi driver Amin Shaban shortly after his attack in the heart of Tel Aviv, though this speculation has not been confirmed.
The other relatively recent photo of Melhem that has been made public shows him with glasses similar to those he wore during the attack. However, the photo is less clear. He appears to be wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.
Nashat Melhem Handout photo
In July 2007, Melhem was convicted of attempting to steal a soldier's gun at Karkur Junction to the east of Hadera. His father, a volunteer in the police (and, some suspect, a collaborator with the ISA), who has a permit to carry a weapon, asked that he be released and in exchange offered to supervise him. Apparently the authorities saw nothing wrong with the proposal, and let Melhem go.
The director of the addiction treatment center, who refused to take in Melhem in 2007 following a professional diagnosis, wrote at the time: "After a conversation with him we got the impression that he needs continued treatment and psychiatric surveillance due to strange behavior," wrote the director. "He spoke about having a superpower and the ability to prophesy things. The entire world is negative and only he can fix it. He also was easily annoyed."
2. VICTIM'S FATHER REJECTS 'REVENGE': 'ARE WE BARBARIC ANIMALS?'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The prime suspect in the Duma case told investigators that he wanted to avenge the murder of Malachi Rosenfeld, but Malachi's father, Eliezer Rosenfeld, rejects the act as well as the perpetrator.
"What are we, barbaric animals?" wondered Rosenfeld in an interview with Kol Chai radio.
Denouncing such actions as a "miserable form of revenge," Rosenfeld insisted that the truly Jewish response to atrocities was to avoid sinking to the level of those responsible.
"Every time we get thrown into some sort of ordeal we manage to rise above it all. Now we are thrown in again. To learn that the Duma attack was revenge may seem as if it was done as a compliment, but it is actually a miserable payback. We are very angry about it."
Rosenfeld emphasized that while such revenge attacks may be common in the Arab world, "this is not our way."
"If a kid hits you in class, are you going to hit his brother? What are we, barbaric animals? The Arabs may be barbaric and bloodthirsty but that is how they are raised, we have no command to shed innocent blood. Our revenge is only by a court, or by the vengeance of God."
"This is not our way, and additionally this is desecration to God. I do not want to think what will happen to our cruel enemies," said Rosenfeld.
Eliezer Rosenfeld's words echoed a statement by his wife Sara, who in an earlier interview with Channel 10 branded reports that the Duma murders were committed in revenge for her son's murder "a slap in the face."
3. MANHUNT FOR TEL AVIV SHOOTER ENTERS FOURTH DAY
by Ben Ariel
The manhunt for Nashat Melhem, the Arab citizen who murdered two Israelis Friday afternoon in a shooting attack at a pub on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv, will continue on Monday, four days after the attack on one of Tel Aviv's busiest streets.
Alon Bakal (26) and Shimon Ruimi (29) were murdered in the attack and several others were wounded, and an hour later the body of taxi driver Amin Shaban was found shot dead in the north of the city. Police are still trying to figure out whether Melhem murdered the taxi driver as well, or whether his murder was a robbery that went awry.
The latest development, as reported by Yedioth Ahronoth, is that the cell phone of Melhem was found by a student in a side road in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Aviv.
According to the newspaper, the student came across the phone at about 2:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon, shortly after the attack. She took it home and told her father about the discovery. When they turned the phone on it began to ring frequently with calls from Arabic speakers.
One of the calls made came from one of Melhem's employers, who was trying to make contact with him. The father and daughter initially assumed that the phone belonged to an Arab laborer who would be coming back to work in the area on Sunday, but when they saw the name of the suspect on the news on Saturday evening they connected the phone to the attack and called the police, who came to collect the phone in hopes it might advance the investigation.
Residents of Tel Aviv revealed on Sunday that Melhem worked as a delivery boy at a vegetable store in Ramat Aviv in the north of the city for many years, meaning he is very familiar with the lay of the land.
Most of the details of the investigation remain under a gag order.
4. STABBING ATTACK THWARTED AT TAPUACH JUNCTION
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A Palestinian arrived on Monday afternoon at the Tapuach junction in Samaria, and roused the suspicion of the Border Police soldiers who were stationed at the location.
The soldiers told him to stop. In spite of their orders he continued to approach the position of some of the soldiers. They responded by performing the proper procedure for apprehending a suspect.
Once they succeeded in halting the Palestinian, the performed a bodily search, in which they found a knife on his person.
It is assumed that he intended to attack the security personnel present.
The Palestinian is an inhabitant of Jenin, and has been taken in for questioning.
5. ISRAEL ASKED PA FOR HELP IN TRACKING DOWN TEL AVIV GUNMAN
by Raphael Poch
Israel approached the Palestinian Authority (PA) and submitted a request that the PA help supply Israel with information regarding the hiding place of suspected terrorist Nashat Melhem.
Israeli security forces have begun to reason that Melhem has not only left the greater Tel Aviv area, but that he has left Israeli controlled territory and possibly entered the PA.
In the fourth day of the manhunt, Israeli security officials have widened the net. As time has passed, security forces are checking into all options regarding the whereabouts of Melhem.
The request was made shortly after ascertaining the identity of Melhem and highlighting him as the main suspect in the terror attack. Hebrew news site Walla! reported that Israel also transferred details to the PA regarding Melhem's identity to help in the search.
Since the original request was made, security forces have been in contact with PA forces to ascertain whether or not Melhem has taken up hiding in PA controlled territory, an option that has not been ruled out as of yet.
The Israeli request is not something that is out of the ordinary, as the two sides keep up an constant open channel regarding security measures, even during periods of intensified terror attacks.
Security forces and Israeli police have also asked the public for help and have begun to distribute updated pictures of the terrorist to the public, and have requested that if anyone has any information regarding his whereabouts that they should contact police.
6. CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM SEEKS TO 'REBRAND' AS NUMBERS PLUMMET
by Ari Soffer
The American Conservative Judaism Movement is embarking on a major PR campaign as it attempts to counter rapidly dwindling numbers in the United States.
Conservative Judaism has tended to market itself as something "in between" halakhic or Orthodox Judaism, and the Reform Movement. Despite its name, Conservative Judaism is decidedly liberal; it has "annulled" the Torah's ban on homosexual relationships and even conducts gay marriages, for example. Most Conservative leaders also reject the Divine nature of the Torah. On the other hand, unlike Reform Judaism, the Conservative Movement still does not sanction intermarriage.
However, in recent decades the Conservative Movement has come to be seen as "neither here nor there," and its numbers have plummeted by more than a third in just 25 years, due both to high assimilation rates (which are even higher among Reform Jews) and the loss of members to other denominations.
Today roughly one million American Jews identify with the Conservative Movement.
According to the New York Post, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism is now seeking to rebrand, hiring a large team of PR experts in an effort to turn the tide.
As part of those efforts, the New York-based Good Omen PR agency is developing a much-elusive "position statement" to better define where Conservative Judaism sits on core issues. It is reportedly interviewing hundreds of Conservative Jews to survey them on their views of the Conservative Movement and how they would define it.
According Steven M. Cohen, a professor of Jewish social policy at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, the Conservative Movement can be defined as "a culturally demanding version of Judaism."
But while its rebranding campaign might have some positive impact, he told the NYP he didn't think it would save the movement.
"The real cause of [community] shrinkage is intermarriage and the decline of ethnic attachment among American Jews," he said.
According to statistics, while the Reform and Conservative movements are the two largest Jewish denominations respectively, both are shrinking rapidly, while the only Jewish denomination experiencing growth in the US is Orthodox Judaism.
7. 45 JEWISH MOHAMMEDS IN ISRAEL?
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Last week, the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) published the list of most popular names given to children born in Israel in 2014.
The Yad L'Achim organization examined the data and discovered to its surprise that no less than 45 Jewish children were given the name of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. The organization also found that 11 Jewish children were named Ahmed while 6 Jewish children were given the Muslim name Abed.
The organization explains that the findings are the results of Jewish women being lured into relationships with Arab men, many of whom end up trapped in abusive relationships.
"Unfortunately this is a widespread phenomenon and these figures are just the tip of the iceberg. There are quite a few Jewish women who were captivated by tempting Muslims offers."
"We know today that a lot of them regretted their relationship, which imposed on their loss of their Jewish identity, which included the conversion to Islam. It is important to note that many of these women have also reported violence in such relationships. The fact is that Jewish mothers are registering their babies with Muslim names, and dozens of Jewish women are converting to Islam," the organization added.
Yad L'Achim regarded the troubling data as a "a wake-up call" for those women who converted to Islam.
"We call upon the public to join Yad L'Achim's struggle against assimilation and the preservation of the identity of the Jewish people."
8. IDF DEMOLISHES HOMES OF THREE JERUSALEM TERRORISTS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2011163]
Security forces destroyed the homes of three terrorists who committed two deadly attacks on the same day in Jerusalem in October.
IDF forces and Border Police entered the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabal Mukaber Monday morning, and demolished the homes of Baha Alian and Bilal Abu Ganam, who carried out a shooting and stabbing attack on a bus in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood which killed three people.
Forces also demolished the home of terrorist Alaa Abu Jamal. Jamal, an employee of Bezeq, ran over civilians standing at a bus stop in the capital city's Malchei Yisrael Street just minutes after the Armon Hanatziv attack. He then got out of the car and proceeded to stab others nearby.
Rabbi Yeshiyahu Krishevsky was killed, and a total of eight people were wounded in the attack.
Israeli police reported that the demolition process took place without any incident or interruption from neighboring residents.
After the operation was concluded, Jerusalem District Police Commander Major General Moshe Edri said, "The Jerusalem District Police, Border Guard officers and reinforcements, carried out today's mission in a responsible and professional manner and allowed the IDF to complete the demolition process without any interruption. We will continue to work towards the safety and security of the citizens. "
[youtube:2011162]
The green light to demolish the terrorist's house was approved by the High Court two weeks ago. The judges rejected a petition against the movie, which had been filed by the Jamal and Alian families. Alian,
Justices Yitzhak Amit and Tzvi Zilbertal ruled that the demolition of the houses must be carried out according to the demolition orders issued by the IDF's Central Command and Home Front Command.
The judges noted that in this context one must follow earlier court rulings which permitted demolitions of terrorists' homes and which, according to the judges, is still valid even today.
(Photo: Police Spokesman)
------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
