Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Wednesday, Jan. 27 '16, Shevat 17, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. EICHMANN'S UNPUBLISHED REQUEST FOR PARDON
2. TEL AVIV SHOOTER PLANNED ANOTHER ATTACK
3. PA ARRESTS RELATIVES OF ARAB WHO SOLD HOUSES TO HEVRON JEWS
4. NEW YORK TIMES AGAIN VILIFIES ISRAEL WITHOUT FACTS
5. HOME OF SHLOMIT KRIGMAN'S MURDERERS READY TO BE RUBBLE
6. SMOTRICH BREAKS PROMISE ON HEVRON EVICTION
7. ISRAELI DOCTORS TREAT NEW DISEASE, SAVE PALESTINIAN BOY'S LIFE
8. WATCH: ISRAELI SUPERSTAR AND CONVERT RAP STAR WOW IN COLLAB
1. EICHMANN'S UNPUBLISHED REQUEST FOR PARDON
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Israel made public on Wednesday a decades-old handwritten plea from Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann for clemency for his role in the Holocaust, dated just two days before he was executed.
In the request, written after he was brought to Israel in 1960, then tried, convicted and sentenced to death, Eichmann claimed the Israeli court overstated his role in organizing the logistics of Adolf Hitler's genocidal "Final Solution" which involved the extermination of six million Jews.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin presented the previously unreleased letter, which was written to then president Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, at a ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"There is a need to draw a line between the leaders responsible and the people like me forced to serve as mere instruments in the hands of the leaders," the presidency quoted Eichmann's letter as saying.
"I was not a responsible leader, and as such do not feel myself guilty," the Nazi wrote. "I am not able to recognize the court's ruling as just, and I ask, Your Honor Mr President, to exercise your right to grant pardons, and order that the death penalty not be carried out."
The letter was signed and dated: "Adolf Eichmann Jerusalem, May 29, 1962."
He was hanged around midnight on May 31.
It was the only time Israel used its death penalty; a bill last July to apply the death penalty to terrorists was shot down by the Knesset 94-6, with only the Yisrael Beytenu party that proposed it voting in favor.
Eichmann, one of the main organizers of the Holocaust, escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp after World War II and fled to Argentina in 1950, where he lived under a pseudonym until he was snatched by Mossad agents in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and smuggled to Israel.
The ability of the security services to bring him to justice was a source of pride for the Jewish state, and Rivlin referred to the trial as a momentous moment in Israel's history.
"In the first years after the Holocaust, the people in Israel were busy rebuilding and founding an independent state," he said. "The renewed Israeli society was not in the mindset to or able to remember."
"The Eichmann trial broke the dam of silence. The ability of the young Jewish state to capture the Nazi murderer afforded a basic sense of security to the survivors of the Holocaust."
Remaining Nazis
Israel and its allies have continued to use their resources across the globe to pursue those responsible for carrying out the Holocaust, even though the majority of perpetrators are now close to death.
On Tuesday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center - named after a famous Nazi hunter - produced a list of 10 alleged Nazis who could be prosecuted in 2016.
Of the 10, four have trial dates already slated in Germany this year.
Efraim Zuroff, director of the center, said they would continue to chase every remaining perpetrator as "we owe it to the victims."
"The passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt of the killers. Old age should not afford protection to people that committed such heinous crimes," he told AFP.
"The trials send a powerful message about the significance of the Holocaust."
As the number of World War Two Nazis alive diminishes, Zuroff said they are also seeking to focus on historical accuracy - with strands of different societies in Europe keen to play down their role in the killings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement on Tuesday, warned that anti-Semitism was again growing in Europe.
"Even respected Western opinion leaders have become afflicted with hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state," Netanyahu said, without specifying names.
"The obsession with the Jews - the fixation on the Jewish state - defies any other rational explanation."
Other documents presented at Wednesday's commemoration, in the presence of Holocaust survivors, included requests for clemency from Eichmann's wife Vera and his five brothers, along with Ben-Zvi's letter to his justice minister rejecting the appeals.
Also in the collection, recently digitized by the presidential archives, are a transcript of Eichmann's defense counsel's Supreme Court appeal, the handwritten opinion of Justice Minister Dov Yosef, and a note by prosecutor Gideon Hausner for his opening address.
Israel marks its own Holocaust remembrance day, which this year will be held on May 4-5.
AFP contributed to this report.
2. TEL AVIV SHOOTER PLANNED ANOTHER ATTACK
by Ari Yashar
Ahead of the indictments to be submitted on Wednesday against three accomplices of Nashat Milhem, the Arab Israeli terrorist who gunned down three people in Tel Aviv on January 1, details of their investigation reveal Milhem planned more attacks.
Milhem, who was found and shot dead in a gun battle in his hometown of Arara in the north where he hid out for a week after the attack helped by other Arab citizens in the town, told his accomplices about the Tel Aviv shooting.
"I murdered two Jews and the taxi driver because he threatened me that he would inform the police," he said according to their revelations under investigation, reported by Yedioth Aharonoth Wednesday.
Shimon Ruimi and Alon Bakal were murdered in Milhem's attack on a pub on Tel Aviv's busy Dizengoff Street, and an hour later the body of Druze taxi driver Amin Shaban was found in the north of the city.
Milhem told one of the three accomplices that he planned another attack, although details of what the attack was to entail remain unclear. Police previously suspected a relative helped Milhem plan the Tel Aviv attack, although the indictment states he conducted the attack alone.
The three accomplices are Mohammed Milhem and Amin Milhem, relatives of the terrorist, as well as a third Arab Israeli who met Milhem at the grocery store in Arara where they worked together.
After the lethal attack, Milhem fled to Arara the same day. There he hid in the storeroom of one of the accomplices, before transferring the next day to another house where he eventually was trapped by security forces and eliminated.
Allegedly he threatened the accomplice with the storeroom that he would harm his wife and entire family if he told anyone they had met.
Another accomplice supplied him with food and a cell phone, while the third accomplice brought him two cartons of cigarettes. One of the accomplices even brought him drugs.
Police previously revealed that there may have been as many as 20 accomplices who either actively gave aid to Milhem, or else recognized him walking around armed in Arara and chose not to report him. Residents of the town revealed that "many people knew" he was hiding out there, apparently aided by his family, and kept quiet.
3. PA ARRESTS RELATIVES OF ARAB WHO SOLD HOUSES TO HEVRON JEWS
by Shlomo Piotrokovsky
In the past several days the Palestinian Authority has arrested the brother and son of a Palestinian Arab man who sold two houses to Jews in Hevron, Arutz Sheva has learned.
When a contact approached the PA to appeal for the release of the two - one of whom is a 17-year-old boy - he was told they would not see the light of day until the seller hands himself in to PA police. Were he to do so, he would likely be subjected to torture and possible execution - the punishment under Palestinian Authority law for selling land or property to Jews.
Hevron Jewish activists have called on the Israeli government to respond by permitting Jewish residents - who were evicted from the two structures shortly after moving in - to return, as well as by providing protection to the Arab seller and his family.
Jewish activist Shlomo Levinger urged the government to act now, as an appropriate response to the murderous Palestinian terror attacks of recent weeks.
"Specifically now, in these weeks during which the nation of Israel sustained loss and grief, we say that there is another way," namely building and expanding Jewish life in the ancient holy city.
"I see in the redemption of the houses at this time a much-needed revival for the Jewish people in the land (of Israel)," he added, and called on authorities to end their "selective" policy of applying rules to Jews in Judea and Samaria which are not applied anywhere else in the country.
"In addition, I call on the government to give urgent protection to the Arab seller and to his family members. A lack of intervention by the government in the (PA) policy of killing Arab sellers, amounts to an approval of this offense."
4. NEW YORK TIMES AGAIN VILIFIES ISRAEL WITHOUT FACTS
by Ari Yashar
Diaa Hadid, a New York Times correspondent, has once again forced her editors to correct her work, after not bothering to get the facts straight in a recent piece that slammed Israeli policy for the eviction of an Arab family from Jerusalem's Old City.
In her article earlier this month, Hadid wrote that: "Nazira Maswadi's new landlord is trying to kick her out based on a claim that her estranged husband, Tawfiq, the original lessee, is dead. 'He's not dead,' she insisted. 'He has 10 children with me. If he died, they would have to bury him.'"
There is only problem with the claim presented in the New York Times article - it is completely false.
An investigation by the media watch organization CAMERA caused the paper's editor on Tuesday to acknowledge that the court documents in the eviction case reveal that Maswadi was in fact being kicked out for the simple reason that she is not paying rent.
The revelation exposes the baseless nature of the bias seen in the article, including lines such as: "the Palestinian families and their supporters claim the evictions, often based on seemingly arcane violations of their rental agreements, are part of a broader agenda to create Jewish enclaves inside the historic Muslim Quarter."
As noted by Honest Reporting on Tuesday, it would be hard for Hadid to sell to readers that failure to pay rent is an "arcane violation" of a rental agreement, as she opined in the article.
The New York Times editor also admitted that "the descriptions were based on the tenants' accounts; the article should have included additional information from court documents or from the landlords," revealing Hadid simply took the story of the evicted Arab residents without even a minimal checking of the facts.
This is not the first time that the editors have had to correct Hadid, who worked in the past with the pro-Hamas site Electronic Intifada, as well as with the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment.
Earlier this month the paper's Public Editor Margaret Sullivan had to issue a correction admitting the problematic nature of Hadid's recent article which portrayed Arab Israelis in Haifa as cultured and "cool," after it was disputed by a key pro-terror Arab source who said he was misrepresented.
Sullivan admitted that the article lacked "context."
It focused on "liberal Arab culture" in Haifa, but Ayed Fadel, a main source quoted in the article, revealed on Facebook that "90%" of what he said, which was about "resistance," was taken out. He slammed the attempt by "white media" to portray Arab citizens of Israel as "cool yay hipsters."
5. HOME OF SHLOMIT KRIGMAN'S MURDERERS READY TO BE RUBBLE
by Uzi Baruch
IDF forces and Civil Administration crews mapped out the homes of the two Arab terrorists who on Monday conducted a lethal stabbing attack in Beit Horon, Samaria, in which 23-year-old Shlomit Krigman was brutally murdered.
In Bayt Ur al-Tahta in Samaria members of the Kedem battalion conducted the engineering mapping in preparation for demolishing the home of Ibrahim Osama Yussef Alan.
Meanwhile in Kalandia in northern Jerusalem members of the Duvdevan special ops unit mapped out the home of Hassin Mohammed Hasin Abu Gosh.
In the attack, the two terrorists stabbed Krigman, then tried to enter a store but were pushed out by the owner who used a shopping cart to block their entrance. Once they realized that they would not be able to get into the store, they ran towards another woman and stabbed her before running off.
The second victim, a 58-year-old woman with moderate stab wounds to her upper body, is still being treated at Shaare Tzedek Hospital. Doctors say that her condition is improving.
A nearby security guard shot and killed the two terrorists at the scene. Afterwards no fewer than three improvised explosives were found nearby, indicating a well-planned assault. The terrorists are believed to have thrown the bombs at shoppers, but they failed to detonate.
In additional nighttime operations on Tuesday night, security forces arrested six suspects, three of them on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities and violent rioting that targeted Israeli civilians and security forces.
6. SMOTRICH BREAKS PROMISE ON HEVRON EVICTION
by Ido Ben-Porat
Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich decided Wednesday to break his promise from last Friday, when he said he would not vote with the coalition until the return of 200 Jews evicted that morning from two buildings in Hevron they purchased in full from an Arab buyer.
Smotrich again voted with the coalition on Wednesday, even after Ya'alon conditioned the return of the residents on an examination of the purchase, "political" considerations, and security considerations, highlighting the draconian measures imposed on Hevron Jews.
Aside from Smotrich, Deputy Regional Development Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud) and Likud MK Oren Hazan also had threatened to buck coalition discipline until the residents were returned to the homes they had bought.
The Jewish Home MK justified his return to voting despite the fact that his demands were not met, by saying the Prime Minister dealt with the matter personally and announced an outline to return the residents to their homes.
"From checks that I conducted in the last two days, it's become clear that a process of examining the purchase documents is being advanced quickly, and therefore it will be possible to complete it within the period of time that the prime minister set," wrote Smotrich on Facebook.
"Under those circumstances, in my estimation my continuing to insist not to vote with the coalition will not advance the return of the settlers and may even cause harm by reducing the motivation of the defense minister and the prime minister to complete the check as quickly as possible."
"Public responsibility"
The MK went on to say, "public responsibility obligates me not to shake up the coalition again today. I give the prime minister credit for standing on his obligations and enabling the return of the settlers to their home in the coming days."
The statement comes in contrast to Smotrich's words on Sunday, when he said, "under the applicable law in Judea-Samaria, you do not need purchase approval to move back into your home."
Smotrich on Wednesday concluded by saying, "I ask to strengthen the hands of the heroic Hevron settlers in their justified demand to immediately return to homes that were purchased, and to further strengthen the settlement of the city of the patriarchs and throughout Judea and Samaria. We will stand ready on guard in order to ensure the return of the settlers is not delayed, and I trust that if there is a delay the Jewish Home faction will all stand with me in a firm struggle."
Jewish Home last Friday condemned Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) for the eviction, saying, "a check of the purchase documents can be done without throwing Jews from their homes."
Meanwhile the Jewish Home Forum in Samaria showed frustration with their own party, demanding that Jewish Home chairperson Naftali Bennett do something against the eviction. Joining the criticism of Bennett for his inaction was nationalist activist attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir of Otzma Yehudit, who lives in Hevron.
"Naftali Bennett needs to do a self examination and decide where he's going," said Ben-Gvir. "You can't sit in a government that expels the settlers and treats terror with kid gloves, and at the same time give criticism like the leading member of the Opposition. Bennett can bring down Defense Minister Ya'alon, and not only criticize his failures. The time has come to stop talking and start doing."
Ben-Gvir noted that the coalition government is made up of a minimum 61 MK majority, meaning one MK could bring it down.
7. ISRAELI DOCTORS TREAT NEW DISEASE, SAVE PALESTINIAN BOY'S LIFE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A genetic disease heretofore unknown in the scientific literature has been discovered by doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem. The doctors who succeeded in treating the disease are referring to it by the name TPP2 deficiency.
The disease affects the immune system and involves a certain protein deficiency in the blood which causes the immune system to attack itself. This in turn leads to an accelerated rate of aging in cells as well as severe side effects, and can even cause death. The disease is said to be common in societies in which close relatives marry each other.
The disease was first encountered ten years ago when a 21-month-old boy from Shechem (Nablus) in Samaria was brought to Hadassah suffering from severe symptoms of an unexplained malfunction of the immune system. His older sister, at the time a toddler, had previously died of the same syndrome. Dr. Polina Stepensky, head of the Hadassah's pediatric hemato-oncology and bone marrow transplantation department told reporters that "the Palestinian hospital could not diagnose the disease, and we didn't know at first what it was either. When the symptoms appeared in the sister the doctors tried various treatments but they didn't know exactly what the diagnosis was and it didn't help and she died."
When the little boy started exhibiting the same preliminary symptoms, "his mother was the first to understand that it was apparently the same illness and it was liable to end the same way," Stepensky said. The mother abandoned the idea of going to the Palestinian hospital once again and sought out help at the Israeli hospital.
According to a report by Haaretz, in order to diagnose the disease Dr.Stepensky together with Professor Orly Elpeleg of Hadassah's genetic research department utilized a new technique, by which they created a genetic sequence of both the boy and his family. Upon carrying out the sequence they discovered that the family possessed a damaged gene that resulted in the deficiency of the protein TPP2. This isolation of the problem was a big step in solving the mystery around the boy's condition ,for even though the disease destroys red blood cells, normal blood tests won't detect it.
The process was made simpler by the Human Genome Project which was completed in 2006. The project, together with the technological developments that followed, allowed for a relatively easy and inexpensive genetic sequencing for the family. "We actually discovered a new mechanism of the immune system, a previously unknown path that leads to premature aging of the immune system, which both allowed us to diagnose this disease and will also help us better understand the whole system," Stepensky said.
Two years ago, doctors decided that the most effective treatment would be a stem-cell transplant to rejuvenate the boy's immune system. The boy who was by then aged 12 had been treated for years with immunosuppressive drugs. In 2014 he received a transplant from the bone marrow of his healthy seven-year-old sister and now seems to have recovered.
8. WATCH: ISRAELI SUPERSTAR AND CONVERT RAP STAR WOW IN COLLAB
by Yoni Kempinski
Israeli star Gad Elbaz has joined forces with American hassidic rap star Nissim Black to remake his famous hit Hashem Melech, and the hit collaboration comes for a good cause - to support the family of a terror victim.
Nissim Black, a successful Seattle rapper, took a break from his rap career in 2011 to focus on his Orthodox conversion to Judaism, and came back a year later with a renewed passion and message.
Now Black and Elbaz have combined their talents in Hashem Melech 2.0 - a powerful new rendition of Elbaz's Hashem Melech (God is King), filmed amid the breathtaking vistas of New York City.
[youtube:2011806]
The new music video is leading a crowdfunding campaign that has been joined by CauseMatch.com and Aish HaTorah, to raise funds for the seven children and widow of Rabbi Reuven Biermacher, who was tragically murdered by an Arab terrorist near the Yafo Gate of Jerusalem's Old City last December 23.
The goal of raising $1 million for the grieving family that has lost its sole provider has already reached just over 36% of its goal as of Wednesday morning (Israeli time). To donate click here.
Elbaz and Black look to continue their successful collaboration on March 20, as they hold a massive Purim concert at Brooklyn College.
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