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Wednesday, Jan. 06 '16, Tevet 25, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. 'HALF-A-YEAR IN JAIL OVER A COMPLETE LIE'
2. MANHUNT FOR TEL AVIV SHOOTER 'COULD TAKE YEARS'
3. REPORTER STABBED AND WOUNDED TRYING NEW IDF NECK GUARD
4. TERRORIST'S RELATIVE: 'WHY CAN'T ISRAEL FIND HIM?'
5. OBAMA'S 'HONEST BROKER' TAKES POT SHOTS AT NETANYAHU
6. 3,400-YEAR-OLD CITADEL IN THE BASEMENT
7. JEWISH TEENS INDICTED FOR BEATING AN ARAB SHEPHERD
8. WATCH: HILLARY CLINTON CAN'T SAY HOW SHE ISN'T SOCIALIST
1. 'HALF-A-YEAR IN JAIL OVER A COMPLETE LIE'
by Eliran Aharon
On Sunday Mordechai Mayer was released after being jailed for five months on an administrative order with no trial or evidence, and with no indictment ever submitted against him.
Mayer was arrested during a wave of administrative orders issued against right-wing activists shortly after the lethal Duma arson in July, and no information regarding why he was selected to be arrested was ever presented. After initial vague implications that the arrest was related to Duma, the government quickly changed its tune and clarified that there was no connection.
In a conversation with Arutz Sheva late Tuesday, Mayer spoke about two periods during his arrest, the first in the open branch of Rimonim Prison for two and a half months, and the second in an isolation cell at Eshel Prison, where his family could visit only once every two weeks and only speak to him from the other side of a glass window.
Mayer explained that he was never given a reason for his arrest, saying, "from the beginning to the end we said it was all a lie. The court ate up the lies of the police, but in the end it became clear that it all was really lies."
"They took me because I have a kippah and peot (sidelocks)," said Mayer.
Deep problems
His parents Gedalya and Sarah, who made Aliyah from the US to Israel, told Arutz Sheva about the trying experience.
Sarah said, "it was very hard for us because we had no voice. Because it's an administrative detention we had no voice at all." Her husband added how frustrating it was to sit in court, listen to the "complete lies" against their son and not be able to speak in his defense.
Sarah noted on the importance of the Honenu legal aid organization in working to provide an opportunity to try and ensure justice for their son.
She also pointed out that in America, it took many years for various legal issues to be worked out, "and over time we hope that here too things will be fixed and it will be more democratic like it was there. When there was a problem, the public thought about how to fix matters. We hope everyone will look at the problems and there will be an improvement."
"I wasn't angry at the state, but I was disappointed because we saw there are huge problems here," said Gedalya. "Deep problems. The entire state needs a huge repair. If you can arrest someone for almost half a year over a complete lie, that's a very deep problem."
"Our son was a victim," emphasized Gedalya. "No one, except for a few people from Honenu and several others, wants to hear that. (They believe that) what the state says is right, and we were just shouting at the wall."
He concluded, saying, "there's always hope that the situation will improve. But the situation needs to improve."
Aside from Mayer, two other youths Meir Ettinger and Evyatar Slonim were also arrested on administrative orders at the same time, and they remain in jail. The orders last six months, at which point they can potentially be renewed.
2. MANHUNT FOR TEL AVIV SHOOTER 'COULD TAKE YEARS'
by Ari Yashar
Over five days have passed since Nashat Melhem, an Arab citizen of Israel from Wadi Ara in the north, murdered three people in Tel Aviv, but despite the massive manhunt trying to track him down the terrorist remains elusive.
Nashat murdered two people in a Tel Aviv pub last Friday, and an hour later he apparently murdered a taxi driver as well.
Security forces on Wednesday morning have moved the focus of the search to the northern "triangle region," and area that is home to over 300,000 Arab Israelis. Large police forces are scouring the region.
Former police commissioner Assaf Hefetz told Yedioth Aharonoth that it is within the realm of possibility that Melhem will only be tracked down after a very long period of time.
"It is possible that the terrorist Nashat Melhem will be caught or found only in a couple of years. That is certainly a possibility," he said. "The more days that pass the more he is pressured and needs food."
"The fact that time is passing and he hasn't been found could point to him not being alive anymore. This possibility is small, but time is passing and we see there is no activity, he hasn't exposed himself, he isn't shooting additional people."
"If he committed suicide you need to find him physically. If he is in a hiding spot that's more difficult," said Hefetz, while brushing off criticism against the police and saying he's certain they're using all means to try and locate the terrorist.
Lior Akerman, a former senior official in the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), told the news site that security forces are "waiting for a sort of mistake that he will make. At a certain point the rabbit has to come out of the hole."
"Usually when a lone terrorist hides, and it happened many times with Palestinian terrorists who hid in the field, you just wait for the first mistake that they make. Maybe he's waiting for the pressure to go down so that he can come out."
Police arrested Melhem's father Mohammed on Tuesday, along with five other family members and acquaintances of the terrorist. The police apparently suspect that the terrorist's family helped him escape and hide out, a suspicion given apparent strengthening by the revelation that Mohammed spoke with his son right after the attack.
Known violent tendencies from jail
In July 2007, Melhem was convicted of attempting to steal a soldier's gun at Karkur Junction to the east of Hadera, after he attacked the soldier with a screwdriver.
Officers who guarded Melhem during his time in jail revealed their shock that he was released, given his misconduct in jail - misconduct that was further revealed in court records by Channel 2 on Wednesday.
Melhem petitioned the court several times to ease his arrest conditions, but his requests were always rejected, with the reasons given exposing his violent nature that was apparently well known before his release.
In January 2011, he petitioned to be allowed out of jail to buy a wristwatch, but the court rejected the request on the grounds that the terrorist was liable to harm other prisoners and prison guards.
The response to the petition noted that the last time Melhem was given time out of jail under his father's supervision he was late in returning to jail by 20 hours. It added that he was found to be in possession of a spike, that he had struck someone, and that "he didn't integrate into the anger management group."
In July of 2011, Melhem's request to receive music CDs in jail was denied by the court over his violent behavior, and his possession of forbidden materials.
A year earlier in July 2010, Melhem asked to be let out to undergo laser eye surgery so as to be able to see without glasses, but his request was denied by the court over concerns that he would take advantage of the permission to escape.
3. REPORTER STABBED AND WOUNDED TRYING NEW IDF NECK GUARD
by Ido Ben-Porat
Journalist Eitam Lachover of Channel 1 went out on Wednesday morning to film a piece about the new anti-stabbing neck guards being distributed by the IDF, to help combat soldiers deal with the constant threat of knife-wielding Arab terrorists.
During his reporting, Lachover met with representatives of the company that produces the protective pieces of equipment, both for the military and for the private market.
As the cameras rolled, the representatives asked Lachover to try on the neck guard and experience its defensive capabilities.
Unfortunately the neck guard did not hold up to their promises of defense, and the knife stabbed right through it, lightly wounding the reporter.
Representatives of the company were greatly embarrassed by the fiasco, and immediately went to help Lachover.
He was then evacuated to the hospital to receive medical treatment, where the doctors stitched up the cut.
An initial 850 protective neck guards, which wrap around the neck and over the shoulders, are set to be passed out by the end of the month, mostly to combat soldiers stationed at checkpoints and roadblocks in Judea and Samaria.
4. TERRORIST'S RELATIVE: 'WHY CAN'T ISRAEL FIND HIM?'
by Ari Yashar
Attorney Sami Melhem, a relative of the Arab Israeli terrorist Nashat Melhem, criticized the security apparatus on Wednesday for its continued inability to locate his terrorist relative six days after the lethal Tel Aviv shooting on Friday.
Nashat murdered two people in a Tel Aviv pub, and an hour later he apparently murdered a taxi driver as well. Massive police forces have been scouring for him, but have yet to locate the elusive gunman.
"I'm surprised that the state of Israel, with its great power, is unable to locate a little criminal," the attorney said in an interview on radio Kol Rega.
"If it can't catch him, then who will catch him? Me? His father?," he posed, a day after Nashat's father Mohammed was arrested on suspicions that the family helped him escape and hide.
Sami Melhem said, "I'm doubtful that someone in the family knew about this incident," even though Mohammed was revealed on Tuesday to have spoken with Nashat just after the attack.
"I also have no doubt about the fact that there is condemnation of the act, condemnation that was already said after the attack. There is no reason to cooperate with a man like this, who did what he did."
Despite the attempt to downplay the terrorist as a "little criminal," Melhem has shown himself to be crafty, having intentionally thrown away his phone before carrying out the attack with an automatic assault rifle so as to make it harder to track him.
In the past, Sami Melhem represented his terrorist family member in court, after he was convicted in July 2007 of attacking a soldier with a screwdriver and attempting to steal a his gun at Karkur Junction to the east of Hadera.
Officers who guarded Melhem during his time in jail revealed their shock that he was released, given his misconduct in jail - misconduct that was further revealed in court records by Channel 2 on Wednesday, showing he had a history of violence during his time in prison.
5. OBAMA'S 'HONEST BROKER' TAKES POT SHOTS AT NETANYAHU
by Ari Yashar
Martin Indyk, former US Middle East Envoy for President Barack Obama, has long had his impartiality regarding Israel questioned. On Wednesday, in a PBS interview, he came out with a full broadside attack targeting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Indyk claimed that at the 1995 funeral of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, architect of the Oslo Accords, Netanyahu politically belittled the assassinated prime minister.
"Netanyahu sat next to me when I was ambassador in Israel at the time of Rabin's funeral," said Indyk. "I remember Netanyahu saying to me: 'Look, look at this. He's a hero now, but if he had not been assassinated, I would have beaten him in the elections, and then he would have gone into history as a failed politician.'"
"I think even at that moment of tremendous support, a tragic moment of support for Rabin, Netanyahu was thinking, well, politically he was on the ropes before he was assassinated. He exploited that and ran against Oslo in the (1996) elections and beat (Shimon) Peres, but he only beat him by something like a half of 1%," said Indyk.
The Prime Minister's Office responded to the interview, saying, "we deny Indyk's claims completely. (What he said) never was and never happened."
But Indyk's comments were enough to provide fodder for the political left to attack Netanyahu, with the Zionist Union responding to the interview by saying it "proves what lows (Netanyahu) is able to reach. Two days after the horrible murder of a prime minister and to this day, nothing has changed, Netanyahu is only interested in Netanyahu."
Indyk has long made statements trying to discredit Netanyahu. Many of these comments have come in spite of Indyk's having been tasked as Obama's negotiator in the peace talks from 2013 to 2014, which were eventually torpedoed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) as it made a unity deal with Hamas.
Just two months ago in November, Indyk claimed that back in 1996 during Netanyahu's first term in office he was ready to give up the Golan Heights to Syria for "peace."
Indyk has a long history of attacking and blaming Israel. He is vice president and director of foreign policy for the Brookings Institute think tank in Washington, the main foreign funder of which was revealed to be Qatar, which is also the main financial backer of Hamas.
"Playing extremist right-wing fears"
Obama's ex-envoy had more criticism for Netanyahu in the PBS interview on Wednesday, saying that he plays "to his right-wing constituency. ...He knows what excites them, and he knows what they fear."
"I think he was really playing to his constituency in a way that went over the line. You saw him do it again in the last minutes before this most recent election, and he came very close to the line over here as well."
Accusing Netanyahu of racism, he added: "certainly in the White House with an African American president, he crossed the line by saying that the Arabs were coming out in droves to vote. There is that part of him that plays with populist extremism on the right."
Indyk's comments refer to Netanyahu's statements during the March elections, in which he called on nationalist voters to go vote given the unusually high turn-out among the largely anti-Zionist Arab sector, which he indicated was organized by foreign funded leftist NGOs.
Netanyahu quickly backtracked and apologized for the comments after the elections.
Obama tried to dump Israel
Indyk also spoke about Obama's approach towards Israel, and revealed that he intentionally tried to distance from the Jewish state.
"President Obama had a theory of the case, which was that George W. Bush had embraced Ariel Sharon and then Ehud Olmert, and there was no daylight between the United States and Israel, and that hadn't produced a positive result."
"In the meantime, the relationship between the United States and the Muslim world was in the toilet, so the president believed that he needed to rebuild the relationship with the Muslim world, hence the Cairo speech, and by doing so, and by putting some daylight between the United States and Israel, currying favor with the Arabs and the Muslims would enable him to actually help Israel," said Indyk.
The ex-envoy admitted that "it was a wrong theory of the case, as he would come to discover, because by sending a signal to Israel that he was distancing himself from Israel, by not going to Israel after Cairo - don't forget he went to Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt; he didn't go to Israel - for Israelis, the combination of not visiting and the speech sent them a very strong signal that he didn't like them."
"After 16 years of (Bill) Clinton and Bush, of unalloyed affection, the Israelis really didn't like that. They turned against him in that moment."
But according to Indyk, the problem was not Obama's sudden change of American policy in giving his close ally the cold shoulder, but rather that Israel was offended by the way he was trying to warm up to its enemies while giving clear signs that the US no longer supports Israel the way it used it.
"What was wrong with the theory of the case then was that once he lost the Israelis, he couldn't move the Israelis, because he didn't have the trust that Clinton and Bush had, and if he couldn't move the Israelis, then the Arabs had no use for him. The Arabs don't want him to turn against Israel; they wanted him to deliver Israel. And if he is going to deliver Israel, he's got to have a close and strong relationship of trust with the Israeli people, if not with the Prime Minister. It took him a long time to appreciate that."
6. 3,400-YEAR-OLD CITADEL IN THE BASEMENT
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The remains of a 3,400-year-old Canaanite citadel, which were recently unearthed in the middle of the coastal city Nahariya, are to be preserved and incorporated in an apartment high-rise, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced Wednesday.
The citadel will be presented on Thursday at a joint archaeological conference by the Northern Region of the IAA together with the University of Haifa.
IAA director Israel Hasson and Danny Kochav, director of the Kochav Company, Ltd., reached an agreement to have the recently discovered excavation incorporated into the apartment high-rise Kochav Company is building on Balfour Street in the coastal city, not far from the beach.
Youth groups and local students took part in the excavation of the site with the IAA, after Kochav Company initiated the project to build a residential high-rise with underground parking. With the help of architect Alex Shpol, planner for the Interior Ministry's regional committee for planning and construction, a way to preserve part of the citadel in the basement level of the building was drawn up.
"It seems that the citadel which we uncovered was used as an administrative center that served the mariners who sailed along the Mediterranean coast 3,400 years ago," said Nimrod Getzov, Yair Amitzur and Dr. Ron Be'eri, excavation directors on behalf of the IAA.
"There was probably a dock alongside the citadel. Numerous artifacts were discovered in its rooms, including ceramic figurines in form of humans and animals, bronze weapons and imported pottery vessels that attest to the extensive commercial and cultural relations that existed at that time with Cyprus and the rest of the lands in the Mediterranean basin."
The archaeologists found the fortress was burned down at least four times, and rebuilt each time. A large amount of cereal, legumes and grape seeds were found in the burnt layers, which are indicative of the provisions the sailors would purchase.
IAA director Israel Hasson and Kochav Company representatives at site Eran Gilvarg, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Female figurines dating to the Late Bronze Age Eran Gilvarg, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
An arrowhead made of bronze Eran Gilvarg, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
Fragments of decorated pottery vessels imported from Cyprus and Greece 3,400 years ago Guy Fitoussi, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
A stamped jar handle dating to the Middle Bronze Age Guy Fitoussi, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority
7. JEWISH TEENS INDICTED FOR BEATING AN ARAB SHEPHERD
by Ido Ben Porat
The Jerusalem district attorney submitted indictments against two Jerusalem minors today to the Jerusalem District Court for Minors. The indictments were filed for the charges of causing injury in extreme circumstance and being in illegal possession of a knife.
One of the accused was previously arrested for suspected involvement in the lethal Duma arson affair, before being released after it was found he had nothing to do with the murder. He reported being brutally tortured during his interrogation.
According to the indictment, the two teens, one 18 years of age and the other 15 years of age, identified an Arab shepherd near the village of Kochav Hashachar in the Binyamin region of Samaria.
The two youths, together with five other teens, decided to chase off the shepherd by beating him.
They allegedly covered their faces and hands, and used a steel rod to which they attached knives. They then proceed to run at the shepherd and allegedly attacked and hit him with the steel rods continually, until he fell and lost consciousness.
David Levy, an attorney from the Honenu legal aid organization that is representing one of the accused, said, "we are talking about an indictment that has no basis in any factual evidence. It was presented in blatant violation of the assurances of the country to conduct a hearing for my client, prior to the submission of an indictment."
"Unfortunately it appears that the prosecutor's office has lost all of its senses and has chosen to bulldoze through the process of submitting a letter of indictment at lighting speed, without any basis or connection to reality."
Levy added that "it appears that the prosecutor's decision to indict my client came because just yesterday the court accepted our appeal on behalf of my client to release him from the house arrest that he was placed under."
8. WATCH: HILLARY CLINTON CAN'T SAY HOW SHE ISN'T SOCIALIST
by Ari Yashar
Democratic presidential candidate hopeful Hillary Clinton was asked on TV, on Tuesday, what the difference is between being a Democrat and a socialist. She could not come up with an answer.
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Clinton, who is running against the openly socialist Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), was asked by MSNBC host Chris Matthews: "what's the difference between a socialist and a Democrat? Is that a question you want to answer or would you rather not, politically?"
After Clinton tried to avoid the question by saying Matthews should ask Sanders, he responded saying, "see, I'm asking you. You're a Democrat, he's a socialist. Would you like somebody to call you a socialist? I wouldn't want someone calling me a socialist."
"I'm not one," she responded. "I'm a progressive Democrat who likes to get things done and who believes that we are better off in this country when we're trying to solve problems together. Getting people to work together."
"There will always be strong feelings and I respect that, from, you know, the far right, the far left, libertarians, whoever it might be, but we need to get people working together. We've got to get the economy fixed, we've got to get all of our problems, you know, really tackled and that's what I want to do," Clinton said.
In response to Clinton's unwillingness to directly answer the question and state the difference, Matthews noted that he asked Democratic National Committee chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz the same question, and that she too would not answer.
Wasserman-Schultz was stumped by Matthews with the question last July, and shortly afterwards in August she still could not answer.
A June 2015 Gallup poll found that 50% of Americans said they would not vote for a socialist, making it the demographic group with the least support.
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