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/
Tuesday, Jan. 05 '16, Tevet 24, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. POLICE CATCH HERZLIYA TERROR SUSPECT
2. RUSSIA ASKS HEZBOLLAH TO CALM TENSIONS WITH ISRAEL
3. HEATED CONFRONTATION IN KNESSET OVER BREAKING THE SILENCE
4. STABBING ATTACK AT GUSH ETZION JUNCTION, ONE WOUNDED
5. HEBREW U LECTURER: ARAB TERRORISTS BRAVER THAN JEWS
6. FATHER OF TEL AVIV TERRORIST ARRESTED
7. WATCH: 'WE'LL CATCH THE MURDERER, LOWER THE TENSION IN TEL AVIV'
8. YACHIMOVICH PERTURBED BY PHRASE 'MAY GOD AVENGE THEIR BLOOD'
1. POLICE CATCH HERZLIYA TERROR SUSPECT
by Yoni Kempinski
A joint effort between police and the Israel Security Agency (SA, also known as the Shin Bet or Shabak) has led to the capture and arrest of Ahmad Khatib.
Khatib, a resident of eastern Jerusalem, told his family that he intended to carry out a terror attack in Herzliya. He then drove through a police barricade near Jerusalem and drove towards central Israel.
His abandoned vehicle was found in Herzliya as security forces carried out an extensive search of the area.
Earlier today, Herzliya Mayor Moshe Fadlon defiantly declared, "We won't bow to terror. Terror will not silence the life of our city. We will carry on as usual.
"I myself visited numerous schools and kindergartens this morning and they are all full. We simply won't give in. We are prepared and we are working together with the police, and we are preparing ourselves as is appropriate with this situation."
[youtube:2011203]
2. RUSSIA ASKS HEZBOLLAH TO CALM TENSIONS WITH ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Following yesterday's incident on Israel's northern border, Russia has asked Hezbollah to calm down. According to Al-Arabia reports, Moscow, which assists the terror organization in Syria, has made a direct request to desist from further "igniting the wick of confrontation" between the terror organization and Israel.
Israel and Russia are in direct communication regarding the airspace over Syria, in an effort to prevent any mishaps between the two countries. Russia, however, is afraid that the situation, which has already deteriorated since the death of Samir Kuntar two weeks ago, will continue to deteriorate.
Yesterday an improvised explosive device was placed on the Lebanese border near IDF forces by Hezbollah terrorists. The IDF responded with artillery fire aimed at a number of locations near the Shebaa farms. Hezbollah took responsibility for the attack and said in a press release that it was in retaliation for the death of Kuntar.
Last week a German official reportedly met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and asked him to refrain from retaliation against Israel, as it would lead to a powerful response and would further escalate tensions in the region. Nasrallah rejected the request, stating that plans had already been put in place to respond.
3. HEATED CONFRONTATION IN KNESSET OVER BREAKING THE SILENCE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A passionate discussion took place on Tuesday in the Committee of Education of the Knesset on the topic of the NGO Breaking the Silence and its work against the IDF and the citizens of Israel.
The group's members did not attend the discussion, instead sending a response which read: "We do not intend to participate in incitement against soldiers who have chosen to stop breaking the silence, nor will we participate in a discussion which embarrasses the Knesset."
MK Oded Forrer (Yisrael Beytenu) responded, saying, "I'm positive that if Breaking the Silence were invited to a discussion in England or Sweden they would find the time to go and even try to benefit from it. This remind me of the Biblical story of the spies. They went and found the worst way to present the land of Israel, and presented a false report of the situation. Their goal is simply to slander Israel."
MK Itzik Shmuli (Zionist Union) said he condemns the actions of Breaking the Silence abroad, but that to label them as foreign agents is going to far.
MK Ayelet Nachmias Verbin (Zionist Union) said that, even though she signed the document against Breaking the Silence, right wing organizations such as Zo Artzeinu need to come under the Knesset's critical eye as well, and no one is talking about it.
Education Committee Head MK Yaakov Margi (Shas) had to throw out four people within the first 40 minutes for disciplinary infractions, including former Meretz Chair Zehava Galon. Margi chastised the committee members as well as other MKs who sat in on the meeting and said: "We have spent 45 of the first fifty minutes of this meeting dealing with calls to order and disciplinary infractions. As members of Education, Culture and Sports committee and as members of Israel's Knesset you should all be ashamed of yourselves."
MK Nachman Shai (Zionist Camp) said, "We need to hear each other and to carry on this dialogue both in Israel and in more public international forums. Regarding Breaking the Silence and Im Tirzu, we need to hear both sides of the discussion. This discussion brings honor to the democracy of Israel."
Matan Peleg, the CEO of Im Tirzu, said that the problem is that millions of shekels are being donated to Breaking the Silence and other organizations from foreign countries, most worryingly from Ramallah. "We as Israeli citizens are worried where exactly that money is coming from. Members of Knesset you need to figure out who these people in Ramallah are that are giving this money."
MK Haim Yellin (Yesh Atid) said, "There are times when soldiers do things wrong, and as a former soldier who served in the First Lebanon War, I saw some of these things and I had no one to report to. So it is natural that organizations will spring up that want to be a place where soldiers can talk about these issues, and help deal with them to create a better army.
"But there is absolutely no reason that an organization should slander the army and the country internationally. When that happens organizations from the left are created and then organizations from the right are created. And us here in the Knesset lose control of the finding out the truth and resenting the truth of what is going on in Israel to the rest of the world. We need to gain that control back."
4. STABBING ATTACK AT GUSH ETZION JUNCTION, ONE WOUNDED
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2011196]
An Arab terrorist stabbed a 34-year-old Israeli soldier at Gush Etzion Junction this morning (Tuesday), before being shot and eliminated by security forces.
MDA provided the victim with first aid for stab wounds to his face, and evacuated him to Jerusalem's Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital. He is considered to be lightly wounded.
Police have closed off the site to traffic.
"An assailant stabbed a soldier at the Gush Etzion junction," an army statement said.
"Forces at the scene responded to the attack and shot the assailant, resulting in his death. The victim is receiving emergency medical treatment."
The attack is believed to be unrelated to the terrorist still at large in Herzliya, who reportedly broke through a police barrier near Jerusalem and headed towards central Israel. His abandoned car was found in Herzliya, where a large police and Shin Bet force has been mobilized to track him down.
Separately, security forces are still searching for Nashat Melhem, the Arab-Israeli terrorist who murdered two people - Alon Bakal (26) and Shimon Ruimi (30) and injured nine others at a Tel Aviv bar on Friday. Melhem is also suspected to have murdered Amin Shaban, an Arab-Israeli taxi driver found dead not far from the scene of the bar shooting.
5. HEBREW U LECTURER: ARAB TERRORISTS BRAVER THAN JEWS
by Gil Ronen
Dr. Dmitry Shumsky of Hebrew University published an article in Ha'aretz Monday in which he pointed out alleged differences between Arab terrorism against Jews and the attack on the Dawabshe family in the village of Duma, which Israeli security forces found to have been perpetrated by Jews.
Shumsky is a former director of the university's Bernard Cherrik Center for the Study of Zionism, the Yishuv and the State of Israel.
He said that, while Arab terrorism is "an extreme and illegitimate component" of the otherwise "legitimate" Arab "resistance" to Israeli "occupation" of Arab land, Jewish terrorism is "an extreme and illegitimate component" of the Israeli "occupation," which is ab initio illegitimate and unjust.
Another difference, he argued, is that the Arab attacks on Jews – including those against children and the elderly – are usually carried out by people who are "clearly willing to die on the spot and thus pay the price for their deeds." While Shumsky denied that he was encouraging this terror or expressing admiration for its perpetrators, he insisted that "no small degree of courage" is required for a person to attack armed soldiers with a knife, for instance.
The Duma attack, by contrast, is "a terror of cowards," Shumsky explained. "There is no other way to describe the deeds of those who sneak up in the middle of the night into a village of prisoners of the occupation, set alight a house whose inhabitants are asleep in their beds, and quickly run for their lives back to their occupation comrades," he said.
Writing on Facebook, pundit Yotam Zimri was quick to point out the article, which he termed "garbage," and to rhetorically ask: "Throwing a rock at Adelle Biton's head – is that courage? Shooting the Henkins in front of their children – is that courage? Abducting three youths, shooting them in their heads and escaping – is that courage? Burning Ayala Shapira – is that courage? Stopping to ask Danny Gonen z"l a question, and shooting him point blank when he stops to answer you – is that courage? Firing on the vehicle carrying Malachi Rosenfeld z"l – is that courage? Firing from afar at baby Shalhevet Pass – is that courage? Sending other people to explode in your name and destroying entire families, children included, like Barghouti did – is that courage? And knowing that you will then receive a book with a nice dedication from Amos Oz so that you have something to read in your spacious cell – is that courage?"
Zimri opined that throwing a firebomb into a home at night, as the arson-murderers at Duma did, is indeed cowardly, but "whoever turns the Palestinians into heroes because of the willingness of a few of them to unite with 72 virgins is mostly an idiot."
6. FATHER OF TEL AVIV TERRORIST ARRESTED
by Uzi Baruch
Security forces have arrested Ahmed Melhem, the father of Friday's Tel Aviv terrorist Nashat Melhem, along with another five suspects. Nashat Melhem murdered two people in a Tel Aviv pub as well as a taxi driver.
Yesterday, Ahmed called for his son to turn himself in to authorities. "Call me. Maybe I can help you," said the father, who has volunteered with the police. "Come, let's finish this saga. These are difficult days for the family."
The father also commented on the arrest of Nashat's two bothers and claimed that they have no connection to the attack. He insisted that their arrests were only an attempt to put pressure on Nashat. "I respect the actions the police and security forces have taken, but don't harm the family who has no connection. I denounce the incident, express my sorrow for the bereaved families, and wish the wounded a speedy recovery."
On Tuesday afternoon, police ordered that one of the brothers be released from jail.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) has revealed that the terrorist intentionally threw away his phone before carrying out the attack.
"He is more sophisticated than people think. He is not naive and not confused. He deliberately did not come with a cell phone that day to make it more difficult to locate him," Erdan told the Knesset Channel.
7. WATCH: 'WE'LL CATCH THE MURDERER, LOWER THE TENSION IN TEL AVIV'
by Ido Ben-Porat
[youtube:2011208]
Five days after the terror attack in Tel Aviv, Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich made a condolence call on the family of Alon Bakal.
As he left the house, Alcheisch called for "significantly lowering the tension in central Israel." He added: "We are focused on one single mission - to catch the murderer.
"Everything that makes this more difficult or lengthens the chase will not be done. So our policy is to stop speaking about the investigation and to stop releasing information from the investigation. Every piece of information causes damage twice - it harms our ability to bring quick results and it harms security forces."
As part of the renewed effort to catch the terrorist Nashat Melhem, police arrested Melhem's father, Ahmed, and five others suspected of being involved in the attack.
Yesterday, Ahmed called for his son to turn himself in to authorities. "Call me. Maybe I can help you," said the father, who has volunteered with the police. "Come, let's finish this saga. These are difficult days for the family."
He also commented on the arrest of Nashat's two bothers and claimed that they have no connection to the attack. He insisted that their arrests were only an attempt to put pressure on Nashat. "I respect the actions the police and security forces have taken, but don't harm the family who has no connection. I denounce the incident, express my sorrow for the bereaved families, and wish the wounded a speedy recovery."
8. YACHIMOVICH PERTURBED BY PHRASE 'MAY GOD AVENGE THEIR BLOOD'
by Hezki Ezra
MK Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union) is not impressed by the attempts of Knesset Members Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Yitzhak Herzog (Zionist Union) to garner favor among more traditional communities by adding the words, "May God avenge his blood" to the names of those killed in last week's terror attacks.
Yachimovich wrote on twitter, "Yesterday I heard Yair Lapid use the term "May God avenge his blood", today I heard Yitzhak Herzog throw the phrase out as well. I don't believe it. It is simply inappropriate. People relax. The situation is difficult enough as it is."
Yesterday Herzog paid his respects to the family of slain terror victim Alon Bakal, who was killed during last Friday's terror attack. He then wrote on his own Twitter feed: "I'm just leaving the house of mourning of the Bakal family who is mourning their son Alon, may God avenge his blood. I came to comfort them, but I leave comforted and excited. May his memory be blessed."
Lapid likewise has made an effort to attach the words to the names of those slain in attacks. Following the capture of the terrorists who murdered Rabbi Eitam and Na'ama Henkin, Lapid wrote on Facebook: "I salute the security forces on capturing the terrorist cell that is responsible for the death of Eitam and Na'ama Henkin, may God avenge their blood. They are there, in the field, risking their lives each day in order to protect the citizens of the state of Israel."
------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
