Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Tuesday, Jan. 19 '16, Shevat 9, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. TERRORIST WHO MURDERED DAFNA MEIR APPREHENDED
2. NETANYAHU VOWS: WE WILL DESTROY OTNIEL TERRORIST'S HOME
3. DEFIANCE, HOPE AS BENNETT VISITS COMMUNITY STRUCK BY TERROR
4. BENNETT: REAL THREAT TO ISRAEL IS LEADERS' COMPLACENCY
5. FATHER OF DAFNA MEIR'S KILLER 'PROUD' OF HIS SON
6. PREGNANT STAB VICTIM DESCRIBES SHOCKING TERROR ATTACK
7. MUSLIM WOMAN EXUDES LOVE FOR 'MAGICAL' ISRAEL
8. SHIMON PERES RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL, RETURNING TO WORK
1. TERRORIST WHO MURDERED DAFNA MEIR APPREHENDED
by Arutz Sheva Staff
During a very intensive search that was conducted throughout the day and into the late night hours on Monday, the IDF and Israel Security Agency successfully apprehended the terrorist who murdered Dafna Meir at the entrance to her home in Otniel, in the southern Har Hevron region of Judea.
Video released Tuesday morning shows the IDF's elite Duvdevan counterterrorism unit arresting the murderer in his home:
[youtube:2011652]
The arrest came late Monday night a full day after the heinous attack that killed Dafna in front of her children. According to security forces the terrorist who perpetrated the attack is a minor and lives in one of the Palestinian villages nearby. According to Judea-Samaria Council Head Avi Naim, he has been identified as 16-year-old Murad Bader Abdullah Adais.
Head of Hevron Mountain regional council Yochai Demri together with the Hevron Brigade Commander and the commander of IDF special forces unit involved in the search informed the family this morning of the arrest.
The footage from security cameras around the town which was publicized yesterday, showed security forces how the terrorist manage to escape the town after committing the murder. The teen fled the town just minutes after the murder, while security forces were searching the entire town to verify that the terrorist was no longer a threat to residents, before moving on and searching the surrounding area.
Dafna left behind six children, two of them foster children, and her husband Natan. She was initially critically wounded in the attack after attempting to fight off her attacker and protect her children. She succumbed to her wounds shortly after.
Hundreds of people took part in the funeral procession that began on Monday morning in Jerusalem.
Dafna's husband Natan gave a tearful eulogy Monday: "My Dafna, she was one in a million. One in a million who grew up in a home that wasn't a home and succeeded at growing and rehabilitating herself. Dafna was determined to return loving kindness to the world, and she did!"
2. NETANYAHU VOWS: WE WILL DESTROY OTNIEL TERRORIST'S HOME
by Hezki Ezra
Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the town of Otniel on Tuesday and paid his respects to the family of Dafna Meir who was killed on Sunday night when a 16 year old terrorist stabbed her in front of her children.
"I met a wonderful family who possesses enormous spiritual strength. They are Zionist, patriotic, personable, and they have lost a wonderful mother and spouse. I believe that everyone who has seen even a picture of Dafna immediately reacts to the amount of light that she gave off. Anyone who heard about her and about her tremendous ability to give back to others, knows that she was indeed a very special person."
"People can get a very strong sense of someone when they hear a story, or see a picture. They immediately understand how special and unique a person was taken from us. I found the same type of uniqueness in the souls of Natan and the children. They asked only one thing of me, that I continue to strengthen and uplift Israel."
"At this point I say that not only will we continue to fight against our enemies and destroy the house of the terrorist who committed this act, and revoke the visas of Palestinian workers as well as carry on with all of the other activities that the IDF, who caught this terrorist, is involved in.
"But I need to say something else. Whomever wants to understand the truth that lies at the heart of the Palestinian conflict with Israel, should come to Otniel. You should meet this incredible family that only wants to live in mutual peace. And you should then look and see the incitement of the Palestinian youth who come to kill women. Here a mother of six children. In Tekoa a pregnant woman. The Palestinian youth come to kill them and say: We will kill all of you. In Tel Aviv as well as in Yaffo. That is the truth."
"You have humanity and a desire for coexistence on one side, and unbridled hatred that knows no borders on the other. This hatred has a source. It is due to the incitement by the Palestinian Authority and other bodies such as the Islamic Movement and Hamas, and it is time that the international community stops their hypocrisy and calls the child by his name."
Netanyahu emphasised that "the source of the conflict is a refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish state in its homeland. Here [in Otniel], in Tel Aviv and everywhere else. I want to spread this truth to the world. And I want us to stand up for this truth, because in the end, the truth will win, and so will we."
3. DEFIANCE, HOPE AS BENNETT VISITS COMMUNITY STRUCK BY TERROR
by Ari Soffer
[youtube:2011658]
Less than 48 hours after the deadly terror attack which rocked the small Hevron Hills town of Otniel, Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) dedicated two new kindergartens in the community.
Bennett was in Otniel to pay a condolence call to the family of Dafna Meir, who was brutally stabbed to death in her home by an Arab terrorist.
Apart from the kindergartens, the Education Minister received a spirited welcome at the local high school:
[youtube:2011660]
Students greeted the Jewish Home party leader with songs of defiance, pulling him into a circle while singing "the main thing is not to fear!" and "the eternal nation isn't afraid of the long journey!"
The minister, who spoke at Dafna Meir's funeral, also visited the kindergarten attended by one of two children fostered by the Meir family. In a touching moment, the young boy presented Bennett with a picture he had drawn for him.
During his visit, Bennett and Hevron Hills Regional Council chief Yochai Dimri witnessed firsthand the spirit of resilience in the religious-Zionist community.
"Are you afraid?" they asked the young students; "No!" was the firm response.
"We will build more kindergartens and give more life to the community," Bennett vowed to them in return. "You are helping me to make important decisions."
[album:open
4. BENNETT: REAL THREAT TO ISRAEL IS LEADERS' COMPLACENCY
by Yoni Kempinski
Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) offered his criticism for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's handling of the ight against terror and claimed that the country is suffering a "mental deadlock."
"Israeli history teaches us dear lessons on the danger of falling under the spell of 'Conceptions,'" Bennett told his audience at an Institute for National Securities Studies conference.
The "Conception" is the term for the sense of complacency that arose in Israel after its victory in the Six Day War. Most of the country's leaders believed that the Arab countries would not dare try another military attack after their unprecedented losses in 1967. This mistaken conception - which formed the country's defense policy - was one of the prime factors that led to Israel being taken by surprise in the Yom Kippur War of 1973.
According to Bennett, the political deadlock between Israel and the PA is not the central threat to Israel, but rather the mental deadlock. "It's not the murderers who attack our civilians in Israeli streets and bring their concrete blocks into the heart of Jerusalem - but rather our mental blocks. Instead of shaping our future with our own hands, Israel is dragged into an existing reality. This, in my opinion, is the greatest threat to our security."
Bennett testified that "From the Cabinet room I have watched the gap grow between the quality of commanders and soldiers and the quality of the strategic conception under which they must act."
He clarified that he does not accept the strategy adopted by the heads of the security apparatus. "The warm and comforting assumption of the best Israeli army in the world and the best soldiers in the world, as correct as it may be, will not turn our strategy, that of the National Security Cabinet, into the right one.
"Against our enemies' disruptive innovations - Israel lags behind. We must renew our concepts, not just our weapons. Expensive F-35 fighter jets will not help against 50 commando fighters who dug their way to Nativ Haasara. The newest bulletproof vests will not protect us from the delegitimization attacks that are becoming the building blocks of attacking Israel are able to neutralize a significant percentage of our physical strength. We must create a new, creative, and clear concept of security."
He then called to come up with a new plan, "instead of purchasing more planes, instead of doing the same thing again and expecting different results - we must come up with a new plan, to test our basic assumptions on every front, and to identify the changes that will take us to a new path.
"We must ask ourselves how it can be that, in all our struggles against Hamas and Hezbollah, we are left bleeding but the head of the hydra has remained immune. We need to ask whether the state's budget really covers the correct priorities. We must ask these questions boldly, and without prejudice."
The Jewish Home head emphasized the importance of adopting the Israeli start-ups' secret to success, as he put it. "The courage to look at ourselves every day from a new angle and to break the down the webs of Conceptions. The courage to imagine and to dare to achieve. We must return to the basics of Zionism: to the source of national resilience that has characterized us since the dawn of history, to the renewal and the daring, to the innovation, the acumen, and the acceptance of doubt.
"Are we really acting properly in Gaza? Wouldn't it be better to accept the reality and give up responsibility for two million people in Gaza? To open avenues of life for them with adequate security controls?" he asked.
"Is the Locker Commission [which calls for a radical overhaul of the IDF], which was appointed by the country's leadership and whose best members invested many months of effort, not at least qualified enough for one discussion in the relevant forum?"
5. FATHER OF DAFNA MEIR'S KILLER 'PROUD' OF HIS SON
by Ari Soffer
The father of the teenage Arab terrorist who murdered mother of six Dafna Meir in her home on Sunday night has expressed pride over his son's gruesome actions.
Murad Bader Abdullah Adais fatally stabbed Meir at the front door to her house in Otniel, as she valiantly struggled to close the door on him and prevent him from slaughtering three of her children who were with her at the time.
Adais then fled on foot, sparking a major manhunt which resulted in his capture early Tuesday morning.
Speaking to Palestinian media, Adais's father said he was proud of his son for stabbing the unarmed nurse to death.
"I am proud of him," he said, adding that security forces also detained and interrogated several family members during the arrest operation.
Dafna Meir was buried yesterday amid tearful eulogies from her children, husband, friends and relatives.
6. PREGNANT STAB VICTIM DESCRIBES SHOCKING TERROR ATTACK
by Ido Ben-Porat
Michal Froman, the pregnant woman who was stabbed in Tekoa yesterday (Monday), has explained the attack from her point of view.
"He entered the store and began to mumble in Arabic," she told Army Radio. "I tried to kick him out of the store - he was confused and scared. I saw that he had a knife in his hand but I didn't want to believe it.
"When he saw that I had turned towards him, he started to mumble in Arabic and his steps became more focused on his target. He quickly came at me and I raised my hands to protect my face. He tried to stab me once and I fell back, then he succeeded in stabbing me behind my right shoulder. Then he left."
30-year-old Froman was moderately wounded in the attack. MDA medics gave her first aid before evacuating her to Jerusalem's Sha'arei Tzedek Hospital. "I've been living in these communities for 30 years. I imagined this sort of situation, but when you're in one you don't believe it."
She concluded: "There wasn't anyone to kill him. He could have killed me but he only stabbed me once, then ran away. I felt like someone sent him or that he just wanted to cross something off his list. If he wanted to kill me he could have put more effort into it."
7. MUSLIM WOMAN EXUDES LOVE FOR 'MAGICAL' ISRAEL
by Gil Ronen
Farhana Rahman, a young Muslim woman from New York who is employed in an Israeli mobile app startup named Zula, posted a Facebook status full of boundless love for the state of Israel and its citizens Sunday. For those demoralized by the news these days, it is a true must-read.
"As I am typing this," she wrote upon returning to the US from her second-ever trip to Israel, "my heart is still pounding quite hard, and there is still that yearning to go back."
What followed was an exuberant post full of love for the Jewish state and its residents:
"Muslim me went to the heart of Israel, and exploded- with emotions. And with sentiment," she declared.
"Because everyone loved me. Everyone went out of their way to love me. No one could dare say that my online friends in Israel aren't real friends. Because yes they are. It's insulting for me to even refer to them as my friends. It is also insulting for me to refer to them as my family. They are a part of me. My lifeblood. They collectively transformed me into a much better version of myself."
Jews help people outside the tribe
She continued: "Many wonderful people traveled far and wide to see me. I didn't want to bother anyone by asking for their time in my last-minute trip, but that didn't stop them. They put their workloads and beautiful families aside, and came to see me and spend time with me in all crazy hours. I ended up falling for each of them even more than before, because they were all genuinely delighted over the fact that I was there. Probably even more delighted than I was.
"I don't use the term 'friendship' lightly. I know I am saying it a lot here. I am far from popular, that's for sure. But here's how the culture in Israel works: If people know you, they love you. Well, you obviously have to be a good person. But anyway, everyone lifts everyone else up. You know those stereotypes of Jews only helping Jews and that's why they are all successful and blah blah? Well I am solid proof that they wholeheartedly help people outside of the tribe as well."
"And why don't we all take a lesson from them?", Farhana suggested, in a monologue that soothes hearts:
"Jews weren't the only oppressed people that faced injustices in different points in time," she observed. "Everyone was. And still is. Let's all help build each other up as they do!
"Everyone of all ages in Israel gave me exceptional, world class treatment. I got sloppy little kisses from infants, handmade presents from small children, endless praise from teenagers, saw the childish side of young adults, got treated to wonderful local eats by people my parents age, and listened to words of wisdom and got major hugs from people that were much older. Why am I saying this? To let you know that the people of Israel of all generations love, and love to be loved. And believe me... I didn't only see a small handful of people in one town.
"Don't listen to what the media, or what low res overly shared graphics say against Israel or the IDF (may God bless them.) Take everything you hear as inspiration to try to figure out what the real story is for yourself by getting straight to the source… Don't blindly go by the ridiculous headlines and stories by the media."
'Apartheid'? Yeah, right
As for the "apartheid state" trope that is constantly repeated by anti-Israelis – Farhana had this to say:
"It's almost crazy how many Muslim women I saw driving, shopping independently, studying, working, and enjoying life in Israel. Freedoms they couldn't even dream of elsewhere in the Mideast. And yes, many of them were all burka'ed out to the nines. Also, it's way safer to walk outside late at night in most parts of Israel, than in NY. Because the people are civil and good. If you reply with anything contradictory, I'll simply ignore cause that won't be worth my time.
"Anyway, I went to businesses run by Jews, and got great customer service. I went to businesses run by Muslims. Also got great service. Customers were mixed everywhere, and everyone got along just fine. Interestingly enough, in both cases, the shop owners/staff weren't able to figure out whether I was a Muslim or Jew. I took that as a compliment.
"I didn't think it would be possible for me to love Israel and her people more than before. But yep. This trip did it. Does that make me a Zionist? Probably. You will be surprised how many other Zionist Muslims I came across there. So bring it on haters, bring it on. I will stand at the front line for the chosen people. And after the smoke clears, we will cuddle and play board games together while enjoying bourekas and lemonade with mint."
"I unfortunately didn't get to visit Al Aqsa," she was quoted as writing in a friend's post, "because my Jewish friends were getting some mean glares from some of the older Muslims, and I didn't feel comfortable to go because of it. But I was warmly welcomed to the Western Wall, and that felt just as sacred.
"I was not discriminated against at all by any means. If anything, I was given bigger discounts, and larger portions of meals because everyone was delighted to see that I was a Jew-loving Muslim. They went out of their way to make sure I was comfortable and enjoying my stay. Even strangers."
It's not easy being Israeli these days, with so much hatred and scorn being poured upon Jews globally. But even with just a few hearts as big as Farhana's on the Jews' side, the fight seems to be a lopsided one in the Chosen People's favor.
8. SHIMON PERES RELEASED FROM HOSPITAL, RETURNING TO WORK
by Matt Wanderman
[youtube:2011657]
Former President Shimon Peres has been released from Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer.
As he left, he gave a short statement to reporters. "Five exciting days have gone by for me. I am very happy to return to work, and there is much work to do. This was the goal of my recovery," he said "I want to thank the wonderful team of doctors and nurses who treated me and who reminded me of the spirit of Tel Hashomer, where everyone is equal, and which treats people as well as the diseases themselves."
92-year-old Peres suffered a minor heart attack last Thursday. He was rushed to Tel Hashomer hospital where "he underwent a cardiac catheterization during which a narrowed artery was diagnosed which was then widened during the procedure. Former President Peres is feeling well and is fully conscious, his condition is stable," according to an official statement at the time.
The surgeon has since said that his condition is "excellent."
The former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner was scheduled to participate in the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, starting tomorrow, though doctors have advised against the travel. It is not yet known whether he will take part in the forum.
Peres was Israel's Prime Minister four times, twice as Prime Minister and twice as interim Prime Minister in the 1980's and 90's. He was part of 12 cabinets and his political career has spanned more than 66 years in Israel.
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