Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Sunday, Jan. 31 '16, Shevat 21, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. THREE WOUNDED IN SHOOTING ATTACK NEAR BET EL
2. NETANYAHU: ISRAEL READY TO TALK BUT NO PRE-CONDITIONS
3. WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION REFUSES TO EXPEL ISRAELI DOCTORS
4. ATTEMPTED CAR-RAMMING ATTACK ON ROUTE 443
5. BET EL TERRORIST IDENTIFIED AS PA POLICE OFFICER
6. JEWISH HOME DIVIDED ON REFORM PRAYER AT KOTEL
7. 'YOU DON'T MANAGE NEGOTIATIONS WITH A GUN TO THE HEAD'
8. HAARETZ JOURNALIST EVOKES 'ELDERS OF ZION' AT UK UNIVERSITY
1. THREE WOUNDED IN SHOOTING ATTACK NEAR BET EL
by Ari Soffer
At least three people have been wounded in a shooting attack just outside of Bet El, north of Jerusalem.
Two of victims are listed in serious condition, while the third was lightly injured by gunfire. All three have been evacuated to hospital after receiving emergency treatment at the scene.
The attack took place at a military checkpoint between Bet El and Ramallah, just off the Jewish town located in the Binyamin Region of Samaria.
According to initial reports the terrorist - an Arab man in his early 20s - arrived at the checkpoint in a car before getting out an opening fire on soldiers manning the position. The terrorist was eliminated at the scene by IDF soldiers' return fire.
From the scene (in Hebrew):
[video:2012028]
Following the attack, the road from Bet El to Givat Assaf has been closed until further notice.
In related news, security services revealed that one of two terrorists arrested for stabbing a 17-year-old Jewish youth in Jerusalem last night is an 11-year-old Arab boy.
It comes after his 15-year-old accomplice handed himself in to police.
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2. NETANYAHU: ISRAEL READY TO TALK BUT NO PRE-CONDITIONS
by Nitzan Keidar
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the French proposal to renew peace talks with the Palestinians Sunday morning during the cabinet meeting.
"You certainly heard of the proposal being raised in certain quarters in France, to convene an international conference with the threat at the end that if it is unsuccessful, then France will – to a large degree – adopt the Palestinian position," Netanyahu said.
Netanyahu clarified that the phrasing of the proposal is not acceptable to Israel.
"This will be an incentive for the Palestinians to come and not compromise," he blasted. "The substance of negotiations is compromise and the French initiative, as it has been reported, in effect gives the Palestinians in advance reasons not to do so.
Netanyahu stressed that Israel would fight the new initiative.
"I believe that we will see a sobering up on this issue. In any case, we will work to bring this about and our position is very clear: We are prepared to enter into direct negotiations without preconditions and without dictated conditions."
3. WORLD MEDICAL ASSOCIATION REFUSES TO EXPEL ISRAELI DOCTORS
by Cynthia Blank
The World Medical Association (WMA) will not censure Israeli doctors over pro-Palestinian claims they perform medical torture on Palestinian patients.
After a group of 71 British physicians demanded the membership of the Israel Medical Association (IMA) be revoked, Shimon Samuels, the international relations director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, sent an urgent letter to the WMA's president.
In his response, the UK-based Michael Marmot said he rejected the call from the British physicians to expel Israel from the world body.
"The main authors of the letter have launched several attacks against the Israeli Medical Association with similar arguments in the past," Marmot wrote, noting that "investigations have revealed no wrongdoing."
"We have trust that our Israeli colleagues will stand firm on our values and the protection of human rights," he added.
Although no official motion to oust the Israeli physicians has been filed, Marmot said the organization had contacted the IMA representative about its response to the allegations.
The Israel Medical Association has roundly denied any abuse of human rights and says all its practices are in keeping with WMA protocol.
Samuel, meanwhile, praised Marmot's response, saying, "We should feel gratified at the reassuring response to our protest letter."
He added that Marmot's letters "exudes a fatigue" with the BDS movement which seeks to boycott and delegitimize the Jewish state.
4. ATTEMPTED CAR-RAMMING ATTACK ON ROUTE 443
by Cynthia Blank
An Arab terrorist attempted a car-ramming attack on Sunday afternoon at the Maccabim security checkpoint near Modi'in on Route 443.
According to first reports, there are no injuries in the incident.
The terrorist was shot and is in serious condition.
5. BET EL TERRORIST IDENTIFIED AS PA POLICE OFFICER
by Ari Soffer
The terrorist who injured three people in a shooting attack between Bet El and Ramallah in Samaria has been identified as a Palestinian Authority police officer.
Amjad Abu-Omar, 34, also served in the past as a personal bodyguard for the PA's Attorney General. He was a resident of Kfar Jama'in, near Shechem in Samaria, several miles north of the site of his attack.
It has also been revealed that Abu-Omar posted several messages inciting terrorism on his Facebook page, including a post not long before this morning's attack in which he appeared to hint at his murderous intentions.
In a status posted this morning, he wrote: "On this earth there are things worth living for. But regrettably I don't see anything worth living for as long as the occupation chokes our souls and kills our brothers and sisters. God have mercy on our martyrs and heal the injured."
Hours before the attack, he also wrote: "Good morning, I will become a shahid (martyr) and join Allah and his messenger Mohammed. This is a morning of victory!"
Some Palestinian media outlets have suggested that Abu-Omar was at least partially motivated to carry out what was essentially a suicide attack after falling heavily in debt.
It represents the latest case in which members of the PA security forces have acted - apparently of their own accord - to carry out or aid attacks against Israelis.
Last week, Israeli security forces revealed that an officer in the PA intelligence agency had helped two terrorists carry out a shooting against IDF forces.
In December, another PA intelligence officer carried out a shooting attack just a few miles south of the site of Sunday's shooting. Mazen Hassan Orebeih shot and wounded two Israelis near the Hizme checkpoint to Jerusalem, before being shot dead himself.
6. JEWISH HOME DIVIDED ON REFORM PRAYER AT KOTEL
by Hezki Ezra
The Israeli government is expected to recognize on Sunday the right of Reform and Conservative prayer at the Western Wall.
According to a proposed recommendation, the Kotel will be divided into two sections: the northern part would be under the responsibility of the Kotel rabbi, while the southern section - where men and women may pray together without a partition - would answer directly to the Prime Minister's Office.
Jewish Home ministers appear to be divided over the proposal, with members of the Tekuma faction taking a more hardline stance.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel is expected to vote against the proposal which he asserts is another attempt to harm the sanctity of Israel and would would change the status quo in place since the establishment of the state.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, however, are expected to support the proposal.
In a statement on the issue, Bennett's office said, "Two years ago, Naftali Bennett broke the circle and found an immediate solution. He built the [southern] complex and the proposal now is consolidating and anchoring it as a government decision."
[youtube:1128381]
It is not clear at this time how haredi ministers and Knesset members will respond to the controversial legislation.
The proposal to be discussed at the Cabinet meeting on Sunday states the expansion of prayer to accommodate a "pluralistic and egalitarian approach, will be used to meet the needs of worshippers from various non-Orthodox denominations, particularly the Reform and Conservative streams."
Funds for the proposed new compound and its needs will be coordinated with the Finance Ministry as part of the 2017 state budget.
7. 'YOU DON'T MANAGE NEGOTIATIONS WITH A GUN TO THE HEAD'
by Cynthia Blank
Israel's ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, denounced on Sunday a French initiative to jumpstart the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian Authority through the convening of an international peace conference.
The initiative was introduced Friday by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who also leveled a threat, saying France would unilaterally recognize a Palestinian state if its efforts to try to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians fail.
"They tell us 'either you sit and come, or we determine the outcome,''' Danon blasted in an interview with Walla! News. "This is not how you manage negotiations, with a gun to the head."
"We are for negotiations, there have already been negotiations that have not yielded anything," he continued. "Not through threats will we promote peace in the Middle East. It doesn't work like that."
"When I got my job as ambassador to the UN, I committed to the government's decisions," Danon noted. "The policy is clear - to stop terror and incitement and return to negotiations - and I represent it clearly. We, unlike the Palestinians, do not set preconditions. We say 'stop the incitement, without any connection to negotiations.'"
Danon also addressed UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's recent criticism of Hamas, arguing that while it is certainly warranted, it still does not excuse a previous remark from Ban that was widely interpreted as defending Palestinian terror.
"As oppressed peoples have demonstrated throughout the ages, it is human nature to react to occupation, which often serves as a potent incubator of hate and extremism," Ban was quoted as saying in a recent UN Security Council meeting.
"The Prime Minister and I both reacted sharply against that statement," Danon noted, "and we hope that Ban Ki-moon will understand that terror is terror is terror."
8. HAARETZ JOURNALIST EVOKES 'ELDERS OF ZION' AT UK UNIVERSITY
by Ari Soffer
[youtube:2012039]
Amira Hass, one of the most extreme-left columnists for Israel's Haaretz newspaper, is no stranger to controversy.
Among many other things, she has in the past defended Palestinian terrorism, and specifically deadly rock-throwing attacks against Jews, which she described as no less than an Arab "duty".
But in a recent talk at an anti-Israel event at England's University of Kent, Hass seemed to surpass even her own outrageous standards, claiming that "the Elders of Zion" plotted to "occupy" the Palestinians.
"I ask myself did the Elders of Zion really sit together at the beginning of the Seventies and then during the Nineties, and plan, and have all these military orders, all these changes?" Hass asked the 200-strong audience.
"I believe that they knew for sure that they don't want to give back the land and in the Nineties, my conclusion is that they wanted to do everything possible to thwart the two state solution."
A recording of part of Hass's speech - entitled "Israel and the Palestinians: Colonialism and Prospects for Justice" - was uploaded by British pro-Israel blogger and activist David Collier, along with a picture of Hass delivering her address. In a blog post describing his experience at the event he recounted his sense of shock at hearing such an openly anti-Semitic canard evoked at a British university - without anyone challenging or protesting it.
"I got lost between the sentences as I tried to make sense of what I was hearing," Collier wrote. "Hass was discussing a hidden agenda, a secret group of Jews, plotting and planning beyond the reach of Israeli democracy – by extension, this secret group were to blame for the 'war crimes', for the death of innocent Palestinian children.
"Hass was spinning tales of a Jewish cabal, of shady secretive control, of unworldly plots and sinister deeds. A road that leads to dead children. Hass was resurrecting a classic historic antisemitic blood libel in a British university."
Speaking to Arutz Sheva, he described it as "sickening" and "frightening."
"It was sickening, and frightening that in a university in 2016, the Elders of Zion can be mentioned without anyone in the audience saying a word," he said.
Hass, along with fellow far-left Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, regularly speaks at anti-Israel events throughout Europe and North America, and has urged Diaspora Jewry to stop supporting Israel.
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