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Monday, Jan. 25 '16, Shevat 15, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. US AMBASSADOR SHAPIRO APOLOGIZES FOR POOR TIMING
2. POLICE PREPARING TO CLOSE ROUTES 1 AND 443 DUE TO SNOW
3. TWIN SISTERS PLANNED BOMB ATTACK AGAINST ISRAELIS
4. MOTION TO DISSOLVE KNESSET TO BE PROPOSED ON WEDNESDAY
5. IN WSJ OPED, HOTOVELY ASKS: WHERE'S ALL THE AID TO THE PA GOING?
6. SINKING LOWER: AFTER EXPOSE, LEFTISTS PORTRAY TV ANCHOR AS NAZI
7. SEND US YOUR SNOW PICTURES
8. WATCH: ISRAELI FANS FURIOUS OVER DECISION TO FIRE COACH BLATT
1. US AMBASSADOR SHAPIRO APOLOGIZES FOR POOR TIMING
by Raphael Poch
US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, apologized on Army Radio for the timing of his comments against the Israeli government in which he said that "there are two standards for rule of law in Judea and Samaria". The comments were made during the INSS conference on the same day that Dafna Meir was buried. Meir was murdered by a Palestinian teenager in a savage terror attack in Otniel.
"I know that the timing of my comments was not perfect. I began my comments with a condemnation of the attacks in Otniel and Tekoa. Only one or two of the comments I made that caused this issue. If those comments hurt the Meir family or the mourners, then I am sincerely sorry," said the Ambassador.
Referencing the comments that caused a lot of criticism of Israel in the United States and shocked a lot of people in Israel, Shapiro said, "I praised the security forces for the arrests they made in the Duma case, we encourage the Israeli government to continue to investigate all other cases of violence, as it is of the utmost importance to show our commitment to the rule of law."
2. POLICE PREPARING TO CLOSE ROUTES 1 AND 443 DUE TO SNOW
by Raphael Poch
In preparation for extreme weather conditions over night near the capital, police have announced that they are preparing to close routes 1 and 443, the major highways that lead to the city.
A statement to Israeli press said that "in accordance with the harsh weather, and travel conditions on the routes, it is likely that these routes will soon be closed and that travel on them will not be possible. This is in an effort to protect public safety."
Police are advising that those who need to travel along the routes to get to or from the capital, leave early so as not to get stuck due to the road closures. The transportation hotline will be sending continuous updates to the media regarding closures and alternate routes available.
Updates regarding road closures can be received by the public by calling 110.
3. TWIN SISTERS PLANNED BOMB ATTACK AGAINST ISRAELIS
by Ari Soffer
IDF and Shin Bet security services arrested twin sisters planning a terror attack last month, it has been cleared for publication.
The sisters - 18-year-old Diana and Nadia Huwila - are residents of the village of Shuweika, north of Tulkarem in Samaria. A search of their home revealed a fully assembled bomb, complete with a detonator, as well as bomb-making equipment including fertilizer, a knife, other weapons and Hamas propaganda.
Under Shin Bet interrogation it was revealed that Diana had purchased the bomb components independently, and had used online instructions to assemble an explosive device meant for use against Israeli targets.
Her sister Nadia acted as her accomplice, hiding the evidence in the home they shared.
Investigators also revealed that Diana had spent hours watching Islamic extremist videos and other material online, which contributed towards her radicalization.
In the past several days indictments were served against the sisters by the Samaria Military Court. Diana is charged with producing an explosive device and illegal weapons offenses, while Nadia faces only the latter charges.
"This investigation emphasizes once more the continued motivation to carry out terror attacks, even among those who are not (directly) linked to terrorist organizations, and among them, women," the Shin Bet said in a statement. The agency also noted the case illustrated the key role online incitement and even instructions were playing in encouraging and aiding extremists in carrying out terror attacks.
This is the third terrorist cell uncovered in the Tulkarem area in recent weeks.
Yesterday (Sunday), authorities revealed the arrest of a terror cell which, aided by a PA intelligence officer, had carried out a shooting attack against IDF forces.
Last week, the Shin Bet announced it had uncovered a Hezbollah terror cell nearby.
4. MOTION TO DISSOLVE KNESSET TO BE PROPOSED ON WEDNESDAY
by Hezki Ezra
Following the refusal of Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon to participate in a special task force aimed at solving the coalition crisis by dealing with issues of Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria, the Zionist Union party is preparing a proposal to dissolve to government, which will be presented to the Knesset plenum on Wednesday.
Yaalon's refusal to participate in the task force eroded a patched up effort to avoid a rift in the coalition, as members of both the Likud and Jewish Home party expressed their outrage at Ya'alon's decision to evacuate Jews from two buildings in Hevron which they purchased.
Yaalon was supposed to join Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel on the task force.
In light of the breakdown, and the public statements made by MKs Betzalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Oren Hazan (Likud) to not support the coalition in a vote in the plenum, the Zionist Union submitted a bill to dissolve the Knesset, which will be read on Wednesday morning. Director of the Zionist Union faction Merav Michaeli said on Monday: "even members of the coalition have lost faith in their leader. If Netanyahu cannot control members of his own party, in spite of the fact that every vote in this government counts, that is his problem."
"As the head of the official opposition, it is our duty to use whatever means lay at our disposal to oust this bad government and its leader."
The Zionist Union faction emphasized that a proposal to dissolve the Knesset requires a majority of 61 MKs to vote in favor of the bill only during its third reading - something unlikely to happen even with the ongoing coalition squabbles. The left-wing party instead hopes to achieve at least a moral victory by achieving a small minority (less than 61 votes) in the first two readings.
5. IN WSJ OPED, HOTOVELY ASKS: WHERE'S ALL THE AID TO THE PA GOING?
by Ari Soffer
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely has taken to the pages of the Wall Street Journal, to challenge international donors over how billions in aid to the Palestinian Authority have been used to fund terrorism, instead of for the humanitarian and economic purposes they were earmarked for.
In her oped, which was published late on Sunday, Hotovely acknowledges that there is "broad agreement about the importance of extending development aid to help the Palestinians build the physical and social infrastructure that will enable the emergence of a sustainable, prosperous society."
Yet she goes on to question the strange behavior of donors, who, uniquely in the case of the Palestinians, don't seem to ask any questions or demand transparency as to how their funds are actually being used. In the ten years since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993 - which established the Palestinian Authority under the aegis of the PLO - $21.7 billion in economic assistance was funneled to the PA, with little to no accountability.
"Such assistance will only promote peace if it is spent to foster tolerance and coexistence," Hotovely insists. "If it is used to strengthen intransigence it does more harm than good—and the more aid that comes in, the worse the outcome. This is exactly what has been transpiring over the past few decades. Large amounts of foreign aid to the Palestinians are spent to support terrorists and deepen hostility."
The most glaring misuse of funds was the PA's generous stipends to convicted terrorists and their families, which in 2014 accounted for some 16% of all foreign donations it receives annually (roughly $75 million). Any Palestinian who is jailed for carrying out or attempting to carry out a terrorist attack can expect to receive a salary of anything from $400 and $3,500, "the latter of which is more than five times the average monthly salary of a Palestinian worker," Hotovely notes.
Compounding the problem is that since 2012 - when international aid made up one quarter of the PA's budget - it's accounts have been totally non-transparent, so there is no way at all of tracking where the money being poured into Ramallah is going.
Yet despite this, Palestinians are the largest recipients of international aid per-capita in the world, and only second in terms of total amount of aid - after Syria.
"In 2013 the Palestinians received $793 million in international aid, second only to Syria. This amounts to $176 for each Palestinian, by far the highest per capita assistance in the world. Syria, where more than 250,000 people have been killed and 6.5 million refugees displaced since 2011, received only $106 per capital," according to the deputy minister.
"A closer look at the remaining eight countries in the top 10—Sudan, South Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo—is even more alarming. CIA Factbook data show that these countries have a combined population of 284 million and an average per capita GDP of $2,376. Yet they received an average of $15.30 per capita in development assistance in 2013. The Palestinians, by comparison, with a population of 4.5 million, have a per capita GDP of $4,900.
"In other words, though the Palestinians are more than twice as wealthy on average than these eight countries, they receive more than 11 times as much foreign aid per person."
Hotovely further claimed that, paradoxically, aid ostensibly meant to alleviate the suffering of ordinary Palestinians is being used to keep hundreds of thousands stuck in permanent "refugee camps," accusing the PA of "deliberately keeping them in a state of dependence and underdevelopment for no purpose other than to stoke animosity toward Israel.
She concluded with a challenge to international donors:
"It is difficult to come away from these facts without realizing the deep connection between the huge amounts of foreign aid being spent, the bizarre international tolerance for patently unacceptable conduct by the Palestinians and the lack of progress toward peace on the ground.
"Donors to the Palestinians who support peace would do well to rethink the way they extend assistance. Money should go to economic and civic empowerment, not to perpetuate a false sense of victimhood and unconditional entitlement. It should foster values of tolerance and nonviolence, not the glorification and financing of terrorism."
6. SINKING LOWER: AFTER EXPOSE, LEFTISTS PORTRAY TV ANCHOR AS NAZI
by Gil Ronen
The radical Israeli Left is still reeling from an investigative journalistic report that aired January 8 on Channel 2's Uvda investigative program, which was based on hidden camera footage taken inside the operations of radical leftist groups. Now, a vile Facebook photomontage depicts the program's editor in chief and anchor, Ilana Dayan, as Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, receiving a bouquet from Hitler.
The hidden camera footage showed a central activist in Ta'ayush, convicted pedophile Ezra Nawi, boasting about turning in Arabs who sought to sell land to Jews and making sure they were arrested by the Palestinian Authority – where they face torture and death. A follow-up report showed cash exchanging hands between Nawi and Breaking the Silence activists.
Channel 20, which seeks to become a right-wing alternative to Channels 2 and 10, shared the vile photo with its readers on Facebook and noted that Uvda has aired hundreds of investigative reports to date, against political parties, commercial bodies, nationalist organizations and the IDF – but while some of the reports caused uproar and reached the courts, "only the report about radical leftist groups Ta'ayush and B'Tselem led to such a brutal attack on the program and its head, Ilana Dayan."
Channel 20 noted that in Haaretz, Dayan has been compared to the East German STASI secret police. "The radical Left has lost its brakes. The Israel Police needs to restore order there and quickly, before someone gets hurt," it warned.
Jerusalem District Court Judge David Richter ordered Nawi's release to house arrest yesterday.
7. SEND US YOUR SNOW PICTURES
by Arutz Sheva Staff
With snow storms battering the East Coast and Israel this week, we're betting our readers have plenty of pictures to share.
Send us your photos using our online form, and we'll publish the best ones here!
Please remember to include your name and where the photo was taken.
Here are some of the pictures we've received so far:
[album:open
8. WATCH: ISRAELI FANS FURIOUS OVER DECISION TO FIRE COACH BLATT
by ILTV
[youtube:2011835]
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