Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Monday, Feb. 08 '16, Shevat 29, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. ARAB MKS WIN: TERRORISTS' BODIES TO BE RETURNED FOR BURIAL
2. HERZOG CALLS TO UNILATERALLY DIVIDE ISRAEL TO AVOID 'ISRAESTINE'
3. BEFORE IT BATTLES BDS, AMERICAN JEWRY MUST COMBAT IGNORANCE
4. NETANYAHU URGED TO ACCEPT AMERICAN OFFER FOR MILITARY AID
5. BENNETT: WE CAME TO LEAD, NEXT STOP IS TO FORM GOVERNMENT
6. NEW GAZA TUNNEL COLLAPSE BRINGS DEATH TOLL TO 10
7. 'THERE IS NO RADICAL ISLAM - ISLAM IS ITSELF RADICAL'
8. WATCH: WOULD ISRAELIS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A BLIND MAN?
1. ARAB MKS WIN: TERRORISTS' BODIES TO BE RETURNED FOR BURIAL
by Ari Yashar
The meeting last week between three Arab MKs of the Joint List party's Balad faction and the families of Arab terrorists from Jerusalem apparently has borne fruit, as on Monday it was clarified that the bodies of the ten terrorists will be returned to their families.
The agreement in principle between the government and the families of the terrorists from eastern Jerusalem was made known to Yedioth Aharonoth on Monday morning. The terrorists were responsible for horrific murders in the current wave of attacks, including the shooting attack on a bus in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv in which three elderly Israelis were murdered.
Just last week MKs Hanin Zoabi, Jamal Zahalka and Basel Ghattas met with the families of the ten terrorists who hold residency status, and even stood with them for a moment of silence in memory of the murderers - the meeting has stirred an uproar and calls to suspend the three.
Zoabi, Zahalka and Ghattas promised the families of the terrorists that they would work with Israeli officials to return the bodies, and the families likewise met with Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah who also promised to take action.
Those efforts apparently were successful despite the outrage over the meeting of the three Arab MKs with the families of terrorists, who the MKs described as "martyrs," calling the families "bereaved families."
First return - Monday night
According to Yedioth Aharonoth the first terrorist body is to be returned as soon as Monday night. The agreement will stipulate a night-time funeral with only the family members present. Each family will give a monetary guarantee to the police that will not be returned if the conditions are breached.
The decision comes despite a call by Prof. Simha Goldin on Monday, who demanded not to return the bodies of terrorists until the body of his son IDF soldier Hadar Goldin and the body of soldier Oron Shaul are returned by Hamas - the two have been held since 2014 Operation Protective Edge.
It is expected that the return of the ten terrorists' bodies will come in stages, and will only continue if the families live up to the agreements.
Given that the ten terrorists are residents of Israel, the return of their bodies has fallen under the jurisdiction of Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud), who has firmly opposed returning the bodies as a deterrent measures.
His position stands in stark contrast with that of Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud), who is responsible for the return of terrorists' bodies to Judea and Samaria and who has conducted numerous such returns, which have led to massive funerals in which the murderers are praised as heroes, inciting yet more attacks.
The agreement on returning the bodies comes in parallel to a campaign anticipated to begin in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria on Monday, which is dedicated to the ten terrorists and is called "the international day for Jerusalem martyrs."
Rallies are to take place in the center of Arab towns in Judea and Samaria, and likewise funds are to be collected for rebuilding the homes of the terrorists' families which were demolished or sealed off by the IDF.
2. HERZOG CALLS TO UNILATERALLY DIVIDE ISRAEL TO AVOID 'ISRAESTINE'
by Yoni Kempinski
Opposition head and Zionist Union chairperson MK Yitzhak Herzog took part on Monday morning in Arutz Sheva's Jerusalem Conference, where he presented his "separation plan" from the Palestinian Arabs involving a unilateral division of Israel.
Herzog began by noting on the ideological difference between himself and most of the largely national religious crowd, saying, "it is permissible to argue and everything must be done in the appropriate atmosphere."
"Yesterday the Labor party made a most significant decision, unanimously of course," said Herzog. "As long as (Prime Minister Binyamin) Netanyahu and Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas - ed.) remain in power it is impossible to reach a two-state solution."
"I came here to tell you that you also need to change direction. The leadership of the right has no solution. (Jewish Home chairperson Naftali) Bennett has no solution. Annexing Area C will encourage more terror and more fences," he said, referencing Bennett's plan to annex the myriad of regions under full Israeli rule in Judea and Samaria that are defined as Area C by the 1994 Oslo Accords.
Presenting his own plan, Herzog said, "my proposal is to conclude building the fence. What's happening today in (Judea's) Gush Etzion is a fiasco. We don't intend in the prayer 'return in mercy to Jerusalem Your city' to the 13 Arab villages around Jerusalem."
"We should keep the IDF in the territories and not repeat the mistake made in the (2005) Disengagement, but on the other hand (we should) give them, the Palestinians, more self-rule," he said.
Herzog just last Wednesday met with US Secretary of State John Kerry and presented his plan to divide Israel, urging that the "drastic steps" be implemented before US President Barack Obama's term ends this year. Outlining his plan, he said it would involve a regional council with Egypt and Jordan, and likewise would require "confidence building measures," such as "removing territories from Israel."
"My plan, or Israestine"
At the Jerusalem Conference, Herzog went on to condemn Netanyahu, calling him "a paralyzed leader who doesn't know how to give a response to the problems and the reality that are in front of us today."
Herzog claimed that Israel should limit down to the "blocs of settlement," saying, "the victory of Zionism will be that the world recognizes the blocs, and foremost among them Gush Etzion, which I am personally connected to. Those who don't want a peace deal forced on them must adopt my deal - a separation deal - (in which) we are here and they are there, and a red line divides between us."
"If we don't wake up now we will find ourselves faced with a binational state called 'Israestine.' When I heard that Uri Ariel speaks about annexing Area C, I don't understand what he's saying. It's clear that will cause political damage. I myself come from religious Zionism, I want us to reach an agreement that will leave us the blocs. It can't be any other way, in the international reality we find ourselves in."
Turning his attention to the wave of Arab terror, Herzog said, "I am not apathetic to the reality, to terror, to pain and the loss of confidence. It's a fact that my party adopted my proposals nearly unanimously and even the polls show that 70% of the Israeli public adopts them."
Herzog went on to reference the meeting between three Arab MKs of the Joint List party's Balad faction last week with the families of murderous terrorists.
"The Israeli public is tired of Arab members of Knesset and what they represent and say. But that's in the hands of the Attorney General and he is dealing with it. It is clear to all of us that this reality needs to end and we are waiting for the Attorney General to take a position."
Regarding his proposals, Herzog as early as in December 2013 outlined his national plan, calling to divide Jerusalem and make enormous territorial concessions.
3. BEFORE IT BATTLES BDS, AMERICAN JEWRY MUST COMBAT IGNORANCE
by Ari Soffer
[youtube:2012296]
At the twilight of one of the most significant United States presidencies for the State of Israel, as the race for the next presidency heats up, and amid increasing turmoil and uncertainty in the Middle East, this year's Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations leadership mission to Israel could hardly feel more timely.
Arutz Sheva sat down with the Conference's Vice Chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein, to hear his views on some of the most pressing issues on the American-Jewish agenda - including its relationship with Israel, anti-Semitism, the Iran Deal and, of course, the party primaries.
Battling ignorance and indifference
According to Hoenlein, a longtime active supporter of Israel and Israeli causes, the greatest threat to American Jewry's relationship with the Jewish state is "ignorance, including many of our own Jewish children who go to the best day schools."
The Jewish education system in the US has to do more to explain the importance of the State of Israel to American Jews, and work harder to foster a sense of affinity with their Israeli brethren from a young age, Hoenlein said.
"It's not enough to bring young people here at age 17, 18 on a two-week tour and ignore them for the first 17 years of their lives. And there has to be appropriate follow up" well into university, he insisted.
As for the growing anti-Israel agitation on university campuses - where many Jewish students are feeling increasingly alienated and vulnerable as a result - Hoenlein acknowledged it is a problem, but pointed out that "on most campuses BDS is defeated."
That said, he and other American Jewish leaders are working hard to ensure Jewish students' rights are upheld on campus, including by providing legal backing should they need it, and by persuading educational institutions to adopt the universal definition of anti-Semitism which has already been adopted by the US State Department.
Hoenlein also stressed the sense of responsibility American Jews still feel for Israel's security, noting how he and other leaders have been placing considerable pressure on social media companies to crack down on the torrent of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel hatred and incitement to violence.
"You can't dismiss this as youthful excess or marginal talk," he said. "We see it here (in Israel) what the product of incitement is, and we see it in the US."
As for Israel's recent overture towards Diaspora Jews, in the form of a controversial but revolutionary arrangement allowing for non-Orthodox prayer at the Kotel - a significant move given that around 90% of American Jews identify as non-Orthodox - Hoenlein praised the initiative as a "positive" one in building bridges between Israel and the Diaspora.
But he emphasized again that a far greater issue than inclusiveness at the Kotel was the fact that many American Jews were too ignorant or indifferent to even care about the issue.
"I think for many...they haven't visted the Kotel. They don't know where it is," He lamented. "But they know that this is a positive initiative from the government."
'A strong US-Israel relationship will secure the entire region'
And what of the (seemingly never-ending) race for the presidency?
American Jews have tended to be more politically-engaged than the average American, and this election campaign is no different, Hoenlein observed. Also unlike most of their compatriots (at least in this election season), foreign policy - particularly vis-a-vis the Middle East - figured large on their list of priorities.
And while all the candidates - from Ted Cruz and Donald Trump through to Bernie Sanders - have repeatedly declared their support for Israel, the veteran American-Jewish leader cautioned his fellow American Jews to scrutinize the candidates beyond their campaign soundbites.
"They always love us more in June than they do in January when they get into office," he quipped.
"You have to look at what people's records are, what they stand for, who the people are around them who are likely to be their advisers."
But the "special relationship" between the United States and the State of Israel resonates far beyond their own bilateral relationship or even the position of American Jews, he warned.
An America seen to be abandoning its closest Middle East ally sends a bad message to other US allies in the region Hoenlein said, citing his own extensive meetings with Arab leaders. That is one very important reason why American Jews - and others who care about the stability of the Middle East - should demand clarity from the candidates on their concrete policies towards Israel.
"The most important relationship that others in the region look to is how strong the US-Israel relationship is," he said.
"Many of the Arab states say 'if Israel can't rely on (the US) what chance do we have?'"
The full interview can be watched above.
4. NETANYAHU URGED TO ACCEPT AMERICAN OFFER FOR MILITARY AID
by Ben Ariel
Talks between Israel and the United States on a new military aid package have become stuck as the two sides try to strong-arm one another, Haaretz revealed on Sunday.
The current American aid package to Israel is set to expire in 2017, and in November it was reported that Israel made an initial request for its annual defense aid to increase to as much as $5 billion.
Israel wants $5 billion per year in military aid for 10 years, for a total of $50 billion, congressional aides said at the time.
But on Sunday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting that if Israel's security needs would not be met, he would not sign a deal and would instead wait for the next president to take office in January 2017.
According to Haaretz, senior U.S. officials reacted angrily and warned that the budgetary situation would not improve, and that Israel would not get a better deal with the next president.
"Even as we grapple with a particularly challenging budget environment, this administration's commitment to Israel's security is such that we are prepared to sign an MOU [memorandum of understanding] with Israel that would constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance to any country in U.S. history," one official told the newspaper.
"Israel is of course free to wait for the next administration to finalize a new MOU should it not be satisfied with such a pledge, but we would caution that the U.S. budgetary environment is unlikely to improve in the next 1-2 years and Israel will certainly not find a president more committed to Israel's security than is President Obama," the official warned.
The official further stressed that talks are "taking place in the context of a challenging budgetary environment in the United States that has necessitated difficult tradeoffs amongst competing priorities including not just foreign assistance and defense but also domestic spending."
According to the official Israel currently receives over 50 percent of the total foreign military aid the U.S provides around the globe.
"Despite these [budgetary] limitations, based on extensive consultations with Israel on its threat environment and in-depth discussions within the U.S. government regarding Israel's defense needs, we are confident that a new [memorandum] could meet Israel's top security requirements and preserve its qualitative military edge," he said.
In 2013, during his visit to Israel, President Barack Obama indicated that Israel and the United States were opening talks on extending the American military aid to the Jewish state beyond the end of the current agreement.
Netanyahu later put the brakes on aid talks with Washington in the run-up to the Iran deal that was reached in July, signaling his displeasure with the negotiations. Subsequently, Israeli officials indicated that Netanyahu was ready to move beyond his rejection of the Iran deal and re-launch talks with Washington on the aid package.
Since that time, according to the Haaretz report, there have been three rounds of talks on the aid before Netanyahu's comments on Sunday.
The officials who spoke to the newspaper stressed that Israel's security is a top priority for the Obama administration and to the extent that it can reach a new security memorandum of understandings it will further exemplify President Obama's commitment to Israel's security
"From the $20.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing to the additional $3 billion in missile defense funding the United States has provided under his leadership, no other U.S. Administration in history has done more for Israel's security," the White House said.
According to the report, last Thursday, an American delegation led by Yael Lempert, the Special Assistant to the president and Senior Director for the Levant, Israel and Egypt at the National Security Council in the White House, who arrived in Israel to hold a third round of negotiations on the matter.
Over the past three days, the American team held discussions with a team of counterparts from the national security staff in the Prime Minister's Office and from the Defense Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry. The main topic of discussion in the talks was the size of the aid that the United States would provide Israel and the conditions on its use.
A senior Israeli official who participated in the cabinet meeting but asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject said the contacts with the American administration are continuing but "nothing has yet been finalized and it will take more time."
Another senior official who also participated in the cabinet meeting added that, despite the three rounds of negotiations, Obama's intervention will be necessary to achieve a breakthrough. "It's not a subject for staff, but rather for decisions by leaders," he said.
Next month, notes Haaretz, the contacts between Israel and the United States on the security memorandum of understanding are expected to be stepped up a notch. Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon is expected to visit Washington at the beginning of March to meet with his American counterpart, Ashton Carter. About two weeks later, Netanyahu will come to Washington to attend the conference of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In all probability, he will also meet with Obama in an effort to achieve a breakthrough in the talks.
5. BENNETT: WE CAME TO LEAD, NEXT STOP IS TO FORM GOVERNMENT
by Yoni Kempinski
Education Minister Naftali Bennett participated in the Jerusalem Conference on Monday that was hosted by Arutz Sheva, and explained his political and social policies.
"We find ourselves at an historical crossroads" the Minister said. "A decade ago the prevailing impression was that the religious Zionist movement was crushed. The message was that 'love' would conquer all, and because of our platform being crushed, we felt that the message was incorrect."
However, Bennett said that the attitude was flawed. "From that point onwards, we have come closer to the rest of the Israeli populace and now we sit on the government. Our next step will be to form the government."
Bennett laid out his philosophy with regards to the proper leadership of the country: "In order to lead properly, one needs to think 100 years in the future. We are at the point where we need to decide whether we are simply a safe-haven for the Jewish people, or whether we are a Jewish country."
In an inclusive message Bennett said that all parts of society are needed to form the proper country. "We need the left, and the haredim, as well as religious Zionists. We need all three communities and everyone else."
While expressing inclusive philosophies, Bennett noted that the government has limits in what it can achieve, saying, "we need to be more national-minded because we are the leadership." He commented on one of the problems inherit in democracy: "The rule of the many is not the place to crush the views of the few, while on the other hand, considering the needs of the few does not mean that the many have to give in to them."
Stepping out of the rhetoric and into a more aggressive approach, Bennett, who has been a member of the last two coalition governments, accused right-wing governments of not doing their jobs adequately. "Every right-wing government from 1977 and onwards failed to lead properly. We came to lead."
6. NEW GAZA TUNNEL COLLAPSE BRINGS DEATH TOLL TO 10
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A Palestinian Arab died on Monday when an illegal smuggling tunnel he was trying to restore collapsed near Gaza's border with Egypt, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
The death brings to 10 the number of Gazans killed in four separate tunnel collapses in the last two weeks, with the rest of them being Hamas terrorists trying to rebuild the attack tunnels breaching into Israel.
The man was killed "as a result of a collapse of a mass of sand" inside a tunnel previously used to smuggle goods, a security source said.
He had been trying to restore the damage caused by Egypt flooding the tunnel, the source added.
A medical source identified him as Mussa Jaber al-Maadi, 24 and from Rafah in southern Gaza.
Nine other Palestinians died in two unrelated tunnel collapses in the past two weeks, all of them members of the Al-Qassam Brigades - the "military wing" of the Hamas terrorist organization which controls Gaza.
In late 2014, Egypt began setting up a buffer zone on its border with Gaza, occupying a large swath of land in Gaza and destroying hundreds of tunnels used for smuggling weapons and other items.
In September 2015, Egyptian forces carried out digging work that Palestinians say led to the flooding of the last remaining tunnels there.
On Saturday Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said the tunnels were flooded by Egypt at Israel's request, before his office claimed the remarks were misinterpreted.
Israel maintains a naval blockade on Gaza to prevent the influx of weapons to the terrorists, while mass quantities of humanitarian goods pour in through its border crossings with Gaza. Egypt has kept its sole border crossing with Gaza largely closed since 2013.
Egypt has been busy destroying hundreds of tunnels used to smuggle people, goods and weapons between Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula.
AFP contributed to this report.
7. 'THERE IS NO RADICAL ISLAM - ISLAM IS ITSELF RADICAL'
by Yoni Kempinski
At the Jerusalem Conference on Monday, hosted by Arutz Sheva, a special panel was held under the title: "Conciliation or clashing - how to deal with the threat of radical Islam."
Taking part in the panel moderated by Danny Zaken was Reshet Bet Arab affairs journalist Eran Zinger, Middle East and Islam expert Prof. Rafi Yisraeli, Rabbi Uri Sherki of the Beit Yehuda congregation in Jerusalem, Yesha Council head Avi Roeh, and Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara (Likud).
Rabbi Sherki, who also serves as head of the Hebrew department at Machon Meir Yeshiva in Jerusalem and who lost his son Shalom Sherki in a terrorist car ramming attack last April, said that the problem is not Muslims but rather Islam.
"There is no radical Islam. Islam is radical," stated the rabbi. "It's true that there are Arabs who want to live in peace, but the moment that we give them something, we provide a tail wind for the radicals. Because Islam is a radical cultural movement that is not prepared to accept the fact that we exist."
"As long as Islam doesn't recognize the fact that it is a branch religion of Judaism, it will remain radical."
Rabbi Sherki, who was born in Algeria and grew up in France before moving to Israel in 1972, added, "the Muslims distinguish between the (ancient) sons of Israel and the Jews. The Jews, i.e. the Israelis, are cheaters, liars and all the rest."
According to the rabbi, "the state of Israel is an open wound for the Arab world, and a wound must be closed. We forget that the liberty of man and democracy are expressions that are heresy in the Muslim world."
"Our only way to ensure the closing of the wound is by telling the truth and stopping the illusion and the hope, as if the Arabs have a chance. We need to tell the truth, that we are the sons of Israel who returned to the land of Israel," concluded Rabbi Sherki
8. WATCH: WOULD ISRAELIS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF A BLIND MAN?
by Ari Soffer
[youtube:2012314]
Anyone who's ever spent a considerable amount of time in Israel will have become acquainted with the disarming tendency of Israelis to offer (sometimes very much unsolicited) help to members of the public they have never met before.
This remarkable sense of brotherhood and mutual responsibility has been exhibited graphically on countless occasions during the ongoing wave of Arab terrorist attacks. Civilians of all ages and stripes have regularly intervened to stop attacks, with countless pieces of CCTV footage showing onlookers running towards, rather than away from, the scene of attacks to help despite the danger. Several heroic citizens have even been killed in the process of attempting to save others.
So the results of an Israeli student's social experiment into how Israelis react to a "blind man" handing them the wrong change are hardly surprising - if nonetheless still remarkable.
In recent months a number of similar social experiments (both real and staged) have been circulated online, showing how members of the public in the US and Australia react when asked for change of a 5 or 10 dollar bill by a "blind man", who then offers them a much greater sum "by accident." The results tend to be mixed - while many quickly explain his mistake, others are seemingly happy take advantage of the situation.
But in Israel, not a single individual in dozens of scenarios hesitated for a second before explaining to the "blind" man that his 20-shekel note was in fact a 100 or 200 bill.
In one case, a total stranger gave him 20 shekels without taking anything in return.
So - surprising? No. But inspiring? Most definitely.
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