Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Sunday, Feb. 21 '16, Adar 12, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. THREE STABBING ATTACKS THWARTED SUNDAY MORNING
2. CAN ONLINE SHAMING BE 'KOSHER'?
3. REPORT: RON ARAD WAS TORTURED TO DEATH IN LEBANON
4. BRIDE-TO-BE CRASH VICTIM REGAINS CONSCIOUSNESS
5. DESPITE WAVE OF ATTACKS, RAMI LEVY BLAMES 'BAD LUCK'
6. DOCTORS FEAR FOR LIFE OF ERLAU REBBE
7. SEVEN DEAD IN MICHIGAN SHOOTING ATTACKS, ONE ARRESTED
8. WATCH: FEMALE TERRORIST CAUGHT AT TAPUACH JUNCTION
1. THREE STABBING ATTACKS THWARTED SUNDAY MORNING
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A spate of attempted stabbing attacks were thwarted by alert IDF soldiers Sunday morning.
The first attack occurred early Sunday morning, when a knife-wielding female teenage terrorist was arrested after an attempted terror attack at the Tapuach Junction checkpoint.
Armed with a knife, the 17 year old terrorist, a resident of the Arab village of Qusra in Samaria, had positioned herself near a bus stop at the junction, but was discovered and arrested before carrying out any attacks.
When the border police ordered the suspect to halt, she reportedly approached them with her knife, but stopped once the soldiers drew their weapons. No injuries were reported in the attack.
Later Sunday morning, a 14 year old Arab terrorist attacked Israeli soldiers just outside of Bani Na'im, east of Hevron.
Watch: 14-year-old terrorist arrested by IDF forces:
[video:2012723]
The attacker allegedly opened the door of an IDF jeep, intending to stab the soldiers inside, but was overpowered and taken into custody.
There were no injuries reported in the incident. The young terrorist has been transferred for questioning.
Just minutes after that attack another Palestinian attempted to stab Israeli civilians at an intersection near the town of Huwarra in Samaria.
The terrorist was shot dead on site before he managed to reach his intended victims.
2. CAN ONLINE SHAMING BE 'KOSHER'?
by David Rosenberg
Is online shaming digital vigilantism or constructive social work? That's a question addressed in a new directive from the Tzohar Rabbincal Organziation.
Online shaming is a dangerous weapon that can ruin lives, acknowledges Tzohar leader Rabbi Yuval Cherlow, but it can also be harnessed for constructive purposes, he argues.
With the explosion of social media in recent years and the proliferation of digital images and information anyone with an axe to grind – from scorned lovers to disgruntled customers or jealous schoolmates – can turn someone's life upside down, often while maintaining anonymity.
Due to the ubiquitousness of the internet, the online shaming is no longer the nuisance it once was, but a potentially deadly ability to destroy lives, ruin relationships, end careers – or in extreme cases even drive victims to take their own lives.
Yet for all of the evils of online shaming, it is possible to use its tremendous potential for good, argues Rabbi Cherlow.
Get deniers, for instance – men who refuse to grant their wives a divorce and thus prevent them from remarrying – are a clear example, explains Rabbi Cherlow.
"Online shaming can be both extremely detrimental, sometimes even deadly, but can also force positive change as in the case of get deniers," said Cherlow.
Given the slippery nature of shaming campaigns and the ambiguity often involved, Tzohar has released a series of guidelines for cases where shaming is both appropriate and useful.
Some of the basic guidelines include the need to verify that information publicized is true, and to ensure that all other possible avenues have been attempted.
While approving of online shaming in certain cases, Cherlow notes that one must be extremely careful, even when it is permitted.
"It is critical to remember that in Jewish law even evildoers - like get refusers - are afforded a certain level of benefit and compassion so that while we must work to ensure justice, we need to do everything possible to ensure the damage is not beyond what is necessary".
3. REPORT: RON ARAD WAS TORTURED TO DEATH IN LEBANON
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Ron Arad, the Israel Air Force navigator who went missing in 1986 after his plane crashed in Lebanon, was tortured to death by his captors just two years later, according to a report in Lebanese media.
Arad's disappearance has long haunted Israel, as his precise fate was never uncovered. It is known that he ejected from his plane along with pilot Yishai Aviram while flying a mission over south Lebanon, but while Aviram was rescued Arad was taken captive.
Israel believed he was captured by the Shia Islamist Amal movement, and after some time in their captivity was handed over to Iran.
However, according to the Lebanon's Daily Star, a former member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party - a neo-Nazi Syrian militia - recently told a Lebanese tribunal that his men had captured Arad.
Muafeed Kuntar - who made his claims while on trial over charges he had spied for Israel's Mossad secret service along with four others - said he was a commander of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party at the time, and that his men informed him in 1988 that they had received a captive.
He told the trial that he was unaware of the identity of the captive at that point, but had ordered his men to clean him up and interrogate him.
It was under their "interrogation" that Arad died, he claimed.
"One day I got a telephone call and they told me that a group of guys were holding someone," he told a military court in Beirut. He added that the group had attempted to interrogate the man to ascertain his identity but were unsuccessful.
"He knew many languages," Kunter reportedly said. "When they spoke to him in Hebrew he answered in French, when they questioned him in French he answered in Spanish, when they talked to him in English he answered in French."
Kuntar claimed that Arad was dressed in overalls at the time he was handed to him, and was in a bad state, unable to stand by himself.
Two days later he said one of his men phoned him to tell him the captive had died.
"They told me that he had entered the bathroom and stayed there for a long time," he said. "When they went to check on him they found him dead."
Remarkably, he claimed that it was not until 1998 - when pictures of the Israeli airman were published - that he and his men realized Arad's true identity. He said they attempted to find the spot they had buried their captive, but were unsuccessful.
"Of course he passed away due to exhaustion and of course he was subject to beatings and torture as that is how interrogations happen."
The paper also reported that another of the men on trial had attempted to hand over information on Arad's remains to then-President of Lebanon Emile Lahoud.
At that point the judge ordered the trial to halt and continue behind closed doors, out of respect for the now-deceased Lahoud's memory.
Israeli officially declared Arad's death in 2008.
4. BRIDE-TO-BE CRASH VICTIM REGAINS CONSCIOUSNESS
by Yoni Kempinsky
Sarah Sperling - the 20-year-old who was to be married in two weeks before suffering serious and horrific injuries in the lethal Egged bus crash on Highway 1 last Sunday regained consciousness over the weekend. A statement made by Assaf Harofeh hospital said that she is currently breathing on her own power.
Her condition is considered to be moderate and stable.
Sarah and her younger sister Bracha were on the route 402 bus heading from Jerusalem to Bnei Brak. Sarah was critically wounded and her sister Bracha was lightly wounded in the crash. The father of the girls told reporters that the sisters were on their way to Bnei Brak in order to see to some of the wedding arrangements. The wedding was set to take place three and a half weeks after the accident occurred.
During the course of the week, Sarah Netanyahu together with Health Minister Ya'akov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) visited the bride-to-be in the hospital.
The family is asking the public to continue to pray for the full recovery of Sarah bat Dina.
5. DESPITE WAVE OF ATTACKS, RAMI LEVY BLAMES 'BAD LUCK'
by David Rosenberg
Founder of chain claims Thursday's deadly terror attack simply bad luck, yet this attack is only the latest in series of attacks targeting "coexistence" stores.
Rami Levy, founder of the popular chain of Israeli supermarkets, has long held up his company as a model of coexistence between Jews and Arabs.
Despite criticism over security concerns and fears of assimilation, Levy has defended the stores three "coexistence" branches, where Palestinian Authority Arabs and Israeli Jews shop together.
When terrorists struck the Sha'ar Binyamin branch, killing Tuvia Weissman and wounding another shopper, Levy doubled down on his store's "coexistence" policy, telling Army Radio the attack was simply a result of "bad luck".
"Security was heavy and there is no way to explain the incident other than an unfortunate series of events," Levy said.
Yet Thursday's lethal attack was not the first act of terror targeting the Rami Levy chain. In fact, since December of 2014, all three "coexistence" branches have suffered attacks.
On December 3rd, 2014, a terrorist stabbed shoppers lined up near checkout counters at the Mishor Adumim branch of Rami Levy, wounding two before being shot by a security guard.
Rami Levy's Gush Etzion branch was struck on October 28th, 2015 when an Arab terrorist brandishing a knife targeted shoppers, stabbing one woman in the back so deeply it buried the blade in her spine.
Last November Sha'ar Binyamin, the site of the most recent terror attack, was the scene of another stabbing attack when an Arab terrorist stabbed a middle-aged Israeli man just outside of the supermarket.
Following last Thursday's attack, the Jersualem Belt Forum warned that, given the chain's history, more attacks on Rami Levy's three coexistence stores were inevitable.
6. DOCTORS FEAR FOR LIFE OF ERLAU REBBE
by Haim Lev
In spite of the slight improvements in his condition that took place over Shabbat, the Rebbe of Erlau Rabbi Yochanan Sofer, took a drastic turn for the worse on Sunday, and doctors are now fearing for his life.
In a statement made by his doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, on Sunday morning, the doctors said that "we do not wish to worry the public, but we need to let people know about his actual current condition. The situation right now is critical and we are asking people to gather in synagogues to pray for him and open the gates of mercy."
Rabbi Sofer, who is known as the "Elder of the Admorim", has been in critical condition in the intensive care unit of Hadassah hospital for the past week. He was hospitalized on the fourth of February after admitting himself under his own power. Sofer has been hospitalized numerous times in recent years, and even suffered a stroke in Switzerland a few years ago.
7. SEVEN DEAD IN MICHIGAN SHOOTING ATTACKS, ONE ARRESTED
by David Rosenberg
An unidentified gunman opened fire at a car dealership and Cracker Barrel restaurant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, killing seven and leaving two wounded, reported Fox 17.
The shooter fled in a Chevy HHR. Police reportedly have one possible suspect, a 45 year old male, in custody. The gunman is also believed to be responsible for a later drive-by shooting attack, injuring one woman.
A Kalamazoo County undersheriff, Paul Matyas, reported to Fox 17 that the attacks appeared to be random.
"We have somebody who is just driving around finding people and shooting them dead in their tracks," he said.
The victims included an eight year old boy at the restaurant, and a father and son at the car dealership.
[youtube:2012714]
8. WATCH: FEMALE TERRORIST CAUGHT AT TAPUACH JUNCTION
by David Rosenberg
[youtube:2012716]
A knife-wielding female teenage terrorist was arrested Sunday morning after an attempted terror attack at the Tapuach Junction checkpoint.
Armed with a knife, the 17 year old terrorist, a resident of the Arab village of Qusra in Samaria, had positioned herself near a bus stop at the junction, but was discovered and arrested before carrying out any attacks.
When the border police ordered the suspect to halt, she reportedly approached them with her knife, but stopped once the soldiers' guns were drawn.
During questioning she revealed that she was inspired to commit a terror attack in part by online videos inciting young Arabs to violence. The suspect's hometown of Qusra is the scene of frequent clashes with both IDF soldiers and Jewish residents of the neighboring community of Esh Kodesh.
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