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Thursday, Mar. 31 '16, Adar Bet 21, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. SOLDIER FROM HEVRON NO LONGER CHARGED WITH MURDER
2. WATCH: MAJOR NAVAL EXERCISE PREPARES FOR ISIS ATTACKS
3. ISRAEL CUTS POWER TO JERICHO OVER ONGOING PA DEBT
4. TANK SUFFERS DIRECT HIT IN SERIOUS TRAINING ACCIDENT
5. BELGIAN CRISIS CENTER TELLS JEWISH VICTIMS ISRAEL DOESN'T EXIST
6. HAREDI LEADER ATTACKS BENNETT: YOU'RE A SWINE, DITCH THE KIPPAH
7. WATCH: EUROPE'S ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE
8. UKRAINIAN OLIM: 'IT IS A GIFT FROM GOD TO LIVE IN ISRAEL'
1. SOLDIER FROM HEVRON NO LONGER CHARGED WITH MURDER
by Uzi Baruch
During a hearing on Thursday on the extension of the detention of a soldier who last Thursday shot a wounded Arab terrorist, the military prosecutor announced that the murder charges that were leveled against him last Friday in a similar hearing have been dropped.
Instead the soldier is being charged with homicide instead of murder.
2. WATCH: MAJOR NAVAL EXERCISE PREPARES FOR ISIS ATTACKS
by Kobi Finkler
[youtube:2014038]
The Israeli Navy completed a major exercise in the Sea Red early Wednesday morning, a simulation which is usually undertaken once or twice a year.
The 24-hour exercise included every naval combat soldier currently in service, according to the commander of the exercise, underscoring the massive scale of the operation.
Among other scenarios, the exercise involved real-life simulations including the hijacking of civilian vessels by terrorists, terrorist infiltrations into Israel via the sea, attacks on naval vessels and more.
In particular, the Israeli navy's focus in the Red Sea is the rising threat from the Islamic State terror group (ISIS) in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, which security experts fear intends to launch attacks against Israel.
A navy spokesman said that Israel's close cooperation with Egypt and Jordan is crucial and ongoing, and that the two neighboring states were alerted to the major exercise beforehand.
As part of Israel's efforts to secure its borders, the Israeli navy plans to implement a border fence along both the Israeli-Jordanian land border, as well as a barrier in the Red Sea to protect Israel's territorial waters.
[album:open
3. ISRAEL CUTS POWER TO JERICHO OVER ONGOING PA DEBT
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Israel's state-run electricity company was set Thursday to reduce the power supply one of the Palestinian Authority's major cities over a debt of $450 million, an Israeli official said.
The decision by the Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) applies to the city of Jericho near the Jordanian border, and comes after the Palestinian Authority and the private Jerusalem District Electricity Company failed to pay longstanding dues, the official said. The Jerusalem District Electricity Company operates in eastern Jerusalem and the surrounding villages.
The debt currently amounts to more than 1.7 billion shekels ($450 million), according to the energy industry official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"We've informed all the relevant parties, and after endless attempts to reach arrangements, we've decided to act to reduce the debt," the official said, adding that the Jericho move was "open-ended."
In January 2015, the IEC cut the power to PA cities for a number of hours every day over a similar debt. It ceased doing so, however, the following month despite the standing debt after the US State Department criticized the move.
The Israeli Finance Ministry and Prime Minister's office, which would normally be involved in any decision to reduce the electricity to the Palestinian Authority, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Palestinian Authority officials did not immediately comment either.
Some Israeli leaders have suggested using PA tax money collected by Israel to pay off the massive debt.
In 2015, then Energy and Water Minister Silvan Shalom demanded Israel take steps to ensure that Israelis were not left with the PA's bill.
"It is inconceivable that the people of Israel will pay the Palestinian debt and we will ensure that the Palestinians will pay their debt to the last shekel."
4. TANK SUFFERS DIRECT HIT IN SERIOUS TRAINING ACCIDENT
by Uzi Baruch
A serious military training accident occurred in Israel's Golan Heights, during which an IDF tank was struck by a shell fired from another tank.
According to an initial investigation, one tank operating team requested permission to fire into an open area, received the green light, and fired - only for another tank to emerge uphill immediately into the path of the oncoming shell.
Miraculously, despite receiving a direct hit and sustaining serious damage, the second tank's crew was unharmed.
On inspection, it was revealed that the struck tank's armor had prevented the shell from penetrating, though the tank itself was severely damaged.
As a result of the incident training exercising in the Golan have been halted, pending the outcome of an urgent investigation.
5. BELGIAN CRISIS CENTER TELLS JEWISH VICTIMS ISRAEL DOESN'T EXIST
by Ari Soffer
The Brussels terror attacks which killed 35 people earlier this month also injured hundreds more - among them many foreign citizens, including several Israelis.
But when a Jewish volunteer called up the Belgian government's Crisis Center to arrange flying the Israeli victims home, the operator - who identified himself only by the Arabic first name Zakaria - chose to inform him that Israel doesn't exist, and insisted the victims should be sent to "Palestine."
The shocking incident, along with an audio recording of the conversation, was published in the Belgian Jewish monthly Joods Actueel.
An English transcript of the conversation can be read below, courtesy of the New Anti Semite anti-hate blog.
Listen:
[youtube:2014034]
XXX: Good afternoon, my name is XXX, I am a volunteer in the Jewish coordination committee of Antwerp. We are contacted by persons… we have 2 persons of the Jewish community that were hurt in the attacks in the airport
Crisis Centre: Yes sir
XXX: They are prepared to be transported back to Israel. Our volunteers are busy with it and take care of everything but we received information from the hospital that we need special papers from the police that they can be released. Is this correct and to who should we ask that? Can you tell me more about that?
CC: That is effectively.. I will take a look. So … they go back to Palestine.
XXX: Not Palestine, Israel.
CC: Yes, but that was before Palestine, of course. OK
XXX: Could you repeat that again, please? What is the name?
CC: That … Palestine.
XXX: Can I get your name, please?
Cc: Of course, Zakaria.
XXX: And you know only Palestine?
CC: Sorry?
XXX: You don't know Israel, only Palestine?
CC: I know the Jews went to there, that Palestine received (opvangen) them and that there is a war between Israel and Palestine, of course. And the occupation… that's what's on the news of course.
XXX: Can you help me with the question I have, or not?
CC: Naturally, of course. Thus they go back to Palestine and ask that they could get an attestation. Voila, it is noted.
XXX: Can I have you name again, I didn't understand it well.
CC: Zakaria
XXX: Zakaria?
CC: That is correct.
XXX: Zakaria what? What is your last name?
CC: I am not obliged to give it.
XXX: OK
XXX; Thank you very much.
CC: You're welcome. Bye
Belgium, like neighboring France, has seen a rapid rise in anti-Semitism over the past decade, emanating largely from the country's growing Muslim population.
Graphic illustration of similar such virulently anti-Israel sentiment was also evidenced in several incidents in which Muslim passersby attempted to remove and destroy Israeli flags placed at the memorial to the victims of the attacks. In one such incident, other bystanders intervened to protect the flag.
6. HAREDI LEADER ATTACKS BENNETT: YOU'RE A SWINE, DITCH THE KIPPAH
by David Rosenberg
Rabbi Moshe Sternbuch, a leader of the staunchly anti-Zionist Eida Haredit movement, lambasted Jewish Home chief and Education Minister Naftali Bennett, calling on him to remove his kippa.
During his weekly talk with yeshiva students, the senior Eida Haredit rabbi blasted Bennett as "corrosive", accusing him of undermining religion. The rabbi even made thinly-veiled comparison between the Jewish Home leader and a swine.
Sternbuch began his talk by referencing a Talmudic discussion on pork. While the pig has hoofed feet, one of the two requirements for kosher animals, it does not chew its cud, rendering it impure.
"Everybody knows that the pig is the ultimate symbol of forbidden food, and the Jewish people distanced itself so far from the pig that it has become synonymous with everything that is abominable and loathsome; the reason being that it sticks out its hoofs while laying down, as if to say 'look at me, I'm pure' [the split hoof being one of the two signs of a kosher animal], so it is much more dangerous than other forbidden [foods]."
Sternbuch went on to compare this attribute of the pig with what he claims are insincere displays of religiosity among some ostensibly observant Jews.
"We learn from this that the heretic who is open about his wickedness is not terribly dangerous, but the one who cloaks himself in [false] piety, as if he is haredi or zealously religious is far more dangerous. He is like the pig, which is worse than all other [forbidden animals] because while [on the inside] it's impure, [on the outside] it also has the appearance of being permissible."
Refusing to mention Bennett by name, Sternbuch calls on him to remove his kippa - which he derided for being relatively small in size - claiming it would reveal his true nature.
"That's how it is also today. We're suffering first and foremost from those who pretend to be religious and [claim] to work in the name of religion; how great it would be if that corrosive man who joined together with the government to undermine religion would take off that half kippa or third of a kippa on his head. It would definitely be a mitzvah and a great merit."
The Jewish Home party Bennett leads is seen as being widely representative of the religious-Zionist public. The party - and Bennett in particular - have often been the target of attacks by some haredi leaders, particularly for efforts to encourage army enlistment and integration into the workforce among the haredi public.
Eida Haredit is the most extreme of the major haredi factions in Israel. Virulently anti-Zionist, it does not participate in national elections and shuns even Israel's haredi political parties.
7. WATCH: EUROPE'S ILLEGAL SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE
by David Rosenberg
[youtube:2014011]
With illegal construction by the European Union in Judea and Samaria rising dramatically, an Israeli watchdog organization is launching a new campaign to expose the EU's actions.
Regavim, an Israeli NGO which monitors illegal building and unlawful land-grabs, is working to publicize an ongoing campaign by the European Union to create dozens of unauthorized Arab outposts in strategic areas across Judea and Samaria.
With a viral video produced by Regavim starring Ezri Tubi, the campaign is aimed at exposing the EU's attempt to create facts on the ground.
Regavim International Director Ari Briggs accused the EU of pouring enormous sums into the illegal settlement project.
"The EU has spent hundreds of millions of Euros in European taxpayers' money to erect these building in defiance of Israel. We have found over 1,000 buildings proudly displaying the EU flags built on Israeli land without any permits. Their actions are clearly illegal according to international law and it's time that they are held accountable."
Despite pledges not to encourage a negotiated settlement and eschewing unilateral actions to prejudice a final status agreement, the European Union has built over 1,000 illegal structures in Judea and Samaria since 2012.
While the European Union's actions are illegal, the EU has invoked diplomatic immunity to shield their illegal settlement campaign.
8. UKRAINIAN OLIM: 'IT IS A GIFT FROM GOD TO LIVE IN ISRAEL'
by Yoni Kempinski
[youtube:2014023]
Arutz Sheva spoke with several new arrivals from Ukraine, to understand their perspective on their new home. All of the olim shared their joy as they looked forward to the freedom and security that await them.
Some also emphasized their thankfulness towards Israel for its support and guidance over the last few years.
"I am so confident in what the future holds. I have very much enjoyed the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews' assistance in Kyiv [Kiev], for the entire aliyah process. Here, we were very well welcomed by the Ministry of Absorption. I feel good. I feel that they care about me. And it's nice for me," said Alexander Senigor.
Miriam and Menahem Ivanikov explained that they had a comfortable life back in Ukraine, but they wanted better for their young daughter. "At first we wanted to make aliyah when she would be three or four so she could go to kindergarten, but the war was so dangerous that we decided to come now," they said.
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