Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Sunday, May. 01 '16, Nissan 23, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. UK LABOUR CHIEF FACES REVOLT OVER ANTI-SEMITISM SCANDALS
2. MK: YAALON SACRIFICING HEVRON SOLDIER FOR THE SAKE OF ISRAELI PR
3. OIL DEPOSIT DISCOVERED NEAR DEAD SEA
4. UK LABOUR LEADER'S CLOSEST AIDE: ISRAEL'S FOUNDING WAS A CRIME
5. VIZNHITZ REBBE: 'DON'T LOSE YOUR HUMANITY OVER A LITTLE BREAD'
6. JERUSALEM MAN FOUND DEAD IN HUNGARY
7. JOURNALIST WHO TRIED TO KILL HER MOTHER IDENTIFIED
8. WATCH: MP ATTACKS 'NAZI APOLOGIST' EX-MAYOR FOR HITLER COMMENTS
1. UK LABOUR CHIEF FACES REVOLT OVER ANTI-SEMITISM SCANDALS
by David Rosenberg
Less than a year after becoming leader of the UK Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn is already facing calls for his ouster.
The head of the UK's second largest party has been severely criticized for his handling of a whole litany of anti-Semitic scandals within Labour, leading some to suggest that Corbyn, known for his far-left political views, is soft on anti-Semitism.
Last week Corbyn defended a Labour MP who had previously advocated the ethnic cleansing of Israel, initially refusing to suspend Naz Shah from Bradford West. A spokesman for Corbyn denied claims that Shah was anti-Semitic, claiming that she had written "remarks that she doesn't agree with."
Nor did Corbyn endorse Shah's suspension even after it was finalized. Instead the Labour leader merely acknowledged the fact that that the party's General Secretary, Ian McNicol, had placed Shah on administrative suspension.
"Jeremy Corbyn and Naz Shah have mutually agreed that she is administratively suspended from the Labour Party by the General Secretary", a joint statement issued by the two read.
Labour members worried over the party's election prospects were aghast when former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, a long-time Labour member and Corbyn ally, backed Shah during an interview on Thursday. Livingstone also claimed that Adolf Hitler "supported Zionism", a comment which led to angry, on-air confrontations with other Labour members.
One of Livingstone's detractors, MP John Mann, derided him as "a disgusting Nazi apologist".
With the UK's local elections just four days away, fears are mounting among party leaders that Labour could suffer catastrophic losses on Thursday and even lose the London mayoral election, which the party was long favored to win.
Labour MPs and shadow cabinet members have pinned much of the party's recent woes on Corbyn and his mishandling of the recent anti-Semitism scandals. According to reports published in The Telegraph, talks of a possible revolt are underway, with senior party officials looking to replace the controversial Corbyn with a moderate figure who can rebuild the party's image.
Corbyn himself acknowledged that his leadership would likely be challenged in the near future, saying that "we will have an election" should party leaders indeed seek his removal.
2. MK: YAALON SACRIFICING HEVRON SOLDIER FOR THE SAKE OF ISRAELI PR
by Shimon Cohen
President Reuven Rivlin should pardon El-Or Azariya, the soldier who controversially shot dead a neutralized terrorist, MK David Bitan (Likud) opined in a special Arutz Sheva interview Sunday.
Bitan is heading a petition to call on Rivlin to issue the pardon, he explained, noting that it has had some difficulty taking off due to most of the coverage being through Facebook.
Despite this, he hopes to gather over 100,000 signatures on the petition within the next two to three months.
"Ultimately, we will reach our goal. I believe that we will reach this goal," he stated. "I have been talking about [El-Or] getting a pardon from the beginning, but now we are taking the practical step of organizing a petition."
Bitan sharply criticized the IDF in light of a recent report that they blamed his actions on a "twisted ideology."
"I do not understand the army, with all due respect to them," he said. "I think the IDF and Defense Minister [Moshe Ya'alon] are sacrificing soldiers for the sake of Israeli public relations abroad and it is wrong."
"The military judge also said the evidence is very weak," he added, noting the Magen David Adom (MDA) investigation validating the soldier holds up in court. "I ask a very simple question - why did medics and paramedics not treat the [terrorist] for six minutes until [Azariya] shot him? Because they feared a [suicide] bomb."
"So I do not accept the IDF's claim that the terrorist was neutralized and it was clear that he was not armed with a bomb," he continued. "Events on the ground suggest otherwise."
Bitan explained that propaganda against Israel abroad stating that the IDF was killing Palestinians for no reason at all began circulating some two weeks before the incident in question. The incident itself merely happened at the wrong time, he said - causing the IDF and Defense Minister to prioritize the publicity over the facts.
This said, he added that Azariya is not absent of wrongdoing in shooting the terrorist, which was after all "a mistake in judgement." Outside of this, however, "there really is no argument."
"After all, if he did have an explosive belt, [Azariya] would be considered a hero," Bitan argued. "We have to give support to our soldiers even if they make mistakes, in order to combat terrorism."
The trial will hurt future IDF soldiers, he said, as well as parents who will fear that their children may face vilification for making mistakes.
As for Ya'alon, he said, the Defense Minister "does not represent Likud voters" on this issue.
3. OIL DEPOSIT DISCOVERED NEAR DEAD SEA
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Surveyors struck oil in Israel, with an oil deposit discovered near the Dead Sea.
On Sunday the Hatrurim consortium, named for the Hatrurim formation in the Dead Sea area, announced that a report from the Dunmore Consulting company had confirmed the presence of an oil reservoir in an area under license by Hatrurim.
A geological survey conducted at the Halamish drilling site, located within Hatrurim's 94 square kilometer (36 square miles) license, estimated that there was between 7 and 11 million barrels of oil in the deposit, worth some 1.2 to 1.8 billion shekels ($316 - 474 million).
The Hatrurim license area was first surveyed in 1995, when the Delek Group carried out the first drilling in the area. Despite evidence of oil, follow up operations to confirm the presence of a oil deposit were not conducted for more than 20 years.
4. UK LABOUR LEADER'S CLOSEST AIDE: ISRAEL'S FOUNDING WAS A CRIME
by Ari Soffer
The ongoing anti-Semitism scandal within Britain's Labour Party has now reached news heights, with one of party leader Jeremy Corbyn's closest aides - former London Mayor Ken Livingstone - suspended from the party for outrageous comments about Adolf Hitler, triggering calls for a party coup.
That latest anti-Semitism controversy to rock the UK's second-largest political party comes on the heals of so many others that it would take an entire column in itself to enumerate them all.
Understandably, many observers - both within Britain but particularly abroad - will be shaking their heads in disbelief and wondering how the worst extremists of the far-left came to take over the leading UK opposition party so rapidly.
Leader Jeremy Corbyn's own links to anti-Semites - whether of the far-left, Islamist, or far-right persuasion - go a great deal towards explaining how his comrades quickly came to define the tone of the Labour Party in 2016.
But just as crucially - or, some might argue, even more so - are the even more extreme views held by Corbyn's closest adviser, the man who many say is really "pulling the strings" behind the former hard-left backbencher-turned party leader.
Seumus Milne was appointed as Labour's Executive Director of Strategy and Communications shortly after Corbyn took over in 2015. Remarkably, he did so as a "sabbatical" from his post as a senior editor for the far-left Guardian newspaper, long known for its hyper-critical attacks on the State of Israel.
Since then, he has taken on the role of Corbyn's personal spin doctor, and - according to many Corbyn critics - is essentially running the show from behind the scenes, such is his close relationship with Corbyn.
But Milne is extreme even by Guardian standards - as a recording of him speaking at an anti-Israel rally during 2014's Operation Protective Edge shockingly attests to.
[youtube:2014868]
The video, seen above, was republished by the Guido Fawkes political blog, and shows Milne openly hailing Hamas terrorism (putting Corbyn's own statement of "friendship" with the genocidal Islamist terrorist group to shame) and describing the foundation of the State of Israel as a "crime."
"Despite the horrific casualties Hamas is not broken and will not be broken, because of the spirit of resistance of the Palestinian people," Milne declares to raucous applause.
"We have a responsibility in this country more than anyone to show solidarity in a practical way with the Palestinian people, because it is in this country that this crime began 90 years ago, when Palestine was promised by a British government that had no right to it to another people," he continued, referring to the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
Milne went on to call for the UK to enact a total arms embargo on Israel and back international sanctions against the Jewish state.
Little wonder then that people who share Hamas's own views about Jews should find such a comfortable place within the Labour Party.
5. VIZNHITZ REBBE: 'DON'T LOSE YOUR HUMANITY OVER A LITTLE BREAD'
by David Rosenberg
After a week without leavened bread, some shoppers are anxious to head for the nearest bakery following the end of the Passover holiday. In recent years, crowds of impatient customers have gathered around bakeries in religious neighborhoods in Israel, with some taking the hunt for hametz just a little too far.
Speaking to his Hassidim on Shabbat, the Vizhnitz Rebbe, Rabbi Yisrael Hager, decried the phenomenon of post-Pesach fights, as crowds of shoppers looking to pick up the first loaves of bread sometimes turn violent.
"There are some who run [to get bread] when it comes time to eat leavened bread, but that's not suitable for Hassidim and Torah students," he said.
"Passover is all about breaking [excessive] desire. I've heard that in recent years there are fistfights over the first batch of bread – people go wild, forget everything else in the world, and lose their humanity."
"People need to make sure that there's no fighting when they get bread. I've never been there, but this is what I've heard."
6. JERUSALEM MAN FOUND DEAD IN HUNGARY
by Arutz Sheva staff
Police have located the body of 40 year-old Jerusalem resident Ofir Gross in a local forest, they announced Sunday, one week after disappearing in Hungary.
The Foreign Ministry has stated that they are waiting for Gross's body to be formally identified before confirming his death.
Gross, a bio-medical engineering student at a university in Berlin, flew to Budapest last month. Locals said he intended to continue his travels to the city of Debrecen.
He told his family he was going to stay with a Hungarian native in the town of Tiszakécske, and since then there had been no contact.
Relatives told Israeli news last week that Gross had arranged the overnight stay through "couchsurfing" - staying at strangers' homes for cheap or free - and it is unclear whether he disappeared before or after arriving at his planned destination.
7. JOURNALIST WHO TRIED TO KILL HER MOTHER IDENTIFIED
by Shlomo Pitrikovsky
24 year-old Sapir Nissani has been identified as a journalist suspected of attempted matricide, it was cleared for publication Sunday.
Nissani, a Kfar Saba resident, was arrested Thursday after her mother was admitted to Meir Hospital in critical condition. She was suffering from burns on her head and scalp.
The journalist insisted that the burns were an accident, after she was holding a pan of boiling oil and tripped over her robotic vacuum cleaner.
Police say the elder Nissani's injuries are not consistent with an accidental spill, however, and Sapir's detention has been extended until Tuesday.
Justice Eldad Nevo wrote in his ruling that "a review of the case file, and of the forensic report and photos from the scene in particular, show that there is reasonable suspicion this was a premeditated act by the suspect and not an accident."
"Her version of events does not match to evidence at the scene, and therefore I cannot accept counsel that we consider an alternative to her remand."
Nevo also cited the "nature of the act and its gravity" as proof Sapir Nissani presents a danger to the public.
Meanwhile, he added, "while family relationships are complex and multi-faceted, this makes it difficult for the investigation to progress, and the investigations unit is required to question many witnesses about the suspect's behavior and [the behavior of] family members in different situations."
Nissani has been involved in journalism since age 14, Channel 2 reports, after she began writing various stories about teenage life in local newspapers.
8. WATCH: MP ATTACKS 'NAZI APOLOGIST' EX-MAYOR FOR HITLER COMMENTS
by Ari Soffer
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone was confronted by an angry fellow Labour Party member inside the British Parliament building Thursday, after comments he made defending an MP suspended for anti-Semitism, during which he claimed that Hitler "supported Zionism."
Livingstone was speaking to the LBC radio station - whose host James O'Brian gave him a relatively easy time and even expressed some sympathy for him - before the tame interview was brought to an abrupt end by MP John Mann who, upon noticing Livingstone, proceeded to shout him down as a "lying racist" and an anti-Semite.
Listen - Angry MP interrupts Ken Livingstone interview:
[youtube:2014855]
Mann, who heads the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Anti-Semitism, continued haranguing Livingstone even after the interview, in a clash which played out in front of stunned journalists.
Part of it was caught on film by senior ITV News editor Chris Ship.
In the video, a visibly angry Mann can be heard calling Livingstone a "lying, disgusting Nazi apologist" and a "disgusting racist" for his latest comments, as Livingstone walks away grinning.
He also branded Livingstone "a f***ing disgrace", according to another senior journalist at the scene - Channel 4 correspondent Michael Crick - who described it as "the most amazing face to face row I've seen in 36 years of political journalism."
Later, in an interview with Sky News, Mann slammed Livingstone as an "anti-Semite" who "is peddling neo-Nazi conspiracy theories that most neo-Nazis don't peddle now!"
Click below to watch:
Livingstone clashed with critics later in the day on BBC, and doubled-down on his comments:
[youtube:2014856]
Livingstone came under fire for his comments, in which he justified MP Naz Shah's call for a mass-deportation of Israeli Jews by claiming that Adolf Hitler had initially proposed something similar and that, in his words, "Hitler was supporting Zionism."
He has previously come under fire for anti-Semitic comments, including claims that Jews don't vote for Labour because they are all rich.
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