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Sunday, Jul. 24 '16, י"ח בתמוז תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. AZARIYA: DEFENSE MINISTER, CHIEF OF STAFF THREW ME TO THE DOGS
2. FORMER SAUDI GENERAL MEETS ISRAELI OFFICIALS IN JERUSALEM
3. ISRAELI SPORTS MINISTER WON'T ATTEND OLYMPIC CEREMONY
4. COULD CLINTON'S VP PICK HURT HER CHANCES WITH ISRAEL SUPPORTERS?
5. AZARIYA: I ACTED TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN OF HEVRON
6. ARAB JOINT LIST FACTION CONDEMNS SAUDI DELEGATION TO ISRAEL
7. WATCH: ONLOOKER IN SHOUTING MATCH WITH MUNICH GUNMAN
8. WATCH: MAN TRIES TO STEAL OLYMPIC TORCH
1. AZARIYA: DEFENSE MINISTER, CHIEF OF STAFF THREW ME TO THE DOGS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Sergeant Elor Azariya, on trial for killing a wounded terrorist in Hevron earlier this year, has criticized former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon and the IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot for jumping to presume his guilt before hearing the facts.
"I had no backup from the Chief of Staff, from the ministers," Azariya said, following a short break in proceedings Sunday.
"I feel like they threw me to the dogs, maybe because of the media, the TV," he continued, accusing Israeli TV of showing a highly edited video of the incident "with no sound" in order to incriminate him. That video of the shooting was circulated by the far-left B'Tselem organization.
"The media showed the video in a biased way, without any sound," he emphasized, asserting that with sound it would have been possible to hear the shouting in the background and understand the situation as it unfolded.
"Whoever was in the field knows that the video means nothing... the B'Tselem film," he said.
When asked about footage showing the knife was some distance away from the injured terrorist - proof, the prosecution says, that Azariya didn't really feel threatened at the time - the soldier responded: "I don't care about the film; the film I saw was what I saw in real time in the field."
Azariya also hit back at the prosecution's assertion he shot the terrorist purely out of revenge - telling comrades that "a terrorist deserves to die."
"I don't think I said that sentence, (I'm) fairly sure not," he stated, adding that even if he had said something to that effect it had been "twisted and misinterpreted."
His real intent at the time was that "a terrorist posing a real danger to people in the field needs to be killed in order to neutralize the danger."
"If it was for revenge I would have gone closer to the terrorist and shot him from point-blank range, but I shot him from a distance of 7-10 meters in order to neutralize the threat," and nothing more, he insisted.
Earlier Sunday, Azariya told the court of his fears for the safety of his comrades and "the children of Hevron" in taking the split-second decision to kill the terrorist.
2. FORMER SAUDI GENERAL MEETS ISRAELI OFFICIALS IN JERUSALEM
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Israeli government officials met with a former Saudi Arabian general with close ties to the government in Riyadh, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Sunday.
Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold met Anwar Eshki at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, during a rare visit by the Arab official to Israel.
Eshki heads the Middle East Centre for Strategic and Legal Studies thinktank, but maintains close ties to the Saudi Arabian government, and his trip is likely to have been closely coordinated with authorities in the gulf state.
Israel and Saudi Arabia have no official diplomatic relations, but the two countries have forged unprecedented informal ties in the face of regional threats, most notably Iran and the United States's appeasement of the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
Saudi Arabia is also the sponsor of the so-called "Saudi Initiative", which would require Israel to cede Judea and Samaria and enable the formation of a Palestinian Arab state, in exchange for a full normalization of ties with the Arab world. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recently reiterated his interest in the agreement, though with some "alterations."
Apart from Gold, Eshki also reportedly met with the IDF's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai, and a number of opposition MKs.
Gold and Eshki had met before in Washington last year, as the former began his role as administrative head of the foreign ministry. With Netanyahu still formally holding on the the foreign minister portfolio, Gold regularly acts as Israel's de-facto top diplomat, and recently headed delegations to several African nations to reopen ties with the Jewish state.
In Palestinian Authority media, Eshki confirmed the visit but said only that he had visited "Palestine and Jerusalem, not Israel."
3. ISRAELI SPORTS MINISTER WON'T ATTEND OLYMPIC CEREMONY
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Israeli Sports and Culture Minister Miri Regev (Likud) has said she will not attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Brazil this year, due to it falling too close to the Sabbath.
The ceremony is due to take place on Friday, August 5, and would necessitate her traveling back after sundown - the start of Shabbat.
Over the past several days Regev's office had made great efforts to have her and her staff stay at venues closer to the Rio 2016 opening ceremony, which would have enabled the minister and her team to walk home instead of driving in deference of Shabbat. However, security officials informed her it would not be possible to provide adequate protection.
Though Regev is traditional but not strictly religious, she said the issue was one of principle.
The Shabbat, our national day of rest, is one of the most important gifts that the Jewish nation imparted to humanity," Regev said in a statement.
"As a representative of the State of Israel, the one and only Jewish state, I sadly cannot take part in the opening ceremony of the Olympics, as the schedule would require me to desecrate the Sabbath."
4. COULD CLINTON'S VP PICK HURT HER CHANCES WITH ISRAEL SUPPORTERS?
by David Rosenberg
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's recent Vice Presidential pick of Tim Kaine has in many ways been regarded as a "safe choice", nominally aiding her White House bid without the risk some more outspoken running-mates, like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, could potentially have posed.
A former governor and current senator for the swing-state of Virginia, Tim Kaine worked as a missionary in Honduras and speaks fluent Spanish, an asset in an election where Hispanic voters could tip the scales in critical battleground states like Florida, Nevada, Colorado, and Arizona.
His experience in government reinforces Clinton's campaign message of experience, and his past criticism of the Obama administration's handling of the war on ISIS could help the ticket with independents frustrated with the White House's approach to the growing terror threat.
While Kaine maintains a perfect 100% rating from the pro-abortion group NARAL and Planned Parenthood, he has courted religious conservatives with what he calls his "personal opposition" to abortion as a practicing Catholic.
But Kaine's criticism of the Israeli government and snubbing of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's address to Congress have stirred fears among supporters of the Jewish state, who are concerned by the Senator's outspoken support for the Iranian nuclear deal and endorsement of the Obama administration's efforts to force Israeli concessions as a way to lure the Palestinian Authority back to peace talks.
Kaine was among the first Democratic lawmakers to announce he would boycott Netanyahu's address to Congress in 2015 regarding the planned Iran nuclear agreement, which was signed later that year.
Speaking to the left-leaning Jewish Daily Forward after the address, Kaine proclaimed his support for the Jewish state, calling himself "a strongly pro-Israel Democrat". But the Virginia Senator said that he had "deep concerns about the leaders, frankly, on the Israeli and Palestinian side."
"I want Israel to be safe and secure in the future and I worry that some of the activities vis-à-vis the Palestinians have weakened Israel's future security, not strengthened it."
Conservatives chided Kaine's decision to snub the Israeli leader and noted the senator's support in favor of the Iran nuclear deal.
Kaine has noted that he cosponsored the "Corker bill" – initiated by Tennessee Senator Bob Corker – which gave congress the right to vote down any suspension of sanctions on the Iranian regime.
Yet when the Iran deal was signed, Kaine helped filibuster Republican-led efforts to use the Corker bill – by then passed into law by a wide majority – to block the Iranian agreement.
In a press release last July, Kaine praised the agreement with Iran, saying that sanctions relief "hinges on what Iran must do". Kaine twice voted with a minority to filibuster GOP attempts to nullify the agreement, thus paving the way for the removal of sanctions and the unfreezing of Iranian assets.
In Kaine 2013 cosponsored a Senate resolution praising Secretary of State John Kerry, who, the document reads, "is to be commended for his tireless efforts to urgently advance a negotiated two-state solution".
The left-wing NGO J Street praised Kaine and featured him on their list of supported candidates, urging visitors to the J Street website to contribute to Kaine's senate campaign.
5. AZARIYA: I ACTED TO PROTECT THE CHILDREN OF HEVRON
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Elor Azariya, the soldier charged with manslaughter over the shooting of a wounded terrorist in Hevron, took the witness stand on Sunday, testifying for the first time in a case that has divided Israelis and led to mass demonstrations on behalf of the accused.
"My aspiration was to be the most combat [oriented position] possible," said Azariya on Sunday.
"I understood that I'm going to be in the army for three years, and I wanted to be [in the most serious] combat [position] to make the biggest contribution to the state as possible."
"I wanted to join the Shayetet 13 [naval commando force], but I didn't make the cut. When I asked to serve in a regular army unit, I was placed in the Kfir Brigade and I was very happy, I was very motivated."
In describing the background to the shooting, Azariya pointed out the tensions in Hevron, saying that the army's operating procedure for soldiers stationed there includes an order that "a magazine must be kept in the gun [at all times] and the gun ready for action".
"Hevron is a hot-spot, the pressure there is very heavy, and the tension is palpable in the air. This is especially true in Tel Rumeida, there are [great] tensions between Jews and Arabs. [People] live there in fear," Azariya testified.
Azariya described what he called the constant friction between the Jewish and Arab populations, and the role the army plays in protecting "against terror attacks in the Jewish neighborhood in the Tel Rumeida quarter."
"Each and every day there is an outpost briefing for all the soldiers where they explain how to go up [to Tel Rumeida] for guard duty… they spoke with us about stabbings."
Azariya recalled the stabbing attack which left one soldier wounded, and the tensions in its immediate aftermath.
Moments after the attack, Azariya received a call "screaming" at him to "get up."
"I went out of the room not understanding what had happened. I asked the soldier at the guard post what had happened and he told me that there had been a terror attack and Ofir had been stabbed. I ran to the scene and saw Ofir; the commander took me and told me to help Ofir."
"It all happened so fast, I didn't even have time to put on gloves, I just pressed on the blood with my hands and tried to calm him."
"MDA ambulances started to arrive and other paramedics began to come in and started to evacuate Ofir. They started to evacuate him with all of the huge mess going on at the scene."
At that point, testified Azariya, those present on the scene began warning about a possible bomb on one of the two terrorists.
"'He looks like he has a bomb, we need a bomb squad'. Until then I didn't even know there was a second terrorist. I looked at him and saw that he had a puffed up jacket, which looked like it was concealing something, unlike the first terrorist."
Azariya's suspicions were further raised by the fact that the terrorist was wearing the heavy jacket despite the fact that "It was a hot day that day."
"During the evacuation [of the wounded soldier], I remembered the warning I had heard about 'quality terror attacks', and I realized that this could be that kind of attack. I also remembered that around that time there was supposed to be Purim activities in Hevron, with lots of children."
Then Azariya described in detail the final moments before the shooting, and what led him to open fire on the wounded terrorist.
"I noticed that he was moving his arms and head. I went over to bring my helmet from the spot where I had been treating Ofir. I turned around and thought about the warning and the Purim festivities for the children of Hevron, and I see the terrorist moving his arms, looking suspicious, and I understood that this [could be] a major terror attack. I pulled out my gun, got in position, yelled out at the people standing around carelessly and complacently, got [the terrorist] in my sights, yelled out "move, move", and shot the terrorist one time in the head to neutralize him and save the lives of those at the scene."
The accused blasted the commanders at the scene of the attack.
"I noticed that the knife was close enough [to the second terrorist] for him to reach. The commanders weren't paying attention. As far as I'm concerned they were not behaving properly."
Azariya's testimony comes after his former commander testified against him, claiming that he had fired without justification and that there was no apparent threat from the wounded terrorist.
The defendant has claimed that his commander slapped him after the shooting incident, and that he had warned his commander of the possibility of an explosive device on the terrorist.
On Sunday, the prosecution ridiculed Azariya's claim, saying the soldier was yet again altering his story.
"Last Tuesday we received a letter from Azariya's defense attorney," said Army Prosecutor Nadav Weissman, "claiming that he had remembered new thing, first and foremost claiming that the commanding officer had slapped the accused at the scene [of the incident]."
"This is at least the fourth change in the accused [soldier's] version of [events], and we will certainly relate to this."
The testimony Sunday kicks off three days in which the defense will make its case, arguing that Azariya had reason to believe that his life and the lives of his comrades were in jeopardy, and that his actions against the wounded terrorist were legitimate given the circumstances and explosive atmosphere just minutes after a terror attack targeting one of Azariya's fellow soldiers.
On Monday and Tuesday, the prosecution is scheduled to cross-examine Azariya, questioning his claims that he perceived a clear and present danger to his life and the lives of others on the scene of the terror attack which left one soldier wounded.
6. ARAB JOINT LIST FACTION CONDEMNS SAUDI DELEGATION TO ISRAEL
by Ari Soffer
The far-left Hadash party has slammed the visit by a Saudi Arabian delegation to Israel, which recently met with senior Israeli officials including Foreign Ministry Secretary-General Dore Gold.
In a statement, Hadash said the visit legitimized what it called Israel's "refusal strategy" towards negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, and urged a total boycott of the Jewish state.
"The recent visit by Saudi personalities, including former general Anwar Eshki, and their meetings with representatives of the Netanyahu government, on the pretext of advancing a dialogue about the Arab peace initiative, were not designed to challenge Israel's refusal strategy, but to legitimize it by giving Arab 'sponsorship' to voiding the initiative of any content and for eliminating the two-state solution and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination," the Hadash statement read.
Hadash is part of the Arab Joint List party in the Knesset, but issued its statement independently of the wider Joint List faction.
The statement also highlighted some of the simmering tensions between the various different factions within the Joint List, which was formed as a marriage of convenience in response to Israel raising the Knesset threshold, but which contains a number of unlikely bedfellows.
Hadash - which is mostly Arab but which does have some Jewish members, including MK Don Khenin - is the latest incarnation of the Israeli Communist Party and maintains strong support of the Shiite axis in the Middle East - namely Hezbollah, the Assad regime in Syria and Iran. Hadash party leader Ayman Odeh is head of the Joint List Knesset faction.
In contrast, other Joint List factions such as the Sunni-Islamist Islamic Movement (Southern Branch) in particular, and the secular Arab-nationalist Balad, are aligned with the Sunni Arab world.
In its statement, Hadash referenced those sectarian tensions, much as it did in condemning the assassination of Hezbollah commander Samir Kuntar by Israel.
"The visit is part of the normalization of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Israel against Iran, Syria and resistance movements in the region," the statement continued.
7. WATCH: ONLOOKER IN SHOUTING MATCH WITH MUNICH GUNMAN
by Ari Soffer
[youtube:2017429]
Video from the aftermath of the deadly shooting spree in Munich on Friday shows an onlooker engaged in a shouting match with the gunman, 18-year-old Ali Sonboly.
The footage was taken by a resident of a nearby apartment on his cellphone.
The resident, identified by the Bild newspaper as Thomas Salbey, said he had been drinking a beer on his balcony when he heard the gunshots.
"I looked down from my balcony and saw how the man went through the glass entrance-way. He had reloaded his pistol. I threw my beer bottle at him. It shattered on the glass roof. But I think he didn't hear it anyway," he told the German daily.
Salbey then hurled insults at Sonboly, at one point shouting "Are you crazy!?" to which the gunman responded: "I'm German."
"You're a w****r is what you are," Salbey can be heard replying.
Sonboly responded with a volley of bullets at Salbey, damaging his balcony but missing the man himself.
"I was not scared. I didn't know whether they were real bullets or just rubber bullets," Salbey explained.
The teenage gunman is believed to have shot himself dead with the same Glock 9 mm pistol he used to murder nine people and injure many more.
8. WATCH: MAN TRIES TO STEAL OLYMPIC TORCH
by Rachel Kaplan
[youtube:2017434]
A Brazilian man jumped the security barriers around the Olympic run, and attempted to steal the Olympic torch.
Security in the area threw him to the ground and arrested him.
A similar event occured in the 2012 London Olympics, when a 17 year-old leaped out of the croud in Maidstone, screamed "Allahu Akbar," and attempted to grab the torch on its way to the London Olympic Games.
This is not the first time Brazil's torch has been threatened. Earlier this month, a man was arrested after he attempted to put out the Olympic flame with a fire extinguisher.
The torch-bearers will continue through Sao Paulo, and then make its way to Rio de Janeiro.
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