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Wednesday, Jul. 20 '16, י"ד בתמוז תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. DID TURKEY HELP GAZA TERRORISTS FIRE ROCKETS AT ISRAEL?
2. STEINITZ'S PLAN TO SAVE AMONA
3. REPORT: ISRAEL ATTACKS SYRIAN ARMY POST NEAR GOLAN HEIGHTS
4. YET ANOTHER FIRE IN DUMA ONE YEAR AFTER DEADLY ARSON
5. STABBER'S FAMILY ORDERED TO STAY OUT OF JERUSALEM DURING PARADE
6. WATCH: HAREDI SOLDIER VERBALLY ABUSED ON BNEI BRAK STREETS
7. 'YAAKOV LITZMAN IS THE MOST HOMOPHOBIC GOVERNMENT MINISTER'
8. FOREIGN MIN. CHIEF CHALLENGES ABBAS: TEAR DOWN TERROR MONUMENT
1. DID TURKEY HELP GAZA TERRORISTS FIRE ROCKETS AT ISRAEL?
by Ari Soffer and Matt Wanderman
A series of internal Turkish government emails released by the Wikileaks site include what appear to be instructions to Palestinian terrorists on how to conceal their rockets from Israeli airstrikes.
The "AKP Email Archive" was released by the whistleblower website in the aftermath of the attempted military coup against the rule of the Islamist AKP party and its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan has used the coup - which was promptly quashed in a single day - to purge all state and public institutions of his rivals.
Some commentators and even world leaders have already suggested the coup - or at least the purge lists - may have been pre-planned by Erdogan as a way to get rid of his opponents. Since rising to power the Islamist leader has worked hard to consolidate his power at all costs, jailing and suing journalists, opposition figures and anyone critical of him or his party.
Wikileaks appears to be using the leak as a means of hitting back at what it sees as Erdogan's attacks on democracy.
In one of the emails, entitled "Our missile tactics in Palestine," a sender from Turkey - who appears to be named Osman Kastamonulu, but who uses the name of a Turkish singer as his email address - emails "palestine.copenhagen@gmail.com" to advise on how to hide rockets from Israeli jets.
The email is dated August 2014, during the war between the IDF and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, who rained thousands of rockets on Israeli civilian population centers.
"Cover missile with carpet 3 times and cover with double glazing(no air between glazing, deaerated) there must be cylindrical and round edges and agonic missile," the email informs in broken English. "Our target is insulating and sound-absorbing missile and it mustn't reflect sound and electromagnetic waves back"
In other email he writes: "Our missile must be painted with light blue or grey . So, israil radars won't find missile with electromagnetic waves and especially we must paint our missile's corners and so, we can do insulator missile and israil radars can't find it."
Intriguingly, both emails were forwarded to the Turkish President's office and the head office of the AKP party.
Until relatively recently, much of Hamas's military leadership were in fact based in Turkey, where the Islamist AKP government provided safe refuge and support.
But the possible involvement of individuals close to the Turkish government in aiding attempts by Hamas or other terrorist groups to fire missiles onto Israeli civilians will come as an embarrassing revelation at a time when Israel and Turkey are pursuing a "reconciliation deal."
In its message together with the first batch of emails it was releasing, Wikileaks outlined the nature of the materials it acquired, and why it chose to release them now:
Today, 11pm Anakara Time, WikiLeaks releases part one of the AKP Emails. AKP, or the Justice & Development Party, is the ruling party of Turkey and is the political force behind the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Part one of the series covers 762 mail boxes beginning with 'A' through to 'I' containing 294,548 email bodies together with many thousands of attached files. The emails come from "akparti.org.tr", the AKP's primary domain. The most recent was sent on July 6, 2016. The oldest dates back to 2010. It should be noted that emails associated with the domain are mostly used for dealing with the world, as opposed to the most sensitive internal matters.
The material was obtained a week before the attempted coup. However, WikiLeaks has moved forward its publication schedule in response to the government's post-coup purges. We have verified the material and the source, who is not connected, in any way, to the elements behind the attempted coup, or to a rival political party or state.
2. STEINITZ'S PLAN TO SAVE AMONA
by Arutz Sheva Staff
In an interview with Arutz Sheva, Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz addressed the fears over the impending demolition of the Samarian town of Amona, which is slated to take place in 6 months, and the water crisis in northern Samaria, along with possible solutions.
Minister Steinitz was asked how close he thinks we are to seeing a right-wing government actually going through with the demolition of a town, this in light of comments made by the Attorney-General (A-G) claiming that there is no recourse but to relocate the town, most probably to adjacent land.
"The danger is very real in my eyes," said Steinitz, "it would be a great tragedy as well as a total absurdity, if we aren't able to prevent this demolition."
He recalled the days when he was the head of the parliamentary investigative committee dealing with the Amona affair in 2006. "We recognized the needless tragedy of the destruction of those nine homes, a useless destruction with tens of people wounded and arrested," said the Energy Minister, who went on to recount that the Palestinians who had claimed ownership of the land back then didn't even ever get it, leaving the houses demolished and empty still in the middle of the town. "It's just needless suffering," he said.
When asked what causes the A-G to say that the proposed compromise bill won't stand in the Supreme Court, Steinitz replied: "I didn't delve into the matter and I'm not a legal scholar, but my proposal is a bit different and it has a chance to stand up to the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.
"My proposal says something simple - logic must prevail. There's a difference between one of two houses and a whole neighborhood, and there's a difference between temporary living on the land and a community that has been built up over many years when someone suddenly challenges the ownership."
Steinitz continued to explain the basis for his proposal. "Let's imagine, theoretically, that someone shows up and proves that an entire neighborhood in northern Tel Aviv was built on land that was thought to be state-owned land, but really belonged to his grandfather, and he proves it, saying that he want to use it as farmland and is not interested in receiving monetary compensation instead. No normal country would evacuate and demolish a whole neighborhood or city because some guy wants the land for a field filled with weeds. This same logic should apply to Amona."
According to the Minister, the matter should be resolved by discussions with the A-G, "to arrive at a general directive which would stipulate that when there is a matter of disputed ownership over land that is occupied for several years by a whole community, more than a few families, then under certain conditions the government can impose a solution involving compensation, rather than demolition and evacuation.
When asked whether he doesn't think that leftist organizations will claim that his plan would reward criminals for committing their crime more broadly by stealing more land and for longer periods of time, Steinitz replied that "the opposite is true. If you're building a whole town or neighborhood it's far more visible, and if there was no challenge to that it stands to reason that any eventual challenge wouldn't result in demolition. This kind of thing would never happen elsewhere in the world or within the Green Line."
The Minister said that he's been promoting the proposal to several government elements including the Prime Minister, who's been receptive to the logic in the proposal, but who, in Steinitz's words, "isn't the A-G". He now intends to continue to push his proposal, getting the relevant bodies and the Justice Minister involved, while vowing to support any proposal that would result in the impending demolition being cancelled.
Solving Samaria's water crisis
Later in the interview Steinitz was asked to comment in his capacity as Water Resources Minister on the water shortage crisis in northern Samaria, which is affecting some 100,000 people, Jews and Arabs. In response, he said that he's working to solve the crisis on two fronts: the short term and the long term.
"When I was notified of the shortage, that there was no water in people's taps, I immediately convened an urgent meeting with representatives of all the relevant bodies, we devised a quick plan of action and I hope and expect that there will be a respite in the coming week or two in terms of the immediate crisis."
Practical actions currently being taken include the transportation of giant water tanks to replenish the water reserves, cutting through red tape to enable the transfer of funds to build better water storage infrastructure in the towns and villages, and the drilling of new routes for water supply, the Water Resources Minister outlined.
"This whole issue stems from the fact that no one dealt with the water infrastructure for years, while the population was growing rapidly," Steinitz explained, "also, the total farmland area grew, bringing a greatly increased demand for water. That's why we're working on a long term plan that will enable us to double the amount of water being pumped into the Samaria area, so that in the future the population will be able to grow without this sort of crisis repeating itself."
3. REPORT: ISRAEL ATTACKS SYRIAN ARMY POST NEAR GOLAN HEIGHTS
by Matt Wanderman
Syrian rebels claim that the Israeli Air Force attacked a Syrian military post in Baath City, near the Golan Heights, Reuters reports.
There is no precise information on the target at this time, though there are reports that Hezbollah is active in the area.
A news site associated with Hezbollah has denied that Israeli planes carried out the strike. Instead, it insists that the al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda branch in Syria, fired two rockets from a border village.
The site claims that Israel oversaw the rocket launch, and that the attack killed civilians.
Anti-Israel activists and media sources frequently accuse Israel of working with the al-Nusra Front. Israeli officials have noted that the only connections with the al-Nusra Front are that Israel treats wounded Syrians of all backgrounds and that several Israeli Arabs joined the terror organization and were subsequently prosecuted after returning to Israel.
4. YET ANOTHER FIRE IN DUMA ONE YEAR AFTER DEADLY ARSON
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A fire burned a home Wednesday in a Palestinian Arab village where an arson attack by suspected Jewish extremists a year ago killed a toddler and his parents, residents and authorities said.
Israeli police said they were investigating the cause, but that they had so far not found any evidence of a Jewish extremist attack.
But inhabitants of the village of Duma in Samaria and a PA official immediately said they suspected another attack, but Palestinian firefighters had not commented on the cause.
The blaze damaged the home of Mohammed Dawabsha, located near the house that was firebombed on July 31 last year.
Dawabasha and his wife suffered smoke inhalation, but there were no other injuries.
Dawabsha said he and his wife heard noises outside their home in the middle of the night.
"We went outside and afterwards we heard an explosion in the bedroom and saw huge flames," he said.
Neighbors assisted them in moving to safety.
Last year's July 31 attack on a family home in the village killed 18-month-old Ali Saad Dawabsha and fatally injured his parents.
Five-year-old Ahmed was the sole survivor from the immediate family.
Mohammed Dawabsha is part of the same clan but is not an immediate relative of the family.
The 2015 attack sparked a crackdown by Israeli authorities on alleged Jewish extremists, though most of those arrested were not connected to the firebombing.
In January, a court charged two Jewish extremists over the firebombing.
However, theories have persisted that their confessions may have been forced, due to harsh interrogation methods used.
Moreover, a string of unexplained fires both before and after July 31 incident, together with rumors of internal clan feuds in the village, have fueled the intrigue surrounding the case, as have numerous incidents of Palestinian exposed fabricating "Jewish attacks."
In March, another fire burned the Duma home of a key witness to the arson attack, but the cause was not clear. Israeli authorities said at the time they were investigating.
5. STABBER'S FAMILY ORDERED TO STAY OUT OF JERUSALEM DURING PARADE
by Orly Harrari
Police and detectives on Wednesday morning visited the family of Yishai Shlissel, who murdered one person and wounded several others in a stabbing attack at last year's Jerusalem Pride Parade. His mother and five of his brothers were taken in for questioning.
At the end of the questioning period, several family members were asked to sign a restraining order keeping them out of Jerusalem during Thursday's Pride Parade. Some, though not all, have been released.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, from the legal defense organization Honenu, is representing the family. He claims that police are harassing the family for no good reason, in order to make up for the Jerusalem Police Department's blunders last year which enabled Schlissel - who had only been released weeks prior after serving a long prison term for a stabbing at a previous Pride Parade - to carry out his deadly attack.
"the police admitted to most of the people being investigated that there was no grounds for the detainment," said Ben-Gvir. "This is an abuse of a family solely due to their relation to Yishai Schlissel.
"The early morning raid on the family home will not erase the shame and police blunders that occurred last year, and you cannot fix an injustice with another injustice. You cannot question innocent people in a baseless investigation only because of what their family member did."
6. WATCH: HAREDI SOLDIER VERBALLY ABUSED ON BNEI BRAK STREETS
by Shai Landesman
As the number of haredim serving in the IDF steadily rises, many of them find themselves facing challenges and opposition, sometimes extreme, from home.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu mentioned the progress in haredi integration in the IDF as one of the accomplishments of the current government in his question and answer session in the Knesset Monday night, but full acceptance of the reality of haredi soldiers by their own society might be slower in coming.
'L', a father of two, is a haredi soldier who lives in the haredi city of Bnei Brak. When he goes to pick up his daughter from kindergarten, in uniform, he is regularly confronted by groups of haredi children screaming the derogatory term "hardak" at him, and yelling at him to leave.
The term "hardak", serves as a kind of slur against haredi soldiers. It's a play on words, as it is both a loose Hebrew acronym for "lightweight haredi", meaning one who is easily swayed from his haredi beliefs and lifestyle; and reminiscent of the Hebrew word for germ.
The term comes from a campaign meant to demonize haredim who serve in the army. In haredi neighborhoods throughout the country, glossy illustrated posters and pamphlets were distributed, portraying haredi soldiers as germ-like in the sense that they "infect" haredi society with foreign influences. "Hardakim" are shown as traitors plotting the destruction of Judaism, and are often illustrated as pigs. The similarity to Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda wasn't lost on the general public, and the majority of the haredi public simply dismissed the campaign as the ramblings of extremists, but the slur "hardak" caught on among children in some of the more extreme elements of haredi society.
One day L decided to film the children shouting at him. In the video, several children are seen yelling "Hardak, get out of here". The soldier's young daughter is then heard replying "He's not a hardak, he's my dad," to which the heckling children reply "You're father is a Hardak!"
In an interview with Channel 2 online, L said that while he's already used to the jeers, his daughter was also being affected by them, so he decided to make a video and post it. He also emphasized that the great majority of people in Bnei Brak don't behave this way, but there is a small group of extremists who teach their children to make haredi soldiers feel unwelcome on the streets.
7. 'YAAKOV LITZMAN IS THE MOST HOMOPHOBIC GOVERNMENT MINISTER'
by Hezki Baruch
The Knesset was scheduled to discuss MK Amir Ohana's (Likud) bill to add gender identity to the list of aggravating circumstances in the criminal code on Wednesday.
However, coalition head David Bitton (Likud) removed it from the agenda, apparently as the result of demands from the haredi parties.
The bill would provide additional legal protection for transgender Israelis.
MK Ohana spoke out in fury over the move, saying: "The coalition head, not for the first time, is working against the Likud movement, against the Likud's values, and against the Likud's legislation, while retreating in the face of any threat to break up the coalition.
"It's too bad that this week - in which the Pride Parade is taking place in Jerusalem one year after Shira Banki was murdered - the bill against hate crimes, which would prevented spilled blood and violence, and which that I have been trying to pass since I entered the Knesset, is surrendered to violence by David Bitton."
Ohana claims that Bitton acquiesced "to the most homophobic minister in the history of the State of Israel and the Minister who is so popular among the Israeli public. Yaakov Litzman (UTJ), who is so afraid of the words 'gender identity' that he threatens to break up the coalition if they enter the law books under his watch."
8. FOREIGN MIN. CHIEF CHALLENGES ABBAS: TEAR DOWN TERROR MONUMENT
by Ari Soffer
The Director-General of Israel's Foreign Ministry, Dore Gold, has released a video slamming the Palestinian Authority for building a monument to honor the terrorist who planted a bomb which killed 15 Israeli civilians in the center of Jerusalem.
The monument to Ahmad Jabarah Abu Sukkar, who masterminded the 1976 attack, was unveiled at an official PA ceremony earlier this month.
In the video, Gold - who was shopping nearby when the bomb went off, described what he saw that day.
[youtube:2017356]
"It was a Friday and I was doing my shopping innocently, until all of a sudden I heard this incredibly loud explosion. I turned around and I saw bodies strewn everywhere."
In the attack, a refrigerator filled with explosives was detonated in the heart of Jerusalem. 15 people were killed and over 60 people were wounded. Abu Sukkar was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, but was released from prison after 28 years as part of a "goodwill gesture" from Israel to the PA in 2003.
He was a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and an adviser to the PA Chairman Yasser Arafat on prisoners' affairs. He died of a heart attack in 2013.
The decision by the PA to honor the terrorist proves Abbas is not serious about wanting peace, Gold contended.
"That's the education the Palestinian Authority wants to give to its children," he said.
"The way it is now, we're not gong to be able to get very far in any kind of negotiation, because negotiation requires a culture of peace and not a culture of death.
"So I'm hoping that Abbas, who heads the Palestinian Authority - who heads the Fatah movement - will tear down that monument."
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