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Sunday, Jul. 10 '16, ד' בתמוז תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. SHOOTING VICTIM: WE WERE SAVED BY A MIRACLE
2. DALLAS SHOOTER 'WAS TRAINING IN HIS YARD'
3. MOTHER OF ESTI WEINSTEIN WRITES EMOTIONAL GOODBYE
4. COPS FEAR MENTALLY ILL MAN IS A TERRORIST - AND SHOOT HIM
5. COPYCAT SHOOTINGS TARGET POLICE AFTER RACIALLY-MOTIVATED ATTACK
6. 'MY FIRST CONVERSATION WITH MY BELOVED MOTHER'
7. WATCH: RUSSIAN PILOTS DOWNED, KILLED BY ISIS
8. WATCH: NEWLY RELEASED 2ND LEBANON WAR FOOTAGE
1. SHOOTING VICTIM: WE WERE SAVED BY A MIRACLE
by Hezki Baruch
[youtube:2017013]
The survivor of Saturday night's terror attack in Gush Etzion spoke with reporters on Sunday, recalling the harrowing moments that nearly ended his life.
Eitan Finkel, 30, was wounded Saturday when a terrorist opened fire on his family as they drove through the "T" intersection between east and west Gush Etzion.
"We got to the 'T' junction in Gush Etzion. To my surprise, we saw a terrorist standing right across from us, carrying a gun, but he failed to shoot us. It was a tremendous miracle for us. After we turned he opened fire on us. My wife screamed 'drive, drive, floor it.'"
"I asked my wife afterwards how the children are. I kept driving some 10 minutes, until I saw an army jeep, and stopped. During the whole drive I didn't feel my leg, or that my shoe was filling up with blood. My wife jumped out of the car and called the soldiers over, and from there I was evacuated to the hospital. God made a big miracle for us."
Finkel is now recovering from his wounds in the Shaarei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem.
Just last week the Finkels welcomed two new additions to the family – twin babies who, like their older siblings, were in the car at the time of the attack but were not injured.
2. DALLAS SHOOTER 'WAS TRAINING IN HIS YARD'
by Shai Landesman
New details continue to emerge about Dallas shooter Micah Xavier Johnson, who shot and killed 5 policeman, while wounding 9 others, at a protest in the Texas city on Thursday night.
Neighbors in Mesquite, Texas, where Johnson had been living, told the Dallas Morning News that Johnson had been seen doing army-style drills in his yard. Police found a large amount of weaponry upon searching Johnson's apartment, including bulletproof vests, ammunition, and materials for building bombs.
Johnson, 25, was a former US soldier, who'd done a tour in Afghanistan. During the standoff with police on Thursday night, Johnson had time to tell them that he was angry about cops shooting black men, and wanted to kill whites, especially cops, before police managed to kill him with a remotely controlled "killer-robot".
Johnson was an expert sniper, and served in the army reserves from 2009-2015. He was discharged from the army under mysterious circumstances, though there are reports stating that he was accused of sexually assaulting a female soldier.
Myrtle Booker, 62, a family friend, said that Johnson "wasn't the same guy since he came back from the war. He was very withdrawn, didn't want to talk to people anymore, didn't believe in God anymore. But all this hatred for whites, that wasn't something we knew about."
3. MOTHER OF ESTI WEINSTEIN WRITES EMOTIONAL GOODBYE
by Shai Landesman
Yehudit Irentein, the mother of Esti Weinstein, the woman who took her own life after years of estrangement from her children in the Gerrer hassidic community, penned a letter to her daughter, in which she recalls Esti's kindness and grace, and expresses hope that her story will bring greater understanding and empathy between people of different walks of life.
Irenstein also pledges that she and her husband will be "mother and father" to the late Weinstein's daughter Tammy, the only one of her children to have left the Gerrer community and religious observance with her.
Here is the text of the letter:
Our dearest Esti,
I miss you every day, every hour and every minute. It's not natural for parents to bury their daughter, and it's hard. Very hard. We didn't know you were suffering so much. You would always call to tell us how happy you are and how good things are, because you put honoring your parents above all and you didn't want to cause us any pain. That's why we never thought to take steps and find the things that would help you stay with us. When you decided to leave the fold of religious observance we hoped a day would come that you'd come back. We prayed to live to see you as you were.
We just concluded the week of mourning. Hundreds of men and women came to our house to comfort us, and they told us such amazing stories. Stories about a lovely woman. With your heart of gold, you spent all your days giving to others. To my great anguish, we didn't merit having you stay with us.
Your departure caused a storm in the land, we paid the highest price. Hopefully it will help people understand each other better.
You once said that you were our right hand. Every day, every hour, not a week went by when you didn't call and say: "Mom and Dad, come to our house for a meal." When you heard one of us wasn't feeling well, you were there in a minute. You constantly sought what was good for us. Your love for us, and ours for you, cannot be expressed in words.
I write to you with a broken heart. I can't believe you're not here with us. You were a beautiful and wise woman, a woman of kindness and empathy. You built a wonderful family and were a dedicated mother who raised her children in the most positive manner possible. I promise you that we'll be a mother and father to your Tammy and take her son into our hearts just as you asked, and we'll always keep the hope that one day they too will return to our path.
Love,
Mother
4. COPS FEAR MENTALLY ILL MAN IS A TERRORIST - AND SHOOT HIM
by Rachel Kaplan
In light of the recent terror attacks sweeping the nation, law enforcement has been operating on high alert.
When the police of Kiryat Gat received a report on Sunday afternoon that a man in Paz Park, in Kiryat Gat, was carrying a knife, their worst fears were realized.
Imagining a terror attack, they rushed to the scene, only to find a man in his 60s, wandering around with a knife in his hand.
All seemed well, until the man started to approach the police, brandishing the knife.
Hearts in their mouths, the police called for him to stop, but the man moved faster.
In a split-second decision, a policeman shot him in the leg, wounding and incapacitating the armed assailant.
Except that the armed assailant, an elderly man, is well-known to the police, and is mentally ill.
The police are investigating the source of the incident.
In a sign of the times, Israeli law enforcement live with their fingers on the trigger; rather than working with the populace, they have assumed a state of paranoia.
In another example of police overreaction, the police again erred on the side of damage when they recently entered a home in Yitzhar, and arrested the family's 15 year-old son.
The police did not demonstrate any evidence, did not allow the boy's father to accompany him, and informed the parents that they were bringing him to a re-education camp in the south of Israel.
Only when the courts clarified that the police were operating without clear evidence, and hadn't provided the boy with a legal advocate, was his arrest overturned.
They have since given the boy a distancing order from Judea and Samaria, though their exaggerated sense of caution has led them to harrass the boys' family repeatedly, as well as to re-arrest him without charges.
The police are, understandably, alert in times of terror. However, in light of the complaints and protests rising against trigger-happy cops, the question must be raised: is it worth it?
5. COPYCAT SHOOTINGS TARGET POLICE AFTER RACIALLY-MOTIVATED ATTACK
by David Rosenberg
President Barack Obama and likely 2016 presidential contenders Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton condemned the racially-motivated shooting attacks which left five Dallas law enforcement agents dead and nine wounded.
Obama, who was in the midst of a state trip to Europe at the time of the attack said he was "horrified" by the "vicious, calculated, and despicable attack on law enforcement".
"There is no possible justification for these kinds of attacks or any violence against law enforcement," the president said in Poland. "Anyone involved in the senseless murders will be held fully accountable. Justice will be done."
The president added that he hoped the killings would inspire greater support for new gun control legislation, which he has consistently advocated since assuming the office in 2009.
"I want to start moving on constructive actions that are actually going to make a difference," Obama said.
The perpetrator of the deadly shootings in Dallas is Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year old Army reservist who served in Afghanistan from November 2013 to July 2014.
Police say Johnson, who lived with his mother at the time of the attack, had an interest in black nationalist and supremacist organizations, but had no criminal record. Johnson was reportedly upset over the recent deaths of two African American men killed by police in separate incidents last week in Minnesota and Louisiana.
Dallas police chief David Brown said Johnson expressed a desire to "kill white people", and that he specifically targeted white police officers who were deployed to a "Black Lives Matter" demonstration.
Presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump expressed both shock and outrage at the attack, saying that it had "shaken the soul of our nation" and called for "law and order".
"A brutal attack on our police force is an attack on our country, and an attack on our families. We must stand in solidarity with law enforcement, which we must remember is the force between civilization and total chaos. Every American has the right to live in safety and peace."
The New York real estate mogul and former reality television star also noted the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, the two African American men killed in Louisiana and Minnesota respectively, saying that there was "much work we have to do in order to make every American feel that their safety is protected." Trump called the two men's deaths "senseless, tragic".
Race relations, said Trump, had "gotten worse, not better" under Obama.
Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton called the shootings "absolutely horrific", and said they were a sign Americans have to "do much more to listen to one another, to respect each other".
"I thought we were on the right track. Somehow we've veered off of it in recent years," Clinton told CNN.
Just hours after the deadly attack, copycat shootings targeting police were reported, including an incident in Missouri which left a St. Louis-area officer "fighting for his life", the Ballwin, Missouri police chief told reporters on Saturday.
6. 'MY FIRST CONVERSATION WITH MY BELOVED MOTHER'
by Rachel Kaplan
"To wake up in the morning and see messages saying "Missed Call from 'Mommy Dear'," it's unbelievable. Just now, I had my first conversation with my beloved mother. My mother is alive, speaking, breathing...standing!! It's amazing! And she says that she misses me, and wants me to come see her [in the hospital]...there are simply no words. And Mommy passes along a 'thank you' to all those who prayed on her behalf, she says that in your merit, her situation is improving incredibly quickly...thank you."
In the aftermath of the shiva (week of mourning), Orit continues: "It was a chaotic week, a week that would never end. We were lucky to have so many special people visit us in our home, while my father watches all this beauty from up in the clouds. So special...so many people helped us, so many supported us, so many gave us strength. What a giant hug we received from the nation of Israel. To see people, whom we don't know, come, from every corner of the land and the Earth...I felt empowered. People have taken on so many things and so many commandments, Dad is watching you and he is proud, so proud!
"And Dad. Who can absorb the idea that you're not here, people are coming and telling stories about you in past-tense. It doesn't make sense, because my father, you are not a person that people discuss in the past, you are not a person who can die. You are alive!! But slowly, slowly, we are starting to understand that you are not. I understand that this is already the second Shabbat that you aren't here to bless me on Shabbat eve, the second Shabbat without your big, strong hug, your look and how you say 'Shabbat Shalom, my beloved daughter,' which would give me strength for the whole week. It's the second Shabbat that we sing the songs of the third meal, and you don't join in with your beautiful singing...The third shabbat that we don't have Daddy's kiddush. And there aren't any conversations with Dad, no Dad's smile, and we don't see you at home, Daddy. In your corner, you were always learning there. No one is there now. You are so, deeply, missing...
Dad, you have no idea how much you affected the Jewish people, how many people heard about you and are learning from you, and are taking on new things. Daddy - be proud! Just be proud. Dad, I told people how much you loved ever person, it didnt matter how different he was from you, you simply loved everybody, and you engaged and you volunteered. And how you always told me that every difficulty and every crisis or loss helps me to complete my purpose on Earth in the best way possible...So I guess, Dad, that only without you can I complete my purpose in the world in the best way possible. Dad...I love you so much, and miss you in levels innumerable."
7. WATCH: RUSSIAN PILOTS DOWNED, KILLED BY ISIS
by Rachel Kaplan
[youtube:2017009]
A desperate gun battle near Palmyra, Syria, has claimed the lives of two Russian pilots.
The two men had attacked a troop of ISIS fighters in the Homs region on Friday. In midst of the operation, their Syrian Mi-25 helicopter ran out of ammunition, the Russian Defense Ministry reported, according to Interfax.
"The turning helicopter was hit by militants' gunfire from the ground and crashed in the area controlled by the Syrian government army. The crew died," it added.
Video footage published on Saturday by ISIS's news agency Amaq showed a helicopter being shot and crashing to the ground against cries of 'It's fallen, God is great'.
Russian forces entered the Syrian war toward the end of last year, backing the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
8. WATCH: NEWLY RELEASED 2ND LEBANON WAR FOOTAGE
by Uzi Baruch
[youtube:2017006]
New aerial footage shows Hezbollah positions being identified and communicated to forces on the ground, followed by IDF positions as they react to fire and grenade explosions. Red captions on top of image indicate Hezbollah positions, while blue captions signify IDF.
The footage is taken from the July 26th, 2006, action, a day of battle in Bint Jbeil which resulted in the deaths of 8 IDF soldiers, including Major Ro'i Klein, who jumped on a grenade to protect his men.
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