Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
Sunday, Aug. 14 '16, י' באב תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. WATCH: ARABS RIOT ON TEMPLE MOUNT DURING TISHA B'AV
2. CONGRESSMAN WHO CALLED YESHA JEWS 'TERMITES' TOURED ISRAEL
3. ISIS FREES HUNDREDS OF 'HUMAN SHIELDS' IN SYRIA
4. 'WE'RE NOT EMBARRASSED TO SAY IT: WE WANT TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE'
5. TISHA B'AV: MOURNING THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM'S HOLY TEMPLES
6. 'PROUD FOR THE ENTIRE NATION OF ISRAEL'
7. US 'DEEPLY CONCERNED' BY ISRAEL'S PLANS TO RELOCATE AMONA
8. WATCH LIVE: TISHA B'AV LEARNING MARATHON IN OHR SAMEAH
1. WATCH: ARABS RIOT ON TEMPLE MOUNT DURING TISHA B'AV
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Temple Mount was closed to Jews Sunday morning, as Arab rioters attacked security forces and hurled stones.
Visitors attempting to ascend the Mount on Tisha B'Av, which marks the destruction of both the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, were barred, activists claimed, by Israeli police who said the holy site had been declared off limits to Jews in the wake of violent disruptions which had broken out.
More than 300 Jewish visitors toured the holy site prior to the rioting Sunday morning. Police say nine Jewish visitors were detained for "violating visitation rules".
One of the detainees, a 20-year old man, was taken into custody on suspicion he had prayed during the visit. Two others allegedly say "Shema Yisrael" while on the Mount, also considered a form of Jewish prayer and therefore forbidden on the site.
As the alleged worshippers were detained and removed from the Temple Mount, Arabs gathered around the police and detainees.
"During the detention and removal of [the Jews] from the Temple Mount, Muslims began to gather and started shouting. Police [forces] pushed back the Muslims and escorted the group [of Jews] until they finished their tour and left the Mount."
But activists who had ascended the Mount dispute the police claim, saying that once Arabs began harassing the Jewish visitors, the police removed the Jews from the Mount and shut down the site to further Jewish visitation.
2. CONGRESSMAN WHO CALLED YESHA JEWS 'TERMITES' TOURED ISRAEL
by JTA
JTA - Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., who apologized last month after likening Jews living in Judea and Samaria to "termites," toured the area this year with a pro-Palestinian group.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution on Wednesday reported that Johnson took part in May of a tour of Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem hosted by Miftah, which supports "an independent, democratic and sovereign Palestinian state."
The trip, which included Johnson's wife, DeKalb County commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson, and several other congressional Democrats, was also underwritten by the American Global Institute, which promotes overseas travel for lawmakers.
Such trips are commonplace; the Journal Constitution report came as part of the newspaper's investigation into the travel of the state's congressional delegation. Three U.S. House Republicans from the state, Buddy Carter, Barry Loudermilk and Rick Allen, toured Judea and Samaria a year ago on the biennial trip hosted by the American Israel Educational Foundation, an affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Johnson, addressing pro-Palestinian groups on the sidelines of last month's Democratic National Convention, had said Jewish communities beyond the Green Line were "almost like termites [that] can get into a residence and eat before you know that you've been eaten up and you fall in on yourself."
After clarifying that he meant only to say that settlement activity is slowly undermining a two-state solution, Johnson apologized, and in recent days has reached out to Atlanta Jewish leaders.
3. ISIS FREES HUNDREDS OF 'HUMAN SHIELDS' IN SYRIA
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Islamic State (ISIS) group jihadists have released hundreds of civilians they used as human shields while fleeing a crumbling stronghold in northern Syria, but the fate of others remained unknown Saturday.
On another front, scores of civilians were killed on Saturday in air raids by the Syrian regime and its Russian ally, and in shelling attacks by the rebels in the battleground province of Aleppo, a monitoring group said.
At least 51 civilians including four children were killed in Aleppo city and the surrounding countryside, while another 22 civilians were killed in the neighboring province of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The last remaining ISIS fighters abandoned the city of Manbij near the Turkish border on Friday after a rout the Pentagon said showed the extremists were "on the ropes".
The retreat from the city which ISIS captured in 2014 was the jihadists' worst defeat yet at the hands of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an Arab-Kurdish alliance backed by U.S. air power.
Fleeing fighters took around 2,000 civilians, including women and children, Friday to ward off air strikes as they headed towards the ISIS-held frontier town of Jarabulus, according to the SDF.
At least some captives were later released or escaped, the alliance said Saturday, but the whereabouts of the rest was unknown.
"There are no more ISIS fighters" left in Manbij, an SDF member said.
Kurdish television showed footage of jubilant civilians in Manbij, including smiling mothers who had shed their veils and women embracing Kurdish fighters.
The SDF began an assault in May on Manbij, on a key jihadist supply route between the Turkish border and ISIS's de facto Syrian capital Raqa.
The jihadists, who have suffered a string of losses in Syria and Iraq, have often staged mass abductions when they come under pressure to relinquish territory they hold.
ISIS has also booby-trapped cars and carried out suicide bombings to slow advances by its opponents.
Jaish al-Islam, another major Syrian rebel group, has also in the past reportedly used dozens of captives in metal cages as "human shields" on the outskirts of Damascus.
Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 and has since killed more than 290,000 people and drawn in world powers on all sides of the war.
AFP contributed to this report.
4. 'WE'RE NOT EMBARRASSED TO SAY IT: WE WANT TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE'
by Eliran Aharon
Thousands of Israelis from across the country converged on the capital Saturday night to participate in the annual march around the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem at the beginning of Tisha B'Av.
The event, organized by the Women in Green organization, has been held every year since 1994, and both memorializes the destruction of the two Temples in Jerusalem and calls for the restoration of full Jewish sovereignty across the Land of Israel.
Following the traditional Tisha B'Av reading of the Book of Lamentations, which took place in Independence Park near the city center, participants marched to the Old City waving Israeli flags, accompanied by a heavy police escort.
A number of prominent speakers spoke at the event, including Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan; Likud MK Yehuda Glick; former National Union MK Aryeh Eldad; Women in Green founders Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar; Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Dov Kalmanovitz; Rinah Ariel, the bereaved mother of Hallel-Yaffa Ariel, who was murdered by an Arab terrorist in June; and Rabbi Yosef Mendelvitch, a former Prisoner of Zion in the USSR.
Referencing the discovery of coins minted at the end of the Second Temple period found at the fortress of Gamla on the Golan Heights which bore the phrase "For the Redemption of Jerusalem", Rabbi Ben-Dahan emphasized the centrality of Israel's capital to the Jewish nation.
"The fighters of Gamla knew that it is pointless to wage their war without Jerusalem. When they defend the northern part of Israel, they're defending Jerusalem in the center – the heart, which is everything."
"We aren't the only ones who know this, our enemies know it too. There was a reason [Palestinian Authority President] Abu Mazen [a.k.a. Mahmoud Abbas] said that the Temple in Jerusalem never existed; there's a reason why he makes sure every archeological discovery found linking the Jewish people to the Temple Mount will disappear. He understands that the Temple Mount is the beating heart of the Jewish people. The Temple Mount and the Temple are the heart of the nation of Israel, and without a heart there is no body."
Rabbi Ben-Dahan added that the rebuilding of Jerusalem would not be complete until the Temple too is rebuilt and the Temple Mount redeemed.
"We are all here to declare that we have returned to Jerusalem and God-willing we will prepare the hearts [of the people] to return to the Temple Mount as well and to rebuild the Temple. We aren't embarrassed to say it: We want to rebuild the Temple on the Temple Mount."
MK Glick, a notable Temple Mount activist, said the time had come to replace mourning with action.
"For 2,000 years we lived out the verse [in the Book of Lamentations] 'you shall surely weep at night'. No more! We must stop weeping and start to take action. The founders of the Zionist movement taught us that the Exile was not just a punishment but a sin as well."
"Today we are in a different place. Anyone who reads the Book of Lamentations cannot possibly think we are still there [in that situation]. We are not under siege and we are not isolated."
5. TISHA B'AV: MOURNING THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM'S HOLY TEMPLES
by Rochel Sylvetsky
The Fast of the 9th of Av (Tisha B'Av), the day of mourning for the destruction of the First and Second Holy Temples in Jerusalem, begins on Saturday night this year at the end of the Sabbath and lasts until Sunday night.
Although this year the 9th falls on the Sabbath itself, Jewish law precludes mourning on the weekly day of rest and so the fast is moved forward, while the Sabbath is celebrated with customary joy until sunset, dusk serving as an intermediate period when it is forbidden to eat as well as evince signs of mourning. (Click here for start and end of fast in your location and here for a halakhic primer for the fast). This year there is no "mourning meal" of an egg dipped in ashes as is eaten prior to the fast when it falls on a weekday.
Almost 2000 years have passed since the Roman Empire destroyed the Second Temple in 70 C.E and even more since the Babylonians, as recounted in the Bible, destroyed the First Temple (there is some dispute about whether the year was 586 B.C.E. or 425 B.C.E.), but Jews the world over will dim the lights in the synagogue once the Sabbath is over, sit on low stools or the floor, remove their leather shoes and mournfully recite the Book of Lamentations (Eicha) written by the Prophet Jeremiah who witnessed the first destruction.
Some congregations repeat Eicha in the morning, and all recite, for several hours, the many liturgical elegies (kinot) that bewail the loss of the Temples and other painful tragedies that befell the Jewish people throughout history.
Tens of thousands will come to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, an outer supporting wall of the Temple Compound and the only vestige of its splendor - for our Sages taught that the Divine Presence never left the Wall - with police on high alert throughout. All, as custom and halakha require, do not greet each other on the fast, refrain from studying Torah except for certain selections, sit on low chairs until noon, refrain from bathing, leather footwear, cosmetics and intimate relations – all this a culmination of Three Weeks of keeping various customs that symbolize mourning and even more stringent ones during the nine days leading to the fast.
It is told that the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was walking down a street one night and saw a darkened synagogue lit by several candles and people lamenting while sitting on the floor. Wondering what terrible catastrophe could have befallen them, he asked and was told they were mourning the destruction of their Holy Temple in Jerusalem. He was sure this was a recent tragedy and upon hearing that it had occurred almost two millennia earlier, is said to have remarked: "A people who mourns their Temple for thousands of years will also live to see it rebuilt."
If I forget you Jerusalem
May I forget my right hand
May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth
If I ever don't think of you
If I don't raise up Jerusalem above my highest joy ( Psalms137)
The Ninth of Av is a date marked by tragedy in Jewish history. On this day:
The Jews in the desert wept in fear after hearing the report of the spies, and G-d decreed, as recounted in Numbers 13-14, that they would not be allowed to enter the Land of Israel until that entire generation had died out. Our sages say that G-d's words were a prophecy: "You cried for nothing, and I will give you a reason to cry for generations to come."
Beitar, the last fortress to hold out during the Bar Kochba revolt in the year 135 C.E., fell to the Romans and over 100,000 Jews were slain.
A year later, the Temple area was plowed over, marking the last milestone of national Jewish presence in the Promised Land until the modern era.
The cruel expulsion of the Jews of Spain by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1492 achieved its goal.
World War I erupted in 1914, causing untold suffering to the Jews of Europe and Palestine and setting the stage for World War II and the Holocaust.
Mass deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka death camp began, in 1942.
There is a more recent tragedy. The Jews of Gush Katif spent their last legal day in their homes in Tisha B'Av of 2005, and were expelled three days later. The "Disengagement" the forced expulsion of more than 9,000 Jews from their homes in northern Samaria and the Jewish Gaza region, was carried out by a government, headed by then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his deputy Ehud Olmert, who sent in soldiers and police, many of them dressed in black uniforms and riot gear, followed by bulldozers that destroyed the Jewish homes.
Twenty synagogues, however, were handed over to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and within minutes, went up in flames. The area, along with the rest of Gaza, soon became a terrorist-controlled launching pad for thousands of missiles and rockets aimed at Israeli civilians, leading to three IDF operations.
How prophetic that the Talmudic Sages said that while the First Temple was destroyed due to the sins of idol worship, murder and immorality, the Second Temple fell due to the senseless hatred (sinat chinam) of one Jew for another.
And despite the 2000-year-old fast and palpable longing for the Temple to be rebuilt on Judaism's holiest site on Mount Moriah, UNESCO and the EU are entertaining proposals to recognize it as a Muslim site, ignoring all of the above. As Foreign Ministry Director General Dore Gold who blasted the proposal, said, it "deliberately ignores the historical connection between the Jewish people and their ancient capital".
Still, our Torah sages also teach that the Messiah will be born on Tisha B'Av and the saddest part of the regular daily prayers - tachanun - is not recited, in the anticipation of the final joyous Redemption that will render Tisha B'Av a day of joy. An old Jerusalem custom was to whitewash the walls of one's home in the afternoon of the fast, in preparation for the Messiah's expected arrival.
May we merit greeting the Messiah and be privileged to rebuild the Temple speedily in our time.
Selected events and information for Tisha B'Av:
The Women in Green's traditional Tisha B'Av eve walk, attended by thousands, around the Old City Walls will take place as usual. Click here for information.
Hidabrut.com website will be broadcasting a worldwide live marathon this Sunday, featuring 50 Rabbis, in 3 languages, from 4 locations across the globe. Popular speakers will include, The Chief Rabbis of Israel, Rabbi Zamir Cohen, Rabbi Yitzchok Grosman, Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb and many more world renowned lecturers from Israel, New York and France. The marathon is being organized In cooperation with the Ohr Somayach yeshiva and Chazaq radio.
The OU Center in Jerusalem will broadcast Kinot live on Sunday (click to register) with Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb speaking from the Israel Center at 22 Keren Hayesod, Jerusalem Rabbi Steven Weil speaking from Boca Raton.
Various population centers, such as in Modiin, will hold special "Tonight we don't study Torah" events to read Eicha and discuss social issues facing Israel.
Bus services to the Wall, to Rachel's Tomb, south of Jerusalem, and to the Machpelah Cave in Hevron, are reinforced, with extended hours. (Check Egged site for details).
6. 'PROUD FOR THE ENTIRE NATION OF ISRAEL'
by Guy Cohen
Israeli judoka Or Sasson likened his feelings after winning the bronze Olympic medal to "an eruption of a volcano".
"It all happened at the right time," he told Channel 10. "I am excited, I feel that I made a childhood dream come true, thanks to the people who stood there at my side. I'm so glad that I succeeded in bringing myself to the level of a fighter. I keep succeeding in breaking barriers and boundaries and I couldn't be happier."
"I'm proud of our country, happy for the entire Nation of Israel," he continued. "I still can't really comprehend the greatness of the accomplishment… I want to dedicate this medal to the entire People of Israel that encouraged and supported me, and knew how to send messages [of encouragement] even when I lost."
Sasson won a bronze medal friday in the Rio Olympics, after winning a consolation round in the men's 100 kilogram plus weight class.
Sasson defeated Cuban Alex Garcia Mendoza, shortly after losing a semifinal match to world champion Teddy Riner, who has been undefeated for six straight years.
Earlier this week, judoka Yarden Gerbi won a bronze medal after defeating Japan's Miku Tashiro in the women's Judo under 63 kg category.
7. US 'DEEPLY CONCERNED' BY ISRAEL'S PLANS TO RELOCATE AMONA
by David Rosenberg
Israeli plans to relocate the embattled Samarian town of Amona received harsh criticism recently from the US State Department, which claimed the plan would constitute a serious deviation from past Israeli policy and commitments by the Netanyahu government to the Obama administration.
Amid talk by senior Israeli officials regarding the possibility of relocating the town of roughly 40 families to a nearby site, an advertisement was published by the Civil Administration in the Arabic Al Quds newspaper noting the intention of the administration to build on 30 plots near Amona, covering more than 2,000 dunams (500 acres).
The advertisement serves as notification for anyone claiming ownership, giving them 30 days to present their claim for scrutiny.
Amona, located near Ofra in Samaria, is slated for destruction by the end of the year. Knesset members from the Likud and Jewish Home have suggested a number of possible solutions to circumvent the High Court's ruling against the town, including relocation to a nearby site, compensation in the form of a new, larger town near Shiloh, or the use of absentee land laws to legalize the status of Amona at its present location.
Hagit Ofran, a member of the left-wing Peace Now organization, said the Al Quds advertisement suggested the Israeli government was likely to relocate Amona to a site in the immediate vicinity of the existing location.
"They have started the process of taking land," Ofran told AFP.
"The Civil Administration has opened a process where it is announcing that it intends to make use of these properties which are near Amona."
"It can be assumed that the takeover's purpose is to allow the relocation of the settlers of Amona from the land they are currently occupying."
The US State Department was quick to respond to the report, blasting a move they said "would effectively create a new settlement".
"We're deeply concerned by reports that the Israeli government has begun the process to take over privately-owned Palestinian land to relocate the illegal Israeli outpost of Amona," said State Department spokesperson Elizabeth Trudeau told reporters during a Thursday evening news briefing.
"This would represent an unprecedented and troubling step that's inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinions and counter to long-standing Israeli policy to not seize private Palestinian land for Israeli settlements. If this moves ahead, it would effectively create a new settlement or significantly expand the footprint of an existing settlement deep in the West Bank."
"This is the continuation of a process that has seen some 32 outposts, that are illegal under Israeli law, being legalized in recent years."
Trudeau went on to draw a direct comparison between the plans to relocate Amona and Arab incitement against Israelis.
"I'd note more broadly…this is a number of trends [sic] that have been highlighted in the recent Quartet report that are threatening the two-state solution. Those trends also include Palestinian incitement. Along those lines, we're deeply concerned by reports that there was a post on a Fatah Facebook site that boasted about killing Israelis. We understand the page has now been taken down."
"You know, there's absolutely no justification for any statement that glorifies terrorism or glorifies violence. Incitement to violence is a grave concern, that's why the Quartet report also calls on Palestinians to act to stop it."
8. WATCH LIVE: TISHA B'AV LEARNING MARATHON IN OHR SAMEAH
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2018114]
Courtesy of‏ hidabrut.com
------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
