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Friday, Sep. 30 '16, כ"ז באלול תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. SHIMON PERES LAID TO REST
2. WATCH: DAVID D'OR PERFORMS 'AVINU MALKEINU' AT PERES FUNERAL
3. MAN WHO PUBLISHED POST AGAINST PERES DETAINED FOR QUESTIONING
4. WATCH: FORMER AUSTRALIAN MP CAUGHT IN CLASH WITH ISIS
5. SOUTH TEL AVIV RESIDENTS FED UP WITH TALK
6. POLICE ARREST JEWS, ARABS AHEAD OF PERES FUNERAL
7. WATCH: ARAB TRUMP SUPPORTER BEATEN BY MOB AT BLM PROTEST
8. HOW SHOULD AMERICANS MAKING ALIYAH VOTE IN US ELECTIONS?
1. SHIMON PERES LAID TO REST
by Ido Ben Porat
[video:2019666]
Thousands of people are attending the funeral of Israel's ninth president and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, who passed away this week at the age of 93. Arutz Sheva provides live coverage for the entire funeral.
President Reuven Rivlin eulogized Peres, in addition to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton.
Peres's children – Yoni and Chemi Peres and Prof. Tsvia Walden – eulogized their father as well, as did author Amos Oz, a personal friend of Peres. Singer David D'Or performed "Avinu Malkeinu" as requested by Peres himself.
Rivlin eulogized Peres, "I am speaking to you, 'president to president,' for the last time. As I speak, my eyes are searching for you. Our beloved brother, our eldest brother, you are no longer here. ... Few of those among us understand, and many more will write, about how many mountains you moved from 1948 until today, in order to protect Israel's security and our army's superiority.
"Who can understand how deep your belief was...how much you believed that Israel must be clever but also right, and faithful to her values - as Jewish democratic state and a democratic Jewish state - at all times."
Rivlin added, "This is a sad day, Shimon, it's a sad day. Your journey of dreams began in Vishnyeva, Poland, and ended in Jerusalem, our capital city. She, too, is a dream which became reality. Your death is a huge personal and national loss; it ends an era, an era of giants, whose life story is the story of the Zionist movement and the State of Israel."
Prime Minister Netanyahu also eulogized Peres, saying, "He was a key partner in the revival of the Jewish nation. Peres flew on the wings of a vision, but he knew that his flight took him over the bumps of politics."
Netanyahu turned to the participating world leaders, saying, "You came to Jerusalem from near and far, to honor one of Israel's founding fathers, one of the leaders who created our nation. Shimon Peres was amazing, he was a full partner in the revival of the Jewish nation."
He added, "It's no secret that Shimon and I were political enemies, but over the years we became close friends."
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said, "Your words, Shimon, were always exact. Your sentences were perfectly formed, as befits a man of your stature. But you were exceptional: Your words were not a substitute for deeds. You never made do with only words. You merited to become one of Israel's great founders, forming our country's face, strength, and character."
Edelstein continued, "While I was still a refusenik, my mother told me during a rare family visit, how worried you were about me, and how you were working to free me. She spoke to me in code. You proved again and again how great our nation is, despite our geographic and demographic limitations."
"We learned from you not to give up, not to despair. You were a lighthouse of optimism; you put everything in proportion. Your dream was to be a shepherd, and you fulfilled your dream. You were a shepherd leading the way; you served for 48 years in the Knesset. You were Knesset Chair, and you were part of the Knesset's essence," he said.
Former US president Bill Clinton also eulogized Peres, saying, "For more than 70 years, Peres served the Israeli public. I was honored to share more than 25 of those years with him, first in an attempt to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians and then as good friends. I was always amazed at his ability to utilize every opportunity of every day.
"Peres was someone who you could listen to and laugh with. He was able to ignore the worst possibilities and look forward to the best. I feel honored that the family has asked me to speak about his importance. I received much inspiration from Shimon Peres, and he touched many hearts," Clinton concluded.
Tsvia Walden, Peres' daughter, said, "I say goodbye to two people today: To Peres, Shimon, the honorable president; and to the person my mother called 'Bujik' and I called 'Dad.'
"The world will remember determined Peres, who never stopped, who continued to run despite the obstacles and falls along the way. My memories of him are of Friday night (Shabbat) meals in our home, when he was the first to stand for the Kiddush ceremony."
Walden added, "Dad, you were 'one who desired life,' who was 'strong as a lion' to serve his G-d, and ran forward. You deserve a proper rest."
US President Barack Obama eulogized Peres as well, saying, "I was the tenth American president to meet Peres, and the tenth to be enchanted by him."
According to Obama, Abbas' presence at the funeral is an important reminder for all of us.
"The Jewish nation was not created in order to rule over another nation. Peres insisted that the 'Palestinians' be equal to the Jews in every way, and that they should live in a 'Palestinian' country," he claimed.
"There is no greater honor for me than to say goodbye to Shimon Peres here in Jerusalem. Peres showed us that justice and hope are at the heart of the Zionist idea," Obama said.
He added that, "Peres did not merit to see his vision of peace become reality."
Turning to Peres' coffin, Obama said in Hebrew, "Toda raba, haver yakar [thank you so much, dear friend]."
[album:open
2. WATCH: DAVID D'OR PERFORMS 'AVINU MALKEINU' AT PERES FUNERAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2019713]
3. MAN WHO PUBLISHED POST AGAINST PERES DETAINED FOR QUESTIONING
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Ofer Golan, CEO of "Fighting the 'Palestinian' Lie," was taken for police questioning after publicizing a post criticizing former president Shimon Peres.
"I am crying over the thousands murdered since Oslo, and for the thousands of widows and orphans who are still in pain," he wrote.
According to the report, the police chief warned Golan not to come to Jerusalem Friday morning, then let him go free.
Attorney Itamar Ben Gvir responded, "The General Police Chief is confusing criminal activity and legitimate criticism. Israel's citizens are allowed to think and to write that Peres caused damage to the nation and to the country. The police must not attempt to regulate thoughts or threaten Israel's citizens."
Shimon Peres, ninth president of Israel, died two days ago after an illness. Peres was the "last of the founding fathers" of the State of Israel. He was renowned for the work he did in his younger years in various posts, as well as his efforts to build the reactor in Dimona and his involvement in the Entebbe rescue of Israeli hostages.. Peres, however, was also the architect of the disastrous Oslo Accords and the arming of the Palestinian Authority police to "fight terror", directly resulting in the deaths of thousands of Israelis.
4. WATCH: FORMER AUSTRALIAN MP CAUGHT IN CLASH WITH ISIS
by Emily Rose
Former Australian MP and Assistant Minister for Innovation Wyatt Roy, reported being caught in a firefight between Islamic State and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Domez, Iraq, near the town of Sinjar, which is west of Mosul.
In this video, which was released to Arutz Sheva, Roy is visiting an outpost that is being guarded by Kurdish Peshmerga forces when he gets caught in a deadly firefight.
[youtube:2019690]
Roy was visiting the region to see a friend and speak to local policy makers and young innovators.
SBS reports that "the battle, in which five IS fighters were killed, reportedly ended with airstrikes by Coalition forces to back up the Kurdish fighters.
Former Australian MP Wyatt Roy in Iraq Courtesy of Wyatt Roy
Roy told SBS that "The danger of a 50-cal bullet, or if they had bigger RPGs, or a mortar round hitting us was pretty serious so we had to stay where we were. Once they [the Peshmerga] had pushed them back, they were very adamant that we get in the car and drive as fast as we could in the other direction."
Former Australian MP Wyatt Roy in Iraq Submitted
Wyatt Roy, who made history in 2010 as the youngest individual to be elected to Australian parliament at the age of 20, has been a vocal advocate for Israel in the Australian media.
Additionally, Roy frequently visits Israel to speak with innovators and policy makers and came to Israel a few weeks ago, before departing for Iraq. One of his first actions as Assistant Minister for Innovation was to lead a week-long delegation of almost 50 Australians to Israel last November.
In a video conference to the Open Opportunity Forum in Sydney last November, Roy spoke about Israel saying that, "They have more startups per capita than any other country on earth, they have more investment in research and development per capita than any other country on earth, and more venture capital invested per capita than any other country on earth. They really are the global golden standard when it comes to innovation."
Roy recently accepted the position of non-executive director of the venture capital mob H2Ocean, an Australian company which invests in financial technology start-ups.
Wyatt Roy and Naftali Bennett met in Jerusalem on September 15, 2016 Submitted
5. SOUTH TEL AVIV RESIDENTS FED UP WITH TALK
by Benny Tucker
Sheffi Paz, one of the leaders of the "Otef Central Station" association, which fights for the rights of southern Tel Aviv's residents in the face of the area's becoming flooded with Eritrean and Sudanese illegals, spoke to Arutz Sheva regarding Netanyahu's recent meeting with the Likud. The meeting was convened to discuss the infiltrator problem and potential solutions.
According to Paz, Netanyahu is not familiar with the details of the issue, but his true test will be one of action.
"First of all, we're not talking about 20 thousand infiltrators; we're talking about 40 thousand plus many others that we don't know about," she said.
"We're fed up with empty promises. In another week and a half, we will sit in the Israeli Supreme Court, and we'll see how serious the government is about sending the infiltrators off to another country. We'll see how the government answers the judges."
Paz added, "If the Prime Minister was as firm about sending away the infiltrators as he was about the gas deal, then he would come to the Supreme Court with us. We are thankful that he put up a fence several years late, but we have not forgotten how the government dumped busloads of infiltrators on our heads, and has not done anything since then."
Paz hopes that the government's response to the Supreme Court will reflect a desire to advance the proposed solution.
"For several years we have been discussing pleas against sending infiltrators to another country. Unless a law stands in the Supreme Court, it's not worth anything. As far as we understand, there are secret agreements to send the infiltrators to another country, but the Supreme Court wants to ensure that they will be treated well there. The judges have demanded a clear answer from the government before allowing this law to pass. We are waiting to hear the government's answer and whether the Supreme Court will allow this solution or not."
For the past several years, Israel has been attempting to solve its infiltrator problem. Tens of thousands of infiltrators, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, live in Israel illegally. The Supreme Court has ruled against holding them in a detention facility. 60% of these illegals live in southern Tel Aviv, frightening the local residents, working off the books without paying taxes and causing the crime rate to skyrocket.
Recently, Education Minister Naftali Bennett was forced to step in to prevent a successful high school serving immigrants from being closed down and handed over to infiltrators. Infiltrator children are also given state-of-the-art schools and preschools, often at the expense of local children.
6. POLICE ARREST JEWS, ARABS AHEAD OF PERES FUNERAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Ahead of the state funeral for former President Shimon Peres on Friday, Israeli security forces are ramping up operations to secure the event. With world leaders including President Obama and former President Bill Clinton expected to attend, Israeli police and internal security agencies are taking every precaution – including preemptive arrests of people they have deemed potential troublemakers.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday evening, Israeli Police Chief Roni Alshich discussed the preparations underway for what is expected to be the grandest state funeral since Nelson Mandela's in 2013.
During the press conference Alshich revealed that a number of right-wing Jewish activists and Arabs had been arrested over the past day, as part of efforts to ensure that the funeral runs smoothly – and safely.
"For security purposes for what will be happening in the next 24 hours and coming days, we assessed all the possible threats to the event and sources of threats," Alshich said.
"That could mean threats or provocations [as well as terror] and we've also carried out preemptive arrests in specific cases for this event we're now preparing for."
Alshich played down the arrests, noting that the number of people taken into custody was small.
"These aren't large numbers. We're talking now about a very small number of people that we have identified as posing a possible threat or who could create provocations [during the funeral]."
According to a report by Channel 2, the arrestees include three Jewish activists from around the country.
"There may be surprises," Alshich said, "and we're prepared for those surprises. It is an unprecedented event in its scope. There are no specific warnings or information [on specific threats]. We are preparing for everything – terror attacks or provocations. Of course we're not sealing it off hermetically, but we need to have a good response prepared."
The state funeral for President Peres will take Friday morning at Har Herzl in Jerusalem.
7. WATCH: ARAB TRUMP SUPPORTER BEATEN BY MOB AT BLM PROTEST
by David Rosenberg
[Warning: the videos in this story contain foul language some readers may find offensive]
An Arab-American supporter of Donald Trump was chased and beaten by an angry mob during a Black Lives Matter protest in southern California Wednesday.
Feras Jabro, a 21-year old San Diego resident, was attacked by demonstrators in El Cajon, California who had gathered to protest the recent shooting of a local man by police.
But when protesters noticed Jabro's "Make America Great Again" hat – a symbol of support for the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump – some in the crowd went berserk, charging Jabro, who attempted to flee.
The unfortunate Trump supporter was cornered, however, and beaten before being escorted away from the mob after attackers removed his hat.
While some protesters continued to follow him, Jabro was able to find safety around a police detail assigned to contain the demonstration.
"I simply walked into the rally wearing a Donald Trump hat; I was attacked, thrown to the ground, kicked, chased," Jabro said.
[youtube:2019703]
8. HOW SHOULD AMERICANS MAKING ALIYAH VOTE IN US ELECTIONS?
by David Lev and Dr. Sam Minskoff
Standing in two camps, David Lev and Dr. Sam Minskoff continue the theme of olim contributing to the US elections. We also look at an amazing short movie starring David Lev, which can be seen right here on Arutz Sheva.
[audio:2019707]
Click here to download the podcast
[youtube:2019545]
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Friday, September 30, 2016
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A7News: Bill Clinton pays his final respects to Shimon Peres
Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
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Thursday, Sep. 29 '16, כ"ו באלול תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. BILL CLINTON PAYS HIS FINAL RESPECTS TO SHIMON PERES
2. JIHADI BRIT: 'IF THEY'LL BOMB ME THEY'LL BOMB ME'
3. RABBI PINTO WILL NOT SEE EARLY RELEASE
4. KATZOVER: I WON'T ATTEND PERES' FUNERAL
5. NISSIM ZE'EV REMEMBERS PERES AS A MAN WHO RESPECTED TORAH
6. AMNESY INTERNATIONAL: SUDAN USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON OWN PEOPLE
7. HIS SECURITY DETAIL NEVER LEFT HIS SIDE
8. KNESSET FLAGS LOWERED TO HALF-MAST
1. BILL CLINTON PAYS HIS FINAL RESPECTS TO SHIMON PERES
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[video:2019673]
The coffin of the 9th President of Israel, Shimon Peres, has been placed at the central Knesset Plaza in Jerusalem. It will lie in state from 9:00 until 21:00, for the public to pay their final respects to a man who served the country as President, Prime Minister, and in numerous other government positions over the years.
Peres' coffin, which will lie in state at the central Knesset Plaza, will be visited by people from Israel and around the world. They will come to pay their respects and to honor Shimon Peres who dedicated his life to the State of Israel and to his vision for creating a better world.
Former President of the United States Bill Clinton arrived at the Knesset, and after a short meeting with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein passed by Peres' coffin accompanied by Edelstein and President Reuven Rivlin. Clinton then proceeded to the President's residence for a meeting with Rivlin.
[album:open
Some of the political leaders who will pay their respects this morning include: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, ambassadors from around the world, mayors from across the country, international delegations coming specifically for this occasion, young Jewish and Arab participants from all of the Peres Center for Peace's main programs, members of the Israeli Youth Movements, representatives of communities and development towns, students from schools across the country, and Israeli artists.
As part of the mourning over the death of the 9th President, the Israeli flag has been flying at half-mast at all government buildings in Israel and Israeli diplomatic missions around the world. The Israeli Knesset lowered the flag to half-mast yesterday.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein told Kol Yisrael radio this morning that one can feel full solidarity with the state and with political opponents within it while not giving up on one's principles and positions, and Shimon Peres did this.
Edelstein says that this may be Peres' most important legacy. The Speaker emphasized that he always has and continues to disagree with Peres' views on everything to do with the Oslo Accords, but it's important to say that violence and personal animosity is never the way to resolve issues in a democratic society.
Shimon Peres will be buried on Friday in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The ceremony and eulogies will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the burial ceremony will begin at noon.
The roads surrounding the Knesset have already been closed, and the roads surrounding and leading up to Har Hertzl are expected to be closed from 7:00 Friday morning.
Preparations have been completed at Ben Gurion airport for the arrival of the flights of the many foreign leaders and dignitaries arriving to take part in the funeral.
President of the United States Barack Obama, who has confirmed his intention to attend the funeral, has ordered that flags be lowered to half-mast at American government buildings around the world as a sign of mourning for Peres. A White House statement said that the flags will be left at half-mast until Friday evening.
[album:open
2. JIHADI BRIT: 'IF THEY'LL BOMB ME THEY'LL BOMB ME'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2019677]
3. RABBI PINTO WILL NOT SEE EARLY RELEASE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Central District Court decided that Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, head of Mosdot Shuva Israel, will not be released early. This decision came after the State Attorney pleaded with the court not to shorten Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto's jail sentence.
The prosecution claimed that the Parole Board made a mistake when it decided that Pinto had proven himself worthy of parole. In their opinion, the severity of Pinto's crimes, coupled with the confidential information that the police were provided with, creates a situation in which parole would be dangerous.
According to the State Attorney, in this situation, the Parole Committee has not given enough weight to the facts that were put on the table, and has not properly balanced the two sides of the issue. This creates a situation in which the lack of certainty requires the State Attorney to interfere in the legal proceedings.
Pinto, who expressed deep regret for his actions, has said that he feels "like a criminal."
"A number of people left religion because they saw a rabbi who gives bribes. I am no longer a rabbi and I will pay for my mistakes. I have left public life and I am not a rabbi of any sort until I will feel myself worthy again, and that will definitely not happen in the next year or two," Pinto said.
Pinto has also declared that he will not continue to serve as a rabbi. He added, "My shame and disgrace are genuine as I went and smashed my entire life. I ruined everything that was important to me. I say to the parole board what I told Judge Brown, I stand by my word when I say that I am embarrassed at my behavior. I expressed my regret from the depths of my heart and sat with the social worker for 50 meetings....There is no rabbi Pinto anymore, I do not exist in the world. I have expressed my deepest regret and I want to repent."
4. KATZOVER: I WON'T ATTEND PERES' FUNERAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Benny Katzover mentioned Peres' good deeds at the beginning of his career but has a hard time forgetting the damage he did saying, "right after the Oslo Accords, my neighbor, Menachem Felix, lost his daughter."
Former Director of the Shomron Council, Benny Katzover, in an interview with Arutz Sheva, mentioned that Peres contributed greatly to Israel's defense at the beginning of his career but that he cannot forge the damage he caused afterwards.
"He was a man of the Greater, biblical, Israel in 1971 when we moved to Kiryat Arba he came to visit us. The Labour Party constructed 250 homes in Kiryat Arba," he explained saying that Peres helped provide an infrastructure for the residents. "He developed the national post in Kiryat Arba and created special stamps for the community," Katzover said.
In his statement, Katzover explained that Peres had a heavy hand in shaping the settlements and that his involvement in the settlements is felt even today.
"Peres supported the settlement of Elon Moreh," Katzover said, "and he made sure that within a week we had public transportation there and he fulfilled all his promises. It's too bad no one says today what Peres would say then which is that the Shomron is more important strategically than the Golan Heights. He said that those who opposed Jewish settlement in the Shomron are anti-Semitic."
In spite of that, Katzover will not be attending the funeral and stated that, "they asked me and I said that I can't participate in the funeral of anyone who signed the Oslo Accords. My neighbor, Menachem Felix, lost his daughter immediately after Oslo."
Katzover compared Peres to Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saying, "he is quite like Sharon in that regard, a cow that provides milk and then kicks the bucket over. Over the years, I lost touch with Peres," But several years go when he shook his hand, "I reminded him that I have prime property in Shomron he smiled and I saw that he had a smile of contentment."
"I am pleased that, despite all the damage he did, there is someone above is who managing the world despite the Oslo Accords, we have grown from being two hundred thousand to four hundred and fifty thousand settlers in Judea and Samaria. He himself knew that the new Middle East was not so new anymore as he had previously hoped. He saw very well what was happening around him," Katzover said.
5. NISSIM ZE'EV REMEMBERS PERES AS A MAN WHO RESPECTED TORAH
by Emily Rose
Former Shas Party MK, Nissim Ze'ev, in an interview with Arutz Sheva, estimates that in his last years, Shimon Peres changed his views on the Middle East.
"He was a man who believed in the vision of a new Middle East, he thought there was a chance for change but then turned around when he became president, maybe at that point he understood more of what the people of Israel have been through. He understood that returning land wouldn't necessarily bring peace once he saw what was happening to our neighbors in Syria and Egypt, I'm sure he changed his views."
"But despite all that he was a true protector of the State of Israel and the current Prime Minister relied upon him for his opinions because his wisdom was accepted all over the world," Ze'ev told Arutz Sheva.
Ze'ev praised Peres for his Torah knowledge saying that he was knowledgeable in such a vast range of subjects and had true respect for Jewish heritage. He explained that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef voted for Peres as president because of his stance on yeshiva students saying, "Peres increased the number of yeshiva students who could receive a deferment from the army from 400 in Ben Gurion's time to 4000 and even more than that."
"We never heard him attack those who study Torah the way other politicians do, including past prime ministers, at every chance they get, who say that Torah students are just a burden on the state. Peres thought that enlistment needed to be gradual and through dialogue. He never used his status in order to slander the world of Torah," Ze'ev said.
He added that "The world saw Peres as a source of wisdom, he represented Israel even though he was no longer Prime Minister, he was always treated as a leader and was given so much respect, even in the face of the waves of hatred against Israel. May he be of blessed memory."
6. AMNESY INTERNATIONAL: SUDAN USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON OWN PEOPLE
by Gary Willig
The government of Sudan has been carrying out multiple attacks using chemical weapons against its own civilians in what may amount to a war crime, according to a report issued today by Amnesty International.
Amnesty's investigation lead the organization to conclude that at least 30 chemical attacks have been carried out by government forces in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur since January 2016, killing between 200-250 people, including many children. The most recent attack is alleged to have occurred on September 9, 2016.
Hundreds more survived the attacks but developed symptoms including skin that changed color, rotted, hardened, and fell off, eye problems including a complete loss of vision, and respiratory and gastrointestinal problems.
Amnesty stated that it carried out its investigation "using satellite imagery, more than 200 in-depth interviews with survivors and expert analysis of dozens of appalling images showing babies and young children with terrible injuries."
According to eyewitnesses, the chemical agents were delivered via bombs dropped from planes and rockets. Eyewitnesses also reported that the smoke from the attacks would change color to a dark blue.
Two chemical weapons experts whom Amnesty presented its findings to concluded that vesicants, otherwise known as blister agents,were used in the attacks. This kind of chemical weapons includes mustard gas.
"This suspected use of chemical weapons represents not only a new low in the catalogue of crimes under international law by the Sudanese military against civilians in Darfur, but also a new level of hubris by the government towards the international community," said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International's Director of Crisis Research.
Hassan added, "The use of chemical weapons is a war crime. The evidence we have gathered is credible and portrays a regime that is intent on directing attacks against the civilian population in Darfur without any fear of international retribution."
The allegations of attacks using chemical warfare come as the Sudanese regime is engaged in an offensive in Jebel Marra against the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid (SLA/AW),which the government accuses of launching ambushes against soldiers and civilians alike.
The Sudanese government has denied all allegations that it used chemical weapons against civilians, dismissing all such claims as "rumours" to CNN.
Darfur has been the site of an ongoing conflict since 2003, when rebels groups took up arms against the government in Khartoum to address longstanding grievances over land and marginalization. The government responded with what many human rights groups have long termed a genocide. By 2008 the UN had estimated that 300,000 people may have been killed during the conflict in Darfur, a number that could have risen in the eight years since then.
7. HIS SECURITY DETAIL NEVER LEFT HIS SIDE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[album:open:0][album:open
8. KNESSET FLAGS LOWERED TO HALF-MAST
by Hezki Baruch
[youtube:2019659]
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein led the lowering of the Knesset courtyard flags to half mast Wednesday afternoon, as a sign of mourning for the passing of former President Shimon Peres. On Thursday, Peres will lie in state at the Knesset and members of the public will arrive to pay him their last respects.
A Knesset honor guard stood near the flags in the courtyard, and after the lowering ceremony, Speaker Edelstein spoke to the press.
"I went to visit Shimon Peres at the hospital last week and I was optimistic. How can you be anything else when you're standing next to Shimon Peres, the eternal optimist. I was sure that this time too, when the Knesset winter session opens, Shimon Peres will be sitting in the plenum as he always has."
He added that "Shimon Peres was an MK who served in the Knesset for an incredible amount of years. 48 years. I doubt anyone will ever even come close to that record. We're parting today from someone who wasn't just like a family member. We're parting from the head of the family. A man who looked to contribute his whole life. This is how we'll remember him forever."
In the Knesset, preparations are being completed for the arrival of the public tomorrow to pay their last respects to Peres, and estimates are that many thousands will come to the Knesset from all over the country. The coffin will be placed in the Knesset courtyard on Thursday morning and at 8:45 a.m., President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Knesset Speaker will lay flower wreaths by the side of the coffin.
The public will be welcome to pass by the coffin and pay respects from 9:00 in the morning until the late hours of the evening.
Edelstein reciting a psalm in Peres' memory. The Knesset. (Photo: Knesset spokesperson)
Earlier, the Knesset Speaker said a psalm and lit a memorial candle placed in the Knesset near a portrait of Shimon Peres wrapped in black. The candle and the portrait were placed prominently near the entrance to the plenum.
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http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
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Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
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Thursday, Sep. 29 '16, כ"ו באלול תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. BILL CLINTON PAYS HIS FINAL RESPECTS TO SHIMON PERES
2. JIHADI BRIT: 'IF THEY'LL BOMB ME THEY'LL BOMB ME'
3. RABBI PINTO WILL NOT SEE EARLY RELEASE
4. KATZOVER: I WON'T ATTEND PERES' FUNERAL
5. NISSIM ZE'EV REMEMBERS PERES AS A MAN WHO RESPECTED TORAH
6. AMNESY INTERNATIONAL: SUDAN USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON OWN PEOPLE
7. HIS SECURITY DETAIL NEVER LEFT HIS SIDE
8. KNESSET FLAGS LOWERED TO HALF-MAST
1. BILL CLINTON PAYS HIS FINAL RESPECTS TO SHIMON PERES
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[video:2019673]
The coffin of the 9th President of Israel, Shimon Peres, has been placed at the central Knesset Plaza in Jerusalem. It will lie in state from 9:00 until 21:00, for the public to pay their final respects to a man who served the country as President, Prime Minister, and in numerous other government positions over the years.
Peres' coffin, which will lie in state at the central Knesset Plaza, will be visited by people from Israel and around the world. They will come to pay their respects and to honor Shimon Peres who dedicated his life to the State of Israel and to his vision for creating a better world.
Former President of the United States Bill Clinton arrived at the Knesset, and after a short meeting with Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein passed by Peres' coffin accompanied by Edelstein and President Reuven Rivlin. Clinton then proceeded to the President's residence for a meeting with Rivlin.
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Some of the political leaders who will pay their respects this morning include: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Reuven (Rubi) Rivlin, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, ambassadors from around the world, mayors from across the country, international delegations coming specifically for this occasion, young Jewish and Arab participants from all of the Peres Center for Peace's main programs, members of the Israeli Youth Movements, representatives of communities and development towns, students from schools across the country, and Israeli artists.
As part of the mourning over the death of the 9th President, the Israeli flag has been flying at half-mast at all government buildings in Israel and Israeli diplomatic missions around the world. The Israeli Knesset lowered the flag to half-mast yesterday.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein told Kol Yisrael radio this morning that one can feel full solidarity with the state and with political opponents within it while not giving up on one's principles and positions, and Shimon Peres did this.
Edelstein says that this may be Peres' most important legacy. The Speaker emphasized that he always has and continues to disagree with Peres' views on everything to do with the Oslo Accords, but it's important to say that violence and personal animosity is never the way to resolve issues in a democratic society.
Shimon Peres will be buried on Friday in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The ceremony and eulogies will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the burial ceremony will begin at noon.
The roads surrounding the Knesset have already been closed, and the roads surrounding and leading up to Har Hertzl are expected to be closed from 7:00 Friday morning.
Preparations have been completed at Ben Gurion airport for the arrival of the flights of the many foreign leaders and dignitaries arriving to take part in the funeral.
President of the United States Barack Obama, who has confirmed his intention to attend the funeral, has ordered that flags be lowered to half-mast at American government buildings around the world as a sign of mourning for Peres. A White House statement said that the flags will be left at half-mast until Friday evening.
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2. JIHADI BRIT: 'IF THEY'LL BOMB ME THEY'LL BOMB ME'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2019677]
3. RABBI PINTO WILL NOT SEE EARLY RELEASE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Central District Court decided that Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, head of Mosdot Shuva Israel, will not be released early. This decision came after the State Attorney pleaded with the court not to shorten Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto's jail sentence.
The prosecution claimed that the Parole Board made a mistake when it decided that Pinto had proven himself worthy of parole. In their opinion, the severity of Pinto's crimes, coupled with the confidential information that the police were provided with, creates a situation in which parole would be dangerous.
According to the State Attorney, in this situation, the Parole Committee has not given enough weight to the facts that were put on the table, and has not properly balanced the two sides of the issue. This creates a situation in which the lack of certainty requires the State Attorney to interfere in the legal proceedings.
Pinto, who expressed deep regret for his actions, has said that he feels "like a criminal."
"A number of people left religion because they saw a rabbi who gives bribes. I am no longer a rabbi and I will pay for my mistakes. I have left public life and I am not a rabbi of any sort until I will feel myself worthy again, and that will definitely not happen in the next year or two," Pinto said.
Pinto has also declared that he will not continue to serve as a rabbi. He added, "My shame and disgrace are genuine as I went and smashed my entire life. I ruined everything that was important to me. I say to the parole board what I told Judge Brown, I stand by my word when I say that I am embarrassed at my behavior. I expressed my regret from the depths of my heart and sat with the social worker for 50 meetings....There is no rabbi Pinto anymore, I do not exist in the world. I have expressed my deepest regret and I want to repent."
4. KATZOVER: I WON'T ATTEND PERES' FUNERAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Benny Katzover mentioned Peres' good deeds at the beginning of his career but has a hard time forgetting the damage he did saying, "right after the Oslo Accords, my neighbor, Menachem Felix, lost his daughter."
Former Director of the Shomron Council, Benny Katzover, in an interview with Arutz Sheva, mentioned that Peres contributed greatly to Israel's defense at the beginning of his career but that he cannot forge the damage he caused afterwards.
"He was a man of the Greater, biblical, Israel in 1971 when we moved to Kiryat Arba he came to visit us. The Labour Party constructed 250 homes in Kiryat Arba," he explained saying that Peres helped provide an infrastructure for the residents. "He developed the national post in Kiryat Arba and created special stamps for the community," Katzover said.
In his statement, Katzover explained that Peres had a heavy hand in shaping the settlements and that his involvement in the settlements is felt even today.
"Peres supported the settlement of Elon Moreh," Katzover said, "and he made sure that within a week we had public transportation there and he fulfilled all his promises. It's too bad no one says today what Peres would say then which is that the Shomron is more important strategically than the Golan Heights. He said that those who opposed Jewish settlement in the Shomron are anti-Semitic."
In spite of that, Katzover will not be attending the funeral and stated that, "they asked me and I said that I can't participate in the funeral of anyone who signed the Oslo Accords. My neighbor, Menachem Felix, lost his daughter immediately after Oslo."
Katzover compared Peres to Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon saying, "he is quite like Sharon in that regard, a cow that provides milk and then kicks the bucket over. Over the years, I lost touch with Peres," But several years go when he shook his hand, "I reminded him that I have prime property in Shomron he smiled and I saw that he had a smile of contentment."
"I am pleased that, despite all the damage he did, there is someone above is who managing the world despite the Oslo Accords, we have grown from being two hundred thousand to four hundred and fifty thousand settlers in Judea and Samaria. He himself knew that the new Middle East was not so new anymore as he had previously hoped. He saw very well what was happening around him," Katzover said.
5. NISSIM ZE'EV REMEMBERS PERES AS A MAN WHO RESPECTED TORAH
by Emily Rose
Former Shas Party MK, Nissim Ze'ev, in an interview with Arutz Sheva, estimates that in his last years, Shimon Peres changed his views on the Middle East.
"He was a man who believed in the vision of a new Middle East, he thought there was a chance for change but then turned around when he became president, maybe at that point he understood more of what the people of Israel have been through. He understood that returning land wouldn't necessarily bring peace once he saw what was happening to our neighbors in Syria and Egypt, I'm sure he changed his views."
"But despite all that he was a true protector of the State of Israel and the current Prime Minister relied upon him for his opinions because his wisdom was accepted all over the world," Ze'ev told Arutz Sheva.
Ze'ev praised Peres for his Torah knowledge saying that he was knowledgeable in such a vast range of subjects and had true respect for Jewish heritage. He explained that Rabbi Ovadia Yosef voted for Peres as president because of his stance on yeshiva students saying, "Peres increased the number of yeshiva students who could receive a deferment from the army from 400 in Ben Gurion's time to 4000 and even more than that."
"We never heard him attack those who study Torah the way other politicians do, including past prime ministers, at every chance they get, who say that Torah students are just a burden on the state. Peres thought that enlistment needed to be gradual and through dialogue. He never used his status in order to slander the world of Torah," Ze'ev said.
He added that "The world saw Peres as a source of wisdom, he represented Israel even though he was no longer Prime Minister, he was always treated as a leader and was given so much respect, even in the face of the waves of hatred against Israel. May he be of blessed memory."
6. AMNESY INTERNATIONAL: SUDAN USED CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON OWN PEOPLE
by Gary Willig
The government of Sudan has been carrying out multiple attacks using chemical weapons against its own civilians in what may amount to a war crime, according to a report issued today by Amnesty International.
Amnesty's investigation lead the organization to conclude that at least 30 chemical attacks have been carried out by government forces in the Jebel Marra region of Darfur since January 2016, killing between 200-250 people, including many children. The most recent attack is alleged to have occurred on September 9, 2016.
Hundreds more survived the attacks but developed symptoms including skin that changed color, rotted, hardened, and fell off, eye problems including a complete loss of vision, and respiratory and gastrointestinal problems.
Amnesty stated that it carried out its investigation "using satellite imagery, more than 200 in-depth interviews with survivors and expert analysis of dozens of appalling images showing babies and young children with terrible injuries."
According to eyewitnesses, the chemical agents were delivered via bombs dropped from planes and rockets. Eyewitnesses also reported that the smoke from the attacks would change color to a dark blue.
Two chemical weapons experts whom Amnesty presented its findings to concluded that vesicants, otherwise known as blister agents,were used in the attacks. This kind of chemical weapons includes mustard gas.
"This suspected use of chemical weapons represents not only a new low in the catalogue of crimes under international law by the Sudanese military against civilians in Darfur, but also a new level of hubris by the government towards the international community," said Tirana Hassan, Amnesty International's Director of Crisis Research.
Hassan added, "The use of chemical weapons is a war crime. The evidence we have gathered is credible and portrays a regime that is intent on directing attacks against the civilian population in Darfur without any fear of international retribution."
The allegations of attacks using chemical warfare come as the Sudanese regime is engaged in an offensive in Jebel Marra against the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid (SLA/AW),which the government accuses of launching ambushes against soldiers and civilians alike.
The Sudanese government has denied all allegations that it used chemical weapons against civilians, dismissing all such claims as "rumours" to CNN.
Darfur has been the site of an ongoing conflict since 2003, when rebels groups took up arms against the government in Khartoum to address longstanding grievances over land and marginalization. The government responded with what many human rights groups have long termed a genocide. By 2008 the UN had estimated that 300,000 people may have been killed during the conflict in Darfur, a number that could have risen in the eight years since then.
7. HIS SECURITY DETAIL NEVER LEFT HIS SIDE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
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8. KNESSET FLAGS LOWERED TO HALF-MAST
by Hezki Baruch
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Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein led the lowering of the Knesset courtyard flags to half mast Wednesday afternoon, as a sign of mourning for the passing of former President Shimon Peres. On Thursday, Peres will lie in state at the Knesset and members of the public will arrive to pay him their last respects.
A Knesset honor guard stood near the flags in the courtyard, and after the lowering ceremony, Speaker Edelstein spoke to the press.
"I went to visit Shimon Peres at the hospital last week and I was optimistic. How can you be anything else when you're standing next to Shimon Peres, the eternal optimist. I was sure that this time too, when the Knesset winter session opens, Shimon Peres will be sitting in the plenum as he always has."
He added that "Shimon Peres was an MK who served in the Knesset for an incredible amount of years. 48 years. I doubt anyone will ever even come close to that record. We're parting today from someone who wasn't just like a family member. We're parting from the head of the family. A man who looked to contribute his whole life. This is how we'll remember him forever."
In the Knesset, preparations are being completed for the arrival of the public tomorrow to pay their last respects to Peres, and estimates are that many thousands will come to the Knesset from all over the country. The coffin will be placed in the Knesset courtyard on Thursday morning and at 8:45 a.m., President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Knesset Speaker will lay flower wreaths by the side of the coffin.
The public will be welcome to pass by the coffin and pay respects from 9:00 in the morning until the late hours of the evening.
Edelstein reciting a psalm in Peres' memory. The Knesset. (Photo: Knesset spokesperson)
Earlier, the Knesset Speaker said a psalm and lit a memorial candle placed in the Knesset near a portrait of Shimon Peres wrapped in black. The candle and the portrait were placed prominently near the entrance to the plenum.
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Wednesday, September 28, 2016
A7News: Unprecedented preparations for Peres funeral
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Wednesday, Sep. 28 '16, כ"ה באלול תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. UNPRECEDENTED PREPARATIONS FOR PERES FUNERAL
2. WHY ISRAELI JEWS LEAN TO THE RIGHT AND AMERICAN JEWS TO THE LEFT
3. HAMAS CELEBRATES PERES' DEATH
4. YESHA COUNCIL HONORS PERES' 'TIRELESS WORK' FOR ISRAEL
5. BEIJING LOOKS TO DEEPEN ECONOMIC TIES WITH ISRAEL
6. 'ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF ISRAEL'
7. ISRAEL'S POPULATION REACHES 8.58 MILLION
8. WILL SWEDISH-ISRAELI RELATIONS GET BACK ON TRACK?
1. UNPRECEDENTED PREPARATIONS FOR PERES FUNERAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A government committee within the Ministry of Culture and Sport charged with planning state events is preparing for what is expected to be the largest state funeral since Nelson Mandela's in 2013.
President Shimon Peres, who passed away early Wednesday morning, will lay in state in the Knesset on Thursday. Flags at all state institutions, army bases, and police stations will be flown at half-mast.
The funeral is scheduled to take place on Friday at Har Herzl in Jerusalem. Peres will be buried in a plot near Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
"This is a complicated event which requires a great deal of cooperation between different [governmental] bodies," said Minister of Culture Miri Regev. "We need to deal with it like a well-planned operation."
At 8:45 Thursday morning, President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will lay wreathes in front of the late president.
From 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., Peres will lie in repose at the Knesset for the public to pay their last respects.
The funeral on Friday will begin at 8:30 in the morning, when Peres will be transferred from the Knesset to Har Herzl.
From 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. a formal service with eulogies will be performed at Har Herzl.
The burial ceremony will commence at noon.
Sections of Highway 1 are expected to be closed on Friday as world leaders make their way to Jerusalem for the funeral. Police warn of traffic disruptions inside Jerusalem as well, with roads closed around the Knesset and Har Herzl.
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are expected to be in attendance, along with Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, and President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbe.
2. WHY ISRAELI JEWS LEAN TO THE RIGHT AND AMERICAN JEWS TO THE LEFT
by David Rosenberg
A report published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center reveals a growing gulf between American Jews and Israelis on everything from religious observance and affiliation, to political ideology, and views on hot-button issues like Palestinian statehood and US aid to Israel.
Close Relationship
The world's two largest Jewish populations, each numbering some six million, have strongly positive feelings towards each other, Pew's Neha Sahgal said.
"When we compared the attitudes of American Jews to Israel and Israeli Jews to the United States, it became really clear that they share an affinity for each other."
Sahgal added that roughly 40% of American Jews have visited Israel – roughly the same proportion of Israeli Jews who have traveled to the United States.
"That's a pretty high number, 40%," said Sahgal.
'Red State Israel' versus 'Blue State Americans'
But while the relationship between American and Israeli Jews remains strong, the two differ sharply on politics, and contrast strongly in religious observance and identity.
While American Jews lean strongly to the left, Israeli Jews tend to identify with the political center or right-wing.
To some extent, this has created cultural tensions between some progressive American Jews – particularly among younger Jews – and the Jewish state.
"They also have a strong liberal-to-conservative dispute," Hebrew Union College's Steven M. Cohen said, comparing the internal Jewish cultural divide to the rift between Republican-leaning "red" states and Democratic-leaning "blue" states in the US.
"In many respects, Israel is a 'red state', and American Jews are a 'blue country'."
According to Pew, 49% of American Jews identify as left-wing or liberal, compared to just 8% of Israeli Jews. While only 19% of American Jews consider themselves conservatives politically, Israeli Jews were nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative/right-wing, with 37% describing themselves as such. Twenty-nine percent of American Jews say they consider themselves centrist or moderate, compared to 55% of Israeli Jews.
Palestinian Statehood, Judea and Samaria, and US Support for Israel
Given the differences in political ideology, it is unsurprising that American Jews and Israelis differ strongly on issues like Palestinian statehood and US support for Israel.
A strong majority (61%) of American Jews believe that a Palestinian state can exist peacefully alongside Israel, while just 43% of Israeli Jews agreed. Israeli Jews were significantly more likely to argue that the US has not been supportive enough of Israel in recent years (52%), than American Jews (31%). And while nearly half (43%) of Israeli Jews believe Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to Israel's security, only 17% of American Jews agreed.
Israeli and American Jews also differed sharply on their perceptions of the major problems confronting the Jewish state.
American Jews focused overwhelmingly on security threats and terrorism, with 66% saying security was Israel's greatest problem. Only 1% said economic challenges were Israel's greatest problem.
Israeli Jews, however, were roughly evenly divided between the two, with 38% saying security threats were the biggest problem, and 39% saying economic issues were. Israeli and American Jews were roughly equally likely (14% and 18% respectively) to see social and religious problems as the primary issue facing Israel.
Religious Differences
Just as the two populations differ sharply in political ideology, they also exhibit strongly different patterns of religious affiliation and levels of observance of Jewish tradition.
Among American Jews, the Conservative and Reform movements are dominant, representing 18% and 35% of the Jewish population respectively. Only 10% of American Jews consider themselves Orthodox.
In Israel, however, the Reform and Conservative movements are virtually non-existent, with just 3% of Israeli Jews saying they identified as Reform and 2% identifying as Conservative – far fewer than the more than 22% who are Orthodox.
Religious observance is also more prevalent in Israel – even among non-Orthodox Israelis.
While a whopping 57% of American Jews say they eat pork, only 16% of Israeli Jews do. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Israeli Jews keep kosher at home, compared to 22% of American Jews. Fifty-six percent of Israeli Jews light Shabbat candles every week, compared to 23% of American Jews, and 60% of Israeli Jews completed the Yom Kippur fast last year, while only 40% of American Jews did so.
Jews as a community, Jews as a nation
To a large extent, the religious and political differences between American and Israeli Jews can be chalked up to two class and ethnicity, journalist and Shalom Hartman Institute Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi says.
While American Jews are primarily Ashkenazi, Halevi points out, a majority of Israeli Jews are Mizrachi or Sephardi – immigrants [or their descendants] from the Middle East or Mediterranean.
"Factor in the wide ethnic Jewish diversity of Israel. American Jews are mostly Ashkenazi. Israeli Jews are a majority Mizrachi, or more and more a combination of Ashkenazi and Mizrachi, thanks to the growing rate of what we call 'intermarriage'."
The other salient difference, class, is rooted largely in the nature of the two populations, says Halevi.
"American Jews are a community and function as a community, and Israelis are a people. When you are a community, you tend to be more homogeneous. That isn't to say they're aren't major differences among American Jews. But socioeconomically, American Jews are overwhelmingly middle class, upper-middle class, university educated. Israeli Jews are a people. We've got a working class - a very big working clas - we've got a struggling lower-middle class, we have a middle-middle class, there's small upper class."
3. HAMAS CELEBRATES PERES' DEATH
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Hamas welcomed the death of former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres Wednesday, calling him a "criminal", while the Palestinian Authority made no official comment after the death of the elder Israeli statesman and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Islamist Hamas terrorist organization commented on Peres' death, saying that "The Palestinian people are happy at the death of this criminal.
"Shimon Peres was one of the last Israeli founders of occupation. His death marks the end of an era in the history of the Israeli occupation," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
Tributes to the 93-year-old poured in from across the world, but the Palestinian Authority, which was created by the the Oslo accords – of which Peres was one of the principal architects -- remained largely silent.
The Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa announced his death in a short news story, but initially no officials commented in it.
Diana Buttu, former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Authority, tweeted "Peres was an unrepentant war criminal. Revisionist history won't work."
Later, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement via Wafa, offering his condolences.
"Abbas sent a message of condolence to the family of former President Shimon Peres," Wafa reported Wednesday afternoon. "Peres was a partner in making the brave peace," referencing the 1993 Oslo Accords, the product of then-Foreign Minister Peres' sub rosa negotiations with PLO terrorists.
Peres served as Israel's Prime Minister from 1984-1986, and again from 1995-1996. He was Israel's ninth President from 2007-2014.
AFP contributed to this report
4. YESHA COUNCIL HONORS PERES' 'TIRELESS WORK' FOR ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Yesha Council released a statement in response to the death of Shimon Peres.
"In this hour we remind ourselves of Peres' greatest contributions to lay the groundwork for Israel's defense since its inception, and his great contribution to the establishment of Jewish settlements in Samaria," the statement read.
In the statement, the council noted that Peres was "one of the founders of the state and visionaries of the Israeli people even in the settlements which he developed from their very beginning. Throughout the disputes over the years, we will remember the constant support to the security of the settlements, the creation of settlements in Samaria, the creation of Ofra and the progress of an infrastructure for the construction of additional settlements."
Mayor of Ariel Eliyahu Shaviro said that "Shimon Peres, of blessed memory, contributed greatly to the security of Israel and worked tirelessly for peace with our neighbors."
"Peres also laid several cornerstones for the settlements," Shaviro said, "The residents of Ariel and the entire nation of Israel is mourning the loss of an incredible leader who worked tirelessly for his nation."
Yochai Damari, Director of the Hevron Hills Council, said, "I bow my head to the man who worked to hard for our country."
"He worked tirelessly for the creation of the state. Settlements were a point of contention for him, specifically for everything connected to Oslo but he was also a part of the establishment of many settlements and was one of the first to pave the way for the construction of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria."
Noam Arnon, spokesperson for the Hevron Hills settlement, said that "Peres has a central role in shaping this country since its birth. His role in the creation of the map of settlements in Judea and Samaria will always be remembered."
Arnon mentioned that when Peres was Minister of Defense he granted the license for the opening of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue in Hevron which allowed the rebuilding of Jewish settlement in Hevron. "With that," Arnon said, "he did make mistakes, one of which was the creation of Palestinian terrorist authority."
"Now is the time to remember his good deeds and his contribution to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. We will mourn him with all of Israel, and we will aim to continue his vision of building this state and bringing true peace to all its citizens," Arnon added.
5. BEIJING LOOKS TO DEEPEN ECONOMIC TIES WITH ISRAEL
by ILTV
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6. 'ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF ISRAEL'
by Yoni Kempinski
Israel's ninth President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres has passed away at the age of 93, two weeks after suffering a serious stroke and being admitted to the Tel Hashomer Hospital.
His condition deteriorated on Tuesday and family and friends were summoned to the hospital to say their farewell.
Peres served as the Prime Minister of Israel twice and twice as Interim Prime Minister, and was a member of 12 cabinets over a period of 66 years.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu honored the late president in a statement Wednesday morning, calling him "one of our great leaders," and "one of the founding fathers of the State of Israel."
"His name will be forever engraved in the story of the rebirth of the Jewish people."
Peres was first elected to the Knesset in November of 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President.
He was the longest serving chairman of the Labor party, from 1977 until 1992. While serving as a member of Labor for the majority of his time in the Knesset, in 2005 he left Labor to support Ariel Sharon and his new Kadima party.
Following Kadima's win in the 2006 election, Peres was given the role of Vice Prime Minister and Minister for the Development of the Negev, Galilee and Regional Economy, serving under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Peres was elected President of the State of Israel by the Knesset on June 13, 2007, and resigned from his role as a Member of the Knesset the same day. Peres was sworn in as President a month later, on July 15, 2007.
He announced in April 2013 that he would not seek to extend his tenure beyond 2014 and was succeeded by Reuven Rivlin in July of that year.
Peres served as Foreign Minister in the second government of Yitzhak Rabin and was among the architects of the Oslo Accords, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
He is credited with the establishment of the Dimona reactor site and with Israel's ambiguity policy on the subject. Defending the reactor, he once said: "We're the only nation in the world whose existence is under threat, and we're the only nation in the world who is not a threat to anyone. We needed to find a solution to that problem. I have no doubt the reactor gave Israel a dimension of deterrence. For me, Dimona was the first step to Oslo. It was built so we'll have the possibility to make peace."
He was born Szymon Perski, on August 2 1923, in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), to Yitzhak and Sara Perski. His father was a wealthy timber merchant, later branching out into other commodities. His mother was a librarian. Peres' grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer who was murdered in the Holocaust, had a great impact on his life.
This past January, Peres was admitted to the Tel Hashomer Hospital after he suffered a mild heart attack.
[video:2019628]
Last month, Peres suffered from chest pains and his son-in-law, Dr. Rafi Walden, was called to his home in Tel Aviv. Tests showed that Peres had suffered from atrial fibrillation of the heart. A senior cardiologist treated the former President at the time until his heart rate returned to normal and he was not admitted to hospital.
A week before his hospitalization, the former President underwent an operation to have a pacemaker device implanted to prevent irregular heartbeats. The operation took place just after he returned to Israel following a political conference in Italy.
Sources close to the former President said at the time that Peres' physicians had advised him to get the pacemaker device to prevent heart disorders.
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7. ISRAEL'S POPULATION REACHES 8.58 MILLION
by JTA
Israel will have a population of 8.585 million citizens this Rosh Hashanah.
The growth rate, 2 percent, was similar to previous years, according to an annual report released Tuesday by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.
The country's Jewish population, which makes up nearly three quarters of the country at 6.419 million, grew at a rate of 1.9 percent, while the Arab population, which makes up just over a fifth of the country at 1.786 million, grew at a rate of 2.2 percent.
Other groups, including non-Arab Christians and those identifying with other religions, which make up 4.4 percent of the population at 380,000, grew at a rate of 3.8 percent.
The birth rate surpassed the death rate, with 189,000 births and 46,000 deaths.
In the past Jewish year, 30,000 people moved to Israel, including 25,000 new immigrants.
8. WILL SWEDISH-ISRAELI RELATIONS GET BACK ON TRACK?
by ILTV
[brightcove:2019631]
------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
Wednesday, Sep. 28 '16, כ"ה באלול תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. UNPRECEDENTED PREPARATIONS FOR PERES FUNERAL
2. WHY ISRAELI JEWS LEAN TO THE RIGHT AND AMERICAN JEWS TO THE LEFT
3. HAMAS CELEBRATES PERES' DEATH
4. YESHA COUNCIL HONORS PERES' 'TIRELESS WORK' FOR ISRAEL
5. BEIJING LOOKS TO DEEPEN ECONOMIC TIES WITH ISRAEL
6. 'ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF ISRAEL'
7. ISRAEL'S POPULATION REACHES 8.58 MILLION
8. WILL SWEDISH-ISRAELI RELATIONS GET BACK ON TRACK?
1. UNPRECEDENTED PREPARATIONS FOR PERES FUNERAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
A government committee within the Ministry of Culture and Sport charged with planning state events is preparing for what is expected to be the largest state funeral since Nelson Mandela's in 2013.
President Shimon Peres, who passed away early Wednesday morning, will lay in state in the Knesset on Thursday. Flags at all state institutions, army bases, and police stations will be flown at half-mast.
The funeral is scheduled to take place on Friday at Har Herzl in Jerusalem. Peres will be buried in a plot near Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
"This is a complicated event which requires a great deal of cooperation between different [governmental] bodies," said Minister of Culture Miri Regev. "We need to deal with it like a well-planned operation."
At 8:45 Thursday morning, President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will lay wreathes in front of the late president.
From 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m., Peres will lie in repose at the Knesset for the public to pay their last respects.
The funeral on Friday will begin at 8:30 in the morning, when Peres will be transferred from the Knesset to Har Herzl.
From 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. a formal service with eulogies will be performed at Har Herzl.
The burial ceremony will commence at noon.
Sections of Highway 1 are expected to be closed on Friday as world leaders make their way to Jerusalem for the funeral. Police warn of traffic disruptions inside Jerusalem as well, with roads closed around the Knesset and Har Herzl.
President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon are expected to be in attendance, along with Secretary of State John Kerry, French President Francois Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, and President of Togo, Faure Gnassingbe.
2. WHY ISRAELI JEWS LEAN TO THE RIGHT AND AMERICAN JEWS TO THE LEFT
by David Rosenberg
A report published Tuesday by the Pew Research Center reveals a growing gulf between American Jews and Israelis on everything from religious observance and affiliation, to political ideology, and views on hot-button issues like Palestinian statehood and US aid to Israel.
Close Relationship
The world's two largest Jewish populations, each numbering some six million, have strongly positive feelings towards each other, Pew's Neha Sahgal said.
"When we compared the attitudes of American Jews to Israel and Israeli Jews to the United States, it became really clear that they share an affinity for each other."
Sahgal added that roughly 40% of American Jews have visited Israel – roughly the same proportion of Israeli Jews who have traveled to the United States.
"That's a pretty high number, 40%," said Sahgal.
'Red State Israel' versus 'Blue State Americans'
But while the relationship between American and Israeli Jews remains strong, the two differ sharply on politics, and contrast strongly in religious observance and identity.
While American Jews lean strongly to the left, Israeli Jews tend to identify with the political center or right-wing.
To some extent, this has created cultural tensions between some progressive American Jews – particularly among younger Jews – and the Jewish state.
"They also have a strong liberal-to-conservative dispute," Hebrew Union College's Steven M. Cohen said, comparing the internal Jewish cultural divide to the rift between Republican-leaning "red" states and Democratic-leaning "blue" states in the US.
"In many respects, Israel is a 'red state', and American Jews are a 'blue country'."
According to Pew, 49% of American Jews identify as left-wing or liberal, compared to just 8% of Israeli Jews. While only 19% of American Jews consider themselves conservatives politically, Israeli Jews were nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative/right-wing, with 37% describing themselves as such. Twenty-nine percent of American Jews say they consider themselves centrist or moderate, compared to 55% of Israeli Jews.
Palestinian Statehood, Judea and Samaria, and US Support for Israel
Given the differences in political ideology, it is unsurprising that American Jews and Israelis differ strongly on issues like Palestinian statehood and US support for Israel.
A strong majority (61%) of American Jews believe that a Palestinian state can exist peacefully alongside Israel, while just 43% of Israeli Jews agreed. Israeli Jews were significantly more likely to argue that the US has not been supportive enough of Israel in recent years (52%), than American Jews (31%). And while nearly half (43%) of Israeli Jews believe Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to Israel's security, only 17% of American Jews agreed.
Israeli and American Jews also differed sharply on their perceptions of the major problems confronting the Jewish state.
American Jews focused overwhelmingly on security threats and terrorism, with 66% saying security was Israel's greatest problem. Only 1% said economic challenges were Israel's greatest problem.
Israeli Jews, however, were roughly evenly divided between the two, with 38% saying security threats were the biggest problem, and 39% saying economic issues were. Israeli and American Jews were roughly equally likely (14% and 18% respectively) to see social and religious problems as the primary issue facing Israel.
Religious Differences
Just as the two populations differ sharply in political ideology, they also exhibit strongly different patterns of religious affiliation and levels of observance of Jewish tradition.
Among American Jews, the Conservative and Reform movements are dominant, representing 18% and 35% of the Jewish population respectively. Only 10% of American Jews consider themselves Orthodox.
In Israel, however, the Reform and Conservative movements are virtually non-existent, with just 3% of Israeli Jews saying they identified as Reform and 2% identifying as Conservative – far fewer than the more than 22% who are Orthodox.
Religious observance is also more prevalent in Israel – even among non-Orthodox Israelis.
While a whopping 57% of American Jews say they eat pork, only 16% of Israeli Jews do. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of Israeli Jews keep kosher at home, compared to 22% of American Jews. Fifty-six percent of Israeli Jews light Shabbat candles every week, compared to 23% of American Jews, and 60% of Israeli Jews completed the Yom Kippur fast last year, while only 40% of American Jews did so.
Jews as a community, Jews as a nation
To a large extent, the religious and political differences between American and Israeli Jews can be chalked up to two class and ethnicity, journalist and Shalom Hartman Institute Fellow Yossi Klein Halevi says.
While American Jews are primarily Ashkenazi, Halevi points out, a majority of Israeli Jews are Mizrachi or Sephardi – immigrants [or their descendants] from the Middle East or Mediterranean.
"Factor in the wide ethnic Jewish diversity of Israel. American Jews are mostly Ashkenazi. Israeli Jews are a majority Mizrachi, or more and more a combination of Ashkenazi and Mizrachi, thanks to the growing rate of what we call 'intermarriage'."
The other salient difference, class, is rooted largely in the nature of the two populations, says Halevi.
"American Jews are a community and function as a community, and Israelis are a people. When you are a community, you tend to be more homogeneous. That isn't to say they're aren't major differences among American Jews. But socioeconomically, American Jews are overwhelmingly middle class, upper-middle class, university educated. Israeli Jews are a people. We've got a working class - a very big working clas - we've got a struggling lower-middle class, we have a middle-middle class, there's small upper class."
3. HAMAS CELEBRATES PERES' DEATH
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Hamas welcomed the death of former Israeli President and Prime Minister Shimon Peres Wednesday, calling him a "criminal", while the Palestinian Authority made no official comment after the death of the elder Israeli statesman and Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Islamist Hamas terrorist organization commented on Peres' death, saying that "The Palestinian people are happy at the death of this criminal.
"Shimon Peres was one of the last Israeli founders of occupation. His death marks the end of an era in the history of the Israeli occupation," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP.
Tributes to the 93-year-old poured in from across the world, but the Palestinian Authority, which was created by the the Oslo accords – of which Peres was one of the principal architects -- remained largely silent.
The Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa announced his death in a short news story, but initially no officials commented in it.
Diana Buttu, former spokeswoman for the Palestinian Authority, tweeted "Peres was an unrepentant war criminal. Revisionist history won't work."
Later, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a statement via Wafa, offering his condolences.
"Abbas sent a message of condolence to the family of former President Shimon Peres," Wafa reported Wednesday afternoon. "Peres was a partner in making the brave peace," referencing the 1993 Oslo Accords, the product of then-Foreign Minister Peres' sub rosa negotiations with PLO terrorists.
Peres served as Israel's Prime Minister from 1984-1986, and again from 1995-1996. He was Israel's ninth President from 2007-2014.
AFP contributed to this report
4. YESHA COUNCIL HONORS PERES' 'TIRELESS WORK' FOR ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Yesha Council released a statement in response to the death of Shimon Peres.
"In this hour we remind ourselves of Peres' greatest contributions to lay the groundwork for Israel's defense since its inception, and his great contribution to the establishment of Jewish settlements in Samaria," the statement read.
In the statement, the council noted that Peres was "one of the founders of the state and visionaries of the Israeli people even in the settlements which he developed from their very beginning. Throughout the disputes over the years, we will remember the constant support to the security of the settlements, the creation of settlements in Samaria, the creation of Ofra and the progress of an infrastructure for the construction of additional settlements."
Mayor of Ariel Eliyahu Shaviro said that "Shimon Peres, of blessed memory, contributed greatly to the security of Israel and worked tirelessly for peace with our neighbors."
"Peres also laid several cornerstones for the settlements," Shaviro said, "The residents of Ariel and the entire nation of Israel is mourning the loss of an incredible leader who worked tirelessly for his nation."
Yochai Damari, Director of the Hevron Hills Council, said, "I bow my head to the man who worked to hard for our country."
"He worked tirelessly for the creation of the state. Settlements were a point of contention for him, specifically for everything connected to Oslo but he was also a part of the establishment of many settlements and was one of the first to pave the way for the construction of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria."
Noam Arnon, spokesperson for the Hevron Hills settlement, said that "Peres has a central role in shaping this country since its birth. His role in the creation of the map of settlements in Judea and Samaria will always be remembered."
Arnon mentioned that when Peres was Minister of Defense he granted the license for the opening of the Avraham Avinu Synagogue in Hevron which allowed the rebuilding of Jewish settlement in Hevron. "With that," Arnon said, "he did make mistakes, one of which was the creation of Palestinian terrorist authority."
"Now is the time to remember his good deeds and his contribution to the Jewish people and the State of Israel. We will mourn him with all of Israel, and we will aim to continue his vision of building this state and bringing true peace to all its citizens," Arnon added.
5. BEIJING LOOKS TO DEEPEN ECONOMIC TIES WITH ISRAEL
by ILTV
[brightcove:2019632]
6. 'ONE OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS OF ISRAEL'
by Yoni Kempinski
Israel's ninth President and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres has passed away at the age of 93, two weeks after suffering a serious stroke and being admitted to the Tel Hashomer Hospital.
His condition deteriorated on Tuesday and family and friends were summoned to the hospital to say their farewell.
Peres served as the Prime Minister of Israel twice and twice as Interim Prime Minister, and was a member of 12 cabinets over a period of 66 years.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu honored the late president in a statement Wednesday morning, calling him "one of our great leaders," and "one of the founding fathers of the State of Israel."
"His name will be forever engraved in the story of the rebirth of the Jewish people."
Peres was first elected to the Knesset in November of 1959 and, except for a three-month-long hiatus in early 2006, served continuously until 2007, when he became President.
He was the longest serving chairman of the Labor party, from 1977 until 1992. While serving as a member of Labor for the majority of his time in the Knesset, in 2005 he left Labor to support Ariel Sharon and his new Kadima party.
Following Kadima's win in the 2006 election, Peres was given the role of Vice Prime Minister and Minister for the Development of the Negev, Galilee and Regional Economy, serving under Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Peres was elected President of the State of Israel by the Knesset on June 13, 2007, and resigned from his role as a Member of the Knesset the same day. Peres was sworn in as President a month later, on July 15, 2007.
He announced in April 2013 that he would not seek to extend his tenure beyond 2014 and was succeeded by Reuven Rivlin in July of that year.
Peres served as Foreign Minister in the second government of Yitzhak Rabin and was among the architects of the Oslo Accords, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.
He is credited with the establishment of the Dimona reactor site and with Israel's ambiguity policy on the subject. Defending the reactor, he once said: "We're the only nation in the world whose existence is under threat, and we're the only nation in the world who is not a threat to anyone. We needed to find a solution to that problem. I have no doubt the reactor gave Israel a dimension of deterrence. For me, Dimona was the first step to Oslo. It was built so we'll have the possibility to make peace."
He was born Szymon Perski, on August 2 1923, in Wiszniew, Poland (now Vishnyeva, Belarus), to Yitzhak and Sara Perski. His father was a wealthy timber merchant, later branching out into other commodities. His mother was a librarian. Peres' grandfather, Rabbi Zvi Meltzer who was murdered in the Holocaust, had a great impact on his life.
This past January, Peres was admitted to the Tel Hashomer Hospital after he suffered a mild heart attack.
[video:2019628]
Last month, Peres suffered from chest pains and his son-in-law, Dr. Rafi Walden, was called to his home in Tel Aviv. Tests showed that Peres had suffered from atrial fibrillation of the heart. A senior cardiologist treated the former President at the time until his heart rate returned to normal and he was not admitted to hospital.
A week before his hospitalization, the former President underwent an operation to have a pacemaker device implanted to prevent irregular heartbeats. The operation took place just after he returned to Israel following a political conference in Italy.
Sources close to the former President said at the time that Peres' physicians had advised him to get the pacemaker device to prevent heart disorders.
[album:open
[album:open
7. ISRAEL'S POPULATION REACHES 8.58 MILLION
by JTA
Israel will have a population of 8.585 million citizens this Rosh Hashanah.
The growth rate, 2 percent, was similar to previous years, according to an annual report released Tuesday by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics.
The country's Jewish population, which makes up nearly three quarters of the country at 6.419 million, grew at a rate of 1.9 percent, while the Arab population, which makes up just over a fifth of the country at 1.786 million, grew at a rate of 2.2 percent.
Other groups, including non-Arab Christians and those identifying with other religions, which make up 4.4 percent of the population at 380,000, grew at a rate of 3.8 percent.
The birth rate surpassed the death rate, with 189,000 births and 46,000 deaths.
In the past Jewish year, 30,000 people moved to Israel, including 25,000 new immigrants.
8. WILL SWEDISH-ISRAELI RELATIONS GET BACK ON TRACK?
by ILTV
[brightcove:2019631]
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A7News: Watch: Jerusalem Mayor meets Pollard in New York
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Tuesday, Sep. 27 '16, כ"ד באלול תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. WATCH: JERUSALEM MAYOR MEETS POLLARD IN NEW YORK
2. DRAMATIC DETERIORATION IN PERES' CONDITION
3. TERROR VICTIM REMEMBERS CLINTON'S 'INHUMAN COLDNESS'
4. IDF TAPS 'ENEMY OF SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE' FOR SENIOR POSITION
5. 'AZARIYA DIDN'T SHOOT TO KILL'
6. 'MY BABY IS ALIVE THANKS TO ISRAEL'
7. PUBLIC, PUNDITS REACT TO FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
8. SHAKED: WE WILL NOT SEE POLICE HORSES IN OFRA
1. WATCH: JERUSALEM MAYOR MEETS POLLARD IN NEW YORK
by Yoni Kempinski
[youtube:2019599]
During a business trip to New York this week, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat had an unscheduled – and wholly unexpected – impromptu meeting with the newly freed Jonathan Pollard.
The two ran into each other in the middle of Manhattan on Monday, as Pollard and his wife Ester sat down at a coffee shop not far from a charitable event Barkat was scheduled to attend.
Barkat's accidental meeting with Pollard marks the first time since his release in November 2015 that the former spy has met with an Israeli official.
A statement released by the Jerusalem municipality said the mayor was "excited" to meet with Pollard, whom he had awarded a medal as an "Honorary Citizen of Jerusalem" prior to his parole.
Ester Pollard remarked that her husband had never received the medal, and Mr. Pollard added that he would be grateful to receive it.
While he did not have any official medal on hand, Barkat removed his Jerusalem pin from his jacket lapel and used it as a stand-in, affixing it to his suspenders.
"If Jonathan cannot come to Jerusalem," Barkat said, referring to the terms of Pollard's parole, "then Jerusalem will come to him in New York or anywhere else in the world."
2. DRAMATIC DETERIORATION IN PERES' CONDITION
by Yoel Domb
A dramatic deterioration Tuesday in the condition of former president Shimon Peres, who is hospitalized at the Sheba (Tel Hashomer) hospital in Ramat Gan since suffering a stroke nearly two weeks ago. Doctors now believe that his neurological situation is irreversible.
Peres's condition deteriorated despite daily improvements since he suffered the stroke.
Last week President Ruby Rivlin visited Peres. Rivlin went to the ward where Peres is confined and heard a detailed assessment of his condition from his doctors, hugged his children and talked for a long period with members of Peres' bureau.
In a press release Rivlin said that "Peres is so present and perceptible for the public and especially for me as the president who inherited his position. We all hope to see the ninth president recover, we pray that we will see Shimon Peres the fighter and hero emerge victorious."
3. TERROR VICTIM REMEMBERS CLINTON'S 'INHUMAN COLDNESS'
by Gil Ronen
Yossi Tzur, who lost his son, Assaf, in a terror bus bombing, has unpleasant memories from his meeting with Hillary Clinton. He shared them with his Facebook friends Tuesday morning.
"On 2003 My son, Assaf, almost 17-years old, was killed in a terror attack in Haifa, Israel, attack orchestrated by Hamas," he wrote.
"On 2004, I went with a delegation of families of terror victims to the US, we talked to decision makers, in Congress, Senate and others, the time was when the debate over Israel right for a security fence was at its peak. Israel was taken to the international court in the Hague over the fence. Talking about the need for a fence was very important to us.
"We were welcomed with warmth, with empathy, all heard us and gave us their attention, well, almost everybody."
Tzur went on to describe the delegation's meeting with Rudy Giuliani. "You could feel the warmth of the man, his humanity, his care," he wrote. "You could see tears in his eyes when he told the stories. The meeting was scheduled for an hour, it took almost two hours and then he stood with us patiently taking photos with each and every one."
From New York, the delegation went to Washington for a series of meetings, one of them was in the Senate with NY Senator Hilary Clinton. Tzur recalled that "we arrived at her office in the Senate and were shown into a small meeting room, it could hardly fit all of us, it was dark, crowded, it didn't even had water on the table. So we waited.
"Time went by, 15 minutes, 30, an hour. Her aids were embarrassed saying she is coming any minute now. After an hour and a half Clinton arrived.
"She looked as us seeing the group in the room, we could see she is not really there with us, we felt she was impatient and just looking to finish it and go. We felt really uncomfortable... Even before we could speak she said, you probably want a photo, come let's go out, leading us to the stairs. There she asked us to stand on the stairs and one of her aides took the photo. We still wanted to talk to her, people came ready to tell her their story, she didn't intend to hear, it looked she didn't want to hear. With inhuman coldness she went out amongst us all and disappeared in one of the corridors leaving us shocked and disappointed."
Tzur wound up by saying: "I am not an American citizen and will not vote in the elections, however I had few times the opportunity in Israeli elections to choose the lesser of two evils, so from my small personal experience I will take Giuliani's advice and support Trump. Personally I am afraid Clinton will cause Israel to miss Obama and I don't want that either."
Tzur is a leading member of the Almagor terror victims' group.
Sarri Singer, founder of Strength to Strength, who led the delegation, confirmed the details of Tzur's story to Arutz Sheva. "I made [Clinton] listen to two stories in the hallway," she recalled, "before going back to the Senate floor." The delegation members "were all upset. They met with many other congressional leaders on that trip that were wonderful. But they were most excited to meet her, and most disappointed," she said.
"Cold" Hillary with terror families.
צילום:
Tzur with Giuliani
Yossi Tzur
4. IDF TAPS 'ENEMY OF SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE' FOR SENIOR POSITION
by Yoel Domb
The appointment of Col. Doron Ben-Barak as the new Deputy Military Prosecutor has raised serious concerns about the direction the IDF is taking and whether it will be able to triumph in future military offensives. Ben-Barak, who has served until now as a military legal advisor, has made it his business in the past to torpedo any possibility of new construction activity in Judea and Samaria.
The senior officer was responsible for preventing Jewish purchases of land in Judea and Samaria as well as preventing occupancy of the Machpela house and has used various legal contortions against Jewish residents such as the controversial "Procedure for Disruptive Use" order which is used indiscriminately against Jews but not against Palestinian Authority Arabs squatting on state lands. The order has been criticized in the past by senior military jurists as well as high court judge Edmond Levy but Ben-Barak is unmoved and continues to issue such orders - against Jews.
Ben-Barak has strong connections to radical left-wing groups such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and has cooperated with them in the past as well as attending their annual meeting held together with groups like Adalah which demands restitution for injustices committed in the 1948 War of independence.
Ben-Barak sees legal advisors as the supreme authority in Judea and Samaria, with the head of the Civil Administration simply rubber-stamping their decisions. This means that he sees himself as authorized to determine who owns land and who has the right to own land or to evacuate people from it.
Take, for example, the story of Dalia Har Sinai from Sussia. Yair Har Sinai purchased and worked parcels of land in the area of Sussia until he was murdered by Palestinians in 2001. Dalia took over, and since then she has been managing the farm and the lands that have been worked in the farm for more than twenty consecutive years.
Leftist organizations enlisted an Arab who claimed that the land belongs to him. He could not bring any meaningful legal evidence, but Doron Ben-Barak used the procedure that he himself invented, to demand Dalia to evacuate the area without any legal due process or evidence. Har Sinai claimed that the Legal Adviser – as important as he may be – is not a judicial body with authority to determine the outcome of a land conflict, but Ben-Barak did a simple trick: he got then Hevron military commander Nitzan Alon to sign a military order instructing Har Sinai to vacate the land as if it was for security reasons. Alon, with his authority as military commander of the area, can sign on such an order.
Bezalel Smotrich, Jewish Home MK, says that "Doron Ben-Barak has one goal – to make it difficult for Jews to purchase land and to prevent the development of the settlement project." MK Orit Struk describes him as an "enemy of the settlement enterprise."
His appointment as deputy military prosecutor raises the specter of a radical left-wing military legal establishment preventing the IDF from achieving its strategic security goals both in Judea and Samaria and in any future military offensives.
5. 'AZARIYA DIDN'T SHOOT TO KILL'
by Reut Hadar
The trial of Sergeant Elor Azaryia, who has been accused of manslaughter after shooting a wounded terrorist in Hevron earlier this year, continued on Tuesday in a military court in Jaffa.
On Tuesday morning, Brigadier-General (reserve) Shmuel Zakkai took the witness stand, testifying on behalf of the defense.
In his testimony, Zakkai said that, in his opinion, Azariya was justified in his actions, noting that in such a situation the possibility of an explosive device would make opening fire an appropriate course of action.
"Shooting for no particular reason and only seeking to kill is totally unacceptable and is in violation to the IDF's values, and I would oppose it," said Zakkai.
"The accused claims that he opened fire because he was worried that the terrorist may have been carrying a bomb on his person, and that is a legitimate reason – so the shooting was justified."
Azariya, Zakkai claimed, did not "shoot to kill", but appeared in the video to be shooting out of desperation, in fear that the terrorist was reaching to activate a bomb.
"The way the accused carried out the shooting, as can be seen in the video, suggests that he fired out of fear."
"I understand the difference between fears over a [potential bomb] and the actual discovery of an explosive device," Zakkai continued. "I saw the video and that's not the way a person fires when he's shooting to kill."
Zakkai added that all threats must be examined in such situations, a duty that falls upon the commanding officer.
"An officer needs to show his soldiers the threats in stabbing attacks, as well as the threats of combination terror attacks."
6. 'MY BABY IS ALIVE THANKS TO ISRAEL'
by David Rosenberg
A routine check-up for their three-week old baby turned into every parent's worst nightmare for a British couple living in Cyprus this weekend.
When their daughter, Elsa Rose, was brought in to be weighed last Friday afternoon, a doctor noticed the baby's lips had turned slightly blue. When he checked her heart beat, he heard what seemed to be a heart murmur.
The doctor scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist that evening, who stunned the girl's parents with a horrifying prognosis.
"We took Elsa in at 6:30," the girl's mother wrote on Babycentre.co.uk, "and he performed an ultra-sound on her heart. We were then given the devastating news that our baby girl had a very serious heart problem and would require immediate surgery."
Elsa was rushed to a children's hospital in Nicosia, where she was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries, which as her mother described it "means her two main arteries of the heart are on the wrong way round."
Doctors gravely informed the couple that their daughter's survival up to this point was miraculous, and that she required immediate surgery – or she would die.
"We were told she should not be alive and was only just because of a tiny artery and a hole that were pumping a reduced amount of oxygen around."
But much to their despair, Elsa's parents were told that the complicated and risky operation could not be undertaken in Cyprus.
"Unfortunately the surgery could not be done in Cyprus… we were told she would need to go either to the UK or Israel."
Elsa's father spent Friday night with British embassy officials to get their passports in order, but doctors noted Elsa's condition was already in rapid decline.
"It was heartbreaking. At one point they told me she was going downhill and they could do nothing for her."
By Saturday evening Elsa was being transported via air ambulance to Israel, while the couple's other four children remained behind with their grandmother, who happened to be visiting the family.
At 7:30 Sunday morning Elsa was prepped for open-heart surgery at Schneider Children's Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
After hours of tense waiting, doctors informed Elsa's parents that the surgery had been a success and that they were optimistic about her chances for a recovery.
"We got to see her at around 2 p.m. She is now in the cardiology intensive care unit in stable condition. She's covered in wires and heavily sedated but they say it went well. The next few days are critical."
Elsa's father thanked the hospital staff, and credited Israel with his daughter's survival.
"Israel saved my daughter's life."
"The staff here in Israel are amazing," his wife added.
7. PUBLIC, PUNDITS REACT TO FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
by David Rosenberg
[youtube:2019600]
Reaction to the first presidential debate of the 2016 election was swift and decisive, with news outlets and social media lighting up with opinions rating the performance of the two candidates.
"[A] very surreal event," said NBC's Chuck Todd of Monday night's debate adding that it "was not something that looked like any other presidential debate we've witnessed in the modern era."
Trump dominated social media during and after the debate – including both praise and criticism – with 79% of debate-oriented conversations on Facebook focusing on the Republican contender. On Twitter, 62% of conversations centered on Trump, compared to 38% which focused on Clinton.
In terms of performance, however, 62% of Americans watching the debate believe Clinton won, with just 27% saying Trump emerged victorious, according to a CNN/ORC poll published early Tuesday morning.
While many internet polls showed Trump besting Clinton in their first one-on-one, the ORC poll is the first scientific poll using traditional telephone interviews to be published after the debate.
A Public Policy Polling survey also showed most Americans believe Clinton won the debate, albeit by a narrower margin. According to PPP, 50% of viewers say Clinton performed better, compared to 41% who say Trump came out on top.
Pundits tended to agree with this assessment, giving Clinton the edge, arguing that while Trump performed well during the first half of the debate, Clinton bested him in the second.
"First half: Trump. Second half: Clinton," tweeted National Review's Jonah Goldberg.
"Trump started strong," wrote Fox News commentator Bernard Goldberg. "But he can't run from his past – Birther, tax returns."
While Trump's jabs on trade and Clinton's waffling on the Trans-Pacific Partnership won him points early on in the debate, Clinton baited him on his past support of birtherism and derogatory comments towards women in the second half.
Ron Fournier of the National Journal slammed Trump after the debate, suggesting Clinton may have sealed up the election during the hour-and-a-half event.
"Donald Trump lost his cool and maybe the race, taking bait coolly served by Hillary Clinton."
Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer was less charitable to Clinton, calling the debate "something like a draw," adding that a "draw goes to the challenger" – giving a slight advantage to Trump.
A focus group convened by Republican analyst Frank Luntz and made up primarily of Trump supporters gave the win to Clinton by a margin of 16 to 6.
Even Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway gave a muted response when asked to rate the candidate's respective performances.
"I'd give them both a satisfactory," saying the 90-minute event seemed to pass by too quickly.
Pundits noted that while Clinton baited Trump with comments regarding his past positions on the Iraq war and birtherism, Trump made little mention of Clinton's email scandal or the 2012 Benghazi attacks and subsequent investigation.
"Slightly surprised no mention of Benghazi from Trump," tweeted MSNBC's Christopher Hayes.
"Strong performance by both candidates. But he was on defensive & didn't get time w/Benghazi, emails & immigration & she attacked throughout," Geraldo Rivera tweeted.
The two candidates are set to faceoff again at Washington University in St. Louis on October 9th, following the vice-presidential debate on October 4th at Longwood University in Virginia.
8. SHAKED: WE WILL NOT SEE POLICE HORSES IN OFRA
by Hezki Baruch, Eliran Aharon
Hundreds of Ofra residents gathered for a demonstration in Jerusalem Tuesday morning, demanding the government normalize houses slated for demolition in Ofra and other communities across Judea and Samaria.
The demonstration comes in response to a series of Supreme Court rulings ordering the demolition of homes in Ofra, the neighboring town of Amona, and other Jewish villages over the Green Line, following disputes over the ownership of land in the communities in question.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said at the demonstration: "I am committed together with my friends in the Likud to regulating the community. We will not see any police horses in Ofra."
[video:2019601]
MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) said that "We did not occupy a foreign land, we came to our own land. Ofra deserves 41 years after it was established to be a legal community. I call upon the prime minister and the attorney general - Do everything in you power immediately to regulate the community. The policy must be defined by the prime minister and not by legal advisors."
Yesha Council head Avi Ro'eh said that "It is forbidden to divert responsibility to the Supreme Court, the responsibility is on us. We appeal to the prime minister and his ministers -they are the ones establishing the laws. We want a clear-cut statement that the Jewish nation will remain in Judea and Samaria."
"We have stopped being pushovers," said SamariaRegional Council head Yossi Dagan. "We have come to demand the regulation law because there is a real injustice here. A government which would make another disengagement cannot continue to exist."
Earlier Rabbi Avi Gisser, Rabbi of Ofra, also spoke to reporters about the situation in the community and in Judea and Samaria.
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Tuesday, Sep. 27 '16, כ"ד באלול תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. WATCH: JERUSALEM MAYOR MEETS POLLARD IN NEW YORK
2. DRAMATIC DETERIORATION IN PERES' CONDITION
3. TERROR VICTIM REMEMBERS CLINTON'S 'INHUMAN COLDNESS'
4. IDF TAPS 'ENEMY OF SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE' FOR SENIOR POSITION
5. 'AZARIYA DIDN'T SHOOT TO KILL'
6. 'MY BABY IS ALIVE THANKS TO ISRAEL'
7. PUBLIC, PUNDITS REACT TO FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
8. SHAKED: WE WILL NOT SEE POLICE HORSES IN OFRA
1. WATCH: JERUSALEM MAYOR MEETS POLLARD IN NEW YORK
by Yoni Kempinski
[youtube:2019599]
During a business trip to New York this week, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat had an unscheduled – and wholly unexpected – impromptu meeting with the newly freed Jonathan Pollard.
The two ran into each other in the middle of Manhattan on Monday, as Pollard and his wife Ester sat down at a coffee shop not far from a charitable event Barkat was scheduled to attend.
Barkat's accidental meeting with Pollard marks the first time since his release in November 2015 that the former spy has met with an Israeli official.
A statement released by the Jerusalem municipality said the mayor was "excited" to meet with Pollard, whom he had awarded a medal as an "Honorary Citizen of Jerusalem" prior to his parole.
Ester Pollard remarked that her husband had never received the medal, and Mr. Pollard added that he would be grateful to receive it.
While he did not have any official medal on hand, Barkat removed his Jerusalem pin from his jacket lapel and used it as a stand-in, affixing it to his suspenders.
"If Jonathan cannot come to Jerusalem," Barkat said, referring to the terms of Pollard's parole, "then Jerusalem will come to him in New York or anywhere else in the world."
2. DRAMATIC DETERIORATION IN PERES' CONDITION
by Yoel Domb
A dramatic deterioration Tuesday in the condition of former president Shimon Peres, who is hospitalized at the Sheba (Tel Hashomer) hospital in Ramat Gan since suffering a stroke nearly two weeks ago. Doctors now believe that his neurological situation is irreversible.
Peres's condition deteriorated despite daily improvements since he suffered the stroke.
Last week President Ruby Rivlin visited Peres. Rivlin went to the ward where Peres is confined and heard a detailed assessment of his condition from his doctors, hugged his children and talked for a long period with members of Peres' bureau.
In a press release Rivlin said that "Peres is so present and perceptible for the public and especially for me as the president who inherited his position. We all hope to see the ninth president recover, we pray that we will see Shimon Peres the fighter and hero emerge victorious."
3. TERROR VICTIM REMEMBERS CLINTON'S 'INHUMAN COLDNESS'
by Gil Ronen
Yossi Tzur, who lost his son, Assaf, in a terror bus bombing, has unpleasant memories from his meeting with Hillary Clinton. He shared them with his Facebook friends Tuesday morning.
"On 2003 My son, Assaf, almost 17-years old, was killed in a terror attack in Haifa, Israel, attack orchestrated by Hamas," he wrote.
"On 2004, I went with a delegation of families of terror victims to the US, we talked to decision makers, in Congress, Senate and others, the time was when the debate over Israel right for a security fence was at its peak. Israel was taken to the international court in the Hague over the fence. Talking about the need for a fence was very important to us.
"We were welcomed with warmth, with empathy, all heard us and gave us their attention, well, almost everybody."
Tzur went on to describe the delegation's meeting with Rudy Giuliani. "You could feel the warmth of the man, his humanity, his care," he wrote. "You could see tears in his eyes when he told the stories. The meeting was scheduled for an hour, it took almost two hours and then he stood with us patiently taking photos with each and every one."
From New York, the delegation went to Washington for a series of meetings, one of them was in the Senate with NY Senator Hilary Clinton. Tzur recalled that "we arrived at her office in the Senate and were shown into a small meeting room, it could hardly fit all of us, it was dark, crowded, it didn't even had water on the table. So we waited.
"Time went by, 15 minutes, 30, an hour. Her aids were embarrassed saying she is coming any minute now. After an hour and a half Clinton arrived.
"She looked as us seeing the group in the room, we could see she is not really there with us, we felt she was impatient and just looking to finish it and go. We felt really uncomfortable... Even before we could speak she said, you probably want a photo, come let's go out, leading us to the stairs. There she asked us to stand on the stairs and one of her aides took the photo. We still wanted to talk to her, people came ready to tell her their story, she didn't intend to hear, it looked she didn't want to hear. With inhuman coldness she went out amongst us all and disappeared in one of the corridors leaving us shocked and disappointed."
Tzur wound up by saying: "I am not an American citizen and will not vote in the elections, however I had few times the opportunity in Israeli elections to choose the lesser of two evils, so from my small personal experience I will take Giuliani's advice and support Trump. Personally I am afraid Clinton will cause Israel to miss Obama and I don't want that either."
Tzur is a leading member of the Almagor terror victims' group.
Sarri Singer, founder of Strength to Strength, who led the delegation, confirmed the details of Tzur's story to Arutz Sheva. "I made [Clinton] listen to two stories in the hallway," she recalled, "before going back to the Senate floor." The delegation members "were all upset. They met with many other congressional leaders on that trip that were wonderful. But they were most excited to meet her, and most disappointed," she said.
"Cold" Hillary with terror families.
צילום:
Tzur with Giuliani
Yossi Tzur
4. IDF TAPS 'ENEMY OF SETTLEMENT ENTERPRISE' FOR SENIOR POSITION
by Yoel Domb
The appointment of Col. Doron Ben-Barak as the new Deputy Military Prosecutor has raised serious concerns about the direction the IDF is taking and whether it will be able to triumph in future military offensives. Ben-Barak, who has served until now as a military legal advisor, has made it his business in the past to torpedo any possibility of new construction activity in Judea and Samaria.
The senior officer was responsible for preventing Jewish purchases of land in Judea and Samaria as well as preventing occupancy of the Machpela house and has used various legal contortions against Jewish residents such as the controversial "Procedure for Disruptive Use" order which is used indiscriminately against Jews but not against Palestinian Authority Arabs squatting on state lands. The order has been criticized in the past by senior military jurists as well as high court judge Edmond Levy but Ben-Barak is unmoved and continues to issue such orders - against Jews.
Ben-Barak has strong connections to radical left-wing groups such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and has cooperated with them in the past as well as attending their annual meeting held together with groups like Adalah which demands restitution for injustices committed in the 1948 War of independence.
Ben-Barak sees legal advisors as the supreme authority in Judea and Samaria, with the head of the Civil Administration simply rubber-stamping their decisions. This means that he sees himself as authorized to determine who owns land and who has the right to own land or to evacuate people from it.
Take, for example, the story of Dalia Har Sinai from Sussia. Yair Har Sinai purchased and worked parcels of land in the area of Sussia until he was murdered by Palestinians in 2001. Dalia took over, and since then she has been managing the farm and the lands that have been worked in the farm for more than twenty consecutive years.
Leftist organizations enlisted an Arab who claimed that the land belongs to him. He could not bring any meaningful legal evidence, but Doron Ben-Barak used the procedure that he himself invented, to demand Dalia to evacuate the area without any legal due process or evidence. Har Sinai claimed that the Legal Adviser – as important as he may be – is not a judicial body with authority to determine the outcome of a land conflict, but Ben-Barak did a simple trick: he got then Hevron military commander Nitzan Alon to sign a military order instructing Har Sinai to vacate the land as if it was for security reasons. Alon, with his authority as military commander of the area, can sign on such an order.
Bezalel Smotrich, Jewish Home MK, says that "Doron Ben-Barak has one goal – to make it difficult for Jews to purchase land and to prevent the development of the settlement project." MK Orit Struk describes him as an "enemy of the settlement enterprise."
His appointment as deputy military prosecutor raises the specter of a radical left-wing military legal establishment preventing the IDF from achieving its strategic security goals both in Judea and Samaria and in any future military offensives.
5. 'AZARIYA DIDN'T SHOOT TO KILL'
by Reut Hadar
The trial of Sergeant Elor Azaryia, who has been accused of manslaughter after shooting a wounded terrorist in Hevron earlier this year, continued on Tuesday in a military court in Jaffa.
On Tuesday morning, Brigadier-General (reserve) Shmuel Zakkai took the witness stand, testifying on behalf of the defense.
In his testimony, Zakkai said that, in his opinion, Azariya was justified in his actions, noting that in such a situation the possibility of an explosive device would make opening fire an appropriate course of action.
"Shooting for no particular reason and only seeking to kill is totally unacceptable and is in violation to the IDF's values, and I would oppose it," said Zakkai.
"The accused claims that he opened fire because he was worried that the terrorist may have been carrying a bomb on his person, and that is a legitimate reason – so the shooting was justified."
Azariya, Zakkai claimed, did not "shoot to kill", but appeared in the video to be shooting out of desperation, in fear that the terrorist was reaching to activate a bomb.
"The way the accused carried out the shooting, as can be seen in the video, suggests that he fired out of fear."
"I understand the difference between fears over a [potential bomb] and the actual discovery of an explosive device," Zakkai continued. "I saw the video and that's not the way a person fires when he's shooting to kill."
Zakkai added that all threats must be examined in such situations, a duty that falls upon the commanding officer.
"An officer needs to show his soldiers the threats in stabbing attacks, as well as the threats of combination terror attacks."
6. 'MY BABY IS ALIVE THANKS TO ISRAEL'
by David Rosenberg
A routine check-up for their three-week old baby turned into every parent's worst nightmare for a British couple living in Cyprus this weekend.
When their daughter, Elsa Rose, was brought in to be weighed last Friday afternoon, a doctor noticed the baby's lips had turned slightly blue. When he checked her heart beat, he heard what seemed to be a heart murmur.
The doctor scheduled an appointment with a cardiologist that evening, who stunned the girl's parents with a horrifying prognosis.
"We took Elsa in at 6:30," the girl's mother wrote on Babycentre.co.uk, "and he performed an ultra-sound on her heart. We were then given the devastating news that our baby girl had a very serious heart problem and would require immediate surgery."
Elsa was rushed to a children's hospital in Nicosia, where she was diagnosed with transposition of the great arteries, which as her mother described it "means her two main arteries of the heart are on the wrong way round."
Doctors gravely informed the couple that their daughter's survival up to this point was miraculous, and that she required immediate surgery – or she would die.
"We were told she should not be alive and was only just because of a tiny artery and a hole that were pumping a reduced amount of oxygen around."
But much to their despair, Elsa's parents were told that the complicated and risky operation could not be undertaken in Cyprus.
"Unfortunately the surgery could not be done in Cyprus… we were told she would need to go either to the UK or Israel."
Elsa's father spent Friday night with British embassy officials to get their passports in order, but doctors noted Elsa's condition was already in rapid decline.
"It was heartbreaking. At one point they told me she was going downhill and they could do nothing for her."
By Saturday evening Elsa was being transported via air ambulance to Israel, while the couple's other four children remained behind with their grandmother, who happened to be visiting the family.
At 7:30 Sunday morning Elsa was prepped for open-heart surgery at Schneider Children's Medical Center in Petah Tikva.
After hours of tense waiting, doctors informed Elsa's parents that the surgery had been a success and that they were optimistic about her chances for a recovery.
"We got to see her at around 2 p.m. She is now in the cardiology intensive care unit in stable condition. She's covered in wires and heavily sedated but they say it went well. The next few days are critical."
Elsa's father thanked the hospital staff, and credited Israel with his daughter's survival.
"Israel saved my daughter's life."
"The staff here in Israel are amazing," his wife added.
7. PUBLIC, PUNDITS REACT TO FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
by David Rosenberg
[youtube:2019600]
Reaction to the first presidential debate of the 2016 election was swift and decisive, with news outlets and social media lighting up with opinions rating the performance of the two candidates.
"[A] very surreal event," said NBC's Chuck Todd of Monday night's debate adding that it "was not something that looked like any other presidential debate we've witnessed in the modern era."
Trump dominated social media during and after the debate – including both praise and criticism – with 79% of debate-oriented conversations on Facebook focusing on the Republican contender. On Twitter, 62% of conversations centered on Trump, compared to 38% which focused on Clinton.
In terms of performance, however, 62% of Americans watching the debate believe Clinton won, with just 27% saying Trump emerged victorious, according to a CNN/ORC poll published early Tuesday morning.
While many internet polls showed Trump besting Clinton in their first one-on-one, the ORC poll is the first scientific poll using traditional telephone interviews to be published after the debate.
A Public Policy Polling survey also showed most Americans believe Clinton won the debate, albeit by a narrower margin. According to PPP, 50% of viewers say Clinton performed better, compared to 41% who say Trump came out on top.
Pundits tended to agree with this assessment, giving Clinton the edge, arguing that while Trump performed well during the first half of the debate, Clinton bested him in the second.
"First half: Trump. Second half: Clinton," tweeted National Review's Jonah Goldberg.
"Trump started strong," wrote Fox News commentator Bernard Goldberg. "But he can't run from his past – Birther, tax returns."
While Trump's jabs on trade and Clinton's waffling on the Trans-Pacific Partnership won him points early on in the debate, Clinton baited him on his past support of birtherism and derogatory comments towards women in the second half.
Ron Fournier of the National Journal slammed Trump after the debate, suggesting Clinton may have sealed up the election during the hour-and-a-half event.
"Donald Trump lost his cool and maybe the race, taking bait coolly served by Hillary Clinton."
Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer was less charitable to Clinton, calling the debate "something like a draw," adding that a "draw goes to the challenger" – giving a slight advantage to Trump.
A focus group convened by Republican analyst Frank Luntz and made up primarily of Trump supporters gave the win to Clinton by a margin of 16 to 6.
Even Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway gave a muted response when asked to rate the candidate's respective performances.
"I'd give them both a satisfactory," saying the 90-minute event seemed to pass by too quickly.
Pundits noted that while Clinton baited Trump with comments regarding his past positions on the Iraq war and birtherism, Trump made little mention of Clinton's email scandal or the 2012 Benghazi attacks and subsequent investigation.
"Slightly surprised no mention of Benghazi from Trump," tweeted MSNBC's Christopher Hayes.
"Strong performance by both candidates. But he was on defensive & didn't get time w/Benghazi, emails & immigration & she attacked throughout," Geraldo Rivera tweeted.
The two candidates are set to faceoff again at Washington University in St. Louis on October 9th, following the vice-presidential debate on October 4th at Longwood University in Virginia.
8. SHAKED: WE WILL NOT SEE POLICE HORSES IN OFRA
by Hezki Baruch, Eliran Aharon
Hundreds of Ofra residents gathered for a demonstration in Jerusalem Tuesday morning, demanding the government normalize houses slated for demolition in Ofra and other communities across Judea and Samaria.
The demonstration comes in response to a series of Supreme Court rulings ordering the demolition of homes in Ofra, the neighboring town of Amona, and other Jewish villages over the Green Line, following disputes over the ownership of land in the communities in question.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said at the demonstration: "I am committed together with my friends in the Likud to regulating the community. We will not see any police horses in Ofra."
[video:2019601]
MK Moti Yogev (Jewish Home) said that "We did not occupy a foreign land, we came to our own land. Ofra deserves 41 years after it was established to be a legal community. I call upon the prime minister and the attorney general - Do everything in you power immediately to regulate the community. The policy must be defined by the prime minister and not by legal advisors."
Yesha Council head Avi Ro'eh said that "It is forbidden to divert responsibility to the Supreme Court, the responsibility is on us. We appeal to the prime minister and his ministers -they are the ones establishing the laws. We want a clear-cut statement that the Jewish nation will remain in Judea and Samaria."
"We have stopped being pushovers," said SamariaRegional Council head Yossi Dagan. "We have come to demand the regulation law because there is a real injustice here. A government which would make another disengagement cannot continue to exist."
Earlier Rabbi Avi Gisser, Rabbi of Ofra, also spoke to reporters about the situation in the community and in Judea and Samaria.
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