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Friday, Oct. 14 '16, י"ב בתשרי תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. CHIEF RABBI: SYRIANS SUFFERING 'SMALL HOLOCAUST'
2. MUSLIMS HOLD 'MOMENT OF SILENCE' TO HONOR TERRORIST
3. BENNETT SUSPENDS ACTIVITIES WITH UNESCO
4. MISSILES CONTINUE TO RAIN DOWN ON ALEPPO, WORLD SILENT
5. CONTRACTOR GETS REVENGE WITH UNFINISHED HEADSTONE
6. MAN ARRESTED FOR THREATENING DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER
7. PA OFFICIALS PLEASED WITH ANTI-ISRAEL UNESCO RESOLUTION
8. SYNAGOGUE THAT SURVIVED KRISTALLNACHT GETS NEW TORAH SCROLL
1. CHIEF RABBI: SYRIANS SUFFERING 'SMALL HOLOCAUST'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
In an interview with Muslim clerks and hosted by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef protested the world's silent approval of the five-year Syrian civil war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives since it began in 2011.
Chief Rabbi Yosef said that as Jews, we have a particular responsibility to speak out. During the Holocaust, "the world looked on and remained silent," but we must act differently than the world did then.
"Every day not far from here, as we sit here, men, women and children are murdered in Syria, and particularly in Aleppo," he said. "Millions of refugees are homeless, hundreds of thousands of others are starved, under siege. They are not our friends, but they are human beings who are suffering a small holocaust."
Rabbi Yosef continued, "As Jews we must not stay silent. The call must be heard from here: A genocide will not be allowed to go by quietly — not in Syria and not anywhere else, and not against any people."
Aleppo's mayor, as well as Assad, have continuously spoken about the heavy bombing, targeting of hospitals, and climbing casualty rates.
2. MUSLIMS HOLD 'MOMENT OF SILENCE' TO HONOR TERRORIST
by Neri Weiss
At a Palestinian Arab League soccer game on Thursday, the Hilal Al-Quds team from Jerusalem honored Sunday's terrorist.
Before the starting whistle was blown, the eastern Jerusalem team stood for a moment of silence to remember and honor terrorist Masabah Abu Sabiah.
Abu Sabiah opened fire in Jerusalem on Sunday, murdering 2 civilians in cold blood at the Ammunition Hill light rail station and wounding several others.
After their moment of silence, players took a picture of themselves holding a sign with the terrorist's picture. The picture's caption is praise for how the terrorist "fought" and killed Officer Yosef Kirma.
Hilal Al-Quds' leaders and fans proudly put the announcement and picture on the team's Facebook page.
Spokesperson Teama Obyadath apologized for publicizing the picture on Facebook, but not for the actual act of taking it or for holding the moment of silence. Obyadath claimed that uploading the picture went against FIFA's rules.
"Our fans are very angry about Abu Sabiah's death, but they will take the picture off social media. It goes against FIFA regulations," he said.
The picture has since been taken down, but not before FIFA noticed it. The offending team will be punished for publicly supporting a terrorist and terror attacks.
The Palestinian Authority is currently attempting to block Israel from participating in sports events. They have not yet been successful.
3. BENNETT SUSPENDS ACTIVITIES WITH UNESCO
by Hezki Baruch
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who is also president of Israel's National Commission for UNESCO, has decided to suspend immediately all activities in conjunction with the international organization. His decision comes one day after UNESCO decided to accept the Palestinian Authority's suggestion to detach Jewish history from the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
"The Israeli committee will cease all participation. There will be no more meetings with UNESCO representatives, or participation in international conferences. There will be no professional cooperation between us and an organization that backs terror," Bennett's office told the press.
Bennett also turned to countries represented in UNESCO and wrote, "Last night's decision denies history, and backs terror. Those who give prizes to supporters of jihad in Jerusalem mere days after two Jews were murdered in the city, may very well be the next in line.
"The Western world needs to stand up against UNESCO and against handing prizes to terror supporters. Just like we work against Islamic terror in Aleppo and Palmyra, we need to work fight political terror in Jerusalem. The next terrorist will gain legitimacy from yesterday's sick decision. Cutting Jerusalem off from Israel will create a domino effect that will affect the entire Western world," he said.
Bennett will hold a special meeting with the Israel National Commission for UNESCO in the coming weeks to decide on what the necessary next steps are.
4. MISSILES CONTINUE TO RAIN DOWN ON ALEPPO, WORLD SILENT
by AFP
Syrian and Russian warplanes carried out dozens of air strikes on rebel-held districts of Aleppo on Friday, a monitor said, as world powers prepared for new talks on a ceasefire.
"Very intense air raids targeted several neighborhoods from dawn until mid-morning," said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
He had no immediate word on casualties.
Ibrahim Abu al-Leith, a spokesman for the White Helmets rescue force in Aleppo, said that air raids had battered the city and its outskirts overnight but had calmed by 11:00 am.
"There are still people stuck under the rubble in (the opposition-held district of) Tariq al-Bab and the rescuers are working to get them out," Abu al-Leith told AFP.
Syria's military had said earlier this month that it would reduce bombardment of eastern parts of the city to allow civilians to leave, but strikes have intensified again this week and left dozens dead.
More than 370 people, including nearly 70 children, have been killed in regime and Russian bombardment of east Aleppo since government forces announced a landmark offensive to take the entire city on September 22.
An estimated 250,000 people still live in eastern parts of Aleppo, under opposition control since mid-2012.
On Thursday, regime ally Moscow said it was prepared to secure safe passage for rebels to leave the war-ravaged second city.
"We are ready to ensure the safe withdrawal of armed rebels, the unimpeded passage of civilians to and from eastern Aleppo, as well as the delivery of humanitarian aid there," Russian Lieutenant General Sergei Rudskoy said.
Russia has faced growing international criticism over the rising civilian death toll in Syria, including Western accusations of possible war crimes.
Since the collapse last month of a truce brokered by Washington and Moscow, Aleppo has been engulfed by some of the worst violence of the five-year conflict.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are expected to hold new ceasefire talks in Lausanne on Saturday along with counterparts from Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- all backers of Syrian opposition forces.
The US and Russia, on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict, brokered the previous ceasefire but did not manage to keep the peace for more than one week.
5. CONTRACTOR GETS REVENGE WITH UNFINISHED HEADSTONE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
CEO of Auto Depot Itzik Uzana participated this week in a funeral in Lod's new cemetery. During the funeral, Uzana was shocked to see a headstone inscribed with, "To the family: The money for this headstone has not been paid."
Within minutes, Uzana had posted on the Emek Lod Religious Council's Facebook page.
"Are there no boundaries? Why do you allow this contractor to vent his feelings in this fashion? He should take the family to court, not punish the deceased. Why do you allow this to continue?"
Uzana also offered to pay the necessary sum himself, as long as the degrading inscription was erased.
"I tend to believe that the payment for this headstone is late because the family is having financial difficulties. It happens. Let's do this: You'll ensure that this hurtful text is erased, and I'll take care of the payment for the headstone," he said.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs has released an official response that, "The writing on the headstone was done by the contractor and he is the sole party responsible for it. The burial society and/ or the Religious Council has no part in this matter."
Uzana later spoke with MK David Azulai (Shas), who is Minister of Religious Affairs. Azulai agreed to work to fix problem as soon as possible.
6. MAN ARRESTED FOR THREATENING DEPUTY DEFENSE MINISTER
by Gary Willig
A 35 year old resident of Beersheva was arrested Friday for threatening the Deputy Defense Minister, Eli Ben-Dahan, for the latter's support of drafting haredim into the IDF.
Arutz Sheva has learned that in recent days Ben-Dahan's security has been beefed up.
The suspect called the Deputy Defense Minister at night and harassed him over the phone. He was arrested in the Ra'anana area after police traced his phone. The police have asked the courts to release the suspect from their custody under restrictive conditions.
Relations between Ben-Dahan and the haredi community have been strained for months. In August a haredi newspaper ran a cartoon depicting Ben-Dahan as a hangman who targets yeshiva students.
7. PA OFFICIALS PLEASED WITH ANTI-ISRAEL UNESCO RESOLUTION
by Elad Benari
Officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA) welcomed on Thursday the passing of a resolution by the UN's cultural agency, UNESCO, denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
Nabil Abu-Rudeineh, spokesman for PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas, told Haaretz that the passage of the resolution requires the United States to engage in soul-searching and reexamine its backing for Israel.
"There is also a clear message here to Israel that it must end the occupation and recognize a Palestinian state with [eastern] Jerusalem as its capital," he said. Israel must recognize the city's sites that are holy to Islam and Christianity "and bring about an end to a policy that is poisoning the atmosphere" and has "implications on the entire region," he added.
A separate statement from the PA's Foreign Ministry quoted by Haaretz expressed regret that "[a] few countries succumbed to the PR bullying orchestrated by Israel, which shifted the focus from Israel's illegal and colonial actions in occupied East Jerusalem to issues irrelevant to the content and objectives of the resolutions."
Israel, the statement continued, must "understand that the only way to be treated like a normal state is if it starts acting like one, by ending its occupation of Palestine."
The resolution was supported by 24 states, including Russia and China. 6 countries opposed and 26 abstained.
The resolution maintains that the Western Wall and Temple Mount will be referred to by their Arabic names and the Hebrew terms for the sites will only appear in quotation marks in UN references.
Israeli officials blasted the resolution, with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu saying, "The UNESCO theater show goes on. Today it took a ridiculous decision denying the connection between the Jewish people and the Western Wall.
"It's like saying that the Chinese have no connection to the Great Wall of China and the Egyptians have no connection to the pyramids," added Netanyahu.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein also spoke out against the UN, saying that the UN is "disconnected from reality and history."
MKs from the Zionist Union criticized UNESCO for the decision as well.
MK Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin called the resolution an "not just an anti-Israel decision but also an anti-Semitic decision which demonstrates how much this organization is intent on fighting Israel and Judaism far more than on dedicating itself to education, culture and science which it is supposed to be promoting."
MK Tzipi Livni sent a letter to UNESCO and to the director of the organization in which she expressed concern that the decision could lead to an escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict.
"UNESCO's job is to preserve the heritage of the past and not to distort the future. Even if I have political differences with the government, there is no place for politics over the authentic historic connection of the Jewish people to Temple Mount and the Western Wall," said Livni.
She added that "We have a joint responsibility to prevent the national conflict from deteriorating into a religious conflict - and this decision could cause just that."
8. SYNAGOGUE THAT SURVIVED KRISTALLNACHT GETS NEW TORAH SCROLL
by Yoni Kempinski
[youtube:2020041]
Hundreds of people from "Congregation Adath Israel" synagogue in Berlin participated in a ceremony welcoming a new Torah scroll to the old Bet Zion synagogue, which survived Kristallnacht.
During the Holocaust, the Re'em family commissioned a scribe who had fled Poland to Zurich to write a Torah scroll, wishing to provide him with a livelihood. Later, due to the Holocaust, the writing was stopped.
Completion of the Torah scroll was funded by a family who requested that the scroll be given to Germany's flourishing Jewish community.
The emotional ceremony included hundreds of Jews and many children, and the community sang and danced in the streets of Berlin.
Rabbi Meir Hildesheimer said, "The police and security forces who secured the event closed off Bronenstersa Street, which is a central thoroughfare, to ensure the safety of the celebration. It was an amazing sight. Hundreds danced in joy, welcoming the Torah."
Neighbors looked out their windows and hundreds of curious onlookers gazed in astonishment. One of the gentile locals who knew something about Jewish customs asked Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, "Is this a marriage ceremony?"
Rabbi Goldschmidt, who is is chief rabbi of Moscow and the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, replied, "Yes, it's the marriage of the Jewish nation to the Torah."
In his speech, Rabbi Goldschmidt spoke about the special connection that the Re'em family has with the rabbinical seminary in Berlin.
"Your great-grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Re'em, and my great-grandfather, the rabbi of Zurich Rabbi Tuvia Levinstein, corresponded on a diverse range of topics with Rabbi Moshe Tzvi Hoffman, the head of the rabbinical seminary. The Torah is returning to its place, and 'the threefold cord cannot easily be broken'," he added.
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