Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Wednesday, Nov. 02 '16, א' בחשון תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. WHAT DOES WIKILEAKS SAY ABOUT ARUTZ SHEVA?
2. JUST HOW BIASED IS THE MEDIA AGAINST DONALD TRUMP?
3. HAREDI MK: HIGHER EDUCATION IS IDOLATRY
4. PM: REFORM PROVOCATIONS PREVENT ACHIEVING A COMPROMISE
5. WILL CNN INVESTIGATE BRAZILE LEAKS TO CLINTON TEAM?
6. BUSH FOR CLINTON?
7. IDF TO FUND ACADEMIC STUDIES FOR DISCHARGED SOLDIERS
8. 250 UKRAINIAN IMMIGRANTS ARRIVE IN ISRAEL
1. WHAT DOES WIKILEAKS SAY ABOUT ARUTZ SHEVA?
by Hillel Fendel
The Wikileaks database of confidential documents mentions or quotes Arutz Sheva well over 1,500 times.
Reviewing the material is clearly a daunting task, even as it provides a fascinating look into Israel's recent history. Preliminary investigation finds that Arutz Sheva was first mentioned in March 2004, in an analysis prepared of the National Religious Party (forerunner of today's Jewish Home) and its then-leader, MK Zevulun Orlev.
The document is listed, as are most of the documents, as "unclassified but confidential," and was prepared for U.S. government departments and policy makers. The issue at the time was Ariel Sharon's unilateral Disengagement plan, and the now-leaked analysis stated that the plan
"threatens the interests of NRP's core constituancy [sic], the settlers. Orlev, unlike the majority of NRP members, nonetheless opposes the party leaving the government coalition if the plan is brought to the Knesset. In a recent interview with a right-wing TV station, Arutz Sheva, Orlev said he would support withdrawing from the coalition only if he is convinced that the NRP has absolutely no influence on coalition decisions regarding any withdrawal. Orlev noted that Sharon has not brought the issue to the Cabinet, that he has no majority because of the right-wing faction, and that as long as this is the case, Sharon will not bring the matter to a Knesset vote."
The majority of mentions of Arutz Sheva appear to come from The Global Intelligence Files, prepared by the Texas-headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. There is no love lost between Stratfor and Wikileaks, and the latter claims that the "over five million emails" it has from Stratfor "reveal the workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations… and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods."
Many of the citations of Arutz Sheva deal with otherwise sparsely-reported Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets. For instance, on March 24, 2011, Drew Hart prepared a report entitled "Israeli-Palestinian Attacks Since February 1st," in which Arutz Sheva's reports were quoted several times. For instance, the summary included this Arutz Sheva story from Mar. 23:
"Hamas-ruled Gaza fired a second Grad rocket at Be'er Sheva after firing seven mortar shells at Israeli population centers Wednesday morning."
The analysis included a list of Israeli responses, if any, to each attack.
Stratfor also took interest in, and highlighted for its US government readers, Jewish enthusiasm for its holiest site, the Temple Mount. On June 2, 2011, this Arutz Sheva report was cited:
Temple Mount Priestly Blessing Allowed for the First Time- Arutz Sheva: "Hundreds of religious Jews from all streams were able to happily commemorate the 44th anniversary of the first-ever entry of Israeli soldiers onto the Temple Mount. For the first time in the history of Israeli restrictions on Jewish entry to the Temple Mount, the recitation of the Priestly Blessing was permitted there. It happened on Wednesday, Jerusalem Reunification Day, when hundreds of visitors – all of whom immersed in a mikveh (ritual bath) prior to coming and took other precautions required by Jewish Law -- were allowed to enter the Temple Mount in groups of 30-40."
In June 2011, Stratfor prepared this analysis for its highly-placed government and other customers: "Review of Israeli Right-Wing, Settlement Commentaries 1-15 June 11," featuring "highlights of commentaries carried by right-wing and settlement websites." Appearing around the time that PM Netanyahu declared before Congress his commitment to the establishment of a generously-sized Palestinian state, Stratfor quoted the following Arutz Sheva editorial:
"This Redemption is coming not by the way of miracles, but it is not entirely 'natural', either. It is a Divine process that is certainly already ongoing, and it is certain to play itself out to the end. But it will come about only through our efforts, our actions; if we do not act, there will be complications and obstacles. May we do our part with all our wisdom, strength, and courage, so that the final Redemption will come, to Jerusalem and all Israel, speedily in our time."
A year earlier, in a similar round-up of "right-wing, settlement commentaries" in August 2010, Arutz Sheva was cited twice. The first concerned the injustice of Jonathan Pollard's incarceration:
"If there was ever need for further proof of the injustice and disproportion in the indeterminate life sentences meted out to Jonathan Pollard, now, 25 years later, the most recent US spy case has once again brought this absurdity to the fore in full force. Ten Russian spies have recently been captured in the United States and all of them have been released as part of a bilateral deal."
The second Arutz Sheva citation that day exhorted Jews to promote Israel's cause more correctly and justly:
"If we are too shy to present our just cause, why wonder that the delegitimization campaign against Israel has been successful? The Palestinians have been arguing that we are colonialists who invaded their land and evicted them by force as part of an ethnic cleansing process, while we hoist our right-to-security banner... we are too bashful to discuss justice and rights, concealing the truth for some odd reason, disbelieving that the world will hear us out… Poet Natan Alterman noticed this already 40 years ago. In his last poem, written on his deathbed, he warned against the loss of our sense of justice. No enemy can defeat us, he wrote, but we may well bring ourselves down if we lose our faith in our own just cause."
Founded by Julian Assange in 2006, WikiLeaks says it "specializes in the analysis and publication of large datasets of censored or otherwise restricted official materials involving war, spying and corruption. It has so far published more than 10 million documents and associated analyses." Ever since June 2012 Assange has found asylum from American and other warrants for his arrest in the embassy of Ecuador in London; if he leaves, he faces immediate extradition.
2. JUST HOW BIASED IS THE MEDIA AGAINST DONALD TRUMP?
by David Rosenberg
Media bias in political coverage is hardly new. Going back to the muck-racking days of "yellow journalism", newspapers have expressed clearly partisan slants in the way they cover candidates to higher office. And going back at least to the early 20th Century, that bias has tended, at least generally speaking, to favor candidates professing a progressive agenda.
This election season, however, appears to be have reached new levels of slanted coverage, one media watchdog says, with a report showing negative news coverage of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump outweighing positive coverage by a whopping 11-to-1 margin.
According to the report, produced by the conservative Media Research Center, of all news coverage focusing on Donald Trump on the three major non-cable television networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) during their evening news shows from July 29th through October 20th, roughly 91% of mentions of the GOP nominee were in a negative context. Only 9% of news stories on Trump carried by those three networks were positive towards the Republican nominee.
While some may attribute the highly negative coverage of Trump to his low favorability ratings – the lowest for any major party presidential nominee since the inception of polling – the MRC report notes that coverage of Hillary Clinton, who nearly ties Trump in low favorability levels, was far gentler.
While the three major TV networks dedicated more than 440 minutes dissecting Trump's personal controversies, such as his tax returns and past statements on women, only 185 minutes worth of coverage were used to discuss Clinton's personal issues, including her email scandal and questions over her health.
For example, while the three networks spent a combined 102 minutes digging into comments by Trump regarding women, only a paltry 24 minutes were given to news coverage of the ongoing Clinton Foundation scandals. That's just 1 minute more than the 23 focusing on the tiff between Trump and the Khan family – the parents of a fallen Muslim-American soldier, who were invited to the Democratic National Convention.
And despite an official FBI investigation into her use of a private internet server to handle classified government materials, the three TV networks spent just 40 minutes combined discussing the matter, less than half the time used covering Trump's comments on women and only slightly more than the 33 minutes of primetime coverage on his tax returns and 32 minutes covering allegations Trump had flip-flopped on immigration.
3. HAREDI MK: HIGHER EDUCATION IS IDOLATRY
by Yoel Domb
Chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) criticized haredi participation in programs of higher learning, claiming that academia is unacceptable for haredi young men because, in his words, "they want to secularize us."
Gafni added that this was also the reason why he does not visit haredi academic institutions, as he does not want to be seen as identifying with them.
This week it was reported that there was a significant increase in haredi participation in academic institutions, despite rabbinic opposition to academia.
Gafni also referred to haredi participation in the workforce and claimed that there is clear-cut discrimination against haredi Jews.
"Explain to me why the police commissioner didn't want a haredi rabbi as Chief Rabbi of the police. Why isn't there a haredi person at the head of the haredi department in the Education Ministry? Why aren't there Knesset workers at senior levels from the haredi community? They don't want us because we are haredi," said Gafni.
4. PM: REFORM PROVOCATIONS PREVENT ACHIEVING A COMPROMISE
by Orly Harari
Prime Minister Netanyahu responded Wednesday to the violent altercation which occurred at the Western Wall this morning when a group of Reform and Conservative women entered the plaza with eight Torah scrolls in violation of the ordinances regarding holy places.
"The unfortunate events which took place at the Western Wall plaza this morning do not contribute to attaining a consensus on how to regulate the prayers there, " said Netanyahu as reported by his bureau. "The Prime Minister and Knesset speaker emphasized yesterday to representatives of the non orthodox denominations that this is the time for conciliation and not for provocation."
The prime minister added that "Violations of the status quo are not conducive to efforts to achieve a compromise."
This morning a brawl broke out between Reform and Conservative members and the officers of the Western Wall Heritage foundation together with haredi worshippers after the former brought Torah scrolls to the plaza.
Anat Hoffman, chairwoman of the "Women of the Wall" and a long-time radical feminist activist and member of the Israeli far-left said that "The Prime Minister is so close to implementing a historic solution to the conflict over the Western Wall," referring to a conflict she is largely responsible for creating.
"While he himself supported this solution," she added, referring to plans to create a separate prayer site at the Western Wall for Reform services, "he has been deterred from implementing it because of haredi [coalition] threats." Religious Zionists rabbis, however, are also opposed to the actions of the Women of the Wall.
Though her monthly protest prayers at the Western Wall draw few supporters, Hoffman claims her movement enjoys the backing of "millions of supporters in Israel and across the world."
The Western Wall Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz on Tuesday lamented the planned procession, calling upon organizers to cancel the event.
"Unfortunately, while the Prime Minister of Israel and his people are working to find a solution to this complex issue, a small group continues to do everything possible to inflame tensions and to turn this conflict into an eternal one."
"I call upon those planning to participate in tomorrow's demonstration, one that is illegal and against the directives of the Attorney General, to let the Prime Minister work out a solution to end this 'civil war' which you started."
5. WILL CNN INVESTIGATE BRAZILE LEAKS TO CLINTON TEAM?
by Yoel Domb
After Wikileaks revealed that CNN commentator and leading Democrat Donna Brazile on at least on two occasions transferred debate questions to Hilary Clinton's team before the debates with Bernie Sanders took place, there were calls for an independent investigation of the matter.
Brazile, who has been temporarily suspended by CNN this week, is serving as interim chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the headquarters of the Democratic party.
Two weeks ago Wikileaks released mails by Brazile in which she leaked to Clinton's press advisor a question regarding capital punishment policy in the US that was going to be asked at the televised debate which took place in Columbus,Ohio in March. At that point, Sanders was challenging Clinton in primaries for the presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.
In that case Brazile had received the question from a commentator on the African American channel, TV One, and not from CNN. However this week another mail was published in which Brazile provided to the Clinton camp one of the questions to be asked in another debate with Sanders which also took place in March. This time the question was from a woman in Flint, Michigan - the city where the debate took place - whose family had suffered health problems due to lead seeping into the municipal water system. The two adjudicators at that debate were members of CNN.
Additional mails were leaked in which Brazile promised to transfer other questions from the Ohio debate to Clinton aides.
After the second leak was revealed, CNN fired Brazile from her position as a commentator. However critics are now demanding that CNN appoint an independent investigator to clarify the matter. John Concha, a reporter for The Hill, demanded that an external company conduct an investigation in order to locate the "cancer" which has affected the media network.
Head of worldwide CNN Jeff Zucker blasted Brazile's interaction with Clinton campaign as "disgusting" and "unethical", while the former head of CNN, John Klein said in an interview with Fox News that "nothing is taken more seriously at CNN...than issues around the integrity of the place." and maintained that CNN had already investigated the incident effectively.
6. BUSH FOR CLINTON?
by David Rosenberg
In an unprecedented presidential election featuring the first true political outsider on a major party ticket since Dwight D. Eisenhower last ran in 1956, anxieties within the Republican establishment have created some very strange political bedfellows.
Eight-and-a-half months after his brother and former Florida Governor John Ellis "Jeb" Bush dropped out of the Republican primaries, former President George W. Bush is reportedly considering voting for the Democratic ticket this year – and the woman whose husband defeated his father 24 years ago.
In September, the 41st President of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, declared in an informal statement to some 40 people at a private gathering in Kennebunkport, Maine, that he intended to vote for Hillary Clinton, whose husband Bill Clinton unseated Bush, then the incumbent president, in his 1992 reelection attempt.
The move was seen by some not only as a rejection of the Republican nominee Donald Trump's policies – seen as deviating in many respects from conservative orthodoxy – but part of a personal distaste for Mr. Trump, who targeted the former president's son, Jeb, aggressively in the early stages of the GOP primary process.
George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, went public with criticisms of Trump in August, slamming his proposals as "isolationism, nativism, and protectionism."
Some former Bush cabinet members explicitly endorsed Trump's general election opponent, though the younger Bush has remained mum on whom he plans to vote for.
But on Tuesday, George Prescott Bush, son of Jeb Bush, told participants at a GOP rally in Texas that his uncle George W. may join the elder Bush in voting for Clinton, the Associated Press reported.
7. IDF TO FUND ACADEMIC STUDIES FOR DISCHARGED SOLDIERS
by Yoel Domb
The IDF unveiled plans to fund academic or vocational studies for discharged soldiers with special backgrounds who were drafted after July 2013.
The vision of the IDF, as defined by Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot and approved by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, is that every soldier (from a special background) discharged from the army will be eligible for support in his academic or vocational studies, besides the other benefits he is entitled to by law.
The revolutionary social plan envisaged by the IDF aims to show appreciation to soldiers for their contribution and service to the state. It is designed to encourage more discharged soldiers to study degrees and to attain professions which will enable them to integrate better into civilian society.
At first the support will be provided to combat soldiers with special backgrounds but ultimately it will be broadened to include non-combatants as well, with the financial support being dependent on the type of service involved (Combat/combat support/ non-combatant).
The funding for the plan will be based on contributions from the "Yahad-United for Israel's Soldiers" fund as well as from supporters of the IDF from Israel and around the world in accordance with the change in priorities regarding contributions to the IDF by which student funding for discharged soldiers will be given top priority. The implementation of the plan requires legislative changes.
At present, discharged soldiers receive a deposit which can be used to fund part of a degree, housing, a wedding or opening a business. The new program will allow soldiers to fund a third of their student fees from the deposit and the other two thirds will be funded by the plan, thus enabling full funding of his studies.
A soldier who funds one year of his academic studies will receive funding for another two years of studies through the program, or another three years of engineering or medical studies.
The program will run from the present academic year, with thousands of soldiers from special backgrounds expected to benefit from it over the course of the year. Ultimately the program will include more than 40,000 discharged soldiers every year and when it is extended to include all types of soldiers it will include about 120,000 soldiers every year.
In the next fortnight it will be possible to refer questions to the IDF's Office for Public Inquiries and thereafter all questions will be answered by the department for discharged soldiers at the Defense Ministry.
8. 250 UKRAINIAN IMMIGRANTS ARRIVE IN ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Earlier today, about 250 immigrants from the Ukraine landed in Ben-Gurion airport in Israel.
This renewed wave of immigration comes following a hiatus during the High Holidays of Rosh HaShannah and Yom Kippur.
Among the immigrants who participated in the flight there are 117 families, which will all settle in the north and center of Israel. The immigrants of the upcoming flight will receive assistance from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ).
The eldest immigrant today is 86-years old, and along with her 52 children will become citizens, 7 of them are under 2 years old.
[youtube:2020573]
Before they boarded the plane, the new immigrants said that they were very hopeful that coming on Aliyah will allow them to begin a new life in a more peaceful and safe place then their birthplace. When hearing there personal stories it is clear that these immigrants have experienced war in its vilest way.
According to Valentina, who is coming on Aliyah with her husband and three children, her child's life was saved miraculously a few times during the ongoing conflict with Russia. "Life under a shelter had become a routine during the time we were living in Mariupol. There was fighting at one point that forced us to stay within a shelter for over two months".
"The day to day situation in the Ukraine now is awful and in some mysterious way only getting worse" mentioned Olga, another immigrant on the flight today. "Throughout the battles, as they became more stressful, my family and I were forced to live on the streets. I am so grateful for this opportunity to come and live in Israel with the help of IFCJ and to establish my home in the land of my ancestors, my historic homeland".
Maria and her two children came to Israel from the city of Donetsk. This is their first time visiting the country.
"I have never been to Israel before but I am confident that this is the best place for my family and me now. We lived in fear, I was depressed during this period more than once and my son developed a stutter as a result of these difficult times. I fell in love with Israel before I set foot in it, I love the country and the endless opportunities it may offer me."
In addition to the immigrants from the Ukraine, over the next two days 50 more immigrants will be arriving from France. These immigrants will be coming from three different central cities: Frankfurt, Marseille and Paris. The immigrants described the latest anti-Semitic events occurring in Europe and France as the main trigger to their decision to come on Aliyah.
During 2016, over 2,500 immigrants arrived in Israel with the help of the IFCJ, in addition to the flights arriving today and tomorrow.
The immigrants in the upcoming flights will be assisted by the IFCJ, not only after arriving in Israel but also during their integration period in Israel After arriving in Israel, IFCJ will provide the immigrants with special grants that amount to $1,000 for each adult and $500 for each child, in addition to covering the expense of the flights. This support is in addition to the help of the Absorption Ministry grant and the regular benefits that all immigrants receive from the ministry when they arrive in Israel . During the following week, the immigrants will be joining an integration seminary arranged by the IFCJ.
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, President of the IFCJ: "As a part of our engagement with Aliyah we are often exposed to moving stories of Jews from all around the world that have been through numerous troubles and now at last are fulfilling their Zionist dream and coming to live in Israel. We assist thousands of Jews from tens of countries from the Ukraine through Brazil to come and live in Israel. We help all immigrants when integrating into the Israeli society and economy by closely following up and providing financial aid so that we can assure the best possible integration"
Olim at Ben Gurion airport IFCJ
Ukrainian Olim IFCJ
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