Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Friday, Jan. 06 '17, ח' בטבת תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. NETANYAHU THANKS US CONGRESS FOR OPPOSITION TO UN RESOLUTION
2. WHY SHOULD JEWS ONLY MARRY OTHER JEWS?
3. TV STARS: ISRAEL TRIP CHANGED OUR LIVES
4. OP-ED: KILLING A TERRORIST IS MORAL
5. ISRAELIS TO GET SUNDAYS OFF - BUT NOT EVERY WEEK
6. FRENCH STORE APOLOGIZES FOR 'MADE IN ISRAELI SETTLEMENT' LABELS
7. HUCKABEE: TRUMP SHOULD VISIT HEVRON, CAVE OF THE PATRIARCHS
8. TWO SERIOUSLY INJURED IN PLANE CRASH NEAR TEL AVIV
1. NETANYAHU THANKS US CONGRESS FOR OPPOSITION TO UN RESOLUTION
by David Rosenberg
[youtube:2022926]
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed members of the United States House of Representatives in a video statement Friday afternoon, thanking them for their support of Israel in the face of the anti-Israel resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council in December.
"After the outrageous anti-Israel resolution at the UN, the US House of Representatives voted yesterday resoundingly to support Israel and reject this one-sided resolution.
"Democrats and Republicans alike know that the Western Wall isn't occupied territory.
They voted to either repeal the resolution at the UN or change it—and that's exactly what we intend to do.
"I want to thank the US House of Representatives which reflects the tremendous support Israel enjoys among the American people. Thank you, America. Thank you, Congress."
On Thursday the Republican-controlled House voted 342-80 to rebuke the UN for Resolution 2334, calling upon the White House to veto future UN Security Council measures which seek to impose solutions to final status issues, or are one-sided and anti-Israel."
2. WHY SHOULD JEWS ONLY MARRY OTHER JEWS?
by Judy Simon
The Jewish People were given a precious gift from G-d. Keep it in the family.
Why intermarriage causes parents so much anguish, and why it's a bad idea to let children choose their own religion when they grow up.
Plus: Rabbi Eugene Kwalwasser, an educator par excellence, talks to Mikdash Kids directly about why they should marry Jews.
[audio:2022927]
Click here to download the podcast
3. TV STARS: ISRAEL TRIP CHANGED OUR LIVES
by Yoni Kempinski
[youtube:2022916]
So what did a group of Hollywood TV stars think of Israel after a six-day tour? Arutz Sheva caught up with Meagan Good (from Deception and Foxy Brown) and Sonequa Martin-Green (The Walking Dead and Star Trek) to see what impression Israel made on the celebs.
"It was amazing," said Good and Martin-Green, adding that the experience was "transformational."
"It has been revolutionary, breathtaking. I think we were expecting a spiritual experience. But what we got was hard to describe. It was more than we were expecting. It exceeded expectations by far."
The delegation, which was organized by Israel's Ministry for Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy in cooperation with the "America's Voices in Israel" organization, included Good and her husband Pastor DeVon Franklin, Martin-Green and her husband and The Walking Dead co-star Kenric Green, Daniel Dae Kim from Lost and Hawaii Five-0, and Mark Pellegrino of Supernatural, Dexter, Lost, and Being Human.
Highlights of the tour included the Old City of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Tel Aviv's Nahalat Binyamin and Old Jaffa, the ruins of Kfar Nahum (Capernaum) in the Galilee, the Kinneret, and Haifa.
"I think we came kind of having an itinerary," said Meagan Good, "but not knowing what the experience would be like. We got so much information. You already have a spiritual understanding by having a deeper understanding of how all different religions connect, what are the similarities, what are the differences, what does each site say about each one of those religions collectively and individually. I think it's a deeper understanding of something that your spirit knows, but you can tangibly explain it better and mentally understand it better."
"This is a place of devotion," Sonequa Martin-Green added, calling Israel "a place where devotion is a pillar of the culture."
"The land is so rich with history. When you come here you understand your place in that, regardless of what you believe and where you come from. There's a tie-in to this place from all walks of humanity, and you can get a sense of that. You can take it in with your senses. You can touch the ground that these people walked on and see the spots where these amazingly divine things happened."
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Courtesy of Ministry for Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy
4. OP-ED: KILLING A TERRORIST IS MORAL
by Moshe Feiglin
It is no surprise that Elor Azariyah, the IDF soldier accused of shooting and killing a wounded terrorist, was convicted on Wednesday. Any other outcome would have been a stinging slap in the face of a much too broad elite and their erroneous assumptions.
Elor was the only uniformed man in the area who acted in a moral manner. The bullet that he shot and the publicity generated by the radical Left B'tzelem's film of the terror attack and its aftermath – recalibrated the moral coordinates in the arena.
The concept of murdering Jews just because they are Jews is not justiciable! Putting Elor on trial is not moral! The standard bearers of destruction of the Jews and those who act upon those evil principles do not deserve a trial. They lose their right to exist, and anybody who eliminates them and ensures that they are dead is performing the most just and lofty moral act.
The bullet that Elor shot restored the dimension of justice to the arena. The question mark that the knifing terror had etched over the right of the Jews to live, was erased by the clear exclamation point drawn by Elor.
Elor's moral act was the antidote to the poisonous de-legitimization of Jewish existence – the poison against which Israel's entire security apparatus stood helpless. His moral act stopped the knifing terror (a fact that can be clearly proven). Elor's conviction will likely reignite the stabbings.
The following is an article that I wrote about Elor on May 25, 2016. Today, it is even more relevant than when it was written:
"Who lost the elections?"
"We, the Israelis."
"And who won?"
"The Jews. The Jews defeated the Israelis".
(Shimon Peres in an interview after Israel's 1996 elections)
Peres was wrong. The "Jews" did not exactly win. And the "Israelis" did not lose at all. In the twenty years that have ensued, an ongoing, low intensity, cold war has been waged between the Jews and the Israelis.
On Rosh Hashanah 2016 , Alexander Levlovitz was murdered by an Arab, signaling the beginning of a new kind of intifada. Every few hours, a lone terrorist would attempt to kill Jews with whatever weapon he had at hand.
The goal of the terror of the first and second Intifadas was to force the IDF to retreat from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It was a 'nationalist' struggle. In the new Intifada, all the 'nationalist' masks were removed. The goal was simply to kill Jews.
But there was another statement here, last heard 70 years ago: I will kill you no matter how you define yourself: Israeli, secular, Tel-Avivian or New Yorker – because you are really just a Jew. This created a serious problem for Peres' "Israelis". When confronted with the new Nazism, they preferred to deny their Jewish identity. There is nothing unique about the Jews and everyone can be a Nazi.
The IDF soldiers killed the attacking terrorists. This was a healthy, Jewish response. It was the spontaneous reaction of a nation that identifies the monster and has no intention of allowing it to reawaken. It declared that there is indeed a unique, Jewish identity.
The bullet shot in Hevron by soldier Elor Azariah into a neutralized terrorist, turned the cold war between the Jews and the Israelis into an overt war that is getting hotter all the time. It obligated the "Israelis" to stand up and defend their right to blur their identity. The entire justice system, media and other power resources in the hands of the First Israel – Ashkenazic, leftist, secular, hegemonic – activated an orchestrated campaign to delegitimize his act.
But a frightening surprise was waiting for the elitist First Israel. Social media allowed the Second Israel – Eastern, traditional, far- removed from power – to stand up for the soldier. The division was very clear. The Israeli minority will do all in its power to convict the soldier, while the Jewish majority supports him.
The war intensified. The many local protests for the soldier melded into a major rally in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square, boycotted and scorned by the media and political establishment.
The First Israel fought back. At the Holocaust memorial ceremony, Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan hinted that Elor Azariah and his supporters are Israel's Nazis. The Prime Minister condemned the speech. But Defense Minister Yaalon supported Golan unreservedly.
The judge's suggested compromise in the shooting trial was rejected by the military prosecution. After all, this is not a private case: It is a war between Israelis and Jews. Elor had become a symbol and the First Israel had no intention of giving up.
And then the war progressed to a new, much more frightening phase.
A Ha'aretz article called "Toward a Military Coup" called upon the IDF to impose the will of the Israeli minority upon the Jewish majority. The Defense Minister again praised the scandalous speech of Deputy Chief of Staff Yair Golan and even encouraged every soldier to learn from him and follow in his footsteps.
When the Defense Minister was ousted, journalist Yigal Sarna wrote that "the ouster is a civilian putsch against the army". The radical Left, despairing of ever winning democratic elections, turned to the IDF to save its ideology. Now it decries the 'putsch' carried out by the citizens against its army…
Who will win this war? The Jews? Or the Israelis?
Just like the elections of 1996, the Jews will win on the tactical plane. But just like those elections, on the strategic plane – the Israelis will win again. For the Jews to really win, they need leadership that can create a completely new strategy, informed by its Jewish identity.
To create real change, the new Defense Minister must say:
"The security strategy of the Jewish Nation and the State of Israel is 'Kill those who come to kill you - first'. Any soldier who does not accept this principle should remove his uniform and release the IDF from the attitudes that are preventing it from doing its job."
Obviously, that will not happen. Netanyahu will never face off directly against the First Israel. The IDF will continue to clone its senior command according to the values of the radical Left. All of us will continue to be perceived as the new Nazis of the world, Israel's legitimacy and diplomatic and security options will continue to contract – until the Jews realize that they must do more than win the elections: they must also lead the Nation according to their values.
And what about the soldier, Elor Azariah?
Nobody in the media will say this, but the undeniable fact is that immediately following the shooting in Hevron, the new intifada disappeared into thin air.
It is impossible to know how much time will pass until the monster will rear its head once again. But one thing is clear. With the one moral bullet that Elor Azariah shot into reality, he has – at least temporarily – neutralized the venom of the new Nazism. And that is a lot more than Netanyahu, Ya'alon, the IDF and its generals managed to do in an entire half a year of violent terror.
Moshe Feiglin headed the Manhigut Yehudit faction within the Likud party, serving as MK and Speaker of the Knesset, between 2013 and 2015. A well-known columnist, he heads the Zehut party for authentic Jewish leadership,
5. ISRAELIS TO GET SUNDAYS OFF - BUT NOT EVERY WEEK
by David Rosenberg
After years of proposals and contentious debates between lawmakers and industry leaders, Israel appears poised to include Sunday as a recognized part of the weekend, obliging employers to give workers the day off or pay them added compensation.
While most Israelis work what amounts to a five-and-a-half day work week, from Sunday through Thursday and typically part of Friday before the beginning of Shabbat, lawmakers have weighed plans to cut the workweek down by a day, making Sunday part of an extended weekend.
Various proposals of this sort have received some backing from religious MKs, who see Sunday vacations as a way to provide an alternative to Shabbat-day shopping and recreation, thus reducing Shabbat desecration.
Other lawmakers have cited the extended weekend as a quality-of-life issue, while still others suggested it could enable greater consumption by Israelis enjoying increased leisure time, thus boosting aggregate demand in the economy.
The latest attempt at extending the weekend, proposed by MKs Eli Cohen (Kulanu) and David Amsalem (Likud), attempted to balance the perceived benefits of an extra day off with the reduced productivity caused by the shortened workweek.
The Cohen-Amsalem "Extended Weekend" bill, first drawn up in May, 2016, would have designated one Sunday per month as a recognized day off from work.
But concerns over the loss of 12 workdays per year led to the proposal being modified to just 6 Sundays a year.
Now, however, a committee appointed by the Prime Minister to evaluate the proposal's feasibility has reportedly suggested adoption of the bill – but with yet another reduction in the number of extended weekends, recommending just four be given per year.
If the committee's recommendations are in fact adopted by the government as generally expected, the coalition is likely to approve the bill at Sunday's meeting of the Committee of Ministers on Legislation. The bill would then have full coalition backing in the full Knesset votes.
6. FRENCH STORE APOLOGIZES FOR 'MADE IN ISRAELI SETTLEMENT' LABELS
by JTA
JTA - Following complaints, a French supermarket apologized for applying labels reading "made in Israeli settlements" on some of its products.
The labels that appeared last month on pomegranates and tangerines at the store belonging to the Auchan supermarket chain in the Paris suburb of Kremlin-Bicêtre were the result of a "an error" by an employee, a spokesperson for the chain told the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism.
The bureau, a nonprofit known by its acronym of BNVCA, queried the store along with Bernard Musicant, an activist for the pro-Israel Urgency Collective group, regarding the labels, according to the Actualite Juive newspaper.
In November, the French Economy Ministry's General Directorate for Competition, Consumption and Fraud Prevention published an advisory circular requiring retailers use the word "colonies," French for "settlements," to specify goods originating in Jewish communities in the Golan Heights, Judea and Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem, which Israel liberated in 1967.
In 2015, the European Commission adopted binding regulation requiring such labeling. However, the commission has no recourse against countries that don't apply the regulations and no lawsuit has been brought to date against a vendor who declined to apply them. France's major supermarket chains apply no special labeling for Israeli goods.
Several European countries apply the regulations, including Britain, Denmark and Belgium, but many others are ignoring them. Many retailers are hesitant to apply such labels, fearing it would lead to demands for labeling of products from other disputed territories.
The European Union has issued no regulations on labeling of goods from other disputed areas, including Western Sahara, which is under Moroccan occupation even though the United Nations itself has called the kingdom's presence there an occupation.
Israel and its advocates have argued the labeling is discriminatory but the EU officials who passed it and other advocates of the practice say it is in keeping with consumers' right to receive accurate information on products.
7. HUCKABEE: TRUMP SHOULD VISIT HEVRON, CAVE OF THE PATRIARCHS
by Yoel Domb
[youtube:2022886]
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee said that President-elect Donald Trump should visit the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron during his own visit to the holy site.
He described the site as "one of the most unique places on earth" and said it is a tragedy that there are so many restrictions that exist on visiting various parts of the holy site due to Muslim objections. He believes that if we could access all of the caves it would be "one of the greatest archaeological opportunities in the history of mankind."
Huckabee stated that the Cave of the Patriarchs should be free,open and accessible to all people on earth who would then be able to recognize "what an enormous amount of history was played out here."
Huckabee also referred to the UN and stated that "I am standing in a place that has been indigenous to the Jews for 4000 years. To say that the Jews don't belong here is like saying that Texans don't belong in Dallas. That's absurd."
When asked if he thought President-elect Trump should visit the Cave of the Patriarchs Huckabee said that he would love for Trump to come and visit the site, but he specified that Trump should only visit on one of the few days when the entire site is open to Jews.
"I would recommend that he (Trump) come on one of the ten days of the year when he can go into the inner chamber", Huckabee said.
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8. TWO SERIOUSLY INJURED IN PLANE CRASH NEAR TEL AVIV
by Reut Hadar
[video:2022920]
Two men in their 60s were seriously injured in a plane crash Friday morning near Ein Vered in the Sharon region of central Israel.
MDA emergency response teams were dispatched to the crash site, where they provided first aid to the injured and evacuated them to Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer, Ramat Gan.
Authorities are currently investigating the circumstances of the accident.
Yaakov Prativ, an MDA medic who witnessed the accident, described the crash.
"I was preparing to board a flight at the airfield when I saw the plane that came to land go up in flames. I immediately ran to the scene, and with the help of other civilians there we recovered two pilots, who were still conscious, but had suffered serious burns and trauma injuries on their limbs," said Prativ.
"I provided life-saving first aid, including stopping the bleeding and bandaging the wounds. Within minutes additional MDA units arrived who continued the treatment and evacuated the injured to a hospital."
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