Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com
------------------------------------------------
Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
Tuesday, Feb. 07 '17, י"א בשבט תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. 'REGULATION LAW LOWERS ISRAEL'S STANDING AROUND THE WORLD'
2. SUPREME COURT TARGETS ADDITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD FOR DEMOLITION
3. MK SMOTRICH SETS SIGHTS ON SUPREME COURT
4. 'NEXT ROUND OF FIGHTING NOT A QUESTION OF 'IF' - ONLY 'WHEN'
5. 'THE HIGH COURT WILL STRIKE DOWN THE REGULATION LAW'
6. US STATE DEPT. REFUSES TO CONDEMN REGULATION LAW
7. 'THE NEXT STEP IS SOVEREIGNTY'
8. WATCH: WILL THE HOLY TEMPLE DESCEND FROM HEAVEN?
1. 'REGULATION LAW LOWERS ISRAEL'S STANDING AROUND THE WORLD'
by David Rosenberg
While the United States has refused to condemn passage of the Regulation Law Monday night, Britain and the European Union slammed the legislation on Tuesday, saying that it threatened the pursuit of a two-state solution.
The British government warned Israel in a statement Tuesday that the law would lower the Jewish state's position around the world.
The statement, issued by Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood, comes on the heels of a meeting between UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Israeli Premier Binyamin Netanyahu.
"As a longstanding friend of Israel, I condemn the passing of the Land Regularization Bill by the Knesset, which damages Israel's standing with its international partners," said Ellwood.
"It is of great concern that the bill paves the way for significant growth in settlements deep in the West Bank, threatening the viability of the two-state solution. We reiterate our support for a two-state solution leading to a secure Israel that is safe from terrorism, and a contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian state."
The European Union also chastised Israel over the law's passage, delaying a meeting between EU and Israeli officials long seen as a step towards mending strained relations.
The summit, slated for the end of February, has nowbeen postponed indefinitely.
2. SUPREME COURT TARGETS ADDITIONAL NEIGHBORHOOD FOR DEMOLITION
by David Rosenberg
A week after the evacuation of Amona, the Supreme Court issued new demolition orders for a neighborhood in the Jewish community of Kfar Tapuah in Samaria.
The court ruled on Tuesday that 17 buildings in Tapuah West, a neighborhood of Kfar Tapuah, must be demolished by April 2018.
Tapuah, a town of roughly 1,000 east of Ariel, was targeted by the court in early 2004 when it ordered the demolition of a synagogue in the Tapuah West neighborhood.
The demolition orders issued Tuesday were made in response to an appeal by the "Yesh Din" organization, a far-left NGO, who filed with the court on behalf of residents of the nearby village of Yasuf who claim they have a basis for ownership of the land.
The orders were issued despite arguments by the government that it intends to normalize the status of the neighborhood.
David Ha'Ivri, a former mayor of Kfar Tapuah and former spokesperson for the Samaria Regional Council accused the government of dragging its feet on the issue, despite promises to settle questions of the neighborhood's status.
"The Netanyahu-Bennett government is a disgrace," said Ha'Ivri. "They have sat on their hands on the issue of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria for too long. Yesterday Amona, today Tapuah West."
"Jewish families in the heartland of Israel should not have their homes demolished by the State of Israel. It is time for the Israeli public to rethink our blind support for these two parties who have proven to be a huge disappointment. We must make Israel great again."
MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) slammed the court's decision, which came on the heels of the passage of the regulation law Monday night.
"The timing of the release of this ruling for the demolition of 17 buildings in Tapuah, just before the Regulation Law goes into effect, is purely coincidental," Smotrich said sarcastically. "Just like the composition of the [three-judge] panel that heard the case really thinks that we are complete fools. But we aren't. We'll put a stop to this judicial tyranny.
3. MK SMOTRICH SETS SIGHTS ON SUPREME COURT
by Arutz Sheva Staff
MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) plans to submit this week a bill that seeks to enable the Knesset to re-enact laws previously struck down by the Supreme Court.
The bill comes amidst assessments that the Supreme Court will reject the Regulation Law, which seeks to protect Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria from third-party land claims, passed last night.
Smotrich collected the signatures of the heads of all coalition parties for the bill, aside from that of Kulanu Chairman Moshe Kahlon.
Speaking with Arutz Sheva, Smotrich called the passage of the Regulation Law "historic."
"We are returning the decision-making process to the people," he said.
Earlier, Likud Minister Yariv Levin had called on the Supreme Court not to interfere in the passage of the Regulation Law.
"The judicial system needs to be based upon rules and laws which have been approved by the Knesset," Levin told Army Radio.
Duly-passed laws cannot be struck down, said Levin, "based on all kinds of comments by judges who sit and decide what is 'reasonable' and what is 'proportionate' in their view and according to their world view."
"The Supreme Court, doing as it pleases, in the end seriously harms democracy," Levin had said.
4. 'NEXT ROUND OF FIGHTING NOT A QUESTION OF 'IF' - ONLY 'WHEN'
by Uzi Baruch
Education Minister Naftali Bennett spoke this morning at a memorial service for Ella Abukasis, who was murdered in 2005 after shielding her brother from an incoming Qassam rocket.
"In these days, as well, they continue to threaten us, continue to try and harm us. Against an enemy which sends its children to protect terrorists, we send soldiers to protect children. But this did not save Ella."
"The dangers these days are becoming greater, from Gaza and from Lebanon the next round of fighting is not a question of 'if' but only 'when,' and this time we need to finish it not with a stalemate, but with a definitive victory, so as to prevent a round after which we will not be the only country in the world whose children cannot walk in the streets without danger that an enemy rocket will fall on them. Our enemy invests all its time and resources towards killing us.
"Instead of building life, they invest in building tools of death. Only with a definitive victory over the enemy will we put an end to it."
On January 15, 2005, Ella was returning to her home after activity with her youth group in the town of Sderot near Gaza. Walking beside her was her young brother Tamir Yaakov. When a red alert siren was suddenly heard, signalling the launch of a rocket from Gaza, Ella hugged her brother to protect him.
The rocket exploded near them; Tamir Yaakov was lightly wounded, but Ella suffered severe head wounds.
She was transferred to the hospital in critical condition and, a week later, her death was confirmed.
17 years of age at her passing, she left behind her parents, two sisters, and two brothers."
5. 'THE HIGH COURT WILL STRIKE DOWN THE REGULATION LAW'
by Shlomo Pyotrovsky
Former Justice Minister Prof. Daniel Friedman said this morning that the chances that the Supreme Court will not strike down the Regulation Law passed last night in the Knesset are low.
In an interview with Army Radio, Friedman said that the Court will likely reject the Law on grounds that it presents a blow to private property rights.
He said that "it's true that a possibility exists in [existing Israeli] law regarding unregulated property, if someone built in good faith and thought that it was his [land], that he can obtain the property. However, the definition in the Regulation Law of 'good faith' is very wide. It's enough that the State supported it in some way for it to be considered in good faith. That is not compatible with our method."
In addition, Friedman asserted that the ICC's preoccupation with the Law posed a danger to Israel.
"The Hague is checking it, it's something we're trying to deal with," he said. There's no justification for the [ICC] to be dealing with it. The Court has a lot of problems - it doesn't address the worst of human rights offenses happening in the world."
Nevertheless, he said that "the moment they're dealing with it, it's not the best thing to enact a law like this. We need to be a little more careful. International Law is much more obscure - and much more politically biased - than [our] internal law."
"Despite the fact that I oppose the Regulation Law, use of the Hague is extreme and unreasonable - but it can happen," he concluded.
6. US STATE DEPT. REFUSES TO CONDEMN REGULATION LAW
by Tal Polon
Following the passage last night in the Knesset of the so-called "Regulation Law," the US State Department seemed to take a "wait-and-see" approach - while, at the same time, calling on Israel's enemies to withhold hostile action against Israel.
The Regulation Law legalizes and protects thousands of Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria which were built with government backing and lacked absentee land claims, but against which there are now property claims.
In response to the passage of the Law, a State Department official told AFP that the US administration was "withholding comment" in the meantime.
"The administration needs to have the chance to fully consult with all parties on the way forward," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
"At this point, indications are that this legislation is likely to be reviewed by the relevant Israeli courts, and the Trump administration will withhold comment on the legislation until the relevant court ruling."
At the same time, the official called on the Palestinians and their supporters not to challenge the Law before the international community, claiming such action would be "counterproductive to peace."
"We are concerned that other actors have said they may seek to challenge this measure in multilateral fora, including at the International Criminal Court," he said.
"We continue to strongly oppose actions against Israel at the ICC as counterproductive to the cause of peace."
AFP contributed to this report.
7. 'THE NEXT STEP IS SOVEREIGNTY'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2024232]
MK Yehuda Glick (Likud) discussed the Regulation Law, which passed its second and third readings in the Knesset on Monday evening.
The Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are "an irreversible process", Glick explained.
"If we see thousands of houses that are in danger, we have to make sure that they are legal, and therefore the law which legalizes these houses is something to which we are obligated. The Israeli government, run by Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud party, we promised our people that we positively support the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, and we will do everything we can in that regard," he said.
"Eventually, our next step is implementing Jewish-Israeli sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria," declared Glick.
8. WATCH: WILL THE HOLY TEMPLE DESCEND FROM HEAVEN?
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2024252]
For the last three decades the Temple Institute in Jerusalem has focused on research and preparation for the Third Holy Temple. Now a newly released video series entitled "Holy Temple Myth Busters" will share some of its most complex research in easy to understand episodes that destroy ancient myths and pre-conceived notions pertaining to the religious requirements to re-build the Third Holy Temple.
The current episode deals with the commonly-held belief that the Temple will miraculously fall down from heaven, somehow alleviating the Jewish people of their Biblical requirement to build it. Rabbi Chaim Richman, a co-founder of the organization and its International Director takes viewers on a seven-minute visual journey through the ages that blows this myth out of the water with tens of religious sources and historical precedents. The notion that the re-building of the Holy Temple is the sole responsibility of the Jewish people is the bedrock on which the Temple Institute was established, however these arguments have never been presented to the masses so eruditely in English and will likely be seen as controversial, making waves within the Orthodox Jewish world.
Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple Institute commented: "The Holy Temple has become one of the most overly- mystified concepts within Judaism. While Torah scholars and yeshiva students diligently strive to understand every minutia of Torah knowledge, they seem to have relegated the Holy Temple to the world of the paranormal. Many prefer to ignore the subject entirely, despite the fact that fully one third of the Torah pertains to the Holy Temple, and clear instructions for its preparation and building are written in black and white."
"While nobody in their right mind looks to the sky, on the eve of Sukkot awaiting the miraculous descent of their Sukkah from the heavens, somehow this has become a widely held view of the arrival of the Third Holy Temple. This is why we have taken decades of research and presented it in a light and easy to understand seven-minute video that will rock the very foundations of the notion that the Holy Temple is beyond our human reach."
------------------------------------------------
Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/
