אם אינך רואה מייל זה אנא לחץ/י כאן | |
Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com ------------------------------------------------ Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday Thursday, Mar. 30 '17, ג' בניסן תשע"ז HEADLINES: 1. 'THE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIZES THE BOND WITH ISRAEL' 2. THIS IS NOT HOW TO BUILD THE BULWARK OF THE WAR AGAINST TERROR 3. IDF THREATENS TO PUNISH SOLDIERS WHO PROTEST CO-ED COMBAT UNITS 4. TRUMP'S MESSAGE 5. WHO WILL LIGHT 'THE TORCH OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE'? 6. A MILITARY STRATEGY OF EQUALITY 7. UNESCO WON'T ERASE JEWISH CONNECTION TO TEMPLE MOUNT, AFTER ALL? 8. WATCH: HAMAS PUTS ISRAELI OFFICIALS IN THE CROSSHAIRS 1. 'THE ADMINISTRATION PRIORITIZES THE BOND WITH ISRAEL' by Arutz Sheva Staff [youtube:2026451] David Friedman was on Wednesday sworn in as United States Ambassador to Israel by Vice President Mike Pence. "I’m very proud to say that my nomination represents the first time in American history that the U.S. Ambassador to Israel was nominated by the President as early as the first day of his presidency," Friedman said in remarks after the swearing in ceremony. "I’m equally proud to say that this is the first time in American history that the U.S. Ambassador to Israel was the first ambassador approved by the Senate and given the Oath of Office." "Those facts speak volumes about how highly the Trump-Pence administration prioritizes our unbreakable bond with the State of Israel," Friedman added. He noted that he looks forward to working with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson "to promote peace and stability within the Middle East." "My children and most of my grandchildren are here. They are everything to me. Seeing the pride in their eyes inspires me to take on this new task with great energy and enthusiasm." Pence, who spoke before the swearing in ceremony, said that President Donald Trump "is a lifelong friend of Israel and the Jewish people, and under his leadership, if the world knows nothing else, the world will know this: America stands with Israel." "One of the clearest signs of the President’s commitment to the State of Israel and to its people is in his choice of David Friedman as America’s Ambassador to Israel," continued Pence, who told Friedman, "You were literally born for this job. It’s because of families like yours that the Jewish people are such a beautiful thread and fabric of this nation." "In over 35 years as a successful lawyer, you’ve always made it a priority to support Israel’s peace, security and prosperity, and you’ve worked tirelessly to deepen the friendship between our two nations." "You’ve always been quick to rise to Israel’s defense from those who would condemn her, because in your heart you know that those who hate Israel hate Israel not for what she does wrong, but for what she does right," said Pence, who also said that Friedman’s care of compassion for Israel "is an inspiration to the President and an inspiration to us all." 2. THIS IS NOT HOW TO BUILD THE BULWARK OF THE WAR AGAINST TERROR by Rabbi Dr. Chaim Shein Arab terror, which has accompanied the Return to Zion and the establishment of the State of Israel for more than 120 years, is incomparably cruel. Rioters, terrorists, and inhuman murderers carry out attacks that do not distinguish between women, children, and the elderly, and whose entire aim is to bring death and destruction. But there is no doubt that the incident in which the two reserve soldiers were murdered, Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz, was one of the most painful and horrific. The two mistakenly entered Ramallah and Palestinian policemen led them to the lynch and took an active part in it. The act of lynching and murder and maiming the bodies took place the day after Yom Kippur in 2000, immediately after the beginning of the second Intifada. Despite the years that have passed, many of us remember the blood-stained pictures of the murderers and the crowd gathered around the bodies in Al-Manar Square. The Palestinian Authority made every effort to conceal the documentation of the event, without success - Italian television filmed the event and it was broadcast. Undoubtedly, contempt of the soldiers' bodies encouraged more acts of terror and significantly impaired the army's ability to deter terrorism. The Israeli government, in the wake of the incident, toughened its position and actions against terrorist operatives. Khatam Maghari, one of the lynch perpetrators, was convicted of murder and has since been serving his prison sentence. Last night it became clear that the same Maghari was about to be released due to the shortening of his sentence and his sentence being readjusted to 11 years only. The circumstances of the release are puzzling and raise serious questions regarding the discretion behind the decision to release him. If Maghari was a party to the murder and took part in the lynching, why was he released? The message that is conveyed to potential terrorists is that a lenient punishment will be imposed by Israel for heinous acts. If it turned out that there was a visual or other difficulty casting a shadow on his conviction, why did it take so many years to identify the difficulty? The late identification sheds a grim light on the judicial system insofar as it relates to terrorist attacks. The families of the soldiers who were murdered in cold blood, like all citizens of the state, are entitled to a detailed explanation of the reason for the immediate release in a retrial after an indictment had been amended, even though petitions regarding the conviction were filed and rejected. The convicted murderer will quickly become the hero of the Palestinian street, in the Palestinian kindergartens boys and girls will appear waving hands dipped in red as they were immediately after the murder. Abbas will receive him in his office and his family will continue to receive the support given to all the terrorists who are sitting in Israeli jails. It would be proper that an objective legal opinion should examine all the circumstances of the case, and especially the legal proceedings that led to the conviction and the arrangement that led to the release. That is not how to build a bulwark in the war against terror, and certainly not how to build the trial. Courtesy of Israel Hayom 3. IDF THREATENS TO PUNISH SOLDIERS WHO PROTEST CO-ED COMBAT UNITS by Hillel Fendel The IDF is taking a surprisingly strident, and even threatening, tone against soldiers who, on their off-time, protest the army's increasing integration of women in combat units. Hesder yeshiva soldiers have begun distributing literature explaining the dangers of mixed-gender combat units, and of women in combat roles altogether. The Hesder soldiers are generally considered the army's best, and their campaign has taken off over just the past few days. "In the face of all logic," the distributed pamphlets state, "and "ignoring expert opinions and research, the IDF is undergoing a transformation that harms its female soldiers, impairs its combat abilities, and detracts from the safety of all of us. It is not logical, it is not moral, it is not humane." The name of the new campaign: "Saving the IDF." The IDF, which has now set as one of its primary objectives the full integration of women throughout the military, responded harshly. The IDF Spokesman's Office even compared the new campaign with that of the extremist haredi group that says one must be killed rather than register for the draft: "The call to 'Save the IDF' is similar to the calls coming from the extremists in the haredi community that oppose enlistment in the IDF and the fulfillment of the laws of the country." That is, the IDF Spokesman's Office compares the mass protests and campaign to oppose at all costs even registering with the IDF, on the one hand, to those who seek to warn, from within, against dangers in the IDF, and advocate a short delay, at most, in enlisting in the IDF. The Spokesman's statement continues: "The IDF views with gravity, and condemns any attempt at any form of refusal. Calls for division with the IDF and insults to the honor of people must be opposed and uprooted. Everything must be done to continue to defend the State of Israel by all those who serve, from all sectors of Israeli society. Participation in this act is forbidden to IDF soldiers, and the subject will be intensively investigated and treated with severity." The campaign against mixed combat units also cites the physiological differences between men and women, and the consequent differences in the way in which they are trained. While men must run with two canteens and five bullet cartridges in order to qualify as a combat soldier, females need run with only one canteen and two bullet cartridges to qualify for the same. In addition, men must jump and climb over a wall, while women are permitted to stand on a bench in order to qualify for the wall-climbing test. Former IDF Generals Yiftach Ron-Tal and Avigdor Kahalani are quoted in opposing the IDF's new gender-integration policies. The soldiers participating in the campaign are currently in the "Yeshiva studies" part of their IDF service, and are to return to active combat service only several months from now. "It is important for us to go out to the streets and distribute the literature," one of them was quoted as saying, "in order to show how harmful this approach is for the army service of many soldiers and for the entire IDF." 4. TRUMP'S MESSAGE by Gary Willig US President Donald Trump conveyed a message to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu through world-renowned Attorney Alan Dershowitz, Haaretz reported Wednesday evening. An Israeli source told Haaretz that Dershowitz delivered the message to the Prime Minister in a phone call last week, after meeting the President by chance at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in southern Florida. Trump and Dershowitz spoke for over 20 minutes. Dershowitz told Haaretz that one of the subjects they discussed was the Arab-Israeli peace process. Trump said that he knew of Dershowitz's friendship with Netanyahu and how highly the Prime Minister values his advice. He therefore asked Dershowitz to convey his message to Netanyahu. "The president told me he loves Israel and likes Netanyahu and said a few times he wants to get a deal between Israel and the Palestinians," Dershowitz said. According to Dershowitz, Trump showed impressive knowledge of the core issues in the conflict including borders, security, the status of Jerusalem, Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria, and the status of Arab refugees and their descendants. "He knows very well the possible elements of the deal," Dershowitz said. "The president told me he thinks Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wants to get a deal with Israel and that he [Trump] thinks that the time is ripe for a deal and that it is possible." Dershowitz did not confirm or deny that he delivered the President's message that peace is possible now to Netanyahu, In the coming weeks, President Trump will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Reports suggest that Trump is interested in pursuing a regional peace initiative in the Middle East, of which Egypt would be one of the main delegates. 5. WHO WILL LIGHT 'THE TORCH OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE'? by "Hat'futsot Ve'anachnu" For the first time, the "torch of the Jewish people" at the upcoming Yom Haatzmaut (Israel Independence Day) ceremony will be lit by a Jew who is not an Israeli. The Diaspora Ministry, together with Minister Miri Regev, Chairman of the committee for symbols and ceremonies, has established an international campaign calling on Jews in the diaspora to submit candidacy or recommend a fitting candidate to light the torch at the annual Yom Haatzmaut ceremony at the Har Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, with this year’s theme being "50 years since the liberation and unification of the capital of Israel - Jerusalem." The campaign for locating candidates among the Jews of the diaspora will begin this week, and in the Diaspora Ministry, there are hopes that the campaign will lead to the strengthening of the connection between diaspora Jewry and the State of Israel. After suggestions are accepted, a special committee will convene to decide the winning candidate. "The State of Israel is the nation of the Jewish people," the Diaspora Ministry said. "Building it and maintaining it is the responsibility of every Jew in the world." Recommendations will be received until April 3 at 10 am, to the email address Masuot@most.gov.il 6. A MILITARY STRATEGY OF EQUALITY by Menachem Rahat 1) Since the beginning of the IDF gender revolution, in which all positions have been opened to female soldiers even at the cost of a severe blow to national security, all in the name of a Golden Calf called Equality, many people, not only rabbis but also senior IDF officers in actice service and the reserves have tried to understand what is behind this madness. Does the army not know that a woman's body mass fat percentage is 60% higher than that of a man's? That men's cardiovascular capacity is 30% higher? Whose aerobic capacity is 25% higher? 2) But the IDF casts aside all the physiological distinctions for the sake of imagined egalitarianism. The main thing is that we should appear avant-garde. Egalitarianism is stretched to the point of absurdity: Shared bathrooms - a twisted idea that, had it been proposed in the IDF five years ago, the one suggesting it would have been confined to a closed institution. Mixed-gender service in the suffocating, intimate space of a tank; the long sprawl of a male and a female soldier, bodies close, while trying to lay ambushes; joint naval courses that require total bodily exposure in a rubber dinghy at sea for long hours; night guard together in the pillbox, and the list goes on. The absurdities sometimes come to crime: Female soldiers have contracted cervical infections, which doctors believe will remain permanently. The air force, which refrained from employing air crew members when they were pregnant, annihilated logic in the name of egalitarianism and are now allowing female air crew members to fly in a state of advanced pregnancy (week 25). But they confined them to the transport system, four hours a day, and only up to 8,000 feet, and they attached an air crewman to the pregnant pilot. Who cares that equality costs us resources? Who cares that equality does not contribute anything to the operational capabilities of the air force? 3) Standing behind this madness is no fleeting whim of Chief of Staff Eizenkot and/or our public relations Chief of Staff and IDF Spokesperson Motti Almoz, who are trying to market equality as an international success story. After all, Golani Corps Eizenkot understands what every basic trainee understands, that a female soldier can not be expected to be as violent as a vicious Rottweiler, with a knife between her teeth and murder in her eyes, even if they paint camouflage on her face and equip her with a new Commando Tavor or Micro-Tavor X-95. So what motivates them? Beyond the line of logic and reason, there stand seven words that purport to change the act of Creation: "From women to gender - the conceptual basis". The document bearing this title, which was placed on the Chief of Staff's desk and turned into a systematic teaching and an ideological and strategic basis for the revolution, contains a lot of bla bla, but also contains hidden an international discovery worthy of the Nobel Prize for Foolery: "Viewing humanity as divided into two groups is not accurate, fixing human beings into unsuitable patterns constitutes an incorrect and inefficient basis for extracting human resources ... The biological gender of humans does not necessarily determine their competence and ability to perform any function, but rather their talents, skills, and characteristics." Brave new world. Thus, in pseudo-academic formulations, which express a contemporary, seemingly postmodern approach, as if there really are no differences between a man and a woman (except for certain very negligible organs, what else?), the document that was born in sin in the school of the Women's Affairs advisor to the Chief of Staff contains inanities, blatherings, and musings - all in the spirit of absolute equality. The day will soon come when all this garbage will be thrown, like many other ideologies-in-exile, into the dustbin of attempts to change nature. 4) In order to remove any doubt, it is emphasized that there are special functions that female soldiers carry out at a quality level, which are superb: The use of radar (Keshet), sensitive intelligence functions in the 8200 Intel Unit, sitting in front of screens intended to expose hostile incidents in advance, and more. And so it is outside of the IDF. This is not a case of imprisonment of women in ghettos. Many women are now studying Torah and the sciences. In synagogues women are invited to deliver a Torah lesson on Shabbat. In a well-known synagogue in Jerusalem, completely Orthodox, a woman says a fascinating Torah sermon before the Mussaf prayer. Not everyone will like it, but that is the trend. That's how they serve G-d. No one denies woman's high mental abilities. But this has nothing to do with the IDF's futile effort to equalize the physiological characteristics of the two sexes. The last one who tried to build a wo/man without a sexual identity was the Maharal of Prague. But what came out for him? - Golem. 5) Behind the fear of many good people - from nationalist and haredi rabbis to purely secular parents - from the move to turn the best units into a women's corps, stands authentic civic responsibility: First for the security of the State, but also for the sons and daughters who sacrifice their lives for the protection of the people and the State. The new recruits bring with them the excellent education they received at home and in the education system, but hormones also break loose. The army, at some stage, will have to decide whether it provides security or equality; Whether it prefers religious recruits who don't touch girls, or female soldiers whose contribution is inferior in the battlefield. There is no "both." There is only either/or. 7. UNESCO WON'T ERASE JEWISH CONNECTION TO TEMPLE MOUNT, AFTER ALL? by Nitsan Keidar Arab countries are softening their attempts to hurt Israel in UNESCO, it seems. A resolution which is supposed to go up for vote in the organization at the beginning of May and which has been unofficially distributed reveals a significant diplomatic breakthrough on the part of the Israeli Foreign Ministry at one of the toughest fronts Israel faces in the UN. After a series of resolutions which attempted to erase the connection of the Jewish people to the holy places in Jerusalem and to present those places as holy to Muslims only, Arab countries have decided to take a step back on the sensitive issue affecting Jews worldwide. The new resolution, which will go up for a vote in the course of a meeting on "Jerusalem, Gaza and Judea and Samaria," has cut out significant portions of anti-Israel content existing in previous resolutions. In the past two weeks, a concerted effort by the Foreign Ministry and the delegation in Paris has taken place to soften the resolution, while, during the moments leading up to the vote, the Prime Minister himself is expected to lead the diplomatic struggle. Israel’s Ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, said that "when we’re talking about anti-Israel resolutions spearheaded by Arab countries, you only count your accomplishments when you’re leaving the building after the vote. It’s better to get a draft of the resolution which doesn’t directly harm [our claims to] the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, which are the heart of the Jewish people, but [neither] do we intend to sit quietly when they stab us in other places, even if they are less sensitive." He added that "the State of Israel has decided to put an end to the obsession and incitement within international organizations, even if it takes years - and until then, to raise the price that initiators and participants [in anti-Israel activity] pay. There is no doubt that, with the new administration in Washington headed by President Trump and Ambassador Haley, the goal which, until recently, appeared to be a fantasy has become an achievable goal." "In any event," he concluded, "we will work in the coming month around the world and around the clock to continue and explain the truth, of today and of history, and we will expect - but won’t build upon - the reasonableness of our neighbors." 8. WATCH: HAMAS PUTS ISRAELI OFFICIALS IN THE CROSSHAIRS by Tal Polon [youtube:2026440] A new poster released by supporters of the Hamas terror organization threatens the lives of Israeli ambassadors abroad, picturing them inside the crosshairs of a weapon. The poster shows four Israeli ambassadors - Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer, Ambassador to China Zvi Heifetz, Ambassador to New Zealand Itzhak Gerberg, and Ambassador to Singapore Yael Rubinstein - each surrounded by the crosshairs of a rifle. The poster announces, "We are ready for the challenge. We will live and see who is stronger." The poster is strongly evocative of a video released last night by Hamas. In that video, various Israeli defense officials and top military brass are shown within the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, after which the video threatens: "the type of payback will be in accordance with the deed." Hamas has been strengthening its propaganda efforts after top Hamas terrorist Mazen Faqha was shot dead last week. Hamas blamed Israel for the killing, also saying that it believed the killers to have received help from inside Gaza. Following the shooting, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said that "the military and political leadership of Hamas is ready to meet the occupier's challenge." ------------------------------------------------ Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/ | |
|
