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Sunday, Mar. 12 '17, י"ד באדר תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. THE AMALEK OF TODAY
2. WATCH: MURDERER OF 7 SCHOOLGIRLS GIVEN HERO'S WELCOME IN JORDAN
3. DOES CLINTON BLAME NETANYAHU FOR RISE OF TRUMP?
4. PROVOCATIONS DURING HEVRON PURIM PARADE
5. DID BIBLE CONTEST WINNER CHEAT?
6. POLL: NETANYAHU EASILY WINS ADDITIONAL TERM AS PM
7. ARUTZ SHEVA COSTUME COMPETITION
8. PRESIDENT TRUMP VISITS GUSH ETZION?
1. THE AMALEK OF TODAY
by Yoel Domb
Ahmed Daqamseh, The Jordanian terrorist who murdered seven girls in the Naharayim attack and was released Sunday after serving his sentence of 20 years imprisonment stated after he returned home that he would "stay a soldier in the Jordanian armed forces," adding that "I went into jail as a soldier and now I consider myself and my sons soldiers in the armed forces." He was given a jubilant reception in the village where he lived after his return.
Meanwhile Yaffa Shoukroun, an Israeli seriously injured in Daqamseh's murderous attack, referred in an Arutz Sheva interview to the terrorist's release.
"I heard this morning about the release and I feel that they ruined our Purim celebrations," she said. "The Jordanian government did not coordinate with us the decision to release him," said an indignant Shoukroun. "They released terrorist like robbers in the night. In the past there were attempts to release him but we made a fight so that the terrorist would never again see the light of day. I never imagined that one day this terrorist would be set free. The terrorist should have served a sentence for every pupil he murdered, he didn't even serve a sentence for one and was released after 20 years."
Shoukroun was seriously injured in the attack, suffered four bullet wounds and underwent extensive rehabilitation. Three of the seven pupils murdered in the attack studied in her class.
"This week we commemorated twenty years since the murder of the seven girls. For me and for the families and all those who were present there it is all still fresh as if it happened yesterday. Every morning when I come to school I see the pictures of those murdered and they accompany me every day and every hour. We do numerous things in memory of the girls and recently we established scholarships in their name.
"Today on Purim we remember Amalek of then and the Amalek of now. I appeal from here and hope that the Israeli government will demand that he be returned to jail for the rest of his life."
2. WATCH: MURDERER OF 7 SCHOOLGIRLS GIVEN HERO'S WELCOME IN JORDAN
by Gary Willig
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A hero's welcome is planned for the Jordanian soldier released last night after serving 20 years in prison for murdering seven Israeli schoolgirls during a class trip in 1997.
Ahmed Daqamseh was a soldier in the Jordanian army when he opened fire on a group of students who were visiting the "Island of Peace" of Naharayim on March 13, 1997, as part of a class trip.
Daqamseh was sentenced to life in prison for the massacre, which in Jordan usually means 25 years in prison. However, he was released five years early following repeated calls for his release. In 2013, 110 out of 150 Jordanian MPs signed a petition calling for his release.
In 2011, then-Jordanian Justice Minister Hussein Mjali caused an uproar when he called for Daqamseh's release, claiming that he is "a hero. He does not deserve prison. If a Jewish person killed Arabs, his country would have built a statue for him instead of imprisonment."
Following the deadly terror attack, Jordan's King Hussein personally visited Israel and, alongside Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, expressed his condolences to the girls' parents.
Daqamseh has denied committing any crime and has said that he should be freed from prison since he had simply fulfilled his national and religious duty by killing the students.
Daqamseh's car was surrounded by supporters after his release Saturday night. The supporters chanted, cheered, and filmed the event as the vehicle made its way towards his village. His tribe planned to hold a large party in his village Sunday afternoon for Daaqmeseh, who they call a "hero soldier."
3. DOES CLINTON BLAME NETANYAHU FOR RISE OF TRUMP?
by Guy Cohen, JTA
Bill Clinton cited on Thursday the incitement against Yitzhak Rabin, prior to his assassination, as the forerunner of increased nationalist sentiment worldwide today. Since Binyamin Netanyahu has been consistently blamed by the Israeli left wing for inciting the Rabin assassination, Clinton could be seen as pointing his finger at Netanyahu, among other elements, although he did not say anything explicit to that effect.
In remarks at the Brookings Institution in Washington, on the occasion of a book launch for former Israeli ambassador Itamar Rabinovich's "Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier, Leader, Statesman," the former US president said that Rabin was subjected to a "relentless assault on his legitimacy" that presaged the political battles raging around the world today.
"There were even two rabbis who purported to come up with religious justifications that would permit the murder of another Jew by a Jew if they were no longer a good Jew, much less a good Israeli," Clinton said, repeating leftist allegations. "We all know that he was portrayed once, more than once, in Nazi uniform. There were lots of other efforts, lots of other things to delegitimize, delegitimize, delegitimize" Clinton's mention of the rabbis is the repetition of a canard and the Nazi uniform portrayal was later shown to be the work of a provocateur, Avishai Raviv.
Derailing the Oslo process
The Israeli left wing has often pointed to flyers with Rabin's image in SS uniform that were handed out in a demonstration against Rabin in Jerusalem, in which Netanyahu addressed the crowd. The demonstration was held on October 5, 1995, one month before the murder. However, these flyers were handed out by Avishai Raviv, a man who was later exposed as a Shin Bet agent provocateur, and were not sanctioned by Netanyahu.
Yigal Amir, a young Jew from Herzliya, murdered Rabin in the apparent hope of derailing the Oslo Process. As prime minister, Rabin had led Israel into the process, which involved allowing the PLO leadership into Judea, Samaria and Gaza and providing it with arms. This move later resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 Israelis in terror attacks.
"As the world has grown more interdependent, these identity conflicts have become more intense," said Clinton, who was president at the time of Rabin's murder. "Once you get into an 'us and them' world, then of course nobody should live under the same set of rules, we should have a better set of rules that work for us and not for somebody else."
Pan-national conspiracy?
Clinton did not name President Donald Trump, who defeated his wife, Hillary Clinton, in the November presidential election. But he appeared to allude to the outlook expressed by Stephen Bannon, Trump's top strategic adviser, who has spoken of an alliance of economic nationalists who seek to keep immigrants out of their countries.
Rabin's assassination "prefigured the battle that is raging across the world," Clinton said, citing the current American political climate as one example, and Britain's vote to leave the European Union as another. The period around the assassination was a "microcosm" of what is occurring today, he said.
"People who claim to want the nation-state are actually trying to have a pan-national movement to institutionalize separatism and division within national borders all over the world," Clinton said. "It's like we're all having an identity crisis at once — and it is an inevitable consequence of the economic and social changes that have occurred at an increasingly
4. PROVOCATIONS DURING HEVRON PURIM PARADE
by Eliran Aharon
A commotion broke out in Hevron on Sunday during the course of the Purim carnival. A member of the ultra left-wing organization "B'Tselem", a central witness for the prosecution in the Elor Azariya trial, unfurled Palestinian flags on an adjacent building. A number of the residents, including Itamar Ben-Gvir,Benzi Gopstein and Ofer Ohana, went up to remove the flags.
Security forces from the IDF and police are accompanying the marchers through the city of Hevron to ensure that the Arabs do not try to disrupt it.
The closure on Judea and Samaria has been extended to tomorrow noon after intelligence assessments were made by the security establishment.
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5. DID BIBLE CONTEST WINNER CHEAT?
by Arutz Sheva Staff
The Central Regional Youth Bible Contest was held last Tuesday. It constituted the final step in identifying the candidates who will go on to the National Bible Contest.
The newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported Sunday morning that the contest was marred by cheating. The paper reported that the Education Ministry had received a complaint that the first place winner allegedly coordinated his answers with a partner in the audience.
"I saw it with my own eyes. He really helped him," said A, one of the contestants. During a short break in the contest, A, told his classmates who had come to support him what he had seen happen on the stage.
Tahal, who accompanied the contestants from A's school, went onto the stage to report the cheating to the judges. "I told them that there were a number of deals to exchange answers, and Judge Zaki Kevati, the director of the Central Regional Contest, told me: 'I hope they don't make it to the finals. I don't know how to deal with it. Get off the stage. I want to move on to the next level."
"I tried to insist, but he old me: 'You are being very disruptive. Get off the stage,'" Tahal added.
"I saw the winning candidate look at the crowd, lift his finger, and then mark the number one. I rubbed my eyes and thought I was imagining it, but when I looked at my friends I realized that they had also [seen] what I had seen."
The Education Ministry stated: "The event was attended by five judges, who kept a close eye on the fairness of the contest. In any event, the complaints of the students were transferred to the director of the International Youth Bible Contest."
6. POLL: NETANYAHU EASILY WINS ADDITIONAL TERM AS PM
by David Rosenberg
A new poll of Israeli voters suggests that despite a series of investigations against the Prime Minister and First Lady, Binyamin Netanyahu would easily secure another term as premier if elections were held today.
The survey, conducted by pollster Rafi Smith on behalf of Israel Radio, shows Netanyahu's Likud party defeating its closest competitor, former Finance Minister Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid party by a 4-mandate margin, 26 to 22.
That's a marked improvement for the Likud, which in late January was trailing Yesh Atid by four seats.
Education Minister Naftali Bennett's Jewish Home party, which currently holds 8 seats, would become the third largest party in the Knesset with 13 if elections were held today.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman's Yisrael Beytenu inches up from the six it won in 2015 to seven, while Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu drops from 10 to 7.
Among the two haredi parties, Shas remains stable at seven mandates, while United Torah Judaism rises slightly, from six to seven.
Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union – a joint list of Labor and Tzipi Livni's Hatnua – loses half of its mandates, plummeting from 24 to just 12 seats.
The far-left Meretz party gains a mandate, rising from 5 to 6, while the Arab Joint List maintains its 13 mandates.
The Yahad party, a joint list including former Interior Minister Eli Yishai and Hevron activist Baruch Marzel, was included in the poll but failed to pass the 3.25% minimum electoral threshold.
According to the survey, Netanyahu's present coalition with retain its current electoral strength of 67 of the Knesset's 120 seats, enabling the formation of a new government, while effectively blocking an alternative government by Lapid.
The Smith poll also surveyed voters with former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon's new party included in the list. Moshe Feiglin's newly announced Zehut party was not included.
When included in the poll, Yaalon's as of yet unnamed faction won six seats, but would do little to change the overall outcome of elections, with Netanyahu's Likud widening its margin over Yesh Atid by one mandate.
In this scenario, Likud lost a single seat to Yaalon's party, slipping from 26 to 25. Yesh Atid fell by two to 20 seats, while the Zionist Union lost one seat, dropping to 11.
The Joint List remained stable with 13, as did the Jewish Home.
Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu party lost one seat, falling to six, while Yisrael Beytenu held on to its seven mandates. Shas and United Torah Judaism remained unchanged.
The Meretz party in this scenario won only five seats, rather than six without Yaalon included in the poll.
7. ARUTZ SHEVA COSTUME COMPETITION
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Send pictures of your Purim costumes to purim@a7.org or WhatsApp:‏ 055-6657777and be automatically entered into the Arutz Sheva Purim raffle!
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8. PRESIDENT TRUMP VISITS GUSH ETZION?
by Arutz Sheva Staff
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