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Sunday, Mar. 05 '17, ז' באדר תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. NETANYAHU MADE OFFER TO HERZOG, THEN BACKTRACKED
2. IRAN SAYS S-300 SYSTEM OPERATIONAL
3. WATCH: TREE EXPLODES AFTER LIGHTENING STRIKE
4. 'ISRAEL WILL NOT ALLOW A STREET TO BE NAMED AFTER YASSER ARAFAT'
5. 'REMOVE YASSER ARAFAT STREET SIGN WITHIN 48 HOURS'
6. MOSHE YA'ALON FORMS NEW POLITICAL PARTY
7. OBAMA DENIES WIRETAPPING TRUMP DURING ELECTIONS
8. WATCH: A BAR MITZVA PRESENT FROM THE MOVIES
1. NETANYAHU MADE OFFER TO HERZOG, THEN BACKTRACKED
by AFP
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered a plan to form a unity government with Israel's opposition last year as part of a regional peace bid, but later backtracked, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The plan centered on a document delivered to opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog (Zionist Union) in September, but Netanyahu later pulled back and talks collapsed in October, Haaretz reported.
Spokesmen for Netanyahu and Herzog did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The effort came as moves were underway to restart peace talks with the Palestinian Authority through a process which would include Arab countries in the region.
The document reportedly delivered to Herzog in September was a proposal for a joint declaration reiterating their commitment to a two-state solution and their desire to seek a resolution with the Arabs.
It came some seven months after a previously reported secret meeting between Netanyahu, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Jordan's King Abdullah II and then US secretary of state John Kerry, which saw Kerry pitch a last-minute regional peace effort.
Under Netanyahu's plan, the draft document negotiated with Herzog was to be submitted at a summit in Egypt in October to launch a regional peace initiative.
The two men were then to announce negotiations for the formation of a unity government after returning from the summit, which ultimately did not occur, the report said.
The report also claimed Netanyahu later told Herzog he wanted to resolve controversy surrounding the evacuation of Amona first, and talks later collapsed.
In November, Herzog said there would be no unity government and he would no longer hold coalition talks with Netanyahu.
2. IRAN SAYS S-300 SYSTEM OPERATIONAL
by Elad Benari
Iranian state television reported on Saturday that the advanced S-300 air defense system, which the Islamic Republic bought from Russia, is now operational.
"The S-300 air defense system has been tested ... in the presence of government and military officials," the Iranian report said, according to the AFP news agency.
It added that the test at a desert base had seen several targets, including a ballistic missile and a drone, intercepted.
Air defense commander General Farzad Esmaili told the television that a domestically manufactured air defense system dubbed Bavar 373 which was "more advanced than the S-300" would be tested very soon.
"The S-300 is a system that is deadly for our enemies and which makes our skies more secure," he claimed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in 2015 lifting a ban on the delivery of the S-300 to Iran, explaining that his decision was motivated by Iran's drive to find a solution in talks over its nuclear program.
Despite the lifting of the ban, the sale had been repeatedly delayed due to Western pressure that UN nuclear sanctions ban the delivery to Iran. Russia delivered the missiles last year.
Last August, state television aired footage of the system being installed around the Fordo nuclear site in a mountain near Qom, south of the capital.
Iran's activation of the defense system comes amid mounting tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump, who imposed sanctions after Iran tested a medium-range ballistic missile in January.
Iran has responded angrily to the sanctions, with the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dismissing calls from the Trump administration to cease the country's ballistic missile tests.
In addition, Iranian officials have warned the United States against attacking Iran, with one senior official recently threatening his country would attack Tel Aviv if the United States "makes a mistake".
3. WATCH: TREE EXPLODES AFTER LIGHTENING STRIKE
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[twittervideo:2025472]
4. 'ISRAEL WILL NOT ALLOW A STREET TO BE NAMED AFTER YASSER ARAFAT'
by Nitsan Keidar
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spoke on Saturday night about disabled IDF veterans' fight to prevent an Israeli street from being named after arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat.
Recently, an IDF combat soldier who was wounded while on duty discovered Yasser Arafat Street in the Arab Israeli town of Jatt located near Haifa.
Netanyahu said he would not allow a street to be named after Yasser Arafat now or in the future.
"I spoke with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) about the matter, and Deri said the Interior Ministry had not approved the street's name.
"Israel will not allow a street to be named after Arafat, and we will work to remove the street sign."
The Interior Ministry said, "The Interior Ministry did not approve naming the street in Jatt after Yasser Arafat. In fact, such a request was never submitted to the Ministry. The Jatt municipality did not receive any approval for the street's name."
5. 'REMOVE YASSER ARAFAT STREET SIGN WITHIN 48 HOURS'
by Uzi Baruch, Chana Roberts
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) on Sunday sent a letter to the Jatt Regional Council ordering them to remove within 48 hours the sign naming one of their streets after arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat.
Last week, wounded IDF combat soldier Liran Baruch discovered the street after Waze showed it on a map of the region.
Baruch said, "A friend of mine who was on his way to reserve duty near the village noticed on Waze [a GPS navigation application] a street named after Yasser Arafat. He pointed this out to me, and I wrote a post on Facebook about it.
"Arafat murdered more Israelis than the number of Americans Bin Laden murdered."
On Saturday night, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, "I spoke with Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) about the matter, and Deri said the Interior Ministry had not approved the street's name.
"Israel will not allow a street to be named after Arafat, and we will work to remove the street sign."
6. MOSHE YA'ALON FORMS NEW POLITICAL PARTY
by Hezki Baruch
Former Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) said at a "Shabbat Tarbut" event (cultural events aimed at the non-observant) in Tel Aviv on Saturday that he intends to form a new party and to run for Prime Minister's office in the next Israeli elections.
"When I realized I had to quit my job as Defense Minister, I decided that I care about the country, about everybody's children and grandchildren," Ya'alon said. "So I decided to form a political party. I'm gaining political power, and I'm going to run for Prime Minister."
"I've learned to drink wine for my homeland, and to wear a suit for my homeland. Cigars? I've never had to smoke cigars for the sake of my homeland," in a thinly veiled allusion to Prime Minister Netanyahu who is being investigated for accepting gifts, including expensive cigars.
Ya'alon also said Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) contacted the IDF without permission, and received unauthorized reports about Operation Protective Edge' progress in real time. Bennett was praised in the Comptroller's Report on the 2014 IDF Operation issued last week for publicizing the existence of the Hamas tunnels after he visited the front, while Ya'alon was criticized for not informing the security cabinet about the danger.
"The attempts to get 'likes' in support of eliminating Hamas or giving a 48-hour ultimatum to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh - that's not what I'm about," Ya'alon said. "Many ministers visited the front, after receiving permission from the Defense Ministry, and they acted according to the rules."
Ya'alon also said that since Operation Protective Edge, Hamas has not fired rockets at Israel because they are afraid of the IDF.
Speaking on Tuesday about the 2014 Gaza war, Ya'alon said, "The Cabinet was irresponsible during [Operation] Protective Edge. It was a shallow and populist Cabinet. It was a Cabinet that leaked information, in which [ministers] spoke out of both sides of their mouths. The discussions were a big farce which, if not for Netanyahu, the Chief of Staff, and myself, would have ended in disaster."
7. OBAMA DENIES WIRETAPPING TRUMP DURING ELECTIONS
by Chana Roberts
Former US President Barack Obama denied US President Donald Trump's claim that Obama ordered Trump Tower's phone lines tapped prior to the November 2016 US elections.
On Saturday afternoon, Trump tweeted, "How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!
"Terrible! Just found out Obama had my 'jwires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!
"Is it legal for a sitting President to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A NEW LOW!"
An Obama spokesperson said, "A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice."
"As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any U.S. citizen."
Obama Foreign Policy Adviser Ben Rhodes said, "No President can order a wiretap. Those restrictions were put in place to protect citizens from people like you."
It is not clear what Trump based his tweets on, and the White House did not immediately reply to media requests for comment.
8. WATCH: A BAR MITZVA PRESENT FROM THE MOVIES
by Uziel Sabato
It's Hollywood - in an Ashkenazic-Jewish style.
The first time I saw this clip, I was sure it was put out by the Diaspora Ministry, or the Public Diplomacy Ministry. Only afterwards did I find out the video was created by Cantor Elhanan Schwartz and his wife Anat, in honor of their triplet sons' bar mitzva.
The clip includes professional photographs, including several aerial photos of the Prophet Samuel's grave, the Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City, the Mount of Olives, the Herodium in Gush Etzion, Hevron, and Samaria towns. In the background, the family can be heard singing "Haftora Jethro" along with singer Shlomo Gronich, who orchestrated the clip.
[youtube:2025089]
"We invested a lot in this," Elhanan Schwartz said. "But there are three bar mitzva parties here. We decided not to make an event in the middle of the week - we don't see a point in it, it's just paying for people to come and eat. So this was our way of inviting our entire family, the entire nation of Israel, and the entire world, to celebrate with us. By watching this clip, they can arrive whenever they want, leave whenever they want, and they don't have to bring a check."
"It started when five years ago, we bought Shlomo Gronich's album entitled 'Masa El Hamekorot.' One of the songs on the disk is 'Haftora Jethro.' Gronich begins singing as he reads the haftora (bar mitzva boys traditionally read the haftora, a portion from the Prophets which follows the Sabbath Torah reading, ed.), and then musical vocal effects join in. We really loved the album, and especially this song. So my wife suggested we record something like that for our triplets' bar mitzva."
The Schwartz brothers during the recording/ Credit: Schwartz family
"When the time came, we saw that the Torah portion for the boys' bar mitzva was the portion of Jethro," Schwartz continued. "It seemed like a sign from Heaven that we should record a clip. We didn't want to do it exactly like Gronich did, or to take the Torah portion exactly as it is. So I wrote a song which integrates the Torah portion with the appropriate portion from the Prophets - and we put everything together.
"After I wrote the words, I called Gronich's secretary, who put me in touch with him. I told Gronich about the song I'd written, and he got very excited and wanted to work with us. So we got started.
"We've traveled abroad as a family several times over the past few years, due to my work as cantor, and the boys were always excited and loved participating. They know the prayers and the tunes, and they have a musical background. I took them to voice classes, and they were very cooperative. For them, the videos and recordings were great fun. We toured many places during the photo shoots, and every place is full of little stories, which merged together during the production."
Regarding the religious issue of men hearing women sing, Schwartz said, "My wife sang with us, and we were criticized for it. But we tried to do what we think is right, and what as right for us. When my wife sang, I sang with her, so it wasn't just her voice. And it's a tape, it's not live." There are rabbinic authorities who allow recordings of women singing, but not live performances, and some allow it if women are not singing solo.
"We actually saved a lot of money, since we came prepared," he continued. "I knew exactly what I wanted things to look like and sound, and I knew exactly what kind of photos I wanted. That saved a lot of money. We paid a few dozen thousand shekels. But it looks like a million dollars."
From the "Haftora Jethro" clip/ Credit: Schwartz family
"My sons are named Mordechai, Kohelet, and Shamgar. Mordechai was my grandfather, and my son is named after him. Kohelet - my wife Anat wanted to name after her father, whose name was Shlomo. We decided that Kohelet is also a nice name, it's interesting, and it's full of meaning, just like Shlomo. (Shlomo is Solomon in English, who is credited by the Sages with writing the Book of Kohelet - Ecclesiastes, ed.) Shamgar - my wife's name is Anat, and one of the Judges was Shamgar, the son of Anat. And before their circumcision, it was obvious to us which boy would receive which name."
Shlomo Gronich with the Schwartz family/ Credit: Schwartz family
"We weren't intending to make a 'single,' or to make a playlist. Even Shlomo Gronich thought eight minutes is too long for a single song. But again - that wasn't our point. We wanted a meaningful souvenir from the bar mitzva. And when we explained it to him - even Shlomo Gronich agreed with us."
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