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Wednesday, Mar. 01 '17, ג' באדר תשע"ז
HEADLINES:
1. NEW IMMIGRATION BAN WON'T INCLUDE IRAQ
2. ONLY BENNETT DEMANDED THE DESTRUCTION OF TERROR TUNNELS
3. OFRA EVICTION COMPLETED
4. ISIS: 'TAKE THE BROTHER'S EXAMPLE, TERRORIZE THE JEW'
5. CIRCLUATING THE WEB: PAKISTANI SOLDIERS SHOOT AT PROTESTERS
6. TRIPLETS BORN AFTER 18 IVF TREATMENTS
7. TRUMP: JCC THREATS COULD BE ATTEMPT 'TO MAKE OTHERS LOOK BAD'
8. WATCH: GOVERNMENT DEMOLISHES OFRA HOMES
1. NEW IMMIGRATION BAN WON'T INCLUDE IRAQ
by Chana Roberts
US President Donald Trump's ban on citizens of seven countries entering the United States will be reinstated with changes, US officials said on Tuesday.
The new immigration order will remove Iraq from the list of countries facing a temporary travel ban, after the Pentagon and State Department pointed out the country's key role in fighting ISIS. In addition, Syrian refugees will no longer be banned indefinitely.
Citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Suday, Syria, and Yemen will not be allowed to enter the US for a period of 90 days, anonymous officials said. There will be a general 120-day suspension of new refugee admissions, with no exceptions for religious minorities.
All existing visas will be honored.
Trump is expected to sign the executive order in the coming days.
"We will shortly take new steps to keep our nation safe and to keep out those who would do us harm," Trump said during his first joint session with Congress.
The new order includes other changes as well. The officials said the 12-page document no longer singles out Syrian refugees for an indefinite ban and instead includes them as part of a general, 120-day suspension of new refugee admissions.
On January 27, Trump issued an executive order banning all citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US. That order was soon blocked by a federal judge, and an appeals court rejected Trump's request to resume the ban.
2. ONLY BENNETT DEMANDED THE DESTRUCTION OF TERROR TUNNELS
by Gary Willig
State Comptroller Yoseph Shapira published two significant chapters from his report on Operation Protective Edge Tuesday.
The report claims that the Israeli government was unprepared to deal with the threat of Hamas' terror tunnels.
According to Shapira, the officials in the government and the intelligence chiefs who knew of the tunnel threat failed to take the threat seriously enough or to adequately prepare to deal with the tunnels prior to the war, and even when the government began to take the tunnel threat seriously, it's actions came too late.
"The political establishment, the military establishment and the intelligence bodies were aware of the tunnel threat and even defined it as strategic," Shapira wrote. "And yet the actions taken to deal with the threat did not match this definition."
Shapira also accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and then-Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon of failing to provide the Cabinet minister with "significant and essential information" in order to make "well-informed decisions."
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied allegations that Cabinet Ministers were kept in the dark during the fifty day conflict.
Shapira noted that only Education Minister Naftali Bennett called for the destruction of the terror tunnels early on. In the transcripts from the Cabinet meetings, Bennett confronted Ya'alon about the need for the ministers to be provided with more and higher quality information.
During a Cabinet meeting on June 30, 2014, which took place over a week prior to the launching of Operation Protective Edge, Bennett brought up the tunnel threat, "There are today dozens of existing tunnels which connect Gaza to the southern part of the country. These tunnels are designed for kidnapping ... this strategic threat is only waiting to be realized."
The meeting took place during Operation Brothers Keeper, when Israel was searching for three teenagers who had been kidnapped by Hamas terrorists in Judea and Samaria. The boys were later found murdered.
The IDF discovered and destroyed 32 terror tunnels during Operation Protective Edge. 74 Israelis were killed during the conflict, including six civilians.
3. OFRA EVICTION COMPLETED
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Police forces completed the evacuation of nine houses in the Samaria community of Ofra Tuesday.
The evacuation of nine houses in the Givat Tzvi neighborhood of Ofra commenced just after 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, after Border Police officers sealed off access to the homes slated for demolition.
Hundreds of demonstrators faced off against security forces deployed to the town, with some protesters barricading themselves inside houses facing demolition.
Prior to the evacuation, more than 100 Border Police officers deployed around the nine homes slated for demolition in Ofra.
Eleven police officers were lightly injured in clashes with protesters, four of whom were evacuated to hospitals.
The Binyamin Regional Council reported that 17 young men and women were also injured during the evacuation of a single home. Two of the youths were evacuated to hospitals.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said "It is a difficult day for the residents of Ofra and for all citizens of Israel. It is the day when the evacuation of families from their permanent homes, in the heart of a flowering settlement, was carried out."
Shaked stressed that no Arab would benefit from the eviction of the families and the destruction of their homes. "The land which was fought over will remain empty and no one will benefit from it. There are only losers [and no winners in this case]. It is a disgrace for us."
Shaked expressed her hope that the passage of the Regulation Law would prevent similar scenes from occurring in the future. "We are working so that this will be the last pointless demolition."
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4. ISIS: 'TAKE THE BROTHER'S EXAMPLE, TERRORIZE THE JEW'
by Chana Roberts
ISIS terrorists encouraged those on Telegram channel "Lone Mujahid" to "terrorize" Jewish communities in the Western world, instructing viewers to "dress up like a Jew" and "have plenty of weapons" under their coats.
Lone Mujahid is a chat room frequented by aspiring terrorists and Islamic extremists. It regularly features guides to committing jihad and bomb-assembly and knife-attack tutorials.
In their message, terrorists wrote, "If you're still in the west! Dress up like a Jew! Go to your nearest Jewish area! Make sure you have plenty of weapons under you coat!
"Take the brother's example and terrorize the Yahood (Jew).
"Unleash the pain of the Muslims upon these A.P.E.S!!!!"
They also posted a picture of terrorist Amedy Coulibaly, who attacked a Jewish supermarket in Paris.
In January 2015, Coulibaly killed five people before being shot dead by police.
5. CIRCLUATING THE WEB: PAKISTANI SOLDIERS SHOOT AT PROTESTERS
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[twittervideo:2025311]
6. TRIPLETS BORN AFTER 18 IVF TREATMENTS
by Refael Levi
Shiran, 30, and Rani, 40, Hanan didn't believe their long journey would end the way it did. On Wednesday, the Hanans arrived at Wolfson Hospital for a routine checkup, with their baby triplets in tow.
Prior to the triplets' arrival, the Hanan couple underwent 18 rounds of IVF, over the course of 3.5 years. After the 18th round, Shiran became pregnant, and the couple soon learned they were expecting triplets.
Despite the known risks involved in such a pregnancy, the Hanans decided to keep all the embryos and hope for the best.
Shiran was hospitalized at 19 weeks, as a result of complications and health difficulties.
"She was very strong and determined throughout the entire pregnancy," High-risk Obstetrics Department Director Dr. Julia Barda said. "In the end, she gave birth at 32 weeks."
7. TRUMP: JCC THREATS COULD BE ATTEMPT 'TO MAKE OTHERS LOOK BAD'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to suggest that a spate of bomb threats against Jewish community centers may have been manufactured for political reasons, officials claimed in a conversation with Reuters.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who attended a White House meeting with other state law enforcement officials, told the news agency Trump said the bomb threats could have been an attempt "to make others look bad."
During a meeting at the White House with dozens of state attorneys general on Tuesday, Trump called the threats "reprehensible," said Shapiro, a Democrat, but also added that "the reverse could be true" and that the incidents could be aimed at making "someone else look bad."
The president's words came in response to a question about the threats from Shapiro, who said two of his children had to be evacuated from their day school on Monday.
"I found that statement to be a bit curious," Shapiro said, though he would not speculate about what Trump may have meant.
Sarah Sanders, a White House spokeswoman, said she was not part of Tuesday's meeting, referring to it as a "private conversation," but said the president has always condemned anti-Semitic acts.
"What I do know is the conversations I have had with the president," Sanders said, according to Reuters. "He's been extremely clear and extremely consistent on this topic: Any act of violence toward people of the Jewish faith is condemned by this administration."
On Monday, at least 10 Jewish community centers and Jewish day schools across the United States received bomb threats, the fifth wave of such threats in less than two months.
In addition, two Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized in recent weeks. Nearly 200 headstones were knocked over in a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis.
In another incident, dozens of headstones were toppled in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on Monday that Trump is "deeply disappointed and concerned" by recent anti-Semitic incidents.
"The President remains deeply disappointed and concerned by the reports of further vandalism at Jewish cemeteries," Spicer said.
"The cowardly destruction in Philadelphia this weekend comes on top of similar accounts from Missouri and threats made to Jewish community centers around the country.
"The President continues to condemn these and any other form of anti-Semitic or hateful acts in the strongest terms," he added.
Mississippi attorney general, Democrat Jim Hood, largely confirmed Shapiro's account, according to Reuters.
"He kind of said something to the effect, maybe that was an insider job," Hood said. "He said something about, some of the time those situations happen to make another look bad."
Herbert Slatery, the Republican attorney general from Tennessee, said Trump clearly denounced the threats before engaging in what Slatery described as a "hypothetical."
"I thought it was fairly innocuous," Slatery added.
8. WATCH: GOVERNMENT DEMOLISHES OFRA HOMES
by Eliran Aharon, Chana Roberts
[youtube:2025326]
Defense Ministry contractors arrived on Wednesday morning in Ofra to begin the demolition of nine houses slated for destruction by Israel's Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, security forces evacuated residents and activists from the buildings, after the Supreme Court rejected residents' petitions to seal the homes instead of destroying them.
By Wednesday morning, the only ones left in the homes were youth activists sitting on the roofs. Special forces arrived to remove the youths from the roofs.
[youtube:2025325]
The Ofra Action Committee said the security forces involved in evicting the residents acted with unnecessary force towards both adults and youth.
Though the residents did not get out of hand, those who remained in their home were "inexcusably abused" and 17 youths were injured, the Committee said.
"Ofra's residents are lawful citizens, and deserve the right to peacefully protest the destruction of their homes. There is no justification for acting abusive for the sake of acting abusive," they said.
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