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Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com ------------------------------------------------ Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday Wednesday, Mar. 22 '17, כ"ד באדר תשע"ז HEADLINES: 1. 'THE TUNNEL THREAT IS SERIOUS - BUT NOT EXISTENTIAL' 2. IDF RESERVIST DIES FOLLOWING MILITARY RUN 3. TRUMP TO ADHERE TO IRAN DEAL 4. ISRAEL ISN'T A PLACE OF WAR - IT'S A LAND OF CHERRY TOMATOES 5. BENNETT VETOS GIVING ISRAEL PRIZE TO YAIR GARBUZ 6. TRUMP'S DEFAMING REMARKS SPARK OUTRAGE IN THE MEDIA 7. BLOW TO ISRAEL'S SECURITY 8. WATCH: A JIHADI STATE ON THE TRANS-ISRAEL HIGHWAY? 1. 'THE TUNNEL THREAT IS SERIOUS - BUT NOT EXISTENTIAL' by Arutz Sheva Staff IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot participated on Wednesday morning in a discussion analyzing the State Comptroller's report on 2014's Operation Protective Edge. State Comptroller Yosef Shapira also participated in the meeting. At the beginning of the meeting, Eizenkot said, "I see great importance in this process of criticizing and analyzing past decisions. It helps us improve. "This process of learning lessons from Operation Protective Edge began the moment the operation was finished. We created a number of committees, and the State Comptroller's report added additional insights and provided a plan of action to implement them. "During Operation Protective Edge, the IDF had to deal with - for the first time - an underground threat of over 30 terror tunnels. A third of these tunnels infiltrated into Israeli territory. "Thirteen IDF soldiers were killed when terrorists entered the tunnels. Properly dealing with this tunnels would not have been possible without prior intelligence information. "The IDF is currently fighting on five fronts: Gaza, Sinai, Judea and Samaria, Syria, and Lebanon. In addition, we are preparing to deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. "We cannot properly deal with every one of these threats. "Since Operation Protective Edge, we have placed the tunnel threat very high on our priority list. We've spent 1.2 billion NIS on dealing with it, and we have a 3 billion NIS budget intended to build a blockade, gather information, and more. Our abilities - attack, defense, and intelligence - have improved much. I don't know of any armies who manage to deal with tunnel threats better than we do." "The tunnel threat is severe, but it's not an existential or strategic threat," Eizenkot emphasized. "We don't need to scare ourselves silly. The situation in Gaza is very delicate. We don't let the quiet confuse us, and the situation may change quickly in the near future. "Since Operation Protective Edge, we have had a policy of responding more harshly than necessary. We need them to know we have no patience for rockets. The targets we bomb are always important, and we no longer bother with insignificant targets. "We've hit hundreds of Hamas targets since the end of Operation Protective Edge. Hamas right now is afraid of us - but they may still decide to attack. "We are doing everything possible to bring back the bodies of kidnapped soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul." The State Comptroller said, "I want to specially praise IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot for dealing so well with the points mentioned in the report." He also said he would hand the report's fourth section in to the government in the coming days. איזנקוט והמבקר בכנסת צילום: יונתן סינדל, פלאש 90 2. IDF RESERVIST DIES FOLLOWING MILITARY RUN by Arutz Sheva Staff IDF reserve officer Elhanan Brezner, 36, died Tuesday after he collapsed following a military run in the Jordan Valley. Roni Numa, the Head of Central Command, appointed a commission to investigate the incident. The military police likewise launched their own investigation into the death. Brezner is survived by a wife and two children. His funeral will be held on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. in the Haifa military cemetery. Elhanan Brezner. Courtesy of the IDF Spokesperson The tragic incident joins a number of previous cases of deaths which occurred following strenuous activity in the IDF in recent years. Approximately one year ago, Yehuda Suissa, a 19-year-old recruit to the Givati Brigade, collapsed and died during an intense training session just one day following his enlistment into the IDF. Half a year earlier, a 44-year-old reservist collapsed and died during a training session at the Adam military facility. 3. TRUMP TO ADHERE TO IRAN DEAL by Elad Benari The United States will continue to adhere to the Iran nuclear deal, a senior advisor to President Donald Trump said on Tuesday. Trump was highly critical of the Iran nuclear deal during the election campaign, saying it was "disastrous" and pledging to annul it. After he was sworn in as president, Trump described the nuclear deal as "the worst deal I’ve ever seen negotiated" and accused the Islamic Republic of "disrespecting" the United States because of the deal. However, National Security Council Senior Director for Weapons of Mass Destruction and Counter-Proliferation Chris Ford said on Tuesday that for the time being the United States would stick to the deal. "Until such time as we have guidance from above to do something differently, our marching orders are very clear…we will ensure that the United States adheres strictly to its limits under the JCPOA, and we will also work very hard to make sure that Iran does," Ford said during a speech at the 2016 Nuclear Policy Conference, according to the Sputnik news agency. He added that the Iran nuclear deal is being looked at as part of an "across the board" review of U.S. international agreements and obligations. However, in the absence of any formal announcement of a change in policy by Trump, Washington will continue to honor its agreements, he stressed. Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said recently he was confident of "very good cooperation" with the United States on Iran's nuclear deal, despite Trump's comments against it. Iranian officials have downplayed Trump’s threats to annul the nuclear deal, insisting he cannot do so even if he wishes. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that Trump would be "surprised" by his country if he annuls the deal, though he did not explain what he meant by that. 4. ISRAEL ISN'T A PLACE OF WAR - IT'S A LAND OF CHERRY TOMATOES by Arutz Sheva Staff During Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and his wife Nechama's state visit to Vietnam, Nechama on Wednesday met with a group of leading women in Vietnam who were graduates of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs International Development Program, MASAHV. In the framework of the project, students from around the world, male and female, are able to take part in a range courses and professional training initiatives in Israel, after which many go on to be leaders in their fields in their home countries. "I met with leading women in their fields; in education, care provision, environmental protection, gender equality, technology, and communications," Nechama Rivlin said. "They told me that when they told their families they were traveling to study in Israel, they were told that it was ‘a place of war.’ "They came back and told them about Israel, a land of magic; of scientific revolutions, of culture, of creativity, of love for fellow people, the land of cherry tomatoes! "People meet each other, and suddenly everything is a lot less threatening, and much more hopeful. Sometimes we can be very self-critical, and in the meeting with the ‘Ambassadors of MASHAV’, I thanked them – I thanked them for the opportunity to be so filled with pride and Israeli hope for what we do as a country, and moreover as humans, for the benefit of people around the world." 5. BENNETT VETOS GIVING ISRAEL PRIZE TO YAIR GARBUZ by Uzi Baruch Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) prevented the Israel Prize from being given to leftist artist Yair Garbuz, Yediot Ahronot reported. In a public speech ten days before the elections, Garbuz spoke about the "handful," referring to Religious Zionists, and said, "The horrific person who killed the Prime Minister came from a handful of insane people... They told me those with yellow shirts with black insignia - the 'Kahane was right' people, those who yell 'Death to the Arabs' - they're a handful, just a handful! "These people don't represent Israeli society, they're a handful of people! And they think democracy means a handful of people tyrannizing the majority. He then went on to ridicule customs and those who keep them: "Those who kiss amulets, who serve idols and bow to graves of the righteous dead - they're only a 'handful'! Even the rapists and molesters are only a 'handful'. The disgusting police, and the liars who lied - these represent the majority? If all of these are only a handful....how can it be that this handful is making the rules for all of us? "How can it be that this handful has become the majority?" According to Haaretz, the Israel Prize for Plastic Art Committee recently met to discuss giving the prize to Garbuz, but could not come to a unanimous agreement: three supported giving the prize to Garbuz, but the fourth opposed. They met a second time, but still could not come to an agreement. The prize can only be given if all Committee members agree to the recipient. After the committee met twice, Bennett ordered them not to meet again, and to simply abstain from giving a prize in Plastic Arts for the year 2017. "The 2017 Israel Prize panel of judges for the field of plastic arts will not agree unanimously on a worthy candidate," the committee's final report said. A spokesperson for Bennett said, "Minister Bennett was not involved in the process in any way. When the lack of agreement became apparent, the Minister acted according to protocol." 6. TRUMP'S DEFAMING REMARKS SPARK OUTRAGE IN THE MEDIA by Arutz Sheva Staff [twittervideo:2026146] 7. BLOW TO ISRAEL'S SECURITY by Member of Knesset Moti Yogev Women's IDF service in some positions is essential to the security of the State of Israel. Heroines they were, and apparently will also to be required to stay in the "obligatory war" enveloping the State of Israel with all the threats surrounding us. At the same time, a foreign spirit and a commandment of "Equality" that cancels the difference between genders in the IDF, as well as the Joint Service Order, which replaced the IDF's Proper Integration Order delivered a blow to the IDF's prime directive: to defend the State of Israel and to win in battle. The Joint Service Order precipitates harm to women soldier's health, their femininity and natural modesty, harm to the male soldier's modesty and, as stated, damage to Israel's security. There are excellent women soldiers, including in exceptional places. In general, it is not the role of women to attack, capture targets, or kill, nor to pursue infiltrators and terrorists on the Jordan border, all without proper conditions of modesty. Good female soldiers exist in many other roles. Those who push the IDF to erase gender identity and raise the value of "equality" above all others, harm the IDF's operational capabilities, whose main task is to defend the State of Israel and win in battle. Creating shared living quarters and even bathrooms undermines Jewish modesty, the tradition of Israel, and the unity of the IDF and Israeli society. Some of the processes in the IDF were carried out without a public-moral debate, without proper staff work, or even in violation of the IDF's own orders, such as the Officers' School commander who is supposed to be the role model's role model for all his cadets, yet even allowed himself to violate the Proper Integration Order and mix male cadets and female cadets in the officers' course in departmental frameworks and not in gender-separate units as determined in the order. The commander of the Navy decided that all enlistments would be mixed and all service in ships and living quarters would be mixed and make it difficult to accomidate those whose faith and lifestyle seek to maintain modesty between the sexes, between human beings. Women were integrated in many units without taking care of their living conditions. Proper modesty in living quarters that were once "separate" by order have become gender-mixed shared facilities, in training and in operational missions that require physical contact and that stimulate sexual tension - instead of operational tension - between the genders. Why in civilian life is it clear that the aggressive soccer teams are single-sex teams and so are the bathrooms in the mixed swimming pools? Because in the public sphere there are boundaries in modesty between the sexes. This modesty is part of the sanctity of the camp of Israel, which also resulted in victory against our enemies, in matter and in spirit. Some of the processes were done in the name of the claim of an IDF manpower shortage, while the same players inconsistently led the populist equality law that shortened boy's service, a law that I opposed and will work to correct. The weakening of its position and the inability of the military Rabbinate to participate in staff discussions, as prompted by the former head of the Personnel Directorate and other senior officers, harmed many male and female soldiers and officers who found it difficult to maintain their modesty and religious or traditional ways of life in the IDF. The military rabbinate was created for this reason, in order to be involved in staff work, and these decisions have operational, religious, and social significance. To the best of my knowledge, and so did the Chief of Staff brief the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the Chief of Staff delegated finding a solution to the complex issues in this matter to the Head of Manpower, his deputies, and the IDF Chief Rabbi - and that is as it should be. To the best of my understanding, this was not the case, and senior officers in the vicinity of the Chief of Staff have managed and continue to manage a policy that changes the spirit of the IDF and Israeli society. It is unthinkable that the IDF, which is a leading factor in Israeli society, will find itself leading in controversial values, that many of its worthy servants see as moral and ethical putrefaction. It is right that joint service in the IDF be implemented according to the principles of the Proper Integration Order. In order to ensure Israel's security and our unity, we will uphold the rules that have guided the IDF and our Jewish values and we will protect the IDF, its unity and cohesion, as the Israel Defense Forces. With great appreciation to the Chief of Staff and the IDF commanders, I am convinced that a proper discussion will be held and conclusions and decisions will be produced that will restore the IDF's natural values and find the right combination for joint service in the Israel Defense Forces. 8. WATCH: A JIHADI STATE ON THE TRANS-ISRAEL HIGHWAY? [youtube:2026117] ------------------------------------------------ Subscribe to this Daily Israel Report: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Subscribe/ | |
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