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Thursday, Jan. 07 '16, Tevet 26, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. TERROR CELL PLOTTING ABDUCTION AND MURDER OF JEWS NABBED
2. TERROR WAVE ON THE DECLINE?
3. PARIS POLICE SHOOT SUSPECTED SUICIDE BOMBER
4. TEL AVIV GUNMAN DISABLED CAMERAS IN AMIT SHABAN'S CAB
5. HAREDIM RIOT AS COURT AND FAMILY FIGHT OVER AUTOPSY FOR BABY
6. HANIN ZOABI INDICTED FOR CLASHING WITH POLICE OFFICERS
7. WHAT DID NETANYAHU REALLY SAY TO MARTIN INDYK?
8. WATCH: THOUSANDS AT FUNERAL OF OFFICER KILLED IN ACCIDENT
1. TERROR CELL PLOTTING ABDUCTION AND MURDER OF JEWS NABBED
by Uzi Baruch
The Israeli Security Agency (ISA), in cooperation with the IDF and Israel Police, arrested in December a Hamas terror cell composed of Arab residents of Hevron and Jerusalem.
The six-member terror cell was planning to kidnap and murder and Israeli and use his body as a bargaining chip for the release of terrorist prisoners.
The attack was purposely meant to be similar to the one conducted in June 2014, in which three Israeli teens were kidnapped from Gush Etzion Junction and later murdered.
ISA investigators revealed that the terrorists had begun advanced preparations for the attack, including a hideout for the body of the kidnapped victims.
Ziad Abu-Haduan, a 20-year-old resident of Jerusalem's Old City, was one of the leaders of the cell. He was released from prison in October 2015 after being convicted violent activity on the Temple Mount. Shortly after his release, he returned to his Hamas operations.
Similarly, Maher Qawasmeh, a 36-year-old resident of Hevron, who headed the cell, served two years in Israeli jail for his involvement in planning terror attacks for Hamas.
According to the ISA 's investigation, the cell held meetings over the last year in Hevron where they discussed conducting various attacks, before settling on the abduction and murder of an Israeli.
Over the last several months, the cell explored caves and dug up plots of land near Hevron with the intention of hiding the body there.
The terror suspects admitted they planned to carry out the abduction using two vehicles - with Old City resident Amar Rajabi, 22, driving of the vehicles and using his command of the Hebrew language to lure an Israeli.
They planned to kill the Israeli afterwards and to bury his body in the prepared location with the intention of using him as bait to negotiate for the release of Hamas terror operatives.
2. TERROR WAVE ON THE DECLINE?
by Cynthia Blank
The terror wave that swept Israel over three months ago appears to be on a downward trend, new data released by the Israeli Security Agency (ISA or Shin Bet) on Thursday revealed.
December 2015 marked the first month with a noted decrease in the number of terror attacks as compared to the previous month.
According to the Shin Bet's data, 246 attacks - 183 of them firebombings - were recorded in December, compared to 326 in November.
The trend also appears to be regional, as reflected in the graph below: Judea-Samaria (red) was the target of 194 attacks in December, compared to 265 in November; Jerusalem and its environs (blue) was targeted in 43 attacks, compared to 52; and two attacks were conducted within the "Green Line" (green), compared to five the previous month. The total number of attacks monthly is recorded in grey.
The decrease in number of attacks is also reflected in lower numbers of casualties and injured victims.
Three Israeli civilians were killed and 44 injured in December, compared to 10 murdered and 58 wounded in November. Those murdered last month were the victims of two stabbing attacks - in Jerusalem's Old City on December 23 and in Hevron on December 7.
Nearly half (21) of those injured in December were the victims of car-ramming attacks. An additional 16 were injured in stabbings, five were wounded in shooting attacks, and two more in physical assaults.
Despite the decline in attacks, the Shin Bet noted there is a growing effort by Hamas to plan and carry out attacks in Israel, in order to harm the Palestinian Authority and keep the terror wave from fading.
The Shin Bet stressed that it, the IDF, and police are continuing to make every effort to thwart attacks by arresting known terror operatives and monitoring Palestinian activity on social media.
3. PARIS POLICE SHOOT SUSPECTED SUICIDE BOMBER
by Ari Soffer
Police in Paris shot dead a knife-wielding terrorist who attempted to storm a police station Thursday, on the first anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo attack.
The man reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar," before attempting to barge into the station, prompting police to open fire.
According to initial reports from the scene the man was wearing what appears to be a suicide bomb belt.
Bomb disposal units are currently at the scene and attempting to remove the suspected bomb.
"On Thursday morning, a man attempted to attack a policeman at the reception of the police station before being hit by shots from the police," said interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet.
Explosives experts were deployed to the scene in the multi-ethnic Goutte d'Or district, close to the Gare du Nord international station, the source added.
The attempted attack took place in the French capital's 18th district, just minutes after President Francois Hollande gave a speech marking the anniversary of the Islamic terror attacks, in which he announced measures to bolster security forces.
In a sombre speech at Paris police headquarters, Hollande hinted at intelligence failings that might have allowed attacks to take place, as he called for all branches of the security services to cooperate more closely.
"Faced with these adversaries, it is essential that every service - police, gendarmerie, intelligence, military - work in perfect harmony, with the greatest transparency, and that they share all the information at their disposal," the president said.
Many of the attackers in both January's rampage and the massacre in November were known to French security services, having either traveled abroad to fight with terrorists or been prevented from doing so.
Hollande said that since the attack on Charlie Hebdo, nearly 200 people in France had been placed under travel restrictions to prevent them joining up with ISIS in Syria or Iraq.
Among changes set to be introduced in the wake of the November attacks are new guidelines allowing police to keep their weapons even when off-duty.
The president also reiterated his pledge to boost the number of police and armed gendarmes by 5,000.
The speech will be followed by a concert on Sunday to mark the one million people who poured on to the streets of Paris on January 11, 2015, in an outpouring of support for freedom of expression in the wake of the deaths of Charlie Hebdo's best-known cartoonists.
AFP contributed to this report.
4. TEL AVIV GUNMAN DISABLED CAMERAS IN AMIT SHABAN'S CAB
by Arutz Sheva Staff
Police revealed Thursday morning that Tel Aviv gunman Nashat Milhem disabled the cameras in Amit Shaban's taxi before murdering him, Channel 10 reports.
According to investigators, Milhem fled the scene of his initial shooting attack - in which two Israelis were murdered and nine others wounded - and jumped into Shaban's cab.
When the Israeli-Arab cab driver refused to cooperate, apparently upon Milhem's orders to avoid a police checkpoint, the gunman shot him dead as well.
Authorities discovered the cameras in Shaban's cab did not record Milhem's trip, leading them to believe he disabled the cameras sometime after entering the taxi and shooting Shaban to death.
Shaban's family has demanded police release footage of the murder and the revelation now would seem to be an effort to appease them.
The new revelations also come a day after reports police have made some progress in their hunt for Milhem, and that the search is increasingly focusing on Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.
Police estimate Milhem escaped into PA-controlled areas sometime overnight Tuesday after receiving assistance from former convicts in the Triangle area whom he became acquainted with in prison.
5. HAREDIM RIOT AS COURT AND FAMILY FIGHT OVER AUTOPSY FOR BABY
by Cynthia Blank
A bitter fight over the post mortem of a baby believed shaken to death by one of his caregivers has broken out Thursday between the Jerusalem Magistrates Court and the child's family.
While the court has ordered an autopsy be performed to determine cause of death, the haredi family of Moshe Rafael Mizrahi vehemently opposes the procedure.
The baby's father and grandfather, Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul, were in attendance at the court hearing Thursday morning.
The Mizrahi family says it intends to approach the High Court and a stay has been issued on the post mortem.
Meanwhile, members of the haredi communities in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood and Beit Shemesh are have begun a protest riot in Jerusalem's Shabbat Square against the autopsy.
The demonstrator have blocked roads and thrown rocks at security forces patrolling the riot. There are so fare no injuries, but police have arrested three protestors.
The haredi community has traditionally opposed any and all autopsies and often hold large protest riots against the medical procedure.
Four-month-old Moshe passed away Thursday morning at Hadassah Ein Kerem's pediatric intensive care unit - ten days after being rushed to the hospital suffering severe head trauma.
It is suspected he died of shaken baby syndrome (SBS) after a caretaker jolted him too hard when trying to wake him.
6. HANIN ZOABI INDICTED FOR CLASHING WITH POLICE OFFICERS
by Ari Soffer
Extremist Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Joint List) has been indicted on charges relating to a confrontation she had with police in her hometown of Nazareth on in July 2014.
Zoabi pleaded guilty in December to the charges of insulting public officials, as part of a plea bargain relating to comments she made during the clash, in which she calling the police officers - who were themselves Arab - "traitors."
She also urged Arab protesters to spit at the officers, and warned them to fear the Arab youths.
The plea bargain enabled her to avoid the far more serious charges of incitement, in return for surrendering her parliamentary immunity, admitting to the lesser charges and making a public apology. She is also expected to pay a 3,000 shekel fine.
The incident during which the offense took place occurred outside Nazareth District Court, as part of a demonstration in support of several Arab youths being tried for rioting following the murder of Arab teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir by Jewish extremists. Abu Kdeir's killers said they acted in revenge for the murder of three Israeli teens - Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Sha'er and Naftali Frenkel - by Arab terrorists the previous month, in an attack which triggered a wave of violence.
At around 17:00, Zoabi - accompanied by relatives and attorneys of the accused - confronted two Arab police officers stationed outside the court, and began shouting in Arabic, urging bystanders to confront the officers.
Among other things, Zoabi called on bystanders to "spit in their faces - those who cooperate with the oppressors of our people ...we need to wipe the floor with them! Don't hold their hands, don't let them live among us - they should fear us!
"When they are on the street they should fear us. They should fear from the shabab (youth) who were arrested..."
7. WHAT DID NETANYAHU REALLY SAY TO MARTIN INDYK?
by Ari Soffer
Is former US Mideast envoy Martin Indyk lying about statements he alleged Binyamin Netanyahu made to him during the funeral ceremony for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, or is Netanyahu just trying to cover up an embarrassing revelation from the past?
Previously classified US government cables may be able to shed some light on the controversy - cables sent by none other than then-Ambassador Martin Indyk on the very day he claims Netanyahu made the alleged comments.
"Netanyahu sat next to me when I was ambassador in Israel at the time of Rabin's funeral," Indyk claimed in a PBS interview on Wednesday, during which he issued a number of attacks against the current Israeli PM. "I remember Netanyahu saying to me: 'Look, look at this. He's a hero now, but if he had not been assassinated, I would have beaten him in the elections, and then he would have gone into history as a failed politician.'"
Netanyahu's office has rejected the story as an outright lie, while Indyk has been forced onto the defensive after it was revealed he never actually sat anywhere near Netanyahu at Rabin's funeral. Doubling down on his version of events, Indyk claimed that the remarks in question had in fact been made by Netanyahu at a special Knesset ceremony on November 5, 1995, prior to the funeral itself - although footage from that event show only family members were seated.
Now, leaked diplomatic cables published by the Wikileaks website have poured even more doubt over that version of events as well.
In a cable sent by Indyk on November 5, 1995 - the day he claims to have had the conversation with Netanyahu - then-Ambassador Indyk told the US State Department that his conversation with Netanyahu had in fact occurred the day before. More remarkably still, the content of Netanyahu's statement is the very different to those attributed to him more recently by Indyk.
In the cable, entitled "RABIN ASSASSINATION: NEXT STEPS IN ISRAEL'S POLITICAL SUCCESSION", Indyk outlines the political ramifications of the Rabin assassination, including the sense of panic among the Israeli Right over concerns of a rout during subsequent elections:
"Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu told PolOff (political officer - ed.) last night that the assassination of Rabin is 'a disaster for the Jewish people, a disaster of Israel and a disaster for the Right with ill be decimated if elections are called soon.'"
Indyk then went on to relate concerns from "other Likud sources" who feared a political witchhunt against the Right.
While the cable does not explicitly rule out Netanyahu having made the rather different, incendiary comments Indyk more recently attributed to him as well, it does seem rather strange that such sentiments would have been excluded, if indeed they were said.
The comments alleged by Indyk in Wednesday's interview do not appear in any subsequent cables either.
8. WATCH: THOUSANDS AT FUNERAL OF OFFICER KILLED IN ACCIDENT
by Eliran Aharon
[youtube:2011268]
Thousands of people on Wednesday night gathered to pay their final respects to First Lieutenant Yishai Rozales, who was killed in a training accident at the Tze'elim Base in the Negev on Tuesday.
Rozales was killed by shrapnel from mortar round which was fired in the wrong direction by the 75th Battalion of the 7th Armored Corps Division during a training drill.
He was brought to rest at the cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
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