Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Tuesday, Feb. 16 '16, Adar 7, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. HEZBOLLAH TERRORIST IMAD MUGHNIYAH HAD RON ARAD'S POSSESSIONS
2. WASHINGTON POST REPORTER DETAINED, SUSPECTED OF INCITEMENT
3. MOROCCAN JEW APPOINTED FRENCH CULTURE MINISTER; ANGERS ALGERIA
4. FRENCH ULTIMATUM TO ISRAEL: ACCEPT PA DEMANDS OR ELSE
5. KNESSET SPEAKER RETRACTS STATEMENT ABOUT EXPULSION BILL
6. OXFORD STUDENT LEADER RESIGNS; 'STUDENTS HAVE ISSUES WITH JEWS'
7. 'YOU COULD HAVE WOKEN UP WITH AN MK HELD HOSTAGE IN RAMALLAH'
8. WATCH: YA'ALON RECALLS WARNING RABIN AGAINST OSLO
1. HEZBOLLAH TERRORIST IMAD MUGHNIYAH HAD RON ARAD'S POSSESSIONS
by Ido Ben Porat
Lebanese media sources revealed on Tuesday new details regarding the Hezbollah terrorist, Imad Mughniyah, who was killed eight years ago in a car bombing.
The al-Akhbar news site reported the Mughniyah spent a lot of effort and resources trying to track down the possessions of Israeli pilot Lieutenant Colonel Ron Arad who had gone missing in Lebanon in 1986 during a bombing mission. A small group of Hezbollah fighters, commanded by Mughniyah found the parachute and gun of Arad which were supposed to be used in a deal with Israel to release Hezbollah prisoners.
The newspaper reported that Mughniyah's staff had worked to initiate an additional prisoner swap, to the one that occurred in 2004 but that the swap was called off due to the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War in 2006. There is no information with regards to who or what Hezbollah was going to swap in the deal.
Foreign reports claimed that Israel was the perpetrator behind Mughniyah's assassination. Mughniyah was involved in numerous attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets around the world including the 1983 U.S barracks bombing and the U.S. embassy bombing, as well as the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Ares, Argentina.
2. WASHINGTON POST REPORTER DETAINED, SUSPECTED OF INCITEMENT
by David Rosenberg
William Booth, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the Washington Post, was detained on Tuesday by Israeli police near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem.
An employee of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) was also reportedly questioned by police for approximately one hour before being released. The two were allegedly suspected of incitement.
Israeli police reported that Booth had been taken into custody over suspicions the journalist had been paying local Arabs to riot.
The two were reportedly speaking with local Arabs just outside of the Old City before being detained by police.
3. MOROCCAN JEW APPOINTED FRENCH CULTURE MINISTER; ANGERS ALGERIA
by Raphael Poch
Algerian officials have vocally expressed their displeasure a the appointment of France's new Minister of Culture Audrey Azoulay. According to reports from both Algerian and Moroccan media outlets the displeasure comes from two sources of angst, that Azoulay is both Moroccan and that she is Jewish.
During a recent reshuffling of the French government, Azoulay who served as the former cultural adviser to French President, Francois Hollande, has been appointed to become the new French Minister of Culture and Communication. Azoulay is also the former director of the National Center for Cinematography and has replaced Fleur Pellerin in her current ministerial role.
Azoulay was born in Morocco and is the daughter of Andre Azoulay who served as an adviser to King Mohamed the Sixth as well as his predecessor King Hassan the second. Audrey's fame lead her recent appointment to gain notice in Algeria, who has shown their dissatisfaction with the amount of Moroccan born officials in Hollande's government.
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported that African news papers Mondafrique, and Le360, both reported that Algerian officials were upset due to the appointment. According to MEMRI, Mondafrique, suggested that the source of the displeasure was an Algerian concern about the growing influence of Moroccan figures in the French media and political arena. Mondafrique also suggested that a source of disdain for Algeria is the good relationship that Morocco has with its Jewish population.
The French-Moroccan website, Le360, also suggested that the Algerian objections to Azoulay's appointment came from "antisemitic overtones," and that additionally stemmed from Algerian hostility towards Morocco and towards what it termed as being its "Moroccan, socialist president" Hollande.
4. FRENCH ULTIMATUM TO ISRAEL: ACCEPT PA DEMANDS OR ELSE
by David Rosenberg
The French government is planning an international peace conference to reach a final status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). And it appears that France is placing the burden of reaching a settlement on Israel.
On Tuesday French officials met with representatives of both Israel and the PA to present the basic framework of the peace conference. According to an AP report, the conference is being planned for this summer.
France's proposed peace conference would include not only Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but the US, European powers, and other Arab states. Should the effort fail to produce a negotiated final status agreement, France says it will act unilaterally to recognize a Palestinian state; a thinly veiled ultimatum to Israel.
The announcement of the planned peace conference comes on the heels of opposing statements on Monday by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin encouraging a return to direct bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian Authority (PA) Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki rejecting any direct negotiations with Israel.
The adoption by France of a broad, multilateral model for the conference appears to be a tacit endorsement of the PA's refusal to participate in direct talks.
The PA expressed support for the French plan, while Israeli officials declined to offer any official reaction.
5. KNESSET SPEAKER RETRACTS STATEMENT ABOUT EXPULSION BILL
by Hezki Ezra
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein (Likud) retracted his statements regarding the proposed draft of the 'expulsion bill' that will allow a quorum of 90 MKs to oust a fellow MK from the Knesset fro supporting terror or incitement against Israel. Originally, Edelstein said that he would not allow such a law to be passed while he was Speaker of the Knesset. On Tuesday morning he retracted that statement and said that he would support the a different version of the proposed bill.
"We have to weigh the law with reverence, we should not criticize. My fellow MKs knew in advance that there are places that they do not wish to go," Edelstein said in an interview with Channel Two news.
According to Edelstein, the draft of the bill needs to be condensed to only include MKs who actively support terrorism and incite to racism. "These areas are much simpler to define. There is a huge gap between what was originally proposed, which I would not allow to pass, and taking a serious look at what can actually be accomplished. If the proper changes were made then I would not have a problem with the proposed bill."
Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Chairman, Nissan Slmiansky (Jewish Home) told Arutz Sheva earlier that in order to have a committee discussion regarding the law, he would need to know that at least 60 of the Mks in the government would support the proposed bill. "I will continue to advance the bill only after I know that the entire coalition is behind it, and I want that in a written letter by the head of every faction in the government."
"I think that at the end of the day, the law will be passed," said Slomiansky. "we need to establish some clear red-lines. Whomever is a terrorist cannot sit in the Knesset. Not a single nation on Earth would accept such a thing."
6. OXFORD STUDENT LEADER RESIGNS; 'STUDENTS HAVE ISSUES WITH JEWS'
by Raphael Poch
Alex Chalmers, the Co-Chair of the Oxford Labor Club resigned over the left-wing club's decision to endorse Israel-apartheid week. Stating that there are many club members on the left who "have a problem with Jews", Chalmers has a hard time stomaching the rising anti-Semitism which he sees on campus.
In a Facebook post explaining his resignation Chalmers wrote the following:
"It is with the greatest regret that I have decided to resign as Co-Chair of the Oxford University Labour Club (OULC). This comes in the light of OULC's decision at this evening's general meeting to endorse Israel Apartheid Week."
Chalmers notes that the reason he ran for the position was to try to save the club from fragmenting into factions and adopting radical policies, in essence to save it from itself, a mission that he did not succeed at accomplishing. "I originally ran for the position of Co-Chair back in Trinity, after our crushing defeat at the general election, because I was increasingly worried about the state of OULC," Chalmers wrote.
"The club I had invested an extraordinary amount of time, energy, and emotion in during my first two terms at Oxford, which had given me a network of close friends, was becoming increasingly riven by factional splits, and despite its avowed commitment to liberation, the attitudes of certain members of the club towards certain disadvantaged groups was becoming poisonous."
Chalmers listed several anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic examples of behavior that were displayed by the club and even by club leadership there were very worrying to him.
"Whether it be members of the Executive throwing around the term 'Zio' (a term for Jews usually confined to websites run by the Ku Klux Klan) with casual abandon, senior members of the club expressing their 'solidarity' with Hamas and explicitly defending their tactics of indiscriminately murdering civilians, or a former Co-Chair claiming that 'most accusations of antisemitism are just the Zionists crying wolf', a large proportion of both OULC and the student left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews. The decision of the club to endorse a movement with a history of targeting and harassing Jewish students and inviting antisemitic speakers to campuses, despite the concerns of Jewish students, illustrates how uneven and insincere much of the active membership is when it comes to liberation."
Chalmers says that he tried to adopt a policy against intolerance for the entire club, including its Jewish students, but his efforts were to no avail.
"I had hoped during my tenure as Co-Chair to move the club away from some of its more intolerant tendencies: sadly, it only continued to move away from me, to a place I could no longer hope to retrieve it from."
Chalmers went on further to say that in spite of working with some great people he could no longer support the club and the decision it makes. "I am now in a position where I can no longer in good conscience defend club policy, but I do not regret my time in OULC. I'm proud of the work I did."
The U.K. student scene has been a hotbed of boycott attempts and anti-Israel sentiment for sometime. While supporters of Chalmers reached out to him via comments on his post, the groundswell of support has not been able to stem the tide of decisions by the OULC and other student groups like them to castigate Israel as an aggressive and hateful entity even when faced with contrary factual evidence.
Chalmers stand and his message were not in vain however as many students expressed thanks and gratitude that someone was taking a stand against the anti-Semitism that was being expressed.
7. 'YOU COULD HAVE WOKEN UP WITH AN MK HELD HOSTAGE IN RAMALLAH'
by David Rosenberg
Knesset members from the Likud and Jewish Home lambasted the Civil Administration over its refusal to upgrade Israel's cellular infrastructure in Judea and Samaria during a boisterous committee hearing on Monday.
Citing the serious security threats facing Israelis in the area, the MKs demanded the Civil Administration implement planned expansions of the cellular network in the area.
"Just half a year ago there was a terrible car accident in Wadi Harmeya and [people's] ability to call for help was held up because of the lack of reception," noted MK Motti Yogev (Jewish Home), who chaired the committee meeting.
Likud MK Mickey Zohar blasted the Civil Administration's behavior as a form of discrimination. "There's no difference between Jews in Judea-Samaria and those in the rest of the country. That's the government's policy."
Zohar threatened to use his position on the Knesset's Finance Committee to hold funding for the Civil Administration's other projects, should it continue in its refusal to upgrade the cellular infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.
Fellow Likud MK Oren Hazan noted the difficulties and dangers the frequent lack of cellular network access created for residents of Judea and Samaria like himself.
When the MK's car broke down on Sunday, for instance, on the way to his home in the town of Ariel in Samaria, he was unable to call for assistance and was forced to take the risk of using an Arab tow truck. "You could have woken up this morning with a Knesset Member held hostage in Ramallah."
It should be noted that Arab residents of Judea and Samaria and Israelis in the region primarily use different service providers, leaving Jews reliant on Israeli providers like Cellcom and Orange. Jews are thus disproportionately impacted by the lack of Israeli infrastructure in the area.
8. WATCH: YA'ALON RECALLS WARNING RABIN AGAINST OSLO
by Yoni Kempinski
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Likud) on Monday took part in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, where he recalled warning then Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin against the Oslo Accords back in 1995.
Ya'alon said he warned Rabin that the Palestinian Arabs were not interested in peace as evident in their open incitement, an incitement he said has not changed in the years since.
[youtube:2012574]
Detailing the incitement he noted the open statements made in the Palestinian Authority (PA) speaking of an Israeli "occupation" that began in 1948, indicating that they view the entire land as theirs and do not distinguish between Judea and Samaria and the rest of Israel.
He also noted how PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas denies the existence of the Jewish people, saying Jews have a religion but no nationality, and emphasized that the continued refusal to recognize the right of the Jewish state of Israel to exist is the core of the conflict.
Ya'alon then turned his attention to the ongoing normalization talks with Turkey, noting that even as it is engaged in the talks Turkey continues to allow a Hamas terror headquarters in Istanbul to freely operate against the Jewish state.
[youtube:2012575]
He also pointed out the role Turkey is playing in "generating" a wave of immigrants from the Middle East going to Europe. He emphasized that most are in fact not "refugees," and that they come from numerous Muslim countries, not just war-torn Syria.
Speaking about a recent visit to Greece, he said that while there he learned there is a "well organized system to invade Europe," decrying the "silent Islamic invasion of Europe" that he says is being orchestrated by groups primarily in Turkey.
He noted how 800,000 migrants from Morocco were flown in to Turkey in a "deliberate operation" and from there on to Greece.
Ya'alon concluded by calling for a "grand strategy" to confront the problem, citing how Israel has been giving humanitarian aid to those in Syria but does not bring in the refugees so as to maintain the nature of the Jewish state.
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