Times of News: June 2018

Thursday, 14 June 2018

IDF intel chief: Iran determined to maintain strike capability from Syria

Despite Israeli efforts, Iran is continuing to try to improve its ability to launch rockets from Syria, IDF Intelligence Directorate head Maj.-Gen. Tamir Heyman said at a closed-door forum of the International Homeland Security Forum in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

“The fact that they succeeded in launching rockets toward Israel, causing us to open shelters, is seen by them as a great success, even though it was a total failure operationally. And now they are trying to increase their efforts and capabilities to launch rockets and establish terror cells that can penetrate into Israel and harm communities in the Golan Heights,” Heyman was quoted as saying by Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.

In May, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired a barrage of 32 Fajr-5 and Grad missiles toward Israel’s front defensive line on the Golan Heights. That caused no damage or injury but led to Israel carrying out the most extensive operation in Syria since 1974, striking more than 50 Iranian targets there.

Iran targets Israel from Syria, Israel responds, May 10, 2018 (Reuters)

Israeli officials have repeatedly voiced concerns over the growing Iranian presence on its borders. “No one has noticed Iran’s regional expansion in the Middle East,” Heyman told the crowd, saying the international community was focused on the nuclear agreement and not on other worrisome elements, such as the IRGC’s missile arsenal.

Displaying a map showing where Iranian forces are based in Syria, Heyman said, “You probably think, well this is because they are trying to help the Assad regime to fight terror… but there is no threat to President Assad, so why do they stay? If they came in order to only assist the regime, so then thank-you and goodbye… this is what we call the Iranian entrenchment in Syria.”

Addressing the International Homeland Security Forum in Jerusalem on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that in fighting Iran, Israel “serves the cause of security and peace beyond the Middle East.”

On Wednesday, Assad told the Iranian al-Alam News that his troops are supported by fighters from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. And while he said Tehran doesn’t have any military bases in Syria, it would “not hesitate” to accept them if needed.

Denying that there are any regular Iranian fighting units in Syria, Assad said Iran has “offered blood” to Syria with its “advisers” who “have been with us, through the longstanding relationship with Iran, even before the war because the military relationship is close,” according to an English translation published by Syrian state news agency SANA.

Heyman, who began his role as the head of IDF’s military intelligence only recently, joined Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in late May on a working visit to Russia at the invitation of his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu. There they lobbied Moscow to confront the Iranian presence in Syria.

On Thursday, Liberman said Israel is investing significant effort in countering its “number-one threat,” in reference to the Islamic Republic. Speaking at a conference at Bar-Ilan University, Liberman said that Iran is not only an Israeli problem but “rather a global one.”

While stressing that Israel is not trying to interfere in the Syrian civil war, Liberman said the country is “working to ensure our security and this is the only guiding line, and I think that until now we have dealt quite well with this challenge. It is not simple, but we will continue.

“We will not allow an Iranian consolidation within Syria and we will do everything that depends on us in order not to allow the radical axis to open another front against the State of Israel from the Golan Heights or Syria.”

Nevertheless, despite the threat posed by Iran on Israel’s northern border, Heyman said, “We live in a particularly safe period,” in which terrorism has significantly declined due to the successful war against Islamic State.

But, he warned, “Islamic State hasn’t changed their agenda. They’re waiting to raise their flag again.”

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Tel Aviv's five best frozen coffees

In an age when coffee is discussed as if it were wine, there’s very little room to talk about the pleasures of an Israeli ice cafe, which seems to be a pretty unique Israeli invention (as some Haaretz users…

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Israeli school for the gifted censors Leonardo da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man'

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria slowed refugee flow to Europe, claims Netanyahu

Israel has attacked Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, casting such actions as potentially helping to stem a Syrian Sunni Muslim refugee exodus to Europe.

Israeli officials have previously disclosed scores of air strikes within Syria to prevent suspected arms transfers to Lebanon’s Shi’ite Hezbollah guerrillas or Iranian military deployments.

But they have rarely given detail on the operations, or described non-Lebanese militiamen as having been targeted.

In early May, Israeli defense officials were bracing for the possibility of an Iranian revenge attack from Syria in the form of rocket and missile launches at northern Israel.

Officials believe Iran is determined to retaliate for the April 9 airstrike on Syria’s T4 airbase, which killed seven Iranian military advisers and members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Iran blames Israel for this attack.

Thank you for signing up.

We’ve got more newsletters we think you’ll find interesting.

Click here

Oops. Something went wrong.

Please try again later.

Thank you,

The email address you have provided is already registered.

Netanyahu accused Iran, which has been helping Damascus beat back a seven-year-old rebellion, of bringing in 80,000 Shi’ite fighters from countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan to mount attacks against Israel and “convert” Syria’s Sunni majority.

“That is a recipe for a re-inflammation of another civil war – I should say a theological war, a religious war – and the sparks of that could be millions more that go into Europe and so on … And that would cause endless upheaval and terrorism in many, many countries,” Netanyahu told an international security forum.

“Obviously we are not going to let them do it. We’ll fight them. By preventing that – and we have bombed the bases of this, these Shi’ite militias – by preventing that, we are also offering, helping the security of your countries, the security of the world.”

Netanyahu did not elaborate. About half Syria’s pre-war 22 million population has been displaced by the fighting, with hundreds of thousands of refugees making it to Europe.

Syria’s population is mostly Sunni Muslim. President Bashar al-Assad is from the Alawite religious minority, often considered an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.

Under recent deals between Assad’s government and mainly Sunni rebels, insurgents have left long-besieged areas sometimes in exchange for Shi’ite residents moving from villages surrounded by insurgents.

The political opposition to Assad says the deals amount to forced demographic change and deliberate displacement of his enemies away from the main cities of western Syria. The Damascus government says the deals allow it to take back control and to restore services in the wrecked towns.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

After death threats, Miss Iraq visits Jerusalem, calls for 'less blood, more amity'

Sarah Idan, aka “Miss Iraq,” visited Israel this week and her unlikely “sister” from the 2017 Miss Universe contest: Miss Israel. Idan’s family was forced to flee Iraq after she posted a selfie of the two women in 2017.

Iraq’s contestant in the 2017 Miss Universe Competition, Sarah Idan, visited Israel this week and met with the unlikely friend she made at the contest, Miss Israel, Adar Gandelsman.

Idan received death threats that forced her family to flee from Iraq after she posed a selfie with Gandelsman on social media during the contest, with a caption that read: “Peace and Love from Miss Iraq and Miss Israel.”

Idan and Gandelsman on Wednesday jointly addressed the American Jewish Committee’s (AJC) global forum held in Jerusalem for the first time this year

“We became friends in less than 10 minutes,” Idan told the crowd about her meeting with Gandelsman in Las Vegas last year. “All it took for us to feel connected was we were both not concerned with the difference of our faith, beliefs and nationality.”

Thank you for signing up.

We’ve got more newsletters we think you’ll find interesting.

Click here

Oops. Something went wrong.

Please try again later.

Thank you,

The email address you have provided is already registered.

Idan, who now lives in the United States, also alluded to the threats she continues to receive for her calls for peace in the Middle East.

“I traveled thousands of miles and put my life at risk not just to express how so many of us are tired of this endless war between our countries,” she said. “My hope is I get to see my Jewish brothers and sisters roam freely from Jerusalem to Ramallah, to Babylon and to the Nile, and for my fellow Arabs and Muslims to walk through Israel without fear of having an Israel stamp in their passports.”

While in Israel, Idan posted warm messages of social media about her and Gandelsman. She captioned one photo of them hugging with her head on her Israeli friend’s shoulder on Instagram as a “sisters’ reunion.”

@adar_gandelsman Shalom/Salam from Jerusalem #middleeasternqueens شالوم/سلام من القدس أورشليم 💕💕

A post shared by Sarah Idan (Sarai) سارة عيدان (@sarahidan) on Jun 11, 2018 at 9:51am PDT

In a selfie video, the two women utter traditional Hebrew and Arabic greetings, with the Iraqi woman saying “Shalom” to Gandelsman’s “Salam.” Idan captioned the video with the hashtag #middleeasternqueens.

Addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in her remarks to the AJC, Idan said she hopes for “the Palestinians to not live in the fear of being displaced, to cross Tel Aviv beaches and pray at Al-Aqsa without complication.” She urged the opening of “a new chapter for Israel and Palestine with less blood and more amity.”

Ofir Gendelman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman for Arabic media, joined in celebration of Idan’s visit. Gendelman retweeted several of the photos Idan posted online alongside the comment, “Friendly relations between Israelis Arabs will definitely help in ushering in a better tomorrow for all of us in the Middle East.”

While in Jerusalem, Idan also visited the Machane Yehuda Market. She was warmly welcomed by Israelis of Iraqi origin, according to the Israeli Hadashot television network, and ate at an Iraqi-Jewish restaurant.

“It actually felt weird — the people look like my people,” Idan told Hadashot about Jerusalem. “Everything seems familiar to me.”

Iraqi Jewish Restaurant serving Bamya! Yummy 😋 مطعم يهودي عراقي في القدس عندهم بامية تجنن 😋

A post shared by Sarah Idan (Sarai) سارة عيدان (@sarahidan) on Jun 11, 2018 at 12:00pm PDT

Idan eats okra at an Iraqi-style restaurant in Jerusalem.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Rank and File: Remembering the 'Irish Schindler'

PLUCK OF THE IRISH: The Holocaust is filled with many untold or lesser-known stories of heroism. One of them is that of Mary Elmes, a businesswoman and aid worker from Cork, Ireland, who saved the lives of at least 200 Jewish children. On Tuesday, the Israel-Ireland Friendship League, in association with ESRA Cinema Club Ra’anana, will host a special screening of “It Tolls For Thee,” which recounts Elmes’ remarkable effort. “Mary Elmes is the only Irish citizen to be honored as a ‘Righteous Among The Nations’ by Yad Vashem, risking her own life in occupied France during World War Two to save the lives of Jewish children from being deported to Nazi extermination camps,” noted Malcolm Gafson, the league’s president. The screening will be held In the presence of Irish Ambassador Alison Kelly. The event will be preceded by a Bloomsday festive reception, celebrating Irish writer James Joyce. RSVP to (050) 822-1732 between 6-8 P.M., not on Shabbat.

OL’ BLUE EYES IS BACK, IN JERUSALEM: It is impossible to discuss the greatest singers of the 20th century without reference to Frank Sinatra. This Sunday, Israel Musicals will present “Frankly, Sinatra” – a tribute to Ol’ Blue Eyes at Jerusalem’s Max and Gianna Glassman Family Center. Tenor Yisrael Lutnick, together with pianist Haim Tukachinsky, will follow Sinatra’s life from his youth in New Jersey, through his ups and downs and his golden years as head of the Rat Pack. Lutnick, a onetime New Yorker who has performed in the Big Apple’s theater district, will cover about 20 Sinatra hits during the evening and also recount Sinatra’s bonds with the Jewish people and Israel. Tukachinsky, a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance in piano and composition, will conduct the Israel Musicals Ensemble. For tickets, call the AACI on (02) 566-1181, ext. 0.

HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR MAKES ALIYAH: Israel welcomed 28 new citizens from North America on Tuesday, and among them was Holocaust survivor Jack Nasielski. “Israel is my new home and I love it,” said Nasielski, 92, who landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport nearly 71 years to the day after arriving in New York by boat. Born in Dessau, Germany, Nasielski fled the Nazis as a child via Poland. He was eventually captured and shipped to four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Blechhammer, where he was finally liberated in 1945. For almost 20 years, Jack lived in Edison, New Jersey, following his daughter Lilly and her husband Bruce. Now he is following his children again as they all move to Rehovot this summer, joining Lilly and Bruce’s four children and Jack’s many grandchildren and great-grandchildren already living in Israel.

Rank and File was compiled by Steven Klein.

Have an idea about an item for Rank and File? Email us at: column@haaretz.co.il

Thank you for signing up.

We’ve got more newsletters we think you’ll find interesting.

Click here

Oops. Something went wrong.

Please try again later.

Thank you,

The email address you have provided is already registered.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

German envoy to Lebanon 'dismayed by false accusations' over refugees

BEIRUT – The international community is “dismayed by repeated false accusations” that it is working to settle refugees in Lebanon, Germany’s ambassador in Beirut, Martin Huth, said on Thursday.

Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil has accused the UN refugee agency UNHCR and the international community of preventing Syrian refugees from returning home from Lebanon.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Hamas threatens to send 5,000 incendiary kites toward Israel on Friday

Hamas officially declared it intends to float five thousands terror kites during Eid al-Fitr on Friday, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Meanwhile, the air force fired warning shots to remove terrorists at work on terror balloons south of the Gaza strip on Thursday, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Putin invites North Korea's Kim Jong Un to visit Russia in September

MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin asked North Korean official Kim Yong Nam at their meeting on Thursday to pass an invitation to visit Russia in September to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Kim Yong Nam is head of the presidium of North Korea’s Supreme People’s Assembly.

Putin also said he welcomed the meeting between the North Korean leader and US President Donald Trump.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Iraqi PM calls on political blocs to meet after Eid holiday

BAGHDAD – Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday invited Iraq’s political groups to meet after the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday and agree on how to move forward in establishing a new parliament and government.

Abadi said that despite there being violations in a May parliamentary election, constitutional provisions were the only way forward.

Eid al-Fitr follows the fasting month of Ramadan. The government announced the holiday would end on Tuesday.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

IDF strikes target in southern Gaza Strip used to prepare incendiary kites

The IDF struck a target in the southern Gaza Strip two hours after it fired warning shots against a number of Palestinians preparing incendiary balloons in southern Gaza Strip near the Al Bureij refugee camp on Thursday afternoon, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit stated.

“The IDF struck an infrastructure near the area where a squad had previously been preparing Molotov cocktails in the southern Gaza Strip,” read the military statement. “The IDF considers the use of incendiary kites and balloons to be severe, and will act to prevent their use.”

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Unique 1,000-year-old Islamic amulet found in Jerusalem

Archaeologists digging in one of the oldest areas of Jerusalem have found a tiny Islamic amulet through which a man named Kareem, who lived in the holy city more than a thousand years ago, sought the protection of Allah.

Beautifully inscribed in Arabic, the rare thumbnail-sized talisman has been dated to the 9th or 10th century C.E., the time of the Abbasid Caliphate, the Israel Antiquities Authority said Thursday.

The devotional writing appears on two lines and has been translated as reading: “Kareem trusts in Allah – Lord of the Worlds is Allah.”

REUTERS/Gabriela Bhaskar

“The purpose of an amulet like this is to gain personal protection,” Dr. Yiftah Shalev of the IAA told Haaretz. “It’s like a Jew walking around with a pendant bearing the Shema Yisrael prayer. Since time immemorial, the purpose of amulets like these is to seek protection from the evil eye.”

The first line is familiar from seals and roadside graffiti along the Darb al-Haj, the pilgrimage route to Mecca, from the same period, around the 8th to the 10th centuries C.E. The second line has been slightly eroded and its interpretation is based on similar phrases found on personal seals and in the Koran.

The Abbasids, said to have descended from the Prophet Mohammed’s uncle Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C.E.), were the third caliphate after Mohammed’s time, and ruled from Baghdad over a vast empire, from the 8th century to the 13th.

At its peak their empire stretched from North Africa in the west, covered the Holy Land and the entire Arabian Gulf, reaching Armenia, Turkestan and Afghanistan.

In Israel, they ruled from the late 8th century to the end of 10th century, says Shalev.

Kareem on Temple Mount

The amulet was found in the excavation of a site formerly known as the Givati parking lot, located just south of the Temple Mount and part of the area thought to have been the first inhabited nucleus of the city.

The area, now called the City of David (though there is no direct archaeological proof of King David’s existence) has remains from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period, including structures left by the Israelites, Romans, Arabs and a half dozen other civilizations that left their mark on Jerusalem over its millennia of history.

And among the relatively later layers of the Givati site, archeologists found the amulet owned some 1,000 years ago by this Muslim faithful called Kareem.

Foundation offering or loss

The amulet was dated by Dr. Nitzan Amitai-Preiss of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem based on its calligraphy, which is typical of the third caliphate period; the dating of the structure in which it was found; and pottery fragments found at the site, including a complete lamp, which are typical of the Abbasid period.

That structure was very poorly preserved, observes Shalev. “We found some foundation walls and floor tiles. It was a simple structure, possibly residential with some small industry.” Some cookware was discovered.

The dig at the site, led by the IAA and Tel Aviv University, had previously found the remains of a big market, on top of which later homes and small industry were erected, Shalev says. This possible home or workshop fits with that.

City of David, found underneath the Givati parking lot
Eliyahu Yannai

The amulet – so finely made and small – may be one of a kind. Given that it is of friable clay, possibly there had been others like it but they crumbled over the centuries, Shalev says. This one may have survived because it lay sealed between plaster flooring.

We cannot know whether the talisman was deliberately placed in the flooring during construction, as a sort of foundation offering (designed to protect the dwelling from divine umbrage) or whether Kareem lost it.

However, if he wore the plea to the deity around his neck like a pendant, as people do to this day – it had to have been glued to a base: the amulet had no threading hole. Or if it did, it’s been lost in time.

Jerusalem was not the Abbasid capital, but the city has been of vast importance to Islam from the early Umayyad Caliphate (the second after Mohammed’s death) – because of the Temple Mount.

People have lived in Jerusalem going back at least 7,000 years, throughout at least some of which Temple Mount was a sacred site, certainly before the major religions of today. Prehistoric sanctity is apparently why ancient Jews and later Muslims built their monumental religious structures there.

Jews believe Temple Mount is where God gathered the dust to make Adam, and where the patriarch Abraham tried to sacrifice his son Isaac. Crucially, it housed the Temple of Solomon (or First Temple), destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C.E., and the rebuilt Second Temple, burned down by the Romans in 70 C.E.

Islam also recognizes the area housed the Temple of Solomon but Muslims mainly worship it as the spot from which Mohammed is believed to have ascended to heaven.

Today the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Al-Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary, houses the Dome of the Rock shrine, first erected by the Umayyads in the 7th century and rebuilt in the 11th century, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site for Muslims.

The Mount is also the holiest site for Jews, housing multiple remnants of the Temple – the most prominent of which is the Western Wall, part of the retaining wall built for the Second Temple mostly by the Roman vassal king, Herod the Great. Recent discoveries indicate that in contrast to the tradition, the Western Wall was only completed 20 years after the great king died.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

World Cup 2018: Israel wishes Saudi Arabia 'good luck' in opener vs. Russia

The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s official Arabic Twitter account has just wished Saudi Arabia good luck ahead of tonight’s opening match against Russia in World Cup 2018.

“The Saudi team is about to play the opening match in the World Cup against Russia after 12 years of absence. The team’s star is Mohammad Al-Sahlawi.The Saudis suceeded in reaching the round of 16 in the 1994 World Cup. Best of luck!”

The tweet comes four days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a major Jewish gathering in Jerusalem on Sunday that Israel’s relations with Arab nations were “improving beyond imagination” and predicted that “this will ultimately help achieve peace with out Palestinians neighbors.”

The key message of the Israeli prime minister – who earned several rounds of loud applause during this speech, as well as a standing ovation at the end – was that times have never been better for Israel, economically or diplomatically.

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Israeli charged with murdering his two sisters over their 'lifestyle'

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

The slaughter of Israeli Arab women must end

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Israel to bar activists from documenting soldiers in West Bank

Article source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israeli-Police-uncover-new-cases-of-elderly-abuse-in-nursing-homes-522564

Netanyahu: In fighting Iran, we serve security and peace beyond Mideast

In fighting Iran, Israel “serves the cause of security and peace beyond the Middle East,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, in his address to the the International Homeland Security Forum in Jerusalem.

“We ask for the support of your governments,” he added, appealing to the 20 Ministers at the conference hosted by Israel’s Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan.

“After the Iran deal, it took the money and started expanding its empire, trying to put military in Syria, trying to attack Israel – we are of course resisting it,” Netanyahu said, comparing the threat of the Islamic State and that of another branch of militant Shia Islam, led by Iran, which he said is trying to create an empire. The latter, he said, is a “much bigger” threat.

Iran is trying to colonize Syria, as part of its first goal of defeating Israel, Netanyahu said. “It wants to use 80,000 Shia militants in Syria. Syria is 90% Sunni – their goal is to convert the Sunnis. This is the recipe for another civil war… by preventing that we are also helping the security of other countries in the world,” he asserted.

Netanyahu also outlined how Israel is fighting the threat of the Islamic State, saying that Israel has stopped dozens upon dozens of attacks.

The Islamic State group is trying to start a state in Sinai he said, adding that “we are preventing a mass migration and an ISIS state in Sinai…we don’t want another ISIS state”

Netanyahu also discussed the “nightmare” situation created by drones. “All you need is a $50 contraption and 5 kilos of TNT…to hit the White House.”

This he said, has immense consequences. “We have to harness technology against technology. It’s a huge challenge,” the prime minister remarked.

Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich also discussed the changing face of terror in the opening speech of the sessions on Thursday.

“The Israeli Police carries out classic policing and law enforcement operations, but we are also responsible for public safety by law. In the past, the security threats were mainly of wars, conducted by armies within the borders of the state,” he told the audience. “The security burden has gradually shifted to the shoulders of the Israel Police, and today we are unfortunately faced with terrorism that has no political or organizational limits. Terrorists are less vulnerable because they do not occupy a defined territory and they represent a radical ideology making decisions sporadically.”

“Through cyberspace and the knowledge that is available, this process has also created a blurring of the boundaries between crime and terrorism. In our case we are dealing with the phenomenon of ‘lone wolf’, which requires all the police for a rapid response capability at any time and anywhere, no matter what the role,” he continued.

“As a police force that faces numerous complex challenges in the fight against terrorism and law enforcement, we have chosen to place the law-abiding normative citizen at the center of our organizational attention and we always prefer to prevent crime as much as possible and not to fill prisons,” Alsheich said.

“This process is even more demanding for the policeman in the field, since it compels him to take the initiative, to distinguish between a criminal and a normative citizen, all taking into account the differences and cultural characteristics of every population. This reform, called the Trust Reform, was presented in the Stockholm Convention on Criminology, and recently one of Israel’s senior researchers has praised the system that supports it as the most advanced system in evidence-based policing.”

Article source: https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Wedding-ring-of-Welsh-gold-for-Meghan-Markle-platinum-ring-for-Prince-Harry-Palace-says-557863

Police: Explosion in east Jerusalem caused by bomb-making attempt

An explosion in Shuafat Refugee Camp in east Jerusalem late Wednesday night occurred during an attempt to build an explosive device, Israel Police said after a preliminary investigation.

One person was critically injured in the explosion and was taken to hospital.

Police said it found further explosive material in the apartment in which the explosion took place. Police arrested eight suspects after the explosion, and they were taken for questioning.

“The Israel Police will continue to investigate and act openly and covertly against all those involved and possessing explosive material intended for the preparation of explosive devices,” police said in a statement following the incident:.

While leaving at the refugee camp, police clashed with local residents. A Jerusalem Police spokesman said that no injuries were reported in the clashes.

Shuafat Refugee Camp, a neighborhood inside Jerusalem, is located behind the West Bank security barrier and Palestinians have free access into it.

A spike of terrorist activity was reported in the neighborhood since the erection of the barrier, including during the “knife intifada” in 2015.

Meanwhile, the services that the Jerusalem Municipality provide to the neighborhood dropped almost entirely during that period. The municipality – including Mayor Nir Barkat – claims that sending workers inside is too dangerous. This has resulted in poor infrastructure in the neighborhood. Police rarely cross the checkpoint and go inside the camp.

Residents often complain that the lack of police presence harms them, allowing violence and terror to rule the streets.

In March 2017 police inaugurated a station at the Shuafat checkpoint – separating the neighborhood from the rest of city – which was meant to improve the residents’ quality of life.

Police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told The Jerusalem Post in December that the opening of this station is intended to serve the residents, and that this move comes while police are regularly operating in the area.

“We are operating at all levels, including the criminal level. We are seizing drugs, recovering stolen possessions and confiscating weapons.”

Article source: https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Wedding-ring-of-Welsh-gold-for-Meghan-Markle-platinum-ring-for-Prince-Harry-Palace-says-557863

Resisting Robert De Niro

We wrote earlier that if Robert De Niro is what’s playing on Broadway, there is real concern for the safety of our president.

Words send messages and surely there are people out there just as crazy as he is, and crazed enough to think they’ve been given a message to act words for deeds.

De Niro’s profanity-laced rant against Trump at the Tony awards did more than stink up the joint – the joint gave him a standing ovation.

That is still making headlines.

Some nut out there could interpret the applause and the headlines as a shortcut to fame and wipe the grin off De Niro’s face.

For the consequences will lead back to De Niro, on his head the fallout – him and his fellow Liberals. This much we’ve learned. Against Trump, anything goes. No insult is too low. No vulgarity is too harsh and to articulate their resentments in Robert De Niro they have found their star.

He embodies them all.

In the blare of that moment up there on stage, De Niro vomited the entire platform of the Democratic Party.

Okay by them Wednesday’s UN General Assembly resolution blaming Israel for defending itself against Hamas. What’s good for the UN is good for Progressives…and the pity of it is that throughout the years, De Niro stood strong for Israel. Does he still? Or has he gone the way of all Liberals?

If we had any doubts, now we know exactly what they are thinking in terms of Trump and we the people who voted for him.

Why would a man who had a legacy guaranteed stoop so low? We could ask the same of Meryl Streep and the cast of thousands who revealed themselves deranged against Trump.
De Niro gave it away, and the applause at Radio City Music Hall made it unanimous. They loved his foulmouthed outburst.

No touch of class there, no decorum, no decency when the Left won’t take defeat for an answer, but feel privileged to campaign with bitterness.

This was supposed to be their world – and we snatched it from them. We took Trump. De Niro symbolizes that acrimony.

Why a man would tank his own career will be a question for his biographers.

We want “The Godfather, Part Two.” Instead we’re getting De Niro part two, a sequel far less appealing.

Those were wise men who ran the Old Studios, under whose System their galaxy of movie stars were kept close to the mystique and far from the politics. By the rules of their contracts they were kept from speaking out of turn upon the knowledge that actors are long on memorization but short on wisdom

They might say something stupid that could spoil everything Broadway to Hollywood.

Why would a man who had a legacy guaranteed stoop so low? We could ask the same of Meryl Streep and the cast of thousands who revealed themselves deranged against Trump.

We should never know too much about our heroes. They will disappoint.

Trump has responded, calling De Niro “a very low IQ individual.”

Likely so – and what a waste of a talent we used to admire.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

He is the author of the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal” and most recently the two inside journalism thrillers “The Bathsheba Deadline” and “News Anchor Sweetheart, Hollywood Edition.” Engelhard is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

Article source: https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Wedding-ring-of-Welsh-gold-for-Meghan-Markle-platinum-ring-for-Prince-Harry-Palace-says-557863

Between Kim and Qom

This week’s much publicized meeting in Singapore between US President Donald Trump and North Korean despot Kim Jong Un, held the entire world’s attention for days, in no small part because of the important, multi-leveled questions on regional, international and internal fronts that it raises.

Regionally and internationally, the entire world would like to know whether Trump can succeed in convincing Kim to give up his nuclear arsenal. Will Kim agree to the establishment of a supervisory body with teeth that ensures that the agreement is fully and strictly carried out? Will Trump grant Kim guarantees to ensure that if he gives up nuclear arms he does not suffer the fate of Qaddafi after that despot did the same? Will North Korea be allowed to come out of its international isolation and will the economic sanctions upon that country be removed? Will countries interested in investing in North Korean economic projects be able to do so?

Regarding internal matters, the questions continue. Will Kim liberate his citizens from their current strangulation? Will he close the “reeducation” camps in which thousands of North Koreans are incarcerated? Will the public executions for sullying Kim’s honor be stopped? Will the man in the street enjoy the economic agreements expected to be signed with foreign countries, or will the royal family and its cronies concentrate all the profits in their pockets?

In the end, the most important question of all for North Koreans is whether Trump intends to create a linkage between the international questions and the internal ones. That is, will Trump condition the lightening of political and economic sanctions on a change in Kim’s attitude to human rights and political liberty for North Korea’s citizens, including the shutting down of torture and death camps in addition to the nuclear issues?

Most pundits doubt that this will occur, because in the long run, a change in nuclear arming is a political one, while a change in the human rights situation means a change in the form of government. Changing government policy is unquestionably easier than changing the way the government functions. It is to be hoped that changes in the country’s regime do occur, but in a measured fashion, step by step, not with undue haste and not as a result of pressure or upheaval.

This week Kim fired three Army generals, perhaps a sign to Trump that he is willing to change his policies. We will all have to wait to see if Kim actually does replace the cadre surrounding him as well as his policies, both on the internal, regional and international planes.

The answers to these questions seem to depend most on the “interpersonal chemistry” and personal relations that Trump and Kim succeed in forming between them, as America’s political stance has, over the last year and a half, become dependent almost entirely on Trump’s personal approach.

There are those in the US and the world who see this as a good sign, but there are many who look at it askance and many who strongly disapprove. Many of the commentators discuss Trump and Kim’s body language and small gestures, their tones of voice, the number of seconds their handshakes took, the invitation Trump extended to Kim to visit the US and the White House and whether their meeting went on longer than planned.

The Europeans, for their part, see Trump’s personal approach in a negative light, because running economic and political policy with a US businessman’s approach to things is totally unacceptable to Europe. The Europeans are accustomed to the past in which the US never worried about its own interests in such an obvious manner.

The discordant way in which last week’s G7 conference in Canada ended proved once again to the Europeans that Trump’s first interest on every issue is what America stands to gain, and that he acts in unpredictable ways that ordinary political predictions cannot foresee.

Two years ago, did anyone expect that any US president would meet with the head of North Korea? I sense that the Europeans are deathly afraid that the US will opt for the lion’s share of the contracts for rehabilitating North Korea. The US Stock Exchange is already reacting to this possibility positively – and Trump keeps tweeting how proud he is of that outcome.

As far as we in the Middle East are concerned, the meeting between Trump and Kim is probably more significant to us than to any other region, because a very short, strong chain connects what Trump and Kim decide with what happens between the US and Iran.

Trump threatens both of them in the same fashion: He tweeted threats of a nuclear attack on North Korea, withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and slapped economic sanctions over Iran and any country that maintains economic ties with it.

The Arab world is following the progress of the Trump-Kim summit closely, because the Arabs see it as a promo for what is going to happen to US-Iran relations. Clearly, if Trump manages to persuade or force Kim to really give up his nuclear project, there is going to be a tweet one minute later declaring his intention to do the same to Iran regarding its nuclear and missile-rich aspirations.

UN Secretary General António Guterres has already announced, to Iran’s chagrin, that the goal of the Trump-Kim summit must be convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear project.

In our region, the Middle East, people keep asking: Does Trump want to meet with Khamenei? What will they talk about? Do they have anything at all in common? Even if they reach an agreement on the issues over which they disagree, can they possibly develop any interpersonal chemistry? Would there be enough mutual trust between them to believe that any agreements they reach are based on both sides’ genuine intentions? Or will Trump and Khamenei’s natural distrust prevent their achieving any understandings or agreements? Does the Ayatollahs’ feeling of superiority at being “true believers” allow them to accept Trump, the Christian whose daughter converted to Judaism, who recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish people and moved his embassy there – as a legitimate negotiating partner?

Above all, the most important questions are: If Trump and Kim reach a real agreement on dismantling North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missiles, how much will this strengthen Trump’s determination to force a similar agreement on the Iranians? How much influence will any kind of agreement signed between Trump and Kim have on Iranian intransigence? How much success will Trump have in forcing the Iranians to cease interfering in the affairs of other countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates? Can Trump significantly lower the level of Iranian anti-Israel rhetoric? Will Trump attempt to forge a connection between regional and international issues and those dealing with human rights and political liberty in Iran? And if he does try, will he succeed?

It seems too early to answer these questions after one summit meeting. We have no idea what is going to happen between the US and North Korea during the period following the historic meeting of the two leaders. The coming weeks will see various advisors and officials of both sides spending long hours trying to formulate a statement committing both sides to the agreements and understandings their leaders reached in Singapore. As we all know, “the devil is in the details,” and writing down oral understanding in an agreement in which every word is significant, can turn out to be a very difficult, lengthy and exhausting process, one that may very well make both sides realize that a clear and binding agreement is beyond their reach at this point.

The Iranians are awaiting future developments with baited breath. They know that what happens between Trump and Kim will have discernible influence on what happens between Washington and Qom.

Written in Hebrew for Arutz Sheva, translated from Hebrew by Rochel Sylvetsky

Article source: https://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/Wedding-ring-of-Welsh-gold-for-Meghan-Markle-platinum-ring-for-Prince-Harry-Palace-says-557863

Police: Explosion in E.J'lem caused while preparing bomb