A7News: Man murdered in Gush Etzion attack: Ari Fuld

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Sunday, Sep. 16 '18, ז' בתשרי תשע"ט



HEADLINES:
1. MAN MURDERED IN GUSH ETZION ATTACK: ARI FULD
2. 'ARI DIDN'T STOP UNTIL HE HAD SHOT THE TERRORIST'
3. 'STAB VICTIM SHOT AT TERRORIST AND COLLAPSED'
4. US ENDS FUNDING FOR 'COEXISTENCE' PROGRAMS
5. IDF ATTACKS HAMAS POSTS IN GAZA
6. WHY WAS ANCIENT ARCHIVE ABANDONED?
7. JEW MURDERED IN GUSH ETZION STABBING ATTACK
8. WILL YOU BE USING SUGAR IN 2023?


1. MAN MURDERED IN GUSH ETZION ATTACK: ARI FULD
by Arutz Sheva Staff

It was cleared for publication that the man murdered in the stabbing attack this morning at the Gush Etzion Junction was Ari Fuld, a resident of Efrat and father of four.

Lior Shurka, a friend of the victim, told the TPS news agency: "Ari [meaning 'lion' in Hebrew] was like his name implied. He was very involved in explaining and defending the good reputation of the State of Israel on the Internet and before the citizens of the world."

"Ari was about to have launched in a new Hasbara site [to reveal truth about Israel] in English. He was a good friend who you knew would stand by you and protect you in any situation.

"A lowly terrorist came up behind him, and in a cowardly way stabbed him. Ari was one of the fighters in the Efrat emergency squad. We didn't expect anything less of him. Even after he was shot, Ari engaged with the terrorist and chased him as he was bleeding, and managed to respond and shoot at the terrorist."

"We are confident that his death will not be in vain, and his activity will grow and intensify. We expect the government to immediately demolish the house of the terrorist and expel his family to the Gaza Strip as soon as possible," Shurka added.

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2. 'ARI DIDN'T STOP UNTIL HE HAD SHOT THE TERRORIST'
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Minister of Education and Chairman of the Jewish Home, Naftali Bennett responded to news of the murder of Ari Fuld in the stabbing terror attack at the Gush Etzion Junction: "Ari Fuld, is a hero of Israel. In his death, he saved life."

"Ari Fuld, of blessed memory, was murdered today in a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion Junction, and didn't stop until he neutralized the terrorist.

"With a stab in the back he ran, pulled out a gun and fired before he collapsed, anything so that the terrorist did not continue to hurt others.

"The Jewish people salutes and embraces the Fuld family.

"May his memory be blessed."

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein also expressed condolences to Fuld's family.

"The whole nation of Israel is hurting from the horrific murder of Ari Fuld this morning in Gush Etzion. Ari showed tremendous heroism, pursued the despicable terrorist but unfortunately his strength did not hold up.

"I embrace the family. May the curses of this year be wiped out."


3. 'STAB VICTIM SHOT AT TERRORIST AND COLLAPSED'
by Mordechai Sones

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Gabi Vaknin, one of the three civilians on scene at today's stabbing attack in Gush Etzion who shot at the attacker, described the incident: "I looked to the right, saw the stabber, saw the one who was stabbed. The stabbed one yelled, 'terrorist attack, terrorist attack!'. The stabber yelled in Arabic and started running towards the shopping center's entrance. I ran adjacent to them - on the road, not on the sidewalk - got line-of-sight to allow me a clean shot, aimed towards his body mass, and I shot.

"Before me, the stabbed man, who also ran after the terrorist, took a shot - even before me, possibly - the security guard also got off a shot, there were three of us shooting.

"The incident ended. I removed the knife from the terrorist's hand because I saw he was still dangerous, he still had the capability. I stood next to him, or someone came and stood near him; one of our people stood next to him, and the one who was stabbed I saw collapse after he got off his shot, and I warned others to be careful not to confuse him with a terrorist, that they shouldn't shoot him. Thus the incident ended."

Asked by a reporter to reiterate whether the stab victim himself succeeded in firing his weapon, Vaknin affirmed, "The stabbed one did succeed in getting off a shot. He ran after him parallel to me - that I know after the fact, because I saw him over at the edge. My eyes were only looking for where the terrorist ran. Once I saw he was in a corner that allowed me to fire off a shot I shot, I saw him fall, the shooting stopped, and with that the incident finished for me. Of course when he was down I removed the knife from him."

Asked how long the entire incident spanned, Vaknin shrugged and answered, "I don't know; the stabbing, running... A few seconds, I don't think we passed a minute, from the moment I identified him.

"The one who was stabbed - I was able to say, 'This one was stabbed.' I actually saw him being stabbed, I saw how he was dressed, I saw how he looked. I saw him get over to there, fire off a shot, and collapse between the cars."

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4. US ENDS FUNDING FOR 'COEXISTENCE' PROGRAMS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

The Trump administration has decided to cease funding a program which arranged meetings between Israeli and Palestinian Authority (PA) children, The New York Times reported.

According to the report, the programs involved also facilitated meetings between Jewish and Arab Israelis.

According to Senator Patrick Leahy's foreign policy aide Tim Reiser, officials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) told congressional aides that programs benefiting PA Arabs as well as Israelis would no longer receive any new money, the Times added.

However, programs which involve Israeli Jews and Arabs will still receive funding, as will programs which are on multiyear grants.

USAID is "currently unable to engage Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza as a result of the administration's recent decision on Palestinian assistance," the organization said Friday. However, it will continue providing "support for civil society working on these issues within Israel."

The cut, which totals $10 million, means that PA non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will not receive funds, Alliance for Middle East Peace Executive Director Joel Braunold said.

Programs include meetings between Israeli and PA almond farmers, as well as soccer games between Israeli and PA girls and meetings between Jewish and Arab residents of Jerusalem.

"I continue to believe in the importance of building relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, particularly kids," US Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt tweeted.

"But both Palestinian and Israeli kids will lose, and these programs will be meaningless, if the PA continues to condemn a plan they haven't seen & refuses to engage on it. Hopefully the PA will lead... let's see..."


5. IDF ATTACKS HAMAS POSTS IN GAZA
by Elad Benari, Canada

IDF aircraft and a tank on Friday attacked two positions belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization along the Gaza border, in response to a number of grenades and explosive devices that were hurled at IDF forces during violent disturbances along the security fence.

In addition, an IDF officer was slightly injured by shrapnel from a pipe bomb that was thrown at the soldiers. The officer was given medical treatment at the scene.

In a statement, the IDF said, "The Hamas terror organization is responsible for all events which take place in Gaza and from it."

"The IDF will continue to thwart attempts to harm Israeli civilians and IDF troops in order to protect Israel's borders and civilians."

The weekly violent "March of the Return" riots continued on Friday, as they have every week since March 30.

On Friday morning, IDF troops neutralized an explosive device located near the Gaza border.

The device was discovered near the border fence separating southern Gaza from Israel. No injuries or damages were reported.

Overnight Thursday, a pipe bomb was thrown at IDF soldiers in the Rafah area in the southern Gaza Strip.

There were no injuries among the soldiers. Fire was opened towards three Palestinian Arab suspects who were identified as they crawled towards the security fence. It is unknown if they were injured by the gunfire.

The incident took place less than a day after IDF troops uncovered an explosive device placed by Gazan terrorists adjacent to the security fence in southern Gaza.

IDF troops disposed of the explosive device and thwarted the attempted attack against IDF soldiers.

No injuries were reported and no damage was caused.

(Arutz Sheva's North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)


6. WHY WAS ANCIENT ARCHIVE ABANDONED?
by Mordechai Sones

Who maintained archives containing more than a thousand letters about 2,200 years ago, and why did he abruptly abandon it?

A rare and fascinating discovery at Tel Maresha fires archaeologists' imagination: It is evidence of an archive, the second of its kind discovered in Israel, dating to the Hellenistic period.

The archive was discovered during archaeological excavations carried out in the Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park, under direction of Dr. Ian Stern of the archaeological seminars and the Hebrew Union College, under the permission of the Nature and Parks Authority and with permission of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Columbarium at Tel Maresha
Flash 90
During excavations carried out in a side room of an underground cave, 1,020 clay stamps from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE were exposed. The stamps were used in ancient times for signing letters and scrolls: If a letter arrived with its seal broken, it constituted proof the letter was opened before reaching the recipient.

The stamps, some of them figurines, sealed letters and scrolls written on ancient papyrus, which, unfortunately, did not survive the 2,200 years. Only the stamps remained to tell the story of the archive.

Dr. Donald Zvi Ariel of the Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the world's leading experts on seals, examined a group of 300 stamps and found Greek idolatries such as Athena, Apollo, and Aphrodite impressed on the seal prints, as well as cornucopia, erotic scenes, animals, and more.

According to his estimates, "this archaeological finding of more than 1,000 seals indicates an archive of large, private private documents that existed on the site and may have belonged to a well-to-do estate owner. It seems the archive was abandoned abruptly and this is particularly interesting in view of the events of the period written about, when John Hyrcanus the Hasmonean conquered the Edomites who lived in this land and forced them to convert."

Maresha: Man-made caves excavated underground over 2,000 years ago
Flash 90
Maresha was first excavated by Bliss and McAllister in 1900 CE on behalf of the British Foundation for the Study of the Land of Israel. In 1988-2000, the site was excavated by Prof. Amos Kloner on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and Bar-Ilan University. Since 2000, the caves have been dug by the Maresha expedition, led by Dr. Ian Stern and Bernie Alpert of the Archaeological Seminars and the Hebrew Union College, in coordination with the Antiquities Authority and the Nature and Parks Authority.

The ancient Maresha, now part of the Beit Guvrin-Maresha National Park, is the richest source for the study of the multicultural world of the Hellenistic Land of Israel. According to Dr. Ian Stern, director of the excavation, "this finding joins other fascinating finds discovered in Maresha from the time when the city was a central and commercial crossroads. The study of the stamps, and the various figures that appear on them, can provide significant information about life and culture during this period in Israel."

Maresha: Man-made caves excavated underground over 2,000 years ago
Flash 90



7. JEW MURDERED IN GUSH ETZION STABBING ATTACK
by Arutz Sheva Staff

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An Israeli man of about 40 was murdered in a stabbing attack near the shopping center at the Gush Etzion Junction.

MDA medics administered first aid and evacuated the man to Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem. According to the hospital, the victim was connected to a respirator, was sedated and in critical condition.

Later, however, his death was confirmed.

The terrorist, a 17-year-old from the village of Yatta near Hevron, was shot and neutralized, and was moderately wounded.

Before his death, the murdered man managed to shoot the terrorist, who was also shot by another civilian and a security guard.

Another two persons were treated for shock at the scene.

According to the IDF, "Following reports of an attack at the Gush Etzion Junction, a terrorist arrived at a mall adjacent to the junction armed with a knife and stabbed a civilian, severely injuring him. An additional civilian who was at the scene neutralized the terrorist. IDF troops are operating at the scene."

MDA medics Hagla Erez related: "I was making purchases at the shopping center when I heard shouts and shots near the entrance. I immediately ran to the scene and found a 40-year-old man lying unconscious, suffering from stab wounds to his upper body."

"I administered life-saving first aid which included stopping the bleeding, and reported to MDA about the incident. Together with MDA staff and an IDF medical team that quickly arrived, we continued medical treatment, and the victim was evacuated in serious and unstable condition to the hospital."

Gush Etzion regional council head Shlomo Ne'eman said following the attack: "I view with severity the serious attack. The purpose of these attackers is one; to disrupt our way of life. Our Arab neighbors have to deal with one single question: Either you live with us here and behave like people, or you choose an aggressive way and pay the full price. I call on the government of Israel and the IDF to use a hard Israeli hand and destroy the hands of the terrorists!"

"I want to say clearly that even if we are hurt, victory will be with us. The method of hurting us in the end will not pay off. We are here forever."


8. WILL YOU BE USING SUGAR IN 2023?
by JTA

Picture the scene: It's Rosh Hashanah eve, the year 2023. A family sits around the table, apple slices at the ready.

But instead of dipping the fruit into a bowl of thick honey, they take turns dipping it into a bowl of diet syrup sweetened by Israeli-designed natural proteins.

That's part of the vision of Amai Proteins, an Israeli biotech company working to develop sweet alternatives to sugar in commercial food products. The company is working on formulas that are based on proteins found in various fruits, and they have zero calories and are cheaper and sweeter than sugar. They also don't leave that aftertaste associated with artificial sweeteners. And they'd be kosher.

"Unlike other high-intensity sweeteners, Amai's products are proteins and get digested in the upper gastrointestinal tract without causing any insulin response," CEO Ilan Samish said.

That, he said, could enable diabetics to consume the sweetener while avoiding the dangerous insulin response prompted by sugar consumption.

Amai is among a burst of Israeli startups developing innovative alternative sweeteners, part of a new crop of Israeli biotech and food science companies aiming to take on the $90 billion global sugar market. They want to wean consumers and food companies off their reliance on sugar -- its health effects range from obesity and cardiovascular disease to diabetes and liver illnesses -- and appeal to the growing demand for non-sugar, nature-based alternatives.

Israel has some 750 active startups and companies in the food and agriculture tech sectors, according to a May 2018 report by Start-Up Nation Central, an Israeli nonprofit that tracks and supports the country's startup ecosystem. According to the organization's public database, Start-Up Nation Finder, about 270 of the startups are food tech companies. At least a dozen of them are working on tackling sugar.

Sugar is so ubiquitous in processed food now that about 75 percent of food and beverage products contain added sugar, including in items like yogurt, protein powder and tomato sauce. Consumption of soft drinks with high sugar levels has increased fivefold in the United States since 1950. Meanwhile, sugary drinks are linked to an estimated 184,000 deaths per year worldwide, according to a 2015 study

While sugar alternatives have been on the market for decades, most have an aftertaste, contain artificial chemicals or don't produce the same "mouth feel" as sugar. Many of the new Israeli companies are focused on products that overcome those problems.

An Israeli startup called ShakeUp is working on a healthy ice cream that is low-calorie, low-fat, has no added sugar and is dairy-free. Another company, Better Juice, is crafting low-sugar fruit juice by converting the sugars into dietary fibers.

The Caesarea-based outfit Lampados International has developed a low-calorie meringue sweetener called Liteez made of prebiotic fibers and vegetable proteins that consumers can plop in a hot drink and watch melt.

Last year, Amai's Samish and Masha Niv, the vice dean for research at Hebrew University's Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, founded a forum to boost collaboration between Israeli academics and food industry leaders in the field of healthy sugar reduction. Called the Sweet Science Forum, it's meant to share research and brainstorm solutions in subjects like sweet perception, molecular mechanisms of sweetness and sensory analysis. Among the members are scientists from the Technion, Hebrew University and the Israeli agricultural research center the Volcani Institute; food industry giants like Tnuva, Strauss and Coca-Cola; and startups like Amai.

"It's hard to say what will be in 20 years, but I don't think it's the optimal outcome to replace sugar altogether," Niv said. "We also have to somehow convince ourselves to consume less."

Many startups in the sweet science field were launched as a result of their founders' personal needs.

A1C Foods, which develops products that are low carb and low on the glycemic index -- how much the carbohydrates in a certain food affects blood glucose levels -- was launched by Ran Hirsch, a lawyer and entrepreneur whose daughter has diabetes, and the endocrinologist who treated her, Dr. Mariela Glandt. In July, A1C was chosen by PepsiCo to be one of 10 companies to take part in its Nutrition Greenhouse incubator.

Yuval Maimon, CEO of Unavoo, maker of the natural sweetener Heylo, once owned a sprawling gelato business. After being diagnosed with diabetes 10 years ago, he shifted gears to focus on a new venture aimed at helping people eat tasty, sweet food without consuming more sugar. Unavoo sells a stevia-based sweetener that is mixed with fiber from acacia trees to offset the bitterness of stevia.

"The point is for it to be sweet and to feel like sugar when you eat it," said Lilach Bar-Tal, Unavoo's vice president of marketing and strategy.

As with so many Israeli startups, the target market is overseas; Israel serves primarily as a center for research and development. In most cases, the Israeli companies are targeting not consumers but major global corporations to whom the Israeli know-how and technological breakthroughs can be sold or marketed.

For example, Amai is still in the R&D stage and doesn't expect to be on the market for two more years, according to Samish. But the company already is collaborating on uses for its sweeteners with several large food and beverage firms, including SodaStream, the Israeli beverage giant that in August was acquired by PepsiCo for $3.2 billion.

SodaStream is one of Israel's great sweet-science success stories. Its sodas have about one-third the quantity of sugar in traditional sodas like Coca-Cola, and the company's stock price has more than doubled over the past five years. Since April, SodaStream has been working with Amai on integrating sweet designer proteins into SodaStream products, including low-sugar and no-sugar soda in flavors like lemon, orange and coconut, according to Samish.

Eran Baniel, CEO of DouxMatok, a startup from the central Israeli city of Petach Tikvah that manipulates sugar molecules to enhance the perception of sweetness, described the sugar business as "a very conservative, very traditional industry" suffering from reduced profits in markets across the world and looking to benefit from partnerships with innovative companies.

Ironically, global sugar demand overall is expected to accelerate over the next decade as processed food giants -- like Germany's Sudzucker, which is the largest sugar producer in Europe, and Brazil's Cosan, a sugar and energy conglomerate -- make inroads in emerging markets where sugar consumption is still relatively low.

For companies targeting sugar-conscious consumers, however, the race to find alternative sources of sweetness is on. The key, of course, is to reduce sugar without sacrificing taste.

"You can develop a very healthy product," said Tammy Meiron, the head of Amai's food technology department, "but if the consumer experience isn't great and the food isn't tasty, they won't buy it a second time."

Udi Barkan, the research and development chef for Unavoo, maker of a stevia-based sweetener mixed with fiber from acacia trees, uses the product to sweeten desserts. Dan Peretz

(This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with Start-Up Nation Central, an Israel-based nonprofit that provides a gateway to the Israeli innovation ecosystem and strengthens Israel's tech economy by convening government, industry, academia and NGOs to help shape policies that support Israel as a thriving innovation nation. This article was produced by JTA's native content team.)




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