A7News: Thousands gather at Western Wall in J'lem for Sukkot festival

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Tuesday, Sep. 25 '18, ט"ז בתשרי תשע"ט



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HEADLINES:
1. THOUSANDS GATHER AT WESTERN WALL IN J'LEM FOR SUKKOT FESTIVAL
2. US: IRAN TO BLAME FOR DOWNING OF RUSSIAN PLANE
3. 'HE WANTED TO SANCTIFY GOD'S NAME WITH MUSIC'
4. SPANISH REPORTER DENIED HOUSE ARREST AFTER DEADLY J'LEM ACCIDENT
5. ISRAELI POLICE MAKE STARTLING DISCOVERY DURING TRAFFIC STOP
6. PUTIN TO NETANYAHU: WE DON'T BELIEVE IDF'S STORY
7. IAF IN REPORT TO RUSSIANS: WE DID NOT HIDE BEHIND RUSSIAN PLANE
8. ANALYSIS: RUSSIA THROWS ISRAEL UNDER THE BUS


1. THOUSANDS GATHER AT WESTERN WALL IN J'LEM FOR SUKKOT FESTIVAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff

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2. US: IRAN TO BLAME FOR DOWNING OF RUSSIAN PLANE
by David Rosenberg

The US National Security Advisor said Tehran should be held responsible for last week's downing of a Russian military plane over Syria, and warned Monday that Russian plans to transfer advanced anti-aircraft missile systems to Syria represented a major escalation in an already tense region.

Speaking with reporters on Monday, President Donald Trump's National Security Advisor, John Bolton, rejected statements by the Russian Defense Ministry holding Israel responsible for the loss of an Ilyushin IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft over Syria last week.

"There shouldn't be any misunderstanding here," said Bolton Monday. "The party responsible for the attacks in Syria and Lebanon and really the party responsible for the shooting down of the Russian plane is Iran."

Last Tuesday, a Russian IL-20 was shot down over Syria, apparently by a Russian-made S-200 anti-aircraft missile fired by the Syrian air defense network following an Israeli airstrike on a Syrian military research facility.

Russian officials blamed Israel for the downing of the IL-20 and the loss of the 15-member crew, claiming that the Israeli jets had intentionally used the much larger Russian plane to mask their radar signatures.

The IDF denied Russia's accusations, claiming the Israel Air Force jets were already out of the combat zone and in Israeli airspace when the IL-20 was downed, and that the IL-20 had been far from the area of the airstrikes during the Israeli operation.

An IDF delegation was dispatched to Moscow last week to share information collected by Israel as part of its investigation into the incident.

On Monday, however, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that he did not accept the IDF's claims regarding the incident.

"The information provided by the Israeli military...runs counter to conclusions of the Russian defense ministry," the Kremlin said in a statement following Putin's call with Netanyahu.

Putin also discussed with Netanyahu Russian plans to transfer S-300 missile systems to Syria following the downing of the IL-20.

Netanyahu warned that the the transfer of the missiles to "irresponsible hands" was "dangerous".

"The Prime Minister said that the transfer of advanced weapons systems to irresponsible hands would make the region more dangerous, and that Israel would continue to defend its interests and security," the Prime Minister's Office said Monday evening.

Bolton also criticized the move, saying that the transfer constituted a "significant escalation".

"We think introducing the S-300s to the Syrian government would be a significant escalation by the Russians," Bolton said, "and something that we hope, if these press reports are accurate, they would reconsider."

The National Security Advisor also said that the US would retain its military assets in Syria until Iran withdraws its forces from Syrian territory.

"We're not going to leave as long as Iranian troops are outside Iranian borders, and that includes Iranian proxies and militias."

The US currently has some 2,500 troops deployed in Syria.


3. 'HE WANTED TO SANCTIFY GOD'S NAME WITH MUSIC'
by David Rosenberg

The 31-year-old victim of a deadly hit-and-run accident late Sunday night has been identified as Haim Tukachinsky, a haredi pianist.

Tukachinsky was killed at around midnight Sunday when a vehicle driven by 50-year-old Spanish journalist Julio De La Guardia struck Tukachinsky. De La Guardia was later found to have been driving under the influence of alcohol, and was taken into police custody.

The accident occurred while Tukachinsky was walking back from evening prayers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. De La Guardia hit and killed Tukachinsky at Paris Square in the capital, then drove off. Police later identified the car involved and located and arrested De La Guardia, who confessed during questioning to both drunk driving and the hit-and-run accident. His blood alcohol level was shown to be more than three times the legal limit.

Spanish journalist Julio De La Guardia
FLASH90
Tukachinsky was a graduate of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, where he studied both piano playing and composition.

"I think that music is one of the greatest gifts that you can give a person," Tukachinsky said in a 2015 interview with Mahut Hahaim Radio.

"Music has the power to make a person happy, regardless of what situation he is living in."

Tukachinsky emphasized the role of both religion and music in his life.

"I'm a Jewish religious musician. I observe everything [in the religion]. I try very hard to keep all of it."

"A lot of people say that I must be conflicted, that I live between two different worlds. That's really not the case. Music brings worlds together."

In an interview with Behadrei Haredim on Tuesday, Tukachinsky's mother, Yael Tukachinsky said her son had been interested in music from a very young age, and ultimately left his yeshiva studies to pursue a career in music.

"He learned in yeshiva ketana [elementary school] in Kiryat Motzkin, but he didn't want to continue to yeshiva gedolah. He wanted to use music to sanctify God's name."

"He was a composer, accompanist, pianist and conductor. He learned to play every instrument, so that he could compose [music] and make it suitable for each [instrument] precisely."

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4. SPANISH REPORTER DENIED HOUSE ARREST AFTER DEADLY J'LEM ACCIDENT
by David Rosenberg

A Spanish journalist who confessed to a fatal hit-and-run accident while driving drunk will not be released to house arrest at the Spanish consulate, a Jerusalem court ruled Tuesday morning.

Julio De La Guardia, a Spanish reporter, was arrested early Monday morning after a fatal accident Sunday night at around midnight in Jerusalem.

The victim, identified by Kikar Hashabbat as 31-year-old Haim Tukachinsky, an American tourist, was killed after a vehicle driven by De La Guardia slammed into Tukachinsky in Paris Square in Jerusalem late Sunday night.

Tukachinsky, who was visiting Israel for the holidays, was walking back from prayers at the Western Wall at the time of the accident.

De La Guardia fled the scene, but was later identified by police and arrested several hours after the accident. Police say De La Guardia was under the influence of alcohol at the time, and had a blood sugar level significantly higher than the legal limit.

After his arrest, De La Guardia confessed that he had been driving while drunk, and was responsible for the hit-and-run accident that killed Tukachinsky.

The Jerusalem Magistrate's Court initially ordered De La Guardia released to house arrest at the home of the Spanish consul Monday night.

But the Jerusalem District Court threw out the lower court's decision, accepting an appeal by police requesting that De La Guardia be kept in custody.

The court extended De La Guardia's arrest by two days, until Thursday.


5. ISRAELI POLICE MAKE STARTLING DISCOVERY DURING TRAFFIC STOP
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Police officers in southern Israel made a gruesome discovery early Tuesday morning during a traffic stop in the city of Beer Sheva.

At approximately 4:40 a.m. Tuesday morning, police officers in Beer Sheva spotted car driving through the center of town at a speed far in excess of the legal speed limit.

Minutes later, officers ordered the driver to pull the vehicle over for a traffic stop.

While examining the vehicle, which was driven by a member of the Bedouin community in the Negev, police found a critically wounded 21-year-old woman.

The woman, who was being transported by her relatives to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva, had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Relatives of the woman, who was identified as a member of the el-Jarjarwi clan from Shaqib al-Salam southwest of Beer Sheva, had not notified MDA or other emergency medical services of the shooting incident, and were instead attempting to transport the victim on their own to the hospital.

Police called MDA first responders to the scene to treat and evacuate the young woman, who was declared dead after arriving at Soroka Hospital.

"We came to a private vehicle which had been pulled over to the side of the road," said MDA paramedics Eli Norani and Amichai Cohen.

"A 21-year-old woman was lying unconscious on the back seats while she had no pulse and was not breathing. She was suffering from multiple penetrating wounds in her upper body. We provided medical treatment and resuscitation techniques, which were continued en route to the nearby Soroka Hospital."

Authorities have opened an investigation into the woman's death, a spokesperson said Tuesday morning.

"Police have opened an investigation into an incident in the south after a woman from the Bedouin community was brought to hospital and died of her wounds," the spokesperson said.


6. PUTIN TO NETANYAHU: WE DON'T BELIEVE IDF'S STORY
by David Rosenberg

The Russian government has refused to accept the validity of Israel's investigation into the downing of a Russian reconnaissance plane over Syria last week, doubling down on the Russian Defense Ministry's statement holding Israel responsible for the plane's destruction and the loss of all 15 crew members.

In a statement released Monday night, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday that he did not accept Israel's claims that Israel Air Force fighter jets operating in Syria did not use a Russian Ilyushin IL-20 spy plane as radar cover.

Putin spoke with Netanyahu over the phone Monday, days after the two spoke on the eve of the Yom Kippur holiday.

"The information provided by the Israeli military...runs counter to conclusions of the Russian defense ministry," the Kremlin said.

According to the Kremlin, the IDF was negligent in its actions during the Syria airstrike, and in its alleged failure to give proper warning to Russia regarding the impending strike.

"The Russian side proceeds from the fact that the actions by the Israeli air force were the main reason for the tragedy."

The Kremlin also said Netanyahu emphasized again during the call Monday his sadness over the deaths of the 15 Russian crew members.

During the call, Netanyahu told Putin he had full faith in the IDF report, which found the Syrian military responsible for the shooting down of the IL-20, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement Monday evening.

Last Tuesday morning, an IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft was reported missing over Syria, following an Israeli airstrike on a military research facility in northern Syria.

The plane, which was carrying 15 crew members, was later declared lost, after apparently being downed by a Syria surface-to-air missile.

Russian officials blamed Israel for the downing of the IL-20, saying the IDF had provided just one-minute advance notice of the impending airstrike to Russian Defense Ministry officials, adding that the Israeli fighter jets had used the IL-20 to draw the Syrian air defense network's fire.

Israel denied the claims, saying its jets were already out of the combat zone and in Israeli airspace when the IL-20 was downed, and that the IL-20 had been far from the area of the airstrikes during the Israeli operation.

An IDF delegation was dispatched to Moscow last week to share information collected by Israel as part of its investigation into the incident.


7. IAF IN REPORT TO RUSSIANS: WE DID NOT HIDE BEHIND RUSSIAN PLANE
by Arutz Sheva

An IDF delegation, led by the Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, presented the complete IDF After Action Review (AAR) of the downing of the Russian plane by Syrian anti-air fire to senior Russian military officers.

"The AAR was conducted and presented in a thorough, detailed and professional manner," said the IDF in announcement Sunday afternoon. The statement went on to say:

"The comprehensive, accurate and factual details are known to the relevant professionals in the Russian military, and they clearly state that: the deconfliction mechanism operated in the relevant timeframe (as it has been operating over the last two and a half years); the IAF did not hide behind any aircraft and that the Israeli aircraft were in Israeli airspace at the time of the downing of the Russian plane.

"The result of the downing of the Russian plane by Syrian fire is severe and tragic and we convey our condolences to the bereaved families and the Russian People.

"The coordination between the IDF and the Russian military has proven its value numerous times over the last years. The continuation of the coordination is a shared interest in light of the various regional challenges.

"In addition, as we saw during this incident, the use of advanced weapons by irresponsible entities significantly endangers the area and can severely harm forces operating in the region.

"The safety and well-being of the Russian troops who operate in Syria are a focal component in every approval of any activity by senior officials in the IDF and in Israel.

"The IDF will continue to take all necessary measures, as it has been doing until this very day, to achieve this goal.

"The IDF will continue to operate in accordance with the directives of the Israeli Government against Iran's incessant attempts to establish itself in Syria and to arm the terrorist organization Hezbollah with lethal and accurate weapons."

Russia earlier blamed Israel for the downing of the military plane last week. Moscow accused Israel of deliberately misleading it and disputed Israel's version of events that killed the 15 Russian soldiers on board the plane.

A spokesman for Russia's Defense Ministry said Sunday that Moscow rejected specific claims presented personally last week by Israel's Air Force commander that blamed Syria for the event.

At a press conference, defense ministry officials claimed that the Israelis had informed Russia that their target was in northern Syria, but the Israeli warplanes ultimately carried out an attack in Latakia - in western Syria.

"The erroneous information provided did not give the transport plane time to reach a safe place," the Russians claimed, adding that the IAF planes had used the Russian transport plane as a cover for the Syrian missiles.

The reconnaissance Il-20 plane was brought down last week after it was hit by fire from Syrian semi-automated air defense systems, which were defending against Israeli F-16s that had struck Iranian targets in Syria.


8. ANALYSIS: RUSSIA THROWS ISRAEL UNDER THE BUS
by Yochanan Visser


Yochanan Visser is an independent journalist/analyst who worked for many years as Middle East correspondent for Western Journalism.com in Arizona and was a frequent publicist for the main Dutch paper De Volkskrant. He authored a book in the Dutch language about the cognitive war against Israel and now lives in Gush Etzion. He writes a twice weekly analysis of current issues for Arutz Sheva.

On Sunday and Monday, it became clear that Russia is using the downing of an Ilyushin IL-20 reconnaissance airplane last week as an excuse to change the rules of the game in the Syrian war and has now thrown Israel under the bus in its war against Iran.

On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry presented its own investigation in the incident which killed 15 Russian servicemen.

The Russian Defense ministry stuck to its opinion that Israel was to blame for the downing of the IL-20, although it was shot down by a Syrian S-200 surface to air missile (SAM). This occurred minutes after four IAF F16I warplanes attacked Syrian or Iranian targets in Assad's home base Latakia in northwestern Syria.

The Russians again said that the IAF planes hid behind the IL-20, something which is technically impossible, and accused the Israeli military of "unprofessional or criminally negligent actions, at the very least."

Former IAF pilot and Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told media last week that "you can't hide behind a plane" and called the Russian claims "unprofessional and attempts to clear the Syrians of guilt."

In addition, as Arutz Sheva reported last week, the Israeli F-16's were flying at very low altitude - a tactic which has proven to be the right way to avoid being hit by an S-200 missile – while the IL-20 was at least 35 kilometers away and flying at a much higher altitude.

The IAF furthermore presented the Russians with its own reconstruction of the tragic event. The IAF unequivocally stated that the four F-16's were already back in Israeli airspace when the Syrian military randomly fired 20 S-200 missiles in all directions for more than forty minutes without checking air traffic in the area.

There's more.

On Sunday, Israeli journalist Avi Sharf fired off a tweet with new information about the downing of the IL-20 and wrote that the IAF struck its targets in Latakia at 21.41 P.M. while the Syrians started to launch the S-200 missiles at 21.51 P.M..

Instead of moving to safety and prohibiting the launch of the S-200 missiles, the Russian plane flew into the danger zone where it was downed at 22.03 P.M., according to Sharf.

The Russians now claim that Israel gave an advance warning only one minute before the attack in Latakia. They also accused Israel of lying about the location of the imminent strike which they said would take place in northern Syria and not in the west of the country..

Both claims are untrue, however.

The Israeli military warned the Russians via a special hotline much earlier, before the strike, and Latakia is located in northwest Syria, according to a senior IDF officer.

"The message was passed on much more than a minute before the attack, an amount of time that was acceptable, as has happened throughout all the years the military coordination has operated," the officer reported.

An IDF delegation headed by Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin presented the Russian military with all these details during a visit to Moscow last week.

"The comprehensive, accurate and factual details are known to the relevant professionals in the Russian military, and they clearly state that: the deconfliction mechanism operated in the relevant timeframe (as it has been operating over the last two and a half years); the IAF did not hide behind any aircraft and that the Israeli aircraft were in Israeli airspace at the time of the downing of the Russian plane," the IDF said in a statement after Norkin debriefed the Russians.

"In addition, as we saw during this incident, the use of advanced weapons by irresponsible entities significantly endangers the area and can severely harm forces operating in the region," the statement explained.

The IDF, furthermore, vowed that the safety of Russian troops in Syria is "a focal component in every approval of any activity by senior officials in the IDF and in Israel."

The Russian government has now announced that it will deliver the state-of-the-art S-300 anti-aircraft missile defense shield to Assad's military within two weeks and will begin to jam radar signals in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, something that severely hampers Israel's ability to prevent the Iranian military build-up in Syria.

Israeli leaders across the political spectrum have now called upon the United States to increase its involvement in Syria. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu again called Putin to convince him not to deliver the S-300 system to Assad's army.

The S-300 is able to track up to 100 targets simultaneously while it can engage with 12 at the same time. The system has a range of roughly 200 kilometers and can reach targets flying on an altitude up to 27,000 meters.

The delivery of the system had already been considered by the Russian government in April this year and would "create a no-go situation for Israel if allowed to be made operational by the Syrian regime," according to weapons expert Jennifer Dyer who spoke with Arutz Sheva at the time.

"Israel would lose the ability to preempt the 'build-up' to war before Iran and Syria can make it a full-blown war," Dyer furthermore warned while adding that delivery of the system to Syria would endanger air traffic as far as the northern Negev desert.

The US government, meanwhile, responded to the Russian announcement about the delivery of the S-300 missile shield by calling it a "significant escalation."

President Trump's National Security adviser John Bolton said the Administration hopes that Putin will reconsider the delivery of the system, but didn't announce measures to prevent the supply of the S-300.

Chances that Putin will indeed reconsider the delivery of the S-300 to Syria at this point in time are slim, however.

The Russian leader has his own agenda for Syria and the Middle East. He most likely will use the opportunity to shore up his prestige and to bolster the regime of his ally Bashar al-Assad which is heavily dependent on Russian and Iranian aid.

Netanyahu has now vowed that Israel "will continue to protect its security and interests," but he will have difficulty to continue Israel's struggle against Iran in Syria in the manner in which it has been conducted since it became obvious that the Islamic Republic used the civil war in the country to take over the country and to open a new front against Israel on the Golan Heights.




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