A7News: Hamas terror plots in Judea and Samaria foiled

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Thursday, Nov. 22 '18, י"ד בכסלו תשע"ט



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HEADLINES:
1. HAMAS TERROR PLOTS IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA FOILED
2. TZIPI SLAMS TZIPI
3. THE MILITARY CENSOR'S UNUSUAL ANNOUNCEMENT
4. BEIT SHEMESH MAYOR IN DIFFICULT NEGOTIATIONS WITH DEGEL
5. MEZUZAH COMPARTMENTS FOUND IN ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE NEAR OLD CITY
6. US REFUSES TO ALLOW JONATHAN POLLARD TO MOVE TO ISRAEL
7. ISRAEL COULD PAY 'MUCH HEAVIER PRICE' IF IT DOESN'T STRIKE SOON
8. NY YESHIVAS COULD LOSE FUNDING FOR NOT MEETING STATE GUIDELINES


1. HAMAS TERROR PLOTS IN JUDEA AND SAMARIA FOILED
by Tzvi Lev

Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency announced that it had thwarted attempts by Hamas to establish a terror network in Judea and Samaria.

Hamas had tasked operatives in Judea and Samaria with building a terror network in an attempt to commit a series of deadly terror attacks within Israel. Following their recruitment, Hamas taught the operatives how to manufacture explosives and schooled them in target selection.

"This activity of the Hamas military wing joins a long list of attempted terrorist attacks directed by Hamas by recruiting activists in Judea and Samaria.," said a senior Shin Bet officer.

"These attempts have been foiled by the Shin Bet in recent years and have led to the imprisonment of hundreds of young people in Judea and Samaria, among them students and young women, thereby harming the fabric of life in Judea and Samaria."

Hamas had decided to carry attacks in Judea and Samaria in order to escalate the security situation in the region. The Shin Bet stressed that the plan differed from previous efforts in both its scope and the damage that the attacks potentially would have caused.

The Shin Bet caught on to Hamas' efforts after it arrested 25-year-old Owes Rajoub, a resident of the town of Dura adjoining Hevron. Rajoub was nabbed before he could carry out terror attacks with the explosives he had purchased.

Hamas suspects
Shin Bet
During his interrogation, Rajoub revealed that he had been recruited by an activist from Gaza, who had approached in query whether he would be interested in carrying out terror attacks within Israel.

On August 11, 2018, Rajoub was instructed by his handler in the Gaza Strip to go to a drug store in Ramallah and collect a mobile phone from there to serve as their main way of communicating.

A few days later, Rajoub was instructed to meet with an operative in the Bethlehem area, in order to obtain a password and additional instructions for using the phone he was given. His handler then ordered him to meet an elderly woman from the Gaza Strip who had come to Israel for medical treatment.

The woman gave Rajoub a pair of pants which had his instructions from his handlers written on this inside. Rajoub spoke with his operators in the Gaza Strip via the phone he received and began to receive training on preparing explosive devices with video clips sent to him and video conversations with a terror mastermind.

Rajoub was ordered to carry out a terror attack as soon as possible, with instructions to choose a target that was packed with civilians, such as a restaurant or a large building.

Rajoub then recruited two Arabs in order to help him manufacture the bombs. The attack was only foiled after Rajoub was arrested in September.

Hamas had used Gazans with permits to enter Israel for humanitarian reasons to carry messages between operations. While Gaza residents are not commonly allowed to enter Israel, the IDF allows some residents entry for medical and family reasons.

"Hamas cynically used Gazans who were authorized to enter hospitals in Israel for life-saving treatment, as well as Gazans who were asked to send messages to recruits in Judea and Samaria," said the Shin Bet.

"This is not the first time Hamas has exploited the humanitarian medium to carry out military operations in Judea and Samaria."


2. TZIPI SLAMS TZIPI
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely slammed MK Tzipi Livni, who attacked the government's policy in the Knesset plenum today. Livni criticized the ceasefire Israel reached with Hamas after the terrorist organization fired close to 500 rockets and mortars at southern Israel last week, saying that any ceasefire which does not weaken Hamas is unacceptable.

Hotovely reminded Livni of her support for the 2004 disengagement, which she said led to the current situation in the Gaza Strip, which the opponents of the expulsion warned about.

You supported the uprooting of the Jews of Gush Katif, you were the architect of this move," said Hotovely Livni, "the last who can preach to a right-wing government about the conduct in the Gaza Strip.

Hotovely described the disengagement as "political folly," and told Livni: "I would expect you to do some political soul-searching and not just think about which party to go through in the next elections."

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/255076


3. THE MILITARY CENSOR'S UNUSUAL ANNOUNCEMENT
by Uzi Baruch

The Military Censor published an unusual announcement Thursday calling on the public not to publish information about the fighting in Gaza and to act responsibly.

"Hamas is currently trying to decipher and understand the incident that took place deep in Gaza (11/11) and any item of information, even if it is considered harmless by its publicizers, could endanger human life and harm state security," the statement said.

"Regardless of the credibility of the information published by Hamas, we ask you to refrain from expanding the publication of pictures, personally identifiable information or other personal information that you have received in the media, social networks, Whatsapp groups and any other media platform," she said.


4. BEIT SHEMESH MAYOR IN DIFFICULT NEGOTIATIONS WITH DEGEL
by Mordechai Sones

Three weeks after local elections, Beit Shemesh Mayor Aliza Bloch is holding stubborn negotiations with Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah before their joining the coalition.

While the Agudat Yisrael front is making progress in negotiations, with Degel Hatorah negotiations are not progressing significantly.

Local Degel Hatorah Chairman Shmuel Greenberg was quoted today in the Mishpacha magazine as saying that if the party of Lithuanian Orthodox Judaism does not receive portfolios according to their relative size, they will not hesitate to sit in the opposition.

On Tuesday, Bloch officially took office. She opened her first day at the cemetery in Kiryat Gat, where her parents are buried.

Even before the official change ceremony Bloch went in the morning hours to volunteer in the road safety guards at a crosswalk in the haredi Heftsiba neighborhood and later visited secular and haredi educational institutions in the city.

After actually taking office, Bloch arrived at city hall and there, at an official change-of-guard ceremony city leadership was handed over by outgoing Mayor Moshe Abutbul.


5. MEZUZAH COMPARTMENTS FOUND IN ANCIENT SYNAGOGUE NEAR OLD CITY
by Arutz Sheva Staff

During preservation work, layers of plaster were removed at the site of an ancient synagogue in the village of Shiloah (Silwan), right outside Jerusalem's Old City. The removal exposed where mezuzot used to be at the entrance of the building.

The ancient synagogue was built by the Yemenite immigrants in 1885. The community was evacuated from their homes by the British, who claimed that there was a lack of manpower and means to protect the citizens there.

"The symbolic place of the mezuzah found in the ancient synagogue in the Yemenite village is another proof of the importance of the project we have initiated to reconstruct this place," said Minister of Jerusalem and Heritage Zeev Elkin said.
"This is one of the most important assets in the history of the immigration of Yemenite Jews to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel. I think that in our return to these places we are doing a historic justice. We will return to the Yemenite village, also known as Shiloah and where there was a mezuzah, there will be a mezuzah again and a large crown will arrive," Elkin promised.

The architect of the Council for the Preservation of Historical Site, Moshe Shapira, said that the Yemenite synagogue was the only remnant of the Ezra neighborhood built by Israel Dov Frumkin and destroyed by the Jordanian Legion. Frumkin was the grandfather of former Shin Bet Chief Carmi Gillon.

The mezuzah compartments were discovered by Asaf Baruchi and the Tsanani family who lived in the compound when the plaster was removed from the sides of the buildings.
"It is interesting to note that the depressions were discovered in accordance with the Ashkenazic and Yemenite customs. This sheds additional light on this neighborhood which began with Ashkenazi construction for the Yemenites and later included independent Yemenite construction.

The preservation work was initiated by Ateret Kohanim with the assistance of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Jerusalem through the Council for the Preservation of Sites.


6. US REFUSES TO ALLOW JONATHAN POLLARD TO MOVE TO ISRAEL
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Israel officially asked the US to allow former Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard to immigrate to Israel three years after his release from prison, but the United States Department of Justice refused, according to a report Wednesday in Hadashot 2.

Pollard served as an analyst for the US Navy in the 1980s, during which time he was recruited by Israeli intelligence to collect information on Israel's behalf regarding regional threats.

In 1985, Pollard was discovered by US law enforcement officials, and after seeking asylum at the Israeli embassy in Washington, was turned over to the FBI.

Given a life sentence in November 1985, Pollard was paroled 30 years later in November 2015 under severely restrictive conditions.

According to the report, in parallel with efforts in the political arena, Israel also acted on the bureaucratic level and submitted an official request to the US Justice Department to allow Pollard to be brought to justice in Israel in a regulated agreement between the two countries.

Recently, Israel received a response in which the Department rejected the Israeli request, claiming that Pollard's crimes were too serious to allow him to leave the US.

The request to consider Pollard's age and his precarious health was also rejected.

The Prime Minister's Office said in response that "Prime Minister Netanyahu remains committed to bringing Pollard back to Israel."


7. ISRAEL COULD PAY 'MUCH HEAVIER PRICE' IF IT DOESN'T STRIKE SOON
by Nitzan Keidar

Former minister and security cabinet member Gideon Sa'ar called for an Israeli counterstrike on precision weapons factories in Lebanon and other strategic threats that Hezbollah is developing.

At the Jerusalem Post's Diplomatic Conference in Jerusalem, Saar said that Israel was approaching the point of no return on the Lebanese border.

"If an Israeli preemptive strike is not carried out in the near future, the window of opportunity may be closed. This means that future attack might be far less effective and will involve a much heavier price," he said, noting that he would back a preemptive strike if such a decision were made.

Sa'ar also said that Iran and Hezbollahs' goal is "to achieve a qualitative strike capability on Israel's civilian and military home front from bordering countries." This, he explained, was "part of a strategic concept to constrain Israel's strategic freedom of action , including in the context of a possible future Iranian nuclear breakthrough."

"If Hezbollah achieves such capabilities, they will be able to cause us very significant damages during confrontation," he said.

Sa'ar also noted, as he had in the past, "I will run the in the 2019 elections, in order to return and represent my party, the Likud. I will do so in order to strengthen my party based on our path, founded on the firm conviction and protection of our rights and interests in our country."


8. NY YESHIVAS COULD LOSE FUNDING FOR NOT MEETING STATE GUIDELINES
by JTA

Hasidic-run yeshivas in New York could lose funding for textbooks, transportation and other state-provided services under new guidelines issued by the state Education Department.

Under the new rules, representatives of school districts will visit each nonpublic school once every five years to observe and determine whether the schools are providing enough instruction in required subjects such as English, math, social studies and science.

The education of the approximately 57,000 students at New York yeshivas has been under a spotlight for failing to hold to the same standard of basic secular instruction as other schools.

New York City launched a probe into its yeshiva system in 2015 following a complaint by the Young Advocates for Fair Education, or YAFFED, charging that that 39 Orthodox institutions were failing to meet standards set by state law requiring private schools to offer a curriculum "substantially equivalent" to that of the public system. More than one-third of the schools did not allow inspectors to enter.

State Sen. Simcha Felder, who is Orthodox Jewish, earlier this year held up passage of the $168 billion fiscal plan until the state agreed not to interfere in the curricula at Orthodox yeshivas. A bill that he authored and passed puts haredi Orthodox yeshivas under the authority of the state rather than local education officials.

The initial round of school reviews will start in the 2018-19 school year and will conclude by December 2020.




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