A7News: Retiring army ombudsman reveals IDF's 'deepest secret'

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Thursday, Jan. 10 '19, ד' בשבט תשע"ט



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HEADLINES:
1. RETIRING ARMY OMBUDSMAN REVEALS IDF'S 'DEEPEST SECRET'
2. POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST PROTESTERS OF TORTURE
3. STUDENTS FROM ZIONIST GROUP CHALLENGE 'IFNOTNOW' TO DEBATE
4. FIGHTING CYBER-THREATS AND UNWANTED BOTS
5. US CONCERNED ABOUT CHINESE INVESTMENT IN ISRAEL
6. STABBING IN JERUSALEM - TERRORISM SUSPECTED
7. DOCTORS TELL ISRAELI FAMILY: 'GO TO CLEVELAND'
8. LAWYERS OF 'JEWISH TERROR' SUSPECTS WALK OUT OF COURT IN PROTEST


1. RETIRING ARMY OMBUDSMAN REVEALS IDF'S 'DEEPEST SECRET'
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Brick, the IDF ombudsman who retired today, warned that the IDF is deliberately closing its eyes to its lack of preparedness for war.

"If there is a war, the trauma of Yom Kippur will be a walk in the park in comparison," Brick said in an interview with Kan 11.

He added, "We are building the army into a situation where it can give an answer to two threats: Lebanon and Gaza. There seems to have been a change in the Middle East, the Syrians have returned. The main threat that has not been taken into consideration is near us. Our army is built for a region-and-a-half. How do you build an army without taking changes in the Middle East into consideration? It's irresponsible at a national level."

Brick doesn't hold back criticism for the IDF. "The deepest secret of the army, that they do everything to keep safe, is that what happens in the army stays there. They have been doing it with amazing success until today, until this Brick comes and bursts the bubble."

The outgoing chief of staff, Gadi Eizenkot, also took a hit from the retiring ombudsman: "As a chief of staff, the very fact that the system was not managed, that there was no supervision and monitoring - he did not enforce these things. This is a failure."


2. POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST PROTESTERS OF TORTURE
by Mordechai Sones

Magistrates Court Judge Elad Persky rejected the police request to extend the arrest of two minors, one of them the 15-year-old son of the head of the "Lehava" anti-assimilation group, Benzi Gopstein, and an adult who were arrested during a demonstration against torture. The judge ordered to examine their serious rights violations allegations.

On Saturday night a demonstration was held before the Prime Minister's residence demanding a halt to the torture being applied to suspect minors in the terror attack. During the incident Border Policemen violently arrested the 15-year-old son of Gopstein, another girl, and an adult.

During their stay at the police station, police refused the girl a bathroom respite and after many hours of nighttime arrest the girl was forced to soil her clothes. The police also decided to leave the minors and the adult in the police station corridor without processing them in the detention center as required by law.

The next day the police asked to extend remand of the protesters by three days. Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, who represented Gopstein's son, sharply criticized the police and presented the judge with a ruling from a civil suit where police were forced to pay 10,000 shekels to a minor left in the hallway overnight in contravention of detention orders. He also showed the judge pictures of Gopstein's son's arrest in which he is seen being beaten by police.

Ben-Gvir claimed there was no cause for detention, and once the detention claims were investigated it was admitted there was no investigation to be completed. The attorney for the girl, Moshe Polski of the Honenu organizaton, strongly criticized the fact that the girl was denied use of the bathroom. Polski argued the detention was improper and that in any case, remand should not be extended for a demonstration, and that there was also no reason to release them under restrictive conditions.

Judge Persky rejected police claims and ruled there was no reason to extend the demonstrators' remand or to order their release under conditions, and therefore ordered their release conditioned only on signing a guarantee they would arrive for investigation or trial if required. The judge also ordered investigation into claims the minors were left in the police station corridor without a mattress or running water, as well as the minor's claims that she was forced to wet her pants, and that the minor was attacked by police officers.

"From incident to incident I'm amazed at the violation of the rights and abuse of right-wing demonstrators and ask myself where all the human rights organizations have gone - attacking children in the middle of a protest, leaving them in the corridor for a whole night without a bed or pillow to put their heads on. I intend to file a civil suit against this abuse," Ben-Gvir said this morning.

"We're happy the court released all the detainees unconditionally; from the outset there was no justification for the arrest. We demand the entire incident be transferred to the Police Investigation Department to examine the police conduct. It's inconceivable that demonstrators who came to protest democratically will fall victim to the illegal and immoral behavior of Border Police and interrogators at the station."



3. STUDENTS FROM ZIONIST GROUP CHALLENGE 'IFNOTNOW' TO DEBATE
by Mordechai Sones

Students Ron Belman, Sam Wolf, and Phillip Yurchenko of the Northern-California-based Zionist group "Club Z" this morning tweeted to Simone Zimmerman, co-founder of the group "IfNotNow," challenging the group's leadership to a debate at Club Z's Youth Zionist Leadership Forum this month (January 18-21, 2019) in San Francisco, CA.

In a signed letter, the students stated that IfNotNow has "staged a series of public media stunts to demonize Israel but is conspicuously silent about the country's right to exist" and that the organization has helped to organize a walk-off from a Birthright trip.

The students say "those of us who had the privilege of traveling to Israel with Birthright saw the Jewish state up close – in all of its beauty, complexities, and challenges."

In their letter, Club Z writes: "You describe yourselves as 'pro-Israel'. We have a different view about what that means."

"Your organization staged a series of public media stunts to demonize Israel but is conspicuously silent about the country's right to exist.

"IfNotNow helped to organize a walk-off from a Birthright trip because, in the words of Simone Zimmerman, Birthright is 'an intentional part of the infrastructure meant to whitewash the occupation and to keep our community indifferent to human rights violations.' We are puzzled by these words because we know Birthright to be an entirely different experience. Those of us who have had the privilege of traveling to Israel with Birthright saw the Jewish state up close – in all of its beauty, complexities, and challenges."

The students call the 10-day Birthright trip "one of the greatest gifts that Jewish young adults could ever receive."

Concluding their letter, Club Z issues their challenge: "Here is your chance. We, the students of Club Z, challenge IfNotNow to a debate at our Youth Zionist Leadership Forum in San Francisco from Jan. 18-21, 2019. We'll articulate the merits of Birthright and supporting the State of Israel, and you can share your opinion as well."



4. FIGHTING CYBER-THREATS AND UNWANTED BOTS
by Yoni Kempinski

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/257430

The Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute (IEICI) and the Foreign Trade Administration (FTA) at the Israeli Economy and Industry Ministry are hosting the Israeli Pavilion at the CES Tech Expo in Las Vegas.

Before leaving Israel, Arutz Sheva had the opportunity to meet the heads of Unbotify and FireDome.

With consumer device sensor data, Unbotify detects anomalies in human-device interaction using Machine Learning, in real-time on a specific user-flow. Unbotify's defense is considered a quantum leap in the bot detection market, as the data set analyzed in very difficult to spoof, especially at scale and when analyzed on a specific flow.

FireDome provides home IoT vendors with highly specialized, continuously evolving and practical cybersecurity software solutions. FireDome has developed a unique EDR solution for smart home IoT. Their software-only product can be installed on devices at any time, even deployed devices. The devices continuously adapt to new threats and provide an autonomous cyber solution to vendors. Our agent protects against all major cyber threats including DoS, RCE, crypto jacking etc.


5. US CONCERNED ABOUT CHINESE INVESTMENT IN ISRAEL
by Tal Polon

US National Security Adviser John Bolton raised concerns to Prime Minister Netanyahu about the use of Chinese telecommunications equipment in sensitive sectors in Israel, a US official told Reuters on Wednesday.

The senior administration official, who was briefed on talks between Bolton and Netanyahu over the weekend, said that talks addressed US concerns that Chinese involvement in certain sectors in Israel could enable intellectual property theft and intelligence gathering by China.

"We are all concerned about theft of intellectual property and Chinese telecoms companies that are being used by China for intelligence-gathering purposes," he said, noting that the US doesn't want any obstacles to being able to share sensitive information with Israel.

The official also made special reference to Chinese technology and investment at the port in Haifa, an issue which he said had specifically been put on the agenda for the talks between Bolton and Netanyahu. In 2015, China's Shanghai International Port Group won the tender to build and operate the new port in Haifa, a major berth for the US Navy's Sixth Fleet, for 25 years starting in 2021.

The report comes as Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman reportedly cautioned against massive Chinese investments in Israel, and warned that a certain unnamed country planned to interfere in upcoming Israeli elections.

According to a Channel 10 report on Wednesday, Argaman said at a closed lecture at Tel Aviv University that "The Chinese influence in Israel is particularly dangerous in everything connected to strategic infrastructure and investments in large companies in the economy."

Argaman pointed to the fact that Chinese companies are building the new port in Haifa and the light rail in Tel Aviv, as well as to attempts by Chinese companies to acquire the Phoenix and Clal insurance companies.

He said that, in his opinion, legislation was needed to supervise Chinese investment in Israel. "Israeli law is lagging behind security needs in terms of supervision of investments by foreign countries, and this may be dangerous. Legislation is needed."

It was also reported that the head of the Shin Bet was the leading source in the defense establishment whose concern about the Chinese resulted in the cancellation of the acquisition of the Phoenix insurance company by a Chinese company.


6. STABBING IN JERUSALEM - TERRORISM SUSPECTED
by Orli Harari

A 15-year-old girl was stabbed on Wednesday morning while she was standing at a bus stop in Jerusalem's Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.

MDA emergency first responders treated the girl at the scene, before evacuating her for treatment at Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Preliminary reports say the victim is conscious and spoke with police investigators. She told authorities that she was stabbed by an Arab man while waiting at the bus stop. The attacker then fled.

The girl is said to be in light-to-moderate condition, with a stab wound in her neck.

Security forces are searching the area for the stabber.


7. DOCTORS TELL ISRAELI FAMILY: 'GO TO CLEVELAND'
by Sponsored Content

A Beit Shemesh mother penned a vulnerable letter to the public Sunday morning, telling the "special and challenging" story of her daughter Yael, who suffers from severe epilepsy.

According to mother Sara's retelling, Yael had an entirely normal upbringing. She had no health issues until shortly after her bat mitzvah, when she endured her first seizure. Not long afterward, the epilepsy was diagnosed.

In the years that have followed, Yael's condition has steeply worsened. Recently, the family went through with their best option: major surgery. As the surgery day arrived, Yael and her siblings were both nervous for the procedure, and excited for the promise for a better future. One can only imagine their grief when the surgery was not only unsuccessful, but caused the teenage girl's health to decline. Each seizure has the potential to kill. She now endures a shocking 20 seizures a day.

Doctors have strongly advised the family to fly to the United States as soon as possible, so that Yael can receive life-saving surgery from a specific expert surgeon in Cleveland. With a mother who stays home to tend to her epileptic daughter, and seven other siblings living off of one income, however, this is a sheer impossibility. The Friedman parents have had to do the unthinkable: To tell their daughter that they cannot save her life.

Mother Sara has opened an emergency fund with a lofty goal: To raise enough money to get her daughter the surgery which would reverse her deterioration. "We want our happy Yael back," she writes.

Sara blesses all donors with healthy children of their own. And for those whose kids are able to do such basic tasks as attend school, or be unattended, she has the following powerful words: "Please hold them close and kiss them, because we never dreamed that this would happen."

Donations to save Yael's life are being collected here.


8. LAWYERS OF 'JEWISH TERROR' SUSPECTS WALK OUT OF COURT IN PROTEST
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Attorneys for the Jewish youths recently arrested by the Shin Bet left a hearing room in the Lod District Court Wednesday morning in protest after their clients wer barred from the hearing. The youths are suspected of being involved in the death of Aysha al-Rabi, an Arab woman killed in a car accident after her vehicle was stoned.

The attorneys, Hai Haber and Amir Bracha from the Honenu organization, refused to take part in the hearing an appeal they filed to discuss the extended imprisonment of their clients, until the suspects were brought from the interrogation room to the courtroom.

For the time being, the judge, Shin Bet and police representatives stayed in the courtroom without the suspects' representatives.

"Today, there has been a new escalation. We filed an appeal to the court against the Magistrate Court's decision to extend the [suspects'] detention," said Haber outside the court house.

"As we all know, detention proceedings are held when the suspects are in the courtroom. [In this case] the investigating unit decided that it did not want to bring them [the suspects] and wanted to hold the hearing in their absence. That is not appropriate. There is no such a thing as a detention procedure in the absence of the suspect. Therefore, we the attorneys, got up and left the court room.

"If the system wants to hold one-sided hearings, where the suspects are not present, then we won't be present. They should decide what they want to do. There should be a dialogue between the investigating unit and the court to discuss how to prosecute. Be it by extending the detention or accepting the appeal, to should do what they want. We are not going to participate in this game. There is a limit to what we will accept.

"We left the court hearing and are waiting for the court to inform us [on their decision]. We will only hold discussions when the suspects are present. We are talking about minors without criminal records. Some of who are younger than sixteen," Haber added.