A7News: Presidential surprise for IDF soldiers

Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report
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Tuesday, May. 07 '19, ב' באייר תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. PRESIDENTIAL SURPRISE FOR IDF SOLDIERS
2. MURDERER OF ORI ANSBACHER FOUND FIT TO STAND TRIAL
3. ARABS SHOOT FIREWORKS AT JEWISH SCHOOL CHILDREN IN JERUSALEM
4. ARAB STUDENTS VANDALIZE MEMORIAL WALL FOR FALLEN IDF SOLDIERS
5. 'ONLY A BIG GROUND OPERATION WILL RESTORE LONG-TERM QUIET'
6. KILLED IN ASHDOD: RABBI PINCHAS MENAHEM PASHWAZMAN
7. IDF ELIMINATES TERRORIST BEHIND IRANIAN FUNDING OF HAMAS
8. 'NETANYAHU DOESN'T WANT TO TOPPLE HAMAS'


1. PRESIDENTIAL SURPRISE FOR IDF SOLDIERS
by Arutz Sheva Staff

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262813

For the fifth year in a row, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin will host the main celebrations on the morning of Israel's 71st Independence Day in a singing event called "All Israel From Jerusalem". The event, a tribute to the spirit of Israel and with Israel's leading artists, will be held on Thursday 9 May in the gardens of Beit HaNasi in Jerusalem.

The celebrations will continue with the traditional ceremony for outstanding soldiers, attended by Israel's leading political and security figures, Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Binyamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Lt-Gen Aviv Kochavi and current and former members of the IDF General Staff.

Ahead of the event, President Rivlin went out to the gardens of Beit HaNasi Tuesday morning, where he met the 120 outstanding soldiers who were rehearsing for the ceremony.

The president welcomed the excited soldiers, saying "Greetings to the best of the best. It's wonderful to see you. I welcome you here, as the president does every year. This is truly uplifting day. You are the chosen 120 from the very best who come here so that the whole State of Israel can salute you, and through you salute the entire IDF. I see berets here of all colors, and together they make up our army." The president also thanked Lt-Col Oded Nahari, who will command the event for the 18th year, and asked to makes sure that the soldiers also have an opportunity to enjoy the day."

During the event a video clip which was filmed especially for the celebrations will be screened. Starring President Rivlin and the singer Boaz Sharabi, more than 20 choirs and singing groups, kindergartens, artistic gymnastic groups and dancers from the dance department of Beit Halohem and others gathered at Beit HaNasi and were the human background, some 500 people, for the song "Halevai" ("If Only"), written by Boaz Sharabi, words by Ehud Manor.


2. MURDERER OF ORI ANSBACHER FOUND FIT TO STAND TRIAL
by Arutz Sheva Staff

Arafat Irfaiya, the accused in the murder of Ori Ansbacher, is found fit to stand trial and be held responsible for his actions. The conclusion emerges from a psychiatric evaluation conducted by the district psychiatrist, according to Kan.

After receiving the psychiatric opinion, his attorney considered requesting an additional evaluation on his behalf.

The report said that the Nahshon unit of the Israel Prison Service did not bring Irfaiya to the Jerusalem District Court this morning, even though a hearing was held on his case. The next hearing in the Ansbacher murder case will take place in another month and a half.

Irfaiya, a 29-year-old Hevron resident, confessed to the murder of the young woman Ori Ansbacher, and said that he committed the murder because he wanted to harm Jews. In his interrogation, he stated that he had not known Ansbacher beforehand, but had encountered her by chance and had acted alone. Two months ago he was indicted for murder and rape.

Ansbacher, 19, had just left the Yaelim Center for Children and Youth at Risk, where she served as a National Service girl, to the nearby forest. Irfaiya, who was in Israel without a permit, arrived with a knife. The indictment states that "The defendant noticed Ori and decided to kill her because she was Jewish. He attacked her with harsh violence and cruelty." It was also noted that Ansbacher fought the murderer, but he overcame her resistance and stabbed her many times in all parts of her body until she died.


3. ARABS SHOOT FIREWORKS AT JEWISH SCHOOL CHILDREN IN JERUSALEM
by Yehonatan Gottleib

Arab teenagers shot fireworks at Jewish children in an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood Tuesday morning, residents say.

Residents of the neighborhood of Maaleh HaZeitim, which along with Maalot David is home to over one hundred Jewish families just to the southeast of the Old City of Jerusalem, say Arab teens targeted elementary school-age children Tuesday morning, shooting fireworks at them from a distance of just several dozen yards.

The children targeted by the Arab teens fled the scene, and managed to avoid injury.

When local security guards approached the Arab teens, the attackers shot several fireworks at the guards before fleeing.

Hodaya Shomron, a resident of Maaleh HaZeitim and a mother of two of the children who were targeted by the Arab teens, described the incident in an interview with Arutz Sheva.

"We went out with the kids to the bus, like every morning. The bus waits for us just outside the neighborhood on the other side of the road. While children were boarding the bus, they shot fireworks at us from a distance of only several dozen yards."

"A group of Arab teens, between the ages of 14 to 15, were standing there, faces uncovered, and they shot straight at the kids and at the bus. They didn't shoot in the air or in some other direction, they fired straight at us, it was just like shooting. There was screaming and panic, and we immediately took the kids back in. The guards closed the gates [of the neighborhood], and together with my husband they approached the Arabs, who shot another firework at them, then fled."

"Only after ten minutes, when the police arrived, were the gates opened up again and the children able to go back to the bus and to school."

Shomron added that while stone-throwing and even firebomb attacks on buildings in the neighborhood were common, this direct attack on school children was a serious escalation.

"Something big like this hasn't happened in years. Occasionally they throw firebombs or rocks, but actually shooting at people hasn't happened here in years. Eight years ago when we moved here, the situation was much worse. We were attacked all the time, and the police were not doing their job. At one point people were unable to enter or leave the neighborhood just before a holiday – like being under siege. That's not the case today. The police take care of things and are present, but I guess it's not enough."

Shomron said residents demanded "full security around the clock for children" and the rest of the neighborhood's residents.


4. ARAB STUDENTS VANDALIZE MEMORIAL WALL FOR FALLEN IDF SOLDIERS
by Hezki Baruch

Arab students at a Jerusalem college vandalized a memorial for fallen IDF soldiers ahead of Israeli Memorial Day, which begins Tuesday night.

Candles lit in memory of fallen IDF soldiers at a memorial corner in David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem's Beit Hakerem neighborhood were extinguished by Arab students, who also scrawled 'Ramadan Kareem' (Happy Ramadan) over the memorial.

The student union condemned the incident, saying in a statement "The Student Union came up with the idea for a memorial wall with the goal of providing a place to remember those who fell in the various wars, and to allow students to write the names of their loved ones and light candles in their memory."

"Unfortunately, a person or persons decided to mock the importance of the wall and to deface it in a premeditated fashion. We obviously strongly condemn this act, and the issue has been turned over for serious action to the administration and dean of students."


5. 'ONLY A BIG GROUND OPERATION WILL RESTORE LONG-TERM QUIET'
by Shimon Cohen

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi criticized the ceasefire agreement reached with Hamas, asserting that only an operation like "Protective Edge" will achieve long-term quiet.

In an interview Tuesday morning with "Ha'olam Ha'boker" on Channel 13, Davidi said that "We don't need to respond. We need to initiate."

"The reality is complex. We see the real heroes, the parents and the children, the older people who fight against the terrorism that comes from Gaza, and we have to strengthen them and tell them 'good job,' and we continue to develop the city and the region, but we have to remember that Protective Edge's achievements were exhausted."

In Davidi's opinion, repeated agreements that fit the conception of the 'rounds' and achieve short-term quiet are not the goal. "Our goal is to achieve quiet for a long time, and only an operation like Protective Edge will achieve it."

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi
Kobi Richter/TPS
Davidi said he is talking to the prime minister and the various relevant authorities, giving voice to the position of the residents of his city.

"There was a long period led by Chief of Staff Eizenkot, in which the perception was that the achievements of Protective Edge should be exhausted, and therefore there were no eliminations or damage to buildings. The State of Israel is awakening from this great mistake, and the realization that this reality is incorrect is beginning to seep into the leadership. After all, this entire round was created in the wake of terrorist fire at the IDF and not because we said that we would hit the terrorists.

"Let us hit them, because they bring evil to the world and violate the peace of our residents. The situation that has been created came as a response, and we don't need to respond - but to initiate."


6. KILLED IN ASHDOD: RABBI PINCHAS MENAHEM PASHWAZMAN
by Michal Levi

Rabbi Pinchas Menachem Pashwazman was killed by a rocket in the city of Ashdod, the fourth person killed in the current round of fighting.

When the siren went off, the deceased ran to a stairwell to take cover but was hit by shrapnel from the rocket. Rescuers who arrived at the scene attempted to revive him and evacuated him to the hospital, but he died of his wounds on arrival.

The deceased, a young yeshiva student in his early twenties, was a Gur Hasid. He was born in Beit Shemesh to a father who serves as a teacher in the local Gur community. He moved to Ashdod after he got married. His parents are originally from Monsey, New York, and the victim was an American citizen, according to a report by Yeshiva World News.

According to the family, this is the third time that the family has lost family members in disasters. His mother's two brothers perished in disasters, one of them in a terror attack on a bus on Mount Meron, and the other in the Gesher Bnot Yaakov disaster.

He is survived by his wife and four-month old baby.



7. IDF ELIMINATES TERRORIST BEHIND IRANIAN FUNDING OF HAMAS
by David Rosenberg

Israeli forces killed a senior Hamas terrorist Sunday who had been responsible for smuggling Iranian cash into the Gaza Strip, an IDF spokesperson said in a statement.

Hamed Ahmed Abed Khudari, 34, was eliminated in an Israeli airstrike Sunday afternoon, as part of a large-scale Israeli retaliation against a massive wave of rocket attacks from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Gaza health officials confirmed Sunday afternoon that Khudari had been killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Hamas identified Khudari as one of its commanding officers. He is the fifth casualty reported in Gaza since Israel launched its retaliatory attacks on the Hamas-ruled Strip following a massive wave of rocket attacks that have left three Israelis dead and half a dozen injured.

Two Israelis, ages 40 and 22, were killed Sunday afternoon after a rocket fired from Gaza struck a factory in the coastal city of Ashkelon. On Saturday, 58-year-old Moshe Agadi was killed by a rocket strike on Ashkelon.

Khudari, 34, was the owner of a money-changing company which had been declared a terrorist group in 2018, and had smuggled large amounts of cash from Iran to Islamic Jihad and Hamas, providing the cash-strapped terrorist groups with much-needed foreign currency.

Israeli security forces say Khudari's elimination was a joint effort of the IDF and Shin Bet internal security agency.

"A short while ago, Hamed Ahmed Abed Khudari," an IDF spokesperson said, "was killed in a joint IDF and ISA operation. Khudari was responsible for substantial cash transfers from Iran to terror organizations operating within the Gaza Strip.

"Khudari was the owner of the monetary exchange company, Hamed Co. for Exchange / Al Wefaq Co. for Exchange, which Israel designated a terrorist organization in June 2018.

"Khudari's financial activity, which served as Iran's spearhead in the Gaza Strip, contributed significantly to the promotion of terror activities and the military buildup of terror organizations in the Gaza Strip.

"The IDF and ISA will continue operating to thwart and disrupt Iran's attempts to promote terror activity from within the Gaza Strip by funding terror organizations such as Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the other terror organizations in the Gaza Strip."

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262703


8. 'NETANYAHU DOESN'T WANT TO TOPPLE HAMAS'
by Hezki Baruch

National Union Chairman MK Betzalel Smotrich says he discerns within the Prime Minister and the defense establishment a lack of willingness to deal with the root of the Hamas problem in Gaza.

"The source of Israel's insufficiently determined responses in recent rounds to Hamas stems from a strategic trap: Netanyahu doesn't want to topple the Hamas government because there really is no alternative to Hamas rule; he doesn't want to crown Abbas leader of Gaza, and in this I agree with him 100 percent," Smotrich said in an interview with Arutz Sheva.

"Today, Netanyahu and Israeli society have no willingness to understand that the real solution requires courage to take responsibility for what's happening in the Gaza Strip, to bring down Hamas, to return there and then we'll take care of the root cause of what's happening in the Gaza Strip - remove the three quarters of the population who were brought there and are being maintained by the Arab states as a kind of cluster bomb against the State of Israel.

"As long as we aren't willing to go to this real root course," Smotrich warns, "we're just getting tangled up in tactical responses."

He says, "Even on the tactical level, the response must be much more determined for a simple reason: Hamas must lose the desire to attack the State of Israel, and which should end with 700 Hamas terrorists killed, at least one for every missile fired at the State of Israel. It should take Hamas a very long time to rebuild so that they'll think a hundred times before launching the next incendiary balloon towards the State of Israel."

The price of hesitation is paid, he says, by Israeli citizens. "It's inconceivable that an entire generation of children and youth will grow with these anxieties, and it's inconceivable that a million-and-a-half citizens enter the shelters for days. Our national pride and honor cannot be eroded as well as deterrence. Hezbollah is watching from the north, seeing what's happening in the south, and getting an appetite."

The main problem facing the defense establishment today, Smotrich says, is that of deterrence. "My role in the next government will be to say again and again that there is no choice but to look directly at reality in Gaza and to change it completely. I believe the Israeli public will gradually understand this and then leadership will also have more strength, courage, and public legitimacy to do so. Until then, we should try to make the tactical responses sharper."

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262767