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Arutz Sheva Daily Israel Report http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com ------------------------------------------------ Delivered Daily via Email, Sunday thru Friday Monday, Sep. 16 '19, ט"ז באלול תשע"ט HEADLINES: 1. WHAT PROMPTED IRAN'S MASSIVE ATTACK ON SAUDI OIL INDUSTRY? 2. REPORT: AG SLAMMED THE BRAKES ON GAZA OPERATION 3. WATCH: BORIS JOHNSON TRIES - BUT FAILS - TO BLOW SHOFAR 4. 'ONE YEAR AGO, EVERYTHING CHANGED FOREVER' 5. IRAN SAYS NO TO TRUMP-ROUHANI MEETING AT UN 6. 'NETANYAHU AND HIS INNER-CIRCLE HATE ME PERSONALLY' 7. NOAM PARTY WITHDRAWS FROM THE ELECTIONS 8. NETANYAHU: WE WILL APPLY SOVEREIGNTY EARLY IN THE NEXT GOVT. 1. WHAT PROMPTED IRAN'S MASSIVE ATTACK ON SAUDI OIL INDUSTRY? by Yochanan Visser Iran just launched a massive attack on Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, which disrupted five percent of the world’s oil supply. Although Iran denies any involvement in the attack with explosives-loaded drones and cruise missiles which was claimed by the Iranian proxy Ansar Allah (Houthi) militia in Yemen, American officials say the attack was carried out from Iraqi soil by the al-Hashd al-Sha’abi umbrella organization of predominantly Shiite militias. Al-Hashd al-Sha’abi was founded by Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq to fight Islamic State but recently the organization has expanded its operations and is now carrying out missions in Syria and Saudi Arabia. For this reason, the Israeli military earlier this year decided to target al-Hashd al-Sha’abi and uses drones to disrupt the supply of sophisticated Iranian weapons to Iraq. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote on Twitter that he had evidence the attacks on Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Aramco oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais near the Iraqi border should be attributed to Iran and its Iraqi proxy. “Tehran is behind nearly 100 attacks on Saudi Arabia while Rouhani and Zarif pretend to engage in diplomacy. Amid all the calls for de-escalation, Iran has now launched an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply. There is no evidence the attacks came from Yemen," Pompeo wrote on his Twitter account referring to the Iranian President and Minister of Foreign Affairs Javad Zarif. Pompeo added that Iran would be held “accountable for its aggression” and that the US would work with other oil suppliers to make up for the shortfall in Saudi Arabia’s oil output. “There's no doubt that Iran is responsible for this. No matter how you slice it, there's no escaping it. There's no other candidate," another senior US official told reporters in Washington DC. Iran responded by claiming the allegations against the Islamic Republic were “pointless” and by boasting it was ready for “full-fledged” war. The commander of the aerospace force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Amir Ali Hajizadeh furthermore threatened the US military in the Middle East and claimed all US bases and aircraft carriers were within range of Iranian ballistic missiles. The Iranian threats were answered by President Donald J. Trump who said on Twitter that the US military was “locked and loaded” for a potential response to the attack on the oil facilities of its most important Arab ally. “There is reason to believe that we know the culprit, are locked and loaded depending on verification, but are waiting to hear from the Kingdom (Saudi Arabia) as to who they believe was the cause of this attack, and under what terms we would proceed," Trump wrote on his Twitter account. The American leader also authorized the use of the US emergency oil stockpile to ensure there would be no disruptions in the world’s oil supply while Saudi Arabia did the same. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham now calls for US attacks on Iranian oil facilities and said that Iran was “not interested in peace”. The reason why Iran continues to attack Saudi Arabia via its proxies in Yemen and Iraq lies in the so-called ‘Mahdi doctrine’. One of the pillars of this messianic doctrine, which envisions the return of the Shiite messiah Mahdi, also called the hidden twelfth imam, is the beginning of an Islamic uprising that will spread all over the world. This uprising will be accompanied by mayhem and chaos as well as an increase in natural and man-made disasters. Another important event which will hasten the coming of the Shi’ite messiah is “a holy revolution” which is to take place in Yemen,” according to a documentary produced by the Iranian regime in 2011. The (Shiite) soldiers of Mahdi will enter Saudi Arabia and the Muslim holy places via Yemen after a bloody battle which involves the Houthis, an Arab legion, the U.S. and Israel, according to the documentary “the Coming is upon us”. The documentary also predicts the annihilation of Israel which according to the Iranian regime will occur after additional forces will arrive from Iraq. “The annihilation of the Zionist regime and the conquering of ‘Beitol Moghadas’ (Jerusalem) is one of the most important events in the age of the Coming,” the voiceover in the movie says. From here it is easy to understand why Iran is using Yemen and Iraq as springboards for attacks on Saudi Arabia and why Iran is building up Shiite forces in Syria and Iraq as a preparation for a war with Israel. It also explains why Iran is waging a war of attrition against Israel via its proxies in Gaza and Lebanon. According to the Mahdi doctrine, Iraq should become the center of the Shiite revolution which will spread across the globe because the Shiite messiah will turn Baghdad into the capital of his kingdom. Iran is constantly meddling in Iraq’s domestic policies and has succeeded to integrate the al-Hashd al-Shaabi militias into the Iraqi military which receives its weapons from the US mainly. 2. REPORT: AG SLAMMED THE BRAKES ON GAZA OPERATION by Arutz Sheva Staff Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu planned to conduct a widescale military operation in Gaza last week, but was stopped by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, Haaretz reported Monday morning. According to the report, Mandelblit said such an operation requires the approval of the cabinet. The report also said that Netanyahu wanted to launch a widescale attack on Gaza due to the rocket fire perpetrated last week by the Islamic Jihad terror group. As a result of Mandelblit's refusal to allow the operation, the IDF responded by attacking 15 terror targets in Gaza. Last week, Gaza terror groups fired rockets at Israel on Tuesday night, as well as from Wednesday afternoon until just after midnight Thursday morning. 3. WATCH: BORIS JOHNSON TRIES - BUT FAILS - TO BLOW SHOFAR by Marcy Oster, JTA 📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/268957 British Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempted, and failed, to blow a shofar while on a visit to northern England. During a visit on Friday to meet voters in the Labour stronghold of Doncaster, Yorkshire, the newly minted prime minister was approached by a woman who invited him to “blow the holy shofar.” She explained that the instrument, which she said is “like a trumpet,” is from Israel. Johnson expressed concern about whether he is allowed to blow the holy instrument, used by Jews on Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur and during the month leading up to the high holy days, and the woman responded that “God has authorized you.” The exchange was posted in a video online by Britain’s Channel 5 News. Johnson was not able to get a sound out of the instrument, but managed to utter the age-old pun “Shofar so good,” before handing it back to the woman. Johnson previously tried to blow the shofar in 2011, when the mayor of London, during a ground-breaking ceremony for London’s new Jewish Community Center building in Finchley, North London, which took place the day before Yom Kippur. He managed to get a sound out of it that time, after a short tutorial by then-chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks. 📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/268957 4. 'ONE YEAR AGO, EVERYTHING CHANGED FOREVER' by Hillel Fuld One year ago, everything changed forever. I’ve never told this story, at least not in a public manner. Honestly, not sure I’ll make it through this post, but if you are reading this, I decided to hit “Publish”. It was a Sunday morning like any Sunday morning. I was at Hometalk doing my thing. I had a few tabs open on my browser, like I always do. One of them was Israeli news. I opened that tab just to check what’s happening in the country and there it was. “Another day, another freaking terrorist attack.” Those were my thoughts. Only this attack was different. No, not because my brother was the victim. I had no idea about that and was only going to find out later. This one was different because it was recorded. On video. By surveillance cameras. That means that on that website there was a big Play button. The video. What does one do? They click Play. And so I did. What the heck was I was watching? A Palestinian kid stab a grown man, a fairly large man, and then the man turns around and chases the terrorist down after he was already stabbed? Wait, what? He just jumped over a wall? He shot him. Who was this guy and what was running through his veins because it sure wasn’t the same stuff I had in my veins. “What a hero”, I thought to myself! So I did what I always do and I asked in the Fuld WhatsApp group, and I quote, “Is everyone ok?” Yes. Smiley and all. Now here is where things get blurry. Doni, my older brother, the one who is one older than Ari in the lineup, Doni called me. As I remember it, he said two words to me. “It’s Ari.” I had no idea what he was saying. What was he talking about? What was Ari? I quickly grabbed my stuff and raced to the hospital. Like I don’t know how I made it there in one piece. On the way, I called Doni for an update. He said “Don’t rush.” It was over. That moment was the end and the beginning of the hell that was the year that followed. The hospital. That room. Miriam. Natan. My parents. Everyone. A scene burned on my brain forever. Whether I like it or not. The moment Natan walked in from school. Frozen. Tears. Shock. Hugs. No one rehearsed such a scenario. What do you even say? What do you do? How do you minimize the trauma? You can’t. You can try. But you can’t. His Bar Mitzvah was around the corner. “It can’t be.” My mom kept repeating those words. She was right. It couldn’t be. Ari? The bull! The lion, as he’d later be named? Taken down by a teenager with a knife? Later it all became clear. That sprint? That jump over the wall? The terrorist was after his next victim. Ari saw that. No blood in his veins? That’s not an excuse. So he sprinted. And saved her. She became part of the family as a result. The thoughts rushing in my head from that moment till now. Never stopped for a second. The questions, do we want to see the body and say goodbye? What were they all talking about? This seriously cannot be reality. Just no. When people say “it feels like yesterday” about an event in the distant past, I didn’t think they meant it literally. This feels like I just watched that video. This second. I better rush to the hospital. A year? No way. But I had to get organized at that point. What about my kids? This was all over national news. How would they find out? From their friends in school? My God. Left the hospital to rush to them. We split up and I went to tell Aviel. Big mistake. He’s a very sensitive one. Very. The moment I told him? I’ll never ever forget that second. Ever. I got to his school. They had isolated him. So he didn’t find out. He had no idea why. They said they wanted to give him some feedback. When he saw me, his confusion increased. I asked his rabbi to leave us alone. I told him “Uncle Ari. Something bad happened. An attack. He saved someone’s life. But he’s gone.” He didn’t cry. He didn’t have tears flowing down his face. He had a tear. One. Sat there. Still. One tear. They were close. They clowned around a lot. He was his big mighty black belt uncle. One tear. For the next few weeks and months, I tried to get back to myself. Failed miserably. My family is insanely resilient. That’s a word I didn’t comprehend before. I didn’t understand what that meant. Nor did I understand the word trauma. But they lived. They mourned. They cried. They suffered. They still are. Endlessly. But from where I was sitting, I was the only one who couldn’t put on my socks in the morning. I’m probably wrong. I know I am actually. We all react differently but all I know is, I was very concerned for my future. My well being wasn’t guaranteed anymore. My stability wasn’t obvious anymore, not emotional, physical, or financial. Nothing was for sure any more. I was the only brother who didn’t speak at the funeral. Me, the brother who makes a living from talking. But I couldn’t. Talk. I couldn’t. I try not to think about that. Maybe I should have. How could I not? I tell myself I had nothing to add to what everyone else said. It’s true. It was the middle of the night. Should I have spoken just to speak? What would I have said? How would I have controlled the uncontrollable crying) the words wouldn’t have come out anyway. I tell myself that. Repeatedly. Luckily, my father, the rock of this family, the one who told us countless times over the past year that this is the card we were dealt and we need to live, luckily he spoke on my behalf and brought the world to tears. Over the next 12 months, I learned about heroism. I thought I knew Miriam. I didn’t. She taught me who she was. Like who she really was. A hero. A superhero. Just like her husband. I thought I knew Tamar. I didn’t. I got to know her. A rock. Like her Abba. She got engaged and married to Michaya, a man Ari loved. Naomi. “How was she strong?” A question I asked myself thousands of times. Thousands. Yakir. A 6” 6’ giant whose insides make his physical body seem microscopic. And Natan, such maturity. Strength. The little guy is anything but little. My brothers? Broken but strong. Every one of them. As for me, there were books. There were words. There were stories. There were messages. Everything contributed a little bit to helping me get out of bed. Ari created a tsunami in this world the ripples of which I believe we’ll feel for decades. He left this world the way only he would want to leave this world. He wrote the script of his death and that script was his life. The life of a hero. He left behind a legacy of a hero, an extended family of heroes, a group of close friends who are all heroes, and me, his very sad little brother. One whole year. 5. IRAN SAYS NO TO TRUMP-ROUHANI MEETING AT UN by David Rosenberg Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will not meet with President Donald Trump in New York later this month, a Iranian Foreign Ministry official announced Monday. Speaking with reporters Monday morning, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said that his government had ruled out a meeting between President Rouhani and President Donald Trump at the sidelines of the opening of the United Nations General Assembly this month. “Such a meeting is not on our agenda,” said Mousavi, “and we don’t think it will happen in New York. Mousavi also said that Iranian Foreign Ministry Mohammad Javad Zarif will likely accompany Rouhani to the United Nations. “If [necessary] grounds are provided, the foreign minister will depart for New York along with the president to attend the United Nations General Assembly.” The announcement came after President Trump said Sunday that reports he was willing to meet with Rouhani with no preconditions were “fake news”. “The Fake News is saying that I am willing to meet with Iran, ‘No Conditions.’ That is an incorrect statement (as usual!),” Trump tweeted. Trump recently expressed an openness to meeting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, though the Iranian President made clear that he will not meet Trump unless all sanctions against Tehran are unilaterally lifted by the US. The President further stated that he had "no problem" with holding a meeting with Rouhani hours after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu revealed the existence of another secret nuclear facility in Iran. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday that Trump could meet Rouhani with “no preconditions”, but he also stressed the US would be “maintaining the maximum pressure campaign” on the Islamic Republic. US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin made clear last week that there are currently "no plans" for Trump to meet Rouhani. “Secretary Pompeo, I and the rest of the national security team are executing on a maximum pressure strategy with Iran. There’s no question that it’s working. We have cut off their money. And that’s the reason why if they do come back to the negotiating table, they are coming back,” he added. 6. 'NETANYAHU AND HIS INNER-CIRCLE HATE ME PERSONALLY' by Hezki Baruch 📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/268913 Knesset candidates from the Yamina party gathered for an emergency party meeting in Airport City Sunday afternoon. The emergency meeting was called Sunday, amid concerns the Likud party may draw large numbers of voters from Yamina in Tuesday’s election. At the conclusion of the meeting, party chairwoman Ayelet Shaked addressed reporters, claiming that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu planned to turn the center-left Blue and White party after the elections to form a national unity government. "Netanyahu never wanted us in his government," said Shaked, "each time we had to make special efforts to enter the government. The voters tend to forget Netanyahu's political history and believe his fake news that [Yamina] can be small and weak." The Yamina chairwoman accused the prime minister and the Likud of deliberately focusing its campaign efforts on the religious-Zionist camp, calling it a concerted effort to undermine Yamina. “Netanyahu always turns to our voters, but never to Shas voters, or United Torah Judaism voters, and, of course, he never fights intensively with Liberman, who has moved over to the left-wing bloc.” Shaked also alluded to reports that Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, had a personal grudge against Shaked and Naftali Bennett. "You’ve never heard this from me, but it's the truth. The people around Netanyahu have something against us, and I don't know why and where this is coming from. This hurts me." The former Justice Minister also responded to criticism of Yamina’s publication of a map presenting what it said could be the future borders of Israel if Netanyahu implements the US-backed ‘Deal of the Century’ Middle East peace plan. Earlier on Sunday, a senior US official chided Yamina for releasing a “highly inaccurate” map of the peace plan’s division of Judea and Samaria. In her address, Shaked called on Netanyahu and the White House to release details regarding the future of Judea and Samaria prior to Tuesday’s Knesset election. “Mr. Prime Minister: Where is the real map?” “If this isn’t the real map, we want to see what the real one is, before the elections. The people of Israel deserves to know what they’re voting for.” "Netanyahu is trying to eliminate Yamina and Religious Zionism," Yamina said Saturday. "We haven't heard a word aimed at Shas voters." "The big party's bluff was exposed after the previous elections. The only thing that counts is the number of people recommending you." "If Yamina is small, the Likud will form a government with the left. Only a large Yamina will pull the government to the right." 7. NOAM PARTY WITHDRAWS FROM THE ELECTIONS by Arutz Sheva Staff The leaders of the Noam party will announce Sunday afternoon at a gathering of party activists at the Ramada Hotel in Jerusalem that the faction has dropped out of the race for the 22nd Knesset. The party claims to have succeeded in recruiting some 70,000 supporters, or roughly half of the number needed to enter the Knesset, and sees the campaign as a significant success despite indicating slim chances for the party to pass the electoral threshold. The Noam leaders will not endorse any party when they withdraw. "There is no doubt that this is a tremendous success," said Rabbi Dror Aryeh - the party's chairman. "We have succeeded through thousands of volunteers, to reveal to the people of Israel the attempt by foreigners to take over the state and dismantle our core values as a people and as a state." The Noam party's withdrawal comes just two days before the elections on Tuesday. 8. NETANYAHU: WE WILL APPLY SOVEREIGNTY EARLY IN THE NEXT GOVT. by Arutz Sheva Staff Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed a tweet by President Trump about the possibility of a defense agreement between Israel and the US at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday. "I agreed with Trump to promote a historic defense alliance between the US and Israel. This adds a huge layer of deterrence to our enemy, along with preserving the freedom of action of our forces," the prime minister said. Following his remarks, Netanyahu reiterated last week's pledge to apply Israeli sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea. "We will apply sovereignty in the Jordan Valley and the Northern Dead Sea as soon as the next government is established in the next Knesset. I have appointed a work team headed by the director of the Prime Minister's Office, which will formulate an outline for applying sovereignty," said Netanyahu. The prime minister noted, "Applying Israeli sovereignty to all our communities in Judea and Samaria, including the blocs and the territory outside the blocs, and other areas that are essential for our security and our heritage - these things will come up in the "Deal of the Century" plan, which will come very soon after the elections." 📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/268904 | |
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