A7News: Teens killed in crash east of Jerusalem identified

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Friday, Jul. 12 '19, ט' בתמוז תשע"ט





HEADLINES:
1. TEENS KILLED IN CRASH EAST OF JERUSALEM IDENTIFIED
2. NEW RELIGIOUS ZIONIST PARTY NAMED
3. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ISRAELI CUSTOMS INSPECTOR
4. LIKUD RIPS BLUE & WHITE FOR HIRING EX-OBAMA STRATEGIST
5. PA: WE HAVE ACHIEVED A PALESTINIAN DEMOGRAPHIC MAJORITY
6. IAEA FINDS NUCLEAR MATERIAL IN IRAN WAREHOUSE
7. IDF: KILLING OF HAMAS MEMBER A MISTAKE
8. BIDEN: US-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP MUST BE 'IRONCLAD'


1. TEENS KILLED IN CRASH EAST OF JERUSALEM IDENTIFIED
by Arutz Sheva Staff

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265884

The victims killed in Friday morning's fatal car accident east of Jerusalem have been identified as two Israeli teens from Gush Etzion, south of the capital.

The victims are Amit Barlev and Hillel Lalum, both 17-years-old, were residents of the town of Elazar, in Gush Etzion.

Funerals for the two victims are set for 4:00 p.m. Friday afternoon at the Kfar Etzion cemetery in Gush Etzion.

"Hillel Lalum, Ben Liav and Nataly, the brother of Eli, Ora, Yoel, and Yishai, was about to celebrate his 18th birthday this week," the town of Elazar said in a statement Friday afternoon.

"He was going to study at the yeshiva in Bruchin. He was a great light for his family."

Barlev was also about to reach his 18th birthday, the town noted.

"Amit Barlev, a young man so full of light. He was going to celebrate his 18th birthday in a few days. He was a young man who loved his people, his country, and its land."

Barlev and Lalum were killed in an early-morning accident on Route 1, which leads from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, on a segment of the road near the Israeli town of Mitzpeh Yericho.

A third victim, also 18 years old, was seriously injured in the accident and was evacuated by MDA emergency first responders to Hadassah Mount Scopus Medical Center in Jerusalem.

The accident occurred before dawn Friday morning, when the car carrying the three young men flipped over, for reasons which remain unclear.

"This was a very serious accident," said MDA paramedic Nissan Hafetz and MDA first-responder Aviv Biton. "When we got there, we saw a crushed car which had been flipped over and was sitting upside down. There were three young people in their 20s traveling in the car. One of them was crushed by the car, while the other two were trapped inside."

"We did an initial assessment and found that the young man who had been crushed by the car, as well as one of the two who had been trapped inside, were unconscious, had no heartbeat and were not breathing and had suffered severe injuries to multiple organs."

"After our medical examinations, we were forced to declare them dead at the scene. The third young man was conscious, and after extensive efforts by rescue teams to free him, we provided him with life-saving medical treatment. He was suffering from injuries to multiple organs, and we evacuated him to the hospital while continuing to treat him. He was fully conscious and in serious condition."


2. NEW RELIGIOUS ZIONIST PARTY NAMED
by David Rosenberg

A prominent Religious Zionist yeshiva in Jerusalem unveiled the name and logo of its new political party, which is expected to run in this September's Knesset election.

The Har Hamor Yeshiva, led by Rabbi Tzvi Tau, is preparing to launch its own political party, under the name "Noam: Am Normali BeArtzenu" [A Normal People In Our Own Land].

Channel 2's Yair Cherki released the first images of the new party's logo Friday, along with excerpts from a recent speech by Rabbi Tau which suggest the party's focus will be on traditional values and social conservatism.

"They've created an atmosphere primed for promoting 'shaming' when you don't use their 'newspeak' and or follow their politically correctness," said Rabbi Tau, criticizing the Israeli Left for changing social norms, and the Israeli Right for not doing enough to preserve traditional values.

The Left, Rabbi Tau said in an apparent criticism of the LGBT movement, "doesn't care about anyone. They don't really care about what they say is being considerate of minority groups, of the wretched, of the helpless, [it's not about] giving them dignity or helping them or raising them up, giving them self-confidence…. That isn't it at all. They are using them in a cheap way, burying them, keeping them in their difficult situations with no way out, no way of improving [their situation] because this is 'in their nature', and you must not treat it, and no psychologist today would dare say that it can be treated, even though they know deep down that it can be treated, but you're not allowed to say it."

Last week, activists from the yeshiva gathered at a Jerusalem event hall to discuss the possibility of launching a new political party focus on promoting social conservatism.

A former senior aide to United Right chief and Education Minister Rafi Peretz, who broke away from the Jewish Home recently, is involved in the planning of the new party, which may adopt the long-standing policy of haredi parties of not including women on its Knesset slate.

Despite the release of the Noam party's name and logo, no official announcement of the party's launch has been made.

According to a recent report by the Kipa website, the Otzma Yehudit party, which split recently from the United Right, is in talks with the Har Hamor Yeshiva for a possible joint run.

In 2015, Otzma Yehudit allied itself with the Yahad party of former Shas chief Eli Yishai, running on a joint ticket for the 19th Knesset. Rabbi Tau endorsed the joint ticket, marking the first time the Har Hamor dean had explicitly endorsed a political party.


3. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF AN ISRAELI CUSTOMS INSPECTOR
by Sara Rubenstein

"I opened the suitcase and it was full of laffas (the Arabic word for flatbread)," customs inspector Amir Azran said. "I didn't understand at first - it seemed strange to me. I looked more closely and there was a black plastic bag inside the laffa itself. When I opened the bag I saw tin foil, and when I opened the foil, I saw a carton of cigarettes. Apparently, they were confident that the laffa and the tin foil would obscure the cigarettes. We seized almost 100 cartons of cigarettes and there were also a hundred laffas."

Kan News recently profiled Amir Azran, 33, who works for the Tax Authority as a senior customs inspector in Ben Gurion. He shares that it 's a very pressured job. "How do you decide among the hundreds of people who to inspect? The area is like a pressure cooker, always full of people. I 'm in a situation where I always feel tense."

The video shows Azran stopping a traveler with two packages of cigarette cartons. Each traveler is only allowed to bring in one package of cigarettes into Israel and the traveler will now have to pay a fine of NIS 750 plus a NIS 750 tax.

"Cigarettes are the most popular goods we encounter," Azran says. "The price of cigarettes in Israel is high. Their goal is to bring them to Israel and sell them for a bit cheaper than they're sold for in Israel."

Azran also discusses the phenomenon of smuggling animals into Israel - small dogs - in all types of crazy ways. "We've found them in picnic baskets, in bags, crowded together - some of them already dead. These dogs can be bought cheaply abroad but are very expensive in Israel - costing anywhere between NIS 5,000- NIS 10,00. We've found rare frogs smuggled in somebody's jacket pocket, lizards in socks - we find strange things."

Azran says the challenge is to figure out which traveler to take aside among the hordes of people. "I have to figure it out in the least amount of time - to know which person to take aside to inspect his or her luggage."

Few people are happy about being stopped by customs inspectors after a long and tiring flight. "The Jewish people are very diverse - in their personalities and their reactions. If I could ask one thing from all our wonderful citizens, to disembark from their flight with a bit more patience than they usually do," Azran concludes.

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265888


4. LIKUD RIPS BLUE & WHITE FOR HIRING EX-OBAMA STRATEGIST
by Sara Rubenstein

In a somber but dramatic tone, the video narrator lists the anti-Israel actions of Blue and White's new campaign strategist and implores the center-left party to fire him, in a new Likud campaign ad published on Friday.

"Meet the new strategist of Gantz and Lapid, Joel Benenson, a far-left politician in the United States," the narrator says on the Likud campaign video. "Let's go over his resume. He told Hillary Clinton to refrain from inviting Israel to public events. He was active in advancing the dangerous nuclear agreement with Iran. How does a man like this get work in Israel? Gantz and Lapid, fire him."

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265883

"Gantz and Lapid, have you gone crazy?" is written below the video, which was published on Prime Minister's Benjamin Netanyahu's Twitter account.

Blue and White announced earlier this week that they recruited Benenson as a campaign strategist with a focus on data analysis.

"Recruiting the services of American polling experts and strategic advisers isn't a dramatic move," Blue and White officials told Maariv, adding that "it was done primarily to take advantage of their immense poll analysis database and findings in the field."

Benenson, 66, is known for serving as the political strategist for both of former President Barack Obama's campaigns as well as serving as the chief strategist for Hillary Clinton's failed campaign for president in 2016.

Benenson, who is Jewish, is the CEO of Benenson Strategy Group, a strategic consulting firm and has served as a strategist for many - mostly Democratic - political campaigns. He has also served as a consultant to large American corporations as well as CEOs.


5. PA: WE HAVE ACHIEVED A PALESTINIAN DEMOGRAPHIC MAJORITY
by Dalit Halevi

Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet leader Mohammad Shtayyeh claimed on Thursday that statistics show that there is a Palestinian demographic majority in the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

At a meeting of the advisory council of the PA's Statistics Authority, Shtayyeh said that the number of Palestinian Arabs now stands at 6.8 million compared to 6.6 million Jews, and as such the world must internalize the significance of demography in order to advance the two-state solution.

Shtayyeh blasted Israel and called it a "racist state", claiming that this is reflected in its actions and legislation.

The high rate of unemployment in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza is not the result of a mistaken economic policy, claimed the PA leader, but of the policy of "occupation", Israeli control of Area C and the transformation of the Palestinian economy as one that is serving the Israeli economy.

Shtayyeh recently blamed Israel for the PA's financial crisis, claiming that crisis comes as a result of Israel's deduction from the salary that the PA pays to families of terrorists.

The PA has repeatedly asked for foreign donations in recent years, claiming it is on the verge of collapse due to a worsening financial crisis.

At the same time, it continues to spend six percent of the PA's annual budget to pay $4.5 million a month to jailed terrorists and another $6.5 million to their families.



6. IAEA FINDS NUCLEAR MATERIAL IN IRAN WAREHOUSE
by Gary Willig

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors found evidence of radioactive activity in a warehouse in Tehran that Prime Minister Netanyahu revealed in his UN speech in September, Channel 13 News reported Thursday evening.

In his speech at the United Nations, Netanyahu claimed that in August 2018, the Iranians removed 15 kilograms of enriched uranium from the atomic reactor, which it did not declare before the International Atomic Energy Agency, and said it was one of a series of steps the Iranians had taken to "cleanse" the site from incriminating evidence. Instead, they claimed that this was a carpet factory and denied that any nuclear activity had taken place.

Israel gave the IAEA information on the suspect warehouse and UN inspectors visited the site several times. At their last visit in March, inspectors found traces of radioactive materials and began preparing a report on their findings.

According to senior Israeli officials, inspections by UN inspectors have found evidence of nuclear material, and in recent weeks it has been confirmed. Senior officials have noted that much evidence has been found of radioactive contamination indicating that nuclear materials that Iran has not reported have been kept.

The storage of nuclear materials and equipment at a secret site without reporting to the IAEA is a grave breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty signed by Iran.

Such an official statement by the IAEA may have far-reaching international political implications for Iran. The United States and Israel hope that in the next few days the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will publish a report that will include the damning findings and distribute it to all the member states of the organization's board of directors.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with US President Donald Trump regarding the Iranian issue. It was the second such call in a week. The Prime Minister's Office said that Netanyahu expressed appreciation for the President's intention to increase sanctions against Iran.


7. IDF: KILLING OF HAMAS MEMBER A MISTAKE
by Arutz Sheva Staff

The IDF Spokesman's Office said Thursday that the shooting of a Hamas member at the Gaza border was a mistake.

"During the morning hours, IDF forces identified a number of Palestinians in the fence area in the northern Gaza Strip," the statement said.

"From an initial investigation it appears that an activist under the Hamas control force arrived at the fence area following two Palestinians who were moving nearby," the IDF explained.

"In retrospect, it transpires that an IDF force that arrived at the incident identified the law enforcement activist as an armed terrorist and opened fire out of that misunderstanding. The incident will be investigated," the army said.


8. BIDEN: US-ISRAEL RELATIONSHIP MUST BE 'IRONCLAD'
by Elad Benari

📹 To watch the video: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/265860

In a talk laying out the foreign policy principles he would hew to as president, former Vice President Joe Biden said the United States' relationship with Israel must be "ironclad," whatever one's feelings about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, JTA reports.

Speaking at the City University of New York, Biden stressed the importance of "sustaining our ironclad commitments to Israel's security regardless of how much you may disagree with its current leader."

While in office, Biden repeatedly insisted that he was a friend of Netanyahu's, even amid ongoing tensions between the US and Israel during former President Barack Obama's term.

At a Rabbinical Assembly convention during the 2012 presidential campaign, Biden told an anecdote about once signing a photo for Netanyahu with this inscription: "I don't agree with a damn thing you say, but I love ya."

In his remarks on Thursday Biden, who is leading in the polls among 25 Democrats running for their party's nomination, also said he would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal, from which President Donald Trump withdrew last year.

"If Tehran returns to compliance with the deal I'd rejoin the agreement and work with our allies to strengthen and extend it," Biden said, "while more effectively pushing back against Iran's more destabilizing activities which under the agreement we were allowed to do — we had partners to do with us."

The former Vice President recently criticized President Donald Trump's strategy on Iran as a "self-inflicted disaster" that could push the United States towards war with a major adversary.

As a result of Trump's move, Biden said, "Iran is building back up its nuclear capability."

While Trump promised that exiting the deal and slapping sanctions on Iran would halt its belligerence in the region, "they've only gotten more aggressive," Biden charged.

While Biden urged the American public to give Trump a chance after he was elected, the two have also locked horns.

During the election campaign, Biden had harsh criticism for Trump, saying he had "no clue". In another instance, Biden said that Trump "would've loved Stalin".