January 10, 2018
Rabbi killed in terror attack near Havat Gilad in Samaria
Rabbi Raziel Shevach, 35, the father of six children, was killed on Tuesday night (9th) close to the Havat Gilad outpost in central Samaria, in a drive-by shooting attack.
The victim was shot in his neck and upper body and was taken to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba, where doctors pronounced his death.
Meir Hospital stated that the victim arrived without a pulse, was not breathing and showed no signs of life.
The IDF closed off all roads in the area as a manhunt is underway for the terrorist.
(jpost.com; israelnn.com)
Israel strikes weapons depots near Damascus, Syrian army says
Syrian media on Tuesday (9th) alleged that Israel mounted three strikes on targets near Damascus overnight. The sites held weapon caches likely earmarked for Hizbullah. The reports were not corroborated by any Israeli source.
The Syrian army said the IDF fired surface-to-surface missiles from the Golan Heights, and claimed that Syrian defenses downed one of them.
(israelhayom.com)
Mossad Chief: ‘We have eyes, ears and more in Iran’
Mossad Chief Yossi Cohen spoke out at a Ministry of Finance Conference Tuesday morning (9th) regarding the recent protests in Iran, according to Kan Radio. He stated that “Israel has eyes, ears and more there, too,” and added that he would be “happy to see a social revolution in Iran.”
Cohen then warned that “the Iranians are coasting into the Middle East undisturbed and with very large forces, in a way that virtually creates an air and land corridor that pours fighters into the region in order to actualize the Iranian vision.”
In October, Cohen declared that Iran was the primary target of the Mossad’s actions, as it retains its nuclear ambitions and continues to threaten Israel through proxies in Syria and Lebanon, and continues to support Hamas.
(jpost.com; reuters.com)
Iranians turn to tech tools to evade Internet censors – Sam Schechner
Authorities in Tehran have ratcheted up their policing of the Internet as part of an attempt to stamp out the most far-reaching protests in Iran since 2009. But the crackdown is driving millions of Iranians to tech tools that can help them evade censors, potentially weakening government efforts to control access to information online.
Psiphon Inc., a Toronto-based firm that makes one such app, said the number of unique users a day in Iran jumped from about 3 million to more than 10 million. “By the time they wake up, the government will have lost control of the Internet,” said Mehdi Yahyanejad, executive director of NetFreedom Pioneers, a California-based nonprofit that focuses on Iran and develops freedom of information tools.
(wallstreetjournal.com)
Jerusalem police prevent gathering of Palestinian terror group
Jerusalem Police Chief Yoram Halevy issued an order preventing a planned gathering in eastern Jerusalem of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), a Palestinian terror group.
The event was slated to take place Tuesday (9th), but officers arrived at the scene and prevented it from taking place, according to local media.
The DFLP has been relatively inactive in recent years, but was once a prominent terror group. It carried out the infamous Ma’alot massacre in 1974 in which 25 people, most of them Israeli school children, were murdered.
(timesofisrael.com)
In 2017, Palestinian Authority paid terrorists $358 million, report says
The Palestinian Authority spent $358 million on payments to terrorists and their families last year, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday (9th). The figure represents 7% of the Palestinian Authority’s total budget for 2017.
In 2016, the Palestinian Authority spent $322 million on terrorists’ stipends.
The Defense Ministry released the figures as part of the government’s work on the so-called “terrorist wages bill,” which passed its preliminary Knesset reading in June 2017.
(israelhayom.com)
Specialists from Israel in Zambia to help with Cholera fight
A team of specialists from Israel has arrived in Zambia to help deal with the Cholera problem. Their main task is the deployment of technology to deal with water purification and treatment. Presidential spokesperson Amos Chanda said the 5-person team includes water engineers and epidemiologists who have been conducting tests and gathering information about the Cholera epidemic in the country. The water treatment is meant to eliminate the bacteria that causes Cholera.
(lusakatimes.com)
Fire ravages two Paris-area kosher shops on anniversary of Hyper Cacher terror attack
Two kosher shops were damaged in fire near Paris on the third anniversary of the slayings of four Jews at a different kosher supermarket in that city.
The fire Monday night (8th) at the Promo Stock store in suburban Creteil and at the local branch of the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket chain comes two weeks after swastikas were painted on both stores.
No one was hurt in the fires but damage was done to both buildings.
On January 9, 2015, an Islamist killed four Jews in the Porte de Vincennes branch of a Hyper Cacher market in eastern Paris.
(jta.org; worldisraelnews.com)
‘Muslim Jerusalem’ at Berlin Jewish museum exhibition
Officials in the Berlin Jewish community protested the representation of Jerusalem as a Muslim city at an exhibition at the Jewish Museum of Berlin.
The Jewish Museum, one of the leading tourist attractions in Berlin is a public institution funded by the German government and is not connected to the Jewish community. But the community was enraged by the exhibition which erases any reference to Jerusalem’s Jewish history.
(israelnn.com)
British pro-Nazi: Jews are ‘parasites to be eradicated’
A 22-year-old British man who has declared himself a Nazi was found guilty of stirring up racial hatred against Jews, according to a JTA report.
A Preston Crown Court jury found the Lancashire man guilty Monday (8th) in a jury trial. He will be sentenced at a later date.
In a speech that was played in court, he called Jews “parasites” who should be “eradicated.” He also said Britain “took the wrong side” in World War II by choosing to fight the “National Socialists who were there to remove Jewry from Europe once and for all.” “We let these people destroy us, and they are still destroying us now, and we’re pointing fingers at the symptoms and not the disease,” the speech continued.
The man could not be named for legal reasons, according to British media.
(jta.org)
