News Digest — 10/4/21
Israel Weighs Plan To Allow Tourists Back In November
The Israeli government is considering a plan to reopen the country to foreign tourists starting next month, after a year and a half of a near-total ban on tourists visiting the Jewish state.
The Coronavirus Cabinet deliberated Sunday evening (3rd) on plans drawn up by the Health Ministry which would allow tourists to enter Israel, even if they arrive individually, and not as part of organized tour groups.
Last month the government relaunched a pilot program allowing tourists in organized tour groups of between 5 to 30 to enter the country. The program had originally been launched in May, but was halted in August, following a spike in infection rates.
Under the plan being considered by the Cabinet, all tourists entering the country will be required to be vaccinated – a condition imposed currently on all members of tour groups.
The current proposal would reopen Israel to all vaccinated tourists beginning on November 1.
Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov is leading the effort to reopen the country to tourists, Israel Hayom reported.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry is currently working with authorities abroad, including in the US, to establish mutual recognition for vaccinated travelers, enabling Israelis to travel abroad and prepare for the arrival of tourists from overseas.
(isnn.com)
First Official Flight By Egypt’s National Airline Lands In Israel
Egypt’s national carrier made its first official direct flight to Israel since the two countries signed a historic 1979 peace treaty as an EgyptAir jet landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Sunday (3rd).
The airline’s affiliate AirSinai, has for decades operated flights to Israel without the company logo, out of fear of public backlash. The national carrier will now run three weekly flights between Cairo and Tel Aviv with the EgyptAir markings.
The Israeli embassy in Cairo tweeted that direct flights are “an important and welcome sign of strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries, especially economic relations.”
Last week, Bahrain’s GulfAir made its first direct flight to Israel, further cementing commercial ties established with the signing of the Abraham Accords between Israel and four Arab states last year.
Sunday’s (3rd) flight came two weeks after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made the first public visit to Egypt by an Israeli leader in over a decade. He met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in the Sinai resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in a sign of warming ties between the two countries.
In August, Israel removed a longstanding advisory for citizens wishing to travel to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a move seen as a gesture to its strategic partner.
Palestinian Municipality Erecting Monument In Honor Of Terrorist Who Killed Multiple Israelis
The Fatah movement, headed by Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas, and the Jenin Municipality are in the process of erecting a monument in honor of terrorist Kamal Abu Wa’er, who murdered multiple Israelis.
The design of the monument includes two upraised chained hands, one holding an AK-47 assault rifle with a bayonet and the other marking a “V” for victory sign while holding a map of “Palestine” that presents all of Israel together with the PA areas, as “Palestine.”
Abu Wa’er, a member of PA Leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Security Force 17, participated in a number of lethal terror attacks, including the murder of Israeli border policeman Madhat Yousef in a shooting attack at Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) in 2000, the murder of Arnaldo Agranionic, a guard at the town of Itamar, in May 2001, the murder of 16-year-old Aliza Malka in a drive-by shooting near the entrance of Kibbutz Meirav in August 2001, and others.
He was arrested in 2003, was sentenced to multiple life sentences for his role in “murderous attacks on Israelis during the Second Intifada,” and died in prison in 2020.
“This monument in honor of terrorist murderer Kamal Abu Wa’er exemplifies the great efforts the PA and Fatah spend on inculcating in the minds of Palestinians the ideology that terrorist murderers are heroes and role models,” Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), which first reported on the monument, stated.
The PA and Fatah’s honoring of the terrorists is not new, PMW pointed out, noting its documentation of hundreds of school, institutions, streets, squares, and other permanent public structures that have been named after terrorists and murderers, as well as activities like summer camps and military camps, sporting events and festivals.
One such monument was erected by the PA to honor Muhammad Halabi, a terrorist who stabbed two Israelis to death in the Old City of Jerusalem in October 2015.
(palwatch.org; tps.co.il)
Iranian Official Warns Israel Of ‘Foreign Influence’ Amid Tensions With Azerbaijan
The secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council released a Hebrew language tweet on Saturday (2nd), which appeared to be a direct jab at alleged “Zionist Activity” in Azerbaijan.
Ali Shamkhani wrote in Hebrew, “Powerful #Iran has always been benevolent to its neighbors & never posed a threat to them. Problems are resolved with the cooperation of all countries in the region.”
“Any foreign influence is fruitless so we call on neighbors to be vigilant in this regard & and to stay away from them.”
The remarks come on the heels of tensions between the Islamic republic and its northwestern neighbor, Azerbaijan.
Speaking to Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadeen news network on Saturday (2nd), one-time Iranian diplomat Amir Mousavi announced that there were 1,000 Israeli operatives and 1,800 ISIS agents in Azerbaijan.
Mousavi did not present any evidence to back up the claim.
“It is no secret that Azerbaijan has full access to Israeli defense industry products,” said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, at a conference in May 2021.
Last week, Iran engaged in a full-scale military drill along the border, over the objections of the Azerbaijani government.
Citing the close cooperation between Azerbaijan and Israel, particularly in the military realm, Iran said the show of force was necessary to deter meddling by the Jewish state.
“We do not tolerate the presence and activity against our national security of the Zionist regime, or Israel, next to our borders,” Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told his Azerbaijani counterpart, Iranian state-run TV reported.
Senior Iranian military commander Kioumars Heidari added that “We respect good neighborly relations but we do not tolerate the presence of Zionist regime elements and Islamic State terrorists in the region.”
“Our sensitivity toward the border has increased and the Zionist Regime’s activities here are under surveillance completely,” he said during the drill.
Report: 3D Scan Of Noah’s Ark Site Reveals ‘Man-Made Rooms’
Researchers studying a boat-shaped formation in the mountains of Turkey have announced plans to conduct archaeological excavations at the site after new data suggests that the formation could be a man-made structure that appears to match the biblical description of Noah’s Ark.
According to the researchers, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys conducted at the “Durupinar site” in 2019 by Oregon-based Topa 3D show parallel lines and angular shapes, which are “strong indications of man-made construction.” between 8 and 20 feet below the surface.
“This is not what you would expect to see if this site is just a solid block of rock or an accumulation of random debris from a mudflow,” said Andrew Jones, a native of California who has been studying the site since the 1990s and now lives in Turkey to continue his investigations.
“But they are what you would expect to see if this is a mad-made boat matching the biblical requirements of Noah’s Ark,” he said.
In a statement released last month, the research group said the patterns unveiled by the GPR survey appear to resemble rooms, possibly underneath a deck-like platform.
“I knew that the scientific consensus was that the Durupinar site is a geological oddity. Before learning about these scans, it seemed like those who continued to argue in favor of the Durupinar site just couldn’t accept the truth and let it go,” said Ryan Mauro, President of the Doubting Thomas Research Foundation.
“It’s a whole new ballgame now. Those judgments dismissing the site were made decades ago and based on limited data compared to what we have now,” he said.
Jones and Mauro, along with a team of Turkish scientists led by Dr, Fethi Ahmet Yuksel, are hoping to perform further scans of the site, collect core drilling samples, and ultimately conduct archaeological excavations to determine what really lies beneath the mysterious formation.
The group has already obtained a permit to begin their investigation and launched a website, NoahsArkScans.com, to increase public awareness and raise the necessary funds.
In 1959, a Turkish army captain named Ilhan Durupinar first noticed the boat-shaped formation in aerial photographs collected by the Turkish military.
According to the biblical book of Genesis, Noah’s Ark came to rest on the “mountains of Ararat” after the Great Flood. The Durupinar site is located in the foothills of the Akayla Mountain, about 20 miles south of the summit of Mount Ararat.
