News Digest — 4/14/23
Police Braced For Last Friday Of Ramadan As Palestinians Gathered At Al-Aqsa Mosque
Palestinians crowded the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday night (13th) and extra security forces headed to Jerusalem as the capital braced for the final Friday prayers (14th) of Ramadan, with tensions surrounding the holy site remaining high after last week.
Dozens of Palestinians, at the site, late Thursday night (13th) chanted against Israel and Jews, and praised terrorists including Hamas military commander Muhammad Deif, Army Radio reported.
Some of the Palestinians threw rocks and glass bottles at police. Border Police officers were sent to the area, but have not yet entered the Temple Mount.
Fighting between officers and Palestinians at the site last week led to two deadly terror attacks, and rocket fire from Hamas, and the terror group has urged Palestinians to flock to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which sits atop the Temple Mount, and not leave the site.
Hamas has warned Israel against allowing continued visits of Jews to the Temple Mount, and trumpeted its rocket fire at Israel last week as protecting the site.
Over 2,000 police have deployed around Jerusalem this Friday (14th) with reinforcements headed to the Old City, the outskirts of the capital and eastern Jerusalem, Ynet reported.
Police called on the public to follow police instructions and notify law enforcement of any suspicious activities amid a high number of warnings about possible terror attacks,
Police stressed they intend to uphold the freedom of worship at holy sites while preserving security and public order, and preventing incitement and violence.
Some streets around the city were closed From Friday (14th) morning until the afternoon.
In another effort to head off more violence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office had announced that Jews and other non-Muslims would be barred from visiting the Temple Mount during the last 10 days of Ramadan, which started from Wednesday (12th). While the decision was in line with longstanding Israeli policy aimed at limiting friction during the holiday period, there had been speculation that the new hardline government would change course, with national Security Minister Itamar ben-Gvir pushing to allow Jews to continue ascending the Temple Mount through the end of Ramadan.
The statement from Netanyahu’s office said that the decision to shutter the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors was unanimously recommended By Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai following a consultation this week..
Security forces were also on alert in the West Bank following warnings about possible terror attacks and are continuing the search for a terror cell that killed Lucy Dee and her daughters, Maia and Rina.
Further stoking security fears has been a general increase in incitement on social media, and on Friday (14th), Iran is holding its annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day. Iran commemorates the day with anti-Israel speeches, including events and threats to “liberate” Jerusalem from Israeli control.
Israel is also concerned about Iran-linked attacks on Jewish targets abroad and possible rocket, drone and cyber attacks against Israel Channel 12 reported. Iran staunchly backs terror groups against Israel, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah.
(gglz.net; ynetnews.com; timesofisrael.com)
Netanyahu: The Greatest Threat To The Government Comes From Within
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in an interview with Channel 14 Thursday evening (13th) that the greatest danger to the current right-wing government comes from within the government rather than from the opposition.
“Change takes time. The greatest danger to a right-wing government is being to the right of the right of the right. This always leads to the downfall of governments. Because it is never right-wing enough,” he said.
“They claim: You don’t build enough? I doubled the construction. They claim you made tactical withdrawals? We took steps in the settlements’ issue and on the Temple Mount,” he added.
According to Netanyahu, “I focus on the goal. Then I act both with a determined focus on the goal and with responsibility, while seeing all factors. We are conducting the war on terrorism wisely and firmly. We are able to do things that unfortunately, previous governments could have done and did not,” he told Channel 14.
(isnn.com; i24news.tv)
Police Thwarted Stabbing Attack In Jerusalem During Passover
Israel Police thwarted a stabbing attack planned by a resident of east Jerusalem during Passover, police announced on Thursday (13th).
The suspect, a 37-year-old man from the A-Tur neighborhood was arrested in the Old City of Jerusalem while he was wearing a mask, and it was revealed that he was violating restrictions placed on him after he put up the flag of a terrorist organization on the Temple Mount.
After his arrest, he was transferred for further questioning and it was discovered that he intended to carry out a stabbing attack in Jerusalem, using a knife he planned to take from his workplace, where he worked as a cook.
The suspect was brought to court on Wednesday night (12th) and his detention was extended until April 17.
“The foiling of this attack was made possible thanks to the vigilance and readiness of the police officers who have prevented damage to human life,” said Israel Police.
“The Jerusalem District of Israel Police will continue to fight terrorism and terrorists with determination and with all forces and means, and will thwart terrorist threats and terrorist intentions of any kind – for the security of the citizens of the State of Israel.”
130 U.S. Lawmakers Urge EU To Give Terrorist Stamp To IRGC
A bipartisan group of 130 U.S. lawmakers on Monday (10th) sent a letter urging the European Union to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization.
The letter addressed to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, points out that the IRGC “has freely and openly carried out plots targeting citizens across the EU.”
The legislators were led by Reps. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.), Thomas Kean (R-N.J) and Bill Keating (D-Mass.)
Borrell said in January that the 27-member bloc cannot blacklist the IRGC as a terrorist group despite the European Parliament voting 598 to 9 in favor of a measure urging the designation. Following the vote the EU Foreign Affairs Council decided to not execute the parliament’s recommendation, citing legal hurdles.
“It is something that cannot be decided without a court – a court decision first. You cannot say I consider you a terrorist because I don’t like you.” Borrell said at the time.
The Foreign Affairs Council is composed of the ministers of foreign affairs defense and/or development of the member states.
While sympathizing with the legal complexities, the missive urges Borrell to “treat the issue with the utmost urgency,” given the threat posed by the IRGC. The letter cites a study from the Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, showing that in the past five years the Revolutionary Guard Corps has instigated at least 33 plots against EU citizens.
“We believe that there is an abundance of evidence available to the EU to provide the necessary basis for a terror designation of the IRGC, particularly given the European Court of Justice’s ruling that investigations and prosecutions outside of the EU may be used as evidence to support additions to the terror list,” the letter states.
The United States listed the IRGC as a terrorist group under former President Donald Trump, who did so after withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and imposing punishing sanctions on the regime in Tehran. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization in 2018.
(worldisraelnews.com; jns.org)
The Murder Of Three Israeli Women: An Unspeakable Atrocity – Melanie Phillips
The murder of Maia and Rina Dee and their mother Lucy (Leah) was an unspeakable atrocity that has united Israel in horror. Once again Israeli Jews have been murdered for nothing other than the fact that they are Jews living in their ancestral homeland. Once again, a quiet, wholesome, blameless family has been shattered forever by the forces of evil bent upon exterminating Jews.
Since September 2000, Palestinian Arabs have murdered at least 1,420 Israelis. Over the past year, at least 30 Israelis have been murdered in such attacks. For months, there have been multiple attempted attacks against Israeli citizens almost every day.
What makes this atrocity all the more unbearable is the reaction of so much of the West. The Dee family lives in Efrat and the attack happened in the Jordan Valley, all part of the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria. Israeli Jews who are attacked in these territories tend to be dehumanized by Western commentators as “settlers” in the “occupied territories” who were “asking for it;” or they are airbrushed out of media coverage altogether.
This is even though the Palestinian Arabs have been murdering Jews in Israel and these territories for more than a century, decades before the so-called “occupation of the West Bank” after the 1967 Six-Day War. The West disapproves of Israeli Jews in these areas because so many Westerners have fallen for the ludicrous fiction that the Palestinian Arabs were the indigenous people of the land – a status that belongs to the Jews alone.
The British government continues to sanitize or ignore fanatical Palestinian Arab Islamic incitement to murder Israeli Jews and steal their land; it continues to refuse to exert any pressure on the Palestinian Arabs to cease its war of extermination against the State of Israel. Instead it calls on both sides to “de-escalate” – an obscene moral equivalence between the terrorists and the terrorized.
The writer is a columnist for The Times-UK.
What Is Really Happening At Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque? – Bassam Tawill
Tens of thousands of Muslims from Israel and the West Bank were able to attend prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially on Fridays, in the first two weeks of Ramadan. That is until a group of extremists decided to turn the mosque compound into a scene of anarchy and lawlessness, violating the sanctity of the holy site and endangering the lives of the peaceful worshipers there.
These extremists, some wearing masks, did not come to pray. They came with stones, fireworks, planks and iron rods. That is not what Muslim worshipers usually bring to a mosque. Their intention was, for all appearances, to create a violent riot against Jewish visitors and the police.
When the Israeli police moved to evict the agitators, many in the Western mainstream media attacked Israel for “assaulting peaceful worshipers” and sending troops to “storm” one of Islam’s holiest sites. Ironically, thanks to Israel’s hundreds of cost-free coaches that bus Muslims to Jerusalem during Ramadan from all over Israel, a record 200,000 worshipers attended the most recent Friday prayers, the Jordanian-controlled Islamic waqf reported.
The full responsibility for the latest tensions lies solely on the Muslims who hijacked Ramadan to incite violence and spew hatred against Israel and Jews. On March 21, the Islamic Waqf issued a directive that Muslims should not stay overnight at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This was agreed to during the recent Aqaba and Sharm el-Sheik summits between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as by Jordan and Egypt. Yet the Islamic Waqf allowed these violent extremists to barricade themselves inside the mosque. Those who are desecrating the mosque are the people who damaged the interior of the mosque by using fireworks as weapons.
