News Digest — 4/19/23
Terrorist Who Shot 2 In Jerusalem Arrested
Security forces on Wednesday (19th) apprehended the terrorist who shot and wounded two Israelis in Jerusalem Tuesday (18th), according to a joint statement from the IDF and the Shin Bet security agency.
The terrorist was caught during a raid in the Samarian city of Nablus that included the IDF, Shin Bet and the Border Police counterterrorism unit. No casualties to Israeli forces were reported. The suspect from the town of Askar on the outskirts of Nablus, was transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning.
Israel Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai praised the quick work of security forces that led to the predawn arrest.
“From the first moment that the police forces from the Jerusalem District and the soldiers of the Border Police rushed to the scene of the attack, we used many forces and together with accurate intelligence we managed to get our hands on the terrorist,” he said. “Let every terrorist know that the long arm of the security system will reach wherever he escapes to and wherever he hides.”
Two Breslov Hasidim, aged 48 and 50, were moderately wounded in the terrorist attack in Jerusalem’s Sheik Jarrah neighborhood Tuesday morning (18th). They were shot at point-blank range while sitting in a vehicle.
On Tuesday afternoon (18th) Israeli forces arrested three Islamic Jihad operatives in Jenin in northern Samaria, the IDF said. They are suspected of promoting significant terrorist activities. The operation included personnel from the IDF’s Duvdevan undercover unit and Paratroop Brigade and the Shin Bet. A car was also confiscated belonging to one of the terrorists. During the raid, Israeli forces returned fire after terrorists shot and threw explosive devices at them, with some Palestinian injuries reported.
The terrorists –Aa Kareem Ala Adin Ibrahim Ahmad, Ahmad Muhammad Ahmad Jaradat and Amjad Muhammad Ahmad Jaradat – were taken for questioning by the Shin Bet. No casualties to Israeli forces were reported.
(jns.org)
Iran Will Destroy Tel Aviv, Haifa At Slightest Israeli Action
Iran will destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv if Israel takes “the slightest action” against it, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned on Tuesday (18th) during an Army Day address, according to the Iranian Tasnim media agency.
“The extra-regional and American forces should leave the region as soon as possible because it is in their own interest and in the interest of the region,” he said.
Raisi said that Iran’s army is “well equipped and up to date” and that it sees itself as a servant by the side of the people.
This speech came as the former crown prince of Iran Reza Pahlavi visited Israel on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
During his visit, Pahlavi underscored a message of unity between the people of Israel and Iran, saying that the Islamic Republic does not represent the majority of the Iranian people.
But Pahlavi’s message of peace is not shared by the Islamic Republic who consistently threaten Israel in a variety of ways, from Raisi’s speeches, to exhibitions of missiles, with the words “Death to Israel” written in Hebrew on them.
The threat is not just verbal though. A report last week claimed that the IRGC ordered the rockets that were fired at Israel from Gaza and Lebanon at the beginning of Passover while the Shin Bet revealed on Monday (17th) that the IRGC has been recruiting Palestinians in the West Bank to spy on IDF activity for Iran.
Iran’s Army Day is a national holiday that has been celebrated in honor of the army since 1921. Before the Islamic Republic took control of the country in 1979, the day was marked in February, but in 1979, then-supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini changed the day to April 18.
Son Of Iran’s Last Shah Pays Condolence Call To Dee Family; Visits Western Wall
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last Shah of Iran, paid a condolence visit to the bereaved Dee family at their home in the settlement of Efrat on Tuesday (18th) after the death of sisters Maia and Rina and their mother Lucy in a deadly terror shooting during the Passover holiday.
Rabbi Leo Dee thanked Pahlavi for coming to visit him. Pahlavi and his wife signed a book of Psalms for the family.
Dee told Pahlavi that he hoped the Iranian royal family would be reinstated and that he would be able to “visit him in his palace in Tehran very soon.”
Pahlavi’s wife Yasmine responded, “Let’s pray for freedom.”
Pahlavi, who is on his first trip to Israel, also visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tuesday (18th).
On Monday evening (17th) he attended the official ceremony at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem to mark the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day, where he also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At around the same time Pahlavi visited the Dee family, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi threatened to flatten Tel Aviv and Haifa. In his speech the previous day, Netanyahu called the Islamic Republic the modern-day equivalent of Nazi Germany.
Residing in the US, Pahlavi has called for a peaceful revolution in Iran that would replace clerical rule with a parliamentary monarchy, enshrine human rights and modernize its state-run economy.
Israel and Iran maintained close relations – particularly on energy and security – during the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown in a popular 1979 uprising led by Islamic clerics.
Arab Influencers Visit Auschwitz To Promote Tolerance Through Holocaust Education
Twenty-two Arab participants joined the International March of the Living on Tuesday (18th) as part of a first-of-its-kind year-long program that promotes tolerance through Holocaust education.
Organized by Sharaka, a non-government initiative that grows the impact of the Abraham Accords by transforming the vision of people-to-people peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors into a reality. The delegation consisted of influencers, journalists, academics, and NGO activists from Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Algeria.
Together with Israeli Arabs, they walked the mile-long march from the Auschwitz concentration camp to the Birkenau extermination camp on Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Sharaka’s Holocaust education initiative in the Arab world was inspired by the historic delegation that the non-profit brought to the March of the Living last year, which marked the first time that a pan-Arab delegation publicly partook in such a solidarity march.
“Sharaka’s effort to bring an Arab delegation to March of the Living for the second time, within the context of our yearlong tolerance program, is firmly rooted in our belief that the best way to prevent hatred and atrocities is by learning from the past.,” Amit Deri, founder of Sharaka said. “The Holocaust must be viewed as the ultimate warning against where intolerance can lead if left unchecked.”
Mohammed Hatimi, a history professor at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, and a member of the delegation, said, “An Arab proverb says that seeing what happens on the spot is better than listening to what is said about what happened there. For this reason, nothing beats a visit to a place of memory that is universal in scope. To be present at Auschwitz and to participate in the march is an intense event that reinforces the conviction that I must do my best to teach about the Holocaust and to learn from it. We all need such a pilgrimage for our own education, but also to pay tribute to the millions of victims of human horror, horror caused by radicalism taken to the extreme.”
Over the course of the Sharaka Tolerance Program, participants engage in a series of in-person and online lectures and conversations about the Holocaust (including about the efforts of Muslims who saved Jews), antisemitism and all forms of extremism, genocide in modern history, sources of moderation within Islam, and what can be done in those societies to promote tolerance.
Prior to attending the March of the Living, delegation members visited Israel in February for a seminar at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. They also discovered diverse parts of Israeli society, visited religious and historic sites, learned about tech and innovation, discussed geopolitics, and explored arts and culture.
NY/NJ Police Attend March Of The Living: ‘The Inhumanity Of It All Was A Horrible Feeling’
Two law enforcement officers from New York and New Jersey participated in the March of the Living this week, and spoke to Israel National News on Tuesday (18th) after visiting Auschwitz.
Colonel Patrick Callahan of the New Jersey State Police described the experience as “inexplicable.”
“The baby shoes crushed me and even my own shadow in this uniform gave me an eerie feeling looking down, because I’ve even had some kids come up to me that were wondering if I was an SS officer, and that wasn’t a good feeling,” he said. “It was a horrible feeling, the inhumanity of it all and how now all must strive, especially in this role of law enforcement. We are to serve as peacekeepers.” During the Holocaust many officers were complicit and assisted Nazi Germany and “that breaks my heart too.”
He pledged to take his experience in March of the Living back with him to New Jersey.
“So in my position and with my leadership and trust in my authority, I’ll ensure that the women and men of the New Jersey State Police treat people with dignity and respect and that we will never forget this, and trust that it will never happen again.”
Superintendent of Police Edward Cetnar of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said:
“It was a great honor for us to be here from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department and just to see the rich tradition and what is going on today and to be part of it is just humbling.
The annual March of the Living took place on Tuesday (18th) from Auschwitz to Auschwitz-Birkenau, marking Israel’s national Holocaust Memorial Day. The March of the Living – in its 35th year – was led by 40 Holocaust Survivors, alongside more than 13,000 participants from 25 countries around the world.
(isnn.com)
Nearly Half Of Austrians Think Jews Have Too Much Power
One third of Austrians think that Jews are trying to exploit the Holocaust and 47% think Jews have too much power, according to the parliament’s third antisemitism report, issued on Tuesday (18th). According to the report, antisemitism is particularly strong among Turkish and Arabic speakers in Austria.
Austrian National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka, 67, presented the report to the parliament. It was compiled by the Institute for Empirical Social Research, which collected data on anti-Semitic attitudes in the country from 2,000 respondents.
The survey found that more than a third of Austrians think that Jews are “trying to take advantage of being victims during the Nazi era…and at least a quarter of those under the age of 25 believe that as well. Among Turkish and Arabic speakers, more than half agreed with the statement “completely” or “quite likely.”
More than a third of Austrians also take the view that Jews dominate the international business world, Sobotka pointed out. “It’s not a phenomenon of the political fringe groups, it comes from the middle of society,” he declared. “On the extreme sides, antisemitism becomes visible. We haven’t paid attention to left-wing extremism for a long time and now we see it very clearly as anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism.”
Sobotka said that a third form of antisemitism stems from “those people who came to us for reasons of migration, because they come from countries where antisemitism or anti-Jewish attitudes are part of a kind of raison d’etat”.
A year ago, Sobotka told The Jerusalem Post that Austria needed to emulate how Germany has learned from the Holocaust and how it combats anti-semitism. “We have a lot to learn from the Germans when it comes to owning our history and taking actions,” he said. Sobotka is a member of the Austrian People’s Party. Before his political career, he was a teacher and music conductor.
Oskar Deutsch, the President of the Austrian Jewish Community, said “the results are startling, but not surprising. The study at hand is an important element in making antisemitism visible.” Deutsch added that the fact that a third of Austrians think that Jews are trying to take advantage of the Nazi era amounts to mockery. Above all, it shows that better education is required – education about the Shoah and education about Judaism itself.”
He added that “threats do not emerge from right-wing extremists and Islamists exclusively. Antisemitism exists in mainstream society as well, as the data clearly show…The greater susceptibility to hatred of Jews among Turkish and Arabic-speaking Austrians makes it clear once again that neither politics nor civil society may turn a blind eye to this phenomenon.”
