News Digest — 4/21/23
Israel’s Remembrance Day: 59 IDF Soldiers Have Fallen In Past Year
Fifty-nine IDF soldiers have fallen in defense of the State of Israel since last Remembrance Day, bringing the total number of soldiers killed since 1860 to 24,213, the Defense Ministry announced Friday (21st) as Israel prepares to mark Remembrance Day next week.
Additionally, 86 soldiers who were recognized as disabled veterans passed away due to their injuries in the past year.
The Defense Ministry additionally announced that it has completed preparations at 52 cemeteries and thousands of graves for Remembrance Day ceremonies The preparations include renovations, maintenance work, cleaning, gardening and fixing broken or old gravestones.
According to the National Insurance Institute (Bituach Leumi), 4,255 civilians have been murdered in terrorist attacks since 1851. Since last Remembrance Day, 31 civilians were murdered in terrorist attacks, including two civilians who were injured in past years and died because of their wounds in the last year.
3,420 Israelis have been orphaned by terrorist attacks since 1851, including 118 who lost both their parents, 800 widows, 851 parents who lost children and 250 families who lost more than one family member.
The National Insurance Institute memorializes civilians murdered in terrorist attacks on the “La’Ad” website, which lists the victims of the attacks along with the stories of their lives and their places of burial. A virtual candle can be lit in their memory on the website and shared on Facebook.
(jpost.com; mod.gov.il)
Israel Opens First Embassy In Turkmenistan, Only 10.5 Miles From Iran’s Border
In a historic move, Israel opened its first-ever embassy in Turkmenistan on Thursday (20th), 10.5 miles from the Iranian border, as part of its push to strengthen its ties in the area of the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.
“It is symbolic that now, after 30 years of deepening our relations… I am here to inaugurate the permanent Embassy of Israel in Turkmenistan,” Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said.
Upon his arrival in Ashgabat, the capital on Wednesday night (19th), he wrote on Twitter: “I came to open an Israeli embassy 10.5 miles from the border with Iran… The relationship with Turkmenistan is of great security and political importance, and this visit will strengthen the position of the State of Israel in the region.”
Cohen is the first Israeli foreign minister to visit Turkmenistan since Shimon Peres in 1994, one year after Israel and Turkmenistan established diplomatic relations.
On his way to Turkmenistan, Cohen visited Azerbaijan, another country that borders Iran. Both nations are on the Caspian Sea.
Turkmenistan’s trade with Iran is relatively small and the two countries had disputes about potentially large hydrocarbon deposits in the Caspian Sea.
Turkmenistan’s volume of trade with Israel is about $8 million. The gas-rich desert nation of six million has an official neutrality policy, avoiding membership in any political or military blocs. Its main economic partner is China, which buys the bulk of its gas exports.
During his trip, Cohen spoke of Turkmenistan as an “energy powerhouse.”
“We look forward to a new era in our close relations,” he said.
At the inauguration of the embassy, Cohen said his visit was “aimed at promoting friendly ties between Israel and Turkmenistan and deepening cooperation in fields such as agriculture, water management, economy and energy cooperation, border protection and regional security, cyber technology and education.”
Turkmenistan’s Foreign Minister Rasit Meredow said the embassy’s opening was historic and underlined the importance of increasing political and diplomatic interactions and strengthening economic ties.
“We will do everything to implement the proposals and suggestions raised in the meetings,” he said.
Cohen met with President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, who was born in Ashgabat in 1981 when the country was still a Soviet socialist republic. He is the son of a former president, and became president in 2022 after serving in other official positions.
Gallant: Israel Increasing Syrian Attacks To Prevent Iranian Weapons Deliveries
Israel has been increasing attacks in Syria over the past few months to prevent Iranian deliveries of weapons to the country, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Thursday (20th), Walla reported.
“In the first quarter of 2023, we doubled the number of attacks in Syria,” he was quoted as saying. “We are systematically harming Iranian abilities and assets in the area. We will not allow Iran to set up a Syrian army that will turn the Golan Heights into Lebanon.
Since the large-scale earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria, Iran has been sending weapons to Syria disguised as humanitarian aid, according to reports.
Hezbollah was behind the Megiddo attack, Army Radio reported Thursday (20th), citing the Israeli defense establishment’s assessments.
The terrorists behind the attack crossed over the border from Lebanon and went undetected until they set off an improvised explosive device near Megiddo junction last month.
(jpost.com; walla.co.il; gglz.net)
Bereaved Husband And Father Challenges International Media To Cover Israel Fairly – Gil Hoffman
Rabbi Leo Dee’s wife, Lucy, and his daughters, Maia and Rina, were murdered in a Palestinian shooting attack in the Jordan Valley. They were targeted because they were Jews. Thrust into the spotlight, Rabbi Dee used his pulpit to challenge the international media to cover Israel fairly. His message was, “Never accept terror as legitimate, never blame the murder on the victims, and there is no such thing as moral equivalence between terrorist and victim, The terrorist is always bad.”
“We can’t trust the news – sorry, gentlemen,” Dee said at a press conference. He dared the foreign press to stop criticizing Israel for existing. “Isn’t that how the world media treats Israel? We build, they murder us, they destroy. Then they say it’s your fault, since you built it in the first place.”
He implored world media, “Do you really believe in moral equivalence? Will you continue to support evil by giving it a voice? Am I and my family really a threat to world peace? We who teach kindness and love? We who value life over anything else? Is this anonymous killer really justified? Is he progressing moral values and a future for himself? Come on! Wake up! Listen to your souls!”
The writer, former chief political correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, is executive director of HonestReporting.
Why Palestinians Cannot Resume Peace Talks With Israel – Bassam Tawil
The Palestinian campaign to vilify Israel and demonize Jews, as manifested in the rhetoric of their leaders and the Palestinian media, mosques and schools, has made it impossible for any Palestinian leader to seek a negotiated and peaceful settlement with Israel. A Palestinian leader who repeatedly condemns a visit by Jews to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest site, “as a violent storming of the al-Aqsa Mosque,” can never agree to sit at the same negotiating table with Jews.
These leaders have radicalized their people against Israel and Jews. If you tell your people that the Israelis are perpetrating “war crimes,” “desecrating mosques” and “stealing land,” what will the Palestinians think of you when they see you sitting with an Israeli? Recently a group of Palestinian clan leaders and businessmen who were invited to an Iftar (Ramadan fast-breaking meal) with Jews, received threats and were accused by many Palestinians of treason.
Many Palestinians see no difference between a Jew living in a Jewish community in the West Bank and a Jew living in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. For them, all Jews are foreigners who have no right ever to live there. The Palestinians have still not come to terms with Israel’s right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people, or as a place for anyone other than Muslims.
Palestinian leaders will never agree to a “negotiated “two-state solution” with Israel as long as the message they are sending to the Palestinians says that Jews have no right to their own homeland. The belief that Palestinian leaders may soon resume the “peace process” with Israel indicates self-deception and wishful thinking.
Six Essential Facts About The Holocaust – Sivan Rahav-Meir
I share the following facts every year around Holocaust Remembrance Day, courtesy of Prof, Yosef Ben-Shlomo: six historic facts that we need to internalize in order to understand why the Holocaust was such an extraordinary unique event:
→ Judenrein – For the first time in history (other than Haman’s plot against the Jews in ancient Persia), one nation sought the complete elimination of another, despite the fact that the vast majority of the nation targeted for extermination lived outside the territory of the aggressor nation. The goal was not to just put the other nation into exile but to erase it from the face of the earth.
→ Absence of opposition – In the Wannsee Conference of January, 1942, the “final solution” was unanimously approved by the 15 attendees, all of whom held high-ranking ministerial positions in the German government, and 8 of whom held doctorate degrees.
→ The Germans who worked against their own interests in World War II – Even as Germany was losing the war, they behaved irrationally. Instead of investing in fighting enemy forces, the Germans continued “to waste” energy on their Jewish extermination project.
→ They were not crazy – Among the murderers were family men and women, professionals, and intellectuals. They were perfectly sane. Millions of ordinary, regular folks did not see any problem with taking part in this giant extermination project.
→ The concentration camps were not bombed – The death factories continued to operate without interference by the Western allied nations or their armies, even while the allies regularly bombed Nazi munitions factories.
→ There was no way out – Unlike their ability to cope with other horrendous decrees and persecutions throughout history, the Jews of Europe had no way out. There was no possibility of saving themselves through cooperation with the enemy or by being exiled or by conversion to another faith. Death was their only option.
Today we face Holocaust denial, ignorance, and forgetfulness, as well as claims that the Holocaust was not a unique or particularly anti-Jewish event. It is therefore more important than ever to remember what happened and never to forget.
(sivanrahavmeir.com; timesofisrael.com)
