September 6, 2018
Ahead Of Jewish New Year, Israel’s Population At 8.9 Million
On the Eve of the new Jewish year, Israel’s population has reached 8.907 million – 162,000 more than a year ago, according to data published Tuesday (4th) by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
In a press release including data on wide-ranging topics, the bureau summarized the Jewish year of 5778 in numbers highlighting the fact that 89% of Israelis say they are largely satisfied with life. 84% say they are in good or very good health.
Ahead of the Rosh Hashanah holiday next week, Israel’s Jewish population numbers 6.625 million people – 74.4% of the country’s population. Some 1.864 million, or 20.9% are Arab, and the remaining 418,000 are other minorities.
Throughout this past year alone, 25,000 Olim moved to Israel and 175,000 babies were born.
The average life expectancy in Israel continues to rise: for men it is 80.7 years and for women it is 84.6 years.
The Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah begins September 10th at sundown, followed by Yom Kippur on the 19th and Sukkot on the 23rd.
(cbs.gov.il; timesofisrael.com)
Israel Foils Palestinian Prisoner Plot To Kidnap Soldier
The Israeli defense establishment on Saturday (1st) foiled a plot concocted by a Fatah officer in an Israeli jail, to engineer the abduction of a soldier who could subsequently be exchanged for his own release, said a Prison Services source on Monday (3rd).
The Planned abduction was the brainchild of Mohammed Naifa, a Fatah official sentenced to 13 life terms for murdering 13 Israelis, said Yuval Biton, the deputy prisons commissioner, speaking at a counter-terrorism conference at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. Prisoners in that situation might try to orchestrate a kidnapping in order to gain their own freedom because there isn’t any alternative way to get out, Biton said.
Information about Naifa’s plan came to light on Saturday (1st), after which special forces took steps to thwart it, Biton said.
He said the case just goes to show that security prisoners persist in attempts to hurt Israel and conduct terror attacks, and to plan abductions.
“The prisoners are microcosms of Palestinian society,” he said: “Religious organizations versus secular Gaza organizations versus the residents of the West Bank and city dwellers versus those in refugee camps and villages. Each of those groups live in tension and seething hatred. There is an internal Palestinian rift that serves our interests. We are right in the seams and cracks between the organizations and our role is to widen the rifts. What unites the Palestinian people is a joint enemy.”
Naifa, held at the Gilboa prison, is one of the highest ranking Fatah figures in Israeli custody. He was arrested in November 2002, during the Second Intifada, and convicted of plotting terror attacks, including the terror attack on Kibbutz Metzer, in which a mother and two children were killed; and an attack on Moshav Hermesh, in which three Israeli women died.
(haaretz.com)
Iran Using Civilian Airlines To Arm Hizbullah
Iran is utilizing civilian airlines to transport weapons to the Hizbullah terror organization in Lebanon, intelligence sources say.
A Fox News report Monday (3rd) quoted Western intelligence sources who have uncovered “unexpected routes” taken by Iran in an apparent attempt to avoid detection of its arms-smuggling into Lebanon.
The sources identified two rare and unusual Qeshm Fars Air flights from Tehran to the international airport in Beirut over the past two months.
The first flight in July departed from an air force base in Tehran, stopped for a short layover at the international airport in Damascus and then continued with a rather “uncharacteristic flight path” to the Beirut international airport, the sources said.
The route passed over northern Lebanon, not following any commonly used flight pattern.
The plane carried components for manufacturing precise weapons in Iranian factories inside Lebanon. The US and Israel have already exposed Iran’s weapons factories in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.
The second flight in August landed in Beirut after departing Tehran’s international airport. This flight also followed an irregular route north of Syria.
“The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the West’s abilities to track them down,” the source told Fox News.
Qeshm Fars Air is considered one of the various pseudo-civilian airlines used for arms-smuggling by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) the report noted.
Israel has long warned that Iran is taking advantage of civilian airlines to arm Hizbullah.
Hizbullah was in possession of roughly 7,000 rockets in 2006, and the Lebanese terror group now has more than 120,000 missiles aimed at Israeli cities, hidden behind human shields in the towns under their control.
(worldisraelnews.com; israelhayom.com)
According to UNRWA, Someone Born This Week Can Be A Refugee Of A War 70 Years Ago – Editorial
→UNRWA’s written mandate plays a central role in perpetuating the Palestinian refugee myth and the demand for the “right of return.’
→According to the definition of “refugee” that UNRWA follows, someone born this week can be a refugee of a war 70 years ago.
→The definition includes people that are citizens of other countries, as well as people living in the West Bank and Gaza – the very land from which they supposedly fled. – who in other situations would legally be considered internally displaced.
→By considering all of these people refugees, it bolsters their claim that they should be granted the “right of return” to Israel.
→UNRWA has been fleecing the world since it was established in 1949. The support of Palestinian grievances by an international community that funds UNRWA is a key to why the conflict continues.
→The Palestinians feign perpetual victimhood and view themselves as not being responsible for trying to improve their own lives. How can the Palestinians be expected to engage in state building if they refuse to take responsibility for themselves and are constantly holding their hand out to the world?
(jpost.com)
Israel Develops New Drone To Save Drowning People
JERUSALEM–Israel has developed a new drone which can be used to rescue drowning people in the sea, a local newspaper reported Sunday (2nd).
The new drone, developed by the private Israeli company Blueskimmer, carries three floats that swell rapidly with water, and is designed to expand the range of lifeguards at the beach, the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
Once the lifeguard identifies a person in distress meters away in the water, the drone can release the floats in just 15 seconds. It is also equipped with a public-address system, through which the lifeguard can instruct the person in the water.
The drone is made of carbon fiber and can operate within a radius of up to a mile and a half from the lifeguard’s shelter, thus dramatically shortening the initial response time in drowning cases.
Tel Aviv-Yafo, one of the largest cities in Israel, has 13 beaches with a total length of over eight miles, attracting thousands from home and abroad during the summer.
The number of deaths by drowning has reached 51 on the beaches of Israel since the start of 2018.
(xinhuanet.com)
