Israel News for December 24, 2015
Breaking News
Early this morning a Palestinian stabbed and wounded a male and female security guard, both in their mid 20’s, near the entrance to Ariel in Samaria. One of the guards shot and killed the terrorist.
At a checkpoint near Hebron today, a Palestinian tried to stab soldiers with a screwdriver. He was shot and killed before he could cause any harm.
Shortly before noon today, a Palestinian rammed his car into a soldier near Geva Binyamin, not far from the Qalandiya refugee camp. The soldier was very lightly wounded and did not require evacuation to hospital. The attacker, identified as Sam Abu Guelleh, 20, from Qalandiya, was shot and killed by soldiers at the scene.
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Jerusalem Terror
At around 1:00pm yesterday, two Arab terrorists arrived at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem’s Old City and began stabbing Jews. Two female Border Police officers (Mishmar Hagvul) noticed people running from the scene and understood that there was a terror attack in progress. They ran to the scene and shot both terrorists, killing one and wounding the other. In a tragic accident, one innocent Israeli civilian was also shot in the gunfire and died shortly after.
Two Israelis were stabbed in the attack. Rabbi Reuven Biermacher, 45, from Kiryat Yearim was killed. He left behind a wife and seven children. Rabbi Biermacher was returning home from his job as a rabbi at the Aish Hatorah Spanish Program when he was murdered. The other man was seriously wounded. The man accidentally killed by the police gunfire was Ofer Ben-Ari, 46, a married father of two from Jerusalem.
The Police Commander of the Jerusalem District stated that the police officers acted bravely and professionally, according to their training, and they prevented a much larger attack.
The terrorists, were both 20 yrs old and from the Qalandia refugee camp near Jerusalem. They had previously served time in Israeli prisons before being released.
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Hamas Busted
Security forces uncovered a Hamas terror cell in the West Bank that was planning a string of large-scale suicide terrorist attacks against Israeli targets. The joint Shin Bet, IDF and Israel Police operation has so far led to the arrest of 25 people, mostly students from the University of Abu Dis in East Jerusalem.
Interrogation of the suspects revealed that the cell was run by 24 year old Ahmad Jamal Musa Azam from Qalqilya, who was recruited a few months ago by Hamas in the Gaza strip to set up a militant infrastructure to carry out bombing attacks.
Azam was in constant contact with his handlers in Gaza, who trained him to make explosive belts and other explosive devices. He recruited several other activists who studied with him at the University of Abu Dis to buy raw material to make explosives, rent apartments, enlist suicide bombers and smuggle them into Israel. Among the recruits was a 19 year old Bedouin-Israeli citizen and a 22 year old resident of the Old City of Jerusalem.
This is the most significant terrorist cell that has emerged during the recent wave of terror attacks, most of which have been carried out by lone-wolf terrorists.
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PLO in Washington
Did you know that there’s a PLO office in Washington, DC? Well, there’s been one there since 1994, when a waiver was created to allow it to remain open.
In a letter dated Dec. 18, 32 members of Congress including Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, called on Secretary of State John Kerry to revoke the waiver and close down the office, because Palestinian leaders are encouraging and inciting violence against Israelis.
The letter said, “The United States government has an obligation to publicly denounce the PLO’s actions and should immediately revoke its waiver. Allowing the PLO to maintain an office in Washington, DC provides no benefit to the United States or the peace process.”
The State Department spokesperson confirmed receiving the letter and said that Kerry would respond to it.
Can you guess what his answer will be?
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Disturbing Video
A very disturbing video was shown on Israel’s TV Channel 10 that was taken at a wedding in Jerusalem of far right extremists of the religious settler community. The video shows dozens of wedding guests singing and dancing while holding up knives and rifles, while one of them stabs a photo of Ali Dawabsha, the Palestinian child killed in the Duma arson attack.
MK Bezalel Smotrich of Bayit Yehudi, one of the more far right members of Knesset and supporter of the settler community, condemned the video saying, ““That kind of twisted dancing with pictures of a baby who was murdered in his sleep reflects a dangerous ideology that has lost all traces of humanity. Such an ideology, he added has no place in the world of religious Zionism and is not a legitimate part of the dialogue in the democratic state of Israel.”
PM Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page, “The shocking photographs which aired this evening show the true face of a group that poses a danger to Israeli society and Israel’s security. We are not ready to accept people who disavow the state’s laws and do not see themselves as subordinate to those laws.These pictures attest to just how important a strong Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) is to the security of all of us.”
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid had this to say, “These people are not Jews. They have lost all semblance of humanity. These people are a danger to the State of Israel and we must fight them just as we do Hamas or Hezbollah. But in order to win we must understand that these people did not evolve in a vacuum. They have behind them rabbis, ideology and politics.”
Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau said, “These kind of acts are not the Jewish way. They are a rejection and repudiation of the values of the Jewish people, the Torah of Israel and the uniqueness of the Jewish people. Parents and educators must take on the mission, together with the law enforcement agencies, to do everything to prevent identification with such appalling acts of terror and murder.”
The Judea and Samaria Police said that an investigation was launched several days ago “into the many serious offenses displayed in the wedding video.” The police apparently had several undercover officers at the wedding, who saw a lot more than was on the video.
For further reading click here and here.
Abbas Greetings
Palestinian Authority President Abbas released an official Christmas message yesterday in which he called Israel an apartheid regime not interested in a two state solution.
He went on to accuse Israel and Israelis of all sorts of crimes and illegal activities and stressed that there can be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital. He asked the international community to intervene to protect the Palestinian people.
On the bright side, Abbas condemned ISIS and supported action against them.
Abbas also said, “Jesus is a symbol for all Palestinians. Palestine and its people take pride in being the birthplace of Christianity and having the oldest Christian community in the world.”
I’m pretty sure Jesus would not have condoned terror attacks. But in any case, a question for our Christian readers: who would you rather have in control of your holy places — Israel or the Palestinians?
Wishing all of our Christian readers a very happy and peaceful Christmas holiday.
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