 | ||
 |         |  |
 | ||
| MP3 Radio | Website News Briefs: | |||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
 |  |
1. Triplets for Father Who Lost Three Sons to Terrorism
by Hillel Fendel
Seven years after Boaz Shabo lost his wife and three of his seven children in a terrorist attack, he and his second wife are the proud parents of new-born triplets.
The babies, two boys and a girl, are currently hospitalized in the preemie ward of Tel HaShomer Hospital.
The murderous attack occurred in June 2002 – ending a tragic week in which no fewer than 38 Israelis were murdered by Palestinian terrorists, including 19 on a bus outside the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem and seven in a French Hill bus stop bombing.
On Thursday evening, June 20, 2002, a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the Shomron (Samaria) town of Itamar and began shooting in all directions. He then ran to the Shabo family house, which he entered and began his murderous spree. Soldiers and Border Guard police encircled the house, and the exchange of fire continued even after some soldiers bravely entered the house. They forced the terrorist upstairs while they rescued the four surviving children inside, two of whom were hurt. The terrorist was shot and killed when he jumped from the second floor - but not before the house caught fire when a bullet hit a gas canister. The house was largely destroyed.
Boaz’s wife Rachel, 40, and three of their seven children - Neriah, 15, Tzvikah, 12 and Avishai, 5 - were murdered in the attack. Itamar resident and emergency team member Yossi Tuito was also murdered when he arrived at the home in an effort to help.
Boaz and his remaining four children moved to nearby Kedumim shortly after the attack. He explained that his relatives lived there, and “in any event, we had no house to return to…”
Nearly two years ago, Boaz remarried, and Hila and her five children joined Boaz and two of his; his two elder children are now married and have, between them, four children of their own.
Born on the Sukkot Holiday
The triplets were born on last Sunday, the second day of the Sukkot holiday, and are expected to be released from the hospital within 2-3 weeks.
“We knew that we could expect twins,” Boaz later said, “but when they turned out to be triplets, it was a total surprise – something so symbolic that only G-d can understand or explain it. Though it’s impossible to forget those who were killed, this is a very joyous occasion for all of us.”
The Ultimate Condolence Call; Volunteering in Sderot
Boaz has been in the news more than once since the tragedy. He paid a condolence call to David Hatuel in May 2004 when the latter lost his entire family – his pregnant wife and four daughters – in a terrorist shooting attack in Gush Katif. Relatives said that Boaz seemed to be the only one who could offer him consolation at the time.
In addition, during the rocket onslaught on the Negev city of Sderot, Boaz – a truck driver who has been a volunteer medic with Magen David Adom for over 20 years – volunteered to fill in for medics there.
Asked by Arutz-7’s Benny Toker how he was able to rehabilitate himself and his family, Boaz said, “The way to rebuild is by getting married again… There cannot be a 100% recovery from something like what happened to us; we are always shadowed by the loss of a mother and three children. But with love and with faith, a decision like this brings much joy… Our house is now full of children and life.”
It's also a message to our enemies, he said: "They should know that they will not be able to defeat us. As the Torah says, the more they oppress us, the more we will prosper."
Asked how he will now be able to start dealing with three little babies, Boaz said, “It won’t be easy – but a lot of things have not been easy over the past few years. I tried to look at everything from the positive, optimistic side, and put the difficulties aside; I think that 50% of the problems are psychological. If a person says that it will be hard, then it will be hard. But if you decide to try to get up in the morning with a smile, and know you are headed in the right direction, then it will be much easier for you. You can’t let the obstacles stop you; put them aside.”
“I just want to emphasize," Boaz said in closing, "that everyone must know: Never give in to despair. There is always a light at the top, even if it might involve a hard climb. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, at which can be found light, happiness, faith, and all of our goals.”
2. Knesset Winter Session Begins Monday Afternoon
by Hillel Fendel
The Second Session of the 18th Knesset – expected to be stormy – begins Monday afternoon with speeches by President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin (Likud) will pound the opening gavel at 4 p.m., followed by an address by President Peres. Prime Minister Netanyahu will deliver a special diplomatic speech, and Rivlin and Opposition Leader Tzipi Livni of the Kadima Party will also speak.
The speeches will be followed by a vote on a no-confidence motion advanced by the opposition parties. The Netanyahu government, backed by a 74-Knesset Member majority of the 120-member parliament, is expected to pass this hurdle easily.
The five parties in the government are the Likud (27 MKs), Israel Our Home (15), Labor (13), Shas (11), United Torah Judaism (5) and Jewish Home (3). Four Labor MKs are not quite stalwart supporters of either the government or their own party leadership, and are in fact threatening to split off and form their own party – if they find a fifth party MK who will join them and enable them to do so.
Netanyahu Provides Preview
Speaking early Monday afternoon at the Likud faction meeting, Netanyahu said he hopes to renew talks with the Palestinian Authority “in an unconditional manner.” The second challenge in the coming months, he said, is “the Goldstone Report – which must be understood in the context of a complete package of international efforts to negate Israel’s right to defend itself. We must concentrate our efforts on all levels to rebuff this danger.”
Netanyahu also referred to his plans to reform construction guidelines in Israel, the importance of unity in the Likud, and the “lies of an extremist Arab minority as if we are trying to build under the Temple Mount.”
Issues in the Knesset
Among the issues to be debated in the coming Knesset winter session are: Iran, a referendum on the Golan Heights, a possible construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, changes in the electoral process, legislative proposals against MKs who “act against Israeli democracy,” the possible outlawing of the Islamic Movement, a proposal by Speaker Rivlin to increase the number of MKs to 150, the biometric-ID data bank, and more.
Opposition head MK Livni clarified, at a Kadima party faction meeting before the opening of the Knesset session, that she heads “the opposition to the Netanyahu government, not to the State of Israel.”
Likud MK Ze’ev Elkin, the coalition whip in the Knesset, said on Monday that he expects this coming session to be long (five months) and arduous. He said he would push for increased construction in Judea and Samaria. Many Likud MKs have made similar promises; it remains to be seen whether they will have to fight their party leader Netanyahu as he faces heavy American pressure on this matter.
3. Professor Amazed at Nobel Winner's Quotes
by Gil Ronen
Biophysicist Prof. Elisha Haas issued responded Sunday to statements by Nobel laureate Prof. Ada Yonath, who called for the release of all Arab terrorists from Israeli jails, by saying that they were so baseless that he wondered if she had really said them. “Prof. Yonath is a wise woman, [she i clever and a great scientist,” he told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service, “she has reached great accomplishments and is worthy of the great prize. I know her well and we are friends, but I fear that someone made her say things she did not mean to say.”
"There is no logic in what was quoted from what she said to the media,” explained Haas, who is Chairman of Professors for a Strong Israel, “and I think that if she is asked again and will think again about what was published in her name, she would not repeat it in the same way.”
"The Oslo accord was based on false assumptions,” Haas said. “If a scientist makes false assumptions in the laboratory, then in the worst case, there will be an explosion within the laboratory, and if he has taken the proper safety precautions there will be no damage. But if a leader of a state acts upon false assumptions then he can cause tremendous damage to the state.”
Prof. Yonath's statements regarding the lack of a “horizon” for the Arab population were based on the assumption that our enemy “wants to live well, in prosperity, in peace, with a high quality of life and good neighborly relations within Judea and Samaria,” Haas said as he analyzed his colleague's words. “But this is not the case. The aim of the enemy is to liquidate the Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel. That is what he states and that is how he acts, even after Oslo, and so it is clear that the assumption is false.”
"The failure of the Oslo accord and the murder of 180 citizens by terrorists who were freed in the past are an experiment that disproves this assumption,” Haas stated. “Any child in the marketplace knows that... a unilateral release of all jailed prisoners is a clearly immoral act. Going by this approach, we should either kill terrorists without a trial or there is no need to try them and it is permitted [for the to murder.”
4. Netanyahu Tackles ‘Extremist’ Muslim Lies over Temple Mount
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Muslim "extremists” are “spreading lies” by alleging that Israel is digging underneath the Temple Mount to cause the collapse of the mosques, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Cabinet Monday morning.
[weJe
The Arab world, including the Palestinian Authority, has increasingly accused Israel of the same charges over the past several years, and many Muslim and Arab leaders have told the Arab world that the Temples never existed.
However, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements were referencing to the Islamic Movement. The group’s northern branch leader, Sheikh Raad Salah, was arrested last week for incitement, which police said was behind the Arab riots that wounded policemen and interrupted Jewish prayers at the Western Wall (Kotel).
Muslim clerics also have alleged that Jews are preparing to take over the Temple Mount, where the First and Second Temples stood, and Salah charged that Jews were preparing to build a synagogue on the site, although the Israeli Rabbinate has ruled that Jews may not ascend to the site.
Several national religious and other rabbis allow Jews to ascend to certain parts of the Temple Mount but only if they have immersed in a ritual bath (mikveh). Muslim authorities, backed by Israeli police, do not allow Jews to pray or carry a prayer book when visiting.
Jordan threatened on Monday that it would recall its ambassador in Israel if police "burst into" mosques on the Temple Mount. The Jordanian embassy was behind a deal that resulted in Israeli police allowing Muslims, who had holed themselves up in a mosque on the site, to leave without being arrested for disturbing the peace and violating police orders.
Prime Minister Netanyahu used the Cabinet meeting Monday as a forum to address the Arab community. "You are citizens with equal rights; we want to live together in coexistence and bring our children prosperity,” he stated.
He noted that the majority of Arabs did not join the riots and honored Israeli restrictions, which for several days limited entrance to Muslim women and to men over the age of 50. Police also prohibited Jews and tourists from visiting there for several days.
5. Army Bans Land of Israel Activists From Home
by Hillel Fendel
In response to the abrupt announcement that three activists may not return to their homes in Samaria for six months, residents say leftists have taken over the army’s Central Command.
Early Monday morning, IDF Central District Commander Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni issued orders banning two prominent Land of Israel activists from returning to their homes, or anywhere in the Shomron (Samaria), for the next six months. The two are Ariel Gruner and Akiva HaCohen, both fathers of four children and residents of Yitzhar in the Shomron.
This is not the first time for either of them: In July 2006, Gruner - whose youngest son is now ten days old - was placed in prison for seven weeks under administrative detention orders generally employed against Arab terrorists. He was then placed under “caravan arrest” in a small Jordan Valley community for three months, followed by a three-month ban on entering Judea and Samaria. In August 2008, HaCohen was banned from the Shomron, where he lives, for four months.
A Third Expellee
Several hours later, Shamni issued similar orders against a third Yitzhar resident, Eliav Eliyahu, 19, who has been married for less than a year.
The official explanation for the latest orders: “Information has been received of their involvement in violent and illegal activity… and in light of the genuine danger foreseen from them to security and public order.”
The Shomron Residents Committee responded, “This decision by Gen. Shamni to distance two young men from their families for six months with the weak excuse of ‘danger’ is an evil, arbitrary, cruel and brutal move. The radical left has taken over the top brass of the Central Command, making intolerable use of their authority and power, and the Prime Minister and the Cabinet ministers of the nationalist camp must put an end to this phenomenon.”
Worse Conditions than Prisoners
David Ha'ivri, Director of the Shomron Liaison Office, said: "The forced banishment of men who are providers for their families causes unfair damage to their income and disrupts their families' well-being... If there is credible evidence of any wrongdoing, let a trial take place; extrajudicial moves have no place in Israel's legal system. Moreover, we demand that all expenses such as loss of livelihood, etc., be covered by the State."
Yitzhar spokesman Yigal Amitai noted that jailed prisoners are provided with room and board, and their families are also provided for in some form, whereas "in this case, it appears that as far as the State is concerned, these activists can simply evaporate; there is no provision for alternative housing or sustenance."
Undemocratic Tools
The Land of Israel Faithful Movement stated: “We sharply and unambiguously condemn these distancing orders. We demand that the Government of Israel – a nationalist government – put an immediate halt to this wrongful use of these non-democratic tools that are reminiscent of dark periods in our history.”
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) criticized what he called the “thought police,” and asked why it is that pro-Arab activists and anarchists in the Bil’in and Naalin protests “who throw rocks at soldiers” never receive such orders.
6. Abbas, Fatah on Warpath: Jewish Settlements Are Suicide Bombs
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Mohammed Dahlan, the former Fatah leader in Gaza and a senior PA legislator, told Israeli Radio listeners Sunday that a Jewish presence in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria is equivalent to Arab terrorist suicide bombings. "What is the difference between blowing up a bus in Tel Aviv and taking over Palestinian land?" he asked rhetorically.
Dahlan also warned Israel that violent riots in the capital will continue as long as Jews visit the Temple Mount, which was re-opened to Jews on Sunday. Police refused to allow Jews to visit the holy site last week after hundreds of Muslims threw rocks at Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall (Kotel) and rioted in several locations in eastern Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, reeling from Arab criticism for backing a U.S. effort to defer a proposal that the United Nations General assembly discuss the Goldstone report, now wants the body to accept the report. It accuses Israel of committing 'war crimes' in the Operation Cast Lead counterterrorist campaign in Gaza from late December to mid-January.
The United States has denied that it pressured Abbas last month to support the American position and instead stated that attention should be on resuming talks between the PA and Israel regarding a proposed new Arab state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza.
Abbas also has dug in on demands that a future PA state include “every inch” of eastern Jerusalem, where 300,000 Jews live in the neighborhoods of Gilo, French Hill, eastern Talpiot and Ramot, among others. U.S. President Barack Obama supported the PA stand last June, when he claimed in Cairo that Jewish neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem are “settlements” which he called “illegitimate.”
The hard-line stand by Abbas, leader of the Fatah party, has cast dark shadows on attempts by U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell to work out a compromise that would lead to renewed PA-Israeli negotiations. Mitchell recently left Israel empty-handed after his latest visit to the region.
Even American media, that frequently oppose Israel's building for Jews in Judea and Samaria, sharply criticized President Obama for publicly stating that Israel must stop all Jewish construction in the area as well as in eastern Jerusalem. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu publicly refused to agree with Obama. Meanwhile Abbas’s aide Yasser Abed Rabbo, leaning on Obama’s statements, insisted that "the Israelis need to acknowledge that the 1967 borders are the borders between the two states, and this is the foundation of any negotiations.”
Opposition to considering the PA a “peace partner” is growing with in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s own Likud party. Knesset Member Gilad Erdan said Monday morning, “We have no partner on the other side,” and he accused Abbas of "fanning the families of hatred” by blaming Israel for encouraging Jews to live in the eastern part of the capital.
7. Preparing for Service in the Rebuilt Temple
by IsraelNN TV staff
Jews in the town of Mitzpe Yericho are taking practical steps to prepare for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem, by preparing descendents of Cohanim (priests) and Levites for service. At the Mitzpe Yericho school, Temple priest hopefuls learn exactly how to conduct the daily Temple service and offer the required sacrifices.
[weJe
Can't see video player? Click here.
"Today is really a historical event for the Jewish people,” organizer Levi Chazan said as another part of the school was completed. “It is the beginning of the work for the Third Temple.”
The school will include an exact replica of the Temple. The latest addition to the replica was the area in which priests offered wine and water libations. The water offering was traditionally given on the Sukkot holiday, which was celebrated last week.
Festivities accompanied the completion of another step in the school's construction. Among those present was Baruch Marzel, long-time Land of Israel activist and parliamentary aide to MK Michael Ben-Ari. The timing of the work on the school is particularly appropriate due to recent Muslim riots against Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, Marzel said.
