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1. IDF Generals Deliver Sobering Chanukah Messages
by Gil Ronen
Three of the Israel Defense Force's (IDF) top commanders delivered sobering warnings of the country's vulnerability to attack in public lectures and Chanukah ceremonies.
Maj-Gen Yoav Galant, Head of Southern Command, said in a conference at Ben Gurion University that the recent quiet period on the southern military front would probably prove temporary.
"Whether it is a matter of months or years,” he said, “we see the ill-boding clouds in more than one place. We need to utilize the time that we now have in order to prepare – for war or for smaller threats.”
Good winter so far
Military Intelligence Chief Maj-Gen Amos Yadlin said Tuesday at a conference held by the Institute for National Security Studies that “Syria, Iran and Hizbullah have the ability to threaten Gush Dan [the greater Tel Aviv a. Our enemies do not rest for a moment.”
"Even the lecture hall we are in is now under threat of steep-trajectory fire from three different fronts,” he said.
He added, however, that a peace treaty with Syria would trigger a positive change in the region. “Taking Damascus out of the circle of hostility and ending its support for terror will reduce the threat on Israel,” he explained.
In the winter of 2009, not one Israeli soldier or civilian has been murdered in a terror attack, Yadlin said, noting that this is the first such winter in the past decades. The reason for the quiet, he explained, was a combination of Israeli deterrence and the price paid by Hizbullah in the Second Lebanon War and by Hamas in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
Iran, he said, has made advances in its nuclear project. “In 2009 Iran accumulated enough uranium for building its first bomb at the enrichment facility at Natanz, but at a level of enrichment that is lower than that needed [for a bom,” he said.
IDF Chief of Staff Lieut-Gen Gabi Ashkenazi said Monday at a Chanukah candle lighting ceremony that the quiet which followed the Cast Lead campaign, which was launched one year ago, could be broken at any moment. “The situation can change. It can be in these days or in the days to come. We harbor no illusions and we are sober.”
2. Video of Violence at Tzufim: 11 Hurt, Two Arrested
by Gil Ronen
Residents of Tzufim in Samaria clashed Tuesday with IDF Civil Administration inspectors who tried to impound heavy construction equipment there, as part of the ongoing US-ordered freeze on home building by Jews.
Latest reports said that 11 people were arrested and two were taken away in ambulances. Special 'Yassam' police units were sent to the community. Police said that a policewoman was pummeled with fists in her stomach and was evacuated in moderate condition.
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Entrances to the community were sealed off and residents returning home from work were forced to park outside the community and make their way in on foot.
The grassroots Shomron Residents Council reported that according to one version of events, a truck carrying impounded building supplies ran over several residents.
The Chairman of the Samaria Regional Council, Gershon Mesika, forwarded an urgent plea to IDF Central Command Head Maj.-Gen. Avi Mizrachi, asking him to stop the police violence and take the police forces out of Tzufim.
"The Administration knows full well that the crane was working on a site where construction had begun before the freeze order was issued,” Mesika said. “It is simply shocking that because of [Defense Minister E Barak's whims and politics, police are ordered to injure innocent citizens.”
Violence at Tzufim Monday was less severe, as this video shows:
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Resident David Abudraham told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew service that numerous residents gathered when they learned that the inspectors had arrived. “The residents are blocking the inspectors' activity with their bodies,” he said.
According to the Shomron Liaison Office, as of 5:00 PM the residents of Tzufim had been “holding up” for two hours but they believed that the police were in the process of bringing in reinforcements.
Photos from Tuesday clashes at Tzufim: youth awaiting inspectors, young man hurt / Gila Slonim
3. 'Shocked' British Foreign Minister Calls Livni
by Gil Ronen
British Foreign Minister David Miliband phoned Opposition Head Tzipi Livni Tuesday and expressed “shock” at the arrest warrant that was issued against her by a British court.
Livni reportedly told him in reply that she does not see the matter as personal but as something that concerns the entire state of Israel, and the ability to continue to act against threats that Israel and Britain face together.
Livni said that the problem of British arrest warrants against Israeli officials needs to be solved in the manner which the two countries agreed upon when she was Foreign Minister. “The time that goes by without a proper solution is time that is not being utilized well,” she said.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also held a long talk with Miliband Tuesday evening. The conversation was reportedly about “bilateral matters” and also touched upon the arrest warrant against Livni.
Miliband told his Israeli counterpart that he finds the matter of the arrest warrant “unacceptable” and so do the other members of Britain's cabinet. He said that solutions need to be found so that such events do not recur. Britain's relationship with Israel is important, he said, and the dialogue between the countries should continue.
Lieberman also voiced "disappointment" with Britain's position regarding the Goldstone report, as well as the decision to mark imported products manufactured by Jews in Judea and Samaria, and the British stand regarding the Swedish draft resolution which came up at the European Union conference, regarding the status of Jerusalem.
4. 'We Will Sue Terrorists in Britain'
by Hana Levi Julian
The Almagor terror victims group says it will file charges in Britain for the arrest of Arab terrorists who visit the country, under the same laws used to take aim at Knesset Member Tzipi Livni of the Kadima party.
Almagor director Meir Indor said the group will also sue British officials over the country’s cooperation with Arab terrorists during the Mandatory period, when Britain failed to prevent Arab mobs from murdering Jews. He announced that it has begun to collect information from families of terror victims from the pre-State days, as well as background information on the top officials of the Palestinian Authority.
The charges will mirror those that were brought against the State of Israel for failing to prevent the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon during the 1982 Peace for Galilee Operation, also known as the First Lebanon War. At that time, the Lebanese Forces Christian militia entered the camps, populated by Palestinian Arabs and some Lebanese civilians, and slaughtered hundreds. This had followed the recent assassination of their Christian Phalangist leader and president-elect, Bashir Gemayel. The IDF, which at the time surrounded Beirut’s Palestinian refugee camps, had allowed the Lebanese Forces militia to enter the two camps in order to clear out PLO terrorist nests – and Israel was blamed for the massacre.
Not the First Time
Indor noted that his group has a great deal of experience in the European public court system. For instance, Almagor once filed a lawsuit in a Belgian court against then-PLO terrorist chairman Yasser Arafat, who had filed criminal charges against Israeli statesman Ariel Sharon. Indor said this prompted a legislative process that led to the end of both cases. “Belgium took advantage of the charges against Arafat in order to close both of them,” Indoor said.
Indor is also convinced that Almagor’s efforts in Spain helped stymie a similar effort against Israeli security personnel. In that case, the group began to open an investigation in Yugoslavia on a NATO bombardment that had allegedly involved Spanish troops.
5. Jewish Communities in Samaria Find Friends on Facebook
by Hana Levi Julian
Jewish communities in Samaria have discovered a new way to get their message out to the world – through the Facebook social networking web site. “We are using web-based social media to network international support for the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria,” explained David Ha’Ivri, executive director of the Shomron Liaison Office in Samaria.
Ha”Ivri makes a point of posting the latest news and information about events being held at Jewish communities nestled among the hills in the region on the organization’s Facebook page several times a day.
Its Info page, “Friends of the Jewish Communities in the Shomron,” encourages visitors to “support, learn, visit and talk about the Jewish communities in the Shomron.”
The page has garnered “hundreds of members a day for the past two weeks,” according to Ha’Ivri – 2,434 official members of the group, actually – who the activist said have been meeting at the site “to organize real live events at international locations.
In the past two weeks, the group has been involved in demonstrations and events in Melbourne, Australia, New York City, Loveland, Colorado, and New Mexico, opposing the building freeze in Judea and Samaria.
At last count, there were 2,434 official members of the group, with an active board of administrators that includes students and professionals, Jews and non-Jews, “even a dentist from Nairobi,” noted Ha’Ivri.
The group is also organizing web-based activities for “armchair activists,” he said. “An armchair activist is a person whose activism is realized via his ability to do things on the Internet, blog, talkback, send faxes and emails to elected officials, web design, produce content for web sites and edit Wikipedia,” he explained.
“There are people around the globe who support Jewish rights in Judea and Samaria – this forum is giving them a platform to unite and work together to actually do something,” he added.
In the “Discussions” area, the group shares photos and information about violent police actions in the region. There is also a media response team that monitors and responds to reports on Judea and Samaria around the world, and a group that plans for ecological pilot projects in Samaria communities, Ha’Ivri said. “It’s not all about the struggle with the building freeze. It’s about supporting the Jewish communities in Samaria”
“Some members have already donated funds for needs that they learned about via the group, like the Itai Zar Legal Fund, and planting trees in Samaria to symbolize Jewish growth and setting down roots."
6. New Yorkers Brave Cold to Protest Freeze
by Hillel Fendel
Close to 100 people braved the cold and rain on Sunday in New York City to protest the construction freeze imposed on the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria. They stood outside the Israeli Consulate on Second Avenue and 42nd Street to protest the latest decree handed down by the Netanyahu-Barak government.
Helen Freedman of Americans For a Safe Israel/AFSI, who organized and led the demonstration, said it “brought together people of conscience who refuse to stand idly by while their brethren in Israel are suffering through the hardships of a total building freeze.”
Participants carried Chanukah menorahs to signify that the warmth and courage of the Chanukah lights and determination will ultimately melt the freeze as well as all evil intentions against the Jews of Israel.
Grassroots activists addressed the crowd, expressing their support of a “whole Israel” – including Judea and Samaria – with no pre-conditions. They pointed out the danger of appeasing the US, EU and UN via this halt on Jewish growth, even as the Arabs continue to build illegally and PA leader Mahmoud Abbas rejects Israel’s gestures. The speakers also condemned Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s "strong-arm tactics" in implementing the freeze, and praised both the residents who refuse to accept the orders and the soldiers who refuse to enforce them.
Prime Minister Netanyahu has often implied that the US insisted on the freeze in return for American help in blocking the Iranian nuclear threat. Speakers at the rally addressed this point, but stated that “using the settlements as a bargaining chip is unacceptable.”
Signs at the demonstration read, “Obama, Go after Iran, Hands off Israel,” “Bibi, Don’t Appease, Don’t Freeze,” “Let My People Grow,” and more.
7. Eichler: Media is Afraid Religious Soldiers will Take Over
by Gil Ronen
Journalist and former Knesset member Rabbi Yisrael Eichler thinks that the crisis regarding the Hesder yeshivas is a gift from G-d, Who is revealing the hellenizing element in the nation on Chanukah, the holiday which marks the victory of the true believers over the hellenizers.
"The media is waging a long-term battle against the religious soldiers in the army because it fears that they may take command and establish a Jewish state here,” Eichler said.
"The slogan – 'the Rabbi's command or the commander's command' – essentially says that Man is sovereign, not the Sovereign of the World [Ribono shel olam in Hebrew – one of the names for G.
Warning from Ketzaleh
The Chairman of the National Union, MK Yaakov Katz (Ketzaleh), enumerated Monday in the Knesset plenum the decrees promulgated against the Nation of Israel throughout history. He also mentioned the latest edicts by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, including the freeze on construction in Judea and Samaria and the decision to cut off the Har Bracha Hesder yeshiva.
"The Nation of Israel will not let you forget your deeds,” He warned Netanyahu. “The Prime Minister will be remembered not as one who followed the footsteps of [early Zionist leader Ze Jabotinsky and [former prime minister Yitzcha Shamir, but as one who is a link in the chain of leaders who pass edicts against Israel,” Ketzaleh said.
MK Uri Orbach (Jewish Home) also attacked the Defense Minister following his decision to discontinue the military's arrangement with the Har Bracha yeshiva, using the opportunity for a swipe at Barak over his alleged employment of an illegal domestic worker from the Phillipines.
"Barak thinks the heads of the Hesder yeshivas are his Filipino workers,” he said. “He needs to be told that the yeshiva heads are not his illegal Filipinos but citizens with equal rights.”
"Did Barak make his decision because Rabbi Melamed did not show up with polished military shoes and a beret?” he asked.
