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1. Apologize to Turkey? Netanyahu Tells Clinton, ‘No Thanks’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has turned down U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s requests and will not apologize to Turkey for the IDF’s counter terrorist action that killed nine IHH terror activists in the flotilla clash a year ago, Army Radio reported Wednesday.
Senior members of the Cabinet have strongly opposed the apology that Turkey has demanded and they said that if anyone should say he is sorry, it should be Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His country has funded and encouraged the IHH-terror linked organization in its effort to engage the IDF in conflict on the high seas by trying to challenge Israel’s sovereignty over the coastal waters of Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Likud Ministers Benny Begin and Moshe Ya’alon, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas have said that Israel has nothing to apologize for.
The Obama administration has been anxious to improve ties between Jerusalem and Ankara, which was friendly with Israel for two decades until the three-week counter terrorist Operation Cast Lead campaign in the winter of 2008-2009.
A United Nations report by the Palmer investigation committee is due to be published next week, but previously released reports stated that it determined Israel’s actions as legal but disproportionate. The report also is expected to partly blame Turkey for the confrontation, a charge that has caused Erdogan to work to suppress the report.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s refusal to apologize is bound to anger the Obama administration, but its foreign policy clout continues to be diminished. President Barack Obama so far has failed to keep the Palestinian Authority from moving ahead with its proposal to ask the United Nations to recognize it is an independent country, a move that would officially negate the moribund American-led diplomatic process.
Washington also has failed to have any effect on Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose army and secret police continue to brutalize the civilian uprising now that began more than three months ago. His forces have murdered at least 2,000 people and arrested more than 20,000, many of them having “disappeared.”
At the beginning of the uprising, Clinton called Assad a “reformer.”
Comment on this story
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has turned down U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s requests and will not apologize to Turkey for the IDF’s counter terrorist action that killed nine IHH terror activists in the flotilla clash a year ago, Army Radio reported Wednesday.
Senior members of the Cabinet have strongly opposed the apology that Turkey has demanded and they said that if anyone should say he is sorry, it should be Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. His country has funded and encouraged the IHH-terror linked organization in its effort to engage the IDF in conflict on the high seas by trying to challenge Israel’s sovereignty over the coastal waters of Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Likud Ministers Benny Begin and Moshe Ya’alon, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman of Yisrael Beiteinu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas have said that Israel has nothing to apologize for.
The Obama administration has been anxious to improve ties between Jerusalem and Ankara, which was friendly with Israel for two decades until the three-week counter terrorist Operation Cast Lead campaign in the winter of 2008-2009.
A United Nations report by the Palmer investigation committee is due to be published next week, but previously released reports stated that it determined Israel’s actions as legal but disproportionate. The report also is expected to partly blame Turkey for the confrontation, a charge that has caused Erdogan to work to suppress the report.
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s refusal to apologize is bound to anger the Obama administration, but its foreign policy clout continues to be diminished. President Barack Obama so far has failed to keep the Palestinian Authority from moving ahead with its proposal to ask the United Nations to recognize it is an independent country, a move that would officially negate the moribund American-led diplomatic process.
Washington also has failed to have any effect on Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose army and secret police continue to brutalize the civilian uprising now that began more than three months ago. His forces have murdered at least 2,000 people and arrested more than 20,000, many of them having “disappeared.”
At the beginning of the uprising, Clinton called Assad a “reformer.”
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2. IDF Solution for September Violence: Give the PA More Guns
by Gavriel Queenann
How will the IDF confront a likely outbreak of violence by local Arabs after the PA statehood bid at the United Nations in September? One suggestion is that the IDF give the PA more guns.
According to reports, the IDF has formalized a series of operational recommendations, which aim to prevent the security situation in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza from spiraling out of control in September.
The brief, already submitted to the government, also states that should violence erupt, the military would strive to keep outright conflicts with Arabs in PA areas to a minimum.
IDF recommendations include several "confidence building measures" vis-a-vis the PA and its security forces, mainly allowing more weapons into PA administered areas from Jordan.
Senior officers in the IDF -- who have apparently taken PA officials at their word -- believe PA officials have a vested interest in avoiding unrest in September, despite a proven track record of joining the terrorists and inciting violent Intifadas at key diplomatic junctures.
The PLO launched the first intifada from 1987-1993 to divert attention from its own failures and mounting criticism from Arabs in Judea and Samaria; and again, following the collapse of the July 11–25, 2000 Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David in which Yassir Arafat rejected then Prime Minister Ehud Barak's unprecedented offer of a PA state that would expand to 90-91% of Judea and Samaria and all of Gaza.
The brief also recommended measures that might make it worthwhile for PA residents to keep the peace: increasing the water supply to PA and Hamas-administered areas, granting permits for the construction of new desalination facilities, increasing the numbers of PA merchants allowed to enter Israel – especially from Gaza.
The IDF also recommended other good-will gestures ahead of September, such as returning the remains of 30 Palestinian prisoners and removing various roadblocks.
Comment on this story
by Gavriel Queenann
How will the IDF confront a likely outbreak of violence by local Arabs after the PA statehood bid at the United Nations in September? One suggestion is that the IDF give the PA more guns.
According to reports, the IDF has formalized a series of operational recommendations, which aim to prevent the security situation in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza from spiraling out of control in September.
The brief, already submitted to the government, also states that should violence erupt, the military would strive to keep outright conflicts with Arabs in PA areas to a minimum.
IDF recommendations include several "confidence building measures" vis-a-vis the PA and its security forces, mainly allowing more weapons into PA administered areas from Jordan.
Senior officers in the IDF -- who have apparently taken PA officials at their word -- believe PA officials have a vested interest in avoiding unrest in September, despite a proven track record of joining the terrorists and inciting violent Intifadas at key diplomatic junctures.
The PLO launched the first intifada from 1987-1993 to divert attention from its own failures and mounting criticism from Arabs in Judea and Samaria; and again, following the collapse of the July 11–25, 2000 Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David in which Yassir Arafat rejected then Prime Minister Ehud Barak's unprecedented offer of a PA state that would expand to 90-91% of Judea and Samaria and all of Gaza.
The brief also recommended measures that might make it worthwhile for PA residents to keep the peace: increasing the water supply to PA and Hamas-administered areas, granting permits for the construction of new desalination facilities, increasing the numbers of PA merchants allowed to enter Israel – especially from Gaza.
The IDF also recommended other good-will gestures ahead of September, such as returning the remains of 30 Palestinian prisoners and removing various roadblocks.
Comment on this story
3. PA Teaches 5-Year-Olds to Die for Allah
by Maayana Miskin
A Palestinian Authority kindergarten showed off what its young students had learned over the past year by having the five-year-olds act out scenes of terror and death for their families. The parents were moved to tears upon seeing their children pretend to die as “martyrs,” Palestinian Media Watch reported reported.
During the graduation ceremony two plays were performed – one based on “Little Red Riding Hood,” the second, “The Martyr's Wedding,” a story glorifying death in battle with Israel for the sake of Islam.
“Another performance named 'The Martyr's Wedding' delighted the audience due to the role-play of the children, whose acting depicted the reality of roadblocks, children, occupation, soldiers, and the children's death as Martyrs,” wrote the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, in a report picked up and translated by Palestinian Media Watch.
The performance was accompanied by “nationalistic” songs, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported. Many such songs encourage “martyrdom” and bloodshed for the sake of “freeing the land of Palestine” - a land which, according to the PA, includes all of Israel.
Comment on this story
by Maayana Miskin
A Palestinian Authority kindergarten showed off what its young students had learned over the past year by having the five-year-olds act out scenes of terror and death for their families. The parents were moved to tears upon seeing their children pretend to die as “martyrs,” Palestinian Media Watch reported reported.
During the graduation ceremony two plays were performed – one based on “Little Red Riding Hood,” the second, “The Martyr's Wedding,” a story glorifying death in battle with Israel for the sake of Islam.
“Another performance named 'The Martyr's Wedding' delighted the audience due to the role-play of the children, whose acting depicted the reality of roadblocks, children, occupation, soldiers, and the children's death as Martyrs,” wrote the PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, in a report picked up and translated by Palestinian Media Watch.
The performance was accompanied by “nationalistic” songs, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida reported. Many such songs encourage “martyrdom” and bloodshed for the sake of “freeing the land of Palestine” - a land which, according to the PA, includes all of Israel.
Comment on this story
4. Leahy Says Report on Cutting Funds to Israel Inaccurate
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Sen. Patrick Leahy said Tuesday a Haaretz report that his proposed bill is aimed at halting aid to elite IDF units is “full of inaccuracies” and that the bill “is not aimed at Israel.”
A law passed in 1997 and co-sponsored by Sen. Leahy prohibits U.S. aid to foreign military units suspected of violating human rights. Sen. Leahy recently proposed that the annual foreign aid bill specifically state the restrictions that appear in the 1997 law.
The leftist Israeli newspaper, which describes itself as Zionist but generally tries to show Israel under the Netanyahu government in a negative light and is against a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, reported that Sen. Leahy “is promoting a bill to suspend U.S. assistance to three elite Israel Defense Forces units, alleging they are involved in human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Sen. Leahy’s office told Ben Smith of Politico, “Senator Leahy does not discuss private conversations he has had for decades with Israeli leaders. However, the Haaretz article contains significant inaccuracies. He has not proposed legislation to withhold U.S. aid to units of the Israel Defense Forces.”
The proposed amendment is not aimed at Israel specifically but could affect the IDF if human rights violations are suspected.
Pro-Arab groups earlier this year protested across the street from the senator’s office, demanding that he condemn Israel’s Navy commandos for killing nine IHH terror activists on the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship in May 2010.
Videos and subsequent investigations clearly showed that the band from the IHH savagely assaulted the commandos as they boarded the ship, virtually unarmed, after the captain refused legal orders from the IDF to redirect the vessel away from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Comment on this story
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Sen. Patrick Leahy said Tuesday a Haaretz report that his proposed bill is aimed at halting aid to elite IDF units is “full of inaccuracies” and that the bill “is not aimed at Israel.”
A law passed in 1997 and co-sponsored by Sen. Leahy prohibits U.S. aid to foreign military units suspected of violating human rights. Sen. Leahy recently proposed that the annual foreign aid bill specifically state the restrictions that appear in the 1997 law.
The leftist Israeli newspaper, which describes itself as Zionist but generally tries to show Israel under the Netanyahu government in a negative light and is against a Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria, reported that Sen. Leahy “is promoting a bill to suspend U.S. assistance to three elite Israel Defense Forces units, alleging they are involved in human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Sen. Leahy’s office told Ben Smith of Politico, “Senator Leahy does not discuss private conversations he has had for decades with Israeli leaders. However, the Haaretz article contains significant inaccuracies. He has not proposed legislation to withhold U.S. aid to units of the Israel Defense Forces.”
The proposed amendment is not aimed at Israel specifically but could affect the IDF if human rights violations are suspected.
Pro-Arab groups earlier this year protested across the street from the senator’s office, demanding that he condemn Israel’s Navy commandos for killing nine IHH terror activists on the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship in May 2010.
Videos and subsequent investigations clearly showed that the band from the IHH savagely assaulted the commandos as they boarded the ship, virtually unarmed, after the captain refused legal orders from the IDF to redirect the vessel away from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Comment on this story
5. Arab Who Lost Nof Tzion Project is Eyeing it Again
by Elad Benari
After Jerusalem supermarket owner Rami Levy pulled out of a deal to keep the Nof Tzion housing project in Jerusalem out of Arab hands, the Arab developer who almost took it over several months ago is eyeing the project again.
According to a report on Tuesday in the Globes financial newspaper, American-Arab developer Bashar al-Masri said that he is examining the project in the wake of Levy’s cancellation.
Levy acted several months ago to save the troubled project from being taken over by al-Masri, who was set to buy out the assets of the development initiated by Digal Investment and Holdings. News that the project for Jews in eastern Jerusalem was about to be bought out by a pro-Palestinian Authority investor prompted Levy to step into the breach. He and Australian Kevin Bermeister agreed to buy Digal’s assets, including Nof Tzion, for 123 million shekels ($35 million).
But on Monday it was reported that Digal told the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that Levy and Bermeister said, “There were material differences regarding the information provided by Digal about the assets up for sale.”
Sources close to the company believe, however, that Levy and Bermeister have not yet given up on taking over the troubled company, and might acquire it by buying Digal’s bonds from Bank Leumi, its largest creditor.
Bank Leumi said in response, “The bank will enter into new negotiations with the company, and it will review its available options to reach a settlement with the company’s owners.”
Meanwhile, Digal chairman Yehuda Levy said Tuesday, “A new buyer will come. I heard from some investors that there are parties interested in the company. We’re talking about good assets; there is no dispute about that.”
Comment on this story
by Elad Benari
After Jerusalem supermarket owner Rami Levy pulled out of a deal to keep the Nof Tzion housing project in Jerusalem out of Arab hands, the Arab developer who almost took it over several months ago is eyeing the project again.
According to a report on Tuesday in the Globes financial newspaper, American-Arab developer Bashar al-Masri said that he is examining the project in the wake of Levy’s cancellation.
Levy acted several months ago to save the troubled project from being taken over by al-Masri, who was set to buy out the assets of the development initiated by Digal Investment and Holdings. News that the project for Jews in eastern Jerusalem was about to be bought out by a pro-Palestinian Authority investor prompted Levy to step into the breach. He and Australian Kevin Bermeister agreed to buy Digal’s assets, including Nof Tzion, for 123 million shekels ($35 million).
But on Monday it was reported that Digal told the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange that Levy and Bermeister said, “There were material differences regarding the information provided by Digal about the assets up for sale.”
Sources close to the company believe, however, that Levy and Bermeister have not yet given up on taking over the troubled company, and might acquire it by buying Digal’s bonds from Bank Leumi, its largest creditor.
Bank Leumi said in response, “The bank will enter into new negotiations with the company, and it will review its available options to reach a settlement with the company’s owners.”
Meanwhile, Digal chairman Yehuda Levy said Tuesday, “A new buyer will come. I heard from some investors that there are parties interested in the company. We’re talking about good assets; there is no dispute about that.”
Comment on this story
6. Al Qaeda Attack Repairs Paid For by NY, NJ Commuters?
by Chana Ya'ar
New York and New Jersey commuters are debating the latest scheme to help pay for rebuilding the World Trade Center, destroyed in the “9/11” international Al Qaeda terrorist attack on the United States.
There is only one month to go before the 10-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack that stole the lives of some 3,000 people, most of those at what is referred to as “Ground Zero” in New York City – the gaping cavity where the World Trade Center's massive Twin Towers once stood.
Over the past decade, numerous proposals to replace the buildings have been presented and discarded for various reasons.
Now commuters are facing pleas by labor union members desperate for jobs, advocating for construction projects managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The new World Trade Center building complex is slated to cost $11 billion.
The problem: the new projects would be paid for by doubling the already high cost of the tolls to enter New York City's island borough of Manhattan.
Public hearings were held for only one day on the issue -- Tuesday -- with angry commuters taking turns at the microphone to express their outrage, interspersed with union workers who described their own hardships.
If proposed plans for construction projects are approved, vehicle tolls to enter the city would leap from the current $8 to more than double – to $17 – by 2014. Rider fees on the PATH subway trains from New Jersey, under the Hudson River, would jump from $1.75 to $2.75 in each direction.
The only way for a car to reach Manhattan is via a bridge or tunnel. Although the three bridges linking the borough of Brooklyn to Manhattan are still free, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is not. Nor is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge that links the borough of Staten Island to the borough of Brooklyn, or the Goethals Bridge that links New York City's borough of Staten Island to Elizabeth, New Jersey. It can be similarly expensive to commute to the Big Apple through the Holland Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, all of which are toll roads as well.
The $33 billion proposal is estimated to create 167,000 jobs over the next 10 years, according to the Port Authority, whose board is to vote Friday on the plan. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and/or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have 10 days within which to veto it.
“Why are the people of northern New Jersey paying for the attacks that were against all of America?" Jersey City resident Brook Wiers pointedly demanded at a meeting near the Holland Tunnel, according to the Associated Press.
Richard Brescher, 47, expressed similar sentiments at a hearing at the Port Authority Bus Terminal across the river in Manhattan. “It should be on a national level,” he said. “When New Orleans had a problem the government stepped in to help New Orleans. Every time there's some kind of national catastrophe the government steps in. But here it seems like it's just us paying.”
Comment on this story
by Chana Ya'ar
New York and New Jersey commuters are debating the latest scheme to help pay for rebuilding the World Trade Center, destroyed in the “9/11” international Al Qaeda terrorist attack on the United States.
There is only one month to go before the 10-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attack that stole the lives of some 3,000 people, most of those at what is referred to as “Ground Zero” in New York City – the gaping cavity where the World Trade Center's massive Twin Towers once stood.
Over the past decade, numerous proposals to replace the buildings have been presented and discarded for various reasons.
Now commuters are facing pleas by labor union members desperate for jobs, advocating for construction projects managed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The new World Trade Center building complex is slated to cost $11 billion.
The problem: the new projects would be paid for by doubling the already high cost of the tolls to enter New York City's island borough of Manhattan.
Public hearings were held for only one day on the issue -- Tuesday -- with angry commuters taking turns at the microphone to express their outrage, interspersed with union workers who described their own hardships.
If proposed plans for construction projects are approved, vehicle tolls to enter the city would leap from the current $8 to more than double – to $17 – by 2014. Rider fees on the PATH subway trains from New Jersey, under the Hudson River, would jump from $1.75 to $2.75 in each direction.
The only way for a car to reach Manhattan is via a bridge or tunnel. Although the three bridges linking the borough of Brooklyn to Manhattan are still free, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is not. Nor is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge that links the borough of Staten Island to the borough of Brooklyn, or the Goethals Bridge that links New York City's borough of Staten Island to Elizabeth, New Jersey. It can be similarly expensive to commute to the Big Apple through the Holland Tunnel, the Lincoln Tunnel and the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, all of which are toll roads as well.
The $33 billion proposal is estimated to create 167,000 jobs over the next 10 years, according to the Port Authority, whose board is to vote Friday on the plan. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and/or New Jersey Governor Chris Christie have 10 days within which to veto it.
“Why are the people of northern New Jersey paying for the attacks that were against all of America?" Jersey City resident Brook Wiers pointedly demanded at a meeting near the Holland Tunnel, according to the Associated Press.
Richard Brescher, 47, expressed similar sentiments at a hearing at the Port Authority Bus Terminal across the river in Manhattan. “It should be on a national level,” he said. “When New Orleans had a problem the government stepped in to help New Orleans. Every time there's some kind of national catastrophe the government steps in. But here it seems like it's just us paying.”
Comment on this story
7. Budget Battle: Defense vs. Benefits
by Maayana Miskin
The Finance Ministry is reportedly considering a NIS 2 billion cut in military funding in order to meet increased demands for public benefits in light of the housing protest. The money would go to the ministries of health, welfare, education, and housing instead.
Defense Ministry officials say the move would be bad for the country's security..
One official accused the Finance Ministry of attempting to mollify protesters, instead of holding an open and honest public debate over the root causes of social issues.
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai warned Tuesday that cutting the defense budget would create more social crises than it would solve. “We must keep in mind that the defense budget, besides providing security, provides thousands of jobs for Israelis. Budget cuts would lead to the closure of many factories in outlying communities '” he said, while touring a factory in the missile-scarred development town of Sderot.
Vilnai also warned against “neglecting the existing security challenges,” a decision that could set Israel back by years, he said, rather than having it innovating to meet changes and leaving the army facing the same lack of preparedness that led to serious problems in the Second Lebanon War.
“The idea of social welfare at the expense of national security is an idea that is bad for the state of Israel,” he concluded.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz has presented a new budget proposal to replace the original plan for 2011. However, he has warned that the government may have less money to work with than originally believed, as tax income was lower than expected in the first half of the year.
Steinitz has also warned that adjustments to the national budget must be weighed carefully, as significant changes in economic policy could lead Israel into a financial crisis. It has so far weathered the world financial crises successfully and must take care not to end up like Greece and Portugal.
Comment on this story
by Maayana Miskin
The Finance Ministry is reportedly considering a NIS 2 billion cut in military funding in order to meet increased demands for public benefits in light of the housing protest. The money would go to the ministries of health, welfare, education, and housing instead.
Defense Ministry officials say the move would be bad for the country's security..
One official accused the Finance Ministry of attempting to mollify protesters, instead of holding an open and honest public debate over the root causes of social issues.
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai warned Tuesday that cutting the defense budget would create more social crises than it would solve. “We must keep in mind that the defense budget, besides providing security, provides thousands of jobs for Israelis. Budget cuts would lead to the closure of many factories in outlying communities '” he said, while touring a factory in the missile-scarred development town of Sderot.
Vilnai also warned against “neglecting the existing security challenges,” a decision that could set Israel back by years, he said, rather than having it innovating to meet changes and leaving the army facing the same lack of preparedness that led to serious problems in the Second Lebanon War.
“The idea of social welfare at the expense of national security is an idea that is bad for the state of Israel,” he concluded.
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz has presented a new budget proposal to replace the original plan for 2011. However, he has warned that the government may have less money to work with than originally believed, as tax income was lower than expected in the first half of the year.
Steinitz has also warned that adjustments to the national budget must be weighed carefully, as significant changes in economic policy could lead Israel into a financial crisis. It has so far weathered the world financial crises successfully and must take care not to end up like Greece and Portugal.
Comment on this story
8. PM's Wife Against Immigration Law
by Maayana Miskin
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's wife Sarah has been taking an active part in a campaign to let all children of illegal migrants remain in Israel, even if they do not meet government criteria.
The individual illegal migrant child's welfare comes first in the Prime MInister's wife's viewpoint, rather than the possible detrimental long term effects on the makeup of the Jewish state's population, its culture and its schools if those individuals become a sizeable minority.
Her focus now is a four-year-old girl named Ofek, daughter of a woman from the Philippines who is facing deportation after it was discovered that she was in Israel illegally. Sarah Netanyahu sent a letter to Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai on Tuesday insisting that the child and her mother should be allowed to stay in the country.
“This is a child who was born in Israel and educated in Israel. Her first language is Hebrew,” Netanyahu said. She argued that the girl would be traumatized by relocation to the Philippines. “There is a high probability that expulsion would lead to complex psychological trauma and serious stress for Ofek,” she claimed.
That may be so in the short term, said an educational expert consulted by Arutz Sheva English site. "Any Anglo knows that when families come on aliyah to Israel, children, who do not initiate the immigration, and whose first language is English or another foreign language, also undergo stress and trauma, but eventually they acclimatize to the change. Children are very resilient as long as they are in a loving home environment."
Current criteria allow children and their parents to remain in Israel despite having violated immigration law if the child was born in Israel or arrived before the age of 13, has lived in Israel for five consecutive years, has learned in the Israeli school system and is registered to continue, and speaks Hebrew.
Sarah Netanyahu expressed hope that the Ministry of the Interior would demonstrate “generosity” by declining to enforce immigration law in the case of all children learning in the Israeli school system. “I ask you, Eli, to prevent Ofek's deportation and allow her to return to preschool next year,” she concluded.
Minister Yishai takes the long view, citing the negative effects on the school system's curriculum which emphasizes Jewish tradition and on the possibility of increasing intermarriage. He accused foreigners living in Israel illegally of “using [their] children as a shield and as an insurance policy against deportation,” and has argued that claims the children will be traumatized by leaving Israel are “one big show.”
The mainstream media have stressed the suffering of the children slated for deportation and trauma. This sympathy was notably absent for the thousands of children from Gush Katif, expelled traumatically from their homes six years ago with nowhere to go.
“It's time for them to tell their children: Our trip is over, we made a few thousand dollars and now we have to go home,” Yishai said in contrast last year. “No child will end up crying.”
Comment on this story
by Maayana Miskin
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's wife Sarah has been taking an active part in a campaign to let all children of illegal migrants remain in Israel, even if they do not meet government criteria.
The individual illegal migrant child's welfare comes first in the Prime MInister's wife's viewpoint, rather than the possible detrimental long term effects on the makeup of the Jewish state's population, its culture and its schools if those individuals become a sizeable minority.
Her focus now is a four-year-old girl named Ofek, daughter of a woman from the Philippines who is facing deportation after it was discovered that she was in Israel illegally. Sarah Netanyahu sent a letter to Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai on Tuesday insisting that the child and her mother should be allowed to stay in the country.
“This is a child who was born in Israel and educated in Israel. Her first language is Hebrew,” Netanyahu said. She argued that the girl would be traumatized by relocation to the Philippines. “There is a high probability that expulsion would lead to complex psychological trauma and serious stress for Ofek,” she claimed.
That may be so in the short term, said an educational expert consulted by Arutz Sheva English site. "Any Anglo knows that when families come on aliyah to Israel, children, who do not initiate the immigration, and whose first language is English or another foreign language, also undergo stress and trauma, but eventually they acclimatize to the change. Children are very resilient as long as they are in a loving home environment."
Current criteria allow children and their parents to remain in Israel despite having violated immigration law if the child was born in Israel or arrived before the age of 13, has lived in Israel for five consecutive years, has learned in the Israeli school system and is registered to continue, and speaks Hebrew.
Sarah Netanyahu expressed hope that the Ministry of the Interior would demonstrate “generosity” by declining to enforce immigration law in the case of all children learning in the Israeli school system. “I ask you, Eli, to prevent Ofek's deportation and allow her to return to preschool next year,” she concluded.
Minister Yishai takes the long view, citing the negative effects on the school system's curriculum which emphasizes Jewish tradition and on the possibility of increasing intermarriage. He accused foreigners living in Israel illegally of “using [their] children as a shield and as an insurance policy against deportation,” and has argued that claims the children will be traumatized by leaving Israel are “one big show.”
The mainstream media have stressed the suffering of the children slated for deportation and trauma. This sympathy was notably absent for the thousands of children from Gush Katif, expelled traumatically from their homes six years ago with nowhere to go.
“It's time for them to tell their children: Our trip is over, we made a few thousand dollars and now we have to go home,” Yishai said in contrast last year. “No child will end up crying.”
Comment on this story
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