Israel invests billions in multi-layered Gaza terror tunnel barrier
(JNS.org) The Israeli defense establishment is expected to finish installing a sophisticated anti-tunnel barrier along the Israel-Gaza border within two years, Israel Hayom reported Wednesday.
The project, dubbed “Hourglass,” is estimated to cost billions of shekels. The barrier’s blueprints are the product of cross-platform development involving officers from the Israel Defense Forces Military Intelligence Directorate, the IDF Engineering Corps, and the Shin Bet security agency; civilian engineering and infrastructure contractors; and tunnel-construction experts.
The project’s premise follows a pessimistic security scenario, suggesting that a recently discovered terror tunnel running under the Gaza border into Israel was just one tunnel among an extensive grid of underground passageways.
The planned barrier has been described as a “multi-tiered” defense striving to meet a wide variety of threats, above and underground. It incorporates innovative measures, including sensor technology to detect underground excavation and unique engineering technology. The barrier will also feature a state-of-the-art fence, complete with sensors, observation balloons, see-shoot systems, and intelligence gathering measures, as well as an underground wall.
The Sentry-Tech “see-shoot” system, produced by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, is a remote-controlled sensors and weapons system that is already deployed along the Israel-Egypt border.
Defense sources told Israel Hayom that should other terror tunnels be discovered, the Hamas terror group may scramble to maximally use such tunnels before they are rendered ineffective. Nevertheless, a top defense official stressed that Hamas is unlikely to provoke a war with Israel at this time.
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Questions still abound in Jerusalem bus bombing probe
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israel Police and the Shin Bet security agency are continuing to investigate Monday’s bus bombing in Jerusalem, in which 21 people were wounded. A gag order has been placed on the details of the investigation.
The nature of the attack has raised a number of questions: Where did the bomb come from? Who produced it? Did the terrorist who planted it manage to flee? Or was the unidentified man who was sitting in the seat where the bomb went off, and is now in critical condition at Shaare Zedek Medical Center, in fact the terrorist? Also, were the bus and its passengers the intended targets?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, “We will spare no effort to bring those responsible for the attack and their supporters to justice.”
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said, “We don’t know yet the full details of this attack, but the systematic activities of the IDF and Shin Bet are foiling attacks on a daily basis.”
Seven of the people wounded in the attack were still hospitalized as of Tuesday night. No terrorist group took responsibility for the bombing, but both Hamas and Islamic Jihad called it a “natural response to the crimes of the Zionist occupier.” The military wing of the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Fatah faction also praised the bombing and called for more such attacks.
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Shin Bet apprehends Jewish terror cell targeting Palestinians
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel’s Shin Bet security agency, together with the Israel Police, has exposed a cell of Jewish terrorists who committed acts of violence against Palestinians across Judea and Samaria in 2015, the agency announced Wednesday. The cell’s exposure prevented a number of serious attacks that could have resulted in murder, the Shin Bet said.
In a statement issued after a gag order placed on the investigation was lifted, the Shin Bet said that during the second half of 2015, six members of the cell committed a number of attacks, chiefly arson against Palestinian homes and vehicles. Two of the attacks involved setting fire to Palestinian homes while their inhabitants were inside.
The intelligence gathered by the Shin Bet pointed to a terrorist cell in the Jewish community of Nahliel in the western Binyamin region, near the Palestinian villages of Beitillu and Deir Ammar.
The Shin Bet is currently interrogating the members of the cell and says the suspects have implicated themselves in terrorist activities, including attempts to target inhabited Palestinian homes, assault, throwing rocks from a moving vehicle, and other attacks.
Re-enactments of the crimes along with the suspects’ confessions revealed an extremist and violent group that systematically targeted Palestinians and their property, fully aware of the possibility that human lives could be lost. Even after the firebombing by Jewish terrorists of the Dawabshe home in Duma, in which three members of the Dawabshe family were killed, the group continued its activity and said members were “inspired” by the Duma arson.
Two of the main suspects in the case are minors. Other suspects include a 19-year-old soldier and three adults, including two residents of Nahliel and a resident of Kiryat Arba.
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European Union reaffirms rejection of Israeli sovereignty in Golan Heights
(JNS.org) Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s (EU) foreign policy chief, on Tuesday reaffirmed that the EU does not recognize Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights.
“The EU recognizes Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries, regardless of the [Israeli] government’s claims on other areas, until a final settlement is reached,” Mogherini said before a Brussels-based meeting of international donors who convened to support of the Palestinian economy, AFP reported.
“This is a shared position reaffirmed by the European Union and its member states,” she added.
The EU’s statement follows similar comments by the Obama administration, which also said that it does not recognize Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights.
“Every administration on both sides of the aisle since 1967 has maintained that those territories are not part of Israel,” U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
On Sunday, Israel’s cabinet chose to hold its weekly meeting in the Golan Heights in order to affirm the Jewish state’s sovereignty in the area.
“Israel will never come down from the Golan Heights….In the 49 years Israel has controlled the Golan, it has been a place of peace and prosperity. Israel today is the solution, not the problem,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
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Israel and Singapore are ‘anchors of stability,’ Netanyahu tells visiting leader
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted his Singaporean counterpart, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, on Tuesday in Jerusalem.
“This is truly a historic occasion. I’m honored to be the first Israeli prime minister to welcome a prime minister of Singapore to our country,” Netanyahu said in his remarks before his meeting with Lee.
“Today we are anchors of stability and strength in our respective regions. And we are working together in many fields, diverse fields, including water management, biotechnology, and we’re going to talk on this visit about intensifying our cooperation in cyber-security,” added Netanyahu.
In his remarks, Lee noted that it was his first trip to Israel since 1977, when he was a young military officer, and that he was “very happy to be back here again after all these many years to thank you (Netanyahu) personally, and to thank Israel for your help and support over the years.”
“We are very grateful to Israel that when independence was thrust upon us in August 1965, and when Singapore’s security and survival were in doubt, you helped us. The IDF helped us to build up the Singapore Armed Forces when other countries turned us down,” Lee said.
According to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, the two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation in cyber-security, economic matter, and trade.
“We have a long and deep relationship between Singapore and Israel. Our business-to-business ties are strong. Israel is the second-largest contributor of foreign direct investments in Singapore from the Middle East, and we admire your technical prowess and ecosystem,” Lee said.
Lee is the first Singaporean prime minister to visit Israel since Singapore was founded 51 years ago. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1969. Lee was accompanied on his trip by his wife as well as a 60-member delegation that includes Singapore’s foreign minister, environment and water resources minister, and home affairs minister.
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Abbas says he doesn’t want to run again for Palestinian Authority president
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday told the German online publication Spiegel Online International that he does not “want to run again” if new elections are held. Ever since Abbas’s presidential term officially expired in January 2009, new Palestinian elections have yet to take place.
“I am willing to have elections at any time, but Hamas refuses it. Currently, we are negotiating the creation of a unity government with Hamas in Qatar. We can conduct elections as soon as we have a unity government,” Abbas said in response to a question regarding the decline in his popularity and whether or not he fears a Hamas takeover in the West Bank.
Abbas’s interview with Spiegel Online International also covered the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace process.
“I am constantly asking the Americans and Europeans: What are my mistakes? They confirm that I made no mistakes. It is the Israeli side which misses all the chances for peace,” Abbas said.
Abbas said he opposes terror attacks against Israelis, but that such attacks would stop if Israel stopped “occupying” Palestinian land.
“If Israel stops this, no child will take a knife to attack Israelis,” he said.
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Sweden’s housing minister to resign after comparing Israel to Nazi Germany
(JNS.org) Sweden’s housing minister, Mehmet Kaplan, will resign following remarks in which he compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to Nazi Germany’s treatment of Jews, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven announced Monday.
The Swedish daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet revealed Kaplan’s comments, made during a video interview with Somali television in 2009, in which he said that Israelis “treat Palestinians in a way that is very like that in which Jews were treated during Germany in the 1930s.”
The comments were made before Kaplan took office in 2014 as a member of the Green Party, a minor partner in Sweden’s Socialist Democratic Party-led governing coalition.
“Mehmet Kaplan’s overall assessment of the situation is that he will not be able to act as a minister and I share that assessment,” Lofven said.
Kaplan did not apologize for his statement. He said that “on several occasions,” he has “criticized the actions of the State of Israel severely,” but that he is not anti-Semitic. Kaplan said he decided to resign because media publicity has kept him from fulfilling his obligations as a government minister.
Kaplan, who was born in Turkey, has also been tied to Turkish neo-fascist groups. He advocates for an independent Palestinian state and was among the European Union officials onboard one of Gaza flotilla’s ships in May 2010.
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Ancient Egyptian amulet discovered by 12-year-old girl in Jerusalem
(JNS.org) A 3,200 year-old Egyptian amulet was recently discovered by a 12-year-old Jewish girl who was volunteering at the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem.
“While I was sifting, I came across a piece of pottery that was different from others I had seen, and I immediately thought that maybe I had found something special,” said Neshama Spielman.
“It’s amazing to find something thousands of years old from ancient Egypt all the way here in Jerusalem! Celebrating Passover this year is going to be extra meaningful to me.”
The amulet displays the name of Thutmose III, the pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, who reigned from 1479-1425 BCE, according to the Ir David Foundation. The foundation co-sponsors the Temple Mount Sifting Project, in which volunteers sift through debris removed from the holy site and to try to retrieve as many artifacts as possible.
Prof. Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira co-founded the sifting project in 2004 to identify and document the debris that was discarded by the Islamic Waqf, a religious trust that manages and controls access to the Temple Mount.
“The raised decoration displays a cartouche, an oval frame surrounding Egyptian hieroglyphics bearing the name of the Egyptian ruler. Above the oval framing is the symbol of an eye, and to its right are remnants of yet another hieroglyphic symbol depicting a cobra, of which parts of the head and tail are preserved,” Barkay said.
Thutmose III was one of the most prominent pharaohs in Egypt’s New Kingdom.
“He is credited with establishing the Egyptian imperial province in Canaan, conducting 17 military campaigns to Canaan and Syria, and defeating a coalition of Canaanite kings at the city of Megiddo in 1457 BCE,” said Barkay.
Canaan and the city of Jerusalem were under Egyptian rule during the Late Bronze Age, which explains why the amulet was found in Jerusalem.
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