Trump calls Israel ‘great bastion of hope,’ says he will visit Jewish state ‘soon’
(JNS.org) Asked for his message to Israelis on Yom Hazikaron, the Jewish state’s Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said in an interview published Wednesday by the Israel Hayom newspaper that he hopes to ensure that Israel will be “in very good shape forever.”
“I think that the threat to Israel right now is greater than it has ever been because of what happened with Iran and the Iran deal made by President [Barack] Obama,” Trump said. “I think it is a horrible, horrible situation that our president has placed Israel in and I think that Obama has been very, very bad for the people of Israel. I just want to tell them that I am extremely strongly in favor of Israel, I respect it and have loved the people of Israel for a long time. I have many friends who are from Israel and we’re going to make sure that Israel is going to be in very good shape forever.”
“We are going to protect Israel,” he added. “Don’t forget, Israel is our great bastion of hope in that region so Israel is very important.”
In response to a comment by Israel Hayom correspondent Boaz Bismuth that he has heard Trump will “be visiting us here in Israel soon, before the election,” Trump responded, “I’ll be there soon.”
*
Teen Hamas member reveals trove of information on terror tunnels
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A teenage Hamas operative arrested by Israeli security forces in April has provided the Shin Bet security agency with extensive information about the Palestinian terror group’s tunnel-digging operations, the Shin Bet revealed Tuesday.
Israel’s Southern District Attorney’s Office filed its indictment against the minor, a teenage boy whose identity has been placed under a gag order, with the Beersheba District Court on Tuesday. He faces various charges, including affiliation with an illegal organization, conspiracy to commit a violent crime, arms offenses, and security offenses.
According to the Shin Bet, the boy was arrested April 6 after crossing the Israel-Gaza border fence. His interrogation revealed that he was a member of a Hamas battalion based in northern Gaza, to which he was recruited in 2014, shortly before Operation Protective Edge. He told the Shin Bet that Hamas’s “military wing,” the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, put him through training in which he participated in surveillance and ambushes against Israeli military troops. He further revealed that his training involved infiltrations, offensive missions, and detonating explosives. Hamas, according to the teenager, believes its next conflict with Israel will take place on Israeli soil rather than in Gaza.
The Shin Bet said the interrogation also provided intelligence about the Hamas’s tunnel-digging methods and operating procedures. The boy confessed to taking part in planting explosives in and around tunnels in case Israeli troops locate and enter the tunnels.
Hamas is forging ahead with its cross-border attack tunnel enterprise while the terror group is fully aware of the IDF’s efforts to uncover and destroy the underground passageways, the boy reportedly told interrogators.
“The boy is just one of many Hamas operatives who are currently being interrogated by the Shin Bet and providing it with inside information about Hamas’s comprehensive tunnel operations,” the Shin Bet said in a statement.
*
Israelis commemorate 23,477 fallen soldiers, terror victims for Yom Hazikaron
(JNS.org) As part of this year’s Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) services, Israelis are commemorating the deaths of 23,477 soldiers and victims of terrorist attacks over the course of their country’s history. Since its last Memorial Day, Israel has added 68 people to its list of fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, with an additional 59 wounded veterans who died during the past year also being recognized as fallen IDF soldiers.
“For over 68 years we have been fighting the same war, the war for our independence,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said during memorial services at Jerusalem’s Western Wall on Tuesday evening. “It is a painful battle that all the time adds fresh scars to the body and spirit of this ancient and robust people.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will continue to try to achieve peace with the country’s enemies.
“We will not give up on the hopes of reconciliation with our enemies, but first we will reconcile among ourselves, and there is no deeper expression of our shared fate than when we remember, with love, and salute our heroic sons and daughters who fell so that we could live in our country,” Netanyahu said.
A two-minute siren wailed across Israel at 11 a.m. Wednesday to mark the start of memorial ceremonies at military cemeteries. The day’s events also include a candle-lighting ceremony at Mount Herzl, after which point Israelis kick off their Independence Day celebrations.
*
At least 2 Israeli soldiers injured in explosion north of Jerusalem
(JNS.org) At least two Israeli soldiers were injured Tuesday when an explosive device was detonated at a checkpoint near the Palestinian village of Hizma north of Jerusalem.
One soldier was in serious condition with a head wound and another soldier sustained light hand wounds, the Jerusalem Post reported. The seriously injured soldier was rushed to Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem.
“When I arrived at the scene I saw a young man who was suffering from a head wound. Together with other volunteer medics we treated the injured man, after which [point] he was transferred on by an emergency services ambulance to the hospital. He was fully conscious at the time of evacuation,” said Dvir Adani, a medic with United Hatzalah who arrived on the scene.
*
Christian-Jewish aid group convenes families of terror wave victims in Jerusalem
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Ahead of Israel’s national Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (known as The Fellowship) on Monday hosted a gathering of families of Israelis who have been killed and wounded in the wave of Palestinian terrorism that started last September.
The Fellowship—a humanitarian group founded in 1983 to “promote understanding between Jews and Christians and build broad support for Israel and other shared concerns—provides year-round guidance and support for victims of terrorism. One of the bereaved parents who took part in Monday’s meeting in Jerusalem was Ofer Cohen, father of 19-year-old Border Police officer Hadar Cohen, who was shot and killed in a terrorist attack at Damascus Gate in February.
“My daughter took down the terrorist, saving lives. I won’t tell a lie, we have no comfort in the face of the great void Hadar left behind. The embrace of the people of Israel helps us deal with a difficult situation. We’re proud when we hear, for example, that four baby girls have already been named after her,” Ofer Cohen said.
Another participant was Capt. Ziv Shilon, who lost an arm to a bomb in the Gaza Strip in 2012.
“Great people in this country are dealing with great challenges. If we, the wounded, know how to overcome the little things, nothing will stop us,” Shilon said.
Rabbi Yehiel Eckstein, president and founder of The Fellowship, welcomed the participants and told them, “It’s important that every Israeli citizen feel the scope of the debt we owe you.”
*
Study: 1 in 6 Israeli academics hides national identity due to fear of BDS
(JNS.org) A recent study found that one out of every six Israeli academics hides his or her national identity when submitting drafts of research papers in order to avoid being a victim of the academic boycotts fueled by the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“These are the new hidden Jews, the new anusim (forced converts) within Israeli academia,” said International Freedom of Research Center (IFRC) Director Sharona Goldenberg, who presented the study’s findings at a Tel Aviv conference on anti-Semitism and the BDS movement. “By putting them into a situation where they need to hide their identity, the boycotters are breaching their basic rights.”
The IFRC study, conducted last month, surveyed 500 Israeli academics who live in Israel and abroad. Israeli academics, according to the study, sometimes use only part of their name or a different name when they first submit proposal drafts. At other times, scholars will not use Israeli subjects in survey samples or data related specifically to Israel.
Goldenberg decided to conduct the survey based on her own fear to be identified as an Israeli.
“I had done a study on work hours in Europe and asked a Jewish colleague from overseas if he would have a look at it,” said Goldenberg. “The first thing he asked me was why I was only writing about Europe and not about Israel. I told him that I was afraid to be identified as Israeli, and that’s when I got the idea to do this study.”
In the United States, the Association for Asian American Studies and the American Studies Association have approved proposals to boycott Israeli universities. The American Anthropological Association passed a similar boycott resolution and is awaiting a vote by its membership to approve or reject the measure.
*
Deal to restore Israeli-Turkish diplomatic ties must wait for new government
(JNS.org) Following Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s recent announcement that he would resign later this month, the resumption of negotiations on a deal to restore diplomatic relations between Turkey and Israel will be delayed until a new government in Ankara is formed, Reuters reported.
Shai Cohen, Israel’s consul general in Istanbul, said he expects that discussions “will have to wait until the composition of the new Turkish government on May 22.”
“I believe it will take another round or two in order to conclude the deal…Most of the issues between Israel and Turkey are already, to a certain extent, clear,” Cohen said Monday.
Davutoglu, who was known as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s more moderate counterpart, had said in the past that a reconciliation deal would be reached if Israel agreed to resolve the electricity and water crises in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory of Gaza. But with Davutoglu’s resignation, the prospects for reconciliation are unclear.
*
2 elderly women stabbed in Palestinian terror attack in Jerusalem
(JNS.org) Two elderly Jewish women were stabbed on Tuesday by masked Palestinian terrorists in Jerusalem while they were on a morning group walk with three other women.
All five women, who were in their 80s, were walking on the Armon HaNatziv neighborhood’s Haas promenade at around 8:30 a.m. before being attacked from behind.
“The two terrorists stabbed them in the back multiple times, both in the upper body, and fled the scene toward the adjacent neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber,” Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, the Jerusalem Postreported.
“In an area adjacent to the promenade we saw two approximately 80-year-old elderly women lying in the dirt. They were fully conscious and suffering from stab wounds, one in the extremities and her upper body and the second in her upper body,” said Shlomi Tedegi, a Magen David Adom medic.
According to Rosenfeld, “police and emergency units rushed to the scene and gave immediate medical assistance before transferring both women to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in moderate condition. While a forensics team searched the area, police immediately set up roadblocks in the area.”
“Police are continuing to search for the terrorists involved in the attack and hope to make arrests soon,” Rosenfeld said.
*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)