Rothman Confronts Elements Hostile to Israel
Amid a controversy over Ramallah’s “pay for slay” stipends, Knesset lawmakers advanced legislation aimed at barring the Palestinian Authority from filing legal petitions at Israel’s High Court of Justice on Tuesday.
The bill strips entities that transfer funds associated with terror — including the Palestinian Authority’s stipends to imprisoned terrorists and their families — from approaching the High Court.
According to the legislation’s explanatory notes, “The purpose of the bill is to correct an anomaly according to which elements hostile to the State of Israel, including those who work directly and in a declared manner to harm its citizens through acts of terrorism, are considered to have the right to stand before the High Court when they come to petition against the policies of the Israeli government.”
This effort is yet another front by which terrorism against the State of Israel needs to be addressed. We applaud Simcha Rothman for his work on this legislation
The Time Has Come: Knesset Votes UNRWA Out
In a vote of 92-10 on two related bills the Knesset overwhelmingly voted on Monday to bar UNRWA activities in the sovereign territories of the state of Israel. It also forbids any interaction by the Israeli government or its officials with UNRWA anywhere, which includes the areas of Judea and Samaria and Gaza
“There is no legal barrier for banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and in the Gaza Strip,” Yifa Segal, an expert in international law and the founder of the International Legal Forum NGO, told The Press Service of Israel.
This is a major achievement for the many politicians and activists who have been working tirelessly to remove UNRWA from Israel. But we are not done. The next step is to clean up the Jew hatred terrorist filth being taught in the UNRWA schools. Until that is cleaned out, there is still plenty of work to do.
Source:
Knesset Bans UNRWA in Israel, by Jewish Press News Desk, October 28, 2024
This “Worrying Phenomenon” Must be Addressed
The Yesha Council made an unusual request of Israel’s State Comptroller on Monday, urging him to review how Israel’s government deals with sanctions against Israeli citizens by foreign countries.
In a letter to State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, Yisrael Ganz, governor of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, pointed out the “worrying phenomenon” over the last several months of foreign states, with which Israel maintains relations, imposing sanctions against law-abiding Israeli citizens and legitimate organizations. All these foreign countries are motivated by politics.
The letter is a product of growing frustration on the part of the Yesha Council with what it perceives as Israeli government inaction on the issue.
No matter what the motivation is for these friendly countries, none should be dictating to Israel on how to run its sovereign nation. Israel is being attacked from every possible angle in the current war it fights against terrorism and this “worrying phenomenon” too must be won.
Did Israel Set the Stage for Now?
On Friday night Israel attacked approximately 20 targets in Iran, in an operation which lasted several hours.
The IDF reported that Israel attacked “military targets” in Iran, in response to Iran’s attacks against the State of Israel in recent months.
“The retaliatory strike has been completed, and its objectives have been achieved,” IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said. “Israel now has broader aerial freedom of operation in Iran.”
Among the targets were missile manufacturing facilities used by Iran in its attacks on the State of Israel over the past year, as well as Iran’s surface-to-air missile arrays and Iranian aerial capabilities that were intended to restrict Israel’s aerial freedom of operation in Iran.
Many have commented, posted and reported on their disappointment that Israel did not target and disable Iran’s nuclear facilities. Would it have been better if Israel hit Iran much harder than it did or has Israel employed a deception tactic here? Perhaps this attack is simply setting the stage for something greater to come in a second phase whether Iran retaliates against Israel or not? Either way, we must trust the decision the government and the IDF made.
Article 78 of the Geneva Conventions
MK Almog Cohen on Sunday tweeted: “Following the wave of attacks carried out on the citizens of the country by terrorists with blue ID cards (meaning Israeli citizens), as I promised, we will vote this coming Tuesday in the Knesset committee in a second and third reading on the Law on Deporting Terrorists’ Families. This Wednesday or next Monday, we will vote in the Knesset plenum and the law will be entered into the State of Israel’s book of law.
Let anyone who plans to harm the citizens of our country know that his family would be expelled from here in disgrace.”
According to the opinion of Attorneys General Eliakim Rubinstein and Avichai Mandelblit, deporting families of terrorists is contrary to the Geneva Convention. However, Article 78 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (Security measures. Internment and assigned residence. Right of appeal) clearly states: If the Occupying Power considers it necessary, for imperative reasons of security, to take safety measures concerning protected persons, it may, at the most, subject them to assigned residence or to internment.
Terror Attack in Tel Aviv
A large truck struck pedestrians Sunday morning near the Cinema City in Glilot in the Tel Aviv area, injuring at least 35 people killing one. The murdered victim was identified as 72-year-old Bezalel Karmi from Rishon Lezion.
The police reported that near Cinema City, there was an incident where a truck ran over a number of people who were standing near a bus stop. A significant police force was summoned to the scene.
One of the victims succumbed to his injuries on Sunday afternoon despite the efforts of doctors at Ichilov Medical Center to save his life.
The possibility that the incident is a terrorist attack is being investigated. The truck driver was neutralized.
Don’t Go Into Rafah They Said. It’s a Mistake They Said.
The IDF and ISA confirmed last Thursday that after a year-long pursuit, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024, IDF soldiers from the Southern Command eliminated Yahya Sinwar, the leader of the Hamas terrorist organization, in an operation in the southern Gaza Strip.
“Yahya Sinwar planned and executed the October 7th Massacre, promoted his murderous ideology both before and during the war, and was responsible for the murder and abduction of many Israelis,” the IDF stated.
The Hamas leader was eliminated after a tank fired at a building in Rafah which was thought to contain terrorists. After that, infantry from the 450th Battalion raided and searched the building. During the searches, the forces found Sinwar’s body.
Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant hinted at the elimination in a post on X in which he quoted the verse from Leviticus: “‘You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.’ We will reach every terrorist, and we will eliminate him.” Alongside the post, Gallant added a picture with an empty space between Mohammad Deif and Hassan Nasrallah.
There is no question that the elimination of Yahya Sinwar was nothing short of a modern-day miracle. The IDF’s unexpected success during this stage of the war has badly humiliated Israel’s critics. Everything will be OK. We trust they’ll get over it.
Source:
IDF confirms: Yahya Sinwar eliminated, by Uzi Baruch/Israel National News, October 17, 2024
Spies That Lie
What Iran doesn’t know the U.S. will gladly share with them. And then lie about it to Israel.
The media has been filled with anonymous ‘leaks’ and ‘quotes’ from Biden-Harris administration officials regarding Israel’s attack plans on Iran. It was all too obvious that these leaks were deliberate and orchestrated.
The leaks now appear to have escalated to directly passing material on to Iran.
Senior American officials voiced serious concern on Saturday following the leak of two US intelligence documents allegedly outlining Israel’s preparations for a potential strike on Iran. These documents were published by a Telegram account linked to Iran.
While both the US Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the leaked documents, they did not deny their authenticity.
The leak occurred on Friday when the Middle East Spectator Telegram channel claimed it had received documents about Israel’s strike preparations from a source within the US intelligence community.
Brigadier General (ret.) Amir Avivi shared during an IDSF briefing this morning that this was simply part of a much bigger campaign, nevertheless, Israel must keep its strategy to itself.
At the critical moment, the leader of an army acts like one who has climbed up a height and then kicks away the ladder behind him. He carries his men deep into hostile territory before he shows his hand. ~~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Following the Money
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Sunday night that the IDF carried out a series of raids targeting buildings belonging to the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association after asking residents to stay away. IDF spokesman in Arabic Avichay Adraee issued a series of warnings accompanied by maps of buildings in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the eastern Beqaa, and south Lebanon, warning that these are facilities and interests affiliated with Hezbollah, and calling for people to keep their distance.
The Qard al-Hasan is similar in principle to the Jewish Gmach – offering interest-free loans to people in the community who need them. But according to Israeli sources, the bank was used to pay the salaries of Hezbollah terrorists. It also functions as a conduit for money laundering for Hezbollah’s drug trade.
The bank has been under sanctions imposed in 2007 by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control. In 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department said the bank “illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators, exposing Lebanese financial institutions to possible sanctions.”
If the money runs as deep as the many terror tunnels the IDF has uncovered, and continues to expose, then Israel’s defense forces have a long road ahead of it in order to rout out this source that enables terrorism.
Source:
IDF Blows Up Hezbollah’s Banks All Over Lebanon, by David Israel/Jewish Press, October 21, 2024
Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way
Troops from the Alexandroni Brigade’s Battalion 7012 on Wednesday blew up Hezbollah’s central operations command center in southern Lebanon.
The command center was built across from the Ramim Ridge and the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee panhandle. In the village of Muhajbib, where the command center was located, troops exposed numerous shafts that led to underground infrastructure consisting of advanced command centers, berthing and planning rooms, communications rooms, and more.
During the time that Battalion 7012 operated under the 8th Brigade, the troops seized hundreds of Claymore mines that were ready to be used, advanced shoulder-fired and anti-tank missiles, hundreds of hand grenades, hundreds of RPG grenades, hundreds of anti-tank mines, and ammunition.
Among other things, the forces were led to discover the largest storehouse that has been located thus far. During the operation, the troops eliminated dozens of terrorists above and below ground.
Due to the magnitude of the success and the will to prevent Hezbollah from restoring the infrastructure in the area, the command center was destroyed using dozens of tons of explosives. A pre-Sukkot blessing!