A rally was supposed to be held last Thursday in Evyatar to support those who responded to the shooting attack that murdered the Yaniv brothers. Although the event was approved in advance, the approval was canceled at the last minute and according to its organizers, the IDF is blocking roads to prevent citizens from attempting to reach the area.

A concerned community peacefully organizes a gathering to show support for the Yaniv brothers and the IDF blocks it. However, the increasingly angry protests and threats against judicial reform are allowed to take place. There cannot be two standards of application of the law. Evyatar, along with all the communities of Judea and Samaria, must be treated equally and in line with the rest of Israel.

Source:
Security forces prevent approved rally in Samaria village, by Israel National News, March 3, 2023

 

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement last night in response to the protests that took place during the day against the government’s planned judicial reforms and the clashes with the police in Tel Aviv.

“The freedom of demonstration is not a license to plunge the country into anarchy, because a sovereign country cannot tolerate anarchy. In a democracy there are clear rules on how to conduct debate and there are red lines that must not be crossed. The red line – the sharp and clear line is a complete ban on violence and anarchy,” Netanyahu said. He added that rioters, whether in Huwara, or Tel Aviv will not be tolerated.

Netanyahu recalled the controversy of the 2005 Disengagement plan: “We didn’t cross red lines then. The opposition led by me behaved responsibly then. Today, unfortunately, the opposition opposes irresponsibly. A certain party leader fuels the demonstrations and aims to cause a constitutional crisis in the hope that it will lead to the collapse of the government.”

Opponents of the judicial reforms yesterday declared a “Day of National Disruptions,” with protesters shutting down traffic into Jerusalem on Route 1 in the morning. In Tel Aviv, protesters disrupted train service and barred passengers from boarding or exiting trains at HaHaganah Station. 39 rioters were arrested and 11 people were injured when the anti-judicial reform protests in Tel Aviv turned violent in the afternoon.

No good will come of the left’s protests and what is now progressively becoming more violent. They have every opportunity to sit down – like mensches – and discuss their concerns but we’ve not seen that happen yet. Just yesterday, as she was getting a haircut, Sara Netanyahu was escorted by her security detail due to thousands of protestors hurling threats outside the salon. We do not wish to see Israelis become terrorists – especially against their own – but their anger is so deep and increasing in intensity that it seems that they might be headed this way. We pray saniity prevails before any more damage is done.

Sources:
Netanyahu: We won’t accept riots in Huwara or in Tel Aviv, by Israel National News, March 1, 2023

Sara Under Siege – Prime Minister’s Wife Rescued from Anarchist Mob in Tel Aviv, by Video of the Day/Jewish Press, March 2, 2023

 

 

Olam Katan magazine has published attorney Zeev Lev’s detailed responses to claims that have been made by the left and other objectors to Justice Minister Yariv Levin. Lev is the legal counsel of the Movement for Governance and Democracy that was established a decade ago by Levin’s ally, MK Simcha Rothman. The Jewish Press received permission to translate the entire article. David Israel took the liberty to expand and explain some of the terms which the author assumed Israeli readers would be naturally familiar with.

Source:
Everything You Wanted to Know about the Judicial Reform but Got the Feeling your News Media Aren’t Telling, by David Israel/Jewish Press, February 27, 2023

 

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been paying terrorists to murder innocent Jews for decades, encouraging criminals to commit these attacks by providing them and their families with lifetime salaries.

Using knives, guns, cars and bombs as weapons, Palestinian terrorists have murdered innocent Israelis, Americans, and Europeans, getting paid untold sums that amount to at least hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of their lives for these horrendous crimes.

I sat with my friend and colleague, Jeff Daube, watching as a group of lawmakers headed by Senator Lindsay Graham who were from both sides of the aisle passed legislation in March 2017 that requires the U.S. to cut all funding to the PA until it ends its “Pay to Slay” program.

The Taylor Force Act requires the U.S. Secretary of State to verify that the PA has ended its policy of paying terrorists, their designates and/or their surviving family members. The bill also requires the PA to publicly condemn terror attacks and to take steps to punish the terrorists.

The legislation was named after American war veteran Taylor Force, 29, who was stabbed to death in a Palestinian terror attack that left 10 others wounded in along the water in Jaffa. Force served in the US Army in Iraq and Afghanistan and was a graduate of West Point Military Academy. He was in Israel as part of a Vanderbilt University graduate student trip.

Despite the Taylor Force Act, and “the 2022 Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act which works to ensure that Palestinian terrorists do not benefit financially for committing acts of violence against Israeli citizens or the United States,” the U.S. still funds the PA, which continues to pay Palestinians who murder innocent civilians in Israel. According to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, these payments amount to $300 million annually!! They do target Jews, but Americans are fair game too.

We must demand that our lawmakers enforce the Taylor Force Act, ensuring that no funds get to the PA from any source while their heinous program continues.

Click here to find your elected officials in the U.S. Senate.

Click here to find your elected officials in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Please help now!

Judy Freedman Kadish

Thousands gathered along Route 60 in Samaria Monday afternoon, ahead of the funerals of the two Israeli men murdered by an Arab terrorist in the village of Huwara Sunday afternoon. The two brothers, Hillel Menachem Yaniv, 22, and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv, 20, were residents of Har Bracha.

Their mother Esti Yaniv called on the government to restore security to Samaria. “We cannot allow ourselves this kind of loss [of security]. We also really want to prove that that the eternal nation is not afraid of the long journey.”

Terror attacks continued today. A 27-year-old Israeli man was killed in a drive-by shooting north of the Beit Ha’Arava junction. Two other terror attacks were carried out nearly simultaneously, in three separate locations, all of them drive-by shootings. All were in the Jordan Valley. At a third location, Palestinian Authority terrorists opened fire on Highway 90 near St. George’s Monastery, also in the Jordan Valley, near the Almog Junction. The terrorists sprayed an Israeli vehicle with bullets, but miraculously, no one was injured. It is believed the same terrorist(s) were responsible for all three shootings.

This is what happens immediately following a security summit? One can only wonder what the benefit to Israel is in attending these summits when Israel continues to experience multiple daily terror attacks!

Americans For a Safe Israel conveys its condolences to the Yaniv family and the family of the 27-year-old killed today. May the families be comforted among all the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem and know only simchas. We wish a speedy recovery to those who may have been injured or traumatized in today’s terror attacks.

#Huwara #TerrorAttack

Sources:
‘Instead of seeing them get married, we are burying our sons’, by Israel National News, February 27, 2023

Israeli man killed in West Bank terror shooting — IDF, by Emanuel Fabian/Times of Israel, February 27, 2023

Israeli Killed in Jordan Valley Terror Attack Near Beit Ha’Arava Junction, by Hana Levi Julian/Jewish Press, February 27, 2023

Netanyahu denies agreeing to construction freeze at Jordan summit, by JNS, February 27, 2023

 

 

 

Roughly 450 Jews returned Sunday night to their rightful homes in Evyatar, following the drive-by murder that afternoon of the two Yaniv brothers. From the Samaria community of Har Bracha, they were murdered in a terrorist shooting attack at the Huwara checkpoint on Route 60. Huwara is a town with a one lane in either direction running through the commercial area. It has been a constant flashpoint for terror – so much so that a road is under construction to provide a bypass for those desiring safe passage. At present it is the only way to reach many of the Jewish communities in Samaria, Har Bracha among them.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir appealed in a detailed letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to allow the residents to stay in Evyatar which has all but been legally regulated.

AFSI applauds the residents of Evyatar for their response to this latest terror attack. No matter how many times the IDF returns to evacuate them, Evyatar residents, most of whom are part of the Nachala Movement, possess the drive and determination to secure nothing more than a full return to their legally obtained homes and to continue to build it up. They represent the true Zionist spirit.

@BenGvir

Source:
Proper Zionist Response: Evyatar Settlers Return Home following Huwara Murders, by David Israel/Jewish Press, February 27, 2023

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Adjunct Minister in the Defense Ministry Bezalel Smotrich last Thursday signed an agreement. This is in keeping with the coalition agreement between Likud and Religious Zionism, regulating the division of powers between them regarding managing Judea and Samaria.

According to the agreement, most of the powers of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria will be transferred to Smotrich, including the central supervision unit responsible for enforcing construction laws. However, Gallant will have the authority to exercise enforcement against illegal construction defined as a “fresh incursion,” and demolishing it constitutes “security urgency.” Still, Smotrich must be informed ahead of such action.

Now that powers have been officially transferred, it is mandatory that Jews in Judea and Samaria receive the protection and services they need and that they be allowed to develop the land. We trust that Israel can look forward to Jews being treated with the respect they deserve and not like terrorists.

Source:
Gallant, Smotrich Reach Compromise on Running Judea and Samaria, by David Israel/Jewish Press, February 23, 2023

 

 

The Knesset passed the first two pieces of legislation relating to the government’s judicial reform plan. This followed a noisy six-hour-plus debate that ended after midnight Tuesday. Both bills passed by a vote of 63 to 47. This is the first of three readings.

The first bill amends Basic Law: The Judiciary so that the Supreme Court can’t invalidate basic laws, which are considered to have quasi-constitutional status in Israel. The second bill changes the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee to give elected officials a majority in choosing judges both for the Supreme Court and lower courts.

MK Simcha Rothman stated: “The Supreme Court is the one that harmed judicial authority. Only those who ‘have the right stuff,’ only those who ‘are part of the family’ are eligible to become a judge in the Supreme Court.”

Throughout the evening, opposition and coalition MKs traded barbs as they mounted the Knesset podium. To date, the opposing side has not come forward with their list of suggested reforms. Opposition leaders have refused to answer President Isaac Herzog’s request that the two sides come together to work out their differences. What is their answer to combat the 28 year abuses of judicial power? Silence so far.

Source:
Judicial reform advances in Knesset after heated debate, by Mati Tuchfeld and JNS/Israel Hayom, February 21, 2023

Four-and-a-half years after the destruction of 15 homes in Elazar’s Netiv Ha’avot neighborhood, Wednesday morning, the Civil Administration’s Higher Planning Committee greenlighted 433 housing units in the neighborhood.

In addition, over 1,000 units were approved throughout Gush Etzion, and the eastern Gush community of Pnei Kedem was officially registered within the Israel Land Registry.

We remember all too well Israel’s Supreme Court order of the demolition of 15 Netiv Ha’avot homes, which was carried out in June 2018. The court ordered the entire houses destroyed even though only a mere two precent of the buildings were built on land where the ownership was in question.

Gush Etzion Regional Council Head Shlomo Ne’eman responded favorably, “Today’s approval of over 400 units, to be built alongside the 68 homes currently in Netiv Ha’avot, along with the other approvals throughout Gush Etzion and Judea and Samaria as a whole, is a tremendous boost.

While this is certainly great news, it cannot erase the horrible destruction of Jewish homes and lives. Nothing can bring back what once was. We can only hope that under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition that new communities are built throughout Gush Etzion, Judea and Samaria, and the entire Land of Israel.

Source:
4 years after destruction: New homes approved in Gush Etzion neighborhood, by Israel National News, February 22, 2023

Israel’s government is expected to limit the entry of Jews to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

At a meeting, Israel’s security forces were asked to close the Temple Mount to Jews during the final 10 days of the month as was done in previous years. MK Itamar Ben-Gvir shouted during the discussion, “Even the Bennet government didn’t limit entry like you want to. The previous government closed the site for nine days, and the defense establishment wanted 10. I don’t think we need to close the Temple Mount to Jews at all.”

Whether the prior government closed the Temple Mount for nine or ten days doesn’t matter. The decision to close then, as with the government now, is nothing more than a continuation of Israel caving to terror and it must STOP!

Source:
Government to limit Jewish entry to Temple Mount during Ramadan, by Israel National News, February 19, 2023