Author: AFSI Staff

Israel’s security services were successful in thwarting an unusual attempt to transfer advanced filtering equipment from the Hebron area in Judea and Samaria to the Gaza Strip. This equipment was apparently intended to be used by Hamas operatives as part of the organization’s terror tunnels project.

The shipment included filters, valves and even assembly instructions in Hebrew. The equipment was seized and an investigation has been launched by Israel’s security establishment.

Israel’s combined security agencies have thwarted thousands of attempts over the years to smuggle illicit materials and products into the Gaza Strip. This operation represents another successful mission in keeping safe and defending the country against terror.

Source:
Advanced equipment meant for Hamas tunnels seized by Israel, by World Israel News Staff, September 2, 2021

The joint statement of the President of the United States and the Prime Minister at the end of the meeting between the two emphasized a broad consensus between the parties on various issues, especially with respect to Iran and its nuclear armament.

However, on one issue Biden and Bennett agreed not to agree: construction in Judea and Samaria. It was decided that the Americans would not put pressure on Israel regarding the matter, and that Israel would not build there in a massive way. The status quo will continue as it was in previous governments. Biden, however, remains committed to the two state “dissolution”, which must be unacceptable to any sane Israeli government. Bennett, in his eagerness to please, does not appear to have made this point.

During the meetings in Washington, President Biden ordered the promotion of Israel’s entry into the visa waiver program, which, while not in effect yet, would serve both US citizens and Israeli citizens seeking to enter the United States.

This did not appear to be a news breaking meeting between the two. Niceties were exchanged and assurances of friendship and general statements in support of Israel were made. The burning issue of the US recognizing Israel’s legal right to build in Judea and Samaria, once again, received no support from the US.

Sources:
Report: Bennett and Biden agreed to disagree on Judea and Samaria construction, by Yoni Kempinski/Arutz Sheva, August 29, 2021

PM Bennett meets with US President Joe Biden, by Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 28, 2021

Readout of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.’s Meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett of Israel, by The White House, August 27, 2021

Former Jerusalem Mayor Likud MK Nir Barkat is seeking to call a special parliamentary session to discuss the Biden administration’s decision to open a Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem. Barkat has called the move “disastrous” for Israel. We agree with the former Mayor of Jerusalem.

Barkat was able to secure the signatures of 50 lawmakers necessary to hold a special session, slated to take place on Thursday, Sept. 2.

Source:
Knesset to hold special session on US plan to open Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem, by Ariel Kahana/Israel Hayom, August 30, 2021

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has decided to take a number of steps to strengthen the Palestinian Authority following his meeting with PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas Sunday night. But, as far as we can see, he has asked nothing in return.

The government is slated to, among other things, lend the Palestinian Authority half a billion shekels ($155 million), which supposedly will be repaid from the June 2022 tax money Israel collects on behalf of the PA. This can only happen with the approval of Finance Minister, Avigdor Liberman. In addition, Israel will increase employment permits by 15,000 workers, add 1,000 workers in the tourism industry and proceed to issue building permits for Arabs in Area C. This government has agreed to maintain the status quo on Jewish building, yet it will issue permits to Arabs!

Israel will also begin determining the humanitarian status of thousands of Palestinian Arabs living without documentation in Judea and Samaria today, including people who came from the Gaza Strip years ago, and visitors who came from abroad and married at an older age.

Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich slammed Gantz for “meeting with a man who denies the Holocaust, who pays salaries to terrorists and is suing him and the State of Israel in The Hague.” Smotrich warned that “Israeli society does not understand the potential damage this event can inflict on the diplomatic level.” Showing such weakness can only be harmful to world opinion of Israel.

We are outraged by the moves this administration is making. Jews living in Judea and Samaria still live under Civil Administration which does little to protect their rights, while the application of Sovereignty hangs in the balance.

Source:
Israel to lend PA 500 million shekels, by Arutz Sheva Staff, August 30, 2021

Gantz-Abbas meeting irks Israeli right and Hamas alike, by Shahar Klaiman/Jewish News Syndicate, August 30, 2021

The White House announced that the first meeting between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett scheduled for today is postponed due to the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport in Afghanistan. The meeting will take place Friday.

Bennett and Biden were slated to discuss security cooperation and regional challenges facing the US and Israel, including the Iranian nuclear threat. Bennett’s goal is to reach shared principles on countering Iran with Biden – preferably with a public statement – such as never letting Iran attain a nuclear weapon instead of just “not on my watch,” as Biden has said in the past. It was also Bennett’s intention to let Biden know he wants stability in the region and not two states.

As of this writing 60 people were killed in the Afghan terror attack, 13 of the casualties were US soldiers. More than 150 are wounded or in critical condition. Shortly after this, the US Pentagon confirmed that a second explosion occurred at Kabul airport’s Abbey gate. As of 2:15pm today a third explosion and gunfire were reported.

Israel’s safety is foremost on our mind. Biden and his advisors have created a deadly situation and enabled the galvanization of terror. He’s made a mockery of the United States and we have yet to hear any appropriate statement reassuring us things are under control. His weak and incompetent “leadership” left behind in Afghanistan brand new American weapons – weapons of war – worth billions of dollars (Humvees, military helicopters, F-15s). Those critical military assets are now in the hands of the terrorist Taliban and this represents an enormous threat to Israel and the entire Middle East region – not to mention the Western world. Naturally, many of the international players will reassess the value of a US alliance under this government. Perhaps this will push Israel to become even more self-reliant. Prayers for citizens may be all that is left and we pray we are very wrong on that.

Sources:
Biden-Bennett meeting pushed off following Kabul blast, by Arutz Sheva, August 26, 2021

Bennett to Americans: We want stability, but not two states, by Lahav Harkov/Jerusalem Post, August 25, 2021

Samaria Regional Council chairman Yossi Dagan responded to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s remarks in an interview with the New York Times, in which he said his government would build in Judea and Samaria, will not establish a Palestinian state but will also not apply Sovereignty.

“Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said some things that are important and some things that cannot be accepted in any way. The statement that a terrorist state will not be established in the heart of the country is an important statement and so is the statement that this government will not resolve the ‘Israeli-Palestinian conflict,'” Dagan said.

“The messianic attempts in the past to try to reach solutions here and now of retreats in exchange for terror have not proven themselves and there is no reason for them to continue. At the same time, the statement that there will be no Sovereignty is a statement that is unacceptable, as is the statement about restricting construction in accordance with natural growth.”

It’s unconscionable at this point that the application of Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is not a priority on Bennett’s to do list. Without Sovereignty how else can Israel guarantee her self-defense and be fully secure?

Source:
Yossi Dagan: Bennett’s statement is unacceptable, by Yoni Kempinski/Arutz Sheva, August 26, 2021

Border Police and Israel Police commanders on Wednesday conducted a preparatory tour ahead of the uprooting of the vineyards owned by Achiya Farm in the Shiloh Valley. The uprooting is due to take place in the coming days following a High Court ruling. Residents of Gush Shilo are calling on the public to “get ready for D Day,” and show up to fight the destruction.

Achiya Farm appealed to Defense Minister Benny Gantz asking to reach a compromise according to which the 42 acres of plants would be moved to alternative land after the end of the Shmita year that starts September 7 (planting and replanting are forbidden during the shmita year ). The High Court approved this option, but Defense Minister Benny Gantz is refusing the compromise proposal.

Activist Amishav Melt who lives in Gush Shilo and is one of the leaders of the campaign to stop the uprooting and stated, “The planned destruction of the vineyards is part of the war over sovereignty that’s taking place these days.” He warned that “anyone attempting to present the destruction as a ‘legal problem’ that will be resolved if only the vineyards are relocated or the owners receive increased compensation, evades the overall campaign taking place in the territories of Judea and Samaria – and will wake up one day to find himself in a sovereign Palestinian state that has been established in the abandoned territories of Judea and Samaria.”

Even though Arab petitioners have not proved land ownership, about half of Achiya Farm will be uprooted because of a draconian order invented by Civil Administration lawyers – one that everyone admits it is blatantly immoral.

Source:
Shiloh Farmers Prepare to Fight Gantz’s Attempt to Uproot 42 Acre Vineyard, by David Israel/Jewish Press, August 26, 2021

Terrorists in the Gaza Strip sparked at least nine fires in southern Israel throughout Monday with balloon-borne incendiary devices flown over the border as tensions in the region heated up.

Firefighters from Fire and Rescue Services, the Israel Defense Forces, the Jewish National Fund and local communities have been battling brush fires throughout the day in the Eshkol and Sdot Negev regions of southern Israel.

Fire and Rescue Services investigators said they determined that at least nine fires in Eshkol were sparked by these balloon-based attacks. Another fire in Sdot Negev was also likely the result of arson, but this was still being checked, the investigators said.

On Saturday, Hamas organized a similar large demonstration on the Gaza border that turned particularly violent at one point, with hundreds of rioters storming the security fence. A Palestinian man with a pistol opened fire at an Israeli Border Police sniper, Barel Hadaria Shmueli, who was stationed on the border, shooting him in the head and critically wounding him.

In response to the shooting attack on the border guard, the Israel Defense Forces conducted limited airstrikes on Hamas weapons storage sites in what was widely seen as an effort to retaliate to the attack on the soldier without risking a larger conflict with the terror group. During the strikes, Palestinians fired heavy machine-gun fire at Israeli aircraft over the coastal enclave. A number of homes and vehicles in Sderot were hit by the gunfire and suffered damage.

Once again, Israelis in the south are under attack and need protection NOW. Just last week Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said “Our goal is to provide long-term security to the residents of the south and the Gaza area and we are going to act at the time of our choosing and on our own terms; we won’t let any other element dictate its terms to us.” What is Bennett waiting for? To not take any action in response to the latest terror attacks leaves us deeply concerned.

Source:
Gaza arson attacks spark 9 fires in Israel; terror groups plan border protests, by Judah Ari Gross/Times of Israel, August 23, 2021

The International Criminal Court has added the multiple IDF demolitions of the Palestinian herding village of Khirbet Humsa in the Jordan Valley to its file of alleged Israeli war crimes.

It did so after the Israeli left-wing NGO Combatants for Peace sent the court information on the demolitions, which had taken place in the small hamlet of tents and shacks.

The IDF has argued that the tents and shacks of Khirbet Humsa are illegal and exist in an IDF firing zone. It has rightly taken action multiple times in the past years to remove the structures over the objections of the international community, including the European Union, whose local diplomats have visited the site.

For a refresher on the matter of Khirbet Humsa, watch AFSI’s February 2021 Zoom meeting with Naomi Kahn of Regavim, “The Big Lie of Khirbet Humsa: The Newest Version of Palestinian Authority/European Union Toxic Concoctions.”

Source:
ICC adds IDF’s multiple razing of Khirbet Humsa to war crimes probe, by Tovah Lazaroff/Jerusalem Post, August 21, 2021

The IDF has set in motion preparations to uproot Israeli-owned Achiya Farm vineyards in the Shiloh area in Samaria as soon as next week. The agricultural lands were bought by Achiya Farms in 2006. The High Court of Justice recently approved the IDF Civil Administration’s request to implement a “disruptive use order” and uproot the vineyards, even though the Arab plaintiffs failed to prove ownership of the land. A “Disruptive use order” is executed in the event of an Arab complaint of invasion and the Jewish farmer must be unilaterally evicted.

The destruction is expected to uproot about 170 dunams of orchards and vineyards in the Shiloh Valley, which constitute about 40% of the agricultural activity of the Achiya Farm industries, which cultivates the land.

This type of order has been widely criticized by High Court Justice Edmond Levy, and in recent years its use has been discontinued.

David Zitzer, CEO of Achiya’s Farm, said that “we are in an inconceivable reality that even though the petitioners have not proved land ownership, about half of our farm is going to be uprooted because of a draconian order invented by Civil Administration lawyers and everyone admits it is blatantly immoral.” The Civil Administration’s “foolish attempt to uproot the farm by surprise in the midst of the harvest season and while they are discussing with us a compromise outline to reduce the damage to the economy is no less than a national disgrace,” he charged.

Who does the Civil Administration and their attorneys report to? They are supposed to report to the IDF and the Shin Bet (Israeli Police). Why does it seem as if the Arabs are in control? This injustice must be rectified!

Source:
State Plans to Uproot Israeli-Owned Vineyard in Samaria, Even Though Arab Ownership Claims Refuted, by Aryeh Savir/TPS, August 18, 2021