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Israel’s Supreme Court Issues Decision Opening Air Travel

The Israeli Supreme Court struck down key government restrictions on air travel Wednesday, dealing a blow to the government’s airport policies.

The government was excoriated over its handling of the issue of air travel during the COVID crisis. The justices tossed out the limit imposed by the government on the total number of Israeli citizens allowed to enter Israel by air each day. The 3,000 passenger daily limit will end on Saturday.

The court also ruled that the requirement for travelers who lack both vaccination certificates and certificates of recovery from COVID to receive special permission to travel from a government committee is illegal, striking down the need to receive approval from the exceptions committee. Travelers looking to depart from Israel after this coming Saturday will not be required to receive permission from the exceptions committee.

The justices, led by chief justice Esther Hayut, blasted the government over the way it adopted the restrictions, saying the decisions were made without references to relevant data. “In the future, any new restrictions on travel into or out of Israel need, in legal terms, [requires] a comprehensive, factual, data-based foundation.”

The court also slammed the restrictions themselves, writing in the ruling that the limits constitute an “assault on the very heart of the legal right to enter Israel and to leave it, and other rights that are at the heart of the fabric of life in democratic societies.”

Given prior overreach by the Supreme Court is this ruling appropriate? Whoever makes the decision, we’re hoping that the government will permit Israel to open up to Americans and others soon.

Source:
Open Skies? Supreme Court strikes down government limits on air travel ~David Rosenberg. Arutz Sheva, March 17, 2021

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Biden Delusional Memo on Israel is Destined to Fail Again, and Again, and Again….

The Biden-Harris administration is looking to hit the reset button with the Palestinian Authority, including the return to a more traditional (and consistently failed) position on a two-state solution. Plus, they aim to roll back several significant Trump administration positions on Israel.

The four-page memo, “The U.S. Palestinian Reset and the Path Forward,” was obtained by The National, an English-language news outlet based in the United Arab Emirates. It was reportedly presented to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on March 1.

According to the delusional memo, the Biden administration will seek to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace under a two-state solution framework “based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps and agreements on security and refugees.”

Americans For A Safe Israel/AFSI does not endorse a two-state solution and neither do the majority of Israelis.

Among the other damage Biden looks forward to is a restoration of UNRWA funding. This would increase the terrorist agenda against Israel. He’ll also roll back some Trump administration policies favorable towards Israel such as the right to put “Product of Israel” labels on goods manufactured in Judea and Samaria.

Americans For A Safe Israel strongly condemns the contents of Biden’s despicable and damage filled four-page memo. The best thing the Biden administration can do for Israel is to do absolutely nothing. In addition to the memo, any other plans this administration has slated, i.e., re-enter the Iran deal, only take many steps backward to crush the success the Trump administration achieved for Israel. Biden’s agenda is a resurrection of old attempts at peace that have consistently failed again, and again, and again. Placating terrorists never works.

It is obvious that the Biden administration has no new plans and certainly no new way of thinking when it comes to supporting Israel against the hostile forces that surround her. Anything Biden and his incompetent, anti-Semitic, corrupt colleagues attempt to implement in the name of peace between Israel and the PA will only threaten Israel’s security, defense and her very existence. Biden’s intentions to jump-start peace by starting in reverse do not make him a friend to Israel.

Sources:
Memo: Biden Administration Aims to ‘Reset’ Relations with the Palestinian Authority, by JNS News Service. Jewish News Syndicate, March 17, 2021

‘The National’ obtains US official document for Palestinian ‘reset’, by Joyce Karam. the National, March 17, 2021

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Let Them Return Home!

The IDF evacuated activists from the ruins of the former Sa-Nur community. The action came after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to heed a call to allow Jews to remain at the site.

Jews in this community had ‘illegally’ entered the site in the predawn hours. This was a challenge to Netanyahu to prove he is truly a right-wing leader with the hope that he would allow them to remain rather than risk a forced evacuation. They demanded that Netanyahu agree to rebuild that community and three others in northern Samaria that Israel destroyed in 2005 as part of the Disengagement Plan.

“We call on Netanyahu to begin his fully Right [government] already today, and not to wait until after the elections,” the activists said in a statement they issued from the site. “Stop the evacuation,” Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said, in a message aimed at Netanyahu. “Allow the families to stay and resettle Sa-Nur.” Dagan himself is a Sa-Nur evacuee. “Let us return home,” he added.

Israel has just one week before the country’s March 23 election and where are we in our quest for Sovereignty? Not close at all it seems. But for the sake of our friends in Judea and Samaria, we remain steadfast in our commitment to and hopeful that Sovereignty is not far off on the horizon.

“For the Lord will not abandon His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.” – Psalms 94:14

Source:
IDF evacuates Sa-Nur, settler challenge to Netanyahu fails, by Tovah Lazaroff. Jerusalem Post, March 16, 2021

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Crime and Punishment (aka Don’t Attack a Jew)

Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court Judge Miriam Kelsey ruled that Arin Za’anini should compensate former MK Yehuda Glick for attacking him in June 2020. Glick was comforting members of the Al-Halak family whose son Iyad had been shot by police. The attacker was also sentenced to five months in prison.

Former MK Yehuda Glick said, “The court determined the amount of this compensation following a civil lawsuit I filed through attorney Haim Bleicher of the Honenu Association. It is a drop in the ocean compared to the suffering and humiliation I experienced.”

Attorney Bleicher who represented Glick said, “We welcome the judge’s decision to order the attacker to pay compensations. Let every attacker and harasser know that they would pay out of pocket for harming Jews. We hope this punishment will deter potential attackers, who will think twice before daring to carry out any attack.”

AFSI applauds Honenu for its successful defense of Yehuda Glick. Let the outcome of this case reverberate loud and clear to the enemies of Israel.

Source:
Cost of Hitting Jews: Arab Who Attacked Yehuda Glick to Serve 5 Months, Pay $18,000, by David Israel. Jewish Press, March 17, 2021

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The Threat of Iran Grows With New Missile Facility

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps inaugurated a new underground facility designated for missile storage, Iranian state TV reported Monday.

The report quotes IRGC commander Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami as saying that cruise and ballistic missiles would make Iran’s navy even more powerful. The TV report showed footage of dozens of missiles in an enclosed space resembling an underground corridor. It did not say where the facility was located nor how many missiles were stored there.

Since 2011, Iran has boasted maintaining underground facilities across the country as well as along its southern coast near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Iran claims to have missiles that can travel 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), placing much of the Middle East, including Israel, within range.

We remain confident in the readiness and preparation of the IDF. It continues to undergo training to assess and guard against any threats to the country’s safety and Sovereignty.

Source:
Report: Iran opens new underground missile facility, By AP and ILH Staff

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WARNING: Israel Must Act Now Before It’s Too Late

The majority of the Bedouin community in the south of Israel, situated within the cities of Be’er Sheva, Dimona and Arad, has been making inroads into new areas of the Negev desert over the past years.

A new Bedouin outpost recently established near Arad and facing Masada and the Dead Sea, includes 17 illegal structures.

The Regavim movement, which closely monitors illegal construction in the Negev, revealed that the illegal Bedouin construction northeast of Arad has risen by about 1,200% in recent years.

It is disturbing that illegal land grabs continue and Jewish residents in Judea and Samaria remain under Civil Administration. At what point does Sovereignty kick in and move these longstanding issues out of the past and into the modern era?

Source:
Israeli Bedouins taking over southern part of the country, by Arutz Sheva Staff. Arutz Sheva, March 15, 2021

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Ghosts of Sovereignty

Today’s recommended reading by Naomi Kahn of Regavim.

Now that the debate surrounding the extension of Israeli sovereignty to the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria has abated somewhat in light of the Abraham Accords, the time may be ripe to take a closer look at the legal status of these territories.

The picture that emerges might be surprising. More than a century after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the empire’s ghost continues to reign. More than 50 years after Israel’s victory in the Six Day War, more than 30 years after King Hussein of Jordan publicly relinquished all legal and administrative ties to this territory, and more than 25 years after Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel, officially relinquishing all territorial claims, the State of Israel continues to enforce Jordanian law — despite its clearly racist and backward underpinnings.

Source:
Middle East: The Ghosts of Sovereigns Past, by Naomi Linder Kahn. Gatestone Institute, March 11, 2021

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Ad Kan Report Exposes “Breaking the Silence’s Lies”

The ‘Ad Kan’ Organization published a comprehensive report last week exposing what they defined as “lies” spread by the Breaking the Silence operation after Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Breaking the Silence’s campaign, which attracted international attention, was based on a collection of 111 anonymous testimonies. As a result of these testimonies IDF officers and soldiers were investigated for possible war crimes.

Ad Kan’s report focuses on several incidents publicized by Breaking the Silence and emphasizes the incredulity of the alleged incidents. Moreover, the publication of these incidents demonstrates Breaking the Silence’s failure to carry out any fact-checking of the testimonies. Among the issues identified by Ad Kan include testimonies that contradict one another, cases where the witnesses later admitted under police interrogation that they weren’t even present at the alleged incidents, and accusations that Breaking the Silence systematically altered testimonies in order to reach their desired conclusions.

The ‘Ad Kan’ Organization stated, “We hope that instead of mistakenly entrusting Breaking the Silence, soldiers will report any incidents to the proper authorities within the IDF so that they can be investigated, and the truth can be uncovered. Breaking the Silence took advantage of the naivete of soldiers in order to carry out an international campaign to besmirch Israel. While the damage has been done, we expect Breaking the Silence to remove the false testimonies from their publications and hope that the Courts will rule in favor of the soldiers who were harmed and well-known in by Breaking the Silence’s lies”.

As revealed in our article below, and well known in the Pro-Israel community, Breaking the Silence is one of the NGOs being funded by private grants, from Europe and elsewhere.

Sources:
Ad Kan report exposes “Breaking the Silence’s lies”, by Arutz Sheva Staff. Arutz Sheva, March 9, 2021

Breaking the Silence (Shovrim Shtika), by NGO Monitor. August 19, 2020

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The Flames That Fuel Anti-Israel Activity

According to an NGO Monitor report issued on Monday, between 2017 and 2019, 35 anti-Israel NGOs received a total of NIS 319,466,917 ($95.7 million) in donations. It states that 58% ($55.5 million) came from foreign governments through direct and indirect funding, and 42% ($40.1 million) from private donors.

Given the central role played by politicized NGOs in the public human rights discourse, transparency in NGO funding is required in order to support an informed debate. The group’s analysis presents all grants reported by the 35 Israeli NGOs receiving foreign government funding and involved in political advocacy, according to their annual financial reports for 2017-2019, which are the latest available. The data are listed according to the amount of the grant, the identity of the donor, and the source of the grant (private, governmental, or non-transparent / unclear).

The old adage, “follow the money,” certainly – disturbingly – rings true in this case. It’s mind boggling to see how much money the detractors of Israel are willing to spend in order to fuel their active campaigns to delegitimize the State of Israel.

Sources:
Israeli Anti-Zionist NGOs Received More than $50 Million from Foreign Governments, by David Israel. Jewish Press, March 9, 2021

Analysis of NIS 320 million in grants to Israeli NGOs, annual reports 2017-2019, by NGO Monitor. March 8, 2021

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