Israel Update 10.10.19

I wish all my readers Chag Succot Sameach. 

IRANIAN THREAT

 

P.M. Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel needs a massive air defence system to defend against Iranian attacks, especially cruise missiles like those used in attacks on a Saudi Arabian oil facility last month. Read more here

 

According to Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Israel and Arab states with whom Jerusalem does not have diplomatic relations are working together at the UN, and elsewhere, against Iran. Prior to the signing of the Iranian nuclear deal in 2015, the Arab countries were content to let Israel lead the public battle against the deal while they sat quietly in the background. Today, the Arab countries are actively involved and the recent attack on the Saudi oil facility has changed attitudes at the UN. Read more here

 

GAZA

 

Two rockets fired from Gaza at Israel last Friday night failed to reach Israel, according to the IDF. Read more here

 

 

A picture making the rounds on social media shows the leader of Hamas with his six sons, standing healthy in tailored suits, and beneath it, a picture of Gaza youths who have had a leg amputated after rioting at the Gaza fence…in a recording by a Gazan father whose son was wounded at the border confrontations, he said: “I was told I needed to provide his medicine out of my own pocket. If he were the son of one of the Hamas higher-ups, the whole world would have given aid.” “Where am I supposed to get money for medicine? They told my boy to get on the bus and protest, and then they threw him out to die.” Read more here

 

The IDF is nearing completion of new Gaza fortifications by building improved sniper posts, earthworks and walls to protect against gunfire, anti tank missiles and other threats for the Hamas-run Strip. Read more here

 

THE PA

 

The Palestinian Authority has removed nearly all traces of agreements signed with Israel from its textbooks. The only agreement still mentioned is the 1993 Oslo accords, but even those are mentioned less favourably and in less detail than in earlier versions of the books. Read more here

 

P.A. President Abbas has stated his enthusiastic commitment to continue to pay salaries to Palestinian terrorists and their families. According to the PA budget implementation report for 2019, the PA transferred $79 million in salaries and another $22 million in “social” payments…. In total, the PA Prisoner Affairs Ministry spent $105 million on these terrorist payments. Read more here

 

DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY

 

Israel’s Camero produces handheld sense-through-wall Xaver technology which has wireless networking capability, enabling it to be operated from a 100-200 metre line-of-sight distance when placed on robotic or unmanned platforms for remote control. All Xaver radar systems can see through drywall, concrete, and various structures, though not solid metal. Read more here

 

DRONES

 

Last year 78% of the IAF’s operational flight hours were performed by drones. This year the number increased and is 80%.             Read more here

 

Cyprus’ National Guard has received its first four unmanned Aerostar Tactical drones from Israeli company Aeronautics. The drones can be used to monitor Cyprus’ maritime zone and patrol forest areas in the summer to detect fires, as well as assist in rescue missions. Read more here

 

Israeli defence electronics company Elbit Systems announced that it has been awarded a $153 million contract to supply a multi-layered array of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to an army in a southeast Asian country.  Read more here

 

WEST BANK

 

A bomb exploded next to an IDF position in the West Bank last Friday evening. A second device was discovered and neutralized.   Read more here

 

INDICTMENTS

 

The Jerusalem district attorney on Sunday indicted a 12-year-old boy under terror laws for the attempted stabbing of a policewoman in Jerusalem’s Old City last month. An officer was lightly injured. On the day of the attack, the minor had attended prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. Read more here

 

Prosecutors on Thursday indicted a 15-year-old on terror charges for stabbing an Israeli woman near Modi’in last month.               Read more here

 

CRIME WAVE

 

Thousands of Arab Israelis held protests last Friday, a day after a general strike over a wave of deadly violence within the minority community. Read more here

 

With Arab Israeli political leaders and civic groups pushing for ever-larger protests and slamming government inaction on violence in their communities, senior officers and internal reports in the Israel Police offer a window into the predicament faced by their officers on the ground in Arab towns. An internal report said officers routinely found themselves in danger from organized anti-police violence in Arab towns — from angry mobs to shootings directed at police stations — including in cases when they are responding to locals’ calls for help. Read more here

 

A HEART WARMING STORY

 

Two Arab Israeli plumbers in Haifa waived a NIS 1,000 (£233.00) service fee after learning that their client, Rosa Meir, was a 95-year-old Holocaust survivor.  They also told her that if she needed anything fixed in future, they would do it free of charge.             Read more here

 

CAR POOL

 

The Transportation Ministry launched Israel’s first-ever carpool lanes on Friday in a bid to reduce traffic congestion in the centre of the country. Read more here

 

FOOD TECHNOLOGY

Israeli startup Future Meat Technologies has  announced that it isbuilding the world’s first cultured meat pilot production facility outside Tel Aviv. The company is a Jerusalem-based biotechnology firm that seeks to create cultured meat directly from animal cells through the production of fat and muscle cells, the core building blocks of meat, in a cost-effective manner. Read more here

 

NATURE

 

The Israeli Wildlife Hospital, operated by the Nature and Parks Authority and the Ramat Gan Safari Park, is building a new enclosure that will become a flight school for injured birds before they return to the wild. The hospital has been operating for 14 years and treats 6,000 animals a year. Birds often have to go through complicated orthopaedic surgeries that call for a long rehabilitation period. Many end up unable to fly. In order to be released back into the wild, these birds require a second rehabilitation period that focuses on re-learning how to fly. Read more here

 

SEASONAL

 

On the Open Sukkah website, those with sukkahs can post their location and contact information on a map, and anyone who would like to come can get in touch with them or simply show up. Read more here

 

COMMENT & OPINION

 

Ali Adi: Since 2000, 1,300 Arab Israelis have lost their lives as a result of crime and violence. Arab elected officials often blame Israel, but Arab society encourages violence within its ranks. Instead of law and order remaining in the hands of the central government, Arab society takes responsibility for seeing justice done away from the authorities and places it in the hands of families and communities, preferring to close matters within the clan or the village. If we want a solution to the violence, Arab society must allow police to enter towns and villages, and back them up fully. It cannot demand that the police come in and clear out illegal weapons while also attacking police, putting their safety at risk.  Read more here

 

Patty Nieberg and Yasmin Zaher: The expensive homes scattered on slopes among olive trees in the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya are actually a window into the Palestinian diaspora. The majority of their dwellers are dual American-Palestinian nationals who live in the U.S. for most of the year and treat these houses as their summer home. According to the village’s municipal office, there are 11,000 residents in total; 4,000 are permanent and 7,000 have homes abroad. Read more here