Israel Update 6.2.20

TERRORIST ATTACKS TODAY, THURSDAY 6.2.20

12 IDF soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in a car-ramming terror attack in Jerusalem. The attacker’s car was later found abandoned near Bethlehem Read more here

An Israeli Border Police officer was shot in the hand by a Palestinian attacker near the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.. The terrorist was shot by security forces. An IDF soldier was wounded in a drive-by shooting attack in the West Bank in the third attack against Israeli troops in less than 12 hours.Read more here

GAZA ROCKET & INCENDIARY BALLOON ATTACKS ON SOUTHERN ISRAEL

The past week has seen near-daily multiple rocket and mortar attacks and dozens of balloon-borne explosive devices launched from the Gaza Strip towards southern Israel. While no-one has been directly injured by a missile, (several of which were intercepted by Iron Dome) the sirens caused thousands of Israeli civilians to rush to shelters. Vera Diglov, a mother of 3 had to decide in a split second which of her children to carry to safety. She fell while carrying her 3 week old baby daughter. They were both hospitalised, the baby sustaining moderate head injuries. On Wednesday, infants were forced to run for shelter as a batch of suspicious balloons drifted close to their kindergarten.

HAMAS CONTINUES BUILDING TERROR TUNNELS

A member of Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades was killed Thursday in an accident while working in a tunnel near the perimeter fence. Hundreds of Gazans have been killed or injured in similar accidents. Read more here

SUDAN

Israel and Sudan began work towards establishing diplomatic ties on Tuesday, the day after P.M. Netanyahu and Sudan’s military leader, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced normalization between the countries. Israeli officials said both countries are “currently setting up teams to work on how to advance cooperation between the countries and establish diplomatic relations.” Sudan now views warming ties with Israel as a way to remove its designation by the US as a state sponsor of terrorism and to counter its current international isolation. Read more here

The move was backed by Sudan’s military, who said that the opening would help boost national security. Read more here

Sudan agreed to allow commercial aircraft heading to Israel from South America to cross its airspace. The African air corridor would also include Egypt and Chad. Read more here

AID FOR CHINA

Magen David Adom Israel’s national medical rescue organization is sending 2,000 masks and 200 full shielding kits to 14 Chabad branches across China to help them prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Read more here

ISRAELI MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY IN CANADA (& US)

A Canadian infantry Captain, wounded in Afghanistan, was unable to walk, until a Canadian neuroscientist connected him with an Israeli-made wearable exoskeleton that does the walking for him. A retired U.S. Army sergeant also uses the device and in 2019 she successfully completed the New York City Marathon, though it took her three days. Several Israeli innovations are in use in Canada, helping people walk, cope with loneliness and aiding physicians diagnose ailments that improve Canadians’ well-being. Read more here

MILITARY EQUIPMENT

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has won a $240 million contract to manufacture wings for U.S. Air Force T-38 training aircraft. IAI has been producing wings for the T-38s since 2011. Read more here

Israel’s D-Fend Solutions has been selected by the U.S. Defence Innovation Unit from a field of 16 companies to provide the EnforceAir counter unmanned aerial system (c-UAS) as the core radio-frequency system to be integrated into a U.S. counter-drone system. Read more here

Three Israeli Heron reconnaissance drones reportedly arrived in Morocco on Jan. 26. The drones will be deployed to counter extremist groups in the Western Sahara. Read more here

CYBER SECURITY

The Israel Electric Corporation has signed an agreement with a leading energy utility in Japan to help it secure infrastructure against cyberattacks during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Read more here

Israel detected and prevented a “very serious cyber attack” on one of the country’s power plants a few months ago. Read more here

EUROVISION

Israel has chosen IDF soldier Eden Alene, 19, as its representative for the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest. She will be the first singer of Ethiopian origin to represent Israel in the contest. Read more here

LIFESTYLE

The Israeli organization Vegan-Friendly, together with Meatless Monday, a nonprofit that encourages people to consume less meat, will be holding a culinary innovation conference in Tel Aviv on Monday to showcase food trends and developments in the field of vegetarian and vegan food. Read more here

MORE COMMENT & OPINION ON THE U.S. “VISION FOR PEACE”

David Collier: There isn’t clarity because this isn’t a comprehensive peace plan – it is a vision statement. The vision looks at Palestinian suffering and finds a way to break through the impasse. But there is the catch. It deals with the Palestinians as people – not as a cause. It deals with their human rights, not their anti-Israel desires. And for that it will be instantly rejected by every Palestinian flag waver in the west. Which given the world will carry on moving with or without them – would be a tragedy for the Palestinians more than anyone else. Read more here

Caroline Glick: From 1994 through 1996… I served as a member of Israel’s negotiating team with the PLO. The same Palestinian leaders who joked with us in fancy meeting rooms in Cairo and Taba breached every commitment they made to Israel the minute the sessions ended. ..When you read the plan closely, you realize it is a mirror image of the Oslo Accords. Rather than Israel being required to prove its good will, the Palestinians are required to prove their commitment to peace. Read more here

Dan Diker : The U.S. peace plan offers a return to the security-first approach of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and, specifically, the concept of defensible borders. Read more here

Steve Frank: The Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations cites the claims for statehood of over 350 stateless peoples. Many are ancient peoples who have had their own separate identities for centuries including 45 million Kurds, 6 million Tibetans, 70 million Tamils in southern India, 30 million Igbos in Nigeria, 30 million Sikhs in India, 10 million Ahwazi Arabs in Iran, the Basques, and the Catalans…unlike other stateless people, the stateless status of the Palestinians is largely self-inflicted. They are the only stateless people who have turned down repeated offers of statehood and independence over the last hundred years. They are also the only stateless people who have repeatedly and routinely turned to indiscriminate violence and terrorism in pursuit of their goals. The Kurds, Tibetans and other stateless peoples have never turned their call for statehood into an excuse for murder. Read more here

Michael Oren: One of the biggest differences [in the new U.S. peace plan] is [that] in the past Israel was expected to give territory first and then get peace, now Israel gets peace first and then gives up the territory. Here’s the difference: The burden of proof of peacefulness falls on the Palestinians. They have to stop educating their children to kill Israeli youth…They have to accept Israel as a legitimate, permanent state. Read more here

Prof. Eyal Zisser: Upon the revelation of the U.S. peace plan, the Arab world generally responded with restraint and even deafening silence. After all, the majority of Arab states have far more important and pressing issues than the future of the Palestinians to deal with; and if the Palestinians are incapable of taking responsibility for their future, then no one in the Arab world intends to do it for them. Read more here

Ahmed Charai: Count me among a large number of Arabs who have long believed that the U.S. peace plan deserves a chance – albeit one of the few who says so publicly. The failure to build vibrant Palestinian civil, economic, and cultural institutions has always been a significant obstacle to their dream of statehood. Thus it is pragmatic to open a four-year window for the Palestinians to pursue such an outcome, as the U.S. plan essentially does. Read more here

Einat Wilf: Decades of determined words and actions have made it very clear that the Palestinian leadership will say yes only to plans that bring about the end of Israel as the sovereign state of the Jewish people. Westerners who genuinely want to believe that there is a peace plan that allows both a Jewish Israel and an Arab Palestine to live side by side in peace have sought to square the Palestinians’ decades of consistent rejectionism by engaging in a practice I term “Westplaining.” It means that when Palestinians say “no,” Westerners explain it means “maybe.” Read more here