Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Israelis Stand in Silence to Remember Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism
Israelis stood in silence on Tuesday night as a one-minute siren sounded nationwide to mark the start of the annual Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism.
A total of 23,741 soldiers have died defending Israel, while 3,150 civilians have lost their lives in terrorist attacks throughout the country’s history.
Another siren — two minutes in length — will be heard in the morning on Wednesday, when many Israelis will visit military cemeteries to pay respects to departed family members and friends.
At an official state ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said in remarks addressed to the bereaved, “Our wellbeing is bound up in yours. I know that you think and believe that we do not understand. That we will never understand. But today, we ask you, despite everything, to tell us.”
“Tell us about her, about him, tell us about the person,” he continued. “Take us to that space which is so full, crammed full, that they left behind in your hearts. Allow us to remember them.”
At the same event, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said, “This is a unique moment that makes it possible to feel the heart’s screams and the storm of emotions.”
“There is no consolation, but there is meaning,” Kochavi noted. “We have a state, an army that defends it and, therefore, the [bereaved] families have an eternal right to exist.”
Tonight marks the beginning of Israel's National Memorial Day.
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 7, 2019
Together, we remember
the fallen,
the courageous,
and the brave.
The IDF soldiers that fell while defending their homeland. pic.twitter.com/IzrgTr3FMN
From siren to siren: Rocket trauma deepens grief as Ashkelon marks Memorial Day
With the red alert sirens triggered by Gaza rocket fire over the weekend still fresh in their ears, bereaved families in Ashkelon slowly filed into the southern coastal city’s military cemetery Wednesday morning to visit the graves of their lost loved ones on Memorial Day.
The official ceremony would not start for two hours, so the grieving parents, siblings and children had some private time with their fallen relatives before the cemetery would fill with over a thousand members of the general public.
Dozens of young soldiers dispatched to the burial ground in order to participate in the municipality’s official ceremony sat at benches near the entrance, talking among themselves.
Just days earlier, two more people in the city had been added to the rolls of those killed in war or terror attacks. By Memorial Day, calm had returned to the city, the wisps of smoke in the sky from rockets and interceptors replaced by downy clouds, but anger over the deadly round of violence still bubbled.
“At least these bereaved families can be comforted by the fact that their sons’ deaths stood for something. Think about that man killed Sunday when his home was hit by a rocket. What did he die for?” one fresh recruit asked in reference to 58-year-old Ashkelon resident Moshe Agadi, one of four Israeli civilians killed in attacks from the Gaza Strip over the weekend.
Last week on Holocaust Memorial Day, we remembered the cost of not having a state.— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 7, 2019
Today, on Memorial Day for our Fallen Soldiers, we remember the price we pay to have one. pic.twitter.com/dWZV2Clnbu
Israelis on an El-Al flight observing today's two-minute silence for Yom HaZikaron while mid-air.— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 8, 2019
(Video republished with permission from Avital Day) pic.twitter.com/r6Dgf8RQ9b
First-Ever Memorial Day Ceremony Held for Orthodox Jewish Soldiers
For the first time, a Memorial Day ceremony was held in Jerusalem on Tuesday night honoring the memories of Orthodox Jewish soldiers who laid down their lives in service to their country, as well as ultra-Orthodox victims of Arab terrorism.Controversial Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day Event Draws Crowd in Tel Aviv
Some 800 people attended the event, including Jerusalem chief rabbis Aryeh Stern and Shlomo Amar, senior Israel Defense Forces officials, bereaved families, and members of the IDF’s strictly Orthodox Netzach Yehuda Battalion.
The ceremony honored the memories of Sgt. Yosef Cohen and 1st Sgt. Yovel Mor Yosef, who were killed by a terrorist outside the community of Givat Asaf in southern Samaria in December.
The pair were two of the 95 Israelis who joined the list of fallen soldiers in the past year. Of those, 40 were disabled veterans who succumbed to wounds and complications sustained during their service. Another 16 names were added to the list of victims of Arab terrorism.
The additions bring the numbers to 23,741 fallen soldiers and 3,150 victims of terrorism.
Following an Israeli High Court ruling that Israel must grant permits to 100 Palestinian Authority residents to attend a joint Israeli-Palestinian Memorial Day ceremony, some 9,000 Israelis and a few dozen Palestinians took part in the Tuesday night event at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.Palestinian killed in rocket attack to be recognized as terror victim
Called “Sharing Sorrow, Bringing Hope,” the event was funded by Combatants for Peace and The Parents Circle–Families Forum. Both organizations are funded by the New Israel Fund, as well as German, Swiss and other European Union donors. The controversial event has taken place annually since 2006.
Detractors say the event equates fallen Israeli soldiers with the terrorists who attacked them, and minimizes the struggle for Israel’s survival. Proponents say the event is meant to allow Palestinian and Israeli families who have lost loved ones to find common ground through their loss.
“There is no place for a memorial ceremony likening the blood of our people and that of terrorists,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Twitter. “That is why I refused to allow for the entry of the ceremony’s participants, and I think the High Court should not have intervened in my decision.”
On Wednesday, Natan Landau of Combatants for Peace told Hadashot TV news that the families of terrorists who were killed were welcome as long as they expressed their opposition to terrorism.
The Defense Ministry will recognize a Palestinian man killed in Ashkelon by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip last year as a terror victim and compensate his family, Israeli television reported Wednesday.Alan M. Dershowitz: Ilhan Omar's Ignorance and Bigotry on Gaza Rockets
Mahmoud Abu Asabeh, 48, from the West Bank city of Halhul, was in Israel on a work permit when the building in Ashkelon he was staying at was struck by a rocket during a major flareup in November between the Israeli military and Gaza-based terror groups.
Channel 12 reported the ministry decision and said the family would be compensated financially and receive a monthly stipend of over NIS 10,000 ($2,700.)
“We welcome the Defense Ministry decision,” family lawyer Mohammed Raheel told the channel. “However, clearly no financial compensation can heal the wounds.”
The decision came after Abu Asabeh’s family sued Israel for tens of millions of shekels, saying the time it took rescue workers to find his body led to his death.
Firefighters who searched the building evacuated several wounded people but did not find Abu Asabeh or a Palestinian woman who also lived there and was seriously injured by the rocket. The two were found by a local man over an hour after the impact.
Does Ilhan Omar not realize that Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005, when Israel removed every soldier and settler from that area?JCPA: Hamas’ Interests in Violence and the Conflict with Israel
The American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee issued a statement condemning Israel for "targeting and killing Palestinian civilians, including children and infants." Irresponsibly, it never once mentioned the firing of 698 rockets by the rules of Gaza that target Israeli civilians, and it never mentioned the sad reality that Hamas and Islamic Jihad deliberately use "Palestinian civilians, including children and infants" as human shields in order to increase the number of Palestinian civilians who are inadvertently killed or injured by Israel's legitimate efforts to protect its civilians from unlawful rocket attacks.
Israel is also celebrating its 71st year of independence. No nation has contributed so much to humankind in so short a period of time. No nation faced with threats compared to those faced by Israel has ever had a better record of human rights, compliance with the rule of law or concern with avoiding civilian casualties. The world should join Israel in celebrating its 71 years of statehood. The world should also recognize that if Israel's enemies stopped attacking its citizens, there would be peace. But if Israel stopped defending its citizens, there would be genocide.
Hamas is exploiting the limitations on Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip to the fullest extent.Concrete wall put up along road where Israeli man was killed in missile attack
It is aiming to achieve international recognition through dialogue with Western elements on restoring calm, broadening the balance of terror with Israel, strengthening its military power structure, and progressing toward its goal of gaining control of the PLO and Palestinian institutions.
Hamas will also receive very large contributions from Qatar.
The Al-Risalah journal website, which identifies with Hamas, reported (May 6, 2019) in its main headline, “Organizations of the struggle have insisted on their conditions, and the calm is coming into force.”1
This announcement sums up, from Hamas’ point of view, three days of warfare in a round of conflict between Israel and a coalition of Palestinian terror organizations in the Gaza Strip, led by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday erected a concrete barrier around a section of road just north of the Gaza Strip where earlier this week a man was killed when a Kornet anti-tank guided missile fired from the enclave struck his car.Islamic Jihad leader expects war with Israel to break out next summer
The military said it also planned to construct a wall along the surrounding roadways that would be two meters (6.5 feet) high and 600 meters (2,000 feet) long, to provide protection from such attacks in the currently exposed area.
The initial portions of the concrete barrier, which went up on Wednesday morning, were approximately three meters (10 feet) tall and covered only the area where this week’s attack occurred.
The Hamas terror group said its fighters fired the missile Sunday at the Route 34 highway near the community of Kibbutz Erez. The Kornet slammed into Moshe Feder’s car. The 68-year-old grandfather sustained a serious shrapnel wound to the leg, causing significant blood loss, and was pronounced dead at Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center after CPR efforts failed.
That strike was one of two cases of Hamas firing the Kornet anti-tank guided missile, a precise, deadly and costly weapon, at Israeli targets on Sunday, the military said. The second attack did not cause Israeli casualties, according to an IDF spokeswoman.
A leader of the Islamic Jihad said in a televised interview that he expects war with Israel to break out by next summer.Caroline Glick: Israel Must Prepare for Next War with Hamas
Speaking to Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese news channel, on Tuesday night, Islamic Jihad Secretary-General Ziad al-Nahala described the most recent escalation against Israel as “just preparation for the greater battle.”
“The resistance in Gaza is fully prepared for any war,” Nahala said, adding that when the ceasefire was reached they were about to shoot rockets at Tel Aviv.
The Islamic Jihad leader further said that the weekly protests at the border with Israel will continue. He explained that a first test for the ceasefire will take place next Friday, which marks the commemoration of “Nakba Day,” Day of the Catastrophe, as Palestinians refer to the foundation of the State of Israel. He vowed that if the demonstrators are hurt, there will be retaliation.
The Palestinian terrorist group has strong ties with Iran and with the Lebanese group Hezbollah, and they are sometimes seen as a rival faction to Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.
However, in the interview, Nahala said that the group's cooperation with Hamas is solid.
The problem is that at that point, the rocket assaults became a means for Hamas to extort monetary concessions from Israel. And its calculations seemed to shift from shooting at Israel when it felt like proving it was still in the jihad game, to attacking Israel to get money. And as the reported ceasefire terms from the weekend’s offensive indicate, the balance of power has shifted in Hamas’s favor.Hamas offers $1000 to Gaza families whose homes were destroyed by Israel
To remedy the situation, and given Israel’s reasonable aversion to carrying out a major operation to overthrow Hamas in Gaza, Israel needs to restore the balance of deterrence it maintained with Hamas for the three years following Operation Cast Lead. That is, it needs to restore the “ceasefire-for-ceasefire” reality that held until Abbas ended his transfer payments to Gaza. To achieve this end, Israel apparently needs to deliver the sort of blow on Hamas and its key terror masters that will force them to their knees. This sort of operation would involve two major components.
First, Israel needs undermine Hamas’s ability to attack Israeli territory by restoring the kilometer-wide buffer zone on the Gaza side of the border to block assaults on its border, and by destroying Hamas’s store of rockets, mortars and missiles.
Second, Israel needs to carry out strikes against Hamas and Islamic Jihad commanders.
Such operations will make clear that Hamas will receive no further payoffs for desisting from its wanton aggression against Israel. Gaza’s economic plight can be solved through a combination of increased employment for Gazans in the northern Sinai on the Egyptian side of the border, and through humanitarian aid projects. The former will diminish Hamas’s hold on the local population.
If Israel’s military commanders are correct, and the next round of Hamas aggression is waiting around the corner, then Israel should use the coming weeks to prepare itself for an operation that will convince Hamas that it is wrong to view attacks on Israel as a means to ensure its economic survival.
Some 100 housing units were destroyed during Israeli military strikes in the Gaza Strip during the last round of fighting, a senior official in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave said on Tuesday.i24 News: HonestReporting weighs in on media coverage of rocket fire
Naji Sarhan, deputy of the Ministry of Works, announced that each family whose house was destroyed will receive $1,000 in urgent financial aid. The aid will be provided through charitable institutions in the Gaza Strip, he said during a press conference.
Sarhan said that an additional 30 housing units were partially damaged by IAF strikes on the Gaza Strip earlier this week.
Israel “destroyed dozens of installations, workshops, shops and media offices, in addition to agricultural fields and greenhouses,” he added.
He also claimed that the Israeli military strikes destroyed vehicles and ambulances, as well as electricity networks supplying power to the Strip.
Terror groups in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets at Israel, and Israel responded. How did the media do? i24 examines and HR's executive director Daniel Pomerantz explains.
Islamic Jihad unravels BBC amplification of Hamas claim
However, as the Jerusalem Post reports, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad has since admitted that the woman and child were killed by one of its own rockets.
“The Islamic Jihad, one of the terror organizations responsible for the recent wave of attacks against Israel, admitted that the baby that was killed in Gaza during the latest escalation died as a result of a misfired rocket, TPS reported on Monday.
“A leak from the heroes of the [Islamic Jihad’s] Sarayat al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigades) on the circumstances of the death of the baby Saba Abu ‘Arar indicates that a rocket of the resistance exploded inside the family’s home due to a technical failure, and prematurely exploded,” a news item by Hamas’ al-Risala News said. […]
According to TPS, Islamic Jihad representatives met with the victims’ family on Sunday morning to offer them compensation and to qualify the baby as a “martyr” in exchange for their silence on the circumstances of her death.”
The BBC can therefore now clarify to its domestic and international audiences that the Hamas claim it elected to broadly amplify was false and inform them that not only ‘Israel says’ that the woman and child were not killed as a result of Israeli actions.
However with the corporation having already moved on from this story, it is doubtful that BBC audiences will ever be relieved of the inaccurate impressions they were given in numerous news bulletins and reports.
Days later and @Independent @Beltrew still refuse to mention that the death of a pregnant Palestinian woman and a baby are disputed by the IDF and even Islamic Jihad has admitted its own misfiring rocket was responsible. https://t.co/rh278P4xp3 pic.twitter.com/n66KmpKNrp— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 8, 2019
Mehdi Hasan, the always confident Al Jazeera presenter, lied. https://t.co/qLYUZXC75P pic.twitter.com/7DxX2nF6Ki— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 7, 2019
Khulood Badawi, a senior Human Rights Watch rep who cited to the Hamas-controlled "Health Ministry in Gaza," lied. And then she retweeted her Human Rights Watch colleagues' lies.https://t.co/egt655cWxO pic.twitter.com/XSlFL05a8r— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 7, 2019
PMW: EU playing key role in funding PA's terrorist prisoners
The EU has decided to help the PA and its leader Mahmoud Abbas to continue paying salaries to terrorists by pledging to give the PA 15 million euros to cover salaries for public employees - salaries Abbas has cut in order to keep up the PA's financial rewards to terrorists. Abbas has declared that the PA is "obligated" to continue rewarding the terrorist prisoners and families of the so-called "Martyrs" even if it will be with their "last financial resources."PMW: PA admits: All Palestinian terrorists are sent by the PA and "receive orders from us"
Earlier this year, Israel decided to withhold from the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA an amount equaling the sum the PA pays to terrorist prisoners and released terrorist prisoners. These prisoners include mass murderers and heads of terror organizations. In response, the PA has refused to accept all the tax money, amounting to over 50% of its budget, thereby inflicting a serious financial crisis on itself.
To overcome this crisis - and in order to have money available to continue to pay the terrorists in full - the PA has cut the salaries of its law-abiding public employees by 50%.
Palestinian Media Watch has further documented that Abbas then had the nerve to ask Europe for money, claiming Israel is responsible for the PA's self-inflicted crisis.
Believing Abbas, the EU has now answered his appeal and stepped in to help pay the salaries to terrorists and murderers.
As money is fungible, the fact that the EU's donation of 15 million euros is earmarked to cover "the April salaries and pension payments of approximately 57,000 [PA] public employees," is in reality self-deception, because:
1. The PA cuts salaries of public employees to free up money to maintain full salaries to terrorist prisoners;
2. The EU gives PA money to cover salaries to public employees;
... as a result, the EU indirectly pays terrorist prisoners
Top PA leaders have explained that the PA is "obligated" to pay salaries to 6,000 Palestinian terrorists in prison and the families of suicide bombers and other so-called "Martyrs," because they were "soldiers" of the PA, who were "sent" by the PA and who acted out of "national interest and not for personal reasons." Most significantly, they "received orders" from the PA. As explained by Abbas' spokesman: "It is impossible to send a soldier to war and then not take care of his family."David Singer: Hamas, PLO and the UN should get a clear message - from Trump
The recent statements by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina were defending the Palestinian Authority's continued policy of paying salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of terrorist "Martyrs."
Abu Rudeina admitted to Israeli journalists that the PA sent all these terrorists as leaders send their "soldiers... to war":
"[Spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil] Abu Rudeina spoke about the Palestinian Authority's difficult financial situation due to [Israel's] deduction of tax money because of the [PA's] transfer of salaries to the families of terrorists and prisoners and said that... 'Israel needs to understand this. It is impossible to send a soldier to war and then not take care of his family. We are talking about someone who acts on our behalf and receives orders from us.'"
[Kan (Israeli TV), April 16, 2019]
Similarly, Abbas himself stressed the PA's "obligation" to pay terrorists and their families - in his words "the Martyrs, the prisoners, and the wounded" - because they acted out of a "national interest" and "not for personal reasons":
President Trump can do a lot to halt these "cycles of violence" by making it clear that there are political and financial consequences that America will unilaterally implement – including:
Gaza and 'West Bank' Arabs have been denied the right to have any say in their own future since elections held in 2006. They have been subjected to the will of Hamas and the PLO in their blind pursuit to eliminate the State of Israel.They have paid a high price for the intransigence of both Hamas and the PLO. They have been sandwiched between the bitter internecine struggle being waged between Hamas and the PLO to rule their lives.
- Denying recognition of PLO and Hamas claims to represent the 'West Bank' and Gazan Arab populations
- Ending all overt and covert contact with the PLO and Hamas
- Withholding all financial and other aid still being made by America to the Palestinian Arabs
- Demanding free and fair elections are held in both Gaza and the 'West Bank' under international supervision.
- Supporting the right of Israel to close all entry and exit points to and from Gaza and Areas A and B in the 'West Bank'.
- Recognising that Israel has valid territorial claims to sovereignty in Gaza and the 'West Bank'
- Refusing to support the creation of a second Arab State – in addition to Jordan - in the territory once comprised in the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine
- Backing Israel’s right to self-defence in taking whatever action it deems necessary to stop the flow of rockets and payment of blood money to the murderers or attempted murderers of Israeli civilians
- Withholding all American voluntary contributions presently being made to United Nations programs.
Palestinians: EU, Russia and UN should counter US peace plan
The Palestinian U.N. ambassador said Tuesday that the European Union, Russia and the United Nations should take action to save a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict if the long-awaited U.S. peace plan doesn’t lead to two independent nations.Palestinian UN Diplomat: Palestinians “will accelerate their reproduction machines” if they don’t like Trump’s peace deal
Riyad Mansour told a group of journalists that these key parties that support two-states living side-by-side in peace need to take practical actions that would prevent a U.S. plan without an independent Palestinian state from succeeding.
“We have a global consensus with us” supporting a two-state solution, he said, adding that if the Trump administration plan runs against that consensus, then there should be “practical steps” by supporters of Palestinian independence not to allow that plan to be imposed.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, a key player in drafting the plan, has been tight-lipped about its contents, saying last week that the blueprint, which has been two years in the making, attempts to ensure security for Israel and provide economic opportunity to improve the lives of Palestinians. The plan won’t be released before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ends during the first week of June, and perhaps not even then.
Yasser Arafat reportedly boasted that:Netanyahu on Iran: We will not let them get nuclear arms
“the womb of the Arab woman is my strongest weapon”
(Alternatively translated as “my best weapon”).
Arafat’s proposed demographic time bomb never materialized, and may have been overstated all along. Regardless, that Palestinian leadership would describe women’s wombs as weapons showed depravity.
It’s a sick statement to make, but it continues to drive the thinking of Palestinian officials, as was just made clear by Palestinian Authority UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour.
Numerous news agencies reported on Mansour’s recent comments regarding Trump’s not-yet-released peace deal. There is a lot of speculation that the deal will not propose an immediate Palestinian state, but some other configuration.
Mansour threatened that if that was the case, Palestinians would ignite a demographic approach.
Israel will not let Iran attain nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday just hours after Iran announced that it will continue its nuclear program.
Netanyahu's comments came at the government's central Remembrance Day ceremony at the Mount Herzl military cemetery honoring the country's 23,741 fallen soldiers.
“This morning, on my way here, I heard that Iran intends to continue its nuclear program. We will not let Iran get nuclear weapons,” he said. “We will continue to fight our enemies, and will strike our roots even deeper in our homeland. That is what our heroes did at the dawn of the nations' rebirth, and we march in their path.”
Referring to the flare up in the south over the weekend that led to the killing of four Israelis as some 700 rockets pounded the south from the Gaza Strip, Netanyahu said, “The events of the last few days show clearly what our struggle is about – about the efforts of those who seek our harm, who want to destroy our country and uproot us from our land.”
Israel's enemies have tried to do this time after time, Netanyahu said, “but they failed.”
Referring at the start of his brief comments to the repatriation of the remains of Zachary Baumel to Israel 37 years after he fell in battle in Lebanon, Netanyahu said his burial on Mount Herzl shows that “our wonderful nation again proved that after dozens of years, it does not forget its sons.”
Chris Gunness, longtime @UNRWA spox till now, goes on crazy rant about 'Judeo-Nazis'.— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 7, 2019
When we sent him 130-page report on UNRWA teachers who glorify Hitler, he lashed out at us. https://t.co/D197La4zRr
A reminder how some use the veneer of 'pro-Palestinian' to mask their hate. pic.twitter.com/u6qAebtrkJ
US confirms no more presidential waivers for Jerusalem Embassy Act
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday that he had notified Congress that no more presidential waivers will be required deferring the full implementation of a 1995 law that recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and mandated moving the US embassy to that city.Town Square in Suburb of Tel Aviv to be Named After Trump
“On May 14, 2018, the US Embassy in Jerusalem officially opened for business,” Pompeo said in a statement. “Now, as we near the first anniversary of that momentous event, I am pleased to report that I have provided my determination to Congress that the relevant elements of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 have been addressed. Accordingly, no further Presidential waiver of the funding restriction under the Act is necessary.”
The Jerusalem Embassy Act passed called on the administration to recognize the city as Israel’s capital and relocate the embassy there.
However, the law allowed for the president to waive the move if he or she deemed it detrimental to American national security interests. Since its passing, every US president — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — has signed the waiver every six months, despite Bush and Clinton having promised to move the embassy during their respective campaigns.
On December 6, 2017, US President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and vowed to move the embassy there, in a move that infuriated Palestinians and caused them to cut ties with Washington.
A town square in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petach Tikvah will be named for US President Donald Trump, announced Mayor Rami Greenberg on Monday.Canadian who has vowed Jerusalem embassy move kicks off election bid
The move comes “in gratitude to and appreciation to the president for his unwavering support of Israel,” said Greenberg in a statement.
“We are making history here in the center of Petach Tikvah. We will celebrate this important event on American Independence Day. This is a great honor for Petach Tikvah,” said Greenberg, who mentioned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, other government officials and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman would be invited to the naming.
This isn’t the only area in Israel named after the US president.
Last month, Netanyahu said he will ask his government to vote on a measure to name a new neighborhood in the Golan after Trump, who in March recognized Israeli sovereignty over the area.
Plans are also expected to be announced this week for a train stop in Jerusalem to be named after Trump, who officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state in December 2017 and relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv there five months later.
Canadian Conservative leader Andrew Scheer on Tuesday kicked off a campaign to unseat Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after he promised last year to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital if elected in October.Israel slams Putin adviser for claim Ukraine to move Jews into ‘cleansed’ area
Scheer, whose Tories are neck and neck with the Liberals in the latest public opinion polls ahead of elections in October, is a staunch supporter of Israel who could potentially align with US President Donald Trump on several key issues, including Iran.
“Canada’s Conservatives recognize the obvious fact that Israel, like every other sovereign nation, has a right to determine where its capital is located,” the party said on its website in February 2018, describing the party as “a strong voice for Israel and the Canadian Jewish community.”
A Tory government led by Scheer “will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital when we form government in 2019,” it said.
In May 2018, Scheer took to Twitter to denounce a missile attack on Israel by Iranian forces in Syria, calling the Jewish state “a steadfast Canadian ally and a democratic stronghold in the Middle East.”
Israel on Tuesday criticized an article authored by a close adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which claimed that Ukraine’s president may want to move Israeli Jews into parts of his country, as “conspiratorial and anti-Semitic.”
Jerusalem was “puzzled” by Sergey Glazyev’s article, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon told The Times of Israel.
“The conspiratorial and anti-Semitic style of his words is inappropriate and does not reflect the positive nature of Russia’s relations with Israel,” Nahshon added.
In the lengthy article posted on the nationalist blog Zavtra (Tomorrow) and on his personal website, Glazyev describes new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, as a puppet of the US administration, which is doing the bidding of the Israeli right.
“I don’t rule out, for example, the possibility of a mass movement into southeast Ukrainian land ‘cleansed’ of the Russian population by the inhabitants of the Promised Land tired of permanent war in the Middle East,” Glazyev wrote.
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) May 7, 2019
Making shit up...again https://t.co/W08V2FhC8K— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) May 8, 2019
