13 aug 2019
A group of the Israeli parliament (Knesset)’s members have criticized the US House of Representatives for approving a resolution against a global boycott campaign against the regime, which endorses, to Tel Aviv’s dismay, a so-called two-state solution to the decades-long conflict with Palestine.
House Resolution 246 was passed by a 398-17 margin, with five abstentions on July 23.
It opposes the international movement known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), but also backs the so-called two-state solution. The measure further reaffirmed strong support for “a negotiated solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in “a viable, democratic Palestinian state.”
In a letter sent Monday to four US Congressmen who co-sponsored the resolution, 21 Israeli lawmakers argued that the measure contains a “grave error” and that the “two-state” bid is “far more dangerous” than the BDS.
“Israel is grateful to all our wonderful friends in Congress who stand with us on so many fronts. However, we would like to express to you our concern regarding the anti-BDS resolution (H. Res. 246),” read the letter.
“We believe it contains a grave error because it expresses, among other things, support for a so-called ‘Two-State Solution,’ meaning the establishment of a ‘Palestinian state’… We would like to make our position clear that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be far more dangerous to Israel than BDS,” it added.
The BDS movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations and later turned international. It is meant to initiate “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law” and end its occupation of the Palestinian lands.
In a bid to force the Tel Aviv regime to withdraw its claim from the Palestinian territories, many countries have banned the sale of goods produced in the Israeli settlements.
Elsewhere in their letter, the Israeli lawmakers said that the push for the establishment of a Palestinian state contradicts US President Donald Trump’s position on the matter.
They also claimed that creating a sovereign Palestinian state would “severely damage” both Israel’s and America’s national security.
The Israeli legislators further urged their American colleagues to refrain from endorsing the “two-state solution” in the future.
“The affirmation of support for establishing a Palestinian state is so dangerous that we respectfully request that you take that into consideration,” they added.
House Resolution 246 was passed by a 398-17 margin, with five abstentions on July 23.
It opposes the international movement known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), but also backs the so-called two-state solution. The measure further reaffirmed strong support for “a negotiated solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulting in “a viable, democratic Palestinian state.”
In a letter sent Monday to four US Congressmen who co-sponsored the resolution, 21 Israeli lawmakers argued that the measure contains a “grave error” and that the “two-state” bid is “far more dangerous” than the BDS.
“Israel is grateful to all our wonderful friends in Congress who stand with us on so many fronts. However, we would like to express to you our concern regarding the anti-BDS resolution (H. Res. 246),” read the letter.
“We believe it contains a grave error because it expresses, among other things, support for a so-called ‘Two-State Solution,’ meaning the establishment of a ‘Palestinian state’… We would like to make our position clear that the establishment of a Palestinian state would be far more dangerous to Israel than BDS,” it added.
The BDS movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations and later turned international. It is meant to initiate “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law” and end its occupation of the Palestinian lands.
In a bid to force the Tel Aviv regime to withdraw its claim from the Palestinian territories, many countries have banned the sale of goods produced in the Israeli settlements.
Elsewhere in their letter, the Israeli lawmakers said that the push for the establishment of a Palestinian state contradicts US President Donald Trump’s position on the matter.
They also claimed that creating a sovereign Palestinian state would “severely damage” both Israel’s and America’s national security.
The Israeli legislators further urged their American colleagues to refrain from endorsing the “two-state solution” in the future.
“The affirmation of support for establishing a Palestinian state is so dangerous that we respectfully request that you take that into consideration,” they added.
'I told them I want to stay here, we did nothing wrong,' says 13-year-old Rohan Perez, sent with his parent to her home country after Tel Aviv court approves their deportation; their departure was delayed by 24 hours after Rosemarie Perez had an outburst on the plane and had to be removed
A 13-year-old boy born and raised in Tel Aviv was deported alongside his mother to her home country of the Philippines on Monday night, despite his pleas to remain in the only country he has known.
Rohan Perez was born in Isael to Rosemarie Perez, now 42, who entered Israel legally in 2000 and worked as a caregiver. But when her employer passed away in 2007, Perez stayed in Israel illegally, working as a cleaner.
Rosemarie said she didn’t leave the country when her employment ended because she wanted her son, who attended the Bialik-Rogozin School in Tel Aviv, to live in Israel. She also said she has no relatives in the Philippines.
The two were arrested last Tuesday in their apartment in south Tel Aviv by Population and Immigration Authority officers and were held at the Yahalom detention facility in Ben-Gurion Airport until their deportation was approved.
In a phone call from the detention facility, Rohan said that after the court rejected their appeal against deportation, he and his mother were taken from the detention facility straight to the airport.
"They just tossed us around," said Rohan. "They took us to the airport with nothing.
"We asked to make a phone call, but they wouldn't let us. I told them that I wanted to stay here and that we had done nothing wrong."
The two were accompanied by a pair of Population and Immigration Authority officers after they had to be taken off an earlier flight due to Rosemarie having an outburst on the plane.
The two departed on a flight to Bangkok late Monday, after which they were to board another flight to the Philippines.
This is the first family with a school-age child to be forcibly deported after a series of arrests in recent weeks as part of a large-scale operation to deport around 100 foreign workers, most of them from the Philippines, and their children born and raised in Israel.
This is the third family with a school-age child to be arrested as part of the operation that began three weeks ago.
Ofrecina Cuenca and her 12-year-old son Michael James are still waiting for a decision in their case. Geraldine Esta and her two children, 10-year-old Qian and 5-year-old Catherine, are set to be deported in the middle of September. Esta's legal team is planning to appeal the decision.
Once arrested, the detainees are forced to sign documents saying they have to leave the country with their children by the end of the school year in exchange for their freedom.
The Population and Immigration Authority said in a statement that while they are people in Israel illegally, it had decided to let their children finish the current school year.
"These are foreign citizens who have been living illegally in Israel for a very long period without any regulated status," the Authority said.
"In some cases, if not most, the children's fathers are waiting for them in their countries of origin.
"These workers were arrested this year for unlawful presence in Israel, but a decision was made to allow their children to finish their school year, as long as the mothers respected the decision and willfully left the country with their children and return home (without deportation)."
"We are dismayed at the incessant attempts to take advantage of this considerate step."
A 13-year-old boy born and raised in Tel Aviv was deported alongside his mother to her home country of the Philippines on Monday night, despite his pleas to remain in the only country he has known.
Rohan Perez was born in Isael to Rosemarie Perez, now 42, who entered Israel legally in 2000 and worked as a caregiver. But when her employer passed away in 2007, Perez stayed in Israel illegally, working as a cleaner.
Rosemarie said she didn’t leave the country when her employment ended because she wanted her son, who attended the Bialik-Rogozin School in Tel Aviv, to live in Israel. She also said she has no relatives in the Philippines.
The two were arrested last Tuesday in their apartment in south Tel Aviv by Population and Immigration Authority officers and were held at the Yahalom detention facility in Ben-Gurion Airport until their deportation was approved.
In a phone call from the detention facility, Rohan said that after the court rejected their appeal against deportation, he and his mother were taken from the detention facility straight to the airport.
"They just tossed us around," said Rohan. "They took us to the airport with nothing.
"We asked to make a phone call, but they wouldn't let us. I told them that I wanted to stay here and that we had done nothing wrong."
The two were accompanied by a pair of Population and Immigration Authority officers after they had to be taken off an earlier flight due to Rosemarie having an outburst on the plane.
The two departed on a flight to Bangkok late Monday, after which they were to board another flight to the Philippines.
This is the first family with a school-age child to be forcibly deported after a series of arrests in recent weeks as part of a large-scale operation to deport around 100 foreign workers, most of them from the Philippines, and their children born and raised in Israel.
This is the third family with a school-age child to be arrested as part of the operation that began three weeks ago.
Ofrecina Cuenca and her 12-year-old son Michael James are still waiting for a decision in their case. Geraldine Esta and her two children, 10-year-old Qian and 5-year-old Catherine, are set to be deported in the middle of September. Esta's legal team is planning to appeal the decision.
Once arrested, the detainees are forced to sign documents saying they have to leave the country with their children by the end of the school year in exchange for their freedom.
The Population and Immigration Authority said in a statement that while they are people in Israel illegally, it had decided to let their children finish the current school year.
"These are foreign citizens who have been living illegally in Israel for a very long period without any regulated status," the Authority said.
"In some cases, if not most, the children's fathers are waiting for them in their countries of origin.
"These workers were arrested this year for unlawful presence in Israel, but a decision was made to allow their children to finish their school year, as long as the mothers respected the decision and willfully left the country with their children and return home (without deportation)."
"We are dismayed at the incessant attempts to take advantage of this considerate step."
11 aug 2019
United Right leader hits back at PM for recent online comments, calls on him to stop 'throwing dust in the public's eyes' over coalition plans after he urges voters to refrain from choosing another party from the right-wing bloc over his Likud
The leaders of the political bloc to the right of the ruling Likud party has pledged to hit back with an immediate and sharp response to any belittling comment made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu towards them or their allies.
This is a marked contrast to the previous election campaign, in which messages supporting Netanyahu were unequivocal.
The United Right party, which leads the bloc under its own chair Ayelet Shaked, fears a situation in which Netanyahu will once again increase the Likud's power at the expense of the entire bloc, and, learning this lesson from the last election campaign, it has decided to formulate a different, more aggressive strategy.
For example, Netanyahu turned to right-wing voters in a live stream appearance on his Facebook page on Friday, and urged them not to vote for any non-Likud party, fearing he would not serve as prime minister after the upcoming September elections.
"We wasted seven seats in the last elections and those who vote for another right-wing party will make the Likud smaller," Netanyahu said as part of a campaign aimed at increasing Likud's power over the other parties in the right, a campaign that is also expected to intensify towards September.
Netanyahu also accused Shaked of "currently" recommending Netanyahu to assemble the government, calling it "stutter" and implying that her support was fickle.
As part of the United Right's new policy, Shaked strongly attacked Netanyahu in return in her own Facebook live stream immediately after.
"We are the only ideological right," she said of her party. "We said we would recommend the right-wing candidate, which is Netanyahu. Enough throwing dust in the public's eyes.
"Instead of fighting with his natural partners, Netanyahu would be better off focusing efforts on enlarging the right bloc, if he really wants a right-wing nationalist government," she said.
"He, who stuttered with (center-left politicians Ehud) Barak, (Tzipi) Livini, (Isaac) Herzog, (Avi) Gabbay and only yesterday his own people said he would go with (Opposition Leader Benny) Gantz – should not preach to the United Right. We are loyal to the right and its values."
"We will recommend Netanyahu," Shaked clarified, "but it does matter what kind of government he will form. In recent months alone he has turned to Gabbay, David Bitan and other MKs who said they see themselves forming a government with Gantz."
She added: "The prime minister has rightly said that we should make every effort to form a coalition of 61 or more right-wing representatives.
"All in all, most people in the country belong to the right and center-right blocs and there is no reason for us not to succeed. Whoever thinks it is important to regulate the settlements in West Bank and apply Israeli sovereignty there has only one option."
The leaders of the political bloc to the right of the ruling Likud party has pledged to hit back with an immediate and sharp response to any belittling comment made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu towards them or their allies.
This is a marked contrast to the previous election campaign, in which messages supporting Netanyahu were unequivocal.
The United Right party, which leads the bloc under its own chair Ayelet Shaked, fears a situation in which Netanyahu will once again increase the Likud's power at the expense of the entire bloc, and, learning this lesson from the last election campaign, it has decided to formulate a different, more aggressive strategy.
For example, Netanyahu turned to right-wing voters in a live stream appearance on his Facebook page on Friday, and urged them not to vote for any non-Likud party, fearing he would not serve as prime minister after the upcoming September elections.
"We wasted seven seats in the last elections and those who vote for another right-wing party will make the Likud smaller," Netanyahu said as part of a campaign aimed at increasing Likud's power over the other parties in the right, a campaign that is also expected to intensify towards September.
Netanyahu also accused Shaked of "currently" recommending Netanyahu to assemble the government, calling it "stutter" and implying that her support was fickle.
As part of the United Right's new policy, Shaked strongly attacked Netanyahu in return in her own Facebook live stream immediately after.
"We are the only ideological right," she said of her party. "We said we would recommend the right-wing candidate, which is Netanyahu. Enough throwing dust in the public's eyes.
"Instead of fighting with his natural partners, Netanyahu would be better off focusing efforts on enlarging the right bloc, if he really wants a right-wing nationalist government," she said.
"He, who stuttered with (center-left politicians Ehud) Barak, (Tzipi) Livini, (Isaac) Herzog, (Avi) Gabbay and only yesterday his own people said he would go with (Opposition Leader Benny) Gantz – should not preach to the United Right. We are loyal to the right and its values."
"We will recommend Netanyahu," Shaked clarified, "but it does matter what kind of government he will form. In recent months alone he has turned to Gabbay, David Bitan and other MKs who said they see themselves forming a government with Gantz."
She added: "The prime minister has rightly said that we should make every effort to form a coalition of 61 or more right-wing representatives.
"All in all, most people in the country belong to the right and center-right blocs and there is no reason for us not to succeed. Whoever thinks it is important to regulate the settlements in West Bank and apply Israeli sovereignty there has only one option."
10 aug 2019
The failure of the Saudi war on Yemen will have grave consequences for Israel as Tel Aviv fears that Washington’s bid to isolate Tehran is unwinding, according to a report published by Israel’s leading daily Haaretz.
“Oil sites in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have been attacked by drones and Saudi airports have been targeted by Scud missiles… The apparent outcome is that the Emirates has abandoned the war in Yemen, the Saudi effort has failed,” wrote Haaretz on Friday.
“Without military support from the Emirates, it seems that the Saudi ambition to defeat Houthi rebels will fail conclusively,” it said, adding that amid a Washington and Tel Aviv-led bid to isolate Tehran and its allies in the region, “this is not good news”.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies, namely the United Arab Emirates, launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Saudi-allied former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.
Resistance by Yemen’s armed forces, led by Ansarullah, has, however, pushed the Saudi war to a stalemate, with Yemeni forces deploying increasingly sophisticated retaliatory attacks against the Saudis.
The stepped-up Yemeni retaliatory strikes come as the UAE has announced the gradual withdrawal of its troops from the conflict, largely because Abu Dhabi believes the war appears to have become "unwinnable", according to US reports.
Saudi Arabia relied greatly on the Emirati forces in advancing its war in Yemen, with observers believing that a Saudi-led tribal alliance may eventually disintegrate with factional infighting due to a lack of Emirati oversight.
Clashes between Emirati-backed separatists and Saudi-backed militia were reported earlier this week.
‘Bad news for Israel’
According to Haaretz’s Friday article, the defeat of the Saudi war effort will enable Houthis, which have adamantly voiced their opposition against the Israeli occupation, to facilitate arms exports to Palestinian resistance groups and restrict Israeli presence in the strategic Bab al Mandeb Strait.
The article, however, pointed that the gravest outcome of a Yemeni victory would be the gradual unraveling of what was meant to be a firm regional anti-Iran alliance.
UAE's withdrawal from the Saudi war effort and recent negotiations with Iranian officials indicated that Persian Gulf states are open “to reconsider their policy with respect to Iran” as Tehran and its allies stand firm against Washington, it said.
“This is bad news for the anti-Iranian alliance and possibly indicates a trend that should concern the American president and his close friend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," wrote Haaretz.
The paper added that doubt regarding the success of the US administration’s regional policy was growing, with pessimism "trickling into” Tel Aviv despite nothing being “said of it in public”.
The war on Yemen and an ensuing blockade has taken a heavy toll on the infrastructure on the impoverished Arab country, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories and killing more than an estimated 60,000 Yemenis.
On Friday, thousands of Yemenis converged outside Sana’a International Airport in the capital to protest the US-backed blockade.
“Oil sites in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates have been attacked by drones and Saudi airports have been targeted by Scud missiles… The apparent outcome is that the Emirates has abandoned the war in Yemen, the Saudi effort has failed,” wrote Haaretz on Friday.
“Without military support from the Emirates, it seems that the Saudi ambition to defeat Houthi rebels will fail conclusively,” it said, adding that amid a Washington and Tel Aviv-led bid to isolate Tehran and its allies in the region, “this is not good news”.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies, namely the United Arab Emirates, launched a devastating war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the government of Saudi-allied former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crushing the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.
Resistance by Yemen’s armed forces, led by Ansarullah, has, however, pushed the Saudi war to a stalemate, with Yemeni forces deploying increasingly sophisticated retaliatory attacks against the Saudis.
The stepped-up Yemeni retaliatory strikes come as the UAE has announced the gradual withdrawal of its troops from the conflict, largely because Abu Dhabi believes the war appears to have become "unwinnable", according to US reports.
Saudi Arabia relied greatly on the Emirati forces in advancing its war in Yemen, with observers believing that a Saudi-led tribal alliance may eventually disintegrate with factional infighting due to a lack of Emirati oversight.
Clashes between Emirati-backed separatists and Saudi-backed militia were reported earlier this week.
‘Bad news for Israel’
According to Haaretz’s Friday article, the defeat of the Saudi war effort will enable Houthis, which have adamantly voiced their opposition against the Israeli occupation, to facilitate arms exports to Palestinian resistance groups and restrict Israeli presence in the strategic Bab al Mandeb Strait.
The article, however, pointed that the gravest outcome of a Yemeni victory would be the gradual unraveling of what was meant to be a firm regional anti-Iran alliance.
UAE's withdrawal from the Saudi war effort and recent negotiations with Iranian officials indicated that Persian Gulf states are open “to reconsider their policy with respect to Iran” as Tehran and its allies stand firm against Washington, it said.
“This is bad news for the anti-Iranian alliance and possibly indicates a trend that should concern the American president and his close friend, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu," wrote Haaretz.
The paper added that doubt regarding the success of the US administration’s regional policy was growing, with pessimism "trickling into” Tel Aviv despite nothing being “said of it in public”.
The war on Yemen and an ensuing blockade has taken a heavy toll on the infrastructure on the impoverished Arab country, destroying hospitals, schools, and factories and killing more than an estimated 60,000 Yemenis.
On Friday, thousands of Yemenis converged outside Sana’a International Airport in the capital to protest the US-backed blockade.
8 aug 2019
Dvir Sorek 19
Troops, Shin Bet and police searching for killer of 19-year-old Dvir Sorek from settlement of Ofra, whose body was found near Kibbutz Midgdal Oz hours after he went missing; army becoming convinced he had been abducted as part of terror attack
An 19-year-old soldier was stabbed to death and his body found near Kibbutz Migdal Oz in the West Bank in the early hours of Thursday, the IDF said.
The soldier was later named as Dvir Sorek from the West Bank settlement of Ofra. He was not in uniform at the time of the attack. Security forces are conducting a large-scale manhunt for his killer.
The army is becoming more convinced that the soldier had first been abducted and that he had not been murdered at the site where his body was found.
The IDF will intensify its troop presence in the area and launch an extensive investigation together with the Shin Bet and the police, working on the assumption that attack was carried out by an as-yet unidentified terror cell.
Sorek had been missing since Wednesday evening.
"In the early morning, a soldier's body was found bearing stab marks near a settlement in the (Gush Etzion) area," the IDF said.
"The soldier was on a (joint) track of yeshiva studies (and military service)," the army said. "The IDF, the Shin Bet security service and the police are on the scene and searching the area."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying that security forces were "in pursuit now in order to capture the despicable terrorist and bring him to account."
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Menalis said: "During the night, we received a report of an 18-year-old boy whose relatives had been unable to contact him since late evening.
"They reported this to us very late at night. We gathered forces from the Etzion Regional Division, including trackers," he said.
"During the night, around 2.30-3am, soldiers found the young man's body near the entrance to Migdal Oz (and) his death was pronounced. He had been stabbed and killed," Menalis said.
"We understand that this was a terror attack. The slain youth is a resident of Binyamin and a yeshiva student in Migdal Oz.
"He had begun his recruitment into the IDF but had not yet served. He was still in the studying stage at the yeshiva. He is from a well-known family in the Judea and Samaria," Menalis said.
Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne'eman said in response to the terror attack: "Gush Etzion awakened to a difficult morning of innocent blood being spilled by despicable murderers. We are a steadfast settlement, having endured bereavement and heroism. We will not weaken as a nation or as an enterprise.
"Our bitter enemies will repeatedly try to hurt us, but our response is the response of the Gush Etzion fighters in the War of Independence, to be ever more determined," he said.
"We send our condolences to the dear family who are in pain, and to the settlement where the hero studied," Ne'eman said. "And to the Israeli government we say again – bring this war to an end in victory."
Israeli Soldier Found Dead in Apparent Attack in West Bank
Israeli authorities announced Thursday morning that they had found the body of a 19-year old Israeli soldier on the side of a road in the West Bank, and believe he was the victim of an attack.
The perpetrators of the attack remain unknown, although Israeli authorities say they assume the attackers were Palestinian.
The victim was identified as Dvir Sorek, who was a settler living illegally on stolen Palestinian land in the settlement of Ofra.
He was a student of the Jewish religion at a yeshiva (religious Jewish college) in the settlement where he lived. He was also an active duty Israeli soldier.
According to Israeli sources, Sorek had gone to Jerusalem to purchase religious scrolls but did not return home last night. His family reported him missing Tuesday night, and police began a search, finding his body about 2:30 am Wednesday morning.
The Israeli military say their theory is that Sorek was pulled into a vehicle and killed, then dumped on the side of the road, and they presume that this was done by Palestinians.
An Israeli military spokesperson told the Israeli paper Ha’aretz that the military is “beginning to carry out steps on the working assumption that there is a terrorist cell in the area that carried out the attack.”
The Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated that the military is “in pursuit now in order to capture the despicable terrorist and bring him to justice.”
The military has closed off nearby Palestinian villages and invaded them, issuing an order for Palestinians to remain in their homes.
This comes on the eve of the major Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, when many Palestinian families were planning to visit family in different parts of the West Bank.
The curfews and closures have forced the families to remain indoors, and are a type of collective punishment on the Palestinian population in the area.
Troops, Shin Bet and police searching for killer of 19-year-old Dvir Sorek from settlement of Ofra, whose body was found near Kibbutz Midgdal Oz hours after he went missing; army becoming convinced he had been abducted as part of terror attack
An 19-year-old soldier was stabbed to death and his body found near Kibbutz Migdal Oz in the West Bank in the early hours of Thursday, the IDF said.
The soldier was later named as Dvir Sorek from the West Bank settlement of Ofra. He was not in uniform at the time of the attack. Security forces are conducting a large-scale manhunt for his killer.
The army is becoming more convinced that the soldier had first been abducted and that he had not been murdered at the site where his body was found.
The IDF will intensify its troop presence in the area and launch an extensive investigation together with the Shin Bet and the police, working on the assumption that attack was carried out by an as-yet unidentified terror cell.
Sorek had been missing since Wednesday evening.
"In the early morning, a soldier's body was found bearing stab marks near a settlement in the (Gush Etzion) area," the IDF said.
"The soldier was on a (joint) track of yeshiva studies (and military service)," the army said. "The IDF, the Shin Bet security service and the police are on the scene and searching the area."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement saying that security forces were "in pursuit now in order to capture the despicable terrorist and bring him to account."
IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Menalis said: "During the night, we received a report of an 18-year-old boy whose relatives had been unable to contact him since late evening.
"They reported this to us very late at night. We gathered forces from the Etzion Regional Division, including trackers," he said.
"During the night, around 2.30-3am, soldiers found the young man's body near the entrance to Migdal Oz (and) his death was pronounced. He had been stabbed and killed," Menalis said.
"We understand that this was a terror attack. The slain youth is a resident of Binyamin and a yeshiva student in Migdal Oz.
"He had begun his recruitment into the IDF but had not yet served. He was still in the studying stage at the yeshiva. He is from a well-known family in the Judea and Samaria," Menalis said.
Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne'eman said in response to the terror attack: "Gush Etzion awakened to a difficult morning of innocent blood being spilled by despicable murderers. We are a steadfast settlement, having endured bereavement and heroism. We will not weaken as a nation or as an enterprise.
"Our bitter enemies will repeatedly try to hurt us, but our response is the response of the Gush Etzion fighters in the War of Independence, to be ever more determined," he said.
"We send our condolences to the dear family who are in pain, and to the settlement where the hero studied," Ne'eman said. "And to the Israeli government we say again – bring this war to an end in victory."
Israeli Soldier Found Dead in Apparent Attack in West Bank
Israeli authorities announced Thursday morning that they had found the body of a 19-year old Israeli soldier on the side of a road in the West Bank, and believe he was the victim of an attack.
The perpetrators of the attack remain unknown, although Israeli authorities say they assume the attackers were Palestinian.
The victim was identified as Dvir Sorek, who was a settler living illegally on stolen Palestinian land in the settlement of Ofra.
He was a student of the Jewish religion at a yeshiva (religious Jewish college) in the settlement where he lived. He was also an active duty Israeli soldier.
According to Israeli sources, Sorek had gone to Jerusalem to purchase religious scrolls but did not return home last night. His family reported him missing Tuesday night, and police began a search, finding his body about 2:30 am Wednesday morning.
The Israeli military say their theory is that Sorek was pulled into a vehicle and killed, then dumped on the side of the road, and they presume that this was done by Palestinians.
An Israeli military spokesperson told the Israeli paper Ha’aretz that the military is “beginning to carry out steps on the working assumption that there is a terrorist cell in the area that carried out the attack.”
The Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated that the military is “in pursuit now in order to capture the despicable terrorist and bring him to justice.”
The military has closed off nearby Palestinian villages and invaded them, issuing an order for Palestinians to remain in their homes.
This comes on the eve of the major Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha, when many Palestinian families were planning to visit family in different parts of the West Bank.
The curfews and closures have forced the families to remain indoors, and are a type of collective punishment on the Palestinian population in the area.
7 aug 2019
|
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Benny Gantz, the leader of Israel’s largest opposition party Blue and White (Kahol Lavan), vowed yesterday to “pound Gaza” if he becomes prime minister, reported Haaretz.
According to Gantz – who was commanding the Israeli military during two major offensives in the occupied Gaza Strip in 2012 and 2014 – added that in a future assault he would order a ground invasion of the blockaded enclave, and kill Hamas’ leadership. Describing the comments as marking “a more hawkish line than that taken by his party during the last election campaign”, Haaretz said “sources in the party confirmed that it has decided to sharpen its rhetoric regarding defense in an effort to attract right-wing voters”. |
The Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) leader made the remarks during a visit to the Gaza border area, accompanied by other senior members of the party, including co-leader Yair Lapid, Moshe Ya’alon, and Gabi Ashkenazi.
“We do not intend to let deterrence continue to be eroded; we do not intend to allow this model of another round and another round and another [incendiary] kite and another missiles and another thing to continue,” Gantz said.
“The next time something happens here, we will make sure that it’s the final round.”
According to Haaretz, Gantz said: “Another round of fighting would not end with just an agreement, but with an attempt to fully defeat Hamas militarily,” adding that “if another conflict erupts while he is prime minister, the military would move to kill all of Hamas’ leadership.”
Lapid stated: “Hamas must know that next time they shoot missiles at Israeli citizens, their leaders, under our watch, would not receive suitcases full of dollars – they’ll receive a guided missile in their homes.”
“We do not intend to let deterrence continue to be eroded; we do not intend to allow this model of another round and another round and another [incendiary] kite and another missiles and another thing to continue,” Gantz said.
“The next time something happens here, we will make sure that it’s the final round.”
According to Haaretz, Gantz said: “Another round of fighting would not end with just an agreement, but with an attempt to fully defeat Hamas militarily,” adding that “if another conflict erupts while he is prime minister, the military would move to kill all of Hamas’ leadership.”
Lapid stated: “Hamas must know that next time they shoot missiles at Israeli citizens, their leaders, under our watch, would not receive suitcases full of dollars – they’ll receive a guided missile in their homes.”
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