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Terrorism

Three terror shootings in Samaria

by admin September 26, 2023

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Arabs also threw stones at an Israeli vehicle.

(JNS)

Three separate terror shootings were reported in Samaria on Sunday, with no casualties from the incidents that came hours before the start of Yom Kippur.

In the latest attack, terrorists opened fire at the Israeli community of Hinanit, nine miles west of Jenin in northern Samaria. The window of a home was struck during the attack.

Earlier in the day, terrorists shot at a military vehicle near Avnei Hefetz, close to Tulkarm in western Samaria, and before that terrorists opened fire at a military position near the village of Shuweika, which has become part of Tulkarm city.

Also on Sunday, Arab terrorists stoned a vehicle traveling on Route 55 between the Palestinian town of Azzun and the Israeli town of Ma’ale Shomron, near Qalqilya in Samaria.

No injuries were reported but the car’s windshield was damaged.

The attacks come amid heightened security tensions in Israel ahead of Yom Kippur, which begins on Sunday evening and is the holiest occasion on the Jewish calendar.

Thousands of police officers, security personnel and volunteers are to be deployed throughout the country to prevent terrorist attacks during the holiday, with a special emphasis on Jerusalem, mixed Jewish-Arab cities, synagogues and other places where Jews gather for prayer.

Police are calling for licensed gun holders to bring their weapons to Yom Kippur prayers at the synagogue they attend.

On Saturday evening, a general closure was imposed on all of Judea and Samaria, and the Gaza Strip crossings were closed, with the borders reopening at midnight after Yom Kippur ends on Monday evening. During this period, only transit crossings involving humanitarian and medical cases will be allowed and only with the approval of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories unit.

Already before Rosh Hashanah kicked off the High Holiday season, police had raised the alert level in Israel amid an increase in warnings of possible terrorist attacks and a spike in social media incitement by terrorist groups.

“The number of warnings leading up to Yom Kippur is increasing. That is why we call on worshippers to watch out for their safety, and for those who [legally] bear arms to come to prayers with their weapons,” said Maj. Gen. Sigal Bar-Zvi, head of the Israel Police’s operations division.

Image: IDF soldiers secure the scene of a shooting attack on a bus on Route 90 in the Jordan Valley, Sept. 4, 2022. Photo by Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90.

September 26, 2023 0 comments

Community

Jewish leader receives Polish Knight’s Cross award

by admin September 24, 2023

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Stanlee Stahl, executive vice president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, said the honor is also for the many Polish heroes who saved Jews during the Holocaust.

(JNS)

Polish President Andrzej Duda last week awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland to Stanlee Stahl, executive vice president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.

The award, which recognizes foreigners for their contributions to Poland, was presented during a ceremony in New York.

“In practicing the Jewish commitment to hakarat hatov, demonstrating thanks, we have been able to support more than 1,000 righteous gentiles living in Poland, sending over $37 million to these heroes over the past 31 years,” said Stahl.

“The righteous are true Polish heroes and this award not only recognizes my work, and that of the JFR, but more importantly recognizes their courage and legacy,” she added.

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous provides financial assistance to 100 aged and needy righteous gentiles in 11 countries, according to its website. It has given $44 million to righteous gentiles, who once numbered several thousand, according to the site.

September 24, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Gaza riots are part of Hamas’s cynical extortion racket

by admin September 24, 2023

written by admin

The Gaza terror group is sending Palestinian civilians into harm’s way in an apparent effort to pressure Qatar, via Israel, into restoring cut funding.

Yaakov Lappin

(JNS)

Despite claims that the recent attacks and disturbances along the Gaza-Israel border, orchestrated by Hamas, are motivated by supposed Israeli conspiracies against the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, they are in fact merely a violent negotiation tactic designed to secure more income for Gaza’s terrorist rulers.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of Palestinians have taken part in a series of violent riots adjacent to the Gaza security fence, setting off a number of explosive devices along the barrier.

On Sept. 13, six Gazans were killed by an explosive device hurled by one of the rioters.

On Friday, the situation escalated, with Gazans renewing the launch of incendiary balloons across the border, causing fires in southern Israel.

The IDF responded on Friday and Saturday with airstrikes targeting Hamas terror outposts in the Strip.

Taken together, the incidents are reminiscent of the 2018-2019 Gaza border disturbances, though smaller in scope so far.

The Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, announced last week that the Erez Border Crossing, through which some 20,000 Gazan Palestinians cross into Israel for work every day, would remain closed, after being shut for the Rosh Hashana holiday.

The decision to shut the crossing is more significant than it might seem, because it signals to Hamas that violence on the border will achieve the opposite of what it is trying to obtain—increased income.

Since the end of the IDF’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in 2021, Gaza’s economy has overall seen improvements, with increasing numbers of Gazans working in Israel, rising exports, goods flowing in and Qatar providing monthly funding to the tune of $30 million.

But recently, a number of developments have rained on Hamas’s economic parade. Global inflation rose, and Qatar, dissatisfied with Hamas’s relations with rival states—particularly Syria—while also assessing that Gaza’s economy is on better footing, decreased its funding.

Under the Qatari funding mechanism, the Gulf state purchases Egyptian fuel for Gaza’s power plant, while also funding Hamas’s civilian administration in Gaza and providing funds for poor Gazan families.

The decrease in Qatari funding has left Hamas’s civilian government in financial distress. Inflation, meanwhile, has harmed purchasing power of Gazan civilians, putting more pressure on Hamas.

The result is that Hamas has restarted its border riots, in an apparent effort to pressure Qatar via Israel to restore the funding to its previous levels.

Hamas’s tactics are brutal, sending Palestinian civilians into harm’s way for money. The terror group is banking on Israel to succumb to this extortion.

Palestinians are thus incited to approach the fence with IEDs, risking their lives as they attempt to sabotage Israel’s security barrier, which can no longer be torn apart with wire cutters as was the case in 2018-2019.

The taller barrier also makes it more difficult for IDF forces to fire across it accurately, but the military must still ensure that no terrorists infiltrate into Israel and approach western Negev communities. Israel views every attack on the barrier as an assault on its sovereignty.

Unfortunately, Hamas has seen such extortion attempts pay off in the past, and it is hoping this one will as well.

Meanwhile, parallel to this, Hamas uses its “West Bank Headquarters” in Gaza and Lebanon—terror command centers—to both orchestrate terrorist attacks and galvanize unorganized violence.

Israel’s defense establishment and intelligence community is, it is safe to assume, closely monitoring these developments and activating countermeasures against them.

Image: Six Gazans were killed when an explosive device meant to target IDF soldiers detonated prematurely during mass riots along the border with Israel, Sept. 13, 2023. Photo by Majdi Fathi/TPS.

September 24, 2023 0 comments

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Sarah Sassoon will celebrate in an Iraqi sukkah, with Czech candlesticks

by admin September 22, 2023

written by admin

The Israeli writer, who comes from a prominent Iraqi family, is working on two new books about Jews of Babylonian ancestry.

Orit Arfa

(JNS)

For most Jews, a sukkah conjures a booth with canvas or wooden walls, and bamboo or some sort of foliage on top as schach. Growing up in Sydney, Sarah Sassoon, 42, had a very different experience. The sukkahs that her Iraqi-born father made were composed mostly of palm tree branches—both walls and schach.

That and other Iraqi-Jewish traditions can offer hints of what Judean practices were like 2,000 years ago, according to Sassoon. Iraqi Jews, or “Babylonian Jews,” as she prefers to call them, are the closest geographically and historically to the exile of the Kingdom of Judah to Babylon in the late sixth century BCE.

“Palm trees are such a deep symbol,” including on ancient Judean coins, Sassoon told JNS, in a video call from her home in Jerusalem, where she lives with her husband and four sons.

An ancient community

From a young age, Sassoon’s Iraqi roots interested her, and she clung to her grandmother’s side as the latter cooked and baked Iraqi delights.

When she made aliyah eight years ago and interacted with more Iraqi Jews, she decided to make it her mission to rediscover, animate and immortalize those traditions and to demonstrate that Iraqi Jewish life is about more than just foods like kubbe and sabich.

“They were an ancient Jewish community, with a richness and with customs that go back all the way to talmudic times and Temple times,” Sassoon said. “It’s a community that every Jew actually should know about and belong to because every Jew went through Babylon into the Diaspora.”

Many Jews are familiar with the Babylonian Talmud, which Torah scholars of the region produced, but they might not know that modern Iraq is home to what some believe is the tomb of the biblical scribe Ezra, who led Babylonian Jews to Jerusalem to build the Second Temple.

This Shi’ite mosque next to the Tigris River at Uzair, Iraq, contains the tomb of the biblical prophet Ezra (Al-ʻUzair). The rear section on the right was originally a synagogue, and numerous Hebrew inscriptions remain. Credit: David Stanley via Wikimedia Commons.

On Sukkot, Jews used to visit the shrine (Ezra’s Tomb) in Al-ʻUzair, outside of Baghdad. Local Muslims have painted the shrine green—a color sacred in Islam—though Hebrew inscriptions remain visible on the site, she has heard from local Iraqis.

One-third of Baghdad’s population was Jewish in 1917, and Jews held top political, business and cultural positions, according to Sassoon, who hails from a prominent Iraqi Jewish family. Her great-great-grandfather, Moshe Chaim Shamash, was the chief rabbi (hakham bashi) of Iraq from 1918 to 1923, and mediated between the Jewish community and political leaders. Her maiden name is “Harkham,” which derives from chacham, Hebrew for “sage.”

Modern Iraqis, whom Sassoon has met on social media, tell her that her grandparents’ generation misses the Jews. According to reports, less than a handful of Jews live in Iraq today; however, Sassoon says there are Jews there who hide their identity, as well as Jewish converts to Islam.

“They really were very integrated,” Sassoon said of Iraq’s past Jewish population. “They were very much part of Iraqi society. It was as if American Jews suddenly left overnight.”

The Israeli writer Sarah Sassoon. Credit: Courtesy.

In the shadows of the Farhud

Sassoon’s award-winning children’s book, Shoham’s Bangle (2022), dramatizes Jewish flight from Iraq during the foundation of the modern State of Israel through the eyes of a young Jewish girl.

Shoham is fascinated by her Nana (grandmother) Aziza’s golden bangles, bracelets worn by Iraqi Jewish and Muslim women. Shoham is sad to leave the heirlooms behind, but it turns out that her sense of loss may have been premature.

Sassoon, who penned the book—her first for children—in a writers’ workshop in Jerusalem, found that success came quickly and unexpectedly. She submitted the manuscript to Kar-Ben Publishing, which accepted it. “I was lucky,” she said. Subsequently, she secured literary representation with a leading agency in Jerusalem.

The protagonist of her second and forthcoming children’s book, This Is Not a Cholent, is tibit, the Iraqi-Jewish version of cholent made with rice and chicken. She is also working on a novel about a young Jewish woman growing up in Baghdad in the shadows of the 1941 Farhud massacre, in which thousands of Jews were murdered, injured or dispossessed of their property.

‘Overhear the learning and be a part of it’

The more she tells the stories of the women of her grandmother’s generation, the more Sassoon paradoxically deviates from their experience. Many Iraqi women were illiterate housewives, she told JNS.

But a seed of what one might call feminist empowerment may have been planted on the holiday of Hoshanah Rabbah, the last day of Sukkot. Iraqi women pulled all-nighters with the men, studying Torah and other sacred texts in the sukkah.

An Iraqi Shabbat candle holder (“chrai”) at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or-Yehuda, Israel. Credit: Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center.

The women multi-tasked in the back of the sukkah, making and shaping a risotto-like pasta called sha’ariya.

“It’s fascinating to think the women used to learn with the men in that way,” Sassoon said. “That they’d overhear the learning and also be a part of it. And the next day, they’d cook the pasta pieces.”

Sassoon is dedicated to recreating Iraqi traditions, but some aren’t feasible. She loves the idea of studying Torah in the sukkah with men, but making sha’ariya “is beyond me,” she told JNS.

She also has had difficulty tracking down the chrai used for Shabbat candle-lighting, which she thinks must have been the way Jews lit Shabbat candles in talmudic times.

“It’s a glass bowl held up by three silver chains. Inside is water and sesame oil, with seven wicks attached to cotton wicks, and they light seven of those for the Friday-night candles,” she told JNS. “There’s no such thing as Iraqi Jewish candlesticks. I always wondered: Why didn’t my grandmother have silver candlesticks?”

On Sukkot, Iraqi Jews light the chrai every night to welcome the seven “founding fathers” of the Jewish people, known as ushpizin, who “visit” sukkahs each night of the eight-day holiday.

Sassoon will decorate her sukkah with palm tree branches and hang fresh pomegranates like her forebears. For now, though, she’ll use the candlesticks that her Czech mother-in-law gave her.

Image: A seasonal sukkah on view at the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or-Yehuda, Israel. Credit: Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center.

September 22, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Palestinian terrorist fires at Israeli forces during Gaza border riots

by admin September 22, 2023

written by admin

Tensions with the Gaza Strip have exploded over the past two weeks amid a renewal of violent demonstrations along the border.

(JNS)

A Palestinian terrorist was shot and wounded at the Gaza border fence on Thursday after opening fire on Israeli security forces amid violent riots, the Israel Police confirmed in a statement.

A video of the incident, shared by the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit, showed the Gazan shooting at Israeli security personnel with a handgun. “Undercover officers from the southern Border Police fired at the terrorist and hit him. There were no casualties to our forces,” stated the police.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by the Hamas terrorist organization, said the Palestinian gunman was seriously wounded.

Tensions with the Gaza Strip have exploded over the past two weeks amid a renewal of violent demonstrations along the border, and as the heads of Palestinian terrorist groups called for a new intifada against the Jewish state.

A Palestinian terrorist is neutralized after opening fire on Israeli forces operating on the Gaza border, Sept. 21, 2023. Credit: Israel Police.

Hundreds of Palestinians have participated in the riots, hurling bombs and grenades at the security barrier, prompting Israeli forces to respond with riot dispersal methods and in some cases live fire.

Six Palestinians were killed on Sept. 14 when a homemade explosive device they had been attempting to place on the security fence detonated prematurely.

Hamas “sends civilians to the border to create friction with the IDF, so that there are wounded and dead and the press will talk about it,” Lt. Col. (Res.) Jonathan Conricus, the former international spokesperson for Israel’s military, told i24News on Thursday.

“Last week, we saw Palestinians killed by an explosive that they attempted to launch at the IDF, and now we see the use of firearms to kill Israeli soldiers,” said Conricus.

I think it is excellent that we use these images so that the world understands what we are talking about and that the international media does not get carried away by Hamas’s propaganda,” he added.

Image: Terrorists affiliated with the Hamas-led Joint Operations Room attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, Sept. 20, 2023. Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90.

September 22, 2023 0 comments

Community

Netanyahu to Biden: ‘We can make peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia’

by admin September 21, 2023

written by admin

The leaders discussed an economic corridor linking Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

(JNS)

At the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged U.S. President Joe Biden to help bring together the Jewish state and the Gulf’s most influential Arab monarchy: Saudi Arabia.

“I think that under your leadership, Mr. President, we can forge a historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” Netanyahu said. “And I think such a peace would go a long way first to advance the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict, achieve reconciliation between the Islamic world and the Jewish state, and advance a genuine peace between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Regarding a potential “economic corridor that would link Asia, the Middle East and Europe together,” Netanyahu said that Israel would be “a very important hub on a highway of unprecedented prosperity.”

It was the first in-person meeting between the two world leaders since Netanyahu’s re-election last November.

He urged Biden: “I believe that working together, we can make history and create a better future for the region and beyond.”

Image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks about potential peace with Saudi Arabia. Source: Screenshot.

September 21, 2023 0 comments

JTVC Breaking News Judaism

Left-wing Protesters Attack Rabbi In Tel Aviv

by admin September 21, 2023

written by admin

About 300 protesters surrounded and chased Yigal Levenstein.

(JNS)

Rabbi Yigal Levenstein, one of the heads of a military preparatory academy in the town of Eli in Samaria, required police protection after he was attacked and chased in Tel Aviv by irate protesters on Tuesday night.

In footage of the harassment, protesters shout, “You are nothing, you have no God. You are scum. You are not Jews. Get out of here.” Others yell, “Go away, fascist. Go back to the settlements. You don’t belong in this place.”

The protesters numbered about 300, according to reports. They targeted Levenstein for opposing the integration of women in the military and for speaking against homosexuals, calling them “deviants.”

Levenstein told Army Radio after the incident that “there used to be a liberal state here; everyone could express their opinion. Recently, I feel that this is not the case. People who claim liberalism as their banner prevent others from expressing a Jewish opinion.”

Rabbi Yigal Levenstein teaches a lesson while activists protest against him outside an apartment building in Tel Aviv, Sept. 19, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90.

“The violent incident touches the core of our values as a country—a free country and the right to express an opinion. Even if there are disputes, it is legitimate. But silencing voices is not legitimate,” Levenstein said.

“The fact that I want to teach Judaism to people who are interested in Judaism, in the first Hebrew city in which the flag of pluralism flies above it, and policemen have to protect me with their bodies so that I can teach a lesson—this is something that goes against all the basic values of the country.”

The rabbi came to Tel Aviv to lend support to Israel Zaira, who heads Rosh Yehudi, a nonprofit that seeks to connect young people in the city to Judaism.

Zaira was holding an event at the group’s synagogue related to the municipality’s decision to ban partitions separating men and women, a necessary fixture for Orthodox Jewish prayer services. Zaira’s group holds annual Yom Kippur services at Dizengoff Square in the city.

Zaira was chased together with Levenstein.

“I thank the Holy One, blessed be He, and the police who protected us and saved us from a pogrom,” Zaira told Channel 12.

“There was spitting, pushing and an attempt to deal us light blows with Israeli flags. There was no severe violence but definitely a pursuit. I was chased for half a kilometer and there was a police security cordon around me. They hoped they would stop after a hundred meters and that did not happen. In the end, they placed me in the second Rosh Yehudi center. The protesters deployed around it and the police shut down the place,” Zaira said.

#ינוניוז הטירוף “הליברלי” הערב בתל אביב
אביעד נחשוני, שליווה את הרב יגאל לוינשטיין להרצאה בישיבת “ראש יהודי”: “עשרות מפגינים ניסו לתקוף אותנו פיזית, במקלות וגם בידיים. אם השוטרים לא היו מגינים על הרב בגופם זה היה נגמר רע מאוד”. @HaravIgalLevins pic.twitter.com/FnZLwnC33E

— ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) September 19, 2023

“We were surprised by the intensity of the hatred, the blunt words and the violent behavior of the mob,” he added, saying they acted like “savages.”

“At the same time, we understand that they came to scare us on account of the activity of the yeshiva and the mass prayer we will be holding at Dizengoff Square on Yom Kippur,” Zaira said.

Image: Rabbi Yigal Levinstein arrives to teach while activists protest against him in Tel Aviv, Sept. 19, 2023. Photo by Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90

September 21, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Netanyahu to Biden: ‘By working together, we can confront Iran’

by admin September 21, 2023

written by admin

“A credible military threat” could deter a state determined to wipe Israel off the map.

(JNS)

U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday at the U.N. General Assembly for the first time since the Israeli leader was re-elected last November, and a main topic of discussion was Iran.

Specifically, the Islamic Republic represents a growing nuclear threat in the Middle East as it continues to enrich uranium at sites across the country.

“I appreciate, Mr. President, your continuous commitment to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear-weapons capability. I think that’s critical,” Netanyahu said. “And that shared goal of ours can be achieved by a credible military threat, crippling sanctions and supporting the brave men and women of Iran who despise that regime, and who are our real partners for a better future.”

The Israeli prime minister added: “I look forward to working with you and your team to realize the promise and confront the threat.”

Image: Advanced IR-6 centrifuges in the underground Natanz uranium-enrichment facility in central Iran. Credit: Atomic Energy Organization of Iran.

September 21, 2023 0 comments

Terrorism

Terrorist infiltration alert activated in Hashmonaim

by admin September 20, 2023

written by admin

About an hour after the alert was issued, residents were given the all-clear.

(JNS)

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Tuesday night the activation of an infiltration alert in the Israeli community of Hashmonaim, located near Modi’in but over the Green Line.

Residents of the town, located in the Binyamin region halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, were instructed to remain in their homes, with their doors locked and lights off, until further notice.

Security forces closed off all entrances to Hashmonaim, in addition to prohibiting movement inside the community.

עמך אנוכי בצרה: במודיעין עילית עוקבים בדאגה אחר המחבלים שחדרו ליישוב חשמונאים הסמוך pic.twitter.com/j9H4CGYDhP

— מנחם קולדצקי (@nbjovsr88) September 19, 2023

According to Israel National News, the siren was activated after two suspicious vehicles entered the community.

About an hour after the alert was issued, residents were given the all-clear, with the IDF’s Home Front Command stressing that there was no security incident.

A spokesperson for the Binyamin Regional Council, in a statement cited by local media, commended residents for following the emergency protocol.

The alert came as Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists fought in the Jenin refugee camp, the latest flare-up in the flashpoint northern Samaria region.

Israeli media reported that elite forces were spearheading the mission targeting a senior commander in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is affiliated with Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

Image: Hashmonaim from the north, with Modi’in in the background. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

September 20, 2023 0 comments

Community

Missouri Adopts IHRA Antisemitism Definition

by admin September 20, 2023

written by admin

The governor also proclaimed September Jewish American Heritage Month.

(JNS)

Missouri adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism this week while at the same time recognizing September as Jewish American Heritage Month. The month was chosen to coincide with the High Holiday season.

“Missouri’s own Harry S. Truman was the first world leader to officially recognize Israel as a legitimate Jewish state, and we continue our proud support for members of the Jewish faith today,” Missouri’s Gov. Mike Parson said at a Sept. 19 gathering in Jefferson City, Mo., to announce two new initiatives.

Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe added that “during Jewish American Heritage Month, we celebrate our state’s strong support for Israel and those of the Jewish faith. We also reaffirm Missouri’s commitment to rejecting antisemitism and discrimination toward the Jewish community.”

Missouri state officials and the Missouri Chapter of the Coalition for Jewish Values also attended the event.

“We also want to take this opportunity to unequivocally reject antisemitism towards Jewish people and bigotry of any kind. Today and every day, we say hate and discrimination have no home in Missouri,” Parson said.

Image: Missouri State Capitol. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

September 20, 2023 0 comments