ISRAEL (IINO)
What the rioting left fails to see Caroline Glick
The attempted criminalization of Israel and Jews will continue even if the judiciary’s power is limited.Op-ed.
Mar 9, 2023, 7:43 PM (GMT+2) – (JNS) On Sunday, a group of Israeli Air Force reserve F-15I pilots announced that due to their opposition to the Netanyahu government’s judicial reform bills, they would not participate in their squadron’s training mission this week.
It’s hard to know what the pilots thought would happen in response to their declaration, but if they believed the IDF would compel the government to shelve its judicial reform efforts, they received a rude awakening. The very notion that their stunt could succeed is a testament to the Israeli elite’s isolation from the rest of the country. Things look quite different outside their exclusive echo chamber.
The government stood firm. The public was enraged. The pilots’ colleagues were incensed. Thousands of reserve officers, including Air Force pilots, signed petitions demanding that the IDF be left out of the public dispute over judicial reform and pledging to serve under all governments and in all circumstances.
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi initially angered the public by refusing to publicly condemn the pilots. But on Tuesday, Halevi broke his silence. Halevi read the pilots refusing to serve the riot act behind closed doors, making it clear that if they failed to show up to reserve duty on Wednesday, they would be thrown out of the IAF.
Netanyahu: Opposition plunging country into anarchy to bring down govt. Hezki Baruch
PM says upon departing for Italy that the coalition’s efforts to negotiate an agreement on the judicial reforms have all been rebuffed.
Mar 9, 2023, 3:31 PM (GMT+2) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara took off for Rome Thursday afternoon, where Netanyahu will meet with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, local businessmen, and with the leaders of the Italian Jewish community.
Before boarding the plane, Netanyahu told reporters: “We continue our efforts to reach an understanding [on the judicial reforms]. Unfortunately so far all these efforts have been met with a blanket refusal by the opposition and attempts to plunge the country into anarchy. The issue is not the judicial reform, the goal here is to overthrow a democratically elected government.”
… The Netanyahus arrived at Ben Gurion Airport via police helicopter Thursday afternoon due to the blocking of the roads leading to the airport by protestors against the government’s planned judicial reforms.
An Air Force CH-35 Sea Stallion helicopter sat for hours at he helipad at Hadassah Ein Kerem Medical Center under the protection of the police and Shin Bet, This helicopter was a decoy. While protestors descended on Hadassah Ein Kerem, Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife left on a different helicopter which was launched from another location.
Back-door to civil marriage: Supreme Court orders state to recognize ‘Zoom weddings’ Y Rabinovitz
Couples unable to marry under Israeli law can now marry online ‘in Utah’ & have marriage registered in Israel.
Mar 9, 2023, 6:59 PM (GMT+2) – On Tuesday (which was also the festival of Purim), the Israeli Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by the state against online marriages, leaving intact a previous lower court ruling that a marriage formalized abroad is to be considered to have taken place abroad even if the couple was physically present in Israel at the time and the ceremony took place via the internet; and that the Israeli Population Registry is obligated to record the couple as married even though ordinarily, they would be unable to marry on Israeli soil.
The ruling mainly affects so-called “Zoom weddings” conducted over the internet, with the service provided by the American state of Utah, for couples who cannot marry within Israel for a variety of reasons.
Civil marriage has never been legal in the State of Israel; the “status quo” established shortly after the state’s founding included a stipulation that all marriages would be in accordance with Jewish Law (halakhah) and under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate, based on a prior commitment by David Ben-Gurion in a letter written in 1947, “lest the House of Israel be divided in two,” in order to preserve the integrity of the Jewish People. Marriages conducted abroad, however, can be registered in Israel and the couple is then officially recognized as married.
[Ed.: Wait for it! The next step Israel’s erev rav will take will be Zoom conversions! After all, IINO doesn’t need all this religious crap… Time to start building a brand new Golden Calf!]
Judicial reform protests: Hundreds of cars block access to Ben Gurion Airport
National Unity head Benny Gantz to A-G: ‘Stop Ben-Gvir entering police control room & giving orders.’
Mar 9, 2023, 11:08 AM (GMT+2) – Hundreds of protesters have arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport in their cars and have succeeded in blocking the access road leading to Terminal 3, despite a police presence.
According to onlookers, police have thus far failed to disperse the protesters despite having handed out a number of citations.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is currently at the airport following a meeting at the police advance control room established there, along with the commander of Israel Police Central Region, Avi Biton, and the airport’s chief supervisor, Etty Ganis. The minister insisted that “anarchy” would not be permitted despite the importance of allowing people to protest, and noted that Israel Police is considering taking a number of measures to disperse the protesters from the airport, including impounding their vehicles.
Ben-Gvir added that the measures taken are decided on by the police commissioner, not himself, and that he has “complete faith” in the police force, despite the fact that it has been severely weakened by successive government ministers who now criticize the government for the consequences of their own deeds.
Haifa port blockaded: ‘This will cost Israelis millions of shekels’ Shimon Cohen
Senior Navy veterans participate in protest, preventing merchant ships from docking.
Mar 9, 2023, 2:31 PM (GMT+2) – Anti-government protesters blocked sea access at the Haifa port on Thursday, sailing small craft in the port area in order to prevent ships from docking or embarking.
“In a dictatorship, the seas are closed,” the “Brothers in Arms” group said by way of explanation. “For decades we have been sailing day and night to guard the main lifeline of the State of Israel. We are reserve soldiers … who are now choosing to disrupt operations at Haifa port in order to send a clear message to the government: Stop the wild voyage that will cause the State to run aground.”
Israel National News spoke with Shai Rosengarten, a former Navy officer who is active in Im Tirtzu.
“The Navy’s mission is to ensure maritime access, to protect the sea routes,” he stressed. “What the protesters are doing is using small craft to block the port’s entrance; it’s absolutely insane.
“A merchant vessel is a huge ship with limited maneuverability,” he explained. “It takes such a ship a long time to change course. Every day and every hour of docking in the port area is an expensive business that can cost millions of shekels. The protest is delaying the entry of goods into the country, and in order to fully appreciate the implications, you have to realize that we are essentially an island nation. Over 90 percent of our food, fuel, clothing – almost everything we use – is imported by sea. Blockading the ports simply suffocates the Israeli economy.”
It makes little difference whether the blockades last hours or days, Rosengarten added. “This blockade disrupts the entire schedule of the port and it costs millions of shekels – which ends up being passed on to regular citizens. Why? Because the shipping companies have no guarantee that something like this won’t happen again, so they’ll either choose to dock elsewhere, or the insurance premiums will spike, and either way, this will have a domino effect that will negatively impact all Israeli citizens,
Suspected explosive device found on bus in Betar Illit
Security forces are working to neutralize a suspicious suitcase on a bus and find the suspect who planted it.
Mar 9, 2023, 11:20 PM (GMT+2) – A security alert was sounded in the city of Betar Ilit on Thursday evening after a suspicious suitcase was found on a bus in the city.
The suitcase began emitting sparks and smoke. Explosive ordnance disposal teams are working to neutralize it.
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At the same time, security forces are currently searching for the man suspected of having planted the suitcase, who got off the bus within the city. The Home Front Command has sounded an alert warning residents that a terrorist infiltration into the city is suspected.
The mayor of Beitar Ilit made special announcement to residents, telling them, “Go inside your homes, lock the doors, and pray. It is unwise to be on the street right now.”
Eyewitness to Tel Aviv attack to INN: I shouted ‘terrorist’, I laid down on the ground
Mar 9, 2023, 11:29 PM (GMT+2) – An eyewitness to the shooting attack that took place on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv on Thursday night recalled the horrifying moments in a conversation with Israel National News.
“I turned around and saw someone with a rifle in his hand, I shouted ‘terrorist’, I laid down on the ground and pulled my husband. It’s the first time I’ve experienced something like this. I was very scared. I saw blood and people lying on the floor, it was very scary,” she said.
Two other women who were sitting in the bar next to the scene of the attack added, “We were sitting outside the bar, suddenly we heard crazy gunshots and we just left everything and ran frantically to the place that we thought was the safest, a storage room inside the bar. There was a big mess, a crazy panic attack, everyone was crying and there was the noise made by the police. It was a feeling of helplessness.”
For over an hour, the women stayed at the bar in complete darkness all around them and with no cellphone reception, completely cut off from the outside world with no possibility of finding out what was happening outside. “It was not possible to leave and go home or even go to a safer place. We were permitted to leave just now.”
Terror attack in Tel Aviv: Three people shot, terrorist eliminated
Attack occurred on Dizengoff Street in heart of Tel Aviv. Shooter identified as Hamas terrorist.
Mar 9, 2023, 8:54 – Three people were wounded, including one critically, one seriously and one lightly, in a terrorist shooting attack in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening. Two other people were hospitalized for shock.
The shooter was eliminated by police and security forces.
The wounded, who are reported to be men in their 20s, have been taken to Ichilov Hospital where medical personnel later reported that their lives are not in danger.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai stated that the shooting was a terrorist attack and called on the protesters against the judicial reforms to vacate the scene of the attack. The terrorist has been identified as a 23-year-old member of the Hamas terrorist organization.
A preliminary investigation found that the terrorist arrived at a restaurant and opened fire at the diners. According to one of the reports, the terrorist’s weapon was jammed and two soldiers who were nearby shot and killed him.
Playing Chicken with the Jewish State by Victor Rosenthal
March 9, 2023 – What’s really going on in Israel?
What are the massive demonstrations and disruptions in the streets, the revolt of the reserve pilots and the countless testimonials and petitions in Israel and the U.S. about?
They aren’t just about changing the balance of power between the Israeli Supreme Court and the elected government and Knesset. If they were, the parties could soon reach a compromise that would maintain a degree of judicial review and protect minority rights without prioritizing them over the survival of the Jewish state.
But that’s not what’s really going on. What’s going on is a power struggle between two blocs in Israeli society.
On one side, which I will imprecisely label “the left,” are the legal, judicial, academic, artistic and media establishments, along with much of the upper class, based mostly in the center of the country. This alliance is supported by the Biden administration and liberal American Jewish denominations. Insofar as it has a spokesperson, it is Yair Lapid.
On the other side, which I call with equal imprecision “the right,” are Orthodox Jews, Mizrachim, Russian speakers, the lower classes and residents of Israel’s periphery. The right is larger than the left, but the left’s control of the media and the legal system weighs heavily on the scales. The undisputed champion of the right is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
[Ed.:
