ISRAEL (IINO)
Terrorists open fire on Israeli town in Samaria By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
March 26, 2023 – Shooting in Avnei Hefetz is the fourth terrorist attack in the region in the last three days.
The village of Avnei Hefetz in Samaria came under brief attack Sunday morning as shots were fired into the community, hitting one house.
While no one was physically injured, one woman had to be treated on site for a panic attack. All the residents were ordered to stay in their homes while soldiers spread out through the area to search for the assailants.
Four Palestinians were subsequently arrested in a raid in the nearby Nur Shams refugee camp outside Tulkarem, although it is unknown as yet if those detained were responsible for this specific attack. The IDF forces were met with resistance, as announced by the Tul Karem Brigade-Rapid Response group , who said in real time that they were battling with the troops. No injuries were reported on the Israeli side.
The terrorist group suffered the loss of its founder and leader, Amir Abu Khadija, on Thursday, when he tried attacking the Israeli security forces who had come to arrest him in the village of Izbat Shufa, also near Tulkarem. The Shabak had received intelligence information that Khadija was behind numerous shooting attacks on Jewish settlements and army positions at the Teenim crossing point.
This is the second time in a week that an attack occurred in Avnei Hefetz. On Thursday, terrorists fired at a vehicle with an Israeli license plate at the entrance to the village. The vehicle was owned by an Arab-Israeli, who was not hurt in the incident.
IDF EVACUATES SAMARIA OUTPOST, RELIGIOUS ZIONISM MKS BACK SETTLERS
The IDF said in response that bullet casings were recovered from the site and that they were searching for the suspects.
It is also the fourth terrorist attack in the region in the last three days, with the most serious one being on the Sabbath. Two IDF soldiers were injured in a drive-by shooting at their military position in the Palestinian Arab village of Huwara.
‘Torment is coming to you’: New Palestinian terror group emerges in Samaria
March 26, 2023 – The group is named after a terrorist who murdered a 19-year-old soldier and a father of 12.
The establishment of a new Palestinian terror group based in the city of Salfit in Samaria was announced Sunday evening, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The group, named Battalion of Martyr Omar Abu Laila, after a terrorist who murdered IDF Sgt. Gal Keidan, 19, and Rabbi Achiad Ettinger in March 2019, said in a statement that its “soldiers were preparing many surprises that would shake the brutal [Israeli] entity,” the report said.
“Torment is coming to you,” the group warned Israelis. “The Battalion will stay and expand in Salfit and its [surrounding] villages.”
The Battalion is among several small terror groups consisting of dozens of terrorists operating in cities in northern Samaria known as hotbeds of terror, such as Jenin and Nablus (Shechem), as well as in other Palestinian-administered areas, including Bethlehem and Hebron in Judea. Members hail from various factions, including Fatah, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the Post.
Netanyahu Fires Defense Minister Gallant Following Break with Coalition By Hana Levi Julian
5 Nisan 5783 – March 26, 2023 – Israel’s Channel 14 News and multiple other Israeli news outlets reported Sunday evening that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The defense minister was summoned to the Prime Minister’s Office Sunday evening, where Netanyahu reportedly told him, “I have lost my faith in you.”
… The dismissal is an indication of Netanyahu’s determination to pass the reforms, and a message to other potential rebels that they have no future in the Likud if they break ranks with the party line.
Gallant had failed to nip in the bud the rebellion by left-wing IDF reserve pilots, which led to the refusals going viral.
… The prime minister now has 48 hours in which to replace Gallant, according to Ma’ariv.
At present it appears that Netanyahu is likely to replace Gallant Agriculture Minister and former Shin Bet director Avi Dichter, who this weekend changed his stance on the issue, and expressed his support for the judicial reforms.
Jews and Land of Israel: Part III: The Centrality of the Land of Israel to the Jewish People By Alex Grobman PhD. 4 Nisan 5783 – March 26, 2023
*Editor’s Note: This is the third installment in the most recent series of articles from Jewish Press Online contributor, Alex Grobman, PhD
During the eighteen centuries of Jewish life in the Diaspora, the connection to the Land of Israel played a key role in the value system of Jewish communities and was a basic determinant in “their self-consciousness as a group.” Without the connection to the Land of Israel, the people who practice Judaism would simply be a religious community, without national and ethnic components. Jews were distinct from the Muslim and Christian communities in which they lived, because of religious beliefs and practices, and the eternal link to the land of their forefathers. That is why Jews considered themselves—and are seen by others as “a minority in exile.”[1].
“Israel enables us to…sense a ray of God’s radiance in the jungles of history.” [2] Abraham Joshua Heschel, professor of Jewish Ethics and Mysticism at the Jewish Theological Seminary explained, “This…is an intimate ingredient of Jewish consciousness, at the core of Jewish history, a vital element of Jewish faith…For the Jews and for them alone, this was the one and only Homeland, the only conceivable place where they could find liberation and independence, the land toward which their minds and hearts had been uplifted for a score of centuries and where their roots had clung in spite of all adversity… It was the homeland with which an indestructible bond of national, physical, religious, and spiritual character had been preserved, and where the Jews had in essence remained—and were now once more in fact—a major element of the population.” [3]
The Israeli defense minister’s shameful retreat By Ruthie Blum
Prominently on display in Yoav Gallant’s speech were two traits that make him unfit for his job: cowardice and betrayal.
(March 26, 2023 / JNS) To borrow the favorite epithet of the demonstrators in the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities, “shame” on Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. In an announcement on Saturday night, the Cabinet member charged with the country’s most crucial portfolio called on the government to halt its judicial reform legislation and heal the rifts that have gone so far as to reach the military.
“I hear the voices from the field and I’m worried,” he said, while also urging the opposition to stop the protests to give negotiations a chance. Oh, and to “enable the nation to celebrate Passover and Independence Day together, and to mourn together on Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
Prominently on display in this speech—which he had planned to deliver on Thursday evening, but refrained from doing so at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—were two traits that make him unfit for his job: cowardice and betrayal.
Let’s begin with the former. Faced with the phenomenon of mainly Air Force and Cyber Division reservists threatening and refusing to turn up for military exercises, on the grounds that they wouldn’t serve in a “dictatorship,” Gallant got frightened.
Rather than nipping the subordination in the bud, he met with the men and women in uniform to let them vent their concerns. The cream of the crop of the Israel Defense Forces said that without an end to the “coup d’état” (the protest movement’s misnomer for judicial reforms), the powers that be in Jerusalem can forget about confronting Iran. You know, since there won’t be any pilots or computer geniuses to carry out the operations.
ISRAEL’S POST-DEMOCRACY MOMENT by Melanie Phillips
The massive protests rocking the country are about far more than judicial reform.
March 26, 2023 – (JNS) The political crisis in Israel over the government’s judicial reforms has deepened.
An increasing number of institutions and prominent individuals have called for the changes to be halted. All are deeply alarmed by the enormous demonstrations that they perceive as posing an increasing threat to Israel’s security and the social resilience on which that security depends.
After Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant threatened to call publicly for the reforms to be halted, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on TV to speak to the nation.
The reforms would address fears on both sides, he said. They would broaden the makeup of the Supreme Court, safeguard civil rights for all citizens and reinstate a proper equilibrium between politicians and the judiciary.
This is unlikely to bring much-needed calm to the situation. Israel’s current maelstrom is not in the pattern of normal political protest. It represents an existential upset.
The focus of opposition is the proposed judicial reforms. The protests are also fueled, however, by fear of the nationalist and religious ultras in the governing coalition and by hatred of Netanyahu, who for some people has achieved near-demonic status.
Significant as these factors are, a convulsion of this magnitude suggests that something even more fundamental is at play. What is striking about the protests is the irrationality at their core. Although there are legitimate concerns about aspects of the reform package, the overwrought opposition to it is out of all proportion.
ORGANIZERS CLAIM 630,000 RALLY AS GALLANT URGES LAWS BE PAUSED
Hundreds of thousands join nationwide protests, with key overhaul law about to pass
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis took part in nationwide rallies Saturday evening for the 12th straight week of mass protests against the government’s radical plans to overhaul the judicial system, ahead of the expected passage next week of a core part of the shakeup.
As the protests were held, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant gave a televised address in which he called for the coalition to halt the legislative push until after Passover and several holidays next month to allow for talks on judicial reform, while stressing his support for making changes to the judiciary and calling for the protests to immediately stop. Coalition sources said the legislation would go ahead as planned.
The main demonstration was held in Tel Aviv, where some 200,000 were estimated to attend the main rally held on the coastal city’s Kaplan Street.
[Ed.: Times of Israel is another leftist-run press.]
600,000 Israeli protesters take to the streets; ‘Week of paralysis’ planned as Passover approaches
March 26, 2023 – Protesters called for a “week of paralysis” starting Sunday to wreak havoc during the days leading up to the Passover holiday.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel on Saturday night for the twelfth week in a row, to protest against the government’s controversial plan to reform the country’s left-leaning judiciary.
While Tel Aviv, as usual, held the largest protest with an estimated 200,000 protesters, other major Israeli cities saw record turnouts.
Protest organizers claimed that more than 630,000 people attended the rallies, but that number has not been verified elsewhere.
A few hundred protesters at the protest in Tel Aviv broke through a barrier and ran onto the Ayalon highway in a bid to block traffic and some lit fires. 28 people were arrested and police deployed a water cannon against protesters.
Protesters called for a “week of paralysis” starting Sunday to wreak havoc during the days leading up to the Passover holiday.
[Ed.: I can’t seem to verify this number, but it is surely exaggerated. The organizers are claiming 630,000. George Soros can be counted on to fully support and finance the erev rav atheists (read: Israeli devildemocommiecrats,) however few they actually total out to be. And by the way, Israel’s (not so) ‘Supreme’ Court will not be able to over rule the Knesset in the end of this mess!]
Two IDF soldiers injured in Huwara terror shooting, marking third attack in a month
March 25, 2023 – The Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility for the attack.
Two IDF soldiers were wounded in a shooting attack in Huwara on Saturday evening, marking the third terror attack in the Palestinian town in the past month.
The soldiers were listed as being in serious and moderate condition, respectively. They were transferred to Rabin Medical Center for further treatment.
The terrorist fired from a passing vehicle before fleeing the scene.
The IDF has launched a manhunt to find the terrorist. The highway that cuts through Huwara, in northern Samaria, has been shut down as have the roads around the Nablus (Shechem) area.
The Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, claimed responsibility for the shooting attack.
The terror group called on “all the Palestinian people and their living forces to form a united front in the Palestinian resistance,” a statement from the brigades said.
Into the fray: Obviating elections Martin Sherman
If the so-called “champions of democracy” succeed in obstructing the judicial reforms, democratic rule will be replaced by mob rule — and Israel will be teetering on the brink of an Orwellian dystopia
MAR 24, 2023, 7:28 AM – The starkest indicators [of erosion of democracy] which presumably underlie the country’s downgrading in international democracy ratings, involve elite decisions about rejecting election results – James N. Druckman, Professor of Political Science, Northwestern University, Misperceptions, Competition, and Support for Democracy, p. 24, Dec 2022.
If the copiously funded mob succeeds in compelling the Israeli government to back away from its much-needed policy of reigning in the rampant legal establishment in general, and the unbridled judiciary, in particular, it will be the end of an era in Israel.
Blatantly absurd
For if they succeed, democratic rule will have been replaced by mob rule, in which a highly motivated and abundantly financed minority can impose its will on the elected majority and compel it to abandon a policy, which in the elections, it pledged to implement. In this regard, the accumulating signs of the government buckling under the relentless pressure of the increasingly raucous and unruly street demonstrations are profoundly perturbing.
What the war against judicial reform is really about | Caroline Glick Show [1:15:53]
Mar 21, 2023 – To understand what stands behind the protests from both a social and programmatic perspective, Caroline’s guest this week is Dr. Yoram Hazony, author of “Conservatism: A Rediscovery,” president of the Herzl Institute and founder of the NatCon movement. Hazony and Caroline discuss the development and transformation of the left in Israel over the decades and its ties with progressives in the U.S. and Europe.
In her opening remarks, Caroline discusses Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s decision last week to cast true compromise to the four winds and put forward a “compromise” that aligns perfectly with the views of the legal fraternity led by Supreme Court President Esther Hayut.
Ruthie Blum: This is the Israeli culture war [1:01:44]
Mar 23, 2023 – In this week’s episode of Top Story, JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin speaks with JNS columnist Ruthie Blum about the ongoing fight over judicial reform in Israel. Blum says the point of the pushback against the reforms isn’t just to topple Netanyahu. They’re also attacking his voters. She characterized the battle over the issue as one that wasn’t solely one about religion but also about class and income and to ensure that Israel’s working class and religious voters are shut out of power indefinitely.
But Blum insists that the good news is that “They are in a minority, whatever they say, despite having almost all the media in their corner, despite having all the academics in their corner, and all the good, beautiful people in their corner and the actors and singers, they’re still in the minority. And we proved that on election day.”
Watch this episode if you want to know what really is going on.
Israel prepares for ‘Day of Paralysis,’ widespread judicial reform protests
There are expected to be marches as well as widespread disruptions nationwide as thousands of people protest against the judicial reforms.
MARCH 23, 2023 – Israel will be participating in its fourth “Day of Disruption” on Thursday, but this time under a different name: “National Day of Silence.”
Marches as well as widespread disruptions nationwide are expected as thousands of people will continue protesting the judicial reforms.
According to protest organizers, there will be several events under the title “#2024,” which will aim to show what Israel will look like next year if the judicial reforms are passed in full.
The following events are expected to take place throughout the day on Thursday:
- 8 a.m. – Demonstrations of parents and children will take place at various central locations throughout the country. At the same time, there will be “Declaration of Independence signings” in which protest participants will sign mock versions of the Israeli Declaration of Independence. These will also take place nationwide. This will be followed by a demonstration outside the conference center in Airport City where Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Avi Dichter and Economy Minister Nir Barkat are expected to hold a meeting.
- 10:30 a.m. – Hebrew University students will hold a protest march beginning at the Givat Ram campus.
- 11 a.m. – Members of Tel Aviv’s hi-tech sector will demonstrate outside of Sarona market. At the same time at Tel Aviv’s Entin Square, Tel Aviv University students and faculty members will begin their protest march. There will also be a general march on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street.
- 12 p.m. – A Handmaid’s Tale performance will be performed on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street. Also at this time, students and staff from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot and Jerusalem’s Azrieli College of Engineering will hold their own demonstrations. In addition, a tent will be set up on the border of Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak in which medical professionals will foster conversations about education and the workforce, “in the spirit of Maimonides.”
- 7 p.m. – Demonstrations will be held in Bnei Brak
