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Iyar 8, 5773 / Thursday, Apr. 18 '13
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Headlines
1. Airlines to Strike Sunday: 'Open Skies' Will Close Us Down
2. Feiglin Proposes Move to Single Israel Chief Rabbi
3. NY Teen Arrested After Threatening to Blow Up Yeshiva
4. Ben Gurion Customs Inspectors Prevent 'Frog Terror Attack'
5. Arab Gang Planned to Shoot Up Jewish Visitors on Temple Mount
6. Radical Egyptian Cleric: Boston Bombing Meant to Send a Message
7. Salafi Terror Group Releases Video of Rocket Attack on Eilat
8. Netanyahu: Thatcher 'Inspired Many With Conviction, Courage'
1. Airlines to Strike Sunday: 'Open Skies' Will Close Us Down
by David Lev
Workers at Israel's airlines plan to strike beginning Sunday. The strike is in protest over the decision by the government to discuss full implementation of the “Open Skies” policy, which would significantly increase the number of foreign carriers permitted to fly to Israel.
Workers at the airlines – El Al, Arkia, and Israir - fear for their jobs, as the purpose of the Open Skies policy is to increase competition on popular routes, such as to New York, London, and other European destinations. The Histadrut labor union is backing the strike. In a statement, the Histadrut said it believed Israelis would support the strike. “Israeli citizens will not support a deal that will sacrifice the incomes of thousands of families just to please foreign carriers.”
Israel had been set to sign an Open Skies agreement with the European Union last December, but the move was postponed because of the elections. The deal was completed last July, with seven new flights per week to a gradually increasing number of popular European destinations added each year, and more flights to major hub cities. Critics of the deal say that Israeli carriers will be overwhelmed by cheap fares, and that Ben Gurion Airport, which is not large enough to handle major international traffic, will be inundated with flights.
At an emergency meeting Thursday, union officials said that the deal does not provide protection for workers, and gives the European carriers numerous advantages over the Israeli carriers. The Histadrut is demanding suspension of the Open Skies policy until Israeli carriers have the same opportunity to choose routes as the foreign carriers are, and that the government alleviate security costs for Israeli airlines in order to enable them to be more competitive.
2. Feiglin Proposes Move to Single Israel Chief Rabbi
by Chana Ya'ar
Likud MK Moshe Feiglin says he plans to propose a bill that would transform Israel’s rabbinic leadership, consolidating it from two chief rabbis into a single position.
Feiglin, head of the Manhigut Yehudi (Jewish Leadership) faction within the Likud, said his proposed law would mandate a single chief rabbi to represent all of the ethnic streams of Jewry in Israel.
For decades, two chief rabbis have led the Jews of the state -- a Sephardic Chief Rabbi, and an Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi.
The duality is in deference to significant differences in customs held by European and Eastern ethnic streams in life cycle issues such as marriage, Passover observance and family purity.
Feiglin’s proposal would appoint the “runner-up” to become the President of the Rabbinical Court.
“I am certain all Israelis look forward to this uniting change,” Feiglin contended.
Rabbi Haim Druckman, winner of the 2012 Israel Prize, head of the Bnei Akiva movement and a leading figure in the National Religious sector, has commented that while he supported the idea in principle, he wondered if current Israeli society is ready for such a precedent.
3. NY Teen Arrested After Threatening to Blow Up Yeshiva
by Arutz Sheva staff
A Jewish high school student in Long Island has been arrested after threatening to blow up his Yeshiva.
Nassau County Police say the 16-year-old student at the Mesivta Ateres Yaakov School in Lawrence, Long Island, was arrested after he posted threats on his Facebook page, which were later brought to the attention of the school principal.
The yeshiva was evacuated for about two hours Tuesday morning and the student, whose identify remains undisclosed, was arrested and charged with making a terrorist threat, a felony, and aggravated harassment, The New York Post reported.
He is to be arraigned Wednesday at First District Court in Hempstead.
Mesivta Ateres Yaakov does not plan to press charges, assistant principal Rabbi Yossi Bennett told the Post.
The threats, which have not been delineated in reports, came a day after two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring over 170 others.
4. Ben Gurion Customs Inspectors Prevent 'Frog Terror Attack'
by David Lev
Working on a tip, customs inspectors at Ben Gurion Airport nabbed a smuggler who had attempted to bring some 30 poison dart frogs (dendrobatidae), the release of which into Israel's environment could be “catastrophic,” environmental officials said. The smuggler, along with an accomplice, attempted to bring the frogs into Ben Gurion Airport earlier this week, but they were halted before they could leave the customs inspection area.
The frogs are very small, even when fully grown (many are 1.5 centimeters in length fully grown, although some can reach six centimeters). The frogs are very colorful, and are very much in demand by collectors. The frogs are sold in Europe for between 50 and 120 euros apiece.
However, Israeli officials said, if released into the environment the frogs would quickly reproduce and turn into a dominant species and decimate, if not destroy, local varieties of amphibians, fish, and plants, especially protected species which are already nearly extinct.
The suspects, who arrived in Israel from the Netherlands, are being questioned by police and charges are likely to be brought. Israeli authorities conferred with Interpol and other international agencies on information which led to the pair's arrest. While the two are not suspected of “terrorism” per se, police said that the havoc that would have been caused by the escape of some of the frogs into the environment, and the cost to society, would have had a similar effect to that of an eco-terror attack.
5. Arab Gang Planned to Shoot Up Jewish Visitors on Temple Mount
by David Lev
Israeli officials on Thursday announced that they had nabbed a gang of Arab terrorists who were planning a terror attack against Israelis or tourists who visited the Temple Mount. An indictment was handed down Thursday against five suspects, residents of an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem, on charges of terrorism and conspiracy to murder and kidnap innocent civilians.
According to the indictment, the gang's leader, Nur Hamdan, last February organized the group to carry out a shooting attack against Jews or tourists who visited the Temple Mount. According to the rules of the Waqf, which essentially has the last word on whom is allowed to visit, non-Moslems are allowed to tour the Mount for several hours a day. Jews are forbidden from praying on the Mount, and Jewish groups are followed around by a policeman and Waqf religious functionary to ensure that no praying takes place.
Hamdan and his gang contacted the Izaddin al-Qasam and the Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Brigades terror groups, as well as with terrorists in Arab towns in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza, for guidance and assistance on how to carry out the attack. The gang met numerous times in February and March of this year to discuss the plan.
The gang planned to attack groups of religious Jews who ascended the Mount, and to open fire on police stationed there as well. The group also planned to take some of those it injured as prisoners to be used in a deal to force Israel to release terrorists in Israeli prisons.
In March, two members of Hamdan's gang, Imad Sha'er and Jalal Kuttub, planned an additional terror attack; they decided to kidnap an Israeli civilian or IDF soldier waiting at a bus stop or seeking a ride, steal his weapon, and murder him. The two, along with a third terrorist, Amjad Razam, drove through the Pisgat Ze'ev neighborhood and picked up a young Jewish man who asked for a ride to the town of Adam, outside Jerusalem. The three drove in the direction of Samaria, but when it turned out he did not have a weapon, the dropped him off at his destination.
The gang was caught based on intelligence work by Israel Police, the Shabak, and the IDF.
6. Radical Egyptian Cleric: Boston Bombing Meant to Send a Message
by Elad Benari
A radical Egyptian Salafi cleric said that the terror attack in Boston this week was meant to send a message to the West, that terrorists are alive and well.
The cleric, Sheik Murgan Salem, also warned that similar attacks were expected in France. Salem made the comments during an interview on Tahrir TV on April 16, 2013. The interview was translated and posted to the internet by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
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“Obviously, I do not know who carried out that operation, but if it was done by the mujahideen, it serves as a message to America and the West: We are still alive,” he said.
“Contrary to what you say, we have not died. The [Americans] wanted to send a message to the entire world that they had finished off the mujahideen – not just the mujahideen of Al-Qaeda, but the mujahideen all over the world. I do not know who carried out this attack, but if it was indeed the mujahideen, it was meant as a clear message to America and to the West,” continued Salem, who said the terror attack “was not up to the standards of Al-Qaeda. It was extremely amateurish. The standards of Al-Qaeda are much higher.”
The cleric goes on to say that he was “like one family” with both former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as well as current leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
“From what I saw on the news,” said Salem, “this was the work of amateurs. I do not know who did it, but they have managed to get the message across: We can reach you whenever and wherever we want.”
“I do not rule out the possibility that this was carried out by people born in the U.S. I do exclude the possibility that it was done by the Al-Qaeda organization. This is not the work of Osama Bin Laden or Ayman Al-Zawahiri. I think it was done by people resentful of the policy and arrogance of America and Europe. It is not just America,” he said.
“The Americans have passed their arrogance over to France. France, which led the first Crusade, is now leading the war against Islam and the Muslims. They must taste the bitter retribution for their deeds. This is not a threat, but a warning of what might happen to them,” said Salem.
“France has accepted the banner of arrogance and enmity to Islam, so it will taste what it deserves,” he continued. “I cannot be held responsible for over one million [Muslims] in the West, who were harmed by French and American policy. More than one million [Muslims] were born in the West. I cannot be held responsible for them. I do not know what they may do. The [Westerners] are facing a deluge, and they will be destroyed.”
Three people were killed in Monday’s explosions, which U.S. President Barack Obama condemned on Tuesday as "an act of terror."
Investigators said the bombs were hidden in pressure cookers put in backpacks. The attackers packed the bombs with metal pellets and nails to cause maximum suffering.
An eight-year-old boy who was killed in the bombing attack was identified as Martin Richard.
He was waiting, together with his mother and sister, to give his father, who was participating in the race, a hug as he crossed the finish line when the bombs went off.
In addition to killing Martin, the bomb took his sister’s leg and injured his mother.
Massachusetts resident Krystle Campbell, 29, was also named as one of the dead. The third victim was a Chinese student.
A leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday linked the Boston bombings to an anti-Islam conspiracy.
In a post on his personal Facebook page Muslim Brotherhood Vice President Essam el-Erian suggested the attack was part of a global plot to discredit Islam, citing violence in Mali, Syria, Somalia and other Muslim nations.
“Our sympathy with the families of the victims, and the American people do not stop us from reading into the grave incident,” he wrote.
The Freedom and Justice Party officially condemned the Boston attacks, saying they “categorically” rejected the “intolerable” attack, claiming it violated the principles of Islamic Sharia law.
The Pakistani Taliban, meanwhile, denied involvement in the Boston marathon bombing, but openly applauded the heinous attack.
“Wherever we find Americans we will kill them, but we don’t have any connection with the Boston explosions,” Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said, according to reports.
7. Salafi Terror Group Releases Video of Rocket Attack on Eilat
by Elad Benari
The Mujahedeen Shura Council, the Salafi jihadist group that claimed responsibility for Wednesday morning’s rocket attack on Eilat, has released a video which shows the rockets being fired towards the resort city.
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The Color Red rocket alert siren blared throughout the city of Eilat shortly after 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning. It is believed that terrorists fired three rockets at the city. No casualties were reported.
However, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Force said the rocket fire had been traced to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a region which has become a hotbed of terrorist activity since the fall in 2011 of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
8. Netanyahu: Thatcher 'Inspired Many With Conviction, Courage'
by Arutz Sheva
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was “a great leader,” said Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Wednesday following a ceremony in honor of the late British leader.
“She was not only an economic leader but a world leader, helping, along with President Reagan, to end the Cold War bloodlessly,” Netanyahu said.
Thatcher “inspired many around the world with conviction, determination and courage,” the prime minister added.
Over 2,300 guests arrived at the funeral from across the world paid their respects to the country's first and only female leader, who died from a stroke on 8 April aged 87.
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