Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Israel braced itself for a major spike in immigration from the country under attack. What it did not expect was an even greater wave of immigration from the country that launched the war.

Internal government figures obtained by Haaretz show that the number of immigrants and potential immigrants landing in Israel from Russia in the past two months far exceeds the number of immigrants and potential immigrants from Ukraine.

The figures were compiled by the National Security Council, which operates under the auspices of the Prime Ministers Office and has been tasked with assessing the potential for aliyah, or immigration to Israel, from Ukraine and Russia given the state of war between the two countries.

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The figures reveal that since the start of the war on February 24 and until the middle of this week, a total of 8,371 immigrants and potential immigrants from Ukraine have landed in Israel. Of this total, 3,621 had already been approved for aliyah and came with immigrant visas, while 4,750 were given special permission to come to Israel based on initial indications that they qualified for aliyah under the Law of Return and complete all the required paperwork once they landed.

Because immigrants coming from Russia are not eligible for this special aliyah express track, those who prefer not to wait months to complete their paperwork have been arriving in Israel on tourist visas and starting the process upon arrival.

According to the NSC figures, a total of 12,593 immigrants and potential immigrants from Russia have landed in Israel since the start of the war. Of these, 2,450 had already been approved for aliyah and came with immigrant visas, while 10,143 arrived on tourist visas.

For comparison's sake, in all of 2021, only 7,700 Russians made Aliyah.

According to a senior official involved in aliyah, the government estimates that more than 90 percent of the Russian arrivals are eligible for aliyah under the Law of Return. There is no reason for them to come to Israel, of all places, unless they are eligible for aliyah, considering how many other countries they can go to, the official said.

As proof, the official noted that thousands had already set up appointments at local branches of the Interior Ministry to change their status from tourist to immigrant. Because of this flood of requests for status change, there are currently no appointments available at Interior Ministry branches for months.

Israeli officials based in Russia have also reported a huge increase in the number of aliyah files being opened there. The officials are reluctant to speak publicly about the large number of Jews fleeing Russia for fear that the Russian authorities might try to stop them.

The exodus has been attributed mainly to fears of economic hardship arising from the harsh global sanctions imposed on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.

Dramatic slowdown

This surge in immigration from Russia coincides with a dramatic slowdown in the pace of aliyah from Ukraine. A key indicator is the sharp decline in the number of Jewish refugees from Ukraine awaiting flights to Israel at special facilities set up for them by the Jewish Agency in western Ukraine and several bordering countries.

As of midweek, there were just over 1,300 refugees being sheltered in these facilities in Moldova, Hungary, Romania, Poland and Ukraine. In mid-March, there were more than 3,200.

The number of organized flights carrying Ukrainian refugees to Israel has dropped as well. Last week, the Jewish Agency ran 10 organized flights, while this week there were only five. Not all refugees from Ukraine have been arriving in Israel on these organized flights, however; some though only a small share have been arriving independently or with the help of private organizations.

This week, Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata predicted that a total of somewhere between 30,000 and 50,000 immigrants from Ukraine and Russia would arrive in Israel by the end of June. Given current aliyah trends from Ukraine at least, that seems unlikely.

It is premature to analyze a mega-event still taking place, but what we can say is that while the total number of refugees fleeing Ukraine is growing, the pace has slowed down maybe because the fighting is not as severe, said Yigal Palmor, head of international relations at the Jewish Agency. And this affects the number of Jews leaving as well.

He noted that many of those Ukrainians eligible for aliyah have been reluctant to leave their homeland because this would entail separating their families. The Ukrainian authorities are not allowing men aged 18 to 60 to leave the country, with only a few exceptions.

Those who have been predicting an aliyah of hundreds of thousands will definitely have to give some explanations, Palmor added.

One flight a week

The International Fellowship for Christians and Jews an organization active in bringing Jews from Ukraine to Israel in recent years set up a special office in Moldova a month ago to assist Jewish refugees fleeing from the nearby city of Odessa.

In the past seven to 10 days, we have witnessed a drastic drop in the number of Jewish refugees crossing the border here in Moldova from hundreds a day to a trickle of 20 to 30, said Benny Hadad, head of aliyah operations at the Fellowship.

The Fellowship had been operating six refugee flights a week to Israel soon after the war broke out. This week, said Hadad, there were only two flights, and only one is scheduled for next week.

Hadad attributed the drop in aliyah to the fact that those Jews who wanted to leave Ukraine had already gotten out. That doesnt mean were packing up here, he said, noting that the situation across the border was still very dynamic.

According to the Law of Return, any individual with at least one Jewish grandparent as well as that individuals immediate family is eligible to immigrate to Israel and receive automatic citizenship. Some 200,000 Ukrainians are believed to be eligible for aliyah under the Law of Return, although the countrys core Jewish population individuals who identify as Jewish and affiliate with no other religion is estimated at only about 43,000. The potential for aliyah from Russia is, therefore, much greater. About 600,000 Russians are believed to be eligible, and the core Jewish population of that country is estimated at 200,000.

A report commissioned by the Jewish Agency and submitted this week lists some of the reasons Ukrainian refugees who are eligible for aliyah have not exercised their right to immigrate. These include their not identifying as Jewish or being aware that they are eligible; the high cost of transportation to Israel compared with transportation to countries in Europe, as well as the lack of awareness that they are eligible for free flights to Israel; the perceived high cost of living in Israel compared with even wealthy European countries; the perceived poor security situation in Israel, especially in recent weeks; and the fact that many of these refugees hope to return to Ukraine as soon as possible, which makes Europe a better place to wait out the war.

In many cases, it still appears that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages and that most of those who would potentially make aliyah have already done so or are in the process of it, concluded the report, which was prepared by the intelligence division of Tel Aviv-based Max Security Solutions.

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Ukraine war has caused a huge surge in aliyah to Israel from Russia - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

As violence escalated in Israel-Palestine during the spring of 2021, Hazem Nasser did what he was called to do: He began filming. At the time, Nasser was working as a journalist for the Palestinian television network Falastin Al-Ghad,andhis footage captured the rising tensions amid Jewish nationalist marches, Palestinian demonstrations, and Israeli police brutality in Jerusalem.

On May 10, Nasser set out to film a clash between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli army in the northern occupied West Bank. The day sticks out in Nassers memory not for the clash itself, nor for the military strikes that began later that evening between Hamas and Israel, but for what happened to him afterward.

All the questions were about my journalism.

Nasser was on his way home when he was stopped by Israeli soldiers at the Huwara checkpoint and taken away for interrogations. Nasser languished in detention for more than a month while the Shin Bet, Israels internal security service, repeatedly interrogated him.

All the questions were about my journalism, Nasser said. They put images from my video reports on the table, including a funeral of a dead Palestinian, people gathering for a protest, a square honoring a shaheed [martyr], a march with Hamas flags. The interrogator told me I cannot photograph these things, because they are incitement. I told him that I am a journalist and this is my job to show images of things that are happening, and that Israeli outlets do the same thing. He yelled at me to stop.

Hazem Nasser, 31, was detained and interrogated after filming a clash between Palestinian protesters and the Israeli army in the northern occupied West Bank on the night of May 10, 2021.

Photo: Courtesy of Hazem Nasser

In mid-June, Nasser, who is 31 and hails from the village of Shweikeh in the occupied West Bank, appeared before a court and was charged with incitement. Instead of focusing on his journalistic work, as the interrogations had, the indictment listed four old Facebook posts that he had written between 2018and 2020, a period in which he published more than 1,000 posts. The charging document said he had praised the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi and called a Palestinian militant accused of murdering two Israelis a hero, among other allegations.

One possible reason that Nassers work didnt appear in the indictment despite being a focus of the interrogations is that even in the military courts of Israels occupation, the criteria for what constitutes incitement does not include journalism or simply documenting events. Regardless, Nasser believes that the purpose of the interrogations and the charges were one and the same: to deter him from documenting Israels abuses against Palestinians. Among Palestinian journalists, he is far from alone.

Israeli forces arrest a journalist and take him into custody during a protest against Jewish settlements in Hebron, West Bank on Aug. 27, 2021.

Photo: Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Since the beginning of 2020, Israel has imprisoned at least 26 Palestinian journalists in the West Bank. In most cases, the journalists were placed under administrative detention a common method used by Israel to hold Palestinians without filing charges for anywhere between six weeksandone-and-a-half years. Nine of these journalists were indicted, most often for incitement, and on average spent about eight months in detention.

As of March 2022, there were 10 Palestinian journalists in Israeli prisons on charges relating to publishing materials online either as private individuals or through their professional work that were deemed incitement, according to Saleh al-Masri, who heads the Journalist Support Committee in Palestine. Three of the imprisoned journalists are in administrative detention; three have been indicted; and four are being held and interrogated as part of investigations. (Seven other journalists are being imprisoned for convicted charges of taking part in violent activities that had nothing to do with journalistic work.)

Using interviews, media reports, and legal filings, +972, Local Call, and The Intercept reviewed the cases against many of the journalists who were held by Israeli security forces in relation to their publication of material. In interviews with media, seven of the journalists said that during their interrogations, Israeli security agents showed them news videos they had taken, which were often of confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli forces, political processions, or funerals. The interrogators told the journalists that the images constituted incitement and ordered them to stop documenting the events.

In some cases, the journalists were later indicted on charges unrelated to their professional work; in others, no indictment was filed at all and the journalist was imprisoned without trial and eventually set free. (The Shin Bet did not respond to a request for comment.)

The arrests usually take place while journalists are out in the field, said Shireen al-Khatib, the monitoring and documentation associate for the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms, or MADA, which promotes and defends freedom of expression and of media in the occupied territories.

During the interrogation, she continued, the journalist will be told that the reports he posts on Facebook are considered incitement and although he is only reporting news, the fact that that news is made public is tantamount to incitement. Often the journalist will be accused of attending a political event as a photographer or a reporter. But [the Israeli authorities] do not distinguish between a journalist who is in the field as part of his work and an active participant.

Al-Khatib, who has interviewed dozens of Palestinian journalists interrogated by the Shin Bet, said the result of this treatment is that Palestinian journalists live in a constant state of fear, often leading to self-censorship.

Palestinian artist Taqi Spateen poses beneath his mural on the theme of violence against journalists covering the Israel-Palestine conflict, on a section of Israels controversial separation barrier in Bethlehem,West Bank, on June 30, 2021.

Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images

Other Palestinian journalists offered on-the-record accounts that corresponded with Nassers experience. Sameh al-Titi, a 27-year-old reporter from the Al-Arroub Refugee Camp in the West Bank, covers events in his area for Al Mayadeen, a Lebanon-based Arabic news channel said to be aligned with the militant group Hezbollah. In December 2019, he was taken into custody by Israeli security forces.

Al-Titi said the interrogator pulled up his Facebook profile before showing him images from his own work. He showed me a report on the closure of the entrance to the Al-Arroub camp by the army, al-Titi said. The interrogator told me: You are not allowed to film military positions. The interrogator also raised al-Titis presence at events related to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, or PFLP, a leftist political groupthat Israel deems a terrorist organization.

The whole investigation had to do with coverage as a journalist as if the problem is the camera itself, not the reality it documents.

Like al-Titi and others, Tareq Abu Zeid, a video journalist from Jenin, a city in the West Bank, was arrested in October 2020 and interrogated by the Shin Bet in its Petah Tikva facility. The interrogator, Abu Zeid recalled, told him he was arrested because his footage sows unrest among the Palestinian public.

The whole investigation had to do with coverage as a journalist as if the problem is the camera itself, not the reality it documents, Abu Zeid said in an interview for Al Jazeera. Over three weeks of questioning, interrogators raised allegations of Abu Zeids work with Al-Aqsa TV, a station associated with the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist organization. Al-Aqsa TV was banned by Israel in 2019.

Fadi Qawasmeh, a lawyer representing Abu Zeid, argued in court that the charges against his client amounted to selective enforcement, since no legal action had been taken against any other employee at Al-Aqsa TV and the Israeli military knew for years that Abu Zeid worked at the station, long before it was declared illegal. Abu Zeid had already been in prison for nearly 10 months when, in June 2021, the military prosecution offered him a plea deal for time served and a fine of roughly $2,500. Abu Zeid agreed and was released from prison the following month.

Israeli forces attack journalists covering a demonstration, including Anadolu Agency reporter Enes Canli and Anadolu Agency photojournalist Issam Rimawi, in the West Bank on Feb. 11, 2022.

Photo: Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The indictment against him cited his presence at an illegal assembly for attending several funerals of young Palestinians who had been killed. In 2019, al-Titi had covered the funeral of Omar al-Badawi, an alleged PFLP member who was killed by the Israeli military. (According to an internal army investigation, al-Badawi posed no danger to the soldiers and they did not have to use live fire.)

The indictment said that the funeral was organized by the PFLP and therefore al-Titi had broken the law by being there. The prosecution did not mention that al-Titi was covering the funeral as a journalist, that Israeli and international journalists regularly cover such funerals, and that he was among hundreds of others there that day.

In addition to his work documenting funerals, the indictment charged that in 2016 al-Titi had participated in activities on his college campus at Hebron University organized by a student group affiliated with Hamas.

The point was always to limit my work as a journalist and it worked.

The indictment also claimed that two Facebook posts by al-Titi constituted incitement. In one from 2018, al-Titi shared a photo of Palestinians who had been killed by the Israeli army the indictment described the dead men as terrorists and wrote, Beware of natural death, do not die except from the bullets. In a 2017 post,he mentioned participating in a literary competition for the Hamas-linked student group. Al-Titi said that the social media posts were not shown to him at all during his interrogations.

In 2020, al-Titi took a plea; he was imprisoned for six months and fined around $1,500.

I stopped reporting on people who were killed and/or funerals. I am afraid of filming confrontations with the army and do not document military positions or soldiers, he added. The point was always to limit my work as a journalist and it worked.

Israeli forces harass and shove a journalist during a protest against the killing of four Palestinians by Israeliofficers in Ramallah, West Bank, on Aug. 17, 2021.

Photo: Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Many of the journalists ordeals end in plea bargains with Israeli military prosecutors. Nasser, the Falastin Al-Ghad journalist, took one at the conclusion of his trial, after the judge ruled that Nassers Facebook posts barely met the low threshold for incitement. Nasser would be handed a three-month prison sentence, expecting to receive credit for time served.

Nasser chose to confess in order to be released, explained Mazen Abu Aoun, his attorney. Judges almost always rule that journalists remain in custody until the end of the proceedings. They jail them for months, then the military prosecution offers them a plea deal: Confess to some of the offenses, and the punishment will amount to the number of days you have already served. After that youll be released immediately. That way everyone agrees.

In the end, however, Nassers time served did not limit his stint in prison. Though he took the plea, he learned a week before his release date that the Shin Bet had issued an administrative detention order against him that would keep him behind bars.

Nasser languished in detention without a second trial or even new charges for another five months. They didnt have anything over which to indict me, he said. The West Bank was in flames in May, and as a journalist I documented everything in the field. I was arrested to prevent me from documenting. The act of documentation itself thats considered incitement in their eyes.

Since he was released in December 2021, after spending eight months in prison, Nasser barely posts anything on Facebook. He is worried that more spurious allegations could pull him away from his family again a possibility he cant countenance. I am married and have a child, Nasser explained. They arrested me when he was eight months old and released me when he already knew how to speak.

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Israel Charges Palestinian Journalists With Incitement for Doing Their Jobs - The Intercept

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

The infamous "Negev Summit" was undoubtedly a success for ForeignMinister YairLapid and therest of theIsraeli government.His ministry'sprotocol department's impressive achievement,hosting four foreign ministers from Arab countries for dinner, included serenading them withJerusalem's famouska'ek(bagels) and lamb from the Golan Heights. Both occupied Arab territories,bothillegally annexed by Israel.

Finally, they got thefamily photothey wanted, and Lapid reaffirmed his role as the "pleasantface" of a government that cheered the approval of the racist law banning the reunification of Palestinian families only a few days ago.

Except for agreeing todo it allagain,sometime soon,this summit's greatest distinction was its lack of anysubstance.The only concrete message from it was for the Palestinian people.

For the Palestinians, membership of the Abraham Accords club means thatthose "brotherly" Arab statesare neither expectednor now evenrequested to lead their struggle towards national liberation.It's not news thatPalestine has been abandoned. After the meeting, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said that any Arab normalization meeting without an end to Israeli occupation is a gift to Israel. Certainly, it is.

Most Israelis, however,won'taccept the other side of the story. Only one of the four Arab countrieshosted so royallyis strategically vital to Israel, and that is Egypt, whoseforeign minister statedtheir ultimate goal remains a "Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem its capital."

The presence of Minister Sameh Shoukry was deeply disappointing to most Palestinians. However, I am sure thatbecause of his wordssome Israelis are also beginning to realize that the Palestinian cause cannot be buried, regardless ofthedisgusting propaganda made for normalization deals that include benefits for Israeli settlements and companies involved in the ongoing annexation of Palestine.

On the same day that the summit took place, Israel advanced the construction of four exclusivelyJewish towns inthe Negev. Perhaps the Arab foreign ministersdidn'tknow that near the venue of their conference there are almost 40 villages, home to half of theNegev'sBedouin Palestinians, which are still unrecognized by the state, meaning they don't even have access to electricity or water.One of them,Al-Araqib, has beendemolishedhundreds of times.

Thissignals thatIsrael'sethnic cleansing process extends not only tothe occupied Palestinian territory ofJerusalem, Hebron, and the Jordan Valley,but alsowithinIsrael itself: The same Negevthat an Arab foreign minister referred to as a "symbol of coexistence," Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch define as a symbol of apartheid.

In 1976,Land Day, which proteststhe normalized practice of expropriating land from Palestinian villages on both sides of the 1967 border to benefit construction for mainly IsraeliJews,took place in the Galilee because of such discriminatory laws. It isareality that the vast majority of the international community fails to recognize till this very day, regardless of the hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel killed or injured in protests like Land Day in 1976, October 2000, and May 2021.

Even though some Arab foreign ministers may choose to ignore this to the gratificationof most Israeli Jewsit can't erasethe realityof dispossessionfor most Palestinian citizens of Israel, let alone Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory.

This week,we commemoratedLand Day in a changingregionalcontext, but one nonethelessthat has failed to eliminate the existence of the Palestinian people from the river to the sea.

It is with grave concern, therefore, that we continue to observe the double standards applied byWestern countries to the situation in Ukraine compared to what is happening in the land of historic Palestine.The Russian occupation of part of Ukraine has been met with international sanctions while for several Western governments the Israeli occupation of all of Palestine has been met merely with references to shared "values."

Palestinians are determined to change the current state of affairs,defying the reality of colonial settlement occupation and apartheid.No matter how successful its protocol efforts may be,Israel's Foreign Ministrywill find these inconvenient factsmore and more challenging to conceal.

I was in Cairo last month, and I saw the reaction of the Egyptians when I told them I'm Palestinian. Every Egyptian official knows how committed their people are to the rights of the Palestinian people.This week, I spoke to many audiences in the U.S., including at Harvard Law School, and it was evident that the context can positively change.

I congratulate Lapid on a photo opportunity that did not changeonebit of what ought to matter most to Israel and the rest of the region:Ending systematic violations of international law and UN resolutions, and endingthe decades-long denial of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.

Sami Abou Shahadeh is a Palestinian historian, leader of Balad/Tajamu party and member of the Knesset for the Joint List:. Twitter:@ShahadehAbou

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A message to the Arab states who ally with Israel to erase the Palestinians - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid vowed that the coalition would "do everything" to hold itself together on Thursday in his first public comments on the political crisis caused by lawmaker Idit Siman quitting the coalition, ending its majority. Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman also voiced his commitment to the coalition's survival, saying that"the last thing we need is a fifth election cycle within three years."

Lapid is set to take over from Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as premier next year, according to the coalition agreement between the two if this government survives.

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In a Facebook post, promised that extremism would not be victorious, and that far-right lawmakers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich "will not take our country from us with force. We will do everything so the government holds on for a long time yet."

Ackowledging what he called a "coalition crisis" after the departure of Silman, the coalition whip, Lapid wrote that it "isn't the first and likely isn't the last." He wrote that he had spoken "with all the leaders of the parties more than once," and that "all are prepared for us to get through this without further shocks."

The foreign minister also said he was committed "not to drag Israel into another election, [and more] toxicity, and division." He asserted that patriots "do not want to get rid of those who think differently from them, but to find ways to live with them. Our government represents this indispensable idea: that our right to exist is only together."

Meretz Chairman Nitzan Horowitz meanwhile wrote on Twitter that he had spoken to many ministers and lawmakers representing a wife range of Israeli society, and all wanted the coalition to remain in place. "There are disagreements between us," he wrote. "But our desire for honest, secular and responsible rule prevails over what divides us and requires us to be level-headed and pragmatic. This government saved Israeli democracy."

Lapid's and Lieberman's comments followed others by coalition party chiefs voicing support for the coalition. On Wednesday, Horowitz the party was "a responsible partner and we are committed and will work to continue the term of the government." Labor Party Chairwoman Merav Michaeli said that that those who care about what's good for Israel "must make an effort so that this government, which is working like governments haven't worked here for a long time, is preserved and stays."

Opposition moves

In addition to searching for another defector who would give the opposition the 61st vote it needs to dissolve the Knesset, Likud members have spent the last day shoring up their connection with Silman.

Party sources said that in particular, lawmakers Yariv Levin of Likud and Bezalel Smotrich of Religious Zionism, the architects of Silmans defection, have invested a great deal of time toward this goal over the past day. The chances of her returning to the coalition are small, the sources added. But unlike Naftali Bennett, we dont take chances, one said.

Netanyahu, Levin and other lawmakers are also investing great effort in trying to find another defector. Many Likud members have claimed publicly that success in this effort is just around the corner, but in private, party sources admit that this isnt the case. Talks are taking place with other members of Yamina, as well as MKs from other coalition parties, but theres a big difference between talking and an actual move, one said.

The search for another defector could take just days, but it could also take months, the sources said. Prior to Silmans defection this week, similar talks had taken place since the government was formed last year without producing any results. But Likud lawmakers think her decision to switch sides could alter the picture.

Senior Likud officials said the chances of forming a Likud-led government in the current Knesset are slim. Therefore, the more likely path is legislation to call early elections.

If Netanyahu wants to dissolve the Knesset before it returns from its spring recess on May 8, he will have to collect signatures from 61 MKs. Once these signatures are submitted to the Knesset speaker, a vote on dissolving the Knesset must take place within a week. But so far, the opposition has only 60 votes in any case.

Once the recess ends, however, no signatures are necessary. Any opposition party can submit a bill to dissolve the Knesset, and it must be brought up for its first of four required votes the following Wednesday.

To pass the first three votes, only a simple majority of MKs present and voting is needed. But on the fourth vote, at least 61 of the Knessets 120 MKs must vote in favor.

If such a bill fails to pass, the opposition is barred from submitting similar legislation for the next half year.

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Lapid vows to hold Israel's coalition together in first comments since whip's defection - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

Speaking to reporters this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the future he sees for his country in unusual terms: as a big Israel.

Gone, he said, are hopes for an absolutely liberal statereplaced by the likely reality of armed defense forces patrolling movie theaters and supermarkets. Im confident that our security will be the number-one issue over the next ten years, Zelenskyy added.

With Russian forces having withdrawn from around Kyiv, suggesting that Ukraine successfully repulsed the first phase of the Kremlins invasion, the time is right for Zelenskyy to contemplate how to prepare for the nextand potentially much longerphase of this conflict.

But what does he mean by a big Israel? With a population more than four times smaller, and vastly less territory, the Jewish state might not seem like the most fitting comparison. Yet consider the regional security threats it faces, as well as its highly mobilized population: The two embattled countries share more than you might think.

So if Zelenskyy really does have Israel in mind as a model for Ukraine, here are some of the key features he might consider for adoption (some of which are already applicable today):

Like Israel in its early wars, Ukraine appears to have fended off an acute existential threat. But the war is far from over. By adapting their countrys mindset to mirror aspects of Israels approach to chronic security challenges, Ukrainian officials can tackle critical national-security challenges with confidence and build a similarly resilient state.

Daniel Shapiro is a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former US ambassador to Israel.

Image: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to Ukrainian media in Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 4, 2022. Photo by Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

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Zelenskyy wants Ukraine to be 'a big Israel.' Here's a road map. - Atlantic Council

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

Israeli leaders reacted with shock and anger last week when it emerged that a Palestinian man who gunned down five people in Bnei Brak had entered Israel via a hole in the West Bank security barrier big enough to drive a car through. But for years, Israeli officials have seemingly turned a blind eye to gaps in the barrier that are used daily by thousands of Palestinian laborers to enter Israel illegally.

Once tensions calm, some experts believe Israel will revert to its alleged unspoken policy of leaving the security fence and the gaps in it largely unguarded, constituting a key valve for releasing economic pressure in the West Bank.

On Tuesday, 26-year-old Diaa Hamarsheh left his home in the West Bank village of Yabad near Jenin. Armed with an M-16 assault rifle, Hamarsheh drove through an open gate that had been put in place for Palestinian farmers to access fields on the other side of the fence and drove to the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak in central Israel.

There, in a normally quiet residential neighborhood just outside Tel Aviv, he opened fire, killing four civilians two Israelis and two Ukrainian nationals as well as a police officer, before being shot and killed himself.

The terrorist took advantage of an agricultural crossing meant for the well-being of the Palestinians and their economy to carry out a murderous terrorist attack, military chief Aviv Kohavi said at the scene on Friday. He ordered the gate sealed shut, and additional troops deployed to the area.

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Many in Israels defense community believe keeping it shut will come with its own security challenges.

Palestinians working in Israel, even illegally, earn far higher wages than in the West Bank and they are thus a critical element in keeping the often flailing Palestinian economy afloat.

Palestinian laborers cross illegally into Israel from the West Bank through an opening in a fence, south of the West Bank town of Hebron, on August 30, 2020. (Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash90)

Israeli security officials have long stressed the security benefits of Palestinian economic stability. Give people a way to earn a livelihood and they will be less likely to risk their lives by committing terror attacks or so the thinking goes.

Everyone knew about it, MK Merav Ben Ari, chairwoman of the Knesset Internal Security Committee, told the Kan public broadcaster recently.

Even at times of increased tensions, officials have pushed to keep allowing Palestinian laborers into the country and even increase the number of permits granted, facing down the wrath of hawks and hardliners who prefer punitive measures and security crackdowns.

The West Bank security barrier was first suggested in the 1990s by the late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who saw it as a way to separate Israel from the Palestinians. But the project never materialized due to internal opposition.

It was only during the Second Intifada, as Israel fought waves of suicide bombings and other attacks emanating from the West Bank, that the idea was revived and kicked into high gear.

Many credit the barrier with helping end that uprising, which lasted from 2000 to 2005, though of its planned 708-kilometer (440-mile) route, only 62% has been completed as of 2022.

The security barrier near Beit Horon, on Route 443 in the West Bank. (Kobi Gideon/Flash90)

The security did not come without controversy, though, as the wall sparked local demonstrations and international condemnation over its route, snaking into the West Bank through seized Palestinian fields and sometimes cutting off farmers from their land.

About 85% of the barrier runs within the West Bank, with the remaining 15% running along the Green Line the pre-1967 ceasefire line that delineates Israel from the West Bank and within Israeli territory. In total, the barrier is estimated to have cost the country some NIS 9 billion ($2.8 billion) according to the Knesset Research and Information Center.

For most of its route, the barrier consists of a chain-link fence equipped with surveillance cameras and other sensors, buffered by barbed wire and a 60-meter (200 foot) wide exclusion area. In more urban areas including around Jerusalem and Bethlehem the barrier is not a fence but an eight- to nine-meter (26- to 30-foot) high concrete wall.

Palestinians have long found ways around or through the fence to sneak into Israel. But according to Dror Etkes, who directs the progressive Kerem Navot nonprofit, Israeli security forces began looking the other way around two and a half years ago, during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

Before that, you would just get shot if you approached the border, similar to how Israel often enforces the border with the Gaza Strip, Etkes told The Times of Israel, though such incidents were rare.

Israeli soldiers stand guard at a breach in the security fence which has been used daily by thousands of Palestinian workers to illegally enter Israel for work, near the Meitar checkpoint, south of Hebron in the West Bank, April 3, 2022. (HAZEM BADER / AFP)

He said there are over a hundred gaps in the fence, mostly small, but some large enough that there are makeshift parking lots next to them on the Israeli side, where people ferry Palestinian laborers to Israeli cities, often majority-Arab ones.

According to Etkes and others, Israels unspoken policy has been to allow as many Palestinian workers into Israel as possible to head off economic hardships that can lead to desperation and create terrorists.

But some have questioned whether it would not have been wiser to simply increase the number of legal permits for vetted Palestinian laborers.

There was a kind of policy that says, we want people to work in Israel after all, a kind of turning a blind eye, Ben Ari told Kan last week. It is not the job of IDF soldiers to be on the fence and stop illegals. The gaps need to be closed and more gates opened.

A Palestinian protester cuts part of the security barrier near the West Bank city of Ramallah on April 17. (photo credit: Issam Rimawi/Flash90)

Yizhar David, a former senior officer in the Shin Bet who spent most of his years in the security agency in the West Bank, disputed that any such policy exists. Its carelessness, a blunder, or trust me, itll be OK culture, until a mistake happens, David told The Times of Israel.

Its not a policy, he said, and then turned sarcastic. Someone smart once said Lets build a fence with lots of gaps in it, and we wont close them, and when theres a terror attack well wake up.

The policy is that there should be a separation barrier, checkpoints, enforcement, he said.

He saw the Bnei Brak attack as a wake-up call that may finally spur officials to fix the security gaps, as has happened when other security blunders have been exposed by such events as Rabins assassination in 1995 and the escape of six terror convicts from a jail in northern Israel last year.

Military chief Aviv Kohavi tours the West Bank security barrier, April 1, 2022. (Israel Defense Forces)

Indeed, the army has deployed hundreds of troops to the gaps in the fence in recent days.

But retired Major General Gershon HaCohen said this deployment was mostly for show. Its for the publics anxieties, HaCohen told Kan. The army doesnt even have the number of troops needed to manage the border.

In an interview with the Ynet news site Sunday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the Israeli military had not prioritized guarding the fence, but rather other areas where the risk factor is much higher and freedom of action is much lower, likely referring to Israels efforts to combat Iranian enrichment on its northern frontier.

Officials have admitted Israel has lost its ability to freely act against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, fearing its capabilities in the event of an escalation.

Palestinian men climb a section of Israels security barrier in the village of Al-Ram, on June 26, 2015 (Flash90)

Still, these days were are re-examining the whole issue of the fence, and we will try to start [repairing the barrier], in stages, according to a list of priorities, Gantz said. But there are many other threats Israel, and I, need to deal with.

Etkes does not think there is any quick, lasting solution to Israels attempts to balance security doctrines. In the end, he said, the holes will remain, tacitly tolerated by Israel, unless a third intifada starts tomorrow.

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Terror attack bared West Bank barriers gaps, but some say holes help keep the peace - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

A new humanitarian truce in effect between the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen and Saudi Arabia is unlikely to hold for the two months, it was declared.

Already, the Houthis have accused the Saudis of committing dozens of violations as the Shiite militant organization likely prepares the ground for further missile and unmanned aerial vehicle attacks on Saudi cities, oil sites, airports and other strategic locations.

The Houthi aerial terror campaign was extended to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, in January, in deadly missile and UAV strikes. The Saudi-led coalition has been engaged in a lengthy campaign of airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen.

The aerial threats faced by the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council are not very different from the ones faced by Israel. Iranian-made ballistic missiles and rockets, cruise missiles and explosive UAVs are planted all over Lebanon in Hezbollahs depots.

Hezbollah has, for its part, helped train the Houthis. In exchange, it has received access to Houthi battle lessons and doctrine knowledge, while closely observing the Houthi activation of firepower. In fact, the lengthy war of attrition between the Houthis and moderate Sunni Arab Gulf states has acted as a kind of lab for the Iranian-led radical axis, and the lessons from these experiments will be studied closely and likely applied in the future against Israel.

The United States has been working with Gulf Cooperation Countries to boost air defenses, but Israel can, in theory, contribute some of its own systems as well to this fight in future defense deals.

The January announcement by the UAE over the deal to by the M-SAM South Korean air-defense system, which is a competitor to Rafaels Iron Dome in many ways, makes an Iron Dome purchase by the UAE less likely going forward.

But the massive defense budgets of the Emiratisand the Saudisalso mean there are plenty of opportunities for purchasing Israeli systems.

One such candidate is the Davids Sling system made by Rafael, which provides long-range air- and missile-defense coverage, and is operational within the Israel Defense Forces.

The advanced interceptor missile, known as the Stunner or the SkyCeptor, could be combined with other types of launchers, such as the U.S. Raytheon-made Patriot launchers, which both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi already possess.

Theoretically, Rafael could also offer to Gulf states its Spyder air-defense systems, which come in multiple configurations for long-, medium- and short-range defenses. Spyder systems are operational around the world.

Last year, the Czech Republic ordered four Spyder systems. These use missiles that were originally made as air-to-air missiles and converted into advanced surface-to-air missiles, such as the Python-5, I-Derby and I-Derby Extend Range, which use a booster to reach a range of 80 kilometers (50 miles).

These longer-range versions of Spyder use Israel Aerospace Industries Multi-Mission Radar, which the Czechs received their first unit of in recent days. Prague ordered a total of eight such radars.

In addition, Gulf states can receive IAIs Barak air-defense and missile-protection systems, which also come in three configurations (short-range, medium-range and long-range, and can take on UAVs, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

It seems possible that Gulf states are also highly interested in Israels new aerial radar, dubbed Sky Dew, which became operational in late March, and which place an advanced IAI-Elta radar inside a floating aerostat, providing much longer detection coverage range. That makes it easier to detect evasive low-flying threats like cruise missiles and UAVs, and could make interception more successful.

The United States has already supplied the UAE with Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems, Patriots and Swiss-made guns that are guided by radar (called Sky Guard), while Saudi Arabia also possesses THAAD, Patriots and Sky Guard.

But these systems are not optimized for UAV attacks, which involve low, slow targets that provide those who launch them with precision fire capabilities.

As the Houthis continue to develop their abilities to fire UAVs like the long-range Samad 3 and cruise missiles like the Quds 2 typethe ones they fired at Abu Dhabi in January, and at Saudi Arabia before thatIsrael can, in theory, extend new capabilities to its Gulf allies, and in the process, create its own lab to learn invaluable lessons for its own security as well.

The post What defense tech Israel can and cannot provide to its new Gulf allies appeared first on JNS.org.

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What defense tech Israel can and cannot provide to its new Gulf allies - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

In the coastal Israeli city of Caesarea, demand for homes with a view of the Caesarea Golf Club, the only golf course in the country, has skyrocketed. Demand to play on the course itself, not so much.

I cant remember a client coming and asking for a home on the golf course because he plays golf, said Meir Menahem, a real estate agent with Neot Shiran, which specializes in luxury properties. For most of them, its because its an open view, its green, and because it puts them in the best place.

Housing prices in Israel rose more than 10.6 percent in 2021, according to Israels Central Bureau of Statistics, but in Caesarea, a city of 5,500 roughly halfway between Tel Aviv and Haifa, agents say that an influx of buyers eager to trade their cramped city apartments for homes with pools and gardens has driven local prices up by more than 30 percent.

For decades, the city which sits on Herodian ruins and is blessed with a coastline, manicured green spaces and a national park has been considered a hub of holiday homes for wealthy Israelis.

About 35 miles from Tel Aviv, it was seen by many commuters as too far for a bedroom community. Its real estate, much of it in the form of aging villas with swimming pools, often sat empty for months at a time before Covid-19 upended the real estate market.

Now, homes with views of Caesareas golf course are among the most rapidly appreciating in the nation, even for buyers who rarely pick up a club.

I do golf but only when Im on vacation, said Tomer Yariv, who purchased a home with views of the golf course and the sea for 11.5 million Israeli shekels (about $3.5 million) in November with his wife, Yamit. The couple, who both grew up in Haifa and spent two decades in the United States, returned to Israel in 2017 with their three children, now 14, 10 and 5.

All of Caesarea is beautiful, but around the golf course, its a little more impressive, he said. After 20 years in America, Caesarea was the place that fit us the best. It reminded me of America the size of the bedrooms, the pool in the backyard. Its clean and organized.

That may be because Caesarea is run by a private company rather than a municipality. Much of the land that is now Caesarea was purchased by Baron Edmond James de Rothschild in the late 1800s, and today, the Caesarea Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, operates the city on the familys behalf. (Citizens of Caesarea vote every four years for members of an elected committee that represents their interests.)

The golf course was built in 1961, and wasnt always considered a real estate asset. Caesarea is divided into 13 neighborhoods, or clusters, with three of them clusters 13, 11 and 9 offering a handful of homes with unobstructed views of the greens. Sales in the golf neighborhoods were sluggish said Miki Kleiger, chairman of the corporation, until 2009 the year that the Rothschild family invested 60 million shekels (about $18 million) in a renovation of the golf club, enlisting the American golf course architect Pete Dye to redesign the course.

After that, it really became a big attraction, and Cluster 13 became the most desirable, said Mr. Kleiger. Theres no doubt that the first line to the golf got a lot of help from the fact that the grass was expanded and theres now 1,000 additional dunams [247 acres] of green landscape.

Prices in Caesarea for golf-front property currently begin at about 10 million shekels ($3 million) per quarter-acre of land. In 2021, there were just over 100 homes sold in the city, not counting new construction, and one quarter of those sales went for above 15 million shekels ($4.5 million), while the rest were between 5 million and 10 million shekels, according to the corporation.

The architect Rina Doctor has designed more than 120 homes in Caesarea, including her own, a six-bedroom, modern, golf-front home with an infinity pool that she designed 12 years ago.

We dont play golf, but we love living here, because its like living in nature, she said. You have birds. You have jackals at night. Its very unique to live on the golf course. Ms. Doctor is now trying to sell her house. She plans to stay in Caesarea, but her new home will be in a different neighborhood.

Unfortunately, we cant afford a plot on the golf course anymore, because all the prices went up, she said. She hopes to get 16 million shekels ($4.97 million) for the property.

As prices have increased, so have the number of native Israelis living in Caesarea: While Caesarea was once heavily favored by foreign-born Jews purchasing vacation homes, Mr. Yarivs family is among dozens of new arrivals to the city who are shifting the demographic.

A lot of local Israelis are now coming to Caesarea, unlike in the past, when it was a lot of Jewish foreigners, and its been an amazing change, said Michael Karsenti, chief executive of the corporation. Many of them are upper-middle-class or upper class, theyve been successful in technology or real estate, and its been very interesting to see.

Despite the sharp jump in prices, Rena Roberman, a real estate agent who lives in Caesarea and works only within the city limits, said she thinks buyers are still getting bargains.

Caesarea, for a very long time, has actually been incredibly undervalued, she said, comparing it to other affluent waterfront communities in Israel like Herzliya and Beit Yanai.

Her husband, Eran Roberman, is a contractor who also works only in Caesarea, and he estimates that in the past five years, nearly 40 percent of the homes in the city have been torn down or renovated.

When I came to Caesarea 21 years ago, it was an amazing place, but it was a place of holiday homes that werent being lived in, he said. Now you have young people who are realizing they had a small apartment in Tel Aviv and they could sell that apartment and for what they got, they could get a whole house in Caesarea with a swimming pool.

But while the story of city millennials fleeing to greener pastures has played out across the globe throughout the pandemic, Caesareas story is a bit different, Ms. Roberman said. Thats because Caesareas golf course is more than a stretch of manicured grass in the middle of a city.

In Israel, a nation whose population is growing at four times the average rate of other developed nations, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Caesarea is an oasis of green that doesnt require moving to a kibbutz or cooperative farm. For homeowners looking for an option thats more pastoral and still allows them to commute to Tel Aviv, the golf course can become a backdrop for any number of lifestyles.

I call the houses that overlook the golf course like limited edition art pieces, Ms. Roberman said. If you buy a house thats two streets back, it could be anywhere. But to a buy house thats front row to the golf course in Israel, you can really only have one out of 65. Thats very special.

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In Israel, Its the Only Golf Game in Town, and the Country - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

Special forces from a number of nations are participating in the Orion 2022 exercise near Athens. Credit: Greek Reporter

Special forces units from Greece, the US, and Israel were among others participating in the Orion 22 exercise that kicked off on Thursday near Athens.

Personnel from the armed forces of Bulgaria, France, and Cyprus also participate in the drill. Representatives from Egypt, Austria, and Montenegro are observers.

The exercise which coincides with the Iniochos 2022 drill also taking place in Greece aims at assisting the interoperability of the forces in tasks such as the penetration into an enemy area with a free fall jump, artillery fire guidance, and sniper tactics.

It is really impressive to see the growth in the complexity of this Orion exercise, US Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt said referring to the execution of realistic and very demanding combat scenarios.

Greece has a unique ability to serve as a multiplier of stability in the East Mediterranean. The ability to reinforce and build flexibility in our alliance is more important than ever as we respond jointly to the threat represented by Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Pyatt added: It is impressive to see the way in which the Hellenic Armed Forces has been able to deepen its partnership with the US Special Forces, including the SEALS who also take part in the exercise.

A total of 1,900 personnel are involved in the exercises Iniochos 2022 and Orion 22 on Greek soil.

Air forces from nine countries, including the US, France, and Israel are currently taking part in the annual Iniochos exercise inGreece, simulating airstrikes, evading air defenses, and carrying out search and rescue ops.

In the exercise which began on March 28th and is scheduled to last through April 8th, air forces from Canada, Italy, Cyprus, Slovenia, and Austria are also participating.

Egypt, Albania, Austria, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom, India, Kuwait, Croatia, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia have sentobservers to the drill.

Pyatt expressed his pride in the fact that there was participation from so many different elements of the U.S. Armed Forces, including the F-15s from Lakenheath Air Base, the F-18s flying off the Harry Truman, and an MQ-9 flying from Sigonella in Italy.

Iniochos, which was first conducted in the late 1980s as a small-scale tactical-level exercise, has become an annual event in the Hellenic Armed Forces training schedule.

The drills take place while US and French naval forces, led by two aircraft carriers, have been deployed in the Aegean off Greece.

The USS Harry Truman has been conducting exercises in the northern Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea since the beginning of March, while the French ship Charles de Gaulle has moored at the port of Piraeus, south of Athens.

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Special Forces From Greece, US and Israel in Joint Exercise "Orion" - Greek Reporter

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Posted By admin on April 7, 2022

Captain Dan Hanley, whose antisemitism I exposed yesterday, has responded like most of the Jew-haters I encounter: cowardly denying what is patently obvious. But unfortunately for him, his response to my post itself does nothing to help his cause.

Why does he feel the need to mention I am a Jew? Why not just write A guy called David Lange? It seems pretty clear the fact I am Jewish is somehow a strike against me in Hanleys warped mind.

Also, if Hanley truly believes there is a difference between Jews and Zionism, we wouldnt be seeing him posting garbage like this:

I am pleased my post bothered him, that is precisely one of the reasons I take on these Jew-haters.

A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media

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Jew-Hater Captain Dan Hanley Digs Himself a Deeper Hole ...

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