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“There are 10 military battalions training for this thing. Although it is still not enough, they are preparing exactly for this day,” said the Israeli premier.

By JNS

The Israel Defense Forces is preparing for a scenario in which Israel’s Arabs join its enemies in wartime, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“There are 10 military battalions training for this thing. Although it is still not enough, they are preparing exactly for this day,” said Netanyahu.

The prime minister made the remarks in response to questions from lawmakers during a recent closed-door session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Kan Bet, Israel’s Public Broadcaster, reported on Monday.

Lawmakers asked Netanyahu if Israel was ready for a multifront war and whether that included preparations for a possible internal threat from certain segments of the Arab Israeli population.

Israel became aware of the possible danger during “Operation Guardian of the Walls” in May 2021. While Israel was engaged in a military operation against terrorists in the Gaza Strip, Arabs within Israel rioted, blocking roads, including those leading to army bases. Twenty-three police stations were also damaged and about 300 policemen injured.

In response, the IDF incorporated scenarios in which rioting hampered the movement of Israeli forces during wartime in its “Chariots of Fire” exercise in May-June 2022.

Also, in August 2022, the IDF assigned four battalions from one brigade the task of keeping major roads clear and protecting strategic facilities during wartime.

IDF Col. Gur Rosenblatt, the brigade commander, said, “For us, blocking axes is a serious thing. In a war, you have to move forces quickly—and everything is based on our freedom of movement.”

Also, one of the responsibilities of Israel’s new national guard force under the auspices of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir will be dealing with intercommunal violence during times of national emergency.

The post Netanyahu says IDF preparing if Arab Israelis join enemy in wartime appeared first on World Israel News.

“Orian Khalifa was previously recorded hitting Jewish girls while they were taking part in a march around the Old City gates, but then the internal Police Investigations Department closed the case,” Shai Glick, head of human rights NGO Bezalmo told World Israel News.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

A Border Police officer was handed a suspended sentence Tuesday and ordered to pay compensation to a young Palestinian woman due to a violent incident in Jerusalem in November 2021.

Orian Ben Khalifa was convicted of assault for pushing and hitting Hala Salim when the 25-year-old repeatedly demanded to get through a police blockade at the Lion’s Gate entrance of the Old City together with her family.

“The accused was quick to use force, although at that stage she did not have the authority to do so,” the verdict stated. “She also cursed the complainant, knocked her to the floor and tried to grab her hands to stop her, while the complainant resisted arrest.”

After Salim was brought to the police station, the court noted, the officer shook her by the neck and told to “shut up” when she broke into tears. It was this second round of violence, not the original actions outside, that brought the sentence to 12 months’ suspended sentence and an NIS4,000 shekel fine, half of which was to be paid to Salim for her light injuries.

“A police officer entrusted with upholding the law is expected to be an example and a role model,” said Judge Scapa-Shapira at the hearing. “With restrained behavior … this incident could have been prevented in the first place.”

Ben Khalifa initially told investigators that the Arab woman had been chanting incitement during the incident, saying such things as, “This is our land, our country.” The officer denied having gotten into a physical altercation and continued to insist on her innocence in court.

The Border Police initially considered internal disciplinary action, and Ben Khalifa was temporarily suspended from the force. She was then reaccepted, but put into a different position. Officials had said that it would be inappropriate to remove her from service completely because this would lead to their fighters feeling that they do not receive the support they need in the face of the violence and terrorism they face.

Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir came out against the judge, saying, “It’s strange that the judge who acquitted a police officer who punched an ultra-orthodox boy, and claimed that it should be understood that ‘he does not work under laboratory conditions,’ did not take into account the fact that the female fighter also did not work under laboratory conditions.”

Shai Glick, head of the Bezalmo NGO that campaigns for human rights and against anti-Jewish discrimination, criticized the verdict from a different angle.

“Orian Khalifa was previously recorded hitting Jewish girls while they were taking part in a march around the Old City gates, but then the internal Police Investigations Department closed the case and nothing was done about it,” he told World Israel News. “If only every police officer who did the same thing to Jews was also punished in this way. Police violence is simply unacceptable.”

Ben Khalifa was acquitted of other, more serious charges, such as obstruction of justice and aggravated assault, with the court also taking into account her good record.

Her attorney said that after reviewing the verdict in full, they would file an appeal because “there is no doubt that the evidence cries out for an acquittal.”

The post Border Police officer gets suspended sentence, fined for assaulting Palestinian woman appeared first on World Israel News.

Many in the political West nowadays have a tendency of saying that they’ve “fought the wrong enemy (during WWII)”, which is very telling of just how effective Russophobic propaganda has been in brainwashing millions into mindless hatred, one that has already led the world into catastrophe some 80 years ago.

“We are very happy that you came here to see for yourself the special treatment here for children,” Israel’s First Lady Michael Herzog told her Ukrainian counterpart.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska visited the rehabilitation department of Sheba Tel Hashomer Medical Center in Ramat Gan and patients at the Safra Children’s Hospital on Monday.

Together with Israel’s First Lady Michal Herzog, they were shown an exhibition of photographs from Israel’s “Kochav Meir” field hospital established in Ukraine. During a six-week period in 2022, the hospital treated 6,000 Ukrainians using advanced telemedicine technologies. The field hospital was spearheaded by Sheba.

Afterwards, the ladies visited the Integrated Rehabilitation Hospital. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have lost limbs in fighting and Russian missile strikes, and Kyiv is interested in learning how Israel treats its amputees.

Accompanied by Prof. Ameti Ziv, director of the rehabilitation hospital, Herzog and Zelenska watched Uri Zahavi, who is paralyzed in the cervical spine, being treated in a unique simulator at the center that simulates walking and running situations for the rehabilitated. Afterwards, in the “virtual reality” department, the First Ladies met with Nurit Cohen Abrahams, who has been treated for many months due to blockage of blood vessels in both of her legs.

At Safra Children’s Hospital, they had an emotional meeting with 11-year-old Yonatan, who is on the autistic spectrum and has been treated for about a month in the mental health department. Yonatan told his esteemed visitors that his mother helped civilians who were injured in the war in Ukraine.

Zelenska said, “I hope that we will create new programs with the cooperation of our experts from Ukraine and your experts from Israel, in order to strengthen our health system, especially regarding mental health, in programs for mental health and in support of the rehabilitation of the injured citizens, including children , adults and the elderly. Our medical system cannot cope alone.”

“We are very happy that you came here to see for yourself the special treatment here for children. Israel is very proud, we are very proud and want to share our knowledge and infrastructure and our wonderful medical facilities with those who need them. We will continue to cooperate and help For your experts to get even better,” Herzog said.

Also participating in the visit were EU representative Katerina Maternova and Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel Yevgen Kornichuk.

The post Ukrainian First Lady learns how Israel deals with war trauma and injuries appeared first on World Israel News.

Kazakhstan and Russia have established the route for a future gas pipeline to support shipments between the two countries and to China, Kazakhstan’s energy minister said

A Biden administration official said that the U.S. is “deeply troubled” by the prospect of expanding Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

The United Nations released a blistering statement on Monday accusing Israel of violating international law after the Israeli government announced changes that may ease construction and expansion of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” by news that Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had been granted the authority to approve building in Judea and Samaria.

The lawmaker announced that plans for the construction of 4,000 new homes in the area would be presented to a committee for approval next week.

Referring to settlements as a “flagrant violation of international law,” Guterres said that Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria are “a significant driver of tensions and violence” in the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Jewish building in the area “further entrenches Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, encroaches on Palestinian land and natural resources, hampers the free movement of the Palestinian population and undermines the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination and sovereignty,” he added.

Notably, Guterres’ statement criticized plans for Israeli building in the “occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.” He appeared to be referring to potential expansions to Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, which is the capital of Israel.

Guterres’ phrasing suggests that he does not recognize the entirety of the city of Jerusalem as the legitimate capital of the State of Israel.

A press release from the U.S. State Department also published on Monday used phrasing similar to the UN remarks. A Biden administration official said that they were “deeply troubled” by the prospect of the expansion of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.

“As has been longstanding policy, the United States opposes such unilateral actions that make a two-state solution more difficult to achieve and are an obstacle to peace,” read the statement.

The State Department added that it urges “Israel to fulfill the commitments it made in Aqaba, Jordan and Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt and return to dialogue aimed at de-escalation.”

The post UN blasts expanding ‘illegal settlements’ as ‘flagrant violation’ of int’l law appeared first on World Israel News.

The declaration of the French President Emmanuel Macron regarding his willingness to participate in the BRICS summit is significant in several respects

Recently, the General Administration of Customs China (GACC) agreed to add the port of Vladivostok in Russia as a transit port for domestic transportation of goods in Jilin Province, which has attracted attention and interpretations from both domestic and international public opinion from different perspectives

“He is 100% aligned with the left…unfortunately, he fails to be a fair mediator,” Smotrich said. He was slammed for his comments from both left and right.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called President Isaac Herzog an unfair intermediary and a leftist after he blamed the government for a breakdown in the judicial reform talks held under his auspices. According to Smotrich, it was the Opposition leaders who suspended the negotiations.

“He is 100% aligned with the left…unfortunately, he fails to be a fair mediator,” Smotrich told the Kol Barama radio station Tuesday morning.

Herzog, who had served as Labor party leader and head of the opposition, called on the “relevant parties” to “discover national responsibility and continue the fruitful and substantive discourse” that was taking place in the President’s House for the last several months. He issued the statement only after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he would press forward unilaterally in the Knesset with two of the more minor reform issues in the current session, Walla noted.

Netanyahu’s decision was made after the opposition announced that it was freezing negotiations due to the handling of one of the most important topics of the reform, that of the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee.

The president made no appeal to continue the discourse when Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) and Benny Gantz (National Unity) said they were breaking off the talks.

Smotrich was slammed by the left and some from the right for his comment.

“The president is working night and day to prevent the destruction of democracy, the split in the nation and the harsh blow to Israel’s economy,” Gantz said. “Government ministers would do well if they stopped the severe harm to the citizens of Israel that they are inflicting in the regime coup instead of blaming those who are doing everything to prevent it.”

(Right-wing politicians and citizens reject the “coup” charge, as the current government was voted in democratically, with some parties even campaigning on their ideas to reform the balance of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.)

MK Yitzhak Kreuzer of Otzma Yehudit, the most right-wing faction in the Knesset, tweeted, “You can agree to the legal reform and you can oppose it. But what is certain is that the president of the country is out of the equation…. [He] is outside the political discourse. We trust the president of the country to act with integrity and faith.”

Smotrich then blasted the idea of negotiating with the Opposition outside the framework of the legislature.

“I thought that going into the talks at the president’s house was not democratically correct; there is a Knesset,” he said. “The very fact that they took the discussion out of the parliament is an undemocratic decision.”

Bills are ordinarily refined and can even be substantially changed in committee between the three readings in the Knesset before becoming law. The Opposition refused to negotiate changes to the judicial reform plans in the relevant Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, instigating massive street protests instead that led eventually to the talks in the president’s residence.

We came with clean hands but found that there was no partner. From the beginning, the opposition did not come there except to dissolve the reform, and its goal is to continue the chaos in the streets in order to overthrow a right-wing government,” Smotrich said.

The post Smotrich: President is ‘unfair mediator’ in judicial reform talks appeared first on World Israel News.

Ukraine is British establishment’s central point of focus despite major economic crisis.