The Islamic Shiite Waqf Committee in Burj al Barajneh foundation is suspected of being used to hide ballistic missiles and launch sites, according to the Alma research organization.

By: Yaakov Lappin

A new report has shed light on Hezbollah’s systematic use of civilian infrastructure to shield its missile storage and launch sites in Lebanon.

The report, produced by the Israeli Alma Research and Education Center for geopolitical affairs, highlights a social charity called the Islamic Shiite Waqf Committee in Burj al Barajneh foundation that has been cynically used by Hezbollah to store an array of medium-range Fateh 110 missiles in close proximity to sites such a high school in Beirut.

“This is a continuation of a report that we published in July 2020, which exposed 28 Fateh 110 missile sites in greater Beirut,” Maj. (res.) Tal Beeri, who directs Alma’s research department, told JNS.

“Following our publication, we continued extracting data from the information collected while discovering and uncovering new information. Within this framework, we acted to uncover the identities of the landowners and building owners [where] the Hezbollah sites are located,” he stated.

That research led Alma to the Shiite Waqf Committee in Burj el-Barajneh, a social charity that has been active for 25 years and recognized as a supporter of Hezbollah.

Alma was able to pinpoint seven compounds related to the foundation: its main compound (which includes offices, a conference hall and a religious gathering place) and six school compounds, some of which are suspected of being used to store missiles intended for future use against Israel.

It didn’t take long for the charity to emerge as the common denominator between the sites found to be storing missiles, said Beeri. Alma’s July report highlighted two compounds—a sports center and an education center—belonging to the charity.

Following that lead, “We said, OK, if we are talking about compounds that we know have Hezbollah launch sites, let’s search for more sites belonging to this charity that can be used by Hezbollah as missile sites with ‘civilian envelopes,’ ” said Beeri, describing the research process. “We know that this is how they work.”

The use of civilian associations for, among other objectives, human shielding, is a core pattern of Hezbollah, seen in past cases such as its use of the “Green Without Borders” environmental group used as a cover for activity on the Lebanese-Israeli border, as well as using a civilian demining organization for cover.

“We also know that the Islamic Health Organization that deals with medical affairs throughout the Shi’ite community in southern Lebanon also smuggled weapons and operatives in ambulances during emergencies,” noted Beeri.

Based on this familiar pattern, Alma searched Beirut for additional Islamic Shiite Waqf Committee in Burj al Barajneh compounds, finding seven structures that are suspected to have been used for missile-attack uses.

“One is the charity’s central branch. We also found six educational facilities. We cross-referenced these with places we know to be launch sites and found that four of these sites are used as launch sites,” explained Beeri, who spent 20 years as an intelligence officer in the Israel Defense Forces specializing in Lebanon and Syria.

“We know with certainty that launch sites always appear near missile storage centers,” he added. “This enables rapid deployment-and-fire for Hezbollah.”

“Hence, this leads us to a very high degree of confidence in assessing that at least some of the charity’s structures are being used to hide Fateh 110-missiles in Beirut. These sites include launch sites and very likely storage centers near the launch sites. It is a case of classic human shielding,” said Beeri.

‘You only need one’

The Fateh 110 lies at the heart of Hezbollah’s ambitions to convert unguided projectiles into guided missiles. With a range of 300 kilometers, it can place most of Israel in its sights, said Beeri.

It is produced in Syrian weapons plants under Iranian auspices and in Iranian missile factories. The Syrian equivalent of the missile is known as the M600.

In recent years, Iran and Hezbollah have been attempting to set up industrial precision-guided missile factories on Lebanese soil, said Beeri.

“According to estimates, they still have ‘only’ tens of precise missiles. But you only need one to hit the IDF Central Headquarters in Tel Aviv to achieve a victory picture,” he cautioned.

Civilian populations ‘live among the targets’

In a recent speech, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi warned that terror armies located on Israel’s borders—made up of tens of thousands of combatants—are armed with industrial weapons. “They aim, openly and declaratively, their fire at Israeli civilians,” he warned. “The threat of rockets and missiles is the most significant. The scope has grown; the warheads have grown. They are trying to improve the accuracy. This issue reached significant dimensions.”

“Who would have thought that terror organizations—what we today call terror armies—would be armed with precise missiles, or cruise missiles, or cyber capabilities, or electronic warfare? The technology changed the world,” he said. “When it is available, it is also available to radical Islam and fundamentalism. When they meet, the result is a challenge.”

The chief of staff called for a paradigm shift to tackle these threats, both in Israel and the world, saying “the change in the battlefield is really deep. The enemy chose to locate itself, including its rockets and missiles, in urban areas. It deliberately ignores international law. It intends to fire all of this at Metula, Afula, Haifa and greater Tel Aviv. It is distributed in villages in southern Lebanon and Beirut. Hence, it is a must that we—the IDF, Israel and the international community—adapt ourselves to ways we must and are entitled to fight.”

While civilians would be given a chance to evacuate, the IDF will afterwards strike such targets, he said.

Civilian populations “live among the targets,” cautioned Kochavi. “They live on the battlefield. Every fifth home in Lebanon is a missile storage base or an anti-tank position or a command post.”

Referring to these warnings, Beeri noted that Kochavi identified these structures as military targets that must be struck in a future war to prevent harm to Israeli civilians.

“Hezbollah’s human shielding doctrine is well known, but each time we are surprised anew when we discover new ways that it does this. The way they use charities to serve their military activities,” said Beeri.

“Without a civilian infrastructure, Hezbollah’s military capabilities can’t live. We are peeling this layer by layer—every time we peel, we discover more.”

  (www.JNS.org)

Massive $9 billion purchase includes fighter jets, helicopters, refueling aircraft and ordnance.

By Paul Shindman

Israel’s cabinet approved a massive $9 billion purchase that will see the Israel Air Force equip itself with new aerial refueling planes and transport helicopters to replace the existing aging inventory, Ynet reported Monday.

The strategic acquisition comes out of the $38 billion military aid package signed by the Obama administration that covers the decade between 2018 and 2028. About $30 billion have already been realized with some of that covering procurement debts dating back to 2014. The new equipment will go over that budget by at least $1 billion.

The approval has been two years in the making owing to the three previous Israeli elections that continuously delayed a decision, However, with additional interest payments of at least 200 million shekels ($61 million) starting to accrue, the cabinet took the decision even though it was opposed by the Finance Ministry as the transaction will require the government taking out a $2.4 billion loan to cover the long-term interest and additional costs, the report said.

Finance Ministry officials fear that if a future U.S. administration does not renew the $3.8 billion-a-year in security assistance contract that expires in 2028, Israel would have to bridge the financial gaps of future purchases that could amount to billions of dollars in excess of the state budget. Israel’s cabinet, however, went ahead and approved the proposed procurement.

The move comes amid increasing worries about replacing Israel’s aging transport helicopter and air refueling aircraft. The first of up to six new Boeing KC-46 state-of-the-art giant tankers for mid-air refueling is expected to arrive by 2025.

The deal includes the purchase of additional F-35 and F-15 fighter squadrons as well as thousands of bombs and missiles, but it is not clear which model of helicopter will be acquired. The Sikorsky Super Stallion, the latest version of the CH-53, would require less training for the transition.

At least 20 new choppers are needed to replace the existing Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters that date back as far as the 1960s.

The director general of the Ministry of Defense, Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel, who is a former head of the air force, warned three months ago that continuing flights in the aging CH-53, designated the “Yasur” by Israel, could endanger the forces as their service life extensions have already exceeded the standards.

            (World Israel News)

Read more at: www.worldisraelnews.com

British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert says Iran tried “to use me as a hostage in a diabolical plot to lure my husband.”

By: WIN Staff

A British-Australian academic who was freed after more than two years in an Iranian jail said she was used as bait to try and lure her Israeli husband to Iran, the Daily Mail reported Sunday.

Dr. Kylie Moore-Gilbert, an Islamic Studies scholar, was arrested in 2018 and held in solitary confinement in prison until being freed last November in a prisoner exchange for Iranians jailed in Thailand on terrorism charges for attacks against Israeli targets in Bangkok.

Moore-Gilbert revealed that she was subjected to psychological torture while in prison as the Iranian jailers attempted to force her to help lure her husband, Ruslan Hodorov, to Iran.

Moore-Gilbert met her husband over 10 years ago when she was traveling in the Middle East, where she had become entranced by the cultures and languages. Hodorov had moved to Israel from Russia with his family and he followed her back to Australia, where she gained an advanced degree in Islamic Studies, the report said.

The couple married a few months before she left their Melbourne home on her study trip to Iran, where she was arrested on charges of spying and held in a small jail cell in freezing temperatures at the nefarious Evin Prison. The spying charges were apparently laid because of her relationship with an Israeli citizen, whom the Iranians also said was a spy.

Moore-Gilbert managed to smuggle a letter out of prison that made its way to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in which she detailed how the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to set a trap for her husband.

She said she repeatedly had to defend him to the Iranians, who said he was an Israeli spy.

“The Revolutionary Guard have imprisoned me in these terrible conditions for over nine months in order to extort me both personally and my government,” Moore-Gilbert wrote Morrison.

“They have also attempted to use me as a hostage in a diabolical plot to lure my husband, an Australian permanent resident (and soon to be new citizen) into joining me in an Iranian prison,” she wrote.

Tragically, after finally being freed in the prisoner swap, Moore-Gilbert returned to Australia to discover Hodorov was having an affair with her university colleague, also an expert in the Middle East. She has since split from him and is seeking a divorce, the Australian Herald Sun newspaper reported on the weekend.

            (World Israel News)

Read more at: www.worldisraelnews.com

Secretary of State dodges question when asked if Biden administration recognizes Israeli sovereignty, calling it a “legal question.”

By: Paul Shindman

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that while the Golan Heights “is very important to Israel’s security,” the Biden administration considered the issue a “legal question” that was not currently on their agenda.

In an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Blinken dodged a direct answer as to whether the Biden administration would continue to see the strategic plateau as part of Israel after President Donald Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the area that was captured from Syria in 1967.

The vague response by the secretary of state which could be perceived as a retreat from the Trump administration’s clear-cut recognition of Israel sovereignty drew a swift response from the Israeli prime minister’s office.

“Israel’s position is clear. In any future possible scenario the Golan will remain Israeli,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesman said, according to The Jerusalem Post.

Blinken admitted that the Golan was critical to Israel’s strategic position. “Look, leaving aside the legalities of that question, as a practical matter, the Golan is very important to Israel’s security,” he said.

“As long as Assad is in power in Syria, as long as Iran is present in Syria, militia groups backed by Iran, the Assad regime itself – all of these pose a significant security threat to Israel, and as a practical matter, the control of the Golan in that situation I think remains of real importance to Israel’s security.”

However, Blinken suggested the legal issue of Israeli sovereignty was still open for debate despite Trump’s recognition. “Legal questions are something else. And over time, if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we’d look at. But we are nowhere near as that,” Blinken said.

About 50,000 people live on the Golan Heights, split roughly evenly between Jews and Druze. Captured from Syria during the Six Day War, the Heights were the scene of fierce battles during the 1973 Yom Kippur war. By an act of parliament, Israel applied its laws to the area in 1981, effectively annexing the territory.

With Syria collapsing in the face of the decade-long civil war there, Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the territory in March 2019.

While that decision was quickly condemned by Arab states, the promised opposition in the ‘Arab street’ never materialized, just as it hadn’t when the U.S. moved its embassy to Jerusalem.

A year later, Trump presided over the signing of the Abraham Accords that by the end of his administration had led to four Arab countries – the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco – establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.

(World Israel News)

Read more at: www.worldisraelnews.com

By: Aryeh Savir

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) Base at Nevatim was the scene of hours of tense drama after a Bedouin bandit drove with a stolen car through the front gate and disappeared.

The incident began when the police gave chase to a car stolen from the city of Dimona by a Bedouin car thief. During the police chase, the driver arrived at the Nevatim Base and drove through the gate at high speed. The vehicle was stopped by the spikes on the road and the driver fled the car, sending the base’s security searching for him.

The search for the suspect, which took hours, involved helicopters, trackers and the IAF’s elite Shaldag commando unit that was deployed to spearhead the searches.

Soldiers stationed on the base were confined to their quarters.

The IDF stated that the base’s “assets” were guarded. “There is no danger to the base’s servants and security facilities,” it stated.

These assets including the advanced F-35 stealth fighter and other important IAF aircraft.

The many forces finally located a point on the perimeter fence where the suspect climbed two barbed wire fences and a fence about five meters high and left the base.

“The event will be investigated and the necessary lessons will be learned from it,” the IDF stated.

Security experts noted that the incident was a farce and a failure on the part of the specially trained base security and someone was bound to pay for this travesty.

Earlier Monday, tens of thousands of bullets were stolen from the Sde Teiman IDF base in the south, presumably by Bedouin illegal arms dealers. Dozens of assault rifles were previously stolen from this base.

The Regavim Movement, which has previously warned against the country’s loss of control over the Bedouin in the south, stated after the incident that “if you ignore a problem when it’s small, you’ll have to deal with it eventually – and by then it may have grown beyond control.”

Regavim noted that in the last two weeks alone, the Negev has seen “horrific and varied forms of criminal behavior,” including the shocking sexual assault of a little girl in her home, the break-in at the Israel Air Force base at Sde Teiman that included a stun grenade attack on IDF soldiers, a string of robberies in Be’er Sheva that were documented by security cameras, a massive ammunition heist, and now, a break-in at the Nevatim base, where Israel’s top-secret aeronautical technology is housed.

“The State of Israel must draw the line, and formulate a comprehensive, all-encompassing and non-negotiable solution to the problem of Bedouin crime in the Negev,” Regavim said.

  (TPS)

By: Aryeh Savir

Israel launched the “Brothers in Arms” Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination campaign for all the foreign diplomats in the country, becoming the first country in the world to vaccinate its diplomatic community.

Hundreds of members of the diplomatic staff and their families stationed in Israel were vaccinated on Monday at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.

Representatives from Ukraine, Ghana, Turkey, Taiwan, the United States, Italy, Spain, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Vietnam, Congo, and Guatemala, received the first Pfizer-developed shot, some ahead of their countrymen.

They thanked Israel for the opportunity to receive the vaccine, including diplomats in whose country the vaccine has not yet arrived.

“This is amazing,” said Benjamin Hong, Taiwan’s consul in Israel. “Israel is the leading country with the highest percentage of vaccinated people. We thank the State of Israel and the hospital for the opportunity to receive the vaccine and for the assistance to all diplomats stationed in Israel. ”

The extensive vaccination campaign, which continued on Tuesday, is conducted by the staff of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in cooperation with the Ministries of Health and Foreign Affairs, in parallel with the hospital’s internal vaccination program, in which most hospital staff were vaccinated.

“We were happy and proud to see representatives from different countries around the world here this morning, all of whom came to be treated by the professional and dedicated Hadassah team,” said Hadassah CEO Prof. Zeev Rothstein.

Over 3,512,200 Israelis have received the first dose of the Pfizer-developed COVID-19 vaccine, some 37.8% of the population.

The University of Oxford’s Our World in Data tracker, a global, aggregated database on COVID-19, showed on Tuesday Israel was the second-fastest country in vaccinating its population.

On a scale of the number of COVID-19 vaccination doses administered per 100 people within a given population, Israel came in second with 1.11, right behind the United Arab Emirates with 1.42, and ahead of the United Kingdom with 0.64.

            (TPS)

By: Aryeh Savir

Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin announced Sunday night that Raja Za’atara, spokesman of the Arab Hadash party, who assaulted Adv. Itamar Ben Gvir, a candidate of the Religious Zionist list for the Knesset, was banned from the Knesset by a decision of the Knesset guard until further notice.

In the incident that occurred Thursday, Za’atara is seen hounding Ben Gvir and then physically blocking him.

In a statement sent by Levin to B’Tsalmo’s CEO Shai Glick, who filed the complaint with the Knesset Speaker against Za’atara, and to Ben Gvir, he wrote that “as soon as I learned of the incident, I asked the Knesset officer, Superintendent Yossi Griff, to act as soon as possible to examine the case and pass on to me the results of the examination and his recommendations. In this regard, the Knesset officer was asked to deal with the matter with the required firmness and to consider filing a formal complaint with the Israel Police.”

“I will also note that in view of the seriousness of the incident, the Knesset officer decided that until the end of the investigation, Mr. Za’atara’s entry into the Knesset building will be prevented,” he said.

He added that “I have made an exception and instructed to enable the Israel Police to watch the Knesset security camera footage so that it will have all the tools at its disposal for a quick and comprehensive treatment of this incident.”

Ben Gvir welcomed “the important decision to remove the terrorism supporter the BDS man Za’atara from the Knesset” and expressed hope that “the full extent of the law will be exhausted.”

Za’atra was one of the organizers of the BDS’ “Israeli Apartheid Week” in the Israeli Arab city of Nazareth in 2013.

“In the next Knesset, we will work to ensure that not only Zaatara will not be in the Knesset, but all fans and embracers of the terrorists from the Joint List,” Ben Gvir added.

Several members of the Arab-majority Joint List have been embroiled in controversies over their glorification of terrorism and support of boycotts on the Jewish state.

Ben Gvir, a known right-wing activist, is a candidate on the Religious Zionist list, and the latest polls show that he will serve in the upcoming Knesset.

Some elements in the Knesset consider him an extremist who should be boycotted.

            (TPS)

By: Aryeh Savir

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared in the Jerusalem District Court on Monday to face charges against him in Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, alleging bribery, breach of trust, and fraud.

Netanyahu, who left the court after a short session, pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The hearing began with an oral statement from each of the defendants, Netanyahu, the Elovitch couple and Arnon Mozes, on how they responded to the charges against them, following the written answers their lawyers sent to the court last month.

Due to the Coronavirus constraints, the hearing took place in the new and larger courtroom. The number of representatives of each defendant was limited, the journalists sat in another room while what happened in the courtroom was broadcast to them on CCTV.

Netanyahu asked his supporters not to arrive at the court and not to congregate. A small group of anti-Netanyahu protestors staged a demonstration near the court.

The first case, Case 1000, involves expensive gifts that Netanyahu allegedly received from wealthy supporters, particularly from Israeli-born movie producer Arnon Milchan, possibly in return for favors.

Case 2000 alleges bribery between Netanyahu and Yedioth Aharonoth owner Arnon Mozes. Netanyahu supposedly offered to use his power to hinder the influence of Yedioth’s main rival, Israel Hayom, through legislation that would minimize Israel Hayom’s distribution, in return for Yedioth’s reduction of negative coverage of Netanyahu.

Case 4000 alleges that Shaul Elovitch, former owner of Israeli telecommunications giant Bezeq and of the Walla! news portal, pressured his CEO, Ilan Yeshua, to arrange positive coverage of Netanyahu on Walla! in exchange for the prime minister advancing regulations that would benefit Elovitch. The regulatory benefits were worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Bezeq, of which Elovitch was a major shareholder at the time.

The trial is expected to last for years.

Netanyahu, the first sitting prime minister in Israel’s history to be tried, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and his supporters have called the allegations a witch hunt by a “hostile media” against him and his family and have accused the judicial system of attempting to unseat a prime minister in an undemocratic process.

(TPS)

By: Benjamin Brown

When Israel began on Thursday vaccinating citizens over the age of 16, the state’s vaccination program once again made international headlines. While several European states have been halted in their vaccine endeavors by limited access to vaccines – and programs in many states around the world have not yet begun – Israel has thus far administered nearly 5.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, as data by the University of Oxford’s ‘Our World in Data’ tracker showed on Saturday.

With the Israeli vaccination rollout capturing worldwide attention, debates have arisen abroad as to why Israel’s vaccine program has thus far been so successful.

In political discussion across the European Union (EU), Israel has frequently been cited as an example of how an effective and efficient national vaccination effort can play out. The success of Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States in their respective vaccination pushes have seen Europeans in many EU member states criticize their politicians.

Germany’s ‘BILD’, Europe’s best-selling newspaper, has repeatedly referenced Israel’s success in its criticism of the European Union’s approach to purchasing and – on a national level – administering vaccinations.

In January, Christine Kensche, the Israel correspondent of Germany’s WELT newspaper, took to Twitter to voice her frustration over the German vaccination program. “My grandmother died today. She got COVID in a hospital in Germany. She was 91 and not even close to [being] vaccinated. I’m 38 and [getting] my first shot now. I live in Israel,” Kensche wrote, adding that “one thing is not having enough vaccines. The other is this grotesque failure in distributing it effectively.”

‘A crisis-tested nation’

And yet, politicians in the European Union have repeatedly attempted to explain that Israel is too unique a case to compare member states’ approach to vaccinations.

A senior politician in the European Parliament told TPS on condition of anonymity that as a “crisis-tested” nation, Israel had “mechanisms in place to respond swiftly to crises.” Referencing Israel’s digitalized health system, the member of the European Parliament argued that “Europeans would be unlikely to accept [such a system] due to concerns over data protection.”

Upon closer inspection, however, Israel’s success in acquiring vaccines and its efficient distribution need not necessarily be rooted in the Jewish state’s experience of crises. While Israel succeeded in acquiring the required number of vaccines early, its health system has been pivotal in ensuring Israelis are receiving their COVID-19 vaccinations faster than citizens of any other state worldwide.

Israel’s health system is digitalized, with data shared on a national level, ensuring maximum efficiency in arranging appointments for vaccinations, administering them, and following up on recipients to ensure they return for their second jab.

Israel has four national health insurance providers who run individual clinics, yet share data among one another and with the centralized government-run national system. In addition, medical staff has been vaccinating patients seven days a week, including on Shabbat.

While the structures for a swift vaccination program is in place, Israel’s success has also largely been credited to its pragmatic “organized chaos” approach, in which random members of the public have been invited to receive their necessary injections when vaccines are approaching the date by which they need to be used.

Digital systems and ‘organized chaos’

This unbureaucratic approach was epitomized by the case of an Israeli pizza delivery person reported by Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal: Approaching the end of a vaccination shift and with limited numbers of vaccines remaining, doctors summoned an individual delivering pizzas to an adjacent building and vaccinated him.

While such unbureaucratic examples are an exception in the well-orchestrated vaccine program, they show how Israel has prioritized making use of its vaccinations – in very pragmatic ways if necessary. While European states will likely find it too late to mirror Israel’s acquisition of vaccines – a process that reportedly involved an agreement with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer over data-sharing of the efficacy of its vaccinations in what amounts to a real-life laboratory – the health system can inspire other states on how to reorganize their vaccination programs.

Inspiration for Europe

Digitalizing health insurance providers and hospitals can undoubtedly pave the way for a more effective vaccine distribution. The lessons from Israel, however, are not limited to the current pandemic. As the swift vaccine rollout in Israel has shown, digitalized health systems can help respond more efficiently to crises. Combined with a sometimes unbureaucratic, pragmatic approach to minimizing wasting of resources, European officials and politicians would be well advised to carefully study Israel’s vaccine rollout to modernize their respective systems and ensure successful responses to future health crises.

Israel, meanwhile, is continuing its record-breaking vaccination program. By March 20th, the Ministry of Health expects 5.2 million Israelis to have received their second dose of the vaccine.

            (TPS)

By: VIN News

For her 104th birthday, in August of 2019, Shoshana (Reizel) Ovitz had a special dream. The Auschwitz survivor, who had seen Josef Mengele send her mother to her death, wished to gather all of her over 400 descendants at the Kotel Maaravi, the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

After the Holocaust, Ovitz, who was already over 30 years old, married Dov, a survivor who had lost a wife and four daughters in the Holocaust. They settled in Haifa where she had four children and worked as a seamstress, at the same time assisting her husband in his poultry store. The family lived in Shikun Vizhnitz and were affiliated with the Saret-Vizhnitz rebbe in Haifa.

Shoshana Ovitz not only survived the Holocaust, she thrived and prospered after the war, helping to rebuild the Jewish people by starting a family whose branches have reached far and wide, according to an August 2019 report on the United With Israel web site.

Ovitz’s wish was fulfilled as the family all gathered including children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren. She went up to the balcony overlooking the Western Wall to survey her entire family. The children all said Tehillim together and then came to receive a blessing from their illustrious ancestor.

It is fortunate that Ovitz gathered her family for her 104th birthday in August 2019, since in 2020 such a gathering would have presented a serious challenge with the COVID-19 lockdowns.

UWI reported that Israeli journalist Sivan Rahav Meir relayed the following account on Twitter from one of Ovitz’s grandchildren on the day of the celebration, “My grandmother, Shoshana Ovitz, survived Auschwitz. In front of her eyes Dr. Mengele took her mother. After the war, she met her husband Dov, who lost his wife and children in the camps. They got married and went to Haifa. She worked as a seamstress and helped him run the store. Now, as her 104th birthday is celebrated, she asked for a gift: that all the offspring come together at the Western Wall.”

Ovitz passed away Monday at the age of 105, attributing her long life to the way in which she honored her parents before and during the Holocaust. It is appropriate that she passed away the week after the reading of “Honor Your father and mother in order that your days be lengthened.”

(VIN)

By: Aryeh Savir

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday by telephone with Russian President Vladimir Putin and discussed coordination on regional issues.

The two leaders discussed “regional issues and the continued coordination between Israel and Russia regarding security developments in the region,” Netanyahu’s office stated.

The Kremlin stated that the two “continued to exchange views on topical issues on the international and regional agendas, primarily in the context of the current developments in the Middle East.”

However, the conversation between the two took place a day after reports emerged from Syria that Russian forces were searching for the remains of IDF soldiers near Damascus.

Russian troops were reportedly digging up graves in the Yarmouk cemetery near a Palestinian refugee camp outside Damascus, in attempts to locate the remains of two Israeli soldiers who went missing during the tank battle of Sultan Yacoub in Lebanon during the First Lebanon War in 1982.

The remains of Zachary Baumel were recovered at the Yarmouk cemetery and returned to Israel, through Russia, in April 2019.

At the time, Netanyahu thanked Russian Putin and his country for assisting in the recovery and the return of the remains of IDF MIA Sgt. Zachary Baumel.

Netanyahu told Putin that he “expressed the supreme value” that the Russian people attribute to finding missing soldiers and bringing them for a proper burial. “This is a shared value by all of this,” he said.

Lauding the bonds between Jerusalem and Moscow, Netanyahu underscored that Baumel’s return “exemplifies and expressed the great shared values which unite our two nations.”

Netanyahu received some of Baumel’s personal belongings, including his tank jumpsuit and boots, at a special ceremony at the Russian Defense Ministry.

IDF soldiers Tzvi Feldman and Yehuda Katz, who likewise went missing in the Sultan Yacoub battle, are still unaccounted for.

Netanyahu and Putin maintain a unique relationship and have met and spoken by phone several times during the past years to coordinate activities in Syria, where Russia has deployed significant forces and still backs Syrian President Basher al-Assad’s regime.

The IDF and the Russian army in Syria maintain a line of communication to prevent clashes between the two militaries. Israel warns Russian troops of a pending strike in Syria if they are in the vicinity of the attack.

Jerusalem is interested in Moscow curbing Iran’s operations in the country, as it has significant sway on the goings-on in the war-torn country.

(TPS)

By: Baruch Yedid

“We intend to make a series of amendments to the Paris agreements, including the issue of customs,” a senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official who was a member of the negotiating team drafting the Paris agreements told TPS.

According to him, the PA intends to make amendments to the customs and tax arrangements, re-edit the import and export quotas and bring about a different method of collecting the taxes that Israel collects on behalf of the PA.

The 1994 Paris Accords dictate the economic relations between Israel and the PA.

The senior official says that “since the signing of the eight economic agreements known as the Paris Agreements, as an annex to the Oslo Accords in 1994, there have been severe restrictions on the Palestinian economy and the need to update the agreements time and time again to encourage the PA’s economy.”

In addition, the fact that the joint economic committee for Israel and the PA has not been operating regularly for years also raises the need to amend the agreements.

He further says that the PA is working with European countries to ensure that Israel stops deducting from the tax money it collects for the Palestinians and to correct the rate of fees charged by Israel for collecting the tax money in its territories.

There are fears in the PA that the opening of the agreements will lead Israel to a series of counter-measures that will stifle the PA’s economy, and it should be noted that Israel sees the Paris Protocols as a condition for allowing Palestinian workers to continue working in its territory.

The Paris Protocols was supposed to be valid for five years, but it is still valid today, 25 years after its signing.

The protocol stated that the New Shekel is the legal currency in the PA and the only means of payment and that the PA is not allowed to establish an independent currency.

The agreements also stipulate restrictions on goods that are under Israeli supervision and that Palestinian trade takes place through Israeli seaports, Israeli airports, or border crossings between the PA and Jordan and Egypt.

In this context, it should be noted that the recent PA governments have worked for economic disengagement from Israel and, among other things, have examined the establishment of an independent Palestinian currency, the import of fuels from Iraq to the port of Aqaba in Jordan and other economic agreements.

(TPS)