By Benyamin Davidsons

In Israel, 2020 ushered in much more than just cheer. A brutal storm in Tel Aviv ushered in severe flooding. The storm smashed down more than 20 percent of the city’s average annual precipitation in the course of just three hours, breaking the rainfall record without delivering any of the benefits. Low-lying roads, including some major roads, were totally inaccessible due to flooding trapping residents and motorists. As reported by Haaretz, on Saturday, two adults drowned in a parking lot elevator in Central Tel Aviv after it short circuited in the flooded basement. On Sunday, another two people were killed in the north when their cars were carried away by flooding streams.

More than 3.5 inches of rain pounded down on the Tel Aviv on Saturday, mostly between 11 A.M. and 1 P.M, with 4 more inches on Sunday, as per the municipality. Tel Aviv is expecting more storms beginning on Tuesday, which are slated to continue all week long.

Sure, the weather forecasts had predicted a storm and warned residents to stay away from riverbeds, but no one could have expected anything quite so intense. The municipality cannot reasonably be held responsible for not doing more. Short of investing massive amounts of valuable taxpayer funds to develop a totally new drainage system, there was not much that could have been done. This kind of storm is a very rare event in Tel Aviv, with some forecasters saying the freak storms have occurred up to once every 10 years in recent decades.

The storm was also unpredictable, in that no one could know where it would hit. As per Haaretz, just 30 miles away in Hadera, they got very little rain. Neighboring Be’er Sheva barely got much rain at all. Furthermore, short term weather forecasts have become increasingly unreliable. Israelis have been inundated with frequent flood warnings and requests to avoid riverbeds which end up being false alarms. The “once every 50-year storms” seem to be coming by every 10 years, and even more. In 2013, the Ayalon, the famous highway cutting through Tel Aviv, was transformed into a river because of a “once-in-100-year storm.” But the very next year it was repeated, and then again in 2018.

Climate change and global warming are being named the culprits of the chaotic atmospheric fluctuations and unpredictability. Heatwaves, wildfires, drought, and storms are all symptoms being faced across the globe. “Based on extensive scientific evidence, it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. There is no alterative explanation supported by convincing evidence,” reads a 2019 statement by the American Geophysical Union. Most climate scientists agree.

By: Aryeh Savir

A car accident that occurred in Jerusalem in March in which two people were injured was, in fact, a terrorist attack, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) revealed Sunday.

On March 27, police were alerted to an intersection in Jerusalem following a report of a vehicle that struck two people. Police forces that arrived at the scene opened an investigation and gathered evidence that led to the identification and arrest of two suspects. They were released after a short investigation.

The police say they investigated the terrorism angle while examining other options as well.

Following information received from the Shin Bet, the police recently rearrested the two suspects, Arabs aged 19 and 26 from eastern Jerusalem, and charged them for committing a combined vehicular and stabbing attack.

The prosecutor’s office on Sunday filed a declaration and their remand was extended until the weekend.

“Once again, a joint investigation by the Israel Police with the Shin Bet led to the arrest of suspects in the execution of an act of terrorism, whose sole intent was on harming innocent civilians,” the police stated.

Botched Investigation?

However, a rights group accused the police of disregarding their warnings that the incident was an attack and not a car accident, which almost enabled the terrorists to evade justice.

The Honenu human rights organization, which represented the two victims, stated Sunday that they had warned the police “from the first moment” that the incident was an attack.

They presented the police with evidence and witnesses but the police refused to accept the evidence, released the detainees and even closed the case.

Honenu said it corresponded with the police and with Minister of Internal Security Gilad Erdan and repeatedly warned that the incident was a terrorist attack and that the perpetrators were free.

Advocate Haim Blicher, from Honenu’s Crime Victims Department who represented the victims, stated that “we are happy that the terrorists were eventually caught. However, it should be kept in mind that this is a huge failure, when two terrorists were released immediately after the attack, despite our repeated appeals.”

He further noted that even after the presentation of the witnesses and evidence, the police interrogated only one witness “in a forced investigation that was not an attempt to seek the truth.”

He said there were several other similar cases of failed investigation and called on Defense Minister Naftali Bennet and Erdan to learn “the lesson from this case, and no longer allow terrorists to walk around freely while evading the law and continuing to endanger the lives of Israeli citizens.”

(TPS)

By: Arye Green

The global trade war continues to escalate as a free trade area agreement between the State of Israel and the Republic of Panama went into effect over the weekend, lowering tariffs for importers in both countries in a variety of fields.

The agreement was signed by the Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Eli Cohen and Panama’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Augusto Moreno in May.

The agreement will give the two countries preferential conditions for the export of products and lower barriers to mutual trade, and is intended to facilitate a positive environment for trade and investment between the two countries, and promote economic development and cooperation.

Under the agreement, tariffs on imports into Israel will be lowered by 10% in various fields such as chemicals, fruits and vegetables and processed food.

Israeli exporters will enjoy a similar decrease in tariffs on chemicals, vehicles and medical supplies, and a 15% decrease in fruits and vegetables, fish and processed food.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), in 2018, bilateral trade between the countries totaled approximately $ 19 million.

Israeli exported to Panama a total of $ 17.3 million worth of goods and services, mainly in the fields of machinery, metals, optics and chemicals. Panama exported about $ 1.8 million worth of goods and services consisting mainly of agricultural goods, food and machinery.

Minister of Economy and Industry Cohen said that his ministry is focusing especially on developing economies, such as that of Panama, due to their exceptional potential growth.

“The Ministry of Economy and Industry, through the Foreign Trade Administration, continues to strengthen Israel’s economic ties with the countries of the world, with emphasis on developing economies with great potential for growth. This is a significant strengthening of Israel’s foothold in Latin America, which is in line with the Ministry of Economy and Industry’s policy of opening new options to Israeli industry while providing a competitive advantage to Israeli manufacturers,” he said.

Israeli exports increased by almost 70% in the past decade, and 2019 will break another record in Israeli export which is expected to reach $114 billion, an increase of 4.5% compared to the previous year’s figures, according to a recent report by Israel’s Foreign Trade Administration (FTA).

In the past decade, seven free trade agreements have been signed or upgraded with countries such as South Korea, Ukraine, Colombia and Canada. This doubles the seven agreements that were in force in 2009.

In addition, the Administration is currently negotiating with a variety of other significant markets such as China, Vietnam, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Guatemala.

(TPS)

By: Arye Green

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday announced to the cabinet that he is appointing new ministers to positions he previously held, from which he had resigned due to the criminal charges against him.

Netanyahu appointed Member of Knesset (MK) David Bitan (Likud) as Agriculture Minister, Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) as Diaspora Affairs Minister, and Deputy Finance Minister Yitzhak Cohen (Shas) as Construction Minister, and moved Yifat Shasha-Biton (Likud-Kulanu) from her current position of Construction Minister to a new position as Welfare Minister.

The appointments came after Netanyahu resigned from all of his ministerial positions on Thursday, following a petition by the Movement for Quality Government to the High Court of Justice, demanding that he resign after he was indicted for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust.

Besides his role as prime minister, Netanyahu had served as Welfare Minister, Diaspora Affairs Minister, Agriculture Minister and Health Minister. Yaacov Litzman, the previous Deputy Health Minister, was recently appointed Health Minister.

Bitan was appointed Agriculture Minister despite his likely indictment, after the police recommended in March that he be indicted for bribery, money laundering, fraud, breach of trust and tax offenses. Bitan allegedly received hundreds of thousands of shekels as well as a promise to receive apartments as bribes between the years 2011 to 2017, while he served as Rishon LeZion deputy mayor and as a Knesset member.

Bitan thanked Netanyahu for his appointment, and said he hopes to prove he deserves it.

“I thank the Prime Minister for the trust he has given me, I will act responsibly with the public interest before my eyes. The ambition of every public figure is to serve his constituency and the citizens of Israel. In doing so, I will prove, as I have in whatever role I undertook, I am working to make a significant contribution to Israeli society,” he said.

Hotovely also thanked Netanyahu for her appointment, and said she will work to strengthen ties between Israel and Jewish communities abroad.

“I thank Prime Minister Netanyahu for the appointment, in which I will be fully committed to the government’s policy that every Jew should feel at home in Israel. I will work to enhance the ties between Israel and all Jewish communities and denominations of Judaism around the world. I also look forward to working with them in the great task of battling the rising tide of global anti-Semitism,” she said.

                (TPS)

By: Arye Green

Israel’s security is currently challenged on multiple fronts, and the government’s present policy could lead to a large-scale war in the region if it is not updated in the near future, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) said in its annual report on Monday.

The report was delivered by INSS executive director Amos Yadlin to President Reuven Rivlin on Monday.

“At the center of the 2020 strategic assessment is a tension between the clear strength of Israel and its impressive successes in several areas and the possibility that this positive situation will turn out to be temporary and precarious,” the INSS said in a statement.

The report stressed that the absence of a stable government in the coming months will hurt Israel’s ability to achieve its national security and diplomatic objectives, due to the country’s inability to develop a relevant strategy to cope with the unique challenges it faces without a stable government.

INSS researchers recently added a section the report that discusses the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Qods Force and one of the most significant figures in the Islamic Republic.

The report discussed the ramifications of the assassination to Israel’s national security, and included policy suggestions for the government following the surprising American move.

“The elimination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s Qods Force commander, in a US attack in early 2020, strengthened our assessment of the possibility of escalation and the need to formulate a new Israeli strategy. This event creates a new situation and holds the potential for a strategic shift,” the INSS said.

The report lists Israel’s northern border as the region which harbors “the most significant conventional military threat currently posed to Israel, by Iran and its proxies: first and foremost by Hezbollah in Lebanon, as well from the Assad regime, semi-military militias operating in Syria and Iraq under Iranian instruction and Iranian (and Hezbollah) forces operating in Syria.”

After receiving the report, Rivlin said that Israel is facing a major threat at a particularly sensitive time, when Israel’s political system is “paralyzed.”

“The political paralysis in Israel is coming at an especially terrible point in time. Instead of shaking hands and coming together to meet the Iranian threat, we have entered into a very problematic internal struggle. Unfortunately, the main political players are well aware of the danger, but refrain from joining hands and trying to work out their differences,” he said.

“I do not know what will happen, and what the results of the third elections will be. But whatever the results are, and assuming that a government will be formed, and a fourth election cycle will not take place, this government will be tasked with effectively dealing with the Iranian threat and dealing with the worsening political polarization, a polarization that undermines our national resilience,” President Rivlin concluded.

(TPS)

By: Arye Green

IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi decided to continue the trial program that integrates women into the Armored Corps and approved moving on to the next stage of the pilot program after he reviewed the results of the first part of the trial, the IDF announced on Sunday.

The IDF has so far adopted an ambiguous policy towards women serving in tank units. In June 2018, the military announced it had successfully run a pilot program for female tank commanders, hoping to integrate women into the Armored Corps.

However, in April 2019, the IDF announced women would no longer be able to serve in the Armored Corps and the pilot was frozen.

The decision to continue the trial came shortly after two female tank commanders filed a petition with the High Court of Justice requesting to be allowed to serve in the armored corps.

According to the IDF’s statement, Kochavi held extensive discussions on the matter with top IDF officers. The discussions included an in-depth look into the results of the pilot, as well as medical data from women in combat roles elsewhere in the IDF.

IDF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Hidai Zilberman stated that “our decisions have been made in light of three key criteria – the operational effectiveness, equal opportunities and women’s health.”

Zilberman explained that further testing is necessary due to several shortcomings in the first stage of the trial which left the results inconclusive.

“After analyzing the insights from the previous pilot, there were several shortcomings that arose – the number of participants and the fact that only two-thirds of them finished, the duration of training, professional shortcomings during training, as well as the partial operational reality that took place in the limited time of four months,” he said.

“The contribution of women in the IDF is tremendous across all sections and will continue to be very significant. Inclusion of women in the IDF in general, including in operational activities, is important, alongside the necessity of maintaining the professional requirements for each position,” Zilberman concluded.

According to the IDF, the next stage of the pilot program is expected to include approximately twice as many participants as the previous one. The parameters of the height and weight of participants in the program will be changed, as will the time spent in operational scenarios. The tanks will be staffed by entirely female teams.

                 (TPS)

By: Arye Green

Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef came under harsh criticism after he recently blamed immigrants from the former Soviet Union, who are not Jewish, for the weakening electoral power of the ultra-Orthodox parties.

At a rabbinical conference in Jerusalem last week, Yosef said that “they brought them here to the country to counterbalance the ultra-Orthodox community so that if there were elections, the ultra-Orthodox wouldn’t get many [seats in the Knesset].”

“There are many, many non-Jews here, some of them are Communist, enemies of religion, haters of religion. They are complete non-Jews, absolute non-Jews,” he added.

Yosef attacked various rabbis and organizations that have worked facilitated the conversion of non-Jewish immigrants. He criticized both conversions done by the chief rabbinate and by private rabbinical organizations.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a massive influx of immigrants came to Israel. Over one million immigrants came to Israel from former Soviet Union countries under Israel’s Law of Return, which stipulates that Jews and persons with one Jewish grandparent and a person who is married to a Jew, whether or not he or she is considered Jewish under Halakha, can become an Israeli citizen.

Approximately a third of the immigrants were not Jewish according to Jewish law and were granted citizenship as the spouse, child or grandchild of a Jew.

Numerous public figures strongly criticized the chief rabbi’s remarks.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by commending immigrants for their contribution to Israel.

“An outrageous statement that was out of place. Immigration from the former Soviet Union is a huge blessing to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. My government will continue to work to bring our brothers and sisters from the former Soviet Union and incorporate them in the country,” he said.

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Member of Knesset (MK) Avigdor Liberman, who is himself an immigrant and whose electorate base is largely made up of former Soviet Union immigrants, called for Yosef to be suspended and said his comments were “anti-Semitic” and “racist.”

“We are demanding his immediate suspension and will work in the future so that a chief rabbi from the religious-Zionist community will be elected and who will know to include and embrace and not to divide,” he said.

He added that he expects other leaders to speak up and condemn the comments “to prevent severe harm to the fabric of Israeli society.”

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, who is also an immigrant from the former Soviet Union and was active in the battle to release Soviet Jewry, said that the immigrants have become part of Israeli society and are inseparable from the country’s social fabric.

“The immigrants from the Soviet Union are an integral part of Israeli society. We have fulfilled with our bodies the dream of returning to Zion, and we cannot imagine the State of Israel without the huge contribution of immigration from the USSR. Even during an election period, there is no room for an unacceptable discourse of hatred and separation,” he said.

Rabbi David Stav, Rabbi of Shoham and chairman of the Tzohar organization, who was also criticized by Yosef for his conversion of immigrants, said that “it is inconceivable that the head of the Chief Rabbinate propagates lies and doubts the credibility of rabbis, only because their opinions are different than his own,” he said.

He added that if Yosef does not apologize for the things he said, he will be sued for liable.

(TPS)

By: Aryeh Savir

Israeli archeologists have recently exposed the top of a rare 2,000-year-old measuring table used for liquid items such as wine and olive oil, lending support to the idea that the area at which it was found was a major town square along the Pilgrimage Road.

In addition to the measuring table, tens of stone measurement weights were also discovered in the same vicinity, indicating that the location was the main city square and market, en route to the Temple during the Second Temple Period, in what was historically known as Jerusalem’s lower city.

The Pilgrimage Road was the route on which Jewish worshippers ascended to the Temple during three holidays throughout the year.

It appears that the market served as the focal point of trade and commerce, and researchers have suggested that this area housed the offices of the “Agoranomos,” the Roman officer in charge of supervising measurements and weights in Jerusalem.

Professor Ronny Reich, who is researching the discovery, described the liquid measuring table, also known as a “standard of volumes” as a slab with “two deep cavities, each with a drain at its bottom.”

The drain at the bottom could be plugged with a finger, filled with a liquid of some type, and once the finger was removed, the liquid could be drained into a container, therefore determining the volume of the container, using the measurement table as a uniform guideline, he said.

This way, traders could calibrate their measuring instruments using a uniform standard.

Reich noted that “this is a rare find. Other stone artifacts were very popular in Jerusalem during the Second Temple, however, so far, excavations in Jerusalem have only uncovered two similar tables that were used for measuring volume – one during the 1970s in the Jewish Quarter excavations, and another in the Shu’afat excavations, in Northern Jerusalem.”

Archaeologist Ari Levi of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and one of the directors of the excavations of the Pilgrimage Road, said that the flat, round-shaped stone scale-weights found at the site “are of the type which was typically used in Jerusalem. The fact that there were city-specific weights at the site indicates the unique features of the economy and trade in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period, possibly due to the influence of the Temple itself.”

A large, open paved area dating back some 2,000 years, along the street leading up to the Second Temple has led IAA researchers Nahshon Szanton, Moran Hagbi, and Meidad Shor to suggest that this area served as the main square of the lower city where trade took place.

Levi said that the standard table and the stone weights support the theory that this was the site of “vast trade activity,” perhaps indicating the existence of a market.

                 (TPS)

By: Aryeh Savir

Israel vigorously denied claims by the Head of the Sebastia Diocese of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem, Archbishop Atallah Hanna, that it had attempted to poison him and accused him of spreading a “blood-libel” against the Jewish state.

Speaking to the official Jordanian TV channel from a hospital in Amman in which he was being treated late last month, Hanna alleged that “what happened could be an assassination attempt, or an attempt to keep me sick throughout life.”

“I cannot be certain that Israel is behind this incident, but indications show that it is behind it,” he alleged.

Several anti-Israel organizations, including the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Mideast Monitor, picked up on his claims and spread it as news.

Responding to the serious charges, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat on Sunday rejected the “unfounded remarks” made by Hanna which are “completely without foundation and are a continuation of a despicable defamation campaign against Israel.”

“The accusations that stem from these remarks are redolent of blood-libel,” he said, referring to the age-old history of Christians blaming Jews of various wrongdoings in an attempt to harm them physically or otherwise.

Haiat said that “we expect a clergyman to adhere to the truth and that clergymen around the world denounce these outrageous false proclamations and refrain from distributing this libel.”

One social media user quipped that she was “fairly certain that if Israel had reason to poison someone, they’d get it right the first time.”

Hanna is a vocal anti-Israel activist who has displayed support for terrorists and is involved with Christian anti-Israel organizations.

In 2000, he accused Israel of practicing “ethnic cleansing against the Arabs, Muslim and Christian.”

In 2001, he sent a message to the United Nations Human Rights Commission calling for “immediate and rapid intervention” by the UN “to save the Palestinian people from the terrible massacres being carried out by the occupation forces.”

He has since been embroiled in several incidents surrounding his anti-Israel, and often anti-Semitic, activities.

                (TPS)

By: Arye Green

Israel’s High Court of Justice on Monday rejected a petition against the master plan for the construction of the Israeli community of Ofra, located in the Binyamin region north of Jerusalem.

Nearby Arab residents and municipalities petitioned the High Court in 2014 to cancel the master plan because they claimed some of the land allocated to the development of the community belonged to them and was not state-owned, as was stated by those who drafted the plan.

The unanimous ruling was given by Judges Neal Hendel, Noam Solberg and Daphne Barak-Erez.

Hendel wrote in the ruling that doubt arose regarding the expropriation of some of the land during Jordanian rule, a procedure that allowed the Israeli government to assume ownership of the land afterward. However, Hendel ruled that given the evidence it had at the time, the government made the right decision in assuming ownership of the land.

He also said the plaintiff’s claim is weak due to the decades-long time-period between the alleged ownership and the claiming of the land.

Hendel added that a small part of the land was not expropriated by the Jordanians, and therefore may have belonged to the plaintiffs. However, he decided that because the government could not have known it at the time, and the plaintiffs’ property rights are inconclusive, the master plan should not be over-ruled.

Barak-Erez added that the long time-period between the alleged ownership and claiming of the land was not merely a formal issue but a practical one, making it difficult for the judges to determine the truth regarding ownership of the land.

Former Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked commended the court for its decision and said that it is the result of the hard work led by her at the ministry in recent years.

“Today, an important ruling was issued by the High Court that will allow the development of Ofra. This is the result of thorough work done at the Justice Department over the past four years,” she said.

“The court also made it clear to the plaintiffs, and rightfully so, that the court does not intend to rule on the issue of construction legality in Judea and Samaria, since it is essentially a political issue and not a Judicial one,” she added.

In 2017, nine homes were demolished in Ofra after the High Court ruled that the land they were built on had previously belonged to Arab residents.

  (TPS)

By: Baruch Yedid

Iranian General Qasem Soleimani’s funeral in Tehran, which was attended by millions who packed the streets, was a massive demonstration of mourning and promises of revenge.

The Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Mayadin channel said that the funeral on Monday was the largest in Iranian history. Tens of thousands of mourners carried red flags symbolizing blood and the religious obligation for revenge as Soleimani was elevated to the rank of a Shiite saint of the highest order.

The Iranian leadership has stated that Soleimani’s assassination is “tantamount to declaring war on the Islamic nation,” and has rejected mediation attempts by Qatar and Oman. The Omani representatives were turned away without meeting any Iranian officials.

A Hamas delegation led by Ismail Haniyah and his deputy Salah al-Aruri arrived in Iran and took part in the funeral. The delegation, including Osama Hamdan, is also expected to meet with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Haniyah, who is in the midst of a political tour of the region, pledged to Egypt before leaving Gaza that he would not visit Tehran. However, he has come under pressure from officials in Iran and Hezbollah to show his allegiance to the Iranian axis of power.

Speaking at the funeral, Haniyah said that “Soleimani is an Al Quds martyr and the Americans have committed a heinous crime worthy of condemnation and reprisal.”

Hamas is currently choosing to publicly express sympathy towards Iran, despite Arab countries expressing anger towards it, but a source in the Gaza Strip told TPS that Haniyah, who demanded that Hamas leaders not speak on the matter, conveyed a message of reassurance to Israel through middlemen that Hamas does not seek an escalation and will not attack Israel as part of the Iranian revenge.

The source said that Haniyah was merely paying his rudimentary respects, but made it clear that Hamas does not want to be part of the reaction against Israel. Hamas has asked Qatar to convey such messages and stressed that it is not behind the establishment of the mourning tent in the Gaza Strip, which has drawn criticism from Arab officials.

Hamas has made it clear to the Qataris that the mourning tent is not an indication of Hamas’ siding with Iran and a sign of a pending Hamas attack on Israel.

However, official Saudi television has already claimed that “the veil on Hamas has been lifted” in its expression of support for the Iranian axis.

Senior Hamas official Ismail Radwan said that the terror group regards the US as “fully responsible” for Soleimani’s assassination, “whose death is a loss to Palestine,” and Mahmoud al-Zahar, the head of the pro-Iranian camp in Hamas, said that “the biggest losers in Soleimani’s murder are the United States, Israel and the Arabs who cooperate with them.”

                (TPS)

By: TPS Staff

The entrance to the IDF’s Bakum induction center witnessed a unique scene on Thursday when nine beaming young IDF soldiers proudly displayed their new soldier’s ID, which took them a year to attain.

Last year, the group of Special Needs young adults, including Gal Buskila, Daniel Tabarsar, Menachem Biton, Baruch Krichli, Tal Tayer, Ron Segal, Osher Glusoker, Dekel Etrog and one other soldier who wished to remain anonymous, joined Special in Uniform.

This pioneering military inclusion program absorbs youths with mild physical and mental disabilities, offers them extensive skills training and incorporates them into appropriate positions in the IDF, with a focus on their abilities.

Since its inception, the program has grown in size from 50 to 500 participants, with a long waiting list, and its leaders have a vision of growing enrollment to 1,000 participants over the next four years.

The special soldiers displayed their Soldier’s IDs to the crowds, glowing in happiness and pride at accomplishing what they’ve worked for so long to attain.

Chairman of Lend a Hand to a Special Child Lt. Col. (Res.) Gabi Ophir distributed the dog tags, which was followed by a party for the soldiers and their families and a festive dinner.

In the framework of Special in Uniform, members volunteer for up to one year in the army, train and learn important skills before graduating to become soldiers and serving for another two years.

Special in Uniform is internationally acclaimed for its unique, experiential and effective programs in which participants undergo evaluation and assessment by a professional team, followed by a three-month course teaching life and occupational skills.

One of the major goals of the project is to instill young people with disabilities with pride in themselves and their abilities, to function independently, and contribute positively to society.

Rami and Merav Travasar, Daniel’s parents, said they were “so grateful to the people who founded this amazing project, the people who help Daniel and his friends realize their dream of serving their country and contributing what they can with their strengths and talents….For giving them opportunities to feel like equals, which is so important… For helping all soldiers in the IDF understand that when they return to civil life, they should respect and appreciate people with differences not as different, but as wonderful, talented people who can contribute and accomplish.”

Yossi Kahana of JNF-USA, which co-sponsors Special in Uniform, said Special in Uniform is “a phenomenal initiative, unrivaled anywhere else in the world, and it highlights the exceptional unity and compassion of our nation—proving once again that Jews and Israel are a light unto the nations.”

(TPS)