Roz, a 4.5-year-old from Netanya, has been missing for three months. Police are calling on the public to offer any assistance possible as concerns for her life become more ominous with each passing day. She disappeared in May 2008.
Anyone who believes they have information that may be helpful in the case is urged to call 08-927-9466, 08-927-9575, or any local police station.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Jerusalem Justice Anat Zinner ordered Israel Police to disclose names of police who took part in using unjustifiable force against protestors in Amona in 2006.
Despite operating orders compelling police to exhibit their name tags, they were removed during the operation, the expulsion of Jews from the community adjacent to Ofrah in Shomron. Film footage is being used to document mounted and foot police beating unarmed civilians, and petitioners are demanding the identity of these policemen so they may proceed with lawsuits against them.
Zinner is also demanding police disclose the ‘orders of the day’ regarding the operational protocol that were given to police involved in the expulsion vis-à-vis the use of batons and other means of force.
In response to the Yesha human rights organization, the court gave Israel Police 30 days to respond. The human rights organization has documented injuries to some 200 people as a result of police violence, with some sustaining permanent disabilities.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Former Israel Police Chief Assaf Chafetz on Sunday confirmed reports that he met with opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu and is registering as a Likud member in the hope of earning a high enough position on the party roster to fill the public security ministry portfolio if the Likud is elected to power.
Chafetz stated he met with Netanyahu and the two discussed the seriousness of the homeland security issues, with both agreeing public security matters will play a dominant role in the next election.
Chafetz praised the Likud leader and expressed his hope that he will be privileged to serve the people as he has in the past, adding that during his tenure as police chief he began implementing reforms and he hopes he will be able to continue those reforms as minister.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
According to officials in local government, the nation’s public schools may open next week, but this may occur without security guards, without office personnel and classroom assistants. They are warning that barring a major change, a strike is all but unavoidable.
They are also warning that if the government approves the current proposed 2009 state budget, which includes a major cut in education funding, the nation’s public school system will collapse.
In place of the annual gathering prior to the opening of the school year, this year’s event became a rally against planned budgetary cuts, with mayors warning if schools open, many essential staff members will be missing, as reported above.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav explains approving the proposed budget is tantamount to declaring a “free school year” stressing the national government simply cannot continue to increase the tax burden on citizens.
“Leaders speak of reforms and revamping the system but we cannot do anything without a budget.”
Yahav added that when he began serving as mayor, in 2003, the national government paid 60% of the education budget and the city 40% but during his first term, this changed to today’s reality with the city paying 60%.
Yahav called the current reality unacceptable, stating “They cannot extort additional funds from the municipalities,” insisting the national government must begin carrying its weight and stop trying to place its responsibilities on local government.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
A Bedouin resident of Tel Sheva has been indicted of planning a suicide bombing attacks, having been in contact with al-Qaeda agents. The indictment was handed down at the end of last week in the Beersheva District Court.
According to the indictment, in 2002, Khaled Abu Raikak, 23, began becoming more religious, a move the state believes brought him in contact with al-Qaeda and the Global Jihad. He was in contact with enemy agents and even obtained bomb-making instructions.
In 2004, he suggested that his colleague blow himself up in the Beersheva Central Bus Station and in 2006, he planned a bomb attack against military vehicles.
He was taken into custody about three weeks ago along with a family member who was released to house arrest following questioning. The prosecutor may indict him [the family member] as well.
The suspect is a son of Chalil Abu Raikak, who holds the municipality’s education portfolio. Chalil stated he does not believe his son is guilty as accused.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
A Tiveria woman, the mother of four and a volunteer in MDA, was struck and killed by an Israel Police traffic unit vehicle on Friday night. According to Emakim District Chief Traffic Investigator, Shimon Ben-Sabo, the woman was struck as she was crossing a street in an unauthorized area – stressing she did not cross at a crosswalk.
In keeping with a request from the bereaved family, the name and details of the woman are not being published.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
A study released Saturday examining recent earthquake activity around NYC shows many small faults believed to be inactive could contribute to a major quake.
Columbia University scientists also detected a line of seismic activity stretching from Connecticut to Westchester.
The fault line comes within two miles of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Another fault line was already known to exist near the plant — putting it at an intersection of faults.
The study finds many lives and hundreds of billions of dollars could be at risk because of population density and concentration of buildings in the city.
However, the study acknowledges big earthquakes are rare in the region.
(Source: NY1)
Perhaps for residents of the areas around Ben-Gurion International Airport, the noise emanating from the nation’s only commercial international airport may be a bit lower than they have known in the past since the Israel Air Force has moved two squadrons to another location in the south. The planes, 707s (Ra’am) and Hercules transports (Karnaf) have been relocated, to the Nevatim Base.
While the 707s have been upgraded during recent years, their engines are old and they do not comply with current noise standards, rated 30% higher than passenger jets. Officials admit that when these planes landed at night, for many Bat Yam and Cholon residents, their night’s sleep was interrupted.
In addition to lowering area noise pollution levels, the new base will contribute to reducing air traffic congestion in the airport area.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
In an apparent effort to cool the situation regarding recent arrests of members of the Vaad Tznius, senior Jerusalem district police officials on Thursday night paid a visit to HaGaon Rav Yitzchak Tuvia Weiss Shlita, hoping a dialogue might serve to lower the tensions in the area.
Earlier on Thursday, a number of police vehicles were seen on Yoel Street, near the Satmar beis medresh, sparking another protest during which one person was arrested on suspicion of setting a garbage receptacle ablaze. A police vehicle was overturned as well.
During the meeting, Rav Weiss asked that police release suspects in custody but police refused to release persons arrested for their violent acts in their capacity as members of the Vaad Tznius.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
We regretfully report the petirah of Mrs. Faigi Klein, A”H, mother of Meilich Klein and Laya Leshkowitz. The Levaya will take place at Shomrei Hadaas, 14th Avenue 39th Street on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. Shiva untill Friday afternoon at 1739 52nd Street, Brooklyn.
Boruch Dayan Emmes…
The following article was written by Iowa Governor Chet Culver as a guest column in today’s The Des Moines Register:
As governor, I have worked to attract and to grow businesses large and small throughout Iowa. By taking what might be called the “high road” to economic development, we are showing that investment in Iowa’s work force is a good value to Iowa taxpayers, and we are creating good-paying jobs as a result.
So, I’m proud to say Iowa’s business climate is strong, and it’s getting stronger. Make no mistake, as long as I have the honor of serving as governor, I will continue to work every day to bring good jobs to Iowa.
Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and I are committed to supporting businesses that play by the rules. They are an essential part of our future economic growth. Which is why I am very concerned about the events at the Postville Agriprocessors facility, before and after the May 12 federal raid.
The sad events surrounding the federal Postville raid, resulting in multiple federal criminal-law convictions of line workers and low-level supervisors – and, notably, not yet of the company’s owners – are strong evidence of a company that has chosen to take advantage of a failed federal immigration system.
In doing so, this company has fallen far short of meeting the high business standards that Iowans expect. Our laws reflect these standards. They protect consumers, Iowa workers and the state’s environment.
Before the federal raid, Agriprocessors already had a history of sanctions by Iowa’s state regulatory agencies for water pollution, as well as health and safety law violations. Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant – including allegations ranging from the use of child labor in prohibited jobs to sexual and physical abuse by supervisors; from the nonpayment of regular and overtime wages to the denial of immediate medical attention for workplace injuries – brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state’s overall economic-development strategy, this company’s owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices.
I believe Iowa businesses should take the high road by following the law.
The Culver-Judge administration’s executive agencies are reviewing documents and other evidence obtained in the course of their independent regulatory efforts and from the federal raid of the Postville plant. In response to these allegations against Agriprocessors, I have done the following:
First, I have directed my Cabinet members with responsibility for the meatpacking industry to ensure that they are aggressively and fairly applying Iowa’s laws to this company.
Second, I directed Iowa Workforce Development Director Lis Buck to prevent Agriprocessors from listing open positions on state job-listings services due to the unsafe working conditions at the Postville facility.
Finally, as a result of my request to investigate Agriprocessors, Iowa Commissioner of Labor David Neil has filed complaints with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller alleging multiple prohibited uses of child labor. The lieutenant governor and I, in the strongest terms, call on the attorney general promptly to prosecute all alleged criminal and civil-law violations that are backed by sufficient evidence.
Agriprocessors has every resource at its disposal to be a good Iowa corporate neighbor – one that provides a safe workplace, pays good wages and benefits, protects our environment and respects the dignity of our workers. If its owners choose to operate in this manner, they will find a skilled work force ready to join this company. I want to publicly ask Agriprocessors to “take the high road” and join the family of responsible businesses in Iowa.
To date, in public statements, Agriprocessors’ owners have denied any wrongdoing related to their business practices. They are entitled to do so. Because of Iowa’s long history of clean and fair regulatory and judicial processes, companies like Agriprocessors, if accused of wrongdoing, will be afforded every due-process right to which they are entitled under law. But, at the end of the day, they must obey each and every law that protects workers and keeps our food supply safe.
A century ago, the great American novelist Upton Sinclair wrote of the horrifying working conditions in the meatpacking industry of the time. His classic novel, “The Jungle,” drew attention to the issues of worker protection and food safety, and helped the industry modernize as a result. There will be no industrial “jungles” in Iowa on my watch.
Rather, let’s use this occasion to ensure that all workers in Iowa – at Agriprocessors and elsewhere – are treated fairly, and under safe working conditions. Workers and consumers deserve no less.
(DMR)
In an urgent letter sent to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert from Shas leader Minister Eli Yishai, telling him the current proposed 2009 state budget is unacceptable and as such, the Shas Party is compelled to oppose it when presented to the cabinet on Sunday. Shas’ main objection is the planned NIS 500 million cut in monthly child allowances in addition to a NIS 200 million cut in yeshiva funding.
Also opposing the budget is Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, of Olmert’s Kadima Party, who is unwilling to accept a NIS 200 cut in the budget for the National Road Safety Association. Mofaz explains the alarming death toll on the nation’s roadways and the need to step up road improvement does not permit entertaining budget cuts.
Labor Party ministers have announced they will also oppose the budget, led by party leader Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who rejects a planned NIS 1.2 billion cut in defense spending, education and welfare budgets. Barak last week stated on a number of occasions that with the current threats facing Israel, from Hamas, Hizbullah, Iran and others, Israel cannot entertain cutting the defense budget.
The Pensioners Party is sitting on the bench, with party leader Minister Rafi Eitan uncertain how he will cast his ballot. Eitan is seeking a NIS 80 monthly increase for the nation’s elderly, but it appears he will settle for less than half of the amount and support the budget.
At present, the cabinet is split with 12 ministers expected to support the budget and 12 opposed, with two Pensioners Party ministers holding the key to the budget in their hands.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) agents and accompanied by large police force raided the Um el-Fahm office of the Al-Aqsa Association after Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered the office closed due to links to Hamas.
As a result of Barak’s order, agents moved in on motzei Shabbos, closing the office, confiscating documents and computers, simultaneously, freezing assets tied to the group. One of the organization’s affiliates, “Charity Coalition”, is being directly linked to Hamas activities.
The raid was timed just 24 hours after the Israeli Islamic Association (IIA) held a rally in Um el-Fahm, a northern Israeli municipality, under the banner “Al-Aqsa is in Danger,” calling for an end to the “Israeli occupation of Jerusalem.”
The IIA in the past has been linked to Hamas, with some of its leaders even imprisoned for their anti-Israel terror ties, but nevertheless, the government has been afraid to declare the organization illegal, permitting its leaders to continue holding rallies and events which call for the downfall of the Jewish state and its leaders.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
The mehadrin eruv running in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Kiryat Menachem and Kiryat Yovel was damaged last Shabbos. Rabbonim visited the areas to see the damage after Shabbos, and they were pained to see poles were knocked down and the eruv cord cut in a number of areas. This was not the first attack against a mehadrin eruv in Yerushalayim.
Rabbonim questioned the act, explaining the mehadrin eruv does not offend anyone, and most residents are unaware of its presence, but apparently, there are some who chose to tear it down in an act of defiance against the area’s growing chareidi population.
The rabbonim also point out that the regular Yerushalayim eruv encompasses the areas targeted in the attack, so the residents were indeed covered on Shabbos, but the chareidi public does prefer a more mehudar eruv in their neighborhood.
MK (UTJ) Rabbi Yaakov Litzman has been in touch with police, telling senior commanders the chareidi public does not plan to sit by and permit such attacks, demanding police take the necessary action to prevent such attacks in the future.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Tens of thousands attended a Friday night rally held in the Israeli Arab municipality of Um el-Fahm, seeking to raise funds for al-Aqsa Mosque located on Har HaBayis.
The rally was held under the banner “al-Aqsa is in Danger,” and speakers, including the Israel Islamic Association’s Northern Branch leader Sheikh Ra’id Salah called on the Arab world to fight to bring an end to the “Israel occupation of Yerushalayim”.
Ra’id stated confidently that one day, the rally will not be held in Um el-Fahm, but in Yerushalayim, when the occupation has ended.
“I say to the Israeli occupation, and those representing it, to Olmert, Peres and Barak, after 40 years of occupation of the al-Aqsa Mosque and digging and building shuls under the mosque, building a museum, I tell you that the occupation will be ousted…” he exclaimed.
Seeking to promote unity within the PA, he called upon PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah to renew dialogue, stating such a step would be a gift to every Muslim ahead of the month of Ramadan.
Um el-Fahm Mayor Hasham Abed al-Rahman also addressed the crowd, calling for an end to occupation of Arab countries including “Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine.”
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa sent a telegram, which was read aloud to the participants, in which he expressed the sadness over the “occupation of al-Aqsa,” calling on the Arab media to focus on events taking place regarding the mosque and Jerusalem.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
The High Court of Justice on Sunday will be hearing a petition from the Almagor terror victims association, seeking to prevent the release of 199 terrorists and security prisoners in the latest Israeli good-will gesture to the PA (Palestinian Authority).
According to Almagor, many of those slated for release have only served a small portion of their prison sentence. An attempt to have the court issue a restraining order to temporarily block the scheduled release failed when Justice Procaccia refused to comply with the request.
Meanwhile, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) announced that preparations for the release of the prisoners are underway and on Monday, he plans to hold an official ceremony in their honor in his Ramallah office.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Israel on Shabbos decided to permit two protest boats to dock in Gaza after determining the vessels did not pose a threat. The two vessels endured stormy seas until docking in Gaza.
The two boats set sail from Cyprus on Friday, carrying 44 self-acclaimed peace activists, who wish to send a message to Israel to end the embargo on Gaza. One of the members of the group, Jeff Harper, an Israeli, was quoted as saying, “It is amazing. 1.5 million people are cut off from the world and they then get a message to the entire world because of our two boats.”
Harper told Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) that they are working to end the embargo and the entire “occupation”. He added “We have not arrived empty handed. We brought 200 hearing aids for children who have lost their hearing as a result of Israeli bombing raids in Gaza.”
Harper went on to explain they plan to remain in Gaza for a number of days, engaged in humanitarian efforts.
Among the boat’s passengers, from 17 countries, was an 81-year-old family member of Quarter Mideast envoy Tony Blair. Heidi Epstein, an 84-year-old Holocaust survivor, Harper explained was planning to take part but health problems made her participation an impossibility.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
SECURITY/DEFENSE:
*Today, Sunday, is day 68 of the virtual Gaza ceasefire.
*Today is Gilad Shalit’s 792nd day in Hamas captivity.
*Kassam rockets landed in southern Israel on Shabbos. There were no injuries.
*An IDF officer was lightly injured in a rock-throwing attack in the Chevron district on Shabbos. He was transported to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva.
*Two Arabs carrying two pipe bombs and a fragmentation grenade were apprehended on Shabbos at Beit Iba Checkpoint in the Shechem district of Shomron. The bombs were detonated without incident in a controlled explosion.
*ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) agents raided the Um el-Fahm office of the al-Aqsa Organization, linked to the Israel Islamic Association, reporting it has ties to Hamas.
*IDF soldiers involved in counter-terror operations throughout Yehuda and Shomron on motzei Shabbos arrested two suspects. the suspects were turned over to the ISA (Israel Security Agency – Shin Bet) for interrogation.
POLITICS, DOMESTIC & MORE:
*Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) reported on motzei Shabbos that chareidim threw rocks at cars traveling on Bar Ilan Street in Yerushalayim. At least one windshield was smashed. No injuries were reported. Police are investigating.
*Maran Rav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita was released from the hospital.
*HaRav Shlomo Machpud Shlita, who was hospitalized in Italy, was released from hospital and is making his way back home to Eretz Yisrael.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
Hagon Rav Chaim Pinchas Sheinberg Shlita, the elder of Roshei Yeshiva and Rosh Yeshiva Torah Or, collapsed on Shabbos and is reported in serious condition.
At about 1:00PM, shortly following his seudas Shabbos, the Rav collapsed. He was unresponsive to those around him. A family member summoned a physician, who lives nearby and he determined the Rav’s condition is serious and that he should immediately be transported to a hospital.
He was transported by paramedics to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. It appears that a violent bacteria has infected the Rav’s body. The Rav’s has regained consciousness and is being treated with intravenous antibiotics but his condition late motzei Shabbos remained serious.
It is reported that on Thursday night, the Rav Shlita took part in a wedding in the Tamir Hall, well into the night and on Shabbos morning, he appeared fine – even davening musaf as shaliach tzibur in Torah Or.
[Click on image to ENLARGE] The public is requested to daven for Chaim Pinchas ben Yosefa.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
In July of this year, YWN broke the news of the visit of Rabbi Moshe Tendler to the Har Habayis – causing a fury of comments to be submitted to YWN (Click HERE for story). Now, Haaretz reports the following:
Israel’s leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis are waging a new offensive against Jews visiting Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Chacham Ovadia Yosef sent a letter recently to Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the overseer of holy places in the Western Wall complex, urging him to reiterate the religious decree signed 40 years ago by most rabbis in Israel forbidding Jews from entering the Mount.
The rabbis’ efforts follow the publication in Haaretz last month of the visit of Rabbi Moshe Tendler, the son-in-law of prominent U.S. rabbi Moshe Feinstein, to the Temple Mount.
Rabbi Tendler was photographed visiting the plaza atop the Mount (posted HERE on YWN), where the Dome of the Rock Islamic shrine now sits, igniting a firestorm of controversy in the ultra-Orthodox community. Several other prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis have ascended the Mount in recent years, including Rabbi Dov Kook of Tiberias, the husband of Rabbi Elyashiv’s granddaughter.
The rabbis’ statement calls for a complete ban on entering any part of the Temple Mount complex for fear of compromising the “purity” of the area.
The declaration stated that “as time passed, we have lost knowledge of the precise location of the Temple, and anyone entering the Temple Mount is liable to unwittingly enter the area of the Temple and the Holy of Holies,” referring to the inner sanctuary of the Temple tabernacle.
Rabbi Elyashiv urged Rabinovich to place notices and guards around the complex to warn the faithful of the prohibition.
Rabbi Kanievsky wrote that “entrance to the Temple Mount, and the defilement of the Holy of Holies, is more severe than any of the violations in the Torah.”
After Israel gained control of the Temple Mount in the 1967 Six-Day War, the chief rabbinate placed signs around the complex informing visitors that entering the area would result in divine punishment, namely death.
But recent years have seen a change in position among national-religious rabbis, many of whom have made efforts to lift the ban on visiting the Mount. The change in position is due partly to damage caused to Jewish antiquities at the site, and the denial by Muslim authorities of Jewish links to the area. Kiryat Shmona chief rabbi Zephania Drori, chief rabbi of Judea and Samaria Dov Lior and Ma’aleh Adumim yeshiva head Nahum Rabinovich are among the religious authorities calling for a review of the ban.
Visits by religious Jews to the site have also increased significantly. Some rabbis have cited the principle of the “law of conquest,” according to which territories in the Holy Land must be wrested from “foreign” control.
