Dear Family & Friends,

Tonight has a load of complicated issues: Amona: #1-3; Defense & Military Threats:4-5; Fire Intifada Results & Human Costs: 6-11; Sholom Rubushkin sd b freed #12; JINSA re: Sec. Defense:13; BDS:14-15; Paris Islamic Terror:16; RBF & NIF>Anti-Semitism:17.

You have to read it all to get what’s really happening.

Here the weather is getting cooler & cloudy. It is the end of November, after all.

All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba x 2/Mom/

1.Jewish Rights to Palestine Were Internationally Guaranteed

4.Russian Influence on Hezb’Allah Raises Red Flag in Israel

5.‘The plane of the future’: The new F-35 ‘Adir’

6.Yoram Raanan artist of 40 years work, home, studio lost to fires

7.Army officer: 10 new homes for every one burned

8.30 Arabs arrested for arson attacks

10.Massive international aid sent to Israel to fight blazes

1.Jewish Rights to Palestine Were Internationally Guaranteed By Eli E. Hertz

In the first Report of the High Commissioner on the Administration of Palestine (1920-1925) presented to the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, published in April 1925, the most senior official of the Mandate, the High Commissioner for Palestine, underscored how international guarantees for the existence of a Jewish National Home in Palestine were achieved:

“The [Balfour] Declaration was endorsed at the time by several of the Allied Governments; it was reaffirmed by the Conference of the Principal Allied Powers at San Remo in 1920; it was subsequently endorsed by unanimous resolutions of both Houses of the Congress of the United States; it was embodied in the Mandate for Palestine approved by the League of Nations in 1922; it was declared, in a formal statement of policy issued by the Colonial Secretary in the same year, not to be susceptible of change.”

Far from the whim of this or that politician or party, eleven successive British Governments, Labor and Conservative, from David Lloyd George (1916-1922) through Clement Attlee (1945-1952) viewed themselves as duty-bound to fulfill the “Mandate for Palestine” placed in the hands of Great Britain by the League of Nations. November 28, 2016

2.’This is cruelty against the Settlers’

Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu said that as many people as possible must go to Amona as the courts are influenced by public pressure. By Eliran Aharon, 29/11/16 13:52

Share Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu

In an Arutz Sheva interview Tuesday, Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu dismissed the prime minister’s warning that if the Regulation Law is approved in the Knesset, it will cause international petitions against Israel at the Hague international criminal court. “Israel is not obligated to The Hague and this threat should not faze us. Russia has announces that it is disassociating from this court… which always seems to find reasons why we are guilty.

“We should remember that this community is a fulfillment of the covenant G-d made to our forefathers. Who is more important to us- a biased judge in The Hague or our forefather Avraham? What is more important- G-d who promised us this land or some court in Europe whose positions are known beforehand?”

What should Amona residents do?

“They should gather as many Jews as possible in Amona since in the end the court rules based on pressure. When it is discussing Bedouins it can postpone ten times the evacuations even when it is an illegal settlement since the court is scared of the Bedouin reaction. Maybe it’s time we showed some might and strength and then they will understand that it won’t be easy.”

After the previous time when Olmert tried to forcibly remove Jews he realized that it wasn’t so simple & he held back (from further evacuations). Maybe the government needs to see that there is strength & resilience here, it is impossible to evacuate Amona.

When the Rabbi speaks about a show of strength, how should people conduct themselves towards soldiers & police?

Nobody intends to promote violence. I hope the soldiers will not promote violence. It is unthinkable in this country there will be 1 law for Bedouins & 1 for Jews. Our sages say one who has mercy on Bedouins will be cruel to his Jewish compatriots in Judea & Samaria.

[GAIL SEZ: CHECK OUT MY “UPROOTING AMONA SPECIAL ISSUE – 10/27/16 JEWS DON’T EVICT JEWS BTW: THE FOLLOWING PICTURES ARE GRAPHIC & BRUTAL! BUT, THEY HAPPENED. WHY? Were these ‘soldiers’ or ‘police’ part of our “Erev Rav”? from my Oct. 27, 2016 Website: WinstonIsraelInsight.com to see who was violent, very violent! at the first Amona evacuation, August 2006 – 10 years ago.]

‘This is cruelty against the Settlers’

3.Amona residents: We’re not objects to be thrown around

Amona residents, Jewish Home lawmakers reject Attorney General’s proposal to move the community to temporary structures.

By Nitsan Keidar, 29/11/16 04:06

Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit’s proposed solution for Amona was dismissed on Monday night by residents of the town, which is slated for eviction by December 25, as well as by lawmakers from the Jewish Home party.

In a legal opinion published on Monday evening, Mandelblit suggested moving the residents of Amona to temporary structures on three plots located north of the community.

The solution is a temporary one, for a period of about eight months, and will move the residents to property defined as “absentee property”, meaning assets granted to the state of Israel which originally belonged to individuals who fled to the territory of a hostile nation during the 1948 War of Independence.

The solution is based on a 1998 legal opinion by then-Military Advocate General, Uri Shoham, who opined that absentee property may be used under circumstances of urgent public need.

Amona – Hadas Parush/Flash 90

Mandelblit stated, however, that the temporary solution will only be valid until such a time that the Knesset passes the Regulation Law, at which point the situation will no longer be considered urgent & the Defense Ministry would be required to immediately vacate the plots.

Residents of Amona immediately dismissed the solution, calling it “ridiculous & degrading”.

“The outline offered by Mandelblit is not a solution for the residents of Amona at all. This outline is ridiculous and degrading and was suggested by a person who does not see the dozens of families and hundreds of children who built a life here for twenty years. We are not objects that can be thrown around every few months. We will not be uprooted from our home only to be thrown again from the same place eight months later, into the unknown,” they said.

“The public will not tolerate the destruction of Amona, as evidenced by the call of all the religious Zionist rabbis. There are only two possibilities: Enacting the Regulation Law which will prevent a terrible injustice, or forced evictions and pain for hundreds of Jews, an eviction that the Prime Minister and his ministers will be held accountable for. Amona will not fall again,” they added.

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) said that Mandelblit’s proposal effectively “puts an end to the solution of absentee property which stood at the AG’s doorstep for a year.”

“The residents of Amona will not agree, and rightfully so, to a temporary solution that will ultimately result in them being expelled from their homes. The aim of this legal opinion is to spread a smoke screen and remove the Regulation Law from the agenda,” added Smotrich.

MK Shuli Mualem-Refaeli (Jewish Home) dismissed Mandelblit’s plan as well & the only solution to legalize Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria is the so-called “Regulation Law”.

“The opinion of the Attorney General speaks about the relocation of the residents of Amona to absentee property for a period of eight months in order to allow the state to legalize land for a permanent neighborhood in Shvut Rachel – which is far away from Amona. We’ve expressed our firm opposition to this solution all along and it is unacceptable even if it is presented in stages,” she said.

“The goal is the legalization of the communities in Judea and Samaria, and it will be achieved by continuing to promote the Regulation Law, which we will bring for approval in a first reading on Wednesday. Throughout the past few months I have said that the best way to legalize the communities is the Regulation Law, but if other methods are proposed that will provide a strategic solution for the settlement enterprise in general and to Amona in particular, we will support them and promote them for the sake of the normalization of the lives of the residents,” added Mualem-Refaeli.

Mandelblit’s new legal opinion came just hours after it was reported that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman were pulling out all the stops to prevent passage of the Regulation Law.

The solution involving “absentee property” was the solution preferred all along by Netanyahu, who last week announced the creation of a special committee for this purpose.

4.Russian Influence on Hezb’Allah Raises Red Flag in Israel &

In Israel, Race to Safeguard Borders From Multi-Dimensional Threats
by Barbara Opall-Rome: Defense News 11/28/16November 28, 2016reats

016 (Photo Credit: Moshe Milner/GPO via Getty Images)

TEL AVIV — In a country surrounded by instability and strife, where threats to its borders have come from the air, by sea, on land or underground, Israel is a veritable test lab for anti-infiltration technologies and operational concepts.
Along all of its borders, Israel has deployed or is in the process of deploying integrated command and control networks of sensor-fused barriers — mostly 5-meter-high fences, but in some limited places, concrete walls — all supported by combat assets of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Altogether, security sources here estimate that Israel has invested tens of billions of shekels to secure more than 600 kilometers of frontiers with Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, Egypt and, most recently, its northern and southern stretches of border with Jordan.
In the West Bank and the East Jerusalem environs alone — where de facto borders are not recognized by the international community — an Israeli Ministry of Defense source estimated security costs at 14 billion shekels (US $3.6 billion) over the past 15 years.
But despite the high-tech fortress that Israel has built around itself to safeguard its sovereignty, it remains vulnerable to underground threats. Given the magnitude of the threat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken about the need to deploy “an underground Iron Dome” to defend against subterranean intrusions.

Painful lessons from the 2014 Gaza war exposed Israel’s unpreparedness in the face of infiltration & assault tunnels stretching more than a kilometer inside Israeli territory. In that 50-day war, Israel destroyed 32 tunnels, losing dozens of soldiers in 17 days of nearly house-to-house maneuvering ground operations.
Since then, Israel has fast-tracked prewar development plans for a number of technological solutions aimed at detecting, mapping and operating in the subterranean environment, spending about $200 million in the process. Earlier this year, through improved operational and technological methods —most of which remain classified — Israel discovered another two tunnels reaching into its territory from Gaza.
With some up to 50 meters deep, many tunnels are supported by more than 500 tons of cement arches and come equipped with communications lines, filtration systems and hydraulic cables to transport weaponry. And at 2 meters high and 1.5 meters wide, gear-laden fighters are able to walk or run through such tunnels to kill or kidnap unwitting soldiers or civilians.
“Tunnels are just one of the challenges we face, specifically at the border with Gaza,” said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF spokesman. “We’re making extensive efforts to try to locate these tunnels through a combination of intelligence, technology, boots on the ground & heavy engineering capabilities.” Israeli soldiers operate within the Gaza Strip to find and disable Hamas tunnels and eliminate their threat to Israeli civilians.

In a recent interview, two Pentagon officials said the US has been working with Israel since 2008 on counter-tunnel technologies. In 2016, the Pentagon received $40 million to expand the bilateral program, about $33 million of which has already been spent.
The $40 million in congressionally appropriated funding is for two years, with Israel expected to fund an equal amount in cash or in kind. “Our mandate is that this is to be 50-50 cost sharing and that our tasks have to be mutually beneficial,” one of the Pentagon officials said.
The joint program is being implemented on the Israeli side by the Defense Ministry’s MAFAT directorate for defense research and development. On the US side, it is being implemented under a teaming arrangement between 3 Pentagon organizations, under the supervision of the office of acquisition, technology & logistics, as well as the office for special operations & low-intensity conflict.
The two sides meet every six months to chart progress, and they recently updated a memorandum of understanding to allow for extended cooperation through 2025, provided congressional funding continues to flow.
In mid-November, a Pentagon team visited Israel to review five separate, ongoing projects and to discuss a possible sixth project to begin in 2017 — all geared toward detecting, mapping and operating in the underground domain.
“This program is focused exclusively on developing new technologies and systems. If and when they are ready for production — and we understand they may have had a breakthrough in this regard — then that will require a separate funding stream,” one of the officials said.

Defense News: US Senate to Take Up Iran Sanctions Extension

He added that all Pentagon labs are represented in bilateral meetings, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
In a November 23 interview, an IDF general officer confirmed that the two sides met the previous week to chart their program for 2017. He also acknowledged progress in the anti-tunnel realm, yet declined to provide specifics.
“We’re working hard; we’re testing and I can tell you there has been progress,” the officer said. “This is not a threat exclusive to Israel, but one that we’ve been engaged with in a very intense way. But fruits of our joint work with Washington will also support US interests, given the tunnel threat in Mosul, Raka, Afghanistan or even along their southern border.”
In addition to its border with Gaza, Israel has recently deployed a border barrier along some 215 kilometers of its desert frontier with Egypt to guard against Islamic State forces and other militants operating in Sinai.
Like the sensor-fused barrier fence along the Gaza periphery, the border barrier with Egypt is supported by an integrated multi-sensor command-and-control network provided by Elbit Systems. The network is an extension of Elbit’s Digital Army Program that has been operational with the IDF for about a decade.
“We are the leading border protection activity in Israel. We are delivering our solution obviously to the IDF, but not only,” said Udi Vered, Elbit executive vice president and general manager of the firm’s Land and C4I Division.
According to Vered, the C4I network guarding Israel’s borders integrates a full spectrum of sensors, not all of them provided by Elbit. “We have great experience in integrating existing sensors and it doesn’t matter who is the subcontractor or the manufacturer of those sensors,” he said.
Similar capabilities have been provided by the firm’s Fort Worth, Texas-based facility, Elbit USA, to secure the US southern border under a $145 million border surveillance program called Integrated Fixed Towers (IFT). Like the systems in place along Israel’s borders, IFT provides border patrol agents “long-range, 360-degree, all-weather, persistent surveillance capability … with a high degree of situational awareness,” according to the company.
Different Threats From the North
At Israel’s northern borders with Lebanon and territory in Syria that is now controlled by anti-regime extremist groups, Israel is wary of the possibility for tunnels but is focusing its efforts for a different threat: a full assault by Lebanese-based Hezbollah or its allies.
“Up north, we view the threat differently,” Lerner said. “The topography is completely different, so what we’ve done on the border with Lebanon, we’ve created artificial cliffs that create an extremely difficult terrain for forces to easily storm into a civilian community or a military base along the border.”
Lerner noted there are 22 civilian communities “literally in arm’s reach” from the border, which required a different, three-part defense mechanism: the physical border itself, which extends above and below ground; advanced surveillance capabilities for early warning; and crack rapid-reaction forces to respond to any threats.

“Radical Islamic elements at our borders make them extremely volatile and unpredictable. We need to be ready for potential spillover at any given moment,” he said.
Fortification of Israel’s northern border began more than a year ago and is an ongoing project. In parallel, Israel has prepared an evacuation plan should the border come under attack.
“If Hezbollah forces storm into Israel, they’ll be alone facing the IDF’s full might.” Lerner said.
Twitter: @opallrome

5.‘The plane of the future’: The new F-35 ‘Adir’

The new F-35 ‘Adir’ is the most advanced plane in the world, IAF officials say. ‘It is in a class of its own.’ by Kobi Finkler & Yissachar Ruas, 11/29/16

Israeli Air Force F-35 “Adir” Maiden Flight – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhmMj0zkC_M

3 You Tube views of the F35 Adir Stealth from the US modified in & for Israel

https://youtu.be/fVvq02FII6g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ0wFQLplMo&feature=youtu.be

At the Nevatim airbase in the Negev, people were working assiduously yesterday. In exactly a fortnight on December 12 at 2 PM, two superplanes, or “planes of the future” as they are called in the IAF, will land here. Their numbers will be 901 and 902. The planes will make history in the Airforce “for the next forty years,” claim IAF sources.

“The F-35 (or in Hebrew, the “Adir”) is not just another plane,” says a senior IDF official. “This is something we hadn’t known until today and won’t be seeing in the near future. If, until now, we were in the third or fourth generation of planes, this one is not only a fifth generation plane – it is a leap of many generations forward. There is no plane with such capabilities in the world, and Israel will be the first country in the world to have such an advanced plane in operational use.”

Lieutenant Colonel Yotam, the Squadron leader of the F-35 planes who was involved in upgrading the F-16 “Sufah” planes, says that the plane’s avionic capabilities, as well as the amount and quality of its sensors, place it in a class of its own:

“We are absorbing a plane which is at the top of its class technologically. From a technology perspective, this is not something that can happen in one day. We are now doing a critical appraisal of the plane, uncovering everything about it, even small things, that we can and will correct. We, as the professional body involved in this, are very happy with this process.

“I cannot speak about specific capabilities of the plan, but I can say that it will provide a clear picture of the battlefield in real time in every arena in which it is deployed and, by virtue of its stealth capabilities, we will be able to both gather intelligence and attack. This aircraft will be extremely effective in the battlefield.”

Just this week the cabinet decided to purchase 17 more similar planes; in all, at the end of the process, the State of Israel will own 50 such planes.

In order to understand how significant this plane is for the IAF, air force officials state that “if in a regular attack on targets which are distant or even nearby we required an entire squadron of 25 planes in order to attack ground missiles protecting the target, protect the other planes, refuel and perform the mission, with the capabilities of the new aircraft we can do all this with just 4 or 5 planes.

“This plane can protect itself, hit the most advanced ground missiles, stay for a long time in the air, and has tremendous firepower.”

Another senior official said that “the fact that it is very difficult to locate due to its unique build, and can gather information as well as attack, and its ability to analyze the information quickly and efficiently, place it in another class of plane.”

Brigadier General Tal Kalman, the Air Force Chief of Staff said that “we have organized a professional team for adapting and absorbing the aircraft. Due to the nature of the plane and its capabilities, it will take more time to adapt and integrate than with other aircraft, but we expect this process to take a year.”

At present, the training center for the plane has trained four instructors who will be able to train pilots effectively without spending too many hours in the air, which will save money and prevent aircraft erosion as well as allow the optimal conditions for studying, according to the officer in charge of the training faculty.

Lieutenant Colonel Yotam adds that “we know from experience that integrating such advanced technology is complicated and time-consuming, but I’m confident that regarding the F-35 – the Adir, we will in a few years have an entirely different picture of our capabilities. With its airborne intelligence gathering capabilities, I’m confident that we will be able to more easily distinguish what intelligence is important and what needs to be used and shared with others.”

Everything here is top secret and conducted in full cooperation with the Americans, who provided details on every topic. When the planes are fully operational in 2019, they will contain both American systems as well as advanced Israeli communication and computer systems, which will enable electronic warfare.

The planes are also comparatively cheap, costing 98 million dollars as opposed to the F-15, which cost 110 million dollars.

‘The plane of the future’: The new F-35 ‘Adir’

6.Yoram Raanan artist of 40 years work lost plus his home, studio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjf1AsJFHsY&feature=youtu.be

https://youtu.be/Un7K0OKGMbQ Yoram Raanan artist of 40 years work lost plus his home, studio, 40 years since his aliyah, series of parshaot, new painting every week for J Post, 150 paintings on the parasha of the week.

“Ten homes instead of each home that was burnt” – YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhRxNtuT8ZM Reserve Lieutenant-Colonel Itzik Shadmi

7.Army officer: 10 new homes for every one burned

Reserve army officer and resident of Neve Tzuf speaks about residents’ feelings and what they want from the government.

By Yoni Kempinski, 11/27/16 12:14

Reserve Lieutenant-Colonel Itzik Shadmi, who is also a Neve Tzuf resident, spoke to Arutz Sheva about the Friday night arsons.

“We took all the medicines, the talit, tefillin, the medicines, and we ran away,” he said. “This area, the surroundings, was built purposely in wooden houses, and it’s very very nice here, it’s the Switzerland of Samaria. But it was so big and strong a fire, there was no chance.” It’s so much of frustration. It’s so easy to take some matches and burn down a settlement….Our demand is that every house that was burned here and destroyed here, we ask from him [Defense Minister Liberman] to build ten times for each building, and to help the buildings of this area, as well,” Shadmi explained.

“The terror changed its method, sometimes, it began by exploding buses, and then shooting, and then knives, and now, it’s because it’s so easy, so easy, to take some matches and burn half a town,” Shadmi said. “I think the only way [to prevent future attacks] is for them to understand that the damage they did to us will not help them in another way.”

8.30 Arabs arrested for arson attacks By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News 11/27/16

Most of the Arabs arrested are from the Palestinian Authority (PA), while some have Israeli citizenship. Several of the arrestees are being held in connection with incitement to arson, mostly on social media.

(Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

On Friday, the IDF arrested three Palestinian suspects near the village of Dir Kadis. They were caught driving with two full gas containers, another empty container, a sack full of cloth, gloves and lighters.

Earlier in the day, a forest ranger identified an Arab setting fire to a forest northwest of the Palestinian village of Batir. The terrorist, 44 and a resident of Hussan, were arrested shortly after.

The Israeli Air Force identified two suspects who were spotted by a surveillance plane above the village of Beit Meir in the Jerusalem Hills. They were arrested as well.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan stated that the arsonists must be treated as terrorists and called for the demolition of their homes, as is the case of Palestinian terrorists who carry out stabbing or shooting attacks.

Erdan said that arson attacks are a new form of terrorism, and should be dealt with accordingly. He said the same incitement and hatred that in the past caused Arabs to attack Israelis, is now driving Arabs to try and burn people and destroy communities.

Israel demolishes homes of terrorists as a form of deterrence for those contemplating further attacks. Transport Minister Yisrael Katz intends to introduce a bill that will define arsonists as terrorists so that they can be punished as such.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News 11/28/16

(Yaakov Lederman/Flash90)

After combating unprecedented devastation & destruction, Israel now turns to the future – to rebuilding & rehabilitation.

The spate of blazes Israel has been contending with for the past week has subsided with only a few fires erupting on Sunday, while the mass blazes in the Jerusalem area and the north have been brought under control by the firefighters.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a special Cabinet meeting on Sunday in Haifa, the hardest-hit city, where major blazes forced tens of thousands of people to flee from their homes. While most have returned, some 600 people remain in alternate housing.

Almost 1,800 apartments were damaged in the massive fires in Haifa, and over 500 apartments have been deemed unfit for habitation. The total damage to private buildings in Haifa is estimated at half a billion Shekels.

The meeting was attended by council heads from across the north whose communities were affected by the fires.

Netanyahu said that the threat of further fires is not over yet, but the government’s focus has moved towards recovery and rehabilitation efforts. He vowed to cut the red-tape bureaucracy and fast track the moves needed to start rebuilding and reimbursing victims.

“All government ministries are committed to extending a hand to you quickly, to shorten the bureaucracy, and I say to brutally shorten the bureaucracy, to bring you assistance, relief and rebuilding as soon as possible. In the meantime, we will do everything necessary to maintain your remaining property,” Netanyahu stated.

Interior Ministry Director-General Mordechai Cohen stated that 14 local authorities that were affected by the fires received immediate assistance totaling tens of millions of Shekels.

No one was killed in the multiple blazes, but dozens were hospitalized for smoke inhalation, thousands of homes were damaged & tens of thousands of acres of greenery were consumed by the fires.

Initial investigations point to at least a third of the fires being caused by Arabs arsonists.

“Whoever starts a fire, either by malice or negligence, whoever incites to arson – we will act against them with full force,” Netanyahu vowed.

Israel’s security forces have arrested some 30 suspects, mostly Palestinians, in connection with the fires.

Netanyahu also announced the establishment of a multi-national force that will coordinate action in times of disaster in the region and the acquisition of planes, thus achieving multi-national effectiveness in dealing with gigantic fires. “I have spoken about this with several leaders from the region. I must say that they have shown great interest in the idea and we will advance it,” he said.

10.Massive international aid sent to Israel to fight blazes

By: JNS.org & World Israel News Staff 11/27/16

The Supertanker in action. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Israel’s neighbors & allies sent aid to help it combat the huge fires it has been battling Several countries from Europe and the Middle East sent aid to help Israel combat the spate of blazes it has been contending with in the past week, mostly in the form of firefighting planes.

A number of Israel’s Arab and Muslim allies have sent firefighter teams to help put out the raging fires across the Jewish state in a show of regional cooperation and solidarity.

Egypt sent two helicopters, while Jordan dispatched a number of fire trucks to battle the blazes.

Azerbaijan, a Muslim-majority nation and one of Israel’s closest allies in central Asia, sent a BE-200CS amphibious aircraft to Israel. Turkey sent firefighting aircraft on Thursday.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) also contributed by sending several firefighting teams from Jenin to battle blazes in northern Israel, mostly in Haifa.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, Romania, Russia, Spain and Ukraine sent equipment, firefighting teams and aircraft to assist in the efforts to extinguish the blazes.

A total of 22 airplanes and two helicopters flew across Israel’s skies over the weekend, dumping water and firefighting materials where needed.

The Global Super Tanker, the world’s largest firefighting plane also arrived in Israel from the US over the weekend and immediately began flying sorties over the Jerusalem hills.

A group of American firefighters are also reportedly on their way to Israel.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the “many countries” who sent aid to Israel in its time of need.

Firefighters on Saturday continue working to gain control of the (Flash90)

Arab terrorists continue their war against the Jewish state with what is being dubbed a fire intifada, or an arson intifada.

On Friday evening, during the Jewish Sabbath, all residents of Neve Tzuf, aka Halamish, in Samaria fled the town, after Arab terrorists set fire in three different locations.

There were no fatalities.

Fifteen houses were burned to the ground; tens of homes were seriously damaged.

“The town has suffered a blow tonight, but we’re strong and we’ll with it,” a Neve Tsuf spokesman said in a statement, according to Arutz 7. “Welfare staff and the Binyamin Regional Council [where the town is situated] are working to take care of all the residents’ needs.”

Fires have been ravaging across the country since Tuesday; more than half, at least, were the result of arson committed by Arabs.

Other Arabs, including firefighters from the PA, have been helping in the crisis.

On Friday, the small community of Nataf in the Jerusalem Hills, just west of the capital, was scorched. Maya Ben Zvi, owner of Rama’s Kitchen, a popular restaurant, was hosting a wedding party when called to evacuate, Times of Israel reported. The restaurant was totally destroyed, and her home sustained severe damage. It was the third time she had to flee since Tuesday.

Thursday eve, firefighters evacuated the nearby community of Beit Meir, which was set ablaze.

On Thursday, 85,000 residents of Haifa were evacuated, with over a hundred needing medical treatment for smoke inhalation.

Sholom Rubashkin. Photo: www.justiceforsholom.org.

During his remaining time in the White House, President Barack Obama should pardon an Iowa Jewish man currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for 86 counts of fraud, internationally renowned legal expert Alan Dershowitz told The Algemeiner on Monday.

Dershowitz called the lengthy jail term that was imposed on 57-year-old father-of-10 Sholom Rubashkin— former CEO of Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa, which went bankrupt in 2008 — “unfair.”

Dershowitz said he agreed with the sentiment expressed by Charles Renfrew and James Reynolds in the Wall Street Journal — that federal prosecutors in the case — which saw Rubashkin convicted in 2009 of illegally moving money that was supposed to be used as collateral for a loan — sought to “extract a pound of flesh, and then some — even at the cost of illegally overstepping their bounds and interfering in the bankrupt company’s sale.”

Renfrew, a US District Court judge in the Northern District of California from 1972-80 and a US deputy attorney general from 1980-81, and Reynolds, a US attorney for the Northern District of Iowa from 1976-82, wrote that had “justice truly been served, [Rubashkin] would have received less than four years [in prison].”

“Mr. Rubashkin has now served upwards of seven years of his sentence — more than twice as much as he would have served had his punishment fit his crime,” they claimed. “Every day that he spends in prison is a day that he should be spending as a free man, with his family.”

This, they argued, “is why we urge President Obama to pardon Mr. Rubashkin before he leaves office in January.” Furthermore, they said, “Congress should also take steps to rein in the serious problem of prosecutorial abuse, which has elicited bipartisan concern from many lawyers, legal scholars and federal judges.”

US presidents generally issue a slew of pardons at the end of their terms in office.

13.JINSA Statement on General James N. Mattis November 27, 2016 We are pleased with the array of highly qualified candidates that President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly considering for Secretary of Defense. The Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) – an organization dedicated to a robust U.S. national security posture and a strong U.S.-Israel security relationship – does not and will not endorse any candidate for this or any other government position. However, we feel compelled to convey that characterizations of one candidate, General James N. Mattis, USMC (ret.), as anti-Israel are ill-founded and unfair. The criticism revolves around extemporaneous remarks General Mattis made at the Aspen Institute in July 2013 on the Israeli-Palestinian issue. They were made shortly following his retirement after a very distinguished four-decade-long career in the U.S. military, with his last position as Commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), where his area of responsibility covered much of the Middle East and Central Asia (excluding Israel). We understand and share many of the objections to his remarks, including that he seemed to blame mostly Israel for the impasse, despite the critical challenges it faces in lacking a stable, moderate Palestinian partner that genuinely seeks a durable peace with the Jewish state. Some American Jews and even Israelis make the same mistake. In any case, he has not repeated those remarks. On the larger U.S. military and strategic issues related to the Middle East, which a Secretary of Defense will have to address early on, General Mattis has notably and indisputably distinguished himself in advocating for a more robust U.S. military posture to counter, contain and deter Iran, even at the peril of his military career, and its importance to American security and the restoration of America’s position in the Middle East – views JINSA has strongly propounded. Along similar lines, he has stressed the need to stand by our longstanding regional friends. General Mattis’ outlook on these issues aligns perfectly with Israel’s, which considers an aggressive Iran its greatest strategic threat, and a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat. Israel also seeks a strong U.S. presence in the Middle East. General Mattis has noted this alignment of views with Israel, and correctly explained the synchronization of Israeli and Arab outlooks on these subjects. This should be heartening to the overwhelming majority of Americans who believe that a strong State of Israel is necessary for its own sake and important for a strong America. JINSA’s experiences with General Mattis have been very positive, including many private discussions in the last few years on the Middle East. We recently consulted several notable Israelis and Americans in the civic and military spheres who also have interacted with him and they share our confidence in his support for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. Were General Mattis to become Secretary of Defense, and work more closely with Israel in that position, an opportunity he lacked at CENTCOM, we believe he will become an even closer friend of the State of Israel. Michael Makovsky, President and CEO JINSA Statement on General James N. Mattis
Here are your Dry Bones blog updates 14.Dry Bones by Ya’acov Kirschen “BDS on Campus-Stop BDS Bullying!” According to the Algemeiner: “British University Rugby Team ‘Excited’ to Openly Support BDS With Palestinian Flag on New Uniform” 11/2/16 A British university rugby team said it is “excited” to show support for the anti-Israel boycott movement by wearing the Palestinian flag on its uniform, the UK’s Jewish News reported on Tuesday. The rugby team of Goldsmiths, University of London announced the addition of the flag to its newest uniform on Facebook last week, calling it “part of our Student Union’s continued commitments to supporting BDS.” “We’re hoping through our work with Goldsmiths Palestine Society this year we can encourage more societies and clubs to endorse and raise awareness about BDS,” the team stated.-more 15.British U. Rugby Team ‘Excited’ to Support BDS with Palestinian Flag on Uniform by Lea Speyer A British university rugby team said it is “excited” to show support for the anti-Israel boycott movement by wearing the Palestinian flag on its uniform, the UK’s Jewish News reported on Tuesday. The rugby team of Goldsmiths, University of London announced the addition of the flag to its newest uniform on Facebook last week, calling it “part of our Student Union’s continued commitments to supporting BDS.” “We’re hoping through our work with Goldsmiths Palestine Society this year we can encourage more societies and clubs to endorse and raise awareness about BDS,” the team stated.

Goldsmiths rugby players wearing uniforms bearing the Palestinian flag on their Left shoulders.

Photo: Goldsmiths RCF Facebook. 11/28/16

Jewish and pro-Israel organizations in the UK were quick to speak out against the team’s decision to use sports as a platform to promote an anti-Jewish-state position.

A spokesperson for the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) told Jewish News that “sport is not an area where political acts should be welcomed and this inherently political act is likely to alienate many Jewish students.”

“It is an unfair and unsporting tactic that is being used to push the students’ unions divisive political agenda,” the UJS spokesperson stated.

The Zionist Federation said in a statement that “sport is a wonderful medium for bringing people together, but this disappointing move will simply drive them apart.”

Simon Johnson, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, called the rugby team’s decision “astounding” and said it “makes me question how they think this can possibly help towards a two-state solution.”

Such open support by the team for BDS “will alienate Jewish students at the university,” he added.

A spokesperson for Goldsmiths told the Jewish News that while the university is “rightly proud of our diverse, inclusive and respectful community…it’s disappointing that the rugby club has taken this decision.”

“Sports should be unifying and should be played without borders and by all. No one should feel alienated or excluded,” the spokesperson stated. “We are working with everyone across campus to ensure that all groups feel safe and supported at Goldsmiths.”

British U. Rugby Team ‘Excited’ to Support BDS with Palestinian Flag on Uniforms

16.1 Year After Paris Attacks, the West Needs to Learn About Islamic Terror

by Abigail R. Esman

Paris the day after November 2015’s terror attacks. Photo: Wikipedia.

On November 13, 2016, one year after Islamist terrorists killed 130 people and injured 368 others in a series of attacks across Paris, music legend Sting performed at the city’s Bataclan theater. It was at this popular haunt that three gunmen opened fire during an Eagles of Death Metal concert last year. Sting’s appearance, which coincided with the theater’s reopening, was meant not only to memorialize the 90 lives lost there, but to mark a new beginning — a return to life.

Yet just six days later, in the hours between November 19-20, police across France apprehended seven men said to be plotting another attack. The suspects, said to be French, Moroccan and Afghan, may be connected to other individuals arrested just prior to the European Cup games in June. Their capture brings to 418 the number of terror-related arrests made so far this year, 43 of them in November alone.

France has suffered a disproportionate and disturbing number of terror attacks in the past two years, from the Charlie Hebdo & Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket massacres in January 2015, to the November 2015 Paris attacks & the 87 killed while enjoying Bastille Day festivities in Nice on July 14. There also have been smaller attacks, including when militants in Normandy forced 85-year-old priest Jacques Hamel to kneel, before they slit his throat in front of his parishioners in July.

With over 400 would-be terrorists off the streets, is France at least safer than it was a year ago?

In many ways, yes. It would have to be. Along with those arrests, French authorities have seized 600 firearms and closed down dozens of illegal Muslim prayer halls, Europe1 reports. Soldiers patrol Paris’ streets and transportation centers, and an ongoing state of emergency has allowed the government to increase its levels of surveillance.

But few experts feel that this is really ameliorating the threat. After all, those expanded surveillance regulations were in effect when Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhel plowed his truck through the

crowds along the Nice Promenade.

The fact is, the number of arrests is dwarfed by the numbers on the other side of the fight. Somewhere between 900 and 1,500 French citizens are believed to have joined ISIS, according to International Centre for Counterterrorism reports. In September, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls noted that, while plots are being foiled “every day,” 15,000 French Muslim youth are still radicalized. Consequently, France’s national police spokesman Christophe Crépin told Time, “We have the means now, but it is not sure that [there] won’t be further attacks. The savagery is very strong now.

In fact, many European counter-terrorism experts believe that this savagery will worsen as growing numbers of European Muslims now living in the so-called “Islamic State” start making their way back home. Many are disillusioned by what they found there. Their hatred of the West is as deep as it was when they first left, if not deeper. Now they are trained in warfare. Meanwhile, the potential collapse of the Caliphate is likely to add to their fury & desire to take revenge on Western targets.

What this means is that Europe — and especially France — can expect the return of several hundred trained jihadists, all part of a wider international network. Some will be arrested at the borders. But others will slip in, unnoticed because security agencies already are overtaxed.

Moreover, France also must rely on the counterterrorism measures and border protection of its neighbors, especially Belgium, which was home to many of the November 13 attackers. Yet Belgium is still stumbling in its own counter-terrorism efforts, despite two attacks there this year.

Meantime, there are those 15,000 young people already radicalizing within France, many of whom spend time communicating on social media with soldiers still living in the Caliphate. European intelligence officials agree that as ISIS loses ground at home, it is increasing its call to radicalized Muslims still living in the West to carry out attacks in their own cities and towns.

In the face of this, France is now putting much of its hope into controversial de-radicalization programs, aiming to enroll 3,600 Muslim youths within in two years, according to France Local report.

But even if such programs work — and it isn’t yet clear they do, they remain part of an ongoing game of cat-and-mouse, unsustainable over the long-term. Should the Islamic State fall, other groups will inevitably rise up in its place. The ideologies that drive radical Islam have endured for centuries. The revolutionary methods adopted by ISIS leaders, particularly with social media, continue to pose challenges to the West.

All of which suggests that France24 journalist Wassim Nasr, speaking to the Huffington Post, had it right when he observed, “There is much to be done; it’s a long run.”

What is clear is if the West & France especially, is going to protect itself from Islamic jihad in the future, it will have to find new ways to approach its Muslim youth before they radicalize, not after.

But so far, no one seems even to be trying. Abigail R. Esman, the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West (Praeger, 2010), is a freelance writer based in New York and the Netherlands.

17.Rockefeller Brothers Fund & NIF Use Grant Money to Cover Up Their Role in Fomenting Campus Antisemitism?

JNS.org — The New Israel Fund (NIF) recently received a grant to “research and report on antisemitism on US campuses.”… by Yona Schiffmiller / JNS.org

Anti-Israel mock eviction notices posted on campus dorm room doors by the Palestine Legal NGO.

JNS.org—The New Israel Fund (NIF) recently received a grant to “research and report on anti-Semitism on US campuses.” On the surface, this appears a welcome development — a progressive group mobilized to confront a major social malady plaguing institutions of higher education.

Beneath the surface of the Sept. 27 grant, however, are vested interests seeking to use this issue to cover up their role in fomenting the atmosphere that is hostile to Jewish students. The NIF is being paid by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), a main backer of the anti-Israel activism that contributes to, enables and devolves into the anti-Semitism on college campuses.

RBF provides hundreds of thousands of dollars to a number of organizations that delegitimize the Jewish state & promote anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) movement, both on & off campus. These BDS-promoting grantees of the RBF active on American universities include Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Palestine Legal & the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

Several of the RBF grantees promote agendas that deny Israel’s legitimacy and advocate “one-state” formulas designed to eradicate the Jewish state. Zochrot, for example, envisions a “de-Zionized Palestine,” while Adalah systematically works in the US and Europe to label Israel as a fundamentally “racist” state. Additionally, Grassroots Jerusalem, Who Profits and the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (formally the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation) are all leaders in BDS campaigns in the US and internationally.

In other words, the New York-based fund has made the waging of economic, political and cultural warfare on Israel a central theme of its grant-making.

As noted, many of RBF’s grantees are deeply involved in myriad anti-Israel activities, either by directly coordinating and participating in them, or by providing training and legal aid to activists. JVP, for instance, has chapters on campuses throughout the country and partners with Students for Justice in Palestine in promoting divestment resolutions and organizing the notorious “Israeli Apartheid Week.” Additionally, JVP members participate in numerous anti-Israel events, creating a façade of Jewish support and approval for the delegitimization of Israel.

In parallel, the Palestine Legal NGO offers guidance to campus activists on activities such as setting up mock checkpoints and posting mock eviction notices on dorm room doors, advising students to “post to every room in the dorm to avoid false accusations that Jewish students were targeted.” In addition, officials from RBF grantees including AFSC, U.S. Campaign and Breaking the Silence regularly speak at anti-Israel campus events.

As several in-depth reports and publications have shown, the marked increase in virulently anti-Israel activity on campuses throughout the US has coincided with higher rates of anti-Semitism at these same institutions. In October 2016, Brandeis University released another installment in a series of studies on the issue. In this latest installment, university researchers found that on many campuses in the country, “it appears that the high rates of anti-Semitic harassment and hostility are largely driven by hostility toward Israel.”

Considering RBF’s culpability in funding and enabling organizations that create this intimidating environment for Jewish students, it’s curious RBF would commission a publication that studies the rise of anti-Semitism at American colleges. Any serious publication would, ultimately, implicate RBF itself and cite its funding for anti-Israel campus groups & related organizations.

But the routine denials on the part of its grantees that anti-Israel activity can lead to or amount to anti-Semitism provide a clue as to RBF’s motivations and to its desired conclusions for the study. Both JVP & Palestine Legal have attacked & rejected US State Department definition of anti-Semitism, which recognizes demonization of, application of double standards to & delegitimization of Israel as antiSemitic. JVP & Palestine Legal falsely allege that this standard is “construed to silence any criticism of Israeli policies” & to “censor speech.” Similarly, JVP strongly opposed and campaigned against March 2016 University of California Board of Regents statement that affirmed, “Anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism & other forms of discrimination have no place at U of C.”

RBF’s choice of NIF to conduct this study should be considered in this light. As opposed to the researchers and experts at Brandeis, the various Jewish organizations that focus on Jewish life on campus and groups that closely monitor anti-Semitism in the US, NIF has no significant history of studying and commenting on anti-Semitism or campus activity.

Given RBF’s extensive funding of BDS and delegitimization of Israel, it is reasonable to ask if the fund is using its financial power to whitewash its grantees’ involvement in fanning the flames of anti-Jewish hatred. What is less clear is why NIF would lend its name to such a charade.

Yona Schiffmiller is director at NGO Monitor’s North America Desk, a Jerusalem-based research institute.