The Amona community, long viewed as a red line for activists from Yehuda and Shomron is slated to be destroyed do to Arab claims that they in fact own the land. The key with Amona is to ignore the noise coming from the Knesset and the two bills in committee there. At the end of the day they will be removed by the Prime Minister. The real solution rests in the 1950 Absentees’ Property Law. This law allows the government to buy the land of those who fled their property to enemy countries.
Newly appointed Defense Minister, Avigdor Lieberman has the power to implement this. Sources say he is looking into the very possibility of doing so in Amona’s case.
Most observers believe that if Amona would fall, the coalition would be imperiled and the country would move to new elections. In 2006 Amona was the site of intense police brutality against protesters seeking to block house demolitions there.
If Lieberman is successful in using the 1950 law to solve this issue, the precedent will be replayed across the Judea and Samaria.
So the question this summer, what kind of Amona will we have? Will it be a 2006 redux or will Amona will serve as a catalyst to move the country forward and finally find a solution to conflicts on property ownership in Judea and Samaria?
It seems that her abilities to change the system go far beyond simple laws. She has in fact built a unique bridge to an unlikely ally. If Asher Axelrod, the Chairman of the Jerusalem District of the Israeli Bar Association was placing bets on who would likely be Prime Minister one day he would have to go with Ayelet Shaked, Israel’s current Justice Minister.
“It’s no secret that Shaked does a lot of important work beyond the appointment of judges, but to devote such care to this issue is very important, and I’m not sure that politicians gave it the proper attention in previous years.”
This is an incredible turnaround for Axelrod, who once opposed Shaked’s appointment.
“The involvement of Religious Zionism in the courts now is unprecedented, and that’s to the credit of Minister Shaked,” said Axelrod. Ayelet Shaked has always been known as a change candidate.
As reports of American meddling in last year’s Israeli elections continue to come out, a State Department spokesman attempted to cover up for the US government’s actions with the following statement:
“I’m not going to go into details, but to our understanding the report showed there is no proof that the OneVoice organization used money to influence the Israeli election.”
The problem with this explanation is the bipartisan Senate investigatory committee found the State Department in fact gave $350,000 to the OneVoice organization. This neither side disputes. The State Department would like Americans and Israelis to believe they had no idea the OneVoice organization would use that money or intended to use that money to actively fund the V15 campaign against a sitting Prime Minister.
The fact is the State Department has a pattern of doing this around the world. Ukraine, Nigeria, and Russia, are just some of the examples. Moreover, sending US taxpayer’s money along with Obama’s campaign manager over to lend a hand in unseating a foreign leader, especially in Israel smacks of neo-colonialism.
The NGO law being pushed through the Israeli government is more and more becoming a necessary component in preserving Israel’s independence from foreign influence.
Of course opponents of the law are deriding it as uprooting democratic freedoms in Israel. The recent reports about State Department activity here, not only debunk that claim, but prove that NGO’s that are funded by foreign governments have one goal in mind when it comes to Israel and that is assuring it remains a vassal state of the West.
Israel increasingly finds itself in a chaotic world. The West it so latched onto all these years seems bent on pursuing suicidal policies in the face of a Radical Islamic war seeking to destroy it. The irony is that the chaos that has metastasized was encouraged, funded, and born from the USA’s own cold war policy to arm and train the Mujihadeen of Afghanistan in their fight against the Soviets during their invasion of Afghanistan.
The Mujihadeen were more than a typical rebel group. They were a product of aggressive islamization by neighboring Pakistan as well as an amalgamation of foreign fighters such as Osama Bin Laden. The idea behind President Jimmy Carter’s Operation Cyclone was to enable the Mujihadeen to wage Jihad against the Soviets. The Mujihadeen won, thus proving the American strategy of using heavily Islamicised groups to fight proxy wars. The American government went on to support Islamists across the Middle East. This created created chaos with the sole objective to harm Soviet and later secular Arabist control of oil and mineral flush areas in the Middle East.
The strategy made sense. With the USA being an ocean away and Europe still relatively set apart from the “barbaric” deserts of the Middle East, there was never any push back against these sorts of covert neo-colonial policies. Afterall, Israel would continue to sponge up the rage of the Arab street. Of course as long as the West could fund the very allies that helped to redirect the street’s animosity to the tiny Jewish State.
Islam Can No Longer Be Controlled
The problem with creating a monster is that there is a good chance that monster will eventually turn on its maker.
The problem with creating a monster is that there is a good chance that monster will eventually turn on its maker. With the open border policies of Europe and naivety of the USA, muslims have been streaming into the west at record levels. The immigrants themselves may not be dangerous, but they provide an opportune breeding ground for the armies of the once and future caliphate. Even with this fact the current situation could have been avoided, but the USA played one last very dangerous game.
Department of Defense documents that have been declassified in the last year confirm that the Obama administration encouraged the flow of weapons into the moderate rebel groups in Syria, knowing they would eventually fall into Jihadists. This worked well as it helped grow an independent Sunni state in Eastern Syria and Western Iraq. Of course, when this state, later to be renamed ISIS refused to play by the rules, the game had turned dangerous. Far worse was the West’s Sunni Caliphate than Assad or Iran. Now to destroy the Frankenstein they built, the USA is forced to work with its sworn enemies.
In today’s world, geography is meaningless. ISIS has used its strength to rally disenfranchised Muslims across the world, giving them a global army in the once calm West. Chaos has become the norm and yet Western leaders, especially in the USA, seek to harness the chaos for their own benefit.
After the recent Orlando attack, calls to enforce stricter gun control laws became part of the mainstream cacophony of solutions. Not only that, calls on the right to make a Declaration of War against terrorism became part of the chorus of solutions. Both of these moves renders Americans less prepared to deal with a problem their government initiated nearly 40 years ago as well as effectively shredding the Constitution.
Does Israel Stand Alone?
The funny thing about chaos is that it is never permanent. Chaos always leads to new order. That is how the world works. The recent overtures between Israel and Russia are the results of finding new order amidst the global chaos. The burgeoning relationship between Israel and India as well as China and other East Asian countries will now only increase as the West crumbles.
The question for Israel going forward is how long does it stick with the West as it builds long standing relationships with an opposing bloc of nations? The answer to that question may lie in how the West deals with the monster it helped create. If Europe and America continue to ignore the threat of Radical Islam, opting to utilize the threat to grab more power from their citizens, rather than snuff it out, their days will be quickly numbered.
Regavim is appealing the EU’s immunity from prosecution. Based on the legal opinion of an expert on international law, Regavim is petitioning the Supreme Court to require accountability and reporting for building violations committed by the Union.
A petition filed this week by Regavim to the Supreme Court may put an end to the systematic evasion of the EU from being accountable for violations of building regulations that it has initiated in Area C of the of Judea and Samaria (West Bank). Regavim is requesting from the judges to require the European Union to participate, first as a respondent to the petition to the Supreme Court and to give an account of its construction activities.
For some years the EU has been trying to take over extensive regions in area C through the establishment of buildings and infrastructures in illegal Bedouin outposts. One of the areas where the EU has made a large concerted effort to invest in is the area surrounding Maale Adumim.
Two weeks ago, Supreme Court justices, Uzi Fogelman, Daphne Barak-Erez and Meni Mazuz rejected the petition presented by Regavim against the Civil Administration in the Judea and Samaria (West Bank) on ignored breaching of the law. The petition demanded that the Civil Administration implement peremptory demolition orders issued against the 15 illegal structures built by the Union within the limits of the jurisdiction of Mishor Adumim and Kfar Adumim.
The judges rejected the petition by Regavim based on the Civil Administration’s statement that the removal of illegal construction there is already a high priority item, and asked them not to get involved in managing schedules for implementing orders. However, in the decision Justice Fogelman hinted that he is not sure that there is basis for the Union’s immunity from such proceedings.
Regavim decided to take up the challenge laid down by Justice Fogelman, and worked on preparing a new petition concerning other illegal structures built by the Union in areas under the jurisdiction of Kfar Adumim. As for these buildings the Civil Administration announced a year ago that they are a top priority for demolition, however since then no enforcement action against them has been made.
Regavim contends that the long drawn out period of time is “the unreasonable renunciation of enforcing the law”, and seek to place the EU illegal construction activities at the center of the Supreme Court hearings.
The petition is based on the opinion of the expert on international law, Professor Aryeh Reich from Bar Ilan University, who doubts the claim of immunity of the EU. “The EU mission is indeed right that it enjoys immunity from lawsuits, both criminal and civil, and administrative,” says Reich, “but there is an exception in this regard in Article 31 of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, in connection with activities relating to its private land that is located within the territory of the host country.”
Professor Reich explains that international law imposes the obligation of respecting the law on foreign diplomats who enjoy immunity. “They are obligated to respect the laws and regulations of the country in which they serve, and not to interfere in its internal affairs.”
Another argument raised by the lawyers of Regavim states that immunity is granted to countries only, while the EU has no absolute status as a country. The inclusion of the Union in the petition is made possible in principle because if the petition is accepted by the court and consequently buildings are demolished, the EU will have to absorb EU economic damage.
Thirty Israeli EMTs, paramedics and doctors recently completed a training course qualifying them as psychotrauma volunteers and teachers for United Hatzalah, a private community-based network of voluntary first-responders across Israel.
The volunteers already started providing psychological first aid before the graduation ceremony on May 25, 2016. They responded to a bus bombing, three cases of sudden heart attack deaths and three incidents of crib death.
They will be on call whenever United Hatzalah is called to a scene of a terror attack, sudden death, child’s death, severe car accident, severe injuries, natural disaster, suicide and wartime trauma.
“The new psychotrauma unit is something that we have been working towards for a long time,” United Hatzalah Founder Eli Beer tells ISRAEL21c. He says the psychotrauma unit is the first in the world to be fully integrated within an emergency response organization.
“In order to assure that people are not only saved but have a normal life after the traumatic event that they experienced, we need to make sure that they receive not only medical treatment but psychological treatment.”
Beer relates that he and other medical responders “have often arrived at situations where people’s lives can be destroyed if they do not receive immediate psychological treatment. Our new psychotrauma unit is a project that can help provide care for all aspects of a traumatic event. The unit will enable United Hatzalah to help as many people as possible heal on a physical level as well as on an emotional and psychological level.”
First graduating class of United Hatzalah’s psychotrauma unit. Photo: courtesy
Rickie Rabinowitz, one of the founders and instructors of the unit, said she considers psychotrauma as “another level of injury to treat beyond getting the wounded treated by the volunteer EMTs. The extra facet is coming to complement the work of the medic on the scene.”
The supervising psychiatrist of the unit, Dr. Gary Quinn, directs the EMDR Institute of Israel. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a form of psychotherapy aimed at forestalling development of trauma-related disorders caused by exposure to distressing, traumatizing or negative life events. Quinn specializes in crisis intervention and the treatment of anxiety, depressive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Many first responders have been taught psychological first aid, which is an eight-stage method of helping people deal with a difficult event,” Quinn said. “This unit has received extensive training which primarily focuses on stage three of that process, which is the stabilization aspect. This step is the most difficult to deal with, and its difficulty is compounded when dealing with people who are in a highly activated state.”
Quinn added that to the best of his knowledge, “this is the first group of EMS responders who are being taught an extra level of stabilization. It is one of the first groups in the world that will be deployed with the specific purpose of providing psychological first aid, and we will need to do a lot of research as we go along.”
Job doesn’t end at the scene
The new unit is headed by Miriam Ballin, a marriage and family therapist as well as a volunteer medic for United Hatzalah.
“Stabilization can mean many different things,” Ballin explained. “We may need to stabilize the scene during an incident when the situation is so chaotic that no one can get their job done. Alternatively, we may be called upon to stabilize family members of the injured people who were hurt at the scene, or we may even be called upon to stabilize the patient in a case where the patient is so activated that the paramedics cannot treat the person.”
Jonathan Hoffman, one of the new graduates, said he is eager “to have a positive impact on people who are suffering from an immediate trauma. I want to be there for them, and in the moment provide them with care that can save their lives. That is what the psychotrauma unit is really all about.”
Ballin added that the job often does not end at the scene.
“Another job of ours is to ease the mourning process and help the person do the things that they will need to do in order to get through the chaotic period following a trauma — whether it is helping them make the first few phone calls for funeral arrangements or assisting them and providing support while empowering them enough so that they will be able to tell their children that a family member has passed away.
“The job is certainly not easy, but it is important for the person’s health and stability in the moment and hopefully in the future.”
Tomorrow, Tuesday, there will a discussion in the Knesset on the issue of the roaming camels in the South. In preparation for discussion in the Knesset, Meir Deutsch, Director of Policy and government relations at Regavim, came to the studio of Walla! News and explained the severity of the disaster that roaming camels can cause.
In face of the fatal road accident that occurred last month in which a 60 year old woman was killed when her car collided with camels, Deutsch said “accidents involving camels are more fatal than regular traffic accidents. When there is a collision with a camel, the main brunt of the blow in the accident is on the driver. This is because the camel is so tall. The engine of the car is almost not damaged at all and all the weight of the camel, which is around on average a ton, falls on the driver.”
Regavim keeps close track of the phenomenon of stray camels in the Negev. The association also is the legal representative for the family of David Cohen, who was killed a year and a half ago after being hit by a roaming camel. “It is difficult to pick out camels when driving because of their color which is like the color of the dunes that blends in so well with the natural landscape,” added Deutsch. “If you hit a camel, it is very difficult to escape without injury.”
Deutsch affirms that each year the organization receives reports of approximately a thousand camels roaming the South. “The accident this past month could have been avoided. We and motorists have turned to the police and warned them. The Police indicated to us that they have received a very large amount of reports, but they have noticed that in the last two years they were successful in finding the owner of the camel only once. Usually Bedouins reach the accident site and cut the number imprinted on the camels ear in order to hide his affiliation to them. Most of the time it is not possible to find the owner.”
According to Deutsch, it is the responsibility of the camel’s owners to ensure that roaming does not go unsupervised near roads. “We are initiating a law that would require the owners to put a microchip on the camels under their skin much like on dogs, to help to be able to identify the owners.” He added that the incompetence of the authorities has led to loss of life on the roads. “Every year there are about 15 accidents with injuries. Three years ago, for example, an entire family perished in an accident. This is due to cost-saving policies by the camel owners. Instead of having the owners pay for hay to feed the camel, they send the camel out to graze in the open,” Deutsch said. “With the help of the bill of MK Bezalel Smotrich which has the support of 50 other MKs, which is being brought forth to the in the Knesset, we hope that the situation will change.”
Meir Ettinger has been set free. Accused of harboring independent views and ideologies, Ettinger spent 10 months in administrative detention. Administrative detention is supposed to e used for “ticking time bombs,” but in Ettinger’s case that rider was used liberally. After all, personal opinions can be instantly dangerous. At the end of the day, the charade the government insisted was the truth gave way to the reality that Ettinger’s true sin is that he is capable of inspiration.
“We see that G-d ‘doesn’t need us.’ I thought about what we say in Adon Olam: ‘G-d is my miracle and my refuge.’ There are two ways of acknowledging G-d here: there’s ‘the miraculous G-d,’ in which He’s like a flag. There are times in our lives when we carry G-d’s flag, or sort of carry the stretcher. It’s not because G-d needs us to, but rather because G-d wants it so and chose us. And there are times of ‘G-d is my refuge.’ In jail we see that G-d ‘doesn’t need us.’ It’s very important to continue the work. G-d does everything out of choice.”
Ettinger is a leader that causes us all to lead. In the darkness we now find ourselves in, when leaders forget their responsibility, Meir Ettinger teaches us that words drawn from truth are ore potent than the mightiest weapon.
Technologies to improve accessibility include smartphone controlled by head movements, eye-controlled keyboard and Makeathon-in-a-box.
Two Israeli nonprofits are among 30 international winners of Impact Challenge grants from Google.org to promote technological innovations that will make the world more accessible for people with disabilities.
It received $1,000,000 toward the joint development with Sesame Enable of a free solution that will allow people with limited mobility to operate smartphones with head movements. The beta product is now being distributed to individuals in Israel to test and gauge demand before a global rollout.
Beit Issie Shapiro also received $700,000 to develop Makeathon-in-a-box in conjunction with Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM), a project of the Tel Aviv-based Reut Group.
Makeathon-in-a-box is a template for community make-a-thons around the world that bring makers and people with disabilities together to build prototypes of new solutions for “orphan” accessibility challenges.
Prototypes that come from the make-a-thons will be open source, and featured solutions will be available for purchase on TOM’s website.
National health-support organization Ezer Mizion of Bnei Brak won a $400,000 grant from Google.org for its project with Israeli startup Click2speak to develop a keyboard controlled by eye tracking for people with limited mobility and high cognitive function.
In the United States alone, 7.5 million people have trouble using their voices, and many of them also have impaired motor skills, making effective communication a daily struggle. Click2Speak CTO Gal Sont knows this only too well, as he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) in 2009.
Using eye movements, Sont programmed a user-friendly, affordable and multilingual on-screen virtual keyboard controlled by eye tracking and an eye-operated communication system. The Ezer Mizion Augmentative and Alternative Communication Loan Center provides eligible clients with the beta version.
The Impact Challenge grant will allow Ezer Mizion and Click2Speak to pilot the product, gather user feedback and improve the core technology.
Lat week, the USA State Department weighed in on the shake up in Israel’s cabinet.
“We have also seen reports from Israel describing it as the most right-wing coalition in Israel’s history,” Mark Toner, a State Department spokesman, said. “This raises legitimate questions about the direction it may be headed in.”
The State Department was referring to Bibi Netanyahu’s inclusion of right wing nationalist party Israel Our Home into the government coalition. The move saw the Prime Minister replace Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon with Russian Firebrand Avigdor Lieberman as Defense Minister.
The real question though, is given the massive shift in the last elections to the right in Israel, the American government should take a step back before meddling in Israeli internal politics as they often do.
During the last Israeli elections the left wing saw a massive influx of cash through backdoor avenues from the State Department. In most countries that would be a crime. As Israel and America increasingly find themselves moving farther apart, Israel has staked out new partners in the emerging economies of Asia and Africa. With antagonism from Foggy Bottom only increasing, one should expect this trend to continue.
