Orit ben Tzvi, Author at Israel Rising

September 4, 2016September 4, 2016

BREAKING NEWS: ICC on the Way to Israel…Will This Time be Different?

For the first time since 2014 a major international investigative body is coming to Israel. In the past the ICC took one-sided stances as far as Israel and the “Palestinian” Arab, yet the International Criminal Court has promised that this time would be different.

For one, neither of the past two commissioners of previous investigations have been allowed in the country. Secondly, the ICC and Israel out of mutual interest will be carrying joint press conferences. The question for observers is why?

There are no real answers, but Bibi Netanyahu’s seeming change in approach is most likely due to the ICC coming down from its own tree. Afterall the region has changed from bad to worse, with the Syrian conflict overshadowing anything the ICC has accused Israel of in the past. Furthermore, past investigations have been so one-sided the ICC has lost a great deal of legitimacy.

Perhaps the about-face by Israel has more to do with its new-found involvement in Sub Saharan Africa and increased integration as a tech giant with many of the emerging economies. After all, most of the attacks on Israel throughout the years have been directed from developing nations that have been cajoled to support Arab causes. With this the Arab block losing its leverage on these countries, Israel has far more wiggle room in the international arena.

Don’t Trust Them

That being said, the trip is not just for PR, but to determine whether the ICC needs to step in and run its own investigation on Israel’s actions. This is the same ICC that declared its support for a Palestinian State in Judea and Samaria.

The government may feel it is in its best interest to placate the court with a warmer visit, but the ICC as an arm of Western ambitions throughout the region and the developing world does not have Israel’s interest in mind.

Part of the trip, led by chief investigator Fatou Bensouda is to find out if Israel can be trusted to run its own investigation into the 2014 Gaza war as well as the “Palestinian” territories in Judea and Samaria. Although Bensouda recognized Palestinian statehood as per the recommendation of UN General Assembly in 2015, she has since struck a far more conciliatory tone.

In an interview earlier in the year with the Jerusalem Post Bensouda insists she will only follow the Rome Statute:

“We are not looking, judging the whole judicial system of any state or any system that is supposed to have jurisdiction or that could exercise jurisdiction. We are not looking at the judicial system and how it is functioning. We are looking particularly at specific crimes and we are looking at specific conduct, we’re looking at specific persons, who bear responsibility for those crimes and what is being done with regard to that…and as I always say [we are doing this] in an independent and very dispassionate way and this is very critical whether it is in…any other situation.”

Yet, given Israel’s experience in the past and the wide ability for the ICC to operate once it is allowed to do so, should give Israel pause in how much leeway it gives the court. For now it is still deliberating on keeping the trip to a series of photo-ops or allowing the court to bring reps into Arab villages inside Judea and Samaria.

August 30, 2016September 4, 2016

BREAKING NEWS: United Nations Officially Declares its Support for Arab Terrorism

The UN has officially announced that it not only believes that Jews should be prohibited from building on lands they have lived on for millenia, but openly supports terrorism against the Jews that live in these areas.

After the IDF announced it had fulfilled its duty to destroy the home of the terrorist Abd al-Majid in Dura who had murdered Rabbi Mickey Mark on route 60 in Har Hebron, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the “occupied Palestinian” issued a demolition alert for the house.

Punitive demolition reported this morning in Dura pic.twitter.com/ujnf8vftkt

— OCHA oPt (Palestine) (@ochaopt) August 30, 2016

This behavior coupled with the following statement from Nikolay Mladenov, the UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process makes it clear the UN firmly believes that civilian lives when they are Jewish are in no way equal to the property of known murderers.

“No legal acrobatics can change the fact that all outposts, whether legalized by Israeli law or not, whether located on state land or absentee land or private Palestinian land – just like all settlements in Area C and East Jerusalem – remain illegal under international law,” said Mladenov.

Once again, the UN does differentiate or acknowledge any historic and indigenous rights of the Jewish people in their ancestral lands. By dissociating the two, the UN gives Arab murderers free rein to kill Jews.

August 25, 2016

WAR DRUMS: Hezbollah Explosives a Precursor to the Next Conflict

The Israeli military has confirmed that the explosives found in Metulah on the border of Lebanon 3 weeks ago were indeed placed there by Hezbollah. There are two pervading opinions in the defense establishment, one is the explosives were smuggled into Israel for terrorist attacks. The other opinion believes the explosives were placed in the woods near Metulah to be used at some later date in a war with Israel.

Although Hezbollah is in no shape to fight a war with Israel while they are taking on ISIS, the newly formed understandings between Turkey and Russia may be a sign that Hezbollah can pull back and let Turkey mop up. If this is the case then Hezbollah will be well positioned to fight another war with Israel, this time with Iranian forces firmly entrenched on the Golan border.

The explosives are an ominous sign for what awaits Israel as changes in the Middle East are fast underway.

August 24, 2016

BREAKING NEWS: Turkey Invades Syria as Next Stage in War Begins

Multiple sources are reporting that Turkish special forces backed by artillery fire and F-16’s have begun a direct military assault on ISIS positions in Northern Syria. Turkish combat units such as regular infantry and tanks have rolled up to the Syrian border and are preparing to enter sovereign Syrian territory for the first time.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said:

Daesh [ISIS] should be completely cleansed from our borders and we are ready to do what it takes for that.

This change in Turkey’s relationship to the ongoing Syrian civil war is drastic and very well can lead to untold consequences as Turkey’s goals both align with the anti-ISIS coalition as well as are in conflict with it. Erdogan often times uses ISIS as a foil to attack Kurdish positions in both Syria and Iraq. The Turkish government has resigned itself to a Kurdish autonomous zone in Northern Iraq, but when the Syrian Kurds literally declared a federalized autonomous entity in Northern Syria, Turkey knew it had limited time to react before an inevitable Kurdish state arose on its border stretching from the Mediterranean to Iran.

The anti-ISIS particulars behind Turkey’s intensifying an already out of control conflict gives it the wiggle room it needs to invade Syria. The only question remains is whether Putin agreed to this or not. If he did not, then the Syrian civil war just got a whole lot uglier.

Yet, if this was agreed between Erdogan and Putin beforehand then the Russian leader must have promised Erdogan something big in return for destroying the very group Turkey helped set up in order to make a lot of money off the illegal oil trade. Of course, Erdogan didn’t do this alone. US and NATO were at least complicit with the set up of ISIS, a radical Sunni group in Eastern Syria. Using oil as payment to Turkey, NATO and the US were free to establish a blocking force against Iranian advancement, albeit one that has grown out of control.

Now with Turkey’s pivot to Russia, ISIS is more of a hindrance than a help. So what is the quid pro quo from Russia? Russia’s abandonment of the Kurds makes that an easy answer.

August 16, 2016August 16, 2016

BREAKING NEWS: Settler Mother Arrested for Asking the Police Why they are Arresting Her Son

A mother of six was arrested today in front of her kids, the littlest a two year old girl for simply asking the officers why they were taking her son away in broad daylight? Witnesses say he was handcuffed and beaten after having been found with a construction knife. The mother was dragged away for simply asking the police why they covered their badge numbers as well as giving no reason for arresting her son.

The mother and her 16 year old son are currently being held at the Moriah police station in Jerusalem.m

The family are residents of one of the many communities in Judea. Settler youth are often times harrassed and profiled in a dispraportianate way by the Israeli police force, which remains in the hands of the tradionally leftwing justice system.

The woman’s children were led away by their 14 year old brother who video taped most of the incident. They were threatened to be taken away by social services, but were able to escape on a bus back home. Witnesses say the baby was crying for hours for her mother.

“Instead of chasing terrorists and real criminals, the Israeli police arrest a 16 year old boy and his mother in front of her little children including her 2 year old little girl. For what? for questioning the the officer? How dare she? Real heroes!! What an embarrassment!!!” said the boy’s father, who was not there.

In the video below the boy can be seen taken away and pushed to the ground with the mother asking why they are taking him. A total of five police cars were used for this incident.

Settler mother tries to stop the police from unlawfully beating up and arresting her son and in the process gets beaten and arrested herself. Story to follow soon.

Posted by Israel Rising on Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Posted by Israel Rising on Tuesday, August 16, 2016

The incident brings back memories where the police used draconian tactics to keep under age settler youth behind bars with no charges. Most of those youth have been ordered out of police custody by the courts after the security services failed to present any evidence.