6 Tishrei 5778
26 September 2017
SPECIAL NOTICE:
Israelstreet mourns the loss of three of our finest yesterday (see blog below).
From left to right: Solomon Gavriyah, Youssef Ottman, and Or Arish (photo: Times of Israel).
May their memories be forever blessed.
The News On the Israel Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
The barbaric Palestinian terror attack at Har Adar is the subject of Today’s Blog (see below), but to think that was all of the Palestinian terror yesterday would be a mistake.
Palestinian terrorists tried to kill Israelis in more than 30 other attacks involving “rocks”, Molotovs, and other weapons at such places as the Trans-Judea Road near Tarquimiyya, in the Casbah in Hevron, on the Gush Etzion Road near Hevron, on Route 90 near the northern entrance to Jericho, at Silwan, Tekoa, Beit Haggai, Al-Arub, on Route 465 near Deir Nizam, north of Efrat, Bidu, Ras al-Amud, Sur Baher, Beit Awwa, and near Talmonim.*
*The above information was gleaned from citizens’ reports made on hakolhayehudi and Rescue Judea and Samaria.
The new Gaza Security Fence begins to go up, finally . . .
Almost two years after the end of the last war with Palestinian Hamas in Gaza, the first segment of the new barrier to block Hamas tunnels has finally been finished. The plan is for it to be completed in 18 months.
Part of the new segment of the new Gaza Security Fence. Most of it is underground.
How is this fence different from all the other fences around Israel?
It is deep–so deep in fact that digging under it is vastly more difficult than in the past, and it has sensors to detect “incoming” tunnels. It is also expected that the mere digging of the fence will reveal heretofore unknown Hamas tunnels into Israel. To speed construction of the Fence, the IDF is employing more than 1000 workers to build the Fence, and committing a significant number of IDF troops to guard the workers.
After all, Hamas has ridiculously declared that the building of the Gaza Security Fence is an act of war.
TODAY’S BLOG:
The Cold Blooded Executions at Har Adar
Context: Your humble servant is extremely familiar with the entire area around Har Adar and in fact wrote a blog “A Short Trip to Har Adar (and Abu Ghosh)” back in July 2015. I encourage you to read it by clicking here.
In that blog, I included the following complicated map:
This is an overview of the entire area north of Jerusalem and south of Ramallah (the yellow area in the upper right corner above Beituniya).
Here’s a view just focusing on Har Adar:
Notice that Har Adar is in the “Seam Zone” between the green dotted Armistice Line and the red lined security fence. Also note the green x’s which are security checkpoints (the one between Har Adar and Beit Iksa/Beit Surik is where the murders took place yesterday), and notice Beit Surik where the terrorist came from.
So what happened yesterday?
Palestinian workers with work permits were coming into Har Adar through the checkpoint described above. They were coming from surrounding Palestinian settlements such as Qatanna, Al Qubeiba, Beit Iksa, Biddu, and Beit Surik. In fact, hundreds of such workers come through that particular checkpoint everyday.
Normally, it is a very relaxed situation. The Border Police and civilian security guards know the workers, and vice versa. The process is simply that the workers show their green work permit as they walk through the inspection booth, and that’s it. Most of the Palestinian workers are over 30 years old, and they have been working in the Har Adar area for many years.
It was 7 am; all was proceeding normally. The terrorist, a 37 year old man who was a regular worker in Har Adar and who was well known to the security personnel (he shall remain unnamed here per israelstreet policy), showed his permit, and walked through. However, one of the Israeli security personnel noticed something suspicious about his movements, and called him back into the inspection booth.
He came back into the booth where there were 4 security people who had their backs to him, pulled out a gun, and at a distance of 1 meter (3 ft), fired 10 bullets into the backs of the 4, execution style.
Border Policeman Solomon Gavriyah a 20 year old Ethiopian-Israeli whose family came to Israel in 1999, Youssef Ottman, a 25 year old Israeli-Arab civilian security guard from Abu Ghosh (who had served meritoriously in the IDF), and Or Arish, a 25 year old security guard from Har Adar were all killed instantly.
Another security guard, 33 year old Amit Steinhart who happened to be standing behind Or Arish managed to survive despite being shot in the shoulder, hip, spleen, and diaphragm. Steinhart credits Arish with saving his life.
Meanwhile, another Border Policeman on the scene shot and killed the terrorist.
All three of the dead were buried yesterday.
Gavriyah was buried in the Beer Yakov Military Cemetary to the sobs and wails of his family and girlfriend. He was remembered as a wonderful young man who was a fierce defender of Israel who had been stabbed in a previous terror attack but had insisted on returning to the front lines. The picture below is Gavriyah being laid to rest.
Othman was buried in Abu Ghosh. In a daze, his father spoke to the media extolling his son for his IDF service, and revealing that his son knew the terrorist well. He seemed to be at a loss to understand what had happened. It was also revealed that Othman’s cousin had been killed in a Palestinian terror attack at the Mehana Yehuda Market in Jerusalem years before.
Arish was buried in Har Adar and was remembered as one of the stalwarts of the community–a man who could always be counted on for help and support. Many said that his name “Or” (light) perfectly suited him.
In the aftermath of the murders, we heard the same tired declarations and stories:
PM Netanyahu opened the weekly cabinet meeting saying that the terrorist’s home would be destroyed, and that Mahmoud Abbas and the PLO incited the murderer and therefore must condemn the terror (he hasn’t as yet).
Defense Minister Lieberman demanded that a death penalty be instituted for terrorists.
The Israelis news media sociologically focused on the the terrorist’s “troubled nature”–that his wife had left him because of domestic abuse and fled to Jordan leaving him with their 4 children.
Hamas called the terrorist a hero and said that they hoped that this would start a new intifada.
Riots broke out in the the terrorist’s home settlement of Beit Surik and elsewhere. Here is a video of what Israeli security faced in Beit Surik (note the appliances being thrown off the roof of a building at Israeli vehicles passing down the main street). Click here.
A woman who employed the terrorist in Har Adar blathered in a typical leftist lament, “As far as I’m concerned, it is still hard for me to call him a terrorist. He worked for me, I was not afraid of him. . . . I was with him for hours, sometimes even alone together. He told me about the conflict with his wife . . . He was a member of my house . . .”
It is worthwhile remembering that the terrorist’s plan apparently was not to kill the security personnel, but to massacre people in Har Adar.
Nevertheless, there were some differences in the wake of the attack.
Let’s not forget that President Trump’s emissary Jason Greenblatt is in Jerusalem again to hammer out the start of a new “peace process”. And remember from our blog two days ago that the first step of that process is supposed to be Israel giving economic concessions to the Palestinians such as the establishment of industrial zones and construction of roads and other infrastructure.
The Security Cabinet decided last night–at the insistence of various “right wing” members such as Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked—that Israel will freeze those gestures for the time being.
And how about this?
For the first time in two years, the American Embassy in Tel Aviv and the American consulate in Jerusalem jointly condemned terrorism:
“We condemn in the strongest terms the horrific attack that took place today in Har Adar; we also condemn statements that condone acts of terrorism, and call on everyone to come out with a clear message that terror acts will not be tolerated.”
This may seem like a perfunctory declaration, but in the Obama years, the Consulate in Jerusalem operated completely independently from the Embassy in Tel Aviv–and never issued statements condemning Palestinians for any acts of terror.
In sum, three more wonderful Israelis are dead. Palestinian workers continue flooding into Israel. An absurd “peace process” continues.
So goes life this morning here in Israel.
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A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.