Dear Readers,

We want to thank everyone who participated in our petition, regarding the security threat on the roads of Judea and Samaria.

We just received the following communication from the Prime Minister’s office, and would like to share it with you.

To: Mr. Stephen Leavitt, Editor-in-Chief, JewishPress.com

Dear Mr. Leavitt,

We acknowledge receipt of your e-mail dated June 4, 2013, and the petition which you enclosed.

The Government of Israel’s primary responsibility is for the security of the people and State of Israel, and all the Prime Minister’s decisions are guided by this imperative. We will continue to take all necessary steps to protect the right of every Israeli citizen – including that of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria – to live in peace, without the threat of violence and terrorism.

Kindly convey this message to all the signatories of the petition.

Sincerely,
Mark Regev
International Spokesman for the Prime Minister

Watch the video below the petition.

PM Netanyahu: Stop the Terrorism on the Roads of Judea and Samaria!

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To Prime MInister Netanyahu:

Stop the Terrorism.

Enforce Law and Order on the Roads of Judea and Samaria!

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JewishPress.com has been closely following the escalating terrorism in Gush Etzion. Below is a shocking video where you will see the what it like to have a rock thrown at you, and how the IDF has been responding. It is shocking that the government of Israel is unable to provide its citizens with the most elementary service: maintaining law and order on the roads.

Throughout the video below, you’ll see and hear similar behavior and comments to the effect. The Israeli authorities are simply not using their full resources and capabilities to protect Israeli citizens. This is the complete failure, both morally and ideologically, as well as operationally, of what is supposedly the strongest army in the Middle East.

We are outraged, and we urge you to sign our petition (above), to be delivered to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

Mr. Netanyahu: Stop the terrorism. Enforce Law and Order on the Roads of Judea and Samaria! 

The video, produced by Gush Etzion, is in Hebrew with English subtitles.

This petition is sponsored by JewishPress.com, WebAds, and 12 Tribe Films.

The Israeli government has announced a new step in plans to build 300 new homes in Beit El, in  northern Samaria, just as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is trying to convince Mahmoud Abbas to return to talks if Israel slaps a freeze on building for Jews in Judea and Samaria.

Reports from Israeli sources earlier this week stated that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has buckled under pressure from Kerry, and probably President Barack Obama, to freeze construction to bring Abbas back to the so-called negotiating table.

“Negotiations” in Arab Doublespeak means that Israel must accept Palestinian Authority territorial and political demands or they will be forced down its throat, either by the United Nations or by “resistance,” another Doublespeak word, which means terror.

No government  official has denied the reports of a “de facto” building freeze, and Prime Minister Netanyahu is conveniently in China.

Kerry hosted the government’s unofficial Minister for the Peace Process, Tzipi Livni, in Washington last week and continued discussions with her in Rome this week, where he said he will return to Israel in two weeks.

Journalists covering the State Department asked why he is returning after having been here last month, but the reports of the unofficial freeze provide the obvious answer.

But smack in the middle of Kerry’s Big Momentum – run as fast as you can with the ball so that everyone is too dazzled to see that the ball is a bomb – the government announced the next step for building 296 more homes in Beit El.

The town is not just another community in Samaria. More than 6.000 national religious Jews live there. Beit El is a symbol of the national religious movement in Judea and Samaria. A yeshiva bearing the town’s Biblical name has wide influence across the country. It is home to two of the most prominent national religious rabbis in Israel, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, head of Yeshiva Beit El, and Rabbi Shlomo Aviner, who is widely respected and consulted by many Jews who are not part of the “club.”

After the announcement of the preliminary approval of the homes, the Palestinian Authority immediately said everyone can forget about trying to dig up the bones of the peace process.

As with almost every announcement of building new homes, the one in Beit El refers only to one of several bureaucratic steps before the bulldozers can start digging, not less than a year from now.

Israel has been through this time after time, the most famous incident being the announcement of another bureaucratic stage having been completed for building homes in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, claimed by the Palestinian Authority.

The news broke just as Vice President Joe Biden was landing in Israel, causing high tension between Jerusalem and Washington for a long time.

Coincidental or not with Kerry’s dream for resumed direct talks between Netanyahu and Abbas, the Beit El housing project proves that Israel is trying to “sabotage” Kerry’s efforts, according to senior PA negotiator Saeb Erekat.

“We condemn this new decision which is proof that the Israeli government wants to sabotage and ruin the US administration’s efforts to revive the peace process,” he said. “This is a message to the American administration and a blow to the peace process. This aims to drag the region into violence instead of peace and stability.”

Violence.

Erekat did not even have the diplomacy to say “resistance.”

It is out-and-out violence, and obviously Kerry would blame Israel if the Arabs kill more Jews. Otherwise he would have to go back on his statement earlier this year that the proof that Abbas is such a great peace partner can be found in the fact that not even one Jew was murdered by Palestinian Authority terrorists in 2012.

What about 2011? Well, that is history. Let’s look at the present and not the past and talk peace.

And what about the present the year 2013? Uh, yeah, well, sure, a Palestinian Authority terrorist stabbed to death a father of five, but that was an isolated incident, and after all, the murderer was not a member of a known terrorist gang.

Kerry does not have to defend himself. He has Livni to do that for him. Both of them desperately need a peace agreement, Kerry because he wants to be president and Livni because she needs something to justify her being politically alive. The latest polls shows that her party would win zero seats in if elections were held today.

The Shomron (Samaria) Regional Council moved its offices to the site of Tuesday’s lethal terrorist attack and posted a sign “Eviyatar” at what is intended to become a new outpost in memory of the victim, 31-year-old Eviyatar Borovsky of Yitzhar.

“The Zionist response is to deepen Jewish roots in the land,” said Samaria Regional Council chairman Gerhson Mesika. He said he will operate the council’s offices at the site until families are able to move there.

An army previously was located on the hilltop overlooking the Tapuach Junction in northern Samaria.

The Fatah party, headed by Palestinian Authority PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, took no more than 12 hours before lauding the terrorist who stabbed to death 31-year-old Evyatar Borovsky, father of five children, Tuesday morning in northeastern Samaria.

The praise directly contradicts Obama administration claims that the Palestinian Authority no longer incites terror.

A picture of the  terrorist and of the victim, with tefillin, were posted on Fatah’s Facebook page, and the text, translated and published online by the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), calls the murderer, “The hero, the released prisoner, Salam Al-Zaghal.”

Al-Zaghal was released from jail last year after serving time for hurling rocks at Jews. Out of jail, he abandoned rocks and firebombs on Tuesday for more serious weapons, like a deadly knife.

“The youth Salam Al-Zaghal who stabbed the settler at the Al-Za’atara military checkpoint comes from the village of Shweika located in the Tulkarm District. He is a released prisoner who sat in the occupation’s prisons for 4 years,” the Fatah page stated, according to PMW.

Under one picture, a caption states, “Salam Al-Zaghal who stabbed the settler at the Al-Za’atara checkpoint is a released prisoner who sat in the occupation’s prisons for 4 years.”

Another caption reads, “Peace upon you, on the day of your birth, on the day of your arrest, and on the day you will go free”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry bragged last month that proof of the Palestinian Authority’s presumed ability to promote peace and not terror is the fact that no one Jew was killed in 2012.

He did not talk about 2011, when a two-year-old boy and his American-Israeli father, Asher Palmer, were killed after a Palestinian Authority terrorist hurled a rock at their vehicle. The rock hit Palmer in the head, and he lost control of his car, which crashed off the highway’s shoulder, killing him and his son.

It remains to be seen if Kerry will talk about 2013, although he can claim that for four full months, minus one day, a Palestinian Authority terrorist did not kill any Jews.

That does not means they did not try, not once and not twice but hundreds of times.

At Tapuach junction (Samaria / Shomron), connecting traffic from Jerusalem, Ariel and Tel Aviv, an Arab terrorist, on Tuesday morning, stabbed and killed an Israeli man (32), grabbed his gun and started shooting at the nearby IDF Border Police. The victim was Evyatar Borovsky a resident of Yitzhar, and actor, and the father of 5 children.

Evyatar Borovsky Z”L

The IDF Border Police unit shot back hitting the terrorist in the leg. The terrorist was transported to Beilinson (Rabin) hospital.

It is not clear why they shot the terrorist in the leg, and not the head.

The Fatah terrorist had been released from Israeli prison just 6 months ago, after serving 3 years for another terror attack involving planting a bomb.

The terrorist’s brother is in a Palestinian Authority prison for allegedly collaborating with Israel.

The nearby strategic checkpoint, a mere 30 meters north of where the terror attack took place, that protected the area was removed a few months ago, under orders of former Defense Minister Ehud Barak, due to pressure from the radical-leftwing NGO Machsom Watch.

Last night, two terrorists were caught at the same location carrying a firebombs and knives, as reported by HaKol HaYehudi.

There have been 4 terror attempts at this junction in the past month alone.

Deputy Minister Tzipi Hotoveli (LIkud) said, “The terror attack in the Shomron is a direct result of the incitement coming from the heart of the [Palestinian] Authority against Israel and the Jewish people, and the responsibility falls on the [Palestinian] Authority and those that stand at its head”.

Rabbi Chaim Goldberg, the Rosh Yeshiva of a Kedumim High School, told the Tazpit News Agency that as he approached the Tapuach Junction he noticed there was mayhem: “I saw three young women jump into the street. I then heard shots fired. I noticed a person who was lying on the ground get up with a gun in his hand. I slowed down and ducked so he wouldn’t see me. I then called the emergency center to notify them about the incident. I now understand that the terrorist nabbed the gun from the Jew he murdered and I was the first target he saw.”

Several bullets hit his vehicle, but he was not injured.

Evyatar Borovsky’s funeral will begin at 5:30 PM in Kfar Chassidim.

Centuries before Jews trekked to Jerusalem for prayer, Jewish pilgrims came to the Mishkan Tabernacle in Shiloh to pray to God on chaggim, holidays and whenever they could.  Yes, the Shiloh where I live is the same Shiloh, which was the spiritual and administrative Capital of the Jewish Nation for almost four hundred years, from the time of Joshua until Shmuel Hanavi, Samuel the Prophet.

Yesterday,  a group of women came from all over Israel to visit and pray at the ancient site, Shiloh HaKeduma, Tel Shiloh.  They have been in touch with me via social media, mostly Facebook  and we have been planning this trip for months.

They traveled from various parts of the country by bus and car for the opportunity to pray where Chana prayed and see the modern Jewish community that has grown on the same site where our ancestors lived and visited.

The highlight, of course, was the chance to pray and say T’hillim, Psalms to God, in the very spot most experts, archaeologists and Biblical scholars believe the Mishkan had once stood.

Everyone agreed that the visit was spiritually exhilarating, despite all their time traveling.

Afterwards, we spent some time in the Visitors Center, where you can buy drinks, snacks, local crafts and souvenirs, including  wine and olive oil from the area.

Pilgrims can’t leave hungry, especially Jewish pilgrims to Shiloh.  The last stop of the group was the local dairy restaurant, pizza place, where everyone ordered a delicious meal,and we even skyped with a member of the group who presently lives abroad. Thank God for modern technology.  Of course, the entire group is due to modern technology, internet and social media.  Almost all of us are writers, bloggers and photographers, so there should be more posts in various sites and blogs in the internet about this visit.

For information about Shiloh HaKeduma, Tel Shiloh, contact visit@telshilo.org.il or call 02-994-4019.  They cater to both groups and individual visitors besides running large public events during Jewish Holidays.

Visit Shiloh Musings.

Israeli reserve soldiers prevented a major terrorist attack in Sunday by arresting a Palestinian Authority terrorist at the checkpoint immediately west of Kfar Saba, north of Tel Aviv. The highway to the checkpoint is the main artery for Ginot and Karnei Shomron and Kedumim,

The terrorist was caught with an improvised firearm, ammunition and a map of the crossing. He intended to commit a terror attack at the crossing.

The reservists patrolling the checkpoint spotted the terrorist’s suspicious behavior and arrested him before he could carry out the intended attack.