The IDF spokesperson’s office on Tuesday morning confirmed that two surface-to-air missiles were shot at IAF attack planes that were on a mission inside Syria’s airspace. The IDF says the planes were far from the source of the missiles, and the attack did not constitute a serious threat.

The IDF announcement came in response to Syrian state media which had reported that the regime’s army claims it hit the Israeli aircraft while they were retaliating against targets near Quneitra in the Syrian Golan Heights.

The story that emerges from a variety of Arab social media reports Monday night, Syrian government claims and the IDF version, is that while the Israeli Air Force was hitting Syrian Army positions in Quneitra Monday, in response to a mortar shell that landed in Israeli territory, the Syrian Army responded by launching two S-200 (SAM) ground-to-air missiles from an airbase on the outskirts of Damascus, at Mount Qasioun. The missiles did not hit the Israeli fighter jets.

The IAF attack was the first since the beginning of the ceasefire that had been declared by Russia and the US in Syria on Monday. The IDF spokesperson released a statement saying Israel “views the Syrian regime as responsible for what takes place in its territory and would not tolerate any attempt to harm Israel’s sovereignty and the security of its citizens.”

The S-200 is a very long range, medium-to-high altitude surface-to-air missile system designed in the 1960s to defend large areas from bomber attack or other strategic aircraft. The system became operational in 1966. In its original design the S-200 probably couldn’t pose a serious threat to a 21st century attack aircraft, however, according to reports, in 2013 the Iranian air defense force improved its S-200 systems, introducing solid state parts and removing restrictions on working time. According to an Iranian report, an Iranian S-200 destroyed a UAV target beyond a 60 mile range in a military drill in recent years. The Iranians use two new solid propellant missiles, named Sayyad-2 and Sayyad-3, in cooperation with the S-200 system, and can cover medium and long ranges at high altitudes.

In August, The Jewish Press Online cited the Syrian Al-Etihad Press Network’s report that Iranian military reinforcements (Revolutionary Guards) have moved into Quneitra. At the same time, Iran was claiming that the forces in question were a contingency of Hezbollah and the Assad regime’s Army. Of course, it could be all three, and the reports Monday that these forces, or forces aligned with them in Damascus, have begun to shoot S-200 missiles at the IAF, may suggest an approaching escalation on Israel’s Syrian border.

“The minor from Yitzhar” has become its own paradigm in rightwing Israeli media (leftwing outlets are yet to report this outrage).

A 15-year-old boy who, by decree of the former defense minister, Moshe Yaalon, was ordered out of Judea and Samaria, where his parents live, in the settlement of Yitzhar. It was an administrative decree, issued at the whim of the permanent martial law authorities that have governed the Jewish communities in the “territories” for fifty years.

Said decree was not required to specify what the minor from Yitzhar had done to bring on himself the wrath of the minister, it was simply issued, and turned into a living hell the life of the boy, his parents and his family and family friends inside the “green line” where he was forced to seek shelter.

The latter part, about the living hell, has to do with the requirement of Israel police to check on civilians who are removed from Judea and Samaria by administrative decree. Police show up around three in the morning, the preferred time for action by police everywhere, ring bells, bang on doors, wake up entire neighborhoods, because it’s what police do. And so, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to discover that the minor from Yitzhar faced a hard time convincing his parents’ family and acquaintances — including his grandparents who live in Petach Tikvah — to give him shelter for too many nights in a row, because they need their sleep.

Take for instance last Monday morning, that’s very early Monday morning, when policemen and detectives arrived at a home in Karmiel, in northern Israel, where the minor from Yitzhar was staying, and picked him up for interrogation at the local police station. The reason was that the fax (what decade is this?) he was supposed to send police, telling them his address that night, had been sent just after the required time.

Ah, police harassment, that unique combination of abuse of power and contempt for civilians, it’s why Israeli police patrol cars don’t say silly stuff like the LAPD’s “To protect and to serve,” or the NYPD’s CPR: “Courtesy, Professionalism, Respect.” It just says “Police,” and if you’re a minor from Yitzhar tormented by the remnant ire of an already deposed defense czar, you know that patrol cars only spell harassment.

At noon on Monday, the legal aid society Honenu represented the minor from Yitzhar against the police’s attempt to keep him in jail until they’re done prosecuting him for that late fax.

Petach Tikvah Peace Court Judge Hannah Schnitzer-Zaga refused to proceed with the silly hearing and compelled the prosecution to reach a livable compromise with the defense. So they did, and the minor from Yitzhar was released on the same terms as before, including having to send those faxes on time. Also, police were warned not to carry out those late night surprise visits they enjoy so much.

Honenu attorney Chai Haber who represents the minor from Yitzhar noted that “it looks like all of the country’s security issues have been resolved, because otherwise it’s hard to understand why law enforcement is investing so many resources in harassing a 15-year-old boy with no priors.”

No one doubts that police harassment of the boy will continue. Attorney Haber related an incident when one night, when the minor from Yitzhar found himself without a place to sleep, he walked into a police station asking for help finding shelter for the night — so they opened a new case against him for breaking the terms of his release.

MKs Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) and Yehuda Glick (Likud) have requested an urgent Knesset discussion of the case of the minor from Yitzhar, whose life has been interrupted and uprooted for several months now by what appears to be Moshe Yaalon’s sheer vindictiveness. One man has the power to put an end to this cruelty is Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan (Likud). His email is gerdan@knesset.gov.il.

Using hi-tech terminology, former startup mogul and current security cabinet minister Naftali Bennett (Habayit Hayehudi) described the young Arab terrorists who have been attacking Israeli civilians as entrepreneurs whose murderous attacks are a form of “exit,” as in the much yearned for exit of hi-tech startup ventures.

“In other words, this one terrorist, who usually suffers from psychological and other problems, decides to do an exit for his family, because when he goes out and gets killed his family starts receiving a monthly stipend,” Bennett told Israel Radio Sunday morning.

According to Bennett, he presented the Saturday late-night meeting of the cabinet with a list of solutions, many of which have been adopted. “Significant decisions have been made,” Bennett told Israel Radio, adding, “The test will be in how they are carried out.”

“We’re talking about a new kind of terrorism, viral terrorism,” Bennett explained. “It’s not organized from above the way we’ve been accustomed to in the past. It emanates from a general inspiration over the Internet, on Facebook and on the social networks, followed by local, personal initiatives. The main inspiration is when an attack succeeds and then this success is reported over the networks.”

“The first incomprehensible thing is that until this day, for every terrorist that was killed, his family started to receive a stipend from the Palestinian Authority. … We now decided that the families of terrorists in the PA will no longer receive this money. We’ll make sure to prevent it.”

Asked how long the IDF could maintain its closure of the Hebron area, with its estimated 700 thousand Arabs, Bennett said the closure is not a solution to the viral problem. “If we proceed with antiquated action it won’t block terrorism. We must adopt new actions to deal with this new kind of terrorism.”

“It is unacceptable that the family of a terrorist will celebrate while we are in mourning. It is unacceptable that the family members of the murderer of Hallel Areil would praise him — and, indeed, they have been arrested and are under interrogation at the moment. This is something we didn’t do in the past. I’d like to see this not as a one-time thing, but as part of the protocol from now on. … These are family members who have contributed to the murder in active and passive illegal ways.”

Regarding the thawing of a construction bid that was frozen a year and a half ago, for 42 new housing units in Kiryat Arba, where the murder of Hallel Ariel took place last Thursday, Bennett told the interviewer, Aryeh Golan, who wondered how this move would prevent terrorism, that the aim of the terrorists is to kick the Jews from Judea and Samaria, and so the proper response is to make certain, with action, that the reverse is taking place.

“You wanted us to leave, but instead we are deepening our roots,” Bennett said, adding that 42 housing units are not nearly close to the number of new housing units that should be built to enhance Jewish life in Judea and Samaria.

“The history of Zionism is filled with examples of new communities that were erected in places where our people have fallen,” he told his interviewer. “Kiryat Shmona, Givat HaShlosha, Ma’ale HaKhamisha,” Bennett cited Jewish communities inside the green line who were named after eight, three, and five victims of Arab violence, consecutively. “The Zionist response has always been to build. For the past one hundred years that’s what we do and will continue to do.”

As to Facebook, which Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) has accused of adding a monstrous contribution to murder of innocent Israeli civilians, Bennett agreed that users of Facebook and other social networks have been instructing Arab youths on how to carry out murderous attacks on Jews, with clear technical details.

“Just as Facebook are using algorithms which automatically and semi-automatically block pornographic material from being uploaded, so can they decide—at a moment’s notice—to impose the same controls on content that encourages terrorism,” Bennett said.

Arab terrorists attacked the Jerusalem Light Rail in the evening on Tuesday.

The attackers hurled large rocks at the train as it passed through the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.

None of the passengers were physically injured but at least one of the windows in a car on the train was smashed, requiring the train to be taken out of service.

The train is often attacked by Arabs in northern Jerusalem, costing the CityPass company that owns the rail line hundreds of thousands of shekels each year in repairs.

U.S. military forces have eliminated a major Al Qaeda terrorist leader in Libya, according to Libyan officials in the eastern town of Beyda who spoke with media on Monday.

The radical Islamist, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is an Algerian who led a deadly attack on an Algerian gas drilling site and had been dubbed by the French military as “uncatchable.”

Belmokhtar was targeted in a U.S. strike Saturday night on a farmhouse in a city near Benghazi that also killed seven members of the Ansar al Shari’a terrorist organization who were meeting at the site.

Pentagon spokesperson Col. Steve Warren told media in a briefing on Monday that military officials are continuing to assess the results of the operation in order to obtain confirmation of the kill.

A terrorist from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) was critically wounded Sunday morning in an Israeli Air-force attack in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, while riding his motorcycle, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s office.

The assassination attempt was executed in cooperation with the Shabac-GSS. Palestinian sources report a second injury as a result of the same attack.

According to the IDF, the attack’s target, Abdullah Harti, 29, had taken part in shooting rockets into Israel and in planning additional high-trajectory rocket attacks.

“The IDF is seriously concerned about every shooting attempt into the State of Israel and will continue to act with force against any terror attempt. The IDF is laid out and prepared to defend the citizens of the State of Israel,” the IDF Spokesperson stated.

Harti, a resident of the Nuseirat Refugee Camp, had been involved in recent years in planning and executing different kinds of attacks against Israel in the Gaza Strip and along the Sinai border. Among other acts of terrorism, Harti has been collaborating with the Global Jihad Ansar Beit al-Maqdisi group in the northern Sinai, an attack on Rt. 12 in August 2011, and several rocket volleys against Eilat last January.

Advertising and marketing are everywhere we look: on billboards and blimps, on television and film, in our newspapers and magazines, on the food boxes we eat from, even on the clothes we wear. This is a far cry from our society 50 years ago – have you ever seen an old film or television show with product placement? These advertisements often increase and shift our desire and even tell us how we might feel and act. Consumer behavior shifts based not on personal needs, economic considerations, or ethical concerns, but on the power of gimmicks and social branding.

For better or worse, the United States has become the advertising capital of the world. Total U.S. advertising expenditures reached nearly $140 billion in 2012, more than a quarter of world advertising expenditures. These can range from the sponsorship of valuable cultural activities or messages urging a more healthful living style to deceptive ads from businesses that endlessly claim to be going out of business and holding one final sale.

One example of an industry full of deceptive advertising is big tobacco, which promotes one of the most addictive and life-threatening substances known to humanity. From top to bottom, it issues false propaganda. For example, in 1994, executives of seven tobacco companies testified before Congress and lied by saying that smoking tobacco was not addictive. Significantly, however, when pressed, the executives added that they hoped that their children would not become smokers.

Tobacco advertisers have proven extraordinarily resilient and successful in promoting their products. While tobacco ads have been banned from radio and television for more than a generation, they have discovered other ways to advertise. They have learned to increase their messaging through sponsoring sports and social events where people cannot avoid exposure to their logos. In addition, cigarette companies target specific populations using various tactics:

• Adolescents are targeted with ads that make smoking appealing. Numerous studies have concluded that tobacco advertising plays a key role in turning adolescents from occasional to addicted smokers, and are especially successful in hooking those who believe that they will not become addicted. Virtually every schoolteacher can confirm that students congregate in bathrooms to show their defiance of authority by smoking.
• Women are targeted with special brands that show very thin, fashionable women, encouraging the idea that smoking is a way to reduce weight.
• Latino Americans are targeted by cigarette brands with Spanish names such as Rio and Dorado.
• Studies have shown that African Americans are exposed to several hundred more cigarette ads than white people each year.

Fortunately, society can take steps against such harmful advertisements and promotions, and we can resist false messages. We no longer have to contend with smoke-filled restaurants and theaters, or feel obligated to have ashtrays in our home ready for anyone who chooses to come in and smoke at will. Also, the percentage of American smokers has declined from about 42 percent in 1965 to 19 percent in 2011. In addition, the federal government passed legislation in 2009 that empowered the FDA to regulate tobacco products and gave states the right to restrict cigarette advertising and promotion through means such as restricting the time and place where these activities could occur. Thus far, 20 states now restrict or prohibit places where free tobacco samples can be distributed. Still, today nearly 44 million Americans smoke tobacco, and in 2011 cigarette companies spent $8.37 billion on advertising and promotional activities in the United States. Advertising has the power to persuade, and to deceive.

As religious Jews, one pertinent question about advertising and its relationship to deception and promoting harmful decisions and habits is, what is halacha’s view of this?

In “The Impact of Jewish Values on Marketing and Business Practices,” Hershey Friedman, a professor at Brooklyn College, argues that while Jewish law may not explicitly forbid the influencing of consumers, it clearly violates the spirit of the law. (Specifically, it is geneivat data, deception, which is a Biblical prohibition).

The Talmud (Chullin 94a) gives an example of how business must not include any deception, towards Jews or non-Jews: “A person should not sell shoes made of the leather of an animal that died of natural causes (which is inherently weaker) under the pretense that it was made from the leather of an animal that was slaughtered.” The Shulchan Aruch bring this as halachah (CM 228:6).

Businesses need to compete, and advertising is the norm in commercial life. It is not an option to stop advertising. Further, Jewish law does embrace the notion that a reasonable person’s expectation can be assumed. One Talmudic passage gives an example:

Mar Zutra was once going from Sikara to Mahoza, while Rava and R. Safra were going to Sikara; and they met on the way. Believing that they had come to meet him, he said, “Why did you take the trouble to come so far to meet me?” R. Safra replied, “We did not know that you were coming; had we known, we would have done more than this.” Rava said to him, “Why did you say that to him? Now you have upset him.” He replied, “But we would be deceiving him otherwise.” “No, he would be deceiving himself” (Chullin 94b).

Rav Safra argues that one may not gain from the false perception of another. Rather one must proactively correct that misunderstanding to ensure an unfair moral debt is not created. Rava, on the other hand, believes there is responsibility from the other not to be self-deceived. Aaron Levine, author of “Case Studies in Jewish Business Ethics,” explains that one must not only avoid wrong but proactively assure consumers of the truth. “The seller’s disclosure obligation consists not only of a duty not to mislead in an affirmative manner but also of a requirement to disabuse the customer of his reasonable misperception about the product.”

We see from these sources that Jewish law demands that we be extremely cautious in protecting and promoting the truth. We should take note of and observe these principles in our daily interactions with our fellows on the street, in the beit midrash, in workplace, and in the voting booth and when we talk about creating regulations for advertising.