IDF evacuates Sa-Nur
The IDF evacuated activists from the ruins of the former Sa-Nur settlement, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to heed a right-wing call to allow settlers to remain at the site.
Right-wing activists and settlers had illegally entered the site in the predawn hours in hopes that Netanyahu would prefer to allow them to remain then risk a forced evacuation just one week prior to the March 23 election.
Earlier in the day, they challenged Netanyahu to prove he is truly a rightwing leader by authorizing their presence at the site, which is a closed military zone.
They demanded Netanyahu agree to rebuild that settlement and three others in northern Samaria that Israel destroyed in 2005 as part of the Disengagement Plan.
“We call on Netanyahu to begin his fully Right [government] already today, and not to wait until after the elections,” the activists said in a statement they issued from the site.
They spoke as Netanyahu has increased his rhetoric for the need for a strong right-wing government.
The activists noted that he could already act on the principles of that future government.
“We call on [Netanyahu] to allow us to stay here at least until after the election and until the creation of a right-wing government that would allow for the community to be rebuilt anew,” the activists stated.
IDF officers from the Menashe Brigade failed in the afternoon to sway the activists, some of whom were original evacuees from 2005, to leave the site of their own volition. When night fell, they forcibly evacuated them.
“Stop the evacuation,” Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan said, in a message aimed at Netanyahu. “Allow the families to stay and resettle Sa-Nur.”
Dagan himself is a Sa-Nur evacuee. “Let us return home,” he added.
Dagan made a solidarity visit to Sa-Nur on Tuesday. In the past he has led multiple failed initiatives to resurrect the demolished communities, including failed legislative drives.
“I expect to receive government approval to issue building permits” for homes here, Dagan said.
Many Likud parliamentarians in the past have spoken in support of rebuilding the four demolished Samaria settlements and have also made solidarity visits to the site.
Coalition Chairman Miki Zohar on Tuesday immediately tweeted support, noting that those who spend an encampment in Sa-Nur “were taking a brave stand to correct the injustice” which had occurred in 2005.
“With God’s help we will continue to support the settlements and we will do everything to restore its crown to its former glory,” Zohar said.
Religious Zionist Party head Bezalel Smotrich also tweeted a supportive message.
He called on Netanyahu to form a fully right-wing government that would rescind the disengagement law that prevents the reconstruction of the four settlements.
Mayors from some of the world’s major cities met yesterday in a virtual forum to discuss ways to stop the spread of antisemitism and eradicate prejudice from their municipalities. The first-ever “Mayors Summit Against Anti-Semitism,” sponsored by the Frankfurt am Main Municipality, in partnership with the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement (CAM), brought together 44 leaders from 32 cities around the world who conducted a frank and open discussion about the importance of fighting antisemitism in cities worldwide. While advocacy and policy geared toward combating antisemitism often occurs solely at a national or international level, antisemitic acts occur principally in local communities.
The summit presented practical methods for countering antisemitism, including sessions on education and the IHRA working definition of antisemitism; legislation, security, and law enforcement; overcoming trauma; and interfaith and cross-communal relations. The conference was the first step in establishing a global network of mayors who will work together to fight antisemitism.
Speaking at the conference and reflecting upon the upsurge of antisemitic behavior in Europe, Michael O’Flaherty, director of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, commented, “antisemitism is a serious problem in our societies, and it is getting
worse. This is not just a problem for the Jewish community – it is a problem for all of us; it is a challenge to the values on which we base our societies and our communities. Here in Europe, if we fail our Jewish community, then we have failed as the modern European project.”
Uwe Becker, mayor of Frankfurt and Main, who hosted the virtual conference, added: “When Jews, our citizens, ask themselves if they will have a safe and secure future in our cities; when boys don’t like to wear kippot [skullcaps] and decide to wear a baseball cap instead; when girls hide the Star of David on their necklaces… then it is not five to 12 but 10 past 12, and we have to push back… It’s up to us to act.”
Among the key speakers at the conference who joined Becker were Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, Athens Mayor Kostas Bakoyannis, Brussels Mayor Philippe Close, Tirana Mayor Erion Veliaj, Bologna Mayor Virginio Merola, Newark Mayor Jerry Clifton, Poway Mayor Steve Vaus, and Mayor of Bal Harbour Gabriel Groisman.
International arms sales are going strong in the Middle East, even if they are leveling off in other regions, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a group that monitors the sale of arms.
SIPRI says its Arms Transfer Database is the only public resource that provides consistent information and estimates on all international sales of major arms.
“International transfers of major arms stayed at the same level between 2011-15 and 2016-20,” it said in a report on Monday. “Substantial increases in transfers by three of the top five arms exporters – the US, France and Germany – were largely offset by declining Russian and Chinese arms exports.”
Middle Eastern arms imports increased 25%. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt were leaders in the last four years, with Doha increasing its purchases by a whopping 361%, the report said.
Israeli exports represented 3% of the global total between 2016 and 2020. Israel’s big three defense giants, Elbit Systems, IAI and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, are world leaders in the industry.
Israel’s exports were 59% higher over the past five years than in the 2011-2015 period. For example, IAI is cashing in on new interest in loitering munitions.
Elbit Systems is picking up contracts in Europe, and Rafael’s Iron Dome and Trophy are getting new recognition. Iron Dome was sent to the US, and Trophy is now being used by Germany. Both systems celebrate 10 years of operation in Israel this year. In addition, Israeli companies have made major inroads in India and other countries.
“Israel accounted for 69% of Azerbaijan’s arms imports” in the most recent period, the report said. Azerbaijan recently fought a war with Armenia. Israeli’s Uvda program and documentary filmmaker Itai Anghel show how Israeli drones played a key and controversial role in that conflict. Israel has exported hundreds of drones to Azerbaijan, along with other defense systems, according to reports.
“It is too early to say whether the period of rapid growth in arms transfers of the past two decades is over,” said Pieter D. Wezeman, a senior researcher with the SIPRI Arms and Military Expenditure Program.
Among Western powers, exports rose. Russian and Chinese exports fell. Exports by China, the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter from 2016-20, decreased 7.8% between 201115 and 2016-20, the report said.
The Middle East is where all the arms seem to be going. The UAE is seeking 50 F-35 fifth-generation aircraft, it said.
“Egypt’s arms imports increased by 136% between 2011-15 and 2016-20,” it said. “Egypt, which is involved in disputes with Turkey over hydrocarbon resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, has invested heavily in its naval forces.”
Turkey’s arms imports declined 59% between 201115 and 2016-20, the report said. Turkey is rapidly building indigenous capacity to build drones and other weapons.
The Middle East is buying arms because of tensions between Iran and the region, ongoing wars in Syria, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere, and because many countries here are pioneering new weapon systems, such as drones, which means that others need better air defenses.
For instance, Israel’s IAI and the UAE’s Edge signed an MOU recently on countering UAV threats. Iran used drones to attack Saudi Arabia in 2019, and Iranian-backed groups in Yemen, the Houthis, use drones and missiles weekly against Saudi Arabia.
Israel is also building up its navy with new Sa’ar 6 ships, and it appears that all the other navies in the region are also increasing their systems.
The Middle East, long a testing ground for US and Soviet weapons, is now producing its own weapons and buying weapons from new suppliers. US fifth-generation planes such as the F-35 are in high demand, as are Russia’s S-400 air-defense missile system and Israel’s Iron Dome.
Rabbi Gershon Edelstein has warned of incitement against the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community and urged it to vote for United Torah Judaism.
Edelstein, one of the two most senior rabbis of non-hassidic haredim, spoke on Sunday night during a small conference of senior rabbis at his home in Bnei Brak organized by UTJ.
“There is great incitement against the haredi community,” he said, regarding remarks by Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman that incensed the haredi community. “They want to make decrees against observing Shabbat, education, make people nonreligious, decrees of destruction.”
“There is great propaganda in the media,” he said. “It’s a great danger that these inciters will succeed and get many representatives in the Knesset.”
“There are people who have claims, demands,” Edelstein said, regarding disgruntled haredim who are disappointed with UTJ. “They are not getting what they deserve. These are personal issues.”
“Otherwise, things will be worse,” he said. “There will be terrible decrees. There is no other choice apart from voting for United Torah Judaism.”