IDF officer killed in training accident
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Israel Defense Forces officer was killed and another soldier was wounded Tuesday in an accident at an IDF training base in southern Israel.
Capt. Yishai Rosales, of the IDF’s haredi Netzah Yehuda Battalion, was killed when a mortar shell was accidentally fired in his direction. The other soldier sustained minor injuries.
It is unclear why the mortar shell exploded in the vicinity of the soldiers, who were training at the base. Initial details suggest that the incident occurred as a part of a multi-unit training drill for company and battalion commanders.
During the drill, a soldier with the Armored Corps’ 75th Battalion fired an 81 mm mortar shell that exploded right next to Rosales, who was taking part in a different drill nearby. Rosales sustained critical wounds and died shortly afterward. He was posthumously promoted to the rank of captain.
The other soldier wounded in the incident was airlifted to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba.
All training at the base has been suspended until the investigation into the accident, headed by a special task force, is complete. Initial assessments suggest the accident was the result of human error. Among other things, the investigation will focus on whether the error was made by the soldier who fired the shell or by the commander who ordered the shooting. The possibility of a technical malfunction will also be investigated.
Tuesday’s tragedy marks the first time in three years that an IDF soldier has been killed during a training exercise. Last May, one reservist was seriously wounded and three others were lightly injured when an armored personnel carrier flipped over during training in the Golan Heights.
Rosales, 23, from Beit Meir, immigrated to Israel from Mexico in 2001 with his parents and brother. Until six months ago, he lived in Kochav Yaakov in the Binyamin region.
The residents of Kochav Yaakov remembered him as a happy, kind-hearted man, who loved to laugh and make others laugh. He donated to the needy anonymously, adopted a lone soldier, and always rushed to help anyone who was in need, they said.
“I remember once he asked me to come with him to build a sukkah for someone who was unable to build one for themselves,” said Ohad, 17, from Kochav Yaakov. “He was like an older brother to me. He loved to watch soccer games and to play [soccer]. He helped me train so that I could play on the town’s team. Whenever he saw someone who was standing on the sidelines while we played he would make sure that someone invited them to play.”
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Awed by his grandparents’ lives, Japanese man joins Israeli army
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Daniel Tomohiro is not the typical Israeli soldier. His Hungarian grandparents survived the Holocaust, made aliyah, and fought in Israel’s War of Independence, but they then moved to Australia, where his mother met and married a Japanese man and moved to Iwata, Japan.
Now Tomohiro has come full circle and is serving in the Israel Defense Forces, undergoing basic training with the Nahal Brigade’s 50th Battalion. On Wednesday, his unit was scheduled to take part in a swearing-in ceremony at the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem.
“My 88-year-old grandfather Ivan lives in Sydney, Australia,” Tomohiro said. “He told me that he fought in an artillery during the War of Independence, in the Palmach [the Jewish paramilitary organization in the pre-state years], and was an instructor in an officer training course. My grandmother died when I was a child and I still don’t know what she did in the Palmach.”
Tomohiro’s parents met when his father was on a business trip to Australia.
“My parents married and moved to Japan, but at home they kept talking about Israel,” Tomohiro said. “My family is very pro-Israel and loves the state, and I believe the Israel Defense Forces is the most moral military in the world.”
According to Tomohiro, his grandparents imbued him with a sense of curiosity about Israel.
“I felt very connected to the state, but I arrived here for the first time only when I was 18, with my parents and younger brother,” he said. “My older brother had already made aliyah and was in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit. After I graduated high school in Japan, I returned to Israel, and four months ago I joined an IDF Hebrew course and later started basic training.”
IDF service “means a lot to me and my family,” Tomohiro said.
“My grandmother was in Auschwitz. She survived only because a German nurse covered her with a blanket when Dr. Josef Mengele came to visit. He thought she was dead and this saved her life, because he didn’t perform experiments on her. I realized, after hearing such stories, that the Holocaust happened because there was no State of Israel. I am happy to contribute to the security of the state, to make the IDF and Israel strong, and to prevent another Holocaust,” he said.
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A robotic Passover plague? Israeli researchers design robo-locust
(JNS.org) Israeli researchers at Tel Aviv University have designed a small robot inspired by locusts—those of Passover and 10 Plagues fame—that could play an important role in conducting automated surveillance and emergency response.
“The locust being a large insect that has wonderful jumping performance had offered itself as wonderful inspiration for this specific idea of a jumping…miniature jumping robot,” lead developer Professor Amir Ayali, of the Department of Zoology at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Life Sciences, told Reuters.
The robotic locusts—dubbed “TAUB” (Tel Aviv University and Ort Braude College)—are made from carbon rods, steel springs, and 3D printed plastic. They are powered by a lithium battery and are capable of reaching up to 1,000 jumps on only one charge.
“The locust uses mechanical energy in addition to its muscle force in order to generate a jump, and this is exactly what we are imitating….We are using a tiny motor that generates, or stores mechanical energy, and this mechanical energy in springs is actually very similar to the locust legs is what propels the robot into the air,” said Ayali.
According to the researchers, the robotic locusts can be used on anything from surveillance to entering situations and locations that are hazards for humans, such as oil spills.
The researchers also hope to one day to better understand the locust’s ability to swarm and implement that feature in the robotic systems.
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Iran unveils new underground ballistic missile silo
(JNS.org) Iran has unveiled a new underground ballistic missile silo that will house a missile that is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
“Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani made a visit to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps’ new underground missile town today during which he vowed the legislature would allocate a much bigger budget to the country’s missile program,” the state-run Fars News Agency reported.
In October, Iran test fired its Emad ballistic missile in defiance of international sanctions against its ballistic missile program. A United Nations Security Council panel in December said that the test violated a Security Council resolution.
The Emad missile is an intermediate-range ballistic missile that has a claimed a range of up to 1,000 miles and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, according to U.S. officials.
Despite the violation, the Obama administration has held off on new sanctions, with the international community preparing to lift sanctions on Iran as part of the nuclear agreement reached last summer.
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California lawmaker introduces bill to block state business with BDS backers
(JNS.org) California State Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach) on Monday introduced a bill that would block California from doing business with companies that implement boycotts based on race, color, religion, gender, or nationality—in particular as it relates to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
Allen’s proposed measure “will require parties contracting with the state government to certify that they do not participate in boycotts against California’s trading partners,” the lawmaker’s office said.
“California strongly opposes discrimination. Of particular concern lately is the fact that boycotts of entities and individuals affiliated with specific countries can amount to ethnic, religious, racial and/or national origin discrimination. No group better demonstrates this fact than the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement (BDS), whose use of false, demonizing and delegitimizing propaganda against the State of Israel has become a pretext for the expression of anti-Jewish bigotry,” said Allen.
The U.S. states of South Carolina and Illinois have passed similar legislation that takes concrete action against BDS supporters, while state legislatures in Tennessee, New York, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Florida have passed resolutions condemning the BDS movement.
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Israeli government meets to discuss possible Palestinian Authority collapse
(JNS.org) Israeli government officials have been meeting during the past 10 days to discuss the possibility and prevention of a Palestinian Authority (PA) collapse, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
“We must prevent the Palestinian Authority from collapsing if possible, but at the same time, we must prepare in case it happens,” the newspaper reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as telling the Israeli security cabinet in a closed-door meeting.
Israel’s defense establishment gave the government oral and written opinions warning of a possible collapse, according to a senior Israeli official. A collapse of the PA government in the West Bank would create a strain on Israel, said the official, because the Jewish state would need to take over security and civilian affairs in PA-controlled areas.
Netanyahu has previously said he does not want the PA to collapse and wishes to take steps to prevent that scenario. A PA collapse may also pave the way for increased influence by the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group in the West Bank.
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Israeli soldiers to get neck protectors as safeguard against stabbing attacks
(JNS.org) Israeli soldiers who are stationed at checkpoints will receive neck protectors as a safeguard against terrorist stabbing attacks, the Times of Israel reported.
The Israel Defense Forces announced that it will distribute 850 new neck guards that are designed specifically to protect soldiers serving in areas such as Hebron, Gush Etzion Junction, Hawara, and Tapuach Junction, according to Lt. Col. Liron Segel, who runs the IDF Technological and Logistics Directorate’s Personal Protection and Equipment Department.
The IDF’s Central Command requested the new equipment from the directorate in November due to the threat of stabbings during the current Palestinian terror wave, said Segel, who explained that the neck guards will “strike a balance between the amount of area protected and [the] comfort of the soldier.”
The equipment is designed to fit underneath protective vests.
“On the one hand, we put an emphasis on materials that are very durable in order to protect against a penetrating wound, while on the other hand we worried about comfort,” said Segel. “We have managed to make a product that is flexible, thin, and even its weight on your neck is not comparatively that heavy.”
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Israel approves plans to build new Druze town
(JNS.org) Israel’s National and Building Council on Tuesday approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s initiative to build a new Druze town.
“For the first time since the foundation of the state, we are building a new Druze town. I ascribe great importance to the establishment of a new Druze town that will advance the Druze sector,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
This initiative is part of an extensive plan approved last year by the Israeli government to invest NIS 2 billion (about $500 million) over five years in the development of Israel’s Druze and Circassian minority communities.
“The Druze community has bound its fate to the State of Israel. The proportion of enlistment in the IDF is among the highest in the state and many Druze are in IDF combat units. This is only part of our extensive activity for the Druze community and we are carrying out our commitments to the community,” said Netanyahu.
The new Druze community will be established in the Lower Galilee Regional Council, in the Ahuzat Naftali area near Tiberias.
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