Israel News

22 lam and achieving infamy as Italy’s most wanted fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, 60, the last Italian mobster linked to The Jewish Home | JANUARY 19, 2023 a savage period in which Sicily’s “black hand” declared war on the Italian state, was quietly arrested outside a clinic in Palermo after he showed up under an alias for a medical appointment. “Until this morning,” said Palermo’s chief prosecutor, Maurizio De Lucia, “we didn’t even know what face he had.” Italian officials, including the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who flew to Sicily to congratulate local law enforcement, immediately heralded the arrest as proof that justice, even if slow, would ultimately catch up with the country’s mobsters. “This was a fundamental battle to win,” Meloni told reporters outside the Palermo courthouse. “This is a hard blow to organized crime.” President Sergio Mattarella of Italy, whose brother, Piersanti Mattarella, was murdered by the Mafia in 1980 while serving as Sicily’s governor, telephoned the police and prosecutors to congratulate them. But experts, and even local authorities like De Lucia, who called the arrest “an important contribution,” were more circumspect about what the ultimate impact would be against either the Sicilian Cosa Nostra or Italy’s other still powerful and sprawling organized crime syndicates. “His arrest certainly weakens the Sicilian Mafia, but this is not a fatal blow,” said Lirio Abbate, a Sicilian journalist who wrote a book about Messina Denaro. In 2020, Messina Denaro was sentenced to a life term in absentia for his role in the 1992 murders of the two anti-Mafia prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, and the bombings in 1993 in Florence, Milan and Rome that left 10 people dead.

Prosecutors say that he was also involved in the 1993 kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo, to pressure the boy’s father to stop revealing Mafia secrets to the authorities. (© The New York Times)

Hamas Shows Off Prisoner

On Monday, Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, released a video of a prisoner, Avera Mengistu, reciting a short message.

“I am the captive Avera Mengistu. For how much longer will I remain in captivity?” he is heard mumbling in broken Hebrew before lamenting the Israeli government’s inaction in bringing about his return.

Mengistu is one of two Israeli men being held by the terror group, alongside the remains of two soldiers killed during Israel’s war with Hamas in the summer of 2014. Israeli authorities have been quietly engaged in fruitless negotiations for their release for years.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Mengistu, a Israeli civilian held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas for more than eight years, “is alive.”

“Israel does not stop its efforts to return Avera Mengistu and the rest of our captives and missing persons. Yesterday, we received another confirmation of what we knew all along — that Avera is alive.

“This is a young man, not in good health, and responsibility for his fate rests entirely with Hamas,” Netanyahu asserted.

The terror group said it released the video as a message to outgoing military chief Aviv Kohavi and his successor Herzi Halevi.

Hamas has repeatedly referred to Mengistu and the second captive, Hisham al-Sayed, as soldiers, despite neither of them having served in the Israeli military or security services. The two entered the Strip of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and their families say they suffer from mental illness.

International law forbids taking civilians captive and bars using any prisoners for propaganda purposes.

Mengistu’s family has not seen any photos or videos of him since he crossed over into Gaza more than eight years ago. An audio file released by Hamas in June 2021 of an unidentified person who self-identifies as “an Israeli soldier” was thought to be a recording of Mengistu.

In June 2022, Hamas published a first video of the second Israeli captive, al-Sayed, a Bedouin Israeli.

Aside from the two civilians, Hamas is also holding the remains of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, who were killed during a 50-day conflict with the terror group in the summer of 2014.

Who Wanted to Assassinate Israeli?

The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force) members responsible for the failed assassination attempt of Israeli businessman Itzik Moshe in Georgia back in November were revealed by Iran International on Monday.

Hossein Rehban, Mohammad Reza Arablo, Mohsen Rafiei Miandashti, Farhad Fashai, and Ali Faizipour are said to be the main members of the assassination team of the Quds Force Unit 400 of the IRGC – the unit responsible for the failed terrorist plot against the head of the Israel-Georgia Joint Chamber of Commerce.

Georgia’s State Security Service announced in November that the assassination, which they stopped earlier that same month, involved a team of assassins from Pakistan who have ties to al-Qaeda and arrived in Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi to gather intelligence on the target.

The IRGC’s Quds Force Unit 400 works with international terror groups to fund and plot terror attacks across the world. The hiring of foreign nationals for the assassination attempt is evidence of the Iranian regime’s pattern of using international terrorist fighters to try to cover its tracks.

Iran’s IRGC has implemented overseas assassinations into their military strategy for years – particularly against Israeli nationals. There were two foiled assassination plots in Turkey in 2022 against Israeli citizens. Israeli billionaire Teddy Saggi was tipped off by the Israeli authorities – likely the Mossad – that Iranian assassins were after him in Cyprus in 2021.

Iran has planned terrorist attacks in Georgia in the past, including in 20212022, and this is not the first time Moshe was targeted, according to Georgia’s security service.

“The connection between Iran and al-Qaeda is not new,” Georgia’s security service said at the time of the incident. “This attempted terrorist attack once again shows the close and years-long connection between [them] – specifically the use Tehran makes of the terrorist organization, including hosting its members on Iranian soil – to advance attacks on innocent civilians while trying to hide its direct involvement.”

Reps from Polish Parliament Visit Israel

A parliamentary delegation from Poland arrived in Israel this week with the goal of restoring “warm diplomatic ties” between the countries. The visit is the first of its kind in the past four years.

The 13-member delegation, all of whom are members of Poland’s Polish-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Group, met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog

24 on Monday and visited the Knesset on Tuesday. They expressed their desire to see the reestablishment of the Polish-IsThe Jewish Home | JANUARY 19, 2023 rael Friendship Group of the Knesset. “Visiting Israel and meeting with President Herzog was an extremely important and positive moment and hopefully this will be the start of a new period of improved relations between Israel and Poland,” said Polish Sen. Beata Małecka-Libera, who led the delegation. The delegation also met with the National Emergency Management Authority of the Israeli Defense Ministry, visited Rambam Hospital and the Mashabim Center for Community Stress Prevention and toured Israel’s northern border. During the latter visit, they were shown a Hezbollah tunnel into Israel. “As Europe faces similar challenges at our borders, it is important our countries work together to face these challenges and protect our values,” said Małecka-Libera.

The trip was organized by ELNET (the European Leadership Network), an NGO working to strengthen relations between Europe and Israel.

“This is a historic visit meant to open a new page in relations between Israel and Europe.… This is a momentous occasion for both Israel and Poland, and ELNET is honored to play a role in fostering stronger ties between the two countries,” said Emmanuel Navon, CEO of ELNET-Israel.

Also leading the delegation was Michał Kamiński, deputy speaker of the Polish Senate. (JNS)

Terrorist Killed in Shootout

Hamed Abu Diah, a Palestinian terrorist who had shot at a bus in Gush Etzion a few days ago, had been shooting at Israeli soldiers near a checkpoint in the West Bank on Tuesday and was killed in the subsequent shootout.

According to Haaretz, Abu Diah had previously served as a prisoner in Israel, but after his release, he worked as a Palestinian Authority police officer in the Bethlehem area.

A letter supposedly written by the 40-year-old Abu Diah was later shared on Palestinian news outlets, where he claimed that he had made the decision to “take revenge and hurt the Zionists” as well as sacrificing his life to protect Muslim holy sites.

Also on Tuesday, a terrorist armed with a knife attempted to enter the Israeli settlement of Elon Moreh in the West Bank but was stopped by security authorities.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan praised the settlement’s leadership for their response.

“You showed bravery, and you saved lives in Israel today,” he said. “All settlements in Samaria are proud of you and the people of Israel are proud of you.”

Dagan noted that the terrorist was stopped after security cameras were installed by the IDF’s Home Front Command fairly recently at the settlement’s request.

“Here we had a miracle that the terrorist tried to infiltrate a settlement that had security cameras installed just a year and a half ago,” Dagan said. “What would have happened if there weren’t any installed? It would have been just like when Rina Shnerb was killed in Ein Bubin two years ago.”

He called on Israel’s security apparatus to immediately order more security systems for the settlements to be completed.

90 Nations: Restore Palestinian Funds

More than 90 countries signed a letter, published on Monday, demanding the “immediate” reversal of Israel’s punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority.

The U.N. General Assembly late last month approved a resolution calling on the International Court of Justice to “render urgently an advisory opinion” on Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian territory.” In response to the P.A.’s ongoing