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1. Suicide Bombing Prevented in Samaria by Ari Yashar 
Security forces apprehended an Arab terrorist wearing a bomb belt at Tapuach Junction in Samaria, near the city of Ariel, on Friday morning.
The terrorist raised suspicions by wearing a large coat in the hot summer weather. After security forces called on him to take off his coat and be checked, the man refused and proceeded to lay on the floor, reports Channel 10.
When he finally removed his coat, he was found to be wearing a belt of explosives. A bomb disposal squad was called to the area to dismantle the explosives.
The area was closed to car traffic by police following the incident, which caused no injuries or damage.
"This is a serious rise in intensity in the attempt of the Palestinians to harm innocent civilians," said Gershon Messika, head of the Samaria Regional Council. "It's clear the Palestinians aren't for peace. The time has come for the Israeli government to recognize that, and rebuke whoever dares say that Israel is to blame for the peace talk failure."
Those blaming Israel have reportedly included Palestinian Authority (PA) chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, as well as US President Barack Obama and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
The location of the planned terror attack in Tapuach Junction is the same as a march held on Jerusalem Day this Wednesday, marking a year to the murder of terror victim Evyatar Borovsky Hy''d. Friends and family marched the site, where he was stabbed to death by an Arab terrorist a year ago, to "Evyatar Outpost," a community established in his honor nearby.
Tapuach Junction has apparently become a target of terrorists, as in mid-April police officers foiled another stabbing attack. Police noticed an Arab man acting in a suspicious manner. Upon investigation, the officers found a knife in his pocket.
An initial investigation revealed that the man intended to stab an IDF soldier at the junction.
The recent foiled explosives attack comes after last Saturday three suspects in the Arab town of Jelazoun, located roughly between Jerusalem and Ariel in Samaria, were caught planting an explosive, reports Walla!.
Two of the suspects managed to flee, although IDF forces managed to capture one, wounding him lightly by shooting him in the ankle as he tried to escape. The injured terrorist was transferred to the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.
An additional bomb was found at the site, and was detonated in a controlled manner to avoid damage.
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2. IDF Manhunt After Terror Cell at Large in Samaria by Ari Yashar 
The IDF on Friday afternoon began a manhunt in Samaria. Their target: the terror cell that is believed to have been behind the foiled suicide bombing at Tapuach Junction near Ariel which took place Friday morning.
The assumption at this stage is that the suicide terrorist who was captured wearing a bomb belt was brought to Tapuach Junction by three other Arab terrorists, reports Walla!.
The three terrorists reportedly gave the apprehended terrorist clear instructions as to how to detonate the bomb belt.
IDF forces suspect that the three terrorists may have more bomb belts or other weapons, lending a true urgency to the pursuit.
The information likely was provided by the captured terrorist who was brought in for investigation, after refusing IDF orders to remove his unseasonably large coat at Tapuach Junction and then lying on the ground.
Soldiers and police were able to arrest the would-be bomber before he caused any damage, and a bomb disposal squad was called to the area to dismantle the explosives.
A senior military official said that the terrorist who was apprehended had no past history of connections to terrorism. The source added that the terrorist said in investigation that he was supposed to detonate the explosive himself, as opposed to some other terrorist detonating it remotely.
"This is a serious rise in intensity in the attempt of the Palestinians to harm innocent civilians," said Gershon Messika, head of the Samaria Regional Council. "It's clear the Palestinians aren't for peace. The time has come for the Israeli government to recognize that, and rebuke whoever dares say that Israel is to blame for the peace talk failure."
The foiled suicide bombing was not the first attempted terrorist attack at Tapuach Junction in the past months - in mid-April police officers foiled another stabbing attack. Police noticed an Arab man acting in a suspicious manner. Upon investigation, the officers found a knife in his pocket.
An initial investigation revealed that the man intended to stab an IDF soldier at the junction.
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3. Netanyahu Admits to Freezing Construction by Ari Yashar 
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyau reportedly met with the heads of Judea and Samaria authorities and admitted to freezing construction in the region, due to pressure from the American administration.
In the night-time meeting at the Prime Minister's Office, whose details were reported on Friday by journalist Ariel Kahane of Makor Rishon, nearly all the leaders of the regional councils were present, as well as Dani Dayan, Chief Foreign Envoy of the Council of Judea and Samaria, and Ze'ev Haver, the chaiman of the Amana housing organization.
Netanyahu acknowledged that American demands led to the cancellation of high planning council meetings of the IDF's civil administration that manages the Judea and Samaria region.
The prime minister reportedly requested that the Housing Ministry freeze new construction projects in Judea and Samaria earlier in the month, despite the collapse of peace talks, and despite the fact that he chose to release jailed terrorists instead of freezing building as a condition of the talks.
In the meeting the prime minister did not deny having giving the order to freeze construction, but claimed to the representatives of Judea and Samaria residents that he wasn't aware of the results of his actions on the region.
"Defender of the settlements"
Nevertheless, Netanyahu reportedly termed himself "the defender of the settlements" in the meeting, claiming to have blocked strong international pressure against a Jewish presence in the region.
US President Barack Obama's administration demanded "not one brick, not one house" in Judea and Samaria according to Netanyahu, a demand the prime minister said he was able to hold off.
In recent meetings with the American administration, Netanyahu reports being told to stop not only the publication of construction bids, but also the early stages of planning. While Netanyahu did not say directly, he hinted to having acceded based on his approach of maintaining a high level of cooperation with the Obama administration.
"Not even a lightpole can be built"
The Judea and Samaria regional leaders who met with Netanyahu leveled sharp criticism over the decision to stop the high planning council meetings, a move they said led to a de facto freeze of the region's development given that without the council's order, even "a lightpole for a soldier guarding at a post can't be placed."
They added that not even educational facilities can be built under the current status, which wasn't the case in the freeze four years ago that Netanyahu initiated.
"Every change on the ground, even the smallest, requires the permission of the outline plan anew. If the council doesn't meet, even the tiniest changes can't get permission. That doesn't allow preparation for the next school year or anything else," one of the regional leaders said at the meeting.
Another leader added that without building, the local authorities don't receive any construction fees, which greatly harms the budgets of the regional councils.
In response, Netanyahu claimed he wasn't aware of the full impact of his orders to stop the council meetings, and promised to find a solution in the coming days.
The regional leaders pressed that building continue, saying that otherwise the status quo will be of construction freeze with any building becoming a deviation from the norm.
"If this will be the reality, the external pressures will be many times as strong," the leaders stated. After the meeting they met with representatives of Netanyahu's office to brainstorm solutions to the situation.
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4. Report: Netanyahu Approached Elie Wiesel Over Presidency by AFP and Arutz Sheva Staff 
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had tried to convince Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel to be a candidate in the race for president, media said on Friday.
Israeli media began reporting Netanyahu's last-minute attempt on Tuesday, when candidates had to present 10 MPs' signatures to be eligible for the position.
Wiesel, who lives in New York, told Yedioth Aharonoth on Friday that Netanyahu had called him three times and then tried to pressure him through mutual friends, but the 86-year-old Romanian-born Nobel Peace Prize winner refused.
"Why should I be a president?" Wiesel told Yedioth Aharonoth, the newspaper for which he had worked as a correspondent. "It's not for me."
Netanyahu's efforts to draw the Jewish-American writer and political activist, who does not hold Israeli citizenship, into the presidency race were reportedly part of his attempts to prevent the election of MK Reuven Rivlin of his own Likud party as president.
Netanyahu's office refused to comment on the report.
On Wednesday, Netanyahu - who had previously also considered legislation to postpone the vote or cancel the institution of presidency - informed Rivlin of his support, explaining he had waited to see the final list of candidates.
"As prime minister and chairman of the Likud, I support you," Netanyahu told Rivlin over the phone, according to the premier's office.
President Shimon Peres will step down at the end of July, just before his 91st birthday, following a political career spanning nearly seven decades.
Presidential elections will be held on June 10, it was announced last week, despite a push by several MKs to cancel the post altogether. Current official candidates include Nobel Laureate Daniel Shechtman, HaTnua MK Meir Sheetrit, and Likud MK Reuven Rivlin.
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5. Bennett: First Gush Etzion, Then All of Judea and Samaria by Ido Ben Porat and Elad Benari 
Economy Minister and Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett declared on Thursday that he will continue to promote his plan to have Israel annex Judea and Samaria.
Speaking at the launching of a new Jewish Home-affiliated student organization at the Bar Ilan University, Bennett said he would promote the plan so that Gush Etzion will be annexed first - with the rest of Judea and Samaria to follow.
"Seeing as the Palestinians went with a unilateral move, I believe, and I put it forward in two meetings with the Prime Minister, that the plan will be applied in stages: First Gush Etzion. It's about time. We have to apply Israeli law to Gush Etzion and then to Ariel and Ma'ale Adumim and the Jordan Valley, and then the all Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria," said Bennett.
Gush Etzion, he pointed out, "was in Israeli hands before the establishment of the State of Israel. Beyond that, everyone across the political spectrum, including Jimmy Carter, who visited Gush Etzion said that there was no doubt there will be Israeli sovereignty in Gush Etzion. So I am choosing to start with something that is truly consensual. We will push and, G-d willing, we will be in Gush Etzion and the Jordan Valley and Ofra and Beit El, and we will declare: This is the sovereign State of Israel."
"We are in the post-Oslo era," declared Bennett. "The age of unilateral withdrawals, where we run away from an area and pray that all will be well and then 10,000 rockets are launched at us, is over."
"The left is out of options, it no longer has an operative plan, it only talks about two states," he continued. "So we put things on the table and slowly the trend is becoming a positive one: the Knesset Speaker spoke in favor of the move, as did Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, and others."
Asked about the objections of the international community to such a move, Bennett responded, "I agree: the world won't clap its hands. To this day they do not accept the Western Wall and the Golan Heights as part of Israel. But we do accept Jerusalem and the Golan as part of Israel."
"I do not undermine the importance of our ties with the world. I am constantly dealing with the world but believe it or not, foreign ministers and ambassadors only care about their own trials and tribulations, and what is troubling the world right now is the recession and lack of innovation, so people from China and India and Western Europe come here and only want to cooperate with us," Bennett said.
Bennett has long advocated for sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, most notably in a viral video released shortly before his election to government.
He recently drafted a letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, demanding that Israel establish full sovereignty over "settlement blocs" in Judea and Samaria.
The demand came after the Palestinian Authority (PA) violated the Oslo Accords by taking unilateral action and applying for membership in fifteen different international organizations.
The State Department has dismissed Bennett's plan, claiming it "does not reflect" the position of the Israeli government.
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has also blasted the idea, saying it would mean "the end of Zionism" and declaring that as long as she is a Cabinet minister, Bennett's "nonsense", as she put it, will not be implemented.
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6. Fmr. Ambassador Says Sisi May Face Revolution by Benny Toker, Ari Yashar 
Egypt's former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi may have won the presidential elections, but former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Tzvi Mazel told Arutz Sheva that Sisi will have a hard time putting the country in order.
"Egypt is a poor country, with 85 million residents. Every half year another half a million babies are born there, and every year 800,000 residents join the mass of job seekers; the financial situation is very difficult," reported Mazel.
Without support from the West, Mazel says Sisi will have a rough time rehabilitating the Nile state which was rocked by the 2011 "Arab Spring," and recently by clashes between the military and the Muslim Brotherhood. Former President Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was ousted last July.
"At this stage, Europe and also (US President Barack) Obama have turned a cold shoulder on Sisi, claiming that he held a military coup and suspended the elected president; that's a serious problem," remarked Mazel.
The Egyptian public is liable to start a new revolution at any time if the situation remains unstable, according to Mazel.
"Egypt has a security problem with the Muslim Brotherhood, Sisi established an elite counter-terror unit. Now he's the new hope and the people will let him work, but you need to remember that the people lost its fear of the regime, and if Sisi will act like a dictator, they may take the streets again," said Mazel.
Indeed the Muslim Brotherhood called for demonstrations in the streets on Friday following the election. As far as acting like a dictator, Sisi has already warned that he will not give journalistic freedom. Former Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik in March said that the elections will be rigged for Sisi, adding he had decided to take himself out of the running.
Regarding the peace treaty with Israel, Mazel opined that Sisi would preserve the status quo.
"In a series of interviews before the elections he said that the peace with Israel is stable, and that despite all the challenges, the peace is accepted by the Egyptian people and that it's important for us to work together for the prosperity of Egypt," the former ambassador noted.
Sisi in those interviews stated that there was a chance for "true peace" if Israel adopts the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which demanded Israel withdraw from Judea and Samaria at which point the Arab states would supposedly recognize it.
In the same interview Sisi said he would be willing to change the peace agreement with Israel.
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7. Jewish Agency Sends Delegation to Brussels in Show of Support by Tova Dvorin 
Chairman of the Executive of The Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky visited Brussels Thursday, in a solidarity visit to the local Jewish community after Saturday's horrific shooting attack that left four dead.
Sharansky met with Jewish community members and communal leaders and heard their concerns following the attack. Several European Jewish leaders, as well as Sharansky, have voiced strong criticism over what many perceive to be the EU's lackluster handling of the investigation - and have called for permanent protection for the Belgian Jewish community.
Sharansky meets with student leaders in the Brussels Jewish community Keren Hayesod-UIA
During his visit, Sharansky also visited the Jewish Museum where the shooting took place, where he was accompanied by Jewish community leaders and lit a memorial candle in memory of the victims of Saturday's attack.
Natan Sharansky lights memorial candle at the scene of the shooting Keren Hayesod-UIA
"It was important to me to be with the Belgian Jewish community at this time, to strengthen their hands and be strengthened by their resilience," he said. "In the early days of our struggle in the Soviet Union, the Belgian Jewish community mobilized to host one of the largest gatherings in support of our freedom."
"Today I had the opportunity to express the solidarity of world Jewry with the Belgian Jewish community," he continued. "The Jewish Agency stands with the Jewish community of Belgium and will help ensure that Jewish life continues without interruption, assisting local Jewish institutions in addressing their security needs and connecting young Jews to their Jewish identity and to the State of Israel."
Belgian news media reported on Tuesday that local police have arrested a suspect in the shooting incident, which has been called a "terrorist assassination" by the Belgian federal prosecutor.
The shooting killed three people and fatally wounded another. The victims included Tel Aviv natives Emmanuel and Miriam Riva.
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8. Outrage as Zoabi Slanders IDF Mavi Marmara 'Murderers' by Hezki Ezra and Tova Dvorin 
A heated confrontation erupted between ninth-grade students from the Rogozin High School in Kiryat Ata near Haifa, and Arab MK Hanin Zoabi (Balad) during a class visit to the Knesset on Thursday.
The students reported that during a lecture, the MK called the IDF soldiers who stopped the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla "murderers." The students walked out of the lecture and sent letters of complaint to several government ministers over the issue.
"We came to learn from the MKs and their role in government [. . .] but she began to talk about the Mavi Marmara incident and said our soldiers were 'murderers,'" one student told Yedioth Aharonoth.
The students did not take the insult to the IDF lightly.
"Students told her she should be ashamed of her words," the student said. "We are being drafted in the army in four years, our brothers serve in the army and we should not be hearing things like that from representatives of the public in the State of Israel."
"What kind of message is she sending?" the student added. "I think we've been exposed to incitement which opposed the very word 'democracy' in the context of a democratic state."
"We think the Ministry of Education and Chairman of the Knesset should actively supervise [the Knesset] visitors center," another student told the daily. "She told us that everyone needed to be with her on the Mavi Marmara. She [also] kept saying she was a Palestinian who is 'proud' of Israel."
"The teacher responded to her, she stood up and said, 'This is a Jewish state and you are an Israeli Palestinian," the student added. "We expect an apology over her words."
"Murder" on the Marmara?
On May 31, 2010 the Mavi Marmara tried to breach the IDF's legal blockade on Gaza, ruled by terrorist group Hamas. When IDF soldiers boarded the vessel, they were attacked by armed Islamist extremists on board, pressing them to open fire and kill ten Turkish nationals to save their own lives.
After an investigation, Israeli authorities discovered the Marmara was carrying no humanitarian aid, contrary to its claims to international media to be a "humanitarian" mission.
MK Zoabi, who took part in the flotilla, told the students that "the 'Freedom Flotilla' was against the criminal blockade on Gaza. The IDF, as always, is the aggressor, violently attacking innocent civilians."
"The blockade is a crime, and the Marmara represented the heights of humanity and morality," she continued. "Please do not confuse the repressive aggressor and the freedom fighter." It should be noted that Israel's blockade on Gaza was deemed legal by the UN in 2010.
Zoabi also responded to the specific incident, claiming that defending the IDF is not a "truthful" portrayal of the State of Israel.
"It's a shame that teachers and administrators expose innocent youths to a false demagoguery, and is not giving the future generation tools to deal with the moral wrongs of the regime and the state that are supposed to represent them," she said.
Zoabi is infamous for provocative speeches, including one in which she said that Israel has "no right to a normal life" and a later address claiming that "the Israeli occupation" was behind the murder of Israelis in Bulgaria. Recently, she declared that Israel should "thank her" for allowing Jews to live in the Jewish State.
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