Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s developments as they unfolded.
German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel flies to Iran Sunday as the first top Western official to visit the country since world powers and Tehran reached a historic nuclear deal.
Gabriel, who is also Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy leader and energy minister, embarked on the three-day trip with a “small delegation of representatives from companies, industry groups and the sciences,” his ministry says in a statement.
Gabriel is due to hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and several ministers following Tuesday’s landmark nuclear agreement.
The long-delayed pact “lays the foundation for normalizing economic ties with Iran on the condition that the steps set out in it are now implemented,” Gabriel says in the statement.
The head of the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Eric Schweitzer, who is accompanying Gabriel, calls the trip “an encouraging sign” for companies barred from doing business with the resources-rich Gulf state due to Western sanctions.
Schweitzer calls for German companies to be given legal protection for upcoming investments made in Iran in case Tehran violated the terms of the nuclear deal and a trade embargo were imposed again.
“Such a framework would give companies the necessary legal security to return to Iran,” he tells DPA news agency.
Iran and Germany were historically close trade partners but business dropped off as a result of the sanctions, declining to 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) last year from around eight billion euros in 2003-2004, according to German figures.
— AFP
Netanyahu rails against Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei Sunday, saying that a fiery speech delivered by the ayatollah, in which he vowed to continue fighting the US and Israel, proves that Tehran had no interest in curbing its support for terrorism.
“If anyone thought that Iran’s wonderful concessions would bring about a change in its policy, they got a crushing response this weekend in the bellicose and defiant speech of Iranian leader Khamenei,” Netanyahu says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond (unseen) in Jerusalem on July 16, 2015. (Alex Kolomoisky/Pool/Flash90)
Minister Yuval Steinetz slams US Secretary of State John Kerry for saying that a better Iran deal is a “fantasy.”
“To the best of our professional assessments, these comments have no basis,” he says, according to Army Radio. “One can easily think of a better agreement in which, as is the international practice in such cases, Iran must reveal everything it has done in the past and not simply answer questions of procedure, which really ignores the issue.”
Minister of Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz, June 30, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The US deputy secretary of Homeland Security and the top Israeli official handling cybersecurity cosign a statement committing to US-Israel cooperation in the area.
Alejandro Mayorkas and Eviatar Matania, who heads the Israel National Cyber Bureau, “signed a joint statement reaffirming the United States and Israel’s commitment to promote cooperation and information sharing on cybersecurity and cyber research and development,” says a statement by the Department of Homeland Security released July 17, a day after Mayorkas returned from an Israel tour.
The statement says Mayorkas and his Israeli counterparts discussed “a range of homeland security-related issues including cybersecurity, law enforcement cooperation, immigration, and aviation security.”
Mayorkas toured Ben Gurion Airport “to view passenger and cargo security operations and to review the areas of close cooperation between DHS and the Israeli government on aviation and airport security.”
— JTA
“Wild Tales” by Jewish Argentinian director Damian Szifron wins Best Movie at the second annual “Premios Platino,” the equivalent of the Oscars for Iberoamerica, made up of Spain, Portugal and Latin America.
Szifron, 40, whose movie also was nominated for a foreign-language film Oscar in the 2014 Academy Awards, also wins as Best Director, a profession that he began studying at the ORT High School in Buenos Aires, where he specialized in media studies.
“Wild Tales” includes Jewish characters and details taken from Szifron’s life. For example, the final segment of the film revolves around a Jewish wedding, complete with klezmer music. Szifron’s last movie also won best script, music, art direction and sound effects, the most nominated and most awarded film of the Iberoamerican “Premio Platino” 2015.
— JTA
Prime Minister David Cameron declares Sunday that Britain needs to take a greater role in destroying the Islamic State group in Syria — his most direct signal to date that he will seek to expand his country’s role in supporting the United States and its allies.
In remarks made to NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” Cameron says Britain must do more fight the group, also known as ISIL. The remarks, which follow a commitment to meet NATO targets on military spending, make plain that Britain now sees the group as an explicit threat to national security.
“We know that we have to defeat ISIL, we have to destroy this caliphate, whether it is in Iraq or in Syria,” he says. “That is a key part of defeating this terrorist scourge that we face.”
— AP
British Prime Minister David Cameron on June 26, 2015 (Alain Jocard/AFP)
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter leaves for Tel Aviv on Sunday to push ahead with talks on ways the US can further improve Israel’s security — not just with Iranian threats in mind, but an array of other challenges, including cyberdefense and maritime security.
In addition to its objections to the Iran deal, Israel has also expressed concern that US sales of advanced weaponry to Gulf Arab states has the potential of offsetting, to some degree, Israel’s qualitative military edge.
Aides said in advance of the trip that although Carter strongly supports the Iran deal, he had no intention of trying to reverse Israeli opposition to it.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter appears before the House Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill, June 17, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images/AFP)
Carter is scheduled to meet with Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, as well as with Israeli generals, and visit troops in northern Israel. He plans to stop in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, US allies whose leaders also are worried about implications of the nuclear deal.
— AP
A large fire breaks out outside of Kiryat Shemona in northern Israel.
Tel Hai college is evacuated entirely, and some residents in the area are escorted to safety.
Parts of Route 90 are closed to traffic.
Firefighters are working to extinguish the blaze.
An Iranian lawmaker says the Islamic Republic’s parliament is opposed to the continued restrictions on ballistic missiles.
“The parliament will reject any limitations on the country’s access to conventional weapons, especially ballistic missiles,” MP Seyed Mehdi Hashemi tells the semi-official Fars News Agency.
The Iranian report says “restrictions on Iran’s access to ballistic missiles are among the issues that should be revised in the UN Security Council’s draft resolution.”
As part of the Iran deal, the arms embargo will be gradually lifted after five years, while restrictions on ballistic missiles will remain in place for eight years.
The Iranian Parliament (photo credit: CC-BY Parmida76/Flickr)
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Tehran’s “first priority” after the nuke deal is bolstering ties with Qatar.
“Our first priority after the deal is the enhancement of relations with neighbors, including the friend and brother state of Qatar,” Rouhani tells Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, emir of the State of Qatar, on the phone Saturday, according to the Tasnim News Agency.
“I have no doubt that under the post-deal conditions, we will immediately see more cordial relations and further expansion of cooperation between Iran and Qatar,” he says.
In an interview on Fox News, Kerry says he never sought “anytime, anywhere” inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities.
“I never, in four years, had a discussion on ‘anywhere or anytime’ [inspections],” Kerry says.
“The fact is that in arms control, there is no country anywhere on this planet that has ‘anywhere, anytime.’ There is no such standard within arms control inspections,” he says.
The US secretary says the intelligence community has confirmed that the 24-day review period of suspicious activity at Iranian facilities is sufficient to detect any breaches in the nuclear deal.
“We never, ever had a discussion about ‘anywhere, anytime,'” he reiterates. “It’s called managed access, it’s under the IAEA, everyone understands it and the intelligence community has made it clear to us, as they did before we signed on to this deal, that we would be able to know what they are doing during that intervening time.”
Also speaking to Fox News, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz says if nuclear activity was taking place, it would be “virtually impossible” to cover it up in 24 days.
“If the process runs the full length of 24 days, the IAEA will take environmental samples. When environmental samples are taken, and nuclear activity has taken place, it is virtually impossible to clean up that place. You can paint the floors. You can do what you want. We feel very confident one would find the evidence of nuclear [activity],” he says.
Like Kerry, Moniz denies having ever pursued “anytime, anywhere” inspections.
“I said ‘anytime, anywhere’ in the sense of a well-defined procedure and a well-defined time window to resolve it. First of all, I want to clarify that.”
Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz speaks to the media during the daily briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 6, 2015 (photo credit: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The Iran nuclear deal is formally submitted to Congress. Congress has 60 days to review it.
#IranDeal formally submitted to #Congress. 60-day review period begins Monday, per @statedeptspox pic.twitter.com/GHDCKPFoaC
— Matt Lee (@APDiploWriter) July 19, 2015
Netanyahu, speaking to ABC News, rejects the notion of US military compensation for the Iran nuclear deal.
“Everybody talks about compensating Israel. If this deal is supposed to make Israel and our Arab neighbors safer, why should we be compensated for anything?” Netanyahu says.
“How can you compensate a country, my country, against a terrorist regime that is sworn to our destruction and is going to get a path to nuclear bombs and billions of dollars to boot for its terror activities,” he says.
The prime minister says the agreement “endangers our security, our survival even.”
He says that while he respects the US, Israeli, and British intelligence services, for years the Iranian underground nuclear activity and the Syrian reactor went undetected by all. So despite reassurances that any Iranian breaches of the deal will not go unnoticed, the prime minister says “it’s very thin ice.”
The prime minister says the ideal agreement would be “dismantle for dismantle” — that Iran dismantle its nuclear infrastructure in exchange for sanctions relief.
“The hardliners in Iran are actually going to come out strong, because they’re getting everything they want,” he says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at the PM’s Office in Jerusalem on July 19, 2015. (Photo by Emil Salman/POOL)
Kerry tells ABC News that he is not planning a trip to Iran.
“It’s not being contemplated,” Kerry says. “We don’t have relations at this point.”
The US secretary says it’s “presumptuous” for members of Congress to criticize the UN vote on the deal, which will be held before Congress decides.
“They have a right to do that,” Kerry says. “I mean honestly, it’s presumptuous of some people to suspect that France, Russia, China, Germany and Britain ought to do what the Congress tells them to do. They’re individual countries and they have sovereignty. They’re members of the United Nations and they have a right to have a vote.”
He says that three of the seven negotiators were opposed to keeping any sanctions against Iran in place.
“Three of the seven [negotiators] thought [Iran] shouldn’t be held to any kind of restraint,” Kerry says. “We prevailed.”
Hamas and Islamic Jihad release a joint statement after the two organizations are targeted in a series of car bombs earlier Sunday, believed to be carried out by an IS affiliate.
The two terror groups blame “Israel collaborators” for the string of attacks, according to Israel Radio, and vow to track down the assailants.
Palestinians gather around a burnt-out car in Gaza City on July 19, 2015, after explosions destroyed five cars in Gaza belonging to members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, witnesses and a security source said, amid tensions between the Palestinian territory’s rulers and Islamist extremists. (AFP/MOHAMMED ABED)
Hamas releases some footage of a tunnel infiltration and assault on July 19, 2014, in which two IDF soldiers — Major (res.) Amotz Greenberg, 45, and Sgt. Adar Barsano, 20 — were killed by Hamas gunmen.
The full video is set to be aired on Al-Jazeera in the coming days, but according to Channel 2, parts of it appear to be fabricated.
In the video, Hamas fighters are seen lying in wait, and later firing an RPG at an IDF vehicle. “Praise God, we managed to ambush them,” one says. “We killed a few of them and destroyed their jeeps.”
The TV report maintains that the Hamas video is part of an orchestrated propaganda effort to urge Israel to release Palestinian prisoners and stir up anti-Israel fury.
A Hamas cell responsible for a fatal West Bank shooting some two weeks ago is broken up in a joint operation by the Shin Bet security agency, Israel Police, and IDF.
Several members of the cell are in custody, including Mu’ad Hamed, who carried out the deadly shooting.
The cell was responsible for the killing of Malachy Rosenfeld, 25, in a shooting attack near Shvut Rachel. It is also responsible for a shooting at an Israeli ambulance and other Israeli vehicles near Beit El in the West Bank. The terror cell also attempted an attack on June 6.
Malachy Rosenfeld (Facebook)
Ahmad Najar, a Hamas member, is one of the West Bank terrorists in custody.
Najar was freed from Israeli prison as part of the prisoner swap for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011, according to the Ynet news website. He was jailed in 2003 for his involvement in a shooting attack in which six Israelis were killed. At the time, Najar was also accused of providing funding to the terror group.
Two of the six suspects linked to the West Bank Hamas cell were detained by the Palestinian security services, according to Hebrew media reports.
Mu’ad Hamad, the shooter in the Shvut Rachel attack and head of the cell, and Ahmad Shavroy, are held by the Palestinians and later handed over to Israel.
Egypt’s military spokesman says the death toll from the Sinai Peninsula a day earlier has climbed to seven soldiers after a series of Islamic-State claimed attacks.
The statement from Brig. Gen. Mohammed Samir on Sunday says the military killed 59 militants during the day’s operations, which involved air cover.
The spokesman initially said that a shell struck a single checkpoint Saturday, killing three soldiers and wounding four. Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, said militants attacked two checkpoints.
In its daily radio broadcast, the Islamic State group says its fighters attacked multiple checkpoints and military installations Saturday in North Sinai, naming at least two checkpoints and saying clashes took place near a local airport.
— AP
Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog denies he will join a unity government with Netanyahu.
“This government must be replaced, as soon as possible,” he says. “It shouldn’t get a lifeline or a hand. Netanyahu must be sent home,” he continues.
Earlier this week, several reports indicated that the Zionist Union and Likud were in talks to form a national unity government.
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog, June 1, 2015 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
The large fire on the outskirts of Kiryat Shmona is under control, after burning through some 500 dunams (123 acres) of orchards, according to the Ynet news website.
Some 20 firefighting units were dispatched to extinguish the fire.
The highway reopens to traffic.
A US-led coalition drops new leaflets over the de facto capital of the Islamic State group in Syria, warning those below that “Freedom will come” to the region, activists say.
A Raqqa-based anti-Islamic State group and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the leaflets have drawings showing dead extremists and their flag turned upside down. Four fighters with the main Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, walk down a street in the picture, with two words in Arab below: “Freedom will come.”
The network called Raqqa Is Being Silently Slaughtered posts a copy of the leaflets on its Twitter account. There was no immediate response from the Islamic State group.
— AP
The IDF is investigating a possible security situation near Metulla, on the Israel-Lebanon border, according to Hebrew media reports. No additional details are provided.
The IDF rules out the possibility of an infiltration on the northern border, according to the Ynet news website. The army is continuing its searches.
Channel 10’s Alon Ben-David writes on Twitter that a hole was found in the fence, likely cut by Hezbollah operatives testing Israel’s readiness.
An illustrative photo of the Israeli border fence with Lebanon near Metulla (Ayal Margolin/Flash 90)
Channel 2 reports that National Security Adviser Susan Rice called former Israeli president Shimon Peres to reassure him about the Iran deal.
Rice reportedly offers Israel an “unprecedented” defense package in compensation, and maintains the US can detect any illicit Iranian nuclear activity.
Then-president Shimon Peres (right) welcomes US National Security Adviser Susan Rice at the Israeli presidential conference in Jerusalem, May 7, 2014. (AP/Tsafrir Abayov)
Turkey’s security forces detained almost 500 people attempting to cross the border from war-torn Syria on Saturday, the army announces.
“488 people were detained by the land forces command border units while trying to cross into Turkey from Syria and 26 while attempting to cross into Syria from Turkey,” the army says on Sunday in a statement posted on its website.
The army statement does not reveal the nationalities of those detained.
— AFP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel defends her treatment of a crying teenage Palestinian refugee — following a storm of protest on social media.
Merkel tells public broadcaster ARD that she had been honest and sympathetic with 14-year-old Reem, whom she met last week at a public discussion under the banner “Living Well in Germany.”
“I think the gesture was fine,” Merkel, 61, says Sunday.
She claims it would be wrong to tell people that “just because you met the chancellor, we can resolve your case faster than many, many other people’s.
“We are a state under the rule of law,” she adds. “But nevertheless, you want to comfort a crying girl.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel attempts to comfort a young Palestinian refugee facing deportation during a televised debate on the country’s asylum policies.
Reem tells the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that she also appreciated Merkel’s matter-of-fact approach.
“It would have bothered me more if she had not been honest,” she says.
— AFP
The Likud party slams the Zionist Union party for its criticism of Netanyahu.
“While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads an international effort against Iran’s nuclear program, in the opposition they would rather deal with petty politics and an attempt to get applause at a party conference,” it says in a statement.
An Israeli NGO petitions the High Court to allow women to dunk in the ritual bath, known as the mikveh, without supervision and according to their own customs, the Ynet news website reports.
The petition against the Chief Rabbinate and the Jerusalem Religious Council — by ITIM – The Right to Live Jewish — maintains that women are barred from entering the mikveh with relatives or friends rather than the mikveh supervisor.
The plea says some customs are imposed on bathers, such as removing earrings, or covering their hair while making a blessing, which some Jewish law authorities or sources maintain is not required.
Illustrative photo of a mikveh (CC BY-SA Tamar Hayardeni/Wikimedia Commons)
Turkey’s Interior Ministry says at least 27 people have been killed and nearly 100 have been hospitalized in an explosion in the southeastern town of Suruc on the Syrian border.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
— AP
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