Netanyahu: Trump can help undo Iran deal, reach peace with Palestinians

Top Sunni authority condemns Egypt blast

Egypt’s top Sunni authority has condemned a bomb blast Sunday that killed at least 25 worshipers inside a Cairo church as “a great crime” against all Egyptians.

“The vile terrorist explosion” was “a great crime against all Egyptians,” Al-Azhar’s grand imam, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, says in a statement.

The explosion struck inside a church near the seat of the Coptic pope who heads Egypt’s Christian minority, at around 10 am, security officials say.

— AFP

Death toll in Nigeria church collapse hits 160, likely to rise

A hospital director in Nigeria says at least 160 people have been killed after metal girders and the roof of a crowded church collapsed onto worshipers in southern Nigeria Saturday, with the toll likely to rise.

Mortuaries in the city of Uyo are overflowing from Saturday’s tragedy, medical director Etete Peters of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital tells The Associated Press.

The Reigners Bible Church International was still under construction and workers had been rushing to finish it in time for Saturday’s ceremony to ordain founder Akan Weeks as a bishop, congregants say.

In this image taken from video people stand at the scene after the roof of The Reigners Bible Church International collapsed onto worshipers killing dozens in Uyo, southern Nigeria, December 10, 2016. (Channels TV via AP)

Hundreds of people, including Akwa Ibom state Gov. Udom Emmanuel, were inside when metal girders crashed onto worshipers and the corrugated iron roof caved in, they say. Emmanuel and Weeks, who preached that God will make his followers rich, escaped unhurt.

Many uncounted victims are in private mortuaries scattered across Uyo, youth leader Edikan Peters says. He says some people are secretly taking the bodies of relatives to their homes because mortuaries are overcrowded and some do not have refrigeration.

A crane is being used to lift debris believed to be hiding the bodies of more victims, says Peters.

— AP

New Turkish envoy shows copy of credentials

After landing in Israel last night, incoming Turkish ambassador to Israel Kemal Okem presented a copy of his credentials to the foreign ministry, a day ahead of him officially starting work and drawing to a close a chapter that saw over six years of frayed ties between the countries.

Okem hands a copy of his credentials to Foreign Ministry Director Meron Reuven in a small ceremony. On Monday, he is slated to hand his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin, officially upgrading ties.

השגריר הטורקי המיועד מסר את העתק כתב האמנה בין המדינות לראש חטיבת הטקס במשרד החוץ, מירון ראובן. צילום: משרד החוץ @MoavVardi pic.twitter.com/m7G0tUob1F

— חדשות 10 (@news10) December 11, 2016

Okem is a foreign policy expert and close confidant of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Last week Israeli ambassador Eitan Na’eh handed his credentials to Erdogan in Ankara.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used part of his weekly cabinet meeting to condemn a deadly bombing the night before at a stadium in Turkey.

“I condemn all terror in Turkey and expect that Turkey will condemn all attack in Israel,” he said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. “The campaign against terror demands mutual condemnation and mutual eradication, and that is the expectation of Israel from all the countries with which we are in contact.”

Turks march toward stadium where deadly blast took place

Turkey’s private NTV channel is showing more than 100 flag-carrying demonstrators marching along Istanbul’s coastline toward the stadium that was the site of deadly attacks a night earlier.

Twin blasts in Istanbul on Saturday night killed 38 people and wounded 155 others near a soccer stadium. No group has claimed responsibility.

After attending the funeral for some of the police officers who were among the 38 people killed in the latest bombings, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the hospital where dozens of the wounded are being treated.

People walk past the Besiktas football club stadium Vodafone Arena in Istanbul, Sunday, December 11, 2016 following a late Saturday explosion. (AP/Halit Onur Sandal)

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Constitutional Court has issued a statement condemning the “nefarious terrorist attack” and wishing God mercy’s for the dead and a speedy recovery for the wounded. It says “these attacks which target our country’s peace will never reach their goals.”

— AP

Former MK suspected of bribe-taking released to house arrest

Former Knesset member Amnon Cohen, arrested last week on suspicions of taking bribes and handing out political favors, has been released to house arrest by the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, a police spokesperson says.

Cohen will remain under conditional release to house arrest until at least December 23.

Former Shas MK Amnon Cohen appears before the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, on December 7, 2016. (Yehuda Haim/Flash90)

Cohen, a former Shas MK, is suspected of taking money and other favors of a sexual nature from a businessman, whose interests he then pushed in the Knesset.

Cohen’s lawyer has denied the accusations, some of which came about through an investigation by TV program “Uvda.”

Islamic State said to retake all of Palmyra

The Islamic State jihadist group recaptured at Palmyra on Sunday after Syrian armed forces pulled out of the desert city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

“Despite the ongoing air raids, IS retook all of Palmyra after the Syrian army withdrew south of the city,” says Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it carried out 64 airstrikes overnight that killed 300 IS militants and destroyed vehicles and artillery. The head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the militants were driven out before dawn, but regrouped and attacked from the northeast.

A Russian army soldier looks on as sappers check for mines in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, April 7, 2016. (AFP/Max DELANY)

The jihadists made a lightning-fast advance across the city after overrunning a northern neighborhood and capturing the famed citadel to Palmyra’s west.

The IS-linked Amaq news agency also reports that IS has regained “full control” of the city on Sunday after taking the citadel, which overlooks Palmyra from a strategic hilltop.

IS launched an offensive last week near Palmyra, a renowned UNESCO World Heritage site.

— Agencies

Ash Carter makes surprise visit to Baghdad

A day before flying to Israel for a ceremony delivering F-35 fighter jets to the IDF, US Defense Secretary Ash Carter has arrived in Baghdad to meet with American commanders and Iraqi leaders and to assess progress in the fight to retake the northern city of Mosul from the Islamic State group.

The unannounced visit on Sunday comes as Iraqi security forces have been slowed in their nearly two-month-old offensive against IS, which has occupied Mosul for more than two years.

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter visits sailors aboard the USS Monterey in port in Manama, Bahrain, December 10, 2016. (DOD/US Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley)

Carter flew into Baghdad aboard a military cargo plane. He is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as well as top US and coalition commanders.

In Bahrain on Saturday, Carter announced he is sending another 200 troops to Syria to train and advise local fighters combating IS. There were already 300 US troops authorized for the Syria effort, and some 5,000 in Iraq.

— Agencies

Iran inks $16b deal with Boeing for 80 planes

Iran says it has finalized a $16.8 billion deal with Boeing to purchase 80 passenger planes, a deal made possible by last year’s landmark nuclear agreement.

The state-run IRNA news agency says 50 Boeing 737s and 30 Boeing 777s will be delivered over the next decade, in the biggest agreement to be struck with an American company since the 1979 revolution and US Embassy takeover.

Boeing has no immediate comment.

— AP

Renzi ally tapped to lead Italian caretaker government

Paolo Gentiloni has been named as Italy’s new prime minister following reformist leader Matteo Renzi’s resignation in the wake of a crushing referendum defeat.

Gentiloni, who had been Renzi’s foreign minister, is asked by President Sergio Mattarella to form a new government that will guide Italy to elections due by February 2018, a presidency spokesman announced.

Gentiloni, 62, is seen as a close ally of Renzi who is unlikely to get in the way of the outgoing premier’s plans for a political comeback.

Gentiloni now has to put together his own government line-up which is expected to be put to a parliamentary confidence vote on Wednesday.

— AFP

Decision on setting Katsav free to wait a week

A parole board decision on whether to free former president Moshe Katsav, serving time for a rape conviction, will only be made next Sunday, according to a court statement.

The results of a hearing held today, aside from discussion on the timing of the decision, are being kept under wraps until the announcement is made, according to a short protocol sent out by the court.

Katsav, who has served over five years of a seven-year sentence, has been denied early release several times.

3 held for social media posts on Turkey bomb

The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s office says three people have been detained for social media posts regarding Saturday night’s attack in Istanbul that killed 38 people.

In addition to 13 suspects detained as part of the investigation into the twin bombings, the prosecutor’s office said it is investigating any “news, comment or shares on press and social media platforms that attempted to praise terrorism or terrorist organizations, serve terrorist organizations’ propaganda, legitimize terrorism or target those who combat terrorism.”

Coffins of bomb victims are carried through the crowd during a memorial in Istanbul, Sunday, December 11, 2016, for police officers killed outside the Besiktas football club stadium Vodafone Arena late Saturday. (AP)

The statement notes that three suspects have been detained for this so far and authorities were working to apprehend others.

The car-and suicide-bombing near Istanbul’s Besiktas stadium killed mostly police officials, also wounded 155 people and has enraged Turkey’s top leadership.

— AP

Abbas condemns bombings in Turkey, Cairo

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed his condolences to Egyptian and Turkish leaders following recent bombings in the two countries.

Egyptian media said Sunday a blast at Cairo’s main Coptic Christian cathedral killed 25 people and injured at least another 35.

Abbas calls the attack on a church in Cairo that killed 25 and injured 35 a “heinous crime, contrary to the values of our religion (Islam), traditions, customs, norms and the morals our peoples and the laws of all humanity,” the official PA news outlet Wafa reports.

Regarding a Saturday night attack in Istanbul that killed 38 people, Abbas “reiterated his absolute rejection of terrorism” and stressed the solidarity of Palestinians with the the Turkish people, according to the report.

— Dov Lieber

Palestinian forces stop Israeli army jeeps from entering Jenin

Video has emerged showing Palestinian Authority police preventing Israeli security forces from entering the West Bank city of Jenin.

In videos posted to social media, the Palestinian officers, armed with assault rifles, can be seen standing in front of IDF vehicles, halting their entrance into the city.

In one such clip, posted by the Hamas-linked al-Quds News Network, the officers can be heard firing shots into the air as the Israeli vehicles leave the city.

أفراد الأمن الوطني الفلسطيني يطلقون النار بالهواء خلال منعهم اقتحام قوات الاحتلال لمدينة جنين قبل قليل. pic.twitter.com/A0UGLd0xHC

— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) December 11, 2016

The IDF says it is looking into the incident.

— Judah Ari Gross

Boy injured in fall from cliff dies — hospital

Hospital officials say a 10-year-old boy seriously injured after tumbling off a mountain while hiking on Friday has died of his injuries.

Elai Nir’s father, Dr. Omri Nir, was killed in the fall at the Tzeelim canyon as he tried to save his son, who fell while climbing on a ladder on a rock face.

The boy was airlifted to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba with serious head trauma, and doctors tried unsuccessfully to save him.

“A multidisciplinary staff of professionals worked to stabilize him, but unfortunately, his condition worsened until he had irreparable brain damage,” the hospital says in a statement. “This afternoon, after he took a turn for the worse, doctors were forced to declare him dead.”

Bill banning volunteers from foreign-funded groups gets boost

A powerful Knesset panel has given the green light to a bill banning groups that receive most of their funding from abroad from being able to pull volunteers from the pool of National Service draftees.

The Ministerial Committee for Legislation, which determines coalition backing for legislation, unanimously okays the measure, and it is expected to go to the Knesset for a preliminary reading on Wednesday, according to Hebrew media reports.

The bill, proposed by Likud MK Amir Ohana, is seen as targeting left-wing NGOs — particularly human rights group B’Tselem.

Kurdish group claims deadly Istanbul bombings

A Kurdish militant group on Sunday is claiming responsibility for twin attacks that ripped through the heart of Istanbul, killing 38 people, most of them police, a news agency reports.

The claim is made by the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), seen as an splinter group of the better-known Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the pro-PKK Firat news agency says, carrying a statement from the group.

A Turkish man cries as people gather to pay their respects outside the Vodafone Arena football stadium in Istanbul on December 11, 2016, a day after twin bombings near the home stadium of Besiktas football club. (AFP/BULENT KILIC)

— AFP

Trump says he’d like to see Ivanka, Kushner involved

US President-elect Donald Trump says he envisions a role for his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner in his nascent administration.

“I would love to be able to have them involved,” he tells “Fox News Sunday.”

Of Kushner, who he had earlier floated as being involved in the Middle East peace process, he says he’d like to have him involved in some sort of foreign policy work.

“He’s very talented, he’s a very talented guy,” Trump says.

Livni accuses Netanyahu of seeking jobs for cronies

Haaretz reports that Netanyahu said during the weekly cabinet meeting that he should be able to make political appointments in his government like Trump does.

“Trump can make 4,000 appointments. We should be able to make a few hundred appointments that don’t need a tender,” he says, according to the report, citing a minister in the meeting. “What’s for certain is that with Trump, the officials will carry out his policies. We also need to able to govern.”

Responding to the report, Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni accuses Netanyahu of trying to promote cronyism.

“Netanyahu as usual thinks only of himself, his [political survival] and his rule,” she says in a statement. “So for that he needs to give out hundreds of jobs to his associates. The public isn’t lacking in bureaucracy, but in leadership with integrity and vision.”

Sheep-man caught trying to fleece tax authority

Call it the shepherd who cried wolf.

Police say a sheep-herder tried to pull the wool over their eyes when he complained that rustlers had made off with 280 of his animals.

Sheep. (photo credit: CC BY candiche, Flickr)

No bleating hearts they, the police launched an investigation and found that the sheep-man and three workers had fabricated the story to fleece the Tax Authority.

Bet they’re feeling sheepish now.

MK criticizes Netanyahu for political appointments plea

MK Miki Rosenthal (Zionist Union) joins party colleague Livni in slamming Netanyahu for reportedly saying he wants to be able to make political appointments without it being subject to a hiring tender.

“Netanyahu isn’t satisfied with envoys, he wants to put his whole weight on corrupting the civil service by force ,” he writes on Facebook. “The Prime Minister wants full politicization of the professional civil service. Quality professionals who are beholden to the public bother him. He wants obedience.”

Rosenthal runs down the list of Netanyahu appointments which have led to investigations of various sorts of wrongdoing.

“Personal and political appointees owe more to those who appoint them and less to the public, and if Netanyahu wants to complete the process, we will get officials who aren’t as good and a much more corrupt state,” he writes on Facebook.

Earlier, Netanyahu reportedly said he thought the government should be able to make political appointments, as is done in the US, according to Haaretz.

McCain: Senate to probe if Russia meddled in elections

Senator John McCain says the Senate Armed Services Committee will go to work “immediately” to investigate allegations that hackers directed by Russia tried to interfere in the US presidential election.

The Arizona Republican tells CBS’s “Face The Nation” Sunday that the effort will be led by GOP Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and a Democratic co-chair.

McCain also says ultimately he’d like the Senate to create a special committee to investigate the allegations.

Such “select” committees take time to set up.

President-elect Donald Trump has dismissed the CIA’s conclusion that Russia tried to drive his victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton.

McCain calls Russian leader Vladimir Putin “a thug, and a murderer, and a killer, and a KGB agent.”

— AP

Israel condemns ‘reprehensible’ Cairo bombing

Israel has sent out a statement condemning the bombing at a cathedral in Cairo that left 25 people dead as a “reprehensible terror attack.”

“Israel shares in the grief of the families of the victims and the Egyptian people,” the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office reads. “We must unite forces and fight terrorism together.”

Netanyahu earlier condemned a double bombing in Istanbul, but with the caveat that Jerusalem expected Ankara to also condemn terror in Israel.

2,000 IS fighters killed in battle for Mosul — US

Iraqi and US-led coalition forces have killed or gravely wounded more than 2,000 Islamic State fighters in the battle for Mosul since October, the top US commander in Iraq says.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend tells reporters there are still an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 IS fighters defending Mosul. He applauded the efforts of Iraqi security forces, who began their offensive on October 17, in what has been billed a decisive phase of the anti-IS fight.

“By our calculations, we think we have killed or badly wounded over 2,000,” Townsend said at a joint news conference with US Defense Secretary Ash Carter at Qayara air base.

— AP

Katsav admits he was wrong, women were hurt — sources

Sources close to ex-president Moshe Katsav say that the convicted rapist expressed some degree of remorse in a parole hearing earlier in the day, both Chnnels 2 and 10 report.

“I am sure that the women that complained were hurt and experienced what they said. I am not free of mistakes and I need to understand the takeaways,” Katsav said, according to Channel 2, quoting those close to him. “Now I understand that I hurt them, that I didn’t see the signs that they had been hurt. I messed up.”

In earlier hearings, Katsav had been recalcitrant, refusing to admit nearly any wrongdoing, which was a factor in the refusals to grant him early release before now.

According to sources quoted by Channel 10, Katsav admitted that he had dismissed the complaints of the women too easily.

“Today, he accepts any claim or complaint of someone who says they were hurt by him and does not allow doubts,” the source says.

A decision on granting Katsav early release will be announced next Sunday.

Netanyahu: I’ll talk to Trump about undoing Iran deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling President-elect Donald Trump a strong supporter of Israel, and says he wants to work with Trump to undo the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by the Obama administration and other world powers.

“I know Donald Trump,” Netanyahu tells CBS’s “60 Minutes” in an interview that will air Sunday night. “He feels very warmly about the Jewish state, about the Jewish people…there’s no question about that.”

Netanyahu says there are “various ways of undoing” the 2015 deal, in which Iran agreed to limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions on its oil industry and finances.

“I have about five things in my mind,” Netanyahu says, declining to go into further detail. He also says Israel has many “more options than you think” on what to do to keep Iran from the bomb once the deal is undone.

Trump has been harshly critical of the nuclear deal, and Netanyahu tried to block it.

Netanyahu also says the deal has been good for improving relations with neighbors, though offer only a “no comment,” when asked about ties with Saudi Arabia.

He also says Trump can help him negotiate peace with the Palestinians.

“I’d like to have President Trump, when he gets into the White House, help me work on that. I’d like to see if the Arab states can help me achieve that. It’s a new reality. A new possibility,” he says.

— with AP

Antiquities official fears for Palmyra after IS recaptures city

Syria’s official for antiquities and museums says his department had emptied the contents of Palmyra’s museum, but he fears for the ruins of the ancient city after Islamic State fighters re-occupied it.

Maamoun Abdulkarim tells The Associated Press that after the government captured the ancient city from the militants in March following a 10-month occupation, the museum’s exhibits were all transferred to the capital.

He says the militants had damaged the buildings, severed the heads of a number of statues, and dynamited and partially damaged two of the city’s temples and famous arc. But Abdulkarim says 80 percent of the city’s ruins were intact.

Abdulkarim says he believed that the extremist group is much weaker now than the first time they captured Palmyra. But he warns, “I fear they will be more vengeful.”

— Agencies

US Defense Secretary touches down in Israel ahead of F-35 ceremony

US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter lands in Israel ahead of tomorrow’s reception ceremony for Israel’s new F-35 stealth fighter jets.

He is met at the airport by US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and Amos Gilad, director of the Defense Ministry’s Political-Military Affairs Bureau.

On Monday, two F-35 jets will touch down on the runway of the Nevatim Air Base, in southern Israel, becoming the latest acquisition of the Israel Defense Forces — and one of the most expensive, at more than NIS 380 million ($100 million) per plane.

The two planes landing on December 12 will be the first of 50 F-35 jets that Israel has agreed to purchase from Lockheed-Martin.

#SecDef Ash Carter arrived in Israel. He will meet top Israeli officials & take part in the delivery ceremony of Israel’s first two F-35. pic.twitter.com/uKAuxXaIFi

— USEmbassyTelAviv (@usembassyta) December 11, 2016

Before the planes arrive, Carter will attend an honor guard ceremony at the army’s Tel Aviv headquarters and meet with Israel’s top brass.

The US secretary of defense will then join Israel’s political and military upper echelon on stage at the F-35 event. He is slated to give a speech at the ceremony and host a press conference afterwards with his counterpart Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Carter’s visit coincides with an around-the-world tour, during which he’s visited Japan, India, Bahrain and — in a surprise addition — Iraq, to visit the US forces there.

The US defense secretary will stay in Israel for one day before moving on to Italy and the United Kingdom, the Pentagon said in a statement earlier this month.

Lapid raps Netanyahu on political appointments

Yesh Atid chair Yair Lapid slams Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for reportedly saying he wants to be able to make political appointments without it being subject to a hiring tender after the cabinet authorized a committee be set up to look into the issue.

“This is the sign of a political system that has betrayed the people of Israel and that only cares for itself, rather than working for its citzens,” Lapid tells his weekly faction meeting in the Knesset.

“The people of Israel have been forgotten because all that the politicians care about is politics, politics and jobs,” he says, lamenting the fact that it was deemed urgent to set up a committee to increase political appointments rather than one looking at the home front situation on the Gaza border, the polution in the Haifa area or the nationwide poverty levels

On Sunday, Netanyahu reportedly said he thought the government should be able to make political appointments, as is done in the US, according to Haaretz.

— Raoul Wootliff