Adiv Sterman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogges Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
MK Eitan Cabel, chair of the powerful Knesset Finance Committee, criticizes Economy Minister Aryeh Deri’s foot-dragging after the latter said he is leaning toward refraining from using his ministerial privilege to allow a controversial deal on Israel’s natural gas reserves to bypass the Antitrust Commissioner — which would make an upcoming Knesset vote on the agreement irrelevant.
“We all remember very well that Deri voted in favor of the gas deal in the cabinet,” Cabel says. “It is about time that he decided to be who he claims he is — the Knesset’s representative of the ‘transparent and translucent’ people. All of the parliamentary pyrotechnics that Deri and Netanyahu are planning for each other are designed to make a nice wrapping for a bad product and to enable Deri to come out of the whole story looking good.”
He is referencing the Shas election campaign which claimed the party would represent the “transparent people,” a general term for disenfranchised citizens.
Deri told parliamentary reporters earlier that he would rather wait until the appointment of a new Antitrust Commissioner in several weeks’ time than use his ministerial authority with regard to the deal.
Article 52 of the Antitrust Law enables Deri to bypass the commissioner.
Earlier this month the cabinet approved the controversial natural gas deal between the Israeli government and a US-Israeli energy consortium to develop offshore gas fields.
Israeli gas companies’ stocks drop by several percentage points after Economy Minister Aryeh Deri’s statement that he is leaning towards not using his ministerial privilege to allow a controversial deal on Israel’s natural gas reserves to bypass the antitrust commissioner.
An aerial view of the Israeli Tamar gas processing rig 24 kilometers off the southern coastal city of Ashkelon, June 23, 2014 (Moshe Shai/FLASH90)
Delek drops 4.85%, Ratio loses 3.7% of its worth, and Avner 4%, Ynet reports.
Gunmen kill two Egyptian policemen in the Sinai Peninsula, the interior ministry says, in an attack claimed by Islamic State group jihadists.
Egypt’s security forces have come under regular attack since the military ousted Islamist president Morsi two years ago.
In the attack in El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province, “unidentified assailants on a motorbike opened fire on two police, who died of their wounds,” the interior ministry says in a statement.
The attackers managed to escape, according to security officials.
The Egyptian affiliate of IS, which calls itself Sinai Province, said it was responsible and posted photographs of the attack online.
The government says hundreds of police and soldiers have been killed in attacks in the past two years, many of which were claimed by IS’s Egyptian affiliate.
The jihadists say their attacks are in response to a crackdown launched by the authorities after Morsi’s ouster that has seen at least 1,400 people killed and thousands more jailed.
— AFP
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman again raises the issue of 19 Iranians held in the US, calling for them to be released amid the trial of a detained Washington Post reporter.
Marzieh Afkham does not specifically mention journalist Jason Rezaian by name in her comments at a news conference. However, it comes as speculation is rising that Iran could seek to swap Rezaian or other Americans for the Iranians.
Rezaian awaits a verdict in his closed-door espionage trial in a case widely criticized by the US, press freedom organizations and the Post. He reportedly faces up to 10 to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American correspondent for The Washington Post, in Tehran, Iran, April 11, 2013. (AP/Vahid Salemi, File)
Two other Americans are held by Iran, while another went missing in 2007 while working for the CIA on an unapproved intelligence mission.
— AP
The Moroccan suspect in a foiled attack on a high-speed train is facing terrorism charges over what authorities say was a plan to unleash carnage among hundreds of passengers.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirms that Ayoub El-Khazzani was charged overnight. El-Khazzani, 26, was overpowered by at least five passengers, including three Americans and a Briton.
El-Khazzani has denied terrorism plans and said he stumbled upon a bag of weapons and decided to use them to rob passengers.
His older brother, Imran, reached by French radio network RMC, also said the younger man had no links with terrorism.
A photo taken by a passenger with a smartphone through the window of a Thalys train shows police detaining a suspect on the platform at the main train station in Arras, northern France, on August 21, 2015 (AFP/CHRISTINA CATHERINE COONS)
“He could have gone crazy. His life was without a doubt difficult. He didn’t have much money,” the brother said. “It could have gone from bad to worse.”
“I swear to you before God that my brother has nothing to do with a terrorist. We are Muslims. We respect people,” the brother said.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins has said El-Khazzani watched a jihadi video on his cellphone moments before the attack and that — although he claimed to be homeless — he used a first-class ticket. Molins said the suspect’s explanations became increasingly incoherent until he stopped speaking altogether to investigators.
Among the terrorism charges he faces are multiple counts of attempted murder, possession of weapons, and conspiracy.
— AP
German demonstrators boo Chancellor Angela Merkel as she arrives at a refugee center hit by violent far-right protests, according to an AFP reporter.
Around 200 people in the eastern town of Heidenau jeer Merkel from across a road, shouting far-right slogans including “traitor, traitor” and “we are the mob.”
Amid heightened tensions in the town over the opening of a new shelter for asylum-seekers in a former DIY store, Merkel’s vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel had blasted far-right protesters as a “mob” during a visit to the town Monday.
Several drivers honk their car horns as they passed the spot where Merkel was standing, following calls to do so by extremist groups on social media.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel waits for the start of the annual summer interview of German broadcaster ARD at the station’s capital studio in Berlin on July 19, 2015. (AFP / TOBIAS SCHWARZ)
Merkel was welcomed by Saxony state premier Stanislaw Tillich and the town’s mayor Juergen Opitz and later held talks with refugees and social workers at the center.
The German leader on Monday condemned as “vile” violent demonstrations in Heidenau against refugees amid criticism she has failed to forcefully address anti-migrant sentiment.
For two nights in a row last weekend, clashes erupted between police and far-right thugs protesting the opening of the new center for refugees.
— AFP
Some 35 aid groups from around the world, including ActionAid and Oxfam, launch a joint call to end Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip.
“For a whole year the Israeli government has restricted basic and essential construction materials from entering Gaza,” says a statement signed by the NGOs and posted on the site of activist group Avaaz.
Last summer’s devastating war in Gaza caused mass casualties and destruction of homes. Israel attributes this to the practice of Gaza fighters of waging war from inside residential areas.
“Not one of the 19,000 homes that were bombed and destroyed has been fully rebuilt. One year on, around 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza are still homeless, hospitals and schools still lie in ruins, and whole neighborhoods have no access to running water.”
A Palestinian woman walks amid the rubble of buildings which were destroyed during the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014, in the village of Khuzaa, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 1, 2015. (AFP/SAID KHATIB)
“Just five percent of the 6.7 million tons of steel bars, cement and aggregates needed to rebuild what was destroyed since the end of the war has been permitted to enter Gaza,” the statement says. “At this rate, it could take 17 years before Gaza is rebuilt.”
The NGOs acknowledges that Palestinian political parties had failed to reconcile and prioritize reconstruction, “and Egypt’s closure of its border has further limited supplies entering Gaza.” But they say Israel’s blockade was the main obstacle to reconstruction.
A petition launched by the NGOs has so far garnered more than 450,000 signatures from around the world.
— AFP
Representatives from several hotels near the Dead Sea are seen outside the Holot detention facility in the south, as they apparently seek migrant workers looking for a job in the hotel industry, Israel Radio reports.
An African illegal migrant walks with the Israeli flag following his release from the Holot Detention Centre in Israel’s Negev desert, on August 25, 2015. (AFP PHOTO/MENAHEM KAHANA)
Six hundred asylum seekers were released today, in addition to 600 more who were released yesterday. The releases follow a High Court of Justice ruling earlier this month that migrants could not been detained by the state for more than 12 months.
Jamil Radon, a commander in the Free Syrian Army, was reportedly killed in a car explosion in southern Turkey, according to the Dogan news agency.
It is unclear who is behind the attack.
Radon survived an assassination attempt last year.
The general manager of a TV station in Virginia says two crew members were fatally shot on air in central Virginia.
Jeffrey A. Marks, general manager of WDBJ-TV, identified the two killed as Alison Parker and Adam Ward.
The station says in tweets and in a story on its website that the incident happened at a shopping center. The station says law enforcement officials are on the scene.
It is with extreme sadness that we report WDBJ7's Alison Parker and Adam Ward were killed in an attack this morning. http://t.co/oC9s4vLJXV
— WDBJ7 (@WDBJ7) August 26, 2015
The station is based in Roanoke, Virginia, and serves the southwest and central part of the state. The shopping mall is just off Smith Mountain Lake.
Moneta is southeast of Roanoke.
— AP
Following a public outcry, the management at Tel Aviv’s Sarona market cancels a NIS 3,500 fine for a store owner who chose to close his business on Saturdays to honor the Sabbath.
“From a place of public responsibility the management decided to cancel the fine, and contact the relevant legal authorities to investigate the violation,” a statement by Sarona market reads, according to Ynet.
The owner of the “Henri’s” chain had claimed that although a contract he signed stated that the business had to stay open on Saturdays, there was an informal understanding that the clause would not be enforced.
The Sarona management, however, called the decision “a fundamental breach of the renting agreement,” in a letter sent to the store, Walla reported.
— Josefin Dolsten contributed to this report.
Authorities in Arab Israeli towns are threatening to delay the start of the upcoming school year. They are demanding that the Finance Ministry transfer NIS 6 million desperately needed for infrastructure or else they will announce a general strike in September, including at all schools, Israel Radio reports.
After the on-air fatal shooting of two employees of a central Virginia TV station, the general manager appeared on air and called it a terrible crime, saying authorities don’t know who the gunman is.
WDBJ-TV general manager Jeffrey A. Marks called the Wednesday morning incident at a shopping center “a terrible crime against two fine journalists.”
Marks said on air that neither the station nor officials know the motive for the shooting or any identify of a suspect. He says he has talked with authorities and they are working diligently to find out.
Alison Parker and Adam Ward, two employees of Virginia’s WDBJ-TV station who were killed in a mall shooting on Wednesday, August 26 2015. (Screen capture, Twitter.com)
In the video of the incident, as the camera falls to the ground, it captures a fleeting image of a man in black pants and a blue top who appears to be holding a handgun.
The station has identified the two killed as reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward.
Marks said on air: “I cannot tell you how much they were loved. Alison and Adam.”
“Our hearts are broken.”
— AP
Saudi King Salman will visit the United States next month for the first time since acceding the throne and following a rift over America’s rapprochement with Iran, a diplomat says.
The monarch, who pulled out of a Gulf leaders’ summit with US President Barack Obama in May at the last minute, will travel to Washington on September 4, the Saudi diplomat says.
He will also attend a US-Saudi forum in Washington to be held on September 4-6, the source says, requesting anonymity.
The forum would focus on “energy, health, petrochemicals as well as financial services,” among other issues, says the diplomat.
In this Jan. 24, 2015 file photo, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman attends a ceremony at the Diwan royal palace in Riyadh. (AP Photo/Yoan Valat, Pool)
Washington has sought to allay the concerns of its traditional allies over a historic deal it and other world powers reached with Tehran over the Islamic Republic’s suspect nuclear program.
Since late last year, OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia has also been part of a US-led coalition bombing the Islamic State group which has occupied parts of Iraq and Syria.
US aerial refueling, intelligence and other assistance have also supported a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen.
— AFP
The Arab League says it had postponed indefinitely a ministerial meeting set for Thursday to approve the creation of a joint military force to intervene against jihadists.
A meeting of defense and foreign ministers “has been postponed indefinitely and a new date will be set later,” the league’s secretariat says.
No reason was given for the postponement, but the league statement said it came at the request of Saudi Arabia, backed by Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
At a summit in March, Arab leaders agreed to form the force, and army chiefs have already met twice in Cairo to work on the details.
The decision to create the force was mostly aimed at fighting the Islamic State Group, which has overrun swaths of Iraq and Syria and secured a foothold in Libya and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
— AFP
The bodies of at least 40 people are found in the hold of a migrant boat off the coast of Libya, the Swedish coastguard says.
The discovery was made after Swedish ship the Poseidon was sent to the aid of a stricken vessel by the Italian coastguard.
Swedish coastguard spokesman Mattias Lindholm tells AFP the Poseidon had been able to save 439 people on the wooden boat.
“Unfortunately there were around 40 people dead in the hold,” he says. “The bodies are currently being transferred to the Poseidon.”
The Swedish ship was in the area as part of the EU border agency Frontex’s search and rescue mission known as Triton.
Just before the discovery of the bodies, the Poseidon had picked up 130 migrants from a rubber dinghy in the same area.
— AFP
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, making his second visit to Moscow in three months, says he hopes for Russia’s help in combating terrorism in the region.
Sissi’s visit highlights Moscow’s attempts to expand its influence in Egypt at a time when Egyptian-US relations have soured in the aftermath of the ouster of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi.
Opening the talks in the Kremlin, Sissi said “the Egyptian people” are hoping for broader ties with Russia in all areas, particularly in fighting terrorism in the Middle East.
Putin and Sissi are also expected to hammer out the details of a joint project to build Egypt’s first nuclear power station.
— AP
Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe says police are chasing the suspect in a fatal on-air shooting, and his arrest is imminent.
McAuliffe says on a radio show on WTOP that the suspect is believed to be a disgruntled employee of WDBJ-TV. He says police are pursuing the suspect on Interstate 64.
McAuliffe made the remarks during an appearance on the radio station’s regular “Ask the Governor” show on Wednesday morning. Hours earlier, a reporter and a cameraman were killed on air as they worked at a shopping center in Moneta, in central Virginia.
McAuliffe says that law enforcement personnel have a photo of the suspect and that he was known to the victims.
Former Jerusalem District police chief Aryeh Amit criticizes the recent appointment of Gal Hirsch as the country’s next police commissioner.
“The decision is delusional and wrong,” Amit says, according to Walla.
“I do not understand minister [Gilad Erdan]. He has no idea about the police. You can not take a person who the IDF did not want and promote… and hand him such a top job.”
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan nominated Hirsch, a once-promising senior IDF officer who resigned over a damning inquiry into the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev on the northern border while he was commander of the Galilee Division.
Queen Rania of Jordan says that moderate Muslims are not doing enough to fight against IS jihadists and their “diabolical ideology.”
Speaking at a major French business gathering in Jouy-en-Josas near Paris, the 44-year-old says helping the Middle East’s youth was crucial in the fight against the extremist group, which controls swathes of Iraq and Syria on Jordan’s doorstep.
“We are facing a time of great peril. Daesh, or the so-called Islamic State, continues to spread its diabolical ideology,” she says.
“Moderate Muslims the world over are not doing enough to win the ideological struggle at the heart of this battle.”
“We’re not actively helping Daesh, but we’re not actively stopping them either. We can’t stand against them until we as Muslims agree on what we stand for.”
Queen Rania of Jordan looks on as she delivers a speech during the Grand Opening of French employers’ organization Medef at their summer conference on August 26, 2015 in Jouy-en-Josas, near Paris (AFP / ERIC PIERMONT)
Queen Rania says focusing on the youth of the Middle East — many of whom are unemployed or forced to flee their countries — is a necessity.
They need “education, opportunities, work and… also a little bit of luck, that someone believes in them.”
According to the queen, some 100 million jobs must be created in the region by 2020, to avoid disaffected young people from joining the ranks of jihadists.
“Failure is not an option because if we fail in the face of these extremists and if they win, the region will quickly be devastated.
The suspect in the fatal shooting of a television reporter and cameraman in Virginia is Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, of Roanoke, the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office says.
Law enforcement personnel were in hot pursuit, with multiple vehicles following him closely down Interstate 64 at one point, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe says.
“They’re right behind him,” he says during an appearance on WTOP-FM’s “Ask the Governor.”
Video of the shooting was later posted on the Twitter account and Facebook page of Bryce Williams, who was on the staff at WDBJ. It showed an outstretched arm holding the handgun and firing repeatedly at Parker as she tried to run away.
A man who is suspected of killing two journalists in Virginia shot himself during a confrontation with police, US media reports.
Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, of Roanoke, was named by the Augusta County Sheriff’s Office as the suspect. Flanagan is reported to be critically injured, according to US media reports, citing state police.
During an appearance on WTOP-FM’s “Ask the Governor” on Wednesday morning, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said that law enforcement personnel have a photo of the suspect and that he was known to the victims.
McAuliffe said the shooter was believed to be a disgruntled employee of the TV station and was being chased by police on Interstate 64. The governor said his arrest should be “imminent.”
The Virginia TV station that saw a reporter and cameraman fatally shot in a live broadcast has gone live for its noon broadcast, giving details about the suspect. WDBJ-TV says that suspect 41-year-old Vester Lee Flanagan II appeared on air at the station as Bryce Williams.
Video of the shooting was posted on the Twitter account and Facebook page of someone under the name Bryce Williams. The video showed an outstretched arm holding the handgun and firing repeatedly at Parker as she tried to run away.
Also, ABC News reports that someone using the name Bryce Williams sent the organization a lengthy fax that it has turned over to authorities.
WDBJ-TV general manager Jeffrey A. Marks and an anchor spoke to viewers for the Wednesday broadcast, several hours after the early morning shooting. They told viewers more about the victims, reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward. They spoke about the victims as family members at the station. Both were dating co-workers.
A police officer is injured after being stabbed in the leg by a suspected assailant near the Damascus gate in Jerusalem, according to witnesses at the scene.
The suspect, a Palestinian man, is arrested.
Suspect arrested after stabbing police officer in leg short time ago in Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/4Q8jgABvMM
— Israel Breaking (@IsraelBreaking) August 26, 2015
Dozens of police officials arrive for an emergency meeting in Tel Aviv following the appointment of Gal Hirsch as Israel’s next Police Commissioner. The officials announce they will appeal to the State Comptroller in an attempt to prevent Hirsch from taking the position.
Yesterday, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan nominated Hirsch, a once-promising senior IDF officer who resigned over a damning inquiry into the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev on the northern border while he was commander of the Galilee Division.
Israel’s police force has recently been hit by a series of high-profile corruption and sexual harassment scandals, and Erdan previously indicated that he might seek to appoint a figure from outside the Israel Police as Yohanan Danino’s successor.
The Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating an allegation that the US military command overseeing the anti-Islamic State campaign distorted or altered intelligence assessments to exaggerate progress against the militant group, a defense official says.
The official was not authorized to discuss the probe publicly and so spoke on condition of anonymity.
The investigation was first disclosed by The New York Times. The paper reported that the investigation began after at least one civilian Defense Intelligence Agency analyst told authorities that he had evidence that officials at US Central Command were improperly reworking conclusions of assessments prepared for policy makers, including President Barack Obama.
Details of the allegations were not available. A spokeswoman for the inspector general’s office, Bridget Serchak, declined to comment.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook says he could not confirm the probe. The Pentagon typically does not publicly comment on the work of the inspector general’s office, which is an independent arm of the Defense Department.
Cook says Defense Secretary Ash Carter “counts on independent intelligence and analysis from a variety of sources to help him make critical decisions about the nation’s security.”
— AP
An Israeli violinist who played under the baton of conductor Daniel Barenboim criticizes Culture Minister Miri Regev’s request that Germany cancel a performance by the Berlin Staatskapelle scheduled to take place in Tehran during German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit there, planned for October.
“Every performance [by Barenboim] only brings pride that an Israeli citizen reached such a lofty position” in the world of music, says Ori Wissner-Levy. “I don’t think this should be made into such a big deal.”
Wissner-Levy plays with Barenboim in a different orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which is comprised of musicians from Israel, Arab countries and Palestinian musicians, and was established by Barenboim and the late expatriate Palestinian academic Edward Said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I am not at all for the current regime in Iran,” Wissner-Levy tells the Walla news website, “but I have nothing against the citizens – and apparently neither does he,” he says, referring to Barenboim.
Wissner-Levy says that he would probably not go to a show in Tehran due to his Israeli passport, and emphasizes that regardless of Barenboim’s plans to go, “I have no idea what he thinks of the [nuclear] deal.”
— Jack Tonhaben
Israeli violinist Ori Wissner-Levy (second left) playing with Israeli cellist Michal Beck (second right), Anders Kjellberg Nilsson (left), Avri Levitan (right) and Johan Fröst at the Gotland Chamber Music Festival in Sweden in late July 2015. (Screen capture Facebook)
In a move likely to upset Israel’s government, the Palestinians are seeking to raise their flag, along with the Vatican flag, at UN headquarters — just in time for Pope Francis’ visit next month.
Supporters of the idea hope the UN General Assembly will adopt a resolution on the flag-raising shortly before the pope arrives. They’re betting that the United States or other allies of Israel will not block the plan and risk offending the Holy See on the pope’s first US visit.
The Palestinians’ proposal has been tabled, and a draft of the resolution has been seen by The Associated Press. It would allow non-member observer states — there are only two — to display their flags with the 193 member states.
The row of flags in front of the UN General Assembly at the agency headquarters in New York on September 16, 2010. (CC BY-SA Yerpo, Wikimedia Commons.)
While the Vatican’s mission to the UN earlier expressed support for the idea, it circulated a letter this week distancing itself from the draft, asking the Palestinian mission to “kindly to remove in its draft resolution any reference to the ‘Holy See’ and any generic reference ‘on behalf of the Observer States.'”
The Holy See’s mission did not comment Wednesday. Emmanuel Nahshon, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry, called the Palestinians’ move “an attempt to create a meaningless and cheap gimmick.”
The United States and Israel oppose recognizing the Palestinian state, arguing that it undermines efforts to negotiate a peace agreement. That process, however, has largely been at a standstill since the deadly conflict in Gaza a year ago.
Many states have shown support for the Palestinians’ pursuit of statehood, including the Holy See.
In May, the Vatican officially recognized the state of Palestine in their first formal, bilateral treaty. Israel’s foreign ministry said it was “disappointed.” During Francis’ 2014 visit to the Holy Land, the Vatican’s official program referred to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the president of the “state of Palestine.”
White House spokesman Josh Ernest says the White House is focusing on assuring that lawmakers do not “spoil” the Iranian nuclear agreement.
“There are some indications that we are successful in our efforts to gain support in Congress,” he tells reporters.
Congress will vote in September on whether to approve the deal. President Barack Obama has vowed to veto any legislation aimed at blocking the deal.
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