Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s developments as they unfolded.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon for the first time since the prime minister’s effort to delay the launch of the new public broadcaster wedged a divide between the two and stirred coalition tension.
The two are meeting on the subject in a bid to reach an agreement on the broadcaster, and its precursor, the Israel Broadcasting Authority, which is set to be closed by next month. If they fail to reach a deal, the prime minister has threatened to go to early elections.
Elections are not scheduled to take place until 2019.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Kahlon has come to an end.
No agreements have been reached, according to Hebrew media reports.
Iran will impose sanctions on 15 US companies for their support for Israel and its “terrorist actions,” state news agency IRNA says Sunday.
The decision, which is largely symbolic because the firms do not do business with Iran, comes two days after the US announced new sanctions on a number of foreign firms accused of collaborating with Iran’s weapons program.
Iran’s sanctions target US firms that provide arms and equipment to Israel “for use against the Palestinians,” IRNA says.
“All transactions with these firms are forbidden, their assets will be seized and their officials will not be able to obtain a visa,” it adds.
The firms include United Technologies, ITT Corporation, Magnum Research INC, Military Armament Corporation and Bushmaster Firearms International.
The list also included Re/Max Real Estate, which Tehran accuses of “buying and selling homes in settlements located in the occupied territories.”
— AFP
Encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp must make their platforms accessible to intelligence agencies, a top British security official declares Sunday amid reports that the Westminster attacker used the service minutes before his assault on Parliament.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd says it is “completely unacceptable” for messaging services to provide end-to-end encryption that means security services cannot listen to plots being discussed.
“We need to make sure that organizations like WhatsApp, and there are plenty of others like that, don’t provide a secret place for terrorists to communicate with each other,” she says.
Rudd also urges technology companies to do a better job at preventing the publication of material that promotes extremism.
British police investigating the attack on Parliament that claimed four victims and wounded dozens say they still believe the assailant acted alone and they have no information indicating that further attacks are planned.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu says it may never be possible to fully determine the motives of attacker Khalid Masood, who was shot dead Wednesday after running over pedestrians with an SUV on London’s Westminster Bridge and fatally stabbing a policeman guarding Parliament.
— AP
Police say there is no indication the deadly shooting at a Cincinnati nightclub is terrorism related.
Assistant Police Chief Paul Neudigate says in a tweet that the motive is still unclear.
Police say “at least a couple of shooters” opened fire inside the Cameo club early Sunday, killing one person and wounding more than a dozen others.
Capt. Kim Williams says the crowd there is often very young on Saturday nights and they have had trouble in the past, but “this is the worst by far.”
She says the scene was chaotic when the gunfire erupted. Police are interviewing witnesses.
— AP
Screen capture from unconfirmed video showing the scene following a shooting at the Cameo nightclub in Cincinnati, Ohio, March 26, 2017. (YouTube/VIDOS)
Musician Ilan Ben Ami is sentenced to life in prison for beating his wife to death with a hammer in August 2014.
The Tel Aviv District Court rules Ben Ami must also pay NIS 258,000 ($70,000) in damages to the daughter of his partner, musician and restaurateur Dafna Bar Zion.
On the day of the murder, the couple had fought as Bar Zion attempted to end their relationship, the court decision in January said.
Ben Ami then took a one-kilogram hammer, “approached the deceased, who was facing the doorway, and hit her twice forcefully until she fell,” the legal documents said. “With the deceased on the ground, the defendant covered her head with a garment and continued to pound her head with the hammer many times.”
Israeli musician Ilan Ben Ami (center) at the Tel Aviv District Court on December 6, 2015 (Flash90)
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman denies there are 15 cross-border Hamas tunnels extending into Israeli territory, as reported by Channel 2 in February.
Answering questions on Facebook Live, the defense minister says: “There are not 15 tunnels that cross into Israel.”
“If there are any tunnels at all,” he says, “there are much, much fewer [than 15].”
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman visits the Tel Hashomer IDF base, where he spoke to new army recruits, on March 19, 2017. (Flash90)
Syrian activists say the Islamic State group has ordered an evacuation from its de facto capital, Raqqa, following warnings that the Tabqa Dam upstream on the Euphrates River could collapse.
The activist-run Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently says civilians are fleeing Raqqa en masse. It says the militants are warning residents that the dam is out of service, weakened by US-led coalition airstrikes, and could collapse. It says water levels are rising behind the dam.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-run monitoring group, is also reporting the dam is out of service.
The two groups rely on local contacts to smuggle information out of IS-held territory.
US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces are battling IS near the militant-held dam as part of a broader campaign to take Raqqa.
— AP
Hundreds are attending the funeral of iconic sportscaster Meir Einstein at a cemetery in the coastal city of Herzliya.
Einstein died Thursday following a battle with a debilitating muscular disease. He was 65.
His death prompted an outpouring of tributes on Friday for the man whose gravelly voice became synonymous with Israeli sports.
Israeli sportscaster Meir Einstein (Screen capture: YouTube)
Iran’s central bank says Sunday it will appeal Luxembourg’s decision to freeze $1.6 billion of its assets, which the US is claiming as compensation for victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The bank also says it will take steps to curb its remaining transactions in dollars, which it still receives particularly for oil sales.
In response to fresh US sanctions announced since last month, “Iran has sought to limit its dependence on the dollar… this policy will continue,” the bank says in a statement published by state media.
A Luxembourg court last week denied Tehran’s request to retrieve the $1.6 billion frozen in the country during an earlier raft of sanctions targeting Iran’s nuclear program.
US lawyers are hoping to seize the money to pay off the families and estates of victims from the 2001 attacks, after a New York judge ruled Iran was partially responsible because it allowed al-Qaeda members to travel through its territory.
— AFP
A senior German official says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rhetoric in the standoff with European countries ahead of his country’s April 16 referendum is causing damage that will take years to repair.
Erdogan has accused Germany, and Chancellor Angela Merkel, of “committing Nazi practices” after some local authorities blocked appearances by Turkish ministers hoping to campaign in Germany for a presidential system at home.
He has aimed similar accusations at the Netherlands. Both countries have large Turkish minorities.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble tells the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that “Erdogan’s rhetoric leaves me speechless.”
He is quoted Sunday as saying that Erdogan is “willfully destroying in a short time” years of progress on integration.
Schaeuble add that “repairing the damage that is being done now will take years.”
— AP
The pro-Israel AIPAC lobby conference opens in Washington, DC.
Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and Rwandan President Paul Kagame will be addressing the morning session.
Ready for Day 1 of @AIPAC Policy Conference! #IlliniPC17 #AddYourVoice pic.twitter.com/B6bceD1VJ0
— IlliniPAC (@illinipac) March 26, 2017
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas), Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, and Finance Committee Chairman Moshe Gafni tell Netanyahu they oppose early elections over the new broadcaster, according to Hebrew media reports.
Opening the conference, AIPAC President Lillian Pinkus is imploring participants to keep Israel a bipartisan issue in an increasingly polarized America.
“We need pro-Israel activists on both sides of the aisle,” she says in her opening address. Pinkus notes the dramatic political shifts over the past eight years as well as the current “divisiveness” in the US discourse.
To uphold Israel as a bipartisan issue, “Republicans need Democrats and Democrats need Republicans,” she says.
In his address to AIPAC, Israel’s ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer is praising US Vice President Mike Pence, saying Israel has “no better friend.”
He praises Paul Ryan, Robert Menendez, and Washington’s UN envoy Nikki Haley, who “finally brought some moral clarity to the United Nations.”
Israel believes “we can finally get serious” and “crack the UN’s anti-Israel majorities once and for all” with Haley, he says.
“I know that today bringing people together is harder than ever,” he tells the pro-Israel activists, referring to partisan tensions in the United States, making Israel’s “gratitude greater than ever.”
And he is lauding the Israel-US relationship under Trump.
“For the first time in many years, perhaps even many decades, there is no daylight between our two governments. Both our governments recognize that foremost among our challenges remains Iran,” says Dermer.
He says there was a “meeting of the minds” between Netanyahu and Trump during the Israeli prime minister’s meeting to Washington last month.
On peace in the Middle East, Dermer says “there is a real prospect” for “reconciliation in the region.”
He also hails US military assistance and shared values.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair says “we’re not going to reach [Israeli-Palestinian] peace in the old way,” but rather urges a new, regional approach.
He says his goal is to have open Arab recognition of — and relationships with — the State of Israel, while emphasizing that it will require a peace deal with the Palestinians.
“The key to transforming the Middle East, and therefore a more peaceful world” is ties between Israel and the Arab world, he says. Blair says that while there is security cooperation, he is seeking broader economic, civil society cooperation. “It’s happening, but it needs to be happening much more,” he says.
But he adds that these relationships will only be developed if the Palestinian issue is resolved, or “at least on a path to resolution.
“Sometime out of chaos can come opportunity,” he says, adding that “the Arab nations have a common interest in Israel in fighting this extremism.”
Blair says the process of bridging divides between Israel and the Arab world is “going well, actually.
“Up to now, people thought if you do a peace deal, than the circumstances will change. I think it’s the other way around,” he says.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame tells AIPAC: “Rwanda is, without question, a friend of Israel.
“Israel has the right to exist and thrive as a full member of the international community. This is not an infringement on the right of any other people and should not be seen as such,” says Kagame.
“We look forward to doing even more together,” he says.
Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood sent a WhatsApp message that cannot be accessed because it was encrypted by the popular messaging service, a top British security official says Sunday.
British press reports suggest Masood used the easily available messaging service just minutes before starting a rampage Wednesday that left three pedestrians and one police officer dead and dozens more wounded, including some with catastrophic injuries.
— AP
Undated photo of Khalid Masood. Authorities identified Masood, a 52-year-old Briton, as the man who mowed down pedestrians and stabbed a policeman to death outside Parliament in London, saying he had a long criminal record and once was investigated for extremism, although he was not currently on a terrorism watch list. (Metropolitan Police via AP)
A senior Iranian lawmaker says Iran would consider a bill branding the US military and the CIA as terrorist groups if the US Congress passes a bill designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization.
Allaeddin Boroujerdi, the head of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, is quoted by Iranian state television as saying the move to further sanction the Revolutionary Guards goes against the 2015 nuclear deal Iran reached with the United States and other world powers.
— AP
United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni says he is in favor of incorporating other political parties into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition amid tensions between the premier and Kulanu leader Moshe Kahlon.
“If, in the current situation, they must add other parties to the coalition, we are in favor,” Gafni, the head of the Knesset’s powerful Finance Committee, tells Army Radio.
He says expanding the coalition is “possible,” but adds that he doesn’t anticipate that an alternative coalition, capable of knocking Netanyahu’s Likud out of power — as opposition leader Isaac Herzog has urged — could be formed.
Earlier, Gafni and other ultra-Orthodox coalition partners told Netanyahu they were opposed to snap elections over the public broadcaster.
Chairman of the Finance Committee Moshe Gafni leads a committee meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem, December 6, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Hitting back at Gafni’s suggestion, Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich warns her opposition party against joining the coalition.
“I look at my party with love and concern and pray they won’t make more mistakes, because I think this would be a political blow from which it will never recover,” she tells Army Radio.
Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, Sunday enters an military airport held by the Islamic State jihadist group in northern Syria, a spokesman says.
“The SDF has taken control of more than 50 percent of Tabqa military airport. Fighting is ongoing inside the airport and its surroundings and full control of the airport is expected within the next few hours,” Talal Sello tells AFP.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor says IS forces had withdrawn from the airbase under heavy artillery fire and US-led coalition air strikes.
The jihadist group has held the military airport since August 2014, and it carried out one of its worst mass killings there, of some 200 government soldiers.
— AFP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party wins a regional election Sunday by a wide margin, dealing a blow to hopes of the center-left to end her more than decade-long reign this year.
In the Saarland state vote being held six months before a general election, Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) won 40 percent against 30 percent for the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), according to early results reported by public broadcaster ZDF.
Broadcaster ARD estimates a slightly bigger lead for the CDU of 41 percent against 29.5 for the the SPD.
— AFP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel smiles during a meeting with the new president of Germany’s Upper House of Parliament and Rhineland-Palatinate State Premier Malu Dreyer (not pictured) in Berlin on February 10, 2017. (AFP Photo/Odd Andersen)
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency says President Donald Trump in the coming days will sign a new executive order that unravels his predecessor’s sweeping plan to curb global warming.
EPA chief Scott Pruitt says the executive order to be signed Tuesday will undo the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, an environmental regulation that restricts greenhouse gas emissions at coal-fired power plants. The 2015 rule has been on hold since last year while a federal appeals court considers a challenge by coal-friendly Republican-led states and more than 100 companies.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Pruitt says Trump’s intention is to bring back coal-mining jobs and reduce the cost of electricity.
Supporters of former President Barack Obama’s plan say it would spur thousands of clean-energy jobs.
— AP
Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a coal mining roundtable at Fitzgerald Peterbilt in Glade Spring, Virginia, August 10, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Four ultra-Orthodox protesters are arrested after blocking roads in the central city of Bnei Brak, police said.
The demonstrators are rallying against the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox student who failed to respond to a military draft notice.
Russian police arrest more than 700 people at an anti-corruption demonstration in Moscow on Sunday called by leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, according to a website that monitors the detention of activists.
The website OVD-Info makes the claim on Twitter. Earlier Russian police said about 500 people had been arrested during the demonstrations, including Navalny himself, who supporters said was due to go before a judge on Monday.
— AFP
Opposition supporters participate in an anti-corruption rally in central Saint Petersburg on March 26, 2017.(AFP PHOTO / Olga MALTSEVA)
Netanyahu and Kahlon end their second meeting of the day, according to TV reports.
There are no immediate details on the outcome of the second meeting.
Police are seeking state witnesses in the Israel Aerospace Industries corruption probe who will testify against Welfare Minister Haim Katz, Channel 2 reports.
Katz’s son, Yair Katz, has been arrested as part of the investigation. The Likud minister’s son, 36, who serves in the senior management of the IAI and has been a member of its powerful workers’ union for four years, was arrested on suspicion of coercing employees into joining the Likud party, police have said.
According to the TV report, investigators told a key suspect that if he was willing to turn on Katz then “we have what to talk about.”
The gunmen who killed Hamas military leader Mazen Faqha Friday night had broken into his parking garage, lying in wait for hours, before executing the murder that has so far left no trace but the dead body, a Palestinian daily reports on Sunday.
According to a report in Palestinian daily Al-Quds, Faqha, a former prisoner in Israel who oversaw Hamas’s efforts to drive terror attacks in the West Bank, drove home around 6:00 p.m., with his wife and daughter in the car. The two family members exited the car at the front door, and the Hamas leader went to park the car alone.
He was killed almost immediately after the electric garage door closed behind his vehicle.
The gunmen used weapons equipped with silencers, and shot him four times, the report says.
An hour and a half passed before Faqha’s corpse was found by one of the residents of his apartment tower, the report says. Hamas security forces quickly arrived to the scene of the murder and checked security the security cameras, according to the report, but so far have not been able to identify the killers.
The report adds that one of the building doors, which is usually kept locked, was found open the night of the killing.
— Dov Lieber
Mazen Faqha, upon his release after the Shalit deal in 2011. (Screen capture Twitter)
Boris Epshteyn, a special assistant to the president in the press office, is reportedly leaving his post.
Epshteyn could remain in the administration in a lower-profile role, several media outlets, including the New York Times and Politico, report, citing multiple unnamed sources.
Epshteyn, a former Republican political strategist, is an old friend of President Donald Trump’s son Eric, dating back to their time together at Georgetown University.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer would not comment to the New York Times on the reason that Epshteyn was leaving his position.
Epshteyn has been overseeing White House officials who appear on television to speak on behalf of the administration.
— JTA
Boris Epshteyn, January 2017 (CC BY-SA 2teefrutee, Wikimedia commons)
In Washington, Education Minister Naftali Bennett meets with US special envoy Jason Greenblatt.
“We had a far ranging and important discussion about US-Israel cooperation and interests,” Greenblatt writes on Twitter. “We discussed the importance of working to improve the economic life of Palestinians. We also discussed @POTUS’s vision for peace and his thoughts on how best to achieve it.”
It was an honor to meet with @naftalibennett today. We had a far ranging and important discussion about US-Israel cooperation and interests.
— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) March 26, 2017
We discussed the importance of working to improve the economic life of Palestinians.
— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) March 26, 2017
We also discussed @POTUS's vision for peace and his thoughts on how best to achieve it. pic.twitter.com/rgo007lT1j
— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) March 26, 2017
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