Elie Leshem is deputy editor of The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s news as it unfolded.
Iran’s billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani has been sentenced to death for corruption, a judicial official says, after a long trial in which he was accused of fraudulently pocketing $2.8 billion.
Zanjani became notorious during the era of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, finding ways to channel hard currency from oil sales to Tehran despite financial sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic’s banks as punishment for its nuclear program.
The 41-year-old was convicted of fraud and economic crimes and as well as facing the death penalty he must repay money to the state, judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie says at his weekly press conference.
The trial was held in public, a rarity for such a major case in Iran, and two other accused were also convicted of “corruption on earth,” the most serious offence under the country’s criminal code, meaning they too will face the death penalty.
“The preliminary court has sentenced these three defendants to be executed, as well as paying restitution to the plaintiff,” Mohseni-Ejeie says, adding that that was the oil ministry.
They must also pay a “fine equal to one fourth of the money that was laundered,” the spokesman said, without specifying the sum.
Zanjani, who can appeal, had denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the only reason the money had not been paid to the oil ministry was that sanctions had prevented a planned transfer from taking place.
— AFP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks of “strong” ties with the United States ahead of a visit by Vice President Joe Biden, despite deep disagreement over the nuclear accord with Iran.
“This visit expresses the strong relations between Israel and our ally the US,” Netanyahu says at the start of a cabinet meeting.
“There are those who have predicted the collapse of these relations,” he adds. “It is not so. The relationship is strong in all areas and also in face of the challenges that we are standing together against in our region.”
— AFP
While praising Israel’s ties with Washington ahead of Biden’s visit to Israel, Netanyahu also lauds Jerusalem’s relationships with other nations, specifically vis-a-vis “the fight against radical Islam.”
It appears to be a response to allegations leveled at him last week by opposition parties who said he had vastly reduced the power of the Foreign Ministry, to the detriment of Israel’s international standing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem on Sunday, March 6, 2016 (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL)
“I must say that alongside our relations with the US, we are building additional relations with many countries in the world,” Netanyahu tells ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting.
“Every week a president or minister, or prime minister or foreign minister, or other ministers, visit here from countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin America, from the entire world,” he says. “This also expresses, of course, Israel’s status as an asset today in the fight against radical Islam and captures opportunities for the future, especially in technology.
“Tomorrow,” Netanyahu points out, “the president of Romania will visit here, and these visits will continue in my visits to other places, especially Africa this coming July.”
A suicide bomber rams his explosives-laden fuel truck into a security checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing at least 47 people and wounding dozens, officials say, the latest episode in an uptick in violence in the war-ravaged country.
The death toll includes 39 civilians, officials say, while the rest are members of the security forces.
The attacker struck shortly after noon when the checkpoint at one of the entrances to the city of Hillah was crowded with dozens of cars, a police officer says.
— AP
Police ask the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court to suspend Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni from his position.
Shimoni is suspected of a battery of offenses, notably rape and bribery, and the police request is interpreted as an indication that they intend to recommend he stand trial.
Mayor of Ashkelon, Itamar Shimoni, July 2014. (Flash90)
According to suspicions, Shimoni and his associates accepted bribes totaling hundreds of thousands of shekels from contractors and building developers in exchange for municipal approvals for various construction projects in the southern coastal city.
Meanwhile, at least three women have accused Shimoni of sexual assault, and one has accused him of rape.
According to reports in January, one witness told investigators that Shimoni used NIS 500,000 ($127,000) in kickbacks to buy the silence of a former female municipal employee whom he had sexually assaulted over a period of time.
— Tamar Pileggi contributed.
The radical Islamic State group claims the deadly truck bombing in Baghdad.
“A martyr’s operation with a truck bomb hit the Babylon Ruins checkpoint at the entrance of the city of Hilla, killing and wounding dozens,” reads a statement on the Amaq website, which is affiliated with IS, according to Reuters.
The Knesset Ethics Committee has rejected a complaint against Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked over her meeting with the parents of a minor suspected as an accessory in the killing of three members of a Palestinian family last summer, her Jewish Home party says.
MK Tamar Zandberg of the left-wing Meretz party had filed the complaint over the meeting between Shaked and the American parents of the suspect in the Duma firebombing, a minor whose name has not been cleared for publication.
Iraqi officials quoted by Reuters say the toll in the suicide bombing in Baghdad has risen has risen to at least 60 dead and more than 70 wounded.
A 13-year-old boy is killed after he is hit by a bus while riding a bicycle in Holon, south of Tel Aviv.
He was declared dead by a medical team at the scene.
The Iranian chief of staff accuses Israel of “ordering” Gulf monarchies to blacklist the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah as a terror group last Wednesday, according to the Iranian Press TV news site.
According to the report, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi adds cryptically that the decision by the group of six nations “was in line with Saudi Arabia’s proxy war to prepare the ground for the US and Zionists to achieve their ominous objectives in the region.”
On Thursday, a Hezbollah official criticized the decision to blacklist it as “irresponsible” and “hostile,” and warned that “the Saudi regime must face the consequences.”
— AFP contributed
At least 18 migrants die after their boat capsizes in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece, according to a Turkish official.
The Turkish coastguard rescued 15 migrants from the boat off the coastal town of Didim in southwest Turkey, the official tells AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The nationality of the migrants is not immediately known.
The coastguard, backed up by three boats and a helicopter, is hunting for the missing, according to the state-run Anatolia news agency.
— AFP
Ahmed Dawabsha, the five-year-old survivor of a West Bank arson attack that killed his parents and brother last summer, will meet his favorite Spanish soccer team Real Madrid on March 17, the Palestinian Football Association says.
The July firebombing attack on the Dawabsha family in the village of Duma killed 18-month-old Ali Dawabsha and mortally injured Ahmad’s his parents, who died in the following weeks.
Ahmed sustained second- and third-degree burns over 60 percent of his body and underwent a total of 10 surgeries, including skin grafts, in the wake of the attack.
The young boy will be accompanied during his trip to Spain by two members of his family.
Jibril Rajoub, who heads the Palestinian Soccer Federation, says in a statement that the management of one of the world’s top soccer clubs swiftly sympathized with the case of young Dawabsha after a picture of the child wearing a Real Madrid jersey in the hospital went viral.
Rajoub adds that the upcoming visit, which was coordinated with the help of the Palestinian ambassador to Spain, Kifah Udah, will “have great humanitarian dimensions advanced through the sport.”
— Times of Israel staff
The Israeli social media sphere is atwitter after controversial performance artist Ariel Bronz goes onstage at a Haaretz culture conference and proceeds to pelt audience members with oranges.
After some spectators boo and throw the oranges back at Bronz, organizers request that he get off the stage.
At that point, he turns his back to the audience and proceeds to penetrate himself with a flag, according to accounts on Twitter and Haaretz’s website.
Ushers then remove him from the stage.
עכשיו בועידת התרבות של הארץ. מופע המסתיים בדחיפת הדגל לעכוזו של האמן . חופש הביטוי. pic.twitter.com/CRHrPJNxFH
— צבי האוזר Zvi Hauser (@ZviHauser) March 6, 2016
In case there was any doubt, Mitt Romney says he “can’t imagine” endorsing Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee.
The 2012 GOP presidential candidate says Trump “is not a Republican in any sense of the word” and has “taken this campaign into a very deep gutter.”
Romney speaks to CNN’s “State of the Union” in an interview broadcast Sunday.
The former Massachusetts governor’s comments come after he strongly criticized Trump in a speech Thursday at the University of Utah as dangerous and phony. Trump that night had a difficult debate in which he made a crude sexual joke and was the target of multiple attacks from rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
Romney says he’s not endorsing any candidate now, but might after March 15 when voters in some candidates’ delegate-rich home states go to the polls. Rubio, who is from Florida, and Ohio Governor John Kasich have said they’ll stay in the race at least through that days’ votes.
— AP
Egyptian state prosecutor Hisham Barakat, on April 8, 2014 (AP Photo/Sabry Khaled, El Shorouk Newspaper)
Egypt says the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Hamas group were behind the 2015 assassination of its chief prosecutor.
Hisham Barakat died hours after a powerful bomb hit his convoy in Cairo on June 29.
He was the most senior government official killed since jihadists launched an insurgency following the military overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
— News agencies
The Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, is generating far fewer jitters among Jewish Israelis than in America. Here, most (61 percent) believe that he is either moderately friendly to the Jewish state or very friendly, according to the Israel Democracy Institute’s monthly Peace Index poll, released today.
Only 14% assess his position – alongside several very pro-Israel statements, Trump has said that he will try to be a “neutral” broker in the peace process – as either not so friendly or not at all friendly. In an abstract, the IDI says 44% of Arab Israelis have not formed an opinion on Trump, noting that the figure “is too high to take this question into account.”
When it comes to the general election, a plurality (34%) of Jewish Israelis think a Republican president will be more pro-Israel than a Democratic (28%) one, the poll finds. Those trends are reversed among Arab Israelis, 47% of whom say a Democratic president will be more pro-Israel.
Perhaps surprisingly, Israelis prefer Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton over her Jewish rival, Bernie Sanders, by a vast margin, with 40.5% saying Clinton is “preferable from Israel’s standpoint,” as opposed to “only 16.5%” who think Sanders would be the more pro-Israel candidate, the abstract says.
The IDI Peace Index also asked respondents whether they agree with the statement that Jerusalem is a divided city.
According to an abstract from the IDI, “A clear majority of Jewish Israelis (61%) thinks Jerusalem is divided into a western and eastern city.”
In comparison, when the IDI first asked that question in 1999, 49% of respondents said the city was not divided, as opposed to 44% who said it was.
The rate of Israelis who see the city as divided is much higher among left-wing Israelis: 88.5% and 85% among voters of the Zionist Union and Meretz, respectively.
“Likud voters were split on the question (49% for each view),” the abstract says. “Some 47% of Arab Israelis think it is divided.”
Gunmen shot dead two wounded members of Egypt’s security forces in an ambulance after they had been injured by a bombing in the Sinai Peninsula, security officials say.
A medic in the ambulance was also killed in the ambush in the town of Sheikh Zuweid in North Sinai, where the jihadist Islamic State group is spearheading an insurgency.
Inside the ambulance were three security personnel who had been wounded just minutes previously in a blast targeting their armoured vehicle, a senior security officer in El-Arish tells AFP.
“When the ambulance left the site of the blast with the wounded security members it came under attack from gunmen,” the officer says, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Two wounded security personnel and a medic were killed in the ambush,” he said, without specifying whether the dead were in the police or army.
— AFP
The Shin Bet announces that it has arrested a Palestinian man who is suspected of recruiting Palestinians in Egypt, sending them to the Gaza Strip for terror training, and then helping them enter the West Bank in order to carry out attacks against Israeli targets.
In a statement, the Shin Bet identifies the suspect as Najib Mustafa Nazal, 33, of Qabatiya, near Jenin. He is said to have moved to Cairo in 2007 for academic studies.
Terror suspect Najib Mustafa Nazal (Shin Bet)
Nazal, the statement says, is affiliated with the al-Mujahideen brigades, a fundamentalist offshoot of the Palestinian Fatah party.
“In recent years, activists in the organization have carried out several terror attacks against Israeli targets, including firing rockets at Israel and attempting to catalyze terror activity within Israel’s borders,” the Shin Bet says.
“It is an organization that maintains ties with Hamas,” the statement continues, specifying training, arms deliveries, cash infusions and other forms of assistance.
Nazal told his interrogators that during his time in Egypt, he recruited West Bank Palestinians who were also students there, sent them to Gaza for training, and then helped them return to the West Bank in order to “establish a military infrastructure there,” the Shin Bet says.
Allegedly, Nazal’s Cairo apartment was used as a hub of sorts, hosting meetings between activists in various terror groups, including Hamas.
“In addition, he said he was aware of a major route for smuggling weapons from the Libya area to the Gaza Strip through Egypt,” the Shin Bet says, adding that Nazal will be indicted in a military court in the coming days.
TMZ reports that Nancy Reagan, the widow of ex-US president Ronald Reagan, has died.
She was 94 years old.
President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, at his 1981 inauguration (Wikimedia Commons)
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri rejects the Egyptian government’s allegation that his group colluded with the Muslim Brotherhood to kill Egypt’s chief prosecutor.
In a fuming statement, Zuhri condemns the allegations, calling it “false” and asserting that it is not in line with efforts to develop the relationship between Hamas and Cairo.
He says the claims exploit Hamas to make hay in “internal Egyptian disputes.”
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani says he is “very pleased” voters backed moderate politicians in the elections and that he hopes cooperation with his government will soon replace confrontation in parliament.
At a press conference in Tehran, Rouhani, considered a relative moderate in Iran’s political system which also encompasses factions of hard-line conservatives and reformists, praises the electorate for backing his allies at the ballot box in the February 26 polls.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a press conference in the capital, Tehran, on March 6, 2016. (AFP/Atta Kenare)
The 67-year-old president has faced opposition in parliament, including on his landmark nuclear deal with world powers, and his officials have also been shouted down when addressing lawmakers.
“I am very pleased that mostly the moderate candidates made it to the parliament,” Rouhani says.
“This means that the people of Iran have chosen moderation and opened that path. This is a message from the people to all officials” of the Islamic republic, he adds, saying it paved the way for much brighter prospects than in recent years.
— AFP
A rhinoceros escapes from the Ramat Gan Safari and is caught several minutes later by zoo keepers and a shift manager.
A statement from the safari says Tibor the rhino, who is eight and a half years old, “seemed a bit distraught” as he bounded toward the safari’s exit gate.
But a video clip released by the safari shows the rhino leisurely exiting the gate, followed several seconds later by a frantic keeper.
ממצלמות האבטחה: טיבור הקרנף חומק החוצה מהספארי והמטפלים בעקבותיו pic.twitter.com/AOk1hUJ2Kn
— Guy Cotev (@guycotev) March 6, 2016
Tibor isn’t the first rhino in the safari to briefly savor the sweet taste of freedom in recent years.
In January 2015, three rhinoceroses spent a few minutes on the outside after slipping through a side gate of the safari.
The trio, named Rihanna, Keren Peles and Karnivala, plodded into the street, where they were spotted by astonished joggers out for a morning run, the Hebrew-language Ynet news site reported.
The safari explained at the time that a keeper had dozed off for a few minutes and the three seized the opportunity to make a run for it.
The director of the safari, Yehuda Bar, saved the day by leading the beasts back to safety.
— Stuart Winer contributed
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offers his condolences to the Reagan family over the death of the former first lady.
“I remember Nancy as a noble woman who supported president Reagan and stood at his side,” Netanyahu says, according to a statement from his office.
“She will be remembered as a great friend of the State of Israel,” he adds.
Former president Shimon Peres also reacts to Nancy Reagan’s death, expressing “deep sadness,” according to a statement from his office.
“Today I bow my head, together with the citizens of the US, at the loss of first lady Nancy Reagan,” he says. “Reagan was president Ronald Reagan’s dedicated wife, a true partner in the president’s unique leadership, including his strong friendship with Israel.
“I recall her noble nature and her fierce fight against drugs and alcohol amongst youth. During her time as first lady, Reagan would illuminate the White House with a big smile and an open heart. I extend my most sincere condolences to the whole Reagan family, her friends and all citizens of the United States.”
The delegate numbers are stacked against Bernie Sanders, but the Vermont senator isn’t lacking for confidence in the Democratic presidential race.
Sanders is coming off victories Saturday in Kansas and Nebraska and looking for more in the coming weeks.
He tells ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that “geographically, we are looking good” and that he sees “a path toward victory.”
The delegate totals tell a different story.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders arrives at a rally in Warren, Michigan, March 5, 2016. (AP/Carlos Osorio)
When you include superdelegates, those party insiders who can choose any candidate, Hillary Clinton now has at least 1,121 delegates, compared with at least 481 for Sanders. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.
Sanders says: “We’re still fairly early in the process.”
Sanders and Clinton are debating Sunday night in Flint, Michigan.
— AP
A Turkish Coast Guard boat and medics are seen with rescued migrants at the port of Didim, Turkey, Sunday, March 6, 2016. (AP/Huseyin Caliskan)
Turkey’s state-run news agency says the coast guard has recovered the bodies of seven more migrants off Turkey’s Aegean coast, raising the death toll in the migrant tragedy to 25.
The migrants drowned after their boat sank Sunday off the Aegean resort town of Didim en route to one of the Greek islands, the Anadolu Agency reports.
Fifteen other migrants were rescued.
— AP
US President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama say Nancy Reagan redefined the role of serving as first lady and they are fortunate to have benefited from her “proud example.”
The Obamas say in a written statement that in Mrs. Reagan’s long goodbye with president Reagan, she became a voice on behalf of millions of families going through the depleting, aching reality of Alzheimer’s.
They also note her role as advocate of behalf of treatments that could improve and save lives.
The Obamas are offering condolences to the Reagans’ children and grandchildren, and they remain grateful for her life and thankful for her guidance.
— AP
Regions of Syria covered by a UN-brokered cease-fire Sunday enjoyed the “calmest day” since the truce started, a monitor says, as Moscow and Washington cautioned against any delay in resuming peace talks.
“Sunday was the calmest day since the cease-fire came into effect” on February 27, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, tells AFP.
He says the exceptions were dozens of rockets fired by al-Nusra Front, a jihadist group excluded from the truce, and other rebel factions at Kurdish forces in the far north of the city of Aleppo.
The violence killed at least nine people, the Observatory says in an updated toll, based on reports that it receives from a wide network of sources on the ground.
Heavy bombardment also struck territory held by al-Nusra and the Islamic State group, another jihadist faction not covered by the truce.
Abdel Rahman says the average number of civilian deaths a day has fallen by 90 percent since the cease-fire came into force nine days ago, with an 80% decline among soldiers and rebel forces.
— AFP
The commander of an IDF company that was attacked by Palestinians outside the West Bank settlement of Har Bracha last week has been removed from his post after an investigation found serious lapses in his conduct, the army says. Two more commanders were also relieved of their duty.
Two soldiers were lightly injured in the stabbing last Wednesday.
After stabbing the soldiers, the attackers escaped the scene. Initial reports indicated the soldiers’ guns had been stolen, but the weapons, which the soldiers had not been carrying at the time of the attack, were soon found nearby.
— Times of Israel staff contributed
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