Raoul Wootliff is a former Times of Israel political correspondent and Daily Briefing podcast producer.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they happened.
Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb outside a military checkpoint in southeast Turkey, killing nine soldiers and wounding eleven others, Turkey’s state-run news agency says.
Turkey launches a military operation in response to the attack.
The Anadolu Agency, citing a statement by the Turkish Armed Forces, says the attack occurred at 9:45 a.m. outside a Gendarmerie checkpoint on the Semdinli-Yuksekova highway and was the work of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
The explosion produced a crater 15 meters (50 feet) wide and 7 meters (23 feet) deep. An infantry station located behind the checkpoint also suffered heavy damage.
Turkish authorities have imposed a temporary blackout on coverage of the attack, citing public order and national security reasons.
— AP
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan says there was no concrete warning ahead of this morning’s Jerusalem terror attack, but notes there had been a recent uptick in incitement to violence among Palestinians.
Speaking at the scene of the attack, which killed a female bystander and a police officer and left five Israelis injured, Erdan says the terrorist in the Jerusalem drive-by shooting attack held Israeli citizenship.
Israeli forensic policemen collect evidence from a car belonging to a victim following a shooting attack near the Israeli police headquarter on October 9, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / MENAHEM KAHANA)
“In our assessments there were no warnings of a specific attack, but we assessed that because of the uptick in incitement levels, there will be incidents of lone terrorists,” he adds.
German police are searching for a 22-year-old Syrian man believed to have been preparing a bombing attack and were questioning a second Syrian man on suspicion he was involved in the plot.
The man in custody was one of three apprehended in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday. He was the renter of the apartment that police raided in their search for the main suspect, Jaber Albakr from the Damascus area of Syria, Saxony police spokesman Tom Bernhardt told The Associated Press. The other two men have been released.
He said the man in custody was Albakr’s “countryman” but would not give other details.
“We believe he is a possible co-conspirator,” Bernhardt said.
Bernhardt also confirmed reports that Albakr had come to Germany in the flood of 890,000 migrants who entered the country in 2015 and had been granted asylum.
— AP
The board of directors for Channel 10 votes to remove its newly appointed director after an uproar over reported disparaging comments about Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, who heads the Sephardi Orthodox Shas party, as well about Israelis of African and Middle Eastern descent.
The board, however, says that the decision was based on inconsistencies in Sadan’s resume which falsely claimed he had held a senior managerial position before, a requirement for the role.
Sadan, a political lobbyist and former close associate of the Netanyahu family, was quoted by Haaretz on June 2 as having told the Channel 10 News board of directors: “Let’s tell the truth: I, like you — part of the elite — hate the Shas movement and that thief Aryeh Deri. But we, as the elite, have to broaden the channel’s circles and appeal to the audience of Shas, to Massouda from Sderot,” using a stereotype referring to a person of Mizrahi descent living on Israel’s periphery.
Rami Sadan, 2012 (screen capture: YouTube)
Deri served a prison sentence between 2000 and 2002 for graft, before resuming his political career ahead of the 2015 Knesset elections. The interior minister is currently under investigation on new graft suspicions.
Immediately after the comments were published, Shas called on Netanyahu — who is also communications minister — to fire Sadan, threatening to break coalition discipline and skip Knesset votes until he did. Shas MKs have stayed away from the plenum, entering only to vote against an opposition bill on conversion.
A bombing targeting Shiites in Baghdad killed at least five people and wounded 14 others, Iraqi officials say, an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
The attack struck the Baghdad Jadida area near a refreshments tent for Shiites taking part in annual commemorations of the death of Imam Hussein, a revered figure in Shiite Islam.
IS, which frequently targets Shiite Muslims, whom it considers heretics, issues a statement claiming the attack and said it was carried out by a suicide bomber — an account confirmed by two interior ministry officials.
— AFP
The Hamas terror group has taken responsibility for this morning’s shooting attack in Jerusalem that killed two Israelis and injured five, according to Palestinian media reports.
The Gaza-based terror group reportedly said the gunman was a member of the organization, calling him the “Lion of Jerusalem.”
In a separate statement, Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum called it “a natural reaction to the crimes and violations of the occupation against our people.”
Israeli security forces cordon off the site of a shooting attack near police headquarters in Jerusalem on October 9, 2016. (AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement also praised that attack, calling it “heroic.”
The fatalities in the terror attack at Ammunition Hill were a female bystander in her 60s and a police officer, approximately 30 years old, who was involved in the shootout with the terrorist.
The victim in today’s shooting attack in Jerusalem is named as Jerusalem resident Levana Malihi, around 60 years old.
A border police officer whose name has not yet been cleared for publication was also killed in the attack.
IDF solders are clashing with Palestinian protesters in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan at the home of the gunman who was killed carrying out a terrorist attack in Jerusalem this morning.
Palestinian media is also reporting clashes in the Salah A-Din neighborhood of Jerusalem and the Shuafat refugee camp just outside of the capital.
The shooter was identified as a 39-year-old man from Silwan.
The second victim in this morning’s terror attack in Jerusalem is named as police officer Yosef Kirma.
Kirma was part of the police’s Jerusalem patrol unit and was fatally injured during a gun battle with the terrorist after he opened fire on officers at Ammunition Hill.
The other victim was named earlier as Jerusalem resident Levana Hamama, around 60 years old.
Kirma will be burried in the police section at Mount Herzl military cemetary at 5 p.m.
Iran has temporarily released a journalist for medical treatment after he became sick following a hunger strike, local media reports.
Ehsan Mazandarani, who runs reformist daily newspaper Farhikhtegan, was arrested in late 2015 and sentenced in April to seven years for “acting against national security.”
“The health of my client, due to a hunger strike he was on, turned bad and he was transferred to hospital,” his lawyer Hooshang Pourbabayi tells the ISNA news agency.
Mazandarani’s wife, Maliheh Hosseini, told local media that a doctor at Tehran’s notorious Evin prison reported concerns over the journalist’s health.
Four other journalists are thought to have been arrested around the same time as Mazandarani and have been given sentences ranging from two to 10 years.
— AFP
A Chabad rabbi who was severely beaten in a train station in the western Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr is airlifted to Israel by emergency medical transport.
Rabbi Mendel Deitsch is now in serious but stable condition at Tel Hashomer Medical Center near Tel Aviv. He had emergency surgery at a hospital in Zhitomir before being airlifted to Israel. His injuries remain life threatening, according to the official Chabad.org website.
Illustrative: A street in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. (CC BY_SA 4.0 LaychukA/Wikipedia)
Deitsch, who was a longtime Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in France and more recently in Israel, reportedly was robbed and beaten by local drunken youths, Chabad.org reported.
The motive has been described as criminal and not anti- Semitic, according to Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Zhytomyr.
“It should be noted that this is an unusual case that does not in any way reflect on the community in Ukraine,” Wilhelm told Chabad.org.
— JTA
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman calls for a boycott of the parliamentary activities of members of the Joint (Arab) List for their decision to skip former president Shimon Peres’s funeral.
Liberman told a meeting of the heads of coalition parties that missing Peres’s funeral should be considered a red line.
The Joint List party announced before the funeral that its members would not participate, citing a “complicated” history.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman speaks during an Israel Beytenu faction meeting at the Knesset on June 6, 2016. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
At the time, Joint List chair MK Ayman Odeh, defended the unanimous decision of his party members not to attend, saying it was a “national day of mourning in which I have no place; not in the narrative, not in the symbols that exclude me, not in the stories of Peres as a man who built up Israel’s defenses.”
Ethiopia declares a state of emergency following months of violent anti-government protests, according to an official statement.
“The state of emergency was declared following a thorough discussion by the Council of Ministers on the loss of lives and property damages occurring in the country,” Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn said.
People march during an annual religious festival in Bishoftu, a town southeast of Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2016. (AP Photo)
— AFP
Professor Jacob Neusner, renowned Jewish scholar and author, has passed away at the age of 84, after a long illness.
Neusner was one of the most prolific writers in history, author of almost 1,000 books and countless articles, op-eds and other writings. He had a deep influence on the study of traditional Jewish texts and courted controversy in almost everything he did.
Neusner was born in Hartford, Connecticut, and had no formal Jewish education until his teenage years, when he first learned to read Hebrew. He was first inspired to begin studying Jewish texts at Harvard after meeting and studying under Professor Harry Austryn Wolfson. He went from Harvard to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he studied under Rabbi Shaul Liberman and was first introduced to the Talmud.
“I was not intellectually challenged until I met the Talmud, in October 1954,” Neusner said according to a New York Times report.
His funeral will take place tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at Blithewood Manor on the campus of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
An IDF officer and a female soldier are injured in Palestinian rock attack north of Jerusalem, according to Israel Radio.
Both are taken to hospitals in Jerusalem
The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process condemns this morning’s deadly terrorist attack in jerusalem in which two people were killed.
Nikolay Mladenov says it is “deplorable and unacceptable that Hamas and others choose to glorify such acts.”
#UN Special Coordinator @nmladenov condemns this morning's #terror attack in occupied East #Jerusalem. Nothing justifies such attacks. pic.twitter.com/ILrXbqrNx7
— UNSCO (@UNSCO_MEPP) October 9, 2016
Hamas earlier released a statement saying that the attacker was a member of the organization and called him “The Lion of Jerusalem.
The British government steps back from a plan to make employers list their foreign workers as it talks tough on immigration following the Brexit vote, after a backlash among business leaders.
“We are not going to be asking companies to list or name or publish or identify their foreign workers,” Defence Secretary Michael Fallon tells BBC radio, saying the proposal had been “misinterpreted.”
The idea of making employers publish a record of how many non-British citizens they hire was floated at the annual conference of Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party, which closed on Wednesday.
British Prime Minister Theresa May gestures as she delivers a keynote address on the final day of the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, central England, on October 5, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / PAUL ELLIS)
But it was swiftly and widely condemned as divisive and discriminatory, and the British Chambers of Commerce warned against making a global workforce a “badge of shame.”
— AFP
Eighteen people were killed when a van packed with five tons of explosives blew up in Turkey’s restive southeast in an attack blamed on Kurdish militants, the prime minister says, raising the death toll significantly from earlier reports.
The bombing, which killed 10 soldiers and eight civilians, was one of the single deadliest attacks on the Turkish security forces since the attempted coup of July 15 when a rogue military faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The attack was perpetrated by a suicide bomber who detonated a van (packed) with five tonnes of explosives,” Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told a press conference in Istanbul.
Earlier reports put the toll at nine dead after the attack which targeted a security post in Hakkari province. The explosion occurred as security forces were searching vehicles in Semdinli district, the official news agency Anadolu says.
Another 26 people — 10 soldiers and 16 civilians — were injured in the blast which was blamed on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Anadolu says.
— AFP
Donald Trump thanks Republicans who are standing by him after an uproar from many in the party over a recording of Trump making vulgar comments about women.
Trump tweeted on Sunday morning: “Tremendous support (except for some Republican “leadership”). Thank you.”
Trump’s tweet comes after a growing list of elected Republican officials called on him to abandon his presidential campaign.
Tremendous support (except for some Republican "leadership"). Thank you.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2016
In a posting Saturday evening, Trump praised supporters who turned up at a party unity rally in Wisconsin — an event that Trump was disinvited to by House Speaker Paul Ryan. The rally was in Ryan’s congressional district.
At the event, Ryan was booed and heckled by Trump supporters, who shouted “Shame on you!” and “You turned your backs on us!”
Ryan has not withdrawn his endorsement.
— AP
Donald Trump’s campaign says the Republican presidential nominee may describe Bill Clinton’s sexual history in criminal terms at Sunday’s debate.
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said Trump wouldn’t hesitate to talk about “the women that Bill Clinton raped, sexually abused and attacked.”
Trump on Saturday retweeted a pair of postings by Juanita Broaddrick, whose accusations that Bill Clinton raped her in 1978 were never tested in criminal court. Bill Clinton has long denied the accusations.
Giuliani told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Trump will cast Hillary Clinton’s “as the attacker” of women when she claims to be their champion.
The strategy comes as Trump reels from the release of his recorded description of his sexual aggression toward women. Giuliani says “both sides have sinned. So how about we put that behind us?”
— AP
An extremist group embroiled in infighting with one of the largest Syrian rebel groups pledges allegiance to al-Qaeda-linked militants in Syria.
The extremist group Jund al-Aqsa has been battling the powerful Ahrar al-Sham group in northern Syria for days, after the latter accused it of ambushing its leaders. Scores of factions rallied behind Ahrar al-Sham accusing Jund al-Aqsa of serving the extremist Islamic State militants, who are at odds with all Syrian insurgents, including the al-Qaida-linked Fatah al-Sham Front.
Now Fatah al-Sham Front announces Jund al-Aqsa will join its ranks. The declaration is expected to put an immediate end to the infighting.
It has also drawn criticism from other rebel groups, however, who see the move as divisive, providing cover for an extremist group.
— AP
Pope Francis says he will appoint 17 new cardinals from across the world next month, 13 of whom are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to succeed him.
Cardinals, known as the “princes of the church,” who are under 80 are eligible to vote in the papal conclave that picks the next pope.
“I am happy to announce that on Saturday, November 19… I will hold a meeting of cardinals to nominate the 13 new cardinals from the five continents,” Francis says.
Pope Francis addresses the crowd from the window of the apostolic palace overlooking St.Peter’s square during his Sunday Angelus prayer on February 21, 2016 at the Vatican. (AFP PHOTO/Filippo Monteforte)
“The fact they are from 11 countries shows the universality of the church,” says the Argentine pontiff.
Three of the 13 who will have conclave voting rights are from Europe, three from Latin America, three from the US and two each from Africa and Asia.
In February 2015 Pope Francois created 20 new cardinals, greatly accelerating the internationalization of the church in which European cardinals are no longer in the majority.
— AFP
Police say they have received reports of rocks being thrown at vehicles outside of the southern city of Beersheba.
A bus driver reported that his bus has been hit by rocks on Route222 near the Bir Hadj junction, police say.
The bus was damaged by the rocks but no one was injured in the incident.
Police are investigating the reports.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) tweets a photo of the terrorist who shot dead two people in an attack in Jerusalem this morning, despite a police gag order on publishing his photo or identity.
He was identified as a 39-year-old from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan but his name and photo were under the court-imposed gag.
In 2013, the gunman was indicted for assaulting a police officer in Jerusalem’s Old City. The case was dropped that year, but it was reopened in 2015.
The East Jerusalem resident was convicted and sentenced to four months in prison, to begin today.
The Palestinian Fatah Movement, headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, posts praise on Facebook of the shooter in today’s deadly terrorist attack in Jerusalem, in which two people were killed.
The posts referred to the attacker as a shahid, an Islamic martyr, according to Palestinian Media Watch.
“The one who carried out the operation today in Jerusalem is a pilgrim [to Mecca] martyr… one of the most prominent people in Jerusalem and the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and a released prisoner,” reads one post.
Another declared: “The Jerusalem branch of Fatah announced a strike and mourning for the martyr’s soul. ‘Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged. And indeed, Allah is competent to give them victory.'”
President Reuven Rivlin responds to the terror attacks in Jerusalem in which First Seageant Yosef Kirma and Levana Malihi were killed today.
“My concerns and prayers are with those injured in the bloodthirsty, heinous, terrorist attack in Jerusalem this morning, and I wish to send my deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of the murdered at this difficult, terrible time,” Rivlin says.
“This past year has not been easy. A year ago on Rosh Hashanah, the New Year, terror once again struck on our streets, and time after time, just as today, the civilian home front found itself to be the front line. The IDF, the Shin Bet security agency, the police, and all the security services are working tirelessly to ensure our safety. I want to thank the police and all the men and women of the security services who work day and night.”
“We cannot allow terror to weaken us; we must stand firm, united, to preserve our security,” he concludes.
The Israel national soccer team pays respects to former president and prime minister Shimon Peres at the start of its World Cup qualifier game against Lichtenstein.
Both teams, playing this evening at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium, stood before the game in respect to Peres who passed away two weeks ago.
Israel goes up 1-0 in the third minute of its World Cup qualifier against Lichtenstein.
Playing at Jerusalem’s Teddy Stadium, the visitors knocked in an own goal during an early offensive by Israel.
A Palestinian astrophysics professor accused of inciting violence was sentenced to seven months in prison on Sunday by an Israeli military court, a Palestinian NGO says.
Imad Barghouti, 52, was arrested in April and imprisoned without trial for an initial three months, under an Israeli procedure known as administrative detention. His lawyer says he was arrested for comments posted on his Facebook page.
He is accused of inciting violence against Israel, and Israeli media have said he is suspected of ties to the militant Islamist group Hamas.
His lawyers appealed to an Israeli military court after his arrest, which in May ruled that he should be freed. However military prosecutors opted to put him on trial, leading to his sentence on Sunday.
He was also given a fine of NIS 2,000 ($525, 450 euros), according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club. He could be released in a month if he is given credit for time served.
Israel’s military did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Administrative detention allows Israel to hold prisoners deemed security risks without trial for periods of up to six months, renewable indefinitely. About 7,000 Palestinians are in Israeli prisons, more than 10 percent of them in administrative detention.
— AFP
Israel’s national soccer team continues to shine in its World Cup Qualifier against Lichtenstein, going up 2-0 within just 16 minutes.
Tomer Hemed who plays for English club Brighton & Hove Albion scored both goals, the first during an early offensive in the 3rd minute.
Israel so far have held possession of the ball for 80% of the game and have had six shots on goal compared to just 1 from Lichtenstein.
The wife of First Sergeant Yossef Kirma, one of the victims of today’s deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem, eulogizes her husband at his funeral on Mount Herzl military cemetery.
Noy Kirma spoke of his love for her: “We had so many plans together a home, children, and you always supported my career. You loved me always, unconditionally, even more than I loved myself,” she said. “My Yossi, look how many people came just for you. You are my light and my heart.”
Noy Kirma speaking at the funeral of her husband First Sergeant Yossef Kirma who was killied a terrorist attack in Jerusalem, October 9, 2016 (Screen capture: Ynet)
Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich also spoke at the funeral. “We will catch anyone who tries to get their hands on our citizens,” he said. “On behalf of the Israel Police and a grateful nation, I salute you.”
The United States slams as “reprehensible and cowardly” an attack in Jerusalem in which a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis and injured six others, saying also it condemns statements glorifying the shooting.
A woman and a policeman were killed and six others injured after the terrorist sprayed bullets at passersby from a moving car. The shooter, whose identity was under a gag order, was shot dead by police. Hamas claimed the man was one of their members.
An Israeli police officer stands guard at the site of a shooting attack at the light rail station outside police headquarters in Jerusalem on October 9, 2016. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
In a statement the US State Department says it “condemns in the strongest possible terms the terrorist attack that took place today in Jerusalem, which resulted in the death of two Israelis and injured several others.”
“We extend our deepest condolences to the families of those killed and our hopes for a quick and full recovery for those wounded,” the statement continued. “There is absolutely no justification for the taking of innocent lives. We also condemn the statements glorifying this reprehensible and cowardly attack.”
A collision between a truck driven by an Egyptian and a vehicle carrying three US soldiers in Kuwait was a “terrorist attack,” not an accident as first thought, the embassy says.
“US Embassy in Kuwait confirms that what at first appeared to be a routine traffic accident involving three deployed US military personnel… was in fact an attempted terrorist attack,” the mission says in a statement posted on its website.
The statement says the attack took place on Thursday and that the US soldiers escaped unhurt.
The soldiers also rescued the Egyptian driver when his truck caught fire, it says.
The Kuwaiti interior ministry said on Saturday that authorities arrested the Egyptian driver and found with him a hand-written note in which he had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State jihadist group.
It also said that the driver, identified as Ibrahim Sulaiman, 28, carried a belt and material suspected of being explosives.
— AFP
Jerusalem’s police chief Yoram Halevy, asked on Channel 2 news whether the attack should have been prevented, says that the police are monitoring “many potential attackers” and that the terrorist was “one of those who certainly had the potential” to carry out an attack. He refuses to elaborate.
Halevy says that the reinforced police presence in the capital prevented an even graver attack. The killer, who reportedly used an Israeli army-issue M-16 machine-gun, had “lots and lots of ammunition,” says Halevy, and was headed to the center of town, where “he would have killed lots of people.”
The Israeli assessment of the danger the killer posed, Channel 2’s Ehud Ya’ari earlier, was simply incorrect. He had been barred from the Temple Mount. He had been regarded as a troublemaker, a provocateur and an inciter, said Ya’ari. But it was not realized that he was “about to make the transition from using his fists to using a machine-gun.”
The commander of the Eshel prison south of Beersheba and at least one other senior officer, the head of operations, have been removed from their posts by the head of the prisons authority after it was discovered that a security prisoner at the facility had escaped from his cell in order to smuggle in cellphones, Channel 2 reports.
The prisoner reportedly crawled through an air conditioning vent to an “outer facility” of the prison. It is not clear if he was able to leave the prison grounds completely.
Illustrative photo of Eshel Prison (Moshe Shai/Flash90)
Last month Israeli prison officials intercepted a shipment of cellphones being sent to Hamas prisoners at the Eshel prison.
A search of the area and on the prisoner’s person revealed several packages containing the cellphones and cellphone parts, among other items, which had been thrown over the fence, apparently during the night.
Donald Trump is lashing out at the growing list of Republicans abandoning his candidacy, predicting that they’re the ones who will lose.
Trump on Sunday tweeted: “So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll numbers – and elections — go down!”
Trump has also been re-tweeting a series of messages from supporters, including one that lashes out at “GOP traitors!” and says not supporting Trump is voting for “destroying America.”
"@maidaa17: @realDonaldTrump GOP traitors! Not supporting U is voting for her, destroying America.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2016
Another says “‘Republican leadership’ should have only one job: Help elect the nominee we voted for, Donald J. Trump.”
Trump has faced a mass exodus of support in the wake of the release of crude video footage in which he brags about making unwanted sexual advances on women.
The Israel national soccer team wins its World Cup qualifier game against Lichtenstein 2-1.
Hosting the game at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem, Israel took an early lead with Tomer Hemed who plays for English club Brighton & Hove Albion scoring in the third minute before hitting a second in the 16th.
Lichtenstein managed to claw back a goal, with Maximilian Göppel scoring shortly after half time, but Israel played tight defensively in the final half hour of the game to prevent the tiny nation from stealing the glory.
Overall, Israel held possession of the ball for 69% of the game and manged 21 shots on goal compared to Lichtensteins’s five.
The victory comes after Israel won a nail-biting 2-1 victory in Macedonia on Thursday night, but went down 3-1 to Italy in its first qualifier game, in a brave and gutsy performance in Haifa on September 5.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton condemns today’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem in which two people were shot dead and several injured.
Writing on Twitter, Clinton said her “prayers go to the victims’ families.”
“The terrorists must be brought to justice,” she added.
I strongly condemn today's attack in Jerusalem and my prayers go to the victims' families. The terrorists must be brought to justice. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 9, 2016
Opposition leader Isaac Herzog accuses Netanyahu of trying to overthrow Israeli democracy, in a speech that takes aim at the prime minister’s efforts to stop the overhaul of the public broadcaster.
“You’re carrying out a putsch against Israel’s democracy,” the Zionist Union leader says in a speech at the start of the Knesset winter session. “You also attack the media through your commissar [Culture Minister Miri] Regev,” he says. “A prime minister who is a communications minister is an anomaly.”
Herzog also lays into Netanyahu over the violence and the lack of progress in the peace process with the Palestinians. “You don’t manage the conflict, the conflict manages all of us and you,” he says, and accuses the prime minister of also squandering opportunities to make peace with the Arab states.
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