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The Times of Israel liveblogged Thursday’s events as they unfolded.
Liberman: State will honor court order to demolish outpost
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman says the state will abide by a court order to demolish the unauthorized West Bank settlement outpost of Amona by the end of the year.
“I have said before and I say again to the settlers of Amona, there is a judgment of the Supreme Court and we shall honor it,” Lieberman says at an Israeli school in the West Bank on the first day of the new school year.
This May 18, 2016, photo shows buildings in Amona, an Israeli outpost in the West Bank, east of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
Amona, home to about 40 families, was built on lands privately owned by Palestinians, who successfully petitioned Israeli courts for the outpost’s removal.
After repeated delays, the Supreme Court ordered the settlers’ eviction and the demolition of their homes by December 25 this year.
A proposed plan to simply relocate the outpost to a nearby spot has, however, raised international concern.
— AFP
Syria rebels make gains in major offensive — monitor
Syrian opposition fighters have seized several areas in a rapid advance against government forces in central Hama province, prompting a wave of regime airstrikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.
At least 25 civilians, including children, were killed in the strikes early this morning as fighting raged in parts of Hama, the Britain-based group says.
The monitor says an alliance of rebel and jihadist forces had launched the offensive on Monday in Hama, which is south of the opposition-held Idlib province.
Syrian Civil Defense members, known as the White Helmets, search for survivors amid burning vehicles belonging to people fleeing in northern Hama, after they were reportedly targeted by a Syrian government forces air strike on September 1, 2016. (AFP PHOTO/Omar haj kadour)
The alliance, which includes the jihadist Jund Al-Aqsa force, is aiming to take control of the airport in Hama, from which regime helicopters fly regular sorties against opposition fighters.
“They are about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the airport” in Hama, Syria’s fourth-largest city, says Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman, whose group relies on a broad network of sources inside Syria.
— AFP
Swastikas daubed on Holocaust survivor’s mailbox
An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor in the southern coastal town of Ashkelon tells police that swastikas were scrawled on his mailbox in his apartment building.
Police searching the area find similar graffiti in the vicinity and have begun an investigation into the incident, Israel National News reports.
3 doctors at Jerusalem hospital suspected of bribe-taking
Three doctors at Hadassah Hospital, Ein Kerem in Jerusalem are suspected of accepting bribes in return for cutting waiting times for patients.
The three are questioned under caution by police and later released, Channel 2 says.
Hadassah University Hospital in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem (Courtesy)
Two other suspects have been arrested in the case for allegedly collecting the money from patients at the hospital.
The two, both in their 20s and residents of Jerusalem and Beitar Illit, are accused of bribery and fraud.
Israel issues travel warning for Ethiopia
The Foreign Ministry issues a travel warning for the Amhara and Oromia regions of Ethiopia.
The warning comes a day after the Ethiopian government declares a state of emergency in Amhara due to clashes between security forces and local protesters. The clashes are expected to spill over into Oromia.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the Ethiopian parliament in Addis Ababa, on July 7, 2016. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Israelis visiting Ethiopia are told to be alert and keep away from any demonstrations or gatherings. They are also advised to stay at least 10 kilometers from the country’s borders with Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan and Kenya.
There are some 135,000 citizens of Ethiopian origin in Israel.
Kaine says Trump ‘choked’ in Mexico meeting
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine says Donald Trump “choked” by not demanding to Mexico’s president that his country pay for a border wall.
The Republican presidential nominee has made the wall — and Mexico paying for it — a core element in his campaign. Trump said it didn’t come up in his meeting yesterday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. But Pena Nieto tweeted that he had told Trump that Mexico wouldn’t pay for the wall.
But Kaine tells NBC’s “Today” program that even if Trump’s account is accurate, it shows he “folded under pressure” and “didn’t have the backbone” to discuss the issue with the Mexican president.
“When he’s looking the leader of Mexico in the eye, he can’t bring himself to say it,” Kaine says.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump walks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at the end of their joint statement at Los Pinos, the presidential official residence, in Mexico City, Wednesday, August 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
— AP
Singer Rita released from hospital after health scare
Popular Israeli singer Rita is released from hospital in Tel Aviv after a health scare that put her in intensive care.
The 54-year-old singer was admitted to Ichilov Hospital on Saturday, suffering from an unspecified infection. She was placed in isolation by doctors.
Speaking upon her return home, Rita expresses her gratitude for all the good wishes she received, Channel 10 reports.
“They say there is no good without bad and no bad without good. I am truly amazed at the massive amount of love from the entire nation,” she says.
Then-President Shimon Peres (R) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sing along with Iranian-born singer Rita as they participate in a ceremony for outstanding soldiers as part of Israel’s 66th Independence Day celebrations, at the President’s residence in Jerusalem, Tuesday, May 06, 2014. (photo credit: Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Insufficient evidence to charge Herzog for illicit funding — police
Police say there is not enough evidence to charge opposition leader Isaac Herzog with receiving illicit campaign funds during the Labor Party leadership race three years ago.
The suspicions surfaced in late May, and hinge on direct payments made by donors to members of Herzog’s ultimately successful campaign. According to reports, police had invoices showing Herzog may have known about the allegedly illicit transactions. But police said today that there is not enough proof that Herzog did know about the donations.
Herzog rejected the accusations, calling the suspicions the product of “delusional political muckraking” promoted by the rival Likud party and “frustrated activists.”
Herzog: Expect A-G to move quickly on campaign finance case
Herzog welcomes the announcement by police that there is insufficient evidence to charge him with accepting illicit campaign funds in the 2013 Labor primaries.
The opposition leader says that he now expects Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit to make a quick decision on the issue, the Hebrew-language Walla website reports.
British Airways set to resume direct flights to Iran
British Airways is set to resume direct flights to Iran today, as some sanctions are lifted as part of the nuclear deal and tensions ease.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, right, welcomes then-British foreign secretary Philip Hammond in his office, in Tehran, Iran, August 24, 2015. (AP/Ebrahim Noroozi)
The airline’s first direct flight to Tehran in nearly four years is scheduled to leave London’s Heathrow Airport this evening, arriving tomorrow morning.
Service had been suspended in October 2012 as relations deteriorated.
British Airways plans six roundtrip flights per week with more flights scheduled to be added later this year.
— AP
Scottish prisoners want kosher meals, believing they are ‘nicer’
More than 100 inmates in a Scottish prison sign up to receive kosher meals, despite the fact that there were officially nine Jewish prisoners in Scottish jails from 2013-1014.
An official at Glenochil Prison in Clackmannanshire in Scotland says the prison must provide the kosher meals to the prisoners if they claim to have converted to Judaism, according to the London-based Jewish Chronicle.
“Where previously we have always had a very minimal Jewish prison population we have seen a huge rise,” says prison spokesman Tom Fox.
Prison officials believe the inmates think the kosher meals are “nicer.”
“I don’t think the prisoners themselves understand the preparation that has to go into providing a kosher meal,” Fox adds.
The meals are outsourced since the prison does not have a kosher kitchen. The meals cost much more than regular prison fare.
— JTA
PM, Bennett mark new school year with Arab students
PM Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftali Bennett greet students on their first day of school at Tamra Haemek public elementary school in Tamra, an Arab town in northern Israel.
Speaking to the school’s approximately 200 students, both stress the importance of coexistence in Israeli society.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomes new first grade students at the start of the school year in the Arab city of Tamra, on September 1, 2016. (Flash90)
“I want you to learn – learn to write, learn to read, learn Hebrew, Arabic and English. I want you to learn mathematics. I want you to learn science,” Netanyahu tells the students. “I want you to learn the truth, and the truth says that we were destined to live together.”
Surprising teachers and students with an address in Arabic, Bennett echoes the prime minister’s message, saying he wants the children to know that he is the education minister for every student in Israel.
“Together, we will make groundbreaking achievements,” Bennett says. “May we have a year of understanding, love, hope and success. I want to say to everyone here, I am the education minister for everyone.”
Blast rocks SpaceX site during test for Israeli satellite launch
An explosion rocks the SpaceX launch site in Florida during tests of a rocket intended to launch an Israeli satellite this weekend.
NASA says SpaceX was conducting a test firing of its unmanned rocket when the blast occurred. The test, considered routine, was in advance of the planned Saturday satellite launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
The blast shakes buildings several miles away and multiple explosions continue for several minutes, filling the sky with a cloud of dark smoke.
— AP
No one hurt in explosion at SpaceX launch pad in Florida
NBC reports that there are no injuries in the explosion at the SpaceX site in Florida during a test for the weekend launch of an Israeli satellite.
ABC News quotes officials as saying there is no threat to the public as a result of the blast.
ABC’s Florida affiliate WFTV broadcasts images taken moments after the explosion showing flames billowing from the launch pad.
Pictures just in to our newsroom of the @SpaceX explosion show the flames. #SpaceXExplosion pic.twitter.com/8rPhHCnkr8
— WFTV Eyewitness News (@WFTV) September 1, 2016
SpaceX confirms loss of Israeli satellite in Florida blast
SpaceX confirms the loss of Israel’s Amos 6 satellite in the launch pad explosion at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The company says an “anomaly” caused the blast, Reuters reports.
The explosion also destroys the Falcon 9 rocket that was supposed to be carrying the $200 million satellite during its planned launch on Saturday.
UPDATE: SpaceX says no injuries in blast; says 'anomaly' on launch pad during test firing resulted in loss of vehicle and payload
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) September 1, 2016
SpaceX: Launch pad clear at time of Florida blast
A SpaceX statement says the launch pad at Cape Canaveral was clear when the Falcon 9 rocket and its Israeli satellite payload exploded.
“SpaceX can confirm that in preparation for today’s static fire, there was an anomaly on the pad resulting in the loss of the vehicle and its payload,” the statement says. “Per standard procedure, the pad was clear and there were no injuries.”
Israel’s Space Agency confirms loss of Amos 6 satellite
The head of Israel’s Space Agency, Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, confirms that the Israeli communications satellite Amos 6 was destroyed in the blast during pre-launch tests at Cape Canaveral in Florida.
The technology website TechCruch says that the Amos 6 was also intended “to spot-beam broadband for Facebook’s Internet.org initiative.”
Sad to hear about explosion of #SpaceX rocket on launch pad this AM. Local (MLB) radar shows resultant smoke plume. pic.twitter.com/NpAMPzAqd9
— E. Horst, MU WIC (@MUweather) September 1, 2016
B’Tselem alleges police ignoring threats to Palestinian who filmed Hebron shooting
The B’Tselem human rights organization claims the Israel Police are turning a blind eye to complaints made by one of their Palestinian volunteers who filmed an IDF soldier shooting a disarmed Palestinian assailant in Hebron in March.
The leftist NGO says Imad Abu Shamsiyeh received “a number of threatening and disturbing messages on Facebook, including death threats,” relating to his filming of the incident in which Sgt. Elor Azaria shot dead the supine and wounded attacker.
Azaria is currently on trial for manslaughter.
Abu Shamsiyeh says he attempted to file a complaint on three separate occasions, but was rebuffed each time.
According to B’Tselem, police told Abu Shamsiyeh on Sunday that they were too busy with arrests. The next day, he was told the officer in charge of the case was out of the office. And on Tuesday, another police officer listened to Abu Shamsiyeh’s complaint, but then “ordered him to leave and even threatened to arrest him if he did not.”
Police decline to address all of the group’s allegations, but say that “every complaint that we received on the issue will be addressed by the Israel Police’s West Bank Division.”
The Judea and Samaria Division, as it is also known after the biblical name for the West Bank, has long been dogged by allegations that they fail to address crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians.
From 2005 to 2014, for instance, the Yesh Din human rights organization tracked 1,045 Palestinian complaints against Jewish settlers and found that only 7.4 percent resulted in indictments. From 2013 to 2014, of over 150 complaints filed by Palestinians, only two indictments were made by the Judea and Samaria Police Division.
— Judah Ari Gross
Shares in Israeli satellite operator plummet after SpaceX blast
Israel’s Spacecom satellite operator sees its share price on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange fall steeply after the Amos 6 satellite is destroyed in a blast at a SpaceX launch pad in Florida earlier today.
The stock starts the day at 4,289.00 shekels, but begins climbing steadily in anticipation of Saturday’s planned satellite launch. It reaches a high of 4,346.00 before tumbling to a closing price of 3,895.00 shekels after the blast, an 8.88% drop.
The satellite, like its five predecessors, was built by Israel Aerospace Industries.
High Court orders state to demolish 17 settlement buildings
The High Court of Justice orders the state to demolish 17 illegally constructed buildings at the Derech Ha’avot outpost in the West Bank, following a lengthy battle by Peace Now and the Palestinian owners of the land.
The court gives the state 18 months to carry out the demolitions, Walla reports.
Derech Ha’Avot is in the Etzion bloc, south of Jerusalem.
UCLA campus leader quits over ‘unsafe’ climate for pro-Israel students
The former president of the UCLA Graduate Students Association leaves the university’s law school over what he calls a “hostile and unsafe campus climate.”
Milan Chatterjee will complete his third year of law school at New York University School of Law, the Los Angeles-based Jewish Journal says.
Chatterjee, who is Hindu, was reprimanded by the university in July for using his position to threaten to withhold funding for an event if it were used to promote divestment from Israel. He said his intention was to maintain the Graduate Student Association’s neutrality in political affairs.
Late last month, Chatterjee sent a letter to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block informing the university that he was leaving in the wake of bullying and harassment by pro-BDS students and organizations.
Milan Chatterjee (Facebook via JTA)
“I reached out to senior members of your administration many times,” Chatterjee says in the Aug. 24 letter informing the university official of his decision to leave.
“I believed that these administrators would be especially sensitive given the public outcry caused by similar BDS-led efforts against UCLA students… I could not have been more mistaken,” he writes
He also calls the UCLA campus “a hostile and unsafe environment for students, Jewish and non-Jewish, who choose not to support the BDS movement, let alone support the state of Israel.”
In a statement sent to the Jewish Journal, UCLA defends its investigation of the incident, which found that Chatterjee violated the university’s “viewpoint neutrality” policy.
— JTA
Settler leader slams High Court over demolition order
The head of the Etzion settlement bloc in the West Bank reacts angrily to a High Court ruling ordering the state to demolish 17 illegal buildings, saying it demeans the government.
“The court decided to belittle the government that presented it with a variety of legal solutions that were inspected and approved by the attorney general,” Perl says, according to Walla. “I call on the prime minister to act immediately to pass legislation to protect the honor of the government and the [settlement] residents who acted in good faith and with the encouragement of the government.”
Weiner unites Pamela Anderson, Shmuley Boteach in anti-porn push
Former Playboy centerfold Pamela Anderson and rabbi to the stars Shmuley Boteach pen a joint op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, warning of the dangers of pornography and citing the repeated sexting scandals of former New York congressman Anthony Weiner.
“If anyone still had doubts about the addictive dangers of pornography, Anthony Weiner should have put paid to them with his repeated, self-sabotaging sexting,” the duo write in a piece titled “Take the Pledge: No More Indulging Porn.”
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (photo credit: Courtesy)
“From our respective positions of rabbi-counselor and former Playboy model and actress, we have often warned about pornography’s corrosive effects on a man’s soul and on his ability to function as husband and, by extension, as father,” they continue. “This is a public hazard of unprecedented seriousness given how freely available, anonymously accessible and easily disseminated pornography is nowadays.”
The two conclude by saying: “[W]e must educate ourselves and our children to understand that porn is for losers — a boring, wasteful and dead-end outlet for people too lazy to reap the ample rewards of healthy sexuality.”
German Nobel economist Reinhard Selten dies at 85
Reinhard Selten, the only German to have ever won the Nobel Prize in Economics, died in Poland at the age of 85, the University of Bonn says.
Born in 1930 in what is now Wroclaw in Poland but was then the German city of Breslau, Selten said his family suffered discrimination because of his father’s Jewish origins, forcing the shutdown of the family business.
A picture taken on October 11, 1994 in Bonn, western Germany, shows German economist Reinhard Selten smiling as he holds flowers he received after it was announced that he was co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics. (AFP PHOTO/dpa/Stephan Jansen)
The family left the city after the Second World War. Selten went on to study mathematics at the University of Frankfurt and later became an economics professor, lecturing at the University of Berkeley, California and at several German universities.
Selten received the Nobel honor in 1994 for his pioneering work on game theory, sharing the prize with the late US researchers John Harsanyi and John Nash, the latter of whom inspired the Hollywood film “A Beautiful Mind.”
Selten died on August 23 in the western Polish city of Poznan, according to the University of Bonn in western Germany, where he spent decades as a lecturer in economics.
— AFP
Rivlin backs Alsheich in row over Ethiopian Israelis: He meant well
President Reuven Rivlin offers his support to beleaguered Israel Police chief Roni Alsheich, who has come under a wave of criticism for his comments about crime rates in the Israeli Ethiopian community.
President Reuven Rivlin visits an elementary school in Kiryat Bialik, near Haifa, on the first day of the academic year on September 1, 2016. (Photo by Mark Neyman/GPO)
Discussing accusations of police brutality and racial discrimination against Ethiopian Israelis at a conference earlier this week, Alsheich appeared say that it was “natural” for law enforcement officers to be more suspicious of members of this community than of other citizens.
According to Ynet, Rivlin says Alsheich meant well although he could have expressed himself better.
“His intentions were good,” the president says during a visit to a school in the Haifa suburbs. “They say that wise people are careful in when they speak, so they are not misunderstood. Once you are misunderstood — the responsibility lies with you.”
Zuckerberg ‘deeply disappointed’ at SpaceX blast
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg expresses his “deep disappointment” at the explosion at a SpaceX launch pad earlier today that destroyed an Israeli satellite the social media giant was planning to use to deliver internet to developing countries.
He vows that the setback will not deter him from carrying out his “mission of connecting everyone.”
Satellite blast could affect Israeli TV viewers
The destruction of the Israeli communications satellite in a blast in Florida earlier today could adversely impact on Israeli viewers, Channel 2 reports.
According to the report, the Yes satellite company relies on the Amos 2 and Amos 3 satellites to broadcast to its subscribers. The destroyed satellite — the Amos 6 — was supposed to replace the older Amos 2, which went into orbit in 2003.
Now reliant on just one satellite, at least in the short term, the company could face a breakdown in transmissions if there are any technical difficulties with the Amos 3, In any event, Yes could be forced to reduce the number of channels it offers, but says it will not remove popular channels.
Workers for Israel Aerospace Industries building the Amos 6 satellite, in footage aired September 1, 2016. (screen capture: Channel 2)
Strong magnitude-7.1 quake reported off New Zealand coast
The US Geological Survey is reporting a strong magnitude-7.1 earthquake about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island.
There are no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii reports that no tsunami of significant strength is expected.
The quake registered 167 kilometers (104 miles) off the North Island coast in the South Pacific Ocean.
The quake comes a day after a magnitude-5.7 quake registered in the same area, 100 km (62 miles) northeast of Te Araroa on the North Island’s east coast.
— AP
UK police hunting Corbyn supporter over death threat to Jewish MP
British counter-terrorism police are searching for a supporter of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who threatened to hang Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth.
The Sun tabloid says it has seen the Facebook message the unnamed man left for the parliamentarian, and reports that it concludes with the sentence: “Ruth Smeeth is British and from my perspective since treason is still a capital offence in Britain, the gallows would be a fine and fitting place for this Dyke piece of Yid s*** to swing from.”
British Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth walks out of the launch of the party’s anti-Semitism report in London on June 30, 2016, after a Jeremy Corbyn supporter accuses her of controlling the media (screen capture: YouTube)
Smeeth, who is now under special police protection, tells the Sun: “I very much hold Jeremy personally responsible.”
In June, the MP stormed out of a London event to unveil the controversial findings of Labour’s inquiry into anti-Semitism in the party, after a Corbyn supporter accused her of controlling the media.
Gene Wilder’s most famous films returning to cinemas
American cinema chain AMC will screen two of Gene Wilder’s most popular films this weekend, in honor of the legendary actor and comedian who died on Monday at the age of 83.
“Blazing Saddles” and “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” will play at 55 cinemas across the US on Saturday and Sunday, AMC says.
The tickets for the screenings will cost just $5. Details of times and locations are available on the AMC website.
— AP
Palestinian woman with knife stopped at West Bank crossing
Security guards apprehend a young Palestinian woman armed with a knife at the Qalandiya Crossing between Israel and the West Bank.
According to Channel 2, the 21-year-old woman from the West Bank village of al-Azariya told the guards that she was planning to carry out an attack.
3 detained for interrupting army ceremony to call for Hebron shooter’s release
Police detain three suspects who took over the microphone during a swearing-in ceremony for the Kfir Brigade and called for the release of Sgt. Elor Azaria, an IDF soldier on trial for manslaughter, at the unit’s training base in the northern West Bank.
Azaria, a member of the Kfir Brigade, is now standing trial for shooting and killing a disarmed Palestinian assailant in Hebron earlier this year.
Two of the suspects were picked up during the ceremony as they called for Azaria’s release, while the third was detained “based on intelligence that he planned to disturb the peace,” police say.
The suspects are not soldiers, nor were they involved in the ceremony. At least one of the suspects was a minor, a police spokesperson says.
— Judah Ari Gross
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