Russia reportedly to send Syria highly advanced tanks

Netanyahu, Putin to discuss Russian arms to Syria

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Russia next week and meet with President Vladimir Putin, officials in his office say.

At the top of the prime minister’s agenda will be the recent surge in Russian involvement in Syria. Reports over the past two weeks indicate that Russia has been sending Syria advanced weapons systems as well as deploying a small number of troops, jet pilots and operators of advanced armored personnel carriers among them.

“The prime minister will present [to Putin] the threats against Israel as a result of the increased flow of advanced weapons to the Syrian theater and the leaking of lethal arms to Hezbollah and other terror groups,” the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office says.

The visit is the second major tour abroad recently after Netanyahu met with British Prime Minister David Cameron last week.

5 police killed by PKK in Turkey’s southeast

Five Turkish police officers were killed in two bomb attacks by Kurdish militants in the country’s southeast overnight, Turkish security sources say.

Three officers were killed and a fourth was seriously injured in an attack on a police vehicle travelling in the town of Nusaybin, near the Syrian border, a senior security official tells AFP.

A further two officers were killed and two were injured in a similar attack in the remote southeastern Hakkari province, on the border with Iraq, the official, who blamed the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), says.

Dozens of soldiers and police have been killed in PKK attacks since a two-year ceasefire between the government and rebels broke down in July, when the army launched a major “anti-terror” operation against PKK strongholds in northern Iraq and southeast Turkey.

— AFP

Zionist Union MK calls for deportation of hunger-striker

MK Yoel Hasson (Zionist Union) calls on Prime Minister Netanyahu to deport Mohammad Allaan, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad lawyer who was recently released from administrative detention after an extended hunger strike caused him serious health problems.

“We must break the cycle of arrest, hunger strike, release and again, arrest,” says Hasson, adding that “Israel must take responsibility and dictate reality, and not be dragged by one terrorist.”

“A sovereign state cannot surrender to Allaan,” Hebrew paper Ma’ariv quotes Hasson as saying.

Allaan was arrested again today after being free for less than a month, and immediately upon being discharged from a hospital in Ashkelon. The media attention he received due to his hunger strike has made him a cause celebre among the Palestinians.

The warrant for his administrative arrest today was signed by the OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Roni Numa. The IDF says Allaan was rearrested because of intelligence justifying his being held in detention.

Kadima MK Yoel Hasson seen here in the Knesset during May, 2012. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

Yesh Atid seeks special Knesset session on stone throwing

The Yesh Atid faction will hold a special session during the Knesset recess to discuss “incessant terror acts and the loss of personal security” among Israel’s citizens, according to a statement from the party’s spokesperson.

“Throwing stones and Molotov cocktails has become routine – this situation cannot go on, security must be restored for the residents. The State of Israel should use all means to fight terrorism,” the statement from the party says.

Zionist Union, Meretz and the Joint (Arab) List parties all joined the request to hold a special Knesset session on the issue, Yesh Atid’s statement says.

Palestinians throw rocks on Route 443

Palestinians hurled rocks at Israeli vehicles traveling on Route 443, Israel Radio reports.

The rock throwers arrived shortly after Prime Minister Netanyahu concluded a visit to the area.

Elsewhere, near Beitar Illit in the West Bank, an Israel was lightly wounded when rocks were hurled at the vehicle he was traveling in. The man was treating at the scene, Israel Radio reports. His car sustained damage.

Rivlin meets European bishops, discusses Jerusalem terror

President Reuven Rivlin this morning hosted members of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, led by president of the council Cardinal Péter Erdő.

Rivlin referred to the incidents of past few days in Jerusalem, during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish holiday celebrating the New Year.

“Yesterday, we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of a New Year; which we hope will be a year of tolerance and understanding. Yet, on the evening of Rosh Hashanah, Alexander Levlovitz, a Jerusalemite, a family man, was murdered when terrorists threw rocks at his car, forcing him off the road.

“This bloody attack shows us once again that terror is terror – whether with rocks, guns or other weapons – and it shows us we must act firmly against all terrorism. What has occurred over the last few days on Temple Mount are in reality the actions of those who seek to provoke and create hatred between people, between believers in God.

“As those responsible for law and order, we must deal with these provocations and do all in our power to prevent those from the Islamic movement creating these provocations,” he said.

President Reuven Rivlin (sitting, center right) at his residence with members of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe, shakes hands with the president of the council Cardinal Péter Erdő, in Jerusalem, September 16, 2015. (Michael Nyman/GPO)

Attempted stabbing at West Bank junction

A Palestinian youth was arrested by security forces in Tapuah junction in the West Bank after attempting to stab soldiers.

The man, a resident of Nablus in his twenties, whipped out a dagger when Border Police officers were conducting a search of his bag. He attempted to flee the scene but was caught and taken for questioning.

Germany to work against human traffickers

Germany plans to expand its naval operations against human traffickers as part of an EU mission in the Mediterranean, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet decides Wednesday.

“The government today decided on the participation of German armed forces in a new phase of the EU-led Operation EUNAVFOR MED,” says Merkel’s spokesman Georg Streiter.

Pending parliamentary approval, up to 950 armed German military personnel will join operations to rescue migrants on the high seas and confiscate traffickers’ vessels, the cabinet decided.

— AFP

Masked assailants set church ablaze in Yemen’s Aden

Unidentified assailants set ablaze one of the few churches in Yemen’s second city Aden on Wednesday, a day after it had been damaged by vandals, witnesses said.

The masked arsonists torched St. Joseph, a Roman Catholic church in the central Crater neighbourhood of the port city, which is controlled by loyalists of the exiled government.

A security official said the attackers could be militants of Al-Qaeda.

“The church is in flames,” resident Moetaz al-Maysour told AFP, adding that “masked men started the fire.”

Yemen’s population is 99 percent Muslim.

Of the 22 churches that operated in Aden when the city was a British colony before 1967, only a few remain open, used rarely by foreign workers and African refugees.

— AFP

Yemenis look as smoke billows from buildings after reported airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition on arms warehouses at al-Dailami air base, north of capital Sanaa, on September 16, 2015. (Mohammed Huwais/AFP)

‘PM asks A-G to approve police use of snipers’

Prime Minister Netanyahu asked Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein to allow Israel Police to deploy snipers firing small-caliber bullets against rock throwers, Haaretz reports.

The request was made during an emergency meeting with cabinet ministers yesterday evening, which was announced by Netanyahu after a wave of violent attacks washed over Jerusalem in the days leading to and during the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

According to Haaretz, during the meeting the ministers realized that there is a significant gap between the IDF’s rules of engagement and those of the police. The request to Weinstein aims to close this gap.

IDF snipers in the West Bank are allowed to fire small-caliber bullets at rioters who hurl Molotov cocktails or bigger rocks that commanders believe can be lethal. Firing is usually aimed at the legs and can injure but not kill. Police, currently, are not allowed to use any means beyond rubber bullets, water cannons or tear gas.

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein at the Ministry of Justice in Jerusalem, May 17, 2015. (Dudi Vaknin/Pool)

Gazans fume at electricity shortages

Residents of the Gaza Strip have been protesting since the beginning of the week over electricity shortages in the coastal territory.

Buckling under the demand, the Gaza electricity-generating turbines produce enough juice to power people’s homes for only eight hours a day.

Two Gazans spoke to Channel 2 today, discussed the difficult conditions and pointed their finger at Hamas for the shortage.

“Israelis are better,” says Ibrahim from Beit Lahia in despondence. “Israel is better than Hamas. Everyone in the street speaks about electricity. The entire public of Gaza speaks of this distress.”

On Monday, protesters set car tires alight and were dispersed by Hamas police officers. “They have no mercy,” Ibrahim says of the Hamas cops. “Anyone who dare speak can be thrown in jail for a year or two.”

The shortages are the result of a dispute between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority regarding the supply of fuel to the local power station in the Strip.

Some areas receive electricity for even less than a third of the day: Majdi, a resident of Rafah, tells Channel 2 that where he lives, “there is electricity for four hours, and then 20 hours with no electricity.”

“The fridge doesn’t work, you cannot keep meat [from going bad], there is no air conditioning, nothing works. Living in a tent is better. It’s better to leave in a tent than at home,” he says.

The Gaza Strip’s sole power plant (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib /Flash90)

Iranian general boasts of ballistic missiles

The deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards says the IRGC possesses a type of sophisticated ballistic missile that only Russia and the US may have.

“We possess a unique ballistic missile that, perhaps, only Russia and the US have, and it is almost impossible to counter this missile,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami is quoted by Tasnim, an Iranian news agency, as saying in a television talk show.

There are “no limits to launching whatever number of missiles at the targets” when necessary, says Salami.

He also points out that Iran made great progress in developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and says the IRGC has a drone with a range of 3,000 kilometers.

IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami said during a February 9, 2015, interview that after years of research, Iran tested the use of a ballistic missile against a ship when he was IRGC air force commander. (YouTube screenshot)

Livni tells German FM, Israel a victim of Islamist provocation

Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni says Israel has become the victim of Islamist agents provocateurs on the Temple Mount.

Meeting in Berlin with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walther Steinmeier, Livni says Israel is doing its utmost to maintain the status quo and emphasizes that “Islamists” are to blame for the violence near the al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Livni also tells Steinmeier of Israel’s concern about the day when sanctions against Iran will be dismantled. Before embracing Iran, Livni tells the German FM, one must act to prevent it from sponsoring terror.

Funeral of Alexander Levlovitz to begin in Jerusalem soon

Alexander Levlovitz, the man who died when he lost control of his car and crashed after terrorists threw rocks at the vehicle in Jerusalem. Levlovitz died early in the hours of Monday morning, the first day of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, on September 14, 2015. (Courtesy)

Alexander Levlovitz, 64, who died of injuries sustained when his car smashed into a lamppost and a tree on Sunday night after being pelted with stones, will be buried in Jerusalem this evening.

A resident of Armon Hanatziv tells Channel 2 that the only way to bring security to the residents of the neighborhood is to create a separation between Armon Hanatziv and Sur Baher, the Palestinian neighborhood from which most Palestinian rock throwers who attack Israeli residents of Armon Hanatziv are believed to come from.

The resident tells Channel 2 that it was in fact lucky that Levlovitz, who was traveling in the car with two other people, hit a lamppost and a tree, since otherwise the car would have plummet over a cliff and the other two passengers may have also been hurt.

Austria won’t pardon Jewish historian

Austria’s president denied a request by the Anti-Defamation League to pardon a Jewish historian facing jail time for the omission of his aunt from his family’s application for Holocaust restitution.

The denial came in a September 8 letter sent by an employee of Austrian President Heinz Fischer’s office to Andrew Srulevitch, ADL’s assistant director for international affairs, in reply to Srulevitch’s plea to nullify the prison sentence of Stephan Templ before he is to report to prison later this month.

Recalling that Templ had exhausted all avenues of appeal, the letter states: “The judgment is therefore final.”

In May, the Austrian Supreme Court rejected Templ’s appeal over his April 2014 conviction of fraud against Austria, which judges found he committed by failing in his 2006 restitution application to mention his mother’s estranged sister. He was sentenced to three years in jail, but the sentence was later reduced to one year.

Templ is the author of a 2001 book on restitution in which he criticized the Austrian state and society’s theft of Jewish property and failures to offer restitution. Many Austrian Jews, including the anti-fascist campaigner and journalist Karl Pfeifer, said they considered the conviction to be a result of a vendetta against Templ. Austrian officials deny this, saying his conviction is consistent with the law and penal code.

— JTA

IMF calls Israel’s deficit goal unrealistic

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon arrives at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on September 6, 2015. (Ohad Zwigenberg/POOL)

The state’s deficit goal for the coming year (2.9 percent of the GDP) is unachievable in light of the growth in security expenditure, the annual report by the International Monetary Fund on Israel determines.

The report was submitted by the IMF to Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and to Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug.

According to the report, the government “met the original deficit target of 2.8 percent of GDP in 2014. However, the government raised the deficit targets for 2015 and 2016 to 2.9 percent of GDP for both years, (almost 4 percent of GDP based on international accounting standards), compared with 2.5 and 2.0 percent of GDP previously.”

Meretz MK – Allaan’s rearrest is act of revenge

Meretz MK Issawi Freij says the rearrest of former hunger striker Mohammed Alla’an is an act “not of security but of revenge.”

“Netanyahu’s policy sets the region on fire and he is busy with vendettas and empty statements about harsher and harsher punishments,” says Freij.

The MK says that administrative detentions or firing at rock throwers will not bring quiet to Israel, “but only the understanding that Israel cannot exist for long without solving the conflict with the Palestinians and returning to real negotiations.”

Funeral of terror victim begins in Jerusalem

The funeral of Alexander Levlovitz has begun in Jerusalem, in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery.

Levlovitz died when he crashed with his car on Sunday evening, after a rock thrown at his vehicle caused him to lose control of the car.

It is believed that the perpetrators of the attack are Palestinians.

Levlovitz ran the disabled people’s home in Gilo for many years.

“He gave a significant part of his life to the disabled persons’ home,” recounts a relative of his outside the funeral home, who described him as a loving father and grandfather.

Icelandic capital boycotts all Israeli products

The city of Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, will no longer purchase goods made in Israel.

According to a report in Iceland Magazine, the city council voted yesterday to boycott Israeli goods as long as the “Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories” continues.

A councilwoman for the Social Democratic Alliance, Björk Vilhelmsdóttir, is behind the initiative. Vilhelmsdóttir is set retire from politics soon and the motion is her last major act as a councilwoman.

Reykjavik has less than 150,000 inhabitants.

An official in Israel’s Foreign Ministry says that “a volcano of hatred” is erupting from the Reykjavik city hall. The official cites the move as one motivated by “pure hatred.”

US special Ops forces ‘on the ground in Iraq’

CNBC tweets that US troops are on the ground in Iraq, helping Kurdish forces fight Islamic State.

BREAKING: Defense officials tell NBC News that US special ops. forces are on ground in Syria assisting Kurdish forces in fight against ISIS

— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) September 16, 2015

Rocks hurled at Jerusalem light rail; none wounded

Palestinians hurled rocks at the light rail in Jerusalem near the Shuafat refugee camp this evening.

No casualties were reported but the train’s windows were damaged.

Culture minister wants to nix funding for Bnei Sakhnin

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev will act to change laws on state support for sports clubs, following reports that Bnei Sakhnin, an Arab league team, recently received a $1 million donation from Qatar, a country Israeli calls a state sponsor of terrorism.

Regev spoke this evening with Oded Tira, head of the National Sports Council. She agreed to hold an urgent meeting with him and other relevant authorities in order to review the standards by which clubs receive state support.

Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev seen at the opening of the Jerusalem Film Festival held at Sultan’s Pool, outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, on July 9, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Kerry speaks to Netanyahu – US shares Israel concerns on Russian involvement in Syria

US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke today with Prime Minister Netanyahu on the phone and according to Channel 10, told him that the US shares Israel’s concerns regarding the increased Russian involvement in Syria.

Kerry’s talk with Netanyahu occurred shortly after the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu will travel to Russia next week to meet with President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian military’s increasing presence in Syria is supposed to be at the top of the agenda during Netanyahu’s meeting with Putin.

Secretary of State John Kerry arrives for a meeting, on the escalating migrant crisis, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 9, 2015. (AP/Susan Walsh)

Russia sends Syria highly advanced tanks — report

Russia has transferred to Syria Russian T-90 tanks, Channel 2 military analyst Ehud Ya’ari reports.

The T-90 is a highly advanced tank, introduced in 1993. According to the report, Russia is transferring to Syria eight such machines, as well as 15 military cargo planes and several dozens armored personnel carriers.

Russia is also reportedly planning to deploy no less than 1,500 troops.

Channel 2 reports also that Qassem Suleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds force, visited Moscow for a second time in less than two months.

Russia denied his first visit to the country.

Iran and Russia are closely coordinating their involvement in the Syrian civil war, the report says.

A Russian T-90A tank on parade in Moscow (CC BY-SA 3.0 Vitaly V. Kuzmin/Wikipedia)

Police fire at Molotov cocktail thrower in Issawiya

A man wearing a ski mask and holding a Molotov cocktail ran directly at a police and border police force in the northern Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, Police says in a statement.

The officers, who felt the man constituted an immediate threat, fired at his lower body. The man fell to the ground and dropped the Molotov cocktail, which did not explode.

Residents of the village quickly smuggled the suspect — who was wounded — away from the scene. Police are conducting a search in the village in order to arrest him.

Kerry says US weighs Russia offer of military talks on Syria

The Obama administration is weighing an offer from Russia to have military-to-military talks and meetings on the situation in Syria amid increasing US concern and uncertainty about Russian military buildup there, Secretary of State John Kerry says.

Kerry says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov proposed the consultation in a phone call on Tuesday and that the White House, Pentagon and State Department are considering it. Kerry suggested that he favored such an idea, noting that the United States wants a clear picture of what Russia’s intentions are in Syria following a recent military buildup there.

Lavrov proposed a “military-to-military conversation and meeting in order to discuss the issue of precisely what will be done to deconflict with respect to any potential risks that might be run and have a complete and clear understanding as to the road ahead and what the intentions are,” Kerry tells reporters at a joint State Department news conference with South Africa’s foreign minister.

“You have a conversation in order to do that,” Kerry says. “It is vital to avoid misunderstandings, miscalculations (and) not to put ourselves in a predicament where we are supposing something and the supposition is wrong.”

— AP

Dozens of protesters in Jerusalem neighborhood where terror attack took place

Dozens of people are protesting near the location where Alexander Levlovitz crashed with his car on Sunday night, shortly after his vehicle was hit by a stone hurled by Palestinian rock-throwers.

Among the protesters, the Walla news website reports, are residents of the neighborhood Armon Hanatziv and right wing activists who joined them.

Right wing activist Baruch Marzel and members of the the Lehava organization, a far-right group, are also among the protesters.

Tel Aviv named priciest Mideast city, when rent is excluded

Tel Aviv is the costliest city in the Middle East when rent is excluded as an expense, according to the latest UBS Prices and Earnings study.

According to the Israeli business journal Globes, the study lists Dubai as the most expensive city in the region due to the high cost of rent in the Persian Gulf metropolis. It has the world’s fourth highest rent, “with an average unfurnished three-room apartment [going] for $3,240 a month with only London ($3,350), Hong Kong ($4,220), and New York ($4,320) more expensive,” the paper reports.

But when rent is excluded from the comparison of wages, prices and purchasing power in 71 cities, it is Tel Aviv that takes the lead for the region as the most expensive city to live in.

Luckily, Tel Aviv also boasts the highest pre-tax incomes in the region.