Live updates (closed)
The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
Population reaches 8.4 million people
The population of Israel ahead of Rosh Hashana, ushering in the Jewish year 5776, stands at 8,412,000 residents, according to data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
Since the same time last year, Israel’s population grew by 160,000 people, of which 28,000 are new immigrants – a rise of 35 percent over last year. During the past Jewish year, 170,000 babies were born.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, between 2025 and 2030 the number of people in the country will exceed 10 million.
Israir cancels flights until evening, due to weather
The Israir airline announces that due to the weather it is canceling all internal flights until 7:30 p.m.
Israir said it would let passenger who booked flights to and from Eilat use buses instead.
Israel is undergoing a severe sandstorm.
Rouhani: Iran ready to talk to US, Saudi Arabia about Syria
Iran’s president says that his country is ready to hold talks with the United States and Saudi Arabia on ways to resolve Syria’s civil war, providing such negotiations can secure peace and democracy in conflict-torn Syria.
Hassan Rouhani’s remarks come during a press conference with visiting Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer, when the Iranian leader was asked if he would sit down and negotiate with the Saudis and Americans on the Syrian crisis.
“Iran will sit at any table with regional countries and world powers if the outcome will be a safer, stable and democratic future for Syria,” Rouhani says, adding this is part of Iran’s commitment to “international, Islamic and humane” norms.
— AP
Zionist Union MKs answer Joint List MK’s tirade
A day after Joint List MK Jamal Zahalka lashed out at Zionist Union MK Stav Shaffir, Shaffir says that Zahalka “believes in a binational state. Maybe he can find his partners in Likud, where they also believe in annexing territories and establishing a binational state. I oppose this position. If he wants me to apologize for it, I will not apologize for it.”
Shaffir’s colleague in Zionist Union, MK Nachman Shai, says Zahalka “refuses to come to terms with the fact that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people.”
Yesterday, during a lengthy discussion in the Knesset over the gas deal, Zahalka used his turn at the podium as an opportunity to deliver a long and bizarre tirade against Shaffir. Zahalka accused Shaffir of being a racist and said the fact that she did “not even say hello” to him in the hallways of the Knesset was proof of this.
Labor Party member Stav Shaffir at a Finance committee meeting in the Knesset. December 16, ,2013 (photo credit: Flash90)
15 treated for shortness of breath
Fifteen people were treated for symptoms of shortness of breath and coughing due to the sandstorm sweeping Israel, all at Ziv Medical Center in Safed in northern Israel.
Some of the patients are known sufferers of Chronic Pulmonary Obstruction Syndrome. Two COPD sufferers were hospitalized in very serious condition and two other people were hospitalized in serious condition.
A first-grade schoolboy was also treated for shortness of breath.
Sculptor Anish Kapoor wants ‘Queen’s Vagina’ to remain defaced
Anti-Semitic graffiti will not be cleaned off a giant sculpture at France’s Palace of Versailles after the country’s culture ministry agreed to demands by artist Anish Kapoor that it stay.
Dubbed the “queen’s vagina,” the controversial steel funnel and the rocks around it were sprayed with phrases such as “SS blood sacrifice” and “the second RAPE of the nation by DEVIANT JEWISH activism” at the weekend.
The sculpture had already been attacked in June and then cleaned, but Kapoor said that this time he wanted the graffiti to remain to bear witness to hatred.
France’s culture ministry agreed late Monday, and said panels next to the work would explain what happened.
“It’s the artist’s choice. The choice to show that some today have a problem with freedom of creation,” it said in a statement.
“The work was very seriously defaced, those responsible will be punished.”
— AFP
Chateau de Versailles workers clean the sculpture ‘Dirty Corners’ by British artist Anish Kapoor, after someone splattered paint on it in the gardens of the Chateau de Versailles outside Paris, France, Thursday, June 18, 2015. The sculpture is nicknamed ‘The Queen’s Vagina’ (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Turkish forces enter Iraq chasing Kurds
Turkish ground forces crossed into northern Iraq for a “short-term” operation in pursuit of Kurdish rebels, a Turkish government official said Tuesday.
The troops crossed the border as part of a “hot pursuit” of PKK rebels who were involved in a roadside bomb attack that killed 16 soldiers on Sunday, the government official said.
“This is a short-term measure intended to prevent the terrorists’ escape,” the official said on condition of anonymity in line with government rules.
The private Dogan news agency, citing unnamed military sources, said two battalions from Turkey’s special forces crossed the border.
— AP
Alcohol tax reform canceled – prices to plummet
Cheers! Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon orders the repeal of a tax hike on alcohol that was instituted in 2012-2013.
The tax on beer will be reduced by 46%, and the tax on spirits will be reduced by 21%, effective at midnight.
Livni slams Netanyahu: Interviewing yourself is easy
Zionist Union co-leader Tzipi Livni reacts to the news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled all interviews to the media ahead of Rosh Hashana and says Netanyahu is determined “to evade any question or public debate as demanded in a democracy. It is the easiest thing to interview yourself.”
The prime minister traditionally gives interviews to major papers ahead of the Jewish New Year. During his term as prime minister, Netanyahu has chosen more than once to cherry-pick the newspapers to which he gives interviews. He was criticized in the past few years for avoiding giving interviews to media outlets with a critical stance against the government.
Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni speaks to press in the Knesset on July 29, 2015. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Man nabbed trying to pick up hashish-lined drum from post office
A man in his sixties was arrested yesterday when he came to a post office to pick up a package from India.
The package contained a darbouka type drum – but one lined with 1.7 kilos of hashish.
A search in the man’s home in the northern Sharon region revealed a cartridge and gun. A computer owned by the man was also confiscated.
Customs investigators and a drug-sniffing dog pose next to the hashish-lined drum. (Courtesy Ben Gurion Customs)
The hashish lining inside the drum. (Israel Police)
Israel Football Association: No more soccer matches, at all
The management of the Israel Football Association unanimously approves the cancellation of matches in all soccer leagues and for all age groups so long as it does not receive a permit to hold games on Shabbat, the Jewish day of rest.
According to Israel Radio, Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev is expected to present a compromise this evening, according to which the attorney general will provide a temporary permit for matches on Shabbat for the coming two months, and during that time an interministerial team will prepare a draft to resolve the issue.
The IFA previously said it would cancel all league matches in response to a decision that would bar matches on Shabbat. Major league games have been taking place on Shabbat for years.
Police nabs suspect in online sexual assault against minors
The Intelligence and Investigations Department of the Lahav 433 Cyber unit of Israel Police arrested a man suspected of contacting dozens of minors in Israel and abroad through the internet and conducting dozens of online sexual acts against minors.
According to a press statement by the unit, the man, a 27-year-old resident of Tel Aviv, often used threats and blackmail against the minors with whom he was in contact. Police are examining whether the man also conducted similar acts against minors in Israel.
The statement did not say what constituted an act of sexual assault conducted over the internet.
4 Turkish cops hurt by rocket fired by PKK rebels
Four Turkish police officers were wounded ago by a rocket fired by Kurdish rebels in the southeastern part of the country, Reuters reports.
Earlier today, 13 Turkish cops were killed in an explosion in eastern Turkey.
W. Virginia senator Manchin opposes Iran deal
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin will vote to oppose the nuclear agreement with Iran, the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a local paper, reports.
Manchin joins every other member of West Virginia’s congressional delegation in opposition, the paper notes.
He was one of five undecided lawmakers, of which the White House needed at least three to support the deal in order to have enough lawmakers for a filibuster that would obviate the need for Obama to use his presidential veto.
The administration already has enough support to rule out a supermajority, so that a veto will not be overturned. But after several senators voiced their support, the White House expressed hope to pass the deal in the first vote.
Manchin announced his opposition during a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning.
Manchin in the past said he “leaned very strongly” toward supporting the deal. While he has not made up his mind until today, the decision to oppose still signifies a change of heart, according to the Gazette-Mail.
The White House now aims to convince three out of four remaining undecided lawmakers to support the deal. The vote in Congress is scheduled for Thursday.
US Secretary of State John Kerry walks with Senate Banking Committee member Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin to a meeting with the committee in Washington, DC, on November 14, 2013. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
Justice minister: Israel sick with trial-itis
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked says at a law conference sponsored by Hebrew news website Ynet that “the State of Israel is sick with trial-itis,” a made-up word she uses to describe what she believes is a slow and clumsy system in which trials extend over years and courts cannot handle the influx of new cases.
Shaked says she decided to increase lawyers’ training period to two years and that she will set up a mechanism to monitor the interns’ progress.
Justice Minister Ayelet Sheked arrives for the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, June 28, 2015. (Alex Kolomoisky/POOL)
Iraqi justice minister abducted from car
The Iraqi justice minister, Abdulkarim Fares, was kidnapped from his car by a gunman in Baghdad, officials in the country say, cited by Channel 2’s website.
According to the country’s interior minister, men wearing black wounded the justice minister’s driver and then carried the minister from his car.
Netanyahu vs. the media, ahead of Rosh Hashanah
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been cherry-picking his interviewers for the past several years, but this year decides to do away with interviews altogether, opting instead to post an online video.
Traditionally, Israeli prime ministers gave extensive interviews to all major newspapers ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
For the past several years, Netanyahu would not be interviewed by Haaretz, a paper especially critical of his performance, nor by Channel 10, where investigative journalist Raviv Drucker was the first to publish the story that later came to be known as Bibitours, a saga of alleged corruption involving the prime minister.
Instead of interviews, Netanyahu posts on Facebook a video he calls “Stuff you won’t hear in the media: These are some of the things I do for you, the citizens of Israel.”
The prime minister’s paranoid treatment of the media is not new. During the last election campaign, Netanyahu often complained of the media using extra-strength magnifying lenses to look for his failings. He conducted the campaign as an underdog, despite being elected to his third consecutive term.
In the clip, Netanyahu counts several achievements which he only describes in the most general terms: safeguarding Israel’s borders, a promise to extract the natural gas “from the ground,” and eschewing restraint in dealing with terror.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seen in a video he posts on Facebook ahead of Rosh Hashanah, on Tuesday, September 8, 2015. (Screen capture)
Dick Cheney slams ‘President Obama’s agreement’
WASHINGTON — Hours before Congress begins debating the virtues and drawbacks of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran in advance of a vote of disapproval of the deal, former vice president and longtime Republican politician Dick Cheney warns that the deal “has vast implications for the future security of the Jewish people.”
In an almost hour-long speech at the right-wing American Enterprise Institute, Cheney bashes what he calls “President Obama’s agreement,” which he says “will provide Iran with funds and weapons the regime will use in support of terror and for dominance in the Middle East.”
The removal of restrictions on ballistic missile development as delineated in the deal, Cheney says, “will give Iran the means to launch a nuclear attack against the US homeland.” Cheney argues that even one month before the deal was signed, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter had expressed concerns about the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
“I know of no nation in history that has agreed that the means for its own destruction will be in the hands of another nation,” Cheney chides, arguing that the Iran deal had done just that. He described Obama as “historically unique” in making such a deal.
In addition to his critique of the relaxation of ballistic missile development restrictions, Cheney sharply criticizes what he describes as “the cave on enrichment.”
— Rebecca Stoil Shimoni
Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2014. (Cliff Owen/AP)
US blacklists 3 ‘international terrorists’ from Hamas
The US blacklists as “international terrorists” three Hamas senior officials, two of whom were released in the prisoner exchange in which Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was released in 2011, AFP reports. The announcement was made by the State Department this afternoon.
The three are Yahya Sinwar, Rawhi Mushtaha and Mohammed Deif. The first two were released as part of the prisoner exchange. Deif, considered a chief of staff of sorts of the military wing of Hamas, has long been a target of Israeli assassination attempts. He was wounded seriously in more than one hit and is believed to be wheelchair-bound.
3 senators announce support for Iran deal
Richard Blumenthal (US Senate, Wikipedia)
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) announce that they will support the Iran deal.
After they announce their support, the White House has enough support for a filibuster and can avoid having a vote on the deal. The vote is scheduled for Thursday.
“I will vote to support the proposed agreement concerning Iran’s nuclear program and against the resolution of disapproval before the Senate. My two paramount goals have been to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran and do so by peaceful means. I believe the proposed agreement, using diplomacy, not military force, is the best path now available to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” Blumenthal says in a statement.
Microsoft buys Israeli startup Adallom for $250m
Microsoft buys a company supplying security solutions for cloud computing that was launched in Israel, CNBC reports.
Adallom was co-founded by Assaf Rapaport, Ami Luttwak and Roy Resnik.
In a statement on the company’s website, Rapaport writes “This acquisition represents a major investment in cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) application security for the Microsoft team.”
According to Fortune magazine, the terms of the purchase were not disclosed, but a source close to the companies says that the purchase, initially reported to be $320 million cash, is now actually $250 million, but still could grow to $320 million if prescribed targets are hit.
The home page of Adallom. (Screen capture)
US puts Lebanese Samir Kuntar on terror blacklist
The United States places Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese terrorist notorious for the murder of three Israelis including a four-year-old young girl, on its terror blacklist.
Israel released Kuntar as part of a prisoner exchange in 2008, three decades after the killings, and he has since become a high-profile figure in the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
“He has also played an operational role, with the assistance of Iran and Syria, in building up Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights,” the State Department says.
As a designated “global terrorist,” Kantar is subject to the seizure of any assets he holds in areas of US jurisdiction and Americans are forbidden from doing business with him.
Kuntar was 17 in April 1979 when he and three other then members of the Palestine Liberation Front infiltrated the Israeli village of Nahariya by sea from Lebanon.
The gang raided the home of the Haran family — the couple Danny and Smadar and their two toddlers.
Smadar hid on the top floor of the house with the couple’s younger daughter, Yael, aged two. Desperate that the toddler’s cries would give them up, Smadar accidentally smothered Yael with her own hands.
Kuntar and his accomplices took Danny, 28, and four-year-old Einat hostage and fled to the beach, where he shot the father in front of the daughter and then crushed her skull with his rifle.
— AFP
Samir Kuntar (Mardetanha /Wikipedia)
Rivlin tells European Council president product labeling will be an obstacle to peace
President Reuven Rivlin held a work meeting with the President of the European Council Donald Tusk.
During the meeting, Rivlin and Tusk discussed, among other issues, the European Union’s plan to label products made beyond the Green Line specially, not as “Made in Israel” but in a way denoting that the products originate in the settlements.
Referring to the prospect of future peace agreement, Rivlin said to get to that blessed day, Israel and the Palestinians must first work to build mutual trust.
Commerce and industry are a model of possible peace between the region’s nations, he added. Peace, the president told Tusk, can’t be forced; it must come from the people.
Rivlin emphasized that the labeling of Israeli products will be an obstacle to peace. The dream of shared existence, as realized in Europe, was not reached by creating obstacles but rather by dialogue and cooperation, Rivlin told Tusk.
Reuven Rivlin meets with US House Democrats at his residence on August 5, 2015. (Mark Neyman/ GPO)
A year in jail for mooning and a Nazi salute
A French court convicted a Bosnian basketball fan for doing a Nazi salute during a match between the national teams of Israel and Russia and ruled to imprison him for a year, according to the French website BFMTV.
Edin Mehinovic, 35, also showed his derriere (i.e. mooned) the players. BFMTV noted that the verdict far exceeds what the law mandates for incitement to hatred and sexual assault in France.
In what the website called “an absurd line of defense,” Mehinovic told the court that he made the racist gesture “to show three extremist Swiss fans sitting near me exactly what they should not do.” He said he exposed his buttocks because “I was provoked by the public when I got up to make the gesture.”
Mehinovic was convicted on Monday.
Michael Oren says battle on Iran deal just starting
Kulanu MK Michael Oren, a former ambassador to the US and the chairman of the Subcommittee for Public Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs, says that “as of now, according to the vote count, the Iranian nuclear deal will pass the legislative hurdle. The fact that the deal is expected to pass by a narrow majority testifies to the depth of doubt and concern among the American public regarding the nuclear deal.”
“Not postponing the deal will pit Israel against new dangers and challenges and we will need to face these just we have faced the threats of the past. As far as we are concerned, this is not the end of the struggle but its beginning. The State of Israel is not committed to the agreement and will always know to defend itself, even if it has to go it alone,” Oren said. His statement was published in Hebrew.
Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On attacked the prime minister shortly after news came out that the White House has in fact convinced enough lawmakers to support the deal to successfully filibuster the Congress legislation dedicated to it.
“All of Netanyahu’s efforts to dig under [US President Barack] Obama failed,” she said. Obama has shown “responsible and powerful” leadership, she said, adding that “Netanyahu went to a battle he knew he would lose for the interests of his Republican friends, and along the way shattered the strategic relationship between Israel and the United States.”
Kulanu party member Michael Oren attends a political debate held at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, on March 03, 2015. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)
Lapid again calls for inquiry of PM’s conduct regarding Iran deal
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid repeats his call that PM Netanyahu’s “failure” in fighting the Iran deal be investigated by a commission of inquiry.
“The number of Democrat senators who announced they will support the nuclear deal with Iran has risen to 41,” Lapid said. “Among them are 8 out of the 10 Jewish senators. This means two things: First, an Obama veto will not even be necessary to pass the deal. Secondly, all of Netanyahu’s theories crashed and it looks like he was wrong all along the way.”
Lapid said Netanyahu “dragged” Israel to confrontation with the White House “for nothing, and for nothing he split and tore apart the Jewish communities. For nothing he turned Israel a satellite of the Republican Party […] for nothing he hurt the power of pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.”
Lapid says he sent the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee a letter in which he demanded “an extensive inquiry” into the “failed and dangerous process” Israel conducted with the American. “If Netanyahu believes he acted properly, why is he so afraid of such an inquiry and prevents the committee chairman, Tzachi Hanegbi, from instructing that it begin?” Lapid asks.
“It needs to be looked into, and we need that at the end of the inquiry a public report be published so that the Israeli public will know how the (justified) struggle against the nuclear deal was conducted, carelessly and irresponsibly, in a way that caused significant harm to the security of the State of Israel,” Lapid says.
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid speaks at a party meeting at the Knesset on June 1, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Livni says ‘now that damage is done, fix ties with US’
Zionist Union co-leader Tzipi Livni says “Netanyahu must immediately work to minimize the damage he caused with the US. Instead of marketing a dramatic security failure on Facebook as if it were a success – now is the time to fix the alliance with the US and to reorganize regionally to cope with the threat caused under his watch: A strong, rich and legitimized Iran, a threshold nuclear state supporter of terrorism. This is no longer a matter of marketing and polls in the US, but of security responsibility.”
2 precedent-setting lawsuits against people who threw rocks at light rail
The State Attorney’s office is expected to file two precedent-setting lawsuits against Arab residents of Jerusalem who threw rocks at the Jerusalem light rail, Ynet reports.
In both lawsuits, the state will demand that each of the two perpetrators pay NIS 40,000 (c. $10,000) for damage their actions caused to the light rail windows.
The move is part of a wider initiative to file civil lawsuits against terror activists who throw rocks, Molotov cocktails and flares – in tandem with any civil lawsuits filed against such offenders by private individuals. The lawsuits will only be filed against rock throwers above the age of 18.
Dem senator who supports Iran deal doesn’t want filibuster
A Democrat senator who supports the deal issues a statement in which he says he would like to see the deal properly debated and not passed by killing legislation that can impact it through a filibuster.
Senator Chris Coons “hopes that it will proceed in such a way that the Senate has ample opportunity to conclude debate on this important deal and allow each Senator to make their individual position clear,” according to a statement from his office.
Coons also hopes that “Leaders [Harry] Reid and [Mitch] McConnell quickly reach an agreement to proceed on debate on the Iran agreement and proceed to a final vote without amendments,” the statement says.
Sen. Chris Coons. (photo credit: CC BY Mathplourde, Flickr)
Couple who died in Jerusalem gas leak named
The couple in their thirties who died from a gas leak in their apartment in a religious neighborhood of Jerusalem were named as Yaniv Yehuda and Rachel Peretz.
Yehuda was a French citizen and Rachel was an American. The couple were married for two years and had no children.
Their funeral will begin tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 9 a.m., at the Shamgar Funeral Home in Jerusalem. They will be buried in a cemetery in Tiberias.
Both cooking gas taps in the house were open and police believe that negligence may have played a part in their death.
