The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.
The head of the UN atomic agency says there has been “significant progress” in a long-stalled probe into allegations that Iran sought to develop nuclear weapons in the past.
“Significant progress has been achieved,” International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano says following a weekend trip to Iran, during which he visited the contentious Parchin military facility, where the Islamic Republic is suspected of conducting nuclear experiments.
Amano confirms that Iran had provided samples from Parchin that it had taken itself, but says the agency had verified the samples using an established process. He insists that the “process was carried out under our responsibility and monitoring.”
The samples will now be transferred to Vienna for analysis, Amano says.
Senator Bernie Sanders hits back at a fellow presidential hopeful, Republican Ben Carson, for saying that a Muslim should not be president of the United States.
“For a long, long time in the history of America, there were people who would say, ‘you know, we don’t want a Catholic to be president of the United States.’ And then John F. Kennedy became president in 1960. And then people said, ‘oh, we don’t want a black guy, African American to be president of the United States,’ and then finally Barack Obama became president of the United States,” says Sanders.
“Look, you judge candidates for president not on their religion, not on the color of their skin, but on their ideas on what they stand for. That’s what democracy is supposed to be about. So I was very disappointed in Dr. Carson’s statement and I disagree with him.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry says he will meet with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Zarif “regarding Iran and other things,” on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly currently underway in New York.
Kerry says he will be holding talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in New York, during meetings “with almost every single one of the players on several different occasions.”
“[T]his will be a very timely meeting in New York that gives all of us a tremendous opportunity to be able to work together on finding some ways forward,” Kerry says.
The Hungarian government is posting ads in Lebanese and Jordanian newspapers warning migrants not to enter Hungary illegally, saying it is a crime punishable by imprisonment.
In a full-page advertisement in several newspapers, including Lebanon’s leading An-Nahar and Jordan’s Al-Rai, the government says “the strongest possible action is taken” against people who attempt to enter Hungary illegally.
“Do not listen to the people smugglers. Hungary will not allow illegal immigrants to cross its territory,” the advertisement reads in English and Arabic.
Hungary closed its border with Serbia on Sept. 15 and has erected another steel barrier at the Beremend border crossing with Croatia to try to slow the flow of migrants.
The Danish government has also posted advertisements in Lebanese newspapers aiming to deter migrants, saying it has reduced social aid to migrants by 50 percent and that migrants whose applications are rejected will be deported immediately.
— AP
Israel Police says that thousands of officers would be deployed in Jerusalem ahead of the Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha holidays after days of clashes rocked the Temple Mount last week, during the Jewish new year holiday.
Beginning on Monday night, traffic will be restricted around the Old City and checkpoints will be set up.
Yom Kippur begins Tuesday night and lasts until Wednesday evening, while the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday begins Wednesday and continues until Sunday.
Thousands of Jews are expected to visit the Western Wall below the Temple Mount. The Mount is the location of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
— AFP
Arab children from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of A-Tur throw stones at an Egged bus near the Damascus Gate, Ynet reports. There are no injuries.
Border Police officers chase the children and hold them until their parents arrive. All of the children are 10-11 years old, Ynet says.
Russian President Vladimir Putin tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Moscow is mindful of the fact that Israel is home to many one-time residents of the former Soviet Union, and as such its actions in the Middle East are always responsible.
The high number of Soviet-born Israelis “has special implications for relations between the two countries,” Putin says during a meeting between the two leaders in Moscow.
Netanyahu tells his host that Israel aims to prevent Iran and Syria from arming Hezbollah, and warns that Iran “under the auspices of the Syrian army,” is trying to build a terrorist front against Israel from the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.
Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad and has pledged to support his regime as it battles Islamic State.
— Raphael Ahren
There is a strong Jewish presence among the big winners of the 2015 Emmys, with the show runners of hit fantasy drama “Game of Thrones” and veteran comedians all grabbing awards at the ceremony hosted by American Jewish comedian Andy Samberg.
D.B. Weiss and David Benioff win a prize apiece for Outstanding Writing for “Game of Thrones,” while Jon Stewart picks up an award for Outstanding Variety Talk Series with “The Daily Show,” and Jeffrey Tambor is honored as Outstanding Actor in a Comedy for his starring role in “Transparent.” Show creator Jill Soloway wins Outstanding Director for a Comedy Series. Amy Schumer also picks up a gong for Outstanding Variety Sketch Series for her show “Inside Amy Schumer.”
“To HBO… thank you for taking a chance on two schmucks with no experience,” says Benioff in his acceptance speech. “Game of Thrones” picks up a record 12 Emmys in total, including Outstanding Drama Series.
Writers David Benioff (L) and D.B. Weiss accept Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series award for ‘Game of Thrones’ onstage during the 67th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Microsoft Theater on September 20, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images/AFP)
Human Rights Watch says the Iraqi government must assert control over paramilitary forces that have carried out abuses including enforced disappearances and destruction of property, and hold those responsible to account.
Baghdad should “take immediate steps to establish effective command and control over pro-government militias (and) disband militias that resist government control,” the rights group says in a report detailing destruction and detentions carried out in the Tikrit area after the city was retaken from the Islamic State .
It must also ensure that Iraqi forces involved in abuses “are fairly and appropriately disciplined or prosecuted,” and provide compensation or alternative housing to people whose homes have been destroyed, HRW says.
— AFP
The Shin Bet says it has worked with the police and IDF to thwart a series of terror attacks in recent weeks, and has arrested members of a terror cell from the village of Hizmeh, northeast of Jerusalem.
The cell members are accused of throwing stones and petrol bombs at Israeli vehicles, causing at least three instances of injuries.
The security service names the four detainees and says that they provided information during questioning about the grassroots acts of terror of which they have been accused.
Israel is building its first wind farms in decades in a new project in the north.
The two wind farms, each consisting of 25 turbines, are being constructed by Afcon Holdings in Ramat Sirin and Ma’ale Gilboa, Ynetnews says.
The turbines, which can produce a total 21 megawatts of power, are set to go online next year.
Israel is placing a full closure on the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the duration of the Yom Kippur holiday, the IDF announces.
In accordance with an order from Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, the closure will begin at 12 p.m. Tuesday and be lifted at midnight on Wednesday. The passage into Israel from the West Bank and Gaza will only be permitted in conjunction with the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Ynet says.
Germany’s vice chancellor is urging the international community to increase aid to Middle East countries hosting millions of Syrian refugees, saying this is key to slowing migration to Europe.
Sigmar Gabriel says wealthy Gulf states “aren’t paying” and suggested the US could contribute more. He spoke ahead of a visit to Jordan that starts Monday.
More than 4 million Syrians have fled civil war in their homeland since 2011, and most live in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq. Growing numbers have left these countries for Europe or returned to Syria in recent months because of cuts in food and cash aid.
Aid agencies have only received 38 percent of the $7.4 billion it requested for the Syria crisis for 2015.
— AP
An overwhelming majority of Palestinians believe that Israel has plans to end Muslim domination on the Temple Mount, according to a new poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy.
According to the survey, 50% of Palestinians believe that Israel intends to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replace them with a Jewish temple, while 21% believe that it intends to divide the plateau so that Jews would have a synagogue alongside the Muslim holy places and 10% believe that Israel intends to change the long-standing status quo by allowing Jews to pray there.
Only 12% of Palestinians believe that Israel is interested in maintaining the status quo without change, the center says.
Meanwhile, 51% of Palestinians oppose the two-state solution, and 65% believe that the two-state solution is no longer practical due to settlement expansion. Only 32% of Palestinians say the two-state solution is still practical.
The survey also finds that 78% believe that the chances for establishing a Palestinian state next to the State of Israel in the next five years are slim to nonexistent, and just 21% believe the chances are high or medium.
Wearing a kippa and holding a Hebrew Bible, Josh Frydenberg is sworn in as Australia’s Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia.
It is the third time the 44-year-old Liberal politician has used the Chumash to be sworn in to a government position, but the first time as member of the Federal cabinet.
To mark the occasion, the head of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Peter Wertheim writes: “Both personally and on behalf of the Australian Jewish community, we wish to convey our heartiest Mazal Tov on your promotion to the Cabinet as Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia. The entire Jewish community takes immense pride in your achievement.”
— JTA
Actress Mayim Bialik tells People magazine that she visited the grave of her father before the Emmy Awards ceremony om Sunday night.
Bialik, who plays Amy Farrah Fowler on the popular sitcom “The Big Bang Theory,” says she was going to the grave site of her father Narry, who died in April, because, she says, it is traditional to visit the graves of loved ones between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
“But it’s really nice because it gives perspective for everything we’re doing,” she says. “There are things so much bigger than anything that goes on [with the Emmys].”
— JTA
A new video uploaded to YouTube shows a Saudi man’s close shave with a pane of falling glass, which slices his keffiyeh clean off his head.
The CCTV footage, which is reportedly filmed in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, shows the man emerging from a building and walking down a street when the glass plummets down from the sky, missing him by a fraction.
The man is sent crashing to the ground, apparently unharmed; he then gets to his feet and looks around in apparent amazement at the debris surrounding him before walking off in the opposite direction, adjusting his headdress.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have reached an understanding on a mechanism to avoid military confrontations between the two countries in Syria.
Speaking to Israeli reporters after his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the prime minister says his “goal was to prevent misunderstandings between IDF forces and Russian forces. We have established a mechanism to prevent such misunderstandings. This is very important for Israel’s security.”
Russia has reportedly sent troops and materiel to Syria to support President Bashar Assad, while Israel maintains the right to defend itself against terrorist activity emanating from the country.
— Raphael Ahren
German prosecutors say they’ve charged a 91-year-old woman with 260,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations she was a member of the Nazi SS who served in the Auschwitz death camp complex.
Schleswig-Holstein prosecutors’ spokesman Heinz Doellel says the woman, whose name wasn’t disclosed due to German privacy laws, is alleged to have served as a radio operator for the camp commandant from April to July 1944.
Prosecutors argue that she can be charged as an accessory because she helped the death camp function. A 94-year-old former SS sergeant at Auschwitz was convicted on the same reasoning earlier this year.
Doellel says there are no indications the woman is unfit for trial, though a court likely won’t decide on whether to proceed with the case until next year.
— AP
Dozens of residents of Tekoa are demonstrating at Beit Sahour over stone-throwing attacks on the highway leading to the West Bank settlement.
The protest comes in the wake of a spate of attacks on cars belonging to Tekoa residents, including a vehicle carrying a mother and a six-month-old baby.
Tekoa residents protest after a spate of stone-throwing attacks on vehicles on the main road to the settlement, September 21, 2015. (Courtesy)
American officials tell Reuters that Russia is flying drone aircraft on surveillance missions in Syria, apparently for the first time following a rapid military buildup in the country.
The officials are unable to specify the number of drones involved in the surveillance missions or the scope of the flights, Reuters says, adding that the Pentagon declines to comment.
The drone operations appear to be staged out of an air base near Latakia, US officials say. Russia has sent heavy military equipment to the base in recent days.
France opens a business development office in Tehran, seeking to renew once-strong economic ties with Iran in the face of “fierce competition.”
French Agriculture Minister Stephane Le Foll and Minister of State for Foreign Trade Matthias Fekl inaugurate the “Business France” office on a visit to the Iranian capital, with Le Foll warning that French companies face “fierce competition” from other European and American firms seeking a slice of the Iran market.
But, says Le Foll, France’s longstanding business ties with Tehran should give it an edge.
— AFP
Israeli company SodaStream is offering to employ 1,000 Syrian refugees in its new plant in Rahat in southern Israel, the i24News website says.
The company says that it and Rahat can absorb 1,000 individuals, or up to 200 families, and is offering a chance for a new life in Israel, pending approval from the Israeli authorities.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated, however, that Israel will not take in any Syrian refugees.
Access to the Temple Mount will be restricted for Muslim worshipers to men over the age of 40 and women, says Jerusalem police chief Moshe Edri following a situation assessment.
The decision stems from suspicions that young Muslim protesters intend to cause riots at the site, Ynet says. Police and protesters clashed repeatedly at the site during last week’s Jewish New Year holiday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is pledging to defend the al-Aqsa Mosque against any Israeli “conspiracies,” says MK Jamal Zahalka of the Joint (Arab) List in a statement following talks in Istanbul.
Zahalka says Erdogan assured the delegation of Arab List MKs of Turkey’s commitment to protect al-Aqsa against Israeli violations, saying that he and Turkey are “confronting conspiracies against al-Aqsa by Israel.”
Israeli archaeologists say they have no found definitive proof of the ancient tomb of the Maccabees in a new excavation at a site near Modi’in, northwest of Jerusalem.
The archaeologists say they had hoped to determine “once and for all” whether the tomb was indeed there.
The tomb of the family that led the Jewish revolt against the Greek dynasty of the Seleucids in the 2nd century BCE is believed to have been among ancient Judea’s most impressive structures.
“We exposed again the base of what survived from this magnificent building — this is a rare and unique building — but yet we didn’t find the smoking gun, the hard evidence which would enable us to tell you that this is for sure the tomb of the Maccabees,” says Amit Reem, an official with the project.
— AFP
A shell hits the Russian Embassy in Damascus, Sky News reports, saying there were no injuries and no damage caused.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accuses opposition groups fighting to overthrow the Syrian regime of carrying out the strike, calling it “a terrorist act.”
The Anti-Defamation League says it is deeply troubled by recent remarks by Republican president hopefuls Ben Carson and Donald Trump suggesting that being a Muslim is incompatible with serving as president of the United States. The organization also urges presidential candidates to avoid stereotyping American Muslims during the campaign.
A statement from ADL National Director Jonathan A. Greenblatt says: “Donald Trump’s failure to stand up to an anti-Muslim bigot at a campaign rally who questioned whether President Obama was a Muslim… are deeply troubling.
“Dr. Ben Carson’s statement that a Muslim American should not serve as president is deeply offensive, un-American and contrary to the Constitution. There is no religious litmus test for candidates seeking political office, and that includes the highest office in the land.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hits back at criticism from Jordan’s King Abdullah about the recent clashes on the Temple Mount, Channel 2 reports. He says that the Islamic authority that administers the site, which is under Jordanian custodianship, has allowed rioters to sleep in the al-Aqsa Mosque.
“Don’t run away from your responsibility,” Netanyahu tells the king.
Abdullah said last Monday that any further Israeli “provocation” in Jerusalem would damage ties between the two countries. The Temple Mount has been the scene of multiple clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters that began when a police raid on the eve of the Jewish New Year showed rioters had stockpiled pipe bombs, rocks and firecrackers at the site.
The Holy See says the Vatican flag will be raised for the first time at the United Nations just before Pope Francis arrives on Friday morning — without any ceremony.
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Holy See’s UN ambassador, tells a news conference that the Vatican changed its decision not to have the flag fly for the pope’s first visit to the United Nations at the recommendation of the UN Secretariat.
The Palestinians successfully campaigned for a General Assembly resolution allowing UN observer states to fly their flags alongside those of the 193 UN member states. Auza says the Holy See “has not been very keen” about the Palestinians’ campaign because it breaks a 70-year-old UN tradition.
— AP
The White House says it is seeing indications that Iran is cooperating with inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog, and credits tough international sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.
“For a long time, Iran had resisted cooperating with any sort of inspections IAEA wanted to do,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest tells reporters. “And as a result of the international pressure that built up over time, principally because of the tough economic sanctions that the United States put in place and got the rest of the international community to go along with, we now see indications that Iran is cooperating with IAEA inspections.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrives in Paris ahead of talks Tuesday with French President Francois Hollande. He will depart Wednesday for a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
At a ceremony in the French capital in which Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo awards him the city’s highest distinction, Abbas praises the “very strong ties of friendship that bind us to France.”
— AFP
Animal rights activists clash with the ultra-Orthodox in Ashdod over kapparot — the tradition of transferring one’s sins to a chicken in the run-up to Yom Kippur.
The police say that the protesters used tear gas on those participating in the ritual, NRG reports. One person is hospitalized after suffering a reaction to the effects of the gas.
Illustrative photo of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man participating in the ‘kapparot’ ritual, in which a chicken is swung over one’s head in the belief that one transfers the sins from the past year onto the chicken. (Dima Vazinovich/Flash90)
Russia and Iran are increasing their coordination inside Syria in order to safeguard President Bashar Assad’s control over his coastal stronghold, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing American and Middle Eastern officials.
This increased collaboration is “a new complication” for the US, the Journal says.
The sources say that senior Russian and Iranian officials have held a series of talks in Moscow in recent months on preserving Assad’s rule and on the Russian military buildup in Syria, according to the newspaper.
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
