Zionist Union calls on US to issue green light for Iran strike

Mosul residents unsure where children taken

Iraqi residents of Mosul say Islamic State fighters took approximately 120 schoolchildren aged 12-15 and drove them to an unknown location on military vehicles, Israel Radio reports, citing Arabic-language sources.

Pope calls Armenian killings ‘genocide’

Pope Francis uses the word “genocide” to describe the mass murder of Armenians in a move likely to severely strain diplomatic ties with Turkey.

“In the past century our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies,” he says during a solemn mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark the centenary of the Ottoman Turk killings of Armenians.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th century,’ struck your own Armenian people,” he says, citing a statement signed by John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in 2000.

— AFP

4 held for receiving secret IDF plans

Three residents of the Bat Ayin settlement in Gush Etzion and one Jerusalem resident were detained for allegedly receiving classified information from an IDF soldier, Elad Sela, who was arrested last month for leaking secret documents.

Sela is suspected of abusing his IDF security clearance in order to glean information on Shin Bet security service plans and alerting his friends of pending operations in settlements, including arrests and demolitions of illegally built homes.

The four are accused of obstructing court procedures, according to Israel Radio. According to Ynet, they are expected to be released under warning at the end of their interrogation.

Liberman says PM may be seeking unity gov’t

Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman says that “it seems [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu is dragging his feet on coalition negotiations, maybe in order to establish a unity government.”

Speaking to Israel Radio, Liberman says he would not be part of a unity coalition. He adds that the distribution of portfolios has not been discussed in coalition talks until now, and that his joining the government is not dependent on “getting this or that portfolios. The government’s fundamental policy outlook will determine [whether he joins the government], and this means destroying the Hamas rule in Gaza and canceling VAT on basic products.”

Likud representatives are expected to meet with representatives of United Torah Judaism later today, and with representatives of Jewish Home and Shas tomorrow.

S. Korean embassy in Libya attacked by gunmen

The South Korean Embassy in Libya was attacked by gunmen, Yonhap, a Korean news agency, reports. One guard was killed.

— AFP

French FM in Riyadh to back Yemen coalition

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius is in Riyadh to express support for Saudi Arabia’s battle against Iran-backed rebels in neighboring Yemen.

“Concerning Yemen, we are here to demonstrate our support, especially political, to the Saudi authorities,” Fabius tells reporters as he begins a series of meetings with the Saudi leadership including King Salman.

The kingdom, an important ally of France, leads a coalition of nine Arab countries which since March 26 has carried out airstrikes against the Houthi Shiite rebels who overran the Yemeni capital Sanaa in September.

Riyadh feared the rebels would take over the entire country and move it into the orbit of Shiite Iran, Sunni Saudi Arabia’s regional rival.

— AFP

At least 2 die in Libya attack on Korean embassy

Unidentified gunmen attacked South Korea’s embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli and killed two security guards, Seoul’s foreign ministry says.

The group fired dozens of rounds at the embassy compound from a passing vehicle, leaving two Libyan guards dead and another injured.

Three South Koreans working in the embassy — including two diplomats — were unhurt, a ministry official tells AFP on condition of anonymity.

“We do not know whether the attack targeted the embassy or the Libyan (security) officers,” the official said, adding that the ministry was considering evacuating all its staffers from the country.

— AFP

Egyptian soldiers killed in Sinai bombing

Five Egyptian soldiers, one of them an officer, were killed when an explosive device detonated near their vehicle in the northern Sinai, Ynet reports, quoting Sky News in Arabic.

At least three people were wounded in the incident, according to Sky.

An al-Arabiya report said two soldiers were killed and six were wounded.

Jordan Valley schools close due to heavy rain

School is canceled midday in the Tamar Regional Council in the Jordan Valley because of heavy rain, amid concerns that children will not be able to return home in case of flash floods.

Egypt court upholds death sentence for 14 Islamists

A Cairo court on Saturday confirmed death sentences for Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie and 13 others over Islamist protest violence, while the jailing of a US-Egyptian citizen for life was slammed by the White House.

Two of the 14 defendants sentenced to death have fled the country and will immediately face a retrial if apprehended.

Judge Mohamed Nagy Shehata also handed life terms to 23 detained defendants.

The group were accused of plotting unrest from their headquarters in a sprawling Cairo protest camp in the months after the military overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

— AFP

Erdan says PM will seek right-wing coalition before unity

Outgoing Communications Minister Gilad Erdan (who may retain his portfolio in the coming government) says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “more than hinted” at establishing a unity government during comments he made on Saturday, but said Likud “will first examine our options during coalition talks with our natural partners,” referring to right wing bloc parties like Jewish Home and Yisrael Beytenu.

Erdan was speaking on Israel Radio. Jewish Home MK Ayelet Shaked tells the radio station that if Netanyahu “is thinking of establishing a unity government, it would be politically corrupt, and against all the promises he gave to those who voted for him.”

At least 5 kids dead in Aleppo airstrike

A Syrian regime airstrike hit a school in the main northern city of Aleppo on Sunday killing five children and four other civilians, a monitoring group says.

“Military aircraft struck a school in east Aleppo city and killed five children, three female teachers, and one man,” says Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

— AFP

Diplomat says Abbas was wrong to refuse tax money

A senior Western diplomat says that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was wrong to reject the tax funds Israel was willing to transfer because it planned to deduct PA debts to Israeli companies.

According to the diplomat, who spoke to Israel Radio anonymously, Netanyahu’s decision to transfer the funds was a clear signal that he was willing to make an effort to restore trust with Abbas and restart a working relationship.

The international community, the diplomat added, worked hard to convince Israel to unfreeze the tax money, for fear that the PA was heading into financial collapse.

Israel withheld tax money it collects on behalf of the PA for several months in protest of the PA’s unity government with Hamas as well as its decision to seek membership of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

Earlier this month Israel offered to unfreeze the tax funds, but not before deducting a portion of the sum in order to make up for some of the debt owed by the PA to Israel companies including the Israel Electric Corporation. The PA refused.

59-year-old woman electrocuted in Nazareth

Magen David Adom paramedics are trying to resuscitate a 59-year-old woman who touched an exposed electricity cable in Nazareth and was electrocuted.

Woman electrocuted in Nazareth pronounced dead

A 59-year-old woman who touched an exposed power cable in Nazareth was pronounced dead by Magen David Adom paramedics, after lengthy resuscitation efforts.

Ankara summons Vatican envoy over pope’s remarks

Turkey summons the Vatican’s envoy to Ankara for clarification after Pope Francis I said the mass killing of Armenian people during World War I constituted the first “genocide” of the 20th century.

Earlier Sunday, the pope called on the international community to recognize the genocides of the 20th century, among which he counted the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, the purges of Stalin’s Soviet Union and the Ottoman genocide.

Modern Turkey, heir to the Ottoman empire, has vehemently resisted defining the Armenian plight as a genocide, and habitually claims the number of the dead (estimated at up to 1.5 million people) is exaggerated.

Kerry, Sherman discuss Iran deal with Jewish leaders

WASHINGTON — Top Obama administration officials met for two hours with US Jewish community leaders to discuss the emerging Iran nuclear deal.

Represented at the April 8 meeting were Secretary of State John Kerry and his undersecretary, Wendy Sherman, who is leading the US side in the nuclear talks.

On the Jewish organizational side, representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Orthodox, Reform and Conservative streams were present.

“As part of the administration’s regular outreach to various civil society groups in the US, the Secretary met with a group of Jewish American leaders Wednesday to discuss the US-Israel relationship and the latest developments in our negotiations with the EU, P5+1 and Iran over Iran’s nuclear program,” a State Department official told JTA. P5+1 refers to the countries negotiating with Iran, including the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany.

Kerry stayed for an hour in the room in the State Department, which was cleared of leavened goods in honor of Passover week, and Sherman remained for an additional hour.

Officials present would not describe the content of the off-the-record meeting, but they did say that the Jewish officials raised concerns about the deal.

“Both the secretary and the undersecretary articulated with depth, rigor and passion the deal and explained it,” one Jewish official said. “There was an opportunity for real engagement. Secretary Kerry was reaching out to those who need more engagement and convincing.”

The deal outline presented earlier this month by Iran and the major powers exchanges sanctions relief for restrictions aimed at keeping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Israel and a number of Jewish groups have expressed concerns about the degree of the sanctions relief and whether the structures in place go far enough to keep Iran from achieving nuclear capability.

— JTA

Zionist Union wants green light for Israeli strike on Iran as part of nuclear deal

Zionist Union says Israel should be given permission to act in case Iran violates any future nuclear agreement, as an integral part of any final nuclear deal.

In a policy document published Sunday afternoon, the party says it is “committed to an overarching, extensive and determined struggle to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and we fully support this struggle. We have clarified as much to leaders and policy makers among world powers, especially to the top echelon of the US administration.”

The party calls for the insertion of “necessary changes” in the understandings reached at Lausanne, Switzerland, last week, and “the formulation of extensive understandings on Israel’s capability to cope with Iran in the nuclear arena as well as regarding regional terrorism Iran sponsors.”

Iran will not be given legitimacy to acquire nuclear weapons “absolutely, and forever,” the documents states, and the country must be made aware that should it try to break out to a bomb “all options, including sanctions and a military option” will continue to be on the table.

The Zionist Union document goes into detail – requiring “full verification of the neutralizing” of Iran’s enriched uranium down to the cap of 300 kg.” The paper comes out against the details reported by a French document, as revealed exclusively by The Times of Israel last week, and states that “it should be unequivocally defined that no advanced centrifuges be installed in any nuclear sites in the next 15 years.”

Finally, the document calls for “reinforcing and extending the IDF’s defensive and offensive capabilities… especially – giving a priori legitimization for any action Israel will need to undertake in order to maintain its security in the new situation that has been created.”

Netanyahu proposes changes to Iran deal

Prime Minister Netanyahu issues a statement on Sunday detailing how “Iran has shown again why it can’t be trusted.”

The Islamic Republic “insists on removing all sanctions immediately. And Iran refuses to allow effective inspections of all its suspect facilities. At the same time, Iran continues its unbridled aggression in the region and its terrorism throughout the world,” Netanyahu says.

Netanyahu proposes to make two main changes to the deal:

First, instead of allowing Iran to preserve and develop its nuclear capabilities, a better deal would significantly roll back these capabilities – for example, by shutting down the illicit underground facilities that Iran concealed for years from the international community. Second, instead of lifting the restrictions on Iran’s nuclear facilities and program at a fixed date, a better deal would link the lifting of these restrictions to an end of Iran’s aggression in the region, its worldwide terrorism and its threats to annihilate Israel.

The prime minister’s comments seem to come in response to US President Barack Obama’s charge, in comments he made Saturday, that Netanyahu lobbies against the deal but has yet to offer an alternative.

“Iran needs a deal more than anyone. Instead of making dangerous concessions to Iran, now is the time for the international community to reassert and fortify its original demands for a better deal,” says Netanyahu.

Turkey disappointed by pope’s Armenia comments

Turkey expresses disappointment over comments by Pope Francis I, who said on Sunday morning that the fate of Armenians during World War I was the first genocide of the 20th century.

The government in Ankara summoned the Vatican’s envoy to protest the pope’s comments and later published a statement saying that the pope’s comments create a lack of trust between the government and the Vatican.

Car explodes near El Arish in northern Sinai

A car exploded near an Egyptian police headquarters in El Arish, in the northern Sinai.

Sky News in Arabic report that several people were wounded in the attack but details are not clear yet. Al Jazeera reports that a terror group affiliated with Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier today six Egyptian soldiers were killed in the Sinai Peninsula when a roadside bomb was detonated near the vehicle in which they were traveling.

Suspect arrested in murder of Israeli man in Berlin

An Albanian man was arrested in connection with the murder of an Israeli man in Berlin.

The Albanian man was arrested late Friday in the Czech Republic near the German border. Germany will seek to extradite him, the Associated Press reported.

The Israeli man, who was identified as 22-year-old Yossi Damari days after his body was found a week ago on April 5 amid the rubble of construction being done at a Berlin church, reportedly checked into a hostel on the day before he was murdered.

Damari reportedly had visited Israel’s embassy in Berlin in the days prior to his murder requesting financial help in order to return to Israel. He also reportedly had asked the Jewish community for food and a place to sleep.

— JTA