ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 593
Marissa Newman is The Times of Israel political correspondent.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday phoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to express concerns about Moscow’s supply of S-300 missiles to Iran, warning it would destabilize the region. Putin, in response, said it would not pose a threat to Israeli security.
Iran said the delivery of S-300 missiles from Russia could arrive as soon as this year. Israel and the US are opposed to the shipment, which could serve as an impediment to a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In the US, the bill on Congressional oversight of the Iranian nuclear deal was revised, shortening the congressional review period as well as other changes. The White House said, in response, that President Obama would not veto the bill in its current formulation.
Army Radio on Monday reported some of the results of an IDF probe into the August 1 abduction of Lt. Hadar Goldin during the summer conflict, and the subsequent fierce fighting in Rafah, later termed “Black Friday.” According to the report, the IDF slipped up on several fronts, and the soldiers were confused about what they were permitted to do once the ceasefire went into effect.
The report countered Palestinian assessments that 100 people — the majority civilians — were killed that day in Rafah, saying 41 had been killed by army fire. Of those, the IDF says, 12 were confirmed Hamas fighters, 13 were civilians, and the rest are unknown.
In Yarmouk, Palestinian officials and residents said the Islamic State had retreated from much of the camp, following clashes with Palestinian fighters.
The leader of Yemen’s al-Qaeda branch was killed in a drone strike, allegedly by the US.
The Times of Israel liveblogged developments as they unfolded.
Army Radio reveals some of the findings of an IDF probe into the events of August 1, 2014, in Gaza — the day that saw some of the summer war’s fiercest fighting in Rafah, following the abduction of Lt. Hadar Goldin and the killing of Major Benaya Sarel and Staff Sergeant Liel Gidoni by Hamas fighters. The soldiers were killed about an hour after a ceasefire went into effect.
The report says that, contrary to Palestinian assessments, 41 people were killed that day in the southern city, as opposed to more than 100. Of those, 12 were confirmed Hamas fighters, 13 were civilians, and the rest are unknown.
Givati Brigade Commander Ofer Winter says the army had miscalculated the amount of time it would take to dismantle the tunnels in the area, believing it could be completed before the ceasefire. Once the truce was in place, the soldiers entered an unsecured area, he says.
Hadar Goldin (left), and his twin brother Tzur. The IDF spokesman early August 3 announced the death of IDF officer Lt. Hadar Goldin, who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip on August 1. (photo credit: Flash90)
Winter admits that he should have briefed the soldiers before the ceasefire, and says the troops were “confused” by the truce.
The commanders defend the use of the controversial “Hannibal Directive,” launched about 30 minutes after Goldin was kidnapped, saying the heavy fire was aimed at preventing the kidnappers from escaping the area — and may have successfully done so.
The report details several tactical failures in the incident, such as splitting up the soldiers into small groups and sending them into a dangerous area.
The army will decide whether to open a criminal investigation into the incident, but, according to the report, the prevailing assessment in the IDF is that there will be no criminal probe.
IDF Givate Brigade Commander Col. Ofer Winter (screen capture: YouTube)
Iran expects Russia to deliver the S-300 air-defense missile system by the end of the year, the head of the Iranian security council says.
Ali Shamkhani announces in Moscow that Tehran’s lawsuit will be withdrawn only after delivery of the S-300s, which he hopes will happen by the end of the year, Russian news agencies report. Iran is due to receive five batteries, the reports say.
His Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, says delivery will take time. “It will depend on our manufacturers,” he tells the Interfax news agency. “I believe they will need at least six months to complete this work.”
Patrushev is more cautious than Putin’s spokesman, who said Monday that the missile system could be shipped to Iran at any moment.
— AP, Times of Israel staff
A Russian air-defense missile system Antey 2500, or S-300 VM, is on display at the opening of the MAKS Air Show in Zhukovsky outside Moscow, August 27, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Ivan Sekretarev, File)
Turkey launches the construction of its first nuclear power plant, a controversial $20-billion project slammed by ecologists, which Ankara hopes will begin a new era of greater energy self-sufficiency.
The nuclear power station, in Akkuyu in Mersin province on the shores of the Mediterranean is being built, like Iran’s first nuclear power plant, by Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom.
“Development cannot happen in a country without nuclear energy,” says Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz at a ceremony attended by the head of Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko and other top officials.
It is the first of three nuclear power plants Turkey currently plans to build to reduce its dependence on importing energy from exporters like Russia and Iran.
— AFP
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon says Russia’s sale of S-300 air-defense systems to the Islamic Republic is the “direct result of the agreement in Lausanne.
“Iran continues to arm Hezbollah and to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip,” he adds.
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (photo credit: Alex Kolomoisky/Flash90, Pool)
Iran appoints its first female ambassador abroad since the 1979 revolution, and the second in its history, Reuters reports.
It was not clear where Marzieh Afkham, currently the Foreign Ministry spokesperson, will be stationed.
Joint (Arab) List MK Ahmad Tibi rebukes the government for the high poverty rates among Holocaust survivors in Israel.
“24 percent of Holocaust survivors are under the poverty line,” he writes on Twitter. “Does anyone in the government feel embarrassed or ashamed?”
MK Ahmad Tibi participates in a panel discussion at the Israel Conference on Democracy, in Tel Aviv on February 17, 2015. (photo credit: Amir Levy/Flash90)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. apologizes for using the word “holocaust” to describe the effects of mandatory vaccines.
“I want to apologize to all whom I offended by my use of the word ‘holocaust’ to describe the autism epidemic,” says Kennedy, an environmental activist, who has also joined the opposition to mandatory vaccines.
The likening of vaccines to a holocaust was “inappropriate and insensitive,” the Anti-Defamation League says.
“They get the shot, that night they have a fever of 103, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone,” Kennedy was quoted by the Sacramento Bee as saying April 7 at a screening of an anti-vaccination film in the city. “This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”
— JTA
In a Twitter exchange, Indian-British writer Salman Rushdie defends Gunter Grass’s SS Waffen service, a day after the German author died.
A Twitter user asked Rushdie: “Do you think joining the Waffen-SS is ever forgivable? Genuine question.”
He replies: “He was 17 & conscripted; ashamed of his youthful sympathies; re-made himself into the great literary scourge of Nazism. So: yes.”
Rushdie also says it’s “absurd” to call Grass a Nazi.
.@neiloosh He was 17 & conscripted; ashamed of his youthful sympathies; re-made himself into the great literary scourge of Nazism. So: yes.
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) April 14, 2015
Grass' shame about his youth:yes, should've revealed it sooner,but the books reveal the man.Absurd to call the author of TheTinDrum a Nazi.
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) April 14, 2015
.@neiloosh Grass always said he came from a milieu in which Nazism was thought to be correct. He made himself an artist by rejecting that.
— Salman Rushdie (@SalmanRushdie) April 14, 2015
A spokesperson for EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini says the EU is very concerned about the Russian decision to supply Iran with S-300 air-defense systems, but maintains it won’t affect the nuclear talks between Iran and the world powers, according to the Russian TASS News Agency.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says nuclear talks between Iran, world powers will resume on April 21, Reuters reports.
The sides have until June 30 to hammer out a final deal.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif walking through a courtyard at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel during an extended round of talks in Lausanne, Switzerland, on April 1, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/Brendan Smialowksi, Pool)
Jihadists from the Islamic State group have lost ground to Palestinian fighters in Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp, Palestinian officials and a resident say on Tuesday.
IS fighters have retreated from much of the territory they seized in the camp in southern Damascus after entering it on April 1, a resident using the pseudonym Samer tells AFP.
“We haven’t even seen any Daesh members in over three days,” he says, using the Arabic acronym for IS.
The withdrawal is confirmed by an official from a pro-Syrian regime Palestinian faction fighting against IS inside the camp.
“There are intermittent but ongoing clashes between Palestinian factions and IS,” says Khaled Abdel Majid, head of the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, adding that IS had withdrawn from most of the neighborhoods it previously controlled.
IS fighters were now confined largely to the southwest of the camp, with Palestinian factions — both pro- and anti-Syrian regime — controlling most of the east and north of the camp, Palestinian sources say.
A general view showing the destruction in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus, April 6, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/STR)
— AFP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to criticize Moscow’s decision to supply Iran with S-300 missiles, saying: “I urge people to lift those sanctions together, as far as possible,” Reuters reports.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a statement in commemoration of the Germanwings plane crash victims, at the Chancellery in Berlin, March 26, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/John Macdougall)
When Israeli health inspectors spotted a mail truck crossing into Israel from the West Bank, something didn’t smell right.
Further examination discovered the source of their suspicion — cheese.
The Agriculture Ministry says the truck contained 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of cheese stuffed into cans, bottles and other unsanitary containers.
The driver, a Palestinian in his 40s from East Jerusalem, was arrested in Monday’s incident. He is an employee of Israel’s mail service and admitted to smuggling the cheese in hopes of reselling it.
The ministry says the same man was caught a month earlier, committing the same offense. The cheese was not refrigerated, had no health certificates and was unfit for consumption.
It says the bootleg cheese posed a public safety concern and was destroyed upon a veterinarian’s order.
— AP
Iran will take “irreversible steps” over its contested nuclear program if the West does the same, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says during a visit to Spain.
“This is the framework under which we will operate — [there will be] irreversible steps on the Iranian side as long as the other side takes irreversible steps,” says Zarif, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, who was speaking in English.
— AFP
Turkish authorities begin to deport back to Britain nine British citizens who were arrested trying to cross into Syria, a Turkish official says.
One of the group was expelled late Monday. British police say he was arrested on arrival at Birmingham Airport on suspicion of a terrorist offense.
Shakil Ahmed, a Labour Party councilor in Rochdale, northwest England, has identified the man as his 21-year-old son, Waheed Ahmed.
The other eight Britons are expected to fly back Tuesday from the southern city of Antalya to Manchester.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of rules against commenting without prior authorization, said the group bought their own airline tickets.
The group of three men, two women and four children up to the age of 11 was detained in Hatay province, bordering Syria, on April 1.
— AP
Shas’s Aryeh Deri was offered by Netanyahu to head the Transportation Ministry, Channel 2 reports. Deri has not yet responded to the offer.
The report says that while Deri has his eyes set on the Interior Ministry, Kulanu’s Moshe Kahlon is seeking the Building Planning Committee, which is housed under the Interior Ministry. The Transportation Ministry was therefore probably extended as a compromise to Deri, and until he answers, Netanyahu cannot seal a coalition agreement with Kahlon.
Aryeh Deri all smiles after his resignation was rejected, December 30, 2014. (photo credit: Hadas Parush/Flash90)
The UN Security Council adopts a resolution imposing an arms embargo on Yemen’s Houthi rebels and demanding they pull back from territory they have captured.
Russia abstained from the vote, but did not veto the measure that was backed by the other 14 of the 15 council members.
— AFP
Republican and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee reach a compromise on a bill that would give Congress a say on an emerging deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.
A congressional staffer says the compromise would shorten the congressional review of any final deal from 60 days to 52 days as long as President Barack Obama swiftly provided Congress with the details.
If Obama waits until after July 9 to share information, the review period would revert to 60 days.
The staffer says Congress would have 30 days to review and vote to approve or disapprove of it. The president would have 12 days to veto it, and Congress would have 10 days to override a veto.
The staffer was not authorized to publicly disclose details of the deal and spoke on condition of anonymity.
— AP
The Washington Post’s executive editor says correspondent Jason Rezaian has had an “unacceptable lack of access to legal counsel” while jailed for nearly nine months in Iran and still has not had a substantive discussion with his lawyer.
Executive editor Martin Baron says in a statement Tuesday that Rezaian only met defense lawyer Leila Ahsan once in a judge’s chambers weeks ago before she had formally been named as his attorney.
Baron says they were not allowed to discuss Rezaian’s case or the charges he faces, and that a scheduled one-hour session next week will be their only meeting allowed in preparation for a trial.
Jason Rezaian, an Iranian-American correspondent for the Washington Post, at a campaign event for President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, Iran, April 13, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Vahid Salemi)
— AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expresses anger over the pope’s use of the word genocide to describe the mass killings of Armenians in World War I, saying such talk was nonsense and the pontiff should not repeat such a mistake again.
“If politicians and religious leaders do the job of historians then we will not get to the truth and only end with nonsense,” Erdogan says in a speech in Ankara in his first reaction to the pope’s comments.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a news conference during a meeting with Romania’s President at the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest on April 1, 2015. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO / DANIEL MIHAILESCU)
“Respected pope: I condemn this mistake and warn against making it again,” he says to applause from an audience of businessmen.
Turkey has vehemently rejected the use of the term genocide to describe the Ottoman era killings and is keeping to its line during the current 100th anniversary of the tragedy.
— AFP
The ideological leader of Yemen-based Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula was killed in a drone strike this week, allegedly by the United States, AQAP says in a statement published Tuesday.
Ibrahim al-Rubaish, who in January accused France of surpassing the United States as the top enemy of Islam, was killed with several other militants in a “crusade raid” on Monday, the statement says, apparently referring to a drone attack that killed six people in southeast Yemen.
The United States is the only country that operates drones over Yemen.
— AFP
Netanyahu calls Russian President Vladimir Putin to express concern over Moscow’s supply of S-300 air defense systems to Iran, a statement from his office says.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Putin that this step will only increase Iran’s aggression in the region, and undermine security in the Middle East,” the statement says.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks on the phone (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
Senate Democrat Chris Coons says he is encouraged by the shift from a 60-day review to 30 days in the Iran Congress bill, “so that there’s less of a risk that it will drag on.”
But he warns that including poison-pill amendments in the legislation — such as one being considered that would require Iran to recognize the state of Israel — would lose his support.
“What this bill provides is a congressionally enacted, focused and concise framework for the exchange of information and the review by Congress where at the end of the day, if a veto by the president of a resolution of disapproval is not overridden, the agreement proceeds,” Coons says.
— AFP
Netanyahu says in a statement: “Can anyone seriously think after this arms deal that the agreement with Iran will increase Middle East security?”
He says the Russian deal with Iran is a result of the “dangerous” framework agreement between world powers and Iran.
During their telephone call, Putin sought to reassure Netanyahu the S-300 air defense system “won’t be detrimental to security of Israel, other Middle Eastern countries,” the Interfax news agency reports, citing the Kremlin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at his annual holiday news conference in Moscow, Russia, on December 18, 2014 (photo credit: AP/RIA Novosti Kremlin, Mikhail Klimentyev, Presidential Press Service)
A new report from the Health Ministry revealed that half of the cases of pediatric cancer in Haifa between 1998 and 2007 are linked to air pollution.
Incidents of cancer were also 16 percent higher in Haifa than the national average during those years, it says, in 16 out of the 18 variations of the disease that were studied.
Residents of Haifa were 29% more likely to develop lung cancer than Israelis in other cities, and 26% more likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer.
The ministry believes that of the 4,860 cancer cases reported in Haifa in those years, 780 are related to the high pollution levels in the coastal city. Among children, there were 60 cases — 30 of them developing due to exposure to pollution.
US President Barack Obama meets Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in the White House and hails the progress he says the US-backed Iraqi forces are making against the Islamic State group.
Obama says the allies are “making serious progress” in pushing back the jihadists and thanks Abadi for living up to his commitment to make Iraq’s government more inclusive.
— AFP
The United States calls on Iran to abide by the terms of a new UN embargo imposed on Shiite rebels in Yemen.
“Obviously Iran plans a role here given their support for the Houthi. And I think what would be most helpful from the Iranian side at this point is to respect this newly imposed UN arms embargo that was just passed today and stop supporting the Houthi,” State Department acting spokeswoman Marie Harf says.
— AFP
Presidential hopeful Sen. Marco Rubio insists on Iran’s recognition of Israel as a precondition for nuclear talks between world powers and Tehran.
“Any negotiation with Iran should have included three elements: no long-range rockets, no sponsorship of terrorism around the world, and no enrichment,” he says in an interview with Sean Hannity on Monday. “And in addition, there should have been a clear recognition on their part that Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state.”
He says Tehran has “made clear that it wants to destroy a strong ally of the United States.”
Rubio also says Iran’s nuclear facilities must be dismantled as part of a final deal. He criticizes Iran’s sponsoring of terror activities, saying “in fact they’ll have more money to do it now that the sanctions are lifted.”
Sen. Marco Rubio speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 2014. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
The gunman who killed two people in twin attacks in Copenhagen in February had once shared a prison cell with an inmate who openly backed the Islamic State group, Danish media reports.
While serving time for a stabbing, Omar El-Hussein was reported three times by prison staff to the Danish Prison and Probation Service for expressing “extreme” views on Islam, TV 2 reports, citing a confidential report by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Despite an email warning that the 22-year-old’s “extremism is getting worse” he was moved to a Copenhagen prison where he was placed with a cellmate who openly sympathized with the IS group.
His fellow inmate was reported last November to prison services and to Denmark’s security intelligence agency for “via a profile on Facebook supporting the Islamic State,” the report says.
Authorities also suspected El-Hussein wanted to travel to Syria after being released but were unable to get the information confirmed, according to the report.
“It seems like Omar has said that he wants to go to Syria to fight when he is released,” prison staff writee, adding that “the statements are not confirmed.”
El-Hussein was shot dead by police on February 15 after killing a Danish filmmaker outside a cultural centre before opening fire at a synagogue, killing Jewish guard Dan Uzan.
Copenhagen Jewish community guard Dan Uzan, killed in a February 15 terrorist attack (screen capture: Channel 2)
— AFP
An Egyptian court backs a police decision to deport a Libyan man accused of being gay, saying the move safeguarded morality and religious values, a judicial official says.
Police had deported the man, a student in Cairo, after receiving complaints that he was gay.
He had appealed the deportation and Egypt’s refusal to allow him back.
Homosexuality is not illegal in Egypt, but gays have still been prosecuted under debauchery laws.
— AFP
The White House says President Barack Obama would be willing to sign a compromise bill giving Congress a say on the emerging nuclear deal with Iran.
Republicans and Democrats on a key Senate panel reached a compromise Tuesday. The compromise shortens the congressional review period and makes other changes sought by Obama.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest says the Obama administration is withholding final judgment while the compromise makes its way through Congress. He says that’s because changes could be made that would render it unpalatable.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest, August 27, 2014. (photo credit: AP/Charles Dharapak)
But he says that as it stands now, the bill includes enough changes sought by Obama that he would sign it.
Obama has been in a standoff for months with lawmakers who are skeptical of the deal and want Congress to take a vote.
— AP
