US defense chief: Assad regime could still fall

Rebels surround Druze village in Syria

Rebels surrounded a government-held Druze village on the Syrian side of the ceasefire line on the Golan Heights on Wednesday after heavy fighting, a monitoring group says.

The advance came a day after Israel, which has a significant Druze population, said it was preparing for the possibility that refugees fleeing fighting in the area might seek to cross to the Israeli side of the strategic plateau. The IDF chief of staff on Tuesday maintained Israel would act to prevent the slaughter of Syrian refugees near the Israeli border.

After fierce clashes with pro-government forces, rebels, including Islamist fighters, surrounded the village of Hader on Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

“Hader is now totally surrounded by rebels, who just took a strategic hilltop north of the village,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman tells AFP.

He says the rebels had received reinforcements from elsewhere in Quneitra province, which covers much of the Golan.

“The regime has not sent reinforcements yet, but the Druze villagers are standing with the government,” Abdel Rahman says.

Fighting around Hader on Tuesday left at least seven rebels and 10 pro-regime fighters dead, he adds.

The encirclement of Hader comes amid rising fears in Syria’s Druze community.

— AFP

First Syrians return to town liberated from IS

The first Syrian refugees returned to the border town of Tal Abyad from Turkey Wednesday after it was liberated from the Islamic State (IS) group, an AFP journalist reports.

Kurdish forces took the strategic town after several days of intense fighting that sparked an exodus of more than 23,000 refugees into neighboring Turkey.

Some 200 men, women and children carrying their meager possessions gather in front of the Turkish border post at Akcakale and were allowed through by the Turkish authorities.

They say that while they could not be sure of security, it was better to go home than risk becoming a refugee in a foreign country.

— AFP

Soldier jailed for selling stolen grenades

An IDF soldier is sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for smuggling stun grenades and smoke grenades from his base and selling them for NIS 250 ($65) apiece.

The soldier is also fined NIS 5,000 ($1,300), with the option of serving an additional five months instead of paying the fine, and is demoted.

According to the indictment, the soldier would steal some 8-10 grenades every few weeks over the course of a year and a half, amassing in total some 300 grenades.

Senate panel votes more money for nonprofits’ security

A US Senate subcommittee votes to more than double funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $25 million for the coming year.

The increase approved Tuesday by the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee for Fiscal Year 2016, up from the current $13 million, was actively supported by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, Agudath Israel of America and the Jewish Federations of North America. The full Senate Appropriations Committee is expected to vote on the funding on Thursday.

Funds from the security grant program are used to assist synagogues, day schools and other Jewish nonprofits in making their buildings more secure.

“We have seen a disturbing rise in threats and attacks on community institutions and, when finalized, the funds provided under the NSGP will not only keep our community safer it will also be a statement of solidarity and support in the face of such threats,” says Nathan Diament, OU executive director for public policy.

— JTA

Palestinian unity government resigns

The Palestinian unity government has resigned, AFP reports, citing an adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamdallah tasked with forming new government

Palestinian unity government Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah is tasked with forming a new government by Abbas, AFP reports.

Hamdallah will begin negotiations with all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, it reports.

Heavy fighting in Syrian Golan Heights

Syrian rebels launched a wide-ranging offensive against government positions near the Israeli Golan Heights on Wednesday, activists say.

The rebels of the Southern Front alliance and the so-called Haramoun Army target several areas in the Golan, including the towns and villages of Quneitra, Khan Arnabeh, Baath, Jiba and the base of Brigade 90, the main government force in the region, says opposition activist Jamal al-Jolani, who is based in southern Syria.

“The fighting now is inside the city of Quneitra,” al-Jolani says via Skype. He says the Haramoun Army — which includes al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate and the ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham — are shelling the area while Southern Front fighters are advancing on the ground.

Explosions from the fighting could be seen from the Israeli Golan Heights several miles away. A Syrian government helicopter could be heard dropping bombs on rebel targets as tanks, believed to belong to the rebels, fired back. An Israeli warplane flew along the frontier as a precautionary move.

— AP, Times of Israel staff

Russian Chabad rabbi pans foreign funding bill

In a rare rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s policy, a senior Chabad rabbi from Moscow expresses concerns over a bill aiming to limit foreign involvement.

Boruch Gorin, aide to Chief Russian Rabbi Berel Lazar and chairman of Moscow’s Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, on Tuesday expresses his criticism of a government-backed bill on foreign-funded religious organizations during an interview with Russia’s Interfax news agency.

“I have serious concerns about the bill,” Gorin says of the proposed legislation, which a parliamentary committee recently approved and is set to be voted on in the Duma, the Russian parliament, on June 30.

The bill proposes to oblige religious groups to report all income from abroad to authorities, and is believed to be connected to a crackdown on Muslim extremists in Russia’s southern republics and beyond.

— JTA

Abbas spokesman denies government quit

A spokesman for Abbas denies that the Palestinian unity government has resigned, Israel Radio’s Gal Berger reports.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh says Abbas and Hamdallah met in Ramallah and decided to hold a meeting on Monday on the future of the Palestinian unity government.

Swiss open probe into Iran talks spying

An investigation has been opened in Switzerland into a computer virus linked to Israel that is alleged to have been used to spy on European hotels hosting the Iran nuclear talks.

There is an open investigation into “political espionage in Switzerland,” Swiss Attorney General Michael Lauber says on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Swiss authorities searched hotels in relation to the investigation, Reuters reports, citing an aide to Lauber. Three hotels in Switzerland have served as venues for the talks between Iran and six world powers.

— JTA

Egyptian cop killed in Sinai bombing

An Egyptian security official says a bomb struck an armored police vehicle in the restive northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, killing an officer and wounding four conscripts.

He says the explosion early Wednesday destroyed the vehicle in el-Arish, the main city of northern Sinai, where attacks targeting security forces have spiked since the military overthrew Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013.

— AP

Zoabi removed from Knesset session

Joint (Arab) List MK Hanin Zoabi is kicked out of a Knesset session on Israel’s periphery for an outburst during Likud MK Avi Dichter’s address.

“Speak about Israel and its racist policies and the UN that you are so afraid of angering,” Zoabi says, according to the Ynet news website.

Michael Douglas ‘very concerned’ about BDS

Actor Michael Douglas, speaking in Israel, says he is “very concerned” by efforts to boycott Israel.

“I respect the fact that I am not Israeli, but I am very concerned about the attempts of boycotting Israel and I am not comfortable with the response at the moment. I hope that the Knesset parties will overcome internal differences and work together,” he says, according to a statement.

Douglas also expressed worry about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“I am a UN ambassador for peace and I would like to say that from my experience the biggest problem in the world is nuclear weapons. However, I am optimistic when I look at former president Peres. I know that the world can lead to good directions, but I’m still very concerned,” he said.

Douglas was speaking alongside former president Shimon Peres at the Peres Center for Peace.

Melbourne Jewish community said on high alert

The Australian Community Security Group (CSG) says there are indications a radicalized person could attack Melbourne’s Jewish community, the Australian Jewish News reports.

“No particular facility or organization has been identified and no particular timeframe has been specified,” CSG says in a letter, adding that it had notified the police and security agencies.

CSG “is working in collaboration with those organizations to verify its authenticity and respond accordingly.”

The group urges the Melbourne Jewish community to take precautions in light of this information.

Turkey alarmed by Kurds’ gains in Syria

Far from sharing Western euphoria over Kurds’ capture of a key border town from Islamic State (IS) jihadists, Turkey is alarmed by the advance of Kurdish forces, fearing that they could create a powerful autonomous region on its doorstep.

Backed by US-led airstrikes, fighters with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia this week seized the key Syrian border town of Tal Abyad from IS jihadists.

There was jubilation over the victory among Kurds, who hailed the end of the notoriously repressive practices in Tal Abyad by IS, which has captured swaths of Iraq and Syria.

But while Turkey insists it is no friend of IS, Ankara’s reactions to the Kurdish advance have ranged from the circumspect to the outright hostile.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he was troubled by the advance of Kurdish forces, fearing they could in the future create a structure to threaten Turkey.

“This is not a good sign,” he says. “Everyone needs to take into account our sensitivities on this issue.”

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc accuses Kurdish forces of implementing an “ethnic cleansing” campaign against non-Kurdish Arab and Turkmen populations.

He says they were trying to link together the three Kurdish-led cantons of northern Syria — Jazira, Kobane and Afrin — into a single autonomous Kurdish region known to Syrian Kurds as Rojava.

— AFP

Iran MPs unveil potential obstacle to nuke deal

Iranian lawmakers unveil proposed legislation Wednesday that a top official says would protect the nation’s nuclear interests, but which could become an obstacle in negotiations for a deal this month.

The bill, sponsored by the chairman of parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, is signed by 225 of the country’s 290 MPs and faces a vote on Sunday.

“At the moment, the negotiating team is facing excessive demands from the United States,” says chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi.

“This bill is being introduced with the aim of supporting the negotiators… and to protect the red lines drawn up by the supreme leader.”

It sets out three criteria that must be met by any deal reached with the United States and five other world powers, which faces a June 30 deadline.

First is the “complete and unified lifting on the day of agreement of all sanctions imposed through the UN Security Council, the US Congress and the European Union.”

That condition does not specify if it means the day a deal is struck, signed or implemented.

Secondly, the bill says that although the International Atomic Energy Agency will be authorized to conduct “conventional supervision” of Iran’s nuclear sites, “access to all documents, scientists and military/security sites… is forbidden under any pretext.”

Thirdly, the bill states: “No limit will be accepted on Iran acquiring peaceful nuclear knowledge and technology and the materials required for research and development.”

— AFP

Dahlan gets $12m in UAE aid for Gaza

The United Arab Emirates is paying tens of millions of dollars to support Palestinian war victims in Gaza, but the aid is also giving a boost to an exiled Fatah leader of the impoverished enclave.

Mohammed Dahlan headed the Palestinian security services in Gaza before it was overrun by Hamas in 2007. He moved to the West Bank where he got into a bitter power struggle with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas before fleeing to Abu Dhabi. There, he has been pushing for funds from the United Arab Emirates, which has been reluctant to aid an area ruled by Hamas, which grew out of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which the Emirati government opposes.

The latest grant of $12 million credited to Dahlan was dispersed Wednesday.

— AP

Herzog vows to get Hazan suspended

Opposition leader Isaac Herzog vows to take the allegations against Likud MK Oren Hazan — of using crystal meth and hiring prostitutes while a manager of a Bulgaria casino, and separately, sexual harassment — to the Knesset Ethics Committee and have him removed from his position.

Herzog slams Netanyahu for failing to speak out against the scandal-ridden deputy Knesset speaker and rookie MK.

“Against the serious statements by Oded Kotler, who generalized and mocked an entire public, you had, rightly, what to say,” Herzog says, referencing the Israeli actor’s comment this week that Likud voters were like “cud-chewing cattle.”

“With regard to an MK from your party, Oren Hazan, you’ve buried your head in the sand. Maybe because of your fear of Sheldon Adelson. How could you attack an MK for his antics as a casino manager when your close friend is the owner and manager of many casinos around the world?” he says.

“We will work with the Ethics Committee in the coming days to urge them to suspend Hazan from all of his roles,” Herzog adds. “We’ll see what you say, Mr. Prime Minister, when such a decision reaches the Knesset plenum.”

Hazan yells at Herzog and called him a “coward” and after three warnings from the Knesset speaker, is escorted out of the hall.

Fake bomb found outside Israeli embassy in Uruguay

For the second time this year, officials in Uruguay find a device designed to look like a bomb in the building complex that houses the Israeli embassy.

Military spokesman Yamandu Lessa tells Carve radio that the device discovered Wednesday at Montevideo’s World Trade Center did not contain any explosive material. But the item, which was found inside a sardine can, was equipped with cables, a battery and an ignition switch.

A similar non-explosive device was found in the same place in January. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported in February that an Iranian diplomat had been linked to the false bomb, but Uruguay denied the report and said its investigators had found no evidence of Iranian involvement.

— AP

‘Not every story has a happy ending’ — Blatt

David Blatt, the Israeli-American coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, laments his team’s loss in the NBA Finals but says it doesn’t mean the overall season was bad.

“Not every story has a happy ending,” Blatt says at a news conference Tuesday night after the Golden State Warriors won the championship with a victory in Game 6 in Cleveland. “It doesn’t mean it was a bad story. It was not. It was a good story.”

— JTA

Sweden mulling laws against jihadists

Sweden is considering drafting new legislation that would ban its nationals from fighting in armed conflicts for terrorist organizations such as Islamic State (IS), the government says.

“It is completely unacceptable that Swedish citizens are traveling to (join) IS, financing the organization, or fighting for it,” Justice Minister Morgan Johansson and Interior Minister Anders Ygeman write in a joint article in leading newspaper Dagens Nyheter.

The proposed ban would prohibit combat for terrorist organizations listed as such by the United Nations or European Union.

“We have a responsibility for what our citizens do both here at home and in other countries,” they write.

“People who live here and who have chosen to join IS can constitute a serious threat upon their return. Criminalization is of course not the only way of preventing this but it is an important part of anti-terrorism measures,” they say.

— AFP

Suspect in 1982 Paris attack held in Jordan

The suspected mastermind of an attack on a Paris Jewish restaurant in 1982 that left six people dead and 22 injured has been arrested in Jordan, a source close to the case says.

Zuhair Mohamad Hassan Khalid al-Abassi, alias “Amjad Atta” was one of three men for whom France issued an international arrest warrant earlier this year.

— AFP

El Al flight returning to Israel over engine trouble

An El Al flight heading to New York has turned back to Tel Aviv due to engine trouble.

The flight was over the Atlantic Ocean when the technical problems were discovered, the Ynet news website reports. The pilots were forced to turn off one engine.

The flight, carrying over 342 passengers, is expected to land at Ben Gurion Airport Wednesday evening.

‘All Syria chemical weapons effluent destroyed’

The world’s chemical weapons watchdog says all effluents from Syria’s neutralized chemical weapons arsenal have been destroyed.

“The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons welcomes the disposal of effluents resulting from neutralization operations aboard the US vessel Cape Ray,” the Hague-based watchdog says in a statement.

A total of 1,300 metric tons of chemical weapons have been removed from Syria, with the majority neutralized on the US Navy ship MV Cape Ray — and turned into less harmful effluent.

This effluent is the result of the sea-based destruction of sulphur mustards, commonly known as mustard gas, and methylphosphonyl difluoride, a precursor chemical for sarin gas.

— AFP

Online Mideast peace group gets high-powered boost

An online group promoting Mideast peace is receiving a high-powered boost of support as it prepares to pass a key milestone.

The YaLa-Young Leaders program says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and five European foreign ministers will address its online peace conference on July 2. Former President Bill Clinton and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are to send written greetings.

The Facebook group brings together young activists from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and across the Arab world for online seminars and discussions. During the conference, the group is expected to announce its 1 millionth member.

Former Israeli peace negotiator Uri Savir, the program’s founder, says that it brings “hope” to the region at a turbulent time. He calls the young activists the “future pragmatic face of the Middle East.”

— AP

Senior officer says ‘Syrians need to stay in Syria’

Amid fears of an influx of Syrian refugees to Israel’s borders, a senior IDF officer tells Israeli reporters “Syrians need to stay in Syria, and Israelis in Israel.”

The officer says the rebels encircling the Druze village of Hader in the Syrian Golan Heights are “not involved in activity against Israel.”

“Hader can fall into other hands, but we aren’t [getting] involved,” he says, adding that the IDF would be “happy to steer clear of the violence.”

The officer dispels rumors of a massacre of Druze in Syria, and criticizes the “improbable disinformation” that spread through Israel’s Druze community.

“The fighting ended yesterday morning, and by evening the Druze came with mattresses to contribute to a field hospital that does not exist,” he says. He says there is no plan to build a field hospital on the northern border, although Israel won’t rule out treating wounded Syrians.

Assad regime could still fall, says US defense chief

Despite surviving more than four years of civil war, the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad might still fall, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says.

“We would like to see a transition in which Assad disappears from the scene,” Carter testifies before the House of Representatives’ Armed Services Committee.

“That is possible because his forces are much weakened,”Carter adds.

Government forces are more and more isolated in and around Damascus and in the Alawite-majority region of the northwest of the country, Carter says.

“The best way for the Syrian people for this to go would be for him to remove himself from the scene,” Carter says.

— AFP

Mastermind in 1982 attack freed on bail

Jordan says the suspected mastermind of an attack on a Paris Jewish restaurant in 1982 that killed six people and wounded 22 has been released on bail in Jordan but banned from traveling out of the country.

Official sources say Zuhair Mohamad Hassan Khalid al-Abassi, alias “Amjad Atta,” was arrested on June 1 under an international arrest warrant. A court imposed a travel ban pending a decision on whether he will be extradited, an official source tells AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

— AFP

Kahlon apologizes for Oren’s Obama critique

In a letter to US ambassador Dan Shapiro, Kulanu party chief Moshe Kahlon apologizes to the White House for fellow party member Michael Oren — formerly Israeli envoy to the US — for his withering criticism of the Obama administration, Channel 2 reports.

“I distance myself from the statements made by Michael Oren,” Kahlon writes, according to Channel 2. “President Obama has greatly contributed to Israel’s security.”

Kahlon stresses that Oren’s criticism does not reflect his party’s stance, but is “only his personal opinion,” the TV report says.

Egypt to free 165 jailed protesters

Egypt has granted presidential pardons to 165 people jailed under a controversial law governing the right to protest, a statement from the presidency says.

However, the list does not include any figures from the 2011 revolt that drove Hosni Mubarak from power and who were imprisoned under the law in a move that caused uproar among international human rights groups.

The 165 protesters, convicted in trials for breaking the law on demonstrations, have been granted a presidential pardon and will not serve the remainder of their sentences, the statement says.

It says the list of those to be released “includes a large number of young people and minors.”

— AFP

Religious affairs chief says Reform Jews ‘a disaster’

Israel’s religious services minister reportedly called Reform Jews “a disaster for the people of Israel.”

David Azoulay of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas party made the comments during a meeting to discuss the Women of the Wall group, Israel Hayom daily newspaper reports. The meeting reportedly took place on Tuesday between Azoulay and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of the right-wing Jewish Home party.

Azoulay is trying to clamp down on non-Orthodox practices at the Western Wall. His predecessor, Naftali Bennett, the head of Jewish Home, had agreed to a plan to establish an egalitarian section in an area adjacent to the Western Wall plaza known as Robinson’s Arch. The plan was formulated by Cabinet secretary Avichai Mandelblit and Jewish Agency for Israel Chairman Natan Sharansky to resolve religious conflict at the wall.

But Azoulay appears to be walking back the compromise.

“The Western Wall belongs to everybody,” Azoulay says, according to Israel Hayom. “What these women do is provocation. To come with tallitot, tefillin and a Torah scroll is not praying but rather provocation.”

— JTA