The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
Doctors and medics will tend to the wounded at the sites of terror attacks according to the level of their injuries, treating the most severely wounded first, even if the worst wounded are terrorists, Israel Hayom reports.
The new directive by the Israeli Medical Association was decided upon after NGO Physicians for Human Rights requested that the association reconsider its guidelines. Previously, the instruction to doctors and medics at scenes of terror had been to treat the victims first and the perpetrators second.
The decision was made after a lengthy discussion held at the Ethics Bureau of the IMA, the paper reports.
Physicians for HUman Rights had noted that the previous procedure contradicted the rules of medical ethics in other countries as well as international humanitarian law.
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai claims the government has been dragging its feet for over a year on bringing the Law for Fair Rent to a vote, thereby hurting renters.
Speaking on Army Radio, Huldai says: “The government of Israel is forsaking apartment renters. It is not a free market, it’s a market with no rules. The time has come to end this with legislation that will regulate and do good both to renters and to landlords.”
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai (photo credit: Gideon Markowicz/Flash90)
Palestinian sources say that Samah Abdallah, 19 from Nablus, died of her injuries after being badly wounded by IDF fire at the Hawara checkpoint near Nablus last month, Ynet reports.
Abdallah was wounded in the head when she was walking near the checkpoint and soldiers there were shooting at Allah Halil Hashash, a Palestinian who was carrying out a terror attack. Hashash was killed at the scene.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani met with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Moscow, Reuters reports.
In September Lebanese media outlets reported that Soleimani arrived in Moscow to meet with Putin and that his meeting then was the second one after a meeting in July.
The meeting last week was the third one between the Iranian general and the Russian president.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards al-Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. (YouTube/BBC Newsnight)
Austrian police arrest two people with suspected links to the November Paris attacks, prosecutors said Wednesday, with an Austrian newspaper reporting the two are French citizens posing as refugees.
“Two people coming from the Middle East were arrested over the weekend,” Robert Holzleitner, a spokesman for prosecutors in Salzburg, tells AFP. “Indications of a possible link to the Paris attacks are currently being investigated.”
He adds that the two were arrested in a center for refugees in the western Austrian city “on suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization.”
The Kronen-Zeitung daily reports online that the two are French and that they entered Austria in October together with members of the terror cell who carried out the November 13 attacks in the French capital that killed 130 people.
The newspaper says that they have been posing as refugees and had fake Syrian passports, having traveled up from Greece through the Balkans into Austria along with hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving in recent months.
— AFP
Director General of the Communications Ministry Shlomo Filber imposes a massive NIS 8.5 million ($2.2 million) fine on telephony provider Bezeq.
The fine was imposed over violations of the new broadband reform, legislation meant to facilitate the passage of Israeli consumers between different ISPs (internet service providers).
The NIS 8.5 million fine is the largest fine ever imposed by a state regulator against any corporation in the history of the country.
About 100 gunmen kidnapped at least 26 Qatari nationals from a hunting ground in a desert are not far from the Saudi border early on Wednesday morning, Reuters quotes a regional governor and police officials as saying.
“An armed group driving dozens of pickup trucks kidnapped at least 26 Qatari hunters from their camp in the area of Busaya in Samawa desert near Saudi borders,” Samawa governor Falih al-Zayady is quoted as saying.
A local police official, unnamed by Reuters, is quoted as saying: “We are talking about at least 100 gunmen armed with light and medium weapons broke into the Qatari camp and abducted the hunters at around 3 am local time on Wednesday.”
Some reports say the kidnapped are members of the family of the emir of Qatar, the oil fiefdom’s ruler.
26 hunters from #Qatar kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the Samawah desert in southern #Iraq. Reports of royal family member among kidnapped.
— Haidar Sumeri (@IraqiSecurity) December 16, 2015
The trial of two Palestinians begins at a Berlin court today on allegations that they were planning to carry out a terror attack against the Israeli Embassy in Berlin or against another Israeli target in the German capital.
The suspects’ names were given as Muhammad and Ali. According to German law, the media is not allowed to publish the last names of suspects in serious crimes.
They were captured in June trying to prepare an explosive device from firecrackers. According to Hebrew language website Ynet, police found in their possession a large quantity of ingredients from which a powerful explosive device could be made.
Muhammad is a baker by trade. Pictures and other content related to Islamic State were found on Ali’s portable phone. Both are said to have been inspired by the Sunni terror group.
In their defense they said the Israeli Embassy was not “really” their target and they only wanted to do it “for fun.” They also claimed the bomb they were trying to put together was “far from professional.”
Israeli officials did not comment on the report.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the closure of the International Atomic Energy Agency into Iran’s nuclear program is a “great victory,” according to Reuters. The news agency tweets that Iran will be ready for implementing the nuclear deal in “2 or 3 weeks.”
BREAKING: President Rouhani says Iran ready for implementation of nuclear deal 'within two or three weeks'
— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) December 16, 2015
A new NIS 200 shekel bill will enter circulation in a week, Bank of Israel Governor Karnit Flug says.
The new bills utilize advanced anti-forgery technology and are also accessible to blind persons, Flug says.
The new bill features Nathan Alterman, a towering giant of modern Hebrew poetry.
The New NIS 200 banknote features Warsaw-born poet Nathan Alterman. Shas minister Aryeh Deri on Sunday’s cabinet meeting demanded the Israel’s next two banknotes feature writers from eastern descent. (Bank of Israel)
The Foreign Ministry’s director general hosts a meeting with the directors of foreign ministries from Greece and Cyprus.
Dore Gold meets with his Greek colleague, former Ambassador Dimitris Paraskevopoulos and the Cypriot Foreign Ministry director, Alexandros Zenon, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
The first Trilateral Political Consultations attended by secretaries general were held in Athens on 12 November 2014.
In the meeting today, the three officials discussed joint energy development, immigration, the war against terrorism, water management and other issues.
“The discussions reflected the common will to enhance even further the partnership between Israel, Greece, and Cyprus in all fields,” the statement says.
The meeting can be seen as an instance of quiet diplomacy vis-à-vis Turkey: It was this week that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told journalists that “normalization with Israel” was possible if the sides can reach a compensation deal for the victims of the Mavi Marmara raid.
On Monday Gold issued a tepid, laconic statement in support of “stable” relations. “Israel has always sought stable relations with Turkey and is constantly looking for ways how to get there,” Gold said.
Erdogan is in hotter water than usual ever since his military downed a Russian jet last month. He has since tried to downplay the incident but Russia is flexing its muscles. Just last week, a Russian warship fired a warning shot in the direction of a Turkish boat.
A unit from the IDF’s Golani Brigade was attacked with an improvised explosive device this afternoon, near Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha close to the border with the Gaza Strip. There were no casualties among the troops.
The soldiers responded with mortar shell fire. According to Palestinian officials, three Palestinians were wounded.
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein took the unusual step of pausing a Knesset discussion for five minutes during a speech by opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union).
Herzog called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to condemn attacks from the right, including from inside the coalition.
After Edelstein called the break and the microphone turned off as Herzog was still speaking, the Knesset speaker said “I apologize personally to the head of the opposition that overreacted during his speech.”
Herzog then resumed his attack against Netanyahu. He was heckled by coalition MKs throughout.
Earlier, Netanyahu, who came to the plenum at the request of 40 lawmakers (according to Israeli a third of parliament can force the prime minister to appear for a discussion), demanded that Herzog condemn Breaking the Silence, an NGO collecting anonymous testimonies from ex-IDF soldiers who claim to have committed or witnessed human rights violations during their military service.
The Lebanese parliament failed to elect a president for the country for the 33rd time, Israel Radio reports.
Earlier reports said lawmakers reached an agreement to elect Suleiman Faranjia, a childhood friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The country has been without a president for more than a year, ever since the term of Michel Sleiman ended.
According to Lebanese law, electing a president necessitates the support of two-thirds of parliament, or 86 out of the 128 parliament members. Only 45 lawmakers were present for today’s debate.
According to a report in Al Ahbar, a paper affiliated with Hezbollah, the Shi’ite terror group will not support any candidate except its political ally Michel Aoun, head of the Free Patriotic Movement.
More than 200 South African scholars pledged support for an academic boycott of Israel.
In a declaration Tuesday, the scholars said they would not accept invitations to visit Israeli academic institutions and would not participate in conferences organized or funded by them. They will, however, continue to work with Israeli colleagues individually, if they share a commitment to the Palestinians as outlined in the declaration.
“We will maintain this position until the State of Israel complies with international law, and respects universal principles of human rights,” the statement said.
The group, which includes university professors as well as scholars at research institutes and think tanks, says it is “deeply disturbed by Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the intolerable human rights violations that it inflicts on all sections of the Palestinian people, and it’s apparent determination to resist any feasible settlement.”
In its declaration, the group associates itself with recent initiatives by 600 academics in the United Kingdom and 120 Irish academics.
— JTA
The Kremlin denies reports that Revolutionary Guards General Qassem Soleimani recently met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked whether an earlier report in the Iranian FARS news agency was accurate and answered with a simple “no.”
Following a raucous Knesset session in which Netanyahu and Herzog traded barbs, both the prime minister and head of the opposition continued sparring online through their Facebook pages.
A comment by opposition leader Isaac Herzog to a post by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Facebook, from December 16 2015. (Screen capture)
Netanyahu posted a video from the plenum and wrote: “MK Herzog, the time has come for you to condemn Breaking the Silence, an organization besmirching the image of soldiers around the world, blackening the face of the Israel Defense Forces, harming our fighters.”
Commenting on the video, Herzog wrote: “Bibi, in demagoguery you deserve a 10/10 score. In demagoguery we lose and you win for sure. But a prime minister is not a talking parrot. He needs to run a country. The time for talk is done. Deal with stopping Arab terrorism, restoring quiet to the streets and catching the Jewish terrorists from Duma, fight raging poverty, change the natural gas draft and mainly, for once in your career, start seeing people as people. In short: Start working, stop blabbering.”
Col. (Ret) Salman Zarka, director of the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, says some 600 Syrian casualties have been treated by his hospital.
Zarka made the remark during a visit to Boston and Rhode Island sponsored by the Israeli Consulate in New England, according to a Ma’ariv report.
He says the hospital has treated men, women and children from Syria, suffering from serious injuries to mental trauma.
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid calls on Herzog to condemn the activity of Breaking the Silence.
“It is a disgrace. The group Breaking the Silence is harmful to the IDF and spreads lies against our fighters, who are also our children. It would be appropriate for MK Herzog to support soldiers of the IDF instead of radical left-wing organizations,” he says in a statement.
Lapid also refers to incitement against President Reuven Rivlin and says the “prime minister cannot continue with issuing half-hearted condemnations in order to pay lip service. The time has come for him to protect the president loudly and clearly, to condemn those who incite and clarify that he does not support them in any way,” he says.
MK Yair Lapid during a Yesh Atid party meeting at the Knesset, November 23, 2015 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
American actor Adam Sandler criticized Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters and movement to boycott Israel in an appearance on the Howard Stern Show.
“I’m disgusted they single out Israel,” Sandler said yesterday on Stern’s Sirius satellite radio show. “That [they say], ‘We can’t play Israel.’ All these f***ing nice Israeli people are getting a ‘f*** you’ from Roger Waters.
“I’m very pro-Israel and when someone says sh** about Israel, I know people say sh** about Israel and they f***ing won’t play there … and when you go off on Roger Waters I love that you do that,” Sandler said.
In October, Stern ripped Waters, a major proponent of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, in a seven-minute rant. The rant was motivated by an open letter Waters published in Salon criticizing rocker Jon Bon Jovi for performing in Tel Aviv on Oct. 3.
“What is with Roger Waters and the Jews?” Stern asked. “The Palestinians are these Arabs that could live in Egypt, they could live in Saudi Arabia, but guess what? Those countries don’t want them either. Israel has a little tiny country, and it bugs the s*** out of Roger Waters. He can’t f***in’ deal with it.”
“Where do you want the Jews to go, Roger? You want them just to go back to the concentration camps? What is it you want, f***head?” Stern said adding: “Jews, go to the dark side of moon and live,” referring to a popular Pink Floyd album.
Sandler told Stern that he is “proud of being a Jew and that’s what I am.”
Stern pointed out that Sandler’s wife converted to Judaism. Sandler responded that he is not “crazy religious.” He told Stern that his chai necklace “is in like the third drawer under the T-shirts.”
— JTA
Zionist Union responds to Lapid’s criticism against Herzog calling him “pathetic.”
In a statement, the party says: “In his pathetic attempt to ape Netanyahu, Yair Lapid is trying to incite now against the opposition leader. Lapid, as usual, was not in the plenum during the speech and is trying to divert attention from this by incitement.”
“Lapid thinks that because he is permanently inciting against the ultra-Orthodox community, inciting against the Arab community, he can say something meaningful about democracy. Well, no. It’s the easiest thing to throw a burning match and walk away. Lapid must stop badmouthing and join hands with us to replace Netanyahu,” the party says in a statement.
Former Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin comes to the defense of NGO Breaking the Silence in a post on his Facebook page.
“I don’t like their activity abroad and the fact that they are not satisfied with the control and justice system in the State of Israel. But they provide another, important mirror to our actions. Even if they can make us angry, even if they are sometimes inaccurate or not doing their jobs correctly – their contribution is very important,” Diskin writes.
Yuval Diskin participates in a meeting of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as director of the Shin Bet security service, on July 22. 2008 (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon lashes out against pretty much all ills of Israeli society during a speech he makes upon receiving the award of Knight of Quality Government.
“We must fight with all our might against violence, racism, hatred of the foreign and the other – just for being the other. We must expel from our midst racism and racists. I speak especially of the repeated attempts by some amongst us, some who belong to the mainstream and who are loved and supported, to blacken the face of Israeli Arabs and distance them from society,” Ya’alon says.
Ya’alon also addresses the issue of sexual harassment in Israel: “We must fight with all our might against these phenomena and the treatment of women as objects. We cannot allow the victim – the complainant – to become the side being accused and attacked.”
Ya’alon speaks on the day several women came out against Interior Minister Silvan Shalom, saying he sexually harassed them.
Shalom and Ya’alon are both Likud party memebers.
Defense Moshe Ya’alon speaks during a joint press conference in Jerusalem on November 18, 2015. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
US President Barack Obama is expected to sign the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 tonight, after Congress passes it, according to media reports.
The bill bans foreign banks from dealing with Hezbollah, and calls on the US Treasury to ban or sanction any financial institution that is found to facilitate transactions with the Lebanese Shi’ite terror organization.
#BreakingNews U.S. Congress votes to sanction banks financing Hezbollah
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) December 16, 2015
