ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 350
The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s events as they unfolded.
Vandalism at four power stations in the western US state of Washington over the weekend added to concerns of a possible nationwide campaign by neo-Nazis to stir fears and spark civil conflict.
Local police gave no information on who they suspected was behind the vandalism, which knocked out power on Christmas Day for some 14,000 in Tacoma, a port city area south of Seattle.
Tacoma Public Utilities, which owned two of the facilities targeted on Sunday, said in a statement that it was alerted by federal law enforcement in early December about threats to their grid.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s office said Sunday it was investigating but had made no arrests and did not know if it was a coordinated attack.
They said in a statement that they were aware of similar incidents elsewhere in Washington, in Oregon, and in North Carolina.
“It could be any number of reasons at this point… We have to investigate and not just jump to conclusions,” they said.
But it follows warnings by US officials that neo-Nazis who say they want to spark a race war are targeting electricity stations.
Violent extremists “have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a January intelligence memo, according to US media.
Likud MK Dudi Amsalem says he will remain a backbencher after incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu refuses to appoint him as Knesset speaker or justice minister.
Netanyahu is meeting with Likud MKs as he seeks to fill his remaining ministerial slots.
Amsalem, a firebrand and long-time Netanyahu loyalist who clashed with the Likud leader in recent months, says that Netanyahu “made it clear” he would not get one of the two posts he had demanded.
“I will remain an ordinary MK,” he tweets. “Unfortunately this is the price you pay for being loyal to your values.”
Reports said Netanyahu had tried to convince him to take on another portfolio.
The Aguda Association for LGBT Equality in Israel appeals to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to probe the far-right homophobic Noam party after it was revealed that they had prepared lists of prominent gay journalists.
The association says the lists contravene laws to protect people from harassment and threats.
Noam, which will be part of the next government, prepared a list of dozens of gay TV anchors, reporters, radio hosts, and other TV professionals working in the news and entertainment industries, and a round-up of “extreme left-wing” women who it says are part of a “secret team” in an army unit in charge of gender equality, as part of an internal document from 2019 that appears to outline the party’s perceived opponents in the media and in civil society.
The lists were prepared for unknown reasons, online news site Ynet first reported last week
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appoints veteran Likud and Kadima minister Tzachi Hanegbi as head of the National Security Council, replacing Eyal Hulata.
Hanegbi, 65, has headed a range of ministries over the past three decades, including Health, Justice, and Internal Security.
He has also been the minister tasked with overseeing the Mossad and Shin Bet intelligence agencies, the Atomic Energy Agency, and security ties with the United States.
Hanegbi, a journalist and paratrooper during his IDF service, also served as deputy foreign minister and head of the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs Committee.
He is considered an expert on Iran’s nuclear program.
Last month, Hanegbi said he believes Netanyahu will order a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if the US does not secure a new nuclear deal with Tehran and fails to take action itself.
Speaking to Channel 12 news, Hanegbi said that in such a situation, Netanyahu “will act, in my assessment, to destroy the nuclear facilities in Iran.”
Hanegbi, who did not make it into the Knesset (after placing 46 on the party’s slate in primaries), has made threats of a potential Israeli strike in the past to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Hanegbi has faced legal troubles in his career, including being cleared for bribery and fraud charges, while being found guilty of perjury. The case revolved around appointments made to his Environmental Protection Ministry.
The Health Ministry announces that the prices of some 1500 prescription drugs will drop by an average of 7.47 percent from next month.
The prices refer to the maximum price that can be charged for the drugs and patients should also see a drop in their co-pays to the HMOs for the medications.
The ministry says there will be no changes in the prices for over-the-counter drugs.
Two years after Morocco and Israel signed a normalization agreement, President Isaac Herzog sends a letter to Morocco’s ruler thanking the kingdom for protecting Jews over the years, Herzog’s office reveals.
The letter, sent on December 22 to King Mohammed VI, highlights the haven provided to Jews during the Holocaust by Mohammed V, “who is remembered as the protector and guardian of Jews in his realm.”
Herzog also pays tribute to Mohammed VI’s father, Hassan II, “who played a critical role in building the foundations for peace upon which our futures now stand.”
“It was during your rule that the Hebraic character of Morocco was recognized within the kingdom’s constitution,” writes Herzog to Mohammed VI, “that Jewish communal institutions throughout the country – from synagogues to cemeteries – have been renovated; and that Holocaust denial was denounced by your own statements singling out the ‘Final Solution’ as ‘one of the most tragic chapters of modern history.’”
The text of the missive was coordinated with the Foreign Ministry and Yad Vashem, says the president’s office.
At least 100 Iranians arrested during recent nationwide protests face charges punishable by death, Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) says.
Protests have gripped Iran since the September 16 death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish Mahsa Amini, 22, after her arrest in Tehran for an alleged breach of the country’s strict dress code for women.
Earlier this month, Iran executed two men in connection with the protests, an escalation of the authorities’ crackdown that activists say is meant to instill public fear.
In a report today, IHR identifies 100 detainees who face potential capital punishment, including at least 11 already sentenced to death.
Five detainees on the IHR list are women.
The report says many of them have limited access to legal representation.
“By issuing death sentences and executing some of them, [the authorities] want to make people go home,” says IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
“It has some effect,” he tells AFP, but “what we’ve observed in general is more anger against the authorities.”
“Their strategy of spreading fear through executions has failed.”
Russia issues a decree to ban oil sales to countries and companies that comply with a price cap agreed upon by Western nations in response to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
“The supply of Russian oil and oil products to foreign legal entities and individuals is prohibited if the contracts for these supplies” are using a price cap, the presidential decree says, adding that it will be in effect from February 1 until July 1.
Incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with Likud MKs as he finalizes his cabinet.
Several leading Likud members are vying for the few remaining spots left after many of the prime portfolios were handed out to coalition partners.
Netanyahu is currently meeting with David Amsalem who has demanded to be justice minister or Knesset speaker.
He will then meet with Amir Ohana, who is said to be asking for the foreign ministry.
The Walla news site says both are likely to be disappointed.
The consultations are set to continue through the evening, with Netanyahu set to announce his decisions tomorrow.
The Republican Jewish Coalition says George Santos, a party member elected to the US Congress in November’s elections, is not welcome at any RJC events after he lied about being Jewish.
George Santos has admitted to “embellishing” large parts of his resume while campaigning — from details on his Jewish heritage to his education and work experience.
“We are very disappointed in Congressman-elect Santos. He deceived us and misrepresented his heritage,” says a statement from RJC CEO Matt Brooks.
“In public comments and to us personally he previously claimed to be Jewish. He has begun his tenure in Congress on a very wrong note. He will not be welcome at any future RJC event,” Brooks says.
Mirel Dzalovsky, a 40-year-old mother of 10, who was seriously wounded earlier this month after ultra-Orthodox protesters set ablaze and shoved a dumpster that hit her, has regained consciousness.
The Shaare Zedek Medical Center says Dzalovsky is awake and communicating, but remains in a serious condition on a ventilator.
Earlier today, police announced the arrest of a second suspect in the December 15 incident.
The demonstration erupted in response to the arrest of a man suspected of torching a cellphone store several months ago. Cellphone stores are sometimes targeted by religious extremists for not complying with “kosher rules” restricting the devices.
A group of retired judges has signed a letter warning that moves planned by the incoming government endanger Israel’s democracy, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The letter, signed by 78 former justices, wants that the planned legislation will erode citizens’ rights and remove the checks and balances on government power.
“The implementation of these steps that violate our values could fundamentally change the moral image of the State of Israel and damage it not only internally but also in the eyes of the world, international institutions and Jewish communities in the Diaspora,” the letter says.
“We call on the Knesset, the incoming government and the public in Israel to stop any move that could harm the rule of law, the foundations of our democratic regime, and to continue to respect the human and democratic values upon which the Declaration of Independence and our fundamental laws were founded,” it says.
Among the signators is former Supreme Court judge Ayala Procaccia.
The Knesset begins a marathon session to debate a bill that will give far-right MK Itamar Ben Gvir expansive powers over the police.
The contentious bill, which will expand political authority over police leadership and policy, was demanded by incoming police minister Ben Gvir as a precondition for joining the new government.
The bill will establish government authority over Israel’s police, as well as set out Ben Gvir’s authority to direct general police policy and to influence investigations policy, the latter in coordination with the attorney general and the police commissioner.
Provisions to make the police commissioner formally subordinate to Ben Gvir, as well as giving the minister free rein to develop investigations and police prosecution policy, were removed from the bill in response to pressure from the attorney general’s office, which objected to how the clauses would affect the independence of the police.
Ben Gvir has said he plans to pursue them at a later date.
Opening the Knesset floor debate ahead of the bill’s second and third votes, Likud MK Ofir Katz says it is appropriate to expand the incoming police minister’s authority.
“Alongside his responsibility, it’s appropriate to give him authority,” says Katz, who chaired the special committee that prepared the bill for its floor votes.
The bill is the third and final part of a legislative package rushed in ahead of Thursday’s vote to swear in Israel’s next government, composed of six right-wing, far-right, and ultra-Orthodox parties.
Police say they have released ultra-Orthodox journalist Israel Frey, who was arrested earlier in the day over complaints about several of his tweets that were seen as inciting Palestinian terror against Israelis.
Police say Frey was questioned under caution on suspicion of violating a section of the anti-terror law and later released.
They give no further details.
Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh is reportedly recorded cursing PA leader Mahmoud Abbas as “the son of 66 whores” over frustration about who will succeed him.
A longtime member of the ruling Fatah party and a top adviser to Abbas, al-Sheikh is viewed as one of several contenders to succeed the 86-year-old leader.
In recordings released by a Hamas-affiliated site in Gaza, al-Sheikh is purportedly heard saying that “the succession is at the heart of everything” and that Abbas “is complicit in the anarchy and has an interest in maintaining it.”
“It pains me to say these things, but this process is completely different from after the death of Yasser Arafat,” he says expressing his frustration that Abbas does not consult other leaders on the process.
Abbas is the “son of 66 whores, he comes and gives his decisions without explanations. He is not right in the head if he thinks we can do the right thing without explaining his intentions,” he says.
Al-Sheikh was recently appointed secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, boosting his chances to eventually succeed Abbas as head of the Fatah party.
However, Sheikh also has little public legitimacy, having never been democratically elected to a senior position. He is also disliked by many for his close ties to Israeli officials and to the unpopular Abbas.
US Jewish leaders reportedly held a meeting with senior Israeli officials at the embassy in Washington earlier this month to discuss their concerns regarding the incoming right-wing government, warning that policies that targeted LGBT Jews and members of non-Orthodox communities could see American Jews protesting outside the embassy.
According to the report in the Axios news site, the meeting with prominent members of pro-Israel organizations and Shuli Davidovich, the head of the Israeli Foreign Ministry bureau for the Diaspora, took place on December 7, while incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still negotiating with his far-right and ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.
According to Axios, American participants in the meeting expressed alarm that the new government would pursue policies “that are racist, antagonistic towards both reform and conservative Jews and harm LGBTQ+ rights could damage donations to Israel from the US Jewish community.”
They warned that such moves would also push young American Jews to further distance themselves from Israel and warned of scenarios that could see US Jews protesting outside the embassy in Washington or hundreds flying to protest in Israel.
The report, citing multiple participants in the meeting, says the Israelis were taken aback and urged the Americans not to rush to judgment.
Police arrest a further suspect in relation to an ultra-Orthodox protest in Jerusalem earlier this month during which a dumpster was set ablaze and shoved, seriously injuring a woman who was passing nearby.
Police say the suspect was arrested in the Haredi town of Elad in central Israel and brought to a police station for questioning. Another suspect was arrested in Jerusalem earlier in the week.
Mirel Dzalovsky, a 40-year-old mother of 10, was brought to a hospital unconscious and placed on a ventilator.
The demonstration erupted in response to the arrest of a man suspected of torching a cellphone store several months ago. Cellphone stores are sometimes targeted by religious extremists for not complying with “kosher rules” restricting the devices.
The High Court of Justice rejects a request from incoming prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an additional hearing after it ordered him to return $270,000 to the estate of his deceased cousin and former benefactor Nathan Milikowsky, ruling that the funds were an illicit gift.
In an October ruling, the court determined that money received by Netanyahu and his wife Sara to fund their legal fees while he served as prime minister during his last term was a prohibited gift to a public servant.
The justices ruled that although Milikowsky and Netanyahu were cousins, business interests were a more dominant factor in the reason for the gift, and the money went way beyond what was acceptable as a routine gift between family members.
In his response, Netanyahu’s attorney Uriel Nizri claimed the court did not have the authority to make such a ruling and requested that the matter be handled by the State Comptroller’s Permits Committee, but the court rejected this today.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warns that Ukraine must meet Moscow’s demand for “demilitarization” and “denazification,” as well as the removal of the military threat to Russia, otherwise “the Russian army (will) solve the issue.”
Lavrov also accuses the West of fueling the war in Ukraine to weaken Russia, and said that it depends on Kyiv and Washington how long the conflict, which started on Feb. 24 when Russia invaded Ukraine, will last.
“As for the duration of the conflict, the ball is on the side of the (Kyiv) regime and Washington that stands behind its back,” Lavrov tells the state Tass news agency. “They may stop senseless resistance at any moment.”
Lavrov’s comments come a day after Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told the Associated Press in an interview that his government wants a summit to end the war but that he doesn’t anticipate Russia taking part.
Kuleba said Ukraine wants a “peace” summit within two months with UN Secretary-General António Guterres acting as mediator. But he also said that Russia must face a war crimes tribunal before his country directly talks with Moscow.
The reference to “denazification” comes from Russia’s allegations that the Ukrainian government is heavily influenced by radical nationalist and neo-Nazi groups. The claim is derided by Ukraine and the West.
Outgoing Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman warns that a coalition agreement between incoming Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and the United Torah Judaism party will cost taxpayers some NIS 20 billion ($5.7 billion.)
Speaking to reporters as he leaves office, Liberman slams the incoming government’s deals, in particular those with the ultra-Orthodox parties.
“All the coalition agreements will lead to collapse. What we are seeing are negative incentives,” he says, referring to government subsidies for yeshiva students that keep them out of the workforce.
“The coalition deal with UTJ is estimated at NIS 20 billion annually,” he says.
The Lebanese army has arrested a suspect in the killing earlier this month of a UN peacekeeper from Ireland who died when his convoy was shot at in southern Lebanon, officials say.
The area of the Dec. 14 shooting attack, near the southern town of Al-Aqbiya, is a center of support for the Lebanese Hezbollah terror group, which has denied any role in the killing.
Hezbollah spokeswoman Rana Sahili says that the Lebanese army arrested the suspect “in cooperation with Hezbollah,” and that he wasn’t a member of the militant group.
Two Lebanese security officials confirmed the arrest, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, and said the investigation into the killing is ongoing. They did not identify or provide any details about the suspect.
Police arrest ultra-Orthodox journalist Israel Frey after receiving complaints about several of his tweets that were seen as inciting Palestinian terror against Israelis.
Frey is detained after he refused a police summons to come in for questioning.
In recent months Frey tweeted several times after attacks.
In a tweet after Sgt. Noa Lazar, 18, was shot and killed at a checkpoint near the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, Frey said that “attacks on security forces are not terror.”
In another tweet, he praised a Palestinian who attempted an attack in Jaffa for his “restraint” in not killing innocent Israelis on his way there from Nablus in the West Bank, and said he “deserved a medal.”
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi says Tehran will show “no mercy” toward “hostile” opponents of the Islamic Republic, gripped by more than 100 days of protests sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death.
The “riots,” as Tehran generally refers to them, were triggered by the September 16 death in custody of Iranian-Kurdish Amini, 22, after her arrest for an alleged breach of the strict dress code for women.
Addressing a crowd in Tehran, Raisi accuses “hypocrites, monarchists and all anti-revolutionary currents.”
“The embrace of the nation is open to all those who were lured,” says the ultraconservative president at a funeral procession for unidentified soldiers who perished during its eight-year war in the 1980s with neighboring Iraq.
“The embrace of the nation is open to everyone, but we will show no mercy to those who are hostile.”
Iranian officials say hundreds of people have been killed, including members of the security forces, and thousands have been arrested nationwide.
Foreign-based rights groups have put the death toll among protesters at more than 450.
Earlier in December, Iran executed two people in connection to the protests. The judiciary has said nine others have been sentenced to death, two of whom have been allowed retrials.
