The Times of Israel liveblogged Saturday’s events as they happened.
Israel and its regional allies are developing a joint defense pact to protect against the threat of suicide drones, Channel 12 news reports.
The unsourced report says this includes neighbors near and far, but does not provide details.
It says the drones used by Iran and its proxies have become a threat to many Arab countries in the Middle East. Under the prospective agreement, the countries will assist each other in the detection of drones, notifying of any potential threat they detect in the airspace.
At his meeting with Kamala Harris, Defense Minister Gantz tells her any nuclear deal with Iran must include close oversight by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency, according to a readout from his office.
“It is important that any future agreement with Iran will include consistent enforcement by the IAEA in addition to handling the open files in the nuclear program,” he says.
Gantz says the two spoke of “the unparalleled, strategic bond between Israel and the US. Our ties and cooperation contribute to the security of both our nations and to the Middle East region as a whole.”
He also told her of “a series of steps I plan to take in order to deepen cooperation with our neighbors in the region.”
Exactly 28 chickpeas have been launched to the International Space Station, as part of an Israeli-led experiment into the viability of growing the legume in space.
The chickpeas will be used to study germination in zero gravity. They were launched to the ISS from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, alongside eight tons of cargo aboard an unmanned Cygnus spacecraft.
The experiment is being directed by Israeli Yonatan Weintraub of Stanford University, alongside other Israeli researchers.
And it’s off! ???? a successful launch at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility! What an awesome experience! pic.twitter.com/wzlYRwwjPM
— Deana Harley (@Deanaharleynews) February 19, 2022
To inspire the next generation of space enthusiasts, Winetraub has enlisted a cohort of young scientists on earth to help him with his experiment.
Middle and high school students in 1,000 classrooms across Israel will grow chickpeas in boxes they have constructed. This key control group will compare the processes of growing chickpeas with gravity versus those grown in space without it.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, facing a sharp spike in violence in and around territory held by Russia-backed rebels and increasingly dire warnings that Russia plans to invade, calls for Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet him and seek a resolution to the crisis.
“I don’t know what the president of the Russian Federation wants, so I am proposing a meeting,” Zelenskyy says at the Munich Security Conference, where he also met with US Vice President Kamala Harris. Zelensky says Russia could pick the location for the talks.
“Ukraine will continue to follow only the diplomatic path for the sake of a peaceful settlement.”
There is no immediate response from the Kremlin.
Zelensky speaks hours after separatist leaders in eastern Ukraine ordered a full military mobilization, while Western leaders make increasingly dire warnings that a Russian invasion of its neighbor appears imminent.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz meets with US Vice President Kamala Harris at the Munich Security Conference.
Gantz is also set to meet with his German counterpart Christine Lambrecht.
The journalist who has led reporting on police’s alleged use of spyware to illicitly hack the phones of innocent civilians insists he reported the truth, as official investigations into the claims have so far not confirmed them.
Calcalist’s Tomer Ganon tweeted a short time ago: “I swore to my sources: ‘I will protect you until the FULL truth comes out’… You chose not to be silent and to uncover the truth. I have not risked my good name as a result of gullibility, but only because I checked the facts.”
Police and justice officials have so far said their probes have not found evidence of any widespread wrongdoing by cops, and some have called on Ganon to provide more information to back up his claims.
Police have arrested five people in northern Israel that they suspect were on their way to commit a murder.
The five are suspected of plotting a killing in the Arab village of Bi’ina, tied to a familial dispute.
Four of the suspects were arrested in two cars after a police chase and were armed at the time of their arrest. Another was arrested at home.
המשטרה עצרה חמישה חשודים בבענה שבגליל, שהיו בדרכם לבצע רצח על רקע סכסוך בין פלגי משפחה ביישוב. ארבעה מהחשודים נעצרו בתום מרדף בשני כלי רכב כשהם חמושים, החשוד החמישי נעצר בביתו@CBeyar (צילום: דוברות המשטרה) pic.twitter.com/NCu1CvbyII
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) February 19, 2022
Moscow would have its access to financial markets and high-tech goods limited under Western sanctions being prepared in case Russia attacks Ukraine, a top European Union official says.
The comments from Ursula von der Leyen, head of the EU’s Executive Commission, come as tensions over Russia’s intentions toward Ukraine intensify.
“The Kremlin’s dangerous thinking, which comes straight out of a dark past, may cost Russia a prosperous future,” von der Leyen says during the annual Munich Security Conference, where US Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke.
Von der Leyen says the EU’s executive arm has developed a “robust and comprehensive package” of possible financial sanctions against Russia with the US, UK and Canada.
“In case that Russia strikes, we will limit the access to financial markets for the Russian economy and [impose] export controls that will stop the possibility for Russia to modernize and diversify its economy,” she added.
“And we have a lot of high-tech goods where we have a global dominance, and that are absolutely necessary for Russia and cannot be replaced easily.”
Iran’s foreign minister says that it’s up to Western countries to show flexibility in the negotiations to restore the 2015 deal curbing Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
“The ball is now in their court,” Hossein Amirabdollahian says at the Munich Security Conference.
“We are ready to achieve a good deal at the earliest possible time — if the other side makes the needed political decision,” he adds.
Amirabdollahian insists that “we are in a hurry” to reach a deal. But he makes clear that the issue of guarantees from the US about a restored deal’s future remains a sticking point.
“We have never been this close to a deal,” he says. “It is the Western side that has to present its initiatives and show flexibility… they have not shown any flexibility so far.”
The Foreign Ministry issues a fresh call for Israelis in Ukraine to immediately leave the country, amid growing Western warnings of a looming Russian invasion.
The ministry makes the appeal after holding a situational assessment and following talks that director-general Alon Ushpiz held with unspecified figures at the Munich Security Conference. A Foreign Ministry statement also cites “the events in eastern Ukraine,” apparently referring to intensifying clashes there between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists.
“An eruption [of war] will be quick and severe,” the statement says.
The ministry says Israel’s ambassador in Kyiv, Michael Brodsky, and embassy staff will open the consular section tomorrow “to provide travel documents to citizens that require this.”
The Foreign Ministry also says it’s keeping tabs on the decisions by the US and Britain to move their embassies in Kyiv and to move to the city of Lviv, “with the aim of safeguarding the lies of the State of Israel’s envoys in Ukraine while providing a response to Israeli citizens.”
KYIV, Ukraine — The Ukrainian army says that two of its soldiers died today in an attack on the frontline with Russian-backed separatists, the first fatalities in the conflict in more than a month.
“As a result of a shelling attack, two Ukrainian servicemen received fatal shrapnel wounds,” the military command for the separatist conflict says.
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