Kerry, Abbas to meet Saturday in Paris on two-state solution

German official: Bomber had online chat to Mideast before blast

Bavaria’s top security official says the Syrian asylum-seeker who blew himself up outside a bar in southern Germany was in an online chat shortly before the explosion with a person in the Middle East.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann does not specify which country the person was in, and says investigators do not know his or her identity, according to the German news agency dpa.

Attacker Mohammed Daleel died and 15 people were wounded when his bomb exploded outside a wine bar Sunday night after he was denied entry to a nearby open-air concert because he didn’t have a ticket. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Herrmann says that whoever the assailant was chatting to knew he had explosives. He says that when Daleel said there was security staff near the festival, the unknown person said he should find a way in.

Special police officers secure a street in Ansbach, southern Germany on July 25, 2016, near the home of a Syrian man who blew himself up outside a wine bar a day earlier. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

— AP

Bennett: Curriculum to teach entire Jewish experience

Education Minster Naftali Bennett says the new school curriculum will cover the history of both Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardi Jews, and not as separate subjects.

“We will not create separate paths but a common one; we will not see a new [focus on] Sephardi culture, but rather a full story that does not promote separation but unity,” Channel 10 quotes him as saying.

In a speech at Bar-Ilan University, Bennett says students from across Israel will visit the country’s development towns next year as part of efforts to integrate Mizrahi Jewish culture into the curriculum.

“In the coming school year we will mandate tours of the development towns in the Galilee and Negev,” he says.

“Israeli students will not only learn, but will also travel the full story of the people of Israel, as [learning through] experience is the best way,” he says. “Alongside [the kibbutzim of] Degania and Sde Boker, every student will also visit Yeruham, Dimona and Beit She’an.”

Lower Galilee council head: I don’t want Arabs in our pools

The head of the Lower Galilee Regional Council Moti Dotan says he does not want to see Arabs in his local community pools.

“Someone once told me that leaders should show leadership and not popularity on social media. I mean every word. To maintain pools costs a lot of money,” he tells local radio, according to Haaretz. “Therefore, I think that those who are not from the community and the area should pay more.”

He adds: “I do not hate Arabs, but I don’t want them in my pools. I don’t go to their pools either. If I went there in a [scanty] swimsuit, or took girls in bikinis with me, it’s clear to you what would happen… therefore they should stay in their pools and [we] should stay in ours.”

France names second church killer as Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean

French officials name the second man shot dead Tuesday after killing a priest at a Normandy church as 19-year-old Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean from eastern France.

Petitjean was spotted last month in Turkey as he supposedly headed to Syria — but returned to France instead.

A security official confirms that Petitjean was the unidentified man pictured on a photo distributed to police four days before the killing, with a warning that he could be planning an attack.

The driving license of 19-year-old Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean, who was shot dead by police after killing an elderly priest in an attack at a church in Normandy, France on July 26, 2016 (AFP)

Petitjean and another 19-year-old, Adel Kermiche, were killed by police as they left the church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray after having fatally slashed the throat of 84-year-old cleric Jacques Hamel.

Petitjean was born in eastern France, but recently lived in Aix-les-Bains, where his mother lives, the prosecutor’s office says. A man detained after the attack was still being held for questioning.

— AP

Pope Francis falls in Poland, escapes injury

CZESTOCHOWA, Poland — Pope Francis falls after stumbling down a step on an altar during a visit to Poland but quickly gets back to his feet, seemingly without injury.

The 79-year-old Argentine pontiff stumbles, then falls down out of view before being helped to his feet by altar servers.

But Francis appears to be fine as he delivers a homily and says mass at the revered Jasna Gora monastery in Czestochowa, southern Poland.

— AFP

Clinton campaign condemns Israeli flag burning

PHILADELPHIA — Hillary Clinton’s campaign condemns the burning of an Israeli flag at the Democratic National Convention.

“Hillary Clinton has always stood against efforts to marginalize Israel and incitement, and she strongly condemns this kind of hatred,” Sarah Bard, the campaign’s director of Jewish outreach, says in an email. “Burning the Israeli flag is a reckless act that undermines peace and our values.”

The flag was set alight Tuesday as protesters chanted “Long live the intifada” outside the Wells Fargo Arena in Philadelphia, which is housing this week’s Democratic National Convention.

— JTA

PM: 2014 Gaza war brought long period of quiet in south

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the 2014 conflict with Hamas in Gaza, known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge, created a long period of calm in the south.

He also says that every terrorist attempt to infiltrate into the country since the conflict has failed, Israel Radio reports.

Hamas, he continues, suffered the harshest blow in its history during the war and failed to achieve any of its demands for a ceasefire, while Israel won legitimacy and international support.

Jewish Home MK: I won’t recognize ‘bogus’ Reform Judaism

Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich says he will not accept any aspect of Reform Judaism, which he brands a “bogus religion.”

“I am not willing to recognize Reform conversions,” Army Radio quotes the hardline lawmaker as telling a Jewish Home youth conference, “and I am not willing to recognize anything about their bogus religion.”

Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich attends a meeting of the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee in the Knesset on June 20, 2016. (Photo by Miriam Alster/Flash90)

6 arrested in India over gangrape of Israeli tourist

Indian police say they have arrested six people, including three minors, for the gang rape of an Israeli tourist, Channel 10 reports.

The attack took place at around 3 a.m. Sunday near the town of Manali, when the 25-year-old Israeli woman accepted a taxi ride in a vehicle without license plates that was carrying six men.

At some point along the way, two of the men raped her, the woman told police. After the assault she was dropped off in Manali, where she reported the incident to police.

US rabbi calls on pope to remove church at Auschwitz

A US rabbi calls on Pope Francis to remove a Catholic church from the grounds of Auschwitz, on the eve of the pontiff’s visit to the Nazi death camp.

Rabbi Avi Weiss, national president of AMCHA-Coalition for Jewish Concerns, dispatches the missive via New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Weiss writes that the presence of the church at the site is a “clear violation” of a 1987 agreement between Roman Catholic Cardinals and Jewish leaders, which he says: “stipulates in clear language that ‘there will be no permanent Catholic place of worship on the site of the Auschwitz and Birkenau camps.’”

He writes: “I have deep respect for people of all faiths, symbols and places of worship of all faiths, but a church does not belong at the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.”

Weiss previously protested against the Carmelite convent established by the nuns in 1984 on a building on the grounds of Auschwitz. It was closed by Pope John Paul in 1993.

The pope is due to visit Auschwitz on Friday, and will be the third leader of the Catholic Church to do so.

Pope Francis pauses after laying a wreath of flowers in the Hall of Remembrance at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem on May 26, 2014. (Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

— JTA

Rabbi accused of rape bans followers from attacking cops

Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who is accused of raping several of his female followers, bans his followers from attacking law enforcement officials during the course of legal proceedings against him.

Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men pray during a demonstration in support of Rabbi Eliezer Berland, ahead of his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv, on July 19, 2016. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The instruction comes in the form of a notice from Berland telling his followers to refrain from harming security forces or anyone escorting him during the investigation into the allegations, Channel 10 reports.

“Anyone who loves the rabbi must beware that he does not do him harm,” the notice signed by Berland says.

Arab Israeli actress told to fly without luggage at Ben Gurion

Arab Israeli actress Samar Qupty is detained for hours at Ben Gurion Airport and only allowed to fly once she agrees to leave her luggage behind.

The 27-year-old Qupty, who lives in Nazareth, was heading for a film festival in Colombia when she was stopped and questioned for two hours and made to abandon her bags before she was allowed on the plane, the Ynet news website reports.

The actress posts an angry message on Facebook about her experience, along with an image of the bag she was given when her own luggage was confiscated.

“You didn’t know how I even dared to think that I deserve to fly to Colombia,” she writes on Facebook, in an open letter to the airport.

“It’s not clear to you what an Arab woman is going to do there alone, even though it’s already been explained to you that I’m going to represent my movie ‘Junction 48’ at the film festival there. And even though I have the invitation and the program and everything necessary to prove that this indeed is the intention, you suspect.”

After two hours of waiting, she says, she is told by a security officer that she can fly if she leaves her luggage in Israel.

“After a brief argument, he explains that they have had some kind of indication from my shoes, and therefore I have to leave all my things with them,” she writes.

After spate of calamities, MDA issues Pokemon warning

Magen David Adom issues a public service warning after a series of accidents in Israel involving Pokemon Go players.

According to Ynet, the rescue service’s statement warns the public about using the game, which it calls “a dangerous phenomenon that is gathering momentum.”

The Pokemon Go app uses satellite locations, graphics and camera capabilities to overlay cartoon monsters on real-world settings, challenging players to capture and train them for battles.

The MDA warning comes several days after an Israeli teenager had to be rescued after losing consciousness in the sea while chasing a Pokemon Go monster.

ISRAEL: 17yo tried to catch #PokemonGO, entered the sea and almost drowned pic.twitter.com/8wiM9XCN5Y

— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) July 26, 2016

Strike delays decision on Katsav parole

A decision on parole for disgraced former president Moshe Katsav is being delayed due to a strike by court officials.

According to Channel 10, a decision should have been taken at the start of next week on whether to grant early release to Katsav, who is currently serving a seven-year sentence for rape and other offenses.

A new date to discuss the parole has not yet been set, Channel 10 says. The strike has been going on for more than two weeks.

Court extends remand of rabbi accused of rape

Lod District Court approves a four-day remand extension for Rabbi Eliezer Berland, who is accused of raping several female followers.

The ruling comes after a request by police to keep him in custody as they investigate the claims against him, Channel 2 says.

Merkel: Attacks won’t change my mind on helping refugees

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rebuffs calls to reverse her welcoming stance toward refugees after a series of brutal attacks in the country.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gestures at a wide-ranging press conference on domestic and foreign policy in Berlin on 28 July, 2016, following a spate of attacks that has reignited criticism of her liberal stance on asylum. (AFP PHOTO/TOBIAS SCHWARZ)

Merkel, who interrupted her summer holiday to face the media in Berlin, says the four assaults within a week were “shocking, oppressive and depressing,” but not a sign that authorities had lost control.

The German leader says the assailants “wanted to undermine our sense of community, our openness and our willingness to help people in need.” But, she says, “we firmly reject this.”

— AFP

Turkey urges Germany to extradite Gulen suspects

Turkey is calling on Germany to extradite suspects linked to US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, accused by Ankara of masterminding this month’s failed military coup.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tells CNN-Turk that Berlin should extradite “parallel state judges and prosecutors” who are in the country. He does not give further details on the identity or position of any coup suspects who may be in Germany.

Ankara has accused Gulen of running a parallel state in Turkey by infiltrating Turkish state institutions to the highest level. Gulen denies this and has strongly denied any involvement in the July 15 coup.

Cavusoglu also tells CNN-Turk that relations “would be affected” if the United States did not extradite the reclusive Pennsylvania-based cleric Gulen.

— AFP

Trump says call for Russia to hack Clinton was ‘sarcasm’

Donald Trump seeks to douse an outcry provoked by his challenge to Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton’s emails, by saying he was being sarcastic.

“Of course I’m being sarcastic,” the Republican presidential nominee tells Fox News, a day after making the sensational suggestion at a news conference.

“They don’t even know frankly if it’s Russia, they have no idea if it’s Russia, if it’s China, if it’s someone else. Who knows who it is,” Trump tells Fox.

“The real problem is what was said on those emails from the Democratic National Committee,” he says. “What they said on those emails is a disgrace and they’re just trying to deflect from that.”

The GOP nominee said yesterday: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.”

The Clinton campaign calls his remarks a “national security issue.”

“This has to be the first time that a major presidential candidate has actively encouraged a foreign power to conduct espionage against his political opponent,” says Clinton’s senior policy adviser Jake Sullivan.

— AFP

Russia announces aid operation for Syria’s besieged Aleppo

Russia announces a “large-scale” aid operation to allow civilians and fighters to flee the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo, as Syria’s President Bashar Assad offers an amnesty to rebels who surrender.

Government forces have surrounded rebel-held districts in eastern Aleppo since July 17, sparking fears for at least 200,000 people who live there.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu says three humanitarian corridors are being opened “to aid civilians held hostage by terrorists and for fighters wishing to lay down their arms.”

He tells Russian news agencies that a fourth corridor will be opened to the north of Aleppo for rebels to flee with their weapons.

Medical and food assistance will be provided along the routes for civilians and fighters who lay down their weapons, Shoigu says, adding the operation would get underway later today.

Assad, meanwhile, issues a decree offering an amnesty to rebels who surrender over the next three months, according to the official SANA news agency.

— AFP

Belgium arrests Israeli who won’t divorce his wife

Police in Antwerp, Belgium arrest Oded Guez, a Israeli professor who refuses to grant his long-estranged wife a divorce under Jewish law.

Guez is suspected of using a forged passport and assuming a false identity to leave Israel after he was ordered by the courts to grant his wife the divorce she has been seeking for years, Haaretz reports.

Oded Guez (handout via JTA)

He disappeared in April, after the Rabbinical High Court excommunicated him in an effort to pressure him to agree to the divorce.

Jewish Women who are not given a get, or Jewish divorce, are called agunot or “chained women,” as they cannot remarry according to Orthodox religious law. Religious judges do not have the authority to nullify marriages of reluctant husbands.

Syria extremist group al-Nusra splits from al-Qaeda

Syrian jihadist group al-Nusra Front announces its split from al-Qaeda, after days of speculation that a separation was imminent.

The group is renaming itself Jabhat al-Sham, its leader in Syria Abu Mohammed al-Golani says in his first recording.

Breaking: Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusra announces split from al-Qaeda, in first recording by its leader pic.twitter.com/ywyLP6Xgx6

— roi kais (@kaisos1987) July 28, 2016

Report: Erdogan wants to control army, intel agencies

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is reportedly planning to take direct control of the country’s security forces in a restructure following the recent failed coup attempt by members of the military.

CNN-Turk reports that the changes will affect both the army and the intelligence agencies.

Watchdog to PM: Release Gaza war report or I’ll call for probe

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira tells Netanyahu that he will recommend a commission of inquiry into the handling of the 2014 war with Hamas in Gaza, unless the PM releases the watchdog’s report on the 50-day conflict, according to Channel 2.

State Comptroller Yosef Shapira (left) shakes hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) in December 2012. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Leaks of the report’s contents earlier this year point to a fierce criticism of Netanyahu, then-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon and then IDF-chief Benny Gantz for failing to anticipate the threat posed by Hamas attack tunnels and for withholding information from the security cabinet.

US commander: Turkey unrest could affect Islamic State fight

The top US military commander for the Middle East says he’s concerned the failed coup in Turkey may have longer term effects on the fight against Islamic State militants in the region.

Gen. Joseph Votel tells the Aspen Security Forum that he’s worried the unrest could affect US relations with the Turkish military, noting that some of its leaders have been jailed.

He says military operations out of the air base at Incirlik are back to normal. The US-led coalition uses Incirlik to launch airstrikes, surveillance aircraft and other missions into Syria and Iraq.

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has imposed a three-month state of emergency in the country. More than 13,000 people in the military, judiciary and other institutions have been detained since the July 15 coup attempt.

— AP

SodaStream hires new 300 staff in southern Israel

The SodaStream drinks company hires 300 new employees for its production plant in southern Israel, bringing the number of workers at the Idan Hanegev industrial park near Lehavim to 1,400.

One-third of are the staff are Bedouin from the surrounding area, the business daily Globes reports.

The company, one of the largest employers in the Negev, will hire 70 more people in the coming weeks, according to the report.

The company is also buying 20 new manufacturing machines to keep up with the demand for home carbonated drinks products in Israel and in the West.

Employees working at the SodaStream factory in Israel’s Negev Desert next to the city of Rahat, September 2, 2015. (Dan Balilty/AP Images)

— JTA

Egypt snubs Liberman on envoy’s Revolution Day bash

Egypt failed to invite Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman to this evening’s Revolution Day party at the home of its ambassador to Israel, Channel 10 says, while Netanyahu and Rivlin are both in attendance.

Revolution Day is celebrated in Egypt on July 23, and marks the 1952 military coup that led to the overthrow of King Farouk and the creation of a republic.

Channel 10 says Liberman’s office confirmed that he had not received an invitation.

This is the first time since 2009 that Israeli leaders have been invited to the annual bash, and is a further sign of a recent thaw between the two states. The hawkish defense minister has made some anti-Egypt remarks in the past, including a threat to blow up the Aswan Dam that runs across the River Nile.

PM attends Egyptian envoy’s party, hails Sissi peace push

Attending a party held by Egypt’s Israel ambassador, Netanyahu hails recent attempts by Egyptian President President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi to jump start the stalled peace process with the Palestinians.

“We welcome the efforts by Sissi to advance peace and we welcome the effort to incorporate other Arab states in this effort as a broader peace between all the peoples of the Middle East,” Netanyahu says.

He congratulates the Egyptian people on their Revolution Day holiday, calling it a day when they celebrate their “proud, unsurpassed history, rich culture [and] many accomplishments.”

The 1979 peace treaty between the two countries shows that peace “between Arabs and Israelis and is possible and sustainable,” the PM says.

“I’m proud that our two nations are at peace for nearly four decades. Through storms, turbulences, earthquakes we have remained in peace and we shall remain in peace. It is the foundation of our national vision and our vision for the region and beyond,” he says.

— Raphael Ahren

Kerry to hold weekend talks with Abbas in Paris

The State Department says US Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Paris tomorrow to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The two will discuss prospects for a two-state solution, says spokesman John Kirby. Kerry is set to return to the US on Sunday, he says.

.@statedeptspox Kirby announces Secretary @JohnKerry's travel to #France https://t.co/rntsOjxSyM

— Department of State (@StateDept) July 28, 2016

Joint List wages internal war over Hanin Zoabi

Fellow members of Hanin Zoabi’s Joint (Arab) List faction are at war with the controversial MK as they seek to oust her from a senior internal position.

Channel 10 reports that senior figures within the faction, which comprises three separate parties united to overcome a strict Knesset threshold, want Zoabi to step down as head of its committee against violence in the Arab community, on the grounds that her many controversies make her a divisive figure when working with the local authorities.

But, the report says, Zoabi refuses to step down and accuses faction leaders of “dancing to Netanyahu’s tune.”

Ramat Gan slams its chief rabbi for anti-LGBT comments

Ramat Gan council condemns remarks by the city’s chief rabbi Yaakov Ariel, who told a conference last month that members of the LGBT community are “disabled people suffering from a genuine problem that must be solved with psychological and pharmacological treatment.”

In a statement, the council calls on Ariel “to retract his derogatory, exclusionary and abusive comments about thousands of citizens of Israel, and to apologize for his remarks.”

The decision to condemn Ariel’s comments was made at the behest of council member Roi Barzilai, Ynet says.