Centrist parties soar, left implodes in latest poll

UN says Israel plans to ratify nuke test ban treaty

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly says Israel is prepared to ratify a treaty banning nuclear tests, a senior UN official says after meeting with the Israeli leader.

Lassina Zerbo, who heads the UN organization created to implement the treaty, tells The Associated Press that Benjamin Netanyahu considers the issue of ratifying the treaty a matter of “when, rather than if.”

Israeli ratification would move the treaty closer to taking effect, leaving only seven holdouts among the 44 countries that must ratify it for the pact to go live.

Zerbo, who heads the Vienna-based Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, speaks to the AP by telephone after meeting in Israel with Netanyahu.

He considers ratification by Israel a key step toward a nuclear test-free zone in the Middle East and says the commitment by Netanyahu was a first for the prime minister after protracted discussions on a technical level between the CTBTO and Israeli experts.

While the Israeli prime minister is not committing himself to a specific time-frame for ratification, Zerbo said that is “normal in diplomacy.”

The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, known as the CTBT, has 196 member states — 183 that have signed the treaty and 164 that have ratified it. But the treaty has not entered into force because it still needs ratification by eight countries that had nuclear power reactors or research reactors when the UN General Assembly adopted the treaty in 1996: the United States, China, Iran, Israel, Egypt, India, Pakistan and North Korea.

— AP

‘Argentine’ splurges at Nazi relics auction: report

BERLIN – A buyer who says he came from Argentina spends over 600,000 euros ($680,000) on Nazi memorabilia, including one of Adolf Hitler’s uniform jackets, at a controversial auction in Germany, a report says Monday.

The mystery buyer, dressed in dark clothes and wearing a baseball cap, spends 275,000 euros ($312,000) on the jacket alone and 3,000 euros ($3,400) for a set of Hermann Goering’s silken underwear, among over 50 items he purchases, reports Bild daily.

Using the number “888,” the man outbids others on most items and dominates the Munich auction, reports Bild, which sent an undercover reporter to the event that is formally closed to the press following a public outcry.

The number evokes the neo-Nazi code “88” that marks the eighth letter of the alphabet and stands for the banned greeting “Heil Hitler.”

Last week the Central Council of Jews in Germany appealed to the auction house Hermann Historica to cancel the event, charging it was “scandalous and disgusting” to make money with Nazi relics in such an auction.

When the Bild reporter asks the top bidder who he is, the man reportedly replies in Spanish-accented English that he came “from Argentina” and has bought the items “for a museum,” but declines to give his name.

German law prohibits the open display and distribution of Nazi objects, slogans and symbols, but not their purchase or ownership, for example by researchers and collectors.

— AFP

Nobel economists warn UK of lasting damage from Brexit

LONDON – Ten winners of the Nobel Prize in economics on Monday warn that leaving the European Union would “create major uncertainty” over Britain as a trading nation and inflict lasting economic damage.

“We believe that the UK would be better off economically inside the EU,” the economists say in a letter to The Guardian newspaper.

“British firms and workers need full access to the single market. Brexit would create major uncertainty about Britain’s alternative future trading arrangements, both with the rest of Europe and with important markets like the USA, Canada and China,” they add.

The economists are George Akerlof, Kenneth Arrow, Angus Deaton, Peter Diamond, James Heckman, Eric Maskin, James Mirrlees, Christopher Pissarides, Robert Solow and Jean Tirole.

Britain will go to the polls on Thursday in a referendum on its EU membership, with latest polls predicting a tight result.

— AFP

Palestinian woman killed in West Bank hit-and-run

A Palestinian woman is killed in an apparent hit-and-run in the West Bank.

According to police, the woman was hit by a passing motorist, apparently also Palestinian, who fled the scene.

Police close Route 437 from Adam Junction to Hizme in both directions and are searching for the driver.

Israel: Nuke test ban ratification ‘depends on regional context’

In a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, Israel appears to clarify claims made earlier Monday by a UN official who said Jerusalem was planning to ratify the nuclear test ban treaty.

Netanyahu “said in the meeting that the State of Israel supports the treaty and its goals, and therefore signed it,” the PMO statement reads.

“The prime minister added that the question of ratification depends on the regional context and the appropriate timing,” it adds.

Lassina Zerbo, who heads the UN organization created to implement the treaty, told AP that Netanyahu considers ratifying the treaty a matter of “when, rather than if.”

Israeli ratification would move the treaty closer to taking effect, leaving only seven holdouts among the 44 countries that must ratify it for the pact to go live.

While the Israeli prime minister is not committing himself to a specific time-frame for ratification, Zerbo said that is “normal in diplomacy.”

— AP contributed to this report.

Belgium remains on high alert after weekend arrests

BRUSSELS — Brussels remains on high alert Monday with increased security after a weekend sweep that left three in jail facing terrorism charges, including relatives of two of the March 22 suicide attackers.

The MIVB metro system says a half-dozen subway stations have reduced entry on request from authorities, but all subway lines in the Belgian capital were running during the morning rush hour.

On Saturday, authorities charged three men with terror-related crimes after raids and the detention of 40 people in a major investigation. Authorities say the probe required “immediate intervention” because they feared a new attack was close.

Among those arrested were relatives of the El-Bakraoui brothers, who were among the suicide bombers in the March 22 attacks.

“We know that radicalism, violent extremism, is in a small minority of the Muslim community and it targets families,” Interior Minister Jan Jambon says in an interview with RTBF radio, responding to a question about the family ties among those arrested. He declines to elaborate, beyond saying that “it makes it easier to follow them, because we know where the links are.”

Prime Minister Charles Michel says the nation would remain “extremely vigilant, hour by hour,” and that the terror level across the country would remain at the second-highest level, meaning a threat of an attack “is possible and likely.”

— AP

Brush fire nears northern Jerusalem homes

Six firefighting teams are battling a large brush fire that threatens the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Eshkol.

The fire is nearing homes along Ramat Hagolan Street, say officials, but firefighters are not evacuating residents, saying the teams expect to bring the fire under control imminently.

Biden asserts Trump could trigger surge in anti-Americanism

Warning of a potential surge in anti-Americanism, Vice President Joe Biden is tearing into Donald Trump’s views on foreign policy and urging the country not to follow the presumptive Republican nominee down a path of isolationism and bigotry.

Biden, in a speech Monday to the Center for New American Security, plans to deliver a point-by-point rebuttal of Trump’s ideas on immigration, terrorism and relations with Russia. In excerpts of his speech released in advance by the White House, Biden cautions against policies he says would make the US and its neighborhood poorer, less democratic and less secure.

“Wielding the politics of fear and intolerance, like proposals to ban Muslims from entering the United States or slandering entire religious communities as complicit in terrorism, calls into question America’s status as the greatest democracy in the history of the world,” Biden plans to say.

Biden’s speech to the Washington think tank is to form his most concerted and lengthy rebuke to date of Trump, and comes as Biden and US President Barack Obama are increasingly inserting themselves into the election in an attempt to stop Trump. Earlier this month both Biden and Obama endorsed Hillary Clinton, and both Democrats are expected to start campaigning aggressively for her in the coming days.

— AP

UK lawmakers return to London to pay tribute to slain MP

LONDON — British lawmakers return to Parliament Monday to pay tribute to lawmaker Jo Cox, as the man charged with her slaying is set to appear in court for a bail hearing.

Parliament is in recess for campaigning in the European Union referendum when Cox was shot and stabbed to death outside a library in her northern England constituency on Thursday.

The killing — the first of a sitting British legislator in more than a quarter of a century — prompted an outpouring of shock and grief, and brought a three-day halt to campaigning for this week’s referendum.

Cox was a Labor legislator who had championed the plight of Syrian refugees and strongly backed a “remain” vote in Thursday’s EU poll.

Speaker John Bercow recalls the House of Commons to allow lawmakers to honor their colleague. In a break with tradition, members are allowed to sit together, rather than dividing along party lines.

The House is generally recalled only at times of crisis or high significance. The last time it happened was in September 2014, so lawmakers could vote on whether to launch airstrikes against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

— AP

Minimum wage raised to NIS 4,825 per month

Israel’s minimum wage is set to rise to NIS 4,825 ($1,253) per month on July 1.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who also serves as economy minister, signs the new pay rise into law today.

The move follows a cabinet decision earlier this year that raises the minimum wage to NIS 5,000 ($1,297) by January 1, 2017, but does so in four installments. Monday’s decision marks the third installment.

Netanyahu calls the move “appropriate, just and important,” and says it will “help, even if only a little, the hundreds of thousands of workers in Israel whose salaries are set by the minimum wage.”

Transportation minister backs offshore seaport for Gaza

Israel’s transportation minister says he is pushing for the construction of an “artificial island” off the coast of Hamas-ruled Gaza to alleviate hardship in the blockaded coastal strip.

Yisrael Katz says Monday his plan calls for an eight square kilometer (three square mile) island linked to Gaza by a five-kilometer (three-mile) bridge. He says the island, estimated to cost $5 billion, would include a port and perhaps a future airport. Israel would supervise security checks but it would otherwise be run by Palestinians and the international community.

With Israel and Egypt maintaining a naval blockade of Gaza, the Palestinians have long been pleading for a port to connect them to the rest of the world.

Katz says Israel has no objection as long as its security needs are met.

— AP

EU boosts naval mission in Mediterranean

The European Union is boosting the role of its naval operation in the Mediterranean as increasing numbers of desperate migrants set off from Libya in unseaworthy boats.

EU foreign ministers agree Monday at talks in Luxembourg to extend Operation Sophia by a year to July 2017 and task it with building up Libya’s coastguard and navy.

The EU wants to move the operation into Libyan waters, and longer-term on land, to thwart migrant smugglers. But divisions in Libya have delayed the broad recognition of a national unity government that would approve the move.

The West hopes Libya’s new government will unify the country and help combat the Islamic State affiliate there.

— AP

Kahlon: Israel should accept America’s military aid offer

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon calls for wrapping up talks with the US on a new 10-year military aid package, and hints that Israel’s refusal to do so thus far may be linked to American politics.

“The United States is our most important strategic partner, a true friend, and we have to treat it that way,” Kahlon says in the Knesset. “The [American] offer is positive and fair. The defense establishment can certainly live with the current offer, and there’s no reason to take any act that will be interpreted as intervention in domestic American issues.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman is in the US right now for meetings with his American counterpart Ashton Carter. A key issue in their talks will be the defense package.

According to Israeli media reports, Israel is seeking over $40 billion in aid over ten years, or roughly $4 billion per year, up from slightly more than $30 billion currently on offer. It’s not clear what the gap represents in terms of actual military expenditures.

Israel seizes wet suits meant for Hamas naval commandos

The Defense Ministry says Israeli forces intercepted dozens of wet suits being smuggled into Gaza for use by Hamas’s naval commandos.

The Defense Ministry’s Border Crossings Authority, “in conjunction with the ISA [Shin Bet], have foiled an attempt to smuggle dozens of professional wet suits that were suspected of being destined for terrorist elements in the Gaza Strip, including Hamas’s naval commando unit,” a statement says.

The wet suits were hidden among sportswear imported from overseas “into the Palestinian Authority areas and reshipped to the Gaza Strip,” it explains.

The wet suits are seized by Israeli authorities, and intelligence agencies launch an investigation to identify the alleged smugglers.

Meanwhile @MoDIsrael intercepts shipment of diving suits on border w/ #Gaza suspected to reach #Hamas terrorists. pic.twitter.com/LvXF9RsSa4

— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) June 20, 2016

Video of Israel’s seizure of wet suits headed to Hamas

EU calls for ‘incentives’ for Israelis, Palestinians to make peace

The European Union proposes “concrete” incentives for Israelis and Palestinians to restart peace negotiations at a peace summit later this year in Paris.

During their monthly meeting in Brussels, the union’s 28 foreign ministers task the European Commission and the EU’s External Action Service — its equivalent of a foreign ministry — to make a “concrete and substantial contribution” to international efforts seeking to revitalized the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process through a “global set of incentives” for both two parties.

“The EU is determined, alongside other international and regional partners, to bring a concrete and substantial contribution to a global set of incentives for the parties to make peace with a view to an international conference planned to be held before the end of the year,” the foreign ministers state.

The EU’s foreign ministers also unanimously endorsed the French peace initiative, which started with a conference in Paris earlier this month. Israel flatly rejected the French move, arguing that it hardens Palestinian negotiation positions and thus is an impediment to peace.

— Raphael Ahren

Report: Holland bends its laws to keep paying Israeli settlers

AMSTERDAM – The Dutch government made a special exception to its own pension laws in order to keep paying its citizens living in the West Bank, a Dutch newspaper reports.

The practice, which applies to several dozen Dutch citizens living in the West Bank, is revealed in a 4,000-word expose published on June 18 in NRC Handelsblad, which is one of Holland’s most highly-regarded daily publications.

The exception is to a 2006 law that limits eligibility to a full, untaxed Dutch state pension to residents of countries that have a social security agreement with the Netherlands. Israel has one but the Dutch government does not recognize the agreement as applying to territory beyond the Green Line: the West Bank, Golan and East Jerusalem. Residents of those areas who receive Dutch pensions are registered with Holland as living in Israel, but many of them have been informed in recent years their state pensions will be cut. The cut, however, has not been applied because of politicians’ intervention.

The Dutch government has taxed or limited pensions paid to residents of other areas internationally viewed as occupied, including Western Sahara and eastern Cyprus.

— JTA

Helen Mirren to receive Jerusalem arts award

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat will bestow the Jerusalem of Gold Award for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities to British actress Helen Mirren, the mayor’s office announces Monday.

Mirren “has inspired millions through her artistic craftsmanship and devotion to bettering the world,” a statement from the mayor’s office says.

The award ceremony will take place at Jerusalem’s City Hall on Wednesday.

The award “recognizes outstanding individuals who have achieved worldwide renown for their inspirational work” and “have used their platform to positively impact the world,” the statement reads.

Defense chief Liberman meets US counterpart Carter

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman meets in Washington with US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.

The meeting takes place in a “good and friendly atmosphere,” according to a statement from Liberman’s spokesman.

According to observers, the meeting centers on negotiations between Israel and the US over a renewed 10-year military aid package. Talks are reportedly stalled over disagreement between Israel and the US about the scale of the aid package.

Liberman’s statement Monday doesn’t mention the aid package. The defense chiefs discuss “global terror, developments in various arenas in the Middle East, and a series of issues related to relations between the two countries,” it says.

Liberman also offers his “condolences to the American people” over the “horrific terror attack that took place in Orlando” earlier this month.

American Jewish patron of settlements buried in Jerusalem

Irving Moskowitz, an American patron of Israel’s West Bank settlements, is laid to rest on the Mount of Olives on Monday.

Hundreds of mourners gather under heavy security for the funeral. The 88-year-old multimillionaire died at his home in Miami last Thursday.

Moskowitz donated millions of dollars to the Elad Foundation and Ateret Cohanim, two groups that have helped some 3,000 Israeli Jews move into the Old City and Arab neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat vows to continue Moskowitz’s legacy and “support and strengthen every Jewish community in Jerusalem, in its east and west, north and south.”

He also supported charity projects in the US and disaster relief abroad, including in the Philippines, Turkey and Haiti.

He is buried at the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives that overlooks the Old City and is home to the graves of many key figures in Jewish and Israeli history.

— AP and Times of Israel staff

French police couple buried after jihadist murder

Hundreds of people pay a final tribute to a policeman and his partner who are buried in southern France on Monday after being knifed to death by an extremist.

Police commander Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and his partner Jessica Schneider were killed at their home outside Paris a week ago by known jihadist Larossi Abballa, 25.

Family, friends, police officers and government officials gather for an emotional memorial service in the small town of Pezenas in southern France, Salvaing’s home town.

“Jessica and Jean-Baptiste will always be in our hearts,” says a police officer who worked with the couple. Schneider was a civilian employee of the same police station as her partner.

The couple are then laid to rest at a cemetery in the nearby town of Montagnac.

— AFP

Hebrew University ranks 17th in Asia, first in Israel — study

The 2016 Times Higher Education University Rankings place the Hebrew University of Jerusalem at No. 17 in Asia, a jump of eight spots from 2015, when the university was 25th.

Hebrew U is also the top Israeli university in the list, which ranks the top 200 universities on the continent.

Tel Aviv University follows close on Hebrew U’s heels at 20th. The Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa is 36th.

Israel pans EU ministers’ peace push, calls for direct talks

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem responds dismissively to an EU proposal for “concrete” incentives for Israelis and Palestinians to restart peace negotiations.

In a Monday statement, the EU’s foreign ministers also unanimously endorse the French peace initiative, which started with a conference in Paris earlier this month.

In its response, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman repeats Israel’s rejection of the French peace initiative and calls for bilateral talks.

“This is an unfortunate step that pushes back efforts to provide the peace that Israel needs,” the ministry statement says.

“International conferences like those that the European Union’s foreign minister welcomed today push peace farther away, because they enable the Palestinians to continue to avoid direct talks and compromise,” the statement adds.

Later this week, both President Reuven Rivlin and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas are scheduled to meet separately with EU foreign policy czar Federica Mogherini.

— Raphael Ahren

Chef says Sarona Market lost half its business due to terror attack

Celebrity chef Israel Aharoni, who runs a small restaurant at the Sarona Market, says business has fallen over 50% for many businesses at the commercial center since the terror attack that killed four at the site earlier this month.

On June 8, two Palestinians opened fire at the Max Brenner restaurant in the central Tel Aviv shopping area, killing four Israelis and wounding many more.

In a Channel 2 interview Monday, Aharoni says his own restaurant is changing its menu in an effort to attract new visitors, and adds that he understands those who are frightened to return to the site of the shooting.

Iran newspaper shut after angering Revolutionary Guards

An independent newspaper in Iran says authorities shut it down following complaints from the Revolutionary Guards.

The Ghanoon newspaper says in a statement on its website Monday that Tehran’s prosecutor ordered it to halt operations based on allegations of “libel and spreading lies to create public anxiety.” The statement does not elaborate.

An article published in the newspaper in February criticized the Guard’s handling of the detention of 10 US Navy sailors who were seized the month before and held for around 15 hours.

The newspaper compared video footage showing the detained sailors kneeling to Islamic State videos showing the beheading of captives.

At the time, Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammad Ali Jafari called the article “a big mistake” and said Ghanoon “must repent for what it has said.”

— AP

Jewish newspaper declares 24-hour moratorium on Trump coverage

An American Jewish newspaper on Monday announces it will impose a 24-hour blackout of coverage of Republican candidate Donald Trump in protest over the anti-Semitic onslaught faced by many Jewish journalists from far-rightists claiming to support Trump.

“The attack on journalists, and journalism, that we are witnessing today is of a more significant and far more dangerous order of magnitude than anything I’ve seen over decades in this business,” explains The Forward editor Jane Eisner in an op-ed Monday.

“Online bullying is a nonpartisan activity — both the far left and the far right are quite good at it — but the virulent anti-Semitism many journalists experience today comes from what is known as the ‘alt-right,’ shadowy white supremacists who mainly hide behind the anonymity of Twitter to traffic in horrible Holocaust imagery and directly threaten Jews,” Eisner explains.

These anti-Semitic attackers tend to support Trump, she adds, “draw on connections with Trump’s presidential campaign, using Trump’s image and targeting his critics, including several of our regular writers.”

Even if “you don’t believe that the presumed Republican standard bearer has stoked this cyber-hate (which is a generous assumption), you have to admit that he appears to have done nothing to minimize or condemn it.”

Starting Tuesday at 5 a.m., the 119-year-old New York-based Jewish paper will not report on Trump or his campaign for 24 hours.

Centrist parties soar, left implodes in latest poll

Channel 1 publishes a political survey that shows some of the fallout of recent political maneuvers.

The ruling Likud party drops from its current 30 seats to 22, the poll says.

Five of those seats go to farther-right party Jewish Home, which jumps from 8 to 13. It’s possible three more of the seats shift to Avigdor Liberman’s rightist Yisrael Beytenu party, which jumps from the current 6 to 9.

The center undergoes a dramatic internal shift, and swells in the process. Kulanu drops from 10 to 6, but a theoretical new party headed by former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon takes 10. Meanwhile, centrist stalwart Yesh Atid soars from its current 11 to 20.

The left, meanwhile, all but crashes. Meretz holds steady at a paltry 5, but Zionist Union implodes, dropping from 24 to 9.

Arab and Haredi parties are largely the same: the Joint (Arab) List unchanged at 13, Shas dropping slightly from 7 to 6 and United Torah Judaism rising slightly from 6 to 7.