ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 536
Elie Leshem is deputy editor of The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel liveblogged Tuesday’s news as it unfolded.
The Shas party threatens to break coalition discipline in Knesset votes unless Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also the communications minister, fires the newly appointed chairman of Channel 10 News for comments he made against Shas and its leader, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri.
“So long as this isn’t carried out [the firing], the movement’s lawmakers will vote in the Knesset plenum as they see fit,” a Shas statement says. “The Mizrahi population has stopped being silent.”
According to Haaretz, Rami Sadan, a close associate of the Netanyahu family who was appointed to the new post Monday, told Channel 10 News’s board of directors that he, “like you, part of the elite, hate the Shas movement and that thief Aryeh Deri. But we, as the elite, have to broaden the channel’s circles and appeal to the audience of Shas, to Massouda from Sderot.”
He was using a generic Mizrahi-sounding name. In calling Deri a thief, he was referring to the Shas leader’s conviction for bribery and 22-month prison term.
— Sue Surkes
Germany’s interior ministry says 55,259 asylum applications — mostly by Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis — were filed in the country in May.
The figure represents an increase of 113 percent compared with the same month in 2015.
The high number is partly due to the lag between migrants’ arriving in Germany and formally applying for asylum.
Last year German authorities registered almost 1.1 million arrivals of people who claimed to be fleeing war or persecution.
Toward the end of 2015 hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers were arriving monthly.
The number of new arrivals has decreased in recent months due to the closure of borders in southeastern Europe and Turkey.
The interior ministry says that 16,281 asylum seekers entered the country in May.
— AP
MK Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union) also urges Prime Minister Netanyahu to fire Rami Sadan, the newly appointed Channel 10 News chief, over his reported comments disparaging Shas.
“This was an unfortunate, bizarre and unprofessional appointment to begin with, involving a wheeler-dealer confidant of Netanyahu,” she says in a statement, “but his racist, contemptuous comments… against Mizrahim are an extremely severe infraction that renders him unsuited to fulfill this sensitive position.”
Zionist Union MK Shelly Yachimovich on April 12, 2016 (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hints in televised remarks that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) was behind a bomb attack in central Istanbul that left 11 people dead.
For the PKK to target major cities such as Istanbul “is nothing new,” Erdogan says after visiting the injured at an Istanbul hospital.
Forensic experts and officials search the site of a a bomb attack that targeted a bus shuttle service carrying anti-riot police in the Vezneciler district of Istanbul on June 7, 2016 (AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE)
— AFP
The Channel 10 News chief whose fresh appointment has been roiled by controversy denies the statements attributed to him.
“These things never happened,” Rami Sadan says in a statement. “People who are concerned about the appointment are trying to cause infighting within the religious community. There’s great affection between me and the Sephardic community, and I believe that it should be given more space within the media as well.”
Rami Sadan (Facebook)
The Yesh Atid party calls on Sadan to retract the “racist” and “hateful” comments he reportedly made disparaging the Shas party and the Mizrahi community.
“We firmly condemn the racist, inciting and hateful comments,” the party says in a statement. “We call on Sadan to retract his words and apologize to Shas voters. Such statements deepen the rifts in Israeli society, which have been increasingly growing in recent months, and they have no place in a country that respects all of its citizens.”
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator and the secretary general of the PLO, takes President Reuven Rivlin to task for a visit to West Bank settlements on Monday.
Erekat tells the PA’s official Wafa news agency that the visit “expresses the Israeli approach and its insistence on an apartheid model, and its refusal to abide by international agreements.
“The Israeli president recognizes that the settlements are illegal and amount to a war crime,” he adds.
Erekat calls on the world to denounce Israeli “terrorism” and to stop treating Israel “as if it were a country above the law.”
President Reuven Rivlin visits the Binyamin Regional Council in the West Bank on Monday, June 06, 2016 (Mark Neyman/GPO)
— Dov Lieber
The Turkish foreign minister says normalization between his country and Israel is only one or two meetings away, according to Reuters.
Mevlut Cavusoglu makes the comments during an interview with the state broadcaster, TRT Haber.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (screen capture: YouTube)
Last Thursday, Israel’s energy minister, considered a close confidant of Netanyahu, said that nearly all outstanding issues for a reconciliation agreement with Turkey had been finalized by both sides.
“I’d say we’ve successfully finished dealing with 90 percent of the topics,” Yuval Steinitz said in a radio interview.
— Times of Israel staff contributed
Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office releases video of his visit to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in Moscow today:
Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have a photo op in Moscow shortly.
The photo op will be followed by a meeting between the two men, and a press conference.
Waiting for Putin to greet @IsraeliPM at Kremlin pic.twitter.com/ge2UmLXm17
— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) June 7, 2016
Here Putin will greet @IsraeliPM in a few minutes. Then discussion behind closed doors. Then press conference. pic.twitter.com/uqnqxjGVZd
— Raphael Ahren (@RaphaelAhren) June 7, 2016
— Raphael Ahren
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman meets with the Israel Defense Forces’ Northern Command to assess its preparedness for threats from Lebanon and Syria, and to get a better general understanding of the army.
During his visit, the newly installed Liberman speaks with IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot; the head of the Northern Command, Aviv Kochavi; Maj. Gen. Tamir Hayman; and Maj. Gen. Yossi Bachar.
“I heard reviews of the area, which is an area that is always sensitive, and I can say that our northern border is in good and safe hands,” Liberman says.
“We don’t have any other plans other than maintaining the quiet, and I hope that everyone understands that well, including our neighbors. But in any case, I don’t recommend that anyone test us,” he adds.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman tours Israel’s northern border on Tuesday, June 7, 2016 (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)
— Judah Ari Gross
The colorful Likud MK Oren Hazan has been ousted from his post as deputy Knesset speaker, a position he has been filling in name only, as the speaker, Yuli Edelstein, has for months been preventing him from presiding over plenum sessions.
According to a Channel 10 report, Hazan will be removed from the position to make way for a representative of the Yisrael Beytenu party, which won the spot when it recently joined the governing coalition.
A spokesperson for Hazan is quoted as decrying the decision and saying it’s “bizarre” that it was announced while Hazan was “on a plane and unavailable, as part of a public diplomacy tour in the Unite States on behalf of the state.”
The spokesperson names coalition chairman David Bitan as the man behind the “dirty, underhanded trick.”
The ruling Likud party issues a first response to the flap involving allegedly racist comments by Rami Sadan, the newly appointed head of Channel 10 News.
“It should be ascertained whether the statements attributed to Mr. Sadan were indeed made, because he vehemently denies that they were,” Likud says in a statement. “If it indeed turns out that the statements were made, then they are very grave comments and the prime minister rejects them outright.”
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi endorses Hillary Clinton for president as her home state of California begins presidential primary voting, ending months of artful fence-sitting during which Pelosi praised both Clinton and rival Bernie Sanders.
“I’m a voter in California and I have voted for Hillary Clinton for president of the United States,” Pelosi tells ABC’s “Good Morning America,” saying she is “proud to endorse her for that position.”
Pelosi says in a statement issued by her office that Clinton has demonstrated “her vision, her knowledge, her ability, indeed her stamina, to get the job done for the American people.”
Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on the eve of Tuesday’s voting, according to an Associated Press tally.
In a call for party unity following a divisive primary season, Pelosi adds: “I congratulate and thank Senator Bernie Sanders for the great invigoration he is bringing to the presidential primary, and welcome the political and intellectual participation of his supporters to advance our shared fight for progress for the American people.”
— AP
MOSCOW – Netanyahu and Putin hail the increasingly cordial ties between the two countries at the beginning of their meeting in the Kremlin.
“We give great importance to our relationship with Israel,” Putin says, mentioning that many Russian-speakers live in Israel.
Netanyahu, speaking in Hebrew, which is translated into Russian by Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin, says he wants to reinforce Putin’s point and mentions that two ministers in his government are Russian-speakers. It is a reference to Elkin and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. (He appears to forget new Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver.)
The two leaders are now continuing their discussion behind closed doors and will emerge later for a joint press conference.
— Raphael Ahren
An Israeli court has set free from house arrest an Australian woman wanted by her country for multiple sexual abuses.
Today’s ruling says former principal Malka Leifer is mentally unfit to stand trial. She’ll get psychiatric care instead.
Leifer, who ran a school for ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls in Melbourne, fled to Israel in 2008. Australia accuses her of abusing the children in her care and has sought her extradition.
Malka Leifer (YouTube screenshot)
She was arrested by Israeli police in 2014 at the request of Australian authorities. Australia’s deputy ambassador to Israel, James McGarry, says his country still “retains a strong interest” in her extradition.
Child welfare advocate Shana Aaronson calls the ruling “devastating,” saying many victims now live in Israel and fear bumping into their former abuser on the street.
— AP
Iraqi officials say a rare car bomb in the Shiite holy city of Karbala has killed seven civilians and wounded nearly two dozen.
A police officer says the bomb went off in a commercial area in the city, which is some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Baghdad. Karbala is home to the Imam Hussein Shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.
A medical official confirms the casualty figures. Both officials speak on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to brief reporters.
No one immediately claims responsibility for the attack.
— AP
The Knesset House Committee approves the ouster of Oren Hazan as deputy Knesset speaker.
He will be replaced by Yisrael Beytenu party member Hamad Amar, in accordance with the deal that saw Beytenu join the governing coalition late last month.
The appointment still requires the approval of the Knesset plenum.
MOSCOW – The Israeli right is not concerned over recent peace overtures by Prime Minister Netanyahu since they will ultimately amount to nothing, Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel says.
At the same time, he tells The Times of Israel, by invoking his desire for a two-state solution, Netanyahu fuels the notion held by many Israelis that Palestinian statehood is inevitable.
Instead, Ariel proposes Israel annex Area C – the part of the West Bank controlled by Israel — and pour NIS 10 billion into the other Palestinian areas to drastically improve the local population’s quality of life.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu visits the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow on Tuesday, June 7, 2016. To his left, in sunglasses, is Minister Uri Ariel. (Haim Zach / GPO)
“I am not worried so much, even though there are surprises in life,” Ariel says, referring to Netanyahu’s recent reiterations of his desire to arrive at a peace agreement with the Palestinians and his partial embrace of the Arab Peace Initiative, which calls for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and a “just” and “agreed” solution to the refugee question.
“In the end the Arabs will not agree there is no right of return — they want to return to wherever they want,” Ariel, a member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, said. “In Israel everyone agrees — even the [center-left] Zionist Union, that there will be no right of return. And there are other issues which for them are non-negotiable.”
The full interview with Uri Ariel will be published on The Times of Israel later this evening.
— Raphael Ahren
By a narrow margin, the American Anthropological Association votes against a measure to boycott Israeli academia.
Participation in the vote is the largest in AAA history, according to its website, encompassing 51 percent of its members, 2,423 of whom oppose the bid and 2,384 of whom support it.
“The membership has spoken and we hear them,” says AAA President Alisse Waterston. “We appreciate this was a difficult vote on an important and contentious issue. I’m especially proud that our members participated in knowledgeable, thoughtful, respectful debate throughout the process, and that AAA offers a model for informed engagement on difficult subjects.
“Now is the time for us to come together as an association steadfastly committed to advancing scholarly knowledge, to finding solutions to human and social problems, to giving voice to the underserved and to serving as a guardian of human rights,” she says.
Rami Sadan, the new Channel 10 executive who allegedly made racist comments about Mizrahi Jews yesterday, issues another denial, this time on Facebook, saying he is mulling a defamation suit, apparently against Haaretz, which broke the report.
“It upsets me that since this morning people are anonymously quoting things I never said,” he writes. “I am looking seriously at the option of filing a libel claim.”
He goes on to praise the Shas party, which figured prominently in his alleged comments, and which has threatened to vote against coalition measures unless he is ousted.
“The Shas movement brought about a revolution in the State of Israel,” Sadan says, and goes on to assert that “since this morning we have been making an effort to contact Minister Rabbi Aryeh Deri, who has yet to respond.”
He goes on to imply that the leak about his alleged comments targeted him due to the fact that he is religious.
“The media should be lovingly open to all opinions and communities in Israel,” he writes. “We will only benefit from it.”
Ex-Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s camp claims victory in Peru’s photo-finish presidential election, but controversial rival Keiko Fujimori says it’s not over till the last vote is counted.
Kuczynski is the son of a Jewish doctor from Germany.
Presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski celebrates from the balcony of his headquarter in Lima, Peru, June 5, 2016. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
With more than 96 percent of the ballots in from Sunday’s polls, the Oxford-trained economist known as “PPK” has the edge in the race to lead one of Latin America’s fastest-growing economies: 50.15 percent of the vote to 49.85 percent for Fujimori, the daughter of jailed ex-president Alberto Fujimori.
Kuczynski’s running mate, Martin Vizcarra, declares victory.
“This result is irreversible,” he tells RPP TV, as the national elections office (ONPE) continues tallying ballots from remote areas and overseas.
“Even if the ONPE hasn’t filled in the missing numbers, our people on the ground have copies of the result sheets and that enables us to calculate that PPK will win by about 100,000 votes.”
— AFP
At a press conference after his meeting in Moscow with Netanyahu, Putin expresses support for a “comprehensive and just” solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Walla news site.
“We will be partners in the struggle against terrorism,” he is said to have added.
Standing alongside Putin, Netanyahu says allegations that he received money illicitly from a Frenchman accused of fraud are part of a concerted campaign to oust him from power.
He terms it, along with a growing number of other recent instances where his integrity has been questioned, “systematic political persecution” and “false accusations” by people who failed to oust him from power through elections.
He reiterates his spokespeople’s denial of claims by the Frenchman, Arnaud Mimran, to the effect that he funded an election campaign by Netanyahu, and states that he received the money — “not a million euros,” as Mimran had initially claimed — as a “private citizen for hasbara for the benefit of Israel.”
Netanyahu goes on to say that other legal issues involving his wife, Sara, are part of the same campaign.
“They trample the image of my wife and turn her into human dust,” he adds.
“I believe in our justice system, and nothing will come of any of these cases, and do you know why? Because there is nothing,” Netanyahu continues.
It is the first response by Netanyahu in his own voice to Mimran’s claims.
— Raphael Ahren contributed
During the press conference with Netanyahu, Putin lauds the expected rapprochement between Israel and Turkey, whose foreign minister said earlier today that a detente is only one or two meetings away.
Golan Yozhpaz, the CEO of Channel 10 News, confirms that the new chairman of the company’s board of directors, Rami Sadan, made disparaging remarks about the Shas party and Mizrahi Israelis.
Yochpaz is the first person who was present in the meeting to confirm that Sadan indeed made the statements attributed to him in a Haaretz report this morning. Sadan has vehemently denied the report, which sparked a coalition crisis with Shas.
“After a firestorm that’s lasted for hours, it should be stated clearly: Rami Sadan told the members of the board and me, ‘I hate Shas and Deri just like you in the elites,'” Yochpaz tweets.
“He added: ‘We must get to Pirhia from Sderot.’ His comments were interrupted. Any other description is a distortion of the truth.”
Pirhia is an Israeli woman’s name that is most common among older Israeli Mizrahi women. Sadan was said to have stated that despite the fact that he and others in the meeting were “eiltes,” they had to make an effort to create programming that appealed to a lower common denominator.
Putin says he and Netanyahu discussed the situation in the Middle East and particularly in Syria, where Russia has conducted an air campaign against those opposing the government. Moscow has coordinated its action with Israel to prevent any possible incidents between Russian and Israeli militaries.
“We talked about the need to take joint efforts to confront international terrorism,” he says at the press conference. “We undoubtedly are allies in that area, and our countries have accumulated a significant experience in fighting extremism. We will strengthen contacts with Israeli colleagues in that sphere.”
Netanyahu says he and Putin discussed contacts between the two nations’ militaries in the region “to prevent any incidents, and also to ensure success in fighting our common enemy: international terrorism.”
“We had a long and thorough discussion of the challenge cast to the entire civilized world by the radical Islamic terrorism,” he says.
— AP
Arnaud Mimran, the alleged French fraudster who said he had given Netanyahu a campaign contribution, is now dovetailing with the prime minister’s version of the events.
“Everything that Bibi says is true,” he tells Channel 2. “It’s possible that I got the numbers wrong because it’s been more than 10 years.”
Initial reports said Mimran had testified to giving Netanyahu a million euros in 2009, when Netanyahu was running for prime minister. Netanyahu denied that account, asserting that the contribution was made in 2001, amounted to a much smaller sum, and funded public diplomacy efforts rather than a campaign.
“It was a long time ago, so it’s possible I made a mistake with the sum,” he tells Channel 2. “In any event, there was nothing illegal on Bibi’s part. I transferred a sum to him and invited him to vacations in Monaco and a ski resort in the French Alps.”
He says that, all told, it adds up to 150,000 euros, or a million French francs.
Iran says it won’t give visas to three US congressmen opposed to its recent nuclear deal with world powers.
The Foreign Ministry issues a statement saying it refused to issue visas to Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-New Jersey; Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas; and Lee Zeldin, R-New York. It says the three wanted to monitor the nuclear agreement.
The ministry says that it refused the request over “the completely inappropriate way you have demanded to visit Iran and interfere in what is of no relevance to (your) official functions.'”
In a statement, LoBiondo says it was “deeply disappointing, though not surprising” that Iran denied “our legitimate request with insults and deflections.” The other two congressmen do not immediately respond to requests for comment.
— AP
