The Times of Israel liveblogged Monday’s events as they unfolded.

2:14 pm

Likud cancels weekly faction meeting

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party cancels its weekly faction meeting.

The Walla news site quotes party members as saying the meeting was canceled due to “personal obligations” of coalition chairman MK David Amsalem.

The decision to cancel the meeting comes as the coalition remains on shaky ground over legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox students from military enlistment, which cleared its first legislative hurdle this morning despite opposition by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party.

2:14 pm

Austria: Motives of Iran envoy’s residence knife attacker a mystery

BERLIN (AP) — Austrian police say they have no information yet on the motives of a man who attacked a guard outside the Iranian ambassador’s residence in Vienna and was then fatally shot.

Police say the guard, a 23-year-old Austrian soldier, first tried to deter the assailant in Sunday night’s incident with pepper spray. After the attacker — a 26-year-old Austrian and Vienna resident — stabbed him, he fired several shots. The assailant died at the scene.

The soldier sustained cuts to his right arm but was protected from more serious injuries by his stab-proof jacket.

Police say that the assailant’s motives are “completely unclear” and the local branch of the domestic intelligence and anti-terror agency is looking into the case.

— AP

Police stand in front of the Iranian ambassador’s residence after an attack in Vienna, Austria, on March 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
2:15 pm

BBC staff to testify at UN on Iran targeting Persian service

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The BBC says  its journalists will appeal for the first time directly to the United Nations over what the British broadcaster describes as the “persecution and harassment” by Iran of those affiliated with its Persian service.

The decision by the broadcaster comes after an Iranian court last year froze the assets of more than 150 people associated with its Persian service.

While long targeted by authorities in the Islamic Republic, the BBC says its decision came after harassment by authorities had worsened recently as their complaints had been “completely ignored.”

“We are not the only media organization to have been harassed or forced to compromise when dealing with Iran,” BBC director-general Tony Hall says in a statement. “In truth, this story is much wider: it is a story about fundamental human rights.”

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the Iranian judiciary’s Human Rights Committee, dismissed allegations against Iran by both the UN and others as “racist” and “dictated in Washington, France and London and other places.”

The BBC’s Farsi-language service was barred from operating in Iran after the country’s disputed 2009 presidential election. Many Iranians still listen to its radio shows and watch its satellite television broadcasts. The BBC says the service reaches some 18 million people weekly.

— AP

2:21 pm

Opposition leader accuses Netanyahu, Liberman of a ‘covenant of corruption’

Zionist Union chairman Avi Gabbay slams what he calls a “covenant of corruption” between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Speaking at the opening of his weekly faction meeting, Gabbay says that Netanyahu and Liberman have “played the rest of the coalition with spin and smokescreens.”

Netanyahu and leaders of his coalition’s ultra-Orthodox parties reached an agreement yesterday over a conscription bill, in last-ditch talks aimed at defusing a crisis that some have accused Liberman and Netanyahu of exacerbating in order to force early elections.

“Who would believe that all of the coalition parties would come begging to Netanyahu to ask him to stay prime minister with the huge weight of corruption accusation against him?” Gabbay asks. “Where is your backbone?”

Gabbay, whose Zionist Union party has languished in recent polls, says that he want elections but “will not let Netanyahu use us to set elections at a time that is good for him.”

Asked when he would prefer elections to take place, Gabbay refuses to give a specific preference but says that as the official opposition, “we of course want to replace the government as soon as possible.”

— Raoul Wootliff

2:30 pm

Lapid slams enlistment bill as a ‘fraud,’ calls for elections

Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid calls for fresh elections after ministers approve a bill allowing ultra-Orthodox students to avoid military service in a bid to stave off the government’s collapse.

“What they are calling a compromise on the ‘evasion law’ is proof — if anyone needed it — how cynical, rotten and shameless our politics are,” says Lapid at the start of the party’s weekly faction meeting.

He calls the bill a “fraud” and an “insult to the IDF.”

“First they tell us what is permitted and what is forbidden for us to do at home on Shabbat. Afterwards they transfer billions in indecent political deals. Now they inform us that the army — the IDF, the shield of Israel — is only for suckers prepared to endanger their lives and sacrifice their best years for the state,” he says.

“Netanyahu always says a prime minister is replaced at the ballot box. For the sake of change I agree with him. The time has come to go to the ballot box and replace the prime minister,” Lapid adds.

2:39 pm

Netanyahu calls on Liberman to not bolt government over enlistment bill

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls on Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman to not pull his Yisrael Beytenu party out of the coalition in protest of legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox students from military service.

“I call on all the coalition partners, first and foremost Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, to remain in the government and to continue this partnership in order to guarantee security, prosperity and stability for the State of Israel,” Netanyahu says.

“We face with great challenges and we all know what they are, as well as great opportunities. Therefore, it is important to continue the partnership between us with a broad government as only it can continue to serve the citizens of Israel,” he adds.

2:44 pm

Liberman slams enlistment bill as ‘absurd,’ says his party will vote against it

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman slams a bill exempting ultra-Orthodox students from military service and says his Yisrael Beytenu party will vote against it.

“The legislation as presented is what is called a classic ‘fake law,'” Liberman says at the Yisrael Beytenu faction meeting.

“To expect that Yisrael Beytenu will support this legislation is absurd. This is one big theater of the absurd. We’ll vote against the enlistment law,” he adds.

3:10 pm

Security firm sues ex-driver for allegedly recording Yair Netanyahu

Security firm Modiin Ezrachi sues a former employee for NIS 250,000 ($73,000) for allegedly secretly recording Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair and his friends during a night out in Tel Aviv.

The suit alleges that Roi Rozen made the recording while working as Yair Netanyahu’s driver and later sold it to Hadashot TV news.

In January, the network released a recording of Yair Netanyahu and his friends during a night out at Tel Aviv strip clubs, in which Netanyahu could be heard making disparaging comments about women and telling the son of Israeli gas tycoon Kobi Maimon to “spot” him NIS 400, as the prime minister had approved a contested gas deal benefiting Maimon.

Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is seen in Tel Aviv on November 26, 2017. (Flash90)
3:21 pm

Bennett accuses Liberman and Lapid of pumping up enlistment bill crisis

Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett accuses Yisrael Beytenu chairman Avigdor Liberman and Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid of disingenuously using the coalition crisis over the ultra-Orthodox conscription bill to gain publicity.

“We said a week ago that it was a ‘fake crisis’ and we stand behind it,” Bennett tells his faction meeting at the Knesset.

“But beyond that, in recent days we have seen ‘fake leadership’ which prefers to stand behind publicity polls and populist stunts than what they know is right,” he adds, referring to Liberman and Lapid who have vehemently opposed the bill.

Arguing that the best way to encourage conscription in the ultra-Orthodox community is via a slow and gentle process of inclusion, Bennett, mirroring a tactic used by Netanyahu, held up a graph to show the increase over the past decade.

“Lapid knows this very well and so does Liberman because it’s what the army says. We need to continue this process, not uproot it,” he says.

Bennett adds that he “supports the prime minister’s efforts to end the crisis.”

Asked about his apparent about-face from comments made yesterday accusing Netanyahu of exacerbating the crisis, Bennett says: “Yesterday afternoon we saw a change in the prime minister’s behavior and it appears that he pulled up his sleeves” and started to act “like the responsible adult.”

— Raoul Wootliff

Education Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with the press ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on March 11, 2018. (Marc Israel Sellem/Pool)
3:38 pm

Abbas talks Jerusalem, peace process with King Abdullah in Jordan

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas meets with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman.

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency says the two discuss protecting holy sites in Jerusalem following US President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s capital and his decision to move the American embassy there from Tel Aviv.

Jordan’s Petra news agency says the leaders also discuss how to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

3:55 pm

Jerusalem deputy mayor named as official arrested for suspected bribery

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman is named as the official arrested earlier today for suspected bribery, fraud, breach of trust, abuse of power and tax offenses.

Police say Turgeman is suspected of receiving money in exchange for illegally advancing others’ interests.

He was one of four people arrested this morning. Police say they’ll be brought before a judge this afternoon at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on the extension of their remand.

Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman at an event in Jerusalem on September 1, 2013. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
4:10 pm

Front-runner emerges as next Goldman Sachs chief

NEW YORK — Goldman Sachs announces that co-president Harvey Schwartz will retire, leaving David Solomon the sole president and next in line to become the investment bank’s next chief executive.

“David Solomon will serve as sole President and Chief Operating Officer of the firm upon Harvey’s retirement,” Goldman Sachs says in a news release.

Schwartz, who previously served as chief financial officer and in other senior roles, will leave the company on April 20.

The announcement comes amid speculation over the future leadership of the storied investment bank following a Wall Street Journal report Friday that current chief executive Lloyd Blankfein could retire as soon as this year.

The Journal said Schwartz and Solomon, jointly appointed co-presidents in December 2016, were seen as the two candidates in line to replace Blankfein. The two men were promoted when former president Gary Cohn left Goldman for the White House.

— AFP

4:34 pm

At least 25 killed in IS attacks in northern Iraq

KIRKUK, Iraq — At least 25 civilians and members of government forces have been killed in northern Iraq since late Sunday in attacks by the Islamic State terror group, officials say.

A police officer tells AFP that IS jihadists killed 15 people at a fake roadblock on a major highway in Kirkuk province, north of Baghdad. Another IS attack in the same province killed three others, the officer says.

In the Mosul region, seven people, including the mayor of a village, were killed by IS assailants disguised as soldiers, a local official says.

The attacks come despite Baghdad’s declaration of victory over the jihadist group last year.

— AFP

4:59 pm

For second day, Macedonia marks anniversary of deportation of Jews

SKOPJE, Macedonia — Macedonia is holding a second day of commemorative events to mark the 75th anniversary of the deportation of almost all of the country’s Jewish population to a Nazi death camp.

A total of 7,144 Jews from the capital, Skopje, and cities of Bitola and Stip were confined to ghettos in March 1943 before being deported to the Treblinka death camp in German-occupied Poland.

Ninety-eight percent of them died there.

Prime ministers Boyko Borissov of Bulgaria and Deniz Zvizdic of Bosnia join a “March of the Living” rally in Skopje. Relatives of Holocaust victims traveled to Macedonia from Israel, Latin America and the United States.

Macedonia’s parliament also convenes for a special session dedicated to the Holocaust victims.

— AP

5:18 pm

Far-right figures say they were denied entry to Britain

LONDON — Three far-right figures say they have been deported from Britain after being detained when trying to enter the country.

Austrian Martin Sellner of the Generation Identity group, American commentator Brittany Pettibone and Canadian activist and YouTube personality Lauren Southern tweet Monday that they were denied entry into Britain.

Britain’s Home Office says in a statement that the border force “has the power to refuse entry to an individual if it is considered that his or her presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good.”

Sellner says in a video posted on Twitter that he and Pettibone were detained for three days and deported.

He says on the video that both of them were handcuffed. He says he had planned to give a speech at “Speakers’ Corner” in London’s Hyde Park. He says “that was my crime.”

Pettibone says that she was denied entry because she had plans to interview far-right leader Tommy Robinson.

She says from Austria that “It felt like they were saying, ‘you’re right-wing, that’s not allowed.'”

Southern, who has more than 400,000 subscribers on YouTube, tweets that she was “officially banned from UK for ‘racism'” but was doing fine.

She says “all the cool people are being banned anyway.”

— AP

5:31 pm

Two hospitalized after ‘suspicious package’ found at UK parliament

LONDON — Two people are hospitalized on Monday after a “suspicious package” was found at British parliament, London’s Metropolitan Police sys.

“A man and a woman have been taken to a central London hospital as a precaution,” a spokesman says, while a spokeswoman for the House of Commons says the area had been cordoned off but there is no evacuation.

— AFP

5:47 pm

Ethiopian Israelis rally outside Knesset for family unification

Hundreds of Ethiopian immigrants are protesting outside Israel’s parliament, demanding the government fulfill a pledge to bring some 8,000 of their countrymen remaining in Ethiopia to Israel.

Alisa Bodner, spokeswoman for the protesters, says the families have had enough and feel “their lives are worth just as much as any other lives here in Israel.”

Israel’s government agreed in 2015 to bring the remaining Ethiopians to Israel but it has not authorized funding for their move.

Most of the stranded Ethiopians have close relatives in Israel. Although the families have Jewish roots, Israel doesn’t consider them Jewish, meaning they need government approval to immigrate.

The families see the issue as part of an inconsistent and discriminatory immigration policy, and fear the upcoming 2019 budget will not fund the moves.

— AP

Ethiopian Israelis protest in front of the Knesset in Jerusalem, on March 12, 2018. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
5:56 pm

Ultra-Orthodox protesters block roads to protest arrest of draft shirker

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters block roads in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak to demonstrate the arrest of a religious student for evading mandatory military service.

The protesters block a main thoroughfare in the city, as well as Route 4.

Police are working to clear the protesters.

The demonstrators belong to the so-called Jerusalem Faction, which strongly opposes the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox Jews to the army and has led protests against the arrest of students for evading the draft.

6:17 pm

Netanyahu calls for preserving government but says he’ll win elections

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells the Knesset he hopes the current government won’t break up over legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox students from military service, but will win the election if it does.

“If there are elections I will compete in them and win. But we’re not there yet,” he says.

“We need to make a last push to preserve the government in its current makeup,” he adds.

6:21 pm

Netanyahu: Opposition scared of elections

Netanyahu tells the Knesset the opposition is scared of elections.

“I’ve never seen anything like this. An opposition that is scared of elections,” he says.

“This is the simple truth,” he adds, as opposition lawmakers shout in protest.

6:23 pm

Netanyahu: ‘Not too late’ to solve exemption bill crisis

Netanyahu calls on Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party and the ultra-Orthodox parties to work to solve the coalition crisis surrounding legislation exempting religious students from military service.

“The hour is late, but not too late. We need to act responsibly. The state needs a stable government,” he says.

6:40 pm

Hitting back at Netanyahu, Herzog says opposition not scared of elections

Knesset opposition leader Isaac Herzog rejects Netanyahu’s assertion that the opposition is scared of elections.

“We’re not scared of elections. We’re not suckers,” he says.

Herzog also says that ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud party approached opposition lawmakers today about holding early elections in June.

7:07 pm

Iran jails 11 for attacks on mosques, public property

TEHRAN, Iran — Eleven members of an Iranian opposition group accused of attacking mosques and public property have been sentenced to jail terms of up to six years, state news agency IRNA says Monday.

Hassan Heidari, deputy prosecutor general of Khorasan Razavi province in northeast Iran, says the 11 defendants, including women, were also convicted of “propaganda against the system of the Islamic Republic.”

Several of them were found guilty of having set fire to two mosques in the city of Masshad, IRNA says, adding that the rulings were subject to appeal.

According to Iranian authorities, the accused form part of an opposition group called “Restart,” which was established by Mohammad Hosseini, a onetime game show host on state television, who has gone into exile.

He is alleged to have called on social media for Iranians to attack mosques, banks and centers run by the Basij, a hardline militia linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In October, several banks in relatively affluent northern Tehran were targeted in nighttime attacks.

At least 25 people were killed in a wave of social unrest that swept towns and cities across Iran between December 28 and January 1.

— AFP

7:22 pm

Knesset Finance Committee approves 2019 budget

The Knesset Finance Committee approves the 2019 state budget, clearing the way for the second and third plenum readings it must undergo before becoming law.

The proposed budget for next year stands at NIS 479.6 billion ($139.2 billion).

“We approved a good budget and now the work moves to the Knesset plenum,” committee chairman Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) says.

Gafni’s UTJ party had vowed to hold up the budget unless legislation exempting ultra-Orthodox students from military service was passed first. The Ministerial Committee for Legislation approved the bill earlier today, setting it up for its first Knesset reading.

7:40 pm

US warns ‘outlaw’ Syrian regime it will act against chemical attacks

UNITED NATIONS — The United States on Monday warns it is ready to act in Syria, if needed, to end chemical attacks and “inhuman suffering,” as it pushes for a new 30-day ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley tells the UN Security Council that a ceasefire approved two weeks ago “has failed” and circulates a new draft resolution calling for a 30-day truce in the rebel enclave and Damascus.

“This is no ceasefire. This is the Assad regime, Iran, and Russia continuing to wage war against their political opponents,” Haley says.

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley speaks at a Security Council meeting on the the situation in Syria at UN headquarters in New York City on March 12, 2018. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP)

The US ambassador recalls that President Donald Trump had ordered missile strikes on a Syrian air base in April last year in retaliation for a sarin gas attack blamed on President Bashar Assad’s forces.

“We also warn any nation that is determined to impose its will through chemical attacks and inhuman suffering, most especially the outlaw Syrian regime: the United States remains prepared to act if we must,” Haley says.

The US-drafted text seen by AFP would decide on a 30-day cessation of hostilities throughout Eastern Ghouta and Damascus City to begin immediately upon adoption.

The draft resolution would allow “safe, unimpeded and sustained access” for humanitarian aid convoys and “safe, unconditional, medical evacuations in Eastern Ghouta.”

Haley says the text “provides no room for evasion,” after accusing Russia of voting in favor of the ceasefire resolution and immediately disregarding it.

— AFP

7:54 pm

UK’s May: ‘Highly likely’ Russian behind poisoning of ex-spy

LONDON — British Prime Minister Theresa May says her government has concluded it is “highly likely” Russia is responsible for the poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter.

May tells British lawmakers on Monday that Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were exposed to a nerve agent known as Novichok (Novice), a weapon developed in the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War

May says the attack in a city in England fits a pattern of Russian aggression and that Russia’s ambassador to the UK has been summoned to explain what happened.

She says: “We will not tolerate such a brazen attempt to murder innocent civilians on our soil.”

Skripal and his daughter remain in critical condition more than a week after they were found unconscious in Salisbury on March 4.

— AP

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May leaves a Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London on March 12, 2018. (AFP Photo/Pool/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
8:05 pm

Opposition parties pushing for vote to dissolve government

Opposition parties Yesh Atid and Meretz are submitting a formal request to Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein to allow a vote this week on a bill to dissolve parliament and set a date for elections.

The Zionist Union party tried to present a dissolution bill earlier today, but was prevented by protocol that prevents the first vote of new legislation in the final week that the Knesset sits. On Thursday, the Knesset will go into recess, after the four-month winter session.

In a letter to Edelstein, Meretz MK Tamar Zandberg and Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelach argue that a dissolution bill should be given the same privileges as the “Ultra-Orthodox Conscription Bill,” which the coalition hopes to vote on this week, in an attempt to end an ongoing coalition crisis threatening elections.

“Voting on the conscription bill will be an exception to the general rules and the same exception should be made for the opposition,” they write.

— Raoul Wootliff

8:30 pm

Poll: Netanyahu would cruise to victory if elections held

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party would win a sweeping mandate if fresh elections were held, according to a poll published this evening.

The Hadashot TV news survey says Likud would win 30 seats, matching its current total. Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid would win 21 seats, which would be 10 seats more than its current tally, but still well behind Likud.

Following Yesh Atid, the poll says the Zionist Union would win 13 (24 currently) seats, the Joint (Arab) List 12 (13), Jewish Home 11 (13), Meretz 7 (5), United Torah Judaism 7 (6) and Kulanu 6 (10).

Orly Levy-Abekasis, an independent lawmaker, who announced last week that she will establish a new party, would win 5 seats, the poll says, followed by Yisrael Beytenu with 4 (5). Shas would also win 4 (7) seats, according to the survey.

A Channel 10 survey published tonight put Likud at 29 seats and Yesh Atid at 24.

The survey says Joint List would win 13 seats, Zionist Union 11, Jewish Home 11, Meretz 9, Kulanu 6, Yisrael Beytenu 6, United Torah Judaism 6 and Shas 5.

The publication of the polls comes as coalition infighting over legislation that would exempt ultra-Orthodox students from military service threatens to bring down the government and lead to fresh elections.

8:49 pm

Poland’s NGOs criticize government law over Holocaust law

WARSAW, Poland — Non-government organizations in Poland are distancing themselves from the right-wing government’s policies that have strained Polish-Jewish relations and some say have led to a wave of anti-Semitism.

In a letter to “international public opinion” they say they do not share the government’s views, but support Polish-Jewish dialogue, including the painful truth about the Holocaust.

They are referring to Poland’s new law that makes it a crime to blame Poles for crimes committed by the Nazis. Critics in Israel say it could encourage whitewashing some facts about the Holocaust.

The organizers of the letter say Monday that more than 100 organizations have signed it. Former President Lech Walesa and movie director Agnieszka Holland also back the letter.

The organizations held a rally Sunday to show solidarity with Jews and condemn anti-Semitism.

— AP

8:54 pm

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox men protest in Jerusalem against draft-dodger’s arrest

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox demonstrators block Jerusalem’s Kikar Hashabbat for a second straight night to protest the arrest of a seminary student for evading mandatory military conscription.

Police are working to clear the demonstrators from the square.

The demonstration comes after hundreds of ultra-Orthodox men held a similar protest earlier today in Bnei Brak, where they blocked several main roads and clashed with police.

The demonstration come as coalition infighting over a bill exempting ultra-Orthodox students from mandatory military service threatens to bring down the government and herald fresh elections.

9:12 pm

German media: ‘Bookkeeper of Auschwitz’ dies at 96

BERLIN — Oskar Groening, a former Nazi SS guard dubbed the “Bookkeeper of Auschwitz,” who was convicted in 2015 of being an accessory to murder, has died aged 96, German media says Monday.

A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the northern city of Hanover tells AFP that Groening’s lawyer informed him of Groening’s death, but he was unable to confirm it officially.

Groening worked as an accountant at Auschwitz, sorting and counting the money taken from those killed or used as slave labor, and shipping it back to his Nazi superiors in Berlin.

He was found guilty in July 2015 of being an accessory to the murders of 300,000 people at the camp and sentenced to four years in prison.

A court doctor determined last year that he was able to serve his sentence, on condition he was given appropriate nursing and medical care, but he was never imprisoned.

— AFP

Former SS guard Oskar Groening waits for the start of his trial in a courtroom in Lueneburg, Germany, April 23, 2015. (Julian Stratenschulte/dpa via AP, File)
9:25 pm

Saudi crown prince to visit White House on March 20

WASHINGTON, DC — US President Donald Trump will host Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 20, the White House says Monday.

“The president looks forward to discussing ways to strengthen ties between the United States and Saudi Arabia,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders says in announcing the meeting.

— AFP

US President Donald Trump, left, and then-Saudi deputy crown prince and defense minister Mohammed bin Salman, in the State Dining Room before lunch at the White House in Washington, DC, March 14, 2017. (AFP/Nicholas Kamm)
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