ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 435
The Times of Israel liveblogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
In a speech marking Jerusalem Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel has broken “new horizons” since capturing East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War.
“We reunited it. It broke new horizons. It became a city, a giant metropolis in Israel,” Netanyahu says.
“We are committed to safeguarding the security of Jerusalem, to ensuring its prosperity and to continuing its momentum,” he says.
“We are also doing this against all of the threats around us,” he adds, referencing the recent flare-up in Gaza and threats from the Hamas terror group over the Jerusalem Day Flag March.
“While the threats are certainly not ceasing, our ability to confront our enemies, repel them and ensure our security in Jerusalem and throughout our state is a constant struggle; together we can win,” Netanyahu says.
US antisemitism envoy Deborah Lipstadt slams Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for comparing Israel to Nazi Germany in a speech this week to the United Nations, calling the comments “unacceptable.”
Abbas said at the UN General Assembly’s first official “Nakba Day” event that Israel lies like Joseph Goebbels, the infamous Nazi propagandist.
“Abbas’s equating Israel with the lies of top Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels is an affront to Holocaust victims and survivors,” tweets Lipstadt.
“Especially during a time of rising antisemitic violence throughout the world, such rhetoric about the world’s only Jewish state is entirely unacceptable,” she says.
PA President Abbas’s equating Israel with the lies of top Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels is an affront to Holocaust victims and survivors. Especially during a time of rising antisemitic violence throughout the world, such rhetoric about the world’s only Jewish state is…
— Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt (@StateSEAS) May 17, 2023
A Jordanian lawmaker has been indicted in a Jordanian court on charges that he illegally smuggled scores of rifles and handguns into the West Bank through an Israeli-controlled crossing, his lawyer says.
The alleged gun-running scandal that gripped headlines last month has threatened to further strain ties between Israel and its Arab neighbor to the east despite their nearly three-decade-old peace treaty.
The apparent effort by a Jordanian parliament member to sneak guns into a restive West Bank — where young Palestinians are increasingly getting their hands on rifles and opening fire at Israeli security forces — has raised fears of Jordanian support for Palestinian terror that undercuts the country’s moderate, pro-Western monarchy.
The Jordanian lawmaker, Imad al-Adwan, was charged in a state security court in Amman last week, his lawyer Ali Mubaideen tells The Associated Press. After being interrogated, al-Adwan, 35, was charged with four counts of illegally exporting weapons and “carrying out actions that breach security and threaten community peace,” Mubaideen adds
President Isaac Herzog urges sides involved in judicial overhaul talks to focus on reaching an agreement and ignore rumors.
“This is a moment of a real attempt to reach essential agreements for our existence as a society and as a country. Rumors must be put aside and the parties allowed to talk,” he says.
His comments come after opposition parties denied reports that agreements had been reached in the talks.
The US has proposed to Israel the idea of conducting joint military planning regarding Iran, the Axios news site reports.
The report, citing three US and Israeli officials, says US officials are presenting the idea as an unprecedented cooperation that would significantly upgrade military cooperation between the two allies.
However, the report says Israel is skeptical, fearing it could “tie Israel’s hands” from taking independent action against Iran and its nuclear program.
Israel has not rejected the proposal, but asked for clarifications as to what the practical meaning would be, the report says.
Police issue a statement accusing Iran and terror groups of spreading false rumors on social media that the contentious Jerusalem Day Flag March tomorrow would go through the Temple Mount.
Police reiterate the march will stick to its traditional route, which while going through the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, has never gone onto the flashpoint Temple Mount.
“For several days now, terrorist elements inspired by Iran, through Hezbollah, Hamas and extreme Islamic Jihad, have been spreading false information on social networks about the route of the flag parade that will take place tomorrow in the capital of Israel, Jerusalem,” says police commissioner Kobi Shabtai.
“The goal of those terrorist elements is clear, and it is to create wild incitement to terrorism against the thousands of Israelis who will come to mark Jerusalem Day,” he says.
The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site. The hilltop also contains the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, making it a deeply contested flashpoint between Arabs and Jews.
Hamas has called for tens of thousands of Palestinians to go up to the Temple Mount tomorrow morning.
Six Jewish Ukrainian soldiers, including some fighting on the front lines, go through circumcisions in Kyiv.
The procedures, which took place at the Brodsky Synagogue in Ukraine’s capital, were performed by Dr. Yaakov Gaisinovich, Ukraine’s mohel, who has performed over 8,000 circumcisions, including many adults.
The event was attended by newly appointed Jewish military chaplain Rabbi David Milman, and leading Ukrainian rabbi Moshe Azman.
“Since the beginning of the war,” says Azman at the festive meal following the procedures, “there is, thank God, a great awakening among Ukraine’s Jew. We are fortunate to carry out many circumcisions here recently.”
Parties are denying reports of a breakthrough in negotiations over the judicial overhaul being hosted by President Isaac Herzog.
Hebrew media reports said the sides were close to compromise on two of the issues at hand, a “reasonableness” test for government decisions, which allows courts to strike down moves found to be beyond the bounds of reasonability, and representing the government in front of the courts.
Both of the major opposition parties involved in talks denied any breakthrough.
“There are no agreements at the President’s Residence,” says a statement from Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, adding that “there is a long way to go on all the issues.”
Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid said that until all issues were resolved, “rumors of concessions and agreements are only unnecessary leaks.”
The leaks come a day after President Isaac Herzog interrupted talks to stress an urgent need for progress, six weeks into a process that has yet to yield any.
US President Joe Biden says that he is confident the US will avoid an unprecedented and catastrophic debt default, saying talks with congressional Republicans have been productive as he prepared to leave for a global summit in Japan.
“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget and America will not default,” Biden says from the Roosevelt Room of the White House. He said he and lawmakers will come together “because there’s no alternative.”
Biden’s remarks came just before he departed Washington for the Group of Seven summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and one day after he convened a second Oval Office meeting with congressional leaders to determine how to avert debt default.
A 51-year-old man is shot and wounded in Tel Aviv, police and medics say.
Magen David Adom medics say they treated a man with gunshot wounds on Ma’apilei Egoz Street and took him to the nearby Sheba hospital in moderate condition.
Police say they are investigating the incident and that the motive appears to be criminal and not terror.
A spokesperson for Prince Harry and his wife Meghan says the couple were involved in a “near catastrophic” car chase while being followed by photographers.
The couple’s office says the pair and Meghan’s mother were followed for more than two hours by half a dozen vehicles after leaving a charity event in New York on Tuesday.
It said in a statement Wednesday that the chase “resulted in multiple near collisions involving other drivers on the road, pedestrians and two NYPD officers.” It called the incident “near catastrophic.”
Harry’s mother Princess Diana was killed in a car accident as she sought to evade paparazzi in Paris.
Ahead of Jerusalem Day, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen holds an event at the ministry’s Jerusalem headquarters lauding the four countries that have opened embassies in the capital – the US, Honduras, Guatemala, and Kosovo.
While the three smaller countries send their top diplomats in Israel — only Guatemala has an ambassador here — to the event, the US does not send Ambassador Tom Nides or his deputy, Stephanie Hallett.
Instead, Economic Counselor Larry Memmott represents Washington at the event.
Though not an ambassador, Memmott is a career diplomat with significant experience in the region, including in Kuwait and Iraq.
“Our relationship is as strong as it has ever been,” says Memmott in his brief remarks at the event. “Our alliance is as deep and enduring as it has ever been.”
Cohen says that his goal is to have three more countries open embassies by the end of the year.
The four diplomats raise their countries’ flags next to the Israeli flag at the ministry.
Senior coalition members lash out at National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir after his party boycotted Knesset votes again.
Quotes sent to Hebrew media, and attributed to unnamed senior coalition members, say that “Itamar Ben Gvir cares more about media coverage than maintaining the right-wing government and the integrity of the coalition.”
“In the government, problems are solved together, and contrary to his spin, he is not the only one who cares about the Negev and the Galilee,” they say.
“Maybe it’s really better that they bring down the government, we go to the elections, and the public kicks out those responsible for overthrowing the right-wing government.”
“The rise of a left-wing government will be on his head,” they say.
A selfie taken on a flight to Tel Aviv has gone viral this week, serving as a symbol of unity in an increasingly divided Israel
The photo was taken by Noa Kirel, the pop star representing Israel who came in third in this year’s Eurovision competition over the weekend, who was headed home from the competition, which took place in Liverpool, England.
Next to her in the frame, and on the plane, was Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon, the head rabbi of Gush Etzion, a bloc of West Bank settlements south of Jerusalem.
Rimon was initially puzzled when a message on the plane’s TV screens read, “Well done, Noa. We’re proud of you,” he shared in a message initially sent to a family WhatsApp group. After he asked Kirel why congratulations were in order, and to whom, he said she explained her Eurovision appearance, surprised he didn’t recognize her.
You never know who you’re sitting next to.
Israel’s Noa Kirel took 3rd place in last night’s Eurovision with her song “Unicorn”.
⁰On her way back to Israel, she was seated next to Rav Yosef Tzvi Rimon.
⁰Rav Rimon couldn’t understand why all of the airplane’s screens said (in… pic.twitter.com/ycivSL1EZN— Rabbi Shmuel Reichman (@ReichmanShmuel) May 16, 2023
Rimon added that she said she had prayed at the contest and refrained from using her phone on Shabbat. Rimon offered himself as a rabbinic resource and Kirel took his information, sending him their picture as a first communication.
That picture exited the family chat after a friend of one of Rimon’s daughters saw it, photographed it and shared it, Rimon later wrote in another WhatsApp message that has gone viral.
Opposition Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman submits a bill in the Knesset calling for national service for all Israelis upon reaching age 18, without exemptions.
His “National Service for All” bill fails with 63 lawmakers voting against and 43 voting in favor.
Speaking in the Knesset, Liberman takes a dig at the ultra-Orthodox who receive exemptions from compulsory military service to study in yeshivas. “I don’t remember a time in Jewish history when it was forbidden to fight. This is an issue about sharing the burden.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir meet to solve a brewing coalition crisis over budgetary allocations, after Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party walks out from the Knesset during floor voting.
A source close to Ben Gvir says that the prime minister agreed that there is a problem, and that a solution must be found. However, no solution was reached during the short meeting.
“We are asking for equality,” says the source, referring to the fact that their party’s Negev and Galilee Ministry received NIS 460 billion in discretionary funds, while far-right Religious Zionism received over a billion shekels for party ministries and ultra-Orthodox parties got a NIS 3.7 billion boost for yeshiva students.
Otzma Yehudit has not specified a specific desired figure.
Iran has sent some 16 million barrels of oil to Syria in violation of sanctions over the last six months, the Haaretz daily reports.
The report, based on an analysis of satellite photos, shows Iranian tankers docking at Latakia port 17 times during that period.
The report values the oil at more than $1 billion.
The deliveries violate both US oil sanctions on Iran and sanctions on the regime of Syrian dictator Basher Assad.
Haaretz says the deliveries are done by “ghost ships” that sail without proper identification.
Visiting Polish lawmakers meet with MKs in Jerusalem today, saying that the get-together was a positive indicator that the tense relationship between Poland and Israel was improving.
Polish MP Piotr Zgorzelski tells his Israeli counterparts that their meeting “bodes well for advancing relations between our countries.”
“I believe this is a new chapter between our parliaments,” Zgorzelski adds.
The MPs also visit Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, some of them for the first time, and claim that Poland is fighting anti-Semitism.
Relations between Warsaw and Jerusalem deteriorated after a Polish law banned placing blame for the Holocaust upon their countrymen’s shoulders.
In March 2023, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited Poland to help improve ties, the first foreign ministerial visit since 2018, when the Holocaust law was passed.
An opposition bill passes in the Knesset as the far-right Otzma Yehudit party again boycotts Knesset votes.
Hebrew media reports say that National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and his party walked out in protest at not getting enough money allocated to the ministry responsible for Negev and Galilee regions in the upcoming budget.
Ben Gvir only last week ended a previous boycott over the government’s “feeble” response to rocket fire from Gaza.
In response, coalition chairman MK Ofir Katz slammed Otzma Yehudit, saying they were “paving the way for the fall of the right-wing government.”
Arab foreign ministers met today in Saudi Arabia ahead of the Arab League’s annual summit in the kingdom to discuss the upcoming gathering’s agenda and draft resolutions.
This year’s summit, starting Friday in the city of Jeddah, will mark the readmittance of war-torn Syria into the 22-member league, after a 12-year suspension. Syria’s membership was frozen following Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on the 2011 mass protests against his rule. The country quickly descended into a brutal civil war that has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
Watch: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan arrives at the foreign ministers’ preparatory meeting for the Arab League summit.https://t.co/OXUke6KR8O pic.twitter.com/Y8DZMpSEon
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) May 17, 2023
Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad held bilateral meetings this week in the kingdom with several of his counterparts as Damascus continues to appeal for much-needed investment in the war-torn country — crippled by the conflict and Western sanctions — and has moved to restore ties with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq.
Syria’s return to the Arab fold comes as Damascus is also trying to mend ties with Turkey, a key backer of the armed Syrian opposition groups in the country’s northwest.
Writer and global health activist Chelsea Clinton was among six individuals to receive honorary doctoral degrees from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
The other recipients were philanthropist Patrick Drahi, water engineer Prof. Menachem Elimelech, philanthropist Esther Halperin, plant biologist Dr. Segenet Kelemu, and former Israeli Supreme Court justice Prof. Elyakim Rubinstein.
Clinton is the only child of former US president Bill Clinton and former US secretary of state and 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She was a special correspondent for NBC News from 2011 to 2014 and sits on the board of the Clinton Foundation and the Clinton Global Initiative. She lives in New York City with her Jewish husband Marc Mezvinsky, an investment banker, and their three children.
Clinton praised BGU, saying she was “proud to be receiving this honorary degree from an institution that understands the importance of forging a connection between the questions we ask, the research we conduct, what we teach our students, and that we hopefully empower our students to go out and do in the world.”
Anti-government demonstrators will gather in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak tonight to protest against what they are calling the “pillaging of the public coffers.”
The march will depart from the Ayalon mall in neighboring Ramat Gan at 9 p.m.
“We are marching on Bnei Brak to make it clear to the government that is destroying our home, and in particular to the ultra-Orthodox leadership, which is on one hand collaborating with the dictatorship and with the other hand is looting the coffers, that the donkeys are fed up,” the statement from organizers says.
While the demonstrators have so far focused on opposing the government’s planned judicial overhaul, they have now turned their attention to the huge allocations of money given to coalition parties as part of the latest budget.
The government has allocated some NIS 13.7 billion ($3.7 billion) worth of discretionary funds to meet coalition commitments, most of it to support ultra-Orthodox institutions and programs.
This is the second protest march to target Bnei Brak.
Senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil issues a fresh threat against Israel holding the Jerusalem Day Flag March.
“The Zionist flag march will not pass, and the response will inevitably come,” says al-Bardawil.
The controversial nationalist parade through the Old City of Jerusalem is set for tomorrow, when tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis are expected to march through the Muslim Quarter waving Israeli flags.
The event will come less than a week after Israel and terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad finalized a ceasefire agreement following five days of deadly conflict.
Security officials believe the chances for rocket fire from Gaza during the march to be slim. But some officials have feared a repeat of 2021, when Hamas fired rockets at Jerusalem just as the march was starting, sparking over a week of fighting between Israel and Gazan terror groups.
A bill that would make flying an enemy flag punishable by a year in jail passes an initial reading in the Knesset.
The bill, sponsored by far-right Otzma Yehudit MK Almog Cohen, passes 54-16.
The bill also outlaws flying flags of countries or organizations that ban the flying of the Israeli flag.
The bill now heads to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, after which it must pass a further three votes.
The bill is part of a series of right-wing initiatives to punish “incitement,” including the national security minister’s January attempt to ban Palestinian flags in public places.
Beilinson Hospital of the Rabin Medical Center has received a $34 million donation to fund integrative cancer research. The gift is the largest of its kind in Israel’s history.
Philanthropists Dr. Susan and Dr. Henry Samueli, the California-based co-founder and chairman of Broadcom, Inc. (a designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of semiconductors and infrastructure software products) are giving $25 million to establish the Samueli Integrative Cancer Pioneering Institute. Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest healthcare provider caring for 5 million patients, has donated an additional $9 million for the institute.
The institute aims to bridge the gaps between biological research, the hospital, and the community.
“We thank the Samuelis for this generous donation which will enable us to find a cure for cancer that impacts millions of people around the world,” said Beilinson Hospital CEO Dr. Eytan Wirtheim. “The Institute is keen to form partnerships and collaborations with the global cancer community, including academia, health organizations, industry and foundations – to transform cancer care and create a new future for cancer patients.”
Infrastructure development has begun for the Samueli Institute, which will comprise experts in behavioral sciences, cancer scientists, data scientists, artificial intelligence experts.
“We expect the Institute…to challenge existing care paradigms and create a better future for cancer patients inside of Israel and beyond,” Dr. Susan and Dr. Henry Samueli said in a statement.
A 60-year-old man is killed when he fell from a cliff while hiking in the Ein Gedi nature reserve area near the Dead Sea, medics say.
An IDF medical team, working together with Magen David Adom medics, tried to resuscitate the man but was forced to declare him dead at the scene.
A Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip, responsible for launching balloons ferrying incendiary and explosive devices into Israel in the past, says it will resume activities tomorrow during Jerusalem Day.
In a statement on its Telegram channel, the so-called balloon unit, Ibna al-Zuwari, says its members will also riot along the Gaza border.
The Hamas-linked Shehab news agency meanwhile reports that a march with Palestinian flags will take place tomorrow near the border, east of Gaza City.
The last time Palestinians launched incendiary balloons into southern Israel, sparking dozens of fires, in September 2021, the Israeli Air Force bombed Hamas sites in response.
The timing of the controversial Jerusalem Day flag march is especially delicate in light of a fresh ceasefire between Israel and the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad since early Sunday, ending five days of fighting.
It was unclear if Hamas, which stayed out of the fighting with Islamic Jihad, will give the balloon unit the go-ahead to launch attacks on Israel.
