Bus crashes in northern Israel after driver stabbed; motive unclear

‘Torn and broken’ after desert flood disaster, academy head resigns from post

The head of a pre-army academy involved in last week’s desert hike, in which 10 teenagers were swept to their deaths by a flash flood, announces his resignation from the post.

Yuval Kahan releases a statement, saying he is “torn and broken” over last week’s tragedy in the Judean Desert’s Tzafit River.

“I will never be able to find words that can express the sorrow I feel. The role of the head of the preparatory program is first and foremost an educational role that requires the full trust of the trainees, their families and all those who are involved in the program,” writes Kahan.

“I know that in the shadow of this terrible tragedy, this trust, which is the basis for the ability to lead and educate, cannot exist, so I decided to submit my resignation.”

“I will continue to be committed to everything that will be required of me for the sake of this enterprise and its continuation. I am unable to comfort the families which lost the most precious thing of all, and I join in their sorrow,” he adds.

Kahan and an instructor at the academy — Aviv Bardichev– were released to house arrest on Monday after being arrested on Friday on suspicion of causing death by negligence for ignoring flash flood warnings

They were released to house arrest for five days and are barred from entering the academy’s offices or from contacting anyone involved in the investigation.

‘We’ll pay a high price for that mistake’ — Lapid pans PM’s touting of Mossad op

Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid criticizes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s publication of the Mossad’s capture of Iran’s nuclear program archives.

The opposition lawmaker claims that the prime minister’s televised presentation earlier this week was a “a professional mistake.”

“Among the intelligence community, there is nothing less than shock at his decision to publish the intelligence incursion on television,” Lapid says in a statement.

He insists he is not a “Netanyahu hater” and opposed the Iranian nuclear deal, but claims that the prime minister is “making mistakes that he did not make in the past.”

Special counsel team has floated idea of subpoena for Trump

IThe special counsel leading the Russia investigation raised the prospect in March of issuing a grand jury subpoena for US President Donald Trump, his former attorney says.

Attorney John Dowd tells The Associated Press that special counsel Robert Mueller’s team broached the subject during a meeting with Trump’s legal team while they were negotiating the terms of a possible interview with the president.

It is not immediately clear in what context the possibility of a subpoena was raised or how serious Mueller’s prosecutors were about the move. Mueller is probing not only Russian election interference and possible coordination with Trump associates but possible obstruction of justice by Trump.

— AP

11 dead in suicide attack on Libya election commission

Eleven people have been killed in a suicide blast in a Libyan electoral commission office in the country’s capital, according to local officials.

A government spokesman says that in addition to the bomb, gunshots were also exchanged between the assailants and security forces outside the building.

The attackers set the building ablaze, according to spokesman Khaled Amar, who fled with other staff following the attack. Reports said the gunmen then engaged security forces in a street battle.

Local media reports that there were a total of four attackers.

The blast comes amid pressure that the UN has been placing on Libya to hold elections by the end of 2018.

Tunisia says Croatia nabbed operative behind hit on Hamas engineer attributed to Israel

The Tunisian Justice Ministry is reportedly claiming that one of the operatives behind a 2016 hit on a Hamas-linked engineer that has been attributed to Israel has been arrested in Croatia.

Both Hamas and Hezbollah have accused the Mossad of killing Mohammed Zoari, 49, who was shot to death at the wheel of his car outside his house in the Tunisian port city of Sfax in December 2016.

Zoari, an aviation engineer and Tunisian national, was confirmed by Hamas to be a central figure in its weapons development. The group called him a pioneer in developing its unmanned drones.

Israel has not responded to the accusation by Hamas that it was behind the Tunisian engineer’s death.

Iran denies Morocco accusation of Polisario arms delivery

Iran denies that it was involved in a weapons delivery to the Polisario Front movement seeking independence for Western Sahara, after Morocco cut diplomatic ties with Tehran over the allegations.

Morocco, which has close relations with Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday accused Tehran of using its Lebanese militia ally Hezbollah to deliver weapons to the Polisario Front.

Tehran has hit back, saying the North African nation had used the allegations as a “pretext” to break off diplomatic ties.

“Remarks attributed to the foreign minister of Morocco about cooperation between an Iranian diplomat and the Polisario Front” in Western Sahara are “false,” Iran’s foreign ministry says in a statement.

The Islamic Republic respects the “sovereignty and security” of countries with which it has diplomatic relations, and follows a policy of “non-interference in (their) internal affairs,” it adds.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said on Tuesday that “a first shipment of weapons was recently” sent to the Algerian-backed Polisario Front via an “element” at the Iranian embassy in Algiers.

— AFP

EU slams Abbas for ‘unacceptable’ anti-Semitic rant

The European Union lambastes Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for an “unacceptable” speech he gave denigrating Jews to the Palestinian National Council on Monday.

A statement from the EU spokesperson says the address “contained unacceptable remarks concerning the origins of the Holocaust and Israel’s legitimacy.”

“Such rhetoric will only play into the hands of those who do not want a two-state solution, which President Abbas has repeatedly advocated,” the EU says.

“Holocaust education remains central to building up resilience against all forms of hatred in our societies. Antisemitism is not only a threat for Jews but a fundamental menace to our open and liberal societies,” the body adds.

Abbas touched on a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories during what he called a “history lesson,” as he sought to prove the 3,000-year-old Jewish connection to the Land of Israel is false.

He said his narrative was backed by three points made by Jewish writers and historians, the first being a theory often criticized as anti-Semitic that Ashkenazi Jews are not the descendants of the ancient Israelites.

He went on to claim that the Holocaust was not the result of anti-Semitism but rather of the Jews’ “social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters.”

Panning Abbas’s anti-Semitic rant, German FM says his country responsible for Holocaust

Condemning a speech from Mahmoud Abbas in which the Palestinian Authority president claimed that the Holocaust was not the result of anti-Semitism, Germany’s Foreign Minister asserts that his country was responsible for “one of the worst crimes in history.

“Therefore, we must respond resolutely to any anti-Semitic expression,” says Heiku Maas, in reference to Abbas’s address in front of the Palestinian National Council on Monday.

Among the Palestinian leader’s claims in the speech were that Adolf Hitler facilitated the immigration of Jews to Israel by reaching a deal with the Anglo-Palestine Bank (today Bank Leumi) under which Jews who moved to the British Mandate of Palestine could transfer all their assets there through the bank.

Welcoming Alibaba founder, PM praises his drive to innovate

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Jack Ma, the founder and chairman of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, in his Jerusalem office.

“It’s wonderful to welcome you in Israel. You can come here as often as you’d like. In fact, you can stay here,” the prime minister tells Ma.

“You are a very successful leader in a very competitive business. The world belongs to those who innovate and Israel is the nation of innovation,” Netanyahu adds.

The Chinese business magnate, investor, and philanthropist is scheduled to give a talk to students at Tel Aviv University tomorrow, as well as receive an honorary doctorate from the university and meet with researchers in the fields of artificial intelligence, engineering and computer sciences.

Yeshiva student assaulted in Crown Heights

For the third time in three weeks, a person affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement has been assaulted in Crown Heights.

The victim, a 22-year-old yeshiva student, had been walking home from the Chabad-Lubavitch headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights when he was attacked at around midnight on Tuesday night.

The Crown Heights Info news website reports that the victim felt as if he was being followed and crossed the street, only to discover someone coming at him from the other direction as well.

The two African-American assailants punched and kicked the yeshiva student until he managed to break free and run, catching the attention of police officers. One officer took one of the assailants into custody immediately, and another officer chased after the second assailant, catching him two blocks away. Both assailants were armed with knives, according to the report. Both assailants had prior arrests.

The victim, who had fled, called Crown Heights Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer patrol group, who put the victim in touch with police and offered Hebrew translation services until police translators were available.

The father of the victim tells CrownHeights.info “they didn’t demand anything from him, all they wanted was to hurt him, to take his life,” and added “my son was lucky [that a police officer] who understood Hebrew just happened to be passing by that intersection and saw my son running for his life.”

On April 21, a 52-year-old father of two was beaten and choked while walking home in the afternoon from Shabbat services in Crown Heights. An arrest has been made in that attack.

— JTA

East Jerusalemite handed 3 year sentence for terror activity on Temple Mount

The Jerusalem District Court sentences a East Jerusalem resident to three years in prison over his involvement in a Hamas-affiliated organization that operates on the Temple Mount.

Nahed Sagheer was an activist in the religious organization known as al-Shabab al-Aqsa, which was classified as a terror group in 2011.

The Shin Bet has said that in addition to stoking violence on the Temple Mount to deter non-Muslim visitors, members of the group have also carried out a number of deadly terror attacks, including an October 2016 shooting in which two Israelis were killed at the capital’s Ammunition Hill light rail stop and during a subsequent shootout with police.

As part of the plea bargain, Sagheer admits to “management of a terrorist organization” and is fined NIS 10,000.

Bnei Akiva cancels its Lag B’Omer bonfires in light of dry weather conditions

The national religious youth movement Bnei Akiva cancels its bonfire events planned for the evening due to dry, windy weather conditions.

Yair Shahal, the organization’s secretary-general, calls on staff throughout Israel to celebrate the Lag B’Omer holiday “with learning, joy, singing and any educational activity that does not include a bonfire.”

PM asks Abe to drop Japan’s travel warning regarding flights to Israel

In a meeting in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls on visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to lift his foreign ministry’s travel warning regarding flights to Israel.

Abe has agreed to examine the request and says he will send a representative to the region to examine the issue, according to the Israeli Ynet news site.

Israeli arms sales skyrocket, increasing 41.5% in one year

Israeli arms sales increased dramatically — by more than 40 percent — from 2016 to 2017, per new figures released by the Defense Ministry.

Defense exports brought in $9.2 billion last year, compared to the $6.5 billion in 2016 and $5.7 billion the year before, according to the International Defense Cooperation Directorate at the Defense Ministry, known as SIBAT.

“This is an extraordinary achievement in every sense, which was reached thanks to the hard work of SIBAT and the defense industries and due to a number of agreements with foreign countries,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman says in a statement.

This dramatic increase can also be credited to efforts made by the Defense Ministry over the past year to deregulate the arms industry and make it easier for Israeli firms to export their wares.

SIBAT chief Michel Ben-Baruch tells reporters he expects similar levels of defense exports in 2018.

— Judah Ari Gross

Netanyahu and Abe agree to promote direct flights between Israel and Japan

During their meeting in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe agree to initiate direct flights between Israel and Japan.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office says the two leaders agree that such flights would boost tourism, investment, and businesses in both countries.

Netanyahu lauds “the tremendous growth in Japanese investments in Israel and Israeli investments in Japan.”

Abe thanks Netanyahu for the hospitality and invited the prime minister to make a reciprocal visit in Japan in the coming year.

After PM raises Mossad op, Abe said to stand behind Iranian nuclear deal

The Prime Minister’s Office releases a statement saying Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue of Iran during his sit-down with his Japanese counterpart where he asserted that the nuclear deal “is based on lies.” However Japanese officials tell the Haaretz daily that Shinzo Abe stood behind his country’s support for the 2015 agreement.

Netanyahu raises the material that the Mossad recovered in its intelligence operation earlier this year in Tehran that the prime minister says proves Iran lied about its nuclear program, the PMO says.

“Iran kept all the (nuclear) plans. Those who do not want nuclear weapons do not make plans and certainly do not keep them,” Netanyahu tells Abe according to the PMO statement.

The prime minister calls the Iranian nuclear deal “a bad agreement based on the lies and scams of Iran.”

But Abe told the Israeli premier that the Iranian nuclear deal helps bring stability to the region, Haaretz reports.

The Hebrew daily also says that the Japanese prime minister stressed his support for the two-state solution, telling Netanyahu that Tokyo would not move its embassy to Jerusalem until final status issues are resolved.

Abe also asked Netanyahu to restrain settlement construction.

IS claims deadly attack on Libya election commission

The Islamic State terror group claims responsibility for a deadly attack on Libya’s election commission in the capital on Wednesday, its propaganda agency said.

“Two suicide operations hit the headquarters of the High Election Commission in Tripoli,” Amaq reported.

At least 11 people have been reported killed in the attack.

— AFP

Firefighters on Gaza border work to control blaze from flaring kite

Seven firefighter teams are working to take control of a massive blaze that has broke out in the Be’eri Forest near the Gaza border, from what is believed to have been a kite affixed with flaming materials flown from the Palestinian coastal enclave.

Three hours since the fire was said to have started, emergency crews have yet to take control of the blaze, Hebrew media sites report.

The burning kites are part of a new tactic utilized by Gaza protesters against Israel, and are connected to the ongoing weekly “March of Return” demonstrations on the border encouraged by the Gaza strip’s rulers, Hamas.

PM calls on Israelis to avoid lighting Lag B’Omer bonfires due to weather

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urges Israelis against lighting bonfires for the Lag B’Omer holiday due to the dry weather conditions.

In a video message, Netanyahu says “forecasters tell us that there are high temperatures and there are winds, and the experts say: Do not light bonfires.”

“So do not light bonfires,” the prime minister says plainly.

“There will be other opportunities. But if you must, then at most have a barbecue at your home,” he joked. “You can even make it vegetarian.”

Guard moderately injured after Hamas prisoner pours boiling water on him

A guard at the Eshel Prison in southern Israel is in moderate condition after a Hamas-affiliated security prisoner poured boiling water on him, the Ynet news site reports.

The guard has been evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba with burns throughout his entire body.

The Israel Prisons Service says the security prisoner involved is serving 30 years for attempted murder.

The incident is currently under investigation.

MK proposes bill banning sex offenders from receiving honors at public ceremonies

Amid the announcement that pedophile rabbi Eliezer Berland will be honored at a Lag B’Omer celebration in northern Israel, a Kulanu lawmaker is proposing legislation that will ban convicted sex offenders from participating in public ceremonies.

“It cannot be that Eliezer Berland, who was convicted of sexual offenses and did not express any remorse, lights a bonfire at an event funded by the state and the Ministry of Religious Services,” says Rachel Azaria in a statement explaining the legislation.

Red Cross chief sees Syria aid shift towards ‘rehabilitation’

Providing humanitarian aid in war-ravaged Syria looks set to shift increasingly away from emergency, life-saving assistance towards rehabilitating devastated areas to help Syrians return home, the head of the Red Cross says.

Peter Maurer tells reporters in Geneva that the conflict appeared to be entering a new stage, with fewer “big battle” moments and perhaps even a chance to provide displaced Syrians with a sense of normalcy after seven years of devastating violence.

“Syria to us looks very different from Syria last year or from Syria two years ago,” Maurer says.

Syria has been torn apart a war that has left more than 350,000 people dead and displaced millions.

But Maurer says that as the situation in many parts of the country appears to be stabilizing, he expected to see a shift away from a pure focus on emergency assistance towards reestablishing services in areas people want to return to.

“For us it is just important that we get the rehabilitation thing going,” he says.

Maurer points out that Syria now appeared to be split into fairly clearly defined territories, and says the “big actors” seemed ready to work towards “consensus to stop the war and to go into a phase of more tranquility.”

— AFP

Trump makes first visit to State to swear-in Pompeo

US President Donald Trump is making his first visit to the State Department to attend the ceremonial swearing-in of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

Pompeo, the former CIA director, is replacing Rex Tillerson, the former Exxon executive fired unceremoniously by Trump in March after months of personality and policy clashes.

Pompeo was confirmed last Thursday, and was officially sworn-in hours later by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito before he embarked on his first foreign trip as secretary.

Trump avoided the State Department during Tillerson’s rocky tenure, and has been slow to fill a slew of top diplomatic postings. Pompeo is promising to reinvigorate the department and restore its “swagger.”

— AP

Canada defends fourth attempt to strip Nazi war crimes suspect of citizenship

Canada has gone to court to defend its latest decision to take away the citizenship of a Ukrainian immigrant for alleged ties to a Nazi killing squad in World War II.

Helmut Oberlander, 94, had been stripped of his citizenship four times over the past 23 years for having lied about his past Nazi activities during World War II when he arrived in Canada in 1954.

When he landed in this country, Oberlander made no mention of his membership in the Einsatzkommando, a Nazi mobile killing squad that systematically executed thousands of people in the former Soviet Union after the German invasion.

But each of the government’s previous decisions to revoke his citizenship were reversed on appeal, based on claims that he joined the Nazi unit under duress.

Oberlander, who became a Canadian citizen in 1960, consistently maintained that he was forced to join the unit because he spoke both Russian and German, and that he only acted as an interpreter.

His lawyers are now asking the federal court to review Ottawa’s latest order in 2017 to revoke his citizenship and clear a path to deport him.

His lawyer Ronald Poulton was not immediately available for comment, but said in court documents that Oberlander is too infirm and his memory too degraded to answer questions about his past.

US National Guard plane said to have crashed in Georgia

The US Air Force says a National Guard cargo plane has crashed near an airport in Savannah, Georgia.

In a tweet, the Chatham County Emergency Management Agency says the plane crashed Wednesday at the intersection of two roads.

The Savannah Morning News reports the C-130 plane was from the Air National Guard 165th Airlift Wing. It crashed around 11:30 a.m.

There was no immediate word of injuries.

New picture of C-130 military plane crash in #Savannah

Stick with @WTOC11 for more information. pic.twitter.com/UKalw6Iyb6

— Romney Smith (@RomneySmith) May 2, 2018

— AP

Cyprus may seek arbitration with Israel over gas field

Cyprus and Israel will seek arbitration if no settlement can be reached between companies claiming rights to a shared gas field, the island’s Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis says.

The Aphrodite field is mostly on the Cypriot side of the maritime border, but some of it lies within Israel’s economic zone.

The two countries are at odds over how much gas is likely to be on the Israeli side, Lakkotrypis says.

“We have recently agreed to ask companies first to try to reach a settlement between them as regards the quantities that may be in the Israeli area,” he adds.

“If this is not possible then we will go to arbitration.”

Energy will be on the agenda when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades in Nicosia next week, along with Greek premier Alexis Tsipras.

Israel and Cyprus signed a deal on the border between their exclusive economic zones in 2010, but they did not reach an agreement on how to deal with their shared gas fields.

Cyprus is in advanced talks with Cairo with a view to exporting natural gas from the Aphrodite field to Egypt.

— AFP

PA’s Erekat: Abbas did not deny massacres of Jews during Holocaust

Senior Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat defends the speech given by PA President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this week widely labeled as anti-Semitic, saying the Palestinian leader did not deny the massacres suffered by the Jews, including the Holocaust.

The statement comes as Abbas is under fire for the Monday address he gave before the Palestinian National Council in which he claimed that the Holocaust was the result of Jews’ own “social behavior” rather than anti-Semitism.

Erekat says that the PA president still “believes in peace, negotiations and the establishment of two states living in peace, security and good neighborliness.”

Israel said to renew talks with UN for migrant deal

Jerusalem is said to have renewed talks with the United Nations in pursuit of a solution to the migrant crisis, after both Uganda and Rwanda walked away from talks with Israel to accept thousands of African asylum seekers.

Channel 10’s report comes a month after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, then almost immediately canceled amid domestic pressure, a deal with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees to resettle approximately 16,250 asylum seekers in Western countries and give status and rights to an equal number of asylum seekers to stay in Israel.

Security officials in Israel have reached out to the UN in recent days, expressing interest in a similar deal that was agreed to in April, Channel 10 says.

However, Jerusalem is said to be demanding that the deal include the resettling of a larger number of asylum seekers than were included in the original deal. In addition, Israel is asking for fewer migrants to be allowed to remain in Israel and that the resettling be carried out at a faster pace than agreed upon in the first deal.

It is unclear if the UN will be able to deliver on such demands.

2 killed when US military cargo plane crashes in Georgia

An Air National Guard C-130 cargo plane crashes near the airport for Savannah, Georgia, killing two, authorities say.

Chatham County Deputy Coroner Tiffany Williams says police tell her two people have been killed in the crash. Williams says she didn’t have any other details on the deaths.

The plane crashed at the intersection of two roads, the Chatham County Emergency Management Agency says in a tweet.

A photo tweeted by the Savannah Professional Firefighters Association shows the tail end of a plane and a field of flames and black smoke as an ambulance stands nearby.

The only part of the plane that remained intact was the tail section, says Chris Hanks, the assistant public information officer with the Savannah Professional Firefighters Association. The tail section was sitting on Highway 21 and the ground in front of it was black and littered with debris, he said.

Firefighters had put out the blaze but were still using a mixture of water and foam to take care of any remaining hot spots.

— AP

Bus crashes into fire hydrant in northern Israel after driver apparently stabbed; motive unclear

A bus crashed into a fire hydrant in Afula after the driver was apparently stabbed, causing him to lose control of the vehicle, the Magen David Adom emergency service says.

The motive for the incident is not yet clear.

In addition to the 62-year-old driver who is in moderate condition with stab wounds to the upper body, two passengers in a smaller vehicle are also being treated for injuries sustained when the bus rammed into them as it crashed into the hydrant.

Hebron settlers burn Palestinian flags at Lag B’Omer bonfire

Israeli settlers in Hebron burn Palestinian flags at a bonfire for the Lag B’Omer holiday.

A spokesman for the settlers in the flashpoint West bank city said the demonstration was in response to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s speech in front of the Palestinian National Council earlier this week that has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic.

Former chief military prosecutor’s home was built on private Palestinian land — report

The home of the former chief military prosecutor in the West Bank, Morris Hisch, was built on private Palestinian land, the Haaretz daily reports.

Construction of the home in the settlement of Efrat began in 1994 without permits, based off of claims from an Israeli contractor that the land had been legally purchased from its original Palestinian owners, Haaretz says.

The Civil Administration had filed demolition orders against the home once construction began, according to the report.

After a long legal battle, the Supreme Court officially rejected in 2009 the claims of the contractor that the purchase had been legal.

In 2012 — around the same time he began his stint as chief military prosecutor in the West Bank — Hirsch purchased the property in Efrat.

Two years later, the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration redrew its “blue line” marking land belonging to the settlement, leaving Hisch’s home outside the barrier and further acknowledged claims that it belonged to Palestinians.

Responding to the report, Hirsch calls the findings ”disgusting and irrelevant.”

Dror Etkess from the Kerem Navot settlement watchdog that uncovered the status of the former military prosecutor’s home tells Haaretz: “It is ironic that the person who for years was responsible for the rotten prosecution system that Israel runs in the West Bank lives in a house that was built only due to the rottenness of the law enforcement system.”