Elie Leshem is deputy editor of The Times of Israel.
The Times of Israel live-blogged Tuesday’s news as it unfolded.
Yesh Atid party chairman MK Yair Lapid warns against missing early signs of fascism in the US and calls on leaders there to condemn Nazi ideology, a day after a video surfaced showing attendees at an “alt-right” conference in Washington giving Nazi salutes in support of US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Seeing a video of Nazi salutes in the heart of Washington DC is sickening and intolerable,” says Lapid, whose faction sits in the parliamentary opposition, in a statement.
“America is Israel’s closest ally and our relationship is built not only on mutual interests but also on deeply held shared values of freedom, tolerance and democracy,” he continues. “In the spirit of those shared values I call upon the leaders of the United States to publicly condemn expressions of Nazi sympathy and fascism as well as rising anti-Semitism.”
— Stuart Winer
Firefighters are en route to Zichron Yaakov, where a large brush fire has spread to several homes in the neighborhood of Givat Eden.
There are no initial reports of injuries or of residents trapped in their homes.
Residents are being asked to turn off the gas in their homes and clear the area.
Two children aged 7 and 2 are treated for smoke inhalation in the large fire raging on the outskirts of Zichron Yaakov.
Meanwhile, several power lines have been damaged and electricity has been cut off to the neighborhood of Givat Eden.
So far, hundreds of people have been evacuated from their homes.
UN Ambassador Danny Danon presents to the Security Council what he says is “new evidence” showing Iran has been “using civilian flights to Lebanon to send arms and ammunition to Hezbollah,” according to a press release from his office.
In a letter to UNSC members, Danon says the Iranian Republican Guard “is using airlines such as Mahan Air to supply Hezbollah with the capacity to enhance its missile arsenal. The arms and related materials are packed in suitcases by the Quds Force in Iran and transferred directly to Hezbollah operatives.”
He says these arms arrive either via “commercial flights to Beirut” or flown to Damascus and then delivered overland to Hezbollah.
Danon maintains that in doing so, Iran is “in blatant violation of numerous Security Council resolutions,” including resolutions 2231, endorsing last year’s nuclear deal, and 1701, which ratified the ceasefire ending the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Firefighters say more than 40 fire engines, along with eight planes, are attempting to douse the flames in Zichron Yaakov.
So far, five people have been treated for smoke inhalation, but there are no reports of more serious injuries.
Meanwhile, three factories in Nesher, outside Haifa, are evacuated due to a fire in the area.
Channel 2 airs video footage from the apocalyptic-looking streets of Zichron Yaakov this afternoon.
The images show trees on fire and people running under an angry orange sky.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issues a statement praising Poland, with whose prime minister he held consultations this morning, for its “blossoming friendship” with Israel and “resolute stand” against anti-Semitism.
“I will say that Poland has taken a resolute stand against the resurgent anti-Semitism that we see in parts of Europe,” he says. “I appreciate this. We also know that Poland has taken an important position in international forums against the automatic reflex of anti-Zionism and anti-Israel resolutions. That is important too.”
Following extensive fieldwork by an undercover officer, the Israel Police arrests 30 men — both Arabs and Jews — on suspicion that they dealt in weapons and drugs.
Some of the weapons sold by the ring were used by Palestinians who carried out terror attacks in Jerusalem, police say.
The suspects were arrested in early-morning raids in Jerusalem — including 11 in the eastern side of the city — Tel Aviv, Ma’ale Adumim, and Beitar Illit.
Marijuana captured by police in early-morning raids on November 22, 2016 (Israel Police)
Rifles captured by police in early-morning raids on November 22, 2016 (Israel Police)
Prime Minister Netanyahu issues a statement supporting his attorney and cousin David Shimron amid reports Shimron may have been involved in a conflict of interest in helping to facilitate the purchase of German submarines, military boats and maintenance services by the Israeli government.
David Shimron in Tel Aviv on February 17, 2015. (Ben Kelmer/Flash90)
Netanyahu “has for many years known David Shimron Esq. to be straight as an arrow, a man who is over-scrupulous in adhering to the law and regulations, as well as a first-rate lawyer,” the Prime Minister’s Office says in the statement.
On Monday, as persistent reports implied the prime minister himself could be linked to wrongdoing in the submarine affair, coalition chairman David Bitan, considered a confidant of Netanyahu, tweeted an apparent repudiation of Shimron, saying: “There’s no doubt that the criticism should be directed at Shimron rather than Netanyahu.”
President-elect Trump abruptly cancels a meeting with The New York Times, accusing the organization of changing the conditions for the session “at the last moment.” The newspaper denies the charge and says Trump’s aides tried to change the rules.
He was scheduled to meet Times reporters, editors and columnists and does not give details of his complaint, saying in a morning tweet only that “the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice.”
He says in another tweet: “Perhaps a new meeting will be set up with the @nytimes. In the meantime they continue to cover me inaccurately and with a nasty tone!”
Eileen M. Murphy, the newspaper’s senior vice president for communications, says: “We did not change the ground rules at all and made no attempt to.”
The Times quotes her as saying that Trump’s aides tried to alter the conditions, asking for a private meeting only, with nothing on the record, “which we refused to agree to.
“In the end,” she says, “we concluded with them that we would go back to the original plan of a small off-the-record session and a larger on-the-record session with reporters and columnists.” That was followed by Trump pulling out.
Trump met privately Monday with representatives of the television networks.
— AP
Trump’s adviser Kellyanne Conway confirms reports that the president-elect will not pursue investigations against his Democratic former rival, Hillary Clinton.
Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, right, and Republican nominee Donald Trump walk off the stage after the final presidential debate at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada on October 19, 2016. (Robyn Beck/AFP)
“I think when the president-elect… tells you before he’s even inaugurated he doesn’t wish to pursue these charges it sends a very strong message — tone and content — to the members,” Conway tells MSNBC. “I think Hillary Clinton still has to face the fact that a majority of Americans don’t find her to be honest or trustworthy but if Donald Trump can help her heal then perhaps that’s a good thing.
“I think he’s thinking of many different things as he prepares to become the president of the United States and things that sound like the campaign aren’t among them,” she adds, according to Bloomberg.
Irish President Michael Higgins tells a gathering of Jewish leaders and diplomats in Dublin that rising anti-Semitism, requiring armed police to guard Jewish schools and synagogues throughout Europe, is “not acceptable.”
During the gathering, assembled by the World Jewish Congress, Higgins also voices concern over emigration by Irish Jews.
“Today, Ireland’s Jewish community is getting smaller,” he says, according to a press release Tuesday from the WJC. “Many of the younger generation of Irish Jews have gone to live their lives overseas. To uncover the reasons which led so many of them to leave this island would probably teach us much about ourselves as a society.”
Irish President Michael Higgins addresses a World Jewish Congress gathering in Dublin, November 2016 (WJC)
An editor for the right-wing US news website Breitbart is banned from giving a talk at his former school in Britain, sparking a social media storm over free speech.
The school says it decided to cancel the lecture by Milo Yiannopoulos citing security concerns due to planned protests and after consulting with a government “counter extremism unit.”
Yiannopoulos, who is technology editor for the right-wing US news website, is known for his provocative social media posts and was banned from Twitter in July for fueling abuse directed at “Ghostbusters” actress Leslie Jones.
The British journalist is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump — nicknaming the US president-elect “Daddy” during his election campaign — and has become an apologist for America’s “alt-right” movement.
“This decision was taken following contact from the DfE (Department for Education) counter extremism unit,” says a spokesman for the Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in Canterbury, southeast England.
He says staff and students at the school had been “overwhelmingly in favor” of hosting the former pupil, with 220 students signing up to attend.
But “the threat of demonstrations at the school by organized groups and members of the public and our overall concerns for the security of the school site and the safety of our community” led to the decision to scrap the talk, the spokesman adds.
Yiannopoulos hits out at the move, which sparks heated reactions from supporters and detractors on social media, branding it an assault on free speech.
“Free speech is dead in the UK,” the self-declared internet “supervillain” writes on his Facebook page alongside an article from the Sun website.
— AFP
Police are still evacuating neighborhoods in Zichron Yaakov that have been hit by the fire.
An Israel Police spokesperson says officers are searching the houses to ensure that there are no remaining residents or “helpless people” who were unable to leave independently.
“We request that the public refrain from entering the area due to the danger of the fires spreading due to strong winds,” the spokesperson adds.
More than 1,000 combatants sent from Iran to fight in support of President Bashar Assad in Syria have been killed in the conflict, the head of Iran’s veterans’ affairs office says.
“The number of martyrs from our country defending the shrines has now passed 1,000,” Tasnim news agency quotes Mohammad Ali Shahidi Mahalati, the head of Iran’s Foundation of Martyrs’ and Veterans’ Affairs, as saying.
Iran has sent military advisers, as well as fighters recruited from Afghanistan and Pakistan, to work with Assad’s forces. They are known in Iran as “defenders of the shrines” in reference to Shiite holy sites in Syria.
Shiite Iran is a staunch supporter of Assad and provides both financial and military support for his regime.
The Fatemiyoun Division of Afghan recruits organized by Iran comprises the majority of volunteers sent from Iran to fight in Syria and Iraq.
Iran says they are sent to fight against Sunni extremists such as the Islamic State group (IS).
The Islamic republic denies having any boots on the ground in Syria, and insists its commanders and generals of the elite Revolutionary Guards’ foreign operations wing act as “military advisers” both there and in Iraq.
Iranian media regularly report on the death of Iranian, Afghan and Pakistani “martyrs” in Syria, whose bodies are buried in Iran.
— AFP
Magen David Adom sends out an update as to the casualties from the fire in Zichron Yaakov:
MDA EMTs and paramedics are providing emergency medical treatment to 13 people with mild injuries. 11 people have been evacuated to Hillel Yaffe hospital, amongst them are a seven year old girl, a four year old boy and a one year old girl. A ten month old male toddler was evacuated to Rambam hospital. Another person required medical treatment on location but was not evacuated. MDA teams are remaining in the area and are prepare for any scenario. We are also working in full collaboration with police and the fire department.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Netanyahu holds a phone conversation with the mayor of the fire-struck town, Ziv Deshe, according to a press release from his office.
US President-elect Donald Trump abruptly reschedules an interview with The New York Times, after canceling it over the “nasty tone” of the paper’s coverage.
In a pair of early morning tweets, Trump said he had called off the interview after “the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last minute,” an account the newspaper disputed.
But a Trump spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, now texts pool reporters: “The meeting is taking place as planned.”
Eileen Murphy, the Times’ vice president for communications, confirms the meeting is back on.
“He will meet with our publisher off-the-record and that session will be followed by an on-the-record meeting with our journalists and editorial columnists.”
— AFP
In a day that is seeing multiple brush fires throughout the country, another blaze has broken out, this time between the settlements of Gevaot and Rosh Tzurim in the Etzion Bloc.
Due to the fire, police have closed Route 367 to traffic in both directions.
There are no immediate reports of damage and authorities say there is currently no danger to residents in the area.
The BBC reports that the UAE has dropped charges of “extramarital sex” against a British woman, leveled at her after she reported she had been gang-raped in Dubai.
An anti-Semitic leaflet was sent to the home of a gay New York State senator days after swastikas were carved into his apartment building.
The leaflet that arrived at Brad Hoylman’s home on Saturday shows a black-hooded figure, labeled as “God’s Wrath,” brandishing a sword that has cut through the symbols of various religions, including Judaism and Islam. The image is captioned: “The Prophetic Judgment of Judaism and All False Religions and Orders.”
New York State Sen. Brad Hoylman. (screen capture: NYSenate/YouTube)
“False religious orders must perish…That goes for Judaism,” part of the text reads.
Hoylman, lives in a Fifth Avenue building in Lower Manhattan with his partner and their daughter, told the New York Daily News that he belongs to a synagogue but had not formally converted to Judaism. On Nov. 15, two swastikas were found carved into the building’s elevator door, an act Hoylman connected to the appointment of Stephen Bannon as a senior adviser to President-elect Donald Trump.
— JTA
President-elect Donald Trump’s Jewish son-in-law defends him from allegations of bigotry and anti-Semitism in a new interview with Forbes magazine.
In the interview, his first since Trump stunned the US two weeks ago by defeating Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, the usually press-shy Jared Kushner says his father-in-law “won’t tolerate hateful rhetoric or behavior.”
The publication of his comments comes a day after video surfaced of white supremacist mentor Richard Spencer evoking laudatory Nazi-infused language about the incoming president at a conference this weekend while the audience chanted “Heil Trump!” and extended Nazi salutes.
Donald Trump shakes hands with son-in-law Jared Kushner during an election night party at a hotel in New York on November 9, 2016. (AFP/Mandel Ngan)
Kushner says that despite the support Trump has received from the likes of the KKK and racist alt-right movement, he knows his father-in-law to be someone who does not share their values, emphasizing that their relationship for longer than a decade gave him insight into the man that others lack.
“If I know somebody and everyone else says that this person’s a terrible person,” he says, “I’m not going to start thinking that this person’s a terrible person or disassociating myself, when my empirical data and experience is a lot more informed than many of the people casting these judgments. What would that say about me if I changed my view based on what other people think, as opposed to the facts that I actually know for myself?
“I just know a lot of the things that people try to attack him with are just not true or overblown or exaggerations,” he adds. “I know his character. I know who he is, and I obviously would not have supported him if I thought otherwise. If the country gives him a chance, they’ll find he won’t tolerate hateful rhetoric or behavior.”
— Eric Cortellessa
The commissioner of the Israel Police, Roni Alsheich, warns that weather conditions are increasing the likelihood of more brush fires in the coming days.
Speaking from a command center set up near the scene of a major blaze in Zichron Yaakov, Alsheich tells journalists, “We have been through a tough couple of days and we are expecting the coming ones to be no less difficult.”
Officials say that unseasonably dry conditions, combined with high winds, have made the area ripe for fires.
Alsheich says that weather was behind the fire in Zichron Yaakov and that it caused significant damage to homes and property. Luckily, he says, residents were evacuated in time and there were no serious injuries.
The police chief tells reporters that forces will remain in the area of the damaged homes to prevent trespassers or thieves from entering.
— Times of Israel staff
In a meeting with The New York Times, President-elect Trump responds to the recent emboldening of the racist and white nationalist groups described as “alt-right,” saying he disavows them and doesn’t want to “energize” them.
Trump: “I don’t want to energize the group, and I disavow the group.” (1/2)
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
Trump on alt-right supporters: "It's not a group I want to energize. And if they are energized I want to look into it and find out why."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump has been facing criticism over his failure to explicitly condemn those groups — which were fanned by his campaign — especially in the wake of an alt-right event over the weekend during which activists performed the Nazi salute and cried “Heil Trump.”
In a brief interview with Channel 2, the white supremacist Richard Spencer says Americans have nothing to fear from the “alt-right” movement, of which he has been the most vocal spokesman.
Richard Spencer, a white supremacist who runs a Washington think tank, the National Policy Institute. (Screenshot from YouTube via JTA)
“I think Jewish intellectuals and neoconservatives and Jewish liberals probably have something to fear — in the sense that their policies won’t be enacted,” he says.
As to “Average Jews in the United States,” he continues, “I don’t see any evidence that they’re under threat.”
Spencer was catapulted into the heart of the news cycle yesterday when footage emerged of a speech he gave over the weekend in Washington, during which he invoked explicit Nazi imagery and terminology.
Trump dismisses accusations against his chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, during his meeting with The New York Times.
He would never have hired Bannon if he thought he was racist or a member of the alt-right, the president-elect says.
On Bannon:"If I thought he was a racist or alt-right or any of the things, the terms we could use, I wouldn't even think about hiring him."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Trump also notes that the media storm surrounding Bannon’s allegiances have been “hard” on him.
Trump on Bannon: "I think it's very hard on him. I think he's having a hard time with it. Because it's not him."
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Having disavowed the alt-right movement, Trump is asked specifically about Richard Spencer’s conference in Washington that featured Nazi salutes, and reiterates his condemnation.
Trump gets asked again about the alt-right conference. 'Boy you are really into" this issue, Trump replies. Then disavows again.
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) November 22, 2016
Asked point-blank about Nazi conference in DC over wknd: @realDonaldTrump tells @nytimes "of course" "I disavow and condemn them"
— Julie Davis (@juliehdavis) November 22, 2016
Asked about the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has been stalled for years, Trump tell the Times that he would “love” to be the one to broker a deal.
“I would love to be the one who made peace with Israel and the Palestinians, that would be such a great achievement."
— Mike Grynbaum (@grynbaum) November 22, 2016
He adds that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, could be helpful in this area, presumably because he’s a Jew.
Trump: Jared Kushner could help make peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
— Elisabeth Bumiller (@BumillerNYT) November 22, 2016
A former senior US defense department official has added a new twist to the controversy roiling Israel over the acquisition of new submarines, saying President-elect Trump should step in and halt the purchase.
“The American taxpayer is effectively subsidizing this new round of submarine procurement,” writes Dov Zakheim, a former senior DOD official and adviser to George W. Bush and Mitt Romney, arguing that given the cloud over the deal, the US should evaluate the purchase and stop it if necessary.
The plan to equip the Israeli navy with three new submarines — which play a huge part in Israel’s deterrent capabilities — has caused a political storm in recent days, amid allegation that Prime Minister Netanyahu gave a green light to the deal over the objections of the top military brass who wanted to use the funds for other projects.
There have also been reports that Netanyahu’s lawyer David Shimron sought to use his influence to lobby for the German shipyard that builds the fleet. Both men have denied any wrongdoing, with Netanayhu saying his sole concern was Israel’s security.
The US does not directly fund the submarine program, which is paid for by Israel, but heavily subsidized by the German government. However, Zakheim argues, the only reason Israel can afford the subs is because US military assistance frees up money from other defense needs.
— Gavin Rabinowitz
