Ex-staffer testifies in new abuse lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu

Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of blocking Yemen peace

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir is accusing Tehran of smuggling arms to Yemen’s Shiite Houthi rebels, who control northern Yemen, and to the rebels’ ally former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

“Iran is destroying all attempts to find a solution in Yemen, which has led to the failure of all political negotiations between the government and these militias,” Jubeir tells a gathering in the Saudi capital of foreign ministers and military officials from countries including Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Senegal.

“These militias would not have continued operations without the support of the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world — the Iranian regime,” Jubeir says.

The Yemen war has claimed more than 8,600 lives since a regional military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia, joined the Yemeni government’s fight against the rebels in 2015.

A cholera outbreak has also claimed more than 2,100 lives since April as hospitals struggle to secure supplies amid a blockades on ports and the country’s main international airport.

— AFP

Tens of thousands rally in Barcelona for Spanish unity

Tens of thousands who want Catalonia to remain part of Spain rally in downtown Barcelona, two days after a separatist majority in Catalonia’s parliament voted for the wealthy region to secede.

Organizers say the march’s goal is to defend Spain’s unity and reject “an unprecedented attack in the history of democracy.” Leaders of rival pro-union parties from the ruling conservatives, the pro-business liberals and the socialists have joined together under the slogan “We are all Catalonia. Common sense for coexistence!”

People hold signs reading “No to the impunity of coup plotters” and “(Catalan regional president Carles) Puigdemont to prison” while waving Spanish flags during a demonstration calling for unity at Plaza de Colon in Madrid on October 28, 2017, a day after direct control was imposed on Catalonia over a bid to break away from Spain. ( AFP PHOTO / JAVIER SORIANO)

Grassroots group Societat Civil Catalan called for those who oppose Catalonia from breaking away to march. Demonstrators, many waving Spanish, Catalan and European Union flags, flooded a central boulevard. The mood was festive and jubilant, with no incidents reported.

Three weeks ago, the same group organized a mass rally that brought hundreds of thousands onto Barcelona’s streets. That was by far the largest pro-union show of force in Catalonia in recent years, in contrast to huge rallies by separatists.

— AFP

Cabinet okays finance minister to draft 3-year budget framework

The cabinet votes in favor of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s proposal to release some NIS 3.5 billion in budget surplus to allow him to draft a 3-year budget framework for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Last year the Supreme Court ruled out any future two-year budgets from being advanced unless the Knesset overhauls its Basic Law on the state economy, though it kept the government’s 2017-2018 budget intact.

Instead of passing a two- or even three-year budget, as has also been suggested in the past, Kahlon will instead now be able to formulate the macro-principles guiding each year’s spending goals, even without being able to set a specific budget for each ministry.

Nicaraguan vice president calls Israeli senior official ‘brother’

Nicaragua’s vice president calls a guest Israeli official “hermano,” or brother, seven months after the countries renewed diplomatic ties.

Rosario Murillo uses the Spanish word for “brother” to speak of Modi Ephraim, head of Israel’s Foreign Ministry division to Latin America and the Caribbean, who arrives today in Managua for a two-day mission including high-level meetings with local officials, reported El Nuevo Diario newspaper.

“Brother Modi Ephraim will be coming to our country in the upcoming days. He will work in a program developed by a bilateral commission, where we are emphasizing and prioritizing all the advanced technologies in that brother country, technological irrigation for agriculture, training, everything that has to do with post-harvest production,” Murillo tells reporters.

The meetings will also address “the exchange between the two governments and peoples for the re-establishment of relations, which was announced and celebrated especially by many brothers of the Christian churches of our country,” she adds.

— JTA

Mexican diplomat who protested anti-Israel UNESCO resolution and was fired, is honored

Mexico’s former UNESCO ambassador, who was fired last year for walking out of a vote on an anti-Israel resolution effectively denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem, was honored in LA.

Andres Roemer receives the Guardian of Truth and History Award from StandWithUS during a ceremony held in Los Angeles, reports the Milenio news website.

“More important than education is critical thinking. Many people with many academic degrees and educational degrees have voted, supported and made terrible leaders rise to power. It does not matter if they are right or left. It does not matter if they are Trump, Chavez, Maduro or Pol Pot. The followers end up being the leaders,” Roemer, who is Jewish, says during his speech.

Mexico’s ambassador to UNESCO, Andres Roemer (YouTube screenshot)

In October 2016, the Latin American diplomat risked his position by walking out of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization vote at its headquarters in Paris — leaving his deputy to cast the country’s vote — in a personal protest against the UNESCO resolution denying Jewish ties to Jerusalem.

In July, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Roemer in Jerusalem.

— JTA

Hate letter with swastikas, white power mailed to Israeli consulate in New York

A letter decorated with swastikas that contained an unidentified white powder was mailed to the Israeli consulate in New York.

The letter was received on Thursday afternoon, the New York Daily News reports, citing police sources.

The powder was determined to be nontoxic, according to the report.

The envelope also contained a hate letter, written in Hebrew, and was decorated with swastikas.

Early Wednesday morning, a pink swastika was spray-painted across the doors of the Sutton Place Synagogue, in New York’s Midtown Manhattan area, the newspaper reported. Surveillance video shows three men near the synagogue, with one spraypainting the doors.

— JTA

Supporters of Swiss Islamist call sexual assault accusations ‘Zionist plot’

Three women say they were sexually assaulted by Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss Islamist and professor at Oxford University with ties to terrorists, whose critics say he justifies Palestinian terrorism and promotes conspiracy theories against Jews.

His supporters are calling the accusations the result of a “international Zionist plot” to blacken his name.

The third and newest complainant, a woman identified only as Yasmina in the French media, told Le Parisien that Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford’s St. Anthony’s College, sexually harassed her in 2014 and blackmailed her for sexual favors, the weekly reported Saturday. She said Ramadan threatened to distribute “compromising pictures” of her.

Oxford University professor Tariq Ramadan (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons/Joshua Sherurcij)

The accusations by Yasmina, who said she was filing criminal charges against Ramadan, closely followed the filing of criminal charges against him on October 20 for alleged rape by Henda Ayari, a former Islamist turned secular feminist. The alleged crimes took place in 2012 in France, added Ayari, who also said that Ramadan threatened her and that she was afraid to denounce him “for fear of reprisals.” On Thursday, another complainant against Ramadan stepped forward. A convert to Islam who is suffering from a disability in her legs, she said she suffered “sexual violence of great brutality” by Ramadan in 2009. She also filed a formal complaint against Ramadan.

Ramadan denies any wrongdoing.

Following Ayari’s decision to step forward, journalist Caroline Fourest, who has reported extensively about Ramadan’s controversial career, on Friday wrote in the Marianne weekly that supporters of Ramadan are calling the accusations the result of a “international Zionist plot” to blacken his name.

— JTA

UK funding last-ditch effort to interview Polish witnesses to Holocaust rescues

The British government launches a last-ditch funding effort to interview witnesses to attempts to rescue Jews during from the genocide.

The campaign, titled “Silent Heroes,” was announced at a news conference in Warsaw that was organized by the From the Depths organization and attended by the United Kingdom’s Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, Eric Pickles, and the head of Poland’s largest Jewish organization, TSKZ President Artur Hoffman.

One witness who was interviewed last month, Natalia Jakoniuk, suffered a debilitating stroke the following week, demonstrating how “time is of the essence and not on our side,” From the Depths founder, Jonny Daniels, said.

Jonny Daniels, founder of the Poland-based Holocaust commemoration group From the Depths, at the entrance to the Seventh Fort in Kaunas, Lithuania, July 12, 2016. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

Under the new campaign, in which journalists and researchers conduct filmed interviews with witnesses, posters asking witnesses to step forward will be placed in government offices with nationwide distribution.

From the Depths attempts to substantiate the testimonies it is collecting with Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance and other archives, Daniels said.

— JTA

‘Jews will burn’ note left on Connecticut sixth-grader’s locker

A note reading “Jews will burn” was left on the locker of a sixth grader at a middle school in southwestern Connecticut, superintendent of the Wilton city schools, Kevin Smith says in a letter to parents of the Middlebrook Middle School.

The letter says that students caught committing such acts “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and subject to suspension and expulsion, according to Connecticut News 12.

Swastikas were found drawn on the walls of the middle school’s bathroom twice this month, according to the report. A student confessed to one of those incidents.

In a letter sent home to parents earlier this month, the school’s principal said: “The student was not personally intending to make an anti-Semitic statement. Of course, this in no way decreases the negative impact this has had on our school community.”

Meetings were scheduled with the school’s parent community to discuss the incidents.

— JTA

Spain says Catalan leader can run in election ‘if not in jail’

Spain’s foreign minister says Catalonia’s deposed leader would be eligible to run in the regional election called by the central government on December 21, provided he hasn’t been imprisoned by then.

Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis tells The Associated Press in an interview in Madrid that Carles Puigdemont’s pro-independence party could “theoretically” put him up as a candidate “if he is not put in jail at that time.”

Puigdemont could face criminal charges for his role in the separatist movement that culminated in the Catalan parliament declaring an independent republic on Friday.

— AP

Roadside bomb, gunfire kills 2 policemen in Egypt’s Sinai

Security and hospital officials say an attack targeting a police vehicle by suspected militants in the turbulent northern part of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has killed two conscripts.

They say the militants disabled the truck with a roadside bomb detonated remotely then opened fire.

A total of 10 conscripts were wounded in the attack on the outskirts of el-Arish, Sinai’s largest city on the Mediterranean coast.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Security forces have been battling militants in northern Sinai for years in an insurgency that gathered steam after the 2013 ouster by the military of an Islamist president whose one-year rule proved divisive.

Egypt is also facing a growing number of attacks by militants in its western desert.

— AP

UN finds underground tunnel coming from UNWRA school in Gaza

UN officials have discovered an underground tunnel emanating from a school in the Gaza strip run by the international body’s agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, according to the Ynet Hebrew-language news site.

Since the discovery was made some two weeks ago, UNRWA has closed the school and filled in the opening to the tunnel, the report said.

Israel was updated on the incident when it happened, UNRWA said.

“The existence of a tunnel under an UNRWA facility in unacceptable and places the children and staff at huge risk,” the agency said.

Million people at Spanish unity rally in Barcelona, Madrid representative says

One million people join a rally in favor of Spanish unity in Barcelona on Sunday, the central government’s representative in Catalonia says, while municipal police estimated turnout at 300,000.

Nationalist activists protest with Spanish and Catalan flags during a mass rally against Catalonia’s declaration of independence, in Barcelona, Spain, on October 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)

Organizers say 1.3 million people had taken part in the demonstration, which comes two days after Catalan lawmakers voted to declare the wealthy region of 7.5 million people an independent republic.

— AFP

Iran’s parliament approves Rouhani’s cabinet picks

Iran’s parliament approves two nominees by President Hassan Rouhani to head the ministries of energy and higher education.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani says 225 of 276 lawmakers in attendance voted for Reza Ardakanian to serve as energy minister. Mansour Gholami secured 180 votes to serve as the minister of science, who is in charge of universities and higher education.

Though Iranian universities work under boards of trustees, hardliners do not support reformists for the post of science minister who has influence in picking university chancellors.

With the vote, Rouhani’s 18-minister cabinet is now complete.

— AFP

Bank of Israel governor opposes tax cuts

Governor of the Bank of Israel Karnit Flug says she opposes the finance minister’s proposal to use surplus tax revenues in 2017 to cut taxes, Globes reports.

Speaking to the cabinet this morning while Moshe Kahlon presented his planned multi-year budget framework, Flug reportedly said: “Given the state of the budget, it is clear that cutting taxes now, which will lower taxes in the coming years, is inconsistent with meeting the fiscal targets for the coming years. This means that if taxes are cut now, it will very likely be necessary to raise them by 2019. This fluctuation in tax rates is bad for the business sector, and cannot help achieve long-term targets that tax cuts are capable of achieving (encouraging labor, for example).”

The cabinet nonetheless voted in favor of Kahlon’s proposal to release some NIS 3.5 billion in budget surplus to allow him to draft a 3-year budget framework for 2019, 2020 and 2021.

US official: Jerusalem expansion bill distracts parties in peace process

A senior official in the Trump administration comes out against Israeli legislation that seeks to absorb a number of West Bank settlements into Jerusalem.

“It’s fair to say that the US is discouraging actions that it believes will unduly distract the principals from focusing on the advancement of peace negotiations. The Jerusalem expansion bill was considered by the Administration to be one of those actions,” the official told journalists.

The bill aims to solidify the city’s Jewish majority, but stops short of formal annexation, making the practical implications unclear. The bill says the communities would be considered “daughter municipalities” of Jerusalem.

David Bitan, the Likud party’s parliamentary whip and a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Army Radio this morning that pressure from the United States led Israel to delay a vote on the bill in the key Ministerial Committee for Legislation.

“There is American pressure claiming this is annexation,” he said.

Iceland’s scandal-hit PM wins re-election

Iceland’s conservative prime minister has won a snap election despite a string of scandals, final results confirm, but it remained unclear whether he can form a viable coalition.

Bjarni Benediktsson, 47, was  named last year in the “Panama Papers” worldwide tax-evasion leaks. He has also been accused of wrongdoing during Iceland’s financial collapse in 2008.

Bjarni Benediktsson of The Independence Party after the first results of the election in Reykjavik, Iceland, October 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

Nevertheless his Independence Party beat its rivals in yesterday’s election, according to final results published earlier today.

It won 16 seats in the 63-seat parliament. Turnout was 81 percent. No party won a majority.

It could take months before Iceland has a new government in place as thorny coalition negotiations await.

— AFP

Netanyahu meets Greenblatt in Jerusalem

US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his Jerusalem office.

Greenblatt has been shuttling throughout the region in hopes of restarting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which last collapsed in 2014.

US President Donald Trump’s envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exchange greetings at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, July 12, 2017. (Haim Tzach/GPO)

Earlier today a senior US official criticized proposed Israeli legislation that seeks to absorb a number of West Bank settlements into Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.

9- and 12-year-old girls arrested for kindergarten break-in, vandalism

Police arrest two preteen girls for breaking into and vandalizing a public kindergarten in the southern town of Kiryat Gat.

Police were alerted to the vandalism this morning after the kindergarten teachers arrived at the preschool to discover it had been broken into and “completely trashed,” according to a police statement.

A vandalized kindergarten in Kiryat Gat, October 29, 2017. (Israel Police)

The girls, ages 9 and 12, were arrested after police opened an investigation into the “extreme damage” done to the property.

Questioned by the Juvenile Crimes Unit, they admitted to the suspicions against them and apologized.  They were later released from custody and the case has been transferred to the city’s social services department.

White House official: Greenblatt and Netanyahu didn’t discuss ‘Annexation bill’

A senior Trump administration official says that the White House’s Middle East envoy and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not discuss “the annexation bill” that seeks to absorb a number of West Bank settlements into Jerusalem’s municipal boundaries.

“Jason and the ambassador met with the prime minister as a general check-in on peace conversations. They did not meet to discuss the annexation bill,” the official says.

Greenblatt has been shuttling throughout the region in hopes of restarting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which last collapsed in 2014.

Earlier today a senior US official criticized the proposed Israeli legislation, saying it “distracts” both parties from peace.

Palestinian official suggests Holocaust guilt led FIFA not to sanction Israel

European countries are leading opposition to intervention by FIFA in a dispute between Israel and the Palestinians over soccer clubs in the West Bank, according to Palestinian Football [soccer] Association (PFA) chief Jibril Rajoub.

Rajoub, speaking in a press conference at the Palestinian Football Association in the West Bank town Al-Ram, says the Palestinian soccer players are “scapegoats” for European crimes against the Jews during the Holocaust, for which those countries were now purportedly compensating in refusing to come down on the Jewish state.

The PFA had demanded FIFA sanctions over six teams playing in the Israeli league that are based in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The international community considers all Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal.

On Friday, the world body’s ruling council declined to adopt any of three possible actions recommended by an international commission, which had spent more than two years looking at the long-running battle.

— Dov Lieber

Memo said to reveal plans for farting ‘David’ statue in London museum

According to a leaked memo, London’s Victoria & Albert Museum is reportedly planning to let a children’s comic book team run an exhibition there next summer, which will include Michaelangelo’s “David” statue making farting noises as people walk past.

The exhibition, being billed as a takeover of the museum by “The Beano,” aims to encourage children to visit the museum, the UK’s Daily Mail reports.

“The Beano,” known for its anarchic humor, has been published weekly since 1938 and its most famous character is Dennis the Menace.

The museum’s replica of “David” is to be fitted with a speaker that will cause the sculpture to break wind.

Other plans for the museum include a display of slingshots, famously used by Dennis the Menace, and covering one of the museum’s most valuable objects, Leonardo da Vinci’s notebook, with vinyl comic book signs.

Real Madrid loses 2-1 to Girona amid Catalan crisis

Real Madrid suffers a backlash on the field, rather than from an expected hostile atmosphere amid political turmoil in Catalonia, as they slumped to a shock 2-1 defeat at Girona.

Goals from Cristhian Stuani and Portu in four second-half minutes cancelled out Isco’s opener for Madrid as Real fell eight points behind La Liga leaders Barcelona, after just 10 games.

— AFP

Egypt court orders ban on ‘anti-Islam’ broadcast

An Egyptian court rules that a television program deemed contrary to Islamic law should not be broadcast, following a request from the country’s highest institution of Sunni Islam.

Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb of Al-Azhar had demanded that the authorities ban “With Islam” presented by controversial intellectual reformer Islam Behairy and aired by private channel Al Qahera Wel Nass.

Al-Azhar accuses Behairy of “regularly attacking Islamic law.”

Although Al-Azhar advocates tolerance and moderate Islam in conferences, it also routinely asks for programs and shows in which secular Egyptians criticize current Islamic practices or heritage to be banned.

Behairy has infuriated Al-Azhar’s traditional clergy in the past, with attacks on canonical religious books and some of Sunni Islam’s most important scholars.

He served a year in prison for “insulting religion” before being released in late 2016 under a presidential pardon.

— AFP

Iran blocks ‘illegal’ rally at ancient king’s tomb

Iranian authorities prevent an “illegal gathering” at the tomb of ancient Persian king Cyrus the Great and arrested a number of suspects, local media reports.

The Mizanonline news website says the intelligence ministry had identified members of “a counter-revolutionary group which had wanted to organize an illegal gathering under the pretext of celebrating Cyrus.”

Semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the head of the elite Revolutionary Guard, General Hashem Ghiassi, had issued a warning to the “counter-revolutionaries.”

Authorities in Iran last October arrested several organizers of a rally at the same site.

Footage posted on social media showed participants chanting for freedom of expression, along with nationalistic and anti-Arab slogans.

— AFP

Speculation rife as first arrest in US Russia probe said near

Official Washington is abuzz over reports that a grand jury has charged at least one person stemming from the US probe of Russia’s attempts to tilt the 2016 presidential elections in Donald Trump’s favor.

There is no indication, in reporting by CNN that other media later confirmed, of who might be charged or what crimes might be alleged in the ongoing inquiry led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller.

But Trump, in a rapid burst of tweets again denounced the investigation as a “witch hunt” and repeated his denials of any collusion with Russia.

Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017

…the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017

…"collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017

…are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017

— AFP

UK to investigate minister who asked aide to buy sex toys

Britain’s Cabinet Office will investigate whether an international trade minister breached conduct rules by asking his secretary to buy sex toys as widening allegations of sexual harassment roil Parliament.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Mark Garnier will face an investigation after the minister’s former secretary told The Mail on Sunday that Garnier gave her money to buy two vibrators at a Soho sex shop and called her a disparaging name in front of witnesses.

British International Trade Minister Mark Garnier, August18, 2017. (Tim Goode/PA via AP)

“The facts of (the report) are in dispute, so the Cabinet Office are going to look at it and see if there is a breach,” Hunt told ITV’s Peston on Sunday program.

— AP

Syria says retreating IS released 25 hostages

A Syrian government official says Islamic State militants have released 25 apparent hostages as they retreated from a town in the central Homs province.

Homs Governor Talal Barazi tells The Associated Press Sunday there are another 19 people originally from Qaryatayn still held by IS.

This frame grab from video released on May 26, 2017 and provided by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows Syrian forces taking positions during fighting between government forces and Islamic State group militants in Homs province in central Syria. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

Government forces and allied troops regained control of Qaryatayn last week, chasing the militants out, after they were held for three weeks. The militants left a trail of blood behind them, killing at least 70 residents. Bodies were found strewn in the streets and in ditches. At the time, activists said more remain unaccounted for.

It was not immediately clear why the militants released the 25 hostages.

— AP

Mass grave with 36 bodies found near Libya’s Benghazi

Authorities in eastern Libya discover an open mass grave in a quarry containing 36 bodies, the largest such discovery since the country’s civil war.

Spokesman Awad Aladouli of the eastern interim government’s Ministry of Interior says Sunday that the bodies were found in Al-Abyar City southeast of Benghazi overnight into Friday morning.

Buildings ravaged by fighting in Sirte, Libya, October 22, 2011. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo, File)

The dead, apparently of different ages and socio-economic backgrounds, in attire ranging from athletic wear to business suits, included people shot in the head, blindfolded, and with hands tied behind their backs. Investigations are ongoing, with 22 bodies identified.

Libya descended into chaos following a popular 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The oil-rich North African nation has three rival administrations, but a multitude of militias hold actual power on the ground.

— AP

Senior White House official: Trump personally committed to peace deal

A Senior White House official issues a lengthy defense of ongoing efforts by the Trump Adminstration to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

“As President Donald J. Trump has clearly stated, he is personally committed to achieving a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians that would help usher in an era of greater regional peace and prosperity. A few months ago, the president directed his advisers to continue discussions with regional partners about how best to support the peace effort. Those conversations are still ongoing. On the margins of the UN General Assembly, US representatives met individually with representatives from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and other regional partners,” the official says.

“More recently, the Special Representative for International Negotiations traveled to Cairo, Amman, Jerusalem, and Ramallah and met with officials, and he will have further meetings in the coming weeks. In addition, the Senior Adviser to the President, the Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy, and the Special Representative for International Negotiations recently returned from Saudi Arabia. The Senior Adviser has also been in frequent contact with officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. While these regional talks will play an important role, the President reaffirms that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties and that the United States will continue working closely with the parties to make progress toward that goal. No deal will be imposed on Israelis and Palestinians; We are committed to facilitating a deal that improves conditions for both parties,” he adds.

Ex-staffer testifies in abuse lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu

A former worker at the Prime Minister’s Residence provides police testimony against Sara Netanyahu on Sunday, after filing an abuse lawsuit against the prime minister’s wife alleging that Mrs. Netanyahu had abused the employee.

Police took testimony regarding the ex-staffer’s complaints, but also probed other witnesses in order to corroborate her story, police said.

Responding to a query from The Times of Israel on the questioning, police said that the woman requested, via her lawyer, to give testimony on her own accord, and was not requested or compelled to testify by authorities.

“After ascertaining her account, the complaint will be passed on to authorized police investigators for further treatment, according to the advice of the State prosecution,” police said in a statement.

Saudi Airlines to operate first Baghdad flight in 27 years

State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines will launch its first flight to Baghdad in 27 years on Monday, state media says, amid a thaw in ties between the Arab neighbors.

The airline, also known as Saudia, will depart from the Red Sea city of Jeddah, barely two weeks after Saudi budget carrier flynas made the first commercial flight from Riyadh to Baghdad since 1990.

“Saudi Arabian Airlines will inaugurate regular flights between the kingdom and Iraq after an interruption of 27 years,” the official Saudi Press Agency reports. “The resumption of flights is in line with growing ties between the two brotherly countries.”

Flights between Iraq and Saudi Arabia were suspended in August 1990, after former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered his troops into neighboring Kuwait.

— AFP

Witness in case against PM’s wife offered job as aide by Netanyahu family adviser — report

An adviser to the Netanyahu family offered the job of an “aide to a ministry director general” to a central witness in a case alleging abuse of an employee by Sara Netanyahu, in an apparent attempt to stop her from giving testimony against the prime minister’s wife, Channel 2 reports.

The witness is connected to a former worker in the Prime Minister’s Residence, who provided police testimony against Sara Netanyahu on Sunday, after filing an abuse lawsuit against the prime minister’s wife.

A spokesperson for the Netanyahu family said the report was made up of “baseless claims, part of an illegitimate method aimed at blackening the name of Sara Netanyahu and damaging the prime minister.”

“There is no end to the persecution and character assassination,” the statement says, noting past accusations against Sara Netanyahu, including the “cynical” claims made by former housekeeper Meni Naftali. The statement, however, fails to mention that Naftali was awarded NIS 170,000 compensation (about $43,735) for the years of mistreatment at the hand of Mrs. Netanyahu while working at the prime minister’s residence.

“Who would offer, via a text message, a job of an aide to a director general to someone they had never met, who by chance is a central witness?” the Netanyahu’s statement asks. “This text exposes the whole farce.”

WWII veteran laid to rest in Illinois, 73 years after death

Relatives of a World War II veteran who died in a 1944 battle in the Netherlands that was part of an Allied campaign, later depicted in the movie “A Bridge Too Far,” lay his remains to rest in central Illinois.

Mourners gathered at Springfield’s Camp Butler National Cemetery for the funeral of US Army Staff Sgt. Michael Aiello.

Aiello’s great-grandnephew, Brian Aiello, said the family now has a sense of relief, but there’s also sadness because many older relatives who knew Aiello have passed away during the last 15 to 20 years.

“We really wanted them to be here for this moment. It’s bittersweet, but it’s nice that he’s at least home now,” he tells The State Journal-Register .

— AP

Yisrael Beytenu MK slams Ben Gurion University fast-track entry for Arab sector

MK Oded Forer from the Yisrael Beytenu party slams a Ben Gurion University decision to open a special track in which students from the Arab sector will be accepted without the need for a psychometric test.

“Those involved with equality and human rights repeatedly discriminate against citizens who serve and contribute to the State of Israel. Is the blood of the Arab student receiving relief more red than the blood of new immigrants, discharged soldiers or any other student coming from a low socioeconomic background?” Forer asks in a statement.

“It is impossible to talk about special tracks exempt from psychometric exams without taking into consideration new immigrants, those who come from a low socio-economic situation or those who have served in the military or national service and whose studies have been postponed for several years because of their service,” he adds.

Forer says he has written to university president Rivka Carmi “demanding that she include other populations” in the new track.