ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 466
The Times of Israel liveblogged Sunday’s events as they happened.
Former Yamina MK Abir Kara launches his Economic Freedom party, backed by small business owners whose interests he endeavored to represent in the outgoing Knesset.
“I believe in a true free market. I am for the social right. I’m in favor of lowering the cost of living, helping to the weak in society through a free economy, which is a necessary condition to increase the welfare of every citizen,” Kara says, announcing Economic Freedom as the banner under which he will advance these goals.
Israel’s rapidly spiraling cost of living is a top-of-mind issue for voters ahead of November’s Knesset election, with Tel Aviv topping global charts as the most expensive city and inflation passing five percent, with housing prices rising 17.8% in the past year alone.
Kara split from Yamina after negotiations broke down with party leader Ayelet Shaked over platform priorities and his placement on the electoral slate of Zionist Spirit, a merger of Yamina and another small right-wing faction.
Drawing much of his support from small business owners and independent contractors, Kara says that he is running to continue to be an advocate for their interests.
“In one year, we led seven huge reforms: in business licensing, imports, standardizations, [canceling the need to get fire department approval for business licensing], [creating] a safety net for the self-employed, customs policy, and reducing regulation,” he says. “We are gathered here today in order to continue the tremendous momentum.”
The newly minted party leader blames regulation, import restrictions and market concentration for much of Israel’s economic problems, tying these conditions to the country’s socialist past.
“The Israeli economy has not yet disengaged from its Mapainik foundations, from the red notebook, which in recent years has become the blue notebook,” Kara says.
Democratic socialist Mapai was the leading party in Israel’s foundational years, headed by longtime leader David Ben-Gurion. As part of the system it perpetuated, many social services and access to certain jobs were dependent upon party membership, symbolized by the now defunct red notebook.
A Kara spokesman explains the lawmaker is using the analogy to imply that the new socialists are in fact the right-wing Likud party, which did not dismantle the economic structure that Kara criticizes during its recent 12-year stint as Israel’s ruling party.
“Israel is not a country that has a Histadrut, Israel is a Histadrut that has a state!” he adds, in reference to his perception of union influence on politics and the economy.
Boeing 747 and similar four-engine planes will be barred from landing in Israel beginning at the end of March in a bid to bring down noise and air pollution, the airports authority is quoted saying by Reuters.
The Israel Airports Authority says it has told airlines they will not be able to fly such large planes to Tel Aviv next summer season.
As part of a broader plan under development to improve the surrounding environment, the authority said that it had already told airlines they would not be able to land large airplanes at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv as of the 2023 summer season.
Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesman, says that although the bus targeted earlier today in the Jordan Valley was carrying new recruits, it was a civilian vehicle and it was not clear whether the attackers were aware that there were soldiers onboard.
However, a report by the Kan public broadcaster says security officials increasingly believe the attack was well planned, as the suspects came equipped with working rifles and flammable materials. The report also notes that the attack took place on a Sunday, when many soldiers return to base from weekend leave.
Israeli F-16i fighter jets escort two American B-52 bombers as they made their way through Israeli airspace en route to the Persian Gulf, in an apparent show of force to Iran, given lingering tensions in the region.
“The flight was held as part of close cooperation with the US military, which represents a significant element in ensuring the security of the State of Israel’s airspace and the Middle East,” the Israel Defense Forces says in a statement.
Israeli jets escorting American bombers have become a regular fixture in the skies of the Middle East in recent months, as tensions between Tehran and the West have risen during an attempt to negotiate a new deal that would block the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief.
שלושה מטוסי קרב מסוג ״סופה״ (F-16i) ליוו היום שני מפציצים אמריקאים מדגם B-52, אשר חצו את שמי מדינת ישראל בדרכם למפרץ.
הטיסה התקיימה כחלק משיתוף הפעולה ההדוק עם צבא ארה"ב, שמהווה נדבך משמעותי בשמירה על ביטחון שמי מדינת ישראל והמזרח התיכון pic.twitter.com/id3usq7XTH
— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) September 4, 2022
A US official partially attributes increasingly outspoken Israeli rhetoric against a renewed Iran nuclear deal to Israel’s upcoming elections, in comments to the Wall Street Journal.
The unnamed official adds that the Biden administration and Israel are well aware of each other’s stances on a US return to the accord, which the report notes is widely unpopular among Israelis.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanese protesters sail down the country’s coast in dozens of fishing boats and yachts toward Israel, days before a US envoy is expected in Beirut to continue mediating in a maritime border dispute between the two countries.
Lebanon and Israel, which have been officially at war since the latter’s creation in 1948, both claim an area of some 860 square kilometers (330 square miles) of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon hopes to exploit offshore gas reserves as it grapples with the worst economic crisis in its modern history. Lebanon and Israel kicked off maritime border talks almost two years ago.
Today’s flotilla carries Lebanese flags and banners, with slogans in Arabic, French, and Hebrew expressing what they say is Lebanon’s right to its maritime oil and gas fields.
“We are demanding our right to every inch of our waters,” Aya Saleh, one of the protesters on a fishing boat, tells The Associated Press. “And we are sending a message from the Lebanese people.”
Lebanese and Israel navy vessels are present, though no tensions occur.
A man in his 40s has died after being struck by a semitruck in Beit Shemesh.
His death is pronounced at the scene by paramedics.
Police have opened an investigation.
Amos Hochstein, the US State Department official brokering maritime border talks between Israel and Lebanon, is due to travel to Beirut later this week for follow up talks with Lebanese officials, Lebanon’s presidency says in a statement quoted by Reuters.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu has tapped prominent political strategist Moshe Klughaft to serve as his “special adviser” for the upcoming elections, a spokesman for the former prime minister’s Likud party says.
Klughaft has previously worked with Netanyahu, as well as with ex-premier Naftali Bennett and Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg when she headed the left-wing Meretz party.
Along with two Palestinians, a third suspect in the shooting attack earlier today in the Jordan Valley is an Israeli citizen from the Galilee town of Jadeidi-Makr, a senior IDF officer tells reporters.
According to the officer, the three are relatives — a father, a son, and a nephew.
Israeli security forces captured two of the suspects shortly after the attack and the military said troops were searching for additional members of the cell.
Palestinian media identified the two captured suspects as Palestinians from the Jenin area.
The third suspect, the father, fled the scene before soldiers reached the area to arrest the pair who were wounded after the car they were driving caught fire.
The condition of the soldier seriously wounded in the shooting attack in the Jordan Valley earlier today has improved, the military says.
The Israel Defense Forces says the soldier is now listed in moderate condition at Rambam Hospital in Haifa.
Col. Meir Biderman, the commander of the 417th territorial brigade, says forces are continuing to hunt for additional members of the cell who opened fire at a bus carrying soldiers.
“We won’t rest until we catch all of them,” he says.
Biderman adds: “From an initial review of the incident, the attack was committed by a cell driving a truck, which overtook the bus and opened fire, and attempted to set it on fire. The soldiers on the bus returned fire, which made the terrorists flee.”
New security camera footage shows the white pickup truck allegedly used in today’s shooting attack trailing after the bus moments before the suspects in the vehicle opened fire, according to the Kan public broadcaster.
תיעוד: השניות לפני פיגוע הירי בבקעת הירדן – רכב המחבלים עוקב אחרי האוטובוס שמסיע חיילים@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/7A1h4ZddmD
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 4, 2022
The fast train between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will begin offering overnight service in the coming weeks, the Transportation Ministry announces.
Starting September 17, trains headed in each direction will run once an hour between Saturday and Wednesday nights.
The ministry says the service will not be offered Thursday — typically the main evening for nightlife in Israel — because of a need for maintenance at the Jerusalem end of the line, though the train will run all night between Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport, where it stops regularly.
BERLIN — Germany’s President Frank-Walter Steinmeier admits it was “shameful” that it took five decades for Berlin to agree on compensation for the bereaved families of Israeli victims in the 1972 Munich Olympics attack.
“That it took 50 years to reach this agreement in the last days is indeed shameful,” says Steinmeier, standing next to his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog, together with whom the German leader will be attending a commemorations ceremony in Munich tomorrow.
A row over the financial offer previously made by Berlin to victims’ relatives had threatened to sour the ceremony, with families initially planning a boycott.
But a deal was finally agreed on Wednesday offering 28 million euros in compensation, and also for the first time sees the German state acknowledging its “responsibility” in failings that led to the carnage.
Steinmeier says he will address some of the German failings during his speech at the ceremony on Monday.
“I will speak about… some misjudgments, some misbehaviors and some errors made during the Games in Munich,” he says.
Herzog says the agreement brings “this painful episode to a place of healing.”
“I hope that from now on, we shall continue to remember, invoke, and most importantly reaffirm the lessons of this tragedy, including the importance of fighting terror, for future generations.”
A US-brokered maritime border deal between Israel and Lebanon is close to completion, according to Saudi broadcaster Al Arabiya.
Quoting unnamed sources, the report says that Lebanon will get the Qana offshore field but will have to pay Israel compensation for extracting natural gas there.
The Karish field, which Lebanon claims and the Hezbollah terror group has recently threatened Israel over, will remain under full Israeli control, the report adds.
Meeting in Berlin with his German counterpart, President Isaac Herzog says he hopes a German compensation deal for the families of the 11 Israelis murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics will help “bring this painful episode to a place of healing.”
“I thank you for your tireless moral commitment to historic justice, a commitment reflected in your personal involvement, which ultimately led to a breakthrough, based on the taking of responsibility by the German government for the security and rescue failures, an exhaustive historical inquiry, and compensation for the bereaved families,” Herzog tells German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during a press conference after their meeting.
Herzog adds: “I appreciate and respect your efforts to bring this painful episode to a place of healing, and I hope that from now on, we shall continue to remember, invoke, and most importantly reaffirm the lessons of this tragedy, including the importance of fighting terror, for future generations.”
He also warns against Iran, which is currently negotiating with world powers — including Germany — on a renewed nuclear deal.
“Iran has proven that it cannot be trusted. Iran has proven that it is a threat to the world order. Iran has proven that it has no qualms about sowing terror, death, and thuggish behavior threatening global stability,” Herzog says.
“The State of Israel cannot accept threats to its existence. Israel will stand up and assertively and powerfully defend its citizens and Jewish communities all around the world. We expect our allies to stand firmly by our side at this hour,” he adds.
Palestinian media names the two gunmen arrested by Israeli security forces following a shooting attack against a bus in the Jordan Valley earlier today.
The reports say apparent relatives Muhammed and Walid Turkman are from the Jenin refugee camp and nearby village of Burqin, in the northern West Bank.
The pair were hurt after their vehicle caught fire following the attack that left seven people — six soldiers and a civilian bus driver — wounded.
مصادر محلية لنيو برس: منفذا عملية إطلاق النار على حافلة جنود جيش الاحتلال في #غور_الأردن هما الأسيران الجريحان محمد وليد غوادرة ومحمد ماهر غوادرة، وهم من مخيم جنين ووادي برقين. pic.twitter.com/Bkm2FlnxMj
— Newpress | نيو برس (@NewpressPs) September 4, 2022
Mossad chief David Barnea is due to travel tomorrow to Washington for talks on Iran’s nuclear program that the Prime Minister’s Office says will include meetings with senior officials at the White House, CIA, US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Department, State Department and elsewhere.
“The Mossad leader’s trip to the US will focus on tightening security and intelligence coordination with the Americans surrounding the Iranian nuclear issue,” a statement from Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s office says.
Barnea came out forcefully against a renewed Iran nuclear deal last week, in comments that Lapid reportedly told him veered from official talking points.
At a cabinet meeting earlier today, Lapid said Barnea’s meetings in Washington were “designed to explain to the American government our position regarding the dangers inherent in the [Iran nuclear] agreement.”
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu issues a brief statement welcoming the nomination of deputy IDF commander Herzi Halevi as next military chief, wishing him “much success” in the post.
Herzi was chosen over Eyal Zamir, a former deputy chief of staff who served as a military secretary to the prime minister when Netanyahu was in power.
President Isaac Herzog is welcomed by his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the presidential palace in Berlin, after arriving in Germany for a three-day visit.
After posing for photos with their wives, Herzog and Steinmeier inspect a military honor guard.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid hails the nomination of deputy military commander Herzi Halevi as the next IDF chief of staff, calling him a “worthy and natural” selection.
“Herzi is an excellent commander who is rich in experience and skill. I’m sure he’ll lead the IDF to many significant accomplishments,” Lapid says.
He also praises the runner-up, former deputy IDF chief Eyal Zamir.
Meanwhile, the current IDF chief, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi speaks to both Halevi and Zamir.
“The chief of staff welcomes the selection of a highly talented and experienced officer. The chief of staff congratulated Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi on his nomination to the position and wished him success,” the military says in a statement.
“Also, the chief of staff thanked Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir for his successful and accomplished service, and wished him success in his future,” the statement adds.
Hamas praises the shooting attack in the Jordan Valley that left seven Israelis wounded.
In a statement, the Gaza-ruling terror group calls the shooting a “response to the occupation’s crimes,” while stopping short of claiming responsibility.
Right-wing opposition figures respond to the shooting attack on a bus transporting soldiers in the Jordan Valley, in which seven Israelis were hurt.
Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu says he is praying for the recovery of those hurt and voices support for Israeli forces.
“Only a strong hand will beat terror,” he says in a statement.
A member of Netanyahu’s Likud party blames Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, claiming the demolition of illegal Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and meetings the latter held with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas encouraged terror.
“Those who spend all day persecuting Jews and destroying settlement, hosting with great honor at his home one who pays salaries to despicable terrorists, and gives hope to terror, shouldn’t be surprised that they feel sure they can carry out dozens of attacks,” MK Shlomo Karhi tweets.
He adds: “All of us are paying the price of this lawlessness of Gantz and Lapid, in body and soul.”
Far-right Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich also lashes out at Gantz, tweeting that he “failed in his principal mission to provide security to Israeli citizens.”
Defense Minister Gantz has selected Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi as the next chief of the Israel Defense Forces, his office says in a statement.
“He is the most suitable officer in terms of the rich operational experience he has in a variety of operational areas, as well as in terms of his command abilities and his approach to various military issues, which he has demonstrated throughout his years of service,” Gantz says.
Halevi, 54, headed the Southern Command during several rounds of fighting between Israel and terrorists in the Gaza Strip in 2018 and 2019, and before that was head of the Military Intelligence Directorate. He is currently serving as deputy chief of IDF staff, a pivotal post on the path to the top spot.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid wishes a swift recovery to the soldiers and bus driver hurt in a shooting attack in the Jordan Valley, while praising Israeli first responders and troops for treating the wounded and quickly tracking down the suspects.
“We will continue to reach anyone who tries to harm the citizens and soldiers of the State of Israel,” Lapid says in a statement.
The Israel Defense Forces says a soldier was seriously hurt in the shooting attack in the Jordan Valley earlier.
According to the IDF, another five soldiers and a civilian bus driver are lightly hurt.
Two Palestinian gunmen were detained nearby, the IDF and police say. They have been taken by the Shin Bet security agency for questioning.
The army adds that troops are continuing to search the area for additional suspects.
One of those moderately wounded in the shooting attack in the Jordan Valley earlier is a civilian bus driver transporting soldiers.
The other four victims are soldiers.
The two victims moderately hurt by gunfire were taken to Rambam Hospital in Haifa by a Magen David Adom helicopter.
Newly released video shows the vehicle allegedly used to carry out the shooting attack in the Jordan Valley going up in flames as the suspects fled the scene.
The truck can be seen turning off the road before catching fire. The suspects can then be seen getting out of the vehicle and running away as the truck continues down another road.
It isn’t immediately clear how the truck caught on fire.
תיעוד בלעדי: רכב המחבלים שביצעו את פיגוע הירי בבקעת הירדן מתלקח בזמן ההימלטות@carmeldangor pic.twitter.com/rdTKOzsKmZ
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) September 4, 2022
CERNOBBIO, Italy — The leader of Italy’s far-right League party, Matteo Salvini, has sparked debate by saying that the unprecedented sanctions the West had imposed on Russia over the Ukraine invasion aren’t working.
“Several months have passed and people are paying two, three, even four times more for their bills,” he tells Rtl radio. “And after seven months, the war continues and Russian Federation coffers are filling with money.
“Are the sanctions working? No. Today, those who have been sanctioned are winners and those who put the sanctions in place are on their knees,” he tweeted a day earlier.
“It’s evident that someone in Europe has made a bad calculation. It is essential to rethink the strategy to save jobs and businesses in Italy,” he said.
Skyrocketing energy prices since the start of the war in Ukraine have wreaked economic pain on countries in the European Union which before the war had been reliant on Russia for a large chunk of its gas supplies.
Following Salvini’s comments, Enrico Letta, leader of the Democratic Party and one of his main adversaries ahead of parliamentary elections on September 25 retorts on Twitter: “I think (Russian President Vladimir) Putin couldn’t have said it better.”
The leaders of Italy’s main parties are due to speak later today at a debate.
The suspects who carried out a shooting attack on an Israeli bus in the Jordan Valley tried to set the vehicle ablaze after opening fire, according to the regional council head David Elhayani.
Elhayani, who heads an umbrella group of settler leaders, tells Kan public radio that the suspects opened fire from a moving vehicle, then cut off the bus. He says they poured a flammable liquid on the bus and tried to set it ablaze, but apparently failed.
Medics say five people were wounded in the attack, including two people hurt by gunfire listed in moderate condition. The other three were lightly hurt by broken glass.
Israeli forces reportedly arrested two Palestinian suspects nearby.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz hails Israeli troops for arresting a pair of suspects after a shooting attack in the West Bank left five Israelis hurt today.
“The security forces immediately launched a manhunt and captured the attack suspects in a quick and professional operation,” he says.
“We will continue to increase our focused operations against terror in the Judea and Samaria area,” he adds, using the biblical name for the West Bank.
He also wishes a speedy recovery to the wounded.
