Netanyahu: Khamenei is wrong; Israel is here to stay

Israel outlaws Temple Mount Islamist activist groups

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon outlaws the Murabitun and Murabitat, Islamist activist groups whose members have been protesting on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount against Jews who visit the site, which is holy to both religions.

The Murabitat group features female Muslims who, on several occasions, have surrounded Jewish visitors to the mount, hurling epithets at them and sometimes attacking them physically.

The Murabitat, whose name is a loaded Islamic term denoting religious steadfastness at a time of battle, were founded by the radical northern branch of Israel’s Islamic Movement.

The Murabitun is a parallel group composed of men.

A statement from the Defense Ministry says Ya’alon decided to outlaw the groups in light of recommendations from the Israel Police and Shin Bet internal security agency. It says that the groups are a “major cause of tension and violence on the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem in general” and accuses them of targeting Jewish visitors, tourists and “worshipers” at the site (Jews are prohibited from praying on the Temple Mount, but some try to anyway).

“The State of Israel permits freedom of worship to all of its citizens and the tourists who visit it, regardless of religion, and considers this a major, basic value,” Ya’alon says.

“But we have no intention of allowing violent, incitive elements to disturb the public peace and threaten the well-being of the worshipers, especially in a holy, volatile site such as the Temple Mount.

— Elhanan Miller contributed

Netanyahu takes off for London

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, head out on an official visit to Britain.

Before boarding the plane, Netanyahu says his trip is meant to garner support for Israel, which, he claims, is Europe’s “only protection” against Islamist extremism in the Middle East.

“I am leaving now to meet British Prime Minister David Cameron,” he says in a statement. “This is in continuation of the dozens of calls and meetings I have had since the elections with prime ministers, presidents and foreign ministers of dozens of countries, including meetings with the Italian prime minister, and with Lithuanian and European Union leaders just yesterday. In these talks I explain one thing: Europe needs to support Israel, not pressure Israel and not attack Israel, but support Israel, which is the only true protection Europe has in the Middle East against surging extremist Islam.

“We are prepared to act together with Europe in Africa and other places to fight extremist Islam but this requires a change of approach. This change will take time but we will implement it. This will be one focus of my talks with David Cameron. The second thing is that we need to fight extremist Islam not only at the borders, as we are doing, but also within our territory. As soon as I return I will hold a meeting to summarize a meeting that I already had about boosting forces, stepping up enforcement, minimum sentences, blowing up suicide terrorists’ houses and other steps that we are determined to carry out against all those who try to attack us here, within the country. My policy is zero tolerance for terrorism and this is what we will do.”

German charged with Islamic State membership

German prosecutors say they have charged a 25-year-old German man with membership in a terrorist organization over allegations he joined the Islamic State group in Syria.

The federal prosecutor’s office says that the suspect, identified only as Nils D. in line with German privacy regulations, traveled to Syria around October 2013 to join the group.

They say he received firearms and explosives training and, from April to November 2014, was tasked with tracking down deserters.

He’s also alleged to have provided the organization up to 9,000 euros ($10,060).

He returned to Germany in November 2014 and was arrested Jan. 10 in the Duesseldorf area. He has been in custody since.

Authorities say there’s no evidence he was planning attacks in Germany.

— AP

Photo: Dust clearing over Israel

A satellite picture taken by NASA on Wednesday shows that the dust cloud over Israel has dissipated significantly since yesterday, as the sandstorm that blanketed the region begins to settle down.

Clinton seeks to reassure Iran deal skeptics

Hillary Rodham Clinton will argue that the US must be “clear-eyed” about the nuclear deal with Iran in a speech on Wednesday, stressing that US President Barack Obama’s landmark agreement must be enforced with “vigor and vigilance” and is not a step toward normalizing relations with America’s longtime enemy.

Speaking at a Washington think tank, Clinton plans to hail the agreement as part of a larger Middle East strategy before offering a five-point plan for countering Iran’s influence in the region.

“This isn’t the start of some broader diplomatic opening,” Clinton will say, according to excerpts of her remarks provided by her campaign. “And we shouldn’t expect that this deal will lead to a broader change in their behavior. That shouldn’t be a premise for proceeding.”

— AP

Activists in London protest Netanyahu visit

A group of about 300 protesters assemble for a rowdy protest in front of the British PM’s official residence in London ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrival on a state visit, Reuters reports.

Scuffles are reported between the demonstrators and police.

“We’re here because we feel that Netanyahu should pay for his war crimes,” one student protester, Marion Tehami, is quoted as saying. “We’re here to protest and let him know that he’s not welcome in our country.”

Sheldon Adelson profiled as Republican kingmaker

A new profile of the Jewish casino magnate Sheldon Adelson in New York Magazine argues that he is “the person most responsible” for the Republican party’s powerful pro-Israel shift in recent years.

The 6,000-word piece is titled “Sheldon Adelson Is Ready to Buy the Presidency.”

Adelson, a staunch conservative and the most powerful backer of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has yet to endorse a Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential elections.

The candidate to win his favor and financial support will have gone a long way toward securing the GPO nomination.

Israel reopens embassy in Egypt

Israel’s embassy in Cairo has reopened after four years, the Foreign Ministry announces.

A statement says that the ministry’s director, Dore Gold, was in the Egyptian capital today to mark the “festive occasion.”

Also on hand were Ambassador Haim Koren and other Israeli diplomats, Egyptian officials, and the American ambassador there. Koren has been stationed in Egypt since May 2014, working at an unofficial location.

Gold says that under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, the two countries had succeeded in fending off threats and are now working toward “prosperity” and “stability” in the Middle East.

Israel shuttered its Cairo embassy in September 2011, after it was run over by thousands of protesters.

Hillary Clinton praises Iran deal

In an address on the nuclear deal with Iran, Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, says the agreement significantly reduces the Islamic Republic’s breakout time to the bomb.

She says that if Iran will cheat, the US will detect it “immediately.” The deal, she continues, enables the US to closely monitor all of Iran’s nuclear program.

Clinton: Iran won’t be able to cheat

Clinton acknowledges that even though, with the deal, inspectors’ access to some facilities will be delayed, Iran will not have sufficient time to scrub evidence.

She says rejecting the deal would be a huge mistake, leaving Iran with “no restrictions” on its nuclear program.

The sanctions regime will also collapse, she says.

It would be far more risky to “walk away” from the deal than to enforce it, Clinton adds.

Clinton to Iran: The US will ‘never allow you’ to go nuclear

Turning to Iran, Clinton says the US will “never allow you” to develop nuclear weapons.

She also vows to “deepen American’s unshakable commitment to Israel’s security,” detailing areas in which the US will assist the Jewish state in both hardware and intelligence.

Clinton vows to choke funding for Hezbollah, other Iran allies

Clinton promises to seek out “new ways” for blocking funding for Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy militia that she terms a “terrorist organization” — both its military wing and political echelon.

She pledges to “vigorously enforce” America’s sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps for its “destabilizing” activities throughout the Middle East.

Clinton specifies that she’ll act to block weapons deliveries from Iran to Syria, whose embattled leader, Bashar Assad, is a key ally of Tehran.

She calls these steps a “special imperative” as international sanctions on Iran lapse.

Clinton implies she’ll work to free reporter held by Iran

Alluding to Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has been convicted in Iran of espionage for the US, Clinton says that as president, she will work to ensure the release of all American citizens held in Iran.

#HillaryOnIran "And I will not rest until every single American citizen detained or missing in Iran is home."

— Jesse Lehrich (@JesseLehrich) September 9, 2015

Clinton: US and Israel should ‘come together’

Clinton says Israel and the US should “come together” after their “honest” disagreement over the Iran deal.

Turning to the Israeli people, she says the US “will always be with you.”

She disses Republican candidates who “boast that they’ll tear up” the Iran nuclear deal if they’re elected.

“Let’s debate these issues, but let’s debate them on the basis of fact, not fear,” she says. “Let’s avoid at all costs undermining America’s credibility abroad.”

Clinton: I’ll invite Israeli PM to US as soon as I’m elected

Clinton says she’ll invite the prime minister of Israel to a meeting at the White House during her first month in office if she is elected president.

Pro- and anti-Israel protesters clash in London

In a video taken in London, an activist is seen ripping an Israeli flag out of the hands of a pro-Israeli counter-protester who drives through an anti-Netanyahu rally.

The protest, boasting several hundred protesters, is staged in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is landing in London today for a meeting with his British counterpart, David Cameron.

Clinton: ‘Tough love’ a viable but unproductive approach to Israel

“There’s a lot of room for tough love” on Israel, Clinton says, especially behind closed doors.

But, she says, it’s not a “productive” approach, because it encourages others to heap criticism on the Jewish state.

Police probe nuclear leaker Vanunu over interview

Police have launched an investigation of Mordechai Vanunu, who leaked classified details on Israel’s military nuclear program in a 1986 interview with a British newspaper, Channel 2 reports.

The probe is over a candid interview that Vanunu gave Channel 2 last week, the report says.

Vanunu was imprisoned over his 1986 interview, which revealed many details about Israel’s undeclared military nuclear program.

He was released in 2004, but the conditions of his parole included significant limitations on his freedom of movement and banned him from giving interviews on various topics.

In his interview with Channel 2, aired last Friday, Vanunu discussed the germination of his decision to leak details of Israel’s alleged nuclear arsenal.

He also described how, after he had leaked the information, he was lured from London to Rome and arrested, in a Mossad honeytrap operation by an agent (Cheryl Bentov) he knew as Cindy. “Any man would have fallen” for the ploy, he said.

Israel has repeatedly denied Vanunu permission to leave the country, in part because he allegedly still constitutes a security threat, and a further High Court hearing on the issue is expected soon. (In 2007, Vanunu was jailed for an additional six months for violating his release provisions when he was found traveling toward the West Bank city of Bethlehem, away from his home in Jerusalem.)

— Times of Israel staff contributed

3 knife-wielding Gazans cross into Israel; IDF arrests them

IDF soldiers have apprehended three Palestinians armed with knives who crossed from the Gaza Strip into Israel, the military reporter for the Hebrew-language Walla news site reports in a tweet.

כוח של צה"ל לכד שלושה פלסטינים חמושים בסכינים חוצים את גדר המערכת מרצועת עזה . #טיילת

— amir bohbot (@amirbohbot) September 9, 2015

Two more House Democrats back Iran deal

Two top House Democrats have announced their support for the Iran nuclear deal.

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat and the whip, says “no matter how deep, how personal, and how sincere” his concerns about the agreement are, they “do not outweigh the need for a united position on Iran.”

Rep. Xavier Becerra of California, who’s chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, says in a statement “No deal is perfect. We can always think of ways of making a deal better. But thinking is not doing. And speculation won’t stop Iran from reaching nuclear weapons capability.”

Both chambers of Congress open debate on the accord Wednesday afternoon.

— AP

AG rules Shabbat soccer games must go on

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein rules that there will be no change in the country’s policy of allowing soccer matches in Israel’s national league to take place on Shabbat.

“In Israel, professional soccer has always been played on Shabbat,” he writes in a response to Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev, who sought his legal opinion after a Labor Court judge said that organizing or participating in soccer matches on Saturdays — the Jewish day of rest — was technically illegal.

“I find it hard to fathom the idea of criminal sanctions over game play on Shabbat after decades in which this hasn’t been done,” Weinstein adds.

Israeli man killed in Nigeria shooting

An Israeli man was shot to death in Nigeria on Tuesday, the Foreign Ministry says, apparently during a kidnapping attempt gone awry.

According to Ynet, the man, in his 40s, was working at a construction site in the capital, Abuja, when he was accosted by four armed men.

The report says that when the Israeli man attempted to flee, the gunmen fired at him and killed him.

A security guard was injured in the shooting.

According to reports, the Israeli embassy in Nigeria will fly the man’s body to Israel for burial.

The deceased’s name has not yet been cleared for publication.

Kerry: US committed to accepting more refugees

Secretary of State John Kerry says the United States is committed to increasing the number of refugees it is willing to take in as US allies in Europe struggle to accommodate tens of thousands of refugees from the Middle East and Africa.

After closed-door meetings on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Kerry says President Barack Obama has made it clear that the US wants to take a leadership role on humanitarian issues.

“We are looking hard at the number that we can specifically manage with respect to the crisis in Syria and Europe,” he says. “That’s being vetted fully right now.”

— AP

Israeli hoops team leads Poland at halftime

Israel’s national basketball team has a 35-32 lead against the Poland team at halftime in a EuroBasket match that could determine whether Israel will go on to the next round.

Like Israel, Poland has a 2-1 record so far in the tournament.

Netanyahu: Khamenei is wrong; Israel is here to stay

Upon landing in London for an official visit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserts that the Iranian supreme leader, who stated earlier Wednesday that Israel will have ceased to exist 25 years down the line, was wrong, and the Jewish state is here to stay.

“Khamenei doesn’t even allow supporters of the [nuclear] deal a margin of illusion,” Netanyahu says in Hebrew.

“He emphasizes that the US is the Great Satan and that Iran intends to destroy the State of Israel. That won’t happen. Israel is a powerful country and it will grow even stronger.

“But the takeaway from the words of the despot in Tehran is that all responsible nations have to cooperate to stop Iranian aggression, which, to my chagrin, will only grow in the wake of the deal.”

דברי רה״מ כעת בלונדון pic.twitter.com/f7uNAG6f04

— Miri Michaeli (@MiriMichaeli) September 9, 2015

Moniz appeals to US rabbis on Iran nuclear deal

US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, a top Iran nuclear deal negotiator, wrote a letter to rabbis ahead of High Holiday services arguing the merits of the deal.

“I have sought to explain the nuclear dimensions of the JCPOA to many audiences, including Jewish leaders in Washington and around the country,” Moniz says in the Sept. 8 letter, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal reached by Iran and six major powers in July that exchanges sanctions relief for nuclear restrictions.

“My conversations confirm that, as with other communities, the American Jewish community does not share a consensus about the JCPOA, but its members want accurate information to inform their discussions,” he says.

— JTA

US House leadership delays debate on Iran deal disapproval

WASHINGTON — The Republican leadership of the House of Representatives has recessed floor debates Wednesday, rather than deliberate the procedural votes surrounding a proposed resolution of disapproval of the Iran nuclear deal.

The recess comes as the GOP leadership is reportedly struggling with an internal uprising of Republican representatives, who threatened to tank the vote until President Barack Obama turns over the text of agreements made between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran.

A group of representatives from the conservative House Freedom Caucus announced that they support a drive led by Rep. Peter Roskam to refuse to vote on the resolution, arguing that the president has not fulfilled his side of the terms of the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act.

That legislation, passed in May 2015, requires the administration to hand over all documents related to the nuclear agreement.

The administration has argued that it does not have the text of the IAEA-Iran agreements, which cover the terms for inspection of sensitive nuclear sites like Parchin, and that the agreements are not “secret side deals” but rather standard operating procedure of the IAEA.

— Rebecca Shimoni Stoil

NYC repeals regulations on circumcision rite

The New York City Board of Health repeals a consent form for a controversial circumcision rite.

The vote to repeal the consent form to allow the metzitzah b’peh rite is 9-1, with one abstention.

A law requiring parents to sign a consent form for metzitzah b’peh was enacted in 2012 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg after at least 11 boys contracted herpes from the practice between 2004 and 2011. Two died and two suffered brain damage.

Metzitzah b’peh, a ritual in which the mohel sucks blood from the wound following circumcision, is a common traditional practice among many Haredi Orthodox mohels. When performed directly with the mouth as opposed to through a sterile pipette, it has been linked directly to the transmission of the herpes virus.

— JTA

Ted Cruz: Iran deal will kill ‘countless’ Americans and Israelis

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz predicts the murder of “countless” Americans and Israelis should the proposed nuclear agreement with Iran go through, a graphic warning expected to be echoed by GOP front-runner Donald Trump at a Capitol Hill rally.

Those Democrats who support the deal, Cruz says, “should pray and think very carefully about how they will answer the questions that come from the mother or father or son or daughter of the countless Americans and Europeans and Israelis that will be murdered by Hamas, by Hezbollah, by the Houthis, with the billions of dollars this administration is sending them.

“If you are directly responsible for sending billions of dollars to jihadists who use those billions to murder Americans, you can’t wash your hands of that blood,” the first-term Texas senator tells reporters in the Capitol shortly before the rally begins.

— AP

Islamic Waqf slams ban on Temple Mount activist groups

Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Islamic Waqf, which runs the Temple Mount’s al-Aqsa compound, slams the Defense Ministry’s decision to outlaw two Muslim groups active at the volatile complex.

The move to ban the Murabitat and the Murabitun, who are known to spar with Jewish visitors to the sacred site, is “totally unacceptable,” he says.

“The occupation regime has no right to intervene in al-Aqsa’s matters,” he says in a statement.

“Any Muslim who enters al-Aqsa Mosque and prays is a protector of the mosque. Nobody has a right to prevent a Muslim from entering their holy site and praying,” al-Khatib adds.

— AFP contributed.

Israel edges Poles to clinch round 2 in Euro hoops tournament

After a nail-biter, the Israeli national basketball team beats Poland 75-73, making it into the second round of the EuroBasket tournament for the first time since 2007.

Israeli scorers are led by point guard Gal Mekel, with 18 and five assists; Sacramento Kings swingman Omri Casspi, who scored 14 with seven boards; and center D’or Fischer, with 15 and eight.

Israel led 35-32 at the half and fended off multiple Polish runs to clinch the win.

The team faces France, an international powerhouse, tomorrow, in a game that could decide who wins their Group A — and the chance to face a less-formidable opponent in the next round of Europe’s premier national hoops tournament.