After PM blasted, Ya’alon warns against trusting defense gurus
Defense minister says security experts are often wrong, after ex-security officials denounce Likud leader
A day after a Channel 2 poll gave the Zionist Union a lead of four seats over the Likud, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu minced no words in expressing concern over a possible win by rivals Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni if the gaps remain. “There is a chance that Bouji and Tzipi will take the leadership, with the backing of the (Arab) Joint List,” he said at an elections event in Netanya Wednesday afternoon. “Those who are concerned, should only vote Likud,” he urged. Netanyahu also vowed that the Likud would never withdraw to the pre-1967 lines.
Earlier, a number of former officials in Israel’s security establishment slammed the PM’s diplomatic and security policies, including on Iran, and said another Netanyahu term would harm the State of Israel.
Their comments came a day after the PM said officials in the United States and across the world have become more receptive to Israel’s fears over Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program following his speech to Congress last week. A Gallup poll published Wednesday, however, showed that the speech negatively affected the PM among American respondents, dropping his rating by seven points this month compared with February.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State John Kerry said a prospective nuclear deal with Iran wouldn’t be legally binding, and that Congress wouldn’t be able to override the accord between Washington, Tehran and world powers. The US diplomat spoke at a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and criticized Republican lawmakers for dispatching a letter to Iran warning against the nuclear talks he’s leading, saying it threatened global trust in America. Kerry said he was in “utter disbelief” about the missive. Kerry said that the letter undermined American foreign policy and was legally incorrect.
The Times of Israel covered developments as they unfolded through Wednesday.
Ex-security officials lambaste Netanyahu
In a widening offensive against the six-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a group of former security commanders criticize him for allegedly ruining the bi-lateral ties with the United States, mishandling the summer’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and bungling the country’s approach to the international negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
“You and only you turned the United States from an ally to an enemy,” former Mossad head Shabtai Shavit says of Netanyahu at a Tel Aviv press conference organized by Commanders for Israel’s Security.
He further asserts that Israel’s position regarding the international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program has been “one big mistake,” which has already “caused damage to the State of Israel and I’m sure it will cause difficulties and damage in the future.”
Calling the case “so simple,” he adds that there is a common enemy – Iran – that has brought the world powers together “and we, the smallest superpower among those other powers, we find ourselves outside the game,” which means that rather than “joining forces together to represent the interests of the state from within the coalition that fights the bad guys, we find ourselves fighting against our greatest allies.”
Commanders for Israel’s Security members at a press conference in Tel Aviv, March 11, 2015. (Photo credit: Mitch Ginsburg/times of Israel)
Pushed to widen his critique to recent events, Shavit adds that the killing of Jihad Mughniyeh on the Syrian Golan in January was “stupidity” and that as someone who was well acquainted with Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah’s military commander and father of Jihad, who was assassinated in 2008, “I know the difference between the two of them.”
The father, he says, was “head and shoulders above the rest,” an enemy that had to be taken into account at every turn; “and the son — no.”
The strike that killed Jihad Mughniyeh and an Iranian brigadier-general was reportedly carried out by Israel on January 18 and led to a Hezbollah response that killed two Israeli soldiers 10 days later and could have led to a wider, unwanted conflagration, he said.
Finally, addressing the charge that was voiced against the former commanders that they are no longer in the loop and therefore do not have the information necessary to make informed judgement, Shavit says that “those who say we don’t know are either vicious persons or jerks.”
The former Mossad head is joined onstage by a former senior Shin Bet commander and several former general-rank officers in the IDF.
Brig. Gen. (res) Giora Inbar says “Mr. Netanyahu, speeches without action do not provide security.”
Brig. Gen. Asher Levy, who served in the War of Independence as one of Ariel Sharon’s commanders, says that “the central problem with Netanyahu is that he does not initiate. He is always reacting.”
He charges that this was the case throughout the 50-day war in the summer in Gaza and says “a prime minister must initiate…he does not do that because he is unable to make decisions and that is the problem.”
— Mitch Ginsburg
Comedienne Sarah Silverman pushes Meretz vote
American comedienne Sarah Silverman is urging Israelis to vote for Meretz in the national elections next week.
“Every vote counts. If you don’t vote, you can’t complain,” she writes on Twitter.
ISRAEL! If you are a Meretz supporter you NEED to VOTE MARCH 17. Every vote counts. If you don't vote, you can't complain
— Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) March 11, 2015
Ex-Mossad chief not sorry for criticizing PM
Ex-Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit is taking no prisoners in his attack on Netanyahu, charging that no one other than the PM is responsible for the failures of the summer war, the Iranian threat and the sour ties with the US.
“After I was labeled a messianic traitor, I will no longer apologize,” he says as a press conference with other former leaders from the security establishment.
“Why did you release 1,200 terrorists [in the Shalit deal] after speaking out against [such deals] for years? Where is the personal security you promised to those living in the Gaza periphery? Why, after dozens of years in the Mossad, in which I was ready to give up my life, have you turned me into a traitor simply because I’m trying to find a solution that will put Israel on a new path?” he charged.
Likud MK hits back at ex-security officials
Likud MK Yariv Levin, head of the influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in the Knesset, hits back at the former security officials who slammed Netanyahu earlier today, charging that they are “motivated by a hatred of the right-wing and of the prime minister.”
Levin also didn’t miss an opportunity to take a swipe at his party’s main rival, the Zionist Union, by linking the former commanders to its leaders, Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni.
“Livni and Herzog’s generals already promised us peace and we got murderous terror across the country. They promised that the 2005 Disengagement [from the Gaza Strip] would bring quiet and we got thousands of rockets. They are wrong and misleading time and time again,” he says, according to the Ynet news site.
Most Israelis back peace deal, say ex-security officials
The group of former security officials who earlier today blasted Netanyahu also report on a recent poll of 500 Jewish Israelis over the age of 18, which found that a solid majority backs a peace settlement with neighboring Arab states if supported by a cadre of defense officials.
A total of 63 percent of people polled say they either strongly or partially support a peace deal with the moderate Arab states in order to lock arms against Iran and the extremist Sunni groups.
Additionally, 75 percent of the people polled agree with the statement that the IDF is a strong army that can safeguard “any border dictated by the political echelon.”
— Mitch Ginsburg
Anti-porn party pulls out of Knesset race
Israel’s anti-pornography party says it is pulling out of the race and getting behind Naftali Bennett’s nationalist Jewish Home party.
According to polls, the party was set to attract no more than some 30,000 votes.
The head of “Protecting Our Children — Stop Feeding Them Porno” party, Yehezkel Stelzer, says Bennett is likely to back legislation forcing internet providers to filter out porn videos, which is the main issue the party ran on.
France probes IS video for link with Toulouse killer
French police were probing whether a man seen in a video released by the Islamic State group yesterday purporting to show the execution of an Arab Israeli was close to French jihadist gunman Mohamed Merah.
In the video, a youth identifying himself as 19-year-old Mohammed Said Ismail Musallam is shown kneeling in front of a boy who appears to be no more than 12 years old. A man stands at his side.
Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam, an Arab from East Jerusalem held captive by the Islamic State group for allegedly being a Mossad spy, shown in a video apparently showing his execution, March 10, 2015. ( screen capture: YouTube)
Dressed in an orange jumpsuit that is standard in videos of IS executions, the man seen kneeling recounts how he was recruited by Israeli intelligence, a claim his father denies.
The man standing nearby, speaking in French, issues threats against Jews in France, before the boy walks around in front of the hostage and shoots him in the forehead using a pistol.
The boy, who shouts “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic), then shoots the man four more times as he lies on the ground.
“We are checking” the identity of the man, a police source who wished to remain anonymous told AFP.
Several experts, including journalist David Thomson who wrote a book about French jihadists, say the man is Sabri Essid, reportedly the half-brother of Merah who shot dead three soldiers in southern France in 2012 before killing three students and a teacher at a Jewish school more than a week later.
— AFP
Israeli-Arab arrested for allegedly backing IS
An Israeli-Arab youth from the town of Jaljuliya was arrested on suspicion of backing the Islamic State terror group, police say.
Four other people are being questioned in connection with the case.
In a search of the 22-year-old’s home, police say, they found IS-linked materials including clothing.
Herzog decries campaign’s ‘baseless hatred’
Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog laments the “radical, divisive dialogue” taking place during the current Israeli elections campaign.
“This is not the Israel I know and not the country in which we want to raise our children,” Herzog writes on Facebook.
“This baseless hatred is slipping into an ugly, violent, dangerous place.”
“This is the time to unite instead of divide, it’s time to stop before it is too late,” he writes.
Gazan gets 15 years for ‘spying’ for Israel
A 26-year-old Palestinian man from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip is sentenced to 15 years in prison for allegedly spying for Israel.
In a statement released Wednesday, Hamas says A.H, 26, was convicted of “spying for the occupation,” AFP reports. The details and time frame of the alleged espionage was not mentioned.
“Collaborators,” as they are known to Palestinians, have routinely been executed by Hamas. It is unclear what the circumstances of this specific case are.
Group says Assad regime killed 600 doctors
Syrian government forces are responsible for killing nearly 600 doctors and medical workers during the four-year war, say Physicians for Human Rights, calling the attacks a crime against humanity.
The New York-based rights group accuses President Bashar Assad’s forces of “systematically” targeting hospitals, clinics and medical personnel since the conflict began in 2011.
Over the past four years, a total of 610 medical personnel were killed, 139 of whom were tortured or executed, according to the report.
The Assad regime is responsible for 97 percent of medical personnel killings, the group says.
— AFP
Kerry calls for US war powers to combat IS
US Secretary of State John Kerry urges lawmakers to give President Barack Obama updated war powers to go after Islamic jihadists at “a pivotal hour” in the battle against the militants.
“Our nation is strongest when we act together — and we simply cannot allow this collection of murderers and thugs to achieve its ambitions — which include the death or submission of all who oppose it, the seizure of land, the theft of resources, and the incitement of terrorist acts across the globe,” Kerry tells Congress, urging the divided body to come together and “speak with a single powerful voice.”
Secretary @JohnKerry outlines the threat posed by ISIL. https://t.co/Y2IblwePGb
— Department of State (@StateDept) March 11, 2015
Father of Israeli killed by IS vows revenge
The father of the young Israeli man from East Jerusalem killed by the Islamic State says he was the only one in the family to watch the video released by the brutal jihadist group. Said Musallam says he saw his son dressed in orange, knew that he was marked for death, and could not watch it through to the end.
His wife cried and she and other family members were too distraught to watch, he adds. The family says it had begun a customary three-day mourning period, though there will not be a mourning tent because they live in a Jewish area of East Jerusalem.
The parents of Muhammed Musallam hold a portrait of their son, March 10, 2015, (photo credit: AFP/AHMAD GHARABLI)
Musallam says he wishes the same fate upon the family of Islamic State group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
“I will leave it to God and what happened to my son Muhammad I hope God will do the same for you, your sons and your family,” Musalam says in Arabic, addressing Baghdadi. “God knows that one day we’ll meet, whether in paradise or in hell, and we’ll settle the accounts.”
–– AP
Kerry says Iran accord won’t be submitted for Congress approval
US Secretary of State says lawmakers won’t be able to change the terms of any nuclear agreement with Iran because it won’t be legally binding.
At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Kerry says he reacted in “utter disbelief” to a letter this week from 47 Republican senators warning Tehran that an accord with President Barack Obama’s administration could expire the day he leaves office.
The letter risks upsetting global trust in US treaties, he says.
Likud will never establish Hamastan in West Bank, says Netanyahu
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Likud will never allow for the establishment of a “Hamastan II” in the West Bank and will never agree to withdraw to the pre-1967 lines.
Speaking at an elections event at the Park Hotel in Netanya, the prime minister slammed his rivals, saying there are “people who want to hand over the West Bank [to the Palestinians ] and establish Hamastan II.
“Not us,” he promised.
Netanyahu says the region is seeing massive upheavals. One is the Arab Spring that led to the rise of radical Islam, which is “sending its tentacles into Israel, including over the past summer [Operation Protective Edge].
“We know we are also fighting on other fronts and we are fighting the top terror patron, Iran,” he says.
Netanyahu alludes to his US Congress speech on Iran last week, claiming that even when there is criticism, he was not afraid to what is necessary.
“I am not worried for a moment to say what needs to be said, clearly and loudly,” he says.
Likud must close gap to prevent a Herzog-Livni win, warns PM
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that if the gaps between his ruling Likud Party and the Zionist Union, led by Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni, don’t close in the run-up to election day on March 17, “there is a chance that Bougie and Tzipi will take the leadership, with the backing of the (Arab) Joint List.”
“The risk that they will lead is high,” he says at an elections event in Netanya.
“Those who are concerned, should only vote Likud,” he says.
A Channel 2 poll last night put the Zionist Union in the lead with 25 seats, with Likud trailing behind with 21 mandates.
New poll shows PM less popular with Americans post-speech
A new Gallup poll shows that Americans view Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu less favorably a week after his controversial speech to the US Congress.
Last month, Netanyahu received a favorable rating of 45 percent compared to just 38% after the speech, a seven point drop.
Among Republican respondents, Netanyahu’s rating went up just two points post-speech.
Respondents were split on President Barack Obama — 49% favorable and 48% unfavorable, similar to last month’s figures — while House Speaker John Boehner, who extended the invitation to Netanyahu without first squaring it with the White House, got only a 27% approval rate post-speech, compared with 49% who viewed him unfavorably.
Pro-Israel group sends 60,000 emails to reps urging Iran deal review
WASHINGTON — In response to an action alert sent out Tuesday by Christians United for Israel (CUFI), almost 60,000 e-mails are being sent to congressional representatives in support of legislation that would secure Congressional review for any Iran deal. In the first 24 house since the alert was sent, CUFI says that over 57,000 emails have been received by their members’ representatives.
The action alert seeks to mobilize support for the Corker-Menendez Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act which would enable Congress to review and vote on a comprehensive deal with Tehran.
“It is unconscionable that the president would consider signing a deal of this importance without Congressional approval. Congress is the voice of the people, and the massive response to this action alert makes clear that on Iran, the people want their voice heard,” says CUFI founder and Chairman Pastor John Hagee.
“Every major arms control agreement in recent history has been submitted to Congress for approval,” added CUFI executive director David Brog. “A deal with Iran should be no different. Both our national security and our Constitutional balance of powers are at stake here. We expect our senators to stand up for both.”
The e-mails were sent hours before Secretary of State John Kerry told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that there would be no opportunity for Congress to exercise review or oversight over a potential deal with Iran to scale back its illicit nuclear program.
— Rebecca Shimoni-Stoil
Iraqi forces enter IS-held Tikrit after 10-day push
Iraqi forces entered Tikrit Wednesday, dodging bombs and sniper fire in search of their biggest victory yet against embattled jihadists who tried to light new fires elsewhere in Iraq and Syria.
It is without direct support from the US-led coalition’s air campaign that Iraqi government and allied forces punched into parts of the city, marking a new phase in a 10-day drive to wrest the city back from IS.
In this still image taken from video a soldier fires a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) in Tikrit, Iraq on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. (Photo credit: AP)
A combination of army, police and volunteer forces moved into northern and southern Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and a main IS stronghold.
A major-general tells AFP on condition of anonymity that government forces were battling “to cleanse the neighborhood of Qadisiyah” in Tikrit.
“But we are engaging in a very delicate battle because we are not facing fighters on the ground, we are facing booby-trapped terrain and sniper fire. Our movement is slow,” he said.
An army colonel says forces coming from another direction had also retaken the main hospital on the city’s southern edge.
Early in the offensive, in which up to 30,000 men were initially involved while IS is believed to have just a few hundred men inside Tikrit, most outlying areas were reconquered.
— AFP
Thousands of ultra-Orthodox rally for UTJ
Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men rally in favor of the United Torah Judaism party and against voter apathy in the community in the central Israeli city of Bnei Brak, about 10 km east of Tel Aviv.
Massive workers’ strike in south called off
A massive strike in southern Israel to protest the layoffs of hundreds of employees at an Israel Chemicals’ bromine plant has been cancelled.
The strike was expected to shut down businesses from the port of Ashdod to the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, according to Histadrut chairman Avi Nissenkorn.
Plans for the layoff have been frozen and union representatives and employers are set to meet again in two weeks to resume talks.
The strike at the plant is set to continue.
Mashaal, Iran parliament speaker meet in Qatar
The head of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, and Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani conclude a meeting in Qatar.
The two discussed the rehabilitation of Gaza post-war and the Egyptian and Israeli blockade on the Palestinian enclave, Ynet reports.
Larijani is in Qatar meeting with representatives of Gulf states on regional matters including the spread of the Islamic State and the crisis in Yemen.
He says Tehran’s assistance to the Iraqi people in confronting the extremist Islamic State group has prevented more countries from being threatened by IS terrorism, AP reports.
Argentina advances bill to compensate AMIA victims
A bill to compensate victims of the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing was advanced by two Argentine government committees.
Yesterday, a joint meeting of the Senate Budget Committee and Justice and Criminal Issues Committee agreed unanimously to send the measure to the entire Senate. The Senate is expected to take up the bill today in its first session of the season.
The plan, which was drafted by the government’s Executive Committee, establishes a one-time compensation for the estates of the 85 people killed and lower compensations for those who suffered “extremely grievous” injuries and “grievous” injuries. Hundreds were injured in the bombing.
— JTA
Israel’s security experts were wrong so many times, says Ya’alon
Over the past 22 years, ever since the signing of the Oslo Accords, our security experts have been wrong on many occasions, says Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in response to the charges leveled by a group of retired senior security officers at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier today.
Speaking at a security conference at Bar-Ilan University, Ya’alon says: “I, too, was wrong! I also supported it. I didn’t know. I thought that a territorial compromise would bring us to the end of our travails and to tranquility.”
He says that in 1995, as the head of military intelligence, he had his awakening, realizing that each concession only draws more fire.
Then, too, he notes, the public discourse revolved around hope and the need to act in the pursuit of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but that Israel’s willingness to trade land for peace, to a Palestinian leadership that had not made its peace with a permanent Jewish presence in Israel, is what led to the Second Intifada and its 1,000 victims.
“Each time they create a new golden calf,” he says.
He says derisively that, without celebrations on the lawn or conferences or lawyers drafting worthless papers, Israel has managed, over the past several years, despite the daunting upheaval in the region, to remain an island of stability in the Middle East.
Red lines and shared interests, coupled with a “lack of paternalism” have helped achieve this, he says.
“I hope we do not wind up longing for these past six years,” he says.
He also adds that Israel is continuing to prepare for how to thwart Iran from gaining the ability to build a nuclear weapon, and says that over the summer Israel managed to squeeze Hamas and shut down many of the Gaza terror group’s smuggling channels.
— Mitch Ginsburg