Archive for month: January, 2020

News Update

The IDF attacked six Hamas targets in the southern part of Gaza in response to the launch of three rockets into Israel earlier. Among the targets hit was an underground Hamas facility used to manufacture weapons. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted two of the rockets and a third landed in open fields near the town of Sderot.

Earlier Thursday, the IDF attacked several Hamas observation posts and positions along the Gaza-Israel perimeter fence. The strikes were carried out in response to several incidents including the flying of incendiary balloons into Israeli territory and the shooting at an IDF post.

Naama Issachar, the Israeli-American woman jailed in Russia on drug charges, landed in Israel yesterday after 9 months in a Russian prison. She was pardoned by Russian President Putin. Issacher and her mother, who came to Moscow to meet her, were greeted by PM Netanyahu, who was in Moscow for meetings with Putin and were flown back to Israel on the Prime Minister’s plane. [a month before elections — good timing.]

Media reports have suggested that the pardon deal may have been eased by promises made by the Israeli government over the ownership of a building in Jerusalem which is important to the Russian Orthodox Church. The Alexander Courtyard, situated in Jerusalem’s Old City, has been contested for years and an Israeli court recently ruled in Russia’s favor.

[Hopefully, Israelis will learn not to carry drugs when traveling on international flights?]

Speaking of flights, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has banned all flights from China to Israel, as a precaution against the coronavirus outbreak. Earlier Thursday, Israeli airline El Al said it will suspend all flights to China for at least two months.

The Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other Palestinian terror groups have finally found an issue that they can agree upon and unite around: opposition to the Trump peace plan. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas invited all the factions to Ramallah for an emergency meeting that coincided with the U.S. announcement. Now they can officially reject all attempts at peace negotiations, united.

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett announced today that Israel would implement a ban [starting Sunday] on importing agricultural products from the Palestinian Authority. The ban comes in response to a Palestinian ban on all Israeli cattle and livestock back in September. The Palestinian has hurt Palestinian butchers and merchants, since more than 90% of the beef calves consumed in the West Bank came from Israel. Palestinian merchants have protested the ban.

PM Netanyahu announced today that the cabinet meeting to be held on Sunday will be cancelled. The PM had said previously that he would push for cabinet approval of the annexation of the Jordan Valley at that meeting. But pressure from the US has made him change his plans. US advisor Jared Kushner has said in recent media interviews that the US does not want Israel to make annexation moves until after the Israeli elections.

Business is booming at Iran’s largest flag factory which makes U.S., British and Israeli flags for Iranian protesters to burn. The factory produces about 2,000 U.S. and Israeli flags a month in its busiest periods, and more than 1.5 million square feet of flags a year.

News Update

Blue and White leader Gantz and PM Netanyahu are set to meet, seperately, with President Trump today at the White House, where Trump will reveal his peace plan to them.  On Tuesday the President will deliver joint remarks with the 2 Israeli leaders. According to a White House official, Trump will tell the Israelis that they have 6 weeks to get the plan going.

Palestinian lawmakers backed by President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, said Sunday that the day President Trump presents his Middle East peace plan would be a “Day of Rage” with riots and protests in the West Bank. PA President Abbas released a statement saying, “The Palestinian leadership, with support of the people, will hamper all attempts to bring to an end the Palestinian issue, as has done numerous times in the past.” [And that says it all]

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri signed an order allowing Israeli Muslims to travel to Saudi Arabia for religious worship and business trips. The announcement also confirmed that for the first time ever, Jewish Israelis will also be permitted to go to Saudi Arabia on business trips. While some Israelis are believed to already visit Saudi Arabia, this requires either a foreign passport or special permission. The interior ministry said Israeli visitors would require an official invitation to enter the kingdom. It said the decision had been coordinated with Israeli security officials and other “relevant” bodies, including the foreign ministry.

Naama Issachar, the American-Israeli woman jailed in Russia on drug charges, has formally requested a pardon from Putin. During his visit to Israel last week, Putin met with Issachar’s mother and assured her “everything will be alright” – hinting that her daughter would soon be released.

The Shin Bet revealed that it discovered and dismantled a Hamas spy ring in Israel several weeks ago. The spies included Israeli Arabs with relatives in Gaza.

Israel Army Radio is reporting that PM Netanyahu will not push to annex the Jordan Valley in the near future. Instead, the report says, he is planning to annex the city of Maale Adumim, the third largest Israeli town in Judea and Samaria, located just to the east of Jerusalem.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is in Poland to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Rivlin met with Polish President Duda, who refused to attend the commemoration event in Jerusalem last week. Later today, Rivlin will participate in a ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau along with survivors of the death camp, President Duda of Poland, President Steinmeier of Germany, the President of the World Jewish Congress Ron Lauder and the head of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Dr. Piotr Cywiński.

News Update

Three terrorists infiltrated into Israel from Gaza near Kibbutz Kissufim yesterday. An IDF force intercepted the terrorists and opened fire on them. The terrorists threw at least one grenade at the soldiers. All 3 terrorists were killed. No soldiers were injured.

Israel’s state-owned electricity utility said it was ending power cuts to the Palestinian Authority, after the PA paid over half of its outstanding debt for electricity — 920 million shekels.

In a speech yesterday launching his election campaign, PM Netanyahu pledged to annex the Jordan Valley. Now, right wing politicians including Defense Minister Naftali Bennet, Avigdor Lieberman, Transportation Minister Bezalel Smotrich and many others are calling on the PM do carry out his pledge immediately. Blue and White leader Gantz issued a similar challenge to Netanyahu, tweeting: “You can apply Israeli law in the Jordan Valley in a cabinet decision within two hours, without any Knesset discussion. Let’s see you.”

Netanyahu also stooped to new lows when he mocked Gantz’s slight stutter. He actually imitated the stutter, to applause and laughter from his audience.

For the first time since the Degania Dam on the Jordan River just south of the Kinneret was built in 1964, it has been opened for the free flow of water into the lower Jordan River. The Water Authority announced that Mekorot National Water Company will initially allow a flow of 1,000 cubic meters an hour (8.76 million cubic meters a year), and will gradually increase the flow to 30 million cubic meters a year.

The water flow from the Kinneret is part of the multiyear plan to revive the ecology along the lower Jordan River, which has suffered for decades from the pouring of brackish water and sewage into the river. The program begun today includes the construction of sewage treatment plants to improve the quality of the water flow into the lower Jordan River from Tiberias and its environs.

News Update

Terrorists belonging to an independent faction connected to Islamic Jihad fired 4 rockets and one incendiary balloon into Israel from Gaza. In response, The IDF carried out strikes against Hamas targets in the northern part of Gaza. Security officials in Israel say they are concerned Hamas allowed the attack to take place in order to exert pressure on Israel and Egypt to resume talks with Hamas.

The Egyptian government had committed to increasing imports from Gaza through the Rafah Crossing if calm on the border is maintained. Egypt canceled a planned visit by its negotiating delegation to Gaza after Hamas leader Haniyeh traveled to Tehran to attend the funeral of Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, though he had assured Egyptian intelligence officials he would not do so. Following this visit, Egypt began increasing the cost of products entering Gaza across the Rafah border including cooking gas, which has caused shortages for Gazans. Cairo also raised taxes on other products.

The Jewish Home party has joined forces with Israel’s more mainstream right-wing parties under the leadership of Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, after being forced to break a previous agreement to join with the far-right Otzma Yehudit party under intense pressure from PM Netanyahu and the polls showing that Jewish Home would not pass the minimum threshold if it stuck with Otzma Yehudit.

In a phone call with Russian President Putin, PM Netanyahu raised the issue of Naama Issachar, the 26 year old Israeli woman jailed in Russia for drug smuggling. She was arrested in April while in transit at a Moscow airport, en route from India to Israel, and accused of carrying 9.5 grams of cannabis. She was sentenced to 7 and a half years in October. Issachar’s mother, Yaffa, said that Netanyahu spoke to her after his conversation with Putin and told her to remain strong and optimistic, and that he is doing everything he can to get her released.

The latest three polls published last night by Israel’s news television stations – Channels 11, 12, and 13 – show Benny Gantz’s Blue & White party consolidating its lead. Channel 11 projected Blue & White winning 36 seats and Likud 31 but the Channel 12 poll was 34-32 and the Channel 13 poll 34-31. All 3 polls show a continued stalemate between the Right and Center-Left.

News Update

Israel’s Left-Wing parties — Gesher, Labor and Meretz — have agree to merge and run under one list in the upcoming election in March. The new faction’s list will be headed by Peretz, with the head of the Gesher party, Orly Levy-Abekasis acting as number two. Meretz leader Horowitz is set to be third on the party list. The parties feared not being able to pass the minimum threshold if they ran individually.

Moshe Kahalon, Finance Minister and former head of the party Kulanu (which merged with Likud), will be retiring from politics. He will probably remain in his post as finance minister until a new government is formed, unless Netanyahu decides to fire him and appoint a new candidate. Kahlon’s departure will most likely require Likud to find another candidate with a socially-oriented platform that would fill the vacated place on the party list.

According to the Bureau of Insurance Agents, damage to private property caused by the recent flooding in Israel is estimated to be around NIS 1.5 billion ($432 million). Although the estimates of the damage caused to public property is unclear, it is believed to be in the hundreds of millions, bringing the total cost to over NIS 2 billion ($577 million). The damage included 8 F-16 Air Force fighter jets, which were flooded at their base in Hazor, in the south. They are all expected to be operational within a few days, at a cost of tens of millions of shekels. The Air Force admits that the planes should have been moved to avoid the flooding damage.

Police raided a Jerusalem residential complex where they found dozens of women and children living in slave-like conditions as part of an ultra-orthodox cult lead by a rabbi in his 60s. The rabbi was arrested along with 8 other women suspected of assisting him. The investigation into the alleged cult was first opened several years ago but was recently renewed after several women who escaped from it came forward with the allegations to the authorities.