Shiva Call
The PM and his wife yesterday visited the mourning family of Dvir Sorek, the soldier and yeshiva student murdered by terrorists last week, in the Ofra settlement in Samaria. The PM said, “We are determined to defend our homeland. These are not vain words – they are true words, until our enemies understand that we cannot be uprooted from anywhere in the Land of Israel, including from this place.”

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Hamas Security
Hamas has apparently beefed up security along its border to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Israel in the wake of several recent failed infiltration attempts. Hamas has sought to distance itself from the terrorists by describing them as “angry” Palestinian individuals seeking to end the siege on the Gaza Strip. Palestinian political analysts pointed out that Hamas did not endorse any of the terrorists, thus signaling its interest in preserving the ceasefire understandings reached with Israel earlier this year under the auspices of Egypt and the United Nations. However, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar pledged yesterday to continue the armed struggle against Israel.

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Tsunami Drill
The Israeli navy participated in a massive tsunami drill in Haifa port along with the navies of Greece, France and the United States. The drill practiced for a humanitarian crisis sparked by a magnitude 7.0 temblor and subsequent huge tsunami hitting the coastal plain of Israel. Troops trained to quickly assess the damage and select a port to bring in assistance as the maritime gateway to the country. According to data, there is a significant earthquake in the region every 100 years, and the last one in Israel occurred in 1927.

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New Poll
A new poll published Tuesday afternoon shows the Likud winning 30 seats, five less than it won in April, but more than the Blue and White party, which is projected to fall from 35 seats to just 29. Yamina, the new joint right wing list, would win 11 seats, as would the joint Arab list.

Avidgor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu would rise from 5 to 10 seats and the Haredi parties would win a total of 15 seats. The left wing Labor and Gesher list would win 7 seats, as would Ehud Barak’s Democratic Party and Meretz list.

Based on the poll, the right wing block would win a total of 66 seats, but only with Lieberman, who has vowed to block the formation of a narrow rightist government.

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Star Returns
After 10 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Omri Casspi will return to Israel to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He is the first Israel to have played in the NBA.

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Measles Kills
Rotem Amitai, the 43 year old El Al flight attendant who contracted measles on an El Al flight from New York on March 26, dies yesterday after being hospitalized for months in serious condition. She had received one out of the two necessary vaccinations as a child. Rotem leaves behind 3 children.

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Kabbalist Passes
Rabbi Chaim Cohen, a renown kabbalist, passed away yesterday at age 84. Rabbi Cohen was known as “the milkman” due to his day job in a Tel Aviv dairy owned by his family. He was part of a group of kabbalists who studied together in the 1960’s and were each called by the jobs they worked at. Rabbi Cohen lectured at a yeshiva in Givatayim and authored numerous books explaining the Torah portions and other subjects according to Kabbalistic teachings (Talelei Chaim). He is survived by his wife and four children.

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Minister in Trouble
The Israel Police said Tuesday that there is sufficient evidence to bring charges against Deputy Health Minister Litzman for fraud, breach of trust and witness tampering in two cases, one of which relates to the extradition of former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer, who is accused of child sex abuse and the second involving the business of a close associate.

Litzman, the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, has been a long-standing key coalition partner of PM Netanyahu. He denies all the allegations against him.

[Judging from past history, the charges shouldn’t negatively effect Litzman’s prospects at election time.]

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Terrorists Busted
The Shin Bet has uncovered several Hamas terror cells operating in the West Bank and receiving orders from Gaza. The cells had planned terror attacks against Israeli as well as Palestinian Authority targets. Security forces also found an explosive device in a makeshift lab in Hebron. The device was to be detonated in Jerusalem.

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More Building
The West Bank’s Civil Administration High Planning Subcommittee authorized the promotion of 2,304 homes in settlements and outposts, of which 838 received final approval for construction. Close to 200 of the planned homes will be located in outposts considered “illegal”.

The Gush Etzion Regional Council Head, Shlomo Neeman, said in response that, “this is huge news for the south-east of Gush Etzion, to Jewish settlements in the Judean Desert and to the entire settlement movement.”

Peace Now condemned to new housing plans, calling it “a part of the destructive policy set to prevent a peaceful solution and the two-state solution and bring about the annexation of the West bank.”

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Greek’s Sue
The Greek Orthodox Church on Monday filed a new lawsuit in Jerusalem District Court against the Ateret Cohanim organization in a bid to overturn a Supreme Court decision upholding the sale of three properties in predominantly Arab parts of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Supreme Court in June upheld the 99 year leasing of two Palestinian-run hotels — Imperial and Petra — located near the Jaffa Gate, and another building near Herod’s Gate to Ateret Cohanim. The Church claims that Ateret Cohanim falsified documents and bribed the official who agreed to the sales.

Ateret Cohanim plans to vacate the current residents of the buildings and replace them with Jewish inhabitants.

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Iran Coalition
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Tuesday revealed to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel is taking part in a coalition led by the United States to secure the Persian Gulf.

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Temple Mount
An Israeli police officer was injured this morning, after he was attacked by a member of the Waqf, the organization that administers the Temple Mount. The incident occurred when several officers told a Waqf official that they wanted to bring him in for questioning.
The Waqf official refused and attacked the officers. One police officer was lightly injured.
During the scuffle, the Waqf official was also injured.

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No Unity
PM Netanyahu pledged today that he will not form a unity government with the left. In a column published in the Israel Hayom newspaper, Netanyahu wrote, “My commitment is clear: To establish a strong right-wing government after the elections, which will continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements and safeguard Israeli citizens.” He added, “This is my commitment to Likud voters. There will be no unity government.”

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Space X
SpaceX successfully launched Israeli communication satellite Amos-17 into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station last night. the company says that the 6.5-ton, high-power HTS satellite will provide extensive C-band HTS, Ka-band and Ku-band capabilities to meet Africa’s fast-growing communication demands. It will offer increased connectivity between Africa, the Middle East, India, China and as far west as Brazil.

Spacecom says Amos-17 is planned to be in operation for a minimum of 20 years. The company currently has a sales backlog valued at $58 million for communications services to the African market via the satellite, including with Nigeria-based broadcaster IDS Africa, and expects to sign additional large deals in the future.

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Palestinian Waze
A new Palestinian app called Doroob Navigator is meant to help Palestinian drivers in the West Bank negotiate traffic at Israeli military checkpoints and uncover routes to towns mainstream providers often miss. Doroob Navigator crowd-sources road closures and traffic data from users. It aims to supplant apps like Google Maps and Waze, which rarely account for Israeli restrictions and struggle to navigate between Palestinian cities.

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Arab Homes
The security cabinet on Tuesday unanimously approved PM Netanyahu’s plan to build 700 housing units for Palestinians living in the West Bank’s Area C, which is under full Israeli civil and security control. This is the first time in four years that new Arab construction has been approved. The proposed construction is part of a broader plan which also envisions some 6,000 housing units for Israelis living in Area C.

Sources say that the PM was “persuaded” to include the new Arab housing by the Trump administration, ahead of the long anticipated US peace plan announcement.

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Peace Plan
Senior White House advisor Jared Kushner kicked off a visit to the region today, during which he is expected to invite Arab leaders to a peace conference at Camp David ahead of the Israeli elections. President Trump is expected to reveal his peace plan at the conference. PM Netanyahu is not expected to attend, since his presence there might make it harder for Kushner to sell the Arab leaders on the plan.

Kushner is set to travel to Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to hold talks during his current visit.

The leaders of Jordan and Egypt met a few days ago to arrive at a mutual position regarding the peace plan.

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Improved Crossings
The Israeli military has installed the face scanners as part a multimillion dollar upgrade of the Qalandia crossing that now allows Palestinians from the West Bank with work permits to zip through with relative ease. Qalandia is one of the main crossings for the thousands of Palestinians who enter Israel each day for a variety of reasons, including work, medical appointments or family visits. Thanks to the upgrades, crossing through Qalandia takes only around 10 minutes, even during the early morning rush hour.

Israel’s Defense Ministry has poured over $85 million into upgrading Qalandia and several other major checkpoints between Israel and the West Bank in recent years — part of a strategy it says is meant to maintain calm by improving conditions for Palestinians.

Over 83,000 Israeli work permits were issued to Palestinian workers in June. Around 8,000 cross at the Qalandia crossing every day.

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Election Update
The Jewish Home and National Union parties have signed an agreement with the New Right party to run on a joint list called the United Right in the upcoming elections. Ayelet Shaked will lead the new list with Jewish Home chair Rafi Peretz taking the number 2 spot, National Union head Bezalel Smotrich number 3, and Naftali Bennett 4.

Meanwhile, the far right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party has joined with the newly formed Noam party (also far right) to run in a joint list. In the last election Otzma ran together with Jewish Home and National Union, but talks between the parties this time around collapsed when Otzma was only offered the 8th and 16th places on the joint list.

PM Netanyahu had reportedly urged against the United Right joint list.

The 4 Arab parties have agreed to run as a joint list, which is expected to result in more than the 10 seats the Arab parties won in the previous election.

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According to the latest poll, the United Right would win 14 seats. Some of those would evidently come from Likud, which would fall to 28 seats while Blue and White would win 30 seats. The Joint Arab List would win 11 seats, and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beitenu 10 seats. United Torah Judaism would win eight seats, Shas 7 seats, the Democratic Camp (Meretz-Barak) seven seats and Labor-Gesher 5 seats.

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German Social
Germany’s Foreign Ministry says it has instituted new social media guidelines and disciplined personnel after anti-Israel and anti-Semitic tweets were “liked” by the official Twitter account of the German mission to the Palestinian territories.

The heart icon for several tweets criticizing Jews and Israel was clicked some two weeks ago an account belonging to Germany’s envoy to the Palestinian territories, Christian Clages. The tweets included a video praising attacks on IDF soldiers as well as footage of David Duke – former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and Holocaust denier – discuss an “allege” massacre of Jews.

The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that 10 people had access to the “Germany in Ramallah” Twitter account and it wasn’t clear who clicked the “likes.” The ministry says the account wasn’t secured against unauthorized users.  
 
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Demolitions
Israeli security forces and demolition crews began demolishing dozens of abandoned apartments and buildings in Sur Baher, which is on the outskirts of Jerusalem next to the West Bank barrier. Around 72 apartments in 12 buildings were demolished so far. Israel says the buildings were built illegally too close to its West Bank separation barrier.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that the structures violated a construction ban. The deadline for residents to remove the affected buildings, or parts of them, expired on Friday. According to Ir Amim, an Israeli advocacy group that promotes equality and coexistence in the city, Israel has stepped up demolitions of unauthorized Palestinian properties in east Jerusalem. It said Israel demolished some 63 housing units in the first half of this year, compared to 37 during the same period last year.

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New Leader
Former justice minister Ayelet Shaked announced yesterday that she will lead the New Right party in the upcoming elections, taking the place of Naftali Bennett, who will be second on the list. Shaked said that she was prepared to lead a joint list of all the parties to the right of Likud, which includes the Jewish Home and National Union parties (who ran jointly last time around).

Shaked has the support of the 2 most influential rabbis in the right wing political camp, Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and Rabbi Eli Sadan. The rabbis are calling for Rafi Peretz, the current education minister and head of the joint right wing list, to step down in favor of Shaked.

However, PM Netanyahu apparently wants Peretz to stay on as party head and therefore keep the extreme right parties from uniting the Shaked’s New Right party, because he fears that a united right list will cause the Likud to lose votes.

According to the latest poll, neither the right nor the left block will win enough seats to form a government, without the support of Avidgor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party (which would bring us back to the same situation that caused the upcoming repeat election).

For further reading click here. https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5554949,00.html

Hezbollah Freeze
Argentinian authorities ordered the freezing of Hezbollah assets in the country last week and effectively designated the Lebanese Islamist group, which it blames for two attacks on its soil, a terrorist organization. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later praised the move.

The announcement coincided with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as Argentina marks the 25th anniversary of the deadly bombing of the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in which 85 people died. Argentina blames Iran and Hezbollah for the attack. Both deny any responsibility. Argentina also blames Hezbollah for an attack on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 that killed 29 people.

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Arab Journalists
A group of six Arab journalists – including for the first time from Saudi Arabia and Iraq – arrived on Sunday via the Allenby Bridge for meetings in Israel. The media delegation also includes a representative from Jordan.

Hassan Kaabia, the Foreign Ministry’s Arab-language spokesman, said that the visit was organized without the knowledge of the states from where members of the delegations came, and that this is the first time this type of delegation has come directly to Israel from countries with whom Israel does not have diplomatic relations.

The six journalists will tour Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Nazareth, as well as meet with Knesset members, Foreign Ministry officials, and academics.

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Education Minister
In a televised interview over the weekend, Education Minister Rafi Peretz said that he supports conversation therapy for homosexuals and that he has referred people to it. His words unleashed a flood of criticism. Hundreds of protestors demonstrated in Tel Aviv yesterday, calling for his dismissal. PM Netanyahu tweeted that Peretz’s statements are unacceptable and “do not represent my government’s position.”

Justice Minister Amir Ohana, who is openly gay, said “sexual orientation does not require therapy nor conversion. Preconceived notions and ignorance require therapy and conversion.”
 
Peretz responded by trying to clarify his statements. He said that his words were distorted. He said, “I love and respect every person as he or she is. This is the essence of my educational path, this is my approach to life. That is the education I’ve given to thousands of graduates of the preparatory academy. The combination of a rabbi and a politician doesn’t obligate me to hide the truth.”

He said, “I was also asked about my relationship with the LGTBQ community. Anyone who wants to hear exactly what I said is invited to watch the interview and see that it is not like what everyone is shouting. I said that first of all, I respect every human being. I emphasized that I was not giving grades to anyone. When I was specifically asked about conversion treatments, I said from my own experience that when I was approached by Religious Zionist students and asked for guidance, I referred them to professionals at their request and saw that it was possible. I did not say that I was in favor of conversion treatments.”

“I first gave my students a hug and spoke to them warmly. I also offered to study and look into it together, with the goal that the student opposite me will recognize himself better. From that point, the choice is his own and I respect and love each one regardless of their sexual orientation. Sometimes the most convenient thing is to swim with the stream and scream with everyone. You’ll learn that there are other opinions, complex but inclusive. Accepting the other is not the possession of one side. I am not coercive and I do not intend to impose anything on anyone.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu said he spoke with Rabbi Peretz and clarified: “The Education Minister’s statements regarding the gay community are not acceptable to me and do not represent the stance of a government led by me. I spoke this evening with Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who explained himself and emphasized that Israel’s educational system will continue to accept every Israeli child as he or she is, without discriminating based on gender identity or sexual orientation.”

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Gaza Talks
Delegations from Qatar and the United Nations will enter the Gaza Strip in the coming days in order to continue mediating the indirect talks between Israel and Hamas. This comes in the wake of renewed tensions along the Gaza border. Yesterday a mortar shell was fired from Gaza and landed in an open area in Israel.

Also, an Egyptian delegation comprised of senior officials of the General Intelligence Service, entered the Strip on Friday. They held talks with the Hamas officials and other factions in Gaza City before leaving the enclave early Saturday. On Friday thousands of Gazans took part in violent demonstrations along the border fence.

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Afula Park
Last month the city of Afula issued a regulation prohibiting access to a large public park from non residents. Arab rights groups challenged the ruling in the Nazareth district court, claiming that the regulation was directed at excluding Arabs from nearby villages from visiting the park. Lawyers for Afula, a city of 50,000 people, contended the restrictions stemmed solely from a desire to reduce overcrowding during the summer months and keep maintenance costs down.

A court yesterday struck down the town regulation and ordered the park open to everyone. Judge Danny Sarfati stopped short of accusing it of racism and cited a legal opinion by Israel’s attorney general, who said municipal parks were public property open to all.

[Apparently, Israel is not an apartheid state after all]

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Traffic Jam
A 3 year potential traffic jam has begun at the main intersection at the entrance to Jerusalem from Route 1, as a result of a major construction project of a new business district that is expected to bring an additional 60,000 jobs to the capital. The road will be closed to private vehicles but open for public transport.

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Yiddish Music
Did you know that lots of Yiddish songs were written about the experiences of Russian Jewish soldiers during WWII? To watch the a concert of previously unrecorded songs about Jewish resistance and bravery, click here.