Fogbow

In Shift, Israel Quietly Allows Jewish Prayer on Temple Mount
Jewish activists say they are exercising their right to free worship at a site holy to Jews and Muslims. But the change upsets a longstanding compromise aimed at staving off conflict.

By Patrick Kingsley and Adam Rasgon
Aug. 24, 2021

JERUSALEM — The Israeli government has long forbidden Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims, yet Rabbi Yehudah Glick made little effort to hide his prayers. In fact, he was livestreaming them.

“Oh Lord!” prayed Rabbi Glick, as he filmed himself on his phone on a recent morning. “Save my soul from false lips and deceitful tongues!”

Since Israel captured the Old City of Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967, it has maintained a fragile religious balance at the Temple Mount, the most divisive site in Jerusalem: Only Muslims can worship there, while Jews can pray at the Western Wall below.

But recently the government has quietly allowed increasing numbers of Jews to pray there, a shift that could aggravate the instability in East Jerusalem and potentially lead to religious conflict.

“It’s a sensitive place,” said Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister. “And sensitive places such as this, which have an enormous potential for explosion, need to be treated with care.”

Rabbi Glick, an American-born, right-wing former lawmaker, has been leading efforts to change the status quo for decades. He characterizes his effort as a matter of religious freedom: If Muslims can pray there, why not Jews?

“God is the master of all humanity,” he said. “And he wants every one of us to be here to worship, every one in his own style.”



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/worl ... rayer.html

Palestinian jailbreak shatters Israel’s prestige: Hamas
Israel has captured four of six Palestinian prisoners, who escaped from high-security Gilbao prison

Nour Abu Eisha |
11.09.2021

GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Palestinian jailbreak from a high-security Israeli prison has shattered Israel’s prestige, resistance group Hamas said on Saturday.

On Monday, six Palestinian inmates tunneled out of the high-security Gilboa prison in northern Israel. Israeli forces, however, have managed to capture four of them after a manhunt.

The capture of the four prisoners “is just one round in the open-ended conflict with the Israeli occupation,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement.

"This round will be a driving force for the Palestinian people in the West Bank to continue their resistance and uprising against the (Israeli) occupation." Barhoum added.

The Hamas spokesman said that the jailbreak “has revived hopes of freedom among the Palestinian people”.

The jailbreak has been hailed as a “big victory” by Palestinians, while Israelis decried it as a major security and intelligence failure.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/pa ... as/2362062

Israeli forces nab final 2 Palestinian fugitives in Jenin, ending jailbreak saga
Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, both members of the Islamic Jihad terror group, arrested in West Bank city nearly 2 weeks after escaping Gilboa Prison
By JUDAH ARI GROSS and TOI STAFF
19 September 2021, 2:30 amUpdated at 7:13 am

Israeli security forces overnight Saturday arrested the two remaining Palestinian security inmates who escaped from Gilboa Prison in northern Israel nearly two weeks ago, the army said.

The arrests of the two fugitives in the predawn hours of Sunday morning — a week after the four other escaped prisoners were recaptured in northern Israel — brought to a close a massive 13-day manhunt following one of the worst jailbreaks in Israel’s history.

Iham Kamamji and Munadil Nafiyat, both members of the Islamic Jihad terror group, were apprehended in the West Bank city of Jenin, the Israel Defense Forces said early Sunday.



https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-f ... reak-saga/

16 hours ago - World
T**** blasts Netanyahu for disloyalty: "F**k him"
Barak Ravid, author of from Tel Aviv
Trump and Netanyahu in 2019. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty

Donald T**** and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not anymore. "I haven’t spoken to him since," T**** said of the former Israeli prime minister. "F**k him."

What he's saying: T**** repeatedly criticized Netanyahu during two interviews for my book, “T****’s Peace: The Abraham Accords and the Reshaping of the Middle East." The final straw for T**** was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while T**** was still disputing the result.

"The first person that congratulated [Biden] was Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with. ... Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake."
— Donald T****
***
“I liked Bibi. I still like Bibi. But I also like loyalty. The first person to congratulate Biden was Bibi. And not only did he congratulate him, he did it on tape," Trump told me, referring to Netanyahu by his nickname.

Reality check: Netanyahu was far from the first world leader to congratulate Biden. In fact, he waited more than 12 hours after the U.S. networks called the election.

But T**** claimed he was shocked when his wife Melania shared Netanyahu's video with him: "He was very early — like, earlier than most. I haven’t spoken to him since. F**k him."
***
18 months later, when T**** held an on-camera call with Netanyahu 10 days before the U.S. election to mark the normalization agreement between Israel and Sudan, T**** asked Netanyahu whether "Sleepy Joe" could have cut such a deal.

"Mr. President, one thing I can tell you is we appreciate the help for peace from anyone in America," Netanyahu replied cautiously. Trump bristled.

Israel’s Holocaust museum is so dependent on a Russian oligarch that it wants to protect him from sanctions

TEL AVIV — Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial and museum, is embroiled in controversy after attempting to intervene in planned sanctions against Israeli Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea Premier League soccer team and a longtime supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In a letter to U.S. Ambassador Tom Nides, Yad Vashem, together with the country’s chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau and Sheba Medical Center Director Yitshak Kreiss, asked that the United States not sanction Abramovich, a major donor to the memorial and other Jewish causes. They said that sanctioning him would cause harm to Jewish institutions that rely on him for donations, according to Israeli media.

Israel has walked a diplomatic tightrope in its response to the war in Ukraine. Israeli officials have said that they support Ukraine, a country with the only other Jewish head of state in the world and what they call a liberal democratic ally. But they are wary of provoking Russia, which backs the Syrian regime on Israel’s northern border and has unofficially allowed Israel to carry out strikes against efforts to transfer weapons to Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Shiite group, in Lebanon.

Jerusalem has refused several requests from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, including the transfer of military equipment.

UN Security Council condemns killing of Shireen Abu Akleh
Council also calls for immediate and impartial investigation into the death of the Al Jazeera journalist who was shot earlier this week.

Israel Admits It Might Have Killed Journalist, Attacks Her Funeral
Israeli police assaulted mourners carrying the casket of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American reporter, the same day Israel’s army admitted it might have killed her.

ISRAELI POLICE ATTACKED the funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday, nearly causing mourners to drop the casket of the renowned Palestinian American journalist.

Abu Akleh was fatally shot while covering an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. Fellow journalists who witnessed the shooting said Israeli forces had fired on them. Israel’s prime minister and other senior officials initially said Palestinian militants were “likely” to blame, but the Israeli army admitted on Friday that one of its soldiers might have fired the fatal shot.

The assault on the mourners, who were beaten with clubs at a hospital in East Jerusalem, stunned viewers who watched it unfold on live television, further enraging Palestinians and the dead journalist’s colleagues and fans.

Israeli police said they attacked the procession because mourners waved Palestinian flags and chanted nationalist slogans. An official Israeli police account shared drone video to support the authorities’ claim that two of the mourners had thrown rocks at them. But a comparison of that video to ground-level news footage showed that the police video had been edited to remove the initial police charge and slowed down to make it seem as if a man who just waved his arms in frustration had thrown something at the officers.

Israel refills the Sea of Galilee, supplying Jordan on the way

Mon, January 30, 2023 at 10:51 PM GMT+1

STORY: Israel is saving its main freshwater reservoir

from the effects of climate change

The Sea of Galilee was being lost to droughts

So Israel built a chain of desalination

plants along its Meditteranean coast

They turn seawater into freshwater,

to refill the lake when water levels get low

(Yoav Barkay, Manager of the national water carrier)

"With this environment of climate changes, you don't know what to expect next year and the year afterward. We are standing now in the late January and with very little rainfalls during this winter in Israel, arid winter basically with no rainfall. And we are no longer depending on rain basically for water supply because we know to manage the system and take the extra water, the extra water we produce artificially with desalination plants, and bring it to fill the natural lake if needed."

The new system will also allow Israel to

double the amount of water it sells to Jordan

Water was a major component in the

1994 peace treaty between the two nations




https://www.yahoo.com/news/israel-refil ... 47564.html

Israeli president warns of risk of civil war as Netanyahu rejects judicial compromise
Herzog proposes alternative to far-right coalition’s judiciary changes but prime minister says it just perpetuates the current situation

Agencies
Wed 15 Mar 2023 20.59 GMT

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has swiftly rejected a proposed compromise from president Isaac Herzog, aimed at resolving a standoff over the planned judicial overhaul by Netanyahu’s far-right coalition that has triggered mass protests in recent weeks.

Herzog revealed the proposal during a televised evening address, warning: “Anyone who thinks that a real civil war, of human life, is a line that we will not reach has no idea.” He added: “The abyss is within touching distance.”

But Netanyahu quickly turned it down. “Unfortunately, the things the president presented were not agreed to by the coalition representatives,” Netanyahu said at Israel’s main international airport before departing for Germany. “And central elements of the proposal he offered just perpetuate the current situation and don’t bring the necessary balance between the branches. That is the unfortunate truth.”

The drive by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government to enact sweeping changes to Israel’s courts has sparked domestic uproar and alarm among the country’s western allies. If the initial proposal passed, it would mean greater government control in selecting judges and limits to the power of the supreme court to strike down legislation.

A main point of contention in the planned overhaul is an amendment to the way in which judges are selected. The president’s plan would see the selection committee include three ministers, the president of the high court, two judges and two civil servants who will be agreed upon by both the president of the supreme court and the justice minister.

The justice minister, Yariv Levin, has said the coalition’s proposed measures would change the way judges are appointed by giving the Knesset more oversight and the government more power on the committee which selects them.

The president warned on Wednesday that Israel was at a turning point and stressed he had been involved in mediation efforts and speaking with “thousands of people” for weeks.

Herzog said Israel was “in the depths of a real crisis” but also “in front of a huge opportunity” and “at a fork in the road”.

“Most Israelis want a plan that will bring both justice and peace,” he said.

The government’s secretary, Yossi Fuchs, confirmed on Twitter that the coalition did not support the president’s plan. “The president’s plan is one-sided of the president and has not been agreed upon by any member of the coalition,” he said.

The Israeli president, whose role is largely ceremonial, has been conducting talks in recent weeks in an attempt to broker a compromise between members of the coalition and those who oppose the judicial changes, but has not confirmed that he has support for the plan from legislators.

Netanyahu wields a parliamentary majority along with his religious-nationalist coalition allies.




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... g-distance

Hundreds of Israeli reservists vow to refuse service if judicial overhaul passes

JERUSALEM, July 19 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Israeli reservists marched in Tel Aviv on Wednesday threatening to refuse their volunteer service if the government presses ahead with its controversial plan to curb the power of the Supreme Court.

The drive by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's nationalist-religious coalition to strip the court of some of its review powers has triggered mass protests across Israel and stirred deep concern among allies including the United States.

With one amendment slated for ratification next Sunday and Monday, protests have intensified. The government could rethink its polarising drive to overhaul the judiciary if there is a major escalation in protests, a cabinet minister said.

Protests by reservists from some of the military's most elite formations including combat pilots and Special Forces units have attracted particular attention, stirring alarm from defence chiefs worried that the protests risk compromising national security.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the protest.

What we know thus far

Israel and Hamas are once again at war after the Palestinian militant group launched a large aerial and ground operation this morning from the blockaded Gaza Strip.

Over 2,000 rockets were fired from Gaza toward Israel, according to the Israeli military, and Hamas gunmen infiltrated multiple of Israeli towns and villages on the periphery.

Israel has responded with air strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Fighting is still ongoing in southern Israel.

The Israeli military confirmed that civilians and soldiers have been taken hostage and are now in Gaza, without providing a number. Local media estimates there are tens of hostages.

The death toll in Israel is at least 100, with about 1000 injured, according to Israel’s emergency services.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 198 with 1,610 injured, according to the Palestinian health authorities.

MN-Skeptic wrote: ↑Sat Oct 07, 2023 11:19 am Note - I just started a separate thread on this issue.

Digital trail identifying Israeli spy chief has been online for years
IDF cyber-intelligence chief Yossi Sariel exposed online by social media activity and accidental government leak

Harry Davies and Manisha Ganguly
Tue 9 Apr 2024 13.00 CEST

The commander of Israel’s military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is facing fresh embarrassment after it emerged that an extensive digital trail identifying him as a senior intelligence official has been exposed online for years.

The Guardian revealed on Friday how Yossi Sariel, whose name had been protected by the Israeli state, inadvertently disclosed his identity online in a security lapse linked to a book published under a pen name in 2021.

Details have now emerged that suggest Sariel’s position as the elite unit’s commander were inadvertently disclosed in a government document posted online two years ago.

The Guardian has also now identified a string of social media accounts used by the head of Unit 8200, the secretive cyber intelligence division of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Sariel even left traces of his activity on the Hebrew-language Wikipedia, where he used his real name and edited pages ranging from Louis XIV of France to an entry titled “the problem of Palestinian refugees”.

The new details about Sariel’s apparently casual approach to online security are likely to add further pressure on the intelligence boss. They are particularly embarrassing because Sariel has styled himself as a pioneer of artificial intelligence, seeking new ways that surveillance systems can process the digital footprints of daily lives.

Until he was unmasked last week, Sariel’s identity was a state secret in Israel. Journalists in the country were prevented from naming him despite a major controversy brewing over his leadership of Unit 8200 and its failure to foresee or prevent Hamas’s deadly 7 October attacks.

In a surprising lapse in security, the Unit 8200 commander included an anonymous email address in an electronic version of his 2021 book, The Human Machine Team, about the use of AI in military intelligence. The address can be easily traced to a private Google account created in Sariel’s name.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... -for-years

David Rothkopf @djrothkopf wrote: While you listen to Bibi Netanyahu's outrage at protests on American college campuses that are critical of the Israeli government and its actions--remember that he led protests that called for the death of Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin...months before Rabin's assassination.

Assal Rad @AssalRad wrote: -Story gets out that Blinken is ignoring Israeli human rights abuses
-PR story appears that Biden admin is going to do something
-Israel publicly acts outraged that laws may apply to them
-Biden admin quietly decides to do nothing

What a perfect summary of this admin

Assal Rad @AssalRad wrote: @SMArikat: Tim Rieser, who basically wrote the Leahy statute, said Israel has violated the Leahy law consistently

StateSpox: That’s not a conclusion we have reached

Said: But that’s the guy who wrote the book, right?

Miller: He is… we have not reached that conclusion

Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski

At the invitation of the Speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Elise Stefanik makes a partisan political speech today attacking the President of the U.S. and praising Donald Trump. Apparently, the current government of Israel thinks this is the smart way forward.