The Times of Israel blogged Wednesday’s events as they unfolded.
A drone strike hit the U. S. consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, a security source told Reuters news agency.
There are no immediate reports of injuries or primary injuries in the attack in the Kurdish-controlled area. Videos shared on social media claiming to be of the aftermath of the attack show injured cars on a road.
AFP said its men were injured in the incident.
– Aurora Intel (@AuroraIntel) June 8, 2022
– Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) June 8, 2022
An Iranian missile attack on Erbil in March reportedly in retaliation against Israel.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett applauds the U. N. ‘s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, for censuring Iran for its nuclear program.
“This is a resolution that shows the true face of Iran,” Bennett said.
The resolution “states that Iran cooperates with the IAEA and adheres to its instructions. “
“Today’s vote at the IAEA is a transparent warning to Iran: if Iran continues its operations, major countries will bring the factor back to the Security Council,” Bennett said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has approved a solution that officially criticizes Iran for its lack of cooperation with the U. N. nuclear inspection, diplomatic sources told AFP.
The move put forward by the United States, Britain, France and Germany, voted in opposition through Russia and China, is the first to criticize Iran since June 2020 and reaches a standstill over efforts to get the United States back to nuclear war with Iran in 2015. offer. program.
It’s a sign of the West’s growing impatience after talks to revive the landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran stalled in March.
However, the move is largely symbolic and does not threaten any express action through global powers opposed to Iran.
The left-wing coalition accuses Justice Minister Gideon Saar of creating an “alibi” for the collapse of the government after several votes the coalition lost the previous day on spending to raise the minimum wage, according to reports.
According to public broadcaster Kan and news site Ynet, lawmakers from the Meretz and Labor parties were first allowed to abstain in the vote through Saar, but reversed the resolution some time earlier.
Sources told Kan that Saar did this and then blamed them for letting the bills, which were passed by the opposition, pass and creating an “alibi” to dissolve the government.
“Gideon Saar was aware of the coalition’s resolution and opposed it a few seconds before the vote. It is looking to create chaos in the coalition,” a coalition source told Ynet.
However, sources within Saar’s New Hope told Ynet that there was no such deal, accusing left-wing coalition parties of “systematically acting in a populist and irresponsible manner against government decisions. “
U. S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides condemns the killing of an activist for violence in Arab communities.
“Last night, Israel lost a shining gem on the net: Jawhara Khniefes [sic], a young woman from Shafaamer brave enough to fight violence against women,” Nides tweeted, revealing that the victim had participated in a State Department domestic violence education program. . .
“May his cowardly murder motivate us all to redouble our efforts so that all women can in peace and security,” Nides added.
Johara Khnifes, 28, killed in a car bombing last night. His father is the deputy mayor of the northern Arab city of Shfaram.
According to data published in Hebrew, police are investigating whether a relative of Khnifes was possibly involved in the attack.
After the Knesset brought forward spending to raise the minimum wage in particular, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman said he would prevent all discussions on the 2023 state budget and promised that the budget would not come with such “populist” measures.
Liberman told Channel 12: “Raising the minimum wage is natural populism. Everyone will have to be guilty of their actions. We will act in accordance with a non-unusual economic sense. “
“Right now, we’re postponing budget discussions and getting things back in order. The budget I will spend will be professional, populism.
The city of Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine is now “largely” under Russian control after heavy fighting, while its dual city of Lysychansk is suffering major destruction, the region’s governor said.
Moscow’s forces “control a giant component of Severodonetsk. The shopping area is still ours, there are no Russians there. The fighting is positioning itself in the streets of the city,” Sergei Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said on Telegram.
Former IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot intends to participate in politics and participate in the upcoming elections, reports the Thirteenth Channel.
The report states that Eisenkot told his affiliates that he would make a public announcement after the dissolution of the existing Knesset and the calling of elections.
He doesn’t know which party to join, but the most serious talks are with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s center-left Yesh Atid. the right.
The report adds that Eisenkot may, first of all, shape a new party, but this will only be with the aim of merging with an existing party to attract more applicants to the merged party. He says Eisenkot does not aim to lead the merged party.
Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt,” a painting in which the acclaimed British playwright tapped into the Jewish heritage he discovered later in his life, is heading to Broadway.
Named after Vienna’s Jewish ghetto of World War II, “Leopoldstadt” tells the story of 50 years of the life of a wealthy circle of married relatives in the early twentieth century. It will premiere at New York’s Longacre Theatre in September.
Stoppard, whose birth name is Tomas Straussler, only discovered his Jewish ancestry in the 1990s. His circle of non-observant relatives fled their local Czechoslovakia during World War II to Singapore, then moved to India after Japan began attacking there. Stoppard’s father was killed by a Japanese attack. bomb.
Stoppard has won several Tony and Academy Awards for writing acclaimed plays such as “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” and Hollywood films such as “Shakespeare in Love. “One figure, Stoppard rarely spoke of his Jewish identity in public.
“This is a far cry from the history I’ve lived,” he told the London Jewish Chronicle. “It has a lot to do with being Jewish, knowing you’re Jewish, realizing you’re Jewish, acting like one. “be Jewish. . . Or not. And that’s when I felt like I was hunting more inward than outward.
His son Ed starred in a London play, which debuted in 2020.
“I’ve never felt more connected to my legacy,” Ed Stoppard told The Guardian.
MK Yamina Idit Silman, who blocked the coalition and joined the coalition, would threaten revenge on her party colleague, MP Nir Orbach, by publishing internal documents if he helped Yamina declare her a defector, a move that would mean Silman would not run. . upcoming elections within the framework of any existing party.
“I probably wouldn’t shut my mouth, I intend to post it if Nir scares me away,” Silman said.
“It will have to be transparent to Nir that I have all their correspondence, all the reports from the Jewish Home,” he added, referring to a now-defunct party of which they were members. “There are also other people who have given me more material. Nir will be destroyed through this.
The network cites an unnamed name that calls Silman’s words “blackmail. “
Silman’s denies the report.
The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths reported internationally fell less in the Middle East and Southeast Asia last week, according to a weekly World Health Organization report released today.
In its most recent weekly update on the pandemic, the United Nations fitness firm says cases shown have declined from 12 to about 3 million and reported deaths have dropped from 22 to about 7600.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus describes the continued decline of COVID-19, which peaked in January, as “a very encouraging trend”. Still, he warns that the pandemic is not over yet and calls for caution, although many countries have abandoned their coronavirus protocols and rushed to seek to live with the virus.
Tedros points out that 18 months after the start of the first mass vaccination systems against the coronavirus in rich countries, 68 countries still need 40% of their population. While there are now enough vaccines available, demand has plummeted, he says.
“The belief that the pandemic is over is understandable, but wrong,” the WHO leader said. “An even more harmful new variant can emerge at any time, and a large number of other people will remain unprotected. “
The WHO pandemic report notes that the number of new weekly cases has risen to 19% in the Middle East and 1% in Southeast Asia, while it has decreased elsewhere. The death toll rose 7 percent in the western Pacific and fell in other parts of the world last week.
U. N. leader Antonio Guterres said the consequences for the world of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are worsening and affect 1. 6 billion people.
“The effect of war on food security, power and finance is systemic, serious and accelerated,” the secretary-general said in presenting the UN report on the repercussions of the conflict.
After opposition resources claimed that the coalition was on the verge of collapse, probably due to Yamina MK Nir Orbach’s desire to defect, the latter’s office issued a denial, saying that Orbach “does not plan to hold a press conference. “
Orbach’s departure from the coalition would mean there are lawmakers in favor of dissolving the Knesset and calling new elections.
Rumors circulated after the coalition failed to save him from approving opposition-backed spending to raise the minimum wage, even though senior government officials vowed not to let them pass.
Liberia intends to open an industrial workplace in Jerusalem that will one day be an embassy, according to an Israeli report featuring comments from a visiting ministerial delegation from the African country.
According to Ynet, the visiting delegation is headed by the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Nathaniel McGill, whose position is that of Prime Minister in Israel.
– ynet עדכוני (@ynetalerts) June 8, 2022
The delegation, which also includes the country’s economy, industry and agriculture ministers, reportedly made the announcement at an assembly with President Isaac Herzog and Deputy Foreign Minister Idan Roll.
Liberia does not lately have an embassy in Israel, yet in recent years it has taken Israel’s place at the United Nations and the African Union.
After his meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Blue and White MP Michael Biton said he hoped his protest against shipping reform would be resolved.
“It was a smart assembly and I hope things work out,” Biton said after the summit, which also included representatives from the finance and shipping ministries.
Biton, who also chairs the economic affairs committee through which he needs shipping reforms discussed, briefly boycotted the coalition 3 weeks ago after saying the Transport Ministry had bypassed it to propose sweeping adjustments to the public shipping tariff regime. He returned after the assembly with Bennett, which Biton says gave the prime minister two weeks to move forward on the issue.
Although Biton continues to insist on this fight while the coalition is already wounded, he claims that his fight is ideological and political.
“The prime minister also knows that this is not a political struggle, but a values-based struggle,” Biton said. Most rate increases fear peripheral spaces that have benefited from particularly low shipping prices. “I cannot allow the weak, the Negev and Galilee to be damaged,” Biton adds.
U. S. police arrested a gunman who had made threats against Brett Kavanaugh near the home of the conservative Supreme Court justice, the U. S. court said.
“At approximately 1:50 a. m. a. m. de today, a guy arrested near Judge Kavanaugh’s residence. The guy armed and made threats against Judge Kavanaugh,” the court said in a statement.
The arrest comes as the court prepares to hand down decisive sentences in two politically charged instances on gun rights and abortion.
The Israeli military accuses the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah of carrying out clandestine activities along the border with Israel under the guise of an environmental organization known as “Greens Without Borders. “
The Israel Defense Forces have made similar statements in recent years, identifying several publications belonging to the non-governmental organization that the military says are actually used to bring to light intelligence and reconnaissance paintings for the Iranian-backed terror group.
“Revealed: A new border reconnaissance for Hezbollah terrorists to gather intelligence on the Lebanese border under the banner of the Green Without Borders association,” Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-speaking spokesman, said on Twitter.
Adraee attaches several photos of suspected Hezbollah members taking photos and observing the Israeli border from a small design on the border.
Yesterday, the head of the IDF’s Northern Command said that Hezbollah had recently improved the structure of military infrastructure near the border.
“We can see the agents coming to the border area. We know them: their names, where they come from and where they work. When the time comes, they will pay the price,” Amir Baram.
– افيخاي ادرعي (@AvichayAdraee) June 8, 2022
In a further loss for the fragile coalition, the Knesset gives its initial approval to several expenses that would raise the minimum wage, even though coalition leaders vowed not to let them pass.
In an initial reading, lawmakers voted to raise the minimum wage to NIS 40 ($12) an hour, a cause championed by some opposition members such as the Labor Party coalition but opposed by the parties of the top coalition.
There were tense infighting within the coalition ahead of the vote, with the Ra’am coalition party challenging the coalition camp and saying it would vote for the opposition Joint List proposal, and Labour intending to vote for the bills.
In a last-minute compromise, the coalition parties withdrew from the vote and allowed all three expenses to be approved.
Meretz MP Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi remains in plenary and votes in favor of the bill with the opposition, as do all Ra’am members plus its president Mansour Abbas.
Firefighters pulled out the chimney near Mevaseret Zion, according to the chimney and rescue services.
In the domain of Har Adar and Beit Nekofa, the fire has slowed down but is still under control.
Israeli F-16i fighter jets escorted two American B-52 bombers as they crossed Israeli airspace from the Persian Gulf, according to the Israeli military, in an obvious show of force toward Iran amid ongoing tensions in the region.
“The flight took position within the framework of close cooperation with the US military, which represents a detail to ensure the security of the airspace of the State of Israel and the Middle East,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement.
Israeli jets escorting American bombers have a normal feature in Middle Eastern skies in recent months, as tensions between Tehran and the West have risen amid an attempt to negotiate a new deal that would prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions. relief.
,
– צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 8, 2022
British prosecutors have announced they have London’s Metropolitan Police to rate Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein with sexual assault rates.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the 70-year-old American film maker faced two counts of indecent assault in the British capital in 1996.
Ukraine claims that Moscow’s invasion is because of a global grain crisis, and rejects Russian claims that Western sanctions against Moscow have pushed up prices.
“We have been actively communicating, the president and myself, about the genuine cause of this crisis: it is Russian aggression, sanctions,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a briefing with Ukrainian journalists broadcast on social media.
The official overseeing the government’s reaction to COVID-19 says it’s not yet clear whether the existing spike in coronavirus cases will turn into a new wave of infections, as officials reimpose some measures.
Stating that there have been several new outbreaks, Zarka said at a press conference that “we are experiencing continued morbidity, with periodic increases and decreases. I advise the public and especially endangered populations to put on a mask and get tested afterwards. “be exposed to a carrier.
Zarka says other countries are seeing increases in cases due to an Omicron subvariant.
“It’s not transparent whether it will continue or be avoided soon,” he says.
In an effort for some other possible coalition crisis, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently met with Blue and White MP Michael Biton.
Three weeks ago, Biton shut down the Knesset’s economic committee, which he chairs, and boycotted the vote with the coalition to protest the government’s reforms in transportation and, to a lesser extent, agriculture.
Bennett and Biton met on May 30, after which Biton resumed coalition activities and gave the minister two weeks to move forward on transportation issues.
That deadline expires next Monday, coinciding with the stalled coalition’s next opportunity to introduce legislation.
Biton’s court cases on transport reform relate to substance and procedure. He says the reforms are raising costs too temporarily in some spaces and complains that they have been dealt with through his committee, which oversees the Transport Ministry.
The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, and discussed a desire to continue efforts to succeed in a new Iran nuclear deal with Western powers, Reuters reports.
The Kremlin adds that they have also not expressed interest in strengthening bilateral relations.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Energy Minister Karine Elharrar are joining forces amid tensions with Lebanon over drilling on the Karish rig.
Lebanon and Israel, which have no diplomatic relations and consider themselves enemy states, have been holding U. S. -negotiated proximity talks for about two years over a maritime border dispute.
Lebanon reacted angrily this week after the arrival of a new fuel platform at the Karish offshore herbal fuel field, which Israel says is a U. N. -recognized exclusive economic zone and which Beirut says is in a disputed area.
“The Karish platform is a strategic asset of the State of Israel and aims to extract energy resources and herbal fuel from the economic zone of the State of Israel and promote Israel’s green economy,” the set said. With its anchorage, the platform is located in Israeli territory, several kilometers south of the domain on which negotiations are taking place between the State of Israel and the Republic of Lebanon, with the mediation of the United States. The platform will not pump fuel from the disputed territory.
“The State of Israel prioritizes the coverage of its strategic assets and is in a position to protect them and the security of its infrastructure, all in accordance with its rights,” he said.
“At the same time, we call on the Lebanese Republic to push forward negotiations on the maritime border. The location of gas-based energy resources can greatly help the Lebanese economy and its citizens, and is in the interest of the Lebanese. “Republic to advance the discussion on this topic. We hope that happens.
As a chimney is unleashed in the forest near Jerusalem, some citizens of Mevaseret Zion have begun evacuating for their safety, according to the chimney and rescue services.
The fire is heading towards Har Adar and Beit Nekofa.
– כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 8, 2022
Amid fears of a new wave of COVID-19, a team advising the Ministry of Health recommends that the public resume wearing a mask indoors, especially at gatherings.
He noted earlier that the ministry council can only be done for seniors and at-risk, but the advisory team did not make that distinction.
The team has not yet presented the launch of a fifth dose of the vaccine, saying this will be weighed against morbidity rates.
The team recommends allowing anyone over the age of five to receive a booster injection. He adds advice that physical care personnel receive the TRIPLE vaccine.
The recommendations will be made to the Director General of the Ministry of Health for approval.
Five chimney crews and six chimney fighter jets were deployed at the scene of a chimney near Jerusalem.
The chimney burst between Kiryat Anavim and Har Adar, near a winery, a factory and a hotel.
The European Parliament is voting to reject a reform of the EU’s carbon trading system, in a wonderful setback for the bloc’s Green Deal climate plan.
The EU has pledged to reduce greenhouse fuel emissions by 55% by 2030, but Green and Socialist MEPs say the plan to expand carbon trading is not ambitious enough.
Moderna’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine that combines its original vaccine with coverage opposite to the Omicron variant appears to be working, the company says.
COVID-19 vaccine brands are reading updated boosters that will launch in the fall to better protect others from long-term coronavirus outbreaks.
Preliminary effects from the Moderna study show that other people who won the combined vaccine experienced an eight-fold buildup in anti-virus antibodies capable of attacking the mutant Omicron, the company says.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is delivering a telephone address from his office in Ramallah, in an obvious way to silence rumors about the aging leader’s health.
Abbas, 86, has a long history of fitnessArray ranging from downtown to a war on prostate cancer more than a decade ago.
Speculation about Abbas’s physical condition has abounded for years, and Palestinian Authority officials have sought to keep examinations of the Abbas regime out of public view.
The most recent rumour circular came as the Arabic-language BBC last week published an unsourced report that Abbas’s confidant, Hussein al-Sheikh, had received some key day-to-day jobs due to Abbas’s deteriorating health. The report was later removed from the BBC’s online page and Twitter account.
Al-Sheikh denied the report, calling it an “attempt to falsify the internal Palestinian situation. “
Today’s speech is Abbas’s first public speech since that report.
In the war in the Knesset, where politics takes precedence over substance, the coalition is expected to vote against an initial reading to raise the minimum wage to NIS 40 ($12) an hour, a cause championed by the coalition’s Labor party.
Labour MP Naama Lazimi has long advocated raising the minimum wage and is the sponsor of one of the 3 similar expenses to be voted on in plenary today. The other two are sponsored through opposition deputies. to today’s initial reading of minimum wage increases, and that Lazimi would possibly withdraw his bill from the package.
Like similar bills, all 3 would be voted on together.
The driving force of the 3 expenses is the joint state. A spokesman for the organization said that after a fight with Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, which delayed Lazimi’s efforts, he turned to the opposition.
The minimum wage is 29. 12 NIS ($8. 7) according to the hour.
Meretz MK Ghaida Rinawie Zoabi, who on Monday voted in favor of a measure to renew The application of Israeli civil and criminal law to Israelis living in the West Bank, told his affiliates that he will vote in favor of such a measure if he appears before the Knesset. Plenary next week. according to the Twelfth Canal and Haaretz.
Since the vote, Rinawie Zoabi and her renegade coalition partner, MP Mazen Ghanaim (Ra’am), have faced intense pressure to resign, as the coalition struggles to emerge and regain its ability to pass laws.
The bill was rejected by 52 votes to 58 after the other deputies of the Islamist Ra’am party and the insurgent deputy Yamina Idit Silman were absent from the plenary.
This morning, Rinawie Zoabi tweeted that when he agreed to remain in the coalition after threatening to flee, he said he would “not help legislate that would pass against mine and harm Arab society and the Palestinian question. “
The rejected bill, enacted each and every five years since 1967, would renew a measure that extends Israeli law on thieves and some key civil legislation, such as the source of income taxes and fitness insurance, to Israelis living in the West Bank. The measure ensures that settlers living there are treated as if they were living in Israel in maximum cases, without extending the same legal protections to Palestinians.
Justice Minister Gideon Saar has said in the past that the passage of the law is for the coalition’s long term.
Supporting The Times of Israel is not a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI network is for other people like you who care about a common good: making sure that Israel’s balanced and guilty policy remains to be held loose from tax to millions of other people around the world.
Of course, we will remove all classified ads from your page and have access to exceptional content from the network. But your help gives you something deeper than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
That’s why we introduced The Times of Israel ten years ago, to provide discerning readers like you with a detailed policy of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other media outlets, we have not established a paywall. But because the journalism we do is expensive, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become vital to help our paintings join the Times of Israel community.
For just $6 a month, you can help our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel WITHOUT ADVERTISING, as well as access exclusive content only for members of the Times of Israel community.
Thank you, David Horovitz, founding editor of The Times of Israel.