Category Archives: Israel

Netanyahu strikes Israeli coalition deal with far-right homophobic leader

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Ex-PM poised to form one of most hardline religious and nationalist governments in country’s history

The former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has struck a coalition deal with a far-right leader known for his homophobic rhetoric and disparaging remarks about non-Orthodox Jews, a sign of the prospective government’s hardline makeup.

Netanyahu’s Likud party announced on Sunday that the agreement named Avi Maoz, the leader of the ultra-nationalist Noam party, as a deputy minister, whose portfolio includes an office bolstering Jewish identity among Israelis.

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Pegasus spyware inquiry targeted by disinformation campaign, say experts

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European parliament is investigating powerful surveillance tool used by governments around the world

Victims of spyware and a group of security experts have privately warned that a European parliament investigatory committee risks being thrown off course by an alleged “disinformation campaign”.

The warning, contained in a letter to MEPs signed by the victims, academics and some of the world’s most renowned surveillance experts, followed news last week that two individuals accused of trying to discredit widely accepted evidence in spyware cases in Spain had been invited to appear before the committee investigating abuse of hacking software.

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The World Cup tension the west is not seeing: Israelis told to keep low profile

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Though neither Israel nor Palestine are playing in the tournament, the latter has featured prominently in Qatar

One video shows an Egyptian football fan smiling serenely as an Israeli broadcaster introduces him live on air. Then he leans into the microphone with a message: “Viva Palestine.”

Another clip from the streets of Doha this week shows a group of Lebanese men walking away from a live interview with a reporter they have just learned is Israeli. One shouts over his shoulder: “There is no Israel. It’s Palestine.”

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Far-right extremist gets Israeli security job as coalition deals struck

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Appointment of Itamar Ben-Gvir raises fears of further escalation in Israeli-Palestinian tensions

The far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir will be Israel’s national security minister under a coalition deal with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, in what is likely to be the most rightwing government in the country’s history.

The agreement comes after the prime minister-designate’s alliance won a comfortable victory in this month’s parliamentary election, Israel’s fifth in less than four years.

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Biden upgrades US-Palestinian relations by naming special representative

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Hady Amr, held in high regard by Israeli and Palestinian diplomats, appointed to Washington-based role

Joe Biden has appointed a new special representative for Palestinian affairs, a significant upgrade in relations with Ramallah despite the fact the American diplomatic mission in Jerusalem, closed by Donald Trump in 2019, is yet to reopen.

The White House informed Congress on Tuesday that it had promoted Hady Amr, previously the deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs, to the newly created, Washington-based role, Axios and the Times of Israel reported.

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Iran blames Israel after bomb kills Revolutionary Guard colonel in Syria

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Davoud Jafari and his bodyguard reportedly targeted by roadside bomb near Damascus

An improvised bomb has killed an Iranian colonel from the aerospace division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps near Syria’s capital, Damascus, Iranian media reported, blaming Israel for the attack.

The Islamic republic regularly calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, which in turn sees Iran, with its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes and its regional proxies, as its biggest security threat.

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Teenager dies and 22 injured in twin rush-hour blasts in Jerusalem

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Initial findings show explosions were result of nails and explosive devices left in bags at two sites, say police

A teenage boy has died and 22 people have been injured in two blasts targeting rush-hour commuters in Jerusalem, attacks that hark back to the violence of the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising.

The first explosion occurred shortly after 7am local time on Wednesday near a bus stop packed with civilians on the western outskirts of the divided city. The second blast, half an hour later near a busy junction in the Ramot settlement, north of Jerusalem, injured another five people. The child who died from his injuries in hospital was named as dual Israeli-Canadian citizen, Aryeh Schupak, 15.

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How airstrikes by Israel, Turkey and Russia denote a new era in Syrian war

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Regional interests remain very much at stake in conflict neither isolated, nor solely Syrian – though often forgotten

Over the plains of northern Syria, an approaching warplane usually makes a distinctive roar, allowing those on the ground to determine who it belongs to and whether there’s a need to hide.

But the past few days have been more onerous than ever for plane-spotters as the air forces of three countries have crisscrossed Syrian skies, bombing targets from the Mediterranean coast to the deserts of the east in the most comprehensive airstrikes in the past three years.

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Torture van found as suspected Israeli gang leader held in South Africa raid

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Police say drugs and gun also found at Johannesburg property where they detained wanted Abergil gang member and seven others

A man reputed to be one of Israel’s most wanted gang leaders has been arrested during a raid on a home in an affluent Johannesburg suburb where South African authorities said they also found guns, drugs and a van equipped for torture.

South African police said on Thursday that the 46-year-old Israeli was a member of the Abergil gang, which deals in drug trafficking and extortion, and that he was wanted in Israel for several attempted murders.

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US and Israel blame Iran after drone strikes oil tanker off Oman

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Pacific Zircon, linked to Israeli billionaire, said to have been ‘hit by projectile’ but suffered only minor damage

The US and Israel have pointed the finger at Iran after an oil tanker associated with an Israeli billionaire was struck by a bomb-carrying drone off the coast of Oman.

The drone attack on the Liberian-flagged oil tanker Pacific Zircon happened on Tuesday night off the coast of Oman, a Middle East-based defence official told the Associated Press.

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Palestinian man kills two Israelis in West Bank settlement

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Authorities shoot 18-year-old dead after knife and car attack in territory occupied by Israel

A Palestinian man killed two Israeli people and wounded four others in an attack at a settlement in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday before he was shot and killed by Israeli security personnel, Israeli paramedics and Palestinian officials said.

The Magen David Adom paramedic service said the two were killed in the settlement of Ariel. The four wounded were taken to hospital in a serious condition.

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Israel will not cooperate with FBI inquiry into killing of Palestinian American journalist

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Defence minister calls investigation into Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing by Israeli army ‘interference in internal affairs’

Israel has said it will not cooperate with an FBI investigation into the killing of the Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by the Israeli army.

Israel’s defence minister, Benny Gantz, denounced the inquiry as “interference in Israel’s internal affairs” and said he “made it clear to the American representatives that we stand behind the IDF [Israel defence forces] soldiers, that we will not cooperate with any external investigation”.

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Fish fossils show first cooking may have been 600,000 years earlier than thought

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After examining carp remains, researchers claim people who lived 780,000 years ago liked their fish well done

Early human ancestors living 780,000 years ago liked their fish well done, Israeli researchers have revealed, in what they said was the earliest evidence of fire being used to cook.

Exactly when our ancestors started cooking has been a matter of controversy among archaeologists because it is difficult to prove that an ancient fireplace was used to prepare food, and not just for warmth.

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Israel: leader of far-right Jewish Power party pays tribute to late racist rabbi

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Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose party helped prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to power, praises Meir Kahane at memorial

A far-right Israeli lawmaker, whose surging popularity helped propel former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu back to power in last week’s general election, has delivered a glowing tribute at a memorial event for an extremist rabbi assassinated in 1990.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, whose ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party emerged as the second biggest group in Netanyahu’s bloc and the third largest in the country, praised the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane in a speech at the memorial in Jerusalem on Thursday.

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Israel’s president says ‘world is worried’ about far-right partner in Netanyahu coalition

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Isaac Herzog said the views of Itamar Ben-Gvir will cause problems, as Religious Zionists party gets set to join the governing coalition

Israeli president Isaac Herzog has said “the whole world is worried” about the far-right views of Itamar Ben-Gvir, who appears set to become a minister in Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition government.

Herzog’s statement was caught by a microphone that he apparently thought was off as he held consultations with an ultra-Orthodox political party about the next government, expected to be led by former premier Benjamin Netanyahu following the victory of his right-wing alliance in last week’s election.

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Unseen Kristallnacht photos published 84 years after Nazi pogrom

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Images released by Israeli Holocaust memorial show Hitler’s regime clearly orchestrating 1938 atrocity

Harrowing, previously unseen images from 1938’s Kristallnacht pogrom against German and Austrian Jews have surfaced in a photograph collection donated to Israel’s Yad Vashem memorial, the organisation said on Wednesday.

One shows a crowd of smiling, well-dressed middle-aged German men and women standing casually as a Nazi officer smashes a storefront window. In another, brownshirts carry heaps of Jewish books, presumably for burning. Another image shows a Nazi officer splashing petrol on the pews of a synagogue before it is set alight.

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Oldest known written sentence discovered – on a head-lice comb

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Timeless fret over hygiene picked out on engraved Bronze age comb from ancient kingdom of Judah

It’s a simple sentence that captures the hopes and fears of modern-day parents as much as the bronze age Canaanite who owned the doubled-edged ivory comb on which the words appear.

Believed to be the oldest known sentence written in the earliest alphabet, the inscription on the luxury item reads: “May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.”

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Dutch MEP says illegal spyware ‘a grave threat to democracy’

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European Commission wears ‘velvet gloves’ when dealing with spyware used on citizens, says chief of inquiry on hacking software, including Pegasus

The senior MEP leading an inquiry into spyware has accused the EU commission of ignoring the “grave threat to democracy” posed by the use of the technology, and national governments of failing to co-operate with her investigation.

The Dutch liberal MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld said there was illegal use of spyware in Poland, Hungary, Greece and Spain and suspicions about Cyprus, while other EU member states made it easy for the “shady” industry to operate.

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Netanyahu begins coalition talks to form Israeli government

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Veteran leader and his far-right allies win decisive 64 seats in 120-seat Knesset

The former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has begun coalition negotiations on forming a government, after winning a decisive majority in Israel’s fifth election in four years with the help of ultra-Orthodox parties and a new alliance with the far right.

After a year in opposition, and years of political chaos triggered by his ongoing corruption trial, the veteran politician engineered a comeback in Tuesday’s vote. His majority means that the period of electoral deadlock is in all probability over for now, and Netanyahu – already the country’s longest serving prime minister – is set to stay in the job for at least the next four years. Back in office, the 73-year-old’s first priority will be seeking to get his trial dropped. He denies all charges.

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Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu comeback brings despair for leftwing parties

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Outgoing coalition suffers poor election result as some parties of the left lose voice in Knesset altogether

Israel’s leftwing and pro-Arab-rights parties have been left licking their wounds in the aftermath of this week’s election. When vote-counting finished on Thursday, the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right partners had won by a comfortable majority.

Last summer a broad coalition succeeded in their mutual desire to kick Netanyahu, leader of Likud, out of office. He is currently standing trial on corruption charges.

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