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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

As the nuclear talks with Iran resume in Vienna, Israel must try to reach an agreement with Washington, by which the U.S. will extend it a nuclear umbrella and openly acknowledge it.

This is the necessary strategy as Iran sits down with five powers (The U.S. is involved, but not sitting in the conference hall). All sides are pessimistic about the chances of obtaining a deal, and it is clear that Israel lacks any real and credible capability of taking military action. The proposal could be extended to Washington and Jerusalems allies such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates if they so desire. The deployment of a nuclear umbrella is the ultimate guarantee of deterrence in the face of Irans nuclear program and, if Tehran succeeds in assembling a nuclear weapon, the possibility that Iran will threaten Israel in order to extract concessions from it.

The declarations by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi about Israels readiness for a military strike are empty and pointless rhetoric, as they well know. They are playing pretend. All the relevant parties Iran, Russia, China, the EU and the U.S. are quite aware of this. A leader who toys with the enemy and employs deception and psychological warfare is considered clever. A leader who toys with the public is a schemer. A leader who deludes himself is dangerous.

You dont have to be a general or a military strategist to understand. Its enough to look at the map, at the forces operating in the area and to read about the air force power from available sources.

Here are the facts. In order to strike in Iran, by the shortest route, Israel Air Force planes would have to pass over two countries Iraq and Jordan. Its also possible to operate over Saudi Arabia, but that would lengthen the route.

Whichever route they take, the planes would have to carry the maximal load of bombs and missiles. Fully laden, even the brand new F-35 stealth aircraft, which were designed precisely for the mission of carrying out an airstrike in Iran, would need to refuel midair slowing down the operation and increasing the danger of exposure.

Theoretically, there is another possibility for an alternative attack route: Taking off from Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran. Jerusalem and Baku maintain very close intelligence and military cooperation. There were once reports that Azerbaijan set up, or put at Israels disposal, an airfield from which Israeli fighter jets could take off on their way to Iran. Its unclear how accurate these reports were.

What has definitely been reported is that Israeli UAVs have carried out intelligence missions to Iran from Azerbaijan. In one incident, an Israeli UAV fell and the Iranians collected the pieces.

In any event, the odds of Azerbaijan allowing Israeli jets to operate in its skies against Iran are slim to none. Secret intelligence cooperation is one thing. An Israeli act of war against Iran from Azerbaijani territory is something else. It would change the rules of the game between the two countries and across the region. It would provoke an Iranian response against Azerbaijan and Baku has no desire to get caught up in a war for Israels sake.

Lets say that the Israeli planes manage to pass over Jordan and then Iraq or Saudi Arabia without being detected, or that those countries cooperate with Israel from the start. We still must consider the massive military presences of the U.S., Russia and Britain throughout the Middle East air forces, naval fleets, aircraft carriers, military bases, radar and intelligence stations. And of course theres Turkey, which is hostile to Israel and whose intelligence agency has a history of handing Israeli intelligence agents over to Iran. In short, the chance that the Israeli planes will be able to operate quietly, in secret, without being detected literally fly under the radar is about nil.

If such a miracle does occur, and if Israel sends all of its aerial combat forces on this mission, it would have to be a one-time operation. In contrast, an American offensive could be carried out in several waves and spread over a number of days or weeks an offensive that the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations all opposed or didnt dare to order.

Presuming the air force is able to deceive, blind and disrupt Irans air defense systems, during the one-off strike, attack jets and bombers would have to reach and destroy dozens of nuclear sites that Iran has wisely scattered throughout the country including some places beyond Israels reach. The Israeli planes will also have to strike either before striking the nuclear sites or in tandem command and control centers, communications centers and anti-aircraft systems.

All in all, it is a hugely complex and practically impossible mission that is too big for the Israel Air Force to take on. Remember, too, that some planes would almost certainly be lost during the sorties. Their pilots would be killed or taken prisoner, which is essentially the same thing.

Its a shame that tens of billions of shekels are being wasted readying the air force for an attack that will not happen. The same thing happened under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Even if, by some miracle, Irans nuclear sites are entirely or partially destroyed, Iranian scientists have stored away the know-how and plans, and that cannot be destroyed. Weve already seen Iran use this knowledge to rebuild facilities that were sabotaged in operations ascribed to Israeli intelligence. There is nothing to stop it from rebuilding again in the future. So, what is the benefit of setting back Irans nuclear program for just a year or two at such a high price and with so many risks attached?

Moreover, an Israeli military operation will invariably draw international condemnation and perhaps even lead to sanctions on Israel. More importantly, Iran will have legitimate justification for rebuilding and redeveloping a military nuclear program and quickly assemble nuclear weapons, which it has refrained from doing so far. In such a case, the world could no longer oppose it, and certainly couldnt impose sanctions on Iran.

There is an even greater potential danger: If Israel somehow does manage to strike Irans nuclear sites, instead of rebuilding, Iran could demand the nuclear disarmament of the entire Middle East i.e., demand that Israel dismantle the nuclear weapon that everyone believes it has.

In such a scenario, would the U.S. be able to go on defending Israel as it has done up to now in every international forum including the UN Security Council and enable it to hold onto its nuclear weapon? Israels political leaders, military commanders, those involved in its nuclear program, and all those who support its continued existence must be aware of this danger.

The decision to establish a nuclear program for military purposes under David Ben-Gurion, as foreign press reports have long asserted, was one of the boldest and most important decisions in Israels history. The decision not to confirm or deny its existence the ambiguity policy is also extremely wise and allows Israel to rebuff international pressure. Most importantly, the policy gains the protection of the U.S., which turns a blind eye. Contrary to what certain analysts and experts say, including my colleague, Haaretz Editor-in-Chief Aluf Benn, Israel must continue with the existing ambiguity policy. It should not announce to the world that it is a nuclear power.

Israel does not really have any good options. It is at a historic crossroads. An Israeli military strike is not practical for all the reasons listed above. Irans purpose at the Vienna talks is to gain time to continue accelerating its program until it becomes a nuclear threshold state or even assembles a nuclear weapon, though that possibility remains in doubt.

On the other hand, the weakness of the Biden administration and its lack of desire to confront Iran mean that even if a new deal is obtained, it will be as laden with holes as Swiss cheese. This will enable Iran to continue shoring up and advancing its nuclear program.

If no deal is reached and the sanctions are not lifted as is the expectation in Washington, and the lesser evil as far as Israel is concerned the status quo continues and Tehran continues to advance a nuclear program. This also portends great instability.

Under these circumstances, Israel needs to muster the courage to propose a bold and creative move. It must open a dialogue with the Biden administration in hopes of reaching an agreement ideally, an open one in which Washington pledges to grant Israel and other allies in the region (if they so wish) a nuclear umbrella.

This would force Iran to recognize that if it develops a nuclear weapon, it cannot use it to threaten Israel or its neighbors. The merest hint of such a threat would be met with an American threat of retaliation. The nuclear balance of power between Iran and the United States requires no further elaboration.

An American nuclear umbrella could allow Israel to maintain its nuclear program and neutralize the festering fear and uncertainty.

A nuclear umbrella agreement between Washington and Jerusalem must apply solely to the nuclear realm and not to conventional warfare. In other words, such a deal should not weaken Israels freedom of military action. It should allow Israel to continue operating against Iran by conventional means and through secret operations, with the aim of weakening and setting back the nuclear program and opposing Tehrans efforts to expand its regional hegemony.

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Striking Irans nuke sites is an impossible mission for Israel. Heres what it must do - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

WASHINGTON (JTA) Idan Rolls mission as Israels deputy foreign minister is to repair Israels relationship with progressives, especially in the United States.

His challenge is that he is bound by an Israeli political reality that has shifted to the right.

Its a dilemma that he understands, and hopes to bridge.

I want to try and promote this so-important relationship, Roll said earlier this month of the U.S.-Israel relationship, speaking at a reception on Nov. 16 for national U.S. media, Jewish media and Arab media. And first and foremost is to, as I said, reach out and extend dialogue and hear different thoughts, and even be open to criticism because thats part of talking.

Israels young government, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid, hasmade a priority of restoring relations with the American left.Roll 37 years old, strikingly handsome, trim and poured into a bespoke wardrobe, fluent in English is part of that charm offensive.

The problem is policy: Israel maintains many of the policies that stoked tensions with the left in the first place. Among them: advocacy for a tough U.S. stance toward Iran, expanding settlements in the West Bank, maintaining Israels hold on all of Jerusalem and nixing for now moves toward Palestinian statehood.

That contradiction was sharply illustrated when, returning from the United States, Roll canceled scheduled meetings with Belgians left-leaning government because of a law it just passed requiring goods manufactured in settlements to be labeled as such.

The Belgian governments decision to label products from Judea & Samaria strengthens extremists, does not help promote peace in the region, and shows Belgium as not contributing to regional stability, Roll said on Twitter, using the biblical names for theWestBank preferred on the Israeli right.

Those were the kind of policy flash points Roll tried to avoid during his U.S. tour, when he met with Democratic lawmakers and engaged them on LGBTQ+ issues. He and his husband, Israeli pop star Harel Skaat,had their two children, via a surrogate, in the U.S. because of restrictions for LGBTQ+ Israelis.

Still, Roll faced sharp questions in his meetings on policies on Iran and on the Palestinians.

We have nothing to hide, Roll said in an interview. Im here to keep an open dialogue and give them answers about what is going on in Israel.

Roll said at the media reception that one reason for past tensions was former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus confrontational tone and his willingness to write off progressives and Democrats.

Israel has always been a bipartisan issue, and our government and our ministry, we intend to keep it that way, Roll said at the reception. I think that keeping it that way, is not just saying that, but actually taking the time to reach out to both houses referring to liberals and conservatives and to open dialogue. And I think that, you know, there were times where we didnt do it, it wasnt done as much as it should be in my eyes.

Roll met during his U.S. tour with Republicans and with centrist Democrats, but progressives were a key target. Democrats on the left have openly called to defund U.S. defense assistance to Israel. The growth of a party wing that does not want to automatically fund Israels defense needs has set off alarm bells in Israel.

Rolls visit comes after progressives complained that the Biden administration was trying to push through extra money for Israels antimissile system, Iron Dome, without debate.

Establishment Democrats gave in to the demand for debate and after a contentious session,most (but significantly not all) of the progressive caucus voted for the funding.

Prior to arriving in the U.S., Roll met with progressives about whom to meet, and had an off-the-record meeting with an array of Jewish progressive groups, none of which agreed to be identified. Since the hostilities between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in May, American progressives have increasingly questioned their Jewish allies Israel ties. An environmental group last month called for barring some progressive Jewish groups from a voting rights coalition because of their pro-Israel credentials, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat from New York., is facing expulsion from the Democratic Socialists of America because he recently toured Israel with J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group.

Bringing Jewish progressives into the conversation was a priority for Roll, who used the same term, family, that Lapidhas embraced in Jewish outreach. Netanyahu essentially cut off Jewish progressives and made it clear that he saw Evangelical Christians as more reliable than Jews in supporting Israel.

We are all part of one family. This is the way I see things and you know, families, they might have disagreements, and thats fine, Roll said in the interview. What family doesnt? But the main thing is that we can always sit together and discuss these disagreements and reach a conclusion and sometimes we cant reach a conclusion but we want people to know that they are heard.

Among progressive lawmakers, Roll met with Rep. Jerry Nadler, the New York Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who convened the unofficial Jewish caucus for the get-together. (Nadlers office did not return a request for comment.) Roll also met with Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Jewish Democrat from Georgia; Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Rep. Ritchie Torres, of New York, a prominent and rare defender of Israel among Democrats seems as progressive; Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who has been sharply critical of some Israeli actions this year; and Rhode Islands Rep. David Cicilline, who is Jewish and co-chairs the congressional LGBTQ Equality Caucus.

We spoke about the importance of the increasing visibility of LGBTQ+ lawmakers here in the U.S. and Israel and the role that organizations like the Equality Caucus can play in inspiring people to run for public office, in supporting LGBTQ+ elected officials, and in helping to push forth an agenda of equality for all regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity, Cicilline told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an email. I look forward to our future discussions.

Bennett met with President Joe Biden in August and made it clear he was ready to work behind the scenes on contentious issues, like disagreements over whether the United States should reenter the Iran nuclear deal. Netanyahu made his disagreements with Democrats very public.

Lapid on his own visit last month emphasized common values in meetings with Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Antony Blinken, the secretary of state.

Israeli government officials and pro-Israel groups often emphasize Israels liberal LGBTQ policies in their pitch to progressives, noting the repression queer people suffer elsewhere in the Middle East. Roll is no exception: In an interview, he noted that Israel recently become one of the first nations to allow openly gay men to give blood.

I just went and donated a lot a few days ago and you know, it felt good after years of being out of the closet, all of a sudden you can do that again, he said.

He noted that Iran, Israels most belligerent regional enemy, continues to execute people who are gay, and he gets angry when anyone brings up the term pinkwashing, the accusation that Israel advertises gay rights to distract attention from its treatment of Palestinians. His life, he says, is not designed to prove a point.

Idan Roll, Israels deputy foreign minister, checks his phone after a meeting at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., Nov. 15, 2021. (Instagram)

Roll, a lawyer who emerged as an advocate for LGBTQ rights before he entered politics, is nonetheless sensitive to the strides he feels Israel has yet to make. He is candid in describing his difficulties marrying in a country where the Orthodox rabbinate controls Jewish marriage and will not countenance same-sex marriage. He and Harel were married remotely by an officiant in Utah, an option that only emerged during the pandemic.

He also advocates for surrogate parenthood. He has two children through surrogacy, a boy and a girl born in Oklahoma, and speaks warmly about the Reform movement, which helped walk him through the surrogacy. (Israel for years extended surrogacy rights only to heterosexual couples and single women; its Supreme Court in July extended it to gay men.)

The Reform Movement was so, so kind and so welcoming and you know, doing surrogacy in a foreign country thats, you know, its a journey, he said.

But unlike other Israel defenders, Roll does not cast Israels gay-friendly environment as a be-all and end-all for progressives; instead, he cites it as an example of how Israel is moving in the right direction.

The government, he said in the interview, is the most diverse coalition weve ever had, noting the inclusion of an Arab party for the first time in a governing coalition. Everyone and anyone in Israel can now see someone in this government who they can relate to. (Arab parties in the past have supported Israeli governments only from outside the coalition.)

We have a record number of female ministers, we have ministers with disabilities, we have openly LGBTQ members of the government, me included, he said. We just passed and we allocated a record number of dollars, its about $10 billion, for Arab society. Its not going to mean everything, but its definitely going to do good work at catching up on this ongoing gap between Jewish and Arab Israelis.

He said that the budget also increased services for the LGBTQ+ community sixfold, and mentioned the prominent role Israel played at the recent conference on climate change in Glasgow.

Roll made the case that listening has its own rewards.

Its about taking the time to come here and meet with people and create, you know, relationships first hand, actually meeting with people, he said at his meeting with Washington media. Its a weird concept, you know, after COVID, but still theres no substitute to actually sitting down with a person and you know, learning what he or she are all about.

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Israels deputy foreign minister aims to woo progressives, but Israeli policies get in the way - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Israels Shin Bet security agency and the police arrested and questioned two Jews early this month on suspicion that they had been discussing plans to violently attack Arabs.

The pair, a new immigrant from the United States and an autistic Israeli citizen, allegedly used the Telegram messaging service to plan hurting Arabs.

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They were in detention for 10 days, and one of them was denied access to a lawyer for the initial seven days of his custody. Following the 10 days in detention, the two were placed under house arrest and later freed.

An investigation is still open and they are still suspects, but the Shin Bet is no longer involved.

The two were arrested on suspicion of weapons possession, identification with a terrorist organization, conspiracy, preparing to commit a terrorist act and participation in a disturbance. The investigation was prompted by correspondence on Telegram in which they allegedly discussed how to purchase weapons and their desire to attack Arabs.

They also allegedly discussed their identification with the values of the outlawed extreme right-wing Kach organization founded by the late U.S.-born Rabbi Meir Kahane. According to the police, bullets were found at the home of one of the suspects.

Following their arrest, a gag order was placed on the release of any details of the investigation. A lawyer, Lior Ashkenazi, appealed a police request to extend the detention of one of the suspects by three days. After that, the suspect was permitted to meet with a lawyer. The other suspect will also be represented by legal counsel.

Following the pairs release from custody, one of them was sent to house arrest for eight days and the other for four days. They were barred from having contact with one another for a month or from accessing the internet for eight days. They were also required to post a 3,000-shekel ($950) bond.

The gag order on their arrests was lifted at Haaretzs request.

The U.S. immigrant does not speak Hebrew and has been living in Israel for about a year. According to his lawyer, after access to an attorney was permitted, he fully cooperated with investigators, gave his version of events and underwent a polygraph test.

From the first day, his version was that he had never possessed a weapon or planned to possess a weapon, Ashkenazi said. He expressed concern over the situation in the country during Operation Guardian of the Walls, a reference to the war that Israel and Hamas fought in May. But the entire issue has been blown out of proportion. He didnt belong and never wished to belong to an extremist organization.

When asked about the denial of access to a lawyer, the Shin Bet said that delaying his meeting with a lawyer was done in accordance with the grounds set by law.

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Israel's Shin Bet arrests two suspected of planning attacks on Arabs - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

A six-year-old boy, the sole survivor of an Italian cable car disaster who was kidnapped and taken to Israel by his grandfather, will be returned to Italy no later than Dec. 12, Israel's Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The court rejected a request by Eitan Biran's maternal grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, to appeal previous Israeli court rulings which said the boy must be sent back to his paternal aunt in Italy.

The child had been living with the aunt since his parents, younger brother and 11 other people died when a gondola plunged to the ground in northern Italy in May.

In September, while visiting Eitan, his maternal grandfather, without the aunt's consent, drove him to Switzerland and chartered a private jet onward to Israel.

The aunt petitioned the Israeli family court for his return to Italy. The court found that the grandfather's actions amounted to kidnapping under the Hague Convention on the return of abducted children.

Last month, an Israeli court ordered the boy to be returned to his relatives in Italy, where he was living with his parents before the crash, saying that was the place of his normal residence. It also ordered his grandfather, Shmuel Peleg, who had brought him to Israel against the wishes of his family members in Italy, to pay around $20,000 in expenses and attorney fees.

An appeals court then upheld that decision.

Eitans paternal relatives say he was taken without their knowledge, and they had filed a legal complaint in Italy seeking his return. Earlier this month an Italian judgeissued an international arrest warrantfor Peleg.

Peleg has defended his decision to take Eitan to Israel, saying it was in his grandson's best interest.

After his release from a Turin hospital following weeks of treatment, Italian juvenile court officials ruled Eitan would live with a paternal aunt, Aya Biran, near Pavia, in northern Italy.

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Israel's top court clears return of kidnapped boy to Italy - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

The former coach of Israels national rhythmic gymnastics team, Ira Vigdorchik, has signed up to work with the Russian squad instead. Vigdorchik confirmed the development in a statement.

Vigdorchik, who for years coached the Israeli troupe, was let go this year following the Tokyo Olympics.

According to the Walla news website, Vigdorchik, 57, was given the position 10 days ago. She is considered to be close with the Russian gymnastics association where she is held in great esteem, according to the report.

Vigdorchik will prepare the Russian team for the Paris Olympics in 2024, where Israel is also expected to compete.

The Russians are also scheduled to be in Israel next year when the European Rhythmic Gymnastics competition is held in Tel Aviv.

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Vigdorchik was born in the former Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel from Moscow in 1979. She coached the Israeli team from 2008 to 2021, with a one-year break in 2016.

Under her guidance, Israels team won more than 20 medals at competitions around the world including a European bronze medal in 2014, a silver medal the same year in the World Championships, and silver and bronze medals at the European championships in 2016.

Israels Linoy Ashram poses with her gold medal during the podium ceremony of the individual all-around final of the rhythmic gymnastics event, during Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at Ariake Gymnastics center in Tokyo, on August 7, 2021. (Lionel Bonaventure/AFP)

Over the years Vigdorchik was involved in various controversies, including commenting in a tape leaked a month before the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games that Israeli individual gymnast Linoy Ashram has no class.

At the Tokyo games, Ashram won Israels first-ever gold in the rhythmic individual all-around competition, edging Russian favorite Dina Averina into the silver position. Averinas twin sister, also considered a medal challenger, finished in fourth place.

In the team event, the Israeli squad under Vigdorchik finished in sixth place.

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Former coach of Israels medal-winning gymnastics team switches to Russian squad - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Thousands of Israeli children living overseas have been barred from entering Israel since March 2020 because they lack passports, and the issue has become even more pressing in light of Israels new Omicron-related border closures.

These children are legally Israeli citizens through parentage, despite having been born abroad, even if their parents never registered them with the state. This is because Israels 1952 Nationality Law automatically ascribes citizenship to a child born abroad to an Israeli parent. In a Kafkaesque turn, citizenship applies even if the state is unaware of these foreign-born citizens, and in a catch-22, citizenship can only be terminated following registration.

Prior to Israels first COVID-19 lockdown, these children were able to enter Israel as tourists on their foreign passports. This practice was abruptly ended when Israel closed its skies to non-citizens, and embassies abroad refused to grant entry permits to these Israeli children until their parents obtained Israeli passports for them, catching many off-guard.

According to a spokeswoman for the Population and Immigration Authority, the Israeli passport requirement had previously been enforced, but not strictly. COVID-19 obliged us to be careful, as it obliges many states to take many actions that have not been taken before.

Since then, Israel has made numerous exemptions for non-citizen students, business travelers, and intermittently even tourists to enter the country, yet it officially still excludes those of its own citizens who do not have Israeli passports.

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An ongoing court case brought by parents seeks to ease what they have called draconian and ever-shifting conditions for bringing their children into Israel. These 36 families have sued the state in the High Court of Justice demanding that it admit their children under the pre-COVID policy.

Justices Uzi Fogelman (C), Yosef Elron (L), and Ofer Grosskopf preparing for a Supreme Court hearing in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/FLASH90)

The families are represented by lawyers Batya Sachs and Gilad Itzhak Bar-Tal, who proposed a simple solution to the court. According to Sachs, what we suggested is, in order to let them come into the country, just introduce a declaration by the parent saying that the child is their child and make them able to come in using their dual citizenship, their foreign passport.

Sachs says that the court recognizes these children are Israelis and made a decision that the government should review the policy regarding how to enable them to come into the country. The governments response is still pending.

This fall, the government offered a one-time exemption, allowing affected families to bring their children to Israel provided they promise to complete the registration process within 60 days of returning home. But the families say thats not enough time to address lacunae in paperwork, and otherwise does not solve their registration problem.

They describe Israels registration requirements as overly burdensome and, at times, absurd. To prove parentage, the families must present the state not only with birth certificates and proof of the parents relationship, but also with an assemblage of personal medical records to prove their children are their biological offspring, including ultrasound scans, blood tests confirming the pregnancy, signed letters from delivering doctors and hospital discharge papers. And then, they must present themselves in person at one of Israels overseas missions.

Michal, Daphne, Lilly, and Yair Zaslavsky in Los Angeles, following a recent visit to the Australian Embassy. (Courtesy of Yair Zaslavsky)

When we moved [from Australia to the US], we didnt take with us all kinds of medical records regarding pregnancy tests and stuff like that. Thats it, shes born, why would I need that? Yair Zaslavsky, one of the parents in the suit, explained.

Zaslavsky is a father to 7-year-old Daphne, whom he and his wife had in Melbourne, after leaving Israel.

Hes currently in the middle of a multi-month process to obtain Daphnes birth certificate and medical records from Melbourne exacerbated by Australias own COVID lockdowns only after which can he schedule an appointment at Israels closest consulate, 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) away from his home in Maple Valley, Washington.

Well take Daphne with us to the appointment, which is going to be interesting, because on top of all these things, she has autism, so we dont know how she will behave in the meeting. And only then we will have a passport.

A Population and Immigration Authority spokeswoman said: We recommend that Israelis act in accordance with the law immediately upon the birth of their children and register them. This will make it easier for them later on, since when the child is just born all the documents are still in the hands of the parents.

The medical records requirement has felt invasive to some Israeli parents and raised questions as to the states motives for requesting the materials.

I resented the pressure. I resented the intrusion. I just thought, this is not right. And this whole thing with scans I dont understand is that to prove that theyre Jewish or not Jewish? asked Aviva M., who lives in Boca Raton, Florida, with her unregistered daughter and American husband and declined to give her full name for fear of future repercussions by the state.

Nimrod Erez (L), Katrin Osmialowski (R), and their daughter Elah, on a pre-pandemic visit in Israel. (Courtesy of Nimrod Erez)

Nimrod Erez, who lives with his German-born wife and their 12-year-old daughter in Los Angeles, coordinates the legal effort on behalf of the families who are challenging the Israeli state. Erez and his wife decided not to register Elah, their daughter, for ideological reasons.

Even though I dont want Elah to be an Israeli citizen, I still want her to have a deep connection to Israel, and that can only come through visiting, Erez explained.

Until the pandemic, the family made annual trips to Israel, where they have many relatives.

They brought the case in part because they have found Israeli authorities unresponsive to their problem. Had Elah not been Israeli, she could have entered as a tourist during non-lockdown periods. But because the state considers her Israeli, she has been subject to the passport standard.

When our first approaches were made to the Population Authority, their response was, Well, sorry, this is your problem. Theres nothing we can do or are going to do. And they literally said to somebody that their foreign-born spouse should have known the Israeli law before they got married and had children with them.

In addition to shouldering the burden of navigating family politics and bureaucracy to meet Israeli entry requirements, Erez feels that the states demands are shifting, making it difficult for families who want to comply.

Since April, theres not once been any clarity about what actually will make it possible to travel to Israel with the children. The rules and regulations constantly change and contradict, he said.

Unofficially, Israel has recently encouraged parents to return to treating their children as tourists.

Batya Sachs, the lawyer, says that the government itself has implied that families should return to their original method of bringing their children in as tourists.

According to Sachs, on October 31, we got the notification from the government, and even though it wasnt said specifically, basically what theyre saying is that Israel has opened up now to tourists. So, for [children] who have been vaccinated, theyre able to come now as tourists. [The government] didnt say in this word, they used a lot of words, but thats what we understood.

Adina F., a Washington, DC-based Israeli with a non-registered American daughter who similarly preferred not to give her full name received similar indications from the DC Embassy and already successfully tested this theory.

At some point, [the embassy representative] said: If your daughter is vaccinated, follow those instructions and youll be fine. And she doesnt need a permit. Adinas daughter entered Israel last week on her foreign passport.

But the rise of Omicron the latest and most heavily mutated variant to date makes that solution hollow for now, since Israel on Sunday night introduced a ban on all tourists for at least the next two weeks.

A prior legal challenge to the registration requirement, brought to the Supreme Court in the summer of 2020 by a father who couldnt bring his American-residing daughter into the country to visit him, did not create a precedent to enable other children to enter Israel.

The Population and Immigration Authority says it has received hundreds of related appeals since the start of the pandemic, but the actual number of families affected is likely well into the thousands. A popular Facebook group for families trying to bring in their non-passported children has almost 6,000 members, and with close to a million Israelis residing overseas, the number of affected families is conceivably higher.

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Israeli children born abroad are automatically citizens, yet some are locked out - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Under new deal, Israel and Morocco could share intel, hold joint drills official

A top Israeli defense official says Jerusalem and Rabat will begin cooperating deeply on security issues following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries.

The agreement that we signed will allow us to cooperate with exercises, with information. This is an agreement that will allow us to assist them with whatever they need from us, in accordance, of course, with our own interests. We have a strategic alliance of knowledge, says Zohar Palti, the head of the Defense Ministrys Political-Military Bureau, speaking to reporters on the sideline of Defense Minister Benny Gantzs visit to Rabat.

For Israel, the renewed ties with Morocco do not have immediate, practical significance for national security in the way that its newfound relationships with Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates do, working with Israel against their shared enemy, Iran. However, the relationship is considered of potentially greater importance, given the two countries natural ties, with some 700,000 Jewish Israelis having Moroccan roots.

Israel is indebted to Morocco, which for years accepted Jews, protected them, and protected their heritage. That is the basis [for the relationship], Palti says.

Israel and Morocco formally developed ties in the early 1990s, but Rabat officially halted them in 2000 with the outbreak of the Second Intifada. However, unofficially, the two countries maintained a degree of contact through their respective intelligence services.

We must give credit to the generations of people from security services and other branches who built the infrastructure that we have here, Palti says.

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Saudis attempted to block UAE-Israel-Jordan deal on energy, water report - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Raf Casert and Mari Yamaguchi| Associated Press

'Omicron' variant of COVID-19 called a 'variant of concern'

Scientists don't know how contagious the new COVID-19 variant is yet.

Staff Video, USA TODAY

Nations around the world sought Monday to keep the new omicron variant at bay with travel bans and further restrictions, even as it remains unclear what it means for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Japan announced it would suspend entry of all foreign visitors, while new cases of the variant identified days ago by researchers in South Africa appeared as far apart as Hong Kong, Australia and Portugal. Portuguese authorities were investigating whether some of the infections there could be among the first reported cases of local transmission of the variant outside of southern Africa.

The stream of new cases showed the near impossibility of keeping the genie in the bottle in a globalized world of travel and open borders.

What travelers need to know: The omicron variant has sparked new travel restrictions. Are more COVID rules ahead?

Thanksgiving travelers packed planes to new pandemic heights: Will rebound continue amid omicron variant?

Yet, many tried to do just that, even against the urging of the World Health Organization, which noted that border closures often have limited effect but can wreak havoc on lives and livelihoods. Some argued that such restrictions still could provide valuable time to analyze the new variant. Little is known about it, including whether it is more contagious, more likely to cause serious illness or more able to evade the protection of vaccines.

While the initial global response to COVID-19 was criticized as slow and haphazard, the reaction to the new variant came quickly.

"This time the world showed it is learning," said EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, singling out South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for praise. "South Africa's analytic work and transparency and sharing its results was indispensable in allowing a swift global response. It no doubt saved many lives," she said.

The WHO has also praised South Africa and Botswana for quickly alerting the world to the presence of the new variant and many have warned they should not be punished for their speed, especially since it may never be known when or where the new version first cropped up.

But that did not hold von der Leyen back from pushing the 27-nation European Union toward imposing an immediate ban on flights from seven southern African nations similar to measures many countries have taken.

Cases had already been reported in Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands, before Portuguese authorities identified 13 cases of omicron among team members of the Belenenses professional soccer club. Authorities reported that one member recently traveled to South Africa. Its game against Benfica over the weekend had be abandoned at half time for lack of players.

Quarantining also became an issue when Dutch military police had to arrest a husband and wife who left a hotel where they were being held after testing positive and boarded a plane bound for Spain.

"Quarantine is not obligatory, but we assume people will act responsibly," spokeswoman Petra Faber said.

Taking no chances, Japan, which has yet to detect any omicron cases, reimposed border controls that it eased earlier this month for short-term business visitors, foreign students and workers.

"We are taking the step as an emergency precaution to prevent a worst-case scenario in Japan," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said of the measure that begins Tuesday. Japan has kept its border closed to foreign tourists from all nations.

Israel decided to bar entry to foreigners, and Morocco said it would suspend all incoming flights for two weeks starting Monday.

Despite the global worry, scientists cautioned that it's still unclear whether omicron is more alarming than other versions of a virus that has killed more than 5 million people. And in some parts of the world, authorities were moving in the opposite direction.

Spain imposed a 10-day mandatory quarantine for visitors coming from seven southern African countries, where omicron, a new coronavirus variant, was first been identified.

The mandatory isolation affects travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe who arrive in Spain directly or with stopovers in other countries.

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Foreign Minister Jos Manuel Albares said that more than 200 nationals who were in the region and whose flights have been cancelled will be brought back to Spain on flights that are still operating to parts of Europe.

In Malaysia, officials went ahead with the partial reopening of a bridge connecting it to the city-state of Singapore. And New Zealand announced it will continue plans to reopen internally after months of shutdown, though it is also restricting travel from nine southern African nations.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she didn't anticipate any further restrictions, and bars, restaurants and gyms in Auckland can reopen from late Thursday, ending a coronavirus lockdown that began in August.

"We've come through the past two years of COVID in better shape than nearly anywhere in the world," Ardern said, pointing to low death rates, a growing economy and high vaccination rates.

Story continues below.

Omicron: Biden addresses travel restrictions

Omicron was first reported to the WHO as COVID cases in South Africa suddenly spiked to thousands per day.

Associated Press, Wochit

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, meanwhile, said no data as yet suggest the new variant causes more serious illness than previous COVID-19 variants.

Collins echoed several experts in saying the news should make everyone redouble their efforts to use the tools the world already has, including vaccinations, booster shots and measures such as mask-wearing.

The U.S. is banning travel from South Africa and seven other southern African countries starting Monday. "It's going to give us a period of time to enhance our preparedness," the United States' top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said of the ban on ABC's "This Week."

Fauci says it will take approximately two more weeks to have more definitive information on the transmissibility, severity and other characteristics of omicron, according to a statement from the White House.

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'This time the world showed it is learning': Japan, Israel impose travel restrictions because of omicron variant - USA TODAY

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Ombudsman calls to remove chief Sephardi rabbi from religious court

The ombudsman of the Israeli judiciary is again calling for the possible removal of Chief Sephardi Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef from the Great Rabbinical Court of Appeals in Jerusalem.

Former Supreme Court justice Uri Shoham says that this is due to Yosefs organization of a Rabbinate conference against reforms being pushed by the government that will remove an Orthodox monopoly on Kashrut certification and religious conversions, following a complaint from the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism.

Shoham says the conference, which included rabbis from the state-run Rabbinate, as well as municipal rabbis and rabbinical judges, was in contravention of ethical guidelines that prohibit public servants from intervening in sensitive partisan issues.

In October 2020, Shoham asked the Selection Committee for Rabbinical Judges to consider removing Yosef over controversial comments he made about women, Reform Judaism and the High Court of Justice, also following a complaint from the Israel Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism.

Israeli Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef (center) writes part of a Torah scroll at the Jewish community center in Dubai, on December 19, 2020. (Courtesy of the Dubai Jewish Community Center/via JTA)

Yosef is the son of the late Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the former spiritual leader of the Shas political party, which had vowed to protect Yosef last year, but is now in the Knesset opposition.

Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana, who was criticized at the conference, nonetheless backs Yosefs right to speak freely.

Other religious and right-wing politicians are also speaking out against Shoham and in defense of Yosef.

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Seeking to calm US, Israel said to back off contentious East Jerusalem housing plan - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

In his new book on last Mays chapter of Hamas long-running war against Israel, Gaza Conflict 2021, Middle East scholar Jonathan Schanzer points out this anomaly: Even as the historic conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbors shrinks, with new diplomatic relations expanding monthly, Irans proxy war against Israel is intensifying.

Schanzer, senior vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, details the threats posed to Israel by Hamas on its southern border and by Hezbollah on its northern one.

The estimated 4,350 rockets fired at Israeli civilian centers from the Gaza Strip in May were substantially all funded or fabricated by Iran. Hamas may have as many as 30,000 more, waiting to be used when it chooses. On the Lebanese border in the north, Hezbollah, a de facto unit of the Tehran government, has stockpiled 150,000 rockets, paid for and supplied by Iran which, like Hamas and Hezbollah, is pledged to Israels annihilation.

Another anomaly is that each time Hamas or Hezbollah fires barrages of rockets into Israel and Israel tries to defend itself from them, it is Israel that many American progressives condemn. When it comes to the left, the Jewish state finds itself caught in a vise between gullibility and hatred. The gullibility is old. The hatred is older. Though Schanzer doesnt put it quite this way, there are some on the left who do not know the Gaza Strip from the Isle of Wight, Hamas from Greenpeace. But bank on this: If Israeli civilians are under siege and their government tries to protect them, in these quarters it is Israel that will be denounced.

The May conflict began with the first of thousands of rockets being fired by Hamas at Israeli civilians, and ended with some on the left lamenting that Israel had defensive systems in place to try to intercept them, which kept Israelis from being torn to pieces. This was no one-off. Hamas did the same thing in 2008, 2012 and 2014. The 2021 conflict was the fourth war, Schanzer writes. There will be a fifth.

Of course there will. Each time Hamas tries to shred Israelis, it will be Israel that take a political hit in Europe, in academia and now in progressive circles, where the inanity when it comes to Israel grows more eye-rolling with each conflict.

To be sure, the Israel-as-human-rights-violator narrative has hit some speed bumps in the form of observations by experts who never got The Memo. After the 2014 installment of the conflict, when Israel absorbed 5,000 Hamas rockets, Gen. Martin Dempsey, President Obamas chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. I actually do think that Israel went to extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties, said Dempsey. The Israel Defense Forces (are) not interested in creating civilian casualties. Theyre interested in stopping the shooting of rockets and missiles out of the Gaza Strip and into Israel.

The Gaza-based head of the U.N.s Palestinian refugee relief agency got himself into trouble in May when he praised Israel for the precision with which it managed to target Hamas military sites deliberately embedded within civilian areas, limiting harm to innocents. This displeased Hamas, and he was forced to hightail it out of Gaza for consultations.

A small but strident cohort within the Democratic Party insisted that it was Israels fault for trying to keep its civilians from being set on fire. We oppose our money going to fund militarized policy, occupation and systems of violent oppression and trauma, proclaimed Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush, presumably referring to the Iron Dome interception system, which exists solely to prevent Hamas rockets from murdering innocent people.

The triumph of political fashion over reason is a storyline of the times. But the indulgence of Hamas and the demonization of Israel by progressives is in a head-scratcher category of its own.

Jeff Robbins is a Boston lawyer and former U.S. delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission

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Robbins: The Hamas caucus gets it wrong on Gaza - Boston Herald

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