He used the same 107-year-old Torah that his father used, which has long been in the family.
Former Labor Party leader and Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog was sworn in as Israel’s 11th president on Wednesday, saying he would work to repair divisions within Israeli society.
The ceremony took place at the Knesset in Jerusalem and marked the end of Reuven Rivlin’s seven-year term.https://64e174582a4ef4e1d487796461fe6dc5.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html
The 60-year-old son of the sixth president of Israel, Chaim Herzog, also served as the country’s ambassador to the United Nations.
He was sworn in using the same 107-year-old Torah that his father used, which has long been in the family.
By: AP and TOI Staff – Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
In reversal, Iranian government acknowledges damage to Karaj facility, says strike was meant to thwart Vienna talks on reviving nuclear deal
Iran on Tuesday accused Israel of a sabotage attack in June that reportedly targeted a nuclear facility near Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.
According to the report, cabinet spokesman Ali Rabiei said the alleged attack sought to thwart ongoing talks in Vienna on resurrecting Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers. IRNA quoted Rabiei as saying such actions only make Iran stronger.
“The Zionist regime carried out this action to signal it can stop Iran and to say [to world powers] that there is no need to talk with Iran,” said Rabiei. “But whenever sabotage has happened, our strength has increased.”
By: Emanuel Fabian – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
Home Front Command delegation of 10 reservists flies to Miami; Israel’s United Hatzalah sends psychological assistance team; Bennett speaks to governor and offers help
The Israel Defense Forces sent a search and rescue delegation to Florida to assist with rescue efforts following the Surfside residential building collapse that left at least four dead and nearly 160 still missing.
The team of Home Front Command soldiers headed to Florida following a series of talks over the weekend between Israeli defense officials and officials in Miami, the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Saturday night.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz said the move was approved in coordination with the Foreign Ministry.
By: Amy Spiro – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
In his first meeting with a foreign leader since becoming PM, Bennett thanks visiting President Hernández for ‘having done a brave and justified deed for the State of Israel’
Honduras officially moved its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem on Thursday in the presence of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and visiting Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.
“Mr. President, you are a true friend of Israel,” Bennett told Hernández shortly before the inauguration ceremony at the Technological Park in the Malha neighborhood of Jerusalem. “The Jewish people have a long memory, and you will be recorded in the pages of history as having done a brave and justified deed for the State of Israel.”
Thursday’s ceremony made Honduras the fourth country to open an embassy in Jerusalem, following the United States, Guatemala and Kosovo.
For the first time in twelve years, Benjamin Netanyahu is no longer prime minister of Israel. Netanyahu’s term as prime minister ended Sunday after Israel’s parliament approved a new government formed by Yamina leader Naftali Bennett and Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid.
On Monday, the new government posed for the traditional picture with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
Bennett’s supporters cheered after the announcement, then he exchanged a brief handshake with Netanyahu before taking the oath of office as the new prime minister.
JERUSALEM, Israel – On Sunday, Israel’s parliament will vote on the formation of a government that would end Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year rule as prime minister.
Netanyahu’s political opponents wanted the vote to happen this week, but setting it at a later date gives the embattled prime minister more time to try to stop the government from forming.
The so-called “change coalition” consists of politicians from the right, left, and center who have many ideological differences but are united in their desire to oust Netanyahu from office. Netanyahu’s goal is to peel any right-wing defectors away from the coalition, forcing his opponents to lose their razor-thin parliamentary majority and destroying the coalition.
JERUSALEM, Israel – After marathon negotiations, Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennett succeeded in forming a coalition government at the 11th hour Wednesday night. It could mean the end of the 12-year rule of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Members of the new coalition called it a new beginning.
“This government will work for all the citizens of Israel, those that voted for it and those that didn’t. It will do everything to unite Israeli society,” Lapid, head of the centrist Yesh Atid Party, said.
Labor Party leader Merav Michaeli said Israel “made history.”
JERUSALEM, Israel – Opposition leader Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid Party hopes to present a new coalition government to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin before his June 2nd deadline.
If successful, it would be the first Israeli government in more than ten years without Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.
Lapid has a complicated task and is trying to form a coalition with parties from the left, right, and center along with a first – an Arab Islamist party. They have one common denominator: their opposition to Netanyahu.
Osama al-Zebda, 33, was an engineer for the militant group.
A U.S. national and his father who were working for Hamas as engineers, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza earlier this month, a source from the group confirmed to ABC News.
Osama al-Zebda, 33, was born in the U.S. while his father, Jamal al-Zebda, 64, studied at the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech, according to the Hamas source. Osama lived in the U.S. for five years, his wife told ABC News. The father and son moved back to Gaza after living for a few years in the United Arab Emirates.
“We are aware of reports of a U.S. citizen killed in Gaza,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told ABC News. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”
As the current firepower of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad demonstrates, Gaza’s factions have not been resting on their laurels in recent years, exploiting a period of quiet to create a domestic industry of weapons production.
Almost the minute Israel fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, the area became a hotbed of terror. Some 18 months later, after Hamas seized the territory in a violent coup from its internal Palestinian rival, Fatah, the Islamist-ruled enclave had turned into a heavily armed fortress, which hosts a terrorist army that is funded and assisted by Iran.
On Thursday night local time, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Twitter that “air and ground” troops were striking targets in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas “will pay a heavy price” for its barrage of rockets on the Jewish state, nearly 2,000 and counting.