The Times of Israel is liveblogging Thursday’s events as they happen.
Likud ministers taking part in protest outside court in Prime Minster’s Office leak case At least two Likud ministers are seen taking part in protests outside a Tel Aviv court where two suspects in the Prime Minister’s Office leak scandal are due to be charged. Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi join hundreds rallying in support of Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and another suspect whose name has not been released for publication. Karhi posts a video of himself addressing the crowd, saying that the IDF soldier who leaked the information to Feldstein was acting correctly and the judicial system is acting immorally. “Last Sabbath we read about the laws of Sodom, which adopted warped values of morality and justice. I call on you not to judge those who acted responsibly to safeguard Israel’s security according to the laws of Sodom,” he says.
Former justice minister Ayelet Shaked is barred from entering Australia, where she was slated to address a conference organized by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council. Shaked was denied a visa because she might “incite discord,” The Australian reports — noting that the act used to prevent her entry stipulates that people may be barred if it is believed that they may “vilify a segment of the Australian community, or incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community.” Speaking with the paper, Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council chief Colin Rubenstein condemns the visa ban as “a disgraceful act of hostility towards a democratic ally.” “It is extraordinary that a government that refuses to take any meaningful action against an Iranian ambassador who effectively calls for genocide would act so undiplomatically towards a friend,” he says. “The Australian Government’s decision to refuse a visa to Ayelet Shaked is both baffling and deeply offensive,” tweets Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia. “Ayelet is a former Justice Minister in the most diverse and centrist Israeli government in history, which included an Israeli Arab party and minister. This refusal is particularly perplexing given that this very same government granted her a visa less than two years ago,” he writes. “How is it conceivable that our government has granted a visa to a Palestinian man from Gaza who reportedly has had close family connections and personal interactions with terrorist organizations, yet refuses entry to a former government minister of a democratic nation and one of our Australia’s friends?” Speaking with Channel 12, Shaked slams what she describes as Australia’s “extreme anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian government, part of which is even antisemitic, which for political reasons and because I oppose a Palestinian state, does not allow me to attend a strategic dialogue between Israel and Australia.” “These are dark days for democracy,” she states. Shaked’s visa ban comes on the heels of an incident in Sydney in which a car was burned and dozens of others were defaced with anti-Israeli graffiti. In an overnight tweet, the Israeli embassy declared that it was “appalled by the antisemitic attack” and that words were “no longer enough.”
Hundreds protest outside courthouse in support of suspects in Prime Minister’s Office leak case Hundreds of people gather outside the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court in support of the suspects in the Prime Minister’s Office leak scandal. Eli Feldstein, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and another suspect whose name has not been released for publication are expected to be charged today. The supporters wave signs reading “Stop the persecution,” and chant “Eli is a hero.” One man carries a sign reading “Leftist judiciary stop abusing our soldiers, go to Gaza.” The two are suspected of transferring classified information to harm the state, collecting classified material to harm the state, and conspiring to commit a crime, among other charges. Feldstein is suspected of leaking a classified document to the German newspaper Bild in order to change the public discourse over the fate of the Israeli hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza; have Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar blamed for the impasse in hostage release negotiations; and imply that protests demanding the release the hostages were playing into Hamas’s hands.
President Isaac Herzog warns that the escalating political discourse in Israel risks tearing the country apart. Speaking at the Higher Education Conference in Herzliya, Herzog blasts “disparaging and humiliating treatment toward hostage families.” Families of hostages held in Gaza have been threatened online, harassed verbally, and pushed around by police at demonstrations. The president also pans “accusing the head of the Shin Bet and the IDF Chief of Staff of treason and an attempted coup, accusing the Attorney General of being an enemy of the state that is trying to kill us, and threats of firing all day long.” On Sunday, members of the government attacked Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara for perceived leniency toward anti-government protesters. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi called for her to be fired while invoking principles of Jewish law associated with attempted murder to justify his position. Herzog also lambasted anti-Netanyahu demonstrators for firing flares at the prime minister’s home, and for accusing him of treason. “The physical and verbal violence – towards the Attorney General, towards the head of the Shin Bet, towards the IDF Chief of Staff, towards the Prime Minister – is simply horrifying,” laments Herzog. “What the hell is happening to us?” he asks. “Does this make sense? Haven’t we suffered enough? Haven’t we already understood that this harms the country’s security?” “Don’t we understand that this is how you break up a country?” he continues, calling the incidents “absolute madness” that must be stopped. “There are those who sacrifice themselves for the country, and pay with their lives every day,” says Herzog. “And there are those who are destroying the country, and I pledge that I will fight them with all my might.” “I warn you – you are destroying the country. This madness must be stopped now.”
Halevi orders probe into IDF ‘operational discipline’ after civilian researcher was allowed into Lebanon where he was killed IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi appoints a team of experts to probe operational discipline across the military following the incident in which a 71-year-old Israeli civilian was killed along with a soldier during a gun battle with Hezbollah operatives, after entering southern Lebanon accompanied by a senior IDF officer but without the required army approvals. Halevi appoints Maj. Gen. Moti Baruch (reserves) to lead the probe, which will “formulate a detailed situational picture regarding the maintenance of operational discipline, the orders and procedures of the army, the rules of conduct and the norms used in army units on the two main combat fronts in the north and south,” the IDF says. The probe will start today and the team will present its findings to Halevi within two weeks, the statement says. Baruch’s probe in in addition to a military investigation into the incident led by the chief of the IDF Northern Command Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin and a separate probe by military police. According to an initial IDF probe, the chief of staff of the Golani Brigade, Col. Yoav Yarom, allowed Israeli researcher Zeev Erlich, 71, to enter the western sector of southern Lebanon to examine an archaeological site — an ancient fortress — where they were ambushed by Hezbollah operatives. Sgt. Gur Kehati, 20, of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, was also killed in the incident.
War monitor says 68 pro-Iran fighters killed in reported Israel strikes on Syria’s Palmyra Sixty-eight pro-Iran fighters were killed in Israeli airstrikes yesterday on the Syrian city of Palmyra, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor says. Those killed in the strikes included 42 fighters from pro-Iran Syrian groups, 26 foreign fighters, most of them from the Iraqi Al-Nujaba movement, which is supported by Iran’s IRGC, and four from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the monitor says. There was no immediate confirmation of the figures. Yesterday, Syrian state news agency SANA reported that 36 people had been killed and 50 injured without identifying the dead. The Israeli military declined to comment when asked about the attack. SOHR, run by a single person, has regularly been accused by Syrian war analysts of false reporting and inflating casualty numbers as well as inventing them wholesale.