Netanyahu orders call-up of all reserve Border Police
Prime Minister Netanyahu is briefed about the terror attack in Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu orders police to call up all reservist Border Police units, in a major step that likely reflects fears of a further escalation.
Netanyahu tells the IDF to mobilize more units to confront terror attacks, after two deadly incidents today.
The prime minister calls on citizens to heed the instructions of security forces.
Minister says Israel caught off guard by Iran alliances
Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter says Israel has been caught off guard by Iran’s recent activities.
“I admit we’ve all been surprised” by Iran’s new alliances, says Dichter, the former head of the Shin Bet security agency and a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party.
Dichter cites Iran’s “alliance with China, agreements with the Saudis, agreements soon with the Gulf states.”
“This is a new story,” he says in an interview with Channel 12 news.
Iranian and Saudi diplomats met in Beijing yesterday, after the two rival Middle Eastern powers announced a Beijing-brokered agreement to restore relations last month, seven years after they severed ties. Israel has long sought relations with Saudi Arabia.
Earlier today, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi in a phone call that “the Islamic world should be united against Israel’s attacks in Palestine.” The stance represents an apparent shift for Erdogan, who had been leading a policy over the past year that has seen Turkey warm its ties with Israel.
Iran also supports the Hamas, Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh arrived in Beirut for what Hamas sources called a “private visit” this week. Media reports said he was meeting with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Hamas launched volleys of rockets at Israel this week from both Gaza and Lebanon.
Dichter also says that if there had been fatalities at the Temple Mount this week, “we’d have been in a completely different situation.” Images of Israeli police fighting with Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount were viewed widely in the Arab world this week, sparking outrage.
Dichter says it will be hard to ensure calm for Jews at the Western Wall next week. The wall is the holiest site for Jews where they are allowed to openly pray and is a part of the Temple Mount, located beneath the esplanade that houses Al-Aqsa.
Next week is the Priestly Blessing ceremony, known in Hebrew as the Birkat Hacohanim, which sees thousands pray at the Western Wall. The ceremony happens twice a year, including during this week’s Passover holiday.
Liberman: ‘Insulting’ gov’t response to rockets show it’s ‘scared and deterred’
Yisrael Beytenu chair Avigdor Liberman tells Channel 12 that the military response approved last night by the government to rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon was an “insulting… bad joke.”
Liberman is a bitter opponent of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and has come out against just about every decision he has made over the past several years.
“Our response was an insult. Truly a bad joke,” he tells Channel 12. “Nobody [behind the rockets from Lebanon] was so much as scratched — not those who gave the order to fire on the state of Israel and not those who carried out the fire. The instruction was not to so much as scratch anyone. And the same applies to Gaza.”
“They say, it’s the middle of a festival. Ramadan. Well, we’re in the middle of a festival too,” Liberman says, referring to Passover.
“In the middle of [our] holiday they fired on the north, they fired on the south, they murdered sisters. And nothing [in terms of an effective Israeli response].”
He claims the Netanyahu government is “scared” and has been “deterred” by fear of escalating the conflict.
“Our deterrence against [Hezbollah chief Hassan] Nasrallah has been completely eroded.”
Egypt calls for ‘maximum restraint’ amid escalation sparked by ‘Israeli storming of Al-Aqsa’
Egypt says it is “greatly concerned” by the security escalation over the past 48 hours since Israeli police “stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque and attacked worshippers.”
Israel maintains that its troops were forced to enter the mosque early Tuesday after Palestinians barricaded themselves inside and stockpiled weapons to use against police and civilians.
“All parties must exercise maximum restraint and respond [responsibly] to efforts to restore calm in order to spare the region more [violence],” Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid says.
1 comment:
We need a Leader like BiBi in the USA, perhaps 2024? Prayers for Israel to prevail!
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