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☆ King Abdullah meets Israeli PM Netanyahu in surprise Jordan visit -royal court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Suleiman Al-Khalidi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

AMMAN, Jan 24 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise trip to Jordan on Tuesday for talks with King Abdullah, who the royal court said underlined the need for Israel to respect the status quo of the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Far-right Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir toured the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews revere as the Temple Mount, under heavy security this month. It is hopeful that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden will pressure Israel to preserve the status quo in the Al-Aqsa mosque, whose upkeep is paid for by Jordan. Officials told Reuters that King Abdullah is expected to visit Washington at the end of January. Blinken underscored the importance of preserving the historic status quo at the site, according to a statement by the State Department.

New hardline ministers like Itamar Ben-Gvir, a settler from Hebron, will be in charge of police as national security minister, while Bezalel Smotrich, another far-right politician, will have wide control over policy in the West Bank. "Fatah sons, Hamas sons, sons of the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front are working together within unprecedented resistance formations," Maamar said. Under Israeli policies designed to create economic security incentives, 20,000 Gazans are allowed to cross into Israel for work. For its part, Palestinian Authority officials say Hamas is funding some armed cells in the West Bank, in part to weaken the PA, and Israeli officials say they are also closely watching Hamas' moves in the West Bank. Israel should "weaken the Hamas militarily as much as possible" while helping to improve conditions for Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank to reduce the potential for conflict, Ben-Barak said.

☆ Israel’s Ben-Gvir Orders Police to Remove Palestinian Flags From Public Spaces
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Dov Lieber | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

‘We will fight against terrorism and the encouragement of terrorism with all our might,’ said Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. TEL AVIV—Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has ordered the police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces, the latest in a series of measures by the country’s new government that threatens to escalate tensions with Palestinians. Palestinian flags aren’t illegal in Israel, but Israeli security forces have the right to remove them from public spaces if deemed a danger to public order. Mr. Ben-Gvir’s directive against a rallying symbol for many Palestinians comes during a period of deadly violence in the occupied West Bank.

☆ Israel’s Ben-Gvir Orders Police to Remove Palestinian Flags From Public Space
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Dov Lieber | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

‘We will fight against terrorism and the encouragement of terrorism with all our might,’ said Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. TEL AVIV—Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has ordered the police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces, the latest in a series of harsh measures by the country’s new right-wing government targeting the Palestinians that threaten to escalate tensions. Palestinian flags aren’t illegal in Israel, but Israeli security forces have the right to remove them from public spaces if deemed a danger to public order. Mr. Ben-Gvir’s directive against a rallying symbol for many Palestinians indicates the ruling coalition’s hard-line leanings as it deals with a period of deadly violence between the two sides.

☆ Israel's Ben-Gvir tells police to remove Palestinian flags from public space
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

JERUSALEM, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Israel's new far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Sunday that he instructed police to remove Palestinian flags from public spaces. Israeli law does not outlaw Palestinian flags but police and soldiers have the right to remove them in cases where they deem there is a threat to public order. Ben-Gvir, in a statement, said that waving the Palestinian flag is an act in support of terrorism. "It cannot be that lawbreakers wave terrorist flags, incite and encourage terrorism, so I ordered the removal of flags supporting terrorism from the public space and to stop the incitement against Israel," Ben-Gvir said. They have long debated their place in Israel's politics, balancing their Palestinian heritage with their Israeli citizenship, with many identifying as or with the Palestinians.

☆ Israeli Far-Right Leader Ben-Gvir Visits Flashpoint Jerusalem Site
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Aaron Boxerman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Itamar Ben-Gvir is national security minister in a coalition government led by Israel’s new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. JERUSALEM—Israeli far-right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir visited early Tuesday Jerusalem’s holiest site in his first week as a minister, raising tensions with the Palestinians who are concerned about the new government expanding Israeli control over the contested hilltop compound. “No Israeli government in which I am a member will surrender to a vile group of murderers,” said Mr. Ben-Gvir, after the Palestinian militant group Hamas warned it would consider his visit “a great aggression.”

☆ Israel's Ben-Gvir visits contested Jerusalem holy site, Palestinians protest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Dan Williams | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"The Temple Mount is open to all," Ben-Gvir said on Twitter, using the Jewish name for the site. The Palestinian foreign ministry said it “strongly condemns the storming of Al-Aqsa mosque by the extremist minister Ben-Gvir and views it as unprecedented provocation and a dangerous escalation of the conflict". "If Hamas thinks that it can deter me with threats, it should understand that times have changed," Ben-Gvir said on Twitter. But Netanyahu, now in his sixth term as premier, has pledged to preserve the "status quo" around holy sites. The Al-Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, is Islam's third-holiest site.

☆ UAE, China ask UN Security Council to meet over Al Aqsa mosque - diplomats
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 3 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates and China have asked the U.N. Security Council to meet publicly, likely on Thursday, over recent developments at Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, diplomats said on Tuesday. Israel's new far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir briefly visited Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem on Tuesday, a site also revered by Jews, angering the Palestinians and drawing a slew of condemnations. Reporting by Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Kanishka SinghOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Factbox: Top ministers in Israel's new religious-nationalist cabinet
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

JERUSALEM, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu has unveiled his new government that includes religious and nationalist parties. In the past, he has agitated against Israel's Arab minority citizens, condemned LGBT activists and called the justice system too liberal. NATIONAL SECURITY MINISTER ITAMAR BEN-GVIRA West Bank settler who heads the far-right Jewish Power party, Ben-Gvir secured an expanded cabinet ministry in charge of police. His appointment to the new Netanyahu government has been challenged in Israel's Supreme Court given his conviction for tax fraud - without prison time - last year. Shas, along with another ultra-Orthodox party, United Torah Judaism, has long raised concerns among secular liberals by demanding welfare benefits and military draft exemptions for its constituents.

☆ Netanyahu government makes West Bank settlement expansion top priority
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Palestinian protesters argue with Israeli soldiers during a demonstration against Israeli settlements near Nablus in the West Bank. Nasser Ishtayeh / Sipa USA via APIsrael captured the West Bank in 1967 along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek the West Bank as the heartland of a future independent state. Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. Several of Netanyahu’s key allies, including most of the Religious Zionism party, are ultranationalist West Bank settlers.

☆ Israel's Netanyahu closer to hard-right government with new legislation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JERUSALEM, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu moved one step further on Tuesday toward establishing a government after parliament approved divisive legislation agreed with his far-right coalition partners. A second amendment will allow Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, to serve as a minister despite a conviction for tax fraud. Deri is expected to serve as finance minister in two years, in a rotation deal with Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich. But soon after the legislation was passed, Israel's Supreme Court said it would hear an appeal against Deri's appointment by a group of scientists, academics and former diplomats called "Democracy's Bastion." In response, Netanyahu has repeatedly said that he will safeguard civil rights and will not allow any harm to the country's Arab minority or to the LGBTQ community.

☆ Blinken vows US support for Israel despite unease over govt
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. will not shrink from its unwavering support for Israel despite stark differences with Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu and concerns the Biden administration may have about potential members of his incoming right-wing government. Blinken said the Biden administration would engage with Netanyahu’s government based on its policies and not on personalities, including potential senior Cabinet ministers who have expressed vehement anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab views in the past. He said those would be detrimental to Israel’s long-term security or future as a Jewish democratic state. We will hold it to the mutual standards we have established in our relationship over the past seven decades,” Blinken said. He lauded the recent completion of a maritime border accord between Israel and Lebanon.

NASSAU, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The Bahamas would send troops or police to Haiti as part of a peacekeeping force if asked to do so by the United Nations or the Caribbean Community, a Bahamian government minister said on Tuesday, as Haiti's humanitarian crisis continues to worsen. read more"If Caricom determines to send troops in, Caricom will no doubt determine how that troop make-up will be, which could include Bahamian troops," National Security Minister Wayne Munroe told reporters. Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis assumes the chairmanship of 15-member regional group Caricom in January. Such an intervention would be in the interests of The Bahamas, Munroe said, because the Royal Bahamas Defence Force already does extensive work to patrol its territorial waters for Haitian migrants. Haitians frequently travel through Bahamian waters in hopes of reaching the United States.

☆ Fiona bears down on northeast Canada as big, powerful storm
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-24 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

A youth rides his bycicle at the seaside in Nagua, Dominican Republic, on September 19, 2022, as Hurricane Fiona passes through the country. Fiona, which started the day as Category 4 storm but weakened to Category 2 strength late Friday, was forecast to make landfall in Nova Scotia early Saturday. The Canadian Hurricane Centre issued a hurricane watch over extensive coastal expanses of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Fiona should reach the area as a "large and powerful post-tropical cyclone with hurricane-force winds." It was centered about 140 miles (220 kilometers) southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia, heading north at 46 mph (74 kph).

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