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A 2nd Avenue rally and Tisha B’Av service laments the state of Israeli democracy
(New York Jewish Week) — The thermometer crept close to 100 degrees Thursday afternoon as a crowd of people who mostly had not eaten all day donned woolen prayer shawls outside the Israeli Consulate near the United Nations.
The group was there to mark Tisha B’Av, the saddest day of the Jewish calendar, in a location that symbolized to them yet another calamity to befall the Jews: this time, the Israeli parliament’s passage earlier this week of legislation restricting the judiciary’s ability to strike down laws.
The legislation has deeply divided Israel since it was proposed six months ago. Leaders of the right-wing Israeli government say the changes are needed to rein in a judiciary that is out of step with Israeli voters. A massive protest movement argues that the changes are weakening the country’s democracy and putting vulnerable populations at risk. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who visited New York City last week, has warned that the tensions could yield “a real civil war.”
The parallels between this moment in Israeli politics and Tisha B’Av were drawn throughout the rally, which mixed prayer and protest.
“We are familiar with the teaching that says that our Temple was destroyed and our sovereignty in the land ended because of sinat chinam, because of baseless hatred, not from our enemies toward us, but from each of us towards our fellow, our supposed ally,” one speaker told the assembled crowd.
Signs at a New York City Tisha B’Av protest against the Israeli government’s judiciary changes connected the calamities commemorated on the day of mourning with the current government of Israel, July 27, 2023. (Jackie Hajdenberg)
“1. Nebuchadnezzar. 2. Titus. 3. Netanyahu,” one man’s sign said, adding the current prime minister’s name to the pair of leaders who presided over Jerusalem when the ancient Jewish temples were destroyed.
The prayer service marked the first time that the protest movement of Israelis abroad, UnXeptable, had partnered with local synagogues and organizations outside of a progressive coalition. Among the co-sponsors of the event were the Marlene Meyerson JCC, the Jewish Theological Seminary and Park Avenue Synagogue.
“Being an American Jew, our community hasn’t really supported these protests enough, so I thought it was important to come,” Tzvi Mackson told the New York Jewish Week. “Also Tisha B’Av has this amazing resonance on a day like this and with this cause, so it seemed like the perfect day to come despite the heat and everything else.”
New York Jews, including Park Avenue Synagogue Senior Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, wearing tefillin at center left, participate in a Tisha B’Av prayer service and protest outside the Israeli Consulate in New York City, July 27, 2023. (Jackie Hajdenberg)
Mackson and his wife, Rachel Landsberg, said they had been inspired to attend after hearing Esther Sperber, an Israeli American architect who has been a protest leader, speak at an earlier rally. Both had been fasting since sundown Tuesday.
“I’m an observant Jew, and it was very meaningful to be here in front of the consulate being visibly observant and really thinking about what we mourn,” Landsberg said.
Sperber was one of the speakers at the rally. “We are here during a severe heat wave, with chances of thunderstorms, while fasting, on Tisha B’Av, because this is very important,” she said, adding, “We know these are not only liberal democratic values, but these are also our Jewish values.”
Israelis held fresh protests in Tel Aviv Thursday night after the conclusion of the holiday there. Sperber said that she believed the movement would ultimately prevail, despite this week’s setback.
“Along with my anger, I also have hope,” she said. “While we lost this particular battle, and unreasonable things may soon happen, we will not lose this fight.”
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The post A 2nd Avenue rally and Tisha B’Av service laments the state of Israeli democracy appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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