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Israeli politician who identified as ‘mother of the politically incorrect’ offered Israel’s top diplomatic post in NYC
(JTA) — She once said that she was “proud to be racist” and has called herself the “mother of the politically incorrect.” She once had a video removed from TikTok for inappropriate speech. And she may be Israel’s next top diplomat in New York City.
May Golan, an Israeli government minister and ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has been offered the consul general job, a coveted position that is Israel’s highest post in the largest city in the United States, according to Israeli press reports. Golan would replace Asaf Zamir, a centrist politician who resigned last month in protest of Netanyahu’s proposed judicial overhaul, which would sap much of the power of the Israeli Supreme Court.
Golan, 36, has long been a vociferous advocate for curbing the court’s power and is one of the most outspoken right-wing voices in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset. Speculation that Netanyahu sought to ship Golan to New York to remove a firebrand supporter of the judicial overhaul from the Knesset prompted a denial from his Likud Party.
“The offer was made to Golan because of her excellent public diplomacy skills in English,” the Likud statement said, according to Haaretz. “Contrary to some claims, the offer has nothing to do with Justice Minister Levin,” the architect of the overhaul. Golan does not appear to have commented publicly on the offer as of Wednesday night.
This week, according to her social media, Golan was in New York, where she posted a video criticizing a Holocaust exhibit at the United Nations. She also visited the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, and posted a photo of herself posing next to his headstone.
Golan first made her name as an activist in her home neighborhood of south Tel Aviv, where she was a leader of a movement against the city’s population of African asylum seekers, whom she has repeatedly accused of crimes including rape. She has said the neighborhood is “occupied” by asylum seekers and has sought to pass a law allowing Israel to expel them from the country. (She says her “racist” comment, made about a decade ago, was taken out of context and was meant to demonstrate how her opponents misuse the term. She has also identified as a victim of racism because she is Mizrahi, or a Jew of Middle Eastern descent.)
In 2016, she went on Fox News to advocate against the African asylum seekers she termed “Muslim infiltrators” in Israel and to support the immigration policy of then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“The word ‘racist’ has just lost all meaning to me,” Golan said on Sean Hannity’s talk show. “I can see here what’s going on with Donald Trump. They’re calling him racist just for wanting to protect the borders of his country. Well, this is the same thing in Israel. I think I, and the rest of the people of Israel, have the right to protect their homes, and its borders.”
Golan first ran for Knesset in 2013 with the defunct far-right Otzma L’Yisrael, or Power for Israel, party. She entered Knesset in 2019 as a member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party and became a minister without a specific portfolio in the current right-wing coalition. Last year, when she was a member of the parliamentary opposition, the video platform TikTok removed a video of a speech of hers in which she blamed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decisions for the rape of a 22-year-old woman in Tel Aviv.
In that speech, she called the Supreme Court “the most dangerous dictatorship that there is in this fake democracy that we live in” and added, “Because of you, there won’t be a Jewish state here.”
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Jailed Iranian Peace Laureate Mohammadi Moved to Hospital in Tehran
A picture of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on the wall of the Grand Hotel in central Oslo before the Nobel banquet, in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2023, in Oslo, Norway, Dec. 10, 2023. Photo: NTB/Javad Parsa via REUTERS
Iran’s imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been moved to a hospital in the capital, Tehran, and has been granted a suspension of her sentence on heavy bail, a foundation run by her family said on Sunday.
Mohammadi, 54, won the prize in 2023 while in prison for a campaign to advance women’s rights and abolish the death penalty. She suffered a heart attack two weeks ago.
Her family had called for her to be transferred from Zanjan, northwest of Tehran, where she was serving her sentence and where she had been initially taken to a hospital, so that she could receive better medical care.
She is now at Tehran Pars Hospital for treatment by her own medical team after being transferred by ambulance, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said in a statement.
Mohammadi was sentenced to a new prison term of 7-1/2 years, the foundation said in February, weeks before the US and Israel launched their war against Iran. The Nobel committee at the time called on Tehran to free her immediately.
She had been arrested in December after denouncing the death of a lawyer, Khosrow Alikordi. A prosecutor told reporters that she had made provocative remarks at Alikordi’s memorial ceremony.
The foundation gave no details of the bail arrangements or suspension of her sentence.
“However, a suspension is not enough,” it said. “Narges Mohammadi requires permanent, specialized care. We must ensure she never returns to prison.”
Iran shut down most of the internet in the country in January as authorities suppressed mass protests triggered by economic unease. Rights groups have reported ongoing executions of people involved in the unrest.
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Israel’s Attorney General Calls to Cancel Netanyahu’s Mossad Chief Appointment
Israeli Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara. Photo: Twitter
i24 News – Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara told the High Court of Justice on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to appoint Maj. Gen. Roman Gofman as the next Mossad chief must be canceled.
Baharav-Miara filed her position ahead of a Tuesday hearing on petitions challenging the appointment, telling the court that “substantial flaws” had been found both in the process conducted by the advisory committee and in the conclusions it drew. She said Netanyahu’s decision suffered from “extreme and blatant unreasonableness” and could not stand legally.
At the center of the dispute is the case of Ori Elmakayes, who was a 17-year-old minor when he was activated in 2022 by Division 210, without going through authorized intelligence channels. At the time, the division was commanded by Gofman. Elmakayes was arrested in May 2022 under espionage charges after two officers sent him classified information and told him to post it online as part of an “influence campaign,” despite not being authorized to do so. Gofman initiated this operation. Elmakayes was then held in full detention until July, spending an extended period under electronic monitoring and house arrest before the indictment against him was canceled in late 2023.
Baharav-Miara says Gofman’s involvement in leaking the classified information to the minor, “casts a heavy shadow on Gofman’s integrity and thus on his appointment to head the Mossad.” The attorney general also identified serious procedural failings in the advisory committee’s work. She notes that the majority members signed their opinion before committee chairman and former Supreme Court president Asher Grunis had written his dissent and before two members had reviewed several classified documents significant to the full picture. Grunis concluded that integrity flaws had been found and that it was not appropriate to appoint Gofman as Mossad chief.
The attorney general also says the committee failed to hear directly from Elmakayes or from a relevant senior military intelligence officer, instead relying in part on media interviews.
Netanyahu, who appointed Gofman to head the Mossad starting in early June, for a five-year term, submitted his own response to the court on this past Friday, arguing that the decision fell within his executive authority. The Prime Minister also said that his assessment of the matter was “dozens of times superior” to that of the court, adding that Gofman’s integrity was “found pure,” and describing him as the most qualified candidate.
Other coalition figures responded to the attorney general with sharp criticism, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Ben-Gvir accused Baharav-Miara of fighting the state, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said her position was “one step too far” and vowed to advance legislation splitting the attorney general’s role in the Knesset’s summer session.
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Kuwait’s Army Says It Has Intercepted Hostile Drones Over Airspace
A drone is seen at an underground site at an undisclosed location in Iran, in this handout image obtained on May 28, 2022. Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Kuwait’s army said it had detected and dealt with several hostile drones in the country’s airspace at dawn on Sunday, the latest incident following similar cross‑border drone activity linked to the Iran conflict.
On April 25, Kuwait’s army said two drones launched from Iraq had targeted two northern border posts, causing damage.
Its air defenses also dealt with a wave of Iranian drones on April 8 that targeted vital infrastructure.
While hostilities during the conflict have largely been scaled down since a ceasefire came into effect in April, drones have been launched from Iraq towards Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.