Negotiations over the judicial reform reached a new obstacle this week due to an internal rift within the Opposition, Israel Hayom has learned. 

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According to officials, Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid and Benny Gantz's State Party disagreed over their demands. 

Yesh Atid said any compromise was off the table until an Opposition representative was appointed to the judicial selection committee and demanded that Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the main driving force behind the legislation, convene the committee no later than June. 

Benny Gantz's State Party, however, did not insist on the latter demand and even argued that it was impossible to compel the justice minister to do so. The negotiating team of President Isaac Herzog, who is leading the talks, is said to also have been taken aback by Yesh Atid's demand and stressed that it was indeed not possible to interfere in the work of the justice minister in such a manner. 

Nevertheless, Yesh Atid officials insisted on the matter and even threatened to withdraw from the talks lest both demands are met, saying they feared Levin might not convene the judicial committee in the near future at all, hindering its work. 

The State Party, in turn, has maintained the strategy of dragging out the time to push the Coalition to reach the legal deadline by which they would be obligated to appoint Knesset representatives to the committee – based on the current format – making it difficult to make any changes to the mechanism. 

Party officials said they were satisfied with the achievement of getting an Opposition representative appointed to the committee and did not wish to engage in requirements that were "irrelevant." 

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Defense Minister Benny Gantz visited the United States Navy's Fifth Fleet on Thursday morning after arriving in Bahrain on a surprising visit the day before. He was accompanied by commander of the Fifth Fleet Vice Admiral Charles (Brad) Cooper II, and the commander of the Israeli Navy Vice Admiral David Saar Salama.

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"In the past year, partially due to the Abraham Accords and Israel move to CENTCOM, cooperation between the IDF and the Fifth Fleet has grown, as have the defense systems," Gantz said, calling the event "a significant milestone."

"It is strategic security need of utmost importance in the face of growing challenges in the maritime area in particular, and the region in general. Israel will continue to strengthen ties with the US and other countries in the region. We are also ready to assist and collaborate operationally in order to ensure stability and here too, our friendship can exists and thrive safely, and we too will be better protected from various challenges."

Gantz arrived in Bahrain to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Gulf nation on security matters, and is expected to meet with Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa and other Bahraini leaders.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett paid a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates, the first official visit to the country by an Israeli leader since the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in 2020.

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Defense Minister Benny Gantz has signed an order for the seizure of 2.6 million shekels ($836,168) in cryptocurrency from a currency exchange firm with ties to the Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, Israel Hayom has learned.

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According to defense officials, the seizure was one of the largest in recent years and dealt a significant blow to the currency exchange.

The move follows a similar order issued by Gantz for the seizure of crypto wallets belonging to the Gazan family that runs the currency exchange just months ago. According to the Defense Ministry, the exchange ramped up its activity in May 2019, after the Israel Defense Forces assassinated Hamed Ahmed Khudari, a Gazan terrorist responsible for transferring Iranian funds to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza.

The terror-financing network was exposed in a joint operation involving IDF Intelligence, the National Headquarters on Terrorist Economic Counter-Terrorism at the Defense Ministry, the cybercrimes department of the Israel Police's Lahav 443 Major Crimes Unit, and the State Attorney's Office's Cyber Unit.

Hamas operates a network of currency exchanges that engage in the import of good as well as funds to the coastal enclave to finance its military operations. The currency exchange targeted with the order is known to transfer millions of dollars to the terrorist group each year and as such has been designated a terrorist organization by the State of Israel.

After signing the order, Gantz said, "We will continue to pursue terrorist funds. The blow to Hamas and the terrorist organization's ability to circumvent the traditional paths for transferring funds, through digital currency, is an important tool in the developing security system. I congratulate all those involved, led by the National Headquarters on Terrorist Economic Counter-Terrorism, on the important work and the creative action."

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Israeli policies risk triggering an "explosion of violence" in the West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Palestinian media reported.

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The Palestinian leader told his Russian counterpart that Israeli settlements, home demolitions and "settler terrorism" were among factors building up anger and resentment among Palestinians in the West Bank, the Wafa news agency said.

"The continuation of these Israeli measures will lead to an explosion of the situation," Wafa said Abbas told Putin.

Russia is a member of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators, along with the United Nations, the United States and European Union.

Abbas spoke with Putin two days after meeting with Defense Minister Benny Gantz at his home.

It was the first official visit to Israel by Abbas since 2010. Months earlier, Gantz had visited Abbas in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority.

i24NEWS contributed to this report. 

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IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi claims to anyone who will listen that the Israel Defense Forces' number one priority is getting the military ready for the next war. However, it turns out that the IDF fails to fulfill even the most minimal obligations set forth by the law in order to prove such readiness.

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A 2008 reserve service law requires the military to annually update the government – via the defense minister – about the Reserves' preparedness, as well as report it to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. However, it turns out that the IDF has been neglecting this duty since 2018.

The objective of the law is to define the structure of the reserve forces and its capability and objectives as well as provide a framework for a call for reserve service and the rights and duties of reserve soldiers. It also declares that the Reserves are an inseparable part of IDF and constitute a central pillar on which IDF relies for purposes of state security.

As mentioned above, it also obligates the IDF to report to present the government at least once a year with an annual review of the reserve forces.

Therefore, as it turns out, the IDF has failed to uphold the law. No readiness reports have been submitted in the last three years, while Israel had three defense ministers: Benjamin Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett, and Benny Gantz – all of whom failed to enforce the matter.

A senior political figure described the situation as "scandalous," and blamed the government for the failure.

"The government is in charge of the IDF, and therefore, it's the government's duty to obtain a credible picture. The Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee oversees the military, and must keep up to date with the situation," he said.

The IDF unofficially said that the reason it did not present the reserves preparedness report, as required by law, stemmed from the large number of election campaigns that took place in the last two years, as well as due to a lack of a functioning government.
The senior political official described the claim as "ridiculous and impertinent," saying that "the law does not exclude provisional governments and times of elections, because a war can break out at any time. The IDF had an obligation to formulate an orderly report and present it via the defense minister. This it failed to do."

Given such conduct on behalf of the IDF, there are rising suspicions that the military in general, and the reserve forces in particular, might not be prepared for war.

Following criticism on the matter, the military said in a statement, "The defense minister [Gantz], the chief of staff and the defense establishment consider the preparedness of the reserve force to be of paramount importance."

It said, "the [defense] minister has recently been presented a report, and it will soon be presented to a ministerial reserves committee that was established and will convene for the first time in four years in January, in which all issues will be presented, including strengthening the reserve forces.

"The matter of the reserve forces' readiness was presented several times last year as part of Security Cabinet and Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee discussions, the latest of which took place last week. Nevertheless, the defense minister will ensure that a comprehensive report is presented to the government annually, as required by law."

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Right-wing groups expressed outrage Wednesday after Defense Minister Benny Gantz compared the Palestinian Authority's perceived takeover of land in Judea and Samaria to Israeli land grabs.

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The written statement by Gantz was issued as an official reply to a parliamentary query submitted by Likud MK Keti Shitrit, requesting clarification of the Defense Ministry's response to the takeover of open spaces in Judea and Samaria.

In his response, the defense minister noted "attempts to trespass and to commandeer land in Judea and Samaria by both Palestinians and Israelis" usually manifested by illegal construction and unauthorized agricultural activity. He also pointed to the renewal of the process of approval of construction permits for the Palestinian sector in Area C as the solution to the problem.

Avichai Boaron, chairman of the right-wing Zion and Jerusalem Forum, lambasted the move.

"The defense establishment led by Benny Gantz turns a blind eye to a ticking bomb. It is similar to assumptions made before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but this time, the failure of the assumption will end in a densely populated Palestinian state … When we wake up, it will be too late, and no one will be able to turn back the time."

Gantz was also criticized by Regavim, a group dedicated to the protection of Israel's national lands and resources, who said he was "handing Palestinians a state on a silver platter."

"This document indicates that the current defense minister is completely clueless regarding the strategic issues involved. This is nothing less than a revisited 'Yom Kippur War-style' implosion for the Defense Ministry," Regavim Director-General Meir Deutsch said.

"The defense minister has compared a situation described by the Palestinian Authority itself as its primary objective for the past decade – establishing a Palestinian state in Area C – this enormous, organized, systematic program of annexation to illegal construction in the Jewish sector in Judea and Samaria, the sum total of which amounts to some 3000 structures all told, in the entire territory."

Meanwhile, the Palestinian "objective is funded by European support in the hundreds of millions of dollars each year that has enabled the Palestinian Authority to pave dozens of kilometers of roads, put up thousands of electricity poles, build hundreds of public structures, schools ,and religious institutions in illegal outposts, supports agricultural work that has already taken over hundreds of thousands of dunams of Israeli state land, and orchestrate the construction of some 3500 illegal structures each year.

"The defense minister's utter lack of understanding of this matter is an existential threat to the State of Israel," Deutsch said.

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Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh urged the terror group on Thursday to fight against the normalization agreements Israel has established with neighboring states.

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Last year's Abraham Accords brought about a series of agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and others, where states agreed to establish full diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Haniyeh spoke out against the deals during a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, and called to take action to undermine them.

"We must have an integrated plan to bring down normalization, which, unfortunately, has taken the character of military and security alliances with some countries," he said, according to a Hamas press release.

In November, Defense Minister Benny Gantz signed a memorandum with Morocco's defense chief, which would establish a foundation for security cooperation between the two states.

His visit marked the first official trip by an Israeli defense chief to the country – a visit made possible after Morocco normalized ties with Israel through a deal that followed the Abraham Accords.

Haniyeh outlined three objectives for the Islamist faction's agenda – focusing on the status of Jerusalem, supporting what Hamas refers to as Palestinian "resistance," and fighting against normalization agreements with Israel.

During his speech, the chairman also alleged that the withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan would lead to additional retreats, and said the incident would weaken Israel.

This article was first published by i24NEWS.

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The Israel Defense Forces plans to establish a special team that will examine the recruitment process and conditions of service for IDF soldiers who serve outside the IDF framework, Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi decided Wednesday.

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The move comes as a response to a testimony by Gilboa Prison Warden Freddy Ben Shitrit, who alleged that female IDF soldiers used to be "pimped out" to Palestinian prisoners in order to keep them happy.

Ben Shitrit made his statements to acommission of inquiry probing a prison break in which six security prisoners broke out of Gilboa Prison in northern Israel.

The IDF said in a statement it will "examine the unitary atmosphere in organizations and will present the conclusions and recommendations in order to ensure appropriate conditions and a safe service environment that respects all soldiers … in light of the IDF's responsibility towards security service candidates, who enlist in the IDF or other security organization."

A previous investigation into the claims in 2018 was closed due to a lack of evidence.

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One hundred and thirteen actors, musicians, directors, and authors signed a petition this week calling on the Israeli government to rescind Defense Minister Benny Gantz's designation of six Palestinian "human rights organizations" as terrorist entities.

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Among the signees are famous actors Richard Gere, Tilda Swinton, Susan Sarandon, Simon Pegg, Claire Foy, Julie Christie, directors Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismaki, Alfonso Cuaron, authors Philip Pullman, Yann Martel, Naomi Klein, Irvine Welsh, and musicians Jarvis Cocker, David Byrne, and Peter Gabriel.

The list also includes signatures by well-known critics of Israel and BDS supporters, such as musician Roger Waters, directors Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, and actors Mark Ruffalo and Mark Rylance.

Proud to be one of 100+ artists, actors, and more calling on the international community to defend Palestinian human rights orgs against Israeli government repression. #StandWithThe6

In the US? Demand action from Congress now: https://t.co/yuSdvv5J3shttps://t.co/NGYTlWdEGh

— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) November 17, 2021

The artists criticized the Israeli government for what they say is "an unprecedented and blanket attack on Palestinian human rights defenders.

"The designations target six of the most eminent Palestinian human rights defenders engaged in critical human rights work and cover all aspects of civil society," the statement read. "Israel's designation of these six Palestinian organizations as 'terrorist' groups, and the military order that outlaws them places the safety of the organizations and their staff at imminent risk."

The petition called on "all persons of conscience across the globe to stand with us. We call on the international community to #StandWithThe6 and protect Palestinian human rights defenders, and demand that Israel rescind the terrorist designations immediately."

Ruffalo posted the statement on his Twitter page that has over 7.7 million followers, and wrote: "Proud to be one of 100+ artists, actors, and more calling on the international community to defend Palestinian human rights orgs against Israeli government repression." He called on his American readers to "demand action from Congress."

The six Palestinian organizations were outlawed by Gantz last month after an investigation revealed that they operated as an arm for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP is designated a terrorist group by the United States, European Union, Israel, Canada, Australia, and Japan.

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Cleared for publication: An Israeli who worked as a cleaner at Defense Minister Benny Gantz's home was arrested earlier this month on suspicions of espionage.

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The Israel Security Agency said Thursday that a joint Shin Bet-Israel Police investigation revealed that Omri Goren, 37, from Lod, reportedly contacted the Iran-affiliated Black Shadow hacker group of his own accord a few days before his arrest, and offered to provide information from within the defense minister's home.

Goren reportedly contacted the group via the Telegram messaging service. In exchange for an undisclosed sum of money, he offered to install spyware on the minister's computer that would allow access to it by a third party.

He also supposedly took photographs of Gantz's desk, computers, a tablet, a locked safe, a shredder, papers with IP address, a package with a label listing the souvenirs that Gantz received as IDF chief of staff, framed photos of the family, municipal tax bills and more.

Some of the photos Goren shared with the group to prove that he did indeed have access to the statesman's home. Shit Bet stressed howered that Goren was arrested before he could do any damage and as he had no access to classified materials, he did not share them with the hackers.

The investigation was conducted with Gantz's knowledge. Once the investigation concluded, the Central District  Prosecution filed an indictment against Goren for alleged espionage.

The Shin Bet said that in light of the incident, it has set out to research ways on how to limit "the possibility of cases like this repeating themselves in the future."

Gantz office stressed that due to exisitng information security protocols at the defense minister's home, Goren were never privy to classified informaiton, nor was he able to hand them over to his contacts.

Goren has a criminal record that includes five previous convictions between the years 2002-2013, and 14 police cases in total over various offenses, including two bank robbery charges, burglaries and thefts. For this, Goren was sentenced to four years in prison, with his last sentence, for robbery offenses, being for four years.

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