Netanyahu: ‘Perfectly open’ to meeting with Abbas
“Kerry denounces ‘outrageous’ attacks on Israeli civilians; Shin Bet frees 2 suspects nabbed in Tel Aviv manhunt”
The Times of Israel is live blogging Thursday’s developments as they unfold.
19:56
Excessive force claims as ‘baseless,’ Netanyahu says
Responding to inquiries as to whether he’s willing to return to negotiations he says, “I called for this repeatedly. Including in UN
speech,” and that he’s open to this now.
Netanyahu says that before negotiations, both sides have to “lower the flames” of conflict. “We can’t have both terror and peace. Arafat tried to do this, and we saw where it led to.”
Asked about State Department claims of Israel’s use of excessive force, Netanyahu calls them “baseless.”
“There is no truth to the claim that we use excessive force. What would you have done if people in New York, Paris or London had done so? Look at the number of the casualties,” he says.
19:48
Netanyahu says open to meet Abbas, ‘He’s not willing to meet me’
Netanyahu says he’s open to meeting with Abbas and Arab leaders, because such a conversation could help curb the current round of violence.
“I’m willing to meet him. He’s not willing to meet me,” he says.
He adds that Israel is still trying to apprehend the suspects involved in the Dawabsha family home’s firebombing in July, but that the lack of results are no justification for attacks on Israelis.
19:31
Netanyahu says will fight ‘big lies’ by telling truth
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a very brief address to the press, saying PA President Mahmoud Abbas is spreading “two big lies”: the change of the status quo on the Temple Mount and about the death of a Palestinian teen who attacked Israelis days earlier.
“The only way we can fight this lie… is to tell the truth,” he says. “This is what we will do today.”
He pans what he calls the “false symmetry between Israeli victims and Palestinian attackers.” He blames the attacks on ongoing Palestinian incitement.
“We expect all our friends to look at facts, see these facts, not to draw false symmetry,” he says.
19:28
Israeli flyers refuse to board when crew turns out to be Czech
Israeli travelers who were supposed to fly from Tel Aviv to Paris tonight refused to board the plane after they found out the pilot and crew were Czech, not Israeli, Ynet reports.
The Arkia flight was operated at the last minute by a Czech airline instead of the Israeli company. Police were called in to handle the situation.
They claimed the reason was because of the current security situation.
“I paid to fly with an Israeli company and it’s unacceptable that Czechs will fly me,” Yossi, one of the passengers, tells Ynet. “Only an Israeli company can fly me so that I feel secure. I feel like they pulled one over on me.”
19:00
Kerry denounces ‘outrageous’ attacks on Israeli civilians
US Secretary of State John Kerry is speaking at Indiana University right now and has raised the matter of the recent “tragic, outrageous, attacks on civilians trying to go about business in Israel and West Bank.”
“We strongly condemn the terrorist attacks against innocent civilians,” Kerry says, but urges “that calm be restored as soon as possible.”
“There is absolutely no justification for these reprehensible attacks.”
“We will continue to support Israel’s right to defend its existence.”
Apparently confirming a report published Wednesday in the Israeli press, Kerry says that he expects to travel to the Middle East in the coming days and “we will remain closely engaged to support efforts to stabilize situation.”
18:43
5 MKs now bear arms in Knesset plenary
At least five Israeli lawmakers now pack heat while attending Knesset sessions, according to a report by Walla news.
Likud MKs Anat Berko and Yoav Kisch, Eyal Ben Reuven of the Zionist Union, and Jewish Home’s Bezalel Smotrich all started carrying sidearms (which they own legally) since the uptick in terrorism, the news site says. They’re joined by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who was already in the habit of carrying his pistol.
Berko and Kisch are both reservist lieutenant colonels and Ben Reuven is a retired major general.
Likud MK Oren Hazan, who formerly had a gun license, also apparently wants to get cleared once again to carry firearms.
18:42
2 new suspects IDed in ’88 Lockerbie bombing
Scottish prosecutors on Thursday said they had identified two new Libyan suspects in the bombing of a Pan Am jet over the town of Lockerbie in 1988, which killed 270 people.
“The Lord Advocate and the US Attorney General have recently agreed that there is a proper basis in law in Scotland and the United States to entitle Scottish and US investigators to treat two Libyans as suspects in the continuing investigation into the bombing of flight Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie,” said prosecutors in a statement.
— AFP