Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid notified President Reuven Rivlin that he had succeeded in forming a government in which he and Yamina chief Naftali Bennett will switch off as prime minister, positioning themselves to replace Israel’s longest-serving leader Benjamin Netanyahu as premier.
Under the terms of the new coalition, Bennett is to serve as prime minister until September 2023, when Lapid will take over from him until the end of the Knesset term in November 2025. The agreement came together after Ra’am (United Arab List) leader Mansour Abbas threw his support behind the would-be government late Wednesday night, setting up his Islamist party to be the first majority Arab party to be part of a ruling coalition in Israel’s history.
The Knesset must now schedule a vote of confidence in the new government. Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin from the Likud party has up to a week to arrange that vote, so it may only be held on June 14, giving Netanyahu and his supporters 12 days to try to deprive Lapid and Bennett of their majority.
If the emerging government is sworn in, Israel will have a new prime minister for the first time since 2009.
The Iranian navy’s largest warship caught fire, causing it to sink in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances.
Iranian state TV announced that a fire broke out on the IRIS Kharg, named after the island that serves as the main oil terminal for the Islamic Republic, a few minutes before 3:00 AM local time. The ship was on a training mission some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran in the Gulf of Oman.
State media reported 400 sailors and trainee cadets on board fled the vessel, with 33 suffering injuries.
In April, an Iranian ship called the MV Saviz, believed to be a covert base for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and anchored in the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen, was targeted in an attack suspected to have been carried out by Israel. It escalated an ongoing shadow war in the Mideast between the two countries, ranging from strikes in Syria, assaults on ships, and attacks on Iran’s nuclear program.
Meanwhile, a massive fire broke out at the oil refinery serving Iran’s capital, sending thick plumes of black smoke over Tehran. It was not immediately clear if there were injuries or what caused the blaze.
Palestinian factions said that Matthias Schmale, director of operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Gaza Strip, will not be allowed to return to the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.
The groups claimed that Schmale was “a major reason for the suffering of thousands of Palestinian refugees and UNRWA employees in the Gaza Strip.” The factions said that the UNRWA director and his deputy will no longer be permitted to stay in the Gaza Strip “due to his hostile positions and bias in favor of the occupation.” They called on UNRWA to appoint a new director for its operations in the Gaza Strip.
Schmale has been called in for consultation with his bosses in Jerusalem after angering Palestinians with comments they said favored Israel during last month’s fighting.
He told local media that the Israeli military strikes on the Gaza Strip appeared to be carried out with “sophistication” and “precision.”
Kamau Bobb, Global Lead, Diversity Strategy at Google, has issued an internal apology for a 2007 blog post accusing Jews of having an “insatiable appetite for war and killing.”
Bobb responded to a furious condemnation in an email to the Employee Resource Group at Google that was shared with a number of media outlets. In it, he stated that it was his intention to respond “directly and honestly” to the “pain” his piece had caused.
“If I were a Jew I would be concerned about my insatiable appetite for war and killing“
“I would be afraid of my increasing insensitivity to the suffering [of] others.”
– Kamau Bobb, head of diversity at @Google
🤯 How is the obscene, antisemitic bigot still employed there? pic.twitter.com/IzXQkAzmv9
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) June 2, 2021
“Let me first apologize,” he wrote. “What I wrote crudely characterized the entire Jewish community. What was intended as a critique of particular military action fed into antisemitic tropes and prejudice. I think we can all agree, there is no easy solution to this situation, but that’s beside the point. The way I expressed my views on that conflict were hurtful.”
He then added: “None of this changes or excuses the words I wrote — but I am deeply sorry for them.”
Despite his apology, Bobb was removed from his role on Google’s diversity team and will focus on his STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) work at the company, according to a statement by the tech giant.
HonestReporting is pleased to inform you that it is organizing a remarkable mission to the Jewish state from October 5-12, 2021.
The behind-the-scenes trip includes:
- 5-star accommodations at the Inbal Hotel, Jerusalem
- Exclusive briefings by political, defense and academic leaders
- Tour of the Lebanon border with an anti-terrorism expert
- Insider’s look into the complexities of the disputed West Bank
- Examination of Israel’s vibrant democracy at the Supreme Court
- Meetings with influential journalists… and much more!
For more information, please contact us.
Recommended Reading
- Facebook Oversight Board Excoriated by ADL Over Refusal to Remove Blatantly Antisemitic Posts (Ben Cohen, Algemeiner)
- Operation Guardian of the Walls: Lessons for the Civilian Front (Meir Elran, Carmit Padan, Gili Shenhar, Hilik Sofer, Institute for National Security Studies)
- On Farhud Day, Many Ask: Could It Happen Again? (Edwin Black, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Israel Celebrates End of Most Pandemic Rules (Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21C)
