Growing Stress In Israel As the New Iran Deal Is About to Be Signed by The US: A series of Israeli officials made their way to Washington DC to meet with American officials, and to present the Israeli position. Israel is not part of the deal, but has a strong interest in its’ content. Almost all Israeli politicians believe that the new deal is bad for Israel. Head of Mossad, Barnea, (Israeli secret service, equivalent to CIA) expressed strong opposition to the deal in a closed forum which was leaked to the media.
Reminder: former PM Netanyahu made every effort to pressure the US to withdraw from the original deal, until finally former President Trump unilaterally withdrew. All experts and analysts in Israel and elsewhere warned that this would be a mistake. When President Biden became president he opened negotiations for a new deal, which is about to be concluded soon. Biden and other American officials repeated time and again that they will not allow Iran to attain nuclear arms capability. That means that the US will be willing to take operative military steps to prevent Iran. Israel, on the other hand, which is the primary target of Iran is not confident enough, and the common understanding is that Israel would have to defend itself.
If the US signs the new deal this may influence the security alliance with Israel. On the other hand, there are experts who believe that a new deal is better than the existing situation of no deal.
Leading Food Brand Recalls Frozen Vegetable Products: Sunfrost, the frozen vegetable division of the Tnuvah food conglomerate had to conduct a comprehensive recall of frozen vegetables’ packages. This, after costumers found snake, snail and rat parts in frozen green beans. Tnuvah apologized to their customers, and company officials said that the source of the problem is in the fields, where the machines that cut the crops, “cut other things as well, including snakes, rats and frogs”. Yet ministry of health officials criticized Sunfrost for withholding information from the public and delaying the recall for several days. The recall will cause Sunfrons significant losses.
Bank of Israel Raises Prime Interest Rate to Highest Rate in a Decade: The governor of Israel’s Central Bank announced earlier this week an additional increase of 0.75% in the prime interest rate. This is the sharpest single increase in twenty years, which brings the prime rate to a decade long high of 2%. The governor said that the increase is designed to curb inflation, which currently stands at 5.25%. The increase in the prime interest rate stands to have a substantial impact on homeowners with mortgages linked to prime, and may increase their monthly payments by more than $300. It is unclear whether the recent increase will be the last for this year.
Tens of Thousands of Mizrahi (Sephardi) Haredi Followers Participated in the Funeral of the Chief Rabbi of the Political Party Shas: Rabbi Shalom Cohen became their chief Rabbi after their legendary Rabbi, Ovadia Yosef, passed away. The political leader of Shas is Arye Deri, who served time in prison in 1999 when he was convicted of bribery and fraud while in office. Lately he negotiated and received a plea deal on tax issues.
Haredi parties, Shas for the Sephardic community and Aguda for the Ashkenazi, are subject in their politics and in their voting to orders and decisions from a collective of Rabbis, “the committee of the clever”, that instruct them how to vote, and also who will be Knesset members. It is important to also say that these parties don’t allow women to be members of the party, or to be elected to any position.
Both parties declared time and again that they support the leadership of former PM and current head of opposition, Netanyahu, to be Prime Minister and that they will not join any coalition except for one led by Netanyahu. They are part of the right wing bloc.
Israeli Modeling Agent Arrested in the Netherlands, Having Escaped Before, Being Interrogated for Sexual Violence Allegations: Shay Avital, a prominent modeling agent fled Israel a year ago, after the media reported several allegations of sexual violence by him from models he represented. Avital ignored the police’s call to be interrogated and spent the last year in Turkey, Portugal, East Europe, France, and the Netherlands. He was arrested by local policemen as he left a restaurant, after he was identified by an Israeli police representative. Israel requested from the Netherlands police for Avital to remain in custody, until it submits an extradition order. If and when he is extradited to Israel, Avital will be interrogated for 26 complaints made against him for sexual misconduct and rape, including a minor. Police officials say that the allegations against him may mount up to two clauses of inditement.
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