The Times of Israel is liveblogging Monday’s events as they unfold.
Ahead of Trump meeting, Zelensky says he hopes ‘shared strength’ with US, Europe will compel Russia to peace
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says upon his arrival in Washington, DC, that he hopes that Ukraine’s “shared strength” with the US and European counterparts will compel Russia to peace.
“I am grateful to the President of the United States for the invitation. We all equally want to end this war swiftly and reliably,” Zelenskiy says on the Telegram messaging app after arriving in Washington.
“And I hope that our shared strength with America and with our European friends will compel Russia to real peace.”
Trump’s bilateral meeting with Zelensky will take place at 1:15 p.m. local time (8:15 p.m. Israel time) on Monday at the White House, the White House says in a press guidance statement.
Trump will then participate in a multilateral meeting with European leaders visiting Washington at 3 p.m. local time.
Trump says reclaiming Crimea or joining NATO is off the table for Ukraine
US President Donald Trump urges Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to come to a negotiated settlement in the three-and-a-half-year-old conflict with Russia.
Zelensky “can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump says on his Truth Social platform. “No getting back Obama given Crimea… and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”
Netanyahu said mulling setting up satellite party to siphon votes from right-wing rivals in next election
Anticipating a potential failure to salvage his teetering coalition once the Knesset returns from hiatus in October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has increased the frequency of political consultations ahead of the next national elections, the Ynet news site reports, citing unnamed political sources close to the premier.
One of the challenges under discussion is reportedly how to optimize the makeup of the parties in his bloc, mainly how to convince Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit party, Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism and Avi Maoz’s one-man Noam party to run on a joint electoral slate, like they did in the 2022 election.
Netanyahu is also said to be considering the option of setting up a satellite party that will attract right-wingers who are unwilling to support Netanyahu’s Likud or the parties in his current bloc, seeking to siphon votes of rivals such as Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman.
One of the options examined, according to the sources cited by Ynet, is having a party headed by former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen or former IDF generals Ofer Winter or Deddi Simchi, among others. However, none of these names has proven to be sufficiently popular, the report says.
These political consultations also reportedly discussed internal Likud politics, and yielded the need to quickly advance the merger with Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party, a move that was announced last week.
Netanyahu is said to be aiming to avoid holding elections for new members of the Likud Central Committee in light of his current strong hold over the ruling party’s mechanisms, telling his aides to examine if this is legally possible.
AG tells High Court Levin locking her out of shared office violates previous court order
Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara argues that by locking her out of an office shared by her staff and that of Justice Minister Yariv Levin, the latter has violated a High Court of Justice ruling that the government must not alter its working relationship with the attorney general until the court announces whether Baharav-Miara’s firing is legal.
The lock switch was Levin’s latest attempt to kick Baharav-Miara out of the workings of the government after the cabinet last month voted to fire her using a newly introduced method, having failed to oust her using the existing legal mechanism. The High Court froze that decision immediately, instructing the government not to block Baharav-Miara from performing her responsibilities in any way in the meantime.
Levin, who has frequently clashed with Baharav-Miara, has nonetheless objected to her doing her job. After the vote to fire her, Levin’s driver called Baharav-Miara’s staff and instructed them not to use the office that Baharav-Miara and Levin share in Tel Aviv, prompting the Movement for Quality Government watchdog to file a High Court petition claiming this violated the previous ruling.
Earlier Sunday, Levin told the court that the office in question is his own private office.
In her court filing, Baharav-Miara doesn’t dispute that, but says the custom over at least the past decade has been for the attorney general’s staff to use the office on the days of the week when the justice minister’s staff doesn’t work from there.
She argues that the decision to halt that arrangement was unilateral and made with a direct link to the cabinet decision to fire her, adding: “The incident violates orders issued by the court, specifically the instruction not to alter the existing working relationship. It appears that the purpose is an attempt to harm the status of the attorney general and her professional work.”
IDF says its drone crashed in Kiryat Shmona due to technical failure, no damage caused
An Israeli Air Force drone crashed in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona earlier today, due to a technical malfunction, the military says.
The IDF says troops collected the device, and no damage or injuries were caused in the incident.