14 days: Iran Warning

Israel’s newly installed prime minister, Naftali Bennett, slammed the election of conservative judge Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s president, charging that he would be heading a “regime of brutal hangmen” with which world powers should not negotiate a new nuclear deal. Speaking at his first cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on June 20, on the day that the sixth round of indirect talks between Washington and Tehran was held in Vienna, Bennett said this was “the last chance for world powers to wake up before returning to the nuclear agreement, and understand who they are doing business with.”  Raisi, 60, a close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is due to take over from Hassan Rouhani in August after winning Iran’s June 18 presidential election.

Vaccinated foreigners may enter Israel only from August 1 and not July 1, as previously announced, the government decided after an uptick in coronavirus cases. “Our goal at the moment, first and foremost, is to protect the citizens of Israel from the Delta variant, which is raging in the world,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. The Bennett government formed a new coronavirus cabinet, appointed Maj.-Gen. (res.) Roni Numa as the special coronavirus airport commissioner and reinstated the obligation to wear masks indoors from June 25.

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to leave the Prime Minister’s Residence on the corner of Jerusalem’s Balfour and Smolensky streets by July 10. The delayed departure, widely covered by the media, was due to take place almost a month after Bennett took over as premier on June 13. Bennett will not move into the residence full-time, but rather use it mostly for official meetings. His wife and four children will remain in their family home in Ra’anana.

US President Joe Biden announced on June 16 the appointment of Thomas R. Nides as ambassador to Israel. Nides, 60, currently the managing director and vice chairman of Morgan Stanley, served as deputy secretary of state for management and resources under Hillary Clinton from 2011 to 2013. Nides is married to Virginia Carpenter Moseley, CNN’s senior vice president of newsgathering in the US, and they have two children.  Meanwhile, former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that he is opening an office of his new investment fund, Liberty Strategic, in Tel Aviv, headed by former US ambassador David Friedman. 

Israeli gymnast Linoy Ashram, 22, won a gold medal on June 13 at the European Gymnastics Championship in Varda, Bulgaria, in the clubs exercise, as well as two silver medals in the ball and hoop categories.  According to the Olympic website, it was the first time that a non-Russian gymnast earned a gold in the individual apparatus events since 2011. 

Israel sent emergency delegations to Florida after the 12-floor Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Miami collapsed on June 24. More than 150 people were feared dead under the rubble, including some 20 Jewish residents. The teams included the IDF Home Front Command, the Foreign Ministry,  United Hatzalah and ZAKA. Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai flew to Miami to see firsthand how Israel could assist the local community.  “America can learn from the Israeli experience,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “Unfortunately, we have too much experience with disasters.” 

Stanley Lipschitz, a beloved Jerusalem restaurateur, died June 26 at Shaare Zedek Medical Center at the age of 75, after a brave struggle with cancer. Among the restaurants he owned, managed or worked at were Stanley’s, Vaqueiro, Shor Habar, Cezanne and Ugly Buffalo, and he most recently ran the cafe at the Bible Lands Museum. Lipschitz, a South African immigrant formerly married to Linda Lipschitz, is survived by two children, Yaron and Yael, their spouses, Tali and Luciano, five grandchildren and two brothers. “Dad loved a good steak and whiskey – seems to be a Lipschitz family trait,”  Yaron said at his funeral. “In his many years in the restaurant business, he brought joy to so many.”