Arnon Mozes

Jun 27, 2023

is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they happen. President Isaac Herzog attends the President's Award for volunteering at the President's Residence in Jerusalem, June 14, 2023. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90) President Isaac Herzog calls Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of this week’s Eid al-Adha holiday, his office says. Herzog stresses the need to fight terrorism and incitement, after a string of deadly attacks on Israelis in the West Bank. Herzog also condemns vigilante attacks by Israelis on innocent Palestinians in the wake of several attacks on Palestinian villages over the last week. Foreign Minister Eli Cohen at the Knesset on June 12, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) Foreign Minister Eli Cohen is planning to visit Serbia, Italy, and the Vatican in the coming weeks, The Times of Israel learns. Though details are still not finalized, Cohen will fly to Belgrade on July 12, then will continue on to Rome. It remains unclear whether Cohen will receive an audience with Pope Francis. He is planning to meet with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, whom he met in Israel in March, as well as with leaders of the Jewish community. Israeli officials say that they do not know whether he will meet with Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. Relations with Serbia have been at a low point since Israel recognized Kosovo in February 2021. However, Israel supported Belgrade’s successful bid to host Expo 2027. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant delivers a video message at an Israel Air Force base on May 23, 2023. (The Ministry of Defense) Defense Minister Yoav Gallant speaks with senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh regarding recent incidents in the West Bank, including settler attacks on Palestinians, his office says. In the wake of a deadly terror attack on June 20, in which four Israelis were killed by Hamas-affiliated gunmen, hundreds of settlers rampaged in Palestinian towns and villages for five days straight, setting fire to homes, cars, and even opening fire in some cases. One Palestinian was killed Wednesday in unclear circumstances. According to a readout from the Defense Ministry, Gallant tells al-Sheikh — who holds the Civil Affairs portfolio — that Israel “views the violence used by extremist elements against Palestinian citizens in recent days with severity, and emphasized that Israel will work to bring the perpetrators to justice.” Sara Netanyahu and businessman Arnon Milchan seen on a screen before his testimony in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial, in Brighton, on June 27, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/POOL) Tuesday marks the third day of businessman Arnon Milchan’s testimony in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial. Taking the witness stand remotely in Brighton, UK, Milchan confirms that he acted at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to try to facilitate an agreement between warring newspapers, in the hopes of improving coverage in one them of the prime minister and his wife. Milchan tells prosecutors that “the prime minister and the prime minister’s wife,” Sara, asked him to leverage his personal relationships with Yedioth Ahronoth proprietor Arnon Mozes and late Israel Hayom owner Sheldon Adelson to find a deal. “Part of the deal was not to hurt the prime minister and his wife,” Milchan says of the 2009 effort. He adds that Mozes believed at the time that if Yedioth Ahronoth sufficiently attacked Netanyahu, that the premier would push Adelson to come to a deal to limit the circulation of his free daily, which ate into Mozes’s profits. “Every time that I got a negative answer in negotiations I informed Netanyahu,” he says, of the prime minister’s involvement. The never-finalized deal forms the basis of the prosecution’s Case 2000 against Netanyahu for fraud and breach of trust. When asked by the prosecutor as to why he was involved, he answered: “I was involved because I was close to the prime minister and his wife. It was important to me that they not go through the suffering they claim they are going through from Noni [Arnon Mozes], and the only way to do so was through Israel Hayom, to reverse the balance of threats,” he said. The Hollywood producer is on the stand primarily to testify, in Case 1000, that he provided expensive gifts to the Netanyahu family, which the state alleges was in exchange for several requests Milchan made related to help with his expiring US visa and extending tax breaks for Israeli citizens who return from abroad.