Isaac Herzog sworn in as President of Israel

Isaac Herzog was formally sworn in as the 11th President of Israel on Wednesday at the Knesset, replacing Reuven Rivlin. Herzog was sworn in using the same Bible used to swear in his father, Chaim Herzog, sixth President of Israel. The Bible belonged to the new president’s grandmother, Sarah.

Upon accepting the presidency, Herzog pledged to “lower the tone, reduce the flames, and calm things down” in Israel, despite the many divides in the Jewish, democratic state.

“I will set out to complete the task every morning to be the president for all,” Herzog said. “In normal times, this task would almost sound naive. Unfortunately, however, these are not normal times. These are days when statesmanship has been swept away by polarization; days in which the unifying ethos and the shared values are more fragile than ever.”

Herzog noted the two-and-a-half years of stormy election campaigns that followed one another, in what he called an unprecedented political crisis in the State of Israel.

“It has been a crisis which, as the history of modern times teaches us, has managed in the past to destroy nations that were much more ancient and established than the young State of Israel, which is only 73 years old,” he said.

Herzog said he would “embark on a journey between the lines of the rifts and breaks of Israeli society” and “aim to be a unifier amid the differences, the bridge between the tears.”

In his final speech to the Knesset, Rivlin broke out in tears and warned Herzog that nothing in Israel can be taken for granted. Herzog thanked Rivlin for his years of service in his address.

“You knew how to make your love of this country infectious for its sons and daughters,” Herzog told Rivlin. “You represented Israel with great respect in the family of nations, including during the last month of your tenure. You painfully identified the breaking points in Israeli society. You placed a mirror before us, even if its reflection was not always pleasing for all of us.”

Herzog wished the new government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett success.

“There are many complex arguments in Israel that focus on internal elements,” he said. “This is the beauty of Israeli democracy. I am confident that this entire body wants you to succeed. May it be the success of the entire State of Israel.”

But Herzog also made a point of wishing well to the opposition, under Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, against whom he ran unsuccessfully for prime minister.

“There is no democracy without opposition,” Herzog said. “Political realities called me to serve in the position you are now in a number of times. This time, it has fallen on your shoulders. I am confident that you will fulfill your service to the people from the opposition in a statesmanlike, responsible and relevant manner.”

Ever Given starts journey out of Suez Canal

According to BBC, the mega container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March finally left the Suez Canal after Egypt signed a compensation deal with its owners and insurers. The Ever Given, around 09:30 GMT headed north towards the Mediterranean escorted by tugs. The ship has been impounded for three months near the canal city of Ismailia.

As it got under way, Egyptian TV showed footage of the captain and a crew member being presented with flowers and a plaque on board the ship.

The 193 kilometre long Suez Canal connects the Mediterranean Sea at the canal's northern end to the Red Sea in the south and provides the shortest sea link between Asia and Europe.

The vital waterway was blocked when the 400-meter long Ever Given became wedged across it after running aground amid high winds. Global trade was disrupted as hundreds of ships were stuck in the traffic jam.

The container ship was refloated following a six-day salvage operation that involved a flotilla of tug boats and dredging vessels. One person was killed during the operation.

Since then, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) has been seeking compensation from the Ever Given's Japanese owner Shoei Kisen for the cost of the salvage operation, damage to the canal's banks and other losses.

The SCA initially asked for US$916 million compensation, including US$300 million for a salvage bonus and US$300 million for loss of reputation. But UK Club - which insured Shoei Kisen for third-party liabilities - rejected the claim, describing it as "extraordinarily large" and "largely unsupported".

The SCA later lowered its demand to US$550 million. The final settlement, which has not been revealed, was agreed a few days ago and signed on Wednesday to coincide with the ship's release.

SCA head Osama Rabie told a news conference that the authority would not change its rules about the passage of ships in bad weather. However, he said the grounding had accelerated plans for the canal's expansion.

The UK Club paid tribute to "the work and expertise of the SCA and others whose professionalism and dedication resulted in the ship being refloated".

"Over the last three months we, along with the ship's owners and other interests, have worked closely with the SCA's negotiations team to achieve today's results," a statement said.

Yukito Higaki of Imabari shipbuilding, of which Shoei Kisen is a subsidiary, said the company would continue to be "a regular and loyal customer" of the Suez Canal Authority.

The vessel, with an Indian crew, is still loaded with about 18,300 containers. It is due to undergo an inspection by divers at Port Said before sailing to Rotterdam and then to the UK port of Felixstowe where it will offload its containers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Pentagon defends Bagram exit

The Pentagon on Tuesday defended its departure from Bagram Airfield after reports emerged that the United States left in the dead of night, shutting off electricity without coordinating a handover and temporarily leaving the base to looters.

Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said he had seen the press reports but insisted there was “coordination with Afghan leaders, both in the government, as well as in the Afghan security forces, about the eventual turnover.”

“As you know, it was the seventh and the final base that we turned over to the Afghan National Security Forces. You don't do that in a vacuum, and this wasn't done in a vacuum,” Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.

The Associated Press earlier on Tuesday reported that when the US military left Bagram early Friday they did so by shutting off the electricity and leaving in the dark, without notifying the base's new Afghan commander. 

The commander reportedly discovered the absence more than two hours later. Before the Afghan army could take control of the airfield from which US forces have fought the war in Afghanistan for the past 20 years. It was invaded by a small army of looters, Afghan military officials told the AP.

The US military also reportedly left behind thousands of civilian vehicles, most without keys to start them, hundreds of armored vehicles and small weapons and the ammunition for them.

Kirby said the final conversation and coordination about the turnover at Bagram occurred about 48 hours prior to US troops leaving.

“Obviously, for operational security reasons, we didn't go into the exact hour at which all US forces would leave Bagram,” he said. 

He added that while he can't speak for the level of information that went down the Afghan chain of command, “Afghan leaders, civilian and military, were appropriately coordinated with and briefed about the turnover of the base, including a walk-through of facilities with senior Afghan leaders.” 

When asked which senior Afghan leaders and the US officials had coordinated with, he referred questions to the staff of Army Gen. Scott Miller, the top US commander in Afghanistan who is preparing to turn over his command to US Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie. 

Kirby also confirmed, “There were some vehicles obviously left behind and some turned over to Afghan officials,” but said it was not uncommon compared to turnovers of other facilities in the country. In addition, throughout the drawdown, “A few hundred small arms and ammunition were transferred” to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.

Haredim: The biggest threat facing Israel

Israel’s new leadership calls itself the “Change Government” because the long-serving Benjamin Netanyahu has been finally displaced. But its ideological disparities risk blocking the real changes that are needed, including on the primary threat the country as currently constituted faces.

It’s not from the Palestinians, nor from the wider Arab world or even Iran. The greatest danger is from within: the rapidly expanding haredi.

The haredim cling to a rigid interpretation of Judaism which tolerates little deviation from ancient traditions. They can be found in the United States, Belgium, Britain and elsewhere, always forming tight-knit communities, but only in Israel is there a toxic firewall between them and fellow citizens.

This can be traced to the decision some 70 years ago by David Ben-Gurion to grant draft exemptions to students at yeshivot. Back then this applied to several hundred genuine scholars.

This arrangement turned Torah study into an arguably unprecedented obsession in which all haredi men are pushed to lifelong seminary duty, first to avoid the draft and then essentially as a source of welfare.

Whereas other university students pay tuition, haredim receive stipends for as long as they study, if possible for life. Over 150,000 men now in these schools are indoctrinated in the faith that stricture and rabbis supersede the laws and officials of the state.

To maintain the insularity, most haredi high schoolers are sent to the community’s schools that teach little or no math, science and English; in recent days Israel’s chief rabbi, who is haredi, called such studies of secular subjects “nonsense.” Israel funds these schools even though their unfortunate graduates are essentially unemployable in a modern economy.

As a consequence less than half of haredi men are part of the workforce, the lowest participation level of any identifiable group in Israel – and, tellingly, far less than haredim in other countries. The minority who do work tend to populate a vast religious bureaucracy that includes supervisors of the mikvaot ritual baths, kashrut food certifications, and other apparatchiks.

Women in the community are banished from haredi parties’ candidates lists and encouraged to procreate with such vigor that they on average produce 7.1 children – far more than in any identifiable group in Israel.

They live in a poverty rendered minimally tolerable by state subsidies for each child at the expense of working Israelis. Thus the community doubles itself every 16 years, four times the rate of the rest of Israel.

The haredim have grown to about 12% of the 9.5 million people – almost 20% of the country’s Jews. Unless something changes – and the attrition rate is estimated at less than 5% – they will constitute a majority of Israel’s Jews in a few decades.