Thursday 25 Kislev – Britains Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis accuses Londons Metropolitan Police of failing to protect Jewish communities – Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashes near Kazakhstan’s Aktau airport -After Israel confirms killing Haniyeh, Iran says October missile attack was justified

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has accused London’s Metropolitan Police of failing to protect Jewish communities amid a series of anti-Israel protests triggered by the October 7 massacre in Israel, the Jewish Chronicle reported.

Rabbi Mirvis pointed to the Met’s decision to approve a planned demonstration on Shabbos, January 18, near two shuls, despite “months of conversations” urging the police to ensure protesters would not encroach on shuls on Shabbos.

“There can be no justification for not making a clear commitment that the routes of pro-Palestinian marches will not come anywhere close to local synagogues,” Rabbi Mirvis told The Times. “It is hard to see the absence of such a commitment as anything other than a failure of the Met’s duty to members of Jewish communities who no longer feel safe walking to and from their synagogues on the Sabbath.”

Rabbi Daniel Epstein of Western Marble Arch, one of the shuls adjacent to the protest route, told Jewish News that despite multiple discussions with the Metropolitan Police, “nothing seems to have changed.” He added that the Jewish community does not oppose freedom of speech but fears potential targeting of mispalelim on Shabbos.

Mark Gardner, chief executive of the Community Security Trust (CST), echoed these sentiments, calling for demonstrations to be kept away from shuls—especially during Shabbos tefillos. “Their chutzpah is unmatched, exploiting freedoms that they deny to others,” Gardner said, referencing slogans used by protesters, such as “River to the Sea” and “Global Intifada.”

The Met has faced repeated criticism in recent weeks for their laxity in responding to incidents involving antisemitic language. Last month, the Metropolitan Police concluded that an imam’s prayer calling to “destroy Jewish homes” did not meet the legal threshold for a hate crime. During the sermon, delivered at an east London mosque two weeks after the October 7 attacks, the imam invoked curses upon “the Jews and the children of Israel.”

A police spokesperson acknowledged the content was “upsetting” but said it ultimately did not constitute a prosecutable offense under current law. The CST responded by accusing the Met of “two-tier policing.”

Britain has seen a surge in antisemitic incidents since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Official data released last month indicated a record 25% rise in religious hate crimes over the past year, predominantly targeting Jews.

In London alone, there have been numerous antisemitic flare-ups, including a woman allegedly threatening a Jewish man with a knife in Stamford Hill and protesters openly carrying placards bearing swastikas. The CST and other Jewish security groups have repeatedly asked law enforcement to implement stricter measures to protect the community, but to no avail.

Children are among 29 people rescued alive from the wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day, killing 38 people.

The Azerbaijan Airlines aircraft was carrying 67 people when it hit the ground near the city of Aktau, sending flames into the sky.

The plane had been en route from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia, but was rerouted due to fog.

Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said it was too soon to speculate on the reasons behind the crash, but said the weather had forced the plane to change from its planned course.

“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” he said.

Previously Russia’s aviation watchdog said in a statement that preliminary information suggested the pilot had decided to make an emergency landing after a bird strike.

Initially, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s office said 32 people on board had survived.

That number has since been revised to 29 by Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister Kanat Bozumbayev, according to Russian news agency Interfax.

Azerbaijan Airlines is suspending all flights to Grozny while the investigation is under way, it has been reported.

A video believed to capture the moment of impact shows the aircraft, which was carrying 62 passengers and five crew, plunging towards ground at speed, and a resulting ball of flame.

Pictures from the crash site show the wrecked tail section of the Embraer 190 plane, with emergency services working around it.

More than 50 rescuers are at the scene, where a fire has been extinguished, Kazakhstani authorities said.

Survivors are being treated at a nearby hospital. Four bodies have been recovered.

Azerbaijan Airlines said the aircraft had been forced to make an emergency landing at Aktau airport.

According to the carrier, 37 passengers were Azerbaijani citizens. There were also 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens, it said.

Following Israel’s confirmation Monday that it was behind the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in July, Iran sent a letter to the UN secretary-general Tuesday calling on it to condemn the act and claiming that it justified Iran’s massive ballistic missile attack on Israel in October.

Defense Minister Israel Katz “publicly and shamelessly acknowledged that the Israeli regime was responsible for the assassination of Mr. Ismail Haniyeh while he was visiting Tehran,” Iranian envoy to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani wrote to Antonio Guterres, deeming the act a “heinous crime.”

The letter said Israel’s “audacious and shameless confession… reaffirms the legitimacy and legality of Iran’s defensive response on 1 October 2024.”

During that attack, Iran fired around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, sending millions of citizens into shelters across the country. The IDF said the majority of the missiles were shot down outside of the country, but some damage was caused to military bases.

Iran argued that the UN Security Council “must not allow the continued impunity of a regime that flagrantly defies international law, destabilizes the region, and threatens and endangers international peace and security.

“The continued silence of the Security Council, entrusted with the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, would not only embolden this terrorist regime [to commit] more atrocious crimes but also undermine the core principles upon which the United Nations was founded.”

The Iran-backed Houthi rebel group in Yemen launched a drone at Israel on Wednesday, which the Israel Defense Forces said crashed in an open area near the southern city of Ashkelon.

The Houthis quickly took responsibility for the attack, claiming to have launched two drones, one at a “vital and sensitive target” in the Tel Aviv area, and the other at Ashkelon’s industrial zone.

There were no reports of injuries or major damage in the attack as sirens sounded in Ashkelon and some Gaza border communities. There were no reports of impacts in the Tel Aviv area.

The attack came as the Houthis reportedly raised their alert level in anticipation of major Israeli retaliatory strikes after Israeli leaders ramped up threats against the terror group amid a week of near-daily ballistic missile and drone launches targeted central Israel.

The London-based, Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that Houthi leaders have stopped attending regular meetings and are avoiding traditional means of communication out of fear that Israel will strike leadership targets.

According to the report, Houthi officials understand that the intensity of Israeli strikes will increase, and have begun moving assets away from Sana’a and Hodeidah, where Israel has attacked previously.

The Saudi outlet also reported that the precautionary measure have caused a rift within the Iran-backed group’s leadership, with some senior officials feeling like they are out of the loop of decision-making for both internal and external affairs.

The report also said many Houthi officials are in favor of making concessions to “local, regional and international parties to avoid the fate of Hezbollah and the Bashar al-Assad regime.”

According to the report, these officials fear a major Israeli or international campaign could cripple their military and open the door for an escalation in the decade-long civil war between the Houthis and the internationally recognized government of Yemen.

The Hebrew-language Walla new site reported Wednesday that Houthi fighting units received a notification to raise their alert level to the highest degree in recent days, and have begun moving combat forces to the front lines of confrontation with the Yemeni Armed Forces.

In the past 10 days, the Houthis have launched five ballistic missiles and at least five drones at Israel, in what the terror group says is a campaign in support of Gaza amid the ongoing war there against the Hamas terror group.

On Wednesday, Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar threatened increased strikes on the Houthis in response to the repeated missile and drone attacks on Israel.

“We act forcefully wherever we are required. We have struck the Houthis in Yemen three times. We will continue and increase the pace and intensity of the attacks as much as necessary,” he said during a graduation ceremony for pilots.

On Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed to begin targeting Houthi leaders, saying, “Just as we took care of [Yayha] Sinwar in Gaza, [Ismail] Haniyeh in Tehran and [Hassan] Nasrallah in Beirut, we will deal with the heads of the Houthis in Sana’a or anywhere in Yemen,” referring to the leaders of terror group Hamas and Hezbollah killed by Israel.

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