Syrian opposition chief: Golan Heights will return to Syria

The Times of Israel is liveblogging events as they unfold today.

Russia will finish delivery of sophisticated S-300 air defense missile systems to Iran by the end of this year, Russia's Interfax news agency quotes the head of a Russian state-owned tech conglomerate saying, Reuters reports ^[1].

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with visiting Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who invited him to visit the Southeast Asian state. Lee's visit is the first since bilateral relations were established in 1969.

The two discussed increased cooperation in technology, security a nd trade, the Prime Minister's Office says in a statement.

"Today we are anchors of stability and strength in our respective regions. And we are working together in many fields, diverse fields, including water management, biotechnology, and we're going to talk on this visit about intensifying our cooperation in cyber security, and of course in many, many other fields," Netanyahu says.

Lee says in response that "our business-to-business ties are strong. Israel is the second largest contributor of foreign direct investments in Singapore from the Middle East, and we admire your technical prowess and ecosystem. You have the highest number of scientists, technicians, technologists, engineers per capita in the world. You have the third highest number of patents per capita, and I know that many Singaporean firms are interested in doing business with you, investing in Israel, as some have already done."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong seen during the welcome ceremony at the Prime Minister office in Jerusalem on April 19, 2016. (Haim Zach / GPO)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz last month on the sidelines of a conference in Washington DC, the first meeting of its kind between senior Israeli and Turkish officials, i24 reports ^[2].

Israeli fighter jets are reportedly flying over southern Syria.

#BreakingNews #Israel|i fighter jets violated southern #Syria|n territories over Daraa and Quneitra.. pic.twitter.com/bkmoEtS5Ts ^[3]^[4]^[5]< a href="#readabilityFootnoteLink-6" class="readability-DoNotFootnote" style="color: inherit;">^[6]

— Rami (@RamiAlLolah) April 19, 2016 ^[7]

Michael Cheshin was on his way to a Krav Maga lesson when Jerusalem's number 12 bus he was on exploded yesterday.

"I only saw the noise and the fire," he says with a heavy Russian accent in his hospital bed.

Cheshin's right hand was completely covered in bandages, the result of his cellular phone battery exploding in the attack. He also had pieces of metal in his leg that were removed in surgery and ruptured eardrums.

Dr. Ofer Merrin, the head of Shaare Zedek's Trauma Center, discussed the critically injured person from the attack, who has yet to be identified.

"He has combined injuries: Severe burns, unfortunately, from the fire and severe injuries to his limbs from the explosion. [The injuries] are to both his upper and lower extremities," Merrin says.

"There's no ID yet. They are working on that a lot, and there are a number of thoughts about his identity. But we're just dealing with his medical condition," he adds.

The other people injured also had some combination of burns and explosion-related injuries, he says.

— Judah Ari Gross

A local journalist in a western Poland city discovered that the local rabbi is not a rabbi, never lived in Israel, is not familiar with Jewish customs, and does not speak or unders tand Hebrew.

Jacoob Ben Nistell, aka Yaakav – he used different forms of this name — claimed he was from Haifa. Members of the Poznan Jewish community believed him and decided to embrace him as a community rabbi, where he reportedly has served for several years

He admitted two weeks ago during an interview that he is not a rabbi. Krzysztof M. Kazmierczak, a reporter for "Glos Wielkopolski" or "The Voice of Wielkopolska," discovered that the alleged rabbi in fact is Jacek Niszczota and comes from Ciechanow, a town in north-central Poland.

— JTA

A rabbi in Bnei Brak rules that cannabis is kosher for Passover, for both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. Rabbi Yitzhak Zilberstein says that medicinal marijuana grown in supervised and licensed farms is permissible — but black market skunk isn't.

Zilberstein brought some of th at sticky icky bitter herb to the head of the Lithuanian community, Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, and let him smell the bud, whose aroma, he said, had "medicinal properties."

A replica of Palmyra's Arch of Triumph, destroyed in the past year by the Islamic State, has been erected in London based on a 3D model of the Roman-era monument created by the Institute of Digital Archaeology, the BBC reports ^[8].

The two-thirds size model will be in London's Trafalgar Square for three days before heading around the world.

A replica of Palmyra's Arch of Triumph is erected in Trafalgar Square, central London, on 18 April 2016, the day before it is officially unveiled. (AFP PHOTO / LEON NEAL)

The European Union needs Turkey more than Ankara needs the bloc, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, denouncing a new European Parliament report that was sharply critical of the rule of law in his country.

"The European Union needs Turkey more than Turkey needs the European Union," Erdogan says to cheers in a televised speech to municipal leaders in Ankara, denouncing as "provocative" last week's European Parliament report which accused Ankara of backsliding on democracy.

— AFP

Four IDF soldiers are lightly injured after an APC overturns during a training exercise in southern Israel. They are airlifted to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba for treatment.

German public broadcaster SWR says one of its reporters has been detained upon ar rival at Istanbul airport.

SWR says Cairo-based TV correspondent Volker Schwenck was given no reason for his detention early Tuesday. It says he is being held in the airport's deportation room.

Schwenck, who had planned to travel to the Syrian border to interview refugees, posted a picture on Twitter of a document titled "Inadmissible Passenger Notification Report."

He tweeted: "Final stop Istanbul. Entry to Turkey denied. There's a note with my name. I'm a journalist. A problem?"

SWR is part of the ARD network, one of two main public broadcasters in Germany. The other, ZDF, has become embroiled in a row with Turkey over a satirical program featuring a crude poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

— AP

Two senior members of Amana, a far-right religious settler group, are under investigation by the police on suspicion of fraud for transferring funds without reporting it to tax authorities, Israel Radio reports.

Syrian opposition leader Riad Hijab responds to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remark earlier this week that the Golan Heights will remain in Israeli hands "forever," saying that the territory Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War will return to Syrian control.

"We won't give up on our territorial completeness or on the unification of our social fabric," Hijab says. "We won't concede a single grain of soil. The Golan is Syrian land and it will be returned to Syria. Former Syrian president Hafez Assad is the one who gave over the Golan. That's the truth. If it weren't for the support of the Israeli occupation, President Bashar Assad wouldn't remain [in power] until now."