I've Been Thinking:
I was stunned to see video and still photos – IN REAL TIME. of the Hamas Massacre of Jews SHOT BY JOURNALISTS from AP, Reuters, CNN. I did not see NYT material but am told there is also NYT footage.
***Photos of Hamas terrorists taking hostages on golfcarts and motorcycles.
***Photos showing Hamas terrorists burning an Israeli tank.
***Photos showing Hamas terrorists breaking through the border fence with Israel.
We know what that means:
It means that photojournalists had ADVANCE NOTICE OF THE MASSACRE !!!
Did their supervisors and their news desks know ???
This is not a small incident.
Nearly 1500 innocent lives could 5000 wounded 240 kidnapped to get a story ????
Their pictures are nearly identical to the Go-Cam footage taken by Hamas.
It’s like knowing of a murder and choosing to cover it and not telling the police - ONLY 6740 TIMES WORSE.
The photos are real - the question is WHO KNEW ???
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The posters of kidnapped Israelis have become another flashpoint in the war between Israel and Hamas.
One group of people putting them up - another taking them down.
Interesting how flyers and posters, relics from the pre-internet age, have not just made a comeback – but they’ve come back with a, quite literal, bang!
There’s a reason for these flyers and posters and photos being such a hot button issue.
Lovers of Israel put the flyers up to tangibly show real examples of Jewish victims of Hamas’ horrible acts of terror.
The other side – Jew haters, are deeply offended – offended and insulted BECAUSE the posters display the reality of true Israeli victims.
For those who hate, Israelis can’t be victims – for those who hate, Jews are the oppressors and the real victims are only those in Gaza and all other Palestinians.
It is a battle of victims. And that explains why supporters of Hamas have hijacked the very same pictures and posters and flyers that they initially tore down and scratched out and replaced the word “Kidnapped” above each photo with the word “Occupier.”
Remember: Who is the real victim in this war.
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Israel is fighting for survival on another front – not on the Gaza border or on the Lebanese border, not on the ground and not in the air.
This is a battle about facts - a battle for the truth.
It is being waged on the internet, in the blogosphere, in the media.
The parallel is Holocaust Denial -. those who challenge the veracity of the horrors perpetrated on October 7.
They say Hamas did not murder children. This Massacre Denial is ripping through the Muslim and Arab world – it is very pervasive in young adult communities online.
Even Queen Rania of Jordan, in a 19 minute interview, claimed that babies were not killed.
Truth is precious, it should not be trampled upon.
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Language counts!
Israel is being attacked not only militarily, but also linguistically!
In the “spirit” of even handedness, leading figures and organizations justify terror and whitewash terrorists.
Like the statement: It “did not happen in a vacuum”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council that the Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7 "did not happen in a vacuum," because Palestinians have been subjected to 56 years of "suffocating occupation." He said that he is "deeply concerned about clear violations of international humanitarian law that we are witnessing in Gaza."
Like those calling: Hamas “militants and combatants” not terrorists.
AP, the world's largest news agency, updated their style guide instructing reporters and organizations that rely on its style guide not to call Hamas a terrorist organization. It suggests "militants," "Hamas fighters," “attackers” or "combatants."
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The Palestinian Authority's official news agency published comments by President Mahmoud Abbas that criticized Hamas over its actions - but later removed reference to the terrorist group without providing an explanation.
The comments, published by WAFA on its website, were made during a phone call between Abbas and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. The two discussed Israel's bombardment of Gaza following Hamas' deadly rampage through Israeli cities. The original WAFA report on Abbas' call included the now-deleted line: "The president also stressed that Hamas' policies and actions do not represent the Palestinian people.
The policies, programs and decisions of the (Palestine Liberation Organization) represent the Palestinian people as their sole legitimate representative."
Several hours later, the phrase was adjusted to read: "The president also stressed that the policies, programs, and decisions of the PLO represent the Palestinian people as their sole legitimate representative, and not the policies of any other organization."
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After the Human Rights Watch organization accused the IDF of using phosphorus bombs in their attacks in Gaza and Lebanon, the IDF spokesman for foreign media, Jonathan Conricus, was asked by reporters what type of weapons Israel uses in attacks in the Gaza Strip. His unequivocal response was: "We use weapons that meet NATO standards. We are committed to international law, and generally try to use the lightest and most accurate weapons we have to hit specific targets."
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The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced that, following the terrorist attack on Israel, Israelis with American citizenship will be eligible for tax relief and will be able to defer the payment of their US taxes for a year. According to estimates by the US State Department, there are more than 500,000 Israeli-Americans with dual citizenship who will be eligible for the benefits. The IRS also announced that it will continue to monitor the events in Israel and that it may provide additional relief.
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U.S. President Joe Biden said he is "confident" Israel will act under the rules of war in its conflict with Palestine, and then added that deploying U.S. troops is not necessary. In an interview with "60 Minutes," Biden said that while he believes Hamas must be eliminated entirely, there must be a path for a Palestinian state. The US president cautioned that the threat of terrorism in the United States had increased due to unrest in the Middle East.
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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi spoke with his Iranian counterpart. The minister from China said that Beijing "will stand on the side of peace and justice, and will support the Palestinian people in their just cause of preserving their national rights." Wanf Yi also said that the main reason for what is happening now is the fact that the Palestinians' right to a state has been abandoned, and he claimed that "this historical injustice must be put to an end as soon as possible." Of course he blamed the United States and Israel.
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One day after the mass murder of over 1000 Jews in Israel, while on stage in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bono, the lead singer for the very popular group U2, mourned the hundreds of Israeli youth murdered by Hamas at the Supernova nature party near the Gaza Strip.
Bono told the crowd: “We sing for our brothers and sisters, who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel. We sing for those. Our people. Our kind of people. Music people, playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them.”
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On Monday, the European Commission said that aid payments for Palestinians would NOT be suspended. That statement directly contradicts an earlier statement made by one of its top officials earlier the same day. The Commission said it was launching a review of its assistance for Palestine following Hamas' attack on Israel at the weekend. According to the second statement: "In the meantime, as there were no payments foreseen, there will be no suspension of payments".
The earlier statement was released on X by Oliver Varhelyi, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement.
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The IDF Spokesperson's Unit reported that the Israel Air Force (IAF) attacked Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, including the entrance to an underground terror tunnel utilized by Hamas to infiltrate into Israel. Additionally, Hamas weapon caches, war rooms, and military equipment storerooms were attacked by the IAF.
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Not surprisingly, Israel has imposed a total blockade of the Gaza Strip in response to Hamas’ Israeli bloodbath.
Also not surprisingly, official PA media have cheered the terror. One image even depicts Israel as a rat being crushed by Hamas.
And pleasantly surprising, several restaurants in the Tel Aviv area that have not been kosher are now kashering their kitchens – making their kitchens kosher, so that they can help out in sending foods to the large number of Israeli soldiers and reservists now being deployed across Israel.
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is on the move and is expected to visit Moscow. Russian news media has quoted the Palestinian envoy to Moscow as saying: "We are awaiting an official statement from the Kremlin, from the Russian side, about when the visit will take place."
Russia's RBC news outlet quoted Palestinian Ambassador Abdel Hafiz Nofal as saying: "An agreement has been reached that Mr. Abbas will come here to Moscow." Separately, the PA ambassador told Russia's state television that the two sides maintain "daily contacts."
Russian President Vladimir Putin last met with Abbas a year ago on the sidelines of a regional conference in Kazakhstan. Abbas’ last visit to Moscow took place two years ago.
Russia, which has relationships with many Arab countries, with Iran, with Hamas and with Israel, condemned violence against both sides in this war and then proceeded to accuse the United States of ignoring the need for an independent Palestinian state.
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And former U.S. President Barack Obama, too, has joined the choir of condemnations against Hamas's attack on Israel. Posting his remarks on X, as did former President Clinton, Obama wrote: "All Americans should be horrified and outraged by the brazen terrorist attacks on Israel and the slaughter of innocent civilians … "We grieve for those who died, pray for the safe return of those who’ve been held hostage, and stand squarely alongside our ally, Israel, as it dismantles Hamas. As we support Israel’s right to defend itself against terror, we must keep striving for a just and lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike."
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Former U.S. President Bill Clinton has urged Israeli politicians to put aside their differences and seek unity in the face of Hamas' barbaric attack on southern Israeli communities. Using the social media platform X to convey his message, Clinton wrote; "I condemn the horrific terrorist assault carried out by Hamas in Israel, and mourn the senseless loss of life. My heart is with all those affected by the violence, including American families ... "Now is a time for the world to rally against terrorism and to support Israeli democracy. I stand with the government of Israel and all Israelis, and urge them to stand together. This is a moment to focus on purpose over politics.
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Sierra Leone's president, Julius Maada Wonie Bio, has promised that his country will open an embassy in Jerusalem. The news came, according to Israel’s foreign ministry, in the form of a phone call with Foreign Minister Eli Cohen. This is another example of the countries accepting Israel and siding with Israel in the world of International diplomacy.
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The Supreme Court in the Netherlands has ruled that both former Israeli Chief of Staff Benni Gantz and Air Force Commander Amir Eshel are immune to civil proceedings against them alleging war crimes during the 2014 Gaza war.
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Israel's rhythmic gymnastics team won a gold medal in the all round world competition in Spain beating China and the Spanish team. It was the team’s first Gold Medal in movement. Another example of the impact Israel is making on the world. Go for the Gold, Israel.
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Russia's military cooperation with Iran will not succumb to geopolitical pressure, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said. His comments came following reports that Washington has asked Teheran to stop selling drones to Moscow.
According to a report from RIA, a Russian State News Agency, Ryabkov said: "There are no changes, and cooperation with Iran will continue … We are independent states and do not succumb to the dictates of the United States and its satellites." And citing an Iranian official and another source the Financial Times has reported that the United States is pressing Iran to stop selling the armed drones, which Russia is using in the war in Ukraine.
Russia began using the Iranian-made Shahed drones to attack deep inside Ukraine last year. The so-called kamikaze unmanned drones do not need a runway to launch and they explode on impact.
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Iran is not only developing its nuclear capabilities, as we discussed in out Background briefing, but also their electronic warfare capabilities.
Iran launched exercises to test its "electronic warfare" capabilities against mock enemy drones, fighter jets and helicopters, state television reported. It said units from the military's navy, ground and air forces as well as air defences took part in the drills in the central, largely desert region of the Islamic Republic.
The exercises featured domestically manufactured radars, drones, manned and unmanned fighter jets, micro aerial vehicles and other military equipment, state TV said.
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An oil leak has hit a transmission pipeline linking Iran's Kharg island to the country's mainland port of Genaveh.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported the leak without specifying the magnitude of the spill. According to an official from Bushehr Province: "To prevent oil leakage on the seabed from the pipelines, diving teams have been dispatched."
The official also said that two vessels had been sent to Kharg and Genaveh's coasts to help with the clean-up. Kharg island, located 25 kilometers off the Gulf coast of Iran, hosts an oil terminal from which a large part of the country's oil exports are shipped.
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An Iranian Jew detained at Ben Gurion Airport on suspicion of espionage has been deported from Israel.
It is Israel’s Shin Bet that revealed both the arrest and the deportation. The agency stated that the suspect, who has family ties in Israel, confessed to receiving assignments from Iranian security officials and coming to Israel for the purpose of carrying out certain tasks.
Included in his tasks were covert information gathering and photography. During his interrogation, it was revealed that this Iranian Jew had met with Iranian security personnel and was briefed by them before his arrival in Israel.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leveled criticism at Washington amid reports on emerging understandings between the U.S. and Iran.
A statement released by the office of the prime minister reads: "Israel's position is clear: arrangements that do not dismantle Iran's nuclear infrastructure do not stop its nuclear ambitions and only provide funds that will reach Iranian-backed terror proxies."
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Israel has ruled out a diplomatic base in Jerusalem for the new Saudi envoy to the Palestinians. This new appointment comes as Washington tries to forge formal Israeli relations with Riyadh.
The Saudi Ambassador to Jordan, Nayef Al-Sudairi, expanded his credentials to include non-resident envoy to the Palestinians.
A social media post by his embassy in Amman said "consul-general in Jerusalem" was now among Al-Sudairi's duties.
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The all-time record for electricity consumption in Israel was broken this past Sunday at noon, and stood at 15,690 megawatts according to the Noga Electricity System Management Company. The previous record was set on July 25.
According to Shaul Goldstein, the CEO of Noga, "The demand records that have been broken several times this summer are the result of the heavy heat and its persistence, as well as the result of economic growth in recent years."
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An attack on a Shi'ite Muslim shrine in Iran's central city of Shiraz killed at least four people. State media, which reported the attack, add that one person had been arrested.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack on the Shah Cheragh shrine, which state news agency IRNA said had been carried out by terrorists. Tasnim, the semi-official news agency of Iran, reports that at least seven people were wounded and shops in the area had been closed. State TV said the shrine area had been cordoned off by security forces.
Last October, Islamic State announced that it had launched an attack against this same shrine – an attack in which 15 people were killed.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the ultra-Orthodox parties to compromise on a softened military conscription plan – a plan that was less than they were promised, out of fear that the reservist crisis in the military would also permeate the regular units.
Netanyahu hoped that this new plan would not inflame the protest against the judicial overhaul. The ultra-Orthodox parties, however, firmly refused the plan.
They are insisting that the law exempting yeshiva students from military service be promoted immediately with the beginning of the winter session, as part of an outline that will be immune from judicial review.
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Temperatures in Morocco have, for the first time on record, topped 50°C (120°F), that information has been obtained courtesy of the North African country’s meteorological service. Moroccans are suffering through a scorching heatwave.
According to the country’s General Directorate of Meteorology, the southern coastal city of Agadir recorded the new national record of 50.4°C.
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Britain warned their citizens travelling to Sweden of possible terrorist attacks by outraged Muslims following the burning of Korans by anti-Islam activists. In updated travel advice, Britain's foreign ministry said Swedish authorities had successfully disrupted some planned attacks and made arrests.
The statement read: "You should be vigilant at this time … terrorists are very likely to try and carry out attacks in Sweden." Obviously sites visited by foreigners are potential targets for terrorists. While Koran burnings are permitted in Sweden under free speech rules, Muslims view burning of their holy book as blasphemy.
The U.S. government has also warned of possible terrorist attacks in Sweden in its travel advice.
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A Russian government-linked hacking group took aim at dozens of global organizations with a campaign to steal login credentials by engaging users in Microsoft Teams chats pretending to be from technical support. This information was announced by Microsoft researchers and security experts.
Microsoft explains that these "highly targeted" social engineering attacks have affected "fewer than 40 unique global organizations" since late May.
By way of a blog, Microsoft researchers added that the company was investigating the breach. The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the Microsoft researchers, the plan worked this way: Hackers set up domains and accounts that looked like technical support and tried to engage teams and users in chats and get them to approve multifactor authentication (MFA) prompts.
According to a statement released by Microsoft: "Microsoft has mitigated the actor from using the domains and continues to investigate this activity and work to remediate the impact of the attack."
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Kuwait announced that Iran's foreign minister has invited his Kuwaiti counterpart to Tehran. It will not be a friendly meeting. Tensions are simmering over the offshore Durra gas field.
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait claim exclusive joint rights to the field while Iran also claims a stake in the gas field. Iranian leadership is claiming that a Saudi-Kuwaiti agreement to develop the field that was signed last year, is illegal.
I expect that tensions on this issue will continue to rise.
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Iranian news agencies reported that Iran has equipped its Revolutionary Guards' navy with drones and 1,000-km (600-mile) range missiles. Meanwhile, the U.S. is offering to put security guards on commercial ships going through the Gulf's Strait of Hormuz.
According to IRNA, the Iranian state news agency, "Various types of drones ... and several hundred cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 300 to 1,000 km are among the systems and equipment that were added to the capabilities of the Guards' navy".
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In a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Lebanon called on its citizens to quickly leave Lebanese territory and to avoid approaching areas of armed conflicts.
The foreign ministry of Bahrain has also called on its citizens to leave Lebanon because of "armed conflict".
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Israel’s political-security cabinet was convened in response to a shooting attack in Tel Aviv that took place after a Palestinian was killed by settlers in an incident in Burqa.
All this as tensions with Hezbollah on the northern border continue to build. The cabinet meeting, led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was originally supposed to vote on concessions for the Palestinians – a move they considered under pressure from the United States which is trying to shore up the Palestinian Authority.
Relevant military officials were informed that, while the discussion about the Palestinians is on the agenda, after a terror attack in downtown Tel Aviv, concessions that were supposed to be voted on would, instead, come up for another discussion at some later time.
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An Israeli tourist filed a complaint with local police in Berlin, the capital of Germany, claiming that he was attacked after speaking Hebrew on the street. In a statement released by Israel’s Foreign Ministry: "the issue is known and is being handled by the Israeli embassy in Germany. We are in contact with the citizen and are awaiting the results of the investigation by the German police.”
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Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a former Ambassador to the United States, expressed critique for the Biden White House.
In an interview with Fox News Dermer said that the judicial overhaul is, quote, "an internal matter in Israel, and it is something that other democratic leaders should not interfere with." end quote.
According to Dermer, I’m quoting again, "the prime minister is acting according to the policy he established as prime minister, and I will encourage all leaders around the world to respect the decisions of other democratic countries."
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Inbar Lanir, the world judo champion for women up to 78 kg, won a gold medal at the Hungarian Masters 2023 championship in Budapest. Fellow Israeli judoka Peter Paltchik won a silver medal at the tournament in the men’s up to 100-kilogram after losing in the final to his Uzbek rival.
Good going Israel which continues to excel in worldwide Judo competitions.
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The Shin Bet and the IDF have been investigating a weapons smuggling incident that occurred early last week in the northern part of the Jordan Valley. The investigation centers on an unusual smuggling operation that took place at night.
Specific details of the incident, which have been described as extraordinary compared to previous smuggling attempts, are not yet released, the details are currently under a gag order. We do, however, know that the crackdown on the smugglers involved members of the Israel Border Police intelligence unit, along with IDF forces from the Jordan Valley Brigade.
In recent years, Jordan Valley crossings have become a favored route for smuggling weapons, funds and resources by criminal and terrorist organizations attempting to infiltrate Israel and the West Bank. Since its establishment, the Jordan Valley Brigade has intercepted thousands of smuggled weapons.
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Islamic State, aka ISIS, has claimed responsibility for an attack on the Sayeda Zeinab shrine which is located south of Damascus, the capital city of Syria.
ISIS attackers killed several people and wounded several others. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released on its Telegram channel.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he hoped the Knesset's summer recess would be used as a time to find common ground on the judicial overhaul.
At the start of his weekly cabinet meeting Netanyahu said: "I hope that this time, the opposition would respond to our extended hand to reach agreement."
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A 13-year-old Jewish boy was attacked in France by three people because of his Jewish religious appearance. According to the police report, his attackers threatened to kill the 13-year-old and promised to take revenge on him if he filed a complaint with the police.
Theat very same day, a 65-year-old Jewish man was attacked in the United States after leaving a Chabad House in San Diego. As part of this attack, the attackers tore off the man’s tzitzit and shouted antisemitic and anti-Israel slurs. Local police have opened an investigation.
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Likud MK Yuli Edelstein said he won’t automatically support the government’s passing of additional legislation in the judicial overhaul without Israel reaching a wide consensus for further moves.
While being interviewed by Ynet, Member of Knesset Edelstein said: “I let everyone know that upcoming legislations on the judicial reform will have to be presented to me fully before I'll decide whether to support them or not.”
Edelstein also said that any forging of relations with Saudi Arabia did not appear imminent, disputing U.S. President Joe Biden's prediction last week of a possible rapprochement between the Middle East powers. Edelstein, who is head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and is a senior member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party told Israel’s Army Radio: "I think it's too early to talk about a deal being in the works."
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Before the start of the summer recess, the government of Israel approved the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee to build a plan to aid in the absorption of the Bnei Manashe community.
The Bnei Menashe community, a community of Indian Jews living on the border of India and Burma, is caught in a civil war between the local Meitei and Kuki tribes in northeastern India.
According to Minister of Immigration and Absorption Ofir Sofer, who initiated the establishment of the committee, the program is expected to help the absorption of the Bnei Menashe and bring them to Israel in the next four months.
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The Shin Bet announced that it has uncovered an Iranian phishing campaign, designed to gather information about Israelis. That’s phishing with a P H not fishing with an F.
It’s a fraudulent way of obtaining information from unsuspecting targets via computer.
In this case, Iranian representatives, posing as conference organizers contacted Israeli civil servants and researchers through fake profiles on the LinkedIn network to obtain their private information. These same officials took over the Israelis' computers through fake invitations to conferences. Once the Israeli targets clicked on the invitations, the Iranians were able to have total access to their computers through malicious spyware.
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Everyone, as you can tell,, has an opinion about judicial reform. Many are what we would call hot-headed
Everyone, as you can tell, has an opinion about judicial reform. Many are what we would call hot-headed opinions. But not all.
To give some perspective, listen to what one of the leaders of the judicial reform bill had to say after the legislation passed. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that Israel has become "a little more democratic and Jewish. I am glad that we were able to take the first step, this is only the beginning … I say to the people of the left, to those who are protesting – you are our brothers and we love you, but our job is to govern and carry out a completely right-wing policy.
Today you understand the difference between this government and previous governments - with God's help, this is only the beginning."
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The chairman of the National Unity party, Benny Gantz, said in a statement to the media that: "We will do everything to turn back the wheel and fix it. It will happen … Everything approved here will be canceled and erased from the law books, sooner or later.”
Gantz also said that the "majority in the Knesset that wants agreements was defeated by extreme Knesset members who decided to change our identity, who want to take us to an abyss of hatred, to divide us, and to turn us on each other.”
He said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "preferred the political needs of Ben-Gvir and the whims of Levin over Israel’s political diplomacy and its security."
Gantz continues on and said that: “Anyone who saw the defense minister beg the justice minister to compromise understands how badly Israel now needs a responsible adult.”
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Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah has jumped on the judicial reform bandwagon.
Nasrallah addressed the judicial reform issue in Israel in a religious speech preaching: "Once it was commonly believed that Israel could not be defeated and its army is invincible, and as such, the countries in the region accepted its existence as an inevitable fact that cannot be removed."
Nasrallah continued saying that: "Today specifically is the worst day in the history of Israel, as some Israelis testify, and today sets the country on the path to disappearance."
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According to a statement released by the White House, U.S. President Joe Biden will keep pressing and pressing for a broader consensus among Israeli politicians regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul.
The statement was released after Israel's parliament ratified an initial bill. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden has not given up on his goal of a broader consensus after last-gasp compromise efforts collapsed and failed to ease a constitutional crisis convulsing Israel for months.
The White House also said that the United States continues to support President Isaac Herzog's efforts to achieve a broad consensus regarding changes in the Israeli justice system.
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On a completely different topic – twitter is changing its logo. No longer will it be blue and white and a dove. The web address X.com now leads to Twitter – another step on the way to changing the name of the old social network to X.
Elon Musk, the owner of the platform, announced earlier today that he intends to get rid of the Twitter brand and the blue bird associated with it. A temporary X logo has already gone live.
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Before the vote in the Knesset, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog submitted a mediation proposal to representatives of the government and to the opposition regarding the law to abolish the reasonableness standard and freezing the rest of the judicial overhaul legislation.
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the compromise proposal regarding the reasonableness standard was acceptable to the senior opposition, the only obstacle being the freezing of the legislation.
Likud, Netanyahu’s party, refuses to freeze the legislation for more than three months, while opposition leader Yair Lapid demands a freeze of 15 months. This is where compromise could have worked.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited Nairobi at the invitation of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and Kenyan Foreign Minister Monica Juma.
The visit was set against the backdrop of the semi-annual meeting of the African Union. It was a good meeting.
During the brief visit, Cohen met with his hosts and other African leaders. Kenya is one of the leading countries supporting Israel and implementing the Jewish state’s observer status in the African Union.
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Four additional energy companies have put forth bids in response to Israel's latest tender for offshore exploration blocks.
The Energy Ministry reports that bids have come from a total of nine companies, five of which are new to the Israeli market.
The ministry did not, however, name the companies that took part in the tender for exploration blocs off Israel’s Mediterranean coast.
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Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel has foiled about 50 Iranian attacks in recent years, some at the very last moment. Gallant made this announcement while on an official visit to Azerbaijan.
He told reporters that Tehran had not abandoned its objective of entrenchment in Syria and emphasized that Iran’s activity is in full swing – not only in the region but also around the world.
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There continues to be a massive heatwave in Israel. The Noga company, the company that is responsible for managing the electric grid in Israel, said that "due to the extreme weather, electricity consumption throughout the country is abnormal and causes loads on the system."
Wanting to avoid mass panic or alarm, the company further reported that "as part of our assessments, we do not foresee any difficulty in supplying the entire amount of the public's expected consumption in the coming days.
We ask the citizens of Israel to refrain from operating non-essential 'energy-guzzling' electrical appliances such as washing machines, clothes dryers and dishwashers between the hours of 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized Israel during a meeting with NATO leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania for failing to support his country in its war against Russia.
The Ukrainian leader accused Israel of refusing to provide air defense systems and weapons to his country and og strengthening ties with Moscow instead.
Zelensky also stated that "Netanyahu has been invited to Ukraine several times but refuses to come."
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The IDF will purchase a third squadron of F-35 stealth fighter jets from the United States, the Defense Ministry announced. These jets will add to Israel’s Air Force which already includes 75 aircraft of this type in its arsenal. The cost of the purchase is estimated to reach three billion dollars. It will be paid for with military aid from the U.S.
This is one of the most important footnotes of US aid. The United States requires recipients to buy United States equipment with the aid they get from the United States.
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Tickets to Israeli singer Noa Kirel’s upcoming performance in Tel Aviv – slated to take place in September, were sold out just hours after the sale opened.
The production company announced that additional dates for a second performance are being looked into, to be set two days after the first show.
After Eurovision, Noa has become a household name in Israel. So popular, that she could easily sell out every night for a week.
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The Knesset's Ethics Committee determined that no sanctions would be imposed against Knesset member Simcha Rothman of the Religious Zionism party following an incident that occurred in New York a month ago when Rothman grabbed a megaphone from a protester demonstrating against Israel’s judicial overhaul.
Following the incident, Knesset member Naama Lazimi of the Labor party appealed to the Ethics Committee claiming that Rothman acted violently even though he was not under threat. The committee's decision reads: "In this case, no ethical violation was committed.
At the same time, the committee wishes to point out that holding a public office brings with it criticism and Knesset members are expected not to enter into a physical confrontation with protesters."
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Israel's youth soccer team will participate in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
It is the first time in 47 years - ever since 1976, that Israel’s soccer team will compete in this sought after competition. This is not the under 20 competition or the Junior Olympics - this is the real deal of Games. This is the Olympics.
The spot was secured after England's team beat Portugal 1:0 in the quarter-finals of the Euro championship games. Only three young teams automatically qualify for the Olympic Games, and England cannot get that ticket, since Great Britain participates in the Olympics and not the individual countries that make up Great Britain.
Therefore, Israel will be among the three teams to qualify.
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Billions of Muslims around the world are watching as about 2 million Muslim pilgrims officially made the annual Hajj pilgrimage.
After circling Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba, they converged on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert for a day and night of prayer. The Hajj pilgrimage, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, has returned to full capacity this year for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago.
The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam. If they are physically and financially able, all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives.
Some Muslims spend years saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the journey.
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Not surprisingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who expressed full support for Russian leadership after the Wagner Group’s move toward Moscow was aborted. Russia and Iran are linked.
Both are isolated in the international community and their mutual support is essential.
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About 2 million Muslim pilgrims officially began the annual Hajj pilgrimage. After circling Islam's holiest site, the Kaaba, they converged on a vast tent camp in the nearby desert for a day and night of prayer.
The Hajj pilgrimage, one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, has returned to full capacity this year for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam.
If they are physically and financially able, all Muslims are required to make the five-day Hajj at least once in their lives. Some Muslims spend years saving up money and waiting for a permit to embark on the journey.
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According to eyewitnesses and rescue personnel, Russian jets bombed villages and towns near the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib, killing at least nine civilians and wounding dozens.
This was a major flare-up of violence in Syria's last opposition stronghold.
According to the Western-backed White Helmets emergence response group, warplanes flying at high altitude, which tracking centers identified as Russian Sukhoi jets, dropped bombs on a vegetable market in Jisr al-Shughour while it was crowded with shoppers ahead of the Muslim feast of Eid al Adha, leaving at least nine dead and 30 injured. No immediate comment was available from Russia or its allies in the Syrian army.
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Sparks were flying at Israel’s weekly cabinet meeting.
As the meeting began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the advice of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who had encouraged people to go to West Bank outposts, by saying that, and I’m quoting: "such statements undermine law and order– they must stop immediately."
Netanyahu added that, and I’m quoting again: "we will not condone such actions and our government will act firmly against them. They harm the settlement enterprise and the vital interests of the State of Israel." unquote.
Pay close attention to these internal conflicts and stressful issues - this is how a ruling government unravels and ultimately falls.
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Israel’s clandestine intelligence agency, The Mossad, confirmed reports that a plot to attack Israelis in Cyprus, ordered by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, was foiled.
Cypriot media had reported that their security forces had arrested members of a terror cell targeting Israelis in the city of Limassol.
A statement that the spy agency released through the office of Israel’s prime minister reads: "Israel employs numerous means in various places in order to protect Jews and Israelis and prevent Iranian terror".
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The media has quoted the Jordanian army as saying that it had downed a drone carrying drugs from Syria into its northern frontier region.
According to those reports, Jordan has made clear that it would not allow their border area to become a front line in an Iran-linked drug war. The Hashemite Kingdom has blamed pro-Iranian militias - militias the Jordanians claim are protected by units within the Syrian army, for smuggling drugs across its borders towards lucrative Gulf markets.
Damascus says it is doing its best to curb smuggling and continues to bust smuggler rings in the south and Syrian leadership denies complicity by Iranian-backed militias linked to its army and security forces.
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After failing to build a sufficient client base and market share, Uber Eats has announced that it will be leaving Israel. And Israel is not alone.
Uber Eats has also announced that it will end food deliveries in Italy. According to Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber will invest only in markets in which their company can be the largest or second largest player in the market.
All this makes sense when you study the Uber business model. Uber only engages when it can really win.
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According to a US official, Iran tested a suicide drone against a practice vessel in the Gulf. They also fired either another missile or a drone without warning ships in the area.
The one-way aka suicide drone was launched from the Jask area of Iran 8-9 miles out to sea – which is within Iran's territorial waters.
According to the official, who was citing US intelligence data, the drone was launched against a practice barge. Suicide drones are very difficult to defend against.
They are slower than a rocket or a missile, they are smaller than a rocket or a missile, they are hand-controlled and they can fly under radar.
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North Korea claims that about eight hundred thousand of its citizens volunteered to join or reenlist in the nation's military to fight against the United States.
According to North Korea's state newspaper, the eight hundred thousand students and workers from around the country enlisted and re-enlisted in one single day.
This rather impressive claim came after North Korea launched its Hwasong-17 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in response to ongoing U.S-South Korea military drills.
North Korea fired the ICBM into the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan just hours before South Korea's president flew to Tokyo for a summit to discuss ways to counter a nuclear-armed North Korea.
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Egypt and Turkey took another step towards mending relations when Ankara's top diplomat visited Cairo for the first time since ties were ruptured a decade ago and held talks with his Egyptian counterpart.
Relations between the countries were severely strained in 2013. That was when Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt's then-army chief, led the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, an ally of Ankara. Since 2021, tension between the two countries has gradually thawed. At a joint news conference with his Turkish counterpart, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said talks with Turkey on the possibility of restoring ties to ambassadorial level would happen at "the appropriate time". He termed the talks "honest, deep and transparent".
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Russian State Media reported that President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Mariupol. It was the Kremlin leader's first trip to the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine's Donbas region since the start of the war.
The visit to Mariupol came on the heels of an unannounced visit Putin paid to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of Russia's annexation of the peninsula from Ukraine. It was, also, just two days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
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Ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Egypt hosted Israeli and Palestinian officials in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh in a U.S. and Jordanian backed effort to calm a surge of violence in the West Bank. The five-way meeting followed the Feb. 26th U.S.-brokered summit in Jordan, the first of its kind in years, that secured Israeli and Palestinian pledges to de-escalate.
The best of intensions aside, that summit did not end in success. It was challenged by factions on both sides and failed to halt the violence on the ground.
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Syrian President Bashar al Assad arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for an official visit. On this trip, the Syrian president was accompanied by his wife Asma al Assad.
Long isolated by the Arab world, more and more Arab states have signaled an openness to easing the isolation of Damascus. This visit was marked with more ceremony than the trip Assad paid to the UAE last year. Last year was Assad’s first to an Arab state since the Syrian civil war began in 2011. During that war Gulf states, including the UAE, backed the rebels fighting to overthrow Assad and his regime.
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Iran and Saudi Arabia have begun to get cozy, diplomatically speaking. They are re-establishing ties and the Iranian government has offered a proposal to Saudi Arabia. According to the Iranian foreign minister, Iran has suggested three locations for a meeting at the foreign ministry level.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told a news conference in Tehran that his country had agreed to the meeting. What he did not reveal, however, was the suggested locations or the time table for the meeting.
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Palestinian terrorist group Hamas praised a shooting attack in which an Israeli man was seriously wounded in the Palestinian West Bank town of Huwara. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem called the attack a "natural response to the crimes of the occupation against the Palestinian people”. "The resistance in the West Bank” he said “is getting stronger, more present and more rooted, and all security forces cannot stop it or bypass it".
One has to ask how it is possible to publicly support attacks against innocent civilians, in this case, an innocent family driving in their car. The father - a dual citizen of both Israel and America, and an ex-marine, managed to shoot and wound his attacker even after sustaining a shot to the head.
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The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange dipped after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank which sent shock waves throughout the global tech industry.
The stock exchange’s benchmark TA-125 index dropped three point thirty-one percent, while the TA-35 index of blue-chip companies lost three point one percent. Other prominent indices, such TA-Biomed, TA-RealEstate, TA-Investment Properties Abroad and TA-Banks5, fell by 4 to 5 percent each. Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is the biggest lender to fail since the 2008 crisis.
The repercussions of this event are expected to have a substantial impact on tech companies and technologies worldwide, including those based in Israel.
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Russian forces suffered more than eleven hundred dead in less than a week of battles near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the focal point of fighting in eastern Ukraine.
The report comes to us via the nightly video address of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who said: "In less than a week, starting from 6th March, we managed to kill more than eleven hundred enemy soldiers in the Bakhmut sector alone, Russia's irreversible loss, right there, near Bakhmut.”
Zelenskyy also reported that Russian forces had also sustained fifteen hundred "sanitary losses" – those are soldiers wounded badly enough to keep them out of further action. Additionally, dozens of pieces of enemy equipment were destroyed as were more than 10 Russian ammunition depots.
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Israeli forces will hold an international earthquake exercise from March 12th to the 25th. The exercise will be led by the Defense Ministry’s National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA).
The announcement came from the ministry’s spokesperson. The move comes nearly a month after the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria that claimed the lives of over forty-six thousand people. The exercise will be “focused on receiving international aid in the case of an earthquake together with Israeli emergency and rescue agencies.” It will simulate all necessary emergency procedures including the initial decision to request international assistance, integrating foreign rescue teams, distributing aid to various locations within the country, and the receival process of international aid.
Hopefully, this will remain an exercise and never need to be implemented.
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New York State published an official announcement in which it recommended that all citizens planning to fly to Israel get the Polio vaccine, due to the recent outbreak in Israel.
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Iranian state media reported that Tehran finalized a deal to buy Sukhoi-35 fighter jets from Russia, as defense cooperation between the two countries deepens. This is very important for IranTheThis is very important for Iran which is struggling under hard hitting sanctions imposed on them by the West.
The Iranian air force of sanctions-hit Iran has an aging fleet of aircraft and has struggled to obtain spare parts to keep its warplanes functional. In a statement to the United Nations, the Islamic Republic said it began approaching “countries to buy fighter jets” to replenish its fleet in the wake of the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988.
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Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen their embassies. This decision follows seven years of tensions. The major diplomatic breakthrough, which was negotiated with China, lowers the chance of armed conflict between the Mideast rivals - both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region.
While Saudi Arabia kept Washington informed of its talks with Iran to restore diplomatic relations, according to John Kirby, the White House Spokesman, the United States was not directly involved. Kirby explained that the road map that was announced appeared to be the result of several rounds of talks, including some held in Baghdad and Oman and that the United States has supported that process as promoting an end to the war in Yemen and to what he termed Iranian aggression. He said: "The Saudis did keep us informed about these talks that they were having, just as we keep them informed on our engagements, but we weren't directly involved."
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Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has hailed the resumption of relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Normalization, he said, was a "good development" that could "help resolve crises" in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and the wider region. In a televised address, Nasrallah said: "It's a good thing” and then he added the caveat, “we are convinced that this will not be at our expense."
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El Al, Israel's flagship airliner, was having trouble manning a flight to take Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara to Italy. And so, the office of the prime minister reported that they were opening a tender to locate a pilot able to fly the 777 plane.
Since his government began its push to legislate a judicial overhaul, a move that has enraged countless many in the Israeli public, El Al pilots and cabin crew have been avoiding flights with the first couple of Israel.
In an official statement El Al explained – or perhaps explained away the difficulty saying that it was the result of a limited number of pilots attached to the 777 fleets. The Netanyahu's were travelling to Italy to meet with Italian far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In the end, El AL found a crew.
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Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and United Arab Emirates Ambassador to Israel Muhammad Mahmoud Al Khaja signed a customs valuation agreement.
The agreement will put into effect the free trade agreement they already signed in May of 2022. This agreement is expected to lower or remove customs on 96% of products imported and exported between the countries.
According to Foreign Minister Cohen: “The agreement will strengthen Israel’s economy.”
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Israel has criticized Brazil for their decision granting berth to two Iranian warships.
Brazil came to their decision despite pressure by the United States not to grant berth to the warships. Israel also urged Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's government to send the ships, which are docked in Rio de Janeiro, away.
Reuters has reported that, back in January, Brazil declined to admit the Iranian ships as a gesture from Lula to Washington as he flew to DC to meet U.S. President Joe Biden.
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The United States imposed new sanctions on Iranian or Iran-linked shipping and petrochemical companies, including two shipping firms based in China. These sanctions can be viewed on the US Treasury Department's website. According to the website, the sanctions also targeted 20 shipping vessels linked to firms in China, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates.
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Hungary is set to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem. The move, which will take place next month, is an act of support by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu.
This dramatic move will make Hungary the first member state of the European Union to open an embassy in Jerusalem, which Israel claims as its capital, but which is not recognized by most countries because they question Jerusalem’s status under international law.
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Israel hosted top U.S. military officer, Army General Mark Milley. Milley came to Israel for a series of discussions including the need for cooperation on denying Iran nuclear weaponry. Milley’s trip was unannounced. America’s top military officer arrived in Israel ahead of a trip to Israel by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Austin’s trip also includes neighboring countries Egypt and Jordan – both U.S.-aligned Arab states that have influence on Israeli-Palestinian affairs.
According to sources, the real purpose behind Milley’s trip was to convey US insistence that Israel not act unilaterally against Iran.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has indicated that talks were ongoing with Iran on two sets of important matters including the science sector, and there there was "great expectation" about the process.
Rafael Grossi began a series of meetings in Tehran by saying that diplomats said they were pushing Iran to cooperate with an IAEA investigation into uranium traces found at undeclared sites that had been enriched close to nuclear-weapons grade.
IN Tehran Grossi spoke to reporters and told them: "Globally speaking, there are two sets of matters that are important. Clearly, there is a great expectation about our joint work in order to move forward in the issues that Iran and the agency are working on, to clarify and to bring credible assurances about the nuclear program in Iran".
We are being told that Iran responded very positively to the meetings and have given sweeping assurances to the UN nuclear watchdog that it will finally assist a long-stalled investigation into uranium particles found at undeclared sites and even re-install removed monitoring equipment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran issued a joint statement just two days before a quarterly meeting of the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors.
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A man in NYC was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to a federal hate crime conspiracy charge for a series of antisemitic assaults her perpetrated in New York City. Saadah Masoud, 29, of Staten Island, was arrested in June after authorities said that in April he punched and dragged a counter-protester, who was draped in an Israeli flag, at a pro-Palestinian demonstration.
Prosecutors said that Masoud also admitted to attacking another person wearing a Star of David necklace in May of 2021 and another man wearing a yarmulke, a Jewish skullcap, a month later.
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German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius reacted with skepticism to a Chinese ceasefire proposal for the war in Ukraine.
During an interview with German public broadcast Deutschlandfunk, the defense minister said: "When I hear reports - and I don't know whether they are true - according to which China may be planning to supply kamikaze drones to Russia while at the same time presenting a peace plan, then I suggest we judge China by its actions and not its words.”
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Israel's Union of Social Workers announced that, because the Finance Ministry has not kept its commitment to devote NIS 200 million to reforming social workers' salaries, they will hold demonstrations throughout the country. If their demands are still not met, the demonstrations will be followed by a general strike.
The Chairman of the Union of Social Workers, Attorney Inbal Harmoni, said in a statement: "The Finance Ministry and the entire government of Israel [negated] the salary increase that was signed and agreed upon with us.
"In the coming days, we will disrupt all social services throughout the country until a complete shutdown [is achieved] and [stage] demonstrations throughout the country."
Social workers are an integral part of Israeli society. When they strike, countless Israelis suffer.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired a senior military commander, a man who helped lead Ukraine’s fight against Russian troops in the country's embattled east. But the Ukrainian president gave no reason for his decision.
In a one-line decree, Zelensky announced the dismissal of Eduard Moskalyov as commander of the joint forces of Ukraine, which are engaged in battles in the Donbas region.
Zelensky mentioned Moskalyov’s firing in his daily address when listing the military commanders he had spoken to. Moskalyov, who’s name was glaringly missing from the list of military commanders, had been in the post since March 2022, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
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CIA Director William Burns said, while being interviewed by CBS TV, that Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity has been steadily rising and will soon be able to reach a level of 90%.
According to the CIA director, “They’ve advanced very far to the point that it would only be a matter of weeks before they could enrich to 90% if they chose to cross that line, and also in terms of their missile systems, their ability to deliver a nuclear weapon once they develop it, has also been advancing as well.” This is not good news.
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El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. announced that it has become the first Israeli national carrier to use a new corridor over Saudi Arabia and Oman. This flight path was made possible after Muscat joined Riyadh in allowing Israeli civilian overflights. As a result, when El Al Flight 083, departs Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport in the evening, it will take only around eight hours to reach Bangkok - two and a half hours less than previous trips.
El Al CEO Dina Ben Tal Ganancia spoke for the entire company when she said: "El Al is proud to be the first Israeli airline to fly over the skies of Saudi Arabia and Oman and take an active part in the State of Israel's history.”
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Israel’s Ministerial Committee on Legislation voted to give government backing to a bill that institutes the death penalty for terrorists. Convened on the day during which another deadly attack on Israelis had taken place, the Ministers decided that the State Security Cabinet will meet to discuss the text of the bill before it goes up for a Knesset vote.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the group and said: "we will act to deter terrorists and maintain security. We will strike terrorism with force." Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir added: "On this difficult day when two Israeli citizens were murdered, there is nothing more symbolic than passing the bill. It is a moral and fair bill."
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During that meeting, which brought together Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs for the first time in many years, Jordan's King Abdullah told U.S. President Joe Biden's top Middle East advisor that efforts should be intensified to bring "calm and reduce escalation" in Palestinian territories. Brett McGurk attended the meeting in the Red Sea port of Aqaba hosted by Jordan.
This meeting, which was attended by representatives of key parties in the region, was a very important step towards helping to reduce tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.
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Officials from Israel, Jordan, Egypt the Palestinian Authority and the U.S. concluded their meeting in Jordan. As we mentioned in one of our columns, they had convened to reduce violence in the West Bank ahead of the Muslim month of Ramadan.
The result of the meeting was that the delegates decided to form a security commission to discuss the renewal of coordination between Israel and the PA on security.
They also agreed to meet once more before Ramadan and form a joint civil commission to discuss confidence-building measures. Israel, for her part, made it clear that they have no intention of suspending the government's decision to legalize 9 outposts and construct 9,500 housing units in the West Bank.
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Jerusalem police detained a 35-year-old woman who took off her clothes and roamed around the Western Wall plaza wearing nothing but her underwear.
The woman took disrobed as a protest against a bill proposal floated last week by the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, which would impose a penalty of six months in prison and a fine on anyone who visits the Western Wall in "inappropriate attire” or behaves in a disrespectful way.
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More than 45,000 people have been killed in the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria, and the toll is expected to soar with some 264,000 apartments in Turkey destroyed and many still missing in the country's worst modern disaster.
Within three days the death toll rose from 33,000 to 45,000. The death toll in Turkey stands at 39,672, while neighboring Syria has reported more than 5,800 deaths. Syria's toll has not changed for days. Mosques around the world on Friday performed absentee funeral prayers for the dead in Turkey and Syria, many of whom could not receive full burial rites given the enormity of the disaster. The missing will soon be assumed dead. The numbers will be shocking.
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No less than 150,000 Israelis arrived over the weekend for the annual Darom Adom (Red South) festival. The festival takes place throughout February and offers a wide variety of activities for the whole family, some free of charge. The greatest attraction is the flowers.
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A senior Israeli diplomat on Saturday was removed from the African Union's annual summit in Ethiopia, as a dispute over Israel's accreditation to the bloc escalated.
Images posted online showed African Union security personnel confronting the diplomat during the opening ceremony of the summit, before she left the auditorium. "Israel looks harshly upon the incident in which the deputy director for Africa, Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li, was removed from the African Union hall despite her status as an accredited observer with entrance badges," the foreign ministry said.
The African Union said that only the Israeli ambassador to Ethiopia was credential to attend the event.
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North Korea announced that it had fired a Hwasong-15 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a "sudden launching drill" that confirmed its readiness for "mobile and mighty counterattack" against hostile forces. North Korea launched a long-range ballistic missile into the sea off Japan's west coast after warning of a strong response to upcoming military drills by South Korea and the United States.
North Korea is flexing it muscles and announcing to everyone that they are prepared to strike back if necessary
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Iran was responsible for a reported attack on an Israeli owned oil tanker last week. An attack on the Liberian-flagged Campo Square was confirmed by the ship's captain, who said it was lightly damaged by an airborne object on Feb. 10 while sailing through the Arabian Sea.
Shipping databases linked the tanker to Zodiac Maritime, which is controlled by Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer. "Last week Iran again attacked an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and harmed the international freedom of navigation," Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting.
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Bloomberg is reporting that International atomic monitors in Iran detected uranium enriched to levels just below that needed for a nuclear weapon. Bloomberg cited two senior diplomats who confirmed that Iran is enriching uranium levels far higher than permitted.
According to the report, the International Atomic Energy Agency is trying to clarify how Iran accumulated uranium enriched to 84% purity — the highest level found by inspectors in the country to date, and a concentration just 6% below what’s needed for a sophisticated nuclear weapon. Iran had previously told the IAEA that its centrifuges were configured to enrich uranium to a 60% level of purity.
This is deeply problematic!
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Israel is prepared to extend its aid to Turkey and to Syrian, to the victims of the recent earthquake. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a rare overture to the enemy Arab state. "I ordered to send, at the request of the Turkish government, rescue teams and medical aid," Netanyahu announced this at a ceremony in a hospital near Tel Aviv. "Since a request was also received to do this for many victims of the earthquake in Syria, I instructed to do this as well," he said. Netanyahu did not elaborate on who had made the request regarding Syria.
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The huge earthquake has rocked the Middle East. Thousands have died and many more are not yet found.
Israel has confirmed that it had received a Syrian request thru a third party for assistance with earthquake relief. Israel said that it was prepared to help.
This would be rare example of cooperation between the enemy neighbors. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech he had ordered Israeli aid for Turkey which was the epicenter of the earthquake.
Netanyahu said: "since a request was also received to do this for many victims of the earthquake in Syria, I instructed to do this as well". Asked who had made the request regarding helping Syria an Israeli official said: "The Syrians". Asked if this referred to opposition members or to President Bashar al-Assad's government, the official said only: "Syria.”
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The Turkish intelligence agency arrested a network of 15 Islamic State operatives, who planned to carry out a terrorist attack against the consulates of Sweden and Holland in Istanbul, in response to the protests in which burned Qurans.
The report from the Hürriyet news agency also said that the operatives planned on carrying out attacks in synagogues and churches in Istanbul.
After interrogating the terrorists Turkey said that they are certain that the terrorists were not connected to a larger cell operating in Turkey.
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Israeli Judo athletes are once again dominating international competitions.
Israeli judoka Gili Sharir won the under-63 kg gold medal at the recent Paris Grand Slam judo tournament. She won a convincing victory after dominating Japanese judoka Nami Nabekura in the final. “I am really happy to have been able to win my first Grand Slam gold medal after a very long and difficult day. A big thank you to my amazing family and good luck to all the competitors tomorrow,” said the champion after her victory.
Another Israeli competitor, Gefen Primo, won bronze in the under-52 kg category after beating Brazil’s Larissa Pimenta.
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Shevah Weiss, the former Speaker of the Knesset, passed away at age 87. Weiss was a member of the Labor party, and an MK for 18 years. Weiss was a holocaust survivor form Poland. He also served as Israel’s ambassador to Poland. November 4, 1995, Weiss was on the stage at the peace rally in Tel Aviv next to Shimon Peres when Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
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Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei pardoned "tens of thousands" of prisoners, almost all were arrested in recent anti-government protests over security-related charges, state media reported. "Prisoners not facing charges of spying for foreign agencies, having direct contact with foreign agents, committing intentional murder and injury, committing destruction and arson of state property, or not having a private plaintiff in their case will be pardoned," state media said.
According to the HRANA activist news agency, about 20,000 people have been arrested over anti-government protests sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish Iranian woman who died in Iranian police custody, in September.
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Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said that Israel and Sudan will sign a peace deal this year. Cohen returned from a brief visit to the African country and met with its leadership. Sudan joined the Abraham Accords in 2021 but did not normalize relations with Israel due to the political situation there.
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IDF and U.S. forces have concluded a joint drill. The drill was billed as their largest joint drill to date. Over 6,500 U.S. soldiers and commanders were in participation. The drill also included training and exercises between Israeli and U.S. air-forces, ground forces and navies.
Sources from both the United States and israel confirmed that this joint drill was a huge success.
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A 17-year-old Israeli was rescued after discovering himself in the middle of a minefield in the Golan Heights. The teenager was guided out of the 55 year old minefield with help from the IDF Combat Engineering Corps. The minefield, which was in an area that had been the site of wars between Israel and Syria, was strewn with deadly anti-personnel landmines decades after the hostilities ended.
Areas such as this one are all clearly marked - but every year people still wander into them. Inevitably grazing animals get blown up when they, too, wander in.
This incident had a happy ending.
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The U.S. Treasury announced that it was placing sanctions on Lebanese money exchanger Hassan Moukalled and on his because of financial ties to Hezbollah, which is on the US Treasury’s terror list. In other words, they are blackballed.
Moukalled was described as a financial adviser to Iranian-backed Hezbollah, who carried out financial transactions on the behalf of the terrorist organization that earned him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obviously, Iran is also on the US Treasury’s terror list. Moukalled was dealing with two parties on the US terror list, on both sides of his money exchange.
The US Treasury believes in squeezing terrorist money sources.
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We all know that there has been an uptick of anti-Jewish acts on college campuses across America – not just at Stanford.
The Anti-Defamation League published a report citing 359 anti-Israel or antisemitic incidents that occurred on US campuses during this past academic year 2021-2022.
359 is a big number.
According to the report, the incidents range from accusing Israel of committing genocide to banning students from organizations because they support Israel and Zionism.
More – much more, needs to be done in order to force campus administrations to crack down on this plague that is affecting student life across the country.
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The Israeli national judo team won the bronze medal at the World Judo Championship. The medal was won in the mixed team event.
The Israeli team faced Judokas from Uzbekistan, Korea and Holland during the final round of the event.
Judo has become the sport that Israel has most shined in, displaying prowess during the Olympics and during international competitions.
The Israeli public has begun to learn more about the sport in order to appropriately cheer on their teams during international competition.
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Stanford University has apologized for their anti-Jewish policies.
According to a report conducted and then made public by a university task force, this prestigious university, located in Northern California, intentionally excluded Jewish students for years.
The university's president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, issued an extensive apology in which wrote: "This ugly component of Stanford's history, confirmed by this new report, is saddening and deeply troubling."
The task force uncovered a memo from 1953 that reflecting concerns about the number of Jewish students at the university. According to the memo, the university instituted a policy that would limit recruitment and admissions from two particular schools in the Los Angeles area whose student populations were "from 95 to 98% Jewish.”
Stanford did not track the number of Jewish students specifically, but enrollment from these schools dropped precipitously. And, according to the task force report, "The impact was immediate and striking."
The university has denied allegations of anti-Jewish bias for decades.
Tessier-Lavigne pledged that Stanford would undertake a comprehensive examination of campus life for current Jewish students and embrace "religious and cultural needs."
Representatives from Stanford's Jewish Student Association applauded the president’s statement but emphasized the need for action – not just words.
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A Massachusetts town has renamed a bridge in honor of a pioneering, but little-known Jewish woman writer, who lived there during the 19th century.
Cora Wilburn, whose autobiographical novel entitled “Cosella Wayne” is most likely the first novel published in English by a Jewish woman in America, settled in Duxbury, south of Boston, as an adult and lived there until her death at the age of 82 in the year 1906.
Now, 116 years later, the town of Duxbury has dedicated the Cora Wilburn Bridge in her honor. They have renamed “Bridge D-14-009(49Q)” in tribute to this trailblazing Jewish woman whose novel and widely published poetry and essays left a mark in religious circles across the country”.
The autobiography “Cosella Wayne” was republished recently alongside a scholarly essay that was written about her by Jonathan Sarna.
Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, was invited to attend the dedication ceremony of the bridge. He remarked that a bridge was a fitting tribute to a woman who was known for bridging relationships with people different from herself.
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The New York Times reported that Israel is providing Ukraine with basic intelligence about the Iranian drones which Russia has begun to use against Ukraine. Moscow has been deploying Iranian-made Shahid 136 suicide drones in their move to control Ukraine.
A Ukrainian source told the newspaper that Israel was sharing the intelligence. The official also said that a private Israeli firm was also giving Ukraine satellite imagery of Russian troop positions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia used the drones during a recent bombing of civilian targets in major cities. The United Nations estimated that the simultaneous aerial attacks left at least 11 civilians dead and more than 100 wounded.
According to the president, Ukrainian intelligence believes that Russia ordered 2,400 Shahed 136 drones from Iran.
Despite the help that Jerusalem is providing the Ukrainians – humanitarian aid and military aid - Ukraine continues to be critical of the Jewish state for not providing more "defensive weapons and equipment," a point repeatedly made by Ukraine's ambassador to Israel as well as by President Zelensky.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that there is a shortage of the medication Adderall.
Adderall is used as a treatment for ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The shortage is due to intermittent manufacturing delays at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd worldwide.
U.S. listed shares of Teva were down as a result of the news.
Adderall is an FDA-approved prescription drug. It is used by 5%-10% of all youth in the United States and many athletes use it for a competitive edge. Many students use it to help them take tests and sharpen their attention.
This is a serious supply chain crisis.
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The United States has officially let it be known that reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is "not our focus right now".
Asked if the United States was interested in pursuing talks to revive the pact under which Iran curbed its nuclear program in return for economic sanctions relief, State Department spokesman Ned Price replied:
"It is very clear and the Iranians have made very clear that this is not a deal that they have been prepared to make. The deal certainly does not appear imminent".
This is good news and a relief to level-headed people like myself who have been worried that the United States was pushing Iran into a nuclear deal.
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Israeli-Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, who left Russia in 2014, has announced that he has officially renounced his Russian citizenship.
Milner is the founder of internet investment firm DST Global. He made his fortune by betting on Chinese tech companies like e-commerce platforms Alibaba and JD.com (9618.HK).
In a tweet, Milner wrote: "My family and I left Russia for good in 2014, after the Russian annexation of Crimea. And this summer, we officially completed the process of renouncing our Russian citizenship."
Yuri Milner is an Israeli and he is counted amongst Israel’s billionaires. But now that he is persona non grata in Russia, Milner can no longer help his friends still living in Russia with investments.
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In Germany, a politician named Holger Winterstein, from the far-right Alternative for Germany Party, was filmed dancing on top of a Holocaust memorial in Berlin. Winterstein was dancing on the stones that were erected as symbolic graves stones.
The story was reported and the film was broadcast on multiple media sources.
The incident drew outrage from multiple sources.
Israel's ambassador to Gemran, Ron Prosor, decried the incident and said to Winterstein: "enjoy your shameful minute of fame because your name will soon be forgotten. The sanctified souls commemorated at the memorial will never be forgotten."
Prosor said that the German politician brought "shame upon himself and his party."
Winterstein's party will take action against him for his behavior, the report said.
It was an act of total disregard and immaturity.
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Israel has long wanted to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to safety in Israel.
Recently, reports have been published indicating that Israel has begun that process and that flights are bring thousands of the remaining Ethiopian Jews to the Jewish homeland.
Each of the newly-arriving Ethiopians has family already living in Israel.
The timing of these trips is crucial. The move comes as war escalates, once again, in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
This is an important step in saving the lives of thousands of Ethiopian Jewry and in reuniting families that have been separated.
Bruchim HaBaim, welcome, to these new Israelis.
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Libya's Missing Persons Authority announced that they have discovered 42 bodies buried in a mass grave in the central coastal city of Sirte.
This city was a former stronghold of the ousted ISIS, the Islamic State group.
In a statement, the authority's spokesperson said the 42 bodies had been exhumed from a school site in the city following a "tip" from an investigation conducted with captured ISIS members.
Sirte is the birthplace of former longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The city fell under ISIS, Islamic State, control between 2015 and 2016.
In classis ISIS style, they chose to control the city of Sirte in order to profit from the chaos that engulfed the oil-rich nation of Libya following the chaos of their 2011 revolution.
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The Jerusalem District Court recently ruled that a young Iranian woman was innocent of any intent to harm Israeli security. The Iranian woman and three Israelis women of Iranian decent were charged with contact with a Foreign Agent.
The women were approached on social media by a man claiming to be a member of the Iranian Jewish community. He was, in fact, an agent of Iranian intelligence.
This is an important case. It highlights the difference between Israeli and other countries regarding security.
These women were not complicit in any wrongdoing. They were duped. They had no intent to harm Israel and they provided no real information to the Iranian agent.
They had no information or intel to share.
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As popular as it is, soccer can be a very dangerous sport.
In the past there have been horrific stories of mass deaths because of stampedes at soccer stadiums. And it happened again.
In Indonesia panic and a chaos ensued as people rushed for the exits after police fired tear gas during an Indonesian soccer game. The police were trying to control the unruly crowd, spurred on by the fans of the defeated team, but their efforts backfired.
At least 174 people died, most of whom were trampled upon or suffocated, making it one of the deadliest sports events in the world.
Attention immediately focused on the police’s use of tear gas, which is banned at soccer stadiums by FIFA – the international football (or soccer) federation. The president of the world soccer body called the deaths at the stadium "a dark day for all involved in football and a tragedy beyond comprehension."
Joko Widodo, president of the Republic of Indonesia, ordered an investigation of security procedures.
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I have been writing about and explaining growing internal tensions in Iran.
The Kurdish underground is very tight and well organized. And they are attacking Iranian targets.
Iranian state-linked media has reported that up to 19 people, including a commander in the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, were killed in an attack by armed separatists on a police base in the eastern city of Zahedan.
The reports did not explain if the attack was conducted by the Kurdish underground or if they were part of the anti-government protests sparked after the death of a woman who was not properly wearing her hijab, her head covering.
This deadly attack took place early in the day as crowds gathered at a nearby mosque for Friday prayers.
Iran claims to have arrested nine foreigners linked to the anti-government protests, which authorities have blamed on hostile foreign entities, without providing evidence.
The state-run IRNA news agency cited witnesses as saying that 19 people were killed and 15 were wounded, but there was no official confirmation.
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The United States continues to clamp down on Iran. The US is now imposing sanctions on companies that are helping Iran.
The US imposed sanctions on several Chinese and Indian companies accused of involvement in Iran's petrochemical and petroleum trade. By way of these sanctions, the United States is putting pressure on Tehran as it seeks to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
In a statement released by his office, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained that Washington designated two China-based companies, Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co Ltd and WS Shipping Co Ltd, for their roles in a scheme that attempts to thwart sanction evasion on the sale of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products.
Blinken accused Zhonggu Storage and Transportation Co Ltd of operating a commercial crude oil storage facility for Iranian petroleum. He accused WS Shipping Co Ltd of being a ship manager for a vessel that has transported Iranian petroleum products.
We will see what happens next.
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The Lebanese parliament failed to elect a new head of state. Their objective was to replace President Michel Aoun whose term of office ends on Oct. 31.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told the people of Lebanon that, when a consensus emerges on a candidate, he will call for another Parliamentary session.
Unless consensus emerges on a candidate, the presidency looks set to fall vacant when Aoun's term ends. The timing couldn’t be worse as Lebanon is in the throes of a deep financial crisis.
This is bad news for Lebanon. They need a stable and honest government.
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In another incident of an attempt to enter Israel, IDF forces arrested two Lebanese suspects who illegally crossed into Israel via the Israel/Lebanon border. The two were taken for questioning.
The IDF reported that it will “continue to act in order to prevent any attempt to illegally cross the border and harm Israel’s sovereignty”.
Most cross-border incidents form Lebanon into Israel involve smuggling. Most of the contraband that is smuggled is drug related. It involves criminal elements on both sides of the border.
The real security risk is that the smugglers are often paying off and bribing people on the ground.
Terrorists and drug smugglers alike will use any method they can to ply their nefarious trades.
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As Israel’s election campaign heats up, Israeli President Isaac Herzog has spoken out forcefully against the rise of violence that surrounds the campaigns.
Speaking at the traditional High Holiday services held at Jerusalem’s President’s Synagogue, President Herzog said: “Violence is on the rise. Verbal violence—accusations of treason, comparisons to the Nazis, threats and curses—in the public sphere and on social media. Verbal violence never remains that way. Concerningly, we see insults turning into physical violence. Into curled fists, into assaults, into bloodshed."
“One cannot avoid the disturbing thought: what’s next? Knives? Gunfire? Fatalities, God forbid? After all, we have already been through this story before, and this time—we must not hold back or bite our tongues. I forcefully condemn these violent phenomena. And I say to everyone, before your next nasty post, before your next hate-filled tweet or reply, before fighting, attacking, and hitting—stop! Don’t come along later seeking forgiveness or apologizing—stop now! Before it’s too late.”
The political rhetoric has gotten very ugly and violence has erupted. It is time to tamp that down.
Kudos to President Herzog for stepping up and addressing the issue.
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On October 29th Israel’s Labor Party is planning to hold a rally in memory of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. That date, October 29th, is only three days prior Israel’s elections.
The rally will take place in Jerusalem's Zion Square.
The Labor Party announced that leading public figures would attend and deliver speeches at the event.
Israel’s Labor party was once the leading political force in the country. Until he was brutally assassinated on November 4, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin was the party’s leader.
The assassination of the prime minister was a watershed event for Israel and for Israeli politics. Much has changed since 1995. The Labor Party is hoping that this memorial will inject new life into a party that, today, is barely breathing.
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Fires have been raging in Israel. The destruction is horrific.
Over 19 firefighting teams from the Israeli National Fire and Rescue Authority and eight firefighting planes, which also included first responders from JNF, the Jewish National Fund, battled a large fire spreading in northern Israel.
These fires endanger Israel’s forests and wildlife.
They also endanger communities and crops. Because of the wind and the dry climate, fires often move very quickly. Within a few short minutes a raging fire will destroy what it took years to build.
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Iranian riot police deployed in Tehran's main squares. Their mission was to confront people chanting "death to the dictator" as part of nationwide protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who died while in police custody.
Across Iran pressure has been increasing on authorities. There has been a groundswell of pressure and not just in Iran. Internationally, more and more attention is being given to Amini’s death while in custody.
Amini, 22 years old, from the northwestern Kurdish city of Saqez, was arrested on Sept. 13th in Tehran for "unsuitable attire". The arrest was made by Iran’s morality police who enforce the Islamic Republic's strict dress code.
The young woman died three days later, in a hospital, after falling into a coma. Her death sparked the first wave of protests and brought about a show of opposition against the government.
These were the first set of street protests in Iran since police brutally crushed protests against a rise in gas prices in 2019.
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According to the IDF spokesperson, Israeli troops stopped a Gaza resident, a Palestinian, who was attempting to cross into Israel by way of the Mediterranean Sea.
The Palestinian was questioned by security forces.
There are many reasons for Gazans to secretly cross into Israel. The most obvious is, of course, terror. There are, however, a growing number who cross into Israel to find work.
It is normally very easy for the security forces to determine the reasons behind the attempts. One is the tools the person brought with them through the crossing. Next is that person’s history and record.
The situation in Gaza is harsh and getting worse. Israel is an attractive lure for many people.
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Iran's Revolutionary Guards launched missile and drone attacks on "terrorists" in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. Iranian State News Agency, INRA, a very reliable source in these matters, has been reporting on Kurdish tensions and Iranian government responses.
Iran blamed armed Iranian Kurdish dissidents for ongoing attacks and unrest in the northwest section of Iran. That is the area where most of Iran's Kurds live. There are up to 10 million Kurds living in Iran.
The essential point to note is that tension between the Iranian government and the Kurds has been going on for decades. What we are now witnessing is just one of many very public internal disputes plaguing Iran.
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A group of Israeli and American researchers have developed a method to detect Alzheimer's disease. To do so, they examine their patient’s eyes.
The researchers have proved that the beta-amyloid plaques and abnormal proteins in the retina of the eye can determine Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive neurological disorder. It causes brain shrinkage and brain cell death. It is the most common cause of dementia.
The research was published in the latest issue of the Israel Medical Association's Hebrew-language journal Harefuah.
Research was conducted by Dr. Keren Wood of the Samson Assuta Ashdod Hospital in Ashdod and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. along with Idit Maharshak of Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and Sackler Medical School at Tel Aviv University, and with Yosef Koronyo and Maya Koranyo-Hamaoui from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.
The researchers explain that retinal photoreceptors absorb light and transfer data to the retinal ganglion cell layer. And because the retina is connected to the brain, it appears that changes in this part of the eye reflect disease processes in the brain - including the development of Alzheimer's disease.
During autopsies, beta-amyloid plaques have been found in the retinas of people who died of Alzheimer's disease.
During the study, 10 patients with Alzheimer's disease and six healthy control patients were asked to swallow turmeric, a deep yellow spice that attaches to beta-amyloid plaques. A few days later, their retinas were examined.
The yellow was found to stick to the retinal cells of patients with Alzheimer's disease and not those of healthy patients.
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Israel is now offering the updated COVID-19 booster shots designed by Pfizer to combat the Omicron BA.4/5 and all the subvariants. The booster be in full distribution mode by the end of September.
Israel's coronavirus czar Salman Zarka urged those Israelis in risk groups to take the booster along with a flu shot. Additionally, any Israeli 12 years old or older who had their last COVID shot or who had COVID-19 at least three months ago is eligible to get the booster.
Speaking to reporters Zarka said: "We have been preparing for a while for winter and looking at the possibility of two illness waves in the country, flu and coronavirus, two waves we have seen elsewhere in the world,"
Around half of Israel's 9.4 million population has already had three COVID vaccine doses and around 850,000 people have had four, according to health ministry data. More than 4.5 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Israel since the start of the pandemic. There have been 11,667 recorded deaths from the corona virus.
Israel’s Health Ministry said that Israel's coronavirus R-value — which indicates how many people on average a single COVID-19 carrier infects — has topped 1 for the first time in months, indicating that – albeit moderately, the pandemic is on the rise again, and is averaging 850 positives daily.
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According to Israel’s Military Intelligence Chief, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, Hezbollah is the main hurdle stopping Lebanon from normalizing diplomatic ties with Israel.
The Major General made his comment about the terrorist organization when speaking at the annual conference of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at Reichman University.
Haliva argued that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is not a pawn under the aegis of Iran, but rather, an independent actor and a partner in Tehran's decision-making process in the region.
He said: "In the framework of regional developments, Nasrallah does his calculations with the Second Lebanon War seared deep into his memory. Nasrallah is revered in Iran, and my working assumption and the IDF's is that he is not a vassal, but a partner in decision-making with the Iranians. It is likely that under certain scenarios, Hezbollah — and Nasrallah at its head — will join Iran's cycle of violence."
Haliva also offered a piece of advice and a stern warning to Nasrallah when he said:
"We have raised the possibility of a potential escalation on the northern front in front of decision-makers. I hope for Nasrallah that he does not underestimate the Israeli response if he decides to escalate matters.”
"I'm reminding you that we shot down the drones that Nasrallah launched at the gas rig, and there was no response from Hezbollah. Israel's might is immense, and I am sure that Hezbollah understands this and does not want to test us. Nasrallah is a serious man and knows what I am talking about."
"The Lebanese people wake up in the morning with no electricity in their homes. The value of the currency is in very poor condition and life there is very difficult. The state of Lebanon — like other countries that Iran has funded, such as Iraq, Yemen, and Syria — is at the bottom of every global parameter of failed states," he said.
"A Lebanese gas rig is an Israeli interest, and also improving the economic situation of the Lebanese people is in Israel's interest. Even the Lebanese people understand what the outcome of war is and that it provides a seedbed for radical development and we should invest our efforts there. Israel is an asset country that has water, technology, and food in addition to military might. Arab countries are aware of that, and that's what led to the Abraham Accords."
Nasrallah was obviously not at the Conference, but the message got through to him loud and clear.
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Iranian authorities have arrested several people in connection with the assassination of a Revolutionary Guards colonel that took place this past May, in Tehran. Iran has blamed Israel and its Western allies for the death.
The Guards, Iran's elite security force, said the shooting of Hassan Sayad Khodai by two people on a motorcycle was the work of "terrorist groups affiliated with global oppression and Zionism". Translation, global oppression is Iranian terminology for the West and Zionism is, of course, Israel.
Speaking at a news conference an Iranian spokesman said: "Several people have been arrested in the case of the assassination of martyr Khodai. The necessary legal orders have been issued for them and the case is under investigation.”
According to Israeli media, Khodai headed a unit of the Quds Force - the Revolutionary Guards' overseas arm – the unit that planned attacks on Israelis abroad.
For more background, Iranian forces have been playing a key role in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Tehran's ally, in his war against Islamic State and other militant and rebel groups during Syria's civil war.
Khodai's killing coincided with the resumption of Iran’s Nuke Deal talks.
And at least six Iranian scientists and academics have been killed or attacked since 2010, some by assailants riding motorcycles, in strikes believed to have targeted Iran's uranium enrichment program, which, according to the West, is being used to develop Iran’s nuclear weapons capability.
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She robbed a bank in Beirut to get her own money.
Yes, indeed, strange bank robberies are being perpetrated in Lebanon.
There was a brief hostage situation at a Beirut branch of Lebanon's BLOM Bank when an apparently armed woman and her associates demanded money from a teller. According to a depositors’ advocacy group called Outcry, the woman and her associates left the bank carrying more than $13,000 in cash - from her own account.
Sometime later, according to the advocacy group, an armed man entered a branch of Bankmed in Lebanon's mountain city of Aley and attempted to retrieve his trapped savings. This incident was corroborated by a security source who spoke to Reuters.
The security source went on to explain that the man retrieved a portion of his money before he handed himself over to security forces and was detained.
Why, you are probably wondering, is this happening?
Lebanon's banks have locked most depositors out of their savings ever since a financial crisis took hold of the country three years ago. Now, most Lebanese citizens are left without the means to pay for basic needs. And the government of Lebanon has failed to address this crisis.
As for the woman with the gun, it turns out that the gun was a toy and the reason she needed the money was to pay for her sister’s cancer treatments.
Speaking to a television station the woman said: "I have nothing more to lose, I got to the end of the road. I went to the branch manager two days ago and said my sister is dying, she doesn't have time." The branch manager gave her some money, but it just wasn’t enough.
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Some stories are jaw dropping and this story fits that bill.
A new report published by Henley Global Citizens reveals that 42,400 millionaires live in Tel Aviv.
Of these Tel Aviv millionaires, 2,260 have a fortune of more than 10 million dollars and 118 have a fortune worth more than 100 million dollars.
But that’s not all, Tel Aviv is also home to 12 billionaires.
The Israeli city of Tel Aviv placed second in the list of the five richest cities in the Middle East according to the number of millionaires who live there.
First was Dubai, then Tel Aviv. Trailing Tel Aviv are Abu Dhabi, Doha and Riyadh in third, fourth and fifth place.
Despite its perceived wealth, it was not a city from the Middle East that topped the list of cities with the largest number of billionaires and millionaires. That distinction belongs to New York.
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The student union at the University of Adelaide fired an editor of its campus student magazine after the editor called for “death to Israel” in an article last month. Following the firing, the editor doubled down and continued to call for the death of Israel in public forums.
In a statement, the board of YouX, the university’s student body, indicated that Habibah Jaghoori’s “recent public conduct would reasonably be perceived by any fair-minded person to be threatening the welfare of students at our University”.
In an article that was published on August 4th in On Dit, the campus student magazine, Jaghoori, concluded with the phrase “Death to Israel.” The article was written following the three-day conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
According to the YouX statement, it was not the article that prompted the firing of Jaghoori. Rather, her removal was “specifically related to her conduct and behavior since the article’s publication”.
The statement of the student board continued: “Despite numerous opportunities to clarify her position and dispel any misinterpretation, she has continued to use language in public forums that can be clearly construed to support actions that could threaten the welfare of students.”
It was not clear what public forums YouX was referring to, but the pro-Israel blogger Israelly Cool posted a video of a student union meeting at which Jaghoori repeatedly said “death to Israel” and, when challenged by Jewish students who said they found it threatening, she giggled.
The Australian Union of Jewish Students praised the decision. Their statement read: “Calling for violence and death rather than peace, dialogue and constructive criticism of Israel, rightly has no place on university campus.”
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Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar offered a prediction and assessment for the direction of Israel’s safety and security.
Director Bar explained that Israel's political instability and social tensions may "encourage terror groups and enemy states."
According to Bar, "weakening of the Palestinian Authority would require security policy changes and new civil reforms alongside Fatah. Even the Palestinian public supports this move, but you need two for tango."
In other words, while there is Palestinian popular support and while Israelis understand that it takes two to tango and that Palestinian leadership is their dance partner, Palestinian leadership has absolutely no interest in dancing with Israel.
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There has been tension and even murderous violence between Palestinian factions for decades.
Palestinian faction band together only to, again and again, split apart.
Algeria announced that it will mediate talks between Hamas and Fatah in a bid to mend the long-fraught ties between the two most prominent Palestinian factions.
According to Lebanese media, the Palestinians said that Algeria approached both Hamas and Fatah and they all agreed that Algeria would host peace talks in late September.
They will, most likely, come to an agreement. But as always, it is unlikely that any agreement they do come to will last. It will collapse a few short weeks later.
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Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have hijacked a foreign ship in the Persian Gulf for allegedly smuggling 757,000 liters of diesel out of the country. That news comes to us from IRNA, the Iranian state news agency.
IRNA reported that the unnamed vessel's seven crew members, all foreign nationals, have been handed over to legal authorities. The news agency did not release the nationality of the ship or the nationalities of the crew members. :01/03:46TruvidfullScreen
Iran, which has some of the world's cheapest fuel prices due to heavy subsidies and the plunge in value of its national currency, has been fighting rampant fuel smuggling - both by land to neighboring countries and by sea to Gulf Arab states.
The Guards have detained several ships in the past few months for smuggling fuel in the Gulf.
This hijacking incident indicates how serious Iran is about wanting total control of the export of fuel. Only they can break the embargo - not private companies, not investors and not pirates.
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Albania was the target of a major cyberattack.
In July, the Albanian government’s computer system were targeted by malicious cyberattacks. And it was Iran that was behind the attack.
In response, the United States government-imposed sanctions on Iran's intelligence agency and its leadership.
The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security and Esmail Khatib, who heads the ministry, as terror actors responsible for cyber-related activities against the U.S. and its allies.
Albania, a NATO member, cut diplomatic ties with Iran and expelled all Iranian embassy staff because of the cyberattack. It was the first known case of a country cutting diplomatic relations over a cyberattack.
Brian Nelson, the U.S. Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence issued a statement that reads: "Iran's cyberattack against Albania disregards norms of responsible peacetime State behavior in cyberspace."
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Turkey has begun to reassess its role in the war against terror.
Turkish leadership has decided to crack down on the terrorists that have been freely roaming throughout their country and organizing right under their nose.
Once that decision was made, Turkish police took action and captured senior Islamic State (ISIS) leader Bashar Hattab Ghazal Al Sumaidai. That news was released by President Tayyip Erdogan himself and was quoted by the state-owned Anadolu news agency.
After returning from a trip to the Balkans, President Erdogan spoke to journalists and informed them that the militant, code-named Abu Zeyd, was captured in an operation carried out by Turkey’s police and Turkey’s intelligence agency.
Erdogan said that the terrorist was transferred to judicial authorities and placed in prison, in Turkey, after interrogation by police and intelligence personnel.
This is a long awaited and major step forward for Turkey.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken surprised everyone and visited Kyiv.
In Kyiv, Blinken announced that the Biden administration was promising a gift of major new military aid, worth more than $2.8 billion to Ukraine and other European countries threatened by Russia.
In meetings with senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, Blinken said that the Biden administration had notified Congress of its intent to provide $2.2 billion in long-term military financing to Ukraine and 18 of its neighbors, including NATO members and regional security partners, that are "potentially at risk of future Russian aggression."
Blinken told Zelensky that: "We know this is a pivotal moment, more than six months into Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, as your counteroffensive is now underway and proving effective."
Zelensky replied with: "We are grateful for the signal, for this enormous support that you're providing on a day-to-day basis."
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IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Ran Kochav announced that Israel’s military forces have successfully increased operations to thwart drugs and weapons smuggling across the Jordanian and Egyptian borders and into Israel.
Kochav said that drugs valued at 135 million shekels and some 300 illegal weapons had been apprehended after they entered Israeli territory.
For years drugs and weapons have been smuggled into Israel. As intended, these contraband materials cause tremendous harm to Israel. Stopping their illegal arrival is essential.
The IDF keeps Israel secure in myriad and all important ways.
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The White House has made it clear that there will be no conditionality between the re-implementation of the Iran nuclear deal and verifying whether Tehran has upheld its obligations under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
The message, as delivered by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, was clear and unambiguous.
Jean-Pierre told reporters that: "There should not be any conditionality between re-implementation of the JCPOA and investigations related to Iran's legal obligations under the Non-proliferation Treaty,"
She was, of course, referring to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) probes into uranium traces found at three undeclared Iranian sites.
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Israel believes that Western powers can reach a better nuclear deal with Iran than the one they are now negotiating.
As attempt towards reviving the original 2015 nuclear pact seem to be reaching final stages, a senior Israeli lawmaker gave an interview to Israeli radio station 102 FM and said: "We must draft a much better deal with a much longer stick. And this is what we're not seeing,"
The speaker was Ram Ben-Barak, head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
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Gaza’s Interior Ministry announced that Hamas executed five Palestinians.
Full names were not provided for the group, but their crimes were listed. Two of the five, ages 44 and 54, were charged with engaging in espionage for Israel that dated back to 2015 and 2009. They were charged with giving information to Israel that led to the killing of Palestinians. The other three had been convicted of murder.
The dawn executions, carried out by hanging or by firing squad, were the first official executions in the Palestinian territories since 2017. Previous Hamas executions have drawn criticism from International human rights groups.
The official Interior Ministry statement read: "The execution was carried out after the conclusion of all legal procedures. The rulings had been final, with implementation mandatory, after all of the convicted were accorded full rights to defend themselves".
According to Palestinian law, the president, Mahmoud Abbas, has the final word on whether executions can be carried out. But Abbas has no effect on rulings in Gaza.
Since Hamas ousted Abbas and the PA from Gaza in 2007, its courts have sentenced dozens of Palestinians to death, and have executed 27 people.
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Alcohol is forbidden according to Muslim law. But attendees at the much anticipated upcoming World Cup, which will be held in Qatar, have received a dispensation, of sorts.
Qatar will permit ticketed fans to buy alcoholic beer at World Cup soccer matches starting three hours before kickoff and for one hour after the final whistle, but not during the match.
This information comes from a source with, we are told, knowledge of plans for the tournament.
According to the source, Budweiser, a major World Cup sponsor with exclusive rights to sell beer at the tournament, will serve beer within the ticketed perimeter surrounding each stadium. But Budweiser will not be serving beer, in the stadium stands or in the concourse/ concourse.
This year's World Cup is the first to be held in a Muslim country. The event, which is both sponsored by a major beer brand and attended by many fans of beer drinking, posed a new set of problems for the World Game organizers.
They seem to working out the kinks in the system.
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This is a shocker. It is a news item that stunned me.
For the first time ever, the IDF authorized the Iranian opposition TV channel called "Iran International" entrance to the Iron Dome base and granted the channel permission to speak with base commanders and soldiers.
During the visit an IDF commander told an Iranian correspondent that: "the Iron Dome is only part of Israel's defense system, which includes four different systems that can protect Israeli skies from short and long range missiles from Hezbollah and Iran."
There really was logic behind this unique move.
Israeli leadership knows that the ruling regime in Iran monitors the opposition channel. This was an opportunity to send a clear message illustrating Israel’s military ingenuity and creativity.
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For the second time in two months Iranian media reported that their security forces arrested 12 individuals belonging to the Bahai faith in the north of the country.
Bahai has been outlawed in Iran. Members have been persecuted in Iran since they established themselves as an offshoot of Islam.
Followers of this faith are accused of supporting Israel and undermining the Iranian regime.
There is such antipathy from the government of Iran towards Bahai that, in Iran, it is neither illegal to persecute nor to kill those who are Bahai members.
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Israel bombed Aleppo airport and the areas around it. The bomb strike was reported by SANA, the Syrian State News Agency.
The strike caused damage to the airport which has been temporarily shut down.
Aleppo is in northern Syria, very close to the Turkish Syrian border.
Damascus, on the other hand, is in the south of Syria close to the Israeli border.
Why would Israel bomb the Aleppo airport?
The answer is that Iran is using the Aleppo airport as its base of operations to import weapons and the supplies needed to manufacture weapons. One of the destroyed factories near the airport was a missile factory. Most of the parts in that factory were imported from Iran and the missiles themselves were assembled in Aleppo.
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Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid explained that Israel is carrying out a correct policy ahead of the U.S. administrations intentions to return to the Iranian nuclear deal.
In Jerusalem, at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting, Lapid said: "Our policy this past year has been to apply pressure but not bring about a crisis in relations with the U.S., by presenting American officials with credible intelligence”.
Come what may, it is Israel that will have to deal with Iran and its bomb. And it should be clear to everyone that Israel is flying solo on the issue of Iran.
Neither the United States nor the rest of the world is concerned about Iran’s nuclear potential. They just want a deal.
There is very little doubt that when necessary, Israel will launch a surgical strike on Iran’s nuclear arsenal and manufacturing capabilities.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order increasing the size of Russia's armed forces from 1.9 to 2.04 million. This news was reported by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.
The figure, which includes a 137,000 increase in the number of military personnel to 1.15 million, will go into effect on Jan 1.
This decision by the Russian president proves several important points and gives insight into Vladimir Putin’s strategy and intention.
Most importantly, it is now abundantly clear that Putin expects Russia to be at war for the near future. To implement that goal, Russia will need more soldiers and more military personnel.
What is not clear is whether the war between Ukraine and Russia will be the only conflict that Russia will be engaged in, or if Putin has other conquests in his sites
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An Israeli military court recently filed an indictment against senior Islamic Jihad operative Bassam al-Saadi.
It was the arrest of al-Saadi that sparked the tensions that culminated in days of fighting between the IDF and Palestinian terrorist group in Gaza.
Bassam al-Saadi is considered to be one of the most prominent figures in the Islamic Jihad’s West Bank branch. The indictment charges him with membership in and service to a terror group, unauthorized gathering, aiding contact with hostile elements, incitement and impersonation.
According to the indictment, al-Saadi received funds from an Islamic Jihad operator in Gaza, incited the continuation of a violent struggle against Israel and tried to evade arrest by identifying himself as a different person.
The prosecution asked to extend al-Saadi's remand until the end of the proceedings against him.
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People from around the world are buying their tickets for the World Cup.
To prevent counterfeit tickets, the tickets can only be purchased through a single company which is located in Qatar, host of the World Cup. The company is called Winterkill Hospitality.
Along with game tickets, Winterkill is offering packages for travel, hotel, food and entertainment.
You buy tickets by going on the Winterkill site, signing in, giving your region and then your country.
And that’s where a complication sets in.
Israel is not on the list. Occupied Palestinian Territories is on the list. And Israelis are told to sign up and purchase their tickets by clicking on Occupied Palestinian Territories.
FIFA awarded Qatar the honor of hosting on the condition that all members will be welcome. Well, apparently not!
The governments of Qatar and Israel signed an agreement in June permitting Israelis to enter Qatar and watch the Games. And Israel and Qatar are on working on direct flights between the countries to allow for easier access.
Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Ganz even made public statements acclaiming the great success that the love of sport is bringing to the region.
And now this.
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The war in Ukraine, while overwhelming, does not stop people from becoming ill and requiring treatment. It just complicates matters. If left untreated, people will die, particularly cancer patients.
Dr. Polina Stepensky from Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem has created a training program for doctors in Ukraine. Dr. Stepensky raised the money, brought the Ukrainian physicians to Israel and taught them how to manage care in the middle of a crisis.
Her Ukrainian contact is Dr. Anna Uzlova.
In an interview from Kiev, which has faced severe bombing strikes, Dr. Uzlova gave an interview from the National Cancer Institute, and explained: “Our patients now must fight two enemies. The disease, and the invasion. They have no choice but to win both of them.
“We realized at an early stage that the war is going to go on for a while. So, we decided to continue our efforts to treat cancer patients, and build a nationwide system to save them, under fire.”
In addition to new medical treatments, at Hadassah Hospital the Ukrainian physicians were taught the Israeli method of utilizing all staff members - nurses, therapists and social workers. All departments within the hospital were open and available to their guests from Ukraine.
According to Stepansky: “Here in Hadassah, we have some of the most advanced treatment methods in the world, such as CAR-T (cell therapy). But we also learned how to run treatment protocols in very efficient ways. This could save an enormous amount of money for the health system.”
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Kyiv is naming a street after Israel’s first – and so far only, female prime minister, Golda Meir.
Israeli ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, announced the decision after meeting with Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Ukraine’s capital city.
Golda Meir, Israel's fourth prime minister, was born in Kyiv in 1898. Her maiden name was Mabovitch, Golda Mabovitch. Golda’s family fled to the United States in 1905, when she was 7 years old, escaping anti-Semitic violence and pogroms in Ukraine. The family settled in Milwaukee, WI.
Ukraine today is trying to "de-Russify" street names in the wake of the Russian invasion of the country. Naming a street after Golda Meir fits in with that plan.
Ukrainians have a special place in their hearts for Golda, as she is often called. Throughout this war, famous lines from her speeches have appeared in pro-Ukrainian memes and some were even picked up by Ukrainian diplomats.
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Maybe there is a silver lining to the horrendous travel stories about lost luggage and delayed luggage.
The search for missing luggage has been helpful in the fight against drug trafficking.
The global backlog in airline baggage loading was instrumental in the discovery, by Israeli police, of a drug haul. The drugs were hidden in a suitcase that was X-rayed after it arrived a day late and went unclaimed.
The tinfoil-wrapped 7 kg (15 lb) of amphetamines worth some $600,000 were in a false bottom of the bag, which police allowed to be sent from Ben Gurion Airport to the Jerusalem address its owner had listed in his lost-and-found complaint.
The drugs, of course, were no longer in the suitcase.
It is not very smart to put your address on luggage that is being used for drug smuggling.
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British authorities have finally caught and charged a 38-year-old man who is accused of being a member of an Islamic State terrorist cell.
The terrorist, Aine Davis, had been deported from Turkey to England.
Because they had British accents, those held captives by this terrorist cell dubbed their captors “The Beatles”. But that’s where the levity ended.
Members of this terrorist cell perpetrated horrific and brutal murderers. They kidnapped Westerners and held them captive. Some of the captives were beheaded. Others were held for ransom and huge sums of money.
Prosecutors said they had originally authorized the charging of Davis under terrorism laws in 2014. After being deported by Turkish authorities he was arrested on his arrival at Luton Airport and will soon appear in a London court.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service released a statement that: "Mr. Davis, 38, has been charged with terrorism offenses and possession of a firearm for a purpose connected with terrorism".
According to BBS reports, Lewis denies being a member of the terrorist group.
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A former Twitter Inc manager was convicted of spying for Saudi Arabia. He was found guilty on six criminal counts, including acting as an agent for a foreign country and trying to disguise a payment from an official tied to Saudi's royal family.
The spy was found guilty after a 2 ½ week long trial held in federal court in San Francisco. Of the 11 counts in the charge against him. 5 were not proven and on the other 6 he was found guilty.
Ahmad Abouammo is a dual U.S.-Lebanese citizen. In his position at Twitter he helped oversee relationships with journalists and celebrities in the Middle East and North Africa.
There are many spies roaming around throughout the United States. It would be a mistake to think otherwise. Most are from China, but many are from Russia and, like Abouammo, from Arab countries.
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Israel announced that Gaza's Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was involved in a failed attempt to launch a drone toward the Tamar gas rig during this recent Operation Breaking Dawn.
The terrorist group's unsuccessful launch of an unmanned aircraft from Gaza prompted Israel's army to step up its efforts to protect the gas rig’s platform which is situated in southern Israel.
The drone was launched from Gaza and set out across the Mediterranean Sea toward the gas rig before it was intercepted.
It is very unusual for Israel to publicly discuss these matters.
We can surmise from Israel’s making this information public that Jerusalem wants to inform PIJ, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran that drone offensive is not working and that Israel has upgraded its anti-drone defenses.
Israel’s enemies will, hopefully, get the message.
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97% effective is near perfect.
Israel’s Iron Dome, in real battle conditions, as rockets launched from Gaza headed into Israel, was 97% effective in destroying those rockets.
The Iron Dome was first created in 2011. At that point the anti-missile defense battery operated at 85% efficiency. Since then, it has been tweaked and it continues to improve. In 2012 it had a 90% shoot down rate.
The Iron Dome was developed by Israeli state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd with support from U.S. firm Raytheon Technologies Corp. This unique defense system was designed to economize on costly interceptor missiles by only engaging rockets that are on a trajectory to hit populated areas.
And since the most recent flare-up of fighting between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in Gaza, it has, according to an Israeli military spokesperson, been the Iron Dome’s best performance so far.
"We are improving our capabilities all of the time," the spokesperson said. "Touch wood."
Islamic Jihad had fired 580 rockets at Israel as of Sunday morning, the spokesman said, adding that around 20% fell short. That means that they fell within Gaza. The remaining 80% reached as far as the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
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Bella Hadid, world renowned model, has 54 million followers on her Instagram account. And Bella Hadid used that Instagram account to attack Israel.
On her Instagram account Hadid quoted from an interview with Ha’Aretz columnist Gideon Levy that ran in Al-Jazeera.
Quoting from the interview, the super model wrote: "The Israeli public is quite brainwashed and knows very little about what is going on. In recent days we were told that the southern communities near the border with Gaza need to be under curfew because there is danger. No one knew what the danger was exactly and all of a sudden, after three or four days, Israel said this was an 'intolerable' situation – but Gaza can be under siege for 16 years and this is 'tolerable.' Meanwhile, some of the communities in the south can't withstand four days of lockdown…"
And she added pictures.
Hadid, the American born daughter of a Palestinian Jordanian has never been a fan of Israel. In fact, it’s fair to call her a Palestinian advocate and an Israeli basher.
Several months ago, on Valentine's Day, Hadid took a virtual swing at the Jewish state, posting a photograph of a heart on her Instagram page with the words "Will you free my Palestine". It was, of course, a play on the traditional request "Will you be my Valentine."
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580 rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel.
Most of them were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.
But damage was done within Israel. Shrapnel from both the terrorist’s rockets and from the Iron Dome defense system came raining down and some of it fell into residential and commercial areas.
One person from Israel was injured from the rocket debris. He is a Palestinian worker from Hebron working in a factory in Ashkelon.
This is the classic definition of irony.
Palestinian terrorists try to kill and wound and terrorize as many Israelis as possible by launching rockets that are intercepted and their falling remains hurt a Palestinian from the West Bank working in Israel.
Classic irony!
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The biggest winner in US President Joe Biden’s meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia was not the United States.
In the end, the United States did not walk away with any significant increase in OPEC oil production. In fact, the goal the United States had set for this meeting wasn’t met at all, even though the US jumped through Saudi hoops and even let the Saudis out of the diplomatic doghouse it was in.
The biggest winner was Israel.
Israel was one topic that both the United States and Saudi Arabia could agree on. And agree they did.
For years Israel and Saudi Arabia had conducted secret interactions especially around security and Iran. But as of late, that relationship, albeit secret, had have cooled off. Until Biden’s visit.
The US / Saudi meeting smoothed over Saudi Arabia’s negative feelings towards Israel and allowed for forward movement - not just on air travel but also on security and trade especially, hi-tech
Biden failed at one goal, but succeeded in another.
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Israel has decided to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority.
The tax is collected in the ports and then delivered to the PA.
The decision to withhold the money was made by Israel because the Palestinian Authority continues with its policy of paying out stipends to Palestinians who were killed or imprisoned after perpetrating terrorist acts against Israelis and the Jewish state.
Israel will offset approximately NIS 610 million ($175 million) in 12 installments. Israel withheld a similar sum in Palestinian tax revenue last summer.
The decision by Israel to withhold the money is in accordance with a 2018 law that requires them to deduct stipends paid out by the PA to Palestinian terrorists and their families. Israelis believe that the payments encourage violence, while the Palestinians say the funds assist distressed families.
In April, the High Court of Justice in Israel ruled that due to this controversial PA policy termed “Pay to Slay”, the Palestinian Authority can be held liable for terrorist acts.
Justice Yitzhak Amit, setting out the majority ruling, found that the decision to pay convicted Palestinian terrorists and those killed as part of what Palestinians define as the “struggle against Israel” makes the PA liable for their actions.
Amit wrote: “[The PA] expresses its consent to their actions, in a manner that takes responsibility for the acts. This justifies that [the PA] will be assigned personal and direct responsibility.”
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Iran is once again arresting members of the Baha’i community.
Baha’i, an offshoot of Islam, is considered to be a collection of apostates and heretics by religious Iranian leadership.
According to a report by Iranian State TV, those who have been arrested are being charged as spies. They are accused of spying for Israel.
Crackdowns on Baha’i are common in Iran. What is rare is for the ministry to report the arrests. The report did not say how many Baha’i had been detained but the detentions have raised concerns about potential crackdowns on followers of the religion.
Iran already bans the Baha'i, a religion founded in the 1860s by a Persian nobleman considered a prophet by his followers. Muslims consider Muhammad the highest prophet.
Since the 19th century many Iranians have converted to the Baha'i sect.
In 2013, Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, issued a fatwa, a religious decree, urging Iranians to avoid all dealings with members of the banned Baha'i sect.
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The Maronite Archbishop of the Holy Land, headquartered in Haifa, serves as the leader of the Maronite Church in Israel. Upon his return to Lebanon from Israel, the Archbishop was subjected to an intense search.
Because of his special role numerous exceptions are made for Archbishop Moussa El-Hage to travel back and forth between these countries which have no diplomatic relations. The Archbishop brings aid and assistance and money to support his parishioners.
While not actually arrested, the Archbishop who has been vocal in his call to stop calling all Israelis terrorists and traitors, was charged with treason.
Judge Akiki who was hearing the case said: "I respect the church, but there is a law that is the boycott of Israel and it is my duty as a judge to implement it".
Maronite Patriarch Rahi, who sits in Beirut Lebanon, has come to the defense of the Archbishop.
Rahi has demanded that officials rectify the situation. He stated: "What happened with Archbishop Moussa El-Hage constitutes a test of the ability of those responsible to put an end to the attack on the Maronite Church...Some were complaining about the interference of sects in the state, so the state attacked a founding sect and a cleric who was famous for his piety and serving the people, whom the state should have secured respect for in his movement between Lebanon and his diocese."
Rejecting claims that the transfer of funds from Lebanese citizens in Israel to their relatives in Lebanon is considered "working with the enemy," the Maronite Patriarch stressed that: "we affirm once again that 'working' with an enemy country has never been part of our culture, our spirituality and our dignity."
Patriarch Rahi insisted that: "We are the first to respect and defend the laws, so we ask the authorities to respect and abide by them. We are the first to respect the judiciary and defend it, but we ask judges and judicial officials to respect the sanctity of the judiciary and liberate it from maliciousness and dependence on political and sectarian forces.”
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Two years ago, the Port of Beirut exploded.
The explosion was equivalent to 10% of the power of a large nuclear bomb. It was so powerful an explosion that a major section of Beirut was destroyed and windows were broken 15 miles away.
The sound reverberated and smoke could be seen for tens of miles.
Almost exactly two years later to the day, silos in the Port of Beirut have collapsed and a large cloud of dust and smoke was seen in the area. This report comes from a witness as reported by Reuters.
Earlier in the month, a fire had been burning slowly in the ruins of the port's grain silos. The fire, which gave off an orange glow was visible at night from nearby neighborhoods. Local Lebanese warned that the fires would cause the silos to collapse but nothing was done to prevent the damage.
Something is rotten in the leadership of Lebanon.
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There will soon be direct flights to and from Israel and Nigeria.
The announcement was made, during a meeting held in Jerusalem, by both Israeli Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov and the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission, Dr. Yakubu Pam.
The meeting centered around the mutual benefit that will come to both parties with the opening of this new route.
The route, a regular, non-stop flight, is intended to provide direct service for Christians in Nigeria to visit religious sites in Jerusalem. According to Razvozov, roughly 50% of Nigerians are Christian.
It will take a bit of coordination, but it is expected that both Nigerian Air and El Al will be providing the service.
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Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid has called for UN Secretary General António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres to disband the UN Human Rights Commission of Inquiry (COI).
Lapid’s request cum demand was prompted by statements made by COI Commissioner Miloon Kothari.
On July 25th Kothari was quoted saying that the “Jewish lobby” has global influence and power. The Commissioner also called for ousting Israel from the United Nations.
The COI, which is investigating the 11-day war between Israel and Gaza, has placed almost all blame on Israel.
Miloon Kathari is a professional within the United Nations. His expertise is in human rights and in housing. The statements, coming from him, are no surprise. Miloon Kathari has a long and established history of Jew hatred.
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The Pro-Iranian hacker group Al Tahrea announced that they had launched a cyber-attack against Israeli targets. According to their claim, Al Tahrea launched a cyberattack on soft Israeli sites.
Al Tahrea and Israel have history. This is the same group that recently took down the Israel Airport Authority website.
Israel has come under attack from many hacker groups. The most common modus operandi for the hackers is to identify and then attack soft Israeli targets.
The objective of these hackers is not merely to infiltrate Israeli targets. It is to show the world that Israel is vulnerable. That contrary to reputation, Israel, the Start-UP Nation, is not superior in computer technology. That they, the hackers are better at their craft.
The hackers want to inconvenience Israelis, they want to make life difficult for Israelis, rather than to cripple the country.
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Vladimir Putin is on the war path against Israel.
Russia is shutting down the office of the Jewish Agency in Moscow. They are arresting Russian who did not declare their Israeli citizenship within 30 days of their arrival in the country.
Russia's Foreign Affairs spokeswoman, Ministry Maria Zakharova, said that Israel has taken an "unhelpful" stance towards Russia in the last few months.
In her statement, Zakharova explained that Russia’s issues with the Jewish Agency are legal rather than national. She also acknowledged that Israel's support of Ukraine "raises questions".
During a TV interview Maria Zakharova said: “It is up to Russia's Ministry of Justice to take a decision on the fate of the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency, which helps Jews emigrate to Israel.”
When asked about the fate of the Jewish Agency in Moscow the spokeswoman responded: "It's a question for the Ministry of Justice, that's the information I have. It definitely is a legal matter.”
The Israel-based Jewish Agency is the largest Jewish organization in the world.
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Time heals diplomatic wounds.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made his first trip to any European Union country since the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The country he chose to visit on this maiden voyage is Greece.
Bin Salman travelled with a large delegation composed of both government and business representatives. Included in the crown prince’s itinerary was a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the signing of a series of bilateral investment and defense agreements.
The EU in general, and Greece in particular, has much to gain from Saudi interaction and investments.
In the end business, is more important any other issue. Business triumphs.
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srael has acknowledged that, in May, IDF jets came under Russian anti-aircraft fire over Syria. Israel’s defense systems, they report, prevented Russia from hitting their target.
Downplaying the situation, Israel has termed the confrontation as just a "one-off incident".
This disclosure, which came from Defense Minister Benny Gantz, came as tensions between Israel and Russia over the Israel’s condemnation of the Ukraine war and Russia’s scrutiny of the Jewish Agency’s role in their country, intensified.
Russia has helped Syrian President Bashar Assad turn the tide of their more than a decade-old civil war. Their influence in Damascus is strong and widely accepted. And Russian forces in Syria have also regularly turned a blind eye when Israel conducted air strikes against suspected Iranian-sponsored deployments and arms transfers in Syria.
For these reasons and others, it is very important that tensions between Russia and Israel do not spiral out of control.
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Russia supplies oil and gas to the European Union. And the EU is afraid that Russia will cut off the supply.
Moscow has said that despite the sanctions, the supply will not be shut off. That’s because Russia needs the money. And as far as Russia is concerned, the more expensive the oil and gas, the better it is for Russia.
The status quo is too uncertain and the EU needs to find alternative oil. If they can accomplish that maneuver, it will make them more secure and it will hurt Russia.
Of all countries, Nigeria has popped up as an alternative.
Matthew Baldwin, deputy director general of the European Commission's energy department, is the person who first made this possibility public.
Baldwin was in Nigeria where he held meetings with officials from Africa's largest oil producer when he was told that Nigeria was improving security in the Niger Delta and planned to re-open the Trans Niger pipeline sometime after August.
If it happens, it would yield more gas exports to Europe and solve the problem of their reliance on Russia.
This is very good news for everyone - except Russia.
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Israeli journalist Gil Tamari posted that he had crossed into Islam’s holy city Mecca. On his post it was possible to watch Tamari as he drove into Mecca proper and crossed under the huge hands holding a Koran at the entrance to the city.
Mecca, located in Saudi Arabia, is a city for believers only. It is forbidden for non-believers to enter.
It was just a matter of time before an Israeli, even a respected journalist like Gil Tamari, would try to pull off a stunt like this. And police in Mecca say they have arrested a Saudi man who helped Tamari sneak into Islam's holiest city, defying a rule that only Muslims can enter the area.
While Muslims of any nationality and background can enter Mecca, non-Muslims are not permitted. A very specific code of conduct and behavior is required of all people within Mecca’s boundaries. That code includes certain forms of modesty, ritual cleansing and prayers.
The public backlash over the Israel’s visit was immediate on social media. It was hostile, with Muslims and Saudis expressing their anger over Tamari’s deception and apparent disregard for the sanctity of the site.
Tamari was wrong. He acted arrogantly and selfishly. He could have driven up to the edge of the city and not broken through the invisible, but very spiritual, boundary to the city – Islam’s holiest site.
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If you have been paying attention to reports from and about Iran then you know that they Iranians are advancing toward nuclear capabilities at a very rapid pace.
And one of the projects Teheran has undertaken is the dismantling of the international watchdog’s equipment specifically set up to monitor their nuclear development.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has admitted to having very limited visibility on what is happening. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the Spanish media outlet El Pais that Iran’s nuclear program is moving at a very rapid rate.
In June, Iran began removing essentially all of the agency's monitoring equipment, originally installed under the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. At the time, Grossi said that the dismantling of their equipment by Iran could deal a "fatal blow" to chances of reviving the Nuke Deal following the pullout by the United States in 2018.
Grossi told El Pais: "The bottom line is that for almost five weeks I have had very limited visibility, with a nuclear program that is galloping ahead and, therefore, if there is an agreement, it is going to be very difficult for me to reconstruct the puzzle of this whole period of forced blindness."
This is neither good news nor is it surprising news. This is how Iran does things.
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Times are certainly changing. The United States is withdrawing troops from the Straits of Tiran. People are being replaced with cameras. These cameras will monitor events and safe shipping lines travelling through the water at the mouth of the Red Sea.
US officials have announced that remote-controlled cameras will take over responsibility from U.S.-led peacekeepers for ensuring that international shipping retains freedom of access to the Gulf of Aqaba.
The coastline of the Gulf of Aqaba is shared by Israel and three Arab nations.
During his visit to Israel and Saudi Arabia, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that the tiny Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) contingent on Tiran, which lies at the mouth of the Gulf, would be departing.
Israel is skeptical about the feasibility of this new arrangement, but has not impeded the change in protocol.
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The opening of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Arab world is many-faceted.
Exchanges of security, military material and intelligence is a key benefit of these new relationships. Technology is another. Trade and tourism benefits both sides.
As part of an official trip to Morocco, IDF Chief of Staff Major General Aviv Kochavi visited the "Ben Grier" Moroccan airbase. There, Kochavi met with the commander, Colonel Major Hassan Mahuar. The military leaders spoke about cooperation between their country’s air forces.
During his visit Kochavi also met with members of the Moroccan Jewish community. Addressing the crowd in the synagogue he said: "Morocco is an ally to Israel and is an example to deep connections between peoples based on a common heritage."
This bodes well for Israel and for Morocco. It is a very good sign for the future of Israel’s relationship with the Arab world.
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The buck stops where?
US President Harry S. Truman had a sign prominently displayed on his desk that read “the buck stops here.” In other words, ultimate responsibility rests with the leader. Great leaders take responsibility.
But it seems that not all leaders subscribe to that sentiment.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu testified that he bears no responsibility for the safety gaps that led to the deadly stampede that killed 45 people last year on the Jewish holiday and festival called Lag B’Omer.
The incident, which was the worst civilian disaster in the country's history, took place on Mount Meron in northern Israel in April of 2021. Around 100,000 worshipers attended the celebration despite coronavirus regulations limiting outdoor assemblies to 500 people, and in spite of longstanding warnings about the safety of the site.
Testifying before an independent commission investigating the tragedy, then Prime Minister Netanyahu claimed that he only became involved in preparations for the Festival at Meron because of the coronavirus pandemic. As for safety gaps or measures, he said, “I didn’t deal with safety … The prime minister doesn't deal with that."
That is simply a sham.
Netanyahu also said that he did not step in to investigate how it happened, why it happened and who was derelict.
The death of 45 people on his watch, countless others injured and still suffering and Netanyahu has the gall to claim no involvement.
This tragedy, this catastrophe, will be a blight on his long career as an Israeli leader.
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I think that we are approaching the point of no return for Iran and their nuclear technology – their nuclear bomb.
France is convinced that there only a few days left for diplomacy because Iran is on the brink of having a bomb.
Kamal Kharrazi, senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently told Al Jazeera's Arabic media that Tehran will also directly respond against Israel should its security be targeted.
He said: "In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one."
This is truly, bone chillingly, frightening.
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The Taliban attacked an ISIS group, killing some and arresting the others.
ISIS had perpetrated attacks against Uzbekistan and Tajikistan from Afghan soil, so, in response, the Taliban raided ISIS.
"Last night, special forces of the Islamic Emirate discovered and destroyed a center of Islamic State militiamen. During the operation, three of them were killed and five others were arrested," said Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.
In a message disseminated through his Twitter account, Mujahid pointed out that ISIS "weapons and several vehicles" were seized. He wrote: "It was not so long ago that they launched several rockets against Uzbekistan and Tajikistan."
Why all this tension between the Taliban and ISIS? Here’s the explanation. ISIS attacked two countries from Taliban controlled Afghanistan. That made the Taliban look bad. This attack was to shut down the ISIS cell that perpetrated those attacks.
For the Taliban, the mission was a success.
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In an interview with CNN, on the day after US President Joe Biden left Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said that Saudi Arabia that will normalize relations with Israel only after there is a two-state solution.
The Saudi foreign minister said: "We have said that Saudi Arabia supports the Arab Peace Initiative. In fact, we offered it. We have made it clear that peace comes at the end of this process, not at the beginning of it."
"We have also said that the countries that signed the Abrahamic Accords with Israel, those are sovereign decisions made by those countries. We hope that those decisions will have a positive impact on Israeli domestic efforts."
Small steps are important, and those have been taken – even if Saudi Arabia has not changed its official stance on normalizing with Israel.
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A New UNESCO report just blew my socks off.
Around half the public content related to the Holocaust on the Telegram messaging service denies or distorts facts about the killing of six million of Europe's Jews in the Holocaust.
The UNESCO report found that 80% of public German-language messages about the Nazi genocide during World War II denied or distorted facts. The same distortion was true for 50% of both English language and French language posts about the Holocaust.
The research analyzed 4,000 Holocaust-related posts across five top social media platforms. In addition to what they found on Telegram, the researchers found Holocaust denial or distortion in 19% of content on Twitter, 17% of content on TikTok, 8% on Facebook and 3% on Instagram.
The report defined distortion as posts that celebrated the genocide, smeared or blamed its victims, equated it to other events such as Israeli policy towards Palestinians, or omitted facts about Nazi perpetrators and their collaborators.
Asked about the report, a Telegram spokesperson said: "Telegram is a platform for free speech where people are welcome to peacefully express their opinions, including those we do not agree with."
The most important point of this report is not the numbers. These social media platforms provide us with a snapshot of today’s youth.
Only young people are using these platforms. Today’s youth have been infected with a POV that rejects the Holocaust.
That is astounding – and very alarming.
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China is the United State’s one true competitor in the world today. And the United States has forced Israel to put the brakes on high-tech cyber security deals with China.
Pressure from Washington has been mounting for some time. It started during the Trump administration. As China was pinpointed for the COVID outbreak, serious efforts to stymie Israeli /Chinese tech sales intensified.
Israel is considered a hub for cybersecurity firms, many of which are manned by veterans of Israel’s military's intelligence units.
According to the Israeli National Cyber Directorate, over 40% of private investments in cybersecurity globally are funneled into Israeli firms. Additionally, many foreign high-tech companies have also opened research and development centers in Israel.
Until 2018, China solidified its place as an important partner to Israel's burgeoning high-tech sector, which was looking for a reliable source of capital and access to one of the biggest global markets. In 2018 alone, Chinese investors poured $424 million into Israeli start-ups.
Chinese behemoths such as Ali Baba and Huawei also opened their R&D centers in Israel.
But the Unites States wants China to leave Israel.
According to a US Embassy spokesperson who spoke to Bloomberg News: “We would like to see Israel’s investment screening system strengthened and expanded, especially in the field of high tech. We have been candid with our Israeli friends over risks to our shared national security interests.”
The spokesperson was, of course, referring to China.
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On June 27th, in the city of Muscat, in Oman, there was a secret meeting between Egypt and Iran. The meeting took place while Egyptian President el-Sisi was in Oman.
Iran wanted to make certain that the ongoing Negev Summit was not about plotting an attack against Iran. Egypt calmed their fears and explained that the Summit’s objectives truly were purely economic.
During their meeting, Iran and Egypt discussed the situation in the Gaza Strip, the Syrian issue, and other matters in the Middle East. The meeting opened the door to relations between the two countries.
While Iran’s Mehr News Agency confirmed the meeting in Oman, it did not specify the issues that were discussed between Cairo and Tehran.
Interestingly, there was no other coverage of the meeting.
Egyptian and Gulf news agencies and newspapers did not report any news about Iran meeting with Egypt.
On July 3rd, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian did, however, acknowledge that “Egypt is an important country in the Islamic world,” but then indicated that there were no direct discussions between the two countries.
Interesting, indeed.
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Iran successfully attacked both Jerusalem and Eilat with a cyber strike that caused real alarms, as well as metaphorical alarms, to sound.
Yoram Cohen, who heads Israel's internet association, said that while the hack did not appear to harm any vital infrastructure, it revealed, once again, how vulnerable civilian systems are to attack.
Cohen said: "There is a gap between Israel's excellent cyber defenses on critical infrastructure compared to non-critical civilian systems."
"This was not the first cyberattack to demonstrate the gap and there must be increased awareness of the fact in order to protect Israel's networks."
Iran will continue to try to attack soft and weak Israeli targets. It is a big emotional victory for Iranian leadership as they think that Israel is vulnerable.
For that reason alone, these soft targets must be hardened.
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Adir Ynako, the YNET reporter Adir Ynako covering US President Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia arrived in the Gulf State several days ahead of the president.
This reporter’s descriptions of Jeddah were powerful - especially on his second day in the city when he decided to tell people in a shopping mall that he was from Israel.
For most of the people he broached the subject with, that little tidbit of information turned into a great big conversation stopper. In other words, Saudi leadership might be inching toward normalization with Israel but the masses are not there yet.
Yanko also pointed out that, in the lead up to Biden’s arrival in Jeddah there were no United States flags to be seen. There was no fanfare… no pomp… and certainly no circumstance. Compare that to Jerusalem where there were not only flags upon flags flying – the flags were ironed before they were displayed.
In fact, Ynako pointed out, vendors at the mall did not even know that the US president was due to arrive in their country.
That observation was significantly telling.
Giving an Israeli journalist tourist a cold shoulder was to be expected. But not knowing about, not promoting the arrival of the president of the United States, is a negative statement.
It was a major, intentional, diplomatic dis.
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Iran is playing the nuclear enrichment game.
Iranian and Western press are reporting that Iran is not just enriching uranium, they are increasing their uranium enrichment.
Iranians are using more advanced machines to achieve their enrichment goals. It is happening at Fordow, Iran’s underground under-ground nuclear facility. The reports describe that in Fordow, as opposed to their other nuclear facilities, Iran can more easily change between enrichment levels.
Changing between enrichment levels means increasing enrichment levels.
The IAEA, the atomic watchdog of the United Nations, has reported on Iran’s new nuclear status and the Iranian press has verified the report.
Western diplomats and the IAEA have been concerned about these advanced devices and the goings-on at Fordow for a very long time. With these centrifuges, so-called modified sub-headers means, Iran can switch more quickly and easily from enriching uranium at acceptable levels to higher purity levels – all it takes is a quick moment.
Iran is required to inform the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, about any change in enrichment. But Iran, as we all know, does not believe in being compliant.
Iran does not play by the rules.
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Prime Minister Yair Lapid recent announced that Israel maintains freedom of action against Iran's nuclear program.
During his remarks at the opening of the weekly Cabinet meeting, Lapid did not mince words when he said: "Israel reserves political and military freedom of action in fighting the Iranian nuclear program."
In that same meeting Israel’s caretaker prime minister also appealed to Middle
Eastern Sunni Muslim countries to engage in steps of rapprochement with Israel. Speaking for their benefit he said: "Israel extends a hand to the countries of the region and calls to change history for the sake of our children."
Israel is issuing their message loudly and clearly and for everyone to hear. Iran is the most significant threat to regional stability and all nation in the region should join forces to prevent them from attaining nuclear capabilities - especially nuclear weapons.
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srael's regional cooperation minister has asked Saudi Arabia to allow direct flights from Tel Aviv to Riyadh for Muslim pilgrims.
Israeli officials have also been seeking expanded permission for their airlines to fly over Saudi soil to better reach Asian destinations.
A person in Washington who was familiar with the matter said the new aviation deals sought by Israel could be announced around the time of Biden's visit, but that details still needed to be worked out and may not be completed in time.
Israel’s Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Freij is a member of Israel’s 18% Muslim minority. Speaking as both a Muslim and a member of government, he said: "I want to see the day when I can depart from Ben-Gurion (airport near Tel Aviv) to Jeddah to fulfil my religious obligation" of pilgrimage to Mecca.”
"I took this matter up with Saudi Arabia and I really hope that day will come," he told Israel's Army Radio, without expanding on where or when such discussions took place.
Saudi Arabia has long admitted Muslim pilgrims from Israel, but they must travel through third-party countries to get there. That ends up costing around $11,500 for a week-long stay, Freij said. Pilgrims from neighboring Arab countries pay around half that much for their travel.
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A Russian missile hit a tanker that has been drifting in the Black Sea for over four months carrying diesel.
The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported the hit, citing Ukraine's military which called the ship an "ecological bomb".
The Moldova-flagged tanker Millennial Spirit has now been struck by Russia twice since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24th.
It was first hit with a missile fired from a warship mere days after the invasion began. At the time Moldova claimed that the ship had a Russian crew and that two crew members were seriously wounded.
Hitting a tanker and causing a spill could result in one of the most serious environmental disasters in decades. But it does not surprise me that Russia would be so cavalier about ecology.
The West should have stepped in immediately, grabbed that tanker and offloaded the diesel. Now, it might be too late.
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ISIS is on the attack - and ISIS is succeeding in the mission.
They are striking sites, especially prisons, and freeing hundreds of their captured commanders and soldiers.
ISIS claimed responsibility for a raid on a Nigerian prison in the capital city Abuja. The raid freed around ISIS 440 inmates. These former inmates are now fighters and they will join other fighting groups.
ISIS is gaining strength.
Shuaib Belgore, permanent secretary of the Nigerian interior ministry, spoke to journalists gathered outside the Abuja prison. He told them that the prison houses 900 inmates and that one security officer was killed during the raid and three others were injured.
A total of 879 inmates fled, according to a statement released by the Nigerian prison service. 4 inmates were killed and 16 were injured. 443 are still at large. The remainder have been recaptured.
The 443 unaccounted for inmates have almost certainly escaped with ISIS. That was, after all, the purpose of the attack.
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Israel’s cycling team is making Tour de France headlines.
Simon Clarke, an Israeli cyclist and team member, won Stage Five in the Tour de France. This is the first time an Israeli team member has ever won any segment of the Tour de France. Clark pulled out the win in the final 50 meters of this portion of the competition.
The name of the team is Israel–Premier Tech. Originally called Team Israel Start-Up Nation, it was established in 2014 and joined the World Tour in 2019. The team competed in the 2020 Tour de France, and has now partnered with the Canadian company Premier Tech for the 2022 season, renamed Israel Premier Tech.
The team roster consists of eight riders, including Guy Niv, an Israeli. A second Israeli rider, Omer Goldstein, was scheduled to compete but was forced to give up his place after exposure to Covid. He was replaced with Canadian Guillaume Boivin.
The Tour de France is a world renowned bicycle race that covers 2,000 miles in 23 days.
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The Abraham Accords are changing the modus operandi, the way things work, in the Middle East.
Israel and Morocco normalized relations in late 2020 as part of the US brokered Abraham Accords.
And for the first time ever, Israeli defense officials took part in a military exercise in Morocco. The drill was called African Lion 2022.
Israel sent a very modest delegation to Morocco. No troops participated, instead, there were high level observers. Three representatives of the IDF and the Defense Ministry watched the military drill.
The event was coordinated and led jointly by the African Command of the United States Army and the Royal Army in Morocco.
This is a very important step for Morocco. It will pave the way for many more coordinated activities way beyond military maneuvers.
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Hezbollah sent the three low flying drones toward Israel’s natural gas rigs in the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel shot them down.
Hezbollah was sending a series of messages.
# 1: Hezbollah argues that these rigs are in Lebanese waters - not Israeli waters. And Hezbollah wants Lebanon to make the claim to the United States.
# 2: Hezbollah also wanted to let Israel know that their gas rigs are vulnerable.
# 3: Hezbollah was delivering a message from Iran. Iran wanted Israel to know that they have a far reach and can hit Israeli targets.
The drones were all shot down miles from the rigs. One was shot down by an Israeli air force fighter jet. The second was shot down by an Israeli navy Corvette. The third drone was downed by a Barak-1 surface to air missile known as a SAM.
The drones did not explode when hit which indicated that they were not carrying explosives. Rather than destroy the rigs, their mission was to take pictures that would be used to embarrass Israel and to show the vulnerability of the precious natural gas rigs.
Hezbollah’s/Iran’s plans backfired.
Israel’s defenses were 100% on target.
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Russia is once again lowering the “Iron Curtain.” They are creating a massive wall between them and the West.
Speaking at a press conference, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained the separation between Russia and the West this way: "It's practically already coming into place. Let them just behave carefully.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th, Russia has been a pariah state.
Moscow has been isolated by the rest of the world. In response, Russia is proactively responding to the distancing by creating a distance on their own.
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US President Joe Biden congratulated Yair Lapid as he assumed his new position as the new prime minister of Israel.
The blessing came in the form of a tweet in which President Biden spoke of the strong the relationship between the countries .
The new Israeli prime minister responded with a tweet of his own. In his tweet, Lapid wrote: "Thank you, Mr. President. The ties between Israel and the United States are unbreakable. They are based on deep foundations of shared values and a common vision for the future.”
"I look forward to welcoming you to Israel and strengthening the unique alliance between the U.S. and Israel."
Times have certainly changed. Heads of state tweeting congratulations to each other is not what I would have imagined – especially in this case.
Biden and Lapid are not strangers to each other, they have actually developed a bond. I would have expected that the president would have picked up the phone and called the prime minister, not merely send a tweet.
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A report has just been leaked about a secret meeting between senior Arab military leaders and Israel’s IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi who all met in Sharm el Sheik in March.
It was convened to discuss countering regional threats posed by Iran.
Details of the meeting, which was sponsored by the United States, were reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Then-head of Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, brought together the top military commanders from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan. Included in the group was Saudi Arabia’s Chief of Staff Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamed Al Ruwaili.
Two important notes are that while the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also sent officers to the meeting, they did NOT send their military chiefs. And Kuwait and Oman did NOT participate at all.
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Iran announced that Qatar will host indirect talks between Iran and the United States. Their topic will be the revival of Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
The announcement was made by Mohammad Marandi, a media adviser to the Iranian nuclear team. Speaking to the semi-official ISNA news agency, Marandi said: "Iran chose Qatar to host because it is our friend.”
This is a major step forward in the negotiations over revitalizing the stalled talks around the Nuke Deal.
It is also important to note that this move places Qatar in a pivotal role not just in this one case, but as a serious player in the entire Middle East.
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Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that all arms of the defense establishment were working in tandem to oppose the threat of a nuclear Iran,
Gantz made his point in response to reports that have begun to surface about disagreements between the military and intelligence agencies.
Benny Gantz said: "The defense establishment is dealing with the Iranian threat day and night as the most important and urgent strategic issue currently for Israel's security. This is done in coordination between all the security arms and with freedom of opinion while the political echelon makes the decision."
This is important given that the European Union announced that world powers and Iran have decided to restart the long-stalled talks on the revival of Tehran's nuclear program.
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Ukriane is extremely unhappy with Israel.
So much so, that Kyiv is considering suspending its visa-free agreement with Israel. They are peeved about Israel's policy on Ukrainian refugees.
Ukrainian ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk told Israeli Russian-language news Detaly that Israel is not playing fair. This is what he said:
"Russian citizens enter Israel without restrictions, Belarusian citizens as well, and Ukrainian citizens have invented electronic visas. "Neither I nor my management can help but take it painfully."
"We are now considering whether to suspend the visa-free regime for Israelis in response. It will be imperceptible now, but before Rosh Hashanah, the Israeli government will feel it."
The ambassador was referring to the pilgrimage of religious Jews who flock to Uman during the High Holy Days.
All the way back in March Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Chief-of-Staff Andriy Yermak made the same threat. He called the electronic permit system "an unfriendly step for the citizens of Ukraine."
Korniychuk also expressed disappointment with Israel's stance on the Russian invasion, saying Ukraine "expects [any form of] help from our partners... but do not sit on the shore waiting for someone to start winning."
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Israel has built a fake Gaza city in the middle of a military base named Zeelim, located in the Negev Desert, in the south of Israel.
Even the muezzin, the Muslim call to prayer, is sounded five times a day in this fake city.
Other than members of the IDF, the city is deserted.
This Israeli built fake city cannot be found on any map. Officially, it’s known as the Urban Warfare Training Center. Israeli soldiers who run military drills call it “Mini Gaza.”
The IDF began building Mini Gaza in 2005 at a cost of $45 million.
According to the facility’s commander, Col. Eli Abeles: “The nature of war has changed … Today our principal fighting … is done around built-up areas and in built-up areas.”
The tight alleyways, drab concrete buildings and open areas in the roughly 60-acre (quarter square kilometer) facility are meant to simulate the urban environments in which Israel’s soldiers often operate.
The IDF has an official graffiti artist who decorated the buildings with murals featuring Arabic slogans and portraits of Palestinian and Lebanese militants.
Between exercises, soldiers rest in the shade of the 500 buildings Israel has built, the tallest being eight stories high. They smoke cigarettes beneath faded posters, some of which honor those Palestinian fighters killed in battle with Israel. Other soldiers don red-and-white checkered scarves to role-play militants in an upcoming drill.
The training center can accommodate exercises for an entire brigade of 2,000 soldiers at a single time. Visiting American troops and forces from European allies — most recently Cypriot soldiers — have also trained in Mini Gaza.
This fake city is as realistic as you can get.
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Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that the Israeli government is still not offering his country sufficient support since the Russian invasion of his country.
"We will in future have to look into each others' eyes," he said - but then added that the support of Israeli people was noted and appreciated.
Zelenskyy spoke via Zoom to an audience at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. It was his second speech to Israelis. The first was his address to Knesset members in March.
At Hebrew University the Ukrainian president said: "On Friday we will mark four months since the Russians invaded Ukraine and Moscow declared war against Kyiv."
"I think you have all witnessed what a tragedy it is, but nevertheless I'm sure we will prevail and win."
Zelenskyy called Russia a "terror state" and said that Russia continues its indiscriminate shelling of both Ukrainian military and civilians.
He said: "They attack and destroy our cities, and they burn everything in their path. Some 2000 educational institutions have already [been] destroyed in Ukraine. What kind of country intentionally bombards kindergartens?"
The Ukrainian president said that there was virtually nothing left of Mariupol after heavy Russian artillery bombardments. He said: "Four months ago, half of million people lived in the city. Now, only a few tens of thousands are left. The Russians shoot people all across Ukraine, they torture them, and they rape minors - boys and girls."
"The Ukrainian people are grateful to the Israeli people for waving our national flag on the streets, and we appreciate the gesture very much. We thank the Israeli people, but we also ask for the support of your government."
"Luxembourg, with a population of some 600,000 people, provided us defensive aid equal to 15% of their defense budget. But what about Israel? We understand this is not an easy situation but we would like to see greater support."
Zelenskyy went on to say that, while it has not yet happened, he expects Israel to join the sanctions imposed by the West. In his words: "Unfortunately, we haven't seen Israel joining yet."
Meanwhile, Israel reopened its embassy in Kyiv for a few days in order to provide consular services. Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky explained the move saying that “an Israeli diplomatic presence in Kyiv is very important and it is another sign of Israel’s support for Ukraine.”
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Both Iran and Russia are in the world’s doghouse. They both have international sanctions against them.
And so, Iran and Russia need to bond and to work together.
According to Tass, Russia’s official news agency, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov paid an official visit to Iran. The news agency did not go into detail about the visit.
Last month Moscow announced that Russia and Iran - which sit on some of the world's largest oil reserves - had discussed swapping supplies for oil and gas. They also discussed setting up a logistics hub.
These are events we need to carefully monitor and follow.
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Israel and Turkey are working very closely on security – and, thankfully, it is paying off.
Turkish media is reporting that Turkey has thwarted several attacks on Israeli targets in Istanbul.
According to the reports, Iranian operatives were monitoring Israeli political figures and tourists for some time. The Iranians were planning a combined shooting and abduction attack. One such target, reports claim, was a former Israeli ambassador and his wife who were staying at a hotel in the city's Beyoğlu district.
Israel’s Mossad is in constant contact with Turkish intel. They have mutual goals. Turkey does not want terror attacks on their soil - not even terrorist attacks against Israel.
It’s not good optics.
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Serbia and Russia confirmed that a planned visit by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov to the Balkan country will not take place. Moscow is accusing the West of preventing the trip by blocking the envoy's flight.
The announcement followed reports that Serbia's neighbors Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro, had refused to allow Sergey Lavrov's plane to fly through their airspace to reach Serbia.
During an online news conference Lavrov said: "An unthinkable thing has happened. A sovereign state has been deprived of its right to conduct foreign policies. The international activities of Serbia on the Russian track have been blocked."
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with Russia's ambassador to Serbia who informed him that Lavrov could not come because the Russian government plane was denied necessary flyover permissions.
Montenegro, Bulgaria and North Macedonia are all members of NATO. And Lavrov blamed NATO countries for engineering the flight ban. He noted that the action showed once again that the main purpose of the alliance’s expansion is to try to isolate Russia.
For his part, the Russian foreign minister said that the West has trampled on the principle of a free choice of foreign policy partners.
Serbia, meanwhile, is almost fully dependent on Russia for gas. Serbian President Vucic recently talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone to arrange a new deal for gas supplies over the next three years.
It’s not just about obtaining the gas. Analyst Slobodan Stupar described Lavrov's attempted visit to Belgrade as a "show" that would have been used by Moscow to further vilify the West.
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According to an early opinion poll, neither of the large blocs in Israel's parliament, the Knesset, will get a majority of the 61 seats necessary to form a stable government.
The poll was conducted by 103FM. It was conducted following the announcement by the ruling coalition to vote on dissolving the Knesset.
Yair Lapid, Israel’s Foreign Minister, would replace Naftali Bennett as prime minister until the new election which is scheduled for October 25th.
According to the 103FM poll, the Bennett-Lapid bloc can count on 55 seats. And the right-wing bloc, led by Benjamin Netanyahu, is predicted to get 59 seats. There are 120 seats in the Knesset.
Looking at it party be party, rather than by multi-party coalitions, Netanyahu’s Likud party is expected to receive 36 seats, while Lapid’s Yesh Atid party is predicted to get 20 seats. Outgoing Prime Minister Bennett’s Yamina party is predicted to gain back seats raising their number to seven.
The poll also indicates increased support for the Religious Zionist Party led by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir with 10 predicted seats. Blue and White led by Israel’s Defense minister Benny Gantz will, according to the poll, retain their eight seats, while Israel’s Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party is expected to lose two seats ending up with only five.
According to the poll, the Labor Party and the Joint List are predicted to get seven and six seats respectively. Ra’am and New Hope are predicted to receive a minimum of four seats each.
Former Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who served as Israel's longest-serving prime minister, said he intends to form “a strong, forceful” alternative government. He is gearing up for the October 25th election.
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Even as he spoke about making great efforts to stabilize his ramshackle coalition and keep the government afloat, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had already made up his mind to dissolve the Knesset and pass the premiership to Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid.
Bennett’s mind was made up following a conversation he had with Attorney General Gali Baharav Miyara. During that conversation the then-prime minister attempted to understand the coalition's maneuverability. He tried to figure out if the contentious West Bank bill - extending Israel's authority over the West Bank settlements - could be implemented despite not being approved by the Knesset.
The coalition's failure to approve the West Bank Bill in the Knesset came as a blow to the government. As a result, following that dramatic vote, Bennett’s government was split.
The attorney general made it clear to Bennett that no legal evasive action can overcome the failure to pass the legislation. The only way to extend the regulations without a majority in the Knesset is to dissolve the government before the end of June, which would result in an automatic extension of the bill.
Once Bennett finished the conversation with the attorney general, his next call was to his wife Gilat. In that phone call he confided that he can no longer remain in position as prime minister.
Rather than watching his government get humiliated over and over again, he would rather put an end to it by himself.
And so he did.
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The terror group Hamas is restoring ties with Syria.
The relationship between Hamas and Syria broke off ten years ago. That was when Syrian President Bashar Assad cracked down against the revolt to oust him.
One official, who asked not to be named, spoke about the reconciliation and said that, of late, the two sides have held several "high-profile meetings to achieve that goal."
Hamas supported the revolt against Assad which began in 2011. Its goal was to overthrow Assad.
At that time, Iran supported Assad and Hamas shunned Iran – but only temporarily.
Hamas' ties with Iran were quickly restored. And Hamas was quick to praise Iran for helping rebuild their arsenal in Gaza. The arsenal consisted of long-range rockets, used to attack Israel.
One year after its 11-day war with Israel, Hamas is shifting its strategy. The terror group is now adopting a strategy known as “load distribution”. They no longer focus all their hatred on Israel. They are calling on Palestinians in the West Bank to continue the fight against Israel while reaching out to as many supporters as possible to join them in their struggle.
15 years ago Hamas took control of Gaza in a coup expelling the Palestinian Authority. While it is an internal Palestinian conflict, this conflict continues to have major implications for the region - especially Israel.
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Former chief of Israeli military intelligence, Amos Yadlin, has been very vocal about Iran. He made it very clear that Iran would exact revenge for attacks on its soil, attacks attributed to Israel.
In an interview on Ynet, Yadlin slammed Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for announcing a new Israeli strategy on Iran, and said obscurity is a better policy.
He and many others assert that Iran is already planning actions against Israelis. He further said that Iran is attempting to carry out attacks against Israel and Israelis.
I agree 100%. Israelis and Jews must be very careful now and until this threat diminishes.
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We must carefully monitor and scrutinize the Iranian space program.
Why? Because the same technology that is used for space launches is used for non-conventional weapons launches like nuclear and chemical bombs.
Iran appeared to be readying for a space launch recently as satellite images showed a rocket on a rural desert launch pad. This satellite sighting came as tensions remain high over Tehran's nuclear program.
The images from Maxar Technologies showed a launch pad at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's rural Semnan province. We have seen many failed launches from this site.
One set of images showed a rocket on a transporter, preparing to be lifted and put on a launch tower. A later image showed the rocket apparently on the tower.
Iran did not acknowledge a forthcoming launch at the spaceport at its mission to the United Nations. That is not surprising.
The Iranians are very secretive about their launches.
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Unilever is being sued by a group of U.S. shareholders who believe that the company mishandled the decision by its Ben & Jerry's unit to stop selling ice cream in the Israeli-West Bank.
According to the proposed class action suit filed in Manhattan federal court, Unilever improperly concealed the decision before it was announced, recognizing that many U.S. states might divest from companies that support anti-Israel boycotts, yet stood behind it once the news became public.
To refresh your memory, last July Ben & Jerry's announced that it would stop selling its products in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem. Ben and Jerry’s then stopped a three-decade-long relationship with the local Israeli company that was making the ice cream.
According to the official complaint: "As a result of defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the declines in the market value of Unilever, plaintiff and other class members have suffered significant losses and damages."
I think this case has merit.
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Israeli Ambassador to Russia, Alexander Ben-Zvi, was summoned by Russia’s foreign ministry. Ambassador Ben-Zvi to clarify the how and why there was an airstrike on Damascus International Airport.
Everyone had concluded Israel was behind the strike.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry explained that Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikahil Bogdanov had expressed to Ben-Zvi Moscow's deep concern regarding the attack, which, the Russians said, had damaged the airport's runway, navigation systems and buildings, and caused damage to international air traffic.
The ministry also stated that the attack had disrupted the inflow of humanitarian aid from the United Nations to millions of Syrians in a country ravaged by over a decade of civil war.
Bogdanov told Ben-Zvi that the explanations Jerusalem provided so far did not satisfy the Kremlin and that Moscow would not allow Syria to become the "battlefield" of other countries as Syria helps in fighting terrorism across the region.
Everyone has their own perspective.
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Energy is a very big issue - especially in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Europe is highly reliant on Russia for oil and natural gas, that should be perfectly clear to everyone. Europe is in trouble – but hope is on the horizon.
Israel is coming to the rescue.
Israel is now an exporter of natural gas. And, according to the Israeli Energy Minister, Israel and the European Union will sign a natural gas export deal.
According to the EU, Israel could be a new source of gas as EU nations look to reduce their reliance on Russian energy.
Originally, Israel was content being a regional supplier. They have already signed natural gas deals with Egypt and Jordan. Now that they are expanding to Europe, Israel will need to transform their natural gas to LNG, Liquified Natural Gas, and ship it on special ships across the Mediterranean.
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Norway has decided that all products imported from the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Height will be labelled as being produced in the West Bank.
All products.
The Norwegian government claims to have very good relations with Israel and explains that they are following a 2019 European Union Court decision. According to the decision Norway is referencing, people should have the knowledge of where something was produced before making purchases.
Israel is extremely displeased by this new decision by Norway.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry released a statement that reads: “This is a decision that will not contribute to the promotion of Israeli-Palestinian relations”.
“It will adversely affect the bilateral relations between Israel and Norway and impact the relevance of Norway’s role in the advancement of Israeli-Palestinian relations."
It is important to note that the EU court has ruled that countries cannot boycott products form the West Bank.
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Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro recently visited Iran. There are not too many heads of state running to visit Iran these days.
Iran and Venezuela recently signed a 20-year cooperation plan, according to live coverage on Iranian state TV.
The signing ceremony was held in North Tehran's Saadabad Palace in the presence of visiting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi.
The plan includes cooperation in the fields of oil, petrochemicals, tourism, and culture.
These two nations will continue to expand their ties. They will focus on their economic growth, energy and technology fields.
Both Iran and Venezuela are under serious international scrutiny and sanctions - especially from the United States.
That pressure coupled with sanctions is one of the powerful forces uniting Iran and Venezuela. They are bound by a mutual hatred and disdain for the United States.
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Despite protestations from Jerusalem, the Biden Administration is committed to moving towards re-opening a US Consulate in Jerusalem.
The Biden team has made the announcement and has sent diplomats to speak to Palestinian leadership.
This flurry of activity is a lead up to the President of the United States’ visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah.
Additionally, the US office responsible for diplomatic relations with the Palestinians has been renamed. Once called The Palestinian Affairs Unit, the office has now been renamed the US Office of Palestinian Affairs.
According to the official US statement, the new name is meant to "strengthen our diplomatic reporting and public diplomacy engagement."
It read "We felt that it was important to reintroduce separate reporting lines to Washington on Israeli and Palestinian issues, by our respective teams on the ground that focus on these issues.”
Before it was closed, the US Consulate in Jerusalem functioned as a de facto embassy for the Palestinians that reported directly to the State Department.
This change in name is significant. What was once a “unit” is now an “office”. In the parlance of Washington DC bureaucracy, that is a very big step up.
Israel is still pushing back against this change in US policy and suggesting that the United States open their Palestinian Consulate in Ramallah which is the seat of the PA government. The US has countered saying it is not a change, rather it is a return to a previous policy.
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Iran is playing a nuclear game --- Again.
Iran turned off two surveillance cameras that were installed to monitor their nuclear activity.
The cameras had been installed by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog group, that was monitoring one of Iran’s atomic sites.
It was Iranian TV that reported the incident – but it did not report the nuclear plant’s location.
According to the state TV report: "The Islamic Republic of Iran has so far had extensive cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency … Unfortunately, the agency, without considering this cooperation … not only did not appreciate this cooperation, but also considered it as a duty of Iran."
Iran has been withholding footage from IAEA surveillance cameras since February of 2021 as a pressure tactic to restore the atomic accord.
Israeli Prime Minster Naftali Bennett has made it very clear that Israel will not let Iran cross the threshold and become a nuclear power with nuclear weapons:
Bennett said: "Israel is operating against the many tentacles of Iranian terror, not only as it has done in past decades. The days of Iran having immunity when it strikes against Israel and spreads its terrorism via proxies, are gone. We are operating everywhere and all the time and will continue to do so.”
"In recent years Iran has crossed red lines, especially last April, months before this government came to power, when it began enriching uranium to 60% with no international response … Israel cannot and will not accept such a situation."
And then Bennett added: "We expect the IAEA Board of Governors will issue a clear warning sign before the regime in Tehran and make clear that if they continue their defiant nuclear policy, they will pay a heavy price."
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Ukraine is again asking Israel for one of their most secret weapons. This time it’s the “Iron Dome.”
Ukraine's ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, confirmed that his government had made the request for an Iron Dome missile defense system.
Speaking at a press conference, the Ukrainian ambassador said: "We must defend our citizens just as Israel defends its own against the Hamas.”
Korniychuk complained that only 10% of the protected gear Israel committed to supply Ukraine have been delivered and that Jerusalem has refused to allow wounded Ukrainian soldiers, in need of prosthesis, to enter Israel for treatment.
He said: "Israel remains inside its comfort zone … Jerusalem must decide if it will stand with the just and democratic countries of the world."
There is no way Israel will deliver the Iron Dome, which triangulates and plots an incoming missile and then shoots a supersonic rocket to intercept it, to Ukraine.
When Israel brought plans for the Iron Dome to the US Defense Department, hoping to partner in its development, the Defense Department said it was impossible to create that missile defense system. How wrong they were.
These weapons could easily fall into the hands of Israel’s enemies and Israel will not let that happen. Not for Ukraine, not for anyone.
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It appears that Turkey is preparing for an offensive attack into Syria to strike Kurdish enclaves located there.
So now Russia and Syria are bolstering the border between Turkey and Syria to help prevent that attack from happening.
Turkey already controls a 20 mile buffer zone which they set up in Syria. The buffer zone’s purpose is to protect the Turkish border from potential Kurdish attacks and cross border strikes.
And now the Turks want to expand their “safe zone” and move it toward the regions of Tal Rifaat and Manbij and several other areas further east.
Russia, which warned Turkey against military escalation in northern Syria, sent Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks in Ankara to make the message clear.
Did Erdogan receive the message? We will soon find out.
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In a scathing attack, Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar, Kyiv's ambassador to Ankara, said that Turkey is among the countries buying grain that Russia – grain that was stolen from Ukraine.
Ukraine is now seeking help from Turkish authorities and Interpol is launching an investigation to determine who exactly is involved with the shipments of grains transiting Turkish waters.
Over the past month reports have emerged accusing Russia of stealing Ukrainian grain.
Russia and Ukraine are two of the world's biggest grain exporters, but the ongoing war has stopped many of these shipments from leaving the Black Sea.
According to a local newspaper, Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko indicated that Belarus was ready to discuss the transport of Ukraine's grain via Belarus, “but there must be compromises."
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry asserts that several grain shipments were being shipped to Syria via Russian cargo ships. Several trucks were also sent to Russia and around 1,500 tons of grain were exported to Crimea from the Kherson Oblast.
A Russian ship loaded with grain had also headed to Egypt, but Cairo had refused to accept it and turned it away. Egypt is one of the world's largest wheat importers and usually imports large volumes of Black Sea wheat.
Russia has denied all accusations of stealing Ukrainian wheat. And Russian officials have recently promised to ensure the passage of vital Ukrainian food exports through the Black Sea in exchange for the end of sanctions against them.
"We call on our friends, the African Union, to persistently demand that the West lift illegal unilateral sanctions that undermine the transport and logistics infrastructure necessary for world trade,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said according to Interfax.
Lavrov also noted the vulnerability of African countries in terms of food security.
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Microsoft announced that it detected and took down an Iran-linked, Lebanese, hacking group that had targeted more than 20 Israeli organizations and one intergovernmental organization over the past three months.
The group, knowns as Polonium, which was tracked by Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC), abused OneDrive cloud storage for command and control (C2) as they attacked Israel.
Up until now Polonium had gone undetected.
Microsoft indicated that MSTIC assessed with high confidence, that POLONIUM is Lebanon-based, and also indicated that it could rule with "moderate confidence" that the observed activity was coordinated with Iran's intelligence and security ministry.
The Microsoft statement reads: "MSTIC assesses with moderate confidence that the observed activity was coordinated with other actors affiliated with Iran's intelligence and security ministry"
Polonium created and used legitimate OneDrive accounts, then used those accounts as part of their attack operation.
In response to this hack, Microsoft suspended more than 20 malicious OneDrive applications created by Polonium and told the targeted organizations of the attacks.
According to Microsoft, Polonium primarily targeted Israeli organizations which specialize in critical manufacturing and IT, along with major organizations in Israel's defense industry.
Microsoft has, in the recent past, identified and disabled several Iranian-linked attacks on Israeli companies.
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Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Deputy Chairman of their Security Council, thanked Israel and Turkey for helping negotiate between Russia and Ukraine and the West.
Of course, he also blamed Ukraine for all the problems resulting from this invasion.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Medvedev said: "Mediation is valuable not because there is simply an intermediary [but] because there is a platform for negotiations, and parties demonstrate a desire to negotiate," and then added that Ukraine prefers to continue fighting.
Yevgen Korniychuk, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel, also praised Israel for their help in mediating the conflict. He said: "We are looking more for the Israeli diplomatic effort, as an intermediary … We always look to Israel as one of the most prominent possible intermediaries for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."
Israel has close ties with both Russia and Ukraine, and is in a position where it can act as a trusted mediator.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has had numerous phone calls with Putin and with Zelenskyy. Bennett has even travelled to Russia to meet with Putin for face-to-face mediation.
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The situation is heating up again vis a vis Iran and their nuclear plans.
Iranian state media has reported that Iranian leadership is promising an "immediate response" to any move against them by the United States and the European countries participating in the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
"Any political action by the United States and the three European countries in the agency (IAEA) will undoubtedly be met with a proportionate, effective, and immediate response from Iran," Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was quoted as saying by state media.
Iranian media also reported that Amir-Abdollahian said that the head of the IAEA’s visit to Israel, Iran's arch-enemy, was in conflict with the agency's impartiality.
According to a draft resolution seen by the news agency Reuters, the United States, France, Britain, and Germany are pushing for the U.N. nuclear watchdog's Board of Governors to rebuke Iran for failing to answer longstanding questions on uranium traces at undeclared sites.
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Finally, 50 years after the Massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich, Bavarian authorities say that they are releasing the unpublished files on the attack. Or almost all the files. All, “except for some confidential files.”
On September 5, 1992, PLO terrorists who called themselves Black September, broke into the Munich Olympic. The terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes and then they escaped.
Joachim Herrmann, the top security official in the southern German state, explained that Bavaria will no longer keep any files under wraps, but conceded that federal authorities might still hold confidential files.
The goal of Black September was the release of terrorists held in Israeli prisons and two comrades held in West German jails.
A failed attempt to free the hostages in Munich resulted in the death of all of the Israelis.
There are still so many unanswered questions about this terror attack. Hopefully the newly opened files will shed important light on this tragic episode in Olympic history.
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According to State Department spokesperson Ned Price, the Biden administration has announced that they are 100% committed to re-opening a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem and the administration is discussing the issue with Israelis and with Palestinians.
In May of 2018, then U.S. President Donald Trump moved Washington's embassy to Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. That move resulted in the shutting down of a separate facility in the city that served as a consulate for Palestinians.
President Joe Biden, who defeated Trump in 2020, pledged to reopen the consulate, but no date has been set.
Israel has publicly opposed the Biden plan and suggested that if the United States is determined to re-open a consulate, it should be located outside Jerusalem, in the West Bank.
According to Price: "There are a number of steps that have to go into the reopening of any diplomatic facility. As you know, there are some shall we say unique sensitivities to this particular facility ... We are working through the issue with our Palestinian and Israeli partners."
The Times of Israel, citing unidentified U.S. and Palestinian officials, reported that in lieu of reopening the facility, Washington was planning to appoint the current top State Department diplomat for the region, Hady Amr, as a special envoy to the Palestinians.
Asked about The Times of Israel report, Price said he did not have any personnel announcements to make.
To be continued, this issue has not yet been resolved.
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Surinam has announced that they will be moving their embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem very soon.
Surinam’s foreign minister, Albert Ramdin, was in Jerusalem when he made the announcement in a joint press conference with Israeli foreign minister, Yair Lapid.
Several other countries have already moved or have promised to move their embassies to Jerusalem, the Israeli capital.
In May, Ecuador opened an Office of Innovation in Jerusalem which is seen as a first step to moving their embassy.
Columbia opened an Office of Innovation in November of 2021.
Brazil and Honduras have trade offices in Jerusalem.
The US opened their embassy in Jerusalem in May of 2018.
Guatemala moved their embassy to Jerusalem quickly after the United States made their move.
In June of 2021, Honduras opened its embassy in Jerusalem.
Kosovo opened its embassy in March 2021.
And The Dominican Republic, Malawi, and Equatorial Guinea have announced their intentions to open embassies in Jerusalem.
Surinam and Israel established diplomatic relations in 1976.
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The US Treasury Department issued new sanctions against a list of Iranian, Turkish, Russian, Chinese, Emirati and Lebanese citizens and entities that it said were linked to an oil smuggling network that provided funds for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah.
The Treasury Department said the network was led by current and former Quds Force figures, "backed by senior levels of the Russian Federation government" and included Chinese companies and a former Afghan diplomat. According to the Treasury, this network had raised hundreds of millions of dollars for Iran's Quds Force and Tehran's Lebanese allies Hezbollah, and helped Tehran support proxy militant groups.
The Quds Force is the foreign espionage and paramilitary arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps and controls its allied militia abroad.
The Trump administration put the IRCG on the State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) in 2019, the first time Washington formally labeled another nation’s military a terrorist group.
The Biden administration has been engaged in indirect talks to restart a 2015 deal former President Donald Trump abandoned, under which world powers lifted international financial sanctions on Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
According to an official statement issued by US State Dept: "While the United States continues to seek a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we will strictly enforce sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade."
In a separate statement, referring to the Nuclear Deal, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said: "While the United States continues to seek a mutual return to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we will strictly enforce sanctions on Iran’s illicit oil trade."
And Ned Price, the State Department Spokesman said: "The signal that we are sending is that we're not going to tolerate the illicit activities of the Quds Force, of other Iranian proxies, terrorist groups that receive Iranian support."
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Tel Aviv University researchers announced that they have identified a previously unknown mechanism shared by mutations in two genes which are thought to cause autism, schizophrenia and certain other conditions.
Researchers also found that an existing experimental drug may be suitable for treating a range of rare syndromes caused by these mutations which impair brain functions.
Their new findings could lead to the development of effective treatments for some cases of autism, schizophrenia and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
“Some cases of autism are caused by mutations in various genes,” said Prof. Illana Gozes from the Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. “Today we know of more than 100 genetic syndromes associated with autism, 10 of which are considered relatively common (though still extremely rare).”
The results of the study were published in the Molecular Psychiatry journal earlier this month.
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Turkey’s Foreign Minister finished a 2-day visit to Israel. This was the first high level Turkish visit to Israel in 15 years. Relations between the two countries have been strained of late.
While in Israel, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with Israeli leadership and he also met with Palestinian leadership.
Israel’s foreign minister Yair Lapid spoke at a joint Israeli/Turkish press conference and said: "The goal is to form and expand economic and civil cooperation between our countries, and to leverage our two countries' comparative advantages regionally and globally, even during the pandemic, and even in times of political tension."
Lapid and Cavusoglu indicated that they would begin working on a new civil aviation agreement.
Turkey's foreign minister emphasized that normalizing ties with Israel will help efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Cavusoglu said that "working on a positive agenda can also help us to address our disagreements in a more constructive manner." And then he added that: “Communications between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Israeli counterpart helped calm tensions between Israel and the Palestinians in Jerusalem during Ramadan.”
Lapid agreed with Cavusoglu and said that the two countries "have always known how to return to dialogue and cooperation."
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Thousands of Iranians came to pay their respect at the funeral of senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officer Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodayari.
The IRGC Colonel was assassinated on Sunday, May 22nd, while driving on a small street outside his home in Tehran. At exactly 4 PM local time, two assassins on a motorcycle pulled up and shot him five times at point blank range. Their weapons had silencers.
Khodayari was the masterminded behind several successful terrorist acts against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. Other attacks that he had planned were thwarted by Israel's intelligence agency Mossad.
He had also been smuggling materials into Syria and was charged with taking revenge on Israel for the assassination of another IRCG commander, Qasem Solameini, in 2020.
Khodayari was also responsible for planning terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.
According to a report by the Iranian state-owned Tasnim news agency, two assailants on a motorcycle fired five rounds at Col. Hassan Sayyad Khodayari who was sitting in his car in the heart of the capital.
Fingers are pointing at the Mossad - which makes sense.
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It has been reported that President Joe Biden has finalized his decision to keep Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the U.S. notorious terrorist blacklist.
According to a senior Western official, this decision by the president of the United States will further complicate international efforts to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Iran has maintained that removing the IRGC, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, from the terror list is essential if progress is to be made on the now stalled nuclear talks.
Another person familiar with the situation said that President Biden conveyed his decision regarding the terrorist list during an April 24th phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. This source added that the decision was conveyed as absolutely final and that the window for Iranian concessions had closed.
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13 UN ambassadors arrived in Israel on Tuesday at the invitation of Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations. The trip was organized by both Ambassador Erdan and the UJA of NY.
The objective in putting together this 7-day trip is for these UN ambassadors to see the real Israel and after seeing Israel with their own eyes, their voting records in the United nations may turn more favorably towards Israel.
The ambassadors will tour historic sites and sites of religious and cultural significance. They will be taken to visits at the Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Museum.
They will meet with Israel’s senior leadership - President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. They will visit several IDF bases across the country and engage in discussions with Israeli security officials. As part of their visit, the 13 ambassadors will visit the sites where Gaza terrorists and Hezbollah have perpetrated attacks against Israel.
The emphasis of much of this trip will be mutual economic and security interests.
The UN Ambassadors visiting Israel represent Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Estonia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Benin, Burundi, Malawi, El Salvador, Panama and Mexico, a current member of the UN Security Council.
Israeli Ambassador Erdan said of this trip: "We're bringing the ambassadors to Israel to experience Israel's commitment to coexistence, freedom and equality first-hand." The visitors to Israel will, he said get a "deeper understanding of Israel's reality and contributions to the international community”.
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Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are hard at work preparing for their next attack and next war with Israel.
They are using three tactics to achieve their goals.
Tactic # 1 - digging new tunnels
Tactic # 2 - developing better drones
Tactic # 3 - expanding naval capacities
The newly dug tunnels that have been recently uncovered by the IDF reach the Israeli border, but don't cross it. In times of war, Hamas hopes to emerge out of the tunnels on the Gazan side, close to the partition fence, and then break through it.
IDF sources say that Hamas has added 1,000 rockets to its existing arsenal, since the end of Operation Guardian of the Walls last year. The big difference is that now Hamas is focusing on the quality, not quantity, of their drones and missiles. This new arsenal is more accurate and more sophisticated than their previously used weapons.
Hamas also has well trained drone teams that have not been targeted by Israel.
They are also smuggling equipment through the Gaza-Egypt border by disguising their cargo to look like civilian shipments. They are utilizing the shipments to manufacture larger and stronger engines for boats already used by Hamas naval commando units and to assemble explosive boats.
Hamas is becoming more adept at warfare.
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They call themselves GDL, the Goyim Defense League. Their aim is to draw attention to their hatred of Jews.
Over the weekend 3 members of the GDL pulled their truck into the Beverly Hilton and shouted ugly anti-Jewish expressions at hotel guests. Their truck was covered in anti-Jewish slogans and they shouted “The Nazis are coming!”. 2 members of the group were dressed as Nazis, the third wore a hat with fake sidelocks.
They were trying to intimidate hotel guests. The police were called/
Their website, Goyimtv’s, describes their vision this way: “All members of the community and wider society should be treated as equals with the same rights, regardless of their race, age, sex, religion, political beliefs, or any other immutable attribute or self assigned designation UNLESS YOU’RE A JEW or THE SHABBOS EQUIVALENT.”
The group’s major philosophy is called replacement theory. They believe that Jews will replace whites in the United States. It is one of their group mantras.
They believe that a cabal of political elites – often Jews – are trying to destroy white culture or race through mass migration of non-white peoples. That belief is often part of a narrative about “white genocide,” and is manifested in the slogan, “You will not replace us,” or “Jews will not replace us.”
This group is very small, but the Jew-hating sentiment is catching on and others are starting to repeat this hateful rhetoric.
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Today New York City’s 5th Avenue was transformed into a celebration of love for Israel.
The 57th annual Salute to Israel Parade had 10’s of thousands of spectators as 10’s of thousands of marchers from schools, synagogues, youth groups, Jewish organizations, police, fire, ambulance heroes – all told over 40thousand, proudly strode down the avenue accompanied by marching bands and clowns on stilts – and of course, politicians.
After a three year hiatus, necessitated by Covid, the theme that was chosen for this year’s parade was, in English, Together Again. In Hebrew it was Kolannu b”Yachad, we are together.
The joy and love for Israel was palpable. An unabashed and proud lover pf Israel, I was in the reviewing stands and cheered as the marchers went by. I spoke to many JBS viewers who told me both how excited they were to attend the parade and how essential a part of their lives JBS is.
An electric celebration of 74 years of Israeli statehood and independence, marchers made their way from 57th Street all the way to 74th Street. How appropriate – the 57th Salute to Israel Parade began on 57th Street and ended on 74th Street – Israel’s 74th anniversary celebration.
When the parade first originated nearly 6 decades ago, marchers marched along Manhattan’s Riverside Drive.
Yesterday’s parade was all about Jewish pride.
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Israel is in the midst of the month long set of drills called Chariots of Fire. The country is preparing for any and all attacks they might have to, one day, face. This is the largest, most comprehensive drill in Israeli history.
A recent Chariots of Fire drill was an enactment of an attack on Tel Aviv. During the drill it was as if missiles, shot by Hezbollah, hit the center of downtown Tel Aviv and destroyed a building. Israel actually destroyed a real building in order to truly train the participants.
A senior officer, who could not be named, who is a high ranking member of the Home Front Command explained that:
"The goal was to practice complex scenarios which could occur in the future."
"In the next military conflict, we could experience more frequent and intense rocket fire, especially from Hezbollah, and the potential of more racially motivated riots across the entire country, after the May riots last year."
The IDF trained in 42 cities and towns, they trained in industrial areas across the country activating sirens in as many as 61 communities, as part of the drill.
All to be prepared for the inevitable.
One of their biggest fears for Israeli forces is that roads will be blocked by rioters and that will prevent rescue equipment from getting to sites and it will block medical teams form evacuating the wounded.
As part of the drill the IDF was trained on how to remove rioters and free up roads. The IDF will also use a completely different internet and communication system, so that it will be 100% reliable, during any crisis that might arise.
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Yesterday was Lag B’Omer.
The Jewish calendar counts a 50 full days, 7 full weeks, from Passover until Shavuot. It is called “counting the Omer”.
Lag B’Omer is the 33rd day of the Omer, in other words, it comes 33 days after the first day of Passover.
One year ago, in Israel, 45 people - men and children, were trampled to death on Lag B’Omer. It happened at Meron, where 100’s of thousands of people gather each year to pay tribute to Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai.
The 45 deaths were the results of overcrowding and poor planning. All of the dead were trampled to death.
This year, in response to last year’s tragedy, a plan and restrictions were put in place. Only those with tickets were permitted entry. They were asked to remain no more than four hours. The number of people at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai was limited.
But the crowds did not follow the rules. And the grave site became overcrowded with 400 people where only 170 can safely fit.
And as the crowds got larger and reached the maximum - the Police stopped busses as they were getting off the highway causing traffic jams. Some people became unruly. They pulled down fences and cameras. It was getting out of hand.
The police ended the celebrations a few hours early. They managed to maintain control despite some difficult moments.
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Sand Cats, also known as Sand Dune Cats, are an endangered species.
The Ramat Gan Safari had two Sand Cats - one male and the other a female. One feline came from France and the other from Sweden. The two-year old female just delivered 5 kittens.
According to the Safari staff, at first, the Europeans did not seem to get along. But as time went by they got closer, grew fond of each other and eventually mated.
All five of the newborn Sand Cats in the litter have survived. Often, only two kittens survive - so this is an exception. The mother is very protective of her newborns and barely lets the father come close.
There are less than 10,000 of these endangered cats in the wild and only 178 in zoos across the world. At one time there were Sand Cats in Israel, but with time they came extinct in the region. Now several zoos, like the Ramat Gan Safari, are taking part in efforts to boost the species' reproduction rate and to bring more Sand Cats to the world.
The Israeli-born kittens will eventually be transferred to zoos in Europe where they will, hopefully, continue to help the species' population increase.
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There were elections in Lebanon - and Hezbollah turned out to be the big loser.
Final results are in, and Hezbollah has lost significant power.
Hezbollah won 31 seats in this election. In the last election they had only 29 seats. So how did they lose?
Here’s how:
Hezbollah’s partners from the past parliament lost significant seats in this election. Because of that Hezbollah, despite a gain of two seats, they lost power.
In bigger terms, this means that Hezbollah has lost control of the Lebanese parliament. It’s actually good news for everyone except Hezbollah.
I have been predicting this outcome for the past few months.
And that’s because, in Lebanon, for the past several months, we have witnessed numerous signs and signals that average citizens of Lebanon are expressing anger at Hezbollah. There were repeated claims that Hezbollah was putting the rest of Lebanon at serious risk. And they were shouting that Hezbollah’s priorities and Iran’s priorities are not Lebanon’s priorities.
They were publicly saying that Hezbollah keeps poking Israel and that when Israel strikes back, they hit at all Lebanese – not only Hezbollah.
And through their votes, they made their point. And they made their point loud and clear.
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It’s called Operation Chariots of Fire. It is the largest military drill in the history of Israel.
“There won’t be a unit that doesn’t take part in this drill” explained IDF Spokesman Brig.-Gen Ron Kochav.
Operation Chariots of Fire will involve multi-fronts and real-time decision making operations by political leaders and military general staff. Of course, thousands and thousands of soldiers will be involved.
Tensions in Israel are very high and getting higher with each successful and thwarted terrorist attack. This drill will involve ground, sea and air forces. While the IDF spokesman did not mention computers, the most important element in Chariots of Fire will be the high tech responses.
For Israel, the most important and dangerous front is now in the north. Hezbollah is in possession of 150,000 rockets and there needs to be a coordinated Israeli response in the event of an attack.
The stated purpose of the Operation Chariots of Fire is: “to improve cooperation between the IDF, government ministries, security organizations and civilian bodies, including their capabilities to transition from routine to a full emergency scenario with multiple areas that are constantly evolving.”
A multi-front attack is a realistic scenario. Israel needs to be prepared.
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A whale was recently sighted off the coast of Haifa. This is big news. It was the first whale ever spotted off the coast of Israel.
It was a massive sperm whale.
The sighting was photographed by a graduate student named Kim Kobo. And so the whale was given the name Kim, because was the first person to see it.
Kim, the grad student, was part of a group of marine scientists.
After spotting the whale, the marine scientists contacted colleagues in the hope of gaining information and they received conformation that this was the first sighting of this – or any whale in Israel ever.
They are now cataloguing the whale and identifying it thru scars and other indicators.
About her namesake, Kim Kobo said: "It's a nice feeling. It's especially exciting that I was part of this study. Most of our lab members have dolphins named after them… But I had the honor of having a sperm whale taking my name."
According to Dr. Aviad Scheinin, the Head Apex Predators Investigator at the University of Haifa’s Morris Kahn Marine Research said: "Sperm whales are on the verge of extinction in the Mediterranean and their population is in rapid decline.”
He added: “We hope that our discovery will show that the Haifa area serves as an important habitat for them. We hope that Kim will be the first on a long list of Israeli whales."
This is one whale of a story.
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The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel’s Mossad interrupted a triple assassination attempt. The targets were a US general, an Israeli diplomat in Turkey and a journalist in France.
The Mossad arrested the 52 year old leader of the plot. Mansour Rasouli. in Iran and interrogated him. Rasouli gave up the details of the plan and his links with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). He was later released.
Rasouli revealed that they were willing to pay contractors $1 million per hit.
In a British media outlet, Rasouli now claims that: “criminals abducted me … They put a bag over my head and took me to an unknown location … They told me they’d kill me and my family and tortured me severely. They told me I had to say everything they told me — that I was an emissary of the Revolutionary Guards and that I was sent to kill people in Europe and Turkey.”
There were a lot of credible details in the report Rasouli gave the Mossad.
The information sounds incredibly reasonable especially given that the United States spends $2 million per month protecting former secretary of State Mike Pompeo because of credible and actionable threats against his life.
Rasouli is working hard to protect himself from reprisal by the notorious Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
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Who knew garbage would be so informative?
The Nabataean–Roman ancient trading route connected the Mediterranean world with eastern and southern sources of incense, spices and other luxury goods, stretching from the Levant and Egypt through Northeastern Africa and Arabia to India and beyond.
The route was in use for 600 years, from 300 BCE to 300 CE.
Professor of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Guy Bar-Oz, heads the study that excavated ancient rubbish which had accumulated at rest stations along the route. And he says that the research his group conducted did helps unveil new information about the trade route.
Prof. Bar-Oz explained that: "When examining the trade composition, three main trends are recognized: international trade with a central route to South East Asia; international trade that connected between sea sources - especially between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea; and local trade that acted as an 'economic belt' of the route and provided raw material and food for the merchants along the route."
The University of Haifa researchers pursued a strategy involving targeted, small-scale excavations at ancient middens or garbage dumps at caravanserai along the Petra–Gaza section of the route.
Rubbish deposits, rich in ash and organic remains, located on the outskirts of the archeological sites, enabled the researchers to illuminate aspects of the organization of desert trade, with wide implications for other ancient trade routes.
What great finds they uncovered.
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Lufthansa has apologized for not allowing Jews on one of their flights.
In a statement, the CEO of the airline wrote that Lufthansa: “regrets the circumstances surrounding the decision to exclude the affected passengers from the flight.”
He went on to say that the airline regretted that: “the large group was denied boarding rather than limiting it to the non-compliant guests.”
What Lufthansa referred to as a “group” were 100-plus Hasidic Jews, many of whom did not know one another, flying to Hungary on a pilgrimage to the graves of renowned rabbis.
According to the passengers, they were not a group at all - most of the Jewish passengers were flying as individuals.
Lufthansa also apologized “not only for the inconvenience, but also for the offense caused and personal impact.”
Lufthansa management did not use the word “Jews” nor did they mention that the only passengers barred from travel were Jews and very Jewish looking Jews.
Airline employees spoke to that issue saying that it was Jewish people who had boarded a plane at JFK who were non-mask-compliant and hence, they were being punished.
During the flight from JFK the pilot admonished passengers and told them there would be consequences for not wearing a mask. And there were.
Shame on Lufthansa -- even the apology was insulting.
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Leaders from around the world are still attempting to convince Iran to come back to the negotiation table and sign on to a new nuclear agreement.
The European Union's Iran nuclear coordinator, Enrique Mora, is going to Tehran to meet Iranian negotiator Bagheri Kani.
On Twitter, Enrique Mora wrote: "Travelling again to Tehran for meetings with Bagheri Kani and other officials on the Vienna talks and other issues. Work on closing the remaining gaps of this negotiation continues."
Ali Shamkhani, the chair of Iran's powerful Supreme National Security Council, tweeted in Hebrew that nuclear talks were progressing and "were a sign that the strong government and its official ability to deal with the most important matters."
Shamkhani was, obviously, trying to bring home his point to one of the nuclear deal’s most outspoken naysayers
Mora has played a crucial role in facilitating the negotiations, given that Iran refuses to speak directly to America. He last traveled to Tehran in late March, before heading to Washington.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Mora would be "conveying messages" from the other signatories to Tehran during his trip.
One of Iran’s most outrageous demands is that Washington lift its terrorism designation from the Revolutionary Guard.
Separately, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has grown increasingly critical of Iran's failure to cooperate and its refusal to explain the traces of radioactive material at several undeclared nuclear sites.
The IAEA’s head, Rafael Mariano Grossi, has repeatedly expressed his frustration with Iran. He is quoted as saying: "We, in the last few months, were able to identify traces of enriched uranium in places that have never been declared by Iran, so we are extremely concerned about this."
Grossi added that he was skeptical that officials could close a nuclear deal if the IAEA still had unanswered questions.
This is not over – and probably wont be over for a while.
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It was right out of a comic book.
It took place in Antwerp, Belgium.
A man was attacking a Jew. The Jew was dressed in traditional Jewish garb. He had a beard, a fur hat, a long black coat and a white shirt.
The perpetrator shouted hateful anti-Jewish slurs and then lunged at the Jew. The Jew quickly responded taking down the bad guy.
The scene was filmed by someone watching from a balcony above the melee. The perpetrator was held on the ground by the victim while other people called the police.
The police came and arrested the perpetrator.
Attacks against Jews in Belgium are commonplace. They have been on a fast rise this past year.
It is good to see that Jews are responding.
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Sometimes, the news just makes me laugh.
Sometimes, an item shoots across my screen and I think it is a joke - but it turns out to be all too true.
A family of American tourists was leaving Israel after their visit. They arrived at Ben Gurion Airport and, like everyone else, stood on line for a security check of their luggage. And there, in their luggage, it was discovered that they were carrying home a souvenir they found on their trip to the Golan Heights.
What was this souvenir? It was an intact, unexploded, loaded, shell.
The airport was quickly evacuated. One person was hurt in the mayhem. The family was taken and interrogated.
The American family was quickly released and they were even able to fly home on their originally scheduled flight. It was obvious to security that they had no intention of wrongdoing. And just as obvious that they had no idea of how dangerous a souvenir they had.
In a certain way, it was a quaint story. Had they been in the United States the family would have certainly been arrested and charged. The legal principle is “ignorance is no excuse.”
In Israel, they handled things differently.
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Israel granted refugee status and citizenship to about 6,000 Russian Jews. they were obviously also granted the Right of Return.
As refugees, these new Israelis receive even more benefits than those granted to a simple oleh or Jewish immigrant.
These 6,000 Russians were granted the same refugee status as Ukrainians who were truly escaping for their lives. The Russian Jews were not escaping. But they lived with the fear that they may be targeted in Russia simply because they are Jews.
Now, 2 months since the invasion into Ukraine and the arrival of Russian refugees to Israel – 1,800 of these Russians have returned to Russia with their new Israeli citizenship plus the cash and other benefits given them by the Jewish State.
As you rightly imagine, Israel is not pleased. The Israeli government, you could say, is livid.
The Russians all flew back on either El Al or Israir. They are the only airlines that fly from Tel Aviv to Russia and the tickets are extremely expensive. Not to mention that the flights from Moscow to Tel Aviv were paid for by Israeli taxpayers.
These 1800 people are clearly not refugees … that is obvious by their return.
They exploited Israel to get an Israeli passport - a passport that is more respected in the Western world than a Russian passport.
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500 Israeli children received teddy bears for participating in an Open House for Children. The event was sponsored by the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in Safad.
Every year for the past decade, this branch of Bar Ilan Medical School transforms their facility into a hospital and creates a program intended to de-mystify the hospital for children.
The goal is to alleviate anxiety. They conduct child-friendly programs in emergency rooms, blood labs, x-ray rooms, a cardiac center and even in ambulances.
The program is call “the Teddy Bear Hospital.” And it is very successful.
Many children, as well as adults, have a fear of hospitals and that fear keeps them from getting early treatment. If this anxiety can be alleviated early, then whenever hospitalizations are required - even if the need arises later in life, these graduates of Teddy Bear Hospital will feel comfortable enough to quickly access a hospital, before their situation turns into an emergency.
In the long term, innovative programs like this one save lives.
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Ukrainian President Zelenskyy spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Bennett about Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov’s Hitler comments.
Zelenskyy called the comments "scandalous and completely unacceptable remarks". Zelenskyy also went on air and said that Lavrov’s ridiculous pronouncement had outraged the world.
Referring to Lavrov’s comments, Bennett said: "His words are untrue and their intentions are wrong. Using the Holocaust of the Jewish people as a political tool must cease immediately. Lies such as these mean to blame Jews for the horrible crimes committed against them throughout history and by doing so, remove responsibility from their enemies."
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid was very forceful in his outrage over Lavrov’s comments. He found them to be both a personal affront and a historical untruth.
Lapid said: "This is an unforgivable and outrageous statement and a terrible historic mistake and we expect an apology.
"Jews did not kill themselves in the Holocaust. My grandfather was killed by Nazis. To say that Hitler was of Jewish origin is like saying that Jews killed themselves and we cannot forgive such a comparison.
"It enrages me not only as foreign minister but also as a son of my father's who was put in the Budapest ghetto. He was not put there by Jews. He was put there by Nazis.
"The Nazis persecuted the Jews and killed six million of them. Ukrainians were not Nazis. Only the Nazis were Nazis and they had conducted a systematic eradication of the Jewish people.”
This issue is not going away. The Kremlin firmly asserts that Ukraine is Nazi and fascist. Russian’s propaganda machine is in full force telling Russians that through this invasion, they are de-Nazifying Ukraine.
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The ridiculous and very bold announcement, made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, stating that Hitler was Jewish set in motion a series of responses.
Lavrov’s intent was to say that it does not matter that Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is Jewish. Russia still must destroy the Nazism and fascism of Zelenskyy and of Ukraine.
The statement was made in a now famous interview Lavrov gave to Italian media.
He said: “I could be wrong but Hitler also had Jewish blood … [The fact that Zelensky] is a Jew doesn’t mean anything. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”
The claim by Russia’s foreign minister is 100% false. But that doesn’t stop it from being repeated often these days in the Soviet Union. And it is even being used to discredit Israel and all Jews. The Kremlin’s intent was to bolster their claim that Ukraine is Nazi and Fascist – which is also blatantly false.
Just because they are false statements, doesn’t mean that they are not effective. These pronouncements have awakened a deep-seated hatred of Jews that, in the new era of Russia, has been controlled - residing and festering, beneath the surface.
There are serious ramifications to these Russian moves and proclamations.
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There has been a salmonella recall on Israeli chocolate made in the Strauss Elite Nazareth plant. Elite was bought by Strauss. Strauss is owned by Unilever. Unilever, of course, has gained notoriety as the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.
Almost every Israeli has grown up on Elite chocolate. This was a big blow to the Israeli public – from toddler to senior citizen and everyone in between.
The salmonella was first detected by inspectors before Passover - but they did not go public until after Passover so as not to hurt the mood of Passover or, probably more importantly, their bottom line.
Ofra Strauss, the chair of the Strauss Group apologized to the public. She said: "I apologize for letting you down. We pledge that we will fix the flaws and return our products to the shelves only when they are safe."
Eyal Dror, CEO of Strauss Israel, explained the timeline: "About a month before the incident, there were pigeons in the chocolate factory. We got a couple of complaints from one of our clients, and indications of product anomalies, but we didn't listen or look into it, and that's not right."
The “incident” Dror refers to is the time when the salmonella was officially detected – not when the report was released. So they knew of the danger and continued producing chocolate and shipping chocolate for a month.
These executives showed sheer incompetence and a lack of regard for their customers, their health and their wellbeing. That is criminal. They must be prosecuted for their decision and their own words can be used against them.
They just wanted to sell more product.
Think about it. How could pigeons ever be permitted in a sterile food factory. Every worker on the factory floor wears masks, gloves, white coats and those silly looking white shower caps. Look at their videos on Youtube.
This isn’t Purim or Halloween. They wear disposable outfits because when you come into contact with food, you are legally required to sanitize. Everything should be as close to sterile as possible.
What would happen if there were reports of pigeons in an operating room? Would responsible leadership wait a month see if some inspector detects impurities? No way! Not even in Iran!
This is about more than chocolate. There should be national outrage. The board should replace the Elite Strauss leadership.
Strauss Elite decided not to inform the public of a risk and not to shut down. They decided to continue to sell beloved chocolates and ice cream and spreads that they knew was dangerous to consume.
What they did not know was just how dangerous. And that is the biggest legal issue. It was wanton disregard for the health of the public. Management took the risk. Thankfully, no one died.
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By now, almost everyone has heard of the city of Mariupol.
But did you know that the great yeshivah of Ponevezh (Ponevitch) relocated to Mariupol in 1914 and tried to remain safe in that city during the inter-war years.
Originally located in Lithuania, during World War I, the Ponevezh Yeshiva was forced to shut its doors by the Germans. They looked for a safer place to re-open and Mariupol was the perfect spot. At the time it was about 20% Jewish – that was about 5,000 Jews.
And located on the Black Sea, it was far from the fighting.
After the War the Yeshiva went back to Ponevezh, but in 1939 it was caught between both Germany and Russia who were both squeezing it.
The Rosh Yeshiva, the head of the yeshiva, was able to save the prestigious school and reestablish it once again. In 1944 the Yeshiva of Ponovezh opened its doors in Bnei Brak, Israel
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I've Been Thinking:
Seven Israelis were convicted of celebrating the brutal murder a Palestinian toddler and his parents.
They were members of the Dawabsheh family and they were murdered in 2015 during an act of arson.
The Jerusalem Magistrates Court found the men guilty of “glorifying murder with song and dance”. The dance and song took place at a wedding.
There is an issue of freedom of expression. But this behavior was not appropriate and it was beneath the threshold of acceptability.
The court was correct. There is no first amendment right in Israel. It is not as all-encompassing as it is in the United States.
Shame on those seven Israelis.
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I've Been Thinking:
Both Microsoft and the government of the United States have discovered that Russia has been attacking Ukraine with digital hacks.
In fact, Russia has been aggressively targeting infrastructure and media and communications systems. It is part of a larger military strategy initiated by Russia to strike and disrupt life in Ukraine.
The Russians are, of course, using the standard bot and malicious software.
The United States discovered a Russian cyber weapon called “Pipe Dream.”
Pipe Dream is extremely dangerous. It targets Industrial Control Systems (ISC). That means power grids, water supplies, hospitals, pumping stations, sewage, trains and bridges. Pipedream is called a Swiss Army Knife because it has so very many adjustable tools.
It was discovered by a group of US teams working to keep the United States safe. The Department of Energy, the Department of Cyber Security, the Infrastructure Security Agency, the NSA, and the FBI all played a role in uncovering Pipe Dream.
Making it even more of a threat, Pipe Dream’s attack software targets Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA). That is our internet and computer systems.
To complicate matters, Pipe Dream may not have been developed by Russian hackers. It was probably purchased from Schneider Electric or from Omicron- both are now selling this product.
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I've Been Thinking:
Most people have never heard of and certainly can’t pronounce the word flechettes.
The best way to describe flechettes is the wing on a throwing dart or the feathers on an arrow. On military weapons, flechettes are the fins.
One type of weapon which uses flechettes is the cluster bomb - which is an illegal weapon according to today’s rules of war. The cluster bomb explodes high and releases hundreds of mini bombs that spread in all directions.
Russia uses flechettes. The Russians used flechettes in their invasion into Ukraine and especially in the city of Bucha. The Russians fired 122mm shells and hundreds of 3 mm flechettes flew out to attack Ukrainians.
As I said – flechettes are an illegal weapon according to today’s rules of war. Russia knows that. Russia, aka Vladimir Putin, does not care.
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I've Been Thinking:
One of the biggest issues Palestinians have with the Abraham Accords is that the Palestinians are no longer dictating the way other Arabs and Muslims see Israel.
Israelis and Arab leaders are engaged in trade and activity. The Palestinians are watching from the sidelines. The Palestinians are not even in the game.
But the tide may have turned for the Palestinians.
Some Palestinian advocates are claiming that recent violence on the Temple Mount may be what is needed to once again put their agenda on the front burner of the Arab world.
In a recorded speech, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbollah, said that: "the Palestinian Issue is returning to life and gaining supporters and additional combatants that are willing to sacrifice themselves for its cause. The enemy relied on the time to pass and for the nations to forget the Palestinian issue, but what's happening is the opposite.”
Nasrallah spoke of the riots being waged on the Temple Mount, referring to them as the resistance, and said that: "its returning today and with it the sword in Gaza that defends it like it did last year."
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I've Been Thinking:
A leopard, walking around your neighborhood, jumping from porch to porch and then to the ground is simply – to put it bluntly, not normal.
But that is exactly what recently happened in the Iranian city of Ghaemshahr, located in northern Iran.
The leopard attacked a policeman. It was subsequently wounded by police who shot it in order to save their colleague. The policeman is in stable condition.
The leopard was taken to a wild life refuge. These leopards are an endangered species. Unfortunately, the leopard died.
More and more. wild animals are encroaching upon and entering human domains. What was once unheard of, is now happening all over.
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I've Been Thinking:
There have been some shocking studies about US youth and their attitudes toward Israel and why they developed to those attitudes. College students were polled and here are some of their responses.
When questioned about feeling a “responsibility” towards Israel the responses were: 33% feel some responsibility, 23% feel little responsibility, and 12% feel no responsibility.
About responsibility for fellow Jews in the United States: only 9% feel a great deal of “responsibility” to help fellow Jews in the U.S., 33% feel some responsibility, 30% feel little responsibility, and 18% feel no responsibility.
These numbers are, quite frankly, shocking.
Nearly half of the college students polled have little to no “responsibility” for their fellow Jews in the United States.
“Responsibility” is a loaded term. It implies more commitment than the word “care” or “feeling”. But this is worrisome.
At the same time, 23% of the students polled reported that the anti-Israeli climate on campus or elsewhere has forced them to hide their Jewish identity. And 28% say the anti-Israeli climate on campus and elsewhere has made them rethink their own commitment to Israel. 54% say it has not affected them.
Jews are hiding their Jewish identity and young Jews are questioning their connections to Israel because of the toxic climate on campus.
That is a problem. It is a big, worrisome, problem.
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I've Been Thinking:
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is livid that Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh is playing a role in talks regarding increased tensions in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount.
Not just any role, a large role.
Haniyeh was in touch with senior Egyptian intelligence officials, with Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and his foreign minister and with UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland.
The Hamas leader also contacted Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Oman’s Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr Albusaidi.
Ismael Haniyeh lives in Doha, Qatar under the sponsorship and protection of the Qataris.
It seems as if important people are listening to him and taking his calls.
None of that bodes well for Mahmoud Abbas.
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I've Been Thinking:
Kamala Harris, vice president of the United States, served Psagot wine at her seder. The picture was splashed all over the twittersphere.
Actually, it was condemned all over the twittersphere.
Psagot wine is made in Samaria, in the north part of the West Bank just outside of Ramallah.
Quickly doing damage control. Hadar Susskind, head of Americans for Peace Now tweeted an explanation. She tweeted: "I absolutely believe that the VP did not intend to serve wine produced in a settlement. But this mistake came about because of policy. Specifically, the Trump administration policy which erased the Green Line and allowed products made in West Bank settlements to be labeled as 'Made in Israel.'"
Susskind urged her membership to: "sign this petition to urge Secretary of State Antony Blinken to reverse Trump’s embracement of West Bank settlements."
I am flabbergasted, simply flabbergasted.
The wine served by the vice president and her husband was a very good wine and I compliment the selection. But if you think it was wrong to select that wine – say it was wrong. Condemn the selection. Don’t try to justify it.
This is an example of one of the big issues that emerges in covering this administration. It appears as if the right is the only group that criticizes the administration.
Part of the role of ideologues is to be true to their ideology. That’s not what happened here. Instead we have a perfect example of ideology morphing into a political apology.
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I've Been Thinking:
Passover and Easter overlapped this year.
That coincidence provides a perfect opportunity to illustrate how certain aspects of Christianity misread the life of Jesus – and that misunderstanding led to the persecution of Jews over the millennia.
For instance, whenever the Passion (the story of the crucifixion in Christian tradition) is read - anti-Jewish acts happen in its wake. The theology emerges out of an idea called supersessionism.
Supersessionism is the concept that Christianity replaced Judaism. It is best seen in the Christian names of the Bibles. And in the New versus the Old – in the idea that the new Christian Bible takes the place of the old Hebrew Bible.
It is also seen in the notion that Jesus was lapse in His Jewish observance. New scholarship, with very few exceptions, totally reject this. They assert that Jesus was an observant Jew, including issues of ritual purity.
If more Christians studied and were taught the real roots of Jesus, it would go a long way to fighting the awful plague of Jew hatred ravaging the world today.
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I've Been Thinking:
The head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary faction in Lebanon announced that with just $9 billion they could wipe Israel off the map.
According to Mohamed Raad: “The resistance only needs $9 billion and there will be nothing left called Israel in the region.”
That is, to put it mildly, a very bold statement.
When you analyze the statement, however, you see that Raad and Hezbollah demonstrate two major weaknesses.
Number one - they do not understand the value of the dollar. When speaking in military terms, $9 billion is not all that much money.
Number two - they do not have an understanding of Israel’s military power.
I can guarantee that if they were to get $9 billion and tried to destroy Israel, they would be the ones to be destroyed.
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I've Been Thinking:
A family was hiking in southern Israel in the Arava Desert, in Nachal Tamar, when two daughters wandered off the path. The younger daughter was 6 years old and the older one was 13.
The children wandered on to a minefield.
Thankfully, the girls had the presence of mind to call emergency services.
After four wrenching hours, they were finally safe and sound. Two of those hours were spent standing still in the very same spot and two were spent slowly, very slowly, making their way back to safety - personally guided by sappers.
The two girls, along with a sapper, wore large mats on their feet which spreads the weight so as not to trigger an undiscovered mine.
Because they were in the desert, police suggested they use drones to deliver water so that the children would they not dehydrate. But the parents feared that the drone would disturb a mine and they nixed the idea.
It was an emotional and harrowing four hours and after making it to safety the sisters ran into their parent’s loving arms.
This story had a happy ending. Israeli police are using this story to call on all hikers to pay attention and stick to signed paths. Good advice.
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I've Been Thinking:
Silverstein, the beloved children’s author and artist, is being honored with a US postal stamp.
Silverstein was born in Chicago in 1930, he died in 1999.
“The Giving Tree” is Silverstein’s greatest work. It tells the story of the friendship between a boy and a tree. The commemorative stamp features a picture of the boy catching an apple.
A marvelous lesson about the relationship between trees and people, “The Giving Tree” is read ubiquitously in Jewish education.
Children read the book themselves or have the book read to them every year on Tu B’shvat. What a wonderful way to celebrate the New Year of Trees.
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I've Been Thinking:
A bottlenose dolphin was found dead in a fish farm in the port of Ashdod.
There are only an estimated 300-400 of these dolphins in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. They are considered “vulnerable” – in other words, they are at risk of extinction.
The authorities and investigators and, of course, the expert marine biologists were all called to make certain that there was no foul play at the fish farm.
They discovered that the body of this eight-foot-long dolphin had marks around the dorsal fin and the pectoral fins. It was determined that the dolphin had probably gotten tangled in the fishing nets or ropes that are used to secure ships in the Ashdod port.
Other marks were also seen on the dolphin. According to the scientists, those marks were caused by members of the pod that had tried to free the dolphin. Dolphins work together to solve common problems. As a pod they even coordinate to take out sharks.
This is the third dolphin this year to be washed ashore. All three of these dolphins were caught in nets or ropes.
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I've Been Thinking:
An Israeli fisherman, fishing off the coast of Ashdod, spotted a hammerhead shark.
The fisherman contacted the Israel Nature and Parks Reserve. They sent out two inspectors – and they found the shark.
It is very unusual to find a hammerhead shark in the Mediterranean.
This hammerhead was over 6 feet long. The inspectors observed and filmed the shark for over an hour.
Hammerheads are considered rare and endangered in the Mediterranean. Experts approximated that there were only 12 hammerheads in the entire Mediterranean.
This sighting, in addition to being exciting, is evidence that the shark population is expanding in the Mediterranean area.
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The now famous Texas synagogue – the synagogue that captured the attention of the world when the synagogue rabbi and three congregants were held captive by a terrorist - recently re-opened.
Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, TX had been damaged by the attack. Windows were broken and doors were destroyed. There were bullet holes in the walls.
Much of the synagogue needed to be repaired.
Anna Salton Eisen, a synagogue founder, said that the scene reminded her of the abandoned synagogues in Poland, still marked with bullets from World War II, that she saw while visiting that country in 1998 with her parents — both Holocaust survivors.
She said: “I was standing in my synagogue this time and it was just empty and silent and it showed the marks of the violence that had occurred.”
Eisen added that the return to their synagogue will help the healing process for her fellow congregants.
She said: “We are not defeated and we are not going to live in fear.”
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I've Been Thinking:
Hamas slammed Arab and Muslim countries that condemned the recent spate terror attacks in Israel.
Hamas supported the terror attacks. They were not responsible and did not claim responsibility. They certainly gave their support and heaped praise on the terrorist and their actions.
Concerning the nations and leaders who condemned the terror, Hamas published a statement.
"We were surprised by the condemnation. Resistance is the protection of people and holy places and is a right enshrined in international law," the Islamist terror outfit said.
"Israel's aggressive policy against the Palestinian people is one of the causes of terrorism and racism around the world."
The hardest thing for people is their last statement that Israel is the cause for terror and racism around the world.
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I've Been Thinking:
Israel has seen an uptick in terror and yet, the international media is reluctant to call it “terror”.
Instead, they rewrite the events - placing blame on Israel.
Here is a recent Reuters news agency release. "Israeli forces shoot dead Palestinian after Tel Aviv bar attack". Well, yes – BUT – only after the Palestinian perpetrated a terror attack that killed 3 people. That detail was omitted from the original release.
Only after a huge backlash did Reuters rewrite the lead. Now it read: "Israeli security forces on Friday shot dead a Palestinian suspected of killing three people in a Tel Aviv bar, in the latest attack in a series amid renewed tensions between Palestinians and Israelis".
Better but not quite accurate. It places the emphasis and the wrongdoing on Israeli security forces. And the words “terror” and “terrorist” and still not mentioned.
The BBC posted this biased portrayal of the terror attack: "Palestinian gunman killed by Israeli security forces after deadly attack at Tel Aviv bar".
The Guardian depicted the events this way: "Israeli forces kill Palestinian after Tel Aviv shooting leaves two dead". It was later altered to read: "Israel: Two dead after gunman opens fire in Tel Aviv bar".
Fox got it correct - but hedged a little: "Israeli forces kill Palestinian after Tel Aviv shooting leaves two dead". Later altered it to: "Israel: Two dead after gunman opens fire in Tel Aviv bar".
This is a moral problem.
Murdering Israeli Jews simply because they are Israeli Jews is terror and it is racism.
How do these people, people others depend on for information, not lose the high ground for their moral inconsistency?
Every decent person must label these events properly and condemn the murder of innocent people, targeted because and only because, they are Israeli Jews.
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I've Been Thinking:
Support for a single state solution of the Israeli/Palestinian situation is higher now than it has been.
A recent survey shows that 33% of Palestinians support the idea that there should be only one state for both Israelis and Palestinians. The study was done by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
Just three months ago, 24% of Palestinians supported a single state solution.
The one state solution is most popular among young people and nationalists.
This study indicates that the mainstream population of the Palestinians have lost confidence - or are quickly losing confidence, in their leadership to bring a resolution to the stalemate.
This number represents the highest number in 30 years of surveys on this subject.
If there were to be a single state, the populations would be split evenly with about 7 million Israelis and 7 million Palestinians.
The results of these studies suggest a troubling future in terms of resolving this problem.
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I've Been Thinking:
Support for a single state solution of the Israeli/Palestinian situation is higher now than it has been.
A recent survey shows that 33% of Palestinians support the idea that there should be only one state for both Israelis and Palestinians. The study was done by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
Just three months ago, 24% of Palestinians supported a single state solution.
The one state solution is most popular among young people and nationalists.
This study indicates that the mainstream population of the Palestinians have lost confidence - or are quickly losing confidence, in their leadership to bring a resolution to the stalemate.
This number represents the highest number in 30 years of surveys on this subject.
If there were to be a single state, the populations would be split evenly with about 7 million Israelis and 7 million Palestinians.
The results of these studies suggest a troubling future in terms of resolving this problem.
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I've Been Thinking:
Support for a single state solution of the Israeli/Palestinian situation is higher now than it has been.
A recent survey shows that 33% of Palestinians support the idea that there should be only one state for both Israelis and Palestinians. The study was done by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
Just three months ago, 24% of Palestinians supported a single state solution.
The one state solution is most popular among young people and nationalists.
This study indicates that the mainstream population of the Palestinians have lost confidence - or are quickly losing confidence, in their leadership to bring a resolution to the stalemate.
This number represents the highest number in 30 years of surveys on this subject.
If there were to be a single state, the populations would be split evenly with about 7 million Israelis and 7 million Palestinians.
The results of these studies suggest a troubling future in terms of resolving this problem.
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I've Been Thinking:
Michael Bloomberg has joined forces with the Sagol family to help mayors in Israel become better mayors.
They have created The Bloomberg-Sagol Center for City Leadership at Tel Aviv University.
Bloomberg is drawing on the experience he has gained from his own Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative at the Kennedy School for Government and the Harvard Business School.
At the launch event held at Tel Aviv University, Michael Bloomberg explained the thinking behind the newly created center in Israel this way: “Mayors are on the front lines of every crisis, whether it’s terrorism or a pandemic. The series of recent terrorist attacks in Israel underscores the urgency of this new initiative, which is aimed at helping mayors confront their most difficult challenges and most pressing crises.”
“Israel has always been an inspiration due to its fortitude and the resolve you continue to show in the face of terror. In New York we are in tremendous gratitude to all those countries who stood by us and helped after 9/11, especially Israel, and one small way we can repay the debt is by replicating the program that has been phenomenally successful in the United States.”
The Bloomberg-Sagol Center will have a significant impact on municipal leadership in Israel.
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I've Been Thinking:
Forbes published its list of billionaires and Elon Musk tops the list with $219 billon.
Miriam (Miri) Adelson hit the list at #50 with $27 billion. Miri is the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate.
Together, Sheldon and Miri created the newspaper Israel Hayom. Miri remains owner of the Israeli paper.
Israel Hayom is the largest newspaper in Israel. It is distributed, for free, across Israel. The thinking behind the paper has always been to challenge mainstream media in Israel – media that has generally been left leaning or even extreme left.
Miri Adelson continues the tradition of philanthropy she and her husband began. Their generous support was and still is given to education in Israel, education about Israel and Jewish causes.
The Adelson’s were also very large contributors to Republican causes and candidates.
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I've Been Thinking:
Iran is pointing their finger. And that finger is aimed directly at the United States. They are blaming the United States for the stalemate in the nuke talks.
While significant progress was made in the latest round of talks, the talks taking place in Vienna have stalled.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman did not mince words. He said the United States is responsible for the pause in talks between Tehran and world powers in Vienna aimed at reviving their 2015 nuclear deal.
Speaking during a weekly news conference Saeed Khatibzadeh said: "America is responsible for the halt of these talks ... a deal is very much within reach … Washington should make political decision for the deal's revival."
And then he added that Tehran would "not wait forever".
If it sounds like a threat – it is.
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I've Been Thinking:
AirBnB has announced that it is now suspending all operations in Russia and in Belarus.
The company statement announcing this decision reads: "Guests globally will no longer be able to make new reservations for stays or experiences in Russia or Belarus."
Brian Chesky, AirBnB CEO, added that reservations starting on or after April 4th have been canceled. This policy change was announced on Twitter.
This is a small but essential move.
AirBnB is a huge company and travelers have learned to rely on this service when travelling both domestically and to foreign destinations.
Many more US corporations that service Russia and Belarus should be following AirBnB’s move. They, too, must pull out of Russia and Belarus and they must pull out now.
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I've Been Thinking:
Afghanistan just outlawed the farming of poppy.
Poppy is what makes opium.
Afghanistan was producing over 6,000 tons of opium.
Poppy is their largest single export - amounting to billions of dollars. And the Taliban declared that if farmers continue to grow their poppy, their fields will be burned.
Every year for the last 6 years, Afghanistan has broken records in poppy and opium production. They are the largest producer of poppy and opium in the world. So large that Afghanistan produces more than all the other poppy producers in the entire world combined.
The US has spent $8 billion over the past 2 decades trying to eradicate the crop.
The Taliban outlawed poppy and opium once before, in 2001. It ruined their economy. This time, Afghanistan will probably suffer the same end result. This decision will probably further ruin their already failed economy.
On the bright side, if Afghanistan no longer produces opium. there will be fewer hard drugs on the market.
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I've Been Thinking:
There has been a spike in terror attacks against Israelis.
It could be considered a wave of terror.
These most recent terrorists are operating on their own - independent of organizational support and coordination.
They are lone wolves. They are, however, affiliated with IS the Islamic State, which used to be called ISIS.
Lone wolves are very difficult to defend against.
They have no real network or command structure. One cannot infiltrate or pay for information about them. Lone wolves get radicalized online, from the internet, and they get their info because they are locals.
And that is why Israel the government is telling Israelis that everyone needs to be alert and vigilant. Every Israeli must try their best to detect lone wolves.
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I've Been Thinking:
The Abraham Accords, begun under the administration of Donald J. Trump, continue to produce positive results.
The most recent result is a free trade agreement signed between the United Arab Emirates and Israel.
Negotiations for the deal were pretty straight forward. They focused on imports and exports, regulations, customs and government purchases. The most important element in this new agreement is that trade between the two nations expand and that is because trade will be stimulated by having no tax on any deals between the two countries.
The groundwork for the deal was laid during Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s trip to the UAE last September.
These are very positive moves. There is significant benefit not only for both these countries, but also for the region. Positive results and important change will emerge because of these Abraham Accord deals.
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Two Palestinian Arab terrorists murdered two Israeli officers and wounded many others in the city of Hadera before they were killed by undercover police who were having a meal at a café nearby.
Jordan condemned the attack. Turkey, Bahrain, Egypt and many other Arab countries condemned the attack.
The municipality of Umm al Fahm, an Arab city inside Israel proper, sent official condolences to the families – that is, to the families of the two terrorists.
The official Umm al Fahm statement read: "We send are heartfelt condolences for the deaths of Ayman Agrabia and Ibrahim Agrabia. May God take pity on them and forgive them."
Earlier in the week, Samir Mahamid, the mayor of the Arab Israeli city, told Ynet that the municipality and he personally, condemn the attack.
That statement condemning the attack was later retracted, explaining that it had been a mistake. According to the municipality: "We thought it was right to release a condolence statement as we do when people in the city pass away, but the mayor demanded we erase the statement."
Yes, the terrorists lived in Umm al Fahm - but they were terrorists.
Umm al Fahm is an Arab city in the north of Israel near Hadera and in the Haifa region. It sits in the middle of the country. It is home to 56,000 people. It is a real city.
All Umm al Fahm residents - including terrorists Ayman and Ibrahim Agrabia, are full citizens of Israel. Israelis don’t send condolences to the families of terrorists.
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We are learning more about the poisoning of the Russian oligarch, Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian diplomats.
The poisoning took place in Kyiv, on March 3rd, after the negotiations broke up. Abramovich and Ukrainian Member of Parliament Rustem Umerov, along with another diplomat, were all together when they began to experience strange symptoms.
Their symptoms, according to the reports we are getting, included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their faces and hands.
Most experts are saying that the dose of poison was small, but big enough to frighten the targets. The objective was not to assassinate - just terrorize.
The obvious culprits are the Russians - who have a successful history of poison. But many countries use poison. And Russia is claiming that it was not them.
The exact quote of Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov is that the reports "do not correspond to reality."
Another strange sidebar in a very strange story.
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The foreign ministers of Israel, the United States, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco concluded a two-day summit at Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev Desert. Sde Boker was home to Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion.
The 5 Arab nations came to Israel to talk. They all had different agendas and varying priorities. For Israel it was all about Iran. Not so for the others around the table.
Dan Shapiro is a reliable source. He was the former US ambassador to Israel and is now a distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Program. Until last week, he served as senior adviser to the US special envoy on Iran.
Shapiro was quoted by the Times of Israel saying: “For the UAE, it might be investment in clean energy; for Bahrain, it might be maritime security; for Morocco, it might be education and agriculture; for Egypt… [it might be] all of those.”
Such is the nature of diplomacy and international affairs. Seldom does everything fall into total alignment.
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Two Israelis are murdered by terrorists - and Palestinian leadership rejoices.
Something is terribly wrong with that model.
Islamic Jihad and Hamas both celebrated the terror attack in Hadera.
The terror groups announced that the reason behind this terror attack was the regional peace conference, taking place at just that same time, in the Negev. Attending the summit were diplomats from Egypt, the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain and of course, Israel.
According to Islamic Jihad: "The attack in Hadera is the reaction of the Palestinian people and the liberators of the nation to the 'summit of evil' in which the foreign ministers of Arab countries are participating."
Hamas had a similar explanation for the attack: "We welcome the heroic attack against the soldiers of the occupation army in Hadera."
If they are angry at their fellow Arabs, why attack Israel?
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So far since Russia invaded Ukraine 12,000 Ukrainian refugees have been brought to Israel.
About of those 3650 Ukrainian Jewish refugees are eligible to make aliyah – that is, they can become citizens of Israel. 20,000 Ukrainians were in Israel before February 24, the date Russia invaded and they will be allowed to stay until the war ends and 5000 of them were granted visas.
Several hundred Russians have left Russia and have also made aliyah.
The Israeli government and private groups of Israelis are organizing to provide for the needs of these refugees.
Not surprisingly, many of the refugees come with nothing except for the clothes they are wearing and small bundles or suitcases that they could carry as they ran out of Ukraine and escaped to Moldova or Poland and from there, to Israel.
Ukrainian refugees have lost almost everything. Most left without their husbands and fathers who may not leave Ukraine – they must stay and fight. Families have no idea of the wellbeing of the men they left behind to wage war against invading Russia.
Many of them escaped Ukraine with their pets. They’ve brought cats and dogs and hamsters and other pets. The Israeli ministry responsible for the care of the refugees has also been making arrangements for their pets.
The ministry is informed in advance when a pet is arriving and upon arrival, as an act of goodwill, the ministry's staff has provided for the needs of the "olim on all fours", the “new immigrants on all fours”. They have quality food and the proper documentation for their aliyah, waiting for the new immigrants at Ben-Gurion Airport.
At least that part was made easier for these tired, desperate souls.
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There will most probably be a shmura matzah shortage this year. And this shortage really is, unquestionably, Vladimir Putin’s fault.
Shmura matza is also known as hand-baked round matzah.
Ukraine produces 20% of the world’s grain. And surprisingly – they are a huge producer of the world’s shmura matzah. In one city alone, the city of Dnipro, hey have 2 very large matzah bakeries. Chabad also has a matzah bakery in Dnipro.
Most of Ukraine’s matza is normally exported, some is made for internal use. On average, former Soviet Republics eat more matzah than most other people. They average over 2 pounds per person. Twice as much as the matzah allocation for an IDF soldier.
Tiferes HaMatzos, one of the factories in Dnipro, employees 100 people. Many of the workers have been baking matzah for generations - 3,4 and even 5 generations. They get their water from a well which sits 145 feet below ground.
Under the oppressive Soviet regime, matzah baking was mostly illegal. But matzohs need to be baked and eaten on Passover and so underground matzah bakeries were organized. Locals would bring their own flour and give it to the bakers to turn into shmurah matzah. When they could, they also baked and tried to supply matzah for the rest of the community.
In Ukraine today there are 116 Jewish communities that will get matzah, but there will not be much matzah for export. Because of the Russian invasion, there will obviously be fewer people in each of those communities to enjoy their homemade matzah.
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Tal Shamayim means Sky Dew. And Tal Shamayim is Israel’s newest anti-missile system.
As far as anti-missile systems go, this one does not look very threatening. In fact, it looks like a white Goodyear Blimp.
Tal Shamayim was developed by The Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO). It is a high-altitude early warning system designed to detect drones and missiles.
Unlike the Goodyear blimp, these balloons don’t travel. They are tethered, the way a kite is tethered. They float and use their advanced radar technology to monitor and watch.
One system has already been operational in the south of Israel and now a second system was just positioned in the north of Israel.
This balloon can stay up for indefinite amounts of time and can be raised higher or lower.
This simple concept but will dramatically improve Israel’s advance warning system.
Over the years Israel has developed a multi-layered defense system to protect itself from ever-evolving threats from Iran, the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Syria.
Tal Shamayim, Sky Dew, joins the ranks of the Iron Dome system for close-range threats and the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems for long-range threats.
It is another set of Israeli eyes in the sky.
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The first female US Secretary of State, Madeline Albright, has passed away at the age of 84. Born in 1938 in the city of Prague, she immigrated to the United States in 1949 at the age of 11, together with her parents. The family lived in New York, on Long Island.
Under President Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright served as US ambassador to the United Nations before making history as the first female United States Secretary of State.
Three of Albright’s grandparents were murdered by the Nazis. But her parents converted before she was born and never told Madeline that they were Jewish. They raised her as a Catholic.
On a personal note, I was with Madeline Albright on several occasions. I was at Yad Vashem when she publicly announced and affirmed that she was Jewish. She had just finished her official tour and was holding a press conference outside the Children’s Memorial. It was there that she spoke openly, candidly and I must say, very movingly, about the Holocaust and her family.
Madeline Albright was a powerful force. When she felt it necessary, she did not hesitate to put people in their place. I was there, in Ramallah, with the Secretary of State and Yasser Arafat, when she made the famous statement that “there is no equivalence between bombs and bulldozers”. At the time Albright was responding to justifications for terror and that Palestinian houses were being bulldozed by Israel and so they, the Palestinians, were murdering Israelis.
Throughout her career, Madeline Albright remained a true lady. She telegraphed her intentions through her scarfs and her pins and the colors she chose to wear. When she visited victims of terror in an Israeli hospital she wore white, for her visit at Yad Vashem, it was blue and to reprimand Yasser Arafat, Madeline Albright dressed in black with a pin in the shape of white dove adorning her outfit.
She was one of a kind. May her memory be blessed.
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Israel makes up more volunteers per capita than any other country helping in Ukraine. Israelis are even a larger percentage of volunteers in the countries bordering Ukraine - especially in Poland and in Moldova.
Israelis take up arms and defend Ukraine against Russia. They are in these countries providing medical care and psychological care. They deliver food and other essential services.
And they come as clowns.
Dream Doctors was established in 2002. Its members can be found in 30 hospitals throughout Israel. And at the request of local authorities on the ground in Poland and Moldova, Dream Doctors have come there, too. Helping. Making people smile.
The clowns of Dream Doctors are well trained and certified. They work in pairs and, like in Israel, they have had tremendous success working with Ukrainian refugees in Moldova and Poland.
In Israel, they are also working with Ukrainians - Jewish Ukrainians and non-Jewish Ukrainians, who have been airlifted to Israel. They all need help
These clowns speak a universal language for children, a language that also resonates with adults. Dream Doctors gets people to smile and laugh again.
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53 years ago, Singapore and Israel established diplomatic relations. The year was 1969. Now, these many years later, Singapore will finally open an embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel
A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 21st explained that the Singapore embassy in Tel Aviv will "serve as a focal point and support Singapore companies seeking to expand their collaboration with potential Israeli partners”.
For years the two countries engaged in covert military partnership. Both Singapore and Israel welcomed closer cooperation in areas such as innovation and technology, trade and investment, research, development, and education.
The Singapore-Israel Industrial Research & Development Foundation (SIIRD) is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2022. Since its inception in 1997, the Foundation has funded about 190 projects, providing about US$120 million to projects between Singapore and Israel.
In addition to announcing the opening of its Tel Aviv Embassy, Singapore emphasized its commitment to a two-state solution and to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
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Citizen Brick is the name of a company that creates customized Lego characters. They create the personalized and spectacular characters for the classic children’s game Lego.
There is a new addition to their Lego collections. It is called Lego Zelenskyy.
Lego Zelenskyy is now able to play along with police and firefighters figures as well as figures of construction workers and various family members.
Along with Zelenskyy, Citizen Brick made a Molotov Cocktail figurine. There is an option to buy both figures or to choose either the president or the firebomb.
Chicago-based Citizen Brick created these figures not as a business venture, but as a humanitarian gesture. They wanted to raise $100,000 to help Ukrainian refugees through the organization Direct Relief. And they sold out within 24 hours.
It is important to note that Citizen Brick is not the Lego Group – it is a company licensed to produce specialized additions to the game. And given the response, these figures are a welcome addition.
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On Sunday Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the Israeli Knesset.
In the course of the presentation, as the Ukrainian president was speaking, the Knesset was forced to repel computer attack after computer attacks.
Almost certainly, the attacks on the Knesset were an attempt to prevent the Ukrainian president’s speech. The cyberattacks could have resulted in disaster - but the Israeli cyber defense system was alert and did their job and the speech went on.
The attackers were, most probably, Russian.
In his speech, Zelenskyy referenced the Holocaust, a decision that was met with serious critique. The general feeling of Knesset members was that the Ukrainian president’s Holocaust related material bordered on Holocaust denial. Most specifically, his use of historical comparisons and the exaggerations he employed when comparing the murder of Jews by Nazis to the Russian invasion of his country, Ukraine.
The Holocaust was perpetrated under the guise of war. It was a program to murder every single Jew and to that end, murder factories were created. The end result was the murder of 6 million Jews.
Israeli lawmakers and Holocaust experts contend that that is not what is happening in Ukraine.
Never the less, almost every member of Israel’s Knesset agreed to support Ukraine against an aggressive Russia.
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Open Hands is the name of a hacker group.
And on Telegram, an online messaging platform that quickly deletes messages once they have been opened, Open Hands has published the private details of the head of Israel’s Mossad.
Not once, but twice in a very short period, Open Hands has divulged private information about one of the most private people in the world – the head of Israel’s clandestine intelligence service.
Mossad head David Barnea’s private phone and salary were published.
The material was from Barnea’s 2020 tax return. He makes $268,000.
Israel’s response to this hack was that the material that was made public is irrelevant and not of use to anyone. That the material came from Barnea’s wife’s old cellphone.
Because the material on Telegram disappears so quickly, finding the culprits is hard. We know it was Open Hands, a group of loosely connected hackers with varied political ideologies and goals, claimed they responsibility for the deed.
Israel is a target for hackers and this is one of many examples.
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Washington issued a series of public and private threats to Beijing, suggesting that if China helps Russia and supports the invasion of Ukraine, there will be a heavy price to pay.
The United States literally said that China will face serious consequences if it supports Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
In addition to a phone call between the leaders of the United States and China, a seven-hour meeting took place in Rome Between Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s nations security adviser, and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi.
We have been told that the meeting was tense as the United States passed their message on to China very clearly.
The Biden Administration is trying to insure that China does not help Russia end around Western sanctions or, more importantly, supply weapons to the Russians as casualties mount in Ukraine.
It is a difficult diplomatic needle to thread.
The Biden administration is taking a big gamble with China and Russia.
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Syrian President Bashar Assad has promised to provide some 40,000 militants to Russia to help them fight in Ukraine. This information comes from the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
Russia opened 14 recruitment centers in Syria and is signing people up. They are promising a salary of $300 - $600 / month.
That’s not the only outside help Russia is receiving.
The head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, has said he will be sending another 1,000 Chechens to assist Russian forces in Ukraine.
On the other side of the struggle, about 20,000 foreign fighters have joined Ukraine. Ukraine says that these fighters have come from 52 different countries.
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Iran has suspended talks with Saudi Arabia.
The news come to us from a website affiliated with Iran's top security body. No explanation was given for the surprising decision that came just as a fifth round of negotiations between the two countries was due to start.
Tehran also condemned mass executions in Saudi Arabia and said that 41 Shiites had been executed. They didn’t say it, but that very well may have been the reason for the suspension of talks.
Iran is a Shiite Muslim country and Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Muslim country. The two groups are sworn enemies. And these two countries are leaders in their respective groups.
There is very little chance that Iran and Saudi Arabia will ever trust one another. Each sees the other as a heretic.
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Israel has set up a field hospital in Western Ukraine. The hospital is named after a former prime minister, Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir.
The cost of the field hospital is $6.4 million. The hospital will obviously treat the wounded. It will also be equipped to function like any other hospital and treat everything form delivering babies to broken arms.
Placing the hospital in the west, close to the Ukrainian border with Poland, which is a NATO country, is an important – and not arbitrary, move. It signals to Russia that the hospital is there for humanitarian reasons.
Israel has previously deployed field hospitals like this one in various war zones and disaster areas. They are very effective and very important humanitarian aids.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett released a statement which read: “Establishing a field hospital there, in Ukraine, is an initiative that not many countries are capable of taking on themselves. … The State of Israel has this capability and we are getting underway. This is important and I am pleased that we — the Health Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, with the assistance of the Finance Ministry — are leading it.”
Israel continues to try to mediate between Ukraine and Russia. Israel is doing everything it can to save as many lives as possible.
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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused others to look at their local border conflicts - conflicts that could explode at any moment.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed, during talks in Istanbul, to keep communication channels open and to improve ties despite disagreements.
Turkey and Greece carry a special responsibility within the security foundation of Europe, which has changed with Russia's invasion of Ukraine. As the Turkish president acknowledged, their increased cooperation will have regional benefits.
Turkey and Greece have been sworn enemies for decades. But the Ukrainian/Russian conflict has graphically illustrated for them how conflict can savage a country.
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Russia is starting to suffer in real terms in Ukraine. One clear sign is that proud Russia has begun asking for international assistance.
Quoting US officials, the Financial Times reported that Russia has asked China for military equipment to support its invasion of Ukraine.
According to the report, the White House was concerned that Beijing may "undermine western efforts to help Ukrainian forces defend their country."
Obviously, the United States is concerned - but there is nothing that they can do about it.
There is no question that China is one of, if not the only country, that has any influence on Russia. And China is one of the only countries Russia can comfortably ask for help.
In response, China has told Russia that it is time to de-escalate in Ukraine.
We must wait and see if China will, in the end, help Russia and more importantly, if Russia will listen to the advice given them by China.
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Water is an essential in the life of a society.
For Israel, the main source of fresh water is the Sea of Galilee aka the Kineret. After some rough, dry seasons, the Kineret has slowly been battling back and rising to capacity.
For the sake of safety, as a precaution, Israel desalinates water. That’s just in case there is not enough fresh water.
Israel’s Water and Sewage Authority has reported that the Sea of Galilee has risen by no less than seven centimeters and now stands at -209.53 meters -- only 0.73 meters from full capacity.
That is truly a miracle.
For years analysts have predicted that the next war in the Middle East will be about water. Keeping the Kineret high lends important security to Israel.
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The Russian oligarchs made their billions with the support of Putin. The president of Russia is a partner in all their contracts.
And now the oligarchs are being sanctioned.
Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum has suspended a strategic partnership with Roman Abramovich, an Israeli-Russian oligarch, who has faced sanctions abroad since the eruption of the Ukraine conflict.
It was only last month that Yad Vashem announced that Abramovich's pledged funding would strengthen its endeavors in the areas of Holocaust research and remembrance.
The Memorial Museum survives om donations and Abramovich’s pledge was more than substantial. It is courageous and ethical for Yad Vashem to take this stand.
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The world is evolving. International relations are advancing. Alliances we never would have expected are being forged.
Aviv Kochavi, Chief of Staff of the IDF, visited Bahrain for a series of meetings with top security officials in the Persian Gulf kingdom.
Kochavi was accompanied by the head of the IDF's Iran directorate, Tal Kalman.
Kochavi's visit came just a few weeks after Israel’s Defense Minister, Benny Gantz, visited Bahrain. During that visit a security cooperation agreement between Israel and Bahrain was signed.
There is little doubt as to what Israelis and Bahrainis are speaking about and sharing. Iran, Iran, Iran and Islamic terror.
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Israel announced that they have already taken in 25,000 non-Jewish Ukrainians. They will be permitted to stay in Israel permanently.
Israel has also suspended the $3000 deposit usually requested of non-Jews to make certain that they leave the country.
Of the 25,000 Ukrainians non-Jews now in Israel, 20,000 are in Israel illegally in Israel. They will be permitted to legally remain.
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked made the announcement Tuesday. Israel’s Law of Return usually offers citizenship only to people with at least one Jewish grandparent.
But this is not a usual circumstance and Israel needs to act to save lives. Shaked summed it up when she said: “The sights of war in Ukraine and the suffering experienced by its citizens rattle the soul and don’t allow us to remain indifferent”.
Ukrainians are not the only newcomers to Israel. Over 300 Russia Jews arrived in Israel and made Aliyah (came to live in Israel permanently) in 48 hours. And +Israel is expecting many more.
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Sometimes people think the world revolves only around them.
Palestinian leadership and laity are worried that the crisis in Ukraine will hurt their cause and the way there are perceived in the world.
Palestinian leadership is concerned that the conflict will force Palestinians off the front page and they will need to create reasons to return to center stage.
Palestinian leadership has been silent on the matter. And to their benefit, no one is actually looking for Palestinian input and perspective.
Palestinian leadership is upset that Israel is receiving 5,000 Ukrainian refugees and opening their country to tens of thousands of temporary Ukrainian residents in need of refuge.
Palestinian leadership is concerned that, once again, Israelis are importing Jews and they are convinced that these newcomers will usurp Palestinian land.
Humanitarian aid for Ukraine seems not to be on their agenda.
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We all know people travelling form the United States to Israel and laying over in Istanbul.
The trip has become a bit more enjoyable.
A kosher vending machine with sandwiches and other items is now open for business in the airport. It is called Kosher Food Point.
The food is certified kosher by the local Turkish rabbinate under Chabad Rabbi Mendy Chitrik and also has the international kosher certification OK Kosher. According to Rabbi Chitrik, the airport authority reached out to him.
Turkey is the 5th largest producer of food in the world and there are 300 factories in Turkey that produce kosher food.
This is a very good idea and certainly a very good service for the kosher community.
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This is crazy - but true. And it has taken one year before this information was permitted to be made public.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit announced that F-35 aircraft intercepted two Iranian UAVs, aka drones, enroute to the Gaza Strip. The UAVs were carrying a cargo of pistols.
It happened in March of 2021, just before the start of the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas.
The aircraft that shot the enemy drones down were 'Adir' fighter jets. The announcement did not indicate how many planes were involved in the operation.
This was an obvious – and thankfully failed attempt by Iran to find out if it was possible to "open an axis" of supplying weapons to Gaza using unmanned vehicles.
The interception was coordinated with Israel's neighbors, thereby preventing infiltration into Israel and the drones were tracked by intelligence throughout their journey.
Over the year the IDF has learned much about Iran’s interest in supplying Gaza with weapons.
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Some news flashes send a chill up one’s spine.
When Israel’s Health Ministry announced that a child in Jerusalem tested positive for polio, an illness not seen in Israel since 1989, I was stunned and I was saddened.
The ministry added that the 4-year-old child was not vaccinated against the disease as is required.
The Jerusalem regional health administration opened an epidemiological investigation to get specific answers on how this child contracted polio. The office is maintaining contact with the child and his family, providing instructions for those involved in his care.
Clearly, people are not vaccinated against polio. No one knows how many. This is very dangerous.
In Israel, the Health Ministry has records of all vaccinations - they need to check and act fast and vaccinate unvaccinated children.
One new case of polio is one case too many.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with Rafael Grossi, head of IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, on the eve of Grossi’s trip to Iran to inspect Iranian nuclear development.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, Bennett told Grossi he expected the UN nuclear watch dog to conduct an impartial review of outstanding cases in regard to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
The two men agreed to remain in regular contact.
Bennett has stated more than once that Israel will not be bound by any agreement. That Israel will determine when and if they need to act to protect themselves.
Israel has very little faith that either the United States or the greater international community will do anything to protect Israel.
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Iran has failed, once again, to launch a satellite. This info comes to us by way of satellite pictures.
We know it was a failed launch because when Iranian launches are successful, Iranian state media broadcasts the news for 48 hours straight.
We also know that the attempt failed because we have pictures of a burnt launch pad. These burns and the launchpad looked exactly like previous failed satellite launch attempts.
There have, in the past, been rumors that the other failed launches were due to sabotage.
The big fear of the Western world is that the same technology used by Iran for satellite launches is also used for nuclear and other non-conventional missile rocket launches.
Today, Tehran enriches uranium up to 60% purity — that is only a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%. And it is far greater than the nuclear deal’s permitted 3.67% cap.
Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium continues to grow as international inspectors face challenges in monitoring advances.
Not a good situation.
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An announcement from Ukraine’s Tax Authority is, to put it bluntly, simply hilarious.
Ukrainian authorities told Ukrainian taxpayers who captured Russian tanks that the tanks won't be counted as part of citizens' personal income.
Authorities said seized tanks and military equipment need not be declared for tax purposes. Why, or more precisely, why not? Because they are considered "manifestation of the unity and cohesion of the Ukrainian people".
"Have you captured a Russian tank or armored personnel carrier and are worried about how to declare it? Keep calm and continue to defend the Motherland!" read a statement from the Ukrainian National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP).
"There is no need to declare the captured Russian tanks and other equipment because the cost of this does not exceed 100 living wages."
That sum equates to about $8,300.
You can’t make this stuff up.
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Israel has let it be known that their government will not respect the Iranian nuclear agreement being cobbled out on Vienna.
On Tuesday Prime Minister Naftali Bennett repeated, once again, that Israel would not be bound by any nuclear deal with Iran and would continue to consider itself free to act against the Iranian nuclear program.
Speaking before a group attending an event about advanced technologies and innovations development of the Mossad, Bennett said: "I said it before, and I’ll say it again, the possible nuclear agreement with Iran doesn't bound Israel, nor does the date in two and a half years that will allow Iran to assemble countless centrifuges."
Israel will act to protect itself. There should be no doubt about that.
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Russia will continue to strike at targets in Kyiv. They have already attacked Ukraine's security service and a special operations unit and communications networks.
It was all reported by Russia’s official media, quoting the Russian defense ministry. They told us that the strikes aim to prevent "information attacks" on Russia and urged those near the sites to leave the areas.
And they bombed Babi Yar.
Babi Yar is situated close to the Kyiv television tower. It is a picturesque ravine with a monument that commemorates the horrific Nazi murder of Jews in a massacre that took place on September 29th and 30th in 1941.
The Nazis took 33,771 Jews and brought them to the ravine. And then they shot them. It was the third largest massacre of the Holocaust. First was the massacre at Odessa, in October 1941, where 50,000 Jews were murdered. Second was the Harvest Massacre in Majdanek in November of 1943 where 43,000Jews were slaughtered, shot to death.
There was no reason to strike Babi Yar.
Putin did not break his stride, he did not apologize for hitting a memorial to a Nazi massacre.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Bennett offered humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
And Zelensky suggested that Bennett serve as a mediator between his country and Russia.
Israel is probably the only country in the world that is trusted by both Russia and Ukraine.
The prime minister’s office neither confirmed nor denied reports that Zelensky made the request. Their statement read:
"Prime Minister Bennett reiterated his hope for a speedy end to the fighting, and said that he stands by the people of Ukraine in these difficult days"
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9 November 2023 09:59 PM in Thoughts
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Anonymous is an international hacking collective. And anonymous made it clear to Putin that they are attacking Russia, that they want him out of Ukraine and that they want him to resign.
Anonymous posted their demands on twitter and YouTube.
They have successfully attacked and knocked out 6 government websites including the Ministry of Defense and the Kremlin. They have made it very difficult for Russia to get their message out.
They have also taken down the website and transmission of RT TV, the official Russian English-language station.
Anonymous tweeted that they will work to keep these sites down and fight to keep Ukrainian sites and the internet open. According to their tweet:
"Anonymous has ongoing operations to keep .ru government websites offline, and to push information to the Russian people so they can be free of Putin's state censorship machine ...We also have ongoing operations to keep the Ukrainian people online as best we can."
Elon Musk has also shown his support for Ukraine. He has moved satellites to focus on Ukraine and to make certain that their internet and communications are accessible. Musk promised more satellite coverage for Ukraine in the coming days.
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9 November 2023 09:59 PM in Thoughts
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Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi spoke with Vladimir Putin and pledged support for Russia.
Iran also made it illegal for citizens of Iran to criticize Russia.
And yet, some brave Iranians went out to protest Russia’s action and many more took to social media to slam Putin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Iranians are defying their leadership and they are protesting the Russia action.
One very large protest took place in Tehran, the Iranian capital.
Iranian protestors were celebrated and supported by tweeters from around the world who reiterated the Iranian message - that Putin and Iranian leadership are linked.
Russia and Putin have very few supporters. In fact, Iranian leadership and Chinese leadership are probably their only supporters
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9 November 2023 09:59 PM in Thoughts
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Mansour Abbas is the head of Ra’am, the United Arab List party, which currently sits in the Israeli government.
Abbas met with a delegation from the Conference of Major American Jewish Organizations which recently held their conference in Jerusalem. He met the delegation in the Knesset.
Abbas is a smart politician. Since joining Bennett’s government, Mansour Abbas has met with quite a few Jewish groups and Jewish leaders. He explained his mission this way:
“We Arabs in Israel are the bridge that can create hope for the two peoples living together in the holy land, based on the vision of Jews and Arabs living together in security, peace and mutual respect … This can bring light to the entire world.”
Abbas is aware that American Jews are very concerned about Jewish Arab tensions. The perception is that there is tension. His meetings will allow for direct funding form American Jews to Arab communities.
This is a win-win in many ways.
Arabs in Israel will win by getting much needed money from American Jews. American Jews win by learning about the complexity of integrating Arabs into Israeli society. And Israel wins as American Jews recognize that the Arabs of Israel are full members of Israeli society.
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Iran has returned 820,000 out of the 1 million anti-COVID shots that were donated by Poland to help Iran.
The shots that were returned are from the United States and Britain. They were produced by AstraZeneca.
Iranian Healthy spokesperson Mohammad Hashemi said: “But when the vaccines arrived in Iran, we found out that 820,000 doses of them which were imported from Poland were from the United States.”
And then he added: “after coordination with the Polish ambassador to Iran, it was decided that the vaccines would be returned.”
As far back as 2020, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, rejected any possibility of American or British vaccines entering the country. He called them “forbidden."
135,000 Iranians have died from COVID.
Iran has the highest death rate from COVID in the Middle East. 90% of Iranian adults over 18 have had two shots. Only 37% have received a third shot.
Iran has been relying on Sinopharm, the state-backed Chinese anti-COVID vaccine, but also offers Iranian citizens a smorgasbord of other shots to choose from, including Russia’s Sputnik V, Indian firm Bharat’s Covaxin and its own Iranian vaccine called COVIran Barekat shot. British-Swedish owned AstraZeneca makes up a substantial amount of Iran’s inoculations.
But they still need more.
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This will give you a sense of who Vladimir Putin. What he’s like as a leader. An idea of what he thinks of the United States. And especially, what Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks of US President Joe Biden.
Putin did not watch, he did not even listen to, Joe Biden’s speech announcing sanctions against Russia after Russian forces marched into cities that Putin claims to be Russian.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that information. He said – not explained, plain out said, that Putin was in a meeting.
The defiance of Vladimir Putin was broadcast all over Russia.
The dis was heard around the world.
Not even listening to the president of the United States was a blatant act of arrogance.
The President of Russia does not give a hoot what the President of the United States has to say.
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What is Iran’s bottom line in the nuclear talks with the West? What are Iranian expectations?
This is what we know for sure:
The Iranian parliament issued a list of conditions that need to be met before they rejoin the now infamous 2015 agreement termed the nuke deal.
Even with that condition, in typical Iranian tradition, there is a caveat: There are 290 members of the Iranian Parliament, known as the Majlis, and the parliament will need to vote and approve the agreement.
This is what they Iranians want:
1 - a guarantee that the parties will not back out of the agreement
2 – assurance that snapback mechanisms will not be triggered
3 – lifting of all sanctions against Iran
It is unlikely that all three of these conditions will be met - maybe two, but not all three.
Will that be enough – or will these diplomatic games continue to be played?
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Israel is moving out of their fifth round of COVID.
Numbers are coming down and the country is beginning to re-open.
Israel is opening up internally, for locals, and opening up for outsiders.
Borders will be open to everyone – and everyone means even those who are unvaccinated.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, along with Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz. announced that students will no longer need to take their weekly COVID tests. The rapid tests that families were given and were asked to administer every week, to each child attending school, can be stored away.
Israel has shifted gears.
Israeli leadership is convinced that the country is almost completely out of COVID risk.
It was a long road to get to his point. This is more than simply good news.
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An Israeli strawberry has made it into the Guinness Book of World records as the largest strawberry in the world. This Israeli-grown strawberry broke the record previously held by Japan since 2015.
The strawberry weighed in at 289 grams, that’s 10.19 ounces - more than half a pound. The type of strawberry is called Ilan. It is 7 inches long and 4 inches thick and a whopping 13. 4 inches in circumference.
The strawberry was grown in Kadima Zoran, near Netanya in central Israel, by the Ariel family.
This prizewinning strawberry was picked a year ago and put in a freezer because of Guinness issues about certifying its entry.
As and aside, I can attest to the exactitude and the paperwork required by Guinness and their record keeping. I was a Guinness judge. I judged the largest falafel in the world.
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Drones are the futire of war.
Israel downed a drone sent into Israel by Hezbollah. It was a spy drone. Its purpose was to monitor and transmit information about the best ways to cross borders and enter Israel.
The drone was not shot down – that was not Israel’s intention. Instead, it was downed via hacking, allowing Israel to then take over the controls and then land the enemy drone where it wanted it to land.
In a speech he delivered earlier in the week in a tv broadcast, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah acknowledged that Hezbollah is using drones. Nasrallah said that they are manufacturing drones. He also said that Hezbollah now has the technology to transform unguided rockets into precision missiles. Nasrallah explained that “Iranian experts” taught them how to accomplish these military goals.
Israel is obviously concerned. The new technology can pick at Israel’s defense and possibly strike sensitive targets within Israel.
This newly captured and downed drone will help Israel defend itself against Hezbollah and other enemies.
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Wednesday February 16, 2022
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I've Been Thinking:
The United States is going to purchase new Israeli defense technology – drone boats.
Drone boats are unmanned vessels that are controlled by operators with joy sticks sitting miles, or even tens of miles, away from the vessels. The drones are armed and they are outfitted with exceptional sophisticated video equipment that sends back real time images.
Unmanned drone boats are similar to arial drones in that they can observe and attack without risk to any troops. They can also just sit quietly and watch. Those are big bonuses in terms of defense technology.
And like flying drones, these vary in size depending on their specialty.
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It’s becoming apparent that more and more people in Gaza are just fed up with Hamas and their leadership in Gaza.
#TheyKidnappedGaza is a campaign on social media that is making headway among Gazans.
In a tweet about Hamas leadership, Sad Abdalah tweeted: “Thieves can’t build a state that takes care of the interests of its people, just as they can’t liberate an occupied homeland.”
On his Facebook page Amin Abed of Gaza posted: “…Gaza is the only place in the world where, when you go forward, you go backward thanks to its rulers.”
He explained that the campaign is intended “to make the ruler [Hamas] aware of its responsibilities after reaching an unbearable level of injustice and deterioration in all aspects of life.”
Gazans who tweet and post about Hamas in unflattering and critical language are putting their lives and the lives of their families at risk. They may be arrested or even murdered for speaking against Hamas.
But they’re willing to take the risk. Because that’s how very much they want change.
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Israel is taking part in a Pfizer medical trial. That should not come as a surprise.
They are participating in the testing of a COVID shot developed for Omicron. The trials will take place at Sheba Medical Center, in Tel Aviv. Israelis who have not received their fourth shot are eligible to take part in the study.
Pfizer and Israel have developed a very good relationship during COVID.
Israel was the perfect partner for Pfizer because of the nature of their medical system which is, on the one hand, developed and sophisticated – and on the other hand, is a socialist system.
Israel’s medical system is also very well organized with national health data feeding into central computer systems. This system allows for almost immediate reporting on the status of illnesses and shots as well as demographics and the locations of outbreaks.
This relationship between Pfizer and the Israeli medical system will certainly continue even, as we hope, COVID finally recedes.
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Once again, Hamas issued a warning to Israel.
If Israel continues to clash with Arabs in the Sheik Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, Hamas warned, there will be a repeat of last year’s mini war with Gaza.
According to the terror group: "Israel will pay the price for its actions and the attempts to expel the residents of Sheikh Jarrah … The resistance has threatened Israel in the past and also faced the threat. The 'Guardian of the Wall' campaign began from Jerusalem and spread to the West Bank and into Israeli cities. We will not hesitate to begin such a campaign again."
This is not an empty threat - but it is not totally realistic either.
There are many factors to be considered before conflict with Gaza erupts. One part of the calculus of is when and how Israel responds to the attacks from Gaza. Another is how dramatic rocket strikes are and the intensiveness of the attacks.
Finally, there is the question of Israeli casualties. Israeli leadership will not stand idly by when Israelis are injured or killed.
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The head of the Iranian Navy said on Bushehr TV that the Saudi Royal family is Jewish. This was not a compliment. It was an insult and a theological attack.
He was saying that the conflict between Iran and the Saudis goes back to the 7th Century, to the battles between the first Muslims and the Jewish tribes in Arabia.
General Alireza Tangsiri, commander of the Iranian navy said: “We cannot bear to see injustice in a Muslim country that is perpetrated by the Zionists and the seed of the Jews.”
In a clear reference to the assassination by the United States of Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the IRGC Quds Brigade, he said: “[We cannot bear to see] that Muslims are being slaughtered by people who call themselves Christians but are not.”
And in a clear reference to the Saudis. General Tangsiri said: “These are the very same Jews — and I’d better say Zionists — whose hearts have never aligned with Islam, and even with the Prophet in his time.”
He continued: "The grudge that the enemies harbored towards Soleimani resembles their grudge towards Imam Hussein in Karbala." This was a reference to the battle in which Ali, the son in law of Muhammed, was brutally killed. Ali was the first imam of Shia Muslims, and to the battle in which he was killed, which became a formative event for Shia Islam.
This tirade was a direct attack against the Saudis and a call to all Shiites to understand that the Sunni Saudis are enemies - just like Israel.
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Things are changing fast. It is a new era.
Cannabis, pot, marijuana, call it what you will, it is now decriminalized in Israel.
Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar published draft regulations making self-use of cannabis an administrative offense, rather than a criminal offense.
There are, however, some exceptions. The use of these substances by minors, soldiers, police and guards on duty are all exceptions.
Fines for use will be up to 1000 NIS.
This new status does not mean it is legal - rather it means that it is not criminal. No trial. No prison.
Smoking cannabis in Israel is now just like underage drinking or cigarette smoking.
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Don’t be surprised, but - the Russian navy held exercises in the Black Sea.
Six Russian navy ships are situated near Crimea.
They announcement that this move was coming was made in January. It is happening now. The original announcement was that the Russian navy ships would engage in simultaneous exercises in the Pacific to the Atlantic and including the Mediterranean.
But it is the Black Sea that is most worrisome.
Ukraine is on the Black Sea. And that means that the Russians are on another Ukrainian flank.
This is yet another move of intimidation by Russia to Ukraine and by extension, to the rest of the world.
Not long ago the United States sent ships into the Black Sea to check Russian activity. When the Russians responded, the United States turned and left the region.
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The Arab Gulf States have lost their patience with Lebanon and with the terrorist organization Hezbollah, the Iran sponsored terrorist organization which exerts tremendous power in Lebanon.
Kuwait has delivered a list of expectations to Lebanon.
The list was probably approved by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Included in the list is taking back national control of Lebanon - that means control over Hezbollah. It includes increased security in Lebanon. The Gulf States also expect a curbing of the sale of drugs to Gulf States. And they want a commitment that elections will take place as scheduled, in May.
In response, the leader of Hezbollah, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said:
"Lebanon is a sovereign country and should not be sent dictates.”
Once again, Iran is continuing to sow turmoil in the Middle East.
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Cell phone hacking has become a big and all-consuming topic of interest and of debate in Israel.
Israeli technology has been utilized to hack phones across the world and also, to the chagrin of Israelis, at home.
In Israel, police were hacking – among others, numerous politicians and their families. And they did it without court orders. And they’ve been doing it for a while. In fact, it may have been evidence gathered from former Prime Minister Netanyahu’s son’s cell phone that furthered the police investigation against his father.
Kaspersky Labs, world renowned hackers themselves, has given Israelis a quick set of tools to make certain that they are not hacked.
# 1 Restart device daily
# 2 Delete unknown apps
# 3 Keep apps up to date
# 4 Do not click on anything unfamiliar
Also, iPhone users should cancel iMessage and Facetime and they should not use Safari or Google Chrome.
If a hacker really wants in, they will get in. But this advice will help protect all of us from cell phone hackers.
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