Archive for month: October, 2022

News Update

Tomorrow, Israelis will vote in the Knesset elections, the third one in the last 5 years. The polls still do not show any clear path to a 61 seat majority for any faction. Here are a few things that are fairly certain:

1. Likud and Yesh Atid will probably be the largest factions, in that order.
2. Religious Zionism will probably win a lot more seats than they have in the previous few elections.
3. Ayalet Shaked’s Jewish Home might or might not pass the minimum vote threshold — but if it does, it will probably assure a Netanyahu led government.
4. Small parties will determine who will govern.
5. Poll results are meaningless. Each voter will make their decision at the voting box.

Who would (or will) you vote for? Take our election survey – https://survey.app.do/knesset-elections

IDF, Shin Bet, and Border Police arrested eight terror suspects in overnight West Bank raids.

A 49 year old Palestinian terrorist rammed his vehicle into soldiers at the Nabi Musa Junction bus stop, on the slopes between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, and then at a bus stop at the Almog Junction yesterday. Five soldiers were injured in the attack. The terrorist was critically wounded by police.

A Hamas terrorist armed with an M-16 rifle shot and killed 1 Israeli and wounded 4 others in the settlement of Kiryat Arba on Saturday night. The terrorist was killed by the settlements security officer and an off-duty IDF officer. The terrorist, who worked as an Islamic education teacher at an elementary school in Hebron, was a terminally ill cancer patient on a suicide mission. After the attack, Palestinians in Hebron shot off fireworks, handed out sweets and chanted Hamas slogans in celebration.

News Update

Yesterday, Israeli special forces conducted a raid in the Nablus old city market and destroyed an apartment owned by a wanted terrorist that was being used as a laboratory to make explosives. Israeli forces exchanged fire with terror suspects inside the apartment and with members of the Palestinian Authority security services, ultimately causing the bombs to explode and resulting in the death of the terror group’s leader and five others, including a member of the Palestinian Authority security forces. Twenty-two Palestinians were also wounded in the shootout. Residents were called over mosque loudspeakers to come out and join the fight against the Israeli force.

In another incident, Palestinian terrorists opened fire on an IDF post near Jenin. Soldiers returned fire and reportedly wounded at least two terrorists.

A 55 year old Israeli man was stabbed in the stomach as he was shopping in the Palestinian village of al-Funduq in the West Bank yesterday. The terrorist fled the scene. The IDF launched a manhunt. The victim was evacuated to hospital in serious condition.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid traveled to Nazareth, Israel’s largest Arab-majority city, where he met with Mayor Ali Salem and other Arab municipal leaders and called on Israeli Arab citizens to go out and vote in next week’s general elections. Former Prime Minister Netanyahu is also trying to woo Arab voters. Even ultra right wing Religious Zionist party candidate Itamar Ben Gvir is appealing to Arab voters, promising to restore order in the crime ridden Arab communities.

National Unity party leader and Defense Minister Benny Gantz said that he does not rule out backing Prime Minister Yair Lapid to head a new government after the elections. He also said that would NOT join a Netanyahu led government. [Without Gantz’s support, it is highly unlikely that Netanyahu will have a path to forming a government.] Gantz also reiterated that Israel would not supply weapons to Ukraine.

President Herzog began a two-day visit to Washington on Tuesday, meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, among other U.S. officials. He is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden today, where he will reportedly reveal evidence of the use of Iranian UAVs in the war in Ukraine. Herzog was invited to address a joint meeting of Congress by Pelosi and Senate leader Chuck Schumer.

Israel has granted Energean permission to start production at the offshore Karish gas field, ahead of signing a maritime agreement with Lebanon on Thursday.

Israel’s Supreme Court reversed rulings by the highest rabbinical court to deprive an adulterous wife of some of the couple’s joint assets during their divorce proceedings. In a unanimous ruling, the justices said the decision, by the rabbinical court, to prevent an equal division of assets accumulated during 27 years of marriage was against the law, regardless of the woman’s infidelity.

News Update

Security forces arrested 12 terror suspects in overnight raids in Nablus and other West Bank locations. Last night, IDF forces seized NIS 820,000 ($230,000) worth of contraband in a major drug bust at the Egyptian border.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz reaffirmed last night that Israel does not intend to sell arms to Ukraine. This came hours after the Ukrainian foreign minister said that he would appeal to Jerusalem for military aid. Gantz said, “I want to make it clear that we did not sell weapons to Ukraine. We gave them medical and humanitarian aid. It should be clear, we didn’t sell them weapons.”

Yesterday, Russia’s former president and current deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that Israeli arms supplies to Ukraine would destroy ties with Moscow. While Israel has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, has provided humanitarian aid and has taken in thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees, it has stopped short of supplying military aid because of its delicate relationship with Russia — given that there are hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Russia and there are Russian forces across the border in Syria. Russia has also not prevented Israel from conducting military strikes against Iranian weapons and installations in Syria.

Earlier this week, the Australian government reversed its its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Jerusalem’s status should be decided through peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and not through unilateral decisions. Prime Minister Lapid criticized the decision.

Israel’s Senior Appointments Advisory Committee recommended confirming the appointment of Major General Herzi Halevi as the next IDF chief of staff.

A former Afghan official living in Kabul told i24NEWS that some members of the Taliban leadership are interested in establishing confidential relations with Israel, with the hope of eventually transitioning into an official agreement between Afghanistan and Israel. For more, click here.

Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd. announced that its US unit Elbit Systems of America LLC has been awarded an order worth $107 million for the supply of Enhanced Night Vision Goggle – Binocular (ENVG-B) systems, spare parts, logistics support, and test equipment, to the US Army.

With two weeks remaining until Israel’s Knesset elections on November 1, no block is projected to be able to put together a 61 seat majority to form a government.

PM Lapid was interviewed in the Israeli Arab media regarding issues related to the Arab sector. To read about what he said, click here.