Archive for category: news

IDF Warning
The IDF announced that Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah are stepping up attempts to build missile-production facilities in Lebanon and warned that these efforts are putting Lebanese civilians in danger.
IDF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said, “It is time for them (the Lebanese government) to understand their responsibility and understand the fact that what they are letting Hezbollah and Iran do on Lebanese soil is their responsibility. They are the ones who are complicit in endangering Lebanon and Lebanese civilians which Hezbollah and Iran are using as human shields.”

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Election Update
PM Netanyahu and Zehut Chairman Moshe Feiglin officially announced Thursday they will run together in the upcoming elections under a special agreement. The deal apparently includes promotion of legislation on imports of medical marijuana and promises that Feiglin would become a minister in the sphere of economics or social welfare in the Netanyahu government.

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Embassy Moves
The tiny Pacific island of Nauru has become the latest country to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and will soon move its embassy there. Naaru has 4,500 inhabitants. Honduras is also slated to open a diplomatic mission in Jerusalem on Sunday, which is supposed to turn into an embassy at a later date.

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New Tombs
The management of Har Hamenuchot, the massive cemetery at the entrance to Jerusalem, will be opening a subterranean area of recently built tunnels that will be able to accommodate an additional 23,000 graves. The cemetery currently is almost at capacity with around 250,000 graves.

The entire project cost an estimated $50 million and took just over three years to complete. The tunnels take up just 5% of the total subterranean area of the mountain available for future tombs. The project has been approved by the Orthodox rabbinate.

The limestone walls are lined four-high with tombs that resemble small Japanese capsule hotels. Giant flame-hued polyhedron light fixtures designed by German artist Yvelle Gabriel dangle at intersections between the avenues and streets deep in the mountain.

Part of the inspiration behind this project was the ancient Jewish custom of cave burials found at sites around Israel.

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Rockets Fired
Three rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel last night. IDF jets responded by striking several targets, including the office of a Hamas battalion commander, in a Hamas military compound in northern Gaza.

PM Netanyahu ordered to cut by half the amount of fuel being transferred to Gaza via the Kerem Shalom border crossing, starting Monday and until further notice.

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Drone Attack
The IDF announced yesterday that it thwarted an attempted drone terror attack planned by Iranian officials based in a luxury villa in Damascus. IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the Al Quds force, working with allied Shiite militias, had been planning to send a number of explosives-laden attack drones into Israel. He said Israel had monitored the plot for several months and on Thursday prevented Iran from making an “advanced attempt” to execute the same plan. Then, Iran tried again late Saturday to carry out the same attack. IDF fighter jets destroyed the drones.

US Secretary of State Pompeo tweeted, “Spoke with Israeli PM Netanyahu today regarding recent Israeli airstrikes in Syria. I expressed my support for Israel’s right to defend itself from threats posed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps & to take action to prevent imminent attacks against Israeli assets. We discussed how Iran is leveraging its foothold in Syria to threaten Israel and its neighbors. The Prime Minister Netanyahu noted that Israel would strike IRGC targets threatening Israel, wherever they are located.”

Meanwhile, an official from a military position belonging to a Palestinian group in the Lebanese town of Qusaya, near the Syrian border, said three Israeli air strikes targeted it, causing damage, but no casualties.

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Drones in Beirut
Hezbollah claimed yesterday that two Israeli drones came down over Beirut, with one of the pair being rigged with explosives and causing serious damage to a building housing Hezbollah’s media office. But images of the crash site reveal the drones were manufactured in Iran and not in Israel. [Of course, that didn’t stop the Lebanese Prime Minister from condemning the Israeli aggression.]

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Peace Plan
Speaking at the G-7 conference in Biarritz, France, President Trump said he may release his Middle East peace plan prior to the Israeli election. He said, “I think you may see what the deal is before the election.”

Trump said that the PA would ultimately join US-brokered talks in order to receive funding from the US — “I think the Palestinians would like to make a deal. As you know, I cut off most funding to the Palestinians — a lot of funding. And I think they’d like to get it back. I think they’d like to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. Nobody has ever done that before. They used to negotiate paying a fortune of money — $750 million. They’d pay, pay, pay. And they’d be treated with disrespect, but they’d keep paying. This went on for years. So I don’t believe in that.”

He added, “We cut off their funding — a lot of it. And we’ll see what happens. But I think they want to make a deal, the Palestinians. And I think Israel would like to make a deal too.”

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Economic Boom
Apparently, the Palestinian economy is doing pretty well. Hundreds of millions of dollars in financing for infrastructure projects as well as for Palestinian Authority bonuses, grants and loans are pouring in from abroad. Exports to Israel are growing and tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs are shopping in the Palestinian areas. And continued construction in Judea and Samaria and in Israel proper has been a boon for the 130,000 Palestinian workers. Tourism and local industries are flourishing.

What all that means is that the Palestinians, on the whole, have no motivation to make trouble. The’ve got too much to lose.

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Terrorists Killed
An IDF helicopter and tank opened fire on 5 terrorists attempting to infiltrate into Israel from Gaza over the weekend. Three terrorists were killed and one wounded. The incident took place less than two hours after three rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza. Two of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome.
The shrapnel from one of the rockets landed in a meat smoker located in the backyard of a home in Sderot, causing some damage to the structure.  Two people were lightly hurt while running to the bomb shelter, and four others – including a 79-year-old woman – were treated for shock.

The rocket attack was the second within 24 hours. The rocket which was fired into Sderot late Friday evening was also intercepted by the Iron Dome, prompting the IDF to strike at least two Hamas “underground infrastructures” in Gaza.

Politicians from both the right and left attacked PM Netanyahu for being weak against Hamas.

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Terror Arrests
Security forces arrested 23 terror suspects and confiscated several automatic weapons, handguns and ammunitions in Palestinian Authority controlled areas of Judea and Samaria.

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Terror Ramming
A brother and sister from the settlement of Elazar were wounded in a car-ramming terror attack at a bus stop in Gush Etzion on Friday. The terrorist drove into the junction at high speed and hit the 20 and 18 year old. He was shot and killed by an off-duty policeman who was on the scene.

The brother and sister are Noa and Nahum Navis; they were waiting for a bus in order to join their parents on a family vacation. The attacker, 26-year-old Ala Harimi from the Bethlehem region, was a known felon and drug addict associated with the Islamic Jihad and the Fatah movements. He was jailed in Israel for terror offenses between 2014-2015.

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Ukraine Visit
PM Netanyahu and his wife kicked off a two day visit in the Ukraine yesterday. In Kiev, the PM will meet with Zelensky and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, both of whom are Jewish. Ukraine is currently the only country besides Israel where both the president and the prime minister are Jewish.

Netanyahu will also visit a memorial at Babi Yar, where more than 30,000 Jews were killed in just two days during the Holocaust, and meet with local Jewish community leaders. Zelensky is set to accompany him to the memorial, which will be the first time a Ukrainian president accompanies an Israeli official to the site.

Sources say that the PM will also attempt to mediate between Ukraine and Russia.

Political commentators are speculating that the PM is visiting the Ukraine now to drum up support among Russian speaking voters in Israel ahead of the election. More than a third of all immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union came from Ukraine.

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Date Season
The date harvest season in Israel kicked off this weekend. Israel supplies about 60% of the global market for Medjool dates, which are considered the highest quality dates and are most in demand. Israeli dates are exported to over 30 countries, particularly to Turkey. They are also exported to Arab countries, via third party brokers.

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Shiva Call
The PM and his wife yesterday visited the mourning family of Dvir Sorek, the soldier and yeshiva student murdered by terrorists last week, in the Ofra settlement in Samaria. The PM said, “We are determined to defend our homeland. These are not vain words – they are true words, until our enemies understand that we cannot be uprooted from anywhere in the Land of Israel, including from this place.”

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Hamas Security
Hamas has apparently beefed up security along its border to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Israel in the wake of several recent failed infiltration attempts. Hamas has sought to distance itself from the terrorists by describing them as “angry” Palestinian individuals seeking to end the siege on the Gaza Strip. Palestinian political analysts pointed out that Hamas did not endorse any of the terrorists, thus signaling its interest in preserving the ceasefire understandings reached with Israel earlier this year under the auspices of Egypt and the United Nations. However, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar pledged yesterday to continue the armed struggle against Israel.

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Tsunami Drill
The Israeli navy participated in a massive tsunami drill in Haifa port along with the navies of Greece, France and the United States. The drill practiced for a humanitarian crisis sparked by a magnitude 7.0 temblor and subsequent huge tsunami hitting the coastal plain of Israel. Troops trained to quickly assess the damage and select a port to bring in assistance as the maritime gateway to the country. According to data, there is a significant earthquake in the region every 100 years, and the last one in Israel occurred in 1927.

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New Poll
A new poll published Tuesday afternoon shows the Likud winning 30 seats, five less than it won in April, but more than the Blue and White party, which is projected to fall from 35 seats to just 29. Yamina, the new joint right wing list, would win 11 seats, as would the joint Arab list.

Avidgor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu would rise from 5 to 10 seats and the Haredi parties would win a total of 15 seats. The left wing Labor and Gesher list would win 7 seats, as would Ehud Barak’s Democratic Party and Meretz list.

Based on the poll, the right wing block would win a total of 66 seats, but only with Lieberman, who has vowed to block the formation of a narrow rightist government.

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Star Returns
After 10 years in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Omri Casspi will return to Israel to play for Maccabi Tel Aviv. He is the first Israel to have played in the NBA.

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Measles Kills
Rotem Amitai, the 43 year old El Al flight attendant who contracted measles on an El Al flight from New York on March 26, dies yesterday after being hospitalized for months in serious condition. She had received one out of the two necessary vaccinations as a child. Rotem leaves behind 3 children.

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Kabbalist Passes
Rabbi Chaim Cohen, a renown kabbalist, passed away yesterday at age 84. Rabbi Cohen was known as “the milkman” due to his day job in a Tel Aviv dairy owned by his family. He was part of a group of kabbalists who studied together in the 1960’s and were each called by the jobs they worked at. Rabbi Cohen lectured at a yeshiva in Givatayim and authored numerous books explaining the Torah portions and other subjects according to Kabbalistic teachings (Talelei Chaim). He is survived by his wife and four children.

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Minister in Trouble
The Israel Police said Tuesday that there is sufficient evidence to bring charges against Deputy Health Minister Litzman for fraud, breach of trust and witness tampering in two cases, one of which relates to the extradition of former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer, who is accused of child sex abuse and the second involving the business of a close associate.

Litzman, the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, has been a long-standing key coalition partner of PM Netanyahu. He denies all the allegations against him.

[Judging from past history, the charges shouldn’t negatively effect Litzman’s prospects at election time.]

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Terrorists Busted
The Shin Bet has uncovered several Hamas terror cells operating in the West Bank and receiving orders from Gaza. The cells had planned terror attacks against Israeli as well as Palestinian Authority targets. Security forces also found an explosive device in a makeshift lab in Hebron. The device was to be detonated in Jerusalem.

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More Building
The West Bank’s Civil Administration High Planning Subcommittee authorized the promotion of 2,304 homes in settlements and outposts, of which 838 received final approval for construction. Close to 200 of the planned homes will be located in outposts considered “illegal”.

The Gush Etzion Regional Council Head, Shlomo Neeman, said in response that, “this is huge news for the south-east of Gush Etzion, to Jewish settlements in the Judean Desert and to the entire settlement movement.”

Peace Now condemned to new housing plans, calling it “a part of the destructive policy set to prevent a peaceful solution and the two-state solution and bring about the annexation of the West bank.”

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Greek’s Sue
The Greek Orthodox Church on Monday filed a new lawsuit in Jerusalem District Court against the Ateret Cohanim organization in a bid to overturn a Supreme Court decision upholding the sale of three properties in predominantly Arab parts of the Old City of Jerusalem.

The Supreme Court in June upheld the 99 year leasing of two Palestinian-run hotels — Imperial and Petra — located near the Jaffa Gate, and another building near Herod’s Gate to Ateret Cohanim. The Church claims that Ateret Cohanim falsified documents and bribed the official who agreed to the sales.

Ateret Cohanim plans to vacate the current residents of the buildings and replace them with Jewish inhabitants.

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Iran Coalition
Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz on Tuesday revealed to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Israel is taking part in a coalition led by the United States to secure the Persian Gulf.

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Temple Mount
An Israeli police officer was injured this morning, after he was attacked by a member of the Waqf, the organization that administers the Temple Mount. The incident occurred when several officers told a Waqf official that they wanted to bring him in for questioning.
The Waqf official refused and attacked the officers. One police officer was lightly injured.
During the scuffle, the Waqf official was also injured.

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No Unity
PM Netanyahu pledged today that he will not form a unity government with the left. In a column published in the Israel Hayom newspaper, Netanyahu wrote, “My commitment is clear: To establish a strong right-wing government after the elections, which will continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements and safeguard Israeli citizens.” He added, “This is my commitment to Likud voters. There will be no unity government.”

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Space X
SpaceX successfully launched Israeli communication satellite Amos-17 into orbit from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station last night. the company says that the 6.5-ton, high-power HTS satellite will provide extensive C-band HTS, Ka-band and Ku-band capabilities to meet Africa’s fast-growing communication demands. It will offer increased connectivity between Africa, the Middle East, India, China and as far west as Brazil.

Spacecom says Amos-17 is planned to be in operation for a minimum of 20 years. The company currently has a sales backlog valued at $58 million for communications services to the African market via the satellite, including with Nigeria-based broadcaster IDS Africa, and expects to sign additional large deals in the future.

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Palestinian Waze
A new Palestinian app called Doroob Navigator is meant to help Palestinian drivers in the West Bank negotiate traffic at Israeli military checkpoints and uncover routes to towns mainstream providers often miss. Doroob Navigator crowd-sources road closures and traffic data from users. It aims to supplant apps like Google Maps and Waze, which rarely account for Israeli restrictions and struggle to navigate between Palestinian cities.

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