LLX News

Jewish News Syndication; jns.org

“I am really looking forward to beginning this new chapter of my life here in Israel as a future physician in the Israeli medical system,” said Sam Leeman.

A total of 225 new immigrants from North America landed at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Wednesday as part of the 63rd Nefesh B’Nefesh chartered aliyah flight through El Al Airlines. The flight was coordinated in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL), Jewish National Fund-USA and Tzofim-Garin Tzabar.

Participants come from a variety of backgrounds, culturally and demographically—hailing from 19 U.S. states and one Canadian province.

The flight also carried a diverse group of professionals who are bringing their unique talents to communities throughout Israel: 27 medical professionals arrived and 72 people on the flight are part of the Nefesh B’Nefesh-KKL “Go Beyond” initiative aimed at developing Israel’s peripheral regions and Jerusalem.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/nefesh-bnefesh-welcomes-75000th-oleh-on-summer-aliyah-charter-flight/

By: Walla! – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

The IDF has learned that Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders wanted their terrorists to use the Gaza tunnel to infiltrate Israel, but they refused to enter.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad was preparing to carry out operations that included infiltrating into Israeli territory during Operation Breaking Dawn, which led to a high level of preparedness in the South as well as in Israel’s intelligence community.

During the operation, the IDF was paying close attention to the terrorist group’s activity around one of its more popular tunnels, and security forces expected that it was being prepared for infiltration use in Israel.

According to Walla, while the commanders of Islamic Jihad intended for an operation to be carried out, the terrorists in the field refused to enter the tunnels.

Why are Islamic Jihad operatives scared of the tunnels?

The IDF presumes that the terrorist organizations in Gaza are wary of using the tunnels because of what happened during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May of last year when the IDF showed that it was able to directly hit tunnels that were dug at a depth of 20-30 meters while there are terrorists in them. Two tunnels in Gaza were hit with Hamas terrorists inside.

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-714967

By: Chris Mitchell – CBN News; cbn.com

ISRAELI-GAZA BORDER – Late Sunday night, a truce between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad ended three days of fighting.  It began when Israel carried out a preemptive strike against one of Gaza’s strongest terror groups that also sent a message to its sponsor, Iran. 

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid met with defense officials marking the end of Operation Breaking Dawn.    

The action started late Friday afternoon.

“It began when we received clear, certifiable intelligence that a mobile terrorism unit was moving towards the border with Israel, with large anti-tank missiles,” said Maj. Doron Spielman, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Field Spokesman.

“They were going to be fired at residential cars, possibly school busses, heading down one of Israel’s major roads.  We were successful in eliminating that threat before they could carry out the terror attack,” Spielman told CBN News in an interview along the Gaza border.

Israel’s targeted strikes also killed the military head of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in northern Gaza and hit other selected terror sites.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/august/israel-palestinian-islamic-jihad-truce-holding-after-three-days-of-rockets-and-israeli-strikes

By: David Isaac – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

“The truth is Israel’s government doesn’t know what will happen,” says an Israeli government source In the runup to August 19 hearing on the shuttering of the Agency in Russia.

The Jewish Agency, which helps Jews immigrate to Israel, stands on shaky ground in Russia, as a Moscow court is set to hold a trial on its dissolution August 19. Even though it’s operating under a cloud of uncertainty, and immigration to Israel has skyrocketed, the Agency continues to operate business as usual, JNS has learned from a government source familiar with the matter.

Since the outbreak of the war on Ukraine in February, 19,100 Russians have immigrated to Israel, a leap from the 7,733 immigrants that came in 2021, according to Jewish Agency numbers. It’s not a stretch to see immigration numbers triple over those of last year by year’s end, assuming the Agency isn’t shut down.

There is no consensus as to Russia’s motives for shuttering the Agency. Some analysts have pointed to the Ukraine war, arguing that Russia is either punishing Israel for speaking out against Russia’s invasion or attempting to warn Israel about taking more concrete action in Ukraine’s favor.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/jewish-agency-in-russia-soldiers-on-despite-tensions-immigration-surge/

By: Chris Mitchell – CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM – Twenty years ago, a suicide bomber killed nine people and wounded dozens of others in an attack at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  

The accomplices in that attack just got a pay raise.

The bombing which took place at the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria at Hebrew University on July 31, 2002, came in the middle of what was called the Second Intifadah, a four-year-long terror campaign against Israelis. The Israel Defense Forces arrested those responsible who have been in prison for 20 years. 

“Here we’re talking about nine murdered, over 80 injured. Five of those murdered were actually American citizens. And now the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) is literally paying additional rewards to those terrorists,” noted Palestinian Media Watch’s Maurice Hirsch.  

Hirsch explained to CBN News the Palestinian Authority law which standardizes payments to terrorists.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/august/20-years-later-palestinian-authority-still-handing-out-salary-raises-to-terrorists-in-pay-to-slay-policy

By: Julie Stahl – CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, Israel – A unique stone from an unearthed synagogue where Jesus could have prayed has returned to its home in the Galilee and the Magdala stone is expected to be a special draw for visitors.

Deemed by experts as one of Israel’s most important discoveries, the Magdala stone spent years with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and then went on an international tour with showings in New York and Rome. 

“I, myself, with some other workers here, put [the stone] in the truck that [removes] it from the site. So, I said, ‘Bye, see you soon’ to the stone in the beginning of January 2010. So, to see the stone coming back today is a big joy,” said Father Juan Solana, Director of the Magdala center.

Dozens gathered recently at the Magdala Center Hotel for the return of the Magdala Stone.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/july/magdala-stone-in-israel-rsquo-s-galilee-an-lsquo-oasis-of-encounter-rsquo-with-christian-jewish-history

By: Benjamin Weinthal – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

The video declared Iran’s regime can move its “peaceful nuclear program to a nuclear weapons program” at a fast pace.

Iran expert Ben Sabti tweeted that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “Telegram channel threatens to produce atomic warhead for missiles,” citing the channel’s message: “Iran can immediately return to Emad project and build an atomic bomb if Natanz facilities are attacked.”

The Emad, cited in the message, is an Iranian long-range missile.

The IRGC-linked Bisimchi Media (Radioman Media) Telegram channel published a video titled “When Will Iran’s Sleeping Nuclear Warheads Awaken,” according to the London-based Iran International news outlet.

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-713512

By: Chris Mitchell – CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, Israel – When President Joe Biden came to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia, things began to change in the region as agreements for mutual defense between Israel and neighboring Arab countries built by the historic Abraham Accords began to fall apart.

“The security architecture publicly at least unraveled. It was canceled and the UAE instead is now trying to establish diplomatic relations with Iran as are some of the other countries. It seems as though they measured the commitment of the United States to confronting Iran up, measured it as too weak, and are trying to come to some terms with the Iranians,” says Middle East expert David Wurmser.

President Biden said while visiting Israel that he would use military force against Iran as a “last resort.”

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/july/critics-warn-bidens-unwillingness-to-use-military-force-against-iran-could-unravel-abraham-accords

By: Ben Cohen – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

Iran and Russia further bind their ties—one an authoritarian regime claiming Divine sanction, the other an authoritarian regime promoting nationalist chauvinism, both of them sworn enemies of Western democracy.

Despite spending five months baiting Ukraine’s leaders as “neo-Nazis,” among them the country’s Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin didn’t bat an eyelid as he embraced a genuine Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier in the shape of Iran’s “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Putin visited Tehran last week on his first trip outside the borders of the former USSR since launching the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The immediate focus was not the war in Ukraine, but that other Russian-fueled bloodbath in Syria. The main meeting brought Khamenei and Putin together with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is seeking Russian and Iranian backing for a renewed onslaught against Kurdish forces in Syria. Putin refrained from making a formal commitment to his Turkish counterpart, but he will have been reassured by Erdoğan’s reference to him as “my dear friend,” and gratified by Turkey’s shameful antics in holding up Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership applications because of the backing of those two nations for the Kurds.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/opinion/mr-putin-goes-to-tehran/

By: Caroline Glick – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

So long as the progressive base of the Democrat Party dictates Biden’s foreign policy, those policies will continue to fail, to the detriment of regional security and stability.

Ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, the president published an op-ed in The Washington Post, in which he placed his trip in the context of his overall Middle East policy. A few days later, Israel’s opposition leader, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made a brief statement on Biden’s then upcoming visit that spoke directly to the claims Biden made in his article. Taken together, the two communications explain why Biden’s visit was a failure before it even began—and what a successful policy looks like.

Biden’s article, “Why I’m going to Saudi Arabia,” was a political communication to his party’s progressive base. It served a twofold purpose. First, it was an apology to progressives, who are hostile to both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Second, Biden assured progressives that he was not changing course. His Middle East policy to date will remain his policy going forward.

That policy has three major pillars: hostility towards Saudi Arabia and particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS); financial, nuclear and strategic appeasement of Iran; and support for the Palestinians, at Israel’s expense. Biden insisted in his op-ed that he remains true to these positions, but as president also has Russia and China to keep at bay.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/opinion/how-biden-ensured-his-trip-to-the-middle-east-would-fail/