LLX News

By: Shahar Klaiman and Tamir Morag – Israel Hayom; israelhayom.com

The Wall Street Journal claims Riyadh is engaging in “serious talks” with Jerusalem about establishing business ties, and bolstering security coordination.

Riyadh and Jerusalem do not maintain official diplomatic ties, the Gulf kingdom “is expanding secretive talks with Israeli leaders” and the move “could reshape Middle East politics and end decades of enmity between two of the region’s most influential nations,” the report said.

The Saudis have so far held out on joining the Abraham Accords, saying any such progress was dependent on progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but according to the report, the administration of US President Joe Biden is actively mediating between the two with the aim of declaring bilateral steps that could facilitate normalization at a later stage.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, the conservative Islamic kingdom “senses a shift” in its public toward establishing official relations with the Jewish state.

cont’d…

https://www.israelhayom.com/2022/06/07/report-saudi-arabia-moves-closer-to-forging-ties-with-israel/

By: Times of Israel Staff; timesofisrael.com

Threat comes as Bennett touts Israel’s successes against the Islamic Republic over the past year and amid fears Tehran will try to retaliate for recent high-profile assassinations

Iran on Tuesday threatened to “raze” the cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa.

“For any mistake made by the enemy, we will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground by the order of the Supreme Leader,” the Islamic Republic’s ground forces commander, Kiumars Heydari, told the semi-official Iranian Tasnim news agency.

The threat came less than a day after a report on Monday said Thai security forces had thwarted several recent Iranian attempts to harm Western and Israeli targets in the Southeast Asian country — a popular tourist destination for Israelis.

Iran has reportedly been trying to retaliate for several high-profile assassinations and mysterious deaths in the Islamic Republic in recent months, including of an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps colonel and a top scientist.

cont’d…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-general-threatens-to-raze-tel-aviv-and-haifa-to-the-ground/

By: Julie Stahl – CBN News; cbn.com

Dubbed the Lion of Judah, a bronze lion statue was dedicated in Jerusalem this week, in the presence of prominent Christian and Jewish guests, against the backdrop of Jerusalem’s Old City Walls.

“We thank you for this sculpture representing the Lion of Judah. We thank you Lord that you are the Lion. We thank you Lord that no weapon formed against us shall prosper,” prayed We thank you Lord that we are ambassadors of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and not even the gates of hell shall prevail,” prayed Nick Vujicic, Chief Executive Officer of Life Without Limbs.

The Lion of Judah sculpture was created by American Christian artist Max Greiner and was given to Israel as a gesture of friendship and U.S. Christian support of the Jewish people of Israel several years ago.  The 1,134-pound, 11-foot-long bronze lion was installed in one of Jerusalem’s largest parks.

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/june/jerusalems-newly-dedicated-lion-of-judah-statue-celebrates-jewish-christian-ties

By: Matt Galka – CBN News; cbn.com

More than $150 million – that’s what the Palestinian Authority paid to the families of terrorists in 2020. Their “Pay to Slay” policy is still in force, using your American tax dollars to fund terror campaigns.

In 2018, Congress passed the Taylor Force Act to cut off certain economic aid to the Palestinians to stop the practice of rewarding terrorism. Now, more legislation is needed to finish the task.

Taylor Force’s family is hoping Congress can go a step further to try and end those payments.

Not a day goes by when Stuart Force doesn’t think about his son Taylor who was taken from the world six years ago. “Probably more like an hour goes by that we don’t miss Taylor. There will always be an emptiness,” said Force.

Taylor Force was a U.S. Army veteran murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Israel in 2016. His family made it their mission to end the Palestinian Authority’s so-called “Pay to Slay” policy, where the PA pays stipends to the families of the terrorists who commit the crimes. 

“It’s sad to say, but the same countries that are hell-bent on destroying the United States, destroying Israel, have no problem using U.S. dollars to fund their terror campaigns,” said Stuart Force.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/june/palestinian-authority-awards-150m-to-families-of-terrorists-prompting-push-for-taylor-force-follow-up

By: Faygie Holt – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

Speaking with Nefesh B’Nefesh co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said that more than 100,000 new immigrants have moved to Israel from other countries in the last four years.

NEW YORK—Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata heralded the growing number of Diaspora Jews who have come to the Jewish state in recent years. Yet if she had it her way, the influx is just beginning.

Speaking at a press conference with Nefesh B’Nefesh co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart on Monday, she said that more than 100,000 new immigrants (olim) have moved to Israel from other countries in the last four years.

“It’s a huge achievement,” she said, noting that “our destiny is as one people, bound together.”

Last year, more than 4,000 Jews from the United States made aliyah. They were among the more than 27,000 Jews worldwide who moved to the Jewish state in 2021, marking a 30% increase in immigration overall.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/israels-minister-of-aliyah-touts-recent-diaspora-immigration/

By: Jacob Nagel & Jonathan Schanzer – Newsweek; newsweek.com

sraeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz revealed details about the largest Israel Defense Force (IDF) drill in recent years last week. The drill included simulated airstrikes on Iran and a simulated multi-front war against Iran-backed proxies in Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza. The message was unmistakable: The Israeli government is weighing its military options, and the military is readying for whatever the government decides. Iran should be worried.

Right now, however, all eyes are on Syria. The war in Ukraine has prompted Russia to redeploy some forces and hardware out of Syria, where it has been buttressing the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad. As the Russians depart, the Iranians want to fill the void.

The Israelis are determined not to let that happen. The Syrian-Israeli border, as well as key bases and facilities in Syria, have witnessed significant clashes in recent years. The Iranian regime continues to build its capabilities to target Israel from this war-torn territory. And Israel continues to erode those capabilities.

cont’d…

https://www.newsweek.com/russias-withdrawal-syria-opportunity-israel-opinion-1708727

By: Emily Jones – CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, Israel – Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Monday introduced a new House resolution to recognize the “Nakba,” the Arabic term for “catastrophe” that Palestinians use to describe the mass displacement of Arabs during the establishment of the modern State of Israel in 1948.

Tlaib, who is a Palestinian-American, submitted the resolution to coincide with “Nakba Day”, when Palestinians commemorate the event.

The resolution claims that Palestinians were “expelled or fled” from their homes by Israelis before and during Israel’s war for independence in 1948. The war, which Israel won, began when five Arab nations attacked the Jewish nation after it declared independence in territory that was formerly controlled by the British.

The resolution states that by the end of the war, “Israel had depopulated more than 400 Palestinian villages and cities, often demolishing all structures, planting forests over them, or repopulating them with Jewish Israelis.”

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/may/us-congresswoman-introduces-resolution-to-recognize-catastrophe-of-israels-founding

By: Anugrah Kumar – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

A new study from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University has found that just 37% of Christian pastors in the United States have a biblical worldview, demonstrating that spiritual awakening is “needed just as desperately in our pulpits as in the pews,” according to the pollster.

The nationwide study of about 1,000 Christian pastors found that just slightly more than a third (37%) of the U.S. pastors hold a biblical worldview. The majority (62%) possess a hybrid worldview known as Syncretism.

The study, released Thursday, showed that 41% of senior pastors — as compared to 28% of associate pastors — have a biblical worldview. Further, only 13% of teaching pastors and 12% of children’s and youth pastors have a biblical worldview.

The lowest level of biblical worldview was among executive pastors, with only 4% of them holding consistently biblical beliefs and behaviors.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/only-37-of-pastors-have-a-biblical-worldview-barna.html

By: Yaakov Katz – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

Support like that which Israel received from the Biden administration during last year’s war in Gaza cannot be taken for granted anymore.

In 2017, Benjamin Netanyahu visited Bogota. It was part of a larger prime ministerial sweep through Latin America that included stops in Brazil as well as Argentina.

At the Colombian presidential palace, Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, were met by an impressive honor guard. Colombian soldiers – decked out in dress uniform, ribbons and white gloves – stood at attention as the Israeli leader marched toward his host, Juan Manuel Santos, who a year earlier had won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Israel has been a friend and ally of Colombia, and lately it has been a great ally in the construction of peace in our country,” Santos said later that day during his meeting with Netanyahu.

It was a warm friendship. Four years earlier, Santos visited Jerusalem and met with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres. During that visit, Santos – who Peres called a “true and dear friend” – signed a free-trade agreement with Israel’s economy minister at the time, a young politician who had just been elected to the Knesset, Naftali Bennett.

That was then. Today, it is doubtful that anyone in Israel would call Santos a true and dear friend. He published an op-ed on Sunday in Spain’s El Pais newspaper calling on the world to apply its aggressive response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Israel.

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-706562

By: Luke Tress – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com

Screed posted online by Payton Gendron before mass shooting espouses white supremacist, anti-Black and anti-Jewish conspiracy theories; urges ‘real war’ against the Jewish people

NEW YORK — A man suspected of killing 10 people in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday appeared to target Black Americans, in what authorities called “racially motived violent extremism.”

The mass shooting killed mostly Black people and the FBI was investigating the attack as a hate crime.

In an alleged manifesto posted online before the attack, Payton Gendron, 18, also directed intense hatred at Jews, expressed support for Nazism and subscribed to the anti-semitic and racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which says Jews are plotting to replace white Americans with non-whites.

The 180-page manifesto circulating online included the alleged shooter’s name, described the attack plans and matched statements from law enforcement. Researchers from the Anti-Defamation League cited the document and said it wasn’t clear where it was first posted.

cont’d…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/manifesto-attributed-to-buffalo-shooting-suspect-pushes-antisemitic-conspiracies/