By: Raoul Wootliff – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
New vote set for March 23 after ‘unity’ government crumbles in just 7 months; Netanyahu promises huge win, but polls suggest tough race, with main threat from parties to his right
The 23rd Knesset officially dispersed as the clock struck midnight on Tuesday night and the deadline to approve a 2020 budget expired, sending Israelis to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years. Elections were automatically called for 90 days from now, namely March 23, 2021, though that date could yet be changed by vote.
The failure to pass a budget came just seven months after the swearing-in of the “unity government” between Likud and Blue and White. The two parties, which had fought each other bitterly in three indecisive elections, agreed to form a power-sharing government with a rotating premiership between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz in May.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press on Friday.
Iran has not publicly acknowledged any new construction at Fordo, whose discovery by the West in 2009 came in an earlier round of brinkmanship before world powers struck the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
Television icon and comedian Jay Leno talked about his avid support for Israel and the Jewish people during the StandWithUs “Festival of Lights” virtual gala on Sunday night.
“My dad said you always want to be proud of who you are, and that’s why I like Jews. They’re proud of who they are,” the former host of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” told Jewish comedian Elon Gold in a pre-recorded message that aired during the live Hanukkah event.
“Here they are, this little country surrounded by people who literally hate them, and the fact that [these] people are proud of who they are and they stick together—that’s what I like. I like seeing people who are proud of who they are because if you don’t have pride in yourself, you’re not gonna get anywhere,” he added. “So, for me, I like that sort of Jewish pride.”
Leah MarieAnn Klett – The Christian Post; christianpost.com
Chinese Communist Party officials have ordered primary school teachers to sign a form requiring them to teach a Marxist religious view, strengthen atheism education, and actively promote socialism, according to a persecution watchdog group.
China Aid, a U.S.-based nonprofit that monitors religious persecution in China, reports that CCP officials recently distributed a “Teacher’s Promise to Not Believe in Any Faith” form to Longwan District School in Wenzhou in China’s Zhejiang province.
The form, which requires each teacher’s signature, includes directives under four “publicly announced commitments.” Teachers are required to: Firmly establish a Marxist religious view; strengthen atheism education, and refrain from believing in any religion or participating in any religious activities.
By: Raphael Ahren – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
Wine from the Golan, olive oil from the West Bank — despite the political sensitivities, companies in UAE and Bahrain appear unfazed about where their trading partners are located
In November 2015, a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates dedicated a long editorial to the European Union’s newly issued guidelines about special labels for products from Israeli settlements.
“The decision by the 28-nation bloc has come after months of procrastination, but evidently underscores the bloc’s anger over Israel’s continued expansion of settlements on territory that Palestinians seek for their future state,” Gulf Today wrote at the time, calling for sanctions against the Jewish state. “Inaction on the part of the world community would be deemed by Israel as support for its oppressive actions.”
Populating the Kinneret with mullets usually takes place once a year. It’s done in order to preserve the lake’s quality of water by maintaining a balanced population of algae.
Some 50,000 flathead grey mullet fish found a new home in the Kinneret on Wednesday, as part of an effort to preserve the ecosystem of Israel’s most important lake, the Agriculture and Rural Development Ministry announced.
Populating the Kinneret with mullets usually takes place once a year. It’s done in order to preserve the lake’s ecological system and quality of water by maintaining a balanced population of algae.
By: Steve Postal – The American Spectator; spectator.org
Many details remain unclear, but it likely destabilizes the region.
This weekend marked at least the fifth assassination of arch-terrorists in Iran in 2020 when Muslim Shahdan, a senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed while driving weapons across the Iraq–Syria border. This follows Friday’s assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist (and, less noted by the press, also a brigadier general of the IRGC) Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. There are at least three theories circulating as to the exact nature of the operation, be it an assassination involving remote-operated weapons, a small hit squad, or a larger hit squad. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the United States have declared the IRGC a terrorist organization.
U.S.–Israel operation. In January, the United States assassinated IRGC major general and commander of the Quds force Qasem Soleimani, as well as Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, commander of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq and believed to be responsible for the 2019–20 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The Fakhrizadeh assassination has prompted heavy-handed armchair quarterbacking from the usual suspects. Former CIA Director John Brennan called the assassination “a criminal act & highly reckless” on Twitter, implored Iranian leadership to exercise restraint, and called the assassination, in the event it was carried out by a foreign government (Brennan said he did not know if it was) “an act of state-sponsored terrorism.” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) supported Brennan’s tweet. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called the assassination “reckless, provocative, and illegal” as well as “murder,” while Sanders’ foreign policy adviser, Matt Duss, accused Israel of “terrorism” and suggested that former Vice President Joe Biden, once in office as president, should re-enter the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to teach Israel the lesson that “terrorism doesn’t work.”
JERUSALEM, Israel – Israel’s parliament on Wednesday passed a preliminary measure to dissolve the dysfunctional government coalition between Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu, setting the stage for Israel’s fourth election in two years.
The Knesset’s vote passed 61 to 54 with Gantz’s Blue in White Party voting in favor of the proposal and Netanyahu’s Likud Party voting against it.
Speaking at a prime-time television address on Tuesday, Gantz called Netanyahu a “serial breaker of promises” and said his Blue and White party would vote in favor of the no-confidence measure. A formal vote to dissolve the government could come as early as next week. Gantz’s decision is a warning that he has lost patience with Netanyahu but leaves the door open for emergency negotiations.
By: Amanda Borschel-Dan – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com
To fight the worst Desert Locust threat in 70 years, Start-Up Nation delegation flies in with innovative techniques, utilizing drones and nighttime spraying
At the request of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a crack team of Israelis swooped into the war-, storm-, and famine-struck country earlier this month to aid in its fight against a further plague — desert locusts.
Currently on the ground in the country’s eastern Somali region, the Israeli delegation is testing out an innovative technique of using drone surveillance and targeted night-time spraying, which will reduce the amount of pesticides.
As the country faces civil war in the north and massive flooding from Cyclone Gati, the locust swarms have invaded the country and are affecting over 70,000 households.
By: Anna Ahronheim – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com
Underground barrier almost complete; new “smart border” concept deployed along northern section of Gaza Strip.
The Hamas tunnel that stretched several meters into Israel and was discovered by the IDF last month near Kissufim forest was the deepest tunnel ever dug.
\While the military is not certain as to what its purpose was, it believes that it was intended to test the underground barrier or to be used for a cross-border raid by the terror group though not necessarily to abduct Israeli troops or civilians.
It was only dug recently and was not one of 20 terror tunnels used by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and destroyed by the IDF since the end of the last war between Israel and Gaza in 2014.