ISRAEL BREAKING NEWS

https://unitedwithisrael.org/despite-ceasefire-hamas-resumes-airborne-arson-attacks-against-israel/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage
Despite ‘Ceasefire,’ Hamas Resumes Airborne Arson Attacks Against Israel
Aug 12, 2018
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Fire kites
Gaza
Hamas’ endless attacks on Israel continue despite its declared “ceasefire.”
By: The Tower
Despite a ceasefire announced by Hamas on Thursday, thousands of Gazans took part in Hamas-orchestrated riots along the Israeli-Gaza border on Friday, hurling rocks, burning tires, and sending incendiary terror-kites into Israel, The Times of Israel reported.

The army said around 5,000 people had amassed at the border, and that at least six fires had broken out in Israeli territory since the morning due to airborne arson attacks.

The terror group’s spokesman, Hazem Qassim, tweeted that rioters would continue to “break the siege” on the Gaza Strip. “Every time the Israeli killing machine attempts to break our people’s will to continue its struggle and marches, it fails to do so,” he wrote. “Today our people will head to the ‘Marches of Return’ to challenge the Israeli war machine.”

“Our Palestinian people has a long-lasting, struggling soul,” the Hamas spokesperson added. “It will continue its resistance in all of its forms until it gains its freedom, independence and right to a dignified life.”

Hamas had earlier announced that the so-called “March of Return” border riots would continue unimpeded, despite a ceasefire negotiated by Egypt, following two days that saw the heaviest exchange of Palestinian rocket fire and reprisal Israeli airstrikes since Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

The terrorist group, which exercises complete political and military control over the coastal enclave, said a ceasefire had been reached “on the basis of mutual calm” and went into effect at midnight. Israel, however, denied that it had agreed to a truce, but clarified that “quiet would be met with quiet.”

There were no instances of violence reported along the border overnight.

Since the so-called “March of Return” was launched by Hamas in March, there have been near-weekly, violent riots along the Israel-Gaza border organized by the terrorist group, which saw Israeli security forces facing gunfire, grenades, Molotov cocktails, and efforts to illegally infiltrate into Israeli territory to carry out terrorist attacks. Hamas also sent women and children to the front line to use them as human shields.

At least 160 Palestinians have been killed as a result of the rioting, and one Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper. In addition to clashes at the border, southern Israel has experienced hundreds of fires caused by incendiary terror kites and balloons flown over the border from Gaza

Jerusalem mayor slams European leaders for letting terrorism win
By Avi Abelow - August 9, 2018 242 0

Western European leaders have been leading their countries to doom and destruction. Turning a blind eye to terror, actively and passively funding terror against Israel, and opening up their borders to millions of Muslims. That is a deadly combination.

Jerusalem Mayor Barkat sends a message to European leaders
WATCH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqPAngdIgC0

Nir Barkat is the Mayor of Jerusalem. He is looking to end his very successful run as Jerusalem Mayor and go national. He has joined Netanyahu’s Likud party. Many look upon him as a Bibi type politician. A secular Zionist, with a strong Jewish identity. Also similar to Bibi, he is personally successful from the private sector and left his very successful business life in order to serve the public good in politics.

Netanyahu Quotes
In this video, Barkat quotes a very powerful line from Netanyahu.
“Terror is global, it is not local. If you don’t fight it here when it is small, it will catch up to you wherever you are in Europe and the rest of the world.”
Then Barkat adds his own addition. “There is only one way to deal with terror. Fight it. Defeat it. Together.”
Those sentiments say it all.

Europe Turns a Blind Eye to Israel
Western European leaders prefer to look at the Palestinian Authority and Hamas terror against Israel as a legitimate struggle against Israel. Israel, however, sees it very differently. Their terror campaign against Israel is part of the global Islamic terror against Western civilization today.

Case in point, when Western leaders are silent about the terror used against Israel, those same terror tactics then are used in other countries in the Western world.

If they don’t want Islamic terror to happen in their countries then they must stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel and give Isreal 110% support to defeat the Islamic terror against us.

That is the only way for other countries to protect their countries as well from the growing, global Islamic terror.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-tzipi-livni-to-haaretz-next-israeli-election-will-be-referendum-on-th-1.6363072?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=Push_Notification
Tzipi Livni to Haaretz: Next Israeli Election Will Be Referendum on the Declaration of Independence
The Chief Rabbinate’s monopoly in Israel should be broken, Diaspora Jews should speak out about the Western Wall deal and Jewish activists should not be turned away from the country’s borders, says Israel's new opposition leader

By Judy Maltz Aug 11, 2018
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The new and improved Tzipi Livni
The Jewish Agency has a new chairman. These are the five things he needs to do
In rare rebuke, Jewish Federations slam Israel's nation-state law as 'step back for all minorities'

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-hamas-is-exploiting-netanyahu-s-unwillingness-to-go-to-war-1.6364238?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=Push_Notification
Analysis Hamas Is Exploiting Netanyahu's Unwillingness to Go to War
Netanyahu is under fire for failing to deter Hamas from launching rockets at Israel. Why hasn't he come up with a plan to prevent another Gaza war?

Yossi Verter Aug 11, 2018 6:43 AM


https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/senior-officer-israel-nears-gaza-op-border-towns-may-be-evacuated-1.6362875
Israel May Evacuate Border Towns as Gaza Conflict Escalates, Senior Officer Says
More than 180 rockets fired at Israel in major escalation ■ Officer says Israel nears wider Gaza campaign ■ Military reinforcements sent to the south

Yaniv Kubovich and Jack Khoury Aug 09, 2018 12:10 PM
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An explosion is seen during Israeli air strikes in Gaza August 9, 2018.
An explosion is seen during Israeli air strikes in Gaza August 9, 2018.\ AHMED ZAKOT/ REUTERS
Israeli army lifts restrictions on Gaza border communities after quiet night
Foreign worker severely wounded in Israel by Gaza rocket
A senior Israeli commander said Thursday morning that the military is nearing launching an operation in the Gaza Strip, not ruling out evacuating communities near the border as the fighting continues.

"We are after another night of escalation, and at this stage we don't see it ending," the officer said.

Referring to negotiations between Hamas and Israel, being mediated by Egypt, the officer said that Hamas "chose to stay away from a deal and it will pay the price for its violations in the last four months." The officer warned Hamas of "suffering a severe blow" if it continues firing rockets.

Gaza border communities Israel may evacuate
>> More than 180 Gaza rockets fired at Israel, IDF hits the Strip | Latest updates

Israel will continue striking Gaza, the officer said, noting that reinforcements are being sent to southern Israel. "The military is preparing to evacuate civilians located up to four kilometers from the border, even at the first stage of a wider campaign."


The officer added that as of right now, reserve soldiers from air defense units were called up, but the military is preparing to call up more reservists if needed. "Hamas must go back to the understandings after the [2014 Gaza war], and if it doesn't, it will understand the hard way. Part of the things it was dreaming of are getting farther and farther away."
A woman inspects a damaged house where a Palestinian woman and her 18-month old child were killed, in the Gaza Strip, August 9, 2018.\ IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/ REUTERS
The officer warned Hamas that Israel will continue its strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Hamas on Thursday blamed the latest round of violence on Israel killing two Hamas militants on Tuesday. "Israel says it does not seek an escalation but in practice causing it," sources said. The Israeli military believes that the incident was a misunderstanding, after Israeli troops mistakenly thought that gunfire during a military demonstration in the Strip was aimed at them.


Hamas spokesman Abed Lateef Kano warned Thursday morning that Israel's attacks will not be tolerated: "The resistance forces are doing what they have to do as part of protecting the Palestinian people from Israeli aggression," he said. "The brutal Israeli attack and the targeting of civilians will not be tolerated quietly, and the occupation will pay the price and will not be successful in dictating a new equation," he added.

Over 180 rockets were launched at Israel on Wednesday evening and overnight Thursday. A woman sustained serious wounds on Thursday at the Eshkol Regional Council, and another man was lightly wounded. On Wednesday, nine people were wounded, including one moderately, and 13 others suffered shock.

In Gaza, Palestinians reported three people were killed, including a pregnant woman and a toddler.


Yaniv Kubovich

Haaretz Correspondent

https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-corbyn-questions-israels-right-to-exist-on-iranian-tv/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage
WATCH: Corbyn Questions Israel’s Right to Exist on Iranian TV
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Aug 9, 2018
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When you thought it couldn’t get any worse for UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, another one of his anti-Israel interviews from Iran’s PressTV emerges.
Another instance of hostility exhibited by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn towards Israel was exposed on Tuesday in the form of an interview he gave to Iranian TV, in which he appears to question Israel’s right to exist.
Speaking to Iran’s PressTV in May 2011, Corbyn said he considers the BBC to be biased in favor of Israel because they are willing to say Israel has a right to exist.
The fact that this man is leading the UK Labour party is astounding.

https://israelunwired.com/the-child-abuse-taking-place-in-hamas-summer-camps/
The child abuse taking place in Hamas summer camps
By Avi Abelow - August 8, 2018 3000 0
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Sending children to summer camp to learn how to be terrorists and kill Jews instead of to have fun and enjoy their childhood is child abuse.
Israel Foreign Min.

@IsraelMFA
What are your children doing this #summer?#Hamas in #Gaza is depriving young Palestinians of their childhood by poisoning their minds with hatred & violence.
11:52 AM - Aug 2, 2018
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Terror Training Camp
This is a real thing. The visuals in this video are real. Gaza children to go Hamas terror summer camps to learn how to kill Jews. This is horrendous on so many levels.

First of all, they are focused on killing, killing and more killing.

Second, they are training children to kill. Children!

Third, these children are being deprived of a normal childhood. Normal children grow up and learn how to be happy children, and learn how to enjoy life. These kids learn to focus on death, murder and a fake belief in “martyrdom” via murder of innocent Jews.

Again, these are children. Not 18 year olds conscripting to a military service. Children!

Palestinians
No, there is no such thing as a historic people called “palestinians”. We disagree with official Israeli institutions using this term and we can’t wait until official Israel also stops using this false term.

Before the State of Israel, everyone called Jews, Christians and Muslims palestinians if they lived in the Holy Land. It is the name of a geographic area that the Romans created to replace the historic name “Judea.” Jewsborn in the British Mandate of Palestine had passports that said “Palestinian Jews” on them. There is NO such thing as a historic Arab/Muslim people called “palestinians” with national rights to this land.

Past Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir Explains it Quite Simply
VIDEO
Golda’s Full Comments

https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/watch-israeli-children-frantically-try-to-get-into-bomb-shelter-as-palestinian-rockets-target-israeli-civilians/?utm_source=push&utm_medium=conservativetribune&utm_content=2018-08-09&utm_campaign=manualpost
Watch: Israeli Children Frantically Try to Get into Bomb Shelter as Palestinian Rockets Target Israeli Civilians
BY JOE SAUNDERS
AUGUST 9, 2018 AT 6:01AM
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It’s a scene that should make liberals ashamed.
When Hamas terrorists launched a fresh barrage of rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza this week, they once again proved just how wrong-headed liberal support for the Palestinian cause against Israel really is – and the savage depths terrorists are willing to go.
A short video clip being circulated on Twitter by Townhall Editor Katie Pavich conveys the terror Hamas is inflicting with chilling clarity:
Katie Pavlich

@KatiePavlich
Video from Israel today. It shows dozens of children desperately trying to get into a bomb shelter in 5-15 secs as Hamas launches rockets from Gaza. One lands in the street right next to them. Two ppl are hurt. Where is the outrage for this attempted murder of civilians?
7:52 PM - Aug 8, 2018
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“Video from Israel today,” Pavich wrote in the Wednesday post. “It shows dozens of children desperately trying to get into a bomb shelter in 5-15 secs as Hamas launches rockets from Gaza. One lands in the street right next to them. Two ppl are hurt. Where is the outrage for this attempted murder of civilians?”
TRENDING: After Libs Blame West Coast Fires on Global Warming, Forester Speaks out
That’s an excellent question.
Because the outrage among liberals and the Western media in the coming days is likely to be directed against Israel for how it retaliates. Don’t expect a lot of denunciation of the savages who have no problem shooting rockets at cities hoping to kill Jewish children.
If a scene like this involved Americans on American soil – whether it was New York City, Miami, Minneapolis or Los Angeles – there’s no doubt the United States would be striking back against the attackers.
And Israel is doing the same. As the Times of Israel reported:
“Following the rocket launches, the Israeli air force struck more than 140 military targets across 20 sites in Gaza, including a factory for manufacturing facilities, training complexes, a maritime tunnel shaft, and other sites, according to the IDF.”

Fortunately, with President Donald Trump in the White House and Ambassador Nikki Haley at the United Nations, the United States is leaving little doubt that it is firmly on Israel’s side in the conflict.
In a Twitter post, U.S. Middle East Envoy Jason Greenblatt put the blame squarely on the terrorists.
“Another night of terror & families huddling in fear as Israel defends itself,” he wrote. “This is the Hamas regime’s choice. Hamas is subjecting people to the terrifying conditions of war again.”
Jason D. Greenblatt

@jdgreenblatt45
Hamas regime again is launching rockets at Israeli communities. Another night of terror & families huddling in fear as Israel defends itself. This is the Hamas regime’s choice. Hamas is subjecting people to the terrifying conditions of war again.
1:52 AM - Aug 9, 2018
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RELATED: Booker Drops Pathetic Excuse When Getting Caught Red-Handed with Anti-Israel Sign
He had plenty of supporters, too.
Jason D. Greenblatt

@jdgreenblatt45
· 14h
Hamas regime again is launching rockets at Israeli communities. Another night of terror & families huddling in fear as Israel defends itself. This is the Hamas regime’s choice. Hamas is subjecting people to the terrifying conditions of war again.
N.K. Klein
@kleinlegal
Thank you for your moral clarity and the hard work you do on behalf of those who value life.
1:53 AM - Aug 9, 2018
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Jason D. Greenblatt

@jdgreenblatt45
· 14h
Hamas regime again is launching rockets at Israeli communities. Another night of terror & families huddling in fear as Israel defends itself. This is the Hamas regime’s choice. Hamas is subjecting people to the terrifying conditions of war again.
@amrcnlbrtyrghts
And where is #MainStream #Media? Tomorrow headlines will read: #Israel attacked Palestine again.. however dirty #Corrupt #PoliticalAgenda airs owner interests
3:24 AM - Aug 9, 2018
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Jason D. Greenblatt

@jdgreenblatt45
· 14h
Hamas regime again is launching rockets at Israeli communities. Another night of terror & families huddling in fear as Israel defends itself. This is the Hamas regime’s choice. Hamas is subjecting people to the terrifying conditions of war again.
Adonis
@DAdonisd
and yet all we hear from mainstream media is that Israel is firing missiles into Palestine #FakeNewsCNN

9:25 AM - Aug 9, 2018
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It’s a refreshingly honest take on a topic that is too often obscured by the mainstream media, which tries to portray Palestinians breaching Israeli national borders like some latter day incarnation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“This is the Hamas regime’s choice,” Greenblatt wrote, describing the men who have no problem launching attacks that send women and children running frantically for bomb shelters, trying to reach them in the seconds they have before a rocket hits.

But for the American left, like current media “It” girl Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it’s the Israelis who are to blame for the violence.

Videos like the one Pavich posted Wednesday aren’t going to change the left, they’ve had decades to learn what side in the Israeli-Palestinian fight stands for civilization and what side stands for barbarousness.

But still, it’s a scene that should make liberals ashamed.

Facebook has greatly reduced the distribution of our stories in our readers' newsfeeds and is instead promoting mainstream media sources. When you share to your friends, however, you greatly help distribute our content. Please take a moment and consider sharing this article with your friends and family. Thank you.



Israeli Army Renews Strikes on Gaza, Palestinians Report; Egypt Says Still Working Toward Restoring Calm
Israel hits 180 Gaza targets ■ Three Gazans said killed, including pregnant woman and child ■ Woman severely wounded in Israel ■ Israeli official: Hamas was dealt a serious blow, IDF instructed to prepare for any scenario

Yaniv Kubovich, Jack Khoury and Noa Landau Aug 09, 2018 3:11 PM
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Palestinians gather around a building after it was bombed by an Israeli aircraft, in Gaza City August 9, 2018
Palestinians gather around a building after it was bombed by an Israeli aircraft, in Gaza City August 9, 2018\ MOHAMMED SALEM/ REUTERS
Israel may evacuate border towns as Gaza conflict escalates, senior officer says
Foreign worker severely wounded in Israel by Gaza rocket
Pregnant woman, toddler in Gaza reportedly killed in Israeli strikes
The Israeli military said Thursday that it struck 180 targets in Gaza in retaliation to a massive barrage of rockets that was fired at Israel since Wednesday evening. Some 180 rockets were fired at Israel, the military said, with over 30 rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Most of the rockets exploded in open areas.

Palestinian factions in Gaza declared Thursday that they consider the latest round of violence between Israel and Gaza over, saying that maintaining the peace now depends on Israel. After the statement was released, however, a rocket was fired at the city of Be'er Sheva, located some 40 kilometers from the Strip. This was the first time rockets were fired at the city since the 2014 Gaza war.

Hours later, the IDF renewed its attacks on Gaza. A 5-story building was destroyed, and the Palestinians reported 18 people wounded. The IDF said the building was used by Hamas security forces and was located in the Rimal neighborhood in the northern part of the Strip. Palestinian sources reported that the building was the Said al-Mashal cultural center in the al-Shati refugee camp in northwestern Gaza.


A source in the refugee camp said that the building is located near the house of senior Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who is from this camp. A resident of the al-Shati refugee camp, where the building is located, told Haaretz that "the attacked building is an art and culture center which has no political or security use. The building also serves the Egyptian community that lives in Gaza. There is no reason to target this building other than harming a Palestinian cultural symbol."

skip - Video documenting the destruction of the Said al-Mashal cultural center in Gaza, August 9. 2018.


شبكة قدس الإخبارية

@qudsn
لحظة إطلاق طيران الاحتلال صواريخه تجاه مبنى سعيد المسحال غرب #غزة قبل قليل.

4:50 PM - Aug 9, 2018
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Video documenting the destruction of the Said al-Mashal cultural center in Gaza, August 9. 2018.The Quds news network/Twitter
Meanwhile, Egypt announced that it has been working with both Israel and Hamas since Wednesday to prevent an escalation and continued attacks on the Strip. According to an Egyptian source, Cairo is continuing its communication with various actors in order to restore the calm and prevent further flare-ups.

A missile lands as Israeli aircraft bombs a building in Gaza City August 9, 2018
A missile lands as Israeli aircraft bombs a building in Gaza City August 9, 2018\ AHMED ZAKOT/ REUTERS
Site where rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israeli town, Thursday morning, Aug. 9, 2018.
Site where rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israeli town, Thursday morning, Aug. 9, 2018.Eliyahu Hershkovitz
The head of the Egyptian community in Gaza Adel Abd Al- Rahman said that the destroyed cultural center "serves thousands of of Palestinian mothers and was destroyed in a brutal and terrible way."

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a security meeting with Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot in Tel Aviv Thursday ahead of the security cabinet meeting on Gaza.


"Hamas was dealt a serious blow, Israel will keep acting will full force," a source said after the meeting. Netanyahu and Lieberman instructed the IDF to prepare for every possible scenario.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and other officials at a meeting on Gaza at the IDF's headquarters, Tel Aviv, August 9, 2018.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and other officials at a meeting on Gaza at the IDF's headquarters, Tel Aviv, August 9, 2018.Defense Ministry
skip - IDF strikes in Gaza overnight
IDF strikes in Gaza overnight - דלג

IDF strikes in Gaza overnightHaaretz
The IDF said Thursday it’s sending reinforcements, specifically for Artillery and Armory Corps.

skip - A video of a house in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike which killed a pregnant mother and toddler. The house belonged to a family connected to Hamas.


وكالة شهاب

@ShehabAgency
#شاهد منزل عائلة خماش الذي تعرض لقصف الاحتلال الليلة الماضية، وأدى لاستشهاد المواطنة إيناس خماش وهي حامل (23 عاما)، وطفلتها بيان (عام ونصف) وإصابة زوجها بجراح متوسطة في منطقة الجعفراوي وسط القطاع

6:21 AM - Aug 9, 2018
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The house in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike which killed a pregnant woman and toddler.
The military started striking in the Strip overnight Wednesday after six rockets were fired from Gaza, landing in the southern Israeli town of Sderot and wounding 11 people. Eight people were admitted to the Soroka hospital in Be'er Sheva and seven in Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon; a woman was in serious condition, and 13 others were treated for shock trauma.

skip - Damage is seen in the southern Israeli city of Sderot after a rocket attack from Gaza
Damage is seen in the southern Israeli city of Sderot after a rocket attack from Gaza - דלג

Gaza's Health Ministry reported Thursday that three Palestinians were killed by the Israeli attacks, including a pregnant woman, 23, her 18-month-old toddler and a man, who was identified as 30-year-old Ali Alrandur. He is the son of one of the commanders of Hamas' armed wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam. Six other people were wounded by the strikes.


"We don't see the end of the escalation. We are nearing an operation in Gaza," a senior IDF official said Thursday, not ruling out the evacuation of Israeli civilians if the conflict continues.

"The way things continue to play out is significant. Hamas will understand in the coming hours, as in the past months, that this is not the direction it wants to choose," the military said in a tweet.

Smoke rises after an Israeli aircraft bombed a multi-storey building in Gaza City August 9, 2018
Smoke rises after an Israeli aircraft bombed a multi-storey building in Gaza City August 9, 2018\ MOHAMMED SALEM/ REUTERS
Site where rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israeli town, Thursday morning.
Site where rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israeli town, Thursday morning, Aug. 9, 2018.Courtesy Eshkol security
The sites in Gaza targeted by the Israeli military included a military compound east of Rafah and attack tunnels belonging to Hamas, the army said.

Hamas spokesman Abed Lateef Kano warned Thursday morning that Israel's attacks will not be tolerated: "The resistance forces are doing what they have to do as part of protecting the Palestinian people from Israeli aggression," he said. "The brutal Israeli attack and the targeting of civilians will not be tolerated quietly, and the occupation will pay the price and will not be successful in dictating a new equation," he added.

The army said Thursday it struck a terrorist group that launched rockets from the southern part of the Strip. The Israeli army started backing up its aerial defense units, and began deploying more Iron Dome missile defense batteries in the south to prepare for a scenario in which Gaza rockets could reach deeper into Israeli territory.

>> Israel, Hamas to agree on cease-fire by end of August, report says | Hamas claims deadly border exchange with Israel was misunderstanding

skip - Jason Greenblatt criticizes Hamas over continued rocket fire

Jason D. Greenblatt

@jdgreenblatt45
Hamas regime again is launching rockets at Israeli communities. Another night of terror & families huddling in fear as Israel defends itself. This is the Hamas regime’s choice. Hamas is subjecting people to the terrifying conditions of war again.

1:52 AM - Aug 9, 2018
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Jason Greenblatt criticizes Hamas over continued rocket fireJason Greenblatt / Twitter
Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman met with senior military and defense officials at the army's headquarters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday to discuss the escalation on the southern border Wednesday night.

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt critcized Hamas actions overnight. Greenblatt tweeted: "Hamas regime again is launching rockets at Israeli communities. Another night of terror and families huddling in fear as Israel defends itself."

skip - Alistair Burt's Tweet on Gaza, August 9, 2018.

Alistair Burt

@AlistairBurtUK
Concerned by deteriorating situation in Gaza/Israel and civilian casualties, inc. reports of death of pregnant woman and 1yr old child in Gaza. Hamas must end attacks against Israel. Support UN/Egypt efforts to restore calm and agree ceasefire. Escalation is in no-one’s interest.

12:47 PM - Aug 9, 2018
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Alistair Burt's Tweet on Gaza, August 9, 2018.
"This is the Hamas regime's choice. Hamas is subjecting people to the terrifying conditions of war again," he added.

British Minister for the Middle East Alistair Burt expressed concern over the "deteriorating situation in Gaza/Israel and civilian casualties." In particular, he was worreid over reports of death of pregnant woman and child." Burt added that "Hamas must end attacks against Israel. Support UN/Egypt efforts to restore calm and agree ceasefire. Escalation is in no-one’s interest."

The United Nations' Middle East envoy, Nikolay Mladenov, released a statement late Wednesday night concerning the escalation between Israel and Gaza. "I am deeply alarmed by the recent escalation, particularly by today's multiple rockets fired towards communities in southern Israel," he wrote.

"For months I have been warning that the humanitarian, security and political crisis in Gaza risks a devastating conflict that nobody wants. The UN has engaged with Egypt and all concerned parties in an unprecedented effort to avoid such a development," Mladenov continued.

"Our collective efforts have prevented the situation from exploding until now. If the current escalation, however, is not contained immediately, the situation can rapidly deteriorate with devastating consequences for all people," he warned.

Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi said that rescue services had been sent to homes "to check whether there are more shock victims" as a result of the rocket fire. "I recommend that everyone remain near protected spaces," Davidi said. "We are in constant contact with the army and security forces."

Opposition blasts Netanyahu government

Opposition lawmakers blasted Netanyahu's government for failing to achieve a lasting truce in Egyptian-mediated ceasefire talks with Hamas.

"Netanyahu and Lieberman! You have failed!" Labor Party leader Avi Gabbay tweeted. "Is this the way to hold a negotiation? Our hearts are with the residents of the Gaza border region and we support the IDF in its mission of restoring security to residents of the area."

Opposition leader MK Tzipi Livni said that "this government has weakened the moderates and strengthened the radicals, four years of wasting time." She continued, saying: "This government prefers a Hamastan near the residents of the south. The 'let the IDF win' motto clearly doesn't work without complementary policy."

The developments came a day after the Israeli military fired at a Hamas facility in northern Gaza in response to fire from the Strip aimed at Israeli security forces. The tank fire killed two members of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades' al-Nukhba elite unit and wounded six others, reports in Gaza said. The al-Qassam Brigades is the military wing of Hamas.

According to the IDF, the incident occurred due to a misunderstanding: The military believes that the shots that prompted an Israeli response were not deliberately aimed at IDF soldiers, but were part of a ceremony of the al-Qassam Brigades.

An IDF engineering corps force was operating in the area when the shots fired from Gaza were heard. The IDF thought it was an attempted sniper attack, and it was decided to fire a tank shell at the position in response.

An initial investigation has found, however, that the shooting took place two kilometers away from where the soldiers were operating. At this stage, it remains unclear whether the IDF knew of the ceremony, during which weapons were being fired. The assessment is that if any information had been received earlier about the event, senior IDF officers would not have approved the tank fire.

Nevertheless, the security establishment assesses that Hamas is still interested in reaching a cease-fire agreement with Israel, but that the organization faces a dilemma. While Hamas works toward signing a deal, the organization must keep responding to incidents in such a way as to show it has not shifted its policy toward Israel. At the same time, Hamas is trying to strengthen its links with other groups in Gaza – such as Islamic Jihad – to restore control and muster support behind any deal that may be reached.

A Hamas official told the Turkish state news agency Anadolu on Wednesday that the two parties are expected to sign an agreement by the end of August. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the first stage of the deal would include a two-week trial. The deal would lift restrictions on the entry of goods into the Gaza Strip and at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the coastal enclave.


Yaniv Kubovich

Haaretz Correspondent

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-dame-vivien-duffield-a-huge-israel-donor-slams-the-nation-state-law-1.6362251?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=Push_Notification
'My Israel Is Dead': Dame Vivien Duffield, One of Israel's Biggest Donors, Is Furious About the Nation-state Law
'I will make absolutely sure that Arabic is still part of every project we do,' says the biggest, most dedicated and most veteran philanthropist in Israel in defiance to nation-state law
By Gili Izikovich Aug 09, 2018
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BDS in books: British author refuses to publish in Israel – and she's not the only one
Results are in: The nation-state law is self-defeating and anti-Zionist
Israel's nation-state law has redefined the self-hating Jew
Dame Vivien Duffield has very clear memories of the first time she visited Israel. The year was 1955 and she was 9 years old. Her parents had just divorced and it was her first vacation without her mother.



https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/syria-s-assad-retakes-high-ground-on-israeli-and-jordanian-borders-1.6363101?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=Push_Notification
WATCH Syria's Assad Retakes High Ground on Israeli and Jordanian Borders
The Syrian government has repeatedly charged that weapons, munition, and fighters were being smuggled into the country from the loose border points that had fallen to the rebels
Aug 09, 2018 1:22 PM
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This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows Syrians celebrating the return of government authority to the southern town of Quneitra adjacent to Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syria, Friday, July 27, 2018
This photo shows Syrians celebrating the return of government authority to the southern town of Quneitra adjacent to Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Syria, Friday, July 27, 2018SANA via AP
Israeli defense chief: Syria building up new army that will 'surpass' pre-war size
U.S. bracing for cyberattack from Iran in response to Trump's renewed sanctions
The Syrian flag is again fluttering on the ground zero, a triangle of Syrian territory slicing between Jordan and the Israeli Golan Heights with the Syrian army taking full control of the Yarmouk Basin in southwestern Syria after routing Islamic State militants.

This triangle is located in the far western countryside of Syria's southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of the Syrian war, which was recently recaptured by the Syrian army.

It is a high ground with a Syrian flag raised at its entrance and the Syrian soldiers seen standing guard looking both ways to Jordan and the Israeli territories. Turning right, an Israeli observatory is spotted from a distance on the Golan Heights; looking the other side, the Jordanian territories are seen.


During the crisis, the Syrian army almost lost all border points, except for a crossing with Lebanon. The Syrian government has repeatedly charged that weapons, munition, and fighters were being smuggled into the country from the loose border points that had fallen to the rebels.

skip - Syrian army secures borderline with Jordan, Israeli Golan Heights
Syrian army secures borderline with Jordan, Israeli Golan Heights - דלג

Syrian army secures borderline with Jordan, Israeli Golan Heights
During a wide-scale campaign that started in late June in Daraa and nearby rebel-held areas, the Syrian government forces have succeeded in restoring all border points with Jordan and were also deployed along the separation line with the Israeli Golan Heights.

The Golan Heights is a basaltic plateau spanning about 1,800 sq km captured by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War.

This achievement is considered as an important victory for the Syrian army and a key step toward ending the Syrian war, as when the borders are controlled, the country becomes safer.

Capturing the borders also indicates that the Syrian army is gaining the upper hand in the Syrian war, after almost securing the southern region safe except for a few pockets controlled by the ISIS in the eastern countryside of Sweida province.


One week after capturing the Yarmouk Basin, the Syrian soldiers could temporarily have a rest while talking and drinking tea near a dam bordering Jordan before going to other battlefields. Also near the dam, a villager talked about his scary life under the ISIS control.

"We have lived a frightening life in the past three years under the ISIS control. They robbed our house and furniture but did not give us money. When the Syrian army bombarded here, we escaped to the valley. Soldiers came over telling us not to escape because this area is under their control and there are no ISIS militants. We felt better," said Salem Alhael, a local resident.

Local villagers felt a little bit relieved after being freed from a long-time frightening ISIS control, but they still have to struggle for a living as there has been no enough daily necessities and electricity for several years, according to Alhael.

"Now what we need most is water. We have to drink. We have nothing but some food brought by the Syrian army. But we still need biscuits and water. We have been without electricity for seven years as electric wires and utility poles have been damaged and telephone lines have been also cut off. We lived in dark at night," he said.


Now, the Syrian army is fighting the ISIS in the desert region in the eastern countryside of Sweida, making progress in the fight against the remaining ISIS pockets there.

The liberation of the Sweida desert will be the declaration of the entire liberation of the southwestern part of Syria, an achievement that would be the latest after the army has captured almost two-thirds of the country.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/gaza-escalation-11-israelis-wounded-3-palestinians-killed-as-over-150-gaza-rockets-launched-at-israel-1.6361801?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=Push_Notification
After Gaza Factions Declare Round of Hostilities Over, Rocket Fired at Southern Israeli City
Israel hits 150 Gaza targets ■ Three Gazans said killed, including pregnant woman and child ■ Woman severely wounded in Israel ■ IDF officer: 'We are closing in on operation in Gaza'

Yaniv Kubovich and Jack Khoury Aug 09, 2018 3:11 PM
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Site where rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israeli town, Thursday morning.
Site where rocket fired from Gaza hit southern Israeli town, Thursday morning, Aug. 9, 2018.Courtesy Eshkol security
Israel may evacuate border towns as Gaza conflict escalates, senior officer says
Foreign worker severely wounded in Israel by Gaza rocket
Pregnant woman, toddler in Gaza reportedly killed in Israeli strikes
The Israeli military said Thursday that it struck 150 targets in Gaza in retaliation to a massive barrage of rockets that was fired at Israel since Wednesday evening. Some 180 rockets were fired at Israel, the military said, with over 30 rockets intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. Most of the rockets explode in open areas.

Palestinian factions in Gaza declared Thursday that they consider the latest round of violence between Israel and Gaza over, saying that maintaining the peace now depends on Israel. After the statement was released, however, a rocket was fired at the city of Be'er Sheva, located some 40 kilometers from the Strip. This was the first time rockets were fired the city since the 2014 Gaza war.

The military started striking in the Strip overnight Wednesday after six rockets were fired from Gaza, landing in the southern Israeli town of Sderot and wounded 11 people. Nine Sderot residents were evacuated to a hospital; a woman was in serious condition, and 13 others were treated for shock trauma.

skip - A video of a house in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike.

وكالة شهاب

@ShehabAgency
#شاهد منزل عائلة خماش الذي تعرض لقصف الاحتلال الليلة الماضية، وأدى لاستشهاد المواطنة إيناس خماش وهي حامل (23 عاما)، وطفلتها بيان (عام ونصف) وإصابة زوجها بجراح متوسطة في منطقة الجعفراوي وسط القطاع

6:21 AM - Aug 9, 2018
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A video of a house in Gaza hit by an Israeli strike.
skip - IDF strikes in Gaza overnight
IDF strikes in Gaza overnight - דלג

IDF strikes in Gaza overnightHaaretz
Gaza's Health Ministry reported Thursday that three Palestinians were killed by the Israeli attacks, including a pregnant woman, 23, her 18-month-old toddler and a man, who was identified as 30-year-old Ali Alrandur, was said to be in moderate to serious condition. Alrandur is the son of one of the commanders of Hamas' armed wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam. Six other people were wounded by the strikes.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will hold a security meeting with the defense minister and military chief of staff at 12:00 P.M. in Tel Aviv ahead of the security cabinet meeting on Gaza, set to convene at 4 P.M.


"We don't see the end of the escalation. We are closing in on operation in Gaza," a senior IDF official said Thursday, not ruling out the evacuation of Israeli civilians if the conflict continues.

11 Israelis Wounded as More Than 150 Rockets Launched at Israel; IDF Pounds the Strip
Israel hits more than 140 Gaza targets ■ Three Gazans said killed, including pregnant woman and child ■ IDF officer: 'We are closing in on operation in Gaza'

Yaniv Kubovich and Jack Khoury Aug 09, 2018 6:48 AM
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The Israeli military said Thursday morning that it struck more than 140 targets in Gaza in retaliation to a massive barrage of rockets that was fired at Israel overnight. More than 150 rockets were fired at...
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https://www.rt.com/news/435485-israel-gaza-strikes-missiles/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=push_notifications
Israel strikes 140 Gaza targets in response to 150 Hamas rockets (VIDEO)
Published time: 9 Aug, 2018 04:06
Edited time: 9 Aug, 2018 06:15
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Israel strikes 140 Gaza targets in response to 150 Hamas rockets (VIDEO)
An explosion during an Israeli air strike on Gaza, August 8, 2018 Reuters
The IDF has conducted another series of air strikes against at least 20 alleged Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, after the militant group fired over 150 projectiles into southern Israel.
“IDF fighter jets targeted over 20 terror sites in military compounds and in a Hamas training camp. Among the sites targeted were a weapons manufacturing and storage facility, a complex used for the Hamas naval force and a military compound used for rocket-launching experiments,” the IDF said Thursday morning.

A pregnant woman and her toddler were among three people killed by Israeli fire, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed. The victims – identified as Enas Khammash, 23, and her 18-month-old daughter Bayan – were killed in the Jafarawi area of central Gaza, according to AFP.


The Israeli military said it was forced to respond to an ongoing barrage of missile fire coming from the Gaza strip. Throughout the course of Wednesday and early hours of Thursday morning, Hamas fired over 150 projectiles into southern Israel, forcing the IDF to initially conduct 12 raids on the Palestinian enclave. More raids were then ordered after Hamas failed to stop their belligerent activity.
LTC (R) Peter Lerner

@LTCPeterLerner
Escalation between #Hamas & #Israel continues.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/senior-officer-israel-nears-gaza-op-border-towns-may-be-evacuated-1.6362875?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=Push_Notification
Israel May Evacuate Border Towns as Gaza Conflict Escalates, Senior Officer Says
More than 180 rockets fired at Israel in major escalation ■ Officer says Israel nears wider Gaza campaign ■ Military reinforcements sent to the south

Yaniv Kubovich and Jack Khoury Aug 09, 2018 12:10 PM
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An explosion is seen during Israeli air strikes in Gaza August 9, 2018.
An explosion is seen during Israeli air strikes in Gaza August 9, 2018.\ AHMED ZAKOT/ REUTERS
11 wounded as 180 Gaza rockets launched at Israel; IDF pounds the Strip
Foreign worker severely wounded in Israel by Gaza rocket
A senior Israeli commander said Thursday morning that the military is nearing launching an operation in the Gaza Strip, not ruling out evacuating communities near the border as the fighting continues.

"We are after another night of escalation, and at this stage we don't see it ending," the officer said.

Referring to negotiations between Hamas and Israel, being mediated by Egypt, the officer said that Hamas "chose to stay away from a deal and it will pay the price for its violations in the last four months." The officer warned Hamas of "suffering a severe blow" if it continues firing rockets.


>> More than 180 Gaza rockets fired at Israel, IDF hits the Strip | Latest updates

Israel will continue striking Gaza, the officer said, noting that reinforcements are being sent to southern Israel. "The military is preparing to evacuate civilians located up to four kilometers from the border, even at the first stage of a wider campaign."

A woman inspects a damaged house where a Palestinian woman and her 18-month old child were killed, in the Gaza Strip, August 9, 2018.
A woman inspects a damaged house where a Palestinian woman and her 18-month old child were killed, in the Gaza Strip, August 9, 2018.\ IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/ REUTERS

The officer added that as of right now, reserve soldiers from air defense units were called up, but the military is preparing to call up more reservists if needed. "Hamas must go back to the understandings after the [2014 Gaza war], and if it doesn't, it will understand the hard way. Part of the things it was dreaming of are getting farther and farther away."

The officer warned Hamas that Israel will continue its strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Hamas on Thursday blamed the latest round of violence on Israel killing two Hamas militants on Tuesday. "Israel says it does not seek an escalation but in practice causing it," sources said. The Israeli military believes that the incident was a misunderstanding, after Israeli troops mistakenly thought that gunfire during a military demonstration in the Strip was aimed at them.


Hamas spokesman Abed Lateef Kano warned Thursday morning that Israel's attacks will not be tolerated: "The resistance forces are doing what they have to do as part of protecting the Palestinian people from Israeli aggression," he said. "The brutal Israeli attack and the targeting of civilians will not be tolerated quietly, and the occupation will pay the price and will not be successful in dictating a new equation," he added.

Over 180 rockets were launched at Israel on Wednesday evening and overnight Thursday. A woman sustained serious wounds on Thursday at the Eshkol Regional Council, and another man was lightly wounded. On Wednesday, nine people were wounded, including one moderately, and 13 others suffered shock.
In Gaza, Palestinians reported three people were killed, including a pregnant woman and a toddler.


https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-birthright-s-bronfman-to-protesters-don-t-slam-israel-on-our-nickel-1.6361085?utm_campaign=General&utm_medium=web_push&utm_source=Push_Notification
Protesters Don’t Have Right to Criticize Israel ‘On Our Nickel’
Charles Bronfman tells Haaretz that protesters aren’t being fair to fellow participants, but admits complaints about a map that showed the West Bank as part of Israel are valid
Allison Kaplan Sommer Aug 09, 2018 4:05 AM
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Birthright co-founder Charles Bronfman says participants don’t have the right to criticize Israel while they are enjoying a free trip paid for by others.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/palestinian-accused-of-normalization-after-interview-on-israeli-tv/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage
Palestinian Accused of ‘Normalization’ After Interview on Israeli TV

Talking to the Israeli media is a grievous offense in Palestinian society, as Ibrahim al-Madhoun’s case shows.

By: United with Israel Staff

A Palestinian political analyst who was recently interviewed on an Israeli TV channel was forced to apologize after angry Palestinians accused him of the crime of “normalization” with Israelis.

Ibrahim al-Madhoun, a political analyst and director of the Youth Media Center, Hamas’ media wing, appeared on Israel’s i24 News in a Skype interview last month about the situation of the so-called Palestinian refugees.

His appearance elicited a wave of negative reactions among Palestinians on social media who viewed the interview as “media normalization,” meaning establishing a dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis through the media,” Al monitor reported.

Madhoun’s interview violated a 2012 decision by Hamas Palestinians from working with the “hostile” Israeli media.

While Madhoun spoke about the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) financial crisis and its negative repercussions for the so-called Palestinian refugees, this pro-Palestinian content was not enough to shield him from criticism.

Hadi al-Ijla, a Palestinian political researcher at the Institute for Middle East Studies in Canada, took to Facebook to criticize Madhoun’s appearance, stressing that refusing to engage with Israeli media is part of “Palestinian resistance against the occupation.”

Independent journalist Mohammed Jaser wrote on Facebook, “Your appearance on an Israeli channel will not change the conviction of the Israeli settlers. You are just a terrorist to them even if you are peaceful!”

‘Give the Palestinian Audience What They Want’
Madhoun apologized a day after the interview.

“I only wanted to introduce Israeli society to a Palestinian narrative and a message of resistance from the streets to influence Israeli viewers, alter their convictions and shake their domestic front,” he wrote. “I formally apologize to Palestine’s youth, media and every citizen for my misjudgment of the situation.”

Madhoun told Al-Monitor that “now that I have apologized, I will not appear on an Israeli channel. i24News contacted me for another appearance, but I declined. I have decided to give the Palestinian audience what they want.”

Salameh Maarouf, head of the Hamas government’s media office in Gaza City, told Al-Monitor that Hamas believes there is no point in having a dialogue with the Israeli public or dealing with its media. Hamas sees “media normalization as recognition of the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories,” he said.

“Media normalization” with Israel is not limited to Israeli media interviewing Palestinians, but also includes Palestinian media interviews with Israelis, Al-Monitor noted.

An interview by Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman in October 2016 also sparked an angry reaction among Palestinians. The piece was later removed from the paper’s website.

Nashat al-Aqtash, a professor of journalism and public relations at Birzeit University in Ramallah, told Al-Monitor that leaving the decision about whether to talk to Israeli media to individuals is “unacceptable normalization with Israel.”

However, he would not oppose having “professional media experts who speak with the Israeli media in order to make a real breakthrough with the Israeli public, by conveying the Palestinian narrative.”

However, such professionals do not exist yet, in his opinion.

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/111518/earthquakes-eclipses-divine-signs/
Is Israel Using Earthquakes in a Holy Battle Against Islam?
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz July 30, 2018 , 4:00 pm
Here stand I and the children Hashem has given me as signs and portents in Yisrael from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Tzion. Isaiah 8:18 (The Israel Bible)
Blood moon seen over the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) in Israel. (Credit: Baruch Len)

Several rabbis are pointing to last week’s rare lunar eclipse and continued earthquakes as a divine pre-Messianic wake-up call. In fact, it isn’t only the rabbis. Even Arab sources are labeling the recent earthquakes as part of the end-of-days conflict centered around Jerusalem.

On Friday, Israel witnessed two natural phenomena: a 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck the northern Kinneret area at noon and as the sun set, a total lunar eclipse hung overhead, turning the moon deep crimson. The eclipse was remarkably rare: the longest lunar eclipse seen over the skies of Israel in more than a century.

The earthquake was remarkable, but not for its rarity. It was the second of the week and the most recent in a series that has shaken northern Israel in the past several weeks. On a practical level, this is alarming since Israel is situated along the Syrian-African rift, a tear in the earth’s crust running the length of the border separating Israel from Jordan, extending from northern Syria to Mozambique.The last major earthquake in Israel struck in 1927, a 6.2-magnitude tremor that killed 500 people and injured another 700. Experts have warned a large earthquake could strike Israel in the near future, and the government has begun funding projects for public buildings to be bolstered against tremors.

If the recent wave of earthquakes are a sign of things to come, it may have Messianic meaning. Massive earthquakes in Israel are prophesied to accompany the multinational Gog and Magog conflict that will signal the end of times.

On that day, when Gog sets foot on the soil of Yisrael—declares Hashem—My raging anger shall flare up.For I have decreed in My indignation and in My blazing wrath: On that day, a terrible earthquake shall befall the land of Yisrael. The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that move on the ground, and every human being on earth shall quake before Me. Mountains shall be overthrown, cliffs shall topple, and every wall shall crumble to the ground. Ezekiel 38:18-20

Rabbi Haim Shvili, a 20th-century Jewish mystic,described precisely how these earthquakes will play out. In “Cheshbonot HaGeula” (Accountings of the Redemption), Rabbi Shvili’s book of predictions concerning the Messiah published in 1935, he assessed that these earthquakes will come during the holiday of Sukkot, coinciding with the War of Gog and Magog. Rabbi Shvili noted that the seismic activity will specifically target Muslim and Christian sites, destroying pagan temples and monuments to foreign gods throughout Israel.

Surprisingly, the Arabs also seem to believe that the current earthquakes are a part of an imminent conflict between Israel and its enemies in manner identical to that described by Rabbi Shvili. Maal Zakarna, a columnist for Jordan’s Ad-Dustour daily newspaper, recently wrote about the earthquakes in Israel, blaming them on the IDF.

“It could be that they were caused by experimental explosions carried out by the Israeli occupation’s army at a certain depth under the Kinneret,” he wrote. The IDF’s goal, according to Zakarna was to perpetrate “a major criminal action against sites in occupied Jerusalem which are holy to Islam and Christianity, and especially against the Al-Aqsa mosque, Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre…[to] create a pre-planned earthquake to destroy them in preparation for creating a Holy Temple in the attempt to Judaize Jerusalem.”

Rabbi Yosef Berger, the Rabbi of King David’s Tomb on Mount Zion, feels that signs the Messiah is imminent are so prevalent they cannot be ignored.

“It is impossible to say specifically what is the meaning of heavenly signs but it is absurd to ignore the signs when they are clearly happening, and happening in a most unusual manner,” Rabbi Berger told Breaking Israel News. “In addition to the earthquakes and the lunar eclipse, a huge stone fell from the Western Wall on the day after the Tisha B’Av fast,” Berger said. “God put the sun and the moon in the heavens as signs, for us to pay attention to. With all these signs coming together, how can you not pay heed?”

Hashem said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate day from night; they shall serve as signs for the set times—the days and the years; Genesis 1:14

Rabbi Berger pointed out that there was skepticism toward the many predictions made about the total solar eclipse that traversed the continental United States last summer. Nonetheless, the predictions proved accurate when, directly after the eclipse, the U.S. was struck by a series of catastrophic hurricanes, conforming precisely to the dire predictions.

Berger speculated about the implications of last week’s lunar eclipse.

“A lunar eclipse is specifically mentioned in the Talmud as a bad omen for Israel,” he said. “Israel has omens but can transcend them through our connection to Torah and mitzvot (Torah commandments).”

The rabbi cited the Book of Jeremiah to illustrate his point.

Senate Adopts Legislation that Supports Assistance for Israel’s Security
https://unitedwithisrael.org/senate-adopts-legislation-that-supports-assistance-for-israels-security/?
The Senate approved the security aid that the US provides to Israel, the most tangible manifestation of American support for the Jewish state.

By: United with Israel Staff

The Senate on Wednesday adopted the US-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018 (S. 2497), which seeks to ensure that Israel has the means to defend itself, by itself, against growing and emerging threats, including Iran’s threatening presence close to Israel’s northern border in Syria.

Authored by Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE), the legislation supports full funding of security assistance to Israel as outlined in the historic 2016 US-Israel Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on security assistance.

Facing constant threats on its borders, Israel is forced to spend more on defense as a percentage of GDP than any other nation in the industrialized world.

This bipartisan legislation authorizes increases in US security assistance to Israel, and it encourages expanded weapons stockpiles and new US-Israel cooperation in anti-drone technologies, cybersecurity and space.

This bipartisan bill supports $3.3 billion in security assistance to Israel and $500 million in cooperative missile defense funding in fiscal year 2019, as prescribed by the US-Israel MOU.

The bill authorizes a joint assessment of the quantity and type of precision-guided munitions necessary for Israel to defend itself against Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups. It also mandates rapid acquisition and deployment procedures for such munitions.

The vast majority of the security assistance is spent purchasing American products, and therefore the aid is essentially an investment in the US economy.

The bill urges the NASA administrator to continue working with the Israel Space Agency in order to identify and cooperatively pursue peaceful space exploration and science initiatives.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) stated Thursday that it “appreciates” the leadership of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-TN) and Ranking Member Robert Menendez (D-NJ) along with the authors of the bill, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE).

In May, the House Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a version of this measure, H.R. 5141. AIPAC urges the House to act on this important measure.


Thus said Hashem: Do not learn to go the way of the nations, And do not be dismayed by portents in the sky; Let the nations be dismayed by them! Jeremiah 10:2

“The sun and the moon can be omens of evil but the only for people for whom these omens are fixed and unchangeable, those who worship the sun and the moon. Our current incarnation of idolaters are people who believe that science rules the world and is more important than God.”

Rabbi Berger noted that the timing of the lunar eclipse may have indicated something about the event and its prophetic implications.

“The fact that the lunar eclipse happened directly after Tu B’Av, actually began during the daytime of Tu B’Av, may indicates that this is a case of hamtakat hadinim (sweetening of judgements),” Rabbi Berger said.

Friday was Tu B’Av, the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month Av. Coming after the somber fast of Tisha B’Av, the ninth of Av, that commemorates the destruction of both Temples, Tu B’Av is described in the Mishna (oral tradition) as a joyous “holiday of love.”

With regard to the recent earthquakes and possibility of further ones, Rabbi Berger suggested a possible explanation. “Though they could come in a disastrous manner that harms Israel, if we attach ourselves to hashem (God, literally ‘the name’) this could be sweetened.”

Rabbi Levi Sudri, an award-winning Bible expert, also felt the series of natural phenomena had great import but what it is exactly is still hidden. He noted that this hiddenness was the common point connecting the lunar eclipse and the earthquakes.

“The moon, by its nature, is about being hidden, about an inner modesty,” Rabbi Sudri told Breaking Israel News. “That is an important trait of Israel, which is why we set our calendar by the moon. The moon becoming full is a reference to pregnancy, which is something developing in a hidden manner.”

“An earthquake indicates that changes are happening deep inside the earth, hidden from human eyes,” Sudri said. “Convulsions under the waters of the Kinneret is clearly a hint of something being born.”

“If you look at it from the outside, a woman giving birth appears to be dying,” Sudri said. “If you look at what is happening in the world, in Syria and Gaza in particular, you would think that something awful is about to happen. But what is happening below the surface is that something wonderful is being born: Moshiach (Messiah).”


https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/netanyahu-s-spin-backfired-fueling-druze-nation-state-protest-rally-1.6341860?
Analysis Netanyahu's Spin Backfired, Fueling Massive Druze Nation-state Protest Rally
Until Thursday night, the success of the Druze protest rally in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv was in doubt. But when the premier chose to disparage a man they consider a symbol and source of pride, he enraged them anew
Yossi Verter
Aug 06, 2018 2:56 AM
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Israelis from the Druze minority together with others Hold Israeli national flags and Druze's flags as they take part in a rally to protest against Jewish nation-state law in Rabin square in Tel Aviv, Israel, August 4, 2018
Israelis from the Druze minority together with others Hold Israeli national flags and Druze's flags as they take part in a rally to protest against Jewish nation-state law in Rabin square in Tel Aviv\ CORINNA KERN/ REUTERS
Behind the scenes: How Netanyahu's 'apartheid' trap torpedoed talks with Druze leaders
Druze rally against Israel’s nation-state law: 'We’re here to tell Jews it’s patriotic to protest'
Suddenly everyone loves the Druze
Until Thursday night, the success of the Druze protest rally in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv was in doubt. The compensation plan prepared by the Prime Minister’s Office seemed to satisfy much of the community’s leadership. Some called it a “historic turning point.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been able to persuade many of the sincerity of his intentions.

Leaders of the Druze community met in his office. The Government Press Office photographers where polishing their lenses in anticipation of the photo-op that was to deciare the end of the crisis. But then Netanyahu went into a fury, unclear whether real or manufactured, and the meeting exploded, supposedly because of the words “apartheid state,” attributed to Brig. Gen. (res.) Amal Assad.

>> Druze Solidarity Rally Could Make or Break Netanyahu’s Election Campaign | Analysis ■ Netanyahu Cons Druze and Incites Jews to Protect Controversial Nation-state Law | Analysis ■ Behind the scenes: How Netanyahu's 'apartheid' trap torpedoed talks with Druze leaders


It is not clear what caused Netanyahu to upset the applecart. He had worked hard for a whole week to dissipate the anger and insult of “our brethren” the Druze. But when he chose to disparage a man they consider a war hero, a symbol and source of Druze pride, he enraged them anew, both the young and the old, the religious and the less religious.

Unfortunately, the media fell prey to the most sophisticated spin factory in the Middle East. Many hours over the weekend were devoted to discussing the question of whether Assad did say the words, or was just quoting what he had posted. As if that was the heart of the matter. In the prime minister’s bureau, they were pleased. At least this went the right way for them.


In retrospect the preoccupation with Assad only fueled and magnified the emotions of the entire community. The tens of thousands of people who came to Rabin Square on Saturday night welcomed Assad with cheers as if he were a rock star. His speech consisted of texts from the Declaration of Independence. Many quoted the sentence “full equal social and political rights to all its citizens, irrespective of religion, race or sex.” The sentence that the prime minister, his ministers and the whole selfie bunch had refused to put in the Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People. The text that today is identified with “leftists.”

Representatives and leaders of the Druze community who spoke Saturday night at the rally were very careful not to malign the prime minister. They mainly asked for equality, and more equality. The audience chanted “equality, equality, equality!” Luckily, between the speeches there were also people who felt less obligated to the rules of etiquette, like Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, who warned the Druze community leaders: “not to fall into the trap” of Netanyahu and his ilk, or the former head of the Shin Bet security service Yuval Diskin who told it like it is: Today’s political right wing is dealing mainly in fake news, incitement, slogans and populism.


The event’s emcee, Rafiq Halabi, who also gave the longest and most tiring speech, thanked the many dozens of supporters, some at the rally, others from afar. Most of them Jews, former officers and former politicians. Only a few were Druze or Bedouin. One name was not mentioned: Communications Minister Ayoub Kara.

The man who supposedly represents the Druze community in Likud and the government, sold his soul to the devil. He preferred his office over his commitment to his community, which sent him to the Knesset. Over the weekend he accused the left of organizing and funding the rally, and thus turned his own brothers into marionettes played from above by the New Israel Fund and others. The choice he made will cost him dearly; he’ll see the next Knesset only on TV.

The rally was a great success, beyond expectation, thanks to Netanyahu and to MK Avi Dichter. The Tel Aviv municipality building was lit up on Saturday night with the colors of the Druze flag. Thank God that we have a city like this.

https://unitedwithisrael.org/syrian-activists-ridicule-ahed-tamimi-she-is-lucky-not-to-be-imprisoned-by-assad-regime/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage
Syrian Activists Ridicule Ahed Tamimi: She is ‘Lucky Not to Be Imprisoned by Assad Regime’
Arab critics noted Tamimi’s good fortune for living in Israel and her hypocrisy in light of real suffering in Syria.

By: United with Israel News Staff

Syrian activists throughout the Arab world took to social media to ridicule and criticize Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, who was released this week from Israeli prison after serving eight months for assaulting IDF soldiers.

The activists noted Tamimi’s good fortune for living under Israeli rule and her hypocrisy for depicting her situation as one of suffering when real suffering was occurring just miles away from her in Syria

“Israel released Ahed Tamimi full of health and without a scratch,” wrote Syrian activist and photographer Yasser Wardh, contrasting her leaving prison “while thousands of Palestinians are killed in prisons of the Assad regime,” the Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.

Nedal al-Amari, a journalist from southern Syria, also contrasted the brutality of the Syrian regime with Tamimi’s treatment, writing “the difference between Israel and Bashar Assad. Ahed Tamimi [is a] lucky girl because it was in Israel’s prisons, not Assad’s prisons.”

Many similar tweets in Arabic mentioned the “9 kilos” of weight Tamimi gained while in prison.

“She was not tortured. She was not raped. Her weight increased by nearly 9 kilos. Her hair and face are more beautiful,” wrote Mahdi Majeed.

Iman Kais, who has a massive following on Twitter, contrasted Tamimi’s incarceration with that of Arab prisons. “She says she learned to love life, whereas those imprisoned in our Arab countries can reach a stage where they wish their mother didn’t give birth to them.”

The Sharp Contrast
Many tweeted photos of Tamimi next to a dead Syrian woman, highlighting the sharp contrast.

One social media user wrote that people in the south of Syria would have rather be detained by “the Zionist occupation” and come out nine kilos heavier, but instead were arrested by the “Assad occupation,” which every day releases “a list of the souls of the martyrs, more than 3,000 now.”

Assad has recently begun to release lists of names of prisoners who have died in his prisons, with thousands of other Syrians murdered in Assad’s prisons.

Dr. Edy Cohen of Bar-Ilan University, an expert in inter-Arab relations, also wrote on Facebook that Tamimi’s weight had increased 9 kilos in prison. “I wish Arab countries to release their detainees and see their situation reach the health of Tamimi,” he noted in Arabic.

Jordanian journalist Yousef Alawnah recently compared his incarceration in Israel for terrorism offenses to prisons in the Arab world and said that he was ashamed by the sharp contrast.

Alawnah recounted that he had served 30 months in an Israeli prison for smuggling explosives, saying that that “prison was like an institute of education,” where prisoners had “an opportunity to acquire culture, to read, and to study many things.”

He said that in the library of an Israeli prison there are 30,000-40,000 books, and asked “do the Sunni prisoners in Iraq have books to read? The prisoners held in the dungeons of the Syrian regime… Do you think that they have books?”

According to data from 2017, 484 Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israeli prisons are studying for BA degrees in the Al-Quds Open University program in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Education, studying in three main departments: Arabic Language, Islamic Education, and Social Work.

The discussion about Israeli prison conditions becomes at times absurd. For example, Israeli Minister of Public Security and Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan recently ruled that Hamas terrorists in Israeli jails would not be permitted to watch the FIFA World Cup in June along with other Palestinian convicts from Islamic Jihad and Fatah sharing their detention facilities.

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https://unitedwithisrael.org/the-secret-reason-arabs-reject-the-jewish-nation-state-law/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage
The Secret Reason Arabs Reject the Jewish Nation-State Law
Some Israeli Arab leaders want Israel to give up its identity as a Jewish homeland because they are hoping that one day Jews will become a minority in their own country.
By: Bassam Tawil, The Gatestone Institute

The hypocrisy of the leaders of the Arab citizens of Israel, who are now crying foul over the new Jewish Nation-State Law, has, in the past few days, reached new heights.

These are the same leaders whose words and actions for the past two decades have caused serious damage to relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, and to the interests of their own constituents, the Arab citizens of Israel.

Israeli Arab leaders, specifically the Knesset members, say they are outraged not only because the law defines Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, but also because the new legislation does not include words about full equality of rights for all citizens.

If there ever was a tempest in a teapot, this is it. It would have been redundant to add those words: the new law does not rescind any previous law or Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which already encompass all that. In Israel, there are also other Basic Laws that guarantee equal rights to all. For example, the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, passed in 1992, stipulates:

“The purpose of this Basic Law is to protect human dignity and liberty, in order to establish in a Basic Law the values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.”

“Fundamental human rights in Israel are founded upon recognition of the value of the human being, the sanctity of human life, and the principle that all persons are free; these rights shall be upheld in the spirit of the principles set forth in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel.”

Israel’s Declaration of Independence from 1948, which obviously is not affected by the new Jewish Nation-State Law, also promises equality to all citizens, irrespective of their religion or color or race. It states:

“The State of Israel will foster the development of the country for all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

Are Israeli Arab Leaders Worried About Equality?
So, as Israel’s pre-existing laws and its Declaration of Independence remain unchanged and guarantee equal rights to all citizens, what exactly is behind the Israeli Arab leaders’ fierce attack on the Nation-State Law? Is it really because they are worried about equality or is it something else? The answer can be found in their own statements: they are basically opposed to the idea of Israel being the homeland for the Jewish people. They know very well that the Nation-State Law does not affect the Arab citizens’ status and rights as equal citizens of Israel.

Take, for example, the case of Arab Member of Knesset Zouheir Bahloul (Zionist Union), who announced this week his intention to resign from parliament in protest over the Nation-State Law. He complained that the Knesset had become a “rubber stamp for racist legislation.”

First, Bahloul is the last Arab citizen of Israel who is entitled to complain about discrimination. For decades, he was one of Israel’s most popular sports journalists, revered by Arabs and Jews alike. As such, he has always enjoyed a comfortable life in Israel — one he could never have dreamed of experiencing in any Arab country.

Second, if Bahloul has a problem with a law that defines Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, what is he doing in a party called the Zionist Union? Once you agree to join a Zionist party, you cannot later complain when Israel says it wants to be the homeland of the Jewish people. Does anyone seriously believe that this Arab parliamentarian did not know all these years that Zionism is the national movement of the Jewish people that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel?

Third, it is also worth noting that his Zionist Union party was fed up with Bahloul anyhow, and planning to get rid of him, especially after his decision last year to boycott a Knesset ceremony marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. Ironically, the second part of the Balfour Declaration stipulated that the establishment of a Jewish homeland must not “prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”

The current controversy over the Nation-State law, then, is not about equal rights. Instead, it is about accepting the existence of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. Bahloul boycotted the Balfour Declaration ceremony in the Knesset apparently because he is opposed to the very idea of a Jewish homeland. Otherwise, why would any Arab living in Israel oppose a declaration that openly states that a Jewish homeland must not “prejudice” the rights of non-Jews?

Zionist Union Chairman Avi Gabbay had criticized Bahloul’s decision as “extremist.”

Bahloul presumably knew he was going to be thrown out of his party, and seems to have decided to use the Nation-State Law as an excuse to quit, and to smear Israel by inaccurately calling it “a state with symptoms of apartheid,” and the Knesset a “rubber stamp for racist legislation.”

Fourth, note that Bahloul did not immediately submit his resignation from the Knesset. Instead, he said that he will submit his resignation letter when the Knesset returns from its extended summer recess in mid-October. In other words, Bahloul evidently wants to spend a few more months in the Knesset, probably so that he can continue receiving a fine salary and other privileges granted to members of parliament. By postponing his resignation, he is also most likely hoping that someone will come begging him to rescind his decision — as if he is saying, ‘Please hold me back from leaving the Knesset!’ Well, Mr. Bahloul, if you are so upset about the law and do not want to be part of the Israeli political system, why don’t you just get up and leave now? Why would you want to stay for a few more months in a parliament you accuse of being “racist” against Arabs?

The ‘Dirty Little Secret’
The “dirty little secret” is that even if the words about equality for all citizens were added to the new law, Bahloul and some of his Arab colleagues in the Knesset would still have opposed it. They are simply vehemently opposed to the very idea of Israel being a Jewish state.

Some of them, such as Ahmed Tibi, have consistently called for the transformation of Israel from a “Jewish state” into a “state for all its citizens” or a “state of all its national (ethnic) groups.”

Another Arab Knesset member, Jamal Zahalka, recently mocked Jewish symbols and said, “I would rather die than sing the Israeli national anthem.” Many Arab Members of Knesset have never accepted Israel’s national anthem or its flag, which carries the symbol of the six-pointed Star of David. About the Israeli flag, Zahalka said, “Any flag for me is a rag. It’s a piece of cloth. It’s a lot worse than a rag.”

Arab Knesset member Hanin Zoabi was nothing if not straightforward in voicing her opposition to the definition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people. The Jewish people do not have the right to self-determination, she said in October 2017.

“The Jews are not a nationality, so we cannot talk about self-determination for the Jewish people… The Israelis, they can have self-determination, but not as a Jewish State, within a secular democratic state.”

It is worth noting here that Zoabi, who hails from a large clan from Nazareth, was suspended from the Knesset in 2014 for incitement after she justified Hamas firing rockets at Israel and the abduction (and subsequent murder) of three Israeli teens by Palestinian terrorists.

It is the likes of Zoabi who have — and continue to — cause grave damage to relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel. Their vicious anti-Israel rhetoric and actions are the main reason why a growing number of Jews are beginning to look at the Arab citizens of Israel as if they were a “fifth column” or an “enemy from within.”

Some Israeli Arab leaders speak disparagingly about Israel for publicity. They know that no newspaper would ever mention them if they were dealing with issues such as sewage or a shortage of classrooms in Arab schools. However, if they say something bad about Israel or provoke the Jews, they will certainly receive a headline in the press.

The number one priority of Israel’s Arab citizens is lowering the high rate of unemployment among Arab university graduates. Israel’s Arab citizens want to be fully integrated into Israel. They are fighting for better government services, especially with regards to infrastructure in their towns and villages. But instead of representing the real interests of their constituents, Tibi, Zoabi, Zahalka and others spend their time condemning Israel and identifying with its enemies.

The actions and words of these Arab Knesset members have only served to deepen the rift between Jews and Arabs, at a time when serious efforts are being made by the Israeli government to improve the lives of Arab citizens. For instance, an Israeli parliamentary committee last April announced a decision to allocate 20 million shekels ($5.6 million) to a new program designed to increase the number of Israeli Arabs with jobs in the tech sector. The committee said that the Israeli government has already invested $1.2 billion out of the $4.2 billion allocated to the economic development of Arabs and other minorities as part of a 2015 cabinet decision.

Arabs in Israel Are Equal Citizens
The Arabs in Israel are equal citizens, and the rights they enjoy are far more than what they would enjoy in any other Middle Eastern country. In a poll published in 2016, 55 percent of Israel’s Arab citizens said they were proud to be Israeli citizens. Another poll, published in 2017, found that 60 percent of the Arab citizens of Israel have positive attitudes towards the state.

Israeli Arab leaders can incite against Israel as much as they wish. Their slander will not change the reality that Israel is the only thriving democracy in the Middle East, and treats its minorities with respect. While minorities are being persecuted and murdered in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and other Arab and Islamic countries, the Arab citizens of Israel are being integrated into the state. They hold high positions in the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry, the health sector and even the Israel Police.

The new law has not changed this reality; in fact, most Arab citizens do not even seem to be that bothered about the new law. The majority of the Arabs in Israel continue to wake up in the morning and get on with their lives. They can work anywhere they wish, they can travel anywhere in the country and they will continue to enjoy all the privileges, benefits and freedoms that Jewish citizens do.

Some of the leaders of Israel’s Arab citizens, however, have something very different in mind. They want Israelis to give up their wish for Israel to be a Jewish homeland, because they are hoping that one day Jews will become a minority in their own country. For far too long, these leaders have been inciting their constituents against Israel and Jews. If these leaders are so unhappy in Israel, perhaps they should consider moving to Ramallah or the Gaza Strip or any Arab country. Perhaps they would like to resign from the Knesset. Why do they refrain from doing so? Because it is in the Jewish homeland, supposedly so harmful to them, that they and their children can live and thrive.

Bassam Tawil, a Muslim Arab, is based in the Middle East.

Palestinian Clerics Accuse Israel of Plotting Artificial Earthquake to Topple Al-Aqsa
https://unitedwithisrael.org/palestinian-clerics-accuse-israel-of-plotting-artificial-earthquake-to-topple-al-aqsa/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage
Palestinian clerics are spreading an absurd rumor about an Israeli “plot” to destroy the mosque built atop the Temple Mount that could lead to violence and bloodshed.
By: United with Israel Staff
Following a series of low-magnitude earthquakes felt in northern Israel and in neighboring countries in early July, Palestinian clerics, both Muslim and Christian, have begun to circulate a malicious lie that some elements in Israel are acting to demolish Al-Aqsa and build the Jewish Temple in its place, and warned that Israel may exploit a natural earthquake or cause an artificial one to destroy the mosque.

Israel’s north experienced a series of earthquakes earlier this month, the most severe of which occurred at a 4.7 magnitude.

These allegations come following an article by authored by Jordanian columnist Kamal Zakarneh who wrote that the recent quakes in northern Israel may have been caused by the underground testing of nuclear or other weapons that Israel is developing with the ultimate aim of toppling Al-Aqsa, the Dome of the Rock and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

Israel ‘Preparing Something to Harm Al-Aqsa’
Al-Aqsa Preacher Ikrima Sabri claimed that “the occupation [Israel] is preparing something to harm Al-Aqsa,” according to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

Sabri, a former Jerusalem mufti, earlier this month charged that Israel is conducting “unceasing” excavations beneath the Al-Aqsa mosque and their pace has even increased and become more severe.

The truth is that only the Palestinians and Jordanians are conducting construction work on the Temple Mount, in contravention of Israeli law.

“These excavations must not be accepted, for they constitute flagrant aggression against Al-Aqsa and the Waqf… All signs indicate that the occupation is preparing something to harm Al-Aqsa,” Sabri alleged.

“We must beware [and realize that] the occupation may cause an earthquake to destroy Al-Aqsa. The occupation and its government may take advantage of natural and unnatural circumstances to realize the plot to destroy Al-Aqsa. There is a network of tunnels down there that reach deep [beneath] Al-Aqsa,” he added.

Previous Palestinian libels regarding an Israeli plot to harm the Temple Mount have led to the outbreak of violence and bloodshed.

Israel Trying to Cause Earthquake to Topple Al-Aqsa
The deputy head of the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Kamal Al-Khatib, charged Israel with trying to cause an earthquake to topple the Temple Mount.

“Although [people] speak of destroying the blessed Al-Aqsa in order to build the ‘Temple’ upon its ruins, Israel will never agree to such an insane move. But there are unofficial elements who do their utmost to accelerate the destruction of the mosque and remove [all] signs of Arab and Muslim culture from the city of Jerusalem,” he claimed.

The recent wave of earthquakes “cannot be ruled out that the occupation is responsible for actions that could cause such earthquakes with the aim of destroying Al-Aqsa and [then claiming], as a pretext, that it was the result of a natural disaster,” he further claimed.

The reality is that Israel is situated on the East African Rift, which runs through the Jordan Valley, an area prone to earthquakes. Therefore there has recently been a wave of earthquakes in Israel.

Greek Orthodox Archbishop in Jerusalem Archbishop Atallah Hanna took the Muslims’ side, claiming, “What is happening is part of a dangerous ongoing plot aimed at harming the holy site of Al-Aqsa… The artificial earthquakes that we hear about every day are a prelude to the bigger quake that will hit Al-Aqsa and other historic and religious monuments in the city of Jerusalem.”



The Contribution of Messianic Jews to Israeli Society
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Published on 30 Jul 2018

Join Simon Barrett for an interview with Shira Sorko Ram the founder of Maoz Israel Ministries, as she discusses the contribution played by the Messianic Jewish Community to Israeli Society.
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Israeli warplanes strike targets in western Syria – report
Published time: 22 Jul, 2018 17:02
Edited time: 22 Jul, 2018 17:36
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Israeli warplanes strike targets in western Syria – report
An Israeli F15 fighter jet. Amir Cohen / Reuters
Israeli fighter jets have carried out an airstrike near the town of Masyaf in the province of Hama in western Syria on Sunday, state-run SANA news agency reports.
There were no casualties as a result of the air raid, “with the aggression causing only material damage,” the agency reported.

The Lebanese Al Mayadeen channel reported that Israeli planes fired missiles from Lebanon’s airspace, targeting a scientific facility. Reports on Twitter said the attack was aimed at a Syrian military facility.

READ MORE: Netanyahu: Trump & Trudeau asked Israel to evacuate White Helmets from Syria

Earlier in July, Syria blamed Israel of attacking its T-4 airbase in Homs Province. The base’s air defenses have intercepted several missiles and hit one of the Israeli aircraft, the state media reported. It’s the second time this year the T-4 airfield was targeted by Israeli air force as a raid in April killed several Syrian troops and Iranian military advisors stationed at the facility

In recent months, Israel has been frequently carrying out missiles strikes in Syria due to concerns that its main geopolitical rival, Iran, which is helping the government in Damascus to fight terrorists, may use the Syrian territory as a foothold to attack the Jewish state.

Body Language Expert Shreds Media’s Entire ‘Putin Was in Charge’ Narrative
https://www.westernjournal.com/ct/body-language-expert-shreds-medias-entire-putin-was-in-charge-narrative/?
BY CILLIAN ZEAL 
JULY 17, 2018 AT 8:27AM
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Was Vladimir Putin the one in charge at Monday’s press conference with President Donald Trump at their Monday summit in Helsinki? Many people would say yes. But one body language expert says that may not have been the case.


Regarding the opening press conference between the two leaders, the U.K. Express reached out to someone to read the tea leaves (so to speak) in Trump and Putin’s posture — and it’s something that’s going to have a lot of Democrats furious.


“Judi James, author and body language expert, told Express.co.uk the duo are not as friendly as the warm words from Trump would have you believe,” the paper reported.


“If the May/Trump summit looked chilly, this Trump/Putin meeting looked buried under a thick layer of perma-frost,” James said.


“Both men arrived performing the kind of alpha posturing you normally see in a boxing ring, swaggering with puffed chests and in Trump’s case a mouth clamp plus what was bordering on a scowl to camera as both pulled at their jackets in what is commonly a ‘prepare to fight’ ritual,” James said.


TRENDING: Watch: Chaos Ensues When Steven Crowder Confronts Transgender Who Threatened to Slash His Tires


“In the room for the photo-call though they looked more like a sullen, divorcing couple at crisis counseling.


“Putin was especially sphinx-like, returning little of the sparse eye contact he received from Trump and maintaining a poker face even after Trump’s ‘soccer’ flattery was being translated for him,” she added.


“Trump sat in his usual ‘Trump Slump’ pose with his legs splayed and his fingers in ‘downward steeple’ position to register macho dominance but this time his fingertips tapped together throughout which is a sign of impatience.


“Putin adopted a more elegant power pose, sitting upright with one elbow on the arm of the chair but as Trump spoke Putin’s other hands clasped the lower strut of the chair arm as though irritation could have been making him keen to go.


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Trump, she said, “also performed some impatience rituals like scratching up his cuff and finger-fiddling.


“Trump instigated the handshake at the end and it was performed from their seats with a long distance arm-stretch and no patting or prolonging additions to give any clues away about their feelings.


James said that both men “looked annoyed.”


“When they last met their body language was cool and slightly awkward, but in dramatic fashion Putin leaned right out of his chair to whisper and chat to Trump with a smile on his face once the cameras were finished to signal a more off-screen friendship bond,” James said.


“This time the two men sat rigid in their seats with absolutely no eye contact or communication when the lights were turned off.


“This could be a ploy. It could be about pre-meeting posturing and the men could emerge showing friendship signals suggesting they’d each fought hard before allowing themselves to bond.”


But, she said, “if they do emerge in the same frosty style it could imply it might have been better had this meeting never happened.”


Of course, James’ opinions on the press conference to follow weren’t included. That’s the one that most of the media has gone apoplectic over. However, at least when it came to the first round, it looks like it may not have been Putin who was in control — at least if you believe this expert’s years of experience.


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IDF Steps Up Action in Response to Rockets and Fire Terror from Gaza
https://unitedwithisrael.org/idf-steps-up-action-responding-to-rockets-and-fire-terror-from-gaza
The IDF was given new orders to deal with Gaza-based terrorists who have launched rockets at Israel’s south and ignited more than 1,000 fires, destroying more than 8,200 acres of forest and agricultural land.
By: United with Israel Staff 
The IDF on Sunday was given orders by the government to attack the arson terrorists directly rather than firing warning shots, as has been their conduct up until now.
The Israeli Air Force (IAF) in four instances attacked a squad that was launching arson balloons from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory.
“The IDF is determined to continue to defend Israeli civilians and is prepared for a wide variety of scenarios, which may intensify according to the situation assessment and the operational requirements,” the IDF stated.
“The IDF views the launching of arson balloons and kites with great severity and will continue to operate with increasing force against those who carry out this type of terror activity,” it added.
Tensions remained high on the border with Gaza after an extremely violent weekend during which Gaza-based terrorists fired some 200 rockets at Israel, and in response, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) carried out the largest wave of daytime strikes against Hamas terror targets in Gaza since Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014, bombing some 40 terror targets.

In accordance with the situation assessment, the IDF on Sunday evening reinforced its Iron Dome aerial defense batteries in the Gush Dan area in central Israel and in southern Israel. In addition, several reserve soldiers were called up to reinforce the Aerial Defense Array.

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Trump says meeting with Putin was ‘really good’ for Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-says-meeting-with-putin-was-really-good-for-israel/
US president tells Fox that Putin is a 'big fan' of Jewish state and Netanyahu, but does not go into specifics
By TOI STAFF
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US President Donald Trump (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin shake hands after a press conference at Finland's Presidential Palace July 16, 2018 in Helsinki, Finland. (AFP / Brendan Smialowski)
US President Donald Trump on Monday said his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin Monday was good for Israel, seemingly referring to efforts to remove Iran-backed fighters from Syria’s Golan border.

Trump also said Putin was a strong supporter of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but did not offer any specifics on what was discussed that related to Israel at the meeting in Helsinki, where Iran’s presence in Syria had been widely expected to be a main topic of conversation between the two world leaders.

“We came to a lot of good conclusions. A really good conclusion for Israel. Something very strong,” Trump told Fox News, without going into detail.

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Trump said Putin was “a believer in Israel.

“He’s a fan of Bibi,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname. “Really helping him a lot and will help him a lot, which is good for all of us.”


Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 11, 2018. (AFP/ Pool/Yuri Kadobnov)
Netanyahu flew to Moscow last week to discuss Iranian entrenchment in Syria with Putin last week and on Saturday also spoke to Trump over the phone on the issue. Israel has been trying to rally Russia to support removing Iranian-backed militias as far as possible from the border region on the Golan Heights.

At a joint press conference with the Russian leader earlier, Trump said Moscow “would like to do certain things with Syria having to do with the safety of Israel… We absolutely would like to work in order to help Israel, and Israel will be working with us. So both countries work jointly [for this purpose].”

Trump added that “creating safety for Israel is something both Putin and I would like to see very much.”

Putin at the conference said that during his “very successful” one-on-one meeting, Trump placed a special emphasis on maintaining Israel’s security. He said he and Trump agreed on securing Israel’s border with Syria, in accordance with the 1974 disengagement of forces deal following the Yom Kippur War.


US President Donald Trump, left, listens to Russian President Vladimir Putin during a press conference after their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, on July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
When terrorist forces are wiped out in south and west Syria, Putin said, “the situation on the Golan Heights must be restored to what it was after the 1974 agreement, which set out the terms for the disengagement of forces between Israel and Syria.”

In a statement following the press conference Monday, Netanyahu thanked the two leaders for their commitment to Israeli security.

He praised Trump, saying, “The friendship between Israel and the US has never been stronger.”

Netanyahu “very much appreciates the security coordination between Israel and Russia and the clear position expressed by President Putin regarding the need to uphold the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement between Israel and Syria,” the statement added.


A picture taken on July 16, 2018 from the Israeli Golan Heights hows Syrian rebel fighters alongside a tank and an artillery gun amassing near the border in Syria’s southeastern Quneitra province, as government forces press their assault on the area. (AFP Photo/Jalaa Marey)
Russia has been allied with Iran in backing Syrian President Bashar Assad during the country’s seven-year civil war. The Kremlin has also continued to back the nuclear deal with Iran, despite Trump pulling out of the accord in May.

Trump said Russia still supported the nuclear accord because it does business with the regime in Tehran, so the deal is in Moscow’s interest, but said Iran was experiencing unrest.

“It is not good for us or for the world, but they have riots in all their cities,” Trump told Fox News.

“The inflation is rampant, going through the roof. And not that you want to hurt anybody, but that regime wouldn’t let the people know that we are behind them 100 percent.

“They are having big protests all over the country, probably as big as they have ever had before. And battles happened since I terminated that deal, so we will see,” he added.

AFP contributed to this report.

PayPal Closes Account of French Anti-Israel Boycott Organization
https://unitedwithisrael.org/paypal-closes-account-of-french-anti-israel-boycott-organization/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=pushnotification&utm_campaign=pushengage
Jul 16, 2018
BDS in France suffered another setback by losing a source of revenue after an important account was closed. 
By: The Tower
PayPal has again closed an account of a major pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) organization in France, Benjamin Weinthal reported for The Jerusalem Post Friday.
The PayPal link on the website of Agence Media Palestine, a BDS organization that is based in Paris, now says “This recipient is currently unable to receive money.”
The organization’s website is clear about its leanings, stating, “The campaign for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions against Israeli occupation and settlements is growing in the world and in France.”
BDS organizations, according to legal scholars, violate France’s anti-discrimination Lellouche Law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of national origin.
Agence Media Palestine still has donations handled by the French company, HelloAsso, which specializes in online financial transactions. A number of French pro-BDS organizations have switched to HelloAsso, after having their PayPal accounts canceled.
HelloAsso did not respond to questions. The Post reported that legal action against HelloAsso for discriminating against Israelis is being initiated.
PayPal has closed accounts of several French pro-BDS organizations this year. In 2016 both PayPal and French banking giant Credit Mutuel closed the account of Campagne BDS France after the Post ran an expose about the organization.
In 2015, France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that BDS was an illegal form of hate speech. The ruling was based on France’s anti-discrimination act of 1981, which forbids “discrimination, hatred or violence toward a person or group of people on grounds of their origin, their belonging or their not belonging to an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a certain religion.”

My Life And The Gospel Revolution – Anastasia
By Anastasia Oh.
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“Arabs are the enemy”. That was my reality as a child growing up in a small, religious Jewish settlement in the West Bank, surrounded by olive trees and Arab villages. I was forcefully thrown into complex political struggles – it was all around me, in the news, in the streets, at kindergarten and in school. As kids growing up in this region, you are never sheltered from the concept of war and death, and your childlike view of a safe and a loving world fades away with every new attack.

As we were passing by an Arab village on our way to a big city, I would stare through the car window, and the foreign curly letters on the signs terrified me. But the sound of the Arabic language was what scared me the most. First of all because I couldn’t understand it, it was the unknown, and because of the connotations it had with the explosions and the shootings, and the rocks flying towards us on the roads, and of friends that were killed.

I felt as if I, as a part of the Jewish people, was deeply hated, but it all seemed so natural and normal because it reminded me of the biblical stories, where the Israeli people were always hated and attacked everywhere they went. For me it was the natural continuum of our existence.

But all that was about to change.

God according to the Bible vs God according to the rabbis
The thing that didn’t make any sense for me as a young child was the contradictory way that God was presented in the biblical stories versus the way the rabbis had presented him in the Talmud. In the bible I met the Great God of Israel, a brave, loving, loyal warrior. The Jewish religious books, on the other hand, painted a picture of a cold, robot-like, stubborn and distant God. One who wouldn’t think twice before striking you with a lightning bolt for daring to rip a piece of toilet paper on Shabbat, or for dropping your prayer book.

I admired the God of the Bible with all my heart. I wanted to follow him like Abraham did, I wanted to declare his righteousness out loud like the prophets, and to charge into the battlefield in his name, like King David. but at the same time I was angry at the god that the rabbis presented. How could he expect me to follow all these laws and rules, without even knowing what it feels like to be human, trapped in this rotten, fallen world, and in this corrupt body?

We moved out of the settlement eventually, and as a tenager I realized I didn’t want to pretend that everything was ok anymore, or that I was obeying the Jewish law. It was hypocrisy for me to pretend, and I feared God enough to not play this game with him. And as a teenager I decided to leave religion, but God was still there, a distant character, a name to call out in times of trouble.

Getting to know Jesus
Jesus was a foreign idea to me. A different culture, crosses crusades and popes. Maybe a guy who had some good ideas that went bad over time. We don’t study about him in school, in a way we deliberately ignore his existence, and we never acknowledge him as one of our own. We would never even consider following him because it will be like betraying the God of the Bible – as distant as he was, God still has a strong grip on the Jewish heart. That type of blind paradoxical loyalty creates a barrier between Jesus and his people.

That barrier crushed into the ground when I read the forbidden chapter in the book of Isaiah for the first time, at the age of 23.

I saw him. I recognised him immediately, and everything made sense.

All the questions I had been asking throughout the years were answered: Jesus knew what it was like to be a human, and he made a way for us to be with him because we couldn’t. He was in my Bible this whole time.

My old thinking patterns were gone, like a blank page, and I started seeing the world through Jesus’ eyes. I wanted to know more and more, so I started my studies at the Israel College of the Bible.

I remember my first chapel, during worship, they started playing an Arabic song. All those years of pain, fear, hate and war washed off of me, like old dirty rags with every note they played and every word spoken…

That same language that terrified me so much before was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard.  

That is the power of the gospel.
The gospel heals and cleans.

It turns enemies to more than mere friends.

It make us one family.

I joined the media team at One for Israel as a director, editor, and presenter about two years ago, where I could finally combine my two greatest loves in life: theology and media. We are a very small team, and we produce all the videos in our humble little studio here in Netanya.

We do testimonials of Israelis and English-speaking Jews from all over the world who met their Messiah. We also take the most frequently-asked questions and the most common objections against Jesus, and tear them apart one by one in a series of apologetic videos, tackling the arguments from a philosophical, scientific, and biblical perspective.  

For me it is much more than just videos, it is the start of the revolution!

You see, for 2000 years the Jewish religious leaders rejected Jesus and hid him from the people. They are the ones with full authority and power, they have the final word and they are the ones who can easily stop the Gospel from being preached in Jewish communities. And throughout history, people claiming to be followers of Jesus made it easy for the rabbis to paint Jesus as the reason for all our troubles as a nation, as a traitor, as a forbidden name that you are not even allowed to pronounce.

But there is one thing that the rabbis have no control over. And that, my friends, is the internet.

It is neutral territory that leaves the gatekeepers powerless, and opens a door that has been sealed for 2000 years.

The revolution in Israel
Israelis nowadays practically live on the internet. They are there, non-stop, 24/7. In fact, Israel is the leading nation when it comes to using YouTube and other social media, second only to Taiwan. The internet has become a land of its own, at the uttermost parts of the earth!

People are watching the videos, and in numbers I wouldn’t have dared to dream of just a few years ago. Israel has around eight million citizens, and our Hebrew-language videos have already reached 18 million views. In total, worldwide, we have been able to reach more than 68 million views.

Now, almost everyone has been exposed to the Gospel in one way or another. Even the most guarded sects within Orthodox Judaism can’t prevent their members from getting a smartphone. They all know it’s out there, the secret “forbidden chapters” of the Bible like Isaiah 53 and Daniel 9 are no longer a secret. The truth about Jesus pops up on their Facebook newsfeed, on Instagram, and on YouTube videos… in their own language, spoken to them by their own people.

Jesus made Aliya! He is no longer a foreign idea. And his name is Yeshua again.

About Latest Posts
Anastasia Oh.
Anastasia, who came to us from the deep south down by the Red Sea (Eilat), is now co-directing testimonies as well as the chief editor for the Hebrew & English testimonies.
https://www.oneforisrael.org/bible-based-teaching-from-israel/my-life-and-the-gospel-revolution-anastasia/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-hosts-abbas-in-moscow-days-after-netanyahu-visit/
Putin hosts Abbas in Moscow, days after Netanyahu visit
 Saturday, July 14, 2018 | Tag Cloud Tags: Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel, Jerusalem, Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu, News, Palestinian Authority, Putin, Russia, Trump, Worthy News

(Worthy News) - Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was in Moscow on Saturday to meet with Vladimir Putin, just days after the Russian leader hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Abbas told the Russian leader of his concerns over US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the country’s embassy to Jerusalem, as well as Israeli settlement activity.

“We are resisting attempts by the Americans to impose their decisions on the most sensitive problems of Palestine,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying in translated remarks. [ Source: Times of Israel (Read More...) ] https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-hosts-abbas-in-moscow-days-after-netanyahu-visit/

Putin hosts Abbas in Moscow, days after Netanyahu visit
https://www.timesofisrael.com/putin-hosts-abbas-in-moscow-days-after-netanyahu-visit/
Russian leader updates PA President on his recent talks with Israeli PM; Abbas complains about US moving its embassy to Jerusalem
By AFP
14 July 2018, 5:54 pm  2
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 14, 2018. ( AFP PHOTO / Yuri KADOBNOV)
MOSCOW — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was in Moscow on Saturday to meet  with Vladimir Putin, just days after the Russian leader hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“I’m glad of the opportunity to tell you about the contact we have had with your neighbors, and leaders of various countries,” Putin told him as they met at the Kremlin, in quotes carried by Russian agencies.

“I know that the situation in the region is difficult and we are grateful that you have used the World Cup as a reason to come to Moscow,” Putin said, adding that he was glad of the opportunity to discuss the problems facing the Palestinians.

Abbas told the Russian leader of his concerns over US President Donald Trump’s decision to move the country’s embassy to Jerusalem, as well as Israeli settlement activity.

“We are resisting attempts by the Americans to impose their decisions on the most sensitive problems of Palestine,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying in translated remarks.

The talks came as Palestinians in Gaza fired dozens of rockets and mortar shells into Israel and the IDF bombed dozens of Hamas targets in the widest day-time air strikes since the 2014 war.

Abbas has been imposing sanctions on Hamas in a bid to force the terrorist group to give up control of the coastal enclave, which it seized from Abbas’s Fatah group in 2007.

There was no word on whether Abbas discussed Gaza with the Russian leader.

Netanyahu was in Moscow on Wednesday, where the situation in Syria was the main focus of his meeting with Putin.

Seized archive shows Iran nuke project was larger than thought, had foreign help
https://www.timesofisrael.com/seized-archive-shows-iran-nuke-project-was-larger-than-thought-had-foreign-help
Israel showcases to US reporters parts of trove Mossad spirited out of Tehran; 'These guys were working on nuclear bombs,' confirms ex-IAEA inspector on seeing the material
By TOI STAFF
15 July 2018, 10:15 pm  8
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposes files that prove Iran's nuclear program in a press conference in Tel Aviv, on April 30, 2018. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exposes files that prove Iran's nuclear program in a press conference in Tel Aviv, on April 30, 2018. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
The archive of Iranian nuclear documents seized by the Israeli Mossad from a Tehran warehouse in January shows that Iran’s program to build nuclear weapons “was almost certainly larger, more sophisticated and better organized” than was suspected, unnamed nuclear experts were quoted as saying in the New York Times on Sunday, after being shown selected documents from the haul by US reporters.

One of the Iranian documents specifies plans to build a first “batch of five weapons” and discusses sites for possible underground nuclear tests, the Times reported, after one of its reporters was given limited access to the haul last week, along with a reporter from the Washington Post, and another from the Wall Street Journal.

“None were built, possibly because the Iranians feared being caught, or because a campaign by American and Israeli intelligence agencies to sabotage the effort, with cyberattacks and disclosures of key facilities, took its toll,” said the Times.

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“It’s quite good,” Robert Kelley, a nuclear engineer and former inspector for the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, told The Times dryly, after being shown some of the documents. “The papers show these guys were working on nuclear bombs.”


Robert Kelley, ex-IAEA inspector (YouTube screenshot)
The documents also reinforce Israel’s contention that Iran remains determined to attain a nuclear weapons archive, despite its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal (the JCPOA), the US reporters noted.

The materials they were shown include documentation that names current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as a member of the “Council for Advanced Technologies” that approved the rogue nuclear weapons program, the Washington Post said, and indicate “a supporting role by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the Quds Force.” Previously released documents indicate that the Iranian army was charged with overseeing the conversion of low-enriched uranium to weapons-grade fuel suitable for nuclear bombs.


Iranian President Hassan Rouhani listens during a joint press conference with Austrian president, following talks on July 4, 2018 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna. (AFP PHOTO / APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH)
The three US reporters were given limited access to the trove last week, and were briefed by Israeli officials. Israel, which unveiled the documents in April, has been mining the trove of 100,000 documents for new information, and has also shared the material with the IAEA and with US and European intelligence agencies. US President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA in May, soon after Netanyahu publicly presented the haul at a press conference, in which he declared that “Iran lied” when claiming not to seek nuclear weapons.


US President Donald Trump speaks to the press after announcing his decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran during a speech from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House on May 8, 2018. (AFP Photo/ Saul Loeb)
The thrust of last week’s briefing for the US press was to highlight how far the nuclear program had progressed — Iran “was on the cusp of mastering key bombmaking technologies when the research was ordered halted” in 2003, the Washington Post said — and to underline Israel’s insistence that the archive demonstrates that the Iranian regime has not abandoned its effort to obtain a nuclear weapons arsenal, but has merely mothballed parts of it.

“These documents are old, but they have a bearing on the future,” a senior Israeli official was quoted by the Post as saying. “It’s not a history lesson. They have capabilities they can use in the future.”

Iran halted much of the nuclear weapons program in 2003, but internal memos in the archive “show senior scientists making extensive plans to continue several projects in secret, hidden within existing military research programs,” said the Washington Post.

“Let there be no mistake: the amount of personnel in the overt and covert parts will not decrease,” it quoted an Iranian official writing in a memo dated September 3, 2003. “The structure will not become smaller, and every sub-project will supervise both its overt and covert parts.”

“In a few years, when some of the JCPOA’s restrictions expire, Iran will be in a position to resume work on a nuclear device that Israel sees as a threat to its existence,” the Israeli official told the Post.

The seized archive “explains why the [nuclear deal] to us is worse than nothing, because it leaves key parts of the nuclear program unaddressed,” the Israeli official said, echoing Netanyahu’s frequent contention. “It doesn’t block Iran’s path to the bomb. It paves Iran’s path to the bomb.”

The Washington Post said US intelligence agencies have long believed that “Iran has kept the intellectual core of its nuclear program intact.” And the  documents showcased by Israel detail several meetings in late 2003 in which the Iranian nuclear project chiefs “discuss ways to keep the program’s scientists busy with nuclear-relevant research,” even after it was ostensibly frozen.


A warehouse in Shorabad, south Tehran, where Mossad agents discovered and extracted tens of thousands of secret files pertaining to Iran’s nuclear weapons program. (Prime Minister’s Office)
The Tehran warehouse from which the documents were purloined “was put into use only after the 2015 accord was reached with the United States, European powers, Russia, and China,” the Times reported. Israeli officials contend that the fact that the Iranians “systematically went about collecting thousands of pages spread around the country documenting how to build a weapon, how to fit it on a missile and how to detonate it” demonstrates that they fully intend to return to the effort of nuclear weapons building when the opportunity arises.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of a picture of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, whom he named as the head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, April 30, 2018 (YouTube screenshot)
The three US reporters were permitted to see and touch, with gloves on, “a few pages of original files, including handwritten notes signed by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the Iranian physicist who Western intelligence agencies say was in charge of [the Iranian program] Project Amad,” the Washington Post said. “Journalists were given copies of some documents, including several that were previously unpublished. Others were shown only briefly or not at all, on the grounds that they contained explicit technical details that could be used to make nuclear weapons.”

The documents show that Iran obtained “explicit weapons-design information from a foreign source,” the Washington Post said. “We see explicit material related to nuclear weapons from different sources, some of it not Iranian in origin,” an Israeli intelligence official said. Israeli officials would not say whether the bomb design information was provided by a state or by an individual. Iran is known to have obtained assistance in building uranium-enrichment centrifuges from Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, who is also believed by US intelligence to have given “partial blueprints for a Chinese nuclear device to at least one of his international customers,” the Washington Post said.

“Iran had foreign help, though Israeli officials held back any documents indicating where it came from,” said the New York Times. “Much was clearly from Pakistan, but officials said other foreign experts were also involved — though they may not have been working for their governments.”


Iran’s then-president Ahmadinejad visits Natanz in 2008 (Zero Days screenshot)
The archive confirms that the covert Iranian nuclear program was launched in the late 1980s and halted in 2003, when Iran feared a US invasion, and when its secret uranium enrichment plant at Natanz was exposed. While this was known, revelations in the archive include “previously unknown photos of a large cylindrical test chamber in which Iran is said to have conducted tests of an implosion device of the type used to trigger a nuclear detonation,” the Washington Post said.

The US reporters were also shown documents that show Iran was “measuring radiation from a neutron-generating explosive test inside the same chamber in 2002,” it added. “In modern nuclear weapons design, a neutron generator releases radioactive particles to help sustain a powerful nuclear chain reaction.”

Satellite imagery from June 7, 2012, which the ISIS claims shows 'considerable vehicle and earth moving activity near the building at the Parchin complex that the IAEA suspects was used in high explosive tests related to nuclear weapons development.' (photo credit: ISIS)
Satellite imagery from June 7, 2012, which the institute for science and international security claims shows ‘considerable vehicle and earth moving activity near the building at the Parchin complex that the IAEA suspects was used in high explosive tests related to nuclear weapons development.’ (Institute for Science and International Security/File)
The reporters were also shown documents and photographs detailing Iranian work on “making a form of uranium metal that can be used as a neutron initiator, and still others [that] describe problems with uranium contamination outside the test chamber, which was located at the Parchin military base outside Tehran.”


Photographs from the Iranian nuclear weapons archive, showcased by Israeli officials, of a metal chamber that Israeli officials said was housed at the Parchin military site and was built to conduct experiments as part of the Iranians’ rogue nuclear weapons program (Israeli government)
The Post noted that when the UN sought to inspect the Parchin test site years later, Iran first “completely dismantled the test chamber, scraped away several tons of topsoil, cut down nearby trees and covered the entire area with fresh asphalt.”

Reported the Times: “By the time the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano, was finally permitted to visit the site in 2015, it was empty, though the agency’s report indicated that it looked as if equipment had been removed. The photos [shown to the reporters by Israel] indicate that is exactly what happened: They show a large chamber that nuclear experts say is tailor-made for the kind of experimental activity that the international inspectors were looking for….

“The chamber appears to be part of neutron experiments that strongly point to an effort to build nuclear weapons,” added the Times. “Nuclear explosions start when fast-moving particles known as neutrons split atoms of nuclear fuel in two, producing chain reactions that release more neutrons and enormous bursts of energy. At the core of an atom bomb, a device known as a neutron initiator — or sometimes a spark plug — creates the initial wave of speeding neutrons.”

In the documents, one of the Iranian scientists, Masoud Alimohammadi, warns that work on neutron-generated chain reactions for a nuclear explosion must be kept secret at all costs. “‘Neutrons’ research could not be considered ‘overt’ and needs to be concealed,” Alimohammadi’s notes say. “We cannot excuse such activities as defensive. Neutron activities are sensitive, and we have no explanation for them.” Alimohammadi, the Times noted, was assassinated in January 2010.

While Israel argues that the archive underlines how Iran fooled the West, and that the 2015 agreement is a terrible mistake, an assessment shared by the Trump administration, the Washington Post noted that “proponents say the pact has permanent provisions that will alert inspectors and spy agencies quickly if Iran begins work on an actual weapon.”

Under Tehran’s nose
Israeli officials also gave the three US reporters additional, but not full, details of the operation to seize and bring home the Iranian archive, some of which has been previously detailed.

Israel established early last year that the materials related to the Iranian program were being collected at a single warehouse in the Shorabad district of southern Tehran. The anonymous building had no overt security, and very few Iranians knew of its existence, the Israeli officials said last week.

“Mossad agents were able learn the internal layout of the building, including the location and general contents of 32 safes that contained paper records, photos and computer-storage files from ‘Project Amad,’” the Washington Post said.

“Clearly, the Israeli spies had inside help,” the Times claimed, without elaboration.


Safes inside a warehouse in Shorabad, south Tehran, where Mossad agents discovered and extracted tens of thousands of secret files pertaining to Iran’s nuclear weapons program (Prime Minister’s Office)
They decided to carry out the operation on January 31, and assessed that they had “a time window of exactly six hours, 29 minutes, in which they believed they could breach the facility, open the safes and remove half a ton of documents without being detected,” said the Post.

In that time, they had to “disable the alarms, break through two doors, cut through dozens of giant safes and get out of the city with a half-ton of secret materials,” said The New York Times. “The agents arrived that night, Jan. 31, with torches that burned at least 3,600 degrees, hot enough, as they knew from intelligence collected during the planning of the operation, to cut through the 32 Iranian-made safes.”

The Mossad team knew guards would arrive at 7 a.m., and were ordered to finish by 5 a.m., so that they would also have time to escape. “When time was up, they fled for the border, hauling 50,000 pages and 163 compact discs of memos, videos and plans,” said the Times. Fewer than 24 agents were directly involved in the break-in, it said, though Israeli officials have previously indicated more than 100 personnel were involved in the overall operation.


Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Head of the Mossad Yossi Cohen (Haim Zach/GPO)
“In most Mossad operations, spies aim to penetrate a facility and photograph or copy material without traces,” the Times noted. “But in this case, the Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen, ordered that the material be stolen outright. That would drastically shorten the time the agents spent inside the building. But the Israelis wanted to be able to counter Iranian claims that the material was forged and offer it up for examination by international groups.”

Not all the material in the archives was removed. The Israeli officials did not detail how the material was brought out of Iran, or even whether it left Iran via land, air, or sea. They said only that it was removed via “several different routes” and that there was no chase. “At exactly 7 a.m., as the Mossad expected, a guard arrived and discovered that the doors and safes were broken. He sounded the alarm, and the Iranian authorities soon began a nationwide campaign to locate the burglars,” said the Times.

The Iranian bid to find the thieves involved “tens of thousands of Iranian security and police personnel,” an Israeli official said, but Iran maintained a public silence over the heist from under its nose. Until Netanyahu unveiled the haul in April, “the Iranians never said a word in public about what had happened.”

What Netanyahu said
Unveiling the archive in April, Netanyahu called the Mossad operation one of the “greatest achievements” of Israeli intelligence. “You may well know that Iran’s leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons,” he said. “Iran lied. Big time.”

The cache, he said, contained “incriminating documents, incriminating charts, incriminating presentations, incriminating blueprints, incriminating photos, incriminating videos and more.”

Netanyahu said Project Amad included five key elements — designing nuclear weapons, developing nuclear cores, building nuclear implosion systems, preparing nuclear tests, and integrating nuclear warheads on missiles. Amid growing pressure, Iran decided to shut down Project Amad in 2003, Netanyahu said, instead splitting its nuclear program into covert and overt tracks in order to avoid scrutiny.



“This is exactly what Iran continued to do,” said Netanyahu. “Iran planned at the highest levels to continue work related to nuclear weapons — under different guises and using the same personnel. What I’ve shown you tonight is just a fraction of the total material that we have. But even from this fraction you can draw four main conclusions. First, Iran lied about never having a nuclear weapons program,” said Netanyahu.

Second, “Even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear know how for future use.” Third, “Iran lied again in 2015, when it didn’t come clean to the IAEA as required by the unclear deal.” And fourth, he said, “The nuclear deal is based on lies. It is based on Iranian lies and Iranian deception… 100,000 files right here prove that they lied.”

Nearly 200 Gaza rockets fired into Israel; Sderot home hit, injuring 3 family members
 July 14, 2018
Nearly 200 Gaza rockets fired into Israel; Sderot home hit, injuring 3 family membersDamage to a house hit by a mortar fired by Hamas, July 14, 2018. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
Three civilians were hurt when Gaza terrorists scored a direct hit on a home in Sderot. Nearly 200 rockets were reportedly fired into Israel on Saturday.
By: TPS and WIN Staff
More than 174 rockets and mortar shells were fired at southern Israel from inside Gaza, according to a Times of Israel report.
Although most of the rockets and mortars landed in open areas, Israeli officials reported that some exploded inside Israeli towns, causing damage to buildings.
Three family members were injured when a mortar fired from Gaza hit a house in the town of Sderot at around 6:30pm Saturday evening.
A spokesman for the Magen David Adom Ambulance Service said that three people suffered shrapnel injuries of varying degrees.
A 50-year-old man suffered moderate wounds after being hit in the chest. A 20-year-old woman sustained light-to-moderate injuries to her lower limbs, and a 14-year-old girl suffered facial wounds.
“We were sitting in the living room, and the glass fell on us,” said Aaron Buchris, the father. “The entire house was filled with smoke, and we were filled with blood. We got shrapnel in us, my daughters were also injured. We were shocked.”
The three were taken by ambulance to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
A spokesman for the Sderot municipality said two mortars had hit the town, one scoring a direct hit on the house, while the other hit the courtyard of a synagogue without causing injuries.
https://worldisraelnews.com/hamas-mortar-hits-sderot-home-3-injured/?


Netanyahu: ‘IDF struck Hamas with hardest blow since Operation Protective Edge’
 July 14, 2018
Netanyahu: ‘IDF struck Hamas with hardest blow since Operation Protective Edge’Hamas location following an Israeli air strike in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, July 14, 2018. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
Following a day of rockets launched at Israel from Gaza, the IDF attacked Hamas with the heaviest strikes since the 2014 summer war.
By: TPS and World Israel News
In the largest strike on the Gaza Strip since the 2014 Gaza war, IDF jets hit some 40 Hamas targets Saturday afternoon as dozens of rockets were fired into Israel.
“In consultation with the Minister of Defense, the Chief-of-Staff and the top security command of the State of Israel, we have decided on strong action against Hamas terrorism. The IDF has struck Hamas with the hardest blow since Operation Protective Edge and we will increase the strength of our attacks as necessary,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Saturday evening.
The IDF said it attacked four Hamas military compounds in a third wave of strikes following attacks overnight Friday and early Saturday morning.
Among the targets was a Hamas battalion headquarters in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip where the IDF said it had hit an urban warfare training compound, ammunition storage depots and command centers.  According to the IDF, the strikes also targeted Hamas naval facilities. Unconfirmed Palestinian reports said at least two people had been killed in the strikes.
The IDF said it had also targeted a rocket launch squad and a mortar shell launcher in the northern Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Hamas fired at least 60 rockets and mortars at Israel throughout the day. Around 15 were shot down by Iron Dome missile defense batteries, the rest fell in open fields.
https://worldisraelnews.com/netanyahu-idf-struck-hamas-with-hardest-blow-since-operation-protective-edge/?

https://www.rt.com/news/433012-israel-hamas-gaza-strikes/(VIDEO)&oq=Israeli+jets+strike+Hamas+in+Gaza+in+response+to+%E2%80%98terror+acts+%26+violent+riots%E2%80%99+at+border+(VIDEO)&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i60.3257j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Israeli jets strike Hamas in Gaza in response to ‘terror acts & violent riots’ at border (VIDEO)
Published time: 14 Jul, 2018 02:20
Edited time: 14 Jul, 2018 04:51
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Israeli jets strike Hamas in Gaza in response to ‘terror acts & violent riots’ at border (VIDEO)
IDFSpokesperson / Twitter
Israeli fighter jets have carried out strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza strip, in response to the violence and “terrorist acts” the group instigated at the border, as well as cross-border rocket launches, the IDF said.
“Tonight, IDF fighter jets targeted an attack terror tunnel in southern Gaza, in addition to several terror sites throughout Gaza, among them complexes used to prepare arson terror attacks and a Hamas terror training facility,” the IDF said, posting a video of the strike.
IDF

@IDFSpokesperson
 Tonight, IDF fighter jets targeted an attack terror tunnel in southern Gaza, in addition to several terror sites throughout Gaza, among them complexes used to prepare arson terror attacks and a Hamas terror training facility

2:22 AM - Jul 14, 2018
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The strikes, the army said, were conducted in response to Hamas-instigated violence along the security fence at the Israeli-Gaza border, and to the cross-border arson attacks which, the IDF claimed, damages Israeli land on a daily basis.

Read more
Mahmud HamsGaza teenager killed, dozens injured as Great March of Return marks over 100 days (VIDEO)
During the Israeli raid, Hamas militants reportedly retaliated by launching 17 rockets, five of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. An additional 14 mortar shells were launched by militants throughout the night, one of which was intercepted by the air defenses. “Hamas is responsible for the events transpiring in Gaza and emanating from it and will bear the consequences for its actions,” the IDF said.

When the sirens sounded in the Eshkol and Esdot Hanegev Regional Councils, the families woken up in the middle of the night only “had seconds to run to bomb shelters,” the IDF added, without elaborating on whether any of the Hamas projectiles caused any damage.

Earlier in the day, during the weekly Great March of Return protest, an IDF officer was moderately injured by a grenade thrown from the Gaza Strip. The Israelis retaliated with live fire, killing a Palestinian teen and injuring 220 others throughout the day, Wafa reported. In the 100 days since the weekly rallies began, at least 138 people, including 19 minors, were killed. Around 15,000 protesters have been injured since March 30.