News Digest — 5/15/26
Herzog: ‘Jerusalem Is Not Just A Symbol, It Is Alive’
President Isaac Herzog delivered remarks Thursday evening (14th) at the state ceremony marking 59 years since the liberation and unification of Jerusalem, held at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem.
President Herzog said: “Jerusalem is not only a symbol. Anyone who sees in it only a symbol misses Jerusalem. Jerusalem is so wondrous because it’s alive. Because in the shadow of the ancient stones, children play. Because alongside the grand sweep of history, there are small, tangible, daily lives. And this, perhaps, is Jerusalem’s great secret: it does not ask us to choose between memory and life. It demands that we carry both together. To remember the fallen, and to build homes; to safeguard the holy places, and to develop every sphere of life.”
“This evening, we stand on the threshold of the sixtieth year of the city’s reunification. More years have passed in the State of Israel with a united Jerusalem than a divided one. We have already proven to the entire world that we will never give up on Jerusalem and its past. Now is the time to prove to ourselves that we are capable of proudly shaping its future as well,” he said.
He added: “Just as we have safeguarded it with strength, we must safeguard it also in spirit, in morality, in responsibility, in love of fellow human beings and respect for the faith of the other, respect for their way of life. We will safeguard Jerusalem out of a readiness to see in this city not only our past, but also our test. For a united Jerusalem is not only a political fact, it is a national mission.”
“We will ensure that every young woman and young man in Jerusalem, from every neighborhood and every community, knows that they are part of this city’s future. We will ensure that every child knows the other as well, and learns to respect them,” the President concluded.
Ben Gvir Says Israel Has ‘Restored Sovereignty’ Over Temple Mount
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared that Israel had “restored sovereignty” on the Temple Mount during a Jerusalem Day visit to the holy site Thursday (14th), ahead of the annual Flag March through Jerusalem’s Old City.
Ben-Gvir ascended the Temple Mount in the Old City and said the site was now “in our hands” linking what he described as increased Israeli control to security policies implemented during his tenure.
Prior to the Flag March, Ben-Gvir declared that he had “restored sovereignty on the Temple Mount thanks to determination and deterrence,”
In a post on X, he wrote that “59 years after the liberation of Jerusalem, I raised the flag of Israel on the Temple Mount, and it can be said with pride: We have restored sovereignty to the Temple Mount.”
“This year saw the quietest Ramadan in many long years, thanks to hard work, determined policy, and police officers and fighters who worked day and night for the security of Israeli citizens and the maintenance of order in Jerusalem.
“Today, more than ever – the Temple Mount is in our hands! Happy Jerusalem Day.”
Ben-Gvir has repeatedly challenged the longstanding status quo arrangement governing the Temple Mount, established after Israel captured the Old City in 1967.
Under the arrangement, Israel maintains overall security control while the Jordanian-administered Islamic Waqf oversees daily administration of the compound.
The rules permit non-Muslims to visit the site but prohibit formal prayer by non-Muslims within the compound, while Muslim worship is allowed.
The security minister has openly prayed at the site on multiple occasions and has encouraged Jewish prayer and prostration at the compound, actions viewed as departures from the longstanding protocol.
The Temple Mount is considered the holiest site in Judaism.
Later Thursday (14th), Israel Police announced the arrest of a suspect accused of planning a terror attack during Jerusalem Day events. Police did not immediately release further details about the alleged plot or the identity of the suspect.
IDF Deploys Wire Mesh Nets To Forces In Lebanon As Hezbollah Drone Threat Intensifies
Against the backdrop of the exploding FPV drone threat, the IDF has supplied wire mesh netting to forces in Lebanon. “So far, about 158,000 square meters (1.7 million square feet) of netting has been supplied to the military, while an additional procurement of roughly 188,000 square meters is underway and will arrive later,” the military said. The amount purchased so far is equivalent to the area of about 20 soccer fields.
Meanwhile, Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya updated the condition of the four people wounded in a FPV drone attack in the parking lot at the Rosh Hanikra site, saying one remains in critical condition, one is in moderate condition and two were lightly wounded.
The threat posed by explosive drones has become one of the deadliest and most complex challenges facing the Israeli military in the fighting in southern Lebanon. Ynet reported the day before yesterday that defense officials realized time was running short and reviewed more than 100 proposals. One of the most significant challenges is detecting the drones, as soldiers in the field have repeatedly reported spotting drones only seconds before impact. Ynet has learned that new “detection kits” will be distributed to combat teams in southern Lebanon. Security officials said candidly that the systems do not guarantee 100% success rate – perhaps not even 90% – but they are expected to give troops the precious seconds needed to take cover.
More “advanced” solutions being examined by the defense establishment involve drones designed to counter Hezbollah’s explosive drones. Six different models are in advanced testing stages, with a range of methods under consideration: from drones carrying warheads that explode near the enemy, to drones that deploy nets, to a method known as “iron against iron,” in which a drone rams an enemy drone with force and knocks it down
Flotilla Leaves Turkey For Gaza Weeks After Israel Intercepted Previous Convoy
Dozens of boats carrying supposed activists and aid for Palestinians set sail from Turkey’s Mediterranean coast on Thursday (14th) in the latest attempt to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza – just weeks after Israel intercepted a previous flotilla and detained two agitators.
More than 50 vessels departed from the port in Marmaris in what the organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla described as the final leg of their journey to Gaza’s shores.
On April 30, Israel forces intercepted more than 20 boats from a flotilla near the southern Greek island of Crete, initially holding about 175 agitators.
The incident drew protests and condemnation from several countries and raised questions about what any nation can legally do to enforce a blockade in international waters.
Israeli officials said they had to act early because of the high number of boats involved.
Organizers say the latest efforts from Turkey involve a regrouped fleet following Israel’s interception, joined by additional boats, Nearly 500 activists from many countries are taking part.
Both Israel and Egypt have imposed varying degrees of a blockade on Gaza since the terror group Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007.
Israel said the blockade is needed to prevent Hamas from importing arms.
Last year, Israeli authorities blocked a similar attempt involving about 50 vessels and some 500 agitators, including Greta Thunberg, Nelson Mandela’s grandson Mandla Mandela, and several European lawmakers.
Israel arrested, detained, and later deported the participants.
The Only People On Earth Being Told Their History Has Expired – Micha Danzig
Anti-Israel activists in Ireland, Canada, Britain, and the U.S. insist that Jews are not really a people at all, but merely adherents of a religion who displaced an “indigenous” population. This is saying that conquest erases indigeneity, that exile voids peoplehood, that a nation can lose its connection to its homeland if enough centuries have gone by. And somehow this principle applies uniquely to Jews.
No one says to Greeks, “Well, maybe Athens mattered 2,500 years ago.” No one says to Native Americans that centuries of forcible removal erased their connection to ancestral lands. Only Jews are routinely told that indigeneity comes with a statute of limitations.
Yes, Rome destroyed Jewish sovereignty. But Jews were never fully expelled from the Land of Israel. Jewish communities remained continuously in places like Galilee, Tiberias, Hebron, and elsewhere. Within two centuries of the Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome in 135 CE, Jews were again living in Jerusalem. Nor did Jews ever stop attempting to restore autonomy or national life there.
For over 2.000 years Jews in the diaspora prayed facing Jerusalem three times a day and prayed for a return to a rebuilt Jerusalem. The Hebrew calendar anchors Jewish holidays to the seasons of the Land of Israel. Hebrew itself – now spoken daily by millions – is indigenous to the land. Throughout the medieval and early modern periods, Jews kept returning. By the mid-1800s, Jews had become the largest population group in Jerusalem.
Had the Arab world accepted partition in 1947, there would have been both an Arab state and a Jewish state west of the Jordan River nearly eight decades ago. No refugee crisis. No generations of bloodshed. Yet the Jews – alone among the nations of the world – are seen as not entitled to self-determination in any part of the land where their civilization, language, calendar, faith and national identity were born. (Los Angeles Jewish Journal)
The “House Of Abbas” Palestinian Royal Family – Lt.-Coi. (res.) Maurice Hirsch
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is seeking to establish the “House of Abbas.” Elected in 2005 for a four-year term, Abbas had no intention of leaving his position until his death. He has been introducing a new figure into the Palestinian leadership arena – his son Yasser Abbas, who has become a multi-millionaire in the PA.
In 2023, Yasser participated in a PA delegation for talks with the Saudi leadership. In 2025, Yasser was part of a PA delegation that met with Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. The Palestinian news agency WAFA described him as his father’s “special representative.” More recently, Yasser has been meeting with the different heads of the PA security forces. The meetings were part of a wider political strategy to help Yasser win a senior position in Fatah’s Central Committee, where elections are scheduled for May 14-16, the first time in almost a decade.
Whether Abbas manages to install Yasser into a senior position or not, the reality is that the PA remains devoid of any democratic culture. Palestinian leaders, whoever they may be, have no intention of releasing their stranglehold on the PA’s multi-billion- dollar purse strings. Each knows that inheriting the leadership mantle is a guarantee to them and their family members to enjoy immense riches and luxury, at the expense of the Palestinian people.
The attempt by Abbas to establish a new Middle Eastern royal family, the House of Abbas, in which the role of Palestinian leadership is passed from father to son, should raise every red flag imaginable. A step in this direction would be a clear indication that neither Abbas nor any of his replacements is at all serious about PA reform.
The writer, former director of the Military Prosecution in Judea and Samaria, is director of the Palestinian Authority Accountability Initiative at the Jerusalem Center. (Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs)
(jcfa.org)
