News Digest — 6/9/23
Terrorist Tries To Stab Soldier And Is Neutralized
An attempted stabbing attack occurred on Friday morning (9th) at the Rantis checkpoint near Ramallah.
A suspected terrorist who arrived at the scene tried to steal a weapon from an IDF soldier and stabbed him. Soldiers who were at the scene shot the terrorist. The soldier was lightly wounded and taken to the hospital for treatment.
The IDF stated that the suspect arrived at the checkpoint in a stolen vehicle and attacked a soldier who attempted to inspect his vehicle. The military is investigating the incident.
On Tuesday (6th), an Israeli was wounded in a shooting attack in Huwara, after terrorists fired more than 10 bullets at his car.
MK Tzvi Sukkot, later visited the scene of the attack in Huwara and said, “I was making my way home from the Knesset, when I heard on the radio the report about a shooting attack. I came to the scene. This vehicle was really hit. A dozen bullets were fired at it. Miraculously it ended up without any deaths.”
(isnn.com)
Unseasonable Thunderstorms, High Temps And Rain Sweep Israel
Israelis woke up to unseasonal rainy weather on Friday morning (9th), with thunderstorms reported in some areas.
Social media captured footage of lightning in the sky in multiple locations across the country, including Sderot, Bnei Brak and Jerusalem, among others.
According to the Israel Meteorological Society, the skies on Friday (9th) will be partly cloudy and temperatures will be warmer than average.
Along with the rain and warm weather, dust and haze coming from the south are expected as well, with wind speeds rising throughout the day, and sandstorms expected in southern Israel.
A number of national parks in southern Israel were closed due to concerns of flash floods amid the unseasonably wet weather.
In Jerusalem, temperatures will range between 73-93F. Haifa in the north will be between 73-95F, and Eilat in the south will range between 86-104F.
(jpost.com; ims.gov.il)
CENTCOM, Israel Team Up In Joint Bomber Task Force Mission
The US Commander of all CENTCOM’s air forces Lt.-Gen. Alex Grynkewich, on Thursday (8th) announced that his forces had joined with coalition forces in the Middle East region, including Israel, for a Bomber Task Force mission.
Grynkewich’s statement did not specifically mention Iran or any other adversary, but it is well-known that Israel and the US have been displaying their power protection capabilities to the Islamic Republic to try to deter Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold and from carrying out other destabilizing activities.
According to Grynkewich,”These bomber missions represent the US’ commitments to our partners and showcase our ability to deliver overwhelming power at a moment’s notice.”
“Together we are operationalizing concepts designed to make us more agile in our execution, more strategic in our deterrence and more resilient in our capability. Today was a demonstration of that capability and the strength of our partnerships,” said the CENTCOM air force commander.
“Next,” he said, “Not only are we integrating seamlessly in the air, but we are operating across domains in new and innovative ways. This particular BTF was historic in that it was the first time we flew multiple weapons types and practiced employment against multiple simulated targets.”
More specifically, he said, “During the exercise we employed live GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions as well as a live AGM-158A Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM).”
The events demonstrate our ability – in concert with our partners – to employ overwhelming strike capabilities whenever and wherever required,” concluded Grynkewich.
The last similar bomber task force mission took place in March, in which the B-52H strategic bomber integrated with several coalition fighter escort aircraft from seven nations as they traversed portions of the CENTCOM area of responsibility, showcasing the ability to rapidly deploy integrated airpower across the region.
In January, Israel and CENTCOM conducted possibly their largest joint drill ever, known as Juniper Oak.
Israeli-Built Aerial Warning System Set To Be Deployed In Ukraine By September
The civilian aerial warning system Israel is building for Ukraine is on track to be deployed in September, a Ukrainian official told The Times of Israel Wednesday (7th).
That timeline is weeks beyond the initial expectations of deployment over the summer, and Ukrainian diplomats and security officials are working to speed up the process.
Ukrainian and Israeli officials are set to meet this week in Poland to work on the system, as they have in recent months. The system will initially cover much of Kyiv, the official said, then will hopefully be copied in other cities.
Since the beginning of the war last year, Russia has battered Ukrainian cities with missile and suicide drone strikes.
Unlike in Israel, the system set for deployment in Ukraine will feature alerts only, without interception capabilities.
Ukraine has long sought missile interceptor capabilities, but Israel has so far refused, seeking to avoid overly antagonizing Russia. This hesitance is mainly seen as linked to Israel’s strategic need to maintain freedom of operations in Syria, where Russian forces largely control the airspace. Israel is one of the few countries that maintains relatively good relations with both Ukraine and Russia.
The system in Ukraine is set for wider coverage and will trigger alerts in a general area where an incoming Russian missile is expected to hit; the system in Israel works with more precision.
Then-defense minister Benny Gantz first announced last year that Israel could supply Ukraine with the early warning system, an offer reiterated by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen during his visit to Kyiv in February.
The Israeli warning system uses a mix of radar and electro-optic devices to detect rocket, missile, and drone launches, classify the size and the threat they represent, and pinpoint on a map the areas that are in danger.
Citizens in those areas will receive warnings through sirens, alerts on their phones, and messages on TV and radio.
The system has been credited with saving hundreds of lives in Israel over the years during flare-ups of violence with terror groups in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, which have launched thousands of projectiles at Israeli cities.
In recent years, the system’s accuracy has been upgraded so that it can limit its alerts to specific areas of large cities.
Israeli NGO Sends Aid After Catastrophic Dam Explosion
Israeli humanitarian aid organization, IsraAID has launched an emergency response to Ukrainians left homeless after a critical dam was destroyed, causing major flooding over a massive area.
The destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam and hydraulic power plant on Tuesday morning (6th) threatened a humanitarian and ecological disaster in Ukraine’s south and disrupted access to drinking water and electricity across the region.
The IsraAID team initially focused on the region of Mykolaiv Oblast, where some 16,000 Ukrainians have been evacuated from communities on the Ukrainian-controlled western bank of the Dnipro River. As many as 42,000 are threatened with flooding.
Aside from providing urgently needed medical support, IsraAID will also be handing out hygiene supplies, blankets and medications, while working to establish psychosocial support programs and clean water solutions.
It also sent a truckload of supplies to the Kherson region, including a shipment of medical supplies to one of the city hospitals. The rest of the shipment contained clothing, food, medical supplies, and more.
“The Kakhovka dam explosion is an enormous ecological disaster that threatens food, supplies, water access and so much more in southern Ukraine,” said Yotam Polizer, the CEO of IsraAID.
“We don’t know yet the full scale of the damage, but it’s clear that this is a major emergency within the context of the Ukrainian war.”
Since IsraAID first arrived in Ukraine, the organization has reached over 35 cities across the war-torn country.
IsraAID began working in Mykolaiv in August 2022, after the city’s drinking water supply was cut off by a Russian attack on Kherson. It installed 12 reverse osmosis water filtration systems throughout the city, and restored access to safe drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Mykolaiv residents.
Because of the explosion at the dam, rising water has left entire towns submerged, raising fears of contamination, chemical and oil leaks, and the dislodging of landmines. Some 80 municipalities are expected to be affected by the flooding.
The organization plans to continue supporting Ukraine for at least five years, according to the NGO.
Mahmoud Abbas’ Ridiculous Temple Denial – Farley Weiss And Leonard Grunstein
Mahmoud Abbas in his speech at the UN on May 15, denied once again that there was any proof of a Jewish link to the Temple Mount. In doing so, he ignored the overwhelming archaeological documentary and historical evidence of the Jewish Temples, including non-Jewish historical writings and documentary sources, as well as a substantial and growing body of archeological evidence.
The ninth-century Muslim historian Al-Tabari gave a detailed account of the decision by Omar, the great Caliph who conquered Jerusalem, not to place a mosque on the site of the Jewish Temple and, instead, to locate the Al-Aqsa Mosque outside of the Temple precincts. Muthir al-Ghiram, a 14th-century Arab historian of Islamic traditions, provided a similar account, emphasizing Omar’s intention to separate the Muslim prayer site and rituals from those holy to the Jews.
Muslim scholars like eighth-century Abd al-Rahman and 13th to 14th centuries Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya rejected the idea that Islamic tradition attributed any sanctity to the Temple Mount for Muslims. In more modern times, the Waqf’s own Brief GuideTo Al-Haram Al-Sharif, Jerusalem, published in 1925, explicitly stated about the Temple Mount: “Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.”
Farley Weiss is chairman of the Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF). LeonardGrunstein serves on the AIPAC National Council.
(jns.org)
Meet Israel’s Unofficial Arabic Language Spokesperson – Vivian Bercovici
Beirut-born Dr. Edy Cohen, who lived in the city until age 19, has more than 550,000 followers on Arabic -language Twitter. “Because I’m a native son of Lebanon, from the Jewish community in Beirut, and my mother tongue is Arabic, I’m kind of one of them. More or less, other than religion. I understand them. I understand the mentality….I’m the only Israeli Jew with so many followers in the Arab world.”
I interviewed Cohen shortly after the conflict in April at the Al Aqsa Mosque during Ramadan. Speaking to more than 9,000 people directly on Twitter Spaces on the days following, he explained, “I sent them proof of the 1994 Peace Agreement between Jordan and Israel governing conduct and access to the Al Aqsa compound, and more.”
“I showed them Article 9 of the Agreement, where it is clearly written that Israelis and Jordanians are permitted to access the holy sites on the Temple Mount.” This agreement was a watershed recognition by an Arab leader that the al-Aqsa compound is also important to Jews. When he explained this fact to his listeners, they were in shock. They didn’t know that there is an agreement between Israel and the Jordanians: that all Israelis…are permitted to go to the Temple Mount.”
The writer is a former Canadian Ambassador to Israel
