| 1 |
Tensions Reach Boiling Point Along Israel’s Northern Border: The IDF on Monday conducted airstrikes targeting Assad regime military assets in southern Syria in response to an attempted terrorist attack along the shared border the previous night. At least 15 fighters were reportedly killed in the attacks.
Israel rarely acknowledges strikes in Syria, which are often directed at Iranian-linked weapons depots, in addition to members of Shi’ite proxy groups with ties to Tehran. This time, however, the IDF confirmed in a statement that it had struck Syrian observation posts and anti-aircraft artillery facilities, as well as command-and-control and intelligence-gathering systems.
Senior officials in Beirut have described as a “a declaration of war” Israel’s recent threats to respond to any Hezbollah attacks with strikes on Lebanon’s national infrastructure. Lebanese media outlets on Monday reported that Hezbollah was presently unlikely to escalate matters, but if provoked its reaction would be “swift and aim for the depth of the Israeli home front,” sources were quoted as saying.
VIDEO: Israeli Airstrikes in Syria
Washington Institute senior fellow Matthew Levitt recently compiled the first-ever publicly available, interactive map and timeline of Hezbollah-related plots, attacks, logistics, financial activities, and more. Titled, “Lebanese Hezbollah Select Worldwide Activity,” the document is meant to facilitate the work of law enforcement, policymakers, analysts, academics and students alike.
| 2 |
The world’s largest cargo plane on Monday night landed at Ben Gurion Airport, carrying US military Oshkosh trucks that were then outfitted with Iron Dome missile defense system batteries purchased by the Pentagon. In 2019, the Israeli Defense Ministry signed a $373 million deal with the US Department of Defense to sell to the US Army two Iron Dome batteries that include launchers, sensors and 240 interceptors, among other components. The system “will be used to defend US military troops against a wide range of ballistic and aerial threats,” an Israeli Defense Ministry statement said.
| 3 |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is backing a plan to provide government support to a memorial center in Kiev commemorating the Babi Yar massacre perpetrated during World War II. To date, the Ukrainian government has had little official involvement with the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, a privately-funded venture that opened its doors in 2016. Shortly after the Nazi invasion, more than 33,000 Jews were killed in Babi Yar — a ravine located just outside of Kiev — over a two-day period in late September 1941.
| 4 |
Antisemitism Watch: Facebook on Monday announced that it had permanently banned from its site French comedian Dieudonne, who was previously convicted of promoting antisemitism. He had maintained a following of some 1.3 million people. Facebook also banished Dieudonne from its social media platform Instagram. In explaining its decision, Facebook highlighted that some of Dieudonne’s posts had used “dehumanizing terms against Jews.”
A commemorative tree grown from a piece of the horse chestnut Anne Frank wrote about in her famous World War II diary was vandalized on the French island of Corsica, prompting an investigation. The tree was donated in 2010 by the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam. Its desecration was discovered just hours before an annual Holocaust remembrance event on the Mediterranean island.
VIDEO: Confronting Social Media Giants On Antisemitism
https://www.facebook.com/HonestReporting/videos/328569771650206/
Recommended Reading
- Education, not censorship, must be used to tackle online antisemitism (Emily Schrader)
- How misleading Palestinian maps erase history (Dov Lipman)
- Remembering Ze’ev Jabotinsky 80 years after his death (Ronn Torossian)
- Why is it so hard to ‘end the occupation’? (HonestReporting Staff)
