Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled his planned trip next week to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, citing the halting of all passenger flights in and out of Israel due to the coronavirus.
The prime minister was scheduled to meet the with the crown prince of Abu Dhabi.
The purpose of the trip was to both celebrate Israeli’s normalization with the two Arab nations, as well as enlist regional leaders in a campaign against the United State’s possible return to the 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran. Netanyahu had originally been slated to travel to the Gulf in November, but the pandemic and internal political issues led the premier to postpone on multiple occasions.
In other diplomatic developments, Netanyahu is reportedly seeking to visit Egypt before the Jewish state’s upcoming national elections in March. However, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is purportedly conditioning Netanyahu’s arrival on Jerusalem making a gesture on the Palestinian issue, such as reiterating Israel’s commitment to a two-state solution.
The Israeli government moved to expand its world-leading vaccination drive to all members of the public above the age of 16 on Thursday. The vaccination campaign has already inoculated roughly a third of the Jewish state’s population of over 9 million.
People who are vaccinated will reportedly be able to visit Greece. Jerusalem and Athens are ironing out an agreement that would enable mutual travel and tourism. In addition, Israelis will not be required to take another COVID-19 test or quarantine upon arrival, with the same rules set to apply to Greek visitors.
Israeli officials are hoping to have the deal ready by the time Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visits Israel on Monday. Currently, Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport is shuttered in a bid to curb infections.
Israeli airstrikes reportedly targeted several Iranian assets in southern Syria on Wednesday night. According to media, IDF fighter jets struck sites in the Syrian part of the Golan Heights, as well as Damascus airport. Intelligence sources point to Tehran, and its proxy Hezbollah , as using both locations for military operations.
Saudi-based Al Arabiya reported that a military base belonging to the Syrian military’s 165th Battalion was also hit. Iran allegedly uses the army base to store weapons. The Syrian state media outlet SANA reported no injuries, but that the strikes did cause damage.
The Israeli army did not comment on the allegations.
Earlier Wednesday, Hezbollah fired surface-to-air missiles at an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon. According to the Israeli military, the aircraft was not damaged and continued its mission.
On Monday, a small IDF drone was allegedly downed by Hezbollah as it conducted reconnaissance along the Lebanese border.
HonestReporting Panel Discussion and Q&A: ‘Antisemitism: From Media to the UN’s Halls of Power’
On February 21, learn about the intersection of antisemitism in the media and the United Nations. Israel’s Strategic Affairs Ministry recently released its annual report on antisemitism, which warned of a resurgence of Jew-hatred worldwide in 2021.
This exclusive webinar will explore the manner in which the dissemination of antisemitic tropes, as outlined by the widely accepted IHRA definition, by news outlets bleeds into many spheres, perhaps most importantly the diplomatic one.
The event will provide you with the tools required both to identify and oppose antisemitism when it appears in news outlets, and inform you of the consequences such can have on the formulation of policy at the international level.
- The UN Refugee Agency With Few Actual Refugees (Richard Goldberg, Jonathan Schanzer, Foundation For Defense of Democracies)
- Israel Could Find Itself Alone Against Iran (Oded Granot, Israel Hayom)
- Stop Hate at Brown University (Bassam Eid, Jewish News Syndicate)
- What Louis Armstrong Said About African-Americans and Jews in Music (Harold Brackman, Algemeiner)
- 2021 Golden Globes: All the Jewish Nominees, From ‘Borat’ to ‘Unorthodox’ (Emily Burack, Times of Israel)
