A night of violence took place in the West Bank after a Palestinian attack at Tapuach junction left two 19-year-old seminary students critically wounded. Clashes broke out in Beita when the IDF entered to search the Palestinian town for the suspects in the drive-by shooting. Palestinians threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers, who responded by by firing rubber-coated bullets and other riot dispersal weapons. Israeli troops and Border Police also broke up fighting that occurred between the residents of Jaloud village and Israelis from the nearby Shiloh settlement.
Since the attack, the Israeli military has beefed up its forces in the West Bank and reportedly arrested 19 Palestinians overnight, including in eastern Jerusalem. While the drive-by gunman was not among those arrested, the detainees were suspected of aiding him. Security forces found the car used in the attack, with local media reporting that it belonged to a member of the Hamas terrorist group who lives in the West Bank village of Aqraba.
Amazing footage from the IDF search for the Palestinian shooter who injured three teens at the Tapuach junction. https://t.co/MFGf7XR63z
— Tovah Lazaroff (@tovahlazaroff) May 4, 2021
IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi visited the location where the Tapuach junction attack took place and met with senior officers.
“The IDF will increase its forces and expand its operational activities in the coming weeks in Judea and Samaria as part of its readiness for escalation,” Kohavi said at the end of the visit. “Many forces, with the help of intelligence officials and the Shin Bet [Israel Security Service] have been working since yesterday to find the terrorists, and will continue to do so until the mission is completed.”
Two of the three victims of the attack remain hospitalized, while the third was released.
A number of recent media reports suggest that indirect talks between the US and Iran are about to culminate in an agreement on Washington returning to the 2015 nuclear deal.
Even as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab rejected Iranian reports that a deal was at hand with Tehran in return for a swap of American and British prisoners, senior American diplomats were in the Middle East meeting Gulf Arab leaders. In addition, two of the nuclear accord’s biggest proponents in Congress — Democratic Sens. Chris Coons and Chris Murphy — were touring the region.
The latest developments come on the heels of a week of top-level meetings in Washington between US President Joe Biden; his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan; Blinken; his deputy, Wendy Sherman; special Iran envoy Rob Malley; and others with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and Israeli National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat.
Jerusalem is adamantly opposed to a White House rapprochement with Tehran, which it considers an existential threat to the Jewish state. The Israeli government is seeking to convince Washington to negotiate an improved deal to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons instead of re-entering the accord.
A US return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action would be the most significant foreign policy initiative in the early months of Joe Biden’s presidency. Former US President Donald Trump pull out of it in 2018.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry announced that the Jewish state will be sending life-saving aid to India throughout the week to assist it in the fight against the world’s biggest coronavirus surge. The medical equipment to be sent includes thousands of group and individual oxygen generators, as well as respirators, and medications.
“India is one of Israel’s closest and most important friends. We stand with India, particularly during these difficult times India is experiencing, and are sending life-saving equipment to our Indian brothers and sisters,” Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said.
Several ministries and other government bodies, including the Israeli and Indian embassies in each country, were involved in setting up the operation, the ministry said. In addition, the Foreign Ministry’s Economics Division worked with key organizations such as the Israel-India Chamber of Commerce, the Israel-Asia Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers Association of Israel, the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, and the government-funded Israel Export Institute.
Israel and India have cooperated in the past on COVID-19. Last April, the New Delhi government reportedly sent Jerusalem five tons of the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which are used to treat malaria. At the time, the drugs were being reviewed in various countries as a possible treatment for the contagion.
The Israeli initiative is part of an international effort to provide aid to India, where the health system is collapsing under a wave of resurgent infections.
With just hours to go until the Tuesday midnight deadline, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still struggling to garner enough votes to form a new government under his leadership. Barring any last-minute surprises, Israel’s longest-serving premier may well be leading his Likud party into the opposition for the first time in 12 years.
If Netanyahu does not succeed in forming a coalition before 12 AM local time, President Reuven Rivlin can either grant him a two-week extension, task a second person with the attempt, or send the mandate back to the Knesset, giving parliament 21 days to agree on a candidate supported by 61 of its members.
Analysts and sources close to Rivlin believe that he will grant the mandate to Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid. The centrist politician reportedly intends to form a unity government with the right-wing Yamina party. According to local media reports, Lapid offered Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett to serve first as premier under a rotation agreement.
In the first round, however, only 45 MKs recommended Lapid to Rivlin. Moreover, this prospective unity government would likely have to rely on support from the Islamist Ra’am party (United Arab List).
If no MK secures enough support, the Jewish state will face the prospect of a fifth election in two and a half years. In that event, the vote would take place around the Jewish High Holidays in September.
Friends of Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) Director Steven Weil this week spoke about the organization’s latest efforts to connect American Jewry to Israel. “The average Jew in the United States is not so enthusiastic about the IDF or Israel. The situation is quite pessimistic. That is until they visit Israel,” Weil said.
Rabbi Steven Weil recently became the head of FIDF after an 11-year tenure at the Orthodox Union. Friends of Israel Defense Forces, a US nonprofit with 24 branches, was founded in 1981 by American Holocaust survivors who wanted to support Israel by providing assistance to the country’s soldiers. In 2020 alone, the organization helped more than 100,000 discharged military men and women.
According to Weil, some recent challenges that the organization has been addressing include helping many of the soldiers who spent COVID-19 lockdowns on their bases. There are also lone soldiers who “…don’t have anyone who would do laundry for them or prepare them a hot meal. We are trying to help them through the Manpower Directorate, Nefesh B’Nefesh and other institutions in order to provide them the services they need. In the last two weeks, we met with 60-70 lone soldiers, some Israeli and some from around the world. They feel that the army is their family,” FIDF’s director asserted.
Weil said that Friends of Israel Defense Forces also tries to reach out to the public by using videos and social media platforms. “We try to show them that the IDF is much more than ‘just an army.’ It is a national service in its broadest sense. It is the great uniter of the people of Israel and Judaism. It is the springboard of creating values, of establishing a start-up nation.”
Recommended Reading
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Iran Sought Nuclear Weapons, Technology for WMDs Last Year, Reports Find (Benjamin Weinthal, Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
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Israel Must Prevent a Single Attack From Becoming a Wave (Yoav Limor, Israel Hayom)
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What’s Going on With French Jews Right Now? What to Know About the Sarah Halimi Case and Why It Matters. (Philissa Cramer and Cnaan Liphshiz, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
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Eight Tips for Reading About Israel (Matti Friedman, Sapir)
