Aides to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett are set to visit Washington, D.C. ahead of an expected meeting between the Israeli leader and US President Joe Biden. The team will be led by National Security Advisor Dr. Eyal Hulata and senior official Shimrit Meir.
According to the PM’s office, they will sit down with their American counterparts Jake Sullivan and Brett McGurk, as well as other officials, at a meeting to be held next week.
Biden expressed his wish to meet Bennett while welcoming former president Reuven Rivlin to the White House last month. While Bennett has previously clashed with the US administration over the issue of Jewish communities in the West Bank and Palestinian home demolitions, Biden said that his support for Israel remains “ironclad.”
“Israel has no greater friend or ally than the United States of America. You are our best friends, and we [share] values of democracy and liberalism,” Rivlin said at the time. “Your declaration just now brought Israelis to understand that we have a great friend at the White House.”
Israeli authorities on Tuesday morning reported more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases in the preceding 24 hours, the highest number of infections in one such period since March. The Health Ministry reported that 2,123 people tested positive for COVID-19.
We are seeing a very high rate of infection due to the Delta strain,” said Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, who visited the coronavirus ward at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva on Tuesday morning. He added: “We warned people about this and took the necessary steps to support preparations by hospitals around the country for the treatment of critically ill COVID patients.”
The spike has been attributed to the spread of the highly-contagious Delta variant, which was reportedly brought into the country by Israelis returning from travel abroad.
Currently, there are 12,385 active cases in Israel, of which 121 patients are in a serious condition. The death toll since the beginning of the pandemic stands at 6,461.
A bipartisan US congressional delegation has urged the European Union to designate the entirety of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. Currently, an official distinction is made by some European countries between the Iranian proxy’s political and military activities.
“When you are dealing with a ruthless terrorist organization like Hezbollah, there is no distinction between political and militant wings,” said Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), who initiated a resolution, adding: “We need the European Union to cease allowing Hezbollah’s so-called political wing to freely operate by joining us in fully targeting this terrorist group and its global criminal network.”
While dozens of countries, including EU member states, consider the whole of Hezbollah as a terrorist entity, Brussels has refused to follow suit.
Dozens of professors from the City University of New York (CUNY) have quit their union in response to a resolution that described Israel as a “settler-colonial state.” At least 50 academics have either withdrawn membership or signaled their intention to do so after the motion was passed last month.
The passage condemning Israel was introduced in the wake of the 11-day Israel-Hamas conflict in May and described the Jewish state as committing a “massacre of Palestinians.” The resolution suggested that the union “cannot be silent about the continued subjection of Palestinians to the state-supported displacement, occupation, and use of lethal force by Israel.”
Professor Yedidyah Langsam, chairman of Brooklyn College’s Computer and Information Science Department and its faculty council, described the move as tantamount to supporting Hamas. “With the PSC-CUNY resolution you have chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas, whose goal (`From the River to the Sea’) is to destroy the state of Israel and kill all my relatives who live there,” he wrote in his resignation letter. “You do NOT represent us and I will not be a part of an organization that supports those who wish to destroy us.”
The CUNY trade union represents 20,000 members from 25 colleges across New York City’s five boroughs.
A Palestinian man who saved the lives of Israelis has been granted permanent residency in the Jewish state after he received a barrage of death threats. The man, known only as A., provided first aid to the Mark family after they were shot by terrorists while driving along Route 60 in the West Bank in 2016.
Rabbi Michael Mark died in the attack but his wife, son and daughter survived thanks to the roadside treatment they received. After details of A.’s actions spread to Ramallah he was subjected to numerous threats and fled the area.
The Interior Ministry, which initially provided him and his family with temporary resident visas, has now awarded him permanent status. “He who saves one life it’s as if he saved the entire world,” said Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked in reference to the decision.
Recommended Reading
- After Months of Optimism, a Return to the Iran Nuke Deal Begins to Look Unlikely (Lazar Berman, Times of Israel)
- Israel’s African Union Status Is as Important as Ben & Jerry’s (Herb Keinon, Jerusalem Post)
- ‘Heal Hitler’ Video Game Where Players Try to Help Nazi Leader Sparks Outrage (Anders Anglesey, Newsweek)
- America’s Pastime Can Foster Ties Between Israel, US Jews (Jay Ruderman, Israel Hayom)
- COVID and Pfizer: What Has Israel Discovered So Far? (Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21C)
