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Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets escorted an American B-1 bomber bound for the Persian Gulf but which flew through Israeli airspace, in what is being construed as a coordinated warning to Iran.
Israeli Air Force F-15 fighter jets escorted an American B-1B bomber over Israeli skies towards the Gulf earlier today.
The joint flight illustrates the continued strategic cooperation of the IDF with the United States in the area. pic.twitter.com/bD38bLt9dK
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 30, 2021
It comes as Israel is reportedly ramping up preparations for a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, the IDF’s point man on countering Tehran on Sunday gave the military’s first-ever interview to a Bahraini newspaper.
In the sit-down with the al-Ayam outlet, Maj. Gen. Tal Kalman said that while Israel preferred a diplomatic solution to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the IDF was “preparing for other scenarios” should negotiations fail, in an apparent referrence to military action.
It comes on the backdrop of a top Iranian official having blamed Jerusalem and Washington for last week’s cyberattack that crippled gas stations across the Islamic Republic. “We are still unable to say forensically, but analytically I believe it was carried out by the Zionist regime, the Americans and their agents,” Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s civil defense, told state TV in an interview.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has suggested that anti-government or external forces carried out the assault in order to inflame tensions in his country ahead of the second anniversary of a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests fueled by anger over gasoline prices.
An Iranian official similarly tweeted in Hebrew that the “enemy’s goal” of fomenting unrest through gas shortages had been thwarted.
The cyberattack blocked the IT system that allows Iranians to fill their tanks for free or at subsidized prices with a digital card issued by authorities, leading to long lines and frustration as motorists became stranded without fuel.
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Israel’s Home Front Command and National Emergency Authority (RAHEL) will hold a week-long drill starting on Sunday simulating a large-scale war in which civilians are evacuated from northern border communities, with security agencies dealing with massive rocket barrages sent by the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization.
The exercise will incorporate lessons learned from past incidents on Israel’s northern border, including the Second Lebanon War in 2006, as well as those from the May fighting between the Jewish state and terror groups in the Gaza Strip. Members of the Israel Police, Magen David Adom and various governmental bodies will also take part.
The exercise will focus on maximizing the effectiveness of a new alert system for residents of northern Israel, as well as countering the ability of Hezbollah to fire precision missiles and barrages toward specific areas – especially communities near the border fence. A scenario whereby a missile strikesan industrial plant containing hazardous materials will also be simulated.
Should a war break out with Hezbollah, some 2,000 rockets are expected to be launched by Hezbollah towards Israel each day.
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With 41 percent fewer new coronavirus cases being registered per day compared to two months ago, Israel has recorded the biggest drop in COVID-19 morbidity in the world. Only 651 cases were diagnosed last Thursday, compared to an average of between 5,000 to 6,000 daily infections in August. According to the Health Ministry, the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 9,354 on Friday morning, dipping below the 10,000 mark for the first time in more than three months.
The drop in morbidity has led health officials to estimate that the fourth wave of the pandemic, driven by the highly contagious delta variant, is definitively over in Israel, allowing for the relaxation of travel restrictions.
The achievement has been chalked up to the Jewish state’s vaccination campaign, including the rollout of a booster dose that has been administered to nearly 4,000,000 Israelis.
Israelis got a little extra sleep overnight Saturday-Sunday as clocks were turned back one hour, marking the end of daylight savings time and the ushering in of the fall/winter season.
In 2013, the Israeli parliament passed legislation extending daylight savings time from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October. Prior to that, the clocks would be turned back at 2:00 AM on the Sunday morning before the Yom Kippur holiday, so that the fast day, which ends at nightfall, would finish an hour “earlier” (although the fast still lasted approximately 25 hours).
Because the Hebrew calendar is lunar, Yom Kippur can fall between mid-September and mid-October, which used to mean that Israelis returned to standard time as much as a month-and-a-half before many other countries.
Recommended Reading
- Iran’s Atrocious Human Rights Record Must Be Addressed Before New Nuclear Talks (Abigail R. Esman, Algemeiner)
- Wakey Wakey British Jews (David Mencer, Times of Israel)
- The Joystick Intifada (David May, Jack Gibson, Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
- The Moral Incoherence of an Academic Boycott Against Israel (Richard L. Cravatts, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Superman Creators to Be Posthumously Inducted in Jewish American Hall of Fame (Jewish News Syndicate)
- 7 Spooky Sites in Jerusalem (Rachel Neiman, Israel21C)
