US and Israel Reportedly Still at Odds Over Iran Sanctions; Millionth Tourist of 2022 Touches Down in Tel Aviv

With US President Joe Biden set to arrive in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Israeli and American diplomats are still at odds over the strategy for dealing with Iran’s nuclear program, anonymous officials told local media. Washington reportedly refuses to take on Tehran at the United Nations.

During Sunday’s cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Yair Lapid had urged the international community, including the UN Security Council, to take further steps against the Islamic Republic and to apply new sanctions. Commenting on the news that Iran has escalated its uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow plant in another breach of the JCPOA, Lapid called for a “decisive” response.

In a Washington Post opinion piece published on Saturday, Biden claimed that the US was already working to isolate the mullah regime. “My administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, as I remain prepared to do,” the President claimed.

Israeli diplomats, however, paint a different picture. “Like the prime minister said, we want to take the matter to the UN Security Council and activate snapback sanctions against Iran under the 2015 deal’s provisions for violations,” an Israeli official told Israel Hayom. “The US won’t agree.”

A Western intelligence official added that the US also failed to warn Argentina about a suspicious Revolutionary Guards-linked airplane that landed there a month ago, even though Washington had the information.

Meanwhile, as the Jewish state prepares to receive the US President, the parents of Malki Roth, an Israeli-American girl killed in a 2001 Palestinian suicide bombing, are seeking a meeting with Biden in hopes of forcing Jordan to extradite a woman charged with aiding the terrorist.

For years, the Roths have called on US authorities to press Jordan — which has received billions of dollars in American aid — to turn over Ahlam Tamimi for trial. There was no immediate comment from the White House or the Jordanian Royal Hashemite Court.

Any long-term agreement with the Gaza Strip must include the return of the two Israeli hostages and the bodies of the two fallen IDF soldiers, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said at a memorial ceremony marking the eighth anniversary of the 2014 Gaza War. “We are continuing to work on behalf of those who remain there in Gaza,” Gantz vowed.

Hisham Al-Sayed, a mentally ill Bedouin Israeli from the Negev village of Hura, has been held by Gaza’s terror rulers after voluntarily crossing into the coastal enclave seven years ago. Avera Mengistu, a young Ethiopia-born Jew struggling with schizophrenia, was similarly captured by Hamas after climbing the border fence separating the Jewish state and the Gaza Strip on September 7, 2014.

In violation of humanitarian law, Hamas has provided Jerusalem with scant information on the condition of the Israeli civilians, nor has it allowed visits by organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

At the same time, Hamas cynically uses the bodies of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, killed by the terror group during the 2014 military operation in Gaza, as bargaining chips to secure the release of Palestinian security prisoners jailed in Israel.

On Sunday, Gantz called the return of Goldin, Shaul, Mengistu and Al-Sayed a condition for “an arrangement and development.” He added: “Without their [return], there can not be a full arrangement in the Gaza Strip beyond humanitarian assistance.”

The IDF has fought four large-scale conflicts with Hamas in Gaza since the US-designated terror group seized control of the coastal enclave in a bloody coup in 2007. At the end of each war, relative calm was restored, but no formal ceasefire agreement was ever reached, including at the end of the 11-day war in 2021, known in Israel as Operation Guardian of the Walls.

Following a yearlong search, the Jewish Agency for Israel elected former IDF general Doron Almog as its new leader. In his inaugural speech following the unanimous vote, Almog pledged to strengthen Jewish unity and the centrality of the State of Israel.

“We want to reach the heart of every Jew on Earth,” the newly minted chairman told the audience gathered at Jerusalem’s Orient Hotel. “The connection between the State of Israel and global Jewry is of existential strategic importance.” He is expected to officially enter the position in September.

The Jewish Agency for Israel works to bring new immigrants to Israel, in addition to promoting ties with Jewish communities around the world. Almog’s election by the 120-member board of governors ended an arduous — and at times contentious — search for a replacement after the previous chairman, Isaac Herzog, left the organization to become president of Israel.

In his speech, Almog laid out his key goals: “To reach the heart of every Jew on Earth. To instill pride in our Judaism and the State of Israel, the most important enterprise of the Jewish people since 1948. To instill pride in this one miracle called the State of Israel and its extraordinary achievements in science, technology, culture, agriculture, medicine, society, economy, army, aliyah, and more.”

Once the head of the IDF’s Southern Command, Almog, 71, has dedicated his life after leaving the army to running an acclaimed rehabilitation center in the Negev desert for people with physical and mental disabilities. ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran is named after his son Eran, who had severe autism and physical disabilities.

Just four months after Israel lifted all COVID-related travel restrictions, the Jewish state this weekend welcomed its millionth tourist of 2022. Belinda Desoyo Lee Marcelo, 53, a resident of the United Arab Emirates, was greeted at the airport by Israeli Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov and ministry representatives.

“At first, we thought and hoped that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, would be the millionth tourist to arrive in Israel in 2022, but once again, we have beaten the forecast,” said Razvozov. “Here we are, welcoming the millionth tourist to enter Israel this year.”

US President Biden is set to visit Jerusalem on July 13 as part of a regional trip.

Although severely affected by the spread of the coronavirus, Israel’s tourism figures are now exceeding projections, a statement released by the Tourism Ministry declared. In June 2022, 244,500 people visited Israel — only 33% less than the record set in June 2019, prior to the onset of the pandemic.

“Last year, our skies were closed, there were corona restrictions in place with new variants emerging, and serious concerns about incoming tourism,” Razvozov added. “To my joy, in contrast to all the pessimistic forecasts, we can see today that tourism has returned to Israel.”

Based on the current numbers, the ministry expects as many as two million tourists to visit Israel by the end of this year.