Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the southern Israeli city of Sderot Monday morning, following a weekend of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip. Netanyahu met with the heads of the local councils in the Gaza border region, as well as a kindergarten in the city. A house in Sderot suffered a direct hit from a rocket, wounding four. An additional rocket hit the courtyard of a synagogue. Communities throughout the region abutting the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave have suffered fires caused by incendiary balloons and kites launched from Gaza. “Just as we are now finishing putting an end to the tunnels,…
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Israeli forces attacked Syrian military positions near the countries’ shared border early Thursday, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed Thursday. Syrian state media also confirmed the incident, saying the country’s air defenses “thwarted much of the attack.” The Israeli military posted a video featuring footage of IAF missiles hitting what appeared to be a hut, a two-story structure and a five-story structure amid hilly terrain. Video: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit The Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a Syrian military source as saying that ”The attack near Hader at the frontier of the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights caused only material damages.” Some Arab media…
Syrian civilians being mercilessly bombed by their own regime and turned away by neighboring Arab countries are thanking Israel for showing kindness even to its enemies. The video above shows Israeli soldiers who are part of “Operation Good Neighbor” delivering tons of food, clothing and medical supplies to the Syrian refugees amassing on their nation’s side of the Golan Heights. The refugees began streaming to the border last week when the Syrian regime and its Russian allies began indiscriminate aerial assaults on their homes, which are situated in some of the last rebel-held territory. Israeli officials said they can’t possibly…
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers to recommit to the cease-fire that ended Operation Protective Edge in 2014, saying the recent escalation of violence in Gaza is “a warning to all how close to the brink of war the situation is.” Israel and Hamas fought a 50-day war in Gaza in the summer of 2014, after three Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas operatives and months of sporadic rocket fire from Gaza into Israel. In a report submitted to the U.N. Security Council, obtained by The Associated Press Monday, Guterres…
I never met Mitchell “Mike” Flint, but before I had even heard of him, I knew about him and his legendary sense of being on the right side of history in the establishment of the State of Israel. When I read about Mitchell, Jewish and Israeli newspapers were filled with accounts of his life in obituaries that heaped praise on his heroism, and that of others like him. There’s a Jewish tradition to comfort the mourning surviving family members of one who dies and I was able to connect with one of Mitchell’s sons, to express my condolences and thanks,…
Each year I try to think of how to depict Memorial Day in Israel in a way that’s meaningful and juxtapose it in relation to how it’s observed in the US. Many thoughts race through my head. And each year I see Memorial Day through a different prism. This year’s prism is through adopting a chayal boded, a lone soldier, who moved to Israel from the US alone. His home is our home, and while we don’t get to see him every day because he’s in the army, his experiences trickle down and provide a perspective through which we look…
by Jonathan Feldstein Seeing trees blossom and grow fruit in the Land of Israel as I leave my house every late winter and early spring morning makes me realize another way in which I am grateful to be able to live and raise my family here. When we built our house, it was important not only to plant trees, which Jews have done for more than 100 years, and where Israel has become the only country in the world to enter the 21st-century with more trees than it had at the beginning of the 20th century, but also to realize…
Reading about current events and the renewed Gaza demonstration incited by Hamas, I’m reminded of the well-known story recounting the wisdom of King Solomon (1 Kings 3:16-28) judging to whom a baby belonged that two women each claimed as theirs. The women came to Solomon to adjudicate their dispute. One of the woman’s babies had died, and each claimed the surviving baby as hers. 25 “Cut the baby in half! That way each of you can have part of him.” 26 “Please don’t kill my son,” the baby’s mother screamed. “Your Majesty, I love him very much, but give him…
In a seven-decade career packed with historic triumphs and painful setbacks, Shimon Peres took pride in always looking forward. Now, in a memoir completed weeks before his death last year at the age of 93, the former Israeli president and prime minister offers his trademark optimistic blueprint for future leadership – along with some subtle criticism of the country’s current leader. The book offers a rare glimpse into key chapters of Peres’ extraordinary life – from his early days as a protégé of Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion, to his covert efforts to smuggle arms to the new state and build its…
Every individual youth, regardless of background, has a chance to be selected for the most prestigious and elite Israel Defense Forces units. By Inbal Arieli While high school seniors in other countries are preoccupied with university-related decisions, Israeli seniors are preparing for mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – approximately three years for men, two for women – and competing for elite units. In a way, their military service is a culmination of their childhood and youth experiences. UNCOVER ISRAEL – Get the ISRAEL21c Weekly Edition free by email Sign Up Now! For some youth, the IDF serves as…