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At six years old, Hila Mukdasi was captivated by her parents’ Israeli folk dance sessions. As she sat on the sidelines, the only child in the room, she was mesmerized by the movement and energy around her.

“I started dancing thanks to my parents. I was six years old. My parents are still dancing. They took me once to their session because there was no babysitter. I was sitting there, and I was looking at the people. I was fascinated. I don’t remember exactly what I felt, but I wanted to go every week,” Mukdasi told In Jerusalem.

What began as childhood fascination became a lifelong passion. Mukdasi learned the dances by watching others before eventually joining in. Over time, she noticed a gap: most Israeli folk dance groups were dominated by adults, with few young participants.

That realization planted the seed for something bigger.

While studying Sociology-Anthropology and Linguistics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mukdasi introduced Israeli folk dance to her peers. The response surprised her.

“We didn’t dance new songs. We danced old dances, such as ‘Tsadik katamar,’ different horas, and some line dances we used to do in kindergarten. And people were flying in the air. They were so enthusiastic about that. They loved it,” she said.

The birth of Komuna

Encouraged by this enthusiasm, Mukdasi created a dedicated space for young dancers – the first of its kind in Israel and abroad. While still a student, she began organizing weekly sessions, renting a venue and inviting friends. Her goal was simple: a place where young people could relieve stress, socialize, and connect to Israeli culture through dance.

The name Komuna – a blend of community and lanua (movement) – was coined in conversation with her mother. It also echoes the phrase Kumu Lanua (get up and dance), reflecting both action and collective spirit.

“I wanted to create something unique that would continue living without me. Something bigger than a regular dance session. You come to Komuna. You come to us. You come to what we create – together,” said Mukdasi.

Within a year, Komuna gained national attention. Mukdasi received the Taglit Hashana (Discovery of the Year) award from the Culture and Sport Ministry in 2018. She later appeared in media interviews, including Channel 12.

“They gave it to me because I founded a creative way to bring young people into Israeli folk dance culture. No one had succeeded in doing this before. It’s something new. Completely new. And it’s a contribution to culture because a new generation is joining,” Mukdasi affirmed.

In 2024, she received the Contribution to Society award in the presence of President Isaac Herzog. She was also chosen from among thousands of alumni to join the Hebrew University’s Influential Young Leaders Team; the university personally called her to inform her.

From passion to profession

What began as a grassroots initiative quickly became a full-time endeavor as Komuna expanded and Mukdasi learned to manage logistics, branding, and community-building.

“No one teaches you how to do this. No one taught me logistics, music equipment, contracts, or how to build a brand and lead a community. It all appeared along the way. I learned a lot about people, culture, and myself.”

Today, Komuna operates in cities across Israel, including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa, as well as in Hebrew classes for new immigrants. It offers weekly dance classes, social events, volunteering, and trips.

Participants include secular and religious Israelis, native-born citizens, and olim. For many newcomers, it combines language learning with cultural immersion through movement and music.

I met Hila at Ulpan Etzion in the capital, where I studied after making aliyah four years ago. It was there that I was first introduced to Israeli folk dance. Once a week, Hila ran classes at the ulpan, which I attended with friends.

Although I was (and still am) uncoordinated and found the dances challenging, I remember enjoying them very much. The atmosphere was always lively and fun, and the sessions were highly interactive. Hila was incredibly patient, often repeating the steps until we got them right.

I also appreciated that the class was mainly in Hebrew, which exposed me to the language in a natural setting and deepened my understanding of Israeli culture. I still remember many of the songs.

After leaving ulpan, I attended a few classes in Jerusalem, though I haven’t been in a while. Several friends still go regularly, and Komuna has become an important part of their life in Israel. They’ve built new friendships and a community of both Israelis and olim.

Chaim, 31, who made aliyah from Mexico six years ago, also discovered Israeli dancing while he was at Ulpan Etzion. Despite having never learned formal dance before, Komuna quickly became a central part of his life. At one point, he was dancing up to six times a week in various cities. 

After moving to Tel Aviv, he became deeply involved in Komuna, attending regularly and later teaching in both its Tel Aviv and Jerusalem sessions.

Talking to In Jerusalem, he described dancing as “the biggest part of my life,” and said that the Komuna participants “became my friends… my whole community.” He added that “rikudei am (Israeli folk dancing) actually opened the doors for me to enter Israeli society,” helping him build a social circle of both olim and Israelis.

Deborah Brown, who made aliyah from the United States three and a half years ago, quickly found a sense of belonging at Komuna. She recalled arriving at her first session in Tel Aviv “with no idea what I was walking into,” staying until the very end, and that “I basically haven’t missed a week since.” 

What began as a continuation of her love for Israeli dancing became central to her life, offering both joy and community.

She described Komuna as her “happy place.” 

“It’s my comfort,” she said. “The people feel like a second family.” Through dancing, she has built deep connections with a diverse group, noting that “We form really meaningful connections just by dancing together before we’ve even said a few words [to each other].”

Dance, community, and social impact

For Mukdasi, Komuna is more than dance; it is a cultural education tool. Olim learn Hebrew through lyrics and instruction while engaging with Israeli traditions and shared cultural space.

She described Komuna as a space for growth, connection, and belonging.

“I believe in communities. It’s a place for people to grow, express themselves, feel belonging, and realize their potential.”

This philosophy extends into social action. Komuna members have organized volunteering initiatives during crises, including support for soldiers, NGOs, and bereaved families. 

Mukdasi has also run events for mothers who lost sons in the IDF and workshops for cancer survivors.

Participants say these efforts deepen the emotional significance of the community, turning it into more than a social outlet. For many, it becomes a space of solidarity and mutual support in difficult times.

Beyond volunteering, Komuna has helped participants form lasting friendships and expand their social networks, strengthening the sense of belonging Mukdasi envisioned.

Expanding horizons

Komuna has grown internationally over the past nine years, and since the age of 21, Mukdasi has been invited to run Israeli folk dance workshops abroad – in Europe, the United States, Australia, and beyond. 

She now also mentors organizations seeking to adopt her model.

Her long-term vision is to build a global network of independent Israeli folk dance communities led by trained instructors.

“I want to pass on my knowledge and experience to the next generation – to be an anchor for young people and give them confidence. We are here for something bigger than ourselves, and we want to keep it alive,” she said, adding that “our culture is beautiful and valuable. It’s really important to preserve it as part of our Israeli Identity, living here on this special land.”

Despite its success, she acknowledges the emotional weight of sustaining it: “It’s a baby. You can’t leave it.”

This Friday, Komuna will celebrate its ninth anniversary with a daytime summer celebration, bringing together members from across the country to mark nearly a decade of building community through Israeli folk dance.

A vision for the future

Mukdasi continues to expand Komuna and plans to train new instructors and document her methodology for international use.

She draws inspiration from participants themselves.

“I find strength in people who fulfill their dreams, and in Komuna members who share how much it means to them. It’s important for me to stay grounded and keep my inner peace, faith in the path, and optimism, despite the challenges,” she shared.

From a childhood fascination to a cultural movement, Mukdasi has helped transform Israeli folk dance into a living, evolving form of identity and community.

This post was originally published on here. 

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres arrived in Syria on Saturday, in an important visit that Damascus sees as transformative. It comes in the wake of Syria signing a new pipeline deal to link Iraq to the port of Baniyas and also comes after Syria’s president met US President Donald Trump.

“I have just arrived in Damascus for a visit of solidarity,” Guterres said. “My message is clear: The UN stands with Syria at this pivotal moment, and I appeal to the international community to spare no effort to support the people of Syria as well.”

Syrian state media SANA noted that Syria’s “Foreign and Expatriates Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani and UN Secretary-General António Guterres pledged to deepen cooperation between Syria and the United Nations during talks in Damascus on Saturday, with reconstruction, recovery and Syria’s sovereignty dominating discussions.”

Syrian state media also noted that the UN leader spoke at “a joint press conference at Tishreen Palace following an expanded meeting attended by Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Kabawat, Minister of Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh, Central Bank Governor Safwan Raslan and Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ibrahim Olabi.”

This is the first visit by a UN chief in 17 years. Syria was in a civil war from 2011 to 2024. Syria hopes to see UN and also IMF and other support for reconstruction and for Syria’s return to the international community. The US and others have worked to end sanctions on Syria. Syria is also working to re-establish air connections with numerous countries and commercial carriers.

Syria prioritizes reconstruction as millions immigrate to the country

Around 3.5 million Syrians have returned to the country, Syria’s state media noted. “The government’s priority is rebuilding the country through legislative reforms while calling for the removal of all remaining restrictions that hinder reconstruction,” the SANA report said. “Al-Shaibani also said Syria had established a strategic model for peace by consolidating the state’s monopoly on the use of force and stressed that Israeli violations of Syrian territory pose a direct threat to regional security.”

“Syria is creating opportunities for everyone and laying the foundations for a better future for all Syrians,” Guterres said. “The United Nations looks forward to cooperating with Syria in all areas and with the international community to support its future and prosperity,” Guterres added.

Syria’s President Ahmed al Shara’a discussed Syria-UN cooperation as well. The UN was quick to begin to work with the new authorities in Damascus after the Assad regime fell. UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen and UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher visited Damascus in December 2024.

The news of the UN visit comes as Aleppo has said it is moving forward with restoration work on the UNESCO-listed Old City. Abdul Hamid Dahna, director of the Old City Directorate in Aleppo Governorate, told Syria’s Al-Ikhbariya TV “that restoration work is underway on five historic markets and several landmark buildings damaged during years of war.”

Aleppo restoration plan targets historic markets and schools

SANA further noted on the Aleppo restoration that “the projects, scheduled under the 2025-2026 restoration plan, include the rehabilitation of the Al-Attarin, Al-Battiya, Al-Sarmatiya, Istanbul and Al-Joukh markets. Crews are also clearing debris, reopening access routes and stabilizing damaged heritage structures, including the Shadbakhtiya and Halawiya schools. Restoration of the Halawiya School is expected to begin in 2027.”

According to the report, the “Old City Directorate is working with the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums to ensure restoration complies with internationally recognized conservation principles while safeguarding the city’s historic character. Encouraging residents to return to the Old City remains a priority, he said, describing their presence as essential to restoring the area’s vitality.”

The UN visit and Aleppo restoration are symbols of Syria’s return to the international community and its focus on reconstruction. Meanwhile, a new pipeline is supposed to connect Iraq to the port of Baniyas in Syria. “The United States has begun importing fuel oil of Iraqi origin shipped through Syria for the first time, according to shipping data and two sources familiar with the operations, as Iraq expands a Mediterranean export route established after disruptions to Gulf trade routes earlier this year,” Reuters added.

In other news, Syria is also working to merge a large university, called Rojava University in eastern Syria, into Syria’s state institutions. In addition, Syria has graduated 1,000 new air force cadets. Also last week, Syria’s Interior Minister Anas Khattab received Iraqi Chargé d’Affaires Jubeir Shallal Aqab to discuss cooperation. 

This post was originally published on here. 

An altruistic kidney donation brought together a survivor of a deadly terrorist attack and the brother of the man who saved his life, in a coincidence discovered shortly before the transplant, Clalit Health Services announced on Thursday.

Yonatan Rom decided to participate in an Israeli paired kidney exchange program as an anonymous donor about a year ago. Ahead of the transplant he was matched for, Rom decided to meet the recipient at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital. 

In the initial conversation between Rom and Reuven Tam, the two discovered that Rom was a teacher at a pre-military academy when a terrorist attacked 24 years ago. Beyond that, however, Reuven Tam’s brother, Eyal Tam, was the emergency response squad commander who ended the incident. 

“Your brother saved my life 24 years ago, and today I am saving yours with my kidney,” Rom told Tam after they traced their connection.

“None of this was planned,” he went on. “Eyal stopped the terrorist and ended the massacre. I arrived at the scene in my car, the terrorist opened fire on us, and only minutes later Eyal arrived and neutralized him.”

‘A new chance at life’ 24 years post-terror attack

Now, Rom has a chance to return the favor. “We feel wonderful. I want to thank Yonatan for giving me a new chance at life. We hope to remain friends for the rest of our lives,” Tam said ahead of his transplant.

During the height of the second intifada in 2002, a terrorist infiltrated the academy in the Israeli community of Atzmona in the Gaza Strip’s Gush Katif region, killing five students and injuring 21 more. 

Had Eyal Tam not been on the scene and acted as quickly as he did, many more people likely would’ve died, the Clalit press release said. Rom is echoing that same notion of selflessness with his donation. 

“Altruistic kidney donors truly embody the meaning of altruism. They make an extraordinary decision to save the life of someone they have never met,” said Dr. Eviatar Nesher, Director of the Transplant Department at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital. He went on to commend the exchange as an “almost unbelievable full circle.”

Clalit-Beilinson Hospital does over 200 kidney transplants a year, and Rom could’ve been matched with any number of other recipients. 

“What are the chances that, out of all the donors and recipients, these two people would be brought together, the recipient whose brother had once saved the donor’s life during a terrorist attack?” Anat Briger, Transplant Coordinator at Clalit-Beilinson Hospital, said. 

This post was originally published on here. 

US President Donald Trump has not yet made a final decision on whether to launch a major strike against Iran, sources familiar with the administration’s decision-making process told The Jerusalem Post.

As the president said on Friday, the United States is continuing diplomatic talks with Tehran while keeping the military option fully prepared.

“We’re locked and loaded,” Trump said, adding that Washington could escalate its military campaign “to a much higher level” if necessary, but that his preferred option remains a negotiated agreement.

He also said Iran appears to be taking the talks more seriously than before, while reiterating that the administration’s bottom line remains unchanged: “They cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

This is also true for “regular daily attacks” that we got used to.

In Israel, a proposal was submitted to the government on Saturday stating that “there is a high probability that an attack on the civilian population will occur.”

With the possibility of an Iranian attack, the proposal asked to extend the special situation in the Home Front Command until August 11th.

First interruption of strikes against Iran in two weeks

The order marked the first interruption in nearly two weeks of sustained US military operations against Iranian targets. During the previous 13 days, Trump had approved strike plans presented by military officials each afternoon, with the attacks generally carried out within hours, Axios reported earlier on Saturday.

Trump received another proposed strike plan on Friday but declined to authorize it, instead instructing the military not to launch new attacks, two sources familiar with the decision told Axios.

It remained unclear whether the pause was limited to Friday or represented the beginning of a longer suspension. The US military remained capable of resuming strikes on relatively short notice and continued drawing up plans for a possible return to major combat operations, the report said.

Trump had not ordered the military to begin preparations for such a broader campaign, despite publicly saying that the US remained ready to intensify its operations. On Friday, he said the United States was “locked and loaded” but was continuing to communicate with Tehran.

Trump favors diplomacy but keeps military options open

Shortly after issuing the order to hold fire, Trump told reporters at the White House that he retained the option of continuing or escalating the attacks, including “knocking out everything they have.”

He nevertheless said he believed the “smarter strategy” was to reach an agreement with Iran.

“We’re talking to [the Iranians] right now. I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by. We’re locked and loaded and ready to go, but we’re talking to them,” Trump said.

The president later appeared more cautious about the prospects for an immediate breakthrough. Speaking at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Friday, Trump said he did not believe Iran was ready to reach an agreement at that stage, “but I’m willing to listen.”

The decision followed a campaign of US strikes against Iranian military targets, including missile sites, drone infrastructure, radar installations, naval assets and coastal defenses near the Strait of Hormuz. US officials said the operations were intended to reduce Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the strategic waterway.

Trump’s directive came several hours after an Omani delegation arrived in Tehran for talks aimed at reaching a new arrangement for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Two regional sources familiar with the negotiations told Axios that progress had been made and that Oman and Iran could reach an agreement over the weekend. Earlier Iranian-Omani negotiations focused on maritime traffic and possible mechanisms for securing shipping through the strait.

Any proposed agreement would still require Trump’s approval, leaving the future of the military campaign dependent on both the diplomatic negotiations and the president’s assessment of the deal.

The pause reflected Trump’s willingness to provide additional space for diplomacy, according to the report. It also suggested that the administration believed the current scale of attacks had reached the limit of what it could achieve without a return to significantly broader combat operations.

Questions have continued to surround the possible next phase of the US campaign, including whether Washington will maintain limited strikes near the strait, pursue a negotiated maritime arrangement or expand its attacks deeper into Iran.

The White House did not respond to Axios’s request for comment.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Wall Street Journal recently revealed that Israel is spending roughly $50 million on an American influence campaign involving artificial-intelligence-generated text messages, conservative media, online influencers, and former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale. 

According to the report, millions of Americans have received messages from seemingly friendly senders named “Emma” or “Sarah,” asking for their opinions about Israel, Iran, and global security. 

This story was published only a matter of days after Vice President JD Vance accused some Israeli officials of attempting to manipulate American opinion in order to keep the Iran conflict going and frustrate US diplomacy via influence campaigns in America. 

Israel is right to spend serious money defending itself on the cognitive battlefield. The failure is not the size of the investment. 

The failure is both that we didn’t expose those detractors running campaigns in America twisting the truth against Israel and that we treated an existential national-security responsibility as a marketing challenge that can be outsourced to advertising agencies, political consultants, and algorithms.

Fifty million dollars can buy messages, impressions, consultants, and data. As the famous Beatles song suggests, “money can’t buy you love.” 

What our government forgot is that it also cannot buy you trust in a short-term campaign. Without trust, the campaign risks becoming another missile fired at Israel’s own legitimacy.
The accompanying cartoon captures the problem. 

In an American town square, people happily drink apparently pure water while polished robots assure them, “We just want to explain Israel to you.” 

But beneath the ground, the information pipes have been fed by Qatar, Iran, China, and Russia for decades. Nearby, hostile operatives pour accusations of “genocide,” “war crimes,” and “death to the IDF” into the public reservoir.

The drinkers see the sparkling fountain. They do not see who is influencing the content of the pipes.
This is how cognitive warfare operates. The objective is not simply to persuade someone to accept one false allegation. 

It is to influence the entire information environment through which that person interprets every subsequent event. Once the water supply is contaminated, offering the public an explanation is not a winning strategy.

Israel’s enemies understood this long ago. Qatar did not merely purchase advertisements promoting its agenda. It invested for decades in media, universities, research institutions, political relationships, and cultural influence. 

Iran, China, and Russia do not separate intelligence, diplomacy, information operations, cyber activity, and national strategy into unrelated assignments. They construct ecosystems intended to shape what societies see, whom they trust, and which political choices become acceptable.

Israel, by contrast, repeatedly behaves as if its problem is insufficient explanation (i.e. hasbara – public diplomacy). 

When hostility rises, we produce another video, hire another spokesperson, launch another campaign, and count another million impressions. We measure how many people saw our content, not whether legislation changed, a university acted, a false legal allegation was defeated, or an ally maintained political support.

That is a communications activity. It is not strategic influence.

From hasbara to strategic influence

The new campaign does contain important innovations. Israel has correctly identified younger Americans – including younger conservatives – as a critical audience.

It recognizes that artificial intelligence and search engines are becoming gateways through which people understand history and current affairs. It is collecting audience data, producing content at scale, and attempting to compete in environments Israel neglected for too long.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar is also correct that public diplomacy must be funded as seriously as jets, bombs, and missile interceptors. 

The latest Pew data explain why: 60% of American adults view Israel unfavorably, as do 57% of Republicans between 18 and 49. 

This is no longer only a problem on the progressive Left. It has reached the emerging generation of the Republican Right and is weakening what was once a broadly bipartisan alliance.

But responding to an existential threat through a collection of commercial contracts creates a dangerous contradiction. If the cognitive war is truly a war, where is the war cabinet? 

Where is the national intelligence assessment? Where is the chain of command integrating the Prime Minister’s Office, Foreign Ministry, intelligence community, IDF, Diaspora Affairs Ministry, and Israel’s diplomatic missions?
 
Who defines the strategic objectives, tests the messages, examines unintended consequences, and measures policy outcomes?

Most importantly, who is accountable if the strategy fails?
The IDF would never outsource the defense of Israel’s airspace to mercenaries and then evaluate them by counting how many interceptor videos received views. 

Yet Israel has placed significant elements of its defense against cognitive missiles in the hands of advertising firms, foreign consultants, and politically connected intermediaries.

These contractors may be talented. Parscale understands political data and digital targeting. Media firms understand distribution. Influencers understand their audiences. But none of them is responsible for the national security of Israel or the safety of Jewish communities worldwide. 

Ultimately there are four major failures with the campaign that need addressing:
 anonymity instead of authenticity;
 impressions instead of policy impact;
 contractors instead of an integrated national command;
 persuasion without policy feedback.

The reported use of AI personas presents an additional danger. A recipient who believes she is communicating with a person named Emma, only to discover an automated system connected to a foreign government campaign, is unlikely to feel better about Israel. 

She will feel manipulated. The tactic can validate the very allegation Israel’s adversaries promote: that support for Israel is manufactured through concealed influence rather than earned through truth and shared values.

In cognitive warfare, credibility is ammunition. Once expended, it is extremely difficult to replace. Israel needs a permanent cognitive-security directorate operating under a national-security authority. 

It must research the networks contaminating the information supply, expose their funding and methods, communicate through credible and properly disclosed messengers, receive continuous feedback, and connect that feedback to policy decisions. 

Its measurements must move beyond clicks and impressions to consequences: votes, regulations, diplomatic decisions, prosecutions, university policies, media corrections, and durable changes in public attitudes.

This command must also be capable of telling Israel’s political and military leaders when the problem is not merely how a policy is explained but how it is understood and experienced. 

Public diplomacy cannot succeed if it functions only as the final packaging department for decisions already made. Strategic influence requires communication to be considered before, during, and after policy formation.

Israel is not facing an eighth “front” that can be addressed with occasional public relations. 

It is fighting an all-out war – one that affects its freedom of military action, diplomatic alliances, legal legitimacy, economic relationships, and the physical security of Jews around the world.

The government deserves credit for finally putting serious resources into this battle. But purchasing reach is not the same as building influence, and neither is it the same as earning trust.

Israel does not need more robots to build trust and legitimacy. It needs to defend the reservoir, expose those poisoning it, and take responsibility for the entire system – from the source of the information to its ultimate effect on policy.

The national security of Israel and the Jewish people is too important to outsource.

This post was originally published on here. 

I didn’t want to leave Israel. Not now when the world hates us. Not when there are endless flight delays, and no one knows what tomorrow might bring. 

Especially not to go to Greece – a country that deported its Jews to Auschwitz in World War II. On my last trip to Athens, in a sadly empty Jewish Museum, I learned that the once robust Jewish population in Greece of about 75,000 had dwindled to approximately 5,000 Jews. 

But my American son was coming into Crete, ironically to decompress from a tour of Poland and Auschwitz, so my husband and I decided to meet him there. Traveling along with a plane load full of Israelis, watching some of the younger ones rudely cutting lines and behaving badly, it suddenly occurred to me – we are all ambassadors. 

No matter where we travel, whether or not we are “identifiably” Israeli or Jewish, whether we accept the job or not, each and every one of us is a representative – and it is important to be aware of it.

“F*** the IDF” said graffiti on an electrical box as I trudged up one of Crete’s many uphill streets. “F*** Zionists” was blasted across a billboard near the airport. “Free Palestine” messages decorated the other side of the road. 

‘I was reminded of my identity everywhere I went’

Although I only saw three instances of graffiti in my 48 hours in Crete, I was reminded of my identity everywhere I went and with everyone I spoke to, as a representative of my people.

Israelis can be raucous, outspoken, and loud, and like most, they are ready to party, especially on vacation, but now, more than ever, I felt compelled to rein it in and remember – we are, each and every one of us, ambassadors for a greater cause. 

Whether on line at an airport, checking in to a hotel, walking on narrow crowded sidewalks within a rush of other tourists, or enjoying a spa treatment, travelers should be keenly aware of the “tourist tightrope” we tread. We are being observed, judged, and measured – as a tourist, but more importantly as an Israeli. 

That means even if you don’t do it at home, put garbage in the bin, clean up after yourself, and exercise good manners everywhere and with everyone – even when people seem impolite to us.

My kippah-wearing husband and son were gazing out at the beautiful sunset over the Mediterranean when they were approached by a gentleman from Denmark. They exchanged pleasantries, and he asked where my family was from. My husband acknowledged that he was from Israel. 

“Some members of my family have big problems with what we are seeing on the news about Israel,” the tourist said. “We saw a story about a Palestinian family that had been living in their home for 45 years and got dragged out of their house by the IDF. It seemed so tragic.”

My husband asked for context – was the family in a legal habitat? Was it brought to a court of law? The Danish man didn’t know. My son, who is a lawyer in the US, spoke about different laws that may govern disputed residential habitats. Together, they explained that watching footage, most likely taken by advocacy groups with a particular agenda, doesn’t necessarily reflect the entire story – and can be easily taken out of context.

The gentleman listened attentively. No one lost their temper or raised their voice.

Then he told my family that when Israel was attacked in 1967, he was a medic in the Danish army. He said he was so moved by his feelings for Israel that he was ready to go and help defend the country. Fortunately for everybody, that war ended quickly and victoriously, but he regretted never getting the chance to assist Israel.

“The television and social media are set-ups for bias,” was my husband’s takeaway from the encounter. “I believe most people are open-minded, as this man was. I may not have convinced him to change his mind, but perhaps the next time he watches TV, he might realize there is another side to the story.”

“People in Greece respect our tourists,” Maria, a massage therapist at the Intercontinental Hotel, told me. “Crete goes dark in the winter, and we work hard to please people during the summer tourist season. I’ve met lots of Israelis, and we hear things about Israel. Meeting nice ones who talk to us helps us understand the situation better.

“I can’t imagine living with sirens and missiles,” she added. “Running for shelter along with my two-and-a-half-year-old daughter would be a terrifying experience.”

My revelation from the short trip was twofold.

First, I realized that even in these uncertain times, when I dread traveling, every Israeli must understand the responsibility of carrying Israel’s message to the world.

Second, traveling enables us to learn, grow, and connect with people we would never meet otherwise. 

While it pulls us far out of our comfort zones in so many ways, it also allows us to accomplish far more, both for ourselves and for Israel, than we ever could from behind our keyboards.

This post was originally published on here. 

Sally Reidman, founder and president of Reidman College of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, received the Sylvan Adams Nefesh B’Nefesh Bonei Zion Prize in 2023 for her achievements in education.

How did her life lead up to this prestigious moment?

Born in Pennsylvania in 1949 to Holocaust survivors, Sally grew up with her mother in California and studied psychology at California State University.

She founded Reidman College in1987, and it is now recognized as Israel’s largest institute of its kind. Today, more than 4,000 students are enrolled in the college’s five vocational schools: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Natural Medicine, Somatic Therapies, Holistic Psychotherapy, and Holistic Coaching.

The college has four campuses, with its main campus in Tel Aviv and branches in Jerusalem, Haifa, and Beersheba.

The Magazine recently sat down with Sally in her Tel Aviv office.

What influenced you to make aliyah?

I didn’t go to a Jewish school or belong to a Jewish youth group. Still, over the years, my mom would tell me how much she wanted me to go to Israel and that she would pay for the ticket. 

One day, an Israeli friend – my only Israeli friend at the time – told me she was going to Israel to visit her dying grandmother. That was the trigger. 

When the plane landed and my feet touched the ground, I became very emotional and started to cry. I ended up staying for two months, returned to California to wrap things up, and then made aliyah in 1983. 

I had no money, only one distant relative in Israel, and no idea what I was going to do. I just knew I was meant to be here. I was a spiritual seeker and felt that here I could be a channel for love and light.

How did you get started and what do you recommend to new olim who want to succeed here professionally?

Since childhood, I have been used to hard work. I came to Ashdod with my massage table and initially lived in an absorption center. I would take the table with me on the bus as I traveled to work in three different places. 

After 18 months, I moved to a small apartment in Tel Aviv and rented space in a gym for my practice. Eventually, I was running a small school, which later became Reidman College. 

My advice to new olim is to work hard, love what you do, become good at it, and be passionate. Although I’m not religious, I am spiritual and have always had a connection to God. I believe God brings me what I need.

Was Reidman your family name?

It was the name of my former husband. We were married for less than four years, had no children, and divorced before I moved to Israel. 

How would you sum up the mission of Reidman College?

We believe in the advancement of natural medicine by working side by side with conventional medicine through integration and cooperation.

At one time, natural medicine was considered alternative medicine. Today, the proper terms are “complementary” and “integrative” medicine.

The goal of natural medicine is to identify the underlying cause of a condition and promote long-term wellness, often reducing reliance on pharmaceutical drugs.

Natural medicine, therapy, various courses

How does the religious community relate to natural medicine?

In general, the religious community is very supportive of natural medicine. In Jerusalem, we have separate courses for men and for women. Because the demand is so great, we’re planning a dedicated wing at our Jerusalem campus.

Do you have courses in English?

The college is launching an English-language program of massage therapy, to include holistic Swedish massage and basic medical massage.

What advice would you give someone looking for a massage therapist?

Make sure your therapist is insured. Insurance companies will not insure someone who does not have a certificate from an accredited school. 

Beyond credentials, there are the personal qualities: attention, intention, and love. We want therapists who give us their full attention, whose intentions are clear, and who genuinely love their work. 

Does AI have any effect on your profession?

As AI takes over more and more professions, the idea of a career in therapy is becoming increasingly popular. Ours is a profession that AI is unlikely to replace. In fact, it is one of the fastest-growing professions. 

In a Jerusalem Post article published in May, Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Lieberman wrote: ‘We need more therapists.’ What’s your view?

I totally agree. Especially since Oct. 7, the need has become desperate. That’s one reason our college continues to grow.

Not everyone comes here simply to find a job. Some want to raise healthier families. Some come to heal themselves. We also have many hi-tech professionals who work with computers all day and come to us to unwind and interact with other like-minded people.

In a 2026 message for Valentine’s Day in the ‘Algemeiner Journal,’ you wrote: ‘It is known that people with pets to care for and receive love from them live longer and are happier than most others. Dogs, in particular, are renowned for giving unconditional love.’ Would you add anything?

It may not be accidental that the Hebrew word for dog is ‘kelev.’ Lev means “heart.”

Your closing thoughts?

At Reidman, we focus on helping you become the best you, so that you, in turn, can give to others. As we heal ourselves, we help heal the planet.

Sally Reidman
From Los Angeles to Ashdod, 1983

This post was originally published on here. 

Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon denounced New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s recent anti-Israel and anti-Netanyahu rhetoric, as well as the recent attack on Jews on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, during an appearance Friday on Larry Kudlow’s Fox Business program.

On Wednesday, Mamdani admitted in a video statement released by the mayor’s office that his administration does not have the authority to enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Calls for Netanyahu’s arrest and rhetoric vilifying Israel featured prominently throughout Mamdani’s election campaign and have continued since he entered City Hall.

Danon said Mamdani’s claims that he intends to arrest Netanyahu are baseless and amount to an attempt to distract from his own failures.

“He cannot arrest anyone. He’s a clown. He knows that. It is baseless.” Danon said. “He wants to get attention, and so he speaks about Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

Danon warns anti-Israel rhetoric has dangerous consequences

“It’s a game, it’s a show. But it is a dangerous game,” the Ambassador continued. “Because look what happened yesterday. A few hours after he spread another video against Israel. Against the Jewish communities. Jews were attacked on the Upper West Side.”

Danon was referring to an incident where two men were stabbed in broad daylight on Manhattan’s Upper West Side on Thursday afternoon, according to police.

The suspect, Raul Morales, 51, allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” before the attack. He then continued down the block, passing a synagogue while shouting “Justice for Islam” and “Allahu Akbar.”

Morales appeared before a judge late Friday night and was charged with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree as a hate crime, one count of assault in the first degree as a hate crime, one count of assault in the second degree as a hate crime, and one count of attempted assault in the first degree as a hate crime, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

He remains in custody without bail, while the two victims of the attack are expected to make a full recovery.

Are the United Nations worth it?

Kudlow also asked Ambassador Danon about the United Nations and the current narrative that it’s not accomplishing the functions it was founded to do.

“We spend a lot of money on it. Does it do more harm than good?” he asked Danon. 

“Absolutely,” the ambassador responded, adding that Israel and the US have to work together to reform the UN. 

Goldie Katz, Jerusalem Post staff, contributed to this article.

This post was originally published on here. 

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen are escalating attacks on Saudi Arabia. In response, the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthis has responded with strikes. This is part of an escalation that has continued throughout July.

The Saudis don’t want Iran to open up an air bridge to the Houthi capital in Sana’a in Yemen, fearing the Iranians are transporting weapons and advisors.

The Houthis have claimed that unless the Saudi-led “blockade” is ended, they will attack Saudi Arabian ships transiting the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. This essentially means the Houthis are trying to shut down a key transit point the same way Iran has done with the Strait of Hormuz.

The Houthis threatened on Saturday to escalate attacks on Saudi Arabia amid renewed tensions between the two sides.

Al-Masirah, the Houthi-run media in Yemen, reported on their intentions. Reports quoted Mahdi al-Mashat, the Houthi chairman of the Supreme Political Council, the executive body of the Houthis, as threatening Saudi Arabia. Houthi authorities accused Saudi Arabia of attacking Sana’a Airport and sites in Hodeidah, claiming that the strikes would lead to retaliation.

Houthis announce naval blockade targeting Saudi Arabia

The Houthis said, according to Al-Masirah, they had carried out two operations against Saudi targets, including an attack using missiles and drones against Aramco facilities in Yanbu. They claimed the strikes achieved their objectives. The group also announced that a naval blockade targeting Saudi Arabia would remain in effect.

Houthi officials portrayed the escalation as a response to what they describe as a Saudi blockade and violations of Yemeni sovereignty. The group warned that it could expand its military operations based on what it called a policy of “blockade for blockade” and “escalation for escalation.”

The statements signal a potential return to direct Houthi-Saudi confrontation after several years of relative de-escalation and ceasefire.

The threats come as the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Saudi-backed coalition appear to be willing to respond and increase pressure on the Houthis. Yemeni pro-government state television reported that airstrikes targeted Houthi reinforcements and military infrastructure in Marib and Al-Jawf. The strikes reportedly hit missile launch platforms, a Katyusha rocket launch site and weapons depots in several districts.

Yemeni government strikes Houthi missile and drone sites

Al-Ain media in the UAE noted that Yemeni government military officials said government aircraft carried out strikes against Houthi missile and drone launch sites and weapons storage facilities. The attacks were described as among the first offensive air operations conducted by the Yemeni government against the Houthis. Reports also claimed that several Houthi personnel, including missile-launch experts, were killed.

The strikes reportedly extended to areas close to the front lines in Al-Jawf, raising questions about whether the operations could precede a broader ground offensive. Al-Ain also noted that the strikes came shortly after Saudi-led coalition aircraft struck Houthi military targets in Hodeidah province following renewed threats to commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

The Saudi-led coalition said the strikes focused on Houthi military capabilities linked to attacks on shipping and stressed that Hodeidah port itself was not targeted. Saudi Arabia had previously reported that an oil tanker belonging to a Saudi company was attacked in the Red Sea.

The developments illustrate how rapidly the confrontation could expand. The Houthis have announced a maritime “blockade” targeting Saudi Arabia at the same time that shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted by the wider conflict between Iran and the United States. This potentially links renewed fighting in Yemen to the broader regional confrontation involving Iran, Gulf states and critical maritime trade routes.

After years of relative calm following the UN-brokered truce of 2022, the combination of Houthi missile and drone attacks, strikes on shipping and renewed government and coalition air operations means Yemen is entering a new phase of conflict.

This post was originally published on here. 

“Miluim [IDF reserve duty] is like being on an emotional roller coaster,” was how Esther described the last few years of her husband being at war. “A rollercoaster that you forget that you’re on, but you wake up right before the drop and try to breathe through it and not vomit.”

Esther, 36, was born in New York but moved to Israel in 2005, aged 15, as part of an immersive high school program called Naale. Following this, she did two years of national service in the Gaza border area, and then began a degree in glass and ceramic design at Bezalel QAcademy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. While working at Artza, the company of Itai, the brother of Jerusalem Post photojournalist Chen Schimmel, she met her husband Yonah, who is Itai’s friend.

Esther and Yonah began their life in Tel Aviv and were 26 weeks pregnant with their first daughter, Hallel, when war broke out on October 7.

“There was a siren, and we jumped out of bed and went into the hallway. But we had no reason to think that it was a big deal, and my husband said he was going to get ready to go to the synagogue,” she said.

As he was getting ready, his phone rang. The two knew immediately that it was the army, as no one else would call on Shabbat.

“He said, ‘I’m getting called in.’ And I told him, ‘Absolutely not. Do not answer your phone. If it’s that important, they’ll reach you after Shabbat.’”

Yonah left for synagogue. While he was on his way back, there was a second siren, and Esther headed to the shelter alone.

“I remember thinking that that was the moment I became a mom. Even though I hadn’t given birth.”

October 7 felt different

Esther told the Post that she had lived through previous wars in Israel, but October 7 felt different. “I was shaking. I didn’t know what happened in the South, but I was terrified for my baby. I was reacting in a way that I’d never experienced.”

When Yonah returned from synagogue, he answered a second call from his reserve unit. It was only then that Esther learned Hamas had infiltrated southern Israel.

“Yonah told me that Hamas had broken into Israel, that they infiltrated the South. At that point, we had just heard that about 70 people had been killed. We heard about Nova [Supernova music festival massacre]. We didn’t know yet that they [terrorists] were in the kibbutzim. I just broke down crying. I was sobbing hysterically, I couldn’t breathe, I was so terrified for him.”

Once she collected herself, Esther asked her husband a question that shocked him: “Do you have a will?”

“I told him, if something happens, I don’t care about our stuff. I need to know what happens to me. If something happens to you and they can’t find your body, how long do I have to wait before I’m considered not married anymore? I do not want to be an agunah.”

“He replied: ‘I cannot wrap my head around that. We’re not discussing this. I’m alive, I’m fine.’”

Feelings of anxiety and guilt

On Saturday evening, Yonah was called up to serve with his unit: 551 [the elite paratrooper reservist unit]. Esther left to stay with her in-laws in order not to be alone.

“I was just having anxiety attack after anxiety attack; it was constant. At some point, Yonah called me and said, ‘I need to have a real conversation with you. I understand that it’s really scary for you and that you have no control over your hormones, and it’s a wild situation that you’re pregnant and I’m here. But I need you to be my rock. I need to be able to talk to you about what I’m going through and where I’m going. So you need to figure out what you need to do in order to become my support system because that’s what I need right now in order to survive.’”

Esther said she felt guilty.

“My initial reaction was that I felt selfish because he was going through something so much more scary and existential. He was going to be physically going into one of the most dangerous war zones in the world.”

Fears started to run through her head: What if Yonah never got to meet their baby? What if she had to give birth in a bomb shelter, alone, without him?

Around this time, Esther’s aunt in the US called and suggested she come to stay with her and recuperate. While Esther immediately refused to abandon her husband, Yonah felt differently: “He said, ‘Whatever you need to do, you have to do because I need you mentally stable.’”

A friend helped Esther secure a seat on an evacuation flight to Poland, from where she flew to her aunt in Florida for several weeks until she felt able to return home.

“We had gone through Operation Protective Edge [in 2014], so when Yonah told me he was going to Gaza, I figured he would be home in 10-14 days. I knew I had to be home when he came home for the first time.”

On returning to Israel, Esther started volunteering. One day, she got a message on her phone from an unknown number. Yonah had written her a letter inside Gaza, and someone had driven it out into Israel, taken a picture, and a commander had texted it to her.

“It was like 21st-century snail mail. I had to physically write a response, send it to them, and then they printed it and took it to Yonah.”

A few days later, Yonah came out of Gaza and the two reunited for the first time in a month.

“This was the start of nearly three years of him going in and out,” she recalled.

In late December 2023, one of the men from Yonah’s unit was killed, and another one was severely injured, and this led to the unit being released from reserves at the start of January.

At this point, for the first time since October 7, the two were back in their apartment in Tel Aviv, which Esther said was “surreal.” After three months of seeing each other for a day here, a day there, they were suddenly living together again.

An overloaded hospital and a traumatic birth

At 35 weeks pregnant, Esther began having contractions, which ultimately persisted for three weeks. At 4 a.m. one morning, when she was 38 weeks pregnant, she went into labor.

When the couple arrived at Ichilov Hospital, they were met with an overloaded maternity unit, as the hospital had absorbed all the patients evacuated from the North and South.

“I was told that there were women who were more urgent, and that I was not far enough along to get a bed.’”

“It was pouring rain. I actively labored for 15 hours, eight of which I was standing at the front of the hospital.”

Esther stopped relaying her birth story at this point because of the extreme trauma of what happened next.

What followed was a six-month recovery. She couldn’t be alone with her baby until Hallel was four months old because she physically could not hold her. Esther ended up having reparative surgery two months after Hallel was born.

Having moved to Ra’anana after the birth, Esther thankfully had the help of her in-laws, who, to this day, have been above-and-beyond in the way they have shown up, she said. “It was the most responsible decision we’ve ever made. We wanted to stay in Tel Aviv, but our reality just didn’t allow for it.”

Because she was so incapacitated during this time, Yonah took over a large amount of what new mothers do, and as a result, Hallel became extremely bonded to her father, something that remains today.

Yonah’s next round of reserve duty was when Hallel was five months old.

At that point, Esther was more capable but “still not 100%” and had someone coming and helping her every day. Yonah agreed to go for half of the time he was called up for, doing one and a half months instead of three.

“We tried to video call Yonah, and Hallel couldn’t understand the concept that she couldn’t reach him through the computer. I have never seen her scream like that; she was terrified, she couldn’t process why she couldn’t touch him.”

They did not attempt a video call again.

Twenty-one months after Hallel was born, Esther gave birth to their second baby, Mia.

While she was pregnant with Mia, the first Iran war broke out. Esther said that was the first time she began to see miluim in a negative light.

“I was seven months pregnant running to the mamad [safe room] with a one and a half year old while Yonah was called in. Until this point, I understood miluim, but suddenly it felt pointless. I needed him more at home than the army did on the Jordanian border.”

Thankfully, the second birth experience was “incredible” and not in any way comparable to the first. Yonah was home, having just finished another round of two months in the army.

Motherhood in a time of war, with a husband fighting, is no walk in the park. Esther said that the two have survived it by “making a game plan” and being practical.

“For me, as the mother, it’s been about trying to find things that would help me through those really tough moments. You have to enter into this superhuman space; people don’t see the small, tiny things that happen day to day, which actually take an exceedingly huge amount of internal resources and power.”

Additionally, she said that there’s a societal expectation that wives and partners of men in miluim be okay because they must be used to it. “There is an expectation that you have to be this strong home front, and that you shouldn’t complain about it. There used to be more sympathy, but it’s not like what it used to be.

“It’s not that people don’t care. It’s that they just want life to be normal again, which I completely understand. This has been going on for such a long time already. It’s uncomfortable to think about war, and that there are families for whom life is just not normal on a regular basis.”

Just because people like her don’t ask for help as much anymore doesn’t mean they don’t need it, she said.

“If you know someone who’s going through it, just check in and get a cup of coffee with them. To just be there for these people is huge.”

The need to not be alone, to have a distraction, is especially true for Esther in the moments right before Yonah leaves. She spoke of the process of being photographed by the Post for “HER,” which happened to be on the day of Yonah going to miluim.

“You can see it in the pictures. I can’t stop crying. And then there’s the picture where Yonah is walking out the door, and I’m holding Hallel and my eyes are half closed. That’s me gathering myself. I cry, get it out of my system, and then I’m done.”

After he walked out the door, the family had a little dance party.

“I guess part of our distraction, part of our survival kit, is putting on music and having a dance.”

Esther said that if she had to sum up having a husband in miluim, she would compare it to being on a roller coaster.

“When you’re on a roller coaster, there’s the climb, and then there’s the crazy part, and then there’s the plateau. There’s the climb to the miluim, and then there’s the drop of him leaving, and then the crazy twists and turns when we are figuring out how we navigate this: How do we breathe through this? And then it’s over, and we can breathe. And then it happens all over again.”

What helps them through the twists and turns?

“We find a rhythm. I think it comes down to communication – really good communication. We get really frustrated with each other, but we try to talk about it as much as possible.”

However, she said, sometimes these important conversations get cut short.

“He leaves while we’re working through an issue, and we have to continue it via whatever limited communication we have this time or wait until he’s home again.”

There’s also a palpable tension in the air when he’s gone, she added.

“I think it’s the weight of his absence and fear that he’s not coming back. It’s just a big rip in our equilibrium when he’s gone.”

During the time Yonah is away, Esther said, she has to function for the girls, but the fear is constantly hanging over her. Often, her imagination has gotten the best of her, and more than once she found herself thinking sounds in the hallway were someone from the army coming to knock on the door and tell her of her husband’s death.

Hallel is now old enough to understand that he leaves again and again but not why. In the beginning, it didn’t seem to affect her, but as time has passed, she has become more and more clingy, throws tantrums, and gets upset. Now that Yonah is home, Hallel constantly checks in on where he is.

“I’ve caught her walking around saying, ‘Abba is home. He’s just working.’”

All this being said, Esther spoke glowingly about her husband. “He’s just a very empathetic, kind person,” she said, adding that he is “100% committed to being her partner and the best father he can be.”

“He’s done the work and is very in tune with himself and knows what he is capable of giving to his family, to miluim, to his work. I love that he is connected to himself in that way.”

Looking back, Esther said, she is proud of herself.

“I am most proud of the fact that I had two kids in this crazy, insane time. I went back for a second. I’m really proud of myself for going through the process – I think it was the bravest thing I’ve ever done.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Ellen Monique Chits, a 56-year-old Dutch Christian whose grandfather and great-grandparents were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, spent the last two years seeking permanent residency in Israel after the Interior Ministry rejected her application.

Her attorney argued that the rejection conflicts with a Population and Immigration Authority procedure and a January 2026 District Court ruling that he says extended eligibility to grandchildren of Righteous Among the Nations regardless of age.

Chits has visited Israel repeatedly over the years. Following the October 7 massacre, she returned for extended stays to help Israelis affected by the war. She is currently living in Haifa and studying Hebrew at the University of Haifa.

Chits is the granddaughter of Frederik Jan Kerkhof and the great-granddaughter of Jan Kerkhof and Klaartje Kerkhof-van de Waal. All three were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations after risking their lives to save Jews in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.

The Kerkhof family protected two Jewish brothers who were being persecuted by the Nazis, hiding them in the attic of the family home before helping them move to other hiding places.

A bond with Israel deepens

In an interview with Walla, Chits described her connection to Israel as a love story that developed gradually, long before she knew she might be eligible to apply for legal status in the country.

She said she first learned about her family’s rescue efforts in 1998, when her grandfather was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, but did not attach particular significance to the story at the time.

The family’s history became meaningful to her only after she began visiting Israel in 2018, motivated by curiosity and a desire to see the places she had grown up hearing about in biblical stories.

During a visit to Yad Vashem, she said, she quickly found extensive documentation of what her grandfather and his parents had done, saw their names engraved at the site, and learned about the recognition they had received.

Chits then began researching her family’s history and collecting testimony from relatives. She said she felt great pride in a legacy of “selfless love” toward the Jewish people.

Since then, she has developed a strong emotional bond with Israel, she said. She has visited about 10 times, sometimes staying for weeks and sometimes for months, and has felt a “magnetic force” drawing her back each time.

Chits was visiting Jerusalem as a tourist on October 7, 2023. When the war began, she said, she did not want to flee but instead felt compelled to remain and help.

“Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, and you get the opportunity to do the right thing,” she said.

Chits asked her employer to allow her to remain in Israel and help during the war, but the director of the hospital where she worked refused, forcing her to return to the Netherlands.

She continued supporting Israel from there, helping recruit Dutch volunteers for agricultural work, soup kitchens, transportation, and other assistance programs. She also helped about 50 Dutch people find volunteer placements in Israel.

Chits eventually resigned from her position as a healthcare manager and returned to Israel several times to volunteer. Her work included agricultural harvesting, preparing food for people in need, assisting older adults, and volunteering with OneFamily, which supports families affected by terrorism and war.

She now hopes to integrate into Israeli society and find work in the country.

Chits said her connection to Israel comes from two sources: her faith in the God of Israel and long familiarity with biblical stories, as well as a deep identification with the Jewish people and the suffering they have experienced through war and terrorism.

She said she feels “at home” in Israel, believes she has a duty to help people in distress, and views her actions as a natural continuation of the values she was raised with as a descendant of a Righteous Among the Nations.

“Sometimes you just have to do the right thing, and you get the opportunity to do the right thing, and on October 7 I felt I needed to stay here because it was the right thing to do,” she said.

“I did not know what it meant and what the consequences would be. But then people told me I really could stay, and it felt so right to continue in the path of my grandfather, who did the right thing. It may cost me; I have no idea. But what matters most to me is doing the right thing. That is what I will do, and I will not give up. It is that simple.”

Application rejected over age restriction

During that visit, Chits learned that the Population and Immigration Authority had a procedure governing residency permits for the children and grandchildren of Righteous Among the Nations. The English-language version of the government website also appeared to state that grandchildren were eligible.

On that basis, Chits applied for legal status in Israel in July 2024.

Despite submitting all the requested documents, the Population and Immigration Authority rejected her application in November 2024 because she was not a minor.

The authority maintained that, following an update to the procedure in May 2022, eligibility among grandchildren of Righteous Among the Nations was limited to minors. The rejection letter also instructed Chits to leave Israel by January 2, 2025.

Chits filed an internal appeal with the Population and Immigration Authority, which was rejected on November 28, 2024.

She then contacted attorney Yehoshua Pex of the Decker, Pex, Levi law firm, who filed an appeal on her behalf with the Jerusalem Appeals Tribunal.

The appeal asked the tribunal to order the Population and Immigration Authority to grant Chits legal status under the Righteous Among the Nations procedure or, alternatively, to grant her status on humanitarian grounds.

It argued that the Interior Ministry’s position was formalistic, rigid, and failed to consider the purpose of the procedure.

According to Pex, the procedure was not intended to be merely a technical mechanism, but an expression of Israel’s recognition and appreciation of Righteous Among the Nations and their descendants.

“Righteous Among the Nations acted during the Holocaust. Even if a Righteous Among the Nations was very young at the end of World War II, by now he would be 100 or more. Therefore, the requirement that his grandchildren be minors is a requirement that can hardly ever be met, and so this limitation in the procedure drains it of all content.”

Pex also argued that the English-language information published on the government website was incomplete or misleading because it did not clearly state the age restriction.

The authority knew Chits’s age from the beginning of the process, he said, but nevertheless continued asking her to submit additional documents despite knowing that she was not a minor.

The Appeals Tribunal rejected the appeal.

In January 2026, however, the District Court ruled in a similar case that the procedure for obtaining legal status would apply to the children and grandchildren of a Righteous Among the Nations regardless of age, according to Pex.

Following the ruling, Pex submitted a renewed application for legal status on Chits’s behalf. Despite repeated inquiries, he said, the Interior Ministry has not provided a substantive response.

“Ellen Monique Chits is not asking for preferential treatment,” Pex emphasized. “She is asking that her request be examined under the procedure that was designed precisely for cases like this, descendants of Righteous Among the Nations who seek to tie their fate to the State of Israel.”

Chits said her case was not solely a personal matter, but an issue of principle that could affect other children and grandchildren of Righteous Among the Nations.

The number of potential applicants appears to be limited. As of last year, only about 165 people were known to have applied to live in Israel under the procedure, and just 61 had completed the process of obtaining Israeli residency.

“This is a unique procedure formulated for Righteous Among the Nations, their children and grandchildren,” the Population and Immigration Authority told Walla in response. “Within this framework, each request is examined according to its unique circumstances, and comparison is irrelevant. In this case, the applicant previously submitted a request, but because she did not meet the procedural requirements, it was refused. That refusal was upheld in a court ruling. She has now submitted another request, and the request will be examined in accordance with the procedure.”

This post was originally published on here. 

More than 70 terror suspects from the West Bank were arrested Saturday morning following overnight operations, according to an IDF statement.

The wide-scale operation comes after two Israelis, including an IDF officer, were killed and several others were lightly to seriously wounded in a terror shooting near Gilad Farm, a settlement located southwest of Nablus in the northern West Bank, on Friday morning.

The Samaria Brigade, in cooperation with the IDF, Shin Bet, and Border Police, completed a brigade operation in the village of Tell, where the terrorist who carried out Friday’s shooting attack lived. 

The Nahal Reconnaissance Unit, members of the Menashe Brigade, the Binyamin Brigade, the Ephraim Brigade, and Duvdevan took part in making arrests and conducted additional questioning.

Additionally, Duvdevan special operations troops arrested a terrorist who intended to carry out an attack and a Hamas-affiliated wanted suspect during operations in the Tulkarm area.

Security forces arrest dozens in West Bank operations

Menashe Brigade forces searched more than 300 locations and arrested Hamas-affiliated suspects and terrorists who had been pursuing bomb attacks.

Binyamin Brigade forces arrested approximately 20 suspects involved in advancing terrorist plots, throwing Molotov cocktails, and trafficking weapons.

All the suspects were transferred to security forces for further questioning.

James Genn contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

There are beach towns that spend decades trying to reinvent themselves. Netanya has never really bothered. It remains gloriously itself: a Mediterranean city where French Jewish families fill the promenade in summer, older Israelis argue loudly over coffee by the sea, and sunsets arrive each evening like a carefully staged performance.

Inside this distinctly Israeli collage sits David’s Harp Netanya, a hotel that understands something many modern luxury properties have forgotten: hospitality is not about impressing everyone. It is about understanding your guests deeply and making them feel at ease.

The first surprise is the size. All 168 rooms are genuine suites, with living rooms, balconies, and sometimes two bedrooms.

The standard suites measure approximately 50 sq.m., while the family suites are approximately 70 sq.m. In an age when hotel rooms increasingly resemble compact airplane cabins, the spaciousness here feels almost rebellious. Families can unpack comfortably without turning the vacation into an elaborate game of suitcase Tetris.

General manager Shay Greenboim explains that the building was originally designed as an apartment hotel. David’s Harp feels less like a transient hotel and more like a seaside holiday residence where people actually settle in for a few days.

Realities of modern Israel: shelters and security are woven seamlessly into the hotel. 

The realities of modern Israel are present too. Every floor includes two shelter rooms, a quietly reassuring feature. Here, security feels naturally integrated into daily hospitality, much as it is woven into Israeli life itself.

The hotel belongs to businessman Shmuel Smadja, founder of Sarel Tourism, a company specializing in Evangelical Christian tourism from the US. Over the years, he expanded into transportation and accommodation, gradually building the

David’s Harp brand, which now includes a property near Capernaum and plans for Jerusalem.

Three years ago, the hotel left the Ramada brand behind after a major renovation reportedly costing around NIS 20 million. But the more interesting transformation was conceptual rather than cosmetic.

David’s Harp imported the “all-inclusive” concept, usually associated with Eilat or Greek island resorts, onto Netanya’s quieter shoreline.

Around the biggest pool in Netanya, pizzas emerge continuously from the stone oven. Children run around clutching fluorescent slushies while adults drift toward the beer taps. Snacks appear endlessly, as though governed by an unwritten Jewish grandmother rule forbidding anyone from staying hungry for more than a few minutes.

Yet the hotel’s real identity is not abundance. It is specificity. This is unapologetically a hotel built also around the religious Jewish traveler.

Orthodox considerations built into every detail of the hotel experience

Many hotels claim to accommodate Orthodox guests, often by simply adding a Sabbath elevator as an afterthought. Here, the understanding goes much deeper. The synagogue alone tells the story. Unlike the improvised prayer rooms found in many Israeli hotels, this is a substantial and dignified space with a proper ark, Torah scrolls, separate seating, and thick carpeting. It feels less like a converted conference room and more like a genuine communal center.

Then there are the smaller details that reveal genuine cultural fluency rather than marketing strategy: prayer schedules sign near the reception desk, notices about Kriat Shema times, warnings about motion sensors during Shabbat. Most secular guests would barely notice them. For Orthodox travelers, they signal something meaningful: someone here anticipated our needs before we arrived.

By the weekend, the hotel settles into a distinctly Israeli rhythm. Bar mitzvahs, Shabbat celebrations, children racing through corridors in damp pool towels, and French accents blending with Hebrew over crowded buffet breakfasts. Many of the guests return time and again for family celebrations, perhaps because there is a rare sense of generosity here. Not only in the abundance of the food, but in the spirit of hospitality.

Then evening arrives. From the balconies, the Mediterranean turns slowly from gold to copper to deep blue. The sea breeze drifts softly into the suites, and even the usually frantic energy of Israeli family vacations seems, briefly, to exhale.

There are shinier hotels in Israel. Trendier ones too. Hotels with curated playlists and cocktail menus full of self-importance.

David’s Harp is not trying to be any of those things. Instead, it succeeds at something far rarer: making its guests feel genuinely understood.

The author is the creator of the JewishTraveler blog

This post was originally published on here. 

Moldova is a destination that rewards travelers who enjoy discovering places before the crowds arrive. It’s a country where monastic traditions, deep Jewish history, world-class wine culture, and modern café life exist side by side, often within the same afternoon.

Spend a few days beyond the boulevards of Chisinau, and you quickly realize Moldova is less about famous landmarks and more about atmosphere, encounters, and stories that linger long after the journey ends.

One of the most striking places to begin is the vast Jewish cemetery complex on the outskirts of the capital, which doubles as an open-air museum. Ornate headstones stand beside more modest family graves. Among them are the dilapidated graves of the 45 victims of the 1903 Kishinev pogrom and a grave with a propeller belonging to an airman who is believed to have died in either Korea or Kazan. There are rumors of KGB involvement in the downing of the plane.

Hidden within the cemetery grounds is a crumbling prayer hall, which is due to be stabilized with financial assistance from the US Embassy, and a genizah, which contains four Torah scrolls desecrated during the pogrom, and the grave of Rabbi Yehuda Leib Tsirelson, former chief Rabbi of Bessarabia, executed by the Nazis in 1941.

Jewish heritage remains woven throughout the country. Before the Holocaust, Moldova was home to large and vibrant Jewish communities, and traces of that history remain visible in synagogues, cemeteries, memorials, and family stories. Today, Jewish life in Chisinau is modest but increasingly visible again. Spending Shabbat with the local Chabad community, on the appropriately named Chabad Lubavitch Street, offers visitors a very different perspective on Moldova. Conversations over dinner move naturally between local traditions, family histories, and hopes for Moldova’s future. The warmth of the welcome leaves a lasting impression.

Exploring Old Orhei’s landscapes and spiritual heritage

Outside the capital, the landscape changes dramatically around Orhei, one of Moldova’s most important historic and spiritual sites. The drive itself is part of the experience, winding through rolling green hills and limestone cliffs. Nearby is a stunning cave restaurant complex called Epoca di Piatra, where traditional Moldovan food is served inside atmospheric stone chambers carved into the hillside. It feels almost theatrical.

The nearby Belvedere Point offers one of Moldova’s defining panoramas. Fields, cliffs, and the curving Raut River stretch into the distance, creating scenery that feels far removed from the rush of modern Europe. Not far away lies the Old Orhei Monastery itself, partially built into the rock. The walk up is memorable not only for the scenery but for the goats casually wandering along the path, grazing as visitors pass. At the monastery, silence is taken seriously. The sole monk is known for quietly hushing tourists throughout the day, preserving the calm atmosphere of a site that remains an active place of worship rather than simply a tourist attraction. Look out for a Hebrew inscription in the chapel.

Back in Chisinau, the city feels youthful and energetic, particularly during festival season. Throughout the warmer months, street concerts, wine festivals, and cultural events fill the parks and public squares. It’s Eurovision final weekend, with a family music festival and a drone festival in the central parks. The city comes alive in the evening as Moldova anticipates a great performance from local rapper and singer-songwriter Satoshi.

For everyday life, few places capture the spirit of the city better than the Central Market. The noise, color, and smell can feel overwhelming at first, but a wander through the myriad stalls reveals everything from homemade cheese and pickles to household tools and herbal remedies. Vendors proudly offer samples, often insisting visitors try local pastries or wine.
Modern Chisinau also has its quirks. One evening can easily involve drinking in a cat café, surrounded by sleeping felines providing a calm break from the bustling streets. It perfectly reflects the city’s slightly eccentric but welcoming personality. A two-minute walk leads to a chandelier in the middle of a park above a pop-up outdoor café, a people watcher’s paradise.

Moldova’s wine industry blends tradition and kosher production

Wine, however, remains Moldova’s defining experience. At Carlevana, the story of Moldova’s wine industry comes vividly to life. Once a state-run producer, the winery later moved into private ownership and has since expanded internationally. Today, kosher production represents around 15% of its output, with exports heading to Israel, the US, and beyond.

The winery balances tradition with experimentation. An orange kosher wine is being developed using white grapes left with their skins for more than 40 days, creating deeper flavors and hues. Visitors can also learn about the mevushal process, in which wine destined for kosher production is heated after being transferred to a juice facility in Orhei. Deep underground are collections of mature wines, including carefully preserved kosher vintages. Elsewhere in the tunnels are reminders of another era: an old passageway to a hidden sauna and a fascinating exhibition of vintage wine artifacts.

There is a plethora of wineries to visit in Moldova. Château Vartely is another great example of the region’s booming wine tourism. The modern complex pairs curated tasting experiences of its award-winning vintages with distinct gastronomy. For tourists looking to extend their stay, the estate features picturesque, stone-crafted guest villas, cementing its status as a premier Eastern European getaway.

No Moldovan wine experience is complete without visiting the legendary underground city of Milestii Mici. The scale is extraordinary. According to the Guinness World Records certificate displayed at the winery, the cellars contain more than 1.5 million bottles stored across 55 km. of underground galleries carved from former limestone mines. The first bottles were stored in 1968, and new vintages continue to be added every year. Driving through the tunnels in golf carts feels surreal, with underground streets named after grape varieties stretching endlessly beneath the earth.

A hugely popular attraction in Moldova is a journey to the Transnistrian region.  For many travelers, the journey begins with uncertainty. Leaving Chisinau behind, the road east towards the Dniester River gradually feels like stepping backwards in time. Checkpoint formalities are calm but noticeably different from elsewhere in Europe, and within an hour the atmosphere changes completely. Monumental architecture, hammer-and-sickle imagery, and vast boulevards dominate the landscape.

Locally, many people prefer the name “Pridnestrovie,” while “Transnistria” remains the term most international visitors recognize.

Hotel Russia in Tiraspol is a classic-era property whose imposing exterior contrasts with warm hospitality. Internet access can be patchy and international roaming unreliable, so downloading maps and information in advance is highly recommended.

Money is another curiosity. The region uses its own currency, the rouble, complete with colorful banknotes and unusual plastic coins that have become collectors’ items. International credit cards are not universally accepted, so carrying Moldovan lei or euros to exchange is wise.

The most authentic culinary immersion in the region lies in the stolovaya, the traditional canteen-style eateries that still form part of daily life. Diners slide trays along metal rails, choosing from steaming soups, buttery mashed potatoes, meat patties, and glasses of sweet kompot. A full meal at Stolovka USSR costs very little, yet offers a genuine glimpse into the rhythms of local life, all washed down with a selection of nostalgic Soviet style beer and soft drinks.

Bender Fortress reveals centuries of imperial history

History looms large in nearby Bender, also known as Bendery. The great fortress overlooking the Dniester has passed between Ottoman, Russian and imperial powers for centuries. Inside its walls are monuments linked to military victories and figures including Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Stephen the Great, and King Charles XII of Sweden. From the ramparts, the strategic importance of the site becomes instantly clear.

Back in Tiraspol, the atmosphere remains distinctive. Lenin statues still stand proudly, wide avenues are lined with memorials, and public spaces retain an unmistakably old-world character. Catherine the Great Park offers a softer side of the city, with families strolling beneath trees while children play around fountains and statues celebrating the city’s imperial heritage. At the bustling Green Market, traders sell fresh produce, cheeses, pickles, and homemade preserves, providing a vivid glimpse into everyday life.

One of the most fascinating local institutions is Sheriff. The name appears everywhere, on supermarkets, petrol stations, soccer shirts, and even bottles of brandy. The conglomerate dominates much of commercial life, and visitors quickly realize they encounter it almost constantly.

No visit is complete without tasting the products of Tiraspol’s celebrated Kvint distillery. Its specialty is Divin, an excellent brandy-style spirit produced throughout the former Soviet world. Tours reveal aging cellars and decades of winemaking tradition. Some bottles are also produced with kosher certification for export markets, another reminder of the region’s long Jewish connections and continuing trade with Israel.

For souvenir hunters, nostalgia dominates the shelves: Medals, military caps, and retro memorabilia sit alongside locally produced chocolates and spirits. Leaving town by bus provides one final reminder that comfort is not always the priority here, the ride was decidedly spartan but it somehow felt entirely fitting. Even more surreal is being followed and filmed by a local television crew, curious about Israeli visitors exploring their rarely seen corner of Europe.

The Transnistrian region may occupy only a narrow strip of land along the Dniester, but it delivers an experience unlike anywhere else in Europe: part living museum, part functioning dominion, and wholly unforgettable.

Moldova may not yet dominate European travel brochures, but that is precisely its appeal. It remains authentic, affordable, and full of unexpected experiences, where monasteries, Jewish heritage, kosher wineries, and underground wine cities all somehow fit naturally together.

Mark and David were assisted by the National Tourism Office of Moldova (moldova.travel/en/) and Visit Pridnestrovie (pridnestrovie-tourism.com/en/). The authors host The Jerusalem Post Podcast Travel Edition jpost.com/podcast/travel-edition.

This post was originally published on here. 

Last week, at the end of our Shabbat services in Jerusalem, the blessing over the wine that precedes kiddush was interrupted by a frightening announcement. A six-year-old girl who had come to synagogue with her grandparents was missing.

We all froze.

No one was going home. All plans were canceled as we prepared to begin searching.

Thankfully, the little girl was located within minutes. She was playing quietly on an upper floor of the building.

But those minutes were frightening enough. It was everyone’s nightmare, not only that of the parents and grandparents.

Last Shabbat marked 874 days since her disappearance.

I am sure I was not the only one thinking of Haymanut Kasau, the nine-year-old girl who disappeared in Safed on February 25, 2024.

Last Shabbat marked 874 days since her disappearance.

While Israeli hostages were being held by Hamas in Gaza, I checked my phone for news every hour, every time I woke during the night, and first thing every morning. The only jewelry I wore was a gold dog tag to which I had attached tiny gold birds flying free. My car bore yellow ribbons. I wore a yellow hat. My nails were polished yellow, with a hostage ribbon painted on them, so that I would never forget.

But I do not remember Haymanut Kasau in the same way.

Do you?

Her name, Haymanut, means “faith.” But, dad Tesfai Kasau, 54, told me that at home, they call her “tiger,” because she stands strong for what she believes. She is deeply religious, he says.

The adorable third-grader with a good sense of humor and flashing wide smile is athletic and graceful, chosen by the teacher to go to advanced dance lessons. She would dote on her younger siblings, carrying her sister’s backpack to school for her every day.

That ghastly February 25 started off happily. Haymanut’s class at the Shevet Sofer School in Hatzor Haglilit went on a class trip. That afternoon, a farewell party was taking place at the absorption center for several families who were moving to apartments.

Haymanut and her friends handed out leaflets for a candidate in the local elections inside the large building. According to reports, she delivered a leaflet to a family living on the minus seven floor.

“We never felt threatened inside the absorption center,” her dad said.

Security footage later showed her returning to the entrance of the absorption center at 7:25 p.m.

That was the last confirmed sighting of Haymanut Kasau.

Then she was gone.

If she is alive, Haymanut should be preparing to celebrate her bat mitzvah.

Her older sister, Yeros Kasau, 19, has become the family spokesperson. She believes Haymanut is alive. Yeros says she sees her sister in dreams and asks who took her away.

Haymanut does not answer.

Parents Banchi and Tesfai came to Israel from Ethiopia in 2020, when Haymanut was about six. The Jewish Agency placed them in the absorption center on Tzahal Street in Safed.

Recently, another child, their sixth, was born to the family. Her parents named their baby daughter Tzenat, which means “strength” in Amharic. Some translate it as “resilience.”

At 10 p.m. on the night Haymanut disappeared, the Safed police were notified.

1,800 volunteers joined searches, rescue units hunted

Police officers, volunteer searchers, and rescue units hunted for her in the city and throughout the Meron region. Some 1,800 volunteers reportedly joined the searches during the first week.

No physical evidence has been found. Nor has there been a ransom demand or any communication from a kidnapper.

No one has reported a confirmed sighting of her since February 25.

The police officially classify Haymanut as a missing child. Her family insists that she was kidnapped.

They say Haymanut was not a girl who would wander away by herself. She is responsible and reliable, attached to her home and family.

“She’s afraid of the dark,” Yeros has said.

Havdalah was at 6:05 in Safed on the night before she disappeared.

Police say there is not enough evidence to classify her as a kidnapping victim or hostage.

The Knesset Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs Committee has held numerous hearings on the case. There are continuing questions about how her disappearance has been defined and whether the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) should have become involved sooner.

There have been unsubstantiated reports of people seeing her. There have also been unsubstantiated theories about cults that abduct children.

Her dad is sure she was kidnapped. Because of the elections, there were more strangers than usual who came through the building. Maybe someone was dressed up as a religious Jew.

Could police have searched harder during the first critical hours? Would the case have received more attention if Haymanut had come from a long-established Israeli family whose parents spoke fluent Hebrew? Should a helicopter have been used immediately? Should every home in the neighborhood have been searched?

There are so many questions, but no answers.

“Even the families of the hostages had someone they could blame,” Yeros says. “We don’t have any answers.”

Yeros herself is a National Service volunteer at Mishkan HaRe’iyah in Jerusalem, an organization that helps disadvantaged people obtain eyeglasses and hearing aids. She works with elderly people, soldiers, and others in need. In June, Yeros received an award for excellence in National Service at a ceremony attended by President Isaac Herzog. The commendation noted that despite her family’s nearly impossible circumstances, she continued reaching out to help others.

Also in June, relatives of Israelis who had been held hostage in Gaza joined Haymanut’s family and supporters in a march and rally in Tel Aviv.

In December 2025, the investigation was transferred from the Safed police and the Northern District to Lahav 433, the national police unit that handles serious and complex crimes.

There appeared to be a possible breakthrough when a man was suspected of attempting to kidnap a girl who had reportedly known Haymanut. Once again, however, the trail led to a dead end. No evidence linked him to Haymanut’s disappearance.

In February 2026, the attorney-general authorized the Shin Bet to assist the police investigation.

“We want the Shin Bet to take this on,” says dad Tesfai. “They have the most information. When we contact the police, they tell us they are ‘working on her case,’ but we haven’t received any significant updates.”

The Aliyah and Integration Ministry and the Jewish Agency have since launched a new billboard and digital campaign.

Still, there has been no breakthrough.

A reward of NIS 1 million has been offered for information leading to Haymanut’s return.

Banchi and Tesfai Kasau and their children continue to live at the absorption center, even though they have obtained housing elsewhere. If Haymanut’s captors decide to release her, the family wants to be there when she knocks on the door.

Haymanut, pronounced approximately HIGH-mah-note, may be an unfamiliar name to people who do not speak Amharic.

But it is a name all of us need to know.

One of the family’s greatest fears is that the Israeli public and press have lost interest in Haymanut’s story.

Please share this column.

Someone in this small country must have seen something. Someone must know what happened to Haymanut over the past two years and five months.

Let us bring her home.

Let us celebrate her bat mitzvah, together.

The family suggests forwarding tips to the Shin Bet. They are also reaching out to all Israelis in the campaign to find Haymanut. For information and contributions: 055-664-8091. 

The writer is the Israel director of public relations at Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Her latest book is A Daughter of Many Mothers. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Six people have been held in custody and are expected to face charges over a foiled attack earlier this month that allegedly targeted a synagogue in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles, the French anti-terrorism prosecutor said on Saturday.

The six suspects, whose identities were not disclosed, were arrested after about 300 people were evacuated from Sarcelles on July 12 when a suspicious vehicle was found near the synagogue.

The prosecutor said that the plot was linked to Islamic extremism.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

Thirty-five people were killed and 30 injured in a collision between two passenger buses on the Deir al-Zor-to-Damascus road, a health ministry official told state news agency SANA on Saturday.

The collision involved a bus carrying members of the Internal Security Forces and a civilian passenger bus, SANA reported, citing the interior ministry.

Defense Ministry helicopters helped evacuate the injured and recover the bodies, transporting them from Palmyra airport to a military hospital in Homs, SANA said.

Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani offered condolences to the families of those killed and wished the injured a swift recovery.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

Earlier this week, on Wednesday the eve of Tisha B’Av (the day of Jewish national mourning for the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temples and 2,000 subsequent years of exile from Israel), I ascended the Temple Mount, Har HaBayit.

It was an opportunity to pray at the most sacred site in the world for Jews, to mourn the many misfortunes of Jewish history, and to rejoice in the slow but inevitable Jewish return to makom haShechinah, the apex of God’s presence in the Land of Israel – a whirlwind mix of emotions.

I discovered a massive improvement in opportunities for Jewish/Israeli visitation of the site as compared to my previous journeys in 2022 and opportunities for yet more Jewish/Israeli rootedness on the holy mount. More on this below.

But first, I had to answer for myself these questions: Is it permissible under halacha (Jewish law) to ascend the Temple Mount, given the religious holiness of the site and the ritual impurity imputed by Orthodox Jewish tradition to all people in our day? 

Even if this is possible, am I worthy of making this pilgrimage? Is the ascent to the Temple Mount worthwhile and necessary? And might it be recklessly provocative from a diplomatic perspective?

My answers to these four questions: Yes, perhaps, definitely, and defiantly no.

Permissible: After four years of study with scholars, I am convinced that it is possible today to walk around the outskirts of the expansive Temple Mount plaza without transgressing Torah law – after appropriate ritual and devotional preparation and under the strict guidance of Torah sages.

(You avoid the raised platform on which the Dome of the Rock rests and adjacent sections, because, according to halachic literature and modern research, this is where the First and Second Temples and their courtyards were located.)

My guide this week was Rabbi Elisha Wolfson, who has published a comprehensive volume on the matter and who leads a Torah study session on the Mount every day. He calls himself head of the Har HaBayit Kollel.

Leading figures that not only permit but mandate such visits include rabbis Avi Gisser, Dov Lior, Eliezer Melamed, Elyakim Levanon, Re’em Ha’Cohen, Shabtai Rappaport, Tamir Granot, Tzfania Drori, Yaakov Medan, Yehuda Shlush, Yitzhak Shilat, Yuval Cherlow, and Ze’ev Weitman.

Meritorious: I am less sure of my personal worthiness in approaching the Divine Presence on the Mount. 

But in daring to do so, I am relying on the merits of my illustrious ancestors and saintly sons (all long-serving Israeli soldiers and yeshiva-trained scholars of upstanding character). 

Their virtues, and the sacrifices of so many Israelis in recent wars, give me confidence that the Heavens are smiling on a reclamation of the Temple Mount, approving of every demonstration of increased Jewish devotion.

Worthwhile: Properly conducted, a visit to the Temple Mount can be an awe-inspiring experience. Theological anxiety and religious exhilaration pulse through the territory and concentrate the mind. 

The visit is an opportunity to focus one’s thoughts on the truly important things in life and to swiftly convey them to the Almighty.

(Of course, one can and should attempt to pierce the Heavens when supplicating in any synagogue and communing in any prayer quorum, anywhere. But believe me, the prayer experience on Har HaBayit is powerfully different. In Jewish thought, the gates of Heaven, the most direct pathway to the Divine Throne, are directly above the Temple Mount.)

The wonderful news here is that in recent years it has become possible for Jews to actually pray on Har HaBayit and to quietly sing, dance, and study Torah. There are even several abbreviated prayer services held twice a day on the Mount with a pickup halachic quorum (minyan).

Israeli police on the Temple Mount now allow Jews to bow in prayer too, even to prostrate themselves face down on the ground with full extension of the arms and legs – which was the prayer practice in ancient Temple times.

Over the centuries, genuflecting in this way (known as kri-ah and hishtachava-ya) has fallen out of use at Jewish places of worship worldwide. It is a ritual unique to the Temple Mount, reintroduced in our times.

This was new, strange, and even scary for me. Full-scale prostration in prayer is a position of vulnerability and self-abnegation. And yet it was so uplifting.

From restricted access to renewed presence

Necessary: None of this was possible four years ago when I first visited the Mount as part of a tour guide study group. (I highly recommend the intensive course of study about Har HaBayit open to any adult run by an organization called Capot HaManool, The Open Gate.)

Then, Jews had only limited visitation rights and were ushered in tiny groups by very nervous police in and out of the Mount as swiftly as possible. Prayer was forbidden, and religious garb like kippot and tzitzit was inadvisable.

Back then, the (Jerusalem) Wakf Islamic religious trust and other radical Islamic movements had rigged the Mount into a base of terror. 

Visiting Jews faced periodic “outbursts” of harassment and rock-throwing, Jewish worshipers experienced violence while praying at the Western Wall below, and several terrorist attacks involving live ammunition were launched from within the Muslim shrines on the Mount.

The flags of ISIS, Hamas, and Turkey also flew brazenly on the Temple Mount, while wildcat Wakf construction projects on and beneath the Mount willfully destroyed centuries of Jewish archaeological treasures.

Today, thanks to determined police and intelligence operations, the Temple Mount is calm. The radical Islamic gangs have been run off the reserve.
 
And by showing up to visit in ever-growing numbers, the Jewish/Israeli public has pushed the Israeli government to assert its sovereign control and to facilitate partial, restrained expressions of Jewish prayer.

Indeed, I found the atmosphere on the Temple Mount to be relaxed, even festive. The scent in the air was spiritual, not political. The police presence was significant but laid back and supportive.

I visited for almost two hours alongside several large groups of Israeli men, women, and children (even babies in strollers) – and there was not a whiff of protest in any direction. 

No Jews violated the rules (which, alas, still ban Jewish prayer books and the Bible from the Mount), and no Muslims said boo.

We brushed past a large group of Muslim schoolgirls (and their female teachers) in full hijabs in the plaza adjacent to the Aqsa Mosque, peacefully. 

No feathers were ruffled; no hard feelings were vented. The Arab/Islamic and Israeli/Jewish populations tolerated – or at least ignored – one other.

So no, I don’t think that Jewish visitation and prayer rights on Har HaBayit are recklessly provocative. They need not be a political flashpoint. 

In fact, I think that it is time to lay out a new diplomatic initiative for the establishment of a synagogue to solidify Jewish/Israeli rights on Har HaBayit, hopefully through dialogue and even a regional consensus.

You see, one of the things you learn when visiting the Temple Mount – something unknown to most people – is that there is plenty of room up there and loads of undeveloped and even desolate sections of land on the vast Temple Mount plaza.

A Jewish house of prayer could easily be built in the southeast or northeast precincts of the Mount without interfering in any way with Muslim shrines and prayer practices.

Several leading religious figures such as Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu of Safed are now backing this suggestion (which I first made in this newspaper 12 years ago).

Space-sharing and time-sharing arrangements can calmly be crafted, such as those in place at Ma’arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, and the Matriarchs in Hebron.

Again, nobody needs to feel threatened by the presence of Jewish petitioners tucked away in a corner of the holy Mount – unless your opposition to Jewish visitation and prayer stems from wholesale denial of indigenous Jewish rights in Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.

On the way out of the Temple Mount plaza, I tore my shirt in sorrow for the destroyed First and Second Temples that once stood on the site – just as a Jewish mourner does upon the death of a close relative.

This tearing in grief and my earlier prostration in prayer – both of which are called “kri-ah” in Hebrew (although spelled differently) – were formidable bookends of a compelling visit to the Temple Mount.

The writer is the managing senior fellow at the Jerusalem-based Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy. The views expressed here are his own. His diplomatic, defense, political, and Jewish world columns over the past 30 years are at davidmweinberg.com.

This post was originally published on here. 

On Thursday, Tisha B’Av, Jews around the world sat on low chairs and read ancient poems of mourning.

Many of these lamentations describe the obvious horrors of Jewish history: cities destroyed, communities massacred, families scattered, and sacred places burned.

But one of the most striking poems focuses on something less dramatic: it mourns the disappearance of the 24 priestly divisions that once took turns serving in the Temple in Jerusalem.

At first sight, this seems an unlikely subject for grief. Why mourn an ancient rota? Why write poetry about which group was responsible for the service in a particular week?

The answer is that the poem is not really mourning an administrative system. It is mourning a culture of responsibility.

The Temple did not function only through great moments of religious drama. Most of its work was routine. The lamps had to be prepared. The offerings had to be brought. The incense had to be burned. The doors had to be opened. The music had to be sung.

Somebody had to turn up.

Somebody had to be on duty.

Each priestly family knew that there would be a week when responsibility belonged to them. They could not assume that somebody else would do it. They could not applaud the importance of the Temple in theory while remaining absent in practice.

This is a deeply relevant message for modern Israel.

A country is sustained by people who take their turn. Soldiers stand guard while the rest of us sleep. Doctors and nurses work through the night. Teachers enter classrooms each morning. Volunteers deliver food, visit the bereaved, and support families whose lives have been turned upside down.

Society depends less on speeches than on shifts.

It depends on people who arrive, often without recognition, and do what needs to be done.

But the poem does not simply mourn the collapse of this system. It asks why it collapsed.

Its answer is uncomfortable.

The destruction was not only caused by foreign armies. Something had already begun to disintegrate within Jewish society. People retained the appearance of religion while losing its moral substance. 

There were rituals, but also hypocrisy. There were sacred buildings, but also corruption. There were public declarations of faith, but not always honesty, justice, or compassion.

One line is particularly haunting. It describes people who “covered earthenware with silver, a shining exterior over an empty core.”

That phrase could have been written about our own age.

We live in a culture of covering. We cover weak ideas with sophisticated language. We cover institutional failure with public relations. We cover moral emptiness with impressive branding. We cover selfishness with slogans about principle.

The silver is polished. The object beneath it remains worthless.

This temptation is not confined to religion. It affects every part of public life.

Politicians speak of unity while thriving on division. Businesses speak of values while mistreating employees. Public figures speak of responsibility while blaming everyone but themselves. Institutions publish mission statements that bear little resemblance to their internal culture.

We have become experts in presentation.

Asking the real questions

The ancient lamentation asks a more difficult question: What lies underneath?

Religious communities must ask it. Is faith expressed only through dress, language, and public observance, or does it produce humility, honesty, and concern for others?

Secular institutions must ask it, too. Is liberal language matched by tolerance for those who think differently? Is concern for human dignity applied consistently, or only when it is politically convenient?

The State of Israel must ask it.

We speak constantly about being a Jewish and democratic state. Those words are themselves a kind of silver. They are precious, but only if there is something real beneath them.

A Jewish state cannot be defined only by symbols, ceremonies, and a public calendar. It must also be judged by how it treats the weak, the elderly, the immigrant, the bereaved, and the stranger. It must be judged by whether public service is genuinely understood as service.

A democratic state cannot be defined only by elections. It must also be judged by respect for institutions, restraint in the use of power, honesty in public debate, and the willingness to recognize the legitimacy of those with whom we disagree.

The gap between what we say and what we are is where societies begin to rot.

This was the warning of the ancient prophets. Sacred buildings cannot compensate for an unsacred society. Ceremonies cannot conceal cruelty. Religious language cannot transform dishonesty into virtue.

The poem’s power lies in its refusal to let us blame only others.

Tisha B’Av naturally directs our attention towards those who destroyed Jerusalem. Jewish history contains no shortage of enemies, persecutors, and murderers. Their responsibility must never be minimized.

But national maturity requires more than the ability to identify the crimes of others. It requires the courage to examine ourselves.

That is not victim blaming. It is responsibility.

Blame asks: Who caused this?

Responsibility asks: What can we now change?

Perhaps this is why the forgotten priestly rota is such a powerful symbol. Every division knew when its week had arrived. At that moment, it was no longer enough to admire the service or speak about its importance. They had to take their place.

That is the question facing Israeli society now.

Whose turn is it to lower the temperature of public debate?

Whose turn is it to listen rather than shout?

Whose turn is it to place national responsibility above political advantage?

Whose turn is it to care for the families carrying unbearable burdens?

Whose turn is it to stop polishing the silver and examine what lies underneath?

The answer is that it is our turn.

The poem ends with a longing for the “sweet fragrance” of the Temple service to return.

A fragrance cannot be contained. It spreads beyond the place where it begins. But the same is true of a bad smell. A moral stench cannot be sealed inside a parliament, an institution, a religious community, or a private office. 

Corruption, hypocrisy, and contempt seep outwards. They enter the language of society, weaken trust, and gradually become normal.

Fragrance therefore matters. The character of a society is carried in the atmosphere it creates.

A healthy society should possess a moral fragrance. Its values should be detectable not only in its speeches and symbols, but in its streets, offices, schools, hospitals, and homes. 

Conversely, when there is dishonesty or moral decay beneath the polished surface, others will eventually smell it. No amount of silver can disguise it forever.

Yesterday we mourned what was destroyed.

Today, the task of rebuilding begins.

Not by pretending to be what we are not. Not by covering what is worthless with silver. But by making the inside worthy of the outside.

By becoming what we claim to be.

And by taking our turn.

The writer is a rabbi and physician. He writes and teaches on Jewish ethics, leadership, and resilience. His work appears on rabbidrjonathanlieberman.substack.com and youtube.com. @rabbidrjonathanlieberman.

This post was originally published on here. 

Ukraine’s forces struck a Russian warship and vessels used for transporting Iran-linked military cargo in the Caspian Sea, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

“We also achieved very strong results with long‑range strikes in the Caspian Sea – including vessels used in military cargo shipments involving Iran,” he said on X.

Zelensky did not provide additional details.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

Several months ago, I, like many others, bought into the hockey show hype, and since then, my social media feed slowly shifted to… real hockey.

Before I knew it, I found myself on the edge of my seat following actual National Hockey League games, learning about stats and trades, and for the first time in my life, I was kind of enjoying watching a sport.

So when I learned that Israel has its own hockey league, I knew what I had to do.

The Jerusalem Post was going to the boy aquarium, and I was going to get us there.

I’ll admit, I was quite nervous to meet Isaac Levy, a prominent figure in Israel’s hockey scene and the captain of the Jerusalem Capitals, but Levy – and the entire Israel Elite Hockey League – welcomed me with open arms as their newest fan.

The craziest thing is: the hockey is good. Like, it’s really good

Despite going hard on the ice, Israel’s greatest hockey players are all good friends when off it, and Levy actually rooms with Maverick Cortes, a defenseman for Tel Aviv’s team, the aptly-named Hockey Club Tel Aviv, who joined us for a quick chat before the season began.

After the pair confirmed they had not seen Heated Rivalry – though they did share their respect for anything that encourages diversity in sports – the two explained how they ended up in Israel.

“I was born in Israel but grew up in Canada,” Levy said. “When I was about 15, I was recruited to play for Israel’s national team because I have dual citizenship. I’ve played for Israel ever since, from the U18s all the way to the senior national team for more than 20 years.”

“I grew up in Denver, Colorado,” Cortes added. “I always heard about Israel growing up, went to Jewish school, had my bar mitzvah here, and loved it. A few years later, I was scrolling through Instagram and found the league. I thought, ‘This is perfect.’ It combines hockey with my connection to Israel.”

Cortes and Levy are prime examples of the people that the league is looking for: high-level players from abroad with a connection to Israel, combining a love of both the game and the country.

Levy took his love for both Israel and hockey to another level, finding love here and working alongside his brother to open Ashdod’s Blue Ice Arena, where the southern division competes.

The league was formed about five years ago, and has already grown from four teams to eight, with a northern and southern division.

The craziest thing is: The hockey is good. Like, it’s really good.

Like a tournament, with a giant trophy and bragging rights

Israel’s hockey season is more like a tournament, with games happening one after the other until one can be crowned the winner, complete with a giant trophy and bragging rights in the group chat.

The Jerusalem Post’s breaking news desk was honored to be invited to the opening game, to watch Jerusalem’s Capitals – for whom we were practically contractually obligated to cheer – take on the Ashdod Dolphins.

I’ll admit, this was the first time I’ve ever watched a sports game of any kind in my adult life, and I could not believe how much fun it was. Unlike with major league sports, Israel’s players have more than just respect for each other; there’s real love there.

Each pass, save, and goal was met with cheers and hugs as if they’d won the Stanley Cup. 

Our group was on the edge of our seats the whole time as the teams went into a first, and then a second overtime. Seriously, we hadn’t realized sports could have such drama. 

A sudden death shootout? With knives taped to their feet? Immediately obsessed.

In the end, Ashdod clinched it, but we didn’t leave with any real feelings of loss. Sure, we were a little upset that our home team had lost, but even in defeat, our group was already making plans to come back – or at least catch a livestream.

What struck me most, though, was that as the final buzzer neared, we saw players from other teams watching from the sidelines, on their feet, cheering for their friends on both sides of the ice.

By the end of the night, no one seemed to care for whom they were supposed to be rooting. It was the kind of thing that made it obvious this isn’t a league built on rivalries – heated or otherwise – so much as it’s built on camaraderie, and people who genuinely love the game and love each other.

Our trip to the boy aquarium was better than we could’ve imagined, proving that you can find genuine, ice-taped-knives-and-all sports drama right here at home. Consider me a Capitals fan for life – shootout losses and all.

This post was originally published on here. 

Romania said on Saturday that it had shot down a second drone breaching national airspace in as many days over a sparsely populated area near the border with Ukraine.

The first drone, which Romanian prosecutors investigating the fragments said was Russian, was shot down by the NATO state on Friday, the first time it has done so after dozens of airspace breaches.

President Nicusor Dan took to social media to say the second drone had been shot down at 8:30 a.m. (0530 GMT), 10 km (6 miles) west of Sfantu Gheorghe in the Danube Delta.

The defense ministry said the airspace breach had been spotted by radar at 8:22 a.m., and two F-16 fighter jets had been scrambled.

It did not specify the origin of Saturday’s drone; prosecutors said the drone downed on Friday had been Russian.

Russian drones breach Romanian airspace around 30 times, Romania says

Romania, which shares a 650-km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine, said Russian drones had breached its airspace around 30 times since Moscow began attacking Ukrainian ports across the Danube River after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In May, a Russian drone crashed into an apartment building in the southeast Romanian town of Galati, near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people. It was the first time a strike had hit a densely populated area in a NATO country and caused injuries during the Ukraine war.

On Friday, General Gheorghita Vlad, the Romanian army’s chief of staff, said Russian attacks on the region around the Ukrainian port of Odesa had increased ahead of the harvest season, further pressuring key energy and trade routes in the Black Sea.

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“Dana,” a 42-year-old mother of three young children, sat across from me and tried to describe something she couldn’t quite name. “I’m functioning,” she said. “But I’m not myself. I can’t make simple decisions. I forget things. My brain feels stuck.” She wasn’t depressed. She wasn’t anxious. She was profoundly overloaded.

For months, she had been carrying her children’s emotional needs, her husband’s reserve duty of more than 100 days, her own demanding job, and the constant background noise of alerts and national uncertainty.

On the outside, she was still going through the motions of daily life, showing up for every responsibility. But internally, she felt constantly unfocused, exhausted, and deeply disconnected from herself. This wasn’t the post-viral brain fog of an illness; this was the direct result of a nervous system under attack.

Dana’s complaints are a textbook example of Continuous Traumatic Stress (CTS). When a threat remains ongoing with no clear “post-trauma” period, the brain stays locked in a high-arousal state. This actively compromises the prefrontal cortex, leading to forgetfulness, distractibility, emotional volatility, and a general feeling of being mentally disconnected.

Data from the Myers-JDC-Brookdale Institute Israel national longitudinal survey (2024) confirms the scale of this reality, finding that roughly 19% of the public has experienced significant functional impairment directly due to the prolonged war. This is not a personal failure; it is a predictable, physiological response to collective, long-term stress. 

When seniors fear the worst

“Yitzhak,” an 82-year-old grandfather living alone, came to me recently with a troubling question: “Do you think this is the beginning of Alzheimer’s?” He had been misplacing items, forgetting names, and losing track of conversations – lapses that terrified him.

But as we spoke, it became clear that Yitzhak was carrying the heavy emotional weight of his grandson’s combat duty, overwhelmed with the daily news and fears about the future. Yitzhak’s lapses were not early dementia (a fact his family doctor confirmed before referring him to me); rather, they were the physical effects of prolonged, constant worry.

Studies in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease (Sindi et al., 2017) show that stress-related cognitive changes can closely resemble early dementia, especially in older adults. When the nervous system is overloaded, even healthy brains, and particularly aging ones, struggle to keep information, recall names, and maintain focus.

I reassured Yitzhak that while his fears were deeply understandable, his mind was not failing him; rather, his nervous system was showing the natural, temporary strain of carrying a heavy emotional burden.

From the bottom up: healing through the body

At first, Dana tried Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help identify and reframe the thoughts making her feel anxious. But she found that trying to “think differently” couldn’t release the physical tension locking up her body. Her stomach remained knotted, she began suffering from migraines, and she found herself growing short-tempered with her children.

Her brain was simply too overwhelmed for “top-down” cognitive tools. In other words, instead of changing her thoughts, she needed to physically calm her nervous system, “bottom-up.”

So, I changed direction in my work with Dana and spoke to her about somatic regulation. This clinical approach posits that physical activity rather than conscious thinking calms the nervous system. When the body finally calms, cortisol levels drop, allowing the prefrontal cortex to come back on and restore cognitive clarity.

Dana returned to swimming, a practice she had abandoned years earlier. In the water, her mind finally quieted. The rhythmic movement calmed her nervous system, while the physical pressure of the water reduced her body’s physiological alertness. She also returned to Israeli dancing, a passion from her youth. 

Yitzhak found similar relief by joining a neighborhood Tai Chi beginners’ class. Its slow, deliberate movements acted as a powerful grounding technique, masterfully redirecting his attention away from the persistent news cycle and directing it into physical balance, posture, and deep, restorative breathing.

Furthermore, joining a class with other seniors was powerfully helpful. Research has shown that individuals who maintain social connections show significantly less cognitive decline than those navigating stress in isolation (Psychiatry Research 2019). When isolated, older individuals are far more vulnerable to accelerated cognitive decline and severe functional impairment under the weight of chronic wartime stress.

The people of Israel are not losing their inherent abilities. They are living through extraordinary, unprecedented circumstances, and their brains are responding exactly as human brains are wired to respond under prolonged threat.

The road forward demands that we trade self-criticism for self-compassion. Our minds are not failing us; they are doing their best to protect us. By taking small, consistent, body-based steps, we can gently guide our nervous systems back to a state of safety. And, we can move toward finding the path back to ourselves. 

The writer is a psychotherapist with over 40 years of experience helping individuals, couples, and families cope with stress, trauma, and the emotional impact of crisis and war. Many of his clients are olim. He sees clients in his Ra’anana clinic and online. drmikegropper@gmail.com 

This post was originally published on here. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Damascus on Saturday for the first trip to Syria by a serving United Nations chief since 2009, before the start of a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

“The United Nations stands with Syria at this pivotal moment,” Guterres said in a post on X on arriving for what he described as a “visit of solidarity.” He appealed to the international community to “spare no effort” to support the Syrian people.

I have just arrived in Damascus for a visit of solidarity.

My message is clear:

The @UN stands with Syria at this pivotal moment & I appeal to the international community to spare no effort to support the people of Syria as well. pic.twitter.com/5xg6sNT1J4

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 25, 2026

Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa received Guterres at the presidential palace in Damascus, state news agency SANA said.

Sharaa, the former head of al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, was until November 2025 under terrorism-related sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council.

Guterres’ visit is another milestone for Syria since rebels ousted president Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, ending the war that began in 2011 and launching a transitional period steered by an Islamist-led leadership.

At the time, Guterres described “the end of the Syrian dictatorship” under Assad as a sign of hope for the region.

The UN chief will also meet Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, other government officials and representatives of Syrian civil society, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.

Syria returns to global stage

Guterres will underline that the country has an opportunity “not only to recover from conflict, but also to lay the foundations for a future for Syria that will be more stable, more inclusive, and more prosperous for all Syrians,” Dujarric said.

Guterres is expected to be in Damascus for several days, but the full schedule of his visit has not been released by his office.

He is visiting just weeks after two bombs exploded near a hotel in Damascus where French President Emmanuel Macron spent the night, overshadowing the first visit to Syria by a European Union head of state since Assad was toppled.

Sharaa’s government is seeking to rebuild Syria’s international ties and economy after nearly 14 years of war and decades of isolation under Assad family rule.

The transition has been marred by two major episodes of sectarian bloodshed that have tested Sharaa’s repeated pledges to protect Syria’s religious minorities.

Nearly 1,500 Alawites, the sect that Assad is from, were killed in Syria’s coastal region last year by government-aligned factions, and hundreds of Syrians from the Druze minority were killed months later in the south.

Guterres expressed alarm over both bouts of violence and has called for accountability.

Sharaa, who broke ties with al Qaeda in 2016, led an alliance of Islamist rebel factions that ousted Assad in a lightning offensive in December 2024.

Since taking power, his government has sought to re-establish Syria’s diplomatic ties to expand beyond Assad’s longtime allies, Russia and Iran.

Last year, Sharaa became the first Syrian president since 1967 to take part in the UN General Assembly in New York.

The United States has lifted most sweeping sanctions on Syria, and US President Donald Trump informed Sharaa earlier this month that he intended to remove Syria from Washington’s list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Guterres is expected to address Syria’s new parliament on Monday and will visit a UN peacekeeping force that has maintained a buffer zone between Israeli and Syrian forces for decades, Dujarric said.

Israeli troops have occupied new areas in southern Syria after Assad was ousted. Damascus has demanded they withdraw and return to a 1974 disengagement agreement.

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‘You look pregnant,” my daughter Merav joked upon seeing my belly when my T-shirt rode up during a session of YouTube home yoga.

“That’s exactly how I feel sometimes,” I replied, even though I have no idea what it feels like to be pregnant. But my abdomen was bloated, round, and surprisingly shiny. It made it hard to walk and breathe, as it impinged on my diaphragm. 

The bloating had come on too quickly to simply be a matter of overeating. Plus, I still had the same emaciated visage I left the hospital with a year ago – everywhere but my belly, that is. 

My gastroenterologist tapped around my tummy using his fingers like a contractor inspecting a wall to see if it’s solid or hollow.

“I can’t tell if it’s distended from gas or fluid,” he told me. “If it’s gas, then I think you may have a small bowel obstruction as a result of your Crohn’s disease. Get a CT tonight. You may need emergency surgery, too.” 

Could be lumphoma, or heart, or kidney, or liver disease

He printed out a referral to the ER.

“And if it’s fluid?” I asked.

“Could be your lymphoma is back.” 

My face fell. 

“Or heart, kidney, or liver disease.”

Small comfort.

By sheer coincidence, I had a PET CT scheduled for the next day. That would tell whether it was cancer or an obstruction.

I went for the scan as planned, but the weekend was coming up, and my mind was spinning like our 30-year-old Maytag washer.

The choices in front of me were both rotten: surgery or cancer. An operation would be annoying, but it would probably resolve the issue fairly quickly. But with my chronically low platelets, my blood doesn’t clot well. 

“You could die on the table,” my wife, Jody, said, giving voice to my worst-case monologue. (There’s a workaround: I could be given platelets via IV an hour before and during the operation.)

But if the cancer was back, would I even agree to do more treatment? This last year, which was supposed to be a “good” one with my lymphoma finally in remission, has been plagued with so many side effects, the thought of piling on more from additional cancer treatment that might not even work was not particularly appealing.

I was mired in limbo land, convinced I had only days, weeks, or maybe morphine-mediated months left to live. I stopped exercising – what was the point? For the next week, I barely left the house.

Jody asked me to write down my passwords for her. “Just in case.”

Ouch.

Life in limbo contradicts our Western “hurry up” culture, where waiting is greeted more with impatience than equanimity. 

A report from the American Psychological Association, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, dovetails with my present-day experience. It found that 32% of Americans struggled to make even basic decisions, like what to wear, when everything feels uncertain. Some 49% said they found it impossible to plan for their futures. 

Living in limbo imposes “a regimen of constant risk assessment,” notes Arthur Evans Jr., the APA’s chief executive officer. “Operating amid so much uncertainty compounds a general state of mental exhaustion.”

People who have been in similar situations report putting off social engagements, sometimes avoiding communication entirely because they don’t know what to tell people when they’re invariably asked, “How are you?” or tell you with glee, “You look good!”

Living in the grip of “When will the other shoe drop?” is not something human beings are wired well to handle.

On Sunday, after the weekend, I went back to my GI with the CD from the PET. He couldn’t tell if it was cancer, but he did say it wasn’t gas and I wasn’t obstructed. Probably “ascites,” the “abnormal buildup of excess fluid in the peritoneal cavity.” 

Lymphoma was still on the table.

My hematologist assured me she’d look at the PET results before Wednesday, when she could discuss it during her weekly team meeting – reasonable from her end, but it just prolonged my torturous downward spiraling thoughts.

Redemption came at 9 pm by email. The PET CT was clear: There was no recurrence of cancer.  

She then added, reassuringly, “I told you that if we could get rid of your lymphoma, I would fix everything else.”

A month later, after many additional tests – including several ultrasounds and an MRCP (an MRI of my abdomen), I did a second PET CT. Maybe there was something developing that hadn’t been there previously.

The answer, blessedly, was once again no lymphoma.

I next had a total of 5.5 liters of fluid drained from my belly via a needle and collection bag. That pointed more definitively to “portal hypertension” emanating from the liver.

My next step is a “transjugular liver biopsy,” where a tube, camera, and snippers are introduced via an artery in my neck, then threaded through the heart all the way to the intended organ, during which they’ll take an internal biopsy and measure any pressure that might be pushing fluid out of my blood vessels. This kind of procedure is much safer for someone like me than accessing the liver by surgery.

Scheduling the biopsy took another three weeks, during which time I was still bloated, low on energy, and getting a bit panicked as our family vacation overseas was just a few weeks away. I needed answers now and – if a final diagnosis could be made – treatment. 

As the delays mounted, I found myself wanting to assign blame. Did my GI really have to play the cancer card with someone like me who gravitates toward dire?

In the meantime, limbo land reigns supreme.

My hematologist used to point out to her colleagues when I’d come to Hadassah-University Medical Center for checkups that I was her “walking miracle.”

I think a better description now might be her “moseying mystery.”

The writer’s book, Totaled: The Billion-Dollar Crash of the Startup that Took on Big Auto, Big Oil and the World, was published earlier this year as an audiobook. It is available on Amazon and other online booksellers in print, eBook, and Audible formats.

brianblum.com

This post was originally published on here. 

An air defense system operated by Greek military personnel in Saudi Arabia intercepted two ballistic missiles launched from Yemen on Saturday targeting oil refineries in Yanbu, Greek security sources told Reuters.

Saudi Civil Defense had issued an emergency alert in Yanbu to warn residents of danger.

“The attack was launched with two ballistic missiles and targeted the refineries in Yanbu,” one of the sources said, adding that the missiles had been launched from Yemen.

A second source confirmed the interception of the missiles.

Greece has deployed a US-made Patriot air defense battery, operated by Greek personnel, in Saudi Arabia since 2021 under an agreement to help protect the kingdom’s energy infrastructure. Saturday’s interception was the second time that Greek personnel had operated the system.

Saudi-led coalition carries out strikes on Houthi military sites

This comes after the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen said it had carried out strikes on Houthi military sites in Yemen’s Hodeidah governorate on Friday, saying the sites were used to threaten commercial shipping. 

The Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV said Saudi strikes hit facilities belonging to the state telecommunications corporation in Hodeidah city. The broadcaster also said Saudi forces targeted Kamaran Island, off Yemen’s western coast.

In a statement, Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, said on Saturday that Hodeidah port had not been targeted and that all Yemeni ports, including Hodeidah, Ras Issa and Salif, remained open to maritime navigation and were receiving commercial ships.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul Salam accused Saudi Arabia of continuing a siege of Yemen and stated that despite statements about defending Yemen’s sovereignty, Saudi Arabia is adopting the same method that he said Israel uses in its wars, Iran International reported on Saturday. 

The Houthis also declared that Saudi Arabia has turned itself into an open enemy of Yemen. 

No strikes reported in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait

CENTCOM made no announcements of new strikes against Iran on Friday night or early Saturday morning, after announcing strikes for 13 consecutive nights. 

Additionally, no strikes or sirens appeared to have been reported by Bahrain, Jordan, or Kuwait overnight. The three countries are ones Iran has targeted in retaliation for US strikes, and contain US military bases. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Mazyar Maximilien Jazani was six months old when his father was arrested by the SAVAK, the shah’s security services, seven when his father was killed in custody, and 13 when the Islamic Republic’s pursuit of his mother forced the family to flee Iran.

Now an Iranian-French lawyer living in Europe, Jazani has taken a step that would once have seemed almost inconceivable: He has publicly endorsed Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of the monarch his father fought to overthrow, and joined the legal work surrounding Pahlavi’s movement for political change in Iran.

For Jazani, this represents a rejection of the ideological inheritance that has divided Iran’s opposition for nearly half a century, without denying the abuses committed under the previous monarchy or the circumstances of his father’s death.

Jazani’s father, Bijan Jazani, was one of the leading theorists of Iran’s revolutionary Left. Born in 1938, he emerged from the socialist wing of the National Front associated with former prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

Although the Organization of Iranian People’s Fedai Guerrillas later claimed his legacy, it was founded in 1971 by other Marxist militants, including Masoud Ahmadzadeh and Amir Parviz Pouyan, whose conception of guerrilla warfare differed from Jazani’s.

According to Mazyar, only a small remaining faction of the organization adopted Jazani’s theories in 1977, nearly six years after its founding.

Bijan Jazani assassinated among political prisoners

Arrested in 1968 and sentenced to 15 years in prison, Bijan Jazani was killed alongside another reported eight political prisoners near Tehran’s Evin Prison on April 19, 1975. 

The authorities said the men had been shot while attempting to escape. Their deaths have since been widely regarded as extrajudicial executions carried out by SAVAK personnel.

“There is no other word for this,” Jazani told The Jerusalem Post. “They were assassinated.”

Jazani said his father was nearing the end of his sentence when he and his fellow prisoners were taken from Evin Prison and killed.

“My father was arrested when I was only six months old,” he said. “I was seven years old when he was killed without any due process while he was serving his 15-year prison sentence.”

The killing created a legacy that Mazyar Jazani would carry throughout his childhood. Within several years, the revolution that his father’s few remaining followers had welcomed had produced another system of persecution.

Jazani was around 13 when the Islamic Republic truly consolidated its power in 1981, two years after the revolution, and began eliminating political forces that would not submit to the clerical state.

His mother, a political activist who had participated in the early struggle against compulsory veiling, became one of those targeted.

The first major women’s demonstrations against the new order took place only weeks after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran in February 1979. 

Jazani recalled that the authorities initially retreated from their attempt to impose the hijab, only to return with an expanding campaign against women, secular activists, leftists, and other opponents.

When prosecutors sought his mother, he said, they detained members of the extended family in an attempt to force her to surrender.

“They arrested many of our cousins, members of our family, my aunt, many people, for the sole purpose of forcing my mother to deliver herself to death,” he explained.

The relatives were eventually released after the authorities learned that Jazani’s mother and her children had escaped to France.

He arrived unable to speak French. English had been his second language at Tehran’s Alborz High School, so he quickly immersed himself in French literature and philosophy before entering law school. 

His encounters with France’s legal system also left him dissatisfied.

As a young lawyer, Jazani volunteered to represent defendants who could not afford legal assistance. He became increasingly disturbed by what he viewed as the imbalance between the powers of investigating judges and the limited ability of defense lawyers to challenge the prosecution’s case.

He recollected seeing prosecutors and judges discuss cases privately before hearings and encountering defendants whose attempts to present exculpatory witnesses had been restricted.

“If I am defending an innocent person, I cannot promise that he will be found not guilty,” he told the Post, recalling this period. “But I should at least be able to ensure that the jury or the judge hears the truth.”

Jazani later participated in efforts to reform French criminal procedure, including proposing that defense lawyers be granted greater power to request investigative measures. 

One of his proposals had entered French law before, he said, only to be reversed by a subsequent government. He eventually left criminal litigation and built a practice advising musicians, composers, producers, and other figures in the arts.

The choice, he said, reflected a personal insistence on understanding where his clients’ money came from and whether he could ethically contribute to their work.

“I do not judge other lawyers,” he stressed. “The defense is a fundamental right. It was only my personal choice.”

A warning from prison

In an open and wide-ranging discussion with the Post, Jazani rejected the idea that 50 years on, his father’s politics could be reduced to Soviet-aligned communism or blind hostility toward the monarchy.

Bijan Jazani was a Marxist, his son said, but also a nationalist and patriot, as proven by his defense memorandum during his trial before the special military court, which convicted him.

More importantly, he had identified the danger posed by political Islam before many others on the Iranian Left were willing to acknowledge it. His writings have proven to be prophetic.

While in prison, Bijan Jazani wrote a short work addressing the attempted marriage of Marxism and Islam. The text warned that accommodating religious revolutionaries could strengthen the clerical forces seeking to dominate the opposition. 

It was smuggled out of prison, his son said, but some left-wing activists initially declined to publish it because they feared criticism of political Islam would divide the anti-shah movement, spearheaded from abroad by Khomeini, who was in exile at the time.

“He drew the attention of his comrades to the danger of political Islam,” Jazani said. “It was a very short book, but it became very well known in Iran.”

Bijan Jazani’s warning proved prescient. Much of the Iranian Left supported Khomeini, with factions of the Tudeh Party and the Fedai organization backing the Islamic Republic even as it constructed the institutions that would later imprison and execute leftists.

Mazyar Jazani’s criticism remains scathing about those decisions.

One of the factors that helped sway part of the Left to clerical rule, beyond a mutual anti-shah feeling, was Cold War politics, which trapped them in notions of “anti-imperialism.”

Because of this, many also adopted hostility toward Israel because of its alliance with the United States, Jazani explained, allowing geopolitical ideologies to take precedence over the nature of the regime emerging inside Iran.

A small group of Marxists, based on an analysis of Karl Marx’s pamphlet, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, advocated that the central conflict was no longer capitalism against socialism or anti-imperialism, Jazani said. 

Instead, they believed it was a struggle against a new clerical caste that was consolidating political and economic power for itself.

“The problem was the caste of ayatollahs – the clerical caste,” he said. “An oligarchy of mullahs, a kleptocracy.”

Jazani nevertheless disputed the claim that the Iranian Left was the decisive force that brought Khomeini to power. 

He placed greater responsibility on Western governments that viewed political Islam as a barrier against Soviet expansion and tolerated Islamist organizations while repressing communists. 

As evidence, Jazani highlighted that Khomeini was hosted in France in Neauphle-le-Château while in exile.

Further, in the Guadeloupe Conference of January 1979, former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, US president Jimmy Carter, and British prime minister James Callaghan, along with former West German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, agreed to accept the shah’s downfall, proven by their initial continued working relationship with the ayatollahs in the early days of the Islamic Republic.

What the Left did after the monarchy’s fall was “despicable,” Jazani said, but it was not the determining factor in Khomeini’s rise.

“The Left in Iran was a problem,” he said. “But the determining factor was the fear of communism and the belief that Islam could be used as a solution against it.”

That strategy, he argued, failed to understand that communist and Islamist totalitarianism could find common cause against democracy, individual freedom, and the rule of law.

“It was not worthwhile to create the monster of Islamism to combat an enemy that was communism,” he said. “That was the great mistake of the 20th century.”

The photograph of Pahlavi

Jazani’s own movement toward Reza Pahlavi did not happen through monarchist nostalgia.

For years, he told the Post, the Iranian opposition lacked an alternative capable of attracting broad support inside the country.

Successive protest movements – the Green Movement, the gasoline protests, and Woman, Life, Freedom – helped create the foundations for a larger national uprising. Nevertheless, none persuaded him to devote himself fully to an organized political project.

That changed following the mass killing of protesters in Iran in January of this year, when an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people were shot by the regime. Human rights groups have documented massacres across the country, including the executions of wounded protesters lying in hospital beds.

Overcome by reports and testimonies emerging from the country, Jazani joined a demonstration outside the Iranian embassy in Lisbon carrying a photograph of Pahlavi.
“I couldn’t do anything,” he said. “So I went with the photograph of the crown prince.”

The image attracted immediate attention because of his family heritage and who Jazani is. An interview he gave at the protest was seen by people close to Pahlavi, and contact followed. Eventually, Jazani was invited to meet him.

“It was an honor and a pleasure,” he said of the meeting. “When you meet Pahlavi, he is somebody very human and simple, and very smart. You see the light of intelligence in his eyes.”

“He is not somebody who lies,” Jazani said. “He speaks his mind and does what he says.”

The meeting carried an historical irony. Pahlavi’s father had ruled the state whose security apparatus imprisoned and killed Bijan Jazani. The son of that prisoner was now offering his support to the former monarch’s son.

“A revolution needs two conditions to succeed,” he told the exiled royal at their meeting. 

“The first, which is necessary, is that the people need to reject the government. The second, which is sufficient, is that rulers must no longer be able to govern,” Jazani continued.

“Here, the people did not see this as just a fight over the hijab or gasoline prices,” he noted. “Here, they say, ‘We don’t want the regime at all. We don’t want it. We don’t want the Islamic Republic. So what do we want instead? We want Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, who has spent all these years working and presenting his vision.’”

Yet Jazani does not view his endorsement as approval of every act committed during Shah Mohammad Reza’s reign. 

Instead, he distinguishes between the monarchy’s historical record and Reza Pahlavi’s stated commitment to secular government, individual rights, territorial integrity, and the Iranian people’s right to choose their political system.

“[Pahlavi] insisted again that he is not seeking to be king,” Jazani said. “He is fighting for the Iranian people to have the right to decide, in a free election, what kind of government they want.”

“Republic or kingdom – it does not matter,” he emphasized. “Only the people should choose the form of government.”

Jazani personally favors a parliamentary kingdom. Iran’s history, geographic scale, and diverse population, he argued, make a politically neutral king preferable to a powerful elected presidency that could again be captured by an ideological movement.

He pointed to Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdogan as an example of an elected leader using republican institutions to advance Islamism.

In Jazani’s preferred system, executive authority would rest largely with an elected prime minister, while a king would serve as a constitutional arbiter. 

A bicameral legislature, including a senate representing Iran’s regions, would provide an additional restraint on temporary political majorities.

“We need checks and balances everywhere,” he said. “In legislative power, in judicial power, and in executive power.”

He acknowledged that any such model would have to be approved by the Iranians themselves.

Following any future fall of the Islamic Republic, those responsible for killings, torture, rape, corruption, and other crimes must be arrested and tried, Jazani said, his legal background shining through. 

But their trials must demonstrate the values of the system replacing the regime rather than reproduce its methods.

“There will be justice, but there will be no death penalty, no executions,” he said. “Everyone involved in the crimes of the Islamic Republic who is captured will be judged, but no death penalty.”

His father was killed outside the law by the previous state, and his mother was pursued by the state that replaced it. Jazani’s response is not to demand retaliatory justice against either camp, but to insist that the next system bind itself to legal restraint.

“We want the rule of law,” he said.

Israel’s role

Jazani was unusually direct about the assistance he believes Israel can provide to those seeking to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

He has met Israel’s ambassador in Lisbon and said many Iranians viewed Israeli action against the regime as support for the Iranian people rather than hostility toward Iran.

“If we even have Israel alone continuing to support us, that would be a very good help,” he told the Post, while insisting that the Iranian movement would continue regardless of what foreign governments decided.

“With or without external help, we will continue our fight,” he said. “The question is the human cost and duration of this fight.”

“The regime is a zombie,” he added. “If we have Israel’s and America’s help, it can reduce the human cost and make it faster.”

Jazani’s public meeting with Pahlavi attracted more than a million views online, with messages of support from Iranians in Iran to the world quickly following. It also produced attacks from people accusing the son of an alleged Fedai leader of betraying his father’s cause.

Jazani dismissed much of that criticism as an effort by the Islamic Republic and its online network to preserve old divisions within the opposition. The regime, he said, understands the danger posed when Iranians from incompatible historical traditions begin standing together.

“They recognize the danger embedded in this kind of meeting,” he said.

For Jazani, there is no conflict in supporting Reza Pahlavi. Nor does preserving his father’s memory require remaining bound to every ideology and alliance that existed in the 1960s and 1970s.

His father’s generation fought over monarchy, Marxism, nationalism, imperialism, and revolution, while many failed to recognize that the clerical movement gathering around Khomeini intended to destroy them all.

“Whatever somebody believed yesterday does not matter,” he said during his meeting with Pahlavi. “What matters is what they choose today.”

For Mazyar Maximilien Jazani, that choice is clear. He believes there will be a future Iran built around a secular government, individual freedoms of religion and politics, and a democratic decision on Iran’s future. These will be accompanied by the legal safeguards denied to both his mother and father.

This post was originally published on here. 

A 65-year-old man was seriously injured this week after being brutally attacked for wearing an Israeli flag pin in the town of Hochberg, near the city of Würzburg in the German state of Bavaria.

According to a statement from German police and prosecutors, the suspected attacker is a 20-year-old Syrian citizen. He has been arrested and is being held on suspicion of attempted murder, with investigators examining whether antisemitic and anti-Israeli motives were behind the attack.

According to the authorities, the incident occurred during the night between Sunday and Monday.

The suspect noticed the Israeli flag pin the man was wearing, approached him, and an argument ensued. At one point, the attacker struck the victim in the face, knocked him to the ground, and continued kicking him in the head and upper body even after he had fallen.

The victim managed to try to escape, but the attacker chased him and continued beating him until police officers who were nearby subdued and arrested the suspect. The victim was taken to the hospital suffering, among other injuries, a fractured vertebra and severe trauma.

Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, strongly condemned the attack. German media quoted a statement released by the Israeli Embassy in Berlin, in which Prosor said, “How many Palestinian flags do you see every day in every city? Dozens. They can be displayed openly anywhere. But one small Israeli flag puts lives at risk. In 2026. In Germany.”

“This is not only an attack on one individual, but on the values upon which democratic society is built. Anyone who attacks a person simply for wearing an Israeli flag pin is attacking not only a Jew or an Israeli – they are attacking Germany itself,” he added.

Protests erupt against antisemitic violence in Würzburg

On Friday, a protest rally titled Against Antisemitic Violence was held in central Würzburg.

Participants expressed solidarity with the victim of the attack, called for determined action against antisemitism, and announced a fundraising campaign to support him. The rally’s organizers emphasized that the attack is not an isolated incident but rather a reflection of escalating violence against Jews and supporters of Israel in Germany.

The Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism reported last month that it documented 8,725 antisemitic incidents in Germany during 2025 – an average of 24 antisemitic incidents every day of the year, totaling 24 incidents per day across all 365 days.

The published report shows that the number of incidents has risen steadily since the October 7, 2023 massacre and continues to affect the lives of Jews in Germany.

Compared with 2022, the number of incidents has more than tripled. Israel-related antisemitism accounted for approximately two-thirds (68%) of all recorded incidents.

This post was originally published on here. 

Nineteenth-century American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.” British actress Audrey Hepburn, who was a passionate, lifelong gardener, said: “To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.”

Both were on target.

Pregnant women who live in greener neighborhoods may have lower levels of long-term stress, according to a new study led by researchers from Bar-Ilan University’s Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in Safed. 

Colleagues at Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Helen Schneider Hospital for Women at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus in Petah Tikva, and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, collaborated on the research.

Grass, trees, plants linked to brain’s production of less cortisol, cortisone

They found that greater exposure to residential greenery during pregnancy was associated with lower levels of cortisol and cortisone – two key stress hormones that can affect both maternal and fetal health.

Their research has been published in the journal Environmental Epidemiology under the title “Satellite and ground-level residential greenness and hair steroid hormones during pregnancy.”

Unlike stress hormones measured in blood, saliva, or urine, which reflect stress over minutes or hours, hormones measured in hair provide a profile of stress hormones accumulated over several months. 

By analyzing hair samples from hundreds of pregnant women, the researchers were able to assess chronic stress levels during the second trimester of pregnancy. Higher levels during pregnancy are linked with an increased risk of complications that negatively impact the health of the mother or the fetus.

The team found that women living in greener environments during their second trimester had significantly lower concentrations of cortisol and cortisone in their hair.

Their findings were consistent across several measures of residential greenery and across different distances near participants’ homes. “Our findings suggest that exposure to greenery around the home is associated with reduced chronic stress hormones during pregnancy,” said Sohini Bhattacharya, a doctoral candidate in her fourth year at medical school who comes from a green suburb of Calcutta, India. 

“This is important because prolonged exposure to elevated stress hormones can negatively affect both the mother and the developing fetus.”

The current study builds on earlier research by the same team, which found an association between residential greenness and lower hair cortisol levels during the first trimester of pregnancy. 

The new study expands those findings by examining additional hormones, later stages of pregnancy, and more detailed measures of greenery.

Researchers collected hair samples and analyzed hormone levels using advanced laboratory techniques from 385 pregnant women recruited from the Helen Schneider Hospital, who had no pregnancy complications in the past and lived in the Petah Tikva area.

Assuming an average hair growth of one centimeter per month, the hair representing the second trimester (14 to 27 weeks’ gestational age) was cut, weighed, cleaned, placed on aluminum foil, and kept in paper envelopes for analysis.

To estimate exposure to greenery, the team measured vegetation around participants’ homes using satellite imagery and the widely used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. 

They then applied a novel method based on Google Street View images. Both methods pointed to the same conclusion: women living in greener surroundings had lower long-term stress hormone levels.

Asked why the team’s study was based on both satellite images and Google Street View, Bhattacharya explained that “other studies were only satellite-based, so the researchers had only a bird’s-eye view from above. But we used the street view so we could see images in real time and identify various types of greenery.”

One of the study’s most unexpected findings emerged from the street-level analysis. Women living in areas with a higher percentage of grass around their homes had notably lower cortisol and cortisone levels than women living in less grassy environments.

The two stress hormones play important roles in regulating metabolism, immune function, sleep cycles, and maintaining pregnancy – but prolonged elevation of these hormones can be harmful.

Previous studies suggested that exposure to natural environments may reduce stress but mostly relied on self-reported measures or short-term biological indicators. Few studies have examined long-term stress using hair samples, and even fewer have focused specifically on pregnant women.

‘The more grass, the lower the women’s stress hormones’

“I saw there were a lot of influences on health in pregnant women, and I find greenness very interesting,” Bhattacharya told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. 

Asked what surprised her among the results, she noted that the positive effect of seeing and walking near grass was not expected. 

“The more grass, the lower the women’s stress hormones. It can also improve their sleep quality, so it’s holistic.”

The team measured both cortisol and cortisone rather than cortisol alone, because “during pregnancy, natural cortisol levels naturally increase to support fetal organ maturation and growth. 

“The body actively converts much of this active cortisol into inactive cortisone to protect the developing baby from excessive stress hormone exposure. Too much is harmful to a fetus,” Bhattacharya explained.

Cortisol, which is biologically active and circulates in the mother’s blood, is converted into cortisone in a pregnant woman, and this is one of the most crucial mechanisms for protecting a developing baby – acting like a protective shield. 

This cortisol is converted into cortisone, which is biologically inactive and prevents the cortisol from reaching the fetus in harmful amounts.

The team analyzed the women’s hair – a strand just three centimeters long – and not saliva, urine, or blood, because these samples reflect their hormonal status for just a few hours before they’re tested, but as hair grows for years, it reflects its chronic hormonal status, she continued.

If a pregnant woman lives in a neighborhood with little greenery, it’s recommended that she walk daily in a park or forest or at least see grass – or she can grow plants on her balcony. 

Her physician should recommend this, noted Bhattacharya. But the study did not investigate the “ideal dose” – how many minutes per day or hours per week that pregnant women should be in green spaces.

“If city planners and local authorities seek cost-effective ways to improve public health and well-being, they should plant more green spaces – a task that is relatively inexpensive to carry out – to reduce stress,” she said.

The findings come at a time when many populations, including those in Israel, are experiencing increased stress due to ongoing conflict, climate change, and rapid urbanization.

The study’s lead researcher, Bar-Ilan University medical faculty member Prof. Keren Agay-Shay, concluded that their findings “support efforts to preserve and expand green spaces and greenness in residential neighborhoods. 

“As cities continue to grow around the world, integrating trees, grass, and other vegetation into urban environments may provide a simple and accessible strategy for improving public health.”

The results “highlight the importance of integrating natural environments into public health strategies, particularly for vulnerable populations,” Agay-Shay added.

This post was originally published on here. 

Experts have found that addictions are common and increasing – not only to alcohol and tobacco, but also to gambling, buying useless goods online, constant scrolling on social media, gaming, and workaholism. 

Now there is also an addictive behavior involving the craving to undergo cosmetic procedures to look better. Those who constantly use social media – looking at “perfect” female faces and bodies and comparing themselves with these images – are at a higher risk.

As these procedures become increasingly normalized around the world, a new study conducted by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI) suggests that, for some women, repeated treatments may become addiction-like rather than being aimed at looking somewhat better.

The procedures performed in the study were surgical, such as liposuction to remove abdominal fat, face and head procedures like facelifts, body and buttock lifts, and nonsurgical procedures like the injection of botulinum toxin to minimize wrinkles.

The study found that one in five women who had undergone cosmetic procedures met the threshold for moderate-to-severe risk of addictive cosmetic procedure use, with low body esteem and problematic social media use emerging as the strongest risk factors.

The study was led by Dr. Vera Skvirsky, together with Dr. Uri Lifshin, Dr. Dvora Shmulewitz, and Prof. Mario Mikulincer from HUJI’s psychology department and the Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health. 

It was published in the Journal of Health Psychology under the title “Prevalence of addictive use of cosmetic procedures and risk factors among Israeli [Jewish] women.”

While examining “Addictive Cosmetic Procedures Use” (ACPU) among the women, the researchers listed 11 items assessing indicators/symptoms, including “I wanted to cut down on or stop having cosmetic procedures, but I couldn’t.” 

They computed a total score for each participant by summing up answers to the 11 items, dividing the responses into mild (one to three procedures), moderate, (four or five), and severe (six and over) ACPU.

The researchers surveyed 1,614 women between the ages of 25 and 71, making it one of the largest investigations to date into the psychological patterns associated with repeated cosmetic treatments. 

Self-esteem, body image tied to addictive patterns of cosmetic procedure use

The findings point to a phenomenon that the team said deserves “greater attention from both clinicians and the public.”

Among women who had undergone cosmetic procedures, 20% met the threshold for moderate-to-severe risk of addictive cosmetic procedure use during their lifetime; more than 15% reported symptoms that were addictive within the past year.

Across the full sample, nearly 9% of the women showed moderate-to-severe signs of problematic cosmetic procedure use. The researchers adapted an assessment tool originally based on criteria published in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders for substance-related disorders.

Participants were asked questions typically associated with addiction, including whether they had unsuccessfully tried to stop undergoing cosmetic procedures, felt compelled to continue despite negative consequences, or experienced cravings related to treatments.

Previous research has linked cosmetic procedures to body-image concerns and body dysmorphic disorder – when one can’t stop thinking about perceived defects or flaws in their appearance that appear minor or can’t be seen by others. 

But this study goes further by examining whether repeated cosmetic treatments can, in some cases, resemble a behavioral addiction.

Unlike earlier research that focused on patients at cosmetic clinics, this one surveyed women from the general population and found that addiction-like patterns were most strongly associated with the combination of low body esteem and problematic social media use.

While cosmetic procedures are often linked with confidence and self-expression, the researchers found that repeated engagement may also coincide with vulnerabilities tied to body image and digital behavior. 

Women with lower body esteem were much more likely to report addictive patterns of cosmetic procedure use, especially when paired with high levels of problematic social media use. 

Participants who reported problematic or excessive social media behavior were especially vulnerable if they also struggled with dissatisfaction about their appearance.

The researchers also observed smaller links between addictive cosmetic procedure use and attitudes that gave priorities to traditional gender roles, valued distinct physical traits in partners, or perceived women’s rights advancements as a societal resource threat. 

The women studied also had difficulty trusting, relying on, or feeling emotionally safe with others and had more negative attitudes toward aging – although those relationships were less consistent once multiple factors were analyzed together, they said.

Cosmetic surgeries on the rise worldwide 

THE FINDINGS were published at a time of a significant increase in cosmetic procedures, including plastic surgery, around the world. 

According to international estimates cited in the paper, cosmetic interventions worldwide rose by roughly 40% between 2019 and 2023.

Skvirsky, who has advanced degrees in clinical social work from Bar-Ilan University and whose research interests include addiction, mental health, and risk-taking behaviors, was careful not to state that women who undergo many such procedures are “addicted.” 

Instead, she designates it as “addictive behavior.” There are strict definitions of addiction in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, and undergoing numerous aesthetic treatments is not on the list.

Skvirsky told The Jerusalem Post in an interview that “addiction is the chronic neurological and psychological condition (a state of dependency), while addictive behavior is the specific action or process that a person repeatedly engages in to achieve pleasure or relieve distress.” 

Thus, addiction is the disease and the state of the brain; addictive behavior is the symptom.

She and her team stressed that the study does not claim that cosmetic procedures are inherently harmful but that in some cases, repeated engagement may take on characteristics similar to behavioral addictions already recognized in mental health research.

“Cosmetic procedures have become very normalized in many societies, and for many people, they may be a positive experience,” Skvirsky said. 

“But our findings suggest that for a meaningful minority, the behavior may begin to resemble other compulsive patterns we see in addiction research, especially when low body esteem and problematic social media use are involved,” she noted. 

“We wanted to understand the psychological factors.”

The researchers cautioned that the study was cross-sectional – that it couldn’t determine cause and effect. 

It remains unclear whether problematic social media use contributes to addictive cosmetic behavior, whether cosmetic procedures themselves influence body image and online engagement, or whether other psychological factors drive both.

Skvirsky conceded that the study, which the team worked on for a year and a half, was preliminary, “so there are many more questions and factors that we want to study in the future.”

“These include whether men also had such addictive behaviors; whether some treatments were more addictive than others; which social media had the most influence; whether some women suffered from body dysmorphic disorder; whether women younger than 25 and older than 71 also seek many treatments; and whether women who suffer from anxiety or depression are at greater risk,” she said.

The team also didn’t look into the possibility that young religious women sought treatments to raise their chances of finding a marital match, whether the phenomenon exists to a similar extent abroad, and whether ACPU can be treated or prevented.

This post was originally published on here. 

US President Donald Trump said US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has “turned Palestinian,” amid remarks at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday.

“This was a man who was 100% for Israel,” said Trump. “But now he’s a great, proud Palestinian.”

“I’m going to send him a beautiful Palestinian outfit tomorrow so he can greet Bibi Netanyahu when he comes to town next week,” he added. 

The president further poked fun at the press and honored the Secret Service for protecting him, returning to the event celebrating press freedom after a shooting forced the suspension of the original event in April.

Trump, whose administration has often been at odds with the press, started his speech by mostly going along with the warm and relaxed tenor of the evening, alternately mixing friendly jokes with pointed criticism of what he calls the “fake news media.”

But he also could not resist taking cracks at his political adversaries in the press and show business, singling out journalists such as Don Lemon and Lawrence O’Donnell, politicians like Chris Christie and Adam Schiff, and celebrities including Bruce Springsteen and Jane Fonda for personal attacks.

Trump suggested he was going easy on the press after he had planned fiercer criticism last time around. “This place is really the largest group of Trump derangement syndrome people ever put together at one time,” he said. “I suspect some of you are lucky that our last dinner was cut short because… I was going to go after you.”

Trump attends event following previous boycotts

This year’s dual events marked Trump’s first presidential appearance at the correspondents’ dinner. He had boycotted the event during his previous years in office, though he promised to return next year.

Press freedom advocates have criticized the Trump administration over lawsuits it has filed against media organizations, restrictions on some journalists’ access, and threats of action against broadcasters. He rejects the criticism, saying his administration is promoting accountability and addressing bias.

The black-tie gathering of journalists, politicians and administration officials at the Washington Hilton hotel was called off on April 25 after a man tried to force his way through a security checkpoint and fired a shotgun outside the ballroom where Trump and members of his cabinet were taking their seats.

The suspect, Cole Allen, pleaded not guilty in May to charges including attempting to assassinate the president.

The dinner was moved to a smaller venue at the Waldorf Astoria hotel under heightened security, and one of the first messages of the night was defiance in the face of the assault.

“Tonight, our message is this: We are back. We will not be intimidated. We refuse to let an act of violence have the final word,” said the outgoing president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, Weijia Jiang of CBS News.

‘We do not yield to political violence’

Trump later said, “We do not yield to political violence… No deranged loser with a gun will ever change that.”

The event also honored Secret Service officer Victor Gonzales, who was shot at a security checkpoint outside the ballroom in April and is credited with stopping the attack, and the Washington Hilton staff who assisted guests. Gonzales was wearing a protective vest and was the only person wounded that night.

The gala – an annual fixture on Washington’s calendar for more than a century – raises money for journalism scholarships and celebrates press freedoms as guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

It normally features a comedian who pokes fun at the president and the press, but this year’s entertainment came from mentalist Oz Pearlman.

Trump punctuated his speech with a few jokes, telling journalists, “I know it was not easy finding shoes to go along with your bulletproof vest, which many people didn’t want to wear because they’d rather die than look 20 pounds heavier.”

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

Over 200 kilograms of drugs were discovered hidden in a plant nursery in Hod Hasharon on Tuesday after an undercover operation carried out by the Kfar Saba Police’s Special Crime Unit exposed a large-scale drug trafficking network.

Officers raided the nursery and discovered a concealed warehouse serving as a distribution center for the network.

During the search, police seized a massive quantity of marijuana and hashish, totaling over 200 kilograms.

A significant portion of the drugs had been hidden inside various food products, including chocolate bars, cookies, and candy, all packaged and prepared for immediate distribution.

During the operation, four suspects, residents of central Israel, were arrested. Police brought them before the court, which granted a request based on the findings of the investigation to extend the detention of the suspects until Monday.

Ongoing crackdown on drug trafficking, distribution

In late June, police in Haifa similarly confiscated seven kilograms of cannabis products during a raid on an apartment suspected to have been used for drug production and distribution. 

Both raids were part of law enforcement efforts to crack down on drug trafficking and distribution networks across Israel.

Yoav Etiel contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

Threats from Iran-backed terrorist proxies are behind US President Donald Trump’s decision to switch aircraft as he departed from a NATO summit in Turkey earlier in July, rather than flying home in the new Qatari-gifted Air Force One he arrived in, according to The New York Times on Friday.

The NYT, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the matter, said that Trump was urged to change aircraft by the Secret Service following identification of a credible threat by US intelligence.

Some Trump administration officials reportedly received only partial briefing on the threat and were told that the change in aircraft was made out of precaution due to the general threat of Iran, according to the NYT. Some key members of Congress were also not fully briefed on details of the threat.

According to the report, the Iranian proxies intended to target the president and would have targeted any aircraft he boarded, rather than specifically targeting the new Air Force One.

A senior Trump administration official told the NYT that he was confident in the US government’s ability to protect the president, noting Trump’s previous comments on Iranian efforts to assassinate him.

The White House did not respond to a NYT request for comment.

The report comes following Trump’s comments on Monday regarding pending security upgrades for the Qatari-gifted aircraft.

Trump says aircraft change was ‘for old time’s sake’

“It has a lot of capability,” said Trump. “But as I understand it, in about a month or so, they’re gonna send it to have it be maxed out… It’ll take about a month.”

At the time, Trump said his decision to switch to an older Air Force One aircraft for his flight from Turkey to the UK was done “for old time’s sake.”

Notably, the US president stopped in the UK on his way back to the US, where he switched back to traveling in the new Air Force One.

The new aircraft, refitted by defense contractor L3Harris Technologies, is meant to serve as a temporary replacement as Boeing struggles to deliver two purpose-built 747-8s under a $3.9 billion fixed-price contract signed in 2018.

Reuters contributed to this report.

This post was originally published on here. 

The US Treasury Department‘s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned four individuals and nine entities tied to an Iranian financial evasion network on Friday, according to a press release on the department’s website.

The network, run by Iran-linked financier Babak Zanjani, enabled the Islamic regime to evade sanctions and pursue actions that destabilize the region, OFAC stated.

In addition, the network also provided support to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) through Zanjani’s digital asset companies, such as Zedcex and Zedxion, the department said.

Revenue methods used by Zanjani to finance the regime included financial services, gold and precious gem production, digital asset trading, and major transportation and infrastructure projects, the Treasury said.

Zanjani had previously been found guilty of embezzlement in an Iranian court in 2016, a charge for which he was sentenced to death, the statement noted, with his sentence commuted in 2024.

His 2025 reemergence as a financier for Tehran was described by the Treasury Department as a demonstration of “the lengths to which Iranian state-affiliated elites will go to preserve access to the international financial system so that they can enrich themselves, even as they mismanage the Iranian economy.”

According to the department, the sanctions are part of a broader effort enacted through Executive Order 13902, which targets Iranian financial, petroleum, and petrochemical sectors to prevent the funding of the regime’s nuclear, missile, and terror activities.

Sanctions to ‘further pressure’ Iran after regional attacks

The department emphasized that the new sanctions would “further pressure” Iran following its recent drone and missile attacks on countries across the Middle East, as well as ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

“The Iranian regime continues to pay a steep economic price for its reckless behavior, with the rial plunging to another record low and inflation up massively,” said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Under President Trump’s leadership, Treasury will continue cutting off economic access for corrupt Iranian regime elites, along with their financiers and facilitators.”

‘World’s leading state sponsor of terror’

The statement included a call for governments and financial institutions worldwide to avoid engaging with Zanjani or his network, as well as other networks connected to Iran.

“The Iranian regime is the world’s leading state sponsor of terror, and for more than 40 years has used the IRGC to foment instability in the region and beyond. We will continue to expose and disrupt networks that provide the regime and its proxies with the resources they use to undermine US national security interests,” the statement concluded.

This post was originally published on here. 

Yaki Dayan, the former Israeli consul in Los Angeles, warned that the US-Saudi Arabia civilian nuclear agreement could spark a regional arms race and argued that US President Donald Trump is trapped in an escalating confrontation with Iran with no clear exit strategy during an interview with 103FM on Thursday.

“This has been in the works for quite a few months,” Dayan told 103FM’s Barak Seri and Eli Ohana. 

“Trump wants to close as many deals as possible for as much money as possible. I assume this does not include normalization; otherwise, we would already know about it. As for the agreement itself, we need to see it, and it will be submitted for approval in the coming days.”

US-Saudi deal differs from UAE deal, Dayan says

“The difference between the agreement signed with the United Arab Emirates in 2009 and this one is that the Emirates cannot carry out uranium enrichment independently. What the Saudis received is essentially a two-year trial period, after which the Americans may allow Saudi Arabia to enrich uranium on its own territory. If not, there is a ten-year veto period, after which the Saudis can reopen the issue,” he explained regarding the reported terms of the agreement.

Dayan also argued that Trump’s economic motivations are once again influencing US policy, stating that “Trump is getting tens of billions of dollars in return for this deal. American companies will receive tens of billions of dollars, and from his perspective, it’s ultimately a business matter. What’s the biggest problem here? Even if Congress does not approve this agreement, the president can veto Congress’s rejection, and then Congress would need a two-thirds majority.”

“It’s clear there is no two-thirds majority for anything in Congress today. The Democrats oppose it. Even if Congress does not approve it, the president has veto power, and it would take a two-thirds majority to override the president’s veto.” He further warned: “If the Saudis receive independent enrichment capability, the Turks will come and say, ‘We want it too,’ and the Egyptians will say the same.”

Trump’s promise about war with Iran not fulfilled

Dayan then analyzed the situation in Iran from his perspective, saying that “Trump entered this war with one promise to the American people: ‘I’m going to make sure Iran no longer has a nuclear program.’ We know that mission has not been completed.”

“Right now, we’re engaged in a campaign to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Trump is saying, ‘Hold me back,’ because he wants the Qataris to come today and say that the Iranians are prepared to reopen Hormuz,” Dayan continued.

Dayan claimed that Trump is “not willing to return to the deal proposed by the Qataris and the Pakistanis – a ten-day ceasefire during which they would ensure the Strait of Hormuz was reopened.”

“He’s already been through that. Therefore, if the Qataris come today or tomorrow and say the Iranians are ready to reopen it, then yes. If not, Trump is caught in an escalation trap,” he added.

“The escalation trap means the following: Trump would prefer to bring this situation to a controlled conclusion,” Dayan said. “This war is, to put it mildly, unpopular in the United States. Oil prices are rising again, and the midterm elections are getting closer.”

“Trump’s political advisers are shouting, as are Republicans around him, that they’re going to lose the House of Representatives and the Senate if they don’t focus on the cost of living and if the entire public discussion revolves around the campaign against Iran. We’ll lose,” he asserted.

“That’s why he’s in an escalation trap – because he currently has no way out. Before he can deal with Iran’s nuclear program, he first has to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” Dayan concluded.

This post was originally published on here. 

“When I was growing up, I would see movies about young people, and I didn’t find myself in them,” said Sharon Angelhart, whose debut feature film, Cuz You’re Ugly, started screening in theaters throughout Israel on Thursday.

The director/screenwriter said that with her movie, she was trying to make a film that “was what I would have wanted to see when I was growing up in Jerusalem and searching for who I was.”

The movie is dark but also very sharp and funny, as it tells the story of Avigail (Riki Reif Sinai), a young soldier who is delighted when her commander recommends her for officer’s training, but who has more than her share of problems. She’s heavy and does not have a boyfriend, while her gorgeous younger sister, Naomi (Or Avinoam), gets a lot of attention and does not know how to deal with it.

There is no one around to help either sister: Their mother (Yael Abecassis) is depressed and spends most of her time in bed, and their father (Yossi Marshek) is busy with his new life and family. When Naomi gets pregnant, her sister is the only one who will help her, but doing so forces Avigail to make choices that jeopardize her own future.

The story of the close, fraught relationship between the sisters and Avigail’s search for a better life brings to mind the phrase “falling through the cracks.” These sisters have grown up on their own, too quickly in some ways, but in others, they are still just kids.

Movie wins awards for acting

While there have been a number of movies about at-risk youth in Israeli cinema in recent years, Cuz You’re Ugly is especially moving and memorable, and the characters and many scenes remained vivid in my mind a full year after I saw the film at its debut at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2025. 

Part of what makes the movie work so well is the natural and appealing performances by the two lead actresses. Sinai won the Best Actress Award at the Jerusalem Film Festival, and Avinoam, who also starred in Dani Rosenberg’s Of Dogs and Men, won the Ophir Award for Best Supporting Actress. Not surprisingly, the movie also took the Ophir Award for Best Casting.

The first movie by most directors is usually autobiographical, and Angelhart said that while the movie was not the story of her life, it deals with issues that are close to her heart.

“I was in conflict with myself, and with my body. All the time, I was trying to understand the world… It was hard for me to be part of any framework, like high school, and out of what I went through, I created the character of Avigail. 

“On one hand, she always tries to do well… She wants someone to notice her; on the other, her dealings with authority and order and social hierarchies are complicated, and she gets herself into trouble,” she said.

Avigail finds the army freeing in certain ways. “In the army, it’s the first time that someone sees her as the equal of everyone else. No one knows her story, her family and its troubles, so she can reinvent herself… Her army commander sees something in her that she hasn’t seen in herself.”

But her family problems get in her way, and her complex relationship with her sister comes to the forefront. “They love each other, they hate each other, they are disgusted with each other, they are protective – they’re sisters,” she said. 

“There are a lot of laughs between them, but there is also pain. It’s very clear who helps whom and who depends on whom, and as I have grown up, I have seen that there is often this dynamic in families; there are moments that are lots of fun, and suddenly there is this parallel hurt.”

She credits her “brilliant” actresses with bringing this dynamic to life. Sinai was just 22 and Avinoam 18 when they filmed the movie. “They brought a complexity to their roles that surprised me. I was lucky that they are at least 10 years ahead of their ages in maturity, and they brought it to their roles… 

“As a director, I [tried to] foster genuine intimacy between them. We would sit and talk about life. We would each talk about our families, about love, about life. You hear lots of funny stories, and say, ‘Yes, that happened to me, too.’”

The goal is to be ‘body neutral’

Angelhart said that she had many issues with her own body image, and noted that she was often asked about the casting of plus-size Sinai in the lead role. “It’s a funny thing that if you have a fat heroine, you have to explain why. If you have a heroine who is the size 38-40, no one asks you why,” she said, explaining that Sinai gave her permission to refer to her as “fat.”

“Your body is like your family; you don’t choose it, but you get used to it, and sometimes you don’t get used to it. I decided to bring a heroine who is full-bodied, and it’s very cinematic; I enjoyed filming her body. 

“You can understand when you see her that for a girl like this, everything is more complicated… She is all different things, and she’s not a victim. Often, when you see a heavier actress, she is the best friend of the heroine, or an outcast. She can’t be horny; she can’t go up to guys and flirt with them… But this is the actress, this is her body, and this is who she is.”

For Angelhart, “The goal is not to be ‘body positive.’ It’s to be body neutral.”

Much of the movie was filmed in Jerusalem’s Gilo neighborhood, where the director grew up, and it shows a side of the city rarely seen in films, not the iconic images of the Old City, or the ultra-Orthodox enclaves, but an ordinary neighborhood where poor and rich often live close to each other.

“I always knew my first film would be set in Jerusalem, you know, to go back to the place where you grew up, to film at the shopping mall.

“Gilo is so cinematic; it’s between Beit Jala and Beit Tzafafa, it seems so far from the center of town, but it’s not really,” she said, speaking of her admiration for the Brutalist-style architecture by architects such as Arieh Sharon, which she featured in the movie.

Angelhart said she got into directing by chance. At first, she wanted to be an actress and began attending the Charles Smith Arts High School (better known as Omanuyot) in Jerusalem. “But they kicked me out of the acting track. It was hard. I was full of energy; I had a big mouth. They didn’t know what to do with me, so they put me in the film track. And that’s where I found myself.” 

She had always been interested in writing, and at 12 was already at work on what she calls “slice-of-life stories,” like Cuz You’re Ugly, and she went on to study at the Sam Spiegel Film School. 

“Cinema is in my nature,” she mused. “I’m glad they kicked me out of the acting track.”

This post was originally published on here. 

On Standby has taken off, so to speak, showing on Yes TV Drama and Yes VOD, and it tells the story of Sagit (Gitit Fisher), a depressed security officer at the airport who feels stuck in every aspect of her life, and what happens to her when everything begins to change.

If you have ever wondered whether the airport personnel who tell you to take off your belt and put your laptop on the tray are jealous of you for going away, now you know that at least the fictional Sagit is. She is in her 30s and single, living with her father, but she finally joins a creative writing workshop and writes a piece about how she loathes people she doesn’t know. In a burst of honesty, she turns her attitude back on herself, showing how she has feelings of insecurity and vulnerability. Writing this is a breakthrough for her, and reading it out loud to her group is an even bigger one.

Sagit’s father (Tzahi Grad) is a gifted magician who is in his own kind of rut, teaching little kids and playing at senior centers, until he is asked to go on the road with Tislam, a real band that is very successful. You might expect that she would be happy for him, but she can’t quite manage that, and feels abandoned, knowing that it is absurd since she is in her 30s. She heads off to stay with her mother (Sarit Elad Vino), but it’s not any better for her there. Her mother has a successful career and is judgmental in ways that her slacker father isn’t, and she does not find the warm home base she craves.

But more change is coming, even if she is not ready for it. Her handsome but dictatorial supervisor (Aury Albi) shows up at her writing class and, before she knows it, they have formed a strong bond that may or may not be leading to a real romance, which is the last thing the cynical, pessimistic Sagit thinks she wants.

This is the kind of dramedy that seems to work best on the small screen, and Sagit is such an appealing character, and Fisher plays her so well, bringing out her sharp edges but always showing us the vulnerability she is hiding. 

Fisher created the series with Johnathan Gurfinkel and also wrote the script.

Alona Sa’ar shines as side character

Alona Sa’ar, who played the lead in Dismissed, is a real gem here as a young woman in Sagit’s writing group. In one memorable scene, she reads a piece about her struggles with her weight and says that when she heard her mother talking about diets as a child, she thought they were something wonderful and mystical, and claims, tongue-in-cheek, that diet is derived from a Greek word that means, “First change yourself and then people will love you.”

The seven-episode series goes deeper and is more interesting than the standard ugly-duckling transformation story, and I would not be surprised if it gets remade abroad.

A Letter to David re-release

Tom Shoval made a feature film, Youth, in 2013, starring twin brothers who had never acted, David Cunio and Eitan Cunio. They made a splash in the well-regarded drama about two teens who kidnap a wealthy classmate to pay their parents’ debts, but they chose not to pursue acting careers. 

Shoval went back to the behind-the-scenes footage from that movie when David Cunio and another brother, Ariel Cunio, were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and he made a moving documentary about David and his family, A Letter to David, which was screened around the world. 

David and Ariel were released in October 2025 after 738 days in captivity, and Shoval re-edited the film to spotlight their release. The newly expanded film can be seen on Hot 8, and the moving conclusion shows David and Ariel watching the movie at a screening in Berlin with their families. Later, it has David and Eitan recreating a scene from Youth. Not only are the two young men older now, but their eyes speak volumes about what they have endured: David in Gaza, and Eitan, who barely escaped the terrorists, worrying about him at home. The simple scene is typical of Shoval’s understated but masterful filmmaking, and it says more than words could have.

There’s a certain kind of summer movie that you crave at this time of the year, where you can turn off your mind and watch some kind of action-adventure or rom-com in gorgeous landscapes with beautiful actors. If that’s what you are looking for, there are a few options. One is Into the Blue on Netflix, which is really the prototype of this kind of movie. Made 20 years ago – they seem to be churning out fewer movies like this lately for some reason – it stars Jessica Alba, Scott Caan (James Caan’s son), and some other good-looking people in a story of divers in the Bahamas who find a plane underwater that seems to have crashed recently and is filled with corpses and kilos of drugs shrink-wrapped so they are not even damp. Because they have spent their lives at the gym or on the beach, the main quartet has apparently never seen another movie, and they do not know – as all regular moviegoers do – that all hell will break loose if they try to make some money out of this. But the eye candy is the thing here, and it’s the perfect movie to watch on your staycation.

Another good option for mid-summer viewing is The Devil Wears Prada 2, which becomes available to stream on Disney+ on July 29. It is already available to buy on Apple TV+ and will be available to rent on the streamer on August 11. It’s the sequel to the original, beloved film about a serious girl who goes to work at a thinly veiled version of Vogue magazine, and it brings back the quartet of lead actors, Anne Hathaway as the heroine, Stanley Tucci as her mentor, Emily Blunt as her rival, and, most sublimely, Meryl Streep as the boss from hell, who nevertheless is a genius as an editor. 

The fun of the movie is watching them all trying to make their way in the digital age. While it lacks the freshness of the original and a few of the plot turns are clunky, it’s undeniably fun. You can also brush up on the first film on Apple TV+ and Disney+.

Yet another entertaining choice is a new documentary about the group, Earth, Wind & Fire, called Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs That’s the Weight of the World, which will be shown on Yes Docu on July 28 and will also be available on Yes VOD and Sting TV.

It’s a loving tribute to the band whose music combined so many styles, including funk, pop, gospel, soul, disco, Latin, and Afro-pop, creating such classic hits as “September,” “Shining Star,” and “Boogie Wonderland,” and a portrait of the group’s frontman, Maurice White. 

“You were thinking they’re coming from Africa – or outer space,” notes one commentator, while another describes their unique sound as “Jesus-less gospel music.” This comprehensive documentary will be best appreciated by fans of the group, and I wish it had included a few more tunes played from beginning to end.

This post was originally published on here. 

Throughout his two-decade-long career as a state lawmaker in Maine, Troy Jackson built his political brand around labor and economic issues.

But as the former logger and state Senate president now seeks a seat in the US Senate, Jackson has begun staking out positions on something new – Israel. 

Facing one of the Democratic Party’s most divisive issues, Jackson has embraced the label “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza and called for an end to US military aid to Israel.

“This is unconscionable. Anybody with eyes and a heart knows the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza. It has to end, and we as Americans have the power to end it,” Jackson wrote in a post on X/Twitter on July 9, responding to reports of a Palestinian aid worker killed by Israeli strikes. “When I’m in the US Senate, I’ll never vote in favor of US taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel.”

A week later, Jackson also inveighed against AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby that has become a frequent target of progressives. 

“I pledge to lead for Maine voters by rejecting attempts to buy influence through unlimited personal wealth and dark money,” Jackson wrote in a post on X. “That means rejecting all money from corporate PACs, AIPAC, and lobbyists from Big Oil and Big Pharma.”

For some Jews in Maine, Jackson’s emergence has prompted unease. Some worry that his embrace of the term “genocide” reflects a troubling shift in Democratic primaries across the country that many Jews have found alienating. Other Maine Jews, while somewhat hesitant, see the longtime Democrat as a pragmatic choice to represent the state and say they prefer him over Platner.

Jackson likely to secure Democratic nomination

Jackson’s newfound efforts to speak out forcefully on Israel come as he is likely to secure the Democratic nomination Saturday to take on Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a high-profile race that could determine control of the Senate. 

His policy statements and comments about Israel have mirrored the broader evolution of the race since the collapse of Graham Platner’s campaign earlier this month. Platner, a staunch critic of Israel, bowed out of the race earlier this month following a sexual assault allegation that he has since denied.

In the days that followed, some of the Democratic candidates who emerged to replace Platner but then dropped out, including Shenna Bellows and Jordan Wood, also began using the term “genocide” for the first time.

Jackson’s campaign did not respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency request for comment about his views on Israel.

For some Jews in Maine, Jackson’s sudden emphasis on Israel has raised questions about whether his positions reflect a deeply held conviction or an effort to win over Platner’s supporters.

“I do think that his rhetoric on Israel has been kind of like a ‘pick me’ appeal to the perception of what the Platner base is feeling about the whole thing,” said Brian Kresge, president of Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor, who said he largely votes for Democrats. “I don’t know whether it’s a closely held position because it’s not something he said much about during the gubernatorial race (Jackson came in third place in the governor’s race). It’s not something I’ve ever heard him talk about in his other forays in politics.”

Rabbi Bill Siemers, the leader of Beth Israel, Maine’s oldest active synagogue, said that he had found “no evidence” in Jackson’s “social media or in his talks that this was an issue for him before very recently, and it’s clear to me and to others that he brought this up so he could be the Senate nominee.”

“Now we know where we are. We know where we stand, that this, at least in the upper levels of the Maine Democratic Party, this is a requirement, and that’s not good,” Siemers said, referring to the label of genocide. 

“I don’t think Jews want to have to go to the polls and vote on the basis of that, but they will,” he added. 

Jackson’s rhetoric on Gaza earned praise from Our Revolution, the group formed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders to advance the progressive movement. Jackson has won endorsements from both Sanders and Our Revolution, as well as left-wing streamer Hasan Piker, California Rep. Ro Khanna and Maine’s Democratic Socialists of America chapter.

“Troy Jackson doesn’t do word salad. He calls a genocide a genocide and says he’ll never vote for taxpayer-funded military aid to fund it,” the group wrote in a Facebook post earlier this month. “That’s what Maine voters delivered a historic win for on June 9; what other contender in Maine will actually say it?”

Jackson’s early life, political career

Jackson, 58, is a fifth-generation logger from northern Maine and first entered politics in 1998 by leading a logging blockade along the Maine-Canada border to protest corporations hiring low-wage foreign workers. In 2000, he launched an unsuccessful Republican bid for the state House before later winning a seat two years later as an independent. 

He ran again for re-election in 2004 as a Democrat and won, kicking off a two-decade-long career in state politics where he maintained strong union ties and progressive views. Jackson also once voiced opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion, both positions he has since reversed.

In 2024, at the Maine State Democratic Convention, Jackson, who served as convention chairman, reportedly attempted to quiet down a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters who called Maine Rep. Jared Golden a “war criminal” during a video celebrating the Jewish congressman.

“I believe in the ability of people to demonstrate and protest,” Jackson said amid the outburst. “There is a time for that.”

Earlier this year, Jackson came in third place in the state’s Democratic primary for governor. During his campaign, he pledged not to take “dark money,” but did not specifically reject AIPAC, which typically spends in federal races.

During Platner’s campaign, Jackson campaigned alongside him and endorsed his candidacy until Platner was accused of sexual assault. Following the allegation, he joined other progressive leaders in calling for Platner to drop out.

Going into Saturday’s nominating convention, Kresge said that there was still a “palpable sense of relief” among the local Jewish community that Platner, whose Nazi-linked tattoo had sparked outcry among Jewish Mainers, was out of the race.

“Troy Jackson may sound alike on a lot of these issues, but he’s not burdened by – well, he is burdened by some accusations and stuff – but he’s not burdened by a Reddit history,” Kresge said. “He has an actual political resume to run on.”

While some Jewish Mainers questioned Jackson’s recent rhetoric on Israel, others said his long record in local government offered some assurances.

“I don’t know Troy Jackson, but I think having a resume to fall back on, and having been in the position where he’s had to make compromises and understand the difference between spouting a popular slogan versus getting things done, I think is a small measure of comfort,” said Matt Tzuker, a Jewish resident of Portland.

Maine State Rep. Laurie Osher, who is Jewish and said she was ready to vote for Jackson, said that she hoped that Jackson would be able to “keep up the momentum” that Platner had gained during his campaign.

“He’s got my vote because I have worked with him,” Osher said. “For every moment that I found him doing something I didn’t think was great, he was also open to me telling him why I didn’t think it was great, and I saw him do better.”

This post was originally published on here. 

US intelligence agencies believe Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is even more interested in acquiring a nuclear weapon than his father and predecessor was, according to a Friday New York Times report citing officials briefed on the information.

The intelligence agencies believe that the killing of former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the opening days of the US and Israel’s military operations against Iran in February intensified Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. 

Officials noted that much of the information regarding Khamenei’s views came from before the start of the war, as the new supreme leader has been in hiding since he was injured in the strike that killed his father.

The officials, according to the NYT report, also stated that his communication with other Iranian officials has been limited as he avoids public appearances for fear of being targeted in further airstrikes.

While intelligence agencies assessed that Iran has not made moves to restart nuclear enrichment and weapons development, steps have been taken to preserve nuclear assets damaged by US and Israeli strikes.

If Iran had moved to repair the damage and restart enrichment immediately after the strikes, their nuclear progress may only have been set back by six months, according to the assessments. 

Part of the effort to preserve remaining nuclear assets included moving centrifuges to the heavily fortified underground complex of Pickaxe Mountain, US officials said, potentially allowing Iran to maintain access to equipment needed to enrich uranium and build a nuclear weapon.

New supreme leader drops predecessor’s facade of hesitation

While the former supreme leader publicly denied that he was pursuing a nuclear weapon, Iranian efforts to build its nuclear capabilities did continue.

US Intelligence officials, citing public statements and conversations intercepted before the war, asserted that Khamenei did not put forth the same facade of hesitancy and was interested in furthering enrichment and weapons programs. 

According to the NYT, US officials at the end of the Biden administration believed Iran was looking into developing a crude form of nuclear weapons.

The new supreme leader, officials stated, is looking instead to support the development of a thermonuclear warhead that could be placed on a long-range missile.

US officials noted that Iranian officials who previously argued that a nuclear weapon would be the only deterrent to US or Israeli strikes may now have strengthened their positions under the new supreme leader.

This post was originally published on here. 

Experts have unlocked secrets hidden for two centuries in a chart made for Indian Ocean seafarers, shedding new light on an indigenous system of navigation in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that predates more modern instrument-based methods.

The Kachchhi/Gujarati chart, one of the most detailed surviving indigenous navigational charts from the Indian Ocean tradition, has been part of the Royal Geographical Society’s collection for 189 years. 

The document, dated to the late 18th or early 19th century, is illustrated with images of ships and religious buildings. It depicts more than 180 islands, along with reefs, landmarks and flags. 

Of the 180, 66 are written in Devanagari, the alphabet used for Sanskrit, Hindi, and other Indian languages – and before today, have never been properly identified.

The chart was acquired in 1835 by Alexander Burnes, a lieutenant in the East India Company service and assistant to the British Resident in Kachchh, who obtained it from an unnamed sea captain before donating it to the Royal Geographical Society.

Identifying 66 locations for first time

The chart was subsequently examined by scholars in 1947, 1987, 2002, 2012 and 2022, yet its navigational function remained largely overlooked throughout. Roughly half of its Devanagari names were left unidentified or unlocated, with even more lacking precise coordinates.

However, researchers from the University of Exeter have for the first time, been able to identify the names of places and astronomical data inscribed on the chart, establishing latitude readings and sailing directions that demonstrate a far more sophisticated document than previously understood.

Using this new data, researchers have been able to create a projection of the chart that presents the information spatially, similar in fashion to modern maps.

Coordinates for all 66 previously unidentified locations on the chart have been established, said the researchers, who have successfully produced improved transcriptions of the Devanagari script.

The study also determined that the chart’s 29 rhumb lines served three distinct navigational purposes: establishing the principal trend of a coastline, indicating a direction of travel across open water, and, in at least two instances, marking safe passage into and out of port.

Professor John Cooper of the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, who led the research, said the chart reflected a navigational tradition fundamentally different from modern cartography.

“Today we are used to maps and charts that project space mathematically and to scale, making regions of the world visually familiar and accessible to us in a very particular way,” Cooper said. “Although this chart doesn’t look accurate to our way of thinking, it allowed seafarers with the necessary experience and knowledge of stellar navigation to negotiate some of the harshest and most challenging waters in the world.”

“All the required information was packed into a very portable scroll just 25 centimeters wide.”

“This is a rich and effective navigational reference work,” he added, noting that the chart’s various elements each carried practical significance. “Its stellar information allowed sailors to know their latitude and set sailing directions.”

“Its many place names and topographical information enabled them to locate themselves precisely; its religious buildings suggest the navigator’s Muslim faith; and its flags suggest nodes of political and fiscal action.”

Not only for general navigational use

Further, Cooper noted that the chart was not designed for general use but for those with “specific local navigational knowledge.” 

“Although rich, the inscribed information would not be enough to enable people uninitiated in regional seafaring traditions to navigate safely,” he said. “But for those who knew, it functioned as a handy reference at sea, fulfilling a mnemonic role. Its scroll format allowed it to be opened partially, showing only the relevant section, with the rest rolled away. It stored and handled easily on board ship.”

Dr. Katherine Parker, the Royal Geographical Society’s Cartographic Collections Manager, said that the findings underscore the value of revisiting historical records and artifacts armed with contemporary tools.

“Re-examining our collections is an ongoing process that allows researchers to apply new methods, technologies and perspectives, uncovering the meanings and utility that these remarkable artefacts held for the people who created them centuries ago,” Parker said. “We have been delighted to work alongside the team to bring a greater understanding of the navigational, geographical and cultural value of this chart, as well as the cartographic skill and knowledge of its creators, into focus.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Oren Pesso, a Tel Aviv performance artist and the frontman of the avant-garde musical group Jilber and the Cats, opened his performance on Friday at HaTanacha Park in Tel Aviv with a difficult question. 

“Do you want the heat or the war? You have to pick one,” he called out to the crowd, before beginning to sing alongside his bandmate daughter, both of them wearing cat ears as part of their regular costumes.

Israel is notching its highest temperatures of the summer, with the mercury reaching 112 degrees in Tel Aviv earlier this week. At the same time, hostilities between the United States and Iran have been heating up and, after several weeks in which Iran has targeted multiple other Middle East countries, the war could soon reach Israel once again.

In anticipation of potential strikes, several Israeli cities have reopened their municipal bomb shelters, which have been closed since shortly after the US-brokered ceasefire on June 17. So far, Israel’s Home Front Command, which tells civilians how to stay safe in moments of crisis, has not issued any specific new instructions. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he would travel to the United States on Monday ahead of a meeting with US President Donald Trump, prompting speculation that the threat of an Iranian strike was receding.

The United States and Iran resumed their conflict two weeks ago. The US Central Command completed its 13th consecutive night of strikes on Iran overnight Thursday, and Iran retaliated Friday morning, launching drones at US military targets in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

Exactly why Israel has not yet been ensnared in the renewed exchange of fire is not clear, but both Iran and the United States have reasons to keep Israel out, even as Israeli officials emphasize that they do not think the war curbed the Iranian nuclear threat. Iran knows that targeting Israel would escalate the conflict, andTrump is trying to sustain his Iran campaign amid dwindling public support for Israel.

Israelis in limbo pending potential Iran conflict 

For Israelis, the situation has yielded a state of suspended animation, akin to the eve of the war in February. 

Now, Tehran has announced that if the United States expands its strikes on the country, it will retaliate against Israel. With additional American strikes expected, and a likely Iranian response designed to exact a higher price for each round of tit-for-tat escalation, Israeli analysts and officials are increasingly speculating that Israel will be drawn back into the fighting.

“I really felt like it was going to happen on Tisha B’Av,” Dorit, who declined to give her last name, told JTA at the performance, referring to the Jewish day of communal mourning that this year landed on Thursday. “It’s the worst day, the worst luck, so why not shoot a missile at us then?”

Pesso, the performance artist, who lives in the suburb of Bat Yam, said that because his apartment has a mamad, the reinforced safe room required in newer Israeli construction, he feels relatively secure in the case of resumed fighting. But he summed up the feeling of many of the Israelis who spoke with JTA when he said, “We’re really just sick of it. I get that they hate us and want the Jewish state gone, but the idea of another round of missiles coming, it’s just too much.”

Mamads, too, only provide so much protection, Pesso pointed out. Miming an explosion with his hands, he said, “If a missile hits here, we go boom too. Not much it can do.”

He is not wrong. Unlike the shorter-range rockets that Hezbollah has fired at Israel, the far more powerful ballistic missiles Iran launched during the last round of fighting can destroy a mamad outright, as happened in a June 2025 strike on Beersheba, when a direct hit on an apartment building killed four people sheltering in their safe rooms and injured at least 22 others.

Added to the danger this time is Iran’s increased use of cluster munitions, which scatter dozens of submunitions over a wide radius and have indiscriminately hit civilian population centers in Israel. Of the two dozen Israeli civilians killed in Iranian strikes since February, 10 were killed by cluster submunitions.

Exact figures on the toll of Iranian strikes on Israel during the last round of fighting are difficult to know, in part because of restrictions imposed by Israel’s military censor, but at least 28 Israelis were killed and more than 4,000 injured.

Just last week, that toll grew. Michael Katz, an 82-year-old Haifa resident critically wounded in one of the largest attacks on Israel during the war, an April 5 missile strike on his apartment building that also killed four members of one family, succumbed to his wounds at the city’s Rambam Hospital.

IDF at ‘maximum readiness’ for war with Iran

This week the IDF moved from high alert to “maximum readiness,” and the municipalities of Ramat Gan and Karmiel opened all of their public shelters in anticipation of incoming fire from Iran, even as the Home Front Command’s guidelines for civilians remained unchanged.

If the price of oil is any marker of how financial markets rate the odds of renewed fighting, Brent crude settled above $100 a barrel on Thursday for the first time since May, after Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen declared a blockade and attacked Saudi tankers near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

The defense establishment is speaking loudly. “If Iran attacks Israel, it will suffer a crushing blow,” Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday after a security assessment with the IDF’s top brass. Municipal officials, meanwhile, are quietly preparing for war. In the space between the two, life goes on as normal.

Gideon Alon, 49, who was visiting Tel Aviv on Friday from a kibbutz near Akko in Israel’s north, said, “I am far from a pacifist. We need to end this now, and it is obvious they don’t want peace, so ma la’asot — what can you do?”

He worries about his family and the impact of the war on his children. “This time it could be easier, since school is out for the summer,” he said. “During the last round they missed so much class.”

His wife, a family doctor in Haifa, carries most of the family’s worry, he added. “But it feels like we have been having this conversation for months,” he said. “I don’t know what to think, or when it will happen. But when it does, it does.”

Either way, they are prepared. Living just 7.5 miles from the border with Lebanon, the war “never really ended for us,” he said. The family mamad remains ready for use as it was on the last day of the fighting with Hezbollah, before Israel signed a separate ceasefire with Lebanon in that war on June 26.

Back in Tel Aviv, as is the case on even the hottest days of the summer, the beaches were packed on Friday evening. Israel’s Meteorological Service warned of heavy heat stress for most of the week, the hottest of the summer so far.

Sarah Cohen, 25, who lives in Yafo and moved to Israel from France, is emblematic of Tel Aviv’s carefree atmosphere. She spoke with JTA on her way to Maaravi Beach, the southernmost stretch of sand before the official start of Jaffa.

“I’m not really focused on what’s happening with that,” she said of the war.

Surf conditions on Friday were some of the best of the summer, with swells climbing to nearly six feet, uncharacteristic for the calm Mediterranean beach scene.

Cohen ran into the surf at Maaravi, where dozens of other surfers were doing their best to catch the waves, and waved back. Still no missiles overhead, for now.

This post was originally published on here. 

When Jamie Isaacson received an application in his mailbox earlier this month to help choose the Maine Democratic Party’s next US Senate nominee at Saturday’s nominating convention, he wasn’t interested.

If accepted as a delegate, Isaacson, a 72-year-old Jewish Portland resident, would have joined 601 Maine Democrats at the party’s convention in Bangor to select a replacement for Graham Platner, the staunch Israel critic who bowed out of the race earlier this month following sexual assault allegations, which he has denied.

Instead, Isaacson sat it out, vowing not to have anything to do with the party that had chosen Platner as its nominee in the first place.

“I thought it wasn’t worth my time, to be honest with you,” Isaacson told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I mean, we’ve been blindsided by the Democratic Party here and nationally, and I’ve been a Democrat my whole life. I don’t know what I am right now, and I just feel really let down and don’t feel a part of that party anymore.”

Isaacson’s decision reflected one end of a spectrum across Maine’s Jewish community. Platner’s collapse has prompted reactions ranging from anger at the Democratic Party to renewed engagement with the unusual delegate process that will lead to his replacement.

Isaacson said he had been “relieved” when Platner dropped out of the race, though he, like many Jews, believed other scandals, including his Nazi-linked tattoo, that had rocked his campaign prior to the final allegations should have disqualified him.

“I think that people in Maine would have voted for the devil rather than voting for Susan Collins – Democrats, I mean,” Isaacson said, referring to the incumbent Republican senator who is seeking her sixth term. “I can’t believe that Platner went as far as he could with all the unelectable problems that he had, like his tattoo and a dozen other things, but people were just very forgiving and didn’t care.”

Maine’s 19,000-strong Jewish community

The Democratic primary race has reverberated through Maine’s small Jewish community. The state has roughly 19,000 Jews across 10,600 households, with the population highly concentrated in and around Portland, according to the 2024 Maine Jewish Community Study, conducted by Brandeis University in partnership with the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine.

The study found that nearly 70% of Maine Jews identify as liberal or very liberal, and 42% describe themselves as minimally involved in Jewish life.

While Platner’s exit has left some Jewish Democrats relieved, it has also forced them to quickly assess Troy Jackson, a former logger and state Senate president who is believed to have already secured the support of a majority of the delegates and is expected to become the party’s nominee Saturday.

While Jackson has adopted some of Platner’s stances on Israel, including a pledge to end the “genocide in Gaza” and allow “no US tax dollars to Israel’s military” on his campaign website, some Jewish voters say they know little about his stances on Israel.

“This is really literally the first time I’ve ever heard Troy Jackson mention this, so I think he’s taken a position because it’s of interest to voters,” Amy Fried, a professor emerita of political science at the University of Maine, told JTA. Fried was selected as an alternate delegate for the convention, meaning she will serve as a delegate if one drops out.

Fried, who did not campaign for Platner, said that she believed Jackson would be “open-minded and listen to people who talk to him about how at least some American Jews feel about threats to American Jews and about Israel.”

Shenna Bellows, Nirav Shah, Jordan Wood drop out, support Jackson

Jackson’s path to the Democratic nomination has accelerated rapidly. The contest began to thin out last week when Shenna Bellows, Nirav Shah and Jordan Wood ended their efforts and threw their support behind Jackson after his campaign said it had secured the backing of 481 delegates.

Then, of the three remaining candidates challenging Jackson, two, David Costello and Dan Kleban, ended their bids, leaving only Saundra Pelletier, a women’s health pharmaceutical CEO, as Jackson’s opponent on Saturday.

“Thank you, Maine,” Jackson wrote in a Facebook post announcing his gains. “Our campaign has always been powered by ordinary Mainers – not corporate PACs or wealthy special interests, but neighbors organizing neighbors because they believe we deserve better.”

Pelletier said in a statement Tuesday confirming her intention to stay in the race, “I respect the delegates far too much to accept that the decision has already been made for them. Voters from every corner of Maine signed their names to send me to the convention because they want a choice, not a coronation.”

Another Jewish Portland resident, Karli Efron, who applied to be a delegate but was not selected, said that while Jackson’s campaign appeared less “problematic” than Platner’s, she wanted to “learn more about his campaign” before supporting him.

“I’m just glad it’s not Graham Platner,” said Efron, who belongs to Congregation Bet Ha’am, a Reform synagogue in South Portland. “To be honest, I feel like I will have an easier time going to my voting booth to make a decision this election than I would have if it had been Graham Platner.”

For other Jewish Mainers heading to the convention Saturday, Jackson was an easy choice.

“Platner’s progressive populist politics proved to be incredibly popular with voters who were turning out for his events and canvasses in record numbers, and obviously scandals and lack of vetting brought down his campaign,” said Lila Kohrman, a 33-year-old Jewish Portland resident. “But that doesn’t change the fact that Mainers very strongly supported the Platner campaign’s politics, and I’m excited to see Troy Jackson’s campaign embrace those same political positions as he takes the nomination.”

Kohrman, who works for a climate activism nonprofit and supported Platner during his campaign, also said that she aligned with Jackson’s messaging around Israel.

“Troy Jackson will not support sending our tax dollars to fund a genocide, and I believe that is the politically and morally correct position to take in 2026,” Kohrman said.

Kohrman said she hoped Jewish voters who were skeptical of Jackson would weigh his other policy stances.

“I really hope that people who are stuck on any one single issue, as some Jewish voters may be stuck on support for Israel, will not let any single issue stop them from supporting a campaign for a candidate who actually would stand to improve the lives of millions of people in the United States and abroad,” Kohrman said.

Ronna Lugosch, a 71-year-old Jewish grandmother and delegate from Round Pond, Maine, had canvassed for Platner and said that she was not deterred by the scandals that had marred his campaign.

“I don’t think the guy’s a Nazi. I just don’t buy that. I think it was a stupid tattoo, but it was done on a drunken night, and I believe that,” said Lugosch, a jewelry business owner. She added that she liked Platner because “he was one of the first people that came out, at least in this group of candidates, who said that Gaza was a genocide, and I totally agree with him.”

In her application to apply as a delegate in Lincoln County, Lugosch wrote that she would support a candidate who “believes that Gaza is a genocide, that we should abolish ICE, takes no AIPAC money, and wants money out of politics.”

She said she had felt spurred to include her Jewish identity and stance on the war in Gaza in the application because she wanted “people to understand that because you’re Jewish doesn’t mean you necessarily support genocide.”

Looking to Saturday, Lugosch said it was important to begin organizing for Jackson because of concerns the Republican Party might call into question the nominating process.

“There is an expectation that the Republicans will question this or bring it to court,” Lugosch said. “So that being said, we know that we need to be there Saturday, and we must vote for Troy Jackson.”

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MAGA firebrand Laura Loomer, who is warring with anti-Israel figures on the right, is invoking her Judaism as she pulls an about-face on a former hobbyhorse of hers: Ukraine.

Loomer interviewed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a visit to the country this week, asking him about his Jewish identity and the country’s antisemitism policies. She also sat down with influential rabbi Moshe Azman as Ukraine’s punishing war with Russia drags into its fourth year. 

In a series of tweets, she apologized for her past assertions that Ukraine is “full of Nazi sympathizers,” and that Zelensky was “a self-hating Nazi Jew.”

“I admit it, I fell for Russian propaganda,” Loomer, who wields considerable influence with US President Donald Trump, wrote Friday after sharing “a lovely Kosher dinner” with Azman’s family. She also visited a historic Kyiv monastery recently shelled by Russian drones and invited Zelensky to make his case for why supporting Ukraine was “America First.”

Loomer’s Jewish Ukraine tour comes as the American right is splintering, largely between pro- and anti-Israel factions – pitting the likes of Loomer and Jewish pundit Ben Shapiro against those aligned with pundit Tucker Carlson. 

Military aid to Ukraine has served as a tension point between the hawks and isolationists since Russia’s invasion in 2022. The two issues have become increasingly intertwined, with the right’s loudest anti-Israel voices opposing the US-Israel war against Iran and also projecting weariness around supporting Ukraine. 

US Vice President JD Vance, whose language on Israel and Jewish issues has alarmed some Jewish leaders, took credit for halting US aid to Ukraine earlier this year. Vance’s associate Carlson, who has recently turned on Trump and broken with the Republican Party, conducted a softball interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2024. The US Senate will vote on a new joint Russia-Iran sanctions bill next week.

US attempting to end Russia-Ukraine war on better Ukrainian terms

Trump himself exhibited closeness with Putin during his first term and, together with Vance, chastised Zelensky during a White House meeting last year. But his administration has recently indicated a willingness to try to end the war on terms more favorable to Ukraine, and the two leaders are scheduled to meet at the White House next week.

Loomer, too, formerly exhibited pro-Russia tendencies, including writing for the Russian-owned English-language outlet Russia Today. More recently, she has feuded with other right-wing media figures, including Carlson, Candace Owens and Joe Rogan, often citing her pro-Israel views as the reason for the falling-out.

Unlike a growing number of pundits on the right, she has also continued to cheer on the war with Iran even as its support has sunk across party lines and other commentators have sought to cast blame onto Israel.

Loomer has also used inflammatory rhetoric toward Muslims, calling on Trump to pass “a Muslim Ban as it was intended to be” after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “war criminal” earlier this week. 

In her interview with Zelensky, filmed at the Ukrainian presidential palace and released in full on Friday, Loomer tried to play partisan politics. She unsuccessfully urged him to call Trump the best president in history and told him that his 2024 visit to a Pennsylvania munitions factory alongside Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro was “one of the reasons why a lot of Americans came to dislike you.”

Loomer sought a Jewish connection with the president, telling him, “I’m Jewish, you’re Jewish. We share that in common.” Zelensky, who rarely publicly comments on his Jewish heritage, highlighted that Ukraine earlier this year passed a law criminalizing antisemitism.

“It’s illegal: antisemitism. We did it during my presidency,” he said. The new law, a strengthening of a 2021 law, institutes fines and possible prison terms for those found guilty of hatred or discrimination on the basis of Jewish identity. 

Zelensky, who has long enjoyed largely unqualified support among Democrats and liberal Americans, praised Loomer’s visit and change of heart. He, Azman and other Ukrainian figures who met with Loomer have sought to cultivate increased favor with Trump during a particularly uncertain phase of the war. 

Loomer told the president her main goal was to counter “Russian propaganda” she believed was prominent among American podcasters, including allegations of links between Ukraine’s military and Naziism.

“I really opposed sending my taxpayer dollars to Ukraine because I really believed that you had an army, the Azov Battalion, full of Nazis,” she told Zelensky, referencing an infamous Ukrainian military wing that has continued to attract scrutiny, both before and after the 2022 invasion, for its links to neo-Nazis and other extremists. 

Zelensky: ‘We are not Nazis’

“We are not Nazis,” Zelensky told her, later urging her to visit Babyn Yar, the memorial to the “Holocaust by bullets” perpetrated by Nazis on Ukrainian soil with the help of local collaborators in 1941. In 2022, shortly after the invasion, a Russian bombing near the memorial prompted Zelensky to make an appeal to the global Jewish community for support.

Loomer, who is notorious for credulously reporting explosive allegations against her political enemies, said she accepted Ukraine’s claims to now be Nazi-free. One of the deciding factors, she said, was meeting with Azman, the Chabad-affiliated rabbi who holds the disputed title of chief rabbi of Ukraine and whose son was killed in battle with Russia in 2024. 

“The Rabbi told me his dead Jewish son didn’t fight alongside Nazis,” Loomer tweeted, adding, “I can assure Americans that Jews are safer in Ukraine than they are in Mamdani’s New York City!”

Most diaspora Jews and Jewish organizations have backed Ukraine since the invasion and have decried Putin’s initial assertion that his invasion was intended to “denazify” the country. Loomer has now joined their ranks, hoping to marry that support to her own ideological identity as a Jewish right-winger in an era where the president she has long championed is losing some influence.

“We won’t have Trump forever,” she wrote Tuesday, “and the axis of evil is moving fast.”

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Four-year-old Yuval Kogan was found Friday afternoon more than 24 hours after he went missing from Hofit Beach, Ashkelon, on Thursday morning, according to a video posted to social media Friday. 

Kogan was found by two horse riders who were part of the search. He was found awake and is in stable condition. 

“After many hours of frantic, non-stop searches for 4-year-old Yuval Kogan, who was last seen yesterday afternoon, the missing person was located a short time ago on Nitzanim Beach, safe and sound,” said the Missing Persons Unit in the Southern Region. 

Volunteer teams from ZAKA Missing Persons Unit cooperated with Israel Police, emergency forces, and rescue workers, using all of the organization’s search and rescue equipment to locate Kogan. 

Hundreds of police officers and volunteers searched for Kogan. The search was conducted throughout the night and day by air, sea and land, with technological resources and rescue teams deployed in an effort to find him.

How did 4-year-old Yuval Kogan go missing?

After the report of his disappearance was received, police dispatched helicopters, the Marine Police Unit, divers, the municipal rescue unit and additional emergency responders to the scene. Search efforts are focused along the shoreline and the surrounding areas.

Authorities searched from the northern coast of the city of Ashkelon to the settlement of Nitzanim.

As the hours passed before riders discovered him, concerns about Kogan’s fate grew. 

“Almost 24 hours have passed since my son was lost. I beg anyone who can come help, any possible rescuers, I’m asking everyone to come,” Kogan’s mother, Dina, told Walla on Friday before her child was found. “I’m worried. I’m afraid it could be a kidnapping.”

President Isaac Herzog spoke with Dina Kogan on the phone, expressing his deep concern, issuing support for the family, and confirming that he is in contact with Police Commissioner Daniel Levy and Shin Bet Director David Zini with regard to any updates on the search.

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A Romanian F-16 fighter jet shot down a drone that had entered its airspace on Friday, authorities said, the first time the NATO member state has done so following dozens of such incursions.

Later that day, NATO Air Command confirmed that a drone was shot down by allied fighters under NATO command and control in Romanian airspace.

We confirm that a drone has been shot down by Allied fighters under NATO command and control in Romanian airspace.

Read the full statement here: https://t.co/EPI89lGb7P pic.twitter.com/VIbvlApvE3

— NATO Air Command (@NATO_AIRCOM) July 24, 2026

NATO said an investigation was ongoing and that the alliance is in close contact with Romanian authorities.

Airspace breaches on NATO’s eastern flank have fueled concerns that the alliance’s borders are at risk as war rages between Russia and Ukraine.

Eforturile din ultima perioada dau roade. Militarii romani au doborât o drona intrată neautorizat în spațiul aerian romanesc, astăzi la ora 11:02.

Felicitări piloților români! Prin profesionalism, sânge rece și reacție rapidă, au neutralizat o dronă care a pătruns astăzi… pic.twitter.com/JEccdJVS20

— Radu Miruta (@RaduMiruta) July 24, 2026

Drone infiltrates Romanian airspace

The Romanian army’s chief of staff told a news conference that Bucharest had not yet identified the drone’s origin or purpose and that an investigation was underway.

However, Chief of Staff General Gheorghita Vlad said it appeared to be a Shahed – the Iran-designed attack drones used by Russia against Ukraine.

“Visually, the pilots reported the drone looked to be a Shahed type,” he said, adding it was too soon to draw conclusions.

Earlier in the day, an army source told Reuters: “There is an ongoing investigation to determine the origin of the drone. But in this part of the world it is Russia that is the attacker.”

Earlier, President Nicusor Dan wrote on social media platform X that a Romanian pilot had shot down the drone at about 11 a.m. after it entered the country’s airspace.

“The area was uninhabited, so the pilot was able to shoot without any risk. Currently, teams of the relevant institutions are investigating the area to come up with all the details about the incident,” Dan wrote.

The Romanian Defense Ministry said the drone was shot down near the town of Padina in Buzau county in the east of the country.

It said two Romanian F-16 jets and two Italian Eurofighter Typhoons based in Romania had been scrambled in response to the incursion, adding the drone was first detected by radars at 9:30 a.m. around 20 km. east of Sulina on the Black Sea coast.

Fragments of the drone fell on a wheat field but caused no damage or injuries, the Buzau county prefect told reporters.

Romania, which shares a 650-km (400-mile) land border with Ukraine, has reported multiple breaches of its airspace by Russian drones since Moscow began attacking Ukrainian ports across the Danube River following its full-scale invasion in 2022.

General Vlad said Russian attacks against Ukraine’s Odesa region had increased ahead of the harvest season, further pressuring key energy and trade routes in the Black Sea.

In late May, a drone crashed into an apartment building in the town of Galati, near the Ukrainian border, injuring two people, the first time a strike had hit a densely populated area in a NATO country and caused injuries during the Ukraine war.

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At least one Israeli was killed, two others were seriously wounded, and at least two others were lightly wounded in a shooting near Gilad Farm, a settlement located southwest of Nablus in the northern West Bank, on Friday morning.

A number of Israelis were hiking in the area when they were attacked by Palestinians who encountered them, the IDF confirmed.

The murdered Israeli was identified as 32-year-old Benayahu Melet, a member of Gilad Farm’s emergency response squad who was killed after attempting to aid hikers under assault by Palestinians.

He leaves behind a wife and two daughters, aged 13 and 12, respectively.

The IDF conducted a manhunt for the terrorist, locating and killing him after the shooting incident.

The head of Gilad Farm’s emergency response squad responded to the incident, along with other squad members. At approximately 8:20 a.m., reports were received of a gunshot wound after Palestinians stole the weapon of the emergency response squad chief and fired at the Israelis, Walla learned.

The IDF seized and returned the stolen weapon after killing the terrorist.

“The hike left Mount Bracha in the early morning when a group of approximately 60 hikers, including two guards armed with rifles, and several others with pistols, set off,” a member of the group told Walla.

“On the way, we stopped at a spring close to Sela Ridge. At around 7:05 a.m., the first incident occured when several Arabs from the village began trying to get us to leave by throwing rocks and attacking us with clubs,” they said.

“One of the hikers was injured in the face. We retreated and began walking towards Gilad Farm,” the group member added.

“At 8:05 a.m., the second clash occurred. Dozens of Arabs from the village began throwing stones at us. Arabs began surrounding the group from three sides, and at this point, two of the armed Israelis opened fire in self-defense,” they said.

“The Arabs continued to advance and surround the group, which was trying to descend the mountain. At this point, the number of Arabs in the area had already reached hundreds,” they continued.

“A few minutes later, a military jeep arrived at the scene. Two minutes later, two members of Gilad Farm’s emergency response squad arrived. They tried to repel the Arab crowd by firing a few shots in the air, but to no avail,” the witness said.

אנחנו מפרסמים כעת תיעוד מהרגעים הראשונים של הפיגוע בשומרון היום:

ניתן לראות את קבוצת המטיילים היהודים, בהם ילדים (לפי גורמי ביטחון – היו שם כ-30 ישראלים בערך), עומדים בפאתי הכפר הפלסטיני שאליו הגיעו לטייל, ובמרכז התיעוד – העימות שהתפתח בין עשרות פלסטינים מהכפר שיצאו לעבר… pic.twitter.com/GqM64H21sU

— דורון קדוש | Doron Kadosh (@Doron_Kadosh) July 24, 2026

“Unarmed civilians also tried to help defend the group, but soldiers pushed them back. During the rush, one of the Arabs, a sheikh from the village, grabbed the gun of one of the emergency response squad members and fired,” they stated.

Magen David Adom paramedics responded to the scene to treat the wounded. “We treated a 25-year-old man who suffered a gunshot wound to his upper body, but remained conscious,” a paramedic said.

“We provided him with medical treatment and evacuated him to be transported to a military helicopter in order to be evacuated to the hospital. He was in a stable condition,” the paramedic noted.

“Later, I assisted an IDF medical team, and together we provided medical treatment to a critically wounded, unconscious man, who suffered gunshot wounds to his body. After prolonged resuscitation efforts, we were forced to declare him dead,” the paramedic said.

Two of the wounded were evacuated to Sourasky Medical Center’s Ichilov Hospital, Tel Aviv, a hospital spokesperson confirmed.

One of the two is in critical condition, while the other suffered serious wounds, the spokesperson noted. United Hatzalah noted that the man in critical condition is approximately 30 years old, while the one with serious wounds is approximately 25 years old.

Two other Israelis were treated at the scene with minor wounds, United Hatzalah added

Netanyahu, Katz, Zamir hold meeting to discuss response to recurring terror threat in West Bank

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir held a discussion on ways to respond to the attack, the Prime Minister’s Office confirmed on Friday.

“We will act strongly against terrorists and their proxies, and we will not allow terrorism in Judea and Samaria to raise its head,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu and Katz issued a statement on Friday afternoon, issuing five orders.

Firstly, to demolish the house of the terrorist responsible for the shooting near Tell village that killed Melet. Secondly, to take strong counterterrorism steps in villages that are “hotbeds of terror,” including by collecting weapons, revoking work permits, and more.

Thirdly, by reinforcing IDF deployment throughout the West Bank. Fourth, by establishing checkpoints, and fifth, by accelerating the regulation of farms and establishing new farms.

Netanyahu and Katz emphasized that security forces, including the IDF, must be allowed to act freely and with full force against terrorism, and to refrain from any action that could harm their activities or divert them from their “central mission” of protecting Israeli citizens and defeating terrorism.

This incident follows two stabbing attacks on Thursday, thereby marking the third terror attack in the West Bank within a 24-hour period.

As such, Zamir held a situational assessment with IDF Central Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth and Operations Directorate Chief Maj.-Gen. Itzik Cohen.

Zamir ordered the mobilization of IDF reinforcements to help secure the area and prevent copycat terror attacks, the military confirmed.

This includes a company from the Nahal Brigade’s Reconnaissance Battalion, two companies from the General Staff’s Infantry Regiment, and two companies from the IDF’s Commando Training School, The Jerusalem Post learned.

Two other battalions have been added to the regional patrols over the past two weeks, and a Commando company was also added last weekend, the Post learned.

According to military officials, the attacks came after a tense period marked by a high volume of security warnings. At the same time, a series of fires that burned large swaths of land intensified friction between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank, particularly around the farming outposts. The IDF is now concerned that additional attacks targeting Israeli soldiers and civilians could follow.

At the same time, footage published on Friday showed a large group of settlers, many of them masked, running toward the village of Jit. The incident occurred only hours after the attack at Gilad Farm in the West Bank.

Additionally, Walla has learned that a broad operational campaign is expected to begin across all regional brigades in the coming hours. The activity will focus on arresting wanted suspects and individuals sought for questioning, as well as conducting operations in known friction points. The main effort will center on the city of Nablus and the wider Samaria region.

According to security officials, Thursday’s attack, in which Itamar Cohen, who is considered a prominent figure in the area, was seriously wounded, could trigger acts of nationalist crime against Palestinians. The IDF, Border Police, and Israel Police are preparing for that possibility as well.

At least one person was injured in a rock-throwing incident on Friday near Gilad Farm following reports of hundreds of settlers marching throughout the West Bank’s Areas A and B.

Herzog, Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, other Israeli leaders react to terror attack

“We must stand united and resolute, and must not allow terror to prevail,” President Isaac Herzog said.

“The heart breaks upon hearing the news of Melet’s death,” he added.

“The cities and villages of the murderers in Judea and Samaria are to be judged like Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said.

“I am on my way to meet Netanyahu for a meeting where I will demand that the IDF be ordered to use air power and D9 bulldozers to erase the homes of terrorists and their supporters, and to exact from the terrorists the price they deserve,” he added.

“For every Jew who is murdered, the enemy must absorb the loss of lands and homes. This is the language spokes in the Middle East, and the time has come to speak it in Judea and Samaria, just as we did in the Gaza Strip,” he stated.

Finance Minister and Religious Zionist Party leader Bezalel Smotrich also responded.

“A tough morning. I send my heartfelt condolences to the family of the murdered, pray for the recovery of the wounded in the attack, and embrace the residents and hikers,” he said.

“We will not normalize the erosion of deterrence and the brazenness of our enemies in recent weeks against the pioneers of settlement and the farms. I demand that the IDF act with an iron fist against the village of the murderers and its surroundings and restore governance and deterrence,” he added.

“The people of the farms and the heroic settlement pioneers are the defensive wall of the State of Israel. We will continue to strengthen and honor them for their steadfast stand for our existence in the Land of Israel against Arab terrorism,” he stated.

“Palestinian terrorism will not achieve its goal; we will continue to deepen our hold on our land – the land of Israel,” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said.

“The incident is still ongoing. There are still people in danger. Terror will not break us. The response must be offensive: We must relentlessly pursue the terrorists and strike terrorism with full force. At the same time, we must continue to build, develop, and strengthen the communities in Samaria. Anyone who tries to harm us should know that they will be met with a stronger and larger Samaria,” Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan said.

“I demand that the government launch a large-scale military operation against the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, who are trying to ignite a wave of terrorism here. We’ve seen it over the past week. We expect the government and the military leadership to carry out a major operation, a real military campaign, in Samaria, here near Gilad Farm, to make it clear that Israel has changed the rules of the game and will not tolerate a wave of terrorism,” Dagan added.

“Attack after attack. Our hearts are with our brothers at Gilad Farm on this difficult morning,” former prime minister Naftali Bennett said.

“Sending heartfelt condolences to the family of the murdered, and praying for the recovery of the wounded. The entire people of Israel stand with the IDF and the security forces in their war against the murderers and their senders. The terror must be eradicated with an iron fist,” Bennett added.

“Combating terrorism requires a systematic security policy, enforcement, and harsh strikes against anyone who attempts to harm Israeli citizens,” former IDF chief Gadi Eisenkot said.

“I trust in the security forces in their pursuit of the terrorist and wish strength to the residents of the area at this difficult time,” he continued, adding that he shares in the grief of the murdered Israeli’s family and wishes for a speedy recovery to the wounded.

“The shocking attack this morning, which joins yesterday’s attack and the wave of fires and repeated arsons, illustrates that these are not isolated incidents but planned and ongoing terrorism,” Mateh Binyamin Regional Council Head Israel Ganz said.

“The area is literally burning,” he stated.

“The wave of arsons, attempted attacks and the ongoing incitement by the Palestinian Authority are part of a single campaign aimed at harming the settlement and the citizens of Israel,” he added.

“Judea and Samaria is not a secondary arena. It is a central front of the State of Israel, and the policy here must change accordingly, by launching a broad operation against the centers of terror, exacting a heavy price from anyone involved in terrorism or incitement, and stopping treating these attacks as routine,” Ganz said.

“We pray for the full recovery of the wounded and wish strength to the security forces, IDF, and pioneering farmers who stand on the front lines and protect Israeli citizens with their bodies every day,” he stated.

Far Right MK blames IDF for failing to stop terror attack

Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har-Melech blamed the IDF for allowing the incident to happen.

“The weakness” of IDF Central Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth, and Judea and Samaria Division Chief Brig.-Gen. Kobi Heller with regard to defending West Bank residents “has cost us in precious blood,” she wrote on X.

“The message to soldiers has gotten through, and in recent events, many of them are afraid to respond with determination,” she added.

“While Bluth and Heller are waging a stubborn battle against pioneering Jews [settlers], deploying IDF soldiers despite all our warnings, the Arab enemy is lifting its head and intensifying the terror. Another October 7 is at the door. You have been warned,” she stated.

“A group of Jewish hikers, who set out every Friday to hike in Judea and Samaria, has become a target of terror today,” Yisrael Beytenu leader and former defense minister Avigdor Liberman said.

“This is a loss of control. A normal country does not accept a reality in which its citizens go out to hike in their own land, and terrorists open fire on them,” he added.

“Against terror, there is no room for hesitation, stammering, or tolerance. Terror understands only strength, determination, and an iron fist!” he stated, sending condolences to the family of the murdered Israeli and wishing a speedy recovery to the wounded.

Several Palestinians killed, wounded at scene, Ramallah’s Health Ministry claims

At least four Palestinians were killed by the IDF and four others wounded at the scene, including three in critical condition, the Palestinian Health Ministry claimed. The IDF has not commented on this at the time of writing.

Essam Saifi, a local leader in the Palestinian Fatah party from the area, told Reuters in a phone call that about 25 to 30 Jewish settlers initially attacked the area and tried to break into two houses there. The residents came out to confront them, and the settlers opened fire, Saifi said.

Half an hour later, Saifi said, the Israelis returned and attacked the western part of the town, striking a minor with a weapon. This caused chaos, and then the Israeli military arrived and started shooting, along with the settlers, Saifi told Reuters.

Amir Bohbot, Efrat Forsher, and Reuters contributed to this report.

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