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ISRAEL

CNN: apologists for terror By Robyn Dolgin

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/05/cnn_apologists_for_terror.html

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour appeared tone deaf to the public outcry over her “news analysis” involving a mother and her two young daughters left for dead by three Palestinian terrorists in Northern Samaria.

She used the blatantly false term “shootout” to describe the cold-blooded murder of Lucy Dee and her two daughters, Maia, 20 and Rina, 15, as if suggesting an exchange of gunfire had taken place at the time the terrorists sprayed bullets into the Dee family vehicle. The Dee family was unarmed and en route to a holiday at the seaside.

Amanpour’s fanciful imagination at painting a “moral equivalency” between the two groups was not lost on Rabbi Leo Dee, husband and father to the victims. He astutely described the reportage as representing a new age of “terror journalism.”

“Christiane’s false reporting caused my family unimaginable pain and suffering at a time when we could least bear it,” Rabbi Dee said in the Jerusalem Post. “This type of terror journalism perpetuates the conflict in the Middle East… The real cycle of violence is a comment like this followed by a terrorist atrocity and them more of the same.”

This sort of impassioned commentary is something Amanpour has become accustomed to hearing as a virulently anti-Israel commentator. But she’s less accustomed to looking down the barrel of a $1.3 billion lawsuit proposed by a grieving family member against her personally and her news organization, CNN. Rabbi Dee is consulting with legal experts and has made his intention clear of expressing his concerns to David Zaslav, CEO of CNN. He has requested a meeting with Zaslav.

The rabbi’s attempt to right a wrong appears to have motivated Amanpour to emerge from behind her wall of silence and issue an apology. “I referred to the murders of an Israeli family: Lucy, Maia and Rina Dee, the wife and daughter of Rabbi Leo Dee. I misspoke and said they were killed in a ‘shootout’ instead of a shooting,” Amanpour offered. “I have written to Rabbi Leo Dee to apologize and make sure the he knows that we apologize for any further pain that may have caused him.”

Rabbi Dee publicly accepted Amanpour’s apology, but his grander vision of holding CNN accountable goes beyond acknowledging a two-paragraph apology. He wants to change the network’s “cycle of false reporting:” His intention is to hold the global network accountable for news reporting that just doesn’t obfuscate the truth, but repackages the facts to the extent that viewers fail to learn the most essential truths.

In this case, CNN viewers would never know from Amanpour and her Israel-bashing colleagues, that the Dee family was murdered at close range, the matriarch had donated her organs for the benefit of others, and among the recipients would be an Arab citizen, as well as Rabbi Dee expressing his sentiment that the “vast majority of Palestinians are good people.”

Colonel Richard Kemp on the IDF’s Achievements “The most moral army in the world.” by Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/colonel-richard-kemp-on-the-idfs-achievements/

Colonel Richard Kemp, who led British troops in Afghanistan and has fought in another half-dozen campaigns, has long been a defender of the IDF, which he has described as “the most moral army in the world.” He looked at what Israel achieved in the first four days of Operation Shield and Arrow and come away with a heightened appreciation for the Israeli military. More on his observations on the campaign can be found here: “‘A grave slur against IDF’: UN plays right into Islamic Jihad’s hands,” by Colonel Richard Kemp, Ynet News, May 11, 2023:

Operation Shield and Arrow has been carried out to date with breathtaking effectiveness. The shield of Iron Dome and David’s Sling have prevented major loss of life among the civilian population, although so far one man has been tragically killed and some have been injured, despite a barrage of 547 deadly rockets fired at Israel at the time of writing [as of Friday, May 12, that number had increased to 937].

Israel managed to decapitate Palestinian Islamic Jihad, taking out by the fourth day of battle six of its senior commanders, including both the head, and the deputy head, of the PIJ’s rocket program. The IAF struck 197 targets in Gaza, including PIJ weapons storehouses, weapons fabrication plants, training centers, rocket launchers, and underground tunnels.

The arrows of targeting intelligence, air strikes and missile attacks have decimated the Gaza terrorist leadership and destroyed many of their weapons. No other military is capable of defending its people with the ferocity and precision the IDF has been showing.

How precise was Israel? It managed to locate the precise apartments where PIJ commanders had been hiding, and hit exactly those targets, sparing all but a handful of civilians – mostly, the wives and children of the commanders, though in the initial attack on May 9, three civilians living in an apartment adjacent to the one the IAF had targeted, also died. It managed to follow, from the skies, PIJ leaders as they moved from one apartment to another. In one case, the Israeli pilot held his fire while a PIJ leader was still with his family in an apartment, waiting until he had left them and gone, alone, to another hiding place, where he assumed he would never be found. And at that point, the Israeli pilot proved him wrong.

Israel’s high-tech: a unique technology-multiplier for the US Yoram Ettinger

*Challenged by a unique environment – top heavy on terrorism and war, but low on natural resources and rainfall – Israel has bolstered its do-or-die state of mind, with defiance of odds, risk-taking, frontier, pioneering, optimism, patriotism, can-do and out-of-the-box mentality. This has yielded a robust flow of game-changing commercial, defense and dual-use technologies.

*These game-changing technologies include the world’s smallest (0.99mm) pill-size video medical camera, MobilEye AI car safety, Waze navigation, the Pressure Bandage, the “Iron Dome” and “David Sling” missile defense systems. Also, the cherry tomato, drip irrigation system, SupPlant autonomous irrigation system, solar water heaters, Intel’s microprocessors, Microsoft’s anti-virus and Windows XP and NT, the USB flash drive Disk-on-Key, Firewall against malware and the ICQ instant messenger. In addition, there are the Israeli developed Watergen water from thin air, GrainPro Cocoons for African grain farmers, biological pest control, Laser keyboard, Voice-over Internet protocol, Face ID, Babylon computer translation, WeCU airport security, Rewalk for paraplegics, OrCam for the visually-impaired, etc.

*These Israeli developed technologies have been shared with the US, in particular, and the world, in general, enhancing global standard of living, communications, medicine, health, agriculture, irrigation, software technologies, cyber security, national security and homeland security.

*Israel is one of the leading global high-tech hubs along with the Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Boston, Austin, Raleigh, Durham, Bangalore, Stockholm, Helsinki and London.

The Real Threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque is From Muslims, Not Jews by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19671/threat-al-aqsa-mosque

f anyone has been desecrating al-Aqsa Mosque, it is Muslims who have been rioting and using rocks and fireworks to attack police officers and Jewish visitors. Muslim rioters — not peaceful Jewish visitors — are the real threat to the sanctity of the mosque.

Israeli authorities have clarified that the route of the “flag parade” absolutely does not include entry into any mosque.

Assurances by the Israeli authorities, however, have not stopped Palestinians and other Muslims from spreading fake news and libels against Jews.

Iran’s terror proxies Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have also used the celebrations in Jerusalem to spread the libel that Jews are planning to “desecrate” al-Aqsa Mosque.

As far as Hamas and other Palestinians are concerned, the very presence of Jews at their holy site and in Israel is supposedly a “provocation.”

Hamas and several terror groups in the Gaza Strip, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad, also repeated the lie that “al-Aqsa Mosque is in danger.”

When the terror groups talk about “resistance,” they are referring to the need for terrorism against Israel, including firing rockets from the Gaza Strip, and attacks by stabbing, shooting and car-ramming.

“The people of Palestine have no historical rights to Palestine. They have no right that dates back 2,000, 3,000, or 4,000 years. The right of the Canaanites to Palestine is equal to the pharaohs’ right to Egypt. Is it conceivable that any Muslim in Egypt would say: ‘I am Pharaonic and proud of it?’ Well, it is the same if a Muslim in Palestine said, ‘I am a Canaanite and proud of it.’ To hell with your Canaanite identity and to his Pharaonic identity. People, our history is simple and it is not ancient. It must not be said that the Palestinians have Canaanite roots. Our history dates back only 1,440 years…. The only thing you are allowed to say is: Oh Palestinians, you are Muslims.” — Issam Amira, Palestinian Islamic scholar, al-Aqsa Mosque, April14, 2023

The revival of the “al-Aqsa is in danger” libel is part of an ongoing effort by Palestinians and other Muslims to delegitimize and eliminate Israel. Palestinian leaders and Muslim “scholars” spread lies about Israel and Jews to encourage and justify terrorism.

The real threat to the mosque and other holy sites in Jerusalem is posed those Palestinians and Muslims who use battle cries to incite violence, terrorism and Jew-hate.

Incomprehensibly, much of the international community, the media, and even prominent self-declared “human rights” organizations persist in defaming Israel and ignoring this fabricated, toxic incitement by Palestinian and Muslim leaders.

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

As Michael Ordman who catalogs this dazzling list from Israel reminds us every week and 24/7: “Israelis have been revealing more innovations and activities to benefit humanity.”

In medicine, from A (Alzheimer’s) to Z (Zika virus) Israel researches and develops early detection and promising treatment options.

In computer technology, water saving and recycling, international rescue alerts and response, Israel provides outsize contributions to the entire world.

This week on May 25th the Jewish festival of Shavuot is celebrated with biblical heralding of the wheat harvest. How apposite to Israel’s outsize contributions to agriculture and food production to eradicate world hunger and famine.   rsk

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Successful skin cancer treatment. (TY OurCrowd) A small trial of Alpha DaRT from Israel’s Alpha Tau (see here previously) was 100% successful in treating 10 patients with skin cancer. All were 100% clear at 12 weeks with no recurrence or toxicities in 24 weeks.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/05/11/2667240/0/en/Alpha-Tau-Announces-the-Publication-of-its-US-Multicenter-Pilot-Skin-Cancer-Trial-Results-in-JAMA-Network-Open.html  
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2804784
 
Proton cancer therapy trials. Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center has partnered Israel’s P-Cure (see here previously) and has begun trials of its focused proton radiation therapy for cancer patients. Meanwhile, Tel Aviv’s Sourasky (Ichilov) Medical Center is to install proton radiation machines from Belgium’s IBA.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/proton-therapy-touted-as-cancer-killer-without-side-effects-set-for-israel-debut/
 
Preventing strokes from CAD. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s InspireMD (see here previously) has just completed the first in-human trial of its CGuard Prime stent that opens blocked Carotid Arteries and traps dangerous emboli released. Carotid Artery Disease (CAD) can stop blood flow to the brain and cause a stroke.
https://www.inspiremd.com/en/press-center/inspiremd-announces-successful-first-in-human-procedure-utilizing-cguard-prime-its-next-generation-carotid-artery-stent-cas-platform/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6xXfhcT4zs
 
Why female Alzheimer’s patients rapidly decline. Hebrew University researchers have discovered that women lose certain mitochondria (maternally inherited) RNA molecules in their brains much faster than men. This adversely affects the neurotransmitter that plays a role in memory, learning, attention, and more.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-study-reveals-molecular-basis-for-female-alzheimers-patients-rapid-decline/   https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/371219
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/alz.13095
 
Where does creativity come from? A study at Israel’s Beilinson hospital is looking at why many Parkinson’s patients develop an obsessive desire to take up art or creative writing for the first time. Researchers are investigating if the area of the brain affected by the disease is also responsible for creativity.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/mrkqcjrrt
 
Hospital testing goes virtual. Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has partnered with Israel’s Mpcheck and Israel’s Teva to allow Teva’s employees to perform medical tests at their workplace or at home. Sheba Virtual Hospital’s “Beyond” tests include blood, urine, cervical cancer, hearing and more.                              
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-741898
https://mpcheck.co.il/
 
One number to call them all. Israel is to unify the emergency medical hotline number. Currently, each medical emergency service has its own number – 101 for Magen David Adom, 1221 for United Hatzalah etc. Subject to Knesset approval, the public will just call 101, which all services can respond to.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-742420
 
Biomed Israel 2023. One of the sessions at Biomed 2023 is personal nutrition. It is a field of technology based on multidisciplinary research that utilizes AI and machine learning to tailor unique nutrition recommendations.
https://www.jpost.com/business-and-innovation/tech-and-start-ups/article-742081
https://kenes-exhibitions.com/biomed/
 
Speak to an AI expert anytime. Israel’s Wolfson Medical Center in Holon is using artificial intelligence to monitor female cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in partnership with Israel’s XOLTAR ai. Patients receive personal, round-the-clock support tailored to their individual needs based on AI analyzed data.
https://nocamels.com/2023/05/cancer-patients-get-revolutionary-ai-carers/
https://xoltar.com/  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flYMdOfz7pQ
 
 

Elon Musk Is Right About George Soros—and Not Anti-Semitic The Hungarian-born billionaire has done more than anyone to turn Americans against Israel. By Alan M. Dershowitz

https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-is-right-about-george-soros-and-not-anti-semitic-hrw-j-street-israel-b7db935b?mod=opinion_lead_pos5

Elon Musk has been accused of anti-Semitism because of his criticism and mockery of George Soros. Mr. Soros is Jewish; Mr. Musk isn’t. But Mr. Musk stands falsely accused. Mr. Soros is an active participant in politics, and his Jewishness shouldn’t shield him from criticism.

Further, no single person has done more to damage Israel’s standing in the world, especially among so-called progressives, than George Soros. His financial support has multiplied the influence of the two major organizations that have done the most to shift the left-wing paradigm against Israel.

One of them is Human Rights Watch, which was founded by publisher and human-rights advocate Robert Bernstein (1923-2019). For years HRW critiqued the denial of human rights by all countries based on two criteria: the seriousness of the violations in any particular nation, and the inability of the nation’s citizens to protest and remedy such violations. But in 1993 Kenneth Roth became executive director and turned HRW into an organization that specialized in demonizing Israel.

By 2009 the Israel bashing had become so severe that Bernstein wrote: “As the founder of Human Rights Watch, its active chairman for 20 years and now founding chairman emeritus, I must do something that I never anticipated: I must publicly join the group’s critics. Human Rights Watch had as its original mission to pry open closed societies, advocate basic freedoms and support dissenters. But recently it has been issuing reports on the Israeli-Arab conflict that are helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state.”

The Marvel, and the ‘Scandal,’ of Jerusalem Anti-Semitism is rooted in envy of the Jewish people’s eternal endurance. By Meir Soloveichik

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-marvel-and-the-scandal-of-jerusalem-day-anti-semitism-missiles-gaza-b01f4eda?mod=opinion_lead_pos9

Thousands of religious Israelis are celebrating Jerusalem Day, which began Thursday at sundown. On Friday morning at the Western Wall, they will recite psalms of thanksgiving commemorating the moment in the Six Day War of 1967 that Israeli soldiers conquered the ancient city of Jerusalem, making it the heart of Israel’s capital. Those assembled won’t merely mark a military achievement 56 years ago. Their minds will travel back to the earliest origins of the sacred city, to its conquest by King David and to the empires that have destroyed it, only to have it rise again from the ashes. They will ponder how Jewish Jerusalem reflects the miracle of Jewish existence: one that allows us to understand why, for better or worse, the world’s attention remains riveted on Israel.

No city in the world has a history like Jerusalem, and no other people has a relationship to a location like the Jews do to it. To study Jerusalem is to study the story of the world: from Egyptian pharaohs to Mesopotamian kings, from Greek and Roman emperors to kaisers and sultans. They, and others, sought to end Jewish presence in the ancient city permanently. Yet Jerusalem is a Jewish city restored, while other ancient cities of biblical past—Babel, Pi-Rameses, Nineveh—are in ruin.

As Norman Podhoretz once put it, Jerusalem reflects “the scandal of Jewish particularity”: The uniqueness of one city in world history testifies to the enduring nature of one people on this earth. Established as Israel’s capital when now-extinct empires bestrode the world, it was toward Jerusalem that the Jews prayed in exile, binding themselves to it as empire after empire became the Ozymandias of its age. Jews celebrate the anniversary of the Jewish return to ancient Jerusalem not only because it is central to their spiritual lives but also because it is a reminder of God’s providence in the history of their people and of the world.

The ‘Nakba’ and How it Grew A narrative of deceit dating back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. by Hugh Fitzgerald

https://www.frontpagemag.com/the-nakba-and-how-it-grew/

Along with “apartheid” used as an adjective – as in “Israel is an apartheid state” – haters of Israel have taken to referring to the “Nakba,” the Arabic word for “catastrophe.” The “Nakba” is the word the Arabs now use to describe the failure in the 1948 war of five Arab armies to destroy the Jews of Israel, by expelling or killing every last one. That, of course, is not how the Arabs put it to the Western world: they claim the “Nakba” refers to the defeat of the Arabs who had intervened only to help their Palestinian brothers hold onto the land that had been theirs for centuries, land that the “Zionist entity” was stealing for itself. More on the history of the “Nakba” can be found here: “The Nakba Narrative: A History of Deception,” by Chaim Lax, Honest Reporting, May 8, 2023:

“The Nakba” is repeatedly invoked in the media, academic literature, politics, and popular culture surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Its appearance is so ubiquitous at this point, that it seems like it has always been part of the general lexicon.

However, that is not the case.

Here, we’ll look at the significance of the term “Nakba,” the history of the term from 1948 until the present, how this Arabic term gained popularity around the world, and the new adoption of the term to refer to anti-Jewish persecution by the Arab and Muslim worlds.

In Arabic, the term “al-Nakba” means “the catastrophe.” In the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the catastrophe that the “Nakba” is referring to is the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, and the disintegration of Palestinian Arab life in Israel.

For those who adopt this narrative, the Zionist movement and Israel are solely responsible for the displacement of Palestinian Arabs between 1947 and 1949, while the Arabs themselves are the exclusive victims of the conflict.

By failing to take into account the Palestinian and Arab refusal to accept a two-state solution in 1947 and the subsequent military attempt to destroy the Jewish state, the Nakba narrative advances the claim of perpetual Palestinian victimhood and serves as a historical basis for the Palestinian “right of return.”

The Palestinians’ Other Jihad Against Israel by Bassam Tawil

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/19651/palestinians-jihad-against-israel

The Palestinian Authority (PA) wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against Israeli leaders and punish them for speaking out against, or combatting, terrorism.

Instead of demanding that ICC punish the terrorists — who are intentionally firing rockets at Israeli civilians — the PA is asking the court to prosecute Israelis for launching operations to counter terrorism.

The PA… according to the Oslo Accords is officially supposed to be Israel’s peace partner and to prevent terrorism and violence….

At the heart of the PA’s campaign against Israel is the argument that Israel has no right to target terrorists… involved in terrorism against Jews. Instead, Israel should agreeably allow its citizens to be killed.

Mahmoud Abbas and his associates, instead of denouncing the terrorists for indiscriminately firing rockets at Israeli civilians, is actually supporting the terrorists — both financially in a pay-for-slay “jobs program,” as well as verbally. In this regard, the PA is not only abrogating its commitments under the Oslo Accords and international law, but is acting as an enemy of Israel — not a peace partner.

The Palestinian Authority has proven that it cares more about the terrorists than about the civilians they injure and kill.

Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a spokesperson for Mahmoud Abbas… described the airstrike that killed the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commanders — who had instigated the attacks against Israel — as a “crime” … His complaint, in other words, is that “It all started when he hit me back.”

Abu Rudaineh, however, “forgot” to mention that the Israeli airstrikes had come in response to more than 100 rockets that terrorists had fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel a few days earlier. He also “forgot” to mention that the three commanders belonged to PIJ, a group that rejects Israel’s right to exist and is opposed to any peace process.

The goals of PIJ are: “The liberation of the whole of Palestine and the liquidation of the Israeli entity, and the establishment of Islamic rule on the land of Palestine which guarantees the achievement of justice, freedom, and equality.”

PIJ aims to “inspire and mobilize the masses of the Islamic nation everywhere and urge them to fight the decisive battle with the Israeli entity.”

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh also joined the chorus of senior Palestinian officials who chose to blame Israel for the fighting rather than the terrorists who had begun the conflict by firing more than 100 rockets at Israeli towns and cities the week before.

Shtayyeh, too, “forgot” to mention that the Israeli operation was directed not at civilians, as the Palestinian operation had been, but specifically against commanders of an Iranian-backed, designated terror group, PIJ.

Abu Rudaineh and Shtayyeh then called on the “international community,” the United Nations and the Biden administration to hold Israel to account as a rogue state in the international arena for being so inconsiderate as to defend itself against the rocket attacks of PIJ and other terror groups in the Gaza Strip.

It is no surprise that the UN, which has a long record of bias against Israel, would hold an event that calls the establishment of Israel a “catastrophe.”

By hosting Abbas and organizing such an event, the UN is essentially complicit in the Palestinian Authority’s war on Israel.

So is the European Union, which came out against the Israeli military operation that was countering the terrorists in the Gaza Strip, and described Israel’s actions as “intolerable.” Instead of calling on the Palestinian terrorists to stop targeting Israeli civilians, the EU urged the two parties to “exercise maximum restraint.”

The EU actually tried to put a democratic country, Israel, and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip, on equal footing.

Iran and its Palestinian terror proxies, meanwhile, proclaim that Israel should be destroyed – through a nuclear bomb, or Jihad, or rockets, or other forms of terrorism, such as suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings and car-rammings.

The latest round of fighting shows that the terrorists in the Gaza Strip have not even remotely relinquished their dream of eliminating Israel and killing Jews. Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority – Israel’s “peace partners” – are working to achieve the same goal through legal and diplomatic warfare and incitement against Israel.

It is time for the Biden administration and the international community to wake up and see that there is no real difference between PIJ, Hamas, Hezbollah – and the Palestinian Authority. They all share the same aspiration of seeing Israel wiped off the map. They only differ regarding the best means to accomplish that. Iran’s terror militias are convinced this goal can be achieved through terrorism and rockets, while the Biden administration’s friends in the PA believe that with the help of the UN, EU, ICC and other international parties, they can finally exterminate Israel by delegitimizing it through the legal and diplomatic route.

The latest attempt by Iran and its Palestinian terror proxies to kill as many Jews as possible just ended with another “ceasefire” between Israel and the Palestinians that was brokered by Egypt. During the five days of fighting, the Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip, in particular Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), fired more than 1,200 rockets at Israel — a country the size of New Jersey — killing two people and damaging several homes and other buildings.

Israel at 75 Is Threatened but Strong It can no longer take its relationship with the U.S. for granted, but it may not need to. Walter Russel Mead

https://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-at-75-is-threatened-but-strong-america-alliance-oil-mid-east-russia-china-e4bf6321?mod=opinion_featst_pos1

It’s been 75 years since the Jewish community in British Palestine rejected a last-minute plea from the Truman administration and declared independence as the last British forces left the embattled land. It wasn’t the most auspicious moment. One day earlier, the strategically located Gush Etzion bloc of Jewish agricultural settlements fell to Arab assailants following a bitter siege.

Disregarding Truman’s pleas and warnings from Western military leaders that they faced certain defeat, the Jews of Palestine voted for independence. They went on to win the War of Independence, thanks largely to an influx of Soviet-bloc weapons from Czechoslovakia, but 75 years later questions about its future still swirl around the Jewish state.

In recent weeks we’ve seen rocket attacks from Gaza, reports that Russia will deliver advanced fighter jets to Iran, and the readmission of Syria to the Arab League. A few months ago, Israelis were speculating over the likelihood that Saudi Arabia would join the Abraham Accords. Today, they are working to understand the ramifications of the China-brokered Saudi-Iranian thaw.

But the most important question facing Israelis today is the future of their relationship with the U.S. There is nothing written in the stars that guarantees its permanence. For the first 25 years of Israel’s independence, American presidents were more interested in cultivating Arab leaders and blocking the Israeli nuclear program than in aligning with Jerusalem. Only after Richard Nixon concluded that an Israeli defeat in the 1973 Yom Kippur War would empower the Soviet Union across the Middle East did Washington move toward a strategic relationship.