RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273893/prager-u-video-why-dont-you-support-israel-prager-university

Israel is one of the most free and most prosperous countries in the world. Not only is Israel a booming economy and a wellspring of innovation, it is the only democracy in the Middle East. So why is it so controversial to support the Jewish state? Stephen Harper, the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada, lays out several fundamental truths about America’s most critical ally. Check out this must-see short video from PragerU.

https://www.jns.org/opinion/pompeos-justified-low-expectations-for-the-mideast-plan/

On the very day that U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was convening in New York with Jewish leaders, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas was at a ceremony in Ramallah denouncing the Trump administration’s “deal of disgrace,” which he said “will go to hell.”

In a private meeting on May 28 with the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo acknowledged that his administration’s “deal of the century” between Israel and the Palestinians is “currently unexecutable.”

No kidding.

Although details of Washington’s much-touted plan for a resolution of the conflict have yet to be revealed, the Palestinian Authority rejected it publicly even before it had begun. This was to be expected. Every previous agreement put forth or brokered by the United States, including those that involved serious Israeli territorial and other concessions, has resulted in greater, not less, Palestinian intransigence and violence towards neighboring Jews.

Indeed, the Fatah-led P.A. in Ramallah and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip both have made it crystal-clear that their goal is neither peace with Israel nor independent Palestinian statehood, but rather the destruction of the Jewish state. In fact, the latter is one of the few issues on which the two terrorist entities are in complete agreement. About all else, they are at each other’s throats, literally and figuratively.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/04/after-golan-attack-israel-makes-it-clear-that-iran-cannot-hide-in-syria/

The Israeli strike on Iranian assets in Syria sends the message that the Islamic republic cannot hide behind its regional proxies, and that its activities remain highly exposed to Israeli intelligence and firepower.

At this time, no group has claimed responsibility for the firing of two rockets at Israel’s Mount Hermon on Saturday night from Syria, but it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to view Iran, or one of its proxies, as the prime suspects.

The Iranian radical axis possesses both the ability and the motivation to conduct such an attack.

Israel’s responses included a significant air strike on Iranian assets within the T-4 airbase, in central Syria, and deadly strikes on President Bashar Assad regime’s military.

Israel sent the message that Iran cannot hide behind its regional proxies and that its activities remain highly exposed to Israeli intelligence and firepower. It also reiterated that Assad will continue to pay a price for Iran’s aggression.

The Islamic republic has spent years creating proxy terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East, including in Syria. This gives it an ability to attack and pressure its enemies on their own doorstep, far from Iran’s own borders, while maintaining a facade of deniability. The “anonymous” firing of two rockets on Saturday appears to fit this pattern well.

https://bit.ly/2HOfaFJ

1. Arab integration in Israel. During 2017-2018, 18.3% of Israeli students studied engineering, compared to 17.9% studying social sciences.  25% of Israel’s undergraduates study engineering and computer sciences. During 2012-2018, the number of Israeli students studying tech subjects (electronics, engineering, software, optical, math, computers) grew 30%, compared to a 100% surge in the number of Arab students. In 2018, the number of Arab students in the hightech subjects accounted to 12% of the total, compared to 8% in 2012 (Israel Council for Higher Education).

2. Economist Intelligence Unit, May 15, 2019: Israel’s GDP of $356BN and $40,230 per capita in 2018 is expected to surge to $667BN and $62,070 in 2030, reflecting Israel’s advantage – over developed and developing countries – in the areas of technology and demography.  Israel spends the highest GDP proportion, in the world, on civilian research & development. Its high investment in military research & development has had positive impact on civilian technology. For example, Israel has overcome low rainfall through desalination and water/sewage recycling, evolving into a major exporter of water technologies. More than 50% of Israel’s workforce has gone through tertiary education, and is expected to grow due to a relatively high fertility rate and positive net-immigration. Population growth is faster than any high-income country. Israel’s dynamic hightech sector will continue driving export growth, together with a strong contribution by business services. Exports of natural gas will make an increasing contribution in the 2020s. Israel’s isolation in the region will diminish gradually, as relations with Egypt and Persian Gulf Arab countries are improved. Israel will maintain the free-trade agreements with the US and EU and will expand trade ties with Japan, China and India and mid-size Asian economies. Israeli exports will rise from $111BN in 2018 to $283BN in 2030, as imports rise from $108BN to $233BN.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2019/06/03/for-second-straight-day-israel-strikes-military-targets-in-syria/

Israel fired missiles at a Syrian military air base in the country’s center late Sunday, killing at least one soldier and wounding two others, hours after another Israeli strike in southern Syria, which came in response to a rocket attack on the Israeli Golan Heights. Sunday’s strike killed three soldiers and wounded seven, Syria’s state-run media said.

Unconfirmed reports said Monday that five soldiers were killed in the strike, three of them Syrian.

According to Syrian media, the Israeli strike targeted the T4 air base in the central province of Homs – long used by Iranian forces in Syria – just before midnight Sunday. There was no immediate comment from Israel about striking the air base.

Syrian state TV quoted an unidentified military official as saying that one soldier was killed and two others were wounded in the strike and that an arms depot was hit as well. Israel has attacked the T4 base in the past.

Earlier Sunday, the IDF confirmed it targeted several military positions in southern Syria, including two artillery batteries, several observation and intelligence posts and an SA2 air defense unit, in response to two rockets launched from Syria late on Saturday, which caused no casualties.

https://freebeacon.com/blog/israel-heads-again-to-elections-as-one-politician-gambles-it-all/

Five weeks after being sworn in, the 21st Knesset voted to dissolve itself. It’s a first for Israeli politics; the country has never held back-to-back elections. Two freshman legislators even burst into tears. One man, Avigdor Liberman, is responsible for both the most recent April 9 elections and the new elections to be held Sept. 17. The question is why? Consensus is building that Liberman brought down the previous government (when he resigned as defense minister) and refused to join a new one in a bid to put himself back on the political map as his influence fades.

Liberman refused to join the government over a proposed military conscription bill for ultra-Orthodox Jews, or haredim (literally “ones who tremble” before God). Liberman’s position—that not one clause of the bill be touched—was first viewed as merely an opening position that would soften as the weeks went by. Up to last week’s Wednesday midnight deadline, there was a lingering belief that a last-minute deal would be struck.

But Liberman refused to budge, leaving Netanyahu one seat short of the 61 Knesset seats he needed to form a government.

Netanyahu, visibly furious, in a kind of verbal excommunication, announced to the press on Wednesday that Liberman was “on the left now,” calling him “a serial destroyer of right-wing governments.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273889/gaza-conundrum-ari-lieberman

Like an open sore that refuses to heel, Gaza continues to be a thorn in Israel’s side. Though things remain on simmer for now, a full scale conflagration against Hamas and its junior affiliate, Islamic Jihad, is inevitable. As if to underscore this point, on Thursday, Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar, announced that his group’s rocket capabilities have improved, and threatened that Hamas would not hesitate to launch rockets at Tel Aviv if attacked. He also stated that Hamas-orchestrated protests along the Gaza border would continue and intensify. Tellingly, Sinwar noted that Hamas receives financial and military support from Iran and that but for Iranian assistance, Hamas would not have been able to improve its military capabilities to the level where it’s at today.

Israel is accustomed to such belligerent talk from its enemies, which is often more bark than bite. Nonetheless, Israel’s leaders have every reason to take these types of threats seriously. A miscalculation by Hamas can instantly trigger a wider conflict.

Hamas has two immediate goals. The first is to hold on to the reins of power at all costs. Hamas does this by controlling Gaza with an iron fist, brutally suppressing all forms of dissent. But the terror group also needs to pay the salaries of those who ensure the regime’s survival. To this end, it relies on cash handouts from entities like Qatar and Iran, as well as taxes on goods smuggled in tunnels between Gaza and northern Sinai, and other extortion schemes.

Hamas’s second goal is to maintain relevancy. Wider issues affecting the Mideast, such as the Shia-Sunni divide, Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, the Islamic State, and proxy wars in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Libya have regulated Gaza and the Palestinian issue at large to third tier. Hamas addresses this problem by causing disruption and mischief. To this end, Hamas employs various schemes to keep itself in the news cycle. But the terror group recognizes that it cannot push the envelope too far lest it incur the full brunt of the Israel Defense Forces and invite disaster upon itself.

https://worldisraelnews.com/israel-retaliates-for-syrian-missile-strike-blasting-targets-near-damascus/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=PushCrew_notification_1559455948&pushcrew_powered=1

Israel hit a number of military targets in Syria overnight on Sunday in retaliation for two rockets fired at Israel’s Mt. Hermon on Saturday.

“Fighter planes and helicopters of the IDF attacked a number of military targets belonging to the Syrian army, among them two artillery batteries, a number of observation and intelligence posts on the Golan Heights front and an air-defense system of the SA-2 type,” the IDF reported.

Ten people were killed in the Israeli airstrikes, three Syrian soldiers and seven Hezbollah and Iranian forces, reports the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, an independent watchdog group based in London.

Syrian state media reports only three killed and seven wounded.

The Israel Defense Forces says it has no information about casualties on the other side. It released a video on Twitter showing one of its missiles striking a target.