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NEWS FROM ISRAEL AND THE MIDDLE EAST

Hamas: We will never recognize ‘the enemy’

July 9, 2020 — Israel National News reports: “On the occasion of the sixth anniversary of Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014, the Hamas organization says it will continue the fight against the ‘Israeli occupation’ until it is uprooted.

The terrorist organization said in a statement released on Wednesday that the fight would not stop until the Palestinians regained all their rights to their land, the holy places and the natural resources stolen from them.

Hamas stressed the importance of the unity of the Palestinian people, the land and the national sentiments, and added that any harm to the Palestinian people or the land constitutes harm to the entire Palestinian people in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and Jerusalem…”  (This headline is the reason for the failure of the two-state solution.  The enemies of Israel do not want peace.  Their goal is “…let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” – Psalm 83:4.  Benjamin Netanyahu stated: “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more ‎violence. If the Jews put ‎down their weapons ‎today, there would be no ‎more Israel.”  He is wrong on one point, there will always be an Israel “…I will give them [Israel] an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off” – Isaiah 56:5.  See the next report.)

Balloons carrying rocket explosives land in southern Israel

July 28, 2020 — Israel National News reports: “A bundle of balloons carrying the explosive head of an RPG rocket was found in an agricultural area of southern Israel.

A police sapper conducted a controlled detonation of the explosive, according to the Israel Police.

Arson balloons or balloons with incendiary devices attached were frequently sent aloft toward southern Israel during 2019, but their usage has waned this year. Several incendiary balloons were launched last month, however.

They are often disguised as toys to attract children…”

Netanyahu: Hezbollah should know IDF prepared for any scenario

July 28, 2020 — The Jerusalem Post reports: “Hezbollah should realize Israel will do what it takes to defend itself, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on a visit to the IDF Northern Command in Safed on Tuesday.

‘I don’t suggest that anyone try the IDF or Israel. We are determined to defend ourselves,’ Netanyahu said following a meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram, National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat and others.

Netanyahu’s remarks came the day after the IDF stopped a Hezbollah attack on Israel’s northern borders. He called the clash ‘important,’ in that it prevented a Hezbollah incursion into Israel.

‘All that is happening at this moment is a result of an attempt by Iran and its outgrowths in Lebanon,’ he stated.

Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah is ‘serving the Iranian interest at Lebanon’s expense,’ Netanyahu said…”  (Israel is here forever under the eternal rule of Christ in the New Jerusalem.  All Christians join with Israel for this joyous 1,000 years – “…I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” – Revelation 21:2 – 4.)

CENTCOM chief: A war with Israel would not end well for Hezbollah

July 15, 2020 — The Jerusalem Post reports: “CENTCOM head Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said it would be a great mistake for Hezbollah to try to carry out operations against Israel. ‘I can’t see that having a good ending,’ he said at a briefing during a major trip to the Middle East this week. McKenzie has visited Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar and Kuwait. The US general also acknowledged continuing tensions in Syria and with Iran across the region.

This is McKenzie’s first trip to the region since February. He visited Israel in November last year during the rising tensions between the US and Iran. Since February, US forces in Iraq have faced repeated rocket attacks by Iranian-backed groups, and the US retaliated with airstrikes in March. McKenzie has helped bring air defense to protect those troops in Iraq and has called the situation with Iran ‘contested deterrence,’ meaning that the Islamic Republic is deterred from further major attacks, but harassment by Iranian-backed groups continues…”  (According to GlobalFirepower.com, the United States has the highest Military Strength Rating, Israel is number 15, and Iran is number 21.  Even if Iran were more powerful than Israel, history has shown us that when Israel is attacked by superior forces, the result is that Israel gets a new national holiday.  Yahweh God has promised: “…I will give them [Israel] an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off” – Isaiah 56:5.)

Iran brags that new ‘missile cities’ are nightmare for enemies

July 6, 2020 — The Jerusalem Post reports: “In the Iranian rhetoric playbook, every failure must be met with an equal and opposite claim to some form of success. The failure of Iran to protect critical infrastructure, as well as a series of explosions at a missile factory and nuclear site over the last week and a half, led Tehran to point to new ‘missile cities’ as part of its arsenal that makes it a ‘nightmare’ for enemies. What is a ‘missile city’ and why is Iran talking about this now?

The comments were made Sunday by Brig.-Gen. Alireza Tangsiri, who said that Iran has ‘underground cities which house vessels and missiles.’ The entire shoreline of southern Iran has these weapons, he asserted. Most of these weapons systems are in the hands of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, not the regular Iranian Navy. They consist of various marine forces, including units of the Basij, the reports in Iranian state media claim. They include 428 flotillas along 2,200 km. of coastline. The systems are concentrated at key areas along the Persian Gulf and facing the Gulf of Oman…

The bragging about the ‘missile cities’ comes in the wake of a mid-June test of an Iranian cruise missile that was fired out to sea, which supposedly has a range of 280 km. Iran also said in April it had increased the range of its naval missiles to 700 km…”  (“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early” – Psalm 46:1 – 5.  See the next report.)

Multiple attacks on Iran by unseen adversary send clear warning to regime

July 9, 2020 — The Jerusalem Post reports: “Three weeks ago a paper written by the staff at Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya’s Institute for Policy and Strategy argued that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s focus on extending Israeli sovereignty to parts of the West Bank was deflecting his attention and that of the world from Israel’s main threat: Iran…

According to the paper, not only did the incessant chatter about the possibility of annexation mean that the world was focusing on Israel rather than Iran, but the annexation issue led Netanyahu to take his eye off the Iranian ball, and this at a particularly inopportune moment: as Iran continues to test how far the world will let it go beyond the limits of the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and as the UN is scheduled to consider lifting an arms embargo on the Islamic Republic in October.

All that was written three weeks ago. Less than two weeks ago, however, something dramatic changed: on June 26 an explosion rocked a facility that produces liquid fuel for ballistic missiles near Tehran, and another massive fire erupted in Shiraz. These were the first of a series of six fires, explosions and chemical mishaps since then, including at a medical clinic in Tehran, the Natanz nuclear site, a power plant in Ahvaz, and at a petrochemical plant in Mahshahr…

These actions inside Iran send a strong message to the Islamic Republic – already reeling from the coronavirus, crippling US sanctions, a deep economic crisis and domestic foment – that it is vulnerable, that its most sensitive facilities can be reached and penetrated, and that facilities suspected of being used to further its nuclear and ballistic missile program can be severely damaged…”

Jordan could support Israeli-Palestinian binational state, its PM says

July 21, 2020 — The Times of Israel reports: “Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzaz said his country could possibly back a single Israeli-Palestinian state, if it offered equal rights to all citizens.

Speaking to the UK Guardian newspaper in an interview published Tuesday, Razzaz said a binational state could, under those circumstances, be an alternative to the two-state solution that currently forms the basis of international expectations to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The proposed one-state format comes as Israel plans to extend sovereignty to areas of the West Bank, as allowed under US President Donald Trump’s peace proposal, which envisions Palestinian rule and eventually a state on the remaining territory. Critics say Israeli intentions to unilaterally annex settlements in the West Bank and the strategic Jordan Valley, some 30 percent of the territory, would end the possibility of a viable two-state solution…”  (Caroline B. Glick, senior contributing editor to The Jerusalem Post wrote a book in 2014 entitled “The Israeli Solution” where she stated in the preface: “Establishing a Palestinian state, so the thinking goes, would be a panacea for all the region’s ills.  It would end the Arab world’s conflict with Israel, because the reason the Arab world is anti-Israel is that there is no Palestinian state.  It would also nearly erase the Arab world’s anti-Americanism, because the reason the Arabs – and the larger Muslim world – are anti-American is that the United States supports Israel even though there is no Palestinian state…  For the past ninety years, the two-state solution has been tried more than a dozen times, and every time it has failed, abysmally.  Between 1970 and 2013, the United States presented nine different peace plans for Israel and the Palestinians, all based on the two-state solution – and for the past twenty years, the two-state solution has been the centerpiece of the U.S. Middle East policy.  But despite this laser focus, American efforts to implement the two-state solution have all been dismal failures.”  See the next two reports.)

Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan warn Israel on annexation

July 7, 2020 —YnetNews.com reports: “Egypt, France, Germany and Jordan on Tuesday warned Israel against annexing parts of the West Bank, saying that doing so could have consequences for bilateral relations.

In a statement distributed by the German Foreign Ministry, the countries, including Israel’s two leading partners in the Middle East, said their foreign ministers had discussed how to restart talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

They, along with most other European countries, oppose Israeli plans that envisage annexing parts of the West Bank as part of a peace deal that is promoted by the U.S. administration of President Donald Trump.

The Palestinian Authority, which wants the West Bank for a future Palestinian state, opposes the move. The United States has yet to give its approval to the annexation plans…”

Anti-Israel protesters in US declare ‘day of rage’ against Israel’s sovereignty plan

July 3, 2020 — Israel National News reports: “Thousands of anti-Israel protesters rallied in demonstrations across the US, Wednesday, in what organizers dubbed a ‘day of rage’.

The demonstrations were held in support of similar rallies in the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday, denouncing Israeli plans to apply sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria.

Smaller protests were held in Brooklyn, Washington DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and in New Mexico, drawing thousands of demonstrators.

Approximately 2,000 demonstrators joined the Day of Rage protest in Brooklyn, during which speakers denounced not only Israel’s sovereignty plan, but the very existence of the State of Israel, calling the Jewish state a ‘genocidal’ and calling for the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state ‘from the river to the sea’, with additional calls for ‘intifada’ – or violent attacks on Israeli Jews…”