Pipe will connect Sea of Galilee to infrastructure that in turn links into five desalination plants on the Mediterranean coast

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel to be 1st in world to pipe desalinated water into a natural lake, the Galilee
Sue Surkes
Jun 28, 2022

Early next year, Israel is set to become the first country in the world to channel desalinated water into a natural lake — the Sea of Galilee. One of the lowest-lying bodies of water on Earth, the Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest freshwater lake and its emergency water store. The national water company, Mekorot, plans to complete construction of a 13-kilometer (8-mile) underground pipe by the end of this year, to be followed by weeks of tests before it goes into operation around the end of the first quarter of 2023. READ MORE

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“Republican lawmakers and former Trump administration officials called the move a de-facto effort to divide Jerusalem”

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Republicans slam Biden administration for upgrading Palestinian Affairs Unit
Marc Rod
June 23, 2022

Republican lawmakers and former Trump administration officials are criticizing the Biden administration’s plan to upgrade the Palestinian Affairs Unit in the U.S. Embassy in Israel to a separate office reporting directly to the State Department, calling the move a de-facto effort to divide Jerusalem. In a statement set to be released on Thursday, organized by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), 35 senators and 56 House members will argue that the administration’s move “undermines our nation’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and signals support for dividing Jerusalem.”…The congressional statement, obtained by Jewish Insider, called the move “alarming” and described the mission as “what amounts to be a separate U.S. diplomatic office to the Palestinians in Israel’s capital.” READ MORE

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US coordinated meeting in Sharm El Sheikh included military officials from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, the U.A.E. and Bahrain

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S. Held Secret Meeting With Israeli, Arab Military Chiefs to Counter Iran Air Threat
Michael R. Gordon and David S. Cloud
June 26, 2022

The U.S. con­vened a se­cret meet­ing of top mil­i­tary of­fi­cials from Is­rael and Arab coun­tries in March to ex­plore how they could co­or­di­nate against Iran’s grow­ing mis­sile and drone ca­pa­bil­i­ties, ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials from the U.S. and the re­gion. The pre­vi­ously undis­closed talks, which were held at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, marked the first time that such a range of rank­ing Is­raeli and Arab of­fi­cers have met un­der U.S. mil­i­tary aus­pices to dis­cuss how to de­fend against a com­mon threat…The talks were en­abled by sev­eral changes, in­clud­ing com­mon fears of Iran, im­proved po­lit­i­cal ties sig­naled by the Abra­ham Ac­cords and the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s de­ci­sion in Jan­uary 2021 to ex­pand Cen­tral Com­mand’s area of cov­er­age to in­clude Is­rael. READ MORE

ELDER OF ZIYON Iran calls Israeli involvement in US Centcom a “threat” As we’ve been reporting, the Trump decision weeks before his term ended to include Israel in Centcom has been paying dividends, as military cooperation between Israel and Arab states that it is not officially at peace with has been increasing dramatically. Israeli military leaders secretly met with their counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan in March under the aegis of Cencom.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Negev Summit partners to meet in Bahrain on keeping cooperation going Senior diplomats from Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt, Morocco, and the US will convene in Manama on Monday to formalize commitments made at a March summit aimed at remaking the Middle East’s geo-political fault lines, the Foreign Ministry announced Sunday. The meeting in the Bahraini capital, the first since the so-called Negev Summit Steering Committee is slated to formalize commitments to turn a summit of regional leaders in Israel months ago into an ongoing forum

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Biden’s visit has an interesting wrinkle. He’ll be flying to Saudi Arabia directly from Israel

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Reality bites Biden
Jonathan Schanzer
June 23, 2022

…Meanwhile, the Saudis and Israelis recently engaged in a diplomatic agreement that signaled mutual recognition. Egypt sought to hand control of two Red Sea islands — Tiran and Sanafir — to Saudi Arabia. However, the islands were subject to the 1979 peace agreement between Egypt and Israel. In order for Egypt to complete the transfer, Israel was required to bless the deal. It did. Suddenly, Biden was poised to take Saudi-Israeli normalization to the next level. He simply needed to embrace the policy of normalization that his predecessor had harnessed. With the announcement of his Middle East trip next month, Biden made his pivot. READ MORE

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Dana Milbank wouldn’t find “any of these BDS facts if he searched the Post‘s archives since the Post has never reported them”

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
The Obvious Answer to Dana Milbank’s Question About CAIR
Steven Emerson
June 24, 2022

“Why not?” Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank asked that simple question last week, after the normally publicity-mad Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) told him it had nothing to say about a BDS chapter’s promotion of a “mapping project” condemned as antisemitic and a possible incitement to violence…Milbank called it “outright antisemitic bigotry … and implicit invitations to violence.” It is “the latest manifestation of an antisemitic canard alleging secret, hidden Jewish control of, and the buying of influence over, academia, the media, corporations, charities, law enforcement and more.” READ MORE

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Swedish Medical Association supports Jewish doctor in lawsuit against Karolinska University Hospital over antisemitic environment

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

ARUTZA SHEVA
Doctor harassed, fired from hospital for being Jewish
Gary Willig
June 22, 3022

The Swedish Medical Association is suing Karolinska University Hospital over the dismissal of a Jewish doctor who claims he was discriminated against and let go by the hospital because of his Jewish heritage. The World Zionist Organization is supporting the doctor and says that his dismissal was due to antisemitism. The case began in 2018, when the doctor began stating that he was suffering harassment as a result of his Jewish identity, The doctor filed a lawsuit against the hospital over this harassment in October, 2021. The hospital subsequently fired the doctor, despite the fact that he is a well-known and experienced physician in his field of practice. READ MORE

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“Iranian intelligence assets and Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps operatives impersonated students, businessmen and tourists to entrap the Israelis”

Posted on June 23, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Mossad, Turkey foil Iranian plot to kidnap Israelis
Yonah Jeremy Bob and Roman Meitav
June 23, 2022

Turkish intelligence revealed on Thursday that it thwarted an Iranian attack against a former Israeli ambassador in Istanbul last Friday. According to reports, Iran planned to kidnap several Israeli tourists along with diplomats in Istanbul, including the former ambassador and his wife, and already had all operatives and logistical aspects of the operation in place – with some Israelis being spirited away just moments before a hit team would have been bearing down on them. Turkish intelligence and local police arrested 10 suspects last Friday, including sharpshooters and local collaborators at the Sol Hotel and three others renting apartments in the Istanbul area. READ MORE

AXIOS Barak Ravid: Iran dismisses IRGC intel chief amid suspicious deaths of Iranian officers Last Friday, a spokesperson for the Mossad briefed reporters that the Iranian leadership is unhappy with Taeb and was considering whether to dismiss him as the IRGC intelligence chief because his organization hasn’t been able to stop the attacks inside Iran and has also failed in retaliating against Israel outside of Iran.

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“The Knesset on Wednesday approved a preliminary bill to dissolve itself and is expected to formally disperse next week after going through two committee reviews and three more votes to voluntary disband.”

Posted on June 23, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Readying to leave office, Bennett says at IDF ceremony: ‘I did the best I could’
June 24, 2022

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, speaking Thursday at what will likely be his last military ceremony as premier, said he did his best for the country while in office. “I did the best I could for the people of Israel, for my beloved people,” Bennett said at a graduation ceremony for Israel Defense Forces pilots at Hatzerim airbase in southern Israel. On Monday, Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced that they would disband the Knesset and send Israel back to its fifth election in three and a half years. Bennett and Lapid said they had “exhausted” avenues to stabilize their rocky minority coalition. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Stranger things: The Knesset’s behavior is utterly irrational The Opposition, which worked, hoped, expected, and fought for an early election, is now doing everything in its power to avoid it from happening. The coalition, which did all it could to establish a government and prevent an early election, is now rushing to the voting stations.

JTA A 5th Israeli election in 3 years? Here’s how we got here and what happens next Why are Bennett and Lapid calling for new elections? The short answer: they have lost their parliamentary majority after multiple politicians defected from their coalition. The government, formed almost exactly a year ago, had a shaky foundation from its start, combining a slew of parties that historically would have not worked together…

JNS Arlene Kushner: The collapse of the current Israeli government is only the first step Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who is celebrating the imminent demise of the current government, would have us believe that he is the leader who can set things right (double entendre intended). But this is also spin…While he would have us believe that he is right-wing, he is in fact a centrist who tilts right.

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“Netanyahu, who led Israel for much of the past 20 years, seems to be betting on breaking the political stalemate by galvanizing his right-wing base”

Posted on June 22, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

WASHINGTON POST
Netanyahu prepares for a comeback in Israel’s next elections
Shira Rubin
June 21, 2022

The announcement of the Israeli governing coalition’s collapse and the preparations for a fifth election in less than four years was met with exasperation by many Israelis. But the news came as a resounding victory for Benjamin Netanyahu, who, over the past year as the head of the opposition, has been preparing for his own comeback. It is not immediately clear how that would happen, however, since polls show that most Israelis will continue to vote the way they have in the past few elections, producing a polarized, deadlocked Knesset and fragile coalition governments. READ MORE

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Israel’s Finance Ministry says deficit for the last 12 months is 0.4% due to increased revenue and reduced spending as pandemic recovery continues

Posted on June 17, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Deficit drops to nearly zero for the first time in 14 years
Luke Tress
June 13, 2022

Israel’s budget deficit has dropped to nearly zero as government revenues increase and expenditures fall amid the ongoing rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. The Finance Ministry said Thursday that the deficit as a percentage of GDP was 0.04% for the previous 12 months, including May. The ministry said the deficit was essentially “zero” for the first time since 2008. The target deficit for the year is 3.9% of GDP. READ MORE

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