US Secretary of Defense speaks to Defense Minister Gallant, updates him on US F-22 Raptors that arrived in the Middle East amid tensions with Iran and Hezbollah

ARUTZ SHEVA
Austin updates Gallant on F-22 deployment
Elad Benari
August 9, 2024

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke to Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday and updated him on the F-22 fighter jets that the US had deployed to the Middle East. “I called Israeli Minister of Defense Gallant today to brief him on US force posture adjustments and reinforce my ironclad support for Israel’s defense,” wrote Austin in a post on social media site X. “The US F-22 Raptors that arrived in the region today represent one of many efforts to deter aggression, defend Israel and protect US forces in the region. I also stressed the importance of concluding a ceasefire deal in Gaza that releases the hostages,” he added. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Security cabinet convenes as Israel warns Hezbollah of ‘destruction’ if it attacks  The security cabinet convened Thursday night in Tel Aviv, as the country continued to brace for a potential attack by the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon. The cabinet met in the underground command room of the Kirya military headquarters, Hebrew media reported, the first time such a meeting has been held there since the night of April 13-14, when Iran launched some 300 missiles and drones at Israel, almost all of which were intercepted.

JNS Israel estimates Hezbollah will strike before Iran Israel remains on high alert for potential attacks by Iran and its regional terror proxies, with the security establishment assessing that Hezbollah will strike first. Both the Islamic Republic and its Lebanese terror army have vowed revenge for the targeted killings last week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and senior Hezbollah official Fuad Shukr in Beirut…Meanwhile, Tehran is reportedly reconsidering its level of response against the backdrop of warnings that Israel will counter-attack strongly, Politico reported on Wednesday.

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VP Harris indicates she’s open to discussing arms embargo against Israel

BREITBART
Kamala Harris ‘Open’ to Discussing Arms Embargo on Israel in Exchange for Michigan ‘Uncommitted’ Votes
Joel Pollak
August 7, 2024

Before her rally in Detroit, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke briefly with the co-founders of the Uncommitted National Movement, which mobilized tens of thousands of voters in Michigan to withhold their votes from President Biden in the primary earlier this year over his support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Abbas Alawieh and Layla Elabed said they were in the welcoming line for Harris and Governor Walz, and communicated to Harris that they wanted to support her but that voters wanted her to consider an arms embargo to immediately stop the carnage in the besieged enclave. The leaders asked to meet with her about the embargo request, and she indicated she was open to it, and introduced the two leaders to her staff. READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST Harris campaign denies support for Israeli arms embargo The Harris campaign said in a statement that Harris reaffirmed “that her campaign will continue to engage with those communities,” an aide said.

JNS Caroline Glick: Israelis accept the breach in relations with the Biden administration
They are becoming increasingly aware of the central role it is playing in the effort to demonize and criminalize the nation, its leaders and its soldiers. Last week’s poll shows definitively that after 300 days of war, the Israeli public maintains its unswerving resolve to see the war through to victory. It is willing to pay whatever price is required to defeat its enemies and understands that there is no diplomatic solution to military problems, only military solutions.

JEWISH INSIDER Pro-Israel group struggling to gain permit to rally at DNC — while pro-Palestinian groups got green light The City of Chicago has been sitting on a request from the Israeli American Council to hold a solidarity march during the Democratic National Convention. But with just under two weeks remaining until the convention, the IAC has yet to receive an answer from the city, despite following up via phone and email.

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“Radical Democrats are energized by Harris’s progressive veep pick. That’s a problem for the party”

FREE PRESS
All the Wrong People Are Celebrating Tim Walz
Eli Lake
August 7, 2024

…On the surface, the snubbing of Shapiro, who looked like a lock for the vice president slot going into the weekend, is about Israel. A noisy fringe of the Democratic Party threatened to stay home altogether to protest President Biden’s policy on aiding Israel after it was attacked by Hamas on October 7. Last month, this same crowd mobilized to tar Shapiro as “genocide Josh,” creating a website and flooding social media with attacks on his record, which went as far back as a pro-Israel column he wrote for his college newspaper when he was 20 years old. (An op-ed that he sorta kinda apologized for when he said his views had evolved from his college days.) READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Van Jones says Kamala ‘caved in’ to ‘anti-Jewish bigots’ with Walz pick, claims antisemitism ‘marbled into’ Democratic Party CNN commentator Van Jones suggested Tuesday that antisemitism in the Democratic Party influenced Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision not to choose a Jewish running mate in Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

BABYLON BEE Democrats Worried Choosing Jewish Vice President May Cost Them The All-Important “Death To America” Vote After hearing Josh Shapiro might be Kamala Harris’s pick for Vice President, Democrats worry his name on the ticket might cost them the all-important “Death To America” vote. “I think Josh is very qualified to be Harris’s VP pick,” Chuck Schumer told the press over the weekend. “I do worry he might discourage those wishing to obliterate the U.S. and wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. We really need those votes.”

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Israel-demonizer Cori Bush after defeat: “Let me say this: AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!”

THE HILL
Cori Bush calls out AIPAC after defeat: ‘I’m coming to tear your kingdom down’
Nick Robertson
August 7, 2024

Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) vowed revenge on a top pro-Israel PAC after she lost the primary in her reelection campaign Tuesday. The group boosted her opponent in a tightly contested race, knocking off a second member of the progressive “squad” this cycle. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) super PAC, United Democracy Project, was a top funder of Bush’s opponent, St. Louis County District Attorney Wesley Bell. Bush was harshly criticized for her outspoken criticism of Israel’s war in Gaza. Bush said in a fiery speech after her loss that leaving Congress will only “takes some strings off.” READ MORE

NATIONAL REVIEW Cori Bush’s Pathological Concession Speech Reminds Voters Why She Had to Go Immediately upon her primary defeat at the hands of her own Democratic constituents, outgoing Squad member Cori Bush went to work illustrating the wisdom of her voters’ verdict. In a bizarre concession speech that was equal parts deluded and menacing, Representative Bush (Mo.) promised to continue the fight against Jewish interests that exists mostly in her own head  She had not been beaten, she explained. “All you did was take some of the strings off.”

WATCH Dan Abrams Live: Progressives are blaming Jewish super PAC for losses

JNS Jewish vote impacted Bell’s margin of victory over Bush, Agudah says Voter turnout rate in the Orthodox Jewish community doubled from 2022

Let’s make it a trifecta! Defeat Ilhan Omar!  Squad member Cori Bush has lost the Democratic primary to Wesley Bell following the loss of Squad member Jamaal Bowman earlier this year. Let’s make it a trifecta and help Don Samuels defeat Ilhan Omar in Minnesota-5 primary next week Support Don Samuels by clicking here.

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“Security cameras show bomb was placed on the day of the explosion, at 4:23 pm – some nine hours before it was activated when Haniyeh entered his room”

7JEWISH CHRONICLE
The full inside story of how Israel assassinated Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran – minute by minute
Elon Perry
August 5, 2024

But the JC can reveal that the explosive device placed under his bed was planted by two Iranians recruited by the Mossad from the Ansar al-Mahdi security unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the very people who were supposed to secure the building and its guests. The Iranians themselves realised this after the assassination, when the guards were seen on security camera footage on the day of the assassination moving stealthily in the hallway towards the room where Haniyeh planned to stay, opening the door with a key and entering the room. Three minutes later the guards (who were offered a six-figure sum each as well as immediate relocation to a northern European country) were captured on camera calmly leaving the room, going down the stairs towards the main entrance of the building, leaving and then getting into a black car. The guard at the parking lot checkpoint recognised them and opened the gate without asking any questions. An hour later they were smuggled out of Iran by the Mossad. READ MORE

NATIONAL SECURITY JOURNAL Michael Rubin: Blinken Says US Not Responsible For Ismail Haniyeh Killing. That’s Too Bad. Yesterday, an apparent Israeli airstrike killed Ismail Haniyeh, the Qatar-based political chief of Hamas, as he retired to a Tehran house after attending the inauguration of newly installed Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Secretary of State Antony Blinken took to television to deny any American responsibility. That is nothing about which to be proud. Certainly, Blinken may see such a statement as a way to de-escalate tension or at least prevent Iran and Hamas from going after American targets. The problem, however, is Iran and Hamas already target Americans. READ MORE

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Biden Administration sued for targeting Jews with the temerity to live in their ancestral homeland

WSJ
Biden’s Unconstitutional Sanctions on Supporters of Israel
Eugene Kontorovich
August 6, 2024

…The first part of Mr. Biden’s executive order permits the imposition of sanctions on anyone the administration regards as involved in undermining “peace” or “stability” in the West Bank—even if there is no allegation of criminal conduct or violence. This directive is far-reaching because the administration deems Jews merely living in the West Bank—and certainly building or buying homes there—as “obstacles to peace.” An internal administration memo described the sanctions as targeted at those who “disrupt or prevent efforts to achieve a two-state solution.” The administration also views Jews visiting their holy sites as “provocative.”READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Michael Oren: Washington’s wavering support for Israel Sharp shifts in American policy cast doubt over whether the US will have Israel’s back if it needs to preemptively strike Iran. Now, with war looming, Israel must determine to what degree America will have our back. We must know the extent to which the United States will help defend us irrespective of whether we retaliate against Iranian aggression or strike Iran preemptively.

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“Rather than resolve the refugee problem and disband, UNRWA perpetuated it and grew increasingly complicit in terror”

MIDDLE EAST FORUM OBSERVER
UNRWA Is Complicit in Terror; Disband It
Gregg Roman
August 6, 2024

The UN’s August 5 announcement that it fired additional employees from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) for possible involvement in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks against Israel is meaningless propaganda. UNRWA has supported Palestinian terrorism for years before Oct. 7 by allowing Hamas to tunnel under its facilities, producing viciously antisemitic curricular material advocating violence against Jews, and supporting a workforce in which ten percent of employees have ties to terrorist groups, according to Israeli estimates. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Human Rights Expert: UNRWA probe ‘sad, pathetic testament to rot at UN’s core’ Professor Anne Bayefsky, the Director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights tells Arutz Sheva the UN’s acknowledgement 9 UNRWA employees ‘may’ have participated in October 7 massacre proves UNRWA’s support must be immediately cut off.

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How the advocates of Palestine erased the sexual enslavement of the Yazidis in order to deny the rape of Jewish women

TABLET MAG
The Sabaya
Yaniv Voller
August 2, 2024

This week marks a decade since one of the greatest crimes of the 21st century: the Yazidi genocide and the sexual enslavement of thousands of Yazidi women and girls by the Islamic State terrorist organization. A direct line connects this onslaught on Yazidi women and the Oct. 7 attack against Israel. In both events, the captors of Yazidi and Israeli women were documented referring to their captives as sabaya, an Arabic term that dates back to medieval times to describe the taking of occupied populations as spoils of war or, in a more contemporary context, slavery, including sexual slavery. READ MORE

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One anonymous employee said, “Every week, it gets a little harder being a Jew at the BBC”

JPOST
BBC executive dismisses letter from Jewish staff highlighting systemic antisemitism
August 2, 2024

Over 200 BBC staff, contractors, suppliers, and contributors wrote to the board and Samir Shah, the BBC chairman, in July to demand “an urgent formal investigation” into what the letter described as “anti-Jewish racism” at the BBC, The Telegraph reported on Friday. The letter provided examples of inaccuracy and bias in the BBC’s coverage of the war in Gaza and provided testimony from Jewish employees.The signatories stated that “Jews don’t count” and declared that antisemitism is systematic at the BBC, according to The Telegraph. Shah dismissed the calls for an investigation, praised the BBC’s “inclusive” culture…READ MORE

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EVENT Israel Bonds Chicago with The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem

The Beauty of Advocacy with Swell Ariel Or
Date and time: Wed, Sep 4, 2024 11:30 AM, RSVP by August 25.
Dietary laws observed.
Location: Address will be provided prior to the event
Couvert: $85 with a minimum of $100 Israel bond investment per person or $225 per person.

Join Israel Bonds Chicago Women’s Division for their 2024 Premiere Event with featured speaker Swell Ariel Or, star of Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, as she shares about her film career, mental health advocacy, and involvement in the Nova Project. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE EVENT

For more information contact Janice Wahnon, (312) 558-9400, janice.wahnon@israelbonds.com

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