Israel News Today

Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware and a close ally of President Joe Biden, on Sunday strongly defended the administration’s warning that it would withhold sending some offensive weapons if Israel launches an all-out assault on populated areas in Rafah. “I’ll remind you, other American presidents have done the same thing when a close, trusted partner isn’t listening to private admonitions,” Coons said on ABC News’ This Week program. He referenced former President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, who “repeatedly” delayed the shipment of F-16 fighter-bombers to Israel during his first term over disagreements about the strike on an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981 and the prolonged first Lebanon War .  Coons, who serves as co-chair of Biden’s reelection campaign and has maintained strong ties with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, said Biden will follow through with his threat to ban offensive weapons if Israel invades Gaza’s southern city of Rafah without coordination

Staff Sergeant (res.) Omer Balva was overseas with his family when Hamas attacked Israel; feeling a call to duty, he returned to stand alongside his fellow soldiers; he was killed in border clashes shortly after his arrival from ynet - News https://ift.tt/igGPEe6

Seven months after the October 7 massacre, resilience centers in the south struggle to treat everyone affected by the horrors of that Saturday; 'Without the treatment, I would have been lost' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/XaSkqEM

Sirens sound in southern city shortly after 1 a.m.; no casualties reported as apartment stood empty; Israeli jets said to launch airstrikes in Rafah amid artillery fire targeting city's center and east from ynet - News https://ift.tt/EHySgks

MALMÖ, Sweden — Israel’s Eden Golan placed fifth Saturday night at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 amid boos and protests from critics of her country and its prosecution of the war in Gaza. Switzerland’s Nemo won the contest with their song “The Code,” becoming  Eurovision’s first nonbinary champion, and said in accepting the trophy that they hope that Eurovision will continue to “stand up for peace.” Croatia’s Baby Lasagna came second with “Rim Tim Tagi Dim.” Golan, whose performance in the final was met by a mix of boos and cheers in the arena, was awarded 375 points: 52 from the jury and 323 from the public — second only to Croatia’s entry, which earned 337. Israel ranked 12th out of 25 competitors after the jury vote; national juries that awarded Golan points included Malta, Norway, Germany, Georgia, Moldova, Estonia, France, Belgium, Latvia, Cyprus and Lithuania. Golan was visibly emotional after completing her performance, falling onto a green room couch in tears as her bac

Blasts heard in central Israel following intense air campaign as Hamas attempts to reestablish military presence in northern Gazan city months after IDF forces captured and subsequently withdrew from it from ynet - News https://ift.tt/l4PNuMF

Sheikh Abdullah says UAE would be prepared to support Palestinian government that met hopes and aspirations of Palestinian people from ynet - News https://ift.tt/kmCW9Dw

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It was getting dark at the encampment when a tall man whose face was partially concealed by a kaffiyeh approached me and announced, “It’s time for you to leave.” I’d been chatting in Arabic with some of the protesters who’d been living in tents for three days at the University of British Columbia. But when I spoke to him in Arabic — a language I only partially mastered during 30 years of working as a journalist across the Middle East — he responded in English. “You are violating community standards,” he said. Which ones? I inquired, half remembering a hand-painted banner listing the encampment’s rules. It doesn’t matter, he said, adding, “I’ve been watching you and it’s time for you to leave.” He wouldn’t tell me his name or what authority he had to decide who could be where, but I realized he was right. A fleeting moment of pan-Arabist solidarity had morphed into a nightmare of petty and performative politics in the face of ongoing tragedy. It was tim

Yosef Dassa and Daniel Levy, classmates and fellow Nahal Brigade soldiers, killed in action in Gaza alongside 2 comrades; ‘They have been close friends since elementary school, always together,’ says school principal from ynet - News https://ift.tt/BEOAsSo

Alma Center warns terror group continues military buildup on northern border, any diplomatic agreement would only buy time until eventual invasion of Israel, estimated no later than end of 2026 from ynet - News https://ift.tt/YWnkNX4

JetBlue Airways is banning its in-flight crew members from wearing political pins after an incident involving a flight attendant sporting a Palestinian flag pin and a Jewish passenger. “We have changed our uniform policy to make clear that on board the aircraft is not the right place for crewmembers to advocate positions on certain issues or political topics,” said JetBlue spokesperson Derek Dombrowski. The change, implemented on May 3, came five days after Paul Faust, 54, was traveling from his home in Fort Lauderdale to Las Vegas. On board the flight, Faust saw an attendant wearing several pins — including one for Black Lives Matter and another of the Palestinian flag. When it came time for the drink service, the attendant, according to Faust, “put on an apron and decided to move the ‘Free Palestine’ pin to the apron, and not the Black Lives Matter pin.” (Photos taken by Faust’s seatmate show the Palestinian flag, but it is unclear if it also says “Free Palestine.”) Related Or

IDF integrates the D9 Panda bulldozers in operational activity, marking the world's first instance of a military deploying autonomous tools like this; The Panda can execute complex engineering tasks, and capable of independent movement from ynet - News https://ift.tt/9ADiMHe

Read the original Yiddish version of this article here . Michael Gawenda was shocked to see what his friend was publishing about Israel. In his autobiography “ My Life as a Jew ,” the prominent Melbourne-based journalist Gawenda describes how he broke off a long-standing friendship with a colleague who, he says, had signed an open letter accusing Western journalists of biased reporting on the situation in Israel, and had agreed to publish a book claiming that the “Israel lobby” silences anything that criticizes Israel. The incident, he claims, led him to reconsider his relationship to Zionism and the State of Israel. One-year old Michael in the DP camp in Linz, Austria, in 1948. The man on the left is his future brother-in-law, Henyek, whose entire family was murdered by the Nazis. The man on the right was a friend of his. Courtesy of Michael Gawenda Gawenda was born in 1947 in a displaced persons camp in Austria to Holocaust survivor parents who had escaped the Nazis by fleeing

Call him a bagel disrupter: PopUp Bagels founder Adam Goldberg has a lot of controversial rules about bagels. His stores have a minimum purchase of three bagels, along with a mandatory tub of cream cheese or butter, for $12. He only sells five flavors (poppy, sesame, everything, plain and salt). And customers have to do their own slicing. But with $8 million in venture capital funding, a seventh PopUp Bagels store that just opened Sunday on Manhattan’s Upper West Side (Columbus Avenue and 76th Street), and bagels selling out daily, he must be doing something right.  In a phone interview, Goldberg talked about the old-school bagels of his childhood, why his model works, and what’s next.  The interview has been edited for length and clarity. What makes PopUp different from all the other bagel shops in New York City?  We use very high-quality ingredients and we bake our bagels in small batches so they’re always fresh from the oven when you pick them up. We only sell them hot and whole

WASHINGTON ( JTA ) — President Joe Biden aimed straight at American Jewish anxieties of the moment in a speech commemorating the Holocaust, pledging to keep alive the memory of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacres in the face of waves of anti-Israel and antisemitic actions. “I see your fear, your hurt, your pain,” Biden said Tuesday at the annual commemoration at the U.S. Capitol, organized by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. “Let me reassure you as your president, you are not alone.” The audience of Holocaust survivors, Jewish lawmakers, students and Jewish officials applauded. Biden’s pledge comes as Israel launches a major operation in Rafah targeting Hamas, whose terrorists launched the war on Oct. 7, and as public sentiment — especially among Democrats, long the political home of the Jewish community — turns against Israel over a war that has seen huge civilian casulaties. “Here we are not 75 years later, but just seven and a half months later, people are already forgetting that Hamas u

Intense pro-Palestinian protests have erupted on university campuses across Europe, including 125 arrests in the Netherlands, and violent clashes in Germany; Protest tent camps also have sprung up in Denmark, Finland, Italy and Spain, all echoing the demand to 'sever ties with Israel'   from ynet - News https://ift.tt/0LNzMmn

Celebrations breakout across Gaza after terror group announces it accepts cease-fire proposal; 'We have been reborn; we are crying with happiness' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/n1yCb2l

As civilians begin to evacuate Rafah ahead of an Israeli ground operation, political head of the terrorist group Ismail Haniyeh tells mediators he agrees to the proposed cease-fire terms; Senior Israeli official: 'A unilateral proposal without Israeli involvement ... an exercise by Hamas designed to present Israel as refusenik' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/Sa1qd9j

The soldiers were stationed on the border near Kerem Shalom crossing to guard equipment of battalions preparing to enter Hamas' last stronghold, and were hit by a barrage from Rafah; 2 additional soldiers were severely injured, and 9 soldiers sustained moderate to minor injuries from ynet - News https://ift.tt/PAZBepm