By: Chris Mitchell – CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, Israel – When President Joe Biden came to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia, things began to change in the region as agreements for mutual defense between Israel and neighboring Arab countries built by the historic Abraham Accords began to fall apart.

“The security architecture publicly at least unraveled. It was canceled and the UAE instead is now trying to establish diplomatic relations with Iran as are some of the other countries. It seems as though they measured the commitment of the United States to confronting Iran up, measured it as too weak, and are trying to come to some terms with the Iranians,” says Middle East expert David Wurmser.

President Biden said while visiting Israel that he would use military force against Iran as a “last resort.”

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/july/critics-warn-bidens-unwillingness-to-use-military-force-against-iran-could-unravel-abraham-accords

By: Ben Cohen – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

Iran and Russia further bind their ties—one an authoritarian regime claiming Divine sanction, the other an authoritarian regime promoting nationalist chauvinism, both of them sworn enemies of Western democracy.

Despite spending five months baiting Ukraine’s leaders as “neo-Nazis,” among them the country’s Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin didn’t bat an eyelid as he embraced a genuine Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier in the shape of Iran’s “Supreme Leader,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Putin visited Tehran last week on his first trip outside the borders of the former USSR since launching the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The immediate focus was not the war in Ukraine, but that other Russian-fueled bloodbath in Syria. The main meeting brought Khamenei and Putin together with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is seeking Russian and Iranian backing for a renewed onslaught against Kurdish forces in Syria. Putin refrained from making a formal commitment to his Turkish counterpart, but he will have been reassured by Erdoğan’s reference to him as “my dear friend,” and gratified by Turkey’s shameful antics in holding up Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership applications because of the backing of those two nations for the Kurds.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/opinion/mr-putin-goes-to-tehran/

By: Caroline Glick – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

So long as the progressive base of the Democrat Party dictates Biden’s foreign policy, those policies will continue to fail, to the detriment of regional security and stability.

Ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, the president published an op-ed in The Washington Post, in which he placed his trip in the context of his overall Middle East policy. A few days later, Israel’s opposition leader, former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made a brief statement on Biden’s then upcoming visit that spoke directly to the claims Biden made in his article. Taken together, the two communications explain why Biden’s visit was a failure before it even began—and what a successful policy looks like.

Biden’s article, “Why I’m going to Saudi Arabia,” was a political communication to his party’s progressive base. It served a twofold purpose. First, it was an apology to progressives, who are hostile to both Saudi Arabia and Israel. Second, Biden assured progressives that he was not changing course. His Middle East policy to date will remain his policy going forward.

That policy has three major pillars: hostility towards Saudi Arabia and particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS); financial, nuclear and strategic appeasement of Iran; and support for the Palestinians, at Israel’s expense. Biden insisted in his op-ed that he remains true to these positions, but as president also has Russia and China to keep at bay.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/opinion/how-biden-ensured-his-trip-to-the-middle-east-would-fail/

By: Lazar Berman – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com

‘The only way to stop them is a credible military threat,’ PM argues; US president publicly disagrees, saying dialogue is still the best way to counter Tehran

In their joint comments Thursday on Iran’s nuclear program, visiting US President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Yair Lapid expressed a public disagreement over the best way to tackle the threat, with Lapid telling the American leader that “words will not stop them, Mr. President,” and urging him to “put a credible military threat on the table.”

The two leader’s interaction at the Jerusalem press conference was warm (full text here), and Lapid made clear that there was no daylight between the two countries regarding the ultimate goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

But the two did air their differences before the cameras as to the best way to handle Tehran.

“Words will not stop them, Mr. President,” said Lapid. “Diplomacy will not stop them. The only thing that will stop Iran is knowing that if they continue to develop their nuclear program, the free world will use force. The only way to stop them is to put a credible military threat on the table.”

“It should not be a bluff, but the real thing,” Lapid continued. “The Iranian regime must know that if they continue to deceive the world, they will pay a heavy price.”

cont’d…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/diplomacy-wont-stop-iran-from-going-nuclear-lapid-tells-biden-in-press-conference/

By: Yaakov Lappin – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

Israeli observers say if Israel Defense Forces were not in the West Bank, there is no doubt that another Hamas coup would occur, much like the fateful events that occurred in June 2007 in the Gaza Strip • Is Hamas preparing to make its move on the day after the departure of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas?

Fifteen years ago, in June 2007, the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict underwent a seismic shift. The Islamist terror faction Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip through a series of deadly raids, firing rockets and mortars at Fatah-run Palestinian Authority bases and storming their positions. In brutal executions, Hamas hurled P.A. personnel to their deaths from rooftops and conducted shootouts in hospitals, forcing many of the remaining P.A. personnel to flee to the West Bank.

Looking back at the Palestinian arena over the past generation, Col. (res.) David Hacham, a former Arab-affairs adviser to seven Israeli defense ministers and a senior research associate at the MirYam Institute, told JNS that “there is no doubt that the main, most significant and dramatic development has been Hamas’s takeover of the Gaza Strip and its forceful expulsion, through the use of violence, of the Palestinian Authority and its personnel from the area.”

This event had a long-term impact on all subsequent internal Palestinian developments, particularly on the balance of power between Hamas and Fatah, and on the nature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he said.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/15-years-since-hamas-took-gaza-most-dramatic-development-in-palestinian-arena/

By: Jordan Cope – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

The UN appears to have come to Hamas’s aid when it comes to absolving the group of wrongdoing and scapegoating Israel.

When retired British Col. Richard Kemp took the floor at the United Nations Human Rights Council on June 14, he did something controversial. He dared to accuse the UNHRC’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Israel and its disinformation campaign of furthering Hamas’s illegal war against Israel.

It’s unsurprising that the Palestinian Authority sought to interrupt Kemp by raising a point of order. Kemp’s comments triggered the representative for the PA, clearly Hamas’s rivals. By shifting the perceived paradigm of conflict from between Israel and the PA ruling the West Bank, to between Israel and Hamas, Kemp stole the spotlight from the PA, which has increasingly struggled to remain relevant as more Palestinians have entrusted Hamas to champion their cause.

Most importantly, Kemp exposed the UNHRC for seeming to advance Hamas’s agenda. However controversial his comments, Kemp is surely correct in his assessment that the UN and its agencies appear to be furthering Hamas’s agenda. By delegitimizing both Israel and the PA – Hamas’s sole competitor for power – while absolving Hamas of culpability, the UN has afforded Hamas the moral high ground and has paved the way for it to terrorize, rule and dictate with impunity.

cont’d…

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-711010

by JNS | Jul 8, 2022 | Middle East

Ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden’s planned visit to the Middle East mid-month, it appears that Saudi Arabia is setting the stage for closer relations with Israel.

According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), intellectuals, journalists and social-media activists in Saudi Arabia have begun openly expressing a more tolerant and even positive attitude towards Israel. They see peace with Jerusalem as inevitable and vital to halting threats to the region by Iran, including a nuclear one.

Many have also directly criticized the Palestinians for not adopting a realistic policy conducive to resolving the conflict with Israel.

cont’d…

https://israel365news.com/353985/saudi-jorunalists-slam-palestinians-call-for-religious-edict-approving-normalization-with-israel/

By: Ryan Jones – Israel Today; israeltoday.co.il

Evil flees before and is defeated by truth and light. But it is given free rein when we sit idly by and do nothing, or worse, cower in the corner.

The tepid response to Iran coming from America and Europe only serves to further embolden the ayatollahs in their demonic quest to put the entire region under the repressive thumb of Islam.

It’s been rightly compared to the initial response of Britain and France to Nazi aggression in the lead-up to World War II. Sure, they weren’t happy about it. But they also weren’t prepared to do anything about it.

Israel, on the other hand, has learned its lesson. At first similarly blind to what the Nazis were truly capable of, the Jews of Europe failed to fully grasp what was happening until it was too late.

The Jews of Israel won’t make that same mistake twice. Which is why on Sunday Israel’s dovish interim Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yair Lapid, uncharacteristically slammed his European Union counterpart, Josep Borrell, for once again trying to bring Iran back to the negotiating table despite recent overwhelming evidence that the Islamic Republic has continued its nuclear weapons program in defiance of all previous agreements.

cont’d…

https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/our-lukewarm-and-fearful-responses-to-iran-are-not-biblical/

CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, Israel —A baby formula shortage triggered by a global supply chain crisis has sent parents across the United States scouring supermarket shelves in search of nourishment for their babies. 

With many families still unable to get their hands on infant formula, Israelis are stepping up to help.

The Genesis 123 Foundation, a non-profit that seeks to build bridges between Christians and Jews, recently delivered 200 pounds of baby formula to two churches in Texas.

“I was troubled to hear about the major shortage of baby formula, and people turning to every means to get the precious powder that keeps their children nourished and even alive,” says Jonathan Feldstein, an orthodox Jew and president of the Genesis 123 Foundation. 

Initially, Feldstein planned on bringing a few cans of formula from Israel in his suitcase during a trip to the US. Then he decided to enact the help of a major Israeli grocery store and his neighbors to bring even more.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/june/lis-step-up-to-deliver-baby-formula-to-christians-in-texas

By: Julie Stahl – CBN News; cbn.com

A political earthquake is rocking Israel after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced on Monday they are dissolving the Knesset, putting an end to their struggling coalition government. The move likely brings the country to its fifth national election in three and a half years.

The joint statement on national television pre-empted a Knesset vote scheduled for Wednesday that may have brought down the government anyway. 

“My friend, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and I, decided to work together, to dissolve the Knesset, and to hold elections at an agreed time, at the same time transferring the power in an orderly manner and ensuring the national interest of the State of Israel. Even during the transition period, the state continues,” Bennett said in the primetime address.

Over the last month, the coalition destabilized with the withdrawal of coalition members. Bennett said he had fought hard to maintain the coalition.

“In recent weeks we have done everything that could be done to preserve this government, which, in our eyes, its continued existence is in the national interest. Believe me, we have turned every stone upside down, not for our sake, but for the sake of our beautiful country, for you, citizens of the State of Israel,” Bennett said.

cont’d…

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2022/june/israeli-government-collapses-calls-for-new-elections-could-it-lead-to-a-return-for-netanyahu