By: Chris Mitchell, CBN News; cbn.com

JERUSALEM, Israel – Opposition leader Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid Party hopes to present a new coalition government to Israeli President Reuven Rivlin before his June 2^nd deadline.

If successful, it would be the first Israeli government in more than ten years without Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister. 

Lapid has a complicated task and is trying to form a coalition with parties from the left, right, and center along with a first – an Arab Islamist party. They have one common denominator: their opposition to Netanyahu.

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2021/june/deadline-looms-as-netanyahu-opponents-try-to-form-new-coalition-without-him

By: Nasser Atta – ABC News; abcnews.go.com

Osama al-Zebda, 33, was an engineer for the militant group.

A U.S. national and his father who were working for Hamas as engineers, were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza earlier this month, a source from the group confirmed to ABC News.

Osama al-Zebda, 33, was born in the U.S. while his father, Jamal al-Zebda, 64, studied at the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech, according to the Hamas source. Osama lived in the U.S. for five years, his wife told ABC News. The father and son moved back to Gaza after living for a few years in the United Arab Emirates.

“We are aware of reports of a U.S. citizen killed in Gaza,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson told ABC News. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”

https://abcnews.go.com/International/us-citizen-working-hamas-killed-israeli-air-strike/story?id=77890472

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

As the current firepower of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad demonstrates, Gaza’s factions have not been resting on their laurels in recent years, exploiting a period of quiet to create a domestic industry of weapons production.

Almost the minute Israel fully withdrew from the Gaza Strip in September 2005, the area became a hotbed of terror. Some 18 months later, after Hamas seized the territory in a violent coup from its internal Palestinian rival, Fatah, the Islamist-ruled enclave had turned into a heavily armed fortress, which hosts a terrorist army that is funded and assisted by Iran.

On Thursday night local time, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Twitter that “air and ground” troops were striking targets in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas “will pay a heavy price” for its barrage of rockets on the Jewish state, nearly 2,000 and counting.

https://www.jns.org/what-are-israels-options-on-how-to-confront-palestinian-terror-groups-in-gaza/

By: Agencies and Times of Israel Staff; timesofisrael.com

Iranian supreme leader says ‘fighting this despotic regime is everyone’s duty’; protesters burn Israel, US, Indian flags in Pakistan; kids rally in Syria; flag drawn on Iraqi road

In a speech to mark the annual al-Quds Day, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Friday called Israel “not a country, but a terrorist base” and said its downfall was imminent.

“Israel is not a country, but a terrorist base against the nation of Palestine and other Muslim nations,” Khamenei said in live televised remarks.

“Fighting this despotic regime… is everyone’s duty,” Khamenei said.

Khamenei also stressed that “the decline of the enemy Zionist regime has begun and will not stop.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-al-quds-day-irans-khamenei-says-israel-is-a-terrorist-base-not-a-country/

By: Yori Yalon – Israel Hayom; israelhayom.com

“Jerusalem’s future is also the future of the State of Israel. It is here, in the city that comprises the full range of Israel’s demography,” President Rivlin says.

The population of Jerusalem is approaching 1 million, a review published by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research ahead of Jerusalem Day, showed.

On Tuesday, JIPS researchers presented President Reuven Rivlin with a statistical review of the capital for 2021, which showed that Jerusalem continues to be the largest city in Israel. At the end of 2020, the capital’s population comprised 952,000 residents.

The average age in Jerusalem, 24, was much lower compared to the national average, 30. In Tel Aviv, the average age was 36, in Haifa, 38.

At the same time, the Jewish population in the capital is statistically older than the Arab one. In 2019, the average Jewish resident was 26 years old and the Arab resident was 22.

According to JIPS data, Jerusalem experienced a negative net migration last year, with 8,200 residents having left the city. Most of those who move to and from Jerusalem are Jews.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/05/05/ahead-of-54th-jerusalem-day-capitals-population-nears-1-million/

By: Anugrah Kumar – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

China’s communist authorities are continuing their crackdown on Christianity by removing Bible Apps and Christian WeChat public accounts as new highly restrictive administrative measures on religious staff went into effect Saturday.

Father Francis Liu from the Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness said in a tweet that some Christian WeChat accounts, including “Gospel League” and “Life Quarterly,” were no longer available online, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/china-shuts-down-bible-app-christian-wechat-accounts.html

By: Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

“Despite the significant travel restrictions during the pandemic, we’ve succeeded in bringing tens of thousands of Jews home to Israel,” says Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog.

Israel welcomed 104 olim (new immigrants) from North America at Ben-Gurion International Airport on Monday. The group arrived on a specially chartered New York-Tel Aviv flight, facilitated by the organization Nefesh B’Nefesh, in cooperation with the Israeli Aliyah and Integration Ministry, the Jewish Agency, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL) and Jewish National Fund-USA.

The group included 28 families, 18 singles and 27 retirees—the eldest of whom is 98 and the youngest four months old—from New York, New Jersey, Ontario, California, Minnesota, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Maryland. All passengers produced a negative PCR coronavirus test prior to arrival and will undergo mandatory quarantine in Israel.

https://www.jns.org/israel-welcomes-104-new-immigrants-from-north-america/

The United States Department of Justice – justice.gov

WASHINGTON – A New York man was sentenced today to life in prison for detonating a bomb in a New York City subway station. He admitted that he conducted the terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.

Akayed Ullah, 31, of Brooklyn, New York, and a lawful permanent resident of Bangladesh, was convicted by a federal jury of offenses related to the detonation and attempted detonation of a bomb in a subway station near the New York Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City on Dec. 11, 2017. According to court documents, on Dec. 11, 2017, at approximately 7:20 a.m., Ullah detonated a pipe bomb strapped to his chest in a subway station near the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan. Shortly after the blast, first responders located Ullah lying on the ground in the station where he had detonated the improvised explosive device, and he was taken into custody. Surveillance footage captured Ullah walking through the station immediately prior to the explosion and then detonating the bomb.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/man-sentenced-life-prison-isis-inspired-bombing-new-york-city-subway-station-2017

By: Ron Kampeas – Jewish Telegraphic Agency; jta.org

WASHINGTON (JTA) — The top Democratic and Republican lawmakers from the House Foreign Affairs Committee have joined a bill that  supports the expansion of normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

It’s a sign of increasing bipartisan support for the initiative launched by former President Donald Trump.

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and his Republican counterpart, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, are among the co-sponsors of the measure introduced Wednesday. A companion bill in the Senate also has bipartisan backing.

By: Jacob Nagel & Jonathan Schanzer – Real Clear Defense; realcleardefense.com

Israel reported significant progress last month on an underground fence around the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Officials say Israel is close to completing the underground component and can see the finish line with the above-ground elements (roughly 80% complete). Once fully assembled, the three-layered barrier may be the most sophisticated barrier in the world.

The threat to Israel from Gaza and other adjacent territories has been constant. Suicide bombings by Hamas, Fatah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad during the Second Intifada prompted Israel to build a barrier to control border crossings. This inspired Hamas to instead construct and fire thousands of crude rockets into Israel. In response, Israel developed the Iron Dome missile defense system (and others for longer range threats). Frustrated again, Hamas began digging commando tunnels for fighters to reach Israel to gather intelligence, conduct terrorist attacks, or even launch surprise, coordinated assaults.

https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/04/10/a_closer_look_at_israels_new_high-tech_barrier_772195.html