LLX News

By: Ryan Foley – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

The international Evangelical humanitarian organization World Vision maintains that it does not do business with terrorists as it again faces questions from U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, about its finances over a year after a former manager was convicted in an Israeli court of diverting funds to Hamas. 

Grassley sent letters to World Vision and the U.S. Agency for International Development on Aug. 11, seeking information related to the Christian organization’s finances and its use of taxpayer funding from the government agency.

World Vision is “an international partnership of Christians whose mission is to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in working with the poor and oppressed to promote human transformation, seek justice, and bear witness to the good news of the Kingdom of God.” The charity is active in more than 100 countries but has found its finances subject to scrutiny in recent years.

Grassley’s investigations into World Vision continue after a 2020 U.S. Senate Finance Committee report found that the charity failed to properly vet an organization it awarded money to, which has ties to terrorism.

The charity has also received international attention due to the criminal charges against its former Gaza zonal manager, Mohammad El Halabi. Last year, El Halabi was convicted by an Israeli court of funneling $50 million from the organization to the terrorist organization Hamas. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. World Vision has consistently proclaimed El Halabi’s innocence, alleging “irregularities in the trial process and a lack of substantive, publicly available evidence.”

cont’d…

https://www.christianpost.com/news/world-vision-grassley-seeks-answers-usaid-funding.html

Once again, the network’s audience has been left not just uninformed but misinformed.

By: David M. Litman – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

With hosts like Ayman Mohyeldin and Mehdi Hasan, opinions at MSNBC about Israel are strong, but facts are dispensable or, at best, malleable. Such is the level of fairness and accuracy that one could be forgiven for mistaking an MSNBC host monologue about Israel with another unhinged rant by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations.

The latest example comes from Ali Velshi, who spent much of his Sunday morning weaving a narrative about an evil Jewish state, threading together outright lies and material omissions to spin his false tale of a brutal, undemocratic apartheid state. As is typical at MSNBC, the host’s guests on the subject included only those who largely align with him ideologically and on whom he could count to refrain from substantively challenging his blatant lies.

Consequently, the network’s audience was once again left not just uninformed, but misinformed.

Some of Velshi’s false claims were transparently malicious, like his description of the 2023 fatalities in Israel: “According to the U.N., nearly 200 Palestinians have been killed in Israel and the West Bank since the start of this year. That is the highest number since 2005. Apparently, some 30 Israelis have also been killed in these clashes.”

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/us-news/anti-israel/23/9/10/317422/

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

“Our young Christians will improve their Hebrew and get to know the Jews, and vice versa. We are building the next Israeli generation.”

Significant army service is a big deal in Israel. So much so that many young Israeli Jews will postpone their mandatory conscription for one year after high school in order to attend a pre-military preparatory training camp, to make sure they are as prepared as possible.

Already years ago, Maj. (res.) Shadi Khalloul, a regular contributor to Israel Today, recognized that the key to greater Christian integration into Israeli society was encouraging young Christians to volunteer for military service. Israel’s minorities are not required to join the Jews in physically defending the State of Israel, but many, like the Druze, Bedouins and a growing number of Christians, are choosing to do so.

But these Christians are starting even further behind, if you will, than teenage Israeli Jews. So a pre-military preparatory course was seen as essential.

This year marks the seventh in which the “Kinneret” pre-military preparatory training camp put on by the Israeli Christian Aramaic Association (ICAA) has brought together young Christians and not a few young Jews to prepare for significant IDF service, together.

cont’d…

“One year from now – Israel will be the first country to have partial laser protection. In two years there may be complete protection,” said Yuval Steinitz.

By: Yonah Jeremy Bob – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

Israel will have partial laser defenses by this time next year, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems chairman Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio on Sunday.

“One year from now – Israel will be the first country to have partial laser protection. In two years there may be complete protection – against missiles, shells, rockets, or anything else. This will protect us both in the South and in the North,” said Steinitz.

Israel’s push for laser air defenses

This past February, senior Defense Ministry official Brig.-Gen. (res.) Danny Gold said Israel’s air-defense lasers, when fully deployed, will be able to shoot down the drones Iran has been sending Russia to use against Ukraine.Speaking at the Artificial Intelligence conference at Tel Aviv University at the time, the MAFAT [Directorate of Defense Research & Development] director said his ministry was working on developing “the next generation of using lasers.”

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-756455

Despite having a population a little larger than New York City, Israel’s cyber prowess is that of a global superpower, says professor Chuck Freilich.

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

Israel’s position as a cyber superpower places it in an exclusive club of world powers, despite having a population a little larger than New York City, according to former Israeli defense official Chuck Freilich.

Freilich, a senior research fellow at the MirYam Institute and the Institute for National Security Studies and a former deputy national security adviser in Israel, recently published a book on the subject, titled, “Israel and Cyber Threat: How the Startup Nation Became a Global Cyber Power.”

A former senior fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School who teaches at Columbia and at Tel Aviv University, Freilich said Israel’s cyber capabilities are prominent at both the civilian and military levels. The number of cyber start-ups in Israel equals the total number of cyber start-ups in the world, excluding the United States, he noted.

https://www.jns.org/israel-news/idf/23/8/17/311451/

By: Emanuel Fabian – The Times of Israel; timesofisrael.com

Deal with Rafael partner Raytheon, expected to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, includes 44 launchers and US-made command centers

The United States Marine Corps plans to acquire three batteries of Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system with nearly 2,000 interceptor missiles, according to an official notice of intent published Thursday, in a deal that is likely to cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

The deal would be signed with the US-based Raytheon, with which the Iron Dome’s manufacturer, Rafael, has a partnership.

An existing prototype system — known as the Marine Corps’ Medium-Range Intercept Capability (MRIC) — combines the Iron Dome’s launcher and Tamir interceptor missiles with a Marines radar and command center.

The US Marine Corps has conducted two successful series of tests with MRIC, in July and October 2022.

According to the notice of intent published to the System for Award Management site, which collects data on US acquisitions and contracts, the Marine Corps plans to procure three MRIC batteries with 1,840 Tamir interceptor missiles, 44 launchers and 11 US-made command centers.

Additionally, the Marine Corps intends to procure 80 Tamir missiles for the initial MRIC prototype, as well as “logistics and technical support” for all the systems.

The exact cost of the deal was not published but was expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

cont’d…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-marines-plan-to-procure-3-iron-dome-batteries-nearly-2000-interceptor-missiles/

By: Dale Hurd – Christian Broadcasting Network; cbn.com

CBN News has received confirmation that Christian evangelist and refugee Torben Søndergaard was deported from the United States in the last 24 hours. 

He was reportedly escorted by two U.S. Immigration officers back to Denmark, as per standard protocol. The officers treated him with dignity and respect.  

Upon arriving in Denmark, he was subject to normal passport control and was allowed to immediately turn around and fly to another country. He is now free and is safely reunited with his family outside of Denmark.

Søndergaard’s legal team says, “Now comes a time of much-needed rest and healing, and gratefulness to God that his painful experience of being detained is now over. Torben has requested privacy and will not be online or responding to calls and emails for the time being. Please continue to pray for Torben’s pending Asylum petition in the US federal court. If it is granted, he will be able to return to the US immediately with his family.”

cont’d…

https://www2.cbn.com/news/us/evangelist-torben-sondergaard-deported-us-after-1-year-ice-jail-cell-please-pray

The warehouse is said to have contained missiles intended for transfer to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.

Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

Unexplained “violent explosions” that rocked Damascus in the early hours of Sunday destroyed an arms depot belonging to Iranian-backed groups, according to U.K.-based group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Unconfirmed reports said the warehouse contained missiles intended for transfer to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

In the past, such incidents have been attributed to Israeli air strikes.

cont’d…

https://www.jns.org/middle-east/syria/23/8/13/310070/

Members of a special IHF delegation recently returned to the US from a meaningful and life-changing six-day experience in Israel.

Israel National News (Arutz Sheva); israelnationalnews.com

Members of a special Israel Heritage Foundation (IHF) delegation recently returned to the US from a meaningful and life-changing six-day experience in Israel. The diverse group, consisting of politicians, rabbis, medical professionals, and businesspeople, traveled throughout the Holy Land from August 4-9, 2023. The packed schedule included dancing along with thousands at the Western Wall on the Sabbath eve, praying at the burial places of the Jewish matriarchs and patriarchs in Hebron and Bethlehem, witnessing the testimonies at Yad Vashem about the atrocities committed by the Nazis, and tasting the very fulfillment of Biblical prophecies at a winery in the town of Shilo.

Led by Dr. Joseph Frager, Rabbi David Katz, and Gov. Mike Huckabee, members of the delegation also met with numerous dignitaries who spoke cogently about the need for judicial reform and the importance of spreading the word in the US about all the good that Israel has to offer. Capped off by a gala event hosted together with Israel National News – Arutz Sheva at the Waldorf Astoria in Jerusalem and emceed by Yoni Kempinski, they were addressed by leaders that included Governor Huckabee, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, and MK Simcha Rothman as well as MK Ohad Tal.

cont’d…

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/375534

By: John Waage – Christian Broadcasting Network; cbn.com

Perhaps to remind Israelis that Israel’s governing coalition has been working on other issues besides judicial reform, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting to announce goals and progress in three other areas: connecting the country with a high-speed rail network, fighting inflation by lowering prices on consumer goods, and accelerating Israel’s involvement in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

On the transportation front, the prime minister announced the launching of the “One Israel” project, “to link the entire country with a fast railway from Kiryat Shemona (in Israel’s far north) to Eilat (Israel’s southernmost city).”

“This project is underway with 100-billion shekel ($27 billion) multi-year budget, he said, adding, “My vision is that every citizen in the country will be able to go to and from the center of the country, from anywhere in the state, in less than two hours.”

Netanyahu also suggested that the rail line would one day be connected to Saudi Arabia as the Biden administration apparently warms to the idea of fostering improved relations between Israel and the Desert Kingdom.

cont’d…

https://www2.cbn.com/news/israel/wake-judicial-battle-netanyahu-adds-new-priorities-hi-speed-trains-inflation-fight-ai