LLX News

By: Lahav Hakov – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

Democratic party leadership in the US House of representatives blocked $1 billion for the Iron Dome.

Democratic Party leadership in the US House of Representatives removed about $1 billion of funding for Israel’s Iron Dome defense system on Tuesday.

The revision came after progressives in the party refused to vote for the broader bill in which the Iron Dome funding was included.

The progressive Democrats blocking the Iron Dome funding are among those who pushed to block arms to Israel during Operation Guardian of the Wall in May, according to Politico. That move was led by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of NY and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

The Democrats could not get the bill passed without the progressives, because Republicans would not vote for the bill, either, citing the debt ceiling as its reason. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said “the debt ceiling will be raised… by the Democrats.”

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/house-dems-vote-to-remove-iron-dome-funding-from-upcoming-budget-679969

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

Massive annual celebration held online this year due to pandemic; International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem hails new government’s outreach to Christian world

Senior Israeli leaders kicked off the 42nd International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem Feast of Tabernacles celebrations on Monday with video greetings as the massive annual gathering went online due to the pandemic.

“Your passion for Israel is an uncompromising statement of support for the Jewish State, for its people, and for our destiny,” said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling the ICEJ “a center of pro-Israel activism by our many Christian friends in the Holy Land and around the world.”

“This is what friendship really means — a true partnership between Israel and the many, many thousands of Christian supporters of Israel. And the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem plays a major role in maintaining this support,” Bennett continued.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/christian-feast-of-tabernacles-event-opens-with-greeting-from-bennett-herzog/

By: Josef Federman – AP News; apnews.com

ATLIT, Israel (AP) — Israel’s navy has stepped up its activities in the Red Sea “exponentially” in the face of growing Iranian threats to Israeli shipping, the country’s just-retired navy commander said in an interview.

Vice Adm. Eli Sharvit stopped short of confirming a series of attacks and mishaps on Iranian ships that have been attributed to Israel. But he described Iranian activities on the high seas as a top Israeli concern and said the navy is able to strike wherever necessary to protect the country’s economic and security interests.

“The state of Israel will protect its freedom of navigation across the globe,” Sharvit told The Associated Press, days after completing his five-year term. “That’s not related to distance from the country.”

https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-business-iran-israel-navy-4ece4ff6a5b881e8cd3d8884110f6271

By: Tovah Lazaroff – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

If Hamas or other Palestinian groups would take over the West Bank, it would turn the lives of Israelis into a living hell.

It would be a terrible mistake to create a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a series of media interviews he gave on Tuesday night just after his return from his historic meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.”

I oppose a Palestinian state. I think it would be a terrible mistake that would take the terrible situation in Gaza and recreate it in Judea and Samaria,” Bennett told KAN news.

His comments referred to Hamas’s ouster of the Palestinian Authority from Gaza in a bloody coup in 2007 and its forcible take over of the coastal enclave as well as the consequent rocket attacks against southern Israel.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/bennett-palestinian-statehood-would-be-a-terrible-mistake-679518

CBN News – cbnnews.com

Arizona has become the first US state to fully divest from Ben & Jerry’s over its decision to stop selling ice cream in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank – biblical Judea and Samaria.

Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced in a press release on Tuesday that “the state will divest all public funds from Ben & Jerry’s for violating Arizona law by boycotting Israel.”

By Sept. 21, Arizona will divest a total of $143 million from Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever.

“Israel is and will continue to be a major trade partner of Arizona. As Arizona’s Chief Banking and Investment Officer, I stand with Israel, and I will not allow taxpayer dollars to go towards anti-Semitic, discriminatory efforts against Israel,” said Yee.

The decision came after Ben & Jerry’s announced it would not sell ice cream in what it calls “occupied Palestinian territory.”

https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2021/september/arizona-to-fully-divest-from-ben-and-jerry-rsquo-s-over-lsquo-anti-semitic-rsquo-israel-boycott

By: Yori Yalon – Israel Hayom; israelhayom.com

The percentage of Jews living in Israel out of all the Jews in the world stands at 45.3%, an increase of half a percent over the previous year.

Days before the new Hebrew calendar year of 5782, the number of Jews worldwide stands at approximately 15.2 million compared to 15.1 million in 5781, according to newly released statistics by the Jewish Agency for Israel.

In Israel, the number of Jews is close to 6.9 million (compared to 6.8 million in 5781), while about 8.3 million live outside the Jewish state (including around 6 million in the United States). The updated estimates by Professor Sergio Della Pergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem will be published in the American Jewish Year Book 2021.

The numbers include those who define themselves as Jews and who do not identify with another religion. When also including those who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return, the world total rises to 25.3 million people, of whom 7.3 million are in Israel and 18 million live outside Israel.

https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/09/06/jewish-population-rises-to-15-2-million-worldwide/

By: Josh Hasten – Jewish News Syndicate; jns.org

One year after the Abraham Accords were signed, locals from communities in Gulf states have taken a keen and public interest in the Jewish New Year and its traditions.

With Jews around the world set to begin the High Holiday season, the small Jewish communities in six Gulf states, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are planning to take part publicly in some of the traditional holiday rituals for the first time in decades.

This newfound openness is a direct result of the Abraham Accords signed a year ago between Israel, the United States, the UAE and Bahrain, followed by Sudan and Morocco.

Ebrahim D. Nonoo, leader of Bahrain’s Jewish community and president of the newly founded Association of Gulf Jewish communities (AGJC), whose goal is to develop Jewish life in the region, told JNS that “the best thing about Rosh Hashanah this year is that we are able now to advertise it. We are saying ‘Happy New Year’ to our Bahraini friends and government officials. It’s beautifully really out in the open now.”

https://www.jns.org/as-gulf-opens-to-jewish-life-muslims-spark-interest-in-learning-about-high-holidays/

By: John Stonestreet – The Christian Post; christianpost.com

After seeing the images out of Kabul in recent days, Maajid Nawaz, a former radical Muslim, said, “Barefoot Taliban conquered a palace. They believed in something and fought for nothing. I have lived with men like this in prison. It is difficult to describe just how seriously they take their cause. There is a lesson here for us in the West, if we are humble enough to see it.”

We hear the terror from Afghan women who now wonder what the lives of their daughters will be like, worried that 20 years of progress in women’s rights have disappeared overnight. We see the desperation of men so afraid of what might come next that they’re literally clinging to the wheels of American aircraft as they depart. Yet, we struggle to have a category for what they actually fear. Many Westerners don’t have the categories to understand the realities of Islamic fundamentalism.

https://www.christianpost.com/news/the-worldview-of-the-taliban.html

By: Yaakov Katz – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

All withdrawals in this part of the world end the same, with the vacuum being filled by hostile and radical terrorist elements.

It wasn’t even really a battle. On June 10, 2007, clashes erupted between Hamas and Fatah forces in the Gaza Strip. Israel had withdrawn from the coastal enclave two years earlier, and after Hamas came to power in the January 2006 election, the two sides were constantly fighting over how to jointly rule over the Palestinian people.

At the time, an American general was stationed in Israel responsible for helping to train Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton, US security coordinator as he was called, explained his mission in late 2006. Iran, he said, was helping arm Hamas, and the US wanted to prevent “moderate forces” from being eliminated.

What happened over five days in the summer of 2007 cannot be blamed solely on the Americans. Fatah – the movement and security force that had received support from the West – fell apart in a matter of days. Years later, Fatah members still recall with trauma the way Hamas threw their friends off the roof or tied them up to motorcycles and dragged them through Gaza’s pothole-laden streets.

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/from-taliban-to-hamas-middle-east-vacuums-never-end-well-opinion-677197

By: Khaled Abu Toameh – The Jerusalem Post; jpost.com

“We congratulate the Muslim Afghan people for the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan lands,” Hamas said in a statement.

In response to the Taliban re-conquest of Afghanistan, Hamas on Monday congratulated the Afghan people for “defeating” the US.“

We congratulate the Muslim Afghan people for the defeat of the American occupation on all Afghan lands, and we congratulate the Taliban movement and its brave leadership on this victory, which culminated its long struggle over the past 20 years,” Hamas said in a statement.“

While Hamas wishes the Afghan Muslim people and its leadership success in achieving unity, stability and prosperity for Afghanistan and its people, it stresses that the demise of the American occupation and its allies proves that the resistance of the peoples, foremost of which is our struggling Palestinian people, will achieve victory.”

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/hamas-congratulates-taliban-for-defeating-us-676851