Weekly roundup of world briefs

Leader of Lebanon’s tiny Jewish community dies at 80

By Andrew Silow-Carroll

(JTA) — Isaac Arazi, who as former president of Lebanon’s tiny Jewish community led the rehabilitation of Beirut’s abandoned Magen Avraham synagogue, died Tuesday. He was 80.

A lawyer for the community, which numbers less than 30, confirmed his death to Agence France-Presse.

Arazi headed the Lebanese Jewish Community Council, which represented the remnant of the estimated 22,000 Jews who lived in Lebanon before the civil war that lasted from 1975-1989. Terrorists targeted Jews for kidnapping and murder during the war; 11 were killed or went missing.

Arazi led efforts to restore Magen Avraham, situated in the city’s old Jewish quarter, beginning in 2008. The plans were delayed by the global financial crisis, but renovations were completed by 2010. The synagogue was damaged by a catastrophic port blast in the Lebanese capital in 2019 and reopened a year later following extensive renovations underwritten by donors abroad.

Arazi had grand plans for the synagogue but was realistic about restoring Jewish life in a country riven by strife and antagonistic toward Israel and Jews. “You need to be at least 10 people to celebrate Shabbat. But most of them live abroad. And those that live here are too afraid to vote,” he told a reporter in 2011.

The synagogue’s last rabbi fled the country in 1977, and the last rabbi in Lebanon left in 1995.

Israel grants initial approval for Cyprus-Gaza humanitarian corridor

(JNS) — Israel has granted preliminary approval for a humanitarian sea corridor between Cyprus and the Gaza Strip, Israel Hayom reported on Tuesday.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen conveyed the decision on Tuesday to his Cypriot and British counterparts, stating Jerusalem’s position that it will be possible to begin shipments via the Mediterranean route upon completion of the required preparations.

Greece and Cyprus proposed the maritime corridor for Gaza at the start of the war, after Jerusalem announced that it would no longer take responsibility for the needs of the Strip’s civilian population.

Last week, Cohen visited the Cypriot port of Larnaca for talks with his counterpart Constantinos Kombos, where the two diplomats reviewed the ZENON multifunctional coordination center, which is expected to be the starting point of the corridor.

According to the plan, the goods will be inspected there with the security coordination and approval of Israel before embarking on the journey to Al-Mawasi on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip.

The corridor will replace the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings, so that civilian supplies will no longer be transferred through Israel, both during and after the war.

 “The purpose of creating a maritime corridor is to completely disconnect economically from Gaza. We will not allow a return to the reality that preceded the murderous terrorist attack of the seventh of October,” said Cohen.

Popular Israeli coffee ditches the Turks

(JNS) — Farewell Turkish coffee.

A leading Israeli food and beverage company is temporarily removing the words “Turkish Coffee” from the packaging of its popular ground coffee.

The decision by the Strauss Group to break with its 60-year branding tradition follows a social media uproar over why the coffee should be named for the country led by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has openly supported Hamas and widely condemned Israel despite the Oct. 7 massacre.

The words will be replaced with special editions for the war with patriotic slogans in Hebrew such as: “Am Israel Chai” (“The people of Israel lives”), “Generation of Victory,” “We Have No Other Country” and “Strong Together.”

“Turkish Coffee is part of many very Israeli moments. It is much more than just a cup of coffee; it is our unity and our love for the land,” said Ofri Shabo, vice president of marketing at Strauss Coffee Israel. “To strengthen our soldiers, we decided to update the packaging during the war and to put out a line of mottos with messages of unity, hope and belief in the justness of our path.”

Last month, Erdoğan told his country’s parliament that Israel would soon be destroyed.

“Hey Israel: You have an atomic bomb, a nuclear bomb. And you are making threats with this. We know this. And your end is near,” he said. “You can have as many nuclear bombs as you want, but you’re on your way out.”

In his latest tirade, the Turkish leader said Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “no different than Hitler.”

Meanwhile, an anchor on a pro-Erdoğan Turkish television station was fired Sunday after she appeared on the news with a Starbucks coffee cup.

Turkish viewers were infuriated by what they construed as the anchorwoman’s endorsement of the coffee conglomerate, which some in the Muslim world perceive as pro-Israel.

The TGRT network said that the anchorwoman, Meltem Günay, and the news segment’s director were both dismissed because of the “inappropriate” product placement on the anchor table.

 In a statement, the network said that it is “aware of the sensitivities of the Turkish people regarding Gaza and defends them till the end,” adding that it would never approve a broadcast to the contrary.

Starbucks has faced threats of boycotts in the Muslim world for its perceived support of Israel in the war against the Hamas terrorist organization.

Although the company does not operate in Israel, its upper management has earned a pro-Israel image by pushing back against an anti-Israel statement made by one of its workers unions shortly after the war began.

Israeli drone kills six terrorists in Samaria

(JNS) — An Israeli drone strike overnight Tuesday killed six Palestinian terrorists in the Nur Shams camp east of Tulkarm in western Samaria, the IDF said.

The strike took place against the backdrop of Israeli military operations across Judea and Samaria during which 14 terrorism suspects were arrested.

Palestinians had attacked Israeli troops who entered Nur Shams with armored bulldozers and military vehicles, leading to the strike.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said four other people were wounded during the clashes.

It was unclear whether the incident was connected to the IDF checking into complaints by residents of Bat Hefer, a village east of Netanya that also borders the Green Line, of tunneling sounds coming from the direction of Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.

Residents say they hear tunneling originating from Shuweika, a satellite village of Tulkarm, in the direction of Bat Hefer.

Meanwhile, IDF soldiers operating overnight in the Dheisheh camp, just south of Bethlehem in Judea, confiscated equipment at a printing press used to produce inciting material for the Hamas terrorist organization.

A day earlier, Israeli forces destroyed an explosives lab in Nur Shams. Soldiers also confiscated more than 30 weapons, improvised rockets and other armaments in the building where the lab was located.

An IDF soldier was lightly wounded by shrapnel when terrorists shot and threw explosives at the forces, who responded with live fire. The soldier was evacuated to a hospital for treatment.

Since the start of the war on Oct. 7, some 2,550 wanted persons have been arrested throughout Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, including 1,300 Hamas members.

Hezbollah fires 18-rocket barrage at Rosh Hanikra

(JNS) — Hezbollah fired a salvo of 18 rockets at Kibbutz Rosh Hanikra in the Western Galilee on Wednesday morning, with several Iron Dome interceptions reported.

There were no initial reports of injuries or damage.

The Iranian terrorist proxy took responsibility for the attacks, which triggered air-raid sirens at 10:02 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. The Lebanese Shi’ite group said that it was targeting an Israeli military position near a navy base.

In response, the Israel Defense Forces said that forces attacked the source of the launches.

Residents of the kibbutz reported a significant barrage with at least eight interceptions.

Rosh Hanikra is the northernmost point in Israel along the Mediterranean coastline and a popular tourist destination with its grottoes along the Lebanon border.

Lebanese terrorists continued to launch projectiles towards “various areas” in northern Israel throughout Thursday, the IDF said, prompting the military to return fire.

Israeli Air Force fighter jets on Thursday afternoon carried out more “targeted attacks” on Hezbollah infrastructure in response to the rocket fire, according to the IDF.

In addition, Israeli forces detected three enemy UAVs that crossed from Lebanon and hit the area of Israel’s ​​Mount Dov near the border.

Israeli forces exchanged fire with Hezbollah on Tuesday after anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon struck St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church in the village of Iqrit in the Western Galilee, wounding at least 10 Israelis, including a soldier reportedly in “serious” condition.

The wounded included an Israeli civilian in his 80s and nine Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The troops were hurt while evacuating the wounded civilian under missile fire.

“This attack is not only a clear violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 [which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War] but also a violation of the freedom of worship,” the IDF stated.

Hezbollah has been waging a low-intensity conflict against Israel since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people in the Jewish state.

New war database unveiled by Israel security group

(JNS) — A new website featuring up-to-date data on the Israel-Hamas war was recently opened to the public by the Israel Defense and Security Forum (IDSF).

The website, Israel War Database, contains the latest data on numbers of killed and wounded, basic facts about the war zone, stories, reports and analysis. 

A video section includes testimonies about the Oct. 7 attack from first responders, journalists and survivors.

A “Myths Debunked” section attempts to explode common misconceptions. Myths include, “The Jews have no claim to the land they call Israel,” “Jews stole Arab land” and “Hamas doesn’t represent the Palestinian people.”

“In order to combat disinformation on Israel, we at IDSF…decided not to wait for anyone else and to take the initiative. This unique database allows people to get a full understanding of the conflict, armed to their teeth with data, analysis and stories,” said Or Yissachar, head of IDSF’s research department.

“The non-stop news cycle, information and fake news haystack are bombarding the everyday news consumer and are making it virtually impossible for them to form an informed opinion. It is commonly said that the first casualty of war is the truth, and it is especially true as it relates to Israel,” he added. 

Yissachar said the results are seen on U.S. campuses, in protests in Europe and in misleading commentary by ill-informed people who treat Israel as the villain in the story. 

“We believe that the more educated people are regarding the war, the more they would support Israel in its defensive war efforts against Iran’s axis of evil,” he said.

Cohen thanks Japan for sanctioning top Hamas terror chiefs

(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen on Tuesday thanked Japan for moving to sanction top Hamas leaders, including the terror group’s chief in the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar.

Tokyo also announced sanctions on Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s “military wing,” and his deputy Marwan Issa. 

“Israel welcomes Japan’s government decision to freeze assets and impose sanctions on payments and capital transactions on three of the senior members of the Hamas terrorist organization,” said Cohen.

“Hamas is a barbaric terror organization, worse than ISIS, that murdered, executed and massacred more than 1,200 people on Oct. 7, and is using the people of Gaza as human shields. We thank Japan for its strong commitment to combating and fostering a world free of terrorism,” he added.

Tokyo’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said earlier on Tuesday that the trio’s assets would be frozen and their payments and transactions sanctioned, according to Reuters.

In September, Israeli Economy and Industry Minister Nir Barkat and his Japanese counterpart Yasutoshi Nishimura met in Tel Aviv and signed an economic and innovation agreement between their nations.

Nishimura brought a trade delegation of 80 Japanese company representatives as Tokyo and Jerusalem explored a possible free-trade agreement that would expand their $3.3 billion commercial relationship.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed advancing bilateral relations with his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida this past February.

Jerusalem and Tokyo agreed in November 2022 to move towards signing a free-trade agreement, which then-Prime Minister Yair Lapid said would entail “discounts for products and goods from Japan for the benefit of the Israeli market and increasing Israeli exports to Japan, the third-largest economy in the world.”

A third of Arab Israelis see Oct. 7 massacre as in tune with Islamic values

(JNS) — One-third of Israel’s Arab citizens disagree with Ra’am lawmaker Mansour Abbas’s statement that Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre “does not reflect Arab society, the Palestinian people and the Islamic nation,” according to a recent poll.

Thirty-three percent of all Arab Israelis surveyed disagreed with the statement while a further 11 percent “didn’t know.” Among Muslim Arabs only (separating out Druze and Christians) the number was larger still, with 34.5 percent disagreeing with the statement and 12.5 percent answering “didn’t know.”

The poll was carried out between Nov. 27 and Dec. 4, 2023, with 538 men and women interviewed by telephone in Arabic. The maximum sampling error was ±4.31 percent at a confidence level of 95 percent.

It was conducted by the Center for Democratic Values and Institutions (Arab Society in Israel Program) in collaboration with the Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research at the Israel Democracy Institute. 

The pollsters noted that “this was a statement by a political figure [which] may have impacted certain responses.”

The poll results, similar to those of a survey published in early December, indicate that a significant number of Arab Israelis harbor views that put them at odds with the country’s values. 

The earlier poll, conducted by Tel Aviv University, found that 32 percent of Arab Israelis do not believe that Hamas terrorists intentionally targeted women and children on Oct. 7.

The TAU poll also found that 44 percent of Arab Israelis did not feel that Israel’s response to the Hamas attack was justified, while 38 percent believed that both Israel and Hamas share responsibility for the outbreak of war.

A total of 502 Israeli Arab citizens over 18 were surveyed. The Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation initiated the study.

According to the data, 21 percent of Arab Israelis think that Oct. 7 contributed to a solution to the Palestinian problem.

Tunneling sounds heard under village east of Netanya

(JNS) — The Israeli military is checking into complaints by residents of Bat Hefer, a village east of Netanya that borders the Green Line, of tunneling sounds coming from the direction of Palestinian Authority-controlled areas.

Residents say they hear tunneling originating from Shuweika, a satellite village of Tulkarm, in the direction of Bat Hefer.

The Hefer Valley Regional Council carried out inspections in an effort to allay residents’ concerns.

“We take the reports very seriously and are working overtime to check the issue in a comprehensive and professional manner, using various methods,” the council said. 

“So far, three checks have been carried out in relation to the tunneling, and two more checks will be carried out in the coming days. So far, no findings have been found that indicate tunneling,” it added.

The first professional inspection was carried out on Nov. 2 by a company hired by the council.

Two weeks later, a second inspection was conducted by the IDF Home Front Command at the request of the council.

A third inspection was conducted by the Defense Ministry’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure in coordination with the council and the council’s engineer.

Hamas in Gaza makes extensive use of terror tunnels as does Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose plot to invade Israel was foiled in late 2018 when the IDF carried out “Operation Northern Shield.”

However, no tunnels originating from P.A.-controlled territory have been identified to date.