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Ukrainian counteroffensive ended before it even truly began.

Israel continues to lead in the development of air defense systems, announcing the new ‘SkySonic’ hypersonic missile interceptor system.

By TPS

Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems on Wednesday announced the development of what it said was the world’s first hypersonic missile interceptor, called SkySonic.

The decision by the state-owned defense contractor to publicize the project comes after last week’s unveiling of what Iran claimed is its first domestically manufactured hypersonic missile.

“We follow the developments and threats in the global arena and, as in the past, advance and develop the most advanced defense systems,” said Dr. Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Haifa-based Rafael.

SkySonic is in advanced stages of development and will soon undergo its first live flight tests, the company said. Rafael is planning to showcase the interceptor at the Paris Air Show next week, and the firm said that it has already briefed the Pentagon on the development.

Hypersonic missiles can travel at least five times faster than the speed of sound, or 1-5 miles in a second. They follow complex trajectories and have greater maneuverability than ballistic missiles, making them difficult to defend. Most radar systems cannot even detect a hypersonic missile.

Russia, China and the US are the only other countries known to be developing hypersonic missiles.

Iran, a country whose leaders repeatedly call for Israel’s destruction, on June 6 unveiled the “Fattah” missile, that has a reported range of 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) and a maximum speed of Mach 13-15.

“This missile targets the enemy’s anti-missile systems and is a big generational leap in the missile field,” said Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Force.

The day after Iran’s unveiling, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant appeared to address the regime in Tehran.

”I hear our enemies boasting about weapons they are developing. To any such development, we have an even better response—whether it be on land, in the air, or in the maritime arena, including both defensive and offensive means,” said Gallant.

The post Israel unveils first-ever hypersonic missile interceptor appeared first on World Israel News.

Florida pastor Paula White was Donald Trump’s closest religious adviser and helped shape his pro-Israel policies.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Florida televangelist Paula White told The Jerusalem Post Wednesday that Christians should try to understand authentic Judaism instead of attempting to convert Jews.

White firmly believes that “You can be Jewish without being Christian, but you cannot be Christian without understanding Judaism.” She has therefore come to Israel to study Torah as well as tour such Jewishly historical sites as the Temple Mount and Hebron with various Orthodox educators.

She argued against trying to convert Jews to Christianity, saying that she leaves Jews’ “salvation” up to God. What is “vitally important,” she says, is to continue to “build bridges” between religious Jews and Christians, as the two groups “need each other.”

She is not only an unwavering supporter of Israel as belonging to the Jewish people, she is also a supporter of the Israeli Right.

“We believe the Jews are returning to Israel because that is God’s promise to the Jews,” she told the Post. “I believe there should be resettlement. This is your land…. And I believe that the Temple belongs to the Jews, so I believe there must be restoration.”

The mega-pastor was former president Donald Trump’s personal minister, and he appointed her to chair his evangelical advisory board. Saying now that she believes she was assigned by God to ensure he “stood strong” for Israel, she worked together with his closest religious Jewish advisers, among them son-in-law Jared Kushner, former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and Middle East point man Jason Greenblatt, to do things for the Jewish state that had never been done before.

This included moving the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and announcing that Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria is not illegal under international law. The administration also passed the Taylor Force Act, which cuts financial aid to the Palestinian Authority unless it ends its payments to terrorists and their families, and walked away from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Israel has long argued that the nuclear agreement was disastrous, as its sunset clause would permit Iran to return to its nuclear program within years and did not stop either their ballistic missile program or their destabilization of the Middle East.

Instead of bringing Christian groups to Israel as she has done dozens of times over the years, this is personal time for White, and she brought her whole family with her to share the experience.

The post Evangelical leader who advised Trump says Christians’ role is to understand Judaism, not convert Jews appeared first on World Israel News.

Points include releasing billions of dollars to Tehran and no further sanctions, with Iran agreeing to release American prisoners and not provide Russia with ballistic missiles.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Details of an informal, quiet agreement between the U.S. and Iran that falls short of a full-scale nuclear deal emerged in a New York Times report Wednesday.

The paper’s sources were one American and one Iranian official as well as three senior Israelis, two of whom called the deal “imminent.”

As previously reported, the unwritten understanding, which is being negotiated at least partially with the help of Oman as the two adversaries are not talking to each other directly, has Iran freezing its uranium enrichment at 60%. This level is only necessary for weaponizing the uranium, not using it for the peaceful purposes Tehran always claims, but is still a short step away from the 90% contained in regular nuclear bombs.

That level is still enough to construct a crude nuclear device, however, and the latest report earlier this year by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that Iran has already amassed enough of this material for two of them.

Iran would also agree to order its proxies in Syria and Iraq to stop attacking American contractors there, answer the IAEA’s call to cooperate more with its nuclear inspectors, and desist from selling ballistic missiles to Russia.

Tehran has already sold hundreds of its UAVs to Russia, which have been used in its war against Ukraine, and agreed to help Moscow set up a plant in Russia to manufacture this lethal product locally.

The U.S. in turn would not sanction Iran further than it is already, and not look to pass punitive resolutions against the Islamic Republic in the UN or IAEA for its nuclear program. It would also refrain from seizing tankers that from the American point of view are illegally transporting Iranian oil to countries that don’t agree with the sanctions, something American forces did most recently two months ago.

Another expectation is that the White House would release billions of dollars in Iranian assets, to ostensibly be used only for humanitarian purposes, and in return Iran would release three Iranian Americans it is holding prisoner on what the Americans insist are specious charges. There are also some $7 billion in held-back oil payments sitting in South Korea that the mullahs have linked to any possible prisoner release.

U.S. officials have not confirmed any association between the prisoners and either money or the nuclear issue, said the Times, although officials have said the detainees are a definite issue of concern to the Biden administration.

Dennis Ross, a former senior State Department official and Middle East envoy who cofounded the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, said that the White House is pursuing this understanding because it “want[s] the priority and focus to remain on Ukraine and Russia.”

Any “crisis-averting” mini-deal should be of short duration, he added, because Iran has been building new nuclear facilities that are so deep underground that they could probably survive the Americans’ biggest bombs.

“The more they harden, the more the military options lose their potency,” Ross said. “Buying time from that standpoint works for the Iranians.”

The U.S., meanwhile, has denied accounts of any impending agreements, while Israel seems to think one is definitely in the works.

State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday that “rumors about a nuclear deal — interim or otherwise — are false or misleading.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted on Tuesday as telling a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs Committee that such a “mini-agreement” was something Israel “can live with.”

Israel has repeatedly publicly stressed that no outside deal with the Iranians will stop Israel from using all means necessary to prevent Iran from producing nuclear weapons.

The post Details of quiet U.S. deal with Iran emerge appeared first on World Israel News.

The U.S. State Department failed to acknowledge that the Palestinian Authority had not handed over crucial evidence for the probe, nor that the IDF had punished several soldiers involved in the incident.

By World Israel News Staff

After the Israeli military concluded a probe into the death of an elderly Palestinian-American man who had been briefly detained by the army, the U.S. State Department said it would be questioning Jerusalem further regarding the matter.

“We’re seeking more information from the Israeli government. We’re going to talk to them directly about it,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a press briefing on Wednesday, after being asked about Israel’s decision to close an investigation of the death of Omar As’ad, 78.

“Israel itself stated that the incident showed a clear lapse of moral judgment and a failure to protect the sanctity of human life,” Miller added, referring to an initial report from the IDF regarding the death.

The U.S. State Department failed to acknowledge that the Palestinian Authority had not handed over crucial evidence for the probe, nor that the IDF had punished several soldiers involved in the incident.

In January 2022, As’ad was temporarily held by Israeli soldiers after refusing to identify himself and behaving uncooperatively at a checkpoint near Ramallah. His hands were zip-tied and he was blindfolded, along with several other men.

As’ad died shortly afterwards, with the Palestinian Health Ministry claiming that the cause of death was a stress-induced heart attack.

The Israeli military opened a probe into the incident, which led to the dismissal and formal censure of several senior officers involved in As’ad’s arrest.

There is no evidence that As’ad was physically assaulted or excessively restrained, but the IDF held the soldiers responsible for failing to seek medical attention for the man upon his release from the holding area, as he appeared to be unresponsive and weak.

Because the Palestinian Authority and As’ad’s family refused to cooperate with the IDF, and would not provide critical medical documentation regarding the death, the Israeli military closed the probe without their input.

The IDF recently announced that there would be no criminal charges filed against the troops, which appears to have been the catalyst for the State Department’s comments.

The post State Dept. to question Israel over closed IDF probe into Arab-American’s death appeared first on World Israel News.

“Enough of the ceaseless concessions to anarchists and the opposition,” says right-wing NGO in blistering statement to Netanyahu, demanding passage of judicial reform.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

Right-wing activists and supporters of proposed reforms to Israel’s judicial system are holding their first-ever protest in front of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea on Thursday night, following a coalition failure which saw a member of the Opposition granted a critical spot on the judicial appointments committee.

Zionist NGO Im Tirtzu is organizing the demonstration, which aims to pressure Netanyahu into fulfilling his campaign promises and coalition agreements to implement judicial reform.

“Enough of the ceaseless concessions to anarchists and refuseniks and the opposition,” read a blistering statement from Im Tirtzu, aimed at Netanyahu.

“Sixty-four mandates [worth of voters] demand an end to surrender. This is not how you get stability, this is how you get weakness and the inability to act.”

For months, Netanyahu has avoided votes on the judicial reform legislation or other other unilateral moves to move the effort forwards, as negotiations for a compromise between coalition and opposition parties have stalled.

On Wednesday, a crucial vote for two representatives for the judicial selection committee ended with the surprise approval of an opposition candidate and defeat of the coalition candidate, Likud MK Tali Gottlieb.

MK Karin Elharrar of the Yesh Atid party was chosen, with at least four right-wing MKs voting for her in order to pacify the opposition parties, who threatened to stop the compromise talks should she not be selected.

However, because Gottlieb didn’t win enough votes, a second vote will be held in a month to fill the other empty slot. This enraged both the opposition and coalition parties.

Opposition leaders froze the judicial reform talks, claiming that the failure to select a second candidate was a stalling technique. Coalition lawmakers were irate due to a perceived victory for the opposition, as their candidate won her seat.

The results proved to be a breaking point for supporters of the reform, who noted that the coalition had enough votes to successfully elect their own candidate.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir released a video on Facebook, demanding that the vote for the second candidate for the judicial selections committee be held “immediately.”

The post ‘Stop surrendering’ – First-ever right-wing protest outside Netanyahu’s residence to demand passage of judicial reform appeared first on World Israel News.

Climate change is a constant subject of political discourse in the United States. Between activist protests, political debates, and natural disasters, rarely a day goes by without a climate-focused story. The newest involves a World Meteorological Association study showing a 66% chance in the coming years to break the 1.5C mark, viewed as a problematic degree of warming. According to the study, exceeding this limit would result in extreme heat, sea level rise, and dangers to food security. If these dire predictions are true, what does it mean for geopolitics? For one, it will change the geopolitical calculus, altering the regional balance. Sea level rise is caused by the melting of sea ice, impacting not only low-lying areas, but also those formerly icebound. These heretofore impassable routes could become usable for commerce, competition, and conflict. At the heart of this new world of geopolitics is a region most strategists ignore: the Arctic.

Geopolitical competition in the Arctic is not new but rather has been ongoing for nearly 500 years. The hunt for the fabled Northwest Passage – a route from the Atlantic to the Pacific, passing above North America and short-cutting the voyage to the Orient – was called the last great challenge of the age by European explorers. Traversing it was many an adventurer’s proverbial white whale, labeled by the 16th century English privateer-explorer Martin Frobisher as “the only thing of the world that was left yet undone, whereby a notable mind might be made famous and fortunate.” Discovering this route would have a major geopolitical impact for the then-underdog English. Not only would it create new markets for its trade, but it would break the monopoly of the Spanish and Portuguese, who had dominated the New World since 1492. Despite the best efforts of Frobisher and others, the Northwest Passage remained untraversed until famed polar pioneer Roald Amundsen completed the journey in 1906.

Other geopolitical contests have occurred in the Arctic as well. There was a quest to discover the partner of the Northwest Passage, known as the Northern Sea Route (NSR), which runs the length of Russia from the Bering Sea to the Barents Sea. Easier to navigate than the hazardous Northwest Passage, it was first traversed by the Swedish Vega mission in 1879, requiring only a single winter versus Amundsen’s three in the Northwest Passage. The NSR was less of a focus than its opposite number, mostly due to it lying within Russian territorial waters. Still, this alternate passage from Europe to Asia is a crucial one for the future of Arctic competition.

The Arctic has hosted its fair share of warfare. In the Russian Civil War that followed the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Russia’s far north was important battleground. The Arctic-adjacent ports of Murmansk and Archangelsk, used throughout World War I to supply Russian armies, were key targets for the Bolsheviks. Their advances on the region were met by an international military expedition led by the Americans and British. After over a year of combat, the Allied forces left the region to Communist conquest. The Soviet Union militarized the Arctic during the Cold War, patrolling with submarines and icebreakers, as well as setting up floating stations from which it could conduct electronic surveillance. The US and Canada pushed against these moves, but the theater was less important to Washington than it was Moscow.

In the short-lived era of good feelings after the Cold War, peace and cooperation reigned. In 1996, the Arctic Council – an international organization connecting Arctic nations with interested observers and native communities – was founded in this spirit. Its permanent members include all eight Arctic states: Canada, the United States, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. The goal was to foster comity in the region, determining commercial usage, fishing rights, and environmental protection. This idealistic approach has been severely disrupted by recent events.

The past year has seen drastic geopolitical changes that have impacted the Arctic. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took place during its rotating presidency of the Arctic Council, throwing it into chaos. Now that it is Norway’s turn at the helm, some seek to reconstitute the group with Russia, but this will be harder than it looks. Not only has Russia’s militarism shown it to be an untrustworthy actor, it has united the remainder of the Arctic states in NATO. Denmark is seeking tighter security ties with these fellow Arctic states, and it is possible that greater NATO cooperation in the region is close behind.

Despite the economic and military hits it has taken, Russia is still the top dog in the Arctic. This is not surprising given its history and geography, but it is bad for American interests. Russia leads the Arctic militarily and is seeking to do so commercially as well. It has the world’s largest icebreaker fleet, numbering at least 46 vessels, used to open waterways, patrol militarily, and conduct scientific surveys. It is the only nation to field nuclear-powered versions of these important ships. Even with climate change, icebreakers are necessary to navigate the Arctic and create passages for non-specialized ships. Russia plans to expand this fleet, seeing the Arctic as a domain it can control and use to exert pressure on its enemies.

Russia also leads in Arctic infrastructure and commercial development. It sees the Northern Sea Route as an economic boon and is investing in making that a reality. It pitches the route as a faster, easier way to bring products from Asia to Europe. The Arctic routes are – when well-maintained – wide, deep, and very difficult to get stuck in, unlike the main alternative, the Suez Canal. Russia has been investing heavily through state-directed enterprises in permanent port, transit, and energy infrastructure, hoping to accelerate the competitiveness of the NSR. The Arctic has the potential to be a significant source of fossil fuels, something else the Russians are exploiting. They are building pipelines, rigs, and other energy infrastructure, much of which they claim can be constructed even under harsh Western sanctions. Developing the NSR into a viable commercial route could give Moscow leverage over a growing portion of world trade – a strategy that China has already embraced.

The People’s Republic has its own designs on an Arctic presence, in spite of latitude. It has been an Arctic Council observer since 2013 and has long sought involvement in the region. Now, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, that mission has gained a prominent strategic edge. China has two icebreakers already, is investing in more, and seeks its own nuclear-powered Arctic fleet. This has only further aligned Beijing with Moscow in a bid to consolidate control over the polar region. They have signed security cooperation agreements, bringing China’s Coast Guard – notorious for harassing foreign vessels – to assist its Russian counterpart. They are creating joint research stations in the region, establishing potential dual-use facilities. And Russia is enticing Chinese commercial investment in energy, mining, and transport ventures.

This burgeoning partnership has left the US a straggler in the race for polar power. Despite being an Arctic nation since the 1867 purchase of Alaska, the US has deprioritized the region. Americans have no conception of themselves as an Arctic country. That failure of imagination has led to skimping on investment – our two aging icebreakers are in chronic disrepair – and  a lack of strategic vision. Additionally, only one state is located in the Arctic, and it is noncontiguous with the rest of the country. Those factors, combined with America’s federal system, has led DC policymakers to silo Arctic policy as a state issue. It has assigned icebreakers to the Coast Guard, an institution which falls under the aegis of Homeland Security, not Defense. American politicians generally see the Arctic in environmental or energy terms, marginalizing the strategic stakes. This is a terrible approach in a time of rising geopolitical temperatures.

To rectify these unforced errors and build a stronger Arctic position, we need to do six things. First, the US must fully fund its construction of new icebreakers. There are already plans for several modern ships, which is a good start, but Congress should ensure that they have dedicated funding instead of relying on the whims of the annual appropriations process. Next, we should move the Arctic portfolio from the realm of Homeland Security to that of Defense. Doing so would put the appropriate emphasis on the region’s strategic importance, allow icebreakers to work more closely with naval ships, and better coordinate policy. This could be accomplished in multiple ways, but the easiest would be to raise the head of the Coast Guard to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and include it in planning and operations. Congress should also appoint and fund a permanent ambassador to the Arctic Council, a long-overdue action that would show our resolve and safeguard American interests.

Our Arctic security strategies must be updated to cope with the new realities of the Russo-Ukrainian War and Sino-Russian partnership. This means coldly assessing our readiness – or lack thereof – and presenting that information to Congress to help craft policy. Another positive step would be growing our partnerships with our Arctic and near-Arctic allies. The accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO is very useful here, and we should broaden the alliance’s Arctic focus so as to deal with all strategic dimensions of the Russian threat. Finally, the Navy should conduct more freedom of navigation operations (FONOPs) in the Arctic to demonstrate our resolve to keep it an open ocean. If the NSR does indeed solicit commercial traffic, American vessels should not hesitate to use it and allow the Russians to demonstrate their good faith.

These are sober steps to move towards a stronger position in the region and close the gap between ourselves and our rivals. The Arctic is critical to American national security and broader geopolitics, and will only become more salient if climate change melts sea ice. If we are serious about the potential impacts of global warming, we should focus less on electrifying military vehicles and more on building nuclear icebreakers. Future generations will thank us.

The post Breaking the Ice appeared first on Providence.

“It’s time to put a stop to the dangerous incitement that is raging against the Haredi public,” says bill’s author.

By World Israel News Staff

Legislation aimed at expanding the definition of racism to include incendiary statements against Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews passed an initial reading in the Knesset on Wednesday.

54 MKs voted in favor of the bill, while 34 voted against it. In order to become law, the bill will need to pass an additional two readings.

United Torah Judaism MKs Yaakov Asher and Moshe Gafni drafted the law, which is an amendment to Israel’s existing hate speech laws.

“It’s time to put stop to the dangerous incitement that is raging against the Haredi public, [which is supported by] inciting politicians and media persons,” Asher said in a media statement.

“There is no other group in the State of Israel that tolerates such a [high level] of incitement against it like the Haredi community does,” he added.

“The law I’ve proposed will make it possible to [punish those] inciting against the community, and make it clear that the blood of the Haredi community isn’t cheap.”

Israel has a number of laws on the books that criminalize hate speech against religious minorities, and backers of the bill want to see those policies applied towards those who promote hateful rhetoric against religiously observant Jews.

The bill was proposed after complaints about anti-Haredi statements made by public officials were deemed not to violate Israel’s anti-hate speech laws by the Attorney General’s office.

“The regulations of the law define as racism only cases in which the racism is due to skin color or belonging to a race or national-ethnic origin,” the office said, adding that because religious Jews aren’t identified by skin color but rather their style of dress, discrimination against the group doesn’t violate the penal code.

In a media release, Asher and Gafni explained that the introduction of the bill was critical due to the “growing phenomenon” of anti-Haredi hatred in Israeli society.

“Particularly serious are the cases in which the incitement is carried out by elected officials with the aim of dividing the people and thereby reaping political gain while harming an entire community and the unity of the people,” the bill reads, in what was likely a reference to Opposition leaders who have criticized the Haredi community.

The post Bill criminalizing anti-Haredi hate speech advances in Knesset appeared first on World Israel News.

Dumpling Wars

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, June 14, 2023

The Ukrainian blonde had the smell of trouble. She had perched herself, along with her mute friend, in a restaurant across from the famed South Melbourne Market. On arriving at …

The post Selected Articles: Dumpling Wars appeared first on Global Research.

Israeli forces operate in Shechem (Nablus), demolishing home of the terrorist who shot and killed St. Sgt. Ido Baruch last year.

By TPS and World Israel News Staff

Forces from the IDF and the Border Police destroyed the home of Osama Tawil, the terrorist who murdered an Israeli soldier last October, overnight in the Rafidia neighborhood of Shechem (Nablus).

The terrorist carried out a shooting attack together with another terrorist on October 11, 2022, during which a Givati infantry patrol soldier, First Sergeant Ido Baruch, was killed.

During the operation, terrorists opened fire on the Israeli forces, prompting soldiers and Border Police officers to return fire.

At three terrorists were shot during the resulting gun battle.

According to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry, one wounded terrorist, identified as 20-year-old Khalil Anis, later succumbed to his injuries.

The PA’s WAFA outlet reported that one of the other wounded terrorists is listed in critical condition.

In addition, suspects threw explosives, shot fireworks and threw Molotov cocktails at the Israeli security personnel. IDF and Border Police forces responded with tear gas and stun grenades, WAFA said.

There were no casualties reported among the Israeli forces.

The post Terrorist killed as IDF demolishes home of Ido Baruch’s murderer appeared first on World Israel News.