Saturday, May 3, 2025

IDF strikes in Syria amid violence against Druze community - Charles Bybelezer

 

by Charles Bybelezer

Five wounded Syrian Druze civilians evacuated to Ziv Medical Center in the Galilee

 

The Israeli Air Force attacked several targets in Syria overnight Friday, including a military installation, anti-aircraft cannons and surface-to-air missile infrastructure, the military said.

“The IDF will continue to operate as necessary to defend Israeli civilians,” the statement read.

Syria’s state news agency SANA reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted sites near Damascus, in the western governorate of Hama, and in the southern region of Daraa.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is affiliated with opposition sources, said the IDF carried out more than 20 strikes in what it called the “heaviest” Israeli offensive in the country in 2025.

Overnight, five wounded Syrian Druze civilians were evacuated to receive medical treatment at Ziv Medical Center in Safed, the Galilee, the Israeli military said.

The IDF is deployed in southern Syria and is prepared to prevent the entry of hostile forces into the area of Druze villages, the army continued. The IDF continues to monitor developments with readiness for defense and various scenarios.

The development followed an Israeli operation on Thursday night that targeted an area near the presidential palace in Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “a clear message to the Syrian regime.”

“We will not allow regime forces to move south of Damascus or to pose any danger to the Druze community,” Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defense Minister Israel Katz.

The operation came after Jerusalem warned Damascus to prevent sectarian attacks targeting Syria’s Druze population. On Thursday, the IDF said it was “prepared to prevent the infiltration of hostile elements into the area and nearby Druze villages,” adding that it “continues to monitor developments closely and maintains a high level of readiness for potential defense scenarios.”

A day earlier, Israeli forces carried out a targeted strike on a Syrian Sunni Islamist group reportedly planning attacks on Druze communities in the Rif Dimashq (“Damascus Suburb”) Governorate.

Israel’s intervention comes amid growing appeals from its Druze population—about 150,000 people—including the community’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif.

“At this moment, the eyes and hearts of the Druze community are turned toward the harm being done to Druze villages around Damascus,” Tarif wrote, urging “the State of Israel, the international community, and the Jewish people to act immediately to prevent a mass slaughter.”

Protests erupted this past week in Israel, with Druze demonstrators blocking roads and rallying outside Netanyahu’s private residence in Caesarea. The demonstrations were called off overnight Thursday after Tarif appealed for calm while talks continued with government officials.

The latest violence in Syria was triggered by the circulation of an audio recording attributed to a Druze man who allegedly insulted the prophet Mohammed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that more than 100 people have been killed in the ensuing clashes, including nine executed.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department condemned the violence and “inflammatory rhetoric” directed at the Druze as “reprehensible and unacceptable.”

“Interim authorities must stop the fighting, hold perpetrators of violence and civilian harm accountable, and ensure the security of all Syrians,” said department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce.


Charles Bybelezer

Source: https://www.jns.org/idf-strikes-in-syria-amid-violence-against-druze-community/

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Senators push to strip UNRWA of legal immunity, empower terror victims to sue - Elad Benari

by Elad Benari

GOP lawmakers introduce legislation to allow US victims of terror to sue UNRWA and similar bodies that support designated terror groups. The bill challenges legal protections long granted to international organizations accused of aiding Hamas and other extremists.

 

UNRWA
UNRWA                                        Wisam Hashlamoun/Flash 90

A group of Republican senators has introduced new legislation aimed at holding international organizations accountable for alleged support of terrorist groups, including Hamas, according to a JNS report.

The proposed bill seeks to eliminate legal immunity that currently shields entities such as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) from lawsuits filed by American victims of terrorism.

Titled the Limiting Immunity for Assisting Backers of Lethal Extremism (LIABLE) Act, the bill takes direct aim at UNRWA, which has come under scrutiny for its alleged links to Hamas. According to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the legislation would provide victims and their families with a legal path to pursue damages.

“For decades [UNRWA has] knowingly provided support to Hamas terrorists, including salaries and materials,” said Cruz. “That support facilitated Hamas’s terrorist attack on Oct. 7, which was the worst one-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust and included the murder and kidnapping of dozens of Americans. Those victims and their families deserve the ability to hold UNRWA accountable, and the LIABLE Act would give them that opportunity.”

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), a co-sponsor of the legislation, echoed the concern, pointing to what he described as a long history of UNRWA backing radical elements.

“UNRWA has supported Hamas in enabling these terrorists to commit the horrific massacre and mass kidnapping of Israelis and Jewish Americans over 550 days ago, on Oct. 7, and the sick individuals responsible for this terrorism must be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Scott stated.

Under current US law, organizations such as UNRWA are shielded from legal action by the International Organizations Immunities Act. Cruz noted that this protection also extends to groups providing material aid to US-designated terrorist entities, including Hezbollah.

The United Nations has maintained that UNRWA operates under the immunity provisions of the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations. However, a recent filing by the US Department of Justice indicated that the Trump administration holds the view that such immunity may not apply in all cases—particularly when allegations of complicity in terrorism arise.

UNRWA has long been criticized for its cooperation with Hamas. That criticism has increased since Israel revealed a year ago that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.

It then presented a dossier showing that the UNRWA workers who participated in the Hamas massacre kidnapped a woman, handed out ammunition and actively took part in the massacre at Kibbutz Be’eri, where 97 people were murdered.

Following the Israeli revelations, Guterres announced the creation of a review group, headed by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, to look into the Israeli allegations.

The group, which released its report last April, said it found neutrality-related issues" in UNRWA but also claimed that Israel had yet to provide evidence for allegations that a significant number of its staff were members of terrorist organizations.

More recently, Emily Damari, a former Hamas hostage who was freed after 470 days in captivity, said that she was held at an UNRWA facility while in captivity.

Damari, who holds both British and Israeli citizenship, told British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that she was denied adequate medical care while being detained at an UNRWA school.

The UN’s top humanitarian aid official, Tom Fletcher, later denied the claims and stated that he has "not seen a shred of evidence" suggesting the UN was involved in the holding of hostages in Gaza, either through the use of its facilities or by its staff.


Elad Benari

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/407768

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Europe's Illegal Land-Grab: Part II - Karys Rhea

 

by Karys Rhea

[Many in Israel] demand a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have called on the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that will make it clear to the EU that it has established red lines that will be enforced.

 

  • [T]he IDF tends to be... focused on immediate, critical threats from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Iran.

  • [Many in Israel] demand a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have called on the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that will make it clear to the EU that it has established red lines that will be enforced.

  • It may even be that right-wingers such as [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich and others have risen to power precisely because of growing Israeli frustration over fundamental threats such as this one having long gone ignored.

[Many in Israel] demand a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have called on the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that will make it clear to the EU that it has established red lines that will be enforced. Pictured: Israeli soldiers stand next to an illegally-built structure in Area C, in Idhna, near Hebron, on April 28, 2025. (Photo by Mosab Shawer/Middle East Images /AFP via Getty Images)

In 1967, Israel fought a monumental six-day war against neighboring Egypt, Syria and Jordan, who attacked the small country with the declared goal of wiping the Jewish state off the map. To the amazement of the international community, Israel unexpectedly emerged victorious, gaining control over multiple territories, including the West Bank. Historically known as "Judea and Samaria," and before 1948 home to a thriving Jewish population, the West Bank was illegally occupied by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan without international recognition from 1948 to 1967. In that time, Jordan ethnically cleansed the Jewish residents and destroyed dozens of synagogues. It re-named the region the "West Bank," meaning "west of the Jordan River," to sever any Jewish connection to the land in an attempt to legitimize its occupation of territory that was never part of its internationally recognized borders.

When Israel wrested control of the West Bank from Jordan in 1967, it refrained from annexing the territory, immediately offering to exchange land for peace. This unprecedented overture was met with the resounding "Three No's" at the infamous 1967 Arab League Summit in Khartoum: "No peace with Israel. No negotiation with Israel. No recognition of Israel." Consequently, the West Bank came under Israeli military rule.

"For reasons I can't begin to explain, Israel thought it could make everyone happy. That's how this whole monster was created," says Naomi Kahn, International Director of Regavim, an NGO "dedicated to the protection of Israel's national lands and resources." The monster Kahn is referring to is the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) and its Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria. COGAT is a unit of the Ministry of Defense, and the Civil Administration is responsible for governing the West Bank's "Area C" (the parts that are not governed by the Palestinian Authority) and managing all issues there pertaining to civilians, both Jews and Arabs.

Instead of extending Israeli law to the territory liberated in 1967, Israel's leaders chose to "temporarily" maintain the existing legal framework until a negotiated solution with the Arabs could be reached. To this day, the IDF's Commander of the Central Region, rather than elected representatives, retains the ability to legislate and administer Area C. According to Kahn:

"I am personally living under military rule. It's not only inefficient, but also ridiculous. It's a massive bureaucracy that seems to be doing very little. The army – any army – is simply incapable of replacing the government. That's not what armies are meant to do."

While COGAT technically receives orders from the minister of defense, on a day-to-day basis it operates with autonomy. Israeli laws mandate that attempts to trespass and commandeer land must be intercepted, but COGAT commanders are wary of action and weary of global condemnation. The staff have learned to expect international headlines, along with formal complaints, threats and lawsuits from the European Union, when they so much as remove a corrugated roof from an illegal structure -- which the EU will likely rebuild anyway.

For every razed structure, five new ones take its place. That Palestinians are legally permitted to bring grievances against COGAT and the Civil Administration to Israel's Supreme Court further undermines enforcement. Both foreign and Israeli NGOs receive millions of euros every year to "protect" the Palestinians in the court system, which is backed up with appeals. In the meantime, the Palestinians build and build, engaging in a strategy of setting Israel's own system against itself.

While COGAT officers hold a diverse array of personal views about the Arab-Israel conflict, the IDF tends to be conformist and technically oriented, concerned with tactical training, readiness and counterterrorism, and focused on immediate, critical threats from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Iran. The defense establishment views the West Bank as a political dispute, as opposed to a national security issue.

But COGAT is well aware of the scope of the hostile takeover in Area C and is choosing not to enforce its legal mandate. Due to intense pressure from the EU, COGAT officers routinely speak with Palestinian Authority officials and work out agreements to refrain from demolishing specific infrastructure built under former PA Prime Minister Salman Fayyad's master plan. While COGAT does occasionally destroy unauthorized structures deemed to be dangerous from a security or safety point of view, such as those built close to IDF training or firing zones, abutting major traffic arteries, or those that were used as launching pads for terrorist attacks, these demolitions are exceedingly rare, and almost always receive massive international media coverage and condemnation.

Through a Supreme Court case, Regavim succeeded in forcing COGAT to reveal its list of established enforcement priorities. At the top of the list was prevention of Jewish construction on privately-owned or state land, while at the very bottom of the list were PA-EU orchestrated takeovers. In other words, Israel's Ministry of Defense was forced to admit by court order that its enforcement guidelines for land-use policy were tilted against Jews and in favor of Arabs. "They let the Palestinians do things they'd never think about allowing Jewish people to do," alleges Dr. Yishai Spivak, an investigative researcher with Ad Kan, an Israeli non-profit organization.

In addition, the PA never reports deaths in, or emigration from, Area C, and pads its population statistics with people who have never set foot in the Middle East — for instance, children who were actually born and raised abroad but had parents who once lived in the region. This serves the goal of portraying the area as flooded with Arabs. A far more serious problem, however, may be that the PA actively and publicly encourages residents of Areas A and B to move into Area C, an act possibly in violation of the Geneva Convention.

The Civil Administration, meanwhile, does nothing to protect Israeli national interests in this regard. It does not keep population figures, thereby enabling itself to conveniently claim that it serves an enormous number of residents, and purportedly justifying its budget. If a conversation about squandered Israeli and international resources and the needs of the current and future population is to begin, the first step is a census of the population.

Regavim and others have called to disband COGAT entirely. They demand a zero-tolerance policy towards illegal construction, regardless of EU funding and lawsuits, and have called on the Israeli government to initiate a long-overdue diplomatic effort that will make it clear to the EU that it has established red lines that will be enforced. "Israeli leadership as a whole is failing to behave like a sovereign government with a backbone that enforces the law and protects the security and national interests of the people," argues Kahn.

During Naftali Bennett's six-month tenure as Defense Minister in 2019-2020, he began referring to Area C as a battleground and PA mass illegal land use as a strategic military threat. With an uptick in enforcement, mild progress was made. Still, it was always a matter of scale. A shed would be knocked down, while the illicit electricity and water connections would be ignored because of the humanitarian issues to which the EU would draw attention. Avigdor Lieberman who served as Defense Minister in 2016-2018, similarly spoke out, but encountered uninterested bureaucrats and pushback from many Europeans, who have a direct line to their political counterparts in the Israeli government. Although the Ministry of Intelligence published a full report in June 2021 that presented a comprehensive analysis of the Palestinian illegal land grabs and demographic saturation of Area C, little has changed since the publication's report.

Ultimately, there has thus far been little political will in Israel to counter Palestinian illegal construction in Area C. Also for lack of political will, Israeli authorities allow illegal weapons to proliferate throughout Arab-Israeli communities, and Bedouin clans to establish illegal villages in the Negev Desert.

The government does not give definitive enforceable orders to COGAT — it wants to avoid negative press or a more violent confrontation with the Palestinians in the future. Israeli officials therefore approach the problem with local, Band-Aid solutions rather than a full-frontal assault. According to Brigadier General Amir Avivi (res.), founder of the Israel Defense and Security Forum:

"They are not treating this as a war, and it is a war. It's actually more dangerous than other wars. At the moment, the Palestinians are winning this war. In 20 or 30 years, this will be an existential threat. We need to wake up."

Spivak concurs, adding that there are two kinds of wars that Israel is fighting with the Palestinians. One is the terror war, in which Palestinians use physical violence to harm citizens of the State of Israel. The other is the non-violent, or civilian war, in which Palestinians attempt to delegitimize Israel via various channels, such as the UN, social media, or the global BDS movement.

Another reason Israeli leadership fails to treat the issue with the seriousness it deserves is because its ministers are generally in power for a short time and may be dismissed within their party in short order. For the one to two years they generally serve, they are primarily concerned with building their reputation, desperate to be internationally accepted. Put simply, the political system bolsters the bureaucrats. They know that to tackle a problem of this nature and magnitude, they would have to take extreme actions against the EU, the PA, and COGAT. With the painful, precarious status Israel has on the geopolitical landscape, it is unlikely that any foreseeable coalition will set the precedent and shift the pattern.

Even leaders of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria have failed to respond to this encroachment as an existential threat. In the town of Efrat, for instance, when Israelis complain to the mayor of about illegal Arab structures popping up around their neighborhoods, the most he will do, if anything, is to make a phone call to the Civil Administration, and then quickly forget about the matter.

Many of the elected Jewish leaders in the West Bank focus on addressing the needs of their small communities on a day-to-day basis. Their effectiveness is severely compromised because they are beholden to multiple government ministries for favors, including the transportation, defense, finance and interior ministries, who do not exercise direct jurisdiction over the "green line." These mayors have a limited number of asks and it is generally counterproductive to demand that structures be removed, especially when they will likely be rebuilt in a few weeks. For many leaders in Jewish towns and villages, as long as there is no peace process, the status quo is all they have to work with.

Nonetheless, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has taken several punitive measures against the PA and has leveled harsh words at the EU, pledging to block their aggressive activity, which he called "contrary to international law and incompatible with basic rules of diplomacy in relations between states." In a joint letter, dozens of Knesset members denounced the EU's confidential June 2022 document as a severe breach of the EU-Israel relationship whose gravity cannot be overstated, writing:

"Under the thin veneer of the EU's civility and manners and the concern for human rights, the same old blood libels can be found, along with the same flames of primitive hatred that seek this time to persecute – not the individual Jew, but the tiny Jewish state."

It may even be that right-wingers such as Smotrich and others have risen to power precisely because of growing Israeli frustration over fundamental threats such as this one having long gone ignored.

This article, slightly different, originally appeared as part if a 10-part series in Western Journal.


Karys Rhea is a producer at the Epoch Times, a writing fellow with the Middle East Forum, a delegate for Israel365 Action, and a Rising Leader at the Global Liberty Institute. You can find her on X @rheakarys.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21491/europe-illegal-land-grab-part-ii

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Trump to hold summit with Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia, present Mideast vision - report - WALLA!

 

by WALLA!

Officials said the summit will give Trump a stage to outline his regional strategy and define the contours of US engagement in the Middle East.

 

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with U.S. President Donald Trump, at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka (photo credit: REUTERS)
Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with U.S. President Donald Trump, at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka
(photo credit: REUTERS)

US President Donald Trump is expected to hold a summit with Gulf leaders during a visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-May, a senior American official and two senior Arab officials told Walla on Saturday. 

The visit, which will be Trump’s first official foreign trip since taking office in January, signals the administration’s growing focus on economic ties and investment opportunities with Gulf nations.

Officials said the summit will give Trump a stage to outline his regional strategy and define the contours of US engagement in the Middle East.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is preparing to invite leaders from all six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC): the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.

Trump is scheduled to arrive in Saudi Arabia on May 13 for bilateral meetings, with the summit set for the morning of May 14. At this stage, no other Arab leaders are expected to attend, though that could change, one Arab official said.

 Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (credit: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)Enlrage image
Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (credit: SAUDI PRESS AGENCY/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

After the summit, Trump is expected to travel to Doha for a meeting with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and then proceed to Abu Dhabi on May 15 to meet with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed. The White House said that full details of the itinerary will be released soon.

The Saudi Embassy in Washington declined to comment.

Investments and AI, but what about Israel?

US and Arab officials said the trip will focus largely on bilateral matters, with an emphasis on arms deals, investment frameworks, and cooperation in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence.

On Friday, the US State Department announced approval of a potential $3.5 billion sale of medium-range air-to-air missiles and support equipment to Saudi Arabia.

The summit in Riyadh is expected to be the only portion of the trip with a broader regional agenda. Officials do not anticipate the launch of any new diplomatic initiatives during the visit.

Trump is not expected to visit Israel during this trip. US and Israeli officials noted that such a visit would likely have a limited impact at this time, particularly in the absence of progress toward a ceasefire in Gaza or a deal for the release of Israeli hostages.

The visit comes as Washington continues efforts to revive negotiations on a potential nuclear agreement with Iran. American officials said that key regional players, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, support such efforts and are encouraging the Trump administration to move forward.

This will be Trump’s second high-profile visit to Saudi Arabia as president. His first term began with a landmark trip to Riyadh in 2017, where he convened a summit with dozens of Arab and Muslim leaders.

President Joe Biden also hosted a Gulf-focused summit during his 2022 visit to the kingdom, attended by leaders from the Gulf states, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt.


WALLA!

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-852458

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Lebanon warns Hamas not to conduct operations that compromise Lebanon's sovereignty - Reuters

 

by Reuters

The Lebanese military has formed a list of wanted Hamas terrorists, according to a report.

 

A pro-Hamas demonstration in Sidon, Lebanon, July 31, 2024. (photo credit: REUTERS/ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS)
A pro-Hamas demonstration in Sidon, Lebanon, July 31, 2024.
(photo credit: REUTERS/ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS)

Lebanon has warned the Palestinian terror group Hamas not to conduct operations that compromise Lebanon's sovereignty, Beirut's supreme defence council said on Friday.

The announcement came with Lebanon facing growing US pressure to disarm terror groups outside state control.

The ceasefire that ended that conflict called on Lebanon to disarm "all armed groups in Lebanon" and dismantle unauthorised military infrastructure.

Mohammad al-Mustafa, secretary-general of the Supreme Defence Council, told reporters on Friday that the body would recommend a series of decisions to Lebanon's cabinet, including "warning Hamas against using Lebanese territory to carry out any actions that threaten Lebanese national security".

Hamas has a longstanding presence within Lebanon, including in camps across the country that host hundreds of thousands of long-time Palestinian refugees and where Lebanese security forces have long had only limited authority.

 Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Lebanon's army chief Joseph Aoun stand after Aoun is elected as the country's President at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, January 9, 2025.  (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)Enlrage image
Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Lebanon's army chief Joseph Aoun stand after Aoun is elected as the country's President at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, January 9, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/MOHAMED AZAKIR)

'Refusal to be drawn into regional conflicts'

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who previously served as army commander, has vowed to bring all weapons in the country under the state's authority.

"The president underscored Lebanon's refusal to be drawn into regional conflicts, highlighting the importance of Palestinian rights without compromising Lebanese stability," Mustafa told reporters, referring to the council session.

"The prime minister also stressed the need to hand over illegal weapons and to prevent Hamas or any other faction from undermining Lebanon's national security and stability," a council statement said.


Reuters

Source: https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-852371

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Trump reverses Biden by opening taxpayer-funded research, scrutinizing 'gender affirming care' - Greg Piper

 

by Greg Piper

Supporters of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and breast removal face another setback with dismissal of lawsuit against Alabama's ban. HHS debuts "universal vaccine platform," requires placebo testing.

 

The Biden administration politicized the science of treatment for youth gender confusion by hiding taxpayer-funded research that found no improvement in mental health for youth on puberty blockers and by bearing down on a standards-setting group to remove age minimums for so-called gender-affirming hormonal and surgical procedures from a draft.

The Trump administration is pushing back on both fronts, rushing a new policy to immediately make public National Institutes of Health-funded research results and releasing a massive review of youth gender medicine that echoes earlier findings from Europe, which has drastically restricted drugs and surgery for gender-confused youth.

The moves pleasantly surprised administration critics such as University of California San Francisco HIV researcher Monica Gandhi, who has repeatedly intoned against cuts to health research funding but praised NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya for the "extremely fair and good" transparency policy.

Science writer Jesse Singal, who broke the news that transgender Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Rachel Levine interfered in Standards of Care 8 by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, said he was shocked the gender medicine review was neither "hackish" nor "authored by cranks."

Coincidentally and ignominiously, the plaintiffs in litigation against Alabama's ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which had accidentally exposed Levine's interference, dropped the case Thursday.

Legal discovery showed "key medical organizations misled parents, promoted unproven treatments as settled science, and ignored growing international concern" over the procedures, said the office of state Attorney General Steve Marshall

"It is no surprise" they quit, Marshall said.

The plaintiffs, represented by LGBTQ rights groups, emphasized they "secured an initial injunction that blocked the ban temporarily and made a huge difference in people’s lives" despite the case eventually backfiring on them, AL.com reported.

It's been a busy few days for HHS and NIH, which also Thursday announced the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was "exclusively" developing a noncommercial "next-generation, universal vaccine platform" for "pandemic-prone viruses" including SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and H5N1 bird flu.

Approved by vaccine-skeptical HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Generation Gold Standard will use a "whole-virus platform" inactivated by beta-propiolactone. 

This preserves "the virus’s structural integrity while eliminating infectivity" across "diverse viral families," without inducing the perennial problem of "antigenic drift" for flu vaccines, HHS said, alluding to the core problem with COVID-19 vaccines from the first Trump administration's Operation Warp Speed: short-lived effectiveness and even negative efficacy.

Kennedy also ordered non-flu vaccine candidates to be tested in placebo-controlled trials going forward, prompting sky-is-falling Washington Post reporting. 

An HHS spokesperson reminded similarly alarmist NPR the non-COVID-19 vaccines on the U.S. childhood schedule, which is dramatically larger than in European countries, weren't tested in long-term placebo-controlled trials.

'The grift is over'

The Trump administration's NIH moved up the effective date for the public access policy to July 1 from Dec. 31, 2025, the date set by the lame-duck Biden administration a month before Trump's inauguration. The existing policy, which lets taxpayer-funded researchers withhold their "final peer-reviewed manuscripts" for a year after publication, was set in 2008.

Bhattacharya said the acceleration will "help increase public confidence in the research we fund," citing low public confidence that scientists are working for the common good, "while also ensuring that the investments made by taxpayers produce replicable, reproducible, and generalizable results that benefit all Americans."

"The grift of charging people to read the results of studies they already paid for [as taxpayers] is over" despite the lobbying of medical publishers, former U.S. Right to Know investigator Emily Kopp said. Former Michigan GOP Rep. Peter Meijer called it a "blindingly obvious net-good!"

Some are pressuring NIH to take transparency even further. Rutgers biochemist Richard Ebright said a "more consequential" requirement would be posting research "at the time of submission for journal publication," before it undergoes peer review.

Former Food and Drug Administration regulatory review officer Jessica Adams, who has long chronicled FDA advisory committees, urged Bhattacharya to extend the policy "to all papers authored/co-authored by HHS staff."

'Designed to antagonize' but better than Biden's work

President Trump's sweeping executive order against the "chemical and surgical mutilation of children" in January both prompted the HHS-commissioned review of "Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria" and seemed to prejudge its findings, as reaffirmed by a White House fact sheet posted two days before the report was made public.

The 409-page report itself, however, earned plaudits from expert journalists including Singal, who gave the issue national visibility with his 2018 Atlantic feature and got caught up in an ACLU subpoena against a gender clinic whistle-blower, and Lisa Selin Davis, who called the U.S. review an improvement on the U.K.'s so-called Cass review.

"Most frustratingly, the Biden administration did not engage in the sort of careful, rigorous evidence evaluation that the Trump administration has, against all odds, published today," Singal wrote for The Dispatch, while scolding the Trump administration for messaging that "seems designed to antagonize" rather than persuade critics of its findings.

Commissioned by the U.K.'s National Health Service, that review by former Royal College of Paediatrics President Hilary Cass had the goal of "improving" pediatric gender medicine even as it spelled the end of medical approaches outside clinical trials, while the HHS review concludes the field can't be fixed, Selin wrote for Unherd

The evidence of "pediatric medical transition" harm outweighs the evidence of benefit, even as both are uncertain, says the report's chapter on ethics. (Nearly half the report is a single appendix of the reviewed evidence and best practices.)

"When medical interventions pose unnecessary, disproportionate risks of harm, healthcare providers should refuse to offer them" because they increase the risk of treatment-caused harm and reduce "medicine to consumerism," it says. 

Even if randomized control trials on puberty blockers and hormones were "feasible," the report says it may yet violate human subjects research ethics because the harm is so certain, such as infertility that naturally follows puberty blockers and hormones. This is akin to an RCT "on the effects of jumping from a plane without a parachute."

It scolds "many U.S. medical professionals and associations" for rapidly expanding "a clinical protocol that lacked sufficient scientific and ethical justification," sticking with it when it failed, ignoring Europe's changes, mischaracterizing or ignoring "conflicting evidence" and marginalizing "dissenting perspectives," ultimately failing their young patients.

The biggest limitation of the U.S. review may be the anonymity of the reviewers, justified by HHS to "help maintain the integrity of this process." The analysts behind a private review of abortion pill complications from a massive insurance database similarly hid their identities.

HHS said each chapter went through peer review "and a post-publication peer review will begin in the coming days involving stakeholders with different perspectives."

Singal said HHS identified the nine reviewers to him off the record. He recognized them as "informed skeptics who have been deep in the weeds" on youth gender medicine, a "significant number" of whom have published peer-reviewed papers on it.

The authors fear "threats and other reprisals" if identified, according to the U.K. Times. A source "close to the process" said some of the authors "don't support Trump" but the worst choice was "allowing this field of medicine to go completely unregulated and see kids sterilised and have breasts amputated with zero accountability."


Greg Piper

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/trump-reverses-biden-opening-taxpayer-funded-research-scrutinizing

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From impeachments to exports, Communist China pressures a key American ally in South Korea - Eric Lyman

 

by Eric Lyman

China last week threatened to punish South Korean companies that export products containing critical rare-earth metals to the U.S.

 

China last week threatened to punish South Korean companies that export products containing critical rare-earth metals to the U.S. – the latest blow to an Asian economic powerhouse and staunch U.S. ally that was already in turmoil over a series of political impeachments.

The office of South Korea’s president has been a revolving door since December, with two impeachments, one reinstatement and two temporary acting presidents. The crisis was touched off in December 2024 when the country's conservative president at the time, Yoon Suk Yeol, declared martial law. And now snap elections are scheduled for June 3.

China has sought to exploit the impeachment crisis, sending subtle and overt signals the Chinese Communist Party-run country would love to push South Korea further from the United States and closer to Beijing.

In a recent meeting with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik in Harbin, Chinese President Xi Jianping said he was “seriously considering” attending the APEC summit in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, which would be the first visit by a Chinese leader to Korea in more than a decade.

Former Trump Deputy National Security Advisor Victoria Coates said Beijing is pulling out several stops to ride the impeachment crisis for advantage.

"I think you see China trying to take a much more aggressive role in the Korean Peninsula, not just in the north, but now infiltrating the south," she told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Friday.  "And we've had political chaos. You remember that kind of imposition of martial law, which seems so random a couple of months ago.

"But it looks like it might have been a Chinese setup to try to create this kind of chaos, try to get a left wing, a left wing candidate in there, somebody who would be less pro-American," she said. "And then we've got reports over the last day or so that China is ramping up its military activities, particularly naval exercises around South Korea. So they really are ratcheting up tensions and trying to, I think, disrupt the key American ally in the region."

South Korea’s trade-dependent economy has already started 2025 with a precipitous decline in exports, a trend further complicated by the United States 25% tariffs on cars (and the pending levy on auto parts), which are already crippling the export sector, which slowed significantly in April

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump eased tariffs on cars at least partially made in the U.S., but that’s only partial relief for Korea, which at best would still pay a 25% levy on 70% of the value of the cars it sells in the U.S

Without an elected head of state, the country is at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiating a favorable deal with the Trump administration, though that hasn’t stopped the government from trying.

A team of negotiators from South Korea came to Washington, D.C., this week for two days of so-called "technical" discussions with officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. 

The meetings, which concluded Thursday, were reportedly to lay the groundwork for full-fledged talks over trade and economic cooperation issues, as Seoul seeks exemptions from the new U.S. tariffs.

It all adds up to what The Economist this week called “South Korea’s nightmare.”

But are the problems the country is facing due to the Trump tariffs and domestic issues? Increasingly, expert analysts say they are seeing China’s fingerprints on at least some of South Korea’s woes.

There’s little doubt that China benefits from any strain in Seoul’s relations with China. 

“The changes to South Korea’s domestic and global environment will not go unnoticed in China,” London-based policy institute Chatham House said earlier this month, concluding, “Beijing will likely seek to exploit the situation to its advantage.”

But China’s interests may go beyond simple passive opportunism.

Put aside China’s recent threats regarding South Korean exports of rare earth metals, a potential weak point for the U.S., which is largely dependent on imports, which play an important role in the production of most high-tech products.

According to the Washington-based Middle East Research Institute, best known as MEMRI, Beijing’s enthusiasm over the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol in early April, the leveraging of waning public support in South Korea for the 29,000 U.S. troops stationed in the country, and encouraging broader “anti-American sentiment” all form part of what MEMRI called “a core component of Beijing’s long-term strategy.”

The developments reflect “China’s strategic penetration of South Korea across multiple domains and its potential to shape the country’s political future, posing a severe threat to the foundations of the U.S.-South Korea alliance,” MEMRI said.

Of course, this would not be the first time the Korean peninsula has been home to a clash between U.S. and Chinese ideologies. The consensus among historians is that the Korean War, which officially lasted three years starting in 1950, was a proxy conflict between China and the Soviet Union supporting the North Koreans and the U.S. and its allies backing the South.

Hostilities ended in 1953, creating the Demilitarized Zone – the DMZ – one of the most heavily-guarded borders in the world along the famous 38th  parallel dividing North and South (which is the reason why so many U.S. troops are still stationed there).

The two sides signed an armistice in the summer of ‘53, but no peace treaty was ever signed, meaning the war is technically still going on. The bullets of the Korean War have not been fired in more than 70 years, but the battle for influence on the Korean Peninsula remains alive.

 
Eric Lyman

Source: https://justthenews.com/government/diplomacy/south-korea

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Trump signs order that aims to cut funding to NPR, PBS - Jerusalem Post Staff, Reuters

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff, Reuters

The public broadcasters noted that their work filled "critical needs for news and information in America’s communities."

 

A 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President Donald Trump with the National Public Radio (NPR) logo in the background is seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025.  (photo credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO)
A 3D-printed miniature model of U.S. President Donald Trump with the National Public Radio (NPR) logo in the background is seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025.
(photo credit: REUTERS/DADO RUVIC/ILLUSTRATION/FILE PHOTO)

Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to cut funding to news outlets NPR and PBS, the White House said, marking the US president's latest attempt to use federal funding as leverage against institutions he does not view favorably. 

The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which distributes funding to PBS and NPR stations, to "cease direct funding" to them, according to the order's text released by the White House late on Thursday. It labeled the news outlets as partisan and biased.

"The CPB Board shall cancel existing direct funding to the maximum extent allowed by law and shall decline to provide future funding," the order says.

Both NPR and PBS have previously said that Trump's effort to cut their funding would disrupt essential media service and have a "devastating impact" on Americans who rely on them for credible local and national news, including during emergency situations.

This comes after Republican members of Congress grilled the heads of the broadcasting networks in March in a hearing titled “Anti-American Airwaves,” led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia). 

 Trump administration dismisses nearly 400 scientists working on national climate assessment. (credit: Rawpixel.com. Via Shutterstock)Enlrage image
Trump administration dismisses nearly 400 scientists working on national climate assessment. (credit: Rawpixel.com. Via Shutterstock)

NPR, PBS push back against Trump administration

The Trump administration has labeled multiple institutions in academia and the media industry - from Harvard and Columbia universities to NPR and PBS - as being leftist, Marxist, biased, and woke, and threatened funding cuts. Human rights advocates have raised concerns over free speech and academic freedom.

In a statement seen by the Washington Post, NPR said that its “editorial practices and decision-making are independent and free from outside influence.

“For more than 50 years, NPR has collaborated with local nonprofit public media organizations to fill critical needs for news and information in America’s communities,” the statement continued. “Millions of Americans depend on NPR Member stations for rigorous, fact-based, public service journalism.”

The statement added that "federal funding is essential to the work of public media and all public media stations."

PBS CEO and President Paula Kerger emphasized in a letter last month after the Trump administration’s threats to cut funding that “there’s nothing more American than PBS, and our work is only possible because of the bipartisan support we have always received from Congress.”

Since taking office in January, Trump and his billionaire ally Elon Musk have gone on a cost-cutting drive that has resulted in the gutting and attempted dismantling of various agencies and the layoffs of over 200,000 federal workers.

The Trump administration also sought to shut down Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, whose news broadcasts are funded by the government. A federal judge ordered the Trump administration in late April to halt those efforts.

Thursday's order by Trump also aims to suspend indirect funding for NPR and PBS by asking the CPB to ensure "that licensees and permittees of public radio and television stations, as well as any other recipients of CPB funds, do not use federal funds for NPR and PBS."

The CPB sued the White House on Monday after Trump sought to fire three of its five board members. The nonprofit corporation was created by Congress in 1967 and provides funding for more than 1,500 locally managed public radio and TV stations.

Several media outlets have reported that the White House plans to ask Congress to rescind $1.1 billion in funding for the CPB, with the amount being two years' worth of funding.

NPR has more than 900 employees, according to its website. The exact employee count at PBS was not immediately clear, though a media report said it had over 550 staffers at the end of 2022. 


Jerusalem Post Staff, Reuters

Source: https://www.jpost.com/american-politics/article-852385

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Fresh after a first round of elections, Germany's ruling parties seek to ban their rising AfD conservative rivals - Monica Showalter

 

by Monica Showalter

Then they had the nerve to tell Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who criticized them, that they were just banning Nazis.

 

What kind of a government tries to shut down its political opponents?

A night-haunted dictatorship, which is what Germany is descending into, the outcome of its COVID lockdowns, its migrant surge, its self-induced energy dependence, its enfeebled green economy, and its social wokery.

According to a German expat paper, the Munich Eye:

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has classified the entire Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as confirmed right-wing extremist. This decision has prompted reactions from various political factions, with opposition parties such as the SPD, Greens, and Left Party welcoming the classification. In response, AfD leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla announced plans to take legal action against what they describe as damaging and politically motivated claims that threaten democracy.

Weidel and Chrupalla argue that the classification is an unjust attack on their party, asserting that it seeks to discredit them ahead of a potential governmental transition. They emphasize that the ruling represents a targeted effort to intervene in the democratic process and is fundamentally political in nature.

The classification was made public in Cologne, where the Office for the Protection of the Constitution cited the party's extreme positions as undermining human dignity and fostering an overall hostile attitude towards migrants and Muslims. This assessment reflects an ongoing concern regarding the party's ideological direction and its implications for German democracy.

In light of the new classification, Schleswig-Holstein's Minister President Daniel Günther (CDU) has voiced support for initiating a ban on the AfD, stating that their anti-constitutional stance has long been evident, especially as they are already recognized as right-wing extremist in three German states. He called for swift action by the federal government to protect democracy.

Former East Commissioner Marco Wanderwitz (CDU) echoed this sentiment, urging for a ban process to be initiated urgently. He stressed that the recent classification should serve as a clear indication of the AfD's threat to democratic values.

German after good German came out in favor of repressing the country's second-largest political party, whose map distribution can be seen here -- almost all of economically dreary East Germany went for AfD except for Leipzig and a part of Berlin that went for a party identified as "Left." Two pockets of western Germany -- Duisberg and Kaiserslautern, described in several reports as economically depressed rust-belt regions, also went for AfD.

What it looks like is an overbearing majority party -- the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, operating in tandem, are working to stomp out any embers of resistance to their longtime decadent rule, with significant failures to its record -- lost energy independence, the release of hordes of unvetted migrants from stone-age societies such as Afghanistan into their country, a failure to enforce crime laws, greenie regulations creating a lousy economy, capital flight and even the loss of old growth forests for wind farms, grotesque social trends favoring sexual perversions, and the COVID lockdown record which did so much damage to the quality of life.

Wokesterism has absolutely permeatede the society under their rule, extending to well beyond the state -- note that the German Catholic Church is financed through taxes on Catholics, making it a state organ, and now its outcome is the same as Lenin smashing churches and Hitler smashing synagogues, except that now, the nullification is from within:

“German” and “Catholic” no longer belong in the same sentence for this German sect. This must be opposed and denounced y the Cardinals gathered in Rome and every bishop around the world. https://t.co/IGphChUZ0j

— Bishop J. Strickland (@BishStrickland) May 2, 2025

AfD is a relatively new party, has been making steady gains in election after election, particularly among the youth, and now stands on the cusp of being entitled to some kind of coalition-level power as the next vote in the runoff beckons.

As the Munich Eye piece noted above:

Weidel and Chrupalla argue that the classification is an unjust attack on their party, asserting that it seeks to discredit them ahead of a potential governmental transition. They emphasize that the ruling represents a targeted effort to intervene in the democratic process and is fundamentally political in nature.

So it's obvious the German rulers want to join the tyranny trend in Western Europe, with France banning its leading candidate for office from running for president, and the U.K. jailing internet critics. They seem to want to outdo them all, because neither France nor the U.K. have sought to ban entire political parties, though they may be just upstream of it, heading for the falls, too.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with customary courage, called them out for their anti-democratic activity:

Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise.

What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) May 2, 2025

He got this grotesque backtalk from some anonymous bureaucrat speaking mendaciously from behind the German government transom:

WOW! Look at the German Foreign Office’s direct response to Secretary Marco Rubio’s post 😲

It seems to me that the people who more align with “extremism” are the ones who are siccing their spies on their political opponents…🤷🏼‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/fSAFh53IVm

— MAGA Kitty (@SaveUSAKitty) May 3, 2025

Yes, either they are lying about German history or they really believe the National Socialist Party of Germany during the time of Hitler, with its fingers in every corporate pie and its murder of millions of Jews, was somehow right-wing. That would be the same German ruling parties that support Hamas and import millions of stone-age antisemitic migrants into their country -- the rulers of a country whose Jewish citizens are leaving. Who again, are the million little Hitlers?

Meanwhile, a corporate-state type (fascism, again, anyone?) from Germany stated this, which reflects a lot of the thinking of the German rulers:

Compare the statements by Dmitry #Medvedev and Marco #Rubio: What kind of a reality is this, when in parallel assaults against Germany's defence of democracy vis-à-vis AfD #extremism Putin's violent attack dog Medvedev sounds moderate as compared to Trump's Secretary of State? https://t.co/T5OVjqJqQj pic.twitter.com/jBTudHV1dk

— Reinhard Bütikofer (@bueti) May 2, 2025

Maybe it would help if Germany's rulers didn't act like Nazis to start with, give Putin ammunition, you fool

It's a terrible slide downhill for this once most admired and efficient of nations, the touchstone of prosperity and the example for all. Now it's moving hard towards dictatorship, a really ugly one directed at the powerless young people and the economically run down parts of the country.

When President Trump questions the value and money-pit expense of NATO, it's very likely the fact that these countries are rapidly slipping into tyrannies that makes them so unworthy of America's defense. Should we be defending countries with these values, countries that can no longer change course because they have banned their opponents? That have stomped out the aspirations of their young and turned foreign rapists loose on them? Or should we tell them they're on their own, we don't expend billions to defend satrapies and tyrannies against, what, other tyrannies? It makes no sense to defend countries that have decided to become tyrannies.

We are not the same.

Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License


Monica Showalter

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/05/fresh_after_a_first_round_of_elections_germany_s_ruling_parties_seek_to_ban_their_rising_afd_conservative_rivals.html

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Thursday, May 1, 2025

IDF preparing to deliver a 'decisive blow' against Hamas, IDF chief Zamir says at soldiers ceremony - Jerusalem Post Staff

 

by Jerusalem Post Staff

The purpose of the ceremony is to honor outstanding soldiers in the IDF.

 

IDF expanded their military acticity in the area of Daraj Tuffah in Gaza City to expand the security zone in the area on April 12, 2025. (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
IDF expanded their military acticity in the area of Daraj Tuffah in Gaza City to expand the security zone in the area on April 12, 2025.
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

At the annual Outstanding Soldiers Ceremony at the President's Residence on Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir said that the IDF is preparing to deliver a "decisive blow" against Hamas and that the military will increase the pace and intensity of the operations in Gaza soon, if necessary.

“The Hamas terrorists still hold fifty-nine of our brothers and sisters. But they, too, know their safety is not forever,” Zamir said. 

“Our sovereignty and independence were not given to us as a gift. They were bought with blood and struggle, and they require us to defend them at all costs.”

The purpose of the ceremony is to honor outstanding soldiers in the IDF. At the beginning of Zamir’s speech, he defined what it means to be outstanding. “Excellence is not measured by who is the most talented or the most brilliant. It is granted to the one who perseveres. It is a quiet, daily choice to act with responsibility, commitment, and integrity — even when no one is watching,” Zamir said.

Zamir noted that this year, the ceremony has “special significance. You are receiving recognition during a time of war,” he said, “A long and complex war, in multiple arenas, against numerous threats, which is still ongoing.”

IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir speaks during an event for outstanding soldiers as part of Israel's 77th Independence Day celebrations, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on May 1, 2025. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)Enlrage image
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir speaks during an event for outstanding soldiers as part of Israel's 77th Independence Day celebrations, at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on May 1, 2025. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

Zamir also highlighted the responsibility Israeli citizens have for one another. 

"For the State of Israel, this idea is essential to its existence and resilience, and no one is exempt—not individuals, not groups, and not tribes," Zamir said.

"We all enlist, we all fight together, and we all sacrifice together—for the sake of the state and for a better future. Because one shared destiny placed us here, in this land,” he said.

Zamir highlights notable awardees 

Zamir noted particular awardees, including Avigdor, an officer from a haredi family, “who chose to enlist in the IDF despite social challenges,” and Dorian, “who made aliyah alone just two years ago, and despite the language barriers, excelled in his service in the Intelligence Directorate.”

He also spotlighted Oria, an observer from the Re'im base, who survived Hamas’s October 7 attack and continued to serve in the IDF, “demonstrating extraordinary inner strength,” Zamir said.

“Lea, a soldier whose grandfather was kidnapped to Gaza and murdered there, and from that great pain, she found the strength to persevere, rise, and excel,” Zamir continued.

He concluded with Daria, the sister of a civilian hostage, “who enlisted in the IDF and, even during the fierce struggle for her sister’s return, managed to stand out and become a role model for strength and determination,” he said.

“We, too, together with you, are adding a new verse to the long and glorious song of the life of the people of Israel. From this place, in the heart of Jerusalem, our eternal capital, we send a clear message: The Israeli hope is alive and beating, and our actions will speak.

Happy and safe Independence Day," Zamir said at the end of his speech. 


Jerusalem Post Staff

Source: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-852253

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