Global Update

Sheldon Adelson and Haim Saban hosted pro-Israel activists in Las Vegas to discuss their new initiative, Campus Maccabees to support efforts on college campuses to fight BDS campaigns— a form of nonviolent protest led mainly by Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association opposed to Israel’s policies toward Palestinians — and expose the movement as simply a form of anti-Semitism. The conference organizers limited participation in the event to donors willing to pledge at least $1 million over the next two years. “You work together and we will raise you the money,” promised Israeli-American businessman Adam Milstein following the conference. Adelson described three components of his Campus Maccabees concept: donors who will fund the operation; activists on the ground willing to take the fight to the campus; and researchers who will supply information about the anti-Israel groups and recommend possible legal avenues to block their activities.
The Jewish Daily Forward
Israel Hayom

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli generals and ex-Mossad chiefs discussed national security concerns during IDC’s annual strategic talkfest, the Herzliya conference, at a time of unprecedented turmoil across the Middle East. With political leaders agreeing that in military terms, Israel’s strategic position has never been so good– thanks to the diversions and divisions of the wars in Syria and Iraq, the jihadis of the Islamic State, collapse in Libya and conflict in Yemen. It has benefited too from the Egyptian military’s crushing of the Muslim Brotherhood and the squeeze on Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Moshe Yaalon, the defense minister, said that Syria no longer posed a conventional threat – its chemical weapons arsenal neutralized after the 2013 attacks near Damascus.
Israel Strategic Position Enhanced by Arab Turmoil

 

For the first time in at least a decade, the IDF will let Palestinian buses bring West Bank worshipers into Israel during the month of Ramadan. Family visits between Gazans and ‘West Bank’ Palestinians will be increased and the current quota of 200 Gaza men over the age of 60 allowed to enter Jerusalem each week for Friday prayers may be doubled. “But if Hamas takes advantage of the easing for terror activities, our response will be harsh,” IDF Spokesman Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai warned in an official video.
For first time in years, IDF to let Palestinian buses into Israel on Ramadan

 

“When asked who bore the greatest responsibility—President Barack Obama or Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—for the crisis in U.S.-Israel relations, then Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael B. Oren said, ‘Nobody has a monopoly on making mistakes.’ While neither leader monopolized mistakes, only one leader made them deliberately.”
-Michael B. Oren writing for the Wall Street Journal