09/01 Links: Hezbollah fires anti-tank missiles at military ambulance, IDF base; none hurt; Obama’s Embargo Gave Birth to Improved Israeli Rocket Now Tested by US Army ~ EoZ

From Ian:

IDF: Hezbollah fires anti-tank missiles at army base, ambulance; no injuries

The Hezbollah terror group fired several anti-tank guided missiles at an army base and a military ambulance in northern Israel Sunday afternoon, causing no injuries, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Miiltary sources said that the ambulance was empty when it was struck, but that soldiers had been inside half-an-hour earlier.

In response, the Israeli military said its artillery cannons and attack helicopters fired approximately 100 shells and bombs at Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said the IDF considered the “tactical event on the ground” to be over as of Sunday evening, but that the larger strategic threat posed by Hezbollah on the border remained.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no Israelis were so much as “scratched” by the Hezbollah attack. “There were no Israeli injuries, not even a scratch,” Netanyahu said, smiling, at the opening of a Honduras diplomatic office in Jerusalem.

The military said Hezbollah operatives fired two to three missiles at a battalion headquarters outside of the Israeli community of Avivim and at military vehicles nearby shortly after 4:15 p.m. Sunday. Several of the projectiles struck their targets but did not cause any casualties, despite claims to the contrary by Hezbollah, the IDF said.

The Iran-backed terror group took responsibility for the missile strikes, saying in a statement that its fighters “destroyed an ‘Israeli’ military vehicle on the Avivim barracks road [in northern Israel]… and injured those in it.” Hezbollah later said it targeted an armored personnel carrier.

Report: Israel launches artillery shells into disputed land on Lebanese border

The Israeli military fired artillery shells into a disputed portion of land on the Lebanese border on Sunday, amid soaring tensions along the frontier, a Hezbollah-affiliated news outlet reported.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed conducting “activities” in northern Israel, which sparked a fire near the border, but refused to comment on the nature of those actions.

According to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar news outlet, the IDF fired the shells into the hills outside of the village of Kfar Chouba, next to a contested area along the border, known in Israel as Mount Dov and in Lebanon as Shebaa Farms.

The Lebanese Armed Forces said in a statement that an Israeli drone also dropped an incendiary device nearby, sparking a small fire that was extinguished by residents of the area.

Al-Manar also shared photographs of artillery shells it said were fired by the IDF into the area.

Residents of northern Israel reported seeing increased military activity in the area on Sunday morning, with soldiers establishing roadblocks along local highways and large numbers of aircraft flying overhead.

Israel and Hezbollah Exchange Fire on Border — What's Next?

Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire on the Israel-Lebanon border. Will it escalate to an all-out conflict? What's behind these types of incidents? Our Adi Koplewitz and Owen Alterman analyze.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq watching Israel-Hezbollah crisis closely

From the moment Hezbollah’s members fired their anti-tank missiles at Israel the entire Middle East was glued to what might happen next. This is because what is happening in northern Israel pits Iran’s ally against Israel, a key ally of the US. It has regional implications because Iran’s allies and proxies, from Syria to Iraq and Yemen, are all impacted by how Hezbollah performs and how Israel responds.

For instance, in the last month Iraqi Shi’ite paramilitaries linked to Iran have blamed Israel for a series of explosions at their munitions warehouses. In addition, the Houthi rebels in Yemen have been using Iranian technology to increase their drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia. They also say they have new air defense systems and that they shot down a US drone recently. It would be the second US drone downed since June.

In January, Israel’s former Chief of Staff said that Israel carried out more than 1,000 airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria over the last years. That was a major declaration that built on two years in which Israeli officials had hinted at a widening campaign against Iran in Syria. Israel has only admitted several of these strikes directly as they happened or after. In September an air strike in Latakia led Syrian air defense to shoot down a Russian plane by mistake, causing a crises and ending with Moscow sending S-300 air defense to Syria’s regime.

That means that Syria’s regime and other forces in Syria are watching closely. For instance, the August 24 airstrike Israel carried out against an IRGC “killer drone” force in southern Syria killed two Hezbollah operatives. For the IRGC and for other Iranian-backed groups in Syria, the escalation in Lebanon is important. They wonder if it could spill over to Syria. Iran’s bases in Syria have been used to fly a drone into Israeli airspace in February 2018 and also to launch missiles at Israel in May 2018 and January 2019. Iran’s IRGC is entrenched in Syria and Iran has benefited from the weakness of the Syrian regime to spread influence and move forces and munitions. This has included the deployment of Iraqi-based Shi’ite militias such as Kata’aib Hezbollah. A Kata’ib Hezbollah base in Albukamal was mysteriously hit with an airstrike in June 2018. No one claimed responsibility for that but Kataib Hezbollah has blamed both Israel and the US for attacks on it. It is led by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis who has worked with the IRGC since the 1980s.

Seth Frantzman: Hezbollah gambles with 'retaliation' - analysis

Hezbollah is in a complex situation because last Sunday, August 25, it claimed to have discovered and brought down Israeli drones. In subsequent days Hezbollah held on to the drones while Lebanon’s Prime Minister and President both said Israel had violated Lebanon’s sovereignty and that the country was on the verge of war. Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah gave speeches and statements indicating that a response would be forthcoming and Hezbollah sought to mock Israel, claiming that Israelis were worried about its response.

But this appeared to be bluff for several days. It comes amidst rising tensions between the US and Iran over Washington’s “maximum pressure” campaign and its attempt to sanction Iranian officials and oil exports. It also comes amid tensions in Syria where Israel launched an airstrike against the IRGC on August 24. That airstrike was in response to Hezbollah members and the IRGC bringing “killer drones” toward the border with the Golan. In addition, Israel released details last Thursday showing how the IRGC was seeking to upgrade Hezbollah’s missile arsenal of some 130,000 missiles. Hezbollah has said in the past it can reach all of Israel with its rockets.

Hezbollah had choices over the past week, but it narrowed them as it said it would do something. It has made threats in the past, more general in nature. But Hezbollah wants an excuse to legitimize itself. It wanted to pave the way for war. It sought to do this by getting Prime Minister Saad Hariri and President Michel Aoun to release statements. Hariri is ostensibly opposed to Hezbollah. Hezbollah is accused of having killed his father in 2005. But Hezbollah has maneuverer since then to make itself indispensable to Lebanese politics and military affairs. For instance, Hezbollah claims to be “resisting” Israel by asserting Israel occupies the Sheba’a farms or Mount Dov area on the border. Hezbollah also emerged from the Syrian civil war as a kind of victor, having sent fighters to Syria in 2012. It lost many men in Syria but it also put down roots and infrastructure and helped to work with Iran as Iran sought to expand its presence through Iraq to Lebanon. This is Iran’s “road to the sea” or “land bridge” that includes Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Iranian-backed groups in Syria.

Hezbollah also sought to make sure that it had message discipline with Tehran, waiting for IRGC Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani to legitimate a “response.” The issue for Hezbollah is that it heard over the past week warnings from the US, including attempts to de-escalate the crises in Lebanon and also clear messages of backing from the US for Israel. Hezbollah’s gamble on September 1 is that it can “retaliate” and not create a massive war. It has been looking at Gaza and also Israel’s airstrikes in Syria and it believes that it might be able to commit itself to a “tit-for-tat” escalation without precipitating a massive conflict that has regional implications. Hezbollah naturally understands that it is sitting on a fuse that can ignite a much larger conflict. But it painted itself into a corner with threats to do something.

Israeli Military Orders Extra Forces to Lebanon Border Area

Israel’s military said on Saturday it had ordered extra forces to deploy on its northern border as tensions remained high with Lebanon’s heavily armed Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah.

The army said its “ground forces, air, navy, and intelligence forces improved their preparedness for various scenarios in the northern command area.” It said the measures had been taken in the past week.

“Reserve soldiers have received a message regarding the relevant time they need to deploy,” the army said in a statement.

The Israeli App to Help Residents Find Bomb Shelters

As residents of southern Israel find themselves more and more running into bomb shelters to hide from explosive projectiles launched from Gaza, Israeli startup Navin is aiming to help them and residents in other communities find the nearest shelter. CEO Shai Ronen discusses with host Sarah Williamson.

Obama’s Embargo Gave Birth to Improved Israeli Rocket Now Tested by US Army

The US Army has been testing Rafael’s Spike Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) anti-tank guided missile as a solution against the Russian surface-to-air missile systems, Defense News reported last week.

In the middle of the 2014 Gaza War, the Obama administration stopped deliveries of Hellfire missiles to the Israeli Air Force’s Apache helicopters, in an attempt to pressure the Israelis to stop their operation in Gaza.

And so, as part of the lessons of that war, the Israeli Air Force and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems adapted their fire-and-forget anti-tank guided missile Spike to be launched from Israeli Apache helicopters, to prevent dependence on American goodwill in future wars.

Now the Americans want to use the same Israeli missile on their own Apache helicopters. The US Army is anxious to improve their choppers’ ability to shoot at relatively distant targets, with the aim of reducing the risk to said choppers. Turns out the Israeli missile has the range that the American missiles currently lack.

Obama drama…

Judea and Samaria as much a part of Israel as Golan, top Republican says

Judea and Samaria are as much a part of Israel as the Golan Heights, leading Republican US Rep. Ann Wagner of Missouri told The Jerusalem Post.

Wagner spoke after visiting the West Bank settlements with three other Republican members of Congress on a trip sponsored by the US Israel Education Association (USIEA), founded and directed by Heather Johnson.

When asked by The Post if she thought Judea and Samaria was part of Israel, she responded, “Yes I do. I very much do. I know that there is a majority of Palestinians that live there. I believe that it is, just as I believe that the Golan Heights is.”

Wagner is the vice ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and was the first co-sponsor and a key architect of July’s House resolution against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan and 21 members of Knesset sent her and a number of other US representatives a letter criticizing them for including language in the bill that spoke globally of supporting a two-state solution, even though the statement did not include any territorial designation for such an idea.

When asked about the letter, Wagner said that a two-state resolution to the conflict was US policy.
“But you are seeing some evolution in this regard,” she said. “Time will tell if it’s feasible or not.”
Republican Representative Bradley Byrne of Alabama said that he “started out as being a two-state supporter and I am evolving. I am beginning to have doubts that it can work.”

The other two Republican representatives on the trip, Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington State and Phil Roe of Tennessee, also said they were “evolving” when it came to the notion of two states.

McMorris Rodgers also echoed Wagner in stating clearly that she saw Judea and Samaria as part of Israel.
Neither women clarified the territorial designation of Judea and Samaria, whether it included only Area C of the West Bank or all of the West Bank.

US President Donald Trump has rarely spoken of Palestinian statehood since coming into office, and the Palestinians fear he intends to withdraw his support for a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu pledges to apply sovereignty to all West Bank settlements

Israel will apply sovereignty to all West Bank settlements, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday morning as he celebrated the first day of school with first graders in the Elkana settlement.

"There won't be any more uprooting [of settlements]," Netanyahu said. "With God's help, we'll apply Jewish sovereignty on all the settlements, as part of the land of Israel and as part of the State of Israel."

The Palestinian Authority immediately condemned Netanyahu’s words. PA Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina, said that Israel's continued attempt to create an unacceptable "fait accompli" on the ground would not lead to peace, security or stability.

Netanyahu’s announcement was his first clear pledge to apply sovereignty since the start of this electoral campaign.

While the bulk of the politicians in his party and in the Yemina party often speak of annexing the settlements, such statements from Netanyahu are rare.

Quoted in @washingtonpost on Bibi's speech about ending military rule in settlements https://t.co/DKUdEPxVTc pic.twitter.com/milKRMHNxK
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) September 1, 2019

'PA will build in Israeli-controlled parts of Area C'

The Palestinian Authority announced on Sunday that it was unilaterally canceling the division of Judea and Samaria into Areas A, B, and C, which has been in effect since the Oslo Accords were signed.

The PA's local authorities minister, acting under instructions from PA Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, instructed heads of Palestinian local authorities in Judea and Samaria to prepare long-term development plans for their areas, regardless of whether the lands in question fall under Palestinian or Israeli civil and security control or whether they are open public lands or currently populated.

According to the Oslo Accords, Area A includes all Palestinian cities in Judea and Samaria and the PA is in full control of civil and security matters there. Area B falls under civil control of the PA but under Israeli security control, while in Area C, which includes most Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria, Israel is in charge of all civil and security matters.

A senior official in Ramallah discussed the PA's decision to disregard the A, B, and C division of Judea and Samaria, telling Israel Hayom that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks in Elkana on Sunday, in which the prime minister announced that Israel would annex more of the West Bank, "had nothing to do with the decision. This is a decision of principle that [PA President Mahmoud] Abbas made as part of the process of detaching [the PA] from Israel."

They have been doing this for years now already, running a coordinated campaign to take over Area C lands through illegal building, migration of settlers. This just makes it official. And Israel has no serious response. https://t.co/IbNyteZCX6
— Eugene Kontorovich (@EVKontorovich) September 1, 2019

Abbas blasts Netanyahu’s pledge to extend sovereignty over settlements

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman, on Sunday censured a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in which he repeated a pledge to apply Israeli sovereignty over settlements in the West Bank.

“This matter is a continuation of the attempts to create an unacceptable status quo that will not lead to peace, security and stability,” the spokesman said in a statement, according to the official PA news site Wafa. “The settlement building policy, attempts to achieve cost-free normalization in violation of the Arab Peace Initiative, and efforts to erode the two state solution are rejected and condemned.”

Addressing elementary school students Sunday morning in the Elkana settlement, Netanyahu echoed a promise he had made days before the last national elections in April: “With the help of God we will apply Jewish sovereignty to all communities, as part of the Land of Israel, and as part of the State of Israel.” A spokesman for the prime minister later clarified that Netanyahu was referring to Jewish communities in the West Bank.

The premier also told the students that no more settlements will be evacuated, as happened in 2005 when the Israeli civilian presence in the Gaza Strip — known collectively as Gush Katif — and parts of the northern West Bank was removed.

Saeb Erekat, the secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, also responded to Netanyahu’s comments, urging the international community to take action against Israel.

Netanyahu urges boycott of ‘fake’ Channel 12, calls its ‘Our Boys’ anti-Semitic

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday called on Israelis to boycott Channel 12 and its owner Keshet for its role in producing the HBO series “Our Boys,” which the premier called “anti-Semitic.” In a Facebook post, he wrote Israelis should stop watching the network for “its choice to tarnish us in the world with lies against the State of Israel.”

The post was accompanied by a graphic that included the logos of Channel 12 and its news division, under which was written “fake news.”

“Our Boys” tells the story of the gruesome murder of an Arab teen by Jewish extremists in 2014. The series has been controversial in Israel for choosing to focus on that event while giving little attention to events that precipitated it — the kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teens in the West Bank.

Netanyahu has regularly slammed Channel 12 for its extensive coverage of a series of criminal cases he is a suspect in and has singled out for criticism a number of its reporters, one of whom it was reported Friday will receive a security attachment following threats against him on social media.

WTF is wrong with you @Jerusalem_Post for publishing this piece defending a vile Israel hater? https://t.co/mCUV2NdU82
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) August 31, 2019

What you call "groups," @paulmasonnews, others would more accurately define as terror organizations. At least call them militants.

Israel is hardly "lashing out wildly;" it's targeting Hezbollah and others gaining access to thousands of smart missiles, drones, etc. @NewStatesman pic.twitter.com/4Sq3JAFjpJ
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) September 1, 2019

Qatar announces drastic cut in funding for Gazan fuel — report

In a surprise move, Qatar’s envoy to the Gaza Strip said Sunday his government would cut its funding for fuel shipments to Gaza, needed to power the enclave’s lone power station, by half, Army Radio reported Sunday.

The statement comes within hours of Israel reportedly restoring shipments of fuel it cut last week over a spate of rocket fire and other violence from the enclave.

Qatar is signed on a contract, together with the UN, to supply three million liters of fuel weekly for electricity production in Gaza through the end of 2019. If the reports are correct, the envoy, Mohammed al-Emadi, appears to have unilaterally withdrawn from the agreement, telling Hamas officials on Sunday that Doha would only pay for 1.5 million liters each week.

The decision could reduce electricity supply in the territory to just six hours a day, Army Radio calculated on Sunday morning.

The reports appear to have caught both Israel and Hamas by surprise. Israel’s COGAT, the Defense Ministry agency that manages contact with Palestinian society and civilian agencies, said it was looking into the reports and had reached out to officials in the Qatari government for clarification.

What @QudsNen did not tell you about this man https://t.co/ahpc2sKvUN
— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) September 1, 2019

“This Iranian threat against one think tank is a threat against all researchers and academics, and that’s why in a short space of time we were able to gather people across the full range of the political spectrum,” said AEI's Danielle Pletka. https://t.co/2VzqtBpWCm
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) September 1, 2019

I decided to create a timeline blog post about the #AdrianDarya1 and its recent news, as well as looking back to April 2019; with links to tweets and articles via @TankerTrackers @MarineTraffic @YorukIsik @LizSly @USTreasury @p_evans my map approximatehttps://t.co/0R9MwfGRHD pic.twitter.com/telaK3d70f
— Seth Frantzman (@sfrantzman) August 31, 2019

Liberals drop former imam as candidate in Montreal riding over comments described as anti-Semitic

The Liberal Party of Canada turfed one of its Montreal-area candidates Friday after a Jewish advocacy group unearthed a series of old statements Guillet made on social media about Israel and U.S. foreign policy.

Hassan Guillet, a former imam whose sermon at the funeral of worshippers murdered at a Quebec City mosque attracted international attention, will no longer be the Liberal candidate in the riding of Saint-Leonard-Saint-Michel, the party announced.

The Liberals said in a statement the comments made by Guillet, who is also an engineer, do not correspond to the party’s values.

“Justin Trudeau and the Liberal team are strongly opposed to anti-Semitic, hateful, racist, Islamophobic, homophobic, sexist remarks and any form of discrimination,” the party said. “The Liberal Party condemns all forms of discrimination, and we always expect our candidates to do the same.”

Jewish advocacy group B’nai Brith said Friday it uncovered “a pattern of disturbing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements” made by the candidate on social media that have since been removed.

CBS Calls Gaza Strip “Israeli-Occupied”

Aug. 27 article on CBS’s news site (“Netanyahu warns Hezbollah to ‘calm down’ . . . “) erroneously reports that the Gaza Strip is Israeli-occupied. The article errs: “The Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip is controlled by the Hamas group, which is also supported by Iran.” (Emphasis added.)

In fact, Israel ended the occupation of the Gaza Strip in 2005, when it withdrew every last soldier and civilian from the territory. The only two Israelis known to be in the territory are two mentally-challenged civilians held hostage by Hamas which denies them visits from the International Red Cross, in violation of international law.

The article’s byline attributes the story to CBS/AFP. Notably, AFP never refers to the Gaza Strip as Israeli-occupied. Nor does the assertion that the Gaza Strip is “Israeli-occupied” appear to conform with CBS standards.

A number of experts of international have long argued that Israel does not occupy the Gaza Strip. George Mason Law professor Eugene Kontorovich, for example, makes clear (here and here) he disagrees with the view that Gaza is occupied. In the Cardozo Journal of International and Comparative Law (winter 2011), Solon Solomon states that although Gaza has a sui generis status which requires attention, “post-disengagement Gaza should not be considered ‘occupied’ by Israel” and “it is neither occupied nor under effective Israeli control.”

BBC WS radio corrects inaccurate claim of a ‘siege’ on the Gaza Strip

At the beginning of August BBC World Service radio aired an edition of the programme ‘The Food Chain’ which was titled ‘Food under siege’.

“Emily Thomas meets people who have lived under siege in Aleppo, Syria, the Gaza strip, and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. They reveal the uncomfortable reality of eating behind siege lines.”

BBC WS food programme: inaccurate, lacks context and promotes Hamas propaganda

BBC Watch submitted a complaint concerning that programme’s repeated inaccurate portrayal of the Gaza Strip as being “under siege”, noting that in the week that this programme was aired twice, 1,768 truckloads of goods entered the Gaza Strip from Israel, including 6,785 tons of food. We pointed out that the “intermittent power supply” portrayed in the programme has nothing to do with Israel and that as well as breaching BBC editorial guidelines on accuracy by leading listeners to wrongly believe that the Gaza strip is “under siege”, it also compromises the BBC’s impartiality seeing as that false claim is one of Hamas’ main talking points.

Jewish Brooklyn man beaten with own belt in suspected anti-Semitic attack

An Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted Saturday in Brooklyn, in the third suspected anti-Semitic attack in the New York City borough in less than a week.

The attack occurred outside a synagogue in the Midwood neighborhood as Shabbat was ending Saturday evening, according to CBS2 New York.

Quoting police, the network said the victim was on his way home when he saw two people drinking outside the synagogue. Following an apparent argument, one of the men shoved the victim to the ground, took the victim’s belt and hit him in the face with it repeatedly.

The victim received medical treatment for facial and head injuries after the attack.

Police said it was too early to determine whether the incident was a hate crime, but former New York state assemblyman Dov Hikind labeled it as such.

“A young Jewish man was called a ‘F***ing Jew’ and then belted over the head with a metal belt buckle,” he wrote on Twitter.

Israeli runner Chemtai smashes European women's 10K record

Israeli distance runner Lonah Chemtai-Salpeter continues to smash records – on Sunday, she clocked a time of 30:04 in the Tilburg Ten Miles race in the Dutch city of Tilburg, cutting a jaw-dropping 17 seconds off the European women's record for the 10K, set by legendary runner Paula Radcliffe in 2003.

Chemtai-Salpeter's result of 30:04 also became a new Israeli women's record for the distance, as well as a course record for the Tilburg Ten Miles race.

"I'm pleased with today's result. I'm not surprised, because training has been going well. This race today was part of my training program for the Marathon World Championships in Doha [Qatar]," Chemtai-Salpeter said after the race.

"This time was confirmation that if you train properly and prepare a training plan professionally, including proper diet, injury prevention, and more, you can become a professional athlete. I'm happy that I broke the European record, and I'm heading in the right direction," Chemtai-Salpeter said.

President of Honduras visits Western Wall

Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado and his wife Ana visited the Western Wall on Sunday ahead of the planned opening of a diplomatic office in Jerusalem, a press release on behalf of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation reported.

Alvarado prayed for an hour, placed a note in the Western Wall – as per the Jewish custom that notes placed in the holy site are likely to come true – and signed the guest book.

He thanked God for allowing him to lead his country and wrote, “thank you Israel, our brothers, who keep guard over this holy city.”
He wished that peace will “keep spreading among the nations” and ended with “God bless Honduras.”

Documentary puts you in the room for a decade of Middle East peace talks

It all started with an overheard conversation.

In the U.S. to interview Henry Kissinger, gifted Israeli documentarian Dror Moreh (Oscar-nominated for “The Gatekeepers”) was asked to wait a moment while Kissinger conferred with diplomat Dennis Ross, the key State Department player in America’s decades-long search for peace in the Middle East.

“It was right before the Iran nuclear deal in 2015, and I was a fly on the wall as they candidly discussed a lot of different scenarios,” Moreh says on the telephone from his home in Israel. “I felt for the first time like I was in the White House with the president speaking to his adviser.

“You always get the photo op outside, you never hear the stories of what went on inside the rooms. I said to Dennis, ‘You were the main negotiator for so long between Israel and the Arabs, you were there, would you be willing to speak openly about that?’ He had to think about it, but he said yes.”

Having its world premiere at Telluride this weekend, “The Human Factor” is the compelling documentary that resulted. It’s as significant as it is fascinating, and it is drop dead fascinating, offering not only intimate personal stories involving the likes of Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat and Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad but also potent insights into what went wrong so many times in that most incendiary part of the world.

Ethiopian leader arrives, meets Mengistu's mother, consoles Teka family

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed kicked off a two-day visit to Israel on Sunday by talking briefly with the mother of Avera Mengistu, who is being held in Gaza, and sending words of comfort to the family of Solomon Tekah, the 19-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli teenager killed in June by an off-duty police officer in an incident that sparked massive demonstrations.

Abiy, who is visiting Israel for the first time since being elected in April 2018, went directly to Yad Vashem after arriving on Sunday morning, followed by a meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office with Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu invited Agamesh Mengistu, the mother of Avera Mengistu, to be among those in the receiving line when Abiy arrived, and the two spoke briefly.

Abiy, during his opening comments, sent condolences to the families of three Israelis who lost their lives in Ethiopia this year: Shimon Re’em and Avraham Matzliah, who were killed in the crash of an Ethiopian airliner in March, and Aya Na’aman, who died during a trek in the Danakil Desert in August.

Abiy then said that he would also like to “take this opportunity to pay respects to the family of Solomon Tekah, an Ethiopian-Israeli who lost his life in a tragic event here in Israel.”

In times of tragedy, he said, the two countries “mourn together as two families.”
Speaking two words of Hebrew, he said, “We are brothers.”

Israel & Ethiopia - Modern days of an ancient friendship

Israel is proud to welcome #Ethiopia's Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed Ali, the 4th Ethiopian PM to visit Israel, reaching yet another milestone in the ancient friendship between our peoples.

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