Important Takeaways:
- With Hezbollah in Lebanon disabled and Hamas’ strength waning, Houthi rebels in Yemen have been launching missiles at Israel, and Israel is striking back.
- Israeli airstrikes pounded the rebel regime in Yemen early Thursday after the Houthis launched another missile at Israel – one of several fired at the Jewish state in recent days.
- Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to huddle with top officials to discuss a hostage deal that may be fast approaching.
- A Palestinian negotiator told the BBC the talks are in the final stage. Though issues remain, it may include a six-week ceasefire, during which Hamas would free 30 of the remaining 100 hostages.
- IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said from Gaza that Israeli troops continue to do their part there.
- “We are exerting pressure on Hamas daily, driving it into greater distress, to ensure the return of the 100 hostages,” Halevi said.
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Important Takeaways:
- The supreme leader of Iran, which backs the Hamas and Hezbollah militants fighting Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, said Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants.
- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision last week by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense chief and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.
- “They issued an arrest warrant. That’s not enough. … Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders,” Khamenei said, referring to Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant.
- In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
- The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd.
- Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies committing war crimes in Gaza.
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Important Takeaways:
- How long will it take to unwind the Biden-Harris Middle East policy? About five minutes, according to Mike Huckabee.
- The former Arkansas governor-turned-U.S. ambassador to Israel nominee suggested that President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office would signal a dramatic change, bringing unwavering loyalty to Israel while “taking the money tree” away from terrorist groups.
- “To be fair, sometimes Joe Biden has been very supportive of Israel, and we’ve heard often he and Blinken and others talk about the ironclad relationship [between Israel and the United States], and then the next day, we would hear pressure on Israel not to continue their efforts against Hamas. You’re thinking, ‘well, why wouldn’t you continue your efforts against people who massacred innocent civilians and just had a bloodthirsty attitude about it?'”
- “The fact remains that the real problem here is not Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis. It’s Iran,” Huckabee told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Monday.
- “They’re the ones who fund it [terrorism], and when the Biden administration reversed the maximum pressure campaign that was effectively shutting down Iran’s ability to have money to fund this nonsense, that’s what changed everything, so I expect the president [Trump] will put the maximum pressure back on Iran, and that’s going to take the money tree away from some of these terrorist groups and make it much harder for them to do their incredibly horrible and dastardly deeds of murdering civilians.”
- More shakeups will come with the changing of the guard, Huckabee insisted, as he weighed in on Trump’s Cabinet nominees thus far.
- “[They are] disruptors, people who don’t come just to oil the machinery of DC, and if there ever was a time when this country needed a disruption in the ebb and flow of the unit party, the deep state, the establishment, call it what you will call it, the swamp, the sewer [it’s now]… this president has putting together a team that is going to be disruptive to Washington, but restorative to the American families living out here in the middle of the country. That’s why he was overwhelmingly elected, and it’s why there is a solid mandate that he carries into office on January 20th.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Our world is on fire. That which was ignited one year ago on October 7, when Hamas, backed by Iran, invaded Israel and massacred over 1,200 Israeli men, women, youths, children and babies now rages throughout the Middle East. Israel has struck Hezbollah. Iran has struck Israel. And the world now watches on edge in fear of the beginning of a regional war, if not a world war.
- What is happening? Is the world spiraling out of control?
- It was a Friday night when I was led to speak at Beth Israel, the congregation I lead in northern New Jersey on an ancient mystery. The mystery was over three thousand years old. It went back to the Bible, to the Book of Leviticus. It wasn’t what I fathomed would happen, but the mystery itself ordained that a calamity would come to the nation of Israel. More specifically, the mystery determined the following:
- Israel would be invaded. The invasion would catch the nation off-guard. It would result in calamity.
- The invasion would take place in the year 2023.
- It would happen in the autumn of that year.
- It would take place in the month of October.
- It would happen on a Saturday, the Sabbath, the Jewish holy day of rest.
- It would take place on an ancient Hebrew holy day, one that went back to Mount Sinai and the Book of Leviticus.
- It would lead to war.
- It would take place on the first Saturday of October of 2023.
- The first Saturday of October 2023 fell on October 7. On October 7, Israel was invaded, and the nation was caught off guard. The result was a calamity that would lead to war. It happened on the Sabbath and on a Hebrew holy day, Shemini Atzeret, that was given on Mount Sinai and went back to the book of Leviticus. In fact, it happened the very next day after I shared the mystery.
- It was this mystery and these events that led me to preempt the book I was about to write and begin working instead on what would become The Dragon’s Prophecy: Israel, the Dark Resurrection, and the End of Days. Something happened as I wrote the book that I never before experienced — what I was writing would come true in the world right after I wrote it — so much so, that I had to keep rewriting and updating the book up until now when it was released.
- In fact, after I finished the manuscript, three other events came true that were ordained in the same mystery. In fact, this single mystery may enable us to know what is coming, future events and exactly when they are to happen. For there is more to the world than meets our eyes. What is now taking place in the Middle East and threatening the peace of the entire world is all part of these mysteries. Yes, the world is at a most dangerous moment — but it is not out of control. In fact, the conflagration we are witnessing, from Israel to Hamas to Hezbollah to the Houthis and ultimately to Iran, is all part of a prophetic mystery that sits in the bookcases or night tables in our houses — the Bible.
- The ancient biblical and end-time prophecies foretell that in what is called “the last days,” the Jewish people will be gathered from the ends of the earth and brought back to the land of Israel. On that day, the nations of the world will be strangely focused, obsessed, with the tiny Jewish state the size of New Jersey. The world will rage against that stage. The Bible also speaks of the nation of Iran. One of the things it foretells is that in that time when Israel is back in the world, the nation of Iran will turn against the Jewish nation — will come against the Jewish nation — will attack the Jewish nation.
- There is so much more that was foretold and that is now unfolding literally before our eyes, far more than I can put here. Perhaps I was led to write books. But the takeaway is this — while we live in the most perilous times — there is a plan, there is a destiny. We can even know where it is heading, what the future holds and how to survive, stand and prevail in what is yet to come.
- But for that we must return to what the world around us, our culture, and our nation have forgotten — God is real. His word is true. And He remains the only answer to the crisis of our world — and of our lives. For there is more to the world than meets our eyes — and if we seek with our all hearts — we will find it.
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Important Takeaways:
- The IDF announced on Wednesday that six journalists actively working for Al Jazeera were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).
- The IDF says that due to intelligence recovered from the Gaza Strip during military operations, they can reveal that Anas Al-Sharif, Alaa Salama, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf Saraj, Ismail Abu Amr, and Talal Aruki are all affiliated with the military wings of either Hamas or PIJ.
- Ismail Abu Amr was injured several months ago in Gaza by an IDF attack; during that period, Al Jazeera denied his membership in Hamas. Documents recovered by the IDF showed this was untrue.
- Some of the documents include personnel tables, terrorist training courses, phone books, and salary documents for terrorists.
- The IDF said that this “unequivocally proves that they function as military terrorist operatives of the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.”
- The IDF also said that these documents prove Al Jazeera has employed them simultaneously.
- The exposed journalists are part of Hamas’s military wing operating as the vanguard of Hamas’s propaganda war against Israel.
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Important Takeaways:
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar had “settled the score with him,” but stressed that “the task before us [Israel] is not yet complete.”
- Netanyahu said Israel’s focus was on securing the return of the roughly 100 hostages still in Gaza, taken during Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attack last year, of whom a third are believed to be dead.
- “This is an important moment in the war,” Netanyahu said to the families of the hostages, according to the Reuters news agency. “We will continue full force until the return home of all your loved ones, who are our loved ones, too. This is our supreme obligation. This is my supreme obligation.”
- President Biden said Sinwar’s death after almost two decades of Hamas rule in Gaza was good news, “for Israel, for the United States, and for the world.” Along with other senior U.S. officials, he indicated that it should bring new hope for a cease-fire in the year-long war.
- But Hamas did not mention any renewed push for a cease-fire agreement with Israel after the killing of its leader.
- Deputy Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya confirmed Sinwar’s death Friday in a televised speech, and said the group would continue on the same path it’s been on. Al-Hayya said Hamas would not release the remaining hostages without a cease-fire deal and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
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Important Takeaways:
- The killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a mastermind of the attack that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip, marked a major triumph for Israel. But Israeli leaders are also seeking to lock in strategic gains that go beyond military victories – to reshape the regional landscape in Israel’s favor and shield its borders from any future attacks, sources familiar with their thinking say.
- By intensifying its military operations against Hezbollah and Hamas, Israel wants to ensure that its enemies and their chief patron, Iran, don’t regroup and threaten Israeli citizens again, according to Western diplomats, Lebanese and Israeli officials, and other regional sources.
- It is also planning a response to a ballistic-missile barrage carried out by Iran on Oct. 1, its second direct attack on Israel in six months.
- Israel informed several Arab states last year that it also wanted to carve out a buffer zone on the Palestinian side of Gaza’s border. But it remains unclear how deep Israel would like it to be or how it would be enforced after the war ends.
- Israel has said it will not agree to a permanent ceasefire without guarantees that whoever runs postwar Gaza will be able to prevent the corridor from being used to smuggle weapons and supplies to Hamas.
- Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said last week the response would be “lethal, precise, and, above all, unexpected”, although he has also said Israel was not looking to open new fronts.
- Iran has warned repeatedly that it will not hesitate to take military action again if Israel retaliates.
- For now, Netanyahu appears determined to redraw the map around Israel in his favor by purging its enemies from its borders.
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Important Takeaways:
- Many Arab nations such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates host U.S. bases and oil facilities vital to the world economy, and Iran’s warning about helping Israel is raising fears in the region that these sites could become targets.
- Both Hamas and Hezbollah are backed by Tehran, and Pezeshkian has portrayed Iran as “exercising restraint” because it waited for two months after Haniyeh’s death before attacking Israel.
- In Gaza and Lebanon, people were counting the cost of Israeli strikes. At least 22 people were killed and 117 injured in overnight attacks on Beirut, the Lebanese capital, according to the country’s health ministry.
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Important Takeaways:
- The call, under way late Wednesday morning U.S. time, was the leaders’ first known chat since August and coincided with a sharp escalation of Israel’s conflict with both Iran and the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah with no sign of an imminent ceasefire to end the conflict with Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza.
- The Middle East has been on edge awaiting Israel’s response to a missile attack last week that Tehran carried out in retaliation for Israel’s military escalation in Lebanon.
- The Iranian attack ultimately killed no one in Israel and Washington called it ineffective.
- Netanyahu has promised that arch-foe Iran will pay for its missile attack, while Tehran has said any retaliation would be met with vast destruction, raising fears of a wider war in the oil-producing region which could draw in the United States.
- Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant canceled a Wednesday visit to the Pentagon, the Pentagon said, as Israeli media reported Netanyahu wanted first to speak with Biden.
- Israel has faced calls by the United States and other allies to accept a ceasefire deal in Gaza and Lebanon but has said it will continue its military operations until Israelis are safe.
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Important Takeaways:
- Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel’s third largest city Haifa on Monday as Israeli forces looked poised to expand ground raids into south Lebanon on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread conflict across the Middle East.
- Iran-backed Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group fighting Israel in Gaza, said it targeted a military base south of Haifa with “Fadi 1” missiles and launched another strike on Tiberias, 65 km (40 miles) away.
- Hezbollah said it targeted areas north of Haifa in a second salvo of missiles later in the day.
- The military said the air force was carrying out extensive bombings of Hezbollah targets in south Lebanon, and that two Israeli soldiers were killed in border-area combat, taking the military death toll inside Lebanon so far to 11.
- It said it also carried out a targeted strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs, where a thick plume of smoke could be seen.
- The spiraling conflict has raised concerns that the United States, Israel’s superpower ally, and Iran will be sucked into a wider war in the oil-producing Middle East.
- The Gaza war has given rise to a multi-front Middle East conflict, drawing in Iran’s broader “Axis of Resistance” – Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis, Iraqi militia groups – and sparking several rare, direct confrontations between Israel and Iran.
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