'Israel's northern border is the Litani River'

Dr. Omri Abadi, a lecturer of archaeology and history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, presented many findings and testimonies of Jewish life in southern Lebanon before the establishment of Israel.

In his lecture to the members of the Uri Safon movement, whose aim is to reestablish Jewish communities in southern Lebanon, Dr. Abadi reviewed Jewish settlement in the villages of southern Lebanon and the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon. He recounted how the Jews of Hasbaya (or Hasbeiya) in southern Lebanon, after living there for hundreds of years, moved to Rosh Pina about 130 years ago, when Baron Rothschild set up a silk factory there.

In his lecture, Dr. Abadi emphasized that the areas of southern Lebanon are the territories of the tribes of Asher and Naftali and presented Torah sources that include references to Jewish life in southern Lebanon and the halachic questions that arose from the discussion if the place is considered the Land of Israel or not. In addition, he mentioned the snail hunters who lived in the coastal city of Tyre, who used to dye the blue thread for the tzitzit.   (Read More)

The security consequences of the Gaza truce

Israeli officials confirmed on Thursday night that a hostages-for-ceasefire agreement was reached with Hamas, hours after the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem said that the Palestinian terror group had reneged on parts of the deal announced the previous day in an effort to extort last-minute concessions. With the gaps between the sides finally bridged, a total of 33 hostages, out of the 98 held by Hamas in Gaza, are set to be freed during the initial 42-day phase of the ceasefire.

Israel’s Health Ministry on Thursday released a comprehensive protocol for treating hostages based on lessons learned from the November 2023 ceasefire deal that saw more than 100 captives redeemed from Gaza. The protocol includes detailed guidelines for medical examinations, mental health care, privacy protection and long-term support.

The hostages will be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian terrorists, many with blood on their hands, imprisoned in Israeli jails.   (Read More)

Religious Zionist party: 'We won't bolt government if fighting resumes after 1st stage'

The Religious Zionist party on Thursday morning published a harsh response to the ceasefire-prisoner swap deal, following a party meeting headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. In the announcement, the party stressed, "Alongside the longing for the return of all the hostages, the Religious Zionist party completely opposes this deal."

"The party stands behind the demands made by its chairman, Minister Bezalel Smotrich, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to ensure that Israel returns to the war to destroy Hamas and bring back all of the hostages, while changing the understanding of decisiveness and victory, immediately following the end of the first stage of the deal, as a condition for the party's remaining in the government and the coalition."

"The deal that will be brought before the Cabinets a bad and dangerous for the State of Israel's national security," Smotrich stated. "Along with the joy and excitement from the return of every single hostage, the deal takes back many of the achievements of the war in which this nation's heroes sacrificed their lives and will cost us in much blood G-d forbid. We strongly oppose it.   (Read More)

Iran’s President Expected to Sign ‘Strategic Partnership’ Deal in Russia

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian is expected to visit Moscow on Friday for talks with strongman Vladimir Putin, which both governments confirmed would include the signing of a new “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty.”

Pezeshkian, who is subordinate to Iranian “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is currently on a regional tour including a stop in Tajikistan on Thursday before his arrival in Russia. International observers are watching the Iranian-Russian meeting with anticipation as the Kremlin and Tehran both teased the new “partnership treaty” as significantly reinforcing the close ties that already exist between the two rogue states, particularly on the economic front.

Iran and Russia have long maintained a diplomatic relationship and supported each other’s goals internationally. Together, they were the key allies responsible for keeping Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in power for over a decade of civil war; Assad’s regime fell to the jihadist militia Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in December. The two countries are also members of the anti-American BRICS coalition, where Pezeshkian proclaimed the coalition hoped to “neutralize” American interests.   (Read More)

Erdoğan warns Israel, US: ‘Get your hands off Syria’

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned on Wednesday at a Justice and Development (AK) Party meeting that “all countries should get their hands off Syria.” “Israel and all others attacking in Syria must end their aggressive actions at once,” Erdoğan said. “Otherwise, there will be negative consequences that will affect everyone.”

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement shortly afterwards, saying, “Israel completely rejects the statement of the Turkish President. “The aggressive imperialist actor in Syria (as well as in northern Cyprus, Libya, and other areas in the Middle East) is Turkey itself, and it is advisable for the Turkish president to avoid unnecessary threats,” it stated.

“The State of Israel will continue to act to protect its borders from any threat,” the Ministry added. Erdoğan had been referring to the United States, France and other countries that are part of the Global Coalition to defeat ISIS, as well as Israel.   (Read More)

Greenland PM: We Want More U.S. Partnership on Minerals, Support Boosting Arctic Defense

On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede stated that while they don’t want to be a part of America, there are a lot of areas for cooperation, including on boosting defense in the Arctic region and greater American partnership with regards to Greenland’s minerals.

Egede said that a strong partnership between the U.S. and Greenland is crucial, but “We don’t want to be Danes. We don’t even want to be Americans. We want to be Greenlanders. But we know that we have a lot…to cooperate together with, especially with the defense and security for the last years, we also have a strong partnership between our countries. So, I believe we have a lot to cooperate with.”

He added, “We will always be a strong partner for [the] U.S. We are close neighbors. We have been cooperating in the last 80 years. And I think, in the future, they have a lot to offer to cooperate with. But we want to also be clear, we don’t want to be Americans. We don’t want to be a part of [the] U.S., but we want strong cooperation together with [the] U.S.”  (Read More)

Netanyahu: Hamas has reneged on parts of ceasefire agreement

Hamas has reneged on parts of the ceasefire agreement announced on Wednesday in an effort to extort last-minute concessions, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday. “The Israeli Cabinet will not convene until the mediators notify Israel that Hamas has accepted all elements of the agreement,” according to the PMO.

Hamas Political Bureau member Ezzat al-Rishq was quoted by Channel 12 News, responding to the statement from the PMO: “Hamas is committed to the ceasefire agreement announced by the mediators.”

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party signaled on Thursday it would likely exit Netanyahu’s coalition over the ceasefire agreement with Hamas. A party official called the crisis “serious and real,” according to Channel 12.   (Read More)

Make no mistake: Hamas wants to be underestimated by Israel, West - analysis

The group has thrived for four decades on being 

underestimated and it assumes this will happen again.

Hamas will continue to exploit the conflict with Israel throughout the Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal process.

The terrorist group has thrived for 40 years on being underestimated. When it was founded in the late 1980s, its goal was to challenge the leading Palestinian group, Fatah, and fill a void that it had identified in Palestinian politics.

Hamas succeeded in the late 1980s and 1990s by being underestimated and thrived because it was often able to convince some in Israel that it was a positive alternative to the others.Sometimes, it preyed cynically on this tendency in Israel to want to balance Fatah and the Palestinian Authority with Hamas. Hamas has always been a genocidal terrorist group. It has always used massacres as a means to prevent peace. However, no matter the body count and the level of its crimes, it has been able to lull Israel and the region into acceptance.   (Read More)

Hamas leader touts ceasefire as a defeat for Israel while hailing Oct. 7 atrocities

Khalil al-Hayya praises deadliest massacre of Jews since Holocaust as ‘a source of pride for our people’; Islamic Jihad calls deal ‘an honorable agreement to stop the aggression’

Senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya stated that Israel failed to achieve its goals in Gaza, as he declared the ceasefire-hostage deal that was announced shortly before he spoke Wednesday as a “historic moment” and described it as a defeat for the Jewish state.

“Our people have thwarted the declared and hidden goals of the occupation. Today we prove that the occupation will never defeat our people and their resistance,” al-Hayya was quoted as saying during a televised speech from Qatar by Germany’s dpa news agency.

He praised the Hamas-led massacres of Israelis on October 7, 2023, when Palestinian terrorists killed some 1,200 people and took 251 captives in the deadliest slaughter of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust, as a “military accomplishment” and “a source of pride for our people,” according to a New York Times translation of his remarks.  (Read More)

Saudi Arabia Embraces Syria’s Jihadi Leaders, Calls for Lifting Sanctions

Saudi Arabia hosted a large summit on Sunday — featuring American and European as well as Middle Eastern diplomats — to discuss the future of Syria, during which its officials called for lifting sanctions on the country to give its new regime a chance to recover from the civil war.

Syria is under one of the world’s most onerous sanctions regimes, intended to isolate deposed dictator Bashar Assad in response to more than a decade of human rights atrocities against his own people. Assad used disproportionate violence to shut down protests in 2011, prompting the Syrian Civil War, which at its peak featured ten different belligerent actors and created a vacuum for the Islamic State to build a “caliphate” centered around the northern city of Raqqa.

The civil war reached a somewhat dormant state after the collapse of the “caliphate” in 2017 that abruptly ended in November, when the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) attacked Assad forces in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. HTS rapidly seized control of Aleppo and marched deeper into Assad strongholds until reaching the outskirts of Damascus in early December, prompting Assad to flee to Russia and his regime to collapse. HTS is now the de facto government of Syria, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by the jihadist nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. Sharaa has abandoned his war uniform and begun wearing Western-style suits, assuring that his terrorist organization would lead an “inclusive” government respectful of ethnic and religious minorities in the country. Sharaa has insisted that government would be Islamist, however, and scoldedthat “people who fear Islamic governance either have seen incorrect implementations of it or do not understand it properly.”    (Read More)

‘We Will Do a Yellowcake’: Saudi Arabia Wants to Enrich Uranium

The energy minister of Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that the country has plans to make “yellowcake,” a uranium concentrate used as nuclear power plant fuel, and sell enriched uranium to the world.

“We will enrich it and we will sell it and we will do a ‘yellowcake,’” Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman declared, speaking to an energy conference in the country, according to the Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya. Saudi officials have openly discussed the possibility of developing a nuclear program – both for peaceful and military reasons – for over a decade. While they have limited themselves to suggesting they would develop nuclear weapons only in the event that rival Iran announces it has successfully built its own bomb, peaceful nuclear energy development has become a recurring theme in public conversations on diversifying Saudi Arabia’s oil-dependent economy.

Chatter regarding the Saudis developing their own nuclear program, including building nuclear power plants, increased following the implementation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’ “Vision 2030” program, intended to protect the Saudi economy by moving beyond oil dependence. Perhaps the most sensational “Vision 2030” project, the to-be-built “green” megacity “Neom,” will allegedly only run on green energy, potentially requiring its own nuclear facilities.    (Read More)

Biden’s Parting Gift: Inflation Accelerated In December

U.S. consumer prices climbed at a faster rate in December, capping off the inflation-plagued Biden administration’s final year and suggesting that the Federal Reserve’s efforts to bring down inflation may have run out of steam.

The Consumer Price Index increased 0.4 percent from November, pushing the annual inflation rate to 2.9 percent, according to the Labor Department. That marked the swiftest monthly rise in headline inflation since February, driven primarily by higher costs for eggs, groceries, and a 4.4 percent jump in gasoline prices. Core inflation, which strips out the volatile food and energy categories, offered a somewhat more optimistic view. The core index rose 3.2 percent year-over-year, edging down from three straight months of 3.3 percent gains. This slight deceleration came as a surprise to forecasters, who had expected core inflation to remain flat.

While inflation has come down significantly since mid-2022—when it peaked at a four-decade high of over 9 percent—the pace of improvement has slowed considerably. Over the past several months, progress has been uneven, and inflation appears to have plateaued at a high level inconsistent with the Fed’s two percent target.   (Read More)

All California Insurance Policyholders Could Have to Pay for LA Fire Losses

If the state-mandated FAIR plan can’t cover all claims, Californians could receive insurance bills to cover the difference. New rules enacted in September 2024 for the insurer of last resort in California—the Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) plan—could leave homeowners insurance policyholders statewide on the hook for Los Angeles area fire losses if totals exceed the plan’s ability to pay.

“The bottom line is the FAIR plan will have enough money to pay claims, but the way it will make sure it has enough money is by assessing all California policyholders, eventually,” Dave Jones, former commissioner of the California Department of Insurance, told host Siyamak Khorrami during a recent episode on EpochTV’s “California Insider.”

If it gets there, that’s what will happen. People will get an additional bill ... which will come as a big surprise to Californians.” AccuWeather estimated the economic impact of the damage could top $150 billion .Insured losses could approach $20 billion or higher, according to analysts. (Source))

HTS rebels have 'mercilessly targeted' Syria's Christians in the past, expert warns

Christians in Syria cannot trust the armed Islamic alliance Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s assurances that it intends to protect religious minorities, according to the leader of a watchdog group that has served the global persecuted church since 1995. 

HTS is made up of former Islamic State and Al Qaeda fighters who are attempting to “rebrand themselves” to appear non-threatening, Jeff King, president of the United States-based International Christian Concern, told The Christian Post in an interview.

The public relations efforts, he believes, are a way to stall international communities from taking military action as HTS, which the U.S. recognizes as a foreign terror. “These guys have absolutely mercilessly targeted the Christians in the past,” he continued. “This is radical Islam; we know who these guys are."    (Read More)

Iran unveils new spy ship during major war games – state media

TEHRAN, Iran — The Iranian army has unveiled an advanced reconnaissance ship, state media said on Wednesday, as military forces conducted drills nationwide focused on safeguarding the country’s nuclear facilities.

“The country’s first signals intelligence ship, named Zagros, is added to the Navy’s combat operations,” state TV reported.

The Iranian-made vessel is equipped with “electronic sensors,” interceptors, and other cyber and intelligence capabilities, the report said. Zagros’s launch comes days into major military exercises conducted by the army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which are set to continue until mid-March and are focused on protecting key nuclear sites including Natanz, Fordo and Khondab. Navy chief Admiral Shahram Irani, quoted by state media, said that the new spy ship “will be the watchful eye of the Iranian Navy in the depths of the seas and oceans.” (Read More)

Laying out postwar Gaza vision, Blinken raps Israel’s war strategy, shunning of PA

A week before the end of his term as US secretary of state, Antony Blinken laid out the vision of the outgoing US administration of Joe Biden for postwar Gaza, contending that it must include a substantial role for the Palestinian Authority, a notion vehemently opposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

In a lengthy address at the Atlantic Council that touched on many aspects of the war and the broader state of the Middle East, Blinken offered extended criticism of Israel’s war strategy, particularly its refusal to devise a plan to replace the Hamas terror group, which, he contended, has recruited as many fighters as it has lost in the 15-month war.

Blinken said the outgoing administration would hand over its proposed roadmap to President-elect Donald Trump’s team to pick up, if a ceasefire deal is reached, as Israel and Hamas appeared to be on the brink of such an agreement. Blinken said he envisions the Palestinian Authority inviting international partners to help establish and run an interim administration responsible for key civil sectors in Gaza, such as banking, water, energy, health, and civil coordination with Israel.   (Read More)

Israeli minister asks PM to back plan for a million Jews in Samaria

Israeli Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf came out over the weekend in support of a plan to bring a million Jewish residents to Samaria. Goldknopf—the head of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism Party—during a visit to Samaria called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use the momentum provided by the entry into office of the Trump administration to accelerate the construction of more real estate projects in the Jewish state’s biblical heartland, the Channel 14 News broadcaster reported on Sunday.

Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who accompanied the politician on the tour, said, “We will bring a million residents here. We will build cities here; we will build communities,” said Dagan. “And the people of Israel—thanks to this, thanks to the prayers, thanks to the war being waged by the security forces, and in particular thanks to the building of the Land [of Israel]—will win,” he said.   (Read More)

Four Years To Financial Reckoning: The $51 Trillion Debt Forecast

The U.S. government is currently constructing the most colossal monument in the history of the world.  It is a monument of debt, and we will forever be remembered as the nation that piled up far more debt than anyone else ever did.  For decades, this generation has been recklessly spending the money of future generations of Americans.  

Most people seem to think that we are totally getting away with this swindle, but the truth is that the party is almost over.  Our national debt has already surpassed the 36 trillion dollar mark, and according to usdebtclock.org at our current rate of spending our national debt will surpass the 51 trillion dollar mark four years from now.

We are a spoiled, bloated, greedy nation that has run up a debt so big that words simply do not do it justice. We have got to stop spending so much money, but we just can't help ourselves. In January, Donald Trump will be faced with some very difficult decisions regarding our debt as soon as he is inaugurated...    (Read More)

Healthcare system present in multiple states files for bankruptcy protection

Prospect Medical Holdings, a network of hospitals and affiliates across four states, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Saturday, along with its approximately 60 subsidiaries.

The Los Angeles-based company said in a press release that it plans to “realign its organizational focus outside of California.” Prospect Holdings plans to sell two Rhode Island facilities, the Roger Williams Medical Center in Providence and Our Lady of Fatima Medical Center in North Providence, to non-profit Centurion Foundation, pending court approval. 

The company is also working with “key stakeholders outside of Rhode Island and with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” to sell its Pennyslvania-based Crozer-Chester Medical Center The company cited “a recent number of challenges” while explaining its decision to file for bankruptcy but did not go into detail about those challenges in the press release. More details about the challenges and headwinds are generally provided in subsequent court filings (known as First Day Motions).    (Read More)

Trump on hostage deal: If they don't get it done, there's going to be a lot of trouble

US President-elect Donald Trump spoke to Newsmax on Monday evening and commented on the talks for a hostage release deal, amid reports that a deal is close.

"We're very close to getting it done - and they have to get it done. If they don't get it done, there's going to be a lot of trouble out there - a lot of trouble like they have never seen before," said Trump.

He added, “They will get it done. I understand there’s been a handshake and they’re getting it finished and maybe by the end of the week. But it has to take place.” Earlier on Monday, US President Joe Biden said there has been progress in the talks between Israel and Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.   (Read More)

Lebanon Failed to Deal with Hezbollah so IDF Launched Bombing Raid

The IDF reported Monday morning that Hezbollah targets that threatened the Israeli home front and military units were attacked, including a rocket launcher site and crossings on the Syria-Lebanon border that were used for the transfer of weapons. According the IDF, the targets were attacked after a warning had been sent to the oversight mechanism for the implementation of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Lebanon, and was not addressed.

The raid was carried out against sites that the Lebanese Army was supposed to take care of after entering southern Lebanon, but this was not done, which forced the IDF to eliminate the arms and ammunition that threatened Israel.

In the meantime, the IDF is enforcing the rules of the ceasefire deal signed with Lebanon, and preventing any attempt to reestablish and strengthen the terrorist organization Hezbollah, in accordance with those understandings. (Read More)

Saudi Arabia Embraces Syria’s Jihadi Leaders, Calls for Lifting Sanctions

Saudi Arabia hosted a large summit on Sunday — featuring American and European as well as Middle Eastern diplomats — to discuss the future of Syria, during which its officials called for lifting sanctions on the country to give its new regime a chance to recover from the civil war.

Syria is under one of the world’s most onerous sanctions regimes, intended to isolate deposed dictator Bashar Assad in response to more than a decade of human rights atrocities against his own people. Assad used disproportionate violence to shut down protests in 2011, prompting the Syrian Civil War, which at its peak featured ten different belligerent actors and created a vacuum for the Islamic State to build a “caliphate” centered around the northern city of Raqqa.

The civil war reached a somewhat dormant state after the collapse of the “caliphate” in 2017 that abruptly ended in November, when the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) attacked Assad forces in Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. HTS rapidly seized control of Aleppo and marched deeper into Assad strongholds until reaching the outskirts of Damascus in early December, prompting Assad to flee to Russia and his regime to collapse.      (Read More)

Israel advanced 2,300 new homes in Judea and Samaria in six weeks

Israel has advanced plans to build more than 2,300 housing units in Judea and Samaria since Dec. 1, as part of a push by the Settlement Administration, a unit in the Defense Ministry under the authority of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

The Settlement Administration has convened every week since early December to approve construction in the region, approving a total of 2,377 units, whereas the body would previously meet once every three to four months on average, Ynet reported on Monday. During last week’s meeting alone, some 440 housing units in various stages of approval were advanced by the government, according to the report.

The Settlement Administration has eliminated the distinction between meetings of the Civil Administration’s Supreme Planning Council—which would approve many units but only convened several times a year—and meetings that were held more frequently but only discussed the approval of a small number of homes.   (Read More)

Earthquake Swarms Off Pacific Coast Raising New Concerns

(Ed. note: article originally posted 3/19/2024)

An area off the coast of Washington state is being shaken by hundreds and hundreds of earthquakes.  So is this an indication of potential trouble for the Cascadia Subduction Zone?  

At this point, there is so much that we don't know.  Scientists are telling us that the quakes are centered around a large underwater volcano.  The underwater volcano does not pose a threat at all, but if an enormous earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone were to trigger a giant tsunami that slams into the west coast, that would be a historic disaster of epic proportions.

The frequency of the earthquakes that we are witnessing off the coast of Washington is extremely alarming. It is being reported that earlier this month there were "as many as 200 in a single hour"...Scientists have detected a 'great swarm' of earthquakes off the coast of Washington clocking as many as 200 in a single hour during one day.

That is a lot of quakes! According to one of the experts that has been monitoring this area, there were over 2,000 earthquakes in a single day...   (Read More)

Deadly One-Two Punch: Killer Quake & Massive Tsunami Likely to Devastate Northwest, Experts Warn

PACIFIC NORTHWEST— When it comes to natural disasters, the Pacific Northwest is just about the nation's quietest corner. But the biggest killer quake to ever hit America is likely to happen right there. That's because a fault line runs up the entire coast of Oregon and Washington that someday could cause a more devastating earthquake than anything ever predicted along California's infamous San Andreas Fault.

It's called the Cascadia subduction zone and sits right on the Ring of Fire that rims the Pacific Ocean. As it did regularly before pioneers began to settle the Northwest, It'll eventually send powerful, ground-shredding shakes through much or all of the land between the coast and the mountainous Cascade Range. "It'll spread from Canada to California over 800 miles," Oregon State University paleoseismologist Chris Goldfinger told CBN News.

He's a leading expert on this once unknown fault line. The lack of knowledge about it meant construction all over the Northwest went up wherever and however for many, many decades without taking giant earthquakes into account. "The whole Pacific Northwest is very, very fragile. Essentially our cities are turn-of-the-century cities built on a time bomb," he intoned. If it should hit Seattle at a monstrous nine or higher on the Richter scale, FEMA's regional planner pointed out just one of many frightening results.   (Read More)

IRGC takes delivery of 1,000 new drones

A thousand new drones were delivered to Iran’s army on Monday, the state-run Tasnim news agency reported, as the country braces for more friction with arch-enemy Israel and the United States under incoming US president Donald Trump.

The drones were delivered to various locations throughout Iran and are said to have high stealth and anti-fortification abilities, according to Tasnim.

“The drones’ unique features, including a range of over 2,000 km., high destructive power, the ability to pass through defense layers with a low radar cross-section, and autonomous flight, not only increase the depth of reconnaissance and border monitoring but also boost the combat capability of the army’s drone fleet in confronting distant targets,” the news agency added.The drones were also manufactured within Iran by the Iranian military, scientists, and “innovators,” according to the news agency.   (Read More)

Biden and Netanyahu discuss hostages as talks progress

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the phone on Sunday to discuss the ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas, the White House and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office announced.

Washington said the two “discussed the fundamentally changed regional circumstances following the ceasefire deal in Lebanon, the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, and the weakening of Iran’s power in the region. ”Biden “stressed the immediate need for a ceasefire in Gaza and return of the hostages with a surge in humanitarian aid enabled by a stoppage in the fighting under the deal,” the U.S. readout continued.

The Israeli leader was also said to have expressed gratitude to Biden for “his lifelong support of Israel and for the extraordinary support from the United States for Israel’s security and national defense.” According to the PMO, Netanyahu “thanked President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump for cooperating in this sacred mission.” (Read More)

Lebanon to work with Syria to strengthen borders

Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, met Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati in Damascus on Saturday in a bid to improve long-fraught ties, with the pair focusing on strengthening their shared border.

The trip was the first by a head of government to Syria since Bashar al-Assad was toppled by a sweeping rebel offensive on Dec. 8 and the first visit by a Lebanese premier to neighboring Syria in 15 years.

Ties between Damascus and Beirut have often been fraught since they became independent states in the 1940s. The countries agreed to work together to secure their land borders and delineate their shared land and sea borders as a matter of priority, Mikati said following the meeting.   (Read More)

IDF targets Hezbollah terrorists as Lebanese army deploys

The Israeli Air Force on Saturday struck three Hezbollah operatives on the Lebanese side of the border, near Israeli territory in the Har Dov area, the Israel Defense Forces said.

Also on Saturday, the IAF targeted terrorists exiting a building in Southern Lebanon that belonged to Hezbollah, according to the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.

“The IDF continues to be committed to the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, is deployed in the Southern Lebanon region and will act to remove any threat to the State of Israel and its citizens,” the military said following the incident. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Armed Forces stated on X that its troops were completing their deployment in eight towns near the Israeli border, as well as in the coastal area between Naqoura and Tyre, ahead of the projected withdrawal of the IDF by the end of the month. (Read More)