GANTZ: IRAN CONVERTING SYRIAN MILITARY SITES INTO MISSILE FACTORIES: Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Monday, September 12, revealed a map of military facilities across Syria he alleged were used to manufacture advanced munitions for Iran and its terror proxies.
“Iran is building terror industries in Syria for its needs. Recently, it started building advanced industries in Yemen and Lebanon as well. This trend must be stopped,” Gantz said in New York. The remarks came amid an apparent uptick in airstrikes widely attributed to Israel in Syria. Gantz pointed to the Scientific Studies and Research Center, known as CERS, which has a facility near the northwestern Syrian city of Masyaf long associated with the production of precision surface-to-surface missiles, including the process of casting solid rocket motors, as well as chemical weapons. “The sites that I reveal to you on the map, and in particular the underground site in Masyaf where precision missiles are manufactured, constitute a significant potential threat to the region and to Israel,” Gantz said, addressing a media conference. (TOI /VFI News)
‘ISRAEL HAS PRESENTED NEW EVIDENCE OF IRANIAN LIES’: Following Prime Minister Lapid’s consultations with German chancellor Olaf Scholtz and other senior officials, a diplomatic source said Lapid is certain that European leaders are pessimistic regarding the outcome of nuclear talks with Iran.
“Some say it is because of the hardening of the American position following discussions with Israeli officials,” said the source, noting a similar change in attitude on the part of Iran. According to the source, Israel presented new evidence to the Europeans regarding the Iranian nuclear program. “We provided them with proof that the Iranians are lying as we speak.” In addition, the source emphasized that the warming of relations between Russia and Iran and the fear that newly-imposed sanctions in wake of the Ukraine war, “will disappear with help from Russia,” pushed Europe to harden its stance. In his opinion, the threat of Iranian attack drones being used by Russian troops in Ukraine also contributed to the change in sentiment. The source noted that Lapid believes that US President Biden is at the “right of the Democratic Party” and that the PA must do more to eradicate violence, especially in the Jenin and Shechem (Nablus) areas, “if it wants to be taken seriously.” (INN/ VFI News)
IRAN SAYS IT HAS DEVELOPED DRONE ‘DESIGNED TO HIT ISRAEL’S TEL AVIV, HAIFA’: Iran’s ground forces chief Brigadier General Kiomars Heidari said on Monday, September 12, that Tehran has developed an advanced long-range suicide drone “designed to hit Israel’s Tel Aviv, Haifa,” a semi-official Iranian news agency reported.
Heidari said the drone, named Arash-2, is a newer version of Arash-1. Iran said on Monday it was ready to continue cooperating with the UN nuclear watchdog while revealing a drone capable of hitting major cities in Israel, which has threatened to attack Iranian nuclear sites if diplomacy fails to save a 2015 nuclear pact. Speaking after European powers expressed frustration with Tehran’s intentions to salvage the agreement, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) “not to yield to Israel’s pressure” over Tehran’s nuclear activities. On Saturday, September 10, France, Britain and Germany said they had “serious doubts” about Iran’s intentions to revive a deal curbing its nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions, comments that were rejected by Tehran and called “very untimely” by Moscow. (JPost / VFI News)
KING CHARLES III: A FRIEND TO UK JEWRY, WITH SPECIAL AND HISTORIC TIES TO ISRAEL: With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom has a new king, Charles III, who at the age of 73 is the oldest person to ascend the British throne. Charles has long had a good relationship with British Jews, and in recent years has also shored up his bona fides with Israel.
The royals have a deep historic connection to the Jewish state, with Britain ruling the land between 1920-1948. Charles himself has abiding ties to British Jewish leaders and institutions, and has shown a keen interest in the stories and lessons of the Holocaust. He has had warm meetings in recent years with two Israeli presidents and toured the country in a historic 2020 visit. In 2020, Charles conducted his first official visit to Israel, after previously making brief trips for the funerals of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres. While in the country to attend the World Holocaust Forum, Charles met with then-president Rivlin and planted a tree at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Charles met with a group of Holocaust survivors at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and toured the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. He also attended a reception at the home of the British ambassador in Ramat Gan, where he was shown various Israeli scientific and medical innovations. Charles’ grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is buried at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. During his trip, Charles visited her gravesite and has done so on private visits. (TOI / VFI News)
GERMANY IS ISRAEL’S MOST IMPORTANT ALLY AFTER US, SAYS NEW ENVOY IN BERLIN: Prime Minister Yair Lapid is traveling to Germany this week to emphasize the deep strategic and historical relationship between Israel and the largest country in the European Union, and will discuss the threat posed by Iran with German leaders, Israel’s ambassador in Berlin, Ron Prosor, said on Sunday, September 11.
“The trip of the prime minister, in essence, is saying, ‘I traveled to Washington, I traveled to France, I traveled to the different countries of the Abraham Accords,’” Prosor told media by phone before Lapid took off for Germany. “‘I’m coming to Germany because this is the most substantial relationship we have in Europe.’” Prosor emphasized that “the relationship between Germany and Israel is a strategic relationship.” “German-Israeli relations are the most intense strategic relationship that Israel has with Europe. After the United States of America, this is the most strategic relationship bilaterally that Israel has with any country,” Prosor said. German’s Foreign Office calls ties with Israel “a cornerstone of German foreign policy.” Germany is Israel’s top trading partner in Europe, and the long-standing quiet military and intelligence relationship is increasingly coming out into the open. Prosor highlighted that ex-chancellor Angela Merkel said the security of the state of Israel was central to Germany’s national interest. “The new chancellor Scholz has repeated that and politicians from all sides of the political divide agree on that,” he said. (TOI / VFI News)
U OF WISCONSIN APOLOGIZES AFTER ‘ZIONISM IS GENOCIDE’ GRAFFITI SEEN AROUND CAMPUS: Administrators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison issued an apology to the school’s Jewish students after graffiti targeting what perpetrators called “Zionist” student groups was spotted in multiple locations around campus, on the first day of the semester the previous week.
University officials called the graffiti antisemitic and said they did not know who had drawn it. According to local reports and images shared by the American Jewish Committee, the graffiti at one location included phrases like “Zionism is Racism” and “Zionism is Genocide,” and referenced unnamed “Zionist” organizations at the university that “have blood on their hands.” “These labels are antisemitic: they attribute broad actions or beliefs to Jewish student groups,” UW Vice Chancellor Lori Reesor and Chief Diversity Officer LaVar J. Charleston said in a joint statement Wednesday, September 7. “To those Jewish students and others affected, we are sorry for the impact this had on your first day of class at UW,” Reesor and Charleston continued. “We truly strive to create a campus where every student feels they belong, and this kind of messaging harms that goal and aspiration.” (TOI/VFI News)
HISTORIC FIRST: DESANTIS TO REQUIRE TEACHING HEBREW BIBLE IN FLORIDA’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS: In an August 27 speech at the Nashville Women’s Conference, Laurie Cardoza-Moore from the Republican Party announced that she was working with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to make his state the first to teach “the Hebrew Bible” a requirement in Civics in Florida public schools.
“They will learn about the Hebrew Bible and the role it played in the founding of our nation,” Cardozo-Moore explained. “They will learn about the Hebrew Bible and the role it played in the drafting of our founding documents. They will learn about the Hebrew Bible and the role it played in the structure of our form of government. Our nation was founded on the Torah.” “Florida is the only state in the nation now that is teaching what God commands us to teach our children,” she said. Moore is the head of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, a Christian Zionist organization that battles antisemitism. A video of her statements was posted by a far-left organization, saying it posted the clip “to expose the agenda of the extreme right.” The organization slammed her speech, describing Cardozo-Moore as a “Trump-loving, anti– Islam, religious-right activist who has recently begun to focus her efforts on ensuring that public school textbooks eliminate what she claims is anti-Semitic, anti-Judeo/Christian, Anti-American, pro-Islamic indoctrination of students.” (I365N / VFI News)
ISRAEL’S FIRST CYCLING TUNNEL OPENS IN JERUSALEM: The Kerem Tunnel, the first bicycle tunnel in Israel, has been inaugurated as part of the Jerusalem Ring Path, a 42-kilometer cycling route that surrounds the capital city.
The tunnel connects the path between Nahal Refaim and Emek Motza. Its southern entrance is in Refaim Park, below Ein Laban, and the northern entrance is located in Nahal Ein Kerem, about half a kilometer from the Kerem junction. The 2.1-kilometers-long tunnel project was inaugurated in a ceremony on Thursday, September 8, attended by Jerusalem and Heritage Minister Ze’ev Elkin, Mayor Moshe Lion, Gihon water company chairman Avi Baleshnikov and hundreds of cyclists. “In the past, Jerusalem was an attractive tourist city due to its glorious past. Today, apart from its historical treasures, it also incorporates modern tourism,” Elkin said. ”The inauguration of [this] tunnel project is another part of the development of the city of Jerusalem and its transformation into an attractive tourist city for all types of audiences in Israel and throughout the world.” (JPost/ VFI News)
