Israel Seizes Millions in Iran Quds Force, Hezbollah Crypto Assets: The defense establishment seized millions of dollars in cryptocurrency belonging to the IRGC’s Quds Force and Hezbollah just days ago, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Tuesday, June 27. He said this was the largest seizure of cryptocurrency from those groups to date.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force is Iran’s elite intelligence agency for terror, spying, and fomenting unrest overseas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon is one of its main proxies.
Cryptocurrency has been a boon to terror groups and other illegal organizations as it allows them to avoid stricter banking regulations and tracking mechanisms. The defense minister confirmed that the funds were specifically designated to be used for terror purposes.
He said the Defense Ministry’s Division for Economic Warfare against Terror worked closely with the Mossad, IDF intelligence, the police, and other authorities (the Justice Ministry has a special division for combating terror financing) on utilizing new technological tools to track terror financiers’ new techniques for trying to conceal their movement of funds. (JPost / VFI News)
“God, we thank You for giving us the means to protect ourselves against terrorist organizations. We are especially grateful for the continual efforts of Israeli leaders who can weaken our enemies and prevent attacks on multiple fronts.”
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Israel Helped UAE Fend off Major Cyberattack, Emirati Cyber Chief Says: Israel recently helped the UAE fend off a serious DDoS (distributed denial of service) cyberattack, UAE cyber chief Muhammad al-Kuwaiti said on Tuesday, June 27.
Speaking at the Tel Aviv Cyber Week Conference, he said, “Thank God for the Abraham Accords… I am sure you heard my dear friend, Gabi [Israeli cyber chief Gabi Portnoy] when he mentioned the importance of working together. Our cyber strategy has five main pillars,” one of which is partnerships with allied states. It has a pillar about protecting and defending.”
“And this is where we plug into the great Start-Up Nation [Israel] where we have many of those companies helping us as a matter of fact to build up that cyber dome or to extend that cyber dome,” to defend against cyberattacks.
Earlier at the same conference, Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD) chief Portnoy addressed cyberattacks by the group MuddyWater, which he identified as associated with the IRGC and which attacked the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology a few months ago.
“The Israeli cyber community knows Iran’s cyber operations inside-out and works to thwart it in many ways. Iran’s intelligence personnel, the IRGC and Hezbollah who are involved in cyber operations against Israel know exactly what I am talking about.”
He added, “I want to back the actions of the US against Iran’s violence, as well as the sanctions which they placed on two key players in Iranian intelligence: Farazin Karimi and Majteba Matzafi, who set up the Radwan Academic Group, which trains hackers for bad purposes.” (JPost / VFI News)
“God, we are grateful for You and Your protection. We thank You for giving us strong allies, as well as the determination and competence necessary to defeat our enemies and circumvent any obstacles that come our way.”
Israel Is the Second-Most Pro-America Country in the World, Poll Finds: Israel is the second-most pro-America country in the world and Israelis have a more positive view of the US than Americans by some measures, according to a Pew Research poll released on Tuesday, June 27.
87% of Israelis have a positive view of the US; the only country in which the US has a higher favorability rating is Poland, at 93%. The lowest score was from Hungary, at 44%.
Israel’s current view of the US is the most positive since 2000, and improved slightly from last year, at 83%.
That 68% of Israelis have confidence in US President Joe Biden’s “leadership of world affairs” is similar to how he is viewed in Sweden, Kenya, Nigeria, Germany, and the Netherlands. Biden’s highest score came from Poland and the lowest from Hungary.
Israelis’ view of Biden improved eight percentage points since last year but has not yet reached former president Donald Trump’s peak at 71%. Trump’s high score tied with former president Barack Obama’s in 2013, but they are also tied for the lowest score since 2000, 56%, which they received in 2009 and 2017.
For over 20 years, Pew has asked respondents around the world whether they believe the US takes countries like theirs into account, and most typically say no. In Israel, however, 80% said yes, the highest score of all. The international median is 49%, and 71% of Americans said yes. (JPost / VFI News)
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity.” – Proverbs 17:17
Longtime ADL Leader Foxman Slams Biden for ‘Boycotting’ Netanyahu, Meeting with Tyrants: “I believe that President [Joe] Biden isolating Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is a misguided policy and borders on what I would even call hypocrisy,” Abe Foxman, the former Anti Defamation League (ADL) head and one of the most senior leaders of the American Jewish community told Israeli media on Tuesday, June 27.
Foxman explained that Biden not meeting with Netanyahu “also sends the wrong message [not only] to Israel’s enemies, but also to its friends and allies.” He stressed that “when friends disagree, they need to, and should meet, speak to each other. This lack of invitation has become a politicized issue.”
For this phenomenon, he gave examples from both the Left and Right: “Republicans in the US charge the president with animus Israel, that that’s why he’s not inviting the prime minister. On the other side, some of the progressives in the Democratic party would like to isolate the prime minister, even before he was elected; before the judicial reform.
He added that he sees an “element of hypocrisy” here. “If you will, the president of the United States just welcomed the prime minister of India, a certainly flawed democracy with serious religious and civil rights abuses. He just welcomed Jordan’s King Abdullah to the White House, not exactly the paradigm of a democratic country.”
Foxman’s request to Biden would be to “invite his friend of 40 years, the prime minister of one of the closest allies, to the White House. And if there are concerns, differences, he should share them face to face.” (JPost / VFI News)
“The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” – Proverbs 12:26
France Says It Uncovered Major Russian Disinformation Effort; Israel Said Targeted: France on Tuesday, June 13, said it had uncovered a major Russian disinformation campaign, with false news items hostile to Ukraine made to look like they were published by prominent French news media. The campaign also appears to have targeted Israeli and Jewish media.
Western states have been acutely concerned about an intensification of Russian-led disinformation campaigns, as Moscow seeks to influence public opinion across the world over its invasion of Ukraine.
“This campaign is based in particular on the creation of fake web pages impersonating national media and government sites as well as the creation of false accounts on social networks,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said.
The campaign is believed to have involved techniques including producing fake articles on a page identical in all respects to those of the legitimate sites of media organizations, but with different domain names — for example, .ltd instead of .fr.
A counterfeit Israeli site published content critical of Ukraine, including an article headlined, “Solidarity with Ukraine costs too much.” Some of the stories had bylines and photos of well-known Israeli writers. (TOI / VFI News)
blockquote style=”font-style: italic”> “The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.” – Proverbs 10:11
US Man Charged for Attempted Antiquity Smuggling from Syria: A Los Angeles man was convicted on Wednesday, June 21, for illegally importing antiquities from Syria into the US. The smuggled piece in question was an ancient mosaic depicting Hercules, the Roman demigod, and is believed to be 2,000 years old, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) reported.
Mohammed Yassin Alcharihi, 56 years old and from Palmdale, California, had allegedly illegally imported a mosaic dating back to the Roman Empire.
The item came from Syria, and he had claimed to be importing items for just over $2,000, although his items were worth far more than that. The prices of the items were hundreds of thousands of dollars, leading him to be convicted for falsely classifying goods.
He could serve up to two years in prison for his charge of entry of falsely classified goods. This case, with evidence dating back to 2015, enacted a resolution that condemned Islamic State and similar groups for the destruction of Syria’s ancient cultural heritage. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Art Crimes unit in Los Angeles.
Across the world, in Italy, sixteen people were arrested and more than 3,500 artifacts were recovered as Italian police broke up what they called a ruthless network of archaeological looters and international traffickers in ancient Greek and Roman relics. (JPost / VFI News)
Web of Biblical Cities Depicts King David as Major Ruler, Says Israeli Archaeologist: A network of fortified cities around Jerusalem has been dated to the time of King David, more than 200 years earlier than previously thought, offering support to the theory that King David ruled over a complex and large kingdom.
In a new academic paper, Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University claims he has found evidence of urban settlement in organized cities dating to around 1,000 BCE, during the reign of King David.
His article, published Monday, June 26, in a peer-reviewed publication of Hebrew University, supports the theory that King David ruled over a well-developed kingdom, complete with roads connecting between cities.
Garfinkel explains, “If you take all these sites, they have the same urban concept, they are all sitting on the border of the kingdom and sitting where you have a main road leading to the kingdom. These cities aren’t located in the middle of nowhere. It’s a pattern of urbanism with the same urban concept.”
This runs counter to the belief of some scholars from the minimalist school of thought who have previously suggested that since there is scant evidence of cities during King David’s reign, his position as a ruler of a great kingdom as written in the Bible could be exaggerated. (TOI / VFI News)
“So David’s fame spread throughout every land, and the Lord made all the nations fear him.” – 1 Chronicles 14:17
Israelis Bring Home 25-Medal Haul from Special Olympics in Berlin: Israel’s Special Olympics delegation is returning from the games in Berlin with a haul of 25 medals, up from 19 at the last games in 2019. The 35 athletes representing Israel won nine gold medals, eight silvers, and eight bronze medals across all eight disciplines in which they competed at the international competition, which wrapped up on Sunday, June 25.
“As promised, we are coming back to Israel with a multitude of medals,” said Sharon Levy-Blanga, CEO of the Special Olympics Israel organization, in a statement on Sunday.
Runner Ron Beck, 16, brought home a gold medal in the 3000m men’s race. He also won a silver medal in the 5000m and – alongside Adi Madmon, Saar Buchbinder, and Pele Abudy – brought home a bronze for Israel in the mixed 4x400m relay.
Buchbinder, 30, also took home two gold medals, in the 5km and 10km races, while Madmon won a bronze medal in the women’s 100m.
The women’s soccer team, making its debut in Berlin, took home a silver medal when it lost 2-0 to Bangladesh in the gold medal match in the F3 division.
Judokas Ido Rabinivich and Levav Barkan both won gold medals, in the first and third levels of the sport, respectively. In table tennis, David Kersenti also took home a gold medal in the men’s singles under-17 division.
Israel racked up three swimming medals: gold for Sapir Bar Yoel in the men’s 50m freestyle, gold for Meir Segal in the men’s 100m freestyle, and silver for Aran Bar-Peled in the women’s 800m freestyle. (TOI /VFI News)
“God, we thank You for blessing our nation. We would also like to applaud and congratulate our young athletes for honoring Israel and making a name for themselves worldwide.”
The suggestions, opinions, and scripture references made by VFI News writers and editors are based on the best information received.
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