We are Modern Orthodox and are a constituent member of the United Synagogue

14 – 20 December

Hizbullah

The Israel Defence Forces located a fourth attack tunnel dug by Hizbullah from Lebanon into Israeli territory, the army said Sunday.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon said Monday: “Based on UNIFIL’s independent assessment, UNIFIL has so far confirmed the existence of all the four tunnels close to the Blue Line in northern Israel. After further technical investigations conducted independently in accordance with its mandate, UNIFIL at this stage can confirm that two of the tunnels cross the Blue Line. These constitute violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. This is a matter of serious concern.”
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Moscow is allowing fighters from Hizbullah and other pro-Iranian groups in Syria to carry Russian flags in order to protect them from Israeli airstrikes, Russia’s Kommersant reported. Israel has complained to Russia that its flags were spotted atop compounds and military convoys belonging to Iran and its allies.
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Last week’s violence

There was a sharp rise in calls by Hamas to attack Israelis in the West Bank in October and November, according to a new report which said “support for terror and its extolment are at all-time highs in the PA.”
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Palestinian Authority officials believe the mastermind of the Hamas cell that carried out the recent West Bank shooting attacks, is a terrorist who was released from prison in 2011 as part of the prisoner exchange deal for captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
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According to a senior IDF officer, a “large part of the [Arab] population in the West Bank is very violent and wants to carry out attacks. Only this year we succeeded in thwarting hundreds of terrorist attacks and we have arrested more than 2,700 people, but every month between four to eight attacks are successful.” He added that recent incidents are “a part of the new initiative of this organization [Hamas] that decided to open a new front in the West Bank.”
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Terror attacks

A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli soldier and hit his head with a rock, seriously injuring him, at a military post in the central West Bank on Friday. The 21-year-old soldier was taken to hospital in life-threatening condition.
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An IDF soldier critically wounded in a shooting attack in the central West Bank last Thursday remains in life-threatening condition in hospital.
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An Israeli woman suffered cuts to her face caused by flying glass when her car was pelted with stones in a Palestinian attack in the northern West Bank on Sunday. Read full article here

Seasonal

The Jerusalem Municipality will continue its annual tradition of
distributing complimentary Christmas trees to Jerusalem’s residents in
celebration of the holiday. indicating residency in the Old City… The Christmas tree distribution is part of the city’s comprehensive
Christmas preparations, which include hanging festive lighting and flags in areas of the city where the holiday is celebrated.
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KKL-JNF (The Jewish National Fund)

KKL-JNF invited the general public to a Christmas and New Year’s Day tree distribution (northern region)…. In what has become an annual tradition, KKL-JNF will be distributing trees to the general public, churches, monasteries, embassies and the foreign press stationed in Israel. Tree distribution for Christmas is an important contribution of KKL-JNF and serves as an example of good relations with all the country’s different religions. In addition, distribution reduces illegal tree felling and allows members of the general public to enjoy a beautiful tree for the holiday.
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Nato co-operation

The flagship for the current NATO Operation Sea Guardian Focused Security Patrol, Greek frigate HS Navarinon, has conducted a medical response exercise with Israeli Navy corvette INS Eilat to ensure that any health issue among the crews on board NATO military ships can be addressed quickly. Israel’s support of, and participation in this exercise helps to build additional medical interoperability in the southern part of the Eastern Mediterranean.
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Gaza

Last Friday, 10,000 Gazans assembled on the Gaza border with Israel for more violent demonstrations.Many hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and hand grenades towards Israeli troops and two briefly breached the border fence.
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Jerusalem

“Australia now recognizes West Jerusalem…is the capital of Israel,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Saturday. He delayed moving Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv but said a trade and defence office would be established in West Jerusalem
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Russia had recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in April 2017.
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Water

Israeli innovators WaterGen have developed a new means of drawing water from the air through a process that condenses water molecules in humid air and converts them into clean drinking water. They hope to use the water tech not only to quench global thirst, but as a means of influencing relations in a region desperately in need of a clean drinking source.
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Technology

London bus operator, Abellio, launched a trial in October on 66 of its buses of Israeli collision-avoidance technology from Mobileye (now part of Intel). Findings to date show it has reduced avoidable collisions by 29% and reduced injuries from such collisions by 60%.
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Medical technology

Amorphical develops and manufactures a proprietary synthetic form of calcium, amorphous calcium carbonate. The technology was inspired by the ability of the Australian blue crayfish to shed and regrow its outer casing in only three days. The company is in clinical development for the treatment of osteoporosis and a wide range of other calcium-related diseases. Amorphical’s first product is “Density”, a calcium supplement, which, due to its novel molecular structure, is designed to be much easier for the body to absorb than most other popular calcium supplements.
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Aidoc is saving lives through medical imaging by applying proprietary artificial intelligence to the millions of images generated every year by CT scans in order to catch serious issues before a human radiologist even has a chance to review the results. If an abnormality is detected, an alert appears on the radiologist’s screen immediately. Aidoc is now used in 50 medical institutions in the U.S. and Europe, as well as in Israel. Nearly 300,000 patient scans have been analyzed. Aidoc software detected 140,000 abnormalities and prioritized 46,000 cases. In addition to CT scans, regular X-rays as well as high-tech MRIs will be added in 2019.
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B.D.S. defeat

A Pink Floyd cover band has rescheduled its concerts in Israel a week after previously scrapping the planned performances under heavy pressure from the frontman of the original band, Roger Waters, to boycott the Jewish state.
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The amazing story of ‘The green prince’

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the eldest son of one of the co-founders of the Hamas terror group spent about a decade working as a Shin Bet agent and now raises funds for Israel’s Magen David Adom national ambulance, blood-services and disaster relief organization. https://www.timesofisrael.com/just-trying-to-save-lives-5-surreal-days-in-florida-with-the-son-of-hamas/

New York Post Editorial: Little Amiad Yisrael Ish-Ran perished last week, just four days after his delivery by emergency Caesarian at 30 weeks, after his mother, Shira, was badly wounded in a West Bank shooting. Hamas took “credit” for the attack, calling it a “heroic and qualitative operation.” Its rival, Fatah, called the killer a “heroic martyr of the homeland.” As with all Palestinians who commit the political murder of any Israeli, the late killer’s family will qualify for a substantial stipend from the Palestinian Authority. You don’t have to support Israel to find this beyond barbaric.
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Khaled Abu Toameh: The Hamas-engineered attacks in the West Bank are not only a threat to Israeli civilians and soldiers; they also undermine the Western-funded Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas. Each “successful” attack carried out by Hamas earns it more popularity in the West Bank, at the cost of Abbas and his regime. Every dollar and every concession that is being made to Hamas will only increase its appetite to continue its plan.
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Bret Stephens: Today, anti-Zionism is a call for the elimination of a state and those who currently live in it. Anti-Zionism is ideologically unique in insisting that one state, and one state only, has to go. By a coincidence that its adherents insist is entirely innocent, this happens to be the Jewish state. Read article here

Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser: 5,000 terrorists in Israeli jails are getting salaries from the Palestinian Authority. On top of that, 5,500 convicted terrorists that were released from jail are also getting salaries. About 1,200 arrested terrorists that are going to be released during this year are going to get a “release grant.” The Palestinian Authority will spend $350 million on incentivizing terrorism in 2018. This is about actually soliciting terror, because this money is promised to the terrorists in advance.
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