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Hello *|FNAME|*,
The US Navy has acknowledged that it may stop docking in Haifa once a Chinese firm takes over the civilian port in 2021, prompting Israel’s national security cabinet to revisit the arrangement. Several US defense officials expressed worry that sensitive infrastructure matters have not been properly vetted by Israel’s full national security cabinet prior to approval. It is unclear whether Israel has any recourse to allay US concerns with the China project, which is already sealed and in motion.
SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum announced plans to open a manufacturing facility in Gaza to help create jobs, prosperity, and ultimately peace. In the Sodastream factory in the industrial park of Idan HaNegev, a mosaic of Israeli Jews, Arabs, Palestinians, Bedouins, Ethiopians, and Russians work together to produce the foot-and-a-half tall device of the same name, which carbonates water.
A small city in Israel's Lower Galilee, Yokneam, is transforming itself into a major alternative high-tech hub for medical and pharmaceutical companies, with astounding developments. Some 50 miles from Tel Aviv, Yokneam stands at the crossroads of two major highways in northern Israel. Among the roughly 160 tech companies based there, several have recently nabbed prestigious international grants and awards.
Following the discovery of a fourth Hezbollah tunnel on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued to urge the United Nations Security Council to take action against Hezbollah over its tunnels dug from Lebanon under the Israeli border. Speaking ahead of a Security Council session on the issue, Netanyahu said UNIFIL, the UN presence in Lebanon, should be granted "unrestrained access to any area in southern Lebanon," where the Iranian-backed Hezbollah has traditionally operated unfettered. He said that UNIFIL should not be restricted by Hezbollah or the Lebanese army. The Israeli military said that it had begun to seal off some of the Hezbollah attack tunnels dug into Israel from southern Lebanon. Meanwhile, a second confrontation between Lebanese Armed Forces and the IDF was documented Monday as the IDF was working to discover and destroy the cross-boarder attack tunnels.
The Israeli Strategic Affairs Ministry will invest more than NIS 3 million to establish an international legal network to fight the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The forum would help administer grants to members of the network, which could include jurists, lawyers and other legal professionals or organizations, to fight BDS on the legal battleground. According to the ministry, the need for such a network was determined after many attempts by BDS supporters to use a variety of tactics to boycott the Jewish state that would need to be halted through legal means.
Shabbat Shalom,
Jackie Congedo, Director, JCRC
Shep Englander, CEO, Jewish Federation of Cincinnati
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