US-IRAN TENSION President Donald Trump announced on June 22 that the US would impose “major” additional sanctions on Iran in a bid to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons, and pressure its leadership to change course. “We will call it, ‘Let’s make Iran great again,’” Trump said, echoing his 2016 campaign slogan. Trump denied media reports that at the last minute, he had called off a planned strike on Iran in retaliation for its shooting down of an American drone, tweeting that he had “just stopped it from going forward at this time.” Amid the heightened US-Iran tension, US National Security Advisor John Bolton flew to Israel to discuss the situation with Israeli leaders, saying Iran should not mistake “US prudence and discretion for weakness.”
PEACE PLAN The White House released details of the economic section of its Middle East peace plan on June 22, promising a potential $50 billion in investments in the region over the next decade, with more than half going to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the rest to Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. The Palestinian Authority immediately dismissed the “Peace to Prosperity” proposal, and repeated its refusal to attend the regional summit scheduled to take place in Bahrain on June 25. Speaking to Reuters, President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is the main strategist behind the plan, brushed off the Palestinians’ rejection of the “deal of the century,” saying, “This is going to be the opportunity of the century if they have the courage to pursue it.”NEW MINISTERS Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 17 appointed Rabbi Rafi Peretz, head of the Union of Right-Wing Parties, as interim education minister, and Bezalel Smotrich, head of the hard-line National Union within the URP, as transportation minister. Smotrich was also named as a member of the security cabinet, while Peretz was given observer status, at the request of the URP. Smotrich said that he would use his new status to demand that the security cabinet make “a decision on Hamas,” and restore calm to residents of southern Israel.LEGAL WOES Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister’s wife, was convicted under a plea bargain by the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on June 16 for ordering gourmet food to the tune of $96,000 to the prime minister’s residence between 2010 and 2013, even though her government-funded kitchen had its own chef. She was sentenced to 11 payments of 55,000 shekels (about $15,000). Meanwhile, Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit rejected Benjamin Netanyahu request to postpone his hearing on at least three criminal cases against him, which has already been delayed from July to October 2.US ANTISEMITISM Elan Carr, US special envoy for combating antisemitism, said in Jerusalem on June 20 that armed guards should be posted at every synagogue, Jewish school and Jewish community across the US. “We live in a time of danger,” he told Jerusalem Post Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz, at the Strategic Affairs Ministry’s Global Coalition 4 Israel Conference. Carr added that President Trump was committed to fighting what he called the “vile poison” of antisemitism in the US and abroad.FENCING FIRST Israeli fencer Yuval Freilich won a gold medal on June 18 in the European Fencing Championships in Dusseldorf, Germany, the first time an Israeli has achieved this honor. Ranked 40th in the world, Freilich beat Italian Andrea Santarelli, ranked 13th, in the final. The son of Australian immigrants to Israel, the 24-year-old Freilich grew up in Neveh Daniel and began fencing at the age of five. “It’s the most incredible feeling,” he said in an interview posted on Facebook by the European Fencing Confederation. “Really a fantastic day!”14 Days: US-IRAN TENSION
Trump announced on June 22 that the US would impose “major” additional sanctions on Iran in a bid to prevent it from obtaining nuclear weapons, and pressure its leadership to change course.
