14 Days: Olympic golds

Israel accused Iran of being behind an July 29 attack on an oil tanker in which two crew members from Britain and Romania were killed. The MV Mercer Street, operated by the London-based company Zodiac Maritime which belongs to Israeli shipping magnate Eyal Ofer, was off Oman’s coast in the Arabian Sea when the incident occurred. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid blamed “Iranian terrorism,” adding: “Iran is not just an Israeli problem. The world must not be silent.”

Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets at Israel on August 6 on the 15th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, as tensions escalated on Israel’s northern border. The Iron Dome defense system intercepted 10 out of 20 rockets, with the others falling inside Lebanon and open areas on the Lebanese border, causing no casualties. The IDF responded with artillery fire at the sources of the Hezbollah rocket fire. “Israel will not accept shooting into its territory,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett warned at the weekly cabinet meeting.

Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita on July 10 hosted his Israeli counterpart, Yair Lapid, on his first visit since the two countries established diplomatic ties in December 2020. “Our ties with Israel are unlike any other ties,” Bourita said. Lapid, who joined Ambassador David Govrin in inaugurating an Israeli Liaison Office in Rabat, said Israel and Morocco would move toward full diplomatic normalization by upgrading their respective liaison offices to embassies within two months.

Israel’s cabinet approved the 2021-22 state budget of 432.5 billion shekels per annum on August 2 after an agreement was reached to raise the health budget by two billion shekels. “Ladies and gentlemen, Israel has a budget, a budget of a government that cares. After three years of stalemate, Israel is returning to work,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared. Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman sought to allay anger among the ultra-Orthodox over his decision to cut daycare subsidies for the children of yeshiva students, saying, “My goal is to pull the haredi community out of poverty.”

Israel condemned Poland’s approval of a new law that restricts the rights of Holocaust survivors and their descendants to reclaim property seized by the country’s former communist regime. After Polish President Andrzej Duda signed the law on August 14, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced that Israel was recalling its envoy in Warsaw, Tal Ben-Ari Yaalon, for consultations. Calling the law “antisemitic and immoral,” Lapid said Israel was discussing further steps with the United States. 

The White House announced its appointment of Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt, 74, on July 31 to serve as US Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism, drawing praise from Jewish groups across the political spectrum. The appointment came after several Jewish leaders called on the Biden administration in recent weeks to fill the position following a spike in antisemitism in the US and around the globe. Biden also named Chanan Weissman, 37, as the White House’s liaison to the Jewish community.