UN ADDRESS In a speech to the United Nations on September 27, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed the existence of what he called “Iran's Secret Atomic Warehouse,” which he said contained material evidence of Tehran's nuclear ambitions. “What Iran hides, Israel will find,” Netanyahu said, accusing Europe of appeasing Iran. In response, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman rejected “this false, meaningless and unnecessary show,” while the International Atomic Energy Agency said “it does not take any information at face value.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during a visit to Israel on October 4, “We must do everything for Iran not to have nuclear weapons.” TERROR TRAGEDY A Palestinian terrorist entered the offices of the Alon Group in the Barkan Industrial Park, near Ariel, on October 7, and armed with a submachine gun, handcuffed and shot dead Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, 28, and then murdered Ziv Hajbi, 35. A married father of three, Hajbi lived in Rishon Lezion and worked as an accountant at the Alon recycling plant. Yehezkel, who was married and the mother of an 18-month-old child, had a law degree and worked as secretary to the CEO of the Alon Group while waiting to take the Israel Bar exam. Security forces launched a widespread search for the 23-year-old terrorist who police said was employed as an electrician at the factory. S-300 DELIVERY Russia announced on October 2 that it has delivered an S-300 surface-to-air missile defense system to Syria, despite Israeli and US concerns that the move would escalate the Syrian civil war. Moscow made the move after accusing Israel of indirectly causing the Syrian downing of a Russian jet in September. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the move “a serious escalation,” but Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said the S-300 would not limit Israel's freedom of operations on its northern border. DANKNER JAILED Nochi Dankner, the former chairman of IDF Holding Corp. once considered Israel's most powerful businessman, began a three-year prison sentence for stock fraud on October 2. “It's a hard day for me and my family,” he said before entering Ma'asiyahu Prison in Ramle. “I fought to prove my innocence, but I have faith in the justice system.” Dankner was convicted of illegally manipulating the value of his company's stock in February 2012. E-BIKE DEATHS The government announced new regulations for riding electric bicycles in Israel after Ari Nesher, the son of Israeli film director Avi Nesher, died on September 27 at Ichilov Hospital, on his 17th birthday, after his electric bicycle was hit in Tel Aviv by a car driven by a top soccer player. According to figures published by the National Road Safety Authority, Nesher was the 16th electric bicycle rider to be killed among the 208 fatalities on Israel's roads since the beginning of 2018. In another tragedy on the roads, gifted pianist Chaim Tukachinsky, 31, was killed by a car driven by a Spanish reporter on September 23 near Jerusalem's Paris Square as he was walking home from the Western Wall on the first night of Sukkot. TOP HISTORIAN Walter Laqueur, an eminent Jewish American historian known for his seminal books on Nazi Europe, the Soviet Union and Israel, died on September 30 at his Washington home at the age of 97. Laqueur, who escaped his native Germany just days before Kristallnacht in 1938 and moved initially to British-Mandate Palestine, later served as a professor at Georgetown University and as chairman of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. Among his best-known works were “A History of Zionism” (1972) and “A History of Terrorism” (1977).
(photo credit: CARLO ALLEGRI/REUTERS)