14 Days: Cop killed

The IDF shot down a Hezbollah drone that crossed the Lebanese border into Israel on July 18. The IDF said air control units tracked the unmanned aircraft and the army took the drone for analysis after it was downed. The incident took place three weeks after the IDF downed four UAVs launched by Hezbollah at an offshore gas field. In the south, the IDF struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on July 16, after four rockets were fired at southern Israel. The targets included an underground site in the Nuseirat refugee camp that was “one of the largest and most important sites for the production of materials for rockets,” the army said in a statement.

A week after US President Joe Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a trilateral meeting in Tehran on July 19. Iran rolled out a long red carpet for Putin, who has been internationally isolated since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. The three leaders issued a statement after the meeting that they would continue consultations and cooperation to “eliminate terrorist individuals, groups, undertakings and entities” in Syria. Iran and Russia back Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, while Turkey has in the past supported armed opposition factions. 

Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned Russia on July 24 against closing the offices of the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) in the country, saying it could impact diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Moscow. “Closing the Jewish Agency offices would be a serious event that would affect relations,” the Prime Minister’s Office said after Lapid convened a special meeting on the issue. The warning was issued after the Russian Justice Ministry called for the “dissolution” of JAFI’s activities in Russia, claiming they had violated local laws.

Merav Michaeli won the Labor leadership primary on July 18, enabling her to head Labor in the November 1 election. The first chair to be reelected since the party began holding primaries in 1992, she won 82% of the votes cast by 15,000 of the party’s 36,000 members, while her only challenger, party Secretary-General Eran Hermoni, garnered 16%. Meanwhile, Zehava Galon announced on July 19 that she would vie for leadership of Meretz in its August 23 primaries. On the Right, Religious Zionism chair Bezalel Smotrich said he and Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben-Gvir were close to finalizing a merger.

World Mizrachi’s legendary president Kurt Rothschild, a German-born Canadian Jewish leader and prominent philanthropist who made aliyah in 2012 with his wife, Edith, died in Jerusalem on July 17 at 101. “Kurt was ‘one in a generation’ with an unmatched love of the people, Torah and Land of Israel with his signature humility, unshakable determination and exceptional menschlichkeit,” World Mizrachi said in a statement.

Israeli athlete Lonah Korlima Chemtai Salpeter bagged the bronze medal in the women’s marathon at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 18. Chemtai Salpeter, 33, who was born in Kenya, married an Israeli and became an Israeli citizen in 2016, finished the race in 2:20:18, two minutes behind Gotytom Gebreslase, who won gold, and Kenya’s Judith Jeptum Korir. Chemtai Salpeter and her husband, athletics coach Dan Salpeter, live in Shoham with their seven-year-old son, Roy.