Israel Air Force Simulates War with Hizbullah, Hits 3,000 Targets a Day - Benjamin Kerstein (Algemeiner)
    This week the Israel Air Force undertook a massive exercise simulating a full-scale war with Hizbullah.
    One of its main objectives was to destroy all threats to IAF aircraft, especially Russian and Iranian surface-to-air missiles.
    A senior IAF officer said more than 3,000 targets a day were hit. By comparison, during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the IAF hit an average of 100 targets a day.
    Veteran Israeli analyst Ehud Yaari described the exercise as a warning to Hizbullah, "demonstrating how a massive first strike may affect Hizbullah's missile arsenal all over Lebanon in a single day."
    See also Hizbullah Opposes a Limited War with Israel, and Issues Threats - Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dr. Shimon Shapira (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)

Iran Could Deploy 200 Missiles in Iraq to Attack Israel (Jerusalem Post)
    Israel is concerned that Iran could deploy up to 200 long-range missiles in Iraq to attack the Jewish state.

Iran's Intelligence Minister: If Pushed, Iran May Build an Atomic Bomb - Lt.-Col. (ret.) Michael Segall and Iran Desk (Institute for Contemporary Affairs-Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
    Mahmoud Alavi, Iran's Minister of Intelligence, said on Feb. 10 that Iran might be drawn into a military nuclear program.
    His remarks, and the strong internal criticism they received, reflect ongoing internal power struggles within the Iranian security and intelligence apparatuses after a series of assassinations of Iranian scientists and the sabotage of sensitive nuclear facilities in Iran.

New York Times Makes Up Stories about Israeli Checkpoints in Jerusalem - Tamar Sternthal (CAMERA)
    "Palestinian children often tell emotional stories of crossing the checkpoint on the bus ride in from East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem," manned by Israeli soldiers that the Palestinian children perceive as "threatening and scary," wrote Ruth Ebenstein in the New York Times on Feb. 14.
    But it's not true. There are no checkpoints separating eastern and western Jerusalem.

Iranian Gen. Soleimani Monitored Iran's Jewish Community (MEMRI-TV)
    Iranian Islamic scholar Ahmed Abedi detailed some of the activities of IRGC Qods Force commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani on Noor TV on Feb. 6.
    "Regarding the Jews in this country who spy for Israel, [Soleimani] established centers for monitoring the Zionist spies. He established many such centers."

Assad Controls 2/3 of Syria - Fabrice Balanche (Washington Institute for Near East Policy)
    The situation on Syria's borders has hardly changed over the past couple of years. Assad's forces now control 2/3 of Syria's territory, including its main cities, as well as 12 million people out of an estimated resident population of 17 million (another 7 million Syrians are living abroad as refugees).
    In spring 2013, Assad's forces controlled only a fifth of the country.
    Yet the Syrian army controls only 15% of the country's international land borders; the rest are divided between foreign actors. Hizbullah and other Iranian-backed Shia militias currently control 20% of the country's borders.
    The Lebanese border is occupied by Hizbullah, which has established bases on the Syrian side. Similarly, Iraqi Shia militias manage both sides of their border.
    In addition, several Syrian military airports serve as receptacles for Iranian weapons destined for Hizbullah and the Golan Heights frontline with Israel.
    In Deraa province in the south, to quickly tamp down growing resistance in the area, the regime was forced to sign reconciliation agreements brokered by Russia, leaving local rebel factions with temporary autonomy and the right to keep light weapons.
    The writer, an associate professor at the University of Lyon 2, is an adjunct fellow with The Washington Institute.

How UK Gives Annual Nod to Hate-Filled Palestinian Education - Jenni Frazer (Jewish News-UK)
    In the past five years, British taxpayers have spent 105 million pounds on a Palestinian education system in which pupils are routinely taught incitement, hatred of Israel and glorification of terrorism.
    The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) reviewed the Palestinian Authority's 2020-21 school textbooks and identified 152 modifications. "Almost 90% reflect adjustments that keep problematic material intact or made it worse."
    Math "is still taught by adding numbers of 'martyrs' who died in each intifada....This number includes the bombers of buses and shopping malls."
    "Jews and Israel are vilified to a greater extent than in previous curricula and anti-Semitism is more prevalent throughout."

Study Finds Increase in Anti-Zionism at U.S. Universities - Prof. Miriam F. Elman (Institute for National Security Studies-Tel Aviv University)
    Most U.S. campuses are not awash in anti-Semitism, nor are they hotbeds of anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism. Yet on hundreds of campuses, a new set of realities has emerged for Jewish students.
    Far-left anti-Semitism that expresses a view of Israel that traffics in anti-Jewish conspiracies has increasingly become normalized on U.S. campuses, where Jewish students are being demoralized as imperialists, racists, and even Nazis and white supremacists.
    Students have increasingly reported that they are afraid to express their Jewish identity, including their support for Israel, lest they be excluded from campus life and the causes that they care deeply about.
    Hillel International reported that anti-Semitic incidents reached an all-time high during the 2019-2020 academic year.
    The writer is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University.

Israel's Economy Shrank 2.4 Percent in 2020 during Pandemic - Guy Ben Simon (Globes)
    Israel's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 2.4% in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported, while in the Euro-bloc, the economy shrank 5%.
    In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Israeli economy grew 6.3%.