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DAILY ALERT |
Wednesday, May 4, 2022 | ||
In-Depth Issues:
Israel's Population Reaches 9.5 Million on Eve of 74th Independence Day - Ofer Aderet (Ha'aretz)
Israel's population stands at 9,506,000, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced Sunday. That includes 7.02 million Jews (74%); 2 million Arabs (21%); and 478,000 others (5%), including non-Arab Christians, members of other religions, and those designated as without religion, most of whom are immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Today 78% of Israeli Jews were born here, while 45% of the world's Jews live in Israel.
Israel Welcomes Most Immigrants in Two Decades (Jerusalem Post)
38,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel since Independence Day 2021, the highest number in two decades, the Jewish Agency reported Sunday. About half are from Ukraine and Russia, while 4,000 came from the U.S. and 3,700 from France. More than 1,000 came from Belarus and Argentina, more than 700 from the UK, 600 from South Africa, 500 from Brazil, 400 from Canada and others from Australia, Germany, Belgium, Chile, Italy and other countries.
Israeli Army Places 24,068 Flags on Graves of Fallen Soldiers Ahead of Memorial Day - Sharon Wrobel (Algemeiner)
The Israeli military placed 24,068 flags on the gravestones of security forces who fell in the line of duty ahead of Memorial Day, which began Tuesday evening. IDF Chief Staff Aviv Kochavi said: "This day calls on all of the people of Israel to unite in solidarity and in memory. This day slows the pace of the daily routine and makes time for all Israeli civilians to stop and think, to think of those who fell and about" their families. See also Remembering Israel's Fallen: Hero after Hero - Elli Wohlgelernter (Jerusalem Post)
Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Israeli Intelligence Collection - Lt.-Col. (res.) David Siman-Tov (National Interest)
According to the commander of Unit 8200, the cyber unit of IDF military intelligence, at least for the foreseeable future, machines will not replace humans' role in intelligence decision-making. However, new technologies are changing the intelligence profession. In recent years, we have seen unprecedented advancements in automatic translation technology offering a highly accurate level of translation. The translation of languages - such as Arabic and Persian - into Hebrew allows intelligence analysts to have direct contact with raw material. Another technology focuses on identifying targets for attack, cross-linking many layers of geographic information to reveal anomalies in the data. In its May 2021 operation in Gaza, Israeli military intelligence used artificial intelligence to identify many real-time terror targets. The writer is a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and deputy head of the Institute for the Research of the Methodology of Intelligence at the Israeli Intelligence Community Commemoration and Heritage Center.
Israel, Our Greatest Ally in the Middle East - Lieutenant Governor of Florida Jeanette Nunez (Miami Herald)
Recently, I had the privilege of visiting Israel, our greatest ally in the Middle East, alongside five other lieutenant governors from across the county. Israel is a vibrant country where faith is palpable and warmth is exuded at every turn. Pride is clearly in the Israeli's DNA. They do not apologize for their zeal. They promote it. They do not reflect on their trials and lament; they perceive the triumph through their battles. They do not wallow in defeat; they learn and surge in victory. America's unbreakable bond with Israel is essential if we are to see peace in the region and beyond. We must encourage leaders at every level to closely reevaluate policies, such as the disastrous Iran deal. We must not allow BDS and anti-Semitism in any form to gain a foothold. We must never forget the horrors of the Holocaust. This visit has been an encounter like none other - an encounter with beauty, light, and resilience. Israel, though small geographically, is a country with an enormous impact.
How Arab Rulers Undermined a Palestinian State - Roie Yellinek and Assaf Malach (Middle East Quarterly)
The all-Arab assault on Israel in 1948 was launched in pursuit of the invading states' imperialist goals - not in support of Palestinian self-determination. Arab League secretary-general Abdel Rahman Azzam said that Transjordan's Emir "Abdullah was to swallow up the central hill regions of Palestine, with access to the Mediterranean at Gaza. The Egyptians would get the Negev. Galilee would go to Syria, except that the coastal part as far as Acre would be added to Lebanon." In the decades following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Arab states did nothing to facilitate the crystallization of Palestinian nationalism and the attainment of statehood. This consistent lack of recognition of a separate Palestinian nationality was perpetrated by Jordan, Egypt, and Syria. In the years between 1948 and 1967, the Jordanian government systematically erased all traces of a distinct Palestinian identity in an attempt to create a wider Jordanian national identity. In 1960, Abdullah's grandson and successor King Hussein declared his firm opposition to the idea of a separate "Palestinian entity" and denounced the "despicable innovation" of the establishment of a Palestinian entity. Roie Yellinek is a research associate at the BESA Center and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute. Assaf Malach is a lecturer at Shalem College and a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute.
Holocaust Survivors Reunite with Long Lost Family Members - Raphael Poch (United Hatzalah)
Walter and Oscar Blau were sure they were the only ones in their family who survived World War II. They recently discovered that they have an entire family living in the U.S., and reunited with them for the first time last month in Jerusalem. The brothers, then aged 10 and 6, fled with their families from Austria and were sent to an orphanage in Belgium. They later immigrated to Israel and for decades believed they were the sole remaining survivors of their family. Meanwhile, three cousins who managed to flee Austria prior to the war thought that they were the last remaining family members. In the U.S., a granddaughter, Suzanne, searched for survivors in various databases and archives in Europe and Israel for 25 years until she finally found a clue and made contact on March 30, 2021, with Daphne Blau, Oscar's daughter.
Unemployment in Israel Hits 50-Year Low - Guy Ben Simon (Globes)
Unemployment in Israel fell to 2.9% in the first half of April, from 3.7% in the second half of March, the Central Bureau of Statistics reports - a 50-year low. Search the Recent History of Israel and the Middle East Send the Daily Alert to a Friend If you are viewing the email version of the Daily Alert and want to share it with friends, please click Forward in your email program and enter their address. |
We wish our readers a Happy Israel Independence Day!
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Remembrance Day for Israel's Fallen Soldiers Iran Other Issues Anti-Semitism Anti-Semitism at Harvard Weekend Features Observations: The Ramadan Escalation in Jerusalem - Amb. Dore Gold (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)
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