A New Community in Israel

Israel, and especially those near the border, have been pummeled over the past 15 years by Palestinian rocket fire.

In 2005, Israel uprooted 8,600 Israelis living across 17 locales in Gaza as part of the Disengagement from the enclave. The Strip was soon thereafter conquered by Hamas in an internecine war waged against the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah faction.

used by the terrorist group to produce and store chemicals used in the missiles’ manufacture.

Twelve additional projectiles were fired from Gaza as Israeli fighter jets conducted the strikes, according to the military. Eleven exploded in open areas or mid-air, and one fell short in the Strip.

power in the eastern Mediterranean. It maintains a significant naval and aerial presence in the Mediterranean and enjoys an historic role in Lebanon. Macron was instrumental in getting the Israel-Lebanon maritime deal done last year, and France has shown signs in recent weeks that it may be working to expand its influence in the region.

Israel’s Cabinet voted on Sunday to establish a new community along the border with the Gaza Strip.

The future town, to be named Hanun, will be located in the Sdot Negev Region and eventually be inhabited by some 500 families.

“The establishment of the community is further evidence of the resilience of the [citizens living in the] ‘Gaza envelope’ and the power of the State of Israel. We’re proud to build up the Land of Israel and we’re proud to strengthen settlement in all parts of our land,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The new community had received preliminary approval back in 2020.

Cities, towns and villages in southern

Since then, Israel has fought four wars against Hamas, in 2008-2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021, along with numerous smaller conflicts including against Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Late on Saturday night, Israeli air defense systems downed an unmanned aerial vehicle over the Gaza Strip.

The IDF did not provide further information regarding the operators of the drone, and notably did not conduct retaliatory strikes against Hamas military assets in the Gaza Strip, which has long been Jerusalem’s policy following rockets attacks and other violations of Israeli territory.

The incident comes after the IDF conducted strikes in Gaza overnight Wednesday in response to an earlier rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists. The IDF said that it struck a Hamas weapons manufacturing site and another facility

Bibi Visits Paris

While Macron met Netanyahu in Paris, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna flew to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. France is a major arms supplier to both countries, with Riyadh becoming the biggest purchaser of French weapons in 2020.

War of Words

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris. Following their meetings, Macron blasted Iran’s “headlong rush” to develop its nuclear program.

Netanyahu urged France to back enhanced sanctions against Iran and to increase deterrence against the Islamic Republic and its proxies during talks with Macron.

Macron noted “that Iranian support for Russian aggression in Ukraine exposes Iran to sanctions and increasing isolation,” according to the Elysee.

The meeting was the first between the two leaders since Netanyahu returned to power late last year.

Before taking off for Paris earlier Thursday, Netanyahu said that the focus of his conversations with Macron would be “our joint efforts to stop Iran’s aggression and its drive toward a nuclear weapon.”

Macron drove the conversation in another direction and pressed Netanyahu on rising violence between Israel and the Palestinians, urging Israel to avoid “any measures that could fuel the spiral of violence,” the palace said.

He also stressed France’s commitment to the “historic status quo at the Holy Places in Jerusalem” and its firm opposition to settlement building.

Macron’s office said before the get-together that the French leader would also “reiterate the need for all sides to avoid measures likely to feed the cycle of violence” between Israelis and Palestinians, while offering “France’s solidarity with Israel in the face of terrorism.”

France – a permanent member of the UN Security Council – is an important

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday night harshly criticized what he said was a “growing wave” of threats directed at himself and other officials, after a leader of the anti-government protests appeared to call for his assassination.

“It seemed that all boundaries had been crossed by threats against elected officials and myself, but this is not the case, because we have now heard and seen an explicit threat to murder the prime minister of Israel,” said Netanyahu in a statement.

Netanyahu’s remarks came after former Israeli Air Force pilot Ze’ev Raz wrote on Facebook on Friday, “If a prime minister rises and assumes dictatorial powers, he is a dead man, it’s that simple…. There’s an obligation to kill them.”

Raz, who flew one of the fighter jets that bombed Sadam Hussein’s nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, has long been a figurehead in the anti-Netanyahu protest movement.

“I know that there is a debate over what endangers democracy, but this is not something that is subject to dispute – this truly endangers democracy,” said Netanyahu on Saturday.

“I expect the law enforcement and security officials, who spoke out so clearly and sharply during the tenure of the previous government about phenomena that were much less serious, to come out – with the same severity and clarity

– against this. I expect the law enforcement officials to take immediate action against those who are inciting to murder, and I expect the leaders of the opposition to speak out as vigorously and as strongly as I did,” he added.

In response, police said on Saturday night that they had opened a probe into Raz on “suspicion of incitement and threats.”

Raz was questioned by police on Sunday.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said, “I instructed the police to treat incitement that comes from left in the same way as if it came from the right. If a ‘hilltop youth’ [in Judea and Samaria] had written similar or even less serious things than he would have been arrested and placed in a detention center.”

Tens of thousands demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Saturday night for the fifth consecutive week, ostensibly against the government’s judicial reform plan.

The proposal includes changing the way judges are selected so that the Knesset members will have majority say on the Judicial Selection Committee; passing an “override clause,” a law that would give legislators the power to reverse, or “override,” the Supreme Court when it strikes down laws; abolishing the le - gal justification of “reasonableness” by which the court can cancel Knesset decisions; and empowering ministers to hire and fire their own legal advisers.

Netanyahu has rejected as “baseless” claims by critics that the reforms would mark the end of the country’s democracy, and vowed to implement them “responsibly.”

“The truth is that the balance between the branches of government has been violated over the past two decades. This unusual phenomenon does not exist anywhere else in the world – not in the United States, not in Western Europe and not during Israel’s first 50 years of existence,” said Netanyahu. (JNS)

This is not the first time that China has sent a balloon to check out its nemesis across the ocean. Saturday’s balloon appears to be the fifth Chinese surveillance balloon detected over the continental United States since 2017, according to John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.

Chinese Spy Balloon

On Saturday, the United States fired a missile to destroy a Chinese surveillance balloon that could be seen flying over the U.S.

Three of those balloons crossed into U.S. territory during the Trump administration, and there was one previously during Joe Biden’s presidency. But each of those incursions “was for brief periods of time, nothing at all like what we saw last week.”

Donald Trump and several of his former intelligence chiefs have disputed the idea that surveillance balloons flew over the U.S. during his presidency, saying they were never briefed about anything like this.

Kirby appeared to confirm this Monday, telling reporters that the three breaches were only discovered after Trump left office.

“We have reached out to key officials from the previous administration and offered them briefings on the forensics that we did,” said Kirby, and will “walk them through what we learned.”

Kirby also revealed new information about the balloon itself, including that it had propellers.

“This balloon has the ability to maneuver itself, to speed up, or slow down and to turn, so it has propellers ... that allow it to change directions,” he said.

Flying 60,000 feet in the air, he said that the balloon did not have a steering system like a car or a plane.

The balloon itself was massive, about 200 feet tall, and the payload attached to it was similar in size to a regional jetliner, weighing more than 2,000 pounds.

China, on the other hand, has downplayed the balloon, saying that it was an errant weather balloon that had blown off course and then continued blowing off course directly across the entire United States.

The decision to shoot down the balloon was “unacceptable and irresponsible,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said at a news conference in Beijing on Monday.

On Monday, the U.S. military was still gathering debris from the balloon in shallow waters off the Carolina coast.

Republicans have been critical of the Biden administration for not shooting down the balloon earlier in the week. Kirby, in response, said the time during which the balloon floated over the continental United States presented the military and intelligence agencies with “a terrific opportunity” to collect intelligence.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to visit Beijing prior to this incident. That trip has been indefinitely postponed after the episode.

In the coming days, Biden administration officials will deliver a classified briefing on the balloon to members of the so-called Gang of Eight, the Republican and Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate, and the top two members of the Senate and House Intelligence committees.

Ilhan Omar Ousted from Committee

A divided House on Thursday ousted Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the Foreign Affairs Committee over past comments about Israel that were widely condemned as antisemitic. It was a 218211 party-line vote, with one Republican member voting “present.” cannot be an objective decision-maker on the Foreign Affairs Committee given her biases against Israel and the Jewish people.”

Republicans cited six statements that Omar, 40, made while in office that “under the totality of the circumstances, disqualify her from serving on the Committee of Foreign Affairs,” said Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.).

The committee’s chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), said he supported the resolution, telling reporters that Omar’s “worldview of Israel is so diametrically opposed to the committee’s.”

“I don’t mind having differences of opinion, but this goes beyond that.”

Omar was born in Somalia and is one of two Muslim women in the House. She and other Democrats insist that her ouster has nothing to do with her worldview; instead, they say that Omar was singled out because she was female, Muslim, and a person of color.

In 2021, Omar compared Israel to terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Taliban during a Foreign Affairs Committee hearing and decried America’s Middle Eastern ally as an “apartheid state.”

Omar defended herself on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” by saying she was unfamiliar with “tropes about Jews and money.”

“I certainly did not or was not aware that the word ‘hypnotized’ was a trope. I wasn’t aware of the fact that there are tropes about Jews and money. That has been a very enlightening part of this journey,” she said.

“All members, both Republicans and Democrats alike who seek to serve on Foreign Affairs, should be held to the highest standard of conduct due to the international sensitivity and national security concerns under the jurisdiction of this committee,” Guest noted.

The actual resolution, proposed by Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), read: “Omar’s comments have brought dishonor to the House of Representatives. Omar clearly

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DNY) called the vote “an extension” of the “disgusting legacies after 9/11 … the targeting and racism against Muslim Americans throughout the United States of America.”

“When you push power, power pushes back,” Omar said in her final statement before the vote, adding: “My voice will get louder and stronger, and my leadership will be celebrated around the world.”

The vote to remove Omar followed the move by GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to block Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both of California, from the House Intelligence Committee — as well as the removal of GOP Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia from their committees by Democrats in the last Congress.

“When a resolution was brought up to deal with this last time, she [Omar] never apologized,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told reporters after the vote. “They changed the resolution to say anti-Semitism is wrong.”

“We’re not removing her from other committees,” McCarthy added. “This is nothing like the last Congress where you move somebody from all committees.”

Miller’s resolution cited a tweet by Omar from February 2019 implying that American lawmakers who support Israel were paid by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — saying it’s “all about the Benjamins” — as well as a statement she made weeks later decrying “the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

The following month, Omar downplayed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, telling the Council on American-Islamic Relations that the organization was founded because “some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.”

U.S. Trade Deficit Rose in 2022

The overall U.S. trade deficit rose 12.2% last year, nearing $1 trillion as Americans continued to purchase record volumes of foreign products, according to data released Tuesday by the Commerce Department.

The goods and services deficit reached $948.1 billion, up $103 billion from the previous year.

Exports of goods and services rose 17.7% to $3 trillion, outpacing the growth of imports, which rose 16.3% to $4 trillion. Exports were buoyed last year by strong growth in U.S. energy shipments abroad after Europe cut many economic ties with Russia, as well as a recovery in the U.S. travel sector following the pandemic.

Trade between the United States and China also continued to grow, despite rising tensions between two of the world’s biggest economies that were further strained last week by the discovery of a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States.

The United States has been bringing in a smaller share of its imported goods from China in recent years, in part because of tariffs and other restrictions on trade. But overall U.S. trade with China reached a record last year. The U.S. trade deficit with China also grew to $382.9 billion, although it did not surpass previous records.

In December, U.S. exports fell slightly from the previous month to $250.2 billion, reflecting a slowing global economy. Imports edged up to $317.6 billion.

Economists and politicians have varying views about how much the trade deficit matters for the health of the U.S. economy. Some economists point out that the trade deficit tends to grow when the U.S. economy does, and Americans are more able to buy the goods and services they want from abroad. But many also worry that sustained trade deficits can result in lower employment and economic growth in the United States.

Regardless, when the Commerce Department calculates the gross domestic product, its measure of economic growth, it adds exports to the national figures for government and private investment and spending, and subtracts imports.

In the fourth quarter of last year, weak exports of goods weighed on the gross domestic product, even though imports also decreased. (© The New York Times)