RSS
Israel’s Reichman University Continues Despite War, Making Gaza Conflict Part of the Curriculum
Israeli soldiers drape their country’s flag over an IDF tank near the border with Gaza. Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
Despite the ongoing war in Gaza, the Raphael Recanati International School at Reichman University, in Herzliya, Israel, has been welcoming hundreds of international students for the new academic year. According to the school, 850 new students have begun studying since the Israel-Hamas war started.
The biggest international school in Israel, where studies are conducted in English, they have 2,500 students, 30 percent of whom come from a total of 86 countries around the world.
To incorporate the current war into the curriculum for students, the school established a new set of courses with the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism and the Institute for Policy and Strategy, both parts of the university. They offer students learning opportunities on the conflict in Gaza, particularly from the “framework of international relations and diplomacy studies.”
Reichman considers itself to be a strong Zionist university, boasting that roughly 70 percent of its international students end up moving to Israel. According to the school, some of the new war-related initiatives have focused on combating anti-Israel rhetoric online as well as boosting Israel’s image in international circles, an idea known as hasbara in Hebrew.
“These days the students of the international school are active on campus and most of them are in Israel, and that is why we are proud that they are here despite the war,” said Jonathan Davis, head of the university’s international school and vice president for external relations.
Davis added that the school is even helping farmers with their harvests — a volunteer activity that has become popular in Israel since the war, as many farms are heavily understaffed due to the lack of Palestinian or international workers since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.
“The war gave them values of Zionism, unity, responsibility, and independence that they never dreamed of,” Davis said of the students. “They explain that it is equivalent to another degree. I am especially proud these days of the hundreds of lone soldiers who are students at the international school who are recruited into the reserves and defend the country.”
The post Israel’s Reichman University Continues Despite War, Making Gaza Conflict Part of the Curriculum first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Kurdish-led SDF Say Five Members Killed During Attack by Islamic State in Syria
Islamic State slogans painted along the walls of the tunnel was used by Islamic State militants as an underground training camp in the hillside overlooking Mosul, Iraq, March 4, 2017. Photo: via Reuters Connect.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said on Sunday that five of its members had been killed during an attack by Islamic State militants on a checkpoint in eastern Syria’s Deir el-Zor on July 31.
The SDF was the main fighting force allied to the United States in Syria during fighting that defeated Islamic State in 2019 after the group declared a caliphate across swathes of Syria and Iraq.
The Islamic State has been trying to stage a comeback in the Middle East, the West and Asia. Deir el-Zor city was captured by Islamic State in 2014, but the Syrian army retook it in 2017.
RSS
Armed Groups Attack Security Force Personnel in Syria’s Sweida, Killing One, State TV Reports
People ride a motorcycle past a burned-out military vehicle, following deadly clashes between Druze fighters, Sunni Bedouin tribes, and government forces, in Syria’s predominantly Druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 25, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Armed groups attacked personnel from Syria’s internal security forces in Sweida, killing one member and wounding others, and fired shells at several villages in the violence-hit southern province, state-run Ekhbariya TV reported on Sunday.
The report cited a security source as saying the armed groups had violated the ceasefire agreed in the predominantly Druze region, where factional bloodshed killed hundreds of people last month.
Violence in Sweida erupted on July 13 between tribal fighters and Druze factions. Government forces were sent to quell the fighting, but the bloodshed worsened, and Israel carried out strikes on Syrian troops in the name of the Druze.
The Druze are a minority offshoot of Islam with followers in Syria, Lebanon and Israel. Sweida province is predominantly Druze but is also home to Sunni tribes, and the communities have had long-standing tensions over land and other resources.
A US-brokered truce ended the fighting, which had raged in Sweida city and surrounding towns for nearly a week. Syria said it would investigate the clashes, setting up a committee to investigate the attacks.
The Sweida bloodshed last month was a major test for interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a wave of sectarian violence in March that killed hundreds of Alawite citizens in the coastal region.
RSS
Netanyahu Urges Red Cross to Aid Gaza Hostages
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference, in Jerusalem, May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/Pool
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he spoke with the International Red Cross’s regional head, Julien Lerisson, and requested his involvement in providing food and medical care to hostages held in Gaza.