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Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis: Multi-Front Terror Assault Impacting Israeli Food Security, Expert Warns
Smoke rises as seen from the Israel-Lebanon border in northern Israel, Nov. 12, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza to the south, together with the ongoing clashes with Hezbollah to the north and Houthi rebels attacking Red Sea shipping from Yemen, has created an impending food security crisis for the Jewish state, according to an expert who spoke to The Algemeiner.
“Israel is heavily reliant on imports for highly consumed food such as beef and fish … More than 70 percent of our food is imported by sea, as well as 85 percent of beef,” said Alla Voldman-Rantzer, vice president of strategy at the Good Food Institute (GFI) in Israel, which is part of an international nonprofit aimed towards building a sustainable, healthy, and just food system.
The institute, explained Voldman-Rantzer, works to “bring forward technology that assists with alternative forms of beef, chicken, fish, and eggs.” Its work has played a role in the growing alternative meat sector, of which Israel is a major global player, birthing companies such as Aleph Farms and Redefine Meat. GFI provides scientific resources for researchers, investors, and startups, all with the common goal of “making Israel a leader” in the food production space and improving the country’s overall food security — defined as a country’s ability to provide adequate access of nutritious and sufficient food to its population.
However, the war in Gaza sparked by the Hamas terror group’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel has presented a direct threat to that vision.
“The ongoing war has created a serious crisis,” she said, noting that Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who control much of Yemen including the capital, have since October attacked several ships in the Red Sea they say have Israeli links or are sailing to Israel, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
The rebel movement — whose slogan is “death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, and victory to Islam” — has also claimed responsibility for attempted drone and missile strikes targeting Israel itself.
As a result of the Red Sea attacks, a number of major shipping lines have announced they would forgo the vital trade route and instead opt for a longer, pricier journey around Africa.
The result, said Voldman-Rantzer, is “higher prices and lower supply” for the Israeli consumer.
Her organization has also been urging the Israeli government to make sure plans are made before a potential full-scale war opens up in the north with Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed terror group based in Lebanon. The Israel-Lebanon border has seen intense fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces since Oct. 7.
Such instability at Israel’s borders poses a threat to food that’s not only imported but also grown domestically.
“Most of Israel’s farms are located in the periphery areas, outside of the center of the country … [and] the periphery is very unstable,” she explained.
According to government statistics, roughly 75 percent of all of the country’s crops are grown in the areas around the Gaza border. In the north, meanwhile, it is estimated by the Agricultural Ministry that 70 percent of the eggs originate from areas under risk or evacuated due to Hezbollah rocket fire.
Israel generally has a strong agricultural sector, with a majority of the country’s fruits and vegetables grown domestically — although with out-of-season products imported.
Due to the war, however, many of these farms have been left desolate with crops completely abandoned. Those that are possible to be harvested have been heavily burdened by the fact that Palestinian and foreign laborers are not working.
Palestinian workers have not been allowed in Israel since Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas invaded the Jewish state on Oct. 7 and massacred 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The terrorists also abducted 240 people as hostages back to Hamas-ruled Gaza. Meanwhile, many foreign workers have returned to their countries of origin since the outbreak of the war — for example, the more than 25,000 Thai workers in Israel before Oct. 7 has dwindled significantly.
Many Israelis have tried to fill the gap, but it may not be enough to ensure the security of the country’s food supply, which according to Voldman-Rantzer must “be addressed urgently.”
“The Agriculture Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the government … everyone is saying a lot but no one party has stepped to the plate to make a difference,” she said.
The GFI is hoping the government creates an emergency plan to address food security — a step that critics say is long overdue, noting Israel is the only member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) without one.
According to Voldman-Rantzer, it is essential for Israel to “strengthen the resilience of the food industry.”
The post Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis: Multi-Front Terror Assault Impacting Israeli Food Security, Expert Warns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Says Iran Must Give Up Dream of Nuclear Weapon or Face Harsh Response
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
President Donald Trump said on Monday he believes Iran is intentionally delaying a nuclear deal with the United States and that it must abandon any drive for a nuclear weapon or face a possible military strike on Tehran’s atomic facilities.
“I think they’re tapping us along,” Trump told reporters after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Oman on Saturday with a senior Iranian official.
Both Iran and the United States said on Saturday that they held “positive” and “constructive” talks in Oman. A second round is scheduled for Saturday, and a source briefed on the planning said the meeting was likely to be held in Rome.
The source, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the discussions are aimed at exploring what is possible, including a broad framework of what a potential deal would look like.
“Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Asked if US options for a response include a military strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said: “Of course it does.”
Trump said the Iranians need to move fast to avoid a harsh response because “they’re fairly close” to developing a nuclear weapon.
The US and Iran held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden’s term but they made little, if any progress. The last known direct negotiations between the two governments were under then-President Barack Obama, who spearheaded the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned.
The post Trump Says Iran Must Give Up Dream of Nuclear Weapon or Face Harsh Response first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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No Breakthrough in Gaza Talks, Egyptian and Palestinian Sources Say
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas gather to demand a deal that will bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, outside a meeting between hostage representatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The latest round of talks in Cairo to restore the defunct Gaza ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said on Monday.
The sources said Hamas had stuck to its position that any agreement must lead to an end to the war in Gaza.
Israel, which restarted its military campaign in Gaza last month after a ceasefire agreed in January unraveled, has said it will not end the war until Hamas is stamped out. The terrorist group has ruled out any proposal that it lay down its arms.
But despite that fundamental disagreement, the sources said a Hamas delegation led by the group’s Gaza Chief Khalil Al-Hayya had shown some flexibility over how many hostages it could free in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should a truce be extended.
An Egyptian source told Reuters the latest proposal to extend the truce would see Hamas free an increased number of hostages. Israeli minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Army Radio on Monday that Israel was seeking the release of around 10 hostages, raised from previous Hamas consent to free five.
Hamas has asked for more time to respond to the latest proposal, the Egyptian source said.
“Hamas has no problem, but it wants guarantees Israel agrees to begin the talks on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement” leading to an end to the war, the Egyptian source said.
AIRSTRIKES
Hamas terrorists freed 33 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire which began in January. But the second phase, which was meant to begin at the start of March and lead to the end of the war, was never launched.
Meanwhile, 59 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of the terrorists. Israel believes up to 24 of them are alive.
Palestinians say the wave of Israeli attacks since the collapse of the ceasefire has been among the deadliest and most intense of the war, hitting an exhausted population surviving in the enclave’s ruins.
In Jabalia, a community on Gaza’s northern edge, rescue workers in orange vests were trying to smash through concrete with a sledgehammer to recover bodies buried underneath a building that collapsed in an Israeli strike.
Feet and a hand of one person could be seen under a concrete slab. Men carried a body wrapped in a blanket. Workers at the scene said as many as 25 people had been killed.
The Israeli military said it had struck there against terrorists planning an ambush.
In Khan Younis in the south, a camp of makeshift tents had been shredded into piles of debris by an airstrike. Families had returned to poke through the rubbish in search of belongings.
“We used to live in houses. They were destroyed. Now, our tents have been destroyed too. We don’t know where to stay,” said Ismail al-Raqab, who returned to the area after his family fled the raid before dawn.
EGYPT’S SISI MEETS QATARI EMIR
The leaders of the two Arab countries that have led the ceasefire mediation efforts, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, met in Doha on Sunday. The Egyptian source said Sisi had called for additional international guarantees for a truce agreement, beyond those provided by Egypt and Qatar themselves.
US President Donald Trump, who has backed Israel’s decision to resume its campaign and called for the Palestinian population of Gaza to leave the territory, said last week that progress was being made in returning the hostages.
The post No Breakthrough in Gaza Talks, Egyptian and Palestinian Sources Say first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iranian Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow Ahead of Second Iran-US Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks as he meets with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein, in Baghdad, Iraq October 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Saad/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit Russia this week ahead of a planned second round of talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at resolving Iran’s decades-long nuclear stand-off with the West.
Araqchi and US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Oman on Saturday, during which Omani envoy Badr al-Busaidi shuttled between the two delegations sitting in different rooms at his palace in Muscat.
Both sides described the talks in Oman as “positive,” although a senior Iranian official told Reuters the meeting “was only aimed at setting the terms of possible future negotiations.”
Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italy had agreed to host the talks’ second round, and Iraq’s state news agency said Araqchi told his Iraqi counterpart that talks would be held “soon” in the Italian capital under Omani mediation.
Tehran has approached the talks warily, doubting the likelihood of an agreement and suspicious of Trump, who has threatened to bomb Iran if there is no deal.
Washington aims to halt Tehran’s sensitive uranium enrichment work – regarded by the United States, Israel and European powers as a path to nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for civilian energy production.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Araqchi will “discuss the latest developments related to the Muscat talks” with Russian officials.
Moscow, a party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact, has supported Tehran’s right to have a civilian nuclear program.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on vital state matters, distrusts the United States, and Trump in particular.
But Khamenei has been forced to engage with Washington in search of a nuclear deal due to fears that public anger at home over economic hardship could erupt into mass protests and endanger the existence of the clerical establishment, four Iranian officials told Reuters in March.
Tehran’s concerns were exacerbated by Trump’s speedy revival of his “maximum pressure” campaign when he returned to the White House in January.
During his first term, Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic regime.
Since 2019, Iran has far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on uranium enrichment, producing stocks at a high level of fissile purity, well above what Western powers say is justifiable for a civilian energy program and close to that required for nuclear warheads.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has raised the alarm regarding Iran’s growing stock of 60% enriched uranium, and reported no real progress on resolving long-running issues, including the unexplained presence of uranium traces at undeclared sites.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi will visit Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian media reported, in an attempt to narrow gaps between Tehran and the agency over unresolved issues.
“Continued engagement and cooperation with the agency is essential at a time when diplomatic solutions are urgently needed,” Grossi said on X on Monday.
The post Iranian Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow Ahead of Second Iran-US Meeting first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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