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Despite Deadly Stabbing, Hopeful Signs for Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel
Then Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaks with Mansour Abbas, leader of the Islamist party Raam at the Knesset in Jerusalem, June 13, 2021. Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
Israeli soldier Uri Moyal’s visit to a café in southern Israel last Thursday ended up being his last.
While Moyal waited in line, Fadi Abu Altayef, from the nearby Bedouin city of Rahat, fatally stabbed the soldier from behind. With help from a bystander, Moyal shot Altayef dead before succumbing to his wounds. Moyal’s murder is an example of the worst in Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, but there have been many hopeful signs.
Altayef, 22, grew up in Gaza, where his parents currently reside. His father is from Gaza, but his mother is from Rahat in Israel. Under family reunification protocols, Israel granted Fadi citizenship in 2019 after he married a woman from Rahat. Fadi repaid that kindness by stabbing Israelis, but this extreme act represents a small minority of this minority community.
By contrast, fellow Rahat resident Ahmad Abu Latif, a reserve fighter in the Israel Defense Forces’ 8208 Battalion, was among the 21 soldiers killed in a building explosion in January in central Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a condolence visit to Ahmad’s family, and said, “Ahmad fell for the home of us all.” Countering initial reports that Fadi was his cousin, Ahmad’s family denied they were related and condemned the attack.
Since October 7, nine Israeli Arabs have made the ultimate sacrifice to defend Israel. During Hamas’ killing spree, the terrorist group killed more than 20 Israeli Bedouins and abducted another six. Ali Ziadna, whose family members are being held hostage in Gaza, confronted the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations on March 11, demanding their release.
Arab bravery was a bright spot on the Black Saturday, and — along with Hamas’ indiscriminate murder of Arabs and Jews — showed the shared fate of Israel’s citizens. Rahat bus driver Youssef Ziadna dodged bullets to rescue 30 Israelis from the killing fields. Ismail Alkrenawi and three relatives set out from Rahat to save his cousin Hisham, a worker at Kibbutz Be’eri. The Alkrenawis saved their relative and 30 to 40 Israelis fleeing the Supernova music festival. And Hamid from Arara, whose wife was murdered by Hamas that day, risked his life and that of his infant son to warn Israeli soldiers of a Hamas ambush.
Just after the October attacks, an Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) poll found that a record 70 percent of Israeli Arabs identified with Israel, up from 48 percent in June. And an IDI poll released on March 14 found significant increases in Israeli Arab faith in Israel’s institutions, including the army, between June and December 2023.
The high levels of connection to Israel are even more dramatic considering it was Israeli Arabs’ bloodiest year ever. According to a non-governmental organization focused on Israel’s Arab communities, 244 Israeli Arabs were killed in 2023. The deaths decreased sharply after the shock of October 7, but they did not disappear. While most of the killings were crime-related — they were not related to any acts of bias or hate — the violence has impacted innocent civilians. In separate incidents in 2022, stray bullets claimed the lives of two children on playgrounds.
A June 2023 survey found that 62 percent of Israeli Arab respondents were concerned for their personal security, but only 41 percent trusted the government’s ability to deal with the violence. Several factors contributed to the intolerable violence, including the preponderance of illegal weapons in Israel; the rise of Arab mafias following the decline of Jewish ones; financial challenges that have driven Israeli Arabs to rely on loan sharks; family honor murders; and Iran funneling weapons to Israeli Arabs to sow civil strife.
But while Israeli Arabs were reeling, they were also enjoying some incredible highs. Soccer-crazy Israel qualified for its first-ever Under-20 World Cup, eventually securing third place, a huge win for Israeli soccer. Israeli Arab Anan Khalaili scored the game-winning goal to send Israel to the quarterfinals, and he and Israeli Bedouin Hamza Shibli combined for two of Israel’s three goals to defeat powerhouse Brazil en route to the semis. The team served as a model for what can be achieved when Israel’s Arabs and Jews fight together instead of against each other.
The soccer success came not long after Israeli Arabs enjoyed unprecedented political success. From mid-2021 until the end of 2022, Mansour Abbas’ Ra’am party was part of the ruling coalition. Abbas’ pragmatic approach broke taboos among Israeli politicians that once blocked cooperating with Arab parties. He is committed to working within the Israeli political system to help his constituents, has rejected the canard of Israel practicing apartheid, and said that Hamas’ “massacre is against everything we believe in.”
But progress with Mansour Abbas has been mixed. Amid elevated Palestinian violence, Abbas’ inclusion in the Lapid-Bennett government became a vulnerability that helped lead to Netanyahu’s return. And a recent expose revealed that Ra’am promoted fundraising for a Hamas-tied charity, though Ra’am claimed it was unaware of the connection.
Jewish-Arab unity in Israel is a long and winding road. Much progress has been made, but much work remains.
David May is a research manager and senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a Washington, DC-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow David on X @DavidSamuelMay. Follow FDD on X @FDD.
The post Despite Deadly Stabbing, Hopeful Signs for Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Says Missile Launched by Yemen’s Houthis ‘Most Likely’ Intercepted
Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi addresses followers via a video link at the al-Shaab Mosque, formerly al-Saleh Mosque, in Sanaa, Yemen, Feb. 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
The Israeli army said on Saturday that a missile fired from Yemen towards Israeli territory had been “most likely successfully intercepted,” while Yemen’s Houthi forces claimed responsibility for the launch.
Israel has threatened Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement – which has been attacking Israel in what it says is solidarity with Gaza – with a naval and air blockade if its attacks on Israel persist.
The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group was responsible for Saturday’s attack, adding that it fired a missile towards the southern Israeli city of Beersheba.
Since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis, who control most of Yemen, have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
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Iran Holds Funeral for Commanders and Scientists Killed in War with Israel
People attend the funeral procession of Iranian military commanders, nuclear scientists and others killed in Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, June 28, 2025. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Large crowds of mourners dressed in black lined streets in Iran’s capital Tehran as the country held a funeral on Saturday for top military commanders, nuclear scientists and some of the civilians killed during this month’s aerial war with Israel.
At least 16 scientists and 10 senior commanders were among those mourned at the funeral, according to state media, including armed forces chief Major General Mohammad Bagheri, Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami, and Guards Aerospace Force chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh.
Their coffins were driven into Tehran’s Azadi Square adorned with their photos and national flags, as crowds waved flags and some reached out to touch the caskets and throw rose petals onto them. State-run Press TV showed an image of ballistic missiles on display.
Mass prayers were later held in the square.
State TV said the funeral, dubbed the “procession of the Martyrs of Power,” was held for a total of 60 people killed in the war, including four women and four children.
In attendance were President Masoud Pezeshkian and other senior figures including Ali Shamkhani, who was seriously wounded during the conflict and is an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as well as Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
“Today, Iranians, through heroic resistance against two regimes armed with nuclear weapons, protected their honor and dignity, and look to the future prouder, more dignified, and more resolute than ever,” Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who also attended the funeral, said in a Telegram post.
There was no immediate statement from Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly since the conflict began. In past funerals, he led prayers over the coffins of senior commanders ahead of public ceremonies broadcast on state television.
Israel launched the air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as well as civilians in the worst blow to the Islamic Republic since the 1980s war with Iraq.
Iran retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites, infrastructure and cities. The United States entered the war on June 22 with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
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Israel, the only Middle Eastern country widely believed to have nuclear weapons, said it aimed to prevent Tehran from developing its own nuclear weapons.
Iran denies having a nuclear weapons program. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has said it has “no credible indication” of an active, coordinated weapons program in Iran.
Bagheri, Salami and Hajizadeh were killed on June 13, the first day of the war. Bagheri was being buried at the Behesht Zahra cemetery outside Tehran mid-afternoon on Saturday. Salami and Hajizadeh were due to be buried on Sunday.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would consider bombing Iran again, while Khamenei, who has appeared in two pre-recorded video messages since the start of the war, has said Iran would respond to any future US attack by striking US military bases in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli military official said on Friday that Israel had delivered a “major blow” to Iran’s nuclear project. On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said in a statement that Israel and the US “failed to achieve their stated objectives” in the war.
According to Iranian health ministry figures, 610 people were killed on the Iranian side in the war before a ceasefire went into effect on Tuesday. More than 4,700 were injured.
Activist news agency HRANA put the number of killed at 974, including 387 civilians.
Israel’s health ministry said 28 were killed in Israel and 3,238 injured.
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Pro-Palestinian Rapper Leads ‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at English Music festival
Revellers dance as Avril Lavigne performs on the Other Stage during the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm, in Pilton, Somerset, Britain, June 30, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
i24 News – Chants of “death to the IDF” were heard during the English Glastonbury music festival on Saturday ahead of the appearance of the pro-Palestinian Irish rappers Kneecap.
One half of punk duo based Bob Vylan (who both use aliases to protect their privacy) shouted out during a section of their show “Death to the IDF” – the Israeli military. Videos posted on X (formerly Twitter) show the crowd responding to and repeating the cheer.
This comes after officials had petitioned the music festival to drop the band. The rap duo also expressed support for the following act, Kneecap, who the BCC refused to show live after one of its members, Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – better known by stage name Mo Chara – was charged with a terror offense.
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