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Israeli Para-Athlete Quotes Bible After Wimbledon Victory, Declares ‘Long Live Israel’
Guy Sasson celebrates with an Israeli flag after winning bronze in the Paris 2024 Paralympics – Wheelchair Tennis – Men’s Quad Singles match on Sept. 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
Israeli para-athlete Guy Sasson and his Dutch partner Niels Vink won the Wimbledon quad wheelchair doubles tournament on Saturday, and in his post-game remarks, Sasson quoted the Torah and stated in Hebrew “Am Israel Chai” (“Long Live Israel”).
The duo beat South African Donald Ramphadi and Gregory Slade of Great Britain, sealing a 6-0, 6-2 victory in one hour and five minutes. Saturday’s win was Sasson’s first Wimbledon doubles victory. He and Vink won in the French Open (Roland-Garros) earlier this summer, and Sasson, 45, won the Australian Open in 2023 with Ramphadi.
Speaking live on BBC following the match, Sasson cited a Torah verse that references Operation Rising Lion, the name given to Israel’s large-scale military operation in Iran. The Olympic medalist said: “It’s a special sentence in Hebrew from the Bible: ‘The people shall rise as a great lion, and lift themself like as a young lion.’ Am Israel Chai. So, thank you very much and be strong.”
The quote is from the Book of Numbers 23:24. The full verse reads: “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, And drink the blood of the slain.”
Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu wrote part of the Torah verse on a note that he placed in Jerusalem’s Western Wall in June mere hours before the launch of Operation Rising Lion.
Sasson is currently ranked 3rd in the world in singles and doubles. He is paralyzed from the knees down following a snowboarding accident in France in 2015. He won a bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Saturday’s win gave Vink his 10th Quad Grand Slam title. “I’m very happy to win our first Wimbledon title together – this is my fourth straight Wimbledon title in a row, so it’s very special for me,” Vink said.
“It’s an amazing tournament and it’s a great feeling to be Wimbledon champion with Niels,” Sasson noted. “We started playing together this year. Being here at Wimbledon as the champions – I feel honored and lucky to be able to do it.”
The post Israeli Para-Athlete Quotes Bible After Wimbledon Victory, Declares ‘Long Live Israel’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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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.
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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.
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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.