Uncategorized
Team Israel loses 11-5 to Miami Marlins in pre-World Baseball Classic exhibition game
JUPITER, Florida (JTA) — In the squad’s first-ever exhibition game against an MLB team, Team Israel lost 11-5 against the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night in a tuneup before the World Baseball Classic.
Israel had taken a 5-2 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning, but the Marlins scored three runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to tie and subsequently take control of the game. Miami added on three more runs in the bottom of the eighth.
It was Israel manager Ian Kinsler’s first baseball game as a coach. He previously played for the team after a 14-year MLB career, which included four All-Star seasons.
“It was great,” Kinsler told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the game. “I thought we played really well. Kind of started a little shaky but through the first five we played a really good game offensively, swung the bats well and then the game kind of got away from us. But overall, I was pretty happy with it.”
Veteran minor leaguer Ty Kelly rebounded from a two-error first inning to crack two hits, including a two-run double, and scored a run. Garrett Stubbs, a backup catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies who played his first-ever game at third base, and Alex Dickerson, a veteran big-league outfielder, each drove in a run as well.
Longtime Team Israel player Ryan Lavarnway, who has played as a catcher in the minor league organizations of several MLB teams, also recorded a hit. He said finding a rhythm as a team — and not getting hurt — are his top priorities.
“Playing for this team is super meaningful to me,” he said after the game. “It’s been really life changing. And I hope that this next generation of players that are new to this team takes the baton, and it means as much to them as it’s meant to us.”
RELATED: Team Israel is playing in the 2023 World Baseball Classic. Here’s what to watch for.
Ten pitchers took the mound for Israel, each for one inning or less. Shlomo Lipetz, the 44-year-old native Israeli, gave up three runs in the bottom of the sixth after entering the game with the bases loaded.
For many of the team’s players, it was their first taste of a Major League Baseball game.
“I can remember my first time,” Kinsler said. “It’s always extremely fun and a little bit eye-opening, but they need to get used to it quick because when we get to Miami it’s going to be packed and it’s going to be loud.”
Israel will take on the Washington Nationals in another exhibition game tonight in West Palm Beach. Longtime Nationals owner Ted Lerner, who died last month, will be honored prior to the game.
Israel’s first official WBC game is Sunday at 12 p.m. ET against Nicaragua.
—
The post Team Israel loses 11-5 to Miami Marlins in pre-World Baseball Classic exhibition game appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Uncategorized
IDF Nabs Islamic State Terror Suspect in Syria
Guns seized in the course of the operation. Photo: IDF Spokesperson via i24
i24 News – Israel Defense Forces soldiers conducted an operation on Wednesday in the area of Rafid in southern Syria to apprehend a suspected terrorist affiliated with ISIS, the military spokesperson said on Saturday.
The announcement comes as Washington announced a major operation to eliminated Islamic State terrorists in Syria after three Americans lost their lives in a jihadist attack in Palmyra.
The Israeli soldiers completed the operation in Syria “in cooperation with IDF intelligence,” the statement read, adding that “the suspect was transferred for further processing in Israeli territory.”
Additionally, during the operation, weapons were found and seized.
IDF troops “continue to remain deployed along the Golan Heights border in order to protect the State of Israel and its citizens,” the statement from the spokesperson concluded.
Uncategorized
Report: Trump Admin Envisions Transformation of Gaza into Chic High-Tech Metropolis
US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – The US administration of President Trump vision for the future of Gaza has it transformed into a high-end high-tech hub of luxury and innovation, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
A team of officials understood to be led by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff developed a draft proposal to convert the war-ravaged Palestinian territory into a glittering metropolis, propelling Gazans from poverty to prosperity.
US officials with familiarity with the plan—pitched to foreign governments and delegations as a PowerPoint presentation— are cited in the report as saying that, understandable open-endedness of a project in its early phase notwithstanding, the blueprint has many lacunae and leaves crucial questions unanswered.
Critics cite the plan’s silence on the thorny question of disarming Hamas, the Islamist terror group that ruled Gaza for the past 15 years, and initiated the cross-border incursion and massacre of Israelis on October 7, 2023; the attack launched the devastating war that has left much of the coastal territory in ruins.
The plan’s projected cost is put at $112.1 billion over 10 years, with Washington prepared to commit support to the tune of some $60 billion in grants and guarantees on debt for “all the contemplated workstreams” in that time period.
The question of where two million Gazans would reside during the costly and lengthy rebuilding is also left unaddressed, it is understood.
Similar-sounding plans have been mooted by the Trump administration even before it managed to broker a ceasefire in October that paused the two year-long war.
Uncategorized
Lebanon Close to Completing Disarmament of Hezbollah South of Litani River, Says PM
FILE PHOTO: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam speaks to journalists at the government headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, December 3, 2025. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir/File Photo
Lebanon is close to completing the disarmament of Hezbollah south of the Litani River, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Saturday, as the country races to fulfil a key demand of its ceasefire with Israel before a year-end deadline.
The US-backed ceasefire, agreed in November 2024, ended more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and required the disarmament of the Iran-aligned terrorirst group, starting in areas south of the river adjacent to Israel.
Lebanese authorities, led by President Joseph Aoun and Salam, tasked the US-backed Lebanese army on August 5 with devising a plan to establish a state monopoly on arms by the end of the year.
“Prime Minister Salam affirmed that the first phase of the weapons consolidation plan related to the area south of the Litani River is only days away from completion,” a statement from his office said.
“The state is ready to move on to the second phase – namely (confiscating weapons) north of the Litani River – based on the plan prepared by the Lebanese army pursuant to a mandate from the government,” Salam added.
The statement came after Salam held talks with Simon Karam, Lebanon’s top civilian negotiator on a committee overseeing the Hezbollah-Israel truce.
Since the ceasefire, the sides have regularly accused each other of violations, with Israel questioning the Lebanese army’s efforts to disarm Hezbollah. Israeli warplanes have increasingly targeted Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and even in the capital.
Hezbollah, a Shi’ite Muslim group, has tried to resist the pressure – from its mainly Christian and Sunni Muslim opponents in Lebanon as well as from the US and Saudi Arabia – to disarm, saying it would be a mistake while Israel continues its air strikes on the country.
Israel has publicly urged Lebanese authorities to fulfil the conditions of the truce, saying it will act “as necessary” if Lebanon fails to take steps against Hezbollah.