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Waiting for War in Haifa: The Abandonment of Israel’s Northern Communities
Metula. Shlomi. Kiriyat Shmona. Margaliot. These were small, quaint towns before October 7, 2023. Today, they are barren landscapes, where abandoned farms are inhabited only by livestock and chickens. The people are almost all gone. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee.
Since October 8, the Iranian proxy Hezbollah has been attacking Israeli communities and military posts along the border on a near-daily basis, and an eerie quiet has replaced the hustle and flow of everyday life.
But Hezbollah isn’t content with merely destabilizing the border communities. Since Jerusalem’s muted response to Iran’s unprecedented April 14 attack on Israel — when Tehran launched more than 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at population centers all over the Jewish State – the Lebanon-based terrorist organization has steadily expanded the depth and scope of its operations.
On June 2, a barrage of rockets launched by Hezbollah at Katzrin, the largest Israeli community in the Golan Heights, set off dozens of wildfires that engulfed 2,500 acres of land. On June 5, the Iranian proxy wounded at least 11 people in an armed drone attack on the Druze Arab village of Hurfeish.
Israel’s reaction to this escalation has been to try and contain the growing Hezbollah threat with strong words and predictable action.
Israel was prepared for “very intense action in the north,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi added that the military is “approaching a decision point.”
Despite the pledges to act, Israel’s attempted containment of Hezbollah — the same failed policy implemented for years to cope with Hamas until October 7 — has little support up north. A growing number of towns, ones that don’t share a border with Lebanon, are now being bombed.
Israelis sitting in front of their television screens see that the Home Front Command’s list of areas where red alert alarms are activated is increasing daily.
And with Hezbollah’s theater of operations expanding, Israeli territory is effectively shrinking.
As a result, many residents of Haifa — Israel’s third largest city with a population of close to 300,000 — believe that it’s only a matter of time before they are ordered to evacuate their homes.
I moved to Haifa with my wife and four children from Jerusalem two years ago. The skyrocketing cost of living in Israel’s capital, the city’s limited job base, and the eternally expanding real estate bubble in Jerusalem forced our family’s hand.
We got a second lease on life when we moved to Haifa. It’s a lovely place on the Mediterranean Sea, where Jews, Arabs, and Christians intermingle easily. People here are grounded by the things that matter in the long run: earning a living, supporting their families, enjoying an occasional day at the beach, and planning for the future.
If Jerusalem is where tensions always seem to be at a boiling point, our city is where you can get away from it all by visiting the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa if you’re into archeology, exploring the gorgeous Baha’i Gardens, or taking in the stunning view of Israel’s largest port from Louis Promenade on Mount Carmel.
But Haifa is now the next in line to be attacked by Hezbollah. Ours is a life being lived in limbo. We continue to work. Our children continue to go to school. But the red alerts are multiplying: my cousin living in the northern coastal city of Nahariya — about a 30-minute drive from Haifa — now regularly hears bombs overhead, forcing her and her family to run to their home’s safe room; my wife and her workplace colleagues in Acre — 25 minutes by car from where we live — are constantly hearing sirens; virtually every afternoon, my kids come home from school with updates about another classmate whose father has been called up for a second tour of reserve duty — this time in the north.
We have entered a period of threat and waiting. This is similar to the “Waiting Period” (hamtanah in Hebrew) that Israelis lived through two generations ago. During the three weeks of the hamtanah in 1967, Arab nations promised to annihilate Israel. Jerusalem mobilized the country’s reserves. Israeli morale plummeted, catalyzing a political crisis that led to the formation of Israel’s first unity government on the day before the war.
Today, it’s a bit less than three weeks before Tisha B’Av, an annual day of mourning for tragedies that have occurred across Jewish history.
The hamtanah ended when Israel responded to the imminent threat to its survival by launching a pre-emptive strike that led to victory in the 1967 war of annihilation that was about to be launched against it. At the time, the Israeli strike destroyed more than 90 percent of Egypt’s air force. A similar air assault knocked out the Syrian air force.
Today, Israeli leaders are considering whether they should launch a pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah. Many believe they should.
Based on Hezbollah’s modus operandi, anything short of a rapid reestablishment of the preemption doctrine could well lead to Israel having to abandon the Galilee and other parts of the north. At this rate, people will soon be talking about a Kfar Saba envelope in addition to the one in Gaza.
It would be a damned shame to have to leave it all behind.
Gidon Ben-Zvi is an accomplished writer who left Los Angeles for Jerusalem in 2009. After serving in an Israel Defense Forces infantry unit from 1994-1997, Ben-Zvi returned to the United States before settling in Israel, where he and his wife are raising their four children.
The post Waiting for War in Haifa: The Abandonment of Israel’s Northern Communities first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Trump Fires Doug Emhoff, Other Biden Appointees From Holocaust Memorial Council
Former US Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff listens during a panel discussion with women entrepreneurs during his visit to Mi Casa Resource Center in Denver, Colorado, US, March 11, 2022. Photo: Jason Connolly/Pool via REUTERS
The Trump administration has dismissed many of former President Joe Biden’s appointees to the board that oversees the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, including Douglas Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Emhoff, who is Jewish and served as second gentleman of the US from 2021 to early 2025, lashed out at President Donald Trump’s decision to fire him and others appointed by Biden from the board, arguing his removal was political and undermined the mission of Holocaust remembrance.
“Today, I was informed of my removal from the United States Holocaust Memorial Council,” Emhoff said in a statement on Tuesday. “Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized. To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”
Emhoff has been outspoken against antisemitism. He became more outspoken about his Jewish identity in the aftermath of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel.
Beyond Emhoff, the Trump team also removed other members of the Biden administration, including Ron Klain, Biden’s first chief of staff; Tom Perez, former labor secretary and senior adviser to the president; Susan Rice, who served as Biden’s top domestic policy adviser; and Anthony Bernal, a senior adviser to former First Lady Jill Biden.
The Biden White House announced their appointments in January. Presidential appointments typically last 5 years.
“President Trump looks forward to appointing new individuals who will not only continue to honor the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust, but who are also steadfast supporters of the State of Israel,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Former US Rep. David Cicilline (D-MD), a member of the board who was also dismissed Tuesday, called Trump’s decision “deeply disappointing.”
“The museum’s work has always been nonpartisan and should remain so. It is meant to challenge us all to think critically and clearly about our role in society, to confront antisemitism and all other forms of hate,” he continued.
Since returning to the White House in January, the Trump administration has moved to overhaul cultural institutions under the administration of the federal government. In February, Trump fired the entire board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and installed himself as the new chairman. In March, Trump signed an executive order mandating a review of the programming offered in the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The post Trump Fires Doug Emhoff, Other Biden Appointees From Holocaust Memorial Council first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Netanyahu to Visit Azerbaijan in Effort to Deepen Strategic Ties Amid Regional Tensions
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Photo: Facebook.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Azerbaijan next Wednesday for a five-day visit to meet with President Ilham Aliyev and further strengthen bilateral cooperation amid regional tensions.
Netanyahu’s trip, facilitated by Baku’s mediation that led Turkey to approve his transit through Turkish airspace, comes just days after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Azerbaijan amid ongoing nuclear negotiations with the United States.
Last year, Turkey barred Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s aircraft from flying over its territory, which prevented him from attending the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku.
During the upcoming visit, Netanyahu and Aliyev are expected to address Turkey’s role in Syria and the recent Israeli-Turkish discussions held in Baku, focused on avoiding potential clashes or misunderstandings over military operations in the region.
Scheduled from May 7 to May 11, Netanyahu’s visit will also include a series of high-level meetings focused on strengthening Israeli-Azerbaijani relations, covering areas such as defense cooperation, energy, trade, and regional security. The Israeli leader will also meet with representatives of Azerbaijan’s Jewish community.
Azerbaijan’s ties with Israel have long been significant, with the country serving as the Jewish state’s most vital ally in the Caucasus and Central Asia for more than three decades, fostering a partnership that spans energy security, defense, and intelligence.
As a predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country that shares a lengthy border with Iran while maintaining strong ties with both Israel and Turkey, Azerbaijan holds a unique strategic advantage in stabilizing regional tensions and supporting efforts to normalize relations.
Earlier this month, for example, Azerbaijan positioned itself as a regional mediator by hosting talks between Turkish and Israeli officials in Baku, aimed at preventing unintended incidents in Syria, where both countries maintain a military presence.
“Azerbaijan plays a unique role in Israel’s broader strategy by serving as a potential bridge for normalizing relations between the Jewish State and other Muslim-majority countries,” Rabbi Marc Schneier, president of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, told The Algemeiner in an exclusive interview.
He explained that Baku has contributed to regional normalization efforts in the past, notably by facilitating the restoration of full diplomatic ties between Turkey and Israel in 2022, even though the relationship between the two countries has since gone downhill.
According to Schneier, as a strong ally of both Jerusalem and Ankara, Azerbaijan is well-positioned to mediate further diplomatic breakthroughs.
Baku’s strategic importance stems not only from its role at the crossroads of a growing pro-Western bloc countering the regional ambitions of Iran, but also from its economic influence in the region.
Azerbaijan and Israel have continued to expand their cooperation and strengthen their bilateral ties, especially in the energy sector, highlighting the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim country’s emerging role as a strategic player in the Middle East.
Earlier this year, Jerusalem and Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, struck a major energy deal. In March, SOCAR also signed a gas exploration license agreement with the Jewish state.
As of 2019, Azerbaijan supplied over a third of Israel’s oil. Last year, Jerusalem was the sixth-biggest buyer of oil from Baku, with sales totaling $713 million.
Meanwhile, Azerbaijan has acquired advanced Israeli defense systems, including the “Barak MX” missile system and surveillance satellites, and remains a leading buyer of Israeli military hardware, which was crucial in its 2020 war with Armenia.
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UK Prosecutors Say Knifeman Who Tried to Enter Israeli Embassy Carried ‘Martyrdom Note’
Illustrative: A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
A man armed with two knives who tried to enter the grounds of Israel‘s London embassy was carrying a “martyrdom note” and told police he wanted to send a message to end the war in Gaza, prosecutors said after charging him with a terrorism offence.
Abdullah Sabah Albadri, 33, appeared in the dock at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, having been charged with preparation of a terrorist act and two counts of possession of a bladed article.
He is accused of having attempted to gain unauthorized access to the grounds of the embassy in West London on Monday evening.
Prosecutor Kristel Pous said Albadri had been seen by police trying to scale a wall outside the embassy on April 28.
Albadri was carrying what Pous described as a martyrdom note, without giving further details. She said Albadri had told police officers he wanted to “do something to send a message to the Israeli government to stop the war” in Gaza.
Judge Tan Ikram remanded Albadri in custody ahead of a hearing on May 7, to give prosecutors the chance to get the Attorney General’s consent to proceed with the terrorism charge.
“We remain in close contact with those based at the Embassy of Israel and we appreciate that these charges will be concerning to them,” Commander Dominic Murphy, head of London police’s Counter Terrorism Command, said in an earlier statement.
“I would like to reassure the public, however, that from our enquiries so far, we are not seeking anyone else in connection with this matter and we do not believe there is any wider threat to the public.”
The Israeli embassy said in a statement that British security forces had prevented “an attempted terror attack” from a man armed with a knife, and no staff or visitors had been injured.
“We thank the British security forces for their immediate response and ongoing efforts to secure the embassy,” the statement posted on X said.
“The embassy of Israel will not be deterred by any terror threat and will continue to represent Israel with pride in the UK.”
The Community Security Trust, which provides safety advice to Britain’s Jewish communities, said it was speaking to police but was not aware of any related threats.
The post UK Prosecutors Say Knifeman Who Tried to Enter Israeli Embassy Carried ‘Martyrdom Note’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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