| World News |
| Hegseth says US is not ruling out military force against Iran |
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US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says President Donald Trump’s administration is not ruling out using military force against Iran, even as Washington unveiled an “economic D-Day” sanctions regime against Tehran. “By no means are we foreclosing using kinetic strikes anywhere in the Strait of Hormuz or around Iran,” Hegseth tells reporters, adding that Iran cannot handle the economic pressure being put on it. |
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| Israel News |
| Netanyahu hails locating of Irgun arms ship Altalena, denounces Ben-Gurion for attacking it in 1948, highlights Israelis’ shared fate |
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hails the locating of the Altalena, and vows to raise the ship — sunk amid a deadly 1948 confrontation between Israel’s nascent army and the right-wing Irgun militia — out of the water. He says the incident — the most prominent instance of violent conflict between Jews during Israel’s War of Independence — shows the danger of civil war, but also denigrates his political opponents and ends his statement with a campaign pledge. In a prerecorded video shot on the Tel Aviv promenade overlooking the beach, Netanyahu reopens the bitter wound over first prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s decision to attack the ship, denouncing Ben-Gurion’s “tragic decision to open fire” on the vessel “bringing essential weapons to our fighters in the War of Independence.” “Instead of letting it unload,” he laments, “the Haganah men on the beach opened fire.” Sixteen Irgun members and three IDF soldiers were killed during the sinking of the Altalena. The incident on the shore of Tel Aviv is viewed by many on Israel’s right as an injustice and has since become a rallying cry for them about the dangers of internal conflict and violence, and about the ostensible perfidy of the political left. “Brothers killed brothers” off the coast of Tel Aviv when “the Altalena went up in flames,” Netanyahu says. Irgun leader Menachem Begin “stopped the fight” and pledged that “we are not going to have civil war,” Netanyahu recalls. “That’s the lesson of the Altalena.” The ship was located early this morning by divers following a yearslong effort funded by the government. Netanyahu says he spearheaded that effort and says he will now order that the ship be raised from the water. “For me, and I am certain for you as well, citizens of Israel, this is an exciting moment, a defining moment,” he says. “I promise one more thing: To raise [the ship] from the depths of the sea so that it will be a tangible symbol for our generation and generations to come.” Experts have said raising the ship will be difficult and costly, and may prove impossible. Netanyahu praises the Irgun fighters for not escalating the gunfight to a civil war, and for going on to fight in the War of Independence. He notes that he attends the yearly ceremony commemorating the Altalena’s victims at the site, and criticizes opponents of his for protesting at the event. |
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| Kite flown from Gaza again lands in Israeli border kibbutz, local official says |
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Another kite apparently flown from the Gaza Strip landed in Kibbutz Nahal Oz a short while ago, local authorities say. “The additional kite discovered in Nahal Oz reinforces the understanding that this is not an isolated incident,” says Uri Epstein, head of the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council. “While Hamas is returning to its former strength, Israel is returning to a policy of containment and reaction instead of initiative.” Israeli leaders have threatened Hamas over the recent launching of kites, but the terror group has claimed they are merely “children’s toys” from Gaza refugee camps. So far, none of the kites launched from Gaza in recent days have carried any suspicious items on them, but many have associated the objects with the kites and balloons carrying incendiary devices that were launched by Gaza terror groups, and plagued southern Israel, for a number of years in the run-up to the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught, in which terrorists on hanggliders crossed the border. Epstein says that the border communities “expect a clear and unequivocal Israeli policy: every object that crosses from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory must be identified and dealt with in real time, not only after it lands in our communities.” |
| Netanyahu’s security agent drew rifle on crowded Tel Aviv highway last week, footage shows |
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An officer in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal security unit drew his assault rifle on a crowded highway during a routine drive by the premier’s convoy in Tel Aviv last week, footage shows. The video, filmed on August 19 from a nearby building, shows the armed security officer aiming the rifle at a target while perched in an open door of the moving vehicle. In response to the footage, the Shin Bet security agency — responsible for Netanyahu’s security detail — says that “all actions carried out by the security guard were conducted as required, without posing any risk to civilians, in accordance with the procedures and authority granted to him by law.” |
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