Eli Groner, director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the international effort to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel suffered a devastating setback Thursday when the partners of the Leviathan gas reservoir announced plans to invest $3.75 billion in its development over the next 3 years.

The fight against the Islamic State (IS) terror militia in both Syria and Iraq intensified this week, with various armed factions battling the group making progress against it even as marginal conflicts have also intensified between anti-IS forces in various places.

Even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to enjoy warm receptions during his travels to foreign countries, back home his political and legal troubles continue to grow. On Thursday, another hit came when the police recommended that his former chief of staff, Ari Harow, be indicted on charges of bribery, fraud, breach of trust and money laundering related to his activities while working for the Prime Minister’s Office.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani was in the restive city of Ahvaz this week to try and calm residents who have engaged in several days of protests and civil disobedience in reaction to widespread power outages, water shortages and other infrastructure issues which have massively exacerbated the effects from a large dust storm plaguing the region. The unrest in Ahvaz is only the most severe of a wave of similar demonstrations of discontent by Iranian citizens which the government has been attempting to attend to in recent weeks.

Israel’s Air Force shot down a UAV operated by the Islamist terror militia Hamas on Thursday afternoon as it attempted to violate Israeli airspace. “The IDF will not allow any airspace violation and will work with determination against any such attempt,” the IDF said.

Arab nationalism was the panacea that promised the Arabs renewed power, prestige, and prosperity. But it did nothing of the kind and turned out to be a false messiah, as exposed in the most humiliating of defeats to Israel in 1967. After 1967, the Islamists could argue with far greater credibility that “Islam was the solution.”

Journalist Graeme Wood discusses his recently published book, “The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State” which analyzes what motivates the group’s true believers.