Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Australian equivalent of the Security Cabinet on Thursday, asking his hosts to follow the lead of US President Donald Trump in taking a more active interest in holding Iran accountable for its bad behavior. Meanwhile hundreds of protesters waving Palestinian and Hezbollah flags and holding posters comparing Netanyahu to Hitler marched through downtown Sydney on Thursday.

Wednesday evening saw a historic victory for Israel’s political Right in general and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked in particular, as 3 out of 4 judges appointed by the Judicial Selection Committee to be seated on the Supreme Court were conservatives, specifically named by Shaked as unlikely to engage in “judicial activism” beyond their mandate, as she says has commonly been done by more liberal judges in the past.

US Vice President Mike Pence joined in work to repair damage to the Chesed Shel Emeth Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri on Wednesday, expressing the Trump Administration’s support for the Jewish community in the US which has suffered a severe spike in anti-Semitic incidents in recent weeks.

Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps General Mohammad Pakpour presided over a ceremony Wednesday wrapping up a series of war games his troops had participated in, declaring, among other things, that the US “should not be mistaken in its assessments (of Iran’s military capabilities) and it will receive a strong slap in the face if it does make such a mistake. The message of these exercises … for world arrogance is not to do anything stupid.”

The United Nations and the European Union issued a joint statement Wednesday demanding that Israel cease demolishing illegally constructed Palestinian and Beduin buildings in Area C of the West Bank. The buildings which constitute the village of al-Khan al-Ahmar, near Route 1 in area C, is slated to be demolished in the coming days and its population moved elsewhere, pending a decision by the courts.

Despite having a tiny population of eight million people, Israel is playing a crucial role in helping to power the U.S. economy for the next generation.