A group of 70 Jewish immigrants from Ethiopia arrived at Ben Gurion INternational Airport on Tuesday evening, the first of several groups the ICEJ will be sponsoring this month. “We are expecting some very tearful and joyous reunions of Ethiopian Jewish families at Ben-Gurion Airport over the coming weeks,” said Dr. Jürgen Bühler, President of the ICEJ. “Some of these families have been separated now for over two decades, and so it a great honor for us to help bring them back together here in the Jewish homeland.”

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a laconic statement Wednesday following an attack agains the Iranian parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Teheran which left 13 people dead and dozens more wounded. “These fire-crackers that happened today will not have the slightest effect on the will of the people,” he said. US President Donald Trump also issued a statement, saying “We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran…we underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.”

US Ambassador to the UN Nicki Haley hit the ground running Wednesday after landing in Israel for a three day visit, launching immediately into a series of meetings with senior oficials which stressed the Trump Administrations desire to draw Israel closer following the previous Administration’s policy of creating “daylight” between the two countries. Her first meeting, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reportedly focused on strategies for dealing with the threat from Iran and its Lebenese terror proxy Hezbollah.

The US Congress and the Israeli Knesset held a breif, jointly broadcast session on Wednesday to celebrate 50 years since the re-unification of Jerusalem during the Six Day War in June, 1967. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared during the session that “Jerusalem will never be divided again.” US House Speaker Paul Ryan added that Jerusalem has been “the spiritual and religious capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years”.

Jerusalem’s Encore Commuity Theater company deputed its latest performance Wednesday evening, offering an original opera-style play entitled “Intrepid” which tells the story of the NILI spy ring, which assisted the British in their liberation of the Levant from the Ottoman Turks in WWI. The drama, set to music from a live orchestra and including performances by a number of local performance artists as well professionals from abroad, was a big hit with the sold out audience and marked another triumph for Encore in its ongoing mission to enhance the arts scene in the capital.

Iran is striving – mainly via the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ long arm – the Quds Force – to be a key factor in the reshaping of the Middle East in its own revolutionary Shiite supremacy vision. President Rouhani has no real control over foreign policy and the export of the revolution, and he does not determine Iran’s foreign policy goals. Those responsibilities are in the hands of Leader Khamenei and the IRGC.