IDF forces were on high alert Thursday following accusations by the Assad regime in Syria that Israeli aircraft had bombed an alleged chemical weapons production facility near the central Syrian city of Hama, as well as several convoys of trucks carrying weapons from Iran meant for the Lebanese Shi’ite terror militia Hezbollah. The IDF declined to comment on the accusations, which came amidst dramatic developments in the Syrian conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted a pre-Rosh Hashana toast at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening, declaring among other things that the Jewish State enjoys better relations with Arab governments than ever before. Although he conceded that most of the cooperation is taking place in secret, he added that Israel’s public relationships with many other countries around the world are also expanding and improving.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Israeli counterpart Reuven Rivlin participated in a ceremony at Munich’s Olympic Park Wednesday dedicating the “Munich 1972 massacre memorial” honoring victims of the terror attack which killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches, as well as a German police officer. The Palestinian terrorist group Black September carried out the attack, which many Israelis feel has been largely forgotten as the International Olympic Committee has refused requests for a minute of silence to remember the victims at the Games opening ceremonies.

Economy Minister Eli Cohen addressed the annual MNC “Multinational Corporation” conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, telling the hundreds of business executives from around the world that Israel is in the process of lowering barriers to their entering its market. He also stressed the blessings Israel is bringing into the world. “Israel is the R&D center of the world and we believe that people will live much longer because of the many inventions that come here from Israel,” he told the Jerusalem Post.

Even as Hurricane Irma wreaked a path of devastation through the Caribbean Islands and threatened Florida this week, the Israeli Embassy in Washington continues to send aid shipments to the storm ravaged cities along the Texas Gulf Coast. “We arranged for a large shipment of aid weighing several tons,” said embassy spokesman Itai Bardov. “The message to the people of Texas is that Israel stands with you.” The Diaspora Affairs Ministry also pledged $1 million to Houston’s Jewish community recently to assist with rebuilding synagogues and Jewish community centers damaged by Hurricane Harvey.

The concept of “settler colonialism” has been applied with almost unique vehemence against Israel. But the fact that Jews are the indigenous population of the Southern Levant can be proved with ease. The application of the concept to Jews and Zionism by Palestinians is both ironic and unhelpful.

From the Steven Spielberg Jewish Film Archive at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University comes a restored historical film documenting the early years of the modern State of Israel following the 1948 War of Independence when hundreds of thousands of Jews fleeing persecution in Arab countries and memories of the Holocaust in Europe were absorbed into the newborn Jewish State.