Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spent Monday meeting with his colleagues from around the world as the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly meeting got underway in New York. In the morning he met with US President Donald Trump, with developments in the Middle East, particularly the approach of Iran to Israel’s northern border, reportedly high on the agenda.

Iran’s current Army commander issued a statement Monday as Israeli and US leaders were set to discuss the JCPOA nuclear agreement. “We will destroy the Zionist entity at lightning speed, and thus shorten the 25 years it still has left,” he thundered. “I warn the [Zionist] entity not to make any stupid move against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Every [such] stupid act will [make us] turn Tel Aviv and Haifa into dust.”

Monday saw a groundbreaking ceremony for the first permanent US military installation in Israel, at an Israeli military air defense school just outside the Biblical city of Beersheeba in the Negev Desert. The installation will house radar systems to monitor airborne threats to Israel and require the permanent stationing of less than 100 US military personnel.

Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released its annual report ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the new year according to the Jewish calendar, on Monday, reporting that the population now stands at 8,743,000, an increase of 156,000 people since Rosh Hashanah 2016. Israel’s fertility rate of 3.11 children per woman is the highest in the OECD, while 88% of Israelis said they were very satisfied or satisfied with their lives.

Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot published an article in the journal, Science,  giving details of their recent discovery that the presence of certain bacteria can make chemotherapy less effective in treating some forms of cancer. The research, which was done in collaboration with a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, gives hope for new and more effective treatments combining anti-biotics with traditional anti-cancer medications.

The U.S. administration’s larger message about Iran is that the problems it poses, go far beyond the nuclear program. These include support for terrorism and criminal enterprises, threats to strategic waterways, and ballistic missile development. One option would be to decertify Iran’s compliance with the deal but not reinstate sanctions, not yet anyway.

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