Reports surfaced in Arab media outlets Wednesday that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has given assurances to Israeli officials that Moscow will prevent Iranian and/or Hezbollah forces from approaching Israel’s northern borders, setting up a so-called “buffer zone” extending from 10-15 km, less than what Israel had requested but more than what Russia initially indicated it would offer.

Following a statement late Tuesday by the Israeli security cabinet that it will not negotiate with the Palestinian Authority if it moves forward with plans to reconcile and merge with the Islamist terror militia Hamas, PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told reporters that the PA would “move forward with the reconciliation efforts,” regardless of Israel’s position.

Street protests against the arrests of two young men from Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jewish community after they refused to file paperwork which would have allowed them to be deferred from military service turned violent this week. Dozens of haredi youth from an extremist sect sat down in the middle of busy intersections in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and in front of Jerusalem’s light rail, engaging in shouting matches and occasional physical exchanges with police officers and throwing rocks at police vehicles.

An Israeli pharmaceutical company, Brainstorm Cell Therapeutics, announced this week that it has successfully tested new treatments which reverse the effects of Lou Gehrig’s Disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS). Company officials stressed that further research is needed but they had high hopes that the treatment would become widely available by the end of this decade. In related news, the Israel Cancer Association held a press conference on Tuesday to unveil promising new research it has conducted towards preventing various forms of cancer.

In yet another setback for the international effort to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel, the South Korean industrial conglomerate Hankuk Carbon recently signed an agreement this week with Israel Aerospace industries to jointly develop unmanned aerial vehicles for military and civilian applications. The new company, to be based in South Korea and called Korea Aviation Technologies (KAT), was officially launched last week in Seoul at the International Aerospace and Defense Exhibition 2017.

On October 12, 2017, Fatah and Hamas signed a new reconciliation agreement in Cairo, which confirms the implementation of the previous reconciliation agreement, formulated in 2011. The provisions regarding the transfer of civil government in the Gaza Strip to the government in Ramallah, and the lifting of the Ramallah sanctions against Gaza, are concrete and accompanied by a timetable.

On October 13, 2017, US President Donald Trump announced that Iran has committed multiple violations of the nuclear agreement and thus he will not certify the JCPOA nuclear agreement. The Iranian response included some surprises. (PDF)