Israelis were watching events in Iran with great interest Tuesday as reports surfaced of massive street demonstrations against the clerical regime including violent kinetic attacks against police stations and other government buildings in several cities. Scattered reports included a death toll over the last three days reaching at least 20, even as reports of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia forces deploying near Israel’s northern border continued to concern Israeli defense officials.

Archeologists excavating near the Western Wall Plaza in Jerusalem’s Old City announced recently that they had discovered a well-preserved piece of clay dating to the First Temple period with the Hebrew inscription “governor of the city” on it. “The Bible mentions two governors of Jerusalem, and this finding thus reveals that such a position was actually held by someone in the city some 2,700 years ago,” said Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, excavator of the site on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The central committee of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud faction held a meeting Sunday night in which, among other things, they voted to endorse exercising Israel’s sovereignty over Jewish settlement communities in the West Bank. Analysts were unsure what, if any, effect the vote would have on official government policy, but most agreed that it puts pressure on the government to change its often ambiguous policies on the issue.

Ahed Tamimi, the 16-year-old Palestinian girl who has engaged in several rhetorical confrontations with Israeli security forces in order to be filmed and posted on YouTube, was arrested last week following the posting of a video in which she slapped an Israeli soldier. She was indicted on Monday for throwing rocks, threatening soldiers and inciting to violence, leading some Palestinian analysts to warn that Israel is actually turning her into a hero on the Palestinian street. The incident comes amidst an uptick in kinetic violence between Palestinian terrorist organizations and Israel on the border between southern Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

After a warm and dry December, Israel was hit in the early hours of 2018 by a cold front bringing heavy rains and snow on Mount Hermon, as well as high winds and frigid temperatures in several areas. Flooding was reported in some areas as the Water Authority reported a rise of over one centimeter in the level of the Sea of Galilee, which now stands at 214.365 meters below sea level, still 1.4 meters below its lower red line.

The current wave of protests in the Islamic Republic has shown once again that the real threat to the stability of the religious regime in Iran is the Iranian people, who have already proven in the past that they can topple a regime that abandons and ignores their needs.