Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Golan Heights on Tuesday with his family and used the occasion to post a video proclaiming his desire to build a new community on the strategic plateau to be named after US President Donald Trump, following his recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the territory. Elsewhere, US Senator Bernie Sanders declared his belief that the Netanyahu government was “racist”, leading to a sharp backlash in Israel and among US Jewish groups.

Iran’s Majles parliament passed legislation Tuesday that “authorizes the government to take firm and retaliatory measures against terrorist activities of American forces that endangers Iran’s interests,” according to state-run Iranian media outlets. The move came a day after Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi told his Chinese counterpart during a visit to Beijing that his forces would like to cooperate with China in the Indian Ocean as a substitute for US naval forces which he asserted would soon be retreating from the region.

The effort to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel suffered several more defeats this week, with Grammy-nominated vocal artist Tyga holding a concert in Rishon Lezion Tuesday evening despite intense pressure on him to cancel and the Los Angeles Times naming an Israeli-owned restaurant as the best eatery in the mega-city for 2019. Bavel, opened last year by the husband-and-wife team Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis, was declared to be “a restaurant that wonderfully encapsulates the all-things-Middle-Eastern movement sweeping Los Angeles,” by Times food writer Jenn Harris.

US-based hi-tech giant Intel Corp announced on Tuesday that it was offering it “most powerful generation” of laptop processors ever, adding that they were designed in Israel at Intel’s Haifa-based development center. The 9th Gen Intel Core mobile H-series processors offer a 33% upgrade in video graphics and related services over computers built as little as 3 years ago.

Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba laid the cornerstone this week for a new trauma center and emergency department which will include 43 new beds by the time it is scheduled to be completed in 2021. Eric S. Goldstein, CEO, UJA-Federation of New York, which provided large donations to the project, said “the expanded emergency department will provide best-in-class care to all citizens of Israel’s south, and will help strengthen the infrastructure of Beersheba.”

Many in the Gulf are beginning to grasp that their support for the Palestinians is detrimental to their own interests. In addition to practical considerations, the fact that the Palestinians have grown closer to Iran has sparked ire in many Gulf states, which see the Islamist regime as an enemy and the Palestinians’ increasingly close ties with Tehran as a betrayal.

The US or Russia? That is the question facing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as he is pondering his country’s interests and ambitions in the fault-lines between Europe and Asia, the West and the Levant. Is Erdogan skilled enough to maneuver between the various powers and vectors? A panel of experts weighs in.

Throughout history, the Jews have often been exiled, or expelled from their homeland. In 70 AD, with the destruction of the second temple they were dispersed from the Straits of Gibraltar to the edges of India. Although dispersed throughout the world, the longing to return to their homeland, however, was never abandoned. It is a centuries old custom for Jews, when closing out the Passover Meal, to say “Next year in Jerusalem.”