Nechama Rivlin, the wife of Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin, died Tuesday morning at Beilinson Hospital in Petah Tikvah, where she’d been recovering from surgery to receive a transplanted lung. She was 73. Tributes from many government officials, private organizations and NGOs spoke lovingly of her devotion to the country and all its citizens.

Self-described “human rights organization” Amnesty International issued a statement on Monday condemning Iran’s clerical regime following the sentencing by a court in Teheran of anti-regime activist Amirsalar Davudi to 30 years in prison and 111 lashes following his conviction on charges that included “insulting officials” and “spreading propaganda against the system.” AI’s director for the Middle East and North Africa Philip Luther lamented that “With this sentence, Iran’s authorities have demonstrated that human rights lawyers in Iran today are effectively treated as enemies of the state.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was legally required to appoint a replacement for outgoing Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked upon her termination becoming effective at 3:30 PM on Tuesday, despite his desire to postpone the appointment in order to hold consultations with Knesset factions. The Justice Ministry forbade Netanyahu from assuming the position himself because of the pending legal cases against him.

Israel’s northern neighbor, Lebanon, was rocked on Monday evening by an attack on a routine security patrol in the northern city of Tripoli which left two paramilitary police officers and two soldiers dead. The attacker, who blew himself up before he could be captured, was formally imprisoned for being a member of the Islamic State (IS) terror militia.

It’s rapidly dawning on Iran’s leaders that their preferred strategy of waiting out the Trump administration may not be viable. The risks of sitting back and absorbing ever more powerful blows from a relentless U.S. sanctions machine for another 18 to 20 months, or even longer, have grown unacceptably high.

Registration is Open for the 2019 Feast! Full registration includes admission to all events at the Feast of Tabernacles. Registration fees do not include airfare, accommodations, transportation, or meals.

In yesterday’s New Service email we reported that a riot targeting a concert put on by Jerusalem’s Messianic Jewish community at the Pavilion meeting hall occurred last Saturday evening, when in fact it occurred last Thursday evening. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.