Ahead of meetings to be held in Jerusalem this week with visiting representatives of the Trump Administration in the US, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a picture on Twitter Wednesday morning of construction equipment laying the groundwork for a new settlement community to be constructed in the West Bank. “Today work has begun in the field, just as I promised, to create a new settlement for the Amona residents,” he wrote.

The prestigious Herzliya Conference opened Tuesday evening, with ICEJ President Dr. Jurgen Buehler being among the keynote speakers at the opening session, telling of the enormous role the ICEJ and its worldwide branches has played in recent years to support Israel diplomatically and the growing worldwide trend of Evangelical Christian support for the Jewish State. Later in the evening, current IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot gave his assessments of regional developments and their strategic implications.

The Iranian Air Force lost two Unmanned Ariel Vehicles (UAVs) on Tuesday, one shot down by a US F-15E fighter jet as it was menacing US-backed ground forces in southern Syria and the other which was shot down by a Pakistani jet as it violated Pakistani air space over the border between the two countries. The incidents came amidst a showdown with Saudi Arabia over the violation of its territorial waters this week by a scout boat operated by three members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which resulted in Saudi naval units taking the Iranians into custody.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University announced this week that they have developed a new process for addressing the growing global crisis of bacteria which are resistant to anti-biotic treatments. The World Health Organization reports that as many as 700,000 deaths a year are already attributed to this problem, which the TAU researchers say they may have the answer to.

In a move that had been widely anticipated but not expected so soon, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued  a decree on Wednesday elevating his 31-year old son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to crown prince and relieving the former crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, of all duties. The move received nearly unanimous support from the King’s senior advisers, leading Nayef little choice but to step aside, despite his vastly superior experience and his known favored status in Western capitals.

Are the recent US strikes against the Islamic State, as well Russia’s permissive policy on airstrikes in Syria that cause mass civilian casualties and extensive harm to civilian infrastructures, evidence of a change in international standards in the fight against terrorist organizations and sub-state actors?

On June 20th, the world marks ‘World Refugee Day’, commemorating the strength, courage and perseverance of of refugees. On this day, we remember the 20th-century expulsion of Jews from Arab and Muslim countries. Jewish communities in Arab countries formed a significant part of the Jewish diaspora. From 1920 onward, some 850,000 Jews were expelled from their homes – from Tripoi to Cairo, from Damascus to Baghdad.