The Israeli government is considering deepening the IDF’s control over the Syrian Ramat HaGolan in order to prevent Syrian rebel forces from entering the area, Kan News reported on Sunday evening.

By Israeli law, citizens of Israel must enter and exit the country using their Israeli passports — a rule that applies even to dual citizens. However, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, an exception was introduced allowing dual citizens to enter and exit the country using their foreign passport instead of an Israeli one. This policy was initially implemented due to processing backlogs at the Interior Ministry and the temporary closure or limited operation of Israeli embassies and consulates worldwide. It was extended several times, but the dispensation was set to end on December 31, 2024. We are pleased to share that the Population Authority has announced an extension of this policy.

Donald Trump on Sunday called for an immediate cease-fire in Russia’s war with Ukraine and the president-elect renewed warnings that he was open to pulling the United States out of NATO. Trump made his cease-fire proposal after a weekend meeting in Paris with French and Ukrainian leaders, claiming in a social media post that Kyiv “would like to make a deal” to end the more than 1,000-day war. The Kremlin responded that it was open to negotiations, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy cautioned that any deal would have to pave the way to a lasting peace.

An IDF force arrested a 36-year-old Palestinian on Sunday morning in a village near Ramallah on suspicion of impersonating an IDF soldier, with the intention to use the uniform during a terrorist attack. The Palestinian was caught after he published posts on social media showing photos of himself in IDF uniforms. In the wake of the posts, investigators from the Modiin Illit police station acted quickly in order to trace his identity and place of residence. The IDF force who arrested him carried out a search of his home which revealed IDF uniforms and military equipment. The IDF force transferred the suspect to the police for further investigation. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The picture of who will be in charge of executing President-elect Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration and border policies has come into sharper focus after he announced his picks to head Customs and Border Protection and also the agency tasked with deporting immigrants in the country illegally. Trump said late Thursday he was tapping Rodney Scott, a former Border Patrol chief who’s been a vocal supporter of tougher enforcement measures, for CBP commissioner. As acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump said he had chosen Caleb Vitello, a career ICE official with more than 23 years in the agency.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams appears open to switching parties to become a Republican, as he declined to rule out a future change in political allegiances during a pair of interviews Friday that came as he has increasing warmed to President-elect Donald Trump. The comments from Adams, the top Democrat in one of the country’s most liberal cities, riled critics who have grown concerned over the mayor’s increasing willingness to throw his support behind Trump and his hardline immigration policies. Adams, who faces federal corruption charges, was a registered Republican in the 1990s and early 2000s but has spent his political career as a Democrat. In a Friday morning interview with the local cable news station NY1, Adams was asked if he would consider a return to the GOP.

Twice in modern history, Israel has spared the world from the horrors of nuclear proliferation in the hands of rogue regimes. Twice, it has acted decisively where others hesitated, dismantling nuclear threats that could have led to unimaginable global catastrophe. And twice, the world has ultimately benefited from Israel’s courage, even if it wasn’t quick to thank them. In 1981, Israel launched Operation Opera, a daring airstrike that obliterated Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor. At the time, Saddam Hussein’s regime sought to develop nuclear capabilities, a goal that would have dramatically altered the balance of power in the Middle East.

The Connecticut Appellate Court on Friday affirmed a $965 million verdict from 2022 against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, determining there’s “sufficient evidence” to support the damages awarded to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims and an FBI agent. In its unanimous opinion, the court cited the “traumatic threats and harassment” the families endured “stemming from the lies, as propagated by the defendants, that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.” “Our review of the record reveals that there was sufficient evidence to support the $965,000,000 in compensatory damages awarded by the jury,” according to the 62-page decision. It marks the largest jury verdict in Connecticut history. The appellate court did grant Jones a $150 million reprieve.

The United States has opened an investigation into whether NATO ally Spain has been denying port entry to cargo vessels reportedly transporting U.S. weapons to Israel. The Federal Maritime Commission, an independent body charged with monitoring and evaluating conditions that may affect shipping and U.S. international trade, said it had opened the probe after receiving information that Spain had refused to allow at least three cargo vessels into its ports. “The commission is concerned that this apparent policy of denying entry to certain vessels will create conditions unfavorable to shipping in the foreign trade,” it said Thursday in a notice published in the Federal Register.

Half a century of rule by the Assad family in Syria crumbled with astonishing speed after insurgents burst out of a rebel-held enclave and converged on the capital, Damascus, taking city after city in a matter of days. Opposition forces swept across the country and entered Damascus with little or no resistance as the Syrian army melted away. President Bashar Assad, Syria’s ruler for 24 years — succeeding his father, Hafez Assad — was reported to have fled the country for an undisclosed location. It’s a stunning development in Syria’s devastating 13-year conflict. Anti-government protests in 2011 met with a brutal crackdown, escalating into a civil war that has killed more than half a million people and displaced half of Syria’s prewar population of 23 million.