Iran on Friday vowed “severe revenge” in response to the U.S. airstrike which killed Tehran’s most powerful military commander, Qasem Soleimani, and dramatically sharpened tensions across the Middle East.
Soleimani was a towering figure in Iran’s power projection across the region, with close links to a network of paramilitary groups that stretches from Syria to Yemen. His death in the smoldering wreckage of a two-car convoy in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, left U.S. outposts and personnel bracing for retaliatory attacks. The U.S. Embassy in Iraq warned its citizens to leave “immediately.”

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Friday praised US President Donald Trump for acting to eliminate Iran’s Qassem Soleimani.
“Trump acted swiftly, forcefully and decisively,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel “stands by the US.”
“Just as Israel has the right of self-defense, the United States has exactly the same right. Qassem Soleimani is responsible for the deaths of US citizens and many other innocents. He was planning more such attacks, and President Trump deserves all the credit for acting swiftly, forcefully and decisively.
“Israel stands with the United States in its just struggle for peace, security and self-defense.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Democrat candidate Marianne Williamson has laid off her entire campaign staff, according to two sources close to the campaign.
The longshot Democratic presidential hopeful will continue to seek her party’s nomination. But she’ll do so without a staff behind her. Manchester, N.H.-based television station WMUR first reported the mass layoffs on Thursday.
Williamson, an author and celebrity spiritual adviser, has been campaigning for the Democratic nomination for nearly a year. But she has struggled to break out of the lower tier of the primary field, often failing to register in national polls.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

In what seems to be Facebook finally standing up to protect Jews from anti Semitic rhetoric, the infamous Facebook group known as ‘Rise Up Ocean County’ can no longer be found on the social media platform.
It is unclear if the page has been banned or what the official reasons are but Jews in New Jersey are celebrating the removal of the hate group that constantly slandered and spread hatred of Jews in the New Jersey area.
{Matzav.com}

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A Palestinian teenager who was stabbed inside the Palestinian village of Kfar Beit Rima, was brought by his family members to the entrance of the Jewish town of Neve Tzuf in order to receive medical care.
United Hatzalah volunteers who live in the town rushed to respond and treated the Arab teen who said that he was stabbed inside the nearby Palestinian village.
United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Doron Mah-Tov who was one of the first responders at the scene said: “Together with other medical personnel from Neve Tzuf I treated the young man for his injuries at the scene before he was taken to the hospital for further care. The young man had been suffering from multiple stab wounds to his upper body.”
{Matzav.com}

BREAKING: It was not clear who carried out the strike, but the death of Soleimani, the Iranian Quds Force commander, seems certain to send tensions soaring between the United States and Iran.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said Thursday that Iran and its proxies may be preparing renewed strikes on U.S. personnel in Iraq, even as the Trump administration increases the number of troops in the region to guard against what it characterized as sustained Iranian aggression.
“There are some indications out there that they may be planning additional attacks,” Esper said at the Pentagon, a day after members of an Iranian-linked militia, Kataib Hezbollah, withdrew from the area around the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad following their assault on the diplomatic facility.

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Iraqi state television reported on Thursday night that Qassem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, was eliminated in an air strike at the Baghdad International Airport in Iraq.
The deputy head of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, was also killed in the attack, AFP reported.
US officials told the Reuters news agency that the US carried out strikes against two targets linked to Iran in Baghdad, but did not provide any other details.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}