The Israeli military is in the process of creating a new combined forces unit that will be the first of its kind in the world.
Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the unit is the personal brainchild of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and will include infantry troops joined with engineering and armored personnel.
Soldiers and officers are being recruited from across the military.
Specialized weapons are to be developed for the new unit’s exclusive use.
Kochavi chose Division 98, an elite paratrooper division, to oversee the new unit, and a command structure is already in place.
The formation of the unit is part of a wider, multi-year program called “Tnufa” (“Momentum”), which is intended to modernize the IDF and prepare it for future wars.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro ended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday after struggling for a year to break through in the party’s crowded primary field.
“Today, it’s with a heavy heart and profound gratitude that I will suspend my campaign for president,” Castro said in a video message, conceding that it “simply isn’t our time” to win the nomination.
Castro did not make his next steps clear on Thursday, though he said that he was “not done fighting.” He may still prove to be a valuable surrogate or running mate for one of the other candidates in the race, especially given the Democratic Party’s efforts to court Latino voters in 2020.

A giant Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flag was draped over one of the walls of the Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday, drawing a strong rebuke from the municipality’s mayor.
The red, green, black and white flag — emblazoned with pictures of the late Yasser Arafat and current Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas — appears to have been hung to mark the 55th anniversary of the founding of the Fatah terrorist group, now a political party led by Abbas.
The Israeli news site Mako reported that Jerusalem police quickly removed the flag.
Mayor Moshe Lion condemned the incident, saying, “The only sovereignty in Jerusalem is Israeli sovereignty.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said on Tuesday that 750 troops are being deployed to the Middle East immediately in response to Iraqi riots at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Reuters reported on Wednesday.
Esper said in a statement that an infantry battalion from the Immediate Response Force (IRF) of the 82nd Airborne Division is being sent, and that preparations are underway to deploy more forces.
On Tuesday, a mob of Iraqi Shi’ite militiamen and their supporters broke into the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad. The attack came after the United States launched airstrikes on Sunday against the Iran-backed Hezbollah Brigades in Iraq.

Ron Meyer explains why he believes Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign is “cooked.”
WATCH:

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday that Israel’s decision to withhold $43 million of the tax revenues it transfers to the P.A., commensurate with the amount the P.A. pays to convicted terrorists, would lead to “an explosion.”
The P.A. pays some $11 million dollars a month to terrorists in Israeli prisons and to their families, as part of a policy which has become known in Israel as “pay for slay.”
According to Channel 13 News report, P.A. Civil Affairs Minister Hussain al-Sheikh told Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon during a meeting on Tuesday that the Israeli decision “has stirred emotions” and that the P.A. in Judea and Samaria “is on the brink of an explosion.”

Sen. Bernie Sanders’s campaign said Thursday that the Democratic presidential hopeful raked in more than $34.5 million in fundraising during the fourth quarter, putting the senator in a strong position ahead of the first nominating contests next month.
The haul is the largest fundraising quarter of the 2020 Democratic primary so far.
Additionally, the campaign said it received more than 1.8 million donations in the final quarter of the year, with $18 million in the month of December alone.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang’s campaign said on Thursday that it raised $16.5 million during the fourth quarter of 2019.
The latest haul exceeds Yang’s third-quarter fundraising total by $6.5 million.
Yang, who has outlasted a number of senators and governors in the race, is trying to break out of the crowded Democratic field’s mid-tier.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

A month after being seriously injured in the Highway 443 collision where he lost his wife Tzipi and his daughter Noam, Efraim Rimmel was discharged from Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem this morning and is undergoing rehabilitation at Shiba Hospital in Tel Hashomer.
Efraim arrived to the hospital in serious condition with multiple injuries, was treated in the trauma unit, the intensive care unit, and the surgical department and underwent several complex surgeries to help improve his condition.

The man accused of using a machete to hack five Jews at a Chanukkah event had Jewish friends while growing up — and even did Shabbos chores for them, his mom told The Post on Wednesday.
Grafton Thomas, 37, “was born in a Jewish neighborhood in Crown Heights,” Kim Thomas said in her first public statements since her son’s arrest in the Saturday night bloodbath in Monsey.
Kim, 55, said her son would help one Jewish family observe Shabbos by performing melacha for them..
“Grafton grew up going there on a Friday afternoon to turn off the lights for them,” she said.
Read more at NY POST.
{Matzav.com}