A Saudi journalist expressed admiration for Jewish people and all of Israel’s citizens after visiting the Jewish state this week on a secret trip, i24News reported.
The reporter, cultural researcher and scholar of Jewish text, who spoke to Israel’s Army Radio on the condition of anonymity, made a trip to Israel after accepting an invitation by Israel’s foreign ministry, which also hosted Arab journalists last week from Kuwait and Iraq.
“My goal is to bring people here to get to know the real Israel—to see it firsthand, and not through television or social media—and see how Israel is unjustly slandered,” said Hassan Kaabia, Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman for the Arabic media who organized and accompanied the group, reported The Jerusalem Post.

PepsiCo, which acquired Israeli home beverage-maker SodaStream last year, is planning to expand the company’s plant in southern Israel, Globes reported on Sunday.
PepsiCo will invest $92.5 million in the expansion of SodaStream’s plant in the Idan HaNegev Industrial Park near the Bedouin town of Rahat in southern Israel. The plant currently has 1,500 employees and will hire 1,000 more workers for the expansion.
Bedouin Arabs from the nearby area make up about one-third of the plant’s workforce, with many of the rest of employees Palestinian Arabs who worked at SodaStream when the factory was based in the West Bank before it closed due to international pressure.
PepsiCo acquired SodaStream for $3.2 billion in August 2018.

Barry Michaels’ first attempt to start a bargain airline ended with him being sued by investors, sanctioned by the SEC and ultimately receiving 21 months in federal prison on securities fraud and tax charges.
That was in the 1990s. Last week, Michaels once brought his idea to the Department of Transportation, seeking approval to fly giant 747s on domestic routes and offering bottom-dollar fares propped up by onboard advertising. He calls the company Avatar Airlines and is hoping to raise $300 million from investors to get it off the ground.

Rav Tzvi Hersh Hakohen of Rimanov (1778-1846). From the age of fifteen, Tzvi Hersh began traveling to the court of Rav MenachemMendel of Rimanov. He became one of the Rebbe’s closest chassisdim and his personal attendant; he tus became know as Rav Tzvi Hersh Meshares. After the petira of Rav Naftali of Ropshitz (another of the closest chassidim of Rav Menachem Mendel), Rav Tzvi Hersh returned to Rimanov to accept the mantle of leadership of the chassidim. His divrei Torah were compiled and published by his son, Rav Yosef, under then name Be’eiros Hamayim.

A new report on anti-Semitism in Australia revealed a 30 percent spike in serious incidents involving direct verbal abuse, harassment and intimidation of Jewish residents.
There were 368 recorded anti-Semitic incidents in Australia during the year ending with Sept. 30, 2019, according to the annual “Report on Antisemitism in Australia,” published by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. The total figure consists of 225 attacks and 143 threats.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday called on Lebanon’s government to disarm Hezbollah, saying it posed a threat to the U.N. peacekeeping mission stationed on the Israel-Lebanon border.
Established in 1978 to man a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has long suffered at the hands of the Iran-backed terrorist group. Hezbollah has clashed with UNIFIL troops several times over the years and has restricted their movements throughout southern Lebanon, grossly undermining its mandate.

Most students who care strongly about the “Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories” do not have knowledge of basic facts surrounding the subject, and do not share similar concerns about other geopolitical conflicts, a recent study has suggested.
The survey, carried out among 230 undergraduates at the University of California, Berkeley, was conducted by Ron Hassner, the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies at the school who published an essay on his results on Monday.

Likud Knesset member Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday dismissed a poll published the day before showing that under his leadership the party’s number of seats would drop significantly.
The survey, conducted by the Midgam polling agency, found that under Sa’ar, Likud would win only 26 seats, compared to 33 under Netanyahu, Israel National News reported.
In response to the poll, Sa’ar told Army Radio, “I’ve only just begun, and I’m already at 26 seats, after the person I’m running against has headed the government for the past 10 years straight.”
He said that many former Likud supporters had left the party, but that they could be brought back.

President Obama privately said he would speak up to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders from becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, Politico reported Tuesday.
The former president reportedly said if Sanders held a strong lead in the Democratic primary, he would speak out to prevent him from becoming the nominee.
A close adviser to Obama told Politico he could not confirm whether Obama would stand up against Sanders.
“He hasn’t said that directly to me,” the adviser said. “The only reason I’m hesitating at all is because, yeah, if Bernie were running away with it, I think maybe we would all have to say something. But I don’t think that’s likely. It’s not happening.”