The Israeli government should establish a non-military social media office, former Israeli military spokesman Ronen Manelis said Tuesday at the Institute for National Security Studies’ (INSS) National Security and Strategic Communications Conference held Thursday in Tel Aviv.
During times of turmoil such as a war, the military spokesperson’s unit will not have time to reach out to civilians and tell them to remain calm, Manelis said. “It is not even a question, the government should establish an office with the explicit purpose of addressing civilians through social media,” he said. “There needs to be a spokesperson unit that has no relation to the Israeli military.”

President Donald Trump turned down a request several months ago by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow the transfer of $12 million to the Palestinian Authority security forces, Israel’s Channel 13 reported on Wednesday.
Senior American officials were quoted as saying that Trump told his advisers, “If it’s so important for Netanyahu, then he should pay the Palestinians $12 million.”
In the past two years, the U.S. administration has completely cut aid to the Palestinians.
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer and other senior Israeli officials asked the Americans to transfer the aid to the P.A., according to the report, and White House officials raised the issue with Trump, who rejected the request.

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Israel’s election impasse doesn’t appear to be waning as the country is closing in on nearly two months since its second national election in September. In the past several days, various reports have emerged and faded over proposals to break the logjam, which have led to more discussion over the possibility of an unprecedented third election in less than a year.
Likud Knesset member Keti Sheetrit, who has been close with Benjamin Netanyahu for years, insists that the prime minister does not want a third election, but that he does want to be remain in the job as part of a unity government.
“Sadly, the ‘Just not Bibi’ campaign has continued beyond the election and into the coalition negotiations,” Sheetrit told JNS.

An Italian Jewish survivor of the Auschwitz extermination camp was under the protection of police officers on Thursday after she received hundreds of death threats on social media from far-right fanatics.
89-year-old Liliana Segre — a life senator in the Italian parliament — had called on fellow legislators to establish a committee to combat racist and antisemitic hatred. Italy’s right-wing and nationalist parties — including former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party — all abstained on the vote.
After the vote, Segre — who was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 13 — said that the abstentions made her feel “like a Martian in the Senate.”

Senior Trump administration officials considered resigning en masse last year in a “midnight self-massacre” to sound a public alarm about President Donald Trump’s conduct, but rejected the idea because they believed it would further destabilize an already teetering government, according to a new book by an unnamed author.
In “A Warning” by Anonymous, obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release, a writer described only as “a senior official in the Trump administration” paints a chilling portrait of the president as cruel, inept and a danger to the nation he was elected to lead.

The centrist Blue and White and secular-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu parties have reached preliminary agreements on several issues in ongoing coalition talks, amid Israel’s ongoing political stalemate.
The Israeli news site Mako reported that, with only 13 days left for Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to form a government, the negotiating teams for the two parties reached a consensus on several economic issues, including raising income for the elderly and disability payments.
There was nothing conclusive, however, on the most important issue — that of religion and state. However, Blue and White said the two parties had agreed on the issue in principal during previous meetings.

 

Ex-US Ambassador to the UN — and potential future Republican presidential candidate — Nikki Haley articulated her deep-felt support for Israel on Wednesday night in Manhattan, as she accepted the World Jewish Congress’ Theodor Herzl Award.
“The UN’s bias against Israel has long undermined peace, by encouraging an illusion that Israel will go away,” the 47-year-old former South Carolina governor said. “Israel is not going away. When the world recognizes that, then peace becomes possible.

Police are investigating an apparent anti-Semitic attack at a gym in the German city of Freiburg.
In a Facebook post, Samuel Kantorovych, 19, said he was attacked on Tuesday night while wearing a kipah he started wearing regularly six months ago.
In the locker room at the Mcfit Freiburg gym, a man allegedly tore off Kantorovych’s head covering, threatened to beat him, called him a “dirty Jew” and shouted “Free Palestine” before he spat on it and tossed it into the garbage.
Kantorovych stated that he was “shocked” by what transpired.
“He looked at me and asked me, ‘Do you want me to beat you up? () dirty Jew!’ I was overwhelmed by this situation and (for whatever reason) I asked him, ‘Here, in front of everybody?’”

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