Yashar Party’s latest Knesset candidate to lead national recovery plan
(JNS) — Israel’s Yashar Party, led by former IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eisenkot, announced on Thursday a new candidate to run on its Knesset slate, who will be tasked with leading a national recuperation plan.
The plan was formulated by Inbar Yehezkeli Blilious, a lawyer from Jerusalem and mother of two, and will soon be presented by the party, according to Yashar.
The war has placed before Israel “a major challenge and a need for national rehabilitation — of our fighters, disabled Israel Defense Forces veterans, bereaved families, residents of the north and south, children and adults and many others who have been harmed,” the statement read.
Eisenkot on his social media page noted that Yehezkeli Blilious has worked over the years on behalf of trauma victims, for women and children and for disadvantaged populations.
“Social issues in Israel have been neglected for years,” according to a statement by Yehezkeli Blilious.
“Now, precisely in the shadow of the events of recent years and following the most difficult war we have known, the time has come to rebuild and repair,” the Yashar party co-founder continued.
A national election is expected at the latest by Oct. 27.
Attack on nun in Jerusalem sparks outcry as tensions with Christians mount in Jerusalem
(JTA) — Israeli police arrested a man accused of attacking a nun on Tuesday in Jerusalem’s Old City, in an incident that comes amid ongoing tensions around the status of Christians in Israel.
The 36-year-old suspect, who was not identified by authorities, was questioned on suspicion of carrying out a racially motivated assault and is expected to appear before the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for a hearing on extending his detention, according to the Times of Israel.
The nun, a researcher at the French School of Biblical and Archeological Research, sustained injuries from the attack including a bruise on her forehead, according to an image posted on social media by the Israel Police.
“The Israel Police treats any attack on members of the clergy and religious communities with the utmost seriousness and applies a policy of zero tolerance to all acts of violence,” the Israel Police said.
The director of the school, Olivier Poquillon, decried the “unprovoked assault” in a post on social media, writing, “We strongly condemn this act of sectarian violence and expect the authorities to act swiftly and firmly.”
The recent tensions follow years of skirmishes between Orthodox Jews and Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem. An epidemic of spitting attacks, often by yeshiva students who subscribe to an extreme interpretation of the Bible’s injunction to “abhor” idol worshipers, spurred rabbinic rebuke in the past, but such incidents have persisted.
Huckabee: Israel is the only Mideast country with a growing Christian population
(JNS) — U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee met on Thursday with Israel’s Special Envoy to the Christian world George Deek, and expressed his appreciation of the Jewish state for standing out as “the only country in the region with a growing Christian population.”
“Both our nations cherish religious liberty as the foundation of a free and prosperous society,” Huckabee posted on social media.
Deek is the first Arab Christian to serve as an ambassador for Israel. He most recently served as Israel’s ambassador to Azerbaijan.
A prominent member of Jaffa’s Arab Christian community, he is the son of Youssef Deek, who long served as chairman of the city’s Orthodox Christian community.
“I am confident that George, a respected and experienced diplomat, will greatly contribute to the friendship and strengthening of the ties between the State of Israel and the Christian world,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said of the appointment last week.
Israel just quadrupled its PR budget to $730M. Experts say it won’t work.
(JTA) — Israel is betting nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars that it can talk its way out of a reputation crisis.
Lawmakers in Jerusalem approved a 2026 national budget last month that includes roughly $730 million for public diplomacy — the broad category known in Hebrew as hasbara — more than four times the $150 million they allocated the year before. That earlier sum was itself about 20 times what Israel had spent on such efforts before the war in Gaza broke out in 2023.
The unprecedented expenditure comes as survey after survey show declining support for Israel in the United States, its most important ally. A Pew Research Center poll released earlier this month found 60% of Americans now view Israel unfavorably, up seven points in a single year, with only 37% viewing it favorably.
Shibley Telhami, a political scientist at the University of Maryland said “Yes, you can do a lot with public diplomacy, and there are strategies that could help on the margins. But they’re only going to affect a small percentage, because the bulk of the impressions on issues that people care about are shaped by the actual policies, not how well you sell those policies.”
Eytan Gilboa, a professor of international communication at Bar-Ilan University, said “Perhaps $730 million is not enough,” Gilboa said. “You have to establish a mechanism, a system that would systematically address all the challenges. I am quite pessimistic.”
Book by mother of slain Gaza hostage debuts at No. 1 on ‘NYT’ best sellers list
(JNS) — Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s book, When We See You Again, has reached the top spot on The New York Times nonfiction hardcover best sellers list, a week after its national publication.
Hamas terrorists executed Goldberg-Polin’s son Hersh Goldberg-Polin in cold blood in an underground tunnel in Gaza, 330 days after he was taken hostage from the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023.
The book is “a searing portrait of a mother’s grief and strength in the wake of unthinkable tragedy,” publisher Random House writes.
Goldberg-Polin is an American who moved to Jerusalem 18 years ago with her husband, Jon, and three children. Hersh, her only son, was at the music festival with his best friend, Aner Shapira, when he was kidnapped.
Shapira and Hersh hid in a bomb shelter with other young festival goers. Hamas terrorists threw grenades into the shelter. Shapira threw back 10 before being killed. Hersh took his place, losing an arm while trying to toss back a grenade.
Hersh was shot at close range six times, shortly before his body was found by Israeli soldiers on Aug. 31, 2024. It is believed that his captors panicked when shelling came close to their hiding place, leading them to kill their hostages.
