The country of Oman hosted Prime Minister Netanyahu for a surprise visit last week.

Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman’s minister of foreign affairs, stated that it was time for Israel to be accepted in the Middle East. “Israel is a state in the region, and we all understand this. …our priority is to put an end to the conflict and move to a new world.”

We like hearing it. Jerusalem Post report HERE.

It’s only been five days since the deadliest attack on Jews in America took place in a Pittsburgh, PA synagogue and the University of Michigan University is holding a BDS event with anti-Israel advocates.

This disgraceful event also follows on the heels of a professor and student teacher at the university who both refused to write students letters of recommendations for study abroad programs in Israel.

JNS story HERE.

Etz Chayim synagogue in the Squirrel Hill section of Pittsburgh, this past Shabbat, October 27, was the scene of a slaughter, displaying pure evil and baseless hatred. While a bris, celebrating new life and joy was scheduled to be held, a heinous and vile attack was committed against innocent Jewish lives while they prayed. There has never been such an attack against the Jewish community in America with eleven lives lost and a number wounded – some very seriously. We pray it may never happen again.

Israeli emergency response group ZAKA’s international unit is waiting at the scene of the Pittsburgh attack for permission to enter and treat the bodies of the murdered, which are still at the scene.

Here is a summary of what leaders around the world are saying:

“…We just don’t seem to learn from the past. There must be no tolerance for anti-Semitism in America or for any form of religious or racial hatred or prejudice,” stated President Trump. The President is planning to visit Pittsburgh to pay his personal condolences to the bereaved families.

“The shooting in Pittsburgh is a painful reminder of continuing anti-Semitism. Jews across the world continue to be attacked for no other reason than their identity. Anti-Semitism is a menace to democratic values and peace, and should have no place in the 21st century,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. Though AFSI appreciates Guterres’ truthful statement, we’d like to see his words turn into action at the agency he heads. With all the anti-Jewish-anti-Israel-anti-Semitic actions and hypocrisy at the UN, his words have no meaning unless the UN reverses course NOW!!

“To all the anti-Semites out there on Twitter: Am Yisrael Chai!,” tweeted Ambassador Ron Dermer.

“When Jews are murdered in Pittsburgh, the people of Israel feel pain. All Israel are responsible for one another,” said Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett, who visited and met with the community in Pittsburgh and participated in the funerals of those killed in the attack.

Horrible memories of the Fogel family attack in Itamar surfaced for Israel’s Consul General in New York, Dani Dayan, who is also in Pittsburgh now.

An excellent editorial in The New York Sun, “The Tree of Life Massacre,” for further reading is HERE.

Bolivian UN ambassador, Sacha Sergio ‎Llorenti Soliz, has invited Randa Siniora, a known supporter of the anti-Israel BDS movement, to ‎address the Security Council. Soliz is also responsible for having recently invited B’Tselem’s Hagai El-Ad to address the council.

Bolivia has a long track record of human rights violations. This country is believed to be the epicenter ‎of massive human trafficking rings, including ‎trafficking in women and children for forced labor ‎and prostitution.

Ambassador Danny Dayan lambasted Bolivia for its latest attempt to promote its anti-Israel agenda at the UN. ‎”The circus of Bolivian hypocrisy continues. Bolivia ‎tramples women’s rights and invites the head of an ‎anti-Israel group to speak at the UN all while ‎talking about women’s rights and peace.”

YNet story HERE.

Ruth Matar, Co-Founder of the Women in Green, passed away on Saturday.

Founded in 1993 with her husband and originally called “Women for Israel’s Tomorrow,” the group sought to destroy media stereotypes of those opposing land concessions by showing mothers, housewives, and career women who could intelligently articulate Israel’s cause.

Women in Green has been leading the discourse over the vision of full Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.

Nadia Matar, Ruth’s daughter-in-law, together with Yehudit Katzover, currently lead the Women in Green. Nadia recently recounted Ruth’s influence. “Ruth taught us all that we must not be silent and that when a Jew is in distress, you leave everything else aside and mobilize to help him…loyalty is the highest virtue – loyalty to the People, to the Torah, to the Land and to the family.

May the family be comforted among all those who mourn for Zion and Jerusalem and may they know no more sorrow.

Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon is defending Israel against United Nations hypocrisy. Danon’s rebuke was included in a letter addressed to UN Security Council members ‎ahead of their weekly session on the Middle East.‎

Referring to the European Union and the PA supporting the residents who refuse to move, Danon stated. ‎“The intervention of these entities has only ‎exacerbated the situation. We see their actions as ‎an attempt to politicize a legal issued on which the ‎highest Israeli court ruled, and as a blatant ‎interference in Israel’s internal affairs.”

Read Ambassador Danon’s latest Newsletter in Israel Hayom,”Joining the Campaign of Lies.” In it he discusses the United Nations latest disgraceful act of allowing left-wing NGO and enemy of Israel, B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad, to speak at an official meeting of the UN Security Council.

A Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip overnight Tuesday exploded in near a home in Be’er Sheva. Several people were treated for light injuries or shock. The residents of the home, a single mother and her three children ages 9-12 were not harmed.

The home is completely destroyed. The mother, Miri Tamano, stated, “I don’t have a home. Everything has been lost.”

In response, the IDF swiftly hit 20 Hamas positions in Gaza.

Scores of citizens and public figures active in Judea and Samaria gathered at the Oz veGaon nature reserve in Gush Etzion to mark the 25th anniversary of the Women in Green movement and the public activities of its leaders, Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar.

Prompted by the signing of the Oslo accords they started out as a grassroots movement protesting concessions and land withdrawals. Today Women In Green leads sovereignty discourse in policy.

AFSI is proud to partner with Women In Green in our shared goals for our beloved Israel. May the Women In Green go higher and higher as they spread the truth about A WHOLE AND SOVEREIGN ISRAEL.

An informative and fascinating article documenting this historic movement, from their formation – to their first vigil – to their work through the present day, can be found HERE.

At the Oz v’Gaon nature reserve in Gush Etzion a unique library comprising writings and books on Zionism and its founders was dedicated on Tuesday. AFSI applauds the continuing philanthropic work of our Board member Cherna Moskowitz, who made this library possible.

Established through an initiative of Women in Green, the library includes books and writings dealing with Zionism, its philosophers, and those who implemented it, spanning more than a hundred years.

Among the speakers were former Jewish Agency head and former Minister Natan Sharansky, World Zionist Organization acting head Yaakov Hagoel, and Gush Etzion Council head Shlomo Ne’eman.

Oz v’Gaon is a place very close to AFSI’s heart. We’ve contributed and supported it from the start and take pride in watching it grow and flourish.

Read about the inauguration of the library HERE.

Amichai residents, previously evacuated from Amona, are now responding to a ruling that is in their favor. Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected the petitions that were filed against their new town.

“Now it’s final – the community of Amichai has been established, and nothing will prevent us from developing and flourishing and bringing blessing to all the residents of the Shiloh Valley and the entire region.”

AFSI was in Amona before it was destroyed. Our officers were present in August to see the beautiful new playground (photo above), which was anonymously donated by an AFSI member. We were proud to be there for the opening ceremony.