Author: AFSI Staff

A large wildfire in the Jerusalem Hills fanned by strong winds and dry conditions forced authorities to cancel for the first time Israel’s traditional Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony. Several communities were evacuated, and firefighting crews were deployed to battle the blaze.

“Unfortunately, as the hours pass, the weather forecast for Mount Herzl during the hours of the ceremony does not allow for the ceremony to take place,” said Minister of Transport, National Infrastructure and Road Safety Miri Regev, who is in charge of organizing the ceremony. Instead the dress rehearsal that was recorded in advance on Monday was broadcast.

This latest crisis comes just a week after major fires that lasted more than 21 hours and burned more than 10,000 dunams (10 sq. km) of forest land in the Beit Shemesh and Jerusalem Hills areas, including Eshtaol, Beit Meir, Mesilat Zion, and Shaar Hagai.

Despite the intensity of both fires, authorities stressed that there is no indication of arson or negligence. On the other hand, Arabic social media posts are calling to ‘Burn the occupation’s forests and settlements’. Police are investigating the source of the posts.

If this is arson, it must be investigated and the source eliminated!

Source:
Wildfire Forces First-Ever Cancellation of Israel’s Independence Day Torch-Lighting Ceremony, by Pesach Benson/TPS-IL, April 30, 2025

The IDF is preparing for a significant step up in the ground maneuver in the Gaza Strip, Kan News reported Tuesday.

The decision by the defense establishment and the political leadership was made in light of the lack of progress in negotiations for the hostages’ release.

According to the report, thousands of reservists have already been alerted that they will soon be recruited. Most belong to several infantry and armor brigades that will begin operational operations soon. This is not an emergency call-up.

Source:
Thousands of reservists alerted: IDF preparing to step up war in Gaza, by Israel National News, April 29, 2025

A senior diplomatic source has rejected proposals for a long-term ceasefire with Hamas, saying that Israel is holding negotiations for a hostage release deal but is close to losing patience.

“Ideas are flowing from some of the Arab countries, such as a cessation of the war for five years,” the source said. “There is no way that we will agree to a truce with Hamas that will only allow it to re-arm, recover, and continue its war with even more power.”

The source continued, “The reason that we did not begin fighting powerfully at the conclusion of the ceasefire, and only did so gradually is because we wanted to give negotiations for the hostages’ release a chance. We want to do our utmost to bring the hostages home and that is what influences our plans of action. We are still trying to do our utmost to release the hostages through a deal, but our patience is not infinite.”

Securing the release of the hostages is a priority as is Israel adhering to the goals of the war and this decision is certainly a hard pill to swallow but one that Am Yisrael must come to terms with.

Source:
Israel refuses proposal for five-year ceasefire, by Nitsan Keidar/Israel National News, April 28, 2025

At the inaugural JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Sunday, politicians, intellectuals and activists agreed that applying Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is the only viable path to securing Jewish rights and safety in the Land of Israel.

The panelists said the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, signaled the dangers of allowing a Palestinian state to be established in Israel’s biblical heartland. Such a development, they warned, would expose Jewish communities to even greater threats.

Knesset Member Ohad Tal argued that by refraining from imposing sovereignty, Israel was inviting further violence. “Palestinians don’t engage in terrorism because they lack hope, but because they believe they can drive the Jews into the sea,” Tal said. “Applying sovereignty deprives them of that hope and is the only relevant solution.”

Longtime activist Nadia Matar, co-chair of the Sovereignty Movement, echoed the sentiment. “October 7 was a watershed moment,” she said. “The massacre and the support it received from Arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria proved we cannot live under illusions. Granting citizenship or residency to populations that glorify terror would be national suicide.”

The time to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria is NOW!

Source:
Sovereignty over Judea and Samaria ‘only solution,’ says JNS panel, by David Isaac/JNS, April 28, 2025

The chief editor of Palestinian Exploration Quarterly (PEQ), a leading academic journal in the field of archaeology, confirmed to The Press Service of Israel that it effectively blacklists research from Judea and Samaria. Israeli experts told TPS-IL that conditions set by the magazine for publishing research are impossible to meet.

PEQ can publish articles on the archaeology of Judea and Samaria, which the journal refers to as the “West Bank” or “the Occupied Palestinian Territories”, when the authors “have cooperated with the relevant Palestinian authorities to do so.”

However, Israeli archaeologists told TPS-IL that this condition is impossible to meet.

“There is no cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in the field of archaeology in Judea and Samaria, but not because the Israelis don’t want it, ” said Bar-Ilan University archaeologist Dvir Raviv.

TPS-IL reported that Israeli researchers find themselves effectively blacklisted by the international academic community, unable to publish findings from some of history’s most significant sites. The politics-driven policies of the academic archaeological world result in the erasing of biblical history, while the Palestinian Authority’s deliberate efforts to wipe out evidence of the Jewish connection to the land imperils sites of tremendous historical value, archaeologists said.

This is further disturbing evidence of how the Palestinians create and support their own distorted narrative for their sole goal to delegitimize Israel.

Source:
Leading Archaeological Journal Confirms Blacklisting Research From Judea and Samaria, by Anna Epshtein/TPS-IL, April 27, 2025

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the state Holocaust Remembrance Day opening ceremony on Wednesday and pledged that Israel will not stop fighting until Hamas is destroyed.

“We will destroy the Hamas monsters who perpetrated the cruelest massacre since the Holocaust. There will not be an Islamic califate, not in the south, not in the north, and not in Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu stated.

He added: “The military pressure on Hamas will continue. We will bring back all the hostages. We will defeat Hamas and deny Iran nuclear weapons.”

Netanyahu harkened back to last year and the international pressure on Israel not to launch operations in Rafah, which Israel did on Holocaust Remembrance Day, 2024. He mentioned threats by allies to impose arms embargoes on Israel and stated: “If we need to fight with our fingernails, we’ll fight with our fingernails. Israel is not a vassal state. No pressure and no resolution can prevent us from settling the score with the barbaric murderers. Last Holocaust Remembrance Day, the operation in Rafah began. That was a turning point in the war.”

The Prime Minister also mentioned the Iranian threat. “The Iranian regime of horrors is a threat to the future of the entire human society. This is what will happen if it obtains nuclear weapons. The struggle with it will determine the fate of all free countries. Israel will not lose, give up, or surrender. What are nice words about the victory of the enlightenment, if at the moment of truth, you surrender to the barbarians.”

Source:
Netanyahu at Yad Vashem: We are not a vassal state, no one can stop us from defeating evil, by Israel National News, April 23, 2025

Words matter. I am reminded of this each and every day as I drive through cities whose names reflect not just thousands of years of our Jewish history but also our very identity.

With President Donald Trump back in office, US Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas has re-introduced proposed legislation to have the United States stop using the term “West Bank” and instead use “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical and historical name for these areas in Israel. If this bill passes, it would necessitate by law the removal of past references to the term “West Bank” from all US documents.

It’s time for official US documents to reflect this historical truth, etched in stone across our ancient landscape.

Source:
Time for Congress to ditch ‘West Bank,’ call it Judea and Samaria – opinion, by Natalie Sopinsky/Jerusalem Post, April 23, 2025

US President Donald Trump announced as follows: “I’ve just spoken to Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, relative to numerous subjects including Trade, Iran, etc. The call went very well—We are on the same side of every issue,”

Netanyahu met with Trump in Washington two weeks ago. During that meeting, Trump announced that the US would begin talks with Iran on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program.

“We are having direct talks with Iran. On Saturday we will have a very big meeting and we will see what can happen. i think everybody agrees that a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious, and the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly that anyone here wants to be involved with.”

Israel has no better friend right now than US President Donald J. Trump and we are grateful.

Source:
Trump: ‘I spoke with Netanyahu, we’re on same side of every issue’, by Israel National News, April 22, 2025

The name “West Bank” conjures up visions of a complex and contentious region of the Middle East. and there’s increasing discussion of the label itself. The time has come to return to the true, historical, biblical names of Judea and Samaria—names that reflect the deep, millennia-old connection between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland.

Last month, House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Brian Mast instructed committee staff to refer to the area as Judea and Samaria in official documents and communications. He said Congress should “recognize Israel’s rightful claim to the cradle of Jewish civilization.” And he’s right.

The region has been called Judea and Samaria since Joshua led the Israelites. Judea was the ancient kingdom of the Jews, a central part of Jewish history and identity. King David was born there. As was Jesus. Samaria was also an integral region of ancient Israel. These names are not merely geographic terms; they carry cultural, historical and religious weight.

On the other hand, the term “West Bank” was invented in the 20th century. It’s an artificial construct, coined to describe the western bank of the Jordan River after Jordan attacked Israel in the 1948 War of Independence and annexed the area in 1950. It was part of an intentional effort to redefine the region in terms that were disconnected from Jewish identity, furthering the narrative that the land was devoid of historical Jewish presence.

But Judea and Judaism are inextricably linked.

The name “West Bank” has long been a tool of political manipulation designed to sever the bond between the Jewish people and the land. It is time to turn the page and restore the names of Judea and Samaria, the heart of the Jewish homeland. Let us honor the past and ensure a future where peace can be built on a foundation of truth.

Source:
What’s in a name?, by Heather Johnston/JNS, April 8, 2025