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Dear A.,
Early this morning, Israeli Air Force jets
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struck targets in Damascus near the Syrian president's official residence, following continued attacks against the Druze community in Syria by jihadist forces believed to be associated with the new Syrian government.
"This is a clear message to the Syrian regime. We will not allow forces to be sent south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community," Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Katz said in a joint statement.
Katz added separately, "It is our duty to protect the Druze in Syria from harm, for the sake of our Druze brothers in Israel, their loyalty to the state, and their immense contribution to Israel’s security."
The IDF
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announced this afternoon that Israeli troops are "deployed to southern Syria and prepared to prevent hostile forces from entering the area and Druze villages," and that more Syrian Druze had been evacuated to Israel for medical treatment.
The U.S. State Department condemned the attacks on the Druze in a
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statement yesterday:
"The recent violence and inflammatory rhetoric targeting members of the Druze community in Syria is reprehensible and unacceptable. The interim authorities must stop the fighting, hold perpetrators of violence and civilian harm accountable for their actions, and ensure the security of all Syrians."
Prime Minister Netanyahu
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spoke today "with the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Tarif, who thanked him for his directive to take strong action to protect the Druze in Syria in recent days, including the PM's decision to strike the Presidential Palace compound in Damascus."
Continue to
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follow AIPAC on social media for the latest updates.
Shabbat shalom,
Jake Braunstein
Director of Policy Communications
Iran must dismantle enrichment capabilities, Secretary Rubio Says
In an
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interview yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated that Iran must not be allowed to retain a domestic uranium enrichment capability:
"If Iran wants a peaceful civil nuclear program, meaning they want nuclear power plants like other countries in the world have, there’s a way to do it. And that is you build the reactors and you import enriched uranium to fuel those reactors. That’s how dozens of countries around the world do it.
"The only countries in the world that enrich uranium are the ones that have nuclear weapons...
"And the level at which they enrich it is really not relevant per se because, really, if you have the ability to enrich at 3.67 percent, it only takes a few weeks to get to 20 percent and then 60 percent and then the 80 and 90 percent that you need for a weapon.
"And so that really is the path forward here. Iran simply needs to say we’ve agreed to no longer enrich, we’re going to have reactors because we want nuclear energy, and we’re going to import enriched uranium... But what cannot happen is to live in a world where Iran has a nuclear weapon."
Israel developing alternative mechanism to deliver aid to Gaza, increasing pressure on Hamas
Israel is developing a new mechanism to distribute humanitarian aid in Gaza while preventing the aid from continuing to be stolen by Hamas.
The plan is to have international organizations and private security contractors hand out boxes of food to individual Gazan families, rather than have large stores sitting in warehouses,
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according to reports .
Meanwhile, the IDF is preparing to significantly expand its military operations in Gaza to further increase the pressure on Hamas to release the hostages, and plans to call up large numbers of reservists for military duty.
The United States must continue to increase the pressure on Hamas and its sponsors in Qatar, Turkey and Iran to release the 59 hostages, including 5 Americans, still held in captivity in Gaza.
Houthi missiles launched from Yemen intercepted
Early this morning, Israel
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intercepted a missile launched by the Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Later in the afternoon, the Houthis launched another missile, which was also intercepted.
Fragments of a missile penetrated the roof of a kindergarten in northern Israel, which fortunately was closed at the time.
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The Telegraph: "Hamas claim that 70pc of Gaza dead are women and children ‘demonstrably false’"
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77 years of a strong U.S.-Israel relationship! Am Yisrael Chai 🇺🇸🇮🇱
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As Israelis mourned their fallen on Yom HaZikaron and prepared to celebrate the country's 77th Independence Day on Yom Ha'atzmaut, fires broke out around Jerusalem.
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25,420 fallen soldiers have lost their lives in order to protect the State of Israel and its civilians. And thousands of others have lost their lives to terror attacks.
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Support our work to keep Israel safe.
The mission of AIPAC is to encourage and persuade the U.S. government to enact specific policies that create a strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel.
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