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Since yesterday morning, more than 400 rockets have been launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza into Israel proper. Today, two Israeli women were killed as rockets slammed into the southern city of Ashkelon.
Yesterday, on Jerusalem Day or Yom Yerushalayim, tensions were high. Since early yesterday morning, Hamas has launched rockets toward Jerusalem and southern Israel, neighboring Gaza. Sirens have sounded through much of the state of Israel and Jerusalem has received the worst barrage of violent attacks in years.
Live from Jerusalem, we are honored to feature Ambassador Yoram Ettinger who will update us on what is behind the many tensions that Jerusalem and the state of Israel face.
Beyond this, many of us have been concerned for some time now with some of the Biden administration's appointments. There is reason to be concerned in terms of not only the Iran negotiations in Vienna, but also on the primacy these officials might place on the Palestinian issue versus Israel's newly-formed friendships with their Sunni Arab allies.
What is behind the new tensions in Jerusalem and Israel? How valid are these concerns about some of the appointments by the Biden administration? How can the American Jewish community mitigate potential harm to Israel?
Yoram Ettinger is the President of America-Israel Opportunities, Ltd, a consultancy on US-Mideast policy and inter-Arab affairs. He regularly briefs, consults with and is interviewed by legislators, journalists, professors and students, clergy, civic organizations, and businesses.
He is co-founder of the America-Israel Demographic Research Group, which documented a 1 million gap in the number of Arabs in Judea & Samaria, refuting the myth of the "Arab demographic time bomb" and documenting an unprecedented Jewish demographic tailwind.
Ettinger served as Minister for Congressional Affairs with the rank of Ambassador at Israel's Embassy in Washington, D.C.; Director of Israel's Government Press Office; Israel's Consul General to the Southwestern USA, based in Houston, Deputy Director of the US Cultural Center in Jerusalem, information officer at Israel's Consulate General in Los Angeles; the Alabama Trade Representative in Israel (1997-2000). He was also the editor of the "Contemporary Mideast Backgrounder," disseminated to thousands of policymakers and public opinion molders in five languages.
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