Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that some Christian villages in southern Lebanon had asked to be annexed by Israel, in order to be protected from Hezbollah militants.

Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war on March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran's supreme leader in joint US-Israeli strikes.

Israel responded with massive airstrikes and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon, where its troops now occupy swathes of territory near the border.

"Christian villages in Lebanon, some of them have actually asked to be annexed to Israel, because we protect them against the Hezbollah, Hezbollah fanatics who want to kill them, and we do the same things with Christians everywhere," Netanyahu told Fox News's show, The Sunday Briefing.

The mayor of the Christian village of Rmeish, Hanna al-Amil, was quoted by Lebanese public broadcaster NNA as denying Netanyahu's claim.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260705-netanyahu-says-lebanese-christian-villages-sought-annexation-by-israel  

Jewish organizations in Canada are increasingly helping families explore emigration as antisemitic violence reaches record levels, with informational tours to destinations such as Panama and Oklahoma drawing growing interest from those who no longer feel secure in the country.

Canada, home to the world's fourth-largest Jewish community, has experienced a sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in recent years.

Jewish advocacy groups say the worsening climate is prompting some families to consider leaving altogether, while others are actively investigating relocation opportunities abroad or in the United States.

Rivka Campbell, executive director of Beth Tikvah Synagogue in Toronto, said she is hearing increasingly from elderly members of her congregation who spend winters in Florida that life there feels markedly different.

"It's almost like they can breathe when they leave Toronto," she told The Media Line.

https://allisraelnews.com/canadian-jewish-groups-organize-relocation-tours-as-antisemitism-surges  

For years, despite being a key part of the Trump Administration, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has occupied a political space that often overlaps with progressives who have become increasingly critical of Israel. But this week, the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services delivered one of the strongest public defenses of the Jewish state by any member of the Trump administration, forcefully rejecting accusations that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Appearing on Fox News, Kennedy didn’t hedge his words. “If Israel wanted to commit a genocide against Palestinians, they could do it in a minute,” Kennedy said. “It’s doing the opposite.” 

https://allisraelnews.com/rfk-jr-rejects-israel-genocide-claims-in-one-of-his-most-forceful-defenses-of-jewish-state  

US-backed Board of Peace poised to launch pilot program to build and maintain shelters in parts of Gaza under Israeli control, while encouraging Gazans to leave areas under Hamas rule.

The project is intended to create protected areas for civilians who are not armed and are not affiliated with Hamas, while shifting food and medical aid into zones administered outside the terror group’s control.

The plan is part of the implementation of Section 17 of President Donald Trump’s Gaza framework, which calls for temporary rehabilitation in parts of the Strip no longer controlled by Hamas.

The program’s immediate goal is to separate civilians from Hamas’s governing and military structures.

Food, medical care and other services would be provided inside the shelters, with caravans used instead of permanent reconstruction.  Officials familiar with the plan said no concrete would be brought in at this stage, reflecting concern that building materials could be diverted for military purposes.

Officials who have seen the plans hope the process will gradually deprive Hamas of population, territory and resources.

https://mailchi.mp/beholdisrael/newsletter61826-11469577?e=71da67882a  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HdLdFeWrok  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHRErr05IOE  

Since March 2, 2026, Hezbollah has launched more than 7,000 rockets, missiles, and drones from Lebanese territory into Israeli cities, towns, and communities in a sustained campaign of terror that Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says the international media has largely ignored.

Sa’ar was blunt about who bears responsibility for the war: not Israel, not Lebanon, but Hezbollah, and behind it, Tehran. “Very few in the international media mention the fact that Hezbollah started this war on March 2, after receiving instructions from Tehran to do so. Just as Hezbollah started the war on October 8, 2023, one day after Hamas’s attack on Israel,” he said. Iran transferred $1.2 billion to Hezbollah since the November 2024 ceasefire, and continues to play a direct role in training the group’s fighters and guiding its senior leadership, according to IDF officers.

Sa’ar’s message to the world’s local leaders was equally direct on the nature of the common enemy. “We do not have any serious dispute with the government of Lebanon beyond a few border points that can be resolved in short negotiations. We and Lebanon have a common enemy. This is the enemy of Lebanon’s future, sovereignty, and independence, and it is also the enemy of Israel’s security. That enemy is Hezbollah,” he said. Lebanon and Israel, in other words, share an enemy, and pretending otherwise costs both countries lives.

Hezbollah does not merely fire at Israeli civilians — it fires from behind Lebanese ones. IDF officers confirmed that Hezbollah had embedded itself in civilian areas of Tyre, from which it launched approximately 120 rockets since the current fighting began....

Lebanese President to Iran: 'This is not your country.'
Hezbollah doesn't represent Lebanon, it's an Iranian proxy holding the Lebanese people hostage. It's time to free Lebanon from Iran's grip. 

On March 25, Sa’ar formally called on the United Nations Security Council and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to officially designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, demand that the Lebanese state disarm the group, and recognize Iran as a “threat to international peace.” 

For the first time since the collapse of the May 17 Agreement in 1983, Israel and Lebanon are engaged in direct negotiations, with the goal of reaching a peace agreement and the disarmament of Hezbollah. 

But agreements are only as strong as the will to enforce them. Hezbollah has broken every ceasefire it has ever signed. Iran has funded every weapon it has ever fired. Hezbollah has given the world thousands of clear examples of what to expect from them.

https://israel365news.com/419194/hezbollah-fires-7000-rockets-at-israel-using-lebanese-christians-as-human-shields/  

For nearly two thousand years, the Temple Mount stood in silence — no Levitical choir, no sacred song, no music ascending from the stones where the altar once burned. That silence ended Tuesday morning.

A group of three Levi’im — Levites — ascended the Temple Mount and sang the Shir shel Yom, the daily psalm appointed for Tuesday, at the site of the ancient altar. The event, facilitated by the Beyadenu movement for the Temple Mount, marks what participants describe as the partial resumption of one of the most ancient sacred duties in Jewish history: the Levitical song that accompanied the korban Tamid, the daily morning offering, in the days when the Temple stood.

The Levites issued a statement following the ascent: “We were moved today to fulfill — partially — our dream as sons of Levi: to sing the song of God on the holy mountain. Today, thank God, there are several organizations of Levites preparing for the day when we can stand again on the platform, and we invite our Levite brothers to inquire and join.”

The Bible is explicit about what Levitical song meant in the Temple. It was not background music. King David organized the Levi’im by divine command: “David and the commanders of the army set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, who prophesied with lyres, harps, and cymbals” (1 Chronicles 25:1). The Sages teach that the song was an indispensable component of the avodah — the Temple service itself — and that sacrifices offered without it were considered incomplete.

Now the organizers are expanding. The Hebrew announcement calls explicitly for additional Levi’im — young and old, with the ability to sing — who are willing to train and ascend to fulfill their ancestral role on the Temple Mount, and in the future, God willing, in the Temple itself. Qualified Levites interested in joining the growing choir are encouraged to contact the organization.

The Gaon of Vilna, the great 18th-century Torah sage, taught that the music of the Temple would be the last secret revealed before the coming of Mashiach — the Messiah. Whether Tuesday’s song marks the beginning of that final movement or simply one more step in a long return, it is a sound that has not been heard on the Mount since Roman legions reduced the Temple to ash in 70 CE. After 1,955 years, the sons of Levi are singing again.

https://israel365news.com/419146/sons-of-levi-resume-ancient-temple-service-daily-psalm-sung-at-altar-site/  

Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister and leads a right-wing government in which several ultranationalists hold ministerial positions.

Netanyahu's bid for re-election as leader of the right-wing conservative Likud party was announced just over two weeks ago. On Saturday, he signaled a shift in government partnerships ahead of the October 27 parliamentary elections.

"I intend to form a broad national government. Not a right-wing government, not a left-wing government that depends on Arab parties, but a broad national government," Netanyahu said at a press conference.

https://swedenherald.com/article/netanyahu-signals-shift-seeks-broad-national-government-after-election