23 Tevet 5785
Even before being inaugurated into his second term as US President, Trump was already talking about the Abraham Accords. And lest we forget, Biden was also holding talks on the subject with Saudi Arabia right before the Simchat Torah Massacre. Both Biden and Trump were/are just carrying out their own orders. Any differences between them are scripted and staged. This initiative is part of a long-term plan which exists at multiple levels, but it's what is ultimately going to bring them all down in defeat. And since they are wasting no time, HKB"H surely won't either.
In sign of priorities, Trump’s first call with foreign leader held with Saudi prince
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday became the first foreign leader to hold a phone call with US President Donald Trump since his return to office this week for a second term.The decision to first speak with the de facto Saudi leader, known by his initials MBS, indicated the Trump administration’s priorities, with the president expressing his desire to expand the Abraham Accords with a normalization agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.The deal would likely be part of a massive defense agreement that Riyadh is looking to sign with Washington, which would provide Saudi Arabia with security guarantees from the US if it faces attack and also lead to huge investments into the American economy.But the Saudis have long made clear that such a deal would require the establishment of a pathway to the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023, terror onslaught, Riyadh has intensified that rhetoric, with those in touch with the crown prince saying he would no longer be able to accept more symbolic steps from Israel, and that concrete steps would be required. Moreover, Saudi Arabia has made clear that an end to the war in Gaza is also a necessity before normalization talks can proceed.. . . Bin Salman told Trump during their Wednesday call that Saudi Arabia would like to expand its investments in the US over the next four years to $600 billion and that the figure could further increase “if additional opportunities become available,” according to a readout published on Saudi state media.Trump told the Saudi crown prince that he looks forward to working with Riyadh to advance common interests, the Saudi readout added.Days after a report that the US is considering temporarily relocating some of Gaza’s two million residents in Indonesia while the post-war construction of the enclave takes place, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio holds a phone call with Jakarta’s Foreign Minister Sugiono.“Rubio welcomed Indonesia’s willingness to engage on Middle East peace and post-conflict reconstruction,” says a US readout on the call.Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said last year that his country was willing to send peacekeeping troops to enforce a ceasefire in Gaza if required.The Times of Israel revealed in 2021 that the Trump administration was on the verge of brokering a normalization deal between Israel and Indonesia but ran out of time before the end of the term.
Roughly 31,000 people were ordered to flee an area north of Los Angeles on Wednesday after a fast-moving wildfire exploded, growing to more than 10,000 acres within hours, officials said.. . . In addition to the approximately 31,000 people under mandatory evacuation orders, another around 23,000 were under evacuation warnings, meaning they should be prepared to leave if told to do so.
While the leader of the West gnaws on his Abraham Accords bone, the Erev Rav are doing the same thing with their own bone of contention - the one that will likely precipitate their downfall as well.
The Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee convened on Tuesday to discuss the recruitment law presented last week by Defense Minister Yisrael Katz.. . . The head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, spoke saying . . . “We are making an enormous effort. I am convinced that as we progress and succeed in recruiting our Chareidi brothers, they will enlist with us. What we are preparing for them will enable successful recruitment. We have invested millions, tremendous resources, and will expand as needed.”Bar Kalifa demanded “more effective” sanctions against Chareidim, saying: “We will need much more effective sanctions that affect the individual so that it will really make an impact.”The meeting became very heated when Yesh Atid MK Simon Davidson said:”I’ve already spoken about this to the head of the Education Committee – if in the context of a Chareidi draft law, we don’t do serious work regarding the issue of the chinuch of Chareidi children, we won’t accomplish what we want.”“Ultimately, when a child grows up in Chareidi society and his parents were not in the army and his siblings were not in the army, and in school he doesn’t learn about citizenship, Zionism, the Israeli flag, nor the meaning of the IDF – he will reach the age of 18 and he won’t want to serve in the IDF even if it’s imposed on him.”Shas MK Yinon Azulai immediately reacted and cried out: “You want to influence our chinuch! That is exactly the problem we are arguing about here, that you want to influence the chinuch of Chareidi children.”Davidson responded: “Definitely, definitely, definitely (we want to influence Chareidi chinuch).”When Azulai responded: “we won’t let you harm our children’s education,” the conversation turned into shouts and screams, with another Yesh Atid MK screaming that “Chareidi children are harming the education of secular children” by not serving in the IDF, and called Chareidim “parasites.”UTJ MK Yaakov Asher said: “There are people sitting around this table who don’t want a solution to the problem but to perpetuate the problem in order to bring down the government and harm the Chareidi public.”Asher added: “Threats of sanctions against children who have been educated since the day they were born that the Torah is what protects the people of Israel will not shake their emunah.”Following the meeting, Katz spoke in the Knesset plenum, saying that he wants to preserve the Olam HaTorah but at the same time, called for sanctions against all yeshivos and individuals.