How Did Coordination with Allies Benefit Tel Aviv?

The daily life in Tel Aviv on the day following Iran's launch of drones and missiles towards Israel (Reuters)
The daily life in Tel Aviv on the day following Iran's launch of drones and missiles towards Israel (Reuters)
TT
20

How Did Coordination with Allies Benefit Tel Aviv?

The daily life in Tel Aviv on the day following Iran's launch of drones and missiles towards Israel (Reuters)
The daily life in Tel Aviv on the day following Iran's launch of drones and missiles towards Israel (Reuters)

Before many drones reached Israel, US, UK, French, and Jordanian troops dealt with a big chunk, aiding Israel in halting the Iranian drone attack. Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari called it a significant strategic win.

Stopping the drones gave Israel space to focus on Iranian missiles. Israel’s interception of the Iranian attack cost around a billion dollars. Now, Israel aims to build a lasting alliance after recognizing the importance of joint action.

Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that the Iranian attack failed after intervention by the US, UK, France, and Jordan.

The newspaper praised this as another success for Israel, showing that these countries didn’t back down from Iran’s threats but fought effectively through careful planning.

Israel’s Channel 12 described Jordan’s involvement as unexpected, highlighting their strategic partnership with the US and their impressive interception of drones.

Despite typically cool relations, Jordan’s actions demonstrated a surprising and genuine strategic alliance with Israel.

According to Haaretz, the successful defense against the Iranian attack highlights the effectiveness of the US-led regional defense system.

Israel returned to normalcy on Sunday after the attack, with the Home Front Command stating that nationwide, Israelis no longer needed to stay close to protected areas, though gathering restrictions and the cancellation of educational activities and school trips remained.

Hagari said that 99% of the aerial threats were shot down, which he said was a strategic achievement.

President Joe Biden confirmed US assistance in destroying almost 300 drones and missiles launched at Israel by Iran.

US military aircraft and missile defense destroyers, deployed to the region last week, supported Israeli air defense systems in intercepting a significant wave of drones and missiles fired from Iran late Saturday night.

American officials confirmed US forces intercepted Iranian drones near As-Suwayda and Daraa in southern Syria, close to the Jordanian border, bound for Israel, without specifying the exact number.

Sources revealed that Jordanian aircraft downed numerous Iranian drones flying through Jordan towards Israel.



Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
TT
20

Israeli Likud Party Ministers Urge Netanyahu to Annex West Bank

Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)
Israeli soldiers in Tubas in the north of the occupied West Bank on September 11, 2024. (AFP)

Cabinet ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party called on Wednesday for Israel to annex the Israeli-occupied West Bank before the Knesset recesses at the end of the month.

They issued a petition ahead of Netanyahu's meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, where discussions are expected to center on a potential 60-day Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal with Hamas.

The petition was signed by 15 cabinet ministers and Amir Ohana, speaker of the Knesset, Israel's parliament.

There was no immediate response from the prime minister's office. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, long a confidant of Netanyahu, did not sign the petition. He has been in Washington since Monday for talks on Iran and Gaza.

"We ministers and members of Knesset call for applying Israeli sovereignty and law immediately on Judea and Samaria," they wrote, using the biblical names for the West Bank captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Their petition cited Israel's recent achievements against both Iran and Iran's allies and the opportunity afforded by the strategic partnership with the US and support of Trump.

It said the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel demonstrated that the concept of Jewish settlement blocs alongside the establishment of a Palestinian state poses an existential threat to Israel.

"The task must be completed, the existential threat removed from within, and another massacre in the heart of the country must be prevented," the petition stated.

Most countries regard Jewish settlements in the West Bank, many of which cut off Palestinian communities from one another, as a violation of international law.

With each advance of Israeli settlements and roads, the West Bank becomes more fractured, further undermining prospects for a contiguous land on which Palestinians could build a sovereign state long envisaged in Middle East peacemaking.

Israel's pro-settler politicians have been emboldened by the return to the White House of Trump, who has proposed Palestinians leave Gaza, a suggestion widely condemned across the Middle East and beyond.