After October 7, Spain's prime minister visited Israel in a show of solidarity – then spent the next two years doing everything in his power to brand his country as a hub of hatred.
At the summit of Mount Dov, Lt. Col. G., deputy commander of the IDF’s Mountain Brigade, acknowledges: “Before the massacre, we didn’t operate here.” Since then, however, Israel has shifted from defense to offense, culminating in the capture of the Hermon ridge and control over the entire area. The next step, the Druze officer hopes, will be to annex his brethren across the Syrian border.
A day before lighting a torch on Mount Herzl, Ora Hatan stood in her kitchen in the moshav of Shtula, cooking kubbeh for soldiers, taking "orders" from worried mothers and scolding company sergeant majors who still had not returned her pots. When you visit, you understand the secret of her magic, and of the place itself.
In Operation Rising Lion, Israeli Air Force extreme photographer Sergeant First Class O accompanied fighter pilots in the cockpit and ground crews on the tarmac. His lens hovered closest to the action, and these are the images he loved most. Also: Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar delivers a message to Israel Hayom readers.
By every objective measure, Israel and the US did not lose to Iran. In fact, they inflicted enormous damage on the ayatollahs' regime. But on another front, Israel is in troubling shape: American public opinion, where the share of supporters has fallen to its lowest point in nearly 40 years.
The shutdown of the Karish and Leviathan gas platforms is estimated to have cost about 1.5 billion shekels. Despite the defensive envelope in place, the IDF decided not to take the risk. Now, some are even claiming the move was part of a conspiracy aimed at securing additional budgets.
Director Isri Halpern spent more than two decades tracing the story of Herschel Grynszpan, the Jewish teenager who shot a German diplomat in Paris and on whose 17-year-old shoulders an immense burden was placed. “Proud Jewish Boy,” aired on Kan 11 on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, tells the unsettling story.
In the Second Iran War, Israel demonstrated extraordinary capabilities and struck its enemy in an unprecedented way. But as in every front since October 7, military power came at the expense of other forms of strength that are being eroded at an alarming rate. How can the same mistakes be avoided on Israel's northern front?
Bennett fired the opening shot, and after him some of the brightest minds philosophized about the concept of “victory.” But no one can take away what two courageous leaders achieved when they took their fate into their own hands.
On the Iranian front, Israel did everything it could, and the achievements are significant, even if not decisive. But on Israel's northern border, it looks as though we are heading toward a historic missed opportunity. Instead of forcibly freeing the Lebanese state from Iranian control, including by targeting its leaders, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu folded under pressure from the US administration, yielded to Iran and entered negotiations with Beirut's puppet regime.
