PILGRIMS' PATH Top Israeli and American officials, including US Ambassador David Friedman and Special Representative Jason Greenblatt, attended the opening on June 30 of Jerusalem's Pilgrimage Road, which served as the main path for Jewish pilgrims walking up to the Second Temple some 2,000 years ago. After six years of excavations led by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the road was inaugurated at a festive ceremony in the City of David, much to the chagrin of the Palestinian Authority, which sees the area as part of the Palestinian village of Silwan. The project was funded by the Ir David Foundation, which plans to open the historic site to the public soon. PEACE TO PROSPERITY As he opened the Peace to Prosperity workshop in Manama, Bahrain, on June 26, US President Donald Trump's top adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, said Middle East peace can only be reached via an economic pathway for the region's people to improve their lives. As he unveiled the economic chapter of the US plan, Kushner said its focus was “a modern framework for a prosperous future, a vision of what is possible with peace.” The conference was boycotted by the Palestinian Authority, whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, demanded that the US first “recognize the two-state solution.” SYRIA STRIKE The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Israeli jets attacked several Iran-linked military sites and arms caches near Damascus and Homs on July 1, killing 15 people – nine security personnel and six civilians, including a baby – and wounding 21. There was no comment from Israel. The attack came a week after a meeting hosted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat with US National Security Advisor John Bolton and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev in Jerusalem to discuss Iran's military presence in Syria. “We are determined to remove Iran from Syria,” Netanyahu said. HAMAS TRUCE? Despite reports of an Egyptian-mediated ceasefire between Israel and Hamas at the end of June, Gazan terrorists continued to send incendiary balloons toward southern Israel, causing dozens of fires and extensive damage. On June 28, IDF soldiers wounded some 50 Palestinians when thousands of Gazans demonstrated violently along the border. Although an IDF jeep was hit by a firebomb, there were no reports of Israeli casualties. RAPE CASE Mahmoud Katusa, 46, a Palestinian janitor at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish girls' school, was released from jail on June 25 after being held for 55 days on suspicion of raping a seven-year-old girl in early April. The IDF's advocate-general announced that he was revoking the indictment against Katusa due to lack of evidence. “I'm innocent,” he told reporters as he embraced his family at the Beitunya checkpoint on his way home to the village of Deir Qaddis. BERESHEET MISSION SpaceIL, the team behind Israel's Beresheet spacecraft that crashed on the moon on April 11, will not be reattempting its mission despite an earlier pledge to the contrary. Following a lengthy debate, the non-profit organization announced on June 25 that landing on the moon was not a sufficiently great challenge, and it would search for a new challenge while continuing its educational “Beresheet Effect” projects for schoolchildren. KRAFT PLEDGE After accepting the 2019 Genesis Prize at a ceremony in Jerusalem on June 29, Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, pledged $20 million to establish a foundation dedicated to combating antisemitism, BDS, and “other efforts to delegitimize Israel.” “I believe we can use this platform of social media to make a genuine and lasting impact on the rising tide of hate, especially against our people,” Kraft said.
