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Israel Rights Historic Wrong for Aramean Christians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets Father Nadaf.

Israel officially recognized Aramean as a separate population group last week after Interior Minister Gideon Saar instructed the Population, Immigration and Border Authority (PIBA) to allow Christian Arabs to register as Arameans, an ancient people group that Encyclopedia Britannica says ceased to exist centuries ago. Many of Israel's 160,000 Christians who had been registered as Arabs are now eligible to re-register as Arameans. The decision reflects a growing demand on the part of some Christian Arabs to not be identified as Arabs. In fact, some Aramaic Christians applied as a group of a status change to the Interior Ministry as far back as 2010. MK Yariv Levin, who has been arguing for such a move said, “I don’t try to change the reality; the reality is there. There is a big difference between Christians and Muslims, and they deserve recognition and separate representation.”

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Increased Number of Israeli Families Need Food for the High Holy Days

As the High Holy Days approach, Israeli food distribution centers are reporting a sharp increase in the number of Israeli families in need of help just putting food on their table. One NGO reports that distribution of holiday food basket requests is up to 12,300 from 10,500 a year ago. Many of the needy are senior citizens from the former Soviet Union. Long lines have formed with many waiting hours to receive their holiday basket.

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Archaeologists Uncover Sobibor Gas Chambers

On Wednesday, Israel's official museum for the victims of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem, and Poland’s Majdanek State Museum announced the discovery of the gas chambers at the Sobibor death camp, which was located in what was German-occupied East Poland. As many as 250,000 Jews were murdered at Sobibor from April, 1942 to October, 1943 when the 600 remaining prisoners revolted. They killed about a dozen German officers, allowing about 300 prisoners to escape, even past the 50-foot wide strip of landmines that surrounded the site.

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UN Peacekeepers Flee Syria to Israel

UNDOF checkpoint

The United Nations has ordered its peacekeepers to abandon positions in Syria and flee to Israel in the face of terrorists. This decision comes after the Al-Nusra Front, a UN-designated terrorist group, in August seized the Quneitra crossing into Syria from Israel and kidnapped more than 40 Fijian UNDOF troops which they later released. The same rebel group also clashed with 75 Filipino members of the force, who fled to a nearby outpost. Rebel forces are still in control of the Quneitra crossing and most of the 510 square km (196 square miles) of the Syrian side of the 1974 ceasefire line, forcing both Syrian government forces and civilians from the area.

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Hamas Rebuilds Tunnels and Amasses Weapons Against Israel

Daniel Tragerman

An Al-Jazeera reporter recently reported that Hamas has already begun rebuilding terrorist tunnels for attacking Israel. He was blindfolded and carted to a Hamas tunnel on September 4, 2014, where he conducted a report from inside concrete-lined walls snaking toward Israeli soil. The reporter walked to the end of the tunnel where a masked Jihadi militant scraped dirt away from the end of the tunnel with a hoe. "We are now inside one of the tunnels of the Al-Quds Brigades, on which work began the minute the war on Gaza ended and the ceasefire was declared," the digger told the reporter.

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Israel Expresses Cautious Optimism About Coalition to Defeat Islamic State

Backed by a bipartisan American commitment, President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday evening his strategy to combat the Islamic State, calling the countries of the Middle East to the helm of the effort. "Israel fully supports President Obama's call for a united action against ISIS," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday, the anniversary of 9/11. "All civilized countries should stand together in the fight against radical terrorism that sweeps across the Middle East that sweeps across the world. And we are playing our part in this continued effort. Some of the things are known, some things are less known."

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Israel Advises Indian Pomegranate Industry

Israel's Ministry of Agriculture recently sent agricultural expert Itzhak Kosto to Sirsa, India, to lead a two-day pomegranate seminar at the Center of Excellence for Fruits at Mangeana. The center is one of the 20 Indo-Israeli centers in India that helps India resolve agricultural issues using Israeli technology. Meanwhile, India has expressed concern that Israelis traveling there alone and in groups could be targeted during the upcoming High Holy Days.

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Israel Extends Medical Care and Expertise to Syrians and Africa

Health care workers suit up in protective gear to prevent the spread of Ebola

Israel welcomed with open arms a 12-year-old victim of the Syrian conflict after his brother transported him on a donkey from Damascus to an Israeli military base on Mount Hermon last weekend. A mortar strike on their home near Damascus blinded the pre-teen and injured his leg and arms. The boy was first treated in a Lebanese hospital where his right hand was amputated and then sent home.

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