Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara arrived in Singapore Monday for a state visit to strengthen the bonds between the two small but powerful countries who have been allies for decades. However, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong sounded a cautionary note that Southeast Asia is a region dominated by large Moslem countries and Singapore has a need to maintain good relations with them as well.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) which runs the ballistic missile and renegade nuclear programs in the Islamic Republic, announced over the weekend that they will conduct massive drills in the coming days as a show of defiance to US President Donald Trump and the many words of condemnation that have been spoken against Iranian activities and policies in recent days by governments in Europe and the Middle East.

Reports emerged in Arabic media over the weekend that an Israeli military drone struck a formation of the Islamic State (IS) terror militia operating in the Egyptian Sinai Sunday, killing four terrorists. The Egyptian Army denied the report while Israeli officials had no comment. On Monday morning, two rockets fired from Sinai landed in southern Israel’s Eshkol Regional Council on Monday morning, causing no damage or injuries.

A senior Arab official told the London-based Lebanese newspaper Al Hayat on Sunday that the Lebanese Shi’ite terror militia Hezbollah has been warned by Arab governments that it should not move against Israel because the “harsh” response from the Jewish State would leave Hezbollah badly wounded and create problems for everyone in the region. Elsewhere, many analysts have speculated that Israel is preparing to attack Hezbollah and is watching it exhaust itself in the Syrian campaign, waiting for exactly the right time to strike.

Proving once again that Israel is a country which gives equal opportunity to all its citizens, the Israel Broadcasting Authority’s Channel 1 TV news program debuted a new anchor on Saturday evenings program, Ghadir Kamal Meriach, a Druze woman. According to the company’s website, she had been working at IBA since 2011, mostly in the Arabic language section, and was given an opportunity to present the news program in recognition of her many talents and potential.

President Trump seems to be hugging America’s traditional allies close. Trump and Netanyahu see eye to eye on the fight against radical Islamist terror, the threat of Iran, and Israel’s importance as a strategic asset for the U.S. in the Middle East.