US President Donald Trump held a press conference with leaders from the Baltic states Tuesday, re-iterating a previous statement he made about wanting to withdraw US military forces from the Middle East. “It’s very costly for our country, and it helps other countries a hell of a lot more than it helps us,” Trump said. “I want to get out – I want to bring our troops back home. I want to rebuild our nation. It’s time to come back home. And we’re thinking about that very seriously.”

Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry issued a report recently showing that the price of food in Israel is 19% higher than the average in the developed countries of the Organization for Cooperation and Development (OECD) despite dropping slightly in recent years. The report added that the situation is exacerbated by the fact that the average salary in Israel is still far lower than the OECD average in nearly every type of employment.

The so-called “Jerusalem Faction” of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox (haredi) Jewish community held a celebration on Tuesday evening in the middle of an intersection at the entrance to the capital to “honor the 63 imprisoned Torah scholars” who have been imprisoned in recent months for refusing to file paperwork which will ensure them an exemption from mandatory service in the military. Visibly angry motorists were stuck in the huge traffic jam caused by the event, which included a convoy of 12 limousines carrying some of the students as they made their triumphant entry into the city.

Muhammad Saadeh, 45, the imam of the Tawhid Mosque in the Galilee village of Umm al-Fahm, was shot dead near the entrance to his mosque Tuesday morning, underlining the alarming rise in violence in Israel’s Arab communities in recent years. Umm al-Fahm Deputy Mayor Bilal Daher Mahajane responded by criticizing police for not taking the problem of crime in the Arab sector seriously enough.

Israeli NGO “Save a Child’s Heart” received the 2018 United Nations Population Award for outstanding achievements in health this week. The NGO has, since it’s establishment in 1996, provided cardiac surgery to 4,400 children from 55 developing countries.

President Trump’s words will surely encourage Russian and Iranian hopes of driving the United States out of the country, so they can entrench their military bases and political influence. That would pose a major threat to Israel and severely damage U.S. standing throughout the Middle East.

Relive the earliest moments of the birth of the modern State of Israel through the eyes of journalists who reported on it in real time. The historic news coverage of the events of those early days was recently released by the Israeli government film archives.

There is an increasing need to provide basic food items for families struggling below the poverty line at the holidays and throughout the year. $100 provides a family with a basket of basic food items. Please help us bless these precious Israeli families.