US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman gave an interview to the New York Times, published last Friday, in which he said among other things that  “Under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.” Following the interview, another Trump Administration officials said “Our policy has not changed” regarding the West Bank, but this did not prevent a chorus of condemnation for Friedman from Palestinian and Leftist Jewish groups in Israel and the US.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was in Teheran Monday to meet with senior officials of the Islamic Republic in what was assessed by some analysts to be a last-ditch effort to save the JCPOA nuclear deal. The meeting came despite a terse statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday declaring that Iran’s ballistic missile program, about which Germany and other European countries have expressed grave concerns, is none of their business and therefore will not be a topic for discussion during any talks.

In another defeat for the movement to Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) Israel, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot was ranked among the top 25 research institutes in the world in two main categories in lists published last week by the prestigious U-Multirank website. “This ranking shows that our striving for excellence – our basic drive to conduct curiosity-based research and investigate the workings of nature – is paying off,” said Daniel Zajfman, President of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Eight-year-old Israeli Or Shatil defeated previously unbeaten Ismayilova Khanim from Azerbaijan and took home second place honors at the European School Chess Championships in Mamia, Romania over the weekend.

Access Israel, an NGO which assists people living with physical disabilities, held its 7th International Conference in Tel Aviv recently, welcoming over 800 participants from 22 countries discussing a wide variety of policies, technology and best practices for facilitating the desire of physically disabled people to contribute to their communities. In a related development, the “First International Conference on Wearable Devices for Medical Diagnosis” was held last month at the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, with the participation of practitioners and technology experts from around the world.

The first-ever NATO member state to shoot down a Russian military jet has willingly fallen in line with Vladimir Putin’s “Turkish Gambit,” a strategy designed to drive a deep crack into the NATO alliance. The Turkish Gambit may or may not end well for Erdoğan, but it’s certainly good for Putin.

The Atlantic Council think tank in Washington DC recently held a panel discussion on the changing role of China in the Middle East, including extensive Chinese investments in critical infrastructure projects and technological innovation hubs in Israel.

ICEJ-Australia recently funded a Christian firefighting expert to come to Israel to share his expertise and training with his local counterparts. All the students who received the training were thankful that he came all the way from Down Under to teach them, not only in the classroom but also via hands-on training with fire safety equipment.