Israel news:
Rabbi Shteinman’s condition has stabilized this morning but it still in critical condition. The public is asked to pray for Rabbi Aharon Yehudah Leib ben Gittel Faiga to recover completely along with the rest of the ill of Israel.
Teva Pharmaceuticals is set to fire 1700 workers who make up about 25% of their Israeli work force. The Histadrut Workers’ union said they will not accept Teva’s unilateral decisions and will stand by the workers.
The Hamas and the PA announced there will be elections at the end of 2018 after the different splinter groups in Gaza agreed on this during negotiations in Egypt. The vote will be for who will be head of the PA and for the Palestinian parliament.
An Israeli breakthrough in cancer research is a new treatment that will use genetically altered T cells from the cancer growth itself to kill off the cancer. This research is now in the experimental stage.
World news:
Arab media reports Abu Mazen refusing a phone call from Jared Kushner: They claim that Abu Mazen told him to speak with the PA representative in Washington. This is a supposed rebuff to Trump closing that PA office in Washington so if this conversation really took place is questionable.
Hariri renounced his resignation and spoke of restoring stability to the region in a conference with bankers. He will have a juggling act dealing with the interests of Iran that has way too much power in the region due to its proxy the Hezbollah and the interests of the Saudis that want to neutralize Iran’s power.
Germany is faced with a choice of a minority government or re-elections if a coalition isn’t formed. The SPD Social Democratic Party is the next major party after Merkel’s and they aren’t interested in a coalition with her conservative party. The coalition they had in the previous government had very poor ratings so they don’t want to repeat the same mistake, but re-elections may not help either.
Trump and Putin had an hour long phone conversation on Tuesday in which they discussed fighting Middle East terrorism, Syria, Ukraine, North Korea and the Iran nuclear deal. President Trump said they spoke “very strongly about North Korea and about bringing peace to Syria”.