Of the many things Israel does well, fighting the narrative war is generally not considered among them.

The country’s response to international criticism, both broad and specific, is often faulted, even by allies, as disjointed and lacking a sense of urgency.

In a post-Oct. 7 world, much of the narrative war has taken place online, with Israel turning to a set of Diaspora influencers with large social media followings to take up the cause. However, a growing app intends to fight at the grassroots level, employing a force multiplier.

Daniel Rosen is a perfect example of the purpose of that app, called Emissary, founded in early 2024 by entrepreneurs David Kristal and David Burton. Emissary employs approximately eight full-time staff, including Rosen as co-founder and co-chair, and has thus far raised $1.8 million, including a sizable grant from UJA-Federation of New York.

Available on Apple’s App Store and Google Play, the app—with 4,000 downloads so far—delivers to users a curated stream of social-media posts from various platforms about Israel and antisemitism. Users of Emissary—cultivated from the ranks of synagogues, Jewish schools and organizations—can share those posts promptly to their own feeds.

There’s also an artificial-intelligence component called "Ask Emissary" that allows users to ask a question, after which they receive an answer based on a Large Language Model (or LLM), meaning it was built exclusively to combat antisemitism and drawn from reputable sources in the Jewish world.

Additionally, Emissary Social takes twice-daily uploaded content from a team of curators that are meant to confront hatred and lets users easily share those items across a range of major platforms.

“I think it’s really at the vanguard of how social-media users can wade into the sea of content and feel that they have a little bit of guidance on their side, as opposed to just going at it blind,” Jonathan Blake, senior rabbi at Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, N.Y., and an avid user of Emissary, told JNS.

‘Couldn’t afford to sit on the sidelines’

To drive his point home about the effectiveness of the app, Rosen said he was at an event with about 150 young people and asked them to download the app, with nearly 100 agreeing to do so.

“As they were downloading, I was asking how many people they have in their network? And the answer was invariably anywhere from 200 to 1,000 people for each person,” Rosen told JNS.

He directed the new users to a specific piece of content uploaded right before the event and asked them to upload it on their own accounts using the Emissary app.

“What happened is 100 people uploaded that piece of content to the 200 people in their network. So that’s 20,000 people who got the same piece of content at the same exact time,” he explained. “I was able to demonstrate to these young people in real time the effectiveness of collective action. Now imagine if we had 1,000 or 10,000 or 100,000 people” creating millions or potentially billions of impressions.

“It’s great content, and it’s already memeable or postable with the click of a button,” said Blake, who encourages his congregants, especially younger ones who may not yet know where to turn for trusted information online.

He continued, saying that “it gives a curated and thoughtfully cultivated stream of pro-Israel, pro-Jewish content, none of which I have found to be inflammatory or incendiary or needlessly provocative. So it allows its users to populate their own social-media feeds with valuable content that they might not otherwise discover.”

For his part, Rosen dabbled in public support for Israel, dating back to his time as a student at New York University, when he led rallies and protests during the years of the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005.

After college, Rosen got into his family’s bakery-supplies business and has been there for 21 years since. 

Describing himself to JNS as “an armchair general,” Rosen conceded he’d been “totally uninvolved” on the pro-Israel side for the better part of two decades.

“Then Oct. 7 happened, and what I saw on the streets, on social media, shocked me in the sense of the brutality,” he said. “But what I saw on the streets of New York—when we saw on social media people were saying things and doing things that average Americans aren’t expected to do—I asked the question, ‘What’s going on here?’ And I understood that I couldn’t afford to sit on the sidelines any longer.”

‘Make one voice into many’

Rosen returned to the arena with a big idea: While there’s a small minority of people who are very active, loud and organized, “if we don’t become organized ourselves and start acting in coordinated ways, we’re going to leave that conversation to continue to be influenced.” 

The challenge is to create a network of millions of people to work in a coordinated way to defend Israel online. It led him, with the guidance of Rabbi Reuven Fink of Young Israel of New Rochelle, N.Y., to create an organization called Minds and Hearts.

Rosen was joined by a partner, Aaron Herman. They formed a more complete team with the inclusion of Rachel Azaria, a social activist and former Knesset member; Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. (res.) Omer Dagan; philanthropist Sandy Cardin; and human-rights activist Marjan Keypour Greenblatt.

Around nine months ago, Cardin, son of former Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat, introduced Hearts and Minds to Kristal and Burton, who, Rosen told JNS “understood the same thing we understood, which was that the fight is on social media, in the minds and hearts of the average American.”

The established Emissary group had a “slightly different methodology,” said Rosen, who serves as co-chair, but the goals and missions were similar enough to warrant a merger, with Rosen serving as co-chair.

While Minds and Hearts brought their ground game, Kristal proved a means to add something lacking: the technology. He is the founder of Augeo, an employee engagement and loyalty management program, providing social intra-connectivity to employees of major companies like Walmart, Starbucks and T-Mobile.

“He took his $10 million technology and repurposed it,” Rosen said of Kristal. “It had already been built and was already battle-tested.”

This is the component that makes up Emissary Connect, now being utilized in several pilot programs by a few notable Jewish organizations to help coordinate constituents. It is expected to launch in August.

Emissary Connect allows individuals who sign up to become an “emissary” themselves and be placed into a group of around 50 people, led by a group “champion.” A synagogue with 1,000 members, for example, would be divided into 20 groups of 50 people.

Many of those potential users, Rosen said, “feel like they’re by themselves. They’re alone, and we’re not really organized. And so the idea here is to make one voice into many voices, and through that, we can become very impactful.”

Each group is given a mission, directive or request based on real-life current affairs. Rosen used the examples of Kanye West’s Super Bowl ad, which was used to direct viewers to a site selling Nazi swastika T-shirts, and of CNN broadcasting falsely that Israel had struck Gaza’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the opening weeks of its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Once fully built, Emissary could direct groups totaling tens of thousands of people to write to the company hosting West’s website, or “we could have sent 10,000 people to the CNN page and say, ‘Hey, that’s not true.’ And we could have flooded the social-media spaces and the comment sections for CNN,” Rosen said.

He added that there are “so many different ways that we can become very effective through communal action, through coordinated action.”

‘Speaks to a need’

Emissary is engaged in pilot programs with high-profile New York City-area Jewish schools like Salanter Akiba Riverdale (SAR) Academy in The Bronx, Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn and Westchester Hebrew High School, where the junior classes at each institution have seen opt-in rates of 90% to the program. And, Rosen said, “they bring it back to their family and their communities, so we have some very real numbers to make real impacts.”

Westchester Hebrew High School was among the first schools in the app’s pilot program.

The app “speaks to a need, and it can help mobilize this younger population, and empower them to take action,” Lisa Kahn Kriegel, the school’s social worker and activities coordinator, told JNS.

She said she’s encouraged that it is entering the schools and “meeting these high school kids where they’re at. I think that’s the right move to start working on the next generation.”

The start of the new school year will see a rollout to many more schools, synagogues and communities, Rosen told JNS.

“We’ve been pursuing a concurrent strategy. There’s a grassroots strategy, which is reaching out, community by community, place by place, and getting buy-in,” he said. “And then there’s the organizational, major Jewish partnership strategy,” with some 50 organizations thus far utilizing the Emmissary app.

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A 2021 video of a virtual Youth Democratic Socialists of America meeting featuring Zohran Mamdani has recently resurfaced, revealing that despite his previous denials, the New York City mayoral nominee does, in fact, hold views that align with a universally accepted definition of communism.

In the video, an interminably smiling Mamdani—oddly dressed in a tight, green spider web-like sweater—spoke to what appeared to be college students submitting questions to him about how to succeed as a true socialist in the DSA. He repeatedly distanced himself from even mainstream DSA Socialists, strongly implying that they were not real ones and insisting that the true way to DSA’s success would come from embracing not progressives but the idea of socialism itself.

At one point, Mamdani went so far as to state that “seizing the means of production” was the “end goal,” evoking Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, both of whom famously spoke of socialism being merely a transitional phase to be used in achieving the true end goal of communism. In Marx’s Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875), he explicitly described socialism as a transitional stage (the “lower phase”) of communism, when the state controls the means of production, eventually leading to a Communist society (the “higher phase”).

Mamdani casually refers to his fellow Socialists as “comrades” and boasts of numerous antisemitic affiliations and promises. He admits to his affiliation with the militant and virulent anti-Zionist hate group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The often violent or harassing group has repeatedly been banned or suspended from at least a dozen college campuses in the United States. What he doesn’t reveal in the damning video is the fact that he was not merely a supporter of SJP but a co-founder of the Students for Justice in Palestine’s chapter at Bowdoin College in Maine.

Just as concerning for the Jewish people of New York, Mamdani promises in the clip not just that he will work to revoke the city’s anti-BDS executive order, but actively campaign to push active boycott policies into place. He brags about his work in pushing the BDS movement, which is widely viewed as antisemitic.

The video, in which Mamdani explicitly claims that “capitalism” is the problem in the United States, undermines claims made by Mamdani in a “Meet the Press” interview on June 29, where he denied being a Communist and stated that he identifies as a Democratic Socialist.

The video exposes Mamdani as more radical than many worried New York voters had already thought. In it, he calls his own policies “radical” but insists that they must be pushed and that adherence to a purely Socialist ideology must rise above the temptation for DSA candidates to remain in power. Rather, he expressed confidence that, in time, these ideals will prevail and be embraced by the general public.

I would encourage readers to watch the entire 44-minute video. Even for those who would stop short of calling Mamdani a Communist or an antisemite, it is simply indisputable that many of the policies and beliefs he espoused, and many of the actions he has said that he would take in the video, are alarmingly tied to Communist and antisemitic ideologies.

In a June 23 editorial, the Chicago Tribune cautioned New York voters not to elect Mamdani, explaining that Mamdani was “inarguably … more radical” than Democratic Socialist Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who has caused tremendous damage to that city and a high level of  “dysfunction, driven by fiscal missteps and political inexperience.”

Indeed, Johnson carries a historically low approval rating of 14%. The Tribune argued that Mamdani would be even worse, warning that “far-left candidates do not make for effective or popular municipal executives in today’s stressful economy.”

Ultimately, New York City voters will decide their fate in the general election come November. Op-eds, editorials, TV commercials and political platitudes probably won’t sway many. They will vote on their values, as voters generally do.

My hope, though, is that shining a bright light on Mamdani’s own words, core values and beliefs will save the city from his hands. His values simply don’t represent those of the average New Yorker.

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In this episode, Meira dives into the seismic geopolitical shifts unfolding in real time—from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump to the fragile ceasefire negotiations in Gaza. She explores how these developments could dramatically alter the future of Israel and the region.

https://youtu.be/gBWD1GWUW6U

Meira breaks down the surprising opportunities emerging from the 12-day war with Iran and how it sparked fresh interest from Saudi Arabia in wanting peace with Israel, and why some see war not as a setback but a catalyst for peace. Meira also unpacks the various ceasefire scenarios being floated in Gaza, and what they could mean for Israel’s security, hostage negotiations and long-term strategy.

If you liked this video, you’re going to love @JNS_TV. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button!

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Israel’s successful attack on Iran, which saw the combat range of its U.S.-built F-35 fighter jets stretched well beyond what had been assumed to be its limits, has left the U.S. Air Force stunned and wanting that same long range for itself, the Israeli daily Maariv reported on Monday.

Over 12 days in June, Israel launched more than 1,500 sorties against the Islamic Republic to knock out that country’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs.

Sorties averaged about 1,000 miles (one way) and, at least in one case, stretched to 1,400 miles to bomb an Iranian Air Force aerial refueling tanker at Mashhad Airport.

A portion of those flights were made by the F-35I, or “Adir” (Hebrew for “mighty”), the Israeli-customized version of Boeing’s F-35A Lightning II fighter jet.

According to reports cited by Maariv, Israel was able to increase the range of its planes by using external fuel tanks and conformal fuel tanks—extra fuel tanks fitted closely to the aircraft’s profile—without compromising its stealth capability.

The combat range of the F-35A is about 670 nautical miles (745 miles). The U.S. Navy’s version, the F-35C, has a slightly longer range, according to some sources.

Israel also relied heavily on aerial refueling, carrying out more than 700 midair refueling hookups with its Boeing 707 “Re’em” aircraft, as detailed in a June 25 Ynet report. However, aerial refueling is not always practical when stealth is a priority, such as over enemy territory with advanced defenses.

Israel’s F-35Is flew over Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Iraq without being detected, Maariv reported. They utilized two types of fuel tanks: a 425-gallon external fuel tank made by Israel’s Elbit Systems, which is suspended under the wings and ejected before entering enemy territory; and an 800-gallon conformal tank, developed in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries and Lockheed Martin.

The latter is installed next to the fuselage without compromising its stealth profile.

With the possibility of a clash with China, the United States is keen to improve the range of its fighter aircraft, preferring to reduce its dependence on aerial refueling planes, which lack stealth and are particularly vulnerable in war, Maariv said.

Other countries that lack serious refueling capability have also expressed interest in extending the range of their U.S.-made planes.

Israel has notched up other “firsts” with its F-35 variant. It is the first to fly the planes in “beast mode,” which is carrying external ordinance, according to a March report published on the defense industry site TWZ.

“The Israeli ‘Adir’ aircraft is the only aircraft in the world that has carried out operational strikes with an external armament configuration, which increased the attack capabilities,” the Israeli Air Force posted to X that month.

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Some moments pierce through everything and demand to be written about. The catastrophic flash flooding in central Texas is one of them. 

For those who missed it, the Guadalupe River rose more than 25 feet in under two hours. The violent flash flood swept through Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp near Hunt, Texas, as well as a nearby all-boys summer camp, Camp La Junta. While both were impacted, Camp Mystic took the brunt of the resulting devastation. 

When the flood hit, there were 750 girls, ages 8 to 17, there. As of now, 27 campers and counselors have been confirmed dead, with 11 more still missing. Entire cabins were swept away. The youngest campers were housed in the cabins closer to the river.

Survivors are sharing, on local news and social media, their stories of being awakened by thunderous rain and realizing that they were floating in fast-moving water. These reports say that some swam to higher ground. Others climbed atop the bunks for hours until they were saved. Some waded in the water, holding on for dear life until they were rescued. The scenes described are those that nightmares are made of—for kids and parents alike. 

As a father of five, it is hard to even read about what happened. Beyond the despair and sadness, the always-present questions about why begin to creep in. In the Jewish tradition, we are encouraged to ask difficult questions, including the classic question of why God allows suffering or why good things happen to good people. While wrestling with the question is natural for all who believe in God, I am confident in saying that there is no good answer, certainly not for those who lost loved ones in situations like these devastating flash floods in Texas. In fact, trying to find a satisfactory answer to these questions only confirms how little we understand about the Creator of the Universe and His plans. 

These questions and feelings have come up several times for me in the last few years, including on Oct. 7, 2023, and during the Champlain Tower South collapse in June of 2021, in Surfside, Fla. Each time, I’ve come to the same conclusion: The only way forward is to double down on our belief in God and focus on those who do good in the face of the inexplicable. I am reminded of the words of Presbyterian minister, writer, TV personality and person of great wisdom Fred Rogers of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood”: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.’ You will always find people who are helping.”

While meant as a coping mechanism for children, this is a simple and profound piece of wisdom for all. It reminds us to focus on the good we can see and the good we can do, rather than what is beyond our comprehension.

As we mourn the Texas tragedy, we also should focus on the helpers, such as Petty Officer 3rd Class Scott Ruskan of the U.S. Coast Guard. The 26-year-old rescue swimmer for the Coast Guard led his helicopter crew for eight straight hours of life-saving work. In incredibly dangerous conditions, he directly helped rescue 165 people from the flood zone. He does not ask for credit, but certainly deserves it. 

May the One who makes peace in the heavens make peace for us and for all who dwell on Earth, and may the memories of those who perished in the Texas flash floods be a blessing.

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The Israel Defense Forces had eliminated the Hamas terrorist who led the Oct. 7, 2023 infiltration of a gas station near Kibbutz Magen, the military said on Tuesday.

Taha Abu Ayadeh, identified as a platoon commander in Hamas's Nukhba Force, was killed in a July 1 attack in the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza, according to the IDF.

He "infiltrated Israeli territory during the brutal October 7th massacre and led the infiltration of the gas station in Kibbutz Magen," the military stated. "In addition, throughout the war, Abu Ayadeh advanced and led numerous terrorist attacks, including several attacks in the last few weeks against IDF troops operating in the Khan Yunis area."

The IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) "will continue to operate against all of the terrorists who took part in the brutal October 7th massacre," the army added.

Footage of the Oct. 7 incident shows two workers of the gas station rushing to hide as Abu Ayadeh's gunmen opened fire. The two civilians reportedly hid in a freezer for hours before being discovered by the IDF.

https://twitter.com/Osint613/status/1728880506673004832

The Israeli military continues to target Hamas terrorists in Gaza amid intensifying American-led efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement.

Five IDF divisions are carrying out coordinated strikes and ground operations across the coastal enclave as part of "Operation Gideon's Chariots."

According to an IDF update on Monday, the 162nd Armored Division remains active in the northern sector, recently killing terrorists and destroying a "military" facility used for planning terrorist attacks. 

https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1942137700544328187

At the same time, the 99th Reserve Infantry Division targeted and destroyed terror-related sites above and below ground. The 646th Brigade Combat Team attacked observation posts, military structures and anti-tank positions in the Beit Hanoun area of the northeastern Gaza Strip.

The 98th Paratroopers Division continued operations in the Gaza City area, killing terrorists and striking dozens of terrorist infrastructures, including observation posts and gathering points used by armed groups.

The 143rd "Gaza" Division, a combined arms division, continued its campaign in the southern sector, destroying dozens of terrorism-related sites and several combat assets.

The 36th Armored Division is active in the Khan Yunis region in southern Gaza.

The Israeli Air Force had carried out strikes throughout the Gaza Strip over the past 24 hours, the IDF said on Monday, targeting and destroying terrorists, weapons storage facilities, observation posts, "military" buildings and other terrorist infrastructure.

All operations are being conducted under the direction of the Southern Command, with intelligence support from the Military Intelligence Directorate and the Shin Bet.

The IAF attacked some 130 targets across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, including terrorist command and control centers, weapons storage sites and launchers, the IDF said on Sunday morning.

Since the resumption of ground operations following the expiration of a ceasefire on March 18, the IAF has struck more than 7,500 terrorist infrastructure sites in Gaza. The IDF says it has operational control over approximately 65% of the territory.

On July 3, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Efie Defrin said that the military was nearing completion of its objectives for the current phase of the war and would soon present its proposed next steps to the political leadership.

“Since the beginning of ‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots,’ we have severed Hamas’s control over wide areas of the Gaza Strip and undermined its governance. We are systematically and thoroughly dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, while maintaining a firm and stable hold on the ground,” said Defrin.

“We are achieving long-term strategic gains and preventing Hamas from rebuilding its centers of power,” he added.

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United Airlines announced Tuesday that it will resume flights to Israel in two weeks, becoming the first U.S. carrier to renew service to Tel Aviv since Israel's war with Iran.

The Chicago-based carrier said it will restart daily nonstop service from its Newark hub to Tel Aviv starting on July 21, and will operate two daily flights on the route from the next day.

"The resumption is in line with United's longstanding commitment to serving Tel Aviv," the airline said in a statement sent to JNS, noting that it has flown to Israel more than any other U.S. carrier even during wartime. "United service to Tel Aviv always follows a detailed assessment of operational considerations in the region and close consultation with the unions representing our flight attendants and pilots."

United began selling flights to and from Tel Aviv on its website on Tuesday starting at less than $1,150 round trip in economy.

The airline, which had suspended flights to Israel on June 13 at the start of the war with Iran and the closure of Israeli airspace, had previously been set to resume service to Tel Aviv on Aug. 1.

Before the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, United operated the most flights to Israel of any U.S. carrier.

United’s chief rival, Delta Air Lines, is set to renew service from New York to Tel Aviv on Sept. 1. It could also move up its flights to Israel in the wake of United's move.

The lucrative transatlantic route has been operated this month only by Israeli carriers El Al and Arkia, on completely oversold flights.

The European Aviation Authority on Monday lifted all flight restrictions on Israel.

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The Israeli military eliminated Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar, a senior commander in Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, during an airstrike in the Deir Kifa region of Southern Lebanon on Monday.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, Haidar was responsible for orchestrating several attacks against Israeli civilians and military personnel, including involvement in the so-called "Conquer the Galilee" plan—a plot by the Iranian terror proxy to infiltrate northern Israel, seize territory and capture hostages in the Galilee region.

The military further stated that in recent months, Haidar played a key role in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah's operational infrastructure in Southern Lebanon, actions which Israel considers a direct breach of previous understandings between itself and Lebanon.

Approximately two hours after the strike on Haidar, the IDF reported the elimination of another Hezbollah operative in the Beit Lif area, also in Southern Lebanon.

"We have cut off the weapons transfer routes to Hezbollah from Iran through Syria," Likud lawmaker Tally Gotliv told JNS. "Hezbollah is very weak. It has suffered intense attacks from Israel, with severe damage to its leadership, severe damage to its fighters, and continuous damage inflicted by our forces," she said.

"Israel has suppressed Hezbollah's attempts to organize or act in Lebanon. As a terrorist organization, Hezbollah weakens the country and threatens the possibility of a normal, reasonable quality of life for its citizens," she continued.

"The head of Hezbollah does not surprise me, he can say whatever he wants. Israel will respond with force, power, and decisiveness, as it has in recent months," she added.

On Nov. 26, 2024, Jerusalem and Beirut signed a ceasefire deal aimed at ending more than a year of cross-border clashes between the IDF and Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed group began attacking the Jewish state in support of Hamas in the aftermath of the Gaza-based terror group’s attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Since the truce, Jerusalem has carried out frequent operations aimed at preventing Hezbollah from reestablishing its capabilities in Southern Lebanon in violation of the truce.

The IDF launched a wave of attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon late on Sunday night, targeting multiple military sites and weapons storage facilities, the military stated.

Israel’s military said on Saturday that it had killed a terrorist in Hezbollah’s special operations Radwan Force in Aynata, southeastern Lebanon, as part of ongoing efforts to counter threats on the northern border.

In a separate operation, the IDF and the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) confirmed that they killed Qasem Salah al-Husseini, a Lebanese terrorist affiliated with the Quds Force, the branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that specializes in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations, during a strike on July 3 in Kafr Sil, south of Beirut.

U.S. envoy Thomas Barrack said on Monday in Beirut that Hezbollah “needs to see that there’s a future for them.”

Speaking to reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Washington’s ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria was quoted by AFP as saying, “Hezbollah is a political party. It also has a militant aspect to it. Hezbollah needs to see that there’s a future for them, that the road is not harnessed solely against them, and that there’s an intersection of peace and prosperity for them also.”

Hezbollah is designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.

A State Department official told JNS on Tuesday that “our position has not changed—[Hezbollah] is a designated terrorist organization, and we do not distinguish between its political or armed wings.”

“As Ambassador Barrack said while in Beirut, Lebanon must utilize this moment to make progress, and that includes progress on disarming” the terrorist group, the official added.

Barrack’s comments were made in the context of a roadmap for Hezbollah’s disarmament, which he delivered to the Lebanese government on behalf of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“I’m unbelievably satisfied with the response,” Barrack said at the press conference following his meeting with Aoun. “It’s thoughtful, it’s considered. We’re creating a go-forward plan. To create that, we need dialogue. What the government gave us was something spectacular in a very short period of time.”

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The European Aviation Authority on Monday cancelled its recommendation, issued last month amid Israel's war with Iran, to avoid flying to the Jewish state.

The announcement comes two weeks after the end of the 12-day conflict, during which Israel’s airspace was mostly closed or severely restricted, and follows the easing of travel advisories by several Western governments.

Israeli transportation ministry officials voiced the hope that the move would expedite the return of European airlines to Israel, most of which are only due to resume service to Israel this fall.

Although Israel has been a profitable market for foreign airlines and demand is expected to be high, most foreign carriers have canceled flights to Israel through mid- to late summer, as they have already rerouted planes to other destinations.

Air France on Monday became the first major European carrier to resume flights to Tel Aviv, with Madrid’s Air Europa next in line to renew service to Israel on July 15. The German flag carrier Lufthansa is due to restart flights to Israel on Aug. 1.

Europe’s top three budget airlines, as well as British Airways, are not scheduled to fly to Israel until the fall.

“The reality is that most Israeli travelers have already made their summer plans and primarily will focus on destinations close to Tel Aviv such as Greece or Cyprus,” Mark Feldman, CEO of Ziontours, told JNS.

With travel hampered due to the war against Hamas and airfares often very expensive, Greece was the top tourist destination for Israelis last year, surpassing the United States, according to the Israel Airports Authority.

More than 52,000 travelers passed through Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on 342 international flights on Tuesday, including nearly 28,800 departing and 23,500 arriving passengers, slightly lower than the day before the war with Iran broke out.

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