And Now For the Good News…

#1. Neutralizing Would-Be Killers

In Israel, on Sunday May 8, three would-be terrorists were killed by their would-be victims. A report on the table-turning good guys is here: “Tekoa resident shoots, kills armed Palestinian near his doorstep,” JNS, May 8, 2022:

A resident of Tekoa, on Sunday, shot and killed an armed Palestinian who had infiltrated the Gush Etzion town, according to a statement by the Israel Defense Forces. The resident is a member of a local armed response unit, according to the IDF.…

The terrorist, who was later identified as Muatzam Muhammad Taleb Atallah, from the Palestinian village of Harmala, south of Bethlehem, had been armed with a knife, according to the IDF….

The incident came within an hour of another attack, in Jerusalem, in which a Palestinian stabbed and moderately wounded a Border Police officer near the Old City’s Damascus Gate before being shot by other officers on the scene. The assailant was evacuated to hospital in critical condition, where he later died of his wounds.

Also on Sunday, Israeli security forces shot and killed a Palestinian attempting to illegally cross from Samaria into Israel.

The suspect, named by Israel National News as Mahmoud Sami Khalil, a resident of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, crossed into Israel from the Strip in 2019 and had been residing illegally in Judea and Samaria while working in Israel without a permit, according to the IDF.…

Three fewer would-be murderers to worry about.

In the week following the axe murders of three Israelis in Elad, 5,000 Israelis, many of them from the Haredi community, have applied for gun permits. A total of 22,000 Israelis, from the beginning of April to May 10, have now applied for such permits. Perhaps most Israeli Jews, men and women who learned to use firearms in the army, ought to be encouraged to carry those guns with them whenever possible.

#2. Saudi Investments In Israeli Start-Ups

Funds and businesses all over the world would love to have the deep-pocketed Saudis invest in them. Now the Saudis have chosen to initially invest two billion dollars in Israeli start-ups through Jared Kushner’s private equity fund, Affinity Partners. It’s a tidy sum, and if the Israeli investments pan out – and no one has lost money betting on Israeli innovators – more will be forthcoming from the Kingdom’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. A report on the Saudi vote of confidence in Israel as the Start-Up Nation is here: “Jared Kushner’s New Fund Plans to Invest Saudi Money in Israel,” by Dion Nissenbaum and Rory Jones, Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2022: 

Jared Kushner’s new private-equity fund plans to invest billions of dollars of Saudi Arabia’s money in Israeli startups, according to people familiar with the investment plan, in a sign of warming ties between two historic rivals.

Affinity Partners, which has raised more than $3 billion, including a $2 billion commitment from the kingdom’s sovereign-wealth fund, has already selected the first two Israeli firms to invest in, these people said.

The decision marks the first known instance that the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s cash will be directed to Israel, a sign of the kingdom’s increasing willingness to do business with the country, even though they have no diplomatic relations. This could help lay the groundwork for a breakthrough normalization pact between the two countries.…

#3. Israel’s Watergen Saving Arab Lives In Gaza and Syria

“Israel’s Watergen provides ‘water-from-air’ units to medical facility in Syria,” by Ricky Ben-David, Times of Israel, May 10, 2022:

Israeli water-from-air tech company Watergen has installed one of its water generators at a medical facility in the Syrian province of Raqqa, the former headquarters of terror organization IS, and is set to deliver nine more by the end of 2022, the company told The Times of Israel Tuesday.

The provision of the units is arranged through the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees (MFA), an American organization that works to deliver aid to millions of Syrians displaced by the civil war, through faith-based and secular partners….

Last year, Watergen embarked on a project in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to provide generators that could produce up to 6,000 liters a day to Palestinians in the enclave who face a chronic water shortage.

Gaza’s overused aquifer has been degraded by saltwater intrusion and contaminated by pollutants, making most available water salty and dangerous to drink and forcing the import of bottled water, AFP reported in January 2021. Only three percent of Gaza’s own water meets international standards, according to the United Nations, which had in 2012 predicted that ecological pressures would have made Gaza “unlivable” by now.…

Three terrorists, all neutralized on the same day, just hours apart. Water-producing machines provided by Israeli innovators to Arabs in Gaza and Syria, and now Watergen is ready for its closeup all over the world. The financial ties that bind Israel and Saudi Arabia, bringing the Kingdom a step closer to joining the Abraham Accords. This is some of the good news that perhaps you missed. So here it is, just above. Something to cheer you up.