Israel and Greece Ink $3.5B Deal

Israel and Greece sign a $3.5 billion defense deal. Athens is buying "Achilles Shield," a layered missile-and-drone system combining David's Sling and Rafael's Drone Dome. It's the largest defense deal in Israel-Greece history. Defense Minister Israel Katz didn't name Iran or Turkey outright, but nobody signs a $3.5 billion shield for the weather. ¹

Ada Yonath, Israel's first female Nobel laureate, died Monday at 87. The Weizmann Institute crystallographer won the 2009 Chemistry Prize for mapping the ribosome's structure, work behind newer antibiotics. President Herzog called her "a pioneer who proved that curiosity...can break the bounds of human knowledge." ²

The Met just canceled its own John Galliano show. The museum had planned a Costume Institute show to headline the 2027 Met Gala, then dropped it after Jewish leaders and ADL chief Jonathan Greenblatt objected to honoring a man convicted of antisemitism in 2011. Galliano's statement: "I remain fully accountable for the pain caused by my words." ³

Hero: Julie Menin. New York City's first Jewish council speaker will walk a bipartisan Fashion Week runway on September 9, dressed by Elie Tahari, the Israeli American designer who built a billion-dollar label from nothing. Their pitch, from organizer Skye Ostreicher: "When we label someone 'Jew' or 'Zionist,' it's easy to hate them versus if you see them as a human first." ⁴

Villain: Dana Nessel. Michigan's attorney general told a Jewish Democratic gathering Sunday that Jews have "a moral imperative to place the needs of the world above even our own self-interest and, yes, even our own survival." A caucus leader said the remarks "certainly suggest" she'll vote for Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, which one called "turn[ing] their backs on Jewish life in the U.S. or in Israel." ⁵

Today is 19 Elul, eleven days before Rosh Hashanah. ⁶⁸ On this date in 1939, Germany invaded Poland and started World War II, the war that became the Holocaust. ⁷