Israel’s multi-front wars against Hamas and Hezbollah and fears of a wider Middle East war with Iran have made support for the Jewish state an important issue in November’s presidential election.

Fox News Digital recently interviewed Israelis in the capital city of Jerusalem to see who they thought would be the better candidate in November’s election – former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris.

“He [Trump] has been president for four years and was an excellent president — the only president of America who brought us somewhat closer to solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Mordechai told Fox News Digital from the heart of Israel’s capital city.

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Moti Stein, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, told Fox News Digital that Vice President Kamala Harris “is very good for Israel.”

He said she was “representing and maybe delivering values that are extremely important for the future of the Israeli society.”

The issue of concern for those interviewed who view the Democratic nominee as the best choice for Israel’s future is the continuation of democracy in the Jewish state.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House in Washington D.C., on July 25, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu )

Jerusalem resident John Golub, who, like Stern, was at a protest against Prime Minister Netanyahu near the country’s parliament, believes Harris is the best choice for Israelis. “Kamala Harris is committed to democracy, and I think she is the candidate of the two who will help Israel realize its future as a strong liberal, democratic democracy with a strong, independent judiciary that we need.”

Other Israelis were fearful of what a Harris administration might look like for Israel. Baruch Kalman told Fox News Digital that she’s not the right “candidate to help Israel,” complaining that he felt she is “concerned more about the Gazans and Hamas than she is about Israel.”

“Of the two candidates, Trump is the better candidate,” Kalman said. “He’s already shown his support for Israel, and he’s still supporting Israel, and he keeps his word, what he says, he does.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared this photo of himself with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on July 26, 2024.  (X/@netanyahu)

Anna Gullko said that her support for Trump is due in part to his values that help form his policies. “I think his policy will be based on biblical values, what God demands of man.”

Zvika Klein, editor-in-chief of the Jerusalem Post, one of Israel’s most read English language newspapers, recently penned an opinion piece stating why he felt that Harris was the wrong choice for Israel.

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“Kamala Harris as president, I think, is something that should worry Jews and Israelis for a number of reasons,” Klein said.

Klein believes that there is generally a large amount of respect from the Middle East for world leaders who display strength on the global stage – something that he says Harris is lacking. In contrast, he said the former president has demonstrated his support for Israel. Klein said that Trump’s track record in realizing the Abraham Accords and moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem exemplify Trump’s willingness to work with Israel.

Road sign showing the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, Israel (Hillel Maeir/TPS)

Klein cautioned that a future Trump administration will need to have skilled people who understand the region as he had during his first administration.

“The question really would be if he’s going to … actually bring back, or work with the same kind of close team he had,” Klein said. “Whether with his son-in-law Jared Kushner or David Friedman, who was the ambassador to Israel. Many people who are super knowledgeable about Israel and about the region. If those types of people actually continue to be close to the president and actually are able to affect him, that’s a good thing. And in general, the Republican Party is just so pro-Israel.”

There are up to 600,000 American citizens who live temporarily or permanently in Israel, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing figures from the U.S. Embassy. It also noted that some half a million of those citizens could be eligible to vote in November’s election.

Ukrainian drones hit a munitions warehouse in Russia’s Voronezh Oblast, whilst Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least four people and injured 105, including children, regional authorities reported early on September 7.

The Ukrainian Air Force said that 67 drones were launched over the country overnight, with air defences active in 11 regions. Fifty-eight drones were shot down, with three more destroyed by electronic weapons systems, it said.

Debris from one drone was photographed on the street outside Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. Ukraine’s parliamentary press service confirmed that drone fragments had been found but said there were no casualties and no damage to the parliament building.

Elsewhere, a Russian artillery attack Saturday on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostiantynivka killed three men and injured three other people, said Donetsk region Gov. Vadym Filashkin. He said the attack damaged a high-rise building and local power lines.

Late Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the death toll from the Sept. 3 strike at the Military Institute of Communications in Poltava had risen to 55, with 328 people injured.

“That includes people with severe injuries, such as amputations and internal organ damage,” Zelenskyy said, speaking at a conference outside the Italian city of Milan.

The Russian bombardment followed a week of increased long-range attacks across Ukraine, including a missile strike on a military academy and hospital on Tuesday that killed 55 and wounded hundreds.

Azov claims they regain control of Niu-York

The Russian army is also intensifying its efforts to capture the town called Niu-York near the city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine.

The infamous Azov Brigade stated they had held their position against Russian attacks in Niu-York and they claimed to have regained control of part of the settlement despite what they previously described as a “catastrophic” situation.

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algerians head to the polls Saturday to cast votes for president and determine who will govern their gas-rich North African nation — five years after pro-democracy protests prompted the military to oust the previous president after two decades in power.

Algeria is Africa’s largest country by area and, with almost 45 million people, it’s the continent’s second most populous after South Africa to hold presidential elections in 2024 — a year in which more than 50 elections are being held worldwide, encompassing more than half the world’s population.

Since elections were scheduled in March — ahead of the predicted schedule — there has been little suspense as military-backed President Abdelmadjid Tebboune appears poised to breeze to victory against the two challengers running against him: an Islamist and a leftist.

The hot summer campaign has sparked little enthusiasm, apart from on public television, where it’s required that candidate and surrogate appearances be covered. On TV, election season has been presented as a vibrant affair.

“Voting has no meaning in Algeria like in the big democracies,” 28-year-old Kaci Taher told The Associated Press a month before the election. “Where I come from, the results and quotas are fixed in advance in the back room of the government, so what’s the point of taking part in the electoral farce?”

“Uncle Tebboune,” as his campaign has framed the 78-year-old, was elected in December 2019 after nearly a year of weekly demonstrations demanding the resignation of former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Their demands were met when Bouteflika resigned that April and was replaced by an interim government of his former allies, which called for elections later in the year.

Protestors opposed holding elections too soon, fearing the candidates running that year each were close to the old regime and would perpetuate the corruption-ridden system they wanted to end. Tebboune, a former prime minister seen as close to Algeria’s politically powerful military, emerged the winner. But his victory was marred by low voter turnout, widespread boycotts from protestors and Election Day tumult, during which crowds sacked voting stations and police broke up demonstrations.

This year, Tebboune ran as an independent candidate with the support of several political parties including the National Liberation Front, which has dominated Algerian politics since the country wrested independence from France after more than a decade of war in 1962.

The southwestern Algeria native and political veteran has framed his first term in office as a turning point, telling voters in a campaign rally the week before polls that he “put Algeria back on track.” To cement his legitimacy both domestically and to Algeria’s allies, he hopes more of the country’s 24 million eligible voters will participate in Saturday’s election than in his first, when 39.9% turned out to vote.

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“It seems that what matters most to ‘le pouvoir’ in this election is voter turnout to lend legitimacy to their candidate, whose victory is a foregone conclusion,” said Algerian sociologist Mohamed Hennad, employing a term frequently used to describe the military-backed political establishment.

Twenty-six candidates submitted preliminary paperwork to run in the election, although only two were ultimately approved to challenge Tebboune. Like the president, both have also emphasized turnout. Neither political novices, they have avoided directly criticizing Tebboune on the campaign trail.

Abdelali Hassani Cherif, a 57-year-old engineer from the Islamist party Movement of Society for Peace has made populist appeals to Algerian youth, running on the slogan “Opportunity!” and calling for efforts to boost employment and reform education, where French language has long played a major role in addition to Arabic.

Youcef Aouchiche, a 41-year-old former journalist running with the Socialist Forces Front, campaigned on a “vision for tomorrow,” and referenced human rights issues plaguing journalists, activists and critics of the government in Tebboune’s Algeria. It’s the first time since 1999 that his party, which enjoys strong support among ethnic minorities in central Algeria, has put forth a candidate.

Andrew Farrand, the Middle East and North Africa director at the geopolitical risk consultancy Horizon Engage, said both opposition candidates were more aimed at the 2025 legislative elections than the 2024 presidential contest. Because Algerian law funds political parties based on the number of seats they win in legislative elections, they hope campaigning will position them for a strong performance in 2025.

“It’s a long game: How can I mobilize my base? How can I build up a campaign machine? And how can I get into the good graces of the authorities so that I can be in a position to increase my seats?” he said. “We’ve seen that in their choice not to overtly criticize president … paired with a very strong message to Algerians to come out and vote.”

Besides Aouchiche and Cherif, others boycotted the contest, denouncing it as a rubber stamp exercise that could only entrench the power of Tebboune and the elites that rule the country.