After creating a firestorm in the media over questioning Israel’s right to exist and bashing Judaism, Jewish actor Seth Rogen refused to apologize for his comments made during a podcast interview. 

“[As] a Jewish person I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life,” Rogen had said. “They never tell you that, ‘Oh, by the way, there were people there.’ They make it seem like it was just like sitting there, like the f—– door’s open.”

Rogen was contacted by former Israeli politician Isaac Herzog who now heads the Jewish Agency to discuss his comments. After the two spoke with each other on a Zoom call, Herzog published a long Facebook post about how the actor apologized for his statements and focused on what he meant to say, including “how important Israel is to him. And that, of course, Israel must exist.”

The Israeli military bombed Syrian military and intelligence targets on Monday night, after the second infiltration attempt between Lebanon and the Golan Heights 

The Jewish state — though frequently blamed — rarely takes credit for airstrikes in Syria and Iran. This time, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israel’s enemies that attacking Israel will come with consequences.

“We hit a cell and now we hit who sent them,” he said on Tuesday. “We will do what we need to do in order to protect ourselves and I suggest to everyone, including Hezbollah, to take that into account that these are not just statements but statements with a heavy weight of the State of Israel and the IDF. They should be taken seriously.”

Israel is weighing a controversial full lockdown of the country during the last two weeks of August in order to stop the spread of coronavirus infection. 

The shutdown is being proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is at odds with his own newly appointed coronavirus czar, Ronni Gamzu. Gamzu had said he was planning to recommend easing economic challenges and lifting closures on stores and malls over the weekend.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein did cancel the partial weekend lockdowns, saying as far as he was concerned, “There is no such thing as a half closure, just as there is no such thing as being half pregnant.”

“There was an idea to go to a lockdown on the weekends, there was talk of restrictions on trade,” he said on Tuesday. “We will get rid of it. I think apart from disturbing the public it does nothing.”