Number of Jews in Judea and Samaria nears 450,000

Maalei Adumim

The number of Israelis living in Judea and Samaria rose to nearly 450,000 during 2018 settler leaders reported Tuesday morning.

According to a report released by the Yesha Council – the umbrella group representing Israeli municipalities across Judea and Samaria – the Israeli population in the area reached 448,672 in 2018.

That marks a significant decline in the annual growth rate of the total settlement population, which grew by just 12,964 people in 2018, equaling 3.0% annual growth, compared to 14,299 in 2017 (3.4%), 15,765 in 2016 (3.9%), 15,617 in 2015 (4.0%), and 15,558 in 2014 (4.2%).

Chuck Schumer Will Block Pro-Israel Bill

Efforts are underway in the US Senate to block a pro-Israel bill in response to the ongoing government shutdown.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and other Senate Democratic leaders are behind the effort, according to a report by the Washington Examiner on Monday.

The bill is aimed at “allowing state and local governments to divest from entities that boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel because of its occupation of the West Bank.”

Paintings That You Will Swear Are Photographs

Israeli Scientists Say That Plants May Actually Be Able to HEAR GardenersTalking to Them and the Buzz of Approaching Bees

Gardeners who talk to their plants are often dismissed as being a little potty, but now there is evidence that the plants may actually be listening.

Flowers not only hear the buzz of approaching bees, but respond by producing sweeter nectar, biologists at Tel Aviv University have found.

This entices the bees to visit more often, increasing the chance of the plant’s pollen being distributed.

When the scientists played recordings of flying bees to evening primrose flowers, the sugar concentration in the nectar rose by an average 20 per cent within three minutes.

The study, published on the website BioRxiv, said it was the first evidence that plants can respond to sounds in ‘an ecologically relevant way’.

Birds fly in perfect rabbit-shaped formation

Pope Congratulates Cuba for 60 Years of Communism!

Pope Francis twirls a soccer ball he was presented by a member of the Circus of Cuba, during his weekly general audience in the Pope Paul VI hall, at the Vatican, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019

The Vatican News website recently paid tribute to Cuba on the 60th anniversary of the Communist revolution in a post that was quickly deleted.

The Communist island nation marked the occasion with celebrations on News Year's Day, while several leftist Latin American leaders tweeted their best wishes.

The socialist despot president of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro tweeted: "We commemorate the anniversary of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution led by Commander Fidel Castro. 60 years of sacrifices, struggles and blockade; There is the heroic Cuban people, an example of resistance and dignity to the world. Long Live Cuba!"

In a pinned tweet, another socialist leader, Bolivia's Evo Morales, stated: "We salute the victory of Bro. Commandant. Fidel Castro and the valiant Cuban people on the proimperialist dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista."

Not to be outdone, the Vatican News Service offered its own tribute of sorts to commemorate the festive occasion: Cuba Celebrates 60 Years of the Revolution. The post reportedly read:

The historic anniversary was celebrated with an official ceremony in which the former head of state and leader of the Cuban Communist Party, Raúl Castro, and the current president of the nation, Miguel Díaz-Canel, participated.

The post was apparently deleted, but not before some appalled readers captured it:

Satmar Not Waiting For Moshiach .... Establishes First official Chareidie Town in Chutz Le'aaretz Since the Destruction of the Bais Ha'Mikdash!

Part of Satmar's  philosophy or SHIT'ah vis a vis the State of Israel, is that the State is guilty of what they call "Hisgaaris Be'Umois" which means that the State,just  by being a State is antagonizing the goyim ... which is prohibited ...

The "prohibition" of "Hisgaaris Be'Umois" may or may not apply in Eretz Yisroel ... but it applies certainly in Chutz Le'Aaretz. 

At least in Israel, we know that G-d gave us this land and is waiting for the Jews to come back and populate it so that G-d (so to speak)  can once again reside amongst us in the land bequeathed to us ....
And the State of Israel needs to do things even if it antagonizes its neighbors because it has an obligation to protect its citizens .....
Just last night the Gazan murderers shot a missile towards Ashkelon and the State of Israel not only intercepted it but bombed the Gazan military base.... 

But what excuse is there for Jews in diaspora to antagonize the goyim???
(the towns established like New Square or Kaser and even Kiryas Yoel were part of the Major Towns, for example .. New Square is part of Spring Valley, Kaser Village in Monsey is part of Spring Valley, and even Kiryas Yoel was part of Monroe. This Town has separated from Monroe and is a separate entity)

Is the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia?

And all this time I though it was in Monroe!!

by Melissa Twigg

Ethiopia throbs with religious fervor. On Sundays in Lalibela, Aksum and Gondar, I was alone in thousand-strong crowds of monks and nuns, hermits and business owners, energetic children and bent-double grandmothers. They wrapped themselves in white or burnt orange and poured into the churches that dot the landscape.

It is a society with a more profound spirituality than anywhere else I have been to—one where worship is woven into nearly every aspect of life. And during my trip, it became clear that this veneration of the church was born from a belief that Ethiopia has been chosen by God as the final resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.

There is only one man alive who has seen the alleged Ark in all its biblical glory. It is, according to Ethiopian lore, hidden in a church in Aksum—a small city in the northern highlands—and guarded by a single monk. Nobody else enters the room and only after his death will the monk leave the grounds.

Chareidie Idiot with Measles Exposes Dozens of Premature Babies in Bnei Brak .....

This potential murderer not only endangered others but endangered his very own child...

I'll bet he is always in front protesting the IDF ... but thinks nothing of killing others with a deadly painful disease. 

A measles patient insisted on visiting his premature son at the Mayanei Hayeshua hospital in Bnei Brak, last Thursday without informing anyone that he had been diagnosed with measles. 

When the medical team found out that he was ill, they rushed to vaccinate more than 80 premature babies and infants,

According to Ran Reznik and Meital Yassour Beit-Or in Israel Hayom, the hospital decided to vaccinate all 24 of the demonstrators who were in the NICU and to vaccinate 60 babies who were in the adjacent babies.

The concern was that infants and children were immunized against the disease only from the age of one year, so that immediately after birth they were not immunized against the disease, they were vaccinated with a regular vaccine rather than preventive treatment.

Prof. Motti Ravid, director of the hospital, told Israel Hayom that "this is a wild and inconsiderate act, not to mention that the same man endangered his son, along with the risk of the other babies. From now on, we will also guard the entry of adults and also hang signs around the hospital that ask visitors with fever or bloating not to enter the hospital. "

According to the Ministry of Health, as of last week, 3,030 Israelis contracted measles, with 502 patients in December.

Auschwitz: Drone video of Nazi concentration camp

Drone video shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today - 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet troops.

The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year. Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people - the vast majority of them Jews - died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army. Railway tracks into Auschwitz-Birkenau - Trains filled with victims from throughout occupied Europe arrived at the camp almost every day between 1942 and the summer of 1944. Ruins of wooden huts at Birkenau - Birkenau (or Auschwitz II) was erected in 1941 solely as a death camp, the wooden huts are now in ruins with only brick fireplaces and chimneys remaining. Entrance to Auschwitz I -The wrought-iron sign over the entrance bears the words Arbeit Macht Frei - "Work sets you free". Auschwitz I - The brick-built buildings were the former cavalry barracks of the Polish Army. Courtyard between blocks 10 and 11 at Auschwitz I - Block 11 was called "the Block of Death" by prisoners. Executions took place between Block 10 and Block 11 and posts in the yard were used to string up prisoners by their wrists. Auschwitz Birkenau is now a museum run by the Polish Culture Ministry, and a Unesco world heritage site.