At first blush, Israel’s decision to bar Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib looked like a mistake. My gut reaction was that the move would simultaneously make Israel appear weak and allow critics to claim the incident proves the Jewish state has no interest in peace with the Palestinians.
It didn’t help that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had initially signaled the two Democrats could visit despite their support for the BDS movement, which Israel has outlawed. When it became clear that Netanyahu reversed his decision at President Trump’s urging, the situation appeared to go from bad to worse.
Both the United States and Israel looked to have blundered. Or so I thought.
Then facts and history had their say. Now, I believe Trump and Netanyahu made the right move.
Holocaust survivor Jack Garfein, 89, said “I do” to his 42-year-old bride, Natalia Repolovsky, last Sunday on the Upper West Side.
Garfein wept with joy as he entered the chapel of Congregation Rodeph Sholom.
“I can’t believe all of this love I’m surrounded by after everything I’ve gone through in my life,” he told The Post while choking back more tears after the ceremony.
Garfein, who was born in then-Czechoslovakia, lost his parents and sisters when they were marched to the Nazi gas chambers. He himself survived 11 concentration camps.
Among his wedding guests was Jack Terry, 89, whom he has known since World War II.
“I met Jack in 1945 at the Flossenbürg concentration camp,” Terry, 89, told The Post. “We shouldn’t even be alive . . . And here I am at his wedding.”
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Garfein, who came to the US at the age of 14, spoke no English at first but went on to become a major figure in The Actors Studio — where he collaborated with Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. He directed the films “The Strange One” in 1957 and “Something Wild” in 1961, and is credited with discovering actor Steve McQueen.
The Vizhnitzer Rebbe of Bnei Brak is currently on a visit to Switzerland with a small group of chassidim.
The rebbe is staying in St. Moritz, the high Alpine resort town in the Engadine in Switzerland, known for its high elevation of about 5,900 feet above sea level.
The rebbe’s gabbaim have revealed that the rebbe’s golden cane has suddenly gone missing. It is not clear why or how, but there is suspicion that it has been stolen.
Tlaib writes: 'I will respect any restrictions and not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit.'
Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) on Friday approved US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's request to visit Israel in order to see her elderly grandmother.
On Thursday, Israel announced that Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib will not be allowed to enter Israel due to their support of BDS.
On Thursday night, Tlaib sent a request to Israel's Ministry of Interior to visit her "Palestinian" grandmother on humanitarian grounds.
In her request, Tlaib wrote:
"I would like to request admittance to Israel in order to visit my relatives, and specifically my grandmother, who is in her 90s and lives in Beit Ur al-Fouqa."
"This could be my last opportunity to see her. I will respect any restrictions and will not promote boycotts against Israel during my visit. Thank you, Rashida Tlaib."
Trump to Israel: Don't show weakness, ban Omar and Tlaib now!
'They hate all Jews.' Trump urges Israel to prevent controversial Democratic lawmakers from entering the country. 'They're a disgrace!'
President Donald Trump urged Israel on Thursday to bar two Democratic congresswomen from entering the country, warning that a failure to ban the two would constitute a show of“great weakness” on Israel’s part.
“It would show great weakness if Israel allowed Rep. Omar and Rep.Tlaib to visit,” Trump tweeted. “They hate Israel & all Jewish people, & there is nothing that can be said or done to change their minds. Minnesota and Michigan will have a hard time putting them back in office. They are a disgrace!”
The tweet came just hours after Israeli media reported that the Israeli interior ministry had decided to ban Omar and Tlaib from entering the country, due to their support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Israeli law prohibits entry into the country by supporters of the BDS movement.
Israel has not confirmed the ban, however, and two weeks ago appeared poised to permit the two freshman Democratic lawmakers to enter the country.
Two weeks ago, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer announced that Israel would allow the two to enter, in light of the strong messages he received on the subject from senior House officials.
The trip was planned by Miftah, a pro-Palestinian Authority NGO cofounded by PA negotiator Hanan Ashrawi. Omar and Tlaib had been scheduled to land in Israel Sunday.
I'm watching this 2 1/2 hour video with tears running down my cheeks....
Watching how the words of our prophets are coming true in our lifetime..
Watching Grandparents, Great-Grandparents,Parents, Teenagers, Children, toddlers and even newborns ... Teenagers far from being frum looking forward to join the Jewish army to defend our homeland, all coming off the plane ...looking forward to spend the rest of their lives surrounded by other Jews, in a Jewish country with a Jewish Flag....
after over 2,000 years ...
And suddenly I realize....
not one "Heimishe" person ...not one!
Not one Chusid ... not one ...
and suddenly I'm sad.....
Raboisai!!!!!
There something very wrong with our chinuch .....something very very scary .....
Rabbonim are worried about what the New York Board of Education is implementing in our moisdois ha"toirah ... Our moisdois in Chutz Le'aaretz will all be lost ...yes .. all ..... yes..... if we don't embed and infuse our children with "Ahavas Eretz Yisroel"... the BOE is going to be the least of your problems ..... Don't you see that it is Yad Hashem sending you this plague? Can't you see the message from Above? You don't ... because you don't care about Israel.... You instead choose to listen to the lies of the liberal left, you choose to listen to the Reform & Conservative Rabbis with their frum cohorts the Satmar and Yeshivisha Roshei Yeshivas .... How do you say with a straight face in bentching
על הארץ ועל המזון
"Blessed be Hashem for the Land and the Food!" How do you repeat that lie so many times a week ...?? Are you really thanking Hashem for the "land"? You liar ... how do you utter this lie when you have absolutely no intention or even thinking about coming to live in Eretz Yisrael ....??? How do you say with a straight face ...in the על המחיה והעלנו לתוכה ...ונאכל מפריה "You shall bring us to (eretz Yisrael) so that we can eat its fruit ?" How do you say that????? There are even poiskim in Chutz Le'aaretz, Gedoilei Hador, that advise American Jews not to buy Israeli fruits because they may not be "maasered" tithed.... Crazy .....Stuff!!! Unbelievable!! Not only don't move to Eretz Yisroel ...but don't even eat the fruit . !!!!!! How about .... Buy it and learn the halachos... of maaser.....? but "not to buy fruits grown in Eretz Yisroel? How low did we go? How far removed are we from the land Hashem gifted to all of us, that even our poiskim are so deeply embedded in the Tumeh of Chutz Le'aaretz ... How do you end that bracha with: ונודה לך על הארץ " I'm thanking YOU for the land" You bald faced liar!!
Are you really thanking Hashem for Eretz Yisrael??? I understand not everyone can make Aliyah ... but at least make sure that your children feel the love of Eretz Yisroel! At least don't speak like the meraglim .....
Ignore.... the badmouthing of Israel even if it's your own Rebbe, or Rav or poisek,,,,, Ignore them!! Who do you think were the meraglim?? They were the "rebbes" they were the Sanhedrin...they were our leaders and poiskim! Meforshim say that they even had noble and altruistic intentions.. they wanted to learn Torah and be close to Hashem; they didn't want to work ... they didn't want to work the land! Sounds familiar? Do you know in last week's parsha, Moshe Rabeinu chastises the Jewish people and reminds them of all their sins ... but did it in "remazim" with riddles, with "hints" only ...not to embarrass Klal Yisrael the only sin that Moshe didn't hint.... didn't speak with a "remez" ...but spoke directly ....explicitly ... dugree ... without any hints or remazim ... was the Chet of the Meraglim ... Why? Because he knew that it there will be leaders of Klal Yisroel in the "achris ha'yomim" , some 3,500 years later that will bad mouth Eretz Yisrael ...... If he had spoken in remez in riddles or in hints the rebbelich in their Shalosh Seudois Toirelich, would say that Moshe didn't mean that you cannot bad mouth Eretz Yisrael and its inhabitants ..he meant something totally different.. So Moshe spoke directly ... without beating around the bush telling them that this aveirah of speaking ill of Ererz Yisrael will not be forgiven so easily .. Now fast and cry every single year on the anniversary of the sin of the meraglim ... Moshe spoke to ALL Jews not only Rebbelich,Roshei Yeshivah and Fake Poiskim .... he spoke to each child, to each pusheter Yid ... they shouldn't get misled by their leaders ... Every Jew can open a Chumash and see what Moshe said .... you don't need to wait till Shalosh Seudois!! Moshe knew that the rebbelich, the Roshei Yeshiva will quote all kinds of gemmarras and midrashim ..... But out master and teacher Moshe wants you to .... Ignore them! Know that they are not the solution they are the problem... Any Rabbi be he Yeshivish, Chassidish, Conservative, Reform or even liberal progressive.... if he discourages Jews to make Aliyah ... Ignore him! They are from the meraglim...absolutely! Why is it that in our heimishe moisdois we teach our children that after 120 years they should come to Israel in a box ...???? What is wrong coming when you are alive and well??? Isn't that idea right out of the mouth of Bilam.. That he wished to die like a Jew but he refused to live like one! Watch real Jews ... yes even the girls with pants on .. .. watch their Ahavas Eretz Yisroel.... I want to know .... and think about this .... How many Gedoilei Yisrael did Lakewood produce???? How many Gedoilei Yisroel did all Heimishe Yeshivois combined,produce ....????? The answer is ZERO!!!! The future of Klall Yisrael is Eretz Yisroel ... Walk into any Bais Medrish in Israel, be in Yerushalyim. Bet Shemesh, Zfas, and yes even in Tel Aviv, and you will find Thousands of Yiddealach all Gedoilei Yisroel ... Constant Learning ....24 hours ... You don't like the Zionists??? Fine ... come here and change it ..... According to the gemmarah in Kesubois ... yes that one ... the one with the "Shalosh Shvuois" yes that same page .. The gemmarah states that: "Anyone living in Chutz Le'aarerz is like living without a G-D!!! " For generations not all of us had that opportunity... Read the efforts of the Chafetz Chayim, The Vilna Gaon, the Baal Shem Tov trying to make Aliyah.. How fast would they have been here if the had airplanes in those days .....? The Midrash states that Moshe Rabeinu was even maskim to come into Eretz Yisrael as an animal... Wow! Moshe was ready to come to Eretz Yisrael as a squirrel ...and yet we ... who Hashem gave us another chance in 1948 and made sure to have the infrastructure in place to gather in the exiles ... refuse to come as humans! Today B"H we have a country that has bli eyen hara over 6 million Jews living here .... No more excuses ....
Wake Up My Brethern Wake Up Before It's Too Late
Readers: I will not publish any negative comments on this post ...save that for the meraglim in your own families, save that for the meraglim of your shuls, save that for the Meraglim in the Rebbeshe Batei Midrashim ...
242 North American Olim are arriving in Israel on Wednesday on a special Aliyah flight chartered by Nefesh B’Nefesh, facilitated in cooperation with Israel’s Aliyah & Integration Ministry, The Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel (KKL), and Jewish National Fund-USA.
The new Olim are from a variety of backgrounds culturally and demographically – hailing from 22 US states and two Canadian provinces. They also include 21 medical professionals, three sets of twins, and a 28-day-old baby, who will officially become the youngest Oleh to make Aliyah with Nefesh B’Nefesh this summer.
Noa Rothman, granddaughter of Yitzchak Rabin Smiles and embraces Abbas
Elihai Ben-Yishai, brother of Ruth Fogel who was murdered in a terrorist attack in Itamar along with her husband Ehud and three of their children in 2011, blasted Democratic Union member Noa Rothman on Tuesday, following her meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
"You met with a man who pays a salary every month to the murderers of my sister Ruth Fogel, her husband Ehud, and their three children Yoav, Elad and Hadas Fogel,"
Ben-Yishai tweeted in response to a tweet by Rothman about the meeting.
"You should be ashamed of yourself, such wretchedness. continued Ben-Yishai in a jeer toward Rothman, who is Rabin’s granddaughter.
Earlier it was reported that Rothman, alongside MK Esawi Frej, met with Abbas in Ramallah with the approval of the leaders of their party.
Rothman tweeted after the meeting,
"I met this evening with Palestinian Authority chairman Abu Mazen in Ramallah. I met a leader who is concerned over radicalization in Israeli and Palestinian society, the hopelessness and lack of dialogue, with the understanding that both sides have no other home and no other neighbors and that we have a lot to lose from the ongoing conflict and paying the price in the form of blood."
"As an Israeli, I am angry and disappointed that in the last decade Netanyahu has done nothing to advance the diplomatic process and not even minimal steps of dialogue in order to bring calm in the south. I cannot avoid the heavy feeling that our leadership is failing to act to protect us and move us forward - when there is so much to do, and yet, on the ground, nothing has been done,” Rothman noted.
She continued,
"The military cannot eradicate incendiary balloons and kites. The residents of the south are in dire straits that the government does not solve. Our national resilience is eroded. And above all - the unbearable cost of the loss of life that this conflict continues to charge."
New immigrant caught with 19 suitcases filled to the brim with only cigarettes, attempting to avoid customs tax.
Badri Shimshilshvili was arrested Tuesday evening in Ben Gurion Airport after attempting to smuggle a commercial quantity of cigarettes into Israel without paying customs tax, the Tax Authority reported.
Shimshilshvili, a new immigrant, tried to use his status to avoid paying 500,000 NIS ($143,388) in tax.
Rishon Lezion's Magistrates Court agreed to Ben Gurion Airport Customs Authority's Drug Department's request and released the suspect on condition.
According to the arrest warrant, Shimshilshvili attempted on Tuesday night to walk through the "Green Lane" together with his luggage, and was pulled aside to be checked. The examination revealed 2,228 packets of Winston and Pall Mall cigarettes, packed in nineteen large bags which were to be used to bring his personal belongings from abroad. None of this was reported to customs.
The suspect was then taken to the offices of the Customs Authority's Drug Department, where he connected himself to the cigarettes during an interrogation.
Judge Rina Hirsch has barred Shimshilshoyli from leaving Israel for a period of 180 days, and said he can be released on bail for a sum of 50,000 NIS ($14,339).
While most Americans are spending time this summer enjoying the sun in the comfort of their houses’ yards, the New York Times is out with a new exposé on how lawn care is problematic, once viewed through the lens of social justice.
Lawns are contributing to pollution and climate change, asserts narrator David Botti, and their origins are far from woke, in a seven-minute video on the history of American lawns.
Botti says lawns are part of the “colonizing of America,” which transformed the landscape from “pristine wilderness” to “identical rows of manicured nature.”
“These lawns come on the backs of slaves,” he continues, zooming in on a painting of George Washington in a field to highlight men cutting the grass with scythes. “It’s grueling, endless work.”
