Netanyahu plans full closure of air travel into Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pushed Monday morning for a total ban on the entry of foreign nationals to Israel, citing recent outbreaks abroad of a fast-spreading strain of the coronavirus.

Speaking at the opening of a meeting of the Coronavirus Cabinet, Netanyahu said the government was keeping a close watch on developments abroad.

“This mutation is spreading across the world, and we’re looking into its significance.”

Netanyahu proposed reimposing the total ban on air travel into Israel, which was put into place earlier this year, following the first outbreak of the coronavirus.

If adopted, the travel ban would leave nearly all foreign nationals unable to enter Israel. Returning Israeli passport holders would still be permitted to enter the country.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) said that Israelis returning from abroad would be required to go into isolation and undergo testing, regardless of what country they had been staying in.

He added that there are no signs at present that the new mutation is resistant to the vaccines now being administered in Isarel.

"There is no evidence that this mutation is resistant to the vaccine."

But, Edelstein added, the infection rate in Israel has continued to rise, and hinted at new restrictions on public activity.

"The fact is that the infection rate is on the rise. In the Coronavirus Cabinet we will see what we as a government need to do in order to ensure that this [new] strain doesn't get to Israel." 

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

In the Style of Nazis .. Washington Post Cartoonist Draws GOP As Rats

According to researchers, comparing people to rodents is the language used before a Genocide happens.

The top “story” on the Washington Post is a cartoon comparing Republicans to rats. pic.twitter.com/wozP6WTa2q

— Cerno (@Cernovich) December 20, 2020

 On Friday, The Washington Post published a cartoon by its “editorial cartoonist,” Ann Telnaes, that depicted what she called “All of the state attorneys general and U.S. Congress members who collaborated with President Trump in his attempt to subvert the Constitution and stay in office” as rats.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

US dollar in freefall against shekel

 

The US dollar rallied somewhat against the shekel on Monday morning, hitting NIS 3.426 after plummeting to 3.23 on Friday. This marks the lowest point for the US currency since 1996.

The euro also dropped and was trading at 3.955 against the shekel.

The Bank of Israel has stepped up its acquisition of USD since November in an attempt to stem the decline in the demand for the dollar.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Reb Yaakov Levitz Friend of DIN Succumbs to Covid-19

It is with great sadness that DIN reports the petirah of Rabbi Yaakov Levitz z”l.

Rabbi Levitz contracted Covid-19 and had been hospitalized in critical condition.

Rabbi Levitz was renowned as the owner of Im Hasefer, distributing seforim to retailers for over three decades.

Rabbi Levitz was not just a seforim expert. A talmid chochom in his own right, he exuded ahavas haTorah and ahavas Yisroel and displayed a remarkable passion for his profession.

On average, Rabbi Levitz would distribute several new seforim every single week, providing stores with approximately 150 new seforim each year.

Rabbi Levitz became the conduit between American and Israeli bnei Torah and talmidei chachomim, ensuring that their publications and seforim reached the masses.

Rabbi Levitz is survived by his wife and father, including his sons, R’ Binyamin Levitz, R’ Uriel Levitz, R’ Chaim Levitz, and R’ Yitzchok Levitz.

The aron will then be flown to Eretz Yisroel for kevurah there.

Yehi zichro boruch.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

$600 Stimulus Checks On the Way

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced on Sunday that a deal for “COVID-19 relief” valued at “nearly $900 billion” of federal government spending had been reached by congressional leadership.

McConnell’s remarks on the Senate floor regarding a “major rescue package” “with targeted policies to help struggling Americans” did not include any mention of lockdowns or shutdowns — ostensibly for public health purposes — of businesses or other operations

McConnell said the spending bill would “provide huge sums for the logistics” of distributing vaccines for the coronavirus.”

“Speaking of vaccines, we can’t nullify the success of Operation Warp Speed by falling asleep at the switch on distribution,” McConnel stated. “So this agreement will provide huge sums for the logistics that will get these life-saving shots to our citizens as fast as possible.” 

Politico reported that the legislative text is not yet available for the public to review. Its report omitted any mention of lockdown or shutdown decrees.

Politico also reported that the legislative agreement will provide “a $300 boost in weekly unemployment benefits for 11 weeks [and] $600 relief checks for adults and children.” Sens. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) are both calling for $1,200 checks to be sent out as “direct payments.”

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Cuomo bars diners from bathrooms, causing panic

 

When you gotte go .. you gotte go ...yes? Not so fast!

Big Apple eatery owners — already struggling to cope with a second shutdown of indoor dining amid the coronavirus pandemic — were thrown into a panic Thursday night when the Cuomo administration dropped new rules that barred patrons in outdoor spaces from using their indoor bathrooms.

The initial guidance, released publicly by Kapil Longani, counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, stated that “customers are not allowed to enter the inside of an SLA-licensed establishment for any reason while the guidance is in effect.”

To the dismay of some eatery owners, the guidance indicated that even the bathrooms would be off-limits.

“If my SLA-licensed establishment is offering outdoor dining, may I allow customers to use the bathroom inside?” reads one of the questions on the document.

“No,” the reply states. “Customers may not enter the inside of the establishment for any reason.”

The regulation threw one city restaurant, Il Posto Accanto on the Lower East Side, into a tailspin.

“The NYSLA new guidance for indoor dining states that customers may not enter the restaurant to use the restroom!!!” said a post on the eatery’s Instagram page. “Please Contact Governor Cuomo and all of our elected officials….This is not human!!!!!”

Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, blasted the guidance as “another example of why restaurants and bars feel like government is purposely kicking them in the gut and then stopping on their hand when they’re already down.”

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Free Speech Victory: Judges Rule Social Media Users Have Right to Offend

 

England’s High Court has struck a rare victory for free speech, overturning the conviction of a Twitter user who called a transgender person a man and ruling that people have a right to offend others online.

Mother of two Kate Scottow had been convicted under a section of the Communications Act which makes “persistently making use of a public electronic communications network to cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another” a crime following an argument with lawyer and trans activist Stephanie Hayden, who is legally a woman according to a gender certificate obtained in 2017.

Kate Scottow was arrested by three police officers at her home in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, late last year as her then ten-year-old daughter and 20-month-old son looked on. Her arrest followed complaints from transgender campaigner Stephanie Hayden

District judge Margaret Dodds decided that Mrs Scottow had broken the “rule’” to “be kind to each other and not call each other names”, but Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Warby at the Divisional Court of the High Court overturned her judgement as “deficient” and “flawed” on appeal.

“The Judge appears to have considered that a criminal conviction was merited for acts of unkindness and calling others names,” said Mr Justice Warby,  but “A prosecution under section 127(2)c [of the Communications Act] for online speech is plainly an interference by the state with the defendant’s Convention right to freedom of expression.”

The senior judges said that if the case had “been approached by the [original] Judge in a legally correct manner, it should have been dismissed”.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Neturei Karta Biting The Hand That Feeds Them Curse Satmar Rebbe R' Zalman Leib Teitelbaum

 הקנאים נגד הזאלוני מקללים אותו בימח שמו

As they say "always be careful for what you pray for .... you might very well get answered"

The Neturei Karta a group that Satmar endorsed and funded for years  ...

 turned  around and cursed the anti-Israel  Satmar Rebbe, Reb Zalman Leib Teitelbaum using words of "Yemach Shemo" a phrase reserved for Haman and Hitler.....

There is no difference in ideology between Satmar and Neturei Karta vis a vis the State of Israel ....

Both groups demonstrate publicly against Israel in front of goyim that hate them as well.....

Why they turned on their leader ... ?

Only G-d knows.... 

I can guess that  it's because the Satmar Rebbe while publicly condemning the secular English curriculum imposed on the moisdois .... is secretly embracing it, albeit reluctantly, so he doesn't lose Federal and State funds..

As Ilhan Omar famously said...

"It's all about the Benjamins"

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

The Jews of Morocco, FDR, and the Nazis: A Troubling Episode

 

The normalization of relations between Israel and Morocco and the U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara have stirred interest in the history of Morocco’s Jews, including during the Holocaust years.

Unfortunately, some pundits, in their enthusiasm over these developments, have misleadingly portrayed the Allied liberation of North Africa in 1942 as the simultaneous liberation of the region’s Jews from their Nazi and Vichyite persecutors.

That narrative papers over the harsh reality of what happened after the Allies’ victory. The full story of how President Franklin D. Roosevelt treated the Jews in Morocco and elsewhere in North Africa is a deeply troubling chapter in his administration’s history.On November 8, 1942, American and British forces launched “Operation Torch,” the invasion of German-occupied Algeria and Morocco. In just eight days, the Allies defeated the Nazis and their Vichy French partners in the region.

American Jews expected that the liberation of North Africa would also mean liberation for the 330,000 Jews there.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES! 

Esther Hurgan Mother Of 6 Brutally Murdered In Shomron Forest

 

A 52-year-old mother of six, a resident of Tal Menashe in the Shomron, was found dead in the Reichan forest with signs of violence on her body overnight Sunday.

The woman had left her home on Sunday at 1 p.m. to go for a run in the nature reserve in the Reichan forest, next to Tel Menashe, and never returned. When her husband failed to reach her on her phone, he contacted the police and a search began.

The search continued for hours, with the participation of volunteers from the Samaria-Jordan Valley search and rescue squad in the Yehudah Shomron Police, the IDF, Border Police, a K9 unit, and civilian volunteers.

Her body was found in the forest at about Monday morning at 1 a.m. There were signs of severe violence to her body, especially her head. MDA paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene.

The woman was later identified as Esther Hurgan, an artist and marriage counselor. She left behind her husband Binyamin and six children, the youngest of whom is 13, and celebrated his Bar Mitzva only three months ago.

“A dear woman, so full of goodness and helpful to others, went out in the afternoon to exercise a minute from her home in the center of Israel and is murdered by barbarians in such a cruel way,” said the head of the Shomron Regional Council, Yossi Dagan, on Monday morning. “What kind of savages, like those in the Middle Ages, are we facing?”

A massive manhunt for the perpetrator(s) was launched by Israeli security forces.

KINDLY SUPPORT OUR BLOG BY BROWSING THE ADS

THANKS SO MUCH, IT MEANS A LOT ESPECIALLY IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES!