Israel plans to allow individual tourists back into the country starting July 1

 

Israel could ease entry procedures for foreign visitors who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus from the beginning of next month, allowing regular tourists traveling outside organized groups to enter the country for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

International travel to Israel has been greatly limited, due to lockdown restrictions imposed to prevent COVID-19 strains from reaching the country. At times, Israel’s borders were entirely shut to foreigners. Tourists cannot currently travel to the country unless visiting a first-degree relative, and then under restrictive conditions.

Interior Minister Aryeh Deri sent a letter Thursday to Border Authority Director-General Shlomo Mor-Yosef telling him that he had consulted with the Health Ministry Yuli Edelstein, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, and professional teams from various ministries on the matter.

As a result, a decision was taken to allow vaccinated visitors from a list of countries that is yet to be determined by the Health Ministry “to enter Israel with a shortened process that will be put together in the coming days.”

He did not explain what the “shortened process” would involve.

Deri told Mor-Yosef that in light of the COVID-19 vaccination programs in other countries, “there is room to broaden the easing of entry to Israel for foreigners and to change the existing methods of approval that put an enormous load on Israel’s representatives abroad and on the Immigration and Population Authority in the country.”

Deri wrote that the target date to start the pilot would be July 1.

Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen welcomed the move, tweeting that “it is about time that Israel opens up to tourism and takes advantage of being a vaccinated country for the benefit of its economy.”

Farkash-Hacohen said that the changes would apply to individual tourists, rather than groups.

In April, Farkash-Hacohen unveiled a four-part plan to restart foreign tourism to Israel in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a global advertising campaign, flight incentives to Eilat, and the reintroduction of large international events.

Israel recently began accepting organized tour groups back into the country.

A national inoculation drive has already seen over half the Israeli population vaccinated against COVID-19 and brought down daily caseloads from the thousands seen at the beginning of the year to just six people diagnosed on Wednesday.

Health Ministry data published Thursday showed there are just 202 active virus patients in the country. Since the start of the outbreak early last year 839,627 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in Israel and 6,428 are known to have died of the disease.

Israel has largely lifted domestic lockdown restrictions on public life that were applied to prevent the virus from spreading.

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Two dead in accident near Givat Zev Junction

 

A 60-year-old woman and a 30-year-old man were killed on Friday evening in a collision between two private vehicles on Route 443 near the Givat Ze'ev junction.

The woman was trapped inside one of the vehicles and was pronounced dead after being pulled from the vehicle.

Three other people were injured in the accident, including a 76-year-old woman in serious condition, a 13-year-old boy who was moderately to seriously injured, and a 78-year-old man with moderate injuries.

Magen David Adom paramedics provided the injured with medical treatment and evacuated them to Shaare Zedek and Hadassah Ein Kerem hospitals in Jerusalem.

Police are investigating the accident.

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WATCH – Anti-Semitic robbers snatch yarmulke, money from Jewish man in NYC

 

Three men on motorcycles robbed and harassed a young Jewish man in Brooklyn before yanking off his yarmulke — in another apparent anti-Semitic attack in New York City.

The hateful holdup — which was caught on video — happened on Metropolitan Avenue and Graham Avenue in Williamsburg on the afternoon of June 2, police said on Friday.

The alleged bigoted bikers approached the 21-year-old and demanded his money while making statements that disparaged Jews, according to the NYPD.

When the victim tried to call 911, the suspects allegedly snatched off his religious headgear and hightailed it up Manhattan Avenue.

The robbers remain on the run, according to police.

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Possible mass grave found near Auschwitz

 

A Polish resident has uncovered what may be a previously undiscovered mass grave near the grounds of the notorious Auschwitz Nazi death camp. 

Police and prosecutors in the country are now probing the find after the unidentified resident spotted some 12 human skulls and a number of other human bones along a bank of the Sola river, ABC News reported. 

The gruesome discovery was made near the southern Polish town of Oswiecim when water levels of the river had run low, according to the report. 

Police are probing if the remains are linked to the death camp, but a spokesperson for the Auschwitz Museum told ABC Friday that they were discovered outside of its perimeter. 

More than a million people were killed at the camp during WWII, which was constructed by the Germans during The Holocaust. 

Most of the people murdered at Auschwitz during the Holocaust were European Jews

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Zera Shimshon Parshas Korach

 

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Lieberman Begins Going After Chareidim

 

The projected Finance Minister of the next government, is slated to be Avigdor Lieberman, who in the past has been no friend of the Chareidi parties. On Wednesday, Lieberman began preparing for his new position as being the person most in control of the Israeli economy by requesting a detailed budgetary expenditure.

The request was published in the economy magazine The Calcalist, which stated that Lieberman specifically requested the detailed expenditure list with regard to money transferred to educational institutions and other bodies that go beyond the national budget, as well as those that were transferred in the past as part of coalition agreements with all of the various parties.

While not only the Chareidi parties received funds that were transferred as a result of coalition agreements in the previous government, but in recent years, the main benefactor of these funds has been the Chareidi parties and their public.

This is not a regular request from every incoming Finance Minister prior to starting his job, so it is suspected among the Chareidi parties that Lieberman wants to delve into the issue in-depth and research just exactly what money the Chareidi public is receiving.

It is feared that he plans on ceasing the transfer of these funds to the Charedi parties and institutions.

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Biden’s retracts Trump’s mandated discounts on insulin & epi-pens

 

The White House this week gave President Biden the greenlight to move forward with removing a Trump-era health care policy designed to bring down the price of insulin.

Biden’s bid to retract the rule was approved on Monday, as reported by Politico, with the expectation that the Department of Health and Human Services could publish the retraction within the coming days.

The measure, signed off on under the previous administration in December, aimed to require some 340B community health centers to deliver savings to low-income patients for insulin and epinephrine in a bid to bring down unaffordable prices.

Spokespeople for the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not return FOX Business’ request for comment.

The rule was scheduled to go into effect in January but was frozen at that time.

Earlier this year, the National Association of Health Care Centers said the rule would “adversely impact Community Health Centers” and make it harder for low-income patients to afford the medications.

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Pelosi Forced To Seek Ways to quell uproar over Omar's latest Anti-US and Anti-Israel comments

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she welcomed a clarification from Rep. Ilhan Omar over a tweet about Israel that critics on both sides of the aisle said had unfairly compared the U.S. and Israel to terrorist groups.

In a written statement, Pelosi, D-Calif., said that “drawing false equivalencies between democracies like the U.S. and Israel and groups that engage in terrorism like Hamas and the Taliban foments prejudice and undermines peace and security for all.

“We welcome the clarification by Congresswoman Omar that there is no moral equivalency between the U.S. and Israel and Hamas and the Taliban,” Pelosi continued.

Jewish lawmakers criticized Omar, D-Minn., for the tweet she posted Monday showing a video of her questioning Secretary of State Antony Blinken about how domestic courts can handle war crimes. Accompanying the clip, Omar added a message that read, “We must have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked [Blinken] where people are supposed to go for justice.”

A group of legislators led by Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., released a statement late Wednesday condemning Omar’s tweet: “Equating the United States and Israel to Hamas and the Taliban is as offensive as it is misguided. Ignoring the differences between democracies governed by the rule of law and contemptible organizations that engage in terrorism at best discredits one’s intended argument and at worst reflects deep-seated prejudice.”

In response, Omar initially blasted her fellow Democrats.

“It’s shameful for colleagues who call me when they need my support to now put out a statement asking for ‘clarification’ and not just call,” she wrote in a tweet on Wednesday. “The Islamophobic tropes in this statement are offensive. The constant harassment & silencing from the signers of this letter is unbearable.”

On Thursday afternoon, however, Omar released a statement offering the requested clarification.

"To be clear: the conversation was about accountability for specific incidents regarding those [International Criminal Court] cases, not a moral comparison between Hamas and the Taliban and the U.S. and Israel,” she wrote. “I was in no way equating terrorist organizations with democratic countries with well-established judicial systems."

With a number of key votes that will require a unified Democratic caucus, the statement from Pelosi appeared designed to strike a delicate balance, condemning the likening of Israel to terrorist groups while accepting Omar’s clarification.

Omar, a Somali refugee and one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress, has battled with pro-Israel members of Congress and Democratic leadership since taking office. In 2019, she apologized after making controversial comments about the pro-Israel lobby American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

While most Democrats stayed quiet on Omar’s latest remarks, she received backing from other progressives who have been more outspoken in their criticism of Israeli policy toward Palestinians.

“I am tired of colleagues (both D+R) demonizing [Omar],” tweeted Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., who is of Palestinian descent. “Their obsession with policing her is sick. She has the courage to call out human rights abuses no matter who is responsible. That’s better than colleagues who look away if it serves their politics.”

“Pretty sick & tired of the constant vilification, intentional mischaracterization, and public targeting of [Omar] coming from our caucus,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “They have no concept for the danger they put her in by skipping private conversations & leaping to fueling targeted news cycles around her.”

Ahead of Pelosi’s statement, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., tried to ramp up pressure on the speaker to take action against Omar.

“Rep. Omar's anti-Semitic & anti-American comments are abhorrent,” McCarthy tweeted. “Speaker Pelosi’s continued failure to address the issues in her caucus sends a message to the world that Democrats are tolerant of anti-Semitism and sympathizing with terrorists. It’s time for the Speaker to act.”

Israel has faced increased scrutiny in Washington after weeks of military clashes between Israel and Hamas earlier this year that killed more than 200 Palestinian residents of Gaza and at least 12 Israelis. Omar, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez were among the Democrats supporting a resolution that would have delayed a $735 million arms deal between the U.S. and Israel.

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The Lying Al Jazeera Reporter That Claims that Israeli Police Broke Her Arm....

 

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She’s Running for New York City Council. But Newspapers Won’t Publish Her Photo.

 

In all but one way, Amber Adler is running a pretty normal campaign for New York city council. She knocks on doors and attends rallies; she campaigns outside of grocery stores and subway stations; she puts posters up across her district and places ads in local newspapers.

But look for a picture of her face in one of those local papers, and you’re not likely to find one. Why not? Because most of the magazines and newspapers in her neighborhood refuse to publish her photo.

Adler, 37, is the first Orthodox Jewish woman to run for city council in her Brooklyn district, which includes ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods scattered throughout Borough Park and Midwood. And as she heads toward her June 22 primary, she’s a victim of a fairly recent trend among Jewish media outlets in Orthodox neighborhoods in the United States: a refusal to publish photographs of women and girls for religious reasons. Which means if Adler wants campaign ads printed in the Jewish news, she can’t be in most of them.

For Adler, who is only the second ever Orthodox woman to run for publicly elected office in Brooklyn, the visual gag-order is yet another hurdle in an uphill campaign. She is butting up against expectations that Orthodox women don’t assume positions of communal authority and should instead stick to more internal-facing roles. 

She’s trying to change that perception — and also highlight some of the other issues that Orthodox women face, including a system of religious divorce that frequently leaves them trapped in broken marriages. (Such a woman is referred to by the Hebrew term “agunah,” which literally means “chained.”) Adler, who herself spent two years as an agunah and speaks candidly about the experience, supports a current bill in front of the New York state legislature that would make coercive control a Class E felony. 

But how far can she get in making things better for women when she can’t even get her photo in the paper? 

“If you’re designing a building and you’ve never seen someone with a disability, you won’t understand that you need a ramp. Obviously those people are going to be left out. That’s what’s happening [to women] in Orthodox Judaism right now,” said Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, a Jerusalem-based writer and activist who opposes banning images of women from Jewish media. “Community leaders are making decisions without even considering how they're going to impact women.”

The erasure of female images from Orthodox media began over two decades ago as a fringe movement in insular Hasidic neighborhoods in Israel (Hasidism is a subgroup of ultra-Orthodox Judaism known for its particularly stringent positions and mystical leanings). The practice is not explicitly dictated anywhere in Orthodox law. It grew out of the Talmudic injunction that men must “guard [their] eyes” against immodest and potentially arousing images — a directive designed to prevent any sort of seminal emission not intended for procreation, including masturbation, which is a matter of grave concern in Orthodox law. Countless rules — including those dictating the dress and behavior of women — have been justified in the name of safeguarding men against this supposed infraction

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