Five takeaways from the Jerusalem Flag March

 

1. Don't allow prophecies of doom scare you into forfeiting your values

Ahead of the march, people in Israel and around the world were urging the Israeli government to cancel the march in light of the (empty) threats issued by Hamas.

While many of those advocating for the cancellation of the march did so out of a genuine concern for the well-being of Israel, their good intentions were not synonymous with good policy. 

Prophecies of doom have been a recurring theme since the founding of the State of Israel, when David Ben-Gurion decided to declare independence despite dire warnings and immense pressure against the move.

The underlying message of these prophecies is that it's better to capitulate than to risk confrontation, even if it means forfeiting our values and rewarding evil.

The current iteration of these prophets are dreadfully afraid of having Jews exercise their basic right to visit, not to mention pray, on the Temple Mount, and of Israel exercising normative sovereignty by evicting illegal squatters in the community of Sheikh Jarrah (i.e. Shimon HaTzadik) or illegal Arab villages such as Khan al-Ahmar.

The march was a strong rebuke to this defeatist kind of thinking.

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Donald Trump: American Jews don't love Israel enough

 

Spot on, Donald....we can only thank G-d, that he doesn't know how many frum Jewish ingrates hate Israel too... 

Donald Trump expressed his disappointment with the response of American Jewry to policies he spearheaded as President, policies widely regarded as extremely beneficial to Israel.

“I did the Heights, I did Jerusalem, and I did Iran … I believe we got 25% of the Jewish vote, and it doesn’t make sense,” Trump said. “It just seems strange to me.”

Trump was referring to his administration’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, long sought by successive Israeli governments; to the moving of the American embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv; and to America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal that was seen as damaging to Israel’s security. These policies were hailed in Israel with Trump considered by many as the best President for Israel in decades. However, this did not, apparently, translate into votes in US ballot boxes.

Trump suggested, later in the same interview, that this was because, “Jewish people who live in the United States don’t love Israel enough." "Does that make sense to you?," he asked.

He also noted that, “I’m not talking about Orthodox Jews” – and indeed, the increasing support for the Republican Party among the US Orthodox population has long been noted. Among non-Orthodox and non-affiliated Jews, however, support for the Democratic Party remains strong.

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The Disastrous Biden-Putin Summit Made the US Seem Weak

 

President Joe Biden refused a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin following their first summit on Wednesday to avoid a PR disaster. Yet the Moscow strongman still won the day.

Indeed, Biden actually got angrier with an American journalist than with the dictator, who used his opportunity to deny, deflect and deceive — raising his own standing at Biden’s expense.

Just a day before, off the Hawaiian coast, Russia’s Navy conducted military exercises on a scale not seen since the Cold War. The provocation cost Putin nothing: The summit ended with Biden calling the meeting’s tone “positive” and Putin declaring, “There has been no hostility.”

Yes, Biden claimed he took Putin to task for the attempted murder of critic Alexei Navalny and the imprisonment of two Americans. If Navalny dies in prison, said Biden, “I made it clear to him that the consequences of that will be devastating for Russia” — though he didn’t detail any consequences. And he said he chided Putin for letting hackers disrupt US oil supplies from Russian soil. Yet Biden insisted he’d made “no threats.”

He handed Putin a list of 16 critical infrastructure elements that should be off-limits to cyberattacks — does he then mean he’s fine with Russia or criminals operating from there striking anything else? Russia’s interference in other countries’ elections, Biden also told Putin, “diminishes” its standing. Yet Russia isn’t going to change its bad behavior in the hopes of being liked.

Putin, meanwhile, took questions for nearly an hour, turning them against America. When a US reporter asked about his ban on Navalny’s group, he pointed to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and said that “we don’t want that to happen on our territory.” Biden called that “a ridiculous comparison,” but Putin is playing to his own audience.

Biden had kicked off his chat with reporters by admitting his staff as usual “gave me a list of who I’m going to call on.” Later, he lashed out at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins when she called out, “Why are you so confident [Putin will] change his behavior?”

“I’m not confident he’ll change his behavior! What the hell? What do you do all of the time?” fumed Biden.

Let’s face it: The day was not a success for Biden or for America. Putin basically mocked his counterpart — and the United States — while Biden appeared weak and unfocused. America might’ve come out stronger if there’d been no summit at all.

Miranda Devine

  New York Post

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How Naftali Bennett’s Kippah Stays On His Bald Head

 

Israel’s new prime minister is probably the first one who has stuck a wad of chewing gum to his head right before a public event.

Naftali Bennett, who took office this week, is the first prime minister in the country’s history to regularly wear a kippah, or Jewish ritual head covering. Unlike his secular predecessors, he identifies as a religious Zionist and practices Modern Orthodox Judaism, which requires men to cover their heads.

He’s also bald. That makes it a challenge to keep the small crocheted disc on the back of his head, where it’s traditionally worn. The traditional methods of securing a kippah — bobby pins and metal hair clips — are of no use to Bennett.

Yet it stays on. No matter where Bennett is — in parliament, on the campaign trail, giving a news interview — the kippah is there, mounted on his scalp, or sometimes on the thin layer of buzzed hair that surrounds his bald spot. 

Appearing on a comedy talk show in 2013, when he was a freshman lawmaker, Bennett said that he uses a mixture of tape and gravity to keep the kippah on his head.

But once, he recalled, he had to give a speech outdoors in the wind and discovered that he was out of tape. So he took a piece of chewing gum (presumably ABC) and used it to glue the kippah to his head. 

“I had to improvise,” he said. “So we MacGyvered it.”

Bennett doesn’t use ordinary Scotch tape. His adhesive of choice is a product invented and sold beginning in 2013 by Haim Levin, a 65-year-old bus driver living in a largely Modern Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv.

The product, called the Kipa Keeper, is made of reusable hypoallergenic double-sided medical tape, which allows the kippah to stick to heads with little to no hair. It’s sold in packs of 40 and costs 40 shekels, about $12.50, including delivery. Levin declined to say how many he sells each year.

“It was Yom Kippur, when everyone in synagogue bows down [to the ground] and prostrates themselves, and I saw that 20 to 30% of the worshippers had their kippah fall to the floor,” Levin, himself a bald kippah-wearer, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “I realized I had to come up with an idea for the kippah to stay on the head.”

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SCANDAL: Israel Student Visas Potentially in Jeopardy as “Wedding Fraud” Creates A Colossal Chillul Hashem

 

L-R Rabbi Zvi Gluck Amudim, Yisroel Nitzan Consul General Israel Consulate in NYC and Rabbi David Kushner, Amudim (1)

(By: Rabbi Zvi Gluck)

I couldn’t make this up if I tried.

Amudim has spent months working around the clock with various government agencies, to allow yeshiva and seminary students return to their studies in Israel. Baruch Hashem, the efforts were successful, but just like that, all that we have accomplished is potentially at risk.  As a result of the actions of the few who have created an unbelievable Chillul Hashem, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is strongly considering requiring all students to go through the standard process. This can take weeks, if not months, just to get a visa appointment. In case you think this isn’t a big deal, let me point out that there are over 14,000 yeshiva and seminary students and kollel couples learning in Israel each year. The current application process that gets them there is now in jeopardy.

How did this happen? Amudim has invested countless hours and resources to facilitate overseas travel in recent months. We have served as a liaison between private citizens and the Israel consulate, in addition to many other government agencies around the world. A group representing themselves as yeshiva students came to Amudim with all the required legal documentation, so we could help them apply for the student visas. David Kushner, Ushy Lieber, and I spent countless hours with them, reviewing more than 20 documents for each of the 30 plus student applicants. After thinking that everything was in proper order, we submitted the applications to the Israel consulate on Monday, June 14th.

We made it clear to these applicants that it can take up to a week to get the visas back. They were advised to not call or email the consulate because doing so would slow down the process. A red flag appeared on Tuesday morning, June 15th.  We received multiple frantic phone calls from some of the applicants. Additionally, the consulate advised us that they too were being besieged by many calls regarding the student visa status for the same school.

Here Is the Real Story: A high-profile wedding scheduled to take place in Israel next week was the reason for these applicants to find a way to enter Israel. Realizing that current travel restrictions make it extremely difficult for most people to get into Israel, some unethical individuals managed to get a yeshiva, which is approved by the Ministry of the Interior, and used it as a front to obtain student visas. The paperwork included documents signed by the head of the yeshiva confirming that the applicants would all be learning in that school for a minimum of one year. This is a blatant lie. Unbelievably, these individuals pulled every trick in the book to beat the system and attempt to get to Israel for this wedding.

 My personal message to each and every individual who participated in this fraud: In addition to tarnishing the reputation of Amudim and the Orthodox Jewish community, your reckless actions have caused immeasurable damage. We at Amudim are working tirelessly to ensure that this incident should not present additional obstacles for yeshiva and seminary students seeking to learn in Eretz Yisroel this coming year. We value and appreciate that the majority of those who seek our assistance do so in accordance with proper guidelines.

For information regarding approved reasons to go to Israel, and Instructions, click here: https://amudim.org/entrance-to-israel-advisory/

Amudim does not charge fees for any service we provide for the community. Should anyone claim that he/she was asked to pay for assistance, please email report@amudim.org right away, and let us know.

Zvi Gluck is the CEO of Amudim, an organization dedicated to helping abuse victims and those suffering with addiction, abuse, mental health matters, and other crisis-related issues, within the community, and has been heavily involved in crisis intervention and management for the past 21 years. Since the start of COVID, the Amudim team has also been involved in assisting thousands with various emergency travel needs, around the world, and mostly Israel-related.  For more information go to www.amudim.org.

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Arab MK Tibi Slams Gafni’s Removal: “The Best Finance Committee Chairman”

 

Joint Arab List MK Ahmad Tibi vehemently protested the removal of UTJ chairman Moshe Gafni from his position as chairman of the Finance Committee on Wednesday, saying that he is one of the best Finance Committee chairmen in the history of the Knesset.

Gafni was temporarily replaced by Yisrael Beiteinu Alex Kushnir, finalizing Avigdor Lieberman’s plan to wield complete control over governmental funds. Leiberman is serving as Finance Minister, Yisrael Beiteinu MK Hemed Amar is serving as a minister in the Finance Ministry and Kushnir is serving as the Finance Committee chairman.

“Replacing Gafni with Kushnir is removing one of the best MKs and one of the best committee chairmen the Finance Committee ever had,” Tibi said during the discussion in a meeting of the Knesset’s Arrangements Committee.

“This shouldn’t be done to him. For the honor of the Knesset, it’s fitting that Gafni continue in his position until a permanent replacement is elected, as is customary in the Knesset.”

Tibi’s comments about Gafni were met with a round of applause from members of the opposition.

Gafni’s fellow UTJ member, MK Yaakov Asher, also protested the move, saying: “It’s unprecedented that a chairman is replaced by a temporary committee when the permanent committee will be established shortly. What’s the urgency to replace Gafni, who even during the past two weeks, when he knew his term was ending, came here day in and day out in order to pass laws, not for Chareidim or right-wingers, but for everyone, including compensation for business owners. You were at these discussions. A little respect!”

Likud MK Keti Shitrit said: “I ask forgiveness from HaRav Gafni, whom everyone thought would worry only about Chareidim, but you proved that you worked, without any bias, for the entire state of Israel.”

Tibi added: “Gafni, it can be said about you that you were the right person at the right time. You worked for all the sectors.”

Likud MK Nir Barkat said: “Gafni was a role model in many spheres.”

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Biden Names Former Obama Official Tom Nides As "Court Jew" Ambassador To Israel

 

US President Joe Biden officially nominated Tom Nides, a deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, as the US ambassador to Israel, the White House announced on Tuesday.

A banker by profession, Nides, 60, served as the deputy secretary of state from 2011–2013 and is the current vice-chairman of the Morgan Stanley investment banking company.

Nides, who is Jewish, has a close relationship with Joe Leiberman since running his vice-presidential campaign in 2000.

He is expected to adhere closely to Biden’s policies regarding Israel. Former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren wrote in his book Ally that Nides fervently opposed the efforts of Congress to defund the UNWRS and the UNESCO in 2011.

In 2012, Nides wrote a letter to the US Senate’s Committee on Appropriations opposing legislation against the perpetual “Palestinian refugee” myth, which strived to differentiate between the Palestinians displaced by Israel’s creation in 1948 – and their descendants. The legislation would have decreased the number of “refugees” from 5 million to 30,000.

Nides stated in the letter that the proposed legislation “will generate a very strong negative reaction from the Palestinians and our allies in the region, particularly Jordan.”

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Jews walking in Central Park West after Shabbat pelted with eggs

 

On Saturday night, a group of Jews walking down Central Park West in New York City were followed by a car and pelted with eggs.

The victims were visibly Jewish. The women were dressed in Shabbat clothes and the men had on kippahs, reported website I Love The Upper West Side.

The incident took place in the Upper West Side neighbourhood of Manhattan.

The woman who gave an interview to the website said that one of the eggs hit her in the head causing a concussion.

“It was just so clear and obvious as to why we were targeted. There were so many people around us, and they only targeted us. A doorman who saw what happened said that they were behind us and sought us out. So in my eyes, it’s clear,” she said.

She immediately called the police but they refused to take a report unless she called an ambulance. She was in shock and instead went home. She later began to feel unwell and went to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a concussion.

At that point, she called police who opened an assault investigation.

“I understand how other people might not think that this could have been a hate crime, but in my head it’s just so beyond obvious and I feel like so many other people just don’t get it,” she said.

Other Jews living in the Upper West Side have reportedly experienced similar assaults and threats but are afraid to speak out publicly.

“I think it’s so important to speak out, because this time it was an egg, but if we don’t stop these people, what’s going to be next?” she said. “I don’t want to put someone else in danger. I feel like this was just simply a stepping stone to a bigger potential crime.”

In the last few months, New York City has experienced a surge in anti-Semitic attacks, including a May incident where a Jewish man was punched, kicked, pepper-sprayed and beaten with his crutches.

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Black Parents Fed-Up With NYC Schools ...Want Out

 A growing legion of black parents in Queens say the Department of Education has failed their kids through mismanagement and neglect — fuelling an exodus out of the public school system.

Fed-up families in District 29 — a primarily black area which includes Hollis, Rosedale, and Cambria Heights — said the DOE has long tolerated abysmal math and English proficiency rates, despite high per-student spending.

“There are a lot of black middle-class homeowners here,” said local activist Michael Duncan of the newly formed Students Improvement Association. “These are successful people, successful families. The results in our schools are not reflective of the community. Something is wrong here.”

Duncan said many families — including his own — have been forced to pay out of pocket for private schools in recent years due to DOE dysfunction.

Duncan and the grassroots SIA have begun collecting and analyzing district statistics and promoting awareness among local parents.

“I think a lot of parents knew that it was bad,” he said. “But they didn’t know it was this bad.”

Despite spending roughly $27,000 per student, PS 134 in Hollis saw only 6 percent of 5th graders pass their 2019 state math proficiency test and 17 percent hit that minimal mark in English.

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Watch How Bais Yisrael Residents Welcome the Mayor of Yerushlayim Moshe Leon

 

Moshe Leon the mayor of Yerushalyim went to visit a Bais Yaakov in the Bais Yisrael neighborhood, this was his Kabolos Panim from the residents of Yerushalyim, these aren't the crazed "Aarelich" with the striped bathrobes, these are the regular residents....some with long white beards...and this wasn't a small group of "extremists,"  this was a mob ....screaming "Rasha" at him!

I don't get it ... they learn Torah, they learn mussar, they are seeking to figure out why we are having so many tragedies, why so many innocent lives were lost in the last year, and yet this is how they treat another Jew!

What did he do to them? He went to visit a Bais Yaakov? Is that now a crime?

He is a Shomer Torah Umitzvos, was endorsed by all the Gedoilim and this is how they treat him?

Is this what the Ribono Shel Oilim wants? 

You ...Yes I'm asking you!

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