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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Frum Girls Attacked by Meah Shearim residents While Passing Through

 

קבוצה של בנות דתיות שבדרכן לריקודגלים מותקפות ע"י קיצוני מאה שערים
צילום @yedidya_epshtei pic.twitter.com/7TgCT4KR9P

— נעם | نوعام (@NoamRos1) June 15, 2021

We all suffered thru covid, we  suffered thru 4,000 rockets from our enemies, we suffered as arabs attacked us in Yerusalyim and in Lod ,we all mourned together when the Meron tragedy happened

Now frum girls walk in fear in the streets of Yerushlayim , not from arabs but from "frum" Jews...

I say tear down the entire neighborhood and build Hi-Rise buildings, let them move to the neighborhood of "Bnei Gad, Bnei Reuvein  and part Bnei Menashe, on the other side of the Jordan ....

How are they different than the Arabs throwing rocks at Jews?

Because they wear "shluf" kappelich? That's it, they are holy because they wear "shluf" kappelich!

How did they know where the girls were heading? 

Oh! They were going to the "flag parade" ....is it their business, where the girls were going to?

 Not one girl carried a flag, and all were dressed "tzeeneesdik"and even if they were carrying flags... 

 Are Meah Shearim residents Shvartzes and Puerto Ricans from The Bronx, that  no one they like can walk thru their neighborhoods? 

So smartphones are assur, but throwing and pelting Jewish girls is ok!

A group of religious girls were attacked by extremists while walking through the Meah Shearim neighborhood in Jerusalem on their way to the flag parade on Tuesday. 

The girls were pelted with water bags and catcalled by the extremist elements, who called the police.  When they arrived, police attempted to create a buffer between the protesters and the girls.

A bus carrying about 30 girls got stuck in the narrow streets of the neighborhood and the girls alighted in order to walk to the flag parade. However the extremists surrounded the bus and protested against the girls attire. They also complained about the flag parade, claiming that it was “provocation against the gentiles.” 

מהומות בירושלים: ערבים יידו אבנים לעבר שוטרי מג"ב, פרש אחד נפל מסוס pic.twitter.com/x7TjUJECBN

— מעריב אונליין (@MaarivOnline) June 15, 2021

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White House in Damage Control After Chaotic Start at Biden-Putin Summit ... Biden had no clue what was going on

 

President Biden on Wednesday called Russia a “great power” and appeared to nod when asked if he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin, sending the White House into damage control amid an awkward introduction to the leaders’ first meeting of Biden’s presidency.

The summit got off to a chaotic start Wednesday inside the stately Villa de la Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, as reporters and security got into a shoving match that drowned out most of Biden’s opening remarks and at some points appeared to confuse the 46th president.

The US president seemed to put Russia on equal footing with the US, saying in remarks that were not initially audible to TV audiences, “We’re two great powers” — before nodding after a reporter asked if he trusts the Russian leader.

White House communications director Kate Bedingfield promptly tweeted a cleanup: “It was a chaotic scrum with reporters shouting over each other. [Biden] was very clearly not responding to any one question, but nodding in acknowledgment to the press generally. He said just two days ago in his presser: ‘verify, then trust.'”

Professing to trust Putin would draw poor headlines for Biden on the heels of provocative Russian war games near Hawaii just hours before the two leaders shook hands, and crippling Russia-based cyberattacks on US industries in recent weeks.

Biden’s introductory remarks were interrupted by a loud squabble among reporters and security, according to reporters in the room.

A pool report from Anita Kumar of Politico said that when reporters were allowed in, “we were pushed and shoved by security officials and Russian media. Poolers tripped over cords.”

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Video of Italy cable car disaster released

 

talian media published on Wednesday video footage of the deadly cable car disaster which occurred in northern Italy about three weeks ago.

14 people were killed in the accident, including five Israelis, all from the the same family.

The documentation shows the cable car advancing up the mountain, stopping, disconnecting from one of the cables to which it was connected and beginning to violently swing down the mountain before disconnecting from the line entirely and falling dozens of feet to the ground.

Meanwhile, the condition of 5-year-old Eitan Biran, who was seriously injured in the incident, continues to improve. Eitan was the sole survivor of the disaster. He lost his parents Amit Biran, 30, and Tal Peleg-Biran, 26, as well as his 2-year-old brother, Tom. Eitan's grandparents, Barbaria Cohen, 71, and Yitzhak Cohen, 81, also died in the accident. They were visiting their family in Italy in order to escape the Hamas rocket barrages at Tel Aviv over the previous two weeks.

Eitan was released from the hospital on Thursday.

The police in Italy have arrested three suspects - the director of the company which operates the cable car site, the business director and the head of the engineering department who told investigators: "it's all my fault. I will settle my account with G-d."

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EU high court tells rabbis to change rules of Shechitah

 

Jewish leaders in Europe say the European Union is not only banning some methods of kosher and halal slaughter, but telling Jews and Muslims how to practice their religions.

That’s according to many who have read a recent ruling by the EU’s highest court. It upholds bans in Belgium on producing kosher and halal meat, outlawing a practice whereby livestock is slaughtered without first being stunned electrically into unconsciousness.

Jewish and Muslims authorities forego stunning under similar religious laws that require animals be conscious when they are killed for meat. The court and animal rights activists say that’s cruel.

But the decision on Dec. 17 by the Court of the European Union goes a step further: Remarkably, the 11,000-word document suggests that Jews and Muslims should and could find a way to allow animals to be stunned using electricity.

This aspect of the ruling is already rekindling internal communal debates in Muslim and Jewish communities amid allegations that the court is eroding the separation of church and state. 

“That part of it is astonishing,” said Shimon Cohen, campaign director for Shechita UK, a London-based organization that lobbies against attempts to ban shechita, or kosher slaughter. A secular court does not have “the authority to tell people if they can practice elements of their faith. I may disagree with some of the restrictions, but not with the mandate. But a secular court has no right to tell me how to practice. That’s gross overreaching.”

Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the European Conference of Rabbis, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that for the court “to seek to define shechita is absurd.”

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Israeli’s new UK passport lists birthplace as ‘Occupied Palestinian Territories’

 

A Jerusalem-born Israeli woman with British citizenship said Wednesday she was shocked to discover that her new UK passport lists her birthplace as the “Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

Ayelet Balaban, whose father is British, was born at the Hadassah Mount Scopus Hospital in Jerusalem.

The medical center sits within the territory that formed an Israeli exclave between the 1948 War of Independence and the 1967 Six Day War, at which time Israeli forces captured the surrounding area from Jordan. The Mount Scopus site, which the hospital shares with Hebrew University, was never part of Jordanian-controlled East Jerusalem.

Balaban applied for her new passport online and says she sent the old one by mail to the UK on May 23, two days after the end of the 11-day conflict between Hamas and Israel known as Operation Guardian of the Walls.

She said she received her new documentation back on Monday night.

“I was shocked to see that my place of birth was changed from Jerusalem to Occupied Palestinian Territories,” she told The Times of Israel.

Balaban initially thought that she had made a mistake in filling out the online form, or perhaps that the fact that she now lives in the relatively new Ganei Tal village, founded by settlers who left the Katif bloc in Gaza during Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from the Strip, had accounted for the policy.

“I never lived there [before 2005], but I thought that maybe they got mixed up. But the place where I live doesn’t even appear on my passport,” Balaban said.

Balaban and her husband Avi run a plant and flower nursery in Ashkelon. The nursery, which was hit by Hamas fire, was closed during the Gaza conflict in May.

“Living in the south, and working near the Gaza border, we had just [been through] the [military] operation and I was just completely shocked,” Balaban said. “After everything we’ve been through, how do you do this to my personal passport?”

“It really was a hard feeling, because we closed for 11 days,” she said. “We had rockets that fell in our greenhouses, so we couldn’t even go there.”

“We’ve just been trying to lick our wounds and it was been really shocking for me,” she said.

Balaban has not reached out to the UK embassy in Israel but when asked for a statement, the embassy said only that it was looking into the case.

Balaban said that her brother, who renewed his British passport two years ago, was still listed as being born in “Jerusalem,” leading her to believe that this could be a new policy.

She said she emailed Israeli Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely to seek an explanation, but has yet to hear back.

The listed place of birth for those born in Jerusalem was a contentious issue also for dual-US citizens, some of whom waged a long legal battle in order to have “Jerusalem, Israel” listed on their US passports instead of just Jerusalem.

In 2015, the US Supreme Court struck down a disputed 2002 law that would have allowed Americans born in Jerusalem to list their birthplace as Israel on their US passports. The court ruled 6-3 that Congress overstepped its bounds when it approved the law, which would have forced the State Department to alter its longstanding policy of not listing Israel as the birthplace for Jerusalem-born Americans.

But last year, then-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo announced a change in the longstanding State Department policy, allowing Jerusalem-born US citizens to decide if they want “Jerusalem, Israel” on their passports.

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