Closure to be imposed in Judea and Samaria over High Holidays

 

In accordance with the security situation assessment and the guidance of the political echelon, a general closure will be imposed on the Judea and Samaria area and the crossings in the Gaza Strip will be closed during the High Holidays.

Rosh Hashanah: The closure will begin on Monday, September 6, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. The opening of the crossings and the end of the closure will take place on Wednesday, September 8, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Wednesday and Thursday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

Yom Kippur: The closure will begin on Wednesday, September 15, 2021 at 1:00 p.m. The opening of the crossings and the end of the closure will take place on Thursday, September 16, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Thursday and Friday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

Sukkot: The closure will begin on Monday, September 20, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. The crossings will be opened and the closure will be lifted on Tuesday, September 21, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

Simchat Torah: The closure will begin on Monday, September 27, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. The opening of the crossings and the end of the closure will take place on Tuesday, September 28, 2021 at midnight (on the night between Tuesday and Wednesday), subject to an assessment of the security situation.

During the closure, the passage of goods will be prohibited, but passage for humanitarian, medical and exceptional cases will be allowed, subject to the approval of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT).

Zera Shimshon Parshas Netzavim Rosh Hashana

 

R' Shmuel Weissmandel Dies in Car Swamped by Tropical Storm Ida on Tappan Zee Bridge

 

Tropical Storm Ida claimed another victim Wednesday night on the New York State Thruway near the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Rabbi Shmuel Weissmandel, 69, of Kiryat Nitra was trapped by flood waters near the bridge while driving from Monsey to Mount Kisco, where he lived.

MTA Suspends Subway Service, Newark Airport Flooded, as Ida Barrels into NYC Area

The rabbi passed away in his vehicle before anyone could rescue him.

The rabbi was the son of Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandel, who served as the Rosh Yeshiva of Nitra.

It is not clear whether the rabbi drowned, or passed away from a heart attack, officials said.

At least 14 people died in the New York-New Jersey area due to Ida’s fury. Most of them were victims of the flash floods caused by the remnants of what had begun as a Category 4 Hurricane Ida when the storm made landfall in Louisiana earlier in the week.

Lost Tribe of Bnei Menashe Sample their First Gefilte Fish

 

Five hundred and twenty-five Bnei Menashe olim from India who claim they are the descendants of a lost tribe of Israel are gearing up for their first Rosh Hashanah in the Jewish state. The olim, some of whom reside in Shavei Israel’s absorption center in Achziv, moved to Israel from Manipur, India, thanks to the efforts of Pnina Tamano Shata, Minister of Aliyah and Integration, the Jerusalem-based nonprofit Shavei Israel, and the Jewish Agency.

Part of the Bnei Menashe’s preparations for the High Holidays included a Gefilte Fish tasting – a traditional dish associated with the Jewish New Year. Shavei Israel, which has lobbied for the Aliyah of the Bnei Menashe community for the past 20 years, presented the dish to the community members for the first time. Some loved the dish, while others politely declared it to be “an acquired taste.”

Nancy Pelosi Blocks House from Reading Names of 13 Killed U.S. Servicemembers

 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Tuesday blocked the House from publicly reading the names of the 13 killed U.S. service members in Afghanistan, House Republicans said.

Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) told the Floridan that Pelosi ignored the Republicans’ request to read the names, instead she “just closed the House down.”

“We gaveled in, had a prayer, said the Pledge of Allegiance, took a moment of silence with pretty much all Republican veterans, then asked to be recognized to read names and bring up Afghanistan legislation,” Mast told the Floridian. “They did not acknowledge us, and just closed the House down.”

Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-FL) tweeted a rhetorical question of whether Pelosi is attempting “to cover up” the Afghan debacle by not allowing the names to be read publicly on the floor.

“How badly do Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats want to cover up this Afghanistan debacle?” Gimenez asked. “They just blocked Members of Congress from reading the names of the service members who sacrificed their lives in Afghanistan last week. Don’t you think our military deserves better?”

The denied Republican request comes as nearly 40 Republicans have called for president Biden to resign for stranding Americans and abandoning U.S. gear in Afghanistan.

When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) attempted a House vote to “require” Biden to recover the military gear and Americans, Democrats blocked the vote. “Democrats just blocked a vote to require a plan from President Biden to bring Americans home and to account for all the military equipment he left behind,” McCarthy tweeted. “Republicans will not stop until every American is home safely.”

But that did not stop House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Ranking Member James Comer (R-KY) from requesting a briefing on the deadly evacuation from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR).

'Lapid doesn't believe his turn in rotation for PM will happen'

 Foreign Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) does not believe that the rotation deal with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will come to fruition and allow him to take his turn as the country's leader, News 12's Amit Segal wrote.

In his column in Yediot Aharonot, Segal wrote, "Those who spoke with Lapid received the impression that he is mentally prepared for a situation in which he will have to earn the premiership through another round of elections, and not necessarily via coalition agreements."

"If the rotation comes to fruition, he will be disappointed in a good way, but Lapid is banking on taking power at the poll booths. In any case, he does not arrange his schedule only around his desire to ensure that the rotation is kept."

Biden’s lies that he visited Pittsburgh Shul after shooting

 

The executive director of one of the Pittsburgh synagogues targeted in a shooting attack in 2018 on Thursday disputed US President Joe Biden’s claim that he visited the synagogue after the attack, The New York Post reported.

Biden had told Jewish leaders in a virtual address that he spent time at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh after the October 2018 mass murder of 11 people there.

“I remember spending time at the, you know, going to the, you know, the Tree of Life synagogue, speaking with them,” Biden said.

However, Barb Feige, executive director of the Tree of Life, told The Post that Biden did not visit the synagogue in the nearly three years since the anti-Semitic attack.

In a phone interview, Feige firmly said “no” when asked whether Biden had visited the synagogue, saying he did not visit even before taking office when he had a lower public profile as a former vice president and then-Democratic presidential candidate.

The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Then-President Donald Trump visited the Tree of Life synagogue three days after the anti-Semitic shooting attack.

Biden, who was then the Democratic presidential nominee, issued a statement on the second anniversary of the attack last year, in which he said, “When anti-Semitism is allowed to fester, it shreds the fabric of our communities and erodes our soul.”

The Pittsburgh shooter, Robert Bowers, was charged with killing 11 people during the October 27, 2018 attack, and injuring six others, including four police officers.

The shooter was armed with an AR-15 and three handguns and allegedly yelled “I want to kill all Jews” during the attack.

He was initially indicted on 44 counts. Later, a federal grand jury added 19 charges to the 44 counts previously levied against Bowers. He has pleaded not guilty to all 63 federal counts.

A Chasidic rabbi created a Shabbat jacket for carrying guns in synagogues

Rabbi Raziel Cohen demonstrates how to use the Tactical Kapota, a jacket designed by Raziel Cohen

Rabbi Raziel Cohen doesn’t want you to have to draw a gun in synagogue. But if you must, he doesn’t want you to waste precious time unbuttoning your kapota, a type of jacket worn by men in the Chabad Lubavitch hasidic community on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

So Cohen, a firearms instructor who goes by the moniker “The Tactical Rabbi,” worked with Shaul Snovsky, who sells kapotas in South Florida, to create the Tactical Kapota. The jacket, which looks like any other kapota, closes with snaps instead of buttons for easy opening. Its cost: $550.

“The issue came up with when you wear a kapota … the ‘gartel’ gets in the way and the kapota gets in the way and it can make it dangerous to draw your weapon,” Cohen said, using the Yiddish word for the belt worn over the kapota.

By adding snaps underneath the buttons, the Tactical Kapota looks like a regular jacket.

“Usually in a shul (synagogue - ed.) we try to keep a low profile, we don’t want to look like we’re in a war zone,” Cohen said.

A video ad for the kapota shows a man studying in a synagogue when the building is attacked. The man fumbles to unbutton his kapota to reach his holstered gun until the words “every second counts” flash across the screen. The video then shows the man unsnapping the Tactical Kapota in seconds before drawing his gun.

Snovsky said some people thought the video wasn’t for real. It’s completely serious, he insists.

“I’m not selling fear over here, I’m selling awareness,” he said. “Some people are calling me and saying is it a joke, and it’s not a joke. You just never thought about it.”

After Twin Towers, US foiled mega-attack in Tel Aviv clubs

In mid-2002, as the US was still shaking from the trauma of the Twin Towers' fall, the US intelligence community working with Israeli and European intelligence agencies, foiled an Al Qaeda terror attack against several youth clubs in Tel Aviv, Ynet reported.

The attack was in its final stages of planning and almost ready to be carried out, the site said, adding that Al Qaeda's leadership expected that if the attacks were carried out, at least 200 Israelis would die.

Until now, Al Qaeda had been known to have made only one significant plan to harm Israel.

The tipoff came from the FBI's Ali Soufan, who in 2005 was in charge of the Al Qaeda files. Soufan retired from the FBI in 2005.

In an interview published Friday with Yediot Aharonot, Soufan explained how a surprise admission from a wanted terrorist led to intelligence authorities' success in foiling previously-unknown plans for a largescale Tel Aviv attack.

In June 2001, Richard Reid, also known as "the Shoe Bomber," arrived in Israel to examine the possibility of blowing up an El Al plane using an explosive device placed in his shoes. Reid return to his Al Qaeda commanders and in light of Israel's aviation security procedures recommended that the terror group choose a different target, which he attempted to blow up in December.

US intelligence, which was hit hard by the failures which led to the attack, began to strike back. In March 2002, the US succeeded in catching Zayn al-Abidin Mohammad Hussein, also known as Abu Zubaydah, an Arab from the Palestinian Authority who entered and was released from an Israeli prison, and later joined the mujihadeen in Afghanistan, becoming a senior Al Qaeda official.

Di Blassio Upset That The Supreme Court Will Not Allow him to Continue Murder Babies

 

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