Pelosi arrives in Taiwan despite China's threats

 US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan for an official visit Tuesday, defying China's warnings that her visit to the island nation would cross a red line and could provoke a military response.

Pelosi's visit to Taiwan is part of a tour she and a congressional delegation are taking of eastern Asia this week.

The last time a Speaker of the House visited Taiwan was in 1997, when Newt Gingrich was Speaker during the Clinton Administration.

The Biden Administration had warned Pelosi of the risks of her visit, but failed to dissuade her from flying to Tapai.

China had threatened to shoot down Pelosi's plane if she went through with her visit.

Rare Discovery in Ancient Shiloh – 5 Intact 2,000-Year-Old Giant Jugs

 

100 years after the first excavations at the ancient Shiloh site, a number of rare finds were discovered in a new excavation, including five intact large storage jars that were placed in a row inside a building from the Talmud period (200-400 CE).

The jars were discovered in their entirety as part of an excavation led by Dr. Reut Ben Aryeh, a resident of Shiloh.

The jugs were found lying under the floor and this was probably to keep their contents at a cool and constant temperature. Their burial is also what kept them completely intact.

The Bible recounts how Joshua set the Mishkan (Tabernacle) in Shiloh after conquering the Promised Land, and for more than three centuries, this was the center of Israelite life. The site includes archaeological findings from the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, and Early Muslim periods.

The Benjamin Council, which operates the ancient Shiloh heritage site, says that the current excavation was intended to examine the route of the wall around the ancient city and its entrance area in ancient times. The excavators made a cut on the edge of the southern mound and revealed layers from all historic periods, starting with the Bronze Age and ending with the Ottoman period.

The Canaanite wall of the site was revealed for the first time in the excavations of the Danish expedition, which marked the centenary of its work this month.

During the excavation, additional finds were found such as coins, a key that was probably used to open a box, and a wooden game cube that is exactly like the game cubes we have nowadays.

Yisrael Gantz, head of the Benyamin Regional Council which is home to Ancient Shiloh, said Tuesday that “we are privileged to uncover discoveries that are evidence of our connection to the areas of Judea and Samaria and to the whole of this land.”

“The findings here give meaning to our daily activities in the development of this region of the country. There is nothing more exciting than realizing with our eyes how we are continuing the lives of our ancestors here. The eternal story of the people of Israel and this story instills strength in us,” he added.

Chareidie Extremists Take Over City of Elad and Assault Woman For Sitting in Front Row of Bus

 

Israeli woman abused by Haredi passengers over sitting in front seat on bushttps://t.co/OADKSKxvQM pic.twitter.com/0MVkN5NgRA

— Ynetnews (@ynetnews) August 1, 2022

 It sounds hard to believe in 2022. But a young Israeli woman was verbally and physically assaulted by Charedi extremists for choosing to sit in the front row of a public bus.

Although she does not need an excuse, the woman says she had motion sickness and felt nauseous sitting in the back.

In an interview with Israeli news site Ynet, the resident of Elad said she was traveling to Jerusalem on the Kavim public bus line when the men began to abuse and ridicule her.

A short video clip shows one of the assailants saying, “We are Jews and do not want to sit next to a woman,” and the other yelling at the driver, “If you are such a good driver, don’t let women sit in the front.”

The woman said that nobody on the bus attempted to defend her other than the driver. She said an extremist branch of Charedim have recently moved in and are terrorizing women in the city.

“I took a seat at the front of the bus because I suffer from car sickness and sitting in the back makes me nauseous,” she said. “At one point, a group of 20 men who belong to an extremist Charedi sect boarded the bus and ordered me to move to the back. When I refused, they began yelling at me, pulling my hair and finally one man took off his shoe and shoved his dirty sock in my face,” she said.

“I was very nervous and tried to call the police and had to get up for better phone service, but the men blocked my way. They yelled at me and called me a shiktza. I really believed something bad would happen to me,” she said.

The victim was quite traumatized. “The violence and humiliation were so bad, I do not wish it on anyone,” she said. “Even a three-year old called me a shiktza and told me to put clothes on. I came home shaking.”

The woman explained that she has no issue with Charedim in general, only people like these fanatical extremists.

“I come from a religious home and understand the sensibilities of the community and would never stand against the ultra-Orthodox. I am only opposed to the extremists who are harassing us on the streets or on public transportation and try to change our city.”

Rare Footage of Jewish Life before World War II

 This video - although historically significant - is beyond sad and tragic. Such beautiful, innocent people just living their lives ignorant of the horrors to come. The senselessness of what occured soon after is beyond comprehension

Watch Zev Jabotinsky Speak in Yiddish

 

On the anniversary of his death, here is part of a video by Ze’ev Jabotinsky, from 1934, as he talks about the Land of Israel on both sides of the Jordan river, in Yiddish.

לרגל יום פטירתו של זאב ז'בוטינסקי: צפו בקטע המדהים הזה, מתוך הרצאתו ביידיש ב-1934. pic.twitter.com/RS7mSze2Zf

— סגולה - מגזין להיסטוריה (@segula_history) July 28, 2022

Finally Jerusalem Muncipality Suing the "Light Train Hooligans and extortionists"

The Jerusalem Municipality and the company carrying out the railway work are demanding NIS 5 million from demonstrators who allegedly rioted. 

For almost two years now, demonstrations have been held on a regular basis against the construction of the light rail on Bar-Ilan Street in Jerusalem. Yesterday, the Jerusalem Municipality and Moriah, which is responsible for the work, filed huge lawsuits against 17 Haredim who they claim were the leaders of the demonstrators.

From each demonstrator, the municipality and the works company, demand NIS 300,000. In total, the lawsuit demands five million shekels from all the demonstrators against whom the lawsuit was filed together. 

To date, a total of 23 lawsuits have been filed.  These lawsuits are against protesters who blocked roads and tractors and but caused no damage. Moriah hopes this might stop the protesters.

"The malicious motives, which underlie the activities of this 'group of rioters,' cannot be understood, except that the defendants and their friends are acting out of hooliganism and extortion motives, all this for personal and hidden favors for the group's leaders," the lawsuit states, among other things.

"In this context, the rioters use the method of causing damage and complete destruction of fences, construction equipment, tools and all that entails. The rioters and the defendant gather along the route of the works for countless hours, adjacent to the work tools and work vehicles operated on behalf of the plaintiff, and even crawl under them, all with the clear aim of damaging the equipment, stopping the work and delaying them as much as possible."

In addition, the State Attorney's Office filed an indictment yesterday against another protester, a resident of Ashdod, at the age of 20, after he broke into the construction site of the light rail line in Jerusalem about a week ago.

According to the indictment, while mass demonstrations were taking place near the site of the work for the development of the light rail line, the accused entered the work site together with others and settled there in order to prevent further development work. The accused, who was holding a tallit and tefillin, cigarettes and a holy book in case he was arrested, did not leave the area despite repeated calls from the police officers to evacuate the area. The accused even smoked a cigarette and looked at a book he had brought with him, while sitting in the morning ignoring the calls of the police officers. After some time, when the pleas of the officers did not help, the accused was forcibly evicted from the work site by police officers and arrested.

The indictment charges the defendants with committing offenses of trespass in order to commit an offense and interfering with a police officer in the performance of his duties.

R' Tuvia Weiss Funeral Marred by Violent Infighting

 

מכות רצח בהלויית הגאב"ד הגרי"ט וייס זצ"ל, בין הקיצוניים למתונים בחוגי הקנאים, בעת הספדו של הראב"ד הגר"מ שטרנבוך שנחשב למתון, אשר גורמים קיצוניים מנסים לסכל את מינויו כגאב"ד הבא של העדה החרדית. pic.twitter.com/etHelbZUvQ

— נפתלי נ. כהן🟢 (@Nachman05567999) July 31, 2022

 So the civil war within the Eida Hachareidis continues unabated and inevitably spilled into the levaye itself.

As we explained yesterday, R' Moshe Shterbuch Shlitah who is the current Raavad of the Extremists Eida Hachareidis ruled that a certain site in Beit Shemesh was free from any Jewish bones after giving the site a thorough inspection and allowed the developer to build a beautiful development in Ramat Avraham. The Asra Kadisha was livid with this ruling, not because they found Jewish bones. No.... they were upset because the developer refused to give into extortion and instead gave the Asra Kadisha Mafia the middle finger. 

They were able to convince the old feeble and weak Gaavad, R' Tuvia Weiss z"l to rule that this was graves of Jews that died there some 3,000 years ago. And he put a "fatwa" against building there without having ever set foot in the area.

 To bolster and strengthen their position the Weiss Extremist started physically harassing Rav Shternbuch and bombarding him with fresh raw eggs and shouting "YM"S" "Sheigatz." Then they took some lessons from Krystal Nacht, stealing Rav Shternbuch's sefarim from nearby shuls and burned them in a huge bonfire in front of his home, they even had their Satmar colleagues harass R' Shternbuch when he visited Williamsburg. And like the Gestapo they went to Golobnezitz's home in Har Nof and when Mrs Golobnezitz opened the door, they beat her to a pulp. 

A reader let me know that R' Chaim Kanievski had also ruled that they could build on the site.

This harassment campaign continues to this day even after the late R' Weiss begged them to stop. 

At the levaya, when R' Shternbuch made the hespid,  the Weiss followers started screaming and shouting trying to embarrass R' Shterbuch shlita, which triggered a physical battle. This continued for a good 10 minutes. 

The Weiss faction of the Eida Hachreidis are fearful that Askanim will appoint Rav Shternbuch as "Gaavad" I guess a step up from being Raavad. That would be the natural thing to do, because if they brought an outsider to fill that position, the Shernbuch faction would be outraged. If this should happen, the Eida Hachreidis would be permanently split, G-d Forbid.

I wish them both Hatzlacha! 

Pat Boone a "Zionist?"

 

Is the FBI Totally Corrupt?

 

Just before the 2020 election, the FBI announced it had thwarted an alleged plot to kidnap the Michigan governor.

A jury found that the FBI had actually entrapped at least 2 of the defendants.

Is this how the DOJ carries out its operations? The American people deserve to know. pic.twitter.com/ZcjGtwKWtC

— Rep. Dan Bishop (@RepDanBishop) July 28, 2022

Lawyer Accuses Judge that fined a Holocaust Survivor $159,000, an "Anti-Semite"

 

The lawyer representing congregants in a long-running dispute over perennial  anti-Israel and antisemitic protests outside their Ann Arbor synagogue on Saturday mornings has accused the federal judge presiding over the case of herself being antisemitic. 

The U.S. Supreme Court declined this spring to hear the case, which pits the protesters’ First Amendment right of free expression against the worshippers’ First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion. Lower courts had dismissed the lawsuit the congregants filed in 2019, and U.S. District Court Judge Victoria Roberts ordered them to pay $159,000 in legal fees.

“Considering all of her rulings, taken together in their entirety, the appearance of antisemitism is undeniable,” the lawyer, Marc Susselman, wrote in a brief filed Thursday appealing the order. 

Susselman noted that one of the plaintiffs is an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, and that some of the protesters also picketed outside a Holocaust museum on Holocaust Remembrance Day in 2014 with signs saying “Free Ernst Zundel,” the author of a book titled “The Hitler We Knew and Loved,” who was jailed in Germany for Holocaust denial and inciting racial hatred. (Zundel died in 2017.)

The protests began in 2003 outside an Ann Arbor building that houses services for both the Conservative Beth Israel Congregation and the Pardes Hannah Congregation, which is affiliated with the Jewish Renewal movement. Neither congregation was involved in the lawsuit; Jewish groups including Agudath Israel of America, the Rabbinical Council of America and the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce filed briefs supporting the plaintiffs.

In his latest court filing, Susselman questioned how the judge arrived at the amount of the legal fee —$158,721 — and how the protesters’ signs with slogans including   “Resist Jewish Power,” “Jewish Power Corrupts,” and “No More Holocaust Movies” could be protected as addressing “issues of public concern.” 

“This is not an issue that may be minimized, rationalized, or swept under the  carpet,” Susselman wrote. 

“The specter of the appearance of racial, ethnic or religious bias in the rulings of any judge, regardless of the judge’s own race, ethnicity or religion, must be forthrightly addressed, investigated and, if sustained, sanctioned,” he added. (Judge Roberts is Black.) “When such bias seeps into the judiciary, it becomes a cancer which undermines the administration of  justice in this country.”

Stewart Ain, an award-winning veteran journalist, covers the Jewish community. Follow him on Twitter @AinStewart or email stewartain@gmail.com.