Thursday, January 5, 2023
‘Genuine wind of change’: New diaspora minister halts funding to leftist NGO
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| Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of the Likud. |
The swearing-in on Thursday of Israel’s 37th government elicited a collective sigh of relief from right-wing voters, for whom the nearly two full months that it took Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to forge his coalition felt like an eternity. As soon as the ministers finished uttering their oaths of office, however, there was a sense on the part of supporters that the upshot of the arduous negotiations had been worth the wait.
With the team finally in place and ready to get to work, the shrill warnings by naysayers about the imminent demise of Israeli democracy were relegated to background noise. Ironically, while most of the hysteria surrounded the portfolios and plans of the “extremist” haredim and religious Zionists—and vow of the incoming crew to reform the judicial system—the first concrete action came from Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of the Likud.
Chikli, who is also the minister of social equality, announced on Saturday that he was ordering the immediate halt to an agreement approved by his predecessor, Nachman Shai—shortly after the Nov. 1 Knesset elections—to provide millions of tax shekels to a left-wing organization promoting a program in the United States whose tracks include “leadership research in the fields of justice and gender equality.”
There will no longer be a situation whereby judges in Israel elect themselves in back rooms with no oversight
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| Justice Minister Yariv Levin |
Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Wednesday evening announced the government’s controversial plan to overhaul the legal system that would include exerting political control over Israel’s leftwing judiciary.
“As someone who grew up on Menachem Begin’s knees, I believe that there are judges in Jerusalem,” Levin said, referencing Israel’s first conservative prime minister from the late 1970s.
“But there is also a Knesset and a government in Jerusalem. The constitutional revolution of the judicial system has degraded trust in the system to a dangerous low, and damaged democracy and governance. People we did not elect decide for us. It is time to act,” said Levin.
Levin proposed four reforms: The first would see the Justice Minister electing two public representatives to the 9-member committee that elects the judges as well as establishing a public hearing for candidates.
“There will no longer be a situation whereby judges elect themselves in back rooms with no oversight,” he said.
Palestinian Authority’s official daily claims Israel deploys ‘spy cows’
Spy cows are the latest animals to join the lineup of Zoological conspiracy theories disseminated by Palestinians, with the Palestinian Authority’s official daily publishing an article about a man who encountered bovine “recruited and trained” by Israel and outfitted with surveillance equipment.
Israel has in the past been charged with deploying genetically engineered sharks into Egyptian waters, sending a species of poison-immune super rats to infest the Old City of Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter, and killer dolphins off Gaza’s shores to attack Hamas frogmen.
As recently as this week, Britain’s National Education Union (NEU) revived a boar-related conspiracy theory first popularized by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in 2014 when he insisted that “every night, [Israelis] release wild pigs against us.”
In fact, the phenomenon is so common there’s even an entire Wikipedia entry titled, “Israel-related animal conspiracy theories.”
In the article, published last Tuesday in the PA’s Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, Rushd Morrar, a village elder from Khirbet Yanun in Judea and Samaria, is quoted as saying that he had encountered the spy cows near his village.
“These are recruited and trained cattle, as on the neck of each cow they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail in Khirbet Yanun large and small,” the newspaper cited Morrar as saying, according to a translation by monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch.
Morrar also claimed that “settlers release herds of wild boars” to destroy Palestinian crops, the newspaper said, as well as alleging that “the settlers’ crimes are diversifying and becoming sophisticated, and the means they employ in their war are unlimited.”
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Unless convicted, voters should decide George Santos' fate
A newly elected congressman, the execrable George Santos, completely fabricated his resume. So much so that we cannot even be sure that George is his real name.
Not surprisingly, Democrats have jumped on the revelation and are calling for his resignation. Should he fail to comply, Democrats believe Republicans should vote to expel him.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), the incoming vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, tweeted: "GOP Congressman-elect George Santos, who has now admitted his whopping lies, should resign. If he does not, then @GOPLeader should call for a vote to expel @Santos4Congress."
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) whose accomplishments include sleeping with a Chinese spy and compromising America's national security, is demanding that Santos be banned from taking the oath of office: "[Santos] confessed to defrauding the voters of Long Island and his ENTIRE resume."
94% of antisemitic attacks in NYC were against Orthodox Jews and were perpetrated by other minorities
A new report from Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA) found that Orthodox Jews in New York City were the most frequent targets of antisemitism, representing nearly 100 percent of reported cases between 2018 and 2022.
The report by AAA found that Orthodox Jews, and specifically Hasidic Jews, were the victims in 94 percent of the 194 antisemitic incidents recorded in New York City between 2018 and 2022.
The study also found that 77 percent of the antisemitic attacks occurred in neighborhoods with mainly Orthodox populations. Nearly 25 percent of the assailants were teenagers.
Jason Greenblatt: Why is US tolerating discrimination against Jews on Har Habyis?
Former White House Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt questioned US Ambassador to Israel's response to Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the Temple Mount on Tuesday in which the ambassador said that the Biden Administration condemns all actions which undermine the "status quo" on the Temple Mount.
"Like so many things about this conflict people say different things-“status quo”, “historical status quo”, “legal status quo” & people define these differently. The demands to maintain the so-called status is completely unhelpful & deepens the problem," Greenblatt wrote in a Twitter thread Wednesday.
He continued: "And if we want to use “historical status quo” let’s understand actual “history” and remember that Jews (of which I am a very proud one), had two Temples on the site and worshiped on this holy site for a very significant period of time, over the span of two Temple periods."
Greenblatt questioned why the current US administration endorses a policy which discriminates against Jews at the holiest site in Judaism. "In a world where people of good faith are attempting to fight against all sorts of discrimination (a good thing to be sure) why is the discrimination against Jews & Jewish prayer at the holiest site for Jews still demanded?"
"It never made sense to me that this wasn’t part of the “status quo.” That’s why in the peace plan we released it called for all religions to be allowed to pray at this site, which is holy to countless people around the world, and to end the discrimination against Jews at this site. To demand otherwise is completely dishonest. Let’s end the discrimination, once & for all," he said.
Greenblatt was responding to statements by Ambassador Nides to Axios reporter Barak Ravid shortly after Ben-Gvir’s visit, in which Nides protested any perceived changes to the status quo on the Temple Mount.
“To be very clear - we want to preserve status quo and actions that prevent that are unacceptable. We have been very clear in our conversations with the Israeli government on this issue,” Nides said.
Yated Neeman that supported Chaim Walder Calls Ben-Gvir’s Temple Mount ‘Unnecessary Provocation’
The Yated Neeman newspaper, that employed the late sexual pervert Chaim Walder, and then supported him when the crap hit the fan, issued a scathing criticism of National Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after he ascended the Har Habayis Tuesday morning.
The newspaper charged Ben-Gvir with causing a provocation which could lead to the murder of Jews by bloodthirsty Arabs.
This newspaper that doesn't recognize the State of Israel, the only Jewish country in the world, and is against the IDF, has the sheer chutzpah to tell us, that it is a provocation for a Jew in a Jewish country, to go up to the Har Habayis.
Mrs. Yated, .......Arabs don't need excuses to kill Jews!
In 1929, when the Arabs went on a pogrom and raped, murdered Jews in Chevron the Chareidie extremists wrote that this was because a Jew blew the Shofar at the Kotel and claimed and still claim, the Arab propaganda lie, that Jews and Arabs lived in peace before then. It has since been proven time and again, that this pogrom was planned months before the incident at the Kotel. This lie is repeated by Satmar on a weekly basis in their Yiddish weeklies, Der Goy and Der Shturmer.
Ben-Gvir in a tweet answered them:
“Yated Neeman is against a state for the Jewish people and against secular people living here. Do you support that as well?”
Lakewood Roshei Yeshiva Want to keep the Frummies in the Stone Age Release Letter Opposing New Frum Streaming Platform
A letter has been issued by Lakewood’s leading Mechanchim and Menahelim, opposing a new online video device and platform, which has branded itself a viable option for frum families who are looking for kosher content.
The chinuch leaders, who represent a range of yeshivas, discourage people from using the “24Six” streaming platform and media playing devices, and say that without Rabbinic guidance “we are opening up an anarchist approach” toward what is acceptable. The letter was signed by the BMG Roshei Yeshiva as well.
24Six allows listeners to hear only pre-approved music and content from Jewish singers and entertainers. Its website says, “Have your values. And your music too. 24Six is the only vetted media streaming platform for Jewish families worldwide – with features that give you control.”
The letter, which does not call for an outright ban, points to several concerns, including “exposure to music and videos with content that often runs contrary to the values and ruach with which we bring up our children.”
It adds that the platform is “detrimental to healthy spiritual and emotional growth, as by nature it is a device that promotes constant distractions and an overdose of entertainment.”
The sharply-worded text says that a device which can download from the internet should “never be considered safe in the hands of a child” and that without the guidance of Daas Torah “we are opening up an anarchist approach towards what is or isn’t acceptable in KlalYisroel.”
The text notes that “there is no written Daas Torah backing” the assertion that the platform is a “completely kosher entertainment option.”
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