So Trump Was Right Once Again: FBI director accuses China of trying to 'thwart and obfuscate' Covid origin probe

 

FBI Director Chris Wray said Tuesday that Beijing has stymied efforts by the U.S. and others to investigate the origins of the coronavirus.

In an interview with Fox News, Wray said the FBI believes that Covid probably originated from a "potential lab incident" in Wuhan but that the Chinese government has essentially interfered with its ongoing probe.

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan,” Wray told Fox News host Bret Baier.

“I will just make the observation that the Chinese government, it seems to me, has been doing its best to try to thwart and obfuscate the work here, the work that we’re doing, the work that our U.S. government and close foreign partners are doing, and that's unfortunate for everybody,” he added.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. Energy Department has concluded with “low confidence” that the Covid pandemic “likely” originated from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, according to a classified report delivered to key lawmakers on the House and Senate Intelligence committees.

The lawmakers were briefed on the report last month by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, two sources said Sunday. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Baier noted that the Energy Department had cited the FBI's earlier findings in its report.

A report on the origins of Covid, commissioned by President Joe Biden and released by the National Intelligence Director’s Office in August 2021, showed that one U.S. intelligence agency had assessed with moderate confidence that the virus infected humans after a lab-associated incident; four other agencies assessed with low confidence that the virus emerged naturally. The report did not name the agencies, but intelligence officials have said the FBI was the agency with moderate confidence.

Sources have said the CIA is one of two intelligence agencies that are undecided about the virus's origins.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Mao Ning, said earlier Tuesday that China has “always been open and transparent” about Covid.

Mao previously criticized the Energy Department assessment, pointing to a 2021 report by a World Health Organization mission to Wuhan that found it “extremely unlikely” that the virus originated in a lab. The U.S. and other countries have criticized the report, saying China withheld data.

Wray touted the work of FBI investigators in the Fox News interview, noting that they include virologists and microbiologists.

Something good may come out of the rioting after all, and it is not deterring terrorists.

 

There is nothing unexpected in the shocking murder of the two brothers, our so dearly beloved Hillel and Yagel Yaniv. The handwriting was on the wall, written in black letters on the Arab homes in the hornet's nest of Huwara, the hostile Arab village through which thousands of Israelis drivers are forced to travel every single day on their way to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and back again to their homes in Samaria.

US Ambassador Nidescrap takes swipe at Minister Chikli: "An Israeli official that I don’t know"

 

Hey Nides'crap if you don't know the Israeli official, you shouldn't be the ambassador!

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nidescrap on Tuesday took a swipe at Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli, who recently said that Nidescrap should stay out of Israel’s affairs when it comes to the judicial reform being promoted by the government.

“An Israeli official that I don’t know said I should stay out of Israel’s business. I think most Israelis don’t want the US to stay out of Israel’s business,” Nidescrap retorted in comments at the INSS conference.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he added. “We stand with Israel, and we work with Israel. The country is a beautiful democracy and it will continue to be this way.”

Nidesctap’ comments are a response to comments Chikli made in a recent radio interview, after the US Ambassador called on Israeli leaders to “pump the brakes” on the judicial reform.

“I say to the American ambassador, put on the brakes yourself and mind your own business,” Chikli said. “You aren’t sovereign here, to get involved in the matter of judicial reform. We will be happy to discuss foreign and security matters with you. But respect our democracy.”

US President Joe Biden recently weighed in on the judicial reform, in a statement he sent to Thomas Friedman of The New York Times.

“The genius of American democracy and Israeli democracy is that they are both built on strong institutions, on checks and balances, on an independent judiciary,” Biden wrote.

“Building consensus for fundamental changes is really important to ensure that the people buy into them so they can be sustained,” the President added.

Vice President Kamala Harris later commented on the judicial reform as well, telling Politico, “As the president has said, an independent judiciary is foundational for a democracy. And I think that there is no question that we need to make sure that that is supported in terms of what we talk about [and] in terms of our values.”

Riots in Huwara condemned by the USA WHY Didn't Israel demand that the US prosecute rioters in Portland in 2021.

 

No doubt, the riots in Huwara must be (and have been) condemned by the Israeli government. But I don’t recall Israel demanding that the US prosecute rioters in, say, Portland in 2021. Not helpful to interfere.https://t.co/UkjS6U24CF via @timesofisrael

— David M Friedman (@DavidM_Friedman) February 28, 2023

  David Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel under Trump, took a jab at the Biden administration over its insistence that Israel prosecute Jewish settlers who rioted in response to a horrific terror attack.

Friedman, an orthodox Jew and staunch supporter of Israel, tweeted about the administration’s unfair treatment of Israel by demanding it prosecute Jewish protesters. The former Trump official suggested it is an internal matter which Biden should not be involved in, compared it to BLM riots, and said it’s “not helpful to interfere”.

He wrote, “No doubt, the riots in Huwara must be (and have been) condemned by the Israeli government. But I don’t recall Israel demanding that the US prosecute rioters in, say, Portland in 2021. Not helpful to interfere.”

 David Friedman, former US Ambassador to Israel under Trump, took a jab at the Biden administration over its insistence that Israel prosecute Jewish settlers who rioted in response to a horrific terror attack.

Friedman was responding to a statement by the Biden administration that it expects Israel to prosecute those involved in the settler rampage in a Palestinian town and provide compensation to Palestinians whose homes and property were destroyed or damaged.

“We expect the Israeli government to ensure full accountability and legal prosecution of those responsible for these attacks in addition to compensation for the loss of homes and property,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a press briefing, calling the Sunday night protests in the northern West Bank town of Huwara “completely unacceptable.”

The violent protests were in response to a horrific terror attack in which two Israeli brothers HY”D were shot dead while driving through Huwara, the latest in a wave of many deadly and violent Arab terror attacks.

One vocal Jewish community member took a swipe at Friedman’s comments, while appearing to agree with the overall message.

Joel Petlin tweeted, “Former Ambassador @DavidM_Friedman raises an important point about American interference in the internal affairs of a democratic country. The same could also be said about the inappropriate official statements coming from @USAmbIsrael on Israel’s judicial reform legislation.

Petlin did not specify which statements he was referring to, however Friedman has been vocal in recent weeks about Israeli judicial reform, and even penned an op-ed piece about the subject in Israeli media.

If You Live in Fakewood the Five Clowns or Sh'Monsey You Don't Need to live in Israel

 

Did I mention the "Flatbush "beards," the Schnorrer- Park "be'sereh menchin," Villiamsburger tzaddikim? 

Yidden living in these places have no intention of ever living permanently in Israel except when they are shipped in a box. In their mindset Israel is a country for the dead and they will pay tens of thousands to the Chevreh Kadisha thieves to make sure that their bones have a resting place in the very place they neglected while alive and breathing. They believe in "techyas hameisim" because that takes no sacrifice on their part. 

 None of them believe that Israel was a gift from the Ribbono Shel Olam, they actually think that Israel is a curse, and of course do not encourage their children to live in Israel. They claim that they are waiting for Moshiach because, again, that takes no effort on their part. They mock and make fun of a sect that does actually believe in Moshiach, but in an ironic twist will make sure when they vacation, or on a business trip, to find a Chabad place close enough so they can enjoy a kosher hot pastrami sandwich.

In just a few weeks, they will be sitting around the table with their loved ones singing with a straight face in the fancy hotels of Florida, Barbados, Mexica, Greece, Italy and Dubai  לשנה הבאה בירושלים "next year in Yerushalyim!" Is there even one person that even wants that, or even believes that for one second? Oh Yes! Maybe for Pesach, in Eilat or the Dead Sea, but that's about it! 

After their kids steal the afikomen, they will seriously start bentching, lying once again:

נודה לך ה' אלוקינו על שהנחלת לאבותינו ארץ חמדה טובה ורחבה

Does even one single guy really believe this? 

Then they add with closed eyes and a wrinkled forehead:

ברוך אתה ה' על הארץ ועל המזון

What? Did this guy just bless Hashem saying על הארץ?

Are you kidding me? 

Listen guys, you are lying to yourself, wife and children; you don't believe that for even one second! 

The ones who are really teaching love for Israel are the YU and modern orthodox Jews.

 Heimishe and Yeshivishe families are telling their children and grandchildren that the State is a "Zionist" State that hates Torah and the Jewish way of life without mentioning that there will soon be a majority of Jews living in Israel and that there is more Torah learned in the Zionist State than anytime in Jewish history and all this is being supported by the Zionists.

Now let me let you into a secret.... shhhhhh! 

The only ones who now know the early history of the State, the history of Herzl, Ben Gurion and the rest of the socialists are the Satmar Chassidim. 

In Israel, the majority of the chilonim never heard of Ben Gurion, they think its the airport. They think that Herzl is named after the city of Herzliya! The left has stopped teaching early Israeli History in the schools. I know, my wife teaches English in those schools. There are few Zionists left. The Left like the Satmar are ready to live under Arab rule... Satmar go around telling their gullible sheep that Arabs and Jews lived in peace before the State. This is now the latest propaganda by the leftists, the Acadamia, and Satmar! 

Now read an article after the break by Avraham Shusteris, first printed in Arutz Sheva!

"Going like sheep is not a foolish tactic" Said Rav Avigdar Miller

I am not going to comment on this, but just that readers know; Rav Avigdar Miller z"l lived comfortably in the USA while babies were being snatched away from their mother's arms and murdered in front of their very own eyes and while his brothers and sisters in Europe were being gassed to death!

 LIKE SHEEP TO THE SLAUGHTER

 Question: 

The expression that the Jews in World War II went like sheep to the slaughter, is that true?

 Answer: 

And the answer is why talk about the Jews? Didn’t the French in World War II go like sheep to the slaughter? The French prepared beforehand a Maginot Line. Now this line contained all the technology of modern warfare. There were deep trenches. There were weapons of warfare. And they were trained in defending these installations. And yet, when Hitler came it was like it didn’t exist. He went through it like nobody’s business and the French just yielded like sheep before the wolf. So the French also went like sheep to the slaughter. Not only the Jews. Everybody did. It’s only because the world has an attitude of trying to belittle the Jews so the Jews are pointed out.

It’s a silly thing that’s used by American people to belittle the Jews. Now, I don’t wish it on American Jews but if they were in the same situation, they wouldn’t have been a bit better. 

What happened to the Polish army? The Polish are big ba’alei ga’avah, big showoffs. They were proud of their national prowess. When the time came it was nothing. The Polish army melted away with all the soldiers and tanks. It melted away. It was nothing. It became nothing. The Jews didn’t have any tanks; they didn’t have any soldiers. What do you expect of them? What could they do? If the Jews would have fought back, not one would have remained.

 Who remained of the Warsaw Ghetto? Nobody. 

Who said it was such a smart thing to make a revolt?

 It’s only foolish people, sensationalists, who talk about the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. It’s as silly as could be. If they hadn’t made the uprising, a lot of Jews would have remained. Jews remained all over. Wherever Hitler went, Jews remained. Of course, not enough but the fact that they fought back meant it was a death sentence.

 Germans were not that thorough. A lot of Jews escaped. But when they started fighting back then the Germans brought all their tanks and all their flamethrowers, and they wiped out all the Jews. So going like sheep is not a foolish tactic. When you have no alternative, the best thing is not to fight. And our forefathers understood this. They didn’t fight against the nations. they sought to placate the nations. 

And by the way it was one of the biggest mistakes when before World War II the Jews made a boycott against Germany. It enraged the Germans. Had they followed the advice of our sages at that time they would have bribed Hitler’s lieutenants. You know Hitler’s lieutenants were mercenary people. You could buy them. You could send things to them secretly. they would have pocketed a lot of money but they would have to let a lot of Jews out. The story would have been deterrent. 

And so this bravado, this false heroism of fighting back and being killed like a hero is not the way chosen by Jews. We believe it’s better to live not like a hero than to die like a hero. There is a lot of false propaganda that’s extant today but the truth is like the Chinese say: “Who is a hero? the one who remains alive.” 

TAPE # 361 (June 1981)

HaRav Yitzchak Zilberstein: “Carrying Guns Is Not The Proper Hishtadulus”

 

With all due respect for Rabbi Yitzchak Zilberstein, someone please remind Rabbi Zilberstein about these two teachings of Chazal:

Babylonian Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin, page 72A:
If you see someone coming to kill you, then arise and kill him first.

Babylonian Talmud, tractate Pesachim, page 64B:
It is forbidden to rely on miracles.

In 1929 , the righteous students of the Chevron Yeshivah (HYD) were brutally murdered by wicked bloodthirsty Muslims. If those students would have had guns, they might have lived.

Before the Nazis threw millions of innocent Jews [and non-Jews] into the death camps, they first made gun ownership illegal, and took-away the guns of all German citizens. Then they were able to kill innocent people by the millions.

 Is he even aware of all the Bnei Torah being killed recently? 

The Torah learning didn’t protect them. Perhaps an armed shul-goer, doing his histadlus, might have helped. In Har Nof the victims were still wearing their Talls & Tefillin!

 Comparing a terrorist shooting the front of a shul to rockets being launched from Gaza is apples to oranges. Didn’t see how that was relevant. Yes, israel has rockets to shoot down rockets. But the iron dome doesn’t protect against bad guys shooting in shuls or ramming bus stops.

Rav Yitzchak Zilberstein was asked a shaila by a Bnei Brak avreich who wrote that he is is scared to go to shul on Shabbos with his children as no one in the shul carries a gun.

“I checked out the possibility of obtaining a gun from the police for Shabatos and Yamim Tovim and they told me that they have a condition that I volunteer in the Bnei Brak civil guard for 45 hours a month,” the avreich wrote. “That would mean patrolling the streets in a car in certain areas and then I could receive a gun license. It would be at night so it wouldn’t be on the cheshbon of my learning in kollel. Is it appropriate for me to do this?” the avreich asked.

HaRav Zilberstein responded: “It’s chaval that even within the tzibur of Bnei Torah, there are those who aren’t sufficiently aware of the chashivus of their limmud and don’t sufficiently believe in themselves, how much Torah protects Am Yisrael.”

“Today, there’s the Iron Dome system, one of the most sophisticated systems that Hakadosh Baruch Hu has given to the intelligent, a system that is capable of identifying rocket launches and detonating them while they’re still in the air – we have to thank Hakadosh Baruch Hu for this wonderful wisdom.”

Labor leader describes Jews in Huwara as 'terrorists' Wants Jews to go down like Sheep

 

The chairwoman of the Labor Party, MK Merav Michaeli, on Sunday evening made a connection between the Jewish rioters in the village of Huwara and the right-wing ministers in the government. Even though Smotrich condemned the riot!

The riots broke out following the terrorist attack in which brothers Hillel and Yagel Yaniv were murdered.

'Huwara must be erased, no room for mercy'

 

Samaria Regional Council Deputy Chief Davidi Ben-Zion spoke out harshly against the government following the deadly terror attack in Huwara, which killed two brothers: Hillel and Yagel Yaniv.

"The miracle which occurred two days ago did not occur today. At the same spot where a girl was injured by a thrown rock, two innocent Samaria residents were murdered an hour ago," Ben Zion wrote on Facebook.

Later in his post, he declared, "The village of Huwara must be erased, this place is a terror nest, and the punishment has to be on everyone.

Enough with the pretty talk of building and fortifying settlements," he called on the members of the government, adding, "The time has come that the state of Israel reinstates the deterrence that we lost a long time ago. The blood of our children is spilled there on the streets of Huwara, and there is no place for mercy.

Yeshiva students Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, 22 and 20, respectively, were murdered Sunday when a terrorist opened fire at their vehicle in Huwara, a Palestinian Arab town in Samaria through which Israelis regularly travel in order to reach Jewish communities in the area.

Following the attack, Finance Minister and Knesset Security Committee member Bezalel Smotrich wrote: "The heart is torn with sorrow for the brutal murder of the brothers Hillel and Yagel Yaniv from the settlement of Har Bracha in the terrorist attack in Huwara. I myself passed there a few minutes before the attack, and every day many thousands of Jews pass there on the road. Every Jew is a target for those bloodthirsty terrorists."

"I call on the Prime Minister to return the Israeli delegation from Aqaba immediately. 'Calm' will only be achieved when the IDF hits the cities of terror and its perpetrators mercilessly with tanks and helicopters. We will demand an immediate convening of the cabinet to make decisions," said Smotrich.

Mother of shooting victims: 'We have a huge hole in our hearts'

 

Esti Yaniv, the mother of the two young men murdered in a terrorist shooting attack in Samaria Sunday afternoon, released an audio recording to residents of her hometown of Har Bracha near Shechem (Nablus).

“Hello, young people of Har Bracha. We took a hard slap in the face from God. We are trying to focus on the good things and the kindness we merited in the past – like celebrating Shabbat as a family, taking a family photo, having good conversations with our children yesterday.”

“We have a huge hole in our hearts, and nothing can close that hole. Not [settlement] construction, not protesting – nothing, not even celebrations will be a bandage [for this]; this hole will stay with us, and we will have to learn to experience happiness despite this hole and to continue, and to draw energy from you, from our children. They were two on their way to learn Torah; increase your own Torah studies, and do something substantive with your army service. Make some soup and distribute it to soldiers.”

“I really have no words that can comfort me, that can express [what I feel]. We are relying on you. We raised you over many years. We planned to have a farewell party on Shabbat; God-willing, we will have a major Shabbat with the local youth. We will be able to talk, and we’d be very happy if you would write stories and memories [of my sons].”

Earlier on Sunday, the victims of the terrorist shooting attack in Huwara were identified as 22-year-old Hillel Menachem Yaniv and his brother, 20-year-old Yagel Yaakov Yaniv.

The two were shot to death in their car on Route 60 in the Arab village of Huwara.

The terrorist approached the brothers’ car and fired 10 to 15 rounds from a handgun at pointblank range.

Israeli security personnel are currently searching for the terrorist.