The facts?
A far cry from the stories spun by foreign newsmen whose mindsets ranged from gullible to careless to hostile.
Here are some real facts:
1.“The cars that “the settlers” burned?
The large, dramatic piles of charred cars photographed in many articles, were not family cars, they were in a Huwara junkyard. Huwara has many car-repair stores, which make their living installing expensive spare parts obtained gratis by stealing Israeli cars and stripping them down.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to shorten his visit to Germany and to return to Israel tomorrow (Thursday) instead of Friday as originally scheduled.
The decision was made in light of recent security developments in Israel, though the precise nature of these developments has not been revealed.
Netanyahu held a security assessment with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier Wednesday afternoon.
The Prime Minister's Office stated: "Prime Minister Netanyahu has been following and being updated in recent days on the security developments together with the security leadership."
Netanyahu is expected to face protests over the government's planned judicial reforms both upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport tomorrow night and in Berlin. The timing of his return may be changed without notice to avoid the protests at the Tel Aviv airport.
Netanyahu will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin before returning to Israel. He is expected to call on the European Union to take a harder line against Iran's nuclear weapons program after it was revealed that Iran has enriched uranium to 84% purity, not far from the 90% which constitutes weapons-grade uranium.
Last week, Netanyahu visited Italy, where he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He was meeting with members of the Jewish community of Rome at the city's main Sephardic synagogue when he was informed of the terrorist shooting attack in Tel Aviv in which three Israelis were wounded last Thursday night.
An Orthodox rabbi who is the subject of a local authority child safeguarding alert led Purim celebrations surrounded by members of his community including children, pictures and video obtained by the JC reveal.
Despite the highly unusual warning, Rabbi Chaim Halpern was the honored guest at a party attended by around 50 men and young boys on Tuesday lunchtime.
Photographs and footage of the event show Halpern addressing the congregation and dancing with guests at the Beis Shmuel synagogue in Golders Green, north London, which is run by his brother Moshe, another rabbi.
In the video, speaking in Yiddish, Moshe Halpern, sitting next to his brother at the top table with other community leaders, refers obliquely to “graciousness in not responding to people speaking about you”.
Chaim Halpern, 64, also known as Aaron Halpern, who leads the nearby Divrei Chaim synagogue, was the subject of a police investigation into sexual assault a decade ago and is currently facing a rabbinical inquiry into his conduct.
Halpern has regularly involved in providing counselling to women in London’s ultra-orthodox Charedi community. But last year a 21-year-old woman who went to him for help branded him “dangerous and sick”, claiming he used his position to groom and assault her.
The unnamed woman went on television in Israel to accuse Halpern of assaulting her — touching her “private parts” — when she went to him for spiritual guidance. She said he was “evil and must be stopped”.
She later told the JC: “The truth is overdue. Reb Chaim thinks that because he’s a rabbi, he can do whatever he wishes. “He tricked me into trusting him by acting charming, giving attention and compliments. He invests time into phone calls and emails, but it’s all just grooming.”
Reacting to the allegations, Chief Rabbi Mirvis said: “Allegations of serious sexual abuse by a rabbi in London highlight the extent to which abusers can manipulate a culture of respect to serve their own depraved criminality.
“For a rabbi to hold private meetings with women behind closed doors is a transgression of halachah and creates an environment in which abuse can take place. I urge victims and anyone aware of abuse to report it without hesitation.”
At the end of last month, Hackney Council’s education chief took the extraordinary step of sending a letter to headteachers and community children’s group leaders “strongly advising” them to keep children in their care away from the rabbi due to the “very serious” claims against him.
Referring to the ongoing inquiry into his conduct by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC), which oversees his synagogue, Paul Senior, the council’s interim education director, wrote: “Whilst this investigation continues we would strongly advise you not to refer any children in your care to Chaim Halpern, and to ensure that the parents, carers and families of your children are also made aware of this situation.”
He added: “As a local authority, having been made aware of these concerns, we felt it was important to ensure that you too had sight of them.”
In 2012, Halpern had been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence following a nine-month probe.
As the JC has revealed, despite the claims, Halpern is a member of the board which runs a number of schools in north London.
Halpern has been previously listed as a “rabbinical adviser” to the group of schools.
Halpern has given counselling to the victims of rape and sexual assault in his community, including a young woman, who told the JC that after she was assaulted from the age of 13, she was offered cash on behalf of her abuser by two rabbis, including Halpern, to whom she was sent for guidance. She added: “There will be dozens and dozens of girls and women like me who have been through this process with Rabbi Halpern.”
The woman said she was sent to Rabbi Halpern in 2011, about a year before he was accused of the sexual assault.
Halpern, she said, acted as a form of “mediator” between her abuser and herself.
Halpern denies all allegations. Asked about his client’s involvement in the Purim event, the rabbi’s solicitor, David Sonn, refused to comment.
A senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration said that the mass protests against potential reforms to Israel’s judicial system are being partially funded by the American government.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity to Hebrew-language news outlet Zman Israel on Friday, the official said that “this protest is financed and organized with millions of dollars.”
He added that the protests, which have seen hundreds of thousands of demonstrators block traffic and march through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on a weekly basis, are being funded from a central source.
“This is a very high-level organization. There is an organized center from which all the demonstrators branch out in an orderly manner,” the official said. “Who finances the transportation, the flags, the stages? It’s clear to us.”
Though the official did not explicitly name the Biden administration or the U.S. as the source of the funding, other senior figures have said they believe American money is fueling the protests.
Netanyahu’s son recently tweeted a link to a Breitbart article which linked the U.S. State Department with a major organizer of the protests.
That Breitbart article heavily referenced a Washington Free Beacon report which claimed that U.S. taxpayer funds are being provided to the Movement for Quality Government (MQG), an NGO that is promoting the demonstrations.
The Bobover Rebbe Shlitah, Reb Ben-Zion, was illustrating how far the latest generation has come, that now "everyone wears the peyois outside their ears and wear white socks.
He pointed out that the previous generation wore their "peyois behind their ears" and didn't wear "white socks."
As an aside I remember when his father z"l Reb Shlomo, didn't wear "white socks" but wore regular pants with regular socks.
As I listened to this guy talking, I was scratching my head in disbelief. This rebbe is a leader of thousands, I am not exaggerating, literally thousands, I was wondering as I was watching the guys sitting at the dais looking at him stoically, what was going thru their minds listening to their leader talk absolute nonsense.
Is this what is important today? Have we all become a nation of morons?
The world is falling apart, members of our own community have not been spared, as many are going "off the derech," committing suicide, doing drugs, families are being torn asunder, suicides, mental health issues, people have lost their life savings in ponzi schemes just in the past year, and he is talking whether one should wear his peyos behind the ears or to curl them and wear them outside!
Have we all become insane?
There is no question in my mind that he is living in an alternate universe and not at all tuned into reality!
Woe to our generation that these are our leaders! And he is not alone living in the world of absurdity.
פני דורו כפני כלב
