Wednesday, May 15, 2024
White House ‘strongly opposes’ bill that would force arms shipments to Israel
A congressional aide confirmed to DIN that the Biden administration notified Congress Tuesday that it plans to deliver more than $1 billion in new weapons to the Jewish state amid the bomb shipment pause.
The weapons package, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, would include $700 million in tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, but the supplies are not expected to reach the battlefield anytime soon. This was after enormous pressure!
President Biden would veto legislation barring the US from withholding the shipment of military weapons to Israel, arguing that it would prevent the commander in chief from executing “effective foreign policy, the White House announced Tuesday.
The Israel Security Assistance Support Act, introduced by Republicans in the Senate and House and Representatives, would compel the Biden administration to quickly deliver previously approved weapons to Israel and withhold funds from the secretary of defense, secretary of state and National Security Council until the shipments currently on pause are delivered.
“The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 8369, the Israel Security Assistance Support Act, which seeks to limit the President’s discretion to ensure that the delivery of certain defense articles and services aligns with U.S. foreign policy objectives,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy, commenting on the House version of the bill.
“The bill would undermine the President’s ability to execute an effective foreign policy,” the statement continued, deriding the legislation as a “misguided reaction” and a “distortion” of Biden’s threat to withhold the shipment of 2,000-pound bombs to the Israeli military.
“We strongly oppose attempts to constrain the president’s ability to deploy U.S. security assistance consistent with U.S. foreign policy and national security objectives,” the White House said.
“If the President were presented with H.R. 8369, he would veto it.”
The 2024 race to the White House is now Donald Trump’s to lose
The verdict is in and the people have spoken.
The court of public opinion doesn’t give a damn about Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen.
Outside Manhattan and other Democrat strongholds, Americans don’t care whether a flaky porn actress and an ex-con serial liar with a closet full of axes to grind are telling the truth.
In fact, media obsession about the partisan show trial of defendant Donald Trump is obscuring a far more significant truth about him.
Candidate Trump has opened his biggest lead in the presidential campaign.
Polls of battleground states, along with such anecdotal evidence as the enormous turnout of 100,000 people at his New Jersey rally and dispirited concessions by Joe Biden supporters, signal that we’ve reached a key turning point in the battle for the White House.
Yes, yes, it’s far from over.
But recent signs suggest it’s now Trump’s race to win or lose.
Boat matching description of vessel involved in fatal hit-and-run of teen Ella Adler found
A boat of interest has been located in connection with the hit-and-run death of a 15-year-old who was struck while water skiing in the Biscayne Bay over the weekend.
Authorities have identified a vessel fitting that description of the one that hit Ella Riley Adler on Saturday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission announced Tuesday afternoon.
The owner of the boat – who has not been publicly identified – is cooperating with the investigation, the statement added.
Ella was enjoying a water skiing trip off Key Biscayne’s Nixon Beach when she fell into the water while being towed, the FWC explained.
She was then hit by the center console of an oncoming boat, which did not slow down or stop, witnesses said.
The Miami City Ballet dancer was left floating in the water with what first responders described as “a lot of blood” coming from her body.
The teen was still wearing her life vest and water skis when the boat – described as a light blue vessel with a dark blue bottom – plowed over her.
“You were taken from us way too soon, and the world has been robbed of all the things you could have achieved. But you will always be here with us and your friends and family will carry your energy and spirit forever,” Ella’s father, Matthew Adler, wrote in an emotional letter that was read at Ella's packed funeral on Monday.
Ella – who appeared in over 100 performances with the Miami City Ballet – took on a role in her school’s production of “Chicago” shortly before she died, one friend told the crowd at Temple Beth Sholom in Miami Beach.
As the investigation is ongoing, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission issued an ongoing appeal for witnesses who saw the hit-and-run or may have captured video of the incident.
My Grandfather's journey from Auschwitz to Israel and my promise to him
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| Tzlil, age 4, with her grandfather Nachman Berko circa 1993. |
By Tzlil Berko
I'm a third-generation child of Holocaust survivors. Almost all of my family from my father's side was gassed to death in the Auschwitz gas chambers.
Nearly 20 years ago, I visited the death camps where my family perished. There, at the gas chambers in Auschwitz, I recited their names out loud to 'elevate their souls' (L'iluy Neshama). As we believe in Judaism, the soul never dies, and we can help elevate a soul to a higher place in its journey to the afterlife, with good deeds, prayers, and remembrance.
As I called out my family members' names in the devil's 'death factory,' it suddenly hit me hard that right where I was standing, millions of Jews, my family included, had been reduced to only a number tattooed on their cold flesh, as well as God's arm. They were stripped of their identity and former selves and transformed into a combination of 'digits' – living 'codes' to humanity's locked heart. There I was, saying their names. Who they really were. What they were before true evil took them away.
My grandparents survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Israel. As a child, I used to sleep over at my grandparents' little house on their farm. I remember waking up in the middle of the night to my beloved grandfather screaming in Hungarian; he was haunted by the nightmare of his 4-year-old sister burning alive and turning into black ashes. To his very last day, he couldn't sleep without night terrors of what had happened to his family at the hands of the Nazis and their many helpers.
I remember myself just standing there. A little girl, frozen at the entrance of his room, looking at him and crying silently as my grandfather shouted, sweated, and writhed from real horror dreams. Flashbacks of the Holocaust, which he survived but never escaped.
The Holocaust runs in my blood. It's a significant part of the very essence of who I am. It's intertwined with my soul, at the very core of my being.
I promised my grandfather that we will DEFEND what he and all of our beloved Holocaust survivors fought for. We will NEVER GIVE UP, and we will NEVER LET GO. We are proud Jews with a strong moral army and we will keep my promise to him. Am Yisrael Chai (the nation of Israel lives).
I wrote the poem below (translated from Hebrew) for my brave grandfather, Nachman Berko, may his memory be a blessing, and to my extended family that left our world through a chimney as the blue sky turned black.
European Jews Asking Shailos About Removing Mezuzahs and Hiding Kippah
Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt says that Jews in Europe are so frightened about antisemitism, they are considering removing mezuzahs and hiding their kippahs.
In an interview with the Guardian, Rabbi Goldschmidt, the former Chief Rabbi of Moscow and President of the Conference of European Rabbis, says that since October 7th, Jewish communities across Europe have been struggling with a wave of hate speech, harassment, and threats.
Some Jews have asked Rabbis halachic questions about whether it is permitted to remove Jewish symbols for their safety.
Rabbi Goldschmidt said that “many Jews are trying to hide their Jewishness”. “One of the most asked questions to the rabbis since October 7 is if you can take off the mezuzah [a religious parchment in a case] off your door,” he said, adding: “This says a lot.”
He added that, “Other precautions that some people took included wearing hats instead of the traditional yarmulkah (skullcap) on the street, and avoiding speaking Hebrew when riding in Ubers. There used to be a red line between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. We have seen this red line disappear. I think that ultimately this is not a problem for the Jewish community. Ultimately, this is a big problem for Europe at large. This situation in the streets is destabilizing our society.”
Rabbi Goldschmidt was chief rabbi of Moscow who left Russia after refusing to back Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
Speaker Mike Johnson’s Appearance at Trump’s "Illegitimate Sham" Trial
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson assailed the U.S. judicial system on Tuesday, becoming the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court with Donald Trump and using his powerful position to attack the hush money case against the former president as an illegitimate “sham.”
It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker turning his Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy.
Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system “corrupt.”
Outside the New York courthouse, he decried “this ridiculous prosecution that is not about justice.” He said, “It’s all about politics.”
The speaker is leading a growing list of Republican lawmakers who are criticizing the American judicial system as they rally to Trump’s side, appearing at the courthouse to defend the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Trump is accused of having arranged secret payments to a porn actress to hide negative stories during his successful 2016 campaign for president.
With Trump stuck in court and barred by a judge’s gag order from criticizing witnesses or certain elements of the case, Johnson and the lawmakers are taking it upon themselves to attack the proceedings, now in a fourth week of witness testimony. They’re using the trial as a de facto campaign stop as they work to return the former president to the White House.
In portraying the case against Trump as politically motivated, the Republicans are also laying the groundwork to dismiss its significance, should the jury convict, and for potential challenges to the fall election, a rematch with President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
North Miami Imam/Dentist Who Double-Billed Patients & Medicaid,& Stole Thousands calls for 'annihilation' of Jews
An antisemitic-laced video has emerged of a Florida imam calling for the annihilation of Jews and describing the Israeli military as being "worse than the Nazis."
The video, which was live-streamed to Facebook on April 26, shows Florida Imam Dr. Fadi Kablawi making the remarks during a sermon at Masjid As Sunnah An Nabawiyyah in North Miami.
"Oh Allah, support our oppressed brothers in Palestine. Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews. Oh Allah, annihilate them, for they are no match for you," Kablawi can be heard saying in the sermon, according to a translation by MEMRI TV, the media arm of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
"Oh Allah," Kablawi continued, "annihilate the brothers of apes and pigs. Oh Allah, demonstrate upon them the wonders of your might. Oh Allah, cut off their seed. Oh Allah, break up their fellowship. Oh Allah, disperse them and rend them asunder."
The original video was posted to the Facebook page of the mosque, with a shortened version then uploaded MEMRI TV. The video comes amid a wave of antisemitism on college campuses.
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