Netanyahu was quick to respond to Biden's warning with a statement in which he said Israel will not make decisions "based on external pressures, including from our best friends."
“I don’t speak because I have the power to speak; I speak because I don’t have the power to remain silent.” Rav Kook z"l
Netanyahu was quick to respond to Biden's warning with a statement in which he said Israel will not make decisions "based on external pressures, including from our best friends."
There were several tweets on Tuesday that cited President Joe Biden essentially contradicting his ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, who earlier in the day told Israel’s Army Radio Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was going to be invited to the White House soon (US Ambassador: Netanyahu Will Be Invited to the White House after Passover).
Below are all the citations taken from Biden’s two conversations with reporters on Tuesday that touched on the subjects of Israel and Netanyahu. In summation: there will be no invitation to the White House any time soon, and it’s hard to tell whether the president had been briefed on Netanyahu’s announcement that he is suspending the judicial reform:
Biden: "Like many strong supporters of Israel I'm very concerned. I'm concerned that they get this straight. They cannot continue down this road. Netanyahu won't be invited to the White House in the near term" pic.twitter.com/YeuH6QbT3c
— Yosef Yisrael (@yosefyisrael25) March 28, 2023
A former Google engineer has made a stark realization that humans will achieve immortality in eight years - and 86 percent of his 147 predictions have been correct.
Ray Kurzweil spoke with the YouTube channel Adagio, discussing the expansion in genetics, nanotechnology, and robotics, which he believes will lead to age-reversing 'nanobots.'
These tiny robots will repair damaged cells and tissues that deteriorate as the body ages and make us immune to diseases like cancer.
The predictions that such a feat is achievable by 2030 have been met with excitement and skepticism, as curing all deadly diseases seems far out of reach.
Kurzweil was hired by Google in 2012 to 'work on new projects involving machine learning and language processing,' but he was making predictions in technological advances long before.
In 1990, he predicted the world's best chess player would lose to a computer by 2000, and it happened in 1997 when Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov.
Kurzweil made another startling prediction in 1999: he said that by 2023 a $1,000 laptop would have a human brain's computing power and storage capacity.
Now the former Google engineer believes technology is set to become so powerful it will help humans live forever, in what is known as the singularity.
Singularity is a theoretical point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence and changes the path of our evolution, LifeBoat reports.
Kurzweil, an author who describes himself as a futurist, predicted that technological singularity would happen by 2045, with AI passing a valid Turing test in 2029.
It is a test of a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human
He said that machines are already making us more intelligent and connecting them to our neocortex will help people think more smartly.
Contrary to the fears of some, he believes that implanting computers in our brains will improve us.
'We're going to get more neocortex, we're going to be funnier, we're going to be better at music. We're going to be sexier', he said.
'We're really going to exemplify all the things that we value in humans to a greater degree.'
Rather than a vision of the future where machines take over humanity, Kurzweil believes we will create a human-machine synthesis that will make us better.
The concept of nanomachines being inserted into the human body has been in science fiction for decades.
In Star Trek, tiny molecular robots called nanites were used to help repair damaged cells in the body.
More than ten years ago, the US National Science Foundation predicted ‘network-enhanced telepathy’ – sending thoughts over the internet – would be practical by the 2020s.
'Ultimately, it will affect everything,' Kurzweil said.
'We're going to be able to meet the physical needs of all humans. We're going to expand our minds and exemplify these artistic qualities that we value.'
The process began centuries ago with simple devices such as eyeglasses and ear trumpets that could dramatically improve human lives.
Then came better machines, such as hearing aids and devices that could save lives, including pacemakers and dialysis machines.
By the second decade of the 21st Century, we have become used to organs grown in laboratories, genetic surgery and designer babies.
During a hearing in February, Ocasio-Cortez went after Libs of TikTok for sharing videos regarding Boston Children’s Hospital's gender transition procedures for minors. She eemed that Libs of TikTok posted a "lie" that was "circulated by other prominent far-right influencers" and that the information led to "real life harassment and ultimately a bomb threat" to Boston Children's Hospital.
On Friday, Raichik traveled to Washington and filmed herself inside the Cannon House Office Building approaching Ocasio-Cortez' office. She knocked on the door and encountered a staffer who said the lawmaker was not in, and to "give me one second."
After months of increasingly strident mass protests against his government’s plans to reform Israel’s out-of-control and highly partisan judicial system, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears to have given in to the pressure. He said he was going to be “delaying judicial reform to give real dialogue a chance.” But it’s highly doubtful that this will merely be a timeout that will help his supporters regroup and enable opponents to calm down and accept a compromise on the issue.
On the contrary, Netanyahu is waving the white flag on judicial reform—and everyone knows it. And since the ultimate goal of the protests was not just preventing legislation from being passed but to topple the government, it’s far from clear whether the prime minister can long stay in power after this humiliation since his allies are shaken and his opponents won’t be satisfied until he’s ejected from office.
Whether that will happen remains to be seen. But the one thing that is clear is that the consequences of the events of the last months go far beyond the future of the Israeli legal system.
At least 250,000 right-wing protesters arrived in Jerusalem Monday evening to launch a counter demonstration opposing the anti-government ranks thronging outside the Knesset and elsewhere in the capital.
Right-wing organizations that included Regavim, Im Tirzu, Ad Kan, Bezalmo and Torah Lehima announced their counter protest would start at 6 pm near the Supreme Court.
“Friends, under no circumstances should we stop the judicial reform to strengthen Israeli democracy,” Religious Zionism chair and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a statement. “We are the majority. We must not give in to violence, anarchy . . . and wild strikes.
“Let’s make our voice heard. Let’s meet tonight at 6 pm in Jerusalem, in front of the Knesset. I’ll be there.
“We can’t let them steal our voice and our country!”
National Security Minister and Otzma Yehudit chair Itamar Ben-Gvir issued a brief one-line statement, via Twitter: “Today we stop being silent. Today the right wakes up. Share this.”
As the right-wing demonstrators began to make their way to Jerusalem from across the country, there were reports that Israel Police were making an effort to impede their progress as much as possible.
One police roadblock was seen on Route 1, the main highway leading to Jerusalem.
“I am receiving more and more updates that the police are stopping cars with pro-reform supporters on their way to the rally,” Berale Crombie, one of the organizers of the pro-reform rally, wrote in a tweet.
“Friends, don’t give up!,” he exhorted. “At the point where you are being stopped, leave your vehicle and walk!”
One of Chaim's former classmates has volunteered to be the point man, the person who will sift thru information and will then transfer pertinent leads to the Nassau County detective in charge.
Some have also suggested that in order to give this priority we start a "Go Fund Me" page to hire a private detective.
We will put together a committee that will decide where to go from here!
Anyone who has any new information, even if you think its trivial, should immediately email us.
Also very important: Anyone out there that was in Camp Horim in 1986? I need to ask you some questions!
dusiznies@aol.com
Once we have the committee in place, all info will be sent to them directly. We will update as soon as we get this off the ground.
To borrow the favorite epithet of the demonstrators in the streets of Tel Aviv and other cities, “shame” on Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
In an announcement on Saturday night, the Cabinet member charged with the country’s most crucial portfolio called on the government to halt its judicial reform legislation and heal the rifts that have gone so far as to reach the military.
“I hear the voices from the field and I’m worried,” he said, while also urging the opposition to stop the protests to give negotiations a chance. Oh, and to “enable the nation to celebrate Passover and Independence Day together, and to mourn together on Memorial Day and Holocaust Remembrance Day.”
Prominently on display in this speech—which he had planned to deliver on Thursday evening, but refrained from doing so at the request of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—were two traits that make him unfit for his job:
cowardice and betrayal.
Let’s begin with the former. Faced with the phenomenon of mainly Air Force and Cyber Division reservists threatening and refusing to turn up for military exercises, on the grounds that they wouldn’t serve in a “dictatorship,” Gallant got frightened.
Rather than nipping the subordination in the bud, he met with the men and women in uniform to let them vent their concerns. The cream of the crop of the Israel Defense Forces said that without an end to the “coup d’état” (the protest movement’s misnomer for judicial reforms), the powers that be in Jerusalem can forget about confronting Iran. You know, since there won’t be any pilots or computer geniuses to carry out the operations.
Instead of demanding that the IDF chief of staff warn them that such blackmail will result in their ouster from the IDF, or at least in a stripping of their ranks, Gallant not only conveyed their complaints to Netanyahu; he began, apparently, to see the merits of their point of view.
In other words, he didn’t make it crystal clear that political positions have no place in the army. Nor did he hit home the very points about judicial reform on which he based his campaign in the Likud Party primary—the very ones that earned him a top spot on the Knesset candidates list and subsequently the ministry he coveted.
He was simply too intimidated by the unprecedented situation to know how to handle it. Such gutlessness hardly inspires confidence about his ability to deal with Tehran and its tentacles in Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinian Authority.
Now for the latter attribute Gallant exhibited that makes him unsuitable: extreme disloyalty. Indeed, he took the opportunity of Netanyahu’s trip to London to undermine the arduous efforts of his party and coalition partners in one fell swoop.
That he pulled the stunt a mere 48 hours after the prime minister’s carefully crafted address aimed at calming tensions was particularly egregious. Netanyahu took pains to articulate the purpose of the reforms—to enhance, not harm, Israeli democracy—and assure that all civil and minority rights would be guaranteed in the law.
What the prime minister didn’t do was capitulate. When the opposition responded by stepping up its war, Gallant opted for retreat.
His move was not only dismissive of Netanyahu. It dealt a blow to all the soldiers who shun the mere suggestion of laying down their weapons in protest over policy.
Worse, it sent a disheartening message to the sector of the public that’s been under political, cultural and social assault for electing and continuing to support the Netanyahu-led government. “Shame” doesn’t begin to describe what Gallant should be feeling at the moment.
Ruthie Blum is a Tel Aviv-based columnist and commentator. She writes and lectures on Israeli politics and culture, as well as on U.S.-Israel relations. The winner of the Louis Rappaport award for excellence in commentary, she is the author of the book “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.’ ”
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Sunday morning extended the administrative detention of Avraham Yair Yared, a resident of Samaria, by an additional 3 months, just hours before he was to be released from a 4-month administrative detention, Kol Barama Radio reporter Mendi Rizel tweeted. Yared was going to get married next month, but the extension of his detention postponed the wedding yet again.
“By the way, last night’s terrorist from Huawara is still at large,” Rizel noted
Avraham is the brother of Elisha Yared, the spokesman for Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Son Har Melech.
Four months ago, Yared was arrested on an administrative arrest warrant, despite a court ruling to release him. He was scheduled to be released from administrative custody Sunday morning when Minister Gallant decreed that he remain behind bars – without charges against him.
Yared’s parents attacked the defense minister Sunday morning, saying: “One day after a third shooting attack in Huawara, while in the settlements of Samaria, we are counting the murdered and the wounded, we were informed this morning that the defense minister, who has practically abandoned us in recent months, decided to show his determination against his kin and in an act of unimaginable evil extended the administrative detention for another three months.”
“This breaks new records of evil and wickedness on the part of a defense minister who was elected by right-wing voters, and managed in a short time to earn the dubious title of holding the largest number of Jews in administrative detention in the past 30 years,” Yared’s parents continued. “As residents of Samaria that you abandoned to their fate and as the parents of a boy who experienced your criminal policy firsthand, we call on you: give back the keys and go home today. You failed miserably and destroyed with your own hands the right’s election achievement while completely joining the left.”
Honenu attorney Adi Keidar stated: “Minister Gallant should be precluded from making decisions regarding administrative detentions as long as his own conduct in the field endangers the lives of civilians in Judea and Samaria and castrates the ability of the soldiers in the field.”
THIS is what it’s all about.
Maybe the Bnei Brakers should branch out to Tel Aviv.
When you hit a Yid with Ahavat Yisrael, they can’t help but give in.
What a Kiddush Hashem. The video of the man crying while singing Sholom Aleicheim is a pure example of the Chazal that says “Yisroel af al Pi shechota, Yisroel hu”.
Giving cholent and dancing with Yidden is sure to make many chilonim reconsider what they think we are.
Achdus, on whatever level possible, is beloved by Hashem and insures our safety from those that truly hate us and want to destroy us.
The attempts by demonstrators marching from Tel Aviv to Bnei Brak to create provocations have so far failed to elicit a similar response from Chareidim. Many Bnei Brak residents prepared special food tents for them and offered them drinks and cholent and in some cases even danced together with them.
The cordial atmosphere led to the demonstrators and chareidim speaking with genuine friendship to one another, as evident in the following clips:
בני ברק, הערב pic.twitter.com/ZGHNwTSSY1
— ינון מגל (@YinonMagal) March 23, 2023
כזה מרגש עוד לא ראיתם ❤️❤️❤️
— Yael Zien יעל צין (@YaelZien) March 23, 2023
עכשיו בבני ברק מפגין בקש להחזיק את ספר התורה שהוציאו תושבי בני ברק pic.twitter.com/QVCgWO6hvp
רגע מרגש בהפגנה בבני ברק: חרדים, מסורתיים ומפגיני מחאת קפלן בריקוד משותף עם דגלי ישראל ברחובות העיר: ״אנחנו מאמינים בני מאמינים״ pic.twitter.com/zpDDtjqA9y
— ישראל כהן (@Israelcohen911) March 23, 2023
מחכים למפגינים: תושבי בני ברק נערכו עם סירי צ'ולנט לקראת הגעת המוחים לעיר@AkivaWeisz pic.twitter.com/YxrU8VXFmv
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) March 23, 2023
In their letter, the rabbis stress the importance of the yeshivah students going out onto the streets and joining the effort of the national camp to present the issues in an accurate, informative, and compelling manner.
"Unfortunately, there is a small group of anarchists which receives donations from abroad to disseminate lies about the government using all the tools of mass media, to convey the impression that these reforms will turn the country into a dictatorship, that Israel will turn into Iran and women will be enslaved," they write. "It's as if right-wing and religious voters are incapable of independent thought, as if there are no genuine problems with the judiciary -- as if the entire goal is to extricate the prime minister from his trial.
"We are obligated to mobilize in support of fixing the broken judicial system here," they continue. "We must also help all those who innocently believe the propaganda, and enable them to see the truth. Each and every person should do whatever he can -- standing at crossroads with signs, giving explanations, donating money. Each one of us must do his part, and together we will prevail."
Meanwhile, the headquarters of the pro-reform movement issued a statement saying: "At this time, when our great rabbis are mobilizing for this important battle, we call on yeshivah students to go into action, and we will do everything we can to help them reach the crossroads and mobilize in order to disprove the lie that the reforms will turn Israel into a dictatorship. We call for everyone to do what he can so that the movement should succeed, especially now that the yeshivot have started their Passover recess."
On Wednesday, hundreds of right-wing activists took to the bridges across the country to demonstrate their support for the government's judicial reform program. Hundreds of placards were hung, reading: "The people voted for reform, support the reforms and come out to the bridges," as well as, "Put a stop to Supreme Court rule - Reform Now."
Placards were also hung on dozens of roads and at intersections all over the country, many showing pictures of Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman, with the legend, "Yariv, Rothman, the People are with you! 2,304,964 citizens voted for the reforms to fix the judiciary."
Also on Wednesday, the pro-reform movement hung a huge billboard outside a hotel at the entrance to Jerusalem, and another one near the Azrieli Center in Tel Aviv.
A massive protest march is being planned for Thursday evening in Bnei Brak, with police deploying huge contingents in the hope of preventing the event from descending into violence. Protesters have already clashed with police in the course of their "Day of National Paralysis," with dozens arrested.
However, the decision to hold a protest in Bnei Brak, a majority haredi city, has apparently split the protest movement, with one prominent organization within it, the "Standing Together" group, disassociating itself from the march and planning an alternative protest in Tel Aviv.
The Standing Together group issued a statement saying: "Our struggle is against the policies of the government, not against any community. The protests against the haredi residents of Bnei Brak are illegitimate and mistaken, as they pit people against each other instead of the people against the regime. All of us -- religious and secular, Jews and Arabs, those in the center of the country and those in the periphery -- all of us have the same interest as this government is harming us all. We will make a stand in the streets against this out-of-touch and tone-deaf government and declare: This country belongs to us all."
The group added that, "Standing Together will be holding an alternative demonstration at seven p.m. at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, in the wake of the decision by some of the protest's organizers to march in Bnei Brak."
Meanwhile, Bnei Brak Mayor Avraham Rubinstein was interviewed on Galei Tzahal (Army Radio), and expressed his disappointment that Israel Police was allowing the march through Bnei Brak to go ahead.
"The protesters are trying to force the haredi community to take sides, despite their wish to remain on the fence," he said. "The haredi community doesn't want to be dragged into this, but they are bringing it to our homes. If the police had an iota of sense they would tell the protesters: Excuse me, but this is not the place for this."
Prime Minister Netanyahu has appealed to haredi leaders to ensure that the protest in Bnei Brak does not degenerate into open conflict between protesters and residents, praising Bnei Brak's rabbis for issuing proclamations telling the city's residents to keep their distance and not engage with the protesters.
Sarah Ruth Hoffman |
About the AuthorSarah Ruth Hoffman was a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill when an older male rabbi (now suspended by his rabbinical association) groomed, raped, and abused her. She has since completed the PhD and converted to Orthodox Judaism. She continues to write as part of her healing, and she often writes what she would have found comforting and useful to read during her lengthy exodus from the ongoing sexual violence that was inextricably linked to roles and scripts in Jewish institutions. She hopes that this blog will help the public to understand the dynamics of clergy sexual abuse, whether the victims are adults, or children. Much of what is written can apply to non-clergy relationships as well. If any one person is helped by any of what is written, then the purpose of this blog has been fulfilled.
One of the most traumatic aspects of my rabbinic abuse case was the fact that I was the only one to come forward. During my abuse, I learned of many other victims, past and present, some in great detail. When I reported, I was able to name and give contact information for at least half a dozen other women, including female rabbis. But none of them, to my knowledge, wanted to hold him accountable. Why?
It’s been five years, and I’ve done a lot of thinking on this issue. I’ve come to the conclusion that it all goes back to the abuser, but not in the way that you might expect. That is, it’s not just that the abuser is so good at grooming and manipulating people that none of the victims want to come forward. It’s actually deeper and more sophisticated than that.
The Low-Risk Target
I now understand that the abuser intentionally selects the types of people that are least likely to report him or to cooperate with an investigation in the first place.
הרשעות של עסקני חסידות גור.
— אהרן רבינוביץ (@AronRabino1) March 22, 2023
למרות שכולם שמעו את ההקלטות המחרידות של "התכשיט" שלהם, עסקני החסידות ממשיכים לתמוך בנאשם בתקיפות מיניות ובאלימות נגד רעייתו וגיסתו הקטינה.
היום הם הגיעו שוב לביהמ"ש עם חיוך על פניהם לתמוך בו.
והאדמו"ר? ממשיך לתמוך בשתיקה בפדופיל> pic.twitter.com/8jAkfFDlcx
And the Rebbe continues to silently support the pedophile
The following "tzaddikim showed up in court: