THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
“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
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
Israel on Tuesday lifted most of its COVID restrictions on public activity, following an extended period of low coronavirus infection rates.
On Monday, the government approved the lifting of major limits on public activity and business operation, which were set to expire Tuesday.
Both the ‘green marker’ (Tav Yarok) and ‘purple marker’ (Tav Sagol) sets of regulations on mass gatherings and business operations were nullified starting Tuesday morning, ending the limits on a wide variety of activities.
The end of the ‘green marker’ program means that the unvaccinated – including children who are below the vaccination age – may now be able to freely enter hotels, restaurants, cultural events and other venues without a recent negative COVID test.
Businesses restricted by the ‘purple marker’ program will no longer be required to limit the number of customers allowed inside at any given time, and will no longer be required to maintain two meters between customers or between customers.
Event halls will now be able to operate freely with no limits on the number of people allowed indoors, regardless of participants’ vaccination status.
The indoor mask mandate, however, will remain in place for the time being, though the Health Ministry plans to reevaluate the mandate in the near future.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
An underage casualty of the most recent round of fighting between Israel and Gaza who was featured in a profile by The New York Times of children killed in the conflict has been revealed to be a member of a Hamas-linked terrorist group.
Last week, the Times published a piece entitled “They Were Only Children”, featuring a collection of photographs of minors killed in last month’s Gaza conflict.
Among the minors included was 17-year-old Khaled al-Qanou, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip on May 13th.
But a terrorist group named the Mujahideen Brigades, which the US has blacklisted for its terrorist activities and ties to Hamas, later claimed that al-Qanou was a member.
The Times later noted al-Qanou’s membership in the terror group, with his family confirming that Khaled had indeed joined the Mujahideen Brigades.
The Hamas terrorist organization also confirmed al-Qanou was a member of its Mujahideen Brigades.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
וואס גייט דא פאר pic.twitter.com/x05Skr1xjc
— Hasidic2 (@hasidic_1) May 30, 2021
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
In the realm of global conflicts, World War II is often viewed as the quintessential battle between good and evil.
Nonetheless, a whopping one-third of Americans either believe that it was a mistake or remain unsure about the US’s involvement in the so-called “good war,” according to a new poll by the Economist/YouGov.
The study, which was conducted in honor of Memorial Day, asked 1,500 Americans whether it was a mistake for the US to participate in wars from World War I to Iraq. To ensure accurate representation, the sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, 2016 presidential vote, registration status, geographic region, and other designations, per the site.
The poll found that a whopping 18% of participants were unsure if Uncle Sam should’ve participated in WWII, in which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt deployed troops to fight the Nazis and the Japanese Empire in 1941.
Meanwhile, 14% thought fighting in the “War Against Hitler” was a mistake while 62% believed that contributing soldiers was the right decision.
On average, 60% of participants ages 18 to 29 said it was the correct choice to join the fight while only 49% of people ages 30 to 44 agreed, the Daily Mail reported. Meanwhile, Republicans were the bigger proponents of US involvement in WWII with 77% backing our decision compared to just 63% of Democrats. Similarly, 74% of men agreed with our injecting US troops into Germany while 62% of women thought it was a good idea.
Interestingly, 58% of veterans who knew someone who died while serving were more likely to view all the wars as mistakes.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
This was just sent to me from my constituent. This just happened in my district in Chinatown. He has been arrested and our precinct is investigating. pic.twitter.com/sxNfCbrlza
— Yuh-Line Niou (@yuhline) May 31, 2021
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
The sense that the Haredi political elite has spent the 30 days since the catastrophe desperately fending off any inquiry that might see it blamed for the tragedy is driving a new outpouring of rage at the Haredi leadership from within its own community.
When a Shavuot celebration on May 16 held by the Karlin-Stolin Hasidic sect ended in yet another tragedy as a grandstand collapsed under the weight of dancing worshipers — killing two, including 13-year-old Meir Gloiberman, and wounding over 200 — that anger could no longer be ignored.
And when news broke that some of the families of the Meron dead had been contacted by people claiming to be from United Torah Judaism asking if they would agree to sign a letter opposing a formal state commission, it boiled over.
On May 23, the families found their voice.
They formed an organization called “The Forum of the Bereaved Families of the Meron Martyrs” that sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with copies to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana, Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai, as well as UTJ’s Gafni and Shas’s Deri. Their message was crystal clear.
“To our great anguish, there are those in recent days who have called for an investigation that isn’t an independent state investigation commission,” the letter begins.
“We want to say in a loud, clear, unequivocal voice, without ambiguity, all the families speaking as one, that we demand only an independent state investigation commission. We are convinced that only a state investigation commission will conduct a comprehensive investigation.”
Some families weren’t satisfied with the letter. Haredi radio station Kol Barama reported on Thursday that the family of Shraga Gestetner, an American who died at Meron, has threatened to involve the American government “if a state investigation into the disaster isn’t established in the coming days.”
No similar disaster in Israel’s history, nor even one with a quarter of Meron’s death toll, has failed to result in an investigation commission. Why do the Haredi parties believe they can hold the line? Why would they be willing to face the inevitable public condemnation?
So much of what went wrong at Meron — the bickering sects, the refusal to accept police safety regulations or government oversight, the mobilizing of Haredi political leadership to guarantee the event’s independence from state oversight — cuts to the heart of Haredi culture, to its sense that it has achieved a kind of purity and superiority over the surrounding society through its separatism and isolationism.
On May 17, a day after the Karlin disaster, the Haredi journalist Moshe Glassner of Kol Barama put the point bluntly:
Haredi separatism is leading the community from one deadly failure to another.
“After yet another disaster in the Haredi community,” Glassner wrote, “it’s about time for all the various [Haredi] communities to grasp the message: Safety regulations, like health regulations, aren’t a ‘Zionist plot against religion.’ That anachronistic way of thinking cost us lives in the pandemic, at Meron, and again on Shavuot.”
The religious commandment to “guard your lives,” he added, “isn’t a mitzvah [just] for troubled youth, but an obligation from the Torah” that supersedes nearly all others.
In Haredi society’s terms, the politicians are protecting not just themselves or their religious sects. They are safeguarding the psychic walls that Haredi society has constructed around itself, the deep-seated ethos of resistance to state interference in their lives and communities.
For a growing chorus of critics in the community, however, the 45 dead at Meron are too high a price to lay at the altar of isolationism and self-regard.
As the May 24 walkout in the Knesset showed, secular Israel is no longer the primary threat to that isolationism. Likud and other factions proved willing to play along with the Haredi leadership’s efforts to stymie an independent investigation.
After a year of the pandemic’s devastation, followed in quick succession by the dual shocks of the Meron and Karlin disasters, it is now the families of the dead and the increasingly independent-minded media outlets of the Haredi world that are not.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
-At the head of the list, Yamina, whose chairman actually signed a a paper on Israel's national media saying he would never join with Yair Lapid or the Arab parties and whose party name in Hebrew means "right" Throughout the election campaigns, the party actually repeatedly promised to be to the right of Netanyahu!
Followed by so-called rightist parties:
-Yisrael Beytenu (Liberman), New Hope (Sa'ar)
From the left:
Labor, Meretz
-From the left-leaning center: Yesh Atid, Blue and White
-From the Arabs: Islamist Ra’am
What can be more shameful than this? Israeli Jews from all political walks of life turning shaprly left and joinng Arabs who refuse to recognize the Jewish State to oust the longest-serving Israeli prime minister whose accomplishments include, among other things:
*Sovereignty in the Golan Heights
*The American embassy in Jerusalem
*4 peace agreements with Muslim countries
*5 years of attacking the Iranians in Syria to keep them from closing in on Israel
*Israel credit rating inot damaged despite the coronavirus, economy rebounding
*Tens of billion dollars trade agreements with India and Brazil
*12 years, according to the security system, with the least number of terrorist attacks
*Gas out of the sea, with Israels going to provide 10 % of all Europe's gas consumption and put billions in the country's coffers
*Under Trump, made the United States get out of the scandalous nuclear agreement with Iran
*Brought vaccines to Israel before the whole world so that Israel is now basically corona free
*Waged multiple wars against Hamas with successful Iron Dome and IAF operations doing enormous damage - only stopped this time by Biden
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Yamina chairman Naftali Bennett has reportedly placed an ultimatum on party leader Ayelet Shaked, stipulating that she must finalize a deal for the formation of a right-wing government by 10 PM tonight or he will agree to form a government with Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid, Channel 12 News reported.
The report states that New Hope chairman Gideon Sa'ar has not responded to the offer made by the Likud on Friday for a rotation deal. Shaked's efforts are focusing on Sa'ar. If there are no dramatic changes, Bennett is expected to officially announce tonight his agreement to sit with Lapid.
Lapid is scheduled to announce tomorrow to President Reuven Rivlin that he has succeeded in forming a government.
Meanwhile, the division of portfolios based on the agreements and negotiations that have transpired over the past days has also been published. According to the publication, Bennett will serve as prime minister until September 2023, with Lapid taking over as head of state from until November 2025. Until then, Lapid will be the foreign minister and alternate prime minister.
Benny Gantz is expected to remain defense minister, Avigdor Liberman will be finance minister, Gideon Sa'ar will be justice minister, Ayelet Shaked will be interior minister, Labor chief Merav Michaeli will serve as transportation minister, Meretz' Nitzan Horowitz will be appointed health minister, Yifat Shasha-Bitton will be education minister, and Labor's Omer Bar-Lev will serve as public security minister.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
This Black Lady is fighting for her race rights but denies others race rights
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
It was almost Shabbat. I deserved a rest of some kind. We all do. But no. I sit down, open my home town version of Pravda—and see that there’s no respite, no letting go, still no even-handedness, still no context, no expertise.
Friday, May 28th, the front page, front and center, there are 66 photos of innocent, sweet, dead children’s faces, eight rows across and eight rows down all, in color. With one exception, they are all children who lived in Gaza. The photo-montage is titled “They Were Just Children.” Three brief sentences follow: “At least 67 people under age 18 in Gaza and 2 in Israel were killed during this month’s conflict, according to initial reports. They had wanted to be doctors, artists, and leaders. Read their stories, Pages A 10-11.” (One photo is missing).
Four of the male faces are described as being sixteen or seventeen years old. Many boys are between thirteen—sixteen years old. Three of the girls are wearing hijab and their ages range from 13-17. A Bedouin girl, age 17, is not pictured. Two photos display two faces. One child’s face is missing. Only one Israeli child, 5-year-old Ido Avigal of Sderot is mentioned.
The Times does not mention that Hamas rockets often fell short and killed their own civilian “human shields,” including a good number of these children, nor does it mention that Hamas trains children as young as five years old to hold and fire guns, throw rocks, carry daggers. Perhaps these photos depict the only children in Gaza who had no Hamas-style paramilitary training, no indoctrination into hatred.
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
Grabien founder Tom Elliott released a supercut Wednesday that showed a series of media personalities dismissing the possibility that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab.
The video began with a few clips of people — such as Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton and former President Donald Trump — suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 could have leaked from a Wuhan laboratory where bat coronaviruses were being studied.
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REPORTER: “Mr. President, what did you order?”
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) May 27, 2021
BIDEN: “Chocolate chocolate chip.”
pic.twitter.com/ofC1JhHD9F
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
The resolution, which passed 24-9, with 14 abstentions, creates an ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry, to be appointed by the President of the Human Rights Council, to investigate in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel all alleged violations of international humanitarian law and all alleged violations and abuses of international human rights law leading up to and since 13 April 2021, and all underlying root causes of recurrent tensions, instability and protraction of conflict, including systematic discrimination and repression based on national, ethnic, racial or religious identity.
It is the first such permanent commission of inquiry, the latest in the UNHRC’s obsession with Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the UNHRC’s decision, and the U.S. condemned it as well.
The UNHRC’s 47 member states include China, Cuba, Russia, and Venezuela. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the UNHRC over its anti-Israel focus. President Joe Biden decided to rejoin the UNHRC, and the U.S. is now an observer, pending election to membership.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield boasted to Al Sharpton’s National Action Network last month that “we immediately re-engaged with the Human Rights Council, and have announced our intention to seek election to that body, so that we can advance our most-cherished democratic values around the globe.”
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME
I don't know who this guy is but he is doing a great "Mimkomcha' that Chazzan Shia Weider z"l wrote!
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIME