Ellen Greenberg was stabbed 20 times but Medical Examiner Ruled it was a "suicide"?

 

The parents of a Pennsylvania woman who died of 20 stab wounds are taking the medical examiner’s office to court for declaring her death a suicide.

Ellen Greenberg’s parents have been granted a non-jury trial in their lawsuit against the coroner’s office over her January 2011 death in her Philadelphia apartment, CBS Philly reported.

“We look forward to the trial in hopes of obtaining justice for Ellen,” Sandra Greenberg, Ellen’s mother, told the outlet.

On the day of her death, Ellen, 27, had returned home to her apartment early from her first-grade teaching job on account of a snowstorm.

She was later discovered dead on the kitchen floor by her fiance, Sam Goldberg, when he returned home from the gym.

She had suffered stabbing wounds to her chest, neck, head and torso, police said.

Police initially suspected her death was a suicide, noting the lack of forced entry, defensive wounds or DNA on her body that wasn’t hers, the Washington Post reported.

Medical examiner Marlon Osbourne, however, determined her death to be a homicide before reversing course and amending the ruling to suicide more than a month later, according to the lawsuit.

“It makes no sense,” the Greenbergs’ attorney, Joseph Podraza, told the newspaper.

Greenberg’s family hired a team of experts in the aftermath of her death who pointed out that a knife in her apartment was overturned, possibly suggesting that she had been involved in a struggle, and a gash on the back of her head may have rendered her unconscious and unable to defend herself, the newspaper reported.

Her family has also questioned why she filled up her gas tank before coming home and didn’t leave a note indicating that she planned to take her own life.

Podraza said the family is taking action now to get to the bottom of her death.

“They want to know what happened to their daughter,” he told the newspaper.

An attorney for the city argued that the medical examiner’s office came to its conclusions based on years of experience — and noted that the death certificate does not prevent local authorities from probing her death as a homicide.

“The medical examiner’s determination is binding on no one. … If a prosecuting authority were convinced that Ellen Greenberg was murdered, there is no statute of limitations on homicide and they could pursue it,” the city argued in court filings, the paper reported.

Zera Shimshon Parshas Chaya Sara

 

"Greedy" Afghanistan's last Jew stuck in limbo in Turkish hotel room

 

Afghanistan’s last Jew Zebulon Simentov, who was rescued in a humanitarian mission from the country last month after the Taliban took over Kabul, is staying put in an Istanbul hotel for now instead of joining relatives in Israel.

According to a report in the Jewish Chronicle, Simentov told Israeli businessman and humanitarian Moti Kahana, who had helped him leave Afghanistan and was rumored to be arranging for the 62-year old to immigrate to New York City, that he would not move to Israel unless he was paid $10 million and given money to buy a winter coat.

Otherwise, he was prepared to go back to Afghanistan. One of the reasons he cited was that he has “lost a lot of money” by leaving Afghanistan.

In late September, it was reported that Simentov was preparing to move to New York and that he was excited about the prospects of landing in America.

"I like everything in New York. Everything is exciting. I would like to be a U.S. citizen,” he told the New York Post.

In previous statements, Simentov had said he would not move to Israel because he would not grant his wife, who has lived there since 1998 with his daughters, a divorce. Recently, though, he granted his wife a divorce over Zoom.

Simentov has family in Israel, including a brother and sister. Reportedly, he is still intent on moving to New York, where he has an uncle.

His immigration to New York is far from assured, with Kahana recently stating that “Zebulon is a long way down the priorities list for getting into America, behind people who worked for the US in Afghanistan, or who hold green cards. I told him it could take six months to two years, and that it would be much easier for him to go to Israel. He refused and said he would prefer to return to Kabul rather than go to Israel – but I do not know why.”

Kahana asked Simentov’s brother and sister to fly at her expense to Turkey to convince their brother to move to Israel, but they were unwilling.

Simentov reportedly believes that he was tricked into leaving Kabul with assurances that he would go to the United States.

When he was informed that his U.S. immigration was not possible at present, he asked for $10 million and said he was going to stay in Turkey for the next three months.

“I’m not a babysitter. I can’t go on funding and supporting Zebulon in Istanbul for an unlimited time, and I told him I won’t take him back to Kabul," Kahana replied, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

Simentov moved out of a Sheraton Hotel room and into cheaper accommodations earlier in the week.

Kahana paid for the new room for one month but said after that he would not pay any further.

He also said he thought that Simentov would stay permanently in Turkey.

Going bananas: Turkey deports Syrians who shared images of them eating bananas

 

Turkey is deporting at least seven Syrians for “provocatively” eating bananas in images shared on social media, Bloomberg reports.

The alleged “provocation” came after a Turkish citizen complained that he can’t afford bananas while refugees can.

“You’re living more comfortably. I can’t eat banana, you are buying kilograms of banana,” said a Turkish man as he chided a female Syrian student in an October 17 video taken in Istanbul.

A Turkish woman then joined in, accusing the Syrians of enjoying lavish lifestyles in Turkey rather than going back home to fight, dismissing the student’s explanation that she has nowhere to return to.

Following the incident, a trend on social media began in which Syrian refugees posted photos and videos of themselves eating bananas in a move intended on mocking the Turkish citizen's complaint.

“Seven foreign nationals have been rounded up in a probe over the provocative social media posts and they will be processed for deportation,” Turkey’s migration authority said in a statement quoted by Bloomberg.

Some four million Syrians who fled their country’s civil war have for the most part lived peacefully side by side with Turks for several years. The government, however, is trying to contain an anti-immigrant sentiment that has been rising nationwide.

Mesachtes Zoom

 

Hunter Biden’s Paintings Sell for More Than Picasso’s

 

Hunter Biden, the newest artist on the block, is already seeing his paintings sell more than some of Pablo Picasso’s works – an artist that’s a household name and actually produced decent art.

While he doesn’t have much experience, Hunter does bear the Biden surname, which is itself enough to make his scribblings worth tens to hundreds of thousands.

Some of Hunter Biden’s paintings are more expensive than Pablo Picasso’s, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine reported.

“You can buy a Picasso, a signed Picasso, for $400,000, which is cheaper than Hunter Biden’s $500,000 paintings,” she said. “So I think possibly that the people who are paying insane prices for Hunter Biden paintings are not really doing it for the art.”

Devine told Tucker Carlson she was turned away from Biden’s Soho art show for not having an appointment despite her email to make one with gallery owner Georges Berges going unanswered. After being denied entry, she “went across the road” to the Martin Lawrence Galleries where she discovered paintings by Roy Lichtenstein and Picasso, the latter of whose work she found to be less costly than Biden’s.

This comes after the White House has effectively expressed zero concern over Hunter’s shady art sales, with Psaki freely admitting to reporters that she has no idea who is buying his paintings – but did add that Joe Biden is “proud of his son.” Only one person on the left seems to have publicly condemned the sales, Obama’s former ethics czar Walter Shaub.

Of course, we can all imagine the reaction we’d see if Donald Trump Jr. suddenly took up painting and began selling his works for top dollar. Fortunately for Hunter, he’s on the same team as the media and the rest of the establishment.

New York pulls $111M in pension funds from Ben & Jerry

 New York state’s mammoth pension fund is pulling $111 million in investments out of the firm that owns Ben & Jerry’s because of the ice cream maker’s boycott of Israel’s occupied territories, The Post has learned.

State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli —  the sole manager of the $263 billion state Common Retirement Fund — said Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the disputed Israeli-Palestinian territories in July violated his office’s policy against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction of Israel. 

As a result, the comptroller is yanking $111 million in equity investments from Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company. 

“After a thorough review, the New York State Common Retirement Fund will divest its equity holdings in Unilever PLC. Our review of the activities of the company, and its subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s, found they engaged in BDS activities under our pension fund’s policy,” DiNapoli said in a statement to The Post.

The state comptroller’s policy established in June 2016 said BDS activities are intended to inflict economic harm against Israel and as a result, state pension fund’s investments in the Jewish State. The state pension fund — the nation’s third-largest — invests more than $800 million in retirement funds in Israel.

The policy put companies involved in BDS activities against Israel on notice that the state would yank its pension investments.

“We will be divesting those investments. Ben & Jerry’s engaged in BDS activities,” said a spokesman for DiNapoli.

Allies of Israel applauded DiNapoli for standing up for the Jewish State.

“This is wonderful news. God bless Tom DiNapoli,” said former Brooklyn state Assemblyman Dov Hikind  

“BDS equals anti-semitism and Comptroller DiNapoli  stood up against hate.”

Hikind and DiNapoli served together for years in the state Assembly and the comptroller personally called Hikind Thursday night to inform him of his action against Unilever/Ben & Jerry’s.

Dinapoli’s director of corporate governance, Liz Gordon, sent a warning notice to Unilever CEO Alan Jope that its subsidiary firm Ben & Jerry was engaging in a BDS action against Israel.

JOPE gave a circular response on August 4 defending Ben & Jerry’s actions, saying it doesn’t intervene in actions taken by the “independent” boards or the “social mission” of its brands.

“Unilever has a strong and longstanding commitment to our business in Israel. We employ nearly 2,000 people in the country across our four factories and head office, and we have invested approximately $250 million in the Israeli market over the last decade,” Jope said in a letter to Gorzon.

The Unilever boss added, “On this decision, it was no different. Ben & Jerry’s has also made it clear that although the brand will not be present in the West Bank from 2023, it will remain in Israel through a different business arrangement.”

Last month, the state of New Jersey started divesting $182 million invested in Unilever stock, bonds and other securities over Ben & Jerry’s boycott of Israel — joining other anti-BDS states including Arizona and Texas.

On July 19, Ben and Jerry’s announced that it would stop selling ice cream to Occupied Palestinian Territory [OPT] saying “it is inconsistent with our values” to conduct business there.

Ben and Jerry’s Jewish cofounders Bennett Cohen and Jerry Greenfield — who sold their namesake company to Unilever in 2000 — defended the company’s decision to end sales in the region in a New York Times editorial in July, writing that Israel was one of the first countries that the company had expanded to internationally as it grew.

The founders, who called themselves “proud Jews” said that it is “possible to support Israel and oppose some of its policies” just as they’ve “opposed policies in the US government.” 

Additional reporting by Patrick Reilly

Cuomo Will arrested as he charged over alleged groping of former aide

 

Disgraced ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo was charged Thursday with groping a former aide in Albany’s Executive Mansion — a crime that could send him to jail for a year if he’s convicted.

A misdemeanor criminal complaint filed in Albany City Court alleges that Cuomo, 63, “did intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, forcibly place his hand under the blouse shirt of the victim…and onto her intimate body part.”

“Specifically, the victims [sic] left breast for the purposes of degrading and satisfying his sexual desire,” it adds.

The incident allegedly took place on the afternoon of Dec. 7 on the second floor of the Executive Mansion, the governor’s official residence.

The name of the alleged victim was redacted from the complaint but a lawyer representing former Cuomo aide Brittany Commisso, 33, acknowledged it’s her.  

The complaint charges Cuomo with forcible touching, which carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail.

Nazi 'secretary of evil', 96, was informed 'down to the last detail' of every murder method used at Stutthof concentration camp,

 

A 96-year-old former Nazi concentration camp secretary was allegedly informed 'down to the last detail' of every murder method used at the Stutthof camp, a court has heard.  

Irmgard Furchner, who has been dubbed the 'secretary of evil', was wheeled into the courtroom by guards with a facemask and large sunglasses covering her face and a pink beret over her white hair on Tuesday.

She is standing trial for complicity in the murder of more than 10,000 people at Stutthof camp in Nazi-occupied Poland between 1943 and 1945, a charge which she denies.

Furchner was just 18 when she started work at the camp on the Baltic coast, and is the first woman to stand trial in decades over crimes connected to the Third Reich.

She had knowledge of all of the horrific events at the camp due to her work for the commandment of the camp and was informed 'down to the last detail' about the murder methods practised there, prosecutor Maxi Wantzen told the court in the northern town of Itzehoe.

He added that through her work as the camp secretary, she ensured 'the smooth functioning of the camp', reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper.

On Tuesday, Furchner was seen holding a black and white cane as she sat in her wheelchair wearing a pink coat, scarf and beret. 

An arrest warrant was issued after Furchner fled her retirement home on September 30 and headed to a metro station as her trial was set to begin in the northern town of Itzehoe. 

The pensioner managed to evade police for several hours before being apprehended in the nearby city of Hamburg and temporarily held in custody by authorities.

Furchner was released five days later 'under the condition of precautionary measures', said court spokeswoman Frederike Milhoffer, adding that it was 'assured that she (Furchner) will appear at the next appointment'.

According to media reports, the accused has been fitted with an electronic tag to monitor her whereabouts.

Last week, the court heard how SS men in white medical uniforms would pretend to be doctors who were simply measuring prisoners' height.

But instead, the prisoner's height was used as the setting for a specially engineered 'neck shot' device.

Around 30 prisoners were then shot in the neck within a two-hour period.

In other cases, prisoners were forced into chambers which were filled with poisonous Zyklon B gas.

Here prisoners screamed in agony, scratched at their skin until it was red raw, and even pulled their own hair out.

Furchner, born Irmgard Dirksen on May 19, 1925, worked as secretary for the concentration camp commandant Paul Werner Hoppe.

As she was only 18 at the time, she is being tried in a juvenile court, even though she is almost a hundred years old.

The prosecution claimed that her work as a secretary assisted the wider 'killing apparatus' of the concentration camp.

The prosecutor described how on July 22, 1944, SS Obersturmbahnführer Paul Maurer gave orders that a group of prisoners at Stutthof be transported to Auschwitz for extermination.

Four days later, a list of prisoners to be transferred was written at the commandant's office at Stutthof.

At 6.05pm, commandant Hoppe, then gave confirmation by radio that the transport was en

 route.

Nazi commandant Paul Werner Hoppe

The prosecution then claimed that this message must have been written by Furchner.

Furchner's lawyer, Wolfgang Molkentin, told the court in a statement that his client denies that she is 'personally guilty of a crime'. 

He said: 'Irmgard Furchner does not deny the crimes of the Shoah [Holocaust].  

What a Nut Case ....Iran man gets jail, lashes for stealing cashews

 

An Iranian court sentenced a man to 10 months in prison and 40 lashes for stealing three packs of cashews, Fars news agency reported Monday.

The conservative news agency described the verdict as surprising and pointed to the “disproportion between the sentence and the crime committed.”

It called on the judiciary to “explain or correct” the ruling against the 45-year-old father of three.

The judiciary’s Mizan Online agency announced the formation of a “special commission” in Qom province to study the issue of the “proportionality of the offense.”

It did not specify where the trial took place.

The commission “will try to use all legal abilities to reduce the sentence,” Mizan Online said.

It added that the offender had “been sentenced to one year in prison for theft in 2019, but his sentence had been suspended due to the return of the stolen goods.”

The latest ruling drew ridicule on social media, with many drawing a comparison with the classic Victor Hugo novel “Les Miserables.”

“Nearly 160 years after the publication of Les Miserables… the Jean Valjeans continue to be condemned,” one user wrote, referring to the ex-convict depicted in the book.

Fars explained that the sentence was final because it was not appealed. It did not disclose the name or location of the convicted man.

Sex offender Berland begins fraud sentence as followers mass outside jail

 

Berland at his Bar Mitzva

Berland now still wearing his tefillin

Convicted sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland entered prison on Thursday to serve out a fresh sentence for fraud, after he swindled his sick and elderly followers out of millions of shekels.

Around a thousand of his supporters gathered outside the prison from Wednesday evening to protest his conviction.

Berland and his extremist Shuvu Bonim sect returned to the spotlight this month with a number of arrests in connection with the suspected murder of a teenage boy and the unsolved murder of a man in the 1980s and 1990

Berland started his jail term on Thursday after he was convicted of fraud in June, in a plea deal that saw him sentenced to 18 months. The sentence will include time already served as Berland spent a year in jail before being released to house arrest in February of this year.

Berland was arrested in February 2020, after hundreds of people filed police complaints saying that he had sold prayers and pills to desperate members of his community, promised families of individuals with disabilities that their loved ones would be able to walk, and told families of convicted felons that their relatives would be freed from prison.

In the arrest raid, dozens of boxes of powders and pills were found at Berland’s home that were given to supplicants as “wonder drugs.” Laboratory checks revealed them to be over-the-counter pain medication and candy, including Mentos.

At the time of his sentencing, the judge ruled that Berland’s offenses were “committed systematically and out of greed, taking advantage of the complainants at their most difficult time during periods of crisis.”

Berland’s supporters gathered outside the Nitzan Prison in Ramle on Wednesday evening, where they held a protest and all-night study and prayer session, surrounded by heavy police presence.

The supporters will additionally set up a protest tent near the jail, while Berland’s lawyers have said they will request that he be quickly released for good behavior and cooperation, the Walla news site reported.

Berland is starting his sentence as police make apparent progress in the investigation into the suspected murder of a teenage boy and the unsolved murder of a man connected to his sect, with the arrest of eight suspects, reportedly including the son of a former senior cabinet minister.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, law enforcement are probing whether Berland was personally involved in the disappearance and suspected murder of 17-year-old Nissim Shitrit and the murder of 41-year-old Avi Edri.

Shitrit was allegedly beaten by the sect’s “religious police” four months before he was last seen in January 1986. In a documentary released by Kan in 2020, one of Berland’s former disciples said that the religious police murdered the boy, dismembered him and buried his body in Eshtaol Forest near Beit Shemesh. His remains were never found and the case was never solved.

The second murder reportedly connected to the arrested suspects was of Edri, who was found beaten to death in Ramot Forest in the north of Jerusalem in 1990. Kan reported that Edri’s murder was tied to Shuvu Bonim by former disciples. It too has remained unsolved for over 30 years.

Nissim Shitrit (L) and Avi Edri in undated photos (Courtesy)

The cult-like Shuvu Bonim offshoot of the Bratslav Hasidic sect has had repeated run-ins with the law, including attacking witnesses.

Satmar Rebbe, R' Aaron Refuses a guy that wants to give him a hitch

 

The Priest Of Jaffa a Jews Dies, Buried In Izbica Mass Grave Where His Parents Were Murdered in the Holocaust

  A tragic holocaust story reached its bitter end this week after 80 years. The Bishop of Jaffa, who was born to a Jewish family from Zamosc and miraculously survived the holocaust by hiding with gentiles, died and was flown to be buried in the mass grave where his parents perished.

'I wish Hitler were still here murdering your children!' Shocking anti-Semitic rant is captured on doorbell camera in Flatbush

 

A man in Brooklyn was captured on camera going on an aggressive anti-Semitic rant as a woman walked down the street. 

Ring surveillance footage recorded the unidentified man in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn yelling hateful profanities at a woman: 'Jewish b***h, the f**k outta here, the f**k outta here, you f**king Jewish b***h.'

He continues: 'That's why I wish Hitler was still here, murder your children, you and your husband.' 

The camera is set above two doors semi-enclosed behind a staircase. The aggressive man is seen standing on the sidewalk in broad daylight. 

The family, who is off camera, seems to catch his eye as he turns around and begins berating them.  

Another person is seen sitting on the stairs not reacting as the man goes on his threatening rant. 

The disturbing video was tweeted by NY Scanner, an account that post crowd sourced videos of crime and other wild scenes from around New York City. 

Hate crimes in New York City have sky rocketed in the past year. In 2020, NYPD reported 209 hate crimes through September. This year the police department recorded 424 hate crimes in the same time period equating to an increase of 103%. 

The Jewish population in the city has seen hate crimes against their community spike 50%. Last year, NYPD recorded 98 hate crimes against Jewish people through September while they reported 147 hate crimes against Jews in 2021 for the same time period. 

Overall crime in New York City increased by 2.6% in September 2021, compared with September 2020. While, crime year-to-date decreased by 0.2% compared to 2020. 

Republican senators introduce bill to block reopening of Jerusalem consulate

 

A group of 35 Republican senators has introduced a bill to block the Biden administration from reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem.

The “Upholding the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Law Act of 2021” proposal, spearheaded by Senators Bill Cassidy, (Republican-Lousiana) and Bill Hagerty (Republican-Tennessee), aims to prevent the US administration from relaunching the de facto mission to the Palestinians in Israel’s capital.

With Republicans lacking a majority in both houses of Congress and with no Democrat likely to back legislation aimed at thwarting a key Biden administration policy initiative, the GOP bill has virtually no chance of passing.

The consulate was shuttered by former US president Trump in 2019 and its staff were folded into the US embassy, moved to the city a year earlier, in what the Palestinians view as a downgrading of their ties with the US.

US officials maintain that reopening the consulate is simply a return to the pre-Trump status quo and part of Biden’s pledge to renew relations with the Palestinians that were severed during the previous administration. Moreover, they point out that nearly a dozen other countries already operate consulates in Jerusalem that serve the Palestinians.

However, Israel is opposed to the Biden administration’s plan to reopen the consulate, viewing it as an encroachment of their sovereignty in the city and one that will lead to a flood of other countries moving to open diplomatic offices in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinians.

“President Biden continues to push forward his inflammatory plan to establish a second mission in Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem—one for the Israelis and a second one for the Palestinians—despite the fact that this plan violates the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and is completely opposed by the Government of Israel,” said Hagerty in a Tuesday statement introducing the bill.

“The Jewish State of Israel is one of our greatest allies. The Biden administration must not threaten this relationship with a plan that is in clear conflict with US law, which states Jerusalem should not be divided,” Cassidy said in his own statement.

Osem launches vegan tuna in Israel

 Osem-Nestlé launched a new plant-based tuna fish, or vuna, last week. The vegan-friendly product will be manufactured and sold in Israel, and there are plans to sell it to the global market down the line.

Made from plant-based protein, including protein from soy beans and peas, vuna has a similar consistency and taste to the real deal.

In the initial stage, vuna will be marketed to restaurants, cafes, and other food establishments in Israel before being offered to private consumers.

The tuna market in Israel is estimated to be worth around 700 million shekels (around $219,000). Around 1 million servings of tuna are ordered at restaurants across the country every year. The most popular tuna dish in Israel is tuna salad.

According to Osem-Nestle, 44% of Americans, 65% of Europeans, 42% of Chinese, and 30% of Israelis say they try to eat less meat, chicken, and fish to either save their planet, improve their health, or over concerns for animal welfare

"Thank you, God, for helping me get out of hell'

 

Dozens of notes of Holocaust survivors living in the United States were placed this week at the Kotel Wall in Jerusalem through an initiative by the World Zionist Organization and Holocaust Heroes Worldwide.

A special ceremony was held at the sacred site that survivors watched from home via Zoom. The event was attended, among others, by Tova Dorfman, vice chairman and head of the WZO's Department for Israel and the Commemoration of the Holocaust Worldwide, and Moran Alfasi, founder and executive director of Holocaust Heroes Worldwide.

The notes were collected over the past year and a half from Holocaust survivors living in Florida. Most of the survivors have never visited Israel and many have not traveled to the Jewish state in almost two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the survivors, leaving a note in the walls of the Western Wall, was a "dream come true."

"I hope the memory of the Holocaust will prevail long after we are gone," one survivor wrote in his note. "May there be world peace and peace for the Jewish people, and may future generations keep their eyes open to what is happening to make sure that something like this never happens to any other person or people."

Another survivor wrote,"Thank you, God, for helping me get out from hell alive to see the birth of our country Israel."

After the ceremony, Dorfman said, "It is a privilege to help Holocaust survivors in the Diaspora place notes and wishes at the Western Wall and share this experience with them.

"Next year will mark 80 years since the Nazis' Final Solution to annihilate the Jewish people, and when the last living Holocaust survivors among us get a chance to pray, from near or afar, in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish state, it is a message of victory."

Gas Stations Across Iran disrupted ..... Blame Israel

 

Gas stations across Iran on Tuesday suffered through a widespread outage of a government system governing fuel subsidies, stopping sales in an incident that one semi-official news agency referred to as a cyberattack.

Gholam Reza Jalali, the commander of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, accused Israel of carrying out the attack.

"The Zionists are behind the severe disruptions" to the country's gas stations. On Monday, Jalali said Israel was incapable of significantly harming Iran.

An Iranian state television account online shared images of long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran. An Associated Press journalist also saw lines of cars at a Tehran gas station, with the pumps off and the station closed.

State TV did not explain what the issue was but said Oil Ministry officials were holding an "emergency meeting" to solve the technical problem.

The semi-official ISNA news agency, which called the incident a cyberattack, said it saw those trying to buy fuel with a government-issued card through the machines instead receive a message reading "cyberattack 64411," which is reportedly the digits comprising the phone number for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Most Iranians rely on those subsidies to fuel their vehicles, particularly amid the country's economic problems.

While ISNA didn't acknowledge the number's significance, that number is associated to a hotline run through the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that handles questions about Islamic law. ISNA later removed its reports.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the outage. However, the use of the number "64411" mirrored an attack in July targeting Iran's railroad system that also saw the number displayed. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point later attributed the train attack to a group of hackers that called themselves Indra, after the Hindu god of war.

Indra previously targeted firms in Syria, where President Bashar Assad has held onto power through Iran's intervention in his country's grinding war.

Iran has faced a series of cyberattacks, including one that leaked video of abuses its notorious Evin prison in August.

The country disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus – widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation – disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country's nuclear sites in the late 2000s.

Sticking their thumbs into Israel's Eyes ..EU official meets with groups designated by Israel as terrorist entities

 

Officials from the Office of the European Union Representative met Tuesday with members of the six Palestinian groups that Israel had designated as terrorist organizations.

The move was announced last week by Defense Minister Benny Gantz following an investigation that, according to Israeli officials, proves that the groups, which are ostensibly designed to promote human rights or operate as civil society organizations, are in fact linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP is a terrorist group designated, among others, by Israel, the United States, and the EU.

Posting through its special "EU and Palestinians" Twitter handle after the meeting, the EU representative's office said it took the matter seriously and asked Israel for an explanation as to why it decided to outlaw the groups.

It also tweeted that "past allegations of the misuse of EU funds by certain Palestinian CSO [civil society organizations] partners have not been substantiated."

US steps up pressure over settlements...Strongly Opposes Jews Building in Their Own Land

 

What a chutzpah!

In what was the Biden administration's harshest public criticism of Israeli settlement policy to date, the State Department on Tuesday said it strongly opposed Israel's plans for additional construction by Israel in Judea and Samaria, saying it was damaging for peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians.

"We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units tomorrow, Wednesday, many of them deep in the West Bank," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing.

"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution," Price said.

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

Israel on Sunday published tenders for about 1,300 new settlement homes beyond the Green Line and authorities are also expected to discuss proposals for another 3,000 homes.

Washington was continuing to raise its views on the issue directly with senior Israeli officials, Price said. He also said that Israel's plans to retroactively "illegal outposts" was "unacceptable."

Since President Joe Biden took office in January, US officials have emphasized that they oppose further expansion of Jewish settlements.

A senior Biden administration official said earlier this month that Israel was aware of the administration's view of the need to refrain from actions that could be seen as "provocative" and undermine efforts to achieve a long-elusive two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Former Trump administration Mideast envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt issued on Wednesday a strong rebuke of the administration's reaction to the Israeli construction. Greenblatt, who was one of the main architects of President Donald Trump's peace plan and visited the region frequently during his years in the White House, took to Twitter, writing: "Mistake on Biden Administration's part. So-called "settlements"-really neighborhoods/towns/cities-aren't [the] reason there's no peace. US should: stop using this as an excuse for why there's no peace; stop comparing Israel & PA actions-they're not the same. Also-nothing about Hamas??"

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had until Sunday mostly held off announcing new settlement construction since taking office in June, as he sought to ease tensions with Washington.