“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
Saturday, January 7, 2023
New Israeli Government Will Stop Taking "crap" from the Palestinians
In some of its first acts since coming to power, Israel’s new Security Cabinet approved a series of punitive steps against the Palestinian leadership, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Friday.
According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the move is in retaliation for Palestinians pushing the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation.
The development underscores the hard-line approach to the Palestinians that Israel’s new ultranationalist government has promised at a time of rising violence in the occupied territories.
It comes a week after the United Nations General Assembly voted to approve a resolution requesting that the International Court of Justice intervene and render an opinion on the legality of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Israel’s Security Cabinet described the Palestinian Authority’s request to the U.N. as a “decision to wage political and legal war against the State of Israel.”
“The current government will not sit idly by in the face of this war and will respond as necessary,” it said.
Chilonim getting fed up with Chareidim carrying the Tax burden for them
The tone of the op-ed below may be problematic, but the underlying concern is real. The fact that Chareidim pay one-sixth the tax of other Israelis is, as you state, due to factors like Chareidim generally being lower income – but why is that the case? A large part of it is because Chareidim in general eschew secular and advanced education that could lead to more lucrative careers – a deliberate choice that causes other Israelis to make up for the “missing” tax receipts from Chareidim.
“Kabel es haEmes miMi Sheomro” – "accept the truth from whoever says it " is a Klal from Chazal. Just because you don’t like the messenger or the way the message is put does not mean that the message is false…
In yet another display of virulent anti-chareidi incitement, Israeli newspaper The Marker, which is affiliated with Haaretz, accused the entire chareidi community of treating Israel as an “all inclusive hotel vacation, in which room service and bell boys are secularists.”
The op-ed article queried how in infrastructure, finance and housing “a minority of the population, whose part in paying taxes and public duties is negligible, defines the economic path of Israel.”
The writer adds that 2022 “opened our eyes and everything became clear. It is the year that a civil war broke out – non- violent but unmistakable. It is here.”
Recently the Kalkalist newspaper published by Yediot Aharonot ran a similarly incendiary title,claiming that “secular people pay six times more taxes than chareidim”, a populist claim considering the fact that most chareidim are low-income large families in a low tax bracket while secularists have fewer children, live in more expensive environments and earn significantly more.
Chareidi journalist Yishai Cohen warned that the anti-chareidi media attacks could lead to verbal and physical abuse against chareidim. Such abuse indeed occurred on an Israeli train this week, as journalist Mordechai Halperin was greeted by a secularist stating: “Parasite, die, ask your G-d why you’re still alive, a guy like you should be under a tombstone, just get out of here.”
Friday, January 6, 2023
Senior Israeli Rabbinate Official Arrested For Molesting Chareidi Minor
David Malka |
Chanie |
A senior member of the Jerusalem Religious Council has been arrested on charges of molestation and sexual offenses against a young woman during the period when she was aged 13 to 17.
The senior official is 47-year-old David Malka, who was the director of the Kashrus department in the Jerusalem rabbinate at the time when the alleged crimes were committed and was the boss of the 13-year-old girl’s father.
The woman, who is now aged 27, came forward to complain because Israeli law says that the prescriptive period for sexual offenses against minors is 10 years from the age of 18 onwards, recognizing that not all minors realize the extent of the harm they have suffered. The woman, identified as Chani, wished to submit the complaints before the statute of limitations concluded.
Malka was a close friend of Chani’s family and the alleged crimes occurred at a number of locations including his home when Chani was babysitting for his children. She claimed that he had admitted his acts and even apologized a number of times.
After Malka was arrested, his remand was extended a number of times, while claiming that “many of the crimes committed years ago have passed the statute of limitations and therefore there is no reason to keep him in custody.
A final decision will be reached in the next few weeks.”
Chani was shocked by this decision and decided to go to the media. In a Ynet interview she spoke openly and said that “ I’m disappointed, hurt and insulted, I feel that the state slapped me in the face. I wish to thank police for their sensitive treatment of this case, they did all they could for me.”
Chani described the ordeal she had undergone from Malka:
“David was the best friend of my father from work. He, his wife and children would meet with my family on numerous occasions. One evening when I went with my father to eat at a restaurant, he couldn’t take me back and asked David to do so instead. I was at a rough time in my life, my parents had divorced. I told him how hard it was for me and he said: “I’ll be here for you, I’ll be like your psychologist.
“I was at the most fragile point in my life and he exploited it, told me to tell him about everything, said that ‘you don’t need a psychologist’
“After a few months of giving me emotional support which I so needed, he asked me to come to his office to take something for my father. It was late and the workers at the office had left. He wanted to hug me and do other things. On other occasions he asked that I should come so I could ‘talk’ but things got worse. There were times when he physically hurt me but I convinced myself that it would be over soon, I didn’t want to lose a listening ear and the emotional support that he was giving me.
“I would babysit his children and when I slept in their room he would molest me. I could’t fight him off,” she says regretfully. “He was my father’s boss, 20 years older than me. He was very charismatic and always knew how to say the right words.”
Chani later left the country but Malka still tracked her and attempted to control her life. It was only later, after she underwent therapy, that she realized she had been the victim of serious sexual offenses and exploitation.
Chani decided to meet with Malka and record his words in order to get a confession which she could use in her complaint. Malka indeed apologized for his behavior. “A person who goes and robs a bank can say that he needed money for drugs, food etc. but that doesn’t mean one can rob a bank. In your specific case, it shouldn’t have happened and I should have protected you from such actions,” Malka said on record. “It’s not that I’m trying to justify the actions. I’m embarrassed that I have reached this situation with you, with my friend [your father] and with myself. I ask you to accept these words from me.”
Chani spoke openly with the media. She knows that other women were attacked by Malka and hopes that they will also come forward. “I have nothing to be embarrassed about or to hide. I said the truth. I hope whoever was harmed by him will come to police and submit a complaint.”
Thursday, January 5, 2023
Manny Cohen 79 Brooklyn jeweler clinging to life after brutal beating by brazen thieves
An elderly Brooklyn jeweler was sent to the ICU after a pair of brazen thieves attacked him before robbing his store of six figures worth of merchandise — as his family on Wednesday decried criminals’ “golden ticket” to wreak havoc in New York City.
Manny Cohen, 79, was closing Roxy Jewelry Store on Flatbush Avenue around 5:30 p.m. Dec. 30 when two men forced their way inside and beat him within an inch of his life.
Speaking to The Post on Wednesday, Cohen’s son, Shawn, described the horror of finding out what had happened to his dad after he failed to return home for Friday night dinner.
“[My father] did not answer his phone calls, and that prompted me to check the cameras,” Shawn Cohen said.
“Once I scrolled back on the camera, I saw that he was being robbed … I saw that they were beating my father to death.”
Surveillance footage showed the sick thieves attempting to hide his dad’s body under the subfloor — before spending over 20 minutes stuffing their pockets full of jewelry, Cohen said.
The pair made off with more than $100,000 in merchandise, according to the NYPD, which released an image of the still-at-large suspects on Sunday.
Several days later, the elderly shopkeeper remains in the ICU with a severe brain injury, his son said. His prognosis is still unclear.
“They did everything with the intention to kill a 79-year-old,” Cohen said of the thieves.
He also shared that his dad — who has run Roxy Jewelry for 25 years — had to get staples in his head last month when someone threw a rock at him while he was helping a customer.
“From the description at the time, we believe it was the same people who did this second attack,” he said.
When asked if he was confident in law enforcement’s ability to apprehend the attackers, Cohen said be believed the perpetrators would be caught — but that he had “zero confidence” in the city’s ability to keep them off the streets.
“For anyone to do this, they have to feel confident enough and brave enough to make such an attack,” he told The Post.
“[Criminals] have a golden ticket [from the prosecutor’s office] to carry out these kind of attacks in New York City.”
Surveillance footage shows the thieves spent 20 minutes putting jewels in their pockets. |
‘Condemn violence on the Temple Mount, not people who come to pray’ .......Ben-Gvir Consulted With His "Daat Torah" Before Ascending!
Former MK Yehuda Glick discusses with ILTV the international uproar since Internal Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s ascent to the Temple Mount on Tuesday.
MK Limor Son Har-Melech from the Otzma Yehudit Party spoke to Israel National News on Wednesday and commented on the uproar following the visit of the chairman of her party, Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, to the Temple Mount.
"I am less bothered by the reactions in the world. It bothers me that people from among us stand up and appear as though they are giving a briefing to Hamas, cooperating with our enemies and telling them what needs to be done. It is unfathomable and that is the thing that bothers me the most personally," she said.
“After all, it is the most natural thing in the world for Jews to ascend to their holiest site, but someone instilled in us an awareness that it is dangerous. I believe that we are strong enough and that, with our true resilience, these things will happen and pass. This ascension is an expression of the people of Israel coming back to themselves and yesterday, the Tenth of Tevet, was the most appropriate day to remind our people what needs to be fixed. We need to hold onto this truth without apologizing," continued Son Har-Melech.
On the argument that going up to the Temple Mount goes against the halakha, she noted that Ben Gvir has "great rabbis and Torah scholars who know the halakha and they are the ones who ruled that he can go. He does not do things arbitrarily. He is committed to the halakha. Personally, I listen to the rulings of Rabbi Dov Lior, who says that women shouldn't enter the Temple Mount, therefore you won't see me go up like Itamar did."
She added that members of Knesset from the Likud and other parties congratulated her on the step taken by Ben Gvir and she did not hear any criticism from them. "There is a process taking place here and slowly people realize that there is no other option and we have to say clear things if we want to win this campaign."
"Our defense establishment is ready for all scenarios," stated Son Har-Melech, adding that Ben Gvir consulted with senior officials in the defense establishment before the Temple Mount visit and they all claimed that there was nothing standing his way. "We need to listen to the outcries from the world but also deal with them in a proportionate manner."
‘Genuine wind of change’: New diaspora minister halts funding to leftist NGO
Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of the Likud. |
The swearing-in on Thursday of Israel’s 37th government elicited a collective sigh of relief from right-wing voters, for whom the nearly two full months that it took Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to forge his coalition felt like an eternity. As soon as the ministers finished uttering their oaths of office, however, there was a sense on the part of supporters that the upshot of the arduous negotiations had been worth the wait.
With the team finally in place and ready to get to work, the shrill warnings by naysayers about the imminent demise of Israeli democracy were relegated to background noise. Ironically, while most of the hysteria surrounded the portfolios and plans of the “extremist” haredim and religious Zionists—and vow of the incoming crew to reform the judicial system—the first concrete action came from Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli of the Likud.
Chikli, who is also the minister of social equality, announced on Saturday that he was ordering the immediate halt to an agreement approved by his predecessor, Nachman Shai—shortly after the Nov. 1 Knesset elections—to provide millions of tax shekels to a left-wing organization promoting a program in the United States whose tracks include “leadership research in the fields of justice and gender equality.”
There will no longer be a situation whereby judges in Israel elect themselves in back rooms with no oversight
Justice Minister Yariv Levin |
Justice Minister Yariv Levin on Wednesday evening announced the government’s controversial plan to overhaul the legal system that would include exerting political control over Israel’s leftwing judiciary.
“As someone who grew up on Menachem Begin’s knees, I believe that there are judges in Jerusalem,” Levin said, referencing Israel’s first conservative prime minister from the late 1970s.
“But there is also a Knesset and a government in Jerusalem. The constitutional revolution of the judicial system has degraded trust in the system to a dangerous low, and damaged democracy and governance. People we did not elect decide for us. It is time to act,” said Levin.
Levin proposed four reforms: The first would see the Justice Minister electing two public representatives to the 9-member committee that elects the judges as well as establishing a public hearing for candidates.
“There will no longer be a situation whereby judges elect themselves in back rooms with no oversight,” he said.
Palestinian Authority’s official daily claims Israel deploys ‘spy cows’
Spy cows are the latest animals to join the lineup of Zoological conspiracy theories disseminated by Palestinians, with the Palestinian Authority’s official daily publishing an article about a man who encountered bovine “recruited and trained” by Israel and outfitted with surveillance equipment.
Israel has in the past been charged with deploying genetically engineered sharks into Egyptian waters, sending a species of poison-immune super rats to infest the Old City of Jerusalem’s Muslim quarter, and killer dolphins off Gaza’s shores to attack Hamas frogmen.
As recently as this week, Britain’s National Education Union (NEU) revived a boar-related conspiracy theory first popularized by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in 2014 when he insisted that “every night, [Israelis] release wild pigs against us.”
In fact, the phenomenon is so common there’s even an entire Wikipedia entry titled, “Israel-related animal conspiracy theories.”
In the article, published last Tuesday in the PA’s Al-Hayat Al-Jadida newspaper, Rushd Morrar, a village elder from Khirbet Yanun in Judea and Samaria, is quoted as saying that he had encountered the spy cows near his village.
“These are recruited and trained cattle, as on the neck of each cow they hang a medallion with an eavesdropping and recording device on it, and sometimes cameras, in order to monitor every detail in Khirbet Yanun large and small,” the newspaper cited Morrar as saying, according to a translation by monitoring group Palestinian Media Watch.
Morrar also claimed that “settlers release herds of wild boars” to destroy Palestinian crops, the newspaper said, as well as alleging that “the settlers’ crimes are diversifying and becoming sophisticated, and the means they employ in their war are unlimited.”
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Unless convicted, voters should decide George Santos' fate
Not surprisingly, Democrats have jumped on the revelation and are calling for his resignation. Should he fail to comply, Democrats believe Republicans should vote to expel him.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), the incoming vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, tweeted: "GOP Congressman-elect George Santos, who has now admitted his whopping lies, should resign. If he does not, then @GOPLeader should call for a vote to expel @Santos4Congress."
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) whose accomplishments include sleeping with a Chinese spy and compromising America's national security, is demanding that Santos be banned from taking the oath of office: "[Santos] confessed to defrauding the voters of Long Island and his ENTIRE resume."
94% of antisemitic attacks in NYC were against Orthodox Jews and were perpetrated by other minorities
A new report from Americans Against Antisemitism (AAA) found that Orthodox Jews in New York City were the most frequent targets of antisemitism, representing nearly 100 percent of reported cases between 2018 and 2022.
The report by AAA found that Orthodox Jews, and specifically Hasidic Jews, were the victims in 94 percent of the 194 antisemitic incidents recorded in New York City between 2018 and 2022.
The study also found that 77 percent of the antisemitic attacks occurred in neighborhoods with mainly Orthodox populations. Nearly 25 percent of the assailants were teenagers.
Jason Greenblatt: Why is US tolerating discrimination against Jews on Har Habyis?
Former White House Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt questioned US Ambassador to Israel's response to Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's visit to the Temple Mount on Tuesday in which the ambassador said that the Biden Administration condemns all actions which undermine the "status quo" on the Temple Mount.
"Like so many things about this conflict people say different things-“status quo”, “historical status quo”, “legal status quo” & people define these differently. The demands to maintain the so-called status is completely unhelpful & deepens the problem," Greenblatt wrote in a Twitter thread Wednesday.
He continued: "And if we want to use “historical status quo” let’s understand actual “history” and remember that Jews (of which I am a very proud one), had two Temples on the site and worshiped on this holy site for a very significant period of time, over the span of two Temple periods."
Greenblatt questioned why the current US administration endorses a policy which discriminates against Jews at the holiest site in Judaism. "In a world where people of good faith are attempting to fight against all sorts of discrimination (a good thing to be sure) why is the discrimination against Jews & Jewish prayer at the holiest site for Jews still demanded?"
"It never made sense to me that this wasn’t part of the “status quo.” That’s why in the peace plan we released it called for all religions to be allowed to pray at this site, which is holy to countless people around the world, and to end the discrimination against Jews at this site. To demand otherwise is completely dishonest. Let’s end the discrimination, once & for all," he said.
Greenblatt was responding to statements by Ambassador Nides to Axios reporter Barak Ravid shortly after Ben-Gvir’s visit, in which Nides protested any perceived changes to the status quo on the Temple Mount.
“To be very clear - we want to preserve status quo and actions that prevent that are unacceptable. We have been very clear in our conversations with the Israeli government on this issue,” Nides said.
Yated Neeman that supported Chaim Walder Calls Ben-Gvir’s Temple Mount ‘Unnecessary Provocation’
The Yated Neeman newspaper, that employed the late sexual pervert Chaim Walder, and then supported him when the crap hit the fan, issued a scathing criticism of National Security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after he ascended the Har Habayis Tuesday morning.
The newspaper charged Ben-Gvir with causing a provocation which could lead to the murder of Jews by bloodthirsty Arabs.
This newspaper that doesn't recognize the State of Israel, the only Jewish country in the world, and is against the IDF, has the sheer chutzpah to tell us, that it is a provocation for a Jew in a Jewish country, to go up to the Har Habayis.
Mrs. Yated, .......Arabs don't need excuses to kill Jews!
In 1929, when the Arabs went on a pogrom and raped, murdered Jews in Chevron the Chareidie extremists wrote that this was because a Jew blew the Shofar at the Kotel and claimed and still claim, the Arab propaganda lie, that Jews and Arabs lived in peace before then. It has since been proven time and again, that this pogrom was planned months before the incident at the Kotel. This lie is repeated by Satmar on a weekly basis in their Yiddish weeklies, Der Goy and Der Shturmer.
Ben-Gvir in a tweet answered them:
“Yated Neeman is against a state for the Jewish people and against secular people living here. Do you support that as well?”
Lakewood Roshei Yeshiva Want to keep the Frummies in the Stone Age Release Letter Opposing New Frum Streaming Platform
A letter has been issued by Lakewood’s leading Mechanchim and Menahelim, opposing a new online video device and platform, which has branded itself a viable option for frum families who are looking for kosher content.
The chinuch leaders, who represent a range of yeshivas, discourage people from using the “24Six” streaming platform and media playing devices, and say that without Rabbinic guidance “we are opening up an anarchist approach” toward what is acceptable. The letter was signed by the BMG Roshei Yeshiva as well.
24Six allows listeners to hear only pre-approved music and content from Jewish singers and entertainers. Its website says, “Have your values. And your music too. 24Six is the only vetted media streaming platform for Jewish families worldwide – with features that give you control.”
The letter, which does not call for an outright ban, points to several concerns, including “exposure to music and videos with content that often runs contrary to the values and ruach with which we bring up our children.”
It adds that the platform is “detrimental to healthy spiritual and emotional growth, as by nature it is a device that promotes constant distractions and an overdose of entertainment.”
The sharply-worded text says that a device which can download from the internet should “never be considered safe in the hands of a child” and that without the guidance of Daas Torah “we are opening up an anarchist approach towards what is or isn’t acceptable in KlalYisroel.”
The text notes that “there is no written Daas Torah backing” the assertion that the platform is a “completely kosher entertainment option.”
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
DemonRat lawmaker calls Israeli government a 'terrorist regime'
Face of Evil |
A Massachusetts state lawmaker accused Israel of committing genocide and maintaining an apartheid regime.
Jamie Zahlaway Belsito, a Democrat representing Massachusetts’ 4th Essex district in the state’s House of Representatives, tweeted last Friday that the Biden administration should condemn Israel's new government as a “terrorist regime” dedicated to killing Palestinian Arabs.
“The US must acknowledge that the Israel administration is an apartheid run thuggery terrorist regime on a mission to kill Palestinians. Killing and land taking has nothing to do with anti-semitism. It is genocide.”
A day earlier, Belsito retweeted a post by Arab American Institute founder and frequent Israel-critic James Zogby, who blasted Israel’s new Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the basic lines of the new government.
“This is Netanyahu saying what his gov’t will do,” Zogby tweeted. “He crosses every red line of US declared policy.”
“Question: Will we do anything? Answer: Most likely we won’t. Instead White House & Congress will come up w/ lame excuses to delay taking action, as Netanyahu continues on his way.”
In another tweet earlier in December, Belsito lauded the Jordanian film Farha, which portrayed Israeli soldiers during the 1948 War of Independence as genocidal murderers.
“My family sat together to watch this film. The United States has ZERO understanding of what the Nakba is. The truth cannot be silenced. 1948 European British Zionists created a hell on earth. This movie is about visceral hate, ethnic cleansing, terrorism and apartheid. Farha.”