US probing voter fraud accusations at Developers Yosef Horowitz & Wigdor Mendlovic in Fleischmanns in Catskills

 

Wigdor Mendlovic owns the Palace hotel along with 16 other properties in Fleischmanns.

A tiny Catskills resort town is playing host to a federal probe over voter fraud accusations — even as locals head to the polls next week, The Post has learned.

Residents of Fleischmanns — a century-old “Borscht Belt” village located at the foot of the Belleayre ski resort — claim that a pair of deep-pocketed property moguls have recruited seasonal renters to stuff the ballot box so they can get favorable treatment for their development plans, as The Post previously reported.

Following repeated voter fraud disputes in Delaware County during the past two years, the local sheriff once again is investigating 76 voter registration cards — a big number given the small size of the expected tally — that were submitted during the past month, sources said.

The voter cards in question — on which registrants listed local motels and seasonal vacation homes as their permanent residences — are being challenged at the county board of elections by Fleischmanns resident Todd Pascarella, who is running for a town trustee seat in next week’s election.

“I don’t know where these people really live,” Pascarella told The Post.

“But we have signed affidavits from the owners of two motels attesting to the fact that the addresses [that the voters provided] are not residential properties.”

Like last year, a large number of new voters said they lived at the Valkyrian Motel or the Delaware Court Motel on Main Street in Fleischmanns, which is named for the Fleischmann family that built the baking yeast empire.

Others listed six modest homes that are owned by a religious “schul” representing the Hasidic community that vacations in Fleischmanns during the summer.

Dershowitz:"the only reason there are protests in the streets is because the reforms were brought up by this government"

 

Many expected major disagreements between legal experts Alan Dershowitz and Eugene Kontorovitch in their debate on judicial reform, but in the end, it turns out they both agree on the major points of the reform, though each perceive the Israeli Supreme Court through very different prisms. Dershowitz puts on his rose-colored glasses when he talks about the Israeli Supreme Court and the Attorney General.

Alan Dershowitz raises the most important point at the beginning of the discussion, the only reason there are protests in the streets is because the reforms were brought up by this government. If these same reforms had been brought up by any other Israeli government (which discussed them in the past), no one would care. He said the protests against judicial reform is a surrogate for “we don’t like Netanyahu, Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.” He criticized American Jews for even getting involved.

In fact, Dershowitz said most people protesting the reforms have no idea what they are even protesting against.

Dershowitz points out the worst thing these reforms will do is make Israel into a democracy like Canada, New Zealand, or Australia.

Dershowitz argues that the debates would make Israel more democratic, as it would mean majority rules, though he is against weakening the judiciary. He repeatedly said these reforms would strengthen Israeli democracy.

Conservative Rabbis’ Finally Embrace Chareidim and Will Stop Making a Prayer For Israel on Shabbos!

 

Harav Kalmanofsky Shlitah Surrounded by His Chassidim 

In a sad and divisive move, Conservative Rabbanim, including the leader of New York City’s Congregation Ansche Chesed Jeremy Kalmanofsky, initiated a boycott of the prayer for the State of Israel. Kalmanofsky stated that he is discontinuing the prayer in his congregation because he believes that Israel’s current leaders are “dastardly” and he doesn’t want their efforts to succeed.

For many decades, during Shabbat services, Conservative and Religious Zionist Orthodox congregations have recited the heartfelt Prayer for the State of Israel, written by Israel’s chief rabbis in 1948.

The Conservative movement’s Sim Shalom prayer books only use the prayer’s first paragraph. Reconstructionist Jews, in their Kol Haneshamah prayer books, have also adopted the prayer’s first paragraph, with minor modifications, and made more modifications to the latter portions of the same prayer.

The prayer’s widely-used first paragraph asks God to bless the State of Israel, the first sprouting of our redemption; to shield Israel with God’s lovingkindness / to envelope Israel with peace / to bestow light and truth and good counsel upon Israel’s leaders, ministers and advisers / to strengthen the hands of the defenders of our holy land and save them and give them the crown of victory / and to grant peace in the land and eternal happiness to its inhabitants.

This is a nonpartisan invocation for Israel’s continuing existence and well-being. The prayer doesn’t endorse any political party or government leader or minister. Rather, the prayer beseeches the Almighty to bestow light, truth, and good counsel on Israel’s leaders and ministers, whoever they may be.

Fat Nadler appoints ‘so-called’ member of Congress a "klavta" to sabotage hearings, trash whistleblowers

 

Klavta Stacy Plaskett

Now that Democrats are in the minority in the House and unable to abuse their power as easily as they have done the last two years, they are resorting to shameless lies to sabotage oversight hearings and trash whistleblowers and other inconvenient witnesses. 

They have anointed as queen of this disinformation operation, a little-known Democrat named Stacey Plaskett, who is not even a full-fledged member of Congress. 

Plaskett’s favorite adjective is “so-called,” which is ironic since she is a so-called member of Congress.

She does not have voting rights as the “at-large” delegate for the US Virgin Islands.

Yet she is a ranking member of the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, the first time a nonvoting delegate has occupied such a lofty post. 

Fresh from besmirching two independent journalists, Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, as “so-called journalists” who endangered people’s lives by exposing Twitter’s censorship regime, Plaskett and her colleague in dirty work, New York Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler, are attacking FBI whistleblowers. 

In a 316-page unauthorized report full of falsehoods and deceptively edited quotes from his confidential testimony to the committee last month, Plaskett and Nadler derided hero FBI Agent Steve Friend as a “so-called” whistleblower. 

Huwara Circus -Unraveled

 

“Horrific and barbaric!” “Unprecedented Settler Rampage!” screamed headlines, worldwide, in a headlong rush to write about “violence by hundreds of settlers” in Huwara. 

The facts? 

A far cry from the stories spun by foreign newsmen whose mindsets ranged from gullible to careless to hostile.

 Here are some real facts:

1.“The cars that “the settlers” burned?

The large, dramatic piles of charred cars photographed in many articles, were not family cars, they were in a Huwara junkyard. Huwara has many car-repair stores, which make their living installing expensive spare parts obtained gratis by stealing Israeli cars and stripping them down.

Netanyahu cuts short Germany trip over security tensions

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to shorten his visit to Germany and to return to Israel tomorrow (Thursday) instead of Friday as originally scheduled.

The decision was made in light of recent security developments in Israel, though the precise nature of these developments has not been revealed.

Netanyahu held a security assessment with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant earlier Wednesday afternoon.

The Prime Minister's Office stated: "Prime Minister Netanyahu has been following and being updated in recent days on the security developments together with the security leadership."

Netanyahu is expected to face protests over the government's planned judicial reforms both upon his arrival at Ben Gurion Airport tomorrow night and in Berlin. The timing of his return may be changed without notice to avoid the protests at the Tel Aviv airport.

Netanyahu will meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin before returning to Israel. He is expected to call on the European Union to take a harder line against Iran's nuclear weapons program after it was revealed that Iran has enriched uranium to 84% purity, not far from the 90% which constitutes weapons-grade uranium.

Last week, Netanyahu visited Italy, where he met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He was meeting with members of the Jewish community of Rome at the city's main Sephardic synagogue when he was informed of the terrorist shooting attack in Tel Aviv in which three Israelis were wounded last Thursday night.

The EU should be ashamed to lecture Israel on Democracy

 

The nation of Israel has gone through five elections in three years after leftist, EU-funded NGOs brought trumped-up corruption charges against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.

 Now, Benjamin Netanyahu is back in office and the government finally has a stable, conservative majority to rein in an out-of-control Supreme Court which has given itself the power to strike down laws it deems ‘inappropriate’, vote out democratically elected Ministers, and nominate its own members in perpetuity.

There is nothing undemocratic about seeking to reform the Supreme Court in line with legal standards common in any EU Country.

Instead, the radical left is calling for violence and civil war, attempted to storm the Knesset during the judicial reform vote, blockaded Knesset members in their homes and threatened the Prime Minister’s wife in her hair salon last week. These radical leftist NGOs are funded by the EU and the Biden administration, as Caroline Glick revealed last week.

Israel National News revealed that protestors were being offered 70$ plus gas money via WhatsApp to blockade the only international airport in the country last week.

The EU funds NGOs that are fronts for the PFLP terror organization, pays for UNRWA school books that promote killing Jews, funds the Palestinian Authority and its “pay-for-slay” program, and funds illegal Arab settlements in Judea and Samaria, which it has the gall to refer to as “occupied territories” although they are at worst "disputed territories."

The EU should be ashamed of itself.

MEP Joachim Kuhs (I&D Group) is Member of the EU Budget Committee and Shadow Rapporteur for the Budget Control Committee of the European Parliament.

Rabbi Halpern “dangerous and sick” and the center of sex assault claims leads Purim party

 

An Orthodox rabbi who is the subject of a local authority child safeguarding alert led Purim celebrations surrounded by members of his community including children, pictures and video obtained by the JC reveal.

Despite the highly unusual warning, Rabbi Chaim Halpern was the honored guest at a party attended by around 50 men and young boys on Tuesday lunchtime.

Photographs and footage of the event show Halpern addressing the congregation and dancing with guests at the Beis Shmuel synagogue in Golders Green, north London, which is run by his brother Moshe, another rabbi.

In the video, speaking in Yiddish, Moshe Halpern, sitting next to his brother at the top table with other community leaders, refers obliquely to “graciousness in not responding to people speaking about you”.

Chaim Halpern, 64, also known as Aaron Halpern, who leads the nearby Divrei Chaim synagogue, was the subject of a police investigation into sexual assault a decade ago and is currently facing a rabbinical inquiry into his conduct.

Halpern has regularly involved in providing counselling to women in London’s ultra-orthodox Charedi community. But last year a 21-year-old woman who went to him for help branded him “dangerous and sick”, claiming he used his position to groom and assault her.

The unnamed woman went on television in Israel to accuse Halpern of assaulting her — touching her “private parts” — when she went to him for spiritual guidance. She said he was “evil and must be stopped”.

She later told the JC: “The truth is overdue. Reb Chaim thinks that because he’s a rabbi, he can do whatever he wishes. “He tricked me into trusting him by acting charming, giving attention and compliments. He invests time into phone calls and emails, but it’s all just grooming.”

Reacting to the allegations, Chief Rabbi Mirvis said: “Allegations of serious sexual abuse by a rabbi in London highlight the extent to which abusers can manipulate a culture of respect to serve their own depraved criminality.

“For a rabbi to hold private meetings with women behind closed doors is a transgression of halachah and creates an environment in which abuse can take place. I urge victims and anyone aware of abuse to report it without hesitation.”

At the end of last month, Hackney Council’s education chief took the extraordinary step of sending a letter to headteachers and community children’s group leaders “strongly advising” them to keep children in their care away from the rabbi due to the “very serious” claims against him.

Referring to the ongoing inquiry into his conduct by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC), which oversees his synagogue, Paul Senior, the council’s interim education director, wrote: “Whilst this investigation continues we would strongly advise you not to refer any children in your care to Chaim Halpern, and to ensure that the parents, carers and families of your children are also made aware of this situation.”

He added: “As a local authority, having been made aware of these concerns, we felt it was important to ensure that you too had sight of them.”

In 2012, Halpern had been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault but the case was dropped due to insufficient evidence following a nine-month probe.

As the JC has revealed, despite the claims, Halpern is a member of the board which runs a number of schools in north London.

Halpern has been previously listed as a “rabbinical adviser” to the group of schools.

Halpern has given counselling to the victims of rape and sexual assault in his community, including a young woman, who told the JC that after she was assaulted from the age of 13, she was offered cash on behalf of her abuser by two rabbis, including Halpern, to whom she was sent for guidance. She added: “There will be dozens and dozens of girls and women like me who have been through this process with Rabbi Halpern.”

The woman said she was sent to Rabbi Halpern in 2011, about a year before he was accused of the sexual assault.

Halpern, she said, acted as a form of “mediator” between her abuser and herself.

Halpern denies all allegations. Asked about his client’s involvement in the Purim event, the rabbi’s solicitor, David Sonn, refused to comment.

Oops! Greta Thunberg Deletes Tweet After World Doesn’t End

 

Biden administration funding mass protests in Israel

 

A senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration said that the mass protests against potential reforms to Israel’s judicial system are being partially funded by the American government.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity to Hebrew-language news outlet Zman Israel on Friday, the official said that “this protest is financed and organized with millions of dollars.”

He added that the protests, which have seen hundreds of thousands of demonstrators block traffic and march through Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on a weekly basis, are being funded from a central source.

“This is a very high-level organization. There is an organized center from which all the demonstrators branch out in an orderly manner,” the official said. “Who finances the transportation, the flags, the stages? It’s clear to us.”

Though the official did not explicitly name the Biden administration or the U.S. as the source of the funding, other senior figures have said they believe American money is fueling the protests.

Netanyahu’s son recently tweeted a link to a Breitbart article which linked the U.S. State Department with a major organizer of the protests.

That Breitbart article heavily referenced a Washington Free Beacon report which claimed that U.S. taxpayer funds are being provided to the Movement for Quality Government (MQG), an NGO that is promoting the demonstrations.

Iran's Official Newspaper: "Israel Doesn't Need Iran to Destroy her They are Eating Each other Alive!"

 

The "Screaming Rabbi" Doesn't Know what is "Whatsapp"

 

BTW this guy is serious this is not a Purim Skit!

Bobover Rebbe 48 Impressed that the "New Generation Wears "viseh zokin" and "curly peyos"

The Bobover Rebbe Shlitah, Reb Ben-Zion, was illustrating how far the latest generation has come, that now "everyone wears the peyois outside their ears and wear white socks.

He pointed out that the previous generation wore their "peyois behind their ears" and didn't wear "white socks." 

As an aside I remember when his father z"l Reb Shlomo, didn't wear "white socks" but wore regular pants with regular socks.

As I listened to this guy talking, I was scratching my head in disbelief. This rebbe is a leader of thousands, I am not exaggerating, literally thousands, I was wondering as I was watching the guys sitting at the dais looking at him stoically, what was going thru their minds listening to their leader talk absolute nonsense.

Is this what is important today? Have we all become a nation of morons? 

The world is falling apart, members of our own community have not been spared, as many are going "off the derech," committing suicide, doing drugs, families are being torn asunder, suicides, mental health issues, people have lost their life savings in ponzi schemes just in the past year, and he is talking whether one should wear his peyos behind the ears or to curl them and wear them outside! 

Have we all become insane? 

There is no question in my mind that he is living in an alternate universe and not at all tuned into reality! 

Woe to our generation that these are our leaders! And he is not alone living in the world of absurdity.

פני דורו כפני כלב 

Testimony from a Heart-Broken Mother Who lives near Huwara

 From someone who lives in the community next to Huwara

My Huwara Testimony

About Huwara and my life in it, we have to go back to the beginning. 

When Itamar was just being set up on the empty barren lands, as one Arab put it when talking with Gilad Zar (HY"D) who scouted the region before the inception of settlement out here, - "the hills of death", he termed it. He said nothing grew here and it would be a waste of time and effort. 

That was close to forty years ago and today Itamar is a thriving agricultural community focusing on organic horticulture and agronomy. 

The culture of the pioneers that live here is one of kind to the earth and livestock methods which have been proven to be par excellence upholding the strictest laws of clean environment and kindness. The topography here has changed from grey to green in kind to ecology methods being applied... But getting back to how the trucks of produce leave the farms and return back home to Itamar- the only road is through the bottleneck of Huwara, as do all the population of the four communities of Itamar, Yitzhar, Elon Moreh and Har Bracha. 

If the Democratically Elected Government of Israel Capitulates on Judicial Reform now, know that the putsch will not stop with judicial reform

 

by Rabbi Prof. Dov Fischer

I have written previously regarding the judicial-reform issues for which there is no room to compromise. That article is foundational to my legal and Judaic thinking on the matter, as I contemplate some of the compromises now floating around. For example:

1. A judiciary must be fair and balanced. The current Israeli Supreme Court is corrupt and imbalanced, and has been since Aharon Barak took off his mask and made it into a tyranny of the Left thirty years ago. Therefore, because politics is cyclical, one approach to getting a more balanced court is the American way: to allow elected governments to select the judges. That way, when Democrats and the Left are elected, their president and senate select and confirm their judges, and then the Republicans and the Right get their chance to balance it all when they win. It keeps bouncing back and forth in cycles.

If the Israeli Left now wants judicial democracy like America, that would see Israel’s judges named by the elected prime minister and approved by the elected Knesset. That is exactly the American system. Begin names judges approved by Likud. Then Rabin gets his day. Then Shamir. Then Peres. Then Bibi. Then Barak. Etc.

Moody the Credit Rating Company that predicted a "dark future for Israel" Gave SVB Financial an A3 Rating Just this past Sunday

 

If I were to give in to my religious aspirations, I would be pointing out the hand of God in the recent downfall of Israeli companies that openly declared their desire to destroy Israel’s economy only to be hit by the collapse of the Silicone Valley Bank (Israel Supporting Hi-Techs that Pulled Out Billions to Destroy Its Economy in Judicial Reform Protest).

But whether you believe in the hand of God, karma, or just luck, you have to agree that one recent agent of chaos that tried to arm-wrestle with Netanyahu’s government, the credit rating company Moody’s, stood out among its competitors in predicting a dark future for Israel (Moody’s Ultimatum to Netanyahu: Stop Judicial Reform or Face Diminished Credit Rating) – that agent of chaos has now taken it on the chin big time.

Listen to this: On March 10, Moody’s downgraded SVB Financial Group to C and announced it will withdraw the failed bank’s previous rating given three days earlier. That previous rating was A3.

In the future, should investors wish to rely on Moody’s judgment, all they need to do is check out their enthusiastic support of SVB the same week it lost $80 billion and went into receivership. Just imagine it’s your $80 billion you are trusting to Moody’s ability to predict the market.

Meanwhile, those Israeli hi-techs who tried to unsettle their country’s economy by dumping their money in SVB, have now brought back––by the skin of their teeth––an estimated $4 billion they salvaged from the disaster area overseas.

“So may all Your enemies perish, O God, and may Your lovers be as the mighty sun rising.” (Judges 5:31)

by David Israel 

David writes news at JewishPress.com.

Eynat Guez Who Wanted to Destroy Israel's Economy By Withdrawing Billions from Israeli Banks Lost Most of her Money With the Fall of SVB

 

But the stupid Israelis are helping her get back on her paws, lets see if the yenta will have any "hakoras hatoiv"

Eynat Guez, CEO and Co-Founder of a billion-dollar Israeli software company called Papaya Global, in late January announced that Papaya Global was withdrawing all its funds from Israeli banks in response to the reform, explaining: “This is a painful but necessary business step.”

Guez tweeted on Thursday: “Following Prime Minister Netanyahu’s statements that he is determined to pass reforms that will harm democracy and the economy, we made a business decision at Papaya Global to withdraw all of the company’s funds from Israel.”

In early February, Guez reportedly said: “If all of us, the heads of high-tech companies, take out in one day just 20% of the money we keep in the [Israeli] banks – they will collapse… that is my right and even my duty.”

Guez and many other Israeli hi-techs all took this painful but necessary business step, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy loop whereby they issued warnings about how the judicial reform would ruin the economy and they, then, went about trying the ruin the economy.

FBI Arrests Yossi Engel For Allegedly Defrauding Chareidi Investors Of $47M In Ponzi Scheme

 

An Israeli man charged by US authorities with defrauding investors, mainly chareidi Jews, of at least $47 million before fleeing the country in 2021 was arrested this week in Los Angeles, federal prosecutors announced Friday.

35-year-old Yossi Engel was indicted in January in absentia for allegedly using his company iWitness Tech to target potential investors from Orthodox Jewish communities in Los Angeles and New Jersey. The alleged offenses occurred between 2018 and 2021, when he fled to Israel.

In a statement, the US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Engel temporarily returned to the Los Angeles area last month and was arrested Wednesday at Los Angeles International Airport while trying to leave the US.

The attorney’s office said he faces one count of wire fraud and if convicted would face up to 20 years in prison.

China becomes the broker while Joe Biden is the joker

 

Friday’s biggest headline-grabbing news was the bust of Silicon Valley Bank following a run on its deposits.

The collapse was the second-largest bank failure in the nation’s history and fears of a domino effect rattled stock markets. 

Seen from the long run, however, that was probably not the most important event of the day.

The honor goes to the announcement that Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations. 

Given their long proxy war in Yemen and fierce sectarian hatred, the sudden agreement (right) was stunning.

Even more so because China brokered it. 

As The Wall Street Journal said in a headline that captures the implications: “Accord marks diplomatic victory for Beijing in a region where US has long dominated geopolitics.” 

Even The New York Times, usually a mouthpiece for the Biden administration, echoed the grim assessment, saying China’s role displayed President Xi Jinping’s “ambition of offering an alternative to a US-led world order.” 

Let that sink in — a new world order, one where China is the leader.

Biden Admin Training Palestinians Security Forces to Fight IDF to Take back Judia & Samaria

 

On Feb. 27, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding the suspension of a U.S. State Department grant that was awarded to Fares Al Arab for Development and Charity Works in Gaza due to the group’s ties to Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organizations.

The State Department gave Fares Al Arab a $41,213 grant for “Developing Palestinian Journalists’ English Skills.” But as The Washington Free Beacon reported, Fares Al Arab issued a grant “to a radio network run by the Islamic Jihad … , honored a self-described journalist who belonged to the PFLP, hosted a press freedom event that featured a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, and co-led a human rights training course with a convicted terrorist.”

Issa demanded that by March 10, the State Department explain if it “knew the history of the group’s ties to terrorism,” “why the grant was provided if the history was known” and provide a complete accounting for the State Department’s decision to award Fares Al Arab the grant.

The State Department’s funding of Fares Al Arab is a big deal in and of itself. But this week it became clear that it isn’t a fluke. The full expanse of the Biden administration’s policy towards Palestinian terrorists and Israel became clear this week during U.S. Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs Hady Amr’s visit to Israel and Jordan.