Standing on a high podium against the backdrop of the green marble wall of the main UN meeting room, Miriam Novak said into the microphone

 At the extraordinary UN General Assembly in New York (2021), held at the request of the leaders of the European Union and the New Arab Bloc, Israeli representative Miriam Novak spoke.

Standing on a high podium against the backdrop of the green marble wall of the main UN meeting room, Miriam Novak said into the microphone:

 Ladies and Gentlemen! As you can see, eighty years ago, Europe, led by Germany, carried out an ethnic cleansing:

 it destroyed almost all the Jews living there. The French, Belgians, Dutch, Norwegians, Hungarians, Slovaks, Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians - all helped the Nazis.

You killed at least six million Jews along with their newborn babies.

Each of them could give the world children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, so you can safely multiply the number of those killed four or five times...

And now, when we are again robbed, beaten and killed in all your countries, and your courts set the murderers free, you tell us that we have no right to defense?

 Don't we have the right to warn our enemies that we will respond to a new ethnic cleansing with an even more powerful blow? 

Maybe you can name another nation that your new international community led by Iran is so fanatically striving to destroy? And for what? 

For two thousand years we lived among you, giving you our knowledge, discoveries and inventions. 

We have given you the alphabet, the Bible, the Virgin Mary, Jesus Christ, the twelve apostles, Spinoza, Disraeli, Columbus[?], Newton, Nostradamus, Heine, Mendelssohn, Einstein, Singer, Eisenstein, Freud, Landau, Gershwin, Offenbach, Rubinstein, Sen -Sans[?], Kafka, Lombroso, Montaigne, Mahler, Marcel Marceau, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Yehudi Menuhin, Stefan Zweig, Arthur Miller, Maya Plisetskaya, Stanley Kubrick, Irving Berlin, Edward Teller, Lyon Feuchtwanger, Paul Newman, Robert Oppenheimer, Benny Goodman, Eugene Ionesco, Imre Kalman, Marcel Proust, Charlie Chaplin[?], Marc Chagall, Barbra Streisand, Claude Lelouch, Steven Spielberg, Anouk Aimee, Leonard Bernstein, Norbert Wiener, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin, Andrew Lloyd Webber and thousands of other scientists and educators. 

Just imagine how many of the same geniuses the millions of Jews you killed, and then their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, could give birth to the world!

But these unborn geniuses disappeared forever in the ovens of crematoria, burned synagogues and mass graves.

So do you really think that with your resolutions, boycotts and sanctions we can be driven into gas chambers again? 

No, gentlemen! 

Listen to this widow and get "chizuk'

 

11 senior Iranian officers killed in Israeli airstrike on Syrian airport

 

An Israeli airstrike on an airport in Syria has reportedly killed 11 senior Iranian officers, Saudi Arabian news outlet Al Arabiya reported, citing unnamed sources.

The officers were part of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and they had been at Damascus International Airport to welcome a "senior delegation," per the report.

The IRGC members managed Iran-backed forces in eastern Syria, the report adds.

The IRGC has refuted the claim, with Ramezan Sharif, a spokesperson for the group, labeling the report "baseless," Iranian state media agency the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

The Israel Defense Forces told Business Insider it had "no comment" on the reports.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that "should the strike be independently verified, it would be more proof of Israel being able to hold back and deter elements of the Axis of Resistance in other geographies while fighting to defeat Hamas in Gaza."

Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq have launched attacks on Israel and its allies in support of Hamas.

Taleblu added that "the IRGC has long seen Syria as a critical regional hub to project power into the Eastern Mediterranean" and that "it should come as a shock to no one that Guard Corps elite are operating there."

It comes after an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital on Monday killed a top commander and senior advisor in the IRGC.

The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, said Israel had committed a "strategic mistake" by killing General Sayyed Razi Mousavi in the strike, saying it would increase resistance against the country, per the IRNA.

The IRGC responded to the news by saying Israel would suffer for the killing.

"The usurper and savage Zionist regime will pay for this crime," the group said in a TV statement, per Reuters.

Two-month investigation reveals new details showing how Hamas terrorists systematically used sexual violence during the October 7 massacre.

 

A newly-released two-month investigation by The New York Times has uncovered horrific, painful new details, proving that during Hamas' brutal massacre on the morning October 7, its attacks against women were not isolated events but part of a larger pattern.

The investigation relies on video footage, photographs, GPS data from mobile phones and interviews with more than 150 people, including witnesses, medical personnel, soldiers and rape counselors. In it, the Times identified at least seven locations where Israeli women and girls were seen sexually assaulted or mutilated.

The investigation also examines the accounts of four witnesses, who described the horrors in graphic detail, as well as several soldiers and volunteer medics who described over 30 bodies found both at the site of the music festival near Re'im and in two kibbutzim. All of the victims were in a similar state, showing signs of abuse in their genital areas, with their clothes torn off, and more. The Times also viewed footage of two dead IDF soldiers - women who had been shot in the genitals.

Due to the nature of the matter and to avoid as much as possible exposure to Hamas' psychological warfare, Israel National News - Arutz Sheva will not include details of the scenes.

One of the most important testimonies is that of Sapir, a 24-year-old accountant, who hid from the terrorists after being shot in the back and was witness to the rape and murder of at least five women. She has provided investigators with graphic testimony, and a friend hiding near her has confirmed that she was witness to the horrors.

Sapir said that in addition to the violent rapes and other mutilation, she watched the terrorists slice the face of one of their victims, and saw terrorists carrying the heads of three other women.

Another testimony is that of Raz Cohen, a young Israeli man who attended the festival and also found cover from the terrorists. From his hiding place, Raz said that he saw five men wearing civilian clothing and carrying knives, and one carrying a hammer, dragging a "young, naked, and screaming" woman across the ground.

"I still remember her voice, screams without words," he told the Times. "Then one of them raises a knife, and they just slaughtered her."

Captain Maayan, a dentist who worked at the identification center, said she had viewed the bodies of at least 10 female soldiers from Gaza observation posts with signs of sexual violence.

Volunteer medics and soldiers who arrived in Kibbutz Be'eri and Kibbutz Kfar Azas spoke of at least 24 bodies of women and girls who were "naked or half naked, some mutilated, others tied up, and often alone."

Zera Shimshon Parshas VaYechi

 

How individual, ordinary Jews fought Nazi persecution − a new view of history

 

Lizi Rosenfeld, a Jewish woman, sits on a park bench bearing a sign that reads, 'Only for Aryans,' in August 1938 in Vienna.

Story by Wolf Gruner, Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History; Founding Director, USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences  • 

In Nazi Germany, Hertha Reis, a 36-year-old Jewish woman, performed forced labor for a private company in Berlin during World War II. In 1941, she was evicted by a judge from the two sublet rooms where she lived with her son and mother – she was unprotected as a tenant because of an anti-Jewish law.

In plain daylight, in front of the courthouse in the heart of the Nazi capital, she protested in front of passersby.

“We lost everything. Because of this cursed government, we finally lost our home, too. This thug Hitler, this damned government, these damned people,” she said. “Just because we are Jews, we are discriminated against.”

Historians knew of clandestine acts of resistance, of course, and of armed group resistance, such as the Warsaw ghetto uprising. But in the dominant understanding of the Nazi period until now, the act of speaking out publicly as an individual against the persecution of Jews seemed unimaginable, especially for the Jews.

But in July 2008, I stumbled on the first trace of such public acts of resistance in the logbook of a Berlin police precinct, one of the few chronicles of its kind that had survived in the Berlin State Archive.

The entry, bearing the label “political incident,” was written by a police officer who had arrested a Jewish man protesting against the Nazi anti-Jewish policies. At the time of the discovery, I had studied the persecution of German Jews intensively for almost 20 years, but I had never heard of anything like this.

Intrigued, I started investigating. Subsequently, finding more and more similar stories of resistance in court records and survivor testimonies began to shatter my established scholarly beliefs.

Fetterman to Carville: 'Shut the eff up' about Biden in 2024

Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) recently criticized veteran Democratic strategist James Carville for his comments questioning President Biden’s viability as a 2024 candidate. In an interview with Politico, Fetterman bluntly told Carville to “shut the eff up,” dismissing him as irrelevant.

Fetterman stated that he was not concerned about polls showing Biden trailing former President Trump. “There’s a whole lifetime in politics between now and next November,” he said, expressing confidence in Biden’s strengths as president.

Carville has repeatedly argued that Democrats should address concerns about Biden’s age and falling popularity. At 81, Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history. Carville believes Biden’s prospects in 2024 need open discussion, saying previously, according to The Washington Post, “The idea that this should not be aired out and should be discussed in hushed tones is ludicrous,” stating further, “this needs to be discussed.”

In the Politico interview, Fetterman strongly defended Biden, calling him “an incredibly strong and decent and excellent president.” He said Carville’s criticisms were unhelpful.

Outrage in Israel as Israel's Supreme Court During the War Secretly Sneaks their Ruling to annul the Law to Cancel the Reasonableness Standard

 

Israel's High Court of Justice ruled to annul the Law to Cancel the Reasonableness Standard in a drafted ruling published on Wednesday by N12.

The drafted ruling was passed with eight justices for and seven against, as per the report.

The court held a full-bench hearing for the first time in its history in September on the reasonableness standard law as part of the ongoing political and legal drama of 2023’s judicial reform.

The Supreme Court responded to N12 reporter Amit Segal's report, stating that it views any leaks of the ruling with "great severity," adding that the verdict has not yet been finalized.

Israel in uproar over drafted ruling's leak

The Movement for the Quality of Government launched a scathing attack on Segal on Wednesday night, announcing it would demand the launch of a criminal investigation on the verdict's leak headed by Attorney-General Gali Baharv-Miara.

"The purpose of leaking the ruling is to threaten the justices and try to influence their professional position while imposing terror on each of the justices," the NGO wrote. "The movement will respect every court ruling, but we will not remain silent in the face of attempts to skew the justice's verdict," it added.

Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman also reacted to the verdict's leak, arguing that the ruling "changes the fundamental principles of the State of Israel and is an act of national irresponsibility."

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich denounced the decision as inappropriate during wartime: "Just as the Knesset is not currently advancing controversial laws, so it is appropriate and expected of the other government institutions."

This is a developing story. Leon Kraiem Contributed to this report.

Satmar Neighborhood in Bnei Brak Displays Palestinian Flag to Show Solidarity

 

Hamas Warns Arab Countries Against Taking in Gazans

Osama Hamdan, a prominent figure within Hamas, affirmed today that his terror group has received “offers and initiatives” for a ceasefire and an exchange arrangement, expressing willingness to consider any options that serve the interests of the Palestinians.

Hamdan made it clear that Hamas rejects a temporary truce with Israel and insists on a permanent halt to Israeli “aggression.”

In a strong statement, Hamdan, a chief terror monster, urged all nations to refrain from aligning with Netanyahu’s proposals on what he termed “so-called voluntary migration.”

Describing Israel as the “Nazi occupation,” Hamdan asserted that it employs various forms of warfare against the Palestinian Arab population. According to him, the three Israeli leaders spearheading the campaign find themselves in a state of embarrassment due to their failure to achieve stated objectives.

He contended that “developments on the battlefield reveal Netanyahu’s aimless actions, moving from one failure to another. The IDF spokesman’s embarrassment in front of journalists serves as evidence of the lies and incompetence of the army commanders.”

Accusing the US administration of being “complicit in the shedding of the blood of the children of Gaza,” Hamdan added that despite the American administration’s rhetoric about safeguarding the lives of Gazan citizens, it continues to provide weapons to Israel.

 

Why has the US accepted the anti-settler blood libel?

 

"There are some people who are slandering the settlers, they are waging a campaign on the backs of these dear people," the prime minister pounded on the table during his conversation last week with the Biden administration's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

Netanyahu's outright rejection of US policy to deny entry visas from "violent settlers" is very important because it shows that there is finally someone willing to shout out the truth.

First, let's make it clear just what makes someone a "settler." According to Hamas, any Jew living in the Land of Israel is a "Zionist settler" whose punishment is death. This is written and stated in all the organization's publications. The implication is that whenever President Joe Biden or any other official says "settler violence," they are playing into the antisemitic propaganda of the murderous organization. That may not be their intention, but that's how their statements sound to Arab ears.

Second, the idea of Jewish settlement has been part and parcel of the Zionist enterprise since its inception, as articulated in the famous eulogy by IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan for Roi Rotberg, the security coordinator of Nahal Oz, who was murdered and whose body was mutilated by Gazans in 1956.

"We are a generation of settlement," Dayan said in words that have entered history. "Without a steel helmet and cannon muzzle we will not be able to plant [a tree] and build a house... The millions of Jews who were annihilated without a country look to us from the ashes of Israeli history and command us to settle and rebuild the land for our nation."

Over the years, the Israeli and international media have vilified the pioneering settlers who established the Zionist enterprise, until the term "settlement" itself has become a slur. The incitement was so intensive that it paved the way for the US' recent brazen move, whereby fundamental rights can be denied to "settlers" without basic due process.

How did we get to such a situation? Since the outbreak of the war, claims have been spread about supposed widespread violence by those "settlers" against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria. The entities spreading these claims are non-governmental organizations that are hostile to the State of Israel. They provide "data" about incidents of supposed "settler violence."

The "data" is released globally by the UN agency OCHA, which is the only UN entity of its kind because its mission – funded by the UN – is to undermine Israel. The current US administration has for some reason decided to rely on this agency, even though Biden's senior officials know exactly what and who they are dealing with.

That's how the blood libel was born. But the facts tell a completely different story. Not one of the authorized agencies in Israel – the police, the IDF, the Shin Bet – can confirm the claims about "an increase in settler violence." On the contrary, in at least the first month of the Gaza war, there was a 50% drop in incidents compared to the equivalent period.

There is also no indication of a worsening situation. The police have not investigated more suspects. More detainees have not been brought to trial. The army is not involved in more incidents – despite the fact that the area is flooded with security personnel because of the war.

That is, in reality, there is no evidence for "many cases of settler violence," as the Americans claim. Nevertheless, they intend to punish an unknown number of Israelis for a phenomenon that barely exists, without hearing them out or allowing them to legally defend themselves.

Such behavior is not acceptable between friends, certainly not between democracies. More worrying is the international campaign itself, which is nothing less than a manifestation of antisemitism (and by the way one must also wonder why the false claims are being embraced by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Central Command GOC Yehuda Fox. The two have so far administratively detained six Israeli civilians and handed many more with restraining orders. In effect, through these actions they confirm the blood libel, which is most regrettable).

According to Natan Sharansky's famous definition, antisemitism is identified by the three D's: defamation, demonization, and delegitimization. This is precisely the attitude toward "the settlers" – over half a million people, many of whom have in fact been drafted via emergency call-up notices to fight in Gaza these days.

The defamation is the false claim that there has been an increase in cases of Jews attacking Palestinians. The demonization is the portrayal of "the settlers" as violent. The delegitimization is the sanctions against them without allowing them to make their case legally. 

Thus, President Biden, who loves Israel, and the senior officials of his administration – including Antony Blinken, who is a Jew – are essentially letting an antisemitic blood libel persist. Because as noted, in the eyes of Hamas and its many supporters worldwide, every Jew is a "settler." And when the administration punishes "settlers" it is in effect confirming the ancient demons saying that every Jew is that same despicable person not fit to come before the community, not deserving of due process,  that can be denied basic rights because he is the eternal culprit. This is an updated, refined, and perhaps subconscious version of antisemitism, the 2023 model. We would be well-served if we disposed of it quickly.

One Hesder Yeshiva in Yerucham Lost 8 Fighters

 

Sergeant Ephraim Yechman, 21, from Neve Daniel, fell in battle Tuesday night in the northern Gaza Strip. He was the eighth student of the Hesder Yeshiva in Yerucham to have given his life for the Jewish nation and the State of Israel.

The town of Yerucham, population roughly 11,000, is located in southern Israel. It is the site of Tel Rahma, dating back to the 10th century BCE. On the outskirts of Yerucham is an ancient well, known as Be’er Rahma.

The name Yerucham means “will receive mercy,” but so far things have been harsh and painful in the local hesder yeshiva which teaches its students to combine Torah study with combat military service. The yeshiva was founded in 1993 and has more than 220 students.

In the heart of its educational mission, the yeshiva imparts a profound awareness of one’s surroundings and instills a keen sense of responsibility toward the broader societal needs. Firmly anchored in the belief that the remedy for Israel’s socioeconomic disparities lies in the realms of integration and education, the yeshiva is committed to nurturing a generation equipped to unlock these challenges.

The gemara shiurim at the yeshiva are given at a very high level, and usually go into great depth on a chosen topic in the gemara. The works of the Rishonim and Acharonim are often analyzed in the shiurim, and the rosh yeshiva gives a “shiur klali” for the entire yeshiva during Thursday’s morning seder.

A distinctive hallmark of the yeshiva’s ethos is its emphasis on community engagement, particularly within the sphere of education. Every student actively participates in volunteer initiatives that contribute to the betterment of society. The altruistic endeavors extend beyond the classroom, forging a tangible impact on the community at large.
Notably, a significant number of the yeshiva’s graduates choose to make their homes in Yerucham, opting for a life outside the bustling confines of the country’s central cities. This deliberate choice speaks to the yeshiva’s broader mission of fostering a sense of purpose and community responsibility that transcends individual success, thereby shaping a collective narrative rooted in social consciousness.

Ephraim Yechman joined his brothers who also fell in this war, Elisha Levinstern, Eitan Fisch, Yakir Yedidia Shankolevsky, Ariel Eliyahu, Yanon Fleishman, Eitan Rosenzweig, and Gideon Ilani Hy’d.

The Rosh Yeshiva, Rabbi Chaim Wolfson, who has been running from one funeral and shiva call to the next, said after hearing about the death of Ephraim Yechman, “We have no words, we scream an inaudible cry from one end of the world to the other.”

“We cried out in the Beit Midrash and used King David’s words to express the terrible cry we are feeling,” he said. “The people of Israel continue to fight, and we are with them and are again forced to pay a terrible price.”

The funeral was be held at 7 PM in Kfar Etzion.

'45% of the fallen soldiers are religious'

 

Channel 12 political pundit Amit Segal noted on Wednesday that he does not believe that the religious Zionists are receiving their due credit in the war, considering the fact that a significant percentage of the soldiers who have fallen in the war come from that sector.

"I must say something that I've been refraining from saying," said Segal, "When heroes from the Druze community fell, we honored their heroism. In addition, a discussion arose about whether that common fate should cause us to rethink the Nationality Law."

Segal said that for years there has been a "crusade of defamation and division against the religious Zionists, for instance, against the Eli pre-military academy. 'It's poison; it must be closed down,' they said; 14 of the fallen soldiers are alumni. 45% of the fallen soldiers are from the religious Zionist sector, and even more, if you count what is called the 'clear kippot' - the ones who are no longer religious [but were raised on religious Zionist values]."

"And no one even mentions it. No one says 'Maybe what we thought about those 'crazy' people on the hills in Judea and Samaria, with side curls, tzitzit, and an Uzi submachine gun, maybe we should stop and think again.' Forget it, you don't even have to think again, you don't even have to stop evacuating outposts; just say that sentence."

Those who identify with the religious Zionist sector make up about 20% of Israel's population according to a 2019 poll.

It's Starting quicker than we thought: US Refuses Israel’s Request For Apache Combat Helicopters

 

The IDF has requested Apache attack helicopters from the Pentagon in recent weeks but the US has so far refused the request, Ynet reported on Tuesday morning.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant raised the issue in a discussion with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin during his visit to Israel last week.

Israeli security sources say that the US has yet to make a final decision on the matter and Israeli government officials are continuing to apply pressure.

Israel only has two helicopter squadrons. The helicopters have been operating around the clock in Gaza since the beginning of the war as well as in southern Lebanon and against Palestinian terror targets in the Shomron.

The workload of the two squadrons is so high that in a rare move, Air Force commander Maj.-Gen. Tomer Bar was asked to authorize a recall of retired pilots, aged 54-55, to return to active duty. [The age limit for pilots of combat flights is 51.] In addition, older pilots, aged 55-60, were recruited for operational roles on the ground. Some pilots who lived abroad returned to Israel when the war began and resumed flying after taking refresher courses.

Despite the constant attacks on Israel by the Hezbollah terror group in southern Lebanon, the US and France continue to pressure Israel to avoid expanding the conflict into an all-out war.

HORROR: Twelve-Year Old Hostage Told by Hamas that Israel Had Been Destroyed

 

A 12-year-old boy held hostage by Hamas has recounted the unthinkable treatment and abuse he was subjected to, including not being allowed to move, waiting hours for bread, and being told by captors that Israel was destroyed.

Many of the horrors, torture, and abuse experienced by the hostages has been well-documented. While it is painful to hear, it is crucial for the world to recognize the subhuman evil of Hamas. In addition we need to keep at the forefront of our mind that many hostages are still going through unimaginable horrors.

Eitan Yahalomi was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz, and was among 105 hostages released during a truce in November. His father, Ohad, is still being held hostage.

Eitan spoke with Ynet, describing some details of his capture and captivity.

The boy was dragged from his home by terrorists and forced onto a motorcycle that sped back to Gaza. His mother and two sisters were placed on another motorcycle but at the border, their captors fled from an Israeli tank and the three miraculously escaped.

Eitan recalled that when he arrived in Gaza, Palestinian civilians beat him and other hostages in the street.

“That was a frightening experience,” he said.

At first, he was kept alone, which he described as “very bad, frightening. I sat on the bed all the time, that’s all I did.”

He said his guard did not let him move unless it was to use the bathroom. He was permitted to listen a little to a radio and “it was nice to hear things in Hebrew.”

Later he was taken to another location with other hostages. There he met a good friend from his kibbutz and despite having very few resources, they somehow managed to play card games and draw.

Eitan spoke about his concerns for his captive father, Ohad.

“I tried to ask about him while I was there but they didn’t know anything. He has to come back as soon as possible. He and all the others must be brought back.”

Terrifyingly, Eitan had little knowledge about what had happened to his family. His captors told him that his mother was a hostage.

“Sometimes they would tell me that they would soon take me to be with her and then I had hope. I imagined what had happened to [my family] and tried to speak with them inside my head. I was afraid that perhaps something had happened to them. The terrorists told me that the kibbutz no longer existed and the State of Israel didn’t exist.”

He would sometimes wait hours until he was fed a meal of pita and a pickle, or some rice that he described as “disgusting.” He said he would take his mind off it by fantasizing about the food he got at home.

He only found out that his mother had not been abducted when he returned to Israel and was told that she was free.

“I was happy and I asked how come she was here,” he recalled.

Shortly after his release, the boy’s aunt, Devorah Cohen, told media that his captors threatened the children with a gun when they cried, to keep them quiet.

20% of Young Americans View Bin Laden Positively

 

Shockingly, the results of a new poll show that one in five young Americans have a “positive view” of Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist monster who brought down the Twin Towers.

The J.L. Partners/Daily Mail survey showed that one in five Americans ages 18-to-29 Bin Laden in a “positive way,” and another 3-in-10 Generation Z voters believe that Hamas terrorists are a “force for good.”

The survey asked young American respondents, “How would you describe your view of Osama Bin Laden?”

Overall, 81% of people of all ages responded saying that they have a “negative view” of the Islamic terrorist, and 76% of those respondents hold a “completely negative view.”

NYC’s devastating congestion pricing plan will kill New Yorkers — literally

 

New York City, already short on cops, could soon face another deadly public worker shortage: paramedics and EMTs. 

That’s thanks to the MTA’s insane congestion pricing plan, the most aggressive phase to date of the Empire State’s war on drivers with a planned rollout date possibly as early as the coming year.

Recall that some of the busiest emergency service stations in town, accounting for some 400 EMT workers, sit within the Manhattan zone that drivers will be required to pay $15 to enter. 

In other words, these essential workers are going to have to pay for the privilege of saving New Yorkers’ lives. 

EMT and medic salaries are not sky-high, maxing out at $59,534 for the former and $75,872 for the latter. 

So the charge will take a bite as it piles up to nearly $4,000 annually.

In fact, newbie EMTs earn $39,386, which means the projected annual cost from congestion pricing will amount to above 10% of their overall compensation. 

Driving is essential for huge swaths of these workers: Their low pay means they can’t afford to live in the city and must commute (thanks to insane progressive policy on housing). 

Good luck hiring under those circumstances — or even keeping employees long-term.

An EMT shortage would mean higher response times.

And New Yorkers will die in those critical lost seconds and minutes.

These workers make up just one of numerous groups of drivers with legitimate concerns about the plan.

The worst part?

By the MTA’s admission, the plan will not actually cut traffic.  

The agency’s 2045 outlook shows an increase in traffic in the city overall and no meaningful reduction in the plan’s Manhattan core. 

And don’t forget that the fees raised by the tolls may turn out to be much less than projected; London’s congestion pricing scheme generates only about $400 million per year. 

The answer, of course, is not a special carveout for EMTs and paramedics.

Or for any other group with enough political muscle to obtain one. 

No, the whole rotten plan must be scrapped — before it chokes off any hope for a safe, civil and prosperous city future.

This in an Amsterdam Mall ... The World Has gone insane!