Jerusalem - The former head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency says the establishment of an independent Palestinian state is crucial to Mideast peace, joining the ranks of retired security men to urge the government to seek a two-state solution. Speaking to reporters Tuesday in northern Israel, Tamir Pardo says he does not believe Israel can reach any agreements with the Arab world without solving the Palestinian issue. He notes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed the idea of Palestinian independence and called on the Israeli leader to “follow that path.” Dozens of former Israeli commanders have urged Netanyahu to push harder to resolve the Palestinian issue. Many have accused him of mishandling the matter, though Pardo’s vague comments stoppe...
Jerusalem - Israel on Tuesday said remarks by the U.N. Mideast envoy “distort history” after he declared that Israel’s settlement-building is a main obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. The spat drew new attention to Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which has continued to move forward during a more than two-year freeze in Mideast peace efforts. The Palestinians seek both areas as part of a future independent state and say that the construction undermines hopes for a peace deal. In a briefing to the Security Council on Monday, U.N. Mideast envoy Nicolay Mladenov said that settlement expansion by the Israelis is among the biggest obstacles to peace with the Palestinians. Mladenov listed Israeli plans to build hundreds of ne...
Gaza City - Hamas says Egypt has opened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip for three days, allowing hundreds of Muslim faithful to travel for a yearly pilgrimage. Hesham Edwan, the director of the Rafah crossing, said Tuesday that nearly 2,500 people were expected to leave in the coming days. Rafah is Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world. Egypt has kept Rafah largely sealed since 2013, when ties with Hamas worsened after the ouster of Egypt’s elected Islamist President Mohammed Morsi. Cairo accuses the Islamic militant group, which rules Gaza, of supporting militants in the Sinai Peninsula, allegations denied by Hamas. The pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia is one of the five pillars of Islam and is made by around 3 million Muslims worldwi...
Jerusalem - Palestinian authorities are silencing dissent by cracking down on free speech and abusing local journalists and activists critical of their policies, a leading international human rights group said Tuesday. Human Rights Watch said both the Western-backed Palestinian Authority led by President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and its rival, the ruling Islamic militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip, are “arresting, abusing, and criminally charging journalists and activists who express peaceful criticism of the authorities.” In 2007, Hamas ousted Abbas’ Fatah forces from Gaza in bloody street battles, leaving the Palestinians divided between two governments. Attempts at reconciliation have repeatedly failed, and both Hamas and the Fatah-led Palestinian ...
With great sadness and shock we inform you of the sudden and untimely passing of Reb Moshe Weiss, OBM, of S. Paul, Minnesota, who gained national fame when he appeared on the TV show ‘Shark Tank’ to secure investment for an iPhone attachment he invented. He was 41 years old. After securing investment for his invention – a device that amplifies the speakers of iPhones call the ‘Soundbender’ – R’ Moshe would give over his knowledge of the business world and motivation to young entrepreneurs around the world. In addition to being a successful businessman and inventor, R’ Moshe was also a tremendous Ba’al Tzedaka, who dedicated his life to looking after the financial health of the Chabad Yeshiva in S. Paul. He is survived by his three ch...
The FBI is warning state elections officials in Maryland and around the country to be on their guard against hackers after the breach of a voter information database in Illinois and an attempted attack in Arizona. Maryland officials said they are already prepared to fight off the type of attack the FBI warned about. The hack in Illinois marked the first confirmation that such a breach could be executed successfully, said Nikki Baines Charlson, deputy administrator of the Maryland Board of Elections. "This is the type of activity we watch for," she said. She said the state has deployed the type of cybersecurity needed to fend off such threats. Federal officials have been taking steps to help states ensure the security of their elections systems, amid growing concern about the vu...
A change may be coming to a Baltimore County Schools closing policy that has already lead to two days of closures this school year.  According to the Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore County School board is expected on Tuesday to revise the policy that requires the county to shut down the non-air-conditioned schools if the heat index is forecast to reach 90 degrees at any time during the school day. School board member Marisol Johnson told the Sun that she will propose closing schools only when the heat index is forecast to reach 90 degrees by 11 a.m. Other options include bringing in generators to cool the schools that don't yet have air conditioning, or raising the heat index limit to 95 or some other figure. According to the Baltimore Sun, parents say the new...
With great sadness and deep pain we inform you of the untimely passing of Rabbi Avrohom Yeshayohu Groner OBM, a much loved educator and rabbi in London, England. He was 43 years old. Avremi was well known as a kind, sensitive and talented man who has dedicated the past 12 years to inspiring our youth with a love of Judaism through innovative and original programs that enabled everyone to be involved, to grow and develop a true love of life. He also served as a Rabbi for a United Synagogue Shul in Sutton where he led his community with true dedication. Recently it was discovered that he was suffering from a terrible illness and this morning came the news of his untimely passing. He is survived by his wife Shternie and their five children. He is also survived by his parents Rabbi Sho...
Geneva - The U.N. human rights office says local bans in France on burkini swimwear amount to “a grave and illegal breach of fundamental freedoms” and a “stupid reaction” to recent extremist attacks. OHCHR spokesman Rupert Colville says the rights agency wants local officials to “immediately” lift the bans, saying they don’t increase security. A French high court has struck down on French town’s ban on the burkini, effectively invalidating such bans in about 30 towns, though many remain. Colville says such bans “fuel religious intolerance and the stigmatization of Muslims,” and “have only succeeded in increasing tensions.” He said people who wear burkinis — body-covering beachwear worn by some Muslim...
Brussels - EU antitrust regulators ordered Apple (AAPL.O) on Tuesday to pay up to 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in taxes plus interest to the Irish government after ruling that a special scheme to route profits through Ireland was illegal state aid. The massive sum, 40 times bigger than the previous known demand by the European Commission to a company in such a case, could be reduced, the EU executive said in a statement, if other countries sought more tax themselves from the U.S. tech giant. Apple, which with Ireland said it will appeal the decision, paid tax rates on European profits on sales of its iPhone and other devices and services of between just 0.005 percent in 2014 and 1 percent in 2003, the Commission said. “Ireland granted illegal tax benefits to Apple, wh...
Tehran, Iran - Iranian authorities have released a man jailed while home from his graduate studies in Texas after nearly five years, state media reported Tuesday. The report by the government-owned IRAN daily quoted Saeed Khalili, the lawyer for Omid Kokabee, as saying the country’s judiciary will allow Kokabee to enjoy “conditional freedom” for the rest of his 10-year sentence. Khalili said Kokabee was released from jail in April to undergo medical treatment on his kidneys and “will not return to prison, anymore.” Kokabee, an Iranian citizen, had been studying optics in the physics department at the University of Texas. He was arrested in February 2011 and convicted of having “relations with a hostile country” and receiving “ill...
Jerusalem - Israel’s military says its forces demolished the home of a Palestinian involved in the ambush of a family car in the West Bank that killed an Israeli and wounded his wife and two of their children. It said the residence in Dura near the West Bank city of Hebron Bank was razed Tuesday. It said the man “assisted in the planning and execution” of the July 1 attack that killed Miki Mark, a 48-year-old father of 10 children. The shooting was one of a wave of attacks since September 2015. Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis and two visiting Americans. Some 208 Palestinians died in that time, most identified as attackers by Israel. Israel says house demolitions are an effective deterrent against attacks. Critics counter the tactic amounts to collective p...
Banja Luka, Bosnia - A Bosnian Serb factory on Monday presented two pairs of shoes as a gift for the wife of U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Slovenian-born Melania, in a gesture of support for Trump’s White House campaign. Many Serbs in the Balkans back Trump, ill-disposed to rival Hillary Clinton whose husband Bill backed NATO air strikes on Bosnian Serb positions toward the end of the 1992-95 Bosnian war. He also advocated a 1999 NATO bombing of then-Yugolsavia to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians. Marinko Umicevic, technical director at the Banja Luka shoe factory Bema, said the gift countered what she called a “dirty campaign” against the aspiring First Lady whose homeland, like Bosnia, was a part of Yugoslavia when sh...
Egg Harbor Township, NJ - A shootout on a New Jersey highway on Monday afternoon left one person dead, four others hurt and a sport utility vehicle riddled with bullet holes. The people in the two cars knew each other and the incident was not a random act, state police Capt. Stephen Jones said. He said that no other vehicles were hit by bullets. Police said they received reports of a shooting on the Atlantic City Expressway, followed a short time later by calls for medical assistance about 5 miles away on the Garden State Parkway and at a convenience store 2 miles away. Authorities investigated a car on the parkway in Egg Harbor Township and an SUV covered with bullet holes in the parking lot of a Wawa store near a highway exit. There were bullet holes in the front windshield ...
Atlanta - An Olympic champion is thanking a 7-year-old Atlanta girl who found his gold medal in a pile of trash weeks after it got stolen. Joe Jacobi won the medal in men’s canoe double slalom at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Jacobi says it was stolen when somebody broke into his car in June. Weeks later, Chloe Smith was walking with her father when she spotted the gold medal discarded in a pile of garbage. Chloe returned the medal to Jacobi, who had posted about the theft on social media. The former Olympian then promised to visit Chloe’s school and let her classmates know about her good deed. Jacobi spoke Monday to Chloe’s first-grade class at Woodson Park Academy. WSB-TV reports (http://2wsb.tv/2bEaJw3) the Olympian brought his recovered gold medal with h...
Jerusalem - When Israeli soccer agent Tzvi Kritzer decided to build a monument in the Lithuanian town of Molėtai (Malat in Yiddish), where most of his family was murdered during the Holocaust, and to bring the relatives of the victims to the town for a memorial march, he was told to expect 20 to 30 people. A year later, on August 29, 2016, more than a thousand people, including the president of Lithuania, arrived in Molėtai for the largest memorial ceremony in the country’s history to honor Jews murdered during the Holocaust. The relatives of the victims from Israel, Canada, the United States, and elsewhere walked about two kilometers from the local synagogue, where Jews were kept during the Holocaust for three days without food and water, to the location of the massacr...
Baltimore, MD – Aug. 29, 2016 - It is with deep sorrow that BaltimoreJewishLife.com informs the community of the petirah of Mr. Moshe Weiss, son of Mrs. Weiss and brother of Mrs. Esta Sitrin Shiva is being observed at 3212 Bonnie Rd. Hours are Tuesday - Thursday 11 AM - 8:30 PM, and Friday 11 AM - 3 PM. Bila HaMaves LaNetzach...
Baltimore officially has had 200 homicide victims in 2016 after an autopsy confirmed a 42-year-old man found dead Friday just west of downtown had been fatally stabbed. The victim, identified Monday as Franswhaun Smith, was found Friday about 7:50 a.m. in the 700 block of Murphy Lane, in the Heritage Crossing neighborhood that was formerly the site of the Murphy Homes public housing development. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said an autopsy confirmed he had been stabbed in the back. It is the fifth consecutive year Baltimore's homicide tally has reached 200 after recording 197 in all of 2011. That was the first time the city had recorded fewer than 200 victims since the late 1970s. Last year, 344 people were killed in Baltimore, the city's highest hig...
A new kuntres has been recently been released addressing a simcha, chosson and kallah and how one should act. The kuntres was released by HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita. The kuntres has a disclaimer, stating that while the rulings reflect the position of Rav Kanievsky, one should not rely on them “הלכה למעשה” without asking privately regarding each matter. The kuntres includes: · The father of the chosson speaking with the kallah, with Rav Chaim stated it is permissible if there is a need, and one may say “Gut Shabbos” and “How are you”. · Regarding the minhag of Sephardim to have a ‘Shabbat Chatan’ after the chasenah, if the case deals with a Sephardi chosson learning in a Ashkenazi yeshiva, the Shabbos should ...
Chicago - A former Chicago transportation official was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison for using his influence to expand contracts for the city’s red light traffic camera program in a $2 million bribery scheme. John Bills, 55, was convicted in January on every charge he faced connected to the scheme, including mail fraud, wire fraud, filing false tax returns and bribery. In addition to the 10-year sentence, U.S. District Judge Virginia Kendall ordered Bills to make more than $2 million in restitution payments, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. According to the Chicago Tribune newspaper, Bills told the judge before sentencing that he committed “immoral” acts and had a “broken moral compass,&rdq...
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