Ahead of Israel’s Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron), a new campaign seeks to honor fallen soldiers who may not have any living relatives or friends to do so. Project GalEd, an initiative started by Michal Serfaty to map out the graves of deceased relatives, has launched a campaign to ensure “a flower for every fallen soldier” by enabling purchases of flower arrangements to be placed on the soldiers’ graves. Israeli soldiers without living family members or friends are known as the “last descendants.” “Every year, during the Memorial Day ceremonies, I join my family and thousands of other families in Mount Herzl Cemetery in Jerusalem,” Serfaty said. “Thinking about those who have no family to pay them a visit made me realize...
The senior U.S. Navy officer overseeing military operations in the Pacific said Thursday that the crisis with North Korea is at the worst point he’s ever seen, but he declined to compare the situation to the Cuban missile crisis decades ago. “It’s real,” Adm. Harry Harris Jr., commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Harris said he has no doubt that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un intends to fulfill his pursuit of a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the United States. The admiral acknowledged there’s uncertainty within U.S. intelligence agencies over how far along North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs are. But Harris said it’s not a matter of if but when. “There is n...
Israel should refuse the Palestinian Authority’s request to cut off electricity supplies to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on the grounds that it is the “ultimate occupying power” in the coastal enclave, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) official told The Algemeiner on Thursday. Speaking from Tel Aviv, Omar Shakir — the Israel and Palestine Director for HRW — called on the Israeli government and the PA to “ensure that electricity supplies to Gaza are maintained.” Shakir was speaking after the PA informed Israel it would no longer pay for the electricity which the Jewish state provides to Gaza, a move which could plunge the territory’s two million Palestinian residents into a long-term blackout. The Fatah-controlled PA’s move...
The only hope for potential future peace in the Middle East is if Palestinians accept they have been defeated by the Jewish state, according to a new pro-Israel group that was launched on Thursday on Capitol Hill. The Congressional Israel Victory Caucus (CIVC) is co-chaired by Republican Congressmen Ron DeSantis of Florida and Bill Johnson of Ohio. At CIVC’s opening event on Thursday — which was organized by the Middle East Forum think tank — Johnson said, “We founded this caucus primarily on one single, irrefutable principle — Israel has a fundamental right to exist and defend herself, and that is not negotiable.” “Israel has been at war with its immediate neighbors over its right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people for n...
The University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) chapter of a notorious anti-Israel group is being slammed by Jewish students for launching a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign on Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was observed on Monday. “The Jewish community here at UCSB is shaken by the insensitivity of this resolution being brought up on Yom HaShoah [by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)],” Gauchos United for Israel told The Algemeiner on Tuesday. “Of course, we are not taking this sitting down and have mobilized members of our community to come together and carefully organize how we are going to most effectively explain why anti-Zionism is antisemitism as well as where legitimate criticism of the Israeli government ends and antisemitism ...
United Airlines has reached a settlement with David Dao, the Kentucky physician forcibly pulled off an April 9 flight from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, in the latest step by the carrier to put the crisis behind it. The agreement comes more than two weeks after the incident, which sparked global outrage after it was shared on social media. Since Dr. Dao was removed from the flight, United Continental Holdings has come under mounting pressure to make changes to policies affecting customer service. Earlier Thursday, the carrier issued a report concluding that shortcomings in customer service, training and internal systems contributed to the incident and promised to address them this year. See More Coverage »
Armed police carrying out a counterterrorism operation Thursday swooped in on a man they said was carrying knives in a bag near Britain’s Parliament and arrested him on suspicion of planning terrorist acts. London’s Metropolitan Police said the 27-year-old man was stopped and detained “as part of an ongoing operation” by the force’s counterterrorism unit. No one was injured in the incident, which unfolded just yards from where an attacker killed five people with a vehicle and a knife last month. It sent a jittery jolt through an area that has been on edge since the March 22 attack. Police said knives were recovered during the operation and that there was “no immediate known threat” to the public. The force said the man was being held at a Londo...
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn was personally warned by the Pentagon against receiving payments from foreign governments in 2014 after leaving the Defense Intelligence Agency, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., revealed today. The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee released three new documents on Flynn, included a letter from the DIA counsel’s office in response to an inquiry from Flynn in October of 2014. The letter, a primer on ethics restrictions that apply to retired military officers, warned that Flynn was prohibited from receiving foreign payments without prior approval under the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. “The Pentagon’s warning to Gen Flynn was bold, italicized and could not have been clearer,” Cummings said in a news conference toda...
Rock attacks against Jewish motorists by PA (Palestinian Authority) residents continue, and despite the Siyata Dishmaya in this case and many others, these attacks have the potential of being fatal or at the very least, lead to serious injuries. One can see the whole created by the large stone that pierced the windshield of the car in Gush Etzion. The second photo shows just how large the stone is and hope this could easily R”L kill or seriously injure passengers inside.
It is a question that comes up every year when Yeshivos and Bais Yaakovs go away to summer camps for Shabbatones and Retreats. These retreats usually take place in May and June. The students are set up in bunk houses. True, the bunk houses are cleaned, but there is only so much that the cleaning staff can do. THE QUESTION The question is somewhat delicate, but since it is applicable to the laws of Shabbos – it needs to be discussed. One of the students uses the toilet, but unfortunately, a bug has lodged itself in the toilet. If one flushes – one kills the bug. If one doesn’t flush, well, that is a breach in kavod habri’os – human dignity. What is the halacha? THE PROHIBITION The Gemorah in Shabbos (107b) tells us that the Torah forbidden Malacha of Shocha...
President Reuven Rivlin used his authority to pardon prisoners to release an 81-year-old Holocaust survivor from jail due to his deteriorating condition. Real estate magnate Shaul Lagziel in 2015 was convicted of bribing former Ramat Gan Mayor Tzvi Bar and he was sentenced to an 11-month jail term along with a NIS 300,000 fine. The former mayor, also a man in his 80s, was sentenced to 5.5 years for accepting bribes from Lagziel and others. Lagziel’s attorney took his case to the High Court of Justice, and the court reduced it from 11 to 9 months. With his health deteriorating to the point doctors fear his life may be in danger, President Rivlin intervened and used his authority to pardon him to release him from prison and he will be required to carry out six months of community ser...
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency says companies aren’t taking cybersecurity seriously enough at a time when the threat of electronic attacks is rising. Hans-Georg Maassen says cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns cost German companies up to 50 billion euros ($55 billion) a year. Maassen said Thursday at a business seminar in Berlin it would be good if authorities were given the power to stop such attacks, and that may mean acquiring the ability to strike back against computer networks used to launch them. Volker Wagner, the head of German business lobby group ASW, says it is important for companies to remember that “anything that can be hacked will be hacked, sooner or later.” Wagner says that while security measures are expensive, a suc...
According to Israels largest newspaper Yedidoth Achronot, Trump will recognize an undivided Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The report continues and says Trump will not implement his election campaign pledge to relocate the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Meanwhile, Arutz 7 reports that Congressman Ron DeSantis stated at a recent event that when President Donald Trump arrives in Israel he will announce the transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Neither report has been confirmed. Meanwhile, according to multiple published reports, the Trump visit will be on May 22. A 25-member US delegation was slated to arrive in Israel Thursday to lay the groundwork for the president’s visit next month.
Israel’s military says it deployed its Patriot missile defense system to intercept a projectile incoming from Syria above the Golan Heights. The military did not elaborate on what it described as a “target” in its message on Thursday night. An Israeli defense official says the military’s Patriot missile that was deployed had struck an incoming drone from Syria. The official says the military is checking to see if it was a Russian aircraft that had entered the Israeli side on Thursday by mistake or if it was a Syrian one. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The incident comes after Syria accused Israel of striking a military installation near Damascus International Airport setting off a series of pre-dawn explosions. Israel’s inte...
According to a report by Haaretz, as many as four cargo planes from iran landed at an airport near Damascus a short while before an alleged Israeli air strike hit a military compound nearby. Hours before the blasts, which took place at 3:25 A.M., two Iranian 747 cargo planes, an Iranian Ilyushin il-76 and a Syrian Ilyushin il-76 landed in Damascus, according to the flight radar tracking site Flightradar24.com.
IDF tanks return fire, destroying a Hamas position in the southern Gaza Strip after soldiers carrying out routine security activities on the border fence come under fire: no injuries or damage immediately reported.DF tanks destroyed a Hamas position in southern Gaza on Thursday morning after shots were fired just minutes earlier at IDF engineering force while carrying out routine security-related activities near the Gaza border fence. There were no immediate reports of injuries of damage. After returning fire, the IDF launched an investigation into the origins of the gunshots and the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit issued a statement saying “The attack was carried out in response to an earlier attack on an IDF force that was engaged in routine security work near the security fence in...
While the discussion of chilul Shabbos always accompanies Lag B’Omer when it falls on a motzei Shabbos, this year, the topic seems to have found an even more prominent place in the chareidi and dati leumi news as well as the secular news in Israel. The Boyaner Rebbe Shlita, who officially launches Lag B’Omer celebrations in Meron with the lighting of the main bonfire, already announced he was pushing it off until midnight to avoid chilul Shabbos. The rebbe spoke out strongly against chilul Shabbos surrounding Lag B’Omer. Police Chief Roni Alsheich on Wednesday night the eve of 2 Rosh Chodesh Iyar, met with the rebbe in the rebbe’s home to discuss the Lag B’Omer matter. Also present was Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz Shlita, Rav of the Kosel and Holy Sites...
Texas senator proposed The El Chapo Act, legislation that intends to a border wall by seizing $14 billion in drug profits from infamous drug lord Joaquin Guzman.
Lachish district police used intelligence sources and other means to recover four Sifrei Torah that were stolen a month ago from an Ashkelon shul. The suspect in the case is a 26-year-old resident of the city who has been arraigned. Analyzing forensics from the scene of the stolen Sifrei Torah, and intelligence information, led police to the apprehension of the suspect. The thief also made off with kupot tzedaka and other shul property. Police arrived at the suspect’s home with a search warrant and they found four parchments from Sifrei Torah wrapped in sheets and hidden under beds.
As President Donald Trump marks 100 days in office, he is vowing to keep his campaign promise to build a wall along the border with Mexico. Despite widespread skepticism and Mexico’s refusal to pay for the wall, as Trump has demanded, the U.S. government has been soliciting bids and test sections could be built as soon as this summer. Physical barriers are as old as humanity and have proven to be effective over the centuries at protecting borders. But fences can also have unwanted consequences, like destroying city neighborhoods, harming the environment and preventing innocent victims from reaching safety. Here is a look at some of the world’s barriers. Some are rather simple, while others are massive enterprises that cost billions. Generally they have been paid for through ...
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