An impressively large 2,700-year-old water system was recently exposed at Israel Antiquities Authority excavations near Rosh Ha’ayin with the help of students majoring in the Education Ministry’s Land of Israel and Archaeology studies. The excavation precedes the construction of a new residential neighborhood initiated by the Ministry of Construction and Housing. According to Gilad Itach, director of excavations for the IAA, “It is difficult not to be impressed by the sight of the immense underground reservoir quarried out so many years ago. In antiquity, rainwater collection and storage was a fundamental necessity. With an annual rainfall of 500mm, the region’s winter rains would easily have filled the huge reservoir. On its walls, near the entrance, we identified...
Baltimore City health officials issued a Code Red heat advisory through Artscape weekend. For Friday, the heat and high humidity will make it feel like it is 107. WBAL meteorologist Ava Marie says the extreme heat will remain through Monday. “Heat is a silent killer and a public health threat, particularly for the young, the elderly and those in our city who are the most vulnerable,” health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen said in a statement. “As Baltimore prepares for a fun weekend with one of the nation’s largest free arts festivals, it is important for all residents to protect against hyperthermia and dehydration. Please be cautious and remember to stay cool and hydrated.” LIVE RADAR AND FORECAST From the National Weather Service: ...Heat advisory remains ...
The ACLU is reacting to Baltimore Police body cam video that appears to show an officer mishandling evidence. David Rocah, Senior Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, did not mince his words speaking with WBAL-TV 11’s Vanessa Herring saying "These officers have managed to single handedly destroy the credibility of all video evidence that the Baltimore Police Department has of them finding contraband." Roach added, "Not only does the body worn camera policy mandate when the cameras are supposed to be on namely for any investigatory activity and this search was clearly investigatory so it's clear that the cameras should have been on for the entirety of that search." A Baltimore Police body camera video released earlier this week shows three ...
Several of President Donald Trump’s nominees for key ambassador posts are declining to say unequivocally whether Russia sought to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. Testifying Thursday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Lewis Eisenberg, the financier Trump picked to be the U.S. envoy to Italy, says he’d like to “reserve judgment” on whether Moscow interfered until ongoing investigations are completed. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, selected by Trump to be ambassador to the United Kingdom, says “it looks like it could have happened. Maybe it did happen.” Kelly Knight Craft, nominated by Trump to be the ambassador to Canada, says based on the publicly available material she’s read, “it looks as if, yes.” Sen. Bo...
Israel Police rescued a 40-year-old Petah Tikva resident who was trapped for 16 hours when a safe fell on him during work. The police began searching for a man who was reported as missing since Thursday afternoon. "A police chief searching with the missing man's partner found him in his workplace, trapped under a heavy safe and unable to escape," a police spokesperson said. The man explained that the safe - which weighed 1763.7 lbs (800 kg) - had fallen on him while he worked, leaving him trapped for sixteen hours. The police chief alerted the firefighters, who arrived on the scene and extracted the victim. He was transferred to Rehovot's Kaplan Medical Center in moderate condition.. Earlier this month, a yeshiva worker in Brooklyn jumped into a safe to avoid being...
London police who are struggling to identify victims of the fire at the Grenfell Tower apartment building have sought help from experts with experience: those who worked on recovering victims following the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner Craig Mackey said Thursday the “extraordinary size” of the crime scene at the 24-story tower made it necessary to call upon experts who worked on the aftermath of the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Center in New York. At least 80 people died in the June 14 tower blaze in West London. Some 200 UK officers have been sifting through debris on each of the building’s 24 floors. The fire was sparked by a refrigerator in an apartment, but its exterior cladding has been blamed for the quick spread of the f...
I’m feeling okay about the nine days this year. Even Tisha B’Av! That may sound radical, so let’s explain why. The Talmud (Yoma 5) describes a scene toward the desecration and destruction of the Beis HaMikdash by the Babylonians. According to the Medrash in Eicha, a few years before the destruction of Yerushalayim by the Babylonians, our unfriendly neighbors, Moab, (located in today’s Jordan) broke into the Holy of Holies and found the Cherubim embracing each other. They then took out the Holy Ark and paraded it through the streets showing, what they thought, a repugnantly sensual artifact which was at the root of Judaism. They were eager to discredit the holiness of the Jewish people. The Aron was apparently recaptured by King Yoshiahu and hidden from the Babyloni...
The Treasury Department hit Exxon Mobil Corp. with a $2 million fine Thursday for violating Russia sanctions while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the oil company’s CEO. Treasury said in a statement that Exxon under Tillerson’s leadership had shown “reckless disregard” for sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russian entities in 2014 over Russia’s annexation of Crimea. And, it said the company’s “senior-most executives” were aware of the sanctions when two of its subsidiaries signed deals with Russian oil magnate Igor Sechin. Sechin is the chairman of Russian oil giant Rosneft and is on a U.S. blacklist that bars Americans from doing business with him. In a statement, Exxon countered that it had done nothing wrong and com...
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says he will take “every action that is necessary” to make sure New Jersey Transit train engineers show up for work after dozens of trains were canceled earlier this week because of a manpower shortage. Christie addressed the trains canceled earlier this week at an unrelated event Thursday in North Brunswick. He says that he thinks the reason for the delays were “people not showing up to work” and that it was likely a coordinated effort. The Republican says legal action was threatened, but didn’t disclose more details. Train engineers’ union leader James Brown said Wednesday that NJ Transit should hire more workers. This week’s cancellations came during the second week of extensive repairs at New York Penn Statio...
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Thursday to impose sanctions against eight individuals and businesses linked to the Islamic State extremist group and al-Qaida in a wide-ranging resolution aimed at stepping up international efforts “to counter terrorism and terrorist financing.” The eight additions to the U.N. sanctions blacklist include IS leaders in Southeast Asia, IS-affiliated extremist groups in Syria, foreign fighters from the Caucuses and an illicit money exchange business. U.S. deputy ambassador Michele Sison called the resolution adopted Thursday “another important step” to defeat Islamic State and al-Qaida extremists and their affiliates, stressing that “for the United States, there is no higher priority.” But even as the Islamic ...
The art of humiliation appears to be a key operating principle for President Donald Trump. Trump blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an interview Wednesday with The New York Times. Trump sharply criticized the former U.S. senator over his decision to recuse himself from the FBI investigation into possible ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government. Sessions has a lot of company in the administration to compare notes with. Everyone from former FBI director James Comey to White House chief of staff Reince Priebus to chief strategist Steve Bannon has been publicly shamed by the boss.
Likud minister says Cabinet, not police, decided to keep magnetometers at entrance to Temple Mount. Israeli Transportation and Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz (Likud), who serves as a member of Israel's Secrity Cabinet, on Friday said that the Cabinet decided to keep magnetometers on the Temple Mount and did not leave the decision up to the police. "The Temple Mount is in our hands," Katz said, quoting the soldiers who liberated Jerusalem's Old City during the Six Day War. "We will not cede sovereignty. The State of Israel is responsible for preserving law and order on the Temple Mount.""Contrary to reports, the Security Cabinet decided to continue using every security precaution which was begun immediately following the despicable terror attack, including the use...
Israel Police and Border Police station thousands of officers in Jerusalem, especially near Old City and Arab neighborhoods. Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh arrived on Friday to oversee Israel Police's preparations for the Friday Temple Mount prayers. Just after 12p.m., Arab public figures arrived on Salah al-Din Street and began inciting Arab passersby. They attempted to break through the police checkpoint and threw stones at the security forces. Israel Police dispersed the rioters. Thousands of Israel Police and Border Police officers have been stationed in Jerusalem - especially in the Arab areas and Old City - since Thursday night, to preserve order, direct traffic, and allow thousands of Muslim worshipers to pray safely. At a police meeting, Alsheikh said, "As...
Al-Aqsa imams say prayers won't be held in mosque, call on Muslims to come 'as close as possible' to Temple Mount and hold 'day of rage.' Palestininan Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas returned home from China earlier than planned because of the tensions on the Temple Mount. At the same time, Abbas is pressuring international bodies to force Israel to rescind its decision to place metal detectors at the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque entrances. The security measures, including metal detectors, were implemented this week after three terrorists from the Haifa District's Umm al-Fahm murdered two policemen in a terror attack and wounded a third last Friday. Abbas called an emergency meeting of PA leaders, including the Palestinian Lib...
UN's Middle East envoy urges all sides to de-escalate the tension in Jerusalem. The United Nations envoy on Middle East peace, Nickolay Mladenov, on Thursday expressed deep concern over a surge in tensions and violence around Jerusalem's Old City. “I call on all concerned parties to de-escalate the situation and on moderate voices to speak up against those who try to fuel tensions,” Mladenov said in a statement published on his website. He welcomed the commitment of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to uphold and respect the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites, and Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas's condemnation of violence, specifically the deadly attack on two Israeli policemen last Friday. “I hope these affirmations will...
Political-Security Cabinet decides that magnetometers will remain at the entrance to the Temple Mount, reiterates commitment to status quo. The Political-Security Cabinet decided on Thursday night, after a four-hour meeting, that the magnetometers will remain at the entrance to the Temple Mount as part of the new security measures at the compound. The Cabinet also authorized the police to make every decision "in order to ensure free access to the holy places, while maintaining security and public order" on the Temple Mount. "Israel is committed to maintaining the status quo on the Temple Mount and the freedom of access to the holy sites. Israel is committed to protecting the safety of all worshipers and visitors to the Temple Mount," said a statement. Prime Minister Binyamin Neta...
In Parshas Balak, Balak and Bila’am decided to attack the Jewish nation. After their attempts to curse the Jewish nation failed, they convinced the nation of Midyan to stoop to an unprecedented low and use their women to entice the Jewish males to sin. Their scheme worked on a small fraction of the Jewish nation, and as punishment, 24,000 Jews perished. In this week’s Parshah, the Jewish nation is instructed by Hashem to exact retribution and destroy the nation of Midyan (Balak's people; as per Rashi 22:4). The Jewish nation succeeded in doing so, and killed Bila’am as well. The Torah states that our instruction to attack Midyan was purely a retaliation for what they did to us (31:2; See Rashi). Indeed, had they not attacked us, we never would have battled them. Rath...
The New Jersey town where President Donald Trump has spent weekends at his golf course has received a designation by the Secret Service so it can be reimbursed by the federal government for security costs. New Jersey Republican Rep. Leonard Lance announced Wednesday the town of Bedminster has been designated a priority for presidential protection. The government has made $41 million available to cover costs incurred between Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and Oct. 1. Trump’s residences in New York and Florida have similar designations. A separate $20 million fund was made available for the period between the election and inauguration. The group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington said Wednesday it has requested copies of records of Trump’s visitors when ...
It happened in Nevei Yaakov in Eretz Yisroel. There is a suit giveaway gemach where they charge 3 or 4 sheckels per suit. A young mother came to volunteer. She brought her ten year old son along because she did not have a baby sitter.While she was volunteering, the young man went through the suit pockets and found a $100 bill with a note attached. The note had one word written in Hebrew, “Hatzlacha.” Obviously, the donor of the suit wanted to give Tzedakah as well to a poor family. But now the question arises: What should be done with the money? The person that ran the Gemach felt that it should go to the Gemach because the money was ownerless – hefker. He argued that it would go to his organization through something called Kinyan Chatzer. The Gemorah in Bava Metziah ...
Jerusalem police are on high alert ahead of Friday Islamic prayers on Har Habayis following a week of tension and isolated violence. The excuse for the latest round of Islamic violence is Israel’s placement of metal detectors at the entrance to Har Habayis. The was prompted by the discovery of guns and knives on the holy site following last week’s fatal terrorist shooting attack that claimed the lives of two policemen. The Waqf Authority has issued a call to followers to come to Har Habayis and not to hold Friday prayers in local mosques throughout PA (Palestinian Authority) areas.
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