CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have met for the first time in public in what Egypt said was part of an effort to revive the Middle East peace process. Egyptian authorities said in a statement the two had met on Monday ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Sisi separately met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his residency, where they agreed to continue working toward a two-state solution. The meeting came just days after Egypt helped broker an agreement with the Palestinian Hamas group to dissolve the administration that runs Gaza and hold talks with Abbas’ Fatah movement, its Palestinian rivals . For much of the last decade, Egypt has joined Israel in enforcing a land, sea ...
Baltimore, MD - Sept. 18, 2017 - With the weather cooling off and kids back in school, people are hopeful that crime, drugs, and gang activity on Baltimore’s streets will decrease. Summer may have just ended, but now is the perfect time to start planning for the wave of youth on our city streets next summer. Too many people are getting hurt or dying on Baltimore City’s streets. Often, gang members are killing each other and innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire, making our streets and neighborhoods unsafe for all. In a separate forum we can have a healthy discussion about the role of illegal guns, drugs, dropout rates, gang recruitment in elementary schools, and other potential causes or effects of our street crisis. However, knowing that it didn’t start t...
In Sefer Dvarim, we are treated to one of several places where Hashem uses a particular term of endearment for B’nei Yisroel, referring to us as the “Am Segulah”, a treasured nation (Vaeschanan, 7:6, Re’ei,14:2 and Ki Savo 26:18).  There are a myriad of other places where B’nei Yisroel are referred to as the “Am Hanivchar” – the “chosen people” (Vaeschanan, 4:37), Hashem’s “children” (Re’eh, 14:1-2) and even Hashem’s “first born” (Shemos, 4:22),.  What is the meaning of this special status?  Contemporary scientists would scream that there are no superior genome by race, class or ethnicity – and they may be right.  But consider, Since the dawn of the 20th century,...
Who doesn’t love a parade? To a city that already offers many, President Donald Trump wants to add one that showcases U.S. military might. It would take place on July 4 in Washington with, as Trump envisions it, tanks and planes rolling down and streaking above Pennsylvania Avenue. Trump talked up the idea Monday as he sat down for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron, who hosted the president and first lady Melania Trump for France’s military parade in the center of Paris on Bastille Day in July. Trump said the two-hour procession was a “tremendous thing for France and for the spirit of France” and suggested he wants the same for Americans. In typical Trump fashion, the president said he wants the parade to be bigger and better than the one he saw i...
Republicans straining to find about $1 trillion to finance sweeping tax cuts are homing in on two popular deductions that are woven into the nation’s fiscal fabric — the mortgage interest deduction that millions of homeowners prize and the deduction for state and local taxes popular in Democratic strongholds. About 30 million Americans, or about 20 percent of taxpayers, deduct mortgage interest from their income taxes, a deduction Realtors and homebuilders argue is a catalyst to home ownership in the United States. According to the most recent IRS tally, nearly 44 million people claim the deduction for state and local taxes in 2014, especially in the high-tax, high-income states of California, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Republicans are determined to overhaul ...
Toys 'R' Us, the largest U.S. toy store chain, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the latest sign of turmoil in the retail industry struggling with the growth online shopping and discount chains. The Chapter 11 filing is among the largest ever by a specialty retailer and casts doubt over the future of its about 1,600 stores and 64,000 employees. It comes just as Toys 'R' Us is gearing up for the holiday shopping season, which accounts for the bulk of its sales. "While today's decision does not necessarily mean it is game over for Toys 'R' Us, it brings to a close a turbulent chapter in the iconic company's history," said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. Shoppers leave a Toys R Us store in Framingham, Massachusetts. ...
BISLACH AIR BASE, ISRAEL  Israel and the U.S. inaugurated the first American military base on Israeli soil on Monday, which will serve dozens of soldiers operating a missile defense system. The move comes at a time of growing Israeli concerns about archenemy Iran's development of long-range missiles. Together with the U.S., Israel has developed a multilayered system of defenses against everything from long-range guided missile attacks from Iran to crude rockets fired from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. The base's opening is largely symbolic and isn't expected to bring operational changes. But the Israeli military says that along with other measures, it sends a message of readiness to Israel's enemies. "It's a message that says Israel is better prepared. I...
There must be an answer. Whatever is harming U.S. diplomats in Havana, it’s eluded the doctors, scientists and intelligence analysts scouring for answers. Investigators have chased many theories, including a sonic attack, electromagnetic weapon or flawed spying device. Each explanation seems to fit parts of what’s happened, conflicting with others. The United States doesn’t even know what to call it. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson used the phrase “health attacks.” The State Department prefers “incidents.” Either way, suspicion has fallen on Cuba. But investigators also are examining whether a rogue faction of its security services, another country such as Russia, or some combination is to blame, more than a dozen U.S. officials familiar...
“Utter weakness and incompetence.” ”Not a friend of democracy.” ”Just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time.” As President Donald Trump visits the United Nations, a look at some of his past tough comments about the world body: — “Why is the UN condemning @Israel and doing nothing about Syria? What a disgrace,” he tweeted in October 2011, one of a series of tweets about the organization that year. Trump said that September he was “increasingly concerned” with what he called “the UN’s ploy against @Israel this coming week.” “We must stand firm against the UN’s ploy to sabotage Israel — -if the UN grants the PA statehood then we must immediately defund it,&rdqu...
Russian President Vladimir Putin is attending military maneuvers that have worried his country’s neighbors. Putin, accompanied by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, attended the Zapad (West) 2017 drills on Monday at the Luzhsky range in western Russia, just over 100 kilometers (about 60 miles) east of Estonia’s border. Russian and Belarusian troops are participating in the exercises that started last week. Some nervous NATO members, including the Baltic states and Poland, have criticized an alleged lack of transparency about the war games and questioned Moscow’s intentions. Russia and Belarus say the exercises, which run until Wednesday, involve 5,500 Russian and 7,200 Belarusian troops. Some NATO countries have estimated that up to 100,000 troops could be ...
The U.S. Navy has fired two senior commanders in the Pacific region in connection with recent deadly collisions of Navy ships, as part of a sweeping purge of leadership in the Japan-based fleet. The announcement comes a day before the top U.S. Navy officer and the Navy secretary are scheduled to go to Capitol Hill for a hearing on the ship crashes. The USS John S. McCain and an oil tanker collided in Southeast Asia last month, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead and five injured. And seven sailors died in June when the USS Fitzgerald and a container ship collided in waters off Japan. The latest dismissals bring the number of fired senior commanders to six, including the top three officers of the Fitzgerald.
The Director-General of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is threatening Rabbi David Stav with dismissal from his post as Chief Rabbi of Shoham if Rabbi Stav and his Tzohar Rabbonim organization move forward to launch a new alternative kashrus agency as planned. In the letter sent to Rabbi Stav it states, “Last weekend there were adverts in the media stating Tzohar Rabbonim is weighing the possibility of launching an alternative kashrus, a service independent of the Chief Rabbinate”. The letter continues explaining the recent High Court ruling regarding kashrus; which prohibits a business from labeling itself kosher, while permitting a store to state it adheres to the halachos of kashrus. “A store cannot represent itself as kosher or supervised” the ru...
U.S. President Donald Trump warned Monday that Washington will walk away from a nuclear deal it agreed to with Iran and five other nations if it deems that the International Atomic Energy Agency is not tough enough in monitoring it. Iran, however, said the greatest threat to the nuclear agreement is U.S. hostility. The warning from Trump came in a message to the U.N. agency’s annual meeting, being held in Vienna, that was read by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The United States asserts that Iran is obligated to open its military sites to IAEA inspection on demand if the agency suspects unreported nuclear activities at any of them. That’s something Tehran stridently rejects, and Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi urged the agency and its head, Yukiya Amano, to &l...
Rising sea levels and fierce storms have failed to stop relentless population growth along U.S. coasts in recent years, a new Associated Press analysis shows. The latest punishing hurricanes scored bull’s-eyes on two of the country’s fastest growing regions: coastal Texas around Houston and resort areas of southwest Florida. Nothing seems to curb America’s appetite for life near the sea, especially in the warmer climates of the South. Coastal development destroys natural barriers such as islands and wetlands, promotes erosion and flooding, and positions more buildings and people in the path of future destruction, according to researchers and policy advisers who study hurricanes. “History gives us a lesson, but we don’t always learn from it,” said...
A comprehensive clean-up is taking place around Yerushalayim ahead of the Tishrei Yomim Tovim. This includes tourist sites, residential neighborhoods, central locales and much more ahead of many events that will take place during Tishrei, events that will bring both residents and tourists. During the operation, the sanitation division increases its activity, adding shifts and increasing the frequency of garbage collection that will be carried out daily with the addition of garbage collection vehicles, compacting cranes for collecting scrap and requests, cleaning tools of various types and special means. Towards the eve of the Rosh Hashanah, the sanitation department will reinforce all the sieves in garbage containers and storage facilities, as well as in educational institutions an...
Earth just sweated through the third hottest August and summer on record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday the globe last month averaged 61.5 degrees (16.43 Celsius), which was a degree-and-a-half higher than the 20th century average, but behind 2016 and 2015. The average temperature for June through August was 61.47 degrees (16.41 Celsius). So far the year to date has edged out 2015 and is the second hottest January through August, averaging 58.88 degrees (14.88 Celsius), behind 2016. Records go back to 1880. NOAA climate scientist Jake Crouch says even though records weren’t broken, it’s been warmer than 99 percent of the other months and a sign of long-term climate change.
Question #1: Proper posture “The Shemoneh Esrei on Rosh Hashanah is very long. Is it sufficient that I stand with my heels touching, or must my feet be side-by-side touching their entire length?”   Question #2: Standing straight “Why do we keep our feet together during kedushah but not when responding to kaddish?”   Question #3: Kaddish together “Is it required to have one’s feet together when reciting kaddish?”   Answer: Fulfilling the mitzvah of davening requires that we observe many halachic details. The Rambam organizes these laws under two headings: essential and non-essential components. In Chapter 4 of Hilchos Tefillah, he lists five essential components of prayer, meaning the Shemoneh Esrei. These are:   1) C...
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