Photos taken by Ben Tzion, a 31-year-old Israeli blogger, show him inside the ‘Mosque of the Prophet’ in Medina, Islam’s second holiest site. The images, which the photographer has claimed are peaceful, have created a backlash of angry internet posts throughout the Muslim Middle-East, mainly from Qataris and Palestinians.
The White House is disputing a Democratic senator’s claim that top economic adviser Gary Cohn faked bad reception to get President Donald Trump off the phone. Delaware Sen. Tom Carper said Wednesday in an interview with CNN that he and other Democrats had been in a meeting earlier this month with several White House officials discussing the GOP tax reform plan when the president called from Asia. Cohn put him on speakerphone. Carper said the group listened to the president speak, but after about 15 minutes, “the president’s still talking.” So he suggested Cohn take the phone and say: “Mr. President, you’re brilliant! But we’re losing contact and I think we’re going to lose you now, so goodbye.” Carper said Cohn did just that. “...
The Tel Aviv District Court ruled that the work on Yeshivat Beit Medrash Elyon in Bnei Brak will continue. Justice Yehudis Stuffman rejected the petition filed to halt the work and ruled, “I believed that the petition should be rejected out of hand because of the significant delay in submitting it”. When the work began, a resident of the city, who lives in an apartment located 100 meters northeast of the plot in question, arrived at the municipality to find out the legal source for the work, where she was told that a permit had been issued under the law. The neighbor then petitioned the court against the Ministry of the Interior, the District Planning and Building Committee, the Bnei Brak Local Committee and the Supreme Beit Midrash, demanding that the work on the lot be halte...
President Donald Trump and congressional leaders plan to meet next week to discuss how to avert a potential government shutdown at the end of the year. White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters says the group will meet next week “to discuss end-of-the-year legislative issues.” Two congressional aides confirmed that Republicans Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer would meet with Trump on Tuesday afternoon to hammer out the end-of-year agenda. That includes figuring out how to keep the government funded, as well as other thorny issues, such as extending protections for immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The aides spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. The meetin...
The Argentine navy says an event consistent with an explosion was recorded near where a submarine disappeared last week with 44 crew on board. A navy spokesman said an "abnormal, singular, short, violent, non-nuclear event" had been detected in the south Atlantic. The ARA San Juan disappeared last Wednesday. More than a dozen countries including Russia and the US have sent assistance. Spokesman Captain Enrique Balbi said the Argentine navy had been informed of the suspected explosion, which took place near the submarine's last known location. Captain Balbi said the navy only knew the location of the suspected explosion, not its cause. Search efforts would be concentrated in the area, he said. Relatives of crew members wait for news On Wednesday, Captain Balbi said oxygen...
A Jerusalem police spokesman reports a 30-day administrative closure order signed by Jerusalem Police Chief Yoram Halevy was given to the owner of a bakery in Beit Shemesh for illegal employment and housing of illegal residents. Administrative closure orders are another important and central step in the police’s determined struggle against the entry of illegal aliens entering the territory of the State of Israel. Illegal entry of illegal aliens into Israel has in the past served as a platform for criminal and terrorist activities. A short while ago, the police handed over to the owners of the ‘Chalat Habayit’ Bakery in Beit Shemesh an administrative closure order signed by the Jerusalem commander. The closure order states the reason is the employment of illegals o...
Two non-Jews entered the complex of the tziyun of Rav Nachman, ZT”L, via the Kohanim Bridge after they were instructed to leave the area earlier. They fired rubber-coated bullets at one avreich who was present at the time. United Hatzalah EMTs responded to the victim, who was transported to a hospital, B’chasdei Hashem listed with only light injuries. Ichud Breslov officials in charge of the tziyun report the two entered via a side entrance from the bridge and in response to the incident, additional security personnel will be added at that entrance to block future intrusions.
The Argentine submarine ARA San Juan went missing in the South Atlantic last week with 44 crew members aboard. Here’s a look at the submarine and the round-the-clock international maritime search. ___ THE VESSEL The German-built diesel-electric TR-1700 class submarine was commissioned in 1985 and was most recently refit in 2014. The retrofitting cost about $12 million and took more than 500,000 work hours. The boat was cut in half and had its engines and batteries replaced. Refits can be difficult because they involve integrating systems produced by different manufacturers, said Rockford Weitz, director of the Fletcher School’s maritime studies program at Tufts University. “The cost of even the smallest mistake during this cutting phase of the operation is eno...
One is compelled to question the PA (Palestinian Authority) definition of ‘dual existence’ for as long as an Israeli enters an autonomous area, under exclusive PA rule, one takes one’s life in one’s hands. This was the case once again on the night of 3 Kislev (Monday to Tuesday), when a vehicle snuck into the city to visit Kever Yosef while an organized visit was taking place in coordination with the IDF. The visitors having IDF approval were in armored buses. The car, carrying Breslov Chassidim, decided to visit on their own, without coordinating with the IDF and adhering to regulations prohibiting Israelis from entering the city on their own. To their dismay, after exiting their vehicle, PA residents stole it and set it ablaze. They were stranded and in a...
The fact that the jury in the trial of Sen. Bob Menendez couldn’t reach a verdict and was apparently in favor of acquitting the Democrat and a wealthy friend supported the defense’s theory that their friendship carried more weight than the criminal allegations, a defense attorney in the case said Wednesday. In the first extended comments by the defense team since last week’s mistrial, Jonathan Cogan also said he doesn’t expect the Department of Justice to spend a long time determining whether to retry the pair, though he didn’t expect a hasty decision. The department hasn’t divulged its plans, and a spokeswoman didn’t comment Wednesday. There has been no deadline set by the judge for the government to say whether it will seek a retrial. Men...
The coalition crisis surrounding the work on the Tel Aviv Light-Rail has shifted into a new gear within the Charedi parties themselves. Interior Minister and Shad faction head Aryeh Deri was infuriated with the UTJ faction head and Health Minister Yaakov Llitzman after Litzman threatened to resign over the desecration of Shabbos that occurs each week. Even from within Litzman’s own party he faced opposition in the form of MK Moshe Gafni who objected to Litzman’s polemic against Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu following this past weekend’s turn of events. Deri and Gafni have come out and said that the proper way to fight the battle for the sanctity of Shabbos, is via the creation of laws and governmental decisions enshrining the holiness of the day. They believe th...
The rabbi thought nothing of the Flamingo Hotel as he passed it on his way to a Las Vegas area hospice. Despite the glitz and glimmer that draws people to the desert city—and the grimy edge that sometimes keeps them there for good—Las Vegas is a big place, home to real people with real (and regular) lives, and Rabbi Mendy Harlig was on his way last week to do what rabbis often do: meet with a Jewish woman breathing her last. Harlig, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi, regularly visits Jewish patients in municipal hospitals and hospices. This time, a family he did not know had requested a rabbi, and Compassion Care Hospice had called him. There, he met the woman, Millicent Rosen, and her family. He helped her recite the prayers for one’s final moments, which concludes with the Shem...
There is an almost universally shared “first photo” in modern baby albums – the somewhat blurry image captured on a pregnant woman’s first ultrasound.  The observations, “He looks like you!”  “She’s got your eyes!” are bandied about in good humor as parents, grandparents, friends and family begin the process of welcoming a new member to the family and community.  In addition to these early images, there are also numerous genetic tests to determine that the fetus does not have one of any number of terrible diseases.  If these tests come back positive, the parents-to-be are confronted with a wrenching decision about whether to continue the pregnancy. Some social commentators have a dark, dystopian view of the possibil...
Next week Rabbis from all over Belgium are expected to present an appeal to the local parliament in an effort to remove the ban on Jewish Shechita in various regions throughout the country. The Rabbis are hoping that the judges will see the issue as impinging upon their religiu freedoms. Shoud the appeal be rejected, Halachic Shechita will be outlawed permanently throughout the country. Chief Rabbi of Brussels, Rabbi Avraham Gigi, spoke to Israeli media outlet Kikar HaShabbat regarding the preparations that are being taken ahead of the appeal submission. “Belgium is a country that is divided into distinct regions. There are three major regions and each region has its own autonomy and its own self-governing body for the most part. Each governing body can institute laws for the...
Baltimore police have dismissed administrative action for Sgt. Alicia White in connection of Freddie Gray's death. Baltimore police released a statement on the dismissal of administrative charges, Wednesday evening, saying: "Commissioner Kevin Davis has dismissed the scheduled administrative hearing board for Sergeant Alicia White. She will face no further administrative actions. We now have the experience of two administrative trials. A trial is the best test of evidence. Two separate boards have examined the evidence and have reached the same conclusion. The evidence and allegations against Sergeant White are the same. Commissioner Davis feels proceeding with this administrative hearing would not be in good faith, and has dismissed the charges. We look forward to continuing the ...
A group of artists has erected a Holocaust memorial outside the home of a nationalist politician who suggested Germany should end the decades-long tradition of acknowledging and atoning for its Nazi past. The Center for Political Beauty, known for its provocative stunts, said Wednesday that its members placed 24 concrete blocks on a property adjacent to the home of Alternative for Germany lawmaker Bjoern Hoecke over the weekend. The concrete blocks are modeled after those at the country’s main memorial in Berlin to the six millions Jews killed by Nazi Germany. Hoecke, who heads the nationalist AfD’s caucus in the Thuringia state assembly, caused uproar in January when he described the Holocaust memorial in Berlin as a “monument of shame.&rdquo...
In the following video, we see a tank that caught fire in an undisclosed IDF facility. B’chasdei Hashem, there are no reports of any injuries in the incident.
North Korea on Wednesday called U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to relist it as a state sponsor of terrorism a “serious provocation” that justifies its development of nuclear weapons. In the country’s first public response to its return to the American blacklist, the official Korean Central News Agency said North Korea has no connection to terrorism and does not care “whether the U.S. puts a cap of ‘terrorism’ on us or not.” It said the U.S. action shows North Korea should continue to “keep the treasured nuclear sword in our hands more tightly” to protect itself from American hostility. “By re-listing (North Korea) as a ‘state sponsor of terrorism,’ the U.S. openly revealed to the whole world its ...
BWI-Marshall expecting record number of travelers for Thanksgiving week LINTHICUM, Md. — Based on summer traffic, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport officials said they are expecting this week to be the biggest Thanksgiving travel season in the history of the airport.Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, and the Maryland Department of Transportation is taking some extra precautions and making some changes at BWI-Marshall Airport. "This week in the airport industry, and here at BWI-Marshall, represents what we call our Super Bowl," said Ricky Smith, executive director of BWI-Marshall Airport. This year, officials said they are more prepared than they've ever been. "(The Transportation Security Administration) is predicti...
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