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September 22, 2016 at 11:37 am
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) GOC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Wednesday addressed the security situation in his sector, hailing the two years since Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip as the quietest in decades, while warning that Hamas was preparing for the next round of fighting.
Zamir spoke at a Kibbutz Movement gathering to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of 11 Negev communities, which, at the time, greatly expanded the size of the area under Jewish control during the British Mandate and greatly aided the Jewish population's ability to hold on to the Negev Desert during the 1948 War of Independence.
Discussing some of the security challenges facing Southern Command, Zamir told the audience, "Over the past decade, sinc...
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September 22, 2016 at 11:27 am
The controversial president of the UK’s largest student union has “completely denied the right of Jewish students to define their experiences of antisemitism,” an official from a major British student group said.
Josh Nagli, campaigns director at the Union of Jewish Students (UJS), was responding on Facebook to a recent Guardian interview with National Union of Students (NUS) President Malia Bouattia, who has come under repeated fire for purported antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.
Asserting that Bouattia must adhere to an NUS policy that “treat[s] racist incidents to be any incident which is perceived to be so by the victim or any other person,” Nagli slammed the student union president for her application of double standards w...
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September 22, 2016 at 11:27 am
A video produced by Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign team which dismissed concerns over antisemitic abuse has been withdrawn after an angry response from British Jews.
The video was taken off YouTube on Wednesday night after Gillian Merron, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, spoke to Jon Lansman, chair of Momentum's steering committee, about its contents. Mr Lansman is said to have apologised to her, promising that it would be withdrawn and a public apology issued.
To date, no such statement or apology has been issued. The video, "Five questions Corbyn supporters are tired of hearing", can still be viewed on Jeremy Corbyn's Facebook page.
It features supporters of the Labour leader explaining why they are backing him. The final question asks: "Do you pr...
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September 22, 2016 at 11:13 am
A Jewish child walking home from school in London on Wednesday evening was forced to remove his kippa by a gang of bullies, the UK’s Evening Standard reported.
According to the report, the 11-year-old boy was surrounded in the Hackney neighborhood of the British capital by a group of unfamiliar older children, who threatened to beat him up if he did not take off his skull cap.
The boy was not injured in the incident, but the report said he was “badly shaken.”
“He lives near where the incident took place and had his rucksack over his shoulders as he was walking home from school,” a spokesman for north London’s Shomrim neighborhood watch group was quoted as saying. “The child said he tried to run away but the youths blocked his way.”
...
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September 22, 2016 at 10:21 am
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conveyed a message of warning to US President Barack Obama not to make any moves on the Israeli-Palestinian front during his lame-duck period between November and January, the Hebrew news site Walla reported on Monday.
According to the report, Netanyahu expressed his concerns on Sunday, during a meeting at his summer house in Caesarea with a delegation of American hard-hitters from both sides of the political aisle, who are in the region on a fact-finding mission. Among members of the delegation visiting the Middle East (with stops in the Palestinian Authority, Saudi Arabia and Turkey) are Democrats Dennis Ross and Philip Gordon, and Republicans James Jeffrey, Meghan O’Sullivan, Zalmay Kha...
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September 22, 2016 at 10:20 am
Former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani reacts on ‘Hannity’ to violence in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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September 22, 2016 at 10:14 am
Jerusalem - The Jerusalem District Court has sentenced 21-year-old John Kakish, a resident of Jerusalem, to nine years in prison for stabbing two Jewish ultra-Orthodox minors in May, 2015.
Justice Raphael Carmel previously found Kakish guilty on two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, and today pronounced the stabber’s sentence for what both the court and district attorney concluded to be a “hate crime.” Additionally, the court ordered Kakish to compensate each of his victims with NIS 10,000 (USD 2,650).
“The accused was a known juvenile delinquent from a difficult family background, he suffers from mental disability and has serious impulse control issues. All this is aggravated by the fact that he tends to abuse alcohol,” Carmel wrot...
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September 22, 2016 at 10:11 am
Investigators of last weekend’s bombings have released an image of two men who took a suitcase they found on a city street, possibly without realizing a wired pressure cooker they removed from it and left behind could have blown them to bits.
Police investigating the bombings in New York and New Jersey have been saying for several days they were looking for the men, who they stressed were being sought as potential witnesses in the case, not as suspects.
“They’re not in any jeopardy of being arrested,” Jim Watters, chief of the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism unit, said on Wednesday. “We have no reason to believe they’re connected.”
Federal prosecutors have charged Ahmad Khan Rahami with detonating a pipe bomb in a New Jersey ...
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September 22, 2016 at 10:05 am
In a letter to Yankee President Randy Levine, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) called for swift action to address an incident that occurred during a game at Yankee Stadium back on September 12, 2016.
A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Ben Lapin, a life-long Yankee fan and Orthodox Jew, attended a Yankee game at Yankee Stadium. There was nothing out of the ordinary until Mr. Lapin had his yarmulke (skullcap) pulled off his head by a fellow patron seated behind him. This patron proceeded to taunt Mr. Lapin and finally after numerous pleas, returned his yarmulke to him. “I am appalled and dismayed that such behavior could have occurred and not be further pursued by the Yankee organization,” said Hikind in the letter.
“Baseball is America’s favorite pastime, and people and...
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September 22, 2016 at 9:42 am
US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro notes that in the remainder of Obama's term "there's still time to make progress - in the right direction," toward a two-state solution.
The White House is disappointed in the lack of progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process during US President Barack Obama's eight-year administration, said US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Thursday. Speaking to Army Radio from the United States on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly debate, the ambassador spoke of Washington's sentiments toward the shortcomings as Obama had "sought to help Israel achieve its goal - two states for two peoples."
In his last speech to the UN plenum on Tuesday, the outgoing US president touched briefly on the Middle East conflict, saying Israe...
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September 22, 2016 at 9:32 am
A crane collapsed in Tel Aviv Thursday at the light rail construction site.
A crane collapsed Thursday afternoon at a construction site for the light rail system in Tel Aviv's Lavontin Street. Police reported that no one was injured in the accident.
As the crane was being loaded onto a truck, it fell and wrecked the cabin of the truck. Police together with the Ministry of Labor and Social Services opened an inquiry into the circumstances of the event.
At the same time it was reported in the afternoon that a 31-year old man was moderately injured at a building site on Yordei Hayam street in Ashkelon.
Paramedics and emergency personnel of MDA treated the wounded man and evacuated him to hospital suffering from severe injuries to his lower limbs.
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September 22, 2016 at 9:16 am
Deputy Homeland Security Secretary paints grim picture of Jewish communities' vulnerability to terrorism, says leaders not doing enough.
JTA - Painting a grim picture of Jewish vulnerability in the United States, a top U.S. security official said that the vast majority of funds earmarked to secure non-profits goes to Jewish institutions because their need is most acute.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the Deputy Homeland Security Secretary, speaking Wednesday to the Orthodox Union’s annual leadership mission to Washington, said rising extremism in the United States and its threat to the Jewish community keeps him awake at night.
He said the threat had shifted in the last year from the relatively small number of Americans who were radicalized overseas, to homegrown extremists ...
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September 22, 2016 at 8:47 am
Yair was still in high school when he noticed an opportunity for bone marrow donor testing in a Jerusalem, Israel mall. He gave a saliva sample and entered the Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow registry. In September 2008, as Yair neared the end of his army service, he got the call. Yair was a match. A year later, Yair met Ely, the baby whose life he saved, along with Ely's grateful family at an emotional meeting.
Ezer Mizion established the donor registry in 1998, under the direction of Dr. Bracha Zisser and her husband Moti Zisser z"l. Ten years ago, the Zissers and Major-General Elazar Stern of the Israel Defense Services established a partnership in which new recruits could volunteer to join the life saving donor pool. 2,200 people have been saved through donations, with 1,100 donor...
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September 22, 2016 at 8:39 am
For the first time, President Reuven Rivlin will hold a questions and answers session on Twitter via his Hebrew (@rubirivlin), and English (@PresidentRuvi)Twitter accounts, using both text and video.
The session will begin at 10am on Sunday 25 September 2016, and will last around 45 minutes - while questions can be submitted in advance using the hashtag #AskRivlin.
President Rivlin noted that, “While I have often referred to myself as an analogue president, in a digital age, I am delighted for the opportunity to engage with people around the world and answer their questions.”
President Rivlin was elected as Israel’s tenth president in 2014, having served as a member of Knesset first elected in 1988, Communications Minister (2001-03), and as Speaker of the Kne...
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September 22, 2016 at 8:39 am
Baltimore County State's Attorney Scott Shellenberger has ruled out charging any of the police officers who responded to the August 1 standoff in Randallstown, where 23-year-old Korryn Gaines was shot and killed by police.
"We have ruled that this is a justifiable shooting and no criminal charges will be filed against any of the officers involved," Shellnberger told WBAL NewsRadio 1090.
However, in a press conference after their meeting with prosecutors, attorneys for Gaines' family and her son Kodi, also injured in the shooting, decried the decision.
"He was afraid for the life of his partner who wasn't in the firled of view of Korryn Gaines," said attorney J. Wyndal Gordon, "So what we have here is a rogue police officer who wasn't in fear of an...
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September 22, 2016 at 8:37 am
Israel Post Director General Danny Goldstein, on Monday, 19 September 2016, ahead of the upcoming Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur holidays, at the Western Wall, met with Western Wall and Holy Sites Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, and delivered to him a consignment of letters addressed to God, which will be placed between the stones of the wall. The letters were posted from Israel as well as from countries such as Russia, China, France, Nigeria, Spain, the Netherlands, the US, the UK and many others.
Hundreds of letters are mailed to Israel annually addressed to – inter alia – "God," "Jesus," "Our Dear Father in Heaven" and "the Western Wall." These letters, most of which lack a return address, are sent to the Israel Post Lost and Found Dept., which then sends them, once every few months...
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September 22, 2016 at 8:25 am
New York, NY - An Orthodox Jewish man whose business was damaged by Saturday’s explosion in Chelsea credits his Sabbath observance with saving his employees from harm.
Daniel Peretz, owner of King David Gallery on W. 23rd Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, got a first look at his store today according to the New York Times, and found himself faced with a blown out front window and over a dozen broken mirrors, some worth almost $3,000.
Peretz, who sells glass, mirrors, frames and custom furnishings, said he was lucky that the blast took place on Saturday when his business is closed due to his Orthodox Jewish faith.
“God was watching us,” said Peretz. “There is no question about it.”
Peretz was in Israel when the explosion occurred, but noted that if...
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September 21, 2016 at 10:19 pm
One person was shot and killed Wednesday night during a protest in Charlotte, N.C. following the fatal shooting of a black man by a police officer earlier this week.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Kerr Putney confirmed to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on “The Kelly File” that one person had died in the shooting outside a downtown hotel. It was not immediately clear who had fired the fatal shot.
Television footage appeared to show another person lying injured on the ground, but it was not clear whether that person was shot. Charlotte Medic said it had taken eight patients — seven law-enforcement officers and one civilian — to area hospitals during the protests.
Police officers used tear gas to try and disperse hundreds of protesters as Putney defended hi...
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September 21, 2016 at 9:26 pm
Just days after the terrorist attacks in Chelsea and with the Yomim Noraim on the horizon, Agudath Israel held an emergency meeting at its National Headquarters for representatives of its member shuls. Speakers from the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) provided expert advice on the growing security threat to Jews in the United States, along with a full battery of strategies to help prevent future attacks.
Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel's Executive Vice President, opened the meeting by explaining the importance and timeliness of the gathering. "On the Yomim Tovim, when there is a tremendous rise in the number of people going to shul, our level of vigilance needs to be especially high.
"Obviously as believing Jews, we know ...
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September 21, 2016 at 8:12 pm
Baltimore, MD Daily Dvar Halacha - Sept. 21, 2016 / 18 Elul 5776 - Medicine That I Have To Take On Yom Kippur?
