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April 24, 2017 at 10:08 pm
With the first round of France’s presidential election over, Jewish voters are now nervously looking ahead to the final round two weeks from now that will pit independent centrist Emmanuel Macron against far-right stalwart Marine Le Pen.
A leading French Jewish political analyst told The Algemeiner on Monday that the strong showing on Sunday of Jean-Luc Melenchon, the far-left candidate who came in fourth at 19.6 percent, demonstrates that Le Pen could yet pick up valuable support from voters disillusioned with mainstream centrist parties in the May 7 head-to-head showdown with Macron.
Michel Gurfinkiel stressed that while Le Pen and Melenchon are on opposite sides of the immigration debate, both politicians share the same “authoritarian, populist, statist, ant...
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April 24, 2017 at 10:06 pm
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reassured Jewish community leaders Sunday that he would oppose any anti-Israel bias at the United Nations.
“As secretary-general of the United Nations, I consider that the state of Israel needs to be treated as any other state,” Guterres said at the World Jewish Congress offices in New York.
“I have already had the opportunity to show that I’m ready to abide by that principle even when that forces me to take some decisions that create some uncomfortable situations,” he added, referring to an incident in March in which the U.N. leader forced the retraction of a controversial U.N. report that accused Israel of implementing “an apartheid regime.”
In addition to clarifying that his opposition t...
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April 24, 2017 at 10:04 pm
A British Jewish university student is defending her choice to lead a charge to excise anti-Zionism from the National Union of Students’ (NUS) definition of antisemitism, claiming in an interview with The Algemeiner on Monday that calls for the destruction of Israel are “not inherently antisemitic.”
Bath University’s Joanna Phillips — who worked on anti-Zionist Eran Cohen’s failed 2016 campaign for the Union of Jewish Students presidency — said she helped draft a proposed motion for the NUS to withdraw its 2007 vote that recognized the the denial of Jews the right to self-determination as a form of antisemitism. The motion will be voted on at the NU...
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April 24, 2017 at 10:04 pm
European governments are funding Palestinian civic organizations with clear ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, a leading Israeli research organization said on Monday.
A new report from the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor lists nearly a dozen organizations with PFLP affiliations that have nonetheless received funding from both the EU and European national governments. The PFLP has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US, the EU, Canada and Israel. All of the NGOs in the PFLP network are enthusiastic advocates of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.
The organizations include the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC), whose co-founder, Dr. Rabah Muhanna, is a member of the polit...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:41 pm
If you haven’t bought a new car lately (or ever) – it’s a whole new world.
Cruise control, for example, is now adaptive – it matches the speed of the car in front of you. Hondas now have drowsy driver detection as part of its optional Honda Sensing System.There is automatic emergency braking with pedestrian detection. That means if a kid pops out in front of your car, it can automatically stop because it notices the kid on the bicycle befre you do. There is Apple-Play, that let’s you safely use some features on your phone on the display. There is self-parking technology, and there are now internet hot spots in the car as well.
MAY ONE PLAN BUYING ONE?
All this new car technology, however, brings up the question as to whether one may plan to purchase a new c...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:41 pm
Investigators are scouring for clues about what sparked a fast-moving New York City house fire that killed five people, including two young boys and two teenage girls.
The fire broke out Sunday afternoon, on a street full of single-family homes in the middle class neighborhood of Queens Village, a neighborhood near Belmont Park, which hosts the Belmont Stakes, the final leg in horse racing’s Triple Crown. Television news footage showed flames chewing through the roof of the two-story home and roaring in upstairs rooms of the house as smoke poured from it.
“It was a fire that moved very, very quickly, and the loss was horrendous,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “This is the devastation of a family,” he said, adding: “There’s a lot we need to know...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:40 pm
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis arrived unannounced in Afghanistan on Monday to assess America’s longest war as the Trump administration weighs sending more troops.
Kabul was the final stop on a six-nation, weeklong tour Mattis said was intended to bolster relations with allies and partners and to get an update on the stalemated conflict in Afghanistan. He is the first member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to visit Afghanistan.
Gen. John Nicholson, the top American commander in Kabul, recently told Congress that he needs a few thousand more troops to keep Afghan security forces on track to eventually handling the Taliban insurgency on their own.
As part of the administration’s review of Afghan policy, Trump’s national security adviser, Army Lt. Gen. H.R. M...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:30 pm
Unfortunately, if we set aside a day for every tragedy in Jewish history, the calendar would be full. But the scope, circumstances and impact of the Holocaust are so immense that a special day of remembrance was deemed appropriate. I never discussed the day itself with my parents—both survivors, both in Heaven now—but I suspect they would have agreed. My mother, z”tl, warned against getting comfortable with the memory.
As a child of survivors, and as a student of history, I have sought to understand as much as I can about what occurred during those tragic years. It’s not a morbid fascination; it’s a thirst for knowledge that might somehow be useful in dealing with today’s issues that endanger the Jewish people… and help prevent future tragedies. ...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:29 pm
Thousands of people from around the world, many of them young Israelis, have gathered at the former Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz to pay homage to the millions who perished in the Holocaust.
Many carried Israeli flags Monday as they joined the March of the Living, a somber memorial march of about three kilometers (two miles) from the original Auschwitz camp to Birkenau, a much larger death camp where Jews and Roma were murdered in gas chambers.
Many also carried little wooden plaques with messages to place along railway tracks that carried people to their deaths at the camp operated by Germany in occupied Poland during World War II.
The yearly march is also aimed at instilling a desire in Israeli youth to protect the Jewish state.
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April 24, 2017 at 6:29 pm
French voters shut out the political mainstream from the presidency for the first time in modern history, and on Monday found themselves being courted for the runoff election between populist Marine Le Pen and centrist Emmanuel Macron.
French politicians on the moderate left and right, including the Socialist and Republicans party losers in Sunday’s vote, immediately urged voters to block Le Pen’s path to power in the May 7 contest.
Voters narrowed the presidential field from 11 to two. Both that vote and the May 7 runoff are widely seen as a litmus test for the populist wave that last year prompted Britain to vote to leave the European Union and America to elect Donald Trump president.
The defeated far-left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon, pointedly refused to back Macron, an...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:28 pm
Two condemned Arkansas killers who admit they’re guilty but fear their poor health could lead to extreme pain during lethal injections set for Monday might become the first inmates put to death in a double execution in the U.S. in more than 16 years.
Jack Jones and Marcel Williams are set to die in what would be the second and third executions in Arkansas this month. The state set an aggressive plan to execute several inmates before one of its lethal injection drugs expires at the end of April.
The state executed Ledell Lee last week in the state’s first use of capital punishment since 2005. Gov. Asa Hutchinson originally scheduled four double executions over an 11-day period in April. The eight executions would have been the most by a state in such a short period since the U...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:21 pm
Jerusalem Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar Shlita is calling on the tzibur to fast on erev Rosh Chodesh Iyar, this Tuesday, in response to last week’s High Court of Justice ruling permitting chilul Shabbos in Tel Aviv.
In his letter, Rav Amar writes that the ruling is most painful and troublesome, the court compromising the integrity of Shabbos and permitting the public trampling of the holy day.
Those deciding to fast should accept the fast day on mincha Monday afternoon, 28 Nissan, and one who cannot should consider a taanis tzibur.
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April 24, 2017 at 6:20 pm
A petition signed by over 2,000 IDF reservists was sent on motzei Shabbos to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-General Gadi Eizenkott, calling on him to prevent the theft of military equipment from IDF bases and training grounds in the Negev.
According to the petition, the theft of military equipment in the Negev by members of the Bedouin community is a widespread phenomenon that occurs on a regular basis and endangers the well-being of IDF soldiers and the citizens of Israel.
The petition was initiated by Sergeant First Class (res.) Alon Malik, who experienced the thefts firsthand last month while serving in reserve duty in the IDF’s Tze’elim base in the Negev.
The petition, signed by IDF reserve soldiers and high-ranking officers including captains, lieutenant colonels and ...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:16 pm
During a Shabbos drasha in the Musioff Shul in Yerushalayim, HaGaon HaRav Bentzion Mutzafi addressed the recent High Court of Justice ruling permitting grocery stores to open in Tel Aviv on Shabbos.
The rav stated “What is happening now is the High Court is uprooting Yisrael and Toras Yisrael with its ruling permitting stores to open on Shabbos”.
The rav added “The municipality does nothing and in fact, the chareidim do nothing too – it’s all about business”.
The rav added the media plays a big role in persuading the masses, then speaking about the chareidi media which dares to expresses criticism against Gedolei Yisrael who speak out against chilul Shabbos, those who portray rabbonim who speak out as being “extremists”.
“Yes, I am ...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:16 pm
Maran HaGaon HaRav Aharon Yehuda Leib ,Shlita, has expressed opposition to the hiring of female legal advisors to the nation’s batei din, Kikar Shabbos News reports.
The matter began when a prominent female attorney turned to a labor court after being turned down for a post as advisor to a dayan in the state system, claiming she was discriminated against for being a woman.
The directors of the batei din turned to MKs of Yahadut Hatorah seeking a solution, and they in turn took the matter to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit who has proposed a compromise, to allocate two slots for women in the batei din system.
The idea behind the compromise is to divide the advisor post into two, with one addressing legal issues with the High Court of Justice and the other addressing halachic ma...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:15 pm
Fresh off an immense North Korean parade that revealed an arsenal of intercontinental ballistic missiles, rival South Korea and its allies are bracing for the possibility that Pyongyang’s follow-up act will be even bigger.
North Korea often marks significant dates by displaying military capability, and South Korean officials say there’s a chance the country will conduct its sixth nuclear test or its maiden test launch of an ICBM around the founding anniversary of its military on Tuesday.
Such moves could test the developing North Korea policies of President Donald Trump, who has reportedly settled on a strategy that emphasizes increasing pressure on Pyongyang with the help of China, North Korea’s only major ally, instead of military options or trying to overthrow the No...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:14 pm
A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves:
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This is a weekly look at the latest developments in the South China Sea, home to several territorial conflicts that have raised tensions in the region.
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PHILIPPINE OFFICIALS VISIT ISLAND, IRKING CHINA
Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and military chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Ano flew to the island of Pag-asa in the South China Sea on Friday, drawing a protest from China, which also claims the remote territory.
The Philippine government reiterated its claim to th...
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April 24, 2017 at 6:09 pm
Yated Neeman reports on Monday morning 28 Nissan that MK Moshe Gafne has already turned to faction heads in the coalition to oppose the ruling of the High Court of Justice permitting groceries to open in Tel Aviv on Shabbos.
It is reported that following consultation with HaGaon HaRav Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman Shlita on the matter, the Gadol Hador instructed Yahadut Hatorah MKs to tell coalition leaders including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the chilul Shabbos will not be tolerated and it will compel the dissolving of the coalition.
Gafne, along with Yaakov Asher and Uri Maklev met with Rav Shteinman and were told to wage a tenacious battle against the court’s ruling permitting chilul Shabbos by legislating a law to circumvent the decision. The report states Rav Shtein...
