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February 10, 2019 at 2:13 pm
HELSINKI (AP) — An Israeli Holocaust historian praised authorities in Finland for publishing a report that concluded Finnish volunteers serving with Nazi Germany's Waffen-SS, "very likely" took part in World War II atrocities, including the mass murder of Jews.
Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center lauded the determination of the National Archives of Finland to release the findings even if doing so was "painful and uncomfortable" for Finland.
Zuroff called the decision an "example of unique and exemplary civic courage."
Finland's government commissioned the independent 248-page investigative report, which was made public Friday. It said 1,408 Finnish volunteers served with the SS Panzer Division Wiking during 1941-43, most of them 17 to 20-years-old.
"It is very ...
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February 10, 2019 at 12:37 pm
Baltimore, MD, Feb. 6, 2019 — In questioning judicial nominee Neomi Rao yesterday, Senator Cory Booker asked her repeatedly if she believed homosexual relationships to be sinful, and expressed surprise that she declined to comment on her personal views. Article VI of the US Constitution states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Inquiring about personal religious beliefs during a nominee hearing implies those would factor into the decision, which would violate that clause.
Rabbi Pesach Lerner, President of the Coalition for Jewish Values, made the following statement:
"It is outrageous that Senator Booker would use religion as a weapon with which to exclude an eminently well-qualified candid...
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February 10, 2019 at 12:34 pm
The Democratic presidential field campaigning in advance of the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary will be confronted by some uncomfortable questions about Israel, at least if Senator Elizabeth Warren’s appearance here this weekend is any indication.
Warren, on her first visit to New Hampshire as a declared Democratic presidential candidate, answered a question from a voter who volunteered that two of his best friends from college were Jewish before pivoting to ask Warren what she thought of Israel’s West Bank settlements and “basically an apartheid situation in Palestine now.”
Warren didn’t dispute the “apartheid” characterization, but didn’t endorse it, either. Instead she thanked the voter for his question and...
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February 10, 2019 at 12:32 pm
Palestinian officials have been invited to a US conference on the Middle East hosted by Poland next week, a senior American official said on Friday, but top Palestinian officials said they would not attend.
The senior administration official told reporters White House senior adviser Jared Kushner would discuss plans for peace between the Palestinians and Israelis at the event.
Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas has called on the US to reverse its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel‘s capital and cuts in aid to the Palestinians, saying these had undermined efforts to reach a two-state solution to the longstanding conflict.
“As noted we have asked the Palestinian Authority to send representatives to this event,” the US official said.
Kushner, who is US Pr...
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February 10, 2019 at 12:31 pm
Justice Minister Ayalet Shaked and former Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman are among the high-level Israeli officials calling on Israel to execute Arafat Irfayia, the Arab man believed to have murdered 19-year-old Tekoa resident Ori Ansbacher in a what has been described as a grizzly and gruesome slaying.
Ansbacher, who was serving in National Service in Jerusalem until she was reported missing, was discovered unconscious and unresponsive with multiple stab wounds in her chest in the forest of Ein Yael on the outskirt of Jerusalem on Thursday.
Additional details have been censored, but authorities said the attack was exceptionally gruesome.
Irfayia, who was found near Ramallah on Friday morning and arrested, is from the Abu Sneina neighborhood of Hebron. Local Jewish residents called ...
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February 10, 2019 at 12:29 pm
Tucker Carlson takes on Robert Hockett, Cornell law professor and adviser to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, over the details of the Green New Deal.
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February 10, 2019 at 12:26 pm
Iran tried to hack Israel’s missile-alert system more than a year ago, Israel Defense Forces’ Cyber Defense Division Commander Noam Sha’ar told Israel Hayom.
In an interview with Israel Hayom’s weekend magazine, Sha’ar says the cyber attack was successfully repelled by his unit, avoiding potentially catastrophic results. The full interview will be published on Friday.
The Homefront Command’s missile-alert system is one of the most sensitive parts of Israel’s civilian and military infrastructure.
Anyone who gains control over the system can set off sirens at will and even disable the highly important features that provide early warning on incoming rockets and missiles.
The attack was detected due to the constant monitoring of an Iranian cyber gr...
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February 10, 2019 at 12:25 pm
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas pledged to continue security cooperation with Israel, despite the United States cutting all security assistance to the PA.
In front of a gathering of Israeli and Palestinian activists on Wednesday, Abbas said that Ramallah has a “joint agreement to fight terrorism” with Israel and “will not violate it” because were the P.A. to do so, “nothing will remain.”
Abbas’s remarks come as the United States officially ceased last week all $60 million in security assistance to the PA in addition to the US Agency for International Development closing its operations in the West Bank and Gaza.
The cut-off in such assistance and the USAID closure occurred in accordance with the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA),...
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February 10, 2019 at 12:19 pm
Paris - Police are investigating anti-Semitic graffiti that was found sprayed across a bagel shop in the old Jewish quarter of Paris.
Police in the French capital said Sunday the word “Juden”, which is German for Jews, was discovered Saturday as anti-government protesters and police forces clashed in other parts of the city.
The French League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism showed a photograph of the bagel shop graffiti alongside a photo of a Berlin shop that was marked in a similar way in 1938 Nazi Germany.
The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France, or CRIP, expressed “indignation and anger after the discovery of a revolting anti-Semitic tag on the window of a Bagelstein shop.”
The group says it was an “act that recalls the darkest hour...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:51 am
The Charedi community asked the world to join them in tefila for those injured in a fatal bus accident that killed two and injured 41 passengers on Sunday morning. Specifically the community sent a message on WhatsApp requesting people to say psalms, liturgical hymns often said when Jews find themselves in difficult situations. The message published the name of some of the injured along with the words for Psalms Chapter 121, which is traditionally recited for those who are sick, hoping for a quick recovery.
The message urged those to spread the names stating, "Whoever prays for his friend is answered first," a well-known Talmudic saying urging those to pray for others because those are the prayers that are answered. The names of those injured that the community that were r...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:32 am
Bnei Brak, Israel - Feb. 6, 2019 - Rising among the mix of small old and new buildings in the heart of Bnei Brak is the headquarters of Achiya, the Israeli nonprofit organization, dedicated to helping thousands of children achieve their full learning potential.
Achiya was established approximately 25 years ago by Rav Avroham Gombo (founding principal) and Yitzhak Levin (founding CEO). Their dream began with programs for a few students in a maze of tiny rooms in an old, rundown building. Today, not far from its original location, is the The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Early Learning Center, Achiya's headquarters, and the home of a facility in which educators and paramedical specialists help to transform the lives of thousands of chi...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:30 am
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is hosting their Minority Health Conference (MHC) on February 22 featuring keynote speaker Linda Sarsour. Sarsour is known for her hostility towards Israel, having said “Northing is creepier than Zionism” and advisingMuslims not to “humanize” Israelis. Sarsour once tweeted against the feminist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a survivor of genital mutilation, by saying she wishes she could take Ali’s vagina away.
The MHC Planning Committee is composed of UNC students. Public records indicate that a co-chair, Afsaneh Mortazavi, and two other Planning Committee members – Teja Vemuganti and Karla Jiminez – signed an anti-Israel petition provided to the Durham, NC City Council i...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:30 am
Jerusalem - Security officials say that 29-year-old Arafat Irfayia from Hebron has confessed to the killing of 19-year-old Ori Anspacher, and reconstructed the murder for police on Sunday morning ahead of his arraignment in court.
IDF troops meanwhile mapped the killer’s home ahead of its likely demolition. Troops entered Hebron in the pre-dawn hours on Sunday in order to measure the structure “to evaluate ways to demolish it,” the army said in a statement.
Irfayia was arrested near Ramallah less than 48 hours after Ori Ansbacher, from the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, was found naked and with multiple stab wounds in the Ein Yael forest in Jerusalem on Thursday.
The Shin Bet General Security Service said that the suspect “left his home in Hebron with a knife and...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:28 am
Talks between lawmakers over border-security funding have broken down, an aide familiar with the negotiations said Sunday, increasing the likelihood of another government shutdown at week’s end.
Democrats and Republicans on the bipartisan negotiating committee are disagreeing over the number of detention beds at the border that would be set up under any agreement. Without an agreement on the number of beds, talks on funding levels and physical barriers have stalled, and it wasn’t clear when the discussions would resume, the aide said.
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February 10, 2019 at 10:07 am
Richmond, VA - Virginia’s governor pledged to work at healing the state’s racial divide Saturday, even as calls mounted for the lieutenant governor to resign - capping an astonishing week that saw all three of the state’s top elected officials embroiled in potentially career-ending scandals.
Two women have accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of assault, and he has emphatically denied both allegations. After the second allegation was made Friday, Fairfax — who stands to become the state’s second black governor if Gov. Ralph Northam resigns over a racist photo — was barraged with demands to step down from top Democrats, including a number of presidential hopefuls and most of Virginia’s congressional delegation.
Meanwhile, Northam - now a year into his ...
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February 10, 2019 at 10:01 am
Washington - Congressional bargainers are working toward a border security deal amid indications that the White House is preparing to accept a bipartisan agreement that would give President Donald Trump a fraction of the money he’s demanded for his proposed southern border wall.
Participants said they expect money for physical barriers to end up well below the $5.7 billion that Trump has sought to begin construction of the wall, which has attained iconic significance for him and his conservative supporters. Underscoring the clout he’s lost during a battle that’s dominated the opening weeks of divided government, the amount seems sure to fall much closer to $1.6 billion, the participants said, a figure that was in a bipartisan Senate bill last year.
“That’s w...
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February 10, 2019 at 9:58 am
Washington - Republicans have vilified Nancy Pelosi for years as a San Francisco liberal and now they’re trying to portray her as a captive of resurgent left-wingers in her Democratic Party.
But in her early moves so far as House speaker, Pelosi is displaying her pragmatic streak. She’s set to endorse a split-the-differences deal on government funding that appears on track to give President Donald Trump at least some barriers on the border, after she had said Trump’s border wall idea was “immoral” and promised he wouldn’t get a penny for it.
And as the Democratic Party’s progressive wing pursues dreams such as “Medicare for all” and a “Green New Deal,” Pelosi is keeping her distance.
“We are results-oriented, values...
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February 10, 2019 at 9:54 am
Washington - Ivanka Trump says her father, President Donald Trump, did not play a role in granting security clearances to her or to her husband, Jared Kushner.
Ivanka Trump — a senior White House adviser — discussed the process during an interview on ABC’s “The View” Friday. She says “the president had no involvement pertaining to my clearance or my husband’s clearance.”
The House Oversight and Reform Committee is starting an investigation into the handling of security clearances by Trump’s White House and presidential transition.
Kushner worked without a full security clearance for the first year of the administration. He was granted a full clearance in the spring of 2018 after a lengthy background check.
Trump recently told ...
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February 10, 2019 at 9:52 am
Washington - The Senate’s top Democrat is introducing legislation to “hold China accountable” and sanction laboratories and other traffickers who export fentanyl to the United States.
The bill, which will be introduced by Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York later this week, is likely to add to growing tension between the U.S. and China, days before Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will lead high-level trade talks in China.
In December, China agreed to label fentanyl, the deadly synthetic opioid responsible for tens of thousands of American drug deaths annually, as a controlled substance.
Schumer’s legislation — known as the Fentanyl Sanctions Act — would direct U.S. officials to publicly identify foreign ...
