President Rivlin: "There is nothing more democratic than pointed disagreement. It is possible, important and perhaps even crucial to discuss and to insist on a culture of disagreement. Today, we are so sorely missing these encounters in the public sphere. I want to say this as we approach elections. It is tempting to create a false reality where we are all the same, to blur the edges, to melt everyone into a single bloc. Or, on the other hand, to present the world as if there is only black and white. The realization that disagreement and discussion are options is in fact the way to recognize that there is an other, and that he or she is really, truly different from me." President Reuven (Ruvi) and Nechama Rivlin hosted the 22nd Bible Study Group of 929 this evening, Sunday 17...
An executive with Amazon on Friday invited Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to visit the corporation’s facilities after she denounced its treatment of workers, asserting that “Amazon workers have to urinate in bottles & work while on food stamps to meet ‘targets,’ ” citing a Newsweek report from last year.. Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, extended the invitation while pushing back on claims about conditions at the company that Ocasio-Cortez had shared on Twitter. “.@aoc these claims simply aren’t true,” Clark wrote. “We are proud of our jobs with excellent pay ($15 min), benefits from day 1, & lots of other benefits like our Career Choice pre-paid educational programs. Why don’...
Former President Obama will be involved in the development of the NBA’s first professional league outside of North America. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced on Saturday that Obama would be a part of Basketball Africa League, a 12-team competition consisting of countries from the continent. The Associated Press noted that it is unclear what role Obama will fill. The news outlet noted that Basketball Africa League will begin in 2020 and feature Angola, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia. Read more at The Hill.
In a video circulated on social media to mark the anniversary of the death of former Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, the terrorist organization appears to be threatening to attack Israeli passenger flights and popular tourist destinations in Israel. Mughniyeh was assassinated in Damascus in 2008, in an operation that Hezbollah has attributed to the Mossad and the CIA. Images in the video include El Al planes, as well as pictures of Ben-Gurion International Airport, passports, and the arrivals and departures board at Ben-Gurion. Hezbollah has not been officially confirmed as the entity that compiled the video, which was published by Mughniyeh’s sister, Zeinab. The general message of the video is one of revenge for airstrikes on weapons stockpiles belonging to Hezbolla...
Yuri Podoveni, a 43-year-old resident of Lod, was shot and killed on Thursday in an industrial zone in central Israel. Investigations show that the Holon murder, which took place next to the storehouse where Podoveni worked, was the result of an argument over a parking spot. Two suspects, a father and son, were arrested by Israel Police. Read more at Arutz Sheva.
Attorney Alan Dershowitz, one of President Trump’s informal advisers, said the president’s national emergency declaration was a mistake. “My own view is that it was a mistake to do it. I think emergencies are things that happened suddenly. The problems with immigration are long term,” he said in an interview that aired Sunday on John Catsimatidis’ radio show in New York. Dershowitz predicted the declaration would face a long court battle. “There will be a lawsuit. No doubt about it. It will be tied up in the courts for a long time,” he said. “Ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide. And it’s unclear how the court will decide because it’s a new Supreme Court,” Dershowitz added, referencing the new 5-4 conservativ...
Copenhagen - What to do with the mountain of garbage a major metropolitan area produces is an age-old question. Copenhagen has come up with a brand-new answer: ski down the mountain. Well, not exactly. The waste is actually inside Copenhill, a waste-treatment plant 10 minutes from downtown Copenhagen. Its main facility is a futuristic building with a sloping roof 85 meters high that’s covered in a material called neveplast. It looks just like a ski slope, except it’s green. “I think everybody is surprised to start with when they look at it and it’s not snow,” said Christian Ingels, the director at Copenhill. “It’s green dry-slope material. After one or two runs, your mind is automatically adjusting so you feel exactly like skiing.” Designe...
Jerusalem - Former general Benny Gantz, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest challenger in an election scheduled for April, voiced support on Sunday for the right-wing leader’s tough policy toward Iran. “I am standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Prime Minister Netanyahu in the fight against Iran’s aggression,” Gantz, a former chief of Israel’s armed forces and a centrist candidate, told the Munich Security Conference. Polls predict that Netanyahu’s Likud party will win the April 9 election, taking about 30 of parliament’s 120 seats - enough to form a coalition of right-wing and religious factions similar to one he now heads. The surveys forecast a second-place finish, with some 20 seats, for Gantz’s Resilience party. T...
Miami -  A federal judge has abolished a consent decree that prevented Miami police from arresting homeless people for loitering and sleeping on sidewalks. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno on Friday issued an opinion dissolving the Pottinger Agreement that established protections for Miami’s homeless population from police harassment. The Miami Herald reports that Moreno decided court oversight was no longer necessary because of the shelters and social services now available to assist the city’s homeless. The Pottinger Agreement was the result of a class action lawsuit brought by 5,000 homeless people against the city in the early 1990s. Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union opposed the city’s motion to dissolve the decree. Moreno said the case had ...
Tehran - Iran’s foreign minister on Sunday accused Israel of looking for war and warned that its actions and those of the United States were increasing the chances of a clash in the region. Addressing the Munich Security Conference, Mohammad Javad Zarif, also criticized the U.S. administration after Vice President Mike Pence this week called on European powers to pullout of the nuclear deal with Iran. Zarif urged France, Germany and Britain to do more to save that accord. “Certainly, some people are looking for war ... Israel,” Zarif said. “The risk (of war) is great. The risk will be even greater if you continue to turn a blind eye to severe violations of international law.” Accusing Israel of violating international law after bombing campaigns in Syria, Z...
Seattle, WA - Amazon.com Inc said on Friday it would lead a $700 million investment in U.S. electric pickup truck startup Rivian Automotive LLC, in the e-commerce giant’s biggest bet on technologies with potential to reshape the automotive sector. The deal represents a major endorsement of Rivian’s electric vehicle technology by the world’s largest online retailer, which is looking for ways to boost the speed and reduce the cost of its deliveries. Reuters reported on Tuesday that Amazon and General Motors Co (GM) were in talks to invest in Rivian. GM’s talks with Rivian about an investment are continuing and any deal would be announced at a later date, people familiar with the talks said on Friday. Rivian could ultimately be valued at between $3 billion and $4 bi...
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki canceled his plans to attend a meeting of central European leaders in Israel starting Monday amid new tensions over how Polish behavior during the Holocaust is remembered and characterized. Morawiecki informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s of his decision by phone Sunday, Michal Dworczyk, who heads the prime minister’s chancellery, said. Poland’s foreign minister, Jacek Czaputowicz, plans to attend instead, he said. Dworczyk did not give a reason for the prime minister’s cancellation. But Polish officials had threatened to pull out of the meeting after the Israeli leader made an off-hand comment about the Holocaust and Poland while in Warsaw on Thursday. Netanyahu said during a Mid...
A large plate glass window was shattered in the front of a Chabad shul in Brooklyn as a family sat around their Shabbos table. The window was smashed on Friday night. The Chabad rabbi, Menachem Heller, his wife, and nine children were in the Chabad of Bushwick at the time of the attack. The family stays in the building over Shabbos. Police investigated 42 hate crimes through Feb. 4, compared with 19 at the same date last year. Most of those were anti-Semitic hate crimes, according to NBC NY. Read more at Arutz Sheva.
The Senate’s passage of the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act on Tuesday was a refreshing display of bipartisanship. It sends a powerful message that there remains an unshakable commitment at the heart of American democracy to strengthen our allies and defend U.S. interests in the Middle East. The legislation introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) incorporates four bills that recently advanced in the legislative process by strong bipartisan votes. Every Republican and 23 Democrats — including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) — voted to advance the legislative package, thus rejecting an insular view of American foreign policy. The final vote of 77-23 in favor of the bill is further evidence of the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heather Nauert, picked by President Donald Trump to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations but never officially nominated, has withdrawn from consideration, the State Department said. Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a department statement that "the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration." Nauert's impending nomination had been considered a tough sell in the Senate, where she would have faced tough questions about her relative lack of foreign policy experience, according to congressional aides. A potential issue involving a nanny that she and her husband had employed may also have been a factor in her decision to withdraw, acco...
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A top adviser to President Donald Trump indicated Sunday that Trump is prepared to issue the first veto of his term if Congress votes to disapprove of his declaration of a national emergency along the U.S.-Mexico border. White House senior adviser Stephen Miller told “Fox News Sunday” that “the president is going to protect his national emergency declaration.” Asked if that meant Trump was ready to veto, Miller added, “He’s going to protect his national emergency declaration, guaranteed.” Trump declared the emergency Friday in an effort to go around Congress to fund his border wall. It would allow him to move federal dollars earmarked for military construction to the border — but is already facing legal an...
AL-OMAR OIL FIELD BASE, Syria (AP) — Islamic State militants are preventing more than 1,000 civilians from leaving a tiny area still held by the extremist group in a village in eastern Syria, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed Syrian militia fighting the group said Sunday. “Regrettably, Daesh have closed all the roads,” Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told The Associated Press, referring to IS by its Arabic acronym. SDF officials have said the extremists are hiding among civilians in a tented village and using a network of caves and tunnels. IS, which once ruled a proto-state in large parts of Syria and Iraq, is clinging to an area less than a square kilometer (square mile) in the village of Baghouz, in eastern Syria. The extremists...
LONDON (AP) — Hundreds of passengers throughout Europe have been stranded by the abrupt collapse of the British regional airline Flybmi. British Midland Regional Limited, which operates as Flybmi, said it’s filing for administration — a British version of bankruptcy — because of higher fuel costs and uncertainty caused by Britain’s upcoming departure from the European Union. “Current trading and future prospects have also been seriously affected by the uncertainty created by the Brexit process, which has led to our inability to secure valuable flying contracts in Europe and a lack of confidence around bmi’s ability to continue flying between destinations in Europe,” the airline said on its website late Saturday. The airline thanked workers...
CHICAGO (AP) — The victims of a disgruntled employee who opened fire at a suburban Chicago industrial warehouse were co-workers ranging from an intern to the plant manager. A look at the victims: TREVOR WEHNER The 21-year-old Northern Illinois University student was on his first day as an intern in human resources at Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora and attended the fateful meeting where the gunman was fired and then started shooting. Jay Wehner said his nephew grew up about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Aurora in Sheridan and was expected to graduate from Northern Illinois University in May with a degree in human resource management. He was on the dean’s list at NIU’s business college. “He always, always was happy,” Jay Wehner said. “I have n...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Patrick Caddell, the pollster who helped propel Jimmy Carter in his longshot bid to win the presidency and later distanced himself from Democrats, has died, a colleague said Saturday night. He was 68. Caddell died Saturday in Charleston, South Carolina, after suffering a stroke. That’s according to Professor Kendra Stewart of the College of Charleston, who confirmed the death to The Associated Press. After working with Democrats in the 1970s and 1980s, Caddell eventually drifted away from the Democratic Party and began advising supporters of Republican Donald Trump and was a contributor to Fox News for a time. Caddell worked for 1972 Democratic nominee George McGovern, then joined with Carter in the mid-1970s to develop a campaign strategy to overcome the c...
More articles