US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday praised Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala which designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. In a post on Twitter, Pompeo wrote that Hezbollah “and other transnational terrorist groups remain active in the region. The US continues to rally international support to counter these threats.” The three countries designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization in the context of the regional anti-terrorism conference currently being held in the Colombian capital of Bogota. Just last week, Britain's finance ministry added the entire Hezbollah organization to its list of terrorist groups subject to asset freezing, after previously having only blacklisted the group’s military wing and not its political arm...
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Thousands of gun-rights activists from around the country rallied peacefully at the Virginia Capitol on Monday, protesting plans by the state’s Democratic leadership to pass gun-control legislation that have become a key flash point in the national debate over gun violence. The size of the crowd and the expected participation of white supremacists and fringe militia groups raised fears that the state could see a repeat of the violence that exploded in 2017 in Charlottesville. But the rally concluded uneventfully around noon, and the mood was largely festive, with rally-goers chanting “USA!” and waving signs denouncing Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. Many protesters chose not to enter the designated rally zone, where Northam had instituted a tem...
LOS ANGELES (JNS) — During a private audience on Monday of 54 international leadership delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center on the 78th anniversary of the infamous Wannsee Conference in 1942 that sealed the fate of European Jewry, as well as on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, Pope Francis warned the world, “If we lose our memory, we destroy our future.” “May the anniversary of the unspeakable cruelty that humanity learned of 75 years ago serve as a summons to pause, be still and to remember,” he added. “We need to do this lest we become indifferent.” Responding to the speech of Simon Wiesenthal Center dean and founder Rabbi Marvin Hier, Francis went on to den...
JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Chief Rabbinate Council, a body of senior rabbis in the Israeli chief rabbinate, decided recently to reinforce the recognition of members of Ethiopia’s Beta Israel community as Jewish, after an earlier decision on the matter failed to stop some officials from continuing to question their lineage. In the past, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef ruled in the 1970’s that members of Ethiopia’s Beta Yisrael community were Jewish, paving the way for their eventual immigration to Israel. Life in Israel, however, has not always been easy for them, since many authorities refused to accept the landmark decision by Rabbi Yosef and demanded that they undergo a form of conversion to be recognized as Jews. The Ethiopians steadfastly refused to undergo the procedure, cl...
Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit refused the request of defense attorneys of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to receive the full investigation material in the three corruption cases their client is indicted in, local media reported on Sunday. In his answer, Mandelblit replied that the defendant will receive the full investigation files only after the indictment will be handed over to the court. In a fiery response, the Israeli premier slammed the attorney general, saying “How can one fight for the truth if the material indicating extortion under threat of state witnesses, selective law enforcement and setting judicial precedents in mankind’s history is hidden?” “One who continues to act in a non-transparent manner probably wants to a...
Governor of Texas Greg Abbott was honored at the Friends of Zion Heritage Center (FOZHC) in Yerushalayim with its highest honor – the ‘Friends of Zion Award’ – during his visit to Jerusalem. At the ceremony, Gov. Abbott said “There are strong relations between Texas and Israel. Anybody who is an enemy of Israel is an enemy of Texas. Whenever anybody threatens Israel, we come side by side with Israel to support Israel in any way we can.” In thanking of Gov. Abbott’s service in building a strong Israel-US relationship, Dr. Evans said “I appreciate and admire the work of my governor, Greg Abbott. His dedication to anti-BDS laws and building stronger economic ties shows that there are those in the world that are willing and proud to support the...
Iran said on Monday that it had not closed the “door to negotiations” in efforts to resolve a dispute over its nuclear agreement with world powers that has escalated steadily since the United States withdrew from the deal in 2018. Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said any further move by Tehran to scale back its commitments to the deal would depend on actions by other parties, after European states triggered a mechanism that could lead to the reimposition of UN sanctions Iran has gradually stepped back from its obligations to the 2015 deal, under which Tehran secured sanctions relief in return for limiting its nuclear work, after Washington quit the agreement and then imposed stringent U.S. sanctions. Britain, France and Germany, also signatories to the pact, trigger...
Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, returned to the headlines on Sunday night after he attacked Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein on Twitter. The strongly worded attack came shortly after Edelstein announced that the Knesset will convene next week to begin deliberations on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s request for parliamentary immunity. “His wife’s father is Leonid Nevzlin. An oligarch who is wanted for murder in Russia, and the owner of the Haaretz newspaper. It is only because of the money he is pouring in that the newspaper has not gone bankrupt,” Yair Netanyahu wrote. He deleted the tweet a short while later. Read more at Arutz Sheva.
The Israeli public supports the continuation of military activity against Iranian entrenchment in Syria even if it means going to war, according to a new study by the Institute for National Security Studies. The National Security Index is an annual public opinion study that has been conducted by the INSS since 1984, and offers insight into public opinion trends over the years. According to the 2019 study, 31 percent of the Israeli public believes the northern sector, including Lebanon and Syria, poses the greatest threat to national security, 26 percent think Iran’s nuclear program is the central threat to Israel, and just 14 percent view the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as the most serious security problem facing the country. Only 14 percent of the Israeli public considers Hamas ...
Pundits clash over Trump’s impeachment.
Should the Allied powers have bombed Auschwitz when they received secret intelligence about what was taking place at the horrific Nazi death camp? That's a question explored by historians in a PBS documentary, premiering on Tuesday, titled, "Secrets of the Dead: Bombing Auschwitz." In April 1944, two Jewish prisoners who escaped from the concentration camp and fled through Nazi-occupied Poland eventually provided detailed testimony about the atrocities that were unfolding at Auschwitz under the Nazi's extermination program. That information eventually made its way to the Allied leadership -- where the possibility of bombing the camp was discussed and considered. Those involved in the debate included Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Allied Air Command, the American War Re...
The White House argued in a legal brief filed Monday that the two articles of impeachment against President Trump are “structurally deficient,” decrying a “rigged process” and urging senators to “immediately” acquit the president of the charges that will be formally presented at his trial that starts in earnest this week. The legal team, led by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, wrote that Trump “did absolutely nothing wrong” as it accused the House Democrats who impeached the president of attempting to overturn the results of the 2016 election and “to interfere in the 2020 election.” “The only threat to the Constitution that House Democrats have brought to light is their own degradation of the impeachment process and tram...
Russian President Vladimir Putin will leave his controlled environment in Moscow to enter a media firestorm when he alights from his plane in Israel this Thursday as he arrives for the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum in Jerusalem. Amid ongoing tensions with Israel over Israeli military operations in Syria against Iran, as well as the case of Israeli traveler Naama Issachar, who is currently jailed in Russia for having a negligible amount of drugs in her possession when transiting through Moscow, Putin will face heavy media scrutiny and wide public speculation over whether he will soon release her. The Kremlin spokesman has announced that Putin will discuss with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a possible pardon for Issachar during his v...
Baltimore, MD - Jan. 20, 2020 - Maryland hasn't seen too many bitterly cold days so far this winter, but that could change this week, and emergency room doctors want you to be aware for frostbite and hypothermia. Temperatures aren't forecast to get much above freezing during the day this week and they'll drop to the teens at night. The Baltimore City Health Department has issued a Code Blue because of the cold. Baltimore City Department of Public Works crews repaired a water main in freezing temperatures Monday afternoon. High temperatures in the greater Baltimore area topped out at around 30 to 33 degrees with much colder temperature expected at night. Dr. Jonathan Thierman, an emergency room doctor with LifeBridge Health, said at Sinai Hospital, they are entering the b...
Amtrak officials apologized Saturday to an internationally known civil rights attorney after asking her to give up her seat on a Baltimore-bound train, according to the Baltimore Sun. Sherrilyn Ifill, well-known Baltimore resident, civil rights attorney, scholar and activist, boarded train 80 Friday in Washington, D.C., to return to Baltimore when she was approached by the conductor and asked to give up her seat on a train that did not have assigned seating. "I'm being asked to leave my seat on train 80, which I just boarded in D.C. There are no assigned seats on this train. The conductor has asked me to leave my seat because she has 'other people coming who she wants to give this seat.' Can you please explain?" Ifill tweeted Friday afternoon. Ifill later added in another...
Three rockets hit near the US embassy in the high-security Green Zone in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Monday evening, security sources told AFP. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Sirens could be heard across the zone immediately after the rockets made impact. There have been several similar attacks on the Green Zone in recent weeks amid tensions between US and Iran. At the beginning of the month, the US eliminated Qassem Soleimani, the head of the powerful Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in a drone strike near the Baghdad International Airport. In retaliation, Iran launched more than a dozen ballistic missiles against US military and coalition forces in Iraq. Last week, the US Army said that 11 US sol...
United Hatzalah volunteer EMTs are currently responding to an explosion that took place near the town of Tamra that caused a large fire which included the destruction and burning of chemical tanks.  United Hatzalah regional director Naftali Rotenberg said: "United Hatzalah volunteers treated numerous people suffering various degrees of injuries as a result of the explosion. It has not yet been determined what caused the explosion. Our volunteers will be staying on the field until all the injured are treated and transported from the scene. "
Lima-Taub explained that her primary issue with Tlaib is the congresswoman's support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel A police officer from southern Florida was suspended from his job for supporting his wife after she posted on social media statements accusing Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib of being a "Hamas-loving antisemite," the Miami Herald reported.Cpl. Pablo Lima, who serves the police department of Bay Harbor Islands in Miami-Dade County and is a former vice president of the police union, was put on administrative leave and is the subject of an internal affairs investigation, according to town manager J.C. Jimenez. “The content of the social media posts that were brought to our attention are not consistent with our ...
According to the source, the aircraft exposed itself in the altitude of 31,000 feet over the nuclear facility when the pilot turned on a non-encrypted transponder, making Israel's newest fighter jet visible in civil flight radars. An Israeli Air Force F-35 stealth jet exposed itself on international civil aircraft tracking radars while flying over the Shimon Peres Nuclear Research Center in the Negev, Ynet reported Monday evening. According to the source, the aircraft exposed itself at an altitude of 31,000 feet over the nuclear facility when the pilot turned on a non-encrypted transponder, making Israel's newest fighter jet visible in civil flight radars. Military aircraft use "Squawk" codes to communicate information when conducting military operations, ...
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