One of the most dramatic moments in the Megila happens when Mordechai tells Esther to take the initiative and go to the King with the hope of persuading him to help save the Jewish people
Esther (chapter 4)
13. Then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, Think not yourself that in the king’s palace you shall escape, any more than all the Jews.
14. For if you remain silent at this time, then shall relief and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but you and your father’s house shall be destroyed. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
15. Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer,
16. Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also and my girls will fast likewise; and so will I go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.
The gemorah Megila (15a)R. Abba said: It will not be she said according to the custom of every other day. Till now I have associated with Ahasuerus under compulsion, but now I will do so of my own will. And if I perish, I perish. As I am lost to my father's house so I shall be lost to thee.
The gemorah is saying that Esther was married to Mordechai and up to this point she was vied as being raped by the king and thus was still allowed to remain married to Mordechai. But now
Mordechai is ordering her to go of her own free will to the king and commit adultery thus henceforth she will be forbidden to Mordechai. Tosfos asks why Moredchai doesn't simply divorce her
He answers because the king might find out about it since all gittin require witnesses. the Nodah beyehuda says he could divorce her without witnesses.
תוספות מסכת מגילה דף טו עמוד א
כשם שאבדתי מבית אבא כך אבדתי ממך - וא"ת אמאי לא היה מגרשה ותהא מותרת להחזירנה י"ל לפי שכל מעשה הגט הוא ע"פ עדים והיה ירא פן יתפרסם הדבר למלכות.
AW: At its core, the Equality Act is not viewpoint neutral. It says that progressive understandings of sexual orientation and gender identity are government orthodoxy. By default, it must treat the historic Christian sexual ethic as a force for animus and discrimination. Any person, or any institution, on the wrong side of this orthodoxy will, by necessity, find themselves on the wrong side of government policy and cultural opinion.
The bill purports to protect LGBT Americans like me by prohibiting discrimination “based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit and the jury system.” On the surface, this sounds unobjectionable — after all, no one deserves to face discrimination. Yet the bill defined “public accommodations” so loosely and called for regulations so sweeping that it would crush religious freedom and radically reshape American society.
Now, no religious American of goodwill wants to see gay or transgender people threatened in any way. But millions of religious Americans of goodwill have deep, faith-based convictions about marriage and sexual identity, including, for example, that marriage is a holy commitment made by a man and woman to each other before God and that the Creator bestowed DNA and morphology as the only arbiters of gender identity. By vilifying those ideas, the Equality Act would vilify all who hold them to be true.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein berated Tel Aviv party-goers Thursday morning, saying that those who had taken part in mass gatherings the night before, a day ahead of a nationwide nightly curfew over Purim, were responsible for future coronavirus infections and deaths in Israel.
As Israel began its vaccine rollout late last year, some activists and foreign media outlets criticized Israel for not including the Palestinians, arguing that under international law, Israel is the “occupying power” and must vaccinate them.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/297474
NBC on Wednesday pulled an episode of the show Nurses from its digital platforms amid criticism over a scene that has been widely condemned as anti-Semitic for the way it portrayed a Hasidic patient who refused a bone graft from non-Jews, an Arab or a woman, Fox News reports.
The scene in question appeared on a February 9 episode of Nurses and featured a Hasidic Jewish patient who needed a bone graft from a deceased donor in order to treat a serious leg injury. The patient’s father then chimes in, "A goyim leg. From anyone. An Arab, a woman?"
The National Council of Young Israel replaces its entire executive board, a stark move away from its vocally pro-Donald Trump leadership, whose statements have led to controversy in the Orthodox synagogue association.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/23/politics/patriot-party-trump/index.html
The "Patriot Party" is somewhere between a meme and a movement of Trump loyalists.
In the last days of his presidency, Donald Trump floated the idea of starting a new party, CNN has reported. The Wall Street Journal reported he wanted to call it the Patriot Party. Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller then told CNN that Trump is not currently considering launching a third party.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/22/opinions/trump-covid-big-lie-reiner/index.html
The January 6 attack on the United States Capitol was a vivid demonstration of the havoc that can result when a really big lie is repeatedly injected into the body politic.
But there was another big lie in 2020, also propagated by former President Donald Trump, involving the coronavirus pandemic. It was a lie that systematically downplayed the severity of Covid-19 and the utility of face masks. It very likely resulted in the unnecessary deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/response-to-michael-ches-snl-joke-is-unreasonable-659839
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/22/politics/supreme-court-trump-taxes-vance/index.html
The Supreme Court cleared the way for a New York prosecutor to obtain former President Donald Trump's tax returns, dealing a massive loss to Trump who has fiercely fought to shield his financial papers from prosecutors.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/feb/22/trump-cpac-republican-presumptive-2024-nominee
Donald Trump will reportedly tell the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida this week he is Republicans’ “presumptive 2024 nominee” for president.
Trump will address CPAC on Sunday, his subject the future of the party he took over in the 2016 primary then led from the White House through four tumultuous years. On Monday, citing anonymous sources, the news site Axios reported his plan to assume the mantle of challenger to Joe Biden – or another Democrat, should the 78-year-old president decide not to run for a second term.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/297243
The popular comedy show “Saturday Night Live” is under fire for a joke that suggested Israel is vaccinating only its Jewish citizens against COVID-19.
“Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population, and I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half,” said Michael Che on this past Saturday night’s show.
The joke sparked outrage by Jewish groups which have demanded that the show apologize.
Former New York State assemblyman and head of Americans Against Antisemitism tweeted, “Unsurprising coming from SNL as they have a long record of antisemitism.”
Last month, Axios published "Off the rails," a series taking you inside the end of Donald Trump's presidency, from his election loss to the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that triggered his second impeachment — and a Senate trial set to begin next week.
In this bonus edition, we take you back into those final weeks — to one long, unhinged night a week before Christmas, when an epic, profanity-soaked standoff played out with profound implications for the nation.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/297200
Family members of Osnat Ben Shitrit, the pregnant woman who died last night at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, opposed receiving the Covid-19 vaccine.
Ben Shitrit, 32, who was in her 30th week of pregnancy, died in the intensive care unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital, and the efforts to revive the fetus also failed.
Ben Shitrit's brother-in-law told Kan News: "I founded one of the most successful groups on Facebook against the vaccines, after this case I disabled it. When it comes to you, you understand that you have to think differently."
We call on everyone to go get vaccinated now."
Using a pioneering machine, NHS medics have been able to reanimate hearts from donors whose hearts had stopped. The technique has saved the lives of six British children aged from 12 to 16, and the transplants have all taken place during the pandemic.
https://darchenoam.org/rabbi-karlinskys-article-can-chumros-be-bad-for-your-neshamah/
Rav Wolbe continues: Proper service of G-d has to be built on “da’at” – an accurate, deep intelligent understanding of what G-d wants from us, acquired through clear thinking and a deep analysis of Torah. The Talmud (T.B. Sotah 21b; Talmud Yerushalmi Sotah 3:4) illustrates the concept of “chasid shoteh” (a pious fool) with two examples. (It is truly ironic that one of them is an extreme example of what seems to be taking place in front of our eyes, no pun intended.) A woman is drowning, and a man with the ability to save her says to himself that it is not proper to look at women, and does not save her. A child is drowning and a person delays saving him until he removes his tefillin (since jumping into the water while wearing tefillin is disrespectful for them). By the time he has removed the tefillin, the baby has drowned. The common denominator of these examples, explains Rav Wolbe, is following a spiritual instinct without da’at, that clear and intelligent analysis and understanding of what is required of a person in every specific situation. The result of actions rooted in instinct rather than da’at can be the source of distancing one from G-d, rather than bringing one closer to Him. Becoming closer to G-d must be based on a deep understanding of the process of connection to Him, rather than imaginary notions of spiritual accomplishments. This requires clarity about what G-d demands of a person in every situation, having our feet planted firmly on the ground, operating in reality rather than in some self-generated fantasy world. A true relationship with G-d is rooted in proper actions in the real, physical world. The drive and excessive focus on “getting closer to G-d” (especially in our quick-fix, microwave society) emanates from “frumkeit,” that instinctual desire to reach spiritual heights, with the yetzer hara seducing us to find ways to get there without the requisite time and effort necessary.
https://mishpacha.com/were-only-addressing-half-the-problem/
The first assumption about abuse in the Jewish community was that the abuse ran in only one direction, and female perpetrators and male victims of domestic abuse were virtually nonexistent. Prominent Jewish writers, echoed by many others in the field, asserted that 95 percent of victims of physical abuse in a marriage are women and only 5 percent are men — a 16:1 ratio.
However, this belief turned out not to be substantiated, as study after study has shown that women are perpetrators of domestic abuse at rates comparable to men. Furthermore, the belief that patriarchal views explained most instances of domestic abuse turned out to be false. Many of the most rigorous studies suggest that other factors, such as individual personality characteristics, impulse control, and life stressors have much more to do with domestic violence than do patriarchal beliefs of men in society.
For too long the Jewish community has denied the painful reality of male domestic abuse victims and the catastrophic outcomes — for the men as well as their children — that the abuse inflicts. Unfortunately, some men turn to alcohol or substance abuse. Some struggle with suicidality. These maladaptive responses to their anguish tend to feed negative stigmas that our society has toward men, who instead deserve compassion as victims of domestic abuse.
The Jewish community can do better. It must do better. The effects of domestic abuse, whether the victim is a woman or a man, can be catastrophic, and ignoring this reality costs families and communities dearly. Over the past 30 years, the Jewish community has done an incredible job of addressing half of this problem. The time has come to stop ignoring the other half.
Israel is said to have agreed to purchase an unknown number of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine doses for use in Syria as part of the deal for the return of an Israeli woman who was held by the Syrian regime after crossing the border two weeks ago. The woman arrived in Israel on Friday via Moscow and was being debriefed this weekend by the Shin Bet security agency.
According to a report (Arabic) in the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday, Israel is funding the purchase of Sputnik V doses for Damascus as part of the prisoner exchange deal with the Assad regime. The Ynet news site reported Saturday that Israel’s purchase of the vaccine doses was to the tune of over a million dollars.
Rav Shlomo Wolbe(Alei Shur 2:4): On the narrow path to Truth in serving G‑d there is a major impediment which is called “frumkeit” (religiosity) – a term which has no clear and exact translation. “Frumkeit” is the natural urge and instinct to become attached to the Creator. This instinct is also found amongst animals. King Dovid said, “The lion cubs roar for their prey and ask G‑d for their food” (Tehilim 104:21). “He gives to the beast his food and to the young crows who call to Him” (Tehilim 247:9). There is no necessity that these verses should be viewed as mere metaphors. Animals have an instinctive feeling that there is someone who is concerned that they have food and this is the same instinct that works in man – but obviously at a higher level. This natural frumkeit helps us in serving G‑d. Without this natural assistance, serving G‑d would be extremely difficult. However this frumkeit, as in all instinctive urges that occur in man, is inherently self-centered. Therefore frumkeit pushes man to do only that which is good for himself. Activities between people and altruistic actions are not produced by frumkeit. One who bases his service of G‑d entirely on frumkeit remains self‑centered.[...] With this we come here to the essence of the issue of frumkeit. The opposite of frumkeit is self-abnegation and humility. Frumkeit is an egoistic drive like all other instinctive drives. Therefore there is not the slightest aspect of humility and subservience and consequently there is also not true closeness to G‑d. That is because it is obvious that the Divine Presence does not rest with the self-centered ego. In fact the opposite is true. Only by self-abnegation does a person get progressively farther from egoism and in that manner he becomes a pure vessel for G‑d to cause His Divine Presence to be with him….
Not all prophets have doubled down on their Trump prophecies since the election, however. And as some have backed away from Trump, a schism has emerged. At least six recognized prophets who initially predicted a Trump reelection have acknowledged those prophecies were wrong. They now say they are deeply troubled by their peers’ refusal to acknowledge the same—and worry that allegiance to Trump could threaten the prophetic tradition itself.
https://www.fox4news.com/news/no-frozen-wind-turbines-arent-the-main-culprit-for-texas-power-outages
Frozen wind turbines in Texas caused some conservative state politicians to declare Tuesday that the state was relying too much on renewable energy. But in reality, the lost wind power makes up only a fraction of the reduction in power-generating capacity that has brought outages to millions of Texans across the state during a major winter storm.
While Webber said all of Texas’ energy sources share blame for the power crisis, the natural gas industry is most notably producing significantly less power than normal.
"Gas is failing in the most spectacular fashion right now," Webber said.
"It appears that a lot of the generation that has gone offline today has been primarily due to issues on the natural gas system," he said during a Tuesday call with reporters.
Still, some have focused their blame on wind power.
BS"D
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-56085733
So when critics pointed to a loss of nearly half of Texas's wind-energy capacity as a result of frozen turbines, they failed to point out double that amount was being lost from gas and other non-renewable supplies such as coal and nuclear.
As nearly 3 million Texans languished without electricity Wednesday afternoon amid the ongoing fallout from Winter Storm Uri, Republicans and Fox News have teamed up to turn the disaster into a culture-war wedge issue.
Fox News’ treatment of Uri illustrates how, for a large segment of the Republican Party, everything is now a culture war. On Fox, the coronavirus pandemic is recast around the struggle of aggrieved business owners and parents to overcome purportedly unnecessary public health regulations imposed by Democratic public officials; the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol becomes about Nancy Pelosi’s alleged failures; President Joe Biden’s efforts to prevent conflicts of interest in and around the White House is covered, while the egregious conflicts of interest in the Trump White House were defended.
https://ohr.edu/this_week/insights_into_halacha/5717
The Gadol Hador, Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, in a brief, albeit pivotal teshuva dated several months after the Surgeon General’s initial report,[14] wrote that although it is certainly appropriate to abstain from smoking, nevertheless, one cannot say that smoking is outright assur, as there are many people that smoke. Therefore, smokers fit into the category of “Shomer Pesaim Hashem, Hashem watches over fools.”[15] Rav Moshe adds that especially since many Gedolim smoked, it is impossible to say that such an act is truly forbidden.[16] This responsum seems to be the primary justification for many a smoker.
In fact, even Rav Moshe himself, in subsequent teshuvos dated 1981,[24] took a much stronger stance against smoking due to the health risks involved. Although he still would not call smoking outright assur, he nonetheless rules that due to the dangers of second-hand smoke, it is forbidden to smoke where it will bother others (a psak later echoed by many other authorities)[25] including Batei Midrash and shuls, and concludes with an exhortation that everyone, especially Bnei Torah, should not begin to smoke due to the chashash sakana, adding that it is assur to ‘get addicted’.
Several years ago, his son, Rav Dovid Feinstein shlit”a, was quoted as saying that with the current knowledge of the harm smoking causes, it is pashut that had his father, Rav Moshe, still been alive today, he would have prohibited smoking outright, as his dispensation was only based on the ‘fact’ that smoking endangered only a small percentage of smokers.[26] Indeed, in a newly discovered and recently published teshuva of Rav Moshe’s, dated Elul 5732, he himself wrote that his famous lenient psak was based on the facts as they were known at the time.[27] He added that if the metzius would change and the percentages of those proven harmed by smoking would increase, then certainly it would be prohibited to smoke, at least the amount the doctors considered harmful to one’s health.
https://www.aggressivelegalservices.com/false-allegations-of-domestic-violence/
False allegations of domestic violence occur at a high frequency in divorce proceedings. Some people even use this type of tactic as a tool in child custody battles. 25% of all divorces include allegations of domestic violence. The courts in 48 states must consider these allegations while making rulings in child custody hearings. Protection orders are clearly meant to offer protection in serious situations. Now, they have been turned into a weapon in divorce cases. This system is ripe for abuse, and something needs to change.
The majority of Donald Trump's defense against his second impeachment so far is that the trial being held in the Senate right now is unconstitutional. His lawyers devoted half their brief and half of their speaking time this week to arguing that the Senate cannot try former officers. Senate Republicans voted 44-6 in agreement.
But what did the authors of the Constitution say about the timing of impeachment? That answer should matter a lot to Republicans, who are known for placing great weight in “originalism” when they invoke the Constitution—the meaning of the document when written in 1787 and then ratified by the public.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/296771
US Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Saturday criticized former US President Donald Trump and said that he was "practically and morally responsible" for his supporters' deadly attack on the Capitol.
The speech came shortly after the Senate acquitted Trump on charges of “inciting insurrection” at his impeachment trial. McConnell voted in favor of acquitting Trump.
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-do-israels-haredim-really-live-off-the-state-1001359942
The Senate voted Tuesday to move ahead with the unprecedented impeachment trial of former President Trump after listening to nearly four hours of arguments on whether it is constitutional to try a president who is already out of office.
The vote was 56-44.
The six Republicans who joined with the Democrats on voting to continue the trial were Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
Cassidy changed his vote from January when he was among the 45 Republicans who supported a motion by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that declared the trial unconstitutional. Cassidy said he was persuaded by the House impeachment managers' arguments on Tuesday.
Le 31 Janv. 2021 à
D... N...Passport fronçais : ...Née à Paris le ... juin 2001Date d’entrée à l’armée : 13/09/2020Je me suis engagée à l armée par Mahal (1 an et demi volontaire )בס״דJe m appelle N... D... je suis en Israël depuis 1 an sans mes parents et j ai décidé de m engager volontairement à l armée pendant 1 an et demi à l’aide d un visa.Si j ai décidé de m engager à l’ armée c est tout simple parce que j était prête à aider le peuple juif , tout en étant une citoyenne française .J ai grandit dans une famille religieuse mais personne ne nous préviens des risques et dangers a s’engager à l’armée. En France nous ne sommes pas au courant de que ce qui est interdit pour les jeunes filles à cause du au manque d’informations . Nous pensons à un idéal, que de faire l armée est quelque de super mais ce n’est pas la réalité.La décision a été difficile car mes parents ne sont pas avec moi et c est très compliqué de ne pas être avec eux tous les jours ,d’être seule en Israël .J ai voulu faire l armée seulement sous certaines conditions dont une très importante qui était de pouvoir rentrer en France. On m as promis que lorsque je le voudrait je pourrais partir et être avec ma famille et lorsque j ai fait la demande on me la refusée surtout lorsque j ai appris malheureusement que mon père avait eu un accident et qu’il était à l hôpital. Qu il était urgent pour moi de rentrer pour être avec lui. On m a refusé un droit qui est indispensable et que je n accepte pas.Je n ai pas vu mes parents depuis plus d un an et particulièrement dans cette période très difficile pour ma famille j ai besoin d être là.On m as également promis que l armée serait cacher, que la Tsniout serait respectée aussi bien dans le vêtement que dans la parole .J ai vu et entendu des choses qui sont à l inverse de ce que l on m avait promis et dits.A l’inverse de ce que je connais et de l endroit d ou je viens .On m as promis que le Shabbat serait respecté et tous l inverse s est produit. La musique sur des enceintes tout le Shabbat est quelque chose qui n est pas respectueux et je dirais même du mépris envers la religion c est absolument interdit Shabbat , l’allumage de la plata en plein Shabbat parce qu ils l avaient oubliée ou encore que la seule manière de boire est avec un distributeur électrique sont des interdictions qui m obligent de transgresser Shabbat car il m est interdit de manger un plat qui a été cuit pendant Shabbat ou de boire d une provenance électronique . En France on a l’habitude d aller à la synagogue en famille vendredi et samedi pour prier. Il a effectivement une synagogue mais une synagogue vide ou je ne peux pas suivre la prière de Shabbat qui est très importante pour moi .Etre la seule de toute ma base shomeret Shabbat est quelque chose qui n est pas supportable et que je vis très mal. Je passe la journée seule à chaque fois sans ma famille sans mes amis et dans un endroit qui ne me convient pas. Je n ai jamais de ma vie passe des Shabbat comme ça et lorsque j en parle à mon mefaqued lorsque je fais la demande de pouvoir au minimum être chez moi à Shabbat on me répond que cela est impossible même si c est très dur pour moi . De plus,le mélange Filles et garçons est inacceptable pour moi d être toujours ensembles et de voir des choses qui sont à l encontre de mes valeurs.Je ne me sens pas à l’aise et je ne me sens pas capable de rester dans un environnement comme ça. Toutes les choses que l armée m avait promis ne sont pas respectés et je n ai plus la force de rester dans cet environnement, dans ce cadre de vie qui ne me convient pas . Si j avais su je ne me saurais jamais engagée et n aurais jamais acceptée de signer le contrat . On a exploitée ma naïveté et mon ignorance du fait que je sois une jeune française voulant aider et on m as trompé à me faire croire des choses qui ne sont autres que de pures mensonges .Je considère ceci comme de la malhonnêteté .On m a trompé.Je ne souhaites plus rester à l armée car toutes les conditions pour lesquelles je me suis engagée ne sont pas respectés.J exige l annulation immédiat de mon engagement à l’armée car je subis une humiliation de jour en jour. Toutes les promesses que l ont m’a accordes n ont aucune valeur . Jamais je n’aurais pensé subir une telle aberration, escroquerie.
«# END #»
https://www.bbc.com/news/55955588
The Senate is determining whether to convict Mr Trump based on the president violating his oath of office, rather than if he acted illegally.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/296502
“In order to protect oneself from harm and to also to avoid harming others…therefore there is a great obligation to take every possible precaution.”
“We are obliged to obey the regulations from our rabbis…and yeshiva deans who instructed married students [Avrechim] to get the vaccine against COVID, in accordance with doctors’ opinions that it is safe to use.”
“Therefore, we call on all married students [Avrechim] who can to follow the doctors’ advice and get vaccinated.”
The letter cites the opinions of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Rabbi Gershon Edelstein.
The claims of a popular, anti-vaccination rabbi are fueling fears of the coronavirus shot in Israel and have reportedly been blamed by health officials for a slowdown in the country’s vaccination campaign.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/feb/05/fox-news-lou-dobbs-tonight-canceled
Fox Business Network has canceled the show of Lou Dobbs, the ardent Donald Trump supporter with a history of espousing misinformation who promoted baseless conspiracy theories of voting fraud after the election.
Dobbs is still considered the highest-rated host on the Fox Business Network, and he has remained under contract even though he is not expected to reappear on a new show. His show’s slot, which airs twice on weeknights, will now be filled with a show called Fox Business Tonight, which will feature Jackie DeAngelis and David Asman as hosts.
News of the cancellation came one day after Dobbs, 75, was named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit filed by Smartmatic, an election technology company and voting machine maker, which accuses Dobbs and other Fox News anchors of promoting unfounded claims that Smartmatic was involved in a scheme to hand the presidency to Joe Biden.
From a segmentation of the infections that did occur, it appears that the immunity increases as the days go by. Among the 254 people who contracted the virus, 76 of them were infected after seven days, 44 on the eight day, and 24 on the ninth day. Between day 22 and 24 – when the test period ended – no one was infected.
Former US president Donald Trump’s lawyer in the upcoming Senate impeachment trial, who is an Orthodox Jew, has asked for the proceedings to be paused from Friday evening due to Shabbat, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
A spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is also Jewish, said accommodations would be made.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/296361
Fox News has canceled the show of Lou Dobbs, who is considered the most ardent supporters of former US President Donald Trump, AFP reports.
The decision on Friday came a day after Fox News and Dobbs were sued for defamation by voting technology firm Smartmatic, which is claiming $2.7 billion in losses from the network for promoting false claims that the company was involved in fraud in November's presidential election.
https://mobile.kikar.co.il/article/384981
בשיחה שמסר הגאון רבי גרשון אדלשטיין, הוא הסביר מדוע חרדי חייב לשמור על ההנחיות ולהתחשב בדעת החילונים; 'שיאמרו אשרי מי שלמד תורה, אשרי מי שהוא חרדי'. צפו (ארץ)
11 Republicans support move as Georgia representative backtracks from support of QAnon and 9/11 trutherism, but fails to apologize for anti-Semitic, racist and violent comments
Addressing her colleagues, Greene tried to dissociate herself from her “words of the past.” Contradicting past social media posts, she said she believes the 9-11 attacks and mass school shootings were real and no longer believes QAnon conspiracy theories, which include lies about Democratic-run pedophile rings.
But she didn’t explicitly apologize for supportive online remarks she’s made on other subjects, as when she mulled about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi being assassinated or the possibility of Jewish-controlled space rays causing wildfires. And she portrayed herself as the victim of unscrupulous “big media companies.”
There are two main types of immunity you can achieve with vaccines. One is so-called "effective" immunity, which can prevent a pathogen from causing serious disease, but can't stop it from entering the body or making more copies of itself. The other is "sterilising immunity", which can thwart infections entirely, and even prevent asymptomatic cases. The latter is the aspiration of all vaccine research, but surprisingly rarely achieved.
You see, this 100% tracks with Greene’s many terrible beliefs that we already knew about: She’s a known supporter of many anti-Semitic and Islamophobic conspiracy theories. A recently resurfaced video shows her verbally abusing Parkland survivor David Hogg and claiming that he is being paid by George Soros — yet another popular modern anti-Semitic canard. Greene believes that the Parkland, Newtown and Las Vegas shootings were staged. She also believes that 9/11 was an inside job, and that “former secretary of state Hillary Clinton murdered a child during a satanic ritual and drank her blood.” She is a supporter of QAnon — another trove of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/296193
I do not know what all those people who have spread and are spreading that 'there is no pandemic' and convince others not to take vaccines will say in heaven. How will they stand before the heavenly court and explain why they brought upon the deaths of so many people, when the mortality rate in Israel is skyrocketing?
How dare people still say that there is no pandemic when the mortality rate in some countries has almost doubled. What would have happened if the government had not done all the lockdowns and preventive measures?
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/296186
Recent morbidity data shows an alarming increase in the number of children under the age of two who have become infected with the coronavirus, Channel 12 News reported.
According to the data, in November 377 babies were diagnosed with the coronavirus. In December that number rose to 1,526 and in January it ballooned to 5,780.
It is believed that the sharp rise in infant morbidity is due to the spread of the British variant of the coronavirus, a mutation which is even more contagious than the original strand of the disease.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/03/politics/marjorie-taylor-greene-committee-assignments/index.html
During his meeting with Greene, McCarthy asked if she would apologize for her past comments and views, which she did not agree to, a person with knowledge of the matter told CNN. Another person familiar with their conversation also said that McCarthy provided a slew of options to her, including that she could show remorse and apologize.
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/02/03/politics/fact-check-trump-impeachment-response-senate/index.html
Former President Donald Trump continues to defend the ludicrous lie that led him down the road to a second impeachment -- even in his legal team's official response to that impeachment.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/476737-trump-lashes-out-at-squad-they-hate-jewish-people
President Trump lashed out at a group of progressive lawmakers at a rally with evangelical supporters Friday, accusing the freshmen congresswomen of being anti-Semitic.
“These people hate Israel. They hate Jewish people,” Trump said at a campaign event in Miami launching his “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition.
“I won’t name them. I won’t bring up the name of Omar, Tlaib, AOC. I won’t bring that name up. Won’t bring it up. I will not bring it up,” he added, referring to Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
https://www.factcheck.org/2019/07/trumps-and-millers-attacks-on-the-squad/
President Donald Trump and his top immigration adviser continue to criticize four progressive Democratic congresswomen known as “the squad,” but some of their claims twist the women’s words.
We’ve dealt with a couple of these assertions before, including a false claim that Rep. Ilhan Omar has expressed pride for al Qaeda. But Trump and senior adviser Stephen Miller have pointed to other instances in which they claim the lawmakers expressed anti-American or anti-Semitic remarks. Below, we present some of these claims and a fuller context of the comments made by the congresswomen.
The claim: “They can’t talk about ‘evil Jews,’ which is what they say: ‘evil Jews.'” — Trump, July 19
What Omar said: “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.” — via Twitter in November 2012. It has since been deleted.
To be clear, we could find no evidence that any of the four congresswomen have ever uttered the phrase “evil Jews.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/11/house-democrats-ilhan-omar-antisemitism-1163728
Rep. Ilhan Omar apologized for anti-Semitic comments Monday after coming under pressure from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats.
Republicans are accusing Democrats of hypocrisy, because they were quick to punish Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) last month after he defended white nationalism and white supremacy, which McCarthy said recently were equivalent, or even “more so,” to the rhetoric of Omar and Tlaib. The full House rebuked King on the House floor, while the GOP stripped King of his committee assignments.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/6/18251639/ilhan-omar-israel-anti-semitism-jews
It’s true that Omar’s comments on Israel keep falling into well-worn anti-Semitic tropes — and her defenders often prove too willing to paper this over and dismiss criticism from even progressive Jews as “smears.”
It’s also the case that Republican officials frequently call on anti-Semitic tropes and say worse about other minority groups without nearly so much bipartisan condemnation. Pushing for a House vote on anti-Semitism really did feel like unfairly singling out Omar — and whitewashing the GOP’s record in the process. That’s why progressives rallied to Omar’s defense, and why the Democratic leadership has been forced to reconsider its initial resolution.
Omar deleted the original tweet and said she “unequivocally” apologized. And for a few weeks, that seemed to settle the matter. But then, at the panel with Tlaib last Wednesday, Omar tried to address her anti-Semitism problem again. And that’s when things went south.
“At the event last week, Rep. Omar reiterated the remorse she feels for her comments last month—and the pain she knows they caused. As she said in her apology, we must distinguish between criticism of a particular faith and fair critiques of lobbying groups,” Slevin said. “She has consistently spoken out about the undue influence of lobbying groups for foreign interests of all kinds and her comments were about just that. To suggest otherwise is an inaccurate reading of her remarks.”
Even if there is proof that Trump "intended" to cause violence with his speech, and even if there is proof that the violence he intended to cause was the storming of the Capitol, there could be an issue of whether the violence was "imminent" enough to be criminal.
Some will conclude that words like "fight" and "strength" gave the crowd the detailed instructions to violently enter the Capitol. The Senate can still convict even if reasonable minds can differ over those factual conclusions. A criminal jury must be unanimous.
A criminal jury is bound by the reasonable doubt standard. The Senate is not. It is bound by the two-thirds supermajority vote standard — and not much else.
Many top political figures are converging on a stunning consensus: President Donald Trump personally incited a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, leaving four dead and an indelible scar on American democracy. Those assessments are coming not just from Trump’s political opponents, but also from members of his own party and even former members of his administration.
They include Gen. James Mattis, Trump’s first secretary of defense, who said last night that the “effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule…was fomented by Mr. Trump.” Gen. Joseph Dunford, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Trump, also laid blame on the President. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney directly blamed Trump for last night’s events, and Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois this morning called for the invocation of the 25th Amendment, which gives the Vice President and the cabinet the power to remove an unfit President.
Trump’s statements leading up to and during the storming of the Capitol building, however, did not include explicit calls for a violent attack on America’s democratic institutions. Instead, those laying blame on Trump are pointing in part to rhetoric that agitated his followers with conspiratorial lies and instilled a sense of imminent doom—while relying on them to make the final decision to act. This is a version of the “stochastic terrorism” tactics common to authoritarian leaders around the world.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55640437
Thousands gathered at a "Save America" rally organised to challenge the election result and they listened as Mr Trump spoke to them near the White House.
In a 70-minute address, he exhorted them to march on Congress where politicians had met to certify Democrat Joe Biden's win. The attack began moments after he took the applause.
Those words have now played a central part in his second impeachment, which happened after a day of debate in Congress.
So what did he say? Here are five key quotes, followed by some legal analysis from Professor Garrett Epps of the University of Baltimore.
