ALLEGED VICTIM OF ABUSE DEMANDS RABBI BE CONDEMNED, SUES FORMER YESHIVA

jpost

Amitai Dan, 34, was a pupil in the prestigious Horev high school yeshiva in Jerusalem where Elon served as dean from 1987 to 2002, studying there for just one year in 2002 during grade 11.

Dan alleges that during a private meeting he had with Elon in the dean’s office to discuss personal issues, Elon touched him, stroked him, and embraced him in an inappropriately sexual manner and sought to touch his genitals, which Dan resisted.

He said that when Elon was touching him in this way he asked explicitly if such touching was permitted in Jewish law and that the rabbi told him it was.

Dan was shocked and traumatized by the incident. At first he had trouble even reconciling the fact that his yeshiva dean who he respected had acted in this way, and then tried to dismiss the incident altogether and push it out of his memory.

During the 16 years that passed, including the period of Elon’s trial and conviction for two counts of indecent assault by force against a minor, Dan says that he did not come forward with his complaints because it was hard to break the societal taboo of stating in public that he had been sexually molested and that the incident and other events in his life had presented him with challenges that he needed to overcome.

The latest allegations against Elon are that he sexually molested another young man after his 2013 conviction when he was trying to rehabilitate his public image and had begun teaching again and receiving people in private for consultation.

Dan says that this was the final straw for him as he saw those who had refused to condemn, censure and cast out Elon as having failed in their duty to protect the community.

One such figure was Rabbi Haim Druckman, perhaps the most senior and influential rabbinic figure in the National-Religious community, who publicly backed Elon after his conviction, telling the media that the judge had made a mistake in convicting the rabbi.

Druckman said that Elon should not be invalidated as a teacher and invited Elon to deliver lectures at his flagship yeshiva Ohr Etzion in Merkaz Shapira, close to Ashdod, where Druckman lives and serves as rabbi of the town.

The most recent complainant revealed audio and video footage of the assault to three rabbis, including Druckman, and the three instructed Elon to cease his public activities and seek professional help.

Druckman has yet to make any public comment on the affair or apologize for having publicly supported Elon after his conviction in 2013.

“There are rabbis who think they know everything, and rabbis who make mistakes,” Dan told The Jerusalem Post.

Did Democrats reverse border wall position after Donald Trump was elected?

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2019/jan/09/donald-trump/trump-democrats-reverse-border-wall-position/

Our ruling

Trump said Schumer has "has repeatedly supported a physical barrier in the past along with many other Democrats. They changed their mind only after I was elected president."

Schumer, along with tens of other Democrats including former President Barack Obama, voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006, which authorized building a fence along about 700 miles of the border between the United States and Mexico. That’s the majority of the barrier in place today along the southern border.

However, the fence was mocked as a "nothing wall" by Trump in the past and was far less ambitious, both politically and physically, than the wall Trump wants to build now.

Finally, Trump says the Democrats no longer support their previous position simply because he wants it. But Democrats have actually proposed current funding for the fencing that was approved in 2006. 

We rate this statement Mostly False.

Why the latest Paul Manafort news is a very big deal

cnn.

On Tuesday we learned -- thanks to a redaction error in a filing in the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference -- that Paul Manafort met with a Russian-linked operative named Konstantin Kilimnik during the course of the 2016 campaign. And in that meeting, according to special counsel Robert Mueller's office, Manafort discussed policies related to the Russia-Ukraine relationship and shared polling data about the 2016 campaign with Kilimnik.

That. Is. Huge.

You'll remember that President Donald Trump's constant refrain when it comes to Manafort, who has already been convicted of a series of financial crimes related to his dealing with the Ukrainian government, is that any and all charges against him happened well before he entered Trump's orbit.

"Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign," tweeted Trump in October 2017. "But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????"

Which, until we got a look at the accidentally unredacted material on Tuesday, was true! While you could argue -- and many people have -- that Trump should have done his due diligence on Manafort, who had spent years advising foreign governments, before hiring him to run his campaign in the spring of 2016, it was hard to dispute Trump's main point that any and all wrongdoing by Manafort happened prior to his being involved with Trump.

Except, not now.

Manafort, according to the filings, had conversations with Kilimnik, who is suspected to be a member of the Russian intelligence organization, while he was serving as the head of Trump's campaign. (Manafort's official title was "campaign chairman" but functioned as campaign manager during his time with Trump.) Those conversations apparently came even as Russian officials were hacking into the email servers at the Democratic National Committee -- which led to a series of damaging leaks via the website WikiLeaks later in 2016.

What do you want from marriage - what does your spouse want and expect?

I am finishing my Daas TORAH Volume about marriage and sexuality

As Rav Lichtenstein has pointed out there is no unique picture of marriage found in Chazal

I am interested in hearing what you think is the ideal and whether your spouse shares this view

It is clear from the letters of the Chazon Ish, Steipler and Rav Wolbe - that expectations are often wrong and are a major contributor to shalom bayis issues


please send anonymous responses

Nitel Gavriel

Nitel

Bolton and Pompeo scramble to reassure allies reeling from Trump's Syria decision

cnn

US officials are working to contain the fallout from President Donald Trump's shock announcement of a Syria troop withdrawal, flatly contradicting the President as they do so and raising questions about whether a coherent strategy exists at all.

Trump continues to qualify his statements on the US military presence in Syria, swinging from his ringing, conditions-free declaration in December that troops would be leaving "now" since ISIS had been defeated to Monday's more cautious tweet that troops would leave "at a proper pace."

The two most senior members of Trump's national security teams, meanwhile, are reassuring allies in ways that baldly contradict the President's earlier declarations.

'Not leaving'

National security adviser John Bolton, stressing the US' commitment to the Syria fight in Israel and Turkey, said Sunday that US forces wouldn't leave until ISIS has been crushed and Kurdish fighters working with US troops are protected, describing these as the President's official positions despite the fact that Trump himself hasn't publicly said the same.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, meanwhile, is traveling to eight Middle Eastern countries to stress the US "is not leaving," officials say.

In a gaggle with the traveling press en route, Pompeo denied that there was confusion from allies.

Canadian company fined for falsifying kashrut

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/257297

 Canadian court ordered Eddie Flour Mills to pay $20,000 to the COR kashrut certification board after using the company's logo to market flour and selling it as kosher flour.

The judge later added another $5,000 sentence for possible harm to civilians. However, the judge did not order removing the products from shelves because of what he claimed was "lack of authority". The report was first reported by the Toronto Sun.

During the hearing, the judge explained that "since non-kosher products were sold to innocent consumers who buy only kosher food, it may cause those consumers to experience spiritual trauma.

Prime-time Trump faces credibility crisis

cnn

President Donald Trump will face one huge obstacle when he appeals to Americans in a prime-time Oval Office address Tuesday to unite behind his crusade for a border wall: Himself.

Trump has spent years exploiting immigration -- one of the nation's most divisive fault lines -- during an insurgent campaign and a presidency sustained by the fervor of his committed political base.

But now, the downside of that strategy is becoming evident. In his attempt to convince the nation that a genuine crisis is unfolding at the southern border, the President's arguments face extreme skepticism from those not already in his camp.

About 57% of Americans oppose Trump's wall compared with 38% in favor, according to a December CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Those numbers are similar to where they were just after Trump took office in 2017.

On Tuesday night, Trump will commandeer the symbolic might of his office in an effort to bolster a political approach that has failed to force Democrats to cave to his demand for $5 billion in wall funding amid a government shutdown now in its third week.

Trump's False Border Wall Claims

בית הדין התיר לבעל מסורב גט לשאת אישה שניה

.kikar.

למרות חוק הביגמיה וחרם דרבנו גרשום החליט בית הדין הרבני בתל אביב להתיר לבעל מסורב גט לשאת אישה שניה לאור הנסיבות המיוחדות של המקרה.

המדובר בבני זוג שנישאו לפני כשמונה שנים. כחצי שנה לאחר החתונה עבר הבעל תאונת דרכים קשה בה הוא נפצע אנושות. הוא אושפז, עבר שיקום של שנים רבות וכיום הוא נמצא בשלב שיקומי סופי לקראת חזרה לשגרה.

מספר חודשים לאחר הפציעה טסה האישה עם התינוק שנולד לביקור משפחתי בן עשרה ימים בצרפת. מאז חלפו שבע שנים ועד היום היא לא חזרה לישראל עם בנה.

Fox News’ Chris Wallace Shreds Sarah Huckabee Sanders Over Border Terror Claims

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-news-chris-wallace-sarah-huckabee-sanders_us_5c321e10e4b073352833c7c0

“Let’s talk about the wall,” Wallace said.
“The president talks about terrorists potentially coming across the border.”

He then showed a clip of Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen stating Friday that
“over 3,000 special interest aliens” trying to enter the U.S.
from the southern border had been stopped by Border Patrol agents.

“But special interest aliens are
just people who have come from countries that have ever
produced a terrorist, they’re not terrorists themselves,” Wallace said.
He also cited State Department reports that found “no credible evidence of any terrorist coming across the border from Mexico.”

Sanders responded, “We know that roughly nearly 4,000 known or suspected terrorists come into our country illegally,
and
we know that our most vulnerable point of entry is at our southern border.”

Wallace, ready to pounce, interrupted Sanders with a blistering fact-check.

“Wait wait, ’cause I know the statistic,” he said.
“I didn’t know if you were going to use it, but I studied up on this.
Do you know where those 4,000 people come or where they’re captured? Airports.”

The exchange begins below around the 5:35 mark:

No, Mexico isn't paying for border wall through USMCA trade deal, despite Donald Trump's claims

another failed campaign promise

politifact

President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise that Mexico would pay for a border wall, yet stands firm on his call to U.S. lawmakers to provide money to construct it. All while also claiming that Mexico is already paying for the barrier.

"Mexico is paying for the Wall through the new USMCA Trade Deal. Much of the Wall has already been fully renovated or built. We have done a lot of work. $5.6 Billion Dollars that House has approved is very little in comparison to the benefits of National Security. Quick payback!" Trump tweeted Jan. 2.

Tom Nichols: Are Facts Dead?

Trump Escalates His Assault on Civil-Military Relations

the atlantic

We’ve gotten used to so much in Donald Trump’s two years in office, from the cruelty of his immigration policies to his childlike understanding of international trade, and from his apparent fear of Vladimir Putin to his whipsawing of the financial markets. Too many Americans have simply become accustomed to the president’s antics as a normal part of the background noise of their lives. Sometimes Trump’s disjointed thoughts are merely an embarrassment; at other times, he makes dangerous policy changes or wipes out great amounts of wealth in a tweet.

Now, however, the president has opened a Pandora’s box by escalating his attacks on senior U.S. military leaders. No American president has ever dared risk the American civil-military relationship for less cause or with such childish malice.

American citizens don’t think much about civil-military relations. That’s good: It’s a sign of a healthy polity. We don’t worry about tanks rolling up North Capitol Street or paratroopers lolling about in Lafayette Square. We’re not that kind of country. But the president has taken a dangerous path, excoriating retired military leaders who criticize him and lavishing praise and make-believe pay raises on the active-duty military voters who he believes support him. A precious heritage built on the dual pillars of military obedience to civilians and civilian respect for military professionals is now at severe risk.

Brains of 3 People Have Been Successfully Connected, Enabling Them to Share Thoughts

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-successfully-connected-the-brains-of-3-people-enabling-them-to-share-thoughts

Neuroscientists have successfully hooked up a three-way brain connection to allow three people to share their thoughts – and in this case, play a Tetris-style game.

The team thinks this wild experiment could be scaled up to connect whole networks of people, and yes, it's as weird as it sounds.

It works through a combination of electroencephalograms (EEGs), for recording the electrical impulses that indicate brain activity, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), where neurons are stimulated using magnetic fields.

The researchers behind the system have dubbed it BrainNet, and say it could eventually be used to connect many different minds together, even across the web.