US President Donald Trump appeared to suggest again that American Jews are loyal to Israel, as he urged community leaders to get out the vote for him in a brief pre-Rosh Hashanah phone call Wednesday. Trump signed off the 20-minute call by telling the Jewish leaders, “We really appreciate you… We love your country also.”
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Barr says calls for coronavirus lockdown are the 'greatest intrusion on civil liberties' other than slavery in US history
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/barr-justice-department-speech/index.html
Attorney General William Barr suggested on Wednesday that the calls for a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus were the "greatest intrusion on civil liberties" in history "other than slavery."
The
comments came minutes after he slammed the hundreds of Justice
Department prosecutors working beneath him, equating them to
preschoolers, in a defense of his own politically tuned decision making
in the Trump administration.
Donald Trump has done 1 thing *really* well as President
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/donald-trump-international-standing-pew-poll/index.html
Donald Trump once pledged that, if elected president, he would put America first and spend no time at all worried about what the rest of the world thought about us. Mission accomplished!
A new Pew poll of 13 foreign countries reveals that perceptions of America have dropped drastically in recent years.
A few examples:
*
In the United Kingdom, 83% had a favorable view of the US in 2000. Now
just 41% feel the same way, the lowest number ever in Pew data.
Trump and his backers will cite the Pew
data as evidence that other countries just don't like it when the US
stops letting itself be taken advantage of and stands up for itself.
Wednesday, September 16, 2020
White House staffers test COVID-19 positive after peace deal
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/287442
Multiple members of White House staff test positive for coronavirus one day after signing of Abraham Accords.
A Key to Salvation
BS"D
Our Key to Salvation: Standing With Righteous Individuals Who Stand With HaShem - Against His Enemies
27 Ellul, 5780 °° Sept. 16, 20 °° Parshas Ha'azinu
By Binyomin Feinberg
As
we approach the Days of Awe, it's appropriate to reflect on the plight
of those righteous women languishing in Israeli military prison to avoid
conscription into the immoral, exploitative Army. Furthermore, we must
also consider the ongoing travails of all the many, many other girls and
women who regularly endure intimidation and threats from Israeli
military draft office, from the court system, and also suffer from the
systemic corruption enabling the wholesale abandonment of innocent girls
- in their stand against the military draft - for their Faith,
morality, and personal purity. But first, a general background review
is in order.
A. A Refresher:
1.
Ever since the early days of the State of Israel, the Israeli Army has
been - almost unbelievably -
2. Leading Rabbis from across the spectrum held and
hold that it's prohibited for any girl to enlist in the Army. How much
more so it it prohibited to FORCE girls (of any faith) to enlist, even
if they're totally non-religious.
3.
Moreover, the Brisker Rov ZT"L was quoted by Rav Aharon Soloveichik
ZT"L (in sefer "Yeled Sha'ashuim") to be opposed to the drafting of
non-religious girls even more strongly than he was opposed to drafting
religious ones, due of the escalated spiritual threats to the former
over the latter. Such spiritual dangers are endemic to the military
milieu, and have manifested in the Israeli Army in the form of ongoing
immorality, exploitation, and downright abuse.
4.
This is the same Brisker Rov who held that if, G-d forbid, we would
need to choose, it would be preferable to close down all the Yeshivos
rather than allow even one girl to be drafted at all.*
[* This insight from the Brisker Rov may inspire introspection among some more reflective individuals, especially
now, in the midst of the second Coronavirus shutdown in Israel.
(Perhaps community activists and fiefdoms prioritizing government
funding for their institutions - to the exclusion of leveraging
increased Orthodox political power to abolish the female draft - isn't
countenanced well in Heaven -- especially while dozens of girls are
languishing in "Jewish" military prisons - often in acutely oppressive
conditions.)]
5. In the
wake of international outcries by religious Jews across the spectrum -
in decades past - religious girls, the dominant antireligious elements
allowed concession provisions. This compromise mandated providing
automatic military service exemptions to religious girls. Thus, until recent years, religious girls had been routinely exempt.
6.
Tragically, the drafting of other girls had continued, in the state
describing itself as somehow associated with Judaism - to which drafting
girls or women is absolute anathema. It must be emphasized that the
drafting of girls - even only non-religious girls - was always seen as
an ongoing travesty. By no stretch of the imagination was it EVER
anything with which any Jew could possibly make peace.
7.
Many religious and traditional Israeli girls have, in recent years,
been subjected to increasing attempts to draft them into the Army.
8. In some cases, the Army even drafts such girls into mixed units and combat units.
9. Tragically, many traditional and even religious girls have fallen into the Army, recently.
10.
Generally, that's the result of the lack of effective outreach to such
girls, particularly sefardic girls, especially those coming from a
religiously weak background.
11. Many girls
have fallen into the Army because of illegal maneuvers and manipulation
by the Draft Offices, operating under "Meitav."
12.
Chomosaich is an organization providing assistance to any girl who
seeks to save herself from the draft, regardless of her religiosity or
background.
13. They provide information and
help coordinate legal assistance with Israeli attorneys competent in
saving these girls from the draft.
14. Chomosaich also provides girls in the exemption process with vital chizuk.
15.
Often, another vital need is public awareness. Why? Because
intelligent PR is often necessary, to exert pressure often instrumental
in rescuing these girls from government intimidation and threats, and
even incarceration in military prison.
16. We
in the Diaspora have an distinctly pivotal capacity to impede such
Israeli policies, by simply speaking out, in an intelligent manner. The
Israeli government frequently tends to ignore domestic public opinion
on such matters, but remains sensitive to its much-cultivated image in
the outside world. Thus, properly raising public awareness in the
Diaspora is one of the most effective, and probably by far the most
efficient, practical means of saving these innocent girls and women from
indescribable travails.
B. Ofek Y. - an example of just one of the many girls currently being assisted:
1.
Ofek Y., a Ba'alas Teshuva, not yet 18, has been recently returning to
her religious roots, even studying in religious "Midrashiyah." She had
applied for her religious exemption.
2. The Army ordered her to appear at a Religiosity Interview (or interrogation), a Rayon Dat ("R.D.") on July 26, '20.
3.
In compliance with with the directive of Torah authorities, and those
familiar with draft hazards, to refuse any such appearances, she
declined. The monumental practical dangers, and the consequent
Halachic objections involved with the R.D. have been covered online
(search First Amendment Activist and Daat Torah blogs, for example).
4. Now, one needs to question: by what right did the Draft Office have to summon Miss Y. to a R.D.? Her religiosity has been established via the standard legal procedures. Once she submitted her religiosity certification, legally speaking, she's entitled to an automatic religious exemption, unless the Army has bona fide basis to suspect her religiosity. Apparently, they have none.
5. As
newly rediscovering her religious roots, her having studied in a
nonreligious school should not even register as a blip on the Army
radar. Thus, the only legal pretext for a R.D. is some indication of
fakery. If so, what is it? Letters from her original attorney have not
yet yielded either insight or cooperation from the Army Draft Office.
6.
This type of Army treatment pattern - apparently flaunting their own
laws or rules - fits a pattern to which we've been increasingly privy,
especially in recent months. In fact, this treatment profile actually
comports neatly with the Army human-trafficking profile.
7.
Alarmingly, ALL girls who have studied in non-religious schools, among
those we've been in contact with recently - have been summoned to a
Rayon Dat.
8. This policy shift requires girls to hire attorneys many of them can't afford.
9.
This creates pressure on the girls to fight the government, risking
arrest and often emotionally brutal treatment in Israeli military jail,
or else succumb to the draft.
10. According
to the Torah, there is no choice. Torah Sages, from the Chazon Ish and
Rav Pesach Frank, to the Steipler Gaon, and MANY others, all concur that
the female draft is Yai'horaig ve'Al Ya'avor, period.
11.
Miss Y. turns 18 in December, and her draft date R"L is scheduled for
Jan. 4, '21. After that point, without a formal legal exemption, she
would be deemed to be a draft-dodger, and R"L subject to arrest,
incarceration in Military Prison, and mistreatment by prison staff
frequently filled with animosity towards girls avoiding the draft.
12.
Imagine the merit each person reading this could gain by assuming an
obligation to assist such heroic individuals, as we approach the Yomim
Noraim. And imagine the Midah Keneged Midah recompense in store for
those who answer the call.
13. On the other hand, consider the alternative, as articulated in The Jewish Press (in an Op Ed against the Army drafting of girls), Jan. 11, '19, p. 9, end),
"We
must ensure that we are not recorded in Heaven amongst those who fail
to stand up for people who cannot defend themselves and cry out to us
for help. Hashem hears their cries and will, chas v’shalom, exact an
extremely heavy price if we abandon them."
14.
What a merit such mitzvah would provide us, to live to witness the
arrival of the Redemption, for helping save "noshim tzidkoniyos"
(righteous women), in whose merit the Final Redemption will come (Kav
HaYashar, 82, see also Gemara Sotah 11, Rus Rabbah 4:11).
There's still time.
A Kesiva ve'v'Chasima Tova,
BF
~~~~~
"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."
-- Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)
"... And if someone, like Pinchos, is one among a multitude, and every man is against him when he dares to speak out for truth and to fight for the Law -- the more lonely his stand, the greater the number of his adversaries, the more powerful is his word, the mightier his deed."
-- Rav Shamshon Raphael Hirsch OB"M (1808-1888), (in "Judaism Eternal," vol. 2, p. 293)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
regularly drafting girls - Jewish girls,
and even some non-Jewish ones.
Trump has always refused to see the difference between truth and lies
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/borger-analysis-trump-truth-and-lies/index.html
In the world according to Donald Trump, the years bring little change.
Back in 1990, when he was an aspiring monarch in the Atlantic City gambling hierarchy, his Taj Mahal casino
was a mess -- plagued by slot machines that didn't work. The casino
control commission shut one-third of them down -- on opening night, no
less. A complete disaster.
But
Trump, ever the con man, had a tale in mind. When asked about it by
Larry King, he just lied. "The slots were so hot," he said "They blew
apart...they were virtually on fire."
At a certain point, as Woodward implies, Trump believes his own lies. And he lives his own lies. He wanted to talk with Woodward to impress him because he believes in his own ability to schmooze and succeed. So he spoke with him 18 times. And he did not succeed.
HHS says spokesman will take a two-month 'leave of absence' following apology for conspiracy-laden rant
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/16/politics/michael-caputo-hhs-cdc/index.html
Michael Caputo, the top spokesman at the Department of Health and Human
Services, is taking a two-month leave of absence from his post, the
department announced Wednesday, a day after he apologized for a conspiracy theory-laden rant he made against career government scientists in which he accused them of "sedition" and working to undermine President Donald Trump.
Does Cuomo Share Blame for 6,200 Virus Deaths in N.Y. Nursing Homes?
Using self-reported data from nursing homes, the report cited data that showed that the deaths in nursing homes peaked on April 8 — a week before nursing homes admitted most of their infected patients from hospitals.
The patients transferred to nursing homes following their hospital stay, the report said, were likely no longer contagious because health experts believe infected individuals likely stop being contagious nine days after showing symptoms.
New York Times accused of going soft on Cuomo over NY nursing home controversy
A report published on Wednesday in the Times posed the question "Does Cuomo Share Blame for 6,200 Virus Deaths in N.Y. Nursing Homes?" in its headline. However, just two paragraphs deep, the report suggests that any uproar towards Cuomo's weeks-long order for nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients is partisan.
Conservative commentator Stephen Miller mocked the Times for using the "Republicans pounce" trope and called the paragraph "incredible."
"Thousands dead and The NY Times is still hedging for their dude," Miller tweeted.
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