Friday, October 29, 2021

Israel to ban unvaccinated US tourists, even if they had COVID-19

 https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/israel-to-ban-us-tourists-who-had-covid-19-from-entering-country-683340

Individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months and wish to enter Israel under the government’s new tourism outline will not be allowed to unless they have a digital recovery certificate, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

This means travelers who do not have access to such documentation will not be able to enter Israel. Only recovered patients from about 45 countries that are participating in the European Union’s Digital Passport Program will be recognized as recovered and meet the criteria for entry.
Individuals who recovered more than six months prior will still need to receive at least one shot of a verified vaccine.

Biden administration won’t prevent settlement expansion, says source close to PM

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/biden-administration-wont-prevent-settlement-expansion-says-source-close-to-pm/

Official says Americans ‘don’t care that much’ about recent move to approve 3,000 West Bank homes; Bennett government doesn’t believe the US will reopen consulate to Palestinians

 

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Greene, Gosar and Brooks Face Growing Scrutiny for Jan. 6 Insurrection: A Closer Look

What is a Tree?

 https://www.yeshiva.co/midrash/6863

 The Chazon Ish (Orlah 12:3) is dissatisfied with both of these approaches because there is no source in Chazal for this definition of a tree. However, he agrees that eggplants are not prohibited because of orlah for a very different reason. He contends that orlah can only ban the produce of a tree for its first three years but cannot ban the species completely. Therefore, a species that produces fruit for no more than three years cannot be a tree whose fruit is orlah. Instead, we must conclude that this plant is not a tree and therefore its fruit is not orlah.

Israeli military court convicts French-Israeli settler's killer

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjg6mmvut

 An Israeli military court on Wednesday convicted a Palestinian man of the December killing of a French-Israeli citizen in the north of the West Bank.

Esther Horgen, a 52-year-old mother of six, had gone out jogging but did not return and was found dead in a forest near the Tal Menashe settlement.

Pfizer Vax Immunity Waned in Israel, Regardless of Age

 https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/95288

 Immunity against the Delta variant from Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine waned after a few months across age groups, Israeli researchers found.

Not surprisingly, rates of infection in July were higher among adults ages 60 and up who were fully vaccinated in January compared with those who were fully vaccinated in March (rate ratio [RR] 1.6, 95% CI 1.3-2.0), reported Yair Goldberg, PhD, of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, and colleagues.

'RINOs Stole Election, We Steal Lives': Pennsylvania GOP Commissioner Details Death Threats

 https://www.newsweek.com/rinos-stole-election-we-steal-lives-pennsylvania-gop-commissioner-details-death-threats-1643300

Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt, the official responsible for overseeing the 2020 election in Pennsylvania's biggest city, made the remarks while testifying at a Senate Rules and Administration Committee hearing on Tuesday. He said that supporters of the former president labeled him a "traitor" and a RINO, short for "Republican in name only," for correctly counting the votes.

 Schmidt then read a message that demanded he "tell the truth or your three kids will be fatally shot." The threatening message also contained Schmidt's home address, the names of each of his children and a picture of his house.

Other threats included the phrases "heads on spikes, treasonous Schmidts," "perhaps cuts and bullets will soon arrive at [Schmidt's address]" and "RINOs stole election, we steal lives." The alleged threats admonished Schmidt for supposedly having "betrayed" the country by not backing Trump's false claims and warned that "cops can't help you."

 

Hamas head urges Sheikh Jarrah families to reject compromise

 https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/hamas-head-urges-sheikh-jarrah-families-to-reject-compromise-683273

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has urged families from the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to reject a compromise that would allow them to remain in their homes for 15 years.
Earlier this month, the High Court of Justice presented the compromise to four Palestinian families facing possible eviction from their homes, which were owned by Jews before 1948.
According to the proposed compromise, during the time that the families remain in their homes, the issue of land ownership could be adjudicated, but in the interim, the court would recognize them as protected tenants and the Jewish Nahalat Shimon Company as the owners of the property.

 

US State Dept confirms: Israel would have to authorize Palestinian consulate in Jerusalem

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/us-state-dept-confirms-israel-would-have-to-authorize-palestinian-consulate-in-jerusalem-683334

 The State Department confirmed that it could not open a consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem without Israel’s authorization, in a Senate hearing on Wednesday.

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), who proposed a bill this week to ensure that the only American diplomatic entity in Jerusalem would be the embassy to Israel, asked Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon about the matter in a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“President [Joe] Biden’s proposal to open a second U.S. mission in Jerusalem would begin to reverse the recognition of Jerusalem, and it would divide Israel’s eternal and undivided capital city,” Hagerty said.  “I just want to confirm something on the record. Is it your understanding that, under US and international law, the Government of Israel would have to provide its affirmative consent before the United States could open or reopen the US consulate to the Palestinians in Jerusalem, or does the Biden Administration believe it can move forward to establish a second U.S. mission in the Israel capital city of Jerusalem without the consent of the Government of Israel?”

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Shatnez?

 We just had a sweater checked for shatnez in Jerusalem -it was claimed that every fiber was shatnez

We donated it  to a Shatnez checker in NY who displays these garments    - he checked it and said not a single fiber of Shatnez in garment.

 Obviously they both can't be right

I surveyed a number of stores and they claimed never having found shatnez

It seems wool and linen are rarely used together since synthetic fibers are stronger and cheaper.

 It would seem that following the concept of rov there should be no need to check? Comments?

U.S. voices opposition to Israel's plans for new West Bank settlement homes

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1hnxaruf

The United States voiced strong opposition to Israel's plans to advance thousands of settlement units in the West Bank, saying these moves were inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and were damaging to the prospects of a two-state solution that Washington has advocated.

ראש הישיבה הסביר וזעק: זו הסיבה לגזירות של הממשלה

 https://www.kikar.co.il/404020.html

ראש הישיבה הגאון רבי גרשון אדלשטיין, התייחס הערב (שלישי) בשיחתו השבועית, בפעם ראשונה, לגזירות ממשלת בנט-לפיד-כהנא על הציבור החרדי וזעק בכאב: "איך יהודי מסוגל לעשות גזירות על יהודים?".

ראש הישיבה דיבר בכאב על הרצון של חברי הממשלה, לגרום ביטול תורה ולהצר את צעדי הציבור החרדי וקרא לציבור להתחזק בדברים הצריכים חיזוק, כדי למנוע את הגזירות.

ל'כיכר השבת' נודע, כי ראש הישיבה הורה בימים האחרונים לחברי הכנסת של דגל התורה, לפעול בכל הכח למנוע את הגזירות וכעת קרא לציבור להתחזק כדי להציל את עם ישראל מהגזירות.

Leading haredi rabbi asks: 'How can Jews make decrees against Jews?'

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/315791

 Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, head of the prestigious Ponovezh yeshiva, on Tuesday evening responded to the Israeli government's new "decrees" on the haredi public, Kikar Hashabbat reported.

In his weekly class, Rabbi Edelstein questioned, "How could a Jew be capable of making decrees on Jews?"

Kikar Hashabbat was informed that Rabbi Edelstein recently instructed MKs from the United Torah Judaism's Degel Hatorah faction to fight the decisions with all their might. Now, he has called on the public to increase their care in order to save the Jewish people from the "decrees."

Contruction on park near Arab graves sparks widespread outrage

 https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/contruction-on-park-near-arab-graves-sparks-widespread-outrage-683198

Despite the claims by Palestinian media of bones being uncovered and graves being disturbed, Justice Daniel Mordechai Dembitz ruled in a hearing at the Jerusalem Magistrates Court on October 14 that not enough clear evidence had been provided to prove that this was the case and that there was evidence that the claimants had even violated previous court rulings and given false testimony.
  Dembitz stressed that the court was provided with photos of a few bones that appeared to be human and not organized in the position of burial or as part of a full skeleton. The photos also did not include any concrete notes nor any clarification about who took the photos.