UK woman can’t have contact with twin sons, 12, after Austrian court ruling

 https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/uk-woman-cant-have-contact-with-twin-sons-12-after-austrian-court-ruling/

 A British Jewish woman has been told that she is to have no contact with her 12-year-old twin sons as a result of a new ruling by an Austrian court.

Beth Alexander, now a London-based family law solicitor, has been fighting her ex-husband, Dr Michael Schlesinger, in the Vienna courts, after the breakdown of their short marriage and the birth of the twins, Samuel and Benjamin.

Health Ministry: 4th dose triples protection from serious illness for over-60s

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/health-ministry-4th-dose-triples-protection-from-serious-illness-for-over-60s/

The Health Ministry said on Sunday that the fourth vaccine dose for those aged 60 and up offers a threefold protection against serious illness and twofold protection against infection in the current wave driven by the Omicron variant.

The ministry said the figures are the result of initial analysis by experts from various leading academic and health institutions, and compares the fourth vaccine with those who received three doses at least four months ago.

The figures are based on 400,000 Israelis who received the fourth vaccine and 600,000 who received three doses, with the ministry stressing that the methodology is similar to previous papers the experts have published in the peer-reviewed New England Journal of Medicine.

COVID-19 vaccine mandates worse than Holocaust, RFK Jr. suggests at anti-vax rally

 https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-694357

Addressing an anti-vaccination rally in Washington, DC, American environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Sunday compared COVID-19 vaccination mandates to the Holocaust, saying that "Even in [Adolf] Hitler's Germany... you could hide in the attic like Anne Frank did," according to a tweet by NBC News senior reporter Ben Collins.

A tragic battle with only losers

 https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/a-tragic-battle-with-only-losers/

When I tell people our story, they immediately know it is a Jewish story. The father is Viennese, a member of the Jewish community who grew up here and has friends in the right places; a Jewish High Court Judge, a Jewish psychiatrist and colleague, the head of the Chabad kindergarten, as well as his Rav and mentor with strong influence over the members of his kehilla. You would expect the community here to have joined ranks to prevent a chillul Hashem and deescalate the situation. If the leadership were courageous and compassionate enough perhaps Sammy and Benji would have been spared this needless endless suffering. If only the leaders had intervened at the very beginning when I begged them to mediate to find a solution outside the courts. But for reasons I may never understand, they allowed this whole sorry mess to be dragged through the courts for the eyes of the whole world to see and censure. There is nothing more tragic and embarrassing than seeing Jew against Jew.

JUDGE'S AFTERNOON TEA PARTY WITH THE FATHER

 these are extracts from  Susanne Gottlicher the "impartial" judge's report concerning her personal "investigation"

This visit took place in 2015 after the mother reported her concerns about the Filipino nanny who the children were often left alone with for the whole of Shabbos while the father worked. Furthermore, she could barely speak German or English.

The judge however was satisfied there were no concerns and shortly after the visit, she awarded Schlesinger full and final custody. 

When we arrive, in addition to the father and the two boys, the father’s sister, Martina Schlesinger,

and the nanny are present.

We are greeted heartily and asked to come in. I introduce Ms Andesner and the father urges the

children to shake hands with us. We are ushered into the living room. The rooms I see are neat and

tidy but not sterile. The flat looks as if it is lived in and does not resemble the showroom of a

furniture store....

We sit down on the couch in the living room, where I again discuss the purpose of today’s visit:

the (recent) youth welfare office (Jugendamt) report made no mention of the mother’s accusations

regarding the nanny. The latter is introduced to us and sits down in an armchair beside the couch.

She is a woman in her fifties who does not speak perfect German but with whom I can easily

converse.....

I am given an explanation as to how the nanny came to the Schlesinger family:

They got to know each other in a park where the family often goes. The Schlesingers noticed how

the nanny was getting on with an Italian child she was caring for – a boy from an Italian Embassy

family. The nanny was so sweet with the boy that the twins’ aunt went up to her and asked if she

might not have time to take care of Sammy and Benji as well. The nanny has now been with the

Schlesingers for four years. She nodded as she heard this, confirming it...

...The father explains the following to me regarding the boys’ teeth:

When the boys came into his custody, they had objectively proven bad teeth and this fact was

common knowledge. At that time, teeth had to be extracted. The gaps in the teeth were provided

with temporary replacements....

...In the course of the conversation, the boys proudly show me and Ms Andesner the gaps in their

teeth: they are already so big that new, permanent teeth are on the way...

The father explained that the children love going to therapy and really enjoy it. They are very fond

of their occupational therapist, Ms Martina Muckler, and her approach of working through

pleasure and play is the most effective for success in learning and therapy.

In reply to my question, he answered that he would of course not subject the boys to unnecessary

therapies....

...Later, Benji goes and gets some pastries from the plate we have been offered. His father tells

him in a friendly manner to take a plate....afterwards, he comes in with a soft toy that looks like a

snake. It resembles a folded strap that is straight at first but when tapped against the lower arm,

rolls into the shape of a wristband. It is covered with fabric and has a snake’s head at the top. He

lets his snake eat from the pastries. We join in the game and when it is over, the snake is allowed

to drink from my glass of water...

...The accusation that the father acted violently on the occasion of a court hearing and pushed the

mother on the steps of the court is absolutely untrue....

The father again praises the nanny and states, “There is no one else outside the family circle that I

would trust to take care of the children without hesitation.”

In this atmosphere, it is described how the nanny still comes in the morning to assist the father

before work, and how she does the housework and sometimes cooks. She is no longer there in the

afternoons or evenings, except perhaps two or three times per week, when the father is on night

duty in the hospital.

...Our house visit lasts one and a quarter to one and a half hours. My impression is that of a nice,

caring family. ...

Olmert demands psychiatric evaluation for Netanyahu family

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320985

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has submitted a request to the Tel Aviv District Court asking that the Netanyahu family – former premier Benjamin, his wife Sara, and son Yair – be subjected to psychiatric evaluation.

Olmert is currently being tried for defamation with the plaintiffs being the Netanyahu family, after Olmert publicly suggested that they suffered from mental illness. According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper, the chances of the judge granting Olmert’s request are low.

Police chief defiant amid NSO scandal: ‘Some want to harm our crimefighting ability’

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-chief-defiant-amid-nso-scandal-some-want-to-harm-our-crimefighting-ability/

With police facing public outrage over accusations they have regularly used spyware to break into Israelis’ phones without oversight, Police Commissioner Kobi Shabtai on Friday fiercely defended the force’s conduct, denied any widespread spying and vowed to respond severely to any “isolated incidents” of wrongdoing — if those are discovered.

Shabtai, in a letter sent to members of the force, said that “the police and one of its most important departments have been under attack, and it appears there are those who want to harm its ability to fight serious crime.”

3 mayors said targeted by police using NSO spyware despite no evidence of offenses

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/3-mayors-said-targeted-by-police-using-nso-spyware-despite-no-evidence-of-offenses/

At least three city mayors and members of their families were targeted by Israel Police with spyware made by the controversial NSO Group in an attempt to find indications of criminal activity, the Calcalist website reported Sunday.

Information gleaned by targeting the mayors’ family members with the Pegasus spyware revealed activity that, though apparently not criminal, was used to justify requests for wiretaps on the mayors. That in turn led to their being taken into custody and interrogated, but all the cases were eventually closed, according to the report.

Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef jokes: Rabbi Shlomo Goren put Abba Eban to sleep

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/320971

He said, "Then there was the issue of the brother and sister, the Langer siblings, which was a problem of mamzerim (children born from a union forbidden according to halakha who cannot marry anyone but other mamzerim). Rabbi Goren then wrote [that they were not mamzerim). The head of the Great Rabbinical Court, the entire rabbinical court, ruled that they were forbidden [to marry] and he ruled that they were permitted. There was an argument. The heads of government came at the time and began to chide [Rabbi Ovadia Yosef]. 'You should learn from your colleague, from Rabbi Goren. You also have the power to permit.' They chided him. Moshe Dayan said something I remember to this day: 'I don't care how you permit, I just want the bottom line that they are permitted.' Just like that."

The Well-Armed Troll

 https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/02/07/the-well-armed-troll/#slide-1

Putin is, in that sense, a very well-armed troll — opportunistic, attention-seeking, happy to upset the cart and see if any apples roll his way. But the Russian regime necessarily looms larger in the Western mind than do those of Putin peers such as Kim Jong Un for three reasons: (1) The Cold War trained Western policy intellectuals to think of Russia as a great power, and the habit remains even though Putin has nothing like the real geopolitical power enjoyed by Joseph Stalin or Leonid Brezhnev; (2) Putin’s forces are in close proximity to our European allies, including NATO members; (3) although the old Soviet nuclear arsenal has declined, Putin has something on the order of 1,600 strategic warheads ready to go — on missiles, bombers, and submarines — and a thousand strategic warheads in storage, according to the estimate of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The first of those three considerations is a matter of intellectual inertia, but the other two are live concerns.

'Dangerous precedent': Jan. 6 committee trains its sights on false pro-Trump electors

 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/21/january-6-committee-precedent-pro-trump-electors-527528

The decision to deploy illegitimate electors highlights the deliberation of Trump's allies in their attempts to keep his effort to reverse the election alive. Top Trump White House officials at the time — including adviser Stephen Miller — made clear they were tracking “alternative” slates of electors in real time.

Booster Shots Needed Against Omicron, CDC Studies Show

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2022/01/21/covid-vaccination-requirement-cases-deaths/6601998001/

Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have proven highly effective at preventing omicron-related hospitalizations, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The booster doses were 90% effective at keeping people out of the hospital after they had become infected with the omicron variant. The doses also were 82% effective at preventing emergency department and urgent care visits, the data shows.

Why the Sarah Palin v. New York Times trial will be an 'excruciating experience' for the paper

 https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/22/media/sarah-palin-new-york-times-trial/index.html

The case is, at its heart, about the limits of First Amendment protections and the standard set in the landmark New York Times vs. Sullivan case. Specifically, the standard that a public figure must prove an outlet operated with "actual malice" when it published defamatory information. Palin has argued The Times did, and The Times has said it made an honest error.

"At issue is the elasticity of the protections that allow news organizations to present tough coverage of public figures," Washington Post's Erik Wemple wrote on Friday. "Or, to put things a bit more sharply, the case will help demarcate the line between really bad journalism and libelous journalism."

The reporting from mainstream news sources tends to be a lot more buttoned up than reporting in right-wing media. Fox, for instance, is wrapping itself in the First Amendment as it defends itself from lawsuits against voting technology companies Dominion and Smartmatic.

Which is to say that the attempts to reduce press freedom on the right could backfire in enormous ways. "Fox needs those protections more than The New York Times at the moment," Toobin pointed out. "The New York Times made a single mistake and behaved responsibly. Fox was the gateway for a torrent of lies that nearly destroyed these companies and has never appropriately apologized."

What is rechilus?

Mishneh Torah, Human Dispositions chapter 7

1. He who bears tales against his fellow violates a prohibitive commandment, saying: "Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people" (Lev. 19.16.); and although the punishment of flogging is not inflicted for violating this charge, it is a gross iniquity, and is the cause of the slaughtering of many souls in Israel; it is because thereof, that following this commandment is this Verse: "Neither shalt thou stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor" (Ibid.). Now, go ye and learn of that which happened to Doeg the Edomite.¹First Samuel, 22.9-19. G.

 אֵי זֶהוּ רָכִיל. זֶה שֶׁטּוֹעֵן דְּבָרִים וְהוֹלֵךְ מִזֶּה לָזֶה וְאוֹמֵר כָּךְ אָמַר פְּלוֹנִי כָּךְ וְכָךְ שָׁמַעְתִּי עַל פְּלוֹנִי. אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁהוּא אֱמֶת הֲרֵי זֶה מַחֲרִיב אֶת הָעוֹלָם. יֵשׁ עָוֹן גָּדוֹל מִזֶּה עַד מְאֹד וְהוּא בִּכְלַל לָאו זֶה וְהוּא לָשׁוֹן הָרַע. וְהוּא הַמְסַפֵּר בִּגְנוּת חֲבֵרוֹ אַף עַל פִּי שֶׁאוֹמֵר אֱמֶת. אֲבָל הָאוֹמֵר שֶׁקֶר נִקְרָא מוֹצִיא שֵׁם רַע עַל חֲבֵרוֹ. אֲבָל בַּעַל לָשׁוֹן הָרַע זֶה שֶׁיּוֹשֵׁב וְאוֹמֵר כָּךְ וְכָךְ עָשָׂה פְּלוֹנִי וְכָךְ וְכָךְ הָיוּ אֲבוֹתָיו וְכָךְ וְכָךְ שָׁמַעְתִּי עָלָיו וְאָמַר דְּבָרִים שֶׁל גְּנַאי. עַל זֶה אָמַר הַכָּתוּב (תהילים יב ד) "יַכְרֵת ה' כָּל שִׂפְתֵי חֲלָקוֹת לָשׁוֹן מְדַבֶּרֶת גְּדלוֹת":  

2. What ia a rachil? One who loads himself up with matters, and goes from this one to that one, saying to each, such did that man say, thus and such have I heard concerning that man, even though it be true, behold him, he destroys the universe. There is yet an extremely grosser iniquity, which, too, is included in this prohibitive commandment, and that is, the evil tongue, one who spreads scandal about his fellow even though he be telling truth. If he be lying, he is called a maligner who invents an evil name against his fellow. The owner of an evil tongue, behold him, he sits in company and relates, saying: thus and such did that certain party, thus and such were his parents, and thus and such I did hear about him and of course, he relates scandalous matters. Of him, the Verse says: "May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that speaketh proud things" (Ps. 12.4). 

 According to this rechilus is gossip without intent to cause harmand is true  The Kesef Mishna adds that it is gossip about that person who his being talked to.

On the other hand Rambam  following Sanhedrin (31a)also describes it  as revealing secrets

Rambam (Sanhedrin 22:7)  אָסוּר לְאֶחָד מִן הַדַּיָּנִים כְּשֶׁיֵּצֵא מִבֵּית דִּין לוֹמַר אֲנִי הוּא הַמְזַכֶּה אוֹ הַמְחַיֵּב וַחֲבֵרַי חוֹלְקִין עָלַי אֲבָל מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה שֶׁהֵם רַבּוּ עָלַי וְאִם אָמַר כֵּן הֲרֵי הוּא בִּכְלַל הוֹלֵךְ רָכִיל מְגַלֶּה סוֹד. וּמַעֲשֶׂה בְּתַלְמִיד אֶחָד שֶׁהוֹצִיא דְּבָרִים שֶׁנֶּאֶמְרוּ בְּבֵית הַמִּדְרָשׁ לְאַחַר שְׁתַּיִם וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה וְהוֹצִיאוּהוּ בֵּית דִּין מִבֵּית הַמִּדְרָשׁ וְהִכְרִיזוּ עָלָיו זֶה מְגַלֶּה סוֹד הוּא: 

 The same verse (Vayikra 19:16) is also the basis for the prohibition of lashon harah and slander 

Ben Yohoyada

מִנַּיִן לִכְשֶׁיֵּצֵא, שֶׁלֹּא יֹאמַר: אֲנִי מְזַכֶּה וַחֲבֵרַי מְחַיְּבִין, אֲבָל מָה אֶעֱשֶׂה, שֶׁחֲבֵרַי רַבּוּ עָלַי, תַּלְמוּד לוֹמַר: (ויקרא יט, טז) "לֹא תֵלֵךְ רָכִיל בְּעַמֶּיךָ". וְאוֹמֵר: "הוֹלֵךְ רָכִיל מְגַלֶּה סוֹד" (משלי יא, יג). קשא למה הוצרך להביא פסוק זה אחר שהביא פסוק מן התורה? ונראה לי בס"ד דלעולם הוא למד זה מפסוק תורה אך פסוק תורה בלחודיה איכא למדחי דאיירי במספר לשון הרע וכאן אינו מספר לשון הרע דלא אמר חבירי מחייבין שלא כדין, אלא אומר כך היה דעתי כפי הדין וכך היה דעת חבירי כפי הדין ואפשר שהדין עמהם ורק דבר זה נחשב מגלה סוד ואם כן אין הוכחה מן פסוק 'לֹא תֵלֵךְ רָכִיל' דיש לומר רָכִיל קאי על בעל לשון הרע ולא על 'מְגַלֶּה סוֹד' לכך הביא פסוק 'הוֹלֵךְ רָכִיל מְגַלֶּה סוֹד' דנמצא דגם מגלה סוד בלבד נקרא רכיל אם כן נמצא פסוק 'הוֹלֵךְ רָכִיל' איירי בכל גוונא אפילו ב'מְגַלֶּה סוֹד' בלבד דאיכא לאו ואזהרה בזה בכל גוונא.

What is rechilus?