The failures came in quick, maddening succession. One bill after another crashed in the Knesset plenum, sometimes from laughable and embarrassing errors by coalition lawmakers. Some pundits labeled it the worst string of legislative losses incurred by any ruling coalition in the Knesset’s history.
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
Ben & Jerry’s joins long list of failed 'boycotts' of Israel - analysis
The desire to boycott Israel has existed since the country was created in 1948, but what is left of the “boycott” movement today appears to mostly be some privileged activists in the West.
Ben & Jerry’s board in dispute with owners Unilever over remaining in Israel
A statement Monday by Ben & Jerry’s that it will no longer distribute its products in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory” but will remain in Israel was released by the company’s owner, Unilever, without consulting with the ice cream maker’s board — which had intended to put out a different statement that made no mention of committing to continue doing business with the Jewish state, Ben & Jerry’s chairman Anuradha Mittal told NBC News.
While many companies and countries have differentiated between Israel and its settlements in the West Bank, a complete boycott of Israel by a major Western company has been almost unheard-of in recent years.
Mittal said the board had been pushing for years to stop selling its products in settlements and intended to release a different statement from the one Unilever put out. NBC, which reviewed the intended statement, said it made no mention of remaining in Israel and focused on Ben & Jerry’s commitment to social justice causes.
I grew up in the same community as the star of Netflix’s ‘My Unorthodox Life.’ Here’s what I wished she remembered.
Can I call you Talia? The same Talia the young me watched in total awe, dancing and leading her way thru our high school concerts? The Talia that headlined so many local Monsey events leaving her audience in stitches with her comedic genius? The beautiful and graceful and oh so well dressed Talia that walked the streets of Monsey (incidentally, the streets in your first episode are Boro Park, not Monsey, you might want to fix that teeny, tiny error). So Talia, is it ok if I refer to you as that, that girl, the one I remember?
Monday, July 19, 2021
20% of Americans believe the conspiracy theory that microchips are inside the COVID-19 vaccines, says YouGov study
https://news.yahoo.com/20-americans-believe-conspiracy-theory-115206203.html
A new study has found that 1-in-5 Americans believe that it is "definitely true" or "probably true" that there is a microchip in the COVID-19 vaccines.
The study by YouGov in conjunction with The Economist has found that 30-44-year-olds are most likely to believe this widely debunked conspiracy, with 7% of people from this age group saying that it is "definitely true" and 20% of them saying it is "probably true."
Less than half of people surveyed (46%) said that it is "definitely false."
Video of a microchip reader finding a chip in a vaccinated woman’s arm was posted as a joke
Video of a microchip reader finding a chip in a vaccinated woman’s arm was posted as a joke.
Jewish leaders in Israel and abroad slam Ben & Jerry's Judea and Samaria boycott
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/310177
Israel's Minister of the Interior, Yamina's MK Ayelet Shaked slammed the ice cream chain via a Twitter post, writing: "Your ice cream doesn't sit well with us anyway," and adding, "We'll be just fine without you."
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid responded to the move saying: "Ben & Jerry's decision is a shameful surrender to anti-Semitism, BDS, to all that is evil in the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish discourse. We will not allow them to silence us."
Spokeswoman of Samaria Regional Councilman, Yossi Dagan, Esther Silam Alush, quoted Dagan as saying: "Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria will continue to exist long after Ben & Jerry's has melted."
Israel activist and former Democratic New York State Assemblyman from Brooklyn's Assembly district 48, Dov Hikind, accused the ice cream firm of hypocrisy, posting: "But Ben & Jerry's will still sell their product in unoccupied Palestinian Territory despite the fact that if you’re LGBTQ there’s no way you can survive a day in Ramallah, Nablus, Jenin or Gaza! Because 'consistency'"…
Ben & Jerry's to boycott West Bank settlements, east Jerusalem
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/ben-and-jerrys-to-end-sales-in-west-bank-674336
Well-known ice cream company Ben & Jerry's announced on Monday its plan to boycott West Bank settlements and Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem, by refusing to allow its products to be sold in those areas.
"We
believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry’s ice
cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)," the
company stated in a notice it posted on its website.
Israel's bus, train users lament lack of masks and enforcement
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/b1p0yxq0u
Despite the surge in the number of COVID-19 cases around Israel and the subsequent reintroduction of the indoor mask mandate, the country's often overcrowded buses and trains are filled with people who are not wearing the protective face covering.
Outrage As A Business Model: How Ben Shapiro Is Using Facebook To Build An Empire
But The Daily Wire has turned anger into an art form and recycled content into a business model.
Other conservative outlets such as The Blaze, Breitbart News and The Western Journal that publish aggregated and opinion content aimed at invoking outrage have also generally been more successful at generating engagement than legacy news outlets over the past year, according to NPR's analysis, which used data compiled by the media intelligence company NewsWhip.
Sunday, July 18, 2021
1,679 Jews pray on Temple Mount during Tisha B'Av
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/310095
More than 1,600 Jewish visitors ascended the Temple Mount Sunday for prayers marking the Tisha B’Av fast day, drawing the ire of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and its political representatives in the Knesset.
According to the Bayadenu organization, which organized mass visits to the holy site, a total of 1,679 Jews visited the Temple Mount as of Sunday afternoon, a 42% increase over last year's Tisha B'Av fast.
The United Arab List, a coalition partner which represents the
Southern Islamic Movement in Israel, condemned the Jewish prayers on the
Temple Mount, warning Jewish worshippers on the holy site could cause
Arab riots and ultimately spark a “religious war”.
Choni the circle maker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honi_HaMe%27agel#Death
According to Josephus, in Antiquities of the Jews, Honi met his end in the context of conflict between the Hasmonean brothers Hyrcanus II, backed by the Pharisees and advised by Antipater the Idumaean, and Aristobulus II, backed by the Sadducees. Around 63 BC, Honi was captured by the followers of Hyrcanus besieging Jerusalem and was asked to pray for the demise of their opponents. Honi, however, prayed: "Lord of the universe, as the besieged and the besiegers both belong to Your people, I beseech You not to answer the evil prayers of either." After this, the followers of Hyrcanus stoned him to death.[8]
The Babylonian Talmud records a different story of his death, as part of the aforementioned carob tree story. The Maharsha explains the discrepancy between the Talmud and Josephus by stating that Honi was "presumed" killed by Hyrcanus II's men, but in reality was put into a deep sleep or coma for 70 years, and only then died.[5]
Taanis (23a) Ḥoni went home and said to the members of the household: Is the son of Ḥoni HaMe’aggel alive? They said to him: His son is no longer with us, but his son’s son is alive. He said to them: I am Ḥoni HaMe’aggel. They did not believe him. He went to the study hall, where he heard the Sages say about one scholar: His halakhot are as enlightening and as clear as in the years of Ḥoni HaMe’aggel, for when Ḥoni HaMe’aggel would enter the study hall he would resolve for the Sages any difficulty they had. Ḥoni said to them: I am he, but they did not believe him and did not pay him proper respect. Ḥoni became very upset, prayed for mercy, and died. Rava said: This explains the folk saying that people say: Either friendship or death, as one who has no friends is better off dead.
ולא עבדו ליה יקרא כדבעי כו'. גם שראו בו שהוא בעל תורה ונהירין ליה שמעתתיה כבשני דחוני המעגל מ"מ לא ראו בו שהיה בעל מעשים כחוני ולכך לא עבדי ליה יקרא כדבעי ואמר דבעי רחמו ומת כו' שלא הגיע עדיין זמנו למות דאותן ע' שנין שהיה ישן לא נחשב לו לכלום ובירושלמי מייתי עובדא דחוני המעגל שהיה בחורבן בית ראשון והיה ישן מחורבן בית ראשון ע' שנין עד שנבנה בית שני אבל זה המעשה דמתני' היה אח"כ זמן רב בזמן שמעון בן שטח וכתב בעל יפה מראה דשני חוני המעגל הוו וזה דמתני' הוא בר בריה הוה ע"ש ובספר יוחסין כתוב בשם יוסף בן גוריון שנהרג חוני המעגל מחוץ לירושלים במלחמות בני חשמונאי וזה מסכים עם תלמודנו לפי שנאבד מן העולם ע' שנה בשינה אמרו עליו שנהרג במלחמת האחים ולכך כשבא אפי' בר בריה לא האמין לו:
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Knesset speaker flubs vote, killing coalition bill for rabbinical court reform
The bill would have expanded the panel that chooses rabbinical judges
to include more representatives from the government and more female
representatives.
Who is most likely to develop severe COVID-19 even after a second jab?
“Overall, we can say that the main thing is that these are not healthy people,” Brosh told The Jerusalem Post
in an interview. “Almost all of them (96%) had comorbidities: heart
disease, lung disease, renal disease, dementia, cancer, or other common
ailments. So, people who get breakthrough infections and are admitted
are sicker than a usual person.”
As Covid cases rise in Florida, Governor DeSantis digs at Fauci with merchandise
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/14/florida-ron-desantis-digs-fauci-merchandise-covid
Since Trump’s defeat by Biden, the Fauci-bashing
baton has been passed to the Fox News star Tucker Carlson. The prime
time host has taken a more menacing approach, accusing Fauci of lying about the origins of the coronavirus in a series of unsubstantiated rants.
Now it’s DeSantis’s turn to jump on the bandwagon – and generate some cash to fund his 2022 re-election campaign. Since the start of the pandemic the Republican governor has positioned himself as the champion of freedom, standing up against no-fun health experts who insist on masks and social distancing.
Even as Covid was sweeping the US in early 2020, DeSantis refused to close Florida’s beaches. He shunned mask ordinances and removed all restrictions on businesses in May.
The timing of his new Fauci-bashing merchandise launch is unfortunate, given the state of his state. Though vaccination levels have risen in Florida, and infection rates fallen, Florida is grappling with a marked increase in new cases and hospitalisations as the highly contagious Delta variant kicks in.
Now it’s DeSantis’s turn to jump on the bandwagon – and generate some cash to fund his 2022 re-election campaign. Since the start of the pandemic the Republican governor has positioned himself as the champion of freedom, standing up against no-fun health experts who insist on masks and social distancing.
Even as Covid was sweeping the US in early 2020, DeSantis refused to close Florida’s beaches. He shunned mask ordinances and removed all restrictions on businesses in May.
The timing of his new Fauci-bashing merchandise launch is unfortunate, given the state of his state. Though vaccination levels have risen in Florida, and infection rates fallen, Florida is grappling with a marked increase in new cases and hospitalisations as the highly contagious Delta variant kicks in.
The Myth of the White Suburb and “Suburban Invasion”
https://nlihc.org/resource/myth-white-suburb-and-suburban-invasion
To appeal to suburban voters in late summer 2020, President Trump tweeted that “people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream” would “no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood.” The tweet referred to the president’s gutting of the Affirmatively Furthering, which required local governments to affirmatively address racial segregation as required by the 1968 Fair Housing Act. He continued, “Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!”
President Trump’s HUD Secretary Ben Carson concurred with President Trump’s desire to roll back fair housing enforcement at HUD. In an op-ed shortly after President Trump’s tweet, then Secretary Carson affirmed the president’s abhorrent rhetoric by stating that fair housing practices could lead suburbs to become dens of “crime and chaos,” suggesting that low-income people are inherently criminal. This type of comment has obvious racist elements, as a disproportionate number of low-income people in this country are Black or Hispanic.
While President
Trump’s and Secretary Carson’s words played to deplorable racist
perceptions of people living in affordable housing, the vision of the
suburbs they paint is also incorrect. The exclusive, white, middle-class
vision of the suburbs is rapidly changing. Whites fled cities to move
to outlying majority white middle-class enclaves in the mid-1900s, a
phenomenon known as “white flight.”
The federal government encouraged whites to move to suburbs by
constructing federal highways and providing white families low-interest
mortgages for homes in car-centric, less dense neighborhoods. Racist residential segregation policies,
like redlining, housing discrimination, and racially restrictive
covenants, limited opportunities for people of color to follow the same
path.
MK Ibtisam Mara'ana: 'It's my security and it's my foreign affairs'
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309914
MK Ibtisam Mara'ana (Labor) has joined the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as an alternate member, sparking controversy.
"I don't understand the uproar," Mara'ana told News 12. "If a man had joined the Committee for Women's Issues no one would raise an eyebrow, or if a Jew had joined the Special Committee on Arab Society Affairs, no one would raise an eyebrow. But when an Arab joins the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, people raise eyebrows."
"I joined the Committee because it's my security, too, and it's my
foreign affairs, too. My job on the Committee is first of all to be on
guard and to say that violence and war no longer works. We are paying a
price in blood, bereavement, and destruction. I am a person who believes
that all avenues of negotiations must be pursued.
When asked if she would want the IDF to win if it needed to engage in another Gaza war, Mara'ana refused to clearly condemn Hamas' attacks on Israeli civilians.
"I want there to be peace here," she claimed. "I say enough with the violence, the crime, and the wars. It's time to examine a different path. My stance is very clear: The paths of attack and violence, and wars, and people on both sides who lose their homes - this doesn't work."
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Race in America 2019
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/race-in-america-2019/
Black and white adults have widely different perceptions of how blacks are treated in America, but majorities of both groups say blacks are treated less fairly than whites by the criminal justice system (87% of blacks vs. 61% of whites) and in dealing with police (84% vs. 63%, respectively).
When asked about specific situations they may have experienced because of their race or ethnicity, blacks are considerably more likely than whites, Hispanics or Asians to say that people have acted as if they were suspicious of them; people have acted as if they thought they weren’t smart; they have been treated unfairly by an employer in hiring, pay or promotion; or they have been unfairly stopped by police. Hispanics and Asians are more likely than whites to say each of these have happened to them.
4 Iranian nationals charged with alleged kidnapping plot of US journalist, court documents say
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/14/us/iranian-nationals-charged-kidnapping-journalist/index.html
The
four were charged with conspiracies related to kidnapping, sanctions
violations, bank and wire fraud, and money laundering, according to the indictment. They are based in Iran and remain at large, authorities said.
"As
alleged, four of the defendants monitored and planned to kidnap a U.S.
citizen of Iranian origin who has been critical of the regime's
autocracy, and to forcibly take their intended victim to Iran, where the
victim's fate would have been uncertain at best," US Attorney for the
Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss said in a news release Tuesday.
Iranian Agents Are Facing Charges For Their Role In A Plot To Kidnap A U.S. Journalist
Federal prosecutors in New York charged five foreign agents backed by the Iranian government for their roles in a stranger-than-fiction plot to kidnap a U.S. citizen and journalist critical of the nation's regime.
'We are seeing people passing quicker than before': What hospitals look like in US Covid hot spots
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/13/us/us-covid-hot-spots-hospitals/index.html
The overwhelming majority of those coming in sick with Covid are unvaccinated, Segarra said. Many are young -- people in their 20s and 30s who are getting "extremely, extremely sick" and some of whom are dying.
Do Israel's haredim really live off the state?
https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-do-israels-haredim-really-live-off-the-state-1001359942
What is it about Haredim that interests Israelis politically more than, say, security or the housing crisis? Well, exemption from army service is without a doubt a top issue. And many blame haredim for spreading Covid-19. But if you follow the extensive media coverage of haredim, you’ll notice that lack of contribution to the Israeli economy and manipulation of the national budget are an even greater source of contention for many citizens. As Liberman posted recently in Facebook: "On the day that Balfour ceases to be Deri, Gafni, and Litzman’s bank account, that is the day we can point to as the beginning of the Israeli economy’s recovery."
Israel's Top Court Allows Sex-segregated University Classes to Integrate Haredim
Separate-sex classes at universities are permissible to promote the ultra-Orthodox community’s integration into higher education, Israel's High Court of Justice ruled on Monday.
The court, however, determined that the policy barring female faculty members from teaching in male-only classes must be repealed immediately.
American Imam: U.S. allows theft so that Jews go to Israel
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309862
Islamic scholar in America claims the US government allows theft in order to spawn hatred, force Jews to leave for Israel.
'We'll go to elections': Government faces crisis over cannabis law
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/309863
A fierce debate erupted within the coalition government Wednesday over an upcoming vote on a bill to significantly expand access to medicinal marijuana in Israel.
The bill, drafted by New Hope MK Sharren Haskel, would broadly decriminalize ownership of cannabis when it is intended for one’s own use for medicinal purposes.
While the coalition largely backs the legislation, the United Arab List has thus far refused to agree to support the bill, forcing the government to push off the preliminary vote in the Knesset plenum.
Deaths Due to Use of Lethal Force by Law Enforcement
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6080222/
Results:
Victims were majority white (52%) but disproportionately black (32%) with a fatality rate 2.8 times higher among blacks than whites. Most victims were reported to be armed (83%); however, black victims were more likely to be unarmed (14.8%) than white (9.4%) or Hispanic (5.8%) victims. Fatality rates among military veterans/active duty service members were 1.4 times greater than among their civilian counterparts. Four case subtypes were examined based on themes that emerged in incident narratives: about 22% of cases were mental health related; 18% were suspected “suicide by cop” incidents, with white victims more likely than black or Hispanic victims to die in these circumstances; 14% involved intimate partner violence; and about 6% were unintentional deaths due to LE action. Another 53% of cases were unclassified and did not fall into a coded subtype. Regression analyses identified victim and incident characteristics associated with each case subtype and unclassified cases.
Maimonides' Thirteen Principles: The Last Word in Jewish Theology?
In the inaugural issue of the Torah u-Madda Journal, R. Yehuda Parnes argued that heresy is forbidden to be studied. This led him to condemn study in "areas that spark and arouse ideas which are antithetical to the tenets of our faith." Further developing his point, he left no doubt as to what he meant by "the tenets of our faith." "Torah u-Madda can only be viable if it imposes strict limits on freedom of inquiry in areas that may undermine the yod gimel 'ikkarei emunah." In other words, in his view, it is the "Thirteen Principles of Faith" of Maimonides that are determinative with regard to what constitutes heresy.
At first glance this may not appear to be at all controversial. After all, who better than Maimonides would be qualified to set forth the dogmas of Judaism? The immediate reaction of many Orthodox Jews would probably be the same as R. Parnes' in identifying heresy with anything that opposed any of the well known Maimonidean principles. Indeed, a recent author has written: "It should be stressed that all Torah scholars agree on the validity and significance of the Principles." Similarly, another one has written: "The fact is that Maimonides' Thirteen Principles are all derived from the Talmud and
the classic Jewish tradition, and were never in dispute. With reference to these statements, a comment by Gershom Scholem, made in a entirely different context, is relevant: "This seems to me an extraordinary example of how a judgment proclaimed with conviction as certainly true may nevertheless be entirely wrong in every detail." This is so, for even a cursory examination of Jewish literature shows that Maimonides' principles were never regarded as
the last word in Jewish theology. This despite the fact that Maimonides contended that anyone who even had a doubt about one his principles was a heretic worthy of death!
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