Egypt Builds Walled Enclosure on Border as Israeli Offensive Looms

 https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/egypt-builds-walled-enclosure-on-border-as-israeli-offensive-looms-e5c12043?mod=hp_lead_pos1

Egyptian authorities, fearful that an Israeli military push further into southern Gaza will set off a flood of refugees, are building an 8-square-mile walled enclosure in the Sinai Desert near the border, according to Egyptian officials and security analysts.

For weeks, Egypt has sought to bolster security along the frontier to keep Palestinians out, deploying soldiers and armored vehicles and reinforcing fences. The massive new compound is part of contingency plans if large numbers of Gazans do manage to get in.

More than 100,000 people could be accommodated in the camp, Egyptian officials said. It is surrounded by concrete walls and far from any Egyptian settlements. Large numbers of tents, as yet unassembled, have been delivered to the site, these people said.

Joe Biden's Accuser Indicted for Lying in Blow to GOP Impeachment Effort

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-appointed-attorney-delivers-big-win-bidens-1870438

President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden on Thursday were handed a huge legal win by the announcement of charges against an FBI informant who was central to a Republican inquiry to impeach Biden.

Special counsel David Weiss, an appointee of former President Donald Trump who was appointed to lead the investigation into Hunter Biden by Attorney General Merrick Garland, announced charges against 43-year-old Alexander Smirnov on Thursday for allegedly making false statements and manufacturing false records concerning Biden's business dealings in Ukraine.

Putin Says He Prefers Biden to Trump Because He’s ‘Predictable’

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-says-he-prefers-biden-to-trump-because-hes-predictable?ref=home

Russian President Vladimir Putin prefers his current U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden, to the chaos of former President Donald Trump—at least that’s what he said Wednesday during an interview with Russian state media. “Biden, he’s more experienced, more predictable, he’s a politician of the old formation,” Putin said when asked who he would prefer. “But we will work with any U.S. leader whom the American people trust.” He was also asked to comment on recent criticism leveled at Biden’s “poor memory” and whether the 81-year-old is too old to carry out a second term, saying that he did not see any evidence of declining cognition during the pair’s meeting in 2021. “They talked about him being incapacitated [at that time], but I saw nothing of the kind.

Teammates put peanuts in allergic student’s locker. School district says it wasn’t bullying

 https://thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/education/4458224-teammates-put-peanuts-in-allergic-students-locker-school-district-says-it-wasnt-bullying/

More than a month later, Mannon stood before the Lake Travis school board in November. She was livid. The kids responsible were disciplined, but she expected it to be to a different level. They were benched from some football games. She was told the district’s athletic director and head football coach were determining the discipline. 

The district said it worked with other law enforcement agencies and consulted the assistant district attorney’s office, but ultimately, the school district’s police department decided criminal charges were not warranted. 

RAV AVIGDOR MILLER ON ENJOYING EVERYTHING

 https://torasavigdor.org/qa/rav-avigdor-miller-on-enjoying-everything/

Q:

What is meant by the statement in the Gemara (Yerushalmi Kiddushin 12:4) that a person is going to have to give an accounting in the Next World for everything that he saw in this world and didn’t utilize for pleasure?

Cohen marrying giyores

 

The Warped Electoral Logic Behind Trump’s Antisemitism

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/12/07/electoral-logic-behind-trumps-antisemitism-00072661 

In October, when Trump complained about ungrateful Jews, there was little or no pushback from Republicans.

After Ye tweeted that he was “going death con3 on JEWISH people,” the former president invited him to dinner. He came with a notorious neo-Nazi.

And, once again, Trump offered no apology. He doesn’t think he has to, because his base doesn’t mind. These are his people. And he needs them.

Trump says loss caused by her refusal to respect him

 https://www.newsweek.com/democrat-tom-suozzi-wins-new-york-special-election-ap-projects-1869531

Former President Donald Trump lashed out at Pilip over her loss, referring to her as a "very foolish woman" in a post on his Truth Social platform around 11:20 p.m. on Tuesday. In the social media post, the MAGA leader decried the loss and said the Republican candidate would have won had she treated MAGA with respect.

"Republicans just don't learn, but maybe she was still a Democrat? I have an almost 99% Endorsement Success Rate in Primaries, and a very good number in the General Elections, as well, but just watched this very foolish woman, Mazi Melesa Pilip, running in a race where she didn't endorse me and tried to 'straddle the fence,' when she would have easily WON if she understood anything about MODERN DAY politics in America," Trump said in the Truth Social post. "MAGA, WHICH IS MOST OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY, STAYED HOME - AND IT ALWAYS WILL, UNLESS IT IS TREATED WITH THE RESPECT THAT IT DESERVES. I STAYED OUT OF THE RACE, 'I WANT TO BE LOVED!' GIVE US A REAL CANDIDATE IN THE DISTRICT FOR NOVEMBER. SUOZZI, I KNOW HIM WELL, CAN BE EASILY BEATEN!"

Democrat Tom Suozzi wins New York special election, will replace George Santos

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/385173

Democrat Tom Suozzi on Tuesday won a special election in New York for the US House seat that was left vacant when Republican George Santos was expelled from Congress, The Associated Press reported.

Suozzi defeated Republican candidate Mazi Pilip, an American Israeli woman who was born in Ethiopia and who was brought to Israel in 1991 during Israel’s “Operation Solomon”.

With the win, he retakes a seat he held for three terms before giving it up to run, unsuccessfully, for governor.

The victory narrows the slim Republican majority in the House and gives Democrats a much-needed win in New York City’s Long Island suburbs.

Raskin razzes Stefanik for ‘evasive and embarrassing answers’ on antisemitism

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4356577-raskin-razzes-stefanik-for-evasive-and-embarrassing-answers-on-antisemitism/

Raskin posed to Stefanik “five easy questions for you to address with ‘moral clarity’ on presidential tolerance for — and embrace of — antisemitism … Please avoid the waffling evasion you rightfully denounced!”

Raskin listed four examples of moments when Trump engaged in activity that some have labeled antisemitic and asked whether Stefanik would support a candidate engaged in such behavior. A fifth question asked whether she was prepared to denounce the antisemitic “Great Replacement Theory” linked to several mass shootings.

In response to an MSNBC interview in which Raskin made a similar point, Stefanik wrote on X, “Thanks for asking @jamie_raskin, the answer is simple: President Trump was the best friend Jewish people have had in the White House in modern times,” Stefanik wrote Monday afternoon on X.

Raskin asks how Stefanik can question anyone about antisemitism when she supports Trump

 https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4353409-raskin-stefanik-antisemitism-support-trump/

“Where does Elise Stefanik get off lecturing anybody about antisemitism, when she’s the hugest supporter of Donald Trump, who traffics in antisemitism all the time?” Raskin asked during an interview with MSNBC’s Ali Velshi.

“She didn’t utter a peep of protest when he had Kanye West and Nick Fuentes over for dinner,” Raskin said. “Nick Fuentes, who doubts whether Oct. 7 even took place because he thinks it was some kind of suspicious propaganda move by the Israelis.

“The Republican Party is filled with people who are entangled with antisemitism like that,” Raskin added, “and yet somehow she gets on our high horse and lectures a Jewish college president from MIT.”

‘She scares me’: Stefanik’s emergence as Trump’s cheerleader sparks criticism

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/30/elise-stefanik-trump-republican-election

In her early House years, Stefanik was widely deemed a moderate, but she has pivoted hard right to help Trump since his loss in 2020 when she joined 146 other House members who opposed certifying the election results.

Poverty is desirable

 Rabbeinu Bachya (Kad HaKemach Wealth 1:3) Because of the great harm that comes with wealth and for the many terrible troubles that arise from it, the sages praised the reverse which  is poverty, as they taught in Chagiga that Eliyahu said G-d did not find a solution for Israel, to be saved from sin, but poverty, The custom of the wealthy is that everyone who accumulates a little of it will long for more, and another who accumulates a lot of it will lust for multiples and will never be satisfied because he will never be satisfied

Chagigah (9b) Elijah said to Bar He-He, and others say, to R. Eleazar: What is the meaning of the verse: Behold I have refined thee but not as silver; I have tried thee in the furnace of affliction? It teaches that G-d went through all the good qualities in order to give them to Israel, and He found only poverty

Eruvin (41b) Three matters cause a person to act against his own will and the will of his Maker, and they are: Gentiles, and an evil spirit, and the depths of extreme poverty. What is the practical halakhic difference that emerges from this statement? It is significant as it teaches one to request mercy for people who suffer from those…

Avoda Zara (5a) Four kinds of persons may be regarded as dead, they are: the poor, the blind, the leprous, and the childless.

Nedarim (64b) Four are accounted as dead: A poor man, a leper, a blind person, and one who is childless

Mishlei (30:07-09)  Two things have I asked of you; do not deny them before I die; 8. Remove far from me falsehood and lies; do not give me poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me;9. Lest I be full, and deny you, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my G-d.

A ‘whale’ of a tale: Trump continues to distort cognitive test he took

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/19/trump-cognitive-test/

“I think it was 35, 30 questions,” the former president said in Portsmouth, N.H., of the test, which he said involved a few animal identification queries. “They always show you the first one, like a giraffe, a tiger, or this, or that — a whale. ‘Which one is the whale?’ Okay. And that goes on for three or four [questions] and then it gets harder and harder and harder.”

The only problem: The creator of the test in question, called the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, or MoCA, said it has never included the specific combination of animals described by Trump in any of its versions over the years.