I've Spent Decades Failing to Negotiate Peace in the Middle East. Trump's 'Ultimate Deal' Is Doomed, Too

TIME

Having served as a State Department Middle East adviser and negotiator on Arab-Israel matters for more than two decades in both Republican and Democratic Administrations, I’ve seen and helped concoct a few pretty odd and mostly unsuccessful peace plans. But rarely have I seen an endeavor that was stranger than the recently released part one of the Trump Administration’s “ultimate deal”: a two-day, late-June meeting of donors from around the world in Bahrain, with hopes that showing the Palestinians how much better and more prosperous their lives could be will make them more flexible negotiators. Or, perhaps, persuade them to abandon what the Trump Administration considers unrealistic goals: statehood, with a real capital sovereign over most of east Jerusalem.

Reason to die?

(2) ילקוט שמעוני משלי - פרק ח - רמז תתקמג 

 מעשה באשה אחת שהזקינה הרבה, באת לפני ר"י (הגלילי) בן חלפתא אמרה לו רבי זקנתי יותר מדאי ומעשו חיים של נוול הם שאיני טועמת לא מאכל ולא משתה ואני מבקשת ליפטר מן העולם, אמר לה במה הארכת כל כך ימים, אמרה לו למודה אני אפילו יש לי דבר חביב אני מנחת אותו ומשכמת לבית הכנסת בכל יום, אמר לה מנעי עצמך מבית הכנסת שלשה ימים זה אחר זה, הלכה ועשתה כן וביום השלישי חלתה ומתה, לכך אמר שלמה אשרי אדם שומע לי וגו', מה כתיב אחריו כי מוצאי מצא חיים. אמר הקב"ה אם הלכת להתפלל לבית הכנסת לא תעמוד לך על פתח החיצון אלא הוי מתכוין ליכנס דלת לפנים מדלת, לשקוד על דלתי אין כתיב כאן אלא דלתותי, שתי דלתות, ולמה כן שהקב"ה מונה פסיעותיך ונותן לך שכר, מהו לשמגור מזוזות פתחי וכי יש מזוזה בבתי כנסיות, א"ר יהודה ברבי סימון מה מזוזה זו אינה זזה מן הפתח כך לא תהא זז מבתי כנסיות ומבתי מדרשות, ואם תעשה כן דע שאתה מקבל פני שכינה, מה כתיב אחריו כי מוצאי מצא חיים, ולא עוד אלא טעון ברכות שנאמר ויפק רצון מה':

Top rabbi blows lid off rabbinic scandal, rocking national religious public

https://www.timesofisrael.com/top-rabbi-blows-lid-off-rabbinic-scandal-rocking-national-religious-public/

In an open letter Wednesday that blew the lid off of a hushed misconduct accusation involving a prominent spiritual leader in the national religious camp, the chief rabbi of Safed called on the public to stay away from a respected counterpart, accusing him of carrying out several inappropriate relationships with female followers, among them an adherent whom he convinced to divorce her husband.

Three weeks after the national religious Srugim news site broke a story about an unnamed yeshiva head who had been asked to resign due to “personal entanglements,” Safed’s Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu publicly identified the embroiled individual as Rabbi Shmuel Tal, the head of of the Torat HaChaim yeshiva as well as several other religious institutions in the central town of Yad Binyamin.

RUDY GIULIANI MOCKS FOX NEWS JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO, CLAIMS HE'S 'BITTER' AT TRUMP ABOUT SCOTUS JOB

https://www.newsweek.com/rudy-giuliani-fox-news-napolitano-trump-1440040

President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani echoed his client's criticisms of Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano Thursday, claiming the former judge is "bitter" Trump never gave him a U.S. Supreme Court appointment years ago.

Giuliani, the former Republican mayor of New York City, quote tweeted an odd video reply from an unnamed pro-Trump Twitter account appearing to deride Napolitano for giving any legitimacy to Trump impeachment claims arising from special counsel Robert Mueller's report. Last month, former New Jersey Superior Court Judge Napolitano refuted Trump's claim he only became "hostile" toward the president on Fox News after he allegedly asked—and was denied—an appointment to the Supreme Court. 

Giuliani's claim is only the latest effort by Trump administration officials to write off critics by saying they begged for jobs in the past. Napolitano called Trump a "friend" last month despite the insult.

Fact-checking Trump's flurry of lies Thursday morning

CNN

One day after special counsel Robert Mueller publicly refused to exonerate President Donald Trump and hinted at potential impeachment, the President responded Thursday with an avalanche of widely debunked lies about the investigation and its findings.

Over a few hours Thursday morning, Trump spread several lies and falsehoods about the Russia investigation, Mueller's findings, the cost of the probe, and the legal restrictions that Mueller faced when grappling with the possibility of a President who broke the law.

Here's a breakdown of Trump's comments.

ISRAEL GOES BACK TO ELECTIONS AS NETANYAHU FAILS TO FORM COALITION

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Elections-set-for-Sept-17-after-coalition-talks-fail-591044

Exactly one month after the 21st Knesset were sworn in, a majority of the Knesset voted late Wednesday to disperse themselves and initiate an unprecedented repeat election on September 17.

White House, Navy exchanged emails about keeping USS McCain out of Trump's sight

CNN

President Donald Trump and John McCain's long-running feud is back in the spotlight following reports that White House and lower-level US Navy officials traded emails about keeping a warship named from the late senator's father and grandfather out of sight ahead of the President's trip to Japan.

Two Navy officials confirmed to CNN Wednesday night that the White House Military Office asked lower-level US Navy officials about keeping the ship out of view. One of the Navy officials further clarified Thursday morning that the discussion included obscuring the ship or moving it, which was not practical because the ship was under repairs at the time.

What Mueller, Barr Say About Obstruction of Justice

https://www.factcheck.org/2019/05/what-mueller-barr-say-about-obstruction-of-justice/

Special counsel Robert Mueller devoted much of his 10-minute remarks on May 29 to explaining why the special counsel’s office did not reach a determination about whether President Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice. Democrats have criticized Attorney General William P. Barr for mischaracterizing the findings on that point in Mueller’s report.

Here we compare what Mueller said in his remarks with how Barr has characterized the special counsel’s report and Mueller’s decision not to make a determination on obstruction charges.

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Parents of Third Boy Allege Abuse by Rabbi Krawatsky

https://jewishtimes.com/92891/parents-of-third-boy-allege-abuse-by-rabbi-krawatsky/featured-right/

The parents of a third boy have come forward to file a lawsuit against Rabbi Steven Krawatsky, Camp Shoresh in Frederick and its executive director Rabbi David Finkelstein. Filed April 4 in the Montgomery County Circuit Court, the suit alleges physical, sexual and emotional abuse by Krawatsky while the boy was attending Camp Shoresh in 2014 and 2015.

Shoresh, Inc., and Finkelstein are also named in the suit as being negligent in protecting the boy from the alleged abuse.

In the new suit, the parents of the then six-year-old boy allege Krawatsky “groomed” the boy leading up to abuse that included allegedly offering the boy money in exchange for sexual acts and “offensively and inappropriately” touching the boy, among other alleged abuse. Counts listed in the suit against Krawatsky allege battery, false imprisonment and assault.

According to the lawyer for the parents, Jonathan Little, the new suit “will very likely be tried together” with a previous suit brought in February 2019 by the parents of two other boys Krawatsky allegedly abused while attending Camp Shoresh in 2014 and 2015, and a victim-advocate blogger who broke the story of the alleged abuse in 2017.

That countersuit followed a multimillion-dollar January 2018 defamation suit filed by Krawatsky and his wife against the parents and the blogger that included 57 counts against the five for defamation, invasion of privacy and inflicting emotional distress, among other counts.

Following the blogger’s 2017 post, New York Jewish Week published an investigative story in January 2018 about Krawatsky and the alleged abuse. Krawatsky was subsequently fired from Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School, where he was a middle school Judaic studies teacher and then resigned from leading a teen minyan at Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim.

Christopher Rolle, lawyer for the Krawatskys, said of the new law suit, “My client is innocent and he looks forward to proving it in court.”

'The Report Is My Testimony.' Robert Mueller Signals He'd Rather Not Testify to Congress

Special Counsel Robert Mueller formally ended his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, refusing to take questions from reporters and signaling that he would prefer not to testify to Congress.

“The report is my testimony,” he told a group of reporters hastily assembled at the Justice Department on Wednesday.

During the nine-minute statement, Mueller reiterated the conclusions of his his team’s 448-page report: that Russians systematically interfered in the 2016 election by hacking, that investigators found “insufficient evidence” to find any Americans conspired with the Russians in that effort, that his team pointedly did not say whether or not President Donald Trump obstructed justice during the investigation and that Congress could make that decision on its own.

“I have not spoken publicly during our investigation,” he said, in his first public remarks since the report came out. “I am speaking out today because our investigation is complete, the attorney general has made the report on our investigation largely public, we are formally losing the special counsel’s office and as well I am resigning from the Department of Justice to return to private life.”