‘You’re crazy, a heretic’: Senior Haredi rabbi kicks out anti-vaxxer student

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/youre-crazy-senior-ultra-orthodox-rabbi-kicks-out-anti-vaxxer-student/

Leading ultra-Orthodox rabbi Ben Zion Mutzafi kicked out a man attending his lecture on Sunday evening due to the man’s opposition to the COVID-19 vaccine.

In video footage of the incident published Tuesday by Haredi news site Kikar HaShabbat, the rabbi can be seen repeatedly calling the man “crazy” and “evil.” He later said he stood behind those descriptions.

After the anti-vaxxer started loudly voicing his opinions against the vaccine, Mutzafi, who ordered all his followers to get the vaccine earlier this year, was seen shouting: “More than 6,500 people died, stop making things up. Go, get out of here, you’re crazy.”

The Soul of the Matter

 https://mishpacha.com/the-soul-of-the-matter/

 “In actuality,” says Rav Leuchter, “Nefesh HaChaim was only printed after Rav Chaim’s passing by his son, Reb Itzele, and he chose to omit those parts of his father’s manuscript that opposed chassidus, out of respect for the Tzemach Tzedek, with whom he worked in partnership for the benefit of Eastern European Jewry. That’s why, after Sha’ar Gimmel and before Sha’ar Daled, there are eight chapters that seem to be hanging in the middle and are not numbered. Apparently, these were originally part of a separate sha’ar, and Reb Itzele Volozhiner omitted parts of it.”

Ex-defense secretary: Trump's push to get US troops out of Afghanistan possibly 'undermined' deal with Taliban

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/17/politics/mark-esper-donald-trump-taliban-afghanistan-cnntv/index.html

 But, Esper told CNN's Christiane Amanpour, "my concern was that President Trump, by continuing to want to withdraw American forces out of Afghanistan, undermined the agreement, which is why in the fall when he was calling for a return of US forces by Christmas, I objected and formally wrote a letter to him, a memo based on recommendations from the military chain of command and my senior civilian leadership that we not go further -- that we not reduce below 4,500 troops unless and until conditions were met by the Taliban."

Why are US troops pulling out of Afghanistan now?

As US Withdraws from Afghanistan, Refugees Must Be Evacuated Immediately: A Closer Look

Safed rabbi jailed for multiple counts of sexual assault to get early release

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/safed-rabbi-jailed-for-multiple-counts-of-sexual-assault-to-get-early-release/

 A prison release committee on Tuesday decided to allow the early release of a well-known rabbi and yeshiva head from the northern city of Safed, who was jailed for committing a slew of sexual crimes against eight women, including multiple counts of sexual assault.

Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg was convicted in 2018 as part of a plea deal over a series of crimes committed against women who came to him for advice and counseling. He was sentenced to 7.5 years.

Following a lengthy discussion on Tuesday, after he served two-thirds of his sentence, a release committee decided to shorten his prison term

How Apple's plan to combat child abuse backfired on it

 https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/17/tech/apple-child-safety-tools-backfire/index.html

 In early August, Apple (AAPL) announced a major new program designed to help combat child exploitation and promote safety, issues the tech community has increasingly embraced. It was a presentation big on intent but light on the details.

What followed — outraged tweets, critical headlines and an outcry for more information — put the tech giant on defense just weeks ahead of the next iPhone launch, its biggest event of the year. It was a rare PR miscalculation for a company known for its meticulous PR efforts.

The technology at the center of the criticism is a tool that will start checking iOS devices and iCloud photos for child abuse imagery, along with a new opt-in feature that will warn minors and their parents if incoming or sent image attachments in iMessage are sexually explicit and, if so, blur them.

The Soviet War in Afghanistan, 1979 - 1989

 https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/08/the-soviet-war-in-afghanistan-1979-1989/100786/

 Nearly twenty-five years ago, the Soviet Union pulled its last troops out of Afghanistan, ending more than nine years of direct involvement and occupation. The USSR entered neighboring Afghanistan in 1979, attempting to shore up the newly-established pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. In short order, nearly 100,000 Soviet soldiers took control of major cities and highways. Rebellion was swift and broad, and the Soviets dealt harshly with the Mujahideen rebels and those who supported them, leveling entire villages to deny safe havens to their enemy. Foreign support propped up the diverse group of rebels, pouring in from Iran, Pakistan, China, and the United States. In the brutal nine-year conflict, an estimated one million civilians were killed, as well as 90,000 Mujahideen fighters, 18,000 Afghan troops, and 14,500 Soviet soldiers. Civil war raged after the withdrawal, setting the stage for the Taliban's takeover of the country in 1996. As NATO troops move toward their final withdrawal this year, Afghans worry about what will come next, and Russian involvement in neighboring Ukraine's rebellion has the world's attention, it is worth looking back at the Soviet-Afghan conflict that ended a quarter-century ago. Today's entry is part of the ongoing series here on Afghanistan.

The Failure to Understand the True Mission Doomed Us To Defeat in Afghanistan

 https://time.com/6090758/why-america-lost-afghanistan/

 There are few items of bipartisan consensus in the United States. Here is one—the leaders of both political parties decided it was time to leave Afghanistan and to lose the 20 year war with the Taliban. The only dispute that now remains is whether the Trump administration, which had committed to withdrawal by this past May, would have directed the retreat more competently than Biden, who now faces one of the most humiliating debacles in American history.

As Afghan army routed, officials say Pentagon vastly overestimated its power

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-afghan-army-routed-officials-say-pentagon-vastly-overestimated-its-power/

For months, Pentagon officials have insisted on what they said was the numerical advantage held by the Afghan forces — supposedly with 300,000 men in the army and the police — over the Taliban, estimated to number some 70,000.

 But those army numbers were greatly inflated, according to the Combating Terrorism Center at the prestigious US Military Academy at West Point, New York.

As of July 2020, by its own estimate, the 300,000 included only 185,000 army troops or special operations forces under Defense Ministry control, with police and other security personnel making up the rest.

And barely 60% of the Afghan army troops were trained fighters, the West Point analysts said.

A Year Into Normalization Deal, Israel's Hope for Geopolitical Change Fades

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-a-year-into-normalization-deal-israel-s-hope-for-geopolitical-change-fades-1.10120788 

The agreement itself was dramatic and impressive. It may have been the Trump administration’s only major diplomatic achievement in the region, and it was certainly one of the high points of Israel’s foreign policy during Netanyahu’s 12 years in office. When Morocco and Sudan later joined the normalization agreements it added even more feathers in his cap.

Nevertheless, their strategic regional impact has been limited. Israeli defense sources say the main achievements of peace with the UAE have been economic and technological. As Netanyahu hoped, Emirati sheikhs have demonstrated great interest in making large investments in Israel.

Biden in an impossible bind as Afghanistan blame game begins

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/14/joe-biden-afghanistan-crisis-blame-game

The war in Afghanistan will rank alongside Vietnam as one of America’s great modern failures of strategy and execution, Rothkopf added. “The bulk of the responsibility for that failure lies with past administrations and with the leadership in Kabul (and to some extent with Taliban enablers beyond the country’s borders). Biden is doing what is right and what must be done. It is time to turn the page.”

Trump pretends he's a credible critic of Biden's Afghanistan policy

 https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-pretends-he-s-credible-critic-biden-s-afghanistan-policy-n1276900

 Three weeks ago, Trump held a rally in Ohio and took credit for the U.S. exit. "I started the process," he boasted. "All the troops are coming back home. They couldn’t stop the process. 21 years is enough. Don’t we think? 21 years. [The Biden administration] couldn’t stop the process. They wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process."

Assessment: Arson caused massive forest fire in Jerusalem hills

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/311781

 A senior firefighter in the fire department stated on Sunday evening that the fire had broken out as a result of a deliberate act of arson and added that the investigation into the incident is only in its infancy.