“Israel scarcely needs the absence of a phone call to tell it that it has a grave problem with the new occupant of the White House”

Posted on February 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Obama’s third term
by Melanie Phillips
February 4, 2021

Some people are fretting that U.S. President Joe Biden has not yet picked up the phone to call Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They worry that this may betoken a new coolness by the United States towards Israel. To which one can only wonder: What planet are such people living on? For Israel scarcely needs the absence of a phone call to tell it that it has a grave problem with the new occupant of the White House. The Biden administration has resumed funding UNRWA, reopened the Palestinian mission to Washington and recommitted itself to the “two-state solution.” It has thus re-empowered the Palestinians’ agenda of demonizing and blackmailing Israel in order to destroy it, and afforded the Palestinians status while they do so. READ MORE

ELDER OF ZIYON Vic Rosenthal: The Iran Policy Shipwreck What is becoming clear is that the Biden Administration is dead set on a course of returning to the deal, although Blinken, at least, wants to renegotiate it. On the other hand Robert Malley, President Biden’s choice for Special Envoy to Iran, wants to jump back in to the deal as it was when President Trump took the US out of it. Malley’s think tank published a position paper a few days ago, which contained this…

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“It’s sheer madness for a country of so many immigrants with relatives and businesses abroad to impose sudden, arbitrary flight bans”

Posted on February 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Let our people come!
by Dov Lipman
January 31, 2021

This past week has been hell, as Israelis – mostly English-speaking immigrants – who were abroad for family and business reasons have been stuck there, unable to return to Israel. I have been bombarded with requests for help, and, along with MK Michal Cotler-Wunsh, have spent most of my time trying to help – usually to no avail. To give you a sense of what is going on: mothers went abroad to visit aging or ill parents and are stuck there with infants, while their children back in Israel have to function – or not function – without their mother around; there are new olim who were granted some vacation time who are now at risk of losing their jobs in Israel because they have not returned…READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Leave a comment

“Sorry to break it to you Dad,” I told him with a sad look, “but Sammy’s is done”

Posted on February 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

FORWARD
Kaddish for Knishes? Post-pandemic, Jewish delis face an uncertain future
by David Sax
February 5, 2021

…The list of victims continues to grow: Label’s Table, Jerry’s, and soon Nate N’ Al in Los Angeles. Moishe’s steakhouse in Montreal, Zaidy’s in Denver, Hamsah Mediterranean Grill (kosher) in Pittsburgh, and Mile End in Birmingham, Alabama. In New York, the spiritual home of Jewish nosheries, Sammy’s, Jay and Lloyd’s and Pastrami Masters both went dark in Brooklyn, while the tiny, beloved B&H Dairy hangs on by its fingernails. The reasons are the same everywhere: lockdowns that have shut all indoor dining, restrictions that have curtailed capacity, staff laid low by the virus, a recession like no other in memory. Regulations change without warning, and Jewish food businesses have to decide each time whether to invest thousands of dollars to rapidly adapt (ie: build a heated patio), or whether to wait and see if there’s even a point…READ MORE

HYPERALLERGIC A Loving Tribute to the Egg Cream, New York’s Classic Drink The short film “Egg Cream” explores the history of the Downtown Jewish concoction. Egg Cream is available to watch on Vimeo or OVID.

Posted in Jewish | Leave a comment

“Rabbi Mendel Fogelman, director of the Central Massachusetts Chabad, said in a statement that Green has been warned multiple times that his activities, statements and other personal pursuits are “contrary to the organization’s mission””

Posted on February 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

WBUR
Central Mass. Jewish Group Dismisses Rabbi For ‘Hostile And Offensive’ Opposition To COVID Vaccine
by Philip Marcelo, Associated Press
February 5, 2021

A prominent Jewish organization is cutting ties with a longtime Massachusetts rabbi for actively promoting anti-vaccine views and strident opposition to public health efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic. Central Massachusetts Chabad said Thursday it dismissed Rabbi Michoel Green as a representative of the organization, which oversees Jewish community centers in the region, on Jan. 27. Green has run the Chabad house in Westborough, which is a suburb of Worcester, New England’s second-largest city, for nearly 20 years. READ MORE

Posted in Jewish | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

In UK’s ultra-Orthodox community, “children under 5 showed a much lower infection rate of 28 percent, strengthening research that young children are less affected by the contagion”

Posted on February 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
London’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community has one of the world’s highest COVID rates
by Lee Brown
February 3, 2021

At least three-quarters of the adults in London’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish community got COVID-19 last year — one of the highest known rates of infection in a community ever recorded, according to a study. Blood samples taken showed that 75 percent of adults tested in the UK capital’s Orthodox community had antibodies — with almost the same percentage of school children aged over 11 also showing antibodies to the virus. The study was completed by early December, before the UK saw a dramatic surge in cases — meaning the true rate of infection is now likely far higher, according to the researchers. READ MORE

Posted in Jewish | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

#Orwells1984 : “The latest illiberal proposals for curbing speech in the name of fighting hate or untruths are being cheered by some liberals. But among their targets could be Zionists and Israel’s leaders.”

Posted on February 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Don’t think a ‘reality czar’ would spare Israel and the Jews
by Jonathan Tobin
February 4, 2021

It’s easy to scoff at some of the latest ideas being floated in some prestigious quarters for new limits on freedom of expression. But at a time when Big Tech companies are flexing their muscles to clamp down on people or movements they oppose in a way that was unimaginable just a few years ago, when The New York Times and CNN talk about government, Internet and social-media companies joining forces at some time in the future to police what they see as dangerous speech, it would be foolish to ignore them. This past week, the Times published a proposal for an interdepartmental “reality czar” who would ensure that people spreading whatever the governing classes decide is disinformation. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Leave a comment

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World

Posted on February 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

Posted in Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Israel hasn’t vaccinated the Palestinians for the same reason it hasn’t vaccinated the Egyptians or the French. Like the Egyptians and the French, the Palestinians have their own government and their own health ministry that is responsible for caring for them”

Posted on January 31, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

NEWSWEEK
Democrats, American Jews and Politically Correct Bigotry
by Caroline Glick
January 29, 2021

Israel is the world leader in COVID-19 vaccinations. By late January, more than 85 percent of Israelis over the age of 60 had completed the two-round vaccination process. If the vaccination drive continues apace, Israel will have completed the vaccination of its adult population by mid-March. Many observers watch Israel’s breakneck vaccination drive with admiration. But several powerful anti-Semites are using Israel’s unmatched efforts to protect its population from the pandemic as a basis for spreading a new blood libel against the Jewish state. Israel, its haters insist, is engaging in “vaccine apartheid.” READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“There is no doubt that Tehran will see Biden’s eagerness to re-enter the nuclear deal as a sign of weakness and it will try to extort the US accordingly”

Posted on January 31, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
US all but admits nuclear deal has failed
by Damian Pachter
February 2, 2021

Monday’s statement by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Tehran could be “weeks away” from developing enough fissile material for a nuclear bomb, had one clear goal: to set the stage for a new nuclear deal with the Islamic republic. The novelty lies with Washington’s desire to craft a “longer and stronger” deal, as he put it, but in fact, the message was a discreet admission by the Biden administration that the 2015 deal brokered by then-US President Barack Obama had failed…A glance at Biden’s picks for top positions in his administration quickly reveals that most held senior positions in the Obama administration, giving a clear hint at so where the US is headed in terms of talks with the ayatollahs. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

“He shatters myths about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, finding his greatest Israeli allies in his quest for peace and normalcy among those living in Jewish settlements”

Posted on January 31, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Meet Ashraf Jabari: The Palestinian populist
by Orit Arfa
February 2, 2021

…Jabari led the Palestinian delegation to the Bahrain “Peace to Prosperity” economic summit in June 2019, which the P.A. also boycotted. He founded, together with Ariel community leader, Avi Zimmerman, the Judea and Samaria Chamber of Commerce to improve business relations between Arabs and Jews in the region. The employment of some 45,000 Palestinians in Israeli towns and factories in Judea and Samaria work to keep the peace, especially now, when the coronavirus pandemic could easily topple an already fragile Palestinian economy. The media usually portrays Hebron, his hometown, as a flashpoint between settlers and Palestinians, but it’s there that bridges can be built. READ MORE

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment