Yeshiva World News

The Knesset on Monday 4 Menachem Av approved a bill in a 69-17 vote that increases the punishment for rock-throwing to five years imprisonment. It was a stormy plenum session as Arab Members of Knesset the rock attacks against civilians but the bill passed its second and third (final) votes. The bill addresses hurling a rock or another object at a traveling vehicle.

It is explained the bill was aimed at assisting law enforcement in cutting the number of rock attacks, adding there are currently 1,000 criminal indictments annually for rock attacks, adding one-third of the Jerusalem Prosecutor’s cases involved rock-throwing attacks and generally speaking, the courts hand down light sentences for the cases that are adjudicated.

The Arab MKs pointed out that IDF soldiers are armed with guns while the Arab youths have rocks, questioning why such a law is not legislated against the gun holders to protect the Arab children. MK Dr. Ahmed Tibi added that when police confront violent Jews at a protest the order is given not to open fire while in the same situation involving Arabs, soldiers or police will open fire.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said “Today justice was done. For years terrorists escaped the law. Tolerance towards terrorists comes to a halt today. Rock throwers are terrorists and only appropriate punishment may serve as a deterrence as well as a just punishment”

MK Dr. Tibi’s response to the speaker:

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Germany’s Foreign Ministry says it’s asking the U.S. government to clarify the latest spying allegations published by WikiLeaks.

The secrecy-spilling website published a document late Monday that it claimed was a summary of a 2005 conversation involving Germany’s foreign minister.

WikiLeaks alleges that the conversation was intercepted by U.S. intelligence, though it didn’t say which agency might have done so or how.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday while it couldn’t verify the WikiLeaks claim, if true it would constitute “unacceptable espionage against partners.”

Recent media reports about alleged U.S. tapping of German government phones have reignited a diplomatic spat between Berlin and Washington that began two years ago with reports that Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone had been monitored by the U.S. National Security Agency.

(AP)

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The tragedy that struck the home of the Gross family of the Givat Mordechai neighborhood of Yerushalayim occurred 20 months ago. When an exterminator used a toxic pesticide it led to the hospitalization of the family’s four children. The girls, Yael and Avigail died as a result. B’chasdei Hashem the boys survived after extensive hospitalization and aggressive medical intervention.

The incident led to an outcry, a demand for increased regulation, and those shouts were met with government promises to act to ensure such a tragedy never occurs again.

The parents have since filed an NIS 11 million lawsuit against the exterminator and a number of government agencies towards compelling a change in the system.

A Walla News report involving hidden cameras shows that nothing has changed. After 20 months, exterminators are still seen using toxic gas to exterminate a home, adding the use of a pesticide in gas form is illegal. However, there is no enforcement. Walla ordered an exterminator to its ‘home’ that was set up for purpose of the report. The exterminator used illegal substances and after environmental police arrived to inspect the scene, summoned by Walla, it was learned the exterminator was unlicensed.

Prior to spreading plastic sheeting to cover portions of the kitchen he assured the family that the fumigation he was about to do was perfectly safe and there was no cause for concern.

When confronted by the environmental inspector the exterminator insisted that he is licensed to perform his work and also insisted there was no safety hazard associated with fumigating the kitchen as he was planning to do.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

After stirring up a furor with his dismissive remarks about John McCain’s Vietnam war experience, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump went after the Arizona senator’s record on veterans issues, accusing him of abandoning those who served their country in uniform.

A look at some of the claims Trump has made about McCain’s record and how they compare with the facts:

TRUMP: “I’m very disappointed in John McCain because the vets are horribly treated in this country. I’m fighting for the vets. I’ve done a lot for the vets … He’s done nothing to help the vets. And I will tell you, they are living in hell.”

THE FACTS: McCain has a long record of supporting veterans’ issues in Congress. He was instrumental in a landmark law approved last year to overhaul the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs. McCain worked with the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as well as Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House veterans panel, to help win passage of the law, which aims to alleviate long delays veterans faced in getting medical care.

The VA says it has completed 7 million more appointments for care in the past year, compared with the previous year, but veterans still face increased wait times in Phoenix, Las Vegas and other places. “As we improve access, even more veterans are coming to VA for their care,” Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told Congress last month. As a result, waiting times for appointments longer than 30 days are up 50 percent from a year ago, he said.

McCain pushed for a provision in the law allowing veterans who live more than 40 miles away from a VA health care site to get government-paid care from a local doctor. McCain and Miller also pushed to make it easier to fire senior VA employees for poor performance.

McCain also was central in a law enacted this year aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans that claims the lives of an estimated 22 every day. The law is named for Clay Hunt, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who killed himself in 2011. It requires the VA and the Pentagon to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and offers financial incentives to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who agree to work for the VA.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, credited McCain for his leadership in both the VA overhaul and the Clay Hunt law. While McCain “is very capable of defending himself,” Rieckhoff said, “a public attack on one veteran’s service is an attack on us all.”

Rieckhoff was referring to Trump’s comment that McCain is only seen as a war hero because he was captured, and “I like people that weren’t captured.” McCain, son of an admiral, served 5 1/2 years in a North Vietnamese prison and endured torture, after being shot down in 1967. The Navy aviator turned down offers of early release because he would have left imprisoned comrades behind, and was awarded the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross.

___

TRUMP: “Thanks to McCain and his Senate colleague Bernie Sanders, their legislation to cover up the VA scandal…made sure no one has been punished, charged, jailed, fined or held responsible. McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them.”

THE FACTS: The VA says it has removed or forced into retirement at least six senior executives since the wait-time scandal emerged last year, including Sharon Helman, the former director of the Phoenix VA health care system, who was fired last year. The Phoenix VA was the epicenter of the wait-time scandal.

The VA announced last week it has placed an Augusta, Georgia, VA official on administrative leave following his indictment by the Justice Department on charges of falsifying medical records of numerous patients.

Despite these actions, McCain and other Republicans have pushed for the VA to do more to fire poor-performing employees. The new law gives the VA secretary greater authority to fire senior executives, with a final decision required within 28 days.

McCain slammed the VA earlier this month for failing to fix its “broken bureaucracy,” but he and other lawmakers have little ability to affect the agency’s day-to-day actions beyond changes to its budget and new legislation.

(AP)

Accepting the recommendation of the prosecution and police, Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Monday, 4 Menachem Av, ordered an investigation into the former director-general of the Prime Minister’s Office Ezra Seidoff. The investigation will be conducted by the Israel Police Lahav unit.

Also to be questioned is electrician Avi Fahima, who worked in the Netanyahu home in Caesarea amid allegations taxpayers may have been charged for private work done in the Netanyahu homes as well as misappropriations in the official Prime Minister’s Residence.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Ohio’s John Kasich, a blunt governor who embraces conservative ideals but disdains the political sport of bashing Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to become the 16th notable Republican to enter the 2016 presidential race.

The second-term governor and former congressman declares his candidacy Tuesday at Ohio State University, where as a freshman political science major in 1970, he audaciously wrote a letter that landed him a 20-minute audience with President Richard Nixon.

His entry nearly rounds out an unusually diverse Republican lineup with two Hispanics, an African-American, one woman and several younger candidates alongside older white men such as Kasich, 63, and Jeb Bush, 62. The field is so crowded it’s unclear whether Kasich will qualify for the GOP’s first debate in his home state in just two weeks.

“How did we end up with 20 people running for president?” Kasich asks with a smile in a video recently released by his political action committee. He cites his experience with the federal budget, national security and his leadership of Ohio. “Of all those people running, there’s not one that has experience in all those critical three areas.”

Kasich (pronounced KAY’-sik) ran for president once before, briefly seeking the 2000 nomination after he helped seal a federal balanced budget deal as House Budget chairman in 1997. Since then he put in nearly a decade as an investment executive and more than four years of strong-willed and often abrasive leadership as governor.

He’s expected to deliver a Tuesday announcement speech from notes but without a teleprompter, in line with his unscripted personality.

Kasich will tell an anticipated crowd of about 4,400 that Americans of all political stripes share many common values — such as integrity, honesty and personal responsibility — and call on people to work together and help others as a way to rise above their anxiety about the economic future, according to a person close to his campaign. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

Kasich will also tell his personal story in Tuesday’s event speech and pitch himself as having the qualifications, character and enthusiasm necessary to lead the nation.

Kasich unique personality also sets him apart from his competitors.

The man who once figuratively told lobbyists to get on his bus or he’d run them over and who called a police officer an “idiot” helped erase a budget deficit projected at nearly $8 billion when he entered office, boost Ohio’s rainy-day fund to a historic high and seen private-sector employment rebound to its post-recession level. This, through budget cutting, privatization of parts of Ohio’s government and other, often business-style innovations.

Unions that turned back an effort by Kasich and fellow Republicans to limit public workers’ collective bargaining rights say Kasich’s successes have come at a cost to local governments and schools, and that new Ohio jobs lack the pay and benefits of the ones they replaced. They plan a protest outside Tuesday’s launch.

Kasich has demonstrated a willingness to buck his own party when practical: He departed from Republican orthodoxy to expand Medicaid in line with the federal health care law.

He’s spent the year testing his scrappy political style around the country, for part of that time as chief spokesman for a national effort to pass a federal balanced-budget constitutional amendment. It remains to be seen how Kasich’s risky habit of working without a script — something he’s expected to do again Tuesday — will play in the 24/7 hothouse of presidential politics.

Even so, he signaled early on that he wasn’t interested in piling on Clinton, the leading Democratic contender, or President Barack Obama, a ritual almost as ingrained as the pledge of allegiance at Republican gatherings. Asked at a New Hampshire forum to give three reasons Clinton would make a bad president, he declined and said briskly: “If I’ve got to spend my time trashing people to be successful in this, you can count me out.”

He’s largely lived up to that, at least so far. But when Clinton accused other GOP governors of trying to disenfranchise voters by limiting early ballots and requiring photo ID to vote, he grew exasperated. “What is she talking about?” Kasich asked. “Don’t be running around the country dividing America.”

A fixture on Sunday talk shows and at one-time a Fox commentator, Kasich faces an immediate challenge to qualify for the first Republican debate. That faceoff takes place next month in his home-state city of Cleveland and only the top 10 candidates in national polling will be invited.

No Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio.

In recent months, he’s made trips to New Hampshire, South Carolina, Iowa, New York and Michigan, and will be returning to early voting states after his announcement. His allies at the political organization New Day for America reported raising $11.5 million on Kasich’s behalf before his entry into the race.

Kasich was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, the son of a mail carrier and grandchild of Hungarian, Czech and Croatian immigrants. At Ohio State, he wrote to Nixon praising his leadership and seeking a meeting that would be “a dream come true.” Nixon obliged, and Kasich flew to Washington for a chat and handshake in the Oval Office. In 1978, he launched his political career by defeating an incumbent Democrat to become the youngest person elected to the Ohio Senate, at age 26.

“I’m a normal person,” he told The Associated Press this year, “but that makes me unorthodox in politics.”

(AP)

After the three kedoshim HY”D were abducted and murdered from a Gush Etzion hitchhiking post a year ago, one of the lessons learned were the failures of the Shai (Shomron-Yehuda) police ‘100’ dispatchers, who failed to recognize that final call as a distress call from one of the boys.

Former Israel Police Chief Yochanan Danino promised a thorough investigation into the matter and a revamping of the 100 dispatch system such an incident in the future.

Now, a year later, we take a look at the system and despite a Public Security Ministry report citing the serious shortcomings of the ‘100’ dispatch system, nothing or perhaps very little has changed. The report explains the dispatcher and other personnel who became involved in the call a year ago failed to realize the severity of the call. The report cites there are too many inexperienced dispatchers and too many dispatchers who simply fail to adhere to operational protocol.

Regarding the Tel Aviv dispatchers, 58% of them did not have any review or refresher classes during all of 2014. The other 42% had only one review class the entire year, which the report cites is insufficient to maintain the necessary level of proficiency at the job. The report cites a lake of professionalism and many other issues which have not been eliminated despite the promises from Danino, who may be best remembered for his extravagant retirement party that cost over NIS 400,000, a party that is now under investigation by the State Comptroller’s Office.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Perhaps some remember some of the more prominent promises made during the Knesset elections. Shas leader Aryeh Deri earned votes when he promised “I will not sit in a coalition that does not support zero value added tax (VAT) on basic goods”, a statement that enjoyed the support of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Even following elections Deri pushed his program, promising us that he is the one looking out for the “transparent Israelis”, the Israelis who are economically downtrodden and too often forgotten by the decision makers.

On Sunday, 3 Menachem Av the cabinet had its chance to make good on its promise, but preferred to vote against Deri’s zero VAT effort. Deri called the vote a blatant violation of the coalition agreement. Mertz opposition party MK Ilan Gilon submitted a zero VAT bill identical to Deri’s, which was voted down by the cabinet, prompting Gilon to explain “I submit the same bill every six months. The point, clearly the promises of the zero VAT bill passing prior to elections was an empty election promise, nothing more”.

Deri stated that a team in the treasury has been working to learn and understand the ramifications of the zero VAT bill passing into law and he remains confident the law will be passed as stipulated in the coalition agreement.

If the law is eventually passed, it will remove the 18% VAT on basic subsidized items. Such a move would lower the price of a load of standard bread by 78 agorot, a 1 liter bag of milk by 79 agorot, butter by 40 agorot and leben by 22 agorot.

Despite continued promises from Deri, the treasury is not backing the bill, which experts explain will cost NIS 1 billion and result in marginal benefit, saving a poor family NIS 50 monthly and a wealthy family NIS 30 monthly.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Hamas continues its propaganda effort alongside its ongoing military buildup.

In the latest video released by the terrorist organization earlier this week, it shows former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz touring the Gaza border (according to the Hamas report). Hamas explains it could have harmed the commander if it so desired.

The IDF Spokesman has yet to comment on the video, which appears to have been edited.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Beit Shemesh police during the predawn hours of Monday, 4 Menachem Av, were summoned to a Ramat Beit Shemesh shul.

Police arrived in time to apprehend the thieves red handed — as they were breaking into the shul. A check of the suspects revealed that are PA (Palestinian Authority) residents inside “Green Line” Israel illegally. They had burglars’ tools in their possession when apprehended.

Police also found a vehicle nearby that exhibited signs of having been broken into. They believe the car was broken into and waiting to be used for their getaway.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

The public sector strike set to begin on Wednesday morning 6 Menachem Av has been averted. Approximately 15,000 manpower agency employees will be hired as government workers as a result of the deal reached between the treasury and the Histadrut labor federation. Tens of thousands of additional manpower workers will receive improved conditions. The agreement however does not apply to 200,000 Israelis working for the government, all hired by manpower agencies.

The deal provides for hiring 2.5% of the manpower workers as government employees and while most view the deal as a step in the right direction, it is far cry from responding to the demands of most of the manpower agency employees involved.

The strike would have shut down government ministries, local government, mail deliveries, trash collection and many more essential services.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

An IDF Homefront training exercise began on Sunday 3 Menachem Av in the Jerusalem area. The multi-day exercise will conclude on Wednesday, 6 Menachem Av.

During the training event, which includes a simulated missile attack into the capital, Ichud Hatzalah will be working with officials in City Hall responsible for security and safety in the city. They will address a direct missile strike to a residential building.

On Tuesday, between 18:00-20:00 in the Eshkolot Minhelet building at 3 Magen HaElef Street in the Shmuel HaNavi neighborhood, the simulated attack will occur. As such, residents will see and hear a large response of emergency vehicles. Air raid sirens will also be heard. One hundred Ichud Hatzalah volunteers will participate in the training exercise along with IDF Homefront soldiers and officers, officials from City Hall and Israel Police.

An air raid siren will be heard at 10:05 in the Jerusalem area.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

MK (Yahadut Hatorah) Moshe Gafne on Monday, 4 Menachem Av, met with opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog. The meeting comes in the wake of a growing controversy between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Yahadut Hatorah. The prime minister explains he must cut funding promised in the coalition agreement and the chareidi representatives are playing hard ball.

The Moetzas Gedolei Yisrael of Agudas Yisrael convened on Monday, 4 Menachem Av as the admorim will have to decide how to instruct its Knesset representatives to respond to calls to accept significant budget cuts.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu explained to all coalition faction members that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has informed him that an across-the-board budget cut is required. PM Netanyahu explained this applies to all coalition partners.

In the case of the Yahadut Hatorah, it will mean a cut in monthly child allowance payments and funds earmarked for yeshivos and other mosdos. The response given to PM Netanyahu by Yaakov Litzman and Moshe Gafne to date has been a resounding “no”, signaling they expect everything promised in the coalition agreement. However, it is becoming increasingly clear to the chareidi MKs that the cuts are necessary, leading to an urgent motzei Shabbos meeting in the Prime Minister’s Office between Mr. Netanyahu, Litzman and Gafne.

While it is reported Gafne asked Herzog for opposition support for his appointment to the committee that appoints dayanim. The coalition appears to be behind Yisrael Eichler of Agudas Yisrael and with only one available chareidi slot, Gafne wants the post.

In addition, the meeting with the opposition leader at this time may send a threatening message to the prime minister. If the cuts are made despite Yahadut Hatorah’s opposition, perhaps the chareidi party will seek to establish an alternative coalition with Herzog.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)

Donald Trump faced an avalanche of fresh criticism Monday for questioning Sen. John McCain’s heroism. But he’s getting no pressure at all from the one community that could push a candidate out of the 2016 presidential race: political donors.

The billionaire businessman is paying for his own campaign, and that means Republicans may have him around far longer than some party leaders would like.

“Nobody leaves a race because they get tired, or because they think they don’t have the votes. They leave the race because they run out of money,” said Frank Luntz, a GOP pollster. “Donald Trump will never run out of money, and that makes him incredibly powerful.”

Indeed, Republican operatives suggest that Trump enjoys a rare freedom.

Because he doesn’t need tens of millions of dollars from wealthy donors — a notoriously risk-averse crowd — the standard rules of politics simply don’t apply. He can afford, literally, to continue dropping the verbal bombs that have defined his presidential campaign since the day he joined the 2016 contest in June.

At his formal announcement last month, Trump said illegal immigrants from Mexico are prisoners and rapists. Then, at a conservative summit in Iowa last weekend, he dismissed McCain’s reputation as a war hero, saying of the Arizona senator who was once a prisoner in Vietnam, “I like people who weren’t captured.”

Critics began piling on Trump immediately, and new voices emerged on Monday, from veterans groups, Republican colleagues and President Barack Obama’s spokesman, who defended McCain and called on Trump to apologize.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said Monday that Trump’s “asinine comments” were “an insult to everyone who has ever worn the uniform — and to all Americans.”

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said veterans “are entitled to an apology.”

A candidate reliant on campaign contributions probably would be feeling the pain by now.

Yet the self-funded Trump has shown little sign of backing down. He leveled new criticism against the McCain on Monday, saying the senator had made America “less safe” through his votes in Congress. The real estate executive also lashed out at fellow GOP presidential aspirants who have criticized his remarks, calling them “failed politicians.”

Trump said he did not need “to be lectured by any of them.”

“If he were dependent on donors for his campaign, he would find the vast majority of donors would be looking for other candidates at this point,” said Fred Malek, who has raised money for Republican presidential hopefuls for four decades.

Presidential competitors in both parties, and the outside groups supporting them, have already raised about $400 million for the 2016 White House contest, the majority of the money coming from donors who face no limits on their contributions.

Trump hasn’t solicited a dime. Reports filed last week with federal regulators show he loaned his campaign $1.8 million. His campaign has never held a fundraising dinner where attendees pay the legal maximum of $2,700 to attend, and he has never sent email asking for others to chip in $25. Both are hallmarks of a traditional presidential candidate.

“I don’t need anybody’s money. It’s nice,” Trump proclaimed during his presidential announcement June 16 in New York City. “I’m using my own money. I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.”

Trump filed details of his personal wealth with federal regulators last week that declare a net worth in excess of $10 billion.

“Being a billionaire means you’re the master of your own domain,” Luntz said.

He would know: Luntz once worked for Texas businessman H. Ross Perot, perhaps the best-known presidential candidate who paid his own way. In 1992, Perot ran as an independent candidate, using almost $64 million of his fortune to get his name on ballots across the country.

This year, with Republican Party pressure building, Luntz wonders if Trump will break off and go the Perot third-party route.

“You may be able to look back on this day as the beginning” of that campaign, he said. “You make up your own rules.”

On the other hand, a self-financed candidate can also be his or her own worst enemy, said Ed Rollins, Perot’s onetime campaign manager.

Rollins predicted Trump would follow the same path as his former boss: off a cliff.

Perot was polling ahead of the major-party candidates in June before the election but ended up not winning a single state in November.

“He first promised to spend whatever it took to win, and we presented him with a budget of about $450 million,” Rollins said. “He balked at that. He argued over every item. The Ross Perots, the Donald Trumps, they don’t want to be told what to do.”

(AP)

It is unclear just what Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat hoped to accomplish with their Sunday night 3 Menachem Av ride on the Jerusalem light rail. The cameras focus on the two officials and their wives, and one does not see the large security detail around them.

Perhaps amid a growing number of attacks against the light raid in predominately Arab areas of the city, the officials felt their riding the train would encourage riders. However, they did not travel through Shuafat and Beit Haninah.

Perhaps it was nothing more than a photo op or a night out for the prime minister, who is rarely permitted to ride on public transit like regular commuters.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem / Photos: PM’s Office)