An Arab lawmaker accused of exploiting his position to smuggle cellphones and notes to convicted Palestinian terrorists signed a plea deal Thursday with prosecutors in which he will resign from the Knesset and serve two years in jail.
According to the deal, MK Basel Ghattas, of the Joint (Arab) List’s Balad faction, will admit in court early next week to charges including smuggling phones into prison, smuggling documents and breach of trust.
Lawyers for both sides will request a jail term of two years and the prosecution will ask that Ghattas be fined.
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Sprecher at Congregation Bais Moshe Shmiel (Rabbi Rottenberg’s shul) delivering the opening remarks on the 5th day of Iyur, 5774, expressing hakaras ha-tov to HKB”H for the State of Israel
Obituary: Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Sprecher, ztz”l, beloved husband, father, grandfather, doctor and lecturer of Talmud.
The levaya of Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Sprecher took place today at Shomrei HaDa’as in Borough Park, Brooklyn. The speakers included, among others, his brother Mendel, his son, and Rabbi Lipa Geldwerth of Congregation Kol Torah. Sprecher, a prominent radiologist and lecturer of Talmud, passed away the night before on March 15, 2017.
Sprecher, warmly beloved by his community and friends for his care and compassion, gave a daily lecture on Talmud (daf ha-yomi) at Congregation K’hal Sasreganin. He opened his home to Torah scholars who would deliver shiurim and lectures for the community in his spacious library.
Sprecher was an editor of Yeshurin and on the editorial board of Hakirah: The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought. He was also an outspoken advocate for the security of the State of Israel.
He republished, with a new introduction, Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzki’s Sha’alu Shalom Yerushalayim which discusses Friedlaender’s fraudulent mesechtot on Yerushalmi Kodashim.
He was perhaps most widely known for his article in HakirahMezizah be-Peh — Therapeutic Touch or Hippocratic Vestige which reiterated the risks to babies from oral suctioning performed during a brit milah. He also documented the responsa of leading Torah scholars, including the Hatam Sofer, who had ruled that oral suctioning during a brit is not a halakhic requirement.
Sprecher’s intellectual capacity was legendary and his expertise in radiology was sought worldwide including by the late rebbe of Lubavitch, ztz”l as well as by the late rebbe of Gur, the P’nei Menachem, ztz”l.
One of the eulogizers at the levaya spoke about how Sprecher would teach himself foreign languages so that he would be able to read scholarly books published in those languages.
Sprecher was beloved by his family and by his friends for his care and compassion, for his humility, his self-effacement, his sharp intellect and his willingness to advise and help others. He is survived by his wife Matti, his siblings, his children and his grandchildren.
Tempest at U.N. Over Report Saying Israel Practices Apartheid
A Palestinian boy herds his sheep on a field near the West Bank city of Jenin
A United Nations commission said in a report on Wednesday that Israel practices apartheid against Palestinians, a politically explosive assertion that led to furious denunciations by Israel and the United States.
The secretary general of the United Nations quickly disassociated himself from the report, which seemed bound to aggravate the already tense relationship between the world body and the Trump administration.
It also could provide momentum to advocates of an international movement to boycott Israel. Just over a week ago, Israel’s Parliament passed a law barring entry to foreigners who have publicly supported that movement, known as B.D.S. — boycott, divestment and sanctions.
The report was published by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, composed entirely of Arab member states; most do not recognize Israel.
One of the authors of the report was Richard Falk, an American law professor and former United Nations human rights investigator whom critics regard as an anti-Israel extremist. He has been refused entry to Israel for what Israeli leaders have described as his hostile point of view.
Daqamseh welcomed by his family upon his release from prison
On March 12, 2017 Jordanian journalist Basel Al-Rafayeh published an article on his Facebook page and on the Jordanian website Nesannews.com titled “The Deception of Heroism.” Al-Rafayeh attacks those who present Ahmad Al-Daqamseh – who murdered seven Israeli schoolgirls in the Island of Peace in 1997 and was released from prison this week – as a hero. He argues that the murder of young girls is a crime that flies in the face of moral values and is anything but heroic, since Israeli children are not the enemy. He hopes that Al-Daqamseh will be rehabilitated, will understand that his image as a hero is deceitful and will even express remorse for his actions so he can live with himself.
Israeli Air Force jets struck two Hamas installations in the north of the Gaza Strip early Thursday in response to the latest rocket fire from the territory at Israeli communities nearby, the army said.
There were no immediate reports about damage or casualties from the Israeli strike.
Less than two hours before the strike, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an empty field in the Sdot Negev Regional Council near Netivot.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations slams the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), after the commission releases a report accusing Israel of “apartheid.”
“The attempt to smear and falsely label the only true democracy in the Middle East by creating a false analogy is despicable and constitutes a blatant lie,” says Danny Danon in a statement. “It comes as no surprise that an organization headed by an individual who has called for boycotts against Israel, and compared our democracy to the most terrible regimes of the twentieth century, would publish such a report. We call on the Secretary General to disassociate the UN from this biased and deceitful report.”
Danon was referring to ESCWA Executive Secretary, Rima Khalaf, a Jordanian national.
The site of a Palestinian suicide bombing that killed 15 people in Jerusalem, August 9, 2001
The United States charged a Jordanian woman with involvement in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed 15, including two Americans.
The U.S. Justice Department unsealed Tuesday the charge against Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, who is in her mid 30s and is also known as “Khalti” and “Halati,” for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against American citizens.
The criminal charge for Al-Tamimi, which had been under seal since July 2013, was for involvement in a suicide bombing at a Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem that left 122 injured, including four Americans.
According to the U.S. affidavit, Al-Tamimi traveled with the suicide bomber, lead the bomber to a crowded area and provided instructions on how to detonate the weapon, according to the U.S. Justice Department. She had agreed to carry out attacks on behalf of Hamas’ military wing, the affidavit said.
Kuwait Airways is once again facing a legal challenge over its discriminatory policy of refusing to fly Israeli passengers.
The Lawfare Project — a US-based pro-Israel nonprofit legal group — has filed a complaint with a German court in a bid to shut down the carrier’s layover flights that link Europe with non-Arab League countries, such as India and Thailand.
Past Lawfare Project efforts have already led to Kuwait Airways halting service on US-Europe and inter-European routes.
US President Donald Trump and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman
US President Donald Trump hosted Saudi Arabia’s powerful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House Tuesday, for talks expected to focus on the economy and rolling back Iranian influence.
Trump welcomed the young prince to the Oval Office, as both countries expect to improve ties that were frequently strained under Barack Obama’s administration.
Saudi Arabia is likely to welcome Trump’s harder line on its arch-rival Iran and there is likely to be less friction over Riyadh’s war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.
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