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Hakeem Jeffries: Every single House Democrat and at least 4 House Republicans support a straightforward extension of the ACA tax credits. Time has run out.

President Donald Trump said the White House had not officially arranged a meeting with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, even as he indicated that the Israeli leader was eager to meet and that a visit was likely to take place in Florida.

Asked in the Oval Office whether Netanyahu would be coming to Mar-a-Lago later in the month, Trump replied, “We haven’t set it up formally, but he would like to see me,” adding, “He’ll probably come to see me in Florida.”

Despite repeated briefings from Netanyahu’s office over more than a week asserting that a meeting was scheduled for December 29, the White House had not issued any formal confirmation.

During the same exchange with reporters, Trump was also questioned about the possibility of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi joining the gathering in Florida. Trump responded warmly, saying, “I’d love to have him. El-Sissi is a friend of mine.”

According to a US official quoted by The Times of Israel, Washington had been exploring the idea of hosting a three-way meeting involving Trump, Sissi, and Netanyahu. The official said US officials believed progress toward that goal was made after American mediation helped persuade Israel to move forward with a major gas agreement with Egypt, following months of hesitation by Netanyahu.

However, the same official said Egypt showed significantly less interest in such a summit, citing ongoing objections to Israel’s actions in Gaza and reluctance to offer Netanyahu a political advantage during an election year.

{Matzav.com}

Authorities are investigating two separate acts of vandalism aimed at the Chabad Jewish Center at Michigan State University, incidents that unfolded just days apart and are being treated as hate crimes.

According to police, a swastika was spray-painted on the building, an act first reported by the Lansing State Journal. Law enforcement officials said the vandalism is under investigation as a hate-motivated incident.

Earlier in the week, the Chabad center disclosed on social media that a stone was hurled at one of its windows in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The center said no one was inside the building at the time, and the reinforced glass prevented damage.

The attacks in Michigan come amid a broader wave of antisemitic violence. This week alone, a mass shooting in Sydney, Australia targeted a Chabad event, and members of the Jewish community were assaulted in two separate incidents in New York City.

{Matzav.com}

The IDF condemned an incident in Jerusalem on Thursday in which civilians attacked and threw stones at a bus transporting IDF trainees and commanders from the Kfir Brigade. The IDF said the bus was forced to stop after a group of civilians gathered around it and began throwing stones. Commanders disembarked in order to secure […]

Senior police officials and political leaders sharply condemned violent disturbances in Yerushalayim on Thursday after clashes between police and hundreds of chareidi youths left 13 officers wounded and led to multiple arrests.

Police Commissioner Danny Levy described the events as a “very grave incident,” pledging that authorities would “hold everyone involved to account.” His remarks came after officers were pelted with stones and other objects, a police vehicle was overturned, and riot-control measures, including tear gas and stun grenades, were deployed to regain control.

According to police, the unrest erupted following an incident involving a municipal parking inspector who was attacked while carrying out his duties. Two young men allegedly assaulted the inspector, kicking him and threatening to kill him, telling him they would “slaughter” him if he returned to the area. Officers responding to the scene detained one of the suspects, a move that quickly inflamed tensions in the neighborhood.

As word spread of the arrest, hundreds of young men surrounded the police in an attempt to free the detainee, and the situation rapidly escalated into full-scale rioting. Five of the injured officers were taken to hospital for treatment, while police confirmed that four suspects had been arrested by early evening.

Hebrew media reported that officers on the scene identified the initial assailants as draft evaders and attempted to transfer them to Military Police custody. Police statements, however, attributed the outbreak of violence solely to the parking enforcement incident and did not confirm whether draft evasion played a role.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who oversees the police, issued a strong condemnation, saying he “unequivocally condemns the extremist rioting in Yerushalayim,” and warning that attacks on police officers crossed a “red line.”

Opposition Leader Yair Lapid leveled harsh criticism at the government, calling the events an “inconceivable failure of the government” and a sign of the “disintegration of government institutions.” In a statement, he said, “It’s unfathomable that chareidi draft evaders can avoid arrest just because they are engaging in violence. The defense minister and prime minister continue to encourage an enterprise of [draft] evasion and refusal on historic scales.”

Lapid’s comments also referred to separate overnight confrontations in Ramat Hasharon and Herzliya, where dozens of chareidi protesters blocked Military Police from detaining draft evaders.

Channel 12 reported that Wednesday night’s protests marked the third time this month that demonstrators had successfully prevented arrests of yeshiva students.

Additional condemnation came from across the political spectrum. Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman labeled the Yerushalayim riot “an act of terrorism in every sense,” writing on X, “This is what happens when the country’s leadership is in the pocket of chareidi wheeler-dealers,” and adding that “patience has run out and the excuses are over, the nation demands enlistment for everyone!”

Democrats party chairman Yair Golan also blamed the government, saying the violence showed that “the draft dodgers understand that the law in Israel does not apply to them, that everything is permitted to them — and this is how it looks.” He added, “The backing for [draft] evasion, and for violence against security forces, comes from above. The prime minister and defense minister are responsible for these shocking scenes. It is time to draft everyone and restore law and order in Israel, for the sake of Israel’s security.”

 

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump’s administration has announced a massive package of arms sales to Taiwan valued at more than $10 billion that includes medium-range missiles, howitzers and drones, drawing an angry response from China. The State Department announced the sales late Wednesday during a nationally televised address by the Republican president, who made scant mention of […]

A social media post by Yesh Atid MK Naor Shiri ignited sharp criticism on Thursday after he issued a harsh call directed at protesters confronting Israeli security forces.

The remarks came in the wake of demonstrations in which chareidi protesters hurled stones at IDF soldiers and police officers, an image that sparked outrage across parts of the political spectrum.

In the post, Shiri wrote: “Every protester who throws a rock at an IDF soldier has to end the day with a bullet in his knee. No less,”

Within roughly an hour, the MK removed the statement and sought to clarify his position. In a follow-up message, he wrote: “I deleted the post. The image of soldiers and police officers in Israel being stoned is unfathomable and is like a terrorist incident to me.”

Shiri went on to stress that the consequences of such actions could be far more severe, adding, “If a rock had hit a soldier and he had been injured, G-d forbid, the discussion about the limits of protest would certainly be completely different.”

Addressing the decision to take the post down, Shiri explained that his intent was not to inflame tensions with the chareidi public. “I deleted it because our country is on the precipice, and the purpose of the post was not to be hateful of the chareidim.”

{Matzav.com}

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas praised the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, calling it “the greatest day in Palestinian history,” Palestinian researcher Hani al-Masri said in a recent interview.

Al-Masri, the director general of Masarat—The Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies—spoke when asked by Palestinian content creator Ahmad Biqawi in a YouTube interview posted on Dec. 11 how Ramallah reacted on the morning of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

“This is the ‘authority’ people want the ‘Palestinian Authority’ to be? A terror-worshiping authority,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said in an X post on Wednesday, accompanying the relevant clip from the interview. The ministry noted that al-Masri is also a member of the Board of Trustees at the Yasser Arafat Foundation, saying he “knows a thing or two about the P.A.”

Al-Masri also said that the P.A. is continuing terror payments to the families of prisoners and “martyrs,” despite commitments to the European Union and the United States to end its “pay-for-slay” policy.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar highlighted the continuation of the P.A.’s payments policy in an X post on Wednesday, accusing Abbas of once again lying about ending the practice. He added that the P.A. is disguising payments to released murderers as pensions for members of the Palestinian Security Services.

“This is distorted. End ‘pay-for-slay’ now!” Sa’ar wrote.

{Matzav.com}

Senior Dati Leumi Rabbanim appealed to Defense Minister Yisrael Katz, demanding full implementation of the existing policy that the IDF does not actively persuade religious girls to enlist in the IDF, Arutz Sheva reported. The Rabbanim explained that there has been ongoing outreach to religious girls that creates the impression that IDF officials are acting […]

[Video below.] Just as countries must have borders to exist, the conservative movement needs to delineate what is beyond the pale, and the latter includes Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who has both denounced core conservative tenets of late and given voice to and failed to denounce antisemites and Holocaust deniers.

That was one of the messages Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative commentator and Daily Wire cofounder, shared in a Dec. 17 book talk with Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage Foundation.

Roberts has drawn criticism after failing to denounce Carlson, and a panel on Jew-hatred that used to be at the think tank has, at least temporarily, suspended its connection to Heritage, and several board and staff members at the think tank have resigned or left their positions.

Shapiro advised the think tank to part ways with Carlson, whom he called the “elephant in the room.” The Jewish commentator was there ostensibly to discuss his new book, Lions and Scavengers: The True Story of America (and Her Critics).

“If Heritage Foundation wishes to retain its status as a leading thought institution in the conservative movement, it must act as ideological border control,” Shapiro told attendees. “It must continue to draw the contours of legitimate, real conservatism. This is what the institution exists to do.”

Shapiro said conservatism’s top priority is “truth, not friendship,” calling Carlson “an opponent of conservatism, an outsider masquerading as an insider and destroying the character of the conservative movement in the process.”

That call for daylight between Heritage and Carlson came as two of the think tank’s board members, Shane McCullar and Abby Spencer Moffat, stepped down as trustees after Roberts defended Carlson and his softball interview with Holocaust denier and racist podcaster Nick Fuentes.

McCullar said, “No institution that hesitates to condemn antisemitism and hatred, or that gives a platform to those who spread them, can credibly claim to uphold the vision that once made the Heritage Foundation the world’s most respected conservative think tank,” Mediate reported.

And Moffat said the think tank had forfeited “the moral authority on which its influence depends,” the outlet said.

Shapiro said Carlson “sounds so much” like a socialist, has foreign policy views that are “idiocy” and has “glazed” the Iranian president “repeatedly” in interviews.

Carlson treated Qatar “as America’s foremost ally in the Middle East” and has a “peculiar obsession” with Israel, according to Shapiro, who noted that the podcaster has called Christian Zionism a “heresy.”

“He is mostly lying when he says that he is doing all of this in the name of a conservatism that does not resemble conservatism,” Shapiro said.

After the speech, Shapiro sat down with Roberts to talk about his book. “We love robust debate,” Roberts said, without addressing the institution’s support of Carlson directly.

“And surprises,” Shapiro quipped. JNS

WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

BREAKING: Police have identified a person of interest in the shooting at Brown University, according to CBS. Law enforcement sources say an active search is now underway to locate the individual.

The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that it imposed sanctions on two judges on the International Criminal Court over their role in affirming an investigation into what it alleges are Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

Gocha Lordkipanidze, a Georgian national, and Erdenebalsuren Damdin, a Mongolian national, voted in the ICC’s appeals chamber on Monday to uphold the investigation, ruling that the examination of Israel’s conduct in Gaza since Oct. 7 fell within the scope of the ICC’s wider probe from 2021 looking at all Israeli treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria since 2014.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the sanctions are part of an American policy to reject the ICC’s claims of jurisdiction over countries like the United States and Israel that are not party to the Rome Statute, which created the ICC.

“These individuals have directly engaged in efforts by the ICC to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent, including voting with the majority in favor of the ICC’s ruling against Israel’s appeal on Dec. 15,” Rubio said.

“The ICC has continued to engage in politicized actions targeting Israel, which set a dangerous precedent for all nations,” he added. “We will not tolerate ICC abuses of power that violate the sovereignty of the United States and Israel and wrongly subject U.S. and Israeli persons to the ICC’s jurisdiction.”

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu welcomed the decision on Thursday.

“As long as the ICC refuses to abide by its own rules of complementarity or to accept that it has no jurisdiction over non-member states, it cannot be treated as an institution of law,” Netanyahu stated.

“Rather it must be viewed and treated for what it is: a hostile political body dedicated to destroying the nation-state system, first and foremost by unlawfully pursuing false prosecutions against the State of Israel and the United States of America,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February directing the secretaries of state and treasury to impose sanctions on anyone involved in the ICC’s efforts to “investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute” U.S. citizens or the citizens of U.S. allies not party to the Rome Statute, including Israel.

The ICC, which is based in The Hague, is an independent body which is not part of the United Nations.

With the additions of Damdin and Lordkipanidze, the Trump administration has now sanctioned eight ICC judges, its chief prosecutor Karim Khan, two deputy prosecutors, three Palestinian NGOs and Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on Palestinian rights.

U.S. sanctions typically have the effect of locking targets out of any financial institutions or businesses that have U.S. operations or that transact in U.S. dollars, including most of the global banking system.

Khan has reportedly lost access to his Microsoft email work account at the ICC and his bank accounts have been closed. Khan temporarily stepped aside from his role in May over allegations of sexual harassment. He denies the claims.

Canadian ICC judge Kimberly Prost told the Associated Press earlier this month that after she was designated for U.S. sanctions she also lost access to her credit cards and Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant.

“Your whole world is restricted,” she said. JNS

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday that could reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug and open new avenues for medical research, a major shift in federal drug policy that inches closer to what many states have done. The switch would move marijuana away from its current classification as a Schedule I drug, […]

Outrage in Belgium Over Withdrawal of Federal Police Patrols from Antwerp’s Jewish Quarter A decision by Belgium’s Interior Minister Bernard Quintin to end federal police patrols in Antwerp’s Jewish neighborhood has sparked backlash among Jewish community leaders and local officials. The move ends a deployment of federal officers that had been in place for more […]

Hours after banning use of the phrase “Globalize the intifada” at protests, police in London arrested four people for using it at an anti-Israel rally on Wednesday night.

The arrests in front of the Ministry of Justice headquarters in London at a Palestine Coalition protest were for “racially aggravated public order offences, all involving the alleged shouting or chanting of slogans involving calls for intifada,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement. A fifth arrest was made “for obstruction of a constable.”

The Metropolitan Police and police in Manchester announced on Wednesday that the slogan “Globalize the intifada” will be considered hate speech and that people using it will face arrest.

The arrests follow a tightening of the enforcement of hate speech laws following the murder of 15 people at a Jewish community Chanukah candle lighting event on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. The slogan “Globalize the intifada” was a staple chant at countless anti-Israel events in Sydney since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel and triggered a regional war.

Jonathan Sacerdoti, a British-Jewish journalist and pundit, on Thursday welcomed the arrests but said they came belatedly and as part of a response that was too weak to confront the threat facing British Jews.

“The announcement [about banning the ‘Globalize the intifada’ slogan] has been framed as a response to a ‘changed context.’ But what it actually represents is an admission, belated and heavy, that the authorities spent years refusing to see what was directly in front of them,” Sacerdoti wrote on Substack.

He noted that many Jews and others understand the phrase as a call to repeat terrorist attacks carried out in Israel against Jews and others worldwide. The meaning of the words has not changed, he added, and the shift in the police’s enforcement “occurred in the difficulty to deny the truth brought about by the death of 15 more innocents slaughtered by Muslim terrorists.”

Police on Wednesday also prevented the Palestine Coalition protesters from gathering near Trafalgar Square, Whitehall, Parliament Square and surrounding areas, as well as in the area north of Oxford Circus, citing planned Chanukah candle lighting events. The protesters were allowed to gather only near the Justice Ministry’s headquarters.

Many Australian Jews and others have blamed the Canberra government for inaction in the lead-up to the Bondi Beach massacre, which a Pakistani man and his Australia-born son were filmed perpetrating. Australian authorities said the alleged perpetrators had ties to jihadists from the Islamic State terrorist group.

Palestine Coalition is an umbrella group uniting several anti-Israel organizations, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Stop the War Coalition and the Friends of Al-Aqsa.

British authorities have faced allegations of inaction, though they have taken steps that Australian counterparts had not. In July, the government banned the activities of a different group, Palestine Action, over its involvement in repeated break-ins of facilities tied to Israel, sometimes through use of violence against police and security officers.

Hundreds of Palestine Action activists have been arrested for expressing public support for the proscribed group. Several Palestine Action activists who are in prison for violence and breaking and entering have gone on a hunger strike, and some rally organizers have been holding protests not only against Israel, but also for the release of the imprisoned activists. JNS

{Matzav.com}

While speaking at the White House Chanukah party on Tuesday night, President Trump spoke to Sally Muschel, a nearly 100-year-old Holocaust survivor from Brooklyn. “She’s sharper than most of the people in this room!” Trump quipped.

Law enforcement officials are looking into whether two fatal shootings at prominent New England academic institutions may be connected, sources told The NY Post.

The incidents occurred within a short span of time and geographic proximity, prompting investigators to consider a possible relationship between the cases.

On Monday night, MIT nuclear science professor Nuno Lourerio, 47, was found shot to death inside his Brookline, Massachusetts townhouse, a property valued at about $1.4 million.

Just two days earlier, an unidentified gunman opened fire during a final exam review session at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The Shabbos afternoon attack left two students dead and nine others injured.

The two crime scenes are located less than 50 miles apart.

At this stage of the investigations, authorities have not identified any suspects in either shooting.

{Matzav.com}

A plane stolen from a flight school crashed into a building at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles.