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WATCH: Israeli President Asks For Forgiveness From Family Of Hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin HY”D
Starlink Stations arrive in Israel for Embattled North
Dozens of Starlink satellite internet stations have arrived in Israel and will be installed in government offices, hospitals and emergency centers in the north in the coming days, Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi announced on Monday.
“The station will provide satellite wifi to the entire complex and will allow communication continuity in blackout cases and various other scenarios. And this is just the beginning,” Karhi tweeted.
Israel’s Communications Ministry approved Starlink’s use in Israel in February, enabling Israelis to access broadband services even in the event of disruption to ground-based communications.
“Starlink’s entry into Israel will enable advanced satellite communication routinely and during times of emergency,” said Karhi at the time.
Israel’s security authorities have also approved the use of Starlink in the Gaza Strip on a limited, case-by-case basis, in instances where it has been confirmed that the entity in question poses “no concern of risk or possibility of endangering national security,” the ministry added in a statement.
On Aug. 10, tech entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted that he hoped “to do more to help people in Gaza.” His Starlink satellite internet service started operating in the Gaza Strip in late July.
He attached a post from Emirati influencer Hassan Sajwani, who tweeted thanks to Musk for helping the UAE’s Gaza Field Hospital in Rafah.
The field hospital was set up in December. Its director, Dr. Sultan Al Kaabi, told the Emirati English-language daily The National that the Starlink service has allowed for live video medical consultations with patients.
“We added the service to cooperate with Emirati hospitals and specialists from different countries,” he said. “We get consultations about certain cases that we don’t have speciality [for] here in Gaza to provide the best treatment.”
Israel at first opposed Starlink in Gaza but reversed the earlier policy due to changing conditions in the Strip and a desire to reach a delicate balance between humanitarian considerations, operational needs and broader geopolitical calculations that could invite outside actors from the region and the private sector to play bigger roles in post-war Gaza, according to observers in Israel.
(JNS)
Democrat Ro Khana: Kamala Harris Has “Expressed Openness” To Potentially Cutting Off Aid To Israel [VIDEO]
Oslo Police ‘Save’ Wax Netanyahu Sculpture
In a peculiar turn of events in Oslo, Norway, police broke into a parked vehicle to rescue what they believed was a person in distress, only to discover a strikingly lifelike wax figure of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu.
The sculpture, the work of controversial Norwegian artist Morten Viskum, was scheduled for display at an upcoming art fair. Viskum had placed his work in the car ahead of the event. The police action was prompted by a concerned citizen who reported seeing what appeared to be a lifeless body inside the vehicle.
NRK, a Norwegian news outlet, reports that Viskum has built a reputation for his provocative artistic endeavors, including previous wax sculptures of contentious world figures. His past works have featured likenesses of Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. president Donald Trump.
Viskum’s notoriety extends beyond sculpture; he once distributed jars of olives containing rats to 20 supermarkets across Norway’s five largest urban centers. In another controversial project, he used a hand severed from a cadaver as a paintbrush, creating a series entitled “The hand that never stopped painting.”
Norway has long been known for its critical stance regarding Israeli policies. In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught on southern Israel, such criticism has only intensified in Norwegian artistic circles, with some exhibits veering into territory that has been labeled antisemitic.
Commenting on the incident, On Alpeleg, a former Israeli resident of Norway, tweeted: “Yet another instance of a Norwegian ‘artist’ pushing boundaries. Following other ‘artists’ who superimposed a keffiyeh on a portrait of Anne Frank and depicted Netanyahu as Hitler, this Norwegian ‘artist’ has now produced a wax effigy of Benjamin Netanyahu.”
(JNS)
Germany Returns Painting Looted By Nazis In 1942 To Heirs Of Jewish Family
Biden Blames Hamas for Deaths of American-Israeli Hostages, Vows To Hold Hamas Leaders Responsible
AI May Not Steal Many Jobs After All. It May Just Make Workers More Efficient
WATCH: President Herzog Hesped At Levaya of Hersh Goldberg-Polin HY’D
Gaza Hostage Families to Gov’t: Destroy Hamas
Members of the Gvura Forum converged on the Prime Minister’s Office in Yerushalayim on Monday to protest against a general strike called by the Histadrut labor federation following the IDF’s recovery over the weekend of six hostages’ bodies from the Gaza Strip.
“We call on the prime minister not to give up to [Hamas terror chief Yahya] Sinwar and instead to keep up military pressure to achieve total victory,” Yehoshua Shani, a member of the forum whose son IDF Capt. Ori Shani was killed in action at Kissufim on Oct. 7, told JNS.
“Our heart is with the families of the hostages who were killed by Hamas and not the government of Israel, which needs to do everything possible to bring the hostages back while at the same time destroying Hamas and ending terror,” Yehoshua continued.
Captives Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, Carmel Gat, 40, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25, whose bodies were recovered from a Rafah tunnel in southern Gaza overnight Saturday, were shot multiple times at close range shortly before their discovery.
Israelis reacted with anger and many blamed the Netanyahu government for Hamas’s ongoing refusal to accept a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal, one that Yerushalayim has accepted.
WATCH: Hersh Goldberg-Polin laid to rest in Jerusalem
September 2, 2024
An estimated 30,000 people protested in Tel Aviv on Sunday night, demanding the government return the hostages.
The Histadrut, representing roughly 800,000 Israeli trade unionists, declared a 24-hour general strike starting at 6 a.m. on Monday. Ben-Gurion International Airport halted departures, initially from 8 to 10 a.m.. Hospitals moved to reduce operations. Ports only offloaded expendable items and medical supplies.
The Tel Aviv Labor Court subsequently ordered the strike to end at 2:30 p.m., with the court’s president calling the economic shutdown “political.”
Judge Hadas Yahlom, president of the court in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, said in her decision that “after hearing the parties’ positions and perusing the materials submitted to the case, we hereby grant a temporary injunction against the announced strike.”
Shani said, “We understand the pain, we understand the families, but we still appeal to the government to keep the war on until they end Hamas’s terror reign because we need to protect the whole nation here.”
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About 200 people participated in the forum’s protest. Demonstrators erected a tent adjacent to the Prime Minister’s Office where people can visit and exchange stories of Israelis heroes, including those who were killed in the current war, from bereaved families demanding total victory over Hamas.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stopped by the rally on Monday, stating, “We are using our power in the government to prevent a reckless deal. With Hamas you need to speak only between gunsights.”
On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he was “outraged to the depths” of his soul by the murder of six hostages in Gaza by Hamas, blaming the terrorist group for blocking a ceasefire agreement.
“Our efforts to free our hostages are continuing constantly. Since December, Hamas has refused to hold genuine negotiations,” he said.
“Three months ago, on May 27, Israel agreed to a hostage-release deal with full backing from the United States. Hamas refused. Even after the United States updated the deal framework on Aug. 16—we agreed, and Hamas again refused.
“Whoever murders hostages—does not want a deal,” continued Netanyahu. “For our part, we will not relent. The government of Israel is committed, and I am personally committed, to continue striving toward a deal that will return all of our hostages and ensure our security and our existence.”
Last month, the prime minister held a meeting with representatives of both the Gvura Forum and the Tikva Forum, another group that believes ongoing military pressure is the best way to secure the freedom of the 101 remaining captives.
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While the larger Hostage and Missing Families Forum has accused Netanyahu of abandoning the captives, the Tikva Forum on Sunday called on the government to end months of indirect negotiations with Hamas.
“Hamas has actually started to kill people directly to raise the pressure on the government to enter a deal on its conditions,” Shimon Or, the uncle of captive Avinatan Or and a member of the Tikva Forum, told JNS on Sunday.
“We knew that Hamas was a murderous terror organization, but they are now killing during negotiations. This represents a change in their strategy,” he continued.
“Hamas anticipated that instead of blaming the killers, the Israeli people would put the responsibility on the government, which actually wants to bring back the hostages,” he added.
Regarding the Israeli Security Cabinet vote last week in support of Netanyahu’s stance of maintaining an Israel Defense Forces presence in the Philadelphi Corridor on Gaza’s border with Egypt, Or stressed that such a position will save lives.
“Keeping troops in the corridor ensures that Hamas will not rearm in Gaza, and so there will not be another October 7,” he said. “The government didn’t go to war for nothing, we went to war keep the whole country safe.
“There cannot be a situation where the government gives up clauses in any deal that are essential to keeping the Israeli people and the country safe once the hostages are back,” he continued.
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“We are demanding from Prime Minister Netanyahu that he stop negotiating and makes sure Hamas knows that it will no longer exist,” Or said.
Severing ties with Hamas, he added, would show that taking hostages will not be rewarded.
“Continuing to speak with Hamas after what it did will lead to more deaths, because Hamas will understand these actions bring results,” Or said.
“The blood of the hostages will be on the Histadrut labor union and the Kaplan Force [left-wing activist group], which try to gain political ground by exploiting the pain of the poor families of hostages,” he said.
SEE THE CHASDEI HASHEM: Military Sappers Detonate Powerful Bomb Intended To Kill Dozens
Fatah Claims Terror Attack for Second Day in a Row
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a “military” arm of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement, claimed responsibility on Monday for a drive-by shooting that killed three Israeli police officers in Yehuda.
In an announcement posted on official channels, Fatah’s “militia” praised the terrorist who carried out the “Tarqumiya operation,” naming the perpetrator as Muhannad al-Aswad from the nearby town of Idhna.
The terrorist group warned that its gunmen would continue to “pursue the occupier [Israel] at every intersection, alley and neighborhood, until it is expelled from our land and our holy sites, Inshallah [‘God willing’].”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Sunday that al-Aswad had links to the P.A.’s ruling faction and had served in Abbas’s presidential guard.
On Sunday, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades declared responsibility for this weekend’s double car bombings in the Gush Etzion area of Yehuda.
In a statement, it claimed that the bombing attacks came in response to “Zionist massacres in the Gaza Strip, the crimes of the occupation in the occupied West Bank and violations against the blessed Al-Aqsa mosque.
“The fighters of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades continue their heroic operations against the forces of the Zionist enemy within the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood,” it said, referring to the war initiated by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Many members of Israel’s security brass support the Palestinian Authority’s control over parts of Judea and Samaria as a “moderating force,” as opposed to Hamas and other Iran-backed terrorist groups.
Members of Ramallah’s security forces have a long history of carrying out attacks against IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians. Last year, Fatah boasted that most of its “martyrs” served in the P.A. Security Forces.
In addition, the Hamas terrorist organization has recruited dozens of PASF operatives, using them as terrorist combatants and for intelligence gathering, Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported in mid-2023.
Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades “military” wing also took responsibility on Monday for the Yehuda car bombings, describing the twin attacks as the terrorist group’s “first martyrdom operation in the Hebron Governorate.”
The statement also mourned Tarqumiya shooter al-Aswad as a “heroic martyr fighter” but stopped short of taking responsibility for the attack.
The Al-Qassam Brigades vowed to continue providing weapons to “martyrs and those who carry out qualitative [terrorist] operations that will uproot this occupier from our land soon, with the help of Allah.”
On Sunday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich urged the Cabinet to launch a counterterrorism campaign throughout Judea and Samaria. “Gaza, Lebanon, and Judea and Samaria are part of the same Iranian choke ring that seeks to destroy the State of Israel,” Smotrich said.
In the six months of 2024, Yehuda and Shomron saw more than 500 Arab terrorist attacks each month on average, according to figures Rescuers Without Borders published on Aug. 1.
During that time, first responders recorded 3,272 acts of terrorism in the region, including 1,868 cases of rock-throwing, 456 attacks with Molotov cocktails, 299 explosive charges and 109 shootings.
Terrorists have killed 14 people and wounded more than 155 others in Judea and Samaria since the start of the year, the rescue group said.
(JNS)
Far-Right German Party’s Win Has Some Fearing For The Future. Others Worry Of A Return To The Past
WATCH: Levayah of Hersh Goldberg Polin in Yerushalayim
The funeral of slain Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin got underway at Yerushalayim’s Har HaMenuchos cemetery on Monday, two days after his body was retrieved from a tunnel in southern Gaza.
Ahead of the funeral ceremony, which started at 4 p.m., thousands gathered in the capital’s streets, waving Israeli flags to pay their final respects as the Goldberg-Polin family made its way to the cemetery.
(JNS)
Kristi Noem: I’m 100% Convinced Tim Walz Is A National Security Risk (Video)
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem joins ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ to weigh in on Tim Walz’s record as a congressman and Minnesota governor, his ties to China, and her take on the 2024 race.
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There’s No Honeymoon For New UK Leader Keir Starmer After A Summer Of Unrest
Israeli Labor Court Cuts Short ‘Political’ Strike
An Israeli labor court ordered a general strike that began on Monday morning to end at 2:30 p.m., with the court’s president calling the economic shutdown “political.”
Judge Hadas Yahlom, president of the Labor Court in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, said in her decision that “after hearing the parties’ positions and perusing the materials submitted to the case, we hereby grant a temporary injunction against the announced strike, in such a way that the strike will end today at 2:30 p.m.”
She added: “The strike is political, there is no connection between the killing of the abductees and the economy.”
On Sunday, the Histadrut labor federation, which represents some 800,000 Israeli trade unionists, declared a general strike starting at 6 a.m. on Monday, shutting down large sectors of the economy, to protest against the lack of a ceasefire deal with the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza.
It came after the IDF announced on Sunday morning that the bodies of six hostages were recovered overnight Saturday from a tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza, sparking anti-government protests and calls by left-wing political leaders for a general strike.
At the request of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu, the state filed a petition on Monday morning against Histadrut Chairman Arnon Bar–David.
According to the petition, the strike was not called “for the purposes of a collective labor dispute, and as such is a political strike.”
The strike was set to last for 24 hours with the possibility of an extension, but Bar-David told the Labor Court that the strike would end on Monday at 6 p.m., before the judge’s decision ended it hours earlier.
In a statement, Bar-David said that he accepted the court’s decision to end the strike early.
“It is important to emphasize that the solidarity strike was a significant measure and I stand behind it. Despite the attempts to paint solidarity as political, hundreds of thousands of citizens voted with their feet,” he wrote.
“I thank every one of you — you proved that the fate of the hostages is not right wing or left wing, there is only life or death, and we won’t allow life to be abandoned,” Bar-David continued.
Smotrich praised the court’s ruling, tweeting, “The court accepted our position and determined that the Histadrut’s strike was political and illegal.
“The Israeli workers who showed up for work today in droves proved that the days of the red register that enslaves the workers for political needs are over. It is not possible to damage the Israeli economy and thereby serve the interests of [Hamas leader in Gaza Yayha] Sinwar and Hamas!”
Meanwhile, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged protests to continue despite the ruling.
“This is not about a strike, this is about rescuing the 101 hostages that were abandoned by Netanyahu with the Cabinet decision last Thursday,” the forum said, referring to the vote by ministers to back the IDF’s continued presence at the Gaza-Egypt border, known as the Philadelphi Corridor.
Nationwide protests are scheduled for the evening at 7 p.m., including in Yerushalayim in front of the prime minister’s residence, Tel Aviv on Begin Street and in Caesarea in front of the prime minister’s house. JNS
{Matzav.com Israel}
Rav Gershon Ribner: Is There An Area In Avodah Where Baalei Batim Can Surpass Bnei Torah?
Rav Gershon Ribner, rosh kollel of Kollel Nesivos Hatorah and son-in-law of Rav Shneur Kotler, has succeeded in applying classical Talmudical analysis and methodology to understanding all areas of Yiddishkeit, bringing out its profundity and sense.
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