MK Yulia Malinovsky (Yisrael Beyteynu) has proposed a law that would make the punishment a bit harsher for defacing signs bearing the images of women in the public sphere.

Until now the punishment by law has been up to months in prison, that was generally converted to community service or a fine. The new law would punish the offender with a full year in prison.

The new law, if it passes, would require the defacing to have been done for reasons of gender bias, and not just good old regular vandalism.
source: Kikar

I am sure that, despite this being proposed by a coalition member it will be shot down by other coalition members. While that remains to be seen, I do not see how they will either suddenly start catching these vandals, when they have hardly done so in the past, or how they will prove it was done out of gender bias rather than generic vandalism. My guess is they will assume if the offender has a Haredi appearance they will assume gender bias, while any other offender will be assumed generic vandalism.

I don't see this law passing. Even if it does, I don't see it being useful or effective in any way.

the following post was written by a young man, a convert, who was the subject of much online scoffing after a picture was published of him marrying a clearly much older woman..

whoa...

from Walla News and YWN

12 suspects were arrested in Beit Shemesh Monday in a massive fraud case involving a fake yeshiva.
According to the authorities, the suspects created a fake yeshiva and registered 150 'students' in order to receive government funding in the form of Education Ministry stipends and scholarship funds, Yeshiva World News reported.
The suspects allegedly pocketed over NIS 1,000,000 ($287,000).
During a routine inspection, Education Ministry officials found a pile of rubble at the address given for the yeshiva. The officials filed a complaint with the police and undercover detectives, who discovered that the yeshiva and its 150 students did not exist.
Haredi protesters clashed with police as they attempted to apprehend the suspects Monday. Rioters shoved police officers and threw eggs at them. The police responded with pepper spray.
The suspects were arraigned and taken in for questioning, Several suspects were released under restrictive orders.
The suspects are accused of obtaining defrauded money under aggravated circumstances, conspiracy to thievery, and money laundering.

I must say, 1,000,000nis seems like an awefully low number for a fake yeshiva with 150 fake students registered. 1 million shekels sounds like it would be about a few months worth of fraud for that size institution.

Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz has approved the decision/recommendation to build a train station in the Old City of Jerusalem very close to the Kotel, near the site of the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter. That was already pretty set in stone and the approval was already sure to happen.

What is more interesting is Katz's decision to name the station after the President of the United States of America, Donald J Trump.

That's right. The Kotel Train Station will be called "Tachanat Donald Trump, Hakotel" - "The Donald Trump, Kotel Station".

Katz explains that he has decided to name the station after Trump in light of his courageous and historic decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. As if that needed to be said.
source: Yediot

I seem to recall that when Trump was running for President, and shortly after he was elected, people were joking about putting a large plaque on the Kotel with Trump's name, as well as a similar one on the golden Dome of the Rock. That joke is now just a few meters away from becoming reality.

I bless MK Yaakov Litzman, for after years of us trying to convince him and his community that the key to success is significant service in the IDF along with academic education, it is he who is now helping us instill that down to the community..

  -- MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), regarding Litzman's law proposal to require a candidate for Prime Minister to have served in the IDF and hold an academic degree

I thought this was well thought out and well said

shocking

I hate the leadership of the Religious Zionists, though not on a personal level. They are now like the Haredim from 50 years ago - they only look out for themselves..

  -- MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ)

We already know Guatemala has announced it will be moving its embassy to Jerusalem, following the USA's lead. Now Panama and the Honduras have announced they will also be moving their embassies to Jerusalem.
source: NRG

The dominoes are all falling. Some countries will stand strong and refuse to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but the tipping point will eventually be reached and they will realize Jerusalem is not what is preventing peace.

Now we just have to wait and see if the USA actually moves their embassy or if it was just lip service...

There's been some friction over the past few years in the area of the Mir Yeshiva. Some have felt that the restaurants open late at night full of yeshiva bachurim is inappropriate and a bad influence in the area. They want the restaurants closed at night. The other side of it is the bachurim and the restaurants who want their night life and the booming business.

After years of threats and warnings and debate, the restaurants around the Mir are being shut down at 11pm. The order has come down from the neighborhood council. This is being enforced with a threat that the Badatz Eida hechsher will be removed from any restaurant that does not comply.

The administration of the Mir Yeshiva is playing along, or has their own agenda in putting an end to this phenomenon as well. The administration has announced that the bachurim are not allowed to be in the local shops after 11pm during the week, including Thursday nights and Motzei Shabbos - especially in the shops that have no hechsher.

To strengthen their position, the Mir further announced that they will be putting out light refreshments nightly for the boys between the hours of 11:00pm and 11:30pm.

That's some serious nightlife excitement in the Mir!

The restaurant owners are not making a public fight of this, despite this taking a bit hit on their income, and  at least publicly, are expressing support for whatever decision the rabbonim come to.
source: Behadrei

without being critical of the decisions made, as it is not my place to discus that and the yeshiva has the right, or obligation, to keep their boys in line, and the neighbors deserve peace and quiet at night, I think the yeshiva solution is funny.

First of all, how long will it actually last? Will they stop putting out food after 4 nights or 7? Maybe they might make it two weeks?

Second, will the soda pop and rugelach really be enticing to the boys who until now were eating shawarma, hamburgers, shnitzel, pizza and the like?

Third, night life is about more than light refreshments, and more than about food. They go out to hang out, shoot the breeze with the friends, get into a different atmosphere. The yeshiva won't be able to replicate that, even if they put out good food and keep it going for months.

Fourth, if they cannot go to the shops right around the yeshiva and the pop and rugelach in the yeshiva dining room are not a good enough replacement, the boys will not just go to sleep, or back to the beis medrash, instead. They will look for their night life excitement elsewhere, further away from the yeshiva.

this is great.. Josh Callahan responding to a tweet sympathetic to someone's Nazi grandparents...

I’d love to introduce them to my great grandparents but they were gassed in a concentration camp.

But I’m sure they’re great.

— Josh Callahan (@Jschmuck2) December 22, 2017

This is interesting. I saw the headline and expected this to be a proposal made most likely by someone like Yair Lapid, to prevent a Haredi MK from eventually becoming Prime Minister, if as unlikely as it seems right now (they can hardly even manage to be ministers, let alone prime minister!).

But my assumption was wrong. "adderaba", as we would say back in yeshiva.

MK Yaakov Litzman (UTH) is proposing a law that would disqualify any candidate for Prime Minister if the candidate does not have an academic degree or has not served in the IDF.

The purpose, it seems, is to prevent Yair Lapid from possibly becoming Prime minister of Israel. Lapid never finished his academic degree - he had to drop out of his studies for a doctorate when it became known that he did not even have a BA.

Litzman explains the proposal saying that the position of Prime Minister of Israel is complex and requires broad knowledge, among other things.
source: Walla News

The article says it is unlikely to pass, as it is not constitutional (in a country with no constitution).

This is funny, and I love Litzman's spunk. If it would pass, I could see it eventually backfiring and preventing a Haredi or DL politician from becoming Prime Minister as muchas , or even more likely than, it would prevent Lapid.

It is also funny/ironic considering Litzman and Gafni are often found to be fighting such requirements form so many other government positions in order to benefit the Haredi community that largely has not served and does not hold academic degrees, yet here Litzman is working to put such a limitation into place.

Yair Sharki went to Brooklyn to check out the haredi community there. The differences are stark. the chassidishe guy calls his wife in to be in the clip and says how the people probably want to see her more than him. he talks about how people are complicated, not black and white. he doesn't like how in Israel they say "you are charedi'" "you went to army" you didnt go to army. etc.
different worlds

There has been increased talk about finding stricter ways to crack down on money laundering.

The main strategy is to minimize the usage of cash. The question is how to accomplish that.

One method being considered by the Bank of Israel and the Treasury Department is to create some sort of digital shekel.  I guess that would be something similar to Bitcoin, but to be used within Israel, that would replace cash.

Another method is an approach being advanced with a law proposal that would limit the amount of cash allowed to be used and require reporting for sums of cash greater than that. After some debate and compromise, it seems the law being advanced will limit cash transactions to a maximum of 5000NIS between consumers and bsuinesses, and to 25,000NIS between private individuals.

the main communities expected to be hurt by this are the Arab and Haredi communities, as a lot of transactions in these communities are done with cash - for a number of cultural and practical reasons. MK Gafni agreed to this after the initial proposal would have limited cash between individuals to much smaller numbers than what was finally agreed upon - I guess the 25k is acceptable enough to him.

Limiting cash will be a big deal. If they move to crypto and digital currencies, they will also have to take a lot of cash off the street and out of the currency, minimizing its availability. Even if they do not move to digital currencies, limiting cash will make it difficult for many in these communities to function. It might even hurt the country as less foreign currency will find its way into Israeli hands and move through the local markets.

the globalization of markets is moving the world towards big changes...

.

A Guest Post by Dr. Harold Goldmeier

photo by Laura Ben David

An unintended consequence of the "minimarket law" being put through the voting process now in Knesset, to prevent the opening of shops on Shabbos and to take the power of making such decisions out of the hands of local authorities, a number of cities have suddenly announced that they are debating whether to allow local businesses to be open on Shabbos and pass the municipal laws allowing it prior to the passage of the national minimarket law. Doing so would grandfather them in and allow them to continue operating on Shabbos even after the minimarket law passes, if it should pass.

The drive is being led by Tel Aviv and the city of Givatayim, and now Holon and Rishon Letzion have announced similarly. Labor chairman Avi Gabbay has announced that he supports this, and it seems others might follow suit.

MK Yaakov Litzman (UTJ) condemned Gabbay for this calling him anti-haredi and saying that with such anti-haredi statements he is negating any chance the Haredi parties will join a potential future coalition led by him.

I would say to that that Shabbos is not a Haredi issue, but a Jewish issue, a Shabbos issue. Supporting the opening of businesses on Shabbos is supporting chilul shabbos, in whatever form, and not being anti-haredi. Litzman can say they wont sit with someone who supports chilul shabbos, but he should not be calling Avi Gabbay anti-haredi because of this.

It is ironic that Gafni's law to protect, and increase, Shabbos observance in the public sphere might now be the very impetus to increasing chilul shabbos instead. The Law of Unintended Consequences at work.

Remember the guys from the Peleg group that were arrested for being AWOL and were saying they were going to refuse to wear uniforms while in prison?

It seems this has not worked out too well for them... they showed up in court the other day in full IDF regalia..

For all the details, see the Behadrei article about what is going on..

Interesting details:
They seem to have made friends with the soldiers guarding the prison.
They do what they can to avoid contact with females.
They sometimes refuse to wear the uniform and then get sent to solitary confinement for bit. They say they prefer it because there are less women there, and the additional quiet is better for learning.
The thing they miss most, they say, is Thursday night cholent
They say they learn a lot in jail, even more than in yeshiva - even up to 11 hours a day

Chabad Center of Talbiya/ Mamilla Jerusalem - 4th night of Chanukah - Leibele Lipsker from Menachem Schloss on Vimeo.

the interesting part is actually the documentation of the police approaching Iryat Bet Shemesh a number of times to coordinate removal of the signs and the Iryah ignoring the requests - despite the mayor claiming publicly that he has done what he could and the police need to be the address

Well, let me preface it by saying I think Nikki Haley may end up as our first female president. I fully support moving our embassy to Jerusalem and God knows we can use a tougher line at the U.N. But I think we could have handled this particular case a little bit better. I’ll give you three rules from coal town bar fights. One, pick your fights wisely. Two, pick fights you can win. And three, don’t make threats you’re not prepared to carry out

  -- Lt Col Ralph Peters (ret)

Today's excitement is a visit by MKs from the Knesset Committee for the Advancement of Women to Bet Shemesh. They are coming to Bet Shemesh to see the situation with the signs and stuff first-hand. MK Yisroel Eichler sent a letter around, including to the Chairman of the Knesset, warning of a provocation and impending violence as a result of the visit and demanding the trip be canceled. The Committee head responded that the trip is continuing as planned.

The regular drama is all there, and that does not interest me. They blame the provocation on him for spreading word, he calls them Reform and says they are working with the Reform Movement to impose their lifestyle on Haredim, etc.

Just remember, when the Haredi MKs say that the extremists don't listen to them and are not part of the community and they do not represent them, and all the usual excuses to not bother fighting the extremism, just remember, the Haredi MKs regularly defend them and try to protect the extremists. Instead of letting the MKs go to Bet Shemesh and see the situation first hand and make decisions based on what they see, and perhaps they'll even see the other side's point of view and take it into account, Eichler sent out a letter to protect the extremists and the signs. The Haredi MKs can be counted on, as always, to thwart efforts against the extremist communities and instead continue to protect them.

wow!

strange but kind of cool..

listening to United States Ambassador o the United Nations Nikki Haley speak prior to the UN vote against the recent US declaration regarding Jerusalem made me think...

When the USA made the declaration recently, a lot of people said it is an empty declaration. Trump won't really move the embassy. If he wanted to, he could just change the sign on the consulate building in Jerusalem to say embassy. Clearly he won't really do anything.

Well, with the events in the UN of the past few days, Trump and Haley are fighting back against the world attack and regularly repeat that they WILL move the embassy and as a sovereign nation it is their right to make that decision.

So, even if Trump was originally not intending to actually move the embassy, and I do not know if he was or was not, at this point he might have been pushed and forced into it. After repeating for days "we WILL move the embassy" and that they now have to fight about it, Trump is clearly going to do it, whatever his original intentions really were.

here is the live broadcast of the vote and speeches:

MK Moti Yogev (Habayit Hayehudi), in conjunction with MK Hamed Amar (Yisrael Beyteynu) has proposed a law by which preference would be given to minorities who served in the IDF for public service positions over similarly-qualified candidates who did not serve in the IDF.

The proposal passed its initial vote, despite UTJ breaking coalition discipline and voting against (though Shas voted in favor).

Yogev explains that the problem has been that minorities have benefited from affirmative action even without having served in the IDF just as much as those who did serve. This proposal will encourage more participation in society.

UTJ voted against because they see it as hurting the Haredi community that largely does not serve in the IDF. Ahmed Tibi is upset at Deri for voting in favor and is happy with Gafni for voting against.
source: Srugim and Behadrei