The Likud has attacked this decision to send these letters now, claiming it is a political ploy, as the letter is sent during an election season - another way of hurting Netanyahu and trying to weaken him before elections.

The committee until now has been praised all around as being serious, not political, and fair and determined to reveal the truth. Just because some people dont like the interim conclusions does not mean all that has to now no longer be true. 

And the thing is, at least in the past 3 years, but even before that as well though not as in extreme a manner, in Israel we are always right before an election. Nothing would ever get accomplished, as little as gets accomplished as is, if they always had to worry about the ramifications and effect on an upcoming election!

Similar to the way Hamas ends military campaigns with a cease fie to give themselves time to prepare for the next one, Israel concludes an election season just to give itself a bit of time to prepare for the next one.

I am not smart enough on these issues to know who "won" in this standoff - the teachers or the Finance Ministry. At the end of the day, if they came to an agreement, everyone must have won, and the important thing is that the kids go back to school. There are aspects of this deal that still give too much power to the teachers and prevents even bad teachers from being fired but there are also aspects of this that are good in general and things the teachers have never before agreed to, such as moving around vacation days to be more in sync with the workforce vacation days and also long summer school sessions.

From a financial perspective, I have no idea. From a social perspective this seems to largely be a good arrangement.

nice!

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will this give her a boost and help Ayelet Shaked surpass the minimum threshold? We'll find out soon. 

Honestly I would not have expected Pollard to support Shaked. if anybody, maybe Netanyahu/Likud and maybe Ben Gvir. Supporting Shaked in her current situation is a bit of a surprise to me.

I just read about this fascinating aron kodesh in 2 different magazines...not sure why this is hitting the public so much right now  but enjoy!

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It seems that Belz pursuing this arrangement with the Ministry of Education, and having come to an agreement, is actually what is behind the potential split between the Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael factions of UTJ. Degel Hatorah is incensed that Belz would take on the core curriculum studies in exchange for money, something that they have fought valiantly against until now and has made this issue one of their central issues. Even though Belz is only doing it because Degel refuses to let them into Chinuch Atzmai. 

Agudat Yisrael is now proposing a compromise, that would seemingly solve the entire dispute and allow the two factions to run together as a united party.

What is the proposed solution?

They are proposing that Degel Hatorah allow Belz to join Chinuch Atzmai and get funding for its schools through them and they will then put an end to their program to join the Ministry of Education.

I would note this is what they have been proposing all along, with Degel regularly refusing. this proposal is nothing new, just couched in the political framework of the upcoming elections.

While there is no word yet as to a response from Degel Hatorah, unless they now feel backed into the corner I dont see why they would change their opinion now when they have not all along.  Degel is confident they can run it alone, if their rabbonim tell them to, so they probably dont feel much pressure to accept the deal now. I am not saying they shouldn't, just that I dont see anything special about this offer that is different form what happened until now, so don't see why they would - unless the rabbonim tell them to accept it just to avoid splitting the party. Basically, 9 months later they are still arguing about the same exact thing they were back then with each side still standing firm on the same exact spot that they were before.. 

As I said back then, keep saying no without providing an alternative, a solution of some sort, and they will go find their own solution, one you might not like. This is true almost 100% of the time in almost all situations. And now they, both sides, are stuck with the consequences of those decisions. 

I think the same now, with the war in Ukraine.

The PMO, Prime Minister's Office, tried to bring in the heads of the Haredi parties for a consultation to determine policy on travel to Ukraine. It ended up not happening because the Haredi MKs decided there was no point, largely because Breslavers would not listen to them anyway.

In my opinion, Israel can publicize its opinion that people should not travel to the Ukraine, it is unsafe, etc. Whatever they want to say. But anything beyond that is the decision of the pilgrims themselves and the Ukranian government. Every potential pilgrim can decide for himself if he wants to go despite the risks or not. And more importantly the Ukranian government can decide if it wants to let foreign travelers in or not. Israel should not be a part of this situation, except to issue a travel advisory.

Well, now they are announcing their line of Gefilte Pops, even though summer is almost over. 

they will have to have combo flavors, such as gefilte pops with a streak of chrein, another one with mayo, another with tehini, etc.

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To remind you, bird droppings and other things were discovered in Strauss factories after some salmonella cases came to light. The factories went through inspections and were shut down due to an abundance of violations, or something like that.

I am curious if you will go out and buy Strauss products or if you will wait a couple of weeks to see if there is another salmonella outbreak. I think I might wait a little bit, but not sure yet.

  -- Chief Grower for Snofrost (no name mentioned by Yedioth)

ok, now it makes sense..

BH it seems, only anecdotally, that most of the time people, adults, reported (at least publicly) as missing, in Israel, it is intentional. That is not to say the concerned family members should not worry, as they have no idea, but it does seem the missing adult is almost always missing because he or she wants to be "missing".  Sometimes there is mental illness, or even physical illness, involved and the person must be located, but from the news I see, most of the time BH everyone is safe and it is just a matter of personal concern. I am not commenting on whether or not they should be looked for, just that the end result seems to usually be that everyone is ok and he was only lost in the minds of the people who did not know where the person was, not in the person's own experience.

Eliyahu Delouia (sp?) from Netivot disappeared the other day. Delouia is 47 years old and the father of 22 children. You read that right - 22 children!

Delouia reportedly went out to travel to Meron for a few days of prayer. it seems this was normal in the life of the Delouia family - every now and then he would go to Meron for upwards of a week. He would be totally disconnected from the outside world and practically unreachable - he does not carry a cellphone. Right now he could not even call home if he wanted to as they recently got a new phone and like most people nowadays he would not know the number by heart. Mrs Delouia is aware of this and is fine with his trips to Meron.

When Eliyahu did not return to Netivot on Thursday in time for his 7th child's engagement party, Mrs Delouia got worried. She called the police, they opened a case and started to look for him, posting his picture around Tzfat.

Eliyahu Delouia was located a short while later in a local shul, in Netivot, his home town. He went home but didnt bother going home. BH, Eliyahu Delouia is safe and sound, and just needed time away from his family. Of course being scheduled to be away he thought nothing of it, he was scheduled to be away, his wife knew he would be away, and nobody should have been concerned, from his perspective. I dont know how any of this jibes with the engagement party and if he was scheduled to be there or not, and why he chose not to go home for it.

With 22 children, is anyone surprised he needs some time away every now and then?

Well, there is a new product on the market that should also technically, possibly, be kosher, and I am wondering if they would be able to get a hechsher if they wanted one.

According to news reports, a Swedish based company called Oumph has created a plant based hamburger that supposedly tastes like human flesh. Being that this burger is plant based, it should likely be kosher, dependent on the spices and other ingredients included, but I can't see the OU or any other kashrut organization certifying "tastes like human flesh" as kosher. Maybe if they dont call it "Impossible Human" they will find a way to get it certified.

I am not quite sure how they came up with the idea for a human flesh tasting burger, nor am I sure how they know what human flesh tastes like (that question seems to go unanswered in their material), nor am I quite sure how many people would want to eat such a burger (though I do think there will be some curious people)..

I guess this will become the go-to product for cannibals who go vegetarian.

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it is all not kosher, even though it is very Jewish, but the conversation over dinner about the local community and anti-semitism is interesting..

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he's come a long way..

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Gantz's plan for passing laws to reform the system includes items like:

According to Gafni, young couples wont be able to take mortgages now to buy their first apartment, because with the increased rates they wont be able to make the payments. Gafni would help them by keeping the interest rate on such mortgages at the lower rate from prior to the increase.

Gafni says that he is going to make this demand absolute in future coalition negotiations - if they work to join the next government led by Netanyahu (or anyone else), this will be a requirement for the ruling party to agree to.

If Gafni is already going to cancel the interest rates increases on mortgages, he should do it for everybody, not just young couples. Everybody is struggling with inflation, not just young couples.

Specifically referring to the portion of the interview in which they discussed the Otzma Yehudit policy they want to push in the next government should they be a part of it that will have anyone deemed unfaithful to the State of Israel banished from Israel - Wasserlauf explains that anyone who throws rocks or molotov cocktails at IDF soldiers or does other things to harm the State of Israel and supports murderers of babies will be banished.

So I like that he has already worked out that the way the deportation will work is that they will take the same people who planned the banishment of Jews from their homes in Gush Katif back in 2005 with fully staffed professionals who worked out all the details. Those same people who did such a good and professional job evicting thousands of Jews from their homes and deporting them to other part s of the country should be able to put together a plan to banish and deport people who are disloyal to the State of Israel.

Now that is witty. I like that.

What I think is unimpressive and what I dont like is that with all this time that he had until now, all he can come up with is a headline - we will deport the unfaithful - but has no actual plans. When asked for even the most basic details of his grandiose plan, such as how it will work, how they will determine who is unfaithful, where to deport to, how to deport, he has no answers and says they will have to work that out but right now they just want to talk about the concept.

Sorry, but that is unimpressive. If this is something they actually want to do, they need to be ready to present a plan, even knowing it will have to be adjusted and amended later. If all it is even in their own heads is a headline, this is something that is never going to happen and something they never intend on even trying to push forward.

Ahron Norani, a Haredi reporter, tweeted that he went to the graves of Shmaya and Avtalyon up north. He saw a sign there in the wall, handwritten in black and red markers, written by Moishi Kleinerman's mother. She wrote "My Avraham Moshe, we love you and are not angry at you, we just miss you, please call us at any time, (signed by) Father, Mother and the entire family".

Moishi Kleinerman has been missing for more than 150 days, with seemingly no known trace (not made public at least) as to his whereabouts. 

To note, they added that this was pasted up with permission of the gabbai and should not be removed. Also to note, some idiot added his own comment as if it is Moishi writing saying "I dont remember your phone number" - there is funny, there is cynical, but this is just cruel.

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I have no plans at this point to continue and get a pilots license, but as a start it was a nice thrill and a crazy experience for a day, and was not something I ever thought I would do....

1. Yoelish Krausz, known as the Operations Officer (kambatz) of the Eida Hachareidish is already busy building his sukka. Even for the people who build early to add mitzvas before Yom Kippur don't start this early.

When asked why he started so early, Krausz explained that the City of Jerusalem is about to publish a statute of some sort that will not allow anyone to build a sukka in public areas - no sukkas in streets. And the old joke of "you have 7 days to remove it" isnt going to happen - people who do will be subject to fins and the sukkas will be dismantled right away and confiscated. He thinks that by building it in advance he will be grandfathered in and will be able to keep it up during sukkos.

I wonder if he also plans to leave it up for future years just because he is grandfathered in and will just leave it there all the time...

If true, that will negatively affect many people in Jerusalem who have very small porches or even no open porch at all. So many people build their sukkas out in the streets.

2. Eli Hawala, the Lebanese avreich who wasnt Jewish but then claimed to be and now may be in the conversion lchumra process was spotted at a demonstration in the Shimon Hatzaddik (aka Shiekh Jarrach) neighborhood of Jerusalem.

When approached Hawala said "Likud - Bibi, the king of Israel!"

I guess he has found his place in Israel...

  -- Jonathan Pollard, responding to reports that Itamar Ben Gvir has offered him a spot on the Otzma Yehudit party list for Knesset

he's witty too!

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the food in this one is all kosher... no idea about the whiskey...

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Muchtar herself is unable to run, due to just barely missing the cutoff - she is not yet 21 years of age which the laws says is the minimum age required to run for Knesset. Her party list would not to be made up of only members older than 21. Muchtar petitioned the Supreme Court to allow her to run, arguing that if 18-20 year olds can serve in the army and fight in wars they should also be able to run for Knesset.

It took a little while but what seemed like the obvious decision has now been made official. The Supreme Court said no. The law is the law, the Knesset can change it, but the Supreme Court will not. Hadar Muchtar cannot run this time around, as she misses the cutoff date. her party can run, with eligible candidates on the party list. Hadar Muchtar herself, really the face of the party, cannot run for Knesset but if her party gets in, she can be appointed to a Ministerial position, as that does not have the same requirements.

Without having any real idea how well her party might have done with her leading the list, though she claims polls indicate about 6 mandates for the party, I wonder how her not being able to lead the list might affect it.

Gafni is "threatening" to have Degel Hatorah faction run independently from Agudat Yisrael faction, if his concerns about fair leadership of the joint party (ie Degel gets more power) are not addressed.

Aguda has been responding that Gafni should stop threatening and if he wants to run alone, he should just go ahead and do it, Aguda will pass the threshold, and only the gedolim, the Moetzes, will decide what they do, not Gafni and his threats.

Now Agudat Yisrael is threatning back. Their threat, though I am not sure why it is a threat, is that if they run independently, they will run jointly with Chabad and with Peleg Yerushalmi instead of with Degel. 

In my opinion this is not much of a threat. It is especially not overly intimidating.

Regarding Chabad, they have never officially supported nay political party in Israeli elections. They at times have unofficially encouraged support for a specific party and at times for a vague political direction, but they never ran their own candidates and never officially supported any party. I find it hard to believe that they will suddenly officially start supporting Agudat Yisrael and maybe even run a joint list with them, though it is possible. Doing so though, should they break with tradition, is hardly a threat. It would bring more votes for the Haredi parties, as many Chabadniks until have supported, or leaned to supporting, candidates like Ben Gvir, and while some surely supported the joint Haredi party, many did not, and an official Chabad position or run would surely get more Chabadniks to vote for the relevant Haredi party instead of for other parties. Degel might lose a few votes form it, probably not too many, but Haredi politics in general would probably gain a lot more votes.

Regarding Peleg, the threat seems to be that Agudat Yisrael would be brining them into the political scene, and Degel and Peleg dont get along. Still not much of a threat, as again it would be increasing the Haredi vote in general, as in previous elections most Peleg people didnt bother to vote because they didnt want to support Degel Hatorah.I would recommend Agudat Yisrael be careful about who they get into bed with and the Peleg extremists are not going to make life easy for them, but it will likely bring in some votes, at least for the one upcoming election, even if they break it off afterwords and dont run again together in the future.

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  -- MK Yair Golan (Meretz), regarding a group entry to Kever Yosef last night that was attacked by local Arabs

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welcome home

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Because of the war with Russia, the entire issue is a big question mark. Some in Ukraine have said the pilgrimage wont be allowed this year due to the danger of the war and Ukraine cant take responsibility for having people come into their danger zone, while others have said that region is relatively quiet (even though there was a recent attack in the area) so the pilgrimage will be fine.

According to the report, the Ukranians are saying that if they agree to allow it, it will only be allowed if Israel takes full responsibility for the event, including local security with Israeli police. honestly this sounds weird to me. I get the idea of overall responsibility for Israeli citizens (and Jews from elsewhere somehow represented symbolically by Israel) traveling into a war zone with danger, but they want Israel to send in the police forces and operate on Ukranian soil? That's just weird. Besides for the fact that the Israeli police are barely able to keep things under control in Israel, they want the police to travel to another country and keep things under control there, where they might not even have full authority? 

Either way, it seems funny and ironic that it is Yair Lapid, the big hater of Haredim and lousy prime minister (sarcasm to be noted), who it seems likely will make arrangements for the Breslavers to go to Uman while Netanyahu as PM didnt do anything to help them when Ukraine said no during Covid times... and Ukraine said no when the Israeli officials told it to...

When I first saw the notice my first thought was to wonder how quickly the government will dismantle it. It turns out just a few hours later I saw in the news it had been dismantled, though it also seems it has been up for four days already though I just saw it now.

Haredim usually dont take part in these types of nationalist events and ideas, so this was a bit of a surprise. Good on them.

  -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas

when asked at a press conference in Germany if he will apologize to Israel for the Munich massacre at an event commemorating the 50 year anniversary of the massacre

let's not forget that Abbas literally has a doctorate (from a Russian university) in holocaust denial. I guess he only denies 1 holocaust and makes up as many others as he wants

50 holocausts in the past 50 years? Israel must be totally incompetent to be committing 50 holocausts and yet the Palestinian population numbers continue to increase instead of severely decrease by the millions or even hundreds of thousands...

despicable

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one is kosher, one isnt (but maybe should be)..

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Ok.

On its own that is a good thing and a good project. These guys who force their way onto other people terrorize the community, and it is not just the non-haredim who suffer but even the general mainstream haredim who suffer from their abuse.

That being said, Michaeli should be sending inspectors to, as well, in addition to the above, ensure that there are enough buses, that the buses are running their routes in a timely fashion, that the buses are not overcrowded. The public transportation system is a mess. Michaeli's goal in this position was always to encourage people to use public transportation rather than personal vehicles, but with the way the pt system is so messed up, that is not going to happen. The reason to fix the public transportation system is not so people give up their cars, even if that is her main goal, but because people need to be able to rely on public transportation to get where they need to go in a timely fashion. If buses dont show up, if they run late, if they are overcrowded and cant pick up passengers, the system is worthless.

Fix the discrimination against women, but also fix the system itself so people, men and women and children, can uses the buses reliably.

Netanyahu has found a creative way to get the Silman problem off his back - he offered her as a compromise in the Ben Gvir - Smotritch dispute as a neutral candidate for the 7th slot on their joint list.

Right now that is off the table, with Ben Gvir having announced the end of negotiations and his going it alone, but it could come back as the deadline for party list submissions nears.

Breaking this promise is dangerous. If he does find a way out of it, if he cant form the next government and tries to bring down whatever government does form, he will have a much harder time finding defectors willing to trust him with their future.

Netanyahu is no different than any other politician, and maybe worse than most in this regard. He is a serial promise-breaker. I dont know why anyone trusts him with their future.

Zeev Alperovitz reports on Twiiter:

They need to try to persuade the Haredi parties to join their coalition, so I get it. I don't like it, but I get it. This just makes them like the Likud, on religious matters - just outsource the entire thing to the Haredim and dont get involved. They can promise the Haredi parties it won't go to Kahane but will go to someone else - it doesnt have to be promised to them in advance, while they are saying they wont join a Gantz coalition. Negotiate positions after elections, not before. And if the Haredi parties still refuse to join, would he then give it to Kahane? Would they then accuse him of breaking a promise?