The Israeli organization of LGBT has published its list of upcoming events (by events I think the mean pride parades, but I am not sure - the website link for details about the upcoming event in Kfar Saba mentions a parade, but others future events listed so far offer no details). That list includes events in many smaller cities, such as Petach Tikva, Modiin, Ranana, Ramat Gan, Lod and many others. Surprisingly, the list includes an event in Bet Shemesh on July 25.

The first thought I had when I saw this was to remember that just a few years ago our [now former] mayor had said on television that there are no gays in Bet Shemesh (though he later walked that back and said he meant pedophiles). Perhaps the new mayor brought "the gays" with her to the city! Just joking.

I am not a fan of the spectacle created by anyone flaunting their sexuality and sexual preferences in public, and the pride parades are also often flamboyant, outlandish and somewhat shocking in what is on display on public. I am pretty confident that such an event, if it is a public event held in the streets of Bet Shemesh, will offend many local residents. Bet Shemesh is a town with a strong religious/haredi flavor, and even the non-religious portion of Bet Shemesh is mostly traditional. I hope that such an event will not start religious wars here - those are horrible, and since the municipal elections it has largely been pretty quiet on that front, and this is the type f event that can spark a renewal of those fights.

With many Jerusalem residents already trying to stop such events from happening in their city unsuccessfully, I am not really sure what can be done here. If it must be held, at least don't be overly provocative and push it through neighborhoods that will be opposed to it.

some post-election and pre-elections thoughts:

1. last night, as it was all going down in the Knesset, it was a madhouse, with breaking news reports coming fast and furious, changing positions, trying to persuade new combinations of parties to join, and all sorts of craziness. It was wild.

2. Gafni today said he is going to recommend the party decide to not be willing to sit with Lieberman in any future coalition. Soon they wont have anyone to sit with.

3. Gafni, additionally, said, he would be fine with sitting with Lapid in a coalition. He said he never invalidated Lapid - only Litzman did and they do not always agree. Just remember, MK Gafni, that as one party, you either sit with someone or not. The fact that you and Litzman disagree is cute but as a party you have to decide what you will do. Unless you split up with Degel sitting with Lapid and Aguda not sitting.

4. Lieberman today spoke up and had some interestign things to say. One point he said was funny, in response to PM Netanyahu's attacks on him. Lieberman pointed out that someone who lives in Cesaria is trying to call someone who lives in the settlement of Nokdim a leftist - it doesn't work. That's funny.

5. Reports this morning had Netanyahu discussing intenrall in the Likud the possibility of preempting any future coalition talks with a statement that the Likud will not sit with Yisrael Beyteynu. Locking them out of any future coalition. Netanyahu might now be trying to destroy Yisrael Beyteynu and ensure they do not cross the threshold in the upcoming elections. If Lieberman survives, let alone thrives with popular support because of his stance, this might come back to bite Netanyahu when he can't form another coalition.

6. Zehut says they are running again, though it will be a more "modest" campaign. I guess that means no foot slapping on national television this time around.

7. What is going to happen with all the other parties that ran last time but did not pass - Hayemin Hechadash (Bennett/Shaked), Gesher, Oren Hazzan, and many others? I guess we'll find out soon enough. Even if they run again, or even if they don't, which party will their supporters vote for this time?

8. Netanyahu's behavior last night was horrendous, in my opinion. No shame. Doing anything just to stay in power. Everything was personal, and nothing for the good of the country, except that maybe he thinks he is the only thing good for the country. The thing that bothered me the most that I can think of was when I saw reported last night that he was making offers to all sorts of MKs from other parties to jump ship in exchange for straight out political bribes. Because they would not be able to run again on their current parties next time if they jump ship, he offered them cushy jobs to jump ship. Others, such as Druze MKs, he tried to persuade to jump ship with promises of walking back the nation state law passed in the last Knesset and reversing it. Whether you like the law or not, I dislike the law being used for personal benefit - have an ideology - pass a law, don't pass a law, whatever - just don't pass it one day because you need to for this and then reverse it the next day because you need to for that (especially with "that" being personal.

9. I almost hope that because of the way Netanyahu behaved yesterday the Likud MKs and central committee votes against him, rebels, or somehow chases him out of town into retirement. And if not, I hope the people punish him in the upcoming elections. 

I was not going to post anything today - between a shortage of time and some personal issues that is filling the time I have, I figured I would just take the time off from blogging today. But then I saw something that deserves mention.

While Netanyanyahu was doing everything possible and trying everything under the sun last night to come to a last minute arrangement to get enough support for a government coalition without going to new elections, one of the issues was trying to apply heavy pressure on MK Omer Yankelevitch (Kachol Lavan) to support the government from the opposition or even to abandon Kachol Lavan and join Likud or some other arrangement. The reports had heavy pressure being put on her, as has been tried before. In the end it did not work, but personally I found this a bit reprehensible.

Anyways, MK Yitzchak Pindrus (UTJ) just said something interesting about this, and I found it noteworthy. Pindrus said that had MK Yankelevitch abandoned her party and joined the coalition, he would have been disappointed by the decision. Pindrus said a person needs to be faithful to his supporters and voters. The pressure placed on her [to switch parties] was not appropriate.

That is a respectable and honorable position, and I appreciate it. I was tired of hearing how she is stabbing the haredi community in the back, how perhaps she achieved her position just for this moment to be in a position to save the haredi community, and the like. First of all, I dont know her opinion on these matters, and maybe she does not consider that saving the community. Maybe she does not support those positions anyway (or maybe she does). Second, she did not run as a haredi candidate representing the haredi community, running on haredi issues. Omer Yankelevitch ran on general social issues and for whatever reason chose that party to run with (she spoke about a broad base, a diverse party, etc). To adopt her, forcefully, as part of a haredi party that would never even have her and host her, left a really bad taste in my mouth. Chew them up and spit them out when they are no longer useful Do our bidding so it helps us, and then go home. Ichsa, as my little kids would say. The position expressed by MK Pindrus is honorable and I appreciate that.

As reported by Kikar, Rav Yitzchak Zilbershtein, rav of the Ramat Elchonon neighboorhood of Bnei Braq, recently issued an interesting psak. The information offered feelings somewhat lacking and I would like to know more details of the psak.

Rav Zilbershtein was asked about someone's wife ready to give birth. As Shabbos begins, the fellow asking says he could drive to the hospital, but locally there is a bus operated on Shabbos paid for by the mayor, a free gift to resident sin order to upset the Haredi community. Would it be better to drive oneself and lessen the chilul shabbos, or take advantage of the free bus paid for by the city?

Rav Zilbershtein responded that they should travel on the Shabbos-bus, dressed in full haredia regalia, wrapped in a talis with beard and peyos (not that he would otherwise take them off), with his wife beside him. Nobody will suspect him of being there to anger the Haredi community.

Rav Zilbershtein added that he should ask the driver frequently where to get off for Beilinson Hospital, so everyone will know why he is on the bus and not cause a chilul hashem. And hopefully the bus driver will do teshuva because of it.

The reason for this is that taking the bus is better than driving oneself - better to desecrate as little as possible.

So, the reason for preferring the bus is not "to show them", to use what they planned for chilul shabbos actually for something good and helping increase the haredi community. Rather, the bus involves less of a Shabbbos desecration than driving oneself. And making sure to appear as Haredi as possible seems to not be to make appearances, but to avoid speculation of being  aperson there to just use a chilul shabbos bus - lessen any possible maris ayin.

The only issue I have, and that is why I would like more detail of what he actually said, is that he did not seem to ask if they have time to take a bus - really the halachic preference is getting to the hospital as quickly and safely as possible. If it was time permitting and no rush, then the bus would be fine. But if they are going into labor, how can they possibly take a bus?

Also, I was wondering with Beilinson located in Petach Tikva where this Shabbos bus is coming from. I did some searching and it turns out the Kfar Saba has recently tested a "shabbus" system and is planning on putting it into operation this Shabbos for the first official time. I am a little surprised that it has been planned and put into operation so quietly without it becoming a big ruckus with protests and political pressure and all the regular stuff.

A situation is brewing in Petach Tikva. A local swimming pool has been rebuilt - while formerly it was an outdoor pool and only open in the summer, it has been rebuilt into a complex and is now an indoor pool.

Until now, the pool was open and functioning on Shabbos, though only in the summer because of it being an outdoor pool. Tickets had to be purchased before Shabbos, and the kiosk was not in operation on Shabbos.

Now, with the pool set to reopen as an indoor pool, religious residents are upset about the change in status quo. They are worried that with it now being an indoor pool, it will also be open on Shabbos, in addition to bringing increasing numbers of secular people to the area for their Shabbos entertainment. In addition, they say there will be tznius issues between the pools, despite the separate swimming hours, with multiple pools in the complex and everyone going through the same entrance and passageways, it will not be a modest situation.

I should add, according to Kikar, while the Haredi representatives in City Hall have not spoken up on the issue, the fight is being led by the Dati Leumi representatives.

The mayor claims the situation is as i always was, with the pool open on Shabbos, as per municipal decisions. Mayor Rami Greenberg says when he was in the Opposition and this was decided, at the time he wanted to protest the issue, but local rabbonim instructed him not to so as to be sensitive to the needs and desires of the long-time residents, and that is why the Haredi representatives also did not oppose it.

Will it open or will it be closed? Will the status quo prevail? What is the status quo - an open pool on Shabbos? An open pool in the summer? An outdoor pool but not an indoor pool? So many complex questions!

The mitzva of "shiluach hakan", sending away a mother bird and taking the chick or eggs, is an unusual one, not frequently performed. It is also not well understood as it instructs what seems to be a certain amount of cruelty yet brings with it a promise of longevity. It is also almost always done with a level of uncertainty - nowadays, as most of us in the Jewish community are not farmers or ranchers, we rarely know definitely if the bird we are looking at in a nest is the right bird for the mitzva - the female rather than the male, a kosher bird, if the nest is high in a tree we might not even be sure there are eggs in the nest... yet when the occasion befalls us, we rush to perform this "rare" mitzva to the best of our ability.

A shiluach hakan situation in Lakewood was pretty funny and weird when it became a public spectacle.

According to NJ 101.5, a report was filed with the Division of Fish and Wildlife about a family that came daily, over a period of a number of days, to beat and harass a goose in her nest near a pond - "perhaps to steal the eggs".

The article knows nothing about shiluach hakan and thus makes no mention of it. It is thought by the authorities and the witnesses that this family and the relevant children simply like to abuse geese, and maybe like goose eggs and need to steal them from a live nest.

The witness, a woman who wants to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution form the community, sits in an office overlooking the pond with the nesting geese. She witnessed a bunch of kids screaming at the geese and clapping and advancing towards the geese. Thinking nothing of it at the time, she later saw more kids coming, this time swinging sticks around the geese. She witnessed similar scenes on several consecutive days. She even witnessed them actually hit the goose with sticks and knocking it off its nest and into the water. Thankfully when authorities came the goose was examined and found to not be hurt.

Shiluach Hakan can look really strange to the public that knows nothing about it!

I call on Avigdor Liberman to reconsider. We still have 48 hours, it’s possible to do many things in 48 hours

  -- PM Benjamin Netanyahu, calling on MK Avigdor Lieberman to not force new elections but to compromise and come to an agreement on joining the coalition.. this is a little, humorous jab at Lieberman who famously promised that when he would be appointed Defense Minister, within the first 48 hours he would have Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas assassinated. Needless to say, he did no such thing and "48 hours" has become somewhat of a joke around Israel.

Hoping things will work out with Israel's coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever. A lot more to do!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 27, 2019

Baseball great Bill Buckner died yesterday. Buckner's death would not warrant mention here if not for the following clip of his stint on Curb Your Enthusiasm....

I always find kashrut discussion interesting. I have a particular affinity for the topic.

Kikar brings us a clip from the recent shiur of Chief Rabbi Rav Yitzchak Yosef in which he says explicitly that the hechsher of the Eida Hachareidis is the lowest quality of all the hechshers regarding meat. He says there are many hechshers, ben porat yosef, but the hechsher of the Eida (on meat, not regarding chicken) is the lowest of them all.

Unfortunately he just says it is no good but does not explain why. I always like to hear why. People say things about all the hechshers - this hechshe risn't good, that hechsher isn't good, but rarely does anybody know what the problem is with any given hechsher. it is all word of mouth and rumors. By saying the Eida is no good for meat but not saying why, he is leaving his statement as basically a rumor and perhaps (i.e. meaning, someone would have room to suggest that it is) somewhat "politically" (the word often used regarding kashrut-disputes) based.

So, while the Chief Rabbi has gravitas when he says something, he also has the interests of at least two other hechshers in his mind - the Rabbanut and his family hechsher of Bet Yosef. An explanation would have been valuable, but he did not offer one.

Interestingly, when YWN posted about this they added something Rav Yosef never said - they put words in his mouth (instead of Eida meat), claiming he said Eida is the worst hechsher "for Sefardim". He never said that. Also, even if one might say that is what he meant because he was talking to a Sefardi crowd, he still needs to explain why Eida would be worse for sefardim than any other ashkenazi hechsher (such as Rubin or Landau or Kehillos or many others)...

So, is the Eida hechsher on meat not reliable? I know people who believe so, including followers of the Holminer Rebbe, and now Rav Yosef says so, but we do not know why.

If she wants to come back, she'll have to knock on the door very nicely

  -- MK Rav Rafi Peretz (Ichud Hayemin), about the possibility of Ayelet Shaked returning to run as part of Ichud Hayemin, the party she left with Naftali Bennett to form Hayemin Hechadash, if new elections become official.

Personally I don't think she should go back or will go back to Ichud Hayemin. That is not her natural home - it was good and fine when Bennett was in charge, as he represented the less torani part of that sector, but with the party having gone more torani with Rav Peretz at the helm, it isnt the right place for Shaked, even if Ichud Hayemin could benefit from being seen as being more diverse. Also, it is not likely Peretz and Smotritch will give her much authority. Ayelet Shaked wants to work and influence, and not be anybody's fig leaf. It is more likely she will either run again with Bennett or join the Likud or another [semi] secular party.

With the possibility of new elections looming and the war of words between parties in high gear, here are a few thoughts:

1. If last minute negotiations between Netanyahu and his natural partners don't work out, I see no reason why Netanyahu has not or will not approach Gantz and work quickly out a unity government of at least 70 seats, with other smaller parties possibly joining as well in junior positions with little power.
Nobody will be able to say the people want a right wing government, as he tried. It turns out the parties are their own greatest obstacles. Being that he tried, he should easily take the mandate to try a unity government. Anyways, just like the people spoke with 65 right wing mandates, one can easily say the people spoke with 70 right and left center mandates between Likud and Kachol Lavan.

If it happens, it will be easily justifiable, and the small right wing parties will only have themselves to blame. And I think  it should happen rather than going to new elections. Except for the elections vacation day that we will all miss out on.

2. Gafni and others in UTJ keep saying Lieberman is just doing this to prevent Netanyahu form being Prime Minister. I don't follow his logic, as Lieberman has refused to support any other candidate for Prime Minister. he recommended Netanyahu and has rejected calls to transfer support to anyone else - be it someone from the Likud or from another party. he has repeatedly said Netanyahu is his candidate and the only one.

3. In new elections, Lieberman can totally crash, with people frustrated by his bringing down and preventing a potential right wing government, or he can rake it in big as being the only person to stand up to the demands of the Haredi parties.

4. I don't think the Council of Sages of Agudat Yisrael was bluffing when they approved Netanyahu's compromise last night. I am somewhat impressed Lieberman was able to force their hand like that when they have not agreed to any compromise until now. The thought is that they knew Lieberman would not accept it anyway, as he had said he would not, so they approved it in order to put the ball back in his court. I don't buy that because now that they are on record compromising, that can be used against them in the future. If they only did it as a bluff, that's a bad move. If they did it because they meant it, that is fine.

5. The Likud is preparing a bill to dissolve the Knesset. The way it really works is that if Netanyahu cannot successfully form a government within the allocated time frame, the mandate goes back to the President and he offers it to anyone else he thinks might have a chance of forming a government. The first obvious choice is the leader of the next largest party - in this case Benny Gantz. But he can choose anybody - in this case, perhaps Gideon Saar or someone else form the Likud if he thinks of someone who might have a reasonable chance of success at forming a government. However, if the bill to dissolve the Knesset passes, that forces new elections and does not give anyone else the opportunity to try to form a government.

 I don't know when the last time, if ever, it happened that the nation went to elections, a government could not be formed, and the nation wet back to elections again immediately.

Regardless, I wonder about new MKs who achieved reserved spots in the Likud. Many of the reserved spots are only for first-time Members of Knesset. Meaning, there is, for example, a spot reserved for a woman. A woman who held that spot in the last Knesset, cannot run for that spot again but has to run on her own merits and achieve an unreserved spot, while that reserved spot will be given to a new female MK. So, I wonder if some of the MKs who got in on reserved slots will now lose their seats because they likely won't qualify on their own merits (as they are not yet household names and do not have broad support at this point) but also cannot qualify for the reserved spots they recently won. I do not know if there is a clause in the Likud rule book that deals with this and allows them to retain their reserved slot even though technically they served in the Knesset already, albeit only briefly.

6. what happens with Eli Yishai now - will the same previous agreements apply again? will he support UTJ? Will they decide he didnt add much and drop him like a hot potato? Will Netanyahu offer him anything?

7. No political party really wants to go to new elections (except Opposition parties). They might think they know what will happen and how they'll come out of it, but nobody really knows. Lieberman can totally crash and disappear or he can rake it in big for his strong stance. Netanyahu might wipe out another party or two and take all their votes, or he can find himself losing votes by frustrated voters who see him as part of the problem. UTJ and Shas can each, separately or together, lose a couple of seats - there might be a limit to how much, and how often, you can rile up your voter base with emergency calls of threats to the home and also draw in support from others. Zehut can pass if they can take some of Netanyahu's frustrated supporters. Habayit Hayehudi might grow as well, or they might lose voters to Likud, Zehut or Lieberman as their voters see them as being the lapdogs of the Haredi parties at this point and not standing on their own. Kachol Lavan might break up. Hayemin Hechadash says they'll run again if new elections happen - while it is difficult to see them getting in, who knows which party they'll hurt the most.



Briefly, anything can happen and the parties will spend every moment of the next couple of days until the deadline to avoid elections.

This is Not Us: by Amudim from Amudim on Vimeo.

Lawyers for Noah’s Ark theme park are suing its insurance company for rain damage

  -- Washington Post

the devil is in the details, but the headline is pretty funny...

Here is an example of the problem with a neighborhood that is "mitchared" - i.e. when a haredi community starts buying houses in a secular neighborhood and little by little starts moving in and changing the character of the neighborhood.

While everyone has the right to buy anywhere and live wherever they want, one should not buy a home next to, say, an airport and then complain about the noise and traffic. A person should not buy a house next to a shopping center and complain about the dirt, noise, and traffic. A person should not buy a house in a Muslim neighborhood and complain about the mosques or the loud wedding celebrations. and on and on. If you move in on someone else's lifestyle, you have to deal with what they do as well.

In Ashdod the Haredim of Rova Vav neighborhood are upset. The neighborhood has been undergoing "haredization" in the past few years, as Haredi families have been buying homes in that secular neighborhood and moving in. Now hundreds of Haredi families live there among the secular.

The neighborhood will be hosting a hip hop festival this week. Not even on Shabbos - just three days mid-week, from May 28 through May 30.

The Haredi neighbors are upset, calling this a "Pritzus Festival". They are upset that this festival will harm their education and our children and those of us living nearby will have to close the trissim, the blinds, to avoid hearing the abominable sounds and will be prevented from walking in the streets. They call for the festival to be cancelled due to how it will affect their sensibilities and ability to live their lives the way they want.
source: Kikar

So, a few hundred families move into a secular neighborhood, and are not yet even a majority, but insist the local secular, who have been there far longer than them, change their lifestyle to accommodate.

A little humility, and patience, would not hurt. This is why in so many places mayors are refusing to build large housing projects for the Haredi community - because they come in and insist on everyone around them changing for them. Perhaps they should also consider the live and let live approach and wait it out quietly, at least until they take over almost the entire neighborhood.

Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi posted the following picture from post-LagBaomer Meron, shocked at the amount of garbage left behind and says this is what Tiberias was like as well before Pesach, and that everyone must understand that they should be concerned for the environment.


While Kubi didnt mention the Haredimm specifically, and lots of non-Haredim visited Meron on Lag Baomer as well, the Haredi news sites understood Kubi to be attacking the Haredim for this mess, and they took offense at this.

When an estimated half a million people come to a place over the course of one day to celebrate, especially in such a small area, I think it is reasonable to expect a mess will be caused. The authorities that had budgets to run the event and prepare for the event should have also included the need for post-event clean up. Maybe they did and this picture was simply taken before the clean up was finished. But even if they didn't the mess,  or at least a mess, is to be expected in such a situation - the question is if the administration is dealing with the clean up or not.

Since the destruction of the Second Temple there has never been a leader that has given the Haredim more than Netanyahu, so it is time that for once he would ask for something in return.

  -- MK Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beyteynu)

lol

this is very interesting.. he seems like a good guy

This is funny.

Many are familiar with the heavy metal band from Iceland that performed in Eurovision this past week in Israel. Initially they wanted to boycott as part of the BDS movement but then decided not to. They turned their already bizarre performance into a political spectacle as they waved Palestinian flags during the voting. They have since come under heavy criticism and Iceland might actually be banned from future participation because of them.

It turns out they flew El Al and did not like their seats on the return flight home. They say they were each assigned of the worst seats on the flight (middle of row, near bathrooms, etc). They claim it was intentional due to their political views and behavior during the Eurovision. After landing back in Iceland they decided to file a formal complaint against El Al.

If they are in favor of BDS, while I understand forgoing that to perform in Eurovision, I do not know why they flew El Al. Perhaps they should have flown a different airline. Or maybe that was the only flight available between Iceland and Israel. I don't know - it just sounds strange for such people.

If El Al really "punished" them and gave them the worst seats, that is childish, funny and wonderful. Take that!

El Al denies it, and says everyone is treated equally by El Al, some might say equally bad, regardless of their race, gender or political views.

The thing is, whatever seats they were, they are regular seats on the flight. Assuming a full flight, some people are going to be assigned those seats. Presumably they are as inadequate as all the other seats on a commercial airline, so I am not really sure what they have the right to complain about in this instance. If this person was not assigned that seat, someone else would be. Can anybody seated in an undesirable seat file a complaint? Should El Al rip those seats out of the plane so nobody has to suffer in them? As long as they were given regular seats and treated the same as everyone else regarding service offered on the flight, they don't seem to actually have much of a complaint.

Regardless, welcome to the club of passengers not happy with El Al service...

source: Mako News

This is so painful to discover but at least these bodies will be brought to kever yisrael.

When digging on a construction site in the town of Brest-Litovsk in Belarus, otherwise known as Brisk, worker discovered a thousand bodies, in two mass graves. The bodies showed indications of having been executed. These are victims of a mass execution by the Nazis.

The discovery happened in February and they began work to remove the bodies. Zaka is now involved as well and volunteers have flown to Brisk to help recover the bodies and re-inter them elsewhere. It looks like they will be re-interred in the Severnoe cemetery, as per the suggestion of the governor in consultation with the Jewish community.

Personally I think the bodies of these kedoshim should be brought to Israel for burial

sources: Hamodia and Hamodia

So Roseanne Barr, while speaking to Shmuley Boteach on his podcast, annouced that she will be going to Israel for a few months to study, and she might even move to Israel...
source: TMZ



Is it good for the Jews?

Any Jew that moves to Israel or comes to study and deepen their relationship with God, the Land and the Jewish people is a good thing - it will be good for her and it will be good for us.

Roseanne just doesnt say when she is moving to Israel. She did come recently for a visit, but that was short. She actually said this about half a year ago

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protested and blocked roads in Jerusalem against what they see as violations of Sabbath.

Women responded by taking off their shirts, which promptly scared the religious protesters off. Story by neighbourhood correspondent @tombateman https://t.co/wv3XoVgBR1 pic.twitter.com/AHtnfSxsXP

— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) May 20, 2019

According to Haaretz, Rav Moshe Klein, the rav of Hadassah Hospital, has requested the staff of the Hadassah Hospital emergency room deal first with cases, on Fridays, of religious people, and only after that with the cases of non-religious people.

The idea would be to enable the religious people to get out of the hospital quicker and to be able to go home for Shabbos, when possible, rather than delays in treatment causing them to be stuck in the hospital for Shabbos.

According to Rav Klein, this is already the protocol in place and meant to be used in the emergency room, as per the directives of the director of the hospital. The Director, Professor Zev Rosenstein denies the existence of such a protocol..

According to Haaretz, sources at the hospital say that the rav recently made this request requested and said that Shabbos observance should be the main factor in triage, even higher than medical urgency of the cases present and higher than the consideration of who came in for treatment earlier or later and how long people have been waiting.

An emergency room's main priority should always be urgency of cases. Hadassah has a triage room right at the entrance to the emergency room and patients go through there first so the urgency can be evaluated. I have a hard time believing that Rav Klein requested anything be given higher priority than medical urgency - perhaps he made this request regarding cases that have equal levels of medical urgency, and then Shabbos-observance should be taken into account as well. I would have no problem with that - everyone wants to get out of the hospital faster. Nobody wants to be stuck for a few extra hours or a day. It also affects the mental state of the patient, as he is concerned about being unnecessarily stuck for too long (in cases where he or she will be treated and released). Taking Shabbos-observance into account, when medical urgency is equal, seems reasonable to me.

Regardless, it seems to be of only minor importance. Once word gets out that this is a factor, all sorts of people will say they need to be home before Shabbat, and I am not sure how a nurse or doctor will be able to decide who is really shomer shabbat and who is not, nor should it really be their job to try to make such evaluations. It would be a shame if they only go by stereotypical dress (someone obviously religious compared to someone else less obviously religious) and as a result some shomer shabbos people get priority and other somer shabbos people are pushed lower down the list because of a dress code they don't adhere to.

Last night two Boston yeshiva boys found a man drowning in a water reservoir. They flagged down a police car. Man was barely saved, not conscious, brought to hospital. Policeman told boys that the man had a swastika tattoo on his hand. Boys' response: "Tell him a Jew saved him."

— Yiddish Translator (@JewYid) May 19, 2019

According to this report on Kipa, MK Rav Rafi Peretz, head of the Ichud Hayemin party, was in the town of Elazar for Shabbos, at the same time a group of young wmoen from Midreshet Lindenbaum were also in town for Shabbos.

According to the report, after davening one of the young women approached him and asked that he speak to the group. Rav Peretz refused due to the fact that these were young women planning to draft into the IDF in the summer draft (though they already have the status of soldiers). A staff member requested that he speak to them and give them encouragement and tips how to serve in the best possible way, as he often does for young men in the process of being drafted, but Rav Peretz refused saying that he is opposed to women serving in the IDF.

I hope the report is not accurate. At the end of the article Rav Peretz responds that it had not been coordinated and because he was there for a family event he did not have time to meet with them. As Robert Evans said, there are three sides to every story - my side, your side and the truth. It would be a shame if that was really Rav Peretz's approach. Even if he is opposed to female soldiers, and he has every right to be, once they are in the system, they no longer have a choice. Even if it is before they are in the system, people sometimes make choices we don't like. If he wants his political home to be inclusive to the Dati community, he has to find a way to deal with the large segment of the Dati community that thinks differently than he does, whether on the issue of females in the IDF or regarding other issues. If he is going to push people away just because he personally has a different opinion, he won't have much of a political party to run.

And besides for that, just from the human aspect. Rav Peretz is in a unique position. He was Chief Rabbi of the IDF, and now he heads the home political party for that sector. Peretz is in a unique position to help, to inspire, to influence, and to really make a difference in the lives of these young people. It would be a shame if he took the approach of pushing people away for making choices he personally does not like.

I hope this was just a misunderstanding.

if Poland will ever be in a situation in which it pays compensation sums for World War II, it would be as if Hitler had won. As long as the Law and Justice [PiS] party is in power such a thing will never happen.

  -- Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki

Morawiecki's words are being explained to mean that ultimately Germany occupied Poland and was responsible for the war, including what happened in Poland. If Poland pays, it indicates guilt of the Poles when it was really the Germans at fault.

He might have a point about Germany occupying the Poles and being responsible for the war, but at the end of the day if it was Poles that took the property of their Jewish neighbors, they should have to give it back to the inheritors, or pay for it. If the Germans took it, the Germans should pay. If the Ukrainians took it, they should pay. And if the Poles took it in Poland, they should pay.

nothing to do with Israel specifically, but very cool...

I am sorry to say, he [Gideon Saar] did not vote for me [in the Likud primaries] and I did not vote for him. I said on the broadcast the day after the primaries that I had voted for him for the elections. Sometimes you are allowed to say things just for unity in the Likud. He also knows that he did not vote for me nor I for him. Unity of the Likud was more important in my eyes than if I had voted for Gideon Saar or not. Gideon Saar is a Member of Knesset. He was a minister and will be a minister, but we are all needed for unity of the Likud. 

  -- Minister Miri Regev

So, did Regev really vote for Saar in the primaries ad is now only saying she had not because now Saar is back on Netanyahu's bad side (as he was before the primaries), or did she really not vote for him, as she is saying now, and only said so then for unity purposes?

I don't think it matters or that anyone actually cares. Not everyone voted for everyone, and she had every right to vote for Saar or to not vote for Saar. Life goes on either way. A big deal is being made out of nothing

I am not one for telling others to live their lifestyle as I do. I am not one for telling others what they should or should not do. I recognize we live in a largely secular state, and I am happy we are afforded the religious freedoms to live our lives as we please, and everybody can, for the most part, live each person according to his and her desires.

The Eurovision was a big deal. It caused mass chilul shabbos, even though the performance itself was not on Shabbos. It upset many. But only sort of. Only superficially. I am pretty sure even the Haredi community who wants the public face of Israel to be "more Jewish" in nature with no public officially sanctioned Shabbos-desecration are really ok with it and just feel the need to make an official protest. to be yotzei zein, as they say.

This past week it seemed as if the rabbonim and askanim suddenly woke up and discovered the Eurovision had fallen upon Israel. At the last minute the rabbonim are declaring their shock and anger, as if this has not been a year in the planning, with Haredi representatives in powerful positions in the government and part of the decision-making process. Suddenly, at the last minute we have to have a mass tefila rally, we have to add time to our shabbos observance, we have to threaten the government, postpone coalition negotiations, etc.

For a year it was worked on. It was going to be in Jerusalem, as it had been two times previously without any trouble, but Israel decided Tel Aviv would be a better venue and would "hurt" the Haredim less out there. And UTJ and Shas were part of that decision-making process. Eurovision, and its schedule, was not a surprise to anybody in Israel. For weeks just a few months ago the biggest point of discussion was what Shalva would do about competing and the rehearsals that had to be on Shabbos with no exception. Nobody can say they were surprised at the last minute by the schedule of Eurovision. Instead of planning a proper response, at the last minute they came up with a few ideas of protest, and barely had time to promote these ideas to the public, so it would look like the religious don't approve.

Now it turns out, that the religious representatives in Tel Aviv, and specifically the Gur chassid rep (with Gur often leading the Shabbos fights around the country) were perfectly fine with staying in the local municipal coalition despite the chilul shabbos, while doing nothing of note to minimize or stop it.

Just today the mayor of Ramat Gan announced he is going to start public transportation on Shabbos. The Shas rep who is Deputy Mayor has refused to comment, has not resigned, and seems to prefer the national reps make noise about it while actually not doing anything at the local level.

I am in favor of recognizing that we are living in a secular state and the secular state has its way of life and the residents want what they want. I have no interest in forcing them to live a Shabbos-observance lifestyle - I prefer they come to that lifestyle on their own. Forcing Shabbos observance on people does nothing to bring them closer to religion and.or Torah and mitzvos. Until they do, it is not my place to force them to do what I want.

So, better to not turn these things into big fights. Especially when there is already some sort of quiet understanding and agreement about it. If you are going to fight about it, there is no reason to just fight so you can say you fought, but be real about it. And if you aren't going to be real about and fight for real with all the repercussions, don't bother.

Congrats again to "Speedy Beatie" Beatie Deutsch on winning another [half] marathon, this time representing Israel in Riga...

Beatie kept Shabbos and put on a better show than Eurovision, and specifically Israel's representative at Eurovision...

Winner of the Tet Riga Marathon 21km race is BEATIE DEUTSCH 1:17:34! #RunYourGold pic.twitter.com/E3jU0XkFZZ

— Tet Riga Marathon (@TetRigaMarathon) May 19, 2019

translation:
Father in heaven, I am doing this for you..
With great difficulty  am giving up on my dream and I am canceling my participation in the competition in Spain.
The reason is that the competition was mean to be held on Shabbos which connects to Shvuos on Motzei Shabbos. That is where something started to arouse in me, as someone Shomer Shabbat, I already felt my conscience about competing on Shabbos and Shvuos which is the time of the giving of the Torah, despite the fact that I had planned on competing on Shabbos, I began to find all sorts of reasons, I planned to stay in a hotel near the competition so I would not need to travel in a car to get there on Shabbos, and I would not actually desecrate the Shabbos in any way with my actions, even though competing on Shabbos is a desecration,  but the honor and glory of the competition blinded me...
But what stopped me is the Shvuos holiday. I will not stand on the stage in briefs at the time of the giving of the Torah, when the Jewish people received the Torah.
Thank you, Father in Heaven for opening my eyes.
I know that my reward in heaven is definitely humongous for giving up something I wanted so much after so many years of hard work..

This was written by Israeli bodybuilder Mordy Harosh from Jerusalem. Relevant background is that Harosh used to be Haredi, but is no longer - I saw descriptions of him as no longer being frum but in his post he says he is generally shomer shabbos.

you often see IDF soldiers playing on these public pianos.. you rarely see this..

Picture taken/posted by Oreet Segal

The hat looks a bit misshapen, but that's a Toldos Ahron chassid playing a piano in a train station...

אמרתי עכשיו ברדיו רק"ע את מה שידוע לכולם:
״אם ליברמן יכנס לממשלה הוא יצטרך להתפשר על הפנסיות ושוב הציבור הרוסי לא יקבל כלום. אם יחכה כמה חודשים הוא מקבל מאתנו 55 אצבעות בטוחות כדי להעלות את הפנסיות לגודל שהבטיח. יחד איתו יש לנו 61 קולות. רוב מלא-מלא.״

— יאיר לפיד Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) May 16, 2019

MK Yair Lapid tweeted:
I just said on the radio what you all know. If Lieberman goes into the government he will need to compromise on the pensions and the Russian community will again not get anything. If he waits a few months he will get our 55 sure votes in order to increase the pensions to the size he promised. Together with him, we will have 61 votes. A definite majority.

Lapid put this up on Twitter this morning and became an immediate laughing stock, once again. This time, his math is off. Lieberman's 5 seats, plus Lapid's 55 (which are also not definite and he does not explain where he gets 55 from), is only 60 - not quite a definite majority of at least 61, yet in his tweet he says you (5) with our 55 is 61.

Lapid did not respond to most of the challenges and comments to his tweet, but he did respond to one, that of journalist Amit Segal. Lapid's response was "guess who my 61st vote is". So he might, or might not, have a secret supporter from another party who would not be in his coalition that would turn it to 61, but his tweet was about 55 + 5 being 61. Anyways, it is highly unlikely he would have 55 as the haredim wont join his coalition (almost definitely not), the Arabs would almost definitely not join, and the Likud would almost definitely not join.

In light of the recent report placing Bet Shemesh so high on the list of cities with measles outbreaks, the Health Ministry is opening a vaccination station so people can get vaccinated easily and for free.

Take advantage if it is relevant to you!

Details from Shemeshphone:
Beit Shemesh has the second largest amount of measles cases in the country, after Jerusalem. Because of this, a measles vaccination station will be running in the Cheftziba neighborhood every Monday afternoon for all the residents to come and receive their vaccine, starting this Monday, May 20.
Chetziba neighborhood
4:00 pm - 7:30 pm.
All residents are urged to come and get vaccinated!

The people of Israel deserve a full-time Prime Minister. After I finish serving as Prime Minister I will deal with defending myself from the legal issues. The citizens of Israel knew my situation and elected me anyway. If I were to consider only my personal interests, I would defend myself as Prime Minister and not as a private citizen, but I understand that is not what is best for the people of Israel..

  -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

so honorable and altruistic! 

A charitable organization called Yad bYad, led by a Rav Yaakov Gloiberman, in the Lod and Ramle area, has made an interesting decision for the coming period. They are going to support needy arab families during the month of Ramadan.
source: Srugim

I am not completely clear as to what is special about this announcement, as the article says that the organization helps both Jews and Arabs in need all year long, so what is special about helping Arabs in need during the Ramadan season? Perhaps they are increasing their support for the Ramadan month - I am not sure.

Either way, it looks like this organization is doing good work, though I am sure some people do not like it.

As reported in JPost, the Health Ministry in Israel is starting to fight against the anti-vaxxers movement.

The Health Ministry announced it will take legal action against two doctors for advising thousands of patients against vaccines. If convicted of this serious negligence, these doctors could have their medical licences revoked.

I am happy they are finally starting to deal with the issue. I do not know the right course of action. While I fear this will not help much as anti-vaxxers will see this as proof of their "big pharma" conspiracy to silence doctors who are against vaccines and doctors who "speak the truth", I do not know what the best solution is. But at least they are doing something now.

Also even if anti-vaxxers see this as part of the big conspiracy, at least two doctors promoting the agenda and advising patients will now, if convicted, will now not be able to push people in that direction.

Happy something is finally being done, and hopefully it is just the start of a broader campaign.