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Saudi Arabia Opens Airspace
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said last Saturday that his country’s decision to open its airspace to all civilian flights has “nothing to do with diplomatic ties with Israel” and is “not in any way a precursor to any further steps” toward normalization with the Jewish state.
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In a press conference, Prince Faisal said, “No, this has nothing to do with diplomatic ties with Israel. The issue of overflights is a decision we took…in the interest [of] providing connectivity between countries in the world, and we hope that it will make some travelers’ lives easier. It’s not in any way a precursor to any further steps.”
In a speech the previous day, U.S. President Joe Biden had called the Saudi decision “a big deal, not only symbolically but substantively.”
He added, “This is the first tangible step on the path of what I hope will eventually be a broader normalization of relations” between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told CNN on Saturday, “We have said that Saudi Arabia supports the Arab Peace Initiative. In fact, we offered it. We have made it clear that peace comes at the end of this process, not at the beginning of it.”
Israel’s interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid also praised the decision as the “the first official step in normalization with Saudi Arabia.”
“I thank the Saudi leadership for the opening of Saudi airspace. This is only the first step,” Lapid said.
Bystander Kills Mass Murderer
A mass murderer was killed by an armed bystander in an Indiana mall over the weekend.
Elisjsha Dicken, 22, killed Jonathan Sapirman, 20, after Sapirman killed three people and wounded two others in the suburb of Greenwood.
Police were quick to praise Dicken’s quick actions.
“Many more people would have died last night if not for a responsible armed citizen,” police Chief Jim Ison said Monday, repeatedly calling Dicken a “good Samaritan” and his response “heroic.”
It isn’t common for mass shootings to be stopped in such fashion. From 2000 to 2021, fewer than 3% of 433 active attacks in the U.S. ended with a civilian firing back, according to the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. Instead, it was far more common for police or bystanders to subdue the attacker or for police to kill the person, according to the center’s national data. In a quarter of the shootings, the attacker stopped by leaving the area.
Since July 1, Indiana has allowed anyone 18 or older to carry a handgun in public, though private property owners can prohibit firearms. The Greenwood mall has a ban on weapons, according to its conduct code.
Biden Tackles Wrongful Detentions
With numerous Americans around the globe in mind, this week, President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the U.S. government to identify and impose sanctions on foreign officials involved in wrongful detentions and abductions of American citizens.
The order also seeks new strategies to prevent future episodes of Americans becoming ensnared while abroad and to improve communications with detainees’ families, working to ensure they receive “consistent and accurate information.”
The U.S. will warn Americans that they’re at risk of being wrongfully detained by authorities if they travel to six countries, including China and Russia.
The Biden administration is under increasing public pressure to secure the release of Americans wrongfully held by foreign countries, including Brittney Griner, the basketball star detained in Russia since February after police accused her of illegally trying to import hash oil into the country in vape cartridges.
The Secretary of State will identify officials in foreign governments who are involved, directly or indirectly, in wrongful detentions so that agencies can impose consequences, including financial sanctions. Such sanctions could also be imposed on non-state actors, including terrorist organizations.
The State Department is also creating a new travel warning – a “D” indicator that means a country has a risk of wrongful detention by the government. A “K” indicator, added in 2019, signals the danger of kidnapping by criminals or terrorist groups. In addition to China and Russia, Venezuela, North Korea, Iran, and Burma will garner that “D” risk indicator.
“The United States government must redouble its efforts at home and with partners abroad to deter these practices and to secure the release of those held as hostages or wrongfully detained,” Biden said in the order, which also instructs the Treasury secretary to submit reports to Congress.
In addition to Griner, other U.S. citizens being held overseas include Austin Tice, a freelance journalist kidnapped in Syria while on assignment in 2012, and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan who was convicted of spying by a Russian court in 2020. Whelan’s family has said they believe Russia is using him as a bargaining chip to gain U.S. concessions.
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Presbyterian Church: Israel is Apartheid State
The Presbyterian Church USA voted in its annual meeting to declare Israel an apartheid state.
At their annual meeting, Commissioners of 225th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted 266 to 116 that the actions of the Israeli government against the socalled “people of Palestine” met the legal definition of apartheid.
According to a letter by Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, stated clerk of the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church, “In 2018, Israel passed a nation-state law, which declares the distinction between Jews and non-Jews fundamental and legitimate, and permits institutional discrimination in land management and development, housing, citizenship, language and culture. This decision among many other practices have confirmed that the policies and practices of Israel constitute apartheid.”
In reality, the Nationality Law does not permit discrimination and actually protects minorities’ rights and status, especially those of the Arab minority.
Nelson’s letter added that the Presbyterian Church, which has over 1.7
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An Income Found, A Marriage Saved
Life has this way of “happening” that makes it seem as if everything takes place of its own accord. If we don’t stop and pay attention to the fact that every detail is distinctly decided and recorded from Above, we can sometimes forget…
She was a classic “shvigger” – getting involved in her married children’s lives. But she meant well and she acted well. “I must share the open miracle we witnessed,” she said. “For a while, my son-in-law was struggling to bring parnassah to his growing family. He tried. He really did, exerting himself to the next level. Yet, despite all his efforts and attempts, he was not able to find a suitable job. No matter how many companies received his resume, he couldn’t even get himself an interview.
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Info@TehillimKollel.org million members, recognizes Israel’s legitimacy as a state but opposes its continuing “occupation” of “Palestine,” which it claims is “illegitimate, illegal under international law, and an enduring threat to peace in the region.”
It claimed that the Presbyterian church remains “committed” to fighting anti-Semitism, emphasizing, “At the same time, we are convinced that there is a fundamental difference between antisemitism and the right to critique the policies of Israel deemed illegal under international law.”
Responding to the vote, the Jewish Federations of North American (JFNA) said, “Jewish Federations are not surprised by the latest antisemitic action taken by Presbyterian Church USA PC (USA) in its vote to adopt a resolution calling Israel an apartheid state. There was a time when their words mattered. That time is long gone.”
It added, “This resolution does nothing to further peace or foster a better future for Christians, Jews, and Muslims, Palestinians or Israelis. Its only intention is to demonize the Jews and Israel with the offensive and false allegation of apartheid.”
Rabbi Noam E. Marans, director for interreligious and intergroup relations for the American Jewish Committee, told The Washington Post that the Presbyterian Church’s new position is a “tragedy.”
He added, “Presbyterians and Jews in the pews need and want each other in order to address the issues that are most challenging in America today. This prevents that from happening.”
What Went Wrong in Uvalde
The gunman who shot 19 children and two teachers in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, carried out the shooting in two adjoining classrooms, the surveillance video showed.
The video, 82 minutes long, shows police officers at the Robb Elementary School massed in a hallway for more than an hour before they entered a classroom and killed the gunman. But before that, within minutes of the shooter entering the school, the police officers approached the classroom doorway – and then made a hasty retreat after the gunman opened fire.
Some of the police officers were armed with rifles and ballistic shields.
The video does not explain why the officers waited so long to confront the gunman or who was responsible for the delay. Most of the shooting was done between when the gunman entered the classrooms and when the officers approached.
Now, people are demanding answers, wanting to know why police officers waited over an hour to take down the murderer.
Bill Francis, a former FBI agent, told CNN that the police had “an amaz-
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