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morning with the Public Security Minister and we agreed on the formulation of a national plan to fight crime in the Arab community as soon as possible.
“We will do this in all dimensions: civil, economic, and, of course, criminal. This is, first of all, the desire of the community itself and it is of course an overall national interest.”
He added that since the beginning of 2021, “dozens of people have been murdered in the Arab community.”
“The violence in the Arab community is a blight on the country that has been neglected for many years. Responsibility for fighting this is on our shoulders. This is a national mission,” he concluded.
Bennett made his comments after five Arab Israeli citizens were killed in deadly shootings over the past four days.
Deputy Police Commissioner Jamal Hakroush said Sunday that there is a “historic” opportunity to address high crime rates in Arab Israeli communities, noting the inclusion of Arab lawmakers in the ruling coalition.
“I have a message to the Arab sector,” Hakroush told Kan news. “We are in a historic period and we have to take advantage of it. We have representatives in the government that can bring what was lacking — like budgets and policing to the Arab street.”
Hakroush is the first Arab Israeli to be a deputy police commissioner.
The Islamist Ra’am Party, which joined Bennett’s government coalition, ran on a platform of tackling violence in Israel’s Arab communities. When Ra’am signed a coalition agreement in early June, it noted that Bennett and his coalition partner, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, agreed to provide NIS 2.5 million ($770,000) to fight violence and organized crime in Arab society.
Investigating the Meron Tragedy
The Israeli government taskforce investigating the disaster on Mount Meron on Lag B’Omer will be headed by former Supreme Court Chief Justice Miriam Naor, a Sunday announcement proclaimed.
In the tragedy, 45 people were killed and over 150 were wounded.
The team will consist of three members, including former Bnei Brak Mayor Rabbi Mordechai Karelitz and former IDF planning chief Major General (Res.) Shlomo Yanai.
The team was appointed by current Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut and was tasked with conducting a detailed investigation of the disaster and recommending changes for the future, both for the site and for other mass events, especially those of a religious nature.
The commission will have a budget of six million shekel ($1.83 million) and will investigate “the entirety of professional and legal questions regarding safety procedures at religious rites and the public venues that host them, particularly events that involve mass participation.”
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressed, “Forty-five people lost their lives in that awful disaster, and the responsibility for learning the lessons and preventing the next disaster is on our shoulders. A commission cannot bring back those who have perished, but the government can do everything to prevent unnecessary loss of life in the future.”
National Guard Soldiers Can’t Feed Families
National Guard members and reservists are suffering hunger at more than double the national rate, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows.
The data, from mid-April through early June, showed that those in the National Guard report more food insecurity than nearly any other group, even after controlling for household income, education, age, and race. Almost one-fifth of National Guard members sometimes or often do not have enough to eat, and one-third of those with a spouse serving in the National Guard or reserves reports not having enough to eat.
According to The Washington Post, in an ordinary year, most reservists and National Guard members spend one weekend a month running drills and two weeks a year in training. As a result, most are able to work civilian jobs or acquire an education.
However, during the pandemic, the National Guard has seen longer periods of deployment and activation, including for coronavirus testing, food distribution, handling civilian unrest, and administering vaccines, National Guard Association of the United States spokesman John Goheen said. These responsibilities are in addition to responding to more natural disasters, such as floods and wildfires.
According to Goheen, during 2020, the National Guard was activated for over 11 million “man days,” a record since World War II; in 2019, there were just two million “man days.” At the same time, the increase in deployment has caused many to lose their civilian jobs.
Meanwhile, National Guard spokesman Wayne Hall said there are 1.2 million service members in the Army and Air National Guard and the various branches of reserves, but the census accounts for less than 400,000 of them.
“These figures are an underrepresentation of the full force,” he emphasized. “And almost a quarter surveyed didn’t report.”
At the same time, several military advocacy groups reported a rise in food insecurity, suggesting that National Guard members and reservists are motivated to hide their difficulties and hesitant to seek help.
The Washington Post quoted National Military Family Association lobbyist Jennifer Davis as saying: “A service member has to consider promotability and clearances: You can’t afford to struggle too badly; you have to keep your bills paid. You can lose your clearance if your finances are in a shambles, we’re talking even a bounced check. If it comes between paying the bills and keeping food
on the table, there’s pressure to pay those bills. And there are concerns about sharing with your leadership that you’re struggling to take care of your family, because you never want that to come back and haunt you when you’re up for promotion.”
Low-ranking National Guard members and reservists earn a base pay of about $3,000 per month when on active duty and approximately $200 for a weekend of drills.
Giuliani’s NY Law License Pulled
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s license to practice law in New York was suspended last Thursday amidst claims that he had acted on behalf of former U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 election, the New York Daily News reported.
The decision, made by a panel of Manhattan judges, follows a ruling that Giuliani betrayed his professional oath by peddling “false and misleading” claims about the 2020 election while acting on Trump’s behalf.
The suspension is currently temporary but could become permanent within weeks.
According to the ruling from the State Supreme Court’s appellate division, the suspension was warranted because Giuliani is an “immediate threat” to the public, due to his continued statements that the Democrats stole the election. The ruling declared Giuliani’s conduct “incredibly serious” and claimed that it affects “the reputation of the entire legal profession” and “directly inflamed the tensions” which resulted in the Capitol riot in January.
In their ruling, the judges wrote: “The seriousness of respondent’s uncontroverted misconduct cannot be overstated. This country is being torn apart by continued attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election and of our current president, Joseph R. Biden.”
Giuliani is also facing a criminal investigation.
Giuliani can fight the suspension by requesting a hearing within 20 days, but the judges have said that he will likely face “substantial permanent sanctions.” Meanwhile, his attorneys Barry Kamins and John Leventhal have promised to fight the “unprecedented” suspension.
Trump responded to the suspension by saying, “The greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, the Eliot Ness of his generation, one of the greatest crime fighters our Country has ever known, and this is what the Radical Left does to him. All of New York is out of control.”
Eric Adams: “I Am Face of the New Dem Party”
Days after Eric Adams emerged as a likely Democratic nominee for the position of NYC mayor, he promised to revamp New York’s approach to crime, The New York Times reported.
On the issue of gun control, Adams called to change the focus from assault rifles to handguns, which are the main weapons used in shootings.
Meanwhile, speaking at a news
Tragedy in Surfside
The normally serene shoreline of the Florida coast turned macabre early last Thursday morning when 55 out of 136 units of the Champlain Towers South condominiums collapsed. Eyewitnesses recalled hearing cracking sounds around 1 a.m. before half of the building folded onto itself. The speed of the collapse and the ensuing utter destruction left first responders recalling scenes of 9/11, in which rescuers sifted through rubble to locate bodies and belongings.
By Wednesday morning, almost a full week since the tragedy occurred, only 16 people had been confirmed dead. Another 147 were unaccounted for. 139 people who had been living in the units had been accounted for and are safe.
Work on the building, in attempts to find bodies and survivors, is painstakingly slow. Rescue workers have to steer clear of falling debris, some of which are football-sized cement blocks that rain down from what is left of the structure. On Tuesday, the west side of the building had to be cordoned off because it was becoming dangerous for workers to be there.
“The situation at hand is we’re not lifting floor by floor,” Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Raide Jadallah said. “We’re talking about concrete. We’re talking about steel. Every time there’s an action, there’s a reaction.”
On Sunday, as crews were looking through the rubble, a rescuer fell 25 feet down the pile of collapsed building.
The building before the disaster was 12 stories high. As of Tuesday, about 3 million pounds of concrete had been moved. Rescuers were looking for empty spaces in the rubble where survivors may have been able to find respite.
Rescue workers from Israel flew in to help with the search. Col. Golan Vach, commander of Israel’s national Rescue Unit, noted that people may have been buried under “four or five meters of concrete.” The task at hand is to penetrate that concrete in order to complete the search.
On Tuesday, Vach noted that first-responders were able to discover new tunnels in the rubble, discovering more bodies.
Making the work extremely difficult is the fact that the building imploded onto itself. Additionally, numerous fires had broken out over the weekend at the site; workers had to get those under control before continuing with the search. Lightning also forced workers to break until it was safe to proceed.
So far, police have identified at least 16 people who lost their lives in the tragedy. Among them are Michael David Altman, 50; Marcus Joseph Guara, 52; Frank Kleiman, 55; Leon Oliwkowicz, 80; Luis Bermudez, 26; Anna Ortiz, 46; Christina Beatriz Elvira, 74; Antonio Lozano, 82; Gladys Lozano, 80; Manuel LaFont, 54; Stacie Fang, 54; and Hilda Noriega, 92.
Fang’s teenage son was pulled injured but alive from the rubble.
A few people managed to run to safety before the disaster.
Iiana Monteagudo, 64, woke up to a strange sound on Thursday morning and saw a crack forming down her wall. Monteagudo fled, without shoes, from her sixth floor unit down the stairs. She heard crashing sounds and had to climb over several walls before reaching safety.
“I start going down, fast, and I hear crack, crack, crack,” she recalled. “I start to scream, ‘Come on G-d, I want to see my son, I want to see my grandson. Don’t let me die in this condition.’”
Behind her, the building fell into a devastating heap.
Sara Nir, a frum woman, recalled the terrifying moment that she and her family ran to safety. She and her children had returned home late that night, and Sara heard “knocking sounds” from other units. As the knocking got louder, Sara, who lived on the first floor of the condo, went to the security guard to complain about what she thought was construction taking place late at night in the building.
While she was speaking with the guard, she heard a loud boom and saw the garage had collapsed. Shouting to the guard to call the police about what she thought was an earthquake, Sara urged her children to run.
“We ran out of the building, and I told my kids, run as fast as you can, crossing Collins,” Sara said. “We just crossed Collins. G-d was waiting for us to leave the building. And then another big boom. Then we didn’t see anything. It was suddenly white after the big boom and with white clouds all over,” Sara told CNN.
She and her children ran a few blocks from the building before she stopped to catch her breath.
Esther Gorfinkel was carried out of the building by neighbors as she headed down the staircase.
When she told Albert Aguero, a man who carried her, that she lived a good 88 years and didn’t need to be rescued, he told her, “No, you’re going to make it to your 89th birthday.”
“I saw the sky. I knew I will be safe,” Gorfinkel said.
Sadly, there are many people who are still awaiting news of their loved ones.
Among those who are missing is Harry Rosenberg, originally from Brooklyn, who had moved to Surfside after his wife passed away from cancer and his parents passed away from Covid. Harry’s daughter, Malki Weiss, and her husband Benny had been visiting Harry during the collapse.
Tzvi and Itty Ainsworth, from Australia, had moved to South Florida to be near their children two decades ago. Their daughter lived just a few blocks away from them.
Many members of the Jewish community and many South Americans called the condo their home. Photos of those who are still missing share the stories of so many in their prime who lost their lives in the disaster.
Still, authorities are struggling to determine what exactly led to the collapse of the condominium. Inspectors had been there recently and noted issues with some of the structure. A thorough investigation is needed to determine what exactly led to the disaster.
Since last week’s tragedy, lawyers representing a resident of Champlain Towers South who is suing the building’s condominium association began the process of subpoenaing documents from an engineering firm that had been hired to complete repairs on the building after conducting a 2018 survey.
The suit, on behalf of Manuel Drezner who lived in unit 1009 of the tower, was filed last Thursday, making it the first civil action after the building’s collapse earlier that day. Others are sure to follow suit in filing against those who they feel are responsible for the tragedy.
conference outside Brooklyn Borough Hall, Adams said, “If the Democratic Party fails to recognize what we did here in New York, they’re going to have a problem in the midterm elections, and they’re going to have a problem in the presidential election.”
Adams, a former police captain, faced off with a number of opponents including Maya Wiley, leading her by nine points, and Kathryn Garcia, who he led by 12 points. It is expected that the process of selecting candidates for Democratic nomination will be completed by July 12.
On Thursday, however, Adams vowed, “I am the face of the new Democratic Party. I’m going to show America how to run a city.”
Regarding the increase in violent crime, Adams told MSNBC that “too many people are being released that are dangerous.”
“We need to change the ecosystem of public safety,” he said, emphasizing that there must be strategies of “prevention, a long-term plan and an intervention” in order to appropriately deal with the rise in crime.
“America is saying, we want to have justice, and safety, and end inequality.”
Teddy Roosevelt Torn Down
A controversial statue of Theodore Roosevelt will be removed from its current location, one year after a formal request for its removal was filed
The statue stands in front of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Featuring the 26th President of the United States flanked by a Native American man on one side and an African man on the other, it debuted in 1940.
Last June, in its initial request for the statue’s removal, the museum wrote that the statue conveys a “racial hierarchy that the museum and members of the public have long found disturbing.”
On Monday, approximately one year after the request was filed, the New York City Public Design Commission voted unanimously to remove the statue.
In Monday’s meeting, Sam Biederman, chief of staff and assistant commissioner at NYC Parks, said the move is “incredibly rare,” while praising it as “the right course of action.”
“Though historical circumstances demonstrate that this sculpture was not erected with malice of intent, the compositional hierarchy ... visually supports the thematic framework of colonization and racism,” he said.
In a statement to CNN last year, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said the statue’s removal would be “the right decision” and come at “the right time.”
“The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior,” the statement last year said.
It is not yet clear where the statue will be moved to, but according to officials with NYC’s Public Design Commission, the city and museum will coordinate a long-term loan of the statue to publicly accessible grounds or a cultural institution dedicated to Roosevelt.
Former Alabama Rep. H.L. “Sonny” Callahan, who died on Friday at age 88, helped stabilize the Middle East, the Washington Examiner said.
Callahan, who was a Republican, was “the driving force” between a “major, successful shift in the U.S. foreign aid packages to Israel (especially) and Egypt” during the mid-1990s, the Examiner noted.
As chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Callahan worked to phase out long-running U.S. economic aid to Israel by increasing U.S. military assistance with the aim of building Israel’s “qualitative military edge” over its neighbors, so as to discourage attacks, thereby maintaining a terse peace.
In a Saturday interview, Jonathan Schanzer, the senior vice president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Examiner “The Israeli military is more digitized, mechanized, and advanced in large part due to America’s commitment to supporting Israel’s QME. Israel’s is a small military, but it punches well above its weight relative to other militaries in the region.”
The shift was negotiated with former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and entailed at least one trip by Callahan to Israel to meet with Netanyahu in person, and at least one late-night, three-way call with both Netanyahu and a top negotiator for Egypt. At the time, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton doubted that Callahan’s plan was realistic.
However, despite pessimistic predictions, the new aid approach was finalized. Callahan, the Examiner emphasized, was a Navy veteran who served 12 years in Alabama’s legislature and 18 years in Congress, and a man who “got things done.”
Juul Settles for $40M
In recent years, regulators and health officials have blamed Juul for the rising popularity of e-cigarettes among teens. Now, Juul labs has agreed to pay North Carolina $40 million and has pledged to change its business practices in the state.
In 2019, federal data found that more than one in four high school students had used an e-cigarette in the past 30 days, up from 11.7 percent just two years prior. As of 2020, that number fell to 19.6 percent of high school students amid greater regulatory scrutiny and the coronavirus pandemic.
“North Carolina is now the first state in the nation to hold Juul accountable for its instrumental role in creating a youth vaping epidemic,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein said at a press conference revealing the agreement on Monday.
Juul will not be able to use anyone in its marketing materials who is younger than 35 years old, nor pay for influencers to promote its products.
North Carolina kicked off its investigation into Juul in 2018 and announced the lawsuit the following year. In May, the judge for the case ruled that Juul destroyed documents, provided thousands of pages of irrelevant information, and ignored related court orders. The company faced millions of dollars in fines tied to that decision, but the agreement this week will wipe that slate clean.
The deal also places limits on the number of devices and pods that North Carolina consumers can buy every month and year.
“This settlement is consistent with our ongoing effort to reset our company and its relationship with our stakeholders, as we continue to combat underage usage and advance the opportunity for harm reduction for adult smokers,” a Juul spokesperson said in a statement.
At least nine other states have followed North Carolina’s lead with their own suits, and a coalition of 39 states is currently investigating Juul.
A Tragic Balloon Ride
What was meant to be a fun-filled activity turned to tragedy when a hot air balloon crashed in New Mexico over the weekend. The gondola of the hot air balloon dropped from roughly 100 feet early Saturday morning, striking power lines and catching fire before it crashed on a highway in Albuquerque. The five people onboard lost their lives in the crash.
