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Israel Finally Swears In Government After 3 Elections

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After three deadlocked and divisive elections, a year and a half of political paralysis and another three-day delay because of political infighting in his Likud party, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally swore in his new government on Sunday.

The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, passed a vote of confidence in Netanyahu’s new administration to end over 500 days of upheaval.

Over the weekend, both Netanyahu and his rival-turned-partner Benny Gantz announced their appointments for the new government — the most bloated in Israeli history with an expected 36 Cabinet ministers and 16 deputies.

Netanyahu and Gantz, a former military chief, announced last month they would be putting their differences aside to join forces to steer the country through the coronavirus crisis and its severe economic fallout.

Their controversial power-sharing deal calls for Netanyahu to serve as prime minister for the government’s first 18 months before being replaced by Gantz for the next 18 months. Their blocs will also have a similar number of ministers and mutual veto power over most major decisions.

Critics have already accused the government of being out of touch by creating so many Cabinet posts at a time when unemployment has soared to 25% as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But because Netanyahu’s bloc includes several smaller parties, he still only has a limited number of Cabinet ministries to hand out to the Likud rank and file.

A mini-insurgency by angry senior Likud members forced Netanyahu to seek a delay in the swearing-in ceremony last Thursday. To mollify his backbenchers, Netanyahu created a series of new ministries with questionable responsibilities, such as “community development,” “settlement affairs” and “higher education and water resources” and a minister to be the liaison between the parliament and the Cabinet. Each ministry means paying for drivers, staff and office space.

Yair Lapid, the new opposition leader, said the machinations have led to a loss of “trust of the Israeli public.”

“The coronavirus is an excuse for a corrupt party at the expense of the taxpayer. After all the empty talk of an ‘emergency government,’ the government being formed today is the largest and most wasteful in the history of the country,” he said. “It’s not just the waste, it’s the contempt. The complete contempt for the crisis facing the Israeli public.”

The deal has already led to the dissolution of Gantz’s alliance with Lapid after he reneged on his central campaign promise not to serve under Netanyahu, who has been indicted on corruption charges and faces a criminal trial starting next week. Their much-scrutinized coalition deal could only come about after the country’s Supreme Court ruled it had no legal grounds to block it.

Gantz and Netanyahu fought to stalemates in three bitter election campaigns over the past year.

After the most recent vote in March, Gantz appeared to secure enough support in parliament to pass legislation that would have barred the indicted Netanyahu from continuing as prime minister. But in a stunning about face, Gantz agreed to enter a partnership with his arch rival.

Despite the criticism, Gantz argued that teaming with Netanyahu offered the country its only way out of the prolonged stalemate and prevented what would have been a fourth costly election in just over a year.

In his speech to parliament, Netanyahu acknowledged that compromises had to be made but that another election would have been far more devastating.

“The public wants a unity government and this is what the public is getting today,” he said. “We chose to serve the country together.”

Gantz will start out as defense minister, with party colleague and fellow retired military chief Gabi Ashkenazi serving as foreign minister. Netanyahu’s top deputy in Likud, outgoing Foreign Minister Israel Katz, will become finance minister. Yariv Levin, perhaps Netanyahu’s closest ally, will become the new parliament speaker.

The coalition will also include a pair of ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties and some other individual defectors. It was voted into office by a 73-46 margin, with one lawmaker in the 120-seat Knesset skipping the vote.

The main point of contention for critics has been the newly created position of “alternate prime minister.”

The post, initially held by Gantz, could allow Netanyahu to remain in office even after the swap and throughout his corruption trial and a potential appeals process. There are also deep suspicions about whether Netanyahu will keep his part of the bargain and ultimately cede the premiership to Gantz.

Gantz took his oath of office as “the alternate prime minister and future prime minister” immediately after Netanyahu was sworn in as prime minister.

The new position is supposed to enjoy all the trappings of the prime minister, including an official residence and, key for Netanyahu, an exemption from a law that requires public officials who are not prime minister to resign if charged with a crime.

Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals involving allegedly trading favors with wealthy media moguls. He denies any wrongdoing and blames the charges on a media-orchestrated plot to oust him.

Since his indictment last fall he has repeatedly lashed out at the country’s legal system as well, with his political allies taking special aim at the high court and accusing it of overreach and political interference. His legal woes and fitness to serve were central issues in the recent election campaigns.

Netanyahu also pledged to push forth with controversial plans to annex parts of the West Bank.

Netanyahu’s nationalist base is eager to push for annexation before the U.S. elections in November — after which Trump could be replaced by Joe Biden, who has said he opposes unilateral annexation. The coalition agreement allows him to present a proposal as soon as July 1.

“The time has come for anyone who believes in the justness of our rights in the land of Israel to join a government led by me to bring about a historic process together,” he said.

NY Widens Testing Eligibility As Social Distancing Hits Snag

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(AP) New York City residents who flouted social distancing restrictions for a night on the town got the mayor’s wrath Sunday. The city’s embattled health commissioner is staying on the job. Gov. Andrew Cuomo got tested for coronavirus on live TV as he announced all people experiencing flu-like symptoms are now eligible for tests.

Meanwhile, two more state regions — Western New York and the Capital District — have met all seven criteria to move into the first phase of reopening but still need to hire several hundred more people for contact tracing programs.

In the first phase, construction, agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting, manufacturing and wholesale trade businesses are allowed to reopen and retail stores can provide curbside or in-store pickup or drop-off.

Here are the latest coronavirus-related developments in New York:

SATURDAY NIGHT FERVOR

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio admonished people seen crowding outside bars Saturday night, many with drinks in hand but no masks on their faces, for putting lives in danger. Officials may go so far as to shut down establishments that are violating social distancing rules, de Blasio said, asking residents to call 311, the city’s non-emergency hotline, if they see such crowding.

Bars and restaurants in the city have been restricted to takeout and delivery service since mid-March, when coronavirus cases started to soar, but some in Manhattan were allowing people to dine and drink inside on Saturday.

“We’re not going to tolerate people starting to congregate. It’s as simple as that,” de Blasio said. “If we have to shut places down, we will.”

After a rash of violent social distancing arrests involving people of color, the city eased up on social distancing enforcement this week by no longer having police officers breaking up small groups of people or confronting citizens about failing to wear a mask.

As the weather heats up, though, more and more New Yorkers are flocking to public spaces and familiar haunts for a sense of normalcy after spending most of the last two months cooped up inside — and not always policing themselves.

“If you start to form groups of people and then two, three, five and then it becomes six, it becomes 10, it becomes 15 — that violates what we’re saying about social distancing and that puts lives in danger,” de Blasio said.

Parks, boardwalks and beaches attracted big crowds on Saturday, though city beaches aren’t officially open and won’t be for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend.

Beaches on Long Island and in other parts of the region will be open for the holiday, but de Blasio said opening the city’s grand strands for swimming and merriment “is not safe” and “is not the right thing to do in the epicenter of this crisis.”

In fact, de Blasio said, the city’s beaches could be closed off completely to public access if people don’t follow social distancing rules. Fencing is being installed at entrance ways and could be rolled out if beaches — meant now only for nearby residents to get some exercise — get overcrowded or people violate swimming bans, he said.

De Blasio said beaches could open for wider use sometime in the summer, with lifeguard training over the next few weeks for a possible return to duty.

“Delusional’ Martin Shkreli Denied Prison Release By Judge

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(AP) A judge rejected the request of convicted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli to be let out of prison to research a coronavirus treatment, noting that probation officials viewed that claim as the type of “delusional self-aggrandizing behavior” that led to his conviction.

U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said in a nine-page ruling Saturday that the man known as the “Pharma Bro” failed to demonstrate extraordinary and compelling factors that would require his release under home confinement rules designed to move vulnerable inmates out of institutions during the pandemic.

The low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, where the 37-year-old Shkreli is locked up has reported no cases of coronavirus among inmates and staff, and there’s no evidence in his medical files to suggest a childhood bout with asthma continues to pose a significant health problem, Matsumoto wrote.

“Disappointed but not unexpected,” Shkreli’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said.

Shkreli is serving a seven-year prison sentence for a 2017 conviction for lying to investors about the performance of two hedge funds he ran, withdrawing more money from those funds than he was entitled to get, and defrauding investors in a drug company, Retrophin, by hiding his ownership of some of its stock.

A judge ordered Shkreli to forfeit $7.3 million.

Brafman filed court papers last month asking federal authorities to release him for three months and allow him to live at his fiancé’s New York City apartment so he could do laboratory work “under strict supervision.”

In a research proposal posted online, Shkreli called the pharmaceutical industry’s response to the pandemic “inadequate” and said researchers at every drug company “should be put to work until COVID-19 is no more.”

He wrote that his background “as a successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies, invented multiple new drug candidates” would make him a valuable asset.

Matsumoto rejected that, relaying concerns of probation officials that Shkreli’s claim that he could develop a cure for coronavirus that “so far eluded the best medical and scientific minds in the world working around the clock” is “delusional self-aggrandizing behavior.”

Shkreli first gained notoriety by buying the rights to a drug used to treat an infection that occurs in some AIDS, malaria and cancer patients and raising the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. He is also known for attacking critics on social media and offering a bounty to anyone who could give him one of Hillary Clinton’s hairs.

 

NY Update: Lowest 1 Day Deaths Since Late March, New Cases & Hospitalizations Drop; Cuomo Encourages Testing

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Governor Andrew Cuomo delivers daily briefing on the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic.
  • An additional 139 deaths were reported on Sunday. Of those, 106 were in hospitals and 33 were in nursing homes. The 139 deaths is the lowest one-day total reported since late March, according to state data.

  • The total number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the state has slowly but steadily declined. As of Saturday, there were 5,897 patients hospitalized, down from 6,220 the day before.

  • The average number of new virus patients who have been hospitalized over the last three days has also declined, to 374, down from 400 a day earlier.

  • Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Cuomo announced that New York State has doubled testing capacity to reach 40,000 diagnostic tests per day, and encouraged eligible New Yorkers to visit a new website to find a nearby testing site. Today’s announcement comes three weeks after the Governor announced an agreement for New York State to work with the federal government to grow New York’s daily testing capacity from 20,000 tests a day to 40,000 tests a day.

The state’s diagnostic testing criteria now includes all individuals who would return to the workplace in phase one of the state’s reopening plan. New Yorkers eligible for diagnostic testing now include:

  • Any individual who has COVID-19 symptoms;
  • Any individual who has had contact with a person known to be positive with COVID-19;
  • Any individual who is subject to a precautionary or mandatory quarantine;
  • Any individual who is employed as a health care worker, nursing home worker or first responder;
  • Any essential worker who directly interacts with the public while working; and
  • Any individual who would return to the workplace in phase one of the state’s reopening plan.

The Governor also announced the launch of a new website where New Yorkers can easily find the nearest COVID-19 testing sites. New Yorkers can visit coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-testing and enter their address to view a list and a map view of the nearest testing sites. The state has also partnered with Google Maps to display testing site results. New Yorkers can search “COVIDtesting near me” on Google Maps to easily find the nearest testing sites.

“Throughout this entire pandemic, testing was key to controlling the virus and now it will be key to monitoring the virus as we begin reopening in regions across the state,” Governor Cuomo said. “New York has worked aggressively to build a massive statewide sample collection network and is now testing more than any state or country per capita, but our new problem is we have more sites and capacity than we’re actually using. The more New Yorkers get tested, the better — and we are going to ensure to all individuals who will return to the workplace in phase one of our reopening plan have access to testing, and we are launching a new website to make it easier for New Yorkers to find nearby testing sites.”

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo wants thousands more New Yorkers to get tested for Covid-19 — so much so that he got tested for the virus during his live news briefing in Albany on Sunday, NY Times reported

He stood still and closed his eyes as a doctor fully swathed in personal protection equipment inserted a swab deep into his nose. Then the governor sat back down without so much as a sneeze.

“That is the whole test,” Mr. Cuomo said. “I’m not in pain, I’m not in discomfort. Closing my eyes was a moment of relaxation. There is no reason why you should not get the test.”

Bill de Blasio: New York City Beaches Closed for Memorial Day

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By Brian Freeman (NEWSMAX)

New York City’s beaches will not open for Memorial Day weekend, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Sunday, The Hill reported.

“I’ve said before, I’m going to say again, we are not opening our beaches on Memorial Day, we are not opening our beaches in the near term. It is not safe. It is not the right thing to do in the epicenter of this crisis,” de Blasio said.

He emphasized that, if needed, he would put up fencing to prevent beaches from being used, CBS News reported.

“We’re putting fencing in and in reserve that could close off the beaches as needed,” the mayor said. “It’s certainly not something I want to d o… but we will be ready if we have to. So what you’ll see in the coming days is fencing put in place, ready to be implemented.”

De Blasio also stressed that he is upset at reports of the nice weather encouraging people to gather outside bars and at restaurants.

“I’m not comfortable at all with people congregating outside bars. It’s the same rule. If you start to form groups of people, and then you know two, three, five becomes six, becomes 10, it becomes 15. That violates what we’re saying about social distancing … and it puts lives in danger,” de Blasio said.

The mayor said the New York City Police Department would be monitoring the situation at bars to make sure such gatherings do not take place.

Pompeo, the Coronavirus and the ‘risks’ of Sovereignty

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo deliver joint statements at the PM's residence in Jerusalem on March 20, 2019. Photo by Hadas Parush/Flash90 *** Local Caption *** ???? ?????? ?????? ?????? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ?????? ???????? ????? ????? ????

Caroline Glick (JNS)

On May 10, Saudi journalist Abdelhameed al-Ghoban gave an interview to the BBC in Arabic. His remarks, which were translated by MEMRI, were devoid of nuance.

“Today, the public is informed. There is a deluge [of opinions] against the Palestinian cause. It is no longer just public support for normalization and building ties with Israel. [Our] public has turned against the Palestinians in general. Unfortunately, the Palestinians have lost. The Palestinians have not contributed anything. We can say that they are emotional people whose behavior is governed by their feelings.”

Al-Ghoban added, “It is in our strategic interest, and in keeping with our future economic interests, to maintain real relations with Israel. Israel is an advanced country and we can benefit from it.”

Al-Ghoban’s remarks are not a lone voice in the wilderness. During the Ramadan Muslim holy month, Saudi television networks broadcast two series that portray Jews and Israelis in a positive light.

Azar: No spike In Coronavirus in Places Reopening

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PAM KEY (Breitbart)

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there has been no spike in coronavirus cases in the states that are reopening.

Host Jake Tapper asked, “Let me ask you, this is intrigue to me because some states have been reopening despite warnings of dire consequences from health experts, states like Georgia and Colorado began reopening weeks ago, and it seems at least so far that we have not seen a dramatic spike in new cases from those two states, Georgia and Colorado. What have you seen from those states? Is there any cause for concern that they reopened early? Is it still too early to tell? Or are they taking measures such as social distancing and masks that make this reopening work?”

Azar said, “Jake, I think your question is very insightful. We are seeing that in areas that are opening, we’re not seeing the spike in cases. We still see spikes in some areas that are, in fact, closed, very localized situations. And so this is going to be very important for us to watch the circumstances on the ground. With reopening, what’s the key to reopening? First, we need to have good surveillance. So we need to look for influenza-like illness and other respiratory disease. We have a great surveillance system for that. We look for spikes and early indicators. We have adequate testing capacity. We need to make sure anybody who is symptomatic is tested and that we have adequate asymptomatic surveillance in areas of greatest burden. Senior living, congregate living situations like prisons or m facilities where people are close together. So we look for early indicators. Then we use the traditional public health tools to surge in there. We would test everybody there. We would do contact tracing and isolation. That’s where places like Georgia and Colorado, as they reopen, it’s these tools that allow us to be reopened, but do so in a safe way that lets the economy function but allows us to use the traditional tools of public health to move forward as we would with any other disease.”

On if reopening is dependent on a vaccine, Azar added, “So what the president was making the point on is, everything does not depend on a vaccine. We’re committed to delivering a vaccine. We’ll put the full power of the U.S. government and our private sector towards getting a vaccine, but that’s one of a multifactorial response program. First is the testing we talked about before, broad surveillance to find cases, surge in and contain.”

Local Health Agencies Struggle to Ramp Up Virus Tracking

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By: Christina A. Cassidy (AP)

As state after state begins to reopen, local health departments charged with tracking down everyone who has been in close contact with those who test positive for the new coronavirus are still scrambling to hire the number of people they need to do the job.

They are often hundreds — even thousands — of people short of targets for their contact tracing programs. Public health experts have consistently said robust programs to test more people and trace their contacts are needed for states to safely reboot their economies and prevent a resurgence of the virus.

Cook County, Illinois, has just 29 contact tracers serving 2.5 million people living in suburban communities around Chicago. Los Angeles County, which at more than 10 million people has a population slightly greater than Michigan, has just 400 of the estimated 6,000 contact tracers it will need under California’s criteria for a broader reopening.

With 2.7 million residents and roughly 100 to 300 new COVID-19 cases a day, Miami-Dade County has 175 people tracking down people who were potentially exposed to the virus.

“The whole point of the lockdown was to buy time to have a better way to keep numbers down,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, who led the humanitarian response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa during the Obama administration. “And that’s why so many of us are screaming ourselves hoarse about testing and tracing.”

Public health experts say contact tracing systems should be in place before cases become widespread, so every new infection can be tracked and the person’s contacts identified, tested and isolated from the rest of the community.

Until recently, there had been scant federal guidance on what contact tracing should look like, and there is still no coordinated federal strategy. While other countries are taking a national approach to contact tracing, the U.S. is leaving it to states to devise their own programs.

The result has been a patchwork of efforts. An AP review in late April found little consensus among states on basic questions such as how many investigators are needed.

Officials in Cook County, which has the highest number of cases in Illinois outside of Chicago, have said they need at least 200 additional contact tracers and as many as 400 to supplement the work of the 29 currently on staff. Illinois has maintained a statewide stay-at-home order since late March, and Gov. J.B. Pritzker has said the state needs a “massive statewide contact tracing operation.”

“The county cannot open safely if additional contact tracers cannot be hired in a timely manner,” said Hanna Kite, spokeswoman for the county health department.

On Monday, Miami-Dade County will begin to allow restaurants and stores to resume limited operations, joining the rest of Florida in an initial reopening. It’s unclear when the county — the state’s most populous and by far hardest-hit by COVID-19 — plans to bring on more contact tracers to assist the 175 staffers doing the work now.

“In Miami, we need definitely more than we have, but so far we have been able to manage the amount of cases that we have to maintain a balanced activity in terms of contacting all the positive cases,” said Dr. Alvaro Mejia-Echeverry, a state epidemiologist for the county.

Contact tracing was one of the “core state preparedness responsibilities” outlined in the White House guidelines for reopening the country, but governors have been pressing ahead with lifting restrictions without having comprehensive programs in place.

Hall County, which has over 200,000 residents and the second-highest rate of coronavirus cases in Georgia, has between 30 and 40 contact tracers assigned to the local public health district, which also serves a dozen neighboring counties. It hopes to receive an additional 30 from the state.

Georgia was among the first states to ease restrictions. Public health experts have expressed concern that the state was risking a spike in cases by moving too quickly. So far, the state has hired 250 contact tracers with a goal of reaching 1,000.

While there is no federal formula for how many of the disease detectives are needed, public health experts have said one contact tracer is needed for every 1,000 to 3,000 residents in the U.S., or between 100,000 and 300,000 nationally. For Georgia, that would be between 3,333 and 10,000.

During congressional testimony this past week, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, reiterated his concern that parts of the U.S. might be easing restrictions too early without having the ability to respond effectively to an increase in cases with “good identification, isolation and contact tracing.”

The next day, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released general guidance to states on contact tracing. It said the number of case investigators and contact tracers needed in each community “may be large” and will vary, in part due to caseloads.

The document was released two-and-a-half weeks after Georgia and other states began lifting restrictions. It included recommendations on how to prioritize cases when staffing is limited and said communities that don’t have the capacity to investigate a majority of their new cases will have to consider reinstating measures such as stay-at-home orders.

Under California’s criteria for a broader reopening, counties should have 15 people trained in contact tracing for every 100,000 residents. The state is helping, working to train between 10,000 and 20,000 tracers, but most large counties are falling short.

San Diego County, home to 3.3 million people, had 171 contact investigators on the job with plans to have 450 as soon as possible. In Orange County, which has about 3.1 million residents, about 75 staffers are assigned to investigating cases and tracing contacts.

Harris County, Texas’ most populous with more than 4.7 million residents, is working to train about 300 contact tracers by May 22. It’s been two weeks since Texas reopened retail, restaurants, malls and movie theaters to limited numbers of customers.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, said she is concerned the reopening is too fast and it may “make our work difficult and perhaps impossible.”

In Philadelphia, the Department of Public Health has trained a small number of contact tracers and wants to hire more to be deployed once the number of new infections has dropped enough to make contact tracing practical, spokesman James Garrow said.

A few states, including Utah, made contact tracing a priority before beginning to ease restrictions. In early April, Massachusetts launched a $44 million effort and enlisted Partners in Health, a Boston-based nonprofit known for its healthcare work in developing countries, to hire and train 1,600 people. They were to supplement the more than 600 case investigators already doing the work at the local level.

“If anything can be learned from Massachusetts’ experience, it’s that the process takes time and states need to start ramping up their contact tracing efforts well before reopening their economies,” said Dr. Joia Mukherjee, chief medical officer at Partners in Health. “We should have done this on day one.” (Associated Press)

 

Trump’s Emergency Powers Worry Some Senators, Legal Experts

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AP

By: Deb Riechmann (AP)

The day he declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, President Donald Trump made a cryptic offhand remark.

“I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about,” he said at the White House.

Trump wasn’t just crowing. Dozens of statutory authorities become available to any president when national emergencies are declared. They are rarely used, but Trump last month stunned legal experts and others when he claimed — mistakenly — that he has “total” authority over governors in easing COVID-19 guidelines.

That prompted 10 senators to look into how sweeping Trump believes his emergency powers are.

They have asked to see this administration’s Presidential Emergency Action Documents, or PEADs. The little-known, classified documents are essentially planning papers.

The documents don’t give a president authority beyond what’s in the Constitution. But they outline what powers a president believes that the Constitution gives him to deal with national emergencies. The senators think the documents would provide them a window into how this White House interprets presidential emergency powers.

“Somebody needs to look at these things,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said in a telephone interview. “This is a case where the president can declare an emergency and then say, ‘Because there’s an emergency, I can do this, this and this.’”

King, seven Democrats and one Republican sent a letter late last month to acting national intelligence director Richard Grenell asking to be briefed on any existing PEADs. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote a similar letter to Attorney General William Barr and White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

“The concern is that there could be actions taken that would violate individual rights under the Constitution,” such as limiting due process, unreasonable search and seizure and holding individuals without cause, King said.

“I’m merely speculating. It may be that we get these documents and there’s nothing untoward in their checks and balances and everything is above board and reasonable.″

Joshua Geltzer, visiting professor of law at Georgetown University, said there is a push to take a look at these documents because there is rising distrust for the Trump administration’s legal interpretations in a way he hasn’t seen in his lifetime.

The most publicized example was Trump’s decision last year to declare the security situation along the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency. That decision allowed him to take up to $3.6 billion from military construction projects to finance wall construction beyond the miles that lawmakers had been willing to fund. Trump’s move skirted the authority of Congress, which by law has the power to spend money in the nation’s wallet.

“I worry about other things he might call an emergency,” Geltzer said. “I think around the election itself in November — that’s where there seems to be a lot of potential for mischief with this president.”

The lawmakers made their request just days after Trump made his startling claim on April 13 that he had the authority to force states to reopen for business amid the pandemic.

“When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total,” Trump said, causing a backlash from some governors and legal experts. Trump later tweeted that while some people say it’s the governors, not the president’s decision, “Let it be fully understood that this is incorrect.”

Trump later backtracked on his claim of “total” authority and agreed that states have the upper hand in deciding when to end their lockdowns. But it was just the latest from a president who has been stretching existing statutory authorities “to, if not beyond, their breaking point,” said Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas.

Questions about Trump’s PEADs went unanswered by the Justice Department, National Security Council and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of a national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, said PEADs have not been subject to congressional oversight for decades. She estimates that there are 50 to 60 of these documents, which include draft proclamations, executive orders and proposed legislation that could be swiftly introduced to “assert broad presidential authority” in national emergencies.

She said the Eisenhower administration had PEADs outlining how it might respond to a possible Soviet nuclear attack. According to the Brennan Center, PEADs issued up through the 1970s included detention of U.S. citizens suspected of being subversives, warrantless searches and seizures and the imposition of martial law.

“A Department of Justice memorandum from the Lyndon B. Johnson administration discusses a presidential emergency action document that would impose censorship on news sent abroad,” Goitein wrote in an op-ed with lawyer Andrew Boyle published last month in The New York Times.

“The memo notes that while no ‘express statutory authority’ exists for such a measure, ‘it can be argued that these actions would be legal in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack based on the president’s constitutional powers to preserve the national security.”’

Goitein said she especially worries about any orders having to do with military deployment, including martial law.

“You can imagine a situation where he (Trump) engineers a crisis that leads to domestic violence, which then becomes a pretext for martial law,” said Goitein, who insists she’s simply playing out worst-case scenarios.

She said she wonders if there is a PEAD outlining steps the president could take to respond to a serious cyberattack. Would the president aggressively interpret telecommunications law and flip an internet kill switch, or restrain domestic internet traffic? she asks.

Bobby Chesney, associate dean at the University of Texas School of Law, said some fears might be exaggerated because while Trump makes off-the-cuff assertions of authority far beyond past presidents, he doesn’t necessarily follow up with action.

Says Chesney: “His actions don’t match the rhetoric always — or even often.” (Associated Press)

 

 

 

Puerto Rico to Hold Statehood Referendum Amid Disillusion

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Gov. Wanda Vázquez announced on Saturday that she will hold a nonbinding referendum in November to decide whether Puerto Rico should become a U.S. state, a move that comes amid growing disillusion with the island’s U.S. territorial status.

For the first time in the island’s history, the referendum will ask a single, simple question: Should Puerto Rico be immediately admitted as a U.S. state?

It’s an answer that requires approval from U.S. Congress and a question that outraged the island’s small group of independence supporters and members of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party, which supports the status quo. But it’s a gamble that members of the governor’s pro-statehood party are confident will pay off given that Puerto Rico has struggled to obtain federal funds for hurricanes Irma and Maria, a string of recent strong earthquakes and the coronavirus pandemic amid growing complaints that the island does not receive fair and equal treatment.

“Everything important in life carries some risk,” said former Puerto Rico governor Carlos Romero Barceló, a member of the Progressive New Party.

Previous referendums have presented voters with more than one question or various options, including independence or upholding the current territorial status, but none have been so direct as the one scheduled to be held during the Nov. 3 general elections.

“Our people will have the opportunity once and for all to define our future,” Vázquez said. “It’s never too late to be treated as equals.”

Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens but cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections. And while the island is exempt from the U.S. federal income tax, it still pays Social Security and Medicare and local taxes and receives less federal funding than U.S. states. Many believe the island’s territorial status has contributed to its struggle to recover from the hurricanes and earthquakes, as well as worsened its economic crisis, largely caused by decades of heavy borrowing and the elimination of federal tax incentives.

U.S. Congress would have to accept the referendum results for it to move forward, and it has never acted on the island’s previous five referendums. The last one, held in 2017, was hit by a boycott and a low turnout that raised questions about the vote’s legitimacy. More than half a million people favored statehood in that referendum, followed by nearly 7,800 votes for free association/independence and more than 6,800 votes for the current territorial status. Voter turnout was just 23 percent. In the three referendums prior to 2017, no clear majority emerged, with voters sometimes almost evenly divided between statehood and the status quo.

Statehood would award Puerto Rico two senators and five representatives, but it’s unlikely a Republican-controlled Congress would acknowledge the referendum because Puerto Rico tends to favor Democrats.

Roberto Prats, a former Puerto Rico senator and member of the Popular Democratic Party, said in a phone interview that the upcoming referendum will be an exercise in futility like the five previous ones.

“The only thing they’ve done is take away credibility from the statehood movement,” he said, adding that Puerto Rico has eroded the federal government’s trust with its decades of corruption and mismanagement, and that any referendum should first have support from U.S. Congress. “If we’re going to make a decision regarding our relationship with the U.S., the U.S. has to be involved in that discussion.” (AP)

 

Cuomo: New Virus Cases In NY Coming From People Leaving Home

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(AP)New York’s new confirmed COVID-19 cases are predominantly coming from people who left their homes to shop, exercise or socialize, rather than from essential workers, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday.

“That person got infected and went to the hospital or that person got infected and went home and infected the other people at home,” Cuomo said during his daily news conference on the coronavirus outbreak.

State data showed the number of new cases statewide has fluctuated between 2,100 and 2,500 per day. On Saturday, the number of new cases decreased to 2,419, from 2,762 on Friday.

Cuomo said while last week he had theorized that new cases were coming from essential workers, “that was exactly wrong.

“The infection rate among essential workers is lower than the general population and those new cases are coming predominantly from people who are not working and they are at home,” he said.

The state’s budget director, Robert Mujica, said officials expect to learn a lot more about the genesis of new cases from contact tracing over the next week.

Cuomo has said that New York was hiring thousands of workers to trace the contacts of people who test positive for the coronavirus. Health experts say contact tracing is critical to isolating potentially contagious people in order to limit further outbreaks.

Cuomo said the five regions of the state that were allowed on Friday to reopen for business — out of 10 total regions — were required to have a certain number of tracers proportionate to their populations.

“The tracing operation is tremendously large and challenging,” he said.

New York state, home to both bustling Manhattan and hilly woods and farmland that stretch hundreds of miles north to the Canadian border, has been the global epicenter of the pandemic, but rural areas have not been nearly as badly affected as New York City, the country’s biggest city at roughly 8.4 million people.

Driven by the impact in New York City, the state has accounted for more than one-third of the nearly 80,000 American who have died from COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, according to a Reuters tally.

Statewide, the outbreak is ebbing, with coronavirus hospitalizations falling to 6,220, more than a third of the level at the peak one month ago, state data showed.

In the five regions where restrictions were eased on Friday, in central and upstate New York, construction and manufacturing work was allowed to resume, and retail businesses offering curbside pickup or in-store pickup for orders placed ahead were allowed to reopen. A broader pause on activity in New York City and elsewhere was extended until at least May 28.

New York, along with the nearby states of New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, will partially reopen beaches for the Memorial Day holiday weekend on May 23-25, Cuomo has said.

Cuomo warned that with an increase in economic activity, New Yorkers should expect an increase in coronavirus cases.

“We don’t want to see a spike,” he said. “It depends on how people react and it depends on their personal behavior.” (AP)

 

Colluding With Terror-Affiliated NGOs, ICC Becomes ‘Tool of War’ Against Israel

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By: Israel Kasnett

International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda is in the hot seat. In response to reports that her office is collaborating with anti-Israel NGOs affiliated with terror groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, she tweeted, “Misinformation and smear campaigns do not change facts about the conduct of my Office’s work concerning the situation in Palestine.”

As she is currently focused on bringing false charges of war crimes against Israel, Bensouda believes that the ICC should be able to adjudicate the case, calling the accusation that she is collaborating with terror-affiliated NGOs as “misled and unfounded.” However, a recent report published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA), argues that the ICC is another tool being used by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Palestinian Authority to delegitimize Israel.

According to Dan Diker, one of the authors of the JCPA report titled, “Legal Assault: How the ICC Has Been Weaponized Against the U.S. and Israel,” the case against Israel at the ICC “is a successful continuation of the PLO-PA strategy of assaulting Israel in the international community.”

“What we decided to do here [in the report] is to expose the criminal terrorist-affiliated illegitimacy not only of the court but also of the complainants,” he told JNS. “It is one thing to fight against the court’s lack of credibility, but it is another thing to fight against a court that is cooperating with terror affiliates.”

“This is a strategic platform for the Palestinian leadership,” he added. “And it was a strategic decision by the Palestinian leadership and the affiliated NGOs.”

Diker, a fellow at the JCPA, was referring to anti-Israel NGOs Al-Haq, Al-Dameer, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, all of which he says maintain strong ties to the designated terror organizations Hamas and the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), and all of which have been working closely with the ICC to drag Israel to court over false accusations of alleged war crimes.

Bensouda decided in December 2019 that “war crimes have been or are being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.”

In April, she submitted a report in which she decided that “Palestine” can be considered a state over which she has jurisdiction.

 

The problem, according to Diker, is that her decision “makes a mockery of the whole concept of international law by violating the Rome Statute, which bases its legitimacy on complementarity.”

The ICC can claim jurisdiction when countries fail to exercise legal proceedings, including where they purport to act, but in reality, are unwilling or unable to do so.

Since Israel does have the capacity to hold its soldiers accountable and has a well-documented history of self-examination, Diker says the ICC does not have any jurisdiction to determine whether Israel’s actions since 2014 in the “West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip,” as the ICC describes it, constitute a war crime.

Since the ICC is not acting according to the Rome Statute, according to Diker, the ICC has turned into a political warfare organization.

“Many people miss this point,” he said.

No one is denying the accusations’

Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior intelligence and security expert, and a fellow at the JCPA where he is co-author with Diker on the report, called Bensouda’s recent April report in which she claimed to have legal jurisdiction over the question of Israel and the Palestinians “distorted.”

According to Kuperwasser, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) is in cahoots with the ICC; they even acknowledge it. In addition, Bensouda paid a visit to their headquarters a few years ago, all while knowing of their terror affiliation.

“They have very close relations, and while they were upset about our report, no one is denying the accusations,” noted Kuperwasser.

For Kuperwasser, their silence means acquiescence.

In their report, Kuperwasser and Diker highlight the close ties between the people working with the ICC and the terror groups with which they are affiliated. They note that not only are Al-Haq, PCHR and Al Mezan members of FIDH, but Al-Haq’s director, Shawan Jabarin, is the secretary general of FIDH.

Moreover, they note, Raji Sourani, the general director of PCHR, is the former vice president of FIDH. Notably, Nada Kiswanson van Hooydonk was the head of Al-Haq’s office in The Hague, and Katherine Gallagher was part of the delegation that submitted the Palestinian NGOs’ opinion to the ICC prosecutor.

For this reason, Bensouda’s tweet that her office is executing its mandate with “utmost professionalism, independence and objectivity in strict conformity with the Rome Statute” has led some to question the ICC’s, as well as Bensouda’s, credibility.

Questions over ICC’s ‘objectivity and intent’

Maurice Hirsch and Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch note that the overlapping connections between the Palestinian NGOs and terror groups, and between Bensouda and FIDH, raise serious questions about the court’s objectivity and intent.

What Hirsch, Marcus, Kuperwasser and Diker are all saying is that the ICC is placing the cart before the horse. Not only has it already deemed Israel guilty of alleged war crimes, it has recognized the non-existent state of Palestine as well—all while colluding with terror-affiliated NGOs.

According to Diker, this ICC decision “is another shot across Israel’s bow to isolate Israel.”

“There is nothing legal about what the ICC is doing,” he added. “The Palestinians are an illegitimate player to the ICC and do not satisfy any of the requirements of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on sovereignty.”

Diker said that Bensouda is not acting like a professional prosecutor, but rather like “a political actress.”

“The ICC has proven it is just as biased and slanted as the United Nations,” he added.

The ICC “has become a weapon of the Palestinian leadership and these four NGOs. This is their strategy to assault and isolate Israel.”

Diker emphasized the importance of exposing the terrorist affiliations of the court, which is demonstrating “extraordinary readiness to legitimize complainants who have been proven to be affiliates of terror organizations designated [as such] by the European Union and the U.S. State Department.”

“The ICC [in this case] is an extension of the Palestinian leadership political-warfare strategy,” he said. “It is a tool of war. Period.” (JNS.org)

 

Massive Explosion at LA Marijuana Distributor Leaves Multiple Bldgs Burning; 11 Firefighters Injured

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By: Stefanie Dazio & Frank Baker

An explosion Saturday at a hash oil manufacturer in downtown Los Angeles injured 11 firefighters who had gone inside and on the roof to try to knock down a fire and then had to run for their lives when a ball of flames shot out the building and scorched a fire truck across the street.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Erik Scott said “one significant explosion” shook the neighborhood around 6:30 p.m. Firefighters inside had to run through a wall of flames he estimated as 30 feet high and wide, and those on the roof scrambled down a ladder that was engulfed in fire.

Scott said people at the scene described the explosion as sounding like a freight train or jet engine. Some of the fleeing firefighters were on fire and tore off their protective equipment and left it on the sidewalk, along with melted helmets, Scott said.

“The was one of the worst scenes I’ve seen,” he said.

All 11 firefighters suffered burns ranging from minor to serious. Three were listed as critical condition, and two of them were on ventilators. All were expected to survive.

“The good news is everybody’s going to make it,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference outside the Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center where all the injured were treated.

“Things could have been so much worse,” said Los Angeles Fire Department Medical Director Dr. Marc Eckstein, who works at the hospital and helped treat the injured.

Firefighters were called to 327 East Boyd St. in the city’s Toy District for a report of a fire at a one-story commercial building. There was light to moderate smoke when firefighters entered the building and went on the roof, normal procedures to try to quickly knock down any flames.

Los Angeles Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas said one of the firefighters inside the building thought things didn’t seem right — the pressure from the smoke and heat coming from the rear of the building were increasing. He directed everyone to get out, and as they quickly started exiting the building as it was rocked by the explosion.

Firefighters on the roof scrambled down ladders with their protective coats on fire. The wall of flames shot out the building and burned seats inside a fire truck across the street.

More than 200 firefighters rushed to the scene, and dozens of engines, trucks and rescue vehicles clogged the streets. The fire spread to several nearby buildings, but firefighters were able to douse it in about an hour.

The injured firefighters were rushed to the hospital. Those who remained at the scene, unaware of the seriousness of their colleagues’ injuries, were traumatized by what had transpired, Terrazas said.

“You can imagine the amount of emotional stress,” he said.

Scott said the building was a warehouse for SmokeTokes, which he described as a maker of “butane honey oil.” Butane is an odorless gas that easily ignites, and it’s used in the process to extract the high-inducing chemical THC from cannabis to create a highly potent concentrate also known as hash oil. The oil is used in vape pens, edibles, waxes and other products.

On its website, SmokeTokes advertises a variety of products including “puff bars,” pipes, “dab” tools, vaporizers, “torches and butane,” and cartridges. The company says it is “an international distributor and wholesaler of smoking and vaping products, and related accessories.” Founded in 2009, it offers “discounts to loyal customers, fast shipping, a huge catalog of products and customer service that is untouched.”

The cause of the fire was under investigation. (AP)

 

Chinese Ambassador to Israel Found Dead in Herzliya Home

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(WIN) China’s Ambassador to Israel Du Yuming was found dead in his Herzliya home on Sunday morning, Israel’s Foreign Ministry confirmed.

The Chinese Embassy said it couldn’t yet confirm the reports. Police are investigating.

Duming, 58, took up the position of ambassador to Israel in January. He previously served as Chinese ambassador to Ukraine.

In February, as the coronavirus health crisis first took hold, Yuming made headlines for comparing the way that Chinese were being turned away at borders to the way Jews were turned away from safe haven during the Holocaust.

“Millions of Jewish were killed, and many, many Jewish were refused when they tried to seek assistance from other countries. Only very, very few countries opened their door, and among them is China,” he said.

The Chinese Embassy later apologized for the remarks. “There was no intention whatsoever to compare the dark days of the Holocaust with the current situation and the efforts taken by the Israeli government to protect its citizens. We would like to apologize if someone understood our message the wrong way,” the embassy said.

In another development,  China appears to be threatening sanctions against several Republican politicians over their moves to pass legislation against the communist country related to the coronavirus pandemic, FOX News reported Friday.

An article carried in the state-controlled Global Times newspaper said China is “extremely dissatisfied with the abuse of litigation … and is considering punitive countermeasures against U.S. individuals, entities and state officials such as Missouri’s Attorney General Eric Schmitt.”

“U.S. malicious rhetoric picking quarrels will feel China response,” the headline of the editorial said.

“The U.S. has continuously incited its allies to join in its crusade against China. This is causing negative impacts to China’s international image and damaging peaceful relations between China and other countries,” the editorial continued. “China has to fight back, as some US politicians show no sign of stopping to fabricate nasty rumors while continuing their gangster-like and cruel tactics to pressure China. If this madness continues, more countries are likely to join the shameless US blame game.”

Several lawmakers on Capitol Hill introduced bills that would allow Americans to sue China. They include Republican senators Josh Hawley of Missouri, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Dan Crenshaw from Texas and Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey.

The Global Times article also referred to lawsuits already brought Schmitt and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch seeking damages for deaths in their states caused by the coronavirus that originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

“China won’t just strike back symbolically, but will impose countermeasures that will make them feel painful,” the paper said.

Schmitt’s office told U.S. News it is undeterred by China’s threats, saying they sued China “on behalf of the thousands of Missourians who have been sickened and lost their jobs, the hundreds of Missourians who have died, and those who have been separated from loved ones due to COVID-19. We stand by our lawsuit.”

Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn urged colleagues not to meet with Chinese companies and to “exercise caution” when meeting Chinese government officials, The Hill reported.

“Chinese Communist Party officials and Chinese entities should be shunned in the halls of Congress,” Blackburn wrote. “Please join me in warning Beijing that any Chinese agent of repression, even those dressed in business suits to disguise the green Maoist uniforms that they support, are not welcome to step foot in our offices or to lobby our staff.”

Blackburn’s comments came amid the high tension between President Trump and Beijing after the U.S. president called the pandemic the “China virus” and accused the Chinese of not being transparent about the origins of the pandemic. (World Israel News)

read more at: worldisraelnews.com

 

Vast Int’l Fraud Ring Targets U.S. Unemployment Benefits; Millions Stolen

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by TJV News

Seems like Nigeria has reached a new low when it comes to perpetuating fraud schemes. During these difficult times when the Coronavirus has taken tens of thousands of lives here in the US and over 30 million people find themselves unemployed due to the national lockdown, a fraud ring emanating from the African country has stolen millions in unemployment benefits for Americans who have lost their jobs, according to a NY Post report.

The NY Times reported that the complex and widespread theft scheme used stolen identity data from citizens, including social security numbers, to file false claims on behalf of workers who may not even have lost their jobs.

The paper of record obtained a memorandum from the Secret Service that claims that authorities who are investigating the matter believe that most of the fraudulent claims have been filed in Washington state but evidence that was gathered suggests that similar attacks have occurred in Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Wyoming.

At Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash., over 400 out of the roughly 2,500-staff have been targeted with fraudulent claims, the university’s spokesman told the Times.

“This is a gut punch,” Suzi LeVine, the commissioner of Washington State’s Employment Security Department, told the newspaper.

Currently, 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits after losing their jobs when the entire nation and most businesses went on lockdown.

“This is a very protracted, painful situation for the labor market,” said Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, “and I just don’t see anything positive.”

CNBC reported that  In response to these claims, states have paid a record $48 billion in unemployment benefits to people out of work but several recent studies have found that this total could have been much higher.

According to an analysis by One Fair Wage, a nonprofit organization that advocates for restaurant workers, only 56% of those who have applied for unemployment insurance are receiving benefits, meaning about 44% have been denied or are still waiting.

The Post reported that the ring could end up stealing “hundreds of millions of dollars” from state unemployment departments.

Roy Dotson, a special agent at the Secret Service, told The Times that investigators were still trying to confirm who was behind the attacks and where exactly they are operating. ”We are actively running down every lead we are getting,” Dotson said.

The Times reported that Mr. Dotson said it appeared the fraud was being aided by a substantial number of “mules” — people, often in the United States, who are used as intermediaries for money laundering after making connections with fraudsters online. He warned people to be wary of quick-money job offers or other suspicious financial arrangements.

The Secret Service warned that every state was vulnerable and could be targeted, noting that the attackers appeared to have extensive records of personally identifiable information, or P.I.I, as was reported by the Times. “It is assumed the fraud ring behind this possess a substantial P.I.I. database to submit the volume of applications observed thus far,” the memo said.

Signs of fraud have reportedly flashed across the country.

Rhode Islands’ labor department has noticed suspicious claims, the Times found.

And confused workers and business owners in Washington state have flooded officials there with calls about unemployment notifications that were sent to them even though they hadn’t made claims.

Report: Tomb of Mordechai & Esther Torched in Iran; Conference of Presidents Calls it ‘Blatantly Anti-Semitic Assault’

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National Director of Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Jonathan Greenblatt announced Friday on Twitter that the tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Iran was torched, according to a JPost report.

“Disturbing reports from Iran that the tomb of Esther & Mordechai, a holy Jewish site, was set afire overnight. We hope that the authorities bring the perpetrators of this antisemitic act to justice & commit to protecting the holy sites of all religious minorities in Iran,” Greenblatt tweeted.

According to a JPost report, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on Saturday that a suspect sought to enter the tomb. Radio Farda, the US government-funded news outlet that reports on Iran, wrote that IRNA “confirmed that there had been an attempt to break into the tomb of Esther and Mordechai, a holy Jewish site in Hamedan, but removed the report from its website two hours after its publication.”

The JPost reported that the Iranian American Jewish Federation of New York and Los Angeles, and the members of the Iranian Jewish community in the United States said in a statement that they “are shocked and truly saddened by the news of fire in the ancient and official Iranian Heritage Site, the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamedan.”

The statement continued that “We hereby ask the responsible members of the government of Islamic Republic of Iran to apprehend the perpetrators and bring them to justice for this barbaric act of insult to this holy site and take steps to protect other sites of religious and historic significance.”

Also issuing a statement about the destruction of the famous tomb was the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which is based in New York.

Arthur Stark, Chairman, William Daroff, CEO, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice Chair of the Conference said:

“This abhorrent and unconscionable act represents not only a blatantly anti-Semitic assault on Jews and Judaism, but an assault on all people of faith. It must be unequivocally condemned by the international community. The government of Iran must act to prevent further attacks and bring to justice those responsible.”

“As Chair of Muslims Against Anti Semitism, I unequivocally condemn such barbaric acts by the Tehran regime. The international community must immediately move to investigate & hold the regime responsible for any damage that may happen to the site of the Tzadikkim,” prominent human rights activist, Ghanem Nuseibeh, tweeted.

Karmel Melamed, an Iranian-American expert on the Jewish community in the Islamic Republic of Iran, tweeted: “My sources who have contacts with Iran’s Jewish community have confirmed that there was an ‘attempt’ to burn the synagogue at the Tomb. Some smoke damage but the fire was minimal. No arrests of suspects have been made yet by Ayatollah regime.”  (JPost)