Prosecuting attorneys in Los Angeles said they are looking at eight separate cases in which the one-time movie producer stands accused of sexual assault. Christopher Polk/Getty Images
It’s a new year, but the old scandals continue to drag through the courts. Case in point: the ongoing drama surrounding Harvey Weinstein.
By: Richard Freitag
Prosecuting attorneys in Los Angeles said they are looking at eight separate cases in which the one-time movie producer stands accused of sexual assault.
Police officials in both Los Angeles and Beverly Hills have each sent findings to prosecutors, said Ricardo Santiago, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
It will be up those prosecutors to decide whether or not to go forward with their planned court actions. According to Santiago, no charges have yet been filed. Details about the cases were not made public; neither were dates when they were presented to officials.
Juda Engelmayer, a publicist for Weinstein, said he had “nothing to add right now” in an email to The Associated Press.
“District Attorney Jackie Lacey created a task force more than two years ago to handle the surge in sexual misconduct allegations against entertainment figures after the accusations against Weinstein launched the #MeToo movement. He has denied allegations of nonconsensual sex,” according to startribune.com. “No charges have been filed against 22 men — including Weinstein, actor Kevin Spacey, director James Toback and former CBS CEO Leslie Moonves — who were the focus of the task force’s investigations. All of them have denied wrongdoing.”
The list of women, now numbering in the dozens, accusing Weinstein includes actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Lupita Nyong’o and Ashley Judd, have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment. Others, such as Asia Argento and Rose McGowan have accused Weinstein of rape.
The disgraced producer is set to stand trial Jan. 6 in New York on charges he raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006. He has pleaded not guilty and says any sexual activity was consensual.
“A tentative global settlement reached this month would split $25 million among more than two dozen of Weinstein’s accusers. The deal wouldn’t require him to pay anything out of his own pocket and he wouldn’t have to admit wrongdoing,” startribune.com added.
Sought or not, the case continues to provide actresses with publicity. The Hollywood Reporter just ran a feature on actress Katherine Kendall. It tells the story of how the last time she saw Harvey Weinstein “was at a party after the 2010 premiere of The King’s Speech that she attended with a friend. “I turned a corner and there he was,” says Kendall, best known for 1996’s Swingers. “I felt my knees buckle and I wanted to leave immediately.”
And the chase is on! Carlos Ghosn, the one-time head of the Nissan and Renault auto enterprise, was awaiting trial on alleged financial shenanigans. Then he was gone – and has popped up in Lebanon. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
And the chase is on! Carlos Ghosn, the one-time head of the Nissan and Renault auto enterprise, was awaiting trial on alleged financial shenanigans. Then he was gone – and has popped up in Lebanon.
By: Mike Mustiglione
“By the time most of Japan had woken up on Tuesday, he was gone. One of the country’s most famous criminal suspects had slipped past the cameras trained on his house, past the police and border guards and the Japanese citizens who for the past year have followed his every move,” is how The New York Times reported the case, which will almost certainly end up the basis of a Hollywood screenplay.
“I want to ask him, ‘How could you do this to us?’” Mr. Ghosn’s lawyer in Tokyo, Junichiro Hironaka, told a crush of 40 reporters outside his office on Tuesday,” according to the Times. “It was a cinematic escape, carried out just before New Year’s Day, Japan’s most important holiday, when government agencies and most businesses close for as long as a week.”
In Japan, authorities broke into the house in which the fugitive auto executive was staying before he arranged his escape to Lebanon earlier this week, possibly via Turkey.
“Japanese media reported that Tokyo district prosecutors entered the property on Thursday. CNN affiliate TV Asahi also reported that prosecutors were working with police to access CCTV video around his home as part of their investigation.
“Ghosn — the former chairman of Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, and former chairman and CEO of their alliance partner, Renault — had been awaiting trial in Japan on charges of financial wrongdoing, including allegations that he understated his income for years and funneled $5 million of Nissan’s money to a car dealership he controlled. He was ousted from his posts at Nissan (NSANF) and Mitsubishi Motors following his arrest in November 2018, and later resigned from Renault (RNLSY),” CNN reported.
Ghosn is a Brazilian-born French businessman of Lebanese ancestry. He has served as the CEO of Michelin North America, chairman and CEO of Renault, chairman of AvtoVAZ, chairman and CEO of Nissan, and chairman of Mitsubishi Motors. He was also chairman and CEO of the Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance, a strategic partnership among those automotive manufacturers through a complex cross-shareholding agreement.
In 1996, Renault’s CEO Louis Schweitzer hired Ghosn as his deputy and charged him with the task of turning the company around from near bankruptcy. Ghosn elaborated a plan to cut costs for the period 1998–2000, reducing the workforce, revising production processes, standardizing vehicle parts and pushing the launch of new models.
New York State Governor Andrew paid an unexpected visit to the Orthodox Jewish enclave of Williamsburg with Rabbi David Niederman, the executive director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn. Photo Credit: You Tube
New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo visited an Orthodox Jewish community on New Year’s Day to show solidarity in the wake of a horrifying series – at least 13 — of recent anti-Semitic attacks.
By: Lionel Schwamberg
The governor paid an unexpected visit to one mainly Orthodox community with Rabbi David Niederman, the executive director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn.
“The pair huddled with a group of Jewish men, then took a walk to two local neighborhood shops, Cafe au lee and Sander’s Bakery. Cuomo also announced he will boost the number of state police in all Orthodox communities across New York,” the New York Post reported.
“The relationship with the Orthodox community goes back to my father, when I was a young, young man. So it’s gone on for many decades, our relationship, and it’s very important to me, it was important to my father, it’s important to my whole family and it’s important to the whole family of New York,” Cuomo said. “Everybody feels very upset and disturbed about what happened and everybody stands in solidarity with you.”
Indeed, Cuomo has also issued a joint statement with over 130 faith leaders from across the state condemning anti-Semitism in wake of attack that took place during a Hanukkah celebration in Monsey last night. “”Anti-Semitism, bigotry and hate of any kind are repugnant to our values and will not be tolerated in our state. We condemn this attack and all attacks against members of the Jewish community in New York — an attack against one of us is an attack against all of us. Together we will continue fighting hate and intolerance with love and inclusion,” the statement said.
The statement was accompanied by a long list of faith leaders and groups who are supporting the Governor’s statement includes – from Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York and Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to
Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts, Abyssinian Baptist Church and Steve Gold, Co-President, Jewish Federation and Foundation of Rockland County.
In the most recent outrage, a pair of female attackers yelled “F— you Jew” and “I will kill you Jews” at a Brooklyn man before shoving him to the ground when he tried to film their anti-Semitic screed, according to law enforcement sources and witnesses.
“The two African American women approached the 22-year-old Hasidic victim in Broadway Triangle where they began taunting him with anti-Semitic slurs,” a law enforcement source told Fox News. “The first woman began yelling at the victim before the second woman grabbed his cell phone, broke it in half and threw it to the ground,” the source said.
Long-time National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern has died at the age of 77. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Long-time National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern has died at the age of 77.
By: Anastasia Levanskaya
“Without David Stern, the NBA would not be what it is today,” Hall of Famer Michael Jordan said. “He guided the league through turbulent times and grew the league into an international phenomenon, creating opportunities that few could have imagined before.”
“The entire basketball community is heartbroken,” the National Basketball Players Association said. “David Stern earned and deserved inclusion in our land of giants.”
Stern was born in Manhattan to Anna and William Stern, a Jewish family. He grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey, and his father ran a Jewish delicatessen in New York City. Stern grew up a New York Knicks fan, considered Carl Braun his hero, and attended games at Madison Square Garden with his father. He played basketball briefly in adulthood before sustaining a serious right knee injury during a New York Lawyers League game.
After graduating from Teaneck High School in 1959, Stern went to Rutgers University, where was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity and graduated in 1963 with a B.A. in history. He then attended law school at Columbia University, receiving a J.D. in 1966.
Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and founder and Chairman of The RLJ Companies, released a statement in which he said: “The sports world and the NBA lost a visionary business leader and a force for racial participation and opportunity at all levels of the NBA with the untimely passing of David Stern. I was honored, under David’s leadership and encouragement, to become the first African American majority owner of an NBA basketball team, the Charlotte Bobcats. David’s legacy will be that of a one-of-a-kind individual who nurtured and built a sports league that will leave an indelible and giant footprint in the global arena of sports competition and the unifying culture of sports in our lives.”
Current NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said this of Stern: “For 22 years, I had a courtside seat to watch David in action. He was a mentor and one of my dearest friends. We spent countless hours in the office, at arenas and on planes wherever the game would take us. Like every NBA legend, David had extraordinary talents, but with him it was always about the fundamentals – preparation, attention to detail, and hard work. “David took over the NBA in 1984 with the league at a crossroads. But over the course of 30 years as Commissioner, he ushered in the modern global NBA. He launched groundbreaking media and marketing partnerships, digital assets and social responsibility programs that have brought the game to billions of people around the world. Because of David, the NBA is a truly global brand – making him not only one of the greatest sports commissioners of all time but also one of the most influential business leaders of his generation.
“Every member of the NBA family is the beneficiary of David’s vision, generosity and inspiration. Our deepest condolences go out to David’s wife, Dianne, their sons, Andrew and Eric, and their extended family, and we share our grief with everyone whose life was touched by him.”
General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of Iran's Quds Force and the commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was killed Friday morning in a US led airstrike at Baghdad International Airport. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
The Pentagon said on Thursday night that the US had carried out a military strike that resulted in death of the commander of Iran’s Quds Force. Iraqi television and three Iraqi officials confirmed the death of General Qassem Soleimani who was also the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
Edited by: TJV News
AP reported that two militia leaders loyal to Iran also confirmed the deaths, including an official with the Kataeb Hezbollah, which was involved in the attack on the U.S. embassy this week.
Also killed in the attack at Baghdad International Airport early Friday was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the deputy head of the Iran-backed Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).
A security official confirmed that seven people were killed in the attack on the airport, describing it as an airstrike, according to the AP report, Earlier, Iraq’s Security Media Cell, which releases information regarding Iraqi security, said Katyusha rockets landed near the airport’s cargo hall, killing several people and setting two cars on fire.
CNN reported that President Trump ordered the strike which was aimed at “deterring future Iranian attack plans.”
In a statement, the Pentagon said the US had taken “decisive defensive action to protect US personnel abroad” by killing Soleimani, who heads what the US describes as a foreign terrorist organization.
“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” the statement said. “The United States will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world.”
According to the Pentagon, Soleimani was “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region.”
CNN reported that Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members, and the wounding of thousands more, the Pentagon added. The Pentagon also blamed Soleimani for orchestrating attacks on coalition bases in Iraq in recent months, including an attack on December 27 that culminated in the deaths of additional American and Iraqi personnel, as was reported by CNN.
AP reported that the attack came amid tensions with the United States after a New Year’s Eve attack by Iran-backed militias on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The two-day embassy attack which ended Wednesday prompted President Trump to order about 750 U.S. soldiers deployed to the Middle East.
AP reported that their deaths are a potential turning point in the Middle East and are expected to draw severe retaliation from Iran and the forces it backs in the Middle East against Israel and American interests. The PMF blamed the United States for the attack.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said al-Muhandis had arrived to the airport in a convoy to receive Soleimani whose plane had arrived from either Lebanon or Syria, as was reported by the AP. The airstrike occurred as soon as he descended from the plane to be greeted by al-Muhandis and his companions, killing them all.
The PMF was created in 2014 to fight ISIS. CNN reported that it is a Shia paramilitary force made up of former militias with close ties to Iran. It was recognized under a 2016 Iraqi law as an independent military force that answers directly to the prime minister, according to the CNN report.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday that “the game has changed.” He told reporters that violent acts by Iran-backed Shi’ite militias in Iraq — including the rocket attack on Dec. 27 that killed one American — will be met with U.S. military force.
CNN reported that he said the Iraqi government has fallen short of its obligation to defend its American partner in the attack on the U.S. embassy.
The developments also represent a major downturn in Iraq-U.S. relations that could further undermine U.S. influence in the region, American troops in Iraq and weaken Washington’s hand in its pressure campaign against Iran.
Close to 100,000 members of the Jewish faith gathered on Wednesday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in East Brunswick, New Jersey for the 13th Global Siyum HaShas which is sponsored by the Agudath Israel organization. Photo Credit: CBS News
Close to 100,000 members of the Jewish faith gathered on Wednesday afternoon at MetLife Stadium in East Brunswick, New Jersey for the 13th Global Siyum HaShas which is sponsored by the Agudath Israel organization.
By: Fern Sidman
Siyum HaShas is the celebration of the completion of the Daf Yomi (daily Talmud folio) program, a seven-and-a-half-year cycle of learning the Oral Torah and its commentaries, in which each of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud are covered in sequence.
Similar events have recently been held in major cities around the globe, such as Mexico City, while others are scheduled in the next few weeks, according to a CBS News report.
With such a large gathering of Jews on the heels of numerous anti-Semitic attacks — including a Saturday night attack at a Hanukkah party in Monsey, New York, and the recent Jersey City shootings — security was tight: Parking lots were jammed with traffic, and security lines stretched for miles. Everyone was required to pass through metal detectors, with a K-9 unit on hand to sniff vehicles as well as bags.
Among the prominent rabbinical figures who addressed the throngs of Orthodox Jews who were assembled for the Siyum HaShas were Rabbi Aryeh Malkiel Kotler, shlita, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, shlita, Rabbi Yissocher Frand, shlita, Rabb Chaim Benolier, shlita, Rabbi Nosson Scherman, shlita, Rabbi Aharon Schiff, shlita, Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky, shlita, Mr. Jay Schottenstein, Rabbi Aharon Feldman, Rabbi Uren Reich, shlita, Chazan Yizchak Meir Helfgot, Rabbi Shlomo Gertzulin, (who davened for the omed at mincha) and Rabbi Eliezer Ginsburg, shlita.
Daf Yomi can be studied alone, with a chavrusa (study partner), in a daily shiur (class) led by a rabbi or teacher, via a telephone shiur, CD-ROM, or audio and online resources. Typically, Daf Yomi shiurim are held in synagogues, yeshivas, and offices. They also take place in Wall Street board rooms, and on the Long Island Railroad, in the last car of two commuter trains departing Far Rockaway at 7:51 am and 8:15 am, respectively, for Manhattan.
Daf Yomi shiurim have been piped into the in-flight sound system of El Al flights. A typical Daf Yomi shiur lasts one hour. Participants study the text together with the commentary of Rashi.
The Schottenstein Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, an English-language translation and interpretation published in 73 volumes between 1990 and 2004 by ArtScroll, has been credited with significantly increasing the number of English-language participants in the Daf Yomi program.
The Schottenstein Talmud has also been translated into Hebrew. Additional resources to assist those endeavoring to complete the cycle for the first time are audiotapes, online websites, and iPods preloaded with lectures covering every page of the Talmud. The Daf Yomi Advancement Forum, founded by Kollel Iyun Hadaf in 1996, is a free resource center offering English-language translations, outlines, charts, analyses and lectures on every daf, as well as answers to any question by email. Meoros HaDaf HaYomi, founded in 1999, disseminates a weekly Daf Yomi study sheet in both Hebrew and English available by email and regular mail. It has recorded shiurim on the daf on CD-ROM in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, and French.
The first Daf Yomi cycle began on the first day of Rosh Hashanah 5684 (September 11, 1923); the twelfth cycle concluded on August 2, 2012 and the next day began the thirteenth cycle, to be concluded on January 4, 2020. The Siyum HaShas marks both the end of the previous cycle and the beginning of the next and is characterized by inspiring speeches and rousing singing and dancing.
Early Siyum HaShas celebrations also took place in December 2019 in Melbourne and Vienna.
For Jews for whom Torah study is an essential part of their lives, the publicity and excitement surrounding the Siyum HaShas has resulted in more participants, more Daf Yomi shiurim (lessons), and more Siyum locations with each cycle. Since 1990, attendance at the main Siyum HaShas in America, organized by the Agudath Israel of America, has increased dramatically, necessitating the booking of larger arenas and stadiums.
The 12th Siyum HaShas on August 1, 2012 took place in MetLife Stadium in New Jersey was the most monumental event in recent Jewish history. It impacted, inspired and uplifted over 120,000 participants across 80 cities and 18 countries.
The special moments and experiences of the last Siyum HaShas left a lifelong imprint on the collective memory of generations of Klal Yisroel. Other celebrations that took place in the United States, Israel, Canada, Europe, and Australia in 2012 attracted hundreds of thousands.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday decided to extend the tenure of Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon until May 2020, Hebrew media reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday decided to extend the tenure of Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon until May 2020, Hebrew media reported.
Edited by: TJVNews.com
The decision was made just hours before the ambassador’s term was to expire Tuesday night, according to an i24 News report.
Earlier, reports suggested that Netanyahu decided not to extend Danon’s term, after he had already extended it by six months in the summer of 2019.
The Times of Israel reported that the UN posting is often seen as a mission impossible job in a hostile environment, where Israel is constantly attacked diplomatically. The job was held by Netanyahu from 1984 to 1988, before he was elected to the Knesset that year and later becoming prime minister in 1996.
Hebrew-language broadcaster Channel 12 reported that Danon was to be replaced by Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Noa Furman until a permanent appointment was made, as was reported by i24 News.
Netanyahu is leading an interim government and therefore asked Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit if he could make a permanent appointment — but the latter has yet to give him an answer, according to the i24 News report.
The Times of Israel reported that the latest extensions come amid Israel’s ongoing political deadlock, with the country lacking a fully functioning government since the first of three rounds of elections was called over a year ago. The upcoming elections will be held March 2.
There currently are no Israeli ambassadors to Russia, Canada and Egypt, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan was deemed as a leading candidate for the role but according to the Jerusalem Post refused to embrace the offer after previously rejecting the role during the summer as well.
Lawmaker and Likud member Ofir Akunis, on the other hand, made it clear that he’d be willing to take the reins if offered to him, Channel 12 reported. “If I receive an offer, I will consider it positively,” he said.
Eventually, the Israeli premier decided to keep the current ambassador to the UN at his place.
Danon holds a B.A. in International Relations, F.I.U. (Magna Cum Laude), an M.A. Public Policy and Public Administration from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and also studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Law School. He is married and the father of three.
He served among others as Chairman of World Likud, Member of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors, Member of the Zionist Executive of W.Z.O. and Chairman of the World Betar Executive.
Danny Danon was a Member of Knesset from February 2009 until August 2015. He served as Deputy Speaker of the 18th Knesset, as Chair of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and among others as a member of the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, House, Constitution, Law and Justice, Foreign Affairs and Defense, Education, Culture, and Sports Committee, and Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs, as well as on the Committee on the Status of Women and Gender Equality and the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
For the first time since 2016, New York City’s annual homicide total has surpassed 300. The spike in violence has been propelled by gang violence, two quadruple killings, and an oddly high number of bookkeeping readjustments. Photo Credit: Drew Angerer-Getty Images
For the first time since 2016, New York City’s annual homicide total has surpassed 300. The spike in violence has been propelled by gang violence, two quadruple killings, and an oddly high number of bookkeeping readjustments.
By Hellen Zaboulani
Through Dec. 22, the city counted 311 homicides, compared with 290 through the same time period last year. This is the second straight year of higher homicides, following NYC’s attained modern-era low of 292 homicides in 2017. However, this year’s total is partially skewed by an irregular number of deaths left over from years past and accounted for only now.
As reported by VIN News, this year’s figures include 27 deaths from before 2019, which were not classified as homicides by the city’s medical examiner until this year. The police department said that those case need to be counted in the statistics for the year the death certificate is issued. In last year’s statistics there were less than half as many reclassifications.
Through the end of November, New York City tallied 272 homicides involving people killed this year, Deputy Chief Lori Pollock said. At the same time last year, there were 275. “We don’t like to talk about it because it’s fairly consistent through the years, but this one happens to be — it hasn’t happened since 2006 where you had this many classifications over the year before,” Pollock said.
Criminologist David Kennedy said this year’s increase in New York’s homicide total shouldn’t be cause for alarm, rather it is a regular fluctuation. “Most of that change itself can be accounted for by a couple of standout incidents,” said Kennedy, a professor of criminal justice at John Jay College. “This is well within the absolutely expected fluctuation of what happens with violent crime rates.”
New York finished last year with 295 homicides, down from 335 in 2016. The tallies for recent years indicate a major victory for NYC and are drastically lower than they were in the early 1990s, when the city averaged a chilling 2,000 killings annually.
New York, the largest city in the country, with roughly 8.6 million residents, now has a homicide rate of about 3.6 per 100,000. Statistically, it means the Big Apple is impressively less deadly than some other big cities. Philadelphia for instance, which has approximately 1.6 million residents, had 351 homicides as of Friday, for a rate of about 22 per 100,000 residents. Chicago, which has about 2.7 million residents, had 482 killings this year, for a rate of about 17.8 per 100,000.
Halfway into this year, New York was set for its lowest annual homicide total since 1951, however in the second half of the year a series of killings raised the total. In October, a homeless man allegedly fatally beat four men with a metal pipe as they slept on the Manhattan streets. Days later, four people were killed at a Brooklyn gambling den.
The city’s homicide spike can be attributed to just a few neighborhoods, as per VIN News. In the Crown Heights precinct, where the gambling den was located, there have been 14 killings this year up from just two a year ago. Those included at least six other fatal shootings and several deadly assaults. In Queens, a precinct covering parts of Jamaica, St. Albans and Hollis has seen a three-times increase in homicides over last year, where killings jumped from five to 15. The Brooklyn precinct covering Coney Island and Brighton Beach had six killings this year after posting none last year. A precinct in the Bronx neighborhood, east of Yankee Stadium, doubled its year-over-year tally from six to 12. “We continue to see a high percentage committed by gangs and gang involvement,” police commissioner Dermot Shea said at a crime briefing this month.
Across NYC, other non-fatal crime categories, such as shootings, robberies and felony assaults, have also trended slightly higher this year. Some fear that the upward tick will escalate, as the bail reform keeping criminals out of jail will begin on Jan. 1st.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he will ask the Knesset to grant him immunity from corruption charges, a step that is expected to delay his trial for months because the parliament cannot issue a decision until a new government is formed. Photo Credit: Flash 90
The incumbent announced on Wednesday he will ask for immunity from the Israeli parliament, a request the Knesset will likely not rule on until after a governing coalition is formed following March elections.
By: WIN Staff
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he will ask the Knesset to grant him immunity from corruption charges, a step that is expected to delay his trial for months because the parliament cannot issue a decision until a new government is formed.
Netanyahu’s announcement means that any trial would be put on hold until after elections in March, when he hopes to win a majority coalition that would rule favorably on the immunity request, shielding him from prosecution.
For all intents and purposes, the request in and of itself means that parliament won’t address the matter until after March elections, because the current caretaker government is not empowered to make a decision on granting Netanyahu immunity.
In order to debate the matter, the caretaker parliament would have to appoint a special committee to study the request, which is highly unlikely without a functioning coalition.
Netanyahu was indicted in November on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.
The past two rounds of elections in Israel have failed to produce a government, as neither Netanyahu nor his rivals in the Blue and White party have been able to assemble a majority coalition.
Netanyahu now will take a third shot at holding onto office in March.
In the nationally televised address in which Netanyahu announced he will seek immunity, the incumbent repeated his assertion that he is the victim of an unfair conspiracy and that he seeks to invoke a law that would protect him from prosecution while he remains in office.
“In order to continue to lead Israel to great achievements, I intend to approach the speaker of the Knesset in accordance with chapter 4C of the law, in order to fulfill my right, my duty and my mission to continue to serve you for the future of Israel,” he said.
According to a report in the Guardian of the UK, the opposition Blue and White party said it would seek to form the house committee before the March election to take up the question of immunity. But it remains unclear whether it will be able to move forward. The parliament Speaker, Yuli Edelstein, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, said he would hold talks on the matter next week.
The Blue and White leader, the former military chief Benny Gantz, said it was a “sad day”. “I never imagined that we would see the day that the prime minister of Israel would avoid standing before the law and the justice system,” he said. “Today it’s clear what we’re fighting for. Netanyahu knows he’s guilty.”
The Guardian reported that Netanyahu said he was not evading justice and still planned to go to court to fight what he said were fabricated accusations. “The law is meant to ensure that elected officials can serve the people according to the will of the people,” he said. (WIN)
Two women attacked a Hasidic man in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon, police said, according to WCBS 880 AM. The 22-year-old man was attacked near Gerry Street and Broadway in Williamsburg around 1:00 p.m., the report said. Photo Credit: chabadlubavitch.com
Two women reportedly yelled anti-Semitic epithets at a Hasidic man in Williamsburg and then attacked him when he called 911.
Edited by: TJVNews.com
Two women attacked a Hasidic man in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon, police said, according to WCBS 880 AM.
The 22-year-old man was attacked near Gerry Street and Broadway in Williamsburg around 1:00 p.m., the report said.
The women, ages 24 and 34, yelled anti-Semitic epithets at the man, and when he called 911, they attacked him with his own phone, according to police.
“They took him in, they threw him down to the ground and broke his phone and threw the phone to his head,” witness Moses Weiser told CBS2.
The women were arrested a short time later and are expected to be charged.
The attack is the latest in a series of anti-Semitic assaults in the city and is at least the 12th attack since December 23, according to CBS2.
Former Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who has been following the anti-Semitic attacks closely, tweeted what he said was a photo of the two suspects.
The latest attacks follow the stabbing attack at a Hanukkah party in Monsey, New York on Saturday night.
That attack followed a string of anti-Semitic assaults in New York, including last Friday morning, when three young Jewish women were attacked in Brooklyn.
The victims, aged 22-31, were attacked with anti-Semitic shouts and violence while walking in Crown Heights.
While the suspect was arrested and charged with harassment and committing a hate crime, she was reportedly later freed without bail and committed another assault before being arrested and freed on bail again.
In the wake of the spate of attacks, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will beef up NYPD patrols of Jewish neighborhoods while introducing anti-bias-crime programs in public schools.
The Guardian Angels crime-prevention group said it would start patrolling parts of Brooklyn on Sunday following a string of anti-Semitic attacks in the borough.
Curtis Sliwa, who founded Guardian Angels in New York City in 1979, said patrols would start in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and expand to Williamsburg and Borough Park later in the day.
Hours earlier, on Saturday night, five people were stabbed in an attack at a Hanukkah event in Monsey, N.Y., upstate in Rockland County.
“These attacks are taking place, and the cops have not been proactive at all,” said Sliwa on Saturday. “It comes from City Hall and the mayor. He’s been just apathetic.”
The Guardian Angels first appeared on the New York City scene in the late 1970s when the violent crime rate in the city was literally spiraling out of control. They are a private, unarmed crime-prevention group.
Under the leadership of Brooklyn-born Sliwa, the Guardian Angels ended up patrolling subways, streets and other high-risk public venues. Their conscientious attempts at significantly diminishing the crime rate in New York were quite successful but Sliwa always met with constant opposition from former Mayor Edward I Koch, who dismissed the group as ragtag vigilantes and wanted the NYPD to exclusively deal with criminal matters throughout the city.
When the now infamous Crown Heights riots erupted in the summer of 1991, Sliwa and his Guardian Angels were called upon to keep the peace after yeshiva student Yankel Rosenbaum from Australia was brutally murdered by African American rioters. All of Crown Heights has morphed into a tinderbox of sorts as former Mayor David Dinkins did nothing to quell the riots and for several days the streets of Crown Heights were ablaze in violence. (INN)
A 71-year-old man who was critically injured in Saturday night’s anti-Semitic stabbing attack at the home of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg in Monsey might never fully recover, his family said Tuesday, according to a Fox News report.
Edited by: TJVNews.com
In a statement released by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, he doctors attending to Josef Neumann are not optimistic that he will regain consciousness, his family said. Five people were hospitalized for stab wounds, including Neumann.
Josef Neumann was one of five people hospitalized after a man used a large blade in a stabbing rampage in the Monsey home as hundreds gathered for a Chanukah celebration, according to the Fox News report.
JTA reported that the attacker’s knife penetrated Neumann’s skull and cut into his brain, according to the statement. Because of his condition, doctors have not been able to operate on his shattered right arm.
“Our father’s status is so dire that no surgery as yet been performed on his arm,” the family said.
Even if Neumann does recover partially, “doctors expect that he will have permanent damage to the brain; leaving him partially paralyzed and speech-impaired for the rest of his life,” according to the statement.
“We urge fellow Jews across the United States and around the globe to please share on social media their own experiences with anti-Semitism and add the hashtag #MeJew,” the family said. “We shall not let this terrible hate-driven attack be forgotten, and let us all work to eradicate all sorts of hate.”
Fox News reported that the family said Neumann has seven children, many grandchildren, a great-grandchild, as well as brothers and sisters.
At the home of suspected attacker Grafton Thomas, police has discovered handwritten journals expressing anti-Semitic views, including references to Adolf Hitler and “Nazi culture,” and drawings of a Star of David and a swastika. Police said that the suspect had used his phone to look up information about Hitler, hatred of Jews, and the location of nearby synagogues, according to the JTA report.
Federal authorities have indicted Thomas on hate crime charges this past Monday, just a day after he pleaded not guilty to attempted murder charges filed locally.
Thomas’ family and attorney said this week that the Orange County man, who lives with his mother, has a “long history of mental illness,” and that he had no history of similar violent acts and no prior convictions.
In a related development, CNN reported that Rabbi Shmuel Gancz said that one of the survivors of the stabbing attack was hit in the side of the head by the suspect’s machete and doctors had to use three staples to close his wounds.
Shloime Rottenberg, the son of Rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, had just finished the ceremony of lighting the menorah at his father’s upstate New York home when the attack started, Gancz said.
“They are grateful for what they deem a minor injury considering where else the machete could have hit him, such as his eyes,” Gancz said of Rottenberg and his family.
Controversial real estate tycoon Robert Durst is back in the news. According to his attorney, Durst is the author of the anonymous note that alerted police to the location of the body of a close friend he is accused of killing almost 20 years ago, according to a CBS News report. Photo Credit: Getty Images
Edited by: TJV News
Controversial real estate tycoon Robert Durst is back in the news. According to his attorney, Durst is the author of the anonymous note that alerted police to the location of the body of a close friend he is accused of killing almost 20 years ago, according to a CBS News report.
Next month, Durst, 76, is scheduled to stand trial for the murder of Susan Berman on December 23, 2000 at her Beverly Hills home. Durst has pleaded not guilty to the alleged shooting, as was reported by CBS News.
Prosecutors charge that Durst killed his friend to prevent her from meeting with Westchester County officials who had re-opened an investigation into the suspected murder of Kathie Durst. After Kathie Durst mysteriously disappeared, Berman served as Durst’s unofficial spokeswoman but to her friends she related that Durst had acknowledged murdering his wife and said that she helped cover his tracks.
In addition to confirming that Durst did indeed write the note in question, his attorneys continue to maintain his innocence.
CBS reported that in 2018, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge ruled admissible statements Berman made about allegedly helping Durst build an alibi for the death of his wife, according to prosecutors.
Durst has gone on record on numerous occasions saying that he was not culpable in his wife’s disappearance. CBS reported that she was declared legally dead in 2017. Her body has never been found and no one has been charged in that case.
Durst participated in an HBO documentary about the case several years ago. Later, Durst admitted that his participation in the documentary was “stupid” which seemed to have implicated him. “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Hurst,” is what landed him in jail in 2015. The documentary not only included the death of his wife but also that of a neighbor in Texas, Morris Black. In 2001, a jury found that he acted in self-defense in his killing of Black. One day before the finale of the HBO documentary, Durst was arrested in New Orleans while allegedly trying to escape to Cuba.
Durst has been held without bail since his arrest in 2015. He’s had some health issue including hydrocephalus, or otherwise known as “water on the brain.”
In a court filing in Los Angeles last week, Durst’s attorney Dick DeGuerin acknowledged that the real estate magnate penned an anonymous note leading police to Berman’s home, where his longtime friend’s body was found, as was reported by CBS.
“I can confirm the stipulations in the filing are true,” said DeGuerin, referring to the joint filing by prosecutors and defense lawyers of stipulations agreed to by both sides before trial.
“This does not change the fact that Bob Durst did not kill Susan Berman and he does not know who did.”
In the filing, made on Christmas Eve and first reported by The New York Times, Durst’s attorneys said their client authored a cryptic note with Berman’s address and the word “cadaver” — which led police to her body.
Durst would face life in prison without parole if convicted of murder with special circumstances of witness killing and lying in wait. There is also an accusation that he personally used a handgun to carry out the murder.
The Pentagon is immediately sending 750 more troops to the Middle East after pro-Iranian protesters tried to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.
Edited by: TJVNews.com
The Pentagon is immediately sending 750 more troops to the Middle East after pro-Iranian protesters tried to storm the U.S. embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday.
“This deployment is an appropriate and precautionary action taken in response to increased threat levels against U.S. personnel and facilities,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said late Tuesday.
Esper said other troops from the rapid response unit of the 82nd Airborne Division are also ready to be deployed over the next several days.
“We rely on host nation forces to assist in the protection of our personnel in country, and we call on the government of Iraq to fulfill its international responsibilities to do so,” Esper said.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. embassy in Baghdad is safe after pro-Iranian protesters breached the outer edge of the compound Tuesday, using battering rams to smash through a steel door at a visitor’s center.
Protesters chanting “Death to America” set fires and burned a security post before Iraqi security forces drove them back with tear gas and stun grenades. The embassy building itself was not entered or damaged.
The State Department says all U.S. personnel are safe and there are no plans to evacuate anyone.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that those “terrorists” orchestrated the attack. He named Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, Qays al-Khazali, Hadi al-Amari, and Faleh al-Fayyad and posted a picture of all four outside the embassy.
Pompeo stressed that the attack “should not be confused with the legitimate efforts of Iraqi protesters who have been in the streets since October, working for the people of Iraq to end the corruption exported there by the Iranian regime.”
The marchers at the embassy were protesting U.S. airstrikes Sunday targeting an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and Syria. Trump says he is holding Iran responsible for any damage or injuries at U.S. facilities. “They will pay a very big price. This is not a warning. It is a threat,” Trump tweeted. He signed off by saying “Happy New Year.” It is unclear to whom his holiday wish was aimed. Such a breach of the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad is highly unusual. Although Trump is blaming Iran, Iraqi media reported that government security forces did not intervene to stop protesters from getting into the area.
U.S. airstrikes Sunday targeted the Iranian-backed Kataeb Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and command centers across Iraq and eastern Syria. At least 25 people were killed and dozens wounded.
U.S. officials say airstrikes were in response to a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base last week that killed a U.S. defense contractor. U.S. officials said the evidence left no doubt Kataeb Hezbollah was responsible. Iraq says the airstrikes were a “flagrant violation” of its sovereignty, as well as of the rules governing the “goals and principles” of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq to fight and defeat the Islamic State terror group.
U.S. officials brushed aside such criticism and instead placed blame on Iraq for allowing Iranian proxies to operate at will inside their country despite 11 such attacks on U.S. and coalition forces in the past two months. “We have warned the Iraqi government many times, and we’ve shared information with them to try to work with them to try to carry out their responsibility to protect us as their invited guests,” a senior U.S. official said. “They have not taken the appropriate steps.”
Kataeb Hezbollah, part of the state-sanctioned militias operating in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), has denied responsibility for the Friday attack that killed the U.S. contractor. But it warned a response would be forthcoming. Since May, the United States has sent an additional 14,000 forces to the Middle East, along with air and missile defense systems and additional reconnaissance capabilities, in response to what officials see as a growing threat from Iran and its proxies. U.S. officials say despite the build-up, the increased threat from Iran has yet to diminish. (VOA News)
Curtis Sliwa, head of the Guardian Angels, a citizen safety group, on a patrol in the Jewish neighborhood of Crown Heights in Brooklyn, New York where ant-Semitic violence has been rampant. Sliwa started the group in 1979 as a response to the out-of-control crime in the New York City subway. The group now has branches in over 130 cities and 13 countries worldwide. Older Jewish residents of Crown Heights remember the Guardian Angels’ presence during the 1991 Crown Heights riots, when the police largely let widespread violence against Jews go unanswered. (Photo: video screenshot)
Curtis Sliwa, who founded Guardian Angels in New York City in 1979, said that patrols would start in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, and expand to Williamsburg and Borough Park.
Edited by: Fern Sidman
A private, volunteer-based and unarmed crime-prevention group said it would start patrolling parts of Brooklyn on Sunday following a string of anti-Semitic attacks in the borough.
Curtis Sliwa, who founded Guardian Angels in New York City in 1979, said patrols would start in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, and expand to Williamsburg and Borough Park later in the day.
Hours earlier, on Saturday night, five people were stabbed in an attack at a Hanukkah event in Monsey, N.Y., upstate in Rockland County.
There has been a total of eight attacks on Jews in Brooklyn since Dec. 13, according to police. On Friday, a woman slapped three females in Brooklyn and told police officers that it was because they were Jewish.
For the second time in three days, a woman in Brooklyn has been freed without bail on a charge of assaulting three females in Brooklyn and told police officers that it was because they were Jewish.
The woman is identified as 30-year-old Tiffany Harris. She was accused of carrying out “a hate crime assault” against the three Jewish women outside Chabad Lubavitch headquarters in Crown Heights. On Sunday, she was arrested for allegedly attacking a 35-year-old woman in Prospect Heights for no apparent reason, according to a WIN report.
“Exasperated prosecutors asked Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge Archana Rao to impose some kind of monitoring on Harris while she awaits trial,” said the Daily News.
“We’re here two days after the defendant was here on another case,” said an assistant district attorney in court after the second arrest, according to the newspaper, adding that “we do think the highest level of supervision available would be appropriate.”
Despite the request, the judge released Harris again without bail, according to the report. Harris was simply warned not to be arrested again while the matter is pending in court, said the Daily News.
World Israel News reported that critics are blaming the de Blasio administration’s new ‘bail reform’ legislation, which calls for freeing suspects that don’t cause physical harm (outside of sexual assaults).
Other incidents involved victims being hit in the face, the head and the back of the head, as well as at least one having a beverage thrown at them, said police.
Sliwa said, “We’re a visual deterrence in our red berets and our red satin jackets. Nobody’s going to commit an attack when we’re around.” If they do, he added, “We’ll physically restrain the persons responsible, make a citizen’s arrest and hold them until the police arrive.”
“These attacks are taking place, and the cops have not been proactive at all,” said Sliwa on Saturday. “It comes from City Hall and the mayor. He’s been just apathetic.”
The Guardian Angels first appeared on the New York City scene in the late 1970s when the violent crime rate in the city was literally spiraling out of control. They are a private, unarmed crime-prevention group.
Under the leadership of Brooklyn-born Curtis Sliwa, the Guardian Angels ended up patrolling subways, streets and other high-risk public venues. Their conscientious attempts at significantly diminishing the crime rate in New York were quite successful but Sliwa always met with constant opposition from former Mayor Edward I Koch, who dismissed the group as ragtag vigilantes and wanted the NYPD to exclusively deal with criminal matters throughout the city.
Known for their red silk jackets that bear their Guardian Angels logo on the back and their bright red berets, the youthful cadre of devoted Guardian Angel volunteers were a ubiquitous site around the five boroughs of the city in the early 1980s. They served as both a comfort and reassurance to those New Yorkers who felt severely threatened by the soaring crime rate at the time and were becoming increasingly frustrated by the inability or unwillingness of the NYPD to do anything about it.
When the now infamous Crown Heights riots erupted in the summer of 1991, Sliwa and his Guardian Angels were called upon to keep the peace after yeshiva student Yankel Rosenbaum from Australia was brutally murdered by African American rioters. All of Crown Heights has morphed into a tinderbox of sorts as former Mayor David Dinkins did nothing to quell the riots and for several days the streets of Crown Heights were ablaze in violence.
The Guardian Angels dealt with the likes of race baiter and virulent anti-Semite, Al Sharpton and stayed in the neighborhood for three months to ensure the safety of the Orthodox Jewish residents.
Fast forward to 2019. Sliwa told NBC News that the patrols would start on Sunday, first at noon in Crown Heights and later in the day also in Williamsburg and Borough Park, according to the JTA web site.
Sliwa told the media that local leaders of the Crown Heights based Chabad-Lubavitch movement asked for his group’s help by maintaining a presence in the area, due to the dramatic increase in anti-Semitic attacks. He also said that his group’s assistance was requested by the Satmar Chassidim of Williamsburg and the Bobov sect of Chassidus in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.
“We’re a visual deterrence in our red berets and our red satin jackets,” he said. “Nobody’s going to commit an attack when we’re around.”
“These attacks are taking place, and the cops have not been proactive at all,” Sliwa added. “It comes from City Hall and the mayor. He’s been just apathetic.”
Two years have passed since Canadian billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife, Honey, were found strangled in their home in Toronto. The Sherman family had sprung into action, launching a private investigation and offering over $7.5 million as reward for information leading to an arrest. Now, with the truth still a chilling mystery, the family has decided to close the private investigation into the murder, as per the NY Post.
By Hellen Zaboulani
Bernard Sherman, dead at 75, was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist with an estimated net worth of US$3.2 billion at the time of his death, as per Forbes. He was the 12th-wealthiest Canadian. He worked as chairman and CEO of Apotex Inc., a large pharmaceutical company. Both he and his wife were Jewish, and had donated a record $50 million to the United Jewish Appeal and to other Jewish and secular charities. The Apotex Foundation had also sent over $50 million worth of medicine to disaster zones around the world since 2007.
With belts around their necks and their hands tied behind their backs Barry and Honey Sherman were both found dead on December 15, 2017 by realtors showing the house to prospective buyers two days after their deaths. The cause of both deaths was decided as ligature strangulation caused by binding or tying, according to their post-mortem examinations. The Toronto Police Service previously said there was no indication of forced entry into the Sherman home. Friends had said that the house had nine entrances and both Barry and Honey may have been likely to open the door for someone who asked for help, even at night, and even if it was a complete stranger or someone they barely knew.
The Sherman children hired private investigators, and conducted another autopsy. Still, no suspects or persons of interest have yet been publicly identified, although detectives obtained a total of 28 search warrants by September 2018. At the end of October 2018, the family publicly offered a 10 million in Canadian dollars as reward, in connection to the couple’s murder investigation for any information leading to an arrest and prosecution of a suspect. Still, the investigations has come up empty.
“When you offer a 10m [Canadian dollars] reward and nothing has happened, you can see that the people who are involved either don’t need the money or fear that if they come up with the answer, they’ll be eliminated,” Murray Rubin, a longtime friend and business associate of Barry Sherman told The Sunday Times of London.
The case is closed, but speculation about the murderer is still at a peak. All that is known about the assailants is their sly expertise. Speculators had a long list of possible suspects, being that Mr. Sherman was in the high-profile business of generic drugs. Sherman also had a long list of open litigations, many of which may have wanted him dead.
“No investigation is perfect…but I will say that the homicide squad from
DNA evidence has moved to the fore, as law enforcement investigators work to put together a winning case against those charged with murdering Barnard College student Tessa Majors. Photo Credit: Tessa Majors Instagram
DNA evidence has moved to the fore, as law enforcement investigators work to put together a winning case against those charged with murdering Barnard College student Tessa Majors.
By: Millie Ciccese
Majors, of course, was stabbed to death in a park mugging in Manhattan early this month.
“The push for conclusive evidence comes a day after detectives detained and then released a 14-year-old believed to have wielded the knife that killed Ms. Majors,” the New York Times reported. “An official with knowledge of the investigation said the police were banking on pending DNA results they hoped would allow prosecutors to charge all three of the minors suspected of attacking Ms. Majors on Dec. 11 in Morningside Park, near the Columbia University campus.”
According to police, a 13-year-old boy was arrested after Majors was killed and is being held on charges that include second-degree murder. A pair of 14-year-old boys have been questioned and released by police, according to the New York City Police Department. One of the teens is said to be black.
An odd and disturbing sidebar to the case turned up recently, when several Barnard College faculty and staff members claimed to have received racist robocalls from a white supremacist group in the wake of first-year student Tessa Majors’ slaying.
“We have become aware that robocall messages from a white supremacist group were received on many faculty and staff landlines at Barnard and may have been received by a small number of Columbia faculty and staff as well,” a statement from university officials said. Majors attended Barnard, a women’s college affiliated with Columbia University. “The contents of this message, related to Tess Majors’ recent death, are abhorrent and viciously racist.”
The robocall was sent to multiple Barnard and Columbia faculty on Christmas Day. According to audio obtained and verified by the New York Times, the recording featured racist epithets by an unidentified caller who criticizes Majors’ parents for allowing her to associate with black people.
“The Office of University Life said that the calls were placed to landlines at both schools and that no students were believed to have received them. The statement refers anyone who has received a similar call to Columbia Public Safety,” reported columbiaspectator.com. “We condemn this racist, anti-black act in the strongest possible terms and have referred it to the N.Y.P.D.,” a Barnard spokeswoman said in a statement to the Times. “Our community stands together against hate.”
