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WeWork Prefers $5B JPMorgan Financing Package Over Selling to SoftBank

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The approximately $5-billion financing package led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. “is the company’s preferred option, rather than selling a controlling stake in itself to SoftBank Group Corp.,” according to Crain’s New York Business. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

By: Dale Tichansky

The story of WeWork’s junk-debt offerings continues to sound more like an adventure novel, full of derring-do and ingenious last-second escapes.

The approximately $5-billion financing package led by JPMorgan Chase & Co. “is the company’s preferred option, rather than selling a controlling stake in itself to SoftBank Group Corp.,” according to Crain’s New York Business. “The structure and terms under discussion may change depending on investor appetite. Notably, the financing may include at least $2 billion of unsecured payment-in-kind notes with an unusually hefty 15% coupon, one person said.”

That proposed yield, Crain’s continued, “nearly double what WeWork paid on its debut bond offering last year — underscores skepticism among debt investors that the company will be able to stem its cash bleed and become profitable anytime soon. It’s a costly option that may however reward investors handsomely in the event of an actual turnaround.”

The company is scheduled to run out of cash by November and investors are trying to save it from bankruptcy, according to the International Business Times.

“Japan’s SoftBank Group Corporation and J.P. Morgan Chase are working in an effort to save WeWork from going under this year by securing emergency funding,” Fox News reported. “Earlier this month, FOX Business’ Charlie Gasparino reported on financing efforts. The company expects to lay-off at least 2,000 of its employees as a result of its failed IPO. SoftBank owns 29 percent of The We Company, parent firm of WeWork, and has invested $10.7 billion in the business.”

Bloomberg reported on Monday that WeWork was “leaning toward an almost $5 billion financing package led by J.P. Morgan rather than selling a controlling stake to SoftBank, which has already plunged over $10 billion into the business. J.P. Morgan is the third-biggest outside shareholder, behind SoftBank and Benchmark,” reported cnbc.com. “It’s been a dramatic reversal of fortune for WeWork, which was until recently one of tech’s highest-flying private companies. SoftBank’s latest funding earlier this year valued the company at $47 billion and set it up for what was supposed to be a blockbuster IPO. But public investors proved unwilling to comply, punishing cash-burning companies Lyft and Uber after their share sales in the months leading up to WeWork’s filing.”

Indeed, the company “revealed a $900 million loss over six months in its prospectus, investors immediately balked. The company, which rents out co-working spaces to start-ups, freelancers and enterprises, has to plunge cash into real estate in some of the most expensive markets and makes money back over time as tenants pay their rent. In its prospectus, the company reported long-term lease obligations of $17.9 billion,” cnbc.com added.

Bklyn BP Adams Throws Continued Support Behind Michell-Lama Developments

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Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams joined tenants and building workers to announce the first of many investments from the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) capital budgetary cycle, a $250,000 allocation for new boilers in Cadman Towers, a Mitchell-Lama development located in Brooklyn Heights. Photo Credit: cadmantowers1.com

By: KCP Staff

Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams joined tenants and building workers to announce the first of many investments from the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) capital budgetary cycle, a $250,000 allocation for new boilers in Cadman Towers, a Mitchell-Lama development located in Brooklyn Heights.

The money will go toward replacing boilers that are more than four decades old.

“Mitchell-Lama developments are under attack from systematic neglect and deliberate sabotage by people looking to cash in. Threats include conversion to market-rate housing and a lack of upkeep. We can’t allow the status quo to continue for Mitchell-Lama tenants. These homes have been ladders to the middle class for so many people for so many years. Investments like the one we’re announcing today are important, but we need a long-term solution,” said Adams.

The Mitchell-Lama program, which provides affordable rental and cooperative housing to moderate- and middle-income families, was created through nonpartisan state legislation enacted in 1955 and named for its sponsors – Republican Sen. MacNeil Mitchell and Democratic Assemblyman Alfred Lama.

There are both city-supervised Mitchell-Lama developments and state-supervised Mitchell-Lama developments. The apartments are sold or rented through waiting lists kept by each development. However, many Mitchell-Lama waiting lists are closed because there are already enough applicants to fill expected vacancies.

But Adams said the city and state to take a more hands-on role in preserving these homes for future generations. “We need our lawmakers to be bold and advance the creation of new Mitchell-Lama housing. It’s time to revive this program in a form we can feasibly achieve,” he said.

There are 35 Mitchell-Lama developments throughout Brooklyn, with more than 18,000 units. During his time in office, Adams has pushed to keep these homes affordable and increase transparency in the system’s governance. In 2017, he played an instrumental role in helping the City secure $250 million to prevent 15,000 Mitchell-Lama units from being converted to market-rate. He also created a Mitchell-Lama task force, made up of experts, activists, and tenants to develop strategies on how to advocate for residents.

“When there is an issue regarding subsidized housing in New York, Mitchell-Lamas are often forgotten. We, the residents of Cadman Towers, are so grateful that Borough President Eric Adams is not one of those people,” said Cadman Towers Board President Toba Potosky, noting the program was created to provide quality affordable housing for middle-income New Yorkers like teachers, nurses, city workers, police officers, veterans, and others.

“As these housing complexes reach beyond the 50-year mark, the size and cost of maintaining our housing become greater and greater, challenging our promise to continue to provide quality affordable housing. Through the ongoing support from our elected officials like Borough President Adams, we can continue with our mission to maintain affordability for another 30 years or beyond,” Potosky added.

The announcement came on the heels of a report released by Localize.city finding that Brooklyn had the most buildings with heat and hot water complaints over the past year of any borough, with 11,053 buildings and more than 67,500 complaints.

Overall, between September 2018 and August 2019, about 221,000 heat and hot water complaints were reported to 311 throughout the city. As the colder months approach, Adams said it is essential that all buildings have state-of-the-art heating equipment.

             (Kings County Politics)

Israel’s Largest Pharma Co Proposes $15B Deal to Settle Opioid Lawsuits

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Israel's leading pharmaceutical company has proposed to give away over $15 billion dollars of generic drugs to settle claims of its alleged contribution to the US opioid crisis, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

Edited by: JV Staff

Israel’s leading pharmaceutical company has proposed to give away over $15 billion dollars of generic drugs to settle claims of its alleged contribution to the US opioid crisis, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

The proposed settlement comes only days ahead of a milestone federal trial in Cleveland, Ohio, against Teva and five other drug distributors. The trial is scheduled to begin on Monday.

“Teva recognizes the devastating impact to communities across the US as a result of illegal drug use and the misuse and abuse of opioids that are available legally by prescription. Teva continues to advocate for collaborative solutions throughout the country,” the company admitted in a statement.

Since 1999, approximately 400,000 Americans have died from an opioid overdose, including prescription and illicit opioids.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. has been developing and producing medicines for more than a century. It is a global leader in generic and specialty medicines with a portfolio consisting of over 35,000 products in nearly every therapeutic area.

In May of this year, the Jewish Voice reported that Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and related affiliates of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. agreed to pay $85 million to the state of Oklahoma in order to bring to end a lawsuit in which it was accused of expanding that state’s opioid epidemic, according to Oklahoma’s attorney general.

While the money will go to the state once it’s received, according to a statement released by Oklahoma’s Attorney General Mike Hunter. The funds will then be used to abate the opioid crisis in Oklahoma.

Earlier this year, Teva was also involved in a price-fixing scandal. The firm is accused of artificially boosting prices of drugs, sometimes as high as 1,000%.

“The fraud is estimated to have cost taxpayers several billion dollars. Led by Connecticut’s attorney general, more than 40 states are now pursuing legal action against Teva and other drug companies involved in the scandal, which touched more than 100 drugs,” reported i24news.tv.

As Teva pointed out in its own statement, the settlement “does not establish any wrongdoing on the part of the company; Teva has not contributed to the abuse of opioids in Oklahoma in any way. The company has resolved this matter in a way that benefits the people who have suffered from abuse of opioids and to help stop the effects of the opioid crisis. Teva continues to keep the long-term stability of the company at the forefront.”

Palestinian Delegation Visits Sukkah in Samaria to Discuss ‘Alternative to Oslo’

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A highly unusual group of guests visited the Sukkah of Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan, Israel’s Channel 20 reports on Wednesday. Members of the Palestinian delegation to the Bahrain Conference came to pay their respects. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Palestinians visited the Sukkah of regional council leader Yossi Dagan to discuss an alternative path to the Oslo Accords.

By: WIN Staff

A highly unusual group of guests visited the Sukkah of Samaria Regional Council Head Yossi Dagan, Israel’s Channel 20 reports on Wednesday. Members of the Palestinian delegation to the Bahrain Conference came to pay their respects.

The visiting group included four members of the Bahrain delegation as well as Sheikh Tamimi of Ramallah, Keis Mazarib of the Democratic Union party, a left-wing alliance, and others. (The Bahrain Conference to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians took place in June.)

Several members of the visiting group to the Sukkah didn’t want their names published for fear of reprisal, Channel 20 reports. They said that they feel threatened by the Palestinian Authority, but also don’t feel they have any support from Israel despite their efforts at dialogue. Dagan promised to help them.

The two sides discussed an alternative path to the Oslo Accords.

According to Dagan: “The best way to build a partnership living together side by side is dialogue between local leaders, who know the real needs of the local population, both Israeli and Arab. And not by experiments of distant politicians from Europe or the U.S., politicians who have never set foot here.”

“The Oslo Way failed. There is no dispute about it. It is time to find an alternative to the terrorist path of the murderous and hypocritical Palestinian Authority and this is what we’re doing. Both here in the Sukkah and throughout the year. We respect each other. We’re creating a reality of mutual respect in Judea and Samaria.”

Sheikh Tamimi said, “Collaboration is important for a better future for our children and future generations. And this dialogue is very important. We request from all Israeli leaders to listen and to take part.”

            (World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

Iran Blames ‘Zionist Regime,’ Saudi Arabia, US for Oil Tanker Attack

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Iranian oil tanker (MarineTraffic/Aart van Bezooijen)

Iran blamed Israel, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia for the attack and says there will be consequences.

By: WIN Staff

Iranian Member of Parliament Abolfazl Hassanbeigi, told Iran’s Mehr news agency that Israel, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were to blame for last week’s missile attack on the Iranian oil tanker Sabiti off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea.

Hassanbeigi, who is a member of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said “a video captured by cameras installed on the tanker show the attack was carried out by the U.S., the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia.”

Hassanbeigi takes a step further comments made Tuesday by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who said that the attack on the Iranian oil tanker on October 11 was the work of one or possibly more states, but that Iran was not ready to assign blame.

“According to information received, the attack on the Iranian tanker has been carried out by one or more governments. Of course, investigations are underway, but as long as we have not reached definitive conclusions, we will not accuse any government,” Zarif said, according to Iran’s PressTV.

The tanker Sabiti, owned by the National Iranian Oil Company, was struck 60 miles off the coast of Jeddah by two missiles.

“The attack on the Iranian tanker was a sophisticated, state-sponsored action,” Zarif said.

In a related development, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani warned on Monday that Tehran will continue to scale back its commitments to the 2015 nuclear accord until the European Union fulfills promises that it made under the terms of the deal.

Rouhani, speaking on state television, said Iran would start working on more advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges, reports Asharq Al-Awsat, a pan-Arab daily newspaper. Such work would advance the Iranians toward the capability to construct a nuclear bomb.

He spoke of IR-9 centrifuges, reports the Associated Press. “It’s unclear what those centrifuges can do, though Iran has a host of advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium more rapidly than those allowed under the accord,” said the news agency.

The president called on European parties to the pact to salvage the deal by shielding Iran’s economy from U.S. penalties.

Iran has gradually withdrawn from its commitments to the pact in the aftermath of the U.S. pullout in May 2018, under President Donald Trump, and the imposition of American sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The nuclear accord was reached in July 2015 between Iran and six world powers, including the U.S. Obama administration, as well as Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany.

   (World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

Likud Waiting for Liberman to Say He Won’t Join with Arab Parties

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is waiting for an announcement by Israel Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman that he would refuse to join a coalition with a left-wing government that relies on non-Zionist predominantly Arab parties, a representative of Netanyahu’s Likud party told Kan public radio on Tuesday. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Liberman, holding eight seats, has the power to either give Netanyahu a majority or help Gantz improve his chances of forming a government.

By: WIN Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is waiting for an announcement by Israel Beytenu party leader Avigdor Liberman that he would refuse to join a coalition with a left-wing government that relies on non-Zionist predominantly Arab parties, a representative of Netanyahu’s Likud party told Kan public radio on Tuesday.

According to the Likud representative, the incumbent premier wants such an announcement before he would be willing to return the mandate that he was granted on September 25 by President Reuven Rivlin to put together a new parliamentary majority on the heels of the September 17 Knesset election.

Liberman, with his eight seats, holds the power to either give Netanyahu a majority or alternately help Gantz improve his chances of forming a government.

Under Israeli law, Netanyahu has until October 28 to form a coalition with other factions. The Likud has 32 seats in the 120-member parliament voted in by the Israeli public last month.

If Netanyahu cannot cobble together a coalition during the initial period allotted to him, Rivlin would have the option to either extend the incumbent premier’s mandate for two more weeks or give Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz the task instead.

Blue and White actually earned one more seat, 33, than the Likud in the election, but fewer MKs overall approve of him as the next prime minister than those supporting Netanyahu.

Because of the divided composition of parliament, pressure has been mounted on the Likud and Blue and White to form a unity government. The president renewed the call on Tuesday, saying that it was the “will of the people.”

Otherwise, a Likud-led government would be comprised of right-wing and religious parties, though without Liberman’s faction, it would still be short of a majority. For its part, Blue and White would need the support of the Joint List of the non-Zionist MKs as well as Israel Beytenu to climb to a Knesset majority.

If Gantz is given a mandate but he, too, is unsuccessful, Rivlin would have to decide to either tap any other Knesset member to try to form a government or call for yet another parliamentary election, after no coalition could be formed after the April 9 vote and now following the September ballot.

Liberman is advocating for a unity government and refuses to sit in any coalition that includes the religious factions or Arab parties.

(World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

Netanyahu Asks Putin to Release Imprisoned Israeli Woman

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Netanyahu officially submitted a request to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, according to Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, a confidant of the prime minister, speaking in an interview on Israeli Kan public radio. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

“Anyone travelling to Russia should ask himself if he wants to wind up in a situation of Naama Issachar,” said minister Ze’ev Elkin.

By: WIN Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu officially requested on Tuesday that Russia release Naama Issachar, 26, an Israeli woman who was sentenced to a seven-and-a-half year prison term last week after authorities said that they had found about 9.5 grams of cannabis in her luggage on a stopover in Moscow in April, as she was on her way back home to Israel from India.

Issachar argues that the drug was not hers and that she does not know how it wound up in her baggage.

Netanyahu officially submitted a request to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, according to Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, a confidant of the prime minister, speaking in an interview on Israeli Kan public radio.

Naama’s mother, Yaffa, told Kan that she had visited her daughter in the Russian jail on Monday.

Yaffa said Naama was “physically and emotionally exhausted,” and told her mother in exasperation: “I can’t anymore. I just want to get out of this prison, please.”

“She obviously fell victim to something unrelated to her,” said Foreign Minister Israel Katz in an interview on Israeli Channel 12 News on Saturday. “We are working on the issue as the State of Israel,” he noted.

“Her situation became more complicated as reports emerged that Putin requested a swap deal involving Naama and Russian hacker Alexei Borkov, who has been detained in Israel for the past four years and is wanted by the United States for suspected cyber offenses,” reports the Israel Hayom daily.

“In August, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled Borkov extraditable to the U.S., in spite of his request that he be extradited to Moscow rather than Washington. Borkov was arrested at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport on Dec. 13, 2015, at the request of the American government,” it adds.

Another Netanyahu cabinet confidant, Evironmental Protection and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin, warned that Israelis should think twice about visiting Russia.

Regarding the Israeli woman’s incarceration, Elkin, who was born in the former Soviet Union, in what is currently Ukraine, told the Israeli public broadcaster: “Anyone travelling to Russia should ask himself if he wants to wind up in a situation [like that] of Naama Issachar.”

Elkin added that once the Israeli Supreme Court issued its ruling, the extradition of Borkov to the U.S. cannot be rescinded.

(World Israel News)

Read more at: worldisraelnews.com

The Impact of Betraying Our Allies

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There is no reason to believe that the Turkish government under the leadership of radical Islamist, Israel hater and Hamas supporter Recep Tayyip Erdogan will behave any differently towards the Kurds. As a matter of fact, Erdogan has pretty much said that he will continue his invasion into Syria; massacring the Kurds and fomenting even more bellicosity in the region. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Judging from the harsh criticism that has been leveled against President Trump by both Republicans, Democrats, the media and the lion’s share of the international community for his ill-conceived decision to withdraw US troops from Syria, (thus paving the way for a fierce Turkish invasion of the north eastern section of the country) it appears that the Middle East is once again morphing into the perennial tinder box that it has represented for many years.

As we monitor the frenetic pace of the news in the region, we sadly learn that our loyal Kurdish allies who fought with us, side by side in the protracted battle against the ISIS caliphate are being predictably slaughtered by the maniacal forces of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turks view the Kurds as terrorists; an insurgent force that wants to wreak havoc in their country, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The Kurds are a stateless people and it is they who have been victimized by the Turks for decades. But then again, let’s remember that the Turks have a gruesome track record when it comes to committing wholesale genocide. Over 100 years ago, the Ottoman government systematically exterminated anywhere from 700,000 to 1. 5 Armenians; most of whom were citizens of the Ottoman Empire. It is now known as the Armenian Holocaust.

There is no reason to believe that the Turkish government under the leadership of radical Islamist, Israel hater and Hamas supporter Recep Tayyip Erdogan will behave any differently towards the Kurds. As a matter of fact, Erdogan has pretty much said that he will continue his invasion into Syria; massacring the Kurds and fomenting even more bellicosity in the region.

But then again, we can’t expect any other kind of behavior from a miscreant like Erdogan who jails, tortures and brutally murders journalists and violently suppresses free speech, thought and ideas on a routine basis.

What we can be outraged about, and what we can speak up about is the decision by President Trump to abandon our Kurdish allies when they are clearly in existential peril. What we can boldly voice our opposition to is the nonsensical utterings of the president, when he claims that imposing sanctions on the Turkish government will somehow dissuade them from killing the Kurds. Sanctions take a long time to be become effective and the president is well aware of this. By the time the Turks feel the brunt of the sanctions, thousands of Kurds will be slaughtered. Kind of sounds like the US policy towards Europe during World War II. The Roosevelt administration claimed their aim was to eradicate the Nazi presence from Europe and then they will concern themselves with saving Jewish lives. All of us are familiar with the conclusion to that story. 6 million dead Jews and their blood on the hands of the administration who ignored their plight.

It is also outrageous for the president of the United States to say that the Turkish invasion into Syria is ‘not our problem.” Really now? Well, the president has incessantly droned on about how under his intrepid leadership, the US completely defeated ISIS. Well, we certainly believe that the inevitable resurgence of ISIS is indeed a problem for the United States. Now, that the president’s decision to withdraw troops has essentially given Putin in Russia and the Mullahs in Iran an early Christmas present of domination of the region and the rise again of the brutal Assad regime, we simply cannot understand why the president does not feel that this is a US problem.

And one more thing. In the middle of the Oval office and in front of the president of Italy, the president said that the Kurds were “no angels.” Whether one likes or dislikes the ultimate objectives of the Kurds, it was they, the brave and courageous Peshmerga forces who put an end to the loathsome terrorism of ISIS.

Think about all this and much more, Mr. President. Carefully consider your next move as we beseech you to do the right thing. History will record all your deeds and misdeeds. We pray that you continue on the path of a glorious and untainted legacy as our nation’s 45th president.

The “Politics” of Anti-Semitism in NYC

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If you’re a Jewish resident in New York City, you don’t have to search through the New York Times or the local MSM to learn about the skyrocketing hate crimes against your fellow Jews, you live it. For those of us with a knowledge of history, this is quite a scary situation. If we can believe the figures from the Left leaning ADL, over 59 % of hate crimes in the city were against Jews who barely make up only 19% of the population. By the end of the year, these issues of violence will have more than doubled from those of last year. Sounds like Paris or London. Sadly it’s in our own backyard.

And to be perfectly honest, most of these biased, hateful criminal acts were perpetrated by blacks…..who are usually reported as the vulnerable victims of hate carried out by “White Supremacists.” In our town, it’s they who are the hateful attackers and the Jews, the hapless victims. Most recently, Avraham Gopin a 63 year old New York rabbi was assaulted in broad daylight by a black assailant who threw a massive brick at him, punched him 25 times, leaving Gopin with missing teeth and a battered body. The police are searching for a 6’2″ male with a white “T” shirt, black sneakers and black shorts. The race….obviously unknown. Last month, a Jewish man who, while walking home from synagogue, casually said “Hello” to a black man who promptly punched and choked him. These stories are endless and growing. But to our inept, intolerable mayor, “White Supremacy” is to blame for the mounting attacks against Jews in the city. “I think it’s really clear…the forces of white supremacy (WS) have been unleashed. ” Tell that to his buddies, Congresswomen Rashid Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and AOC who are planting the seeds of Jew hate throughout the land.

Let’s face it, Jews are an accepting bunch. They are hugely liberal, sympathize and align themselves with other minorities and tend to ignore the mounting hatred against their own people. They play the game of “willingly not knowing.” Will it take the re-awakening of a militant, self defense organization such as the famed Jewish Defense League to come to the defense of our people? New York City was once the cradle of the Jewish community in this country. We settled here from Europe and other places where we were not welcome and hated. As we prospered, so did the City and its growing black population. Our business people gave them jobs, our teachers taught them, our doctors healed them. And now we are the targets of their hatred against Jews. We must acknowledge that the likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Rev. Jeremiah Wright among many other African American Jew haters have done their job. And we Jews have the responsibility to wake up to the reality and come to the inevitable conclusion that the black community is no longer, if they ever were, on our side. Tough to do, but it’s got to be done.

Letters to the Editor

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The Hudson River Gateway Tunnel Project

Dear Editor:

New Jersey’s Governor Phil Murphy and New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo naming their representatives to the Gateway Development Corporation board of directors will do little to advance the new Hudson River Gateway Tunnel project. Creation of GDC duplicates the work of New Jersey Transit, Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Amtrak. Each has experienced staff who know how to manage both the project and receipt of federal funding. It will only result in creation of another bureaucracy duplicating existing transportation agencies and their staff.

All four agencies already have their own veteran engineers, operations planning, procurement, legal, force account, quality assurance and quality control, financial and the civil rights employees necessary to manage the Portal Bridge, new Hudson River tunnels and rehab of existing Hudson River tunnels. They have successfully managed numerous Super Storm Sandy projects along with other Federal Transit Administration New Starts, formula and local funded capital projects. Since NJ Transit runs 90% or more of service between the Portal Bridge and Penn Station, they should manage Gateway.

The proposed $9.5 billion new Hudson River Tunnel and $1.8 billion repairs to the existing tunnels damaged by 2012 Super Storm Sandy combined are looking for $5.4 billion in FTA New Starts funding in 2020 under a Full Funding Grant Agreement. This is more realistic than the previous $29 billion with a $14.5 billion federal share. Gateway advocates forgot the competing MTA Second Avenue Subway Phase 2 project. This proposal will cost closer to $7 billion, looking for between $3 and $3.5 billion from the same federal source. The odds of both securing FTA Full Funding Grant Agreements are the same as the Giants playing the Jets in the Super Bowl. The FTA funding both projects in 2020 would leave little for many other proposed New Starts projects around the nation.

Starting in January 2021, New Jersey motorists entering Manhattan south of 60th Street starting will have to pay a congestion price toll. Murphy should ask for a 10% share using these dollars toward Gateway.

There are other federal and local funding opportunities for Gateway. NJ Transit receives almost $1 billion and MTA $1.4 billion in annual FTA funding outside of the New Starts process. Allocate some of these funds toward Gateway. Both can request the Federal Highway Administration transfer Congestion Mitigation Air Quality and other flexible funds to FTA for Gateway. Use some of the NJ State Transportation Trust funds for Gateway. Ask Amtrak to increase its $1.6 billion contribution.

Sincerely,

Larry Penner

(Larry Penner is a transportation historian, advocate and writer who previously worked 31 years for the US Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2. This included the development, review, approval and oversight for grants supporting billions in capital projects and programs on behalf of the New Jersey Transit, MTA, NYC Transit, LIRR & Metro North Rail Roads and 30 other New York & New Jersey transit operators)


Are Israelis “Racists”?

Dear Editor:

The Washington Post recently called Israelis “racists” because they are skeptical about electing more Arabs to their government. Instead of writing a balanced and fair synopsis of the background factors which contribute to their hesitation, you use this to unfairly smear Israelis again. Your newspaper’s clear emerging pattern of always blaming Israel while rarely, if ever, placing any responsibility or blame on Arabs, violates your own code of professional ethics.

Carolyn Glick exposes the true reasons for skepticism, ‘A note on Tuesday’s elections’, “This week the Washington Post slandered Netanyahu — and Israeli society. The editorial board falsely claimed that the public’s aversion to including the Arab parties in a government is a product of racism. This is a lie. Israelis don’t want to share power with the Arab parties because there is not one Arab party that accepts Israel’s right to exist. There were Arab politicians elected yesterday that have written odes to terrorist murderers on their Facebook pages. Arab lawmakers were elected that have met with terror kingpins. Arab lawmakers routinely support the Palestinian war against Israel and express support for Hamas.

It is not racist for Israelis not to want Hamas supporters and champions of terrorist murderers in the Israeli government or receiving security briefings from the military and intelligence services. It is rational.”

Media bias always against Israel has become the new default norm. History teaches us- When they come for the Jews…you are next.

Sincerely

Ginette Weiner

Scottsdale, AZ


Bernie Sanders’ Ties with Linda Sarsour

Dear Editor:

The National Council of Young Israel (NCYI) on Monday called on Democratic presidential candidate Senator Bernie Sanders to sever his ties with Linda Sarsour, who was recently named a surrogate for his campaign.

Sarsour is a co-founder of the Women’s March, which was heavily criticized for fostering anti-Semitism and refusing to condemn Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has a history of making anti-Semitic comments. She is also an unabashed supporter of the anti-Semitic BDS movement and has a troubling track record of making derogatory comments about Jews.

“The National Council of Young Israel calls on Senator Bernie Sanders to immediately end his campaign’s relationship with Linda Sarsour in light of her controversial history of anti-Semitic comments, anti-Semitic associations and anti-Semitic support,” said NCYI President Farley Weiss. “There is no room in any political campaign for anti-Semites to have a role, regardless of whether they are there in an official or unofficial capacity.”

“Bringing Linda Sarsour, who has demonstrated open animosity toward the State of Israel, on board a presidential campaign is a tremendous cause for alarm,” added Weiss. “Her anti-Semitic statements, her eagerness to vilify Israel, her blatant disregard for the Palestinian Authority’s ongoing glorification of terrorism, and her proud support for the BDS movement, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has stated is unquestionably anti-Semitic, are beyond the pale. Individuals who exhibit hate and promote anti-Semitism should have no involvement whatsoever in a political campaign for the presidency of the United States. It is our hope that Senator Sanders will do the right thing and immediately distance himself from Linda Sarsour and her hate-mongering ways.”

Sincerely

Nat’l Council of Young Israel

Kurdish Lives Matter, Shame on Trump, Israel Step-up

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After an eight-year war against Syria and ISIS, the Kurds, who for years were Americas main ally on the ground in Syria, have rightfully expressed that, President Trump’s decision to pull forces out of the way, was a “stab in the back.” The Kurds have played a leading role in capturing territory from Islamic State, and now hold the largest swathe of Syria outside of Bashar al-Assad’s government’s hands. Photo Credit: limnwes.com

By: Ariel Natan Pasko

Turkish air strikes killed eight, at least five civilians and three SDF fighters recently, and wounded dozens of civilians, according to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, as the Turkish military offensive against Syrian Kurds began. Thousands of people have fled Ras al Ain in Syria, and are now refugees. Turkey was emboldened by the withdrawal of American forces in the area.

After an eight-year war against Syria and ISIS, the Kurds, who for years were Americas main ally on the ground in Syria, have rightfully expressed that, President Trump’s decision to pull forces out of the way, was a “stab in the back.” The Kurds have played a leading role in capturing territory from Islamic State, and now hold the largest swathe of Syria outside of Bashar al-Assad’s government’s hands.

Senator Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest allies, said recently, failing to support the Kurds, would be “the biggest mistake of his presidency”.

The Kurdish people are the largest, stateless, ethnicity in the world, estimated between 30-45 million worldwide, with the majority residing in historic Kurdistan. The area the Kurds consider Kurdistan includes, parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdistan), northern Syria (Western Kurdistan), northern Iraq (Southern Kurdistan), and northwestern Iran (Eastern Kurdistan). The Turks, Syrians, Iraqis, and Iranians, have all oppressed their Kurdish populations.

The Kurds aren’t the “Palestinians.” They are a real historic, indigenous people. Not a late 20th century invention to deceive the world. Before the era of “fake news,” there already were “fake Palestinians.” The “fake Palestinians” were created to block the historic return and political self-determination of another middle eastern people, the historic, indigenous Jews of the Land of Israel.

Israel is a beacon of success, in the battle of indigenous peoples, to roll-back the 7th century Arab imperialist invasion, conquest, occupation and oppression of the region. The Turkish Ottoman empire wasn’t much better to indigenous people.

Israel should support Kurdish independence, their demand is just. I’ve said so, in many articles over the years, the last one about two years ago, “Israel Must Recognize An Independent State of Kurdistan.”

In August 2017, PM Netanyahu himself, told a visiting delegation of 33 Republican Congressmen from the US, that he was in favor of an independent state for the Kurds, “a brave, pro-Western people who share our values.”

Earlier in 2014, PM Netanyahu said that, “It is upon us to support the Kurds’ aspiration for independence,” and called them a “fighting people that have proven political commitment and political moderation, and they’re also worthy of their own political independence.”

Yet Netanyahu has done nothing to recognize Kurdish independence. Now is the time.

In 2016, then Justice Minister, MK Ayelet Shaked (now Yamina Chairwoman), also openly endorsed the idea of an independent Kurdistan.

Due to Turkey’s latest attacks, Shaked spoke about the Kurdish situation on the Syrian border, “I have said this in the past: It is in the interest of both Israel and the United States, for the security and stability of the region, that a Kurdish state be established.”

“The Kurds are the largest people in the world without a country. An ancient people who have a special historical connection to the Jewish people. They deserve a state. The Kurds in general, and especially those in Turkey and northern Syria, have done the most to advance Western cause in the region. They are the main factor fighting against ISIS, the West should stand by them,” Shaked wrote on her Facebook page.

She’s right, according to the Talmud in numerous places, King Monobaz I and Queen Helena of Adiabene, now part of Kurdistan, whose capital was at Arbela (modern-day Erbil, Iraq), converted to Judaism and donated large funds to the Temple of Jerusalem, including the gold grape vine cluster, hung on the Temple itself. Erbil till today, is a city in Iraqi Kurdistan and capital city of the Kurdistan Region.

It’s no secret that close relations existed between Israel and the Kurds throughout most of the sixties and into the seventies, until the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in Iraq, in 1975.

Also, recently elected MK Zvi Hauser (Blue & White) commented, “As a nation-state of an ethnic minority in the Middle East, Israel cannot close its eyes to the suffering of the Kurds in the region. The murder of the Kurds will bring a wave of refugees, change demographics, and intensify instability for generations, Israel must internalize the new rules of the game with regard to all challenges.”

With all this in mind, Israel should actively and openly revive its former policy of support for the Kurdish people. Israel must recognize an independent State of Kurdistan, as soon as they declare independence, establish diplomatic relations, exchange embassies, work in international forums and agencies to support their independence, and at the UN, to have them admitted as a member state.

I think the Americans blew it in 2003, they should have carved Iraq into three areas – or states on the way – approximately, a Kurdish north, Sunni center, and Shiite south. They should have offered the Kurds independence almost immediately. Then they would have had a strong regional ally and bulwark against Iran much earlier.

The Americans seem to be missing the boat of opportunity again, with regards to the Kurds. But Israel shouldn’t, it’s about time that Israel recognize an independent State of Kurdistan.

Trump is wrong on this one, but Israel can be on the right side of history!

Ariel Natan Pasko, an independent analyst and consultant, has a Master’s Degree specializing in International Relations, Political Economy & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites and in newspapers. His latest articles can also be read on his archive: The Think Tank by Ariel Natan Pasko.

                                    (c) 2019/5780 Pasko

The Dark Side of ‘America First’ Should Worry Israel

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Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds to the Turks doesn’t mean that he will also abandon the region to Iran. But Netanyahu and the Arab states have to be alarmed by the situation

By: Jonathan S. Tobin

In retrospect, no one should be shocked by the news that the United States has given the green light to Turkey for a military incursion aimed at sweeping Kurdish forces out of northern Syria. Trump has been very clear about wanting to cut and run from the conflict in Syria once the ISIS terrorists that he had vowed to defeat were beaten. Moreover, he campaigned for the presidency by promising to end U.S. involvement in the wars of the Middle East. Nor, as a general rule, has he demonstrated much sympathy with the plight of small nations and peoples who are threatened by their larger neighbors.

But while this desire to avoid American involvement in wars like the intractable conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan lies at the heart of his “America First” foreign policy, there have always been two exceptions to his neo-isolationist instincts: Israel and Iran. The question now as the region assesses the long-term implications of the tragedy that is about to unfold in northern Syria is whether this will leave Israel, as well as the regional Arab states, to the tender mercies of Tehran and its allies the same way he has betrayed the Kurds after they proved to be courageous and invaluable allies in the struggle against ISIS.

Trump may think that the plight of the Kurds is simply not his problem. Yet he has demonstrated a real affinity for Israel, overturning seven decades of U.S. foreign policy, such as recognizing Jerusalem as its capital, moving the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv, annexing the Golan Heights and demanding accountability from the Palestinians for their support of terrorism and unwillingness to make peace.

Similarly, the president’s position on Iran flatly contradicted all of his other stands on the Middle East.

Trump railed against President Barack Obama’s 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as the worst bargain in history and made good on his vow to scrap it. He has reimposed economic sanctions on the Islamist regime with devastating effect on its ability to go on funding its terrorist. The goal of this “maximum pressure” policy is not merely to renegotiate a pact that essentially gave Iran a legal path to nuclear weapons, but also to halt its support of terrorism and its illegal missile program. Trump deserves praise for sticking to this line.

His stance on Israel and Iran were also identical to those of more traditional conservatives who were leery of his “America First” instincts on other fronts. But as Iran sought to escalate tensions in the region with attacks on shipping vessels in the Persian Gulf in order to scare the Europeans and the United States into thinking that war was the only alternative to a return to Obama’s deal, Trump refused to take the bait and respond militarily to their provocations. That wasn’t a mistake. Still, the fact that his decision not to retaliate for the shooting down of an American drone or to attacks on two major Saudi oil facilities seemed to have more to do with the advice of isolationists like Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) than a sober assessment of the situation remains troubling.

Trump’s announcement about Turkey’s attack on the Kurds, however, puts those concerns in an even more worrisome context.

There is so much that is wrong with this decision.

Letting Turkey have its way in Syria at the expense of the Kurds isn’t just an atrocity in the making, but a huge gift to one of the worst actors in the region: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Erdoğan and his Islamist party are working to destroy the last vestiges of Turkish democracy, rendering the country unfit for continued membership in the NATO alliance. He’s also a virulent anti-Semite and enemy of Israel, who would—if he is allowed more influence in the region—inflame the conflict with the Palestinians and undermine efforts to create an alliance between the Jewish state and the Arab regimes that are threatened by Iran. Nor is it possible to believe that this American favor to Turkey will cause Ankara to help isolate Iran.

Moreover, the betrayal of the Kurds isn’t just immoral. It strips the United States of any credibility for those nations that look to America as a counterweight to the influence of Iran and Russia’s efforts to recreate the old Soviet sphere of influence.

Trump’s promise that he will stop Turkey from abusing the Kurds is disingenuous. If he pulls out U.S. troops from the region, how will he keep his word? The answer is that he cannot, and his comments about Syria not being America’s fight give the lie to his assurances.

It’s in this light that several other reports from the region must be understood.

The fact that Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz is negotiating with several Gulf States on non-aggression cooperation is very good news and another sign that Israel’s isolation in the region is a thing of the past. The Gulf states, however, wouldn’t be considering this if they weren’t scared stiff that Trump will leave them on their own to face Iran.

Similarly, the news that Saudi Arabia is considering a rapprochement with its Iranian archenemy is another shocking development that has to worry Israel and the other Gulf States. While it’s hard to imagine those two nations being anything other than enemies, what Trump is doing in Syria is potentially comparable to Obama’s actions that caused the Arab world to stop thinking of the United States as an ally they could count on.

Trump is a volatile and inconsistent foreign-policy player, so this move doesn’t necessarily guarantee a betrayal of Israel on Iran. But by following the isolationist logic of “America First,” he seems to be repeating his predecessor’s mistake in bugging out of Iraq and once again appeasing Iran. That is a tragedy for the Kurds, for American honor and certainly for the rest of the Middle East.

            (JNS.org)

Jonathan S. Tobin is editor in chief of JNS—Jewish News Syndicate. Follow him on Twitter at: @jonathans_tobin.

Was Ukraine Investigating Hunter Biden Before Trump’s Phone Call?

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Officials in Ukraine reportedly opened an investigation into an energy company that employed former Vice President Joe Biden’s son long before President Donald Trump’s July 25 nothing-burger of a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that spurred the Democrats’ haphazard, increasingly Kafkaesque impeachment inquiry. Photo Credit: FrontPage Mag

A revelation alters the timeline in the Dems’ surreal ‘impeachment inquiry’.

By: Matthew Vadum

Officials in Ukraine reportedly opened an investigation into an energy company that employed former Vice President Joe Biden’s son long before President Donald Trump’s July 25 nothing-burger of a telephone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that spurred the Democrats’ haphazard, increasingly Kafkaesque impeachment inquiry.

Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky. Photo Credit: Wikipedia

The time element of the revelation, devastating as it is to the 2016-election-nullification push disguised as an impeachment process, has been largely ignored by the mainstream media which is overly preoccupied –as usual— attacking President Trump.

The information came last week from investigative reporter John Solomon, who recently was hired as a Fox News contributor, after Ukraine’s new prosecutor general, Ruslan Ryaboshapka, said Oct. 4 he plans to review previous corruption investigations into Hunter Biden and his former employer, Ukraine-based Burisma Holdings. Hunter got the job in 2014 while his father was the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine.

Solomon’s growing prominence in the media ecosystem means that leftist journalists –when they’re not busy making excuses for the secretive un-American Star Chamber-like impeachment process initiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi– now feel obligated to engage in character-assassination efforts against him.

For example, Casey Michel, who boasts about being a former Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan and supposedly a former “investigative reporter” at failed George Soros-funded media outlet ThinkProgress, launched a venomous, lie-packed Media Matters-style hit piece against Solomon as he moved to Fox.

In the sleazy, tabloid-like Daily Beast, Michel mocked the respected veteran newsman from the Washington Times and The Hill as “the self-proclaimed journalist at the heart of the unfolding scandal involving Ukraine, Rudy Giuliani, and the impending impeachment of Donald Trump.”

Solomon’s work “has underpinned the entire cascade of lies the White House and Trump in particular have pushed over the past few weeks,” and is “drenched in innuendo and mischaracterizations, all in service of attacking Trump’s political opponents,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, more information is beginning to emerge about the charmed life of ne’er-do-well Hunter Biden who throughout his adult life has kept blundering into highly lucrative job opportunities because his father was famous and politically powerful.

A handful of media outlets reminded readers of the August 2008 news story –when Joe Biden was still a U.S. senator representing Delaware— about Hunter Biden being paid “an undisclosed amount of money as a consultant by MBNA, the largest employer in Delaware, during the years the senator supported legislation that was promoted by the credit card industry and opposed by consumer groups.”

That law, opposed by left-wing activists, made it more difficult for consumers to obtain bankruptcy protection in the federal courts. Then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) opposed the 2005 bankruptcy legislation at the time.

The Bidens’ obvious intergenerational corruption is beginning to worry some left-wing journalists like Ryan Grim at The Intercept who argues in a paywalled article that Democrats need to come clean about the Bidens if they are to salvage the 2020 presidential election.

“The problem for Democrats is that a review of Hunter Biden’s career shows clearly that he, along with Joe Biden’s brother James, has been trading on their family name for decades, cashing in on the implication — and sometimes the explicit argument — that giving money to a member of Joe Biden’s family wins the favor of Joe Biden.”

Grim cannot resist being childish and petty, referring to presidential son Eric Trump by the awkward neologism “failson,” whatever that means.

But leftists are going to find it hard to ignore the mountain of evidence accumulating about the Bidens.

On Sean Hannity’s television show Solomon said the U.S. government knew the government of Ukraine intended to examine the activities of Burisma Holdings, which employed Hunter Biden and paid him a spectacularly generous salary even though the younger Biden lacked expertise in the energy field.

The report is important because it mothballs Trump-hating Democrats’ false talking point that the president threatened during the storied phone call to withhold foreign aid to Ukraine if its new president failed to launch a probe into Burisma and Hunter Biden’s role there.

“The U.S. government had open-source intelligence and was aware as early as February of 2019 that the Ukrainian government was planning to reopen the Burisma investigation,” Solomon said. “This is long before the president ever imagined having a call with President Zelensky,” he added, noting Petro Poroshenko was still the president of Ukraine at that time.

Solomon said that earlier this year NABU, the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, asked to reopen an investigation into Burisma and owner Mykola Zlochevsky, and the probe began. It led to a 15-page “Notice of Suspicion” being lodged that alleged that “illicit funds” were moving through Burisma, he said.

This information was left out of the U.S. intelligence community whistleblower’s complaint, itself a bungled report on the July 25 phone call, against President Trump that was filed in September, Solomon said.

Solomon noted this allegation of “illicit funds” partly coincides with Hunter Biden’s service on Burisma’s board, which reportedly brought him up to $1 million a year. He added that Ukrainian investigators filed the Notice of Suspicion stating they were “looking at the possibility that the $3.4 million paid to Hunter Biden’s firm may have been part of the illicit funds that were moving through the company.”

“A month later, in April, the prosecutor’s office — open-source intelligence, again — the U.S. government officials confirming they were aware of this — made a request of another investigative agency in Ukraine for assistance in going through these bank records,” Solomon said.

“That is a significant change in the timeline — it was omitted from the whistleblower’s complaint, and the question is did he not know it or did he exclude it because it didn’t fit the narrative he was trying to write,” he said.

“That’s a question for Congress to answer.”

Indeed it is.

  (Front Page Mag)

Prof. Gil Troy’s New Book Explores Zionism & Modern Statesmanship

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Kissinger’s war against Moynihan, is detailed in Prof. Gil Troy’s book, "Moynihan’s Moment, America's Fight Against Zionism as Racism." Photo Credit: Amazon

By Moshe Phillips

A professor of history at McGill University, Troy is a political centrist, a widely-respected commentator on Jewish affairs and scholar. Troy keynoted the American Zionist Movement’s Biennial Assembly in March 2019. “Kissinger distanced himself from his Jewish roots with damning wisecracks,” Troy wrote. “ ‘If it were not for the accident of my birth, I would be anti-Semitic,’ he once quipped, and ‘any people who has been persecuted for two thousand years must be doing something wrong’.” Photo Credit: YouTube

The Jewish Leadership Conference has invited Henry Kissinger to be a featured speaker at its November conference in New York. That Kissinger was invited to speak at the “Jews And Conservatism 3rd Annual Conference” is especially alarming because we now know that while Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan was fighting against the notorious Zionism-Is-Racism resolution at the United Nations, Kissinger was battling against Moynihan. The ongoing question of Kissinger’s record on Israel and Jewish affairs should have precluded his selection as speaker, but his behind-the-scenes fight against Moynihan, especially considering the explosive growth of support for BDS, which utilizes the racism charge to legitimize its anti-Israel crusade, should leave no question that the Jewish Leadership Conference has seriously erred.

Kissinger’s war against Moynihan, is detailed in Prof. Gil Troy’s book, “Moynihan’s Moment, America’s Fight Against Zionism as Racism.” A professor of history at McGill University, Troy is a political centrist, a widely-respected commentator on Jewish affairs and scholar. Troy keynoted the American Zionist Movement’s Biennial Assembly in March 2019.

Kissinger’s pressure on Israel not to strike first on the eve of the Yom Kippur War is well known. So are his ten-day stalling of U.S. arms shipments so that Israel would be—as he put it— “a little bloodied,” his cut-off of U.S. weapons to Israel during the “reassessment” in 1975, and his relentless campaign to undermine Soviet Jewry and the Jackson Amendment.

But, Troy’s book focuses on Moynihan’s famous speech at the UN against the “Zionism Is Racism” resolution. As Troy’s chronicle proceeds, it quickly becomes apparent that Kissinger tried everything he could to prevent that historic speech from ever being made. The speech was the most important defense Zionism ever made by an American statesman.

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger’s pressure on Israel not to strike first on the eve of the Yom Kippur War is well known. So are his ten-day stalling of U.S. arms shipments so that Israel would be—as he put it— “a little bloodied,” his cut-off of U.S. weapons to Israel during the “reassessment” in 1975, and his relentless campaign to undermine Soviet Jewry and the Jackson Amendment. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Citing the transcripts of Kissinger’s telephone conversations with his aides and other internal documents from the period, Prof. Troy finds that the secretary of state was “a conflicted Jew” whose response to the casual anti-Semitism in the White House was disturbing, to put it mildly. “As both courtier and careerist, Kissinger absorbed the anti-Semitism around him and encouraged it, to prove his independence from his ‘co-religionists’,” Troy writes. (pages 35-36).

In a subsequent essay for Tablet, Prof. Troy elaborated on this point. “Kissinger distanced himself from his Jewish roots with damning wisecracks,” Troy wrote. “ ‘If it were not for the accident of my birth, I would be anti-Semitic,’ he once quipped, and ‘any people who has been persecuted for two thousand years must be doing something wrong’.”

If any other U.S. secretary of state had made those kinds of remarks, he would be widely condemned as an anti-Semite. Indeed, that was the case with James “F— the Jews” Baker. Does the fact that Kissinger is Jewish absolve him of being labeled anti-Semitic?

Troy describes how after the Zionism-Is-Racism slur passed a preliminary UN committee, Moynihan proposed that Kissinger condemn it in a toast that the secretary was scheduled to deliver at a UN event. Kissinger and his aides would have none of it. They scrubbed the terms “horror,” “evil,” and similar language from Moynihan’s draft.

Kissinger was not particularly horrified by the imminent UN vote, but he was certainly horrified by Moynihan’s planned speech against it. He instructed one of his top aides, William Buffum, to pressure Moynihan to tone down his remarks. “What is wrong with that guy?” Kissinger thundered. “You get him out and tell him I will not stand for that any more.” (page 136)

To his credit, Moynihan defied Kissinger’s pressure and delivered a speech for the ages. He vigorously defended Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish People, and upheld the honor of the United States.

Pat Moynihan defied Henry Kissinger’s pressure and delivered a speech for the ages at the United Nations in 1975. He vigorously defended Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish People, and upheld the honor of the United States. Kissinger couldn’t stand it. “We are conducting foreign policy. This is not a synagogue,” he complained to his aides after Moynihan’s address. Photo Credit: UN Watch

Kissinger couldn’t stand it. “We are conducting foreign policy. This is not a synagogue,” he complained to his aides after Moynihan’s address. (page 33). Troy reveals that it was Kissinger who leaked a story to Newsweek that “Kissinger raked Moynihan over the coals” after the speech. (page 155)

Kissinger was a master of dirty tricks and did not hesitate to use them against his political enemies, according to Troy. “Rumors fed by Kissinger began circulating that Moynihan was grandstanding to New York Jews to run for Senate in 1976,” he notes. (page 155).

In fact, Prof. Troy points out, Moynihan at that time had no intention of running for office. But wouldn’t it be ironic if it was Kissinger’s vicious smear that planted the idea in Moynihan’s mind?

Pat Moynihan stood up for the Jews. Henry Kissinger tried to knock him down. That must not be forgotten.

Friends of Israel strongly objected to the invitation by J Street to James Baker to speak at its annual conference several years ago. We should object just as forcefully to this wrong-headed invitation to Kissinger. Kissinger’s presentation is entitled “Modern Statesmanship: Why Leaders Matter.” What does matter is Kissinger’s on Israel and Jewish affairs — it’s deserving of condemnation, not honor.

Moshe Phillips is national director of Herut North America’s U.S. division; Herut is an international movement for Zionist pride and education and is dedicated to the ideals of pre-World War Two Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Herut’s website is https://herutna.org/

The Heart and Soul of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Teachings, Now in English

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Over a period of 30 years—the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—meticulously edited his talks for publication in what came to be the 39-volume set called Likkutei Sichot, covering the widest array of Torah subjects and the world at large. In this Sept. 17, 1977 photo, the Rebbe can be seen leaving his office and synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway on a motzei Shabbat holding a volume of Likkutei Sichot. (Photo: Jewish Educational Media/Levi Freidin)

‘Bereishit’ the 728-page first volume of six-volume set of Likkutei Sichot

By: Dovid Margolin

For decades, Rabbi Yonah Avtzon could be seen walking the streets between his home and office in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, reviewing page-after-page of manuscripts and printer’s proofs through a pair of reading glasses perched at the end of his nose. The longtime director of Sichos In English (SIE) publishing, Avtzon personally read through every one of the many millions of words being readied for print by the team he oversaw, this aside from his other responsibilities.

The new Likkutei Sichot features the original text in either Hebrew or Yiddish on one side, translation and explanation opposite it, and translation of the Rebbe’s copious footnotes on the bottom. (Photo: SIE)

Even as he battled the kidney ailment that eventually took his life, the stacks of papers came along for his increasingly frequent trips to the hospital. Avtzon trained his eye on all aspects of the work, from basic copy edits to potential content issues—a sort of last line of defense. This dedication came as a result of an answer he had received from the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—back in the 1980s, just as SIE was picking up steam in rendering Chassidic works into English. The Rebbe had told Avtzon that it would not be necessary for the Rebbe to personally review every piece of material SIE was publishing as long as there was someone who was accountable for it. And so, Avtzon shouldered that responsibility.

One of the last projects Avtzon worked on was a new bilingual, or rather, trilingual, translation of Likkutei Sichot, the vast collection of the Rebbe’s Torah teachings published as Hebrew and Yiddish essays over a period of roughly three decades, and collected into 39 volumes. After an intense 18 months of labor on the part of a team of writers and designers, Bereishit, the book of Genesis, the 728-page first volume of the projected six-volume English set, is being released this week by SIE in conjunction with Kehot Publication Society. The translation process was led by SIE’s prolific editor in chief Rabbi Eliyahu Touger, joined by Rabbi Sholom Ber Wineberg, and reviewed by Rabbi Sholom Zirkind and the staff of Kehot.

On Jan. 1 of this year, while the project was still in its earlier stages, Avtzon—in the midst of treatment—messaged his son, Rabbi Shmuly Avtzon, that he had left a ream of drafts of the new Likkutei Sichot in his home office and asking that he take a look at it. The younger Avtzon, who at the time was working as an editor on the project, found the papers with his father’s careful markings and asked if there was anything in particular he should pay attention to.

The just-released translation culls three talks on each Torah portion in Bereishit and runs 728 pages in all. (Photo: SIE)

“Just see it so you know what I look for,” his father replied.

It was the last text message his father sent him. At 3 a.m. on Jan. 9, Rabbi Yonah Avtzon passed away at home at the age of 61.

“It was like he was setting me up to continue his work,” says the younger Avtzon, who subsequently, at his family’s request, filled the role as director of SIE.

Likkutei Sichot has been described as the heart and soul of the Rebbe’s teachings, a unique fusion of all elements of Torah, from the exoteric to the esoteric, and a key to grasping the Rebbe’s view on Judaism and life itself. The new annotated translation is the first new major project completed by SIE since the elder Rabbi Avtzon’s passing.

 

‘For all generations’

If there were one Torah text that absolutely needed to be translated into English, what should that be? That was the question Yaakov Cohen posed one Friday-night meal a few years ago in Jerusalem. His host, Rabbi Yisroel Noach Wichnin, the dean of the Mayanot yeshivah for returnees to Jewish life and practice, didn’t even take a moment to respond.

“Without any hesitation, he said Likkutei Sichot,” says Cohen, the founder and president of Beco Management, a Maryland-based national real estate management firm. “The rest of Shabbat all I could think of was jumping into this project.”

Chazarah, or repetition, following the Rebbe’s farbrengen on Sept. 23, 1979. Rabbi Yoel Kahan is in the center, elucidating a point, while to his right, taking notes, is Rabbi Dovid Feldman, today chief editor of Lahak, which rendered the Rebbe’s talks into Hebrew. Chazzarah took place in the synagogue and was open to everyone. (Photo: Jewish Educational Media/The Living Archive)

When Shabbat was out, Cohen contacted Avtzon, who jumped on board. The completed work contains three talks on each weekly Torah portion in the book of Genesis and features the talk, or sicha, on one side, either in the original Hebrew or Yiddish (Likkutei Sichot contains both) with a new English translation and explanation opposite it. Also translated into English are the Rebbe’s copious footnotes.

The Rebbe famously taught through the medium of the farbrengen—regular gatherings on Shabbat, Jewish holidays and special occasions on the Jewish calendar held at the cavernous synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. During these gatherings, which could last as long as nine hours and were interspersed with song, the Rebbe would expound on a wide range of topics, offering unique insights on the weekly Torah portion, in-depth analysis of Talmudic passages, profound exposition of the esoteric parts of Torah, and the Jewish worldview on historic and current events, all of it through the unique lens of Chabad Chassidic philosophy. It is estimated that the Rebbe spent 11,000 hours leading these gatherings over a period of 42 years.

As noted in a previous Chabad.org article on the continuous Toras Menachem publishing project, the system of recording and transmitting the Rebbe’s teachings follows a unique process dating back to the founding of the Chabad movement almost 250 years ago. Teams of scholars, assisted by laymen, would memorize the Rebbe’s talk and then reconstruct them once Shabbat or a Jewish holiday—when use of a recording device is prohibited according to Jewish law—was over. These scholars and scribes, led since day one by the venerable Rabbi Yoel Kahan, would then submit a transcript to the Rebbe for his editing.

Likkutei Sichot stemmed from this process, but required a higher level of the Rebbe’s personal participation since from the beginning of its publication, it was not merely an accurate transcription of the Rebbe’s talk but a reconstructed essay.

Since teaching via the spoken word differs greatly from what is required when rendering it into the written form, the Rebbe did not want unedited transcriptions to be formally published. It was also not uncommon for the Rebbe to speak about a particular subject for multiple weeks in a row, and so it would be the scholars’ work to combine these, as well as other pertinent elements the Rebbe had previously written or expounded upon, into the essay they presented to the Rebbe for editing.

According to a detailed article published in the June/July 2017 issue of A Chassidishe Derher magazine, beginning in the summer of 1958, the Rebbe edited a talk every single week for a full year, these forming the first two volumes of Likkutei Sichot. He did so again in 1962-63, released as volumes three and four, and continued to edit on and off through the late 1960s and early 1970s, producing more volumes.

Beginning in 1975 and continuing until 1992, the Rebbe edited a sicha every single week, forming the next 29 volumes of Likkutei Sichot as well as the 11-volume Sefer HaSichot. This work was aside from many other publishing projects undertaken by the Rebbe, including the six-volume Maamarim Melukatim, which contains only Chassidic discourses that he edited.

The Rebbe’s editing process was by no ways cursory, and he would often bring drafts with him home, where he continued working on them for hours. His edits, made in pencil, touched on all aspects of the sicha, from grammar to exposition. At times, the Rebbe could add an entire section to an essay, in one case in 1977 doing so less than a week after suffering a severe heart attack. “The Rebbe was often sharp when working with us,” Rabbi Leibel Schapiro, a member of the Likkutei Sichot team and the dean of Yeshivah Gedolah in Miami Beach, Fla., told the Derher. “There were many things that the Rebbe simply fixed without comment, but [sometimes] he expected us to know better … ”

The result was something new and exciting, a combination of explanations of Rashi—beginning in 1964, the Rebbe introduced an innovative approach to studying Rashi, analyzing his commentary with simple logic and emphasis on the text—and other classic commentaries, Talmud, Halachah, Kabbalah and Chassidus. “What was distinctly unique … ,” the introduction to SIE’s translation explains, was “the way he integrated all those different branches of wisdom into one symbiotic entity.”

“[Likkutei Sichot] is where the Rebbe placed his Torah message for all generations,” explains Touger, a renowned scholar who, among other major works, spent 20 years translating Maimonidies’ opus, the Mishneh Torah. Each sicha, he says,“brings down the Torah on all levels and places it into everyday language people can understand. Precisely because it was initially delivered to listeners, it has this unique ability for people to tune in to this kaleidoscope of subjects and really make it a part of their understanding.”

Cohen, who together with his wife, Karen, funded the bulk of volume one—the completed project will ultimately cost more than $1 million—and has been instrumental in seeing other works of Chassidus rendered into English, says he sees a vital mission in opening up these texts—Likkutei Sichot in particular—to the English reader.

“That’s the world that I come from,” says Cohen. “If you want to know what the Rebbe said, Likkutei Sichos is where you find him, so opening it up to people at all skill levels is so important.”

 

SIE’s Mandate

From SIE’s modest beginnings in 1977, when Rabbi Yonah Avtzon and a few fellow yeshivah students first began translating the Rebbe’s weekly talks into English for the benefit of many thousands of readers around the world, to Avtzon’s subsequent transformation of SIE into a major English Torah publisher, the goal always remained the same: to spread the “living waters” of Chassidus and the inner dimensions of Torah far and wide.

In the last three decades, SIE has published hundreds of books in English on a wide range of topics, covering the Jewish lifecycle, stories and history, and Jewish law, including a soon-to-be completed translation of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi’s Shulchan Aruch, the Code of Jewish Law. Seeing his work as a mission, Avtzon consciously kept his book prices low, and partnered with Chabad.org to make almost all SIE content available free to the public online.

“This was a project that made Yonah exceptionally happy,” says Mayer Prager, a member of SIE’s advisory board. He recalls that SIE, or “Sichos In English,” was originally created precisely to share the Rebbe’s sichot with the English-speaking public. “There was an extra energy he had; after all, it’s the main mandate of the organization.”

Touger agrees. “Yonah was passionate about everything, but there’s no question that he saw the sichot as his life’s purpose. Any serious person who wants to know what the Rebbe said, what he taught, needs to look towards Likkutei Sichot; the Rebbe placed himself into it. It’s a major accomplishment to make this available for the world.”

  (Chabad.org)

Powerful Play Spotlights Struggles of a Jewish Athlete on the 1936 Nazi Olympics Squad

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Games will star Renita Lewis (Regional: The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from our Lady of Sorrows) and Lindsay Ryan (NY: The Battles of Richmond Hill)

Edited by: JV Staff

SoHo Playhouse is thrilled to present the American Premiere of Henry Naylor’s Games, directed by Darren Lee Cole. It will begin performances on October 10 and open on October 20th, running through November 24, 2019, at the Historic SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street)

SoHo Playhouse is thrilled to present the American Premiere of Henry Naylor’s Games, directed by Darren Lee Cole. It will begin performances on October 10 and open on October 20th, running through November 24, 2019, at the Historic SoHo Playhouse (15 Vandam Street).

Games is set in 1936, Berlin. When Jewish athlete Helene Mayer is selected for the Nazis’ Olympic Squad, she realizes she is fighting for much more than gold. Based on a true story, ‘Games’ is a cautionary tale for our times. A multi-award-winning, sell-out success, the show received won the Adelaide Fringe Weekly Award and received astonishing 14, five and four-star reviews in Edinburgh where it was called: “Breathtaking and powerful, Henry Naylor’s Games is sharp, funny and poignant- a must-see.” EdFest Magazine; “A truly genius piece of writing” Voice Mag.

“Henry is one of the most successful writers of the renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Games is one of his best plays. Games is a powerful play about survival during the toughest of times. Based on a true story of the 1936 Olympic games, this play has so much to say about the world we live in today and I am thrilled to bring this wonderfully written play to the SoHo Playhouse.” SoHo Playhouse Artistic Director Darren Lee Cole

Games will star Renita Lewis (Regional: The Virtuous Fall of the Girls from our Lady of Sorrows) and Lindsay Ryan (NY: The Battles of Richmond Hill), as well as Jen Sinnen as U/S of both lead roles. Creative team includes Assistant Director, Hayley Procacci, Production Design by Carter Ford, and Jen Sinnen as stage manager.

HENRY NAYLOR (playwright) is a writer, performer, producer, and director. He has written for many award-winning comedy shows including Smith & Jones, The Lenny Henry Show, Dead Ringers, and Alistair McGowan’s Big Impression. He was a lead writer on Spitting Image, and, together with his double-act partner Andy Parsons, he starred in nine series of Parsons & Naylor’s Pull-Out Sections on BBC Radio 2. He also created, executive produced and directed the multi-award-winning Headcases for ITV1. He has written plays including The Collector (Edinburgh Festival and Arcola Theatre, 2014), Echoes (Edinburgh Festival and Arcola Theatre, 2015) and Angel (Edinburgh Festival, 2016).

THE SOHO PLAYHOUSE is a historic off-Broadway theatre in Soho NYC. Its main stage is a 178 seat proscenium arch theatre. Darren Lee Cole has worked off-Broadway for over 35 years and has been the Producing Artistic Director of the SoHo Playhouse since 2004 where he has presented or directed over 50 ground-breaking works that have won many prominent theatre awards.

DARREN LEE COLE (Director) Having influenced Off-Broadway and the theatre industry as a whole for the past 35 years, Darren Lee Cole has built his career around producing groundbreaking works, directing stellar performances, and teaching some of the world’s finest actors. Darren truly learned about theatre from the legendary John Houseman and has been inspired through him in his producing, acting, and directing. Darren has produced over 150 productions through Cole Theatricals in New York, Los Angeles, Sweden, Canada, England, Scotland, Costa Rica, and many other states and countries. Darren became Producing Artistic Director of the SoHo Playhouse in 2004 where has produced or directed an additional 50 groundbreaking works that have won many of Off-Broadway’s most prominent theatre awards.

THE SOHO PLAYHOUSE is a historic off-Broadway theatre in Soho NYC. Its main stage is a 178 seat proscenium arch theatre. Darren Lee Cole has worked off-Broadway for over 35 years and has been the Producing Artistic Director of the SoHo Playhouse since 2004 where he has presented or directed over 50 ground-breaking works that have won many prominent theatre awards.

Games will play Wednesday–Friday at 7:30 pm; Saturday at 3 pm & 7:30 pm and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets will be $50 and can be purchased by visiting www.sohoplayhouse.com

 

SoHo Playhouse’s upcoming season includes:

SoHo Playhouse’s 2019 Fringe Encore Series (November 29-December 31, 2019)

The Latina Christmas Special (December 13–January 5)

New Zealand Festival of Plays (Begins performances January 3)

Happy Birthday Doug by Drew Droege (February 6 – March 1, 2020)

Daniel Sloss: A Work In Progress (February, Dates TBA)

 

For more information about the SoHo Playhouse visit www.sohoplayhouse.com

Press dates for GAMES are Thursday, October 17 at 7:30 pm; Friday, October 18 at 7: 30; Saturday, October 19 at 3 pm & 7: 30 pm; Sunday, October 20 at 3 pm & 7:30 pm (opening night).