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Brooklyn-Queens Expressway to Get Modern Makeover

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The Brooklyn Queens Expressway, or BQE, has long been known as the world’s largest parking lot. But that may be about to change. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The Brooklyn Queens Expressway, or BQE, has long been known as the world’s largest parking lot. But that may be about to change.

Built by Robert Moses in the 1950s, it is an iconic piece of New York City infrastructure that has accommodated car and truck traffic for more than 60 years.

“As the triple cantilever structure along Brooklyn Heights shows signs of corrosion and aging, New York City has taken on the challenge of repairing the roadway, spanning from Sands Street in Dumbo to Atlantic Avenue in Cobble Hill,” reads a press release on the web site of Big-Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), a Copenhagen, New York and London based group of architects, designers, urbanists, landscape professionals, interior and product designers, researchers and inventors.

“Constrained by limitations of working within Department of Transportation jurisdiction, official proposals so far have been limited to rebuilding similar conditions, aging roadways replaced by new roadways, temporary and permanent, which would continue to act as barriers between the Brooklyn community and its waterfront,” the release continues.

Inspired by the opportunity to work in our own backyard, BIG notes, it has developed an integrated proposal dubbed BQP, how to turn the Brooklyn Queens Expressway into a Brooklyn-Queens Park, while still accommodating significant vehicle flows along the Route.

“Construction of an at-grade roadway along Furman Street and Brooklyn Bridge Park, covered with a simple deck structure, is the first step of a waterfront transphormation,” says BIG. “This deck provides a platform for adding significant new Parkland along an underused Corridor, while connecting Brooklyn Heights to Brooklyn Bridge Park with a preserved or reconstructed Cliffside, crisscrossed by ramp ways, greenery, and the park amenities.”

Local park access is accommodated on a meandering parkway, while space is created for a potential spur of the BQX light rail line.

The deck structure extends South to Atlantic Avenue, where it creates a new crossing and urban nexus, and the beginnings of a linear park which could even truly connect DUMBO to Red Hook.

“The simple structural approach, and one-time construction of the new roadway, create a more feasible and less costly solution for reconstruction of the BQE, while delivering far more benefits to the community,” notes BIG in the release. “The result is a condition more reminiscent of Brooklyn Heights historical conditions, where city and river interfaced seamlessly, prior to construction of the highway.

“With this proposal,” BIG noted, “we hope to build on the great work already being undertaken by many to think proactively about the problem, and look forward to working with the Brooklyn community to find the best solutions for the BQE future!”

King Of Wall Street Apartment Listing Drops In Price

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Once the king of Wall Street, now the late John Gutfreund’s wife is trying to sell a prized property. It started at over $100 million but has since come down. PHOTO CREDIT: Carlos Delgado/Wikimedia Commons

From $120 million to about $59 million, this property owned by Susan Guttfreund, who was married to the “King of Wall Street,” has gone from sky-high to just normally high.

Serena Boardman at Sotheby’s International made a change to the apartment at 834 Fifth Avenue by decreasing the asking price to $59 million, according to StreetEasy. The decline represents a dip from the last offer of $68 million. The Real Deal reports that Boardman is co-listing the property with Larry Kaiser of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties.

After Gutfreund’s husband died in 2016, she listed the apartment at the astonishing price of $120 million, making it to the most expensive listing in the city at that time.

“The home is very formal, traditional and European. It makes no sense for how people live today,” a broker said to the New York Post in 2017, “It needs as much of a gut renovation as you could possibly do. It’s perfectly nice for a tea party but it is way too dated.”

Anyone who buys the property will want to bring over some guests because there are 22 rooms and views of Central Park. A total of seven bathrooms and seven bedrooms gives guests or a whole family plenty of elegance and privacy. The Real Deal describes the property designed by Rosario Candela back during the 1930s as being done in the “eighteenth century style, with parquet de Versailles flooring and hand carved moldings.”

The Jewish Voice has reported on declining prices on some prime real estate. The New York Post’s Christopher Cameron took time to analyze the situation, and reported that “many of the old-guard Good Buildings have seen better days. After floundering on the market since 2012, a spacious two-bedroom apartment seeking $2.3 million at 550 Park failed to find a buyer, despite a 36 percent price decrease. Luxury co-ops, once the most stable block of inventory in New York, have seen their prices fall 20 percent from 2014 to 2018, according to top real-estate appraiser Jonathan Miller.”

At 740 Park, Cameron chronicled, “ceaseless publicity, a fire and a crumbling facade have driven choosy oligarchs elsewhere. Susan Gutfreund, the owner of the best apartment in 834 Fifth (widely considered Fifth Avenue’s foremost), can’t find a buyer for her 22-room, 12,000-square-foot duplex. Its asking price is down from $120 million to $68 million. River House was reduced to allowing actress Uma Thurman to purchase a 12-room spread at an $8.5 million discount.”

Recently built luxury condos with tasteful design elements and vastly superior amenities have displaced many of the old guard. “What’s more, condos don’t have intrusive co-op boards, which dissect an applicant’s financials to an embarrassing degree,” the Post noted. “Now the trader who wants to live in his business rival’s building doesn’t have to pull his pants down to get in.”

DeBlasio & Landlords Seek $173M Real Estate Deal Despite Conflicts Of Interest

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Photo Credit: Shutterstock

The city looks to close a $173 million deal to purchase 17 buildings this week for the purpose of turning them into affordable housing. The idea sounds good until you find out that there could be financial conflicts of interest and issues with transparency, the Real Deal reports.

The Real Deal explains how “The de Blasio administration opted to buy the buildings in Brooklyn and the Bronx two years ago from the Podolsky brothers, two landlords with a long record of violations who are currently under federal investigation for tax fraud. And the lawyer who represented them in the portfolio sale to the city is Frank Carone, is a longtime de Blasio ally and fundraiser.”

According to the New York Times, the buildings had an estimated value of $50 million, but a private appraiser put that price at almost $100 million higher for all the properties, at $143 million. The Real Deal reports that the excuse city officials used was that prices increased during negotiations.

It gets murkier though because Carone gave $5,000 of contributions for the political action committee backing the mayor for a possible run at president. De Blasio and Carone stressed that this real estate deal has not come up in conversations between them before.

City comptroller Scott Stringer last month tried to get the appraisals, but he was stonewalled by a city policy of not giving out information that could alter future negotiations.

The mayor’s press secretary, Eric Phillips, said de Blasio’s ties to Carone have no impact on the deal.

“This deal is about improving and securing affordable homes for 2,000 people,” Phillips said in a written statement. “The personal political activity of one of the many lawyers involved never entered into the equation.”

“They’ve never spoken about any details of the deal,” he said about the mayor and Carone.

The mayor has also been busy touring the country as he considers a presidential run. He was asked recently some questions such as what his position on reparations is.

“There’s no question that the issue of reparations has to be taken seriously,” de Blasio said. “I do believe the way to do it is to form a very public commission and say, ‘What is the way to address this problem once and for all?’”

At the event, de Blasio said that there needs to be a larger “discussion about income inequality and oppression of other groups including Latinos, Native Americans, Asian and women.”

“I think we’re going to need something bigger even in a way, broader even in a way, then some of the ideas that have been put out there,” de Blasio said. “I think a program of actual redistribution which includes much heavier taxes on the wealthy.”

“The ultimate resolution has to be profoundly economic,” de Blasio added.

Carl Icahn Sold his Stake in Lyft to George Soros Before its IPO

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Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is backpedaling on his forays into the ride-sharing industry. Instead, he’s cashing out as Lyft goes public. Photo Credit: Lyft

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn was not really involved in the uneven first days of ride-sharing and tech company Lyft going public, and that was because he reportedly sold off the 2.7 percent stake he had in Lyft. While Lyft and Uber had been expected for some time now to go public, one of the bigger questions has always been how these companies, whose investors have effectively been subsidizing rides at a loss, will start turning a profit.

Reports do not disclose how much Icahn could have made from selling his stake, but the bigger picture is that Icahn, a famous investor, saw the temporary liquidation of assets to be more worthwhile than a long-term investment in a company that is supposedly part of the transportation future.

The company did start off with something to cheer about, and maybe Icahn had some moments of pause as he saw the stock go up to a high of 21 percent of the IPO price. Since that high last Friday, the company’s stock price has not done much.

Icahn originally got involved with Lyft when he purchased $100 million worth of Lyft shares in 2015, according to the New York Post. The Wall Street Journal suggests that his stake would be worth about $550 million with Lyft just at the IPO price of $72 a share.

Jonathan Christodoro, a former managing director of Icahn Capital LP who was on Lyft’s board until last month, connected Icahn with Soros, which was worth about $550 million at the IPO price, according to the WSJ report.

It was not clear what price Soros paid for the stake, the WSJ said.

According to a report on the New York Business Journal web site, Lyft went public at a price of $72 a share, which valued the company at $24 billion. Shares rose as high as $88.60, but since then they’ve fallen.

Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green rang the Nasdaq opening bell remotely last Friday from a downtown Los Angeles warehouse in a ceremony attended by Lyft drivers, employees and their families, according to the NYBJ report.

Icahn didn’t give a reason for his sale of his Lyft stake but was reportedly unhappy that Zimmer and Green were given super-voting shares that gave them outsized voting power at the company.

Icahn had Christodoro sitting on the Lyft board as his representative, but Christodoro left the board last month and Icahn declined to replace him on the board. Christodoro has a $900,000 stake in the company, the Journal reported, and he attended the Lyft IPO ceremony in Los Angeles.

“We’re just at the beginning of moving from a world based on car ownership to a world based on transportation as a service built around people. After more than one billion rides, we’re able to look forward to a world we’ve long imagined,” Zimmer and Green said at the IPO event in Los Angeles, adding “we’re just getting started on how we’ll continue to invest in our local communities.”

New Yorkers Rescue Ephemeral Artifacts from City History; Items to be Resold

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One shop, Urban Archaeology in Tribeca, sells pendant lights from the old JFK airport, which at one time was called Idlewild Airport, for $750 as well as chandeliers from Roseland Ballroom for $5,500. Photo Credit: 6sqft.com

The average New Yorker may have a vast appreciation for the city’s history, but outside of conversation, very few would set out to rescue the city’s artifacts.

One shop, Urban Archaeology in Tribeca, sells pendant lights from the old JFK airport, which at one time was called Idlewild Airport, for $750 as well as chandeliers from Roseland Ballroom for $5,500.

“It’s great to not lose parts of our past,” Gil Shapiro, the founder of Urban Archaeology, told the New York Post. “It really pisses me off when people don’t care about history.”

One couple based in Chelsea, Rolan and Irene Shnayder, purchased their condominium in 2017 in part because it had a 1907 marble-laced fireplace in the living room that was salvaged from the Plaza Hotel.

“It was a really sentimental piece for us,” Mrs. Shnayder told The Post.

The previous owner of The Shnayders unit purchased the historic fireplace through Olde Good Things, an antiques company, which salvages the fireplace during the Plaza’s renovation in 2005.

Mrs. Shnayder said that she and her husband “painted the wall [behind the piece] black, to make the white mantel really pop.”

Mrs. Shnayder said that her husband passed away several weeks ago from pancreatic cancer and that before his death, they would attend various formal events at the Plaza hotel.

53-year-old Scott Ewalt, who is a DJ, told the Post that he starting collecting Signage in Times Square during the early ’90s, while Rudy Giuliani was New York’s mayor.

“I started collecting because I was rescuing a part of culture that was disappearing,” Mr. Ewalt told The Post.

Mr. Ewalt told The Post that in the 90s, he purchased signage from two Times Square theaters for $500 each.

“I started asking all the adult businesses [for their signs],” Mr. Ewalt said. “I particularly love anything that’s hand-painted.”

“I like things that have led a life already, more than things that are brand new,” he said.

Another man, Joe Jeffreys, a theater studies professor at NYU, said that he purchased a sign by a nightclub on E. 4th Street between Bowery and Second Ave.

“I knew that [sign] had to be in my life,” Mr. Jeffreys told The Post. “I offered the guy [taking it down] $100 or something and walked it home.”

Mr. Jeffreys said that the purchase was the start of a lifelong collection.

“It resonates, it has an aura,” Mr. Jeffreys said.

He said that he likes to light up the fluorescent sign, which says Club 82, as often as he can.

“I kind of use it as a night light,” Mr. Jeffreys said. “It is a beacon to me.”

Brazilian Prez Bolsonaro Says He Has Not Changed His Mind About Moving Embassy to J’slm

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Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said in an interview with a local radio station on Monday that he had not changed his mind about the relocation of the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, though he did not provide a timeline for the move. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tells local radio station he hasn’t changed his mind about relocating Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said in an interview with a local radio station on Monday that he had not changed his mind about the relocation of the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, though he did not provide a timeline for the move.

Bolsonaro, who visited Israel last week, announced that Brazil would be opening a trade office with diplomatic status in Jerusalem but did not say the embassy would be relocated from Tel Aviv to the Israeli capital.

Bolsonaro announced after his election that he intended to uphold his campaign promise and move the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem.

Before his arrival in Israel, the Brazilian president fueled speculation that his government might renege on his campaign promise to move the Brazilian embassy to Jerusalem, after he told local reporters his government might open a “business office” in Jerusalem.

In announcing the trade office in Jerusalem, Brazil’s Foreign Minister, Ernesto Araujo, said the move would not come in place of the promised embassy move – but would be the first step towards an embassy relocation.

Arab leaders have condemned Bolsonaro’s plan to relocate the embassy to Jerusalem and have pressured him not to go through with it.

The Arab League recently warned Bolsonaro that moving the embassy to Jerusalem would be a setback for relations with Arab countries.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) envoy to Brazil warned recently that moving Brazil’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would be an “attack” on Palestinian people and a breach of international law.

Last week Bolsonaro visited Jerusalem’s Western Wall, standing right by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has quickly become one of the new Brazilian president’s closest allies. Bolsonaro’s visit makes the South American leader the very first head of state to ever appear side by side with an Israeli prime minister at the Western Wall. His visit to the holy site has been interpreted as a tacit endorsement of Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem and its environs.

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the occasion marked the first time that a current state head went to the site with an Israeli prime minister A7 reports.

Bolsonaro’s visit follows a similar one by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from a few weeks ago, which was also an occasion for being the first time a top American visited the wall with an Israeli prime minister. As a few other nations follow America in backing Israel’s declaration that Jerusalem is the capital, Bolsonaro keeps showing that he is also on board with making sure his nation does everything in its power to show it stands strongly with Israel under all circumstances.

Bolsonaro has talked before about why he supports Israel so much, saying a Christian pilgrimage to the Jordan River from a couple of years ago left a lasting impression.

             (INN)

Israeli Victim’s Family Outraged Terrorist Won’t Get Death Penalty

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Family and friends attend the funeral of Israeli soldier Ronen Lubarsky at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem, May 27, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Although the terrorist who killed First Sergeant Lubarsky was convicted of murder, Lubarsky’s family is angry he won’t receive the death penalty.

The Hamas supporter who killed First Sergeant Ronen Lubarsky with a marble slab during an IDF mission in an Arab village near Ramallah last May was found guilty by an Israeli military court on Sunday.

“The military court in Judea (the West Bank) convicted the terrorist Islam Yousef Abu Hamid on charges of murdering soldier Ronen Lubarsky,” the Army said in a statement.

Abu Hamid had dropped a 40-pound marble slab onto First Sergeant Lubarsky’s head in an attempt to interfere with an arrest mission the IDF was carrying out in the village of al-Amari.

First Sergeant Lubarsky died in the hospital two days later from his wounds. Abu Hamid was caught a few weeks later and confessed.

Arik Lubarsky, Ronen’s brother, reacted to the conviction by demanding the death penalty.

“The time has come for the Military Advocate General to demand that the lowly terrorist be sentenced to death,” he said, “and we will not demand less than that. If necessary, I will be the one who will be happy to carry out the sentence.”

“It is a shame that instead of executing the terrorists, the State of Israel is conducting negotiations with them in the prisons. When the first terrorist will be hung in the city square, it will prevent further terror attacks,” Mr. Lubarsky said.

Lubarsky’s family had boycotted the trial, calling it a “farce” specifically because according to their lawyer, Maurice Hirsch, it was set up so that Abu Hamid would not receive the death penalty.

Hirsch expressed mixed feelings at the trial’s end.

“Even though we can only express satisfaction with the conviction of Ronen’s vile murderer, the fact that the political echelon and the Military Advocate General’s Office did not see fit to seek the death penalty constitutes a serious blow to deterrence,” he said. “The time has come to change the policy on the death penalty, in order to prevent the next murder.”

In December, the IDF destroyed the family home of Abu Hamid after the High Court rejected a petition to limit the destruction to only two floors of the house.

However, as revealed in a detailed report in January by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, none other than PA President Mahmoud Abbas immediately ordered the rebuilding of Abu Hamid’s home at Palestinian Authority expense.

Abu Hamid is a known Hamas supporter, having spent five years, from 2004 to 2009, in prison for his terrorist activities. He also has brothers who are currently jailed for terrorism offenses, including murder.

            (WIN)

Israeli Space Probe Snaps Moon Shots, Preparing To Land

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Israel’s probe gets closer to making history. Before landing on the moon, it also snapped some amazing shots of the lunar object itself. PHOTO CREDIT: Space IL

Israel’s Beresheet spacecraft is looking good as it gets closer to becoming one of the only times a country ever landed a probe on the moon. So far, the craft is moving into position and even snapped some out-of-this-world photos of the far side of the moon, Fox News reports.

The Israeli probe made into into the lunar orbit on April 4 and sent the beauty of the moon back to Earth, and Fox News adds that the probe should touch down at around 4 p.m. New York time this Thursday. So when you get out of work, there may be reason to head to happy hour and celebrate an Israeli accomplishment.

According to Fox News, along with America, the old Soviet Union and China remain the only countries to make “soft landings” on the moon’s surface. This unmanned probe would make Israel a part of that rarified air. Beresheet means beginning, which is fitting for this first lunar voyage.

Project SpaceIL, which has developed the spacecraft, was launched as a national project at Beit HaNasi, with its president, Morris Kahan, endowing the project to the State of Israel just days ahead of its historic launch into space.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin was presented with a copy of a time capsule that will travel to the moon with the first Israeli spacecraft. The time capsule consists of three discs, each containing hundreds of digital files, including Israeli national symbols like Israel’s Declaration of Independence, the Bible, Israel’s national anthem “Hatikvah” and the Israeli flag.

“This is a defining moment, and in two days the first Israeli spacecraft will be launched to the moon,” Rivlin said before the launch a few months ago. “Until now, only the superpowers – the United States, the former Soviet Union and China – have landed on the moon. If all goes well, the small and young State of Israel will be the fourth country in history to land a spacecraft on the moon.”

The Jewish Voice had previously reported that Israel Aerospace Industries’ first lunar spacecraft began a historic journey to the moon when it was transported in a cargo plane from Ben Gurion Airport to Orlando, Fla.

SpaceIL and IAI had to pack the 180-kilogram spacecraft into a special temperature-controlled, sterile shipping container, built to protect the spacecraft and ensure it arrives safely at the launch site. After landing at Orlando International Airport, the spacecraft was then driven to the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where it was added as a secondary payload by launch service provider Spaceflight. It was launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket together with a geostationary communications satellite built by SSL.

The probe will touch down somewhere within Mare Serenitatis, which is up in the moon’s northern hemisphere. SpaceIL said that magnetic anomalies near the site would allow an onboard magnetometer device to take measurements in order to collect data for one of its science experiments. This data will be shared with NASA, and the device itself was developed with Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, Fox News reports.

NGO Seeks to Sway Israeli Elections by Busing in Bedouins

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Zazim, financed by the New Israel Fund, wants to bus Bedouin to the polls. (Flash90/Hadas Parush)

An Israeli human rights group asked Israel’s State Comptroller to investigate an NGO which plans to bus in Bedouin voters residing in illegal settlements in the Negev to sway the Israeli election.

Israeli human rights organization, Betzalmo, petitioned the State Comptroller of Israel yesterday requesting an immediate investigation into illegal activities on the part of non-governmental organization Zazim.

Zazim has been running a campaign to collect funds and recruit volunteers to transport Bedouin residents residing in illegal villages in the Negev to polling stations for the April 9 elections. The Bedouin are legal voters and residents of Israel.

Zazim was founded with funds from the New Israel Fund, which together with associated organizations, provides 60 percent of the NGO’s annual budget. The New Israel Fund has developed a reputation for funding controversial groups in Israel. It is registered in the United States.

In his petition to State Comptroller Yosef Shapira, Betzalmo CEO Shai Glick argues that a foreign organization is interfering in Israeli elections, something that is forbidden by Israeli law.

On its website, Zazim says it works toward social and political change without partisanship. However, in an email sent by Zazim to recruit volunteers and donations for its transport project, it states that its aim is to bring 50,000 Bedouin to the polling stations and build an obstructive block in the Knesset against ‘incitement to racism’ and to work against those unwilling to cooperate with the Arab political parties.

Another Israeli nonprofit, Im Tirtzu, requested that Israel’s Central Elections Committee intervene last week. Its request was denied on April 4, because only parties with representatives in the Knesset or participating in the elections have standing before the committee.

Zazim Deputy Director Maayan Dak told Israeli paper Makor Rishon that Zazim does not operate outside the law.

Following Betzlamo’s petition to the State Comptroller, Zazim submitted a statement to World Israel News, in which it said: “Just when the Likud has spent a million shekels on Facebook [ads] this past week, the prime minister attacks a civilian initiative that cost 75,000 NIS [New Israeli Shekels] of small donations. This is part of his ongoing attack against the Arab minority and attempts to silence their voice and deny them access to their basic democratic right to vote.”

New Israel Fund spokesman Idan Gadot told World Israel News that “all Israelis have the obligation to encourage voting in elections, Jews and Arabs alike. We are proud that Zazim has taken this important step to allow each citizen to participate in the election.”

In addition to Betzalmo’s petition to the State Comptroller, the Likud Party submitted a petition on Sunday evening to the Central Elections Committee arguing that Zazim is “unlawfully intervening in elections in favor of the Blue and White Party, run by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid.”

(World Israel News)

First Ever 2,000-Year Old Jewish Settlement Uncovered in Beersheba

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A shard of lamp depicting a menorah found at the site is "probably one of the earliest artistic depictions of a nine-branched menorah yet discovered.” (Israel Antiquities Authority/Anat Rasiuk)

A Jewish settlement dating from the Second Temple period has recently been discovered in Beersheba.

The remains of a Jewish settlement from the Second Temple period have recently been discovered in Beersheba in southern Israel, the first time such findings have been unearthed.

As in multiple previous occurrences in Israel, the exciting discovery was chanced upon and the archaeological excavation was carried out after construction for a new neighborhood near the northern entrance to Beersheba revealed evidence of a 2,000-year-old Jewish community.

The findings revealed Jewish day-to-day life there, including part of an oil lamp decorated with a nine-branched menorah, one of the oldest such discovered by researchers. Limestone vessels used by Jews for reasons of ritual purity, a watchtower and more interesting findings were also found at the dig.

The site, dated to the first century C.E. up until the Bar-Kochba Revolt against the Roman Empire in 135 C.E., also appears to contain underground hidden passageways used by the Jewish rebels.

Dr. Peter Fabian of the Ben-Gurion University in the Negev, and Dr. Daniel Varga of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said that the “remains of the settlement cover an area of about two dunams and include several structures and installations, such as the foundations of a large watchtower, baking facilities, ancient trash pits and an underground system that was probably used as a Jewish ritual bath (mikveh).”

Signs of a blaze discovered in some of the structures show a crisis that the settlement experienced, probably during the First Jewish Revolt in 70 C.E.

The site is located along the southern border of the ancient kingdom of Judah next to a road that led from Tel Beersheba to the southern coastal plain.

The site’s strategic value along the road was probably the reason for the construction of a 10 x 10 meter watchtower, the foundations of which were uncovered in the excavation. The remains of a staircase would have led upwards to the two upper levels that are no longer extant. During the Late Roman period, the stones of the tower were used to construct other nearby buildings.

The special finds uncovered in the excavation included a shard of an oil lamp of a type known as a Jewish “Southern lamp.” There was great excitement when the shard was cleaned and its decoration revealed: a nine-branched menorah.

Fabian and Varga explained that “this is probably one of the earliest artistic depictions of a nine-branched menorah yet discovered.”

It is interesting to note that of the few lamps found depicting a menorah, these are never seven-branched. This was in accordance with a ruling in the Babylonian Talmud stating that only the menorah in the Temple could have seven branches and thus lamps used in domestic contexts commonly had eight to eleven branches.

Dozens of bronze coins dating to the period of Roman provincial rule were found along the road. Some were minted in Ashkelon and others were minted in cities from throughout the Roman Empire.

            (TPS)

Trump to Bring Iran to Its Knees!

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Pictured above is Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Photo Credit: Al Jazeera

One of President Trump’s major talking points leading up to his election in 2016, was that he would immediately seek to punish Iran for its bucket-load of worldwide terrorist activities by voiding the Obama inspired Iranian Nuclear Deal formally referred to as the JCPA. He did just that as one of his first acts in the White House, ignoring the weeping and wailing of the radical Left, including Jewish legislators, who claimed such an action would lead to an angry, hostile Iran who would feel no restraints in immediately developing a nuclear device and, as they promised to, use it to obliterate Israel. Not so. Now Mr. Trump has gone one step further by designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (IRG), the elite fighting force of that nation, as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

This will surely initiate responses from those who originally were against punishing Iran for its worldwide actions of terror. In its statement to the press, the State Department listed many reasons for this action to combat Iranian terror. A pronouncement from president’s spokesperson noted that the IRG provides funding, equipment, training and logistical support to terrorist groups including Hezballah, Hamas, the Palestinian and Islamic Jihad. It also has been directly involved in terrorist plots in nations such as Germany, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Turkey and Kenya, to name just a few. They (the IRG) have now been pinpointed by Trump as the merchants of death exported to do the dirty work of Iran.

The President’s Press Secretary noted: “This action sends a clear message to Tehran that its support for terrorism has serious consequences. We will continue to increase financial pressure and raise the costs on the Iranian regime for its support of terrorist activity until it abandons its malign and outlaw behavior.” It’s about time a nation not only had the guts to speak the truth about this deadly,Jihadist regime but had the moral strength to follow it up with actions to bring it down to its knees. And we did it!

This attack on the IRG is merely the second step in Trump’s efforts to defang Iran from its capabilities to wreak havoc around the world. Its military, led by this elite group is now engaged in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen. He walked out of the Iran deal nearly a year ago and was immediately attacked by the Left crying that it would bring nothing but problems for to our country and our allies in the Middle East. Rather, it’s apparent that Trump’s move to stand up to Iran has paid off handsomely to the safety and welfare of the entire world, including those nations of the European Union whose underlying concerns were merely the loss of their financially rewarding trading partner, Iran. Foolishly, they see no further than securing contracts with the nation that seeks their destruction.

In reality, Trump’s sanctions have exacerbated Iran’s financial crisis by undermining their support for terrorist groups now operating in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and in Palestinian dominated areas. These forces are not being paid what they were promised by Tehran. Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, has voiced complaints to his paymasters blaming American sanctions for the payroll problem. Trump’s actions in breaking the deal Obama glad-handed with the Mullahs also generated a renewed interest on our part to dig into Hezbollah’s criminal activities which were scandalously ignored prior to his taking office. In order to appease Iran, Obama looked the other way at this terror group’s involvement in drug dealing, money laundering and assassinations.

The pressure of the sanctions on the ordinary citizens of Iran has also awakened the Green Party, those young people who took to the streets in 2009 to oppose the harsh religious practices of their leaders, to speak out and take to the streets, not only demanding the meeting of basic necessities such as food, fuel and housing but also insisting that the government stop funding foreign military ventures while the economic situation at home gets worse. Harsher sanctions will increase the public’s pressure to give in to America’s demands. A “no win” situation for the failing Islamic government.

One has to wonder if former President Obama, while largely silent on Trump’s moves against Iran, is not active behind the scenes, giving aid and comfort to his buddies in Tehran? It takes us back to the late Senator Teddy Kennedy’s obvious treasonous actions back in 1983 when he sent a memo to the Kremlin giving them advice on how to intervene in our 1984 elections in order to topple then President Reagan. It is not out of the question that Iran might be stalling until the 2020 elections to see if Trump is defeated and then with a new, more friendly government under Obama’s domination, they could again be free to complete their creation of a worldwide Caliphate.

After all, Democrats Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris both have promised to bring that deal back to life if elected. And you can be certain that the other Democrats running against them share that thought. Should we then be a bit concerned that Iran may take a stab at attempting to use whatever means they have at their disposal to work diligently against Trump’s re-election? Collusion? After all, they have everything to gain by dealing once again with a friendly president.

Iran is a hot potato issue. It stands on the brink of becoming a nuclear power with leaders as crazy as those of North Korea. We are proud that our administration has pushed Iran against the wall at no heavy cost to us or our allies. By crippling and bringing down the deadly leadership of Iran, the better off and safer the Middle East and we will be. We feel that more pressure on Iran will lead to its present government’s downfall and eventually for its peaceful electorate to regain authority and with that democracy, in that nation. Go for it Donald!

Letters to the Editor

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Rallies and the Rise of Anti-Semitism

Dear Editor:

The small-to-moderate size rallies currently demonstrating the frustration of Jews of conscience over the rise of anti-Semitism in the US, including those in which I have participated, is heartening, but ultimately of little practical effect.

Absent a major and coordinated national response by organized Jewry, it can be said that the “golden age” of American Jewry has peaked and will decline. While right-wing neo-Nazi assailants must be outed and fought, it is the mainly politically liberal orientation of organized Jewry which prohibits them from recognizing and acting against the real threat to support for Israel and American Jewry: the leftist-Islamist alliance.

That alliance is poisoning all academic environments, promoting BDS and delegitimization, destroying support for Israel with false charges amongst academic elites and thus the next generation–and now electing leftist and Islamist extremists into all levels of government. This narrative is not what organized Jewry prefers to discuss. Yes, the neo-Nazis must be smashed–but they are not the threat to the presence of Jews in America, nor can they threaten Israel. First and foremost, the leftist-Islamist alliance’s design is the destruction of Israel.

Sincerely

Jeff Wiesenfeld

 


Shame on Candidates for Boycotting AIPAC

Dear Editor:

You can judge a person’s character by the company they keep. The following Democratic Party 2020 Presidential Primary candidates did not attend the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee Washington DC Conference. There was no excuse as the event was scheduled many months earlier. This dishonor role included Senators Corey Booker (New Jersey), Bernie Sanders (Vermont), Kamala Harris (California), Kirsten Gillibrand (New York), Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), Congressmember Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), former Congressmember Beto O’Rourke (Texas), John Delaney (Maryland), Governor Jay Insle (Washington), former Governor John Hickenloop (Colorado), Mayor Pete Buttigieg (South Bend, Indiana), and former San Antonio Mayor/Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Julian Castro were nowhere to be found. Several hid in the comfort of their Capital Hill Offices to hold meetings with AIPAC representatives away from any media coverage.

Contrast this with the fact that most found the time to attend and speak at the Reverand Al Sharpton’s Annual National Action Network Conference held this past week in Manhattan. This list included Beto O’Rourke, Julian Castro, John Delaney, Pete Buttigieg, John Hickenlooper, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. Those who could not find the time to publicly attend the AIPAC Washington conference yet found the time to hold hands and kiss the ring of Al Sharpton looking for his political blessing are not kosher when it comes to being a true friend of Israel. They do not deserve either your vote or campaign contribution.

Sincerely,

Larry Penner

 


Disagrees with Cuomo on MTA Ineptness

Dear Editor,

I was a little irked by the governor’s comments and attitude from your article “Cuomo Slams MTA for Ineptness at Association for a Better New York Luncheon.”

“Vendors are installing technology they designed in the ’80s. I believe there is better technology out there,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. “If you can figure out how a car can fly and you can get in a car that drives you by itself to Southampton, you have to be able to have technology where one train can tell you where the other train is on a closed system.”

He’s talking like a true politician. His words mean nothing, and he may not know what he’s talking about. It’s really convenient to be in a position where you can just wish for things that are untenable or don’t exist yet, especially coming from the guy who says he is not in control of the MTA, until he declares an emergency and then does as he pleases while skirting any and all responsibility for the everyday problems of New Yorkers.

The newer technology is on PATH trains now. The railroad was required to meet the PTC mandate. The subway system actually has CBTC on the L train Canarsie line and is working out the kinks on the newly installed CBTC technology on the 7 train Flushing line. The technology, paired with experienced subway operators and dispatchers, could allow lines to operate over 30 trains an hour, which would mean waiting less than two minutes for a train and still having a safer ride. With more train frequency, there is also less dangerous crowding on platforms and fewer delays from dwell time.

Even though this technology is promising, the agency has dragged its feet. The technology would really help the system, as would continuously expanding it. I don’t know what the governor is talking about when he says better technology exists. He ought to let the agency do its work without impugning the character and integrity of so many MTA employees.

Sincerely,

Lisa Friedman

 


The Future of Ride-Share Companies

Dear Editor,

I read your article “Carl Icahn Sold his Stake in Lyft to George Soros Before its IPO” and still wonder how these ride-share companies are even supposed to make money. And this is before we even get into the environmental disaster that these extra vehicles are causing.

Lyft co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green rang the Nasdaq opening bell remotely on Friday from a downtown Los Angeles warehouse in a ceremony attended by Lyft drivers, employees and their families, and the stock went up and down since.

Meanwhile, Icahn didn’t give a reason for his sale of his Lyft stake but was reportedly unhappy that Zimmer and Green were given super-voting shares that gave them outsized voting power at the company.

In any case, I still am curious to see how companies like Lyft and Uber progress from here. I wouldn’t expect the standardization of autonomous vehicles anytime soon, and investors had already been helping these companies make the rides their workers provide artificially cheap. As it is, I’ve wondered where people are getting this money to afford paying for these car services when a subway or bus ride costs $2.75 and a bike ride is virtually free. What happens if Lyft has to start charging significantly more?

These vehicles are not the way of the future in cities anyway. Buses and trains can move thousands of passengers at rates far more efficient than vehicles that often have one or two occupants. All of the space taken up by these vehicles adds up quickly, as do the toxic emissions that are harmful to the environment, life, and contribute to climate change.

If only our country had the same enthusiasm about walking, biking, skating, and riding buses and trains as it did for cars, then maybe we would be able to create a more just society where getting around is cheap, sustainable, and brings together the community.

Sincerely,

Amber Rasey

Why the Left Hates Netanyahu So Passionately

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Benjamin Netanyahu left few cartridges in his opponents' arsenals. He has made Israel richer and safer; he used military force without being sucked into war; he has improved relations with hostile neighbors and world leaders and was elected prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to today. Photo Credit: Flash 90

Binyamin Netanyahu is the other Israel. That’s why the Left hates him

Benjamin Netanyahu left few cartridges in his opponents’ arsenals. He has made Israel richer and safer; he used military force without being sucked into war; he has improved relations with hostile neighbors and world leaders and was elected prime minister from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to today.

Voters from conservative religious, Russian-speaking immigrants and Mizrahi (Jews from the Arab world) remain his solid base of Likud. They are the nemesis of the leftist élite. Big families from traditional, conservative societies of the Arab world.

The secret of Netanyahu’s success lies in places such as Kiryat Malachi, the “city of angels”, a stronghold of the conservatism of large families. The sons of “Israel hashniah”, the second Israel, which did not establish the state, but became its strength, those of the refugee camps of tents and DDT sprinkled on the new arrivals, the youths relegated to the army to the humblest jobs, while the élite like Shimon Peres climbed the Ministry of Defense. The right-wing revisionists, the religious Jews, the Mizrahi Jews who emigrated from the Arab lands, the petty bourgeoisie of the new cities, all were neglected and hated by the old Israeli establishment.

Labor has the highest number of votes in 28 of the 33 richest cities, while the Likud enjoys a very high majority in the lower-middle economy classes; In 64 of these 77 cities, the first is the Likud. Netanyahu wins in Judea and Samaria, but also on the outskirts of the Green Line, in places such as Sderot (42.8), Ashkelon (39.8), Or Yehuda (40.5), Ramle (39.8), Tiberias (44.5) and Kiryat Shmona (39.9).

In this last city Peres and his ministers were whistled at loudly when they visited the city, while Netanyahu was hailed as a hero. These are the cities under Hamas and Hezbollah threats and most of them are cities inhabited by Jews from the Arab world. Netanyahu has 40 percent of the votes in peripheral cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod.

The centrist coalition is strong in the coastal megalopolis from Tel Aviv to Haifa. It is the “white tribe” of Ashkenazi Jews whose families have been in the country longer, they are secular, connected, educated, globalized, with higher incomes. In Kfar Shamriyahu, the richest city in Israel, left-wing parties have 75 percent. It is an amorphous group of Jews of Ashkenazi origin who live north of Tel Aviv and deeply despise the religious Jews. The right-wing Likud was once the party of the educated bourgeoisie. Today it is voted for by the lower economic class, which feels excluded and oppressed by the élite. The majority of the Israeli left is made up of senior state officials, middle-senior pensioners, professors, professionals, whose careers and lives have always been based on state institutions. They grew up in the world of Ben Gurion, while Israeli society was changing.

But the majority of the Ashkenazis do vote for Netanyahu. Like those who have a shop, or are an entrepreneur. The left is voted for by old pensioners in nursing homes raised in a socialist society. The immigrants vote on the right. The young people, those who arrived thirty years ago, also vote right. The poor in Israel are less socialist than the rich.

The ideological consensus is vastly for the right. The strong ideas are that there is no option for peace with the Palestinians; an aggressive foreign policy towards Iran; economically in favor of the free market and less welfare; a cultural traditionalism. The Left would turn Israel into a multicultural society.

In Israel during the 1990s there was a strong attempt by the old elite to say “we have arrived at peace and we have to pay a price”. The Israelis tried for ten years, until Ariel Sharon. Then they woke up. There will be no “peace”.

The Left tried to commit suicide. And it lost all credibility.

(INN)

Speaking Out Against Anti-Israeli Bashing at NYU in Open Letter to College President

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In April 2018, NYU President Andrew D. Hamilton denounced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This was an amazing step forward for the community and for helping Jewish and pro-Israel students feel safe on campus. Photo Credit: NYU

On April 4th, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) announced on their Facebook page that they were selected to receive the NYU President’s Service Award, given to students that have had an “extraordinary” and “positive” impact on the school’s community. It is clear to so many students on campus, Jewish, non-Jewish and pro-Israel, that this group does the exact opposite of improving the “quality of student life at New York University.” This has not yet been confirmed by NYU, but even the possibility cannot be ignored and must be addressed.

SJP has worked immensely hard each year to demonstrate their anti-Israel hatred, sometimes even violently, in more ways than one. Realize Israel, a pro-Israel group on NYU’s campus, mentioned in a Facebook post that members of SJP have defaced Israel’s flag, physically assaulted pro-Israel students, and continually present factually inaccurate anti-Israel resolutions to the Student Government Assembly. Why celebrate such behaviors with an award? Why give an award to an organization that, in itself, is “anti” and not to an organization that is, solely, “pro?”

We ask NYU’s Senior Vice President of Student Affairs, Marc Wais, if any of the pro-Israel groups on campus will be selected for this year’s award because none were chosen in 2018. We hope that NYU’s leadership recognizes that 1) Israel is at the forefront of improving the world with its focus on human rights, diversity, and equality for all its citizens 2) Israel, a country the size of New Jersey, is leading the world in innovation within the healthcare, agriculture, and various technological fields. 3) When Humanitarian crises strike throughout world, particularly natural disasters, Israel is, always, one of the first countries to utilize their financial resources, technology, and manpower to help recover and rebuild. How ironic is it that, a group, who has blatantly shamed students who devote their efforts to support a country that helps communities all over the world, is now being praised?

In April 2018, NYU President Andrew D. Hamilton denounced the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. This was an amazing step forward for the community and for helping Jewish and pro-Israel students feel safe on campus. The Jewish, non-Jewish and pro-Israel community thanked him then and again say now— THANK YOU President Hamilton for standing against the BDS movement. But why is the student organization that very much supports the BDS movement allegedly receiving your prestigious President’s Service Award?

President Andrew D. Hamilton must review this decision. The severity of the situation is unfathomable, as the repercussion of this action would result in a great detriment to the community— especially for Jewish and pro-Israel students who already feel quite unsafe.

As a student studying in New York City and a member of the pro-Israel community, I feel that honoring SJP would be a huge step back in the progress we have made in striving to make our communities feel safe and comfortable. So many students feel ashamed or embarrassed in their pro-Israel ideals because of organizations like SJP, who aim to disregard, deter, and diminish any such freedoms of belief and support for Israel. I hope that this sentiment is recognized and seriously considered before making the mistake of honoring this organization.

In the words on Alan Dershowitz: “No country in the history of the world has ever contributed more to humankind and accomplished more for its people in so brief a period of time as Israel has done since its relatively recent rebirth in 1948.”

Sincerely,

Romy Ronen
Freshman at Columbia University
Member, Israeli-American Council–Act.IL New York Media Room

Turkey’s Elections: What Do They Mean for Turkey and Erdogan?

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On March 31, the Turks went to the ballot box to elect mayors for their cities. Ostensibly the election results marked President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s 15thconsecutive election victory since his (Islamist) Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002. The AKP won the biggest number of votes (44%) nationwide. Its ultra-nationalist ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won 7% of the vote. That was good news for Erdoğan. In reality, it was good but incomplete news for Turkey’s Islamist strongman.

“Who loses Istanbul [in elections] loses Turkey,” Erdoğan roared in a 2018 speech, underlying the importance of big Turkish cities in municipal elections.

He may be right. Winning Istanbul and Ankara was how political Islam eventually won Turkey. Precisely 25 years ago, in March 1994, the municipal elections caused a series of seismic events in the then-secular Turkish political landscape: In an altogether shocking election result the (Islamist) Welfare Party (RP) won Ankara and Istanbul, with Erdoğan elected as mayor of Turkey’s biggest city. RP’s leader, Necmettin Erbakan, Erdoğan’s mentor became Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister after he won the biggest number of votes in parliamentary elections in 1995, just a year after the party had won two of Turkey’s biggest cities.

Ironically, 25 years later, Turkey’s Islamists lost Ankara and Istanbul in another municipal election, although Erdoğan’s AKP, citing vote rigging and other irregularities, challenged the results. The claim is particularly ironic as in all of past elections Erdogan was accused of vote-rigging, but only now, for the first time, are they complaining about irregularities. According to the Supreme Election Board, so far known to be a pro-Erdoğan rubber-stamp authority, opposition candidates won both Ankara and Istanbul. Ruşen Çakır, a Turkish columnist, said, perhaps prematurely:

“The election today is as historic as the local election in 1994. It’s the announcement of a page that was opened 25 years ago and is now being closed”.

“While losing Istanbul would be a nuclear defeat for Erdoğan,” said Soner Çagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “losing Ankara, which is shorthand for political power and government, is a pretty significant loss”.

In addition, the opposition bloc won several big cities that had traditionally voted for Erdoğan’s AKP. With Sunday’s results, the entire Turkish coastline of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas — as well as the capital, Ankara, some major cities in Central Anatolia, the entire Thrace region and two provinces in northeastern Turkey — went to the opposition. The predominantly Kurdish southeast was, as always, divided between the pro-Kurdish People’s Democracy Party and AKP.

What do the election results mean for Turkey and Erdoğan? A few observations:

Allegations about Erdoğan’s/AKP’s vote-rigging have never been unconvincing, but the magnitude was hard to prove. It was anyone’s guess: from 1% to 10%. This author has been on the lower end of the wide spectrum. The election results in Istanbul, now disputed by the AKP, put the opposition candidate into the lead by a margin of 23,000 votes in a city with 10.5 million voters.

It was the economy, not politics, that caused the average Turk, otherwise a staunch supporter of Erdoğan, to feel bitter about the government. In 2018, the Turkish lira hit record-low levels against major Western currencies; the unemployment rate hit a nine-year-high; inflation spiked, and the economy shrank by 2.4% in the last quarter of the year and 1.6% in the third quarter. Jesse Colombo of Forbes wrote:

“Though Turkey’s government and many commentators are blaming the Trump administration and foreign speculators for the country’s economic downturn, the reality is that it was already ‘baked into the cake’ many years ago due to the credit bubble that formed”.

That “baking into the cake” is Erdoğan’s worst nightmare. His election defeat, coupled with a new wave of economic and financial crises (a new Turkish lira plunge, surging bond and inflation rates, several conglomerates in the defaulting queue, more jobless voters, price hikes, more taxes and banking restrictions) could force Erdoğan into early presidential and parliamentary elections (now scheduled for June 2023). Erdoğan, relying on his nationalist partner, MHP, has played down the message of the municipal elections, ruling out early national elections at any time. “Please do not be heartbroken with this result,” Erdoğan told party loyalists after the March 31 election results came in. “As of tomorrow morning, we will start finding and making up for our shortcomings,” Erdogan added.

Ironically, the two “kingmaker” forces in the near future of Turkish politics will be the two camps that have traditionally been most hostile to each other: Turkish and Kurdish nationalists, both of which have around a 10% popularity in nationwide elections. Until 2016, Erdoğan courted the Kurds and deeply antagonized Turkish nationalists, including his best ally, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli. He then scrapped all peace talks with the Kurds, made a U-turn and allied himself with Bahçeli — a smart maneuver that earned him votes in the 2018 presidential race. After March 31, Erdoğan can easily calculate that his dependency on Bahçeli has grown even bigger. Bahçeli, for his part, could be tempted to abandon Erdoğan and, before a near-crisis has turned into a perfect storm, call for early national elections, by citing economic mismanagement.

Simple religious Islamist conservative and ultra-nationalist populism are still keeping Erdoğan in power, but there are signs that, if the economy keeps getting worse, those forces may not be able to save him. There are many signs that this is taking place.

(Gatestone Institute)

Burak Bekdil, one of Turkey’s leading journalists, was recently fired from the country’s most noted newspaper after 29 years, for writing in Gatestone what is taking place in Turkey. He is a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

An Open Letter to the Pulitzer Prize Committee: Don’t Reward Fake News

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Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Among the leading candidates for a Pulitzer Prize in investigative journalism is the Miami Herald and its reporter Julie K. Brown for its series on the Jeffrey Epstein case. The series, however, was not based on rigorous and objective investigation, but rather on one sided, and largely false tips from self-interested lawyers who used the series to their financial advantage. Brown refused to investigate and/or publish highly credible information that undercut the simplistic and largely false narrative fed her by her biased sources. I know, because I have been providing her with much of the documents and information she chose to bury rather than report. Had she reported this contradictory material, she would have endangered the Pulitzer Prize she has been aiming to win. The Pulitzer Committee should not reward such biased and result oriented “reporting” by giving her the prize.

Here is the truthful narrative Brown refused to report. Every fact can be documented. At the center of Brown’s story in a woman in her mid-30s named Virginia Roberts Guiffre, who has a long and documented history of lying about sexual and other encounters with famous people, including presidents, prime ministers, princes and other politicians and celebrities. She sold a story for $160,000 to a British scandal sheet in which she described in great detail meeting Vice President Al Gore, his then wife Tipper and President Bill Clinton on Jeffrey Epstein’s Caribbean island. The only problem is that Secret Service and other records conclusively proved that none of them was ever on that Island and that the Gores didn’t even know Epstein.

Yet she subsequently committed perjury by swearing to these falsehoods. Among the men she accused of having sex with her when she was underage were a former Senate Majority Leader, a former United Nations Ambassador, a former Israeli Prime Minister and a head of state. She also accused Leslie Wexner, a billionaire owner of Victoria’s Secret, of having underage sex with her on multiple occasions and making her wear Victoria’s Secret-type lingerie. Yet her own employment records prove that she was well above the age of consent when she claims these liaisons occurred— in the unlikely event they ever occurred at all.

There is one set of allegations that I know for certain was completely made up. She accused me of having sex with her on six occasions in different places, although I have never even met her. I was fortunate enough to have travel, cell phone and AmEx records that conclusively prove that I could not have been on Epstein’s Caribbean Island, New Mexico ranch, Palm Beach mansion or private airplane during the relevant time period. A careful review of these records led Giuffre’s own lawyer to conclude — in a lawfully recorded conversation— that it would have been impossible for me to have been where she falsely claimed to have had sex with me, and that his client’s accusations against me were “wrong,” “simply wrong.”

A thorough review of these records and other evidence also led the former head of the FBI to conclude that the allegations against me were disproved and false. Even Giuffre’s best friend said that Giuffre told her she had never accused me until she was “pressured” by her lawyers to do so. There are also sealed emails and a book manuscript written by Guiffre that conclusively prove I was falsely framed. Hopefully they will soon be unsealed.

So how did Pulitzer candidate Brown deal with all this evidence discrediting her primary source? She simply omitted any mention of it and presented Giuffre as an entirely credible witness with no doubts about her truthfulness.

In an email to her editor which she copied me (deliberately or inadvertently) she said that I had presented no evidence that “prove [my] innocence.” She discounted the findings of the former Federal Judge and FBI Director Louis Freeh with the following put down: “[Freeh] is a former Attorney General whose work has been questioned.” No, Freeh’s investigations have been relied on by universities, corporations and other institutions throughout the world. Brown didn’t even bother to call Freeh.

Brown deliberately and mendaciously misled her readers— and the Pulitzer Committee — by choosing to omit from her narrative every single document, sworn testimony and other proof that would raise questions about the credibility of her primary source. She admitted to me in a consensually recorded conversation that there is absolutely no evidence corroborating or supporting Giuffre’s accusation against me, but she did not publish that important fact. Nor did she publish the fact that Guiffre refused to accuse me on the record.

This is not journalism. It is certainly not prize-worthy journalism. It is advocacy, and it is advocacy that would get a lawyer disciplined for willfully withholding exculpatory evidence. It is also advocacy that hurts the “#MeToo” movement by encouraging false reports that damage the credibility of an important movement.

So shame on Brown. Shame on the Miami Herald. And shame on the Pulitzer Committee if it fails to investigate Brown’s reporting and encourages such fake news and shoddy journalism by rewarding it.

  (Gatestone Institute)

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law Emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of The Case against the Democratic House Impeaching Trump (Hot Books, January 2, 2019), and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute.