More than half of the Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are sponsoring a non-binding resolution, backed by J Street, condemning any Mideast peace plan that excludes two states.
There are 235 Democrats in the lower chamber.
This comes ahead of the Trump administration releasing the first part of its peace proposal between the Israelis and the Palestinians through at economic summit later this month in Bahrain.
Introduced last month by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), the resolution calls for “a two-state solution that is consistent with the broadly held consensus positions for resolving the conflict’s final status issues as reflected in previous United States proposals.”
(JNS)
{Matzav.com}

[1696]באר_הפרשה_נשא

President Donald Trump is celebrating his 73rd birthday Friday.
Born in 1946, Trump was the oldest President to be sworn into office. He took the oath at 70 years, 220 days old. Ronald Regan was sworn in at 69 years, 349 days old.
If President Trump completes a second term in office, he will become the oldest currently-serving President. Reagan was 77 years, 349 days old at the end of his presidency.
Read more.
{Matzav.com}

In accordance with a 2015 law, Israeli drivers’ licenses will now include Hebrew dates of birth.
Implementation of the law was delayed to verify that addition of a Hebrew date would not negatively impact international acceptance of Israeli licenses.
A court ruled in 2015 that the two-year restrictive period for new drivers may be determined according to Hebrew years, which are often shorter.
In general, Israeli law mandates use of the Hebrew calendar in all state documents, correspondence and publications.
{Matzav.com Israel}

Twitter Inc on Thursday said it removed thousands of accounts linked to coordinated, state-backed activities it believes were from the Iranian government and archived them to its public database launched last year.
In the latest purge of information, the company said it believes 4,779 accounts were associated or backed by Iran.
The micro-blogging site also said it had removed and archived four accounts affiliated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, a Russian “troll farm” that has been indicted by US Special Counsel Robert Mueller for attempts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election.

An Orthodox shul in Atlanta has disaffiliated from the Young Israel movement over the latter’s right-wing political stances, including its support of U.S. President Donald Trump.
The Young Israel of Toco Hills announced on Wednesday that its name will now be Kehillat Ohr Hatorah, Hebrew for “Light of the Torah,” after 93 percent of voting  members voted to separate from Young Israel.
This is the first time in the last five years that a shul has severed its connection to Young Israel, National Council of Young Israel president Farley Weiss told JNS.


HaGaon Rav Chaim Kanievsky, shlita, visited the Aish World Center, Dan Family Building across from the Western Wall. The entrances of the Aish World Center were packed with people trying to get a glimpse of Rav Chaim. Rav Chaim entered the building through Aish’s Kotel Plaza ‘Hochstein Entrance’ and took the elevator up to the Aish World Center rooftop terrace, overlooking the Kotel and Temple Mount, to daven mincha. The roof of the Aish World Center has a breathtaking panoramic view of the Western Wall, Temple Mount, Mount of Olives and surrounding mountains.
After Mincha, Rav Chaim went downstairs to visit the students and Rebbeim at Yeshivas Aish HaTorah to wish them a bracha and hazlacha.

Two congressional Republicans on Wednesday slammed Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, for saying on Tuesday, “If [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu makes good on his threat to annex West Bank settlements, he should know that a President Buttigieg would take steps to ensure that American taxpayers won’t help foot the bill.”
“That’s not helpful. We need the Palestinian community united around peace,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told JNS. “If I were him, I would criticize Hamas. Israel is not the problem. Nobody’s talking about annexing anything.”