The White House is reportedly weighing options to keep 500 U.S. troops in northeastern Syria and sending more battle tanks to protect them.
Military officials presented the choices Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported. The plans would also adjust U.S. goals to focus on guarding oil fields in the country in addition to squashing any potential ISIS resurgence. They would change President Trump’s plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria
The president indicated Thursday his desire to protect the oil fields. “We will NEVER let a reconstituted ISIS have those fields!” he tweeted.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

The World Jewish Congress (WJC) will give the prestigious 2019 Herzl Award to Nikki Haley, former US envoy to the UN, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said Haley exemplified Washington’s friendship with Israel, “relentlessly calling out the biases and double standards that pervade in the United Nations and its bodies.”
The ex-ambassador to the UN will receive the annual award, meant to honor those who promote a world more tolerant to Jews, on November 6.
Read more at i24NEWS.
{Matzav.com}

[1606]באר_הפרשה_בראשית

The picture posted on Instagram showing a Jewish boy forced to kiss the shoes of a Muslim classmate at the Cheltenham Secondary College in Melbourne, Australia. Photo: Screenshot.
An Australian teenager has been charged with stalking, harassment, and death threats against a Jewish schoolboy and his mother.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the incidents were connected to a bullying incident in which a 12-year-old Jewish student was forced to kiss a Muslim classmate’s feet.
An image of the incident went viral on social media and sparked an international outcry.

WeWork co-founder Adam Neumann has been in the news these past few weeks as his tanking company was bought out by SoftBank, leaving Neumann a severance package worth nearly $1.7 billion.
No longer attached to his office space company, Neumann new investment is of the spiritual nature.
Neumanns mother said that her son now has a different relationship with Judaism. Avivit Neumann, an oncologist, told the Israeli radio channel 103FM that her son is part of Chabad-Lubavitch, a Hasidic group with emissaries across the globe who are focused on reaching out to unaffiliated Jews.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a top-tier Democratic presidential candidate, said he will “probably” release his health records by the end of the year during an interview Thursday with The Associated Press.
“I want to make it comprehensive,” Sanders told the AP, regarding the release of his health records, ahead of an event in Iowa. “The answer is I will, probably by the end of the year.”
Sanders, 78, recently suffered from a heart attack. He has said he is feeling well and returned to the campaign trail after taking a brief leave to rest at home in Vermont.
“Nothing much has changed except that I had a heart attack, and I look forward to a full recovery there,” Sanders said. “So, I don’t think it’ll be all too revelatory.”

Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos lost his title as the richest man in the world during after-hours trading on Thursday, after his ecommerce behemoth reported lackluster third-quarter earnings.
Amazon shares fell 7% in after-hours trading, knocking Bezos’ fortune down to $103.9 billion. That puts him at number two among the world’s richest. The new number one: Microsoft cofounder and fellow Washington state resident Bill Gates, who is worth $105.7 billion.
Bezos became the richest man in the world in 2018 and the first centibillionaire to ever appear on the The Forbes 400 that year with a net worth of $160 billion, ending Gates’ 24-year run as number one.

As it was for countless others, the last Siyum Hashas was an inspiration for many at Eastern Union to begin and complete the Daf Yomi. Since that Siyum seven years ago, the daf has become a part of Ira Zlotowitz, Abraham Bergman and so many other of Eastern Union’s staff’s lives, a daily Daf Yomi shiur is given in Eastern’s offices, and a 30-minutes recording of each day’s office Daf is emailed to the many who have signed up for it.
In an effort to share Eastern Union’s inspiration and provide an extra push to those who have always wanted to start the Daf but didn’t, Eastern Union will be giving out a free ArtScroll Schottenstein Gemara to anyone who decides to start Daf Yomi now with Maseches Niddah for the first time.

The Justice Department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into its own Russia probe The New York Times reports.
The newspaper reports that after former special counsel Robert Mueller closed the official investigation months ago, a new criminal inquiry will proceed to find out how the investigation of Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s alleged collusion with Russia “all began.”
The Times reported it was unclear what specific crime Durham would look into or when the investigation changed from an administrative review.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

The Israel Defense Forces is becoming an organ of the country’s Chief Rabbinate, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday.
Lieberman’s comments, which he posted on Facebook, came in reaction to a booklet authored by senior rabbinical figures, among them military rabbis, with instructions for religious Jewish soldiers on how to avoid interactions with women forbidden by Jewish law.
“This … booklet for religious soldiers on the halachic laws of modesty, written by military rabbis … with the support of senior rabbinical figures, is yet another proof of the growing radicalization of religious Zionism that is being led by the ultra-Orthodox wing,” wrote Lieberman, warning that the IDF was becoming “Hashem’s army”.