On Wednesday morning, May 1, a couple of hours after returning home from a glorious Passover in Israel, my wife and I called The New York Times and explained to a very respectful representative why we wanted to end 60 years of on-and-off home delivery of the paper. We told him that the cartoon that was published in The New York Times International Edition on Thursday, April 25 — depicting a guide dog with Benjamin Netanyahu’s face leading a blind, fat Donald Trump wearing dark glasses and a black kippa — crossed every boundary that separates us from virulent antisemitism, bigotry, and obscenity.

Flatbush — Brooklynites elected Farah Louis today to replace former city councilman, current Public Advocate, Jumaane Williams.
Patch.com reports that Louis defeated Williams’ endorsed candidate, Monique Chandler-Waterman, and six other candidates in the District 45 special election to represent Flatbush, Midwood and Canarsie with 42 percent of the vote, according to the New York City Board of Elections.

Two Israeli companies are threatening a major lawsuit against a French company that chose not to bid on a tender to expand the Jerusalem light rail system.
According to Hebrew news site Mako, the transportation firm Alstom formally announced on Friday that it would withdraw its planned bid. Israeli companies Dan and Electra, which were involved in the prospective deal, claimed that the decision stemmed from concerns that the light rail project would violate human rights.

http://matzav.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/VIDEO-2019-05-14-20-42-59.mp4

President Donald Trump celebrated via Twitter on Tuesday the one-year anniversary of the move of the US Embassy in Israel to Yerushalayim.
“Our beautiful embassy stands as a proud reminder of our strong relationship with Israel and of the importance of keeping a promise and standing for the truth,” Trump wrote.
Last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed the full implementation of the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act.
The Algemeiner   (c) 2019 .   
{Matzav.com}

Donald Trump Jr. has reached a deal with the Senate Intelligence Committee to appear for a second closed-door interview in June, according to people familiar with the matter, ending a tense standoff between the president’s son and the panel’s Republican chairman.
Under the terms of the deal, Trump Jr. will testify for up to four hours on a limited number of topics. The committee’s vice chairman, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and a representative for its chairman, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., declined to confirm or comment on the deal. Alan Futerfas, a lawyer for Trump Jr., also declined to comment.

President Reuven Rivlin says the stabbing of a Jewish woman in Sweden shows need to combat anti-Semitism.
“Once again, Jews in Europe are in danger. Today’s brutal stabbing of a woman in Helsingborg, Sweden reminds us that we cannot rely on fading memories of the Holocaust to keep today’s Jewish communities safe,” he says.
“We will combat anti-Semitism until it is eliminated and we will not stay silent in the face of such events.”
Swedish authorities have indicate that the attacker today was a Muslim man. The victim remains in critical condition after stabbed several times and left for dead.
Read more at Times of Israel.

Dear Matzav,
I’m writing this letter because I my Rav just taught me something I never knew and I wanted to pass it along.
My rav said that people have a misconception that if you miss a night of say sefira you shouldn’t bother counting anymore. In actuality, the bracha is m’drabanan and if you missed a night you lose the chance to make the bracha. (he also said that it’s a machlokes in the poskim and it’s a chiddush that we pasken this way.)
But the Rav emphasized that even though you cant make the bracha anymore the mitza to count each day is m’daraysa and applies even you miss a night.

 

Shiite Iraqi militia leader Qais Al-Khazali claimed recently that the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist organization was part of a “Zionist-American plan” to conquer Iraq.
Khazali made the comments in a speech that aired on May 4 on Iraq’s Al-Ahd TV and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
He asserted that the victory against ISIS is almost entirely complete and that one of the goals of the war against ISIS had been to stand up to the “Zionist plan that wanted to divide Iraq and the countries of the region.”
Khazali then said that the real goal of the Zionist-America-Saudi plan is to conquer Iraq, and that there is a “greater battle” yet to be fought.