Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday spoke to Vice President Mike Pence, who said that the US backs Israel’s right to self defense, as tensions skyrocket in the Middle East.
“Had a great conversation with Prime Minister @netanyahu this morning. The United States fully supports Israel’s right to defend itself from imminent threats. Under President @realDonaldTrump, America will always stand with Israel!” Pence wrote on Twitter.
The statement of support comes amid reports of Israeli airstrikes against Iran-linked targets in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, and a war of words between Israeli officials and leaders in neighboring countries, heightening fears of further violence in the region.

US prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Robert Bowers, the man accused of bursting into a Pittsburgh synagogue last year with a semi-automatic rifle and shooting 11 people to death, according to court papers filed on Monday.
Bowers, 46, shouted, “All Jews must die,” as he fired on congregants gathered for a Sabbath service at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, authorities said.
Bowers has pleaded not guilty in US District Court in Pittsburgh to a 63-count indictment.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Monday made her first public appearance since completing radiation treatment for her latest bout with cancer, saying it was “both a joy and a sorrow” to appear at an event organized by a college friend who died late last year.
The 86-year-old justice received an honorary degree in the morning and regaled a packed performing arts hall in the evening.
She was invited last year by Wayne Wisbaum, a friend from her undergraduate days at Cornell. Wisbaum died in December, but not before making sure Ginsburg could still attend the event, which included an honorary degree at the University at Buffalo law school.

Many of the millions of people who shop on Amazon.com see it as if it were an American big-box store, a retailer with goods deemed safe enough for customers. In practice, Amazon has increasingly evolved like a flea market. It exercises limited oversight over items listed by millions of third-party sellers, many of them anonymous, many in China, some offering scant information.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun on Monday called recent Israeli actions in his country’s territory “a declaration of war.”
On Sunday, a drone crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut.
Hezbollah claimed the drone was Israeli, though this has not been confirmed.
The Israeli news site Walla reported that Aoun, seen as an ally of Iran-backed Hezbollah, met with the UN representative in Lebanon and called the drone incident an “Israeli attack” and a “declaration of war.”
Another strike in Lebanon took place early Monday morning, targeting the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Amazon has removed an assortment of clothes sold on its UK site emblazoned with a notorious Holocaust photo in which a Jew in Ukraine is kneeling in front of a mass grave as a Nazi officer points a gun to his head, moments before shooting him, Channel 12 news reported on Saturday.
The retail giant took down the items plastered with the photo, known as “The Last Jew in Vinnitsa,” after it was contacted by the Israeli TV network.
The items included a hoodie, a t-shirt and a sweater pullover in various colors, all with the same Holocaust picture on them.
In the description of the items, the sellers from “Harma Art” wrote, “Choose from our great collection of authentic designs and stand out from the crowd!”

In an attempt to appeal to Orthodox customers, the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC recently launched a glatt kosher menu that includes Israeli snacks like bamba and bisli, along with prepared meals of fish, chicken, and beef.
The meals come in sealed containers from a catering company in Potomac, Maryland and are heated to order. The hotel managers also added about a dozen kosher wines from Israel and the US.
“We had many guests from New York staying here that would come in for business meetings, and they wanted to get something to eat, but felt uncomfortable,” hotel manager Mikael Damelincourt explained.

A young boy was found unconscious  at a swimming pool in Kiryas Yoel.
 Hatzolah is performing emergency medicine on scene in order to stabilize the patient and transfer him to a hospital. 
The incident is the latest in a slew of water related tragedies that have struck the Jewish community over the summer.
{Matzav.com}

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that there is a “good chance” the United States and Iran could meet at the negotiating table.
Standing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a joint press conference at the Group of Seven, or G7, meetings in Biarritz, France, Trump said that it is “realistic” that such talks could happen in a couple weeks as the sanctions on the regime have affected the Islamic Republic “horribly.”
There is a “really good chance we will meet,” he added.
Tensions between Iran and the United States have intensified since the latter withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, reimposing sanctions lifted under it alongside enacting new financial penalties against the regime.