Fourteen years ago, the unilateral evacuation and demolition of 21 Jewish communities that comprised Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip and four small communities in northern Samaria were authored by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to serve as a pilot test that would ultimately lead to further withdrawals in Judea and Samaria.
Instead of laying the groundwork for the creation of a Palestinian state that would live in peace alongside Israel, many across the political spectrum in Israel now believe that the Gaza withdrawal of more than 8,500 Jews in August 2005 serves as a costly case study demonstrating the implications of evacuating lands and turning them over to Arab control.

Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who is on a visit to Israel, met with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin on Monday. Sandberg presented the president with a signed copy of her book Option B, the Israeli Government Press Office said in a statement.
“I admire him for standing up for diversity and kindness across the country,” Sandberg wrote on her Facebook page.
On Wednesday, Sandberg will hold an open-to-the-public event in Tel Aviv dedicated to the launch of the local office of her organization, Lean In, which is focused on promoting gender equality in the workforce. At the event, Sandberg will be speaking to Rachel Ben Shoshe, who heads Lean In’s Israel office.

A coalition of mostly Democratic-led states has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing its rules for addressing power plant pollution are so weak they violate federal law.
Attorneys general from 22 states and several major cities including New York City and Los Angeles argue that the Trump administration’s rule violates the Clean Air Act by having virtually no impact on carbon emissions.
The suit is the second against the rule, following one filed in July from the American Lung Association.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that being president will personally cost him billions of dollars, due in part to the lawyers he has had to hire to defend him in various lawsuits.
“This thing is costing me a fortune, being president,” Trump said during a speech at the Shell Petrochemical plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh.
“Somebody said, ‘Oh, he might have rented a room to a man from Saudi Arabia for $500,’” Trump said, referring to reports that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and members of his delegation booked multiple nights in a Trump hotel.
“What about the $5 billion that I’ll lose?” Trump asked, noting his high cost of lawyers “cause everyday they sue me for something.”

The Israel Navy led a first-of-its-kind multinational exercise dedicated to earthquake response this week, in a drill which brought representatives from 10 naval forces, as well as NATO, to the Haifa Port on Israel’s northern coast.
The week-long “Mighty Waves 2019” exercise, which included ships and personnel from the United States, France and Greece, as well as representatives from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Chile and NATO, was the largest-ever naval exercise led by the Jewish state.
“This is the largest international exercise the Israeli navy has led to date,” said Brig. Gen. Gil Aginsky, commander of the Haifa naval base.
Haifa’s Rambam Medical Center also participated in the drill.

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) on Monday published statistics on Israel’s Muslim population, in honor of the Eid al-Adha holiday.
According to CBS, at the end of 2018, Israel’s Muslim population numbered 1.598 million, or 17.8% of Israel’s total population.
The Muslim population is relatively young, with 33.8% aged 0-14 years, and just 4.2% over age 65.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

It is with great sadness that Matzav.com reports the petira of Rav Chaim Cohen Farahia, also known as “Hachalban” or “the milkman,” at the age of 84.
On Shabbos, a few months ago, Hachalban collapsed on Shabbos a few months ago and was taken from his home in Givatayim to Tel Hashomer Hospital, where he was hospitalized and placed on a respirator.
As is well known, Rav Cohen earned the nickname Hachalban because of his occupation as a founder and operator of a fertilizer dairy in the Givatayim area. Hachalban earned a reputation as great mekubal who had a large following and helped hundreds of Jews throughout his life.
The levaya will take place at the Sanhedria Bais HaChaim in Yerushalayim at 9:30 tonight.

Tumblr, the one-time darling of social media, sold for a whopping $1.1 billion in 2013. On Monday, in perhaps the latest mark of its decline, the site was reportedly bought for just $3 million.
Twitter didn’t miss a beat in pointing out that Tumblr’s reported sales price was less than that of this bluefin tuna. BuzzFeed propped up a list of seven condos you can buy in New York for the same price as Tumblr.
So how did this happen? How did Tumblr – once a booming online start-up – get swallowed up by the owner of WordPress, another blogging giant and Tumblr’s former rival?

Israeli troops on Monday arrested an armed Palestinian man attempting to infiltrate into Israel from the Gaza Strip, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
“A short time ago, IDF soldiers arrested a suspect crossing the security fence into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip in the south,” the IDF said in a statement on social media. “The suspect was captured and found carrying a knife along with two bullets.”
The attempted breach marked the third time in a single week that Israeli forces have thwarted infiltration attempts from the coastal enclave.
On Saturday, four heavily armed men were killed attempting to enter Israel from southern Gaza.
Less than a day later, IDF shot and killed a terrorist who opened fire on troops near the fence.

A 39-year-old man was arrested over the weekend in connection with an anti-Semitic attack that took place on Friday evening in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., just before the beginning of Shabbat.
The man, identified as Kenya Dean from Brooklyn, allegedly sprayed a Jewish man with mace after shouting, “You Jews, Hitler should have finished you off.”
The man was arrested by New York Police and charged with a hate-crime assault, harassment and criminal possession of a weapon.
Crown Heights is home to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and has one of the highest concentration of Jewish residents in New York City.
According to the Anti-Defamation League, 2018 saw a 55 percent increase in anti-Semitic assaults in New York compared to 2017.