In an interview with Judy Woodruff for “PBS NewsHour,” U.S. Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt wasn’t to blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and said that the Jewish state is “trying their best … under very, very trying circumstances.”
Uploaded to the PBS website on Wednesday and broadcast on American television, the interview focused on the U.S. role in mediating its version of peace negotiations, the economic component of which was unveiled at the June “Peace to Prosperity” conference in Bahrain.
Asked what responsibility Israelis bear for the conflict, Greenblatt responded, “I think that Israel is actually more the victim than the party that’s responsible.”

Israeli security forces arrested three Palestinian Authority residents on Tuesday night as part of a crackdown against a Hamas scheme used to transfer funds between the Gaza Strip and Judea and Samaria.
According to the Israeli military, senior Hamas terrorists in Gaza have been funneling money to operatives in Judea and Samaria through the Al-Haramain travel agency, which obscured the source of the funds through the use of a complex network of independent money changers.
The network used a method of offsetting debts between several independent money changers without registration in official banking systems.

A whopping 93% of tourists who visited Israel in 2018 rated their experience as “good to excellent,” according to the annual Israel Tourism Ministry Inbound Tourism Survey, released on Sunday.
Among the 15,000 tourists surveyed, 53.2% said their views on Israel improved during their visit, with just 1.5% saying their view changed for the worse. Another 41% said their opinion of Israel stayed the same.
The age group 25-44 was the largest at 35.8% of visitors, followed by ages 55 and over and 24 and under.
The visitors were predominantly Christian (54.9%), followed by Jews (27.5%). Among the Christian tourists, the largest denomination was Catholic.

By Rabbi Berach Steinfeld
The gemara in Nazir, daf chof gimmel, amud bais and Sanhedrin, daf kuf heh, amud bais and in Horiyus, daf yud gimel, amud bais quotes Rav Yehuda in the name of Rav that one should learn Torah and do mitzvos even if it is not done lishma because the act that was not lishma will end up being lishma. We find that in the z’chus of the forty two korbanos that Balak brought, he was zocheh to have Rus as his granddaughter.
The gemara says that the reason shelo lishma is okay is because one will reach lishma eventually, yet we see that Balak never reached lishma. How was he then zocheh to having such a wonderful reward of Rus as his descendant?

Governor Cuomo has signed a bill into law, raising the age to purchase tobacco products to 21.
“New York is taking aggressive action to stamp out smoking among teens and children, but tobacco and e-cigarette use still persists thanks to irresponsible corporate marketing campaigns targeting young people,” Governor Cuomo said. “By raising the smoking age from 18 to 21, we can stop cigarettes and e-cigarettes from getting into the hands of young people in the first place and prevent an entire generation of New Yorkers from forming costly and potentially deadly addictions.”
The governor’s office says that about 28,000 adult New Yorkers die every year as a result of smoking.

Boeing announced Wednesday that it will set aside $50 million for financial assistance for families affected by a pair of fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes.
The $50 million is an initial expenditure of a previously announced $100 million fund designated for family and community needs for those affected by the crashes, the company said in a statement.
“The tragic loss of life in both accidents continues to weigh heavily on all of us at Boeing, and we have the utmost sympathy for the loved ones of those on board,” Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement. “We hope affected families receive needed assistance as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

Syrian President Bashar Assad met on Tuesday in Damascus with an unnamed senior Iranian official to discuss ways to deal with Israeli airstrikes in the war-torn country, reported regime-affiliated Syrian newspaper Al-Watan.
The strikes comes as Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, continue to build a military arsenal north of Israel.
According to the report, the Iranian official also discussed with Assad the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan and presented Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s plan to contend with it.
The report comes against the backdrop of recent attacks on pro-Iranian forces in Syria, some which have been attributed to Israel though it denies involvement.

The House on Wednesday voted 332-95 to kill the first articles of impeachment brought forward under the new Democratic majority, showing off a deep divide among Democrats on whether to go forward with an effort to unseat President Trump.
A majority of Democrats, along with the chamber’s Republicans, voted to table the measure sponsored by Rep. Al Green (D-Texas), while 95 Democrats voted in favor of it.
It’s the first time the Democratic House has been confronted with a vote on impeachment, and comes a week before former special counsel Robert Mueller is set to testify before two committees on Capitol Hill.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}

The House voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in criminal contempt on Wednesday, escalating a battle between the Trump administration and congressional Democrats.
The measure holds the Trump Cabinet members in contempt for defying subpoenas for documents on their since-abandoned efforts to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The chamber approved the measure in a party-line vote of 230-198, with four Democrats joining all Republicans in voting against the resolution.
Democrats argued the measure was necessary to hold officials accountable for “obstruction & oppose efforts to undermine the census.” It passed the House Oversight and Reform Committee along party lines ahead of the July Fourth recess.