President Donald Trump reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the latter’s visit at the White House last month that Israel could jeopardize its security cooperation with the United States if it doesn’t reduce its ties with China.
Channel 13 and Axios reported the development, citing Israeli officials.
The Trump administration has repeatedly warned Israel about forging close ties with the Chinese, including criticizing an agreement between the Jewish state and China to allow the latter to manage the Haifa port.
US concerns over the Haifa port deal have come from National Security Advisor John Bolton and US Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.

Yahadut HaTorah which dropped from eight seats to seven, regained its eighth seat by uncovering a small but significant error.
According to Kikar Shabbos, the moment the Likud party received its 36th seat at the expense of UTJ’s eighth seat, party activists began working to prove that the drop had been caused by typing errors.
Senior figures in the Central Elections Committee did not believe that correcting the errors would change the results, but UTJ activists working around the clock proved otherwise, resulting in an extra seat in the new Knesset.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

Israel Defense Forces demolished the home of Salah Omar Barghouti on Wednesday morning.
Barghouti was a prime suspect in a shooting attack that injured seven, including a pregnant woman, Shira Ish–Ran, on December 8th, 2018. Ish–Ran was taken to hospital, and her baby, who had to be delivered in emergency, died four days later. Hamas later claimed Barghouti as one of their operatives.
The attack at Ofra, and a copycat attack carried out by Barghouti’s brother at a junction near the settlement of Givat Assaf just days later, led to a massive manhunt for Salah Barghouti, 29, which ended with him being killed by Israeli forces in a coordinated operation.

Following the failed lunar landing of the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet, preliminary findings point to a technical malfunction in one of the built-in measurement gauges that led to the engine shutdown during the final descent.
According to the initial investigation of the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet’s landing maneuver, following a malfunction in the IMU (inertial measurement unit), a command was uploaded to the spacecraft, which ultimately caused the main engine to turn off as communication with the vessel was lost.
The SpaceIL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) team is continuing its investigation of the mission and will release the final findings in the coming weeks.

For the first time since the Warsaw ghetto was liquidated during World War II and all its residents were killed or deported to death camps, one hundred Jewish families will celebrate a Pesach seder in the ghetto, along with the Rabbi of the local Lubavitch Jewish community and his family.
Rabbi Shalom Ber Stambler, Chief Rabbi of Chabad-Poland is hosting a special Pesach seder in the heart of what was formerly the Warsaw ghetto with approximately one hundred Jewish families from Israel, Europe and the USA as his guests.
The seder will be divided into three groups and led in three different languages—Polish, Hebrew and English. Toward the end of the evening, they will merge and conclude the seder as one.

Amid swirling speculation about the Trump administration’s so-called “deal of the century” for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt on Tuesday urged patience before its unveiling.
“Jared [Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law] & I sincerely appreciate all of the interest in our peace efforts over the past 2 yrs. But, we’re not going to reveal details of the plan ahead of time. [Continued] speculation doesn’t help anyone & harms the effort. We kindly suggest a stop to the guessing games,” Greenblatt said on Twitter.
The administration, meanwhile, also updated its official international maps to include, for the first time, the Golan Heights as part of Israel.

Donations for the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral after it was severely damaged by a fire Monday are already nearing $1 billion, according to the Associated Press.
In only 1.5 days, contributions have reached 880 million euros, or $995 million, according to presidential cultural heritage envoy Stephane Bern. The French government is in the process of establishing a special office to handle larger donations, according to the AP.
Donors thus far have ranged from large corporations like Apple and the owners of L’Oreal, Chanel and Dior to local parishioners and residents of small and midsized French towns, according to the news service.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s declared that the ancient cathedral will be completely repaired within five years.

As Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the international community await the publication of the American peace plan, it is clear, based on PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ behavior in previous peace talks, that nothing the United States can offer will be enough.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was present at the negotiations between then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas in 2008, recently told PA TV how generous Olmert’s offer was on all final status issues. In fact, he said, Olmert accepted all of the PA’s publicly expressed demands and even offered Abbas more than the full area of the West Bank and Gaza, and yet Abbas still rejected the offer.

By Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt
Director, Halachah & Medicine Commission
Rabbinical Alliance of America/Igud HaRabbonim

There is a small, yet very vocal and influential group of “anti-vaxxers” living in our heimishecommunities. While I am not questioning their love for their children, they are making a tremendous chillul Hashem and putting all Jews at great risk, both from measles, and rachmana leztlan, anti-semitism. I plead that everyone read this critically important pikuach nefashos article.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said Monday that he will fight President Trump in court over Trump’s plan to send undocumented immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities like New York.
“It’s illegal. It is just plain illegal. We will meet him in court. We will beat him in court,” de Blasio said in an interview with NY1.
Trump argued Saturday that he has the legal right to send migrants to sanctuary cities — areas where local authorities refuse to help federal officials in enforcing immigration laws.
Read more at The Hill.
{Matzav.com}