“Hi, this is Mike,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said right at the start of my phone conversation with him. I was told he has always been down-to-earth with everyone, even as the CIA director or a congressman or a businessman, and the way he began our conversation demonstrated that.
Pompeo is a very strong supporter of Israel, and as is the case in many aspects of his work, his actions reflect his words.
Just minutes after he was sworn in at the State Department in April 2018, he departed on his first foreign trip, which included Israel. This was no coincidence.

A 20-year-old man from London was jailed on Thursday after he admitted to stalking and harassing Jewish women.
Sam Hemmati targeted a number of Jewish victims and bombarded them with antisemitic messages across several different social media platforms, local news outlet the Ilford Recorder reported on Friday.
Between September 2018 and March of this year, Hemmati stalked and harassed a total of eight women.
In a number of the communications, Hemmati sent the victims explicit material. He also made offensive comments, including making reference to the Holocaust.
He repeatedly contacted the women — whom he had found via social networks — even after being asked to stop.

The queen on Saturday led tributes to individual acts of bravery on London Bridge, which included a Polish immigrant helping subdue the British-born terrorist with a five-foot narwhal tusk grabbed from a wall.
As more details emerged about Friday’s deadly knifings – carried out, police said, by Usman Khan, 28, previously convicted and jailed for a terrorism plot – new profiles in courage appeared in the British press. They were bolstered by amateur video clips, witness statements and paeans by the London mayor and the prime minister.
The intervention of several members of the public appears to have stopped the attack from being far worse, witnesses said, as Khan was seen running onto London Bridge with a large knife in his hands.

A Palestinian rioter was shot and killed near the Israel-Gaza Strip border fence on Friday, according to Palestinian officials.
The IDF said soldiers had been fending off Palestinians who were to damage the fence. The military also said the demonstrators threw a number of explosive devices.
One 16-year-old was killed and four other people were wounded by live fire, the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said.
An Israeli army spokesman stated soldiers had “identified a number of attempts to approach the fence as well as a number of attempts to sabotage it.”
“Troops responded with riot dispersal means and 0.22 caliber rounds,” the spokesman said. “A report regarding the death of a Palestinian is being looked into.”

With little political movement and less than two weeks remaining for the Knesset to decide on a prime minister, Israel appears poised to head for an unprecedented third election within one year.
The biggest question hanging over that third election is whether Benjamin Netanyahu can even run for the position of prime minister given the fact that he faces three indictments. Israeli law allows for someone to continue serving under indictment and says that a prime minister must only step down if found guilty by a judge after a trial. But it is unclear whether someone can run for prime minister to begin with while under indictment.

Rav Meshulam Yissaschar Ashkenazi of Stamford Hill, London, the Stanislaver Rebbe (1995).
Rav Shilo Raphael, Av Bais Din of Yerushalayim

Jewish practice in Europe is “severely under threat,” a prominent rabbi from the continent warned this week.
“The continued efforts made by several European nations to restrict our ability to observe important religious customs and traditions are increasingly worrying and problematic,” Chief Rabbi of Moscow Pinchas Goldschmidt — president of the Conference of European Rabbis — said at a gathering in Geneva, Switzerland. “Following the recent banning of religious slaughter in two regions of Belgium and challenges to religious circumcision in Iceland, there are constant discussions in other states including Sweden, France and Germany.”
Goldschmidt noted that protecting Jewish life in Europe was “of the utmost importance within today’s political and social climate.”

The quick-thinking bystanders who ran toward danger to help others during a terrorist attack on London Bridge on Friday swiftly earned the title of “heroes.” But for the family of 21-year-old Amanda Champion, who was murdered in 2003, one of the men who intervened as the fatal knifing unfolded is anything but heroic.
Convicted murderer James Ford, 42, was on day release from prison Friday when he saw the attack unfolding and rushed to help during the chaos. According to British media reports, Ford had attended the same prisoner rehabilitation event as 28-year-old attacker Usman Khan, a convicted Islamist terrorist, who killed two people before being shot dead by police.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Friday it would be “best” if US President Donald Trump does not get involved in Britain’s election when he visits London for a NATO summit next week.
Trump waded into the election in October by saying opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn would be “so bad” for Britain and that Johnson should agree a pact with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.
But senior Conservatives are nervous that Trump could upset the campaign when in London, just over a week before the Dec. 12 election which polls indicate Johnson is on course to win.
“What we don’t do traditionally as loving allies and friends, what we don’t do traditionally, is get involved in each other’s election campaigns,” Johnson, 55, told LBC radio.

An Oklahoma police chief is asking Starbucks to have mercy on a barista who plastered “PIG” on a police officer’s coffee order.
“I just recently learned that the employee was terminated, and this may be a bit surprising, but I would like Starbucks to reconsider,” Keifer, Oklahoma, Police Chief Johnny O’Mara told Fox News. “I’m asking for civility.”
O’Mara took to Facebook Thursday after one of his officers made a Thanksgiving coffee run as a treat for the department’s dispatchers — and came away with the a cup label ‘PIG’.
Read more at NY POST.
{Matzav.com}