Ismail Haniya, the leader of the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist organization, said Thursday Hamas rejected next week’s US-sponsored Middle East economic conference in Bahrain as it would amount to Arab “normalization” of ties with Israel.
“We clearly express our rejection and non-acceptance of any Arab or Islamic country holding such a conference, which constitutes normalization with the occupation,” Haniya said, referring to Israel.
President Trump’s administration organised the conference, which is to be held on June 25 and 26 in Manama for the unveiling of the economic component of a US Israeli-Arab peace plan.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

When the 17-year-old arrived at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City, his entire jaw was cracked and a chunk of the bone had been completely shattered. Several of his teeth were missing and there was a hole in his chin.
“That’s an injury we see in high-speed motor vehicle crashes,” Katie W. Russell, a pediatric surgeon who treated the teenager in March last year, told The Washington Post. “It’s a big injury.”
Jonathan Skirko, a pediatric ear, nose and throat surgeon who operated on the boy, told The Post the damage looked “kind of like a close-range gunshot wound.”
But the teen, whose mother identified him as Austin, wasn’t in a car crash, and he didn’t get shot. He was using a vape pen when it exploded in his mouth.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on “all peace-loving countries to stand by the United States in its effort to stop Iranian aggression” following Thursday’s downing of an American military drone in the Gulf region.
“In the last 24 hours, Iran has intensified its aggression against the United States and against all of us,” Netanyahu said. “Israel stands by the United States on this.”
Earlier on Thursday, US President Donald Trump tweeted that Iran had “made a very big mistake” by targeting the US Navy RQ-4A Global Hawk drone.
The Algemeiner   (c) 2019 .         
{Matzav.com}

 
Who doesn’t love nostalgia?
Music aficionados will appreciate these Hartzig masterpieces.
Presenting, some amazing Yossi Green classics, performed by the incomparable Avraham Fried.
These three featured songs are from Avremel’s repertoire spanning a decade from the early years of his career (1983-1993).
He is accompanied by an astounding 40 piece Yochi Briskman Orchestra to help bring these songs to life,
conducted by Yochi
with arrangements by Yanky Briskman.
Lending their vocal support, are the Zemiros Choir, led by the talented Yoily Polatseck with sophisticated harmonies and vocal accompaniment.
Recorded live at the Klein/Lieberman wedding – March 24, 2019 @ Ateres Avraham, Brooklyn, NY.
Songs:

After an intensive search, the kever of Rav Yosef Patzanovski, author of the well-known Pardes Yosef commentary on the Torah, was discovered in the Lodz cemetery. The headstone also reveals the date of his petirah, the 2nd of Sivan.
“Recently, we have been searching for certain graves that were covered by growth and branches, and with wonderful hashgocha pratis, the kever of the Pardes Yosef has been found,” said Boris Veiniger of the local kehillah. “It was completely covered with dirt and thorns.”

Yad Vashem responded to the statements of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier this week, claiming that the US is running “concentration camps” on the US border.
“AOC: Concentration camps assured a slave labor supply to help in the Nazi effort, even as the brutality of life inside the camps helped assure the ultimate goal of “extermination through labor,” Yad Vashem wrote on Twitter. “Learn about concentration camps.”
For AOC’s convenience, Yad Vashem included a link leading to an educational page on their website entitled “Labor and Concentration camps.”
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

The drone shot down by Iran today cost a whopping $123 million apiece – about $34 million more than Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Lightning II, the Pentagon’s next-generation fighter jets, according to Military.com, which cited Defense Department documents.
The 47-foot-long, jet-powered RQ-4A has a wingspan of about 130 feet – longer than a Boeing 737 – and can fly at altitudes of about 65,000 feet for longer than 24 hours while packed with sophisticated sensors.
“This would have been a sophisticated radar-guided surface-to-air missile that shot the aircraft down, not a shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missile,” tech news site The Drive reported.
Read more at THE NY POST.

The Shin Bet revealed an attempt by Iranian intelligence to set up an espionage infrastructure in Israel and arrested Taar Shafoot, a Jordanian citizen born in Hebron.
During the Shin Bet interrogation, it was revealed that Shafoot, a Jordanian businessman, had entered Israel on behalf of Iranian intelligence to carry out missions intended to promote the establishment of infrastructure in Israel that would serve secret activities of the Iranians.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}

French investigators are probing whether a conman who became known as the “Fake Chairman” for scamming banks out of millions of dollars by posing as a top-ranking executive gave himself a promotion – to government minister.
Gilbert Chikli, a 53-year-old French-Israeli citizen, is at the center of an investigation into a caper that may have netted some $90 million by convincing heads-of-state, clergy, business figures, large charities and other luminaries that they were working with France’s defense minister to free French citizens kidnapped by Islamists in the Middle East and Africa, according to the BBC.

Boris Johnson took a step closer to becoming the next British prime minister on Thursday after he topped the ballot from Conservative lawmakers in the first phase of the Tory leadership contest.
Johnson, Britain’s former foreign secretary, will now go head to head with Jeremy Hunt, the current foreign secretary, over the next month before Conservative Party members vote on which one of the two will become the next leader of the party and prime minister. A decision is expected the week beginning July 22.