Federal authorities have recovered a van that may be connected to the Jersey City shootings that killed four people and are now being investigated as domestic terrorism, the FBI said Saturday. The white van recovered Saturday morning in Orange, New Jersey, about 11 miles (17 kilometers) northwest of Jersey City, is being examined for any evidence related to the attack, the FBI said in a news release. A man and woman killed a police officer near a cemetery, three people in a kosher supermarket and then died in an hourslong gun battle with police Tuesday, authorities say. It was not clear how the van may be linked to the attack, and authorities did not release further details.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who has long opposed House Democrats’ impeachment effort, discussed switching parties in a meeting with President Donald Trump, an administration official said Saturday. CNN reported that he told his colleagues of his intentions of switching. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the private conversation and spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Van Drew met with Trump in the White House on Friday. Drew, a longtime state senator serving his first term in Congress, is one of his party’s more endangered lawmakers in next November’s elections. His southern New Jersey district narrowly favored Trump in 2016 and the congressional seat he won in 2018 had been under Republican control for nearly two decades.

Shas party Chairman Minister Aryeh Deri is calling on the religious right-wing parties to make order between themselves and run as a united list to avoid wasting votes, as has been the case in the last two elections for Knesset. Deri feels this is necessary if the right-wing bloc expects to be able to arrive at 61 mandates towards forming a coalition government. In an interview with KAN11 News on Thursday, December 12, 2019, Deri called on the religious Zionist tzibur to unite to avoid a repeat of small parties running independently in the election and having tens of thousands of votes trashed as the parties fail to reach the minimum election threshold to enter Knesset.

Magen David Adom (MDA) training exercise ‘Storm Suit’ ended on Wednesday, December 12, 2019, a training event simulating extreme winter weather. As part of the training event, with the participation of MDA personnel, police, representatives of the Ministry of Public Security and others. A number of casualty scenarios were practiced, including a train burning in the Jezreel Valley and a collapsed populated residential structure in Kiryat Anavim (Telshe Stone) near Jerusalem. The exercise focused first on the issue of command and control of extreme weather scenarios throughout the country, providing operational response and cooperation between senior police commanders, MDA, Israel Fire & Rescue Service, IDF Homefront Command, government ministries, local authorities and more.

A giant billboard calling to “Save Israel’s Democracy” by instituting judicial reforms was put up on Thursday in the heart of Tel-Aviv on the corner of Rothschild Boulevard and Allenby Street. The 2,000-square-foot billboard was put up by the Zionist organization Im Tirtzu as part of its public campaign calling to reform the “unchecked and overreaching” judicial system in Israel. The billboard, using the hashtag #InquiryCommitteeNow, cites a new poll conducted by the Midgam polling agency that revealed how 56% of Israelis are in favor of establishing an independent inquiry committee to investigate the reported abuses of the Netanyahu investigations, including illegal leaks and witness coercion.

In the wake of the horrible anti-Semitic attack in Jersey City, the kosher community was left without their only supermarket that was decimated in the terrorist attack. Jersey City’s Mayor Steven Fulop knew who to call to get emergency food to his city – Met Council. “We got the call Wednesday night and our immediate response was, ‘of course, we will get your constituents food for Shabbos.’ 24 hours later we delivered and distributed over 10,000 pounds of food – from cholent mix to challah to eggs and even dessert like rugelach. We made sure that these 100 families had everything they needed for Shabbos,” explained David G. Greenfield, Met Council’s CEO.

The House Judiciary Committee on Friday voted to adopt two articles of impeachment against President Trump – capping a contentious three-day session that Republicans panned as a “kangaroo court.” The committee adopted both articles, alleging abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, on a party-line vote of 23-17. A final vote in the full House is expected next week, which could tee up a Senate trial in the new year just before presidential primaries are set to get underway. But the committee vote was preceded by fireworks on Thursday night, when Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., infuriated Republicans by wrapping up the hearing just before midnight and postponing the votes until the morning. “It is now very late at night,” Nadler said.

A large comprehensive poll shows that if primaries were held for a united religious right-wing list, Ayelet Shaked would be elected to the leadership position. Rabbi Rafi Peretz would be in the seventh place. The poll was conducted by Masker that maps out the religious Zionist community, showing if the religious Zionist parties united, Rabbi Rafi Peretz, who stands at the helm of Bayit Yehudi, would only be in the seventh place. Naftali Bennet, who is in the second slot of the New Right party, and Ayelet Shaked, who leads New Right, would be in the leadership trio along with Transportation Minister Betzalel Smotrich. In the poll, the respondents were asked to select five representatives from the united list.

Just one door away from the JC Kosher Supermarket, the scene of the Jersey City terror attack, is the local Cheder with approximately 50 children. Many were speculating that the terrorists had more than enough ammunition to kill a few people in a supermarket, and feared that the intended target was the school. This fear seems to be turning into a confirmation on Friday morning, as Jersey City mayor Fulop tweeted the following moments ago: “My opinion is that as more info comes out it’ll become increasingly clear that the target was the 50 children at the Yeshiva attached to that store. We will never know 100% but the doorway to the yeshiva was 3 feet away + it seems he goes in that direction 1st.

Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule finally has a launch date for its first test flight to the International Space Station. After an intensive review Thursday, NASA and Boeing managers agreed to a Dec. 20 liftoff. “Hopefully, we should all be getting an early Christmas present this year,” said Phil McAlister, director of NASA’s commercial spaceflight development. Just a few technical issues remain to be completed, he noted. No one will be aboard, just a mannequin named Rosie. Three astronauts will strap in for the second test flight of a Starliner sometime next year. SpaceX also plans to launch astronauts for NASA next year. The company conducted a test flight without a crew back in March. NASA turned to the two private companies in 2014 to ferry astronauts to and from the space station.