Jerusalem – Knesset members Uri Maklev and Moshe Gafni (both United Torah Judaism) were attacked Thursday in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Mea Shearim.

A Gafni aide said to Ynet that the attackers were members of the Sikarikim group, considered to be among the most extreme of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta movement, know for its opposition to the State of Israel and its institutions. They were responsible for a similar incident about a month ago in which stones were thrown at Minister of Internal Affairs Eli Yishai (Shas).

The incident took place near one of the synagogues in the area. According to eyewitness reports, the two MKs had stones thrown at them and Gafni even had a chair hurled at his back. They ran away from the scene to the house of Rabbi Salonim.

They had previously met with Rabbi Elyashiv, and at the time of the attack had been engaged in dialogue between the two rabbis about the Emmanuel affair and the continuation of the struggle. They had just completed the minhah prayer in a synagogue when they were attacked by a group that protested their cooperation with the “Zionist regime.”

“This is proof that these hooligans don’t just hurt the secular public but even the haredim themselves,” the aide said to Ynet. “Worse than that – they hurt representatives of the public who are delegates of the sages of Israel.”

News Source:  Ynet

Israel – Slonim Grand Rabbi Shmuel Berezovsky said that his followers would not compromise and would continue their struggle against the High Court, in regards to the ongoing school segregation saga in the Immanuel settlement.

“Even if they put us in front of a firing squad, we would not give up and would not compromise,” Berezovsky declared in a letter released to followers and journalists.

Berezovsky heads a midsized Hasidic sect, and in recent months has become a key figure, as Slonim are dominant in Immanuel, where Ashkenazi parents have refused to send their daughters to school with Sephardi students.

“If I thought the justices believe in what they wrote, that the school in Immanuel is based on racial discrimination, I probably would have acted differently,” Berezovsky wrote. “But since I have no shadow of a doubt that they know the truth, that their words are lies to the core, this is a struggle between faith and heresy, between sacred power and impure Satanic forces? A struggle that we’ve always known would break out at the end of days.”

At the end of his message, Berezovsky called on the public to “join us in this sublime struggle that generations have waited and looked forward to.”

News Source:  Haaretz

New York, NY – Faisal Shahzad called himself a Muslim soldier and threatened more attacks to come after the botched May 1 Times Square terror bomb attempt.

Shahzad did not appear the least bit remorseful when he pleaded guilty to 10 federal crimes in a packed federal courtroom.

The Pakistani-born U.S. citizen was cool and collected when he said he wanted “to plead guilty and a hundred times more” for the terror plot, and that if the U.S. did not get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, halt drone attacks and stop meddling in Muslim lands, “we will be attacking U.S.”

He apparently became radicalized over the issue of U.S. drone attacks directed against militant groups in the northern part of his home country Pakistan.

Shahzad entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan just days after a his federal grand jury indictment. Some of the charges carried mandatory life sentences.

It was a strange performance from a 30-year-old Shelton Connecticut man who had actually been cooperating with the government.

“Consistent with someone who craves attention and will get it by whatever means is handy at any particular time,” said Zachary Carter, former U.S. attorney.

According to the indictment, Shahzad received a total of $12,000 prior to the attack from the Pakistani Taliban through cash drop-offs in Massachusetts and Long Island.

Shahzad was accused in the indictment of receiving explosives training in Waziristan, Pakistan, during a five-week trip to that country. He returned to the United States in February.

The indictment said he received $5,000 in cash on Feb. 25 from a co-conspirator in Pakistan and $7,000 more on April 10, allegedly sent at the co-conspirator’s direction.

So far, 14 suspects have already been picked up in the United States and Pakistan on information provided by Shahzad the moment he was arrested. The naturalized citizen, who has a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Bridgeport and had worked as a financial analyst for Elizabeth Arden, admitted to receiving some terror training in Pakistan.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the Pakistani Taliban “facilitated Faisal Shahzad’s attempted attack on American soil.”

Experts familiar with terror cases said Shazad’s courtroom appearance should not have been considered that startling. “Shahzad had nothing to do and no place to go. The man was completely bagged and tagged,” said Ron Kuby, defense lawyer.

Shahzad made his plea and accompanying statement as U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum began asking him a lengthy series of questions to ensure he understood his rights before accepting his plea.

Cedarbaum asked Shahzad if he understood he might spend the rest of his life in prison. He said he did.

At one point, she asked him if he was sure he wanted to plead guilty.

Shahzad also said he is “part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people.”

He said he actually tried to set off three separate bombs in an SUV parked near a Broadway theater May 1 to injure and kill people, but that all three failed to ignite. The Bridgeport, Conn., resident was arrested two days later.

Shahzad was arrested trying to leave the country May 3, two days after a gasoline-and-propane bomb failed to ignite in an SUV parked near a Broadway theater.

Shahzad, born in Pakistan, moved to the United States when he was 18.

News Source: AP

Madrid – Francisco Franco, the former fascist dictator of Spain, gave the Nazis a list of every Jew in his country in order to facilitate efforts to locate, deport and destroy them, according to a document found recently in a Spanish archive and reported on Sunday by the Spanish daily El Pais.

The paper said that in 1941, Spain prepared a list of all 6,000 Jews in its territory and gave it to the architect of the Nazis’ Final Solution, Heinrich Himmler. At the time, Spain and Germany were negotiating over Spain’s entry into the Axis alliance.

In the end, however, no alliance was signed, and Spain remained neutral throughout World War II.

After the Nazis’ defeat in 1945, the Spanish government tried to destroy all evidence of its cooperation with the Germans. But the document recently found in an archive in the city of Zaragoza, in northeastern Spain, sheds light on what Franco sought to hide.

The document is an official order, dated May 13, 1941, issued by Franco’s chief of security, Jose Maria Finat y Escriva de Romani, to all provincial governors. It instructs them to prepare a list of every Jew in their district, both local residents and foreigners, along with details about “their personal and political leanings, their means of supporting themselves, their commercial activity, the level of threat they constitute and their security classification.”

Read full story at Haaretz

Madrid – Francisco Franco, the former fascist dictator of Spain, gave the Nazis a list of every Jew in his country in order to facilitate efforts to locate, deport and destroy them, according to a document found recently in a Spanish archive and reported on Sunday by the Spanish daily El Pais.

The paper said that in 1941, Spain prepared a list of all 6,000 Jews in its territory and gave it to the architect of the Nazis’ Final Solution, Heinrich Himmler. At the time, Spain and Germany were negotiating over Spain’s entry into the Axis alliance.

In the end, however, no alliance was signed, and Spain remained neutral throughout World War II.

After the Nazis’ defeat in 1945, the Spanish government tried to destroy all evidence of its cooperation with the Germans. But the document recently found in an archive in the city of Zaragoza, in northeastern Spain, sheds light on what Franco sought to hide.

The document is an official order, dated May 13, 1941, issued by Franco’s chief of security, Jose Maria Finat y Escriva de Romani, to all provincial governors. It instructs them to prepare a list of every Jew in their district, both local residents and foreigners, along with details about “their personal and political leanings, their means of supporting themselves, their commercial activity, the level of threat they constitute and their security classification.”

Read full story at Haaretz

New York’s Times Square was evacuated tonight after a suspicious device was found in an SUV.

Police confirmed that the device was a bomb, but there was no explosion and Times Square was safely evacuated. The story is still developing.

Live webcams are pointed at Times Square 24/7, and that means the events were streamed live on the web. Earthcam (embedded below), currently shows a deserted scene outside TGI Friday’s on 46th St and Broadway. But at 7pm, the live cam showed a packed street — by 8pm, there were only a couple of bystanders. At 9pm, Times Square was deserted save for police vehicles.

The live feed is embedded below, along with captures before and after the evacuation.

Have you seen Tweets, YouTube videos or Flickr photos from the scene? Let us know in the comments.

Times Square Live Webcam

Times Square Webcam, 7pm May 1st 2010

Times Square Webcam, 8pm May 1st 2010

Times Square Webcam, 9pm May 1st 2010

Times Square Webcam, 10pm May 1st 2010

Source Mashable

Turnersville, NJ – A 16-year-old boy was busted for broadcasting a racist comment over the public address system of a Walmart in southern New Jersey, police said Saturday.

The youth – whose name was not released because of his age – was charged with harassment and bias intimidation for the incident last weekend in Washington Township.

The boy was released into the custody of his parents after his Friday arrest.

“This was an extremely disturbing event on many levels,” said Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton. “Any statements like these that can cause harm or grave concern must be addressed as quickly as we can.”

Authorities said it was unclear if the announcement was ad-libbed or premeditated and said they were investigating a second youth who accompanied the arrested teen to the store.

The incident drew national attention after a male voice came over the store’s public address system last Sunday and calmly made the shocking announcement.

“Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now,” the voice announced.

A manager quickly commandeering the microphone and made an apology, but outraged customers complained to store management.

Walmart officials condemned the incident, saying the behavior was “unacceptable.”

News Source:  NY Daily News

Washington – The diplomatic rift between the United States and Israel appeared to widen Thursday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to call Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with an explanation of Israel’s east Jerusalem building plan, U.S. sources say.

Last Friday, Clinton phoned Netanyahu to strongly criticize Israel’s announcement of new Jewish housing in east Jerusalem during Vice President Joe Biden’s trip to the region to promote indirect talks between Palestinians and Israelis.

Clinton requested answers from him on how Israel was planning to proceed. The State Department expected a response days ago and even announced that Netanyahu would call before Clinton left Washington at noon Wednesday for a previously scheduled trip to Russia.

However, in a sign of the fractured ties between the two governments, senior administration officials traveling on the overnight flight to Moscow with Clinton told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell that Netanyahu did not call.

Biden phoned Netanyahu Wednesday urging him to make the call, but apparently he did not persuade the Israeli premier, NBC said. Pending resolution of the latest flap, there will not be indirect talks between Israel and Palestinians led by Special Representative George Mitchell.

“As we’ve said, before we move ahead with further meetings, we would expect a call from Prime Minister Netanyahu. And what he tells us will inform what we do next,” a senior official on Clinton’s plane told NBC.

NBC’s Mitchell reported that Netanyahu’s refusal to explain effectively means that the Moscow meeting of the so-called “quartet” of interested parties in the Mideast peace talks — the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the U.N. — will not be able to lay out their next steps.

Netanyahu is scheduled to arrive in the United States next week for the annual meeting of AIPAC, the American pro-Israel lobbying group. He is expected to see Clinton during the trip.

News Source:  MSNBC

New York, NY – THE Fourth Commandment doesn’t specifically mention TweetDeck or Facebook. Observing the Sabbath 3,000 years ago was more about rest and going easy on one’s family – servants and oxen included.

But if Moses were redelivering his theophany today – the assembled crowd furiously tweeting his every sound bite – one imagines the frustrated prophet’s taking a moment to clarify what God meant, exactly, by a “day of rest.”

For starters, how about putting down the iPhone? That’s exactly what a group of Jewish tastemakers is trying to promote this weekend with its first annual National Day of Unplugging.

The experiment, which lasts from sundown Friday, March 19, to sundown Saturday, is the brainchild of Reboot (rebooters.net), a nonprofit think tank of hip, media-savvy Jewish professionals, based in New York, with staff members in Los Angeles and San Francisco. It was founded in 2003, and its members include television executives, Web developers, writers, filmmakers and C.E.O.’s: people for whom the act of “unplugging” could well be most difficult – and most needed.

Organizers hope the day of unplugging will draw attention to Reboot’s “Sabbath Manifesto”: a set of 10 “core principles” introduced earlier this year to guide tradition-seekers in ways that are meaningful in an information-driven world. Dan Rollman, president and a founder of the Web site Universal Record Database (urdb.com) said “the topic that was on my mind was whether there was room for a weekly day of rest within our increasingly hectic lives,” he said in a recent phone interview. “I was feeling like, as we were getting more and more plugged-in, and our interactive experience was getting richer, there was something that was disappearing as well.”

Rabbi Elliot J. Cosgrove, of Park Avenue Synagogue in New York, said the idea of unplugging for the Sabbath was “incredibly important.”

“As a rabbi, and as a contemporary American, never before in my life has there been such an awareness of the way that technology and contemporary culture have a tug at every aspect of our being,” Rabbi Cosgrove said. “I don’t think we’re aware of the manner in which technological innovation is changing the way we think and read, the way we process information, the way we engage in relationships with meaning.” Unplugging for a day was “a powerful action in the face of a fast-paced way of living,” he added.

Reboot’s organizers are promoting the National Day of Unplugging via (what else?) Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Mr. Rollman said he estimated a few hundred people around the world would participate in various ways, but hoped the hype would increase those numbers in coming years. Observers are being encouraged to share their experiences online at the Sabbath Manifesto Web site (sabbathmanifesto.org) once the day is over.

News Source:  NY Times

Turnersville, NJ – Two black South Jersey women are boycotting Wal-Mart as authorities investigate a public announcement targeting black shoppers at the Turnersville store over the weekend.

Wal-Mart officials said they’re reviewing security tapes to find out who asked “all black people” to leave the store in a message over the public-address system shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday.

Washington Township police, with the assistance of the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, are investigating the episode as a possible bias crime, said Bernie Weisenfeld, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.

Ashley Hardie, a corporate spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, described the incident at the Route 42 store as “unacceptable to us and to our customers. We are currently reviewing our systems to prevent this from happening in the future,” she said.

Barbara Pordy, chairwoman of the Gloucester County Human Relations Commission, has spoken with a store manager and is offering counseling to anyone who was troubled by the announcement.

The announcement was “unacceptable and appalling,” Pordy said.

Her comments were echoed by the two shoppers who are taking their business elsewhere.

Patricia Covington and Shelia Ellington, both of Monroe, said they’re too upset to shop at the discount chain after hearing a male voice calmly announce: “Attention Wal-Mart customers: All black people leave the store now.”

The two women, who are friends, remember customers and store employees looking stunned.

Both women said they were glad they left their young children home on this trip because it saved them from explaining to them about race relations.

“In 2010, I want to know why such statements are being made because it flies in the face of what we teach them at home, and that’s tolerance for people,” said Ellington, 49.

She worked with other customers perturbed by the message to alert store management, township police and local media outlets. And at their request, a public apology was made Sunday evening over the public address system.

“I can’t believe it in this day and age,” said Covington, 49. “Wal-Mart needs to be more responsible.”

News Source:  Courier Post

Washington – New York Rep. Anthony Weiner is adding his voice to the criticism of the White House’s response to an ill-timed Israeli construction decision, and in sharper terms than his colleagues.

“The appropriate response was a shake of the head – not a temper tantrum,” Weiner said in a statement to be released shortly. “Israel is a sovereign nation and an ally, not a punching bag. Enough already.”

News Source:  Politico By Ben Smith