JP Morning Read November 11, 2015: JP Salutes Vets on Veteran’s Day

Netanyahu doesn’t rule out unilateral pullout from West Bank In Q&A session at Washington think tank, prime minister says negotiated agreement preferable to unilateral steps, but such steps are possible if they meet Israeli security criteria.: Netanyahu said a negotiated peace deal would be better than unilateral steps by Israel to impose a solution to the conflict. But he indicated a unilateral approach might be possible under the right conditions. “Unilateralism … I suppose that’s possible, too, but it would have to meet Israeli security criteria and that would also require, I think, a broader international understanding than exists now,” he said.He gave as an example the 2005 Gaza disengagement, as well as Israel’s pullout from southern Lebanon, noting that even though Israel had left “every square inch,” these territories were taken over by Iran proxies – Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon – and turned into launching pads for thousands rockets.”So Israelis ask a simple question, which I ask: If we set up a Palestinian state, how do we make sure that state does not become another Gaza, and is not committed to our destruction?” he cited World War II losers, Germany and Japan, and South Korea, as countries that prospered under foreign security control. He didn’t say if Israel could eventually relinquish security control west of the Jordan River – part of past US peace plans. Netanyahu also stated that “the question of Jerusalem and specifically the Temple Mount is unsolvable” at present. When asked about the chances of reaching peace with the Palestinians, Netanyahu said he does not see mutual recognition and agreements over security arrangements happening in the immediate future. [YNETNEWS]

Some Knesset Members Hoping to Increase Intermarriage: Today, the Interior Committee of Knesset was asked to hear the request of leftist MKs to outlaw an organization called Lehava whose mission is to prevent intermarriage and assimilation and which is headed by Bentzi Gopshtain. MKs Xenia Svetlova, Itzik Shmuli and Yoel Hassan (Zionist Union) Michal Rozin and Isawi Frej (Meretz) hoped to stage a coup by making the request to ban Lehava but not allow Gopshtain to attend the hearing or speak up at all.That request was denied by MK Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home), who was filling in for Chairman MK David Amsalem (Likud).The State Attorney Office, which has shown its colors in the past as being quite anti-religious, had originally planned to be at the hearing to disparage Lehava. However, when they found out that Gopshtain would be there to be able to speak in his and the organization’s defense, they withdrew from the debate.MK Smotrich expressed his amazement at the Chutzpa of Gopshtain’s detractors in hoping to deny him access to a hearing that was about him and a cause he champions. Smotrich said, as reported by Arutz Sheva, “What did you think, that he would watch the session on TV from his home?”Not happy with the outcome of having to honestly debate the issue, the leftists screamed, created disorder and eventually were either thrown out or left the Knesset chamber.[JP]

Violent Loop Engulfs Youths in Jerusalem: — The younger cousin took his allowance from his father on Tuesday morning and said he was off to school as usual. He and his older cousin decided to skip class instead.Now the pair, Ali Alqam, 12, and Muawiya Alqam, 14, have been arrested, accused of a copycat stabbing that wounded an Israeli security guard on a light railway train in East Jerusalem, not far from their homes in the Shuafat refugee camp and the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Beit Hanina. Relatives said that the night before the attack, the cousins watched videoclips leaked from the interrogation of Ahmad Manasra, a Palestinian 13-year-old who is about to go on trial, accused of participating in the stabbing of a 13-year-old Jewish boy and another Israeli civilian in the same area of East Jerusalem last month.The attack on Tuesday appeared to reflect a looplike dynamic of Israeli-Palestinian violence: stabbings of Israelis followed by swift, often deadly responses by Israeli security forces and graphic video footage inspiring replica Palestinian attacks against Israelis.“Anyone who saw that clip would want to go out and seek revenge or fight the enemy,” said Abu Nimer Alqam, an uncle of the suspects in the Tuesday attack. “I think more youths are going to carry out attacks to prove to the Israeli authorities that they are not scared of them or their tactics.”Even after dozens of such attacks in the West Bank, Jerusalem and other cities around Israel in recent weeks, the attacks involving children have stirred the strongest emotions on both sides.The timing of the leaked interrogation clip appeared to be deliberate. It emerged the night before Ahmad Manasra was to appear in an Israeli court charged with attempted murder. Palestinians in the Shuafat refugee camp speculated that the Israeli security services had leaked the clip to frighten other youths and deter them from doing what Ahmad Manasra was accused of having done.Instead, they said, it fanned Palestinian outrage.In several cases with no video corroboration, Palestinians have insisted that no stabbings took place and have accused the Israeli authorities of planting knives at the scene.In the Shuafat refugee camp, where relatives of the Alqam cousins gathered Tuesday evening, many expressed similar doubts about the Israeli reports of the stabbing, although later on Tuesday more video emerged that appeared to show the boys attacking the guard on the train.[NYT]

Israel Invites Oil Majors for Further Natural Gas Exploration: Israel is inviting international oil companies to further explore its offshore waters for natural gas, the country’s energy minister said on Tuesday, as the country tries to become an energy exporter for first time.Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of national infrastructure, energy and water resources, said he had met senior executives of more than 20 energy companies, including Eni SpA,Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Hess Corp., to gauge interest in further exploring offshore Israel.“We believe that based on the geological data—from our own experts and global companies—that there is still the potential for new discoveries,” Mr. Steinitz told reporters in Jerusalem.Israel’s invitation to oil companies comes after Eni said in August that it had made the largest-ever Mediterranean Sea gas discovery about 80 miles off the coast of Egypt, estimated at about 30 trillion cubic feet. Israel has been trying to bring smaller offshore natural-gas fields online, a process that is moving forward now after more than a year of political wrangling.Israel’s energy ministry estimates the two fields combined hold at least 25 trillion cubic feet of gas ,Israel’s economy minister Aryeh Deri resigned this month, allowing the government to move ahead with a framework to develop the fields. Mr. Deri had refused to waive Israeli antitrust rules for the two main stakeholders, U.S.-based Noble EnergyInc. and its Israeli partner, Delek Group Ltd., who had been determined to hold a monopoly.[WSJ]

Photos of the Day: 41 pictures that show why a US aircraft carrier is such a dominant force [BI]

Video: A lake resort that spent 25 years underwater reemerged as a spooky ghost town [BI]

Twitter

Donald Trump Go out and buy CRIPPLED AMERICA: How to Make America Great Again. Doing really well. Great Thanksgiving or Christmas present!

Andrew Cuomo New York is first in the nation to enact $15 state public sector minimum wage: http://on.ny.gov/1NItNqX  #Fightfor15

Bill de Blasio: We #FightFor15 because raising the wage lifts up families & strengthens local economies.

Eric Adams: Our #veterans deserve a #Brooklyn War Memorial befitting of their #service & #sacrifice, a 100% accessible monument.

David Greenfield: Decide how to spend $1 million! Join us at 6pm tonight at my district office at 4424 16th Avenue for our annual participatory budget meeting

Eric Ulrich: Am I the only one who thinks the public outcry over Starbucks using redcups is really ridiculous?

Brad LanderThanks @NYPDnews & @JCRC for today’s multi-faith workshop on how to thoughtfully protect houses of worship

Phil Goldfeder:  #SandyRecovery going strong thanks to @JTeen who came out in force to help @rockawayfriends rebuild! @UJAfedNY

Dov Hikind:.Applaud @POTUS for unequivocal stmt condemning in strongest terms Palestinian violence against innocent Israelis

Chaskel Bennett: Does Israel deserve terrorism? Did the US deserve #September11? @TobinCommentary takes down apologist @PeterBeinart https://goo.gl/8yfKbF

Leon Goldenberg: Always a pleasure to spend time with @BPEricAdams & @ChaskelBennett @joeleisdorfer

Jeff Leb .@IsraeliPM Benjamin @Netanyahu address #JFNAGA. “Indisputable truth – @Israel has no greater friend than America”.

David Lobl: Shouldn’t the palm card reader be able to tell who will stop for her readout as opposed to trying to stop everyone?

Alexander Rapaport: The biblical sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was exactly what @CommissBratton is suggesting according to Jewish teaching

Mendy Reiner: Meeting with seagate community & @NYCGreenfield @MarkTreyger718 about issues facing the residents.

Ezra Friedlander:  צפו: ראש ממשלת ישראל בנימין נתניהו מברך את שלוחי חב”ד לרגל הכינוס העולמי… https://youtu.be/9jsv6STlxmQ  via @YouTubeView translation

Former Democratic Boss Vito Lopez Has Died: The flamboyant and controversial former Brooklyn Democratic Boss, has died.Once, one of the most powerful politicians in Brooklyn, Lopez saw his empire crumbled when he was found guilty of numerous cases of sexual harassment. Lopez and the State shelled out millions of dollars to settle lawsuits of victims.Within the Jewish world, Lopez will be remembered as the politician who inserted himself into the center of the Satmar fray, getting involved in the struggle for succession being waged by the two factions.[JP]

Sheldon Silver Was Paid for Referrals, Not Legal Work, Law Firm Leader Says at Trial: The exact nature of Sheldon Silver’s lucrative outside legal work had long been one of the best-kept secrets in New York politics.For years, Mr. Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, maintained that his law clients were just “plain, ordinary, simple people,” but he offered little else about how he earned often hundreds of thousands of dollars a year while also serving as speaker of the State Assembly.On Tuesday, during Mr. Silver’s political corruption trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan, that veil was lifted by lawyers from Weitz & Luxenberg, the firm where he worked for more than a decade.Mr. Silver performed no actual legal work, according to Gary R. Klein, the managing attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg; his income came instead from cases he referred to the firm.Mr. Klein said that roughly three-quarters of the money Mr. Silver made from referral fees came from patients suggested by Dr. Robert N. Taub, an oncologist dedicated to researching mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.The government has charged that Mr. Silver made more than $3 million in an illegal scheme by which he directed $500,000 in state grants to Dr. Taub. The doctor, in turn, steered patients with possible asbestos-related claims to the law firm, which shared its fees with the lawmaker.The mesothelioma cases sent to the law firm were potentially worth millions of dollars, prosecutors have told the jury.Mr. Silver has pleaded not guilty to fraud, extortion and money laundering charges.[NYT]

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NOTEBOOK – ROAD TO THE WHITE HOUSE 2016

A crowd of 10,000+ went nuts for Trump in Illinois last night — pundits are still underestimating him: Last night, Trump spoke at a rally in Springfield, Illinois. More than 10,000 people attended. It was standing-room-only, floor to rafters. According to the Trump campaign, Trump’s attendance shattered a record set by Elton John 37 years ago.many political pundits do not yet appreciate how compelling a speaker Trump is. They also do not yet appreciate how much passion and energy he can inspire.  Trump’s can-do reputation and the public’s disgust with normal politicians and politics as usual are fueling a startling degree of fervor in his supporters.Another thing pundits fail to appeciate about Trump, in this Business Insider reporter’s view, is his potential appeal to moderates — the folks any candidate from either party will have to appeal to to actually get elected. Some of Trump’s policies — fixing US infrastructure, keeping Medicare and Social Security, eliminating the “carried interest” tax loophole — are apostasy to many on the right wing of the Republican party. Meanwhile, they appeal to many mainsteam voters.The biggest roars of the night came when Trump asked the crowd, “Who do you want negotiating for you?” There was no question who the crowd wanted to negotiate for them.[BUSINESS INSIDER]

How Christie’s fight with Jindal explains the GOP primary: Bobby Jindal and Chris Christie’s sniping defined the early GOP debate Tuesday, but more importantly it laid out the existential question facing Republicans in the 2016 primary: Should the party seek conservative purity or prize electability? Jindal forcefully criticized Christie and Arkansas former Gov. Mike Huckabee for what he characterized as big spending and poor fiscal leadership of their states.“Let’s not pretend that out of control spending is only a Democratic issue,” he said. “Sending another big government Republican to D.C. is not good enough.”He needled Christie for presiding over numerous credit downgrades and for expanding Medicaid through Obamacare. He suggested that Huckabee had ultimately raised taxes and spending when he was in office.Christie shot back that Jindal’s attacks were misguided. The focus, he said, should be solely on Hillary Clinton.“She is the real adversary tonight, and we better stay focused,” he said. “Don’t worry about Huckabee or Jindal. Worry about her.” [POLITICO]

Bill De Blasio’s Iowa Presidential Forum Cancelled Amidst Disputes: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s planned presidential forum has been cancelled by organizers. Initially set for December in Iowa, the forum was finally dropped following months of unrest and dispute. “It is clear other efforts beyond the previously-planned presidential forum will more effectively advance the cause of fighting income inequality,” a spokeswoman for the Progressive Agenda Committee said on Tuesday. The spokeswoman also added that PAC would find other methods of promoting its cause. “The PAC will continue to work with our leaders at the local, state and federal levels,” the group stated, “to implement tangible solutions to what is the crisis of our time.”On Monday, a spokeswoman for the University of Iowa stated that the university was unaware of any candidate accepting an invitation to discuss income inequality. “No contracts between the UI and the Progressive Agenda have been executed,” the spokeswoman noted, adding that the university had selected three potential venues for the event, should it ever happen. When asked for comment on a planned article stating that the forum was unlikely to happen, a de Blasio spokeswoman replied via email: “Hold your story. It won’t be right.”[JP]

The Venetian Ghetto’s Hidden Gems: In the context of Jewish history, the word ‘‘ghetto’’ carries with it an unmistakable fatalism. But long before the Holocaust, the term had a different set of connotations. The Jewish quarters of the great European capitals — Paris’s Marais, Frankfurt’s Judengasse, Amsterdam’s Jodenbuurt — were testaments to the diversity and richness of Jewish life. Often sites of mandated segregation ridden with poverty and plague, they also fostered cultural exchange and intellectual vitality. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Venice, which established one of Europe’s first Jewish ghettos in 1516 in the Cannaregio district, on a small island where the city’s cannons had previously been cast: the foundry, or ‘‘geto.’Each synagogue was designed to correspond to a different nation of Jewish immigrants, and part of the pleasure of visiting them is noticing their unique styles. The oldest, the Scuola Grande Tedesca, built in the 1520s for German Jews who imported Ashkenazi traditions to the Mediterranean world, is most ornate, although you’d never know it from the outside. The synagogues were initially tolerated on the condition that their exteriors bear no resemblance to Jewish houses of worship, so the sense of being enveloped in opulence is all the more striking when you enter. The Scuola Canton, built a few years later, possibly for émigrés from southern France, showcases a Torah ark laced with gilded carvings and wood panels illustrating the book of Exodus. The beauty of the Renaissance Scuola Italiana is restrained, by contrast, with natural light streaming in from five large windows, illuminating the ancient mahogany.Across a small pedestrian bridge are the two Sephardic synagogues, the Scuola Levantina and the Scuola Spagnola. In terms of architectural conventions, these two seem to break all the rules; they were lovingly restored in the 17th century by non-Jewish artisans[NYT]

How to prepare yourself for doomsday Inside The World’s Largest Private Apocalypse Shelter, The Oppidum It stands alone in a quiet valley in the Czech Republic, bordered by a magnificent countryside. The estate is surrounded by high walls, and is not visible at ground level. From the air, the compound appears to be a large administration center. This is The Oppidum, a massive 323,000 square foot property with plans for a spectacular estate. What lies hidden beneath, carved deep in the mountain is the largest residential doomsday shelter in the world.The Oppidum will be more than an underground bunker for dangerous times. It provides an above-ground residential estate in which the owners can maintain a high standard of living in a secluded area above ground during times of potential danger.The residents can enter the shelter by descending through a secret corridor to the bunker, sealing it with a blast door in less than a minute. It enables inhabitants to return quickly to the above-ground residence once the threat has passed.The below-ground Bunker of The Oppidum will be the area in which inhabitants can be isolated and protected from the threat of war, disease, natural disasters, or personal threats ranging from terrorists to zombies.[FORBES]

Chabad’s Oldest Outpost Lingers on in Casablanca: Raizel Raskin’s office feels like a cluttered museum of Moroccan Jewish heritage. A photo from an old Jewish summer camp lays on the table. Another, of a rabbi meeting Moroccan dignitaries, hangs on the wall. Outside the door is a bookshelf filled with Hasidic tracts translated into Arabic.But the rest of Chabad’s multistory complex here looks almost abandoned. Once a school bustling with hundreds of Jewish children, the facility today is largely an empty shell, with dust collecting on unused sports equipment and desks sitting disorganized in unused classrooms. Even the portrait of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the movement’s late leader whose bearded face typically occupies a place of honored prominence in Chabad homes, is peeling off the wall of the foyer. Chabad’s first emissaries arrived there in 1950, the beta test for what would grow into a global movement of  Chabad In its early years, Morocco’s Jewish population numbered 250,000 and Chabad served 5,000 students in schools across the country. But following the establishment of Israel in 1948 and Morocco’s independence from France in 1956, the vast majority emigrated.Today, Chabad runs classes, weekend programs and a summer camp for the 2,500 Jews who remain. The week before Rosh Hashanah, raw chickens sat on crates ready to be cooked.Chabad has survived here by keeping a low profile and maintaining good relations with the government. Like other Jewish institutions in Morocco, Chabad’s activities take place mostly behind closed doors. Its main building in Casablanca is unmarked, and a second facility is accessible through a winding alley removed from the street,[HAARETZ]