Moroccan lawyers petition Supreme Court to halt Israel normalisation deal

A group of Moroccan lawyers have demanded a reversal of the country’s normalisation deal with Israel, saying it would contravene the constitution as well as a number of international conventions that Rabat has signed up to, according to media reports. The lawyers filed a case at Morocco’s Supreme Court saying the agreement with Israel would

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Middle East

Owner confronts Israeli team’s racist past in interview with AP

At the age of 39, Moshe Hogeg has made millions of dollars trading in cryptocurrency, bought one of Israel’s most prominent soccer teams and brought in a wealthy Emirati sheikh as his new co-owner. Now comes what may be his biggest challenge. As owner of Beitar Jerusalem, the only major Israeli soccer club never to

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Middle East, Sports & Competitions

How can California have 0% ICU capacity and 1,300 available ICU beds?

SAN JOSE, Calif. — We’ve been hearing for weeks about the crush of patients crowding intensive care units in hospitals as California copes with the worst phase of the coronavirus pandemic. But when the Golden State’s official calculation for statewide ICU capacity dropped to 0% late last week, it raised a question that anyone with

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USA

Harris vaccinated on camera, urges public to trust process

Washington (AFP) – US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her Covid vaccine live on television Tuesday and urged public trust in the process, while her choice of hospital highlighted the plight of the hard-hit African-American community. A mask-wearing Harris received the first of her two shots at United Medical Center, located in an area of

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USA

Alignments shifting as Israel heads for new elections

Less than three months to the election, there are clear signs that things are changing. New parties; individual activists, some abandonment of Likud; lots of anti-Bibi. The major new players are Gideon Sa’ar, Naftali Bennett, Ofer Shelah, Ron Huldai, and Gadi Eizenkot. Shelah has left the party of Yair Lapid, Huldai is the Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo, Eizenkot is a former head of the IDF. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

There are museums for so many interests

The Reader’s Digest in July 2019 highlighted one quirky museum per state: the Alaska Hammer Museum;  the Banana Museum in Mecca, in California’s Riverside County; Colorado’s Washing Machine;  Mississippi’s Apron;  Iowa’s Matchstick;  and Ohio’s Pencil Sharpener museum. These are brick and mortar museums with street addresses, not the burgeoning online website museum. The author, Marissa Laliberte, overlooked the venerable Kool-Aid Museum in Hastings, Nebraska, in favor of the Klown Doll Museum in Plainview. I’ve been to the Mustard Museum in Horab, Wisconsin, and Idaho’s Potato Museum in Blackfoot. [Oliver B. Pollak, Ph.D]

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International, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USA

Biden says Trump Pentagon stalling transition, posing risks

Wilmington (United States) (AFP) – President-elect Joe Biden said Monday that Donald Trump’s appointees at the Pentagon were stalling on the transition and warned that the United States faces security risks as a result. After he and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were briefed by their transition teams on national security, Biden said that political appointees

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International, Middle East, USA

Orthodox debate Zoom gatherings on Shabbat

Should Orthodox congregations permit Zoom services?  There is debate over whether this is permissible under Jewish law (Halakhah). I am not a major Torah scholar and do not pretend to be one. The answer needs to come form the rabbinic sages of our time. However today these answers must address issues of life or death. [Rabbi Bernhard H. Rosenberg]

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Bernhard H. Rosenberg-Rabbi, Jewish Religion

Why do bad things happen to good people?

In the first book of my series of Mysteries of Judaism, I pointed out that all of the biblical holidays, such as Passover, and rabbinical Jewish holidays, as Chanukah and Purim, were changed over the years. Some, as Passover on Nissan 14, even disappeared even though mandated in the Torah. Some, like Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, although many think these are the most holy of biblical Jewish holidays, are not mentioned in the Torah, both replace Bible holidays. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

Legendary Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis dies age 98

Ivry Gitlis, arguably the last great 20th-century violinist, died on December 24 in Paris aged 98.Born in 1922 in Haifa into a family of immigrants from Ukraine, he got his first violin at age five.At eight, as a child prodigy, he was introduced to the founder of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Bronislaw Huberman. The latter

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Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts