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Thursday, Sep. 01 '16, כ"ח באב תשע"ו
HEADLINES:
1. REPORT: US SECRETLY AGREED TO WAIVE IRAN NUCLEAR RESTRICTIONS
2. ISRAELI PILOTS RETURN FROM GIANT US AERIAL EXERCISE
3. 5 KILLED IN MID-AIR PLANE COLLISION
4. 'I WAS AFRAID I WAS GOING TO GET BLOWN UP'
5. 'TRUMP TOOK A RISK, AND PULLED IT OFF'
6. GALLUP: JEWS FAVOR CLINTON OVER TRUMP, 52-23 PERCENT
7. FAMILY DECRIES 'SCANDALOUS' FIRING OF TEACHER
8. 'HE SURVIVED, BUT WAS PUT INTO A COMA'
1. REPORT: US SECRETLY AGREED TO WAIVE IRAN NUCLEAR RESTRICTIONS
by David Rosenberg
The Obama administration may have secretly agreed to waive restrictions placed on the Iranian regime's nuclear program as part of the landmark 2015 deal.
According to a soon-to-be-published report by the Institute for Science and International Security, the US and fellow negotiating partners secretly agreed to permit the Islamic regime to ignore some restrictions on its nuclear program, thereby paving the way for the removal of economic sanctions against the rogue state.
The report, which was reviewed by Reuters, was co-authored by the institute's president, David Albright, cites government officials who participated in the negotiation process prior to the signing of the deal last July.
Albright, himself a former United Nation's weapons inspector, told Reuters the US and its allies had colluded to create "loopholes" for the Iranian regime.
"The exemptions or loopholes are happening in secret, and it appears that they favor Iran," he said.
The decision was made by an oversight committee charged with implementation of the Iran deal. The committee, like the negotiations themselves, includes representatives from the five permanent United Nations Security Council powers – France, Russia, China, UK, and US – plus Germany (which have collectively been dubbed the "P5+1"), and Iran.
The committee, according to Albright, has secretly permitted Iran to maintain greater quantities of low-enriched uranium than allowed under the terms of the deal.
Had the US and its partners not exempted Iran, one senior official quoted in the report said, Iran would have missed the January 16th deadline to comply with the agreement and thus require the P5+1 partners to keep sanctions against Iran in place.
The report also claims that the P5+1 powers secretly permitted Iran to maintain 19 radiation containment chambers, or "hot cells", which violated the terms of the nuclear deal. In addition, Iran was not required to sell off its excess heavy water, despite the agreement's clause obliging the Islamic regime to reduce its stores below 130 tons.
Instead, the US and its partners allowed Iran to store the excess material abroad, even though Iran maintains ownership and control on the heavy water.
2. ISRAELI PILOTS RETURN FROM GIANT US AERIAL EXERCISE
by Kobi Finkler
An Israeli air force team returned today (Thursday) from the renowned multi-annual "Red Flag" aerial training exercise that takes place at the Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and sometimes sees the participation of aerial teams from foreign countries.
The Israeli team included F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, in addition to a refueling plane.
The exercise is big – to the degree that it strives to simulate a war-time situation. Foreign reports have indicated that this past exercise was unique in that it saw, for the first time, the concurrent participation of the Israeli Air Force as well as the air forces of Pakistan and United Arab Emirates.
A senior official from the Israeli team who participated in the exercise said today, "This is the sixth time that our team has participated. We had previously participated in the capacity of "visitors" or "observers," but we have only been included as an official participating team since 2000. This is the second time our fuel planes are participating in the exercise, which is very significant.
"As far as we are concerned, the exercise is meant to train the air force in the best way possible and to consolidate cooperation with the US, to train on new turf in unknown territory. All the pilots who participated in the exercise did so for the first time," the official said.
The official explained that the exercise "is very complicated. You need to plan the missions, understand the intelligence information, act in unknown territory according to prior experience and, of course, learn more. In the end, there is no substitute for this sort of training since we don't have the option of building a training field of this scale. All our forces already know all the training fields in Israel; therefore it's hard to diversify training."
The official did, however, note that an upcoming so-called "Blue Flag" exercise was being planned on Israeli turf: "That's an exercise which will take place on our turf, in which we will invite all the armies to us, therefore we have to prepare accordingly."
The official refused to comment on reports that the Israelis had participated in the exercise with Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. "We train with whomever the Americans invited."[album:open
3. 5 KILLED IN MID-AIR PLANE COLLISION
by Tal Polon
Alaska state troopers confirmed the deaths yesterday of all on board two small planes that collided in mid-air over western Alaska on Wednesday.
According to the Alaska National Guard, there were a total of five people on board both planes.
The collision occurred between a Hageland Aviation Cessna 208 Caravan, which carried three people, and a Renfro Alaskan Adventures Piper PA-18 super cub, which carried two.
Clint Johnson, the lead Alaska investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board which sent investigators to the crash site, noted that such mid-air crashes are generally "technical and complex."
"Ultimately what we are trying to do is to see how the airplanes came together," Johnson said, according to Alaska Dispatch News. "What we want to do is to see if either one of these airplanes was able to see one another, either electronically or visually."
The tragic outcome of the plane crash comes in contrast to another incident yesterday, in which Coast Guard Auxiliary pilot Yaakov Yosef Rosenberg was forced into a crash-landing when his plane's engine died while surveying the Hudson River. He and his co-pilot, Erik Pearson, suffered injuries but survived.
Rosenberg decided to crash at a dangerous angle after he noticed that the field in which he had planned to land was covered with small children.
"If I would have killed any kids saving myself, I would have said, "God, please reverse it. Take me instead," Rosenberg said.
4. 'I WAS AFRAID I WAS GOING TO GET BLOWN UP'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
This morning, paramedic Zaki Yahav took the stand in defense of Elor Azariya, on trial for shooting a wounded terrorist in Hevron.
Yahav described the unique atmosphere of chaos and fear at the scene of the incident: "I am generally calm at the scene of incidents like this, but here, when I arrived, there was chaos, shouts that the terrorists had not been neutralized. I started running to the scene. I was afraid I was going to get blown up.
"There was chaos and fear in the air, shouts of fear[...] Shouts that an explosives expert was needed immediately. From people who are usually calm, whom I work with on a daily basis. Shouts of tangible danger to life."
Yahav was asked to address the claims that the fear of the presence of explosives was a fiction. He replied that to call that fear a "fiction" was to cheapen human life.
"That threat exists all the time," he said. "It is forbidden for us as medics to ignore it. We need to know that, in this region, at any moment somebody could come and activate an explosive," he said.
The testimony comes as a continuation of Azariya's defense team's call of expert witnesses and eyewitnesses to the stand which started last week.
5. 'TRUMP TOOK A RISK, AND PULLED IT OFF'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
American media reaction to Trump's recent meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was mixed in its interpretation of the visit.
Speaking on Wednesday on "Special Report with Bret Baier," syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer saw the visit as a success for Trump's campaign.
"He took a risk, and he pulled it off," said Krauthammer, adding that "the big negative about Trump... is the fact that it's hard to imagine him as president. Now, here he is standing on the world stage with a world leader. This is a big step."
"He not only held his own... he sort of dominated… At the very end when they took questions, it was Trump who took charge," Krauthammer continued. "He's sitting in the palace of the president of Mexico. This never happens. Normally, it's the host who picks the journalist. Trump took charge naturally, walked off the stage as the dominant guy."
Other reactions, however, were more negative; the LA Times, for example, noted the "dismay" and "outrage" that Trump had caused Mexicans with his visit, and quoted Mexican leftist opposition leader Miguel Barbosa, who said of Trump: "You're coming to take your picture with the very people you've offended[...] Get out!"
The two leaders, for their part, made an effort to downplay their differences during the meeting.
"We all share a common interest in keeping our hemisphere safe, prosperous and free," Trump said after the meeting, according to Bloomberg News.
Pena Nieto said that the conversation with Trump was "open and constructive."
"We may not agree on various topics, but your presence here shows that we have much in common," the Mexican president was quoted as having said to Trump. "The next president will find in my government a partner."
Politico, which has hammered Trump in much of its election coverage, grudgingly acknowledged Trump's Mexico visit as a win for the Republican, calling it "a well-executed bit of campaign stagecraft by the GOP nominee."
Conservative columnist Byron York, who just a week ago slammed the Trump campaign for making "a mess of immigration" policy, hailed Trump's "Mexico gamble" as a "big win".
"[I]t was a big win — a very big win — for Trump. Going into a meeting with the potential for disaster — who knew how Pena Nieto would receive the world's most controversial presidential candidate or what embarrassments might lie ahead? — Trump came out of the meeting looking very much like a potential President of the United States. Standing beside the Mexican leader in front of a green-gray granite wall reminiscent of the United Nations, Trump presented the picture of a statesman."
6. GALLUP: JEWS FAVOR CLINTON OVER TRUMP, 52-23 PERCENT
by JTA
Jewish voters favor Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump 52 to 23 percent, according to poll tracking by Gallup.
The only religious group showing stronger favorability ratings for the Democratic nominee in data collected from July 1-Aug. 28 is Muslims, who favor Clinton over Trump 64 to 9 percent, according to the analysis posted Tuesday by Gallup.
Jews tend to favor the Democratic nominee by 10-15 points more than the general population, and this polling is no different; Gallup's latest general population favorability ratings, for the week Aug. 24-30, show Clinton at 39 percent and Trump, the Republican nominee, at 33.
Clinton also fares better than Trump among Catholics, 45-33, other non-Christian religions, 48-18 and atheist/agnostic, 44-19.
Trump fares better than Clinton among only two religious groups listed by Gallup, Protestants and other Christians, 40 to 35, and Mormons, 33-16.
Trump has come under fire for his broadsides against Muslims and other minorities. His expressions of antipathy toward Mexicans likely also hurt him among Catholics; Trump earns 44 percent approval to Clinton's 34 percent among non-Hispanic Catholics, but scores 12 percent to Clinton's 67 percent among Hispanic Catholics.
Gallup did not provide margin of error data, but its telephone surveys, reaching 500 people daily, are considered among the most thorough when assessed cumulatively, as in this survey.
A recent poll of Florida Jews carried out by a polling firm close to J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, found that 66 percent of Jews said they would vote for Clinton over 23 percent for Trump. Only Orthodox Jews as a group favored Trump over Clinton, by a margin of 3-1.
The Florida question, however, was phrased differently, asking respondents whom they would vote for, and not whom they favored, as in the Gallup survey.
7. FAMILY DECRIES 'SCANDALOUS' FIRING OF TEACHER
by David Rosenberg
Days after the story of a haredi teacher who was fired after she received a driver's license was publicized, relatives of the teacher confirmed that the woman was indeed removed from the school because of the license, adding that school administrators lied about the case to state officials.
The long-time educator who until recently worked at a girls' school in the predominantly haredi town of Beit Illit said she had taken out a driver's license to enable her to transport her special-needs daughter, after the National Insurance Institute provided the family funds to purchase a car for that very purpose.
While some Hasidic sects have placed restrictions on the acquisition and use of driver's licenses by women and single men, the teacher had received explicit permission from her rabbi, the spiritual leader of the Hasidut with which the woman is affiliated.
According to a report in the haredi Kikar HaShabbat news outlet, following the original story on the woman's firing, officials from the Education Ministry contacted both the school and the teacher in question.
Binyamin Hershler, who both runs the school – Beit Yaakov Reishit Hochma – and heads the municipality's education office, denied the teacher was fired. He and other school administrators claimed the veteran educator quit on her own volition.
Hershler's comments to the Education Ministry contradict sources inside the school, who had previously told Kikar HaShabbat that he had indeed fired the teacher, saying "I don't care. I will not tolerate a teacher with a driver's license."
The principal also denied the allegations when contacted by Haaretz, saying "I don't give interviews, but this is really, really not true."
But according to relatives of the teacher, school officials lied to the Education Ministry and Haaretz newspaper, saying that not only was she fired from her position over the license, but school administrators were exerting pressure upon her and her family not to cooperate with the ministry's investigation of the matter.
Ministry officials who reached out to the teacher say she refused to comment on the issue.
The relatives, who spoke to Kikar HaShabbat on condition of anonymity, called the case "scandalous", saying that the school's behavior constituted "a great injustice bordering on evil".
They added that not only were school officials pressuring the teacher and her family, they had also made explicit warnings to other teachers who had backed the woman in question, demanding they not assist the Education Ministry's investigation.
Some administrators from the school spoke off the record with Kikar HaShabbat to explain the institution's behavior in the matter.
"There is no Beit Yaakov school anywhere in the country that has a teacher with a driver's license, so while she really does not have any choice and she may take out a license, she cannot continue to serve as a teacher."
8. 'HE SURVIVED, BUT WAS PUT INTO A COMA'
by Arutz Sheva Staff
[youtube:2018707]
They were a normal family, much like any other, when tragedy struck.
Nobody could have imagined that Rabbi Ominer - a devoted father and husband - would have a brush with death in a tragic car accident.
Miraculously, he survived, but was sent into a coma. His terrified wife and 14 children waited by his side, counting the days. Finally, he woke up. But the story was not over.
Now he needs many surgeries that his insurance will not cover. This large family, living very modestly as it is, has turned to us for help to get by.
In the darkness and despair there is a glimmer of hope for the future. Their daughter is now engaged to be married.
Family celebrations must go on in times of suffering, but how can they think of paying for a chasuna in a time like this? How can a kallah purchase the things she needs for her chuppah and new home, when her own father, who is barely recognizable, cannot afford the help he needs?
That is why we have established this foundation, to help support this family in their time of dire need. Pain and suffering can turn to the hope for the future, with the help of your contribution. Please do not wait, the need is painfully urgent.
CLICK HERE TO HELP
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