Archive for January 24, 2019

Off Topic: The Sanzer Rebbe dances… 

January 24, 2019

In 2017, housands attended in Kiryat Sanz in Netanya on the occasion of the wedding of a granddaughter of the Admor of Sanz, shlita, daughter of his son, Rav Chaim Halberstam, Rosh Yeshiva of Sanz.

The Klausenburger dynasty was founded by Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam in 1927, when he assumed the position of Rav of Klausenburg, the capital city of Transylvania in western Romania. Halberstam was the great-grandson of Rabbi Chaim of Sanz, founder of the Sanz Hasidic dynasty.

Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam grew up in Rudnik, Poland, and was known as a child prodigy and an excellent scholar. In the town of Klausenburg, which he led until the outbreak of World War II, he attracted many followers, and a great number of Sanz Hasidim began to follow the young Rebbe.

As a result of the Holocaust, almost the entire community was destroyed. Approximately 15% survived the Holocaust, including the Rebbe, who lost his wife and eleven children. He emerged as a leader in the displaced persons camps in Europe as he created a communal survivors organization called She’aris Hapleitah (“the surviving remnant”), which operated religious schools for boys and girls and yeshivas for young men in 19 different DP camps, as well as a host of religious services.

In 1947, he emigrated to America and established his court in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, where he began a widescale movement to increase Jewish observance. He founded many Jewish day schools and institutions of higher learning. He launched revolutionary programs for comprehensive study of the Talmud. He created a program called Mifal HaShas, in which students would master thirty folios of the Talmud in one month. His influence permeated areas as far as Canada, Mexico, and Israel.

In 1957, he established the Kiryat Sanz neighborhood in the beachside city of Netanya, Israel. Over the next few years, he raised money for the establishment of girls’ and boys’ schools and yeshivas, an orphanage, an old-age home, and a hospital to serve this community. He moved to Kiryat Sanz in 1960. In 1968, he founded yet another Sanz community in Union City, New Jersey, and afterwards divided his time between that community and his residence in Netanya.

Halberstam died on June 18, 1994, and was buried in Netanya. In his will, he divided leadership of the Klausenburger Hasidim between his two sons (both born in his second marriage after World War II). His elder son, Zvi Elimelech Halberstam, became the Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe (also called Sanzer Rebbe) of Netanya, and Shmuel Dovid Halberstam became the Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe of Brooklyn.

Rivlin warns Macron: Israel may have to hit Hezbollah rocket factories in Beirut

January 24, 2019

Source: Rivlin warns Macron: Israel may have to hit Hezbollah rocket factories in Beirut | The Times of Israel

In Paris, president says Iran-backed terror group is manufacturing weapons under civilian cover in Lebanon’s capital, urges France to intervene

President Reuven Rivlin, right, is welcomed by French president Emmanuel Macron upon his arrival at the Elysee Palace in Paris on January 23, 2019. (Ludovic MARIN/AFP)

President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday told his French counterpart that Israel could be forced to strike the Hezbollah terror group’s rocket-building operations “in the heart of Beirut,” a development he warned would drag Lebanon into a punishing regional war that neither side wants.

Rivlin made the remarks during a meeting with France’s President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée Palace in Paris during an official visit to mark 70 years of diplomatic relations between Israel and France.

“If we are threatened from Lebanon, we will not stand by,” Rivlin told Macron, according a statement from his office. “Hezbollah is creating facilities to produce and convert precision-guided missiles in the heart of Beirut under civilian cover and with Iranian support.”

“This threatens Israeli security and could force us to respond, dragging the region into escalation that could badly harm Lebanon.”

The last major conflict between Israel and Lebanon was the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Rivlin stressed that Israel holds the Lebanese government responsible for all military activity in its territory and urged Macron to use France’s diplomatic clout to convince Beirut to contain the Iran-backed Hezbollah.

“Lebanon bears sovereign responsibility for all Hezbollah actions,” he said. “France is a power with decisive influence in our region and it is vital that she understands that Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese system. I expect France to exert whatever pressure necessary on the Lebanese government to display its sovereignty and rid itself of Iranian and Hezbollah involvement that could lead us to war.”

Pesident Reuven Rivlin, center left, stands with France’s President Emmanuel Macron on the steps of the Elysée Palace in Paris, January 23, 2019. (Haim Zach /GPO)

His warnings came as Israel went increasingly public about its airstrikes in Syria which, it says, have destroyed thousands of Hezbollah and Iranian targets in hundreds of missions in recent years.

Israel maintains that Hezbollah, with Iranian assistance, is working to set up factories in Beirut to produce precision-guided missiles it will ultimately direct against the Jewish state.

“We say clearly to the Lebanese government and to its allies around the world: Hezbollah’s aggression must be stopped before we find ourselves dragged into a conflict that neither Lebanon nor Israel want,” said Rivlin.

Macron is scheduled to visit Lebanon in early February, the statement from Rivlin’s office said.

Israel has vowed to prevent Iran from transferring advanced weapons and missiles to Hezbollah, as well as from establishing a military foothold in Syria where Tehran’s proxy militias — including Hezbollah — are helping the Damascus regime end a civil war, now in its eighth year.

Commenting on other issues, Rivlin thanked Macron for France’s efforts in trying to secure the return of the remains of two IDF soldiers and two Israeli civilians believed held by the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip. He also commended Macron for the French government’s stance against rising anti-Semitism in Europe.

“Your government’s position against anti-Semitism is particularly significant at a time when senior politicians, members of European governments, are no longer embarrassed to be anti-Semites or to rewrite history,” he said.

A satellite image released by the Israel Defense Forces showing a site near Beirut’s international airport that the army says is being used by Hezbollah to convert regular missiles into precision-guided munitions, on September 27, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)

During the press conference, Macron said that Israel’s security “remains for us one of the most important principles of regional security” and that he had expressed his concerns to Rivlin over recent rocket fire from Syria directed at Israel.

On Sunday, Israel intercepted a missile launched from Syria at the Golan Heights which it blamed on Iranian forces. Israel responded with a series of airstrikes against Iranian sites in Syria and Syrian air defense units.

“We will continue to keep Israeli interests… at the forefront of our mind and will make sure that our partners do the same,” Macron said.

The country’s Jewish community is “an inseparable part of French history and I am determined to continue and strengthen our fight against anti-Semitism, which is absolutely opposed our values and everything our democracy represents,” he added.

Rivlin and his wife attended a state dinner later in the evening.

 

Moscow: Israel must stop “arbitrary air strikes” on Syria. Khamenei takes charge of missile attacks on Israel – DEBKAfile

January 24, 2019

Source: Moscow: Israel must stop “arbitrary air strikes” on Syria. Khamenei takes charge of missile attacks on Israel – DEBKAfile

The practice of arbitrary strikes on the territory of a sovereignty state… Syria, should be ruled out,” FM spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, in Moscow’s first response two days after Israel conducted a major operation against Iranian targets in Syria.

She said such strikes added to tensions in the region, something she said was not in the long-term interests of any country there, including Israel.

This response to Israel’s latest strikes refutes the presumption in Israel that Moscow refrained from condemning them out of disapproval of the IRGS Fatteh-110 missile attack on the Golan without prior coordination with Moscow.
The coming DEBKA Weekly (for subscribers) out on Friday, Jan. 25, will explore Israel’s mounting conflict with Russia and Iran. Click here to subscribe.Al

Our sources also reveal now that as of Tuesday, Jan 22, decision-making on the issue of Iranian missile strikes against Israel passed directly from Al Qods chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani to the Islamic regime’s highest authority, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His first decision is still unknown.

DEBKAfile’s military sources assert that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu may have been too quick to fire a reply to Gen. Soleimani’s provocative comment to the Kuwaiti Al Jarida, that the only way to prevent further Israeli attacks on Syria was to launch missiles deep into central Israel. Netanyahu would then lose the elections. The prime minister hit back by saying, “Instead of interfering with the elections, Soleimani had better check the status of the Iranian bases that he is trying to establish in Syria. As long as I’m prime Minister, we won’t stop fighting against them.”

Netanyahu could not be sure that the Kuwait paper had correctly quoted the Iranian Al Qods chief. However, if the quote was accurate, then the situation on Israel’s northern front is so combustible that every word needs to be carefully weighed before it is uttered.

 

Russia’s Entanglement in Israeli-Iranian Tensions in Syria 

January 24, 2019

 

 

Will Russia Tolerate Iran’s Actions Against Israel in Syria? 

January 24, 2019

 

 

Israel to construct security-fences along all of its borders – TV7 Israel News 22.01.19 

January 24, 2019