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A source told World Israel News that Angel Bakery, the largest bread chain in the country, is shutting down branches in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, where it is no longer worthwhile to remain open.
By World Israel News Staff
A boycott by the Haredi community against Angel Bakery, Israel’s largest bakery chain, is taking its toll.
Angel Bakery, which is headquartered in Jerusalem but provides baked goods to restaurants, supermarkets, and stores throughout the country, sells price-controlled and government-subsidized products that are a staple in millions of homes in Israel. But sales plummetted tremendously since the start of the boycott a month ago.
Ultra-Orthodox lawmakers called for the boycott at the beginning of May after its chairman, former public security minister Omer Bar-Lev, protested outside the home of 100-year-old Ashkenazi scion Rabbi Gershon Edelstein in Bnei Brak.
Bar-Lev had posted a photo of himself with the “Brothers in Arms” protest group on Twitter, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Yariv Levin of bribing the Haredi parties to “vote in favor of the coup d’état,” referring to the government’s plans for judicial reform, in exchange for the the Draft Law, exempting young ultra-Orthodox men from the army.
Several lawmakers and religious community leaders slammed Bar-Lev. MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Religious Zionism), for example, told Kan News, “It cannot be that the chair of Angel’s Board of Directors goes to protest at the home of one of the greatest [rabbis] of this generation. Bar-Lev’s remarks are very problematic, hostile, deeply hateful, and ignorant of this world.”
“The boycott will end when Omer Bar-Lev faces judgment. The boycott needs to continue until he is fired,” she added.
The Haredi community demanded that Bar-Lev be fired for disrespecting the Torah and the revered spiritual leader.
Meanwhile, Rabbi Edelstein – head of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community in Israel and head of the renowned Ponovezh yeshiva – passed away last week after a sudden deterioration in health. Tens of thousands of people from all walks of life attended the funeral.
A source who requested anonymity told World Israel News that Angel is suffering tremendously due to the boycott, despite the fact that the company had tried disregarding it.
“Every day,” the source said, “they have tons of unsold goods. Their business is seriously impacted, to the point where they are shutting down branches in Haredi neighborhoods because it’s not profitable for them.”
Perhaps due to the company’s profound losses, Bar-Lev paid a condolence call to the family during the shiva mourning period and offered his “sincere apologies” for the insult. In a letter, he wrote:
“I view the existence of the Torah and its students as an important value in Jewish tradition, that is not what I protested against.
“If I had been made aware of the situation we found ourselves in, and the perceived offense, I surely would have refrained from this action. For this, I am sorry and apologize sincerely.”
He was accompanied by the company’s CEO Yaron Angel, who also wrote a letter of apology.
“We should have said this immediately after the protest and expressed our sorrow. In real time, we thought such a reaction would involve the firm in political matters in which, for decades, we have not wanted to get involved,” he said, although the demonstration in front of the rabbi’s home was purely political.
“But this silence was interpreted as a further insult. We are sorry for this and apologize wholeheartedly,” he concluded.
Before the rabbi’s passing, none other than Yoel Speigel, a grandson of the bakery’s late founder, defended Bar-Lev in a now-deleted Facebook post that added insult to injury.
“There is no limit to the chutzpah on the part of the ultra-Orthodox public in Israel,” he said. “They eat for free … evade army service, have dark opinions and, above all, are hypocrites!”
Spiegel’s comments triggered additional calls for yeshivas and grocery stores owned by community members to avoid stocking Angel Bakery products.
“Rabbi Edelstein is one of the spiritual giants of the people of Israel. One of the greatest righteous men of our generation. Hurting him is hurting me. It is an insult to all who love God. I’m not able to eat one bun from Angel after all of this,” said Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, one of Israel’s most prominent Religious Zionist rabbis.
“This is not revenge. This is a public campaign regarding the character of the State of Israel. Those who care about the State of Israel will not buy Angel products until they mend their ways,” he stated.
“There are enough other bakeries that know how to bake delicious challah for Shabbat. And if you don’t find it, it’s better to eat rye bread and not eat [Angel’s] challah.”
President Isaac Herzog reportedly helped coordinate Bar-Lev’s shiva visit.
The post Large Israeli bakery chain suffering huge losses; execs apologize to family of late rabbi, hoping to end boycott appeared first on World Israel News.
Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of New York City on Sunday afternoon with the Celebrate Israel parade, marking 75 years after the establishment of the State of Israel. The event, which kicked off on Fifth Avenue, included Israeli and American government officials and featured famous singer Matisyahu.
At the same time, hundreds, including many Israeli ex-pats, demonstrated in a “pro-democracy” rally against the Netanyahu government’s planned judicial overhaul.
#HappeningNow: The annual @CelebrateIsrael parade kicks off on #NewYorkCity‘s 5th Ave. pic.twitter.com/7c2dTaqaJM
— Israel National News – Arutz Sheva (@ArutzSheva_En) June 4, 2023
The post WATCH: Tens of thousands join Celebrate Israel parade in New York City appeared first on World Israel News.
On May 26, a 24-year-old, Alicia Moore of Orlando, Florida left her car parked outside the Oviedo Mall with her two little ones inside. As Moore entered the Dillard’s department store to shoplift with an unknown man, little did she know that her vehicle was about to burst into flames.
When Moore emerged from the store, her car was already a smoldering wreck. She left behind the stolen merchandise and ran to the vehicle to rescue her children. But the two kids had already been helped out the back window by passersby, who had come to their aid as the flames consumed the car.
Dashcam footage from a Tesla parked nearby shows the car’s back window and windshield shattering from the flames and smoke. Fortunately, the children only suffered minor first-degree burns on the face and ears. Following the incident, Moore was apprehended last week and charged with aggravated child neglect, arson, and petty theft and battery charges. She is presently held in Seminole County Jail on a $48,000 bond.
The origins of this fire remain murky, but the car was destroyed beyond repair. Moore’s negligent behavior puts her two innocent children in an inexcusably hazardous situation. It is a miracle that everyone escaped unscathed, and Moore should be taken to task for her decisions.
The US Supreme Court’s decision in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters Local 174 is outrageous — valuing property over workers’ rights. But it could have been much worse.
Unions still have the right to strike. Employers still can’t generally sue unions in state court for losses caused by strikes. But the decision does open the door to whittling away those rights more in the future.
The practical impact of the court’s decision is that employers will be suing unions more often for alleged property damage caused by strikes — and that therefore unions (and their attorneys) are likely to be more cautious.
But the court did not do what many had feared it would do in this case: overrule longstanding precedent that employers generally cannot sue unions in state court over activities — like strikes — covered by the National Labor Relations Act.
Instead, it found that this case fell under an already-existing exception for intentional damage to employer property or failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent such damage.
Workers and unions are right to be furious at this ruling. But we should be careful not to sensationalize or overstate it — which could do more damage to the right to strike than the ruling itself does, by making workers scared to exercise it.
“American workers must remember that their right to strike has not been taken away,” said Teamsters President Sean O’Brien in response to the ruling. “All workers, union and nonunion alike, will forever have the right to withhold their labor.” His statement went on:
The Teamsters will strike any employer, when necessary, no matter their size or the depth of their pockets. Unions will never be broken by this Court or any other.
Today’s shameful ruling is simply one more reminder that the American people cannot rely on their government or their courts to protect them. They cannot rely on their employers.
We must rely on each other. We must engage in organized, collective action. We can only rely on the protections inherent in the power of our unions.
The question the Supreme Court considered in the Glacier case was whether the employer could sue Teamsters Local 174 in state court over the allegedly intentional destruction of the company’s concrete when striking drivers who had set out with deliveries of ready-mix concrete returned their loaded trucks, requiring the company to dispose of it before it set.
Prior court cases say that an employer can’t sue a union in state court over activity arguably covered by the National Labor Relations Act. Instead, the employer has to go to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
There is an exception, though, if striking employees intentionally damage employer property or don’t take reasonable precautions to protect employer property. For example, in one case, employees walked out of a foundry when molten iron was ready to be poured — which the court found could have caused substantial property damage.
This exception is narrow: property damage that is intentional or caused by a lack of reasonable precautions. It doesn’t include things like economic losses due to temporary closure of a store or factory, strawberries rotting in the field because farmworkers are on strike, or milk going sour in the fridge because baristas have walked out.
The trial court in Washington state dismissed Glacier’s claim because it found that the Teamsters’ strike action was arguably protected under the National Labor Relations Act. The Washington State Supreme Court affirmed.
The United States Supreme Court has now overruled that decision and sent the case back to the trial court, because it says that — assuming the facts alleged in the employer’s complaint are true — the union did not take reasonable precautions to prevent concrete from hardening.
The Supreme Court did not order the trial court to decide against the union, just that the case be allowed to proceed. And it left open the possibility for the state courts to dismiss the case again, depending on what the NLRB does about a pending unfair labor practices complaint against Glacier related to the same strike.
The NLRB issued its complaint against Glacier after the Washington State Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of the state court case. The US Supreme Court explicitly did not rule on whether the lawsuit would have been preempted if the NLRB had issued the complaint earlier.
Depending on how future cases play out in state and federal court, Glacier could end up being a relatively small change to labor law or another in an escalating series of court decisions chipping away at the right to strike.
Already the laws are stacked against powerful strikes. Employers routinely obtain injunctions limiting where and how many strikers can picket, economic strikers can be permanently replaced, secondary targets often can’t be picketed, and so on.
Comparisons to other areas of law, like abortion rights, are useful. Roe v. Wade was not overturned in one night. It took nearly fifty years of legal battles in which courts questioned and undermined Roe v. Wade, until a conservative majority finally overruled it.
Similarly, right-wing attorneys and judges will try to build on Glacier to expand employers’ ability to sue unions. But for the moment, the labor movement may have dodged a bullet.
Drivers queue to get fuel near a gas station in Havana on April 24, 2023. (Yamil Lage / AFP via Getty Images)
Last month, I traveled to Cuba as part of a seven-day youth delegation, organized by the International Peoples’ Assembly, to meet Cuban activists and learn about conditions under US sanctions. A common refrain I heard from the young Cubans I met was “No hay un futuro en Cuba.” There’s no future in Cuba.
Many young Cubans who shared this sentiment with me told me that they hoped to come to the United States as soon as they could figure out how. “Y sin el bloqueo?” I asked. And without the embargo? “Eso es diferente,” they replied. It’s true: without US sanctions, life in Cuba would be very different, and the future much brighter.
The economic effects of the more-than-sixty-years-long embargo on Cuba alone are devastating. By one count, they have cost Cuba more than $130 billion. Not only does Cuba’s neighbor to the north, the largest economy in the world, refuse to do business with Cuba, but the United States also freezes Cuba out of systems of global commerce and trade via its influence in and control over international banking and financial networks.
In 1960, a US official spelled out in a memorandum that the purpose of US policy regarding Cuba was “to weaken the economic life of Cuba . . . [to deny] money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” Government overthrow has not been forthcoming, but everything else has been a stunning success. Cuba now serves as an example to the globe of what happens when you refuse to follow Washington’s orders.
If the sanctions weren’t bad enough, add in COVID-19, a disaster at the island’s largest fuel depot in Matanzas, and the redesignation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism (SSoT)) by Donald Trump’s administration on the way out the door — along with the introduction of twenty-two additional restrictive measures, all upheld and continued under Joe Biden — and you’re left with a full-blown crisis on the island. The hurdles Cuba faces in procuring even the simplest humanitarian supplies — such as needles and syringes to vaccinate their population with any of Cuba’s five self-created COVID vaccines — often prove insurmountable in the immediate term. Although Cuba did eventually manage to vaccinate its entire population, many died as a result of the delay, which was caused by the embargo. People also died when Cuba faced issues in procuring more ventilators, eventually having to build their own. By designating Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism amid the COVID pandemic, the US government has further cut off Cuba from the rest of the world, exacerbating the island’s material deprivation.
But the difficulties imposed on Cuba by the US go far beyond medical supplies. People can’t repair their homes because supplies are incredibly difficult to acquire. Tourists can’t use their debit or credit cards on the island, severely limiting the spending of visitors to Cuba. Food can’t be bought by the Cuban government using credit, and thus food is more expensive, more limited in quantity, and far more difficult to procure overall. The blockade makes shoes hard to import, and average Cubans are forced to cough up significant portions of their paychecks to buy a new pair. (Even so, I saw only one person without shoes in Cuba. By contrast, vast numbers of homeless people walk the streets of my hometown of Washington, DC, without footwear.)
The list of hardships caused by the US blockade of Cuba goes on and on. It’s abundantly clear that the goal of the policy is to create as much economic desperation as possible, in order to bend Cuba to America’s will. In the last year, we’ve seen a large wave of Cuban migrants to the United States. Do not be fooled: they are not political refugees. They are economic refugees fleeing circumstances created by American policy.
The goal of the US government has been to asphyxiate the Cuban economy as a means of undermining the Cuban Revolution and bullying Cubans into relinquishing their sovereignty and right to self-determination. In the process of attempting to pull off this strategy, the United States has garnered the resentment and disapproval of the entire world. Thirty times now, the United Nations has voted overwhelmingly in favor of resolutions to condemn the illegal and unilaterally imposed embargo on Cuba — most recently in 2022 with a 185-2 vote, the only two dissenting nations being Israel and the United States.
Despite the inhumanity of the embargo and SSoT designation, Cuba has still managed to accomplish feats considered impossible in much of the capitalist world. Health care, housing, and education are universal rights in Cuba. The country has enacted “some of the most farsighted environmental measures in the world.” Meanwhile, Cuba has developed both a vaccine for lung cancer and a cure for diabetic ulcers — a condition that claims the limbs of hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, limbs that could be saved if the embargo were to end. Each of these has been achieved in spite of the blockade.
Presently, it takes no more than the stroke of a pen from Biden to remove Cuba from the SSoT list (it is similarly as easy to end the embargo). That, however, could soon change. First introduced by Senator Marco Rubio in 2021, and then again by Representative Maria Salazar in 2023 — both right-wing Cuban Americans — the so-called Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends (FORCE) Act seeks to formally codify Cuba’s place on the SSoT list, ending the ability of the executive branch to remove Cuba at will.
You may be wondering what Cuba has done to warrant placement on the list in the first place. To hammer home the insanity of the US’s assault on Cuba, the justification is that Cuba provided safe haven to terrorists when it hosted peace talks between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Colombian government. Cuba remains on the list not because it poses a terrorist threat, but because its inclusion furthers the United States’ goal of worsening Cuban economic conditions. For the US to accuse Cuba of terrorism is ironic: it is Cuba that has suffered bombings, hijackings, sabotage, an attempted invasion, more than 634 documented attempts on the life of Fidel Castro, jaw-dropping violations of sovereignty, and other attacks that have been funded, orchestrated, and many times directly carried out by the CIA.
The US assault on Cuba began as an attempt to bring the nation to heel, essentially reestablishing Cuba as an unofficial colony of the United States. Unsuccessful in its original aim, the US has continued to punish Cubans for insisting on their sovereignty. While the rest of the world disapproves of the United States’ actions, the message remains clear: Cuba serves as a reminder of the hardship and suffering that await any nation that resists Washington’s dictates.
It is time to insist upon the removal of Cuba from the SSoT list, an end to the embargo, and the normalization of US relations with Cuba. The United States must allow Cubans to live in peace and to determine their own future. The US government has made clear that it will sacrifice the well-being of millions to prove its point and get its way. It will not stop until we rise up and demand an alternative.
Egypt’s initial claim, that the terrorist had entered Israeli territory in pursuit of drug smugglers, is unconvincing.
By Yaakov Lappin, JNS
There are several critical questions that the joint Israeli-Egyptian investigation into the deadly terrorist attack on the two countries’ shared border on Saturday must address.
During the incident, which lasted several hours, three Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed by an Egyptian police officer. The first two were killed at around 6:00 a.m., according to the IDF, and the third some two hours later, during a shootout that broke out after back-up forces arrived to search for the gunman.
Israeli forces led by the regional brigade commander killed the gunman soon afterwards.
The first key question is whether the terrorist, who was armed with an AK-47, acted on his own, or as a member of a larger terrorist group that has infiltrated Egypt’s security forces.
Egypt’s initial claim, that the terrorist had entered Israeli territory in pursuit of drug smugglers, is unconvincing, and reflects pressure within Egypt to smooth over the incident with a convenient narrative rather than attempt to ascertain the facts.
It is fair to assume that Israel has made it clear, behind closed doors, that this explanation is illogical and unacceptable in light of the assailant’s conduct; he remained in Israeli territory for two hours after the initial shooting, before he again fired on Israeli forces.
The second question must address the role that a significant drug smuggling run, which occurred at 2:30 a.m. that same night, and in the same area, may have played in the attack.
Both incidents occurred in the desolate Mount Harif border region, and the attempt to smuggle some 1.5 million shekels’ worth ($400,000) of narcotics into Israel, at the same time as the attack is unlikely to have been a coincidence.
Was the smuggling run, which the IDF thwarted, an attempt to distract the military?
A third question that needs to be given consideration is whether the attack was the result of a jihadist-Islamist group seeking to undermine the ongoing security cooperation at the border between the Israeli and Egyptian militaries.
The post The Egypt border attack: Key questions appeared first on World Israel News.
Law enforcement is on the hunt for a 24-year-old Missouri woman wanted in connection to a shooting that injured two people at a Blue Springs hotel. Samantha J. Thrasher is facing first-degree felony assault and armed criminal action charges stemming from a May 20 incident at the SureStay Plus Hotel, where a 36-year-old man and a 7-year-old girl received gunshot wounds.
According to authorities, the incident began when Thrasher almost ran over the victims with her tan Chevrolet Tahoe, after which the woman entered the hotel lobby and demanded a refund for her room. When the employee informed Thrasher that a manager had to provide a refund, the two became engaged in a heated argument, and Thrasher allegedly grabbed her by the hair. Soon, the male victim tried to intervene, taking Thrasher to the hotel’s front door, at this point, Thrasher reportedly hit him with a fist.
Surveillance footage then showed Thrasher opening the passenger side door of her vehicle and rummaging through something before producing a gun. She then reentered the hotel lobby and fired several shots from the pistol; the man and the girl were both hit by shrapnel.
After the shooting, the male victim was rushed to a hospital and underwent surgery in the intensive care unit, and the girl was taken to a specialized children’s hospital. Evidence collection for the case is ongoing, with authorities recovering four spent .40 caliber casings in the hotel lobby and a live .40 caliber cartridge in the parking lot.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for Thrasher and requested a $200,000, 10% bond. People who have seen Thrasher are urged to call the police rather than try to apprehend the suspect.
“The deadly incident on the Egyptian border on Shabbat is severe and extraordinary and will be fully investigated,” the prime minister said.
By JNS
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday promised answers following the “extraordinary” killing by an Egyptian policeman of three IDF soldiers.
“The deadly incident on the Egyptian border on Shabbat is severe and extraordinary and will be fully investigated. I want to commend our forces who sought contact and eliminated the terrorist,” said Netanyahu.
“Together with the entire people of Israel, I share in the sorrow of the families of [those killed]… and wish a swift recovery to the wounded. Our hearts are with the families in their profound grief,” he added.
Sgt. Lia Ben-Nun and Staff Sgt. Uri Iluz were shot dead overnight Friday while manning an observation post. During the subsequent manhunt, Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan was killed in Israeli territory in an exchange of fire with the terrorist, who was also fatally shot.
A fourth Israeli soldier was lightly wounded.
The three fatalities served in the Bardelas (Cheetah) Battalion, a mixed-gender unit.
The funeral for Ben-Nun, 19, took place in Rishon Lezion at 4:30 p.m. Iluz, who was 20, was buried in Safed at 5 p.m. Dahan, 20, was laid to rest in Ofakim at 5 p.m., the IDF said.
A preliminary investigation found that the terrorist crossed the border through an emergency gate used by IDF soldiers in coordination with Cairo.
Egypt claimed the police officer crossed the border to chase after drug smugglers, in the aftermath of an earlier bust.
However, Army Radio reported on Sunday that the Egyptian policeman had in his possession six ammunition magazines for his rifle, a Koran, and a knife. The IDF estimates that the presence of the Koran suggests that the policeman was motivated by Islamic religious extremism, the report said.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Egyptian Defense Minister Maj. Gen Muhammad Ahmed Zaki spoke on Saturday evening and agreed to cooperate in investigating the attack.
“Egypt has played an important role in the Middle East by proactively brokering calm between Israel and Iran-backed terrorist groups. A level of trust has been established between Israel and the first Arab state to make peace with the Jewish state,” said Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“The coming days will be delicate, but the two sides have the personnel and processes in place to handle this without escalating tensions,” he added.
The post Netanyahu vows to fully probe ‘severe’ Egypt attack appeared first on World Israel News.