However, a local Republican insider told NYaltnews that… “We understand that Carlucci is extremely popular, and it’s hard to find issues with his many of his votes. Even his liberal votes—like LGBT marriage—might not be battles worth fighting.”

“Ed Day is the future of our party,” said our GOP source. “Many of us think he’ll make an excellent [Rockland County] exec when that time comes, and it may be sooner than you think. And that’s a race we know he can win.”

Indeed, several other political sources have told NYaltnews that Day covets the Rockland County Executive’s seat, and they claim he’ll even enter a primary against incumbent Republican C. Scott Vanderhoef in 2013 if needed.

The GOP insider we spoke to indicated that a State Senate run in 2012 would be a distraction, if not a small setback for Day when the time comes to run for County Executive. “People think of Ed Day as a winner…personally I’d like it to stay that way. Win or lose, he’d be bloodied in a race with Carlucci.”

As for Borelli, our source said, “Frank’s name is well-known throughout the county, he’s got a lot of cash, and he’s one likeable guy. But do I think he’s interested? Well, I think Vinnie is interested for Frank. Again, what issue would Frank challenge Carlucci on? Indian Point? Utility rates? Hydrofracking? Carlucci’s vote on gay marriage? And ruin all the goodwill he’s built up in this town?”

Judy Hasner, Adam’s mom, ran Frankel’s first state House campaign in 1986, then went to work for Frankel as her legislative aide. Adam Hasner was a teenage Republican at the time. While his mother was helping send Frankel to Tallahassee, Adam Hasner said he was helping send a Republican to Washington by volunteering on former GOP Rep. Tom Lewis’ 1986 reelection campaign. – Report by Palm Beach Post

Mr. Mandel, the current Ohio State Treasurer has not yet formally announced  that he will be running against Mr. Brown, however he did file with the Federal  Election Commission recently.

Ohio is considered to be a battleground state in the upcoming presidential  election, and both Democrats and Republicans will be watching the Senate race  there closely.

Mr. Brown’s Senate seat is seen as one that would give the Republicans a  majority in the Senate if they are able to obtain it from him in the fall.

The Rasmussen survey was conducted on February 8th, and has a margin of error of  plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

(Exclusive Interview Audio: Ohio’s GOP Senate Candidate = State Treasurer by Day; Telz Yeshiva at Night)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Alan Gross

AP Reports: Piece by piece, in backpacks and carry-on bags, American aid contractor Alan Gross made sure laptops, smartphones, hard drives and networking equipment were secreted into Cuba. The most sensitive item, according to official trip reports, was the last one: a specialized mobile phone chip that experts say is often used by the Pentagon and the CIA to make satellite signals virtually impossible to track.

The purpose, according to an Associated Press review of Gross’ reports, was to set up uncensored satellite Internet service for Cuba’s small Jewish community. The operation was funded as democracy promotion for the U.S. Agency for International Development, established in 1961 to provide economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of U.S. foreign policy goals.

Gross, however, identified himself as a member of a Jewish humanitarian group, not a representative of the U.S. government.

Cuban President Raul Castro called him a spy, and Gross was sentenced last March to 15 years in prison for seeking to “undermine the integrity and independence” of Cuba. U.S. officials say he did nothing wrong and was just carrying out the normal mission of USAID.

Gross said at his trial in Cuba that he was a “trusting fool” who was duped. But his trip reports indicate that he knew his activities were illegal in Cuba and that he worried about the danger, including possible expulsion.

One report says a community leader “made it abundantly clear that we are all ‘playing with fire.’”

In January, ZAKA announced its own interfaith platform. It came just as  tensions between religious and secular society were boiling over the issue of  gender segregation. At the tensions’ peak, some Haredim rioted in the town of  Beit Shemesh, even donning death camp outfits to dramatize their own sense of  victimhood. Against this backdrop, ZAKA has assembled two dozen of Israel’s most  respected religious leaders — from Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger to Muafak Tarif,  head of Israel’s Druze community, and Mohamad Kiwan, who leads an association of  imams in Israel — to sign a declaration committing themselves to a shared  humanitarian vision.

Demand for charity in America continues to grow while government resources for social service programs dwindle. America’s generous citizens fill this void and their contributions should be incentivized by the tax law. The White House has no choice but to rein in the budget, but the Administration does have a choice about continuing the century-old tradition of providing tax incentives for charitable giving. We are grateful that the Administration now agrees that fundamental tax reform should not create disincentives to charitable giving by reducing the deductibility of charitable contributions.

In numerous proposals over the past three years, the Administration had suggested making changes to the limit the tax deductibility of charitable contributions. The notion of losing these incentives worried many of our nation’s top charities because we know the significant impact this change in policy would have on the operating budgets of nonprofits serving the most vulnerable among us.

Americans give billions of dollars to charities each year. These donations are largely due to donors’ generosity and concern for their fellow Americans in need. But there is no doubt that taxes play a part in the giving equation, often helping donors to assure that charities receive the maximum financial benefit from their gifts.

In previous proposals, the tax benefit of all itemized deductions, including charitable contributions, would be capped at 28 percent. This would increase the after-tax-cost of a $10,000 donation by almost $1,200, or about 30 percent, if the top statutory tax rate for charitable deductions returns to 39.6 percent. What this means for Americans in need is that there’s a 30 percent greater incentive for donors to give under the Administration’s revised approach.

That’s why we are gratified with the change in the Administration’s policy to now recognize the importance of the tax deductibility of charitable contributions as announced in their tax reform platform. Unlike other tax incentives (housing, child care, etc), the charitable deduction is unique because it promotes behavior that provides no direct benefit to the donor. Rather the real benefit from this policy flows to society–especially our neighbors in need. This has been true for more than 100 years and remains increasingly important during these times of economic recovery and government austerity.

William Daroff is the Vice President for Public Policy and Director of the Washington Office of the Jewish Federations of North America

Samuel Jackson

I voted for Barack because he was black. ’Cuz that’s why other folks vote for other people — because they look like them,” Jackson said. “That’s American politics, pure and simple. [Obama’s] message didn’t mean sh-t to me. In the end, he’s a politician. I just hoped he would do some of what he said he was gonna do. – Reported by The Blaze

Interior Secretary Harold Ickes and a few others in President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration liked the idea of resettling German Jews in Alaska. Despite the isolationist and anti-Jewish sentiments prevalent at the time, they proposed to establish “a haven for Jewish refugees from Germany and other areas in Europe where the Jews are subjected to oppressive restrictions.” According to Ickes’s diaries, President Roosevelt wanted to move 10,000 settlers to Alaska each year for five years, but only 10 percent would be Jewish “to avoid the undoubted criticism” the program would receive if it brought too many Jews into the country. With Ickes’s support, Interior Undersecretary Harold Slattery wrote a formal proposal titled “The Problem of Alaskan Development,” which became known as the Slattery Report. It emphasized economic-development benefits rather than humanitarian relief: The Jewish refugees, Ickes reasoned, would “open up opportunities in the industrial and professional fields now closed to the Jews in Germany.”

The proposal won few fans in the far north. Widow Emma de la Vergne in Fairbanks was one of those who thought it was a good idea. “Let the German-Jews come to Alaska if they want to. Alaska is a big country. Give them a chance,” she said when interviewed by the city’s Daily News-Miner. But most of her fellow Alaskans disagreed. “German Jews Unsuited for Alaska Settlers Is Prevailing View Here,” read the paper’s headline on November 21, 1938. A few days later, an editorial declared: “Alaska wants no misfits and none who are unprepared to make their way without becoming a burden upon the territory.” The mayor of Fairbanks compared the proposal to one that advocated turning Alaska into a penal colony.

The idea went nowhere. But fears that Jews would not be able to make it in Alaska were unfounded. Jews were among the earliest settlers of “the Last Frontier,” and had played a major role in putting it on the American map. “It’s because of the Jewish presence that Alaska was developed when it was,” says Alaska historian Patti Moss, who lives in Juneau, the state capital in southeastern Alaska. “The first banks: Jewish people. Railroads: Jewish financing. The first college: East Coast Jewish money. The entire infrastructure of Alaska was built by Jewish people, Jewish money and Jewish knowledge.”

Danish-born navigator Vitus Bering, exploring on behalf of the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, sighted Alaska on a 1741 trip to map the Siberian coast. Decades later came the promyshlenniki – Russian fur traders and businessmen lured by Alaska’s untapped natural wealth. Among these hardy souls, it is believed, were Jewish furriers and Jews who had been exiled to Siberia by the Tsar. Most worked for the state-sponsored trading concern called the Russian-American Company, which had a monopoly on exploiting Alaska’s vast resources. One of its managers was Nikolay Yakovlevich Rosenberg, who ran the company from 1850 to 1853.

New Archangel — renamed Sitka — a harbor town on an island off the southeast coast, was the center of Alaskan commercial life. The first Jewish family arrived in 1848, says Moss. Alexander Cohen, whose daughters would become the state’s first postmistresses, bought two or three hotels and a brewery. The Cohens were followed by other Ashkenazi Jews from Germany who opened up a variety of businesses, including brothels. “Jews transformed Sitka from a tent city into a city,” says Moss.

Jewish traders from San Francisco who purchased furs from the Russian-American Company were among the first to recognize Alaska’s potential. “While historians differed as to the real motives for the sale of Alaska, there was substantial agreement that the efforts of the San Francisco fur syndicates to buy out the Russian-American Company was a factor in bringing about the purchase,” wrote Bernard Postal, author of an authoritative article on Alaska’s Jews in the 1960 “American Jewish Yearbook.” Former California Senator Cornelius Cole, according to one Alaskan pioneer, recalled that “the original and most active mover of the plan to buy Alaska after the Civil War was an enterprising Jewish-American promoter and trader named Philip [sic] Goldstone of San Francisco.”

Cole got Goldstone’s first name wrong but the rest of his facts were accurate. In 1865, Louis Goldstone, a California fur trader, brought news that the Russians wanted to sell Alaska to an American company. Facing competition from the British-owned Hudson Bay Company, Goldstone’s associates decided to pressure the American government to preempt the British. They engaged Cole, then a Washington lobbyist, to press his boyhood friend, U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward. And thus it was that on March 30, 1867 “Seward’s Folly” — the $7.2 million American purchase of Alaska — came to pass. At less than two cents an acre, it was a land that, unbeknownst to both seller and purchaser, harbored untold deposits of gold, silver, copper, zinc, coal and oil.

Shortly after the U.S. purchase, two wealthy Jewish furriers in San Francisco Lewis Gerstle and Louis Sloss, bought most of the concessions owned by the Russian-American Company — 23 trading posts strategically located on accessible islands and coastal plains, as well as its entire stock of goods, warehouses, wharves and ships — and folded them into their own firm, the Alaska Commercial Company. “A company agent was aboard the government transport carrying the American officials who took possession of Alaska on October 1, 1867,” wrote Postal. And so was soldier Benjamin Levy, who, according to his 1882 obituary in The American Israelite, was credited “with hauling down the Russian flag and hoisting up the Stars and Stripes when the formal transfer of sovereignty took place at Sitka.”

In control of the new territory’s infrastructure, the Alaska Commercial Company had the inside track “in the race for commercial supremacy in Alaska,” wrote Postal. Gerstle and Sloss were particularly interested in sealskins, and also financed some of Alaska’s first mining ventures. But neither man ever set foot in the territory; they were Bavarian émigrés known more for their formal manners than for their love of sub-zero temperatures.

At the time of the sale, according to congressional records, there were about 2,500 Russians and 8,000 indigenous people living under the direct governance of the Russian-American Company, and possibly 50,000 Alaskan natives living outside its jurisdiction. U.S. sovereignty in Alaska proved to be a magnet for more newcomers. Soon, the streets of Sitka were lined with shops with Jewish names, and the small Jewish community thrived. One traveler, Emil Teichmann, describes how Sitka’s Jewish men prayed together in a warehouse on Friday night. “I had never heard a sound there in the evenings, but on that night my curiosity was aroused by the murmur of several voices in the adjoining room,” he writes in his published diary, “A Journey to Alaska in the Year 1868.” “Looking through a crevice I saw quite an assembly of some twenty men all of the Jewish persuasion, who were holding their Sabbath services and reading their prayers under the leadership of the oldest man present. It was a memorable thing to see this religious gathering in so strange a setting and it said a great deal for the persistence with which the Jews everywhere, even in the most remote countries, practice their emotional exercises.”

(Read More)

“You can’t criticize stop-and-frisk while taking money from the PBA,” he said, chastising the NYPD for some of their controversial shootings.

Reached for a comment, Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries didn’t take kindly to the harsh criticism.

“My legislative record of accomplishment on stop-and-frisk and police reform issues is unimpeachable. The ‘blood money’ reference is strange and perplexing coming from someone who is an unabashed apologist of Muammar Gaddafi, Robert Mugabe and other rogue international dictators who have ruled with blood-soaked hands,” Mr. Jeffries said, referring to Mr. Barron’s strong support for the regimes of Mr. Gaddafi and Mr. Mugabe.

The Syrian embassy in Qatar was also closed, and Syrian ambassadors to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have also been called back, Syria’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said during a meeting with reporters.

The expulsion of diplomatic missions of Libya and Tunisia came apparently in retaliation to similar actions taken against Syrian diplomats in those countries.

Tunisia was the first Arab country to announce the decision to expel Syria’s ambassador and to cut relations with the Syrian government.

Also, Libyan Foreign Ministry on Thursday announced its decision to expel Syria’s charge d’affaires and his staff, adding that it expects all Syrian diplomats to leave the country within the next 72 hours.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have also decided to withdraw their ambassadors in Syria, and in the meantime demand Syrian ambassadors in the Gulf countries to leave, according to a GCC statement issued earlier this month.

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/12/diplomats-on-the-move-syria-recalls-its-ambassadors-from-qatar-kuwait-saudi-arabia-expels-tunisia-libya-ambassadors/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/12/syrian-general-gunned-down-as-uprising-spills-into-lebanon/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/12/syrian-general-gunned-down-as-uprising-spills-into-lebanon/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2012 06:47:40 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=8513 Read more »

Issa al-Khawli

MSN Reports: Assad’s forces have waged a brutal week-long onslaught on the central protest city of Homs that has killed at least 500 people since February 4, Abdel Rahman said.

A general was shot dead outside his Damascus home, state media said. If confirmed, this would be one of the most brazen attacks on the top brass in the capital since the uprising erupted in March last year.

“An armed terrorist group this morning assassinated brigadier general and doctor, Issa al-Khawli, the director of Hamish hospital, outside his home in the district of Ruknaddin,” SANA state news agency said.

A YouTube video posted on the Internet showed Syrian tanks bearing huge portraits of Assad firing on a road in Douma, a Damascus suburb which has been plagued by months of violence.

In another video, protesters are seen marching in the Damascus district of Al-Aassali carrying banners which said: “We will only kneel before God,” and “Long live Syria, down with Bashar al-Assad.”

In Lebanon, a 17-year-old girl was among three people killed and 23 were wounded in clashes between Sunni Muslims hostile to Syria’s regime and Alawites who support it, a security official said.

Ten of the wounded were Lebanese soldiers, including a sergeant in critical condition.

The rival factions in Tripoli fired guns and rocket-propelled grenades at each other in the bloodiest clashes since June, when six people died in the wake of demonstrations against Syria’s government.

In recent years Tripoli has been rocked by intense clashes between members of its Sunni-majority community and Alawites — the community from which hails the Syrian president.

Syrian state media, meanwhile, blamed “terrorists” for Friday’s double car bomb attacks on security posts in Aleppo.

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Santorum went so far as to accuse the president of actively seeking to help Iran obtain nuclear weapons. He said that while the president might give lip service to the idea of wanting Iran to stop its program, Obama was not taking any significant measures to stop it.

Santorum further alleged that the administration was looking the other way, because of its dependence on OPEC – group in which Iran is a key player. U.S. Representative Michelle Bachmann also criticized the president’s policy on Israel, saying that no other president had failed to stand by Israel.

Personally, I think that much of it is just talk. Most people, who think of attending the protest, will bail in the last minute. However, if only a handful or a dozen show, it is more than enough to create chaos; this is something that shall not take place.

I fully understand the frustrations members of our community have regarding the book. However, as someone who does Media/Public Relations for a living, I can assure my brethren that by trying to undercut a lost soul’s fifteen minutes of fame, one will only enhance it and it will feed into the negative narrative pushed by the author as to the behavior of the Community.

The correct approach is to the reach out in respectful and professional ways to media outlets and journalists who wrote stories on this topic and implore them to write balanced reports and to correct the record. Anything else is counter-productive to say the least.

The documents show that Iran has given the Syrian regime more than $1  billion, which would help it overcome the oil embargo and other moves including  restrictions on flights and sanctions against the central bank.

The documents were leaked following a cyber-attack by hackers known as  Anonymous against the e-mail server of the Syrian president’s office.  Seventy-eight employees in President Bashar Assad’s office had their e-mail  hacked. One of these accounts belonged to the minister of presidential affairs,  Mansour Azzam; it included two documents signed by him that dealt with relations  between Syria and Iran.

The two documents were authored two months ago and detail discussions by  senior Iranian delegations visiting Syria. The documents are written in  ambiguous language and only in a number of places do they detail ways Syria  would be aided to bypass sanctions. The document repeatedly refers to Syria’s  wish to “learn from the Iranian experience in this area.”

The United States, Turkey, the European Union, the Arab League and other  countries have imposed severe sanctions on Syria due to the regime’s attacks on  civilians. As part of the sanctions, all Arab League members have ceased contact  with the Central Bank of Syria, and commercial flights from Arab countries to  and from Syria have stopped. The European Union has imposed an oil embargo on  Syria.

Around 20 percent of Syria’s gross domestic product derives from oil sales,  with 90 percent of Syrian oil being exported to the EU.

Holder’s letter, first reported by the Jerusalem Post, was in response to a letter to Holder sent by the Parents Forum for Justice on Jan. 19. In their original letter, the group expressed concern that Israel released Palestinian prisoners with American blood on their hands in exchange for Shalit and the United States has not prosecuted these terrorists under U.S. anti-terrorism laws. Under U.S. anti-terrorism law, the U.S. can prosecute foreign nationals who commit terrorist acts against U.S. citizens outside of the country, but would need written certification from the attorney general.

Alan Bauer, the leader of the Parents Forum, told JTA that Holder’s letter was “very professional and, I believe, sincere.”

However, he added, “The U.S. has not prosecuted anyone involved in 71 attacks with dozens and dozens of American victims.” The Department of Justice “has always told us that their efforts are confidential, so we have been shut out.  I don’t think that they care about our cases — with all due and appropriate respect to Holder.”

The Zionist Organization of America sent a letter to Holder on Feb. 1 discussing the same subject and urged the Justice Department to prosecute Palestinian terrorists who murdered American citizens. ZOA has not received a response from Holder yet.

Said Friedman “These funds will go toward the purchase of state-of-the-art technology that will not only reduce the amount of energy needed to power our over two-dozen facilities, but will actually create excess energy that I will work to sell back to the grid for a phenomenal benefit to taxpayers.”

“Currently, the Town of Ramapo is spending about $1.3 million a year in energy costs, and that number is expected to rise given the constant rate increases,” explained Friedman. “This two million dollars will go to innovations that drastically reduce that expense, and the ultimate benefit will be seen through the purchase of solar panels, which I believe will produce enough energy to zero out our energy bills, and create excess energy that we can sell for profit.”

Ramapo’s authorization for funding will be completely repaid with funds saved from the technology purchased through this program. “In addition to the $2 million appropriated by the Town Board, I will personally meet with state legislative and administrative leaders in Albany to push for matching state funds for this program, so that Ramapo taxpayers will see even more savings through the purchase of additional technologies such as solar panels that will bring in even more revenue to the town,” Friedman said.

(Press Release)

Year-to-Date (YTD), the Dow Jones Industrial Average, (DJIA) is up 4.78%; the S&P is UP 6.76%; and the NASDAQ is UP by 11.478%.

In the mean time, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) closed two banks this weekend, bringing to nine the number of banks it closed this year. At the same time last year, the FDIC had already closed nineteen banks, up from the sixteen banks closed in the same period in 2010 and nine banks the same time in 2009. Only one banks was closed at this time in Bush’s last year in office.

He was speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah.

Tens of thousands of Iranians joined state-organized rallies to mark the occasion.

“In the coming days the world will witness Iran’s announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd at Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square in a speech relayed live on state television.

Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Ismail Haniya, who heads the Islamist Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, also attended the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad gave no details of how Iran’s nuclear work, which Tehran says has only peaceful purposes, has progressed.

The United States and Israel, a country which Iran does not recognize, have not ruled out military action if sanctions fail.

The bill still requires passage by the Washington House of Representatives, as well as the Governor’s signature, before it becomes law.

CPUs are post office substations that operate in existing retail operations, and offer alternate postal service access to the public. Providing the same services as the post office (except PO boxes and money orders), these substations benefit communities by decreasing lines at local post offices and increasing hours of available service. They also provide a personal level of service due to their knowledge of the local customer base and their ability to address language barrier issues. More than 4,000 CPUs are in operation throughout the US, including two in North Brooklyn, Better Letter and Murawski Pharmacy at 94-98 Nassau Avenue.

Better Letter is owned by Esther and Israel Wurzberger, a local couple fluent in English, Yiddish and Spanish, the main languages spoken in South Williamsburg. Each day, the Wurzbergers’ CPU serves around 250 – 300 customers, processes 100 to 200 packages and sells around 2500 stamps, for which they are paid exclusively on a commission basis. Their familiarity with the community enhances their efficiency. “I have so many relationships in Williamsburg’s business community, the owners know they can drop off their packages with me and go back to work and I’ll bill them later, so they don’t have to take up any time doing the actual shipping,” said Israel.

However, on January 23rd, the Wurzbergers received notice from the USPS that they had 120 days to cease operations with no process for appeal. The Wurzbergers and their customers were understandably shocked.

The 20 CPUs are getting chopped as part of a recent collective bargaining agreement between the USPS and the postal union. No reasons have been given for choosing these particular substations. “Let me emphasize that this agreement has nothing to do with the performance of the CPUs listed around the country,” said USPS spokesperson Connie Chirichello. “It has everything to do with the terms and conditions during the negotiations.”

The Wurzbergers are fighting the closing. “I’m circulating petitions and asking customers to please sign,” said Israel. “They all say ‘Oh no, you are not closing. If they want they can close [South 4th Street].’ I have a very good relationship with the [South 4th] Manager Lopez and with most of the drivers, and no one can understand why they would [close us down].” Local postal officials confirm this, saying the Wurzbergers are “wonderful people” and that Better Letter’s business practices have never been at issue.

“I have affidavits from customers, that if this location is closed, they have no choice but to change to [other carriers] because they have no time to stand in line [at the post office],” Israel said. Artist and graphic designer Aimee Wilder is a Better Letter customer. “I’ll probably switch over to UPS because I can’t afford to wait an hour at the post office,” she said.

H/T @Yossi718

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