JPost is reporting that The Municipality of Jerusalem has come up with a plan to get people excited about election day.

They are promoting the day with free ice cream. Anyone who spends 20nis at any store in Jerusalem on election day, this coming Monday, will be able to bring the receipt to any one of several participating ice cream shops and get free ice cream. participating ice cream shops include Katzefet, Glida Metuka, Metudela, Cookie Cream, Selfy's and Mousseline.

They are running this promo to boost business on election day, after last election day saw businesses suffer loss of business. Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Lion said he will continue to work to strengthen Jerusalem businesses.

I would recommend also connecting the free ice cream to proof of voting. Maybe voting stations in Jerusalem could stamp the voting card or something to show you voted and only after spending 20nis in a store plus proof of having voted should you get the free ice cream. This would encourage people to vote and to spend money in the city!

It looks like the Corona Virus will have one definite fatality, and that is the Israeli tourism industry.

The fear of the spread of Corona is still increasing, as Europe is being affected now, and people  entering Israel are being found to have been exposed to Corona and even infected with it.

The Ministries of Health and Interior are already shutting Israel's borders to tourists from some countries (Italy was just added to the presently short list, and I think we can expect it to increase pretty quickly). They have also put out calls to Israelis to rethink any trips they have planned abroad int he near future and reconsider due to the threat of Corona exposure.

For a country that relies so heavily on tourism, if this doesn't get under control soon, it can be a fatal blow to the Israeli economy. Hopefully the coming end of winter will also bring about a decreasing number of cases, and people will be able to get back to their regularly scheduled lives...

Interestingly, the Times of Israel points out that the 22nd Knesset passed only one piece of legislation in its entire existence. That piece of legislation was the dissolution of the Knesset and going to a new round of elections.

Part of that legislation though was also to increase State funding for the campaigns of the political parties.

According to TOI:

On December 11, 2020, in its final act after the midnight deadline to break the coalition deadlock expired, the 22nd Knesset passed a law setting a new election for March 2. At the same time, by passing the law, Knesset members also voted to give themselves tens of millions of more shekels than in previous campaigns to spend on bombarding the public with new pitches for votes.

The law calling that third election within a year — the only piece of legislation passed by the short-lived parliament — increased state funding for political parties’ campaigns by some NIS 61 million ($18 million), with each party receiving a raise of around 34 percent.

Legislators argued that the repeat national polls had caused smaller parties to accrue considerable debts, and they needed extra funds in order to both pay those debts and fund their new campaigns.

But the boost in funds went to all parties across the board, regardless of debts, with the largest parties — Blue and White and Likud — each gaining over 15 million extra shekels (around $4 million) to take their totals to over 60 million (approximately $17 million) in state funds, according to a recent study by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Dr. Assaf Shapira.

If the increased funding will be found to have given the parties enough money to step up their campaigns and attract enough voters to bring about a definitive resolution and an end to the political stalemate, it will be money well spent.

The other day the Ministry of Transportation announced changes to some of the bus routes in Bet Shemesh, including changes to the very popular bus #419. This bus serviced mostly the residents of RBS C (Gimmel), but it also serviced the residents of RBS A by exiting the city via the outskirts of RBS A with a few stops on the peripheral road. Along with many residents who live near that part of the route, many residents form all over RBS A would go to bus stops along this route because it was a much more efficient mode of transportation into Jerusalem, as it did make its way winding throughout the city before leaving. A resident of RBS A would save a minimum of 30 minutes by using the 419 over other lines, and often much longer especially during rush hour traffic.

The announcement raised an outcry on social media. Residents of RBS A were upset because a great bus route was being taken away from them. Using the other bus lines will increase transportation time by 30-45 minutes in each direction. Another problem is that the residents of the Ramat Shilo neighborhood within RBS A would now have another bus route taken away from them, with almost none left passing by their part of the neighborhood.

A better solution was requested, rather than a solution that helps one area by taking away from another. The real problem is that with no real government for the past year, there are no new budgets for adding lines, and no new tenders being published. Until elections will bring about a definitive government, all they can really do is put some band-aids on the bad situation.

Deputy Mayor of Bet Shemesh Rena Hollander took notice and took it upon herself to try to find a solution, temporary as it may be. She expressed the urgency of the matter to Minister of Transportation Betzalel Smotritch (it helps that they are both members of the same party and have an interest in helping each other to help the public), and today they announced a temporary resolution.

According to a notice put out by Minister Smotritch, posted by Rena Hollander on Facebook, he was made to understand the gravity of the situation by Rena Hollander and Yisrael Mendelson and Nisim Bariach, he has decided that for now half the buses on the 419 route will remain in operation according to the original route, and half will operate along the new route. As well, at some point int he next week, half oof the buses on the 417 line will continue along its original route and half will collect passengers in RBS A and then leave to Jerusalem without winding its way throughout the city.

Minister Smotritch expressed his hope that the legal situation will soon come to an end and they will be able to publish the tender for renewing the public transportation of Bet Shemesh. This will increase the lines by nearly 50%, and will be a resolution for the needs of all the neighborhoods and communities and the continued development of the city.

kol hakavod for this temporary solution!

Ben & Jerry's does not come out with new ice cream flavors too frequently, especially in Israel. With Israel's electoral situation in flux, Ben & Jerry's Israel announced back in December, when elections were called for the third time within a year, that they would put out a new flavor of ice cream, in the spirit of "paam shlishit glida" - third time, ice cream. They asked people, via their social media accounts, to make suggestions appropriate for the flavor. 

That day is here.

Ben & Jerry's Israel has now announced the new flavor, that is available immediately and will remain available at least through election day next week.

At least one positive thing is coming from these elections!

The new flavor of ice cream is called One Sweet Vote. The ice cream is made from a combination and mixture of vanilla and chocolate ice creams swirled together. The vanilla ice cream will contain pieces of chocolate in the shape of the peace symbol along with chocolate covered almonds. The chocolate ice cream will contain pieces of white chocolate, along with pieces of blondie brownies.

As they say, an ice cream full of surprises, blended with many flavors together, celebrating the diversity of Israel, the differences and beauty that we have in Israel.

The new flavor is available already in the factory shops, in Yavneh (5 Hameisav St, Yavneh 08-942-0586) and Beer Tuviah (Hakatzir St in the Industrial Zone, 073-270-8720).

It seems they will not bucket these and sell them retail in shops around the country alongside the regular ice cream. Whenever they put out a special flavor for a limited time, they have generally made it available only in the factory shops, at least int he beginning. Maybe if this becomes a big hit it will remain in production and end up in the shops.

They conclude saying that beside for the right and obligation of voting on election day, you now have another reason to enjoy the day off, and come to one of the shops and enjoy the new flavor, along with other surprises and bonuses.

I have yet to find out if the new flavor, One Sweet Vote, is in the regular line of ice cream or the mehadrin cholov yisrael line of ice cream flavors. I posted the question to them but have yet to receive a response.

What is "Right"? We love Eretz Yisrael, we love the Nation of Israel, and we love the Torah of Israel. Why do you call that Right?It is Jewish, this is the way it needs to be. Left is against the Torah.

  -- Minister Aryeh Deri

Deri successfully upset a lot of people, defining Judaism this way, as if he gets to make that determination. That is besides for the various people who hit back pointing out that Deri supported the Rabin government and also supported the Oslo Accords. I guess in his eyes he only converted to Judaism after Oslo...

cute ad

cute

cool clip. fun

Alabama Crimson Tide star wide receiver Jerry Jeudy was seen at the NFL Combine wearing a Star of David necklace.

When asked about it he explained that his friends call him Jew (Jeu) for short, as his name is Jeudy, and he got a Jewish star  necklace because of it, but he is not Jewish.

Quite the explanation from Jerry Jeudy regarding the necklace he wears... pic.twitter.com/kX5JcD743S

— Pick Six Podcast (@picksixpod) February 25, 2020

Some people think this is cultural appropriation and a form of anti-semitism. To the point that he felt he need to apologize:

Don’t mean no disrespect to the Jewish people! I’m sorry to the people who take my chain offensive!!

— JJ⁴ (@jerryjeudy) February 25, 2020

I'm happy Jeudy is cool with "being called Jew for short" even to the point of wearing a star of David. That's no anti semite! I am happy he's figuratively on our team!

כמו בכל שנה מאז שהבן שלהם נהרג בפיגוע בבית הכנסת בהר נוף, גם הבוקר, ראש חודש אדר, נסעו ההורים באוטובוס מקרית ארבע, אל המקום שבו הבן שלהם היה עומד בכל שנה כשהוא מחופש ומחלק ממתקים לילדים לכבוד חודש אדר,והמשיכו למרות גילם המבוגר והקור הירושלמי את המסורת המרגשת של בנם הי׳ד.  מצמרר. pic.twitter.com/GK2ZpLhZ7o

— ירח טוקר (@hadover1) February 26, 2020

A known historian who I knew well said the National Religious public has a giant heart, and giant faith, but they don't always understand much in politics..

  -- PM Benjamin Netanyahu, at the BaSheva Jerusalem Conference

I will withhold my comments about the relationship between Netanyahu and the Dati Leumi political party, as I have written about it a number of times before and this is just another example of what I have written about before. This comment drew some angry responses from DL politicians, but they really didn't fire back much except for a few angry and/or snide comments. In the meantime, besides for the regular insults, they also let the Likud, UTJ and Shas keep trying to poach "their" voters with no significant response to fight to keep them.

any new immigrants here?

According to JPost, the Mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, is inviting all new immigrants from within the past year to run in the Jerusalem Marathon for free. Another reason to make aliyah!

To take advantage of this you don't have to run the full marathon of 42.2km. You can join in a fun and lovely experience on the streets of the great city of Jerusalem with thousands of other people and run shorter distances such as 5km, 10km, or 21.1km, and even shorter distances, if that is more realistic for you, all for free. It costs you nothing to go out and have a great time at a great event!

According to JPost:

Moshe Lion, mayor of Jerusalem, announced on Monday that new immigrants to Israel will be able to run for free in the Jerusalem Winter Marathon. The move was made to encourage more immigrants to participate in the largest sporting event in Israel.
"Participants are running together in the Jerusalem Marathon, all of Israel, including the new immigrants. Those that immigrated within the last year are invited to run without paying fees. To the new immigrants- I am proud and excited to host you in the Jerusalem Marathon." said Lion.

Immigrants that immigrated to the country between January 1, 2019, and March 20, 2020 will be able to register and run for free.

Registration for the 2020 winter marathon will end on March 14, with six different kinds of options for the participants to chose from. Options include a full marathon (42.2 km), a half-marathon (21.1 km) a 10 km race, 5 km race, a family marathon (1.7 km), and a community marathon (800 m). The race itself is scheduled to take place on March 20.

I don't know how you get that discount. Maybe during registration on the Jerusalem Marathon website there is a place you can include your aliya information and then the price gets cut to 0. Or maybe ti is automatic. To register in Israel you need to put your teudat zehut number in. Perhaps it automatically identifies your immigration date and gives you the free promo.

In the recent edition of the Headlines podcast, on the topic of the religious/haredi organizations promoting people pay to vote, and to vote for religious groups who will redirect funding to more pro-Torah directions, in the upcoming WZO elections, interviewees justified their stance in interesting ways.

While one could say we need to fight them, to take advantage of an opportunity, and gadol x or y says that this is important enough of a goal that we need to change a longstanding policy of not getting involved in such organizations, that is not what they are saying. In the interview they justified their stance promoting frum voting in the WZO elections by saying they are not becomign members - just paying to vote, the ban was always on coordinating and working with clergy - Reform rabbis, and voting in WZO elections is not doing that but only dealing with laymen and lay leadership but not clergy, and the statement being signed on when voting can be understood differently than what the authors intended, in the spirit of Yaakov Avinu's white lie so to speak, so they are not lying by affirming the statement.

Rav Ahron Feldman, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael in Baltimore and member of the Moetzes Gedolei Torah of the USA, has published a letter stating otherwise.

Rav Feldman writes that it is forbidden to declare oneself as a member of, or ascribing to a program, of an organization whose platform fails to recognize the Jewish nation is a nation which received the Torah at Mount Sinai. Such a declaration is a chilul hashem and may not be made no matter what material or spiritual benefits will thereby accrue.

that is Rav Feldman's opinion, stated as Daas Torah. It is not the decision of the full Moetzes, so I am not sure if it obligates anyone specifically (besides for Rav Feldman's talmidim). Perhaps the Moetzes should issue an official statement on such an important issue and discussion.

Despite that, Rav Feldman is a serious enough player that his opinion carries a lot of weight and needs to be addressed. I don't think people who live by the dictum of daas torah and following the gedolim can just ignore someone like Rav Feldman. I would be curious to hear their response, whether it is to change their position in accordance with Rav Feldman's opinion or to offer the guidance of another Moetzes member supporting them or to explain why they disagree.

Offhand I would think that their opinion stating that they are not becoming members by paying to vote - they do not receive member benefits (other than voting) or a membership card or any other symbol of membership in return - already preempted Rav Feldman's opinion. He says that it is forbidden to become a member of such an organization, but they say they are not becoming members. Rav Feldman adding "or ascribe to" limits their ability to say that though. it is not just membership in such an organization that would be a chilul hashem, according to Rav Feldman, but participating in their programs is also forbidden.

Another argument I can see put forth is that the statement being signed when voting is affirming one's commitment to "The Jerusalem program. The Jerusalem Program states:

Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, brought about the establishment of the State of Israel, and views a Jewish, Zionist, democratic and secure State of Israel to be the expression of the common responsibility of the Jewish people for its continuity and future.
The Jerusalem Program's foundations of Zionism are:

• -The unity of the Jewish people, its bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael, and the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation;

• -Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.

• -Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state and shaping it as an exemplary society with a unique moral and spiritual character, marked by mutual respect for the multi-faceted Jewish people, rooted in the vision of the prophets, striving for peace and contributing to the betterment of the world.

• -Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education, fostering spiritual and cultural values and teaching Hebrew as the national language;

• -Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation, representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people, and struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism;

• -Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.

There is a lot there about Zionism. The supporters of voting can explain that they understand that to include religious zionism which does recognize the Jewish nation as a nation that received the Torah. They would say the subject lacking in the statement, which is the point of his protest, is really included. I actually think this is more reasonable than their arguments about changing meaning of words, not becoming members, and all that stuff.

Further, many organizations do not explicitly affirm anything about the Jewish nation and the Torah, yet people become members of those organizations without any protest. Does, MDA say anything about the Torah? What about Ichud Hatzala? Those organizations deal with medical emergencies and talk about the importance of saving lives. Why would they need to say anything about the Torah? What about organizations that conduct cancer research or feeding the poor or helping people get parnassa or keeping kids off drugs or Yedidim/chaverim helping people stuck with cars that broke down whatever? As long as any given organization does not state that they do not believe in the Torah and Jewish nation having received it, I dont see why this is really a problem. If it were, frum jews would not be able to be members of, or participants in, many programs and organizations they are part of already. 

Edit: I found this after I wrote the post, so I am adding it with comments but dont have time to go over what I already wrote and possibly rewrite it..

Rav Brudny, also a member of the Moetzes, has a different opinion than Rav Feldman. See this:


I find this intriguing. He compares voting in WZO to UTJ being a participant in the Israeli government. I don't think that is a bad comparison at all. So different Moetzes members clearly have different opinions. Again, it is an issue that is possibly worth convening a meeting of the Moetzes and getting an official opinion about.

I am not sure what to say about this, so I present it for your consideration with no comment

I like Yigal Guetta

Iran deputy health minister has coronavirus, authorities say

  -- Times of Israel

this makes me wonder if Israel really developed the virus to spread to Iran... just joking..

.

in case you were wondering how the Corona virus spreads..

this was yesterday at the Kotel, but we've all seen this happen many times...

best caption?

Gantz is like getting a Bibi on Ali Express - a shabby imitation

  -- PM Benjamin Netanyahu, speaking at the BaSheva conference

The fear of potential spread of the Corona Virus has possibly become a greater talking point around Israel than the upcoming elections next week!

Chief Rabbi Dovid Lau has been asked many halachic questions related to Corona

According to Kikar, Rabbi Lau said that anyone instructed to be in isolation must remain in isolation as instructed and is prohibited from leaving isolation to go to shul to daven with a minyan. Even if it is only a slight suspicion of exposure that caused the isolation he is not allowed to leave to go to shul and he would be causing great damage to others by doing so.

Another psak by Rav Lau is that one cannot put himself in danger, so a person should not go to a place that might have been exposed.

Additionally, this morning on Radio Kol Barama, Rav Lau said that if the Ministry of Health determined a case requires quarantine or isolation - even someone who always goes to minyan or to a shiur must listen carefully to the doctors orders and follow them precisely.

Behadrei is reporting that a group of businessmen who deal directly with China have been adversely affected by the Corona virus and went to Rav Chaim Kanievsky to seek counsel. Some of them run businesses whose stock price has dropped because of Corona, others who travel to China for business and now cannot, others who import from China.. and they are concerned wondering if they should sell everything off now before their businesses are destroyed.

Rav Kanievsky's response was to follow instructions from the authorities regarding anything Corona related and being careful but they should not sell off their stocks and businesses and should not panic. Rav Kanievsky told them to increase tefilla, especially that they should not incur damages form the virus.

Interestingly, we see from both Rav Lau and Rav Kanievsky how they stressed the importance of following instructions from the authorities...

I didnt know this was a thing...

I’ve attended AIPAC more than ten times.  Every time Palestinian rights were mentioned people applauded.  There are a range of views presented, left, right and center. This dismissal is unwarranted and unworthy. https://t.co/4yS08TS17L

— David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe) February 24, 2020

The bus situation in Bet Shemesh is pretty lousy, and the Iryah has been fighting with the government to improve it as much as possible.

Bet Shemesh is a growing city, a very-fast growing city, with new neighborhoods being built and populated like nowhere else in Israel (though the problem is similarly prevalent in many new areas and not just Bet Shemesh or parts of Bet Shemesh.

As soon as new neighborhoods become populated, they need public transportation. The existing amount of public transportation serving existing neighborhoods was already barely adequate, and adding new neighborhoods whose residents will rely largely on the existing lines, with slight changes to the routes to extend them into the new neighborhoods, make the bus lines intolerable for everyone. The bus route extended to the new neighborhoods becomes a longer route that nobody likes, the bus fills up sooner and by the time it reaches the later stops it might not have space to let more people on, and everything becomes uncomfortable. In the meantime, no new lines are added, or few new lines are added, and they continue to extend existing lines.

For now, they built a bus depot between some of the new neighborhoods, to lessen the bus traffic on the roads, and to make it more viable to send some of the lines through the new neighborhoods. As a result of the new depot, many of the bus routes have had to be somewhat altered. For example, my house is relatively close to what used to be the first bus stop in RBS A, and the last stop as well, for most RBS routes. Now that they built the depot, most of the routes have been moved to the depot and the bus lines no longer use the bus stops near my house. Along the way, a few other stops have suffered the same fate. Some do, but many do not. If this is better for the greater good, for more people, so be it, even though it inconveniences some people. The problem above, of longer and fuller routes, is the bigger issue.

I do not know what the solution is - maybe the city is just too big by now for every neighborhood to have its own set of buses, each with local lines and lines going to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and a variety of other cities. As well, having so many more buses on the roads just continues to make traffic int he city worse, as each new set of bus lines servicing the different neighborhoods clogs up the roads. Maybe it is time for a Central Bus Station for inter-city travel, with buses from the neighborhoods going to the CBA and then from there out to the different cities. It makes it less convenient for many, as everyone wants the bus to stop right next to his own house, but the current situation has gotten really bad.

In the meantime, the best bus from RBS to Jerusalem is now being changed. The 419 line ran from RBS C (aka Gimmel), up Tzeelim into RBS A, up Kishon and out of the neighborhood to Jerusalem. it avoided most of the city and even in RBS only ran on the peripheral street. It was a very popular bus because its route was much quicker than many of the others. Now the route of the 419 is being changed to include one of the new neighborhoods, and it is also affecting how it leaves the city. Instead of coming up Tzeelim and Kishon, it will now come from the bridge of RBS C and go up Hayarqon, cutting out the first few stops in RBS A (and it only had several to begin with!), and leaving just the last two before heading out to Jerusalem.

This is a big change that will affect a lot of people, so I am posting it here, so everyone can plan their trips accordingly and go to the right bus stop (and get off at the right bus stop on the way back)..:

From Shemesh Online:

Nothing definitive here has been stated, but kashrus issues, especially regarding hechsherim, are very interesting to me and I try to stay up on news and developments in this area, and inform the public when I think it is interesting or relevant enough.

The issue of the reliability of the Triangle-K (aka "Ralbag", named for the founding Rabbi) hechsher has always been interesting. For reasons not necessarily well-known, the Triangle K has not been considered generally reliable in the Ultra-Orthodox community, and many kashrut agencies do not recommend it (while some say it is generally not recommended but some products of theirs an be used and should be determined on a case by case basis).

Why this is so, is a good question. One of the reasons, as far as I know, is because they certify meat as kosher even when it is not glatt. I do not want to use the word "minhag" but the frum community in the USA has largely eschewed non-glatt meat from its tables despite the fact that it is perfectly kosher. As a result, Triangle K is rejected, and that also hurts their reputation on other products, as they are thought of as certifying products that really should not be eaten. Additionally, some research tells me they rely on kulas in other products as well, such as on a lesser-accepted kula of Rav Moshe Feinstein regarding the temperature of pasteurization of grape juice to consider it mevushal, claims of extremely infrequent mashgiach visits to plants under their supervision, among other examples.

What makes this even more interesting is that as obtuse as the Rabbanut can sometimes be about many different things, and as much as Rabbanut policy can be relatively strict (especially for what is often considered to be a generally meikil hechsher), the Rabbanut allows the import of foods bearing the hechsher of the Triangle K. Many people find themselves eating Triangle K in Israel, because of the Rabbanut approval, despite not eating it in the USA, and when thinking about it often wonder why they could not (or would not) in the USA but do in Israel.

On that note, the topic recently came up in the recently revived Jerusalem Kosher News email list, led by R' Yechiel Spira.

One person asked, basically the question and dilemma described above...

One of the ramifications of leniences in kashrut is with regards to when one is eating by a religiously observant friend or neighbor, whose standard on some aspects might be lower than what one maintains at home. This was the subject of a couple of the articles by Rav Eliezer Melamed in the b'sheva newspaper that I mentioned in my posting a few days ago. Since this has a wide readership and influence, I feel it is warranted in continue relating to this. (It is understood that much of the chareidi public, who in any case generally do not rely on the Israeli Rabbanut, also do not follow Rav Melamed, so this discussion would probably not be relevant to that sector.)
1) Why "Stating Triangle K is "not a mehadrin hechsher" would be an understatement" ?
2) In what way do I answer my own question in my next paragraph?
If Rav Melamed felt that there were certain rabbanut hechsherim that were unreliable to such an extent one would avoid such foods if invited to a friend, he would have said so publicly in his articles like he talks about those who only eat chalak as a proper ingrained custom (and not as a stringency). He said that we can trust all rabbanut hechsherim and endorsements for standard kashrut requirements. Has anyone discussed Triangle K with him at length, because I understand that he does not know of (or maybe does not recognize) the rumors concerning this organization?
So does any one know specifically the triangle-k leniencies that make this off limits for the other American kashrut organizations but acceptable to the Rabbanut haRashit?
One leniency that someone mentioned to me, is that they rely on correspondence with some of the factories before giving a hechsher without actually visiting the manufacturing plant. This seems to be more akin to how the London Bet Din compile their kashrut list for products that do not have the LBD logo (or in the decades before there was an LBD logo).
Maybe there are other leniencies, and it would be interesting for this to be made known, and the halachic arguments that are used.
David

Rabbi E Ralbag then posted to the list (via the JKN moderator) a response saying:

Dear Rabbi SpiraSomeone forwarded me below....To clarify regarding the post below, all products that you see in Israel with ishur of the Rabanut and a Triangle K, are plants certified by Tri-K that are visited on a regular basis and there is a Mashgiach’s report on every plant - never based on a phone call, to say otherwise is a misconcepted sheker.2) You can gladly ask us regarding any hashgocho and we will gladly tell you what we rely on.
3) Unfortunately if other American organizations speak against Tri-K, it is rechilus - we can answer any question one has.
My father will be in Israel this week and could meet you by all means.
Rabbi E. Ralbag

No specifics dealing with any claims against Triangle K were dealt with (fairly enough, as the original question did not make any specific claims), so nothing really changes in any direction based just on the letter above, but it is an interesting response.

The question remains why so many people who might not eat Triangle K certified products in the USA do eat them in Israel

(Disclaimer: I am not saying one cannot rely on the Triangle K. I have no personal information about the quality of the hechsher, and whether to eat or not is for each person to decide for himself/herself. I am just commenting on a situation that to me has always seemed unusual)

The latest barrage of rockets from Gaza on Israeli communities was triggered when the IDF stopped Gazan terrorists from placing explosives along the border. IDF soldiers killed the two Islamic Jihad terrorists, and then sent in a bulldozer to retrieve the bodies.

Defense Minister Bennett said he will not return the body of the terrorist, along with other bodies of terrorists recently captured in other incidents, until the bodies of Israelis (Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul)  being held Gaza by Hamas are returned.

It is sad that it has had to come to this, and now residents in many towns of Israel need to suffer the barrage of rockets and there is the possibility of broader military action, which is never a good thing though it is sometimes necessary. but when nothing else works, I am happy our Defense Minister will try something new and let them know there is a new sheriff in town. Will this move work? that remains to be seen. At least it is not just trying the same old stuff over and over again.

Every year there is some excuse to warn the people that food prices for Pesach are expected to rise. One year it is because of the lack of rain, another year too much rain damaged crops, then there is the strange cow in South America that some won't consider kosher, and another year there is a disease of some sort making meat and/or chicken less available, while another year sees a shortage of imports, and yet another year has some change to the tax structure affecting things. Sometimes these things pan out in the form of shortages and higher prices, while other times they turn out to be false warnings and everything seems more or less normal.

This year's warning about expected high prices is due to the Corona Virus. it seems that if the situation continues to spiral and not get under control, it is expected that far fewer people will travel for Pesach than those that have traveled in previous years.

Food productions takes into account how many people they expect to travel and how many people they expect to stay in Israel to buy the food. With food production (and importers) having taken into account the thousands of Israelis who normally travel for Pesach and do not stay local and buy food here, they now expect, if Corona does indeed thwart the travel plans of many) that there will be far more people in Israel on Pesach than previously expected, and there will not be enough food for everyone. That means the prices will rise.

I figure that just like many will cancel plans and not leave Israel for the holiday, many travelers form other places to Israel will also cancel their plans and not come to Israel for Pesach. Maybe the two will balance each other out, at least somewhat, and the prices can remain relatively stable.

According to Ynet they are expecting an increased demand of 3% to 4% for Pesach food than what they planned for. In addition, many products normally imported from China will not be imported, as the businessmen involved have stopped traveling to China. While some will import chairs, pots, storage containers, clothes, electronics and many other items from Turkey and other places, a shortage can be expected in realms other than food as well. And higher prices because of imports coming from countries other than China.

I have pills for the delusional people, like the people of Kachol Lavan. They are putting out rumors that they are holding [coalition] negotiations.. who would even bother speaking with them?

  -- Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman

I trust him to say they are not in negotiations more than I trust the Kachol Lavan people saying they are... but pills? is he going to give them Mentos that he got from his buddy Berland when he went to visit him?