U.S. President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt on Sunday expressed his support for recent statements by U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman in favor of Israeli annexation of some parts of Yehuda and Shomron.
“I will let David’s comments stand for themselves,” Greenblatt said during the annual Jerusalem Post conference in New York, when asked about an interview with Friedman published in The New York Times last Saturday. “I think he said them elegantly and I support his comments.”
In the article, Friedman said “under certain circumstances, I think Israel has the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.”

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg says if he won he wouldn’t reverse President Trump’s controversial decision to move the U.S. embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv from Yerushalayim.
“I think what’s done is done,” Buttigieg told “Axios on HBO” in a clip shared Sunday. “We need a big picture strategy on the Middle East, I don’t know that we’d gain much by moving it to Tel Aviv.”
Despite saying he wouldn’t reverse Trump’s actions, Buttigieg said that “doesn’t mean he did the right thing.”
“Here’s the problem with what he did,” Buttigieg said. “If you’re going to make a concession like that…you don’t do that without getting some kind of concession.”

Iran has threatened to increase its uranium stockpile limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal in the next 10 days, amid escalating tensions with the United States and so far unsuccessful European efforts to salvage the deal. Iran said it had already sped up its production of low-enriched uranium.
Iran has denied claims by the Trump administration and others that it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. But on Monday, Iran also announced enrichment targets that would put it in the proximity of the levels needed to build a weapon. It was unclear how long Iran would need to reach those targets.

President Donald Trump’s campaign is cutting ties with three members of his polling team after grim numbers showing him trailing former vice president Joe Biden in several battleground states were leaked to the media last week, according to several officials with knowledge of the matter.
Days ahead of Trump’s official launch of his reelection bid on Tuesday, the campaign is severing its relationship with Brett Loyd, Mike Baselice and Adam Geller while keeping pollsters Tony Fabrizio and John McLaughlin.
The officials, like others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal moves. The Trump campaign declined to comment. NBC first reported on the campaign’s actions.

Rav Chaim of Volozhin (1749-1821). The most prominent student of the Vilna Gaon, Rav Chaim established the Volozhin yeshiva in 1803, which was to become the classic model of Lithuanian yeshiva.
His most famous work was Nefesh Hachaim, in which he emphasizes the power of Torah study and fulfillment of mitzvos to bring a Jew close to G-d. He also authored Ruach Chaim, a commentary on Pirke Avos, and Nishmas Chaim, a collection of responsa.
Rav Moshe Horowitz, Bostoner Rebbe in New York

Trump challenges Biden’s mental fitness.
WATCH:

An indictment has been filed against an Arab resident Israel accused of the assault and abduction of a 7-year-old girl.
The defendant, who worked in an educational institution in the city and was employed in the maintenance crew, began a relationship with the girl, a student at the school, by talking to her from time to time and giving her sweets.
This went on until the girl trusted the man enough to follow him to an abandoned home near the school where the man assaulted her and abused her.
After a brief investigation, police were able to gather sufficient evidence to arrest the man, who is now awaiting trial.
{Matzav.com Israel News}
 

The United States is stepping up digital incursions into Russia’s electric power grid in a warning to President Vladimir V. Putin and a demonstration of how the Trump administration is using new authorities to deploy cybertools more aggressively, current and former government officials said.
Advocates of the more aggressive strategy said it was long overdue, after years of public warnings from the Department of Homeland Security and the F.B.I. that Russia has inserted malware that could sabotage American power plants, oil and gas pipelines, or water supplies in any future conflict with the United States.
The new tactic also carries significant risk of escalating the daily digital Cold War between Washington and Moscow.

A young boy was injured in a traffic accident on Yirmiyahu Street in the center of Yerushalayim as he left a parking lot of a residential building.
A spokesman for the Ichud Hatzala said that medics at the scene gave the seven-year-old boy initial medical assistance at the scene of the accident before transporting him to the hospital.
Yehuda Merciano, a Ichud Hatzala volunteer, spoke to Kikar Shabbos:
“I arrived at the scene within 20 seconds of the incident, and passersby said that the boy was hit in the parking lot of a residential building and was injured in the head.”

A Florida man was arrested for threatening to kill minorities, including Jews.
Joshua John Leff, 40, was arrested at his home in Fort Myers and charged with intimidation, sending written threats to kill and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.
In his posts he praised several mass shooters, including John T. Earnest, the 19-year-old gunman accused of killing one and injuring three inside a synagogue in Poway, California in April. He said he wished they had killed more people. Leff is being held in Lee County Jail on $1 million bond.
Read more at Arutz Sheva.
{Matzav.com}