In an op-ed in the New York Times today, Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein vowed to “never back down” in the face of hate and to use his “borrowed time” to promote freedom and liberty.
“I do not know why God spared my life,” Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was injured after a gunman opened fire at the Chabad of Poway on Saturday, wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times published Monday.
“I do not know why I had to witness scenes of a pogrom in San Diego County like the ones my grandparents experienced in Poland,” he continued. “I do not know God’s plan. All I can do is try to find meaning in what has happened. And to use this borrowed time to make my life matter more.”

In speech delivered at a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East on Monday, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon defended the Jewish state’s territorial claims, citing history, the Bible, international law and global security interests.
“Refusing to acknowledge the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in the Land of Israel keeps us from forging peace in the future,” Danon said.
“Palestinian rejectionism is chronic,” the Israeli diplomat charged. “There should be no reward for rejectionism. There should be no prize for aggression.”

President Donald Trump and his family, as well as the Trump Organization, filed suit against one of their lenders and one of their banks late Monday, seeking to stop them from complying with subpoenas from congressional committees.
The lawsuit against Deutsche Bank, which has loaned Trump more than $360 million in recent years, and Capital One are designed to prevent the two institutions from providing records to the House Intelligence and Financial Services committees. The panels are led by Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Maxine Waters, D-Calif., respectively.

President Donald Trump ordered major changes to U.S. asylum policies in a White House memo released Monday night, including measures that would charge fees to those applying for humanitarian refuge in the United States.
Trump’s directive also calls for tightening asylum rules by banning anyone who crosses the border illegally from obtaining a work permit, and giving courts a 180-day limit to adjudicate asylum claims that now routinely take years to process because of a ballooning case backlog.
The order, announced in a presidential memorandum, comes as the president is seeking to mobilize his supporters with a focus on illegal immigration ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign.

What keeps Colonel O up at night is not the constant threat of cyber attack. No, the commander of the Israeli military’s IT unit Mamram is much more concerned with the challenge of human resources, he told Calcalist in a recent interview. O heads one of the Israeli army’s most selective and highly classified units, which is why his full name cannot be published. But recruiting the best of the best is only the first step. Retaining the highly specialized talents as the tech world woos them with large salaries and perks, now that is a challenge fit for a colonel.
Mamram is the Israeli Defense Force (IDF)’s Center of Computing and Information Systems, the unit charged with providing all military arms with data processing services and IT infrastructure.

Rav Dan of Radvil (1838)

Iran’s armed forces chief of staff threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route, in response to U.S. sanctions on the regime, which he labeled as “hostility,” reported the semi-official ISNA news agency.
“We are not after closing the Strait of Hormuz, but if the hostility of enemies increase, we will be able to do so,” Mohammad Bagheri told the outlet. “Also, if our oil does not go through the strait, other countries’ oil will certainly not cross the strait, too,” he added.
The strait lies between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman as the sole maritime passage from the former to the open ocean.
Kuwaiti Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah expressed alarm over Bagheri’s remarks.

For the first time in five years, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared in a video released by the terror group on Monday.
It’s unclear when the footage was filmed but Baghdadi uses past tense to refer to the months-long fight for Baghouz, ISIS’s final bastion in eastern Syria, Agence France-Presse reported. That dispute ended last month.
The reclusive boss was last heard from in August 2018, when he urged his supporters to “persevere” in an audio recording. He has appeared in public only once in 2014. The US has offered a $25 million reward for information leading to his death or capture.
Read more at NY POST.
{Matzav.com}

Top city pols backed switching the Verrazzano Bridge to two-way tolling Sunday as a way to cut down on congestion on Staten Island and in southern Brooklyn.
The proposal — backed by top members of the city’s Albany and Washington delegations — would cut the current tolls in half, but charge drivers both ways.
Supporters say that will stop New Jersey commuters from avoiding tolls as they drive towards Manhattan and Brooklyn, reducing traffic on the island and generating badly needed cash for the MTA.

Amazon.com Inc. expects to improve the delivery times for customers who sign up for its Prime subscription program, cutting free deliveries to one day instead of two, an executive said Thursday afternoon.
Amazon offers one-day delivery on some products now, and even same-day delivery for some purchases. But Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky suggested that the company now expects that the standard free two-day shipping that is the biggest selling point for the Prime subscription plan will be improved to a one-day schedule globally.