An Orthodox police detective in Las Vegas won a lawsuit against the department after he was told he could not wear his yarmulke or keep his beard.

The Associated Press reports that plainclothes Detective Steve Riback would be allowed to have a neatly trimmed beard no longer than a quarter inch and can wear a either a plain baseball cap with no logo or a department logo. Detective Riback will also receive $350,000 from the department and he has agreed not to seek out a promotion or a transfer for two years. 

I am reminded about Joel Witriol, the Brooklyn chassid who joined the police force in 2006. He was allowed to keep his peyot as long as he kept them up around his ears and he got exemptions for Shabbat and holidays. I dug up a New York Post article from when Witriol graduated the academy called The Kosher Cop.

Does anybody know what’s become of Officer Witriol? I’ll start digging and get back to you.

Last Thursday, an 83-year-old woman from Elmwood Park drove her car through the front window of The Kosher Nosh in Glen Rock. According to co-owner Avi Friede, the woman put her car into drive instead of reverse, causing about $9,000 worth of damage to the restaurant. No injuries were reported.

Business has returned to normal at the restaurant, Friede told The Big Lipowsky today. Repairs on the window have been completed but work is still needed on the door. That will likely take place around Pesach when the restaurant will be closed for a week, he said.

President Barack Obama has been moving swiftly to shut down Guantanamo Bay, the U.S. detainment facility in Cuba for captured terrorists and suspected terrorists.

The question floating on many people’s minds is what will happen to the detainees. Will they be set free? Will some be transferred to other facilities? Have the Gitmo experiences further endeared them to the ideals of violent jihad?

Apparently, according to a Time report, some are being sent to rehab in Saudi Arabia that treats devotion to jihad like alcoholism. Although at least two of the “rehabilitated” Jihadists have already returned to their old ways, the Saudis remain confident in the program.

I know what you’re thinking. I’m thinking it too.

“My name is Ahmed. I love jihad but it’s ruining my life.”
“Hello, Ahmed!”

“My name is Mohammed and I’ve been explosive-free for two weeks now.”

Those geniuses at Comedy Central have also been tackling the closing of Gitmo.

Earlier in the week Jon Stewart interviewed Guantanamo detainee Gitmo!

And, after hearing of Guantanamo’s shutdown, Stephen Colbert released a captive from the secret prison underneath his desk.

Back in November, The Big Lipowsky posted about some Nigerian-esque scams hitting JDate. I challenged readers to write in with their own adventures in date scammers. 

I received the following from Timo, a reader from Israel, who has been playing with someone trying to scam money from potential suitors. Timo found this “woman” (it could very well be a man, you can’t tell with scammers) on JDate and he was the one who began the e-mail. They’ve been writing to each other for two months and she has been asking for money for plane tickets and visas from Russia.  “Olesya” claims on her JDate profile to be from Austin, Texas, but has told Timo that she is in Russia. According to an IP check from Timo, the e-mails are originating from California, not Russia as the scammer claims. It appears that the scammer has not caught on yet that Timo knows what’s really going on.

Here’s the last e-mail sent to Timo by the scammer:

Hi my love Timo! I was very glad to receive your message. I already
spoke to you that I have concluded the contract and I need to pay it
but you did not trust me and doubted me. Now I cannot still find money
to arrive to you and me there is no some sum. I have got tired of all
it. I only wish to be one it with you. Timo, I very much love you and
I miss on you but I think that between two people there should be a
full confidence but I and do not feel it from you and to me it is very
bad from it. Now remains two ways which we should solve or you send to
me of money that I could arrive to you and we will be happy with you
or the second way it I never will arrive to you and I think that we
need to leave and not to correspond any more with you because every
day I fall in love with you more and more but I do not want love on
distance. So you should inform me what way you choose also I do not
want more than any riddles. Timo, Now I finish the message and with
impatience I will expect your answer. Your love Olesya.

And here’s a summary from Timo about the ordeal:

“She’s” getting frustrated of not getting money from me and she’s about to cut our “relationship” if she won’t receive it by telling that she loves me so much and can’t be separated from me. I don’t think she has any idea that I know she’s a scammer. What I did for the start when she asked to pay her visa and tickets was just asking questions of how does it go, like with the embassy, councils and authorities. Now, I knew there’s a new law that russians won’t need a visa to visit in Israel in order to support tourism. When she finally asked the money for it, I told her that she’s been cheated by her agency because she won’t need any visa to Israel!! Oh boy, she got mad !!  Then I like “forgot” that by writing other things and she continued to tell me she’s needs still moneyand I told her a story that the Israeli government is tracing the money flow abroad and that I had once tax problems so I’m not allowed to send money! Well, then she told she will ask money from her friends and relatives in order to pay the tickets. After her “long search” to borrow money from them failed and she asked me to send her again. I told her that I will try.
I got all the details of money transfer by Western Union with transfer codes and told her that I sent the money. Of course it was a fake. She wrote that she went to bank and nothing arrived. I said “what a strange thing”. :-) Then I sent her all the “details” of the transfer and she got to bank and she was told that such a transaction is not existed ! She wrote that am I trying to fool her and why do I do it. I told that “you see, I told that I might have a problem to transfer”! Then she like “started to borrow money” again from her surrounding until she told again that she can’t find any. Now it was $700 she needed when before it was $350. Anyway all the expenses she told me were double than in reality as I checked the flight cost. 
Now my last play is that because I can’t send her the money (and she continued to ask to send her money even though I told many times that I’m not aloud to send) so I “found” a solution. I told her that I have a good friend here who’s flying to Kazan (city near Zvenigovo) and he’s a former KGB agent of russia. :-) While he’s there he will get to your city and give you the money, I will give him your picture to regognize you and he will deliver it personally to you! Since that two days has passed and she didn’t write to me. Now she has no escape….:-)

There has been no response from the scammer since Timo’s offer of having the former KGB agent drop off the money.

Keep sending in those stories, folks.

We’ve all heard by now the death tolls from the war in Gaza. More than 1,200 Palestinians reportedly died during the fighting. Israel maintains that at least 700 of those killed were terrorists.  Hamas says far fewer were fighting and the majority killed were civilians.

The United Nations and the Red Cross are in Gaza now trying to figure out what happened but they appear to be getting their information from sources affiliated with Hamas.

The Jerusalem Post reported today about an Italian journalist who did his own investigation and found that Hamas appears to have inflated the overall number of casualties.  No more than 600 people total died, alleges Lorenzo Cremonesi, a correspondent for Italy’s Corriere della sera.

According to Cremonesi’s findings, Gazans would shout at Hamas fighters who came close, telling them to go away rather than bring Israeli retaliation upon their homes.

The Hamas men would then respond:

“Traitors, collaborators with Israel, spies of Fatah, cowards! The soldiers of the holy war will punish you. And in any case you will all die, like us. Fighting the Zionist Jews we are all destined for paradise. Do you not wish to die with us?”

The IDF has said that the journalist’s numbers are false and they have a list of at least 900 Palestinian casualties, 750 of whom were affiliated with Hamas.

This would not be the first time that the Palestinian terror groups have inflated casualty numbers.  Recall the Jenin “massacre” when Islamic Jihad claimed hundreds of Palestinian civilians had been killed by Israel during Operation Defensive Shield. That number was later found to be closer to 35.  By the end of this investigation I would not be surprised if the casualty numbers are again readjusted.

Meanwhile, there is another conflict brewing within the Palestinian territories. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ term officially ended last week and Hamas leaders have been saying for months that they would not recognize his authority (I must have missed when they ever did) after that date. Abbas argues that a clause in Palestinian law allows him another year.

While members of Fatah were fighting alongside Hamas against Israel, Hamas was also reportedly torturing and executing Fatah members suspected of collaborating with Israel or just against Hamas.

The conflict between Hamas and Fatah is going to come to a head again and it’s likely to happen within the coming months. The Palestinian civil war is far from over.

I’m opening this one up to you, dear readers. What do you think of Operation Cast Lead? Was Israel right to declare the unilateral cease-fire Saturday night? Will it last? Did Israel act as it should have through the operation?  What do you think?

Israel unilaterally declared a ceasefire in Gaza last night and 12 hours later Hamas called its own ceasefire. The order came from Khaled Mashall, Hamas’ leader in exile who has made tough statements lately about how Hamas will not stop until the blockade is lifted. Meanwhile, the leadership in Gaza has expressed more willingness for a ceasefire since they are the ones actually being hunted down.

I, and likely others, had hoped this conflict would create more of a split between the Gaza-based Hamas leadership and its bosses hiding in Syria. It looks like for now the two sides have reached an agreement—for a week, anyway.

The Associated Press captured this picture of a rainbow over Gaza. Now, those familiar with Parsha Noah will recall that a rainbow is just a pretty thing in the sky. It’s a reminder of HaShem’s promise never to destroy the world again. When a rainbow is spotted, that means HaShem was thinking about it but remembered His pledge to Noah.

So, does this mean that G-d wanted to destroy the world because of Gaza? The rainbow appeared in Gaza after the ceasefire, so maybe it’s a sign that the IDF should not have stopped until Hamas was completely destroyed. We don’t and cannot know for certain, but it is very interesting to come up with theories.

The United Nations’ Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has called upon Israel to declare a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza. Israel has rightfully declined.

Some people, such as Ban, don’t seem to understand that a ceasefire cannot be unilateral in this situation. If Israel stops unilaterally, Hamas will continue firing rockets. More than 8,000 have been fired at Israel since the year 2000. Hamas’ goal was and remains the destruction of Israel. Not creating peace with Israel reduced to the 1949 armistice lines. Total destruction of Israel. It was firing rockets before Israel retaliated and it will continue to fire rockets if Israel stops retaliating.

The only answer is to stop Hamas from being able to fire rockets. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is in the U.S. now signing an agreement to have the U.S. lead an international force to monitor the Egypt/Gaza border and actively prevent smuggling of weapons. AP reports that the agreement would be binding even after Bush leaves office next week.

This international force is a good idea IF it actually does what it is supposed to. UNIFIL in Lebanon was supposed to stop Hezbollah from re-arming after the Second Lebanon War, but instead it has closed its eyes and allowed Hezbollah to re-arm. In the words of Homer Simpson, “D’oh!”