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By Hilary Bentman / Phillybuurbs.com

Eleanor Hall calls her recent trip to Israel a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Hall just didn’t expect it would happen so late in her life.

“Better late than never,” says the Warwick (PA) resident.

On the cusp of her 105th birthday, Hall spent 10 days in the Holy Land last month on a journey people half her age would find challenging.

But Hall, a feisty former New Yorker, was up for anything, including traversing the tunnels beneath Jerusalem’s Western Wall, getting baptized by the Jordan River and climbing the ancient fortification of Masada (with the assistance of a cable car).

“I wanted to see where Jesus lived and walked. The time came when I knew I was going to do it, no two ways about it,” said Hall, who marked her 105th birthday May 9. “It was wonderful. Achievement accomplished.”

Hall’s pilgrimage to Israel was part of a trip organized by Addisville Reformed Church in Richboro. Fourteen people made the journey, including church pastor Doug Dwyer, Hall’s daughter, Evelyn Sellers, and two of Hall’s grandchildren.

Hall received the royal treatment, beginning with a visit to the Israeli consulate in Philadelphia before the trip. On the plane, the centenarian was serenaded with “Happy Birthday.” And in Israel, people were so enthralled by her longevity that they stopped to take photos with her.

“Mom was a star there. Word got out and people wanted to touch her so the good genes would rub off,” said Sellers, 77.

Over the course of 10 days, the trip took Hall and the others from Tel Aviv north to the Sea of Galilee, then south to the Dead Sea, with stops in Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

For Hall, the highlight was visiting the Garden of Gethsemane where the New Testament says Jesus prayed to God to “Let this cup pass from me.”

“I just wanted to stand in that spot,” said Hall.

At 105, Hall is still going strong. She says there’s no secret to her longevity, though she does put great stock in the power of faith and good health. “Take each day as it comes,” she said. “And take a walk every day.”

So what’s next for Hall? A die-hard Yankees fan, Hall — who has been alive for all 27 of the team’s World Series titles — hopes to visit the new Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009. Hall and her late husband, Charles, were frequent attendees at the old ballpark, and she remembers a time when they paid just a few quarters for a ticket.

In honor of her birthday, Hall received a very special phone call from Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi wishing her well.

By LIOR AKERMAN / JPost.com

Last week, one month after resigning as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad publicly announced to the international media what senior officials in the Palestinian Authority have been saying for years: The current Palestinian leadership lacks the foresight and ability to make strategic decisions.

In an interview with The New York Times, Fayyad said that Palestinian leaders (namely, Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas) possess tactical capabilities alone, and throughout the years have clung to the antiquated rhetoric whose sole result is to bring about the collapse of Fatah.

The content of Fayyad’s recent public admission has been espoused by senior Palestinian officials for years, though this is the first time it was announced in an official statement. This sentiment was heard before the second intifada broke out in 2000, during it, and for years to follow. It was discussed by senior Palestinian officials, as well as Israeli officials who held regular meetings with the Palestinians.

The Palestinians carefully chose the words they used in meetings with Israeli representatives, which have taken place all over the world, but Palestinian security leaders, namely Muhammad Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub, both of whom participated in coordination meetings during the second intifada, were much more blunt and direct in their discussions with Israeli counterparts.

A lack of leadership – in addition to his inability to make decisions or implement changes – characterized Yasser Arafat’s leadership style. For many years now, unfortunately, Mahmoud Abbas has been displaying an extremely similar style. However, these two leaders are completely different from each other.

Arafat was more extroverted and charismatic. He was also a natural orator and had great determination.

These qualities helped him become the leader of Fatah and the revered symbol of the Palestinian struggle in Israel. But these characteristics alone were not sufficient to make Arafat a political leader who could articulate and realize this vision.

Until his last day, Arafat remained the mediocre military commander who always wore a keffiyeh.

He was extremely talented at spewing nationalistic demagoguery every chance he had and was quite adept at giving commands (or worse: not giving them) to terrorist cells. Even after his security chiefs warned him that his lack of determination and failure to make decisions would lead to anarchy and a deterioration in relations, he did nothing, preferring to fly around in his plane from country to country to participate in useless political meetings. More than once, Dahlan and Rajoub complained that Arafat’s lack of involvement and his failure to make necessary decisions would inevitably lead to the collapse of the PA and to chaos.

Arafat chose to ignore these requests and to let fate take its course.

He simply did not know how to do anything else.

When it was time, Abbas took up the post from lack of choice. The Palestinians had no viable alternative to Arafat and Abbas was the only natural candidate.

Abbas has a bland personality, no charisma or determination whatsoever, and to top it off no management or leadership skills. The only hope was that he would let the operational body he headed promote Palestinian interests properly. And so, the appointment of Salam Fayyad as prime minister was an excellent idea.

Fayyad, who was born in the West Bank, is an experienced academic, an esteemed economist, and a politician with Western backing. He created a strategic plan to build infrastructure in the PA, raised funds and even prepared a political negotiation plan. However, lacking the support and understanding of the Palestinian leadership (read: Abbas) there was little chance that Fayyad would succeed in implementing his plan.

Last month, Fayyad finally had had enough and resigned. He subsequently – and for the first time – said publicly what many PA leaders have been thinking for years: There is no leadership, no vision, no direction. Fayyad is not the only one who will suffer from this loss. It is a loss for the entire Palestinian people, as well as for all of those living in the region. Our fates will always be irretrievably entwined together.

The writer is a former brigadier-general who served as a division head in the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency).

IsraelNationalNews.com

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Sunday with children from the Valley of Springs (Emek Hamaayanot) Regional Council ahead of the holiday of Shavuot, which begins at sundown on Tuesday.

The children brought the prime minister a basket of locally grown fruits, in memory of the biblical commandment for farmers to bring the “first fruits” (bikurim in Hebrew) to the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. “First fruits” had to be one of the seven species that the Bible lists as Israel’s best crops — wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives, and dates, and each year’s “first fruits” would be brought to the Temple from the holiday of Shavuot onward. Farmers would go to their orchards early in the season and mark the first fruits that appeared on the trees so that once they ripened, they could be brought to the Temple, accompanied by joyful song and music in gratitude for the harvest.

Prime Minister Netanyahu told the children, “I thank you for the basket of first fruits and I wish you and all Israelis a happy Shavuot. The first fruits are a symbol of growth, development, and renewal; may all our efforts bear fruit.”

The first fruits were from a new, educational section of a 70-year-old experimental farm in the Valley of Springs Regional Council area that was developed in order to preserve local children’s and residents’ links to the soil and the achievements of both the experimental farm and local farmers.

In the video below (in Hebrew), Netanyahu is seen with the children as they explain about the fruits they have brought.

By Maamoun Youssef / Associated Press

CAIRO — Egypt’s interior minister said Saturday that security authorities have arrested three suspected al-Qaeda-linked militants who were planning to carry out suicide attacks on vital installations and an unspecified foreign embassy.

Mohammed Ibrahim told a news conference that the men had been in contact with Dawood al-Assady, a leader of al-Qaeda in southeast Asian countries such as Pakistan, and that the group was planning to attack government buildings and a foreign embassy. He did not disclose details.

Security officials with knowledge of the case said a Western embassy was the target, but did not have further information. They spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The interior minister said authorities seized 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of ammonium nitrate, a key ingredient in homemade explosives. Security officials also discovered statements issued by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the group’s arm in North Africa, on one of the men’s computers with information on how to make bombs and rockets, and ways of collecting intelligence.

He said the suspects are also believed to have links with the so-called “Nasr City terror cell,” which was broken up last year and its members arrested on accusations of plotting attacks against public figures in Egypt.

The interior minister denied that al-Qaeda is active in Egypt, but said the three men were in contact with al-Qaeda militants abroad.

Egypt’s security has sharply deteriorated in the past two years, with Islamic militants suspected of being behind cross-border assaults on Israel as well as a bold attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers in the northern Sinai Peninsula last year. Ibrahim told reporters that the men were trying to take advantage of the country’s situation to “target innocent civilians and attack foreign diplomatic missions.”

Ibrahim said one of the three men had received instructions from al-Assady to contact two members of the Nasr City terror cell.

He added that one of the men had received combat training by members of al-Qaeda in Iran and Pakistan and also had connections with members of al-Qaeda in Algeria. The group was additionally accused of having contacts with someone who is in charge of receiving suspected terrorists on the Turkish border, but not further details were given. Turkey has borders with Iraq, Syria and Iran.

The interior minister named the suspects as Amr Mohammed Abu al-Ela Aqida, Mohammed Abdel-Halim Hemaida Saleh and Mohammed Mostafa Mohammed Ibrahim Bayoumi. Two of the men were detained in the northern coastal city of Alexandria, while the third was arrested in Cairo.

Reflecting the deterioration in security, a U.S. citizen was stabbed outside the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Friday. Christopher Stone, who works at the American University in Cairo and was recently appointed as the U.S.-based director of the CASA program for intensive Arabic language study “is doing well” and will be released from the hospital soon, the university said in a statement Saturday.

The U.S. Embassy said the perpetrator, who was detained, claimed his motivation was to seek revenge over U.S policies in the Middle East. “The (police) investigation, while still ongoing, has established that the perpetrator acted alone, and the incident was not tied to any larger conspiracy,” the embassy said in a statement.

By Abraham Rabinovich – Special to The Washington Times

JERUSALEM — Israel’s recent airstrikes on Syria not only stopped the delivery of arms to its sworn enemy Hezbollah in Lebanon but also gave notice to the Obama administration and Iran that the Jewish state has the will and the means to act unilaterally to protect its interests in the volatile Middle East.
Using accurate intelligence and precision munitions, Israeli warplanes flying in Lebanese airspace reportedly fired missiles early Sunday on caches of weapons outside the Syrian capital, Damascus.
The immediate goal was to eliminate shipments of Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles that were stored in warehouses before being trucked to Hezbollah arsenals in Lebanon. The warehouses were apparently the targets of three separate Israeli missile attacks early Sunday and of a smaller attack two nights earlier.
Israel struck when Syria’s regime, deeply embroiled in a civil war, was highly unlikely to do anything about it. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not even bother postponing a planned week-long visit to China, and took off for Beijing a few hours after the airstrikes.
Israeli officials have long been mulling a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities to prevent the Islamic republic from developing an atomic weapon. The U.S. and other Western nations have advocated restraint to allow economic sanctions against Tehran to squeeze the Iranian economy and alter its leaders’ actions.
Iran, whose leaders have called for Israel’s destruction, has insisted that its nuclear program is designed for peaceful purposes, yet has refused to allow international inspectors to examine its facilities.
Israel’s airstrikes served as a reminder, particularly to Iran, that the Jewish state has intelligence capable of silently keeping track of its enemies, operational capabilities to execute complex missions and the national will to do so if necessary.
The strikes also showed Washington that effective operations in murky circumstances can be carried out without the sky falling in.
It is doubtful that Israel is attempting to push the Obama administration to intervene in Syria — Jerusalem itself is of two minds about whether the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad would be a good thing.
But Jerusalem definitely hopes that Washington will be prepared for military action against Iran if the latter does not halt its march to the bomb.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon indicated this week that the attacks represent a new policy regarding the blocking of advanced weaponry destined for the militant group Hezbollah.
“We have made clear what our interests are,” he said. “We have red lines and will not give up on them.”
Israel had not attempted to interdict tens of thousands of rockets that flowed from Syria to Hezbollah in the past few years. Mr. Ya’alon’s terse statement indicated that something has changed.
Analysts have speculated that the missile shipment was part of an Iranian effort to push through advanced armaments to Hezbollah as quickly as possible for fear that Mr. Assad’s fall could sever the link between Tehran and Hezbollah.
By indicating its intention to act again if its red lines are crossed Israel has made itself a player-in-waiting in the Syrian saga, with potentially far-reaching consequences.
For four decades, Israel refrained from attacks on Syria which, in turn, kept its border with Israel perfectly peaceful.
There was one exception in 2007, when Israeli planes destroyed a secret nuclear facility being built in a remote part of Syria. In a noteworthy example of mutual self-restraint, Israel did not claim responsibility for the attack and Syria denied construction of a nuclear facility.
The same self-restraint was displayed last Friday when Israel did not announce its first attack and Syria did not report it.
After the dramatic sound-and-light show early Sunday two miles from Mr. Assad’s palace, national honor obliged him to warn that if Israel attacks again Syria would respond.
Israeli analysts believe that any Syrian response would be directed at the sparsely populated Golan Heights where the chances of heavy Israeli casualties, and a strong Israeli counter-strike, are smallest.
Hezbollah’s rocket and missile arsenal is Teheran’s first line of defense against an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities. Tehran sees the missiles as a deterrent that would make Israel hesitate before striking and a potent military asset if war does break out. The highly accurate Fateh-110 missiles pose a formidable threat in themselves to Israeli air bases and vital infrastructure like power stations, not to mention population centers.
As the situation in Syria deteriorates, the entire region is shifting restlessly.
“Everyone will be reassessing their position now, including Russia and America, Sunnis and Shiites,” said Uzi Rabi, a political scientist at Tel Aviv University. “The whole region is moving into a new era through the back door of the Arab Spring.”

Critically wounded by Hezbollah terrorists, Asael Lubotzky dramatically transforms from victim to healer.

First posted on Feb 14, 2013 AishVideo

By Sharona Schwartz / news.Yahoo.com

Stephen Hawking’s decision to “boycott an Israeli conference over the country’s treatment of the Palestinians” was big news in Israel Wednesday morning. Almost every Israeli news site ran the item as a top story that the acclaimed theoretical physicist had dropped out of the President’s Conference scheduled for next month in Jerusalem to make a political statement.

Along with the Israeli press, the Associated Press, and other news sites, TheBlaze also cited the exclusive report in the British newspaper The Guardian that Hawking’s decision to drop out of the conference was swayed by boycott Israel activists. Our earlier story also included a harshly worded reaction from the conference chairman slamming Hawking’s alleged decision.

The Guardian even inserted a poll on its site asking readers if they thought Hawking’s decision to join the academic boycott of Israel was right.

Now, University of Cambridge–where Hawking is a professor–has issued a statement saying Hawking canceled his Israel trip due to ill health, not ill will toward the Jewish State.

The Associated Press spoke with Tim Holt, media director at the University of Cambridge, who says Hawking’s decision was based strictly on health concerns.

“For health reasons, his doctors said he should not be flying at the moment so he’s decided not to attend,” Holt said.

“He is 71 years old. He’s fine, but he has to be sensible about what he can do,” he added.

A University of Cambridge statement released Wednesday and also reported by the AP said the decision was based on “personal reasons.”

Contradicting the Cambridge statement, organizers of the Jerusalem conference told the AP that an email from Hawking said the boycott was the reason he was not coming.

The AP quotes the Cambridge spokesman Holt saying that Hawking “did not specifically approve” a statement from the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine which was the source for the Guardian report that the boycott was the reason behind Hawking’s cancellation.

CiF Watch, a website that monitors anti-Israel content in The Guardian, posted this e-mail sent to one of its readers from University spokesman Holt: CiF Watch asked: “The only questions which seems to remain is how long it will take for The Guardian to issue a mea culpa on their faux scoop.”

By Bob Unruh / WND.com

A website that is close to the Iranian regime is explaining why the Islamist powers that run the nation are having problems.

It’s the Jews.

Of course.

But not just the Jews … it’s their sorcery.

The report comes from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which monitors media in the Middle East.

The site reports Mehdi Taeb, who is close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and leads the Ammar Base think tank, said this month that the Jews are the most powerful sorcerers in the world today and that they have used their powers to attack Iran.

Taeb said the Jews have turned the United States into their tool and have gotten it to impose sanctions on Iran.

“He added that while Iran has so far withstood their assaults, they have not yet used the full scope of their powers,” MEMRI reported.

The Iranian regime website, according to Rasanews.ir, said: “Speaking on April 20, 2013, to students at a religious seminary in Ahwaz, Mehdi Taeb noted, ‘The Jews are currently subjecting us to an unprecedented trial. As you read in the Quran, Solomon ruled the world … and God ordered a group of sorcerers to come out against him. The Jews have the greatest powers of sorcery, and they make use of this tool.’”

The source continued quoting Taeb: “All the measures that have been brought against us originate with the Zionists. The U.S. is a tool in their hands. So far, they have not used the full [scope] of their sorcery against us. Sorcery was the final means to which they resorted during the Ahmadinejad era, but they were defeated. This ability of the Jews was eliminated by Iran…”

The Rasanews article, published March 7, said: “The Jews have always tended to resort to divination … that has its roots in astronomy, astrology and sorcery … when they consorted with various peoples in the course of history. They cherished this [knowledge] like a treasure, generation after generation. In most cases, they base their predictions on the holy book, especially on the book of Daniel, and they create an ideological climate in which the appreciation of sorcery and the yearning for it increase.”

The statement said: “Sorcery is known to be a practice of which the divine books (the Old Testament, New Testament, Quran) and the monotheistic religions disapprove. But Jewish mysticism regards it as a means to uncover the secrets of the holy book.”

The claim falls not far afield from the periodic allegations that appear among Muslims that the Jewish people hold “barbaric rituals.”

Earlier this year, a Lebanese daily newspaper published an article to coincide with Passover that accused Jews of using human blood in their religious rituals, a notorious anti-Semitic smear.

The author, Lebanese writer Sana Kojok, claimed that during Passover, the Jews eat matzah made with the blood of non-Jews.

Kojok also called on the Palestinians to turn Israeli’s religious holiday from one of joy into one of weeping and wailing.

Kojok wrote: “During the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins today, strange and bizarre rituals are held, according to instructions by the Talmud: Houses are cleared of all leaven, that is, all bread and bread products containing yeast, which are called ‘hametz’ in Hebrew.

“Additionally, on the holiday eve, the Zionist Jews eat unleavened bread which during its preparation is mixed with blood – but that blood must be from a non-Jew! This unleavened bread is called ‘matzah’,” Kojok claimed.

The “blood libel” myth dates as far back as 1840, when a tale was spread around Syria that a priest, Father Toma, went to the Jewish Quarter of Damascus, where he was slaughtered by a group of rabbis and other Jews. As the historically false account goes, not a drop of blood was spilled because it was collected to make Passover matzah.

“Imagine someone eating matzah made with blood!? How do these barbarians think?? Such barbaric behavior – even in eating and drinking?!” Kojok wrote.

In 2003, Arab media aired a program that depicted a boy being sacrificed and his blood used to make Passover matzah. Prominent Saudi clerics reiterated the myth in a 2012 interview, claiming also the Holocaust was “exaggerated.”

In 2000, the Palestinian Liberation Army mufti, Sheik Col. Nader Al-Tamini, stated in a debate on Al-Jazeera that there can be no peace with the Jews, because they suck and use the blood of Arabs on holidays such as Passover and Purim.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/iran-jews-using-sorcery-against-us/#RmWplf3BFdxToOsI.99

The following is the MEMRI report as posted on its website: www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/7154.htm

April 28, 2013
Special Dispatch No.5288

Iranian Official: The Jews Use Sorcery Against Iran

An Iranian regime official and a website close to the regime have recently accused the Jews of engaging in sorcery and of employing it against Iran.

Mehdi Taeb, who is close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and heads Khamenei’s Ammar Base think tank, said in April 2013 that the Jews are the most powerful sorcerers in the world today, and that they have used their powers to attack Iran – for instance by turning the U.S. into their tool and getting it to impose sanctions on Iran, and also through attempts, albeit failed, to interfere in the 2009 elections. He added that while Iran has so far withstood their assaults, they have not yet used the full scope of their powers against it.

In March 2013, the Rasanews.ir website, which is associated with the religious seminaries in Qom, posted an article about the status of sorcery and numerology in Jewish mysticism. According to this article, Jews cherish the knowledge of sorcery, pass it down from generation to generation, and believe that it can be used to control mankind, nature and even God’s decisions.

The following are excerpts from Taeb’s statements and from the article on Rasanews.ir.

Mehdi Taeb, Official Close to Khamenei: ‘So Far, [The Jews] Have Not Used The Full [Scope Of] Their Sorcery Against Us’

Speaking on April 20, 2013 to students at a religious seminary in Ahwaz, Mehdi Taeb noted: “The Jews are currently subjecting us to an unprecedented trial. As you read in the Koran, [King] Solomon ruled the world… and God ordered a group of sorcerers to come out against him. The Jews have the greatest powers of sorcery, and they make use of this tool.

“All the measures that have been brought against us originate with the Zionists. The U.S. is a tool in their hands. So far, they have not used the full [scope of] their sorcery against us. Sorcery was the final means to which they resorted during the Ahmadinejad era, but they were defeated. This ability of the Jews was eliminated by Iran. Five years ago they tried to oust Ahmadinejad [by this means].”[1]

Rasanews.ir, Website Associated With Qom Seminaries: The Jews Believe They Can Use Sorcery To Control God’s Decisions

The article on Rasanews.com, published March 7, 2013, stated: “The Jews have always tended to resort to divination, [a practice] that has its roots in astronomy, astrology and sorcery, [which they picked up] when they consorted with various peoples in the course of history. They cherished this [knowledge] like a treasure, generation after generation. In most cases, they base their predictions on the holy book [the Old Testament], especially on the book of Daniel, and they create an ideological climate in which the appreciation of sorcery and the yearning for it increase.
“The [Jewish] people think that ruling over man, nature, and divine traditions can be achieved only by means of sorcery. They believe that it is possible to conquer nature and control the world, and even to control God’s decisions, by using sorcery methods…

“Sorcery is known to be a practice of which the divine books [i.e., the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Koran and] and the monotheistic religions disapprove. But Jewish mysticism regards it as a [legitimate] means to uncover the secrets of the holy book [the Old Testament].”[2]

Endnotes
[1] Rahyab.news.com, April 20, 2013.
[2] Rasanews.ir, March 7, 2013.

By Alexandra Berzon / The Wall Street Journal
(February 19, 2013)

New Jersey gambling regulators this month (February 2013) fined Caesars Entertainment Corp. $225,000 for the casino giant’s role in a 2007 gambling spree in which a self-confessed gambling addict lost more than $120 million.

Even though the incident took place in Las Vegas, New Jersey’s Division of Gaming Enforcement told Caesars in a letter that the company violated New Jersey’s rules governing proper casino conduct. Caesars owns four casinos in Atlantic City, N.J.

Division director David Rebuck sent the letter to Caesars on March 7.

Industry insiders believe the gambling spree, by former toy entrepreneur Terrance Watanabe, to be the single largest continuous binge in Las Vegas history. After it ended, Mr. Watanabe and Caesars fought over whether the casino company bore some responsibility for his heavy losses. The dispute was the subject of a 2009 page-one article in The Wall Street Journal.

The New Jersey findings, based on internal reviews provided to the state by Caesars, offer the first public description of the company’s own investigations of the matter, which were conducted in 2010.

Among the company’s conclusions, according to the New Jersey letter: Senior managers didn’t respond appropriately to allegations that Mr. Watanabe was using illegal drugs on company property and was making inappropriate sexual advances toward Caesars employees. Caesars told New Jersey regulators that three senior executives had their 2007 bonus pay docked in connection with the incident, the letter said.

Mr. Watanabe’s attorney, Alan Isaacman, said his client denies any allegations of sexual misconduct, but Mr. Isaacman said he couldn’t comment on the allegations of illegal drug use. He added that Mr. Watanabe, who now lives in a modest Los Angeles apartment, maintains that he was intoxicated for much of his losing streak on alcohol provided by Caesars.

Mr. Watanabe “has an illness related to gambling. He has lost a very large fortune completely,” said Mr. Isaacman.

Caesars spokeswoman Jan Jones said the company has since upgraded its internal procedures. “That was a very unusual circumstance,” she said. “But it doesn’t change that we’ve been the leader in responsible gaming programs and training.”

She said the company shared its reports with other state agencies that regulate Caesars, Caesars revised its ethics and compliance program in the wake of the incident, according to the New Jersey letter. The New Jersey regulators declined to comment. Their fine and letter to Caesars were reported earlier by the Associated Press.

In 2007—according to his lawyer, Mr. Isaacman—Mr. Watanabe spent much of the money he made from the sale of his family’s Omaha, Neb., party-favor business on months of gambling at the Caesars Palace and Rio casinos in Las Vegas, which are both owned by Caesars, then known as Harrah’s.

The casinos provided Mr. Watanabe with their top suites and gave him round-the-clock security, limousine service, free food and alcohol and several bellmen to attend to his needs, the New Jersey letter said, describing a report submitted by Caesars.

The district attorney for Clark County, Nev., later charged Mr. Watanabe with four felony counts stemming from $14.7 million the casino said it extended him in credit, which he didn’t pay. Mr. Watanabe pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Mr. Watanabe sued Caesars in civil court in Nevada and claimed that casino staff plied him with liquor and pain medication as part of a systematic plan to keep him gambling. The company denied those allegations.

The charges were dropped in 2010 before either case went to trial. Mr. Watanabe agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to Caesars, according to the New Jersey letter.

According to the letter, Caesars provided New Jersey regulators with two reports written in 2010, including one from an outside investigative firm. The company’s reports found that Mr. Watanabe’s allegations regarding the provision of drugs and alcohol were unfounded, the letter said. The reports said that the company’s Compliance Committee and general counsel recognized that much of what senior management did to accommodate Mr. Watanabe was appropriate.

Yet the company’s compliance committee believed that top managers at Caesars casinos didn’t respond appropriately when told by employees about Mr. Watanabe’s alleged sexual conduct in their presence and sexual advances toward them, the New Jersey letter said. In one case the managers ignored legal advice to confront Mr. Watanabe about his behavior, the letter said.

In issuing the fine, New Jersey regulators concluded that Caesars’ conduct could reflect poorly on the state or the gambling industry.

In 2011, Nevada’s main gambling regulatory body, the Nevada Gaming Control Board, concluded a six- to eight-month investigation of the incident, but it didn’t fine Caesars or take public action, according to A.G. Burnett, the state’s chief regulator. Nevada regulators instead worked with Caesars to help change its internal processes, Mr. Burnett said.

One question in that probe was whether Mr. Watanabe was visibly drunk while gambling, as some then-current and former Caesars employees described him to the Journal in 2009. Nevada law says anyone who is visibly drunk shouldn’t be allowed to gamble. Caesars’ internal probe found that Mr. Watanabe was in control of his faculties, the New Jersey letter said. Nevada regulators, who interviewed Mr. Watanabe and saw casino video footage, didn’t conclude he was visibly intoxicated while gambling, said a person familiar with the matter.

The case isn’t the first in which New Jersey’s gambling regulators have taken a tougher stance than Nevada’s. In 2010 New Jersey regulators found that MGM Resorts International’s partner in a Macau subsidiary was unsuitable after Nevada regulators had cleared the partnership. New Jersey is currently re-evaluating that decision. MGM has maintained that the partnership is suitable.

In the Watanabe case, Nevada regulators were “satisfied that what Caesars had done was enough,” said Mr. Burnett, of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. “While the company could have done some things better, I think there was a feeling among the Gaming Control Board that Mr. Watanabe brought a lot of that upon himself.”

Although there are now fewer than 800 Samaritans, their Passover sacrifice – set according to a calendar different from the mainstream Jewish one – draws an even bigger crowd.

By Andrew Esensten / Haaretz.com
4-24-13

The Samaritan community conducted its annual Passover sacrifice Tuesday evening under the leadership of a new high priest, as 50 sheep were slaughtered on Mount Gerizim in an ancient ceremony that attracted more than 1,000 spectators from around the world.

High Priest Aabed-El Ben Asher was elevated to his position, which is reserved for the eldest member of the priestly family, following the death last week of High Priest Aaron Ben Ab-Hisda at age 84. Ben Asher, 78, is the 133rd high priest in a line that the Samaritans claim stretches back to Aaron, brother of Moses.

“My task is to preserve our religion, lead prayers and ensure that my people love one another,” Ben Asher said in an interview at his home in the Samaritan town of Kiryat Luza in the northern West Bank. He noted that while the Samaritans have clashed in the past with their Muslim neighbors in nearby Nablus and were forced out of the city during the first intifada, the two peoples have reconciled in recent years.

“There is no problem between us,” he said. “We live next to each other and work together as well.”

The Samaritans, or Shomronim (in Hebrew “guardians,” ie. of the law), trace their roots to the tribes of Ephraim and Menashe and practice a Torah-based religion similar to Judaism. They number about 760 today—half live in Kiryat Luza and the other half in Holon—and are celebrating Passover this week because they calculate their calendar differently from Jews.

As the sun set on Tuesday, Ben Asher led his community in a prayer service on their holy Mount Gerizim, which is where they believe God instructed Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. Members wore white clothing and chanted passages from the 12th chapter of Exodus, which describes how the Israelites fled Egypt, in ancient Hebrew and Aramaic. (The Samaritans learn to read the ancient Hebrew script as children and some of their liturgy is in Aramaic; They converse in Arabic and modern Hebrew.)

Then a cheer was raised and the community’s butchers simultaneously slit the throats of the sheep. The men then dabbed the spilled blood on their foreheads. As the uninitiated in the international audience watched with horrified expressions, the men gutted and skewered the animals on long spits and placed them in sunken fire pits. The cooked meat was served with matzah and bitter herbs at midnight.

“I love this part of the holiday,” said Cochava Yehoshua, a Samaritan woman from Holon who, like all community members based there, spends the entire week of Passover in Kiryat Luza so as to avoid leavened bread. When asked if the bloody scene made her squeamish, she said: “When you grow up in this community, you get used to it.”

The origins of the community are shrouded in mystery, according to Abraham Tal, a retired professor of Hebrew language at Tel Aviv University who is an expert in Samaritan Aramaic. “Many scholars believe they are a sect that diverged from Judaism around the time of the Second Temple,” he said. “What is sure is that they are mentioned by the historian Flavius Josephus,” who wrote during the first century AD.

Aside from its annual sacrifice, the community is best known for manufacturing rich tahini. In addition, Kiryat Luza is a popular destination for Christian tourists, owing to Jesus’ “Parable of the “Good Samaritan,” which has given the entire community a positive if unearned reputation, joked Benyamim Tsedaka.

A community spokesperson and historian who lives most of the year in Holon, Tsedaka, 68, said the Samaritans are not a curiosity but rather “an integral part” of the State of Israel. They hold Israeli citizenship – in some cases they also have Palestinian and Jordanian passports – and the Holon residents serve in the Israel Defense Forces. Many have had success in fields like high tech and music, he said.

On Tuesday afternoon, Tsedaka received a constant stream of guests at his “summer home,” which was decorated with paintings of Samaritan rituals by his Jewish wife, Miriam. After the size of the community dipped below 150 in 1919, the men began intermarrying with Jewish women who agreed to adopt the Samaritan lifestyle. He also showed off his recently published English translation of the Samaritan version of the Torah, which is distinct from the more traditional Masoretic text.

As for what the future holds for the Samaritans, Israel’s smallest religious minority, Tsedaka said that the rate of assimilation into mainstream Israeli society remains relatively low.

“Despite the seductions that we have around, people prefer to stay in the community,” he said. “They prefer to keep their heritage, which is the language, which is the script, which is thousands of years of tradition.”