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Middle East Eye
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Middle East Eye
Board of Deputies member quits in protest over Gaza ‘genocidal assault'
A member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews has resigned over what he described as the failure of its leaders to explicitly criticise 'the Israeli government's ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza'. Speaking at a board meeting on Sunday, Daniel Grossman said he had lost confidence in the leadership of the board, a representative body made up of elected members from synagogues and Jewish organisations that describes itself as 'the voice of the British Jewish Community'. He said recent meetings between board leaders and Israeli ministers and officials, including foreign minister Gideon Saar, were 'both untenable and morally bankrupt'. Grossman, a deputy for the Union of Jewish Students who is currently studying at the University of Bristol, said board leaders had 'both failed to act ethically and also to represent the increasing diversity of opinion' over Gaza within Jewish communities. He said that Israeli opposition figures including Yair Golan, the main opposition leader, and Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, were publicly recognising that atrocities are being committed. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters 'What good are private words in plenaries when you continue to meet with Israeli government officials and oppose any real action to stop their crimes?' he said. 'How many more Palestinians have to be killed and Israeli hostages sacrificed before the board speaks out against Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza?' As part of his work for the board, Grossman was a member of its international division and co-chaired a two-state solution working group. Critical letter Grossman was among 36 board members who last month signed a letter published in the Financial Times in which they strongly condemned Israel's renewed assault on the Palestinian enclave and its withholding of food and aid which has left hundreds of thousands on the brink of starvation. 'The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out,' they wrote. Leaders of the board accused the 36 deputies of 'misrepresenting our community', launched disciplinary proceedings against them, and suspended an executive committee member who had signed the letter. More than 800 lawyers and judges call on UK to sanction Israel over Gaza war Read More » Writing on social media shortly after publication of the letter following a meeting with Saar in London, Board President Phil Rosenberg wrote: 'Jewish leadership is standing up for peace & security in Israel & the Middle East… Unity is strength. Division serves only our enemies.' But other prominent British Jewish figures have continued to speak up in support of the dissident deputies, and in condemnation of the Israeli government's actions. In another letter to the Financial Times, 30 rabbis from Reformist and Liberal synagogues said they too could 'no longer turn a blind eye or remain silent'. Last week, Laura Janner-Klausner, the former senior rabbi for Reform Judaism, told Middle East Eye: 'There are many mainstream Jews who are seeing this as a complete moral and humanitarian disaster.' And on Sunday, Jonathan Wittenberg, the senior rabbi for Masorti Judaism, wrote that Israel's conduct of its assault on Gaza and withholding of aid 'contradicts what we have painfully learned from our long history as victims of persecution and mass murder'. Grossman's resignation was welcomed on Tuesday by Naa'mod, a British Jewish organisation that opposes Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories and is critical of the board. 'We commend his decision to resign - it was principled, urgent, and necessary,' it said in a statement on social media. Sunday's Board of Deputies meeting followed a visit to Jerusalem last week by a delegation including Rosenberg and Michael Wegier, the board's chief executive, to attend a meeting of the World Jewish Congress, an international organisation representing Jewish communities around the world. While there, Rosenberg and Wegier also met with Lapid and Ayman Odeh, the leader of the Palestinian-Israeli Hadash party, as well as foreign ministry officials. Addressing Sunday's meeting, Rosenberg described the Board of Deputies as a 'proudly Zionist organisation'. Acknowledging criticism of the Israeli government's conduct of the war, Rosenberg said that 'food should not be used as a weapon of war' and said board leaders had 'been clear to Israeli leaders that we need to see aid flowing into Gaza'. He condemned settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank and described far-right government ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir as 'a stain on the Zionist project'. 'Let me be clear: We strongly oppose rhetoric and actions aimed at the permanent forced displacement of populations, including the civilian population of Gaza,' he said. But Rosenberg added that it had been a mistake for the British government to suspend free trade talks with Israel. The board has previously criticised the suspension of some arms export licences to Israel, and the withdrawal by the current Labour government of the objection against the prosecution of Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court raised by the previous UK government. In a statement published on Tuesday by Naa'mod, Grossman said: 'It is imperative the board gains the courage to act as a truly representative and moral body for all of British Jewry.'
Axios
26-05-2025
- Business
- Axios
What stores, restaurants are open Memorial Day. See the list.
The unofficial start to summer has arrived, and it's marked with patriotic parades, cookouts, record travel and sales. The big picture: 50% of consumers plan to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday weekend, according to a Numerator survey of 5,900 adults. Many Americans have Monday off as 95% of U.S. businesses observe the federal holiday, according to OnTheClock, an employee time tracking company. Memorial Day sales and tariffs What we're watching: Memorial Day weekend sales are a chance to shop before prices rise because of tariffs, said Marc Grossman, head of Wells Fargo's banks factoring group. Grossman recommends consumers even start shopping for the winter holidays. "Not only could inventory be an issue as we get closer to holiday, but with the possible tariff increases, prices could also be impacted," Grossman said. Zoom in: Retailers have been publicly addressing the impact of tariffs differently. The CEOs of three of the nation's biggest retailers privately warned President Trump last month his trade policy could trigger massive product shortages and price spikes. Walmart, the world's largest retailer, said on May 15 it couldn't hold the line anymore and would have to raise some prices. Target said last week it would "offset the vast majority" of tariff impacts to consumers and raise prices as the "very last resort." Home Depot said it doesn't plan to increase prices "broadly," but some items might disappear from store shelves. Banks, stock market closed Memorial Day, no mail 📪 The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are closed on the holiday and will next be closed on Juneteenth, which is on June 19 this year. Stores open on Memorial Day 🛍️ The majority of national chains are keeping their doors open but hours can vary by location. Click on the store name for links to business websites. Stores closed Memorial Day 🚫 Grocery stores open Memorial Day 2025 🛒 Store hours can vary but here are the nation's largest grocery store chains are open Monday. Restaurants open on Memorial Day near me 🍽️ Dig in: Most national chains are open — though some may operate on holiday hours. Fast food open on Memorial Day 2025 🍔 Starbucks, Dunkin' open Memorial Day 2025 ☕ Many Starbucks and Dunkin' locations are open but be on the safe side and check your closest location before heading out. Memorial Day restaurants open Between the lines: Being open on a holiday is often a franchise decision. You can also find restaurants accepting reservations through OpenTable.
The National
21-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
Diplomatic tsunami against Israel welcome but time not on Gaza's side
The words of Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu, director of the Israel-Europe Relations Program at the Mitvim Institute and lecturer at the Hebrew University's European Forum. I have to admit to taking a certain satisfaction in reading these and similar words in the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz these past few days as European pressure piles on the government of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Almost exactly a decade ago this month, I wrote a lengthy piece for the press in Scotland entitled 'Something is rotten in the State Of Israel.' READ MORE: Patrick Harvie faces Holyrood election challenge from young activist To say that it caused a bit of a stir would be an understatement. This after all was long before the current outrage over Israel's onslaught in Gaza and a lot fewer people put their heads above the parapet back then. At the time, my writing of the piece was instigated by a sense of outrage at the savagery of an arson attack by settlers on the home of a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank village of Duma. In the subsequent autopsy that was carried out on one of the victims of the attack, 18-month-old Ali Dawabsheh, it was found that his corpse was totally blackened, his features, lungs and rib cage melted from the fire that ignited after the attackers threw Molotov cocktail petrol bombs into the family's house as they slept. Today of course such atrocities are commonplace, and to be frank they were back then too. The only difference being that comparatively few here in the UK took much notice of what was unfolding daily in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, let alone raise their voice against it. Some, however, even in Israel itself did. Among them was the wonderful Israeli author David Grossman, who some years ago I had the pleasure of spending time with in Edinburgh. Back then, at the time of the Duma killings, Grossman summed up the feelings of other ordinary Israelis like him when he commented in Haaretz that 'I cannot get this baby, Ali Dawabsheh, out of my mind ... Who is the person or persons capable of doing this? They, or their friends, continue to walk among us this morning.' (Image: AP) Grossman was right in saying that such monsters walked among ordinary Israelis back then and as the evidence makes clear they continue to do so today. As another Israeli journalist at the time who closely monitored Israeli violence said of little Ali Dawabsheh's gory death, it's now almost as if settler burnings of Palestinian children 'have become a yearly Israeli ritual'. That slaughtering ritual is fast reaching its zenith right now in Gaza. Ten years ago, just for commenting on atrocities of this kind, myself and like-minded journalists and Israeli colleagues became lightning rods for a Zionist lobby that left no stone unturned in its vitriolic retributive attacks. Instances of speaking out, especially at a UK Government level, were few and far between, so it's a measure then of how bad things have become that Britain's government has found itsef compelled belatedly to raise now a measure of condemnation against Israel. 'Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop,' UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy finally found the cojones to say in Parliament on Tuesday. Few doubt – as The National has highlighted – that beyond this rhetoric, Sir Keir Starmer's government will go on shunting the weapons and intelligence that Netanyahu's government needs to prosecute its ethnic cleaning in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The UK Government is only one of a number of Johnny-come-latelies, that have finally become squeamish enough about the horrors that have been unfolding these past 18 months and more to finally 'act'. Don't get me wrong here, for genuine allies in opposing Israel's policies towards the Palestinians are always to be welcomed. My simple worry is just how genuine Starmer's government actually is remains open to question, and were Donald Trump and his administration begin to throw their weight around in support of Israel, I have little doubt that Lammy would be back in silent mode in a jiffy. That a majority of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday expressed support for launching a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement is also to be welcomed. The fact that the diplomatic push was led by the Netherlands, usually a staunch backer of Israel, is again a measure of how bad things have become. But here too, just as with the UK Government, watch out for obstacles and double standards, for any decision to ultimately suspend trade ties would require the involvement of the European Commission and unanimity among its 27 member states. It's worth noting also that a similar request to fully suspend the agreement was made by Spain and Ireland last year, but did not garner wide support due to deep divisions within the bloc over the Israel-Palestine conflict. All this is not to be overly negative, for let's hope that what one Haaretz headline described as a potential 'diplomatic tsunami' is indeed underway, gaining momentum and might ultimately force Israel to back off. As Sion-Tzidkiyahu says, at least 'the bullet has left the barrel' in diplomatic terms. As she says too, if this means enabling the EU to debate Israeli violations of international law and sends a strong signal to international courts, then that is also a step forward. Ten years ago, when I wrote my article entitled Something is rotten in the State of Israel, words and phrases like 'genocide', 'ethnic cleansing', 'apartheid', and 'international pariah' about Israel were used sparingly and too often dismissed by those who should have been paying attention to the political trajectory in which Netanyahu's government was travelling. Now those words and phrases have come to haunt the world with a shocking resonance, waking many up to the reality. It's certainly not before time. But as the saying goes, better late than never. The only concern now is that time is not on Gaza's side, and the real proof of being able to hold Israel to account has yet to fully reveal itself.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Governance Spin Can't Hide Underperformance at Barnwell Industries, Inc.
Vero Beach, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - May 19, 2025) - The Sherwood Group, a long-term and significant shareholder with approximately 29.90% of the issued and outstanding shares of Barnwell Industries, Inc. ("Barnwell", "BRN" or the "Company") today issued the following letter to Barnwell shareholders. Dear Barnwell Shareholders: In response to Barnwell Industries' (NYSE American: BRN) latest attempt to deflect attention from the Company's deteriorating financial position, the Sherwood Group urges shareholders to focus on what truly matters: results. Barnwell's results are clear - a long history of financial underperformance, a distressed balance sheet, and now, a going concern warning disclosed in their own 10-Q, something not even mentioned in their latest press release. Table 1: Illustration of decades of underperformance at Barnwell; source: Company filings. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: This is not a board that is shareholder-aligned or committed to long-term value creation. This is a board presiding over ongoing financial deterioration (see table 1) and entrenchment. Despite their claims of "strategic execution," Barnwell has failed to generate meaningful operating income (see table 1) - even during favorable commodity cycles. At best, the Company has eked out slim operating profits (see table 1). At worst-like now-it continues to lose money from operations while recently spending almost $1 million in legal fees (and approximately $7 million during the past several years) under the guise of governance. What $13 million market cap company spends $7 million of defense costs with elite law firms in order to entrench themselves? My open question to Kinzler/Grossman/Horowitz is…As fiduciaries for all shareholders (including my significant holdings), how did the Board justify, with cash running low and operations running at a loss in the latest quarter, spending almost $1 million of cash on defense costs to essentially entrench themselves and risking BRN's viability as a going concern?!? Let's be clear: episodic land sales in Hawaii are not a core energy strategy. They're a lifeline-and a temporary one at that. They don't change the underlying reality that Barnwell's core business remains volatile, cash-burning, and without a clear path to value creation. Even more alarming is what's buried in Note 2 of Barnwell's most recent 10-Q: a going concern warning, primarily caused by the Company's wasteful spending on non-economic matters. Blaming this situation on tariffs and a short proxy contest is a deliberate misdirection. Barnwell's financial and strategic issues didn't appear overnight-they've been building for years under this board's so-called "oversight." As for macro excuses - energy prices have declined due to global demand softness-hardly a surprise to anyone actually paying attention to the markets. Most natural resource companies hedge to ameliorate volatility but once the Company lost Laurance Narbut from the Board they seemed to have ceased their hedging activities. If these so-called "experienced" board members can't grasp that, they have no business overseeing a natural resource-focused public company. Barnwell wants credit for welcoming Heather Isidoro to the board - a candidate supported by shareholders-but refuses to respect those same shareholders' vote to remove Mr. Kinzler from the slate for its proxy statement or to amend its proxy statements to reflect the fact that only 4 seats are remaining since Ms. Isidoro was elected by shareholders to serve until the 2026 Annual Meeting. You can't cherry-pick democracy. If Barnwell wants to talk about governance, start by respecting ALL of the results of the consent solicitation, and by explaining how this board plans to finance the Company moving forward. Urgent change is required to address poor governance and capital allocation. Shareholders deserve a board that takes responsibility, acts decisively, and rebuilds trust through action-not empty headlines. The Sherwood Group is committed to restoring financial discipline, reestablishing strategic focus, and delivering real, lasting value for all shareholders. The path forward starts with accountability. We thank all shareholders who have already voted FOR our board nominees using the GREEN PROXY via ProxyVote. We now call on entrenched management to abandon their efforts in Delaware Court to block a universal proxy and instead respect shareholders' right to choose the Board members they believe will drive value. Thank you for your support, Ned L. Sherwood PS from the Sherwood Group: The 7,000 shares were ABSOLUTELY NOT "Outcome Determinative" Kinzler, Grossman and Horowitz try to deflect from their own entrenchment tactics in removing fellow Board member, Mr. Woodrum, that they dangle some unfounded accusation regarding 7,000 shares that we already addressed in our May 16 press release. As disclosed in the Consent Solicitation, for a proposal in the Consent Solicitation to be effective, shares representing "the consent of the holders of at least 5,026,768 shares of Common Stock would be necessary." When the Sherwood Group delivered the Shareholder Resolution, the number of shares consenting to the removal of Mr. Woodrum was only 5,019,723 and when you add the 7,000 shares (which voted across the board in favor of the Sherwood Group proposals and were counted in the final certified results), you get 5,026,723 (45 shares short of removal) which would NOT have resulted in Mr. Woodrum's removal so the 7,000 shares is not "outcome determinative" and had ZERO impact on any of the Proposals. Mr. Kinzler's Secret Blue Consent Card (which the Sherwood Group did not learn of until a day after the consent deadline) certainly did determine the outcome. If you have any questions, please contact: Alliance Advisors150 Clove Road, Suite 400, Little Falls, NJ 07424Shareholders call toll-free: 1 (833) 215-7301Email: brn2025@ For media inquiries or further information, please contact: Alyssa BarryMedia Relations, Alliance Advisorsabarry@ To view the source version of this press release, please visit Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
IBM (IBM) Bets Big on AI and Mainframes to Jumpstart a New Growth Era
IBM (IBM, Financials) is doubling down on artificial intelligence and mainframes as it looks to boost margins and reignite growth, according to Stifel analyst David Grossman, who came away positive after attending the company's investor event. The tech giant is rolling out AI tools across its own operations to cut costs and increase efficiency. That could mean more room in the budget for research, marketing, and acquisitionsareas IBM has struggled to fund in the past. One internal tool, watsonx Orchestrate, is being prepped for a broader commercial launch. If successful, it could become a key productivity product for enterprise clients and open new revenue streams. IBM is also gearing up for the z17 mainframe launch. The company sees it as a chance to bring back customers that shifted to x86 servers or the cloud. Down the line, it may even offer mainframe access as a service. While IBM is clearly leaning more into growth, Grossman said it will likely continue to be seen as a steady, defensive pick in the short run. Investors will be watching how quickly IBM can turn internal innovation into commercial wins and whether the mainframe refresh delivers. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
