Lead, Netanyahu, lead
When Frazier Glenn Cross is convicted of murder for gunning down physician William Corporon, his 14-year-old grandson Reat Griffin, and occupational therapist Terry LaManno, at the Jewish community facilities of Kansas City on Sunday, he will, at the very least, be jailed for life with no possibility of parole. The capital murder charge with which he has been indicted also carries the possibility of the death penalty.Alan Dershowitz: 'Extreme Left and Extreme Right Have Only One Thing in Common -- They Hate Jews'
When the gunman who opened fire indiscriminately on Israeli vehicles outside Hebron on Passover eve a day later, killing Baruch Mizrahi, is tracked down and arrested — as he almost certainly will be, given the Israeli security forces’ astounding record of locating West Bank terrorists — he will face a very different set of consequences.
Monday on MSNBC's "Ronan Farrow Daily," Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz discussed Sundays tragic shooting outside a Jewish community center in Kansas City:
“When we were kids we learned sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never harm you. That’s a lie, Names hurt. They are horrible, and we shouldn’t be tolerating them in society. But the law under our Constitution can’t move against people simply for expressing views.”
"They praise Hitler and they praise Farrakhan and of corse Farrakhan was one of this guy's heroes along with Hitler and David Duke. Here you have a problem with the extreme left and extreme right have only one thing in common, they hate jews. The extreme left preaches this kind of bigotry as well, people like Farrakhan people within Hamas and Hezbollah and the extreme right."
Why aren’t mainstream Israel critics defending Max Blumenthal?
Max Blumenthal is experiencing what goes around coming around.CNN National Security Analyst: Right More Deadly Than Al Qaeda
Having blamed various critics of radical Islam as well as international Zionism for the 2011 mass murder in Norway, unfairly, Blumenthal now is in focus because the Overland Park shooter was a big fan of Blumenthal’s Jewish money and Israel Lobby conspiracy theories. The shooter was a Neo-Nazi and KKK leader for whom Jewish control of the media and international money was a core belief motivating hatred of Jews. That’s a shared space for anti-Zionists of multiple political ideologies and religions.
Specifically, the shooter focused on Blumenthal’s theory that Jewish campaign donors were trying to buy the 2012 U.S. presidential election for Bibi Netanyahu, as expressed by Blumenthal in a lengthy article and a Russia Today television interview, to which the shooter linked. It’s ugly stuff, but the type of ugly stuff for which Blumenthal has become known.
Without mentioning reports that the man accused of shooting up a Jewish Community Center over the weekend was apparently a fan of the left's Max Blumenthal, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen exploited the murders to claim the American Right is more deadly than jihadists.
Today, April 15, just so happens to be the one-year anniversary of Bergen using CNN's airwaves to speculate that right-wing groups might be behind the Boston Marathon bombing. Bergen is apparently using today's hysterical piece of selective, anti-science analysis to balm that embarrassment.
By publishing this junk, CNN is merely doing what CNN has been doing all throughout the failed Zucker-era: trolling the bottom of the barrel for attention. (h/t Alexi)
West Bank shooting victim named as Baruch Mizrahi, 47
The victim of a shooting attack outside Hebron Monday night was named late Tuesday as Baruch Mizrahi, a 47-year-old father of five who filled a variety of senior positions in Israel’s military and police intelligence forces.Israel Suspends Meeting With PA Over Hevron Shooting
Mizrahi, who was gunned down in a terror attack as he was driving with his family to a Passover seder, was a senior officer in the IDF’s intelligence force, and more recently a senior police intelligence and crime officer, Army Radio reported.
"The meeting that was planned for tonight between Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams will not be taking place. It's being postponed," the Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.Abbas tells MKs he’s waiting for probe before condemning shooting
The official declined to explain the decision, but said Monday's killing of an Israeli police officer in the West Bank "was the direct result of ongoing incitement and glorification of terrorism that we see in the official Palestinian media and education system."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Israeli politicians in Ramallah on Wednesday he would only publicly condemn the Monday night terrorist killing of Israeli Baruch Mizrahi when a full investigation of the incident was completed.Hamas praises fatal Hebron attack, warns of more
He also said that the PA would continue to negotiate with Israel until the end of this month, but that all agreements with Israel would be null and void if no deal was reached to continue the talks beyond that date, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported.
The prime minister of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday praised a shooting that killed an Israeli and wounded his wife and son as they drove through the West Bank the previous evening en route to a Seder, the traditional Passover meal that starts the weeklong Jewish holiday.The Guardian has absolutely no idea why a Jewish man was murdered near Hebron
Speaking in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh said the attack outside the city of Hebron “brought back life to the path of resistance” against Israel and warned of more attacks in the territory. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest incident to threaten peace talks with the Palestinians.
To understand the latest report by Peter Beaumont (the Guardian’s new Jerusalem correspondent), it’s necessary to comprehend the Guardian’s view of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, in which Israelis represent privileged Western colonialists, and are almost completely the guilty party, while Palestinians are the weak, the dispossessed and colonized – and are almost entirely the victims.Fatal terror attack in Judea – BBC silent
Since their journalistic ethos seems inspired by a desire to, as one Guardian journalist phrased it, ‘comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable’, even the most brutal Palestinian terror attacks will necessarily be framed in a manner which robs Israeli victims of their humanity, and obfuscates the malevolence of the Palestinian perpetrator.
At least one BBC journalist is aware of the fact that a fatal terror attack took place.WH Passover Message Emphasizes Overland Park Killings
However, as of mid-morning on April 15th, no report on this latest incident of terror in Judea & Samaria has appeared on the BBC News website’s Middle East page.
Monday, the White House released an official Passover message to not only highlight that the Obamas were hosting the White House's annual Seder celebration, but to offer prayers to the families and friends of the victims of Sunday's Jewish community center shooting that left three dead.Code Pink apologists attempt to spin Medea Benjamins' Caterpillar investments
The President's statement draws the connection between the Israelites' struggle for freedom in Exodus with the many obstacles we still face societally, especially in light of Sunday's attack. The President says violence has "no place in our society" and that "we will continue to come together across faiths to combat the ignorance and intolerance, including anti-Semitism, that can lead to hatred and violence."
As the co-founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink , Medea Benjamin is at the forefront of the BDS movement except apparently, when it interferes with her own opportunities for financial gain. As Medea Benjamin is confronted by her peers regarding her foundations' investments in Caterpillar theBrandeis University Faculty Sent Letter Demanding School Rescind Ayaan Hirsi Ali Honorary Degreeexplanationspin has taken some curious routes.
Via Twitter:
In this discussion, Benjamin Doherty 's (@bandpound) protected tweets seem to imply that this was a strategy to allow Medea to vote at Caterpillar shareholder conferences, but that assertion is challenged by Daniel Shunra, who asserts that the $120,000 investment is beyond what is needed to vote.
In the April 6 letter, faculty members called on Brandeis President Fred Lawrence to drop Hirsi Ali from the ceremony because of comments she has made about her opposition to Islam.Actually, Brandeis got it very wrong
“We are writing to urge you to rescind immediately the invitation to Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali for an honorary doctorate, a decision about which we are shocked and dismayed, owing to her virulently anti-Muslim public statements,” wrote the faculty members. “We are saddened that Brandeis would choose to honor such a divisive individual at commencement, a moment of unity for the Brandeis community.”
The letter cited comments made by Hirsi Ali, “including Islam is the new fascism” and her contention that Islam must be “defeated.”
The recent controversy over Brandeis University’s withdrawal of its offer of an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali is symptomatic of the disconnect from reality prevalent in academia. Let’s look at Hirsi Ali’s “virulently anti-Muslim public statements” quoted by the Brandeis faculty members who signed a letter to the university president, urging him to rescind the offer:Time for US to forsake peace efforts, New York Times says
An editorial in Tuesday’s New York Times called on the US government to abandon its mediation efforts between Israelis and Palestinians and focus on “other major international challenges,” asserting that no amount of American pushing and shoving could succeed when the two sides were reluctant to make peace themselves.Hamas leader urges Palestinians to kidnap Israeli soldiers amid crumbling peace talks
In the opinion piece, titled “In the Middle East, Time to Move On,” the paper stated that US President Barack Obama “made the right decision to give (peacemaking) a second try last summer” but said it had now become clear that the sides “are still unwilling to move on the core issues of the borders of a Palestinian state, the future of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and guarantees for Israel’s security.”
"Abducting Israeli soldiers is a top priority on the agenda of Hamas and the Palestinian resistance," Haniyeh reportedly said during a conference. "Negotiations with the occupation have failed."Obama admin participates for the first time in group charged with implementing notorious UN Durban declaration
According to the Palestinian news agency, the Gaza leader called the end of recent US-backed peace talks an "unquestionable fact."
For the first time, the Obama administration is now a part of the implementation process of the antisemitic UN Durban Conference. Although the U.S. walked out of the notorious Durban conference in 2001 in disgust, and has boycotted the second and third follow-up Durban conferences, American diplomats are now participating in the "Intergovernmental Working Group on the Effective Implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action" in Geneva, Switzerland.Prosor calls for removal of UN official, Rima Khalaf, for anti-semitic remark
The opening statement from the Obama administration on April 7, 2014, in Geneva, included the following: "The United States normally does not participate in this working group because of our significant and well-known concerns about the Durban Declaration and Program of Action. That said, we are always ready to find common ground with others in the effort to combat racism, bigotry, and racial discrimination... We look forward to working constructively with you."
Combating bigotry by implementing a document intended to promote bigotry!
Israel’s UN Ambassador Ron Prosor sent a letter to Secretary- General Ban Ki-Moon recently asking for the removal of Rima Khalaf, following a purportedly anti-Semitic statement Khalaf made in a speech in late February.Palestinian Media Boast About New UNESCO Mission to Jerusalem
Khalaf is the under-secretary-general and executive secretary for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. She has served in that role since September 2010. The speech in question was given on February 25, 2014, at the launch of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia report. It was titled “Arab Integration: A 21st Century Imperative.”
In her speech, Khalaf denounced Israeli presence in the West Bank, saying: “The most dangerous of these [Israeli] policies is Israel’s adamancy that it is a Jewish state, which violates the rights of both the Muslim and Christian indigenous populations and revives the concept of state ethnic and religious purity, which caused egregious human suffering during the 20th century.” Phrases such as this are usually diplomatic code in which officials speak to refer to the Holocaust.
The Palestinians and Jordan also reportedly “issued several resolutions through the Executive Board and World Heritage Committee” targeting the Jewish state, including – in what might be considered something of a punchline – a resolution condemning Israel for suggesting that UNESCO had become politicized against Israel.UNIFIL To Recruit Pro Wrestling Referees (satire)
Last week’s vote is the latest in a serious of anti-Israel diplomatic moves that the UN body has launched since the Palestinians joined it in 2011.
The United Nations International Force In Lebanon, whose mandate calls for monitoring the Israel-Lebanon border, has announced that it will begin to target specific populations to recruit, groups that have demonstrated the same level of impartial incompetence that UNIFIL has made famous. The first group, according to the announcement, will be those with experience serving as referee during professional wrestling matches.Dozens wounded in Temple Mount riot
Both UNIFIL and the referees go about fulfilling their duties with a distorted picture of their effectiveness, the announcement said, falsely believing that both opponents have any respect for their decisions or judgment. Moreover, it added, both the referees and UNIFIL lack the teeth to impose the shaky peace they are charged with maintaining.
Dozens of Palestinian protesters and an Israeli policeman were wounded Wednesday morning on the Temple Mount after the site was opened to Jewish visitors.Hezbollah Terror Cell Exposed in Thailand
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP that Palestinians threw “stones and firecrackers” at police when they opened the walled compound’s gates.
Police responded with stun grenades, Rosenfeld said, and closed the complex to the Jewish visitors after a small number had toured the site.
Three members of a Hezbollah terror cell have been exposed in Thailand, where they reportedly were scouting out Israeli and western sites in preparation for an attack.3 killed, 4 wounded in Gaza Strip explosion
"Stop910," a website that collects information on terror cells in eastern Asia, reported on Tuesday that the cell was discovered in Thailand, and displayed pictures of three members who had been spying on Israeli sites.
The three terrorists include Youssef Ayad, a Shi'ite Muslim from the Philippines working under Hezbollah's international arm, along with two Lebanese citizens, Daoud Farhat and Bilal Bahsoun.
Three Palestinians were killed and four were wounded in a blast in the Gaza Strip Wednesday.Egypt limits air conditioning in mosques as power shortages worsen
The incident occurred in the southern city of Khan Younis, in a building associated with the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigade — the armed wing of Hamas.
Egypt, facing the worst energy shortages for years, has set limits for electricity use at mosques as part of government efforts to ease the impact of power cuts already affecting homes and factories.Jordanian planes destroy convoy on Syria border
The religious endowments minister has ordered mosques not to run air conditioners before May 15 and after that date to use air conditioning only during prayer time and half an hour before and after the call to prayer.
Jordanian military warplanes struck a convoy of vehicles as they were trying to enter Jordan from Syria, the army said in a statement Wednesday, in an unusual move at a time of tensions between the desert kingdom and Damascus.Rouhani says Iran sanctions will unravel in months
A Syrian military official said the vehicles did not belong to the Syrian army.
The Jordanian military statement said the attack happened at 10:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) after “camouflaged” vehicles driving in a rugged area near the border ignored demands to stop from security forces. The statement said Jordanian aircraft fired warning shots at the vehicles, but they did not stop. The warplanes then destroyed the vehicles.
"With your support, this government has taken the first steps towards the lifting of the brutal sanctions ... We will witness the sanctions shattering in the coming months," Rouhani told a crowd during a tour of Sistan-Baluchestan, a restive underdeveloped province bordering Pakistan.Iran will not discuss missile program, defense minister says
"Today we already see the sanctions unravelling," he said, according to IRNA, referring to the modest easing of sanctions in return for concessions made by Rouhani's government in nuclear talks with world powers.
General Hossein Dehghan’s remarks rebuffed recent comments by the US State Department’s nuclear negotiator, Wendy Sherman, who said Iran’s ballistic capabilities should be addressed as part of a comprehensive agreement with Iran.Iran Unveils New Anti-Ship Cruise Missile
The semiofficial Fars news agency on Wednesday quoted Dehghan as saying Iran’s missile program has “nothing to do” with the nuclear negotiations.
A top Iranian naval commander revealed on Monday that Iran has armed its coastal defenses and warships with a new, domestically produced cruise missile primarily used to destroy enemy ships.Boston marks first anniversary of marathon bombing
These new “Ghadir cruise missiles” have been loaded onto “both destroyers and missile-launching warships of the Navy, and they are also used as coast-to-sea missiles,” Iranian Navy Commander Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari was quoted as telling the state-run Press TV.
Boston paid solemn tribute Tuesday to the victims and survivors of the marathon bombings that traumatized the northeastern US city and stunned the nation one year ago.Tel Aviv named ‘best beach party spot on planet’
Three people were killed and more than 260 others wounded when two pressure cooker bombs detonated near the finish line of the city’s famous marathon on April 15, 2013.
Matador Network has released the ultimate travel guide to partying around the world and names Tel Aviv as its number one beach party location. The guide, titled 101 Places to Get F*cked Up Before You Die, is aimed at world-trekking party-goers and is written by “professional party-crashers” in search of the best parties in the world. Tel Aviv is hailed for its hedonistic ways. Surprisingly, the White City triumphed over other top beach hotspots including Goa, Phuket, and Ibiza. “Israel’s financial hub sure knows how to throw a party. Business licensing is lax here, which means there’s always a new hotspot on the scene, with new clubs sometimes literally popping up overnight. News spreads on the beach, so skip the recommendations in the guidebook and catch a few rays while chatting up some locals to find where the pulse is beating that night,” reads 101 Places.Never Stop Believing: The Journey of Tobi From Nigeria To The IDF
Passover is holiday which symbolizes renewal and change. These two special qualities define Lieutenant Tobi Cohen, who came all the way from Nigeria to serve in the IDF.Daphne Anson: What Jerusalem Means To The Jew
Tobi grew up on the stories of her father, an Israeli who served in the IDF as a soldier in the Armored Corps. “At age 16, I decided that it was my time to make a change. I joined a program which send young people to Israel, and eventually helps them make Aliya,” Tobi says. “After one year I joined a ‘Mechina’ (a pre-military program), and it was there that I started to feel more connected to the army.”
Tobi Cohen had everything that she could ever want: a home, family, friends, school. But for many years she had a feeling that she was missing something. “I always wanted to come to Israel, ever since I was a small child,” says Tobi, who spent her childhood in Nigeria. “I wanted a deeper connection, to understand what ‘Israel’ is, and not just through stories.”
In view of the time-honoured Seder wish “Next Year in Jerusalem!” and to give non-Jewish readers a glimpse of the seminal, visceral importance of Jerusalem to Jews and Judaism, I’m posting below an address given by the late Rabbi Dr Israel Porush of Sydney one year after the Six Day War, which saw Arab-occupied Jerusalem liberated by Israeli troops, and which ensured Jews access to that supreme holy site, the Kotel (Western Wall), which had been off-limits to them since 1948.
ImageRabbi Dr Porush (1907-91) represented the Religious, Mizrachi, stream within the Zionist movement. He was born in Jerusalem into an Ashkenazi family that had resided there for a number of generations, and he combined Jewish scholarship with secular learning: as well as possessing a rabbinical diploma from the famous Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin he had a university PhD in mathematics. Before taking up his post as minister of Sydney’s venerable Great Synagogue (served 1940-75) he was minister of the Finchley Synagogue in London. In Australia he was active in many communal institutions and in 1943 founded the New South Wales Council of Christians and Jews.