Suspected Brussels gunman admitted on film to attack
Mehdi Nemmouche filmed a short video after the shootings in which he claimed responsibility for the May 24 attack, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said in a press conference. The film also reportedly showed the weapons used by Nemmouche throughout the assault, according to AFP.Jewish leaders hail arrest of alleged Brussels gunman
The suspect was wrapped up in a white sheet scrawled with the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an extremist group fighting in Syria, Molins said. He said the suspect had spent about a year in Syria.
Nemmouche, a 29-year-old from the northern French town of Roubaix, was arrested Friday in Marseille in possession of a gun and an AK-47 assault rifle of the sort used in the attack.
Nemmouche is suspected of having jihadist links and had reportedly visited war-torn Syria in 2013. (h/t Yoel)
Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old French citizen from the northern French town of Roubaix, was arrested Friday in Marseille in possession of a gun and a Kalashnikov assault rifle of the sort used in the May 24 attack that claimed the lives of four people, including two Israelis.Czech president: Radical Islam behind Brussels attack
“We are very satisfied with the work of the French authorities in finding the perpetrator of the cold-blooded murders last week,” European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor said in a statement. “However, for too long authorities in Europe have acted speedily after the fact. it is now time for all to turn attention and set as the highest priority the prevention of these vicious crimes.”
President Milos Zeman made the statement last week, before the capture in Marseille on Friday of a suspect whom French authorities said had fought with jihadists in Syria and may be tied to the May 24 murder of four people at the Jewish Museum of Belgium in central Brussels.
“I will not be reassured by claims that these are the actions of small fringe groups,” Zeman said at the Prague Hilton on May 26 about the shootings, which he called “abominable acts of murder.” He added: “I believe, by contrast, that this xenophobia, racism or anti-Semitism are at the very nature of this ideology, on which these fanatical groups rely.”
Honoring Jew-Haters Leads to Murder in Brussels
Why did the Umbrella Organization of Jewish Institutions of Belgium host André Flahaut, president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, as a guest of honor at a gala dinner?Europe Injures Fingers Handwringing Over Antisemitism (satire)
The Socialist Flahaut is a former defense minister has been filmed at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Nivelles, saying: “I’m determined to fight all extremism, all Nazism, all fascism wherever, whenever they occur. That’s why I’m here”.
The demonstration, where Flauaht compared the Jewish State to Nazism, was held in commemoration of Israel’s creation and featured actors dressed as Israeli soldiers, shouting and loading other actors dressed in Arab garb onto a truck.
Europe began high-profile handwringing in the immediate aftermath of the shooting the Saturday before last that left four people dead, an act of terrorism that highlighted the continent’s failures in escaping its millennia-old legacy of targeting Jews. French authorities reported this morning that a suspect fitting the description of the perpetrator was arrested Saturday trying to enter the country, but beyond the token displays of remorse and due process, experts do not foresee a change in government attitudes that might appreciably alter the prevalence of antisemitism, mostly because Europe cannot be expected to implement serious change when it is so busy clasping its fingers together in melodramatic grief.The BDS Bullies Take Over
The shooter, like the one behind the 2012 massacre in Toulouse of five Jews, is apparently a jihadist who was raised in France, bringing to the fore the failure of European society and politics to assimilate cultural forces at odds with modern European multiculturalism. European society has made some efforts to combat the influx of ideologically anti-western and antisemitic immigrants, most notably by electing a European Parliament with the highest share of homegrown bigots in its history. Further action, however, is precluded by those achy fingers.
Over the past year, I've been invited to speak at over 150 college campuses around the U.S. about my experiences as a commander in the Israeli Defense Forces. I've spoken at the University of Washington, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Georgetown, NYU, Columbia, Swarthmore, and many more. I looked forward to meeting and talking with students who were critical of Israeli policies and who would question my perspective. What I did not expect was that, instead of a free exchange of ideas, I would often be faced with well-organized efforts to silence me and other pro-Israel voices.In Ottawa, a taxpayer-funded tribute to a Palestinian terrorist
In the last few years, the "Boycott Divestment and Sanctions" ("BDS") campaign has grown on college campuses. Presented as a "human rights movement," its apparent goal is a broad-based boycotting of the Jewish State because of alleged human rights violations. However, a YouTube video of anti-Israeli activists at Galway University shows the real face of BDS.
No mention is made of Iyad’s role in Black September, let alone the slain athletes of Munich and the scores of other victims murdered by those memorialized in the exhibit. For its part, the City has refused to remove the exhibit, which is expected to remain at the gallery adjoining City Hall until late June. To add salt to the wound, Ottawa taxpayers will be paying a fee to Nazzal for her “art.”Art Exhibit Falls Victim to BDS
I can only imagine the reaction from those who have lost loved ones and close family members to some of these Palestinian “leaders.” I can likewise imagine the outrage that would be generated were the City to host an “art” display memorializing Osama Bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers. The Munich attacks may have been more than 40 years ago, but the passage of time does nothing to mitigate the loss of life and the pain of victims’ families.
We all embrace freedom of expression. Indeed, it is one of the values that make Canada the envy of much of the world. But the glorification of murderers is something that no taxpayer should be forced to subsidize, let alone host at our public institutions.
What’s wrong with Israeli and Palestinian artists showing their work together in a single exhibit and possibly even collaborating on new works of art?Netanyahu urges world: Do not embrace Hamas
Well, that could lead to normalization – the idea that Israel is a “normal” state that can be treated like any other state.
And that, in essence, is what the BDS movement is designed to stamp out, proving once again that BDS is the biggest obstacle to peace and reconciliation.
The latest victim of the anti-normalization campaign is an exhibit in Pittsburgh that would have featured artists from Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Backing a Palestinian unity government "will not strengthen peace, it will strengthen terrorism," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday, urging the international community to object to a future Fatah-Hamas government.13th Anniversary: Dolphinarium – Hamas Suicide Bomber Attack
At the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting, Netanyahu called on the international community "not to run to recognize the Palestinian government of which Hamas is a part and which rests on Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for the destruction of Israel and the international community must not embrace it. This will not strengthen peace; it will strengthen terrorism."
Netanyahu's remarks came one day after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas announced that he expects a joint government of his Fatah party and Hamas Islamists will be announced on June 2, completing a unity deal the sides agreed last month.
On June 1, 2001, a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up in front of Tel Aviv’s Dolphinarium disco on a Friday night.Shin Bet thwarts 11 attempts by security prisoners to orchestrate kidnappings
The terrorist killed 21 children and injured 132 more.
Hamas is now set to be the Palestinian Authority unity partner with the Fatah terrorist group.
Eleven attempts by Palestinian security prisoners to orchestrate kidnappings of Israelis have been thwarted in recent months, the Shin Bet [Israel Security Agency] said Sunday.Rocket fired from Gaza falls in southern Israel
Since September 2013, the Shin Bet and Israel Prison Service uncovered multiple kidnap plots hatched by the security prisoners, who relied on help from Palestinians on the outside.
The plots targeted Israeli soldiers and civilians alike, in order to trade the would-be captives for the release of convicted terrorists.
Palestinians in Gaza fired a rocket early Sunday morning at the Eshkol region in southern Israel.Israel denies Gazan ministers entry to Ramallah
The rocket fell in a field and caused neither casualties nor damage.
Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai, head of COGAT, the IDF’s civil administration in the West Bank, personally denied the ministers’ request, Israel Radio reported Sunday. The unity government is expected to have between 15 and 17 ministers.Abbas expels key Gaza figures from Fatah
Also Sunday, Israeli government sources denied reports that Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah was expected to travel to Washington for meetings with the Obama administration. According to the sources, Israel has been assured by Washington that no invitation has been extended to Hamdallah, contrary to Palestinian reports.
The five – Sufyan Abu Zaida, Majed Abu Shamalah, Nasser Juma’a, Abdel Hamid al-Masri and Rashid Abu Shbak – are all from the Gaza Strip.Ex-Islamist: Hamas, Hezbollah involved in cartoon controversy
Abbas gave no reason for his rare decision to expel the senior officials from Fatah.
However, a source in Ramallah said that the five officials were closely associated with Muhammad Dahlan, a former Fatah operative who was also expelled from the faction three years ago.
A Danish Muslim who played a central role in inciting the riots that followed the 2005-2006 Muhammad cartoon controversy regrets his involvement in the violence, and says it was the result of a conspiracy between Danish imams, Muslim ambassadors, various Muslim countries, and terrorist Islamist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah.America's Nuclear Nightmares: Russia, China, and Soon Iran?
“Denmark became a victim and that has been a cause of much agonizing and soul-searching for me ever since,” Danish Muslim activist Ahmed Akkari said in an interview with Freedom House’s Lars Hvidberg in April.
The interview took place just after the release of Akkari’s book, “My Farewell to Islamism,” in which he describes how he became disillusioned with radical Islam and the violence it spawned in his native Denmark.
American allies fear the Obama Administration will similarly let Iran go nuclear due to a lack of certainty. Not once has the American intelligence community accurately predicted when hostile states have gone nuclear and not once has an American president used military force to stop them from doing so. Six weeks before the Soviets tested their first bomb in August 1949, U.S. intelligence confidently assessed that a Russian test was at least two years away. Twenty-five years later, a postmortem CIA report on its failure to predict India’s “Smiling Buddha” test blamed itself for denying the president the opportunity to try and prevent Indian proliferation. Most recently, the Bush Administration was blindsided by Israeli intelligence showing the existence of a Syrian plutonium reactor. Even then, the United States demurred, ultimately prompting Israel to take actions into its own hands.Elliott Abrams: Iran and the Arab world
Intelligence gathering about purposefully secretive nuclear programs of American enemies is a Sisyphean endeavor. In fact, the major Iranian nuclear facilities of Natanz, Arak, and Fordow were discovered only belatedly by Western intelligence. Blaming the intelligence community and its faulty predictions for instances of nuclear detonation is like blaming the bookie for the race results. While the CIA and others can seek to bound the “known unknowns”, it is the president’s responsibility to decide whether and how to act.
What are Iran's goals in the Arab world? Michael Young, the always insightful opinion editor of Beirut's Daily Star newspaper, wrote this week that Iran has "two sets of contradictory objectives:"Man charged with ties to exiled opposition group executed in Iran
"In some countries where it sees the possibility of controlling the commanding heights of decision-making, the Islamic republic will perpetuate dynamics of unity. Lebanon is a good example.
"However, in countries where political, sectarian and ethnic divisions make this impossible, Iran will exacerbate fragmentation. In that way, it can control chunks of a country, usually the center, while enhancing the marginalization and debilitation of areas not under its authority. Iraq and Syria are good illustrations of this version of creative chaos.
Tehran deems the PMOI a terrorist group. The PMOI, otherwise known as the Mujahidin-e-Khalq (MEK), helped overthrow the Shah during Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution but later broke with Shi'ite Muslim clerics who took power.Arrest of Reformist Journalist Renews Focus on Iranian Human Rights
Amnesty International said Savajani was sentenced in 2010 over alleged PMOI links. The rights group had urged Iran on Saturday not to execute Savajani after what it called an unfair trial in which he was convicted of "enmity against God."
The PMOI, which has an office in Paris, said Savajani's family had been summoned to the jail where he was being held and had been told he would be executed on Sunday morning.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported Wednesday on the arrest of reformist journalist Saba Azarpeik – The Guardian cited “numerous sources” describing her as having been detained by regime security forces – just weeks after a new report published on World Press Freedom Day established Iran as the global leader in incarcerating members of the press.Sudan woman facing death sentence for apostasy to be freed
Vice News had more broadly in early May outlined how “Iran’s horrifying prison conditions are used by authorities as a threat to intimidate journalists”:
A Christian Sudanese woman sentenced to hang for apostasy will be “freed within days,” a foreign ministry official told AFP Saturday, after her case triggered an international outcry.Jewish cemetery desecrated in Thessaloniki, Greece
Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was condemned to death on May 15 under the Islamic sharia law that has been in place since 1983 and outlaws conversions under pain of death.
Vandals broke into the Jewish cemetery in Thessaloniki, Greece, and desecrated several headstones there, the head of the local Jewish community said Friday.Man banned from London district after Nazi salute
According to David Saltiel, who was quoted by Walla News, the unknown assailants cut through the cemetery fence, smashed various ornaments and vases, and knocked down headstones and signage.
A man who gave a Nazi salute and shouted “Heil Hitler” outside a kosher restaurant in London on Holocaust Remembrance Day was banned from the city district for one year.Jewish POW Relayed Intel From Nazis Most Notorious Prison in Coded Letters
Miroslav Ondrus, 33, a Slovakian national, was barred by a London magistrate’s court from the NW11 district of London, which includes the highly Jewish populated neighborhoods of Hampstead and Golders Green.
Captain Julius Morris Green, a Jewish dentist from Glasgow, was captured by the Nazis at Dunkirk in 1940, and imprisoned, from 1941 to 1944, in the infamous Colditz Castle, near Leipzig, where he risked his life to send Britain’s MI9 intelligence service information via encrypted letters to his family, the UK Daily Mail reported on Friday.will.i.am seeks Israeli high-tech investments
A collection of 40 of the coded letters, being auctioned at Bonhams, in Knightsbridge, London, on June 18, is notable because “they highlight an important part of what was going on in World War II,” Simon Roberts, a specialist in the book department at Bonhams, told the Daily Mail.
Seven-time Grammy Award winner-turned-entrepreneur will.i.am is in Israel seeking future high-tech investments. The American rapper of Black Eyed Peas fame is a founding shareholder in Beats Electronics and was appointed a Director of Creative Innovation with Intel in 2011.Israel Daily Picture: Jewish Festivals - Shavuot The Book of Ruth Recreated 100 Years Ago
will.i.am, born William Adams, is reportedly looking for future high-tech investments in Israeli companies and has a slew of meetings set up for that purpose.
The Jewish holiday of Shavuot - Pentecost is celebrated this week. The holiday has several traditional names: Shavuot, the festival of weeks, marking seven weeks after Passover; Chag HaKatzir, the festival of reaping grains; and Chag HaBikkurim, the festival of first fruits. Shavuot, according to Jewish tradition, is the day the Children of Israel accepted the Torah at Mt. Sinai. It is also believed to be the day of King David's birth and death.