Monday, November 16, 2015
Col. Kemp: This is no time for fear. Islamic State must be crushed
It is imperative that France does not succumb to the fear that cowed the Spanish electorate. They should immediately intensify air attacks in Iraq and Syria. But this is not enough. Isis must be eradicated and France cannot do it alone, or with the coalition that has won limited success with half-hearted attacks.JPost Editorial: Fighting for freedom
After 9/11 the US invoked Article 5 of the Nato treaty, which calls on every member to aid a nation under armed attack. As Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, said this weekend: “We have been hit by an act of war, organised methodically by a terrorist, jihadist army.”
Now is the time for concerted Nato action to eradicate Isis. Nato, and its regional allies, must deploy powerful ground and air forces against Isis strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
If the West fails to act decisively, Isis will continue to gain in strength in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. It will continue to recruit and train jihadists from around the world, some of whom will travel to western countries to attack us.
Opinion polls reveal the frightening extent of support for Isis among Muslims everywhere. In the terms used by Osama bin Laden, Isis is the “strong horse”, making a heroic — and successful — stand against the West and apostate Muslim nations.
This support is vital to Isis’s international recruitment as well as its capability to strike at the West. The weakness of Isis must be demonstrated by overwhelming force, and jihadists who wish to destroy our societies shown that we will still fight for our values and freedoms.
The terrorists who indiscriminately massacred innocent Parisians on Friday are seeking specific concessions. But France cannot cave in to these demands. Muslim zealots want to establish a medieval caliphate in place of France’s famed democracy. The liberty, equality and fraternity that protect the artistic expression of publications such as Charlie Hebdo or performers such as the Eagles of Death Metal offend the zealots. But France would cease to be France if it abandoned these principles to appease them.Douglas Murray: Nine conclusions not to draw from the Paris attacks
Applying similar logic to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would result in equally ridiculous conclusions. Palestinians are angry because their repeated attempts – aided by the combined armies of Arab countries or via terrorism – to destroy the Jewish state have failed. But if Israel were to give the Palestinians what they want, Israel would cease to exist as a Jewish state: The “right of return” for millions of Palestinians would endanger the Jewish majority within the pre-1967 lines; a hostile Palestinian state would be established along difficult-to-defend borders that would enable West Bank Palestinians to continue their terrorist attacks as Hamas has done from the Gaza Strip, which Israel evacuated in 2005.
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out, there is a common thread connecting the horrific attacks in Paris to Israel’s fight against Islamic terrorism.
“I expect [international] support for Israel when it fights terrorism,” Netanyahu said after the Paris attacks. “Just as Israel supports France and other countries.... You can’t say these are the good terrorists and these are the bad terrorists.
All terrorists are bad.”
There can be no compromise with the likes of ISIS, Hamas or Hezbollah, because compromise means forfeiting the freedoms that make life worth living. The only choice is to fight.
A huge number of nonsense goes around after atrocities like those in Paris. The media and social media are full of them. I thought it might be helpful to list the worst.
- ‘This attack has nothing to do with Islam’: obviously not true. See here.
- ‘Islam means peace’: Very obviously not true. Incidentally the word actually means ‘submission’. Again see here.
- ‘This attack was an attack on Islam’: No. It was an attack on the people of Paris who were going to watch a football match or a concert or eating in a restaurant.
- ‘MuslimsAreNotTerrorists’: Today’s leading hashtag on Twitter. Again, clearly wrong. While nobody thinks all Muslims are terrorists all the terrorists detonating at the moment are Muslims.
- ‘The vast majority of Muslims condemn actions like this’ / ‘How insulting to expect Muslims to condemn such atrocities’: A poll carried out after the last terrorist attacks in Paris in January found that 27pc of British Muslims felt “some sympathy for the motives behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks” with a further 10pc saying they weren’t sure or wouldn’t say. Sure 68pc agreed that acts of violence against those who publish images of Mohammed can “never be justified”, and that’s a majority. But that 27pc is a problem, no?
Douglas Murray [SML] - How should Britain react to the attacks in Paris
Douglas Murray [LBC] - Paris Aftermath
France's Politically Correct War on Islamic Terror
French leaders consistently act in ways that undermine their stated goal of eradicating Islamic terror.French warplanes bombard Islamic State ‘capital’ in Syria
Critics of the policy say "Daesh" is a politically correct linguistic device that allows Western leaders to claim that the Islamic State is not Islamic -- and thus ignore the root cause of Islamic terror and militant jihad.
French leaders have also been consistently antagonistic toward Israel, a country facing Islamic terror on a daily basis. France is leading international diplomatic efforts to push for a UN resolution that would lead to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within a period of two years. The move effectively whitewashes Palestinian terror.
French critics of Islam are routinely harassed with strategic lawsuits that seek to censor, intimidate and silence them. In a recent case, Sébastien Jallamion, a 43-year-old policeman from Lyon was suspended from his job and fined 5,000 euros after he condemned the death of Frenchman Hervé Gourdel, who was beheaded by jihadists in Algeria.
French fighter jets on Sunday bombarded the Syrian city of Raqqa — a major stronghold and self-declared capital of the radical Islamic State group — destroying a command post and a training camp, France’s Defense Ministry said.What France Can Learn from Israel in Confronting Islamist Terror
According to AFP, 12 warplanes, including 10 fighter bombers, dropped 20 bombs on the targets.
“The first target destroyed was used by Daesh (another Arabic acronym for IS) as a command post, jihadist recruitment centre and arms and munitions depot. The second held a terrorist training camp,” a ministry statement said.
The planes left from Jordan and the United Arab Emirates and was conducted in coordination with American forces, the ministry said.
The airstrike comes two days after French President Francois Hollande vowed to attack the Islamic State group without mercy as the jihadist group admitted responsibility Saturday for orchestrating the deadliest attacks on France since World War II.
As my French friends, colleagues, and acquaintances agonize over what is to be done in the aftermath of the Paris attacks, the best advice I can think of is to look at Israel.Rubio: Israel, Europe, US in same fight against terrorism
This tragedy was not “France’s 9/11.” Al-Qaeda effectively depleted its stateside human assets in that attack and never regained the ability to strike the American heartland. This is France’s Al-Aqsa Intifada – unfortunately, more of the same is absolutely going to follow. Whatever one’s political predisposition to Israeli counterterrorism policies may be, its success fighting Islamist terror over the past two decades is the only real-world model for overcoming the specific challenges France now faces.
Here are some of the main takeaways.
First, it’s time to sacrifice some freedoms of convenience. Most Israelis don’t know what it’s like to walk into a mid-size concert venue of the kind targeted in France without passing through a metal detector and their government intends to keep it that way. They may gripe about it, but they would feel less free if their government wasn’t inconveniencing them on a daily basis.
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio said Israel’s fight against terrorism is the same one being fought by the United States and Europe.The jihadis’ master plan to break us
The Florida senator spoke in Miami Beach during a large rally in support of Israel and against anti-Semitism.
He said the threat to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv is the same as the threat to Paris, London and US cities.
And Rubio warned against “casting out one of our own”— meaning Israel — in hopes of appeasing jihadis.
He was joined at the rally by Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and other top Florida lawmakers.
The “Never Again” rally was organized by major Jewish organizations to bring attention to attacks on Israel and to commemorate the 77th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass.
Terrorism is a beast with an extraordinary ability to mutate. As soon as its victims have learned to cope with its methods, it develops new ones. Groups of anarchists throwing bombs follow the lone assassin who targets a king or a political leader. The hijacking of passenger jets is replaced by the transformation of aircraft into missiles against fixed buildings. All the time, the intention is to terrorize the largest number of people, eroding the ordinary man’s confidence in the ability of the authorities to protect him, and, in the long run, persuading a majority of the people, who just want to live their lives, to trade their freedom for the security that the terrorist promises in his utopia.The Paris Attacks: Former CIA Chief Weighs In
Paris was attacked not because of what the French do, as some blame-the-West intellectuals claim, but because of what the French are: infidels who refuse to see the light of Islam. The hope is that just as the Prophet forced the Arab tribes to accept Islam in exchange for protection, the “infidel” nations will also decide that it is in their best interest to submit.
Today, however, I see no sign the French tend toward submission. As always, the terrorists may end up like the man who, having won a great many tokens at the roulette table, is surprised when the casino tells him his winnings cannot be cashed.
Have we reached a state of “global war?” After Europe’s deadliest terror siege in more than a decade — with multiple attacks in central Paris, and the death toll reaching 129 when this story went live — it’s fair to worry that the Islamic State has spread its deadly tentacles far beyond Syria and Iraq.Andrew Bolt: Sack the Mufti now. No, the Paris massacre wasn’t the fault of the West
For months, the Islamic State has ravaged the Middle East, gassing civilians, beheading innocents and unleashing such terror that millions of refugees have fled to Europe for a semblance of safety. The events of Friday night — bombings, point-blank executions and random shootings — have reverberated far beyond the City of Lights, as has the fear.
What it all means is this: It’s time for the West, including the United States, to come to grips with the terrorist threat. That’s according to former acting CIA director John McLaughlin, who is also a longtime OZY columnist. In an interview hours after the Paris attacks, McLaughlin weighed in on a bevy of questions, from whether a frightened citizenry should travel to the big one: Can we win this?
The statement is a disgrace. Worse, it is dangerous and ominous.The Bolt Report - In Aftermath Of Paris Attacks (h/t IsraellyCool)
According to the Mufti and his imams, the main “causative factors” behind the kind of terrorism visited on Paris have nothing to do with the Koran. They have nothing to do even with interpretations of the Koran.
In fact, even the Islamic State - which claimed credit for the mass-murder - is not mentioned as a “causative factor”. There is no mention of Muslim agency in the slaughter whatsoever. No mention even of the Muslim countries, like Iran and Saudi Arabia, which sponsor extremists and terrorists.
There is only that familiar and lethal victimology - an accusation that the horrors unleashed in Paris and elsewhere are driven by the cruelty the West inflicts on Muslims.
And so, according to this statement, to defend ourselves we must abandon the Jews of Israel, and - it seems - stop fighting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. We must drop our security guard. We must stop being suspicious of the faith followed by the Paris terrorists and so many others. We must blame ourselves, and not them. Nowhere in the statement is any obligation imposed on Muslims to change, reform their faith, assimilate or show loyalty to their fellow citizens.
Sack the Mufti now. Sack the national council of imams. Those who hope for our Muslim leaders to take responsibility for reforming their faith are hoping in vain.
The Prime Minister must address this scandalous response.
AP: Paris Suspect Saleh Abdeslam Questioned and Released Hours After Attacks
Four French officials have told The Associated Press that police questioned and released the fugitive suspect hours after the Paris attacks.Hunt for the ISIS poster boy who planned the Paris massacres: Belgian terror chief once recruited his 13-year-old brother to fight for jihadis in Syria and posed smiling next to decapitated bodies
The questioning came when police pulled over a car near the Belgian border, hours after authorities had already identified Saleh Abdeslam as the renter of a Volkswagen Polo that was abandoned at the scene of the attack.
Abdeslam is now the focus of an international manhunt. One of his brothers detonated a suicide vest in central Paris and another was ultimately detained in Belgium.
He was one of three people in a car stopped by police Saturday morning, hours after the attacks that left at least 129 dead, the officials said.
Three French police officials and a top French security official confirmed all that officers stopped Abdeslam and checked his ID and then let him go.
The mastermind behind the Paris terror attacks was today named as one of ISIS' top executioners who even recruited his 13-year-old brother to fight with him in Syria.French police seize a ROCKET LAUNCHER and huge cache of weapons in Lyon as more than 150 pre-dawn raids are made across the country and at least five held
Belgian extremist Abdelhamid Abaaoud, 27, is one of the world's most wanted war criminals and is believed to have persuaded thousands of young jihadis to come to Syria, including his teenage brother Younes, ISIS' youngest fanatic.
Abaaoud, who has regularly posed with bodies he decapitated and was seen in Greece in January but evaded arrest, was also linked to the thwarted high speed train attack earlier this year and church attacks around Paris.
His own father reported him to the police for grooming his younger brother as an extremist as well as encouraging him to fake his own death and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in absentia by the Belgian courts this year.
He is from the Brussels district of Molenbeek, known as the 'jihadi capital of Europe', where the eight-strong killer squad who murdered 129 people in Paris on Friday are believed to have collected automatic weapons and suicide vests before driving into France in rented cars.
French police have seized a rocket launcher and a huge cache of weapons in Lyon after they launched a series of coordinated anti-terrorism raids across the country this morning following the deadly attacks in Paris on Friday.Report: Terrorist Was RESCUED from 'Refugee' Boat
Heavily armed tactical units launched 168 pre-dawn raids at addresses in Toulouse, Lyon, Grenoble, Calais and two suburbs of Paris.
A rocket launcher, flak jackets, several pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle were among the cache of weapons seized in Lyon overnight.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said 104 people have been placed under house arrest, while 23 suspects have been detained for questioning.
He said: 'It's just a start, these operations are going to continue, the response of the Republic will be huge, will be total. The one who targets the Republic, the Republic will catch him, will be implacable.'
Meanwhile, French security sources said a fourth terrorist has been identified as Samy Amimour, 28, after raids on addresses linked to his family in the Parisian suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis and Bobigny. He is believed to be among four terrorists who killed 89 people at the Bataclan rock gig.
One of the terrorists involved in the horrific attacks in Paris on Friday evening was reportedly rescued by Greek authorities from a refugee boat that sank off the coast of Greece last month.Mother of Paris suicide bomber says her son did not mean to kill anyone... and claims he may have blown himself up because of STRESS
The UK Mirror, citing Serbian and Greek media sources, says that 25-year-old Ahmed Almuhamed and another family member were rescued October 3. They were processed as refugees, but there had been no way to verify whether their identity documents were real. They were transferred to another vessel and continued their journey.
CNN reported Sunday morning on Fareed Zakaria: GPS that at least one, and as many as three, of the terrorists in the attacks reached Europe among the flood of Syrian “refugees.”
The mother of a Paris suicide bomber says her son 'did not mean to kill anyone' - and claims he may have blown himself up because of stress.Bennett: It’s either Israel or ISIS in the West Bank
Ibrahim Abdeslam, 31, launched a solo attack outside the cafe Comptoir Voltaire, close to the scene of the Bataclan concert hall massacre on Friday night.
Police missed their chance to bring in his brother, Salah, when he was questioned as he crossed the border to Belgium after the attacks. He is now the object of a massive international manhunt.
Today Ibrahim's mother suggested his suicide jacket may have gone off by accident and said he could have carried out the attack because he was 'stressed'.
ISIS would move into any area that Israel would vacate in the West Bank, Education Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday as he warned against the creation of a Palestinian state and attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his support of such an idea.Report: Israeli intel links Paris to Beirut bombings, Russian plane
“Either you will be here, or ISIS,” will be here Bennett said as he spoke to students in Ariel University, which is located in the Samaria region of the West Bank.
He made his statement as the international community continued to reel from the six consecutive ISIS linked terror attacks in Paris on Friday night, in which over 130 people were killed.
“A Palestinian“A Palestinian state will never be established in the heart of the Land of Israel,” he added.
state in Samaria is a strategic mistake that must be uprooted,” Bennett said.
Bennett distinguished the views of his party, which opposes a Palestinian state, from that of the Netanyahu led government and parties in the opposition.
Israel's intelligence services saw a "clear operational link" between the Paris attacks, Thursday's Beirut suicide bombings, and the Oct. 31 downing of a Russian airliner in Egypt, Israel's Channel 2 quoted an unnamed official as saying.Panicked Parisians turn to Facebook made-in-Israel tech
Israel said on Sunday said it was helping France investigate the Paris attacks, and Israeli media suggested that intelligence being provided drew on surveillance of militant groups in Syria and Iraq.
According to Channel 2 news, Israel had no advance warning of the Paris attacks, but within hours of it happening was able to give France details on some of the Islamic State terrorists believed to have carried them out.
A Western diplomat said last year that Israel was providing the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State with information gleaned from international travel databases about Western citizens suspected of joining the insurgents.
Two of the attackers who brought carnage to Paris were French nationals living in Belgium, officials said on Sunday, as a row over Europe's refugee crisis reignited, with conservatives demanding an end to "the days of uncontrolled immigration."
In the wake of the Paris terror attacks, Israeli technology did its bit to help reassure the panicked citizens of Paris that their loved ones were safe.80% of French Jews considering aliyah
“During the 24 hours after the terror attack, 4.1 million people checked in with friends and relatives using Facebook Safety Check, a technology developed by Facebook Israel’s research and development department,” said a spokesperson for Facebook Israel. “A total of 360 million people received messages that their loved ones were safe.”
Safety Check is a feature that Facebook has activated several times in the past, usually for natural disasters. The Paris attacks were the first time it was used to enable people to “check in” and let others know they were safe in a terror attack scenario. Facebook made that announcement in response to widespread criticism in the blogosphere about how the service had not been used in previous terror incidents in places like Baghdad, Beirut, and Kabul.
Dr. Michael Bensaadon, director of the "Klita" umbrella organization for NGOs working to help French Jews immigrate to Israel, is calling on the government of Israel to prepare for a massive wave of aliyah from France following the Paris attacks on Saturday.Christian-Jewish Group Sends Emergency Aid to French Jewry, Pledges Aliyah Support
Bensaadon told Arutz Sheva about a report his group is preparing regarding the unique needs of French olim immigrating to Israel, and the anticipated increase in their numbers.
The upcoming escalation in aliyah can be predicting from the rise in immigration seen until now and the deteriorating situation in France, as well as from telling opinion polls among French Jewry.
No less than 7,000 French immigrants arrived in 2014, and "this wave will yet strengthen" he says, noting on the number of requests to make aliyah being received.
Polls in the French Jewish community show that approximately 80% are considering making aliyah to Israel. While not all will likely actually take the step, the number signifies a massive shift in consciousness and portends a huge increase in aliyah.
There are around half a million Jews in France now, notes Bensaadon. He explained that another million or so who are not Jewish according to Jewish law are extended the right to make aliyah given the presence of a Jewish grandparent or spouse, but this group is not figured into the poll and also does not intend to leave France.
Following Friday’s Islamist terror attacks that killed at least 132 people, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews said Sunday that it is providing immediate emergency aid of more than $86,000 to 25 synagogues and schools run by the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement across France.Op-ed in official PA daily: Israel carried out Paris attacks
The aid — which will be used to add security guards and more sophisticated security systems at the French Jewish institutions — marks the latest phase of more than $1 million in security support that the Fellowship has been providing to Chabad institutions worldwide, including in Argentina, Brazil, China, Cypress, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Nepal, Spain, Thailand and India.
“Amid the horrific terror attacks in Paris, it is critical that we help better protect French-Jewish communal institutions, which have been targets in the past,” said Fellowship President Rabbi YechielEckstein.
“The last few days have been living hell for the citizens of France, and especially for the Jews of Paris….Rabbi Eckstein was the first to approach us, seeking to immediately solve any security issues we may have. We do not have words sufficiently strong to express our gratitude,” said Rabbi Mendel Azimov, the director of Chabad of Paris.
A Sunday opinion piece in the official Palestinian Authority daily al-Hayat al-Jadida blamed Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency for Friday’s deadly terror attacks in Paris, suggesting they were orchestrated in order to undermine new European moves promoting a two-state solution and providing for the clear labeling of produce from Israeli West Bank settlements.Andrew Bolt: Mahathir blames Jews for the Paris slaughter
The op-ed was translated by Palestinian Media Watch, a media monitoring group.
“It is not a coincidence that human blood was exploded in Paris at the same time that certain European sanctions are beginning to be implemented against settlement products, and while France leads Europe in advising the [UN] Security Council that will implement the two-state solution, Palestine and Israel — which the Israelis see as a warning of sudden danger coming from the direction of Europe, where the Zionist, occupying, settling endeavor was born…” the piece states.
“The wise and correct thing is to look for who benefits,” the op-ed continues. “In short: They need to search the last place reached by the octopus arms of the Mossad… It is clear that its ‘Mossad’ will burn Beirut and Paris in order to achieve [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s goals. He, who challenged the master of the White House, hides in his soul enough evil to burn the world.”
Lethal, vicious madness:Israel condemns ‘hostile’ Swedish comments linking Paris attacks to Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Former [Malaysian] prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has blamed Israel for the deadly Paris attacks last night, saying that the creation of the Jewish state was the cause.
The state of Israel was established in 1948 in the aftermath of a war with the Arabs.
“Before that, there were no such terrorist attacks anywhere, not even in the Middle East,” said Mahathir.
Seriously? Are these terrorists so utterly without reason that hatred of Israeli Jews makes them slaughter French Christians?
Is Mahathir seriously suggesting his fellow Muslims are so brainless?
To think this Jew-hater was once prime minister of Malaysia.
After the Paris attacks, Wallstrom was asked the following question on Swedish television.Minnesota Democrat's Shocking ISIS Tweet: They're Just Doing What They Think Is Best
“How worried are you about the radicalization of young people in Sweden who are fighting for ISIS?”
According to translation provided by the Foreign Ministry, Wallstrom answered, “Obviously, we have reason to be worried, not just in Sweden but across the world — because there are so many that are being radicalized. Here, once again, we are brought back to situations like the one in the Middle East, where not least, the Palestinians see that there is not a future. We must either accept a desperate situation or resort to violence.”
The Swedish Foreign Ministry issued a clarification about the interview, denying that the foreign minister had linked the Paris attacks to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. "In the interview which is referred to, no implication or reference was made that implied that the Israeli Palestinian conflict had any relevance for the tragic events in Paris. We condemn all acts of terror. We must now unite as democracies to fight for our common values in these challenging times."
But the [Israeli] Foreign Ministry on Monday said it felt her comments did indeed make that link.
“Those who engage in hopeless attempts to link the terror attacks by Islamic extremists with the difficulties between Israelis and Palestinians are misleading themselves as well as the public opinion of their country and the international community,” the Foreign Ministry stated.
Wallstrom’s words that connected the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the Paris attacks were “brazen” and “shocking,” the Foreign Ministry said.
“The Swedish Minister is systematically biased and one-sided against Israel,” the Foreign Ministry said, as it explained that this latest statement was outrightly “hostile.”
On Saturday there was plenty to be outraged by on social media in the wake of the attacks in Paris on Friday night, but one Tweet from a Democrat in Minnesota pretty much takes the cake for absurdity from a non-Salon source.Merch Manager for Eagles of Death Metal Killed in Paris Attack
Dan Kimmel is running as a member of the Democrat-Famer-Labor Party for State Representative and is unopposed in the Democratic primary. He also had something to say about ISIS this weekend.
ISIS isn't necessarily evil. It is made up of people doing what they think is best for their community. Violence is not the answer, though.Doing what is best for their community. Well of course, right? Much like the Rotary Club or those guys who wear fezzes at parades.
The worst part is how one can really see how he came to Tweet this. It's a logical extension of the politically correct pronouncements Democrats routinely make. He probably thought he'd be praised for being so open-minded and tolerant. 'One man's terrorist' and all that. He's playing the Democrat game of tolerance one-upsmanship and feeling good and pious and liberal and the next thing you know he's just called murdering 150 people a misguided, good-faith attempt at "improving the community."
Nick Alexander, the merchandise manager for the rock band Eagles of Death Metal, was among the scores killed at the Bataclan theater Friday night during the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, France. He was 36.Eagles of Death Metal Cancel Tour, Come Home
“It is with huge sorrow that we can confirm that our beloved Nick lost his life at the Bataclan last night,” Alexander’s family said in a statement. “Nick was not just our brother, son and uncle; he was everyone’s best friend–generous, funny and fiercely loyal. Nick died doing the job he loved and we take great comfort in knowing how much he was cherished by his friends around the world. Thank you for your thoughts and respect for our family at this difficult time. Peace and light.”
The Eagles of Death Metal, the California rock group that was performing in Paris at the Bataclan music hall on Friday when Islamic terrorists entered and slaughtered 89 people, will return to the United States and truncate their European tour, according to Agence France-Presse.After Paris attack, Eagles of Death Metal confirm Israel return
Although members of the band survived the assault, their British merchandise manager, Nick Alexander, was murdered. Rolling Stone reported that Alexander had also worked the merchandise table for the Black Keys and the Disco as they toured Europe.
Eagles of Death Metal, which plays bluesy garage rock, comes from Palm Desert. According to AFP, the band’s lyrics and shows “are often known for lasciviousness, with the two men seeing themselves in the tradition of sex, drugs and rock and roll.”
The band’s European tour was scheduled to run through December 10, ending in Portugal. The next concert by the band had been scheduled for Saturday night in Tourcoing, followed by a concert in Brussels.
Another California band, The Deftones, was at the Bataclan concert hall when the assault occurred; they will be heading back to the United States.
The American rock band whose Paris concert was targeted on Friday in a deadly terror rampage has reaffirmed its intentions to perform in Israel this summer, the Ynet news site reported Sunday.Paris media ignoring Israeli solidarity events
The Eagles of Death Metal were on stage Friday night at Paris’s Bataclan theater when Islamic State terrorists marched in and opened fire on the crowd, killing 89 fans before eventually being stopped by a police raid.
The attack was the deadliest of a multi-pronged assault that left 129 people dead and over 300 injured Friday night.
Band members were not hurt in the attack, but three crew members were killed.
Israeli producers have been in touch with the band since the attack, the Israeli news site reports. The show’s Israeli producer Shuki Weiss was told the band would return in summer 2016.
French media is reporting extensively about events held worldwide in identification with the country's grief following Saturday's terrorist massacre in Paris. However, solidarity events in Israel have not been reported on, wrote respected journalist and author Eldad Beck, an expert on the Middle East and Europe, on his Facebook page Sunday night.PreOccupiedTerritory: New Israel Fund Grantees Pool Money For Defense Of Paris Suspects (satire)
"Several French citizens whom I wanted to interview in the last few days refused to speak to me after I presented myself as an Israeli journalist," he revealed. "One of them explained to me: 'I don't want my words to be used for political aims.'"
"To all those who think that the French will feel closer to Israel after the latest terror attacks, please remember what happened in the world after September 11, 2001," Beck added. "There is terror in the world, and there is what happens in Israel. It is a totally different matter."
Beck added sarcastically Monday morning that "at long last" Israel has been mentioned in the French press, in the aftermath of the terror attacks - when BFM Radio cited a study that was done in Israel during the great terror war of 2000-2005 (the 'Second Intifada'), according to which extensive casualties from terror lead to greater popular consumption, because people see no reason to save money when death appears to loom around the corner. "Jews and money," he noted, "the old story…"
Civil society organizations receiving funding from the New Israel Fund will contribute to a central kitty to be used to help pay for the legal defense of those accused in this past weekend’s massacres in Paris, which left 132 dead.PreOccupiedTerritory: Report: Islam A Mossad Plot To Make Muslims Look Bad (satire)
The NIF announced an initiative today to help its grantees support the suspects in the coordinated shooting and bombing attacks Friday night, noting that many of the Fund’s recipients wished to do something constructive to show solidarity but were thwarted by the NIF’s standard grant conditions limiting expenditure of grant money to within Israel’s 1949 boundaries. In response to the extenuating circumstances, NIF Executive Director in Israel Rachel Liel said the organization had received approval from stateside headquarters to make a temporary exception to that provision.
“It is crucial that our grantees be free to express their political opinions and aspirations without restraint,” said Liel. “While under normal circumstances we are bound by the terms we lay out to our donors, which call specifically for social change within Israel, the executive board approved this measure so that an issue dear to the hearts of so many of our grantee organizations can receive at least some of the support it deserves.” She said the NIF expected to collect upwards of $700,000 from its grantees and other concerned parties in Israel.
The key documents, said Lousr, actually lie outside the Islamic canon, which is perhaps why the information proved so elusive to date. “There are several pre-Islamic works, some obviously Jewish, that discuss the unsustainable nature of a world view based on never-ending conquest and acquisition. The line from there to the straightforward Islamic objectives of conquest and acquisition – and the initial Islamic success in those pursuits, followed by gradual decay and failure – cannot but raise suspicions that somebody knew something about the process in advance, and I hardly need tell you who that somebody will always be.”Muslim World To Celebrate Release Of One Millionth Anti-Terrorism Fatwa In Anticipation Of Next Atrocity (satire)
“Really, you have to admire the ingenuity,” said Tayep Erdogan, a member of the team. “One of the hallmarks of people buffeted by failure, desperate to avoid its attendant shame, is to concoct elaborate conspiracy theories that, while they provide some psychic salve, ultimately drive home the fact that powerful outside forces control events and we Muslims are powerless to control anything. It’s disempowering in a big way, and keeps Muslims from any concerted effort to throw off the yoke of oppression. It’s all but inevitable that people facing such crushing shame will resort to desperately violent, brutal means to negate it and assert some sort of impact on their lives, if not world affairs. It looks terrible.”
“Of course, if Muslims had any free will, this all could have been avoided,” he noted.
From Riyadh to Tehran to Karachi and across the globe the Muslim world stands united in celebration of the pending release of the One Millionth Anti-Terrorism Fatwa.Israel filing UN complaint claiming Red Crescent ignored terror victims
To mark the occasion authorities have withheld the Fatwa’s formal release until the next major terror attack.
Said spokesman Muhammad Bin Muhammad of the Anti-Terrorism Fatwa Issuance Committee; “We were really looking forward to this Fatwa being issued in response to a major terror attack like Paris, but the Fatwa was not complete in time. With luck more infidel blood will be spilled soon in a western capital so the fatwa will be forever linked to a deserving occasion worthy of our religion, but as in all things Allah knows best.”
This reporter pointedly asked Bin Muhammad how he handled criticism of the so-called “Anti-Terrorism Fatwa Industry” to which he replied in typically candid fashion:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations to lodge a complaint over a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance that allegedly ignored wounded and dead Israelis after a terrorist attack in the West Bank on Friday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday.Toddler burned by firebomb leaves hospital
Danny Danon’s complaint to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon comes after Netanyahu said Friday that Israel was prepared to take steps against the Red Crescent Society — a member of the Geneva-based umbrella humanitarian aid organization — for breaching the organization’s mandate to assist all victims of armed conflicts, the Ynet news site reported.
After the shooting attack on Friday that killed Rabbi Yaakov Litman and his 18-year-old son Netanel, the family’s 16-year-old son called Israel’s emergency service to report the attack, and told the Magen David Adom operator that a Red Crescent ambulance happened to be driving by and saw the injured family, but declined to stop and help them.
Tahel Sofer, 3, who was injured by a firebomb near Beit El three weeks ago, was released Sunday from Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem.Fearing Home Demolition, Palestinian Father Turns in Terrorist Son
Uriel and Sigal Sofer, residents of Nitzan in the south, were traveling in their family car with three of their children, Tair, 11, Matan, 10, and Tahel, when they were ambushed.
"The firebombs smashed the rear windshield where Tahel was sitting," Sigal recounted afterward. "They fell on Tahel's seat and immediately, everything was burning. Tahel's dress, Tahel herself, her hair. The two children who were sitting next to her were also a little burned. My husband kept going a little to get away, and we stopped the car.
"It was frightening to see Tahel and everything else burning, and we were afraid that the car would also catch fire and explode. We got out of the car and pulled the seat out and we took her clothes off and put out the fire.
A Palestinian terrorist was turned into Israeli security forces Sunday by his own father, who feared that harboring his son would result in the demolition of the family home.3 Palestinians killed in gunfire exchange with IDF
Ahmad Matua, 28, of Hebron, is suspected of killing Rabbi Ya’akov Litman, 40, and his 18-year-old son Netanel, and injuring several others, in a shooting attack near Hebron on Friday.
The Shin Bet security agency has arrested a dozen suspects in connection with the attack. Matua reportedly bragged to his brother that he had carried out the shooting. His brother then told their father, who decided to turn his son into Israeli authorities.
The father reported his son’s actions to soldiers stationed at one of the checkpoints near Hebron. They relayed the information to the Shin Bet, and Matua, an Islamic Jihad sympathizer, was arrested in a joint operation involving the IDF’s Judea Division, the Duvdevan special forces, and the Shin Bet.
Three Palestinians were reportedly killed and three others were wounded in clashes with Israeli troops north of Jerusalem early Monday morning.450 liters of chemicals used in rocket production uncovered on way to Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces said troops entered the Qalandiya refugee camp to demolish the home of Palestinian terrorist Muhammad Abu Shahin, who had shot and killed Danny Gonen and wounded another Israeli civilian near the community of Dolev in Samaria in June.
The IDF said Palestinians opened fire at the Israeli forces, and the Israeli troops returned fire. Hundreds of Palestinians also attacked the soldiers with firebombs and rocks. The IDF confirmed three "hits."
The Palestinian officials said one Palestinian was taken into Israeli custody and 20 people were wounded. No Israeli soldiers were reported wounded in the incident.
A Palestinian truck was discovered smuggling hundreds of liters of the banned substance TDI, with the intention of transporting the goods to the Gaza Strip, the Defense Ministry revealed on Monday.Spanish judge issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Liberman, others
The truck, which was crossing from the West Bank into Israel through the Tarqumia Crossing, was registered as carrying a delivery of "soybean oil." The vehicle aroused the suspicion of inspectors from the crossings authority of the Defense Ministry, and a preliminary chemical test on the oil containers discovered an unidentified substance.
The material was then formally confiscated and sent to a lab for detailed testing, where it became clear that the dual-use material type TDI, prohibited from entering the Gaza Strip, was the liquid inside the containers.
TDI is a banned substance because it serves as a central component of rocket fuel, and is used in an array of Hamas and Islamic Jihad's rocket arsenal in Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seven other former and current government officials may be at risk of arrest over the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla raid if they step foot on Spanish soil after a judge, late last week, drew up warrants.
Others who might face arrest include former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman; current and former defense ministers Moshe Ya’alon and Ehud Barak, respectively; former interior minister Eli Yishai; former intelligence minister Dan Meridor; and minster-without-portfolio Bennie Begin. Together with Netanyahu, they make up the so-called Forum of Seven, an ad hoc committee of ministers that made key decisions on security issues at the time. Former head of the Navy Eliezer Marom, the top IDF commander running the operation at the time, also could face arrest.
“We consider it [the judge’s order] to be a provocation. We are working with the Spanish authorities to get it canceled. We hope it will be over soon,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon said Saturday night.
The Prime Minister’s Office and the Justice Ministry had not responded by press time Sunday.
