Friday, January 27, 2017
Caroline Glick: Israel’s moment of decision
Over the past week we were given new evidence of what many assumed for years. Former president Barack Obama and his administration weren’t interested in bringing peace to the Middle East. They were interested in harming Israel.Ruthie Blum: The ‘Optics’ of Dead Jews
Last Friday, Makor Rishon published an interview with former Foreign Ministry director general Dore Gold. Gold told the paper that Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice once said, “Even if Israel and the Palestinians reach an accord, it’s possible that the US will oppose it.”
Rice said the US would oppose any deal that it felt didn’t do justice to the Palestinians.
Rice’s statement is significant not merely because it shows the depth of Obama’s hostility. It is important because it tells us the truth about the so-called “two-state solution.”
Rice’s statement showed that Western pressure for Israeli concessions to the PLO isn’t geared toward making peace between the parties at all. It is about retribution.
Columnist Peter Beinart warned this week that “unless they change course, [US President] Donald Trump and [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu are going to get Jews killed.”Edgar Davidson: Muslim and Jewish refugees: spot the difference
Writing in The Forward about Palestinian threats of violence in response to Israel’s authorization of 2,500 new housing units in existing settlements, and discussions in Washington over a possible move of the American Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Beinart hastily added that, “of course,” neither leader wants Jewish blood to flow.
Nor, he said, was he “trying to detract from the primary moral responsibility of those Palestinians who detonate bombs or shoot guns or stab with knives. Palestinian terrorism is inexcusable. It always has been. It always will be.”
And then he got to the crux of the piece: If Netanyahu ignores the assessments of Israeli security experts — as well as the saber-rattling of a member of the Jordanian government and chief Palestinian “peace” negotiator Saeb Erekat — he will be just as guilty of the terrorism that is sure to ensue as those who perpetrated it.
Given the media's renewed obsession for claiming that the current 'refugee crisis' is just like the Jewish refugees of the 1930's I thought it was important to update this previous post/graphic.
The current migrant crisis is terrible and tragic, but has been caused exclusively by Muslim wars and violence*****. Moreover, for reasons I pointed out in this article, attempts to draw analogies to Jewish refugees during the holocaust are wrong and insulting, as are exhortations that Jews must be especially welcoming of the refugees. Perhaps this table (click to enlarge) will make things clearer for those who do not understand the reality.
UN Watch: Why President Obama Should Have Vetoed Resolution 2334
Resolution 2334 will retard rather than advance the case of peace. It makes it much harder for Palestinian leaders to make the serious concessions they would have to make to achieve a negotiated agreement. And on the Israeli side, it will be used as proof that the entire world is hopelessly biased against the Jewish state so they should just circle the wagons and wait until the likes of ISIS and Al Qaeda prove their point rather than trying to accommodate critics who can never be satisfied. In short, this resolution strengthens the hardliners on both sides and cuts the legs out from under the moderates.
Some may say it is unfair to blame President Obama. After all, America abstained and the resolution was unanimously approved by the other 14 Security Council members. However (even aside from evidence that America’s involvement in this resolution was anything but passive), where Israel is concerned America has always been the only honest broker at the UN.
As Secretary General Ban Ki Moon recently acknowledged with shame, the UN is riddled with anti-Israel bias. The Security Council is no exception, with the usual array of self-serving power players positioning themselves for global or regional influence, hypocrites seeking to divert attention from their own deplorable human rights records, appeasers afraid of the growing Muslim communities in their own countries, bloc followers and vote sellers.
Saddest of all are what Lenin might have called the “useful idiots,” decent but distant countries like New Zealand and Japan who, although not immune to peer pressure, may actually have thought that all they were doing was registering their disagreement with Israel’s settlement policy and encouraging the parties to negotiate. All the free riders at the UN know that they can comfortably vote their own self-interest when it comes to the Middle East because America “has Israel’s back” to use Obama’s own phrase. So it is not unfair to lament how he wielded his veto power. Et tu, Barack?
It is sad that this abstention heard around the world, along with the decimation of the Syrian people, a nuclear Iran and a revanchist Russia, will be Obama’s primary foreign policy legacies.
Netanyahu: World’s silence on Iran’s threats to destroy Israel will end with Trump
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated his long-held belief on Thursday that Iran poses the “greatest danger” to Israel and predicted that the world’s silence in the face of the Islamic Republic’s threats to annihilate the Jewish state will end now that US President Donald Trump is in office.A Jerusalem embassy? Liberals shouldn't worry; the western part of the city is part of Israel, anyway you cut it
Speaking at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem in an address for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Netanyahu said “the greatest danger that we face, of hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state … comes from Iran. It comes from the ayatollah regime that is fanning [the] flames [of anti-Semitism] and calling outright for the destruction of the Jewish state.”
Netanyahu lashed out bitterly at the world’s “deafening silence” when the Iranian regime “merely calls to wipe out every Israeli,” and expressed confidence that this approach would change with Trump as president. “I believe it will change,” he said.
Netanyahu referenced the phone call earlier this week between the two leaders in which they discussed the Iranian nuclear deal, a source of tension between Netanyahu and former president Barack Obama, among a host of other issues.
President Trump appears to be taking steps to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; the White House confirmed this past weekend that it is in the early stages of preparing for relocation. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat seemed confident enough to announce assurances that “the embassy move is done seamlessly and efficiently.”Expert on US Plan to Cut Funding to International Bodies: In Trump Era, Palestinians Will Pay a Price for Peace Rejectionism
I applaud the President and believe those who share my progressive credentials should as well.
Moving the embassy to Israel’s capital is not some right-wing apocalyptic scheme designed to sink the possibility of Middle East peace, as suggested by some. In fact, not only has the move to Jerusalem enjoyed broad bipartisan support for decades, but it began as a liberal initiative. I should know, as I am honored to have played a small but meaningful role in its development.
The year was 1972, and George McGovern was the 500-to-1 long-shot liberal candidate campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. As early supporters of his candidacy, my friend Hilly Gross and I were asked at a meeting of key advisers to help hammer out elements for a McGovern Middle East program.
White House may not move U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem
We drafted an outline of principles, one of which was that the United States should recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there. Soon thereafter, McGovern enunciated this policy as his own.
The Trump administration’s reported plan to cut funding to international bodies that give full membership to the Palestinian Authority or Palestinian Liberation Organization indicates a “change in direction” in US-Israel ties, the Hebrew news site nrg reported on Thursday, citing three Israeli international relations experts.Trump: ‘Too early’ to talk of moving embassy to Jerusalem
The significance of new President Donald Trump’s intended move, Professor Eytan Gilboa — the director of Bar-Ilan University’s Center for International Communication — told nrg, will be that “no international organization will cooperate with the Palestinians, because no group will want to fight the US.”
“Trump is closing the valve to the Palestinians,” Gilboa continued. “This is a new and powerful declaration.”
In the Trump era, Gilboa predicted, the Palestinians will pay a price for rejectionism.
“Trump says: ‘If you don’t come and start to talk, I’ll allow settlement construction and move the embassy to Jerusalem’ …Trump acts as a businessman with an understanding of profits and losses,” Gilboa stated.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday that it was “too early” to discuss moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a potentially politically fraught plan that has been welcomed by Israel’s government and sparked threats from the Palestinians and parts of the Arab world.Democratic Senator holds up resolution condemning UN
“I don’t want to talk about it yet. It’s too early,” Trump told Fox News pundit Sean Hannity in a far-ranging interview from the White House that also touched on banning refugees, his plan for a wall along the Mexican border and his support for a return to the use of torture.
The president on Thursday also declined to discuss his reported freeze on a $221 million transfer to the Palestinian Authority that his predecessor Barack Obama quietly authorized in the final hours of his administration on January 20.
“We’re going to see what happens,” Trump said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
The Trump administration informed the PA earlier this week that it was freezing the transfer, Palestinian sources said, while the State Department said it would examine the payment and could make adjustments to ensure it comports with the new government’s priorities.
One or more Democratic senators are holding up a resolution condemning last month’s United Nations Security Council condemnation of Israeli communities over the 1949 armistice lines.Democratic Leader Shuts DownPhones After Pro-Israel Supporters Go on Offense
Jewish Insider reported Wednesday that Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was behind the hold. It cited Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., who told the newsletter that the Senate resolution’s language is objectionable because it does not recognize that settlements are an obstruction to peace, and that should Durbin lift his hold, he would place his own hold.
Jewish Insider could not confirm the hold with Durbin’s office. JTA has confirmed that there is a hold in place and that at least one and as many as four Democrats are responsible.
The resolution, similar to one passed earlier this month in the US House of Representatives, was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, with all Republicans and three Democrats voting for it and seven Democrats voting against.
Udall, among those who voted against, had introduced an amendment that would have reaffirmed “that it is also the policy of the United States to discourage settlement expansion” and would have removed language condemning the Obama administration for allowing through the UN Security Council resolution.
More than a thousand pro-Israel supporters from across the country bombarded the offices of Senate Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) with phone calls, urging the Democratic leader to stop holding up a key congressional initiative to rebuke the United Nations following its recent action against Israel, according to sources familiar with the situation.Entire senior management team at State Department resigns
Durbin’s offices in Washington, D.C., and Chicago were so overwhelmed by phone calls that staffers were forced to take the phones off the hook for a short time, sources told the Washington Free Beacon.
The phone assault, led by the Republican Jewish Coalition, or RJC, is part of an effort to convince Durbin to release his hold on a Senate measure aiming to condemn the U.N. for its Obama administration-orchestrated efforts to chastise the Jewish state, a move that drew bipartisan outrage among lawmakers.
While the House of Representative already voted to overwhelmingly approve a similar measure, the Senate has balked, mainly due to opposition by Durbin and other Democratic leaders. The Senate resolution has the backing of 78 lawmakers, including Democrats.
The State Department said the officials had submitted their resignations prior to Trump’s January 20 inauguration as is required of officials holding jobs appointed by the president. They were not required to leave the foreign service but chose to retire or resign for personal reasons, the department said. Still other officials said they had been pushed out by the new administration.State Department’s Senior Management Team Resigns
The Washington Post reported that at least four top management figures resigned en masse on Wednesday as Tillerson toured State Department headquarters.
Tillerson, Trump’s nominee for the post, was approved this week by a Senate committee but has yet to be officially okayed by the Senate.
While none of the officials linked his or her departure explicitly to Trump, many diplomats have privately expressed concern about serving in his administration, given the unorthodox positions he’s taken on many foreign policy issues.
Turnover among senior leadership during presidential transitions is not unusual, although the career diplomats who are leaving the foreign service entirely had served under both Republican and Democratic presidents.
No one knows for sure if Kennedy left on his own or if someone pushed him out. He had taken on the responsibility to help the transition to the Trump administration. Him leaving surprised many in the department. One officials told the Post that all of those people “had previously submitted their letters of resignation, as was required for all positions that are appointed by the president and that require confirmation by the Senate, known as PAS positions.”A peace process like any other
But Ambassador Richard Boucher, a former State Department spokesman under Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice, said that usually the old team stays put to help the new team transition smoothly. He cannot believe these people left such important positions unmanned:
The officials who manage the building and thousands of overseas diplomatic posts are charged with taking care of Americans overseas and protecting U.S. diplomats risking their lives abroad. The career foreign service officers are crucial to those functions as well as to implementing the new president’s agenda, whatever it may be, Boucher said.
“You don’t run foreign policy by making statements, you run it with thousands of people working to implement programs every day,” Boucher said. “To undercut that is to undercut the institution.”
Don’t forget that Patrick Kennedy remains tangled up in former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server scandal.
Back in October, the FBI released documents that showed Kennedy attempted to influence the FBI over some emails. He actually proposed a “quid pro quo” to the department to change the classification of an email. Kennedy offered the FBI “additional slots for the bureau overseas.” This means the department would have received permission “to place more Agents in countries they are presently forbidden.”
The Palestinians must have both a Judenrein state (the Jews in the territories must all leave), as well as a right of return to Israel for many millions of Arabs, thereby potentially creating a second Arab-majority state. Then, if they wish, the Palestinians could combine the two for a single Arab-majority state, and millions of Israeli Jews will realize their future is better protected elsewhere. No Israeli government, regardless of how foolishly, peace-lovingly leftist it is, will assist in its own destruction by accepting any of this. The two-state solution for the PA means two Arab-majority states, or one. Settlements, or a few of them anyway, might be an issue if there really were a deal to be had, but there is not.Dagbladet is angry about Trump. Therefore they take it out on Jared Kushner, the Jew.
The difference between the Trump administration and the Obama administration is what happens when it becomes obvious that no deal will be achieved. Clinton blamed Arafat for the failure at Camp David. Obama blamed Israel. This was inevitable for Obama. A man of the Left, he saw every struggle as a battle between haves and have-nots, and believed that the aves always need to pay up. The Trump team does not come into power, nor begin struggling with this conflict, with such ideological blindness in its worldview. There are positive feelings and sympathy for Israel, an American ally. And it will be obvious soon enough which party has no interest in concluding a deal of any kind.
Trump has had much business success, and also some well-publicized failures. In the cases of the failures, he knew enough to walk away at some point rather than double down. The two-state solution and the latest version of the peace process will soon enough look like a bankrupt Atlantic City casino and Trump will be smart enough to walk away and stand with America's ally, Israel, rather than Obama's reservoir of rogue regimes -- Iran, Cuba, and the PA.
Dagbladet bends over backwards to discredit everything Donald Trump stands for. That’s their right. But only if they can stick to facts and not resort to antisemitism and good old fashioned smears.Trump: Israel's security fence proves Mexico wall will work
Such is their fury with the idea that Donald Trump has become the 45th President of the USA, that they now turn their canons at Jared Kushner. Simply because he is a Jew.
Screenshots show their race to the bottom, just in case they should feel the heat and delete the article (unlikely, they know no shame).
In an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump touted his efforts to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and cited the security fence Israel has built against terrorists as an example.Readout of Secretary Mattis' Call with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman
"The wall is necessary," Trump said. "That's not just politics, and yet it is good for the heart of the nation, because people want protection and a wall protects. All you have to do is ask Israel."
Trump said the Israeli fence was responsible for stopping the flow of Palestinian perpetrators into Israeli population centers in the Second Intifada during the previous decade.
"They [Israel] were having a total disaster [with terrorists] coming across and [then] they had a wall, it is 99.9% stoppage; a proper wall, not a wall that is this high like they [U.S. border authorities] have right now, they have little toy walls. ... I am talking about a real wall. And even that, of course, will have people violate it, but we will have people waiting for them when they do."
Pentagon spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis provided the following readout:Ex-Mossad Chief: ‘Trump should give Israel bunker-buster bombs’
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis spoke by phone today with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman to underscore his unwavering commitment to Israel's security. The secretary called his counterpart during his first week to emphasize his intent to advance the U.S.-Israeli defense relationship and to protect Israel's qualitative military edge.
The two leaders discussed regional security challenges in the Middle East and the need to create common approaches to challenges facing the region. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to the U.S.-Israeli defense relationship, and look forward to meeting in person in the future.
Few people have walked the labyrinths of power for as long as Danny Yatom, the former Mossad director, IDF general and chief of staff, and military secretary to multiple prime ministers.Netanyahu in Wake of US Magazine Ranking Israel Among World’s Greatest Powers: ‘I’m Working All the Time to Strengthen Jewish State’s Military, Economic, Diplomatic Might’
In fact, the title of the recently published English translation of his book is Labyrinth of Power.
The 71-year-old Yatom, who gained national attention at the side of Ehud Barak during the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit’s Sabena Flight 571 hostage rescue mission in 1972, recently sat down with The Jerusalem Post at his Dantov Global Consulting Group offices in Herzliya for a wide-ranging interview.
While Yatom could undoubtedly serve as a personal history book of key moments in Israeli history, he also has strong and nuanced views about the future and can become quite animated when taking a stand.
For example, while some on the Right in Israel have praised the coming of US President Donald Trump in practically messianic tones, Yatom said: “I hope he will be a good president toward Israel, and he gives a very good first impression about Israel, but as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded proudly to Israel’s being ranked this week by a prominent US bimonthly magazine as among the world’s eight great powers of 2017.Netanyahu: When Iran Calls to Wipe Out Every Israeli, the World Is Silent
“In order to ensure Israel’s future, I am working all the time to strengthen [its] military, economic and diplomatic power,” Netanyahu wrote on Facebook on Thursday, noting the Jewish state’s placement by The American Interest as number eight on the list “exactly for these reasons.”
Quoting the article, which invoked the Jewish state’s first prime minister, Netanyahu said, “David Ben-Gurion would be astounded by the progress his poor and embattled nation has made.” Adding his own comment to that, Netanyahu wrote: “And it will continue to get stronger!”
The American Interest described Israel — which came in behind the US, China and Japan (tied for second and third place), Russia, Germany, India and Iran — as a “small country in a chaotic part of the world [that] is a rising power with a growing impact on world affairs.”
Despite “the passage of yet another condemnation of Israel at the United Nations,” the magazine wrote, in reference to Security Council Resolution 2334, “overall the Jewish state continues to develop diplomatic, economic and military power and to insert itself into the heart of regional politics.”
Speaking at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem on International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "In a few short years, six million of our people were wiped away, literally incinerated....The Holocaust, thank G-d, is behind us, but the hatred and intolerance that drove it is not. Anti-Semitism, which is the world's oldest hatred, is experiencing a revival in the enlightened West."Israeli car targeted in suspected West Bank terror shooting; none hurt
"Yet...the greatest danger that we face, of the hatred for the Jewish people and the Jewish state, comes from the East. It comes from Iran. It comes from the ayatollah regime that is fanning these flames and calling outright for the destruction of the Jewish state."
"I want you to think about a regime that openly declared its intention to eliminate every black person, every gay person, every European. I think the entire world would be outraged, and rightly so. But when a regime merely calls to wipe out every Israeli...what do we encounter? A deafening silence."
"I spoke a few days ago to President Trump and he spoke about Iranian aggression. He spoke about Iran's commitment to destroy Israel. He spoke about the nature of this nuclear agreement and the danger it poses."
"We will take all the measures we need to defend ourselves, and we will take all the measures necessary to prevent Iran from getting the means of mass murder to carry out their horrible plans. We cannot and will not be silent in the face of Iran's stated aim of destroying Israel."
Shots were fired at an Israeli car traveling near the West Bank settlement of Nili in the Mateh Binyamin Regional Council on Friday, in what the IDF said was an attempted terror shooting.IDF’s West Bank crackdown triples prices of makeshift guns
There were no injuries in the incident, however, the vehicle sustained damage. Israeli security forces were searching the area for the suspect.
On Thursday a Palestinian gunman fired shots before fleeing in the West Bank town of Azzun in what the IDF said was an attempted shooting attack.
There were no injuries in the incident that occurred in the Palestinian town in the West Bank's Kalkiliya Governorate. IDF forces were searching for the suspect and an investigation has been opened in the background of the incident.
The IDF has significantly boosted operations to thwart West Bank shooting attacks in recent months, a senior officer said Thursday.
In a briefing about IDF activities in 2016 and the attacks that took place in the West Bank over the course of the year, a senior officer stated that, while there have been significantly fewer vehicular attacks as well as stabbings, shooting attacks at soldiers remain a main threat.
The price of makeshift guns in the West Bank skyrocketed in 2016, tripling from May to October, as a result of the Israel Defense Forces’ crackdown on their manufacture and sale, an intelligence officer said Thursday.Camera: Backgrounder on Force 17
Throughout last year, the IDF shuttered 44 alleged gunsmithing workshops and seized more than 450 weapons in the West Bank, a dramatic increase over the previous year, the officer from the Central Command told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“It’s easy to remember the number for 2015: zero,” he said.
According to the officer, it was the result of the army’s overall effort to mitigate the threat of terror in the West Bank and protect the Israeli settlers who live there.
“One way to stop civilians from being injured is to make sure [the terrorist] meets a soldier or a police officer instead. Another way is to keep him from getting a gun,” he said.
Force 17 was an elite Palestinian group formed in the 1970s and tasked with protecting Yasser Arafat and other top members of the Fatah movement and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). From its creation until it was disbanded in 2007, Force 17 also assisted with intelligence gathering and carrying out terrorist attacks.Fatah "Shabiba" Student Movement at Birzeit University Marks Fatah's 52nd Anniversary
Although the group achieved a certain level of infamy, many U.S. news outlets failed to note that Force 17——like other branches of the Palestinian Security Services——was a recipient of international and U.S. aid and support. Several Force 17 operatives have since been appointed to top posts in the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) referred to Force 17 as the “best trained of the dozen or so overlapping security organizations operating under the Palestinian Authority's control (“Who are Force 17?” Dec. 4, 2001).” Arafat regarded them as some of his most trusted security personnel, according to a profile by Fiona Symon, then a BBC Middle East analyst.
The Birzeit University "Shabiba" student movement marked the 52nd anniversary of the establishment of Fatah with military parades and festivities. Armed and masked men in fatigues marched and shouted slogans, such as "Blow up the head of the settler!" Footage was uploaded to the Facebook page of Birzeit University's Shabiba in January.
Lebanon claims to have arrested 5 'Israeli spies'
Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security announced on Wednesday that it had arrested a spy ring comprised of five people who allegedly “spied for Israeli embassies abroad”, reports the Lebanese Naharnet news website.MEMRI: Khamenei Associate Mehdi Taeb: 'The Jews... Are The Only Ones Who Need Weapons Of Mass Destruction In Order To Rule The World – Because There Are 1.4 Billion Muslims And None Of Them Agree To Jewish Supremacy'
According to the report, the spy ring included two Lebanese men, two Nepalese women and a Palestinian Arab man.
“During interrogation, the detainees confessed to the charges, admitting that they had called phone numbers belonging to the Israeli enemy's embassies in Turkey, Jordan, Britain and Nepal with the aim of spying and passing on information,” a General Security statement said.
The investigations revealed that the two Nepalese women were actively recruiting Nepalese domestic workers in Lebanon with the aim of spying for Israel, according to Naharnet.
“They gave them the phone number of the Israeli embassy in Nepal so that they pass on information about their employers to the Mossad Israeli intelligence agency,” the General Security statement added.
“Following interrogation, they were referred to the relevant judicial authorities on charges of collaborating with the Israeli enemy and efforts are underway to arrest the rest of the culprits,” it continued.
In speeches and lectures that have been uploaded to the Internet in the past year, Mehdi Taeb, who directs the Ammar Strategic Base that advises Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has expressed antisemitic views. In his statements, Taeb has claimed that the Jews aim to control the world and therefore are obligated to kill anyone who is not willing to accept this control, particularly Muslims. He reiterated the antisemitic canard about the Jews controlling the global economy and the media, and stated that they hatch plots and sow division, strife and wars, especially among Muslims, in addition to creating and taking advantage of terrorism worldwide so as to ensure their global dominance. The Jews, he implied, even have power over God Himself. He urged his audience to awaken and act against the Jews, as instructed in the Koran, and to remove the cancerous growth of Israel, as commanded by the father of Iran's Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.Pope Francis prays for memory of Alberto Nisman
This report will focus on two of Taeb's speeches, a 2011 audio recording and a 2014 video, that in the past few months have been posted online several times. The 2011 recording is part of a series of lectures by Taeb, and the 2014 clip is from a Friday sermon in which he referred to a video of statements by an Israeli rabbi with bogus Farsi subtitles added as "proof" of anti-Shi'ite Jewish plots and terrorist actions aimed at preventing the Mahdi – the Hidden Imam, who is the Shi'ite Messiah – from coming to save the world from the Jews.
Pope Francis told the former wife of the late Argentine special prosecutor Alberto Nisman that he prays for Nisman's memory and their two daughters.
Sandra Arroyo Salgado, a federal judge in Argentina, asked the pope during their brief audience Wednesday at a hall near the Vatican to "keep praying to find the truth" of Nisman's still-mysterious death. Salgado told Argentine radio La Red that the meeting she and her daughters had with the pope was "touching and repairing."
It was the first time that Francis, a native of Argentina, had contact with relatives of Nisman since the Jewish prosecutor was found shot dead in his Buenos Aires apartment on Jan. 18, 2015, hours before he was to present evidence to Argentine lawmakers that then-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing. The attack killed 85 and wounded hundreds.
In 2005, Francis — then Jorge Bergoglio, a Jesuit archbishop — was the first public personality to sign a petition for justice in the AMIA bombing case, which officially remains unsolved.
