Tel-Chai Nation

Pamela Geller's movement for helping Muslims to leave their violent religion has scored in their case against the transportation company in Detroit. It's also a score for the 1st Amendment. Their next destination is San Francisco.

Labels: islam, United States

Two items of note here: First, P. David Hornik reports about Germany's still entrenched anti-semitism, and besides the disturbing poll taken recently, there's also the government's willingness to allow business with Iran to continue without opposition:

Whatever the case, it would be pleasant to report that, despite popular antipathy to the Jewish state and the Jews, the current conservative government of Angela Merkel is doing much better. But its record, too, at least toward Israel, is fraught with problems.

Much of this concerns a Hamburg-based entity called the European-Iranian Trade Bank, or EIH. As Fox News reported last month, the U.S. Treasury Department states that “EIH has acted as a key financial lifeline for Iran as one of Iran’s few remaining access points to the European financial system.” Earlier in February, eleven U.S. senators wrote to the German foreign minister “asking that he stop EIH from doing business with Iran” and expressing concern about EIH’s “continued financial support of Iran’s nuclear proliferation activities.” To no avail.

Iran’s geopolitical aggression and nuclear program are recognized by now as a threat to the West and not just to Israel — hence the U.S. effort to coordinate sanctions against Iran. But, considering that Tehran has often boasted of its imminent annihilation of Israel and is sponsoring terrorist activity on its borders, the threat to Israel is most acute — making Germany’s abetting of that threat all the more striking.

Indeed, Fox News also reports that Treasury says “EIH facilitated the sale of more than $3 million in materials for Iran’s missile programs.” And it goes beyond EIH, since “Germany is Iran’s biggest European trade partner. German exports to Iran totaled $4.7 billion from January through November of last year. This was a 5 percent increase over the same period in 2009.”

Israelis could be forgiven for wondering if, the more things seemingly change, the more they stay the same.

And on the diplomatic front, too, Germany — Holocaust remembrance and education events notwithstanding — has been doing Israel harm. Late last month, the United Nations Security Council voted on a resolution that would have condemned all Israeli building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “illegal.” The resolution originated with the Palestinian Authority as part of an effort to eventually force Israel out of the West Bank without a peace agreement ensuring Israel’s security and rights. It was sponsored by Lebanon, a country dominated by Hezbollah — an Iranian-backed terrorist organization also sworn to Israel’s destruction.

Only a U.S. veto — reluctant, and under pressure from Congress — stopped the resolution. Israel, however, was reportedly under the impression that Germany, too, would oppose it, and dismayed when Germany voted in favor. Branding Israeli communities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “illegal” is not only false but intensifies the atmosphere of delegitimization surrounding them. It was within that context of delegitimization that earlier this month an Israeli family of five, including three young children, were butchered on the West Bank.

And I ask myself, why exactly are Israelis for some still willing to buy German products when the public mindset is so disturbing, and their businesses so willing to do anything for money, putting higher value over that than human life? See, this is why I would very much appreciate it if the Israeli/Jewish public were to call it quits on German imports/exports. Stop buying Volkswagens, Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs, for example; we don't need their junk littering up our streets.

Then, we've got the case of Norway and Sweden's vicious anti-semitism, which Giulio Miotti writes about over here:

During the Second World War, the German universities banned many famous Jewish intellectuals such as T.W. Adorno and Albert Einstein. Now, three universities in Norway turned down the Jewish lawyer and author Alan Dershowitz, who had offered free lectures on Israel and international law.

Jews in Norway are just 0.003 percent of the total population, but Oslo is a bulwark of global anti-Semitism and Israel- slandering. What is the root of the Nordic hatred? Norway is the paradise of political correctness, multiculturalism and anti-war feelings. It's the country that, according to the Global Peace Index, for years has topped the list of the most “peaceful” places in the world. Oslo is, after all, the capital of the "Israeli-Palestinian Peace Accord".

But last year, the Norwegian government divested from two Israeli economic giants who work in Judea and Samaria. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund (that administers the oil profits) divested from the Israeli company Elbit, because it has worked on the Israeli fence that blocked the suicide bombers.

The author of the global literary phenomenon “Sophie’s World”, the national hero Jostein Gaarder, wished for the disappearance of Israel.

For years, anti-Semitic cartoons featured in the largest Norwegian newspapers. In the daily Dagbladet, the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared as the leader of a Nazi death camp.

Socialist leader Kristin Halvorsen is leading the campaigns to boycott Israel.

The state owned TV NRK has announced that it will screen the movie “Tears over Gaza”. The film’s director, Vibeke Løkkeberg, said in an interview, “I cannot see any difference between the Israeli warfare in Gaza and the massacres Qaddafi is conducting against Libyan insurgents”.

The hatred against Israel is spreading also in Sweden, another Scandinavian utopia, the ultra-secularized, ultra-liberal and anti-nationalistic beacon (the Danes are detested there as “chauvinists”), proud of its “lack of prejudice”.

Sweden handled its Soviet neighbour with kid gloves, despite the lack of civil rights there. This is the country that the Guardian described as “the greatest success the world has known”. Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are the dark side of the “folkhemmet”, which in Swedish means “the house of all the people”. It’s the multicultural ideology on which Stockholm has built its model of integration.

Sweden is a country that liked to call herself a “moral superpower” and where the welfare state pays for equipment for women who decide to change gender.

Sweden not only ranked among the world’s handful of richest countries, but also provided the world’s most lavish welfare state. It married solidarity to prosperity. But in the suburbs of the largest cities there are now “intifada against the police”.

Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city, the capital of the prosperous province of Scania, has 270.000 inhabitants. But the city has a population that is almost 40 percent foreign and the Jews are leaving the city.

The Israeli national team of Taekwondo was forced to cancel its trip to Sweden due to “security reasons”.

If the burgeoning of anti-Semitism in Norway has a long tradition, in the twentieth century Sweden was one of the most welcoming lands to Jews. Many Jews took refuge in Sweden fleeing the Third Reich and almost all the Danish Jews found a safe haven in Sweden.

Now the slandering of the Jews and Israel is part of the national consensus. The Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet has even suggested that Israeli soldiers are transplanting organs from dead Palestinians.

In the Swedish streets we hear again “Jävla jude”, whch means “damn Jew”. Meanwhile, the most famous Swedish writer, Henning Mankell, who spends much of his time working to fight AIDS and illiteracy in Mozambique, sailed to Gaza aboard the ship of Turkish terrorists.

In all due honesty, who knows if Sweden ever had any common sense to begin with? Raoul Wallenberg was a wonderful man, but he was but one person, and though Jews in Scandanavia during WW2 may have found a lucky place to live thanks in part to his efforts, it's possible that long term, the public mindset wasn't entirely to their favor.

I call this whole case "Viking mentality", because, let us consider, Scandanavia was the part of Europe where the Viking barbarians came from, including Iceland. I would wager that their vicious culture from remote times is what led to their modern anti-semitism. The Vikings were also a fairly sexist society, and if Sweden is actually going to pay for transvestism operations, let's just say that this too could stem from that ancient culture they had.

And aside from that, I think it's high time a boycott of their imports/exports was in order too. We could do without their Volvos, Saabs and Scanias, for example. And, we could do well to avoid buying clothes at H&M, a department store chain owned in Sweden, which now operates a chain in Israel. Indeed, why are Israelis not avoiding their products too?

Labels: anti-semitism, germany, iran, islam, Israel, jihad, Scandanavia, terrorism

There's been a just outrage this week over a page formed by anti-Israelists, calling for palestinians to take up weapons against Israel. As told here, it's been removed:

JERUSALEM (AP) - Facebook on Tuesday removed a page calling on Palestinians to take up arms against Israel, following a high-profile Israeli appeal to the popular social-networking site.

The affair highlighted how Facebook is increasingly involved in charged political conflicts, balancing between protecting freedom of expression and defending against hate speech.

The page, titled "Third Palestinian Intifada," had more than 350,000 fans when it was taken down. It called on Palestinians to take to the streets after Friday prayers on May 15 and begin an uprising. "Judgment Day will be brought upon us only once the Muslims have killed all of the Jews," a quote from the page read.

Facebook said the page began as a call for peaceful protest, even though it used the term "intifada," which it said has been associated with violence in the past.

"However, after the publicity of the page, more comments deteriorated to direct calls for violence," said Andrew Noyes, Facebook's public policy communications manager. He said the creators of the page eventually made calls for violence as well.

"We monitor pages that are reported to us, and when they degrade to direct calls for violence or expressions of hate - as occurred in this case - we have and will continue to take them down."

Or do they? As the following info tells:

Palestinian Authority activists have recreated the Third Intifada page that was banned by Facebook on Tuesday in response to thousands of member requests.

An Israeli Cabinet minister, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and a massive Internet campaign were only some of the measures used to pressure the popular social networking site into removing the page, which promoted violence against Jews in Israel.

But the story doesn't end there, because angry Palestinian Authority sponsors of the page ensured the fight would continue.

A Muslim page similarly entitled "Subscribe now to the Palestinian Intifada," on its logo but which is innocuously entitled "Make the Prophet Number One on Facebook" on the heading is listed under Non-profit Organizations.

Easily the largest and most popular Muslim page on Facebook, it espouses peace and offers myriad beneficent comments about Allah and Islam's founder, the Prophet Muhammed. But the Rassoul Allaah page also directs readers to directs readers to a wealth of links to other pages promoting the Third Intifada and a massive attempt to carry out the destruction of the State of Israel.

By Wednesday afternoon, the page had garnered more than three million -- 3,293,252 -- votes of support from Facebook members around the world.

Organizers have summoned millions of Arabs from across the Middle East to march into Israel and forcibly attempt to implement a de facto “Right of Return,” the Arab euphenism for the mass immigration of several million Arabs.

The date for this march has been set for May 15 – the anniversary of what the Arabs refer to as the “Nakba” or “Tragedy“ -- the date of the establishment of the State of Israel.

Although some of the pages promoting this campaign have warned its readers to maintain a peaceful demeanor, others do not bother with such niceties.

At least one is a complete re-creation of the original Third Palestinian Intifada page that was removed.

If Facebook hasn't removed this new page yet, and more importantly, the offending "activists" behind it, then how do we know they're serious? Facebook's interface discourages me already since it's got very complicated controls, but this news is the real problem.

And that's why I don't think I'll ever want a Facebook account, because I can't bring myself to support a social network site that's allowing this kind of monstrous activism to run around.

Labels: anti-semitism, communications, islam, Israel, jihad

Ned May writes about how "refugees" from the middle eastern countries that are undergoing revolts are fleeing to Europe, mostly to islands like Sicily, but also to the mainland. And since many could very easily be Muslims, that's why something must be done to stem the tides.

Labels: Europe, immigration, islam

Today, Khalid Aldawsari, arrested for buying chemicals for bomb building, was brought to court and entered a plea that I may have noticed quite a few of his kind filing:

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) - A Texas college student from Saudi Arabia accused of buying chemicals and equipment to build a weapon of mass destruction pleaded not guilty Monday.

Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, his hands and feet shackled and wearing dark blue jail clothing, entered his plea at his arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Koenig at the federal courthouse in Lubbock, Texas. Koenig set a May 2 trial date.

If convicted of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction he faces up to life in prison and a $250,000 fine. [...]

Court documents allege he hatched plans to attack various U.S. targets, including in New York City and at former President George W. Bush's Dallas home. [...] Aldawsari, who was legally in the U.S. on a student visa, was arrested Feb. 23. [...] Court records indicate authorities traced Aldawsari's online purchases, discovered extremist online posts he made and secretly searched his apartment, computer and email accounts, and read his diary.

The terrorism case detailed in court documents was significant because it suggests that radicalized foreigners can live quietly in the U.S. without raising suspicions from neighbors, classmates, teachers or others. It also showed how quickly U.S. law enforcement can move when tipped that a terrorist plot may be unfolding.

Federal authorities said a chemical company, Carolina Biological Supply of Burlington, N.C., reported $435 in suspicious orders by Aldawsari to the FBI on Feb. 1. Separately, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based shipping company Con-way Freight notified Lubbock police and the FBI the same day with similar suspicions because it appeared the order wasn't intended for commercial use.

Prosecutors said that in December, he bought 30 liters of concentrated nitric acid from QualiChem Technologies in Georgia, and three gallons of concentrated sulfuric acid that are combined to make TNP. The FBI later found the chemicals in Aldawsari's apartment as well as beakers, flasks, wiring, a Hazmat suit and clocks.

Aldawsari entered the U.S. in October 2008 from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to study chemical engineering at Texas Tech University. He transferred this year to nearby South Plains College, where he was studying business. A Saudi industrial company, which was not identified in court documents, was paying his tuition and living expenses in the U.S.

Aldawsari wrote that he was planning an attack in the United States for years, even before coming to the U.S. on a scholarship. He said he was influenced by Osama bin Laden's speeches and that he bemoaned the plight of Muslims.

My estimation is that many vicious characters like him will deny any guilt out of their hatred for the west. All the more reason to hope he'll get the slammer forever.

The Saudi company mentioned may not be named, but we can assume it was government run, realizing how, just like in many commie/fascist run regimes in Europe, this was the precise situation. And if he went to study chemistry first, shouldn't that be reason to suspect he was up to no good?

Not only must foreign exchange students from the House of Saud be shut out, there should be restrictions placed upon what studies they can take in the US: if chemistry could avail their jihadist desires, that's why they simply can't be allowed to learn and work on it.

Labels: anti-americanism, House of Saud, jihad, terrorism, United States, war on terror

The Blaze blog has an op-ed by Gary Rosenblatt, the editor of the Jewish Week, where he cites an inner problem:

Is the relatively muted response due to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan that dominated the international news at the time? Or because we expect Palestinians to act in inhuman ways in expressing their hatred of Jews? Or maybe it was because the brutality element of the Israeli story was soon eclipsed by the political and diplomatic angle, with Jerusalem announcing that in response to the murders it would increase settlement building in the West Bank.

All of the above may be true, but I fear that a significant factor in the relative inattention to this shocking and heartbreaking story was that the Fogel family members who were killed were religious Israelis living in a small West Bank community. Had the victims been secular Jews living inside the Green Line, I believe the outrage would have been far greater.

The sad reality is that, as small as our people are in numbers, we are all-too guilty of thinking of certain segments as second-class Jews.

And in today’s political climate, when the West Bank settlements are seen by Washington as the central cause of the breakdown in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, “the settlers” are viewed widely – including among many Jews here and in Israel – as operating outside the norm of Israeli society, an embarrassment to those in Tel Aviv cafes, a few miles away, prepared to displace tens of thousands of their countrymen for the prospect of peace with the Palestinians.

Once admired as brave pioneers embodying the spirit of the early Zionists in working the land, those Jews living beyond the Green Line are portrayed in the media as, for the most part, radical fundamentalists whose actions and very existence are jeopardizing the future of a Jewish democratic state living peacefully alongside a Palestinian state.

The facts are more complicated, though.

Yes, they are. Even today, there is tragic hostility to the pioneers within leftists in Tel Aviv and of course, the MSM in Israel.

Then, there's Caroline Glick's op-ed, where she reveals that no one has taken credit for the bombing near the central bus station in Jerusalem:

What are we to make of the fact that no one has taken credit for Wednesday's bombing in Jerusalem?

Wednesday bombing was not a stand-alone event. It was part and parcel of the new Palestinian terror war that is just coming into view. As Israel considers how to contend with the emerging onslaught, it is important to notice how it differs from its predecessors. On a military level, the tactics the Palestinians have so far adopted are an interesting blend of state-of-the-art missile attacks with old fashioned knife and bomb-in-the- briefcase attacks. The diverse tactics demonstrate that this war is a combination of Iranian-proxy war and local terror pick-up cells. The attacks are also notable for their geographic dispersion and for the absence thus far of suicide attacks.

For the public, the new tactics are not interesting and the message they send is nothing new. With our without suicide bombers, Israelis understand that we are entering a new period of unremitting fear, where we understand that we are in danger no matter where we are. Whether we're in bed asleep, or our way to work or school, or sitting down on a park bench or at a restaurant, whether we're in Rishon Lezion, Sderot, Jerusalem, Itamar or Beersheba, we are in the Palestinians' crosshairs. All of us are "settlers." All of us are in danger.

It shouldn't be that surprising if now, no terrorist gang wants to identify themselves as the culprit, if they see that as a strategy.

Labels: anti-semitism, jihad, Moonbattery, msm foulness, terrorism

The party that condoned slavery during the 19th century before Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans put an end to this in the civil war has a candidate running for their side in Florida (via The Blaze and Gateway Pundit):

A mayoral candidate in Lakes Wales is speaking out about his involvement with the Klan.

70-year-old John Paul Rogers wants to become the next mayor of Lake Wales, but critics say he could have a tough time bringing the town together because he’s a former member of Ku Klux Klan.

Rogers, who is currently a commissioner, spoke with 10 News Tuesday afternoon and says, “I’m not running for the Klan for Grand Dragon.” That’s because Rogers has already had that title.

He blames his opponent Mike Carter for bringing up his former involvement in the United Klans of America.

In other words, people don't have the right to know and form an opinion of him? I'm going to do just that now, and say that anyone who was involved with such a filthy, horrific bunch, does not deserve to have a career in politics. He should be in jail, not running for office.

Labels: racism, United States

There were protests - or should we say, riots - in London this week, apparently in the name of socialism, and what a lot of awfulness they caused (Hat tip: Moonbattery):

Anarchists today broke away from one of the largest protests Britain has ever seen to bring chaos to the streets of London.

The Ritz hotel and Fortnum & Mason were among the buildings targeted in the capital after groups of rampaging youths intent on spreading havoc left the mass anti-cuts demonstration.

Around 500,000 activists and campaigners descended on London this morning to protest at the Government's drastic cuts programme.

The sad thing is that in Britain, even conservatives may not have managed to separate themselves from the marxist doctrine that's still eating away at the the UK. Or, they just plain displayed weakness on the issue.

Labels: londonistan, Moonbattery

Melanie Phillips tells on Big Peace how some trumped up news arose that she was under investigation for her commentary on the jihadist savages who murdered the Fogel family, but it seems this was all phony news, for what reason I have no idea:

Next thing I knew was that the Guardian ran a story saying I was being investigated by the UK Press Complaints Commission, which had received two complaints about my remarks – and I had also been reported to the Bedfordshire police for racism.

This came as something of a surprise. If I was indeed being investigated, no-one had seen fit to tell me about it. Indeed, at time of writing I still have not heard whether either of these bodies is investigating these complaints at all. Stranger still was the involvement of the Bedfordshire police. I do not live in Bedfordshire, an area north of London. I have never had anything to do with the place. What could my remarks about the Itamar massacre possibly have to do with Bedfordshire?

A clue lay in the involvement in the Guardian story of a prominent British Muslim activist named Inayat Bunglawala. It was he who had reported me to the Bedfordshire police – and he lives in Bedfordshire.

It would appear that having taken exception to my blog, Bunglawala went to his local police force to complain about my views and expected them to take action against me as a result.

His complaint was that I had made a ‘generalised racist outburst against Arabs as a whole’. But this was ridiculous. I was obviously referring specifically to the perpetrators of the Itamar massacre and to the Palestinian Authority which incites such deeds Bunglawala claimed that if anyone had referred to the ‘moral depravity of the Jews’ and described them as being ‘savages’ they would face prosecution for racist hate speech.

Clearly, the Guardian wrote all this without even confirming that an investigation was really underway. This paper, of course, is one of the most vile apologists for Islamofascism, and we can't be too surprised they'd do this. But we shouldn't be surprised if Phillips were taken to court for her commentary either. This is Britain today, after all, and there's no telling if they'll abolish their libel tourism laws either, despite what was reported earlier.

A disgusting man indeed, this Bungalawa is, if he's going to try and suppress free speech about the causes for terrorism, which include his so-called religion. These type of people, along with the vicious media in the UK today, are just what'll bring it down.

Labels: anti-semitism, islam, jihad, londonistan, msm foulness, terrorism

The famous actress has passed away at 79. A most interesting fact was that she was a Zionist:

The ZOA statement listed a series of efforts Taylor made for Israel and the Jewish community, including her purchase of $100,000 in Israel Bonds in 1959, her participation in raising $840,000 for Israel in a 1967 London gala, and her cancellation of a visit to Moscow after the Soviet Union lashed out at Israel following the 1967 Six Day War.

In addition, she was one of 60 prominent women to sign a statement in 1975 to then-UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, condemning the General Assembly’s infamous Zionism-is-Racism resolution. Taylor offered herself as a hostage when 104 Jews aboard an Air France airbus were held hostage by PLO terrorists at Uganda’s Entebbe Airport, from which they were rescued in a spectacular Israeli commando mission on July 4, 1976, America’s 200th birthday. [...]

Elizabeth Taylor’s pro-Israel activism led to the banning of her films in several Arab countries. After she bought $100,000 in Israel Bonds in 1959, the United Arab Republic (now Egypt) banned all her movies. Gen. Essam Elmasri, head of the Cairo regional bureau of the Israel Boycott Office, said at the time that she would not be allowed into Egypt because she had adopted the Jewish faith and “supports Israeli causes.”

This is why she's to be honored, because she did a lot of good deeds for Israel.

Labels: Egypt, islam, Israel, jihad, showbiz, terrorism, UN corruption

And rightly terms performers who boycott Israel as "idiots" (via Big Hollywood). He's a native of Israel, and has come back here recently:

Gene Simmons, a cofounder of the rock band Kiss, recently returned to his native Israel, after a 52-year hiatus. Unlike other entertainers who have boycotted the Jewish state, such as Elvis Costello, the Pixies, and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, Simmons expressed his support for Israel. “The countries they should be boycotting are the same countries that the populations are rebelling,” Simmons told the AP, suggesting that the entertainers who boycott Israel should place a more critical eye on other nations in Israel’s neighborhood. “People long to be free … And they sure as hell don’t want somebody who’s a ruler who hasn’t been elected by them.”

In supporting Israel, Simmons now joins the former lead singer of the Sex Pistols, punk rocker Johnny Rotten.

Clearly, we owe some thanks to Rotten as well. I would add that people in showbiz who boycott Israel are basically breaking the hearts of people who'd surely want to be fans of theirs. Why some leftist showbizzies want to alienate at least half their audience I have no idea.

However, if Simmons really said the following in this article, there's a possible flaw detected too:

According to Simmons, Israel has been a source of pride for him ever since he left. “There ain’t no place like it on planet Earth. It’s astonishing that it’s still here – stronger and prouder than ever,” he said, adding that the recent upheavals in the Muslim world has filled him with hope for the future of Israeli-Arab ties.

I'm afraid that's not very certain. It depends on the mindset the publics in those Islamic countries maintain. The public in Egypt, for example, if they support the Muslim Brotherhood in the coming, dreaded election there, are condoning sharia by extension. So we can't count on positive ties there.

That aside, I'm glad Simmons is speaking out.

Labels: Egypt, islam, Israel, showbiz, United States

The UK Telegraph (via The Jawa Report) tells that Mary Jean Gardner, the women murdered by the terrorist bombing on Wednesday, was a bible translator from Scotland:

Mary Jean Gardner, 55, was caught in the bomb blast at the central bus station in Jerusalem.

She was the only person to die in the attack which left up to 30 others wounded.

Miss Gardner, who was a well-regarded Bible translator, came to Israel at the beginning of the year to study Hebrew and took courses at Hebrew University.

She had come to Israel to hone her Hebrew skills before embarking on a translation of the Old Testament into Ife, one of the languages spoken in Togo, West Africa[...]

Mrs Ronning said students were taken from and to the Hebrew University by bus every day for their own security, but that Miss Gardner had a day off and had gone into town to meet an Irish friend who had just arrived in the city with a tour group. Miss Gardner was heading to a restaurant to meet her friend and happened to be passing the bus stop on foot when the bomb exploded.

Our condolences must go to her and her family.

Labels: Europe, Israel, jihad, terrorism

This article and video inside talk about why terrorist attacks make it important that all hospitals in Jerusalem be fully functioning to help aid victims of these barbaric acts.

Labels: Israel, jihad, terrorism

The Atlantic's Garance Franke-Ruta writes about Sarah Palin wearing a Magen David necklace during her trip to Israel, but not in a very flattering tone. They say:

The Star of David or Magen David is a symbol associated with Jewish texts far back as the 11th century and has been used by European Jews to symbolize their faith since the 17th century. As Zionism developed as a European philosophy, the Star of David came to represent the movement and later became the defining symbol on the flag of the state of Israel. In contemporary urban America, wearing a Star of David on a chain generally marks the wearer as Jewish.

So what was the most decidedly not-Jewish Palin doing wearing one in Israel? Not appealing to American Jews -- that's for sure. Most American Jews, being Democrats, can't stand her. And one visit to Israel, a nation many American Jews have mixed feelings toward, anyway, isn't going to change that.

Rather, by wearing the Star of David, Palin was reaching out to American evangelical Christians -- and also being one herself.

According to David Brog, the (Jewish) executive director of Christians United for Israel, "it is increasingly common" for evangelical Christian supporters of Israel -- who follow a fairly common Israel-centric strain of American biblical interpretation -- to wear Stars of David as symbols of solidarity with the Jewish state.

"A lot of the folks in my organization, they wear Stars of David," he noted. "Mainly the women."

That's certainly amazing to learn, but did it ever occur to Franke-Ruta that even some Israelis could be flattered by the sight? And why shouldn't it make some residents with USA citizenship ponder voting for her if she runs for the Senate? Franke-Ruta doesn't seem to have considered that idea.

Incidentally, if we were to make a pop culture reference here, Palin's wearing a Star of David even though she's not of Jewish descent herself isn't new: those with long memories of the 1980s may recall that Mr. T wore a Star of David necklace with all that other jewelry in The A-Team, alongside a Christian cross, and despite the badass image he sported at the time, he's known to be a devoted Christian (side note: I've seen all 97 episodes of the A-Team, including the guest role by a young Tia Carrere).

Labels: Christianity, Israel, showbiz, United States

A relative recommended I post this video of Beck's report on the horrifying murder. At the end, he astutely observes that "evil is growing rapidly."

As today's terrorist bombing shows, that is sadly correct.

Update: I received the following condemnation of the bombing in the email from B'nai Brith Canada:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, March 23, 2011:

B'nai Brith Canada strongly condemns the terrorist bombing in the heart of the city of Jerusalem, Israel. As details emerge, the organization calls on the international community to echo this condemnation in the strongest of terms.

"The timing of the bombing clearly suggests that this was a thinly veiled attempt by Islamists to try to refocus the international community on Israel and away from the brutal attempts by Libya and Arab regimes to quell the struggle for democracy in the Middle East and Northern Africa," noted Frank Dimant, CEO of B'nai Brith Canada.

"While Israelis continue to face daily threats to their safety, this gruesome bombing is shocking as it comes after a lag of many years without any such attack in Jerusalem and just days after the slaughter in Itamar. Our deepest sympathies and ongoing support go out today to those families dealing most directly with the aftermath of this tragedy."

Our thanks in return should go to B'nai Brith for speaking out.

Labels: anti-semitism, islam, Israel, jihad, terrorism

Bus bombings by jihadists in Israel had thankfully and largely disappeared in the past several years. Now, as this horror suggests, they may be resurfacing:

One woman died and 39 were injured after an explosion took place near a bus in central Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon.

Police said that a bomb exploded outside Egged bus number 74 at a station opposite the Jerusalem Conference Center (Binyanei Ha'uma) in the center of town.

Thirty-nine people were injured in the attack. Three were injured seriously from the explosion itself, four moderately from shrapnel packed into the explosive device and the remainder in moderate to light condition.

The 31 injured were taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem, Hadassah Mount Scopus, Bikur Holim and Shaare Tzedek hospitals. All hospitals in the area were opened to receive casualties. One woman, 59, died from injuries sustained in the blast.

Police said that this was the first terrorist attack in four years that involved an explosion. At the moment, police were looking for one specific person who left the bag that contained the bomb.

There were reports that witnesses were able to identify the man who left the bag and police were searching for him.

Police suspected that an explosive device inside a bag was left at the bus stop, which then exploded. Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said that the explosive device was between one and two kilograms and was packed with shrapnel.

Yishai: We must take action after escalation in south and Jerusalem

Interior Minister Eli Yishai called for Israel to act after the bombing in Jerusalem and the rocket attacks in the south.

"I see the escalation is already here in a number of fronts - in the south and also in Jerusalem," Yishai said, while visiting the scene of the explosion.

He added that "recent events require us to take action. If we don't do this we will lose our power of deterrence."

Authorities said that there was no connection between the attack and events in the Gaza Strip in recent days. However, they suspected a connection between this attack and one several weeks, in which an explosive device was left on the side of a main road near Gilo.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat said his main concern is that this could happen anywhere. He called the incident a "cowardly terrorist attack." Barkat added that he believes in the police's capability to catch the perpetrator. He added that in 99 percent of cases, the terrorists are found.

The mayor added that he will still participate in the Jerusalem Marathon scheduled to take place on Friday. Most importantly, he said, is to return to your normal lives so that the terrorists don't think they can win.

Large numbers of police and ambulance forces were on the scene.

Roads surrounding the scene were closed to traffic and authorities were searching the area for additional explosive devices and for a suspect. Police raised the alert level in the capital, following the explosion.

Police were beginning to reopen Highway 1 following the attack.

There is a vital point made here that jihadist activity is escalating, as the rocket attacks can signal. It's very likely that the terrorist who planted the bomb came from an eastern Jerusalem neighborhood. They're going to have to start searching those neighborhoods seriously if they want to prove that they can maintain proper control over Jerusalem and its security.

Labels: Israel, Jerusalem, jihad, terrorism

The Daily Mail (via Israel Matzav and The Jawa Report) informs that a reporter for the NYT named Lynsay Addario was molested by pro-Gaddafi troops in Libya. It's very disgusting news alright, just like the violation of Lara Logan a month ago in Egypt. That's why I won't feel sorry to see Gaddafi go down, as we must hope he does, though there's no chance a better replacement will come in.

Labels: islam, libya, misogyny

Following her visit to India, Sarah Palin came to Israel and paid a visit to the Western Wall, among other things, and surely the most amazing thing she could do was to ask why should we apologize to Islam?

Popular conservative politician Sarah Palin understands the importance of the Temple Mount to the Jewish people, according to MK Danny Danon (Likud), who accompanied her on a visit to the Kotel Sunday.

Danon told Arutz Sheva's Hebrew-language service: "When we toured near the Kotel and in the tunnels near the Holy of Holies, she told me clear things without hesitating. She understands the importance of the place for the Jewish People and even asked me 'Why do you keep apologizing to the Muslims all the time?'"

"I explained to her the mistakes made by [then-Defense Minister] Moshe Dayan in 1967 and our mistakes in not fulfilling our rights in the Temple Mount and the Old City," Danon said. He was referring to Dayan's decision to hand back the keys to the Temple Mount to the Muslim Waqf immediately after the liberation of the Mount in the Six-Day War.

Danon noted that Israel has large-scale support in the Christian world but "we are afraid to take advantage of it. It's as if we are ashamed about ourselves. But there is great support and I felt it in the tour yesterday."

Palin was also welcomed by Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, the Kotel Rabbi, who told her that not just the prayers of Jews are more readily fulfilled when uttered at the Temple Mount, but those of Gentiles as well. The rabbi told Palin that he believes she will be an even better "ambassador" for Israel after her visit than she was before it.

The prominent freshman MK said that Israel needs to explain to Christians that it is in their interest, too, to let Israel have control of the holy sites. He noted that in places like Bethlehem, where Muslims are in control, Christians are humiliated.

Palin may have succeeded because the McCain campaign wasn't undermining her this time. And Danon is to be commended for citing Muslim persecution of Christians under Fatah's dictatorship. Thus, Palin's visit to Israel, just like India, is a very worthy occasion.

Labels: anti-semitism, Christianity, islam, Israel, United States

Playboy had the disgrace to interview Helen Thomas for one of the latest issues, and among the trash she spat out of her ugly mouth, it included this:

Thomas claimed she has nothing against Jews in her latest diatribe. “I think they're wonderful people. They had to have the most depth. They were leaders in civil rights. They've always had the heart for others but not for Arabs for some reason. I am not anti-Jewish; I am anti-Zionist.”

Sorry, Thomas, but you are anti-Jewish, and clearly do not have much respect for Martin Luther King Jr. either. As he once said at Harvard, about 2 weeks prior to his tragic death:

During an appearance at Harvard University shortly before his death, a student stood up and asked King to address himself to the issue of Zionism. The question was clearly hostile. King responded, “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.”

But I guess Thomas is just too old to understand any of that, nor that Zionism is the Hebrew variant on words like patriotism. She definitely is a stupid old hag.

Here's an op-ed from the Daily Iowan on the subject giving some extra food for thought.

Labels: anti-semitism, Israel, United States

In the earlier post, it looked as though he didn't do this properly. Now, in the following post at The Blaze, and the accompanying videos from CNN's Piers Morgan interview, he's made an improvement by taking the European far left to task for their alliance with Islamofascism:

“This is the strangest union you could possibly contemplate,” he added, “because radical Muslims — they stone women, they execute gays, they are against any human rights, against feminism, against… what have you. And the far left is supposed to be for these things.”

“There’s a difference in the way that Europeans views Israel and Americans view Israel,” the prime minister said. While the United States maintains historically favorable views toward Israel, the Jewish state has become increasingly unpopular in Europe, the Washington Times adds. Most surveys across the continent show far greater support for Palestinians compared to Israelis.

This is an improvement if he didn't raise these issues at the funeral for the Fogels last week. I think the next up who's going to have to raise these issues in clear is Rabbi Meir Lau.

Labels: anti-semitism, Europe, islam, Israel, misogyny, Moonbattery

Diana West discovered disturbing info from Wikileaks about how the US government has been interfering in another country's own problems, and while the Obama administration has been doing this, it actually began with the Bush administration. Galliawatch has more, and I think that, if there's anything as devastating as there is something angering here, it's the revelation that Sylvester Stallone acted as an "ambassador". When Michael Medved once spoke of how Hollywood stars are risking their popularity for this kind of junk, he sure wasn't kidding.

Labels: dhimmitude, France, islam, political corruption, showbiz, United States

In this Haaretz article (via IsraeliGirl), it talks about how Israel has been giving pensions to eligible Gazans from the pre-blockade era. Do you know of any other country that does that for what it considers hostile territory?

Labels: Israel

IPT has written about how money from middle eastern regimes - including, but not limited to, Libya - has gone to British colleges, and only now is it becoming scandalous:

Before the revolution in Libya, British universities had a much more welcoming attitude toward taking money from dictators. In 2009, Simcox authored a report for the CSC spotlighting the role of repressive regimes in funding British universities. He found that regimes like those in Iran, China, and Saudi Arabia “were essentially buying control over British academia.”

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal appointed university management committee members in Edinburgh and Cambridge. Durham University accepted cash from Iran and admitted that “pro-regime speakers” had been permitted to monopolize a school event. And Beijing was permitted to establish educational centers it termed part of its “foreign propaganda strategy.”

Though no similar study has been done, American universities have similarly courted endowments from some of the same players.

Then it's time to start investigating them too. You'll note that the Saudi prince mentioned is also very chummy with Rupert Murdoch, something still not widely discussed, which is very troubling. Is it not time to raise this as a serious issue?

Labels: China, dhimmitude, House of Saud, islam, libya, londonistan, political corruption

Here come the missiles again (via Jihad Watch):

JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants in Gaza fired more than 50 rockets into Israel on Saturday, the heaviest barrage in two years, Israeli officials said, while Hamas police beat up and confiscated equipment from reporters.

A Hamas official was killed and four civilians were wounded when Israel hit back with tank fire and air strikes, said Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia.

Notice if you will the blatant, disgusting downplay of the terrorism part by using the word "militant" to describe the terrorists, to say nothing of the needless highlight of casualty claims from the Hamas side.

Israeli police spokesman Tamir Avtabi said Gaza militants fired 54 mortar shells at Israeli border communities within 15 minutes. He said two Israeli civilians were lightly wounded by shrapnel and residents were advised to stay at home or in bomb shelters.

Hayim Yellin, head of the Eshkol region where the mortars exploded, said they were the same type as those intercepted on a cargo ship last week loaded with weapons Israel said were sent by Iran to Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he will file a complaint at the U.N. after Saturday's unusually large barrage of rockets. In a statement, Lieberman said the Palestinians "primary goal is destroying Israel."

Indeed it is. Now we can see why it's good that the ship last week was stopped, because more of this would've reached Hamas then.

Labels: Israel, jihad, terrorism, war on terror

Andrew Bostom cites how Benjamin Netanyahu did not mention Islam when he addressed the Itamar massacre:

Saturday evening (3/12/11) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the Itamar massacre. Netanyahu’s eloquent remarks included a demand

… that the Palestinian Authority stop the incitement that is conducted on a daily basis in their schools, mosques and the media under their control. The time has come to stop this double-talk in which the Palestinian Authority outwardly talks peace, and allows – and sometimes leads – incitement at home.

But Netanyahu failed to break a universally imposed, self-destructive taboo. He refused to identify the ubiquitous, if unnamed raw material for Palestinian Muslim “incitement”— the jihad and Jew-hating motifs from Islam’s mainstream, orthodox canon.

For the past 90 years, Palestinian Arab Muslim religious and political leaders, beginning with the founders of this jihadist movement, Hajj Amin el-Husseini and Izzad-Din al-Qassam, have imbued their rhetoric, unabashedly with the extensive jihadism and Jew-hatred—including apocalyptic, annihilationist themes—featured in Islam’s foundational texts: the Koran, hadith (words and deeds of Islam’s prophet Muhammad), and sira (the earliest pious Muslim biographies of Muhammad).

Sheikh Tayseer al-Tamimi, who currently heads the Palestinian Authority’s Sharia (Islamic Law) Courts, in 1994, then chairman of the PA’s Islamic Law Council, stated,

The Jews are destined to be persecuted, humiliated, and tortured forever, and it is a Muslim duty to see to it that they reap their due. No petty arguments must be allowed to divide us. Where Hitler failed, we must succeed.

Hamas cleric Wael Al-Zarad during a television program which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 28, 2008 intoned the following about the Jews of Israel: “By Allah, if each and every Arab spat on them, they would drown in Arab spit.” Wael Al-Zarad’s seemingly hallucinatory statement also included this allegation,

From the dome of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, they proclaim that Ezra the Scribe is the son of God.

The reference to Ezra is actually a false, intentionally defamatory Koranic accusation (Koran 9:30) against Jews, citing a claim which Jews, in fact, have never made.

But the crux of Al-Zarad’s remarks explained that the Muslims’ blood vengeance against the Jews, “will only subside with their [the Jews] annihilation, Allah willing, because they tried to kill our Prophet several times.”

These allegations are part of a central antisemitic motif in the Koran which decrees an eternal curse upon the Jews (Koran 2:61/ reiterated at 3:112) for slaying the prophets and transgressing against the will of Allah. And Koran 3:112 is featured before the pre-amble to Hamas’ foundational Covenant—it is literally part of the very first statement of the document. [Here is the Arberry translation of 3:112: “Abasement shall be pitched on them, wherever they are come upon, except they be in a bond of God, and a bond of the people; they will be laden with the burden of God's anger, and poverty shall be pitched on them; that, because they disbelieved in God's signs, and slew the Prophets without right; that, for that they acted rebelliously and were transgressors.”]

This central motif is coupled to Koranic verses 5:60, and 5:78, which describe the Jews transformation into apes and swine (5:60), or simply apes, (i.e. verses 2:65 and 7:166), having been “…cursed by the tongue of David, and Jesus, Mary’s son” (5:78). The Muslim prophet Muhammad himself repeats this Koranic curse in a canonical hadith (Sunan Abu Dawoud, Book 37, Number 4322). And the related verse, 5:64, accuses the Jews—as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas did in a January 2007 speech, citing Koran 5:64—of being “spreaders of war and corruption,” a sort of ancient Koranic antecedent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

You know what? I'm disgusted that still, even Israeli leaders continue to go the politically correct route and not cite how Islam is the problem. The end mentions Rabbi Meir Lau, and why do I get the feeling that he won't show any guts either? And you wonder why the war on terror is so difficult?

Update: related post from Betsy's Page, and Caroline Glick.

Labels: anti-semitism, islam, Israel, jihad, terrorism

Via The Blaze, we find this video of Obama's former would-be pastor admitting he's an advocate of black liberation theology, attacking capitalism, Israel, America, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and reaffirming his support for socialism and marxism. Why is he still living in America then?

Labels: anti-americanism, anti-semitism, Israel, racism, United States

Amiel Ungar reports that Britain looks like it's changing its laws to get rid of libel tourism:

Britain is about to change its libel laws. This development rates as world news for a few reasons: Britain will no longer be the favored site for "libel tourism," which will have an impact on publications covering topical issues such as terrorism and those who fund it. Secondly, it demonstrates that when the United States changes its laws to right an injustice, other countries, even those with venerable legal traditions like Britain, have to follow suit.

Under the current law, one could bring suit against someone who published a book in the United States or an English Internet site, however obscure, for libel. The plaintiff did not have to demonstrate that he had sustained any actual loss. He just had to say that he was likely to do so. British libel laws placed the burden of proof on the defendant rather than on the plaintiff.

The British decision can be viewed as a victory for Doctor Rachel Ehrenfeld, an Israeli-American counterterrorism expert. She published a book entitled Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed and How to Stop It, in which she accused Khalid bin Mahfouz, a banker to the Saudi royal family and one of the world's plutocrats. of setting up a banking system to assist Osama bin Laden and using his charitable foundations as a front for terrorist organizations.

[...] A person submitting a libel suit will have to prove, according to Kenneth Clark, the Secretary of Justice, that England and Wales are "clearly the most appropriate place in which to bring an action."

According to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, "We are addressing libel tourism by tightening the rules, so that it is much harder to bring overseas claims to our courts when there is little connection to the UK. If such a link can't be demonstrated our judges will simply turn the case away."

English may eventually be supplanted by Mandarin Chinese, but as of now it is the world's lingua franca and therefore this is far more than a legal nicety. It is a victory for free speech worldwide.

It remains to be seen if other countries around Europe will follow suit to boot, including France, which needs to abolish their own laws favoring the plaintiff in a lawsuit. If Britain does abolish their screwed up law, it'll be welcome alright, but it's just a start, since many other countries have to follow the example too, and eliminate any and all unjust rulings. One way to do this is by forming movements that campaign at their local parliaments for alterations.

Labels: France, islam, londonistan, terrorism, United States

John Sexton at Big Journalism writes about how CNN used quotation marks as a form of terrorism denial. You've probably heard of the concept of bigotry denial, now you have the tactic of quotation marks to serve for desecration of the memory of terror victims.

Israel is quite right to demand an apology from CNN for doing this. Their defense of their tactic is pathetic, and they do not deserve to be watched.

Update: if anyone wants an earlier example of quotation tactics, here's a post from Comics Beat 3 years ago about the terrorist attacks that were planned against Kurt Westergaard, but thankfully foiled. The headline reads as 'Cartoonist target of "terror plot"'. And though they say at the end that a potentially even more horrible story was averted, they still showed some signs of disrespect by beginning their post that way.

Labels: anti-semitism, islam, Israel, jihad, msm foulness, terrorism

No sooner did the bloodbath take place in Itamar, Julian Schnabel's anti-Israeli film called Miral was screened at the UN by its distributors/producers, the Weinsteins, and to make matters worse, it appears that at least a few actors don't want me or you to bother about their movies anymore:

Not content to restrict its anti-Israel activities to the political arena, the United Nations has now taken upon itself to spread anti-Israel propaganda via popular culture, the American Jewish Committee said in a letter Swiss Ambassador Joseph Deiss, President of the UN General Assembly.

On Monday, a film called Miral, about the experiences of an Arab girl in the wake of Israel's War of Independence, made its U.S. premiere at the headquarters of the world organization, On hand to fete the film's producer, Julian Schnabel, were a panoply of American film stars, including Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Josh Brolin and Steve Buscemi – all long known for their left wing views and political activities.

In his letter to Deiss, AJC Executive Director David Harris called the film a propaganda piece that “will only serve to reinforce the already widespread view that Israel simply cannot expect fair treatment in the UN."

The film's plot revolves around the adventures of the fictional title character, a young girl orphaned as a result of the War of Independence. (It should be noted, however, that the movie is based on an autobiography by its author, Rula Jebreal). Miral is one of the children taken into an orphanage established by Hind al-Husseini, a scion of the infamous Haj Amin al-Husseini, who planned to deport all the Jews in the Land of Israel to concentration camps after the hoped-for Nazi invasion.

Al-Husseini starts the orphanage with 55 children who escaped the “massacre” at Deir Yassin, and before long there are 2,000. Along the way, there are attacks and provocations by Israelis, and eventually, the title character grows up and teaches in a refugee camp, where she falls in love with a terrorist.

I'm well versed in Penn's moonbattery for a long time now, but De Niro, Brolin Jr. and Buscemi I hadn't realized till now were this bad. Brolin is probably even worse than his father James. (I once watched that TV western with him called the Young Riders years ago, but won't be bothering today.) His career hasn't exactly been much to write home about lately, and he deserves the failure, though the sad part is that, even if it collapses completely, he'll go get a political job. What's worse?

Daniel Greenfield has written an op-ed where he takes Harvey Weinstein to task:

On the same day that a family of five were being murdered in their home in Israel, Harvey Weinstein ran a self-congratulatory promotional piece for his company's terrorist propaganda flick, Miral. The photos stand out. The fat smirking face of Harvey Weinstein contrasted with the sleeping baby, the smiling little boys and the earnest couple who were their parents.

They are all dead, and a Harvey Weinstein lives on to smirk another day. So it is with perpetrators and victims. The innocent children and the fat ugly men who profit from trafficking in the propaganda of their killers.

Harvey Weinstein denounces Peter King and urges him to go watch Miral. But perhaps it is Harvey Weinstein who should drive to a small town lost in the Samarian Mountains and retrace the steps of the murderers in the name of the nationalistic mythology that movies like Miral glamorize.

Tragically, he won't. For many years now, people with low-grade personas like Weinstein's got who don't give a damn about Israel have been the kind of Jews who populate Hollywood. And they're nothing more than embarrassments who make it impossible to be proud of the Jewish community in showbiz.

Here's more on the subject from Melanie Phillips.

Update: Silvan Shalom is absolutely correct: the murderers must be put to death.

Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, islam, Israel, jihad, showbiz, terrorism, UN corruption

Investor's Business Daily is right, the Congressional hearings on Islamofascism held by Rep. Peter King fall way short of the mark, because he otherwise refused to bring in the real experts:

Reviews of Rep. Pete King’s opening round of hearings into “Muslim radicalization” are lousy. King blames the Muslim lobby and the media. But he’s the one who blew it.

King, the Republican head of the House Homeland Security Committee, deserves thrashing not because the hearing was an exercise in Muslim-bashing, as Democrats and the media unfairly charged. Far from it, the tenor of the questioning was respectful.

The problem, rather, was King didn't even come close to delivering what he advertised with his investigation, titled "The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response."

Or lack of response, as King repeatedly claimed in the buildup to the hearings. He said FBI agents and other cops working terrorism cases constantly complain about the lack of cooperation from the Muslim community. Mosque officials and other Muslim leaders actually encourage such resistance, he said.

These are explosive charges. Basically, he suggested that the Muslim leadership in this country is protecting jihadists, and possibly facilitating another terror attack on U.S. soil. Yet the seven witnesses King called to testify included no national law enforcement officials to back him up. Nor did he subpoena any of the offending Muslim leaders to address these allegations under oath.

The hearings may have helped to draw attention to CAIR, and expose Keith Ellison as a sob-storyist, but so long as he refuses to show any real guts and continues to play both sides of the same coin, he's not helping America in the fight against Islamofascism.

Atlas Shrugs has a SIOA flyer calling on King to summon real witnesses and experts, and not to act as though they're the enemy or the problem.

Update: speaking of CAIR, see also the video The Jawa Report and Vlad Tepes have about CAIR bringing their hatemongering to Orange County.

Labels: CAIR corruption, dhimmitude, islam, jihad, terrorism, United States, US Congress, war on terror

The Jerusalem Post (via The Weekly Standard) reports about a poll conducted telling that German anti-semitism - but possibly also in Poland and Hungary - is still at alarming levels, especially if these are natives who responded:

BERLIN – A think-tank affiliated with Germany’s Social Democratic Party issued a new report last week that revealed high levels of anti-Semitism in Germany, Poland and Hungary, as well as varying manifestations of racism, homophobia and prejudice in eight European countries.

I just have to question why homophobia is included here - I recognize that gays and lesbians are human, but I don't approve of the practice. Is that some kind of moral equation? Something which, in fact, is brought up later.

Dr. Beate Küpper, a researcher from the University of Bielefeld who co-authored the Friedrich Ebert Foundation’s study along with her colleagues Andreas Zick and Andreas Hoevermann, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that the study showed a strong presence of “anti-Semitism that is linked with Israel and is hidden behind criticism of Israel, and is not neutral.”

She termed the outbreak of Jew-hatred in Germany “remarkable” because there were widespread Holocaust remembrance and education events in Germany.

The study – “Intolerance, Prejudice, Discrimination: A European Report” –questioned roughly 1,000 people in each of the selected EU countries.

The investigation was limited to Great Britain, Holland, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Poland and France due to financial restrictions and requisite expertise in each country to track anti-democratic attitudes, according to Küpper.

Asked to respond to the statement that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians,” 47.7 percent of the study’s participants in Germany expressed agreement – the highest number in Western Europe.

The statement is a typical question used to probe attitudes about equating Israel with the Nazi campaign to exterminate European Jewry. [...]

Given Poland’s lukewarm foreign policy toward Israel, the finding that 63.3% of the Poles questioned agree that Israel is seeking to obliterate Palestinians may be deeply alarming to some.

Not to anyone familiar with their history during WW2, when Polish Jews were betrayed by the Polish populace to the nazis.

The statement “Considering Israel’s policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews” met with 35.6% affirmation in Germany, while 35.9% of British respondents were in agreement. In the Netherlands, 41.1% favored the assertion, as did 55.2% in Poland, 45.6% in Hungary and 48.8% in Portugal. France declined to participate.

The researchers also asked whether “Jews try to take advantage of having been victims during the Nazi era.”

Almost half the Germans questioned responded in the affirmative; the country’s 48.9% result was the highest among the Western European countries. The Netherlands provided the lowest percentage, with 17.2% affirming that Jews were trying to exploit the Nazi era. The number for Poland was 72.2%, and Hungary reached 68.1%. France reached 32.3%, England 21.8%, Portugal 52.2% and Italy 40.2%.

Küpper said that Poland and Hungary were also plagued by extraordinary levels of sexism [...]

I think that too is alarming. Who knew that women's rights in those particular parts of Europe were still well behind, or that some males there might still hold contempt?

A handful of German scholars, including Dr. Lars Rensmann, Dr. Matthias Küntzel and Dr. Clemens Heni, have investigated the phenomenon of secondary anti-Semitism in their writings.

Heni told the Post on Monday that “the Friedrich-Ebert Foundation study is based on the so-called ‘group-oriented enmity.’ This is a mainstream concept in Germany, introduced by Wilhelm Heitmeyer, among others, some 10 years ago, to downplay anti-Semitism and to equate genocidal anti-Semitism with enmity against jobless people, homosexuals, women and foreigners.”

He said it was “a ridiculous concept” because, for example, “equating anti-Semitism with enmity toward Islam is an obfuscation of Islamic and Muslim anti-Semitism. We have a steadily increasing number of Muslims in Europe, while Jews – like in the Netherlands – are thinking of leaving this continent due to anti- Semitic incidents and a political culture based on hatred of Jews.”

It's definitely bewildering when you find that, despite how Muslims in Europe are the ones really causing all the problems, some Europeans still refuse to let go of their prejudicial POV on the Jewish community and its religion.

According to Heni, “the study seems to be reluctant to deal honestly with new anti- Semitism, which is a component of political Islam as well as left-wing and mainstream anti-Zionism in the West.”

He used the term “lethal obsession” from the Hebrew University’s Prof. Robert Wistrich, an international authority on anti-Semitism, to describe what differentiated anti-Semitism from xenophobia and other forms of hatred.

“The new anti-Semitism is spread not just by neo-Nazis,” Heni said, but also “by mainstream left-wing members of parliament, left-wing activists, extremist Muslims and the European elites likewise.”

And the biggest problem is how the European right is not doing enough to combat them.

Labels: anti-semitism, Europe, islam, Israel, misogyny

The Weekly Standard reports on a German owned vessel that was captures by the IDF on its way to provide weapons for Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

I think there's some serious questions the German government has to answer, and here's one biggie:

The Islamic Republic of Iran enjoys wide latitude in using German vessels to arm Israel's enemies. This, by itself, should prompt national security bells to ring in Jerusalem and Washington. But how does one reconcile Merkel's refusal to bar the rental of German freight ships to Iranian weapons’ smugglers—and her own failure to shut down Iran's main financial terror conduit on the continent, the Hamburg-based European-Iranian Trade Bank —with her previously stated goal of advancing Western and Israeli security?

I'm afraid Merkel and company really are contradicting their devotion to ensuring security for Israel and the west by not doing anything to stop these thugs from delivering weapons to Hamas. In that case, is Germany really helping any? I don't think so.

Update: the IDF has released a list of what they found on board (also via The Weekly Standard).

Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, germany, iran, Israel, jihad, terrorism, war on terror

Warner Huston at Big Journalism tells how a writer for Slate named Patrick Cassels thinks Detroit actually needs a statue based on Robocop, a movie I'd watched in my youth, but, while I may have thought it was enjoyable back in the day, I see as little more than an absurdly anti-capitalist piece of propaganda today that completely refuses to come to terms with how leftist politics are what destroyed Motor City, not Reaganomics. And Paul Verhoeven, the Dutch-born director who worked on this flash-in-the-pan nonsense, even admitted later that it was supposed to be an attack on Christianity!

Detroit does not need a statue dedicated to such a gallingly written movie (which wore out its welcome faster than you could fry an egg, just like Roger Rabbit), unless its for the birds to shed their droppings on. If they do need a statue, it should be devoted to people like Ransom C. Olds, Louis Chevrolet, David Dunbar Buick, and Walter Chrysler. Unfortunately, if the municipality does decide to devote a statue to anyone, I suspect it'll be to that horror of a socialist racist, Henry Ford.

Labels: showbiz, United States

Diana West points to the following World Net Daily report by Aaron Klein, which tells:

JERUSALEM – Two members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ official security forces were arrested in conjunction with this past weekend’s bloody massacre in which five family members were brutally stabbed to death inside their home in the Jewish village of Itamar, WND has learned.

The names of the apprehended suspects will be released to the Israeli media within hours but were revealed to WND by security officials working on the murder.

Two cousins are now in Israeli custody and are suspected in the slayings. Ahmed Awad is an officer in Abbas’ Preventative Security Services in the northern West Bank city of Nablis. Iyad Awad is an officer in Abbas’ General Intelligence services in Ramallah.

Both the Preventative and General Intelligence services of Fatah are armed, trained and funded by the U.S.

The duo did not personally carry out the murders, but rather they assisting in the planning and logistics, informed security sources told WND.

Since the late 1990s, the U.S. has run training bases for PA militias. The U.S. also has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid and weapons to build up the PA militias.

Since 2007, the U.S. has stepped up its efforts at training the PA, including a new, advanced program for Palestinian police to train 500 to 600 cadets at a time at the American bases.

The U.S. currently operates training bases for the PA police and other militias, such as Force 17 and the Preventative Security Services in the West Bank city of Jericho and the Jordanian village of Giftlik

West also notes that generals Keith Dayton and Jim Jones, the latter a former Bush envoy who became Obama's national security adviser, were in charge of training these "security forces" and Jones even opposed US laws that prohibit US companies from supporting Arab boycotts of Israel. In fact, Caroline Glick spoke about this 2 years earlier.

Bush and Condoleeza Rice both owe an apology, along with Dayton and Jones for helping lead to this abomination. And Congress is going to have to call on the government to withdraw all funding and training for Fatah. There is a very serious case that's going to have to be made here, and even conservatives are going to have to take responsibility.

Update: here's more info at Hot Air, and a related report at the Jerusalem Post.

Update 2: Big Journalism discovers the NY Times desecrating the victims in favor of the terrorists, and once again explaining why nobody should buy them.

Update 3: Jeff Dunetz discusses how the MSM - including FOX News - dehumanized the victims, and once again, I am absolutely shocked at some people who would totally whitewash News Corp when they're no different than any other leftist media bastion.

Labels: anti-semitism, dhimmitude, islam, Israel, jihad, msm foulness, political corruption, terrorism, United States

The Israeli government is launching an index of Fatah's anti-Israel incitement:

The Security Cabinet decided Sunday to establish an index that would monitor Palestinian Authority incitement against Israel and the Jewish people. The "Culture of Peace and Incitement Index" was developed by professional Government and security establishment elements.

The announcement is linked to the horrific massacre in Itamar, which the government sees as resulting from PA incitement. Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said Sunday that continued PA incitement would makes any agreement signed by it worthless.

The Index considers four main issues: Explicit incitement to violence, encouraging an atmosphere of violence and terrorism, incitement to hatred and demonization, and the failure to prepare people for positive processes.

It was agreed that the Index would be constantly updated and presented in various forums in order to influence the Palestinian Authority to stop its ubiquitous incitement to, and education for, violence.

The high-profile establishment of the Index could signal a shift in official Israeli policy vis-a-vis the PA. Israelis who favor appeasing the PA tend to ignore incitement activity, focusing instead on actual terror acts. These are usually not officially authorized by the PA, and are often carried out by groups whose connection to the PA leadership is difficult to prove. Moving the focus to incitement lays the blame for terror directly at the PA's doorstep and could put an end to the terrorist's shell game regarding responsibilty for the actual attacks.

I take it this will be a special website, but so far, I can't tell if there is one yet. But when there is, either me or anyone else who knows about it should announce it at once.

Update: Knesset member Tzipi Hotovely has made an important point: a palestinian state must be taken off the agenda.

MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) said on Sunday that in the wake of Friday night’s massacre of the Fogel family in Itamar, the idea of a Palestinian state must be taken off the agenda.

“The Itamar attack should be an event that causes soul-searching within the government and a significant change of direction in relation to the Palestinian Authority,” Hotovely said during an interview with Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew website.

Hotovely welcomed the government’s decision, which was made following the Itamar murders, to approve construction of five hundred new housing units in major population centers in Judea and Samaria. She defined the decision as one that goes in the right direction, but added that it is not enough. “Hundreds of housing units in the so-called settlement blocs is not a statement that clearly strengthens our hold in the country,” she said.

Hotovely said that she expects Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu “to strengthen the construction in Itamar in particular and in Judea and Samaria in general, and more importantly – to announce that a Palestinian state is not on the agenda. A Palestinian state means more cases like Itamar.”

Absolutely correct.

Labels: anti-semitism, islam, Israel, jihad, terrorism, war on terror

Following the bloodbath in Itamar, the Israeli government has approved 500 housing units for Jewish residents:

The government responded to the murder of the Fogel family by approving 500 new residential units in Judea and Samaria. All of them are in major population centers.

Council of Jewish Communities in Judea and Samaria Chairman Danny Dayan called the approval “a very small step in the right direction.” He noted, “We are lacking 1,000 residential units in Judea and Samaria as of today. More buildings need to be approved addition to building a new neighborhood in Itamar in the name of the murder victims.”

The 500 new units, approved by a ministerial committee Saturday night, are to be built in Maaleh Adumim, Ariel and Kiryat Sefer, adjacent to Modi’in. No new construction was approved in smaller communities, such as Itamar.

That's something they're going to have to do, if they want to be more convincing.

According to this article, the victims were expellees from Gaza.

At the funeral, which many attended, Moshe Ya'alon had the following to say:

Vice Prime Minister Moshe Ya'alon said at the funeral: "The murder reminds us all that the struggle and conflict are not about the size of Israel and its borders but about our very existence. The main thing is the ancient right of the Jewish people to its Land, a right we never renounced, and by which we returned to our land after thousands of years."

"When we think of these murderers, we know that they operate against a background of education that teaches them Jews are fair game," Yaalon added. "[This education] did not begin recently or in 1967. It began at the start of the Zionist enterprise and even before it. As long as this murderous education goes on, as long as the incitement continues, any agreement we sign is not worth the paper it will be written upon, because it will be immediately violated ny those who are the products of this education."

That "education" is Islam, remember.

Update: in connected news, this is why I don't want a Facebook account, and I don't think I'll want to use YouTube either (via Instapundit and Astute Bloggers).

Update 2: Here's more about the case on One Jerusalem. And here's Dave Reaboi's report on Big Peace.

Labels: anti-semitism, islam, Israel, jihad, terrorism, war on terror

Japan has just experienced a large quake, something not seen on this scale in the 140 years since they kept records of this kind of thing. 1700 people may be dead in this horror. We have to hope that they can rescue other people still in danger and repair the damage.

Labels: Japan

Andy Wilcoxson, a contributor to Jihad Watch, has written an argument that counters one written on the American Thinker by one Aymenn Jawad al-Tamimi, and I think it's something they made a serious mistake in accepting, since for a long time, the war involving former Yugoslavia was pro-Islam propaganda.

Wilcoxson notes that:

[...] Alija Izetbegovic, the war-time President of the Bosnian-Muslims, and his Defense Minister, Hasan Cengic, were both outspoken jihadists.

Izetbegovic is the author of a book entitled the Islamic Declaration, which he wrote in 1970 and published in 1990. In his book, Izetbegovic advocates Sharia law, asserting that “the Islamic movement should and can, take over political power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only overturn the existing non-Islamic power, but also build up a new Islamic one.”

Izetbegovic brands Western feminists “a depraved element of the female sex” and says, “There can be neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions.” Izetbegovic asserted that “means of mass influence -- the press, radio, television and film -- should be in the hands of people whose Islamic, moral, and intellectual authority is indisputable.” And he advocated banning “casinos, night clubs, dance halls and all other forms of entertainment incompatible with the moral tenets of Islam.”

In 1983, Izetbegovic and Cengic were tried and convicted by the Yugoslav authorities for attempting to incite an Islamist uprising similar to the Islamic Revolution that gripped Iran in 1979.

According to the 1983 trial judgment, “Alija Izetbegovic asserted that Islam must be a state system or social system in all countries where the population is Muslim, and that the necessary conditions should be created to turn Bosnia and Herzegovina into an Islamic republic with Islamic laws.”

If the press and such are in the hands of Islamics, they aren't exactly in the hands of moralists or intellectuals.

Also:

According to the 9/11 Commission Report, terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, along with three of the hijackers (Nawaf al Hazmi, Salem al Hazmi, and Khalid al Mihdhar), all fought in the Bosnian jihad.

In 1996, just after the Bosnian war ended, the U.S. House Committee on International Relations launched an investigation into America’s role in Iranian arms transfers to Croatia and Bosnia. Their investigation found that the Iranian government had provided a full two-thirds of the Bosnian-Muslims’ military hardware.

According to their report, “Iran ordered senior members of its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”), the elite force used to advance militant Islam, to travel to Bosnia to survey the military needs of the government. IRGC trainers taught the Muslims how to use anti-tank missiles and helped with troop logistics and weapons factories. The IRGC also incorporated religious indoctrination into military training. Iran used this leverage to urge Hizballah to send foreign fighters to the region as members of the Mujahideen. The effort was successful, and a force of thousands drawn from several pro-Iranian groups and other Islamic Opposition movements assembled in Bosnia.”

In spite of Mr. Al-Tamimi’s denials, the Bosnian-Serbs were the target of jihadist aggression. The Muslims had been setting-up paramilitary groups in Bosnia long before the war started in 1992.

In an interview with Izetbegovic’s party newspaper, Halid Cengic (Hasan’s father and a party official) boasted that “already on August 1, 1990, we had a platoon armed with automatic weapons, a machine-gun and a mortar. They all had camouflage uniforms and they pledged their allegiance in the Ustikolina mosque, with their hands on the Koran.”

[...]

Al-Tamimi’s criticism of Srdja Trifkovic is entirely disingenuous. He has no right to accuse others of intolerance, when he makes lying accusations about the Bosnian war that certainly appear as though they were crafted to incite racial hatred against Serbs.

Speaking of which, if anyone remembers the case of Sulejman Talovic, he was filled with hatred against non-Muslim whites, blacks, and even homosexuals.

The American Thinker would be wise to think about no longer taking any articles from someone as dishonest as al-Tamimi really is. And the time has come to reveal more of the truth about war that the Muslims in Bosnia started against the Serbs.

Labels: Europe, islam, jihad, racism