Israel, much like the fortress of Tel-Chai that Jospeh Trumpeldor fought to defend against Arab conquerors in 1920, finds itself beseiged by enemies both within and without. Terrorists, would-be friends inside and outside Israel, and even bad government officials. Here are the discussions of one proud Zionist resident on the state of the nation and abroad.
(IsraelNN.com) A parliamentary committee in Belgium voted on Wednesday to ban the wearing of face-covering veils in public, and the full House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill in late April. The Interior Affairs Committee, in which all major parties are represented, was unanimous in its decision.
"We cannot allow someone to claim the right to look at others without being seen," MP Daniel Bacquelaine of the French-speaking MR liberal-values party told the Associated Press. "It is necessary that the law forbids the wearing of clothes that totally mask and encloses an individual.”
I hope they don't let alleged legal issues get in the way, because as the article goes on to tell, fools are trying to challenge Europe's wish to defend itself.
FBI arrests and charges anti-semite for threatening Eric Cantor and family
Michelle Malkin has obtained a press release from the district attorney's office in Philadelphia, about a crazy, possible Muslim named Norman Leboon, who made death threats against Congressman Eric Cantor and family:
Today, a two-count complaint and warrant was filed charging Norman Leboon with threatening to kill United States Congressman Eric Cantor and his family, and threatening to kill Congressman Eric Cantor, who is an official of the United States, announced United States Attorney Michael L. Levy and FBI Special Agent in Charge Jan Fedarcyk. As set forth in the affidavit to the complaint and warrant, in or about late March, 2010, Leboon created and then transmitted a YouTube video to Google over the internet, in which he threatened to kill Congressman Cantor and his family. No harm came to the Congressman or his family as a result of Leboon’s threats.
“The Department of Justice takes threats against government officials seriously, especially threats to kill or injure others,” said Levy. “Whether the reason for the threat is personal or political, threats are not protected by the First Amendment and are crimes.”
If convicted of all the charges, the defendant faces a maximum possible sentence of 15 years imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, a fine up to $500,000, and a $200 special assessment. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Philadelphia Police Department, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert K. Reed.
The Hill says that the DNC will give any donations made by Leboon to charity. It also tells that Leboon made several threats against Democrats as well. What that suggests is that characters like Leboon are like golems who'll turn against even their liberal reps.
Two female homicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow’s subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers Monday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 30, the city’s mayor and other officials said. Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Chumikova said 23 people were killed at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB’s main successor agency.
[...] Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said both explosions were believed to have been set off by female suicide bombers as the trains entered the stations. In the first case, officials said the explosion was on the train; there was no immediate information on the location of the second blast.
[...] Russia’s top investigative body also said terrorism was suspected.
Umm, isn't it obvious what this was? What really needs to be asked is if this was the work of a large terror organization.
That is, assuming they haven't already. In the 5 years since Saudi prince al Walid bin Talal bought a stake in NewsCorp, it's slowly been getting worse. I'd missed this very disgraceful news last week, but as The American Thinker (via News Real Blog) tells, Shepard Smith, to name but one, has been getting more increasingly anti-Israel in his reports:
Did anyone notice Shepard Smith’s passionate rant against Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs a few days ago? I always thought Smith was just a smarmy, jock-type teeny-bopper. But he obviously knows which side his bread is buttered on, and he is fully capable of getting all lathered up over something about which he is absolutely ignorant.
Today on Fox News, Amy Kellogg did another hit piece on Israel, using a cute little heart-strings-tugger about the peaceful Syrian civilians who picnic on the Golan Heights in nostalgic longing for the times when it belonged to Syria. Of course, there was no mention of the carnage and slaughter inflicted on peaceful Israeli citizens when the Syrians were in charge of the Golan. Apparently, there’s no nostalgia in that.
And that's not the only grave mistake they've made lately: Glenn Beck, usually until now one of the better news hosts, turned against the very man he'd once hosted on his show when he called Geert Wilders a fascist, with A.B Stoddard, Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer turning against him as well. In fact, here's a video clip now:
Beck hosted Wilders on his show a year or two ago. If Beck can host Wilders, I don't know why he's concerned that England did.
Maybe now we do: if bin Talal's considerable stake in NewsCorp, which also owns the Weekly Standard, if I'm not mistaken, means anything. More from Atlas Shrugs.
Diana West did the right thing to bring up the issue of bin Talal's stake in Murdoch's enterprise. It's a shame that quite a few other conservatives are not, all likely because they don't want to jeopardize their chances to be guests of the week on FOX's talk shows.
The conservative movement is going to have to now start thinking about whether they're doing the right thing to defend FOX at all costs, or ignore bin Talal's treacherous encroachment altogether. If they could turn against Israel today, they could turn against the conservative movement tomorrow. Otherwise, they might one day discover that they defended FOX much to their regret.
The best way to sum this up is: don't let bin Talal have the last laugh.
The Fatah dictator predictably tells in this news clip he won't accept that Jerusalem is Israeli:
There will be no peace agreement without ending the occupation of Palestinian land, first and foremost east Jerusalem, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday at the Arab League summit in Libya.
Abbas added that conflict in Jerusalem was dangerous and could ignite the entire Middle East. He said the PA would not resume peace talks with Israel, including indirect talks, until Israel stops construction in the settlements.
And of course, he also incites/signals violence against Israeli targets. What a most hateful man Abbas really is. Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority since the mid-19th century, whereas the Muslims have been a minority in the Holy City for a very very long time before that, if they were ever a majority.
Jerusalem — The Middle East News Line, known as a reliable and credible source, reports that the Palestinian Authority (PA) has drafted a plan that would end direct U.S. involvement in Palestinian security in the West Bank.
The plan calls for Palestinian trainers to replace those brought by the United States as well as the marginalization of the team headed by U.S. security coordinator Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton. Under the plan, Lt. Gen. Dayton would no longer have access to PA security forces or field operations.
[...]
The PA leadership, prodded by the ruling Fatah movement, determined that U.S. intervention was hampering security force development and undermining the legitimacy of the regime of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
“There is a consensus that the American presence has to be significantly reduced in 2010,” the official said.
Well the US shouldn't have been helping them anyway, and should not have been funding them either. A pure waste of US tax dollars.
So POTUS Obama has decided to alienate Israel even more by snubbing Netanyahu for not agreeing to his biased, controlling demands. From the UK Times (via Jihad Watch and Atlas Shrugs):
For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of.
Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip seen in Jerusalem tonight as a disastrous humiliation.
After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on Jewish settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisors and "let me know if there is anything new", a US congressman who spoke to the Prime Minister said today.
"It was awful," the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting "a hazing in stages", poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House phone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received "the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea".
It really doesn't matter. Netanyahu shouldn't endeavor to please people as awful as Obama anyway, nor should he feel disappointed that Obama is basing his friendship on poor politics. Big Journalism has some more here.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu does not intend to change his coalition, despite pressure from US President Barack Obama’s administration to shift leftward, sources close to Netanyahu said following their return from Washington Thursday night.
The sources vigorously denied reports that the Obama administration had urged him to replace Shas or Israel Beiteinu with Kadima. They said Netanyahu did not believe he had to make a choice between his coalition and Israel’s ties with the United States.
“The coalition is strong, stable, and functions very well,” a Netanyahu associate said. “He would always be happy to expand it by adding Kadima, but he has no intention to defy his current partners.”
Some top Kadima MKs have indicated that if Netanyahu would kick out Shas or Israel Beiteinu, their party would be happy to join. But Kadima head Tzipi Livni has made clear that she is not interested in serving as a fig leaf for a Likud government.
Israel Beiteinu head Avigdor Lieberman sent a message to Netanyahu that he did not want to sit in a coalition with Kadima when he fiercely attacked the party on Channel 2 Thursday night.
“Kadima leaders must have Alzheimer’s,” he said. “They forgot that when they led the disengagement from Gaza, they said it would bring prosperity. Kadima now wants to bring a second disengagement that would be a second surrender.”
Shas chairman Eli Yishai reserved his attack for Obama, who accused him last week of purposely initiating building projects in Jerusalem to harm Israel’s relations with the US. Yishai told his party’s newspaper Yom Leyom that the Obama administration had failed to accept that Israel had an election that changed the government’s path.
“I thank the Creator of the world for giving me the honor of being the minister who builds thousands of homes in holy Jerusalem,” Yishai said. “There is a lot of hypocrisy in the American attack on me. The US government has been giving Abu Mazen excuses to not come to the negotiating table.”
Habayit Hayehudi MK Zevulun Orlev also blasted Obama but suggested that, in the face of pressure from the US that he said endangered Israel, a national emergency government with Kadima should be formed.
He said the government could focus on two consensus issues: building in Jerusalem and preventing the nuclearization of Iran.
“I hope all the parties show responsibility and realize that this is no longer a game,” Orlev said. “When it comes to maintaining Israel’s existence, everyone must be willing to make sacrifices.”
[...]
Hawkish Likud MK Danny Danon compared Obama to the Egyptian ruler who was the adversary of the Jews in the Pessah story.
“As Jews around the world prepare to celebrate Pessah – the festival of freedom – President Obama’s condescending and insulting behavior reminds us of how we were treated by Pharaoh in Egypt,” Danon said. “President Obama must understand that we are a sovereign nation in our own land and won’t bow to foreign rulers.”
With Passover coming up, this makes for an interesting argument.
The Jawa Report informs that the FBI and Homeland Security are investigating a Dallas-area Muslim by the name of Javid Kamal, who sent e-mails to Kansas legislators with a "final call to Islam". A former Fed told the blogmaster that:
This is a significant danger because of the requirement in Islam to invite ("Dawah" in Islam) non-Muslims to Islam prior to an attack ("Jihad" in Islam). It is my professional opinion that this direct Dawah to the entire Kansas legislature and the emphasis that Monday's email is Javid Kamal's "final" email inviting them to Islam, is a direct threat to the Kansas legislature and others to which Kamal communicated, and is a prelude to a jihadi attack.
The Kansas authorities who went to question Kamal found that he's missing and his family allegedly don't even know where he is. Could he have fled the country?
In another item on David Petraeus, The American Spectator writes some more on how he's setting the record straight on the false info that was reported about him, mainly by one leftard named Mark Perry. Petraeus also spoke to Israeli army general Gabi Ashkenazi to assure him his words had been distorted.
I have a good guess why these lies had been told: no doubt to foster distrust. The left can do a lot of things when they want to harm relations between the Jewish community and conservatives.
Update 2: okay, did Petraeus screw up or not? Andrew Bostom and Diana West still have disagreements and more to say. Judge for yourself. I suppose the best thing to say is that Petraeus is going to have to be very careful what he says about foreign based democracies like Israel in the future.
Claims that Israel is trafficking the organs of dead Palestinians are printed in an official United Nations document, exposing the world body to charges it is doing the bidding of anti-Israel countries such as Iran and Libya.
The revelation comes as Iran and Libya are leading candidates for election this year to the UN Human Rights Council, which the world body bills as the world's foremost human rights monitoring group.
The election of Iran would be an affront to Canada, which each year leads a campaign in the UN General Assembly to have Iran's human rights record condemned -- invariably amid substantial opposition from Iranian sympathizer states such as Cuba, Venezuela and even Afghanistan.
Israel's organ trafficking claim is alleged by the Libya founded International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), whose website says it is "focused on the ideological systems of apartheid and Zionism."
[...]
Bernie Farber, the Canadian Jewish Congress chief executive, said the UN was involved in distributing allegations which reflect age-old "blood libels" accusing Jews of using human blood in certain of their rituals.
"Not only is there no proof, it is a take-off of the historical calumny of the Jewish blood libel, and that this is coming out under the auspices of the United Nations, and from an accredited UN organization, is breathtaking in its shame," Mr. Farber said.
It's not too hard to guess who led to the idea of putting this on their website and following up on one of the sickest things Scandanavia coughed up in recent years. No one with common sense should associate themselves with such revolting people.
Neuer told The Jerusalem Post that the UNHRC in the past has asked UN Watch to change the language in documents that UN Watch plans to submit, including in this session where UNHRC asked UN Watch to edit their words with reference to Iran and Libya.
If UN Watch can’t use the word “regime” when talking about Iran, then one would think that a “blood libel” would be unacceptable, Neuer said.
Allegations that Israeli soldiers killed Palestinians to harvest their organs were widely publicized this summer in an article written by Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom for the country’s largest circulated daily, Aftonbladet.
Israel has denied the story. Bostrom later admitted that he relied solely on the testimony of Palestinian families for his story.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said it was “outrageous” that the allegations were published on a UN Web site.
“The only organ that was stolen is in people’s brains,” said Palmor.
“The most preposterous, ridiculous and horrendous of all lies can gain respectability at the UN,” he warned.
“I am deeply revolted by the fact that anyone in their right mind can actually advance such horribly surrealistic accusations,” said Palmor.
But it's no longer surprising.
According to the NGO Eye on the UN, EAFORD was founded in Libya and accredited at the UN in 1981. Its Web site states that it has focused on the ideological systems of Apartheid and Zionism.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights had no response to the matter.
Separately on Wednesday, the US chastised the UN Human Rights Council for its continued focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as it opposed four resolutions on that matter which the council passed.
Since the council’s inception in 2006, most of its resolutions censuring countries have focused on Israel.
US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe told the council “it is too often exploited as a platform to single out Israel, which undermines its credibility.”
And that's one more reason why people with common sense should back away from the UN. Which, while we're on the subject, has by contrast allowed people like the following to get away with sodomy:
As the United Nations worked to restore peace and protect women and children in Africa’s troubled Cote d’Ivoire three years ago, it announced it was investigating “serious allegations of wide-spread sexual exploitation and abuse.”
Shockingly, the alleged perpetrators were with the U.N.—Moroccan troops serving as peacekeepers.
A confidential probe by U.N. and Moroccan investigators turned up evidence that 14 soldiers were involved, according to a person familiar with the matter; DNA analysis showed some of them had fathered children with the victims. But the U.N. has never disclosed the results of the investigation or whether any of the soldiers were punished.
The Moroccan government has stated that no conclusive evidence of abuse was found and that it dropped all charges.
And it figures that Morocco would likely excuse their actions too. That's the United Nazis for you, who consider Israel worse than Islamic-bred violence.
If you'd like to read about the history of the Hurva Synagogue, which recently underwent reconstruction, here's an article about it, and even a radio report.
But only when the work is done is it done, so I hope they'll make good on that announcement. From the UK Telegraph (via Jihad Watch):
Nicolas Sarkozy has said that France will ban the full Muslim veil.
The move would protect the dignity of women, the president added.
"The full veil is contrary to the dignity of women," he said. "The response is to ban it. The Government will table a draft law prohibiting it."
They'll be wise to make a serious effort at getting it through, after the sad regional election loss a week ago. What was really sad was that the Front National made a minor comeback in the regional/municipal elections, even if they got less than 10 percent in the final results. And really absurd is that this was because the Front National ran an anti-Islam campaign, this after they had done a 360 in 2007's election and tried to form an alliance with the Islamic community! It's a real shame when people forget, as they may have. I just hope that this time, they refrained from any overtly racist platforms, and that Marine Le Pen, the most likely successor to her disgusting father Jean-Marie Le Pen, is not as bad as he is.
The AFP reports that actor Robert Culp, who co-starred with Bill Cosby in I Spy in the mid-60s, has passed away at 79. Another notable performer who'll be sadly missed.
The Weekly Standard reports that CAIR's latest dastardly deed is attacking a series of educational books involving Islam. Their targets even include an item written by Barry Rubin, who's also spoken about this case here. TWS says:
The FPRI “World of Islam” series is issued by Mason Crest, a Pennsylvania educational publisher with a wide scope. Indeed, Mason Crest publishes another series called “Introducing Islam” that is favored by CAIR. The works under CAIR attack are not textbooks, but brief supplemental manuals that may be used to enhance student reading. None of the “World of Islam” booklets can fairly be described as biased against Islam. Rather, the volumes seek to balance the uncritical, pro-Islam bias of numerous public school textbooks with a fairer assessment of the problems facing Americans and other Westerners in understanding Islam.
[...]
These texts are neither prejudicial nor ideological; they represent established historical opinion and accurate reporting on present-day challenges affecting Muslims and non-Muslims alike. CAIR is attempting, as often in the past, to reinforce its claim to be a privileged interpreter of Islam in the United States.
Obviously, no matter how the books are formatted, CAIR doesn't want children to have any idea of what Europe is like today, to name but one example. Aside from that, they're also engaging in their usual distortions and attacking legitimate authors. And that's another reason why CAIR should be roundly rejected.
Barry Rubin at the Gloria Center writes about how the UN has once again shown why it's worthless and atrocious - they gave a Rafik Hariri memorial award to Tayyip Erdogan, who's not only already showing why he doesn't deserve it, but is a friend of Syria's, the very autocracy that had Hariri murderered in the first place:
The first winner is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Of course, Erdogan is an Islamist who is an ally of Syria, the murderer of Hariri.
Why did Erdogan get the $200,000 award? According to the announcement, the reason is that he organized the first conference of mayors that led to the creation of a worldwide organization of mayors, thus creating another round of meetings so that the budgets of cities can be spent on plane fare and luxury hotels for mayors to travel around the world. How's that for making the lives of urban people better?
Apparently, the fact that Erdogan is closely cooperating with the people who killed Hariri, after whom the award was named, did not strike the panel as ironic.
And of course Erdogan has also taken Turkey into alignment with Iran and Hizballah, the other forces which are trying to control Hariri's country and against whom the late prime minister fought.
What they've done is to invalidate their own so-called award, and show it's all a sham and a joke. Such utterly disgusting people.
The New Republic reports something that has been almost entirely ignored by the distasteful MSM: Turkey's premier, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
has threatened a real crime against humanity by warning the 100,000 non-citizen Armenians who live in Turkey that he may simply deport them. Justjournalism.com has done an analysis of how the British media dealt with the cruel tip-off. Only the Times and the Telegraph reported on it at all. Reuters had it on its wire, which was picked up by the Huffington Post, otherwise known as the Puffington Host.
Or, as I once called the dopey site, the Huffington Puffington Post. Then again, I guess must applaud them for being one source in the US that was willing to take note of the alarming news. But there you have it, another sign of how Turkey cannot be considered an ally to the west, and never truly was. It'll be a most awful day if they're allowed into the EU.
After Commentary and The American Thinker have found that Obama's newest assault on Israel is turning public opinion in America against Israel, which is certainly disturbing and surprising if it is, considering how low public opinion is of Obama himself for his vicious foist of the healthcare bill upon the American people, Melanie Phillipshas recommended that Israel's governing system stop going along with the lies told by Britain, the US and Europe that have actually helped to harm it and start making clear the real picture of Israel's historical birthright. And, Netanyahu should start talking mainly to the American public in regards to this proposal.
I fully agree that the old type of diplomacy is going to have to be abandoned sooner than later, because this is becoming a very serious problem in maintaining real safety and legitimacy for Israel.
Israeli will neither change policies that have been upheld by its various governments since 1967 nor halt construction in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stressed at Sunday's cabinet meeting.
“We will clarify that building in Jerusalem is like building in Tel Aviv,” Netanyahu said. A final-status agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, he said, could only be reached at the conclusion of direct talks in which the two sides "sit together and sort the issues out." The prime minister said that the planned proximity talks – indirect negotiations with US mediation – would enable the two sides to individually state their case, but would not facilitate an enduring peace process.
Netanyahu said his position would remain unflagging during his visit to Washington later on Sunday, and that he would clarify that to the Obama administration.
(IsraelNN.com) Violence against women has long been common in Gaza: a Palestinian Women’s Information and Media Center study found that between half and three-quarters of Gaza women are subjected to physical violence from male relatives.
A recent report created by IRIN, which provides “humanitarian analysis” in coordination with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, quotes Gaza women in putting the blame for the high rates of violence on Israel. “Widespread unemployment was one of the biggest contributors to household stress, and in turn male violence against women,” the article said in the name of a Gaza women's center worker. The worker accused Israel of causing high unemployment with an "economic blockade."
IRIN also quotes the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which last week drafted a resolution expressing concern over “the grave situation of Palestinian women in the occupied Palestinian territory... resulting from the severe impact of the ongoing illegal Israeli occupation and all its manifestations.”
First, make no mistake here, whoever these women are in Gaza whom they're alluding to are not blaming Israel for actually abandoning them. That too is either mindless placement of the blame, or they're being forced by the males to do so. But the next paragraph is certainly telling: This IRIN is claiming that Israel's alleged "occupation" is what caused this unjustified violence to take place. The tactics they're using are very similar to a certain Swedish newspaper's claim that Israel harvests the organs of palestinians. No doubt they're either willing to - or most certainly are - blaming Israel for encouraging something that just so happens to take place in many more parts of the Islamic world.
(IsraelNN.com) A short range rocket slammed into southern Israel Thursday evening, within the territory of the Eshkol Local Authority. No one was hurt. Earlier in the day, a Thai worker was killed by a similar rocket.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon held a press conference Thursday at Netiv Ha'asara, near the spot where the foreign worker was killed.
"This is one rocket out of 12,000 that the citizens of Israel have endured in recent years," the Deputy Foreign Minister said. "The responsibility for this attack rests with Hamas."
There's nothing new here. It's all the same jihadist bloodshed continuing.
WASHINGTON -- The United States has diverted a shipment of bunker-busters designated for Israel.
Officials said the U.S. military was ordered to divert a shipment of smart bunker-buster bombs from Israel to a military base in Diego Garcia. They said the shipment of 387 smart munitions had been slated to join pre-positioned U.S. military equipment in Israel Air Force bases.
"This was a political decision," an official said.
Quite right. Not that we should be relying solely on American-made arms, though, and it was reported some time ago that the Israeli military was going to wean itself off of those. I hope they still are.
Dr. Hagi Ben-Artzi, the outspoken brother-in-law of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, called US President Barack Obama an anti-Semite.
In an interview with The Jerusalem Post, Ben-Artzi also blamed the Jews who contributed to his election. "It's sad for me to say that those 78% of American Jews who voted for Obama are disconnected from their heritage and from Israel," Ben-Artzi said. "They are indifferent to Israel and they want to be more American than American. Israel can't count on those Jews being pro-Israel."
Actually, many of them cannot be described well as American, if at all. If they're ultra-leftist, there's a chance they might just as well support chomskyism! In that case, how can they even be described as American?
The prime minister has distanced himself from Ben-Artzi's statement, but it's surprising that he's able to stand up and say what he has.
Colleen LaRose is the umpteenth Muslim, even convert, who refuses to admit she's guilty of the evil she either tried or committed:
PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia-area woman authorities say dubbed herself "Jihad Jane" online pleaded not guilty Thursday in federal court to a four-count indictment charging her in an overseas terrorist plot.
Colleen LaRose, 46, of Pennsburg, appeared in court wearing a green jumpsuit and corn rows in her blond hair. A May 3 trial date was set.
She was accused of conspiring with jihadist fighters and pledging to commit murder in the name of a Muslim holy war. Authorities say she wanted to kill a Swedish artist who had offended Muslims.
Are they trying to downplay the seriousness of the issue on Islam? Could be. Early in her life, she'd been a criminal too:
Authorities say she grew acquainted online with violent co-conspirators from around the world. They say she posted a YouTube video in 2008 saying she was "desperate to do something" to ease the suffering of Muslims.
She was arrested in October 2009 in Philadelphia while returning to the United States.
LaRose spent most of her life in Texas, where she dropped out of high school, married at 16 and again at 24, and racked up a few minor arrests, records show.
After a second divorce, she followed a boyfriend to Pennsylvania in about 2004 and began caring for his father while he worked long hours, sometimes on the road. In 2005, she swallowed a handful of pills in a failed suicide attempt, telling police she was upset over the death of her father — but did not want to die.
As she moved through her 40s without a job or any outside hobbies, her boyfriend said, she started spending more time online.
Though her boyfriend, Kurt Gorman, did not consider her religious, and she apparently never joined a mosque, LaRose had by 2008 declared herself "desperate" to help suffering Muslims in the YouTube video.
"In my view, she sort of slipped sideways into Islam. ... There may have been some seduction into it, by one or more people," said Temple University psychologist Frank Farley.
LaRose and Gorman shared an apartment with his father in Pennsburg, a quaint if isolated town an hour northwest of Philadelphia. Just days after the father died last August, she stole Gorman's passport and fled to Europe without telling him, making good on her online pledge to try to kill in the name of Allah, according to the indictment.
From June 2008 through her Aug. 23, 2009, departure, the woman who also called herself "Fatima Rose" went online to recruit male fighters for the cause, recruit women with Western passports to marry them, and raise money for the holy war, the indictment charged.
She had also agreed to marry one of her overseas contacts, a man from South Asia who said he could deal bombs and explosives, according to e-mails recovered by authorities.
He also told her in a March 2009 e-mail to go to Sweden to find the artist, Lars Vilks.
"I will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying," she wrote back, adding that her blonde American looks would help her blend in.
Vilks questioned the sophistication of the plotters, seven of whom were rounded up in Ireland last week, just before LaRose's indictment was unsealed. Still, he said he was glad LaRose never got to him. Although she had written the Swedish embassy in March 2009 to ask how to obtain residency, and joined his online artists group in September, there is no evidence from court documents that she ever made it to Sweden.
Instead, she was arrested returning to Philadelphia on Oct. 15.
That she never succeeded in achieving her goal is very lucky. But look how far gone she if she won't admit her guilt.
Gen. Petraeus' 2 poor statements on the mideast (update: info was inaccurate)
Barry Rubin at the Gloria Center analyzes 2 remarks General David Petraeus made to a Congressional testimony where he argues some very farfetched things about the Israeli-Arab conflict:
Statement One:
"A credible U.S. effort on Arab-Israeli issues that provides regional governments and populations a way to achieve a comprehensive settlement of the disputes would undercut Iran's policy of militant 'resistance,' which the Iranian regime and insurgent groups have been free to exploit."
On the surface this makes a lot of sense. But let's examine it closely. Let's assume there is a comprehensive settlement to which the Palestinian Authority (PA) agrees. It isn't going to happen but this is for demonstration purposes.
In order to get an agreement, the PA would have to make some concessions, let's keep them to the minimum for our discussion. At a minimum, it would have to say that the conflict is at an end, recognize Israel, renounce Palestinian claims to all of Israel, and agree to settle all Palestinian refugees in Palestine. In addition, it might have to make some small territorial swaps, not get every square inch of east Jerusalem, and agree to some limits on its military forces.
What would happen?
First, none of this would apply to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Hamas, Hizballah, Syria, Iran, Muslim Brotherhoods, and many others would renounce this as treason. Hamas would continue to attack Israel; its forces in the West Bank would stage cross-border raids into Israel and try to seize power in the West Bank.
Would the kind of people who are now prone to support revolutionary Islamism then say: "What a fair settlement. This settles all our grievances. Thank you, America for being so wonderful!"
While to many Western observers such a reaction would seem logical this is not what would happen. The Western onlooker is assuming a pragmatic, facts-based response rather than an ideological response based on massive disinformation by governments, media, religious leaders, and political movements.
And even Fatah itself does not want any peace treaty with Israel, as even recent events have shown, so it's a shame that Petraeus is blowing it.
Here's Petraeus's second statement:
"Additionally, progress on the Israel-Syria peace track could disrupt Iran's lines of support to Hamas and Hizballah."
Why would this be so? What does Hamas care about the Israel-Syria track? Why should Iran give less support to Hizballah as a result? After all, Hizballah is trying to take over Lebanon, not the Golan Heights.
Presumably, the subtext here is that Syria would be so happy to be making progress that it would subvert Iran's relationship to Hamas and Hizballah. But why should Damascus undercut its relationship with Tehran just to have talks with Israel? Shouldn't we remember the 1991-2000 period when there was "progress on the Israel-Syria peace track" and yet it had no effect on Syria's relationship with Iran or the two Islamist revolutionary movements?
And sooner or later, Syria, if they don't abandon their own jihadist culture, would likely break any treaty signed. It's worth considering that they're an autocracy, and if they don't abandon that and start incorporating democracy, that's one more reason why it wouldn't work out. Read all of Rubin's discussion in full to understand why Petraeus is not well versed on this.
Update: according to Max Boot, the news about Petraeus was inaccurate. He asked a military official about this, and it's all a distortion of Arafat-worshiper Mark Perry:
He told me that Perry’s item was “incorrect.” In the first place, Petraeus never recommended shifting the Palestinian territories to Centcom’s purview from European Command, as claimed by Perry. Nor did Petraeus belittle George Mitchell, whom he holds in high regard. All that happened, this officer told me, is that there was a “staff-officer briefing … on the situation in the West Bank, because that situation is a concern that Centcom hears in the Arab world all the time. Nothing more than that.”
I further queried this officer as to whether he had ever heard Petraeus express the view imputed to him by Mark Perry — namely that Israel’s West Bank settlements are the biggest obstacle to a peace accord and that the lack of a peace accord is responsible for killing American soldiers. This officer told me that he had heard Petraeus say “the lack of progress in the Peace Process, for whatever reason, creates challenges in Centcom’s AOR [Area of Responsibility], especially for the more moderate governmental leaders,” and that’s a concern — one of many — but he did not suggest that Petraeus was mainly blaming Israel and its settlements for the lack of progress. They are, he said, “one of many issues, among which also is the unwillingness to recognize Israel and the unwillingness to confront the extremists who threaten Israelis.”
That’s about what I expected: Petraeus holds a much more realistic and nuanced view than the one attributed to him by terrorist groupie Mark Perry.
Avigdor Lieberman says that the Obama administration's demands for more concessions is unreasonable:
The demands made by the U.S. and other world powers regarding the cessation of Israel's building projects in East Jerusalem is unreasonable, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday, adding that he felt preventing Jews from buying lands anywhere in the capital is a form of discrimination.
Lieberman, speaking at a joint press conference with the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton in Jerusalem, said that the demand represented, "to a large extent, an opportunity to attack Israel and pressure Israel into doing unreasonable things."
[...]
"The demand to forbid Jews to buy or build in East Jerusalem is unreasonable. Let's consider what would happen if we would ban the Arab residents of the city to buy in west Jerusalem," Lieberman asked, adding that he had asked "all of the leaders who I have spoken with recently that question."
"Some said that we would then be an apartheid state, but that's an unacceptable asymmetry," the foreign minister said.
Lieberman told Ashton that "Jerusalem is Israel's capital and must be accessible to members of all faiths," adding that "anyone may buy and build wherever he likes."
"There are thousands of East Jerusalem Arabs who live in the Jewish neighborhood in the west and that will continue," Lieberman said.
"It is very important to thank Richard Goldstone for his report. For the last ten years we are trying to stress the strategic importance of media. Now in Israel, it's understood that by not fighting against the lies, Israel is losing its legitimacy in the world. Goldstone was a catalyst."
Actor Peter Graves, famous for his role in Mission: Impossible and various movies, is dead at 83 years old. There's another great performer who'll be very missed (via Big Hollywood).
Just when I thought the Irish authorities were responsible, it looks like I'll have to reconsider. Jaime-Paulin Ramirez was released from custody (via The Jawa Report):
Colorado mother Jamie Paulin-Ramirez was released from custody in Ireland after being arrested in a plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who angered many Muslims by portraying Mohammed with a dog's body.
Authorities are still holding three other suspects in that alleged plot, including Paulin-Ramirez' husband and Colleen Larose, who allegedly called herself "Jihad Jane" online.
This weekend three suspects remain in custody following the release of all three women and a man. Those released may yet face charges, a police spokesman said, while those still in custody can be held until Tuesday.
The police presence outside the Kashmir restaurant was far less relaxed early last week when 20 officers armed with pump-action shotguns stormed an adjacent apartment block and arrested a 26-year-old Croatian man.
At the same time police raids were being carried out in other locations in Waterford and Cork. Three married couples were arrested, all of them Muslims. The police would say only that seven people aged from their 20s to late 40s had been arrested under Section 50 of the anti-terror Offences against the State Act.
The link between the suspects, who made Irish legal history by appearing in the first private hearings at Waterford court so that police could extend their periods of detention up to a maximum of seven days, is strongly suspected to be “Jihad Jane”, an al-Qaeda “groupie” accused by the FBI of planning the murder of the controversial Swedish cartoonist, Lars Vilks.
I wonder if we'll even hear from Swedish authorities that this is unacceptable? Best guess is - probably not. This is atrocious, and Ireland's parliament needs to deal with this and amend the laws properly.
The police have had to deploy in eastern Jerusalem in order to deal with the latest incitement Fatah has committed:
(IsraelNN.com) A 'Yassam' special forces policeman suffered injuries to his hand Tuesday when he was shot near the central square of Ras El-Amud, an Arab neighborhood on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. Initial reports suggested that the shots were fired from a handgun. The attack occurred in the course of Arab rioting in the neighborhood. The policeman was evacuated to Hadassah Hospital at Mount Scopus.
Police Commissioner Lt.-Gen. David Cohen arrived on the scene of the attack and received a briefing from District Commander, Maj.-Gen. Aharon Franco. “This is a very serious event and we will not spare any effort to put our hands on the perpetrators,” Cohen told reporters.
Arab assailants lobbed a fire bomb at an Israeli-licensed vehicle north of Ofra in the eastern Binyamin region Tuesday. No one was hurt and the vehicle was not damaged. IDF soldiers combed the region in an effort to arrest the attackers.
An Israeli woman was lightly injured Tuesday evening when Muslims threw rocks at her car near the community of Tekoa in the Etzion Bloc, south of Jerusalem. She was independently evacuated to a hospital for treatment. Her car was damaged.
Don't expect the Obama administration to place a single bit of blame upon Fatah for this, nor can we expect them to place any blame upon Islam.
The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court on Monday partially accepted a lawsuit filed by four settlers from Yitzhar and ordered the state to pay NIS 10,000 to each of them and to their lawyer.
Judge Irit Cohen found the police guilty of libeling the plaintiffs after accusing them of armed robbery, assault, stealing goats from a Palestinian, and preventing the police from doing their job.
The case grew out an incident on June 9, 2004, when a Palestinian goatherd complained that a resident of the Yitzhar, near Nablus, had stolen his goats. The police escorted him to the settlement and returned the goats to him.
As the goatherd was returning to his village, he was attacked by settlers who took back the goats back by force. In the meantime, the members of Yitzhar’s readiness unit went down in the direction of the assault, apparently to protect the settlers, though they say they were alerted for another reason.
The members of the readiness unit, Boaz Albert, Akiva Hacohen, Eran Schwartz and Moshe Skali, maintained that they were not involved in the assault and were far away from the confrontation between the settlers and the goatherd.
Meanwhile, a police unit, that had remained near Yitzhar after returning the goats to the goatherd, rushed down to arrest the settlers. The police claim that the members of the readiness group blocked their way and interfered with their actions. They arrested the four and detained them in jail.
However, Cohen ruled that the police had presented false and misleading testimony regarding the incident. She said that Yaakov Golan, one of policeman who took part in the incident, wrote a report saying that the plaintiffs had stolen the sheep. In a sworn affidavit that he signed later, he omitted the charge. Later, he also admitted that he had not seen the attack against the goatherd.
Cohen also found that another policeman presented “information that may have been misleading” to the court in the hearings to extend the remand of the suspects. He told the court the plaintiffs had charged the goatherd and attacked him, even though “it had been proven that the plaintiffs had not charged the Palestinian or attacked him” and that the police had not witnessed any such incident.
Meanwhile, in a radio interview, Dep.-Cmdr. Eliezer Elharar said that 10 people from Yitzhar, armed with weapons, “attacked the Palestinian goatherd with severe violence.”
Cohen found Elharar guilty of libel for this and other charges, which were made on the basis of police reports that he received.
The organization Human Rights in Judea, Samaria and Gaza wrote that its lawyer, Elad Rosenblatt, had “succeeded in revealing one of the gravest incidents in the continuous attacks against the residents of Yitzhar and demonstrating how police hostility toward the settlers drives them into resorting to lies and defamations, which are utterly unacceptable from those who are supposed to be law-abiding.”
The organization said it would complain to the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Department against the officers.
This is very grave, and discredits the police from being trusted in their job. How are we supposed to trust them if they allow their political positions to get the better of themselves? As this report says:
Others in Yitzhar noted that Policeman Desheh often appears in court to testify against Jews, and that the police will now have to explain how his word can be trusted after it has been shown that he lied on three separate occasions.
They have a lot to answer for, and I think their personal politics are going to have to be part of any questions asked of them.
Congressman Eric Cantor has slammed the Obama administration's dishonest dealings with Israel. From Politico (via the Weekly Standard):
The second-ranking House Republican blasted the Obama administration as “irresponsible” in its dealings with Israel, accusing the White House of trying to curry favor with the Arab world by deriding America’s closest ally in the Middle East.
[...]
“While it condemns Israel, the administration continues to ignore a host of Palestinian provocations that undermine prospects for peace in the region,” Cantor said in a statement. “Where is the outrage when top Fatah officials call for riots on the Temple Mount? Why does the Palestinian Authority get a pass when it holds a ceremony glorifying the woman responsible for one of the deadliest terror attack in Israel’s history? Surely, the Administration’s double standard has set back the peace process.”
Oh, it has alright. In fact, as Melanie Phillips and Noah Pollak have suggested, this was all manufactured even for the purpose of trying to get Israel not to attack Iran, because the US government itself won't stop Iran from achieving nuclear power.
Power Line has written about the Obama administration's latest attack on Israel for building in its own capital:
Frankly, I'm not sure Israel should have apologized either. Doing so emboldens the administration to become more aggressive. On the other hand, Netanyahu understandably feels the need to come across as reasonable and conciliatory. That way, if the White House continues to overreact, Israel will be seen by its citizens and its supporters in the U.S. as more sinned against than sinning in this matter.
Well no, of course the government shouldn't apologize, even if they think it can help the way Paul puts it.
That said, there has been criticism emerging of the Obama administration for its ludicrous actions, even by the ADL, of all sources. And, as reported here, at least two members of Congress have added their voices to those appalled by Obama's overreaction:
Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) said that the tough American criticism of Israel’s Jerusalem housing announcement was an "irresponsible overreaction," and a spokesman for Congressman John Boehner (R-Ohio), the House of Representatives minority leader, said that "the tone and substance we are seeing emerge as a pattern for this administration [regarding Israel] are both disappointing and of great concern."
Spot on. I should hope then that the House will call to convene a discussion on this?
ANKARA — Turkey warned Sweden Friday of "serious" damage to ties after the Swedish parliament recognized the massacres of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as genocide, only days after a similar vote by a US Congressional panel.
The foreign ministry summoned the Swedish ambassador to convey Ankara's protests, while the Turkish envoy to Stockholm, recalled immediately after Thursday's vote, arrived home for consultations.
"It is up to the government to decide, but I think (the vote) will have serious consequences" on bilateral relations, Ambassador Zergun Koruturk told reporters after landing in Istanbul.
She lamented that the vote came at a time when "we had excellent ties with Sweden and it was at the forefront of countries supporting our European Union membership process."
Turkey expects Sweden to "take serious steps to compensate" for the decision, a Turkish diplomat told AFP after the Swedish ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry.
I hope this doesn't mean Sweden will try to "compensate" by discriminating against Israel. Why, by that logic, it means they'd do the same in their relations with Armenia and even some black African countries.
The envoy, Christer Asp, said after the meeting that Thursday's decision was not binding for the government and vowed to maintain the "strong, friendly" ties with Turkey.
Going against the government's advice, the Swedish parliament voted by a narrow margin to recognize the "genocide of Armenians" during the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, further infuriating Ankara by mentioning also other Christian communities as victims of "genocide" in Ottoman hands.
Ankara quickly recalled its ambassador and cancelled next week's visit by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Sweden.
The vote came a week after the US House Foreign Affairs Committee narrowly approved a non-binding resolution branding the massacres of Armenians a genocide, prompting Ankara to recall its ambassador.
"Those decisions... will have a negative impact on Turkish-Armenian ties which we have been trying to normalise," Erdogan said in a televised speech in northwestern Turkey.
Ankara "will not be deterred by and will not bow to those fait accomplis, to those ill-willed actions and irresponsible attitudes," he added.
A government statement late Thursday accused Swedish lawmakers of backing the move out of "domestic political calculations" ahead of elections in September.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said it was a "mistake to politicise history" and vowed that the government's position remains unchanged.
This government does not recognize historical truth, nor the vote of its own parliament. This is the same government that refused to criticize a Swedish newspaper's blood libel against Jews, claiming Israeli soldiers took Arab body parts without providing any proof. However, when it came to the Mohammed cartoons or some other issue where Muslims felt insulted, the foreign ministry criticized Swedish media.
Sweden is among the few countries which openly support Turkey's troubled EU accession bid.
And now I can see why Bildt is so bothered, because it undermines his own political agenda. His agenda is to be pro-Muslim. He deserves this. I wonder if the Obama White House and the State Dept. share with the Swedish government the same urge to protect Muslim lies about history and cover up for Muslim historical crimes.
Following veep Biden's own stupid condemnation of Israel's right to build, secretary of state Clinton has also added her voice to the hostility. And we can expect the palestinians to exploit this as much as they can. It requires voices in Israel's defense to speak out, of course, and we'd better hope they do.
Politico reports the former Alaskan governor will testify against the son of a left-wing senator who's charged with hacking into her e-mail accounts and publishing the letters:
David Kernell, the son of a Democratic state representative in Tennessee, is accused of hacking Palin’s private Yahoo account and posting some of her e-mails online. The FBI searched Kernell’s apartment on September 21, less than a week after the e-mails were posted on the gossip website Gawker.
[...]
Kernell has said he used publicly available information to access Palin’s e-mail account, which he later changed the password to after posting some of her personal e-mails and contacts – including the e-mail addresses of her children and some of her staffers. He's accused of sharing the new password he put on her account with at least one other person and then trying to wipe the record of him doing so from his computer.
Clearly, he didn't understand that you can't wipe the info from a computer - thanks to modern tech, it's possible to scan the hard disk and find the traces. Why don't felons like Kernell learn?
Hamas releases British journalist they held for a month
Paul Martin, the freelance reporter from Britain who was taken prisoner by Hamas, has been released after a month:
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Gaza’s Hamas rulers on Thursday released a British journalist they had held for a month amid allegations that he endangered the Palestinian territory’s security.
Paul Martin said he was arrested because of his work as a journalist and called his release, with the help of the British and South African governments, a "great victory for the freedom of the media."
[...]
Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, said Martin was suspected of serious security offenses and would not be able to return to Gaza. No charges were filed against him.
Zahar suggested Thursday that Martin’s activities as a journalist brought about his arrest.
The Hamas leader alleged Thursday that Martin "was working on defaming the image of the Palestinian people by saying that they smuggle weapons through tunnels," Zahar said, referring to hundreds of border tunnels that bypass the blockade of Gaza imposed by Israel and Egypt.
The tunnels bring in commercial goods, but are widely believed to be a conduit for cash and weapons as well.
Zahar complained that Martin was also working on a story about the alleged use of civilians as human shields by Hamas.
The Hamas leader also alleged Martin was in touch with Gazans suspected of collaborating with Israel.
Now we can guess why Martin was taken hostage! And those tunnels are a conduit for weaponry. Not that the AP Wire would want to admit that. It remains to be seen, however, if Martin is willing or will be allowed to write about all these cases.
Biden said that he realized that construction in east Jerusalem "is a very touchy subject in Israel," but because Israel's decision to advance the housing project, in his view, "undermined the trust required to conduct the negotiations, I – at the request of President Obama – condemned it immediately."
Now I see. He wasn't doing it because he really believed it was a problem - he did it because Obama asked him to! Hey, Obama may be the head honcho, but that doesn't mean Biden has to do his every bidding.
That aside, every time they slam a building project or a patriotic project by Israel, they only end up making themselves look like fools. Why can't they learn to just be quiet?
Wesley Pruden writes on Jewish World Review about US vice-president Joe Biden's already blundering visit to Israel, and tells something I wouldn't be surprised the Obama administration would prefer:
"In light of the gaping disparity between the Obama administration's policies and those of the Israeli government," Caroline Glick, an Israeli analyst, writes in JWR, "the apparent goal of the Biden [visit] is to shore up the position of the Israeli left as an alternative to [Mr.] Netanyahu … the picture emerging from all of the senior U.S. officials' meetings with [Mr.] Netanyahu is that Israel's leader still feels comfortable defying them. Presumably they now believe that the only way to force him to toe their line is by making him believe that the price of defiance will be his premiership."
This worked before. A full decade ago, Bill Clinton, posing as the best friend the Jews ever had — feeling their pain, pointing with pride to his undying love for Israel and viewing with alarm the occasional venal sins of the Palestinians — imposed some of the most hostile policies the United State ever foisted on Israel. This so effectively undermined Mr. Netanyahu that he was booted from office.
But that was then, and the Israeli public, like the government, has scant appetite for saccharine this time. It's just as well. Mr. Obama reserves his sweet talk for Arab provocateurs; he made his apology tour of the Muslim world early in his presidency but still can't find time to visit America's only reliably democratic ally in the Middle East. Good old Joe is the best messenger the president can find to take the bitter medicine to Jerusalem. He's regarded, at least by himself, as the best friend Israel has at the White House. Some friend. As a senator, he voted against sanctions against Iran, said he didn't see anything necessarily wrong with Iranian nuclear ambitions and grumbled that George W. Bush should be impeached if he sent Americans to bomb the Iranian nuclear plants. He'll blow some kisses at Israel this week, but none of them will be wet. Good old Joe will only be going through the motions of a duty dance.
As the polls have shown, Israelis have a very low opinion of the Obama-led government this time, and we gotta hope they understand the same about Biden. But then, he's already made his positions clear about what he thinks of Israel's right to build within Jerusalem, so we have to hope Biden is no more good at wearing masks of good will than Obama is.
7 Muslims arrested in plot to assassinate Swedish cartoonist
Here is the news of the latest attempt to murder a cartoonist for drawing Mohammed:
DUBLIN - Police in Ireland on Tuesday arrested seven people over an alleged plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks who depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.
Irish police said four men and three women were detained in raids across the south of the country. The force says the arrests were part of an investigation into a "conspiracy to murder an individual in another jurisdiction."
Police said the suspects were aged from their mid-20s to their late 40s. It did not identify their nationality.
The investigation involved law enforcement agencies in the US and several European countries.
Al-Qaida in Iraq put a $100,000 bounty on Vilks' head after a Swedish newspaper ran his picture of Muhammad's head on a dog's body in 2007. He was put under police protection and moved to a secret location in Sweden.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.
Vilks is not the first cartoonist to have received death threats for drawings of the prophet.
Kurt Westergaard, a Danish cartoonist who in 2005 depicted Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban, also received death threats. In January, a Somali man was arrested after breaking into his home in western Denmark armed with an ax.
One of those arrested was a woman from Philly named Colleen R. LaRose alias Jihad Jane. As for not drawing Mohammed for fear of idolatry, that's questionable and absurd, because they already DO idolize Mohammed. Thank goodness the authorities in Ireland acted responsibly to collar all these fiends.
Anti-terrorist units used information from the CIA, FBI and European intelligence agencies to identify the suspected terrorist cell of three women and four men. They are believed to include Algerian, Libyan, Croatian, US and Palestinian citizens and at least one naturalised Irish citizen.
[...]
Irish police said that three men and two women were arrested in Waterford city and Tramore and a man and a woman in Ballincollig, Cork. They range in age from the mid-20s to late 40s and are understood to include at least one convert to Islam.
Senior police officers were eager to stress they do not believe that those arrested are members of the terrorist group and posed no threat to Irish security.
At least one of the suspects is a naturalised Irish citizen while a number of others have attempted to claim asylum.
[...]
The suspects had been living legally in Ireland for up to ten years. Some arrived as refugees and none is in full-time employment.
Living on welfare, are they? I don't know, but no matter their status, I'd strongly recommend deporting and exiling them. And the cops should consider that given the chance, they would pose a threat to Ireland's own safety. What if Vilks lived there? There's every chance they could go after him there too.
I've long been wary of the pretentious Charles Krauthammer (and by extension, even Ralph Peters), an alleged conservative who's unable/unwilling to seriously confront the problems with Islamic extremism. Now, I discover him attacking Geert Wilders on National Review Online. Krauthammer says, for example that
What he [Geert] says is extreme, radical, and wrong. He basically is arguing that Islam is the same as Islamism. Islamism is an ideology of a small minority which holds that the essence of Islam is jihad, conquest, forcing people into accepting a certain very narrow interpretation [of Islam].
There really isn't much difference between Islamism, Islamofascism, and other takes on the same root verbs and connotations. And implying that Geert is an extremist is trivializing the many problems already at hand. Jihad Watch takes apart the awful Krauthammer's stupidity much better than I could expect to do. Dumbell Krauthammer also says:
The untruth of that is obvious. If you look at the United States, the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. are not Islamists. So, it's simply incorrect. Now, in Europe, there is probably a slightly larger minority but, nonetheless, the overwhelming majority are not.
Oh really? Robert Spencer takes that flawed statement apart too, but I'll say for now that Krauthammer should consider the findings of this old poll, which is still well worth considering. Yet it should be no surprise that a columnist who works for the Washington Post would be willing to stoop to this kind of foolishness. For heaven's sake, I wish Krauthammer would just retire already and stop spewing out this kind of propaganda!
Lyon, France - A 15-year-old French schoolboy sprayed a teacher with teargas after she described al-Qaeda as a "terrorist group", she told reporters on Tuesday as prosecutors began their investigation.
"I had just explained that the attacks on September 11, 2001 were carried out by the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda, as is written in the text book," said the history teacher, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"He stood up and declared that al-Qaeda is not terrorist and that neither is the Taliban," she said, adding that the boy had then pulled out a spray can and doused her and a teaching assistant with teargas.
Neither victim was seriously hurt.
Al-Qaeda, a global organisation under the nominal leadership of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, boasted of carrying out the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The attacks - in which hijacked airliners were crashed into the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania - killed just under 3 000 people, the vast majority of them American civilians.
Both staff members, who work in the small school in the central French village of Largentiere, made a criminal complaint against the boy, state prosecutors confirmed.
A youth court will be convened in the nearby town of Privas on March 16 to hear the case. - AFP
If I were an American in France and in the neighborhood when this took place, I'd come up to that gross little deviant and give him a piece of my mind with all teeth bared.
I wouldn't be surprised if some more urban schools had security, but this school apparently doesn't, and will have to start using some to make sure students as vile as the one in the article are not allowed to bring teargas containers to class.
Israel National News has an item about the women who served in WW2, something that may have often been overlooked, and the special nod given in the Knesset for this.
The decision by an Interior Ministry committee to announce approval of plans for some 1,600 housing units in northeast Jerusalem’s Ramat Shlomo neighborhood cast a pall Tuesday night over the visit of US Vice President Joe Biden, who squarely condemned the move.
Soon after having dinner with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who said that neither he nor Interior Minister Eli Yishai had known that the plans would come up for approval on Tuesday, Biden issued a statement saying, “The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel.”
Biden said that what was needed now was to build “an atmosphere to support negotiation, not complicate them.”
“The United States recognizes that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue for Israelis and Palestinians and for Jews, Muslims and Christians,” the statement read. “We believe that through good faith negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem and safeguards its status for people around the world. Unilateral action taken by either party cannot prejudge the outcome of negotiations on permanent-status issues.”
The government’s 10-month moratorium on housing starts in the settlements does not apply to Jerusalem.
The Palestinian Authority slammed the government’s approval of the new housing units in Ramat Shlomo, saying the move threatened to derail peace negotiations a day after US Middle East envoy George Mitchell had announced their resumption.
Oh great, it's not just Biden we have to worry about, but also Mitchell for the umpteenth time. Undermining another country's legitimacy in governing, and also in the free market, that's them.
Obama/Dems losing ratings ground on American safety
The Weekly Standard reports that Obama and the Democrats are losing ground on Keeping America Safe, or, more precisely, they're losing public trust on the national security issue.
Update: Keeping America Safe is actually the name of a new political watchdog group. (Hat tip: Michelle Malkin.) They deserve much credit for keeping an eye on the problems.
The al Qaeda's American-born spokesperson, one of the most dangerous of terrorists raised on American soil, has been captured (Hat tip: Jammie Wearing Fool):
Adam Gadahn, the treasonous Californian Al Qaeda leader who has long been on Washington's Most Wanted list, was nabbed in Pakistan Sunday - a huge victory.
After some confusion in the intial reports, the Associated Press quoted Pakistani officials confirming the arrest.
Gadahn was bagged just hours after releasing a new internet video urging American Muslims to go on shooting sprees like Maj. Nidal Hasan's at Fort Hood last year.
He is the first American to be charged with treason since World War II.
If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
Yes, that should be his destiny. Let's just hope he's tried before a military tribunal, because vile characters like Gadahn don't belong in a civilian court where they could exploit the legalities they've canceled their rights to by joining the al Qaeda's death squads.
Update: according to this info on Hot Air, it's not clear if it's really Gadahn who was caught. So it's still under a question mark.
Gallup's recent polling has found that at least 63 percent of Americans support Israel. It does strongly indicate that many realize the "prospects for peace" with palestinians is unlikely.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday continued his verbal assault on Israel, according to Saudi paper Al Wattan, which quoted him as saying that that al Aksa Mosque, the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb “were not and never will be Jewish sites, but Islamic sites.”
Erdogan was referring to Israel’s recent inclusion of the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb on its national heritage list, but it was unclear why he mentioned the Aksa Mosque, since that site was not included.
Speaking to Palestinian journalists, Erdogan reportedly said, "Palestine [was] always at the top of Turkey’s priorities." He expressed his support for the renewal of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Donning a cloak of pan-Islamic identity, Erdogan told Al Wattan that he “loves my brothers in Fatah and my brothers in Hamas to the same degree, because they are my Muslim brothers and I cannot distinguish between them.”
Turkey’s prime minister began criticizing Israel in the wake of Operation Cast Lead last year, and has been punctilious in voicing his opinion on Israel’s actions since. In the recent past, he sharply criticized Israel during press conferences with the Lebanese prime minister and with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Turkey also recently distanced itself from the United States, withdrawing the ambassador from Washington after a congressional committee decided to recognize the killing of Armenians during World War I as a genocide. In a sign of tensions between Israel and Turkey, Ankara did not seek the help of Jewish lobbies in Washington, and these groups, which have traditionally advocated on behalf of Turkey, refrained this time from pressing Congress not to accept the resolution.
Boy oh boy, what is the use of wasting one's time with this crazy, vile scum. Erdogan is absolutely disgusting.
I was born in Pennsylvania in 1974, and moved to Israel in 1983. I also enjoyed reading a lot of comics when I was young, the first being Fantastic Four. I maintain a strong belief in the public's right to knowledge and accuracy in facts. I like to think of myself as a conservative-style version of Clark Kent. I do not know if I'll ever be as good as him, but I do my best.
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