Ken Livingstone minimizes antisemitism in the Labour party

The former London mayor's opened his repulsive mouth yet again, with the following apologia for anti-semitism:

Ken Livingstone has stoked the Labour Party’s festering anti-Semitism row by dismissing it as ‘lies and smears’ peddled by ‘ghastly old Blairites’.

Mr Livingstone – who was suspended in 2016 for claiming that Hitler had supported Zionism – told a meeting of pro-Corbyn activists that he had been victimised by ‘the elite’, who were trying to stop Mr Corbyn becoming Prime Minister.

Mr Livingstone, who quit the party last year, told a meeting of Labour Against The Witchhunt last week that he had fallen victim to a ‘Labour machine’ run by Blairites.

‘I mean it was outrageous because it was still – and this was Jeremy’s big problem – a Labour machine controlled by all the ghastly old Blairites, convinced Jeremy was going to lead us to a wipeout, doing everything possible to get rid of him, and that’s what has fuelled all this stuff about anti-Semitism.

I've read enough. This is just so dumb, and the oxymoron is that they're throwing Blair under the bus, even though he was little better himself as a Labour premier, and led to many of the crises and other problems Britain's now consumed with, including - but not limited to - Islamofascism. Something Livingstone too has responsibility to shoulder for, and has since led to the election of the awful Sadiq Khan as mayor of London.

Livingstone will go down in history as one of the worst things that could happen to Britain, and his conspiracy weavings are some of the most disgusting things he's ever done.

French consulate worker convicted of arms smuggling to jihadists

A former employee at the French Jerusalem consulate has been convicted for arms smuggling to terrorists:

A Frenchman formerly employed by his country's Jerusalem consulate has been convicted of arms dealing after admitting three offences in a plea bargain, the Israeli Justice Ministry said Friday.

Romain Franck, who worked as a driver for the consulate, went on trial a year ago accused of exploiting reduced security checks for diplomats to smuggle 70 pistols and two automatic rifles from Gaza to Judea and Samaria.

"As part of a plea bargain the defendant admitted and was convicted of three counts of importing and trading in weapons and of fraud," the ministry said in a written response to an AFP query.

"Sentencing will be given on April 8," it added.

He faces a possible seven-year jail term, the ministry said.

Then put him there already! Though he should get far more years in the pen for what he did.

Gantz's campaign is a farce

Haim Shine's written about just how phony Benny Gantz's campaign really is:

Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz was initially told he should stay silent so that the list would not be associated with either the Left or the Right.

This silence of the lambs gave Blue and White a political dividend until Gantz became Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's impersonator and even lifted some of his speeches.

The saga continued as Gantz withheld information on what embarrassing information Iran found on his phone, then he accused Netanyahu of trying to kill him and finally he lamented that there was a mole in his campaign.

And then this week, it was revealed that the Israel Police and Gantz's now-defunct startup had a shady deal resulting in millions of shekels being funneled without the proper bidding process.

Blue and White has tried to cast itself as the pure party that would usher in an era of no corruption.

And now the cat's out of the bag, and try as the MSM might, they couldn't ignore it for long, and the scandal of his former business is undermining him now as well. That aside, he's never served in political office as a civilian before, and that's one more reason why if he's elected, he'll only prove utterly incompetent, even in finance.

All discrimination against Judea/Samaria residents must end

Ayelet Shaked says this must be included in future coalition negotiations:

Justice Minister and chairwoman of the New Right party Ayelet Shaked announced on Friday that her party will demand that the budget for Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service stations in Judea and Samaria be included in the budget base in coalition negotiations.

"Putting the residents of Judea and Samaria in danger due to a Ministry of Finance failure is out of the question," Shaked told Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan. "The discrimination against the residents of Judea and Samaria will end."

Dagan spoke with Shaked on Thursday, informing her of the budget problem affecting MDA stations in the regional councils in Judea and Samaria. The budget shortfall threatens the provision of emergency medical services in Judea and Samaria every year, placing thousands of its residents at risk.

The budget for MDA stations for Israeli towns of the Gaza border area is included in the budget base every year but the situation in Judea and Samaria is different despite the fact that it is a high-conflict area. Each year, the heads of the regional councils are forced to run between the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health in order to obtain the necessary budget.

Dagan has been working ceaselessly to stop the closure of MDA stations in Judea and Samaria and successfully reached an agreement for the continuation of emergency services. However, he is demanding that MDA services be included in the base budget and not be granted as a "favor" to Judea and Samaria residents.

The good news is that US ambassador David Friedman's information at AIPAC may help give a boost to this quest. The Trump administration's already done a beginning favor that's important here.

Heroic Air France pilot during Entebbe hijack dies at 95

Michel Bacos, the French pilot who chose to remain with the passengers on his plane during the 1976 Entebbe hijack, passed away at 95 years of age:

A French pilot hailed for bravery during a hijacking drama targeting Jews on an Air France flight in 1976 has died aged 95, his son told AFP on Wednesday.

Michel Bacos (pictured above, right) died in the southern city of Nice, where he had been living since 2006, their son Eric told AFP.

Bacos was flying from Tel Aviv to Paris on June 27, 1976, when Palestinian and German radicals hijacked the aircraft, which was flown to Entebbe in Uganda.

The former French Resistance fighter earned France’s highest award, the Legion d’Honneur, for refusing to leave the plane and ordering his crew to remain with Jewish passengers who were separated from non-Jews.

“By courageously refusing to give into anti-Semitism and barbarism he honoured France,” Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi wrote in a tribute, hailing Bacos as “a hero” and sending condolences to his widow Rosemary and their three sons.

As the article also notes, the prime minister's older brother was murdered during the rescue mission:

The only Israeli soldier killed in Operation Thunderbolt was Yonatan Netanyahu, the elder brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Both he and Bacos should be remembered well for their contributions to sanity and justice.

The amazing discovery of a salt cave near the Dead Sea

A new salt cave was found in Israel, said to be one of the longest caves found to date:

Israeli researchers said Thursday they have surveyed what they now believe to be the world’s longest salt cave, a network of twisting passageways at the southern tip of the Dead Sea.

A recently completed survey of the Malham Cave determined the labyrinthine cavern stretches more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) in length. That puts it well ahead of Iran’s Namakdan Cave, previously thought to be the longest salt cave.

The survey was conducted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a collection of Israeli, Bulgarian and international volunteers.

Boaz Langford, a researcher at the university’s Caves Research Center, and Antoniya Vlaykova, a Bulgarian cave explorer from the European Speleological Federation, headed the expedition.

“What’s unique about this cave, as opposed to other salt caves in the world, is that it’s the longest in the world,” Langford said, resting in a chamber of the cave dubbed the “Wedding Hall” for its salt stalactites.

Langford and Vlaykova said they plan to publish the complete map of the cave in a professional publication in the coming months.

Well if it's being dubbed a "wedding hall", they might want to take the challenge of holding actual weddings there too in the future. This is a most fantastic discovery, which I hope to visit in the future.

Trump administration understands importance of Israel maintaining control in Judea/Samaria

In another positive sign, the Trump administration's indicated they understand the importance and validity of Judea/Samaria as Israeli land by birthright, and its importance in defense for the country too:

The Trump administration understands the need for Israel to have "overriding security control" in the West Bank in any future peace deal with the Palestinians, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said on Tuesday.

Friedman is part of a White House team spearheading a still-secret Israeli-Palestinian peace plan that Washington has said will be unveiled after Israel's election on April 9.

Palestinians have called any peace proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump a non-starter.

Addressing a convention of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC in Washington, Friedman gave no details of the U.S. blueprint. But he appeared to suggest it was in Israel's best interests to engage now on the deal, while the United States has a president sympathetic to its security concerns.

"Can we leave this to an administration that may not understand the existential risk to Israel if Judea and Samaria are overcome by terrorists in the manner that befell the Gaza Strip after the IDF withdrew from this territory?" Friedman said.

Friedman, who used the biblical terms for the West Bank, was referring to the 2005 pullout of Israeli troops and settlers from Gaza, the coastal enclave seized by Hamas terrorists two years later in a brief yet bloody war with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' rival Fatah movement.

Gaza's being Israeli territory also needs to be taken into consideration. I think what Friedman's told is a good omen, and the PLO's clearly rejected the US administration anyway. This could be another positive development for Israel.

Update: here's the transcript of Friedman's speech on The Jewish Press.

Update 2: also of interest is Mike Pompeo's speech, in the following video (via Power Line):

Haredis in Rockland County aren't providing their children with measles vaccinations

The situation's become so bad, the local council decided to take action by penalizing parents who don't vaccinate their children against measles:

A county in New York City's northern suburbs declared a state of emergency Tuesday over a measles outbreak that has infected more than 150 people since last fall, hoping a ban against unvaccinated children in public places wakes their parents to the seriousness of the problem.

"It's an attention grab, there's no question about it," Rockland County Executive Ed Day said at a news conference, noting that he didn't believe such a drastic step has ever been tried in the U.S. before.

Day said he was taking the action in hopes of reversing a recent uptick in cases amid disturbing reports that health workers were encountering resistance when investigating cases. Rockland's outbreak has most heavily affected Orthodox Jewish communities, in which vaccination rates tend to be lower.

Under the declaration, which lasts for at least 30 days, anyone under 18 who is not vaccinated against measles is barred from public gathering places, including shopping malls, civic centers, schools, restaurants and even houses of worship. Those in violation could be charged with a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail.

But Day acknowledged that there will be no concerted enforcement effort and that the intent is not to arrest people but to emphasize the seriousness of the situation.

"There will not be law enforcement or deputy sheriffs asking for vaccination records. That is ridiculous," Day said. "However, parents will be held accountable if they're found to be in violation of this emergency declaration."

The county is experiencing New York state's longest measles outbreak since the disease was declared officially eliminated from the United States in 2000. Health officials say the best way to stop the disease's spread is a vaccination rate in the community of 92 to 95%. Day said only 72.9% of people under 18 have been vaccinated against measles in Rockland County, which has more than 300,000 residents.

[...] This month, a federal judge, citing the "unprecedented measles outbreak," denied the parents' request to let unvaccinated children return to the Waldorf School. The lawsuit said the county's order banning unvaccinated children from schools regardless of religious or medical exemptions violated their constitutional rights.

The outbreak began in the Rockland area when seven unvaccinated travelers diagnosed with measles entered the county last October. There have been 153 cases to date, Day said. In the early days of the outbreak, people were cooperating with health officials and getting children vaccinated, he said, but that has changed.

"Our health inspectors have been hung up on and told not to call again. They've been told, 'We're not discussing this, do not come back,' when visiting the homes of infected individuals as part of their investigations," Day said. "This type of response is unacceptable and frankly irresponsible."

[...] There have been 181 confirmed cases of measles in Brooklyn and Queens since October, most of them involving members of the Orthodox Jewish community, according to the CDC.

Day said the emergency order was timed with the upcoming religious holidays of Easter and Passover in mind.

"We want people to be able to celebrate," he said. "We don't want to see a repeat of how this outbreak started when we saw people gathered together and then fall ill last fall."

The Wall Street Journal spoke about this earlier, and the only problem here is that, at least in the English language translation, they don't make clear it's Haredis who've failed to take care of their kids properly. It's high time they started taking responsibility and worrying about their children's health.

Gantz's former firm led improper business with police system

A new report reveals that Benny Gantz's failed tech firm led an improper business deal with local police:

That police acted improperly in their relations with prime ministerial candidate Benny Gantz’s former company, the Fifth Dimension, is a central allegation that emerges from a Wednesday report by the state comptroller.

Although the report never mentions Gantz or the Fifth Dimension by name, the timing and developments described regarding “Company A” in the report match up with Fifth Dimension’s business dealings with the police.

In February, Haaretz published a report that Fifth Dimension had gotten favored treatment from the police in a manner similar to some of the patterns described in the comptroller’s report in terms of being exempt from a competitive bidding process.

Joseph Shapira’s report mentions that “Company A” was given an unfair advantage when it got to be present during internal police meetings about whom to choose for the supplier role that Company A was competing for.

The police even granted Company A use of proprietary police technology at a discount to help it develop its solution, which the police wanted it to produce.

However, the report goes even further and accuses Company A of making misleading statements to the police, in order to win a NIS 4 million payment in 2016 to carry out a pilot project in the cyber-technology realm.

Gantz’s company eventually went bankrupt after the US sanctioned its main investor, a Russian tycoon linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But it is even possible that Gantz’s company could have been paid NIS 50m. by the police, if his company had not gone bankrupt.

All of this raises questions about whether Fifth Dimension representatives made false statements to the police to try to win a multi-million shekel deal – and if they did, whether Gantz knew.

Confronted about whether the comptroller’s office actually had reviewed documents used by the Fifth Dimension to pitch the police in which false statements were made, the comptroller’s spokesman said that his office had no documents from Company A.

Rather, the state comptroller’s spokesman said that the allegations of false statements against Company A were based on an internal police document which itself said was based on Company A’s representations.

This disclosure raises the question as to whether Fifth Dimension – possibly with Gantz’s knowledge – made false representations to police, or whether officials within the police cooked up their own internal documents which they said were based on Fifth Dimension representations, even though Fifth Dimension might not have made the representations.

Most interesting indeed. It would seem Gantz's company was leading very unacceptable management of its affairs, and the police didn't do much better in their own finance department. This is certainly troubling, and another example of the shady affairs Gantz worked in.

Update: here's another report from Haaretz that reveals even more:

State Comptroller Joseph Shapira has found that the Israel Police violated regulations in awarding a project worth 50 million shekels ($13.7 million) to Fifth Dimension, a company at which Benny Gantz, the Kahol Lavan party leader, was chairman of the board at the time.

Shapira found that the job was awarded to Fifth Dimension without inviting bids from other suppliers, and in a report issued Wednesday, also said Fifth Dimension had had no prior experience to bid for the work and had provided false information to police representatives about the company's capabilities. The firm marketed an artificial intelligence system for law enforcement agencies to process intelligence information.

Shapira found that the Fifth Dimension informed the police that it had been in existence for four years when it was actually established just two years previously, that the company had a product ready for use, which was not the case, and that it had five other clients, all of which were security-related entities when in fact it had no other customers.

Doron Cohen, Fifth Dimension's former CEO, called the comptroller's conclusions "falsehoods and hallucinations" and added that if there had been any mistakes made in the matter, they were committed by the police.

As disclosed last month by Haaretz, the police paid 4 million shekels to carry out a pilot program even though ultimately the full project never came to fruition. Fifth Dimension was founded in 2014. Gantz, a former army chief of staff, was its chairman and Ram Ben-Barak, a former deputy head of the Mossad intelligence agency who is now running for the Knesset on the Kahol Lavan slate, was its president. The company ceased operations last year and its entire staff was laid off.

The Israel Police said in response that their purchases are always carried out in accordance to the law, and that they have studied the findings of the report and "will implement the matters it raises."

Gantz's party, Kahol Lavan, said in response that there was no wrongdoing on his behalf, stressing the report focuses on the Israel Police.

Oh, please. It's clear something's wrong with how they handled everything, and their inability to take responsibility, predictable as it is, is still very galling.

A new documentary asks challenging questions about Qatar

Reporter Mike Cernovich asked some hard queries about Qatar in a new documentary's he's developed:

Why do countless headlines focus on Russian collusion rather than on Qatari hacking, media manipulation, think tank funding, and terror sponsorship?

It’s one of the central questions raised in “Blood Money,” the new documentary by journalist Mike Cernovich. In 23 fast-paced minutes, Cernovich dissects the web of Qatar’s influence-buying campaign on U.S. soil with interspersed commentary from security experts J. Michael Waller, vice president of the Center for Security Policy; David Reaboi, senior vice president of the Security Studies Group; and Jack Posobiec, a host for the One America News Network.

[...] Cernovich’s research pointed him to Qatar — which was validated by the warnings he says were sent his way that making this film “would come at great risk to my life, to my safety, and that I’d better have ‘everything locked down tightly.’” Meanwhile, when he raised the subject of the film with one political reporter, the reporter swiftly asked him: “Who’s paying you?” Cernovich responded “nobody,” yet explains that the reporter’s question underscores just how pervasive the influence-buying epidemic has become in Washington.

“Qatar is excellent at playing the game,” Waller says in the film. “You fund think tanks to put out policy papers that support what you want, and then you fund law firms to sue people you don’t like. There’s pay-to-play journalism, a huge amount of foreign-funded news and commentary that we all take in as real thoughts and real news coming from real American citizens.”

It's already long apparent Qatar's as evil as many other Islamic countries, and as guilty of funding terrorism as they are. Their influence-buying is just as dangerous, and that's why it's a good thing Cernovich is giving this some focus.

Netanyahu's televised speech to AIPAC

Although the prime minister was unable to attend AIPAC in person, he was able to broadcast a televised speech to them:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the AIPAC policy conference from Israel Tuesday.

Netanyahu had been scheduled to speak at Israel live in Washington DC. However, he flew back to Israel following the rocket attack on the town of Mishmeret which destroyed a home and injured seven people Monday morning.

The prime minister began by addressing Israel's ongoing military response to the rocket fire from Gaza. "We are prepared to do a lot more. We will do what is necessary to defend our people and to defend our state."

He praised the bipartisan support for Israel by both Republicans and Democrats, saying that that bipartisanship is "the way it should always be."

Netanyahu thanked US President Donald Trump for signing an official order recognizing Israel's sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

"Yesterday, at the White House, President Trump again made history. He formally recognized Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Now that decision deserves enormous applause," he said.

"The Golan Heights is indispensable for our defense. It's part of our history. When you put a shovel in the ground there, what you discover is the ruins of ancient synagogues. Jews lived there for thousands of years and the people of Israel have come back to the Golan. Israel holds the high ground, and we shall never, ever give it up. It's part of Israel," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu also thanked President Trump for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, moving the US embassy to Jerusalem, and withdrawing from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

He also spoke out against Ilhan Omar:

In a jab at Rep. Ilan Omar, Netanyahu said: "Take it from this Benjamin, it’s not about the Benjamins."

"The reason the people of America support Israel is not because they want our money, it’s because they share our values. They just don’t' get it. It’s because America and Israel share a love of freedom and democracy. It's because we cherish individual rights and the rule of law. It's because we don’t judge people by the color of their skin, their religion or their sexual orientation.

"I am proud of Israel’s vibrant democracy, where no one – no one – is a second-class citizen. All of Israel’s citizens are first-class citizens. All of Israel's citizens whether Jew or Arab, Muslim, Christian, or Druze, have exactly the same individual rights. We vote in the same elections. We’re subject to the same laws. We study in the same universities. And we are also treated in the same hospitals.

"But Israel is also the one and only country on earth in which the Jewish people exercise our collective right of self-determination. And that right is expressed in the Star of David that is on our flag, in the Hatikvah that is our national anthem, in Hebrew our official language and most powerfully, in the right of every Jew across the world to automatically immigrate to Israel and become a citizen if they choose to do so.

"It is these features of our collective existence that the Nation State bill enshrined into an historic constitutional law. And contrary to the false attacks and allegations, it did not denigrate any individual rights, which remain sacred and equal for all our citizens. And it will always be that way.

"Israel will always be a democracy, just as Israel will always be the Jewish State, a place where all Jews anywhere can always call home, no matter how they pray or how they wish to conduct their lives. Israel is the home of all Jews.

"That is why we all celebrate today the democratic, Jewish State of Israel. We know the truth," he said.

It's a good thing he brought up the topic of Omar, because the Democrats themselves are already causing enough problems through their refusal to expel her from the party, along with Rashida Tlaib. And overall, it's good he was able to address the AIPAC conference after all, even if it was from long distance.

Trump signs order recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory

Donald Trump's done a good again as he's signed the order for recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan:

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a joint press conference at the White House Monday afternoon.

The two leaders met as President Trump prepared to sign an executive order officially recognizing Israel's sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

As he sat down to sign the order, Trump said that the act was "a long time in the making. It should have taken place many decades ago."

Trump said that the US-Israel alliance "has never been stronger."

"At this moment the American embassy stands proudly in Jerusalem, the capital the Jewish have established. They wanted the embassy for many, many years, for many decades, and frankly, through many presidents. And we got it done," Trump said.

"We will confront the poison of anti-Semitism through our words, and maybe even more importantly, our actions. In the last century, humanity witnessed the horrific consequences of anti-Semitism and a world without a Jewish homeland.

"In the wake of those unthinkable horrors, the Jewish people built a mighty nation in the holy land, something very powerful, something very special and important ... There can be no better example of greatness than what Israel has done starting from such a small speck of sand.

"Israel is an inspiration, a trusted ally, and a cherished friend. The United States will always stand by its side," the president concluded.

This is a most historic moment in Israel-US relations.

Gantz made another offensive remark about Netanyahu

Benny Gantz just can't seem to get a grip on himself. He was recorded making the following offensive statements about the prime minister:

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz has told a group associates that he wouldn't rule out the possibility that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had directed the Russians to break into his cellphone, Channel 13 reported Sunday, based on recordings of Gantz speaking at a closed-door meeting.

"If Netanyahu had a way to hurt or kill me, he'd do it. Would Benjamin Netanyahu, the man I know, wish me harm? The answer is no. Would this Benjamin Netanyahu, on the eve of the election, be willing to see me hurt? Yes, unfortunately that's what I'm saying," Gantz is heard saying.

Gantz also said that Iran might have been behind the attack on his device, an accusation Iran has denied.

"OK, if it's not the enemies, who did it? The opponents. There are two possibilities – one is that they took private individuals who carry out cyber operations of various kinds. The second possibility, which is something Bibi would do – even if I don't think it's very likely – is that he directed the Russians to do it ahead of the election."

In the recordings, Gantz also says that Netanyahu "knows he's going to prison."

Wow...this is truly disgusting. He wants to make Netanyahu out to be a total monster, and that's no way for a politician who wants people to think of him as civilized to behave. If he's elected, he'll be an utter disaster and embarrassment for the country.

Netanyahu's Likud party said in response to the recordings: "Benny Gantz has lost it. After accusing the prime minister of betraying the country, he is saying the prime minister will send people to kill him. If Benny Gantz is showing signs of advanced paranoia after weeks of pressure in an election campaign and after the Iranians hacked his phone, how will he run the country?"

Chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee MK Avi Dichter (Likud) said, "Gantz has gone off the rails and is dragging [Yair] Lapid and the others after him. A week that begins with the 'Four Musketeers' [Blue and White leaders Gantz, Lapid, Moshe Ya'alon, and Gabi Ashkenazi] accusing Prime Minister Netanyahu of betraying his country will naturally go on to accusing him of intending to physically attack Gantz.

"These are signs of the stress that is threatening to bring Gantz down. His remarks against Netanyahu illustrate how unequipped he is to handle diplomatic and political pressure. These facts lead to the conclusion that they are trying to influence the past, whereas Netanyahu in Washington is trying to influence the future," Dichter said.

Correct. Gantz is not suited to be a leader, and neither are his other candidates if they consider this acceptable.

After latest Hamas rocket attack, IDF should bring them down once and for all

Another rocket assault was launched by Hamas in Gaza. The IDF's now gathering forces in the south of the country:

After a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip early Monday morning hit a home on Moshav Mishmeret in the Sharon region of central Israel, wounding three, the IDF issued a reserves call-up and was moving forces to the southern front.

IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis said that the IDF had placed infantry and an armored brigade under the IDF's Southern Command and had put out an emergency call-up to reservists to bolster the personnel available to operate the Iron Dome rocket defense system and anti-aircraft systems and carry out intelligence work.

"We are ready for a variety of scenarios," Manelis said, stressing that the rocket had been fired from a Hamas position and that Israel was holding Hamas responsible for "everything that happens in the Gaza Strip."

At 5:24 a.m. Monday, the Hamas-manufactured rocket was fired from the area around Rafah in southern Gaza and traveled 120 km. (75 miles) northeast before hitting a home in Moshav Mishmeret. Three of the seven occupants were injured, but the house itself – home to a couple, their children and two grandparents – was wrecked.

The incoming rocket set off a warning siren and the family managed to seek shelter in one of the children's rooms, which had been fortified as a secure space, before it landed in their living room. The grandmother, 60, sustained burns and shrapnel wounds when she ran out to pull the door to the safe room shut. She was listed in moderate condition. The mother of the family and a six-month-old baby were lightly wounded by shrapnel. The rest of the family, including a 12-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, were suffering from shock but physically unharmed.

The family's dogs were killed in the attack.

The people in the house were very lucky to survive the assault. But it's entirely possible next time will be much worse, and that's why raiding Gaza, arresting terrorists or killing them altogether and dismantling headquarters and cells, would be the best option now that these horrors are flaring up again. The prime minister's cancelled a speech at AIPAC in order to deal with the situation, while his son will be doing speeches instead.

Haredi yeshiva dean obscenely trivializes gender segregation by Nazis

A Haredi yeshiva director made a most repulsive statement at a political rally for the United Torah Judaism party:

A haredi yeshiva dean compared Israel to the Nazis, who he said – unlike the Jewish state – knew it was proper to separate men and women.

Speaking at an election rally Saturday night for the ultra-Orthodox Degel Hatorah Party, one-half of the United Torah Judaism Knesset faction, dean of the Tushia Yeshiva in Tifrah Rabbi Aviezer Piltz went on a diatribe against Zionism and the State of Israel and its false promise of redemption.

At one point, he addressed secularism in Israel and particularly the legal prohibitions against gender separation in the public domain.

“It’s forbidden to travel on gender-separate buses. Is there a state in the world where they don’t allow [gender] separation on buses, apart from this country?” he demanded. “Here they don’t allow it. This is a state of idol worship. Even the Nazis knew that there should be separate living quarters for men and women.”

Discrimination on the basis of gender is prohibited by law in Israel, and the High Court of Justice ruled in 2011 that gender separation on public buses is prohibited.

Private buses and bus services can be gender separated.

Holocaust scholar and director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Israel office Efraim Zuroff condemned Piltz’s comments, and noted that the Nazis separated men and women in concentration camps as a form of repression and torture.

“This is an unfortunate statement, and I’m hoping that he didn’t really want to convey a message that Israeli society is worse than the Nazis,” said Zuroff. “That a rosh yeshiva could say something like that is shocking and unacceptable. The honorable rabbi should apologize for this comment, which at least would be a constructive step.”

What it does confirm is that the most corrupt mindsets are dominating Haredi yeshivas today, and could easily be indoctrinating their subjects in the worst ways possible. The dean would do well to consider that in the USA, public transportation also isn't allowed to be gender segregated, and if he knows that, it suggests the dean's opposed the US Constitution as much as the most radical leftist.

This incident also shows just how scummy the UTJ leadership can be, if they're willing to invite such an awful man to speak at one of their rallies. No wonder a lot of ultra-Orthodox may be moving away from them this year, in favor of other parties that serve their interests better.

Rafi Eitan passes away

The famous Mossad agent who captured Eichmann in Argentina during the early 60s passed away at age 92:

The legendary Israeli spy who masterminded the capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann has died at 92.

Rafi Eitan was a Mossad agent in 1960 when, acting on information gathered by several independent Nazi hunters, he was dispatched as head of an Israeli intelligence squad to Buenos Aires to intercept Eichmann on his way home.

The team succeeded in capturing Eichmann and spiriting him out of Argentina to stand trial in Israel. After a lengthy proceeding that fascinated the global media and included many Holocaust survivors giving testimony for the first time, Eichmann was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against the Jewish people and sentenced to death. He was hanged in 1962 and remains the only person ever executed by the State of Israel.

Eitan would later reveal that he had brought a handgun with him during the operation, and had things gone wrong, he would have made sure that Eichmann did not escape alive.

Well he did a good deed in his time to bring a monster to justice, so that's something to thank Eitan for.

Netanyahu's son will be attending AIPAC on his own money

Yair Netanyahu, son of the Israeli prime minister, will be attending AIPAC for a speech, and will be traveling there on his own tab:

Yair Netanyahu will address a youth gathering at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Annual Policy Conference, which is meeting from Sunday through Tuesday.

The prime minister’s eldest son will be footing the bill as he is going as a private citizen.

“I am speaking to AIPAC youth,” Yair tweeted before he left with his father Saturday night. “I’m paying my own flight expenses, so the State only gains (since the flight would cost the same amount with me or without me).”

The 27-year-old, who has been a fierce supporter of his father in the current election campaign, couldn’t resist adding a dig in his online post against those who opposed his father in the past.

“On the other hand, former Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon’s sons joined him on every trip. And they had no official job. And they certainly didn’t pay out of pocket.”

The junior Netanyahu will almost certainly have quite an audience. More than 3,600 students from hundreds of college campuses across the United States are expected to join some 14,000 pro-Israeli American adults at the Washington, D.C. conference. They include almost 300 student government presidents, representing educational institutions from all 50 states.

That's an interesting point he made about Sharon, a man who'd actually been a monster early in his life during the 1940s, and reverted to one towards the end of his life when he enabled Hamas to take over Gaza. And, his sons. So he coddled them into taking up lives akin to socialism, to the point where he'd doubtless spent the country's tax shekels for their air fare, and it all amounted to nothing in the end. So Yair's setting a far better example by traveling on his own fare, and I'm sure will have some very impressive things to say at AIPAC. Good luck for him.

Honduras and Romania will move their embassies to Jerusalem

Another positive development in diplomatic relations for Israel, as both Honduras and Romania have announced they'll move their embassies to Jerusalem:

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă announced plans Sunday to relocate her nation’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, following a similar announcement by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

Speaking at the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in Washington DC Sunday morning, Dăncilă said that her government would relocate Romania’s embassy to the Israeli capital city.

"I am pleased to announce today, in front of this AIPAC audience...I as Prime Minster of Romania, and the government that I run, will move our embassy to Jerusalem, the capital of the State of Israel."

"I can promise you this: Romania will remain the same loyal friend and the strongest European voice in support of the Jewish people and the State of Israel."

[...] The announcement came on the heels of a similar declaration by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who vowed his government would “immediately” open a new embassy in Jerusalem.

"Honduras will immediately open our official diplomatic mission and this will extend our embassy to the capital of Israel, Jerusalem."

The more countries who agree to open their embassies here, it'll convince even more why the time's come to recognize Jerusalem is Israel's capitol. This is very good.

Netanyahu should certainly sue Gantz and Yaalon for defamation

The prime minister wants to sue Gantz and Moshe Yaalon for inciting against him in the case of the submarine deal that Netanyahu's been exonerated from:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared on Friday that he would sue Benny Gantz and Moshe Ya’alon, the leaders of the Blue and White party, for libel after Ya’alon suggested his behavior in the submarine affair “could constitute treason.”

“The call of ‘traitor’ against me by [Yair] Lapid, [Benny] Gantz and Ya'alon is a serious incitement that must not be ignored,” Netanyahu said in a video posted to his Facebook page.

“The lies of Lapid, Gantz and Ya'alon are crossing a red line on the most sensitive issues concerning Israel's security. Therefore, I instructed my lawyers to sue them for libel,” added the Prime Minister.

Netanyahu said he would also have sued Lapid, but that Lapid has parliamentary immunity as a sitting MK.

Lapid later published a video of his own in which he declared he would remove his immunity and invited the Prime Minister to sue him as well.

“You know very well that not me, not Benny Gantz, not Bogie Ya’alon and not Gabi Ashkenazi called you a traitor in the submarine affair,” said Lapid.

But it was. And Lapid's not doing any favors now by backing them up. Mainly because:

Police have also stressed that the Prime Minister is not suspected of any connection to the affair.

And that's why it's ludicrous and offensive to accuse Netanyahu of something he's not a suspect in. By all means, I do believe Netanyahu should sue. It would be a very good way to fight back against political defamation.

The Israeli left rehashes cliched allegations despite clear signs to the contrary

Haim Shine wrote about Benny Gantz and company's tiresome attempt to regurgitate old allegations against Benjamin Netanyahu, even though they're flaccid:

People had high hopes for Case 3,000. They were convinced that if only Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could somehow be linked to alleged corruption in the 2015 procurement of submarines they would be able to unseat him without having to get the approval of voters. The Israel Police, the State Attorney's Office and the mainstream media have all colluded to achieve an over-arching goal: to topple the Right.

Some were even convinced that young attorneys would one day look up to Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit and call him the "attorney general who brought down a prime minister." Israel Police investigators were already thinking about how they would tell their grandkids about the tricks they employed to end the Right's grip on power. Media personalities archived footage so that one day, when young interns asked them to tell them how they acted with courage against the forces of darkness, they would be able show them the clips.

To incriminate Netanyahu, they have worked tirelessly to create an assembly line of state's witnesses. Investigators identified the weakest links and applied insurmountable pressure that was very reminiscent of Soviet interrogation techniques from the gulag: threats, mold-infested cells, and arrests whose sole purpose was to make detainees buckle. They also employed carrots, by promising the world (and lenient sentencing) to those willing to incriminate others.

Courts have been highly critical of the police as of late for trying to force people to confess to crimes they have not committed. You would think that the investigators would heed the courts' advice, but it seems that these tactics are still very much present.

That's why it's time to do some modifications in the police system as well. Here's more about the alleged "witness" in the case who since retracted his testimony:

The key witness in the Case 3000 naval acquisitions corruption investigation, which has ensnared several close confidants of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has asked to change parts of his testimony.

Miki Ganor, a former agent in Israel for the German shipbuilder ThyssenKrupp, signed an agreement with prosecutors in July 2017 to cooperate in the probe, which focused on the period he worked for the company between 2009 and 2017. He has admitted to bribing a string of senior officials in order to help secure contracts for ThyssenKrupp with Israel’s Defense Ministry.

Police believe Israeli officials were bribed to push a massive deal for military naval vessels worth hundreds of millions of dollars, in what some have called the largest suspected graft scandal in the country’s history.

But according to a statement by the Israel Police, Ganor visited the Lod headquarters of the police’s top anti-corruption unit, Lahav 433, on Tuesday evening and told investigators he wished to alter key parts of the testimony he gave in the case.

Ganor reportedly told police investigators, “I didn’t bribe anyone,” according to media reports not yet confirmed by police.

After making the unusual request, Ganor was immediately taken to the National Economic Crimes Unit, part of Lahav 433, where he was questioned under caution for suspected obstruction of justice.

He was arrested soon after, and was scheduled to be taken to the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday morning for a remand hearing, but was taken to a hospital Tuesday night for an unspecified ailment.

Prosecutors are reportedly considering stripping him of his state’s witness status, a step that would remove his immunity from prosecution in the case.

Ganor may or may not be guilty of some other crime himself, but as this indicates, he may have been offered a plea bargain in exchange for trying to bring down Netanyahu in a trumped up case, and now, amazingly, Ganor's denied wrongdoing in the weak case. So it doesn't stand up well.

And that's why it's time for the police to stop pursuing accusations over something that doesn't hold up, all because they want to bring down a politician over his standings. Such conduct is not good for law enforcement, politics or democracy.

MoveOn wants Democrats to boycott AIPAC

And the presidential candidates in the Democrats are obeying the leftist movement's demands:

The progressive organization MoveOn called on Wednesday for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to boycott the annual American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference — and many have heeded their calls.

AIPAC, an organization “committed solely to strengthening, protecting and promoting the U.S.-Israel relationship,” has its three-day conference scheduled for next week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are all confirmed speakers for the conference.

Multiple Democratic presidential candidates: South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Former Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Julian Castro, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and California Sen. Kamala Harris have all announced that they will not be in attendance for this year’s conference.

Buttigieg announced he would not be in attendance prior to boycott announcement.

While AIPAC does have flaws, it's clear they're now considered anathema to the left regardless of their politics. Not that the directors should be that bothered if the Dems won't attend, because they are a bad lot, and have been for a long time already. No wonder there's new movements like Blexit and Jexodus launched to encourage black/Jewish citizens to leave the Democrats behind.

House Democrats introducing legislation that could endanger women

The Democrats are going out of their way to prove they're consumed with gender bigotry, and all this after the Harvey Weinstein scandal:

House Democrats introduced the Equality Act last week, a measure that would ensure gender ideology — i.e., transgender bathrooms, forced preferred pronoun use, and biological men playing women’s sports, etc. — is cemented into federal law.

H.R. 5, which was introduced with 239 co-sponsors, states its purpose is to “prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes.”

The measure would essentially codify gender ideology into federal law.

Prohibiting discrimination and promoting equality sound virtuous, but many serious opponents — including a coalition of conservatives, feminists, lesbians, and Christians — are warning Americans the Equality Act is dangerous legislation that will do anything but create equality. In fact, the measure would likely force American women throughout the country to relinquish their rights to privacy, safety, and the ability to compete in sports “equally.”

Monica Burke of the Heritage Foundation summed up the likely effects of the Equality Act with the observation at the Daily Signal that “it actually would promote inequality by elevating the ideologies of special-interest groups to the level of protected groups in civil rights law.”

Emily Zinos, an advocate for women and children and member of Hands Across the Aisle — a group of women from across the political spectrum who have partnered to challenge the notion that gender is the same as sex — took to Twitter to warn that “if the Equality Act passes, gender identity ideology will be taught via the law, and its punitive power will ensure your compliance”: [...]

Burke stressed as well that the Equality Act could easily increase the risk of sexual assault.

“A federal sexual orientation and gender identity law would give male sexual predators who self-identify as females access to private facilities,” she wrote, adding, such a law “could also make victims less likely to report sexual misconduct and police less likely to get involved, for fear of being accused of discrimination.”

If Theresa Saldana were trying to campaign today for anti-stalking laws, she'd likely be throughly rejected by the Democrats because of where they're going today. I think the best way to protest would be to bring it all to the doorsteps of the LGBT advocacy extremists who've been pushing for these nightmares, and now look at the toll it's taking. The time has come to avoid companies siding with these dangerous ideologies, not finance them, and do whatever's necessary to cut off funding to the extremists who're even making efforts to deprive parents of their children and deny them the permission to take their children to see psychologists if they suffer gender dysphoria.

It's a real shame that, as we go further into the 21st century, society's collapsing instead of improving, and this is one of the most notorious results.

It looks like the Trump administration will recognize Israel's sovereignty over Golan Heights

More justice done from the White House for Israel's sake, as they're coming closer to recognizing the right to the Golan Heights:

US President Donald Trump announced Thursday that the time has come to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a move that is considered a huge gift to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just three weeks before the election.

“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!,” Trump posted in a tweet.

Netanyahu phoned Trump – whom he will be meeting next Monday and Tuesday in Washington – and thanked him for “making history.”

Before a dinner with visiting US Secretary Mike Pompeo, Netanyahu called the move a “Purim miracle.”

“We have Purim miracle here, President trump made history, he recognized Israel's sovereignty on the Golan at a time when Iran is trying to use the Golan as a platform to destroy Israel,” he said.

Indeed. But it's not just a gift for Netanyahu. It's a gift for the whole Israeli nation. And it'll be even better if Trump recognizes Hebron as Israeli birthright territory too. For now, Trump deserves many thanks for this bold, important step.

French judicial system once again betrays Sarah Halimi

It looks like the French judicial system is continuing to deliberately avoid recognizing that the Muslim who murdered Sarah Halimi is not mentally insane as they're trying to make him out to be:

Lawyers representing the family of the Jewish doctor murdered during a frenzied antisemitic assault inside her Paris apartment in 2017 have expressed angry frustration at the news that the accused killer may yet escape a criminal trial.

“We are told that [the accused] Kobili Traore is not criminally responsible for his acts at the time of the event, and therefore cannot be incarcerated, but it is [also] suggested that he is not sick, or at least not [formally diagnosed as] insane,” Oudy Bloch — a lawyer for the family of Sarah Halimi, who was beaten and tortured before being thrown from a third-floor window by in the early hours of April 4, 2017 — told French news outlet L’Express on Tuesday.

Bloch was responding to widespread reports in the French media that accused killer Traore, now 29, had been deemed mentally unfit to stand trial for his crime in a new psychiatrist’s report commissioned by the investigating judge in the case.

[...] After expressing skepticism at the claim that Traore’s use of cannabis had diminished his mental state to the point that he could not be held responsible for Halimi’s murder, Bloch asked pointedly: “What are we going to do now, are we going to release him?”

Bloch continued: “How will we explain to the family of the victim that the [murder of] Sarah Halimi was the act of a madman…who could be freed by means of a psychiatric follow-up?”

Halimi’s brother had earlier expressed despair at the latest development. “We want to see this crime punished, we want to see justice done, and we are very far from that outcome,” said William Attal.

Attal told Israeli broadcaster i24‘s French language channel on Monday that the new psychiatric report on Traore had caused a great deal of anguish to Halimi’s relatives.

“It brings pain, because for the children, grandchildren, for the family, this is a very difficult business,” Attal said.

Both Halimi’s murder and its immediate aftermath appeared to confirm fears among French Jews that wider French society remained largely indifferent toward rising antisemitism.

[...] The Halimi family’s legal team is now waiting to establish whether the new psychiatric report will lead the investigating judge to rule against prosecuting Traore. Should that happen, they are certain to challenge that decision in the Paris Court of Appeal. In the event that the judge does decide to proceed, however, Traore’s lawyers have said that they would launch their own appeal, further delaying any prospective trial date.

I think the Israeli government should speak out about this again. It's getting very disgusting and irritating how the judicial system and people involved are obviously trying everything they can to avoid doing real justice.

Sweden welcomes Uyghur Muslims from China to their country

As if Sweden didn't already have enough elements for war waiting to consume their country, now they've decided to allow China's "persecuted" Muslims into their border parameters:

The Swedish government will be opening the doors to China’s persecuted Uyghur Muslims and allow them to claim asylum in the country.

"Persecuted"? And what does the Swedish government think they're bound to do once fully inside their society? Just make wheat cakes?

The decision was made this week by the Swedish Migration Board to ease up the regulations for Uyghur Muslims claiming asylum in Sweden saying that they, along with other persecuted Muslims, would be welcome, Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio reports.

[...] The move could have real consequences for Sweden, a country of 10.2 million people by 2018 estimates, due to the fact that the Uyghur population in China is estimated to be up to 11 million people, according to Chinese state statistics.

In another few decades, the ethnic Swedes could be replaced by Islamofascists from China, who could precipitate the jihad already taking place in Sweden. Of all the countries in Europe who made monstrous efforts to clog their arteries with as many followers of the Religion of Peace as possible, Sweden certainly tops the list in their own way.

IDF puts an end to the terrorist at Ariel

The IDF has wiped out the jihadist who murdered 2 people at Ariel:

The IDF has reportedly closed in on the Palestinian terrorist who carried out the shooting spree near the West Bank city of Ariel on Sunday, killing two Israelis and severely injuring one.

There was an exchange of fire in the Palestinian village of Abwain, near Ramallah, between IDF soldiers and villagers.

Palestinians and at least one soldier were reportedly injured. There were also reports that the terrorist had been killed.

The shootout in Abwain comes after an intense two day manhunt for the Palestinian terrorist, identified as Omar Abu Lila. On Sunday he shot at Israelis at both the Ariel Junction and the Gitai Avishar junction and fled the scene.

The terrorist, identified as Omar Abu Lila, stole a vehicle and drove to the nearby Gitai Avishar junction on Sunday, where he started shooting.

It's good they slew the terrorist. But so long as Islam remains, this form of evil will continue.

Army specialists refute the UN's latest anti-Israel demonization

Some military officials past and present have refuted the UN's latest anti-Israelism:

In testimony delivered at the United Nations on Monday morning, retired U.S. Lt. Col. Geoffrey S. Corn and renowned retired British commander Col. Richard Kemp refuted a U.N. Human Rights Council report that accuses Israeli soldiers of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity" on Israel's border with the Gaza Strip.

Joining a panel of four experts hosted by independent human rights group U.N. Watch, Corn and Kemp accused the Commission of Inquiry of promoting false claims in its report, and warned diplomats and member states that the biased report will only further incentivize Hamas' exploitation of Gazans and increase the chance of other illicit armed groups enlisting against Israel, the United States and its allies in the future.

Simultaneously in the morning plenary session, the U.N. Human Rights Council called on the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights "to manage the dossiers on alleged perpetrators [IDF soldiers], to be provided to … the International Criminal Court."

Several member states welcomed the UNHRC report, including some of the most serious human rights abusers – Saudi Arabia, Syria, Venezuela, Iraq, Russia and Pakistan.

Providing testimony on the report, Corn – a former U.S. Army senior law of war adviser, author and research professor – presented findings from a Jewish Institute for National Security of America report, written by top former commanders of the U.S. Army, and responded to structural, legal and operational fallacies in the UNHRC hearing.

"By omitting from the UNHRC inquiry reports the use of human shields by Hamas, the report incentivizes these terror tactics in the future, and the risk posed to the civilian population of Gaza is exacerbated. If we are really concerned about mitigating harm done to civilians, we should be condemning Hamas's actions and this report," he said.

Kemp, a national security expert, author and former commander of British forces in Afghanistan who testified before the UNHRC investigation in December and has visited the Gaza border himself, agreed.

"The United Nations has played directly into Hamas's hand, and the UNHRC is but an instrument of Hamas terrorism. This report, as well as countries that vote for it, encourage Hamas towards further terrorism in the future," he said, adding that his personal testimony to the commission of inquiry had been completely ignored in the production of the report.

Unfortunately, the UN's validation of Hamas was entirely deliberate. It would be far better to call the UN what they are - an enemy of Israel and the US.

For now, the army officials who came to Israel's defense should be congratulated for their bold efforts.

French convert to Islam arrested for trying to obtain machine gun through postal service

A French convert to Islam in prison tried to order a machine gun through the mail, and was arrested for it:

A French former prisoner who had converted to Islam while incarcerated was arrested after trying to have a sub-machine gun delivered to him by post.

The 30-year-old, who was not identified by name, was arrested last week in the city of Angers in Western France at a local post office while attempting to pick up the firearm that had originally come from the United States, Le Parisien reports.

On Friday, the man was indicted on charges of importing category A weapons, according to public prosecutor Yves Gambert.

Local media also added that the suspect had served a seven-year prison sentence in 2010 for violence with a weapon and targeted a police officer. While in prison, he converted to Islam and was examined by security services in 2016 following the Bataclan massacre in November of 2015.

He also is alleged to have met and had become well acquainted with Islamist David Pagerie who had previously been convicted of consulting Islamist jihadi sites in 2016.

Presumably, security at the post office spotted the weapon, and saw to it he was taken into custody. This is exactly why inmates cannot be housed with the most extremely dangerous of Islamofascists. But which arms maker in the US approved of this sale? This is what the Democrats who condone gun control refuse to consider.

Gantz zigzags about sitting in a coalition with the Likud and Netanyahu

A recording was obtained where Benny Gantz speaks of sitting in a coalition with the Likud and/or Netanyahu, which Gantz is now trying to change his stance on:

Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz responded Tuesday to the leaking of a recording in which he told close confidants that he would not rule out a unity government with Benjamin Netanyahu, saying in a statement that the situation has changed and that he will not now be willing to form a coalition with the prime minister.

On the night after Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced on February 28 he intended to indict Netanyahu in three corruption cases, Gantz convened a press conference, in which he announced that “given the circumstances,” his party would not sit with a Netanyahu-led Likud after the election. Blue and White officials clarified at the time that they would not rule out a coalition with Likud, but not if Netanyahu remained party leader.

But in a recording broadcast Monday evening by Channel 13, Gantz appeared to walk back that declaration — at least in a scenario where he, and not Netanyahu, becomes prime minister.

“I chose the words ‘given the circumstances’ [an apparent reference to his February 28 statement] in order not to completely close the door [on a coalition with Likud] and lock it. The door is closed, but not locked,” he told a group of close advisers in the recording, which the report said was made at a meeting sometime in March.

On Tuesday morning, Gantz released a statement saying that “the remarks in the recording were made before the full details of the grave indictment charges against Netanyahu were revealed [in the three corruption cases in which the prime minister is to be prosecuted, pending a hearing], and definitely before it turned out he received NIS 16 million in a round-trip trade on the submarines and lied to the public on serious security matters. (The Gantz recording appeared to have been made after Gantz’s February 28 statement, which itself was issued hours after the attorney general published his charge sheet against Netanyahu.)

“I am saying, not in an anonymous recording but openly and in my voice: I won’t sit with Netanyahu in the government!” he concluded Tuesday.

Even if he can't form a coalition? Hmm, that remains to be seen. Something tells me Gantz would rather be part of a coalition no matter the turnout, because power is just so important to him. Actually, what's really disturbing is the possibility he'd be willing to uproot more than 90,000 people from Judea/Samaria to fulfill his obsession with "peace" with the PLO that won't be reciprocated. In any event, Gantz is just full of hot air and nothing more than a clumsy oaf who can't posit a firm position or policy on anything. A totally pointless man who is, quite simply, a leftist who doesn't have the courage to admit it clearly. And he's not fit to be a politician.

Knesset needs to remove court's ability to perform biased removals of candidates based on their politics

Bezalel Smotrich's called for an urgent meeting on the high court's politicized disqualification of Michael Ben-Ari from being able to run for Knesset:

National Union Chairman MK Bezalel Smotrich on Monday called a Knesset meeting to cancel Section 7a, on which the Supreme Court based its decision to disqualify Otzma Yehudit candidate Dr. Michael Ben-Ari, but which the Court ignored with regards to the terror-supporting Arab parties.

"We heard a lot of condemnations of the Supreme Court's decision yesterday, but words are not enough - it's time to act," Smotrich said. "For the first time in the State of Israel's history, a 'council of wise men' is deciding who Israel's citizens are allowed to vote for, instead of the voters deciding."

"The Supreme Court justices disqualified a candidate due to his views regarding Israel's enemies, but approved parties which openly identify with Israel's enemies. This distortion of justice must be corrected today."

Dror Eydar's commented further:

The Supreme Court's ruling on Sunday hampers the right to freedom of expression, the life's blood of any democracy. Disqualifying a candidate from the Right, while approving candidates from the Left, also severely damages the public's trust in the fairness of the legal process. These matters are so simple, that one is left with the impression that the Supreme Court justices aren't interested in critical thought which although isn't complex is certainly vital for the implementation of justice. What we saw on Sunday was the politicization of the legal system.

The judges' power stems from the citizens who designated them as their arbiters. But the public didn't ask them to determine the nature of our political discourse nor to shield gentle souls from harsh words. Israeli democracy is strong and vibrant and if it can handle the extremists from the Left it can certainly handle Michael Ben-Ari.

Clause 7a of Basic Law: The Knesset, according to which Ben-Ari was barred and the extremists from the Left were approved, stipulates that candidates or Knesset lists should be disqualified "if the objects or actions of the list or the actions of the person, expressly or by implication, include one of the following: negation of the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state; incitement to racism; support of armed struggle, by a hostile state or a terrorist organization, against the State of Israel."

In my view, this clause is entirely problematic aside from the last part. A democracy has to permit the expression of harsh, even extreme sentiments. The more we allow free discourse, the less violence we will encounter on the fringes. The only exception is "support of armed struggle." But when did we start being afraid of words? The Jewish nation is a nation of texts, and some of these texts are severe and extreme. We've never been afraid of contending with harsh expressions and we never silenced opinions in places of Torah study. Prohibiting the opinions (not including calls to violence) of political rivals is a denial of our people's own polemic traditions.

The 7a clause must be modified if real justice is to be had in our legal system. And the court authorities who pulled this disturbing stunt should be ashamed of themselves, and owe the public an apology.

2 people murdered by jihadist near Ariel

More murders by jihadists took place at the town of Ariel in Judea/Samaria, with two at least 2 people's lives lost:

A manhunt is underway in the West Bank for a Palestinian who killed an IDF soldier and critically injured two other Israelis in two attacks outside the West Bank settlement of Ariel on Sunday morning.

Additional troops, including special forces and officers from the Shin Bet and Israel police, were deployed to search for the attacker who fled in the direction of the Palestinian village of Burqin. [...]

According to IDF Spokesperson Brig.-Gen. Ronen Manelis, at around 9:45 a.m., a Palestinian terrorist stabbed 19 year-old Sgt. Gal Keidan at the Ariel junction and stole his weapon and shot him before he shot toward civilians at the junction, hitting three cars passing through.

An Israeli civilian, 47 year-old Rabbi Ahiad Ettinger from the settlement of Eli was critically injured after he was struck by bullets while driving through the junction. Ettinger, has 12 children and heads Oz and Emunah Yeshiva in south Tel Aviv.

Keidan, from Beersheba was a combat soldier in the Artillery Corps’ 334th “Fire” brigade and who was posthumously promoted to the rank of St.-Sargent. The youngest of three siblings born to parents who immigrated to Israel in the 1970s from the former Soviet Union, he will be buried Monday at 11 AM in the military cemetery in Beersheba.

According to the military, after carrying out the attack in Ariel the attacker stole a car from a civilian who fled the attack and escaped the scene. The terrorist then drove toward the Gitai Avishar junction, where he carried out a drive-by shooting injuring another soldier who was guarding a hitchhiking station.

The soldier's now also dead from the stabbing. Here's more about him over here.

Supreme court disqualifies right-wing Knesset candidate while allowing pro-terrorist Arabic communist party to run

The Israeli supreme court - and even the attorney general himself - made a stunningly biased decision to disqualify Michael Ben-Ari, even though he'd once served in the Knesset before, while the Hadash party, run by Arabic communists and even a shady Israeli character, are allowed to run by contrast:

A maximum nine justice panel of the High Court disqualified Otzma candidate Michael Ben-Ari from running in the upcoming elections due to racism, while permitting his Otzma colleague Itamar Ben-Gvir as well as all of the Arab parties to run on Sunday night.

With its decision, the High Court essentially followed the recommendations of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit, while overruling several decisions of the Central Elections Committee.

The Central Elections Committee had disqualified the Balad-United Arab List parties and Hadash candidate Dr. Ofer Kassif, the Arab party's only Jewish candidate, from running.

It had ruled Ben-Ari and Ben-Gvir, as well as the Hadash-Ta'al Arab parties (other than Kassif) eligible.

Mandelblit had said that while Balad-UAL and Kassif's statements about the State of Israel and the IDF were highly problematic, that they did not meet a "critical mass" of supporting armed conflict with Israel under the law for disqualification.

The court's 8-1 decision, with only Justice David Mintz dissenting and voting to disqualify Balad-UAL and Kassif, signaled that it accepted this reasoning, though its full reasoned decision will be published at a later date.

Likewise with Ben-Ari, the court's 8-1 decision, with only Justice Noam Sohlberg dissenting and voting for Ben Ari to remain eligible, signaled support for Mandelblit's contention that the candidate's statements violated racism against Arabs both in terms of incitement and in terms of him taking some concrete actions to further racism.

Mandelblit had said that Ben-Gvir's statements were problematic, but that he had been more careful than Ben-Ari to avoid explicit support or actions backing racism, which appeared to be why the court declared him eligible though he is also from the far-right Otzma party.

Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, who in the past has said her conservative appointments accomplished a revolution swinging the court from left-leaning to right-leaning, slammed the decisions.

She said, “It’s the last straw for the High Court’s justices and they have changed themselves into political actors. The High Court decision to disqualify Ben-Ari, and on the other hand, to approve the eligibility of [Arab political] parties which support terror is a massive and mistaken intervention going to the heart of Israeli democracy.”

She added that the decision, “tramples on the decisions of the Central Elections Committee.”

This is already causing a lot of outrage in the public, proving additionally that Mandelblit's not suited to his job, and should just resign already for his cowardice. Here's an analysis of the emerging case:

The Central Elections Committee hearings on whether to disqualify candidates has long been little more than political theater. The politicians on each side argue how bad the opposite side’s extremes are, and whichever side has a majority wins.

The real arena has always been the High Court of Justice, to which the committee’s decisions are always inevitably appealed.

That’s why the cries about racism and the end of Israeli democracy – after the committee vote two weeks ago to keep Otzma Yehudit candidates Michael Ben-Ari and Itamar Ben-Gvir in the running, while banning UAL-Balad and Hadash candidate Ofer Kassif – were overblown. They were generally the result of cynicism from those who would speak like that about Israel or the Right no matter what; or of ignorance, especially from foreign outlets whose reporters are only in Israel for a few years and may not have gone through these motions before.

And then there are those who are both ignorant and cynical, like American anti-Israel agitator Linda Sarsour who tweeted “Democracy?” with a link to a Reuters article about the committee vote two weeks ago. Don’t expect her to confirm the robustness of Israel’s democracy now that the situation is more to her liking.

Now we have the Right questioning Israeli democracy, albeit for an entirely different reason.

No one has been banned from running from the Knesset since 1992, when the Kach and Kahane Chai parties were not allowed to run, on grounds of racist incitement. Those parties, like Otzma Yehudit, were inspired by Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose own Kach Party had been banned in 1986.

Ben-Ari’s disqualification, as an individual whose candidacy was upheld by the Central Elections Committee, is wholly unprecedented. It’s unclear why he can’t run now when he could in 2009 – after which he was a member of Knesset for nearly four years – except that he’s posted on Facebook a lot in the interim that helped Meretz gather a “critical mass” of evidence against him. It’s not like Ben-Ari’s ideology has changed, or that it’s any different from that of Ben-Gvir, who is allowed to run.

Taken together with the court allowing Kassif, who is an open anti-Zionist, and UAL-Balad, whose candidates have repeatedly sided with terrorist groups against Israel (to the point of Balad’s founder having spied for Hezbollah and an ex-MK from the party going to prison for aiding terrorists), to run for the Knesset despite their apparent violation of the conditions stipulated in the law, the outrage has to come from even more moderate sectors of the Right, like Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Likud candidate Gideon Sa’ar.

[...] In the end, the High Court may have hurt itself more than any one person or party, by applying the law unevenly and more broadly than before.

The big winner of this night is not Meretz, despite its great satisfaction at the ruling, it’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The topic can serve to make valid arguments about how politicized the court system's become, and why a serious overhaul is needed. If the rulings against Kassif and company from Hadash had been allowed to stand, there probably would've been less controversy surrounding Ben-Ari, but because the court had to make such hypocritical decisions along with the state attorney, that's why this must all be looked upon gravely.

Mike Pompeo defends Israel's right to self-defense

The US secretary of state came out in Israel's defense at a time when Hamas/Islamic Jihad are trying to endanger innocent lives again:

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself after the rocket fire on Tel Aviv.

“Once again, Israeli citizens are under attack from terrorists in Gaza, armed and financed by their puppet masters in Tehran,” he tweeted.

“We stand by our ally. Israel has the right to protect its citizens,” added Pompeo.

The IDF retaliated for the rocket attacks on central Israel by attacking approximately 100 military targets belonging to the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip.

While Hamas and the Islamic Jihad both denied being responsible for the attack on central Israel, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed overnight Thursday that Hamas was behind the rocket fire.

It figures both terror cells would deny they were behind any of this, as it's all part of Islamic taqqiya to deny their accountability.

Pompeo's doing the right thing to speak in Israel's defense of its own self-defense rights, and should be thanked for it.

The Iranian foothold in Gaza

Prof. Eyal Zisser reminds everyone of Iran's grip in Gaza:

Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired the missiles at central Israel from Gaza on Thursday night. But Iran, which controls the terrorist group and its leaders and which gives it money and provides it with the type of missiles used in Thursday's attack, is directly responsible. Iran doesn't hide its desire to spark a conflagration in Gaza with the aim of sabotaging and even halting Israel's efforts to dislodge the Islamic republic from Syria. The Iranians also want to embarrass Israel and harm it, by exploiting the fact that this is a sensitive period, ahead of the upcoming April 9 general election.

Hamas, however, is also responsible for the missile attack, because it hasn't taken action against Islamic Jihad and other recalcitrant groups in Gaza, which continue targeting Israel. Hamas lends a hand to the escalation along the border as a matter of routine, hoping to improve its negotiating position with Israel and receive aid dollars from Qatar.

In this regard, the missile attack on Gush Dan indicates the collapse of this conception and essentially the illusion – created by Hamas and Israel alike – that it's possible to control the flames Hamas is fanning along the Gaza border and prevent them from spreading. At the end of the day, those who shoot at Israeli communities near Gaza will also shoot at Tel Aviv.

That's exactly why the strip needs to be retaken. It could also help provide the residents with more freedom from such tyrants if bringing down the Hamas and Iran's minions once and for all were to be done.

What kind of psychiatrist did Yaakov Litzman hire to defend a Haredi felon?

There was a rally supporting the victims of the Haredi child molestor Malka Leifer that took place this week at the court, and some very surprising news came up pertaining to the psychiatrist who'd taken charge of "examining" the criminal:

“We feel angry and betrayed, he [Litzman] has allegedly had a hand in preventing justice and has played around with our lives,” said Erlich.

“We have been waiting for this for such a long time and allegedly some of that is his fault.”

Erlich said insisted that Litzman should step down owing to his “position of influence” as deputy health minister over Leifer’s case and over similar such cases.

“He should absolutely resign,” she said.

As the hearing was underway, several dozen demonstrators, including, Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, staged a protest outside the court to express support for Erlich and her sisters and to condemn the lengthy delays and alleged corruption in the handling of extradition proceedings to Australia.

“Litzman needs to resign. This is a man who is hugging sex offenders and protecting pedophiles. Why? Because the name of his group is more important than the people of his group. This is a warped situation,” declared Hassan-Nahoum.

Erlich and her sister Nicole Meyer joined the protest after the hearing and spoke out in particular against the psychiatrist who gave testimony supporting Leifer’s claim that she is not mentally fit for extradition.

“A series of Facebook posts was found under his name stating his personal opinions about Malka Leifer and us the victims, that he doesn’t believe us, that we’re not religious enough, and therefore we don’t deserve justice,” said Meyer.

“No credibility should be given to the report he wrote in 2015 after observing Malka Leifer for a number of hours,” she added.

First reported by the Australian Jewish News, the psychiatrist in question is Dr. Brian Trappler of New York who stated on Facebook in 2017 that he believed Leifer to be innocent and opined that he believed this to be the case because protesters against her did not appear to be religious.

“She never committed the crimes she was accused of,” he stated on Facebook, adding “Just looking at their pictures and listening to their comments should give you an idea that this is not a Heimeshe or haredi crowd.”

In 2004, Trappler had his medical license suspended for one month and was fined $50,000 by New York State for filing false documents to dodge paying parking tickets.

Speaking at the demonstration, Manny Waks – director of the Kol V’Oz organization – said that Trappler’s testimony was tainted and should be dismissed.

From what's told here, it sounds like the offending "doctor" is a Haredi who's bigoted against non-Haredis and non-religious, though I'm sure that even if the victims were still Haredis/religious, he'd still take the offender's side. This is exactly why he should have his license revoked permanently and be charged with obstruction of justice alongside Litzman for what they did.

And Leifer must be extradited back Down Under, and no concerns should be raised about whether she'll be kept with non-Jewish inmates or not. Somebody like her who committed such vile crimes deserves severe punishment.

Rockets from Gaza reach Tel Aviv area

This may not be the first time it's happened, but it does prove the rockets used by terrorist groups in Gaza can reach as far as Tel Aviv. The air force has already responded:

The IDF response comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu concluded a security meeting at the IDF’s Tel Aviv headquarters. Israel’s Army Radio reported defense officials took the decision to strike dozens of Gaza Strip terror targets in response to the rocket launchings, which marked the first time Gazan terrorists fired rockets toward Tel Aviv since the 2014 Israel-Gaza War.

It was not immediately clear which terror faction was responsible for the rocket fire toward Tel Aviv.

It makes little difference which gang did it. What matters is that their weaponry was capable of causing horror. So far as I know, there were no casualties, though there was cases nearby pedestrians in the area suffering shock. But if something isn't done to put an end to the Hamas/PLO dictatorships, this will go on, and will lead to tragedy in the future.

One of Gantz's candidates, Gabi Ashkenazi, tried to undermine Ehud Barak

An eyebrow-raising report reveals that leftist ex-prime minister Ehud Barak once filed a police report against former IDF chief and now Knesset candidate for Benny Gantz's party, Gabi Ashkenazi, for trying to damage him:

Former Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff and Blue and White Knesset candidate Gabi Ashkenazi undermined former Defense Minister Ehud Barak to the point that the latter had to file a complaint with the Israel Police, Israel Hayom has learned.

Ashkenazi's tenure as military chief under Barak, between 2007 and 2011, saw the two constantly lock horns. This ultimately led to Barak choosing not to extend Ashkenazi's term, which led to another saga known as the Harpaz Affair, in which a person close to Ashkenazi tried to derail the appointment of his successor.

Ashkenazi was investigated by police after the affair broke as a suspect of a criminal collusion but prosecutors ultimately decided not to indict him. In recent weeks his actions have come under renewed scrutiny in light of his decision to enter the Knesset race as a prominent figure in Blue and White, which has a realistic shot at becoming the largest faction in the Knesset and possibly even forming a government.

A new document unearthed by Israel Hayom shows that in 2014 Barak sent a letter to the Israel Police's National Fraud Unit containing damning language against Ashkenazi. "In light of the recent reports, I feel that the investigation has not been as comprehensive as it should have been," Barak wrote, and warned that the investigators must not overlook the gravity of the matter. He accused Ashkenazi and his associates of "trying to undermine elected officials in areas that are of paramount importance, including by means of interference with the legal process to appoint a chief of general staff, as well as interference with operational matters that I will not elaborate on due to their sensitive nature."

It sounds like Gantz has quite a felon running on his list for Knesset, undermining any attempt they might've made to put on an "honest" image. Does Barak approve of what's being done now? I don't know, but in any event, it's clear Gantz has some very embarrassingly bad baggage accompanying him in the election.

State Department no longer calls Golan Heights and Judea/Samaria/Gaza "occupied territory"

A positive development at the US State Department, as they've removed the negative descriptions of Israel and the Golan Heights from their Human Rights Practices reports:

The US State Department has erased the word “occupation” from its description of the Golan Heights and the Palestinian territories in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which it published on Wednesday.

Last year, it referred to the areas as “occupied” by Israel; now, it speaks of them as under Israeli “control.”

The change began gradually two years ago, when the State Department replaced the country designation of “Israel and the occupied territories” with “Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank and Gaza.”

Within the 2017 report itself, however, the State Department last year still used the word “occupation” but much more sparingly. In 2016, the report referred to the occupied territories, and in 2017 it spoke of the Palestinian territories.

This year, the 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices made no mention of the word “occupation” at all.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981. The United States and the international community have never recognized that act. Since the Six-Day War, Israel has never annexed the West Bank, and it withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Right-wing politicians have pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank, which they refer to as Judea and Samaria.

The shift on the Golan comes as US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham promised Netanyahu that he would work to sway the Trump administration to recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights.

Graham deservces considerable credit for his own efforts in getting Israel's sovereignty recognized. As for the paper itself, they may deserve a demerit for saying "captured" instead of "RE-captured", ditto for acting as though calling Judea/Samaria what they were in Israeli history wasn't so.

ISRAELI POLITICIANS took the linguistic shift as an affirmative nod from the Trump administration on the acceptance of the Golan as part of sovereign Israel and support for the annexation of the West Bank.

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein said, “The nation has long been with the Golan, now [US President Donald] Trump is also. Thank you, President Trump, for another important step on the path of truth and justice – for the Golan Heights and for Judea and Samaria. The next step: the application of sovereignty [in Judea and Samaria]!” Edelstein said.

MK Bezalel Smotrich (Bayit Yehudi) called on Netanyahu to take action, explaining that the State Department shift in language provided a “window of opportunity” for such a step.

Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) thanked Israel’s “great friend” the United States, which “continues to stand for historical truth.

“The fact that the term ‘occupied territory’ is absent from an official [US] State Department document is an important step for Israel’s foreign relations and the future of the [West Bank] settlements,” Hotovely said.

She credited both Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministry for the State Department’s linguistic shift.

“I welcome the move. I’m confident that in the future, other countries will also stand by Israel,” Hotovely said.

Yesha Council foreign envoy and Efrat Council head Oded Revivi said it was a “welcome and courageous act by the US administration that has consistently resisted the standard international consensus when it diverged with reality, just like the US government’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.”

Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, director of international law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum said, “This is a massive change in how America relates to the conflict. It is coming to understand that while Israel and the Palestinians have a dispute, international law does not provide the answers to that dispute. The report, also for the first time, expresses skepticism at the claims and submissions of anti-Israel groups, whose poorly documented allegations have previously been accepted as gospel.”

Now this is what one calls success in seeking recognition for historical facts. Probably the only person who could possible loath it is somebody like former ambassador Martin Indyk, formerly of both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's staffs, who said it "belongs to Syria", all because leftists like him say so. The man is still an utter disgrace who clearly doesn't recognize the Trump administration either. Guess Indyk remains one very vindictive member of the Democrats who can't appreciate a positive step being done. No matter. Graham, on the other hand, is a fine man who's doing a lot of good on his part, and has. This is very good for Israel in foreign relations.