From Ian:
Britain's "Murky Anti-Semitic Subculture"
Recent anti-Israel protests have been attended by thousands across Europe. These protests come in opposition to attempts by Israeli forces to quell the rocket fire aimed at Israeli citizens by the Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
In Britain, the protests in support of Hamas have been chiefly organized by a mixture of Sunni Islamist groups and groups aligned with the Socialist Workers Party. The attending protestors, though, seem to come from across the political and religious spectrums.
European hatred for the small Jewish state, or Jews in general, apparently continues to transcend all ideological differences to the point where pro-Assad activists can march alongside Sunni Islamists, while neo-Nazis stand shoulder to shoulder with Marxists.
Parliamentarians such as Andy Slaughter MP and George Galloway MP walked next to Islamist activists such as Ismail Patel, a supporter of the late French Holocaust Denier Roger Garaudy. Patel advocates the killing of adulterous women and has previously stated: "Hamas is no terrorist organization…we salute Hamas for standing up to Israel." Marching between Andy Slaughter and Ismail Patel was Hafiz al-Karmi, an official from the Palestinian Forum of Britain, one of the UK's leading pro-Hamas organizations.
The Muslim Colonists: Forgotten Facts about the Arab-Israeli Conflict
The current Palestinian narrative is that all Muslims in Palestine are natives and all Jews are settlers. This narrative is false. There has been a small but almost continuous Jewish presence in Palestine since the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome two thousand years ago, and, as we will see, most of the Muslims living in Palestine when the state of Israel was declared in 1948 were Muslim colonists from other parts of the Ottoman Empire who had been resettled and living in Palestine for fewer than 60 years.
There are two important historical events usually overlooked in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
One is the use that Muslim rulers made of the jizya (a discriminatory tax imposed only on non-Muslims, to "protect" them from being killed or having their property destroyed) to reduce the quantity of Jews living in Palestine before the British Mandate was instituted in 1922. The second were the incentives by the Ottoman government to relocate displaced Muslim populations from other parts of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine.
Occupation hypocrisy: Gaza vs. Cyprus
Cyprus is a beautiful island, but it has never recovered from the Turkish invasion of 1974. Turkish troops still control nearly 40 percent of the island — the most fertile and formerly the richest portion.
Some 200,000 Greek refugees never returned home after being expelled from their homes and farms in Northern Cyprus.
The capital of Nicosia remains divided. A 112-mile demilitarized “green line” runs right through the city across the entire island.
Thousands of settlers from Anatolia were shipped in by the Turkish government to occupy former Greek villages and to change Cypriot demography — in the same manner the occupying Ottoman Empire once did in the 16th century. Not a single nation recognizes the legitimacy of the Turkish Cypriot state. In contrast, Greek Cyprus is a member of the European Union.
Why, then, is the world not outraged at an occupied Cyprus the way it is at, say, Israel?
Obama’s campaign against Israel: More than blocking a weapons shipment
Now administration officials have disclosed, in a leak-blast full of astonishing quotes, that a shipment of arms to resupply Israel after the recent operation in Gaza was stopped when senior officials became aware of it.
But they aren’t just disclosing that the shipment was halted, and that other shipments will be getting a closer look. They are concocting an entire narrative about the Israelis “outflanking” the administration, running off on their own, and being unreceptive to U.S. influence.
Obama is transparent, if you read his oracular signs with the right key. Most responsible observers have been reluctant up to now to use that key. But there’s really nothing else left to do. We’re beyond the point at which the damaging implications of tailored “leaks” from the Obama administration can be explained away. (h/t cisjew)
Meet the Kurds, a Historically Oppressed People Who Will Get Their Own State
With regard to Arab countries, as much as they blame Israel for promoting the breakup of Arab countries, the truth is that the collapse of such states as Sudan, Libya, Syria, or Iraq was home-made. Similarly, while blaming “Zionists” for encouraging the formation of what some refer to as a “second Israel,” many of the Arab countries have developed strong ties with the Kurdish entity. A Kurdish official, Adnan Mufti, stated that these countries would “accept the reality of a Kurdish state.” So, the formation of a “second Israel” will, in a way, take the onus from the first one and form a bulwark against radical and destabilizing forces in the region emanating either from states like Iran or terrorist organizations like ISIS or Hamas.
Iraq today is a failed state. The more time passes the more each of the three main constituencies—Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds—reinforce their unique identity and pursue their own very different political agendas, and no external force, not even the United States, can keep them together. In such circumstances, if and when Kurdistan declares independence, Israel should have no dilemma in siding with a moderate, tolerant, pro-Western, and stable entity against a hostile ISIS-stan and Shiistan. Even though Kurdistan might not forge a formal alliance with Israel, its very existence could stem the jihadist and extremist storms that are blowing across the Middle East and threatening to tear it apart.
How Dissimulation about Islam is Fuelling Genocide in the Middle East
Why is this so? How did the Arab Spring, hailed by so many armchair western commentators as the next best thing for the Middle East, blossom bright red into a torrent of blood?
Theological illiteracy
Part of the answer is that the West is in the grip of theological illiteracy. It has stubbornly refused to grasp the implications of a global Islamic revival which has been gaining steam for the best part of a century. The Islamic Movement looks back to the glory days of conquest as Islam's finest hour, and seeks to revive Islamic supremacy through jihad and sacrifice. It longs for a truly Islamic state – the caliphate reborn – and considers jihad to be the God-given means to usher it in.
This worldview was promoted in compelling, visionary terms by Indian scholar Abul A'la Maududi, whose writings continue to be widely disseminated by Islamic bookshops and mosques across the West. Maududi argued in his radicalisation primer Let us be Muslims that the only valid form of government is Islamic theocracy – i.e. sharia rule – and Muslims are duty-bound to use whatever power they can muster to impose this goal on the world: 'whoever you are, in whichever country you live, you must strive to change the wrong basis of government, and seize all powers to rule and make laws from those who do not fear God. … The name of this striving is jihad.' And 'If you believe Islam to be true, you have no alternative but to exert your utmost strength to make it prevail on earth: you either establish it or give your lives in this struggle.'
Ctrl-F-Genocide
Last month, as the fighting in Gaza was raging on, Sam Harris posted a thoughtful essay titled “Why Don’t I Criticize Israel?”. Andrew Sullivan replied. Sensing the possibility of a robust conversation, and neither man having a reputation for shying away from confrontation, Sullivan and Harris got on the phone for a 90-minute chat about Gaza. What followed was one of the finest pieces of contemporary theater I’ve read in years, equally remarkable for Harris’s level-headed and intelligent replies as it is for Sullivan’s rants, defying logic and morality in a wild effort to portray the Jewish State as a genocidal demon.
Genocide is rarely amusing, but in one of the conversation’s sharpest points, Sullivan denies having used the term, and Harris sets the record straight (and delivers a short lesson in computer literacy along the way):
Purported letter from inside Gaza tells of tunnel toil, Hamas cruelty
In the letter, the writer also claims his father’s metalwork shop was commandeered by the U.S.-designated terrorist group soon after it came to power in Gaza in 2006, and used from that point on to turn out rockets.
“They [Hamas] set the prices and [placed the orders] from the workshop,” he wrote. “From that day, every morning an armed Hamas member used to come to the shop and give us orders to make winged metal pipes. Straight away I understood that they were used to launch rockets. One day a pickup truck came and the Hamas members took my father from the shop. We never saw him again. Later I learned they killed him and threw his body into a pit.”
The death of his father and the seizure of the family shop drove the man to jump at the chance to earn money, he said. When the latest hostilities between Israel Defense Forces and Hamas broke out more than two months ago, he realized his own work had played a role.
“We heard about the tunnels that Hamas dug and I understood that I helped them,” read the letter. “We pray that the world will help to free us from the fearful and cruel Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. I pray for death to all Hamas members and that we will get freedom and a chance to live a normal life for our children in Gaza. Inshalla.”
Blue State Blues: Spielberg Should Revoke Obama's Holocaust Award
Millions of Iraqi Christians are still on the run, for whom no aid is forthcoming. Oh, we'll help where we can, Obama told the press, but we must do so "without committing combat troops on the ground."
Meaning, essentially: tough luck.
Obama would rather hold onto his anti-Bush talking point than do whatever possible to prevent the slaughter of thousands of innocent people or to deter the Islamist thugs from their nihilistic orgies of violence. He delivered his statement and was back on the golf course six minutes later.
Never mind--perhaps Obama's Atrocities Prevention Board will do something about it?
In 2012, in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Museum, Obama announced the formation of the Board and promised that it would work hard to give meaning to the words "never again." He recalled that he had pledged to do "everything we can to prevent and end atrocities," adding: "This is not an afterthought. This is not a sideline in our foreign policy."
Times of Israel Live Blog: Day 40: Israeli official says slim odds at ceasefire deal by Monday, Egypt warns there will be no more truce proposals
A five-day truce began amid rocket fire midnight Wednesday, but held through Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Friday an Egyptian newspaper published details of Cairo’s 11-point ceasefire offer, and accounts varied on whether Hamas and Israel were close to clinching a deal or whether differences remained too great. Israel’s negotiators are due back in Cairo Saturday night.
EU backs Gaza mission to monitor Rafah crossing point on Egyptian border
The European Union on Friday said it was willing to reactivate an EU mission on the Egypt-Gaza border to help stabilize the Palestinian enclave after weeks of war.
At talks in Brussels, foreign ministers representing the 28 EU countries welcomed a ceasefire in Gaza and said they could relaunch the EU Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah crossing point (EUBAM Rafah) and possibly expand its scope.
"The EU is ready to support a possible international mechanism endorsed by the UN Security Council, including through the reactivation and possible extension in scope and mandate of its EUBAM Rafah," a statement following the EU meeting said.
"The EU commends the considerable efforts and commitment of Egypt to broker this and earlier deals. The situation in the Gaza Strip has been unsustainable for many years and a return to the status quo prior to the latest conflict is not an option. A durable ceasefire must lead to a fundamental improvement in the living conditions for the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip through the lifting of the Gaza closure regime, and it must end the threat to Israel posed by Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza as demonstrated by rocket attacks and tunnel construction.
"All terrorist groups in Gaza must disarm," the ministers said.
Both the United States and the European Union have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Israel weighing how to deal with UN war probe
Facing a United Nations war crimes commission it accuses of bias, Israel must decide whether to cooperate and present its case or boycott the inquiry entirely.
Neither option is especially appealing. Israel believes that a stinging indictment from the United Nations Human Rights Council is all but guaranteed and that dealing with the body would give it undue clout. On the other hand, it is also wary of slighting the UN and appearing guilty by abstention.
Israel has yet to officially say what it will do, but it gave an inkling of its thinking when the Foreign Ministry called the commission a “kangaroo court” whose verdict is “known ahead of time.”
Schumer calls for Schabas’s removal, winning Jewish praise
Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Friday urged the UN Human Rights Council to remove William Schabas as head of the probe into the recent Gaza conflict, citing his past comments against Israel which the senator says rules him out as a fair judge of the war.
Schumer added that if Schabas is not removed, the US should halt its funding of the UNHRC as well as any participation in it.
Jewish leaders applauded the senator’s stance, with the heads of the Conference of Presidents, Robert G. Sugarman and Malcolm Hoenlein, saying they too have urged UN chief Ban-ki Moon to reconsider Schabas’s appointment.
Full-Page Ads Denouncing Head of UN Gaza Probe to Run in NYT, WSJ, WaPo, Guardian
In a statement announcing the advertising buys, This World echoed the Israel Prime Minister's Office, who recently called the UNHRC human rights probe a "kangaroo court."
"The UN Gaza commission is a kangaroo court with the sole purpose of demonizing Israel," the statement read. "Schabas frequently says 'Israel gets off light' at the UN and claims that Hamas – the genocidal, anti-Semitic tyrant of Gaza, which uses Palestinian children as human shields – is not a terrorist organization at all."
"We're telling Schabas: 'your record is open to scrutiny,'" Boteach said. "You think Israel's record is open to scrutiny? Your record on human rights is appalling. You are an apologist for evil. Anyone who is an apologist of [former Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad, who aspired to be the Hitler of his time, is an affront to human rights. It's not that Schabas is unqualified to be on a panel investigating Israel; he is not qualified to be on any human rights commission."
Daily targets Turkish Jews in headline
The pro-government Milat daily targeted Turkish nationals from the Jewish community who also hold Israeli passports in its Thursday issue by arguing that since Israeli citizens are required to serve in the national army, they have blood on their hands and are responsible for the killings of civilians in Gaza during an Israeli offensive that has led to over 2,000 deaths since July of this year.
Milat, a staunch pro-government paper that uses political Islamist rhetoric, used English in its headline, stating “Go home killer” in reference to Turkish Jews who allegedly serve in the Israeli army. The article stated that after Israel announced its recent military campaign, Turkish Jews who hold dual citizenship rushed to “massacre” Palestinians. The paper also commented that Jewish Turkish citizens involved in fighting against innocent Palestinians come back to Turkey and “resume their lives as if nothing happened.”
UK Chief Rabbi Mirvis: Middle East Situation ‘Not an Excuse for Simply Abominable and Unacceptable’ Anti-Semitism
UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said there was no excuse for the global rise of anti-Semitism in response to Israel’s Operation Protective Edge to stop Hamas’s rockets and tunnels from Gaza, the UK’s Jewish News reported on Friday from an interview on BBC Radio 4′s Today.
“The situation in the Middle East should not be used as an excuse for simply abominable and unacceptable conduct… which is in fact what is happening,” the chief rabbi said.
“Anti-Zionism is not necessarily anti-Semitism. However, anti-Zionism does create a context within which anti-Semitism can thrive,” he said. “This is exactly what we are seeing.”
Hamas threatens 'war of attrition'
Mashaal called for an end to the fighting by "meeting the Palestinian demands," namely lifting the siege on the heavily-populated coastal enclave. He accused Israel's leadership of committing war crimes against the Gazan people, and urged the UN and the international community to hold Israel accountable for rendering "300,000 Palestinians homeless, destroying residential areas and tens of thousands of houses," and pounding hospitals, schools and mosques.
Asked about his organization's defense mechanism – firing rockets at Israel's civilian population – Mashaal defended Gaza's right to defend itself, even while facing a "military might that is a million times bigger than ours." He charged Israel with having a moral deficit, "concentrating on killing women and children."
At the same time, on the eve of the resumption of the cease-fire talks in Cairo, Hamas officials said that Egypt’s latest proposals for a long-term truce with Israel were unacceptable.
Worse than Hamas? Gaza’s other terror groups
For Israel, that might not be the worst thing. That’s because for all of Hamas’s violent extremism, it also governs a territory, maintains a social service wing and controls smaller, more extremist factions. Through mediators, Hamas and Israel have reached agreements in 2011 and 2012, and are negotiating another one right now in Cairo.
But many of Hamas’s fellow jihadi organizations in Gaza don’t have the same interests. For most, their sole goal is to fight — not just against Israel, but to spread Islamist rule across the whole world. That’s why, in the thick of the conflict on July 28, outgoing US Defense Intelligence Agency head Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said ousting Hamas could bring on “something like ISIS,” the radical Islamist group now conquering swaths of Iraq and Syria.
“If Hamas were destroyed and gone, we would probably end up with something much worse,” Flynn said, according to Reuters. “The region would end up with something much worse.”
Hamas strategy revealed (it isn’t so complicated)
This propaganda finds fertile ground in places where there is a strong current of Jew-hatred (like Europe). It also provides excuses for officials (like President Obama) who for geopolitical reasons want to restrain Israel.
The result is that Israel has to expend more and more resources in protecting itself against accusations of war crimes, and can fight much less effectively against Hamas, whose operations are precisely tailored for this situation. Little by little, Israel’s freedom to respond is circumscribed. Ultimately, the West (the US) steps in and stops the fighting, especially if it appears that Israel is about to gain a real advantage.
Arab losses in these conflicts are relatively small, a few hundred fighters that can easily be replaced. Because much of the military infrastructure of Hamas is deeply embedded in heavily-populated areas, destruction of weapons and supplies is much less than it may appear. Civilian casualties are considered a small price to pay for their utility as raw material for highly effective atrocity propaganda.
Krugerplein, Again
Krugerplein, or Kruger Square, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is now the theatre of a series of incidents, starting with a woman who hung an Israeli flag outside her window. Muslims answered by displaying "Palestinian" flags.
The woman who hung the Israeli flag, Leah Rabinovitch, is originally from Mexico, and therefore probably may not have been aware of Islamic intolerance towards all things Jewish. Her neighborhood, however, is "non-western immigrants," meaning mostly Muslims.
She received death threats, had stones thrown through her windows, and had a Molotov-cocktail thrown at her home. The corporate owner of her apartment ordered her to remove the flag. Israel's flag after all, is considered a "provocation."
Checking at Krugerplein, last week, I counted seven "Palestinian" flags – flags which are never considered a provocation, of course.
The good news is that Israel's flag is back, again enjoying the Dutch sunlight.
What is revealing, however, is not what happened, but where it happened.
What Happened to the Press in Gaza?
We’ve heard a lot in the last weeks about whether Israel and its friends have drawn the proper conclusions from this war as pundits warned them that the coverage of Palestinian casualties would cost them dearly in the court of public opinion. But we’ve heard very little soul searching from journalists about the crisis in their profession that the failure of reporters operating in Gaza highlights.
It is no cliché to say, as Americans have been repeating since the earliest days of our republic, that a free press is essential to a functioning democracy. But journalists who set out to distort the truth about a major conflict and skew their reporting to further isolate the one Jewish state on the planet and boost their image of a bloodthirsty terrorist organization have lost their moral compass as well as their professional integrity. It may well be that the controversy over the missing pictures in Gaza will soon fade from memory and the press will, as is their wont, go back to business as usual blasting Israel and ignoring the ethical questions raised by their one-sided actions. But no one who reads al-Mudallal’s admission and ponders the otherwise inexplicable failure of journalists to tell both sides of the story will ever trust Rudoren or any of her colleagues again.
Putting up a shield: Guardian blocks Dershowitz ad on Hamas tactics
The British newspaper The Guardian rejected an advertorial piece penned by famed Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, JNS.org has learned. In the ad, Dershowitz refutes statements by many media outlets that all of the Gaza Strip is densely populated, a claim that has been used to justify the use of human shields by Hamas in the terrorist group’s recent conflict with Israel.
“The British media is divided,” Dershowitz said in an interview. “But The Guardian, which holds itself out to be a purveyor of diverse truth, clearly reflects a bias against Israel on its editorial pages, as well as in its presentation of the news. Now that bias has spread to the advertising pages.”
The advertisement was based on an older editorial written by Dershowitz for the Gatestone Institute and was sponsored by the Wechsler Family Foundation, confirmed a New York City-based agency that specializes in overseas advertisement placements.
Michael Lumish: Confronting Jew Hatred on Daily Kos: Are They Nazis?
In these ways, and more, this writer is demonizing the Jewish people in a manner if not as bad, than almost as bad, as the Nazis did in the 1930s and the first half of the 1940s. During a period of rising anti-Jewish violence, and while actual Jihadis are joining forces with western leftists in opposition to the United States and Israel, he is stoking the flames of hatred toward the Jewish people via the Jewish state. And he’s doing it on the number one Democratic blog around.
Meanwhile, Markos Moulitsas, the owner of Daily Kos, remains mum, allowing the hatred to be spread on a daily basis. It’s not that Moulitsas is a fascist – because he is most definitely not one – but he allows the dehumanization of the Jewish people (as well as Christian conservatives) a prominent place on his blog. And I would suggest that dehumanization is at the very heart of what fascism is and was.
And, to my constant horror, these are Democrats.
Remind me again why are so many Jews are Democrats?
South Africans mull penis clamp ban
In protest of Israel’s latest operation in the Gaza Strip, South Africans were reportedly mulling a boycott of Israeli-made penis clamps, a “safe, inexpensive, nearly painless, and non-surgical” device used to reduce HIV rates through medical circumcision.
The Israeli made, PrePex male circumcision ring is designed to assist in the removal of foreskin by stopping the blood flow to the region, subsequently killing off the skin cells on the tip of the member. The dead foreskin can later be easily removed. Circumcision has been shown to reduce the likelihood of contracting HIV by nearly 60%, according to PrePex.
The circumcision ring was set to be introduced at clinics and hospitals in South Africa next year as part of a Department of Health program to administrate 4.3 million male circumcisions by 2016. The launch of the program, however, was delayed since, according to a report in the Global Post, the “male circumcision ring is one of many products in South Africa being targeted by growing calls to boycott Israeli-made goods.”
The boycott was initiated by the Cosatu trade union federation.
Activists protest to stop Israeli ship from docking in US, Canada
American and Canadian activists are working to prevent an Israeli cargo ship from docking on the West Coast of the US or Canada, according to a report by Aljazeera. The protest action, called "Block the Boat" wishes to block a cargo ship of Israel's largest shipping company Zim Integrated Shippping Services Ltd.
According to the Aljazeera report, the action is part of the BDS movement and plans to protest at ports in Oakland, California, Seattle and Vancouver. The protests will try to close the ports in the aforementioned cities to the Israeli cargo ship and prevent Israeli goods from being uloaded on the West Coast of North America.
Justifying their action, Aljazeera quoted the organization s stating that, “From its founding in 1945 by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Histradut, Zim has served Israeli settler-colonialism, bringing settlers to Palestine and serving as Israel’s only maritime connection during the 1948 war, supplying ‘food, freight, and military equipment’ used of course to carry out the Nakba. The worldwide commerce conducted by Zim today funds the occupation of Palestine with revenue generated on every continent.”
Major anti-ISIS Rally Planned for London, Concerns over EDL, Islamist Attendance
In the shadow of major Gaza protests in London, campaigners will tomorrow stage what they hope will be a large scale anti-ISIS demonstration in the UK capital.
Following this week's action outside Number 10 Downing Street, Britain's Kurdish community alongside counter-extremism campaigners will march from BBC Broadcasting House towards the US embassy before moving towards Marble Arch.
There may be concerns that the demonstration would be met by London's pro-ISIS campaigners who were spotted on Oxford Street, moments away from where the march is due to start and end, earlier this week. Britain's foremost radical preacher Anjem Choudary yesterday acknowledged that his "students" from the formerly named al-Muhajiroun group were responsible for the pro-Islamic State pamphleteering.
Muslim UKIPer Defects to Galloway's Respect Party Amidst 'Racism' Allegations
But a look into Patel's online activities reveals a worrying side to the man's politics, most notably his penchant for irrational, anti-Israel activism and the toeing of the Hamas line.
Links to pro-Gaza protests and marches are strewn over Patel's pages. Earlier this month he had claimed that an 'internal investigation' was underway regarding comments made to him. When Breitbart London checked with UKIP, it transpired that no such investigation had been launched, though there were subsequently efforts to ascertain the source of Patel's complaints.
Patel's 'likes' on Facebook include the anti-Israel PressTV, which is funded and run by the Iranian state. He also 'likes' the Palestine Solidarity Campaign – an organisation that stands accused of wanted to abolish the State of Israel entirely due to its use of the outline of the country with the Palestinian flag draped over it as its logo.
Bizarrely, Patel is also a Facebook fan of 'UK Nightlife Exposed' which features lewd pictures of women, and has shared Facebook posts with illustrations of different positions of sexual intercourse. This alongside 'liking' organisations like the Ummah Welfare Trust (UWT), a charity whose bank accounts were recently closed by HSBC bank. UWT had previously donated money to Interpal, an organisation that was designated as a Hamas supporting organisation by U.S. authorities in 2003.
Patel likes 'Lee Jasper' – a black community activist who has claimed that black people cannot be racist, and has shared pro-Hamas links from the Middle East Monitor website which has itself been linked to the Muslim Brotherhood network.
French Jew assaulted in Marseille over Gaza
The assault Tuesday began after the victim drove up to his own garage to discover it had been blocked by a parked car, the local branch of the CRIF umbrella organization of French Jewish communities wrote in its report of the incident.
The attacker showed up after the victim, who wears a kipah, sounded the horn. The attacker began chasing the victim while shouting: “Dirty Jew, this isn’t Gaza, I’m going to kill you and your family.”
Catching up to the victim as he was heading for the stairs of his apartment building, the attacker, who was much younger than the victim, began hitting the victim in his face. The attacker was joined by several other people who are believed to be relatives. He continued to attack the victim, also using headbutts.
CAIR's Identity Crisis: Defending Civil Rights Or The Palestinian (Hamas) Struggle?
CAIR's Identity Crisis: Defending Civil Rights or the Palestinian (Hamas) Struggle?" asks the Investigative Project in a recently-produced video expose on the Council for American-Islamic Relations. The video documents CAIR leaders supporting Hamas and the "Palestinian struggle" and failing to condemn the internationally recognized terrorist organization Hamas.
Decide for yourself.
CAIR's Identity Crisis: Defending Civil Rights or the Palestinian (Hamas) Struggle?
Arab-American Group Wields Boycott Threat Over Joan Rivers' Palestinian Barbs
Joan Rivers refuses to stay silent regarding the current Israeli-Hamas fighting. Now, a group claiming to represent Arab-Americans wants to silence her media voice via her employment ties, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The group is aghast over Rivers' nose job jibe, but the comment included the following addition: "Because once somebody has had a nose job they won’t fight ‘cause they’re scared their new nose would get broken. I think we should send over every great Jewish plastic surgeon doctor, fix their noses, and there will be peace in the Middle East."
About That "N"
One of the more horrifying aspects of IS violence is the manner in which it has openly declared its violent intentions. When IS invaded Mosul, it painted the letter “N” in Arabic on the homes of Christians.
N stands for Nazarene, which is a reference to Jesus’ hometown in the Galilee (where sadly enough, Christians are, even today, intimidated (but thankfully not murdered) by radical Muslims. Such things happen in Muslim countries, but not Israel, which helps explain why growing numbers of Christians are joining the IDF.)
In Iraq, the “N” painted on someone’s home was a clear sign that the inhabitants will be targeted for violence.
In an effort to express solidarity with the religious minorities who are being murdered en masse by IS, people are posting different versions of that “N” on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Some Jews, for example, have posted a “N” surrounding a Yellow Star, a reminder of the Holocaust, on their Twitter and Facebook pages.
Security Council orders Islamic State to disband
Responding to the growing terrorist threat in Iraq and Syria, the UN Security Council imposed sanctions Friday on six men for recruiting or financing foreign fighters and threatened additional sanctions against those supporting terrorist groups.
The UN’s most powerful body, in a resolution adopted unanimously, also demanded that the Islamic State extremist group and all al-Qaeda-linked groups end violence and disarm and disband immediately.
The British-drafted resolution [passed under Chapter 7 therefore binding on all UN members - Ian] follows the recent offensive by the Islamic State group, which has taken control of a large swath of eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, brutalizing civilians and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee, as well as increasing terrorist activity by other al-Qaeda-linked groups including Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.
The Stoppers’ sickening message
When will “Stop the War” have the decency to curl up and die? When will the unions and other organizations which fund it have the decency to disaffiliate?
Alex Rowell observes at NOW:
"Britain’s Stop The War [Coalition]… said it was “vital that we oppose” the operation that rescued over 20,000 Iraqis from certain death at ISIS’ hands."
And friend-of-Stoppers Seumas Milne set aside the urgent need for action to save the Yazidis in order to explain all the reasons the US and Britain should not have done anything.
The Stoppers’ and Milne’s loathsome and selfish message to the Yazidis: Better to accept mass slaughter than US intervention.
ISIS Abducts over 500 Yazidi Women, Girls as 'War Booty'
Islamic State (IS) militants took over 500 women and girls as "war booty" when they captured Shingal nearly two weeks ago.
Witnesses confirm that the militants took women based on who "was prettiest" or would be "funniest" to be with.
According to Rudaw, the women were herded into trucks and at least two of the older women – over 50 years of age – were then taken off a truck and "killed... on the spot in the street." Trucks full of the younger women and girls then drove away, and it is feared "most of the women have already been transferred to Syria, Mosul, and Baaj." Reuters previously reported eyewitness speaking of IS taking women "as slaves."
ISIL Wants to Establish Cells Outside Middle East
The terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) is trying to establish cells outside Iraq and Syria, especially in Europe, the Washington Post reports.
The group’s efforts to position operatives in Western countries is considered evidence of the al-Qaeda offshoot’s determination to mount terrorist plots against the United States and its allies.
“We have seen an expansion of its external terrorism ambitions” that parallel its aggressive moves in the Middle East, a senior U.S. intelligence official said at a briefing for reporters on the threat posed by the Islamic State.
Iran says 'little chance' of reaching nuclear deal with West by November
Iran's foreign minister said on Saturday that he believed it was unlikely a final-status agreement would be reached with the West over the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program within the time frame that has been allotted in the negotiations.
"The chances that we will come to final understandings within the four months remaining are low," Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is quoted as saying.
Zarif added that even if the parties come to a deal by the November deadline, they would still need more time to flesh out the fine print. The foreign minister said that the talks could lead to "quick results" if the P5+1 powers – the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany – display the necessary will. He said that in recent months, the discussions have proceeded carefully, although there has been progress.
Warsaw to restore Jewish tombstones used for building
The City of Warsaw has agreed to return and preserve 1,000 Jewish headstones that were used to construct a recreational facility inside one of the city’s parks.
The headstones, which are currently part of a pergola and stairs at a park in Warsaw’s Praga district, will be returned in the coming months to the Brudo Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw, according to a statement Friday by From the Depths, the international commemoration nonprofit that led talks on the subject with city officials.
The city allocated a budget of $180,000 for the project, according to Jonny Daniels, From the Depths’ UK-born, Israel-based founder.
Yahoo to buy Israeli startup for over $15 m.
Internet giant Yahoo announced that it is set to acquire a small Israeli startup named ClarityRay, which develops software to help publishers identify fraudulent ads. While Yahoo executives Friday did not disclose the full details of the deal, experts estimated that the Israeli company would receive between $15 to 25 million, according to the Marker.
ClarityRay, a small, six person venture, was founded in 2012, after raising half a million dollars with the help of Israeli entrepreneur Sa’ar Wilf, one of the founders of Fraudulent Sciences, a company which was sold to PayPal for $170,000,000. The startup broke even a year later and has been profitable ever since.
“Our vision has always been making the eco-system safe, compliant and sustainable for consumers, publishers and advertisers,” ClarityRay said in a statement posted on their website only shortly after the acquisition was confirmed.