White House has a Media Monitor to Preemptively Kill Reporters’ Stories

America-this article should concern everyone who believes in personal freedom, responsibility and individual rights. This crosses political party lines

Daniel Greenfield 

 

It’s very creepy and very Cass Sunstein, though I have no idea if he was involved. Since reporters these days articulate what’s going through their minds on Twitter, it’s time to attack them, fact check them and even maybe target them based on their social media use.

Disrupting stories before they’re even written is much easier than damage control once they’re out there. It’s a bit Orwellian, but no doubt effective.
For the Obama White House, tweets from reporters are a kind of early warning system. It’s up to Jessica Allen, 24, to sound the alarm.
Allen, whose official title is “media monitor,” tracks journalists’ tweets and flags them in mass emails that land in the in-boxes of more than 80 Obama aides, including chief of staff Denis McDonough, White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler, press secretary Jay Carney and senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer.
The result? Reporters who regularly cover Obama have become familiar with seemingly out-of-the-blue emails or telephone calls from officials taking issue with their tweets — often thoughtfully and constructively, sometimes with obscenity-laced yelps of outrage…
While White House communications staff track her alerts closely, other officials have been known to route her messages into email folders and check them just a couple of times a day, one Obama aide said…

COP: Good grief Department

EPA Chief: If Your Dishwasher has an Energy Star Label, You Should Believe in Global Warming

Daniel Greenfield

EPA Chief Gina McCarthy is really trying to live up to the standards of her lunatic predecessor with her latest rant.

After claiming that Global Warming was holding back millions of African-Americans, she said something even dumber.

“It’s worrisome that our science seems to be under constant assault by a small — but vocal — group of critics,” McCarthy said.
“I bet when those same critics get sick, they run to doctors and hospitals that rely on science from — guess who — Harvard University and the American Cancer Society,” McCarthy continued. “I bet they check air quality forecasts from EPA and the National Weather Service to see if the air is healthy enough for their asthmatic child to play outside that day. I bet they buy dishwashers with Energy Star labels, and take FDA-approved medicine, and eat USDA-approved meats. … People and businesses around the world look to EPA and other federal agencies because our science is reliable, and our scientists are credible.”

These examples don’t show that Global Warming critics, many of whom are scientists, don’t understand science.

Algerian "expert" warns that Jewish pilgrims to Tunisia are really spies

Elder of Ziyon

Algerian newspaper El Bilad is alarmed at the annual influx of Jews on pilgrimage to the synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. It claims that many of the pilgrims are in reality Israeli spies intent on fomenting problems in the Arab world, and who were responsible for the "Arab spring."

The paper quotes "an expert in security affairs," Bin Omer bin Janneh, as saying that Algeria has the means to detect the Zionist schemes, either through their embassies or through their intelligence, which has allowed them to frustrate Zionist schemes in the past. He said that "the Zionist entity" is known to be looking for opportunities to hit the stability of Algeria, and is still waiting for the opportunity to prejudice the security of Algeria, which represents the state most firmly supportive of the Palestinian cause and against Jewish settlement "in all its forms."

Seattle: Muslim pleads guilty to New Year’s Day arson of packed gay nightclub

creeping
A Muslim – who told a friend “that homosexuals should be exterminated” – attempted to exterminate 750+ people in a jam packed gay nightclub and the prosecutors let him off with 5 years prison?  via Man pleads guilty to setting fire at Capitol Hill club on New Year’s Day | KOMO News. (KOMO doesn’t identify him as Muslim or the club as gay) h/t WildNinja

SEATTLE — A former Bellevue resident who federal prosecutors say set fire to a packed Seattle nightclub just after midnight on New Year’s Day pleaded guilty Friday to a count of arson, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said.

Masmari carried a one gallon tank of gas hidden in a shopping bag into the Neighbours club in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood around 11:30 p.m. as 750 partygoers were inside, according to prosecutors. Then just after midnight, Masmari poured some of the gasoline on a carpeted staircase inside the club and hid the gas container behind a planter at the top of the stairs.

The container was still more than half full of gasoline, prosecutors said.

Moments later, Masmari lit the gas on the stairs and ran off from the club, prosecutors said. A U.S. Army staff sergeant and an Air Force member quickly put out the fire before it spread. The club’s sprinkler system activated, and no one was hurt.

On Yom Hazikaron, a show of universal solidarity

LIDAR GRAVÉ-LAZI

US delegation of widows & orphans visits Israel, hosted by Israeli counterparts who say it is "a unique opportunity to meet people from another part of the world with something in common."

US delegation of widows and Orphans at Yad Vashem Photo: COURTESY OF IDFWO

 

Traci Voelke was a mother of two to Andrew, 10, and Ben, 8, when her husband, Major Paul C. Voelke was killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan in June 2012.

“He was on his fifth deployment and second in Afghanistan – he also served in Iraq and Kosovo,” Voelke told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. “He was hit by a mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicle in Masir Sharif [a major city in the North of Afghanistan] while conducting a routine safety inspection,” she said.

Traci and Paul were high school sweethearts. He attended West Point, an elite military academy in New York and then received a Master’s degree at Georgetown, while she attended the University of Maryland and pursued a career as a lawyer. The family moved around the United States due to Paul's military career and lived on six different army bases before he was killed. Following his death, Traci and her two sons relocated to Washington D.C., where they reside today.

Netanyahu: Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people only

Gilad Erdan: We must define Israel as a Jewish state in our own laws before demanding it from others • Officials in Ramallah confirm Palestinian Authority accepted as nonmember state party to five U.N. conventions dealing with human rights.

Shlomo Cesana, Yoni Hirsch, Nitzi Yaakov and Eli Leon

"The State of Israel is a Jewish and democratic state," says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | Photo credit: AP

The firestorm sparked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's pledge last week  to promote legislation that would define Israel as the national home of the Jewish people has not yet abated.

On Sunday, Netanyahu explained to his cabinet the motivation behind the legislation effort. "The State of Israel is a Jewish and democratic state. The democratic aspect of our state is fully manifested in our basic laws. We do this by granting equal rights to every citizen in Israel. However," he said, "Israel's status as the nation state of the Jewish people is not represented enough in our basic laws, and that is what this proposed basic law seeks to change. It will define the national right of the Jewish people to the State of Israel, without harming the individual rights of any of Israel's citizens."

“Continuing Thoughts...”

 

I would like to pick up on the two topics I wrote about before Shabbat: accusations of Israel as “apartheid” and the debate about Israel as a Jewish state vs. democratic state. These subjects may overlap, but they are separate issues.

 

As to apartheid.  Warren Goldstein, chief rabbi of South Africa, offered an important take on the matter in yesterday’s JPost.  What Kerry has done in using the word inappropriately, he say, is to trivialize it, and desecrate the memories of those who truly suffered under the apartheid system.  “No one who truly understand the brutality and the systemic racism and denial of basic human rights that made apartheid nefarious could possibly use the the word in a discussion relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...”

 

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Sinai-today-Kerrys-sins-351102

 

The choice of this word, of course, is not accidental, nor does it originate with Kerry.  It has been the stock in trade of the Palestinian Arabs all along – part of the attempt to delegitimize Israel. Abbas, for example, in coming before the UN in 2012, spoke about Israel’s “apartheid policies.”  Just as an apartheid South Africa was read out of the community of nations, so must Israel be, he and his cohorts are implying.  Regrettably, on occasion it has even been picked up by Israelis – such as Livni – who are hungering for that Palestinian state.

 

Words have power. And it is our task to challenge all references to Israel as “apartheid.” We cannot ignore them.

Negotiations were rigged from the start – UPDATED

<http://www.israpundit.com/archives/63596300>
 
By Ted Belman
 
The mask is off. The US officials sympathize with Abbas and blame
Israel’s settlement construction as the cause of the failure of the
talks. They warn that Palestine will rise ‘whether through violence
or via int’l organizations’ which is another way of saying that
the US won’t veto the recognition of Palestine in the SC and will
recognize them as a state contrary to the requirements of the
Montevideo Conventions.
 
We knew the game was rigged the moment Obama agreed with the Arab
position that the borders were to be based on the ’67 lines plus
swaps. Although Netanyahu made his position very clear on security,
the Obama administration gave it only lip service and wanted Israel to
have a time frame not exceeding 5 years on Israel’s remaining
presence in “Palestine”. This wasn’t remotely what Israel wanted
or needed and Yaalon made that amply clear.
 
(Read more…)
<http://www.israpundit.com/archives/63596300#more-63596300>

Missing Barry Rubin

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/05/missing-barry-rubin/ 

David Gerstman    Sunday, May 4, 2014 

The Obama administration makes mistake after mistake in Syria and in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Unfortunately, Barry Rubin is no longer around to offer his critiques.

It is hard to believe that it has been three months since Barry Rubin passed away.
With all going on in the world, and especially in the Middle East, Barry’s absence is pronounced as there are few who saw things as clearly as he did. Barry’s essays and columns are not disposable, like those of some other columnists and analysts. He wasn’t looking for some pithy phrase to describe a complex problem or looking for new evidence to support his ideology. He looked at events and facts and drew his conclusions. Consequently something Barry wrote could still be relevant or true, months or years later.
Two recent stories illustrate this point.
Barry had been a critic of the Obama administration’s handling of Syria’s civil war.
The Times of Israel last week featured an interview with a Syrian dissident Kamal Al-Labwani, Israel is our last hope, indicates Syrian dissident. The point referred to in the headline is Labwani’s belief that Israel could win over the moderate rebels in Syria and much of the population if it helped protect civilians.

Hillary Clinton: “We are going to have the filmmaker arrested”

Robert Spencer 
The most disturbing aspect of the entire Benghazi scandal, after the deaths of the four Americans, is the Obama Administration’s decision to blame the freedom of speech for the attack and imprison a man for the crime of breaking Islamic law. That is one part of this whole affair that could have repercussions for decades to come. Even just a few years ago, the prospect of a Secretary of State saying that the U.S. was going to arrest a man because he made a film that offended Muslims would have been unthinkable. Now, no one cares.
“Father of Navy SEAL Killed in Benghazi Has Some Select Words for the Obama Administration After Latest Revelations,” by Jason Howerton, The Blaze, May 2, 2014 (thanks to Pamela Geller):

NGOs that don’t want Israel to reach its 67th year

Gerald M. Steinberg 

On Tuesday, most Israelis will celebrate 66 years of independence and freedom, marking the re-establishment of sovereignty for the Jewish people after two thousand years of exile. But for a small and vocal group of Israeli NGOs (non-governmental organizations), this day commemorates the Palestinian nakba – the Arabic word for catastrophe. This term is used in reference to the war, led by five Arab armies, which sought to erase the Jewish state from the map after the UN General Assembly voted for a “two state solution” on November 29, 1947.

Using money provided by a number of European governments and intensely anti-Israel church groups, these radical Israeli NGOs fill an important function in today’s political war that seeks to roll back history to before 1948. Their slogans call for a “one-state” framework, meaning the eradication of Israel as the internationally recognized homeland of the Jewish people. They are not peace groups in any sense – for them, the “two-states for two peoples” formula is anathema.

Observation: American gift to Netanyahu in Barnea piece shows they clueless

Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 4 May 2014

The Americans from Kerry's team who complained to Nachum Barnea about Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu unwittingly gave the prime minister an early
Israel Independence Day gift.

Here is what they told Barnea, as reported in his 2 May Yediot Ahronot
article "How We Failed."

#1. The Palestinians refused to compromise during the course of negotiations
and insisted that any Israeli security presence (including in the Jordan
Valley) vanish within no more than 5 years.

#2. Netanyahu insists on absolute Israeli security control for an unlimited
period of time.

#3. Netanyahu refused to agree to a map dividing Jerusalem.

#4. Netanyahu's attorney, Molcho, stood guard to thwart efforts by Livni to
compromise Israel's position.

Op-Ed: Netanyahu Can Learn from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver

An occasional Abba Eban-like speech at the UN does not make up for the false and unanswered attacks by politicians and the media worldwide--against one of the most moral nations in history.

Irwin Graulich

Irwin N. Graulich is a well known Jewish motivational speaker on Judaism, ethics, morality, religion and politics and president of a leading marketing, communications and branding company in New York City.

Anyone who has been to Israel has seen that black Jews are treated exactly the same as white Jews--okay, rudely.
Prime Minister Netanyahu should learn a thing or two from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who understands the need to protect his NBA nation in the world of public relations. Donald Sterling aka "Tokowitz," a non-practicing Jew by birth was even more cruel to the nation of Israel than he was to the NBA. In his racist, bigoted rant, Sterling said that "You go to Israel, the blacks are treated like dogs."

Yet, for the first time in the history of the world, blacks in Africa went from slavery to freedom during Operation Moses and Operation Solomon, where Israel sent Boeing 747's to rescue black Jewry from their horrific lives in Ethiopia. Anyone who has been to Israel has seen that black Jews are treated exactly the same as white Jews--okay, rudely. That happens to be the nature of the country.

Virtually every American black who has visited Israel, Jewish or not, has told me the very same thing--it was the first time in their lives that they actually forgot about their skin color. That is the ultimate compliment for Israel's color blind society.

Norway's $810 bln fund excludes two Israeli firms

HERB KEINON, REUTERS

Africa Israel Investments, Danya Cebus excluded for 2nd time because they are involved in e. J'lem settlement building.

Africa Israel construction site in Tel Aviv. Photo: REUTERS

 

Eyebrows in Jerusalem were raised Thursday when Norway’s Finance Ministry told its $810 billion oil fund to stop investing in Africa Israel Investments and its construction subsidiary Danay Cebus, even though the fund actually has no investments in the firms.
The two Israeli firms were first excluded from the fund, the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, in 2010 because they were involved in building in the settlements.
Although the ban was lifted in August, it was reinstated now. The Norwegian finance minister said that this was “due to contribution to serious violations of individual rights in war or conflict, through the construction of settlements in east Jerusalem.”

Kerry and the 'A-word'… actually, both A-words

www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Into-the-fray-Kerry-and-the-A-word-actually-both-A-words-351099

  More than exposing his personal prejudices, John Kerry’s recent remarks illustrate how biased against the Jews –i.e. anti-Semitic –the entire discourse on the Palestinian issue has become …The attitude that shedding Jewish blood is more acceptable than the measures required to prevent it appears to be becoming increasingly internalized into the discourse on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.  It is this attitude that is the real racism

Several short excerpts:

       

A two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state – or… a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state. Once you put that frame in your mind… which is the bottom line, you understand how imperative it is to get to the two-state solution.

– John Kerry before the Trilateral Commission, cited by The Daily Beast, April 27

John Kerry’s recent use of the term “Apartheid” in reference to Israel’s future was an anti-Semitic act.

– Caroline B.Glick, The Jerusalem Post, April 29

From the outset John Kerry was an ill-advised choice for the position of secretary of state. His history of embarrassing gaffes made his appointment as America’s top diplomat clearly imprudent and inappropriate...Read More

Rage, reproach and ridicule

...But for some reason, none of these prior lapses unleashed the same maelstrom of rage, reproach and ridicule as his leaked prognosis that, unless it hastens to embrace “the two-state solution,” Israel may become an “apartheid state.”…Read More

‘Apartheid’ & ‘anti-Semitism’ ”- Countervailing A-words?

 “Apartheid” is an emotive “A-word” and Kerry’s use of it was pounced on by both friends and foes of Israel.”…Pro-Israel pundits, such as Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin, responded robustly …Others unsheathed their own countervailing, equally emotive A-word, “anti-Semitism” ..Most scathing in this regard was the Post’s Caroline Glick...Read More

MiG-35s for Egypt: A Veritable Change of Direction?

INSS Insight No. 544

Yiftah Shapir , Zvi Magen , Gal Perel

According to a number of media reports published in late April 2014, Egypt is soon to sign a large arms deal with Russia for the purchase of 24 MiG-35 fighter jets. If the arms deal is completed, it will represent a significant event in the Middle East strategic picture, another sign of reduced United States involvement in the region. For Russia, this would be a meaningful strategic achievement in its global struggle against the West. For Israel, one or two squadrons of aircraft such as the MiG-29 would not have much tactical significance. At the same time, the strategic significance could be decisive if the conflict between Russia and the West escalates and Russia gains an additional foothold in Egypt. However, the deal has not yet been signed, and there are many obstacles to its conclusion - technical, operational, economic, and most of all, political and strategic.

Topics: 

Egypt

According to a number of media reports published in late April 2014, Egypt is soon to sign a large arms deal with Russia for the purchase of 24 MiG-35 fighter jets. Reports of contacts between Egypt and Russia have surfaced in recent months, particularly in November 2013 following the visit to Cairo by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, and in February 2014, when then-Egyptian Defense Minister Abdul Fattah al-Sisi visited Moscow. 

These earlier reports spoke of a much larger arms deal that would include air and coastal defense systems, Mi-35 attack helicopters, and fighter jets (actually the MiG-29). In addition, it was reported that the deals would be financed by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

A Russian MiG-35 in a flight demonstration in Bangalore, February 2009, AFP/Getty Images

The MiG-35 was presented for the first time at an air show in India in 2007.

CAIR's Hypocrisy At America's Schools

ABIGAIL R. ESMAN 

Earlier this month, the Muslim Students Association and the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) jointly hosted a Muslim Youth Leadership symposium at George Washington University, open to all Muslims aged 14-22. No featured speakers were publicly named for the event, but the panels and workshops are listed on CAIR's website - including the alluringly-titled, "How To Get What You Want: Politicking 101."
It's an appropriate topic for a CAIR event: the Hamas-linked organization is a champion at getting what it wants," and ironically, given the nature of this event and its venue, its officials have become particularly adept of late at "getting what they want" at schools and universities. Academia, you might even say, has become CAIR's latest target, and its newest tool - not only in its campaign to silence critics of Islam - but too, to promote and spread messages of pro-Muslim hate groups among American Muslim youth.
Best-known of CAIR's manipulations on college campuses is its recent success persuading Brandeis University president Frederick Lawrence to rescind his offer of an honorary degree to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the controversial Somali-born women's rights activist whose often-strident, but deeply insightful anti-Islam speeches Lawrence called "inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values."

Internal Emails: State Dept. Immediately Attributed Benghazi Attacks to Terrorist Group

SHARYL ATTKISSON 

A newly-released government email indicates that within hours of the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya; the State Department had already concluded with certainty that the Islamic militia terrorist group Ansar al Sharia was to blame.
The private, internal communication directly contradicts the message that President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice and White House press secretary Jay Carney repeated publicly over the course of the next several weeks. They often maintained that an anti-Islamic YouTube video inspired a spontaneous demonstration that escalated into violence.
The email is entitled "Libya update from Beth Jones. " Jones was then-Assistant Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton. According to the email, Jones spoke to Libya's Ambassador at 9:45am on Sept. 12, 2012 following the attacks.
"When [the Libyan Ambassador] said his government suspected that former Qaddafi regime elements carried out the attacks, I told him the group that conducted the attacks-Ansar Al Sharia-is affiliated with Islamic extremists," Jones reports in the email.
There is no uncertainty assigned to the assessment, which does not mention a video or a protest. The State Department provided the email to Congress in Aug. of 2013 under special conditions that it not be publicly released at that time. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) sought and received permission to release it Thursday.

FYI: The Real Unemployment Rate: In 20% Of American Families, Everyone Is Unemployed

Submitted by Tyler Durden

• BLS
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Real Unemployment Rate
• Unemployment

inShare

 

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The American Dream blog,
According to shocking new numbers that were just released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 20 percent of American families do not have a single person that is working.  So when someone tries to tell you that the unemployment rate in the United States is about 7 percent, you should just laugh.  One-fifth of the families in the entire country do not have a single member with a job.  That is absolutely astonishing.  How can a family survive if nobody is making any money?  Well, the answer to that question is actually quite easy.  There is a reason why government dependence has reached epidemic levels in the United States.  Without enough jobs, tens of millions of additional Americans have been forced to reach out to the government for help.  At this point, if you can believe it, the number of Americans getting money or benefits from the federal government each month exceeds the number of full-time workers in the private sector by more than 60 million.

“The War Against the Jews”

Shari Goodman penned an excellent piece — exclusive to Atlas — on the current state of Jew-hatred across the world:

THE WAR AGAINST THE JEWS, Shari Goodman

Nearly seventy years after the end of the Holocaust and its recent commemoration, Jews frequently recite the pledge of “Never Again”; yet, the war against the Jews continues and with the exception of a few lone voices, no one within government, Jewish leadership, the media, or authority is responding.

The war against the Jews did not end with the defeat of Nazi Germany.  While there may have been a respite for a few decades, it has raised its ugly head once again, and presently threatens European Jewry, Israel, and increasingly North American Jewry.  From Western European capitols to Ukranian cities in the east, anti-Semitism is on the rise, while we in North America are witnessing an ever increasing climate of anti-Semitic hate on college campuses and the Internet.

Behind the lines: Waging 'war by other means'

Jonathan Spyer
The Jerusalem Post

http://www.meforum.org/3814/behind-the-lines-waging-war-by-other-means

Since the coup of July 3, 2013, Egypt's de facto ruler Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has pursued a clear and uncompromising policy toward the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt's Islamists.

Sisi has blocked any return to politics for the Brotherhood, instead seeking to maneuver them into open confrontation with the authorities. He has dismissed any genuine distinction between the Brotherhood and the more extreme and openly insurgent jihadist currents.
In so doing, Sisi and his colleagues upturned what had slowly become conventional wisdom in the West and part of the region – namely, that the Muslim Brotherhood was a legitimate political organization, and that their rise was possibly benign, and probably inevitable.

New Report Says Muslim Brotherhood Leaders Deported By Qatar Arrived In Libya

gmbwatch

Media in the UAE reported last week that dozens of Muslim Brotherhood leaders were deported by Qatar and have arrived in Libya. According to a Gulf News report:

April 25, 2014 Dubai: Dozens of Muslim Brotherhood leaders reportedly deported by Qatar have arrived in Libya, a London-based daily said.

The leaders have landed at Maeetiqiya international airport in the Libyan capital over three days, Libyan political, military and security sources told Al Arab newspaper.

They were ferried away to unidentified places in cars waiting at the airport located around 11km west of Tripoli and dominated by an armed Islamist group, the sources added.

According to the daily, Qatar has been looking for a country that would host the senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood following intense pressure by fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries — Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — to change its policy of supporting the movement.

The three countries on March 5 pulled out their ambassadors from Doha to protest against what was seen as Qatar’s meddling in their domestic affairs and its backing of the Islamist movement rejected by some GCC countries as an illegal organisation.”

Read the rest here.

Roger Waters begs the Rolling Stones not to play in Israel

 Elder of Ziyon

Pathetic hater Roger Waters can't stand that his attempts to get artists to boycott Israel have been backfiring far more often than they have succeeded.

In the past couple of years Israel has seen Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Madonna, David Bowie, and Eric Clapton. This year Israel has seen or will see Neil Young, Soundgarden, Justin Timberlake and the Pixies (who once were darlings of BDSers for canceling a gig in Tel Aviv.).

And, now, the Rolling Stones.

Waters, writing in Salon, is not happy, and he blusters:

Playing Israel now is the moral equivalent of playing Sun City at the height of South African apartheid....We are nearing the tipping point in global awareness that the denial of Palestinian rights has had a devastating impact on generations of people, and that they need our support now more than ever.

Lebanon treats Palestinian Arabs far worse than Israel does, by every possible measure. Yet does Waters ask anyone to boycott concerts in Beirut?

Of course not. Waters doesn't give a damn about Palestinian Arabs; his is the politics of hate, not of peace.

France Launches Anti-Jihadist Plan

Soeren Kern
May 2, 2014 

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4296/france-anti-jihadist-plan

Marine Le Pen told RTL Radio that the government's plan to fight against French jihadists was "cosmetic" and will remain ineffective as long as border controls are not restored within the European Union.
Others are wondering who will control the data collected by the new website and hotline, and how the information will be used, especially when it involves young people who have not been convicted of a crime.

The French government has unveiled a new plan aimed at preventing French citizens or residents from waging jihad in Syria and other conflict zones in the Muslim world.
More than 700 French nationals and residents are now believed to be fighting in different parts of the Middle East and North Africa, including at least 500 in Syria alone, according to French intelligence estimates.
Senior French officials have voiced increasing concern over the potential threat that these radicalized "enemies within" will pose when they return to France. The government has also faced criticism for failing to take steps to prevent its nationals from traveling to Syria in the first place.

“Bye Bye Negotiations”

Shabbat starts late at this season, which allows me the time to do a post – but even so, Shabbat is Shabbat and this will be brief.

 

The nine-month negotiating deadline of April 29 came and went with no resolution of the issues, and no promise of an extension of the talks. So we can breath a sigh of relief.  It should not, however, be too large a sigh.  Somewhere, somehow, it’s going to come back to haunt us yet again.

 

For the meantime, Kerry has actually declared that he thinks it’s best now to take a “pause” and to re-evaluate what is possible and what is not.  What he means by “pause” is exceedingly vague.  Is he looking at a couple of weeks or several months or even a year?  

 

What he said was: “I personally remain convinced that as each [side] sort of works through the reasons that things began to become more difficult in the final hours, there may be quiet ways within which to begin to work on next steps."

 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4515564,00.html

Benghazi, Lies and Videotape

Nonie Darwish

Shocking White House emails released to the public Tuesday by government watchdog group Judicial Watch shed new light on the Obama administration’s brazen dishonesty with the public about the deadly Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. Statements from top Obama adviser Ben Rhodes confirm what critics have long alleged: that the Obama administration’s to priority in the wake of the attack was not to seek justice for the fallen or confront the threat to our nation, but to lie to the public about the nature of the attack in order to improve President Obama’s image in an election year.

It is the tragedy of our times that that the US government advocated the video excuse as a justification for the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi — or even the attack on the US embassy in Cairo on 9/11/12. It should be common knowledge to Western governments by now that Islamic leadership habitually justifies Islamic terrorism as a reaction to some kind of injustice or offense perpetrated against Muslims. This happens all the time in the commission of terrorist attacks or after they have been perpetrated. But instead of exposing the Islamic lie as usual, America facilitated the terrorists’ excuses. This is not a bad deal for jihadists who are only too happy to see nations victimized by terror defend jihad on behalf of Muslims.

As a matter of fact, Muslims over many centuries have trained Coptic Christians and other Middle East oppressed minorities to blame themselves for Islamic jihad and to ignore the obvious Islamic jihad violence.

State Dept. Targets ‘Extremist Jewish’ Settlers in Terrorism Report

Joseph Klein

The U.S. State Department has just released its 2013 report on terrorism around the globe, including a whole section devoted to “Israel, West Bank, and Gaza” as part of a broader chapter on the Middle East and North Africa. Coming on the heels of Secretary of State John Kerry’s despicable claim that Israel could turn into an apartheid state, his State Department’s report treated random criminal acts, mostly vandalism, by some Jewish settlers as being on the same level as rocket launchings, suicide bombing and other acts of real terrorism by Hamas, Hezbollah and other jihadist groups. For the Obama administration, Jewish settler attacks that damage Palestinian property are morally equivalent with jihadist attacks aimed at killing Jews and Christians.

Israel’s minister of communications and home front defense, Gilad Erdan, got it right when he said that the State Department report was making “a gross, incorrect generalization” in essentially equating acts of vandalism with murder. “We are not talking about acts of murder; this is graffiti. There is a difference between murder and destruction of property,” he said.

Life Under the Obama Doctrine

Friday, May 2nd, 2014
Caroline Glick

For most commentators, President Barack Obama’s biggest achievement in his four-nation tour of Asia was the enhanced defense treaty he signed with Philippine President Benigno Aquino. The pact permits US forces to operate on Philippine military bases and sets the conditions for joint training of US and Philippine forces, among other things.

There are two problems with the treaty, however.

And they reflect the basic problem with US foreign policy generally, five-and-a-half years into the Obama presidency.

First, there is the reason that the treaty became necessary.

The Philippines has been under attack by China since 2012 when China seized the Scarborough Shoal from the Philippines. Despite its mutual defense treaty with Manila, Washington did nothing.

This non-response emboldened China still further.

And today China is threatening the Second Thomas Shoal, another Philippine possession.

Leftist Extremists Publicly Defile Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial

Disgusting video taped at Yad Vashem features a prostitute who claims Israelis should thank the Nazis for the Holocaust.

By Arutz Sheva staff

"Left-wing activists desecrate Yad Holocaust memorial with anti-Israel "play Youtube

A shocking video taped publicly by left-wing activists on the campus of Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum has provoked a storm of anger in Israel.
The video was taken in front of a monument commemorating Holocaust victims, and features an actress dressed as a prostitute calling herself "the Holocaust," who says the Jewish nation should thank her for teaching it "how to round up Palestinians in concentration camps."

Throughout her expletive-filled tirade the actress, who was flanked by a man who appeared to be a bodyguard, made obscene gestures and screamed at shocked members of the public who had come to pay their respects to victims of the Nazi Holocaust.

She continued to goad visitors, urging them to applaud "the Holocaust", without which, she claimed, there would be no State of Israel or IDF.
Arutz Sheva has chosen not to show the video due to its highly offensive content.

41% Think ‘Arab Spring’ Changes Bad for U.S.

Rasmussen Reports

Many hoped that the “Arab Spring” protests that began three years ago would lead to a new era of democracy in a number of Islamic countries, but U.S. voters now see that as increasingly unlikely and think the changes there have been bad for America.

Just nine percent (9%) of Likely U.S. Voters believe the changes in countries such as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia have been good for the United States, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.  Forty-one percent (41%) think the rise of new governments in those countries has been bad for America instead. Twenty-six percent (26%) say the changes have had no impact, while nearly as many (24%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

'The Palestinians Outmaneuvered Us'

Former MK Elyakim Haetzni says Abbas cleverly received UN recognition before uniting with Hamas.

By Benny Toker, Gil Ronen

Attorney Elyakim Haetzni, a former Knesset Member and an influential nationalist pundit, thinks Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas has outmaneuvered Binyamin Netanyahu and Israel is in danger of losing more ground in the diplomatic chess game with the PA.

A worried Haetzni asked his Arutz Sheva interviewer where the famous Jewish cleverness had gone, in the face of the PA's moves. "Do we still not understand that Abbas made sure to first go to the UN for recognition, before signing the unity pact with Hamas? Now, after being recognized as a state by the UN, all avenues are open before them in the struggle over Israel's sovereignty.”
Until now, Haetzni explained, Israel has not been defined as an occupier, according to the Geneva convention. This could change now, however.

David the Nachalite

David Wilder

A couple of days ago a new youtube video surfaced, filmed just outside my Beit

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Hadassah home in Hebron. It shows

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an Israeli soldier, guarding on the road outside the building, being first verbally, and then physically attacked, first by one Arab, and then by a second, who joined in. The soldier, realizing he is being threatened from two sides, loads his weapon, pointing it at the attackers, who then leave.

 Following release of this video, the soldier, named David, who belonged to the Nachal IDF division, was relieved of his post, put on trial, jailed and told that he would no longer serve in a combat unit.

There are still a few unanswered questions about the soldier and his punishment. The IDF first claimed that he'd been punished because of 'unnecessary violence' against the Arabs who attacked him. They later changed that, claiming that he is a 'problematic soldier,' having been involved in disputes with his commanding officers.

Jewish Settlements Do Not Impede Peace

Robert Harris 

Introduction
Many Western narratives on the Israel-Arab/Palestinian conflict, assert that Arab-Palestinian grievances are fundamentally based upon a supposed dispossession of territory, and so peace would be obtained by returning lands gained by Israel in the defensive Six Day War.
Today this argument relates principally to Judea and Samaria, more widely known as the ‘West Bank’, a recent moniker the Jordanians applied to the area, after the Arab State’s invasion of Israel in 1948.
The existence of Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria, and formerly Gaza prior to the unilateral 2005 Israeli withdrawal, are central to the claim that the Jewish State has instituted a 'land grab' since 1967. Settlements are the focal point of boycott campaigns, and other efforts to deligitimise Israel.

The Fatah-Hamas Agreement

Richard Kemp
May 1, 2014 

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4292/hamas-fatah-agreement

There is the criminal failure of the international community, as both accomplice and accessory before the fact, to make any meaningful effort to prevent endless salvoes of terrorist rocket attacks against Israeli civilians for over nine years.
As we saw with the Iranian arms shipment aboard the Klos-C last month, Iran's sponsorship of terrorism continues unabated -- even as the international community is rehabilitating its extremist regime.

Three hundred and thirty two drone attacks against Al Qaida and Taliban targets on Pakistani territory since 2005 demonstrate U.S. President Barack Obama's strong resolve against terrorists that threaten the United States. Only last week, the latest wave of air strikes launched or enabled by his government against Al Qaida networks in Yemen killed 55 suspected extremists, possibly including master bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri.

Of Interest-there is a larger issue

Congressman Allen West, astute political observer, takes a different look at the Donald Sterling Pile On.

“Folks, you’re missing the point about Donald Sterling”

By former Congressman Allen West

“Upon further review, the ruling on the field (court …” These are the words stated by referees after they’ve gone to the reply booth (monitor) in order to clarify a controversial call. Often, the reason for the review is because of a coach’s challenge. Therefore, in the same light, let us review the case of LA Clippers owner, Donald Sterling.

There can be no debate that the words of Mr. Sterling were reprehensible and disgusting. But how and why did these words come to light now, when his points of view were apparently well-known for many years?

It seems his “girlfriend,” Ms. Stiviano, decided to tape a private conversation between the two. Apparently, Ms. Stiviano had recently been sued by the estranged wife of Mr. Sterling, so there is some potential nefarious motive involved. Furthermore, the taping of a conversation without consent of the other party is illegal under California statute. There is some question as to whether he knew he was being recorded. Let’s assume for the moment he didn’t.

The national outrage against Mr. Sterling has come from an act that could be illegal and inadmissible in a court of law. Nevertheless, the court of public opinion has tried and convicted Mr. Sterling of being a jerk.

But have we come to a point in America where being a jerk is grounds for confiscation of a private property? It was Englishman John Locke who first proposed that individual rights as granted under natural law were life, liberty, and property. It was Thomas Jefferson who in the American Declaration of Independence used that paradigm to propose our unalienable rights from our Creator being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Sterling’s comments were repulsive, but they were stated in the privacy of his own home — at least he thought it was private.

So where do we go from here?

Finally: Florida Senate Approves Bill Banning Foreign Law

creeping
via Senate Approves Prohibition On Foreign Law In Court « CBS Miami.

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/News Service of Florida) – Foreign laws would be prohibited in Florida courts, under a bill the Senate sent to the House on Monday.

The Senate voted 24-14 to approve the proposal (SB 386) by Umatilla Republican Alan Hays, who has pushed various versions of the measure the past couple of years.

The current bill codifies existing law, declaring that any attempt to apply the law of a foreign country is void if it breaches the policy of Florida.

The proposal is more defined than last year’s effort, which got House support but failed to advance in the Senate.

The House companion (HB 903) has reached the floor but has yet to be scheduled as lawmakers are in the final week of the regular session.

Abbas Pumps New Life Into Hamas

Khaled Abu Toameh

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4293/abbas-hamas

Abbas's "reconciliation" with Hamas is most probably aimed at exerting more pressure on Israel to make far-reaching concessions at the negotiating table. But Abbas's move will soon prove to be counterproductive. Hamas's goal is to seize control over the Palestinian Authority and replace Israel with an Islamic empire. Hamas has already made it clear that the deal with Abbas does not mean that it would change its ideology or renounce terrorism.

These are wonderful days for the Palestinian Islamist movement, Hamas.
Just when everyone thought that Hamas -- an officially designated terrorist group and an offshoot of Muslim Brotherhood -- was on its way to vanish as a result of Egypt's tough measures, Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas stepped in to save the movement by inviting its leaders to join a Palestinian unity government.
Abbas's recent decision to sign a "reconciliation" agreement with Hamas is the best gift that the Islamist movement could have dreamed of receiving.
Even if Abbas is not serious about the "reconciliation," his deal with the movement's leaders in the Gaza Strip has injected new blood into Hamas.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, in February 2007, before Hamas seized total control of Gaza. (Image source: MaanImages)

Hamas is now talking about running in the next Palestinian parliamentary elections and is even hoping to use the "reconciliation" accord as a vehicle for restoring its relations with Egypt.
Buoyed by Abbas's deal, Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh phoned former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and invited him to serve as a monitor in the election. Carter and hundreds of international monitors supervised the last parliamentary election in 2006, which resulted in a Hamas victory.

J Street Finds Itself Marooned with Hamas

Jonathan S. Tobin

Pity the members of J Street. The left-wing lobby was brought into existence in order to act as a Jewish cheering section for Obama administration pressure on Israel. Its allegedly “pro-Israel, pro-peace” platform is predicated on the notion that the Jewish state must be saved from itself by means of heavy-handed American arm-twisting. It hoped Obama, whose election its members regarded as proof that they, rather than the mainstream AIPAC, represented the bulk of American Jewry, would apply the screws to Israel’s government and magically produce a peace agreement.
But well into the sixth year of Obama’s presidency, their hopes have been dashed. Bereft of influence on Capital Hill or even within the administration it relentlessly supports, J Street has found itself on the sidelines continually seeking to fan each flame of U.S.-Israel discord into a fire that will produce the peace process breakthrough it devoutly insists is always just around the corner. Though J Street has not been without its moments of triumph when Obama has gratuitously slammed Israel and its government, disappointment always follows because not even the most hostile administration to the Jewish state since Jimmy Carter has ever been willing to escalate those spats into all-out political war. Thus, despite its approval of Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace initiative and of Obama’s disdain for Prime Minister Netanyahu, J Street finds itself out of sync with the administration.

Anti-inflammatory protein offers hope for diabetes

According to Israeli research, early stages of type 1 diabetes could be effectively treated with an anti-inflammatory protein.

By Ruthie Blum

The new treatment with Alpha1-Antitrypsin (AAT) could make insulin injections a thing of the past. Image via www.shutterstock.com

Groundbreaking results of a new Israeli clinical study reveal that type 1 diabetes can be treated effectively and safely with Alpha1-Antitrypsin (AAT), an anti-inflammatory protein that our body normally generates when we’re sick.
“While looking for drugs to cure diabetes, we sought a different path from available and experimental treatments — one that tackled the problem, not merely the symptom of dangerously high glucose levels,” prominent immunology researcher Eli Lewis of Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev tells ISRAEL21c.

Mainstream American Jewish Groups Reject J Street

J Street and its backers chafe at the notion that those whose jobs and whose lives are put most at risk as the result of

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security compromises are the ones who are entrusted with making the decisions about how and where and, especially, when, those compromises will be made, if at all.

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus

Published: May 1st, 2014

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Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street at the Israeli Left Conference.
Photo Credit: Facebook

In a rebuke to the relatively young but very well (and oddly so) financed group J Street, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations decisively rejected the group’s bid for membership.

J Street has only been in existence since 2008, but it shot out of the starting block with hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank and the backing of a wide array of well-connected American (mostly) Jews (mostly) who were itching to establish a new standard for the American Jewish community’s attitude towards Israel.

J Street’s backers are the ones who bridle at the idea that American Jews should feel a strong inclination to support and respect the Jewish State’s assessments of the level of threat it can survive with. 

​PLS CONTINUE READING: ​

 http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/mainstream-american-jewish-groups-reject-j-street/2014/05/01/

Has the 'Occupation' Caused Syrian Men to Beat Wives?

83 per cent of Syrian women reported they are victims of violence inflicted on them by their parents, while 72 per cent cited their husbands and 56 per cent their brothers.

Prof. Phyllis Chesler

The writer, a Fellow of the Middle East Forum and recipient of the 2013 National Jewish Book Award, is the author of fifteen books, including Women and Madness, Woman's Inhumanity to Woman, and The New Anti-Semitism. She has published three studies about honor killing and is at work on a fourth. Her new book, An American Bride in Kabul, (Palgrave Macmillan) has just been published to great acclaim. Professor Chesler may be reached at her website www.phyllis-chesler.com

In countless papers, including presumed studies published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, Israel has been accused of causing Arab men to beat Arab women because of the so-called Israeli “occupation.” 
Books, speeches, and lectures by Jew-hating anti-Zionists have made similar charges. Arab leaders have trotted out Blood Libels such as Israelis are causing sterility among Arab men and women by infecting their drinking water, etc.
Here is a corrective, just in.
Accordiong to Khetam Malkawai, in today’s Jordan Times, “almost 88.9 per cent of Syrian women refugees who visited (18) counselling centers in Jordan are victims of violence.”
As someone who is studying honor-based violence and honor killing, I found that the following statistics, gathered by the Arab Women's Organization, confirm my anecdotal and interview-obtained information. In terms of domestic violence, “83 per cent of the Syrian women reported they are victims of violence inflicted on them by their parents, while  72 per cent cited their husbands and 56 per cent their brothers.”