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Netanyahu says he’s ready to meet Abbas for talks ‘right now’

May 13, 2016

Netanyahu says he’s ready to meet Abbas for talks ‘right now’ PM claims he’s taken unprecedented steps for peace, tells Palestinian leader to heed calls for direct negotiations

By Times of Israel staff

May 13, 2016, 2:46 am

Source: Netanyahu says he’s ready to meet Abbas for talks ‘right now’ | The Times of Israel

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to the diplomatic corps at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on May 12, 2016. (Haim Zach/GPO)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that he was ready to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “today” for direct peace talks if the Palestinian leader was so willing, charging that he’d done more to advance peace than any other Israeli leader in history.

In a speech before the diplomatic corps at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem to mark Israel’s 68th Independence Day, Netanyahu said he was willing “to meet President Abbas today in Jerusalem. If he’d like, in Ramallah. Right now. Today.”

Acknowledging the “skepticism” about his position, Netanyahu claimed he has “taken steps that no other prime minister in Israel’s history has taken to advance peace,” adding that “so far, they’ve not been answered.”

Netanyahu told the roomful of foreign ambassadors, honorary consuls and military attachés that he continued to “support two states for two peoples: a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state.”

Denouncing the Palestinian refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a key Israeli demand for a peace agreement, Netanyahu said it “remains the core of this conflict,” and “why this conflict preceded the [1967] Six Day War by nearly 50 years.”

 

The Israeli leader called on members of the diplomatic corps to urge Abbas to accept the call for direct talks, maintaining these were the only way to reach an enduring peace deal.

“Every minute that President Abbas refuses to accept my call for peace robs Palestinians and Israelis of the opportunity to live without fear. It robs our children and our grandchildren the opportunity they so richly deserve,” Netanyahu said.

Expressing optimism for a wider peace arrangement with regional countries and a “deep and abiding faith…that our century-long conflict will end,” the prime minister said he was heartened to see “formerly hostile states in the region and beyond form new and deep partnerships with us.”

“We might solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem by enjoying the support of Arab states who now see Israel more and more not as an enemy, but as an ally against the forces that threaten their own countries as well,” he said, an apparent reference to Iran who last year signed a nuclear deal with world powers which sought the rein in its atomic program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Israel and many Sunni Arab states were deeply opposed to the accord.

US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed in April 2014 and the prospects of fresh dialogue have appeared increasingly remote.

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Chicago College Council Backs BDS for Israel, Not China

May 12, 2016

Chicago College Council Backs BDS for Israel, Not China, Front Page Magazine, Daniel Greenfield, May 12, 21016

bds_original

Some students at the University of Chicago set out to prove that divestment resolutions aren’t about human rights, but hating Jews. They proved their point quite easily with a China divestment resolution.

Last week, some students at University of Chicago, where I attend, proposed a resolution to our College Council to divest from Chinese weapons manufacturers, in protest of China’s severe human rights abuses and its long-standing occupation of Tibet.

Members of the council were quick to condemn the resolution, and for good reason. The members noted it was political, and disrespectful to Chinese students. Other members noted that Chinese students should be given time to respond to the presenters with a counter-presentation. One representative even suggested that the College Council issue an apology to Chinese students for even considering the resolution. The resolution was tabled indefinitely.

Curiously, when a few weeks earlier the same College Council passed a nearly identical resolution condemning Israel, no one suggested an apology. These same representatives argued why it was their moral imperative to condemn Israel. They were determined to push this through at all costs, and despite requests, they didn’t even offer the other side an opportunity to present.

Over the past few weeks I have been told that Jews “don’t count” as a minority. I have been accused of using anti-semitism to justify oppression. All I want to know is why my campus doesn’t treat anti-semitism with the same rigor with which it treats any other forms of bias.

When Jews stood before the council, and asked that it recognize the Jewish right to self-determination, a basic right for all people, people in the room laughed. One representative noted that “If we were to affirm the right to Jewish self-determination … it takes away from the intent of the resolution”.

Students in the room that day called us racists and murderers and “apartheid supporters”, for even thinking we, as Jews, could have a voice in the discussion over the one small state we call our own. A Jewish student was chided “You are racist and you are against me and my family’s existence”. It was uncivil, and unproductive, but the council-members did not once that day condemn the personal nature of these attacks, or defend the rights of the opposition to make their case.

At one point, a student questioned the presenters, members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), about their organization allegedly holding a moment of silence for Palestinians who were killed while trying to murder Jewish Civilians. One of the presenters confirmed the moment, then responded without missing a beat “Palestinians have a right to honor their martyrs”.

If the killing of any other ethnic group had been celebrated, the University would make grief counselors available. It would send out mass emails of condemnation. They would suspend the organization responsible, and possibly the students involved in it. The organization would certainly not have any credibility to present to the student government. Since the victims were Jews though, their celebration of murder went unchallenged. The representatives never even brought the issue up.

On the third slide of the presentation in favor of the resolution, presenters claimed that voting against the resolution would mean “maintaining a system of domination by Jews”.

Now this is taking place at the same time that sombreros are considered racist and Trump chalkings are denounced as hate crimes. But celebrating the murder of Jews is always okay.

Of the members of the College Council at the University of Chicago, Peggy Xu backed BDS for Israel but was offended by the idea of holding China accountable. Michael Meng also aggressively pushed the campaign against the Jewish State. Michael Meng very predictably opposed the China BDS resolution.

And Peggy Xu has announced that she’s running again because, “My time in SG has been simultaneously enlightening, difficult, and incredibly fulfilling, and it would be an honor to continue advocating for an SG that is inclusive, equitable, and responsive to student needs.” I’m not sure what’s equitable and inclusive about hating Jews.

Moments like these make it clear that this is not about human rights. It’s about using colleges as a forum for tribal hatreds, in this case legitimizing the expression of anti-Semitism.

Categories: Academia, Antisemitism, BDS, China, Israel, Palestinians
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BDS Spreads Anti-Semitism Across U.S. Campuses

May 12, 2016

BDS Spreads Anti-Semitism Across U.S. Campuses, Investigative Project on Terrorism, Noah Beck, May 12, 2016

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Anti-Semitic incidents seem to spring up each week on college campuses throughout the United States. According to a study, “The strongest predictor of anti-Jewish hostility on campus” is the presence of a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

The greater the BDS activity, especially involving faculty members, the more likely anti-Semitic episodes become, said the study issued last month by the AMCHA Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to investigating, documenting, and combating anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses.

One recent example occurred on April 15, when the City University of New York Doctoral Students’ Council passed a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel, 42-19. Weeks earlier, a CUNY professor and BDS advocate claimed that the killing of Palestinians in Gaza “reflects Jewish values.” On CUNY campuses, the New York Observer reports, Jewish students were harassed, with “Jews out of CUNY” uttered in at least one instance, and a professor who wears a yarmulke was called a “Zionist pig.”

On April 21, two-thirds of a union representing about 2,000 graduate students at New York University voted to approve a motion to support a BDS resolution against Israel. The motion also urges the union and its affiliate, the United Auto Workers, to divest from Israeli companies. The resolution asks NYU to close its program at Tel Aviv University, claiming the program violates NYU’s non-discrimination policy.

About a month earlier, NYU’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), one of the main organizing forces behind the nationwide BDS campaign, hosted Israeli academic Ilan Pappé, described by Benny Morris as “one of the world’s sloppiest historians.”

As reported by AMCHA:

“Pappé blamed Jews, perceived historically as evil, for antisemitism stating, ‘The [Jewish] Israelis…are responsible for bringing antisemitism back.’ He denied Jews self-determination and demonized Israel stating, ‘evil Zionism will come to an end – all immoral regimes do’ as well as suggested rich Jews should leave Israel as a process of ‘decolonization.’ He further demonized Israel throughout accusing Israel of carrying out ‘ethnic cleansing’ multiple times. Pappé delegitimized Israel consistently referring to Israel as a ‘settler colonialist project,’ …[and] promoted BDS.”

The Jewish Law Students Association at Harvard University and Harvard Hillel co-sponsored an event April 14 on “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict & the U.S.” During the question and answer session, Husam el-Qoulaq, an HLS student and head of SJP at the school, insulted  Israeli Knesset Member Tzipi Livni by asking, “How is it that you are so smelly?… A question about the odor of Ms. Tzipi Livni, she’s very smelly, and I was just wondering.” The student’s question resurrected the anti-Semitic stereotype of a “smelly/dirty Jew.” Incredibly, some “progressive” HLS Jewish students later defended el-Qoulaq.

As BDS campaigns spread on campuses, anti-Semitic expression increasingly follows – from swastika-filled vandalism at UC Davis and Purdue University to student “debates” at Stanford University that implicitly dignify classical anti-Semitic tropes about Jews controlling the media and economy. Among other recent incidents:

  • April 20: At Michigan’s Grand Valley State University, there have beensix anti-Semitic incidents reported on campus since last December. These involved swastikas on walls or doors of residence halls, messages including “I am a Nazi” and “Hitler did nothing wrong,” a faculty member making anti-Semitic gestures in a classroom, and a Star of David with an “X” scratched into it on the window of a bus.
  • April 19: At the University of Maryland, about two dozen protesters arrived at a Hillel and Jewish Student Union event called, “Israel Fest” and, for about an hour, chanted, “Fight the power; turn the tide; end Israeli apartheid” and held signs saying “Zionism kills.”
  • April 15: At the University of Notre Dame, a letter published by three students in the school newspaper accused Israel of apartheid and directed readers to the Anti-Semitic site “IfAmericansKnew” and the site for a major BDS group, Jewish Voice for Peace.
  • April 10: At Atlanta’s historically black Morehouse College, participants at the U.S. Universities Debating Championship (USUDC) were forced to justify the motion, “This House Believes That Violence By Palestinians Against Israeli Civilian Targets Is Justified.”

According to AMCHA, 2016 already has seen 171 anti-Semitic/BDS incidents as of April 21. At this rate, 2016 will see a 36 percent increase in incidents over last year.

Faculty members have become increasingly active in BDS efforts and smears. During a talk at Vassar College in February, Rutgers professor Jasbir Puar accused Israel of harvesting Palestinian organs and conducting scientific experiments in “stunting” the growth of Palestinian bodies. Last month, 40 Columbia University professors signed a BDS petition. More recently, one pro-BDS professor even tried to link campus rape to Israel. As Rochester Institute of Technology lecturer A.J. Caschetta notes, “at a time when much of academe is jumping on the BDS bandwagon, there is little risk to academics who join the movement, whereas opposition to majority leftist positions often leads to a perilous path.”

Indeed, academics who buck this trend may be endangering their careers. At Connecticut College, one of the few professors who defended Andrew Pessin, who hasn’t been in his classroom for the past year after a hate-filled campaign miscast his comments about Hamas as a smear on all Palestinians, says his stance cost him a promotion. Manuel Lizarralde, associate professor in Ethnobotany, wrote in a faculty-wide email Jan. 26 that the college “acted like vigilantes and found the perfect scapegoat,” in Pessin.

Within days, Lizarralde said, he was called in by the administration for a scolding. Noting that he was recently denied promotion, Lizarralde suggested in a recent email that this was payback for his support of Pessin. Connecticut College has “a sense of racism since we are Latinos, Jews and advocate for social injustice…[and we] are being punished [for such activism].”

Responding to the negative media coverage generated by the Pessin case, Connecticut College President Katherine Bergeron published an email to the faculty March 28, in which she championed “the right of all its members to express their views freely and openly.” She failed to explain how that principle applied to Pessin, who was hounded off campus for expressing his views, only to see them twisted and turned against him. She said that the school should promote “reasoned and informed debate about the most complex issues of our time,” but Pessin’s absence leaves the school with no pro-Israel voice. When asked about the contradictions between her email and the Pessin affair, she declined to comment.

Meanwhile, outrage against Connecticut College continues to build, with a petition to investigate the Pessin affair and revoke the school’s accreditation now exceeding 1,500 signatures.

Just as the character assassination targeting the only pro-Israel voice at Connecticut College appeared as a total surprise, BDS campaigns to influence student government votes across the country pop up with minimal notice, just weeks before the vote, giving the opposition little time to organize. That strategy helped secure SJP a BDS victoryat the University of Chicago undergraduate student government in March.

It failed to persuade the university’s administration, though.

Who is funding BDS? Analyst Jonathan Schanzer of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies recently told members of Congress that former employees of Hamas-linked charities now work for the Illinois-based organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which is “arguably the leading BDS organization in the US, a key sponsor of the anti-Israel campus network known as Students for Justice in Palestine.” Schanzer noted that AMP provides money, speakers, training and even “apartheid walls” to SJP campus activists. More surprising, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund has given anti-Israel BDS organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Shurat Hadin Israel Law Center.

On campus after campus, the BDS movement has proven itself to be well organized and determined to poison the minds of impressionable students against Israel. It will take an equally concerted and sustained effort to oppose BDS in academia.

Categories: Academia, American Muslims for Palestine, Antisemitism in America, BDS, Gaza, Hamas, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinians, Palestinians and Jews, SJP
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Gaza Salafists look to ISIS for inspiration

May 12, 2016

Gaza Salafists look to ISIS for inspiration, Israel National News, Adel Zaanoun, May 12, 2016

Isl State in GazaISIS supporters in Gaza Reuters

(AFP) Terrrorists inspired by the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group’s ideology are seeking to benefit from the desperation of young Palestinians to strengthen their foothold in the Gaza Strip.

But the Salafists in the enclave tread a fine line to avoid conflict with Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group which has ruled the strip for a decade but does not share all of ISIS’s world view.

Leaders of the Salafists, who are adherents of a strict Sunni interpretation of Islam, claim to have 3,000 fighters in Gaza.

While the figure is impossible to verify, experts see an increasing use of ISIS-style rhetoric to attract support.

“Some groups use the Islamic State label and claim to have adopted jihadist ideology to attract teenagers who have lost all hope,” said Assaad Abu Charakh, a professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza.

Last week saw the heaviest cross-border clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas and other terrorist groups since 2014, raising fears of a return to hostilities, though calm has since returned.

Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza since 2006 aimed at containing Hamas, which is sworn to the destruction of Jewish state and whose charter calls for the annihilation of the Jewish people.

At almost 45 percent, the unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip is among the world’s highest.

Hamas won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, and then one year later staged a violent purge of its Fatah rivals, killing scores and ousting the Palestinian Authority from Gaza entirely.

Qassam Brigades defectors

But some members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ armed wing, argued elections were un-Islamic and defected to form Salafist groups.

Abu al-Ansari al-Ina, a leader of the “Young Salafist Fighters,” one of the major jihadist groups in Gaza, is one such defector.

The priority, he argues, is the “fight against the Jews in Palestine, even if the strategic goal is the introduction of Islamic law in the world.”

He says he is under surveillance and took precautions before meeting anAFP journalist.

Two hundred Gazans, including some of his movement, have crossed into Egypt to join the ranks of the Islamic State “despite Hamas’ attempts to stop them,” he says.

Most used the tunnels that once linked Gaza to Egypt, while others took advantage of the occasional openings of the Rafah border crossing, the only of Gaza’s borders crossings not controlled by Israel, and which is the subject of a total blockade by Egypt.

The vast Sinai desert is gripped by an insurgency that Egypt regularly accuses Hamas of supporting.

Egypt’s air force has destroyed a large number of the tunnels and established a buffer zone along the Gazan border.

Abu Sayyaf, military commander of another Salafi movement, insists Israel is the primary enemy.

“Our priority now is to strengthen the military capabilities of our fighters to kill the Jews, the enemies of God,” he said.

“We do not want confrontation with Hamas,” but “we will not hesitate to fight the infidels or anyone who stands in the way of our fighters.”

Escalation fears

Hamas security services reached an agreement last year with the jihadists after arresting about 100 of them: in exchange for their release, the groups committed to respect the truce with Israel and not to attack Palestinian or foreign institutions in Gaza.

Though limited, Salafi attacks endanger the ceasefire which Hamas is tactically keen to uphold.

Gazan groups have been firing rockets into Israel for years, with Israel retaliating by striking Hamas positions – holding the terrorist group responsible for all attacks emanating from territory it governs.

Many fear the tensions could escalate into clashes between Hamas and jihadi groups if rocket attacks occur.

Salafi jihadists have occasionally threatened Hamas in online videos, with some claiming the shelling of Qassam bases. “We met our commitments but Hamas did not, they again arrested some of our fighters,” says Abu al-Ina.

Mahmoud Zahar, a top Hamas official, says the authorities “discuss and are trying to reason” with the imprisoned Salafists, but have no choice but to use force against aggressors.

A Salafist was killed last year by Hamas forces who had come to arrest him.

Some jihadists “were planning to kill their neighbors and relatives,” Zahar said, provoking Hamas to step in to prevent “a huge explosion.”

Asked about the ISIS links, Abu al-Ina al-Ansari says they merely consist of “an exchange of ideas but are not organizational.”

“We agree with the clear message sent by the Islamic State to the miscreant West: ‘Stop your attacks, we will stop our attacks’.”

Categories: Fatah, Gaza, Hamas, Islamic State, Israel, Palestinian Authority, Palestinians, Salafists
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68 Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Israel

May 12, 2016
Published on May 9, 2016

68 reasons to celebrate Israel: diversity, hi-tech, fun, delicious snacks and much more.

Share this to wish Israel a happy 68th birthday!

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Report: Trump Says To Visit Israel ‘Soon’

May 12, 2016

Report: Trump Says To Visit Israel ‘Soon’

by AFP

11 May 2016

Source: Report: Trump Says To Visit Israel ‘Soon’

JERUSALEM (AFP) –  US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will visit Israel “soon”, he told an Israeli newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday.

“Yes, I will be coming soon,” Trump said without giving further details in response to a question from the Israel Hayom newspaper, a freesheet considered close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump had scheduled a visit to Israel for late December but postponed it a few days before following an uproar over his proposal to bar all Muslims from entering the United States.

“I have decided to postpone my trip to Israel and to schedule my meeting with @Netanyahu at a later date after I become president of the US,” he tweeted at the time.

In the interview published on Wednesday, Trump renewed his criticism of US President Barack Obama over a July nuclear deal with Iran that was vigorously opposed by the Israeli prime minister.

“The current threat against Israel is more important than ever” because of “President Obama’s policy towards Iran and the nuclear deal,” he said.

“I think the people of Israel have suffered a lot because of Obama.”

White House hopefuls often visit Israel as part of efforts to bolster their foreign policy credentials.

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A Palestinian 9-bomb ambush for IDF

May 11, 2016

A Palestinian 9-bomb ambush for IDF, DEBKAfile, May 11, 2016

The bomb trap which seriously injured an Israeli officer at the Hizmeh checkpoint north of Jerusalem Tuesday night  was primed for a multiple  terror attack. The trap consisted of four iron pipe bomb stuffed with explosives, screws and sharp nails. Another explosive devices, some of which were attached   to a gas canister, failed to explode because of a technical malfunction and so averted a major disaster.

The most likely scenario according to our sources was for the terrorists to spring the bomb trap in two wave: the first four to blow up against the IDF patrol  and the rest to hit the responders to the first explosion, including rescue teams, and   intelligence and senior officers.

The initial conclusion gained by DEBKA counterterrorism from the data available is as follows:

1. This was no lone wolf event. It was a complex operation carried out by a competent team experienced in the building and placement of rigged explosive. Part of the team head nearby ready to set off the second wave of pipe bombs.

The plot was hatched in total secrecy. Neither Israeli intelligence nor the police caught any sign of the planned attack. Had there been any suspicion  a bomb squad would have inspected the route taken by the IDF patrol in advance.

2. Although the Israeli military sealed off Judea and Samaria for three days starting Tuesday night the eve of Remembrance  Day for the Fallen men and women of IDF – like “other sensitive dates” of the year, Palestinian terrorist were nonetheless able to reach their target.   It was only by sheer luck that a major disaster was averted. But one young officer paid the price.

Our source reports that this is the first time Palestinian terrorists are known to set up a complicated bomb trap of this kind. It must been assumed that some Palestinian organization received instructions in this skill from Hizballah who practiced it with devastating effect in Lebanon in the late nineties.

Categories: Hezbollah, IDF, Israel, Lone wolf attacks, Palestinian terrorists
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PA PM: We’re following the path of the Nazi Mufti

May 11, 2016

PA PM: We’re following the path of the Nazi Mufti, Israel National News, Dalit Halevi, May 11, 2016

mufti-and-hitlerHaj Amin al-Husseini and Adolf Hitler Wikimedia Commons

Hamdallah termed al-Husseini, who was a close confidante of Adolf Hitler, as “the pure-hearted son” of the “Palestinian nation.”

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Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah on Tuesday took part in the Seventh International Bayt al-Maqdis Islamic Conference in Ramallah, Samaria, in which he aired libel against Israel apparently on the background of its counter-terror actions.

In his speech, he called on the international community to get involved in order to “defend” the Arab residents of Jerusalem who are dealing with “illegal” activities from Israel “that oppose international law and human rights.”

Hamdallah’s call to take action against Israel urged international pressure so as to end the “occupation” and establish an independent Palestinian state along the 1949 Armistice lines, with Jerusalem as its “eternal capital.”

He accused Israel of trying to wipe out the “Arab national identity” of Jerusalem, which is in fact the ancient 3,000-year-old capital of the Jewish people. As part of his accusations, he alleged that Israel is rewriting history and expelling Arabs from the capital.

The PA Prime Minister went on to say the Conference is inculcating the path of former Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, who infamously sealed a pact with the genocidal Nazi regime to wipe out all Jews.

Hamdallah termed al-Husseini, who was a close confidante of Adolf Hitler, as “the pure-hearted son” of the “Palestinian nation.”

In the Conference meeting PA minister of holy sites Yusuf Ida’is also referred to the infamous mufti.

“This Conference is a continuation of the First Islamic Bayt al-Maqdis Conference held by the deceased Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini on Palestinian soil in 1931, and here today we walk in his path according to the instructions of the (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas,” said Ida’is.

In an ironic twist given Hamdallah’s claims of rewriting history in Jerusalem, Bayt al-Maqdis is in fact the Arabicized version of the Hebrew “Beit Hamikdash,” which is the term for the Holy Temples that stood in Jerusalem.

Categories: Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Israel, Palestinian Authority
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Synagogue massacre averted, terror cell revealed

May 11, 2016

Synagogue massacre averted, terror cell revealed Three Israeli Arabs arrested over terror plots to carry out massacre at Akko synagogue, attacks in Jerusalem.

By David Rosenberg

First Publish: 5/11/2016, 4:03 PM

Source: Synagogue massacre averted, terror cell revealed – Defense/Security – News – Arutz Sheva

Security outside Har Nof synagogue
Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Three Israeli Arabs from the Galilee region were indicted on Wednesday over a plot to carry out a series of terror attacks in the northern city of Akko and Old City of Jerusalem.

Wednesday’s indictment of the terror cell not only revealed the group’s existence, but shed light on the terrorists’ gruesome plans, which were inspired by one of the worst terror attacks in recent years.

According to the indictment, Ali Sobeah, Ibrahim Shami, and Mahdi Basel had planned a major terror attack on Israeli security forces near Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. Their plan included both stabbing attacks and automatic firearms.

The group allegedly was looking for higher casualty levels than other similar terror attacks, and when they failed to acquire submachine guns, the attack was called off.

Several days later the three met in a mosque in northern Israel to plan out other terror attacks, including a shooting attack on Israeli soldiers.

Over the course of the next few months, the terror cell considered a number of possible attacks involving knives and firearms. According to the indictment, the group aimed to cause a mass casualty event and then “die as martyrs”.

Eventually the cell settled on two attacks: first, to slaughter Jewish worshippers praying at an Akko synagogue in northern Israel, then attack soldiers either at a local military base or in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The planned attack on the Akko synagogue was reportedly influenced by the 2014 Har Nof Massacre, in which four worshippers and one police officer were slaughtered.

Hoping to finally acquire firearms for the planned attacks, the group planned to use money Mahdi would likely receive as gifts for his upcoming wedding.

The terror cell selected a synagogue on Ben Ami Street in Akko for the attack.

In March 2016 Ali Sobeah and Mahdi Basel purchased submachine guns, along with ammunition and extra magazines. In April the two were arrested by Israeli security forces, who had uncovered the terror cell and its plot against the Akko synagogue.

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Trump: Unexpected and Unconventional but Suited for Our Times

May 11, 2016

Trump: Unexpected and Unconventional but Suited for Our Times, American Thinker, Scott S. Powell, May 11, 2016

One of the most extraordinary things about Donald Trump’s primary victory in the Republican Party is that he received more votes from people identifying as Christian than his closest competitor Ted Cruz — the son of an evangelical pastor and one who profusely displayed his Christian identity in speech and temperament. In contrast, by standards that many believe to be the essence of Christian character as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, Donald Trump has been anything but meek, merciful, or peacemaking in his political rise. Some have likened him to a one-man wrecking ball. So what’s going on?

No one doubts that these are unusual times, with more forces pulling the United States down than at any other time in history. There is plenty of blame to go around for America’s spiraling state of decline, but at the top of the list are two things: First, we have had a culture captured and constrained by secular progressive political correctness. Second, we have an overbearing federal government that has corrupted both parties, the bureaucracies, and even the supposedly independent Federal Reserve.

At the grassroots, Republicans have tried to bring about a corrective, and they did succeed in getting many conservative reform candidates elected to congress in the last six years. Yet the stranglehold of political correctness and the corruption of Washington from special interests and lobbyists have proven insurmountable. Washington, DC — a metropolis producing very little with limited industry and almost no manufacturing — has become the richest city in the country, while driving the nation to the edge of financial ruin, as manifest in a national debt exceeding $19 trillion, 47 million people on food stamps, and a true unemployment rate that may be three times higher than the manipulated official rate released by the federal government.

Even as white Christians have diminished in their overall percentage of the population at large, according to the Pew Research Center, they still account for nearly seven in ten Americans who identify with, or lean toward, the Republican Party — about the same percentage as in the 1980s during the Reagan years. The problem is the GOP — despite its success in gaining majorities in both houses of Congress and controlling the power of the purse — has been ineffective as an opposition party during the Obama years.

The tipping point for many Christians came with a realization that the Republican Party was as incapable of protecting their rights and values at home as it was feckless in stopping an errant foreign policy that undermined trust with allies and emboldened enemies.

Two unnerving breaches of protection prompted many to recognize compelling qualities in Donald Trump over other candidates. First, he exuded an unapologetic toughness about building a wall and stopping the wave of illegal immigrants flooding over the Mexican border. Second, he was unequivocal about obliterating ISIS quickly and decisively — ending its wanton slaughter of Christians and other ethnic groups. And bridging both of these issues, in the aftermath of ISIS-inspired attacks in San Bernardino and Brussels, Trump unhesitatingly opposed Obama’s wish to take in undocumented Syrian refugees, “until we figure out what the hell is going on.” In that alone in the eyes of the majority, Trump demonstrated he was presidential, putting the protection of Americans as the top priority.

Political correctness and intolerance, which debilitates critical thinking, discourse and debate, has been shaping American culture for more than a generation. Throughout the seven plus years of the Obama administration, political correctness has driven domestic and foreign policy — with disastrous results. Obama has gone beyond anyone in recent memory in assaulting the First Amendment, undermining both speech and the exercise of Christian religion. We now see among liberals and secular progressives operating in the Democrat Party an Orwellian power structure that seeks to advance a statist, socialist and globalist transformation of the U.S. by silencing opposing views through the courts, misinformation, and distortion of the truth. Call it “newspeak” as Orwell did or the successor term “doublespeak,” its purpose is the same: to shape the masses thinking and obfuscate what is really going down.

Political correctness has not only prevented development of an effective strategy to deal with Islamist terrorism. It has turned U.S. relations in the Middle East upside down. The Obama administration celebrated the ouster and replacement of Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak, a long-standing U.S. ally, with Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Morsi. A similar glee was initially expressed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the news of Muammar Gaddafi being hunted down and killed, only to be followed by increased mayhem in Libya, leading to the tragedy and humiliation of the U.S. at the hands of terrorists in Benghazi.

But for many Christians, the bridge too far was Obama’s rebuke of Israel and his end run around the U.S. Congress, in forcing through a fundamentally flawed nuclear deal with Iran. Iran is both the top exporter of hate and the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism whose longstanding primary targets are the United States (often referred to as the “big Satan”), and Israel (the “little Satan”).

Everyone recognizes that Donald Trump is a flawed candidate. His Christian supporters certainly know this as well or better than his critics. But they also recognize that sinners are all that there are to choose from and that America’s precarious position at home and abroad requires an unconventional leader with unusual characteristics — some of which may not be aligned with a stereotypical Christian temperament.

One thing few could disagree with is that Trump deserves credit more than any conservative for fracturing the foundation of political correctness, upon which rests the entire liberal superstructure.

In fact, conventional conservatives may have reached a limit in expanding their audience. In contrast, it appears to be harvest time for Trump. His style of common sense plain talk has the potential to make huge inroads into both independent and liberal constituencies who are just now waking up to the absurdities of political correctness. While many still can’t see clearly, the fog is lifting, and the soul, spontaneity and humor of America is making an incipient revival, even in the midst of rancor.

If one can get past the braggadocio, narcissism and other negatives of Trump’s character, on the positive side he exudes confidence, ambition and a keenness to make good deals, get results and win. He is bold, direct and doesn’t shy away from confrontation. Mr. Trump is quite social and clearly likes to entertain, but he is also tough as nails, unrelenting and unpredictable with adversaries. He is unquestionably and refreshingly patriotic.

It turns out that some of these qualities are among those most vital to rebuilding relations with America’s allies and restoring respect — even fear — from adversaries. Mr. Trump’s irectness also suggests he is the best-suited presidential candidate to take on America’s greatest threat — insolvency. He could break the cycle of denial that completely engulfs the Democrat Party, and has hitherto prevented predecessors from doing much of anything regarding the nation’s out-of-control spending, deficits and unsustainable debt. Additionally, Trump’s toughness may be the key virtue needed to rule in a divided country and to successfully downsize and restructure federal agencies and get Washington out of the way of the American economy and its people.

Although the GOP believes it has a big tent, understandably many party members with well-established positions and values have great difficulty in accepting for the highest office in the land a newcomer candidate as fundamentally different as Donald Trump. To them I would say, unusual times with threats on every front at home and abroad call for an unconventional candidate. And it’s not so hard after all to recognize qualities in Donald Trump that make him in certain ways uniquely well-suited for our times.

 

Categories: 2016 elections, Christians, Donald Trump, Israel, Obama, Political correctness, Republicans
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