And again: 'Palestinian' terrorist murders Israeli
An Israeli father of five was murdered on Tuesday morning at the Tapuach Junction in Northern Samaria by a 'Palestinian' terrorist.
An Israeli was killed in a terror attack at the Tapuah junction in
the northern West Bank on Tuesday morning, when he was attacked by a
Palestinian man at a hitchhiking spot at the junction.
The
Palestinian terrorist came up from behind the victim, identified as
Evyatar Borovsky, and then stabbed him in the chest, Judea and Samaria
Division Capt. Barak Raz told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
Security forces are now seeking to verify whether the suspect acted
alone or was part of a larger terrorist organization. Initial
indications are that he acted alone.
Raz said army medical teams attempted to save Borovsky's life on the scene, but were unsuccessful.
"We're
investigating whether the terrorist discharged bullets from the weapon
he stole before or after security forces opened fire," Raz added.
...
The Border Police said minutes after the attack that a terrorist armed
with a knife attacked a settler at a hitching post, stole the man's gun
and fired at Border Patrol officers who were nearby. The officers
returned fire and wounded the man, and then took him into custody, the
Border Police said.
...
Avraham Benyamin, spokesman for Yitzhar, said Borovsky was a native
of Kfar Hasidim who had been living in Yitzhar with his wife and five
chldren for five years.
Benyamin said Borovsky had been a theater actor in a number of performance troupes and served on Yitzhar's security team.
In
a response to the murder, Benyamin said on behalf of the settlement
"the writing was on the wall, written in blood. This murder was a direct
refusal of the government's leniency towards rock-throwing terrorism
and the continued increase in terror attacks against Jews across Judea
and Samaria."
He added that the settlement demands a "painful and
serious response to erase the shame of this incident and in order to
show the residents that their lives are not worthless."
A preliminary investigation of the incident suggested
that the terrorist, a resident of Tulkarem, arrived at the junction
armed with a knife. He stabbed the victim, who was waiting at a
hitchhiking stop, several times in the chest, and grabbed his handgun.
He then opened fire at a nearby Border Police patrol and subsequently
tried to flee, but the police officers returned fire and subdued him.
According to a Border Police spokesman, the perpetrator had run into a
roadblock, preventing him from causing more damage with the stolen gun.
...
According to
media reports, the terrorist had been released from an Israeli prison,
where he served a three-year sentence for throwing rocks, less than six
months ago. The terrorist's brother, who is currently jailed in the
Palestinian Authority, faced trial on Sunday for allegedly cooperating
with Israel. Speculation has been raised that the terrorist may have
committed the attack in order to restore his family's honor.
Later Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces troops raided the home of the perpetrator, named as Salam Za'al, Israeli media reported.
Borovsky was the youngest of four brothers,
and has been living in the settlement of Yitzhar for five years. He
worked as an actor in several ensembles and was a part of the Yitzhar
security team. His eldest son is seven years old.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that a woman's DNA has been found on the remnants of one of the bombs used by Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev to commit terrorism at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Although that may not mean that a woman was involved in assembling the bombs, the FBI has asked for a DNA sample from Katherine Russell, Tamerlan Tsarnaev's widow. She may not have been the only person asked (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).
The officials familiar with the case cautioned that there could be
multiple explanations for why the DNA of someone other than the two
bombing suspects—Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother,
Dzhokhar—could have been found on remnants of the exploded devices. The
genetic material could have come, for example, from a store clerk who
handled materials used in the bombs or a stray hair that ended up in the
bomb.
On Monday, Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were seen leaving
the Rhode Island home of the parents of Katherine Russell, the widow of
Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The elder brother died after a shootout with police
four days after the April 15 bombings.
Ms. Russell has been staying with her parents since the bombings, and
FBI agents have been seen posted outside the home since her late
husband was identified as one of the bombers. Her lawyer has said she is
"doing everything she can to assist with the investigation."
One official familiar with the case said agents went to the house
Monday to collect a DNA sample from Ms. Russell, the culmination of days
of negotiations. FBI officials also have been negotiating with Ms.
Russell's attorney in recent days to get fuller access to question her,
the officials familiar with the case said. The officials briefed on the
investigation said the DNA request was needed to determine whether it
matched the DNA found on the bomb remnants.
Ms. Russell is one of as many as a half-dozen people in whom
investigators are interested as they seek to determine if the brothers
had any help in the bomb attack or the days afterward, the officials
said. Ms. Russell's lawyer didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment about the latest developments.
So nice to see the FBI on the case. After all, they did such a great job of preventing the terror attack from happening.
Why successive Israeli governments have feared a referendum on a 'peace treaty'
The Prime Minister and much of the Likud component of Likud-Beiteinu favors a public referendum on any agreement that turns land over to the 'Palestinians.' The usual suspects are opposed, and the 'Jewish Home' cannot make up its mind.
"I support and respect the process, because if we reach a diplomatic
agreement, it can't pass with a happenstance majority [in the Knesset],"
Netanyahu said at a Likud faction meeting.
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman, however, said that he is not
a proponent of the idea, but would support it if the coalition does.
"A referendum is a way of running away from making decisions," he stated.
The
issue of a referendum on a peace treaty rose earlier this week, as
Economics and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett hopes to turn the existing
law into a basic law, giving it constitutional status.
The current
law, proposed by coalition chairman Yariv Levin (Likud Beytenu)
requires a referendum on any treaty that includes giving up land under
Israeli sovereignty. This means that a referendum would not be necessary
to give the Palestinian Authority control over more of the West Bank,
but would be required to authorize land swaps.
In addition, the
Bayit Yehudi has yet to submit a bill on the topic and has not clarified
whether making Levin's bill a basic law would suffice for the party, or
if they would want to expand it.
...
"A referendum only gives the nation veto power. It doesn't let
citizens overturn the Knesset's decision if it rejects a peace treaty,"
Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said.
Livni added that she believes the public will support a peace treaty, and if not, it can vote in a new government.
"I don't fear the public, but it's [the government's] job to make decisions," she stated.
Leader
of the Opposition Shelly Yacimovich (Labor) pointed out that Israel is a
representative democracy, and that every few years citizens vote for
parties they support, which are supposed to make decisions.
"There
is not a hint of democracy behind the idea of a referendum specifically
about a diplomatic treaty," she said. "The opposite is true. The
selectiveness [in referendum topics] speaks for itself."
These are precisely the issues. With all that Israelis supposedly 'want' a 'two-state solution,' when you get specific, very few actually are willing to pay the price that 'everyone knows' we would pay - which is not enough to satisfy the 'Palestinians' anyway.
Saying that we could vote out the government if it made a peace deal Israelis didn't like is meaningless; it would be shutting the barn door after the cow has escaped.
And calling Israel's government representative is questionable at best and farcical at worst, given that you can only vote for a party into whose slate you have no input.
Israel has clear evidence of Syrian President Bashar Assad's army using
chemical weapons against rebels, a senior diplomatic source said Monday.
The
official said the information is known to all intelligence agency, and
that there is no doubt the Assad regime had used weapons of mass
destruction against opposition forces fighting to topple him.
Israel
should be more concerned with the possibility of the chemical weapons
leaking to Hezbollah or other terrorist groups in Lebanon, the official
said.
In other words, Obama knows it too and is choosing to ignore it.
Noah Beck reminds us that what happened in Boston two weeks ago was a weekly occurrence in Israel a decade ago.
But imagine if this happened again next week, at a pizzeria, killing 15
diners. And again, a week later, on a bus, killing 19 passengers. Then,
at a discotheque, killing 21 teens. Then, at a church, killing 11
worshipers. And so on, with a new bombing terrorizing us almost every
week.
Israelis don't have to imagine. They just have to remember. Between
1995 and 2005, each year saw an average of 14 suicide bombings,
murdering 66 victims. 2002 was the worst year, with 47 bombings that
slaughtered 238 people. That’s almost one Boston bombing every week.
Adjusted for population differences, Israel’s victims in 2002 amounted
to the equivalent of three 9/11s in one year. And these bombing
statistics don’t include all of the shootings, stabbings, and other
violent attacks by Palestinian extremists during those years.
Most Americans (and Europeans), who enjoy lives of far greater
security, can barely recall such attacks because they usually received
only scant and perfunctory media coverage, if they were mentioned at
all. A few particularly gruesome attacks (like the Netanya Passover
bombing that killed 30 and injured 140) were prominently reported but
most attacks were barely and inconspicuously noted, and many smaller but
horrific attacks went entirely unreported.
Of course, whenever Israel responded militarily to these attacks, that
would be headline news.
As WSJ columnist Brett Stephens noted in 2009,
"every Palestinian death receives somewhere in the order of 28 times the
attention of every Chechen death." When Israel erected its West Bank
security barrier, a non-violent but extremely effective way to prevent
Palestinian terrorism, that too was headline news. The fence was even
brought before the International Court of Justice in 2004 – unlike the
terrorism that compelled it. Israel surely had other uses for the $2
billion spent to build the barrier, but the number of attacks and
fatalities dropped so dramatically after its construction that few
Israelis doubted its necessity.
What's worse is that every Israeli knows (or ought to know) that if the IDF were to leave Judea and Samaria tomorrow, we'd be right back to where we were in 2002 - and worse, God forbid.
Likud MK and Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon has blasted Yesh Atid leader and Finance Minister Yair Lapid for Lapid's obsessive and excessive focus on Haredim being drafted or doing national service (Hat Tip: Eliana).
The government committee
weighing the “equal burden of service” issue is unfairly focusing on
hareidi-religious Jews while ignoring the Israeli Arab community, Deputy
Defense Minister Danny Danon (Likud) has accused.
Danon told Yisrael Hayom that he and other members of Likud
and Yisrael Beytenu will not support a proposal “that deals with just
one community and leaves the Arabs alone.”
“We cannot ignore a huge part of the population,” he said. “Nobody
expects [Arabs] to enlist in Golani, but they can volunteer in a local
health center before going to study at Haifa University.”
Danon accused Finance Minister Yair Lapid of leading the trend to focus on hareidi Jews. “Lapid’s hate for the hareidi community compared to how he ignores Israeli Arabs is sheer hypocrisy,” he said.
Indeed. But then, this was always about destroying the Haredi way of life and not about 'equalizing the burden' or integrating the Haredim into the economy. Wasn't it?
We now know the identity of 'Misha,' the alleged bad influence on Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon terrorist. This is from the first link.
Today I was able to meet “Misha,” whose real name is Mikhail
Allakhverdov. Having been referred by a family in Boston that was close
to the Tsarnaevs, I found Allakverdov at his home in Rhode Island, in a
lower middle class neighborhood, where he lives in modest, tidy
apartment with his elderly parents. He confirmed he was a convert to
Islam and that he had known Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but he flatly denied any
part in the bombings. “I wasn’t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I
would have made sure he never did anything like this,” Allakhverdov
said.
...
Allakhverdov said he had known Tamerlan in Boston, where he lived until
about three years ago, and has not had any contact with him since. He
declined to describe the nature of his acquaintance with Tamerlan or the
Tsarnaev family, but said he had never met the family members who are
now accusing him of radicalizing Tamerlan. He also confirmed he had been
interviewed by the FBI and that he has cooperated with the
investigation.
...
An FBI spokesman in Boston declined to comment on an ongoing case. Allakverdov’s statements, however, seemed to bear out recent reports that the FBI have not found any connection between “Misha” and the bomb plot.
One question is why members of the Tsarnaev family have made
accusations about Allakverdov. A close friend of the family in Boston
said that Misha was not known to have visited Tamerlan at home. I
interviewed Allakhverdov in Russian and it seems likely that in whatever
contact the two men had, they would have spoken Russian.
In many ways, Allakhverdov’s parents seem typical former-Soviet
émigrés who had embraced middle class life in the United States. His
father is an Armenian Christian and his mother is an ethnic Ukrainian.
The family had lived in Baku, Azerbaijan, but had left in the early
1990s for the United States to escape growing persecution of Armenian
Christians there. The family was welcoming to me but very nervous. “We
love this country. We never expected anything like this to happen to
us,” his father said.
Netanyahu orders Feiglin off Temple Mount after Waqf threat
Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered fellow Likud MK Moshe Feiglin not to ascend the Temple Mount on Monday, after the Muslim Waqf which controls the Mount threatened World War III if Feiglin shows up.
For the past ten years, MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud-Beitenu) has been
visiting the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on the 19th of the Hebrew month,
every month. But on Sunday, April 28, 2013, Feiglin received a phone
call from Deputy Commander Moshe Barkat, Chief of the Israeli Police
David Precinct, which includes the Old City of Jerusalem.
“He informed me that, on direct order from the prime minister, I would not be permitted to enter the Mount tomorrow,” MK Feiglin wrote in his Facebook page.
A source close to Feiglin told The Jewish Press that the deputy
commander told the MK that the Waqf, the Jordanian charity organization
which runs the Temple Mount, warned the Prime Minister’s office that
should Feiglin go up on the Mount on Monday, it would “start World War
Three.”
No one wants that. Except that the same Waqf has been cautioning
about new world wars frequently, and is often involved in organizing,
rather than trying to prevent them.
...
“The only legal way to prevent me from going up to the Temple Mount
tomorrow (without changing existing law),” says MK Feiglin, “is if, in
the opinion of the officer in charge of the place there exists an
immediate, clear and present danger.”
But, having given him the warning a full day in advance, Feiglin
argues, security forces should have ample time—had the prime minister
only told them so—to organize and prevent dangerous gathering and
violence.
According to MK Feiglin, the Prime Minister’s decision “confirms what
I was told by the police command when I asked to tour the Dome of the
Rock, that the Temple Mount is under Muslim sovereignty.”
And what is Feiglin going to do?
The source close to Feiglin says the MK will obey Netanyahu’s
directive, but that as of tomorrow Feiglin would no longer be voting the
Likud-Beitenu party line.
Yes, there are still Syrians who are living well, despite the country's civil war.
Yet in the neighborhood of Malki, a tree-lined enclave of central
Damascus, a wealthy group of elite, pro-government Syrians still enjoy
shopping for imported French cheeses, gourmet hand-made chocolates and
iPad minis in the well-stocked, recently built Grand Mall and in nearby
boutiques.
Such are the parallel realities of a conflict in
which, for all the gains made by rebels and the current chatter about US
"red lines" crossed that might ultimately draw in Western might,
President Bashar Assad is holding his ground in the capital, bulwarked
by his own foreign allies and by many Syrians who fear his end could
prove fatal for them too. And so life goes on.
In Malki,
sprinklers water the manicured lawns outside their blocks of
million-dollar apartments. Maids and drivers cater to their every whim
and birds sing in the trees. Fuel for their BMWs and electricity for
their air-conditioning is plentiful and the well-guarded streets are
free of loiterers.
"Look at this display and you feel all is
well, life is good and everything is here," said an elegantly dressed
Hiyam Jabri, 50, as she placed her order at the delicatessen counter in
the mall's main supermarket.
Malki residents continue to enjoy
material comforts and abundant supplies of imported goods, even as
millions of their compatriots subsist on food handouts.
NY Times: 'If we'd let Tamerlan become a citizen despite being an Islamist and beating his girlfriend, he wouldn't have blown up the Marathon'
In an article whose lead author is Deborah Sontag, the New York Times argues that if only the US had allowed Tamerlan Tsarnaev to become a citizen, despite being an Islamist and beating his girlfriend, he would not have perpetrated the Boston Marathon terror attack.
From one year to the next, though, the tournament rules had changed,
disqualifying legal permanent residents — not only Mr. Tsarnaev, who was
Soviet-born of Chechen and Dagestani heritage, but several other New
England contenders, too. His aspirations frustrated, he dropped out of
boxing competition entirely, and his life veered in a completely
different direction.
Mr. Tsarnaev portrayed his quitting as a reflection of the sport’s
incompatibility with his growing devotion to Islam. But as dozens of
interviews with friends, acquaintances and relatives from Cambridge to
Dagestan showed, that devotion, and the suspected radicalization that
accompanied it, was a path he followed most avidly only after his more
secular dreams were dashed in 2010 and he was left adrift.
His trajectory eventually led the frustrated athlete and his loyal
younger brother, Dzhokhar, to bomb one of the most famous athletic
events in this country, killing three and wounding more than 200 at the Boston Marathon,
the authorities say. They say it led Mr. Tsarnaev, his application for
citizenship stalled, and his brother, a new citizen and a seemingly
well-adjusted college student, to attack their American hometown on
Patriots’ Day, April 15.
What about the other three murders Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have committed? Were those also because he was kicked out of a boxing tournament?
Gee, ya think? Boston 'misunderstanders of Islam' may not have acted alone
Key Washington lawmakers suspect that the 'misunderstanders of Islam' who murdered four people and wounded nearly 200 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15 may not have acted alone. Gee, ya think?
``There are still persons of interest in the United States that the
FBI would like to have conversations with,’’ said Representative Mike
Rogers, a Republican from Michigan and chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee, speaking on ABC’s ``This Week.’’
Many questions remain about suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s 2012
six-month visit to the Russian state of Dagestan, and whether he
received some sort of training from Islamist radicals while there,
Rogers added.
``There was outside affirmation of their intent to commit an act of jihad,’’ he said.
``The Russians need to step up to the plate here and provide us with
information,’’ Rogers said. ``I think they have information that is
would be helpful and they haven’t provided.’’
The last time I checked, the Russians aren't responsible for the security of Americans. The Obama administration is responsible. As it happens, the Russians did provide timely information warning about the Tsarnaev's in 2011, but the Obama administration - and specifically its politically correct FBI - chose to ignore it. Perhaps if the Russians had seen that the information they provided was taken seriously, they would have provided more.
I really like Mike Rogers, but I think he's dead wrong on this. No one is responsible for the security of the Untied States other than the government of the United States - just like every other country in the world. Woe to the American people the day that their government puts their security in the hands of the Russians.
Another Republican, Homeland Security Committee chairman Mike McCaul
of Texas, said some officials in the Obama administration have suggested
prematurely that the brothers acted alone.
He cited the type of device used in the attack — shrapnel-packed
pressure-cooker bombs. Although instructions on how to build such bombs
can be found on the Internet, he said they also indicated a level of
sophistication and training.
“There could be a wider conspiracy,” said McCaul, on “Fox News
Sunday.” “What I found astounding is that right out of the box, U.S.
officials anonymously are saying there’s no foreign connection to this
case, when in fact, the FBI just began their investigation in this
case.”
Yes, but that's what the Obama administration does every time a Muslim commits an act of terror, and that's why after four and half years that Hussein Obama and his cadre of Islamophiles came to power, Americans' security is more precarious than it has been at any time at least since 9/11.
McCaul also said he thinks the suspects’ mother played ‘‘a very strong
role’’ in her sons’ radicalization process and that if she were to
return to the United States from Russia, she’d be held for questioning.
And that's probably why she said over the weekend that she's not coming. By the way, her husband has now said that he's not coming either. Anyone surprised?
Speaking on CNN’s ``State of the Union,’’ Utah Representative Jason
Chaffetz asserted that the United States needs to heighten its scrutiny
of immigrants as they travel.
“People that are coming here and claiming asylum, and then taking
trips back to the region, that should probably raise some red flags,” he
said.
The United States needs to heighten its scrutiny of immigrants period. It also needs to heighten its scrutiny of anyone who arrives in the US from a Muslim country instead of making 'our friends the Saudis' trusted travelers.
Representative Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat from Illinois and member of
the House Intelligence Committee, said the FBI had information that
both Tamerlan and his mother were becoming radicalized. The Associated
Press reported Saturday that the Russians had intercepted communications
included discussion of jihad.
``The FBI thought it had more to do with internal Russian politics,
and not a threat to the United States of America,’’ Schakowsky said.
'Internal Russian politics'? Really? Why would she have told them to go to 'Palestine'? If they had moved to the US, why would 'internal Russian politics' matter anymore?
Report: Even Obama knows that 'Abbas' doesn't want peace
A senior Israeli diplomatic official has told Israel Hayom that even President Obama recognizes that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen has no interest in peace.
Since Obama visited Israel in
March, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to find a way
to renew peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Kerry's
efforts have led nowhere because neither side believes talks would
continue after an opening summit.
At this point, the peace process is stalled
because of Palestinian demands for a complete settlement freeze. In
public statements that he made in Jerusalem and Ramallah, Obama rejected
preconditions for the renewal of peace talks. Yet the Palestinians
continue to insist on a number of preconditions, including, among
others, the release of more than 100 terrorists imprisoned in Israel for
attacks they committed before the signing of the Oslo Accords in the
early 1990s.
Abbas is also demanding that Netanyahu present
a map of the final borders of a Palestinian state. The Prime Minister's
Office strongly rejects this demand, saying borders should be the last
core issue discussed. Israeli officials believe Abbas is demanding a
border map to spark internal controversy in Israel over settlements that
would not remain inside the country.
The senior diplomatic official said that the
relationship between Netanyahu and Obama was "very good." The official
said Obama "opened a new page and during his recent trip to Israel
proved that he came as a friend."
Some Israeli officials point to the upcoming
2014 U.S. Congressional elections as a reason for Obama's embrace of
Israel. According to this line of thought, Obama wants to soften
Congress so that it will not thwart his plans.
But the more dominant assessment among Israeli
officials is that the Obama administration changed its tune toward
Israel due to the consequences of the Arab Spring.
2014 is a much more likely explanation than the Arab spring. The Arab spring was in 2011 and Obama kept pressuring Israel for as long as he thought he could get away with it without ruining his reelection chances. Obama is hoping to regain a House majority, and that won't happen if he has to answer everywhere for pressuring Israel.
But the senior Israeli diplomatic official has Abu Mazen right.
The official said he believed that Abbas' policy was to "stay in place."
"Abbas saw that after the disengagement
[Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005], despite the relative
strength he had there with 35,000 fighters against the 4,000 of Hamas,
Hamas expelled him," the official said. "In light of the events taking
place in Arab countries in the Middle East, he does not want the same
thing to happen in Judea and Samaria."
Abu Mazen is about keeping himself alive and staying in power. Always has been and always will be.
Boston Marathon terrorists' mother told her sons to go to 'Palestine'
In an earlier post, I reported that Russian authorities had listened into a call between Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and her terrorist son Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tamerlan, along with his brother Dzhohkar, carried out the Boston Marathon terror attack. Britain's Commentator is reporting that during the call, Zubeidat urged her Islamist terrorist sons to go to 'Palestine.'
In a conversation tapped by Russian authorities, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva
suggested that her sons go to Palestine during a discussion about jihad.
The Russian security service intercepted the 2011 phone conversation as
part of a wider monitoring programme, the fruits of which have now been
turned over to US officials.
...
During their conversation about 'Palestine', Tamerlan is said to have
refused his mother's suggestions on the basis that he didn't speak the
language.
You don't have to speak the language to blow yourself up. Thank God he didn't come here. I hope (and trust) that our intelligence agencies know a heck of a lot more about the Chechens than the current administration in Washington.
I have not seen this reported anywhere else in Israel yet, but UPI is reporting from Maariv (one of our Hebrew papers) that Israeli jets buzzed the Damascus palace of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, and then went on to bomb a chemical weapons facility outside Damascus.
The Free Syrian Army says Israeli air force jets flew over President
Bashar Assad's palace and bombed a chemical weapons site near Damascus,
Maariv reported.
The report said the Israeli jets entered Syria's airspace close to 6
a.m Saturday and flew over Assad's palace in Damascus and other security
facilities before striking a chemical weapons compound near the city.
The Hebrew language daily said a Syrian army air defense battery
positioned in the city fired at the Israeli jets that left Syria's
airspace unscathed. FSA rebels posted a video showing smoke rising up
from the headquarters for chemical weapons. There were no reports of the
extent of damage or casualties.
Neither Damascus or Jerusalem responded to the report.
In January, the IAF allegedly attacked a convoy moving Syrian weapons of mass destruction to Hezbullah in Lebanon. In 2006, the IAF buzzed Assad's summer palace on its way to Lebanon.
The Perry Committee appointed by the government to regulate and
establish legislation of IDF draft for Yeshiva students was surprised to
discover that PM Netanyahu and DM Ya'alon have reneged on their initial
acceptance of the Yesh Atid demand to exempt only 1,800 prodigal
scholars and draft the rest. Now, they demand that no exemption limit
for talented students be set, and many more must be allowed to apply for
such qualification.
Could Netanyahu be worried about preserving future coalition possibilities for the Likud with the Haredim? Could he be afraid that his current coalition is already likely to come apart?
A mysterious Muslim man named 'Misha,' who is alleged to have had a significant influence on Boston Marathon terrorist (and alleged mastermind) Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has disappeared according to law enforcement officials.
Gazans fire rockets on Lag BaOmer celebration, IDF hits back
'Palestinian' terrorists fired rockets on a children's Lag BaOmer celebration in Sderot on Saturday night, and the IDF responded overnight, hitting two targets, one of which was a weapons storage facility.
Israel Air Force craft struck two sites in the southern part of the Strip, the Israel Defense Force Spokesman said in a statement.
The two sites were a weapon storage facility and a "terror facility," the IDF spokesman's statement said.
The IDF confirmed a direct hit on the target, and reported that all IAF craft returned safely.
The
IDF spokesman said in the statement that Israel will not tolerate
attempts to harm its citizens or IDF soldiers, and that it has no
intention of letting the situation return to what it was before Operation Pillar of Defense in November last year.
"The IDF takes very seriously any attempt to fire towards Israeli territory," the statement said, adding that the IDF holds Hamas responsible for rocket attacks.
On
Saturday night, the eve of Lag Ba'omer, alarms went off across Sdot
Negev and Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Councils, and a rocket launched out of
the Gaza Strip landed in an open area. No injuries were reported.
But Fayyad’s loss has severe consequences outside the internal Fatah
struggle. First, it will remove the minimal but sole aspect of non-Fatah
checks and balances on the political system.
The resignation
will also further expose Abbas and Fatah to public criticism at a time
when there is a great deal of internal turmoil -- over the budget, over
the government’s political program and over the remaining division with
Hamas. Among his other roles, Fayyad was a buffer zone, providing Abbas
and Fatah with a shield against the intensifying domestic unrest.
Moreover,
President Abbas seems to have difficulties choosing from the various
options he now has before him. The option of choosing a Fatah prime
minister is like opening a Pandora’s box of rivalries, jealousies and
fiefdoms. He could also appoint an independent personality as a prime
minister. That seems difficult, however, because he does not have a
qualified candidate, and more importantly, because a growing number of
Fatah leaders do not want to repeat the Fayyad phenomenon, believing
that it is time for Fatah to run the government directly. Likewise, a
compromise with Fayyad is not possible, as the prime minister seems
unwilling to let the status quo drag on indefinitely, without elections.
The relatively “best” option is for Abbas to implement the
signed but stalled agreement with Hamas, which stipulates forming a
government of independent (non-Fatah and non-Hamas) ministers headed by
President Abbas for six to 12 months, during which elections should take
place. That would be the most popular option. The Palestinian public
seems to strongly support ending the political and geographic division
that has sullied their cause since the fractious fighting between Hamas
and Fatah came to the fore.
The price of this option, however,
would be going against the US administration, which has just renewed
political efforts that President Abbas is keen on pursuing. (One must
say, however, that the bleak scenery in Israel after its recent
elections means that there really isn’t an opportunity to be missed
here.)
Not liking any of these three options, Abbas seems to be
resorting again to his favorite magic solution: not doing anything. In
this case, Fayyad and his government will remain de facto caretakers --
no new prime minister has been appointed -- for as long as possible, or
until it is politically feasible to appoint him again to form the next
government.
I would bet that Salam Fayyad will be Prime Minister for a long time. And I would bet that Abu Mazen has no problem with that.
But the Syrian regime is not in the business of satisfying Western
expectations, military or otherwise. And WMD wonks would do well to
marry their technical expertise to the totalitarian mindset of Bashar
al-Assad, who has reportedly told a delegation of March 8 supporters
that he believes the United States will simply back the “winner” in any
zero-sum conflict in Syria. It doesn’t matter how he wins, in other
words; U.S. policy is too “pragmatic” for Obama to wage an intervention
to oust him even if he uses WMD. Obama appears to concur.
...
When
asked why Stalin ordered even his old friend Marshal Yegorev shot
during the purges, the Russo-Hungarian historian Tibor Szamuely, who
grew up in the Soviet Union, responded: “Why not?” Much of the
difficulty in wrongly anticipating Assad’s behavior and concocting
policy prescriptions (“peaceful transitions,” “comprehensive
investigation”) that only enable the continuance or worsening of that
behavior is rooted in asking the wrong questions about Syria. During the
days of the Cold War, this malady was known as “mirror-imaging,” the
West’s reading of an inscrutable foreign despotism’s designs through the
prism of its own epistemology. Yet as Orwell, ever more an
authoritative guide than any National Security Council, observed:
“Anyone able to use his eyes knows that the average of human behaviour
differs enormously from country to country. Things that could happen in
one country could not happen in another.”
Many refused to believe that in the 21st-century another
Ba’athist tyrant in the Middle East – this one partly educated in
London and married to glamorous wife – would dare to gas citizens of his
own state. Despite mounting evidence to suggest he has already done
that several times, many of our policymakers and analysts are still in
disbelief and willing to find reasons to corroborate their skepticism.
If Assad had wanted to better communicate his true objectives to the
United States, he’d have said from the start that no option is, or ever
has ever been, off the table.
The IDF has announced that it will no longer use white phosphorus as a smokescreen for military operations. The IDF came under sharp criticism for its use of white phosphorus during Operation Cast Lead during 2008-09, even though its use as a smokescreen is completely legal and it is so used by armies around the world.
Smokescreen artillery shells containing white
phosphorus "are to be removed from active duty soon" and replaced by
Israeli-developed alternatives "based completely on gas" around a year
from now, the IDF said, without giving details.
During the Gaza
fighting, Israel said troops fired mortar rounds with white phosphorus
warheads to clear brush around trenches used by Palestinian gunmen.
At
the time, Human Rights Watch said Israel appeared to be using white
phosphorus to hide military operations, as permitted in principle under
international humanitarian law.
"However, white phosphorus has a
significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people
and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity
on fire," the New York-based organization said.
"The potential
for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza's high population density,
among the highest in the world," it added, calling on the IDF to stop
using the munitions.
By the way, Gaza is not the most densely populated area in the world. In fact, it's not even close.
The 'human rights watch' complaint would never have been made against - or taken seriously by - any other country.
Breaking: Russians say they secretly recorded conversation between Boston terrorist and his mother
Russian authorities secretly recorded a 2011 conversation between one of the Boston Marathon terror suspects and his mother.
U.S. officials say
Russian authorities secretly recorded a conversation in 2011 in which
one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his
mother.
Officials say a second call was
recorded between the suspects' mother and a man under FBI investigation
living in southern Russia.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing case.
They say the Russians shared this intelligence with the U.S. in the past few days.
Note what's unsaid here. It doesn't say that the family under discussion is the Tsarnaev's, but I'd bet that it was. And it doesn't say which son. People will assume that it was Tamerlan, the oldest son who was killed in a shootout with police. But was it?
Oh and by the way, the boys' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has decided not to travel to the United States. I wonder why....
The CIA added Boston Marathon terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother Zubeidat to the terror watch list in 2011.
Previously U.S. officials have said
only that the FBI investigated Tamerlan. But in March 2011, the Russians
asked the FBI to look into Tsarnaev and his mother because of concerns
they were religious militants who planned to travel back to Russia, the
official said.
The FBI found nothing to link either
person to terrorism, and the FBI closed the investigations in June 2011.
Then, the Russians in the fall sent the same warning to the CIA. The
CIA asked the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center to add the mother’s
and son’s names to its huge, classified database of people known to be
terrorists and those who are suspected of having terror ties, called the
Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE.
Being in that database does not mean
the U.S. government has evidence that links someone to terrorism. About a
year ago, there were some 745,000 names in the database. Intelligence
analysts add names and partial names to TIDE when terror-related
intelligence is shared with them.
Tsarnaeva said it would not surprise her if she was listed in a U.S. terror database.
“It’s all lies and hypocrisy,” she
told the AP from Dagestan. “I’m sick and tired of all this nonsense that
they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular
person, and I’ve never been mixed up in any criminal intentions,
especially any linked to terrorism.”
Note the politically correct third paragraph. Political correctness is behind the failure to take proper precautions in the Tsarnaev case. This is from Breitbart.com's Big Peace.
Of particular concern is that around the same time the FBI was informed
about Tsarnaev, the Obama administration’s policies handling terrorism
relating in any way to Islamic extremists changed.
PJ Media’s Patrick Poole noted in May, 2012 that the FBI training manual's counter-terrorism lexicon made no mention of terrorism in regards to al Qaeda, Hamas, jihad, Islam, or the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The fact is religion has been expunged from counterterrorism training,”
said counterterrorism specialist with the Foundation for Defense of
Democracies Sebastian Gorka to the Washington Times. He added, “The FBI can’t talk about Islam and they can’t talk about jihad.”
In October of 2011, an organization called “Muslim Advocates,” a group
composed of fifty-seven Muslim advocacy groups from across the country,
signed and sent a letter to high level Obama administration officials.
They urged the administration to enact a widespread purge within law
enforcement departments and agencies of any materials that could be
deemed biased or discriminatory against Muslims.
The letter was sent to then-Counterterrorism and Deputy National
Security Advisor (now CIA Director) John Brennan, as well as Attorney
General Eric Holder, then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, Secretary
of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, FBI Director Robert Mueller,
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, and Deputy National Security
Advisor Denis McDonough.
The Boston Marathon terror attack and the news that members of the Tsarnaev family were marked as potential terrorists ought to raise a huge red warning flag for the United States. Either the US must kill its political correctness or the political correctness will kill it.
Deja vu all over again: Israel asked not to respond
Where have I heard this one before? The Obama administration is asking Israel not to respond to the Hezbullah drone that it shot down on Thursday, so as not to 'distract attention' from the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, to which the Obama administration is not responding anyway.
According to the report, the Americans have also reasoned that the
drone has caused no damage, and that before any response is exacted,
those responsible for the drone must be found.
"The Israeli
military command doesn't treat drones launched from Lebanon lightly,
since their goal may be not only taking pictures, but also an
assassination of senior officials, military or political," the paper
quoted the official as saying.
Hezbollah denied sending the drone
on Thursday. “Hezbollah denies that it has sent any surveillance plane
towards the occupied Palestinian land,” a statement by the
Iranian-backed Shi’ite group said.
Asked whether Hezbollah was behind the incident, an IDF spokesman said an investigation was under way.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's helicopter, which was carrying the
prime minister to a visit to a Druse village in the Western Galilee, was
grounded as a precaution.
The incursion marked the second such violation of Israeli airspace in six months.
The Obama administration's response to any attack by Muslims is not to respond. Eventually, that lack of response is likely to God forbid exact a serious price. Israel cannot allow itself to be a part of that price.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Friday, April 26.
Next in Syria
Why hasn't the United States acted more strongly against Bashar Assad?
Read: nyti.ms/12Ke82b on Assad's effort to sell his line to the US. Then this on why WH has already bought it: mme.cm/887R00
— Tony Badran (@AcrossTheBay) April 25, 2013
As Islamists increasingly fill the ranks of Syrian rebels, President
Bashar al-Assad is waging an energized campaign to persuade the United
States that it is on the wrong side of the civil war. Some government
supporters and officials believe they are already coaxing — or at least
frightening — the West into holding back stronger support for the
opposition.
Confident they can sell their message, government officials have eased
their reluctance to allow foreign reporters into Syria, paraded
prisoners they described as extremist fighters and relied unofficially
on a Syrian-American businessman to help tap into American fears of
groups like Al Qaeda.
“We are partners in fighting terrorism,” Syria’s prime minister, Wael Nader al-Halqi, said.
Partners?
The real game-changer in #Syria? Iran Told Hezbollah to Join Syrian War, Says Ex-Leader bloom.bg/17k5dWd
— Jackson Diehl (@JacksonDiehl) April 26, 2013
It would be easy to dismiss Assad as a deranged despot, and to disregard
his reported statements to a bunch of Lebanese sycophants as mere
propaganda by Beirut’s pro-regime media. However, another way to look at
it is to consider how Assad himself has been reading the US posture
toward him for the last two years. From Assad’s vantage point, he has
successfully steered US policy, as the White House has been echoing the
main points he has put forward concerning the situation in Syria.
To be sure, the most obvious confirmation for Assad that the US is not
“going all the way” is President Obama’s clear abandonment of the 'red
line' he drew on the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime. Even
as three US allies – France, Britain, and Israel – have all concluded
that Assad’s forces have used chemical weapons, the White House is
refusing to back their conclusions. As The New York Times noted, such a
step “could force Mr. Obama’s hand.” In order to avoid this, President
Obama’s aides have 'amended' his 'red line.' For Assad, this is as good a
proof of US 'pragmatism' as any. What’s more, as he has strived to
shape the narrative of the war in Syria, Assad has found in the
administration’s public posture what he clearly considers a receptive
ear.
How red does the chemical weapons red line in Syria have to be? nblo.gs/KDPSN
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) April 25, 2013
It is too late to change the past, but what options now exist?
In Dithering While Damascus Burns, Senator Bob Corker advocates:
First, the United States must act to affect the balance of power on the
ground, shifting momentum away from radical Islamist groups toward more
moderate elements that we hope can lead Syria after Mr. Assad’s fall.
Unfortunately, the moderate elements we must support are not the most
formidable or the most cohesive of the forces fighting in Syria.
We must use American resources and ingenuity to help change that —
beyond the “nonlethal assistance” we currently provide. This will
require weapons and training for rebel units vetted by the United States
as well as assistance to improve leadership skills, and cohesiveness in
both military and civilian institutions. We should not be engaged in
nation building, but we can certainly support Syrians committed to
rebuilding their country.
This administration has mastered the art of defining deviancy down –
particularly when it comes to the deviancy of rogue states and WMD (read
Iran, North Korea, Syria). But having boxed himself into a corner,
Obama is now faced with the choice of repudiating his earlier self, or
actually doing something. What should that something be? It’s been said,
said again, and said a hundred times: Arm moderates among the Syrian
rebels. Take out Syrian air power. Take out scud launchers. Create a
humanitarian corridor. These are DOABLE goals, requiring no boots on the
ground. And while sorting the moderates from the Qatar-funded
terrorists fighting Assad is getting harder and harder, surely such a
job is not beyond the grasp of the United States of America.
It is time the U.S. took over from Qatar and Saudi Arabia in organizing
the Syrian opposition into a credible political force — failure to do
that accounts for the chaos that has paralyzed the group. There are
powerful economic sanctions that the U.S. could use to cripple the Assad
regime.
The too-late proposed Western strategy is to strengthen non-Islamist
forces in Syria and to create safe zones, for minorities and to keep out
Salafists, near Syria’s borders. This looks good on paper but it won’t
work for several reasons.
First, the non-Islamist forces are too weak to hold any territory. his
might be influenced by the successful creation of such a zone for the
Kurds in northern Iraq. Yet the Iraqi Kurds were a well-armed, coherent
ethnic group that was sufficiently united and had favorable terrain.
These conditions don’t apply to Syria, or at least only for Syrian Kurds
and Druze, not for the Sunni Muslim majority or Christian minority. The
setting up of safe zones on, say, the Jordanian and Israeli borders
will simply be an attractive target for Salafists who will mobilize
popular support by branding the “moderates” as the traitorous tools of
infidels and attacking them. Non-Islamist forces are also at this point
unreliable and some of those groups touted as “moderates” seem to be
closer to the Brotherhood.
And then we will once again be told that the Islamists and lots of
Muslims only hates the West because it invades their countries and
intervenes against them. Incidentally, don’t be surprised when after the
revolution the victorious Islamists will claim that the West was behind
the old dictatorship–a lie–and that not giving the rebels even more
weapons was a Western stab in the back that further merits hatred.
Given these realities, then, the task of Western policy will be based on
the understanding that they will not be able to shape events in Syria.
It could have been different if a proper policy had been followed
earlier.
The best that can be done now would be to help Christians either to
survive or flee; to assist Druze and Kurds protect themselves by
strengthening the former’s militia and the latter’s autonomy; and even,
as a purely humanitarian strategy if Assad has fallen, to help Alawite
civilians not guilty of war crimes to escape. Otherwise, thousands of
people could be massacred.
Pletka clearly understands the need to avoid supporting Islamists. When
Corker refers to "radical Islamist groups" does he mean to suggest that
non-radical Islamist groups would be acceptable?
Does the apparent use of chemical weapons change anything?
The more troubling part abt "red line" debate is that chemical weapons are a red line but the slaughter of 70,000 Syrians isn't.
— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) April 25, 2013
In August, President Obama warned Mr. Assad that chemical weapons would
be a “game changer” and hinted they could prompt a direct American
response. Such action might be justified, but only if there is
incontrovertible proof of the use of chemical weapons and only if other
countries join in the response — should it come to that. The United
States badly damaged its credibility when it went to war in Iraq because
of a nuclear weapons program that didn’t exist. That unfortunate
history cannot be repeated.
The sole motivation for the New York Times is not to repeat a specific
mistake. That is the result of reacting, not thinking. The editorial
rejects charges against Syria because there's "no physical evidence." Of
course publicly available evidence may be less than what intelligence
agencies have. I'm not necessarily advocating changing the approach to
Syria because of its possible chemical weapon use. It seems that the New
York Times is adopting the least aggressive policy towards Syria. Is it
isolationism? Or is the paper just trying to be in agreement with the
feckless Obama administration?
Beck tells O'Reilly he's been warned 'not to do anything illegal'
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
Bill O'Reilly interviewed Glenn Beck on Thursday night regarding Beck's investigation into the Boston Marathon terror attack. Beck told O'Reilly he's been warned 'not to do anything illegal.' According to Beck, the result is a coverup of the Saudi connection to the Boston Marathon terror bombing.
A fantastic piece from Turkey's Daily Hurriyet by Burak Bekdil gets to the heart of the matter of violence in Islam (Hat Tip: Herb G).
The intellectual warrior of Islamism will tell you Islam is not
terrorism. He is right. But he will refrain from telling you what
Islamism is. He will tell you that only a fraction of the world’s Muslim
population, 10 percent, would sympathize with the terrorist attacks on
Western societies. Then you will have to calculate that that means 120
million or so Muslims sympathizing with terrorism. You will then have to
ponder how many of those 120 million potential terrorists would
actually take up arms and bombs and kill you or your beloved ones.
And
when I say “you” I don’t mean non-Muslims only; the target group is
much wider. It may include anyone any Islamist may deem an “infidel,”
including Muslims. In fact, Islamist violence in modern political
history has killed more Muslims than any adherents of any other faith or
no faith combined. It still kills more Muslims than Christians or Jews
or atheists.
But the horror story about Islamism is not about
killing or other means of violence only. And this is where the shy
Islamist propagandists are making a historic mistake; rather than
wearing a million different masks in the ballrooms of the West to defend
Islam(ism) and shyly telling their secret enemies
“oh-but-this-is-not-Islam,” or
“ah-uh-we-condemn-terror-but-not-all-Muslims-are-terrorists,” they
should fight the physical and intellectual terrorists to defend the
honor of their religion.
Of course, not all Muslims are
terrorists. But the willing chorus of Muslim apologists should devote
their time, energy and resources to fight the heart of the matter rather
than to minimize the PR effects of what the heart of the matter causes.
And the heart of the matter is not necessarily terror.
I would
expect the apologists to intellectually fight, for instance, the Grand
Mufti of Saudi Arabia who insists that girls are fit for marriage by the
age of 10-12, or the Saudi court which declines to nullify a marriage
between a six-year-old girl and a 58-year-old man. They should
intellectually fight the same Mufti for saying that all churches in the
Arabian Peninsula must be destroyed. The courts which sentenced the
Turkish pianist who tweeted and retweeted atheist contents. The Muslims
who burn and destroy anything that comes handy because they feel
offended by someone or something they think had offended their faith.
They
should intellectually fight the Islamist tyranny that jails, tortures
and intimidates, by all means possible, any Muslim who is not “Muslim
enough.” They should challenge the religion minister of the world’s most
populous Muslim country who proposes making mini skirts a “porn crime,”
or that country’s parliament speaker who says rape happens because
women don’t dress decently. They should challenge Hamas’s charter which
calls for the annihilation of all adherents of a faith. They should
stand up, unapologetically, and challenge why Jerusalem should be a holy
Muslim city while there is not a single mention of it in the Quran and
Muslims residing in lands between Mecca and Jerusalem pray facing Mecca
with their backs to Jerusalem.
Read it all. You have to wonder how Bekdil is able to keep writing in Turkey and whether the Turkish government is paying any attention to him (probably not).
One of the two men who has been arrested in connection with a plot to blow up a Canadian passenger train is the son of a 'Palestinian' who was granted asylum in Canada (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News via Scaramouche). (Note - the link to the original article in the Toronto Sun does not work).
Mohamed Jaser [the alleged terrorist's dad], who was born in Jaffa City,
in Palestine, on Feb. 1, 1947, stated in his refugee claim in Canada
that his "family was forced to leave their homeland" and moved to the
Gaza Strip when Israel was established in '48.
"Being non-Jewish residents of Palestine, we were not subject to the Law
of Return (favouring Jewish settlement in Palestine) and had to leave
during the time of Jewish migration into the area," Jaser wrote.
"The Israeli army seized our land," and the state "established a policy
of 'religious cleansing,' which promoted and forced the transfer of
non-Jewish citizens and residents from the state of Israel," wrote
Jaser, who lived in Gaza until '66.
What a load of crap. There are still Arabs living in Jaffa today. In fact, it's just about all Arab.
The article then goes on to say that the family moved to the United Arab Emirates where they lived until they were kicked out in January 1991 because the 'Palestinian' leadership backed Saddam in the Gulf War. Then they moved to Canada as refugees. I guess this is how they are showing their appreciation. That doesn't bode well for others who might want to move to Canada in the future.
CNN has admitted that a 4-year old who was killed during Operation Pillar of Defense was killed by Hamas and not by Israel. It's a few seconds before the end of this video.
Let's go to the videotape. More after the video.
The picture that man held up as being among the 10 people killed in his house was... you guessed it... a Hamas militant. There was a reason that house was targeted. But then Hamas always uses its women and children as human shields. That's what they're there for. If Hamas lied about the kid at the end, what makes you think they're telling the truth anyplace else in the video?
And as to 'human rights watch,' I would suggest you go here and here. Their bias was proven a long time ago.
Syrian opposition forces have called on the US to back up top
officials' assertions that the use of chemical weapons by Syrian
President Bashar Assad would represent the crossing of a red line,
Israel Radio reported on Friday.
US Republican Sen. John McCain
voiced a general sentiment from US officials when he said, "the
president of the United States said that if Bashar Assad used chemical
weapons, it would be a game changer, that it would cross a red line."
Rebel forces are hopeful that America will support the president's
statements and has urged the international community to act to prove
that the White House's assurance are not empty words.
On Thursday morning, the White House admitted in a letter to Senators Carl Levin (D-Mi) and John McCain (R-Az) that the sarin was discovered. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel admitted as much as well.
"This
morning the White House delivered a letter to several members of
Congress on the topic of chemical weapons use in Syria. The letter ...
states that the US intelligence community assesses with some degree of
varying confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a
small scale in Syria," Hagel told reporters traveling with him. He said
it was sarin gas.
Note that Hagel said 'small scale.' That is part of the opening the
White House seems to be using to minimize the significance of the
discovery.
However, the White House stated that US Intelligence assessments on chemical weapons are not enough.
"Given
the stakes involved, and what we have learned from our own recent
experiences, intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient - only
credible and corroborated facts that provide us with some degree of
certainty will guide our decision-making," Miguel Rodriguez, White House
director of the office of legislative affairs, said in a letter to
lawmakers. The White House added that the US is prepared for all
contingencies on Syria to respond to any confirmed use of chemical
weapons.
If I were the Syrian opposition, I would not hold my breath waiting for Obama to save me. It would take a real massacre for Obama to even consider that. No, 70,000 dead isn't enough, unless they all happen at once, in which case the pressure on Obama might be strong enough to make him act. In the meantime, he's busy golfing.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
