Israeli residents in communities near #Gaza recording sounds of underground drilling with heavy machinery with their smartphones.
— Daniel Nisman (@DannyNis) January 30, 2016
Based on a Friday night news report....Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Gaza, Hamas, Iran, terror tunnels
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:54 AM
0 comments
In blaming Israeli policy for the fact that on many U.S. campuses, the classmates of Jewish students “shun them for identifying with Israel at all,” perhaps American Jewish leaders are overlooking the failures at home, particularly among liberal progressive diaspora Jewish leaders. Many Jewish students are stuck entirely in an American bubble, with no understanding of the centrality of Jewish self-determination (i.e., Zionism) to our survival as a people. So how can they even begin to understand Israel, let alone give us advice?
For two decades, too many American Jews have ignored or downplayed the gratuitous post-colonial Israel-bashing from the supposedly liberal bastions such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and which are echoed in the mainstream media. When Israeli soldiers are repeatedly and falsely accused of being child murderers and war criminals, where is the outrage from the mainstream American Jewish establishment? A couple of years ago, the federations finally established a fund to fight boycotts, but this group is also largely invisible and very timid.
Instead, fringe Israeli voices that polarize and demonize our society under the façade of human rights, democracy and peace are given legitimacy and resources in America, and the Jewish leadership is silent or in some cases complicit. Much of the BDS war — and make no mistake, the goal is the elimination of Israel — involves bogus peace NGOs that received their initial funds and public relations boost via U.S.-based Jewish groups who thought they knew better than the Israeli public. Such groups include the Coalition of Women for Peace, the Israel Committee Against House Demolitions, Breaking the Silence, Jewish Voice for Peace, and many others.
And now, when the Israeli public finally demands an effective response to the NGOs that lead to this demonization, the American Jewish leadership condemns Israel, repeating liberal pieties about free speech, but without addressing the real issues. In all of the criticisms of the proposed new NGO funding transparency laws, I have yet to see any serious understanding of the threat or alternative strategies. On this, as on so many issues, criticizing Israel from a distance is far too easy.
When crying out for an Israeli peace plan, “any plan,” your interlocutor makes it seem so simple. Like most Israelis, I also hope for a peace plan, but not any plan, and certainly not one that will bring us yet another disaster when it fails. The reality that I see not far from the windows in my Jerusalem home includes Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Assad, Iran and others. Our only “peace partners,” led by Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah group, are corrupt and stuck in the rejectionist dead-end of 1948. So no, “any plan” that helps Israel’s PR among liberal students, but makes our security situation even worse, is not better than the status quo.
On this and many other issues, I understand why American Jewish leaders want us in Israel to take risks, and probably think that this is for our own good. But we do not see many American Jewish leaders taking many risks in terms of criticizing President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry when they put all of the blame and responsibility on Israel, and patronizingly give the Palestinians a free pass. And where are your tough decisions to exclude BDS groups and Israel bashers from the big “Jewish tent?”
So it is not only “that Israel’s leadership is moving in a direction at odds with the next generation of Americans,” but that America’s liberal Jewish leadership is moving in a direction at odds with Israel and our realities.Indeed.
Labels: American Jewish leadership, American Jewish support for Israel, American Jews, Breaking the Silence, Coalition of Women for Peace, Gerald Steinberg, Jewish Voice for Peace, liberal Jews
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:42 AM
2 comments
The United States and Britain have monitored secret sorties and communications by Israel's air force in a hacking operation dating back to 1998, according to documents attributed to leaks by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, published on Friday in at least two media outlets and which might further strains ties with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians.
Israel's best-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said the U.S. National Security Agency, which specialises in electronic surveillance, and its British counterpart GCHQ spied on Israeli air force missions against Gaza, Syria and Iran.
The spy operation, codenamed "Anarchist", was run out of a Cyprus base and targeted other Middle East states too, Yedioth said.
Online publication The Intercept, which lists Snowden confidant Glenn Greenwald among its associates, ran a similar report, with what it said were hacked pictures of armed Israeli drones taken from cameras aboard the aircraft.
Yedioth said German news-magazine Der Spiegel, whose publication day is Saturday, also planned to run an article based on Snowden's leak.
...
[Energy Minister Yuval] Steinitz said Israel was "not surprised" by the hacking described in the latest Snowden leak.
"We know that the Americans spy on the whole world, and also on us, also on their friends," he said. "But still, it is disappointing, inter alia because, going back decades already, we have not spied nor collected intelligence nor hacked encryptions in the United States."Hey Yuval - are you sure they're our friends? After all, they've been telling us for 30 years that friends don't spy on friends.
Labels: double standards, hypocrisy, spying, Yuval Steinitz
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:34 AM
1 comments
Obama speaks at the #Israel Embassy amid a thaw in relations between U.S. and Israel https://t.co/Vg8oqRhAT2 (@Kevinliptakcnn in @CNN)
— William Daroff (@Daroff) January 28, 2016
The Jan. 23 directive states that it is “not acceptable” to label goods coming from Israeli companies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as having been produced in “Israel.”
The order comes amid an effort by the European Union to label Israeli-made goods, a move the Israeli government called anti-Israel and that prominent anti-Semitism watchdog groups have condemned as among the worst incidents of anti-Semitism in 2015.
This is a shift from the administration’s previous position. A State Department spokesman told reporters in November that such labeling could be perceived as “a step on the way to a boycott” and said boycotts would be opposed by the administration.
But earlier this month, senior Obama administration officials defended the EU’s move and reaffirmed its position against “Israeli settlement activity.”
The new guidance references a decades-old administrative directive that sought to promote the import of Palestinian goods produced in the West Bank. The Obama administration is facing criticism for reinterpreting it and enforcing it to punish Israeli businesses.
The new memo, issued by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, is meant to “provide guidance to the trade community regarding the country of origin marking requirements for goods that are manufactured in the West Bank.”
Good produced in these areas are not to be labeled “with the words ‘Israel,’” according to the memo, which warns that inappropriate labeling will subject the products to “enforcement action” by Customs and Border Protection.
“Goods produced in the West Bank or Gaza Strip shall be marked as originating from ‘West Bank,’ ‘Gaza,’ ‘Gaza Strip,’ ‘West Bank/Gaza,’ ‘West Bank/Gaza Strip,’ ‘West Bank and Gaza,’ or ‘West Bank and Gaza Strip,’” according to the directive.
“It is not acceptable to mark the aforementioned goods with the words ‘Israel,’’ ‘Made in Israel,’ ‘Occupied Territories-Israel,’ or any variation thereof,” it states.
Goods that are erroneously marked as products of Israel will be subject to an enforcement action carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” the memo states. “Goods entering the United States must conform to the U.S. marking statute and regulations promulgated thereunder.”The Obama administration has reacted by claiming that nothing has changed.
A State Department official who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday said that the department is aware of the new memo but does not view it as a shift in longstanding policy.
“We are aware that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection re-issued guidance on their marking requirements,” the official said. “There has been no change in policy or in our approach to enforcement of marking requirements.”
The latest guidance stands as a “restatement of previous requirements,” the official added. “CBP has made clear that it in no way supersedes prior rulings or regulations, nor does it impose additional requirements with respect to merchandise imported from the West Bank, Gaza Strip, or Israel.”
“Longstanding U.S. guidelines, dating to 1995, on country of origin product marking requires that products produced in the West Bank be marked as products of the West Bank, and products of Israel be marked as products of Israel,” the official explained.Except that for 20 years, no one bothered to label products that way and no one noticed.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, BDS, Obama's obsession with Israel, pro-Israel, settlement product boycott
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:00 AM
5 comments
Labels: Ben Gurion Airport, personal stuff, travel
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:35 AM
0 comments
Ezra Nawi, an Israeli Jewish plumber, has a long history as a left-wing activist helping Palestinians in their struggle against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Now he is under arrest in Israel, after a right-wing activist surreptitiously filmed him bragging about exposing Arab brokers who tried to sell Palestinian land to Jewish settlers. Such sales are a capital crime under Palestinian law.
Considered variously as a big-mouthed provocateur and a colorful human-rights adventurer, Mr. Nawi has become the latest symbol in the battle between advocacy groups on opposite sides of Israel’s political spectrum, and the increasingly fierce debate here over the nature of Israeli society and democracy.
The debate has heated up as Israel’s conservative government is pushing forward contentious legislation that would require nongovernmental organizations to disclose funding they receive from foreign governments in their publications, advertising and meetings with public officials. The proposed bill, which supporters say is meant to increase transparency, would apply mainly to leftist groups critical of Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians, since rightist groups mostly receive private funding from abroad, and it has already drawn harsh criticism from the Obama administration and European diplomats.
It is an odd case. Mr. Nawi, described in a 2009 New York Times profile as “the Robin Hood of the South Hebron Hills,” helping Palestinians who love him and “thwarting settlers and soldiers who view him with contempt,” is now accused of endangering the lives of Palestinians. That is because selling land to Israeli Jews is punishable by death according to the Palestinian Authority. Although the authority is not known to have carried out any executions for any offense in more than a decade, there have been reports of torture in its prisons.
The Ad Kan video, from about a year ago, shows Mr. Nawi behind the wheel of his jeep, bragging about what appeared to be a dubious sideline to his activist work in the West Bank. He told the man sitting next to him, whom he believed to be a fellow sympathizer, that he sometimes posed as a land broker and engaged with other land dealers mediating sales of Palestinian-owned land to Jewish settlers, then handed over their details to the Palestinian Authority security services.
Asked what the Authority did with such people, Mr. Nawi said it “catches them and kills them.”
Odd? Not to anyone who knows the history of Israel's prosecutorial regime burying charges against the Left. Only by gathering evidence so convincing that even the Left-leaning Uvda had to run with it or lose all credibility could Nawi's disgusting behavior be exposed.Days later, he was arrested at the airport as he was about to leave the country.
Labels: anti-Israel media bias, Arab land sales to Jews, B'Tselem, Ezra Nawi, human rights, human rights activists, human rights NGO's, Israeli Knesset, New York Times, NGO funding, Ta'ayush, traitor
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:41 AM
0 comments
In May, the data arrived. The prominent lawyer Theodore V. Wells Jr., who was hired to investigate Deflategate for the league, delivered a devastating indictment of the Patriots. The Wells report concluded that “it was more probable than not” that two members of the Patriots’ locker room staff had “participated in a deliberate effort to release air from Patriots game balls,” and that “it was more probable than not” that Brady was “at least generally aware” of the impropriety.
Although the evidence was circumstantial — based on ambiguous text messages; Brady’s discarding of a cellphone; and a trip to the bathroom by one of the staff members, who took the balls in with him — it was also buttressed by a lengthy scientific report prepared by Exponent, a consulting firm with dubious bona fides, having disputed the dangers of secondhand smoke and asbestos. Exponent was a hired gun, and its conclusions backed Wells’s narrative.
Brady liked his footballs at the lowest p.s.i. in the range — 12.5. The consultants concluded that the drop in the p.s.i. of the Patriots’ footballs — the average was 11.3 p.s.i. — could not be fully explained by the Ideal Gas Law; it was too steep. But the smaller drop in the p.s.i. of the Colts’ footballs could indeed be explained by the laws of physics.
Numbers in hand, Leonard went to work. He bought the same gauges the N.F.L. used to measure p.s.i. levels. He bought N.F.L.-quality footballs. He replicated the temperatures of the locker room, and the colder field. And so on. When he was done, he concluded that Exponent had made a series of basic errors. Leonard’s work showed the exact opposite of Exponent’s conclusions: The drop in the Patriots’ footballs’ p.s.i was consistent with the Ideal Gas Law; the smaller drop in pressure in the Colts’ balls was not. (Leonard surmises that because the Colts’ balls were tested after the Patriots’ balls, they had warmed up again.)
By early November, he had a PowerPoint presentation with more than 140 slides. By the end of the month, he had given two lectures about Deflategate, the second of which he had videotaped and posted on YouTube. A viewer who watched the lengthy lecture edited it down to a crisp 15 minutes; Leonard agreed to let him post the edited version.
The edited lecture went up on YouTube on Dec. 1 and has been viewed more than 17,000 times. It is utterly convincing. Leonard told me that if an M.I.T. undergraduate made the kinds of mistakes that Exponent made, “I would force them to repeat the experiment and correct the analysis.” Based on his study of the data, Leonard now says: “I am convinced that no deflation occurred and that the Patriots are innocent. It never happened.”
Fair headline? I think so. Now compare it with this headline and the accompanying article's content.He is hardly the only scientist to take that position. As Dan Wetzel pointed out in a recent Yahoo Sports column, scientists at Carnegie Mellon, the University of Chicago, Boston College, Rockefeller University, the University of Illinois and Bowdoin College — and others — have all come to the same conclusion.
A 13-year-old Palestinian girl was fatally shot by an Israeli security guard at the entrance to a West Bank settlement on Saturday after she ran at him with a knife, according to the Israeli police.
The girl was identified by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa as Ruqayya Eid Abu Eid, a resident of the Palestinian village of Anata. The village is about a mile from the settlement of Anatot, where the episode occurred.
According to the Israeli police, Ms. Abu Eid quarreled with her family on Saturday morning and then left her home with a knife “intending to die.” She arrived at the settlement about 8 a.m., the police said in a statement, and ran toward the civilian guard at the entrance, who opened fire. Grainy security camera footage from the scene appeared to show a girl with a knife in her hand chasing a guard.
The girl’s father, who was looking for her, arrived at the settlement soon after she had been shot. The police detained him for questioning.Sure glad I read the article for the context. I wonder how many other people didn't/
Labels: anti-Israel media bias, Israel's football team, New England Patriots, Palestinian education to hatred, Palestinian terrorism, Robert Kraft, Tom Brady
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:11 PM
2 comments
Advocates of the Palestinian cause are always telling us that ordinary Palestinians are just like ordinary folks everywhere. They say Palestinian moms and dads have the same concerns as moms and dads in America, Israel, and anyplace else.
Then-president Bill Clinton epitomized this attitude when he met with Israeli parents of terror victims on Dec. 15, 1998, and then traveled to Gaza to meet with Palestinian parents of imprisoned terrorists. The president told reporters: “If I had met them in reverse order, I would not have known which ones were Israeli and which Palestinian.”
Even back then, the president should have been able to tell the difference. The Israeli parents were the ones mourning the deaths of their innocent children. The Palestinian parents were the ones cheering on their children for murdering the Israeli children.
The problem is not just individual Palestinian parents endorsing their children’s terrorism. The problem is that the official Palestinian leadership actively encourages such attitudes. Consider how the PA’s Minister of Women’s Affairs, Haifa Al-Agha, recently explained the “uniqueness” of Palestinian women: “The Palestinian women’s uniqueness differentiates her from the women of the world, as [only] she receives the news of her son’s Martyrdom with cries of joy.”
Her statement appeared in the official daily newspaper of the “moderate” PA, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, on Nov. 7, 2015. Such declarations appear in the official PA news media every day. They send a very specific message to the Palestinian public; and it’s clear that the message has been received, loud and clear.
Keep that in mind the next time someone tells you that the key to peace in the Middle East is a 'Palestinian state.'As much as we wish that the Palestinians were moderate, reasonable people who hate violence and terrorism and would live in peace with Israel if they were just given a state of their own, they keep demonstrating, through their words and deeds, exactly the opposite.
Labels: Palestinian education to hatred, Palestinian terrorism, Palestinian terrorists
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:00 PM
5 comments
أوباما الذي يعود لأصول شيعية انتخب لتقريب وجهات النظر بين إيران وأمريكا لإيقاف برنامج إيران النووي العسكري.نجحت الخطة .
— ضاحي خلفان تميم (@Dhahi_Khalfan) January 19, 2016
This week, as the Obama administration announced that it was lifting sanctions on Iran as a result of a U.S.-led nuclear deal with Tehran reached in July, Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, the head of general security for the emirate of Dubai, suggested that Obama's "Shiite roots" had helped him get elected in a bid to bring the United States and Iran closer.
"Mission accomplished," he added.
In follow-up tweets, Tamim suggested that Israel was actually behind the election of Obama and that the U.S. president would probably visit a number of Shiite religious sites in Iran soon.
It's worth noting that Tamim isn't an obscure figure. He is a former police chief of Dubai. His Twitter account has more than 1.2 million followers, and his tweets about Obama were retweeted hundreds of times. And neither is this the first time that this rumor has found voice.No, I don't believe Obama is a Muslim. But I do believe that he's an Islamophile with a disproportionate love for and trust of Islam.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Inspector Tamim, Islam, Shiites v. Sunnis
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:27 PM
1 comments
Labels: ADL, Arab land sales to Jews, B'Tselem, Ezra Nawi, human rights, human rights activists, human rights NGO's, Israeli Knesset, Jewish Voice for Peace, NGO funding, Ta'ayush, traitor
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:32 PM
0 comments
אבו מאזן, אמש, בבית לחם: מתנגדים להרג או שפיכות דמים של כל אדם בלי קשר למינו/מוצאו/דתו. ההתנגדות שלנו תמשיך להיות בדרכי שלום, לא נעודד זולתה
— Gal Berger גל ברגר (@galberger) January 19, 2016
Translation:Abu Mazen last night in Beit Lechem: We oppose murder or bloodshed of any person without connection to his sex/origin/religion. Our opposition will continue to be peaceful and we will not encourage otherwise.Today, a 15-year old was arrested in connection with the murder of Daphna Meir HY"D (May God Avenge her blood), a mother of six children who was murdered in her own home in front of her children on Sunday. How does a 15-year old become incited to murder?
Labels: Abu Mazen, murder, Palestinian children, Palestinian education to hatred, Palestinian incitement, Palestinian media, Palestinian Media Watch
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:15 PM
2 comments
Labels: arms sales, assassination attempt, Dubai, Hamas, Inspector Tamim, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:32 PM
1 comments
SIM cards missing after U.S. sailors captured, released: https://t.co/PKyE7J4BvF @barbarastarrcnn reports on #TheLead @jimsciutto
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) January 18, 2016
#ThanksObamaLabels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian hostage crisis, Iranian nuclear threat, kidnapping
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:09 AM
1 comments
Within a year to two years, large funds made available by sanctions relief will be directed by Iran towards trying to harm Israel, he added.Eisenkot also expects unconventional threats against Israel to decline in the next 3-5 years - something we can only hope and pray will be true - and notes with concern that ISIS has more support in Judea, Samaria and Gaza than anyplace else in the Arab world.
Iran's "advanced military industry" will develop further, and its transfer of funds to Hezbollah, which has so far stood at around a billion dollar a year, will increase.
"The assessment is that as the economic situation improves in Iran, more assets will be diverted [to building up capabilities against Israel]," he added.
Similarly, Hamas, which currently receives tens of millions of dollars from Iran, is set to receive more, while Tehran continues to try and traffic weapons to Gaza.
...
Hezbollah remains the "IDF's number one enemy," he said, challenging Israel's aerial and intelligence superiority though its conversion of 240 Shi'ite towns and villages in southern Lebanon into rocket assault bases.
Each such town and village has their own defensive Hezbollah units, rocket launchers, and command and control center. "They are the capability Hezbollah has built for the day they receive the order to attack. They are seeking to make their projectiles more accurate, and have grown in the past decade from 10,000 to 100,000 rockets and missiles," Eisenkot said.
Nevertheless, the chief of staff said, "Hezbollah understands the implications of an escalation in Lebanon," and has kept the peace in Lebanon for over a decade. "Our intelligence and operational abilities have improved dramatically compared to 2006, when we were focused on the Palestinian arena," he said.
"There is a deep understanding [among Hezbollah chiefs] of Israel's intelligence penetration into the organization. They perceive the IDF as a very strong, unpredictable military.
"In the coming three to five years, the threat posed by sub-state actors like Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida, and ISIS will grow, as will the threat posed by rockets, offensive tunnels, and terror and guerrilla cells. The cyber threat will also grow. However, threats by conventional armies will shrink, and there are no enemy air forces, navies, or divisions that currently threaten Israel," he added.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iran Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Iran sanctions regime, Iranian nuclear threat, ISIS
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:26 AM
0 comments
Labels: Islamic terrorism, United States
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:33 PM
2 comments
The woman has since been identified as 39-year-old Dafna Meir, a mother to six children, two of them foster children. She waas initially critically wounded in the attack and succumbed to her wounds shortly after.
The Arab terrorist who carried out the attack succeeded in breaking into the town, entering the woman's home and murdering her before fleeing the scene.
The woman, who works as a nurse, fought with the terrorist at the entrance to her home as her children were nearby, according to testimony. The children did not see the attack but heard her shouts and came running, and then called up security forces to hunt the murderer.
Security forces are currently pursuing the terrorist, aided by a helicopter, and residents of the town were asked to stay in their homes during the manhunt. The IDF has clarified that the terrorist is no longer in the town.
Witnesses of the attack have said the terrorist worked in the town and used his familiarity with the community to carry out the attack.Some people have made the connection between Israel's Left and the encouragement of 'Palestinian' terrorism.
Former Interior Minister Eli Yishai, chair of the Yachad party which narrowly failed to enter the Knesset, responded to the murder by blaming the radical leftist groups B'Tselem and Breaking the Silence.
"I am shocked by the murderous attack in Otniel. The cruelty of the murderers knows no bounds," said Yishai. "Again we come across the face of uninhibited evil. An awful murder of a Jewish woman hy''d in her private home, with her only 'sin' being that she was an Israeli Jew."
"The struggle against incitement needs to be escalated. The Palestinian incitement at the side of the Israeli (incitement) managed by leftist organizations B'Tselem and Breaking the Silence is responsible for another despicable murder. God will avenge her blood."For the Hebrew proficient, here's an Israel Radio interview interview with one of Daphna Meir's nursing colleagues (she was a neurosurgical nurse who also gave pre-nuptial classes to women after being in a boarding school herself by 5th grade) who traveled with her often from Otniel to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva.
Pregnant woman wounded in W. Bank stabbing is late Rabbi Menachem Froman's daughter-in-law https://t.co/lklF4sxgKV pic.twitter.com/7pyLha7CJq
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) January 18, 2016
In this case, the victim had approached the terrorist thinking he was lost, and offered him directions.
Eyewitness; the woman approached #Palestinian terrorist because he seemed lost,asked if she can help, he stabbed her https://t.co/N0URn8q8pM
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) January 18, 2016
Please pray for Michal Bat Esther.
Labels: coexistence, Eli Yishai, Otniel, Palestinian terrorism, Tekoa
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:47 PM
1 comments
— Reuven Rivlin (@PresidentRuvi) January 15, 2016
Shabbat Shalom everyone. Labels: European anti-Semitism, France, French anti-Semitism, Ruby Rivlin
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:22 PM
1 comments
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, humor, United Nations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:09 AM
1 comments
Iran detained two small Navy craft and was holding 10 American crew members Tuesday in the Persian Gulf, U.S. officials said, an incident that seized the attention of Congress just hours before President Barack Obama planned to deliver his final State of the Union address.
Defense officials scrambled to determine what happened, saying they were looking into whether a mechanical issue caused the incident. Officials also said one or both of the small boats may have veered into Iranian territorial waters near Iran’s Farsi Island. The U.S. Navy had lost contact with the two boats, U.S. officials said.
A senior administration official said the U.S. has received assurances that the two small boats and their crew were to be released “promptly.” The Iranians held 10 U.S. sailors, who were on board the two craft on a trip to Bahrain from Kuwait, officials said.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called his Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif, on Tuesday to try and arrange the release of two U.S. boats, according to a second senior administration official. The second official said the U.S. expected the American personnel to be released soon.What could go wrong?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iranian hostage crisis, Jimmy Carter, John Kerry, Mohammad Javad Zarif, Persian Gulf
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:12 AM
1 comments
The president of the Marseille Israelite Consistory, Zvi Ammar, said that it was an "exceptional decision"."Life is more sacred than anything else. We are now forced to hide a little bit," he told the AFP, adding that the move made him "sick to the stomach".
The warning comes just one day after a teacher in his thirties was attacked by a teen wielding a machete.The teacher escaped with only minor injuries. His attacker, aged 15, was caught soon after fleeing and arrested.
Also today, a Jewish communal leader in Paris was found stabbed to death in his apartment.The teen later claimed to have been acting in the name of Daesh, the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.“He said several times he was acting in the name of Isis, because Muslims in France were dishonouring Islam and French soldiers were protecting Jews,” said Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin.
A Jewish councilman was found dead in his apartment on Tuesday morning, prompting French media speculation of a racially motivated killing.And last week marked the anniversary of the attack on the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris, which was the icing on the cake of a week in which mass murder was committed in the name of Islam at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Alain Ghozland of the Parisian suburb of Créteil was found by his brother, who checked in on the city councillor after he failed to show in synagogue the previous evening.
While a police source who spoke with Metro News admitted that it was “too early to know the cause of death,” Ghozland was reportedly found with stab wounds and bruising. His apartment appeared to have been ransacked and his car was missing from its spot outside.
The victim, whose father helped found the local Jewish cultural association, was active in Jewish affairs and his death has shaken his coreligionists, according to the French newspaper.
He was described by the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF), the umbrella organization representing French Jewry, as “a prominent leader of the local Jewish Community.”
“People are upset. They do not know what to think and ask a lot of questions,” one relative was quoted as saying.
Labels: Charlie Hebdo, French anti-Semitism, Islamic terrorism, Marseille, Paris, Paris terror attacks
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:47 AM
1 comments
The "rape game" Taharrush is about a large group of Arab men surrounding their victim, usually a Western woman or a woman wearing Western-style clothing, and then the women are subjected to sexual abuse.I have a mercifully short video of it to show you (safe for work, but parental discretion advised - I did not turn on this video with my kids in the room).
They surround the victim in circles. The men in the inner circle are the ones who physically abuse the woman, the next circle are the spectators, while the mission of the third circle is to distract and divert attention to what's going on.
If there is enough men, the woman is dragged along by the mob, while the men take turns ripping her clothes off, grope her, and inserting fingers in her various body orifices.
Labels: Arab backwardness, Arab celebrations, Cairo, Germany, Islamic treatment of women, Lara Logan, religion of rape, Tahrir Square
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:13 PM
2 comments
Labels: economy, world economy
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:09 PM
0 comments
The White House on Monday said President Barack Obama would not meet with close ally King Abdullah of Jordan -- who is currently in Washington -- because of scheduling problems.
"The president regrets that he is unable to meet with him personally on this visit due to scheduling conflicts, including the State of the Union address," a White House spokesperson said.
On Tuesday, Obama will deliver his final annual address to a joint session of Congress, a set piece of the U.S. political calendar.
The White House and Jordanian officials said Abdullah would instead meet with Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
He met with Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday.
Kerry and Abdullah discussed the fight against the Islamic State and "efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations," a diplomat said.
Abdullah also met with Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who expressed his "deep appreciation... for Jordan's continued contributions to regional counter-ISIL efforts," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.
He was referring to the self-proclaimed Islamic State group, which has seized large chunks of territory in Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate ruled in accordance with Islamic law, or sharia.
Obama "looks forward to the opportunity to meet with His Majesty in the near future," the White House official said.
On Twitter, The Israel Project's Omri Ceren has assured me that the White House knows exactly what's going on in 'Southern Syria' (i.e. Jordan).Obama and Abdullah last met in Washington almost a year ago.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Caliphate, Iran, ISIS, Islamic State, Jordanian King Abdullah, Lee Smith, Mudar Zahran, New Middle East, Omri Ceren, Syria
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:58 PM
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President Obama has said that the United States shouldn't take part in a sectarian war. White House officials have let on that it's wisest for the United States to stand aside while extremists from both sects kill each other off. But the administration has effectively sided across the region with Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah and Iranian-backed Shiite militias in Iraq, and even the Revolutionary Guard Corps itself, providing air cover for the operations of Quds Force chief Qassem Suleimani in Iraq. John Kerry has finally admitted that the administration has no interest in toppling dictator Bashar al-Assad, Iran's ally in Damascus. As Obama has explained, the White House acknowledges Iranian interests in Syria — which happen to include shipping missiles to Hezbollah to point at Israel.
With the Nimr affair, the Obama administration again showed its preference for Iran. After the Saudi embassy and consulate were torched, the first statement the State Department released made no mention of the attacks but questioned the wisdom of executing Nimr. Officials were eager to put distance between the United States and the Saudis, claiming the administration had tried to dissuade Riyadh but to no avail.
Why was the White House effectively backing Iran's position, a self-arrogated "right" to have a say in the fate of a citizen of another country? After all, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tells Kerry that the fate of Iranian-American Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian is none of America's business since he's an Iranian national.
"Shortly after they started getting questions about the incident, the administration began furiously briefing reporters against the Saudis," says Omri Ceren, an analyst with the Israel Project. "It's difficult to think of any other country, with the obvious exception of Israel, that's ever received that kind of treatment from the White House's communications team." Large parts of the American press and foreign policy community took their cue from the White House and went on the offensive against Saudi Arabia. The fundamental theme was that Americans share many values with Iran, but not with the Saudis. This, though neither Riyadh nor Washington are in the habit of directing their citizens to attack embassies.
Saudi Arabia is an often trying U.S. ally, unfree, a violator of human rights, with private citizens who back terrorism. But for the last decade, Saudi Arabia has been a partner in the war on terror. Most of the 46 others executed with Nimr were Sunni Islamists, including al Qaeda members. "Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef has an impeccable record in fighting Islamists," says Hussain Abdul-Hussain, Washington bureau chief of the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai. "Now Saudi has its Islamists on the run and sees Iran as the main threat they have to deal with."
Abdul-Hussain says that this new policy focus is also partly due to the difference between the former king, Abdullah, and the current ruler, Salman. "Abdullah didn't want to get involved in regional politics. But with Salman, the White House has asked the Saudis to do so many things and carry the ball on their own — whether it's Syria, Yemen, or to stand up to Iran. But now the administration is saying they don't like it that way. If you're Saudi, it seems that no matter what you do, the Americans won't like it."
What's especially peculiar about the White House's attitude, says Abdul-Hussain, is that the Saudis are a status quo power that, in its foreign policy, essentially plays by Western rules. "They believe in the nation-state. For instance, they gave the Lebanese Army billions of dollars to buy weapons from France in order to buttress a national institution. The Iranians are a militia state that supports militias around the region. In Iran, the supreme leader is more powerful than the president, the IRGC is stronger than the army."
Exporting the Islamic Revolution means replicating that system elsewhere. In Lebanon, Hezbollah is stronger than the army. Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, makes foreign policy, not the Lebanese prime minister. "Iran is doing the same in Iraq," says Abdul-Hussain, "where they back the popular militias, which are stronger than the central government in Baghdad."
It's hardly a surprise that the regime in Tehran continues to violate international laws and norms, laying siege to diplomatic missions and testing ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The revolution has always aimed to overthrow the existing order of the region and the rest of the world. What's striking is not just that the White House has turned on so many American regional partners, from Israel to Saudi Arabia, or that it's undone an American system that took 70 years to build, but that it so often ends up taking Iran's side.Hmmm.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran, Iranian nuclear threat, Obama's obsession with engaging Iran, our friends the Saudis, Saudi King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:11 AM
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly is planning payback for President Obama’s dismissing Mr. Netanyahu’s objections to the Iran nuclear deal last year. Mr. Netanyahu is said to be rallying moderate Arabs to thwart Mr. Obama’s bid to become the Secretary-General of the United Nations after he leaves the White House next year.
Mr. Obama has already discussed the issue with Republican, Democratic and Jewish officials in the United States, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida.
Mr. Netanyahu recently is said to have gotten wind of Obama’s plans which he calls the Obama Project. “Wasn’t eight years of having Obama in office enough?” Mr. Netanyahu is quoted in the Kuwaiti daily as telling associates. “Eight years during which he ignored Israel? And now he wants to be in a position that is liable to cause us hardships in the international arena.”Actually, the problem isn't that he ignored us - the problem is that he is obsessed with us.
“Obama is the worst president Israel has had to deal with and the worst president for the Middle East and its allies, the moderate Arab states,” the paper quotes a Netanyahu aide.
Another source close to the Prime Minister said “his presidency was characterized by [Washington’s] moving closer to the Muslim Brotherhood, toppling the regime of Hosni Mubarak, and attempts to ally itself with political Islam.”
“Obama’s term is ending with him forging an alliance with Iran, coming to an agreement with it on its nuclear program which in the end will result in a similar scenario that took place with North Korea. Israel will not allow this to happen … It will take all of the necessary steps to prevent Iran from manufacturing a nuclear weapon either covertly or overtly.”And you were wondering how Netanyahu really feels about Obama?
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's term expires in early 2017, making Obama’s bid for the position a possibility. Last year after his speech at West Point, some pointed out that he sounded an awful lot like he was campaigning for the role.Hmmm.
Labels: Ban Ki-Moon, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Iranian nuclear threat, moderates, Muslim Brotherhood, United Nations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:00 PM
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Labels: B'Tselem, humor, Israeli Knesset, Likud party
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:08 PM
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Thousands of dollars and shekels were collected to rebuild the house of the terrorist Muhand El Halvi, from Kfar Surda,...
Posted by Alan Silver on Sunday, January 10, 2016
Labels: home demolitions, IDF, Palestinian terrorists
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:20 PM
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ROI’s petition claimed that the new information sharing process is not only beyond government officials’ discretionary authority absent Knesset legislation, but also in violation of the Basic Laws which create certain property and privacy rights defending against an automatic transfer of personal data absent a reasonable chance to object (currently there is no chance to object.)I can only wish them luck.
In courts in many countries, including now Israel, the argument is, that the FATCA law and how foreign countries are implementing, means it functions as a dragnet of massive amounts of private information which could be misused and where there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
Zell explained that “we are not saying the Israeli tax authorities are prohibited from transferring information to the IRS or other foreign tax authority…where there is a reasonable basis to suspect tax evasion.”
He said that Israel can already do this under existing conventions and that the problem is to “collect and transfer such data to foreign governments without a showing of cause and without allowing the affected taxpayers an opportunity to be heard before the information is transferred.”
The equal treatment issue is that only dual US citizens are being treated this way by the Israeli government, and not persons who are dual-citizens of any other countries, let alone most Israelis who are solely Israeli citizens.
The application is most “absurd” said Zell with cases of persons who merely have an American greed card.
But so far other litigation against FATCA and its consequences have had mixed results, with lawsuits in the US and Canada being initially dismissed and currently pending appeal.
...
“If the Court addresses the merits of the case, I believe our chances are quite good… The action of the Bank of Israel is highly problematic, given that there was absolutely no statutory basis for its action…. The Government Decision…directly infringe[s] upon fundamental rights and no attempt was made to mitigate the damage,” stated Zell.
He also said treating American-Israelis differently is “clearly discriminatory…There is no easy answer to that... the Government simply disregarded the privacy interests of the affected class, signed what is effectively an adhesion [coercive] contract and paid no attention whatsoever to the fact that the US Government…does not provide adequate protection for private information,” confirmed he said by the European Court of Justice and Israel’s Justice Ministry.
As Zell said, “taxpayers have a fundamental right of privacy protected by Basic Law and statutory law. The Government sought to nullify these rights with the wave of a hand and the Knesset thus far has said no. We hope the High Court of Justice will agree.”
Labels: Bank of Israel, FATCA, High Court of Justice, Internal Revenue Service, Israeli Knesset, Republicans
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:39 PM
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Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, John Kirby, Matt Lee, North Korea, nuclear weapons, realists' fantasy
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:37 AM
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Settlement activity is “illegitimate and counterproductive to the cause of peace. Continued settlement activity and expansion raises honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions and will only make achieving a two-state solution that much more difficult,” Kirby told reporters in Washington on Friday.I'm sure the starving Syrians in Madaya and the molested German women in Cologne found Obama's priorities heartwarming.
He spoke days after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon agreed to expand the Gush Etzion bloc to include a 4-hectare site with eight stone buildings that is located off of Route 60 between the Gush Etzion junction and the Kiryat Arba settlement.
Settlers want to operate a tourist center on the property geared to helping visitors take advantage of Jewish tourist sites in the area, including the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
The property was owned by the US Presbyterian Church until 2008 where it ran a tuberculosis hospital and then a hostel on the site. Inclusion of the site within the Gush Etzion boundaries would make it easier for settlers to further develop the property.
When queried about the compound by a reporter at the daily briefing, Kirby said the US was “deeply concerned” about the move, “which effectively creates a new settlement on 10 acres in the West Bank.”
He then spoke in general about Area C of the West Bank, which is under Israeli military and civil rule.
“It’s important to note that some 70 percent of the West Bank’s Area C has already been unilaterally designated as Israeli state land, or within the boundaries of these regional settlement councils,” Kirby explained.
“The new decision only expands this significant majority of the West Bank that has already been claimed for exclusive Israeli use. “Along with the regular retroactive legalization of unauthorized outposts and construction of infrastructure in remote settlements, actions such as this decision clearly undermine the possibility of a two-state solution,” Kirby said.
He added that “continued settlement activity and expansion raise honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions and will only make achieving a two-state solution that much more difficult.”
The US has asked both the Israelis and Palestinians to demonstrate their commitment to a two-state solution, Kirby said.
“Actions such as [the Gush Etzion] decision, we believe, does just the opposite,” he stressed.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Germany, Gush Etzion, Obama's obsession with Palestinians, Religion of Peace, religion of rape, settlement blocs, settlements are legal, Syria, Syrian uprising
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:15 PM
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She is president of the nonprofit Muslim Women of the Carolinas. Their Facebook page is here. She and is associated with several groups, including the Muslim American Society(MAS) of NC, CAIR, and the Islamic Society of Charlotte. We reported several years ago on Shoebat.com that the MAS is a front for the terrorist group Muslim Brotherhood. CAIR is an internationally recognized terrorist organization. The Islamic Society of Charlotte has ties to the infamous Holy Land Foundation Terrorist Financing case, as has been reported by the Carolina Journal Online:
One of the fund-raising groups that had connections to North Carolina was the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, which formerly was based in Richardson, Texas. The Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets named the charity a specially designated terrorist organization and shut it down in 2001.
The foundation was a front organization for Hamas and sponsored offices and fund-raisers nationwide, including in Charlotte. The foundation was one of the largest Islamic charities in the United States, raising about $13 million annually.
Six years ago, CAIR Chicago did a story about how Ms. Hamid protested the fact that movie Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against The West was being given away for free by her local paper, the Raleigh News & Observer:
But the filmmakers use the Islamic symbol of a crescent moon and star to spell out “Obsession.” And the DVD offers mostly frightening images of Muslim leaders and crowds, comparing them to Hitler and the Nazis. Its on-screen pundits include anti-Muslim figures, including Walid Shoebat, who has said that “Islam is not the religion of God – Islam is the devil.”
Also included: A grisly excerpt from an anti-Semitic TV show in which the execution of a young boy is dramatized.
Local Muslims criticized the Observer for agreeing to distribute the DVD.
“That film definitely is something that would be considered hate speech,” said Rose Hamid, president of Muslim Women of the Carolinas. “What if somebody put an (advertising) insert in saying Hitler was right? Would you carry that? … This is unacceptable.”
...Notice the tag on her upper left shoulder. It is shaped in the image of the rub’ al-hizb, which is a series of squares within squares used in Islamic calligraphy. It has two meanings. The first is that it used as a visual model for helping to recite the Quran. It is also known as the Al-Quds star, since is represents Jerusalem and specifically, the Dome of the Rock in Sunni Islam. It can be found on many Muslim flags, literary, and architectural works throughout Islamic history.
However, what makes this particular example sickening is it is (a) pinned on her shoulder and (b) it is yellow. This is likely a reference to the infamous Star or Cross patches, bands, hoods, and other insignia that Muslims forced Jewish and Christian dhimmis to wear as a sign of their second-class citizenship in Muslim lands for centuries and was later adapted for use in 20th century German for reasons we all know why:Read the whole thing. Hamas is the 'Palestinian' branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Holy Land Foundation trial was about CAIR's support of Hamas.
Labels: Donald Trump, Islamophobia, US presidential campaign 2016
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:18 PM
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Labels: Bethlehem, Fatah, Palestinian Authority, Palestinian Christians, peaceful demonstrations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:26 PM
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Palestinians deserve the freedom to make decisions about their own property. Those who consider themselves Palestinian...
Posted by StandWithUs on Sunday, January 10, 2016
Labels: Arab land sales to Jews, B'Tselem, human rights, human rights activists, human rights NGO's, Israeli Knesset, NGO funding, Ta'ayush
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:32 PM
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Both Nawi and Nawaja are among the most internationally renowned members of Israel’s radical left. Earlier this year, Nawaja published an anti-Israeli op-ed in The New York Times, accusing the Jewish state of “dispossession and oppression.” Nawi is considerably more prominent: when he was arrested, in 2007, for attacking Israeli policemen during a West Bank demonstration, more than 20,000 people—including a long list of prominent Israeli academics as well as progressive American celebrities like Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein—signed a petition demanding his release.
Responding to the piece with a statement on its Facebook page, B’Tselem said that while it opposed tortures and executions, reporting Palestinians interested in selling land to Israelis to the PA was “the only legitimate course of action.”
These revelations comes at an inopportune moment for the two NGOs, as the Israeli government is considering measures to regulate non-profit organizations receiving financial support from foreign governments. Ta’ayush, according to the Jerusalem-based group NGO-Monitor, receives some foreign donations but does not disclose its funding.
B’Tselem, on the other hand, is considered one of Israel’s leading civil rights organizations, and receives financial support from the governments of Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union and the New Israel Fund.And from prominent American Jews....
Amazingly, B'Tselem, a favored grantee of the American non-profit organization The New Israel Fund, defended the action portrayed on today’s show, claiming that “This is the only legitimate channel for a Palestinian.”
Israel’s Education Minister Naftali Bennett accused the New Israel Fund and the European Union of funding Israeli human rights activists who turn in innocent Palestinians, and later urged foreign ambassadors to Israel to stop transferring funds to these organizations. (Both, B’Tselem and Ta’ayush receive funding from France and the United Kingdom, as well as from American Jews.)
Ta’ayush has in the past partnered with Rabbis for Human Rights – of which Rabbi Gordon Tucker of Temple Israel of White Plains is a donor - to bring “hundreds of volunteers to work side-by-side with Palestinian farmers during Olive Harvest campaign.”
The pushback from the Left has been so fierce that even journalists like Maariv's Ben Caspit and Haaretz's Barak Ravid (both Leftists themselves) have criticized the Left wing organizations for not disavowing Nawi and Nawaja (links in Hebrew).
In a report on left-wing groups which operate in the West Bank, Uvda aired secretly recorded footage of Israeli activist Ezra Nawi saying that he had exposed Palestinian land brokers who sold West Bank land to Jews, and turned them over to the Palestinian Authority.The right wing and the settlers celebrated the event of course. Another outpost has fallen into their hands. They have already compared the left-wing activist Nawi to the Duma murderers, no less. The rightists and settlers, known for their deep concern about the lives of Palestinians, were shocked by Nawi’s statements. But the right is not the story. The story is how a lethal virus has penetrated what is almost the last outpost of real journalism.
How has a McCarthyist right-wing organization, whose motives are clear (and despicable) and whose sources are unknown, succeeded with such ease in enticing such respected journalists as Ilana Dayan and Omri Assenheim? How has this flagship joined the ranks of the false propaganda which masquerades as journalism?
That is how to conduct delegitimization. That is how it is done to liberal organizations in the darkest of regimes, and now here too, and on Uvda – no less.
Presenting the human rights organizations as dangerous groups, and penetrating them, is compared to penetrating ISIS. The McCarthyists are glorified, depicted as heroes of Israel who excelled in battles in Gaza. All these are well-known ploys. And against this background, all that is left is to record Nawi boasting, to catch him uttering the taboo words, to present him as a “senior” activist, to ignore the entire context — the crimes of the occupation and the expulsion form the Southern Hebron Hills, which you never heard about on Uvda. Just ignore the holy work done by left-wing activists in this battered region, spice it with a few lies such as “execution” by the Palestinian Authority, add a few generalizations, suspicions and slander – and the dish is ready.To those of you with even the slightest suspicion that Levy is onto something, I suggest that you go watch the video of Thursday night's broadcast (it's in Hebrew only, but I summarized it here). It doesn't get much more clear cut. Nawi and Najawa turned 'Palestinians' who wanted to sell land to Jews ('Palestinians' whose existence the Israeli Left denies) over to the 'Palestinian security services' for torture and murder. And they did it with a sadistic smile.
Labels: Arab land sales to Jews, B'Tselem, human rights, human rights activists, human rights NGO's, Israeli Knesset, New Israel Fund, NGO funding, Ta'ayush
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:21 PM
2 comments
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
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