I'm sure you'll all be shocked to hear that Seddique Mateen, the father of the terrorist who murdered 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando last week, has connections to several radical Islamic groups, including some who set attacking Israel as their primary goal.
The father of Orlando mass shooter Omar Mateen has longstanding connections to prominent Islamist groups in the U.S., a document discovered by the Investigative Project on Terrorism shows. Seddique Matin is listed as president of a then-new American Muslim Alliance (AMA) chapter in Fort Pierce in a July 1997 announcement archived by the IPT.
The AMA sponsored several radical conferences in the U.S. and its
leader, Agha Saeed, has spoken in defense of convicted terrorists,
including Aafia Siddiqui (a.k.a "Lady al-Qaida"), Palestinian Islamic Jihad board member Sami Al-Arian, and Pakistani intelligence lobbyist Ghulam Nabi Fai.
The Fort Pierce chapter is among 10 new AMA chapters opened, the announcement in an AMA bulletin says.
...
AMA no longer exists as a registered nonprofit and it last filed tax
returns in 2010. But the organization continues to maintain an active Facebook account. In its posts, the AMA refuses to consider any Islamist motivation for the attack and lays the blame for Omar Mateen's massacre which killed 49 people at the Pulse nightclub solely on the country's lax gun laws. [Sounds like the Obama administration. CiJ].
The organization has a history of working with radical Islamist
groups and has issued statements in support of several terrorists later
convicted in the U.S. The FBI cut off outreach communication
with CAIR, for example, after uncovering evidence placing the
organization and its leaders in a U.S.-based Hamas-support network.
In October 2000, AMA co-sponsored a rally in Washington's Lafayette Park where AMC's then-executive director Abdurahman Alamoudi announced his support for Hamas and Hizballah.
...
In 2003, Saeed testified on Al-Arian's behalf, describing the man who ran "the active arm"
of Palestinian Islamic Jihad as "my friend and during the last ten
years we have worked together to mainstream American politics. We have
worked together to replace the culture of despair with culture of hope
and the culture of bullet with the culture of ballot." AMA's website
also featured a section entitled "Valiant Civil Rights Struggle of Dr. Sami Al Arian."
A
Florida Family Association supporter happened to look up at the wall
behind the checkout line at the Sam’s Club located at 2021 Brandon
Boulevard in Brandon, Florida. He saw a large photograph of a check
made out from Sam’s Club in the amount of $2,500 payable to the Islamic
Community of Tampa located in the top left prominent position on the
wall. Florida Family Association snapped a cellphone photograph. Photographs indicated that no other non-profit organization received more than $500.
...
The Islamic Community of Tampa is also known as the Al-Qassam mosque. The Military Wing of the Palestinian Hamas is called the Al-Qassam Brigade. InvestigativeProject.org reports“The
mosque, according to Sami Al-Arian, was named after Izzedin al-Qassam.
Al-Qassam, a Syrian killed fighting the British mandate in 1935, ‘is
the main source of inspiration for the Islamic Jihad movement’
Palestinian scholar Ziad Abu Amr wrote in his book, Islamic
Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza. ‘The Islamic Jihad’s
supporters have elevated him almost to a saintly status.’”
...
Sami Al-Arian was indicted in February 2003 on 17 counts under the Patriot Act for allegedly being the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). In 2006, Al-Arian pleaded guilty
to one count of conspiring to make or receive contributions of funds,
goods or services for the benefit of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
and was sentenced to 57 months in prison.
Sami Al-Arian refused to testify before a Federal Grand Jury regarding other Jihad activities. U.S. District Judge James Moody
ruled that Al-Arian must testify. A Virginia District Court held that
Sami Al-Arian had no legal basis to refuse to testify. The court held
him in civil contempt, and imprisoned him on November 16, 2006. Sami
Al-Arian was released from prison on June 27, 2014 after the United
States Department of Justice dropped charges.
How IDF's Duvdevan unit prevented a hostage situation
There is much we still don't know about the IDF's Operation Protective Edge, but here's one story that's come out involving the elite Duvdevan (Cherry) Unit (a unit that dresses as Arabs to be able to move among the terrorists) and a potential hostage situation.
A company of the unit headed by a captain, identified only by the
initial S, had infiltrated into a 12-building compound of the Islamic
Jihad terrorist organization where it was searching for rocket-launch
sites, weapons and terror tunnels. The company quickly realized the
compound was full of active terrorists, travelling though underground
tunnels.
Suddenly through the sporadic gunfire in the background a loud
explosion was heard, and members of the unit reported that an army
bulldozer had run over a planted explosive, with terrorists firing on
the trapped driver from several directions and pinning him down.
Fearing an abduction of the driver, captain S and reserves
communications combat soldier A broke off from the tunnel-finding
mission to race towards the bulldozer, reports Walla!.
...
Climbing on the vehicle despite the incoming gunfire, S told
the Hebrew-language news source that he saw the driver was severely
wounded. At that point, S says "in parallel I get
information on an anti-tank rocket terror cell in the surroundings. We
identify the cell; it opens fire on us, and suddenly I hear a shout:
'grenade.'"
After taking cover, S notes he and A opened fire at the terrorist who
lobbed the grenade at them, while still struggling to free the trapped
and heavily wounded driver. "I was afraid he would be abducted by
the cell. It was very important to me to get him home. I didn't think
about anything else, I worked like a machine," stated the special ops
commander.
After finally getting the driver out, deputy commander Y of the
company arrived on the scene with a stretcher. Unfortunately the driver,
first Sgt. Moshe Davinu hy''d of Jerusalem, did not survive the
critical wounds inflicted on him by the explosive.
Y told Walla! of events from his perspective: "I stood in a
doorway, looked out and saw a terrorist 15 meters (50 feet) away from me
pull out a Kalashnikov. He threw a grenade and fired at S. I placed my
sights on him and fired."
Once Davinu was on the stretcher, Y relates "while they were firing
on us we ran between houses almost 200 meters (650 feet) in swampy sea
sand. We made a sprint, it was really difficult."
After their breakneck sprint through soggy sand, the Duvdevan
fighters evacuated the wounded and were taken back to Israeli territory
in an APC. However the reprieve was brief; quickly they were back in the
heart of the fighting, infiltrating a terrorist hideout and engaging in
a fierce firefight with a terror cell. When the smoke cleared eight
terrorists were dead and ten Duvdevan troops wounded.
It's come to this: Terror victims win legal battle against Government of Israel in US court
The parents of terror victim Daniel Wultz HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) and 22 other families of American victims of terror in Israel have won a legal victory against the Government of Israel in an American court.
The lawsuits are in connection to attacks in Israel,
against Americans, between 2003 and 2008 and the ruling in the context
of the Wultz case (one of a number of parallel cases, this one on behalf
of their murdered son Daniel) and made in favor of a motion to
intervene filed by NGO Shurat Hadin, who represents 22 additional
victims' families.
The bottom-line on the actual decision handed down late Friday, and
as yet unreported elsewhere, by Washington DC federal court Judge
Reggie Walton, was that he would not decide whether the case's key
witness, former Israeli government agent Uzi Shaya, would need to
testify in the case, but would leave that decision to New York federal
court Judge Shira Scheindlin.
The decision is potentially huge, as the Israeli government and the
bank had fought with all of their might to keep this issue in
Washington DC, knowing that Judge Scheindlin has essentially already
ordered Shaya to testify.
Shaya's testimony could break the case open for the Wultz's, and
for the 22 other American victims' families represented by Shurat Hadin,
seriously concerning China, and therefore, seriously concerning the
Israeli government which (despite alleged promises to help the victims)
has turned against the case.
The plaintiffs allege that Israel turned against the case in
mid-November 2013 to maintain Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's past
state visit to China and out of concern of business interests with
China, while the PMO has said that its reasons for blocking Shaya from
testifying relate to preserving classified national security information
and international cooperation in fighting terror financing.
Procedurally, Israel, the Wultz's and Shurat Hadin all filed
extensive legal briefs, with Shurat Hadin's intervenor motion being
partially granted by the court to have the issue decided by Scheindlin.
Israel had argued that certain rules about which court hears a case
mandated that Walton hear the case and that the plaintiffs had not
properly communicated with Israel about Shaya's testimony.
Walton rejected these procedural arguments saying that Israel's
arguments were based on old rules which have been amended, eliminating
Israel's procedural arguments.
The good guys win one. But it's sad that it's come to this.
Kerry consulting with umbrella group for Muslim terrorism on 'peace process'
According to the group's web site, US Secretary of State John Kerry and US National Security Adviser Susan Rice consulted regarding the 'peace process' last week with representatives of the Islamic Society of North America.
The group expressed their optimism in this process and hope that with
further commitment from the Obama administration as the lead broker, as
well as willingness from Palestinian and Israeli authorities, these
talks will bear fruit.
Dr. Elsanousi expressed appreciation to
Secretary Kerry's for his hard work on this issue and encouraged the
officials to seek a mechanism to involve faith-based groups and other
under-represented constituencies in this process to ensure grassroots
support.
ISNA is a member of the National Inter-Religious
Initiative for Peace in the Middle East and continues to work with its
interfaith partners to support peace in the Middle East. Just last month
ISNA President Imam Mohamed Magid and ISNA National Director for
Interfaith & Community Alliances, Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, sent a letter along
with 28 religious leaders to Secretary Kerry voicing “strong support
for his determined initiative for Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
ISNA
leaders also called on key members of Congress “to support Secretary
Kerry’s continuing urgent efforts for peace.” Religious leaders have
stood with ISNA in their support for resuming peace talks, noting that
“while these talks have yet to yield a blueprint for peace, they have
identified ideas for addressing key issues that must be resolved in a
manner acceptable to both sides.”
ISNA is funded by 'our friends the Saudis' and was established by the Muslim Students of North America along with 'Palestinian' Islamic Jihad founder Sami al-Arian. It controls anywhere from 50-80% of the mosques in North America.
ISNA focuses heavily on providing Wahhabi
theological indoctrination materials to a large percentage of
the mosques in North America. Many of these mosques were recently built
with Saudi money and are required, by their Saudi benefactors, to
strictly follow the dictates of Wahhabi imams -- an edict that affects
the tone and content of the sermons given in the mosques, the selection
of books and periodicals that may be read in mosque libraries or sold
in mosque bookshops, and the policies governing the exclusion or
suppression of dissenters from the congregations.
Through its affiliate, the North American Islamic Trust -- a Saudi government-backed organization created to fund Islamist enterprises in North America -- the Saudi-subsidized ISNA reportedly holds the mortgages on 50 to 80 percent of
all mosques in the U.S. and Canada. Thus the organization can freely
exercise ultimate authority over these houses of worship and their
teachings.
Writes Kaukab Siddique, the editor of New Trend,
an Islamic periodical of extremist views that is nonetheless opposed to
Wahhabi domination of American Islam: "ISNA controls most mosques in
America and thus also controls who will speak at every Friday prayer,
and which literature will be distributed there."
Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz describes ISNA as "one of the chief
conduits through which the radical Saudi form of Islam passes into the
United States." Adds Schwartz:
"Our view is that the number of mosques under Wahhabi control actually
totals at least 600 out of the official total of 1,200, while, as noted,
Shia community leaders endorse the figure of 80 percent Wahhabi
control. But we also offer a number of 4-6,000 mosques overall,
including small and diverse congregations of many kinds."
According to Sufi leader Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani’s testimony
before a State Department Open Forum on January 7, 1999, extremists
have taken over “more than 80 percent of the mosques in the United
States ... This means that the ideology of extremism has been spread to
80 percent of the Muslim population, mostly the youth and the new
generation.” Kabbani based his statement on his personal investigation
of 114 American mosques. “Ninety of them,” he said,
“were mostly exposed, and I say exposed, to extreme or radical
ideology, based on their speeches, books and board members.” This is
largely due to the efforts of ISNA.
Adds Emerson:
“I think ISNA has been an umbrella, also a promoter of groups that have
been involved in terrorism. I am not going to accuse the ISNA of being
directly involved in terrorism. I will say ISNA has sponsored
extremists, racists, people who call for Jihad against the United States.”
Just the kind of people you'd want involved in a 'peace process'....
The air strikes came as retaliation for six rockets that were fired
from Gaza into the South late Sunday night. Four rockets were fired
towards the Bnei Shimon council area and Netivot. The Iron Dome rocket
defense system intercepted two rockets fired towards the Ashkelon
Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported in the attacks.
As
a result of the rocket fire, Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon also
ordered the closing of the Kerem Shalom and Erez border crossings
between Israel and Gaza for the transport of commercial goods.
"Code Red" sirens were heard in the regional councils of Rahat, Netivot, Bnei Shimon and Lahavim.
The rockets are thought to have been fired by Islamic Jihad but no organization has taken credit for the attack yet.
The rockets have shattered a lengthy period of calm enjoyed by civilians in southern Israel.
I meant to say this when I posted about David's Sling last night. The problem with all these anti-missile systems is that they make us think that we're invincible and that therefore we don't need a given piece of territory and can give it up for 'peace.' It's just not so. First, the 100% accurate anti-missile system has yet to be invented. And second, even if the anti-missile system is 100% accurate, no one rational will take the chance of being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Your life isn't really your life when you're constantly worried about rocket alarms going off.
China pressuring Israel to drop support for Wultz family lawsuit
I'm sure many of you also recall the murder of 16-year old American Daniel Wultz
from Florida (pictured, top left) HY"D (may God avenge his blood) in a
Tel Aviv suicide bombing in April 2006, while he and his father were visiting for Passover. You may recall that a
'Palestinian' terror leader referred to Wultz as "the best target we can dream of."
In May of 2012, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia awarded Wultz's parents and siblings $332 million from Iran and Syria for providing material support to the Islamic Jihad suicide bomber who carried out the attack.
Daniel’s father Yekutiel “Tuly” Wultz, who was
seriously wounded in the attack; his mother, Sheryl; and his siblings Amanda and
Abraham brought the civil lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of
Columbia, under powerful US anti-terrorism laws that permit American civilians
to sue sovereign states who sponsor acts of terror.
Via their lawyers –
New York attorney Robert Tolchin and Tel Aviv attorney Nitsana Darshan- Leitner
– the Wultz family alleged that the Syrian and Iranian governments, both of
which the US has designated as state sponsors of terrorism, provided Islamic
Jihad with the material support and resources it needed to carry out the deadly attack.
The court learned that Daniel had been conscious immediately
after the bombing and up until his death, and had suffered extreme physical and
emotional pain both because he knew the horrific extent of his injuries and
because he was aware he would die from them.
The 16-year-old suffered
wounds including severe bleeding from multiple shrapnel wounds, a perforated
bowel and multiple infections, including gangrene.
In their fight to save
his life, surgeons at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital removed several of Daniel’s
organs, and amputated two fingers and part of his right leg, but the teenager
succumbed to his injuries and died on May 14, 2006.
His father, who was
sitting with Daniel at the time of the bombing, endured extensive physical
injuries as well as severe psychological damage. He still suffers pain and
post-traumatic stress disorder, including terrifying nightmares and daily
flashbacks of the attack.
The other members of the Wultz family,
including Daniel’s mother, suffered serious psychological and emotional damage
as a result of the bombing.
In addition to Iran and Syria, the Wultz
family’s lawsuit named as defendants the Iranian Ministry of Information and
Security, the Syrian Ministry of Defense, Syrian Military Intelligence and the
Syrian Air Force Intelligence Directorate.
Wultz's parents are now suing the Bank of China for its alleged part
in the attack, a lawsuit which hinges on the testimony of a former
Israeli intelligence official, scheduled to testify in a New York
federal court in July.
The Wall Street Journal
quoted the plaintiffs as saying the official is expected to testify
that at a 2005 meeting, Israeli officials told China that Bank of China
accounts were being used to fund terror groups including the Islamic
Jihad, but they refused to close the accounts.
The Wultzes,
however, are saying that China is pressuring Netanyahu not to allow the
former Israel intelligence official to testify, amid growing trade with
China, worth billions of dollars annually to the Israeli economy.
The
paper cited a congressional staffer who has coordinated between the
Wultzes and the Israeli government as saying the Prime Minister's Office
is now undecided about giving the former intelligence official
permission to testify, despite previous commitments to do so.
US
Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen wrote a letter to Netanyahu this week
on behalf of the Wultzes, imploring Netanyahu to allow the official to
testify, according to the Journal.
"We
are aware of mounting pressure by the BOC and other Chinese
interests…to interfere with the US proceedings and the deposition," she
wrote, adding that by allowing the official to testify, Netanyahu would "
reaffirm Israel's solemn commitment to the victims of terror to ensure
that justice be done."
How Hamas and Islamic Jihad use 'journalism' as a cover for terrorism
The IDF has documented the use of journalism as a cover for terrorism by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It's not just that the terrorists are using media buildings as hiding places. Some of them are actually journalists by day and terrorists by night.
Al-Shamalah had no connection to anything media-related. But that
isn’t the case for all Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives who try to
claim the title of “journalist”. Some of them do, in fact, carry
cameras, but they are paid by a terrorist organization, and they are
serving the goals of a terrorist organization.
For example, Mahmoud Al-Kumi and Hussam Salama [pictured] were Hamas operatives
and cameramen for Hamas’ Al-Aqsa television network, which regularly
features programming that encourages and praises attacks on Israeli civilians. The IDF targeted Al-Kumi and Salama on Nov. 20.
Faced with serious accusations of Al-Aqsa TV’s connections to terrorism, the head of the network, Mohammad Thouraya, denied that Al-Aqsa was the voice of Hamas — a hard fact to deny, since the channel is financed and controlled by Hamas — but he did admit that his employees were “all part of the resistance.”
Being “part of the resistance”, in other words, could mean that those
carrying a camera during the day could be carrying rockets at night.
Another example: Mohammed Abu Aisha was an employee of Al-Quds Radio,
which some media outlets have labeled an “educational” network. Abu
Aisha was also an Islamic Jihad terrorist, and that’s why his car was targeted in an IDF airstrike on Nov. 20. Abu Aisha appears on Islamic Jihad’s official website — in an Islamic Jihad uniform.
Maybe the IDF doesn't stress it enough. Or maybe we still have too many technological bimbos. If you're in the IDF, please do not post information about your unit on Facebook or post its documents to Google Docs.
The picture above is an SMS sent by Islamic Jihad to IDF soldiers during Operation Pillar of Defense. There were thousands of them. On Monday, it got worse.
A day after the IDF
confirmed that Islamic Jihad
sent text messages to thousands of reserve soldiers during Operation Pillar of Defense,
several Palestinian media outlets released seven documents that,
according to the terror group, include personal and confidential details
of more than 100 Israeli soldiers.
The published documents include the soldiers' full names, army
ID numbers, their roles (such as "medic" or "sniper"), cell phone
numbers and dates of birth.
Additional documents
published by Islamic Jihad's armed wing, which were translated into
Arabic, belong to a certain IDF division and include details on a
grenade launching training course and a farewell tour in honor of former
Home Front Defense Minister Matan Vilnai.
According to Islamic
Jihad, the documents were drafted in 2012. The terror group said the
documents were obtained by its intelligence division.
Roi, one of the soldiers whose details appear in the documents,
told Ynet that the details were accurate. "Maybe one of the soldiers in
my reserves unit uploaded the list onto Google Docs. You need a code to
enter, but it is easy to decipher," he said.
Hey folks - the web is not secure. Just like we have intelligence, they have intelligence. Don't be foolish.
You'd think they were winning or something. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have turned down a cease fire with Israel.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri announced Sunday that efforts to achieve a
cease-fire between his movement and Israel have failed.
His
announcement came shortly after Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal met in Cairo
with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and discussed with him ways of
ending the current round of fighting.
Later, Morsi also met with Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah and discussed with him the situation in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas
Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh phoned Morsi Sunday and discussed with
him the prospects of achieving a cease-fire, Hamas officials in the Gaza
Strip said.
The officials said that they were unaware of the presence of an Israeli official in Cairo for talks on a cease-fire.
Hamas
has set two conditions for accepting a cease-fire: lifting the blockade
on the Gaza Strip and international assurances that Israel would stop
assassinations and other military measures
....
Abu Zuhri said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were "fully coordinated" in their position regarding the confrontation with Israel.
He was referring to reports that talked about differences between the two parties over reaching a cease-fire with Israel.
According
to the reports, Islamic Jihad was strongly opposed to a cease-fire with
Israel at this stage, while some Hamas political leaders have asked the
Egyptians and Qataris to help end the fighting.
But as the
Egyptians stepped up their efforts to end the fighting, Hamas's armed
wing, Izaddin al-Kassam, vowed to continue launching rockets and
missiles at Israel to avenge the killing of Palestinians by the IDF on
Sunday.
Sources in the Gaza Strip said that Arab League
Secretary-General Nabil Elarabi was expected to visit Gaza City on
Monday to express solidarity with the Palestinians against the IDF
offensive.
Elarabi will be accomapnied by the foriegn ministers of Tunisia, Algiers, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, the sources said.
PA
President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday dispatched top Fatah official Nabil
Shaath to the Gaza Strip to receive the Arab League delegation.
However,
it was not clear whether Hamas would allow PA Foreign Minister Riad
Malki to enter the Gaza Strip together with the delegation.
Sounds like a target-rich environment to me with or without Malki. I wonder if the IDF is going to stand down and let Hamas shoot rockets at us like they did when the Egyptian Prime Minister was there.
It starts: 'Palestinian' terrorists escalate in Gaza
Apparently believing that Israel's freedom of action will be limited under a second Obama administration, 'Palestinian' terrorists have gone into full attack mode in Gaza on Saturday night.
The incident started with what I have been told (from inside sources) were two Kornet anti-tank missiles being fired at an IDF jeep patrolling along the Gaza security fence. Four IDF soldiers were injured, two of them seriously. There are rumors going around that one of them is dead, God forbid, but the IDF will never admit that one of its soldiers is dead until the family has been informed.
The attack on the jeep was followed by IDF retaliation, which killed four 'Palestinians,' and on Saturday night, we have had a barrage of rockets coming from Gaza, reaching as far north as Ashdod.
Eighteen rockets fell, according to the IDF, though Channel 10 reported a
total of 25 rockets, including eight long-range rockets, landing at
Ashkelon, Ashdod, Sderot, the Eshkol Regional Council area and the Be'er
Tuviya area. No injuries or damage were reported.
At least one of the long-range Grad rockets was intercepted near Ashdod by the Iron Dome, according to the IDF.
Earlier
on Saturday, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired an anti-tank missile
at an IDF jeep carrying out an ordinary patrol on the Israeli side of
the border, striking the vehicle directly and injuring four soldiers.
One
soldier was in serious condition with a head injury, one is moderately
wounded, and two are lightly injured. They were airlifted to the Soroka
University Medical Center in Beersheba.
Immediately afterwards,
tanks opened fire on the area from which the missile was fired. Tanks
also fired on pre-selected targets in the Sa'ajiya area of Gaza near
Nahal Oz. Palestinian sources said four people were killed in the return
fire, and 25 others were injured.
Following the incident, the IDF
asked Gaza envelope residents in the Eshkol region and in Sha'ar
Hanegev to be within 15 seconds away from shelters, Army Radio reported.
Islamic
Jihad is believed to be behind the latest attack. The IDF views the
incident as a severe escalation, and as part of a wider, stepped-up
terrorist initiative to target its forces along the border.
IDF
Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz is due to hold an evaluation in the
coming hours. "This is the second serious incident in a few days along
the border," a senior army source said.
The IDF needs to reestablish deterrence, and there is already talk here of another Cast Lead-type operation like in December 2008 - January 2009. Like that last time, it would have wall to wall support. Our government needs to show that it will not allow the Obama administration to prevent it from defending us against 'Palestinian' terrorism.
Islamic Jihad hands out candies and balloons to Gaza kids for Eid-el-Fitr
Islamic Jihad is imitating Hamas.
These photos were published in Falastin Al-Youm on August 19, and show little kids enjoying the generosity of the military wing of Islamic Jihad in Gaza. The terrorists were passing out candies and balloons in honor of the holiday of Eid al-Fitr.
Until recently, Islamic Jihad didn't do this sort of thing. But Hamas always has.
Video: Why isn't there peace between Israel and the 'Palestinians'?
Which side is largely responsible for the lack of peace between Israel and the Palestinians? Is it Israel, as some claim for its occupation of the West Bank (which others claim was won in self-defense when the surrounding Arab countries attempted to throw the Jews into the sea and commit genocide)? Or is it the Palestinians for breeding hatred, lies, and terrorism to children in kindergarten?
Watch this video to find out. You decide.
The blogger Challah Hu Akbar uncovered the photos used in this video. They were posted on a website for the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad. You can view his post here - http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/2012/06/palestinian-kindergarten-promotes....
The Children's Rights Institute is an organization that deals with the use of children as terrorists and combatants in conflicts across the globe. They did not produce this video. You can visit their website at http://www.childrensrightsinstitute.org/ to learn more.
"(Rabbis) treat Palestinian children and women as if they were snakes and bugs," Khader Habib, a leader of the Gaza group told Ynet. "They don't see them as normal people."
Habib also defended the 'graduation ceremony' on which I reported earlier in the week.
Habib dismissed the criticism of the unsavory education practices witnessed at the school.
"The Palestinian people have the right to teach its children that the Israeli enemy is stealing Palestinian land," he said.
Habib further claimed that the "enemy is trying to distort the facts by using its media outlets across the globe," and urged the Arab and Palestinian press to come out against the "enemy's criminal propaganda machine."
Orwellian.
The Foreign Ministry is looking into sending the pictures to embassies around the world for display, and an exhibit of them is already being set up in the British parliament. Not that it will likely make any difference....
It should be noted that the Al-Quds Brigades website is http://saraya.ps/index.php?act=Show&id=21479, which is hosted by CLOUDFLARE in San Francisco, CA. MEMRI was able to pinpoint the server's location to San Francisco through a variety of techniques, including determining the site's IP address.
Some of you may have noticed that posting has been a bit less consistent than usual today. One reason is that this morning I attended my second grader's party for finishing the book of Breishith (Genesis).
The 'Palestinians' of Islamic Jihad in Gaza are learning very different things than my 8-year old is learning. Here's one picture:
And here's another:
And I almost forgot to mention: These 'Palestinian' feigalehs are in Kindergarten.
The children were dressed up in uniforms of Jihad's armed-wing, the al-Quds Brigades, and each of them received a toy rifle. Some of them held up photos of Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shaqaqi.
The event was attended by the children's relatives, some of whom belong to Islamic Jihad and other armed Palestinian factions. [Other factions? Is that like the Gerrer's sending to the Vizhnitz cheder l'havdil? (With apologies to those who don't get the question - it was too good a line not to include) CiJ].
During the ceremony the children were asked to stand next to mock coffins draped with flags of the various armed factions. The flags bore the images of "shahids (martyrs)."
One child, Hamza, said "When I grow up I'll join Islamic Jihad and the al-Quds Brigades. I'll fight the Zionist enemy and fire missiles at it until I die as a shahid and join my father in heaven.
"I love the resistance and the martyrs and Palestine, and I want to blow myself up on Zionists and kill them on a bus in a suicide bombing," he said.
During the ceremony the children "demonstrated" how Israel treats Palestinian prisoners. In the display, handcuffed children depicting inmates were placed in cages, with an "Israeli guard" standing nearby.
Another child depicting an Israeli prison guard placed the head of a "Palestinian prisoner" in a bucket of water to demonstrate how Palestinian prisoners are "tortured" in Israel.
Many more pictures of (apparently the same) graduation from Challah Hu Akhbar (who actually had this story yesterday) here.
In the meantime, an op-ed in Haaretz complains about the 'militarism' in Israeli kindergartens.
It begins in kindergarten, when one day the parents are asked to prepare a package of goodies and to help to draw greetings for the soldiers of the Duvdevan elite undercover unit who have adopted the kindergarten.
Miraculously, even if it was done without awareness, the request/order came during the weeks of Passover and Holocaust Remembrance Day, of Memorial Day and Independence Day, a period full of days of majesty, which for the children ended up in a mixture of Pharoah, Hitler, fireworks and "the people who died for the country because of the Arabs who wanted to expel the Jews," as my four-year-old daughter once told me.
The militarism in Israeli society is reflected not only among the gang of Sayeret Matkal elite commando graduates that dominates the country, but also on the everyday level, ostensibly banal and unthreatening, like the adoption of kindergartens by army units, or a brief holiday visit to Israel Defense Forces bases. And if there's nothing wrong with such an early start to preparing the children for their next role, the one that will begin at the age of 18, clearly the school system has to mobilize for the purpose.
Sorry, but this isn't militarism, it's patriotism, and there is nothing wrong with a country teaching even its young to appreciate those who serve it. Even Kindergarteners. That's a lot different than teaching 5 and 6-year olds to be 'martyrs' and to kill their enemies. Too bad Haaretz and its unquestioning readers cannot tell the difference.
The family of a Weston teen killed in a 2006 suicide bombing in Israel has won a $332 million court judgment against the governments of Syria and Iran for sponsoring the terrorist group responsible for the attack.
On Monday, a federal judge in Washington ordered the judgment in a lawsuit brought by the family of Daniel Wultz, a 16-year-old who was among 11 people killed by a suicide bomber who attacked a Tel Aviv restaurant on April 17, 2006. Daniel, a student at David Posnack Hebrew Day School in Plantation, was visiting Tel Aviv with his father, Yekutiel “Tuly” Wultz, who also was injured in the blast.
“We don’t look for any revenge,” Tuly Wultz said Tuesday. “Our purpose in our fight is to fight terrorism. We don’t want any more Daniels to die.”
Investigators tied the bombing to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group based in Syria’s capital, Damascus, and which claimed responsibility for the attack. Lawyers for the Wultz family presented evidence that the group has received financing and other support from both the Iranian and Syrian governments over the years — making them liable for Daniel’s death.
The lawsuit was brought under a special provision of federal law that allows U.S. citizens to bring claims against foreign governments for terrorist acts. Some $300 million of the judgment was in punitive damages designed to punish Iran and Syria for their roles in the bombing.
There's much more about Daniel Wultz and his family here.
The poll found “a significant decline” in Hamas’s popularity in the Gaza Strip and “a decrease in the positive evaluation” of Gaza’s Hamas government. Only 27% of Gazans said they would vote Hamas if elections were held today, down from 35% three months ago, while only 36% approved of the Hamas government’s performance, down from 41%. Sounds encouraging, right?
But here’s the kicker: The poll was taken immediately after Islamic Jihad’s recent rocket assault on Israel, and the pollsters said the drop in Hamas’s support was “probably due [partly] to Hamas’ behavior, standing on the sideline, during Gaza’s rocket war with Israel.” In other words, according to a leading Palestinian pollster, the way to win the Palestinian public’s affection is by indiscriminate rocket fire on Israeli cities, and Hamas’s popularity suffered because it sat this round out. And we’re supposed to believe a Palestinian state would live in peace with Israel?
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
