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.
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.
Islam is a sick religion: When Muslims make war it's all about torturing and castrating their enemies
My friend Professor Jacobson cites a New York Times report that purports to reveal to the world that the eleven Israeli athletes and coaches who were murdered at the Munich Olympics in 1972 were tortured, and in at least one case, castrated.
In September 1992, two Israeli widows went to the home of
their lawyer. When the women arrived, the lawyer told them that he had
received some photographs during his recent trip to Munich but that he
did not think they should view them. When they insisted, he urged them
to let him call a doctor who could be present when they did.
Ilana Romano and Ankie Spitzer, whose husbands were among the Israeli
athletes held hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972
Olympics in Munich, rejected that request, too. They looked at the
pictures that for decades they had been told did not exist, and then
agreed never to discuss them publicly….
For the first time, Ms. Romano, Ms. Spitzer and other victims’ family
members are choosing to speak openly about documentation previously
unknown to the public in an effort to get their loved ones the
recognition they believe is deserved.
Among the most jarring details are these: The Israeli Olympic team members were beaten and, in at least one case, castrated.
“What they did is that they cut off his genitals through his
underwear and abused him,” Ms. Romano said of her husband, Yossef. Her
voice rose.
“Can you imagine the nine others sitting around tied up?” she
continued, speaking in Hebrew through a translator. “They watched this.”
In fact, readers of this blog might recall that Ilana Romano has revealed even more gruesome details on a previous occasion.
In
1996, I, along with other Munich orphans and three of the widows, were
invited for the first time to the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Before the
Opening Ceremony, we met with Alex Gilady. Gilady has been a member of
the IOC's Radio and Television Commission since 1984 and has been the
senior vice president of NBC Sports since 1996.
I have known Mr.
Gilady since I was a kid; in fact, I grew up with his daughter. He had
been supportive in the past regarding our plea for a moment of silence
during the Opening Ceremonies, so we arrived with high hopes. Gilady
informed us that a moment of silence was not possible because if the IOC
had a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes, they would also have
to do the same for the Palestinians who died at the Olympics in 1972.
My mother said, "But no Palestinian athletes died."
Gilady responded, "Well, there were Palestinians who died at the 1972 Olympics."
I heard one of the widows say to Gilady, "Are you equating the murder of my husband to the terrorists that killed him?"
Silence.
Then
Ilana Romano burst out with a cry that has haunted me to this day. She
screamed at Gilady, "How DARE you! You KNOW what they did to my husband!
They let him lay there for hours, dying slowly, and then finished him
off by castrating him and shoving it in his mouth, ALEX!"
This sort of behavior is unfortunately routine in the Muslim world, whether or not Jews are involved. This is from a description of the terror attack at a mall in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013:
The images of the Westgate mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya, are simply horrific.
Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the
Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered,
had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the
ceiling.
Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged.
Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed.
...
Yesterday, soldiers and doctors who were among the first people into the
mall after it was reclaimed on Tuesday, spoke of the horrifying scenes
inside.
‘You find people with hooks hanging from the roof,’ said one Kenyan doctor, who asked not to be named.
‘They removed eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a
pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood.
‘They drive knives inside a child’s body.
'Actually if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were
escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers.
Here it was pain.’
A soldier, who took pictures at a bread counter and at the ArtCaffe,
said he was so traumatised by what he saw he has had to seek
counselling.
Bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs were yesterday painstakingly
combing the part of the building still standing for explosives before
clearing forensic officers, police and troops to search for bodies.
Just last week, Palestinian Media Watch showed a terrorist from the 'moderate' Fatah terror group eating a live snake on television.
Islam is a sick religion. It teaches its adherents extreme cruelty to all who are not a part of it. The world would be a better place without it.
“We can expect almost every publication in the region to be clogged
up with ‘Islam is Peaceful’ opinion pieces in the wake of the massacre,”
said Middle East expert Bella Cockpit. “These are expected to last for
at least the next two weeks. The public cannot say it hasn’t been
warned.”
Sources suggested that every regional broadsheet will point out in
leader columns that “The Prophet (PBUH) was a man of peace”, “These
people don’t represent us” and “I have many Muslim friends and none of
them are extremists.”
“Pointing out the painfully obvious is expected to continue well into
next month,” said Gulf media analyst Prof. Tim Meyer. “After all, The
Prophet was a man of peace, and these people don’t represent the average
Muslim and I have many Muslim friends and none of them are extremists,”
he explained.
Meanwhile, several publications have warned that their stockpiles of
‘Islam Is A Religion Of Peace’ articles were running dangerously low.
“With five scheduled each day for the next week, our supplies almost
depleted. We need at least another 20 pieces pointing out that Islam is a
religion of peace and that these people don’t’ represent the average
Muslim to see us through,” said The Daily Gulf’s regional editor, Sam
Saltan. “The thing we all need to realise is that all of us here in the
Middle East have Muslim friends and none of them are extremists,” he
noted.
Oh my... Turkish columnist in al-Arabiya blasts Hamas and its Muslim supporters
Yes, this one definitely deserves a flying pig. The lady's name is Ceylan Ozbudak and I sure hope she's safe tonight. Or can I assume from the fact that the page has 1,250 views and NO comments, that everyone agrees to her even if they're ashamed to admit it (Hat Tip: Joe L).
But how realistic is it to expect ‘proportionate force’ from a nation,
which finds itself under direct attack? As a Muslim, I would like to see
Israel settling this matter at the diplomatic table rather than using
force to suppress Hamas. But to be frank, Muslims have killed far higher
numbers of fellow Muslims in the post-WWII era than the non-Muslims
ever have.
We do not want to see the IDF harming the families living in the Gaza
Strip, but Assad's forces and extremist elements in Syria have also
killed many Palestinians in the Yarmouk refugee camp and neither
situation is acceptable. Palestinians in Lebanon have gone through
various persecutions before, during and after the Lebanese Civil War and
after six decades of existence in the country, they still aren’t
granted citizenship. ISIS (now calls itself the 'Islamic State', or IS)
even ‘proudly’ documented how they loaded thousands of Shiite soldiers
onto trucks and executed them. Iraq suffered under the U.S. invasion and
for a couple of decades before that under the U.S.-led embargo, but the
conflicts between Muslims started well before any American troops put
their boots on the ground and those conflicts accelerated faster than
ever after they have left. Also, the Egyptian military coup led by
General Sisi cost thousands of Muslim lives; al-Qaeda has been
butchering those who dare to oppose them for years; Nigerian schoolgirls
were kidnapped en masse by the extremist group, Boko Haram. All of
these events combined have not created as much anger as the Israeli air
strikes.
If we are Muslims, and if the reason for our outrage is
stemming from religious togetherness, how then do we explain the silence
against the relentless tide of mass murder going on in the region? If
we are all fellow Muslims, according to which source are we supposed to
manage our lives and decide who is wrong and who is right? The right
answers to these questions are neither politics nor history; the answer
is to become true Muslims and follow the religion, which states quite
clearly that attacks during a time of peace, without a direct threat to
one’s life are unlawful.
...
If we desire our Palestinian brothers to get justice, the way to do
this is not by showing innocent people on the other side as legitimate
targets. Such attacks during a state of truce will invite reprisals
anywhere in the world. Civilians in Israel are living in fear in
shelters due to rockets being fired from Gaza. It is true that the
number of casualties is not even close between the Arab and Israeli
sides, but the idea that any war would ever inflict equal casualties on
both sides is in any event unrealistic, there is almost always a
predator and a prey.
There has been blind conflict between the
two sides for many years now. These two peoples who should be living
side by side in peace in those ancient, beautiful lands, are instead
fighting one another and engaging in a vicious circle of tit-for-tat.
Countries cannot choose their neighbors; however, they can choose the
sort of relations they will have with their neighbors. The Arab world
has been vehemently opposed to Israel for the last six decades, yet this
still doesn’t change the fact that Israel is a Middle Eastern neighbor
and as much as many would like to see Israel somehow disappear, that is
simply not going to happen.
Read the whole thing. My problem is that given the constant citing of the Hudaybiyya treaty, I have to wonder if she's correct about what Islam really says about truces.
A 29-year old Turkish man has invented a new excuse for an honor killing. He murdered his wife for... wait for it.... having a girl.
The 29-year-old from southeastern Diyarbakir province does not deny
murdering his wife by placing a live electric cable under her chin as
she slept, a day after their second baby girl was born in January, the
report said.
The Turkish Vatan newspaper published on its front page a
transcript of a telephone call the man placed to police in which he
announced his murderous intent, in real time.
“I killed someone,” the man told the police operator, according to the transcript.
“Who did you kill?” asked the officer on the other end.
“I am killing my wife right now,” said the man.
“Did you kill her or are you killing her?” the officer asked.
“Well, she isn't dead yet. But I am killing her if the murder is halal (permissible in Islam),” the man replied.
The officer then asked if the suspect had a problem with his wife.
“I am telling you that I killed my wife but you are asking what the problem was,” the man replied.
“I closed her mouth as she is in the throes of death,” he then said.
At that point the police operator snapped into action, “OK, wait. I am sending a unit”.
A defense lawyer told the court at a hearing Wednesday that his
client killed his wife because she gave birth to “a girl once again”.
The suspect, a waiter at a local restaurant in the Kurdish-majority region, also has a four-year-old daughter.
And they call it the 'religion of peace'.... Think of that when you hear them wailing Allahu Akhbar at 3:30 am tomorrow.
The images of the Westgate mall terror attack in Nairobi, Kenya, are simply horrific.
Soldiers told of the horrific torture meted out by terrorists in the Nairobi mall massacre yesterday with claims hostages were dismembered, had their eyes gouged out and were left hanging from hooks in the ceiling.
Men were said to have been castrated and had fingers removed with pliers before being blinded and hanged.
Children were found dead in the food court fridges with knives still embedded in their bodies, it was claimed.
...
Yesterday, soldiers and doctors who were among the first people into the mall after it was reclaimed on Tuesday, spoke of the horrifying scenes inside.
‘You find people with hooks hanging from the roof,’ said one Kenyan doctor, who asked not to be named.
‘They removed eyes, ears, nose. They get your hand and sharpen it like a pencil then they tell you to write your name with the blood.
‘They drive knives inside a child’s body.
'Actually if you look at all the bodies, unless those ones that were escaping, fingers are cut by pliers, the noses are ripped by pliers. Here it was pain.’
A soldier, who took pictures at a bread counter and at the ArtCaffe, said he was so traumatised by what he saw he has had to seek counselling.
Bomb disposal experts with sniffer dogs were yesterday painstakingly combing the part of the building still standing for explosives before clearing forensic officers, police and troops to search for bodies.
...
The first pictures taken inside the site show a gaping hole in the mall's roof after three storeys collapsed when Kenyan soldiers fired rocket-propelled grenades inside the complex, knocking out a support column, a government official said.
Children's buggies are left abandoned just metres from the yawning pit, as cars hang precariously over the edge. Beneath many more vehicles lie on top of each other, smashed to pieces.
The collapse happened on Monday when government troops launched a massive assault on the mall where up to 150 people are thought to have been killed.
During the firefight, hostages reportedly had their throats slashed from ear to ear and were thrown screaming from third-floor balconies as the siege came to a bloody end. Forensics teams, still sifting through the mountains of rubble, fear many more bodies are yet to be found.
Shell-shocked Kenyan troops said the inside of the Israeli-run mall resembled a ‘scene from a horror movie’ with blood spattered everywhere and dead bodies strewn across the floor.
Let's go to the videotape.
Images, video and much more here. Islam seems permanently stuck in the 8th century, and it makes wars the way they were made in the 8th century. There is no justification for this type of behavior. None at all.
Father says bombing suspect still at large a 'true angel,' uncle shocked by what happened
The Associated Press has spoken with the father of the two Boston Marathon terror suspects, and Anzor Tsarnaev said that his 19-year old son who is still alive, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is a 'true angel' (Hat Tip: MFS - The Other News).
Anzor Tsarnaev spoke with The Associated Press by telephone from the
Russian city of Makhachkala on Friday after police said one of his sons,
26-year-old Tamerlan, had been killed in a shootout and the other,
Dzhokhar, was being intensely pursued.
"My son is a true angel," the elder Tsarnaev said. "Dzhokhar is a
second-year medical student in the U.S. He is such an intelligent boy.
We expected him to come on holidays here."
I don't think he'll be coming, unless he arrives in a box.....
Here's an interview with the uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers who lives in Maryland.
Dead bombing suspect wasn't Amish and his brother isn't Buddhist
Boston Marathon terror suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed Thursday night, and his brother Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, are not Amish. They're Chechen Muslims from the area on the Russian Chechen border. Here's what we know about Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
We know he had a YouTube profile,
where he created a playlist dedicated to terrorism. The photo gallery
features his girlfriend at the time, and the caption reads:
Tamerlan says his girlfriend is half Portuguese, half Italian girlfriend and converted to Islam: "She's beautiful, man!"
Other photo captions in the gallery:
Tamerlan demonstrates a way of walking to strengthen the ankle
muscles at the Wai Kru Mixed Martial Arts center. A native of Chechnya,
Tamerlan says: "In Russia, we used to train like this. Here nobody does
it, I don't know why!"
Tamerlan says he doesn't drink or smoke anymore: "God said no
alcohol." A muslim, he says: "There are no values anymore," and worries
that "people can't control themselves."
Tamerlan says he doesn't usually take his shirt off so girls don't get bad ideas: "I'm very religious."
Tamerlan says he loves the movie "Borat," even though some of the jokes are a bit too much.
If he wins enough fights there, Tamerlan says he could be selected
for the US Olympic team and be naturalized American. Unless his native
Chechnya becomes independent, Tamerlan says he would rather compete for
the United States than for Russia.
Nothing yet about his motives....Maybe he just wanted to convert everyone to Islam....
While previous posters, which read “In any war between the civilized
man and the savage, support the civilized man,” were vandalized within
an hour when they were put up in September, Geller told the New York Observer that she’s now prepared. Geller has made twice as many posters.
“I refuse to abridge my free speech so as to appease savages,” she said.
The 41-year-old linesman reportedly beaten up by three football players of Moroccanorigin aged 15 and 16
after a football match in Almere at the weekend has died.
Richard Nieuwenhuizen was chased and attacked by the youths from Amsterdam
club Nieuw Sloten after an amateur football match between the Amsterdammers and
Almere club Buitenboys.
He became ill a couple of hours after the attack and was taken to hospital
where he was put into an artificial coma. He was declared dead on Monday
afternoon.
...
The Dutch football association is investigating the attack. It issued a
statement on Monday evening saying 'it is too insane for words that someone
enjoying a hobby is confronted with such aggression.
Insane? Yes. But so is suicide bombing.
P.S. If anyone finds this story in English language mainstream media in Europe or the US, please post a link in the comments. I doubt you will find it.
Alleged 'Innocence of Muslims' filmmaker taken for questioning
The filmmaker who allegedly made Innocence of Muslims was taken for 'questioning' in the wee hours of Saturday morning in Southern California.
[Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve] Whitmore told The Times that [Nakoula Basseley] Nakoula was taken in for a voluntary interview with probation officials and has not been arrested or detained.
Authorities waited until most media had left for the day to take Nakoula in.
Earlier Friday, sheriff’s deputies had to escort attorneys through a scrum of news cameras into Nakoula’s home. When the man was taken away early Saturday, authorities had to dodge only a lone photographer for The Times and a few lingering reporters.
Nakoula has told the Associated Press that he was a logistics manager on the "Innocence of Muslims" movie, not the director. He told a Coptic Christian bishop on Thursday that he had no role in it, the clergyman told The Times.
Nakoula is believed to use the alias Sam Bacile, which was the name a caller who took credit for the film gave to the AP and the Wall Street Journal.
On Friday, U.S. courts spokeswoman Karen Redmond said the Office of Probation in the Central District of California was reviewing whether Nakoula, who has been convicted on bank fraud charges, violated terms of his probation in relation to the video and its uploading onto the Internet.
He had been ordered not to own or use devices with access to the Internet without approval from his probation officer -– and any approved computers were to be used for work only. "Defendant shall not access a computer for any other purpose," the terms read.
Restrictions were also placed on him enlisting others to get on the Internet for him.
And you thought there was free speech in America, didn't you? (By the way, this story was headline news in Israel earlier on Saturday).
Jerusalem police clash with Muslims enroute to US consulate protest
Jerusalem police clashed with hundreds of Muslim protesters on their way from the Temple Mount to the 'east' Jerusalem American consulate on Friday.
The youths threw stones at the police officers, who responded by firing stun grenades to disperse the protest. A number of officers were lightly injured from smoke inhalation. Forces arrested four of the rioters.
Police were prepared for the possibility of riots in Jerusalem, as Border Police and other patrol units fanned out across the Old City ahead of traditional Friday prayers.
Despite an awareness of potential violence, police did not announced restricted access to the Temple Mount. Often if serious rioting is anticipated only men over age 40 are allowed to enter.
In a rare move, the US State Department on Thursday issued a travel warning for Jerusalem, urging American citizens to “defer nonessential travel and exercise caution.”
Also Thursday, around 50 activists gathered outside the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, chanting “God is Great” and waving the green flags of the Israel Islamic Movement. Attorney Zahi Nujeidat, spokesman for the group, said that the protesters came from across Israel to the embassy to “express our rage about this despicable movie that has harmed the honor of our prophet.”
Here's Michelle Malkin on Sean Hannity's show talking about the protests. She's awesome.
Obama vows to file a lawsuit against Libyan attackers
Yes, that's US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens being dragged through the streets of Benghazi on Tuesday night like a side of beef. And President Obama knows just how to deal with those Libyans: He's going to file a lawsuit.
Let's go to the videotape.
No, no, no. The solution isn't to 'work with the Libyan government to bring the attackers to justice.' It's to get up there with your drones and kill them. Otherwise it will happen in country after country. And that assumes that the Libyans will be cooperative - probably a huge assumption.
By the way, have there been any condemnations from Libya?
Who will pay the legal bills? Obama's ally Mohamed Morsy instructs his embassy to sue to keep Mohamed film from being released
Israel Radio reports (9:00 pm) that Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy has instructed his embassy in Washington to file a lawsuit to prevent the film Innocence of Muslims, which aroused the ire of the 'protesters' in Cairo and Benghazi on Tuesday night, from being released.
I wonder who he thinks is going to pay his legal bills.... Maybe Obama will....
(With video) US ambassador to Libya killed in 'protest' over film that offended Muslims
The United States ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other embassy employees were killed in a rocket attack on the United States Consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday night. The attack was part of a 'protest' by adherents of the 'religion of peace' against a film being made in the United States - apparently by an Israeli.
The U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other embassy staff were killed in a rocket attack on their car, a Libyan official said, as they were rushed from a consular building stormed by militants denouncing a U.S.-made film insulting the Prophet Mohammad.
Gunmen had attacked and burned the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, a center of last year's uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, late on Tuesday evening, killing one U.S. consular official. The building was evacuated.
The Libyan official said the ambassador, Christopher Stevens, was being driven from the consulate building to a safer location when gunmen opened fire.
"The American ambassador and three staff members were killed when gunmen fired rockets at them," the official in Benghazi told Reuters.
There was no immediate comment from the State Department in Washington. U.S. ambassadors in such volatile countries are accompanied by tight security, usually travelling in well-protected convoys. Security officials will be considering whether the two attacks were coordinated.
Let's go to the videotape (which was done before it was announced that four were dead including the ambassador).
Meanwhile, London's Daily Telegraph reports that the film maker, Israeli American Sam Bacile (contrary to what you just heard in the video above, he is apparently the film maker), has gone into hiding.
Bacile identifies himself as an Israeli Jew and said he produced, directed and wrote the two-hour film, "Innocence of Muslims”.
Speaking by phone to the Associated Press from an undisclosed location, Bacile, who went into hiding Tuesday, remained defiant, saying Islam is a “cancer” and that he intended his film to be a provocative political statement condemning the religion.
Bacile said he believed the film will help his native land by exposing Islam's flaws to the world.
"Islam is a cancer, period," he repeatedly said, claiming the film cost £3.3 million to make and was financed with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors.
He said he had worked with some 60 actors and 45 crew to make the two-hour movie in a three-month period last year in California. “The movie is a political movie. It’s not a religious movie,” he said.
It is being promoted by controversial Florida pastor Terry Jones, who has drawn protests in the past for burning the Koran and vehemently opposing the construction of a mosque near Ground Zero in New York.
Jones said he planned to show a 13-minute clip of the film Tuesday evening at his church in Gainesville, Florida.
...
A 14-minute trailer of the movie that sparked the protests, posted on the website YouTube in an original English version and another dubbed into Egyptian Arabic, depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.
The website's guidelines call for removing videos that include a threat of violence, but not those that only express opinions. YouTube's practice is not to comment on specific videos.
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
