Pilots didn't crash EgyptAir plane - there was an explosion
Greetings from... would you believe Lakewood, New Jersey?
Remember that EgyptAir plane that went down over the Mediterranean on a flight from Paris to Cairo back in May? This time, it wasn't a pilot suicide that crashed the plane. It was a more mundane form of terrorism: a bomb explosion.
Egypt's Ministry of Civil Aviation on Thursday said investigators
found traces of explosive materials on the remains of the victims aboard
EgyptAir Flight MS804.
...
Egyptian officials in July said the word "fire" was clearly audible from cockpit voice recorder
before the plane crashed into the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, killing
all 66 people aboard. The plane was traveling from Paris to Cairo.
Electronic messages sent out by the jet showed smoke detectors going
off in a toilet and in the avionics area of the plane moments before it
crashed.
The ministry said a forensic report "included a reference to find traces of explosive materials some human remains for victims of the accident."
Think about that the next time you take off from Paris. Yours truly was practically strip-searched by French 'security' while boarding a flight from Paris to the US a few months ago. I guess I fit the profile (not!).
The Palestinian-drafted resolution, which
passed 24-6 with 26 abstentions, claims that the site of the two Jewish
Temples is sacred solely to Muslims. It refers to the area only by its
Islamic names: Haram al-Sharif and Al-Aqsa Mosque (the shrine situated
on the site). This is essentially the equivalent of passing a resolution
airbrushing Muslim ties to Mecca, a move which would rightly be deemed
Islamophobic. (Incidentally, in 1925, the Islamic Waqf overseeing the
Temple Mount published
a pamphlet stating that “the identity of the site with Solomon’s Temple
is beyond dispute.” Obviously, the Waqf did not anticipate the
ingenuity of the United Nations.)
Unsurprisingly, the United States, Britain, Germany, Estonia,
Lithuania, and the Netherlands voted against the resolution. Shamefully,
the other three European countries on the UNESCO executive
board—France, Sweden, and Spain—could only bring themselves to abstain
in the face of textbook anti-Jewish bigotry. (They had each previously
voted for a previous incarnation of the same resolution, before realizing how bad it made their countries look.)
Adding to the bitter irony of UNESCO’s anti-Jewish turn is the fact
that yesterday was Yom Kippur. Predictably, the liturgy of Judaism’s
holiest day makes repeated reference to Judaism’s holiest site. One of
the most frequently cited verses in the day’s lengthy prayers is Isaiah 56:7, in which the prophet imagines an interfaith utopia on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount:
וַהֲבִיאוֹתִים אֶל־הַר קָדְשִׁי וְשִׂמַּחְתִּים בְּבֵית
תְּפִלָּתִי עוֹלֹתֵיהֶם וְזִבְחֵיהֶם לְרָצוֹן עַל־מִזְבְּחִי כִּי בֵיתִי
בֵּית־תְּפִלָּה יִקָּרֵא לְכָל־הָעַמִּים׃
I will bring them to my sacred mount and let them rejoice in my house of
prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be welcome on my
altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
The UNESCO resolution is perfectly in keeping with Isaiah’s ecumenical sentiment, as long as one adds in “except the Jews.”
To be fair, perhaps the resolution’s supporters—which included such
noted experts on Judaism as Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and Qatar—were not
familiar with this particular verse of Isaiah, nor the myriad of other references to the Temple Mount in Judaism, nor the extensive archaeological and other evidence
for the Jewish Temples that stood there. But one would think they’d be
familiar with the famous prophecy of Isaiah carved into the wall outside
the United Nations in New York.
And
the many peoples shall go and say: “Come, Let us go up to the Mount of
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may instruct us in
his ways, and that we may walk in his paths.” For instruction shall come
forth from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Thus he will judge among the nations and arbitrate for the many peoples. And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war.
Former European Parliament MP Fiamma Nirenstein believes that President Obama is planning a nasty November surprise (or maybe not such a surprise) for Israel.
But like Ariadne’s thread, a number of clues lead us to believe that,
after the November 8thvote and before the inauguration on January 20th,
Obama is planning a very strong move against Israel during a period in
which he can no longer influence the presidential election’s outcome or
damage Hillary.
In other words, facing a U.N. Security Council
resolution during the “lame duck” period, he’ll ignore the need for
negotiations between the two parties, impose borders, as well as set up
the parameters for the birth of a Palestinian State, reneging the
long-standing American veto. He would allow the resolution supported by
the French initiative for a peace conference to win.In practice, the
consequences would only be those of disrepute and, possibly, of
sanctions against Israel. In times of BDS, this discrediting,this
backing into a corner seems to drive more or less consciously America’s
policy toward Israel.
Astonishingly, the White House erased a
reference to the fact that at Peres’ funeral Obama had spoken in
“Jerusalem, in Israel” from a previously released statement on the
President’s speech. That is to say, the revered Peres would no longer be
buried in Israel, but rather, in some no man’s land. Later, using the
funeral as a bludgeon, while the world burns, the U.S. State Department
issued a violently worded statement regarding the construction of some
apartment units in Shiloh, in the West Bank (to relocate the displaced
settlers from Amona, a dismantled illegal settlement). The statement
basically says that the memory of the deceased leader had been betrayed
thus “cementing a one-state reality of perpetual occupation that is
fundamentally inconsistent with Israel’s future as a Jewish and
democratic state." Oh, really! The housing units, repeated the
government, will be built in an old settlement for refugees of another
destroyed settlement, without bringing one man more. Therefore, this
disproportionate criticism leads us to think two things: the first is
that they are creating an atmosphere for a political attack and
secondly, that Obama wants to leave his mark on the Middle East with
what he considers a boost to the peace process. But it is difficult to
think that he’s right: the real contribution that he could have given is
that of devising a new plan of territorial distribution (his
predecessors all did the same thing); to finally push the parties toward
talks; to ask Abu Mazen to renounce his support for terrorism; and to
favor Israel’s integration within the Middle East. However, he didn’t do
it.
Obama - if he insists - will be remembered as the president
whose pacifism(as has already happened in the past) has fueled conflict
throughout the Middle East and beyond. He will be perceived as the
anti-proliferation president who let the pact with Russia fall to
pieces, as the point of reference for Islamic moderation that favored
Iran and Hezbollah’s Shiite extremism, and who failed to stop Sunni
extremism while upsetting his more moderate allies. This legacy of
failures will only be worsened by sanctions upon the only pro-American
democracy in the Middle East.
I doubt anyone here would be surprised by this kind of nastiness from the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah.'
Here we go again: 60 dead over 100 injured in terror attack in Nice, France
It's Bastille Day in France, the equivalent of Independence Day in many other countries. But it's not a happy day.
Some 60 people are dead tonight and over 100 injured after a truck driver drove his truck through a crowd of revelers in Nice in Southern France this evening. The Islamic State terror group has already taken responsibility for the attack.
Let's go to the videotape.
At least 60 people have been killed and 100 more injured in the
southern French city of Nice tonight after a lorry was “deliberately
driven” into a crowd out celebrating Bastille Day in a confirmed
terrorist attack.
French officials have confirmed that they are investigating a
terrorist attack and there are unconfirmed reports that there are gunmen
on the loose in the city. . . .
Witnesses said the truck “rammed” the crowd where it was thickest at
more than 30mph, and images emerged of the cab riddled with bullets.
Police have identified the driver, who was killed during the
incident, and it is believed to have been a man who was known to
security services.
Crowds had packed out the city’s main promenade to watch a fireworks
display marking Bastille Day, a major public holiday in France, and
were beginning to head home when the lorry hit.
witness reported horrific scenes with “dead bodies everywhere”
and distressing video footage emerged of people fleeing the Promenade
des Anglais, in the southern French city, in terror.
Fox News is reporting that gunmen are believed to be holding hostages at
Nice’s Meridien Hotel.
French officials have confirmed that they are investigasting a
terrorist attack and there are unconfirmed reports that there are gunmen
on the loose in the city. French TV channel iTele tonight reported that
a gunman "holed up in a nice restaurant downtown" had been
"neutralized" by police.
The channel said it is not believed the
man had taken any hostages during the incident. The man is believed to
have been in the lorry with the driver and fled on foot to a restaurant
called Le Buffalo nearby, where he was killed by an officer with a
handgun.
Sunday marked ten years since the murder of Ilan Halimi. That's Halimi in the square with the purplish pink around it. It's from a Muslim dating site. It was eventually taken down. Halimi was brutally murdered by a gang of Muslims, all but one of whom have been let go ten years later. On Sunday, there were a number of very small ceremonies in Paris marking Halimi's murder. They were only attended by Jews.
The small crowd and its Jewish focus illustrate the wide disconnect between how the Halimi case is understood within and outside of France’s Jewish community – and what that might mean for the French Jewish future.
For France’s Jews, it remains an intimately tragic affair, marking arguably the most savage and sadistic anti-Semitic crime in France since World War II. For many citizens of French or European Christian origins, it is indeed a despicable violent crime, but not one fuelled by anti-Semitism. For me this is a form of blindness, of denial – but also a mark of the failure of France's government and Jewish community to establish violent anti-Semitism as a central concern for the whole of society.
...
Guershon N'duwa, president of the FJN, the Black-Jewish Federation of France, a constituent member of the French Jewish umbrella body CRIF, has organized the ceremony for Ilan Halimi for the past ten years, but he will not organize an eleventh. "The French government has always minimized the case of Ilan Halimi, and even now, has still not woken up to establish the link with the attacks of the past few years," says N'duwa, "and there is a definite link, a hatred of Jews.”
He continued: "But while Jewish community leaders have reached upwards, if you like, to French political parties on the right and left, they have not reached out to the non-Jewish public. So in spite of grandiose statements by politicians about fighting anti-Semitism, many French people still believe that Ilan's horrific death was a specifically Jewish affair, with few emotional links to the overall French nation, and not even necessarily a case of anti-Semitism. In reality, the intense emotional reaction by Jews here became a line that separated them from other French people, who reacted with intellectual disgust, but little more."
Both the Jewish community and the French government have been unable to engage the wider French public with the need to see, recognize and confront violent anti-Semitism and incitement against the community. This has diminished the number of French people who see anti-Semitic violence as a problem for all of France, not only its Jews and the government and security elite. For many, World War II had ended long ago, so it was easier to believe that this was a simple indecent but random tragedy committed by sociopaths.
...
The anniversary event’s low turnout was also an indication of intra-Jewish politics that have weakened the community’s resonance to speak as a united voice on this issue. In fact there were five other competing Halimi commemoration ceremonies around Paris this year, somewhat atomizing the effect of fewer and more robustly attended events. There were no Halimi family members present at Sunday’s Boulevard Voltaire gathering either, though his sisters reportedly attended one of the other ceremonies.
"This has become a very politicized affair and I am unhappy enough about that not to do it again," says N'duwa, who comes from a Protestant family in Congo-Brazzaville, Africa. He converted to Judaism years ago in France and has also lived in Israel.
...
Youssouf Fofana, who organized his kidnapping for ransom, will be in prison for years, in theory for life. Most of the others involved, including the woman used as bait, and the building superintendent who gave them the basement room and apartment in which Halimi was tortured in exchange for 1500 euros (which he never saw), have already been released.
Ten years after Halimi's murder, I still wonder why Jews remain in France. Neither they nor their non-Jewish neighbors understand what's going on in their country.
To be sure major French companies, like Total,
are quite active in Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara, with the apparent
approval of the French government. But it turns out that Orange itself directly
and openly operates in occupied territory. Orange provides cell phone
service in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area of Azerbaijan that has been
occupied by Armenia since seizing it in a bloody 1992-94 war. The U.N.,
along with the E.U. and U.S., considers the area occupied territory.
Nonetheless, Armenian settlers have moved into the occupied territory in in significant numbers, amid constant complaints from Baku and others.
Nor
is this Karabakh some long-forgotten frozen conflict. Fighting broke
out this year across the line of control, killing dozens, and a full
scale war over the occupied territory is looming.
In other words,
Orange, and the French government, is committing what a senior French
official just described as a war crime. Indeed, by the theoretical
international law standards applied to Israel, Orange’s behavior in
Armenia is particularly egregious. Having cell phone towers in the West
Bank (the purported crime of Orange’s Israeli licensee) does not involve
any recognition of Israeli sovereignty or any judgement about the
status of the territory.
On the other hand, Orange’s website
touting its Karabakh service refers to the territory as “NKR”, or the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. This refers to the self-proclaimed, entirely
unrecognized state (akin to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus)
which is entirely controlled by Armenia. U.N. Resolutions have
specifically called for the “nonrecognition” of the NKR. Orange’s
Armenian website also calls the area “Artsakh,”
the ancient name for the region favored by Armenia nationalists. It
would be as if Orange, instead of complaining about, boasted of its
“service in Judea and Samaria.” Indeed, Orange cravenly calls NKR a
“country,” despite the clear admonition of its own government and UN
against recognition of what is universally regarded as Azerbaijani
territory. It would be as if Orange boasted of its service in the “Golan
Heights of Israel.”
Orange proudly advertises its Nagorno-Karabakh service on the homepage of its Armenia site. A press release announcing the
service said its goal is make things more “convenient” for Armenians
traveling into the occupied territory. And the service is done in
cooperation with a local telecom firm based entirely in, and dedicated
to primarily serving, the occupied territory.
Unlike
its Israel service, which is operated by a local company that merely
licenses the trademark, Orange Armenia is directly run by the
French-based company, and headed by a French executive, Francis Gelibter.
Orange itself is quarter-owned by the French government. So France has,
just this year, begun participating in what its own senior foreign
ministry officials call a war crime when Israel does it.
24 days - The truth about Ilan Halimi HY"D to be released on April 24
Received via email:
My name is Heidi Oshin and I work with Menemsha Films, a film distribution company. We are the distributors of the French film "24 Jours: La Verite sur l'affaire Ilan Halimi" (a/k/a "24 Days") (see the synopsis below). I am writing to let you know about the theatrical release of this film nationally.
We are opening "24 Days" on April 24, 2015. "24 Days" will have a nationwide release on that day. The film will be playing in several areas of South Florida, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and a few other cities currently being finalized. "24 Days" will also be available in the US and Canada on iTunes the same day.
"24 Days" is a very timely film and is certainly riveting. Screen Daily writes that French director Alexandre Arcady delivers one of the most “wrenching and politically astute” films to come out of France. Given the news of rampant anti-Semitism sweeping Europe, the film's message should be heard as widely as possible.
I am happy to provide you with a link to the film and trailer for your previewing. We are also happy to provide you with posters and flyers (either or both hard copies or digitally) as well a email blasts that you can send on to your email lists. Please let your friends, family, colleagues and students know about this important film.
I look forward to hearing back from you,
Heidi
--
Here's a synopsis of the film:
January 20, 2006. After dinner with his family, Ilan Halimi called an attractive girl he had met at work and made plans to meet her for coffee. Ilan did not suspect a thing; he was 23 and had his whole life ahead of him. The next time Ilan’s family heard from him, it was through a cryptic online message from kidnappers demanding a ransom in exchange for their son’s life. Based on a book co-written by the victim’s mother, Ruth Halimi, director Alexandre Arcady’s cinematic adaptation offers a vicious circle of dangerously realistic events: from the kidnapping and torture of Ilan Halimi at the hands of the Gang of Barbarians, to the the 600-plus phone calls, insults, and threats received by the family, through the Parisian police’s incompetence in dealing with what was clearly an anti-Semitic crime.-- -- --
--
Menemsha Films
Heidi Bogin Oshin
2601 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 100
Santa Monica, California 90405
Tel 310.452.1775
Fax 310.452.3740
heidio@menemshafilms.com
They should have regrets. But they won't. Because this is the soft bias of diminished expectations. They expect the 'Palestinians' to be ungrateful savages. And they will continue to serve them anyway.
Hollande asked both Netanyahu and Abu Mazen not to come
There have been a lot of stories in the Israeli media on Monday, about how Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked to stay home by French President Hollande. And that story is apparently true. But Netanyahu was not the only one who was asked to stay home. So was 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen. This is from the first link.
After the French government began to send invitations to world leaders to participate
in the rally against terror, Hollande’s national security adviser,
Jacques Audibert, contacted his Israeli counterpart, Yossi Cohen, and
said that Hollande would prefer that Netanyahu not attend, the source
said.
Audibert explained that Hollande wanted the event to focus on
demonstrating solidarity with France, and to avoid anything liable to
divert attention to other controversial issues, like Jewish-Muslim
relations or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Audibert said that
Hollande hoped that Netanyahu would understand the difficulties his
arrival might pose and would announce that he would not be attending.
The source noted that one of the French concerns - not conveyed to
representatives of the Israeli government - was that Netanyahu would
take advantage of the event for campaign purposes and make speeches,
especially about the Jews of France. Such statements, the Elysee Palace
feared, would hurt the demonstration of solidarity the French government
was trying to promote as part of dealing with the terror attacks.
According to the source, Netanyahu at first acquiesced to the French
request. In any case, the Shin Bet security service unit that protects
public figures considered the arrangements for the prime minister’s
security to be complex. And so, on Saturday evening, Netanyahu’s people
announced that he would not be flying to Paris because of security
concerns. Netanyahu told the French he would come to France on Tuesday
for a Jewish community event.
The French apparently sent the same message to Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas. Like Netanyahu, Abbas acceded to the French
request and released a strange statement about the same time Netanyahu
released his, that he would not be attending the event because of the
bad weather.
However, on Saturday night, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and
Economy Minister Naftali Bennett announced their intention to go to
Paris and take part in the march and meet with the Jewish community.
When Netanyahu heard they were going, he informed the French he would be
attending the march after all.
According to the source, when Cohen informed Audibert that Netanyahu
would be attending the event after all, Audibert angrily told Cohen that
the prime minister’s conduct would have an adverse effect on ties
between the two countries as long as Hollande was president of France
and Netanyahu was prime minister of Israel.
Audibert made it clear that in light of Netanyahu's intention to
arrive, an invitation would also be extended to Abbas. And indeed,
several hours after Abbas announced that he would not be traveling to
Paris, his office issued a statement stating that he would in fact be at
the march.
Hollande's anger at Netanyahu was evident during the ceremony held
Sunday evening following the march at the Grand Synagogue in Paris, an
event attended by hundreds of members of the local Jewish community.
Hollande sat through most of the ceremony, but when Netanyahu's turn at
the podium arrived, the French president got up from his seat and made
an early exit.
Netanyahu's office has denied most of this story. Read the whole thing. I think that given the Friday night massacre at the Kosher supermarket, it would have been outrageous for Netanyahu not to have been there - election campaign or no election campaign. Tzipi Livni and Buzi Herzog could have written this story.
Four people were killed on Friday when an Islamic terrorist entered a Paris Kosher supermarket on Friday afternoon. 15 other hostages escaped when police stormed the supermarket. The terrorist who perpetrated the attack (and also murdered a Paris police officer on Thursday) was killed, as were the two Charlie Hebdo terrorists who took hostages in a printing plant outside Charles DeGaulle Airport. The three terrorists were in constant contact with each other.
Four of the hostages who were held at the kosher supermarket were
murdered by terrorist Amedy Coulibaly when he entered the store, just a
few hours before French President Francois Hollande denounced what he
called “an appalling anti-Semitic act.” Fifteen other hostages survived
the ordeal.
...
Yesterday, Coulibaly murdered a police officer in Montrouge, south of
Paris. His female companion, Hayat Boumeddiene, is said to still be at
large. During the simultaneous sieges, the couple reportedly spoke
more than 500 times to the Charlie Hebdo killers, Charif and Said
Kouachi, who were cornered by police at a printing shop to the northeast
of Paris.
According to French media reports, Coulibaly and Cherif Kouachi were
two of the most committed followers of convicted terrorist Djamel
Beghal. Telephone conversations reveal that the pair visited Beghal’s
home in Murat in the south of France.
French President Francois Hollande described the events as “a tragedy for the nation”.
In a national address, he thanked the security forces for their
“courage, bravery and efficiency,” but added that France still faced
threats.
“We have to be vigilant. I also ask you to be united – it’s our best weapon,” he said.
“We must be implacable towards racism,” he added, saying that the supermarket attack was an “appalling anti-Semitic act.”
It's too late for France - they let too many Islamic terrorists in and now they cannot get rid of them all. Let the rest of Europe - which is headed in the same direction - learn before it is too late.
Charlie Hebdo terrorists order female cartoonist to convert or die, @NYTimes deletes account, cartoonist denies saying it
Yet another instance of the New York Times not wanting to offend 'Muslim sensibilities'? An account in the newspaper from one of the persons present at the Charlie Hebdo editorial meeting that was attacked includes this threat from the terrorists:
This morning, BenK at Ace of Spades
quoted an NYT story by Liz Alderman titled “Survivors Retrace a Scene
of Horror at Charlie Hebdo.” Take note of these two paragraphs from that
story:
Sigolène Vinson, a freelancer who had decided to come in
that morning to take part in the meeting, thought she would be killed
when one of the men approached her.
Instead, she told French news media, the man said, “I’m
not going to kill you because you’re a woman, we don’t kill women, but
you must convert to Islam, read the Quran and cover yourself,” she
recalled.
Sigolène Vinson, a freelance journalist who had come in
that morning to take part in the meeting, said that when the shooting
started, she thought she would be killed.
Ms. Vinson said in an interview that she dropped to the
floor and crawled down the hall to hide behind a partition, but one of
the gunmen spotted her and grabbed her by the arm, pointing his gun at
her head. Instead of pulling the trigger, though, he told her she would
not be killed because she was a woman.
“Don’t be afraid, calm down, I won’t kill you,” the
gunman told her in a steady voice, with a calm look in his eyes, she
recalled. “You are a woman. But think about what you’re doing. It’s not
right.”
Sigolène
Vinson, a freelance journalist who had come in that morning to take
part in the meeting, said that when the shooting started, she thought
she would be killed. Ms. Vinson said in an interview that she dropped to
the floor and crawled down the hall to hide behind a partition, but one
of the gunmen spotted her and grabbed her by the arm, pointing his gun
at her head. Instead of pulling the trigger, though, he told her she
would not be killed because she was a woman.
She
disputed a quotation attributed to her and carried on the website of
the French radio service RFI stating that the gunman had told her she
should convert to Islam, read the Quran and cover herself. Instead, she
told The New York Times in an interview, the gunman told her: “Don’t be
afraid, calm down, I won’t kill you.” He spoke in a steady voice, she
said, with a calm look in his eyes, saying: “ ‘You are a woman. But
think about what you’re doing. It’s not right.’ ” Then she said he
turned to his partner, who was still shooting, and shouted: “We don’t
shoot women! We don’t shoot women! We don’t shoot women!”
Who pressured Ms. Vinson to change her story? Inquiring minds want to know. The only listed correction to the article is this:
Correction: January 8, 2015
An earlier version of the list of contributors to this article
misspelled the surname of one. She is Karine Granier-Deferre, not
Granier-Denfert.
Hmmm. If we're afraid to even identify the enemy, how can we fight it? Waiting for the French reporter to come up with a tape of his/her interview or their original notes.
Claire Berlinski, whom I have long followed on Twitter, was in Paris yesterday on Boulevard Richard Lenoir when the terror attack at Charlie Hebdo's offices took place. Here's her eyewitness account (Hat Tip: Sunlight).
President François Hollande said the trivial: “No barbaric act will
ever extinguish the freedom of the press.” That the statement is
self-falsifying seemed to bother him little: That barbaric act literally
extinguished the press. Literally. They are dead. Their freedom is thus
of little relevance.
That I’m shaken is of concern to no one; my emotions are not the
point. The entire city is shaken. So much that even my cab driver — I
had to catch one to get home; the streets were otherwise blocked off —
didn’t even ask me to pay the fare. When I said I was a journalist, and
in a rush to say what little I knew, his response was, “Forget about the
money. Just hurry.”
The assailants are as yet at liberty. I hope they’ll be dead by the
time you read this. But if not: You want me too? Come get me. Because
nothing short of killing me — and many more of my kind — will ever shut us up.
And if you don’t believe that now, you’ll believe it very soon.
Because there are more of us willing to die for that freedom than those
of you eager to take it from us. And soon you will find out that those
of us willing to die for that freedom are also much better at killing
than you.
So come and get me. Je suis Charlie.
And have a good long look at the cartoon below. Because you may have
been able to kill its authors, but you sure didn’t kill what they
created. And nor will we ever let you.
There are things I’m not allowed to say on Ricochet. But if I were
allowed to say them, this is what I’d say–though I’d add a few other
words.
Go ahead. Make my day. Because you’ve got no idea what we’re capable of when we are pushed too far. And you are more than pushing your luck.
"The situation is out of control, and it is not reversible," said
Soeren Kern, an analyst at the Gatestone Institute and author of annual
reports on the "Islamization of France."
"Islam is a permanent
part of France now. It is not going away," Mr. Kern said. "I think the
future looks very bleak. The problem is a lot of these
younger-generation Muslims are not integrating into French society.
Although they are French citizens, they don't really have a future in
French society. They feel very alienated from France. This is why
radical Islam is so attractive because it gives them a sense of meaning
in their life."
While not a complete safe-haven for al Qaeda-type
operatives, Paris and other French cities have become more fertile
places for Muslim extremists in the past decade. City leaders have
allowed virtual Islamic mini-states to thrive as Muslims gain power to
govern in their own way.
"There are no-go areas not just in Paris,
but all over France, where they are effectively in control," said
Robert Spencer, who directs JihadWatch.org, a nonprofit that monitors
Muslim extremists.
"They're operating with impunity, apparently
secure in the knowledge that authorities cannot or will not act
decisively to stop them," he said. "And with the universal denial and
obfuscation of the clear motive for the Charlie Hebdo attack, they have
good reason to think that."
The attackers who killed 12 people at
the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo claimed to be members
of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen. Witnesses said they spoke
perfect French, a strong indication that they are homegrown terrorists
who received help from AQAP or another group.
And it's not just France. It's all over Europe.
Said Mr. Kern, "Europe is very committed to multiculturalism. So any
speech critical of Islam is immediately branded as being Islamophobic or
racist or something like that. There's not really an honest debate
about what's going on in Europe because the European elite have so much
invested in this multicultural society that they're trying to build."
For those of you sitting in the US who think this doesn't affect you... French citizens don't need a visa to travel to the United States. Neither do most European citizens. Maybe once Obama is gone, that can be reconsidered.
For that matter, French and other European citizens don't need a visa to travel to Israel either, although we've been known to deny entry to people who come here to make trouble, and the French government knows it.in
But as long as the attitude toward Islamic terrorism in France and in other countries in Europe remains like the flashing light above, the West is going to have a problem and will some day - God Forbid - be defeated.
Here's video from Wednesday morning's terror attack in Paris (it came from here). In the video, you will see the Islamist terrorist 'confirm' the killing of a wounded French police officer who had intervened in the attack. Then the terrorist gets into a car and escapes.
Let's go to the videotape.
What will it take for the world to recognize Islam for the threat to society that it really is?
'Gunmen' shoot up Charlie Hebdo offices, media neglects to report they're AmishMuslim
This morning, 'gunmen' shot up the Paris office of CharlieHebdo, a satirical magazine that is famous for satirizing Mohammed. Eleven people have been killed, and an additional person has possibly been taken hostage. But from the media reports, you'd never know that anyone with a motive might have attacked Charlie Hebdo. In fact, you might think that the attackers were Amish or Baptist or even Jewish.
Gunmen have attacked the
Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 11
people and injuring 10, French officials say.
Witnesses spoke of sustained gunfire at the office as the attackers opened fire with assault rifles before escaping.
Police have launched a major operation in the Paris area in their hunt for the attackers.
Charlie's latest tweet was a cartoon of the Islamic State militant group leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The satirical weekly has courted controversy in the past with its irreverent take on news and current affairs.
The magazine was fire-bombed in November 2011 a day after it carried a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad.
President Francois Hollande is at the scene and is planning to hold an emergency cabinet meeting.
...
Two of those killed are police officers, France's AFP news agency reports, and five of those wounded are critically injured.
An eyewitness, Benoit Bringer, told French TV channel Itele: "Two black-hooded men entered the building with Kalashnikovs.
"A few minutes later we heard lots of shots."
Developing....
Gee, I wonder what religion the gunmen were. Surely not from the 'religion of peace'....
By the way, according to my sources, Fox and CNN are reporting the story similarly to the Beeb. Yeah, sure, let's just pretend that Islam had nothing to do with it.
Okay, CNN's video is slightly better. Watch the video here (sorry- it's 2gb and there's no way I can post that).
The incident happened during what was dubbed by the media the
"flytilla" campaign in April 2012 - when hundreds of pro-Palestinian
activists sought to fly to Israel and then make their way to the
occupied West Bank.
Shortly before take-off last April, Ms Ankour, a 30-year-old
nursing student, was asked by an Air France employee whether she had an
Israeli passport or was Jewish.
She answered "No" to both questions, and was then escorted off the plane.
The French court on Thursday concluded this was a clear-cut case of racial discrimination.
In its defence, the French flagship carrier argued that it
was only at the last minute that it had realised Ms Ankour was
blacklisted by Israel.
The company said it had therefore asked her to leave - in
line with an international convention that allowed airlines to refuse
transporting passengers who it knew would not be accepted at the point
of entry.
It seems the fault in law was for the company to have asked
Ms Ankour about her ethnic origins and to have made this the apparent
reason for her forced disembarkation, the BBC's Hugh Schofield in Paris
reports.
Well, yeah, they were pretty foolish to ask the question that way. But if an airline transports someone to an international destination point and they are not allowed into the country, guess who has to pay to transport them back to the point of origin? Yup, the airline....
According to the French source, Paris's openness to label the
military wing of Hezbollah a terror organization stems from its
responsibility for the Burgas attack and its participation in Syria's
civil war on the side of Presisdent Bashar Assad.
French Foreign
Minister Laurent Fabius discussed the matter with US Secretary of State
John Kerry on Wednesday, according to the report.
According to the
source the move is more symbolic than practical because it will not
lead the EU to blacklist the "political branch" of Hezbollah, and
therefore, will not stop the organization from receiving funds from
Europe.
The report came after a criminal court in Limassol, Cyprus, on Thursday sentenced Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, an admitted Hezbollah operative, to four years in prison for plotting to kill Israeli tourists on the island.
So they're willing to name Hezbullah a terror organization so long as they can keep on fundraising in Europe, Yellow-bellied cowards.
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
