Must see: The leader of the free world reacts to the Orlando attack
Prime Minister Netanyahu puts Obama, Clinton and Trump to shame with his reaction to the Orlando massacre.
Let's go to the videotape. A transcript follows.
"In Orlando, a terrorist walks into a nightclub and murders nearly 50
human beings. Sons and daughters, brothers and sisters cut down in cold
blood.
They did nothing wrong. They were dancing with friends, they were enjoying music with loved ones.
Why did the terrorist murder them?
Because he was driven by a fanatical hatred.
He targeted the LGBT community because he believed they were evil.
Now, the murderer wasn't alone.
Regimes and terrorist organizations around the world ruthlessly persecute the LGBT community.
In Syria, ISIS throws gays off rooftops.
In Iran, the regime hangs gays from cranes.
Too many people have remained silent in the face of this awful persecution.
This
week's shooting wasn't merely an attack on the LGBT community. It was
an attack on all of us, on our common values of freedom and diversity
and choice.
Radical Islamist terror makes no distinction between shades of infidel.
This
week it was gays in Orlando. A few days before that it was Jews in Tel
Aviv. Before that it was music fans in Paris; Travelers in Brussels;
Yazidis in Iraq; Community workers in San Bernardino; Christians and
journalists in Syria.
All of us are targets.
We believe that all people are created in the image of God.
ISIS, by contrast, believes that all people who aren't just like them deserve to die.
We will not be terrified into submission.
We will fight back. And we will triumph.
Today I ask you to reach out to friends in the LGBT community. Comfort them.
Tell them you stand together, we stand together as one. And that you will always remember the victims.
Tell them they will never be alone, that we are all one family deserving of dignity, deserving of life.
I have no doubt that those who seek to spread hate and fear will be defeated.
Working together we will defeat them even faster.
We
need to stand united, resolute in the belief that all people regardless
of their sexual orientation, regardless of their race, regardless of
their ethnicity, all people deserve respect, deserve dignity."
-Bibi Netanyahu
So it's come to this. The leader of the free world is not Barack Obama (it never was) and it's not likely to be either of the candidates for President of the United States. It's the Prime Minister of little Israel, Binyamin Netanyahu.
Notice that Netanyahu doesn't shy away from calling the attack what it was: Islamic terrorism.
There's a 'gay pride' parade today in Tel Aviv, which has drawn more than 200,000 people. For those who accuse Israel of 'pinkwashing,' perhaps this tweet sums it up best:
American Orthodox Jews fearful of 'gay marriage' decision
Maybe this will be an impetus for American Orthodox Jews to make aliya. There's some real fear going around about the future implications of last week's US Supreme Court decision forcing the states to allow 'gay marriage' and how that might impact Orthodox Jewish institutions.
[T]he Orthodox Jewish community has a different view. This was voiced
by, among others, the Orthodox Union and the Agudath Israel of America.
The latter, in a statement Friday, warned
that its members faced “moral opprobrium” and were in danger of
“tangible negative consequences” if “they refuse to transgress their
beliefs.”
To judge by recent events, they are understating the
case. The whole campaign for same sex marriage, however high-minded its
ideals and however real — and all too often violent — the injustices
endured by same-sex couples, has been levied at the expense of religious
Jews and Christians. The U.S. Supreme Court majority knows that full
well. But it dodged the issue, with Justice Anthony Kennedy, author of
the majority opinion, giving the fears of religious Americans less than a
paragraph.
Kennedy emphasized
that “religions, and those who adhere to religious doctrines, may
continue to advocate with utmost, sincere conviction that, by divine
precepts, same-sex marriage should not be condoned.” He noted that the
First Amendment, part of the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, “ensures
that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as
they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central
to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue
the family structure they have long revered.”
That was a reference to the free speech part of the
First Amendment. But it was startling — shocking even — that the
majority gave no mention at all of the Constitution’s second principle
of religious protection, the right to the “free exercise” of religion.
That is where the battle lines are being drawn by liberal and left-wing
factions in America seeking to force religious individuals to embrace
same-sex marriage.
In recent months, Americans have been reading about a
Christian baker who has been the subject of an enforcement action in
Colorado for declining to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding,
a husband-and-wife clerical team that reportedly may have to close
their for-profit wedding chapel because they won’t hold same-sex
nuptials in it, and a New York family that is tangled in a legal
proceeding for refusing to rent out their home for a same-sex wedding
reception. A Catholic adoption agency that would not work with same-sex
couples has been forced out of its charitable work.
“In all likelihood, many of these rear-guard actions
against marriage equality will soon fall of their own weight,” Jeffrey
Toobin, who covers the Constitution for the New Yorker, wrote
after the Supreme Court spoke. “Like so many of their fellow-Americans,
wedding photographers and the like will make their peace with the new
rules that guarantee their neighbors an equal chance at happiness.
(Besides, they need the business.)” Maybe, but I’m not so sure things
will go as smoothly as he imagines in the Orthodox Jewish world.
“The issue here is not whether all human beings are
created in the Divine Image, or whether they have inherent human
dignity. Of course they are, of course they do,” the Agudah said in a
statement after Obergefell vs. Hodges was handed down. But it went on to
assert that “the truths of Torah are eternal, and stand as our beacon
even in the face of shifting social mores.” At some point this is going
to come to a head in a way that will test George Washington’s promise to
the Jews to a degree that we haven’t yet seen.
I'll shut the comments on this post if I have to, but I can tell you that I would not want my children taught by someone who is openly gay. No way. I want my children to be able to look up at their teachers as religious role models. Then again, since I live in Israel, it's unlikely that any of my children's schools (except for the children in university, which is a different category) could be forced to hire gay teachers.
But the counterposing of those two data points won't stop the gay community worldwide from attacking Israel and supporting the 'Palestinians' and the Muslim world in general.
Maybe he was 'just' sleeping with someone else's wife and that's why someone put two bullets in his heart? In any event, Iran is denying that its cyberwar chief, Mojtaba Ahmadi, was assassinated.
"In the wake of a horrific incident involving one of the IRGC
officials ... the matter is being investigated and the main reason of
the event and the motive of the attacker has not been specified," said
an IRGC statement, quoted by Sepah news.
Sepah, which is operated
by the Revolutionary Guard, ran its report under the headline "Denial of
news reports of the assassination of one of IRGC's officials".
The
statement did not identify Ahmadi but a local news website published
pictures on Wednesday showing his funeral procession, along with text
excerpts of the IRGC communique.
"The result of investigation will
be announced through official channels and any speculation will not be
appropriate before the investigation is over," an Iranian official said
late on Wednesday. Western officials have not commented on the incident.
How dumb are the people who want to bring Mohammed Morsy back to power in Egypt?
How dumb are the people who want to bring Mohammed Morsy back to power in Egypt? Please consider the picture below (Hat Tip: Jack W via Bare Naked Islam).
What does this moron think the Muslim Brotherhood would do to gays if it got the chance?
Oh wait, Obama supports bringing Morsy back to power. And so does RINO McCain. Could they be that dumb?
Here's an example of the type of family values a second Obama administration plans to support. Meet President Obama's friend, Dan Savage.
Let's go to the videotape.
I forgot.Those who have replaced Judaism with Liberalism believe in those same 'values.' That's why they'll vote for Obama anyway.This will only encourage them.
You will recall that five years ago, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told an audience at Columbia University that there are no gays in Iran. Now, the tune has changed. Unless Iran is not part of the world, Iran is now claiming that there are gays in Iran... but it's all the Zionists' fault.
Mashregh News, an outlet affiliated with radical Islamists in Qom, wrote that the US and the UK are using money from Jews to spread homosexuality throughout the world. The article blasted Israel for promoting demonstrations for gay rights and specifically decried Tel Aviv as the gay paradise on earth. It also ridiculed Conservative Judaism for accepting gay rabbis, and urged Western governments to stop people from engaging in gay – and therefore immoral – actions, and provide medical treatment for homosexuals in order to stop their conduct.
Writing on Monday on the gay website GGG, Chris Karnak said the Mashregh item “reads like an article from the Nazi agitation paper Der Stürmer.”
Dr. Wahied Wahdat-Hagh, an expert on minority groups in Iran, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that the article is “against gays, against the West and anti-Semitic.” He added that “the text legitimizes the execution of gays in Iran; they made a text not only to ridicule the West but to provide a reason why Iran executes gays.”
The Iranian report also attacked Hollywood for depicting gays in positive terms on the silver screen. Moreover, according to the article, schools in California include homosexuality in their education plans because of a recommendation of a Jewish university.
Meanwhile, I have a commenter who claims that there's 'freedom of religion' in Islam. You've got to be kidding.
Gay activists continue to boycott only state in Middle East that doesn't execute them
Gay activists apparently don't know how to tell their friends from their foes. In a region where only one country in the world doesn't execute gays, gay activists have chosen that country to boycott. Yes, of course, it's Israel. Ronn Torossian got it right:
It seems that Jew-haters will always find a reason to hate the Jewish state, and will use something asinine to mask that hatred. Peter Tatchell, a leading gay activist, signed a letter this week criticizingIsrael for “pinkwashing,” trying to use the acceptance of LGBTs (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community) as a “smokescreen” of supposed human rights violations of the Palestinians. In a recent letter to the media, activists from the Gay Liberation Front, Stop Clause 28, and others, stated support for the Palestinian “boycott, divestment and sanctions” campaign against Israel. It added that it is “ironic” that Israel, “in an attempt to gain a veneer of respectability by promoting itself as a liberal,” has grown tolerant towards gay people while the “oppressive regime routinely violates human rights.” So, Israel, the sole country in the Middle East which supports gay rights, is also boycotted by the gay activist community.
One wonders what these gay rights activists can possibly know about these supposed human rights violations and the on-the-ground situation in Gaza or the West Bank. Surely, they haven’t traveled or spent time there, because they would know that they wouldn’t be safe with the Hamas/Palestinian government. Of course, they haven’t spoken out about the violence Jews face in these regions. One wonders what justification Tachtell and other gay activists can have to boycott Israel, their strongest supporter in the Middle East. Tachtell’s boycott started a few months earlier when he criticized the IGLYO – the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Lesbian Youth and Student Organization for accepting an invitation from its Israeli chapter to hold its general assembly in Tel Aviv. He was among the first to criticize IGLYO for agreeing to a conference in Israel and said that he “fears that Israel may not be accessible to delegations from Arab countries.” They neglect the fact that Arabs can visit Israel, unlike Jews that seek to visit Arab countries.
Tachtell was successful in having the meeting moved from Israel, despite the fact that there is not a single member from the Arab world on the general assembly of this organization (for obvious reasons). Just as I wonder where the flotilla for peace to Syria is, so too am I amazed as gays and others pretend there’s a reason for hating Israel other than anti-Semitism. The heroic defender of human rights, Martin Luther King said it right when he said, “Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.”
Gay rights is about socialism. Maybe Israel’s biggest crime is not so much that it is a Jewish state, but that it is a refuge for so many Jewish Russian dissidents. The Soviet Union may have fallen 20+ years ago, and many people on the left are bitter over its demise.
As for Peter Tatchell specifically, I never met the man and I don’t intend to. I have no idea what he thinks of the Soviet Union. I do know that gay rights is just window dressing for his real agenda. Instead of fighting for the lives of gay Arabs, Peter Tatchell is fighting for the men who would hang them.
I disagree. I think it's about priorities. Jew hatred above all else.
You will recall that the New York Times published a moronic op-ed by Sarah Schulman, which accused Israel of 'pinkwashing' - trying to use gays to prove (incorrectly) that Israel is tolerant. I attacked that allegation (at the link above), as did many other bloggers.
A poll on the gay travel website gaycities.com shows that the gay community rejects the Times' allegations. By an overwhelming margin, the poll has named Tel Aviv the best gay city of 2011.
The gay capitol of the Middle East is exotic and welcoming with a Mediterranean c'est la vie attitude," the website said.
Tel Aviv garnered 43 percent of the vote, far ahead of the next competitor, New York City, which raked in 14%.
Other cities on the list included Toronto, Sao Paulo, Madrid, London, New Orleans, and Mexico City.
Some members of the gay community have finally understood that 'Israel apartheid week' is not exactly in their best interests.
“When Israel is accused falsely of being an apartheid society, there is an agenda – and that is the delegitimization of the Jewish state. And that is anti-Semitic,” Stuart Appelbaum, the first international trade union leader to announce he was gay, wrote in an e-mail to The Jerusalem Post last week.
"When Israel is singled out and held to a different standard than so many countries where people are actually oppressed because of race, that is anti-Semitism, too,” added Appelbaum, who is president of the New York-based 100,000-member Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
Until late February, academics and activists, particularly gays and lesbians, who compare Israel with the former apartheid regime in South Africa might not have expected that action against their blasting of Israel was in the cards. Michael Lucas, a columnist for the gay US magazine The Advocate and a producer of adult entertainment films, was the game-changer. He launched a public relations and financial boycott campaign targeting New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center for its plan to host an IAW event entitled “A Party to End Apartheid” with the anti-Israel group Siege Busters. Siege Busters was also slated to fundraise at the center for a new flotilla to break Israel’s blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
According to Gay City News, the leading US publication on LGBT, the center’s executive director, Glennda Testone, justified the denial of space to Siege Busters, saying at a charged public forum last week that the group’s activities were not “LGBT-focused” and that its planned IAW meeting was “an incredibly controversial and contentious event.”
While Lucas’s efforts garnered a rare victory in a battle arena where anti-Israel forces have gained traction over the years, he told the Post that “I think we still have not succeeded in getting across our key point. We are not fighting ‘criticism of Israel’... We are fighting the delegitimization of the State of Israel. The stated goal of these groups is a united, multiracial Palestine. That’s inevitably a Palestine with a growing Muslim majority and the end of the Jewish homeland.”
Read the whole thing. While it's slowly changing, it's amazing how much of the gay community continues to maintain politically correct opposition to Israel despite the fact that Israel is the only country in this region that does not hang gays on a regular basis.
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
