As many of you may have heard, someone dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jew stabbed six people at a gay pride parade in Jerusalem on Thursday. The 'man,' Yishai Schlissel, did the same thing ten years ago, and was recently released from prison for that crime. Unfortunately, this time, he managed to murder someone. 16-year old Shira Banki (pictured above) passed away today.
The letter below was written by Rabbi Ron Yitzchak Eisenman of Passaic, New Jersey, who studied with me in yeshiva 35 years ago. I think it sums up pretty well how we ought to look at and feel about this incident (Hat Tip: Mrs. Carl).
The Short VortGood Morning!Today is Sunday the 17th of Menachem-Av 5775 and August 2, 2015In Memory of Shira Banki...
Posted by Ron Yitzchock Eisenman on Sunday, August 2, 2015
New details released in Arab teen murder investigation
The Jerusalem District Court has cleared for publication more details of the investigation into the kidnapping and murder of Mohammed Abu Khadr.
IDF Radio reports Wednesday night that three of the suspects
were involved in other serious crimes before the murder; the remaining
three were less involved in burning the teen alive.
Some of the suspects have been sent for psychiatric
observation, the statement continued, adding that investigators were
also determining whether the suspects had links to terror, criminal, or
racist organizations.
The Israel Security Agency (ISA) confirmed that three suspects
have finally been allowed to meet with legal representation, although
three have still been barred from legal counsel.
I am guessing that the three suspects who have been allowed to meet with their lawyers are those who have not been involved in serious crimes in the past, and were less involved in burning Abu Khadr alive. But I have to wonder which group was sent for psychiatric observation.
Here's something that ought to make American Jews uncomfortable. The Black Panther party - last seen observing polling places for the Obama campaign - has issued a death threat against (and is offering a bounty for the murder of) George Zimmerman whom it calls a 'no good Jew.'
Arrest of Islamic anti-Semite leads to wild melee in Brooklyn
The arrest of an Islamic man who assaulted a Jewish man on a Brooklyn subway train last Monday turned violent when a mob surrounded police officers.
The melee began when suspect Stephan Stowe, 17, and a group of eight
friends approached a Jewish man wearing a yarmulke aboard a
Brooklyn-bound 3 train just before 3 p.m. Monday, police sources said
Wednesday.
"Assalamu Alaikum," Stowe said to the man, using a common greeting
among Muslims that means, "Peace be with you," court documents allege.
When the man ignored the greeting, Stowe allegedly became combative.
"You think you're better than me?" the teen allegedly said. "We are cousins."
"No we’re not," The man shot back, and told Stowe to leave him alone.
The suspect then started hurling ethnic slurs and called the man disrespectful, according to court papers.
...
"I'm going to kill you right now," Stowe said, according to cops and
court records. He then swore at the man, according to cops and court
records, and in an apparent reference to the Holocaust added, "They
should have killed all of you."
The man managed to swipe his phone back from Stowe and ran to alert the
conductor, police sources said. As the train pulled into the Eastern
Parkway/Brooklyn Museum stop, cops were waiting to collar Stowe, police
sources said.
In an earlier post, I reported that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had referred to Zionism as a crime against humanity, and I asked what Secretray of State John FN Kerry would say to Erdogan when he meets with him on Friday. Noah Pollak of the Emergency Committee for Israel has now released a statement dealing with that very issue.
"Yesterday, at a UN-sponsored conference and in the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that Zionism is a "crime against humanity." Moon, who was on stage with Erdogan, said and did nothing in protest. But tomorrow, the new Secretary of State, John Kerry, arrives in Ankara to meet with Erdogan.
"What will Kerry say? How will he respond to Erdogan? If he says nothing, he will be turning a blind eye to an explicit denial of the Jewish State's right to exist. The denial of Israel's right to exist is defined by Kerry's State Department as a form of anti-Semitism. Will Kerry stay silent in the face of such a reprehensible statement by a member of NATO, a major recipient of advanced American arms, and -- ostensibly -- a U.S. ally?
"President Obama likes to say that "when the chips are down, I have Israel's back." Erdogan's call for the destruction of Israel does not mean the chips are down. But shouldn't the U.S. president and secretary of state speak out when they hear such a statement? Will American leaders remain silent in the face of eliminationist rhetoric from leaders who seek our good favor? We will see tomorrow whether Secretary of State Kerry and the White House have Israel's back, not when the chips are down, but when the leader of an important country over whom the U.S. has substantial influence speaks in a way that forecasts and encourages the worst kinds of deeds."
Obama's BFF tells UN Conference that Zionism is a crime against humanity
President Hussein Obama's Best Friend Forever, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has told a United Nations summit on 'tolerance' that Zionism is a crime against humanity.
“We remind secretary-general Ban Ki-moon that his predecessor Kofi Annan recognized that the UN’s 1975 Zionism-is-racism resolution was an expression of anti-Semitism, and he welcomed its repeal.”
UN Watch urged all members of the Alliance’s High Level Group,
including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “to denounce remarks that
fundamentally contradict the very purpose of a forum supposedly
dedicated to mutual tolerance.”
“Erdogan’s misuse of this global podium to incite hatred, and his
resort to Ahmandinejad-style pronouncements appealing to the lowest
common denominator in the Muslim world, will only strengthen the belief
that his government is hewing to a confrontational stance, and
fundamentally unwilling to end its four-year-old feud with Israel.”
US Secretary of State John FN Kerry is due to meet with Erdogan in Ankara on Friday. Does anyone believe these remarks will even be a topic of conversation? Surprise me.... Please....
Zachary Tennen said two college-aged males asked if he was Jewish and when he answered yes, the two men assaulted him. Zachary told police the two men then “stapled me in the back side of my bottom teeth, starting in my gums and going upwards.”
Tennen, a journalism sophomore who loves basketball, is recovering from his injuries, but he had this to say.
“I’m really, really upset in a few ways,” Zachary Tennen said. “First of all it is a terrible experience, physically and also mentally to know someone would do something like this,” he said before his surgery, despite the difficulties for him to talk.
...
East Lansing Police appear to be skeptical and are denying that this was a hate crime. They were not nearly as reticent when it came to a burnt Koran left outside the Islamic Center of East Lansing.
The East Lansing Police Department is seeking the publics help to find who is responsible for burning and desecrating a Koran. The incident happened on September 11. It was found at the front door of the Islamic Center of East Lansing. The department is offering $10,000 for any information that would lead to the identification and prosecution of those responsible for this act.
It would appear that a burnt Koran merits a $10,000 reward, but a beaten Jewish college student can be safely ignored by the East Lansing Police.
Michigan is sounding more and more like a country in Europe.
Breaking: 3 dead several injured in shooting outside French Jewish school
In Toulouse, in southwestern France, on Monday morning, three people are dead, including two children, outside the Otzar HaTorah secondary school, after a man on a scooter opened fire on children outside the school.
One witness indicated that a gunman opened fire outside a private Jewish secondary school in the southern French city before fleeing on the back of a black scooter.
Five people were injured in the attack, which occurred as students were arriving for morning classes at the Ozar Hatorah school, a city official told Reuters.
Interior minister Claude Gueant broke off a visit in northeastern France to head for Toulouse, the police source said. French media reported that security was being tightened at all Jewish schools in the country.
It was not immediately clear whether police were linking the attack to a series of "ride-by" shootings of soldiers in the area last week, in which three paratroopers were killed in two incidents by a gunman who made a getaway on a motorbike.
FRANCE 24 correspondent Chris Bockman said the city was in “lockdown” as police searched for the gunman.
“But this is a medieval city with narrow winding roads, where it is easy for a scooter to outrun a police car,” he added.
...
“All the soldiers who were killed were from ethnic minorities,” said Bockman. “So this is looking like a series of racist killings.”
“It’s a scary situation. Nothing like this has happened in Toulouse in recent memory,” he said.
The French government has since called for heightened security at Jewish schools in France, while Interior Minister Claude Gueant announced he would visit Toulouse later in the day.
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy said Monday that the country was “horrified” by Monday’s attack.
Here's a report from Sky News - unfortunately no pictures.
Let's go to the videotape.
Still looking for real video.
UPDATE 11:47 AM
And let's go to the videotape.
UPDATE 12:10 PM
Israel Radio reports four dead, three of them students. 200 kids in the school.
UPDATE 1:59 PM
Here's another video from the BBC.
Let's go to the videotape. More after the video.
Israel Radio is reporting that three of the four people killed were a teacher and his two sons, and the fourth was the 9-year old daughter of the school's principal.
Israel Radio says the teacher was 30-years old and that one of the children was 12. I assume that means the other child was younger.
Debbie Schlussel reports that once again, most of the hate crimes in the United States are committed against Jews. In fact, with all you hear about the fictitious bias of 'Islamophobia,' more than eight times as many hate crimes were committed against Jews as against Muslims in the United States last year. And there are a lot fewer Jews than Muslims.
Of the 1,575 victims of an anti-religious hate crime:
* 71.9 percent were victims because of an offender’s anti-Jewish bias. * 8.4 percent were victims because of an anti-Islamic bias. * 3.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Catholic bias. * 2.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Protestant bias. * 0.7 percent were victims because of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias. * 8.3 percent were victims because of a bias against other religions (anti-other religion). * 4.3 percent were victims because of a bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group). (Based on Table 1.)
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
