Two videos 'celebrating' first 'Palestinian' suicide bombing in Jerusalem in more than a decade
Over the weekend, Israeli media released videos of 'Palestinians' celebrating the first successful suicide bombing in Jerusalem in more than a decade. Watching these videos will give you an indication of the continued Jew-hatred here in Israel.
This one is from Gaza (and not Jerusalem as it says in the blog post where I got it). Let's go to the videotape.
And the second one says it's from Bethlehem, but is actually the Abu Srour family (which lives near Bethlehem) and is the same video I posted here.
Let's go to the videotape.
But give them a 'state' and they'll stop celebrating every time someone
tries to murder us, just like they'll stop educating their children to
murder us. Right....
In Bethelehem, 'Palestinians' celebrate bus bomber
We now know who blew up that bus in Jerusalem on Monday. Abdel Hamid Abu Srour, 19, a resident of the Aida refugee camp near
Bethlehem who is suspected of detonating an explosive on a bus in
southern Jerusalem that left 20 others injured, died on Wednesday
following multiple surgeries. Yes, we even try to save the lives of those who come to murder us. Crazy, aren't we?
The 'Palestinians' in Bethlehem held a march last night to support Abu Srour. His mother handed out candies.
But give them a 'state' and they'll stop celebrating every time someone tries to murder us, just like they'll stop educating their children to murder us. Right....
Breaking: Terror on a Jerusalem bus - Liveblog - Pictures now included
There's been a bus bombed on Hebron Road in Jerusalem. There are 10-20 people injured. Details to follow. (Picture from a previous attack).
This is now a liveblog.
UPDATE 6:01 PM
There was an explosion on an Egged bus in Jerusalem. The police say it's a terror attack. Ten people (at least) are injured with varying degrees of injury.
UPDATE 6:04 PM
Bus going up in flames. Happened on the corner of Brown Street in Talpiyot near Pat intersection. TWO buses going up in flames.
UPDATE 6:06 PM
Israel Radio reporting 15 people taken to Shaare Zedek Hospital.
UPDATE 6:08 PM
Two seriously wounded, four moderately, two lightly, rest unclassified.
Tweets with pictures embedded below.
BREAKING: Massive explosion has struck a bus in Jerusalem, dozens injured, possible bombing. pic.twitter.com/AbRldoYfCB
Double suicide bombing in Hezbullah's Beirut stronghold (with video)
41 people were killed and over 200 wounded in a double suicide bombing in Beirut on Thursday afternoon. A third suicide bomber blew himself up before he could join the others.
According to a Lebanese security official, the first suicide attacker
detonated his explosives' vest outside a Shiite Mosque, while the
second blew himself up inside a nearby bakery.
An apparent third suicide attacker was found dead, his legs blown off
while he still wore an intact explosives' belt, said the official,
speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The
official speculated the third may have been killed from the explosion of
the second suicide attacker, as he was reportedly close to that blast.
The Al-Mayadeen TV also reported there was a third would-be suicide
attacker, describing him as a bearded young man who wore an explosives'
belt. The report said he was killed before he was able to detonate the
explosives.
Hospitals in southern Beirut were calling on people to donate blood
and appealed on residents not to gather at the hospital gates so that
ambulanced and emergency staff could work unhindered.
Shortly after the explosions, ambulances rushed to the area and
started evacuating the wounded and the dead as Lebanese troops and
Hezbollah gunmen cordoned the area, preventing anyone from getting
close.
"There is a massacre inside and we will not let you take photos," a
Hezbollah member screamed at an Associated Press photographer at the
scene.
That may explain why I could not find images of the attacks.
An hour later, ambulance sirens could still be heard in Beirut streets.
Hezbollah also called on people to leave all coffee shops in the
area, which are usually packed with people, and urged residents to
inform the group about any suspicious moves.
ISIS? Could be. As long as the Muslims are only killing each other, the world will not care, so pass the popcorn.
The settlement was confirmed on Friday by Michael Elsner, a lawyer
for the plaintiffs, and a spokesman for Arab Bank. The terms were not
disclosed.
Elsner said the framework of the deal would be finalised over the next few months.
A trial had been scheduled to start on Monday to begin determining
how much the bank would have to pay the victims and their families.
The Jordan-based multinational lender was found liable by a US jury
in September 2014 for financing terrorism by transferring funds for
members of Hamas.
Approximately 500 US citizens had sued Arab Bank under the US
Anti-Terrorism Act, which permits US citizens to pursue claims arising
from international terrorism.
The plaintiffs included both victims of attacks carried out by Hamas and other groups, as well as family members of the victims.
At trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs said Arab Bank knowingly
maintained accounts for Hamas operatives and facilitated payments to
families of suicide bombers and those imprisoned or injured during a
Palestinian uprising beginning in 2000.
Arab Bank argued that it had followed proper screening procedures to
checked accounts and transactions against lists of designated terrorist
organisations.
Several other banks are facing similar claims in US courts under the
Anti-Terrorism Act, including Bank of China, Credit Lyonnais, HSBC and
Royal Bank of Scotland, among others.
The settlement, whose details were not disclosed, comes days before
the trial was set to enter its damages phase in federal court in
Brooklyn, according to the Associated Press.
In the trial, 300 victims of terrorism during the Second Intifada in
the early 2000s sued the bank, which was accused of helping Hamas
create a “death and dismemberment benefit plan” for dead terrorists. The
suit was first filed in 2004.
According to AP, the case was the first time a bank had been tried
under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows victims of attacks by United
States-designated terrorist organizations to seek damages.
'Death and dismemberment benefit plan.' Never heard that one before.
In the days leading up to Purim in 1996, 60 persons died in five terror attacks throughout Israel. Here in Jerusalem, the same number 18 bus was attacked by suicide bombers on two consecutive Sunday mornings. It was miserable. This is a story about how one woman who had loved ones murdered in Tel Aviv's Dizengoff Center in one of those attacks was able to cope. The picture above is the memorial in Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv for the Purim eve attack discussed in the article (Hat Tip: Mrs. Carl).
At 3:56 p.m. on the eve of Purim, a suicide
bomber detonated a twenty-kilogram (44 lb.) bomb laced with nails and
screws at the intersection of Dizengoff and King George Streets, outside
the Dizengoff Center shopping mall in downtown Tel Aviv. Five children
in costumes were among the 13 victims, who included a young soldier, two
friends out for coffee, a journalist on his way to work, an elderly
woman due to meet her son at an Israel philharmonic concert, a woman on
her way home from shopping, and a mother and daughter shopping for a
wedding dress.
Seventy-three-year-old Sylvia Bernstein and
her 48-year-old daughter Gail Belkin were out with Gail’s daughter
Lauren for her wedding-dress fitting – she was to be married two weeks
later. In what should have been the happiest week of her life, Lauren
suffered the horrific loss of her mother and grandmother. Sylvia, a
widow, was survived by three other children: her son Paul and daughter
Marlyn Butchins in Israel, and her son Darryl, now in Australia. Gail
was survived by her American husband Larry Belkin – to whom she had been
married for a year, her two daughters, and two stepchildren.
Marlyn and her sister Gail were best
friends and exceptionally close. For nine years Marlyn struggled to find
a way to contain her grief. “For me it doesn’t have to be closure. I
heal – I don’t like the word closure, because there is no closure
really. It’s something that you think about all the time. I eventually
came to the acknowledgment and understanding that life does go on.
Despite the pain and the hardship of the loss, I realized we must
continue to move forward, otherwise we hand a victory to those who would
seek to destroy us.”
Every year Marlyn and Paul and their
families would attend the commemoration service held on the corner of
Dizengoff and King George Streets in the heart of Tel Aviv. There would
be speeches by the mayor and by family members of the victims, Yizkor
(the Jewish memorial prayer), “many, many tears, the names on the stark
stone memorial touched with loving fingers…and we have gone home to
mourn once again.” After a number of years of standing alongside the
other family members at the annual service, Marlyn began to feel
bothered that she didn’t know the other families or anything about the
loved ones they were mourning. This was a tragedy that had permanently affected so many families, and Marlyn only had her own individual piece of the story.
Perhaps this was what led her to the idea
of creating a quilt that would join all the pieces of the tragedy
together into a unifying whole. Marlyn embarked on a personal mission to
create the Dizengoff Memorial Quilt
to bring the stories of the victims of Dizengoff, Purim 1996, to life.
She did so with the help of volunteers from the Accent Quilters Guild of
Herzliya.
A twin suicide bombing hit the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of
Beirut on Wednesday during the morning rush hour, killing at least four
people and wounding 70 in an attack targeting Iran's cultural center,
security sources said.
Security sources said the blasts were caused by two suicide attackers,
one in a car and the second on a motorcycle. The same tactics were used
by suicide bombers who attacked the Iranian embassy in November.
A militant group linked to al-Qaida, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades,
claimed responsibility for the attacks on Twitter, saying the Iranian
culture center was the target.
The windows of a nearby orphanage were blown out by the blasts. Children
were peering out and screaming "bomb, bomb." Some were crying. A man
working at a sweet shop opposite the bomb site said the blast shook the
entire area.
"We heard one explosion and then another," he said.
Human remains were found nearby. The casualties included a number of children.
The area is controlled by the Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, which is
fighting alongside President Bashar Assad's forces in neighboring Syria
in a conflict that has fueled tensions between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims
in Lebanon.
On Friday morning, Mohammed Shattah, an adviser to former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri - who was assassinated himself in 2005 - was assassinated in downtown Beirut.
MEMRI has posted video of the reaction during the morning television show of Future TV, whose studios are near the blast site. It's worth watching.
Let's go to the videotape.
Notice how she immediately assumes it was Israel's doing....
An explosives-laden vehicle exploded in east Lebanon early Tuesday killing its driver and wounding two members from Hezbollah, security sources told The Daily Star.
The sources said Hezbollah
fighters in a van were attempting to intercept the vehicle when it
exploded in Sbouba, where the group maintains a military camp. There was
an exchange of gunfire, they said.
The explosives-laden vehicle
was likely detonated remotely as their pursuers approached, the sources
said. They earlier said the vehicle may have been occupied by a suicide
bomber.
TV footage showed at least four vehicles, some in flames, and debris strewn across the road.
In
a brief statement, the Lebanese Army said that a Grand Cherokee blew up
on the road to Sbouba, northwest of Baalbek, at 2:50 a.m., damaging a
number of vehicles. The military has launched a probe.
China trying to cover up warning Bank was being used to finance terror
This case seems to get more outrageous by the minute.
You might recall that the government of China is pressuring Prime Minister Netanyahu to prevent an Israeli intelligence officer from testifying about the involvement of the Bank of China in financing the Tel Aviv suicide bombing that murdered 16-year old Floridian Daniel Wultz HY"D (May God Avenge his blood). Wultz succumbed to injuries sustained in a
Tel Aviv suicide bombing in April 2006, while he and his father were visiting for Passover. You may recall that a
'Palestinian' terror leader referred to Wultz as "the best target we can dream of."
The government of China is the majority shareholder in the Bank of China, so the lawsuit - which has been brought in the United States - is essentially against the Chinese government.
The court transcript from a hearing on Friday before US District
Court Judge Shira Scheindlin in Manhattan indicated that at some later point,
the Bank of China was in possession of an internal Chinese government letter
recommending that the various agencies involved in the issue deny that the 2005
meeting had occurred.
The implied legal purpose of such a denial would be
for the Bank of China to deny that the Chinese government or the bank had any
prior notice from Israel, other than the lawsuit itself, that the bank was being
used as a money-laundering hub for terrorist financing for Islamic Jihad and
Hamas.
If such a denial could be pulled off, then even if the bank was
being used by Islamic Jihad and Hamas, it could be difficult or impossible to
prove the bank had any criminal intent.
Another reason the bank and China
would have wanted to deny the meeting’s occurrence would be to block Israeli
intelligence official Uzi Shaya from testifying in the case about what happened
at the meeting.
Previously, Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center head Nitsana
Dershan-Leitner told the Post that she could be compelled by the court to
testify that the government broke its promise to offer Shaya (she referred to
him only as the witness, but his name appears in the public record), as the key
witness, to testify about having put China and the bank on notice at the 2005
meeting.
...
At the hearing, Bank of China lawyer Mitchell
Berger still protested that no one from the bank was present at the meeting and
that the bank had no record of the meeting.
Berger and lawyer Lanier
Saperstein were forced, however, to admit that the 2005 meeting took place,
whether a bank representative attended or not.
Also, the lawyers appeared
uncomfortable explaining the letter suggesting that the meeting’s occurrence be
denied and the fact exploited by the plaintiff’s lawyer Lee Wolosky – that the
Chinese government is the majority shareholder of the bank.
Based on the
majority ownership, arguments could be made that if China was on notice, then
the bank was also on notice, or should have been.
I must be missing something here. Wultz was an American citizen. His parents are American citizens. This case is pending in an American court. It's no secret that the Chinese government is pressuring Bibi not to let Shaya testify. Why is there no pushback from the US government? Why isn't the US government pushing Bibi to let Shaya testify? Isn't our alliance with the US still more valuable than our trade relations with China?
What a surprise: 40% of 'Palestinians' still favor suicide bombings
And you thought that the 'Palestinians' had become peaceful....
A new Pew poll shows that 40% of the 'Palestinians' still support suicide bombings. But only 'sometimes.'
The survey, that polled Muslims in 21 countries worldwide, found that 40
percent of Palestinians believe that attacks against civilians in
defense of Islam can be often or sometimes justified.
The support for these attacks was high in the region, 29% of Egyptians
supported suicide bombings, and 15% of Jordanians. In Turkey, 15% view
these attacks as a legitimate means to defending Islam against its
enemies.
In Afghanistan, where suicide bombings against Western
targets occur frequently, 39% believed it is a justified means of
resistance.
And here's something else that ought to make the Western leftists feel all warm and cuddly....
The findings indicate that 89% of Palestinians think homosexuality is
immoral, think women must always "obey" their husband and favor the
imposition of Sharia Law into their society. A smaller amount (45%)
believe honor killing is sometimes justifiable.
Those numbers are just the Muslims who are willing to admit it. How many more were too politically correct to say so?
There's been a suicide bombing on a bus in Tel Aviv. It's at the corner of Shaul haMelech and Weizman Streets, a block or two from Ichilov Hospital.
More to follow (this will be a liveblog).
UPDATE 12:18 PM
Shaul haMelech, Weizmann and Namir. Across from the IDF headquarters. Near the courts. I used to work in the area. No bus number yet.
About 10 wounded - three moderate to serious, the rest light, at least as of now.
UPDATE 12:21 PM
Officially, not yet classified as a terror attack - just an explosion.
Double bus (accordion), mostly empty. Everyone on bus was hurt.
Bus windows all blown out. Cannot see number. It's a Dan bus.
UPDATE 12:25 PM
Apparently not a huge bomb. But lots of noise.
Israel radio is interviewing an eyewitness - a lawyer - who says that the police are not letting people out of nearby buildings because they're afraid that the terrorist was not on the bus and that he escaped. He says that the driver was brought into his office building (!) on a stretcher.
To call Ichilov Hospital if you're afraid you have relatives there, the number is 1255133 from within Israel.
Now interviewing Rina Matzliach of IDF radio. Describes what she saw. Bus with shrapnel and smoke. Thought it was a missile.
Tel Aviv police chief says it happened just after 12:00 noon. All injured already evacuated. Police now checking what caused explosion. Everything is being checked, but most likely a terror attack. They're asking about the lawyer's claim that the terrorist may be in the area. The police say they are checking everything. Didn't dismiss it flat out.
UPDATE 12:36 PM
Live television broadcast (not embeddable, Hebrew only) here.
Television says that they think that the terrorists threw the bomb onto the bus when it stopped at the corner of Shaul HaMelech and Henrietta Szold. The police are chasing after a suspect. There is no terrorist body.
UPDATE 12:40 PM
No additional explosive on the bus.
Police have caught the suspect, but not clear that he's the right one. They caught him 1-2 kilometers away. They're removing his clothes which is standard procedure when they suspect someone may have explosives on him. There may be other suspects.
UPDATE 1:03 PM
The bus was a #61 Dan Bus from Tel Aviv to Petach Tikva (makes a lot of stops).
Rumor has it that the terrorist they caught was a woman.
Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich of the IDF spokesperson's office tweeted that it happened under her window at the Kirya (IDF base in Tel Aviv).
UPDATE 1:13 PM
The person they caught was NOT the terrorist.
It was a #142 bus, not a #61. I'm not familiar with the #142.
Hamas has taken responsibility. Not clear if from Gaza or from Judea and Samaria.
This is the first terror attack in Tel Aviv in a long time.
The terrorist is short, plump with a yellow and green sweater. It was not a suicide bombing and the terrorist has (apparently) escaped.
They call on all residents of the area to go about their normal business.
Celebratory gunfire rang out in Gaza City when local radio stations reported news of the Tel Aviv explosion.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bombing, and reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
"Hamas blesses the attack in Tel Aviv and sees it as a natural response to the Israeli massacres...in Gaza," he told Reuters.
"Palestinian factions will resort to all means in order to protect our
Palestinian civilians in the absence of a world effort to stop the
Israeli aggression," Abu Zuhri said.
The last time Israel's commercial capital was hit by a serious bomb
blast was in April 2006, when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 11
people at a sandwich stand near the city's old central bus station.
(With video) Syrian Defense and Interior Ministers, Army Deputy Chief of Staff, killed in Damascus suicide bombing
Syria's Defense and Interior Ministers and its army's Deputy Chief of Staff have been killed in a suicide bombing in Damascus.
Syrian state television said a "terrorist explosion" which struck a national security building in Damascus killed the country's defense minister and critically injured its interior minister on Wednesday.
Israel Radio reported at 2:00 that the interior minister is also dead.
Activists at the scene said that Republican Guard troops sealed off Damascus's Shami Hospital after ambulances arrived with casualties from the explosion.
A report from Lebanese-based news channel Al-Mayadeen said that several senior security officials were killed in the explosion.
The bombing followed a night in which there was heavier fighting in Damascus than there has been at any other time. Read the whole thing.
Assef Shawkat, brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, was killed in a bomb attack which targeted a meeting of Assad's top security and military officials on Wednesday, Hezbollah's al-Manar television and a security source in Syria said.
The security source told Reuters Shawkat died in a Damascus hospital where he was taken after the attack. State television earlier said Defence Minister Daoud Rajha was also killed in the bombing.
Israel Radio identified Shawkat as Assad's brother-in-law.
New poll: Nearly half of 'Palestinians' support terror attacks against Jews... inside the 1949 armistice lines
On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the deaths of 30 Jews in the Park Hotel in Netanya (pictured), the Zionist Organization of America reports that nearly half of 'Palestinians' still favor murderous terror attacks against Jews. And that's just inside the 1949 armistice lines.
A new poll has shown that nearly half of all Palestinians - 47.5% - support terrorist attacks upon Israeli civilians inside the 1949 armistice lines. The poll, conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) between March 15-17, 2012, also found that, if new presidential elections were to take place today, the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA)'s Mahmoud Abbas would win 53% of the vote, while Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh would secure 42%. (Hamas, like Fatah, is not only a terrorist organization, but calls in its charter for the worldwide murder of Jews). Also, 55% of Palestinians reject the proposal that, should a Palestinian state be established alongside Israel, there be mutual recognition encompassing recognition of Israel as the state of the Jewish people, whereas only 43% accept this proposal. (Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No (43), Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, April 3, 2012).
There's been another suicide bombing in the Maidan section of Damascus. Official reports say 25 people have been killed, but I've already heard several reports (including the one I'm about to show you) that say 'dozens' have been killed.
The incident took place in the al-Midan quarter of Damascus. Casualties included mostly civilians and some law enforcement personnel, the Syrian Arab News Agency said.
The news agency said the bomb went off at a traffic light "in a densely populated area" with heavy traffic. It occurred near Hassan al-Hakeem Basic Education School.
No one has claimed responsibility for the action. It comes a couple of days after the Free Syrian Army, the force of military defectors fighting the Bashar al-Assad regime, vowed to kick off "huge operations" against government targets.
The Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists which collects reports from eyewitnesses and protesters, reported a heavy presence of ambulances and security forces in Damascus, with explosions heard around the area.
Here's another video from Reuters.
Let's go to the videotape.
The last time this happened, there were rumors that the Syrian government was behind it. That would not be a great surprise.
Two booby-trapped cars exploded in Damascus on Friday morning killing 40 people and wounding 100. The Syrian government is blaming al-Qaeda.
Two booby-trapped cars blew up at security sites in Damascus on Friday, killing a number of civilians and soldiers, state television said, in the worst violence to hit Syria's capital during nine months of unrest against President Bashar Assad.
Syria's Dunia television channel put the number of dead from the blasts at 40 with 100 wounded and said most of the casualties were civilians. Dunia cited information from its own correspondents at the scene.
Syrian television described the attack as a suicide bombing and said initial inquiries indicated al Qaeda was behind it.
The attack came a day after the arrival of Arab League officials to prepare for a monitoring team that will check whether Assad is implementing a plan to end the bloodshed.
State television broadcast footage of bloodied bodies being carried in blankets and stretchers into ambulances and people hunting through rubble of a badly damaged building.
A Reuters cameraman was barred from the site. State television also broadcast shots of bloodied streets littered with mangled human remains and blackened debris.
State television said the blasts targeted a state security administration building and a local security branch.
I have video for you, but it's in Arabic. Let's go to the videotape.
Dr. Walid Phares argues that the recent suicide bombing in Stockholm shows that attempts to remain neutral in the war on terror are doomed to failure.
Until Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly’s explosive belt went off prematurely in Stockholm last month, Sweden was the poster child for isolationism in the war on terror. While Abdulwahab’s bomb failed to achieve his desired result, it did obliterate the myth that nations can remain neutral to global terrorism.
Abdulwahab’s failed attack typifies the jihadis’ all-out war against “infidels.” He was a doctrinaire jihadist with ties to a local militant Islamist organization, and his attack didn’t spring up out of nowhere. There had already been warning signs that terrorists were mobilizing against the Scandinavian democracy. Militants had threatened Swedish artist Lars Vilks for his satirical cartoon portrayal of the prophet Mohammed, attacking his home and attempting to murder him with an axe. Others threatened Vilks.
The Iraq-born Abdulwahab was a member of the Facebook group “Islamic Caliphate State.” He lived in Luton in Bedfordshire, England, home to four of the terrorists who killed 52 and injured more than 2,000 in the 7/7 train bombings.
Swedish authorities claimed that Abdulwahab had been “completely unknown” to them before the blast, and that they were trying to ascertain when he was first “radicalized.” Swedish prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand said that the country’s security apparatus “was not a Stasi organization engaged in analyzing people’s Facebook pages.”
The irony is that Abdulwahab’s musings on Facebook are the only evidence of his radicalism prior to the attack.
Farasat Latif, the secretary of the Luton mosque to which Abdulwahab belonged, said, “Despite Abdulwahab’s extreme views nothing pointed to the fact that he was going to do something stupid.”
Unfortunately, I think we're reaching the point in the West where we have to assume that any Muslim might do 'something stupid' until we can affirmatively prove otherwise.
Phares sums up:
European authorities have a lot of catching up to do. Whether or not they wish to admit it, they are at war. Even when jihadists act as “lone wolves,” they always have ties to some kind of radicalizing environment. The internet is always a vehicle for radicalization, but small cadres of global jihadists create the habitat that cultivates terrorists like Abdulwahab. Luton had been a known hotbed of radicalization since July 7, 2005.
The Swedes have now joined the community of nations besieged by Salafi terrorists. They may entertain notions of neutrality, but the jihadists who attack them don’t care.
Indeed. What it will take to get them to start catching up?
As I am sure most of you have already heard, there was a suicide bombing in Stockholm on Saturday night. The bomber was not a Lutheran. The Swedes hurried to call it 'terrorism,' a term they would not have hurried to use regarding Hamas.
I'm sure a lot of you were surprised that Sweden has been targeted for Islamist suicide bombings, especially in light of the fact that country has made it clear that it stands against Israel. But you shouldn't be surprised. The Islamists have far bigger goals than the destruction of the State of Israel. Robert Spencer explains what they're after now (Hat Tip: Jihad Watch).
So if this effort succeeds entirely, and it becomes illegal in Sweden to speak critically of Islam or Muhammad (if that isn’t functionally the case there now already), will there be no more acts of jihad against Sweden?
Again, this is unlikely. For behind all these shifting pretexts is an imperative that cannot be placated: the mandate, rooted in Islamic doctrine, to wage war against unbelievers until they either convert to Islam or submit as inferiors to the rule of Islamic law. The pretexts always shift, and are useful to stir up a righteous anger against Infidels that is useful for making recruits among peaceful Muslims, but if one cause of that anger is taken away, the anger itself will not dissipate. Instead, it will just find another object, and manufacture a grievance to use for that purpose if necessary. The anger itself, and the resultant jihad, are the only thing that is constant.
So while the audio file sent to the Swedish news agency spoke of Afghanistan, insults to Muhammad, and Lars Vilks, the biggest mistake embattled Swedish Infidels could make would be to think that if reasonable accommodation were made in Sweden’s military posture and attitude toward speech about Islam, a lasting peace with the Muslims in their midst would then ensue. A prediction: a period of calm may indeed come in that case, but it would only be the calm before a greater storm than ever, as Islamic supremacists newly emboldened by Sweden’s show of weakness in making these accommodations would press forward even more fiercely than before.
And one thing is certain: Western governments, possibly including Sweden itself, will amply prove the truth of that prediction by the policies they adopt and pursue in the next few years.
Iranian blood libel claims US and Israel behind suicide bombing
The Iranian news agency FARS is claiming that the United States and Israel were behind a suicide bombing that took place in Istanbul last Sunday. The bombing has been blamed on the Kurdish PKK (which denies it) and on al-Qaeda. But the Iranians think they know better.
A source privy to the investigations into Istanbul's Sunday blast revealed that the US embassy in Turkey had convincing information about the terrorist attack in the Taksim Square days before the incident, and stressed that the terrorist measure was a response to Ankara's latest security assessment which named the Zionist regime as the No 1 threat to Turkey's national security.
The source quoted Uzjan, the manager of the Ramli Khan restaurant near the scene of the blast, as saying that the restaurant was scheduled to host a Halloween party and 30 foreign nationals were to attend the party, among them 9 Americans.
"A day before the party, a number of our guests announced that they couldn't attend the party since the US embassy in Turkey has warned the 9 American nationals about an impending bomb attack," the source quoted Uzjan as saying after the blast.
Analysts see the incident as the scene of another confrontation between Washington and Turkey after Ankara rejected a US demand for erecting a missile shield in Turkey's border regions with Iran.
This reminds me of the Muslims who claim that Israel was behind 9/11 and 'back it up' with unsubstantiated claims that Jews didn't come to work that day.
And Israel's supposed role in all this? Well, there really isn't one. They just claim that Israel's media is trying to revive tensions between Turks and Kurds by blaming the Kurds for the bombing. If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell you.
But something tells me that much of the UN (especially the 'human rights council') will believe it.
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
