Saudi student in Pensacola murders 3 people at naval base

A Saudi student who may have gotten his entry visa during Obama's administration caused tragedy in Florida:

At least three people were killed and multiple others were injured in a shooting at a naval base in Pensacola, Florida, on Friday morning, the US Navy said.

The shooter at Naval Air Station Pensacola has been confirmed dead, the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and the Navy said.

"Active shooter is deceased. One additional fatality has been confirmed. Unknown number of injured people being transferred to local hospitals," said a Navy tweet.

A spokeswoman with nearby Baptist Health Care said the hospital had received five patients.

A US official said on Friday afternoon that the shooting suspect was an aviation student from Saudi Arabia. Authorities are investigating if the shooting was terrorism-related, according to The Associated Press.

Donald Trump's already condemned the shooter and offered condolences to the victims. This is why entries from a horror zone like Saudi Arabia have to be stopped.

Update: additional reports state that 6 more Saudis were arrested for interrogation following the tragedy.

2 members of Lieberman's party want a right-wing government

Avigdor Lieberman's facing pressures within his own party to cut out undermining the formation of a government:

Lawmakers from the secular rightist Yisrael Beytenu party are pressing party chairman Avidgor Liberman to help Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu form a narrow right-wing government if talks for a unity government fail, Channel 12 reported Tuesday afternoon.

According to the Channel 12 report, senior Yisrael Beytenu members, including MK Oded Forer and MK Hamad Amar, are pressuring party chairman Avidgor Liberman to join a narrow rightist government led by Binyamin Netanyahu, rather than let Israel go to its third general election in a year, if unity talks between the Likud and the Blue and White party fail to achieve a breakthrough.

“The State of Israel cannot bear a third election in one year,” the two MKs are reported as saying to Liberman. “There is a country here to run. Blue and White said that they’d put ‘Israel ahead of everything else’, but they are turning down every offer.”

“The time has come to make them pay a price. Blue and White and Yair Lapid need to know that if they continue to refuse [offers for a unity government], then the alternative will be a narrow right-wing government in order to prevent new elections.”

Well that's pretty amazing somebody's willing to talk the sense that should've been brought up before. I don't think Blue & White even cares if there's to be a 3rd election, and Lieberman probably doesn't either. They're just undermining stability, much like attorney-general Avichai Mendelblit is, and if these members of Lieberman's party really care, they'll break off from what's clearly a party centered around one man only, and join up with the rest of the right instead. This whole charade's gone too far already. It's time for it to stop.

Bennett, as defense minister, approves new Jewish neighborhood in Hebron

This is amazing. In his new role as defense minister, Naftali Bennett's taken a positive step for enabling Jews to live in more of Hebron again:

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday ordered the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria to notify the Hevron municipality of the planning a new Jewish neighborhood in the historic Jewish marketplace.

In accordance with the Minister's directive, the Civil Administration will send a letter on the matter to the Hevron municipality.

The decision is expected to end years of legal and political battles over the fate of the marketplace, which has sat abandoned for decades even after Jews began to return to Hevron following the 1967 Six-Day War.

The new neighborhood will create a territorial continuum from the Cave of the Patriarchs to the Avraham Avinu neighborhood and double the number of Jewish residents in the city.

This is certainly a step in the right direction. Ayelet Shaked followed up with this:

New Right chairman MK Ayelet Shaked praised Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's decision on Sunday to approve Jewish construction in Hebron and spoke about efforts to prevent a third election campaign. [...]

Regarding Defense Minister Naftali Bennett's decision to approve Jewish construction in Hebron, Shaked said. "I spent two years of my life as justice minister, together with Liberman as defense minister. We presented a professional legal opinion, the Attorney General approved it and Naftali Bennett made a courageous decision and sent a letter to the Hevron municipality, informing them that the protected housing has expired."

"Attorney General Mandelblit is an expert on international law and this was the joint work of the Defense and Justice Ministries. In light of the strong legal opinions of the Defense and Justice Ministries. I believe the matter will pass in court. We carried out very serious legal work. There is no reason for the Supreme Court to invalidate it. The Supreme Court today is more diverse and conservative and it's indisputable that this is private Jewish land."

Shaked explained that Jewish construction in Hebron's wholesale market complex is the closing of a circle. "The land of those killed during the Hevron massacre in 1929 has been in the hands of the mayor of Hevron, a murderer, until now." [The mayor of Hevron, Tayseer Abu Shneineh, is one of four Palestinian terrorists who was convicted for killing six Jews in a Hevron alley in 1980, including 2 US citizens and one Canadian. He was sentenced to life in prison but released in a subsequent prisoner exchange.]

"Now Bennett took this land from the hands of a terrorist and will establish a Jewish neighborhood there," Shaked concluded.

On this, she's hit some positive stride. This is real justice for Israel.

British prison and legal system released terrorist who went on to murder 2 people at London Bridge

The disastrous justice system in the UK struck again, and allowed an ostensibly convicted terrorist to exit prison, where he soon went and murdered at least two people by the London Bridge:

Details are emerging on London Bridge killer Usman Khan, a convicted terrorist who was freed from prison on an electronic tag and apparently attending a prisoner rehabilitation event when he struck, killing two.

Khan was imprisoned for his part in a plot to bomb the London Stock Exchange and pubs in Stoke, as well as planning to establish a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, in 2012, and originally serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection (IPP) — meaning he could have been kept behind bars as long as the relevant authorities deemed him too dangerous to release.

However, Court of Appeal judges led by Lord Leveson quashed his IPP in 2013 and swapped it for a fixed term of 16 years, with eligibility for release on licence at the halfway point — as is standard in the British criminal justice system.

The culprit was tackled with a narwhal tusk by a nearby chef, but it still doesn't change the fact that more defenseless victims lost their lives, and the UK doesn't look to be changing their ban on firearms for self-defense either. If they don't change the laws soon, chances are they never will.

French prosecution pathetically drops murder charge against Sarah Halimi's murderer

The prosecutor in charge of the Sarah Halimi murder has demonstrated just how bad people like him are for the job:

A French prosecutor has dropped charges against the killer of Jewish kindergarten teacher Sarah Halimi after experts ruled he had suffered a massive psychotic episode by smoking cannabis.

Ms Halimi, who was Orthodox, was killed after Kobili Traoré broke into her council flat in eastern Paris on April 4 2017.

Witnesses said the 65-year-old was beaten and called a “demon” by her attacker, who recited Koranic verses as he threw her off her balcony.

In an appeals court hearing on Wednesday Traoré admitted killing Ms Halimi, saying he was not aware of his actions on the night of the murder and did not recognise when he broke in.

“I felt persecuted. When I saw the Torah and a chandelier in her home I felt oppressed. I saw her face transforming,” he said.

But in a rare turn of events, French prosecutors were divided on how to proceed.

Local prosecutors in Paris initially argued that Kobili Traoré should be put on trial for his actions. But they were opposed by the more senior procureur général, which argued Traoré should be hospitalised.

This is telling something too. Atop that, they even buy into his "defense" at complete face value, and clearly because they planned it.

Francis Szpiner, another Halimi family lawyer, said the case was setting a historic precedent: “You’re saying that people can walk free after carrying out criminal action just because they were allegedly not aware of the effects of drugs or other substances?

“Will this also apply to drunk drivers who kill children on the road?”

The court will rule on December 19 on whether Traoré should face trial.

If they fail even that, they've only perpetuated the French justice system as one of the poorest on earth. They've also let rapists off the hook over these shoddy excuses, and this case too sets a most horrific precedent.

Avichai Mandelblit predeterminedly decides to indict Netanyahu on petty charges. It's Mandelblit who should resign

The undeserved attorney-general in Israel has decided, in what's clearly a case of already making up his mind where he stands, to indict the prime minister over trumped up accusations:

PM Netanyahu will stand trial in three corruption cases, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit decided on Thursday.

In all three cases in which he is a suspect – Cases 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 – Netanyahu will be indicted for fraud and breach of trust (under Israeli law fraud and breach of trust is one count).

The Likud already expected this:

MK Miki Zohar (Likud) responded to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit's decision to indict Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday evening.

"The first emotion that comes up for me is great sadness. I'm pained that the prime minister has received such a "wonderful gift" from the state for dedicating the best years of his life for it."

"We knew it all in advance. We knew the Attorney-General wouldn't withstand the pressure exerted on him. We knew that Shai Nitzan fought with all his might to file serious indictments against the prime minister at any price."

"We won't be silent, we won't concede," Zohar concluded.

It's clear the so-called attorney-general is unsuited to the job he's in, and should resign. He's an otherwise dishonest man with no appreciation of any of the positives Netanyahu worked hard to bring about during his career, and therefore, he doesn't deserve the job or the pay coming with it.

It's said Netanyahu can seek immunity in the Knesset, but if there's no majority to work on the concept, it won't be possible. This is hugely regrettable this has to take place at a time when Israel is facing far more serious issues such as Iran's nuclear weapons and the terrorists in Gaza.

Gantz fails to form government, blames parts of his own party for failure

Leftist Benny Gantz failed to form a coalition within the required Knesset deadline, and has given the mandate back to president Reuven Rivlin. But what's really fascinating is that now, he's blaming some notable parts of his own party for the failure, as much as he is prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Gantz was even willing to form a minority government propped up by the Islamic party:

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has reportedly accused the right-wing flank of his party of thwarting a bid to form a minority government bolstered by the predominantly Arab Joint List, and said his partnership with Yair Lapid reduced the chances of a unity government with Likud.

“Because of Yoaz [Hendel] and Tzvika [Hauser], I am not prime minister, and because of Lapid, the chances of unity dropped,” Gantz was quoted by Channel 12 as telling associates on Wednesday on two occasions.

Gantz on Wednesday night informed President Reuven Rivlin he had failed to form a governing coalition, paving the way to a likely third round of elections in under a year. The centrist leader conceded defeat in a phone call with the president after unity talks with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud and Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu broke down.

Liberman hasn't proven any better so far, and if anybody's still willing to vote for him after all the trouble he's caused, they'll be perpetuating a bad situation at a time when the Hamas and Islamic Jihad are proving a local threat.

The Blue and White leader had openly sought a unity government with Likud. Reports indicated Gantz’s party had also explored the possibility of a minority government propped up by outside support from the Joint List of Arab-led parties.

But according to Channel 12, Blue and White MKs Hendel, a former Netanyahu aide, and Hauser, a former cabinet secretary who also served under the Likud leader, reportedly warned they would oppose such an arrangement.

The report also said the hawkish Liberman was not willing to join such a coalition due to his acrimony toward the Arab lawmakers, but would have abstained in no-confidence votes, effectively keeping it afloat. But Hauser and Hendel’s votes were needed to have an edge over Netanyahu’s 55-MK bloc of right-wing and religious political allies.

Gantz was also quoted as attributing the failure to his collaboration with Lapid, without elaborating.

Basically, an impossible alliance. It'll remain to be seen if and how much longer they continue together, because they don't work well together at all, and nobody should delude themselves into thinking this is a great party formation. Why, who knows if Gantz even wanted to form a government for real?

With Gantz’s declaration of failure, the country’s year-long spiraling political chaos entered uncharted territory, formally laid out in law but never before exercised: Israeli lawmakers now have 21 days during which any 61 Knesset members can back any MK as prime minister, including Netanyahu or Gantz. If that doesn’t occur, Israel will go to unprecedented third elections in under a year, likely in mid-March.

I do hope it doesn't have to happen. But if it does, it's also because of all the infighting on the right, which Naftali Bennett for one, led to. Now that they may have joined up with the Likud, it's to be hoped he's repenting and neither he nor Ayelet Shaked will ever try those offensive tricks of theirs ever again. We'll see how things turn out in the next month.

Historic declaration by Trump administration: Israeli villages in Judea/Samaria are not illegal

Secretary of state Mike Pompeo made a very significant announcement in Israel's favor:

In a historic reversal of US policy, the Trump administration announced on Monday that it does not view Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. The policy change was announced by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington.

“After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate, this administration agrees with president Reagan,” Pompeo said in reference to Ronald Reagan’s position that settlements were not inherently illegal. “The establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Pompeo, saying “the United States adopted an important policy that rights a historical wrong when the Trump administration clearly rejected the false claim that Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria are inherently illegal under international law.

“This policy reflects an historical truth – that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in Judea and Samaria. In fact, we are called Jews because we are the people of Judea.”

One of things that makes this important is that it helps deal a rebuttal to the European Union court that recently declared that all Israeli products from Judea/Samaria must be labeled as such, which only served the purpose of the BDS movement. This US declaration, however, handily deals a blow to that offensive position in Europe, along with the BDS movement itself. Why, it even leaves Benny Gantz with far less of a platform, if he believes in negatives for Israel.

Mike Evans wrote about this historic moment:

Why is this a big deal? This is a major blow to the BDS movement, which calls to “boycott, divest and sanction” the State of Israel, in addition to being a snub to the recent call by the European Court of Justice to label products from Jewish businesses in Judea and Samaria. The court ruled that: “Foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin.”

Well now it won't be so easy, and the US did state they were deeply concerned about a week ago. Following this news, Netanyahu approved a bill for annexing the Jordan valley today:

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave his approval on Tuesday to advance a bill that would have Israel apply sovereignty to the Jordan Valley after the US State Department reversed its stance of viewing Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal. [...]

Likud MK Sharren Haskel proposed the annexation bill weeks ago, but decided to fast-track it in light of the change in US policy.

“The bill has the prime minister’s full backing,” Haskel said. [...]

Haskel submitted a request to exempt her bill to annex the Jordan Valley from the mandatory six-week waiting period for any new legislation so that it can go to a vote in the plenum next week. The request will be subject to a vote in the Knesset Arrangements Committee, led by Blue and White MK Avi Nissenkorn while his party’s leader Benny Gantz has the mandate to build a government.

Haskel called on Blue and White, Yisrael Beytenu and Labor-Gesher to join the Likud’s efforts to annex the Jordan Valley, “in light of the one-time-only chance that we have before us” with US President Donald Trump’s administration.

“I call on them to stand behind their promises and words, and vote together with the Likud on applying sovereignty,” Haskel said. “There is no reason that this important bill won’t pass in the plenum with an 80-MK majority.”

It'll certainly be interesting to see if Benny Gantz's party is willing to support this, along with Liberman's party, and Labor. They'd do well to support the bill, if they really want to prove they respect history and safety for Israel.

Update: Caroline Glick also praised the announcement.

UK Labour member resigns over Israel-bashing writing

A member of the UK Labour party quit after it was revealed she'd compared Israel to child abusers:

A member of Britain’s Labour party resigned on Wednesday after it emerged that she had equated the actions of Israel to those of a child abuser, reports the Jewish Chronicle.

According to the report, Labour leaders called Kate Ramsden for an inquiry, after the party found a post on her blog written in 2014 that seemed to compare the brutality against the Jews during the Holocaust to the way that Israel treats the Palestinians. [...]

Despite the blatant anti-Semitic post, leaders of Labour agreed to keep Ramsden on the ticket as long as she deleted the post. However, after the post became public knowledge she was forced to resign, the report discovered.

I'm sure they'd still rather keep her around, despite how vile her comments were. And no doubt, there's more reprehensible people in the party who'll remain, so long as they refrain from writing the kind of slop she did. Exactly why the Labour party is such a bad omen.

Careful attention still needs to be given to how Gantz and Yisrael Beiteinu conduct affairs with Joint Arab List

In the first of two concerning articles, it's reported that Benny Gantz's Blue & White party may invite the Arab parties for discussions, now that Benjamin Netanyahu's had to hand back the mandate on forming a government to the president, and it now passes over to Gantz:

Blue and White intends to invite representatives of the Joint Arab List to the coalition negotiations as well, according to Kan Reshet Bet, citing officials close to Blue and White leader MK Benny Gantz.

It should be noted that Blue and White emphasizes that members of the party's coalition negotiations team intend to first invite members of the Likud negotiating team for talks, but that afterward, members of all parties will be invited. It is estimated that Gantz will not settle for this invitation, but will try to hold a one-on-one meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu to examine the possibility of joining a unity government.

This will be the first time in some 20 years that members of the Joint List are invited to the coalition talks. However, Kan Reshet Bet noted, MK Gantz does not explicitly guarantee that members of the Joint List will be part of a government headed by him, should one be established.

Doesn't matter. They'll still prove extremely dangerous, and are. It's just like such awful people to be willing to do whatever's possible to form a government solely for the sake of ousting Netanyahu, and implementing potentially damaging policies.

In the second, a member of Avigdor Lieberman's party isn't ruling out cooperating with the Joint Arab List:

MK Oded Forer of Yisrael Beytenu does not rule out his party's cooperation with the Joint Arab List in establishing the next government.

In an interview with Kalman-Lieberman on Reshet Bet, Forer said that "The question we will be asking, and will not stop asking, is what the basic principles of the government are."

A better question is, what are this party's own principles? They sure don't seem like much of anything, that's for sure, and as a result, they can't be trusted either.

If Mendelblit chooses to indict Netanyahu over petty issues, he'll be destroying democracy

Caroline Glick spoke of how the leftist-run prosecution in Israel is utterly obsessed with getting rid of Netanyahu at the expense of democracy:

The ongoing criminal probes against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are reaching their climax. After conducting a marathon four-day pre-indictment hearing for Netanyahu earlier this month, Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit reportedly intends to complete his review of the state prosecution’s cases and decide whether to indict Israel’s longest-serving prime minister by the end of next month. The main charges against Netanyahu relate to his associations with media owners.

For three years, illegal leaks from the investigations have dominated the news. The key question – indeed, just about the only question – that has been endlessly discussed is whether or not Mendelblit will end Netanyahu’s political career by indicting him on corruption charges.

The importance of this question is self-evident. On the one hand, we have a democratically elected leader. On the other hand, we have unelected state prosecutors who wish to oust him from power by indicting him.

For nearly a year, Israeli politics have been in a state of chaos because of the criminal probes. The probes played a central role in the April Knesset elections and arguably were the primary reason that Netanyahu failed to form a coalition despite his electoral victory. Today the probes and Mendelblit’s deliberations are the primary reason that no one can form a government in the wake of last month’s repeat elections. If Israel holds a third election in the coming months, the probes will again be the central issue determining both the result and the ability of whoever wins to form a government. The center-left Blue and White party is using the probes as an excuse to refuse to join a coalition government with Netanyahu.

While the probes’ impact on Netanyahu’s political future is a key question, and on the composition of the next government is certainly a big deal, neither of these issues is the central matter than hangs in the balance as Mendelblit holds his deliberations.

If Israel’s attorney general relies on these probes as a means to end Netanyahu’s career, he will do far more than overthrow a political leader. He will embrace a legal doctrine that rejects the very essence of democracy.

Read the entire item.

Ambassador Friedman says uprooting is inhumane

USA ambassador David Friedman's made an important statement in an interview with Israel National News that Benny Gantz and even the Meretz party would do well to ponder, as it happens to be in the favor of everyone who believes in Israel's safety and not in segregation:

What can you tell us about the future of the settlements in Judea and Samaria under the plan?

“That is a very important part of the plan. I don’t want to get too into it, but I’ll tell you something which I’ve said on numerous occasions: Having seen the experience of the evacuation of Gaza, I don’t believe that there is a realistic plan that can be implemented that will require anyone, Jew or Arab, to be forced to leave their home. That would be recipe for disaster It almost caused a civil war on much, much less aggressive circumstances in Gaza, compared to Judea and Samaria. So we are not of the view that any forced evacuations are achievable. And I say that for both Jewish and Arab perspectives."

And how about construction? Is there still discussion and coordination over the years or are we only waiting for this deal?

We have discussion and coordination, but the facts speak for themselves. We have not been critical of settlements in any absolute sense. We've expressed our views in the past and have been consistent in those views. But the surest way to resolve all these issues is to come up with a structure that the state of Israel can agree to, where everybody knows, and we don't have these quarterly or monthly issues about settlements.

No uprooting?

No. It's frankly an inhumane process - speaking about Jews or Arabs. It failed in 2006, produced an extreme adverse reaction among Israelis. I think it's a failed policy, and not something that we would advance.

And if Gantz and other leftists like him are smart, they won't do it either if they're chosen to form a government, mainly because they will not have the support of the USA for any such vile steps, and unlike times past, this time can lead to trouble for them. It's also vital to note that the State Department recently dropped "palestinian territories" from its website listings, and for good reason. There's no need to keep perpetuating lies that have practically come at the USA's expense as much as Israel's and many other countries around the globe.

Friedman's willingness to speak up on a crucial subject like this is commendable, and very helpful to all in Israel who support historical birthright and unity.

Media profiteers sensationalize mass shootings

Here's an eyebrow raising article on Ammo's website about how the mainstream media's been profiteering from mass shootings, which it portrays in an otherwise sensationalized way, and it goes without saying that's extremely offensive, and does a terrible disfavor to victims of violent crimes.

A jihadist in Berlin was released from custody after threatening a synagogue with a knife

In contrast to the case of a German gunman who tried to attack a synagogue in Halle, a Syrian immigrant who yelled phrases typical of jihadists was released in Berlin after posting a threat at a local synagogue:

Berliners have expressed disbelief after a Syrian migrant who stormed a synagogue with a knife yelling “Allah hu Akbar!” was freed from jail only a day later.

The incident occurred at a synagogue in the middle of Berlin on a Friday. Syrian migrant Mohammed M., 23, climbed over a security fence armed with an eight-inch-long knife and stormed the building while yelling “Fuck Israel!” and “Allah hu Akbar!” before security guards pepper-sprayed him, Bild reports.

Police subsequently arrested the 23-year-old, but he was released the next day. According to a police spokesman, the local prosecutor did not consider the man was sincerely trying to hurt anyone, just trying to threaten them.

It's really no shock that a government and authorities who consider "right-wingers" more of a threat than Islamofascists would do such a thing. There's really no point in expressing disbelief. Nor is it shocking they would think that somebody carrying a sharp weapon doesn't pose any kind of felony violation. That's just why Europe is so overrun now with jihadism and antisemitism.

A terrorist in Germany murdered 2 people on Yom Kippur near a synagogue

In Germany, main headquarters of the National Socialist dictatorship during WW2, a terrorist murdered at least 2 people at a synagogue on Yom Kippur, and the worst part is that he ostensibly "represented" opponents of Islamic immigration and left-wing feminism:

A gunman killed two people in a synagogue and a nearby kebab shop on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, in an attack in the German city of Halle that he livestreamed on a video-gaming platform.

Before he began shooting on Wednesday, the attacker also broadcast an antisemitic manifesto online.

Several German media outlets said the perpetrator acted alone in the attacks, in which a woman was killed outside the synagogue and a man in the kebab shop. Police said they had detained one person.

Regional broadcaster MDR said the lives of two people who were seriously injured were no longer in danger.

The video circulating online showed a young man with a shaven head reciting a short statement in broken English to a camera while sitting in a parked car.

"I think the Holocaust never happened," he began, before adding "feminism is the cause of decline in birth rates in the West," mentioning mass immigration and concluding: "The root of all these problems is the Jew."

A spokeswoman for Amazon's video streaming subsidiary Twitch said footage of the shooting attack was livestreamed on the service.

"We worked with urgency to remove this content and will permanently suspend any accounts found to be posting or reposting content of this abhorrent act," she said.

In the video, the man drove to the synagogue, found the gates shut, swore, and after failing to force the gates open, shot several rounds into a woman passer-by.

German magazines Spiegel and Focus Online reported that the suspect was a 27-year old German.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said the shooting was anti-Semitic, adding: "According to the federal prosecutors' office, there are enough indications that it was possibly a right-wing extremist motive."

Frankly, even if it wasn't an Islamic jihadist who committed the repulsive act, it's offensive to pin the blame on right-wingers at convenience. But, if anything's chilling here, it's how a certain somebody chose to pin the blame on Islam's very target - Jews. Suggesting he's not opposed to Islamic anti-semitism, and I wouldn't be shocked if, despite his accusations against feminism, he doesn't have a problem with feminism either, or Muslim immigration. In other words, what if he was a "plant"?

All the filthy culprit did was provide ammunition to supporters of Islam and feminism as a result of his actions, which sought the cowardly route of attacking one of the biggest victims of the same. Neither of which, you can be sure, have any genuine concerns about anti-semitism.

President Rivlin supports unity government

Israeli president Reuven Rivlin's done something good today, recommending that there be a unity government:

Likud representatives told Rivlin that they are recommending Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to receive the mandate. "When we began these elections we asked the public for a mandate to form a right-wing government with our partners in the previous government," Minister Levin told Rivlin. "We have to make every effort to reconcile what we wanted, what we presented to the public and reality."

Rivlin responded that "the people of Israel want a government that will be stable and be capable of leading the state. As an Israeli citizen, I feel that the only way to prevent [another] election is the ability of the two large parties - which are almost equal in size - to join forces and form a government."

Considering the dreadful situation Avigdor Lieberman's led to, that's why it's a good thing Rivlin's thought of this. Interestingly enough, while much of the Joint Arab List decided this time to support Gantz, the Balad faction did not:

While the Joint List made history on Sunday evening when its leader, Ayman Odeh, recommended Gantz for prime minister in its meeting with Rivlin, Blue and White officials downplayed the endorsement, because Balad’s three MKs did not endorse anyone, leaving Netanyahu with a majority of recommendations. Yisrael Beytenu did not recommend anyone.

Even if Lieberman didn't, that still doesn't make his stunts of recent acceptable. And indeed, they're not. But what's transpired now is mostly a good thing, though it still remains to be seen how this is going to turn out.

Knesset is still in a deadlock

There's no clear winner in this re-do election in Israel. When exit polls came in, it looked like Blue and White got more, even though their support may have slipped, and the Joint Arab List may have done better than expected. Now, as nearly 40 percent of votes are counted, it looks like the Likud might've done a bit better, but Avigdor Lieberman's still remained a kingmaker, astonishingly enough:

Exit polls published on Tuesday night showed that Blue and White was the largest party in the Knesset and is followed by the Likud, but it does not appear that either party has enough seats to form a coalition.

Avigdor Liberman’s Yisrael Beytenu party will probably be the deciding factor in determining who will head Israel’s next government – Binyamin Netanyahu or Benny Gantz.

Well this has been a very disappointing election, mainly because Otzma Yehudit just had to run till the end. I think if Itamar ben-Gvir's smart, he'll disappear altogether from the political scene. This has been a very sad situation.

Some history on the 9-11 attacks

The Ammo website has a whole history article about the horrifying jihad attacks by al Qaeda that destroyed the World Trade Center, and what happened in the years after as the war on terrorism came about.

"Deal of the Century" could be a very positive project

In this video from one of Benjamin Netanyahu's press conferences, he spoke of applying official sovereignty to Judea/Samaria, and indicates this is what Donald Trump's Deal of the Century could be about:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a press conference Tuesday evening to make a "dramatic statement about the Trump Administration's "Deal of the Century."

"We are on the eve of the elections. President Trump said he will present his Deal of the Century few days after the election and it is just around the corner. This presents us with a great challenge and a great opportunity to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria and other areas," Netanyahu said.

The prime minister announced that after the elections he would apply Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea area.

"There is one place that Israeli sovereignty can be applied immediately after the elections if Israeli citizens let me in. Today I announce my intention to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea," he declared.

"This will be our defensive belt to the east. It ensures that we will never be a country a few miles wide," Netanyahu said.

I think this is a very positive statement he's made, one that could greatly benefit Israel in the future. So I hope it'll help the Likud in the election next week.

In another form of good news, US ambassador David Friedman attended the opening of a yeshiva in Sderot:

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and Rabbi Rafi Peretz attended today's inauguration ceremony and laid a cornerstone for expanding the study hall at the Sderot Yeshiva.

The interior structure was donated by David E. Feldman to memorialize Rabbanit Goldie Fendel, the mother of Rabbi David Fendel of the yeshiva.

The event opened with singing and dancing in the new building's plaza and affixing a mezuzah by the U.S. Ambassador. A cornerstone was then dedicated to expand the Beit Midrash.

Education Minister Rafi Peretz said: "We're all with the Gaza area communities, the entire way; we're in the same boat, what the Yeshiva students have been doing here for many years is great. It's great to see the living Torah, the breathing Torah. Exactly what we read in the Haftarah prophet's reading last Shabbat: 'Comfort, comfort my people; Speak to the heart of Jerusalem'; this is the consolation, surely Isaiah the Prophet sees such a yeshiva, the robustness of the Torah, the robustness of such a city - and he is proud."

Peretz referred to attacks on religious Zionism by Leftist politicians: "You hear the attacks; religious Zionism works, it does its work faithfully, it goes out to give to the people of Israel everywhere, with great love for this people."

Ambassador Friedman said at the event: "I want to congratulate the Mayor, all the students, and the yeshiva, who continue the great way you are traversing. Rabbi Meir Fendel, the father of the yeshiva (Rabbi David) was my manager in America. I remember he set up a yeshiva in Long Island, in a place with no Torah at all, 'in an uncultivated land', and there he established a venue of Torah where my brothers and I learned and from there I received the love of the State of Israel and my Zionism.

"I remember like yesterday when I was in third grade when the Six Day War started; we stopped classwork and followed what was going on in the country, and when we won we were really happy for the State of Israel. A large percentage of what I am today I received from my studies at Rabbi Fendel's school.

"In my job, I'm always asked what I like here in the State of Israel in my role, what makes an impression, and my answer is everything. It's a great country, and when they say to me, 'Give us one good place anyway,' so I can say Jerusalem, the Holy City, Tel Aviv for business, the Dead Sea, which is the lowest place in the world, Masada, Tiberias, Tzfat, etc. All places are the correct answer, but you cannot complete the answer without mentioning the city of Sderot, without saying this place. A place that proves that Jews will be in Eretz Yisrael forever and ever.

"There's no other place in the world where people will be and succeed and believe and learn Torah when there are rockets and all the dangers that exist here. Most Jewish cities express the connection with the past, here in Sderot they stress the future. The city of Sderot proves to everyone in the world, also in the U.S., that anyone who wants to raise anti-Semitism in the world, hatred of Jews in the world, will see here and understand that he won't succeed. The days we passed in the last century that the haters of Jews would endanger us will no longer be. It is my honor to be here and congratulate you, I'm proud of you, celebrating with you, and the United States of America is here with you praying for you, and we'll always be with the city of Sderot," Friedman said.

For this, we should thank Friedman too.

Israeli left despises Yair Netanyahu for stating facts about Yitzhak Rabin's role in attacking the Altalena

The prime minister's son enraged leftists like those of the Labor party for discussing how the late Rabin had carried out the horrific assault on the Altalena boat in the 1940s, even slaughtering Holocaust survivors:

Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu’s son, Yair, raised the ire of Israel’s left when he slammed the assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for his role in the Altalena Affair, in which a gun ship bringing weapons to Israel was destroyed off the Tel Aviv beach.

Although the prime minister said he disagreed with the tweet, left-wing leaders held him responsible.

Yair, a proficient Twitter user who uses the platform to defend his father’s record and right-wing political views, had tweeted: “Rabin murdered Holocaust survivors on the Altalena. Rabin brought Arafat and tens of thousands of terrorists from Tunis and caused the deaths of 2,000 Israelis.”

The prime minister distanced himself from his son’s post on Saturday night, in a statement put out by his spokesman, Ofer Golan.

“I do not agree with what my son Yair wrote about the late Yitzhak Rabin. Yair’s positions are his alone and made on his own,” the statement said. [...]

Despite the outcry, there is apparently an element of truth to Yair’s words. According to the historical record, Rabin had fired on a ship bringing arms to Israel in June, 1948. The ship, the Altalena, was organized by the Irgun, a Jewish underground group which Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was determined to eliminate, seeing it as a threat to the state.

Rabin commanded the IDF and Palmach forces on the shore.

Ship’s captain Monroe Fein recalled, “As men began jumping off the ship and swimming toward the shore, those of us still on shipboard saw that they were being shot at continuously from rifles and machine guns on the beach.”

The firing continued even after Monroe raised a white flag on the ship’s bridge.

Israeli Attorney Yoram Sheftel, a pundit who often weighs in on political issues on TV and in print, referred to the issue on Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday. He said Yair’s tweet had been correct.

“At Rabin’s instruction, 900 passengers on the Altalena were fired at, many of whom were Holocaust survivors. They shot at them even as they jumped into the water. Rabin gave the order to shoot at Holocaust survivors. That is the story, and there is no denying it,” he said.

That anyone on the left would consider this even remotely acceptable only attests to how desensitized to violence they really are. And that's very disturbing. In addition, it shows how they remain unrepentant over an act of violence committed in the name of power possession. The younger Netanyahu was right to state facts, and they're going to have to come to terms with that.

In the comments section, one said:

Too much candor for the darlings on the Left?
The fact that Rabin was ordered by Ben Gurion to attack the Altalena is established fact that can be checked out in historical textbooks.
To this day the Left Establishment is still trying to destroy their rivals on the right,...any way they can,...nothing is too low for them.
To the insiders on the left, control of Israel is their version of la Cosa Nostra (Our Thing).
All this mirrors the endless attacks on President Trump in America.
The insiders feel they own the show & don't want to give their power to the general public.

Another said:

Yair! You can be proud for having said the truth, the whole truth that Rabin being part of the left governing Israel at the birth of the state by any means necessary including sinking a ship full of weapons and volunteers to fight for Israel when the Arab states united in numbers dwarfing the number of fighters for Israel for the simple reason that they were not part of the abject left. Rabin was the leftist who ordered the bombardment of The Altalena. I still remember Begin screaming "Altalena" his rallyng cry that made the left pay back in losing elections after elections. No one should stop screaming Altalena while pointing to the left. Bravo Yair!

And another said about Amir Peretz, who attacked Netanyahu over this:

Amir Peretz, lol. Talk to us when you are politically relavent. I am not a fan of Yair, but what he said is not wrong. It may be difficult to hear, but his statements are true.

Yup. Sooner or later, he'll have to come to terms with facts.

Israeli police performed illegitimate actions in pursuing Netanyahu

A new report first revealed on Channel 12 news found that police, going out of their way to "get the dirt" on Netanyahu, no matter how petty the accusations, used inappropriate tactics to press people to "help" them:

A Friday report on Israel’s Channel 12, which revealed undue pressure was exerted on a key figure in one of the corruption cases against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has raised serious questions about the conduct of Israel’s police. The Israel Bar Association chief has asked the attorney general to open an investigation into the possible abuse.

Channel 12 reports that the Israeli police department’s Lahav 433, also known as “Israel’s FBI,” tried to “break” Elovitch in order to get him to turn state witness. They pressured his son and daughter to help.

Elovitch, owner of telecommunications giant Bezeq, is involved in Case 4000, considered the most serious of the corruption cases against Netanyahu. The prime minister is accused of driving through a merger for Elovitch in return for favorable coverage on the Walla! web portal.

According to the report, the police used Shaul Elovitch’s son, Or Elovitch, to try and convince him to drop his lawyer, Jack Chen, who they believed was standing between them and convincing Elovitch to flip against the prime minister.

On Sunday, the daily newspaper Ma’ariv quoted attorney Rami Tamam, a former investigator for Lahav 433, who said on Israel radio that while “the practice is legal and certainly was approved, it’s not legitimate.”

“Police officers should not pass an opinion on the lawyer and say whether he is good or bad. There is a lot of legitimate trickery in the way of exploring the truth, but not everything is legitimate,” Tamam said.

Israeli Justice Minister Amir Ohana of the Likud party also weighed in, writing in a Facebook post, “What you saw was the use of Elovitch’s son, who was being detained for the first time in his life, to pressure his father to replace a lawyer who seemingly wasn’t to the liking of law enforcement authorities, while eavesdropping on a conversation between the detained father and his son and recording it in the designated lawyer consultation room.”

What this proves is that the police system, as much as the justice system, is in dire need of an overhaul. And the police owe some serious apologies for taking horrific steps in order to blackmail somebody into assisting them over a politically motivated issue.

The antisemitism and racism of a NYT editor exposed

Breitbart reported about the vile comments made by Tom Wright Piersanti, a senior editor at the repellent New York Times, on his Twitter page, which is currently restricted to private viewing. His tweets included nasty comments about Asians and Indians too:

A New York Times political editor has a years-long history of antisemitic and racist comments on his Twitter page, a Breitbart News investigation has found.

Tom Wright-Piersanti, who has been a Senior Staff Editor at the New York Times for more than five years according to his LinkedIn page and according to his Twitter page oversees the newspaper’s political coverage, has made a series of antisemitic and racist tweets over the years. Many of them are still public on his Twitter page as of the publication of this article, but some have since been deleted.

The revelation of these tweets come in the wake of the executive editor of the Times stating that the newspaper intends to target the president on racial issues over the next couple years, after the newspaper’s efforts on the Russia hoax scandal failed.

One tweet that is still public is from the early morning of New Years Day in 2010, when he admits he is antisemitic but announced that his New Years resolution was to be less antisemitic—even though the tweet’s content mocks Jewish people.

“I was going to say ‘Crappy Jew Year,’ but one of my resolutions is to be less anti-Semitic,” Wright-Piersanti tweeted on Jan. 1, 2010, at 9:35 a.m. “So…. HAPPY Jew Year. You Jews.” [...]

Antisemitic content is not the only racially insensitive content that Wright-Piersanti has published on his Twitter feed. Wright-Piersanti also sent out a racially insensitive tweet on May 18, 2010, that he has since deleted from his Twitter feed: “With asian babies, is it racist to say to the parents, ‘Aw, he looks just like you!’? What if you say it before you see any pictures?”

Wright-Piersanti also sent out a number of messages about Indian people as well, bashing them repeatedly over a number of years.

On Dec. 8, 2009, he tweeted at 10:39 a.m.: “There are four indian guys with mohawks in this one class, and each one is a douche in his own awful way. I hate mohawk Indians.”

Gee, what a loathsome individual this man is. As the following indicates, he's got a condescending view of women to boot:

On Dec. 4, 2008, he tweeted: “Want to see dozens of Indian girls grind all over each other? Go to the Golden Rail Pub in New Brunswick, New Jersey.”

No doubt, he has no critical view of Islam by sharp contrast. Worst, the NYT board will likely give him a promotion soon, and never fire him as he deserves. Alex Marlow had the following to say:

Marlow described “a pattern of antisemitism at the New York Times,” recalling how “just this year, [the New York Times] had to stop publishing political cartoons because they did not trust their own editors to be able to decipher between which cartoons are antisemitic and which aren’t.”

“This statement basically plays the victim card,” said Marlow of Sulzberger’s allegation that the New York Times is “the target of a vast right-wing conspiracy.”

Marlow added, “They’re the victims of you and me and Arthur Schwartz and Donald Trump and anyone who, God forbid, wants to hold the New York Times accountable for their smears.”

Despite posturing as an advocate for First Amendment protections of free speech, expression, and a free press, the New York Times has advocated for the destruction of dissident news media outlets such as Breitbart News.

“Remember, the New York Times is the paper that literally published a how-to guide on how to destroy Breitbart News,” recalled Marlow. “And now, this guy is whining that people would dare to look into his precious staff? It’s laughable, it’s pathetic, and it shows how vulnerable the Times is.”

The New York Times is a beneficiary of uniquely low standards of conduct relative to other organizations — both news media and otherwise — assessed Marlow.

“There is not a good explanation of how an editor could put up antisemitic tweets and still be allowed to work at the New York Times to this day,” Marlow stated. “He’s still there, and we know in any other profession that’s in public life, at all, [he would be fired]. It’s not just journalists. I can’t think of another profession where you’d be allowed to tweet antisemitic things, anti-Indian things, and still keep a job at this moment.”

Well that's why the smart person must avoid financing their paper by not buying it in any way. There's only so many articles there that are junk, and can't be taken at face value. They have suffered financial losses already in past years, but it's still vital to avoid them, save for scrutinizing what horrors they do publish. The NYT is simply unbearable.