Netanyahu at his very best. A brilliant mind explains where he and Israel are coming from and why he is gaining confidence in the future.
Left click on AAN above and then left click again or left click on Netayahu's picture.
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Just a reminder!
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Behind in collecting tax payments owed by friends and behind in strategy fighting those evil people Obama cannot define as radical Islamists. What difference does it matter? Plenty if you want to defeat your enemy. (See 1 below.)
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The Middle East mess we are in, Liberal Demwits like to say, began when George Bush decided he had to respond to 9/11 and did so by taking out Sadaam. Or you could say it began when Republicans accused Carter for pulling the rug out from under The Shah and allowed our Iranian Embassy to be occupied by those who hated us. Or you could go back to Clinton, and say it was when he failed to capture and/or take out bin Laden, when given the chance.
You cannot say it began when Reagan responded to Libya's attack on our ship but you might say it began when Bush '41 stopped short of going into Iraq at the end of The Gulf War. There are some who would tell you we should never have freed Kuwait - lamentably Sam Nunn was one such Senator who voted against Bush's decision to form a coalition and take action.
If you want to go back even further, you could say it began when we started buying oil from Ibn Saud thereby enriching Wahabbism. If you want to go back even further, you could argue it began when Europe divided The Middle East after the First World War. If you want to go back further still, it began when Europe and the Muslims began fighting each other centuries ago. If you want to go back even further, there are those who could conclude it started when Jesus decided to reform priest led Judaism and thereafter Christianity was formed or Mohammad became the being others chose to worship.
In fact, you could blame religion(s) for all of mankind's ills because it/they propagated distinctions!
But if you really want to go back further, you could say it all began with Adam, Eve, an apple and a snake and, for those who believe in Evolution, it began when apes and other assorted animals and fish life inhabited the earth.
To justify what you want to believe you simply pick the time in history that best supports your argument. I am always reluctant to go along with an adversary who demands I accept their premise (See 2 and 2a below.)
As for Obama, he did not start the mess. He simply made it worse.
Arguing about who is to blame is a convenient partisan way of pinning the tail on the dog in order to, perhaps, win a specious argument or start with a false premise and avoid the difficulty of actually solving what may be the unsolvable and that brings us to where we are today.
I have never accused Obama of anything other than making a bad situation worse because he is incompetent, is averse to the use of force, sympathizes with Muslims because of his heritage and is so ideologically hidebound he cannot take criticism, adjust his tactics and thus is always either playing catch up or leading from behind.
I would venture to say the mess we are in now is so dangerous, so Gordian Knot in nature, so metastasized that anything Obama does is likely to worsen an already implacable situation and the next president will find it virtually impossible to reverse and /or resolve.
Should Obama be followed by Hillarious, I believe it would be frightening because she is so much connected with Obama's misguided failed tactics and strategy and were it to be Trump, no telling where he would take us but at least he would be aggressive in trying.
The best we can hope for is a rational Republican be elected and if the Republicans can retain both Houses of Congress at least we might achieve a semblance of being on the same page. Then, this new president should reassemble our military and reconstitute the best and most experienced minds, relying upon their suggestions and advice and allow them to implement same and stand aside. (See 2b below and un-varified.)
Had we done this in Viet Nam, we would not have become inbred and so willing to embrace defeatism when we engage in hot conflicts.
One of the great tragedies of this nation is our embrace of PC'ism which has allowed us to politicize just about everything in society. It has caused a great divide and fostered disunity.
As always, the enemy is what POGO said - 'it is us.'
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Palestinian children take a stab at it! (See 3 below.)
I also just received a report ISIS has gained a foothold in GAZA! Not surprising.
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The best is yet to come if you want to see America sink. I had posted this in a previous memo but believe it is worth re-posting because Hanson touches on what I have alluded to recently. Obama may, in fact, be doing his utmost to assure a radical Republican is nominated so Hillarious will have an easier time winning.and his own "Hope and Change" efforts will become validated and perpetuated as a permanent part of America's political fabric.
Crazy? You decide! (See 4 below.)
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Maybe one liberal nation is beginning to see the light.
I learned security asked the orchestra to leave until they could check out the conductor.(See 5 below.)
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Dick
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1)ISIS's Finances Are Surprisingly Sophisticated. America Needs to Catch Up.
Hardin Lang is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.
In the wake of the attacks in Paris last month, the U.S.-led coalition ramped up airstrikes against ISIS’s oil enterprise significantly [4]. The escalation is part of a larger plan unveiled earlier by Defense Secretary Ash Carter to go after the group’s “financial infrastructure. [5]” The need for such strikes reflects a broader truth about the terror finance landscape. Some of today’s most dangerous terrorist groups are no longer vulnerable to the traditional means of disrupting their cash flow.
Like any opponent, the key to defeating a terrorist group is to target its center of gravity. For Al Qaeda in the wake of 9/11, that meant going after donations from wealthy supporters in the Gulf and elsewhere. To do that, the United States built a set of robust tools to prevent those donations from flowing through the international financial system. Perhaps the most important tool has been the use of designations to compel banks and other financial institutions to block transaction linked to terrorist groups.
While these tools were very effective, the goalposts have shifted. Across the Middle East, a new breed of terrorist insurgencies with deep pockets has sprung up to fill the vacuum left by popular upheaval and civil war. These groups work to destabilize the region, often as part of sectarian conflict that pits them against other terrorist groups like Hezbollah. Foreign donations no longer constitute the center of gravity for these opponents. As a result, the toolkit that starved core Al Qaeda of cash is less effective in this fight. Three trends help explain why.
The first trend is a shift away from foreign donations toward other sources of support. Unlike core Al Qaeda, the new wave of jihadi groups seek to conquer and hold territory. They self-finance by extracting rents from the lands and people they control, a trend of which ISIS is only the most prominent example. But the millions of dollars in monthly revenue from oil and gas are just part of the story. ISIS also raises millions by taxing or extorting the local population and trading in illicit goods like antiquities. Groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria or Al Shabaab in Somalia have adopted similar self-funding strategies; the latter lines its pockets with as much as a third of Somalia’s $250 million annual trade in charcoal [6].
State sponsorship is the other main source of terrorist financing in the Middle East. This phenomenon is not new. Iran, the largest state sponsor in the region, has been providing groups like Hezbollah with hundreds of millions of dollars for years. Many of the pre-9/11 counterterror finance tools were developed to combat state sponsorship. Sanctions on Iran’s nuclear program played a critical role in getting Tehran to the negotiating table. But sanctions have been less effective in disrupting its support for terrorism. This is due in part to Tehran’s ability to move cash to its proxies in bulk through Syria and Lebanon [7]. And there are concerns that some of Iran’s financial windfall from the nuclear deal will find its way to these same groups.
The second trend is a shift towards a wider range of threats than the spectacular terrorism of Al-Qaeda prior to 9/11. ISIS poses a threat to the U.S. homeland, one that is on the rise with the number of European and even American fighters joining its ranks. But it was the insurgent threat to the Iraqi state and the humanitarian threat of a mass atrocity on Mount Sinjar that galvanized the initial U.S. response to ISIS. Groups like Hezbollah have served as a nexus of threats—terrorism, criminal enterprise and insurgency—for decades. But the surge of new jihadi organizations bent on destabilizing the Middle East argues for an urgent and comprehensive response now—one that tackles the full spectrum of threats posed by these groups.
The third trend is a shift by these terrorist groups away from dependence on monetary transfers, and towards reliance on a wide array of networks to facilitate their operations. Groups like ISIS or Boko Haram in Nigeria maintain a much larger physical and human footprint than core Al Qaeda. They use ratlines to move supplies and material. They rely on networks to generate revenue through trade in illicit goods and to transit foreign fighters and other recruits. Such groups depend on facilitation networks more than they do on bank transfers. These networks are a critical center for gravity for the next generation of jihadi groups, and must be a priority in any comprehensive response.
To confront these trends, it is no longer enough to defend the international financial system from abuse. As we argue in a recent report [8], sanctions against terrorist financiers must be integrated into a wider strategy to disrupt the flow of resources to the main sources of threat. Such a strategy would recognize that “sanctions from the sky” are now part and parcel of the terror finance playbook, and work to synchronize designations with kinetic action, law enforcement and border control to better target the terrorist bottom line. The key will be integrating the interagency toolkit at the operational level, much as was done by the Iraq and Afghanistan Threat Finance Cells [9].
The Obama administration is right to consider more aggressive action against ISIS’s economic base. But it should also seize the moment to mobilize the whole of government against terrorist groups across the region more broadly. {DPS Final Thought. This guy has got it right. The Obama administration will surely “consider” more aggressive action. They may even express grave concern while being in their considering mode. Give me a break. This guy can’t get out of our White House too soon.}
Hardin Lang is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.
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2)
The Obama-Trump Dialectic
Antiterror failure has created an opening for illiberal ideas.
Every thesis creates its antithesis, a famous philosopher once said, and so it is now in American politics. President Obama’s insistent failure to confront the realities of global jihad has produced its opposite in Donald Trump’s unfiltered nationalist id. This is a reminder of how much damage a misguided American President can do to the country’s political culture.
The political and media classes have joined in denouncing Mr. Trump for his latest leap beyond normal political boundaries with his call to stop all Muslim immigration to America. He proposed this in a statement Monday that reflected calculation, not one of his stream-of-consciousness asides in a speech. He defended it Tuesday, comparing his proposal to FDR’s decision to intern Japanese-Americans in World War II. To borrow a line, he is no FDR.
A religious test for entering the U.S. would certainly face constitutional scrutiny, even if it weren’t contrary to America’s best traditions. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was not America’s finest hour, and neither were FDR’s internment camps. A Republican Party that claims to prize freedom should reject both precedents.
.
Mr. Trump’s Muslim ban fails above all on its own terms as anti-terror strategy. The Census Bureau doesn’t track religious affiliation, so it’s hard to know how many Muslim citizens or residents live in America. Estimates usually make it several million. But however many there are, Americans are going to need them as allies to fight the radical Islamist infection.
Their cooperation is more important than ever now that Islamic State is using the Internet to mobilize killers. Fellow Muslims will see signs of radicalization in their mosques before the police or FBI do. We want those Muslims coming forward with tips or warnings, but they won’t do so if they feel that their government treats all Muslims as terror suspects.
Mr. Trump says his immigration ban would be temporary, until we understand the breadth of radicalization. But such a judgment is inherently subjective, and the global jihadist threat will last for decades. That’s why it’s been called “the long war,” and such wars are as much ideological as military.
Mr. Trump might say he’s only referring to foreign Muslims, but that won’t win friends either. We need moderate Sunni allies across the Arab world to counter Islamist ideology and defeat Islamic State and al Qaeda. Telling Muslims that they aren’t welcome to immigrate to the U.S. under any circumstances will make it harder for Arabs anywhere to be associated with America.
Yet Mr. Trump is shrewd, and he knows his Muslim ban will have supporters thanks to Mr. Obama’s anti-terror failure—and his increasing flight from reality. It’s no accident that the businessman floated his ban the day after Mr. Obama used a rare Oval Office address to lecture Americans about how they treat Muslims. Mr. Obama’s hectoring, despite no evidence of growing mistreatment of Muslims, is the perfect foil for Mr. Trump’s forays against political correctness.
Americans also worry that the current Commander in Chief doesn’t understand the jihadist threat, in part because he keeps saying it isn’t much of a threat. He said Islamic State was “contained” on the eve of the Paris attacks and that the U.S. homeland was safe shortly before San Bernardino. He really seems to think the problem is guns, more than the jihadists who use them.
***
2a) The oldest truism in politics is that demagogues flourish in the absence of leadership. A corollary we have pressed repeatedly since 9/11 is that the failure to fight jihad abroad, and to accept limited restraints on privacy at home, would lead to far greater assaults on liberty if there are more mass-casualty attacks. Mr. Trump’s Muslim ban won’t be the only illiberal proposal if there are more San Bernardinos.
Mr. Obama may be too ideologically obstinate to change, which means it will be up to other GOP presidential candidates to transcend the Obama-Trump dialectic. A sensible immigration policy is the one pursued by House Republicans to increase vetting of refugees and focus on those who might be radicalized. But immigration controls alone aren’t an antiterror policy, much less a foreign policy.
The other candidates don’t need to denounce Mr. Trump so much as explain why he and the President are both wrong. A Republican won’t win the White House in 2016 by being the antithesis of Mr. Obama. A Republican can win by explaining Mr. Obama’s failures while offering an antiterror strategy based on more than fear of the world’s second largest religion.
this is in no way to protect or agree with trump-it does,however, provide some recent history
James Kravitz
Reminder: Jimmy Carter banned all Iranians from entering US
This is just a reminder to all the liberal Democrats out there wringing their hands about Donald Trump’s latest comments.
From Front Page:During the Iranian hostage crisis, Carter issued a number of orders to put pressure on Iran. Among these, Iranians were banned from entering the United States unless they oppose the Shiite Islamist regime or had a medical emergency.
Here’s Jimmy “Hitler” Carter saying it back in 1980."Fourth, the Secretary of Treasury [State] and the Attorney General will invalidate all visas issued to Iranian citizens for future entry into the United States, effective today. We will not reissue visas, nor will we issue new visas, except for compelling and proven humanitarian reasons or where the national interest of our own country requires. This directive will be interpreted very strictly."Apparently barring people from a terrorist country is not against “our values” after all. It may even be “who we are”. Either that or Carter was a racist monster just like Trump.Meanwhile here’s how the Iranian students in the US were treated.Carter orders 50,000 Iranian students in US to report to immigration office with view to deporting those in violation of their visas. On 27 December 1979, US appeals court allows deportation of Iranian students found in violation.In November 1979, the Attorney General had given all Iranian students one month to report to the local immigration office. Around 7,000 were found in violation of their visas. Around 15,000 Iranians were forced to leave the US.
2b) Another Military Dismissal
Lt. Col Matthew Dooley, a West Point graduate and highly decorated combat veteran, was an instructor at the Joint Forces Staff College at the National Defense University.
He had 19 years of service and experience, and was considered one of the most highly qualified military instructors on Radical Islam & Terrorism. He taught military students about the situations they would encounter, how to react, about Islamic culture, traditions, and explained the mindset of Islamic extremists. Passing down firsthand knowledge and experience, and teaching courses that were suggested (and approved) by the Joint Forces Staff College.
The course, " Perspectives on Islam and Islamic Radicalism ", which was suggested and approved by the Joint Forces Staff College, caught the attention of several Islamic Groups, and they wanted to make an example of him. They collectively wrote a letter expressing their outrage, and the Pro-Islamic Obama Administration was all too happy to assist.
The letter was passed to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey. Dempsey publicly degraded and reprimanded Dooley, and Dooley received a negative Officer Evaluation Report almost immediately (which he had aced for the past 5 years). He was relieved of teaching duties, and his career has been red-flagged "He had a brilliant career ahead of him. Now, he has been flagged."
Richard Thompson, Thomas More Law Center "All US military Combatant Commands, Services, the National Guard Bureau, and Joint Chiefs are under Dempsey's Muslim Brotherhood-dictated order to ensure that henceforth, no US military course will ever again teach truth about Islam that the jihadist enemy finds offensive, or just too informative ."
Former CIA agent Claire M. Lopez (about Lt. Col. Dooley)..." The Obama Administration has demonstrated lightning speed to dismiss military brass that does not conform to its agenda , and not surprisingly, nobody is
speaking up for Lt. Col. Dooley.
Col. Dooley has now been added to the 9 generals the Obama administration has summarily dismissed for no other reason than they are great American military citizens."
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3) Little girl demonstrates art of stabbing:
"Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!"
Graphic images: How to slit throats of Jews
on Palestinian social media
Singer: "Stab! Stab! ... Cut, tear apart...
shower the humiliated Jews with fire...
let death come for them in a flash"
"Knock on Heaven's door with the head of a Jew"
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Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik
Palestinian Media Watch documents the Palestinian Authority and Fatah leadership's messages to its population, showing both the PA ideology as well as how it directs the population to act. The current Palestinian terror wave is an excellent example of how the Palestinian population has responded to the leadership's message. Mahmoud Abbas and other PA leaders sparked the current terror and violence by frequently reiterating the PA libel that Israel is planning to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and they called on Palestinians to "defend it," "bless[ed] every drop of blood spilled" for it, "congratulated" the murderers and much more. Responding to the call, and following the praise and support from PA and Fatah leaders, among them Abbas, who referred to stabbings as "peaceful popular uprising," Palestinians are - independent of the leadership - inciting to murder on social media, including encouraging people to slit the throats of Jews, and committing murder themselves.
The following are examples of social media murder promotion by Palestinians on Facebook.
One video (see above) shows a little girl glorifying stabbing. She is asked:
Man: "What do you tell [Palestinian] youth in the West Bank?"
Girl demonstrates with a long knife: "Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!"
[Facebook page of the Jerusalem Intifada's Young People Coalition, Nov. 12, 2015]
A staged video shows two "Jews" harassing Palestinian children who are playing in the street. In revenge, a young Palestinian ambushes them, stabs one and slits the throat of the other, killing them both.
Text posted with this video:
"#Stab
And do not fear, Al-Aqsa awaits you"
[Facebook page of Jabal Al-Mukebar, Oct. 6, 2015]
An image posted to Facebook also vividly illustrates the call to cut the throats of Jews. It shows a Palestinian with a knife in his hand standing over a Jew wearing a kippah (Jewish skullcap), holding him down, about to stab him in the neck.
Text under photo: "#Stab_them_in_the_neck"
[Facebook page of Yusuf Shamasneh, Nov. 23, 2015]
Another video on Facebook also promotes stabbing of Jews and states that Israelis are "doomed to death." The actor and singer who made and posted the video proclaims: "I stab a Zionist... I take revenge because I am a Palestinian Muslim." In the video he "performs" a stabbing attack, killing a "Jew." [Facebook page of Gazan comedian and actor Rafat Shurrab, Oct. 22, 2015]
The video incorporates a current and popular Fatah song that encourages violence and calls Palestinians to "the war of the streets":
"I'm coming towards you, my enemy,
From every house, neighborhood and street
I'm coming towards you, my enemy,
From every house, neighborhood and street
I'm coming with my rifle and my faith
I'm coming towards you, my enemy
Our war is a war of the streets"
The video also incorporates the words of a Gazan preacher who recently encouraged people in the West Bank to "Stab!":
"My brother on the West Bank:
Stab! Stab! Stab!
Stab! Do not hesitate.
You won't find anything in our land but slaughter and stabbings.
And today a curfew is imposed!
Curfew! Curfew!"
Under the headline "Knock on Heaven's door with the head of a Jew," a Gazan singer posted a video that shows scenes from real stabbing attacks.
The singer encourages "the West Bank man" to: "Stab! Stab! ... Cut, tear apart... Resist," and continues:
"Make volcanoes of war erupt at the front line,
shower the humiliated Jews with fire
Let fear come down on them, and let death come for them in a flash
Children of Zion, tell of the swords that were openly plunged in you
Your necks and heads, your buses and soldiers have tasted the taste of a stabbing ambush!"
[Facebook page of Gazan singer Osama Issa Al-Nashar, Nov. 4, 2015]
Additional pictures of children brandishing knives and encouraging murder of Jews and Israelis are seen on many Palestinian Facebook pages, like this:
Text under photo:
"His mother put a keffiyeh on him
He went to get a knife
And said to me: 'In order to stab'
Zionists, woe to you from the freedom generation"
#Stab, #So_what, #Hebron, #Our_land
[Facebook page of Moutasem Shawabkeh, Nov. 20, 2015]
See more examples of PMW's documentation of PA and Fatah support for the current terror wave.
The following are longer excerpts of the private Facebook posts promoting killing Jews:
Palestinian video on Facebook promotes stabbing of Jews
"Cut, tear apart... Resist"
Posted text: "Knock on Heaven's door with the head of a Jew"
"Stab, West Bank man"
Osama Issa Al-Nashar Gazan singer:
Visuals: Scenes from stabbing attacks against Israelis
"Stab! Stab!
Stab, West Bank man and resist! Stab, West Bank man and resist!
Trample the oppressor under your feet
Never agree to the humiliation
Cut, tear apart, come battle!
O West Bank of [Yahya] Ayyash (i.e., Hamas bomb maker and inventor of suicide bombings), this is our Jerusalem!
From now on we will not agree to being humiliated
For your men love the ringing sound of their swords
And competed among themselves for Allah, how good is Heaven
Make volcanoes of war erupt at the front line,
shower the humiliated Jews with fire
Let fear come down on them, and let death come for them in a flash
Children of Zion, tell of the swords that were openly plunged in you
Your necks and heads, your buses and soldiers have tasted the taste of a stabbing ambush!"
"The Islamic Bloc - Rafah"
[Facebook page of Gazan singer Osama Issa Al-Nashar, Nov. 4, 2015]
Yahya Ayyash - First Hamas bomb-maker and leader of the of Hamas' Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades in the West Bank, is considered the initiator of Palestinian suicide bombings. He built the bombs used in many terror attacks, including the Mehola Junction bombing (2 killed, 9 injured, April 16, 1993), the Afula bus bombing (8 killed, 55 injured, April 6, 1994), the Hadera central station bombing (6 killed, 30 injured, April 13, 1994), the Tel Aviv bus 5 bombing (22 killed, 47 injured, Oct. 19, 1994), the Ramat Gan bus bombing (6 killed, 33 wounded, July 24, 1995), the Ramat Eshkol bus bombing (5 killed, over 100 injured, Aug. 21, 1995), and the Bet Lid bombing (22 killed, 66 injured, Jan. 22, 1995). He was killed by Israeli security forces on Jan. 5, 1996.
Palestinian video on Facebook promotes stabbing of Jews
Posted text: "Rise and resist"
#Stab and do not fear, Al-Aqsa awaits you
"Rise and make Intifada"
#Free_men_of_Al-Aqsa
[Facebook page of Jabal Almukebar, Oct. 6, 2015]
Palestinian video on Facebook promotes stabbing of Jews: Israelis are "doomed to death" "I stab a Zionist... I take revenge because I am a Palestinian Muslim"
Posted text:
"A short video titled 'Al-Aqsa awaits.' This is the message to the Zionist occupation and our residents in the West Bank..."
Under this are credits. The actor Rafat Sharrab narrates the video and also acts in it. The post includes different hashtags such as #stab, #Jerusalem_Intifada, and #Al-Aqsa_awaits.
At the beginning of the video Shurrab says: "This video is a message that I want to send to those occupying our land, that they are doomed to death."
The Fatah song promoting violence "I Am Coming towards You, My Enemy" plays in the background:
"I am coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street
Our war is a war of the streets.
I'm coming towards you, my enemy
We're going down from every house with cleavers and knives
With grenades we announced a popular war
I swear, you won't escape, my enemy, from the revolution and the people.
How will you escape the ring of fire while the crowds are blocking the way?
I'm coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street"
In the video, the actor Shurrab ambushes a "Jew" who is talking on the phone, wraps a keffiyeh around his face, and stabs him to death. At the moment of the stabbing, Gazan preacherMuhammad Salah Abu Rajab is heard shouting: "O my brother in the West Bank, stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Do not hesitate. You have nothing but stabbings in our land. And today a curfew is imposed!"
The "curfew" is a hint that Israelis are staying in their homes because they are afraid of being stabbed.
Text in video: "#The_intifada_continues" and "#Stab"
Shurrab holds a knife in his hand and says: "I stab a Zionist, not because I belong to some party or group, I take revenge because I am a Palestinian Muslim."
A boy is seen holding Fatah and Hamas flags. Shurrab takes them and throws them to the ground, and gives the boy a Palestinian flag in their place. The two walk together with a Palestinian flag in their hands.
[Facebook page of Gazan comedian and actor Rafat Shurrab, Oct. 22, 2015]
Video on Palestinian Facebook page - Little girl encourages stabbing Jews
Facebook page of the 'Jerusalem Intifada's Young People's Coalition'
Posted text:
"#Watch_and_you_won't_regret"
A girl from Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, supports the stabbing operations (i.e., terror attacks) by the young people of Hebron.
#so_what?"
Video transcript:
"Israeli": "[Palestinian] youth are throwing stones at us [Israelis]"
Girl: "So what!"
"Israeli": ""[Palestinian] youth are running after us [Israelis] with knives"
Girl: "So what!"
"Israeli": "Muhannad Halabi stabbed us" (i.e., terrorist who stabbed two Israeli civilians to death)
Girl: "So what!"
"Israeli": "Fadi Alloun stabbed us" (i.e., terrorist who stabbed an Israeli civilian)
Girl: "So what!"
"Israeli": "What do you tell [Palestinian] youth in the West Bank?"
Girl: "Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!"
[Facebook page of the Jerusalem Intifada's Young People Coalition, Nov. 12, 2015]
This video and the term "so what" is a reference to a hashtag appearing on Palestinian social media as a slogan used to encourage Palestinians to continue rioting, throwing rocks and using violence against Israelis. "#so_what" is a Palestinian response that makes light of Israel's alleged crimes, showing that Palestinians don't care. It also implies that no matter what Israel does, the Palestinians will continue not to care, and they will continue to riot, throw rocks, carry out stabbing attacks etc. The words refer to a video that went viral, showing an elderly Palestinian man arguing with Israeli soldiers. A soldier points to rioting Palestinians, saying: "They're throwing rocks at us." The old man replies: "So what, let them throw rocks."
Muhannad Halabi - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who killed 2 Israelis, Rabbi Nehemiah Lavi and Aharon Bennett, and injured Bennett's wife, Adele, and their 2-year-old son in a stabbing attack in the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Following the attack, he was shot and killed by Israeli security forces. Prior to his attack, in a post to his private Facebook page, the terrorist referred to recent terror attacks as part of a "third Intifada," and said that it was a response to Israel's actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and that the Palestinian people would not "succumb to humiliation." This is a reference to the PA libel that Israel is plotting to take over and destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque and to the PA's portrayal of Jews praying on the Temple Mount as "an invasion of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Fadi Alloun - 19-year-old Palestinian terrorist who stabbed and injured Israeli citizen Moshe Malka (15) near the Old City of Jerusalem on Oct. 3, 2015. Alloun fled and was shot and killed by Israeli police. Before his attack, Alloun had written on his Facebook page: "Oh Allah, my goal is Martyrdom-death (Shahada) or victory for Allah... Allah is great."
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4) Obama Has Just Begun
4) Obama Has Just Begun
By Victor Davis Hanson
How much damage can he do in his last year of office?
Insidiously and inadvertently, Barack Obama is alienating the people and moving the country to the right. If he keeps it up, by 2017 it will be a reactionary nation. But, counterintuitive as it seems, that is fine with Obama: Après nous le déluge.
By sheer force of his personality, Obama has managed to lose the Democratic Senate and House. State legislatures and governorships are now predominantly Republican. Obama’s own favorable ratings rarely top 45 percent. In his mind, great men, whether Socrates or Jesus, were never appreciated in their time. So it is not surprising that he is not, as he presses full speed ahead.
Obama certainly has doubled down going into his last year, most recently insisting on letting in more refugees from the Middle East, at a time when the children of Middle Eastern immigrants and contemporary migrants are terrorizing Europe. What remaining unpopular executive acts might anger his opponents the most? Close down Guantanamo, let thousands more refugees into the United States, free thousands more felons, snub another ally, flatter another enemy, weigh in on another interracial melodrama, extend amnesty to another million illegal aliens, make global warming laws by fiat, expand Obamacare, unilaterally impose gun control? In lieu of achievement, is the Obama theory to become relevant or noteworthy by offending the public and goading political enemies?
An Obama press conference is now a summation of all his old damn-you clichés — the fantasy strawman arguments; the caricatures of the evil Republican bogeymen; the demagogic litany of the sick, the innocent, and the old at the mercy of his callous opponents; the affected accentuation (e.g., Talîban; Pakîstan, Îslám, Latînos, etc.) that so many autodidacts parade in lieu of learning foreign languages; the make-no-mistake-about-it and let-me-be-clear empty emphatics; the flashing temper tantrums; the mangled sports metaphors; the factual gaffes; and the monotonous I, me, my, and mine first-person-pronoun exhaustion. What Obama cannot do in fact, he believes he can still accomplish through invective and derision.
In the 2016 election campaigns, most Democratic candidates in swing states will have distanced themselves from the last eight years. Otherwise, they would have to run on the patently false premise that American health care is more affordable and more comprehensive today than it was in 2009; that workforce participation is booming; that scandals are a thing of the past; that the debt has been addressed; that Obama has proved a healer who brought the country together; that immigration at last is ordered, legal, and logical; that the law has never been more respected and honored; that racial relations are calmer than ever; that the campuses are quiet; that the so-called war on terror is now over and won with al-Qaeda and ISIS contained or on the run; that U.S. prestige aboard has never been higher; that our allies appreciate our help and our enemies fear our wrath; that Iran will now not go nuclear; that Israel is secure and assured of our support; and that, thanks to American action, Egypt is stable, Libya is ascendant, Iraq is still consensual, and the Middle East in general is at last quiet after the tumultuous years of George W. Bush.
The hordes of young male migrants abandoning the Middle East for the West are merely analogous to past waves of immigrants and should be uniformly welcome. For Obama, there is no connection between them and his slashing of American involvement in the Middle East — much less any sense of responsibility that his own actions helped produce the crisis he now fobs off on others.
If an American president saw fit to attack fellow Americans from abroad, and lecture them on their illiberality, there are better places from which to take such a low road than from Turkey, the embryo of 20th-century genocide, and a country whose soccer crowds were recently shouting, “Allahu akbar!” during what was supposed to be a moment of silence offered to the Paris dead. Surely an American president might suggest that such grassroots religious triumphalism about mass death is much more reprehensible behavior than are his own fellow citizens’ demands to vet the backgrounds of refugees.
If you suggested to Obama that, in his search for a contrarian legacy, he should do something to stop the slaughter in the Middle East and be careful about letting in more unexamined refugees, in answer, he would be more likely to do less than nothing abroad and vastly expand the influx of migrants. Getting under his critics’ skin is about all that is left of a failed presidency.
Many of our observers still do not quite grasp that Obama will end his presidency by seeking to get his opponents’ goat — and that his resentment will lead to some strange things said and done.
Few foresaw this critical element of the Obama character. The tiny number of prescient pundits who warned what the Obama years would entail were not the supposedly sober and judicious establishment voices, who in fact seemed to be caught up in the hope-and-change euphoria and missed entirely Obama’s petulance and pique: the Evan Thomases (“he’s sort of god”), or the David Brookses (“and I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I’m thinking, a) he’s going to be president and b) he’ll be a very good president.” “It is easy to sketch out a scenario in which [Obama] could be a great president.”), or the Chris Matthewses (“the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.”), or the Michael Beschlosses (“Uh. I would say it’s probably — he’s probably the smartest guy ever to become President.”), or the Chris Buckleys (“He has exhibited throughout a ‘first-class temperament,’ pace Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.’s famous comment about FDR. As for his intellect, well, he’s a Harvard man”), or the Kathleen Parkers (“ . . . with solemn prayers that Obama will govern as the centrist, pragmatic leader he is capable of being”), or the Peggy Noonans (“He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief.”).
In truth, it was the loud, sometimes shrill, and caricatured voices of talk radio, the so-called crazy Republican House members, and the grassroots loudmouths of what would become the Tea Party who had Obama’s number. They warned early on that Barack Obama’s record was that of a petulant extremist, that his writing presaged that he would borrow and spend like no other president, that his past associations gave warning that he would use his community-organizing skills cynically to divide Americans along racial lines, that nothing in his past had ever suggested anything other than radicalism and an ease with divisive speech, that his votes as a state legislator and as a U.S. senator suggested that he had an instinctual dislike of the entrepreneur and the self-made businessman, and that his past rhetoric advised that he would ignore settled law and instead would rule by fiat — that he would render immigration law null and void, that he would diminish the profile of America abroad, and that he would do all this because he was an ideologue, with no history of bipartisanship but a lot of animus toward his critics, and one who saw no ethical or practical reason to appreciate the more than 60 years of America’s postwar global leadership and the world that it had built. Again, the despised right-wingers were right and the more moderate establishment quite wrong.
Abroad, from Obama’s post-Paris speeches, it is clear that he is now bored with and irritated by the War on Terror. He seems to have believed either that Islamist global terror was a minor distraction with no potential for real harm other than to bring right-wingers in backlash fashion out of the woodwork, or that it was an understandably radical manifestation of what was otherwise a legitimate complaint of Islam against the Western-dominated global system — thus requiring contextualization rather than mindless opposition.
A lot of ambitious and dangerous powers are watching Obama assume a fetal position, and may well as a consequence act foolishly and recklessly this next year. Not only Russia, China, and North Korea, but also Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, ISIS, and assorted rogue states may take chances in the next 14 months that they would otherwise never have entertained (given that America is innately strong and they are mostly in comparison far weaker) — on the premise that such adventurism offers tangible advantages without likely negative consequences and that the chance for such opportunities will not present itself again for decades to come.
At home, Obama feels liberated now that he is free from further elections. He thinks he has a legitimate right to be a bit vindictive and vent his own frustrations and pique, heretofore repressed over the last seven years because of the exigencies of Democratic electioneering. Obama can now vent and strike back at his opponents, caricaturing them from abroad, questioning their patriotism, slandering them for sport, and trying to figure out which emblematic executive orders and extra-legal bureaucratic directives will most infuriate them and repay them for their supposed culpability for his failedvero possumus presidency.
The more contrarian he becomes, and the more he opposes the wishes of the vast majority of the American people, all the more Obama envisions himself speaking truth to power and becoming iconic of something rather than the reality that he is becoming proof of nothing.
Hold on. We haven’t seen anything yet.
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5).Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands attended a concert in the capital, Amsterdam.
Staff of the music hall escorted the conductor off-stage and after questioning, out of the building
5).Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands attended a concert in the capital, Amsterdam.
The Conductor, who just happens to be Muslim, proceeds to give the Queen a lecture on the "beauty" of Islam.
The entire orchestra got up and walked out, refusing to be associated with someone lecturing their queen.
Staff of the music hall escorted the conductor off-stage and after questioning, out of the building
Here's the link:
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