Major Fatah Terrorist Attack On Jerusalem Averted

Tawfiq Tirawi is the Palestinian Authority's Intelligence Chief and a Fatah Central Committee member. On July 24th. He was on Lebanese TV taking about Fatah attacks on Israel and saying there was going to be 'a big explosion.' Per PMW:

“These are small explosions, which happen occasionally, but the big explosion is coming. The big explosion is coming. After the big explosion, no one will know where it will lead and what its results will be…It is legal to use all means – to shoot, throw stones, to hold a demonstration and a sit-down strike. All these means will be possible and permissible for our people, and let no one say that weapons are forbidden in the West Bank.”

Today, A car loaded with gas canisters and a large explosive charge was stopped by the border police on its way to Jerusalem at the Beitar Ilit checkpoint 6 miles southeast of the capital. Its Palestinian driver approached the checkpoint at a faster than normal speed which tipped off the border police.

When he was ordered to stop, he tried to keep on driving, but one heroic border policeman, Officer Yeshuron Tzoran, jumped inside the vehicle, attempted to shut the engine off himself and finally got the driver to stop by pulling his weapon on him and threatening to shoot him.

The man was arrested and handed over to the Shin Bet General Security Service for questioning. Inside his car officers found pipe bombs, gas canisters, explosives, and detonators, according to a statement put out by the IDF after the incident. The officer who arrested the man said the back seats of the car had been removed and the entire area was full of gas canisters rigged with electric wires.

The incident caused massive gridlock as police shut down traffic in both directions from the junction in order to send in sappers to handle the explosives.

At the moment it's unclear where the man was taking the explosives, though one working assumption is that they were meant to be used for a terror attack in Jerusalem.

The officer who stopped the suspected bomber, Inspector Yeshuron Tzoran, described how he and the other officers in his region have been instructed to be on high alert during the IDF operation in Gaza due to the assessment that terror groups will try to carry out an attack in Israel. Therefore they set up the temporary checkpoint and began stopping cars. On Sunday afternoon Tzoran said he "couldn't feel better, we feel that we saved many lives in Israel and this is our duty."

 

It's excellent that the driver was taken alive. He was obviously delivering this car bomb and the explosives to someone. The Shin Bet will find out whom they are, believe me.

But if you look at the juxtaposition of Tawfiq Tirawi's boast on Lebanese television and this event, it's obvious they're connected. This is the Third Intifada and Fatah is an active participant.

Illegal Alien With Drug-Resistant TB Goes Missing in CA

Yet another scene from a country with no borders...

Eduardo Rosas Cruz, a Mexican illegal alien tested positive with a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis in a California emergency room but fled without being treated:

Authorities in California are searching for a fugitive homeless man who has refused treatment for tuberculosis and may be contagious.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Eduardo Rosas Cruz, 25, of Mexico.

Mr Cruz was diagnosed with the illness at a local emergency room in March but fled when asked to remain in the area for treatment.

Health officials are concerned he may be infected with a drug-resistant strain of the illness.

“We need help getting him in,” San Joaquin County public health officer Dr Alvaro Garza told US media. “We’ve not been able to find him in places he’s told us he’s going to be.”

It is currently unclear if Mr Cruz is contagious, but he has not completed a nine-month course of medicine required for treatment.

Tuberculosis – spread through air when an infected person sneezes or coughs – can be fatal if left untreated.

In March, Mr Cruz arrived in hospital in San Joaquin complaining of a severe cough, shortness of breath, high fever and weight loss.

After he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, he was told to stay in a nearby motel and wait for a health worker to deliver medication.

He did not comply, prompting government officials to add him to a state-wide law enforcement database and later obtain an arrest warrant.

This happened 4 months ago, and is just surfacing now? And via the BBC??

Amnestia...it's contagious.

(h/t Jim at Gateway)

IDF: Deaths AT UNRWA School Were Caused By Hamas

 

The press about an attack on an UNRWA school in Beit Hanoun that resulted in the death of 15 children was one of those naturals just made for Hamas groupies in the media. Especially after UNRWA head Chris Guinness accused the IDF of preventing civilians from leaving:

  Chris Gunness @ChrisGunness Follow

Over the course of the day UNRWA tried 2 coodinate with the Israeli Army a window for civilians 2 leave & it was never granted RT

6:24 AM - 24 Jul 2014

  1,117 Retweets 155 favorites

In previous times, the IDF would have simply expressed sorrow for the loss of human life and apologized as if it were at fault. A month or so later, after the propaganda had been published world wide, the results of an IDF forensic investigation would come out showing definitively that Israel was not at fault and that it was yet another Pallywood propaganda coup...but by then it was too late.

Things have changed. Rather than admitting any blame, the IDF said right from the first that their troops were under fire from the school, that they had made every effort to evacuate the school that there was a good possibility that it was Hamas who had fired on the school, and that they would investigate.

Today, that inquiry was concluded and the IDF released a statement.


“The inquiry concluded that during the intense fighting between IDF forces and Hamas militants, the militants operated adjacent to the UNRWA school. The militants fired anti-tank missiles at IDF soldiers, who then responded by firing several mortars in their direction,” the army statement said.

“The inquiry… concluded that a single errant mortar landed in the courtyard of the UNRWA school, when it was completely empty.”

“The IDF stresses it does not operate or target international organizations in the Gaza Strip, and the ongoing coordination conducted via the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is continuous without change, even during times of combat.”

“In light of the inquiry’s findings, the IDF rejects the claims that were made by various officials immediately following the incident, that people were killed in the school premises as a result of IDF operational activity,” the statement concluded.

An Israeli drone view of the explosion backing this up can be seen here.

It gets better. The IDF also accused UNRWA head Chris Guinness of outright lying when he claimed that the IDF wouldn't allow civilians to evacuate:

Multiple IDF sources rejected UNRWA’s claims and characterized them as outright falsehoods when reached by the Washington Free Beacon.

“For two days we were trying to move people out of that school in particular and the Beit Hanoun area in general,” said an IDF official who was involved in the interactions between the IDF, UNRWA, and International Red Cross (ICRC) leading up to the incident.

The official continued, “This morning we sought a ceasefire in the area and a humanitarian evacuation of civilians, but Hamas refused—because they wanted to keep civilians in the area to protect their fighters who were firing on the IDF.”

The claim by Gunness and UNRWA that the IDF did not respond to their request to evacuate civilians, the source said, is “a flat-out complete and total lie,” the official told the Free Beacon. [...]

An official IDF statement released to the Free Beacon said that “the IDF authorized a humanitarian time window for evacuation between 10:00-14:00 IDT earlier today. Hamas prevented the civilians from leaving it and once again used their infrastructure and international symbols as human shields. In the course of the afternoon, several rockets launched by Hamas from within the Gaza Strip landed in the Beit Hanoun area.”

Again, here's another possibility that could easily account for the carnage. Two UNRWA schools have already been outed as doubling as Hamas missile depots, with large amounts of explosives stored within. In each case, UNRWA, instead of destroying the rockets happily turned them over to their Hamas frends to fire against Israeli civilians. If the Beit Hanoun school was also being used to store rockets, one of the misdirected Hamas rockets aimed at Israeli forces that fell short could easily have hit the school and exploded the ordnance stored there.

 

As for Guinness and UNRWA...well, let's just say that being caught lying and actively aiding and abetting Hamas is not exactly unprecedented.

Hamas And Israel Agree To A 12 Hour Ceasefire

 

US Secretary of State John Kerry's attempt to broker a long term truce ended in failure as neither Israel nor Hamas was interested.Israel's security committee unanimously rejected Kerry's proposition, especially when they saw he had changed the original Egyptian formula to favor some of Hamas' inane demands.

Kerry is now attempting to bypass the Egyptians and use Hamas funder Qatar and Islamist Turkey as his intermediaries. Good luck with that where the Israelis are concerned.

The 'humanitarian' ceasefire is ostensibly supposed to be about removing Hamas casualties and allowing humanitarian aid to be brought in. As the Israelis and any other honest person knows, any aid that comes in will go to the Hamas leaders and the fighters rather to the general Gaza population, but they still agreed to go through with it, starting at 8 Am Saturday local time.

You will notice that no one is proposing any humanitarian aid for the Israeli civilian population, some of whom are injured and homeless.Apparently, they don't count for much in the eyes of the 'international community.'

The Israelis insisted on the following conditions. Their forces will stay in position in Gaza, and that they they will continue to locate Hamas' tunnels, although they will not destroy them until the ceasefire is over, or unless Hamas violates this ceasefire as they have all the others.

 

What Kerry and the odious UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon wanted was a 7 day truce to carry out what amounts to talks about talks, while Hamas regroups. I doubt the Israelis will agree to that, but we'll see.

One sign that they won't  came from  Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, who along with other Israeli military leaders is briefing the troops to be ready for what he called  a significantly expanded ground assault in Gaza,

The next step,of course is Shifa Hospital in central Gaza, home of the main Hamas command post and it's weapons depots, and the terminus of the huge network of tunnels.The head of the IDF’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Sami Torjeman said in an interview Friday that, in a week, the army had managed to destroy half of the tunnel network which took Hamas 4-5 years to build, a major accomplishment but without cutting the head off the snake, it will just be a temporary respite.

Hamas is particularly vulnerable right now. Much to their surprise, the advanced Russian Kornet-E, and 9M113 Konkurs guided anti-tank missiles Hamas received from Iran have so far proven to be worthless against Israel's new Merkava Chariot-4 battle tanks equipped with the Israel's Windbreaker armor. The 401st armored brigade equipped with these tanks has been virtually unstoppable. Like the IronDome, the Windbreaker armor missile defense system is made by Israeli defense company Rafael. If the assault on Shifa happens, it may very well be spearheaded the 401st and its Chariot-4s.

 

Stay tuned..

French Muslims Using Facebook For 'Hit List' To target Jews

 

Muslims in France now have a new tactic. They're using Facebook to publish the names, photos identities and location of French Jews to target them for assault.

The caption above translates as  "Smile, you're caught! JRF watches!" in this FaceBook page that targets 32 Jews for attack.

The Jeunes Révolutionnaires Français, JRF, or ‘Young French Revolutionaries' posted the names and photos of the Jews above on its Facebook page, and one of those listed has already been attacked on Thursday night in Bobigny, Seine-Saint-Denis, a Paris suburb by a gang of 15 Muslims, some armed with iron bars.

According to a France’s Le Monde Juif, three men initially approached the victim, asked his name and then were joined by the rest of the gang in attacking him.When another resident in the building appeared, the men left.

The title page of the group’s Facebook presence features a large Palestinian flag and calls for members to attend a rally on Saturday in connection with the international Al Quds Day protests around the world which the government has already banned.

The Union of Jewish Students of France, the UEJF has filed a legal complaint against the administrators of the Facebook page for incitement to racial hatred and incitement to violence,both crimes under French Law.

I'm certain Mark Zuckerberg is, you know,concerned.

In a statement, the UEJF said: “For several days, many Facebook pages have been created to encourage physical violence against young Jews. Photos were published, with the identities, phone numbers, and contact information. This young man was directly affected by such a Facebook page. It is unacceptable that the Jews are the target of Facebook calls to murder.”

Unacceptable, mais oui, but this appears to be le monde neauveau in France. I honestly don't think the French government understands what's going on or knows how to handle this

France's Muslims are going to do everything possible to drive Jews out of France, even the very left of center Jews in the UEJF. And after that, unless there is severe push back,they will start on the Christians.

Just watch.

Gallup:Israel's Critics Are Younger, Less Educated And Informed, And Mostly Democrat

 

 Americans’ pro-Israel sentiments remain near an all-time high, according to Pew’s  numbers, and CNN measures public support for Israel’s recent actions against Hamas at a robust (57/43)..which since it's CNN, probably means the real numbers are a lot closer to Pew's.

But Gallup has an interesting new poll out that puts thing in a different light..



While America is still overwhelmingly pro-Israel, the part that skews anti-Israel has a very  interesting demographic. Hamas has very little support, but as Gallup itself revealed in their internals, what brings the pro-Israel numbers up so high is self-identifying Republicans and GOP leaners. They back Israel by a huge 44% margin over those who do not, whereas Democrats backing Israel lose out by 16 points to those who don't.

The profile of those who don't consider  Israel’s  war against  Hamas as “justified” are young people (-26), non-whites (-24), women (-11), and people with a high school education or less (-11) . This is also known as the Democratic coalition.



Another breakdown comes when you look at people following the events occurring closely as opposed to your typical low information voters whom don't and rely on soundbites from the likes of MSNBC:



None of this is exactly a surprise to me. I've written before that one important goal that President Obama,our first truly anti-Israel president worked hard on was to make support for Israel a partisan issue. He's succeeded.

Anyone who's been paying attention over the last 5 years understands that, and 2012 underlined it. That year saw President Obama, running unopposed for re-election strip out nearly all of the pro-Israel language of 2008 from the 2012 Democrat party platform.

When prominent Jews and others in the party objected and the White House realized it didn't poll well, we saw one of the most amazing moments in American politics. The Obama campaign tried to amend changes in the platform by voice vote on the floor of the national convention in Charlotte,NC, and the nation watched as at least half (and probably more) of the delegates on the floor at the Democratic national convention tried to vote down the amendment including references to G-d and Jerusalem as Israel's capital in the party platform. There was a near riot when those changes were shoved through over the obvious wishes of the assembled delegates in spite of the proposed amendment clearly not getting the required two thirds majority after three futile tries.



Will Jews and other pro-Israel Democrats get a clue from this and realize where the Democrats are moving? That remains to be seen.To my mind, the party is split right now, with much of its older, more establishment members still pro Israel. But the party’s present and future base? They're moving in a very different direction, and those Democrats who consider themselves pro-Israel had better realize it and think about what they're supporting.

The Council Has Spoken!! This Weeks' Watcher's Council Results

 
Alea iacta est...the Council has spoken, the votes have been cast, and we have the results for this week's Watcher's Council match up.


"One of the critical issues that we have to confront is illegal immigration, because this is a multi-headed Hydra that affects our economy, our health care, our health care, our education systems, our national security, and also our local criminality." - Allen West

"Poor Mexico, so far from G-d, so close to the United States." - Porfirio Diaz, Former Mexican Presidente 1876-1911

"BREATHES there the man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,'This is my own, my native land!'... - Sir Walter Scott, Innominatus



Terresa over at The Noisy Room has been all over the story of what's going on at our southern border, and her winning essay, Orchestrated Invasion – The Eradication Of America’s Borders is a great read that examines what's going on in depth and shows exactly how it happened, who's responsible and where we're headed unless we fix it. Here's a slice:

If you had any doubts whatsoever that the whole border crisis was planned, this should fix that. Obama and Biden will meet with Central American leaders next week at the White House to discuss promoting legal, orderly migration. In essence, they will discuss the eradication of our borders, the end of American sovereignty and the furtherance of a collaborative, communist plan to redistribute wealth, people, assets and to create, in the end, a North American Union.

America, you have been betrayed by your leaders and your country is in the final stages of a destructive conspiracy that benefits a few elitist Marxists and destroys your liberty forever. How’s that hope and change working for you now?

For decades, US corrupt officials have sent billions to Central and South America to line the pockets of corrupt officials there. The thought was that it would placate them and keep them from attacking us, but that only makes your enemies hate you more. Virtually every country there is now ruled by a Communist and/or dictator. We have declared the Monroe Doctrine dead and now Russia, China and Iran are moving into our backyard en force.

For those who missed what the Monroe Doctrine was all about, it was basically a declaration that those Latin-American nations which had declared themselves independent should be free from European interference and aggressive colonization. America had only recently achieved her own independence and considered “any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety.” Declaring the Monroe Doctrine “dead” basically says, “we no longer care about our national security, so we invite our aggressively colonial buddies — communist and otherwise — to subvert and conquer our Southern neighbors.”

Instead of fighting back against an ever growing terrorist threat, Obama and Biden are enabling them by actively recruiting a precursory invasion force of so-called children in the 10′s of thousands to come across our border, using American’s heart strings as a garrote to strangle us with. Obama is then shipping them to every corner of the country and then the real invasion comes when the families follow by the millions, changing the voting demographic in America once and for all, ensuring Marxist control no matter what happens here. Obama has three years left to finish the destruction of America and it is right on schedule. Now, he goes to meet leaders who have signed agreements to fast-track this atrocity. Faster, faster pussycat… kill.

From Ironic Surrealism:

(The Hill) –President Obama and Vice President Biden will meet with the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador on July 25, the White House announced on Friday.

Obama and Biden will meet with President Otto Pérez Molina of Guatemala, President Salvador Sánchez Cerén of El Salvador and President Juan Hernández of Honduras, to discuss the recent surge of migrants across the U.S. border.

In the meeting, the leaders will discuss how the governments are “cooperating to promote safe, legal, and orderly migration” between the countries “in a spirit of shared responsibility” including “with respect to the return of family units,” a process which began this week for the three Central American countries, according to the White House.

The meeting is also expected to include discussions on how the countries can work together to bolster economic growth and development along with security in the central American region as well as address the “factors” that are causing the migrants to attempt to cross the border.

Everything about this incursion reeks of evil. Obama is directly involved in human trafficking, the heartless deaths of who knows how many children, rape, murder, the importation of deadly infectious diseases, gangs, drugs and weapons and the furtherance of the spread of poverty and misery throughout the United States. Obama hates America and wants her brought to her colonial knees. This is his gift to us – the gift of death, destruction and slavery.


Much more at the link.

In our non-Council category, the winner was Sultan Knish with It's Another "Death to the Jews" Weekend submitted by The Noisy Room. It's interesting that Knish's piece and the second place winner, Mark Steyn's -Fields Of Blood submitted by Bookworm Room cover very similar ground but from different aspects, with the Sultanfocusing on a more narrow canvas while Steyn broadens his. Great reads and recommended, both of 'em.

Here are this week’s full results:

Council Winners

• *First place with 3 votes! – The Noisy Room – Orchestrated Invasion – The Eradication Of America’s Borders


• Second place with 2 1/3 votes –Joshuapundit-The Border? The Mideast? Scandals? For The Obamas It's Luxury Vacay Time Again!!


• Third place with 2 votes – The Right Planet – The Radical Left’s ‘Islamophobic’ Reaction to the Hobby Lobby Ruling


• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –VA Right! - Remember – The Illegals at our Border Are Pink Tide SOCIALISTS!!!


• Fourth place *t* with 1 1/3 votes –Bookworm Room – Daniel Hannan goes to the heart of things, praising the rule of law


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote – The Colossus of Rhodey – Profs Given Grant to Overcome White Male Hegemony in Science Fiction. Or Something


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –The Independent Sentinel – Stunning audio of border patrol in active pursuit of Muslims


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Nice Deb – What Crisis? Obama’s ‘Gonna Stick to the Schedule – a Cheeseburger, Fries and Two Fundraisers’ (Video


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 vote –Rhymes With Right – Why We Need To Focus On Juan Garcia Rather Than Stefan Kowalski


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – Simply Jews – Jewish/Muslim clashes in Paris. POV means: Point Of View


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote –Ask Marion – Clinton Inc. – The Ugly Just Does Not Stop


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Valkyrie Day


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote – The Razor – A Trip to Mt. Hiei, Kyoto Japan

Non-Council Winners

• First place with 4 votes! – Sultan Knish –It's Another "Death to the Jews" Weekend submitted by The Noisy Room


• Second place with 3 1/3 votes – Mark Steyn -Fields Of Blood submitted by Bookworm Room


• Third place with 1 1/3 votes -The New Republic – How The Israel/Palestine Peace Plan Died submitted by The Watcher


• Fourth place with 1 vote-Between Jerusalem And Tel Aviv – How do you say "Chutzpa" in British? submitted by Simply Jews


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Sic Semper Tyrannis – Did Kiev shoot down MH -17? submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Tara Servatius /American Thinker -The brutal Obama policy that's really driving the Border Crisis submitted by Nice Deb


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -Isabel Matos/A Time for Choosing -What in the Heck is Wrong With the “D” Word? JUST Get Over It Already. It’s Exasperating. Readers, Chime In! submitted by Ask Marion


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -To Understand The Present, Remember The Past – How Obama & The Democrats Are Repeating The History of Vietnam - And Will Get The Same Resultsubmitted by Rhymes with Right


• Fifth place *t* with 2/3 votes -PJ Tatler – Is Sen. Elizabeth Warren a Mere Hack or an Out-and-Out Sociopath? submitted by The Watcher


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -The American Interest –Anti-GMO Activists Are Harming Hungry Africans submitted by The Razor


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote - Foreign Affairs – How Hamas Won submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Sixth place *t* with 1/3 vote -Doug Ross –CHANGE: Since Obama became President, 1.5 MILLION people have been added to secret "suspected terrorist" list submitted by The Independent Sentinel

See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer Reams CNN For Biased Coverage

An epic beatdown...Israel is handling the media war much better these days.

What Dermer was upset about was that CNN's coverage basically pushed the Hamas narrative..showing lots of pathetic pictures of dead children, seeking to blame the IDF and ignoring the fact that it was Hamas who was responsible. Even more telling is that Dermer cites some easily available facts that this CNN talking head is obviously clueless about.

The Third Intifada - PA Orchestrates Massive Riots To Support Hamas

 
As Hamas' forces are decimated in Gaza, Mahmoud Abbas and the PA put together massive, violent riots against Israel in an effort to support their Hamas allies.

The festivities started near the Kalandia checkpoint, located in Judea between Jerusalem and Ramallah. An estimated 10,000 Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinians rioted near the checkpoint, throwing rocks, firebombs and fireworks at Israeli security forces, and setting tires ablaze. Police also had to put up with gunfire, for which credit was claimed by the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, Fatah terrorists on Mahmoud Abbas' payroll. No Israeli police were reported killed although a number were injured. Two of the rioters were killed, and a large number arrested.

 

 
Riots were also reported in the East Jerusalem areas of Shuafat, Abu Tor and East Talpiot.Arabs allowed on to the Temple Mount to attend services at the al-Aksa Mosque also rioted,throwing rocks, bottles and fireworks at police and down on passersby. Ten of them were arrested,and the Israelis may very well simply elect to close the mosque for the duration of Ramadan, eliminating the celebration of Laylat Al-Qadr (Night of Destiny) which commemorates the day Mohammed claimed to have received the Qu'ran.

 

Hamas, of course, thought this was an absolutely wonderful development and urged the entire PA to 'join in the struggle.'

As I explained before, what's going on here is the Third Intifada, using a strategy created by Mahmoud Abbas in conjunction with Hamas.While Hamas shoots rockets and engages what amounts to war against Israel (and hopefully picks up a few photogenic bleeders to use as propaganda) Abbas and Fatah will engage in lawfare and gin up massive riots, a few selective terrorist attacks, and civil disorder in the Arab occupied parts of Judea and Samaria as well as in Israel itself.

 

Want more proof Abbas and Fatah had this planned in advance?  Only two days ago, Abbas and other members of the Fatah Old Guard, who all have Jordanian citizenship and passports sent their families en masse from Ramallah to Jordan.

Don't be at all surprised if Abbas and  Fatah create an 'incident' enabling him to bring the Palestinian security forces, including those shiny new U.S. equipped and trained combat brigades into the fight 'to protect the Palestinian people.'

The idea won't be to militarily defeat the IDF, but to kill as many Jews as possible and create enough international outrage while doing it to try and get the 'international community', especially President Obama to try to enforce a 'Palestine' on th epre-1967 borders including a divided Jerusalem and a massive ethnic cleansing of Jews in Judea and Samaria.

For all the Israeli efforts to make those Israelis whom identify themselves as Palestinians feel full citizens of Israel, for all the attempts as co-existence and political correctness, the fact remains that a significant number of these Palestinians not only have no appreciation for those efforts or of Israel itself and the freedoms they enjoy there.They hang on to the dream of pushing al-Yahudi into the sea and simply want their neighbors dead.

The sooner Israel decides to initiate a divorce on its own terms, with a boundaries of its own choosing, the better. Oslo died a long time ago and  there is no living with rattlesnakes in the house.

Urgent Message!

Received by email from a reliable source:

URGENT! Please share with as much people as possible. The Rav hamekoubal Nissim Shalom declared that his grandfather ZT"L appeared to him in a dream and revealed to him that the Machiach is at his door, and ordered him to let as many jewish people as possible know about it as well as many people as possible. The Rav insisted upon the fact that whoever will send this message will be saved from the suffering which are supposed to occur with the coming of Machiach and that whoever won't do it will sustain a substantial loss of money. The Rav asked to send this message to at least 12 people, a number corresponding to the number of the tribes of Israel. It is a very favorable moment now in heaven , and to those who might be skeptical and not believe in the words of the Rav should know that the Rav would never make such a declaration without serious reasons to do so because it is forbidden to give false hopes to the Jewish people. From the Rav Yoel Benharoushe. Thank you to forward to all your contacts.

Just passing this on...

Hamas Rockets Fall Short And Hit A School - So They Blame Israel!

 

Today an UNRWA school was hit in southern Gaza, killing at least 15 and wounding dozens of others.

The immediate reaction from the Arabs whom identify themselves as Palestinains and their various groupies was to bring out the bleeders and say 'look what those horrible Zionazi Jews did!'

Unfortunately for them, the IDF, which is doing a superb job of handling the media war this time was right on top of it. The school is in the Beit Hanoun area, where the IDF is engaged in combat with Hamas fighters. Here's the IDF spokesperson:

“During the afternoon a battle took place between Hamas terrorists and IDF forces in the Beit Hanoun area. Besides that, we indeed have indications that rockets fell in the vicinity, fired by Hamas from within Gaza in the Beit Hanoun vicinity,” the spokesman said.

The Israel Defense Forces has counted at least 100 rockets fired by Hamas as striking within Gaza.

“Have you heard? #Hamas are launching rockets at…..#Gaza over 100 times in 9 days,” IDF Spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, said last week.

Hamas rockets falling on Gaza are not at all an unknown occurrence:

 

An analysis by the always astute Elder of Ziyon showed that of the 192 rockets fired last Tuesday by Hamas and counted by the Gaza NGO Safety Office, the IDF said 122 rockets struck Israel and 26 were intercepted by the Iron Dome, leaving 44 Hamas rockets striking within Gaza.

 “Of course, 44 rockets can do a lot of damage and kill a lot of people. Reporters on the scene in Gaza have yet to talk about this or even admit the possibility that some of the casualties they are highlighting may have been killed quite directly by Hamas or other terror groups.”

Another possibility not being discussed by the UN for obvious reasons is the rockets setting off Hamas rockets and armaments stored within the school itself.  UNRWA has been caught several times storing Hamas rockets and arms within these schools during the conflict, a gross violation of international law.

Another reason journalists in Gaza aren't discussing this or any other information that deviates from what Hamas wants reported  is direct threats of violence  from Hamas. Even Palestinian reporters aren't necessarily protected if they work for anyone but the Pals own propaganda mills and don't parrot the party line. Link in French but here's a partial translation:

Correspondent Radjaa Abu Dagga for years divided his time between Paris, where his wife and son live, and Gaza, where his parents live and where he works. On 18 June, when he wanted to cross the Rafah border, an officer banned his way and took his passport like all Palestinians trying to cross into Egypt that day.

After four blocked attempts to leave Gaza without explanation over weeks, the Palestinian journalist was summoned by the security services of Hamas on Sunday. "I received a call from a private number. They summoned me to Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza City center, " explains Radjaa. He carried with him his two phones, his press card and a small camera.

A few meters from the emergency room where the injured from bombings are constantly flowing, in the outpatient department, he was received in "a small section of the hospital used as administration" by a band of young fighters. They were all well dressed, which surprised Radjaa, "in civilian clothing with a gun under one's shirt and some had walkie-talkies " . He was ordered to empty his pockets, removing his shoes and his belt then was taken to a hospital room "which served that day as the command office of three people."

A man begins his interrogation: "Who are you? Who do you call? What are you doing?" "I was very surprised by the procedure," admits Radjaa, who showed him his press card in response. Questions came. They asked if he speaks Hebrew, he has relations with Ramallah. Young Hamas supporters insistently ask the question: "Are you a correspondent for Israel?" Radjaa repeated that only works for French media and a chain of Algerian radio.

It was then that the three men delivered this message: "This is yours to choose. We are an executive administration. We will carry the message of Qassams. You have to stay at home and give us your papers. " Stunned to be covered by the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, Radjaa tried to defend himself and especially to understand why such a decision was taken against him. In vain. "It is impossible to communicate with these people," laments the journalist.

He is not the first to undergo this kind of pressure and combatants in front of him did not hide. "They are enraged against the presidency and accused me of collaborating with Mahmoud Abbas," he says. Reporters Without Borders confirms that this is not an isolated case. The organization has indeed been alerted by the threats of Hamas against Palestinian and foreign journalists for their professional activities.

The parts emphasized show a little detail worth mentioning, caught by the Elder of Ziyon. The headquarters of Hamas' Izz-e-Dine-al-Qassam Brigades is located right next to the emergency room in Gaza City's Shifa hospital.

That's no accident. As I've mentioned earlier, Shifa Hospital is the main Hamas headquarters,rocket launching base  and weapons depot, and sits above the huge Hamas underground 'city where the tunnels terminate.

The UN has had nothing to say about this whatsoever, even though they just accepted Hamas/Fatah's application to join the Geneva Convention. They're busy, you see, condemning and investigating Israel.Nor will you see this in the New York Times, the openly anti-semitic Guardian, in the Washington Post or most other media outlets.

Pat Condell Tells It Like It Is on Hamas vs Jews in Gaza

Uncommon common sense, as usual.

As Israel's Wins Its War With Hamas, It Mulls Over Its Next Step

 

Today, Day 16 of the War against Hamas was a decisive day for Israel, both militarily and strategically.

The fight for Shejaiya was the one most on the radar, where a Gaza City suburb accurately described as a terrorist fortress was essentially leveled. But the IDF enjoyed equal and important successes in eastern Rafah and eastern Khan Yunis in the south.

The IDF's ground game was to split its forces into 5 mobile task forces, each one the size of half a division and attack Hamas at multiple points in coordination with attacks from the air. The strategy has worked well and both PM Netanyahu and Chief of Staff General Benny Ganz have been quite open in praising the IDF's performance. This isn't Lebanon in 2006 with amateurs at the helm. The war has been run not by Israel's security cabinet but by Netanyahu, Ganz and Defense Minister Moishe Ya'alon.And Aluf Ganz is not sitting in Jerusalem, but in the front lines with his men.

Visiting Colonel Tomer Yifrach, the 188th Armored Corps commander who had injured in his back Ganz asked how he was feeling. Yifrach answered: "I have amazing men who watch my back." He does.

Here is Ganz with the heroic Golani Brigade commander, Colonel Ghassan Alian, who defied the medics and returned to his men after being wounded  and evacuated to the hospital over the weekend. He still bears the scars of battle.





The cost has been high, but  spirit of the Tzahal is superb:



This video is of soldiers dancing just before they went into action in Gaza. The song is "We Have No one to Rely Upon Except Our Father In Heaven."

While destroying the tunnels could still take weeks, that goal is now in sight. But the main decisive battle is yet to be fought.At this point, what's being considered is a major assault on the Hamas central command post,  the bunker complex housing Hamas’ top military command and infrastructure inside and below Shifa Hospital (yet another  violation of international law by Hamas, but who's still counting at this point?). That assault could come as soon as tomorrow.



Hamas at this point has rejected any ceasefire except on the most ridiculous of terms. Hamas Chief Khalid Mesha'al, safe in Qatar is insisting that any ceasefire has to involve the removal of the Egyptian and Israeli blockade, which would make reconstruction of the tunnels and the restocking of Hamas' missile arsenal a matter of ease.

 

Meshaal said, "We will not accept any initiative that does not lift the blockade on our people and that does not respect their sacrifices. Let us agree on achieving our demands and we will then agree on the zero-hour for a ceasefire."

In view of that attitude and the fact that Hamas has violated three 'humanitarian truces' since this war began, is obvious that any cessation of hostilities is not going to come easy.

The EU foreign ministers surprisingly came out with a joint statement calling for Hamas to be disarmed. Of course, none of them are talking about sending in any boots on the ground to help with the job.

There's no advantage to Israel in a ceasefire or in leaving Hamas in place so that the whole scenario can be played out again in a year or so.What Israel's security cabinet will debate is what comes next.

Should Israel simply destroy or at least badly cripple Hamas,declare victory and go home? Do they want to occupy Gaza,and have responsibility for 1.5 million people, a significant number of whom have always hated Jews just because? Do they turn it over to Abbas and the PA? To the UN?

I still stick with my original solution - defeat Hamas utterly,annex Gaza and transfer a significant amount of the current inhabitants to to Abbas' little reichlet in Area A. Then repopulate it with Jews and watch Gaza turn from a terrorist swamp into Singapore or Hong Kong. Even the Arabs left in Gaza wil be astounded at how much better their lives will be.

FAA Cancellation Of Flights To Israel Ends

 

The FAA just ended the ban on flights by American carriers to Israel. Some European carriers are still continuing the ban.

The new determination came, ostensibly, following an FAA security review with U.S. officials. The FAA did leave the door open to the possibility of reinstating the ban:

“Before making this decision, the FAA worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the Government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation,” the FAA said. “The agency will continue to closely monitor the very fluid situation around Ben Gurion Airport and will take additional actions, as necessary.”

Now that we have that bit of bureaucratic horse manure out of the way, the real story.

The ban, which gave a huge victory to Hamas made the Israelis absolutely livid, and with good reason. The attempt to arm twist Israel into a ceasefire to protect the Hamas status quo by the Obama Administration backfired badly as PM Netanyahu explained to Secretary Kerry today. It has had just the opposite effect, energizing the Israelis to finish off Hamas and weakening American influence.

 

It also polled very poorly in what is still a largely pro-Israel country. Senator Ted Cruz made headlines asking out loud if this was 'the beginning of an economic boycott' against Israel by the Obama Administration.Cruz even threatened to hold up all State Department nominees unless the Obama Administration answered questions about the Israel travel ban.

 

And at the other end of the spectrum former Mayor Michael Bloomberg lambasted the ban, even hopping on a plane to Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv to show his solidarity with Israel and how ridiculous the ban was.

Another factor of course is that Israeli airlines  El Al and Arkia were ramping up flights to America and the American carriers were not happy at losing the business.

So the ban, at least as far as the FAA is concerned is over. The Obama regime gained nothing from it except a lot of ill will from Israel and its supporters.

UN HRC Accuses Israel Of 'War Crimes' In Gaza

The UN Human Rights Council isn't sitting idly by while war in being waged in Gaza. Today, Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights and head of the Council accused - wait for it - Israel of committing war crimes, and the Council adopted a Palestinian resolution calling for condemnation of Israel and a full investigation into 'violations' Israel allegedly committed.

For cover purposes, a brief pro forma condemnation of Hamas was included for their "indiscriminate attacks" on Israel. Not for their using civilians as human shields, not for using hospitals as military command posts, not for storing armaments in UNRWA schools, not for targeting Israeli civilians or a civilian airport, all of which are war crimes under the Geneva Convention Hamas/Fatah just signed on to and all of which Israel has documented.

None of that is going to be investigated by the UNHRC. Just a brief mention of "indiscriminate attacks" which implies that attacks on Israel in general are just fine with the UNHRC, if they're targeted.

Navi Pillay, a South African, has a long history of anti-Israel activism and border line Jew hatred, including her helping to organize the notorious Durban II and Durban III conferences that were so rife with Jew hatred that a number of western delegates walked out on them.

She is a real piece of work, and it's not at all unexpected that she would spearhead this. In th eend, the vote was 22 in favor of the resolution (almost all Muslim and Arab countries) and one against (the United States) while 17 other countries, mostly EU nations cowardly abstained.

 

The Palestinian delegate from Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction,  Riyad al-Maliki who brought the resolution forward and was last seen accusing Israel of fabricating the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens Hamas murdered  said "Israel is in the process of committing hideous crimes."

"Israel is destroying residential areas completely. Israel is targeting journalists. Israel has destroyed 2,500 houses. Infrastructure has been destroyed. Israeli forces are targeting Gaza's medical centers. What Israel is doing is a crime against humanity.  How many martyrs must die before Israel puts an end to its aggression?"

Martyrs.

As you can imagine, that screed got huge applause from the usual suspects.

Israel's envoy to the UNHRC, Eviatar Manor, responded to Pillay's comments by accusing Hamas of committing war crimes and insisted that Israel was acting as any other state would in seeking to defend its citizens. "There can be no moral symmetry between a terrorist aggressor and a democracy defending itself," he argued.

Even Israel's Justice Minister Tzipi Livni expressed her outrage insisting her country was acting according to international law.

"It is regrettable civilians are killed, but when we call on them to vacate and Hamas calls on them to stay, then that is what happens," she told Israel radio,describing the UN Human Rights Council accurately as an "anti-Israel" body.

The upshot of this is easy to see. The UNHRC will do its 'investigation' and condemn Israel, no matter the reality. They will rely on hearsay, they will slant 'evidence' they will simply make things up if they have to. That's what they're there for.

Israel will issue a rebuttal, which will be ignored. And the entire exercise will have no real effect but to deepen Israel's distrust of the UN and make them less and less willing to cooperate with it.

 

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman met today with the UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon to protest UNRWA allowing Hamas to store rockets and other weaponry in UNRWA schools..and the fact that UNRWA, once it was caught doing it 'resolved' the situation by turning the rockets over to Hamas, a terrorist group so that they could be fired against Israeli civilians.

Lieberman told Ban that it was inexcusable for a UN organization to allow a terrorist group to endanger Palestinian children by using a school for a weapons depot and then to turn the rockets over to Hamas so they could endanger Israeli children.

Ban had no official response.

This is what the UN has degenerated into...a shill for terrorist groups and a haven for anti-semitism.

The War Against Hamas, Day 15

 

The IDF continues to strike back at Hamas.

There were several reports of a 'humanitarian ceasefire' in the making that was scheduled to begin at 10 AM local time, but Hamas made so many ridiculous demands that if never came off.

There was also some apprehension that Hamas may have captured an Israeli soldier, but Sergeant Oron Shaul, a combat soldier of the Golani brigade, 21 years old from Poria has now been accounted for as a KIA (HY"D). Apparently Hamas merely recovered some of his documents.

The UN's pro Hamas/Fatah Secretary General Ban ki-Moon met with PM Netanyahu today to whine about Hamas civiian casualties while saying nothing about his Hamas friends violating the Geneva Accord they just joined with Ban's help by using civilians as human shields, storing armaments in UNRWA facilities, and targeting civilians in Israel. PM Netanyahu had a few things to say to him, after showing Ban the steps the IDF ( unlike Hamas) is taking to avoid civilian casualties (emphasis mine):

 

Mr. Secretary, I appreciate the fact that you came here and that you took time to see what we’ve just shown you. I think it’s clear that Israel is doing what any country would do if terrorists rained down rockets on its cities and towns – hundreds of rockets, day after day, week after week. In addition, as I’ve shown you, Hamas has dug terrorist tunnels under hospitals, mosques, schools, homes, to penetrate our territory, to kidnap and kill Israelis.

Now, in the face of such wanton terrorism, no country could sit idly by. It would exercise its right, inherent and legitimate right of self-defense as we are doing, and act decisively to end the threat to its citizens. This is what Israel is doing. We did not seek this escalation, Mr. Secretary. We accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal. I don’t need to remind you it was a proposal that was supported by the UN, by the Arab League, by the United States, by Europe. Hamas rejected it. We accepted the humanitarian ceasefire proposal that the UN proposed afterward. Hamas rejected that. We accepted the ceasefire proposal of the Red Cross in Shejaia. Hamas rejected that, twice. I think the international community must take a clear stand; it must hold Hamas accountable for consistently rejecting the ceasefire proposals and for starting and prolonging this conflict. The international community must hold Hamas accountable for its increasing and indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilians. And the international community must hold Hamas accountable for using Palestinian civilians as human shields deliberately putting them in harm’s way, deliberately keeping them in harm’s way.

Mr. Secretary, we have made every effort and will continue to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties. We are targeting Hamas terrorist targets. We’ve just shown you these targets, embedded in civilian areas, embedded in mosques, embedded in hospitals, embedded in agricultural schools. Hamas is embedded in there in order to sustain civilian casualties, because they know that we will have to protect our citizens; that we have to act against their targets. So they are committing a double war crime: both targeting our civilians and hiding behind their civilians. And they want, I repeat: They want more civilian casualties, whereas we want no civilian casualties at all, and we’re taking the utmost pain to minimize that. I think the people of Gaza, and that’s become absolutely clear to the world, are the victims of the brutal Hamas regime. They are holding them hostage and they are hiding behind them.

You know, Mr. Secretary, the international community has pressed us to give cement to Gaza to build schools, hospitals, homes. And now we see what has happened to those deliveries of cement. They have been used to dig tunnels next to a kindergarten, not to build a kindergarten but to build a tunnel that penetrates our territory so that Hamas can blow up our kindergartens and murder our children. They’ve used for a long time our willingness to try to keep civilians at a minimum. They’ve been using them to keep on firing at us. We have even opened up a field hospital, Mr. Secretary, to help Hamas civilians, and Hamas is preventing civilians of Gaza from going to our hospital. I believe that you understand this. I believe that you understand that it is the right of every state to defend itself. And Israel will continue to do what it needs to do to defend its people.

Mr. Secretary, this is not only our right; this is our duty.

So far, Bibi Netanyahu is standing up to cretins like Ban. Let's hope it continues.

Here's the IDF's own summary of today's events:

Since the beginning of the ground phase of the operation, the IDF has targeted over 1,800 terror sites. Over the course of the day the IDF has targeted approximately 260 terror activity sites in Gaza. Among the targets were military posts, concealed rocket launchers, weapon manufacturing facilities and military command centers. IDF soldiers uncovered thus far approximately 30 offensive tunnels and 66 access points.

2,160 rockets have been fired at Israel since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, 420 of them were intercepted and some 1,700 hit Israel. Today, 87 rockets were fired at Israel, 18 of them intercepted and 67 hit Israel.

This morning, militants fired anti-tank missiles from within a mosque at IDF soldiers in Khan-Yunis. In response, IAF aircraft targeted the mosque, identifying a hit. Staff Sergeant Avitar Moshe Torjamin was killed and several soldiers were wounded in this incident.

In a separate incident, terrorists fired anti-tank missiles at IDF soldiers in Khan-Yunis. The soldiers responded with fire and killed 4 terrorists.

Around noon, IDF soldiers uncovered 3 tunnel access points in the northern Gaza Strip.

Later today, elite unit soldiers uncovered a cache of ammunition in the central Gaza Strip. The ammunition included anti-tank missiles, heavy machine guns and AK- 47 assault rifles.

Recently, 2 terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers who responded to the threat and killed them.

The IDF thus far has lost 29 of its soldiers in the war against Hamas. The Hamas toll is well over 600,and contrary to what you're hearing the majority of those deaths are combatants.

Today was also the day the U.S. and a number of EU carriers suspended service to Israel after a Hamas rocket damaged a house a mile from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. As I wrote earlier this is sheer nonsense that gives Hamas a prize for attacking Israel, just like the $47 million President Obama and Secretary John Kerry have pledged to gift them with. They're not pledging any finds for rebuilding anything in Israel hit by Hamas rockets, of course.

One can only wonder what the reaction of Hamas/Fatah would be if President Obama said flat out that if they launched any more rockets at Israeli civilians, U.S. financial support would rend immediately. Of course, we don't have that kind of president in the White House, although the Canadians certainly have that kind of PM in Ottawa.

Of all people, former NY mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg slammed the FAA ban on U.S carriers flying to Israel and is on his way there via El Al. You have to give him credit.

And speaking of real heroes...The commander of the IDF’s Golani Brigade, Raslan Alian, was wounded on Saturday night. He's the highest ranking Druze in the IDF. He insisted on returning to his men in Gaza on Tuesday to finish the mission, with the scars of battle still evident on his face:



The motto of the Tzahal commanders? 'Follow me.'

In other tidbits, more Hamas rockets were found stored in UNRWA facilities, which of course UNRWA claims to know nothing about. Just like the last batch that was found, UNRWA will hand the latest batch to Hamas to fire against Israeli civilians.

Such people do not even merit contempt. They're simply cockroaches in human form.

Here's hoping that when this is all over, Israel expels UNRWA, never to return.

Watcher's Council Nominations - Standing With Israel Edition

 

Welcome to the Watcher's Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the 'sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

The Council In Action!!

* Bookworm over at Bookworm Room scored with this wonderful poster featured at American Thinker



This week, The MidKnight Review, Seraphic Secret, The Pirate's Cove and Blazing Cat Fur earned honorable mention status with some great articles.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

To bring something to my attention, simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title and a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won't be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category. Then return the favor  by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week when it comes out Wednesday morning

Simple, no?

It's a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let's see what we have for you this week....

Council Submissions

• The Noisy Room – Orchestrated Invasion – The Eradication Of America’s Borders


• The Independent Sentinel – Stunning audio of border patrol in active pursuit of Muslims


• The Colossus of Rhodey – Profs Given Grant to Overcome White Male Hegemony in Science Fiction. Or Something


• Joshuapundit-The Border? The Mideast? Scandals? For The Obamas It's Luxury Vacay Time Again!!


• Simply Jews – Jewish/Muslim clashes in Paris. POV means: Point Of View


• The Right Planet – The Radical Left’s ‘Islamophobic’ Reaction to the Hobby Lobby Ruling


• Rhymes With Right – Why We Need To Focus On Juan Garcia Rather Than Stefan Kowalski


• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – Valkyrie Day


• The Glittering Eye -Where You Sit Is Where You Stand?


• VA Right! - Remember – The Illegals at our Border Are Pink Tide SOCIALISTS!!!


• Bookworm Room – Daniel Hannan goes to the heart of things, praising the rule of law


• Nice Deb – What Crisis? Obama’s ‘Gonna Stick to the Schedule – a Cheeseburger, Fries and Two Fundraisers’ (Video


• The Razor – A Trip to Mt. Hiei, Kyoto Japan


• Ask Marion – Clinton Inc. – The Ugly Just Does Not Stop

Honorable Mentions

• The MidKnight Review - Labels are often, necessary, but, at other times labels misinform and defeat the purpose of civil discussion. Case in point: Sara Firth.


• Seraphic Secret - Hamas Dead Baby Strategy


• The Pirate's Cove - Court Strikes Down Key Obamacare Component


• Blazing Cat Fur - French online forums overflow with anti-Jewish hate

Non-Council Submissions

• Sultan Knish –It's Another "Death to the Jews" Weekend submitted by The Noisy Room


• Doug Ross –CHANGE: Since Obama became President, 1.5 MILLION people have been added to secret "suspected terrorist" list submitted by The Independent Sentinel


• Jim Geraghty/NRO – A Thor Subject submitted by The Colossus of Rhodey


• Sharon Omrad-Guetta/Israel Hayom – Come Home, My Love submitted by Joshuapundit


• Between Jerusalem And Tel Aviv – How do you say "Chutzpa" in British? submitted by Simply Jews


• The Patriot Brotherhood – Wow! Obama's broken promises from a lifelong Liberal Democrat submitted by The Right Planet


• To Understand The Present, Remember The Past – How Obama & The Democrats Are Repeating The History of Vietnam - And Will Get The Same Resultsubmitted by Rhymes with Right


• Foreign Affairs – How Hamas Won submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD


• Sic Semper Tyrannis – Did Kiev shoot down MH -17? submitted by The Glittering Eye


• Israel Matsav – Poll: 77% of Israeli Jews oppose cease fire under current circumtances submitted by VA Right!


• Mark Steyn -Fields Of Blood submitted by Bookworm Room


• Tara Servatius /American Thinker -The brutal Obama policy that's really driving the Border Crisis submitted by Nice Deb


• The American Interest –Anti-GMO Activists Are Harming Hungry Africans submitted by The Razor


• Isabel Matos/A Time for Choosing -What in the Heck is Wrong With the “D” Word? JUST Get Over It Already. It’s Exasperating. Readers, Chime In! submitted by Ask Marion


• PJ Tatler – Is Sen. Elizabeth Warren a Mere Hack or an Out-and-Out Sociopath? submitted by The Watcher


• The New Republic – How The Israel/Palestine Peace Plan Died submitted by Watcher

Enjoy! And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us Twitter..'cause we're cool like that!

Must See! Howard Stern Defends Israel On The Air

Howard Stern got a call from Hamzi, a Pakistani regular dissing Israel and that's all it took to set off an epic rant.

Warning, extremely NSFW language.

Obama And The EU Give Huge Prize To Hamas

 

The FAA has banned U.S. carriers from flying to Israel until further notice due to a Hamas rocket hitting a house a mile away from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport.

The FAA advisory reads:

The notice was issued in response to a rocket strike which landed approximately one mile from Ben Gurion International Airport on the morning ... [and] applies only to U.S. operators, and has no authority over foreign airlines operating to or from the airport

The EU was quick to follow along with The European Aviation Safety Agency telling France's AFP it would issue a "strong recommendation to avoid until further notice Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport."

This not only affects Israel economically (this is the height of the tourist season in Israel), but increases Israel's sense of isolation during wartime, and that is deliberate.

Both the Obama Administration and the EU want to stop Israel's offensive in Gaza and preserve Hamas' Islamist reichlet. This is their way of increasing pressure on Israel to leave Hamas in place.

Just imagine what would happen if President Obama made a clear statement  slamming Hamas for the war crime of targeting a civilian airport and threatened to cut off all funding for Hamas/Fatah  unless the rocket fire at Israel's civilians stopped immediately? But not this  president.

 

As Israeli Transport Minister Yisrael Katz said, this was a ridiculous overreaction. "There is no reason for these companies to stop flights. They have given a prize to terror."

After all, Malaysia Airline Flight 17, was traveling through an area with no international restrictions
when it was shot down over the Ukraine, where an armed conflict was known to exist.

I advise anyone traveling to Israel to take El Al.

On the plus side,this provides an incentive for Israel to step up its offensive and take out Hamas once and for all. And it also shows why 'Palestine' in Judea and Samaria shouldn't be based on the pre '67 lines, if it exists at all.

As an aside, President Obama has already pledged $47 million of your tax dollars to Hamas/Fatah for 'rebuilding' in Gaza, plus an additional $15 million to UNRWA ...and not a dime to Israel for its own rebuilding. Since he has to be  aware that the money he gave Hamas for 'rebuilding Gaza' and 'humanitarian aid' went to building Hamas' terrorist infrastructure and the tunnels the Israelis are now fighting to destroy, there's no mistaking where his sympathies lie. 

Federal Appeals Court Deals Major Blow To ObamaCare; Most Subsidies Illegal

 

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today on a landmark case, Halbig vs. Burwell that would deal a huge blow to ObamaCare

The three judge panel, based on what they called a close reading of the law ruled that most of the ObamaCare subsidies are illegal.The 2-1 ruling said the subsidies can only be given to people who bought insurance in an Obamacare exchange run by an individual state or the District of Columbia—and not on the federally run exchange HealthCare.gov.


"Section 36B plainly makes subsidies available in the Exchanges established by states," wrote Senior Circuit Judge Raymond Randolph in his majority opinion, where he was joined by Judge Thomas Griffith.

"We reach this conclusion, frankly, with reluctance. At least until states that wish to can set up their own Exchanges, our ruling will likely have significant consequences both for millions of individuals receiving tax credits through federal Exchanges and for health insurance markets more broadly."

Both Judge Randolph and Judge Griffith were appointed by President George HW Bush and President George W. Bush, respectively. The dissenting jurist,Judge Harry Edwards is a Carter appointee and an African-American, and his dissent was mainly based on a political stance, that this was "an attempt to gut ObamaCare."

You may draw your own conclusions.

The reality is that, as the law was written, people who enroll in Obamacare through the federal exchange aren’t eligible for subsidies. The text of the law only provides subsidies for people enrolled through “an Exchange established by the State,” according to the text of the Affordable Care Act. Only 16 states decided to establish the exchanges.

In Halbig vs. Burwell, the fed's argument was that the IRS issued a regulation expanding the number of enrollees who qualify for the subsidies. The plaintiff's argument was that the IRS does not have the authority to make that change. And if we're going by the law, it doesn't, because that amounts to legislation.

The IRS has no independent power to tax, borrow and spend. Only Congress can do that.It can only deviate from law in the case of obvious typos or ambiguous language, or in the case of something simply not making sense. Unfortunately for proponents of ObamaCare, the language in Section 36B is explicit, has a clear meaning and cannot be said to contain any typos, since the exact same language was written into numerous drafts of the law, including the final one sent to Se4nate Majority leader Harry Reid before the vote. The plaintiffs were able to clearly establish that, which is why the panel ruled as it did.

I guess the Dems really should have read the bill to see what was in it before jamming it down our throats.

 

The effect of this ruling, if it's upheld, would be to substantially cripple ObamaCare,perhaps terminally. ObamaCare, thus far, has mainly been attractive to those people who are interested in free stuff someone else is paying for. ObamaCare as free stuff mainly relies on the subsidies, and without them, it goes under without a massive federal bailout. Twenty seven states decided not to set up ObamaCare exchanges, and another nine states opted out.

A whopping 87% of ObamaCare's 'customers' are getting the subsidies. More than half of them signed up via the federal exchange. If the subsidies aren't available for them, they would be able to opt out, circumventing the law that requires them to get insurance or pay a tax penalty. The same applies to a great many other people the Obama Administration was relying on to pay for those subsidies through the IRS penalties.

And if ObamaCare goes down? Well, we can just write off the literally billions of dollars it cost to put together the dysfunctional website, the costs of the Justice Department defending this legal abortion,  the costs to market it and try to sell it, the lost productivity and man hours in both the private and public sector, and any other monies already paid out. All because this president and his party were so arrogant, so intent on getting their own way, so anxious to get this through no matter what the American people wanted that they were willing to ignore the law and circumvent the normal reconciliation process with the senate that is supposed to iron out errors like this because of Scott Brown's surprise election in Massachusetts.

There is not one member of congress who went along with this costly charade worthy of re-election. They knew how wrong it was, but they did it anyway.


 


Don't pop the champagne corks yet. The Obama Department of Justice is sure to appeal this, and the Supremes can either abrogate the ruling, agree with the lower court or simply refuse to hear the case, so that the lower court's ruling stands. Or they can appeal to the DC Court for an en banc hearing, requiring the full court to hear an appeal. Given some of the legal detritus the Regime has been able to pack the DC Circuit with, they might just prevail, in which case it is the plaintiffs whom would have to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Stay tuned...