[IsraelTimes] A bomb threat forced the evacuation of the Jewish Museum in London this week. Staff and visitors were sent outside after the threat was called in Monday at noon, the Jewish Chronicle reported Tuesday. Children from two schools were visiting at the time.
Police and security officials did not find any explosives in their inspection of the building.
"This incident underlines how vital our work is," Abigail Morris, director of museum, told the Jewish Chronicle. "We welcome thousands of visitors to the Jewish Museum every year, including 20,000 schoolchildren ‐ 95 percent of whom are not Jewish. We challenge prejudice and combat anti-Semitism by breaking down barriers and building bridges."
The hoax threat came within hours of a similar threat to the Sydney Jewish Museum.
A day earlier, 28 Jewish community centers and Jewish schools, and the the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... office of the Anti-Defamation League were evacuated after receiving bomb threats in the fifth wave of such threats since the beginning of the year.
[IsraelTimes] Speaking at CST event, Amber Rudd promises support amid uptick in anti-Semitic incidents, says ’I wish anti-Semitism was a subject of the past’.
Rudd said her office would provide £13.4 million (NIS 60 million) for security measures in the Jewish community in the coming year. The money, she said, would go towards security guards and protection at independent and state Jewish schools, kindergartens, synagogues and community sites.
The same sum was pledged to protect the Jewish community in 2016, a slight increase from £11.5 million (NIS 52 million) promised in 2015 by then-prime minister David Cameron ... has stated that he is certainly a big Thatcher fan, but I don't know whether that makes me a Thatcherite, which means he's not. Since he is not deeply ideological he lacks core principles and is easily led. He has been described as certainly not a Pitt, Elder or Younger, but he does wear a nice suit so maybe he's Beau Brummel ... Lloyd Dorfman, the CST’s deputy chairman, said Britannia had seen a sharp rise in anti-Semitic attacks over the last eight months, with over 100 per month, a number rarely reached in the years prior.
"In the 10 years prior to 2016, there were only ever six separate months when the number of anti-Semitic incidents exceeded 100 in the month," he said.
"By comparison, we recently completed eight consecutive months with over 100 incidents in each month. As the process of leaving the EU unfolds, we must all be vigilant in guarding against attacks on faith, ethnic and national minorities," he added.
The CST released a report last month noting that anti-Semitism in the UK reached "unprecedented" levels in 2016, after a rise of 36 percent in the number of incidents.
Some 1,309 incidents were reported in 2016 ‐ the highest on record -- compared to 960 incidents in 2015 and 1,182 the year before, when Israel launched military action against terror groups in the Gazoo Strip, provoking a strong backlash against Jewish communities across the world, something the CST called a "trigger event."
[AA.TR] A Norwegian court on Wednesday overturned a previous verdict that Norway had violated the human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... of a convicted mass murderer.
"The court has come to the conclusion that Anders Behring Breivik is not, and has not, been subjected to torture or inhumane or degrading treatment," the Oslo court said in its decision.
The verdict said there were "no clear indications that Breivik has been subjected to isolation damage during his prison sentence."
"The court is of the opinion that there is a high risk that Breivik will resort to violence in the future," it added.
In July 22, 2011, Anders Breivik -- a radical conservative -- carried out a kaboom in Oslo, Norway. He then slaughtered students on Utoya Island located near Oslo. In total, 77 people died and more than 200 others were maimed.
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03/02/2017 00:00 ||
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"The court is of the opinion that there is a high risk that Breivik will resort to violence in the future,"
It has to. Otherwise it was a coldly calculated act like drone hit list of individuals. Done for the same reason. To decapitate an enemy's leadership.
[IsraelTimes] Investigators say person making threats is using masking technology, may be abroad and working.
US law enforcement officials reportedly believe bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions across the country are being made by a single person, possibly abroad, using "spoofing" technology.
On Monday, 29 Jewish institutes were evacuated after receiving phone calls threatening that explosives had been placed within the buildings, in the fifth wave of such threats since the beginning of the year.
Federal Sherlocks are coordinating with local police forces in an attempt to trace those behind the threats.
They believe that the callers used spoofing technology, which makes a call appear to come from another source, making it more difficult to trace, Buzzfeed reported Wednesday.
FBI officials relayed this initial conclusion to Paul Goldenberg, national director of the Secure Community Network, which advises Jewish organizations.
Goldenberg told Buzzfeed that those behind the threats "are leveraging technologies that have made the investigation more challenging."
On Monday, CBS cited a law enforcement official who said that the threats appeared to be coordinated. He also said that the calls were received from both within the US and from abroad.
On Tuesday, The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... quoted a federal law enforcement official who said that a single person using an internet calling service may be behind the threats. The newspaper said many analysts and researchers share that theory.
The calls are apparently made using voice-masking technology that protects the caller’s identity, as heard in a recording of a threat obtained by JTA.
According to The New York Times, in one case near Milwaukee, an operator asked the caller questions and received responses, indicating at least some of the calls are not recorded.
No actual bombs have been found at any of the dozens of institutions that have received bomb threats in recent weeks.
"The goal of these people is to wear us down," Goldenberg said. "But we are back in our schools, we are back in our JCCs."
Goldenberg said the Jewish institutions are "behaving in an exemplary manner" in the wake of the threats.
"Our Jewish schools and our JCCs continue to train for this, continue to execute well-placed measures," he said, going on to praise the staffs of US Jewish institutions as "vigilant."
In his long-awaited speech to both Houses of Congress on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... said the recurrent bomb threats to Jewish institutions and desecration of Jewish cemeteries were a reminder "of our nation’s path toward civil rights and the work that remains."
"Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its forms," said Trump, who was noticeably more subdued and conciliatory than during his previous speeches and pressers.
CAIR's student arms publicize themselves making useless gesture.
[IsraelTimes] After cemeteries attacked and amid bomb threats, the Muslim Student Associations of Florida State and Florida A&M universities deliver bouquets to three Tallahassee synagogues, saying ‘it is important we stand together’.
A mixed message: "Please don't hurt us" and "No, of course it's not a bomb."
“Keeping up with the news lately has shown a plethora of very sad stories and hateful crimes against many minority groups,” FSU Muslim Student Association President Moneba Anees wrote in an email to the Tallahassee-Democrat newspaper. “Although we could not think of a way to help our Jewish friends and peers directly, we decided that we could show them that people are taking note of what is happening and that they have our support, love and prayers.”
[IsraelTimes] Two labor groups say they will replace headstones and install lighting, as offers to help pour in.
Bobby Henon, a Philadelphia City Council member with union ties who represents the Wissinoming neighborhood, tweeted Monday evening that the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council offered to replace the toppled headstones and that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 98 offered to install additional lighting and security cameras.
Labor leader John Dougherty of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council told reporters that the vandalism is a “cowardly act of anti-Semitism that cannot be tolerated.” His workers also offered to re-sod and clean the cemetery grounds.
Meanwhile, a Gofundme campaign for the Philadelphia cemetery launched by a private citizen, Raphael Caroline, 31, in the hours after the vandalism was discovered has raised nearly $20,000 in 24 hours, double its original goal.
The Jewish Federation of Philadelphia announced that a volunteer cleanup of the cemetery will begin at noon Tuesday and run every day from noon to 4 p.m.
[IsraelTimes] Amid uptick in anti-Semitic incidents including bomb threats, grave desecration, Muslim tweets signal readiness to help.
It looks self-organized and propagating
On Monday, a Muslim man who started an online fundraising campaign for a Florida mosque damaged in an arson attempt said that many of the donors to the campaign, which raised $60,000, were Jewish.
“I couldn’t understand why people were donating in what seemed like weird amounts to the cause. There are sums of 18, 36, 72.00 dollars etc. then I figured out after clicking on the names Avi, Cohen, Gold-stein, Rubin, Fisher…. Jews donate in multiples of 18 as a form of what is called ‘Chai’. It wishes the recipient a long life,” Adeel Karim, a member of the Islamic Society of New Tampa wrote Monday in a Facebook post. “The Jewish faith has shown up in force to support our New Tampa Islamic community. I’m floored.”
[BBC] When Tanveer Ahmed was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in jail for murder last August, Judge Lady Rae said he had committed a "brutal, barbaric and horrific crime".
Ahmed stabbed to death Glasgow shopkeeper Asad Shah - who belonged to the persecuted Ahmadi sect - because he believed he was committing blasphemy by uploading online videos in which he claimed to be a prophet.
But in Pakistan, Ahmed is developing a growing number of supporters who see him as a "defender of Islam" for having killed someone they believed to be disrespecting the Prophet Muhammad.
On Monday evening, about 400 gathered outside his family's home in the city of Mirpur, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir for a rally in his honour. The crowd chanted slogans praising Ahmed as "brave" and "courageous".
One man attending said: "Because of what he did, the whole of Pakistan knows who he is."
The event was organised by the anti-blasphemy religious lobby group Labaik Ya Rasool Ullah (Here I am present, o Prophet of Allah).
The same group has championed another killer - Mumtaz Qadri - who in 2011 shot dead a high profile Pakistani politician for trying to reform the country's blasphemy laws.
Blasphemy is an emotive issue in Pakistan, where it is legally punishable by death.
After Qadri was executed last year, tens of thousands of his supporters attended his funeral, and a shrine housing his tomb has been built in Rawalpindi.
Hardline cleric Khadim Rizvi is one of the leading figures in Labaik Ya Rasool Ullah, and is the most prominent supporter of Tanveer Ahmed.
As well as images of Mumtaz Qadri, Rizvi now uses images of Ahmed to promote his rallies and talks.
Ahmed had cited Qadri as his inspiration for killing his victim, and their supporters often compare the two killers.
In a BBC interview Rizvi said support for Ahmed was not as widespread as that for Qadri - but that Ahmed was held in particularly high esteem for having killed someone accused of blasphemy in a non-Muslim country.
Over the past few months a Facebook page run by Rizvi's followers has released a number of audio messages from Ahmed whilst in jail. The messages included Ahmed justifying his own actions - and repeating slogans that "the penalty for blasphemers is for their heads to be cut off".
Rizvi was prevented from attending the rally in Mirpur by police, but I met him earlier this month after another rally.
He said that until recently he would talk to Tanveer Ahmed on the phone "every couple of weeks", and that he was proud of his friendship with him.
"I'm proud of the fact that we are in contact - and this pride will remain until the day of judgement and beyond."
Rizvi added that his conversations with Ahmed included discussions on the topic of blasphemy, and chants in support of the Prophet Muhammad.
After a BBC report in January 2017 on Ahmed's audio messages from jail, the Scottish Prison Service banned him from using the phone.
Rizvi, Ahmed and Qadri all come from the Sufi Barelvi sect of Sunni Islam, one normally associated with more spiritual interpretations of the religion.
Rizvi, for example, is vocal in his condemnation of recent attacks in Pakistan, and of militant groups like the so-called Islamic State.
But in Pakistan, Barelvis have been at the forefront of anti-blasphemy campaigns.
"A Sufi is someone who devotes his life to the Prophet Muhammad - if someone insults the Prophet and they just let it go - they are not a real Sufi," Rizvi said.
[AA.TR] Majid Hanani, a 64-year-old Paleostinian, has been forced to live the life of a caveman after his home in the West Bank was razed -- repeatedly -- by Israeli bulldozers.
Located in the village of Tana east of the West Bank city of Nablus, Hanani’s home -- along with 300 other modest Paleostinian homes -- was razed by Israeli bulldozers early this year, prompting displaced residents to seek refuge inside nearby caves.
The Israeli authorities, for their part, attempted to justify the demolitions by saying the homes had been built without state permission.
"Life is difficult in the caves," Hanani told Anadolu Agency. "We lack most basic requirements."
"But we have no alternative," he said bitterly. "We build our homes out of corrugated iron and Israeli bulldozers eventually come and demolish them."
"I’ve seen it happen more than 20 times," he added.
While watching an old television set powered by solar energy, Hanani said: "I fear difficult days ahead; harassment by the Israeli army -- and the Jewish settlers -- will continue."
He pointed to an outpost on a nearby hilltop, saying: "That’s a [Jewish] settler who came several years ago with his caravan. Today, he runs a farm for breeding cattle."
"He established a settlement outpost there," he explained. "Now he wants to extend the boundaries of his property to include land on which we were living before the 1967 occupation."
Posted by: Fred ||
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#2
That reminds me of a heart-warming story a friend told me once. A reserve unit he was a part of chased a remnant of a terrorist squad into a cave in Samarian hills. They called on the terrorists to surrender, but they wouldn't. So, one of the guys had a brilliant idea: the unit had a flare firing pistol, so they fired several flares into the cave --- to make the terrorist come out. Unfortunately, nobody came out.
#4
"But we have no alternative," he said bitterly. "We build our homes out of corrugated iron
"That’s a [Jewish] settler who came several years ago with his caravan.
Sour grapes? The Paleo started with a tin house and is watching TV in a cave. The Israeli showed up with a trailer and built a cattle ranch.
Makes it sound like industry enables deprivation.
[AA.TR] Israel has begun partitioning East Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque complex with a view to creating a prayer space for Jewish worshippers, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) warned Wednesday.
According to Wikipedia, the OIC is "an international organization founded in 1969 consisting of 57 member states, with a collective population of over 1.6 billion as of 2008. The organisation states that it is "the collective voice of the Muslim world" and works to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony"."
"The placement of a glass room inside the courtyard of the al-Aqsa Mosque complex is a first step toward the spatial division of the mosque," Ahmad al-Ruwaidhi, the OIC’s representative in Paleostine, said at a Wednesday presser.
The move, he asserted, "follows the imposition of a temporal division [by Israel] in the form of daily incursions [into al-Aqsa] by Jewish settlers".
What’s more, the move reveals "Israel’s intention to dedicate a place for Talmudic rituals inside the al-Haram al-Sharif," al-Ruwaidhi said, using the Arabic term for the al-Aqsa Mosque.
I have no idea what Talmudic rituals are. Sorry.
The OIC representative also warned of the dangers posed by Israeli excavations that are reportedly being carried out under the holy site.
In light of these excavations, al-Ruwaidhi said, "we fear the al-Aqsa Mosque could collapse in the event of a natural -- or artificial -- earthquake".
Sheikh Muhammad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, for his part, reiterated the Islamic identity of Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque.
"Claims put forward this week by the Israeli magistrate's court -- that al-Aqsa is a holy place for Jews -- is completely false and not supported by evidence," he said.
For Moslems, al-Aqsa represents the world's third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the "Temple Mount," claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2017 00:00 ||
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I haven't seen anything about this, but I am not one of the Elders of Zion, so naturally I would not be included in the nefarious plotting to take over the world and evaporate Muslim pee-pees with a handshake.
#3
The moslems deliberately built the Al Aqsa mosque directly on top of the foundation of the Herodian temple to prevent the Jews from ever rebuilding the temple.
A false religion appropriating property and doctrine to cloak itself in something vaguely resembling validation
[AA.TR] The Syrian opposition at Geneva IV peace talks said Wednesday they had been told by UN mediator Staffan de Mistura that the regime delegation had agreed to discuss the issue of political transition.
"We hear from de Mistura a positive thing. Due to the Russian pressure, there is acceptance to tackle the issue of... political transition," Nasr al-Hariri, head of the Syrian opposition delegation, told a presser at the UN in Geneva after meeting with de Mistura.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov, whose government supports Bashir al-Assad’s regime, met the opposition delegation Wednesday afternoon in Geneva. Gatilov said beforehand that he would listen to the opposition’s view of the current situation.
"Today, we will have a meeting with Russia’s deputy foreign minister. In this meeting, we are going to discuss in details the issues related to cease-fire and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in different areas in Syria, especially Eastern Ghouta, and to seek a way to support the political process that is taking place now," Hariri said.
About the issue of political transition, Hariri said, "We hope that Russia will have a constructive role in this issue."
Russia on Tuesday called for the opposing sides in the Syrian peace talks to negotiate directly.
In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Gatilov said: "Direct talks, that is what we [have been] calling for from the very beginning. Unfortunately, this has not happened until now."
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Since at least 2012, the United States has been supporting armed groups trying to overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad. It has always been a difficult alliance because many of the rebel groups have ties to Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. The program has principally been run by the CIA.
In 2013, President Barack Obama waived a provision of the Arms Export Control Act that prevented arming terrorist organizations in order to arm Syrian rebels. Nonetheless, the weapons fell into Al Qaeda’s hands, first by accident, then on purpose after some marketing.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly bashed the program and said, "We have no idea who these people are." He suggested the government was arming people who may see the U.S. as an enemy.
A recent pause in the program has many rebels worried that the CIA has gotten new orders from President Trump. According to Reuters, the program has been frozen since January after one rebel faction known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA) came under attack by the more dominant Al Qaeda-linked group Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (formerly known as the Al Nusra Front).
The FSA has repeatedly proved to be a (seemingly unwilling) source of new weapons for Al Qaeda. Previous U.S. weapons given to FSA quickly fell into the hands of Al Qaeda-linked rebels when FSA fighters abandoned them on the battlefield.
Beyond the FSA’s forced donations to Al Qaeda’s war chest are its new conscious alliances. The FSA has now aligned with a rival Islamist rebel group backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey, known as Ahrar al-Sham. Though not Al Qaeda or ISIS-linked, al-Sham is also a Sunni jihadist militant group promoting a Salafist ideology.
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
David Cameron
[IsraelTimes] Investigators say person making threats is using masking technology, may be abroad and working.
[BBC] When Tanveer Ahmed was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in jail for murder last August, Judge Lady Rae said he had committed a "brutal, barbaric and horrific crime".
[AA.TR] Majid Hanani, a 64-year-old Paleostinian, has been forced to live the life of a caveman after his home in the West Bank was razed -- repeatedly -- by Israeli bulldozers.
