[IsraelTimes] Justices reject appeal on behalf of an Arkansas newspaper that objected to a state law that reduces fees paid to contractors who refuse to sign pledge not to boycott Israel.
The US Supreme Court ...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations... on Tuesday refused to step into a legal fight over state laws that require contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel.
The justices rejected an appeal on behalf of an alternative weekly newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas, that objected to a state law that reduces fees paid to contractors that refuse to sign the pledge.
The full federal appeals court in St. Louis upheld the law, overturning a three-judge panel’s finding that it violated constitutional free speech rights.
Similar measures in Arizona, Kansas and Texas were initially blocked by courts, prompting politicians to focus only on larger contracts. Arkansas’s law applies to contracts worth $1,000 or more.
Wednesday’s ruling was a major victory for pro-Israel activist muppets who have pushed around 30 states to adopt so-called "anti-BDS" laws — intended to strike back against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement targeting Israel — in recent years.
Such laws have been heavily opposed by civil liberties groups and press freedom advocates, who say they violate free speech. Federal courts have previously ruled that similar anti-boycott state laws in Georgia, Arizona, Kansas and Texas are unconstitutional.
In siding against the Arkansas weekly last June, the Appeals court found that an anti-boycott contract provision does not infringe on the signer’s free speech rights because it "does not require them to publicly endorse or disseminate a message." Instead, the court said, the clause requests "compliance" with a financial regulation — which the court says is a form of "noncommunicative" speech not protected by the First Amendment. The Eighth Circuit is considered to have a conservative makeup.
Arkansas had introduced the law in 2017, and the public University of Arkansas was sued by Little Rock-based alt-weekly The Arkansas Times in 2018. The paper had sued the university because its Pulaski Technical College affiliate, a regular advertiser with the paper, had refused to continue advertising unless The Arkansas Times signed the anti-boycott pledge, citing the state law.
"Though boycotting Israel could not have been further from our minds and though state funding is a significant source of our income, our answer was no. We don’t take political positions in return for advertising," Arkansas Times publisher Alan Leveritt wrote in a New York Times
... which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... op-ed last year explaining his paper’s decision. The paper was represented in court by an attorney from the American Civil Liberties Union, and its case was featured in the recent documentary "Boycott," which followed legal battles over state anti-BDS laws.
The lawsuit was dismissed by a district court judge in 2019, who ruled that the boycott ban was not a First Amendment violation because it only extended to the paper’s commercial activities, not its editorial content. The newspaper appealed the decision, and a three-judge panel for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that the law was unconstitutional before the full court granted the state’s request to rehear the case.
"We are not aware of any cases where a court has held that a certification requirement concerning unprotected, nondiscriminatory conduct is unconstitutionally compelled speech," the court said in its ruling at the time.
Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision was hailed by the American Jewish Committee, which has long advocated for anti-BDS bills. "The Supreme Court has confirmed our view that state statutes opposing BDS are indeed constitutional," AJC said in a statement. "The primary aim of the BDS movement is to eliminate the State of Israel. The court’s action gives a boost to efforts to put a stop to the pernicious effort to isolate Israel economically and morally."
[ShabelleMedia] The Minister of Foreign Affairs Abshir Omar Jama denied reports that vehicles owned by the Ministry fell into the al-Shabaab ...... Somalia's version of the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... , functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... hands.
"It’s baseless propaganda the claims on social media indicating that cars belonging to the ministry of foreign affairs and me are missing,"
"I inform the Somali people that there is no vehicle belonging to me or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs missing or has gone to al-Shabaab," wrote Haruse on his Facebook page.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs also said that the reports were spread by people with an intention to mislead the Somali people on fake news.
This comes as there has been a lot of discussion on social media that a vehicle owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been taken to the al-Shabaab-held area in Somalia.
I think the game theory boffins call this enhanced tit for tat — others might call it bringing a gun to a knife fight.
[Dawn] Indian politician Pramod Muthalik has urged young Hindu men to lure "10 Moslem girls if we lose one Hindu girl" through what he called "love jihad" and promised to provide them security and employment.
According to The Indian Express, Muthalik, the chief of the Hindu nationalist party Sri Ram Sena, while speaking at a public event in Karnataka’s Bagalkote on Feb 19, alleged that thousands of Hindu girls were being "exploited in the name of love jihad", the belief that Moslems are seeking to deceive Hindu women through marriage and convert them to Islam.
"We are aware of the situation. I would like to invite the youth here. If we lose one Hindu girl, we should trap 10 Moslem girls. If you do so, Sri Ram Sena will take responsibility for you and provide every kind of security and employment," the report quoted Muthalik as saying.
"Our girls are exploited in love jihad. Across the country, thousands of girls are cheated in the name of love. We should warn them," the politician further said.
The report also stated that in a conversation with The Indian Express, Muthalik had said that he had made similar statements more than 10 times and would continue to do so to "protect Hindu women".
"I am not saying this because elections are around the corner. My statements have always been in the interest of Hindus," the report quoted him as saying.
The report added that Muthalik’s comments have been widely criticised, with "love jihad" considered to be a baseless conspiracy theory that courts have rejected.
CALL FOR ACTION AGAINST MUTHALIK
The Indian politician’s remarks were condemned by a number of civil society members in the country.
Journalist Mohammed Zubair — who was arrested for allegedly insulting Hindu religious leaders on Twitter — asked why the Karnataka police was not taking action against Muthalik.
Author and activist muppet Rahul Easwar tweeted that "in our Arsha Bharatha Sanskriti, we consider woman as devatas [goddesses]".
"It’s up to every Patriot to serve & protect all women from all traps this way or that way," he added.
In another tweet, he said: "Can we pls spare our Hindu and Moslem sisters out of this?? And we males fight/debate these topics without ’trapping/dragging in Indian woman’."
Indian director Mansoor Hussain Khan said that Muthalik’s "bigoted and sexist hate speech" had brought shame to the people of Karnataka. He also called on the police to take strict action against the politician.
A topic considered important enough in Somalia for their local news site to publish. Truly we live in an age of miracles.
[ShabelleMedia] Representatives of 14 African and Arab countries will convene in Jerusalem next month for the first ever Arab-Africa-Israel conference on Middle East security.
The event comes during a diplomatic tug of war in Africa between supporters and opponents of Israel, which saw a public row when a senior Israeli diplomat was ejected from the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... ’s annual summit in Æthiopia last weekend.
Next month’s three-day conference, entitled "Trusted Regional Partnerships at a Time of Shifting Alliances," which is being organized by the Jerusalem-based research institute the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, will include participants from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel.
The conference will focus on security, stability and cooperation, with roundtable discussions on the landmark 2020 Abraham Accords, anti-radicalism and counterinsurgency, as well as food and water security. It will also include two days of visits to cutting-edge Israeli tech companies.
It will include participants from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Fifteen of the nineteen WTC hijackers were Saudis, and most major jihadi commanders were Saudis, to include Osama bin Laden. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman quietly folded that tent in 2016, doing terrible things to the guys running it, and has since been dragging the kingdom into the current century... , the UAE, Æthiopia, Uganda, Djibouti, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Somaliland, South Sudan and South Africa.
"The first ever Arab-Africa Israel policy summit in Jerusalem is particularly important at a moment in the Middle East and Africa when Iran ...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979... and its Hezbollah terror proxy are subverting states across the region and Africa as well," said Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs in a statement Monday.
"Israel is being sought after by its Arab and African neighbors near and far to collaborate on key issues such as food and water security at a time of regional instability," he added.
The participants expected at the conference will include policymakers from leading think tanks across Africa and the Gulf as well as their diplomatic representatives in Israel.
Invitations have also been sent to representatives from Sierra Leone, Chad, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Rwanda.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made enhancing Israel’s relations with Africa a major foreign policy goal.
Earlier this month, he joined Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno at the opening of the African country’s embassy in Israel. On the same day, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen met with the leader of Sudan’s transitional government in Khartoum.
Separately, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs hosted a panel of South African and African-American religious leaders last week on confronting antisemitism and the apartheid libel against Israel.
"Instead of attacking the Jews as individuals or as small communities, the assault is against the collective identity of the Jewish people and especially the State of Israel," Minister for Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli said at the event. "This apartheid narrative is one big lie, and just like the Soviet Union, it will collapse. It won’t stand the test of time."
[Jpost] will Friday's Day of Rage be different than other days?
Calls were made to the public for a 'day of rage' this coming Friday to demonstrate support for the security prisoners.
#3
Ever notice none of the Arab "neighbors" want to absorb Paleos? They have always been a useful cudgel against the Juice. Now that they've outlived their usefulness they've become ... "Who? What? "
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/22/2023 21:17 Comments ||
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[NPASyria] The US praised Kyrgyzstan for repatriating 59 of its nationals of Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) family members from camps in northeastern Syria with the help of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
"We are grateful to Kyrgyzstan and to our local partners...for working with us to help resolve the ongoing humanitarian and security challenges presented by Hawl and Roj camps," the US Department of State said in a statement.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) announced on Feb. 16 it handed over 18 women and 41 children of the families of the ISIS of Kyrgyz nationals to the delegation of their country.
Following the handing over, the US Central Command (CENTCOM), issued a statement showing grateful for Kyrgyzstan.
The US State Department stressed that repatriation is the only durable solution to this urgent humanitarian and security situation.
"ISIS remains a persistent threat to the region, including to the thousands of vulnerable residents in these displaced persons camps, more than half of whom are under the age of 12," the statement emphasized.
The US urged all governments to follow Kyrgyzstan example and repatriate their nationals, especially women and kiddies.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/22/2023 02:33 ||
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[NPASyria] On Tuesday, the administration of Bab al-Hawa border crossing said the number of Syrians who returned from The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... has risen to 9.800 since Turkey allowed emergency leaves five days ago.
A well-informed source told North Press, "The number of Syrian returnees coming from Turkey has reached 9.874 in the course of five days after the Ottoman Turkish government in coordination with Syrian crossings agreed to open a window for relatives of the people affected by the quake to spend a 3-6 months in their country [Syria]."
"On day five, the number of visitors who returned from quake-hit Ottoman Turkish provinces has reached 1.312," he added.
All of the returnees hold the temporary protection card (Kimlik).
The number of those crossed Bab al-Hawa in north Idlib on the first day of the window reached 1.750 people.
Syrians fleeing war were hardly affected in south Turkey as a result of the February 6 earthquake that hit north Syria and south Turkey.
[NPASyria] From sunrise, Rahma and her two sons who live in a makeshift camp in Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria, go to work after her husband abandoned her five years ago.
Rahma al-Hamoud, 28, a displaced woman (IDP) in the al-Yunani makeshift camp south of Raqqa on the right bank of the Euphrates River, said her husband divorced her five years ago and left her and the children alone in the camp.
Al-Hamoud, a mother of four, suffers like the rest of the divorced women in the camp from the absence of a breadwinner amid difficult displacement conditions.
The divorced women support their families by depending on themselves and working as daily laborers in farmlands and collecting plastic and aluminum to sell to recycling factories.
Al-Hamoud added that she works for 8.000 Syrian Pounds (SYP, about $1.14) per day in case work is available, which is still not enough to cover the family’s expenses amid rising prices and difficult living conditions.
In order to increase her daily income, Rahma has to send her eldest eight-year-old son to work in a mechanics workshop and send the other with the rest of the children in the camp to gather "plastic bags and empty bottles to sell them."
At the same time, she fears for her children, "I worry about him when he is away from the camp, sometimes he returns late, but what can I do; we are in a difficult situation."
The number of makeshift camps in Raqqa is 62, the majority of which are within residential communities or on the outskirts of villages and agricultural fields.
BOUND BY PAPER ONLY
Many women suffer from taking all the responsibility of caring for a family, whether providing food or medicine in case of a sickness, not to mention doing the household chores.
The suffering is not limited to women divorced by their husbands officially or according to Islamic law. Samar al-Abdullah, 35, is facing difficulties providing for her children in the camp.
Al-Abdullah said her husband abandoned her and her children, "Although he lives in the same camp, however we are only connected by a marriage contract."
"My husband does not support us with anything. I am forced to work to provide for my children," she added.
According to al-Abdullah, there are many women abandoned by their husbands without an official divorce who work to fulfill their children’s needs.
North Press reached out to officials in Zenobia Women Assembly — a feminist organization active in AANES-held areas that aims at organizing women politically, economically and socially — to obtain the number of officially divorced women and those abandoned by husbands but it did not provide any information.
Siham al-Ukla, an official in Twaihina camp west of Raqqa, said they only have a statistic of widows and divorced women in the al-Mahmoudli camp, which is 87 divorced women and 265 widows.
Al-Abdullah, similar to the rest of the women in the camp, is forced to work to make a living for her children amid difficult economic and living conditions.
She is forced to work for a low wage, and many times she borrows money to buy necessities leading her to ration food so she can pay her debts.
SECOND WIFE
In the same camp, Khawla al-Hussein, 34, lives with her four daughters in a small tent a few meters away from her husband’s tent, which he lives in with his first wife.
She said although she is still married to her husband, however, he has abandoned his responsibilities towards his daughters and her and prefers his first wife.
Al-Hussein had to work four years ago when her husband decided to no longer support the family, "He left us and does not acknowledge us, whereas expenses are too high."
When asked why her husband does not support the family, she said, "because I am the second wife, and he is not able to provide for two families."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
02/22/2023 00:37 ||
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[An Nahar] Iran's city of Qom is one of the country's most important centers for Shiite Moslemholy mans, packed with religious schools and revered shrines. But even here, some are quietly calling for Iran's ruling theocracy to change its ways after months of protests shaking the country.
To be clear: Many here still support the holy man-led ruling system, which marked the 44th anniversary this month of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.
This includes support for many of the restrictions that set off the protests, such as the mandatory hjjab, or headscarf, for women in public. They believe the state's claims that Iran's foreign enemies are the ones fomenting the unrest gripping the country.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2023 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Hezbollah has "preferred to end the memorandum of understanding with the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... ," an FPM MP said on Tuesday.
Hezbollah "took the decision after considering that there was no need anymore for the alliance with the FPM," MP Jimmy Jabbour said.
"Nothing is left of the Mar Mikhail Agreement except for the protection of the back of the resistance and there is no partnership anymore. The detachment between the FPM and Hezbollah has taken place and the separation has become a fact," Jabbour added.
Separately, Jabbour said that "the political forces are aware that there will be no election of a president in the foreseeable future."
"The FPM will not take part in a parliament session should 65 votes be secured for Marada Movement the personal militia of Suleiman Franjieh, president of Lebanon at the outbreak of the civil war, currently Syrian toadies, but you never know when that could change... chief Suleiman Franjieh," the MP added, stressing that "the FPM is coherent and so are all its MPs."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/22/2023 00:00 ||
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[Jpost] '1,000 square meters of agricultural land'
1 acre = 4046.86 square meters so, about 1/4 acre.
No bigger than some house lots.
An Iranian foundation has praised the man who attacked novelist Salman Rushdie last year, leaving him severely injured, and said it will reward him with 1,000 square meters of agricultural land, state TV reported on Tuesday through its Telegram channel.
Rushdie, 75, lost an eye and the use of one hand following the assault by Hadi Matar, a 24-year-old Shi'ite Muslim American from New Jersey, on the stage of a literary event held near Lake Erie in western New York in August.
"We sincerely thank the brave action of the young American who made Muslims happy by blinding one of Rushdie's eyes and disabling one of his hands," said Mohammad Esmail Zarei, secretary of the Foundation to Implement Imam Khomeini's Fatwas.
"Rushdie is now no more than living dead and to honor this brave action, about 1,000 square meters of agricultural land will be donated to the person or any of his legal representatives," Zarei added.
FORMER IRANIAN AYATOLLAH ISSUED BOUNTY ON RUSHDIE
The attack came 33 years after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then Iran's supreme leader called on Muslims to assassinate Rushdie a few months after The Satanic Verses was published. Some Muslims saw passages in the novel about the Prophet Muhammad as blasphemous.
The Jerusalem Post first reported on the pro-Iranian regime professor at Oberlin College in Ohio, Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, who endorsed the edict to kill Rushdie at the time.
Lawdan Bazargan, an Iranian-American activist seeking to secure Mahallati's dismissal, told the Post that "I consider Mahallati and US universities such as Oberlin College, Princeton, and Columbia responsible for the stabbing of Salman Rushdie. These elite universities hire the Islamic Regime of Iran's Ambassadors, call them scholars, and give them access to American students to brainwash them and spread radical Shi'a Islamic values. Mahallati had defended the bounty against Salman Rushdie as a non-disputable fact among Muslims."
She added that "In the past 30 years, Mahallati has shared the same ideas with his students in the classrooms, and they shared them with their circle of friends and colleagues, spreading hate and intolerance all over the US. Besides, Mahallati is closely connected with Islamic Centers and mosques in the US, spreading his hateful message through those platforms, radicalizing young people such as Hadi Matar. US universities such as Oberlin are responsible for this terrorist attack because they created a platform for the ideologues such as Mahallati to do the dirty work of Iran's Islamic regime. How many more people must be injured or killed until Oberlin college fire Mahallati and Princeton fire Mousavian?"
Sheina Vojoudi, an associate fellow for the Gold Institute for International Strategy, told the Post that "It’s not surprising that the top state-sponsor of terrorism, which has hijacked an ancient civilization and turned it to the source of funding for terrorism, rewards a terrorist."
The US State Department has classified the Iranian regime as the worst international state-sponsor of terrorism.
Vojoud added that "The Islamic Republic has been rewarding terror entities like Fatemiyoun, Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi, Hamas and Hezbollah since Khomeini’s Islamic revolution. The members of these terror organizations, especially Fatemiyoun, are rewarded with houses and monthly salaries in dollars, not in the Iranian rial. I’ve tried to draw the world’s attention to Fatemiyoun, Hezbollah and Al-Hashd Al-Shaabi’s role in killing the Iranian protesters for the economic benefits."
"It’s time for the European Union to take this matter in consideration and finally list Iranäs Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization."
Rushdie, who was born in India to a Muslim Kashmiri family, has lived with a bounty on his head and spent nine years in hiding under British police protection.
Although Iran's pro-reform government of President Mohammad Khatami distanced itself from the edict in the late 1990s, the multimillion-dollar bounty hanging over Rushdie's head kept growing and was never lifted.
The man accused of attacking the novelist has pleaded not guilty to second-degree attempted murder and assault charges.
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.
...the political football known as The Highest Court in the Land, home of penumbrae and emanations...
...... Somalia's version of the 
...Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979...
Hezbollah
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
