[JustTheNews] Congressman Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said Tuesday that border crossings in the Tucson area have drastically increased over the past few years.
"When I met with Chief Maudlin who's the sector chief in Tucson last Wednesday, he said ... they're on pace to have more than 700,000 encounters through the Tucson sector alone in this fiscal year," Biggs said on the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show.
"Just put that in perspective from 2018 to 2021, the average [was] about 60,000 per year," he added.
More than 189,000 migrants arrived at the southern border just in the month of February.
Other GOP elected officials, such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have predicted that the border won't be secure unless America elects a new president.
Biggs also said the Biden administration is not making the immigration crisis worse.
"We are being attacked on the border constantly, and this administration is just MIA. In fact, not only are they missing an action, they actually provide the incentives for people that come across illegally."
[Garowe] The Department of Defence has failed to compensate victims of dronezaps in Somalia since 2022, The Intercept reports, despite evidence of several casualties throughout the said period in a total of 288 attacks within the country.
For 17 years, the US has carried out 288 attacks in the Horn of Africa nation, with the US Africa Command only admitting 5 deaths, including Luul and Mariam, who tragically gave up the ghost following an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in southern regions.
But despite the smaller number quoted by US Africa Command, the Airwars, a UK-based group monitoring airstrikes, at least 3,000 people have been killed in Somalia over the last two decades, with their families failing to get justice even with overwhelming evidence.
Not long ago, the Pentagon started giving quarterly reports on casualties, but in the last two years, the US Africa Command has failed to acknowledge several deaths attributed to defence airstrikes within Somalia. US Africa Command offers aerial surveillance during ground operations.
Pentagon directed the armed forces to address people and communities on the receiving end of military operations, including by "expressing condolences" and providing ex gratia payments to next of kin.
Since 2020, Congress appropriate $15 million meant for compensation of victims of airstrikes. The money is sent to families of the victims of the airstrikes; both those killed or injured. The military rarely makes compensation payments, even in cases as clear-cut as the 2018 strike in Somalia.
Last year, various lobby groups in Somalia and their international partners protested to the Pentagon, asking Defence Defence Lloyd Austin to expedite compensation of Luul and Mariam families. This year, Sen. Elizabeth Being Native American has been part of my story since the day I was born Warren ...The Great White Squaw, Lizzie is the Dem Senatrix from Massachussetts. She traces her noble lineage all the way back to Big Chief Spouting Bull. She has high cheekbones that stretch all the way to the top of her head. It has been alleged that she speaks with forked tongue but she denies that. She had a DNA test to prove her lineage and it turns out she's colorless... , D-Mass., and Reps. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif.; Ilhan Omar ...Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She was apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw on her mother's side. She is a member of The Squad, and would like to make the country look a lot more like Mogadishu... , D-Minn; Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; and Jim McGovern, D-Mass., joined the effort.
The Defense Department missed the May 1, 2024, deadline for releasing its 2023 civilian casualty report.
"The 2022 report was almost a full year late, and the 2023 report is already overdue," said Shiel. "That means we have no public visibility into whether DoD finally began making payments last year as it worked to implement the action plan, which commits the Department to improve how it responds to civilian harm."
The United States withdrew its forces from Somalia in 2021 following a presidential decree, repositioning them to neighbouring Kenya and Djibouti, but the decision would be reversed later after Somalia complained to the Department of Defence.
Since then, at least 500 soldiers have been redeployed to Somalia where they are assisting the Somali National Army (SNA) and 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... Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), who are actively involved in the fight against al-Shabaab ... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda... The US Africa Command is also responsible for training and equipping the elite Danab forces, who are integral units in the fight against al-Shabaab. The US Africa Command carries out air raids based on the request from the Somalia government particularly in self-defence situations.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/15/2024 12:15 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"Since 2020, Congress appropriate $15 million meant for compensation of victims of airstrikes. The money is sent to families of the victims of the airstrikes; both those killed or injured."
We compensate families of the people we intentionally killed? YJCMTSU!
[ZH] The head of a German rail union warns that the country’s train system is turning into a “battleground” thanks to a wave of violence and intimidation being unleashed by male asylum seekers against female staff.
In an interview with Focus Online, Steffi Recknagel, the head of the Railway and Transport Union (EVG) in Thuringia, says that the average day is “sometimes life-threatening” for employees due to the sheer amount of abuse being dished out by migrants.
“I have an average of three employees sitting in my Erfurt office every week for legal advice. They were attacked, spat on, insulted, threatened or pushed,” said Recknagel, adding that female employees are being slapped, kicked, spat at and threatened with being stabbed by the ‘refugees’.
“The worst case was that a train attendant was threatened with a knife,” said Recknagel, adding that another was physically attacked from behind and “the air was knocked out of her.”
The union boss said that one stretch of the network was particularly bad, specifically the one frequented by Syrian, Afghan, and Turkish migrants from the local asylum center.
“I drive the Erfurt-Suhl route every day,” said Recknagel.
“And unfortunately, I have to say it like this: It is mostly young men from the initial reception center who misbehave completely on our trains. They always travel in groups and feel strong together.”
Instead of intervening when the migrants engage in violent or threatening behavior towards other passengers, train staff look the other way or even run and hide in locked compartments to avoid becoming the next victim.
“Our people are afraid, very afraid. We have employees who say: If these groups are on the train, then I won’t check tickets. Then, they say they’ll stay at the front with the train driver or lock themselves in their cabin until they get to a safe station and they get out,” said Recknagel.
She noted that nothing ever happens to the migrants who behave in such a manner, with the police largely powerless to step in.
A four page letter sent to Thuringia Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (Left Party) complains that female workers have been subjected to “sexist insults and spit on in a disgusting manner,” which includes migrants flashing their genitals.
The letter notes that the chaos is almost entirely the responsibility of “people with a migration background,” including one incident where rival migrants fought a running battle, leaving an entire train compartment covered in blood.
“Our colleague had to continue the journey to the Suhl train station in fear of death and with a railcar that was heavily contaminated with human blood,” states the letter. “We don’t need to talk at this point about the psychological consequences for our still very young colleague and the passengers, given the scenes that could have come from a civil war zone!”
The letter goes on to vent fury about how Germans are being told to embrace “tolerance towards migrants” while being violently attacked by migrants.
“How can you expect citizens of this country to be open to the refugee policy that is being practiced when it happens — practically every day, and not just on public transport! — that we have to witness such violence, brutalization and absolute contempt for our laws and society?”
The Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s leading anti-mass migration party which the establishment is trying to ban, responded to the story by asserting, “The railway and transport union in Thuringia is sounding the alarm: Train attendants and railway employees are regularly attacked, spat on, insulted, threatened or beaten.”
As we recently highlighted, foreign migrant suspects are responsible for nearly 6 in 10 violent crimes in Germany according to new figures released by the federal government.
Despite comprising roughly 14.6 per cent of the population, foreign migrants were responsible for 58.5 per cent of all violent crimes.
[Jpost] The Singham network amplified anti-Israel activism not just through the NGOs' social media accounts, but through pro-CCP media outlets like BreakThrough News.
Key radical left-wing organizations in the post-October 7 anti-Israel protest movement are funded by or connected to a Chinese Communist Party-linked network, according to a Monday Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) report.
Three convenors of the Shut it Down For Palestine coalition, Answer Coalition, The People's Forum, and the International Peoples' Assembly are linked by a complicated web of financial, personal, personnel, and ideological ties to CCP associates Neville Roy Singham and his wife Jodie Evans, according to NCRI.
Singham served as a consultant for Huawei, lives in Shanghai, and shared premises with Chinese propaganda firm Shanghai Maku Cultural Communications, NCRI explained. He has been spotted at CCP workshops and has been investigated by the US, Canada, and India for CCP operations. An August New York Times investigation described Singham as a known "socialist benefactor of far-left causes" and tracked the funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to Singham-linked groups engaging in pro-China progressive advocacy.
Socialist activist Evans is according to NCRI a board member of the People's Forum and is listed as a co-founder of CODEPINK, which is an official endorser of Shut it Down For Palestine and has been prominent in the post-October 7 protests and regularly challenges US congresspeople at the capitol.
Evans has co-written a book called “China is Not Our Enemy," which NCRI said was co-authored with a researcher from foundations tied to the CCP, Dongsheng News and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Signham's son Nate Singham works as a researcher at Tricontinental, and the elder Singham is the chairman of the organization's international advisory board
[IsraelTimes] As campuses empty out for summer, participant says activists wanted to take down encampment on their own terms rather than awaiting police fight, but could renew protest in fall
The student encampment at Cornell University is disbanding, in a rare instance of a campus pro-Paleostinian protest dissolving on its own.
Encampments at a series of other schools have ended only after schools made agreements with protesters or called in police. Police action has led to thousands of arrests, chaotic scenes of violence and accusations of suppressing free speech. Agreements with protesters have incurred the wrath of many in the organized Jewish community, who argue that the encampments should face consequences for encouraging antisemitic behavior.
On Tuesday, Cornell University’s protesters presented a third option, taking down their tents voluntarily, well in advance of the school’s May 25 commencement and days after the school’s president, Martha Pollack, announced her impending retirement.
No deals were struck. No arrests were made. The students simply left of their own accord.
"Our Liberated Zone is closing, but the fight continues," Cornell’s chapter of Students for Justice in Paleostine announced on Instagram Monday. The post did not elaborate on the decision, but a participant said that the protesters wanted to end their demonstration on their own terms.
"It’s coming down because we wanted to take this into our control," Sivan Gordon-Buxbaum, a Jewish graduate student at Cornell who is a member of the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace, told WENY, a local station.
And now his name is searchable on the internet, so interested employers will find out what he’s been up to, in case they don’t want to work with people like that. Revolutionaries are so polarizing, donchaknow.
"We are making the choices, and we don’t want to be at the whim of the administration," Gordon-Buxbaum added. "So this is us being like, this is our choice. We’re taking this down. It will give us an opportunity to regroup, refocus, restructure, potentially in preparation for next fall."
The encampment’s conclusion also comes as Cornell’s campus is emptying out. Classes ended a week ago, and students are now in the midst of final exams, which will end next week. In recent days, several other encampments have also ended more peacefully. Those steps have usually come after a deal with university administrators to explore divestment from Israel and, in some cases, guarantee amnesty for protest leaders.
That was the case Tuesday morning at fellow Ivy League school Harvard University, where the encampment was dismantled after the school’s interim president, Alan Garber, agreed to have Harvard’s board discuss divestment with protesters, according to the Harvard Crimson. Garber, who is Jewish, stepped into the role after Claudine Gay resigned amid fallout from a December congressional hearing focused around pro-Paleostinian activism on the campus.
On May 3, the encampment at Tufts University also ended without a deal, after the administration threatened charges and organizers accused the school of acting in bad faith. Other encampments, including at the University of Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,, were dismantled after organizers compiled with orders to leave. In USC’s case, nearly 100 protesters had been arrested during an earlier skirmish with police.
Cornell’s encampment said it was still negotiating with the administration, regardless of Pollack’s resignation. Its demands include divestment; the end of a partnership between Cornell and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology; a call for a ceasefire in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ; the establishment of a Paleostinian studies department; and a statement from the university that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. It also demanded amnesty for protesters and "restitution," including "surplus land," to Indigenous tribes in the area.
"While administration has tried to slow down negotiations, the pace is beginning to pick up," the Instagram post said. Even absent a deal, Cornell protesters declared their action a success. They said they had received "generous fiscal donations from the community," and planned to donate much of it "to charities supporting Paleostinians in Gaza."
Active for 18 days, the Cornell encampment had largely avoided the viral moments of unrest and allegations of antisemitism that have plagued other campus encampments. Cornell had drawn widespread attention early in the war when a student sent death and rape threats to his Jewish peers and a professor said at a rally that he was "exhilarated" by Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... ’ Oct. 7 attack.
A handful of encampment protesters at the school had been suspended, but a Jewish professor on campus told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the group’s activities had been mostly peaceful.
"On the whole it was a textbook example of non-violent mostly peaceful civil disobedience on the demonstrators’ part," said Menachem Rosensaft, an adjunct law professor currently teaching a course on antisemitism and the law. Rosensaft is also the former general counsel of the World Jewish Congress.
In the weeks since the encampments went up, elected officials and major Jewish groups have put pressure on universities to clear the tent protests out before the semester ends. Pressure from critics on Columbia University to dismantle its own encampment last month — the first in the nation — led to the school applying force to its protesters, which in turn prompted fierce pushback nationwide. Earlier this month, Columbia canceled its own commencement.
Some encampments have been replaced by more confrontational protests. An encampment Pomona College students set up last week at the California school’s planned commencement site was abandoned after the school moved its commencement to USC’s campus instead. A group of more than 100 protesters stormed the ceremony’s new location, leading to a confrontation with police and at least one arrest.
But Rosensaft theorized that the Cornell protesters, unlike some others, were starting to wake up to the limits of their activism on campus.
"I am quite certain that the students in the encampment felt that they had made whatever point they were going to make, and that were unlikely to have any further impact," he said. "I can only assume that they realized that the administration was not going to give them additional oxygen by raising the temperature with confrontational action — and the vast majority of students and faculty were simply not prepared to support them."
The Biden administration is happy to promise jam yesterday and jam tomorrow, but somehow it’s never jam today for certain parties of the second part.
[IsraelTimes] First major deal since American president said he would stymie sales of offensive weapons includes ammunition for tanks, mortar rounds and tactical vehicles
The Biden administration has told key politicians it is sending a new package of more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition to Israel, three congressional aides said Tuesday.
It’s the first arms shipment to Israel to be announced by the administration since it put another arms transfer — consisting of 3,500 high-payload bombs — on hold earlier in the month. The administration has said it paused that earlier transfer to keep Israel from using the bombs in its growing offensive in the crowded southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... city of Rafah.
The congressional aides spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an arms transfer that has not yet been made public.
The package being sent includes about $700 million for tank ammunition, $500 million in tactical vehicles and $60 million in mortar rounds, the aides said.
There was no immediate indication of when the arms would be sent.
See?
Israel is now seven months into its war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the plans to move the package.
House Republicans were planning this week to advance a bill to mandate the delivery of offensive weaponry for Israel. The bid followed Biden’s announcement last week that he had paused bomb shipments, and could block future arms transfers if Israel’s military invades populated parts of Rafah in southern Gazoo. The White House said Tuesday that Biden would veto the bill if it were to pass Congress. The bill also has practically no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate. But House Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... are somewhat divided on the issue, and roughly two dozen have signed onto a letter to the Biden administration saying they were "deeply concerned about the message" sent by pausing the bomb shipment.
In addition to the written veto threat, the White House has been in touch with various politicians and congressional aides about the legislation, according to an administration official.
"We strongly, strongly oppose attempts to constrain the President’s ability to deploy US security assistance consistent with US foreign policy and national security objectives," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this week, adding that the administration plans to spend "every last cent" appropriated by Congress in the national security supplemental package that was signed into law by Biden last month.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told news hounds on Monday that the US would continue to provide the military assistance provided in a $26 billion supplemental funding bill passed last month, but the White House paused the bombs because "we do not believe they should be dropped in densely populated cities."
Congressional rules grant the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations and the House Foreign Affairs committees to review major foreign weapons deals.
[Jpost] Republican senators urge IRS to investigate nonprofits backing pro-Palestinian groups like National Students for Justice in Palestine, alleging support for terrorism. The "investigation" has likely been conducted. The results of the "investigation" is what is needed.
A group of 16 Republican senators is asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate nonprofits that support National Students for Justice in Palestine - including the group’s fiscal sponsor, the suburban New York nonprofit Wespac.
The senators’ letter to IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel, dated May 9, says the agency should investigate whether, by directing funds to NSJP, the nonprofits are supporting terrorism - which would violate their tax-exempt status.
“We should not need to remind you of the heinous support NSJP chapters across the country have voiced for Hamas, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the letter says. “That support has exploded at NSJP chapter-led demonstrations in recent weeks.”
The recent wave of pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations - many of them organized by SJP chapters - has made the investigation especially urgent, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, the letter’s lead signatory, told the New York Jewish Week. A range of Jewish groups have condemned the protests for targeting Jews with antisemitic rhetoric and creating a hostile atmosphere at schools across the country.
“The antisemitism that has popped up on college campuses coast to coast is fundamentally un-American,” Ernst said in a statement, adding, “it is clear these organizations should not receive any favors from our government to do Iran-backed Hamas’s bidding on our own shores.”
The IRS is notoriously underfunded when it comes to enforcement, making it unlikely that the call will swiftly lead to an investigation. Still, the senators’ call highlights just how closely they are scrutinizing the organizations that are known to be tied to the protest movement, which many of them have decried as antisemitic.
Other signatories included Marco Rubio of Florida, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mitt Romney, from Utah.
The letter cites a recent lawsuit filed by survivors of Hamas’ October 7 attack, which claims that NSJP collaborated with Hamas and has promoted its messaging in the months since the attack. It also refers to an existing investigation into one of the groups by Virginia’s attorney general.
The letter comes seven months after dozens of Jewish groups signed a letter in mid-October asking schools to withdraw funding for SJP due to its support for Hamas’ attack. On October 12, NSJP released a “toolkit” lauding the October 7 invasion as a “historic win,” and the senators’ letter argues that in the months since, the pro-Palestinian student group has continued to promote Hamas, including at the campus protests.
Wespac and the IRS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The other nonprofits named by the senators are the California-based Tides Foundation and Virginia’s AJP Educational Foundation. The Tides Foundation donated $35,000 to Wespac in 2022.
Wespac’s tax-exempt status allows it to support a number of pro-Palestinian groups. The organization, a small nonprofit with the stated mission of “current affairs education,” quietly facilitates funding for NSJP along with Within Our Lifetime, which has organized frequent pro-Palestinian street protests and also endorsed Hamas’ attack.
Wespac - which is chaired by an anti-Zionist Jew named Howard Horowitz - facilitates funding for the groups by acting as a fiscal sponsor, which allows it to receive tax-exempt donations and grants for organizations that do not have nonprofit status, including NSJP. The arrangement allows NSJP to keep its finances out of public view and doesn’t require the fiscal sponsor to detail the funding it channels to other groups.
In its most recent tax filings, covering September 2022 through August 2023, Wespac reported $2.3 million in revenue, mostly from donations and grants. It does not make its fiscal sponsorships public. The Anti-Defamation League said in a 2022 report that Wespac sponsored a total of 15 groups related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, far more than for any other cause. It is unclear how many groups it sponsors in total.
Among the other groups it sponsors are the US Palestinian Community Network, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, the Palestinian Feminist Collective, the Palestine Freedom Project, and Adalah-NY, which all collect donations through Wespac online. Wespac has sponsored NSJP since at least 2019 and Within Our Lifetime since 2020, according to archived web pages.
[Breitbart] The Biden administration claims that the Texas border island that was utilized by Mexican drug cartels for drug and human smuggling operations is owned by the federal government. The State of Texas recently secured the island from the Mexican drug cartels and cleared it of underbrush.
In a letter from the Biden administration’s International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), Principal Engineer Ramon Macias wrote, “USIBWC asserts that Fronton Island is federal property and is under the jurisdiction of the IWBC. We respectfully request that the Texas General Land Office remove the obstructions.”
Macias referenced two sediment bridges the Texas National Guard put in place after Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham certified Fronton Island to be state-owned property.
“The Biden Administration has had nearly four years to secure the southern border, but they have chosen to neglect the safety of Texas citizens,” Commissioner Buckingham told Breitbart Texas. “Fronton Island and the cartel operations that persisted there demonstrated a clear and present danger to our communities; bombs, weaponry, and the smuggling of humans and drugs have plagued this area of south Texas for too long.”
Mexican cartels lost a major tactical advantage along the Texas border as state military units completed the clearing of the 215-acre Fronton Island located along the Rio Grande in Starr County, Breitbart Texas reported in November 2023. The cartels have used the formerly brush-covered island for years as a staging area for human and drug smuggling.
“For decades, Fronton Island has been utilized by the Mexican Drug Cartels as a refuge when fleeing from rival cartels and the Mexican Military,” Texas DPS spokesman Lieutenant Chris Olivarez told Breitbart Texas at that time. “Still, it has primarily been used to facilitate transnational criminal activity involving human and drug smuggling.”
“With the authorization through Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, the State of Texas has taken over the island by clearing and fortifying it, allowing DPS and the National Guard to gain operational control in preventing cross-border crime,” Olivarez stated.
The USIBWC disputed Texas’ claim to the land in the letter sent to the Texas General Land Office on April 30. Macias wrote:
Our respective Survey Office discussed ownership of this island between August 2023 and September 2023. In our review of the Texas General Land Office’s submitted documentation, we cannot confirm when or how the State of Texas formally acquired Fronton Island. The USIBWC assets [sic] that Fronton Island became federal property between 1970 and 1978 pursuant to the 1970 Treaty (with Mexico). If you have documentation that demonstrates otherwise, we respectfully request that you submit such documentation to USIBWC within 30 days of the date of this letter.
Macias went on to accuse the State of Texas of trespassing onto federal land when it conducted the clearing operation that successfully ended the cartel’s ability to utilize this strategic drug and human smuggling staging area.
In response, Commissioner Buckingham told Breitbart, “Texas has stepped up, and we have no intention of relinquishing our claim of ownership of Fronton Island. As long as the people in that far away U.S. Capitol continue to ignore the people who sent them there, Texas and the General Land Office, under my direction, will continue to do everything in its power to keep our families and communities safe.”
[ToI] Diplomat tells ToI Pramila Patten’s withdrawal had nothing to do with scheduling, hinting move was politically motivated as she faces pressure not to prioritize Israeli abductees
The UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict Pramila Patten pulled out of a Security Council session where she was supposed to brief members about the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, a UN diplomat told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
Invitations to the Thursday event organized by the US Mission to the UN were sent to Security Council members last week and obtained by The Times of Israel. The session is titled “Condemning hostage-taking in Israel on October 7 as a psychological tool of terrorism.”
Patten — the UN special representative whose purview most closely overlaps with the topic — was named as the first of three briefers along with a civil society representative and a released Israeli hostage or relative of a hostage.
But in the updated invitations — or “concept notes” — sent out to members on Monday and also obtained by The Times of Israel, Patten was no longer listed among the briefers.
A UN diplomat said on condition of anonymity that Patten’s withdrawal was not due to scheduling issues.
The diplomat hinted that the decision was politically motivated, as her office has faced pressure not to be seen as prioritizing the plight of the Israeli hostages over that of the Palestinians caught in the middle of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
[JPost] Several terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles and in the area of UNRWA's logistics warehouse compound in eastern Rafah, which is a central point for the distribution of UNRWA's aid.
The IDF revealed on Tuesday that during operational activity in eastern Rafah on Saturday, terrorists were identified in UNRWA’s central logistics compound alongside UN vehicles.
In the footage, several terrorists and gunfire can be seen near UN vehicles and in the area of UNRWA's logistics warehouse compound in eastern Rafah, which is a central point for the distribution of aid on UNRWA’s behalf in the Gaza Strip.
Following the event, representatives of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) conveyed the findings to senior officials in the international community and called on the UN to conduct an urgent investigation into the matter.
HAMAS PRESENCE THREATENS CIVILIAN SAFETY
In addition, COGAT representatives warned the UN against the presence of terrorists in the area and the seriousness of the danger their presence brings to the logistics center compound concerning the continued protection of the organization's facilities.
The IDF promised at the end of the announcement that it would continue to act in accordance with international law to distribute aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz commented on the footage on X, formerly Twitter, saying, "Hamas terrorists firing at civilians from within a UNRWA facility next to UN vehicles in Rafah. No lie from Antonio Guterres and Philippe Lazzarini will hide the truth: UNRWA is an arm of the terrorist organization Hamas."
Katz also called for the resignation of Lazzarini as the Commissioner-General of UNRWA.
[IsraelTimes] Israel, Egypt trade blame for continued closure of key crossing; PM wanted Ramallah’s officers to operate under guise of local aid group, fearing opposition from far-right partners.
Israel is trying to convince the Paleostinian Authority to help manage the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... side of the Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt but has been rebuffed by Ramallah, a US official told The Times of Israel on Monday.
The offer was the first time that Israel quietly proposed having some PA involvement in Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the idea for months, sometimes equating the PA in the West Bank to the Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... terror group.
But the proposal came with a significant caveat — the officers at the crossing would have to identify themselves as part of a local humanitarian organization because Netanyahu fears that official PA involvement at Rafah would not be accepted by his far-right coalition partners, the US official said, confirming reporting in the Axios news site.
Israel launched a military operation last week to take over the Gaza side of Rafah, shuttering one of the only crossings for delivering aid into Egypt.
Israel is seeking to prevent Hamas from profiting off of activity at the gate, thwart continued weapons smuggling from Egypt and dismantle a primary institution of Hamas’s illusory sovereignty in Gaza.
But the move has sparked a major diplomatic spat with Egypt, which fears that an Israeli operation along its border could lead Paleostinians sheltering in Rafah to breach the fence and pour into the Sinai.
Israel has sought to coordinate the operation with Egypt, but has apparently failed to do so, as Jerusalem says Cairo is refusing to reopen its side of the crossing for aid to come in, citing security concerns.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry denounced what he called Israel’s attempt to blame Egypt for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying Israel’s seizure of the crossing as well as its military operations in the area were the main reasons that aid has been unable to enter Gaza.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz’s office said he had held several calls with European counterparts to try and solve the matter, indicating that ties are so poor with Egypt that he cannot reach out to Shoukry directly or that his influence in the Israeli government is limited.
Even if Egypt did reopen its side of Rafah, Israel appears to have launched the operation without first securing an agreement from another body to replace Hamas at the crossing, the US official said, adding that the request to the PA was only made after the fact.
Ramallah rejected the Israeli request, saying it would only agree to take over Rafah if Israel agreed to the plan being crafted by Arab allies to eventually establish a Paleostinian state, a Paleostinian official told Sky News.
The US official said the sides are still working to try and find a solution to the issue given the need to reopen the crossing for aid as soon as possible.
Quoting an unnamed source, Axios reported that Shin Bet Director Ronen Bar told his Egyptian counterpart Abbas Kamel that Israel wants to reopen the Rafah crossing, but will not allow Hamas to return to the area.
"This is a security necessity on which we will not compromise," Katz tweeted Tuesday.
#3
OK, Israel, you climbed into the septic tank because you had to try to fix things. Nobody else wants to get in there with you, and you climbed into the septic tank.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/15/2024 8:34 Comments ||
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#4
Bad things happen when a septic tank is not emptied regularly.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/15/2024 8:40 Comments ||
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#5
Nobody likes the Gazans. Even Team No Juice is like, well schools out and all the kool kommies will be headed to Ibiza, so vacay time.
[MEMRI] Florida Imam Dr. Fadi Kablawi In North Miami Friday Sermon Accuses Israel Of Organ Theft, Trafficking, Prays: Oh Allah, Annihilate The Tyrannical Jews, The Brothers Of Apes And Pigs Some will defend Dr. Kablawi by saying he is calling for Allah to mass murder Jews, not fellow muslims. However, chapter 9 v 14-15 of the Quran indicates that Muslims will carry out Allah's wishes against unbelievers
So if Allah will punish the infidels by the hands of the believers, and Kablawi is praying that Allah would “annihilate” the Jews, it is not unreasonable to see that as a call for Muslims to get busy annihilating Jews, so that Allah can punish them by the Muslims’ hands.
That’s how many people have understood Kablawi’s prayer. Newsweek reported Monday that “Florida state Representative Randy Fine, chairman of the Florida House Health and Human Services Committee, submitted a letter to Dr. Jose R. Mellado, chairman of the Florida Board of Dentistry, requesting the suspension of Kablawi's dental license and an investigation into his practice.
Fine said that he had submitted this letter after some of Kablawi’s Jewish patients had contacted him, and his letter was right on point: "North Miami, where dentist Kablawi practices, contains many Jewish residents, none of whom could be considered safe in Imam Kablawi's dental chair, where he could personally implement what he is asking Allah to do.” Indeed he could.
Fine’s letter continued: “Practicing medicine in Florida is a privilege—not a right—and as the Chairman of the Florida House Health and Human Services Committee, I call on you to immediately suspend Dr. Kablawi's license and commence a thorough investigation into his practice. The lives of some of Florida's Jews could hang in the balance."
This wasn’t even the first time Kablawi said such a thing. MEMRI has also reported that Kablawi said, in a Friday sermon on March 8, “Allah revealed to the messengers, instantly: ‘We will defeat the oppressors, and We will make you the dwellers of their land, of their homes.’… By Allah, those settlements that they built, by Allah we will live in them.… By Allah, we will seize [them]. By Allah, we will enjoy [them]. By Allah, we will live in [them]. If it is not us, our children will live in [them]. By Allah, the law of Allah and the shari’a of Allah will rule the land.”
This would amount to a prediction of the total destruction of Israel, which would mean a new genocide of the Jews, and Kablawi wasn’t finished. He prayed, “Oh Allah, support their mujahideen. Oh Allah, guide their shooting. Oh Allah, support them with our soldiers. Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, bring annihilation upon the accursed Zionists. Oh Allah, curse them and then curse them some more. Oh Allah, heal the breasts of the believers.”
That time, he stopped short of praying that Allah would “annihilate the Jews.” This time, he didn’t.
#2
Yes, Skid, and it will continue to be sanctioned. Continue inasmuch as there is so huge a percentage of the public who will not be bothered to actually read the koran.
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.
...
[BBC] A whistleblower who helped expose allegations of Australian war crimes in Afghanistan has been sentenced to five years and eight months in jail.
..always the voice of sweet reason...
