[IsraelTimes] Tehran gained information from suspects linked to Kerman bombing in Iran, but material it provided to Russians lacked specific details of ISIS-Khorasan plans
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... tipped off Russia about the possibility of a major "terrorist operation" on its soil ahead of the concert hall massacre near Moscow last month, three sources familiar with the matter said.
In the deadliest attack inside Russia in 20 years, button men opened fire with automatic weapons at concertgoers on March 22 at the Crocus City Hall, killing at least 144 people in violence claimed by the 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.... group.
The United States had also warned Russia in advance of a likely bully boy Islamist attack but Moscow, deeply distrustful of Washington’s intentions, played down that intelligence.
It is harder, however, for Russia to dismiss intelligence from diplomatic ally Iran on the attack, which has also raised questions over the effectiveness of Russian security services. Moscow and Tehran, both under Western sanctions, have deepened military and other cooperation during the two-year Ukraine war.
"Days before the attack in Russia, Tehran shared information with Moscow about a possible big terrorist attack inside Russia that was acquired during interrogations of those arrested in connection with deadly bombings in Iran," one of the sources told Rooters.
Iran arrested 35 people in January, including a commander of Islamic State’s Afghanistan-based branch ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), who it said were linked to twin bombings on January 3 in the city of Kerman that killed nearly 100 people. Islamic State grabbed credit for the Iran blasts, the bloodiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. US intelligence sources said ISIS-K had carried out both the January 3 attacks in Iran and the March 22 shootings in Moscow.
ISIS-K, one of the Islamic State’s most fearsome branches, has raised the group’s profile again with large-scale bloodshed.
ISIS-K, named after an old term for a region that encompassed parts of Iran, Turkmenistan, and Afghanistan, emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and quickly established a reputation for extreme brutality.
’SIGNIFICANT OPERATION’
A second source, who also requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said the information Tehran provided to Moscow about an impending attack had lacked specific details regarding timing and the exact target.
"They (the members of ISIS-K) were instructed to prepare for a significant operation in Russia... One of the snuffies (arrested in Iran) said some members of the group had already traveled to Russia," the second source said.
A third source, a security bigshot, said: "As Iran has been a victim of terror attacks for years, Iranian authorities fulfilled their obligation to alert Moscow based on information acquired from those arrested terrorists."
Asked about the Rooters report, Kremlin front man Dmitry Peskov said on Monday: "I do not know anything about this."
Iran’s foreign ministry did not reply to a request for comment on this story. The White House had no comment on the matter.
A source familiar with the US intelligence on an impending attack in Russia said it was based on interceptions of "chatter" among ISIS-K bully boys.
Challenging the US assertions, Russia has said it believes Ukraine was linked to the attack, without providing evidence. Kyiv has strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! the assertion.
TAJIK NATIONALS
The attacks in Kerman and near Moscow both involved Tajik nationals. ISIS-K has aggressively recruited from the impoverished former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, security experts say.
Sources said Iran had discussed its security concerns with Tajikistan. A diplomatic source in Tajikistan confirmed that Tehran had recently discussed with Dushanbe the issue of increased involvement of ethnic Tajiks in bully boy activities.
Islamic State harbors a virulent hatred for Shi’ites — Iran’s dominant sect and also the target of its affiliate’s attacks in Afghanistan. The hardline Sunni Moslem group views Shi’ites as apostates.
In 2022 the Islamic State grabbed credit for a deadly attack on a Shi’ite shrine in Iran that killed 13 people. Tehran identified the attacker as a Tajik national.
Earlier attacks claimed by Islamic State include twin bombings in 2017 that targeted Iran’s parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
04/02/2024 01:06 ||
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[166 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The activation of the radical underground in the North Caucasus may be associated with external actors who are trying to worsen the situation inside Russia, but someone inside Russia is helping them, noted analysts interviewed by the Caucasian Knot.
As the Caucasian Knot reported, three people planning terrorist attacks were detained in Makhachkala and Kaspiysk during the counter-terrorism operation. According to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, the detainees were found with automatic weapons, ammunition and an improvised explosive device. There were no casualties among civilians or losses among security forces, the committee reported. According to the head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, the special operation was carried out as part of strengthening security measures after the terrorist attack in Moscow.
President of the Association of Veterans of the Alpha anti-terror unit Sergei Goncharov, commenting on the counter-terrorism operation in Makhachkala and Kaspiysk, suggested that the activation of the radical underground in the North Caucasus may be related to the situation in Ukraine.
Eventually, as we are all sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, all things connect. Though often enough the connection is very tenuous and tortured, indeed.
“Currently, things are bad in Ukraine. They are asking for help, but what they are given is clearly not enough for them. [Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate] Budanov said earlier that in case of problems at the front, we will transfer our sabotage activities deep into Russia. And the Northern Caucasus, as you know, has always been a region with serious problems for the Russian Empire, the USSR, and Russia. That’s why they began to activate their “sleeping” cells,” he told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent on March 31.
On March 3, during a counter-terrorism operation (CTO) in Karabulak, security forces killed six suspected militants. On March 5, sources reported that Amirkhan Gurazhev, Zelimkhan Tsuroev, Magomed Barkinkhoev, Tagir Tsuroev, Mikail Tutaev and Bers Chemurziev were killed. No losses among security forces were officially reported; according to Kommersant, five FSB officers were injured during the counter-terrorism operation in Karabulak. NAC stated that six Islamic State militants were killed in the shootout; three of the killed militants were on the federal wanted list. The "Caucasian Knot" has prepared a report "How the special operation took place in Karabulak."
Retired police colonel Amir Kolov believes that the activation of the gang underground in the North Caucasus is “an attempt to divert the real organizers of the terrorist attacks in Crocus City Hall, an attempt to pit Muslims against Russians and other peoples of Russia.”
In Dagestan, after a number of cases of extrajudicial killings of innocent people, many people do not believe what the media and official structures say about counter-terrorism operations, Kolov also told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
On the evening of March 22, armed people broke into the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk near Moscow and opened fire and also committed arson. The FSB classified the incident as a terrorist attack. By March 26, eight people had been arrested in connection with the attack. On March 27, the Ministry of Emergency Situations published a list of 143 killed in the terrorist attack. On March 29, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko announced that another victim of the terrorist attack, who was in extremely serious condition, died in the hospital. As of March 30, the number of victims of the terrorist attack increased to 551.
Senior researcher at the Center for Caucasus Problems and Regional Security at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Akhmet Yarlykapov, linked the terrorist attacks in Russia with a change in the structure of ISIS*, which turned from a territorial structure into a network structure, using the so-called “lone wolves” - lone terrorists, often independently swearing oath to terrorists. “Over the past few years, ISIS* has lost territory in Syria and Iraq and turned into a network structure with a few militants controlled by it - “islands” in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and recruited so-called “lone wolves,” he told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
He also noted that with the beginning of the Northern Military District, a consensus was reached among the radicals - not to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia and Ukraine during military operations. “They decided this because in conditions of hostilities, every terrorist attack would be interpreted as assistance to one (non-Muslim) side,” Yarlykapov emphasized.
That echoes ISIS orders not to get involved with the October 7th aftermath in the Palestinian Territories, because Hamas has sold out to Shiite/heretic Iran and the Palestinian Authority is secular Arab rather than austere Sunni Moslem — so neither merits support from properly pious Moslem jihadis.
“Apparently, something has changed within ISIS* itself as part of its development, since this consensus has been destroyed. And, perhaps, Moscow will not be the last city to undergo such an attack - the threats of ISIS* leaders against Europe and the United States sound quite serious," he concluded.
Analysts noted that the radicals are surrendering, whereas previously they often committed, for example, suicide bombings. Sergei Goncharov suggested that we are talking about a decrease in the level of training. “ISIS fighters are trained almost from childhood, they are trained, brainwashed. Now this is not the case, and these bandits are no longer what they used to be,” he said.
More than ever they are merely bandits with a whitewash of religion? If this were Iraq or Syria or the Philippines, I’d they were being killed off faster than they could be trained…
Akhmet Yarlykapov also noted that, judging by the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, the current ISIS militants are “people trained to carry out a terrorist attack, but not too much processed.”
Orientalist Ruslan Suleymanov, speaking about ISIS-Khorasan*, which allegedly claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks, noted that the main arena of activity of this organization is Afghanistan. “Their base is people from Central Asia, especially Tajiks (they have serious media resources in Tajik, including telegram channels for recruiting recruits). But they say that there are also citizens of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia, although little is known about this ", he told the Caucasian Knot correspondent, adding that a distinctive feature of ISIS-Khorasan* is the use of suicide bombers.
On the day of the terrorist attack in Krasnogorsk, it became known that the terrorist organization "Islamic State"* had claimed responsibility. The New York Times noted that US officials in March gathered intelligence that the Afghanistan-based Islamic State-Khorasan was planning an attack in Moscow, and Russia was warned about it. Statements about the responsibility of ISIS-Khorasan* for the terrorist attack were given weight by the FSB report released two weeks before the terrorist attack on the prevention of an attack on a Moscow synagogue being prepared by militants of the same group. The terrorist attack on visitors to Crocus City Hall has similarities with the January terrorist attack in Iranian Kerman, for which the Islamic State also claimed responsibility, said Mina Al-Lami, an expert on extremist groups.
According to Suleymanov, the question of whether these terrorist attacks were the work of ISIS-Khorasan* is still unclear to him. “Personally, I am not entirely sure that it was this particular branch of ISIS*. If we look at the propaganda materials of this group, we will see that the perpetrator is not specifically named anywhere. ISIS* spokesman Abu Hanifa al-Ansari only stated that it was were "non-Arab lions of the Caliphate", and ISIS* in its weekly report simply allocated a separate line for Russia. Rather, we can say that in Russia there are individual militants affiliated with ISIS*. It would seem that the perpetrators of the terrorist attack in Crocus City Holle" [named] Tajiks, confirms the version of the participation of ISIS-Khorasan *. But I still have great doubts, especially since the style of the attack is not at all similar to the one used by this group, which usually sends suicide bombers," Suleymanov said.
In addition, he noted that ISIS-Khorasan simply does not have the resources to organize such an attack. “But if it is still ISIS-Khorasan*, then someone should have helped him on Russian territory. I believe that the Russian authorities must answer the question of who carried out these terrorist attacks and whether they had assistants in Russia,” - he added.
Akhmet Yarlykapov also noted that ISIS-Khorasan* mainly turns its attention to Afghanistan and has not differed in anything special outside the region. “But since no special ISIS wilayats were formed for Central Asia, the inhabitants of the region were apparently assigned to the “Khorasan wilayat”, and all the terrorist attacks committed by them were attributed to this group,” he suggested.
Yarlykapov also emphasized that in terms of tactics, “ISIS-Khorasan”* was no different from the “Caucasus Vilayat” proclaimed by ISIS*. “The tactics are the same,” he noted.
#6
Remember Islamic Rage Boy? For years he supported his family as a paid protestor, which makes the odds pretty good that the Pakistani mob that fired the KFC were on someone’s payroll at the time.
[Townhall] Former President Trump reacted to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s threat to the Biden Administration over the southern border.
Trump called out the "lack of respect" foreign leaders have for President Joe Biden on Sunday after Obrador demanded that the United States send Mexico $20 billion a year in taxpayer money to Latin America and the Caribbean to address so-called "root causes" of illegal immigration.
The 2024 presidential frontrunner insisted that he wouldn’t give the Mexican president so much as "ten cents."
"He said he wants $10 billion essentially just to talk, $10 billion to talk, and that's come out since, and no, that wouldn't happen with me, with the wall," Trump told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade when asked if it was reasonable for Obrador to dictate American policy.
During an interview with 60 Minutes, the foreign president stated that Mexico will not shut down its border until the Biden Administration changes its policy on Cuba and Venezuela.
When Trump was in office, foreign leaders did not dare pull such a bold move— according to the former president.
"It's very simple: lack of respect for the president. They would never say that to me. They would never say before we even talk. They want $10 billion a year, Mexico just asked for $10 billion a year. They would never ask it. I wouldn't give them 10 cents," Trump said.
Obrador insisted that he controls a significant portion of the southern border that has been abandoned by the Biden Administration. He acknowledged that his relationship with Trump was majority productive other than the border wall being a sore subject for the two leaders.
In January, Obrador demanded that Biden halt the surge of illegal immigrants, lift existing sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela, grant legal status to Mexican illegal immigrants in the U.S., as well as send the countries $20 billion annually.
He insisted that the massive influx of illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. will not stop until the Biden Administration meets its list of demands.
The Mexican president claimed that Biden commanded him to "control the flow of migration"— which he did— resulting in illegal entries dropping by 50 percent in January.
However, those numbers spiked again in February.
In December alone, nearly 250,000 immigrants illegally crossed the southern border.
Trump warned that if there isn’t a leadership change in the upcoming November election, then "we're not going to have a country anymore."
"The most important day in the history of our country is going to be November 5th. Our country is going bad, and it's going to be changed on November 5th, and if it's not changed, we're not going to have a country anymore," Trump added.
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2024 00:00 ||
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[247 views]
Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
#2
"He insisted that the massive influx of illegal immigrants coming into the U.S. will not stop until the Biden Administration meets its list of demands."
This is a declaration of war.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/02/2024 9:07 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Shut the border tight. Only allow repatriation of citizens one way. See who's economy tanks first.
#4
1. Finish the wall.
2. Deploy the Army to backstop the Border Patrol.
3. Re-instate Remain in Mexico.
4. Ruthless enforce E-Verify and prosecute major
violators like Tyson Foods.
6. Stop/throttle the $60 billion in remittances
sent to Mexico each year, the second largest
legal income source behind oil.
7. Prosecute every abuse of federal funds for
supporting illegal aliens.
[IsraelTimes] Starting this week, hundreds of yeshivas will see their budgets slashed, prompting leading rabbis to look abroad to raise the funds needed to continue operating.
What does the ruling mean in practical terms, and how will it affect the over 1,000 yeshivas that have, until now, received monthly payments from the Education Ministry?
The background
For decades, ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, men of military age have been able to avoid the draft by enrolling for study in yeshivas and obtaining repeated one-year service deferrals until they reach the national age of military exemption, currently 26.
These repeated deferrals — de facto military service exemptions — and the government stipends many yeshiva students receive through age 26 have infuriated the wider general public, sparking numerous legal and legislative efforts to ensure what advocates of universal conscription call “equality of the burden.”
The court decision, issued on Thursday night, came after the government repeatedly delayed submitting a proposal to the court for plans to increase ultra-Orthodox military enlistment. It took effect following the expiration on Sunday night of a legally dubious temporary regulation that instructed the IDF conscription authorities not to draft Haredim — a regulation the government issued last summer just before the expiration of the law that enshrined the annual deferrals.
As of Monday morning, the ruling applies to funding given by the state to Haredi yeshivas for students who reached enlistment age after the expiration of the law last year — as the legal framework for deferring their military service no longer exists. Although they were unable to receive deferrals, these students were not called up for service because of the government’s order not to enforce enlistment, but they are now eligible for the draft.
#4
Shifa Hospital was a hive of terrorists. The Syria hit was on a residential building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy - and we all know how sacred Iranians view Embassies, right?
Try again trollboy
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2024 12:00 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Don't know why that part about Snowden got included.
#6
When we visited Israel the tour guide said the ultra-orthodox got away with what they did because they formed a voting bloc that the ruling party needed to form a coalition.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/02/2024 13:25 Comments ||
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#7
^Part of it. The other part, it was tolerable, when they were a small group - but they breed like rabbits.
Of course, the dem "coalition of victims" here in USA sucks monkey ass too.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/02/2024 13:47 Comments ||
Top||
#9
The Syria hit was on a residential building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy
I came across this tidbit earlier in another place. Funny how sprinkling a little additional information on top completely changes the flavor of the story from a ballsy but necessary move to "Oopsie! Sorry about the collateral damage." Not that I am suggesting the media are lying crapweasels, but one does wonder how often it happens.
#10
Given how often UNWRA staff in Gaza have primary careers in Hamas, with the second job at UNWRA coming after they developed skills additional to their prime work as made men, one has to ask who paid the dead World Central Kitchen people during their off hours. Five’ll get you ten that they had worked hard to deserve suddenly becoming a floating red mist — no matter how much certain parties consider it unthinkable.
#11
It was a truck convoy that was hit. The media keeps shouting "kitchen kitchen kitchen" like it was a mess tent full of women and children that was hit.
These convoys have been used to move arms. If IDF had actionable intel to that effect, they are under no obligation to expose their "sources and methods" to placate a medi that won't be placated anyway.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/02/2024 14:13 Comments ||
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#13
^I've to add that, personally, I only care about IDF casualties. As to the WCK victims - they might have been full of good intentions & compasion, but they assisted evil.
#14
Things happen in war zones. Gaza is not a safe space like New York City.
With regard to the Damascus hit, all the details were revealed in comments here yesterday. By the time my mother had retired to bed*, leaving me free to address working up articles for today’s Burg, there was nothing left for me to add. Well done, y’all!
* My darling 98-year old mother has reached the stage where she can no longer live independently, so we moved her into our front sitting room a few weeks ago. It’s an adjustment for us all, but overall a pleasure.
#19
Honestly, my mother is fun to have around — we’ve been inviting her to move in ever my father entered his final decline twenty years ago. Even diminished, she is cheerful with a sly sense of humour, interested in everything and everyone, and is ever willing to lend a helping hand with whatever needs to be done. We’ve been polishing silver and shredding old tax returns, among other long disregarded chores. So she’s been making a difference. :-)
[IsraelTimes] Legislation passed 71 to 10 gives PM and communications minister temporary powers to shut down foreign news networks deemed threatening to national security for 45-day periods.
The Knesset approved on Monday evening the so-called Al Jazeera law, giving the government temporary powers to prevent foreign news networks from operating in Israel if they are deemed by the security services to be harming national security.
The law passed 71 to 10 in its second and third readings in the Knesset plenum.
Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who spearheaded the effort to pass the law, vowed immediately after the final vote that the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i-funded Al Jazeera news channel would be closed down "in the coming days," saying "there won’t be freedom of expression for Hamas ...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... mouthpieces in Israel."
Karhi, a member of the hardline flank of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, continued: "We have brought to fruition an effective and swift tool against those who use freedom of the press to harm Israel’s security and IDF soldiers, and who incite to terrorism during a time of war."
The US expressed concern over the legislation, with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying: "We believe in the freedom of the press. It is critically important. The United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world do, and that includes those who are reporting on the conflict 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... . If those reports are true, it is concerning to us."
In an earlier statement, Netanyahu’s Likud party said that the prime minister would "act immediately to close Al Jazeera" in accordance with the terms of the new law.
The new law gives the prime minister and the communications minister the authority to order the temporary closure of foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if it is believed that they are "doing actual harm to state security."
It is the communications minister who is empowered to issue such orders, but only after receiving the approval of the prime minister and the security cabinet, and after a professional position paper has been presented to the prime minister and the communications minister by the security services detailing the "factual foundations" of allegations that the channel is causing damage to Israel’s national security.
The law empowers the communication’s minister to order "content providers" to cease broadcasting the channel in question; order the channel’s Israeli offices to be shuttered; order the channel’s equipment confiscated; and order the channel’s website to be taken offline, if the server is physically located in Israel, or otherwise block access to the website.
Such orders are valid for 45 days but can be renewed for further 45-day periods.
Under the terms of the law, any order to shut down a foreign news channel must be brought within 24 hours for judicial review by the president of a district court, who must then decide within three days if they wish to change or shorten the period of the order.
The law itself has been passed as a temporary law and will expire on July 31 or earlier if the declaration of an emergency situation is lifted by the government.
The legislation passed a first reading in the plenum in February and was approved for its second and third readings following an extended debate in the Knesset National Security Committee.
Though Israeli officials have long complained about Al Jazeera’s coverage, which they say is heavily influenced by Hamas and endangers IDF troops in Gaza, in the past they stopped short of taking action, mindful of Qatar’s bankrolling of Paleostinian construction projects in the Gaza Strip, which were seen by all sides as a means of staving off conflict.
Communications Minister Karhi’s office said in October that the drive to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel was based on "proof that it is assisting the enemy, broadcasting propaganda in the service of Hamas, in Arabic and English, to viewers around the world, and even passing sensitive information to the enemy."
Karhi accused the station of pro-Hamas incitement and exposing Israeli troops to ambushes. Al Jazeera and the Doha government did not respond to those allegations.
In November, however, Israel appeared to spare the Qatari station, instead ordering the shutting down of the local broadcasts of a smaller Lebanese pro-Iranian channel, Al Mayadeen, under emergency media regulations.
#2
Well it ain't Biden running the show, that is for sure. And makes sense to sell them some new ones. The older F-15s Israel has have got to be getting close to their end of life.
#6
As an amusing aside, it seems that the Puppet Show can't stay bought by the Mooslim Lobby when serious McDonald-Douglas/MIC vigorish may be on the table.They may hate the Juice, but Benjamins is Benjamins when you are facing a move back to Rehobeth in January!
[IsraelTimes] The protest group founded by reserve soldiers last year wants involvement in education, community and employment issues, to strengthen democratic values in society
It was late in the day at the Brothers and Sisters in Arms complex in central Israel, but seamsters still sat at sewing machines working on repairs to soldiers’ uniforms.
A kindergarten and school created by the organization to serve 500 children evacuated from the northern city of Kiryat Shmona had emptied as children had gone "home" to their temporary housing between Herzliya and Ramat Hasharon, but one office was full of computer equipment being repaired. Another had piles of first-aid kits — 3,000 of which have been handed out to kibbutzim in border areas, including the West Bank.
The door of a fourth room was labeled "Families of Reserve Soldiers." This unit tries to meet the needs of families whose (usually) menfolk are in military service by finding them a babysitter, a dog-walker, and the like.
The Brothers and Sisters in Arms organization was created by reserve soldiers last year to protest the government’s attempts to reform the judicial system by weakening the courts. Many of its founders hold senior ranks, served in elite units, and have impressive post-army CVs.
Months of noisy street demonstrations came to an immediate halt on October 7, when thousands of Hamas ...the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... holy warriors poured into Israel’s mainly rural 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... border area, massacring 1,200 people in circumstances that included rape, mutilation, and burning people alive. The holy warriors also kidnapped 253 people to the Gaza Strip.
Within hours of the October 7 attack, members of Brothers and Sisters in Arms sped south to battle the button men, rescue residents under fire, and later help evacuate entire communities.
With the government caught off guard and paralyzed at the time, the organization instantly metamorphosed into a support infrastructure.
In those early days, thousands of civilians poured into the Tel Aviv Expo to help the war effort.
With military discipline, Brothers and Sisters in Arms and a handful of other organizations created a network of volunteers — an estimated 15,000 in the early weeks — to identify the dead and the missing, find transport and accommodation for survivors, and collect and distribute everything from food, clothing, and toys to medical supplies and even furniture and appliances for mourning tents. The hangar at Expo Tel Aviv that the organization rented for donated supplies stayed open till February.
Ronen Koehler, one of the activist organization’s founders, said that since October 7, the organization had raised around NIS 130 million ($36.4 million).
Over the past five months, he explained, it has been busy helping evacuees from the south, and the northern border, who have been staying in hotels and private accommodations all over the country.
Now, it is turning its attention to those Gaza border residents who are starting to go home. Around 100 to 150 volunteers, Koehler said, turn up daily at the Glilot offices that The Times of Israel toured.
In the long term, he said, Brothers in Arms wants to bring its influence and its commitment to democratic values to bear on education, community, economic, and employment issues, to strengthen what he called the country’s "social infrastructure."
"We’re here to stay," Koehler said.
In another office at the Glilot complex sat Ayelet Yagur, surrounded by children’s books, toys, and play equipment. These were returned from hotels that families evacuated from the Gaza border had left, and will go on to kindergartens in the border villages to which these people are returning or to temporary accommodation where they will live until their homes have been rebuilt.
"We’re doing lots of field visits and are in contact with the educational teams in the kindergartens," said Yagur, who formerly managed the Long School Day, an afternoon informal education program, in kindergartens in Ramat Hasharon in central Israel.
"We build a kindergarten design plan that fits with the team’s pedagogical approach," she said.
Looking ahead to the needs of the Gaza border, as evacuees start to return, Brothers and Sisters in Arms are working with local education departments to help clean schools and kindergartens, and even find teachers.
Volunteers recently equipped and furnished a whole school at Kibbutz Gvulot, close to the Gaza border, to serve children from area kibbutzim.
SUPPORT FOR HOTEL EVACUEES
Koehler is a former submarine commander who became an organizational consultant and worked in several top Israeli companies. Like many of his socially minded peers in Brothers in Arms, he was already involved in civic society before the war, having established an association for navy veterans who help one another and mentor marginal youth. He also heads a marine youth group in Tel Aviv.
He credited his wife, child psychologist Talia Koster, with getting Brothers in Arms to start their involvement with the hotels where evacuees were being sent, especially in Eilat, on Israel’s southern tip, and the Dead Sea.
Koster had traveled to Eilat as part of a 15-member clinical delegation. "At the end of the day, she called and said, ’You don’t know what’s happening down here. Where are you?'" according to Koehler.
"I sent a message to veterans of the navy and the [Israeli equivalent of the] Navy Seals asking for volunteers to go to Eilat and the Dead Sea," Koehler recalled.
"It was the Sabbath. Despite this, Ori Lahav [the ex-navy co-founder and CTO of the web-based recommendation platform Outbrain] volunteered to go to Eilat, and [professional strategist] Irad Yuval from the Navy Seals went to the Dead Sea. On Saturday night, they reported that there was much for us to do there. By Sunday [October 15], we had set up an evacuee situation room."
That kickstarted a large volunteer effort to help with needs that the state bureaucracy was never designed to meet, and where government ministries were absent.
The activities included acquiring dozens of washing machines and dryers and creating laundry rooms, and building 190 hotel-based kindergartens, along with community centers for teens, and activities for seniors.
The group helped to keep bored youth out of mischief by building a sports area on the beach in Eilat and bringing artists to perform daily at the Dead Sea
It built a special needs school at the Dead Sea — in just five days.
And it has provided 4,000 days of volunteer help to date for factories short of workers and continues to send hundreds of volunteers every day to help farmers left without their Thai and Paleostinian farmhands.
In the hospitals treating maimed soldiers, it has procured small items that make a difference — a guitar here, a subscription to a computer programming course there.
It is also helping people to find jobs. Together with the Jewish Agency and the Israel Business Forum, it has raised around NIS 10 million ($2.7 million) to help those whose businesses have run into trouble because of the war.
As conflict between the IDF and the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah warmed up along the northern border, and northern communities were evacuated as well, volunteers organized a northern situation room that can call upon 1,000 volunteers, Koehler said.
It collected metal frames from hundreds of sukkot — the temporary "dwellings" Jews set up for the Feast of Tabernacles — and fitted them with tarpaulin to protect troops from the rain.
According to Koehler, tactical equipment including bulletproof vests and helmets and protective goggles has been distributed to community security teams all over the country, while volunteers with a background from the Shin Bet internal security services are training the teams.
One of the lessons from October 7, according to Koehler, was: "Where there was a well-trained security team, the communities were saved."
A CHANGE OF APPROACH
Over a year ago, Brothers and Sisters in Arms became a government bête noire for opposing both planned changes to the judiciary and exemptions from military service for ultra-Orthodox Jews.
According to Koehler, coalition politicians constantly try to get the organization’s charitable status reversed. But government officials have reached out for help and relations with local authorities are warm, Koehler said.
"The position taken by Brothers in Arms on this government can be hard for people on the right to digest. But such deep relationships have been established with the mayors, who see that we’re good guys, that we’ve set up a Going Home department," he said.
Koehler claimed that Brothers in Arms’ strategy had become softer since the anti-judicial reform protests.
"We understood that the way we behaved last year, while it was very effective, came at a high price," he said.
It’s good to see that they are educable, though it’s appalling that it took nothing less than 10/7 to break through their self-righteous assumptions. A neat demonstration of the differences between wisdom, knowledge, and cleverness. These are people who excel in the second and third sets, ignoring until extremis any need whatsoever for the first.
"We want to prevent being in a place where people think we’re not on the same side. We believe some things can be done with more discussion and less extremism. We were dragged to the extremes. The government refused to talk."
There was no dragging. Y’all took the anti-democratic position that what you wanted must be, even though more than half the country disagreed.
These days, the organization is trying to secure a cross-party agreement on two critical issues — early elections and drafting ultra-Orthodox young men, who are currently exempt from military duty, into the IDF.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility for the October 7 fiasco, and has said the next elections will take place "in a few years," as scheduled, because wartime is "not the time for politics."
Existential war, anyway.
On the streets, said Koehler, the group’s current activities were characterized by hanging banners at junctions and holding gatherings.
Other groups in your coalition, though, are burning bonfires in the streets and attacking the police. Shut them down, habibi, if you want us to believe you've changed.
"We’re on the streets, but we’re for, not against. We’re not blocking roads. The strategy has completely changed," Koehler said.
"We’re all army people," he said. "We understand that we have enemies and that Israel will need an army for many years. But we believe we have to find a solution with the Paleostinians."
First win the war. Then find a solution, if the Palestinians are ready to negotiate in good faith — as they haven’t been since the 1920s.
He went on, "Being a citizen is about more than paying your taxes and voting every four years. It’s not about Bibi [Netanyahu]. It’s about people being involved."
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Consequences. Even if certain parties were interested in preemptively surrendering to bring back their accustomed Palestinian workers, regardless how risky in part or in whole.
[LI] Jerusalem Post: "Thousands of laborers are expected to work in the embattled construction sector, which relied almost exclusively on Palestinian workers before the war."
Thousands of Indian nationals are set to replace Palestinian workforce, which fell out in the wake of the October 7 massacre.
"An influx of Indian workers is expected to arrive in Israel in the coming weeks as part of an effort to overcome a labor shortage due to the Israel-Hamas war," the Jerusalem Post reported earlier this month, "Thousands of laborers are expected to work in the embattled construction sector, which relied almost exclusively on Palestinian workers before the war."
The replacement of workforce from Gaza and the West Bank is matter of Israel’s national security. Evidence suggests that Hamas misused Israel’s work permit program to carry out reconnaissance on bordering Jewish communities ahead of the attack. Several of the terrorists who entered Israel on October 7 were holders of work-permits and had intimate knowledge of the security measures in place.
Evidence, indeed.
Israel’s government-backed agency, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), conducted recruitment drives in several Indian states. Jerusalem is looking for skilled workers, such as plumbers, electricians and masons, along with agricultural and constructions workers.
"Thousands of Indians flocked to a recruitment center [located in northern India] ... for jobs that would take them to Israel despite the ... Israeli-Hamas war (...)," the Associated Press reported in late January, describing the scene as one such drive. "Many among the crowd of men, mostly skilled construction workers and laborers, said they would take their chances in a country embroiled in war as they are struggling to find jobs in India, where unemployment remains high despite a swelling economy."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/02/2024 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
It would be even better if tens of thousands of unemployed MBAs & lawyers took laborer jobs. But, one thing at the time.
#3
Make a "Youth Labor Corps" and draft the yeshiva students -- at least they can do something immediately useful to the economy. They might even learn a craft in the process.
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.
...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 
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