[IsraelTimes] The NYPD reports 41 antisemitic hate crimes in April, the highest monthly tally since the 45 incidents in June 2024.
There were more antisemitic hate crimes last month than incidents targeting all other groups combined, as in nearly every month.
Last month there were 10 crimes targeting Asians, seven against Black people, one against a Hispanic person, one against another ethnicity, two based on gender, four motivated by sexual orientation, three against white people, two Islamophobic incidents, and five against other religious groups.
The total for the month was 76, meaning Jews were targeted in 54% of all hate crimes in the city.
There was a surge of antisemitic incidents following the October 2023 invasion of Israel, and the rate has fluctuated since then. In the past year, the number of incidents ranges from 55 last May to 18 in January.
There have been 380 antisemitic incidents in the past year, from May 2024 through last month.
The numbers are preliminary and subject to change if, for example, a crime that appeared to be antisemitic turns out to have been motivated by other factors.
Jewish security groups and hate crimes experts say many incidents likely go unreported.
[IsraelTimes] Emily Damari lashes out at prize committee for bestowing honor on Mosab Abu Toha, who called captives ‘killers’ and cast doubt on Bibas children’s murder in social media rants
[IsraelTimes] Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was deeply involved in setting up one of South America’s most important drug cartels, according to a report by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
Dubbed the “Butcher of Lyon” for his wartime torture of prisoners, the former Gestapo chief in the occupied French city fled to South America after the end of World War II.
He was extradited from Bolivia to France in 1983 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 on charges of crimes against humanity. He died in prison in 1991.
According to Der Spiegel, Barbie — living under the alias Klaus Altmann — became a security adviser to drug baron Roberto Suarez after the two men met in the 1970s.
Suarez’s son, Gary, tells the magazine that Barbie was “an important person to my father.”
“He knew something about security, military strategy and secret service work,” he says.
Barbie was also active in advising the Bolivian security services, helping set up a death squad for dictator Luis Garcia Meza.
A CIA despatch from May 1974, seen by Der Spiegel, reveals that the agency’s officers already suspected Barbie of involvement in the drug trade, the magazine says.
Barbie was recruited as an anti-communist agent by American secret services after the war, and the United States later apologized to France for helping Barbie evade justice.
[IsraelTimes] A French pro-Palestinian protest group is contesting a government decision to shut it down, saying the move was politically motivated and based on “false” arguments as part of a wider crackdown on the movement for Palestinian rights.
Urgence Palestine (Emergency Palestine), created in 2023 to protest against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, filed its counterarguments to the shutdown procedure on Thursday, their lawyer Elsa Marcel says.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, explaining the decision, said in a letter dated April 28 to one of the group’s founders, Omar Alsoumi, that Urgence Palestine had provoked violent acts, including toward Jewish people, and had called for armed struggle.
Asked about the decision, Alsoumi tells Reuters, “This shows the partiality of the French government on the genocidal war that the Palestinian people are experiencing.”
He says the group, which has been organizing protests across France over the past 19 months, rejects any conflation of Jews and the Israeli government and that Palestinians have the right to resist occupation under international law.
The French Interior Ministry does not respond to a request for comment.
[IsraelTimes] A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
US District Judge William Sessions, during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Rumeysa Ozturk,
,…age 30, Turkish PhD student and Fulbright Scholar, whose student visa was revoked for having co-authored an opinion piece for the Tufts University student newspaper a year earlier supporting the listed terror organization Hamas and castigating the university for not divesting from Israel-related companies. I’ve not yet seen anything about the other three students involved — perhaps that association is what got her in trouble. No doubt her naturalized, activist Iranian-American immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, is also somehow objectionable …
who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.
The judge ruled shortly after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian campus activist who a different judge in Vermont ordered released last week after immigration authorities arrested him as well.
The Jordan-born, Palestinian graduate philosophy student at Columbia boasted to a Vermont Gun shop owner that he had plenty of experience with guns, having used them to kill Jews back home in Palestine — he started his career throwing rocks at IDF soldiers as a child and led anti-Israel Palestinian student groups since arriving in America a decade ago, true to the traditions in his family where a cousin is an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade field commander. He is president of the anti-Israel Palestinian Students Union at Columbia, since 10/7 organizing violent anti-Israel protests and taking the opportunity to beat up Jews, for which he was arrested thrice; he did not think any of this an issue before he was arrested for a revoked green card on his way to his scheduled citizenship exam.
Ozturk’s arrest on March 25 by masked, plainclothes law enforcement officers on a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home, was captured in a viral video and occurred after the US Department of State revoked her student visa.
The sole basis authorities have provided for revoking her visa was an opinion piece she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
…which does not mean it’s actually the only reason they have, just the only one shared.
[DenverPost] Colorado Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to examine “presence and/or absence” of antisemitism
Denver’s Auraria campus will be the subject of federal scrutiny after the Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted unanimously Thursday to begin a year-long examination of “the presence and/or absence” of antisemitism on the downtown campus.
The local undertaking coincides with a larger federal investigation by the commission into what the Trump administration characterizes as rising antisemitism at American college campuses following Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel and that nation’s retaliatory war in Gaza.
Demonstrators set up a 23-day encampment at Auraria last year — the largest of Colorado’s pro-Palestinian protests — at which students and others protested the war and called for the University of Colorado to divest financially from Israel.
The committee’s now-approved project proposal alleges the Auraria encampment featured participants chanting slogans “calling for the extermination of the state of Israel and for terrorist attacks on Jews globally.” The proposal attributes that statement to “news reports,” but does not cite any specifically.
The proposal acknowledged such statements are not “per se illegal… just as reading ‘Mein Kampf’ out loud in public is not illegal,” but alleged the encampment interfered with campus access and classes, and included a “hostile occupation” of the student union and vandalism.
A representative of the Auraria Higher Education Center told The Denver Post last month that the campus is committed to fostering a “safe, inclusive and respectful environment for all,” and that antisemitism, along with any form of hate or discrimination, has no place on campus.
Auraria is home to the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and CU Denver.
During Thursday’s 45-minute virtual commission meeting, a handful of Auraria students from anti-Zionist advocacy organization Jewish Voice for Peace
…founded by Hamas BDS activist Hatem Bazian, while its social media managers live in Lebanon and a large chunk of its funding comes from the Soros Open Society Foundations…
said they were present during the encampment and felt welcomed and safe until the university called in police to break up the protest.
Interesting that the only Jews or Jewish organization actually mentioned is a false front for genocidal anti-Israel terror groups. Either the reporters and editors of the Denver Post are abysmally ignorant or they, too, fashionably hate Jews.
“These investigations seemingly about antimestimism all across the country have little to do with Jews and everything to do with dismantling higher education,” said a virtual public commenter who identified themselves as Asa.
Why not both? Pro-Palestinian organization leaders have been rcorded on video explaining their ultimate goal is to destroy America altogether….Oh wait, the speaker (they, them) is referring to the Trump administration. Still, entirely too many American institutions of higher education have lost their way in the morass of far left philosophy, and could do with rebuilding from the ground up.
David Kopel, a member of the Colorado Advisory Committee and research director at libertarian think tank Independence Institute, proposed the antisemitism research project.
In a virtual meeting earlier this year, Kopel described antisemitism on college campuses as “a matter that is long overdue for serious analysis… and that has been swept under the rug and dismissed by a lot of authorities in the past.”
“State advisory committees are formally charged with being the eyes and ears of the commission in D.C., so as a factual investigation, this is a place to get some facts and write about it ourselves for Colorado, but also do a useful investigation elsewhere,” Kopel said.
As the project progresses, the committee will invite speakers to provide testimony to inform a forthcoming report.
How soon before both perpetrators and victims file lawsuits over this, dear Reader?
[IsraelTimes] Legislation establishes offense of ‘evading arrest by concealment of identity,’ a watered-down version of proposals aimed at combating upsurge in antisemitism
The New York State government on Thursday passed a law to combat masked crime, ending a legislative effort meant to combat antisemitism in the wake of the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... terrorist group.
The push for an anti-masking law had spurred backlash from progressives, and the new rule is a watered-down version of the legislation initially sought by politicians in favor of the measure.
The legislation establishes the crime of "evading arrest by concealment of identity" and was signed into law by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday with the state budget.
Hochul had attached the law to the state budget as one of her legislative priorities. The $254 billion budget passed more than a month after its April 1 deadline, following weeks of negotiations, including over the masking legislation.
The law applies when a person carrying out a crime, or fleeing from the scene of a crime, wears a mask or covers their face "for no legitimate purpose" to prevent their identification or arrest. The law, a class B misdemeanor, will take effect in 30 days.
The charge will be added to the initial offense and could lead to harsher sentencing. Class B misdemeanors carry a maximum punishment of three months in jail.
Jeffrey Dinowitz, a Jewish state assemblyman from the Bronx who pushed for anti-masking legislation, applauded the new law in a Thursday statement, tying the rule to a disruptive protest by masked demonstrators at Columbia University on Wednesday.
"Time and again we see that when protestors conceal their identity, they can create environments of fear and distress, especially when targeting specific communities," Dinowitz said. "Yesterday’s incident of masked individuals vandalizing and terrorizing students and staff at Columbia University’s Butler Library highlights the necessity of this legislation to hold people responsible for their actions."
Other politicians criticized the legislation as too weak and difficult to enforce.
"This is a nothing burger. Unfortunately, this is nothing," Anthony Palumbo, a Republican state senator from Long Island, said during budget negotiations.
"This was well-intended, I’m sure, but it doesn’t get us to where we needed to go," Palumbo said.
A coalition of Jewish and Black groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP, launched a push to crack down on masking last year. The effort, called UnMaskHateNY, connected antisemitism by masked attackers to persecution of Black Americans by hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The version of the bill put forward at the time was more expansive than the measure passed on Thursday. The earlier bill sought to outlaw masking at public assemblies such as protests, with carve-outs for facial coverings related to health and religion.
Hochul had previously pushed for a ban on "masked harassment," but retreated from the more strict proposal during the drawn-out budget negotiations.
UnMaskHateNY still celebrated the new measure shortly before the governor signed it into law.
"This law couldn’t have come a day sooner. With this new language on the books, we look forward to long-awaited oversight and accountability for any and all individuals who would hide their faces to commit crimes," a spokesperson for the group said.
The push to crack down on masked crime gained traction during an upsurge in antisemitism in New York City, particularly following an incident when masked protesters targeted "Zionists" on a subway car in May 2024.
Law enforcement said at the time that masking had impeded some investigations into criminal conduct by anti-Israel protesters, including at Columbia University.
Pro-Paleostinian and leftist organizations, including a group called Jews for Mask Rights, opposed the legislative effort, calling it an infringement on the right to free assembly and a risk to the immunocompromised.
Groups, including the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, called on the governor and state politicians to reject the law, characterizing the measure as a "mask ban," despite its limited scope.
"Despite lies to the contrary, this is not a mask ban. It is common-sense legislation that is in the interest of public safety and would not apply to lawful assemblies or protests," Dinowitz said on Thursday.
New York State had an anti-masking law dating back to the 1800s, but scrapped the rule in 2020 due to widespread masking during the COVID pandemic.
Nassau County, on Long Island, passed a law to ban masking at protests last year. That effort was led by Mazi Pilip, an Israeli-American Republican in the Nassau County legislature, who said she was motivated by antisemitism and protests at universities.
[FoxNews] U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post that India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire.
"After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" the president declared in his Saturday morning post.
Both foreign nations are among the handful of world powers that possess nuclear weapons, making tensions between the two countries particularly dangerous on the global stage.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted in a statement that he and U.S. Vice President JD Vance had engaged with officials from the two foreign countries.
"Over the past 48 hours, Vice President Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Asim Malik," Rubio said in the statement.
"I am pleased to announce the Governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site," he continued. "We commend Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on their wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship in choosing the path of peace."
JD Vance reveals what would make Trump admin 'walk away' from Russia-Ukraine war negotiationsVideo
Vance said in a post on X, "Great work from the President’s team, especially Secretary Rubio. And my gratitude to the leaders of India and Pakistan for their hard work and willingness to engage in this ceasefire."
#4
the next time Pak terrorists hear the order from Allan
Allah has nothing to do with it. The orders, along with training, funds, and supplies, come directly from their masters, the general of Pakistan’s ISI. And the jihadis will gleefully follow their orders, as they have done since 1947.
#5
Understanding Trump Trump also wants to be seen as a winner; hence the abrupt reversal of his tariff plans when the stock market tanked. He ordered the justified, targeted assassinations of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (and good riddance to the both of them) and chalked those up as victories, even though Iran has since become an even more nefarious force and ISIS still exists. A deal with Iran, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Hamas, the PA, Saudi Arabia, the Houthis is the goal. The deal is the win, whatever happens later is incidental. That is how Trump sees the world.
#7
"A career as top Pakistan cop
Doesn't stop one from taking on pop.
Look! Our Kashmir Files songs
Attract film-going throngs!"
"Sir, I'm sorry... that's Elphaba Thropp."
[IsraelTimes] So-called Association Agreement between EU and Israel requires trade ties ‘be based on respect for human rights,’ which some European countries claim Israel has violated.
[IsraelTimes] Second conference of its kind since Oct. 7 draws broader ideological mix amid rising despair over hostages’ fate; ex-PM Olmert attends event, which Macron and Abbas address remotely.
Drawing from not only the far left this time, but also the occasional center left politician looking for a few additional voters. Oddly enough, all of the article’s photos are cropped too narrowly to allow estimation of the size of the audience seated in the auditorium, but we are intended to assume that at least 2,000 attended... which is not impressive. At least while seated in velvet stadium seats they won’t be rioting in the streets and attacking the soldiers and police on duty, like they usually do.
Israel’s beleaguered peace camp gathered for a two-day convention in Jerusalem from Thursday to Friday, uniting around the shared goals of a hostages-for-ceasefire deal and negotiated end to the Israel-Paleostinian conflict.
The gathering came to a head Friday morning as thousands of peaceniks packed an auditorium in the city’s International Convention Center to hear speeches from politicians, bereaved families and left-wing activists.
Organized by a broad coalition of left-wing and shared society groups, the "People’s Peace Summit" was the second conference of its kind held since the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... -led October 7 onslaught.
This year’s event attracted a broader swath of participants than its forerunner in Tel Aviv last summer. Amid rising despair over the hostages’ fate as Israel enters its 19th month of war, some center-leaning opposition figures took to the stage alongside seasoned members of the Israeli left.
Politicians of international renown also partook in the conference, with French President Emmanuel Macron expressing his support for the gathering in a pre-recorded address, as well as Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> Macron lauded the conference as a "signal of hope in a time marked by pain."
He went on to call the two-state solution the "only possibility for peace and security for all," noting that La Belle France in June will co-chair a conference to this end alongside Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... A two-state arrangement, he added, must be based on three prerequisites — the release of hostages, disarmament of Hamas and reform of the Paleostinian Authority.
Abbas, who spoke not long after Macron, also called for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a prospective Paleostinian state.
The aging PA leader’s former negotiating partner, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, sat in the auditorium’s front row, and later addressed a smaller panel at the heels of the main speaker lineup.
Olmert touted a new plan that he and former PA foreign affairs minister Nasser al-Kidwa had drawn up for a two-state solution.
The ex-premier called for an interim security force to ensure that Hamas does not return to power, and a new administration linked to the Paleostinian Authority that can rebuild 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 a rusty 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... without any involvement of the terror group.
"We must pull out from Gaza," Olmert said during the panel. "Gaza is Paleostinian and not Israeli. It needs to be part of a Paleostinian state."
’PEACE THE BEST GUARANTOR OF SECURITY’
The wider ideological spread of this year’s conference meant that some speakers met opposition from the crowd, as did National Unity MK Alon Schuster.
"I believe that the first job of the State of Israel is to protect the security of its citizens in any place, at any time," said Schuster. "At the same time, we must strengthen the political, economic and moral basis for our existence in the Middle East by signing peace agreements... Peace is the best guarantor of security."
When mentioning his party chairman Benny Gantz, Schuster was met by a wave of boos from the crowd.
"I am diverging from the written remarks to beg you, pursuers of peace, do not omit [anyone] from the peace and democracy camp, even those who don’t agree with everything you say," the politician urged.
As he walked off stage, some called on him to invoke a two-state solution, which he neglected to explicitly mention in his speech.
While this year’s confab featured a few new faces, many of the keynote speakers remained the same, such as Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi, who ascended to the stage as a pair. Taking turns talking, the two denounced not just the ongoing war but the government’s "de facto annexation" in the West Bank.
"Under the auspices of this war, the annexation machine in the West Bank is grinding on at a dizzying and violent mostly peaceful pace," said Kariv.
Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh, who was also at last year’s event, gave an impassioned speech to loud applause from the audience. He began with an anecdote about a mother and her three children who are chased down by a pack of hungry wolves.
"Out of despair and her survival instinct, the mother throws her eldest son — maybe the wolves will be satisfied with him — but their hunger only intensifies. She throws her second son, then the third, and in the end when she alone remains, the wolves devour her," Odeh recounted. "This is is exactly how fascism fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. Its distinguishing philosophical feature is the Corporate State. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... works. It pursues the opposition, and the opposition, frightened, rushes to sacrifice us all."
Odeh likened the panicked mother to the anti-Netanyahu opposition, which he claimed gave up on peace with the Paleostinians, and soon after, on partnership with Arab Israeli leadership.
"I want to put before you a crucial proposition — the historic role of Arab citizens. Without us, it is possible to build a dictatorship, but without us, it is impossible to build a democracy," he said.
"Even during this excruciating and bloody war, Jews and Arabs — you all — continued to have faith in each other and believed that only together we can win," he continued, invoking the well-known wartime slogan.
PM’s aide Dermer reportedly meets Trump in Washington for discussions on Iran ahead of fresh nuclear talks and Gaza, where IDF is set to launch major op
Bibi Netanyahu is a wily and experienced negotiator. One assumes that if he thinks the price is too high, it likely is.
But Bibi and almost all Israelis have concluded that the two state path is not possible. So there’s the hang up.
[IsraelTimes] Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... reaffirmed to the recently appointed vice chairman of the Paleostine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, Hussein al-Sheikh, during a meeting this week that Riyadh will not agree to normalize relations with Israel until the war 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 a rusty 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... ends and a pathway toward the establishment of a Paleostinian state has been established, Sky News Arabia reports, citing an unnamed Paleostinian source.
The Paleostinian source also reveals that Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... will resume financial aid to the Paleostinian Authority and will announce the decision during an annual summit of Arab leaders that will be held later this month in Baghdad.
Separately, the Kan public broadcaster reports that Riyadh has sent messages to the Trump administration warning the US president against making any surprise announcements during his trip to the region next week that might embarrass the kingdom.
Kan cited a senior Arab official who said the message was particularly regarding potential announcements by Trump regarding Saudi-Israel normalization, which they have repeatedly insisted will not be advanced absent an end to the Gaza war and a political horizon for the Paleostinians.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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#1
No treaty with Arabs is worth the paper it's written on.
[IsraelTimes] The United Arab Emirates has rejected an Israeli request to bankroll a new initiative to resume the distribution of aid into 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 a rusty 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... after an over two-month embargo, a bigwig familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.
The rejection marks a major blow to the initiative, which hasn’t even fully gotten off the ground, as Israel hoped that Emirati support would help convince other countries and international organizations to follow suit.
Israeli officials have been deeply involved in the recent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which they want to manage the resumption of aid into Gaza in a manner that prevents its diversion from Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... But a GHF memo provided to potential donors states that the initiative will only feed about 60% of Gaza’s population in an unspecified initial phase. The UN and international organizations briefed on the plan issued a statement earlier this week saying they won’t cooperate with the initiative, as it fails to sufficiently address the humanitarian crisis and "weaponizes" aid.
Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s aid Moran Stav visited the UAE yesterday to meet with Emirati Minister for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, hoping to convince Abu Dhabi to back the plan, the bigwig says, confirming reporting in the Walla news site.
Hashimy told the Israeli officials that the UAE would not be able to provide such financial support because the GHF initiative — as it currently stands — does not properly address the humanitarian crisis, the official says.
The official stresses that Abu Dhabi’s position could change if the initiative is adapted to properly meet the moment.
A Western diplomat told The Times of Israel earlier this week that GHF was planning to go public with the roll-out of its new initiative this week, but the lack of international support appears to be delaying the announcement.
Organizers sufficed with a presser held earlier today by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee where he said that the effort was already underway, but he offered minimal details how the initiative would work, while calling on the international community to back the program.
[IsraelTimes] The Qatari newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed reports that in the past two days, senior US officials have changed their stance regarding the disarmament of Hamas.
According to the report, the US officials have conveyed their decision to postpone dealing with the issue until after an agreement has been reached to end the war.
Al-Araby also reports that the US believes the Israeli demand to expel all members of Hamas’s military wing from the Gaza Strip is unrealistic, due to the large number of fighters and the lack of willingness from other countries to accept them.
Moreover, al-Araby reports that the US does not believe Israel’s policy of using more military force to release the remaining hostages will work. Instead, the US is working toward a deal that secures the release of all 59 hostages in one batch. Hamas has offered to do this if Israel agrees to permanently end the war — something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do, arguing that it leaves Hamas in power.
There is no confirmation of the Al-Araby report, which relies on a lone unnamed Egyptian source.
Prediction: Whatever Iran might agree to, in the real world they will never give up their nuclear weapon program. The DoD needs to refill their logistics alongside upgrading their war fighting ethos in preparation.
[IsraelTimes] US special envoy says Tehran can expand civilian nuclear activities but must get hate rid of all centrifuges, as talks set to resume in Oman on Sunday
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who is set to resume nuclear talks with 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... on Sunday, has said the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s uranium enrichment facilities "have to be dismantled" for Washington to take it at its word that it does not want nuclear arms.
"They cannot have centrifuges. They have to downblend all of their fuel that they have there and send it to a far-away place," Witkoff said in an interview with right-wing US news outlet Breitbart on Thursday. "An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line."
"I just believe they have no choice" but to accept the position of US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... against enrichment, said Witkoff. "Obviously, they can say no, and they can test President Trump, but I think that would be an unwise thing to do."
The comments came after Witkoff last month said the US would seek only to cap Iran’s uranium enrichment, but not end it altogether, contrary to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Witkoff quickly backtracked, saying any nuclear deal with Iran "must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program."
Speaking to Breitbart, Witkoff said Iran would have to dismantle its three known enrichment facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. On the other hand, he said, the Iranians could hold onto their nuclear reactor in Bushehr, where "they have no ability to enrich, they have no ability to have centrifuges there, they can only use that facility for civilian purposes — making of electricity and things of that sort of civilian purposes.
"If that is what they choose to do, if they believe in that program, they ought to expand it if they want to," said Witkoff, adding that his goal in the nuclear talks was to get Tehran to "voluntarily shift away from an enrichment program."
"If we can get them to voluntarily do that, that is the most permanent way to make sure that they never get a weapon," he said.
Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, says it opposes nuclear weapons. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the Islamic Theocratic Republic is enriching uranium to 60% — far higher than necessary for civilian uses, and a short step away from weapons-grade.
Iran also funds a regional network of anti-Israel proxies, including 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 a rusty 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... ’s Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... ’s Hezbollah and Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s. Getting Iran to stop arming those groups is a "secondary discussion," Witkoff told Breitbart.
"We don’t want to confuse the nuclear discussion because that to us is the existential issue," said Witkoff. "That’s the issue that needs to be solved today and quickly."
Witkoff is set to travel to Oman on Sunday for the fourth round of Omani-mediated talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a source familiar with the matter said, as Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news cited an Iranian negotiator as saying Tehran had agreed to resume talks.
The fourth round of negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing "logistical reasons."
Witkoff told Breitbart that the fourth round had been delayed because "we didn’t think that the talks last week were going to be productive, because we needed to get to certain understandings with them, and hopefully this Sunday they will be productive."
Witkoff was reportedly engaged over the past week in talks with Omani and Houthi officials that resulted in a US ceasefire in Yemen, announced by Trump on Tuesday. Sources cited by CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... said the US-Houthi truce talks aimed to provide momentum for the Iran nuclear talks.
The truce did not include a commitment by the Yemeni rebels to stop attacking Israel, and apparently caught Jerusalem by surprise — much like Trump’s announcement of the Iran nuclear talks last month.
Trump in his first term scrapped the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which had promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for greater oversight over its nuclear program. Netanyahu had railed against that deal, arguing that it kept in place Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear arms.
Witkoff told Breitbart that "we’re never doing a JCPOA deal," saying the agreement had a "mismatched procedure."
"We believe that they cannot have enrichment, they cannot have centrifuges, they cannot have anything that allows them to build a weapon. We believe in all of that. That was not JCPOA," said Witkoff.
"JCPOA had sunset provisions that burned off the obligations and burned off the sanctions relief at inappropriate times. It’s never going to happen in this deal," he said.
Witkoff stressed that Trump, who is expected to visit the Middle East next week, prefers a diplomatic rather than military solution to the Iranian nuclear threat.
Witkoff said critics of his diplomacy included a "neocon element" that "believes war is the only way to solve things."
"Neocon," or neo-conservative, refers in US political parlance to politicians who support intervention in foreign conflicts. The term is often used derisively by Trump’s isolationist supporters.
Witkoff’s comment came after Trump last week fired US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, in part, reportedly, over the latter’s hawkish views on Iran and intense coordination with Netanyahu on a potential military strike there.
Witkoff said his neo-conservative critics "give no consideration whatsoever on what the consequences are" for military action, and are certain that Iran will manipulate Witkoff if it is not handled with force.
"They may attempt to manipulate me. I don’t think they’re going to be able to manipulate me," said Witkoff. "If the Iranians make the mistake of thinking they can procrastinate at the table, then they won’t see that much of me.
"The alternative, as the president says, will be a bad alternative for them," he said. Trump "believes that his force of personality... can bend people to do things in a better way in the interests of the United States government," said Witkoff, adding: "I believe in that too."
ARAGHCHI TO CONSULT WITH SAUDI COUNTERPARTS
Araghchi, Witkoff’s interlocutor in the nuclear talks, is set to visit Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and 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... on Saturday, a day before the fourth round of negotiations and days before Trump is expected to visit those countries, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.
Araghchi is due to hold talks with senior Saudi officials in Riyadh before heading to Doha for a conference on Arab-Iranian dialogue, the ministry said. The Iranian top diplomat later said meetings in Saudi Arabia would cover the latest on the nuclear talks with Washington.
In a video carried by Iranian media, Araghchi said Tehran believes "the sustainability of any possible agreement depends to a large extent on taking into account the considerations and concerns of the countries of the region in the nuclear field," and those countries’ common interests with Iran.
Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16 on his first major Middle East trip of his second term. The president is not expected to visit Israel on the trip.
Trump provoked Araghchi’s ire earlier this week by indicating that the US would decide how to call the Persian Gulf, following reports that Washington could officially rename it the Gulf of Arabia. Araghchi condemned the decision as showing "hostile intent toward Iran and its people."
Ahead of the trip, Trump had predicted that Saudi-Israel normalization would happen "very quickly." However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... sources cited by Rooters this week said Trump had dropped the demand that Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel as a condition for progress on a civil nuclear program.
#1
Is Trump really just gonna go back to the deal he tore up in the first place? Anything different about this one? A lack of ballistic missile limitations were a reason he cited for tearing up the first one, as i recall.
[IsraelTimes] Sweden on Friday demanded that Iran release academic Ahmadreza Jalali,
…whose name is new to us…
who is on death row in Iran, after his wife said he had a heart attack in prison and his life is “at immediate risk.”
Jalali, an Iranian who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges and was granted Swedish nationality while in jail, suffered a heart attack in Tehran’s Evin prison, Vida Mehrannia writes in a post on X.
“He has been transferred to the hospital section in Evin prison. He was informed that he will not be able to see a cardiologist until Sunday,” the wife adds.
“After nine years of suffering, his health is declining rapidly. His life is at immediate risk and he must urgently receive proper care,” she says.
She urges Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard “to do everything in their power to secure his immediate release.”
Stenergard says on X that she had “spoken urgently tonight with the Iranian foreign minister.”
“During the conversation, I demanded that Ahmadreza Jalali immediately receive the specialized care he needs.”
“My work, and that of the government, for Ahmadreza Jalali continues with unabated strength. Ahmadreza Jalali must now be immediately released on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family, something I also expressed in today’s conversation,” she says.
Sweden has previously said that Iran does not recognize Jalali as a Swedish national since he was only an Iranian citizen when he was arrested.
Iran does not accept dual nationality, period. But they especially are uninterested in the opinions of the governments of unbelievers, unless that opinion is backed by huge guns — at which point they will engage in taqqiya until they have a hostage or several they can use to control the other party. When it comes to the Swedish government they’ve had several hostages, so Swedish bluster has no impact whatsoever.
In June 2024, Tehran freed two Swedes held in Iran in exchange for Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden. Jalali was left out of the swap.
“It seems not to be a priority for the Swedish officials what may happen to me as a Swedish citizen while I risk dying either by execution or due to poor health,” Jalali said in January, in a voice message obtained by AFP through his wife.
“It seems that due to my dual nationality, I am considered as a second-class citizen,” he said.
Congratulations on finally understanding. Not that having either single nationality would have helped once you were arrested — those given a death sentence in Iran, or any totalitarian society, are not highly valued by the authorities.
Western countries have long accused Iran of detaining foreign nationals on trumped-up charges to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions.
[RedState] On Thursday, Fox News revealed some satellite imagery of a formerly secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Fox News has exclusively obtained satellite imagery revealing what an opposition group says is a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear weapons facility – raising fresh concerns amid ongoing negotiations between Tehran and the Trump administration.
The newly identified site, located in Iran’s Semnan Province, is far from the regime's already-known nuclear facilities. According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), intelligence gathered from sources inside the country points to a sprawling compound covering nearly 2,500 acres.
Code-named the "Rainbow Site" by Iranian officials, the facility has reportedly been in operation for more than a decade, masked as a chemical production company known as Diba Energy Siba.
This is the chilling part:
According to NCRI sources, the primary function of the Rainbow Site is the extraction of tritium – a radioactive isotope used to enhance nuclear weapons. Unlike uranium enrichment, tritium has virtually no peaceful or commercial applications, casting further doubt on Iran’s longstanding claims that its nuclear ambitions are solely for energy or civilian use.
Tritium, we should note, isn't used in producing fission weapons of the sort that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tritium is used to boost fission bombs for a substantial increase in yield, and it is used as a primary fuel source in thermonuclear weapons, or hydrogen bombs.
This would indicate that Iran is looking to take their nuclear weapons to the next level. Fusion weapons are orders of magnitude more powerful than fission weapons.
Talks with Iran are still going on, undeterred by the release of these images.
The revelations come as the Trump administration navigates sensitive negotiations with Tehran. When asked about the U.S. position on whether Iran can maintain a nuclear enrichment program short of weapons development, President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday, "We haven’t made that decision yet. We will, but we haven’t made that decision yet."
I just this morning got ahold of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) page detailing everything they've discovered about this covert site and wanted to share it with you all. Lots to chew on.
NCRI Reveals Iran’s Secret ‘Rainbow’ Facility Linked to Nuclear Weapons and Missile Program
A new exposé by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) unveils an alarming secret project by Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) to enhance nuclear weapons capability. Since 2009, SPND has covertly pursued the development of boosted nuclear warheads designed for long-range ballistic missiles exceeding 3,000 km. Central to this effort is the clandestine “Rangin Kaman” (Rainbow) site near Ivanaki, Garmsar, covering 2,500 acres and masquerading as a chemical facility under Diba Energy Sina Company.
Key to the project is the extraction and use of tritium, enabling higher-yield nuclear weapons and the potential development of hydrogen bombs. SPND has secretly recruited nuclear fusion experts from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to advance this effort. The parent company overseeing front firms tied to the project is chaired by IRGC Brigadier General Naser Maleki, already sanctioned by the UN for nuclear and missile activities.
The Ivanaki site is heavily fortified with IRGC radar and air defense systems, signaling its strategic importance. This revelation raises serious concerns about Tehran’s nuclear intentions and ongoing deception under civilian and commercial covers.
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 well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
