07/03 Links: The Palestinian Incentive Program for Killing Jews; Dear Barack: Why Ahmed, But Not Hallel ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Eli Lake: The Palestinian Incentive Program for Killing Jews

Whoever said crime doesn't pay hasn't talked to the family of a Palestinian terrorist. For the Palestine Liberation Organization and the related Palestinian Authority, the killers of Jewish Israelis are considered "martyrs." And as such, their families are paid for the service these murderers have done for the Palestinian cause.
This has come to light this week after a Palestinian, Mohammed Tarayra, stabbed Hallel Yaffa Ariel, a 13-year-old Israeli girl, as she was sleeping in her bed. The stabbing was part of a wave of attacks by Palestinians who have for nearly eight months been shooting, stabbing and running down Jews with the encouragement of social media and popular songs.
According to the latest report of the Russian, European, U.S. and U.N. group known as the Quartet, there have been 250 of these kinds of attacks since October. It says, "These terrorist attacks, which have been carried out mostly by young, unaffiliated individuals, contribute to the sense among Israelis of living under constant threat."
But this misses important context. The Quartet's report, which is even handed to a fault, makes no mention of the "martyr's fund," through which the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization pay the families of all Palestinian prisoners and the families of martyrs. So while there is no evidence that the Palestinian government plans these killing sprees, it encourages them as a legitimate act of resistance.
As Commentary's Evelyn Gordon wrote this week, the prisoners and the families of the prisoners themselves are actually paid a higher wage than what most Palestinians earn for nonviolent work.
The origins of these payments goes back a long way. Before the Palestinian Authority was established in the 1990s through the Oslo peace process, the Palestine Liberation Organization paid the families of "martyrs" and prisoners detained by Israel. That practice became standardized during the Second Intifadah of 2000 to 2005. The Israelis even found documents in the late Yasser Arafat's compound that showed payments to families of suicide bombers. (h/t Jewess)

Dear Barack: Why Ahmed, But Not Hallel

On June 30, 2016, 13-year-old Hallel Ariel was stabbed to death in her bed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. Her only crime was sleeping. The murder, which shocked Israelis and which Palestinians celebrated, was barely a blip on worldwide social media. In an increasingly anti-Semitic and Jew-hating world, a savage murder of a sleeping teenage girl barely moves the needle.
Remember that President Obama tweeted to Ahmed at 12:58 PM, two days after his incident.
I am writing this article at 12:58 PM, two days after Hallel was slaughtered. There has been no tweet from @POTUS. I didn’t expect one, and knew I would be writing this article. It is still gross to see what subjects the President uses his bully pulpit to draw attention to, in attempts to shame America.
Not even the fact that Ariel had dual American and Israeli citizenship causes our President to use a single keystroke to condemn her murder. A murder by a Palestinian. I have long contended that Obama is always on the wrong side of issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is Exhibit A. He hates Israel, despises Benjamin Netanyahu, and has little to no use for Jews. A condemnation of Hallel’s murder might anger the Palestinians, and Obama can’t have any part of that.
Sadly, President Obama can’t invite Hallel Ariel to the White House, and he certainly won’t invite her parents. That coveted invitation is saved for parents unworthy of the invite…

Palestinian terrorism and Muslim hypocrisy: An open letter from a Muslim woman

While millions of children got out of bed on the morning of June 30, 2016, excited for summer vacation, one child did not. A young Israeli girl, 13-year-old Hallel Yaffe Ariel, was brutally murdered in her own bed by a 17-year-old Palestinian terrorist. He broke into her house and stabbed her to death. Another life lost to senseless violence. Another poor soul taken too early from this world. But few Muslims in this world will be mourning her death, because Hallel was an Israeli Jew.
I am a Muslim, and I know that when it comes to Palestinian terrorism, too many Muslims are hypocrites. I have seen firsthand the casual, destructive anti-Semitism that plagues the Muslim community. I have heard it from the mouths of our religious leaders, from our politicians, and even from our otherwise peaceful, liberal Muslim activists. I have witnessed in horror the desperate attempts to justify Palestinian terrorism from people who I once respected. Why? Why do we decry all other types of terrorism, but bend over backwards to legitimize violence against Israeli Jews?
We blame it on “Zionism.” We blame it on “occupation.” We blame it on “apartheid.” We lap up the tired, anti-Semitic lies fed to us by Al-Jazeera: “Israelis cut off the water supply!” “Israelis are going to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque!” We’re not even willing to admit that Israel is a country. We call it “Palestine.” We refuse to call violence against Israelis “terrorism,” and we hypocritically scream, “Resistance is not a crime!”
Let me tell you something. Stabbing pregnant women in the stomach is not “resistance.” Shooting people at a cafe is not “resistance.” Driving your car into pedestrians is not “resistance.” Bombing a bus is not “resistance.” Breaking into a woman’s home and murdering her in front of her children is not “resistance.” And stabbing a little girl to death in the one place where she was supposed to be safe is certainly not “resistance.” Terrorism is not resistance. Terrorism is an unjustifiable crime.

Ben Ehrenreich’s obscene empathy with the terror-supporting Tamimis

You might think it’s an uphill battle to promote a book glorifying Palestinian terror-supporters at a time when Palestinian terrorists stab Israelis on the streets, gun down people at a café in Tel Aviv and even murder a sleeping Jewish teenager in her bed. But you would be very wrong: the American writer Ben Ehrenreich is doing just fine promoting his new book that prominently features the Tamimis of Nabi Saleh, who don’t even try to hide their admiration for their own murderous relatives and openly cheer every terror act committed against Israelis.
I have documented the Tamimis’ support for terrorism as well as their seething Jew-hatred and their ambition to instigate a “third intifada” with the eventual goal to “delete Israel” in considerable detail, notably in an article published last November at The Tower, but also in several additional blog posts (see e.g. here and here). Given the rather high percentage of recent terror attacks perpetrated by Palestinian teenagers (including yesterday’s murderous attack by a 17-year-old Palestinian), it is particularly important to understand that the Tamimis have long advocated and cheered the participation of children and teenagers in what they like to call “resistance.”
So here is Nariman Tamimi – a prominent figure in Ehrenreich’s new book – sharing a Facebook post from a family member honoring the teenaged terrorist who just killed the 13-year-old sleeping Hallel Yaffa Ariel after breaking into her home. As far as the Tamimis are concerned, the murder of Hallel Yaffa helped “to return to the homeland its awe/reverence.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)

The Importance of Elie Wiesel

As important as his books were, by the 1980s, Wiesel the symbol of the memory of the victims took center stage. His public confrontation with President Reagan over Reagan’s planned visit to an SS cemetery in Bitburg, Germany was a powerful moment that ought to stand as a lesson in how to respectfully speak truth to power. Reagan was a friend of the Jewish people and Israel and there were those who wished to give him a pass for doing a favor to his German ally Chancellor Helmut Kohl. But Wiesel didn’t hesitate or spare him when he famously said, “That place is not your place. Your place is with the victims of the SS.”
That sealed Wiesel’s status as celebrity icon of suffering and he endured criticism in his last decades from those who grew tired of seeing him showing up to lend his prestige for various human rights causes speaking in his trademark anguished style. But there’s one more element of Wiesel’s career that must be acknowledged and praised.
By his later years, Wiesel had risen above his beginnings to become a hero to many who cared nothing for the lessons of Jewish history. In an era when much of the study of the Holocaust had become dedicated to “liberating” the subject from a specific Jewish context and universalizing it, many of his admirers expected him to distance himself from Israel and specifically Jewish causes that were unpopular in the so-called “human rights community.” But while he always tried to be above partisan politics and appeal to the world’s conscience wherever genocide was taking place, he never stopped advocating for Israel and its right to self-defense even when doing so earned him abuse from the left.
Just as he failed to convince President Reagan to avoid Bitburg, Wiesel also failed to convince President Obama to make good on his pledge to dismantle Iran’s nuclear infrastructure and to force it to abjure its genocidal threats against the Jewish state. But, as he did every time Israel came under attack, Wiesel remained faithful to the cause of the rights of the Jewish people and to their homeland and stood with Prime Minister Netanyahu as he sought to derail the administration’s appeasement of Iran.
It was in that sense fitting that a vicious anti-Zionist like Max Blumenthal would choose to abuse Wiesel even after his death. Wiesel always knew his place was with the victims of terror, not the terrorists or those who desire the destruction of Israel, which is the only true memorial to the Six Million and the living symbol of the Jewish people’s will to survive.
Elie Wiesel may have spent his life pondering the mystery of survival when the world he knew as a boy went up in smoke through the chimneys of Auschwitz. But his life’s work helped ensure that memory lives and that those who have followed must never forget or fail to remember their obligation to stand up against those who wish to continue the work of Hitler and his accomplices. In an era in which anti-Semitism is sadly on the rise again throughout the globe, we need Wiesel’s example of moral courage more than ever. May his memory be for a blessing.

Remembering Elie Wiesel: A Tribute From a Friend and Disciple

Elie Wiesel died Saturday at the age of 87. In the end, what remains with us, within us, most are the memories.
Much has been said and written, much remains to be said and written, about Elie Wiesel who, after emerging from the horrors of Auschwitz and Buchenwald, dedicated himself to perpetuating the memory of the millions of European Jews who were murdered in the Shoah. In doing so, he became the acknowledged voice of its survivors. He often said that he could not, would not speak on behalf of the dead. He did, however, speak forcefully, eloquently for the collectivity of the survivors, and they revered and loved him for it. “Accept the idea that you will never see what they have seen—and go on seeing now,” he wrote in his classic essay, “A Plea for the Survivors,” perhaps subconsciously opening a window into his own heart, “that you will never know the faces that haunt their nights, that you will never know the cries that rent their sleep. Accept the idea that you will never penetrate the cursed and spellbound universe they carry within themselves with unfailing loyalty.”
Not all survivors of the Shoah were able to transcend all they had experienced and witnessed in what Elie Wiesel famously referred to as the “Kingdom of Night.” Suffering, he once observed, “gives man no privileges; it all depends on what he does with it. If he uses his suffering against man, he betrays it; if he uses it to fight evil and humanize destiny, then he elevates it and elevates himself.” He described his own reflective existential crossroads in his lecture upon receiving the Nobel Peace Prize: “A recollection. The time: After the war. The place: Paris. A young man struggles to readjust to life. His mother, his father, his small sister are gone. He is alone. On the verge of despair. And yet he does not give up. On the contrary, he strives to find a place among the living. He acquires a new language. He makes a few friends who, like himself, believe that the memory of evil will serve as a shield against evil; that the memory of death will serve as a shield against death.”

Shmuley Boteach: No holds barred: My last night with Elie Wiesel

I remembered that only a few months ago I asked Elie at his home about the searing honesty he expressed toward the end of Night when he revealed that his father, consumed with fever, asked him in the death camp barracks for water. Elie, emaciated, starving, infirm and famished, had hoped that after spending weeks taking care of his typhoid-ravished father he would finally be liberated from his care. When his father begged him for water in the middle of the night, Elie, freezing and barely holding on to life himself, could not summon the energy to even respond. In the morning the pleas had ceased. Elie’s father had expired. Elie was free at last.
“How did you write those haunting words?” I asked. How could anyone be so painfully honest?
“I wrote them,” he said, “because if I was not honest in the book there was no point in writing it at all,” he said.
That commitment to the truth allowed Elie to become the greatest chronicler of the greatest crime in human history.
Though I am not a Kohen, a priest, I turned to Marion and Elisha, and said I would like to give Elie the Priestly Biblical blessing. I stood up. “May the Lord protect you and keep you. May the Lord shine his light to you and be gracious. May the Lord lift his countenance to you and always give you peace.”
And I kissed him repeatedly on the cheek, telling him each time how much I loved him.
On Shabbat night, after returning from Elie’s bedside and sharing with my children his struggle for life, my daughter Shterny who will God willing soon be married, broke down in tears. At 16 she had written a book report about Elie and he kindly agree to answer all her questions at his office. He spoke to her with his customary gentility, whispering wisdom and truth. It was an experience she will never forget. And now at the table she cried. I asked her why she was crying and she said, “If we God forbid lose Elie Wiesel, there will be no more special people alive any more. There will be nobody left. He is the last of the giants.”

Elie Wiesel, the survivor who endured, educated, was never silent, never gave up

The frail, dapper man who sometimes greeted reporters in his Madison Avenue office spoke in an almost hushed voice, but with urgency, his hands gesturing gently for emphasis. Elie Wiesel’s smile was wry, diffident, a thin facade over the sadness imprinted in the weary eyes and deep creases of a face that mirrored his brutal past.
The Auschwitz survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who died Saturday at age 87, was an ongoing reminder of one man’s endurance of the Nazi Holocaust. His words, destined to last far into the future, are a testament to some of the most unfathomable atrocities in recorded history.
“Whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation, take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented,” he said in 1986, upon accepting the Nobel.
One of the world’s foremost witnesses and humanitarians, Wiesel for more than a half-century voiced his passionate beliefs to world leaders, celebrities and general audiences in the name of victims of violence and oppression. He wrote more than 40 books, but his most influential by far was “Night,” a classic ranked with Anne Frank’s diary as standard reading about the Holocaust.

Landmarks in the life of Elie Wiesel

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel passed away Saturday at the age of 87. Wiesel's literary work and his numerous accomplishments will forever be embedded in the history of the Jewish people.
1928
Wiesel is born to an ultra-Orthodox family in the Romanian town of Sighetu Marmatiei, in Transylvania. His parents, Sarah and Shlomo Wiesel, own a grocery store.
1944
Wiesel and his family are deported to Auschwitz. His mother and sister are murdered upon arrival, and Wiesel and his father are sent to a labor camp, after which they are transferred to various concentration camps.

Elie Wiesel gave the Holocaust a face and the world a conscience

Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate who became a leading icon of Holocaust remembrance and a global symbol of conscience, died on Saturday at 87. His death was the result of natural causes, the World Jewish Congress said in a statement.
A philosopher, professor and author of such seminal works of Holocaust literature as “Night” and “Dawn,” Wiesel, perhaps more than any other figure, came to embody the legacy of the Holocaust and the worldwide community of survivors.
“I have tried to keep memory alive,” Wiesel said at the Nobel peace prize ceremony in 1986. “I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.”
Often, he would say the “opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.”
The quest to challenge indifference was a driving force in Wiesel’s writing, advocacy and public presence. Though he considered himself primarily a writer, by the end of the 1970s he had settled into the role of moral compass, a touchstone for presidents and a voice that challenged easy complacency about history.
Wiesel spent the majority of his public life speaking of the atrocities he had witnessed and asking the public to consider other acts of cruelty around the world, though he drew the line at direct comparisons with the Holocaust. “I am always advocating the utmost care and prudence when one uses that word.” he told JTA in 1980.

Stand with Us: Remembering Elie Wiesel

After death, critics attack Wiesel legacy over Israel support

Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel was widely mourned Sunday after his death at age 87, but some Israel critics and pro-Palestinian activists have focused on Wiesel’s ardent support for Zionism, saying his support for the Jewish state tarnished his reputation as a champion for human rights.
Wiesel was a public supporter of right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is highly unpopular among Palestinians and the international community.
The Jewish leader and prolific author also loudly chastised his friend US President Barack Obama for calling for an end to settlement construction and for brokering the Iran nuclear-rollback-for-sanctions-relief deal. Wiesel’s stance on these issues led to criticism, even from long-time admirers.
“Eli [sic] Wiesel supported human rights for everyone but for Palestinians, where he advocated for most Israeli policies against our people,” tweeted Xavier Abu Eid, communications adviser of the PLO’s negotiations department.

Elie Wiesel's Perfect Tribute: Hate Tweet from Hillary Clinton Associate

Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel died on Saturday at the age of 87. He was a living witness to the horrors of antisemitism taken to its logical conclusion, and a powerful spokesman for the cause of Zionism and the ideals of America.
Which is precisely why terror sympathizers and antisemites like Max Blumenthal — son of Hillary Clinton’s close associate, Sid Blumenthal, and a Jew who hates both Israel and the Jewish people into which he was born — celebrated Wiesel’s death.
The elder Blumenthal, who earns $200,000 per year as a part of Clinton’s inner circle, frequently sent the Secretary of State his son’s hateful “work.” That oeuvre includes Goliath, an anti-Israel screed casting the Jewish state in the role of the Nazis.
Blumenthal’s bile is a perfect tribute to Wiesel, who was the living retort to such nonsense. He earned his enemies by being a witness who not only refused to die, but also to shut up.
It was Wiesel who elevated the phrase “speaking truth to power,” as he took on presidents from both parties, challenging Ronald Reagan’s visit to Bitburg and Barack Obama’s surrender to Iran.

Manufactured Outrage And Max Blumenthal’s Hidden Horror

Trying (as this article does) to make out that Trump himself is an antisemite is beyond ridiculous. His family has so many obvious connections to Judaism and his grandchildren are even Jewish owing to his daughter’s orthodox conversion. Many of his top advisors (and especially his ones on the Middle East) are Jewish. So in the end this is just a manufactured outrage. The two statements he released on Friday about the horrific murders of Hallel Yaffa Ariel and then a few hours later for Rabbi Miki Mark, leave little doubt where he stands on Israel and Jews.
And yes, obviously, there will be Jew haters who will vote for and support Trump. Which is because there are Jew haters everywhere and (as is obvious from the odious depths of Sanders campaign) many people who hate Jews and Israel will be voting for Hillary too. And Max Blumenthal’s evil, anti-Jewish poison will be a primary contributor to their hatred.
I can pretty much guarantee Max Blumenthal’s obvious and visceral hatred for Elie Wiesel (a Jew, remember, not specifically an Israeli) will not get a single mention anywhere in Ha’aretz or the New York Times. Nobody will be aggressively asking Hillary Clinton at her next press conference if she will disavow Max Blumenthal. But one (very marginal) graphic by a Trump staffer warrants a complete hit piece.

British police summon Tzipi Livni for war crimes questioning

Ex-foreign minister calls attempts to arrest her ‘unacceptable’; Scotland Yard drops request; Zionist Union leader protests to UK foreign secretary
Zionist Union MK Tzipi Livni was summoned last week by British police for questioning over her suspected involvement in war crimes in the 2008 Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday.
The summons, received by Livni Thursday before her participation in a Haaretz conference in London that began Sunday, was dropped after an exchange between Israeli and British diplomats. The Zionist Union party No. 2 and former foreign minister received diplomatic immunity.
According to a source in Jerusalem who spoke to Haaretz, the summons was given to the Israeli Embassy in London ahead of Livni’s arrival, asking her to appear voluntarily for questioning at Scotland Yard’s war crimes bureau.
Livni served as a member of prime minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet during the three-week conflict between Hamas and Israel in 2008-2009. Pro-Palestinian groups have repeatedly attempted to have her charged with war crimes during her visits to the United Kingdom, but Scotland Yard’s summons was unprecedented.

NY Post blasts US funding of Arab terror attacks on Israel

An op-ed piece by the editorial board was published Friday night sharply condemning American funding for the Palestinian Authority, calling it an “outrage”.
Noting the ongoing terror wave that’s left dozens dead and hundreds wounded, the New York Post highlighted the Palestinian Authority’s continuing funding for terrorists and their families, what the paper described as a “hefty reward from Abbas’ PA”.
Western backers of the Palestinian Authority, the editorial board wrote, provide much of the money used by the PA, and are thus indirectly responsible for the funding of terrorism.
“Meanwhile, hundreds of millions flow to the PA from the West, including America. Which means US tax dollars are, in effect, going to pay for terrorist acts,” adding “And here you thought we were fighting terror”.
The editorial board called upon congress to rescind funding for the Palestinian Authority, and thus “cut off US funding for Palestinian terror.”
“Congress should do all it can to curb the practice”.

Palestinian Government Funding for Terrorism and Murder

PMW: PA-Fatah officials celebrate release of terrorist involved in murder of Ofir Rahum

This week, Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials made yet another show of support for terrorists and murderers by celebrating the release from prison of a terrorist who participated in the murder of 16-year-old Israeli Ofir Rahum in 2001.
The release of terrorist Abd Al-Fattah Doleh, who finished serving his 12-year prison sentence, was viewed as cause for celebration by many officials, including District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam, Beitunia Mayor Ribhi Dawla, Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu Al-Einein, and Director of the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Karake.
On Jan. 17, 2001, terrorist Abd Al-Fattah Doleh, a member of the Tanzim, Fatah's terror faction, participated in the kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Israeli Ofir Rahum. Female terrorist Amna Muna met Rahum in an Internet chat room and engaged him in an online romance that culminated in his agreeing to meet her. She drove him to Ramallah, where they were met by Doleh and another accomplice, Hassan Alkadi, who shot Rahum to death.
Terrorist Doleh was released from prison last Thursday. The Beitunia municipality and Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement held a "national rally" in his honor. PA official and Mayor of Beitunia Ribhi Dawla "emphasized that the prisoners are the symbol of liberation and getting rid of the occupation." He also expressed the PA's support for terrorists who murder and injure Israelis, and who are killed in the process - the so-called "Martyrs" - stating that "the city of Beitunia, the city of Martyrs and prisoners, will remain loyal to the path of the Martyrs." [Ma'an (independent Palestinian news agency), July 2, 2016]

Terrorist who butchered female hikers is PA TV’s “heroic prisoner”

IDF arrests sister of Kiryat Arba killer over ‘incitement’

Israeli troops arrested eight Palestinians, including the sister of a terrorist who murdered a teenage girl in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, in overnight sweeps in the West Bank, the army said Sunday morning.
The army said in a statement that the arrest of Lara Tarayrah of Bani Na’im, a village near Hebron, was part of its crackdown on incitement and support for terrorism.
On Thursday, Tararyah’s brother Muhammad Nasser Tarayrah, 17, stabbed and killed Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, as she slept in her bed in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba, adjacent to Hebron.
He was shot and killed by guards who responded to Ariel’s screams.
A short video clip published on Palestinian media Thursday showed a sister of Tarayrah referring to her brother as a “martyr.”

New York Times Corrects Mistranslations Which Downplayed Palestinian Mother's Praise for Son's Terrorism

CAMERA prompts corrections of mistranslations in a New York Times video which excised the praise of Um Kamel Tarayreh for her son Mohammed, whom she called a "martyr" and "hero" after he murdered the sleeping 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel.
As noted in CAMERA's Snapshots blog last Thursday, a twitter user named Akiva Cohen flagged one error in the video segment called "Reactions to West Bank Stabbing," noting that although the audio clearly captured the mother calling her son a shahid, or "martyr," the subtitle showed her saying only "son."
While that erroneous translation was quickly corrected, CAMERA noted additional mistranslations which softened the mother's extreme rhetoric. While the mother said that of course anyone who would commit such an act is a "hero," the subtitle showed her using the word "bold" instead of hero.
Likewise, the subtitle originally translated her referring to the murder as a "crime," though she does not actually use that word.

Facebook rejects harsh Israeli critique over incitement

Facebook is doing its share to remove abusive content from the social network, it said on Sunday in an apparent rejection of Israeli allegations that it was uncooperative in stemming messages that might spur Palestinian violence.
Beset by a 10-month-old surge in Palestinian street attacks, Israel says that Facebook has been used to perpetuate such bloodshed and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's rightist government is drafting legislation to enable it to order social media sites to remove postings deemed threatening.
Ramping up the pressure, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan on Saturday accused Facebook of "sabotaging" Israeli police efforts by not cooperating with inquiries about potential suspects in the occupied West Bank and by "set(ting) a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts."
Facebook did not respond directly to Erdan's criticism, but said in a statement that it conferred closely with Israel

Son of terror victim Rabbi Mark eulogizes father: 'I’m drowning in the depth of your absence'

“I’m drowning in the depth of your absence,” Joshua said on Sunday as he eulogized his father Rabbi Michael “Miki” Mark who was killed in a terror attack on Friday.
“My heart is shattered in pieces,” said Joshua as he looked out at the thousands of mourners who filled the sanctuary and study of the Otniel Yeshiva, where his father had been the director-general.
On Frida, Mark was driving with his wife and two of his 10 children along Route 60 near the West Bank settlement of Otniel where they lived. He had been on his way to his mother’s house for the Sabbath to help her celebrate her 80th birthday.
Palestinian gunmen shot at their car, killing Mark and injuring his wife Chava and two of their children.
At the funeral, Joshua said of the attack, “God took what he wants and now what should we do, who do we curse?” he asked.

The New York Times Front Page Harshes on Israel, Gives Obama a Pass

The front page of the New York Times on Saturday featured a photo of an overturned vehicle and this sentence, promoting a news article inside the paper: “After another deadly attack in the occupied West Bank against Israeli civilians, above, Israel announced harsh restrictions on Palestinians.”
The interesting thing here is that the Times doesn’t just tell us what the restrictions are. The newspaper feels the need, in its news columns, to go beyond that, and to characterize the measures for us as “harsh.”
Read the article itself, and it tells of Israel imposing restrictions on Palestinian travel “between towns and villages in the southern West Bank.”
The double standard is that also on the front page of Saturday’s Times is a news article reporting that the Obama administration said airstrikes the US.conducted “outside conventional war zones like Afghanistan have killed 64 to 116 civilian bystanders and about 2,500 members of terrorist groups.”

Hundreds attend murdered rabbi's funeral processions after appeal from children

In an emotional video released Sunday morning, the children of Rabbi Michael "Miki" Mark, who was murdered by Palestinian gunmen on Friday, pleaded with the public to attend their father's funeral, which will take place in Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot cemetery later on Sunday after a ceremony in Otniel.
President Reuven Rivlin and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked were among hundreds of mourners who answered the call and joined Mark's family in the Otniel yeshiva, before the procession was set to travel to Jerusalem.
Rivlin promised that Israel will fight against such terror attacks, but said "nothing can sooth the pain" of a tragedy such as this.

Shooting victim Chava Mark regains consciousness

The seriously wounded victim of Friday's deadly drive-by shooting attack south of Hevron regained consciousness early Sunday afternoon.
Chava Mark was left in critical condition in the shooting, which killed her husband Michael and injured two of their children who were traveling with them in the car at the time.
She has been in a medically-induced coma ever since, as doctors fought first to save her life, and then to stabilize her condition. She underwent a serious of major operations for multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body. Her 15-year-old daughter, who also sustained gunshot wounds in the attack, is hospitalized with her in moderate condition.
On Saturday night, doctors announced that Chava's condition had stabilized, but cautioned the full extent of her injuries were not yet known.
Chava awoke from her coma as the funeral procession for her husband makes its way from their hometown Otniel to Jerusalem's Har Hamenuchot cemetery - via the site of the deadly attack which claimed his life.
She is not yet aware of her husband's death.

The terror continues: Arabs attack funeral

Even as the funeral procession for Rabbi Michael Mark, terror victim, wound toward Jerusalem, locals would not leave them in peace: Arabs threw a stone from a passing car, striking one of the buses of mourners. Although no one was injured, it is clear that, at least among some, hatred is still rampant.
The attack on those escorting Rabbi Mark's body is the latest in a recent rash of violence, as Ramadan comes to a close. Last Wednesday, an Arab teenager infiltrated the town of Kiryat Arba and stabbed a 13 year-old girl, Hallel-Yaffa Ariel. A security guard was also injured when he grappled with the terrorist, and was stabbed in the face. Although he will recover, doctors were unable to save his eye.
Similar attacks have taken place on the Temple Mount, with Arabs throwing rocks and shooting fireworks at visitors and police alike. When police closed the Mount to non-worshippers, several Muslim youths further upped the ante by throwing stones down into the Western Wall Plaza, injuring a woman in her 70s.
Other thwarted attacks these past weeks include an attempted car ramming, and an attempted stabbing of IDF soldiers. The car attack left two lightly injured; both terrorists were neutralized.

Knesset boosts security for Glick following Palestinian death threat video

Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein instructed Knesset Security Officer Yosef Griff to increase security for MK Yehudah Glick (Likud), after he received death threats.
The threats included a Palestinian computer-animated video posted on YouTube Friday titled: "Yehudah Glick - You are next in line. You have no place in Palestine."
The video depicts terrorists sneaking under the security fence towards the town Otniel, where Glick resides and where several of the recent months' terrorist attacks took place, including Friday's shooting that killed a father and severely injured a mother in front of their children. The terrorists in the video approach Glick and shoot him in the chest.
Then, a song plays with the following lyrics in Hebrew: "The Al-Aksa Mosque is forbidden to Jews. Whoever disobeys should arrive in shrouds, because his fate will be that of Yehudah Glick."
Glick reported the video to Knesset security, which immediately boosted his protection.
The Likud MK already had more security surrounding him than most legislators, due to threats.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Study: Punishment Only Collective When Jews Impose It (satire)

A group of researchers examining the nature of Newtonian principles has discovered an ontological anomaly in the application of action-reaction principles, whereby the term “collective punishment” can only correctly be applied when the party imposing the policy or action is Israel or Jews, a new scientific paper reveals.
In the journal Annals of New Teachings in International Systems of Economic, Military, and Institutional Theories of Ethnicity (ANTISEMITE), a team of scholars will publish an article in next month’s edition describing their work, which investigated the nature of collectivity, punishment, and the mysterious ways in which punishment is eight hundred times more likely to be “collective” when the negative treatment occurs at the hand of Jews or the State of Israel.
Lead author Thinly Veighled detailed numerous cases of the phenomenon in current events, and noted that no other group appears to have its preemptive, precautionary, retaliatory, or otherwise defensive handling of violence automatically defined as unjustly affecting the general population beyond the perpetrators of that violence.
“This anomaly is most visible in the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions movement,” explained Veighled, “adherents of which decries Israeli restrictions on Palestinian movement – implemented as the result of terrorist attacks in order to prevent further such incidents – as unjust, collective punishment of the Palestinian population, all the while calling for all of Israel to be subjected to economic, diplomatic, and cultural isolation, regardless of the views and activities of any individual Israeli.”

Time for Abbas to go

So have we poisoned the wells, or is it a “mistake” that Israel is not scheming to do away with tens of thousands of Palestinians through lethal drinking water? The man that accused us of doing this is the man that quietly recanted his allegations on Saturday. It depends on which stage he chooses to make accusations and from which direction he retracts them and admits his “error.”
Abu Mazen, Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority President in the West Bank and president of the entity in the “Occupied Territories" - whatever title makes you happy: Go home. Enough. Your time's passed.
It was proven in front of the entire world that you're really not a partner for peace. We're tired of listening to your voice. The damage that you're bringing to your people is greater than the benefit. Read your public opinion polls—even before the scandal on the stage of the EU—and you will see what 65 percent of your people think about the continuation of your rule and your popularity in West Bank cities. Regarding that poll, you can't accuse Israeli hands of guiding the opinions of the Palestinian street to tell you, "Enough already." Not "farewell"; not "see you soon."
It can be assumed that in the next few days, a picture of you in your office in Ramallah will reach us, emanating warmth and smiling down upon Israeli peace activists. You will tell them that you were and always will be looking towards peace. You will say that you are interested in meeting with Netanyahu and that the issue in Brussels was an “unfortunate misunderstanding.” I hope that this time our peace camp will not hurry to Ramallah. Pay attention: Even on the Palestinian side, intellectuals, businessmen, and senior journalists are stuttering. They don’t know how to explain the president to themselves, much less interpret him for Israeli ears.

Police arrest 58 Arab suspects for rioting on Temple Mount

Following several days of rioting on the Temple Mount last week, police have arrested 58 Arab suspects throughout east Jerusalem who attacked Jewish visitors, and the officers protecting them, during the final 10 days of Ramadan, police announced on Sunday.
The majority of the suspects were identified via CCTV footage reviewed by police during three consecutive days of attacks that resulted in a temporary suspension of non-Muslim visitors last Wednesday, police said.
Police made the decision to suspend visitation after security assessments indicated it was no longer safe for Jews, who were targeted with rocks and other debris, to enter the contested compound.
No injuries were reported, and 10 arrests were made on site.
Many of the masked Muslim assailants carried out the attacks near al-Aksa Mosque, where they slept and stockpiled an arsenal of stones and other objects, and then hid from police, knowing that officers are not permitted to enter the mosque.

First Turkish aid ship to Gaza docks at Israeli port after reconciliation deal

A cargo ship from Turkey carrying freight bound for Gaza docked on Sunday at the southern Ashdod Port, from where Israel will transport food and medical supplies to the Palestinian enclave.
The Panamanian-registered Lady Leyla vessel is the first aid ship sent by Turkey since Ankara and Jerusalem signed a deal last week reconciling a six-year rift in diplomatic ties fractured since the 2010 Mavi Marmara flotilla incident.
Under the terms of the accord, Israel will maintain its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip, however it will facilitate the transport of humanitarian and civilian goods sent by Turkey through the Ashdod Port and the Kerem Shalom Crossing.

Families of Israelis held in Gaza protest aid shipments at border

The families of three Israelis held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip staged a protest at the main commercial crossing into the Palestinian enclave Sunday morning, as an initial shipment of thousands of tons of Turkish aid was set to be transferred via the checkpoint.
The families of Oron Shaul, Hadar Goldin and Avraham Mengistu have rallied against a detente deal between Israel and Turkey inked last week, which allowed for the transfer of aid to Gaza via the port of Ashdod but did not stipulate the return of their sons.
The families voiced outrage that their sons remain in captivity while Israel provides 1,000 trucks of humanitarian aid daily to the beleaguered Palestinian territory, including the Turkish shipment.
Goldin and Shaul are believed to have been killed during the 2014 war with Hamas-led fighters in Gaza and their bodies held by the terror group. Mengistu sneaked into the Strip in 2014 and has been held by the group since, along with another Israeli man, Hisham al-Sayed, who entered Gaza in 2015, according to Israeli officials.

Over 80 killed in twin Islamic State bombings in Baghdad

At least 83 people were killed and 176 wounded in two separate bomb attacks in the Iraqi capital early Sunday, Iraqi officials said.
In the deadliest attack, a car bomb hit Karada, a busy shopping district in the center of Baghdad, killing 78 people and wounding 160, according to police and hospital officials. It struck as families and young people were out on the streets after breaking their daylight fast for the holy month of Ramadan.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the bombing in a statement posted online, saying they had deliberately targeted Shiite Muslims. The statement could not be independently verified.

Turkish Media: U.S. Really Behind Orlando Massacre to Stop Rise Of Islam

Turkish newspapers with strong links to the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have published dozens of conspiracy articles claiming the U.S. government and foreign intelligence agencies with masterminding Islamic State attacks in the West – including the Orlando shooting – in order to stop the rise of Islam and ensure Jews remain in power.
In the days following the attack on the gay nightclub “Pulse” in Orlando, dailies belonging to Turkey’s ruling AKP party were awash with such conspiracy theories and homophobia. Islamist youth organizations also threatened Turkey’s LGBT community, which was slated to hold a gay pride parade in Istanbul last Sunday, saying they would “stop this perversion … by all means necessary.”
Islamist daily Yeni Akit, which supports Erdogan and is known for its incitement against the West, Jews, and Christians, ran a globally-censured headline reading: “Death toll rises to 50 in bar where perverted homosexuals go!”
The newspaper, which has also expressed support for Al-Qaeda, described gay people as “perverts” and “deviants,” and homosexuality as an “assault on human nature” and “a dangerous disease that degenerates, rots, and endangers societies,” according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Senate hearings on Obama admin’s “willful blindness” to radical Islam

Even though his official campaign for the presidency is over, Ted Cruz isn’t taking a vacation. Last Tuesday Cruz began conducting a hearing:
…investigating…“Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts To Deemphasize Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism.”…
This hearing will likely focus on which figures within the federal government worked to squelch any research connecting the dots between local Muslim Brotherhood officials, these individual terrorists, and foreign terror networks. Senators on the committee now have an opportunity to expose the Muslim Brotherhood influence within DHS and the FBI, their invidious “Countering Violent Extremism” Agenda, and their hand in covering up counter-terrorism investigations. They can demonstrate how the federal government has hamstrung local law enforcement by refusing to cooperate and share information regarding jihadists living in their communities.
One question is whether anyone’s listening except those already disposed to be concerned about how the Obama administration is handling the problem.
One person who seems relatively unconcerned—and uninterested—in the Senate proceedings is Homeland Security head Jeh Johnson, who was grilled by Cruz yesterday. In the following clip showing their exchange, you can see what an excellent lawyer Cruz is and how he maintains a calm and even tone as he wields the verbal stiletto. Johnson manages to reveal his own condescending attitude and seems to resent even being asked the questions:

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