09/18 Links: Lord of the Lies reigns over BDS; Did Netanyahu Get a Bad Deal?

From Ian:

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J Street, Americans for Peace Now urge Congress not to obstruct Iran deal

Two dovish pro-Israel groups joined a letter to Congress urging it not to obstruct the Iran nuclear deal.
The letter delivered Friday to the congressional leadership and copied to all members of the US House of Representatives and the Senate counsels against any “poison-pill provisions and measures that would seek to re-impose sanctions lifted under the JCPOA, albeit under a different justification.”
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is the formal name for the deal reached last year between six major powers, led by the United States, and Iran, exchanging sanctions relief for a rollback of nuclear development in Iran.
The letter was initiated by NIAC Action, a lobbying group affiliated with the National Iranian American Council. Among the signatories are J Street and Americans for Peace Now, liberal Jewish Middle East policy groups.
The letter is aimed at proposals by Republicans to add new sanctions to the Iran Sanctions Act, the current sanctions law which lapses at the end of this year.
Democrats in Congress want to reauthorize the Act as a means of warning Iran that the United States will remain vigilant in overseeing the deal, but oppose adding new sanctions.

Fred Maroun: Lebanon's Hatred of Israel

Lebanon has many problems, including sectarian divisions, Iranian influence, spillover from the Syrian civil war, the weakness of its army, the ineffectiveness of its politicians, and the very existence of Hizballah, but Israel's existence next door is not one of them.
The animosity of Lebanon towards Israel continues today only because it provides a convenient excuse for Hizballah to maintain a formidable arsenal that it uses to control Lebanon and to help its allies in Syria.
Lebanon has a law forbidding its citizens from interacting with Israeli citizens. As Michael J. Totten wrote:
"Lebanese citizens aren't allowed to have any communication of any kind with Israelis anywhere in the world. If citizens of the two countries meet, say, on a beach in Cyprus or in a bar in New York, the Lebanese risks prison just for saying hello."
The Lebanese online news source NOW explains that law in detail. Even a dual citizen (of Lebanon and Canada for example) could be jailed for interacting in the most innocuous way with an Israeli.
The Lebanese delegation, for example, recently refused to share a bus with the Israeli delegation at this year's Olympic Games in Rio, prompting the Israeli minister of culture and sports to describe the incident as, "anti-Semitism, pure and simple, and the worst kind of racism." The incident was, however, hardly surprising, considering the history of Lebanese animosity towards Israel.

Lord of the Lies reigns over BDS

Re-enter Ilan Pappe, now holding a comfortable Chair at Exeter University in the UK. He comes down from the ivory tower to be interviewed. After promoting the boycott by proclaiming that the “society under occupation” called for it, Pappe now begs that society to do something for itself for a change. The interviewer feels quite upset.
“Well, the Palestinians launched BDS,” Ruba Salih reminds Pappe.
“Yes,” Pappe says, pulling a face. “Not really, but yes. For historical record, yes.”
“It’s important!” exclaims the startled interviewer.
Reluctantly Pappe agrees. “It’s not true, but it’s important.” At which awkward point he skips to a different subject. in the words of David Collier of Beyond the great divide “What Pappe seems to be suggesting is that the Palestinians did not call for boycott, but rather were told to call for boycott.”
A belief in the good and necessary lie is embedded in the anti-Zionist system of thought. Pappe has been faithful to the belief throughout a rattled career. “I am not as interested in what happened as in how people see what has happened,” said Pappe in 1999. “My ideology influences my …writings. The struggle is about ideology, not about facts. Who knows what facts are?”
Indeed the Lord of the Lie has never known. During his tenure at Haifa University he moderated a thesis on a purported massacre of 200 Arabs by a Jewish unit in May 1948. After the veterans of that unit won their case in a Tel Aviv court, the student was ordered to apologize for defaming them. And Pappe? The academic, to give credit where credit is due, never puts on a facade. Ideology rules, not integrity. He never lets facts get in the way. Zionists and their colonial implant are irredeemably bad. Full stop.

Meat cleaver madman, a Palestinian, was in Midtown to appeal deportation order before he sliced cop

The meat cleaver maniac who hacked an off-duty cop is a Palestinian busted two months ago while screaming in Arabic outside a Brooklyn synagogue.
Suspect Akram Joudeh was only in New York for Thursday’s Midtown rampage because he was appealing a deportation notice — with a hearing set for Oct. 14, a high-ranking NYPD source told the Daily News.
Cops found two knives inside Joudeh’s car after answering the July report of an erratic man on Shore Parkway in Brooklyn shout “Allahu Akbar!” — or “God is great” in Arabic.
But the source said investigations by the NYPD and FBI showed Joudeh, 32, was emotionally disturbed and not a terrorist threat.

ISIS claims supporter was behind Minnesota mall stabbings

An Islamic State supporter carried out the stabbing attack that wounded at least eight people at a mall in the US state of Minnesota on Saturday, the militant group's Amaq news agency said.
"The executor of the stabbing attacks in Minnesota yesterday was a soldier of the Islamic State and carried out the operation in response to calls to target the citizens of countries belonging to the crusader coalition," Amaq said in a statement.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the claim.
A man wearing a private security uniform wounded eight people in a knife attack on Saturday at a mall in central Minnesota before he was shot dead by an off-duty police officer, authorities said.
The man made references to Allah and asked at least one person if they were Muslim before he assaulted them at the Crossroads Center mall in St. Cloud, the city's Police Chief William Blair Anderson told reporters.

New York blast that injured 29 confirmed as ‘intentional act’

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio confirmed early Sunday that an explosion in a crowded Manhattan neighborhood Saturday night that injured 29 people was a deliberate blast, caused by an explosive device, but said there was no terrorist connection.
Authorities said a second device found at a nearby site was also being investigated.
“Tonight, New York City experienced a very bad incident,” de Blasio said at a news conference near the scene, in Chelsea. “We have no credible and specific threat at this moment.”
De Blasio said the blast was “an intentional act,” but tried to calm any fears among nervous New Yorkers, saying the explosion had no terrorist connection and wasn’t related to a pipe bomb explosion earlier Saturday in New Jersey at a charity run.
Initial reports said the blast came from in or near a dumpster on West 23rd Street.

PreOccupiedTerritor: Chelsea Bomb Prompts Clinton To Claim Daughter The Target (satire)

A bomb detonated in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood Saturday, leading Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to voice her assessment that her daughter Chelsea was the intended victim.
Ms. Clinton made the remark at a campaign event, telling supporters this was not the first time she or her family had been targeted with violence, referencing a trip to the former Yugoslavia where she said her aircraft had landed “under fire.”
The explosion injured dozens, including one critically, and a second device was found nearby, an improvised bomb that used a pressure cooker and a cellular phone. Police have yet to confirm a motive or the identities of any suspects, but have not ruled out terrorism. The Clintons’ daughter Chelsea, who resides in Manhattan, was not in the vicinity of the explosion and was not harmed.
“Whoever it was was probably targeting my daughter,” declared the candidate. “It wouldn’t be the first time the enemies of democratic values and the Democratic Party have resorted to potentially deadly means to bring down a member of this family one way or another. No, Mr. Trump, I’m not going to relinquish my bodyguards with your basket of deplorables out there and ready to commit heinous crimes such as this one.” Republican candidate Donald Trump had suggested Ms. Clinton suspend her Secret Service protection, in a remark widely considered a “dog whistle” statement meant to incite radical right-wing followers.

JPost Editorial: Costly Deal

Just as Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent Herb Keinon astutely predicted, upon the conclusion of the 10-year military aid agreement with the United States last week, the carping in Israel has begun.
Despite the general touting of the deal as “the most generous military aid package given any single nation in US history,” serious doubts have been raised by critics – who happen to be former leaders of Israel’s security establishment.
The critiques do not follow the sour grapes model, but are based on genuine concerns for Israel’s security.
As expected, some say Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could have received much more money had he not alienated US President Barack Obama by addressing Congress to oppose the nuclear deal with Iran.
While Obama’s notable declaration that the US “has Israel’s back” was duly noted by Israel’s enemies, what the president meant was that this guarantee would be on his terms. This is why, for example, Obama demanded that by the end of the next decade, 100% of the aid money be spent in the US, with the negative impact this would have on Israel’s defense industries.

David Horovitz: Ungrateful Israel owes the US a simple thank you

The United States has just promised Israel $38 billion in military assistance over the coming decade — the largest such aid package ever allocated by the US to any ally, anywhere. And all we can do is moan about it.
Don’t get me wrong. We’re worth every cent.
We’re on the front line of the struggle against Islamic extremism. Our intelligence gathering hierarchy is extraordinarily effective, and the information we share with the United States plays a significant role in the US’s ability to protect itself — to defend against real-time dangers and to gear up to tackle looming threats. Our capacity for innovation keeps American and Israeli military technology on the cutting edge. Geo-strategically, we are America’s only iron-clad, guaranteed ally in this brutal and unpredictable region — the only democracy in this part of the world. We have shown, time and again, that we will risk our lives, and all too often lose them, to protect our well-being and the values we share with the United States, but we emphatically do not expect the US to risk American lives in our defense. We say to America: Help ensure that we can maintain our military advantage over those, notably including Iran, who loathe and seek to harm us and the United States, directly and via proxy militias and terror groups, and we will face them down. The newly signed aid package is designed to ensure we are able to continue doing just that.
And yet both before the deal was signed at the State Department last Wednesday, and especially since that ceremony, the message from Jerusalem has been one of public ingratitude. Most of the complaining, it’s true, has not been directed at the Obama administration. Led by former prime minister Ehud Barak, it has, rather, been a case of utilizing the deal to score political points against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Barak (“believe me, I know what I’m talking about”) has been writing op-eds and giving interviews declaring that Israel could have secured billions more if only Netanyahu had handled the negotiations better — and specifically if Netanyahu had eschewed his anti-Obama lobbying speech in Congress in March 2015 against the Iran nuclear deal. Others, including disgruntled ex-defense minister Moshe Ya’alon, and the Zionist Union’s failed candidate for defense minister Amos Yadlin, have also weighed in to say, albeit more politely, that the package is inadequate.

Did Netanyahu Get a Bad Deal?

Their only objective here is to defeat Netanyahu the next time Israel votes in two or three years. Yet if they succeed it will be because the voters are sick of him after four terms in office not because they reject his positions. But American friends of Israel shouldn’t ignore this dustup.
Despite the noise in the press, Netanyahu hasn’t much to worry about at home since his coalition isn’t breaking up anytime soon. But the threat of an American betrayal at the United Nations this fall as President Obama’s term expires is real. The president’s decision to bash Netanyahu this week may be a harbinger of such a decision.
A decision to back a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood would not only end all hope of peace but also set the stage for more violence and a heightened diplomatic isolation of the Jewish state. It’s not clear that Netanyahu could do much to stop this from happening, but his opponents could send a signal to the White House that on this point Israelis are united. Instead, they are competing with each other to toady to Obama simply to score points at Netanyahu’s expense.
The problem is that this argument—and the desire of some American opponents of Netanyahu to amplify it—is giving the president the false impression that Israelis prefer him to the prime minister whose support always grew whenever Obama challenged him. That’s a mistake that could encourage a real split between the two allies and lasting damage that might not be able to be repaired by the next president or Netanyahu’s successors even if they can beat him the next time Israelis go to the polls. Instead of egging on the prime minister’s rivals, those who care about the Jewish state need to tell Obama that whatever happened on the military aid package, they will not stand by silently if he stabs Israel in the back at the UN before leaving office.

Netanyahu, Obama to meet in NY on Wednesday

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama will meet in New York on Wednesday during the United Nations General Assembly, the Prime Minister’s Office and the White House confirmed Sunday.
Obama and Israel’s prime minister will have a bilateral meeting Wednesday, with discussion topics likely to include the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “in the face of deeply troubling trends on the ground,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.
Earnest said the meeting would afford Obama and Netanyahu an opportunity to discuss “the strong ties between the United States and Israel.”
Citing US diplomatic sources, Channel 2 said earlier Sunday that the two leaders would meet, likely at Obama’s hotel.
Netanyahu will arrive in New York for the General Assembly on Wednesday, September 20. High-level meetings of this type are usually announced more than a week in advance.
Netanyahu’s trip will likely be the last chance for a face-to-face meeting between the prime minister and Obama before the US president leaves office in mid-January.

A New York Times Editorial Calls for Cutting US Aid to Israeli Military

Just how far out of the American political mainstream is the anti-Israel editorial position of the New York Times?
The latest outrage from the newspaper is an unsigned staff editorial criticizing as excessive the 10-year, $38 billion aid agreement signed last week between Israel and the United States. That deal was approved by President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry, and praised by Hillary Clinton. Congressional Republicans, if anything, want to make it bigger.
Standing outside that bipartisan consensus, the Times editorial, representing the paper’s official, institutional opinion, asserts, “It is worth asking whether the ever-increasing aid levels make sense, especially in the face of America’s other pressing domestic and overseas obligations.” The editorial even goes beyond that, not just “asking” but answering in the negative: “In truth, the aid package is already too big.”
One sign of the anti-Israel bias of the Times is that it uses a different standard to measure military aid to Israel than it uses to measure spending on other things. The Times’ characterization of the aid as “ever-increasing” fails to take into account inflation. The White House fact sheet on the deal states that the money, covering 2019 to 2028, “will be disbursed in equal increments of $3.3 billion in FMF and $500 million in missile defense funding each year for the duration of the understanding.”

Arab party officials arrested for alleged fraud, money laundering

Twenty officials with the Arab Balad party were arrested Sunday by the Police National Fraud Unit on suspicion of campaign financing violations and money laundering.
The police raided Balad offices in several locations nationwide, and seized computers, correspondence and banking documents. An official involved in the investigation said that at this point, none of the party's Knesset members are implicated in the case.
A covert investigation into alleged financial improprieties in Balad was launched after a recent report by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira raised concerns of campaign financing violations. The Israel Money Laundering Prohibition Authority is also involved in the investigation.
The case focuses on suspicions that Balad members failed to properly report campaign donations, as well as on funds raised from illicit sources.
The suspects face potential charges including aggravated fraud, falsifying corporate documents, forgery, campaign financing violations, and money laundering.
It is believed that over the course of several years, the suspects systematically misrepresented the origins of millions of shekels in Balad's financial records, failing to report donations and reporting foreign donations as having been made by Israelis, thus defrauding authorities.

List Of Car, Stabbing And Mortar Attacks This Weekend In Israel

Knife Jihad Attacks

1. Friday 16 Sept lunch time, Damascus Gate, Jerusalem. Stabbing attack. Jordanian Arab terrorist with two knives in his hands, one extra on his body. No injuries. Terrorist shot dead on the scene.
2. Friday 16 Sept afternoon, Hebron. Stabbing attack one IDF soldier lightly injured. Terrorist shot and killed.
3. Saturday 17 Sept morning, Hebron. Stabbing attack, one IDF soldier lightly injured. Terrorist shot and killed (video of this attack released).
4. Sunday 18 Sept morning, Efrat. Stabbing attack, one IDF soldier injured. Terrorist shot and taken to hospital.

Vehicle Jihad Attacks

1. Friday 16 Sept lunch time, Elias Junction near Kiryat Arba. Male and female terrorists attempt run over attack with a car. No injuries. Both terrorists shot.

Aerial Bombardment Jihad

1. Saturday 17 Sept 16:38, Northern Israel. Iron Dome intercepts and destroys incoming mortar fire from Syria.
2. Saturday 17 Sept 17:46, Northern Israel. Iron Dome intercepts and destroys incoming mortar fire from Syria. Again.

A Palestinian Love Story

The young couple that carried out yesterdays car ramming (one of 5 terror attacks against Israelis in 24 hours) were reportedly young lovers, given a chance to redeem their family's honor by killing Jews.
Firas al-Birawi Khadour and Raghad Khadour rammed their vehicle into a bus stop near the community of Kiryat Arba. The man was shot and pronounced dead on the scene. The woman was shot in the stomach and received preliminary treatment at the scene before being taken to a hospital in Israel. Three Israeli teenagers were treated with light injuries.
To the Palestinians, love isn't nearly as honorable as Jew-killing.

IDF soldiers pelted with rocks during Nablus raid

IDF soldiers came under attack during a raid in Nablus early Sunday morning, with residents of the northern West Bank city hurling stones at them, the army said.
The troops were in the city to confiscate tools and machinery used to manufacture weapons. As they carried out their raid, a number of Palestinians began throwing rocks at them, the army said. No injuries were reported.
The rock throwers were caught and handed over to police, the military said in a statement.
The gun manufacturing equipment was confiscated for further investigation, the army said.
In separate raids, soldiers arrested six additional Palestinian suspects, one who is believed to have taken part in violent demonstrations, another for allegedly belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization and four more for undisclosed reasons, the army said.

Palestinian Terrorist Who Stabbed IDF Reservist Caught on Security Camera Preparing to Infiltrate West Bank Jewish Community (VIDEO)

The Palestinian terrorist who stabbed an IDF reservist on Sunday morning in the West Bank settlement of Efrat was identified a number of hours earlier by security cameras, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.
According to the report, the footage showed the terrorist reaching the outskirts of the Jewish community — located just south of Jerusalem — and hiding behind a bush.
The video led to the dispatch of reserve-duty soldiers to the area to scour it to locate the intruder. During the search, the terrorist jumped on and stabbed an officer — moderately wounding him. This spurred other soldiers at the scene to open fire and neutralize the assailant — who was also moderately wounded.
Both the officer and the terrorist were evacuated to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Medical Center/Ein Kerem for treatment.
Channel 2 pointed out that Efrat lacks a security barrier, instead employing an apparatus that combines technological means with IDF cooperation to protect residents from attacks.

BBC reports on three terror attacks without using the word terror

Notably – but entirely predictably – despite the fact that it describes three separate terror attacks, the word ‘terror’ does not appear in this report at all.
On the same day the driver of a bus travelling from Jerusalem to Ma’ale Adumim was injured in an additional attack. The next day – September 17th – a soldier was wounded in a stabbing attack in Tel Rumeida in Hebron. Early on the morning of September 18th, a soldier was wounded in additional attack in Efrat. Despite still being available online, the BBC’s report was not updated to include any of those attacks and no stand-alone reporting of them was published.
Although the BBC has had almost a year in which to independently verify the circumstances of the deaths of Palestinian terrorists, it continues to employ the qualifying “Israel says” formula and erases from audience view the four foreign nationals also killed during terror attacks since last October.

Bad Headlines Follow Palestinian Terror

The spate of terror attacks in Israel over the weekend was accompanied by additional examples of the usual bad headlines depicting the assailants as victims. Here is an example from Voice of America:
"Israel Kills Palestinian in West Bank"
Similarly, the The Forward headline for the accompanying Reuters article was:
"Israeli Troops Kill 3 Palestinian Attackers in West Bank and Jerusalem"
This is not the first time that The Forward changed a perfectly clear Reuters headline about a Palestinian attack to obfuscate the facts.
Based only on the Voice of America and Forward headlines readers would not understand that the Palestinians killed were reportedly assailants, killed while carrying out attacks. In the case of the incident described in the Voice of America article, the moment of the attack was captured by security cameras, leaving no doubt as to the circumstances

Abbas blames Palestinian attacks on despair, but Hamas credits ‘resistance’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday that a lack of hope was behind a wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis, a claim that was swiftly contradicted by an official in the Hamas terror group, who attributed the attacks to Palestinians being “a people of resistance.”
Speaking to a group of Palestinian students and graduates on Venezuela’s Margarita Island, where he was attending a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, Abbas said Sunday that every day there are “martyrs and youth” picking up knives to attack “on their own accord,” the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.
“Don’t trust those who say there are efforts to push them or incite them. Rather, they have lost hope,” said Abbas.
But Hamas spokesperson Usamah Hamdan took to Twitter to express his disagreement with Abbas, directing his criticism directly at the PA leader.

Arab man charged after praising gruesome murder of Jewish teen

A 20-year old Arab man was charged with publishing anti-Semitic materials on his Facebook page.
After the murder of 13-year child Hallel Yaffa Ariel in June the suspect praised the terror attack, writing that "The elimination of the Zionist child is essential."
Haled Ibrahim Muasi, a 20-year-old resident of the Arab town of Aablin, was indicted on Friday for a number of offenses - incitement to violence and terror, incitement to racism and support of terrorist organizations.
The indictment was submitted under the authority of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit.
From the indictment it emerges that Muasi uploaded to his Facebook and Instagram accounts messages of support, sympathy and encouragement for the Izzadin Al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas.
Moreover Muasi published on numerous occasions calls for violent action and terror as well as praise and encouragement for various acts of terror, and racist incitement.
Muasi published a Facebook status on the day 13-year-old Hallel Ariel was murdered while sleeping in her bed, after which there was another stabbing attack in the center of Netanya.

Americans 'unwelcome' in Gaza, warns militant chief after US terror label

Abu Jamal, a leader of a terrorist faction in the Gaza Strip, warned American citizens against coming to the coastal enclave on Saturday, days after the US designated former Hamas Interior Minister Fathi Hammad as an international terrorist.
“We warn American citizens against entering Gaza because they are unwelcome after the decision [against Hammad] was made,” said Abu Jamal, leader of the al-Nasser Saladin Brigade, in video published on social media.
The US State Department designated Hammad as a terrorist on Friday, saying that he used his former position as interior minister “to coordinate terrorist cells.”
Hamas sharply condemned the US’s designation of Hammad as a terrorist, saying the “decision is biased in favor of the occupation.” However, Hamas also denounced Abu Jamal’s statement, warning Americans against coming to the Gaza Strip.

Al-Aksa mosque preacher calls on Allah to blow up Moscow, DC

In his September 14 address at al-Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem, Palestinian cleric Abdallah Ayed beseeched Allah to "to vanquish America and Russia."
In a video of the prayer posted online and translated by MEMRI Ayed is seen saying, "Oh America, let me tell you about the day when the call to prayer will be heard from atop the White House, from atop the red palace in the Kremlin in Moscow," adding that "we shall shout Allah Akbar from there."
Ayed, who is dressed in white traditional garb tells his followers that Allah will attack both America and Russia "Because Allah promised us both places, Allah promised the prophet Muhammad that Islam would rule the entire land."
He added in his prayer, "Oh Allah in these blessed days and from your al-Aksa mosque, the center of blessings...we seek you to vanquish America and Russia. Oh Allah, blow up their capital cities and their planes, pulverize their ships and kill their soldiers."
The preacher said "Oh Allah we ask you to subjugate them and burn them...burn all they have with your fire."

Oh Allah, Blow Up the Capitals and Planes of U.S and Russia - Sheikh Muhammad Ayed


Syrian soldier said killed by Israeli retaliatory fire on Golan

A group monitoring the death toll in the Syrian civil war said Saturday that at least one Syrian Army soldier was killed by rounds fired from Israeli aircraft operating on the Golan Heights.
According to the report from the London-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, Israeli aircraft attacked artillery positions manned by President Bashar Assad’s army in response to an incident earlier on Saturday in which two mortar shells were fired across the border into Israel.
At least one soldier was killed in the attack and several others wounded, according to the observatory. The attacks took place in Quneitra, a city that was destroyed and abandoned in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and serves as an outpost of the Syrian military.
According to the Walla news website, the soldier was identified as Muhammad Hassan a-Sid by Syrians using social media, and his picture was posted on social media websites.

US forces strike Syrian troops, prompting emergency UN meeting

Tensions between Russia and the United States escalated over the weekend after U.S.-led coalition airstrikes reportedly killed 80 Syrian soldiers on Saturday, endangering the Syrian cease-fire deal brokered by the two world powers.
The US. military said the coalition stopped the attacks against what it had believed to be Islamic State positions in northeast Syria after Russia informed it that Syrian military personnel and vehicles may have been hit.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based monitoring group with contacts across Syria, cited a military source at Deir ez-Zor airport as saying that at least 80 Syrian soldiers had been killed. The Russian Defense Ministry said more than 60 Syrian soldiers had been killed in four U.S. airstrikes, with two F-16s and two A-10s coming from the direction of Iraq.
Washington had relayed its "regret" to the Russian government for what it described as the unintentional loss of life of Syrian forces in the strike, a senior Obama administration official said in an emailed statement.
Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in the statement that Russian officials had not voiced concerns earlier on Saturday when informed that coalition aircraft would be operating in the strike area.

Edgar Davidson: Colin Firth: ignorant anti-Israel jerk

For those salivating over the new Bridget Jones movie please note that actor Colin Firth is an archetypal leftist luvvie 'activist' who not only sees it as his duty (and entitlement) to lecture us plebs on how to think and behave in politically correct terms (including demanding the release of Al Qaeda terrorists), but inevitably he has been a long-term supporter in the campaign to delegitimize Israel.
While he has always been on hand to issue condemnations of Israel for daring to defend itself against terrorism (such as being a signatory on this anti-Israel blood libel letter) and appear at events run by the anti-semitic Palestine Solidarity Campaign, he took his activism to a different level in 2011 by starring in a film ("The Promised Land") that attempted to rewrite the history of Israel with a whole bunch of anti-Zionist lies.

Palestinian Flag Falsely Used to Represent WW2 Pilot

The Independent’s Indy100 commemorates the 76th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Britain by including an infographic of the different nationalities of those pilots who fought for the Royal Air Force against the Nazis.
It includes one pilot from “Palestine” represented by the flag of what most readers would associate with the modern Palestinian Authority or Palestinian national movement.
Except that in 1941, “Palestine” was actually British Mandate Palestine and the flag in the infographic represented not the British administration but the Arab nationalists fighting against the British (and the Jewish community).
Moreover, the pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain alluded to in the infographic as a Palestinian was one George Goodman, whose background is explained on the Battle of Britain Memorial website:

Anti-Zionist Lives Matter (satire)

What do you do if you can’t wean yourself of an addiction which is considered socially unacceptable in mainstream civilized societies? Well, if your addiction is antisemitism then you should not worry too much. Just rebrand your obsessive hobby as anti-Zionism and you will be just fine. In fact, there is a high probability that you will be elevated to the status as a superstar among “progressive” self-appointed human rights activists.
”Anti-Zionist Lives Matter” spokesman Jihad Pogromchik explains: ”Anti-Zionism differs from anti-Semitism as sophisticated Pepsi differs from vulgar Cola. Some people like to hunt foxes and we like to hunt Jews. However, unlike anti-Semites who are bigots, we anti-Zionists are enlightened and celebrated human rights kings at campuses around the world.”
Mr. Pogromchik continues: “We anti-Zionists have never been able to multitask. This is why we focus exclusively on Zionists and Pallywood. Remind us again in another 2000 years and we will consider shifting the focus towards places like Syria, Tibet, Kurdistan, North Korea and Sudan by opening local Bagel Dumpling Schnitzel (BDS) offices there.”
“Anti-Zionist Lives Matter” is not only concerned with its peculiar brand of “human rights”. It also fills an important social function and unites delicate, fractured and very diverse souls like London’s former Mayor Red-Ken Kidneystone, ISIS, Communists, Pan-Arabists, Neo-Nazis, Hezbollah, Jewish-born Judeophobes like Chomsky and Finkelstein, Hamas and Ayatollahs.

Saban Capital Acquisition raises $235m in Nasdaq IPO

The blank check company is expected to invest much of the capital raised in Israeli high-tech companies.
Three weeks after filing its preliminary prospectus with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Saban Capital Acquisition has raised $235 million in its Nasdaq IPO. The blank check company is expected to invest much of the capital raised in Israeli companies.
The company issued 23,500,000 units at $10.00 per unit. The units are listed on NASDAQ under the SCACU ticker. Each unit consists of one Class A ordinary share and one-half of one warrant, each whole warrant enables holders to purchase one Class A ordinary share for $11.50.
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Goldman, Sachs & Co. served as underwriters for the offering and have a 45-day option to purchase up to an additional 1,500,000 units at the IPO price to cover over-allotments.
A blank check company is formed for the purpose of entering into a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses.

Singer Bonnie Tyler's first visit to Israel to include 2 shows

Award-winning singer Bonnie Tyler, who racked up hit after hit in the 1970s and 1980s, will perform in Israel for the first time in February 2017.
Tyler, who has sold over 100 million albums, has scheduled two concerts in Israel -- on Feb. 6 at the Hangar at the Tel Aviv Port, and on Feb. 7 at the Charles Bronfman Auditorium in central Tel Aviv. A group of 12 band members and backup singers will perform with her.
Tyler's set list is expected to include her mega-hits "Total Eclipse of the Heart," "Lost in France," "It's a Heartache," and "Holding out for a Hero."
Born Gaynor Hopkins, Tyler was discovered in the mid-1970s by talent scout Roger Bell, who prompted her to adopt her stage name.
Her breakthrough came in 1976 with "Lost in France," which made it on to the Top 10 list of bestselling records. A year later, she came out with "The World Starts Tonight." She later discovered a small nodule on her vocal chords and had an operation to remove it. After the procedure, her voice took on and retained its signature raspy quality.

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