At a Republican Jewish Coalition event in Los Angeles last week, Rep. Michele Bachmann offered a candid view of her positions on Israel: Support for Israel is handed down by God and if the United States pulls back its support, America will cease to exist.
The Republican Jewish Coalition is the same organization that recently hired former Sen. Norm Coleman. Bachmann’s appearance on Feb.1 is part of a whirlwind of national events for Bachmann in February. Next up: she’s keynoting the Take Back Washington North Dakota event in Bismarck this Friday night.
A satellite photograph showing a 60-meter Star of David carved into a Palestinian field during the offensive against Hamas in Gaza last winter, slid under the army’s radar screen when it examined the Goldstone Report’s allegations of misconduct against the IDF.
When quizzed by The Jerusalem Post, the IDF said it was unfamiliar with the incident and said the Foreign Ministry should be contacted for an official comment.
The star can be seen in a satellite photograph provided to South African jurist Richard Goldstone by the United Nations last July.
According to a report by the UN Institute for Training and Research that accompanied the photograph, the satellite image was shot some time between January 3 and 10, 2009.
The UNITAR report states that the photograph of the Palestinian field showed “ground signatures” that “include tank tracks across cultivated fields and paved roads,” as well as a “Star of David measuring 60m. in diameter carved into the soil likely by IDF vehicles.”
It is posted on the UN Web site. UN satellite imagery is also referenced in the 575-page report published in September by the UN fact-finding mission into Israeli activity in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, which was chaired by Goldstone.
But no reference to the Star of David in the Palestinian field is made in the Goldstone Report, which accuses Israel of possible war crimes in Gaza.
It has also not surfaced in any of the hundreds of stories written about the Goldstone document.
The photograph of the Star of David was first circulated last week on the Mondo Weiss blog, which belongs to US investigative journalist Philip Weiss, who describes himself as an anti-Zionist. In spring 2009 Weiss traveled to the Gaza Strip and joined a Code Pink: Women for Peace contingent.
Members of a hit squad who killed a top Hamas military commander used Irish passports to enter and leave Dubai, it's been claimed.
The suspected Israeli hit team, including at least one woman, entered the United Arab Emirates using Irish documents, police authorities said.
Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (50), held responsible by Israel for the abduction and murder of two Israeli soldiers in 1989, died in mysterious circumstances on January 20 in a Dubai hotel room.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman told the Herald today: "We are aware of the media reports and we are in contact with authorities locally to try and determine the truth of the reports."
Al-Mabhouh was said to have been shocked with an electric weapon held to his legs and then suffocated or poisoned.
Iran and Hamas have blamed Israel for the killing, but Israeli news media claimed al-Mabhouh had many enemies and could have been killed by other Arab factions.
Up to seven people were said to have been involved in al-Mabhouh's killing, four of whom used Irish passports to enter Dubai and who later fled to a "European country" after the killing, according to policesources in Dubai.
A Pacific Grove man is facing several years in prison after authorities say he threw a Molotov cocktail at a tattoo parlor after employees refused to draw on his chest an offensive image of President Barack Obama.
Monterey County prosecutors say Nathan Augustine of Pacific Grove pleaded no contest to arson Wednesday in connection with the July incident at Creative Visions tattoo parlor in Monterey.
Deputy District Attorney Douglas Matheson says the 36-year-old Augustine also pleaded no contest to a similar incident days later at a restaurant.
After being turned down by employees at the parlor for a tattoo of a swastika and an image of Obama overlaid with crosshairs, Matheson says Augustine later returned and threw the device.
Matheson says Augustine will be sentenced to seven years in prison for both attacks. Sentencing is scheduled for March 12.
A 62-year-old Michigan man was severely burned when a homemade rocket strapped on his back exploded while he slid down a snowy hill on a sled, authorities said this week.
The rocket stunt was the grand finale on Saturday during the man's annual sledding party at his Oakland County, Michigan, home, the sheriff's department said.
"He is known for doing 'crazy things' at his parties," an Oakland County sheriff's department statement said. "On this date, after consuming an unknown quantity of alcohol, he constructed a device out of a motorcycle muffler and pipe."
Inside the makeshift rocket, the victim placed gunpowder, heads from matches and gasoline. He donned a helmet and took a sled to the top of a snowy embankment.
"He asked another person to light a wick and then began to sled down a hill. At some point during the ride downhill, the device exploded. The results of the explosion were second-degree burns to the victim's face," the sheriff's department statement said.
Vienna - Vienna's Jewish community on Wednesday blasted a dog magazine for using yellow stars in a campaign fighting "racism" against attack dogs, and criticized the choice of a Nazi-era symbol. Authorities in the Austrian capital are currently assessing whether to introduce a special owner's license for dog breeds that are considered especially dangerous or aggressive, a measure that has incensed many dog owners in Vienna.
Wuff magazine had issued fliers showing two puppies, a labrador retriever and a pit bull terrier. The pit bull bears a yellow star in the shape of the Star of David with the word "evil" on it.
The publishers reacted to the criticism by saying they would replace the star with a red circle in the future.
"Equating examinations for certain dog breeds with the persecution, torture and murder of millions of people reveals the spirit of those who are responsible for designing and distributing such materials," Vienna's Jewish community said in a statement.
Jews in Hitler's German Reich and its occupied areas were forced to wear yellow stars with the word "Jew" written on it.
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (WPIX) - Some people in Brooklyn are convinced aliens are swooping in for a little New York night life.
Video posted on YouTube Monday shows two unknown objects floating above Williamsburg.
The person who posted the video writes, "Spotted from my backyard in Williamsburg. I watched for about 40 min. so I could tell they were moving but very slowly. They sort of looked like stars but were hanging too low and the blue one was a bit too sparkly."
The next night, the very same user posted another video, this time capturing odd objects flying over another part of Brooklyn.
"Something odd floating in the skies over Bushwick," the person writes.
A majority of the comments posted on YouTube tend to dispel the fact it may be a hovercraft carrying extra terrestrials.
"To the eye it looked more like a plane's headlight," one person wrote. "It was too low."
So far, it has not been determined what the strange objects are.
In a stunning display of intolerance, Sixth Avenue in Park Slope was littered with strips of papers reading “KILL JEWS” in capital letters from Fourth to Ninth streets on Wednesday.
Nearly two dozen of the strips were picked up by Karen Guilbert, who had just finished walking her daughter to school.
“It’s so ignorant and hateful,” said Guilbert, who picked up a handful of the same slips back in October. “There are hundreds of kids that walk up and down this street.”
Before she turned the slips over to the police, Guilbert played amateur detective by turning the strips over and piecing them together. All that emerged was that the slips had been cut from a document from a taxi driving school. Yet there were no addresses or phone numbers on the strips that offered any further clues.
“Someone is trying to be a taxi driver,” Guilbert nervously joked. “I sure hope I don’t end up in his car.”
An officer from the 78th Precinct turned the notes over to the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Unit, but the department offered no comment.
JERUSALEM — Israel's foot soldiers are getting new odour-free socks
that can be worn for two weeks straight without smelling or stinking up
the feet, the Maariv daily reported on Thursday.
"It may sound
ridiculous... but this is a very important issue that causes many
problems during training," the newspaper quoted Brigadier General
Nissim Peretz, the commander of the Israeli military's logistics
division, as saying.
The socks, which will be distributed to all
new infantry recruits beginning in March, also prevent athlete's foot
-- "a nuisance with which every soldier is very familiar," the paper
said.
The fabric includes metal components to keep bad odours and fungal infections at bay, it said.
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – A US Airways passenger plane was diverted to Philadelphia on Thursday after a religious item worn by a Jewish passenger was mistaken as a bomb, Philadelphia police said.
A passenger was alarmed by the phylacteries, religious items which observant Jews strap around their arms and heads as part of morning prayers, on the flight from New York's La Guardia airport heading to Louisville.
"Someone on the plane construed it as some kind of device," said officer Christine O'Brien, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia police department.
No one was arrested or charged, O'Brien said.
The plane landed without incident and the passengers and crew were taken off the plane, a spokesman for US Airways said.
Phylacteries, called tefillin in Hebrew, are two small black boxes with black straps attached to them. Observant Jewish men are required to place one box on their head and tie the other one on their arm each weekday morning.
Thursday's incident was the latest of several false alarms on U.S. flights since the December 25 incident in which a Nigerian man attempted to detonate a bomb in his underpants from materials he smuggled onto the plane just as his flight was about to land in Detroit, authorities said.
British Prince Michael of Kent, visited the destroyed Chabad Center of Mumbai Wednesday, accompanied by Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz of the Mumbai Relief Fund.
Queen Elizabeth's first cousin, Prince Michael of Kent, visited the destroyed Chabad Center of Mumbai at Nariman House Wednesday.
The prince was escorted by Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz of the Mumbai Relief Fund, on a tour of the Chabad center that was attacked by terrorists last year.
The prince noticed the photos of the Rebbe and the Holtzbergs, and he inquired about Shluchim and their work. Later, he lit a candle in memory of the murdered Shluchim, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg.
The prince also pledged a donation of $100,000 in rebuilding part of the Nariman House.
"I along with other donors from London pledge a donation of $100,000 in restoring part of Chabad House including the kitchen. We will continue to offer every kind of help," Prince Michael said.
"The destruction caused by terrorists is immense. I am saddened to see all this. I feel deep sorrow for what happened here," he said, adding he was touched on hearing about the how the nanny Sandra saved baby Moshe.
Even as IDF travels across world to extend hand to country in need, there are those who take opportunity to spread slander, blood libel against Jewish state. Seattle resident, who presents himself as black activist, explains incendiary video he uploaded to YouTube
WASHINGTON – Even when Israel puts itself on the front lines of medical and humanitarian aid sent to the ends of the earth and wins great praise for its professionalism in doing so, there are those who prefer to transform the act into an opportunity to spread hatred and lies at the expense of those suffering in Haiti.
An American resident of Seattle, Washington uploaded a video to YouTube on Tuesday accusing soldiers in the IDF delegation to the earthquake site in Haiti of being involved in stealing organs from their patients.
The man, who calls himself T. West, fronts a group called AfriSynergy Productions, whose declared goal is to empower the black man. The video purports to present something to think about while exploiting the horrible tragedy that has befallen Haiti to recycle false claims that IDF soldiers engage in organ trafficking.
The bizarre host of the video collected praises broadcast on television channels regarding the advanced equipment and treatment the Israeli teams are providing in Haiti. After about a minute and a half of such praise, the man looks straight into the camera and made the claim that there are people operating in Haiti who do not have a conscience and are members of the search-and-rescue teams, including, he claimed, the IDF.
Tax Authority worker found by Home Front Command team after 120 hours under rubble. Residents shout 'we love Israel' as man is removed on stretcher, one of rescuers says
PORT-AU-PRINCE – The Israeli delegation to Haiti has managed to rescue a survivor trapped under the rubble, four days after a strong earthquake rocked the country.
The Home Front Command team was called Saturday evening to rescue a man from the Tax Authority building in the capital Port-au-Prince. After more than seven hours, the force managed to reach the survivor, who had spent 120 hours under the rubble.
The survivor was Gilles, 58, a Tax Authority worker who sent a text message with a sign of life from his cellular phone. The rescue forces dispatched to the area found equipment believed to be left behind by another rescue team, which left after failing to locate the survivor.
The Israeli team members were forced to break down a wall separating them from Gilles, but still found it difficult to reach him as iron pipes had collapsed in the area and pinned him to the floor, while concrete logs pressed the lower part of his body.
Major Zohar Moshe, the rescue force's commander, explained that the team began attending to the survivor before he was completely removed from under the rubble. "The moment we managed to break the wall, we began treating him while continuing the rescue efforts," he said. After many efforts, the rescuers managed to attach an infusion to his body.
Amit Even Paz, one of the rescuers, managed to reach Gilles, talk to him and remove all the rubble covering him.
"We spoke to him all the time, told him not to despair. Towards the end he became drowsy, mumbling nonsense. We vowed to get him out of there alive," said Lieutenant Ilan Barel, a member of the Israeli delegation.
"Gilles has a 20-year-old daughter and a wife. They both live in Connecticut and still think he is under the rubble. When he was removed on a stretcher, exhausted and covered with dust, the residents outside clapped their hands and shouted, 'We love Israel,'" added Major Moshe.
Jury selection in the "Lady Al Qaeda" trial got off to a bizarre start Wednesday with the accused terrorist telling jurors she was "boycotting" - and demanding Jews be excluded from the panel.
"If they have a Zionist or Israeli background...they are all mad at me," said Aafia Siddiqui, a U.S.-trained neuroscientist charged with attempted murder.
"I have a feeling everyone here is them - subject to genetic testing....They should be excluded if you want to be fair," she told Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman.
Prospective jurors weren't present for that outburst, but they were in the courtroom to hear her say, "I'm boycotting the trial...there are too many injustices."
At another point, Siddiqui repeatedly refused to talk to her own lawyers, saying she didn't trust them.
"I don't trust you either," she told Berman.
She even tried to toss a handwritten note to prosecutors requesting time each day to pray. Berman said time would be set aside.
Siddiqui, 37, is accused of picking up an M-4 Army rifle and firing two rounds at a team of Americans who tried to question her in Afghanistan on July 18, 2008.
Prosecutors argue she screamed, "Allah Akbar" and vowed to kill Americans before she was wrestled to the ground. She allegedly had two pounds of poisonous sodium cyanide and hundreds of pages of notes and documents on how to build chemical and biological weapons.
JERUSALEM – Turkey rejected an Israeli attempt Wednesday to make amends for humiliating its ambassador, and threatened to bring its envoy home if Israel didn't deliver an apology by the evening.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon issued a statement criticizing his own undiplomatic behavior, which included forcing Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol to sit on a lower seat and not shaking his hand. But the statement fell short of an apology and failed to defuse a diplomatic feud that has further strained ties between the once-close allies.
"They have been given time until tonight, they either fix it or our ambassador will head for Turkey on the first flight tomorrow" for consultations, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said. "After that, we will make an evaluation."
Ayalon set off the diplomatic firestorm when he summoned Celikkol late Monday, ostensibly to complain about a Turkish TV drama that has been perceived as anti-Semitic. The show, "The Valley of the Wolves," depicts Israeli security forces as kidnapping children and shooting old men.
Ayalon invited Israeli TV crews to watch the meeting, and pointedly explained to the cameramen how he was snubbing the ambassador by placing him on a lower chair and refusing to shake his hand.
Celikkol later said he hadn't known what Ayalon was saying to the cameramen.
Hamas' terrorist TV channel -- which routinely indoctrinates kids by portraying Israelis as ghouls -- is launching a new cartoon series that depicts another enemy, the Palestinian Authority police.
A pilot episode shows a toadyish Palestinian officer watching as a Jewish character machine-guns a group of West Bank children to death and drinks their blood.
"You killed our children before my eyes," the officer says meekly. "I will respond with even more peace."
The grotesque six-minute pilot was a big hit when tested on Gaza Strip viewers this month by Hamas' video mouthpiece, Al Aqsa TV, and will be expanded next month, officials in Gaza City said.
Al Aqsa TV is notorious for propaganda-filled kids' shows, such as a 2007 broadcast that showed Farfur, a Mickey Mouse-like character, vowing, "We will annihilate the Jews! I will commit martyrdom!"
In the final episode, an actor playing an Israeli agent tried to buy Farfur's land, and, when the mouse refused "to sell our lands to terrorists," he was beaten to death.
But the new Hamas series expands the hate-filled message by making monsters out of both the Israelis and the Palestinian security force, even though they have often clashed violently in the West Bank.
The pilot cartoon, called "A Special Mission," is built around Bahlul, a boot-licking police officer in the US-backed Palestinian Authority.
American director's upcoming Showtime documentary promises to put mass-murderers 'in context'. According to Stone, 'Stalin, Hitler, Mao and McCarthy have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history'
American director Oliver Stone's upcoming Showtime documentary miniseries "Secret History of America" promises to put mass-murderers such as Stalin and Hitler "in context."
"Stalin, Hitler, Mao, (US Senator Joseph) McCarthy - these people have been vilified pretty thoroughly by history," Stone told reporters at the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour in Pasadena.
"Stalin has a complete other story," Stone said. "Not to paint him as a hero, but to tell a more factual representation. He fought the German war machine more than any single person. We can't judge people as only 'bad' or 'good.'
"Hitler is an easy scapegoat throughout history and it's been used cheaply. He's the product of a series of actions. It's cause and effect ... People in America don't know the connection between World War I and World War II ...
"I've been able to walk in Stalin's shoes and Hitler's shoes to understand their point of view. We're going to educate our minds and liberalize them and broaden them. We want to move beyond opinions ... Go into the funding of the Nazi party. How many American corporations were involved, from GM through IBM. Hitler is just a man who could have easily been assassinated."
The controversial director's 10-part documentary series for Showtime promises to focus on events that "at the time went under-reported, but crucially shaped America's unique and complex history of the last 60 years." An airdate has not yet been set.
Jerusalem - Israel’s new sensation in Chassidic music is not from Jerusalem or Bnei Brak. Until a few years ago he was an African-American Christian from Ohio.
In an interview to Israel's CH. 2 “The Jews are the children of HaKadosh Boruch Hu,” says rapper Yehuda Menashe, who studied in a New York yeshiva, converted and adopted a Hebrew name. He made aliya almost a year ago, and his speech is now a medley of English, Yiddish and Hebrew.
His booking agent, Moshe Kornfeld, tries to present him as a major figure in the music scene. “We met at the yeshiva,” Kornfeld recalls. “I simply saw someone who sings and makes others and himself happy. He sings from the heart. ‘How can I not be a part of this?’ I said to myself.”
Since being discovered, Yehuda Menashe keeps a tight schedule. This week he led a couple to the chuppoh in song. Last week, at a Bnei Brak wedding, he shared the stage with top frum singers Dudu Fisher and Yishai Lapidot.
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