The Vicious Babushka

Al-Khattab Makes Another Threat Against 770 and Gets Arrested!

 

Yousef Al-Khattab, known for his radical website revolutionmuslim.com, which features violent images including a cartoon-like image calling for attacks on 770 Eastern Parkway, was arrested today at the Israeli Day parade in Manhattan, after threatening a Lubavitch bochur.

Yousef Al-Khattab, known for his radical website revolutionmuslim.com, which features violent images including a cartoon-like image depicting 770 Eastern Parkway, was arrested today at the Israeli Day parade in Manhattan.

According to an eyewitness, Khattab was taken away for questioning after reportedly telling a Lubavitch student, "Bomb 770," referring to the Lubavitch Headquarters in Brooklyn.

Yousef Al-Khattab made headlines recently when he posted violent videos and images on his radical website, revolutionmuslim.com, including depicting a cartoon-like image of 770 Eastern Parkway, Lubavitch World Headquarters, as a target in retaliation for Israel's attacks on Gaza.

After the threat was made the student approached policemen who were nearby and reported it. The police proceeded to question Khattab, and after he admitted to making the statement and being the one that runs revolutionmusim.com, the police took him away for further questioning.

COLLive.com

Update: FBI agents visit 770 and COLLive blog is warned about posters making threats.

An agent for the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force cautioned COLlive.com's editorial staff over a suspicious comment written about the radical Muslim Yousef Al-Khattab who is threatening Lubavitch followers. The phone conversation took place Monday, after NYPD detectives toured 770.

An agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) cautioned the editorial staff of COLlive.com, a Chabad-Lubavitch community website, over a suspicious comment written about a radical Muslim who is threatening Chasidic followers.

The official from the bureau's Joint Terrorism Task Force was referring to a reader's comment posted on a May 31, 2009 article titled "770 Threatened Again?" [Linked above--VB]

Yousef Al-Khattab, the Jewish-born editor of revolutionmuslim.com, was arrested Sunday for questioning after threatening a Lubavitch bochur [young man] at the annual pro-Israel Parade in New York City.

COLlive photographer Yossi Percia had captured the incident but was approached by unidentified law enforcement officers who told him to erase the photos.

Comment #9 on the article called to do "whatever it takes" and "such evil must be completely eradicated according to Torah law" among more harsh wording that included "poison" and "shooting."

'AN IDIOT'

"I understand the frustration," the agent who is stationed in New York told COLlive in a phone conversation Monday. "But you can't go so far as threatening someone or to kill someone."

"I look through COLlive and the people posting are good people and you're writing about good things - we don't want them getting in trouble," he added and asked not to be identified by name.

We asked him what is the difference between the offending comment and the intimidating posts by Al-Khattab naming Lubavitch World Headquarters - 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn as the source of Israeli "war crimes."

The official answered: "He comes close. As we all know, he is a person of interest to us because of the knuckle-head stuff he does, his rhetoric and because he's so out there on Fox News and blogs. I cannot say if he's subject or not."

Clearly, the agent added, Al-Khattab has "lost his way in life. He's an idiot and a pain in the -----. But he has a right to say the things he says because we have freedom of speech in this great country. In another, he would have been arrested."

DETECTIVES IN 770

NYPD detectives were spotted Monday by COLlive photographer Odelia, inspecting security measures at 770's large synagogue and the offices at 788 Eastern Parkway.

Asked about the security status of 770, the agent said: "Do I think there is a threat more than any place in New York City? no.

"Historically, there's an ongoing threat to this city as a target of extremist people. 770 is not more [of a threat] and not less."

He agreed that "Muslims, Jews, Christians and non-religious people don't like [Al-Khattab]," but asked that COLlive readers don't write instigating comments, otherwise they might be investigated "if something happens."

Abbas Orders Obama to Put Netanyahu out of Power

 

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will not resume negotiations with Israel unless the Netanyahu government agrees to a complete settlement freeze and publicly accepts a two-state solution, Abbas has told The Washington Post in an interview.

And since he does not believe Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will lift his opposition on these issues, Abbas and his leadership expect American pressure to gradually force Netanyahu out of office, the paper reported on Friday. "It will take a couple of years," it quoted one of Abbas's officials as saying.

Abbas was interviewed the day before his Thursday meeting at the White House with US President Barack Obama.

Setting out what the newspaper called "a hardline position," the Palestinian leader conditioned a resumption of talks with Israel on Netanyahu's agreement to a halt in all settlement building - a demand being repeatedly stressed by Obama, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and other senior US officials - and formal Israeli government acceptance of Palestinian statehood.

Abbas added that he would not even assist Obama's special envoy, George Mitchell, in trying to encourage Arab states to begin warming relations with Israel until Israel accepted these conditions. "We can't talk to the Arabs until Israel agrees to freeze settlements and recognizes the two-state solution," Abbas was quoted saying. "Until then we can't talk to anyone."

However, The Washington Post went on, "Abbas and his team fully expect that Netanyahu will never agree to the full settlement freeze - if he did, his center-right coalition would almost certainly collapse. So they plan to sit back and watch while US pressure slowly squeezes the Israeli prime minister from office. 'It will take a couple of years,' one official breezily predicted."

Abbas, the article continued, "rejects the notion that he should make any comparable concession - such as recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, which would imply renunciation of any large-scale resettlement of refugees."

Read more at Jerusalem Post

Environmental Elitist wants to ban cars: "Let them walk or ride the bus"

 

Expensive fuel is good

Tani Goldstein says cars are our enemy, wants drivers to pay more for privilege

Upon the publication of this op-ed, a week after fuel taxes were raised and on the eve of yet another price hike, I am about to become the nation’s most hated figure, so I will start by offering full disclosure: Firstly, I do own a car, and I used it on occasion and enjoy it. Secondly, on occasion I also make use of public transportation, and I am aware that Israel’s train and bus system is terrible.

Yet despite the above, I am convinced that expensive fuel is good, period. Very expensive fuel is very good, and even more expensive fuel is excellent. The reason for this is as follows: Making fuel more expensive will prompt some of us to use our cars a little less, and cars (including mine) are, simply put, humanity’s enemy.

Cars are an enemy because they kill people: Since World War II, road accidents are the leading cause of unnatural death in the world. Cars are also responsible for a significant portion of our air pollution – and this will be the case with electric cars as well, because electricity is produced by burning fuel. Cars turn the world into a loud, stinky, and filthy place, filled with junk metal.

Expensive fuel is good because oil became more expensive, and the refineries should not be subsidizing this price hike and encouraging us to drive. The answer to the rising price of oil should be a decline in demand – because oil is the oxygen of our worst enemies.

Indeed, in Israel fuel is first and foremost a tax. Most of the money we pay for fuel ends up in the State coffers through an excise tax. Yet as opposed to Value Added Tax and similarly to income tax, this tax is imposed on the rich and middle-class, rather than on the weak strata of society. Moreover, as opposed to income tax, this is a tax which the payer can regulate as he or she wishes; a tax that is only imposed on those who feel like traveling in their car.

More of this blithering idiocy at YNet.

Biased Headline of the Day: "Rogue rockets fail to shatter Gaza ceasefire deal"

 

Dumbass headline from The Guardian.

First of all, these are not "rogue" rockets that decide to just shoot off all on their own, for no reason, without any human assistance whatsoever. These rockets are all shot off by Hamas, who are, therfore, breaking the ceasefire which they themselves proclaimed, but had no intention of actually keeping.

It's only considering "breaking the ceasefire" when Israel responds to the incessant, deliberate rocket fire from Hamas.

Doofus of the Day: MJ Rosenberg "Pre-1967 Israel was wonderful!"

 
Ultra-Orthodox Jews gather at the landmark Damascus Gate in Arab east Jerusalem upon their return from overnight prayers and Torah reading at the Western Wall on the occasion of the Jewish harvest holiday of Shavuot, early on May 29, 2009. The annual religious festival, which began at sunset on May 28, marks the day Moses gave the Torah to the Jews after their exodus from Egypt.

[before 1967 Jews were not permitted to pray at the Western Wall. MJ Rosenberg thinks Orthodox Jews are smelly and icky, not nice and trendy like those cool Hamas dudes]

Dismissing the surge of pro-Israel sentiment and activism displayed at the massive AIPAC Policy Conference in early May, the IPF's Director of Policy Analysis, M. J. Rosenberg, even refused to call AIPAC "pro-Israel." Claiming sole possession of the "pro-Israel" mantle and proclaiming a markedly pro-Palestinian agenda, Rosenberg declared, "We need to drown out the clamor produced by a minority within the pro-Israel community that tells our government not to press Israel to freeze settlements, ease the suffering in Gaza, or push hard to end the occupation that is destroying Israel's future and the Palestinians' present." Thus, in recent months the Israel Policy Forum "welcomed the shift [it perceived] in American policy toward Hamas," opposed "provocative" congressional bills directed at Iran, rushed to the defense of Chas Freeman when his very inappropriate appointment to the National Intelligence Council was challenged, lobbied against a "one-sided" congressional resolution supporting Israeli actions against the rocket-shooting Hamas terrorists in Gaza, and expressed opposition to a "loathsome" bi-partisan Congressional letter to the President encouraging support for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

This is pro-Israel?

The J Street organization conveyed similar messages on Capitol Hill, charging that the Israeli operation against Hamas in Gaza was "disproportionate and escalatory." A recent J Street poll actually served to advocate sanctions against Israel by suggesting that reductions of diplomatic, economic and military aid were options to "convince" Israel to accept an imposed solution.

BUT NOW Rosenberg and the IPF have gone too far on several issues. Earlier this month the Forum's policy director rewrote Middle East history in chilling Orwellian terms. Israel should return to the 1967 borders after securing peace treaties, he wrote, because "pre-1967 Israel was not terrible at all. In fact it was pretty wonderful." [Emphasis added.] "Wonderful" is barely the way to describe the murderous fedayeen raids of the 1950s, the total ban on Jewish visits to the Western Wall or Cave of the Patriarchs, the abrupt withdrawal of UN troops from Sinai in 1967, the genocidal intentions of Arab neighbors and expeditionary forces, the failure of the United States to uphold its commitments to Israel, and the preparation of mass graves in Israeli parks.

Read more at Jerusalem Post

Celebrating the Giving of the Torah

Babushka will not be posting Friday and Saturday, in observance of the holiday of Shavuot. In the meantime, here is a video of Shavuot celebration at the Kotel, accompanied by a beautiful song. Chag sameach!

Unintentional Media Propaganda Image of the Day: Jewish Settler as Jesus

 

A young Jewish settler joins attempts to rebuild an illegal outpost which was destroyed by Israeli forces last week, near to Kokhav Ha Shahar settlement in the West Bank on May 28, 2009. Israeli police said they razed a tiny Jewish settlement outpost in the West Bank on May 21, 2009 in what media called a gesture to US President Barack Obama after his talks with Israel's prime minister. No violence was reported as police, backed by army troops, evacuated settlers from the Maoz Ester outpost, near Kokhav H Shahar, east of Ramallah, the political capital of the West Bank. Getty Images

Did they really intend to portray a "Jewish settler" in a Jesus-like pose? Or did they want to suggest that he's a nailer, not a hanger.

Former Hezbollah Member Becomes a Jew

 

Israel - Although every ger tzedek comes with his incredible and inspiring story, Avi Sinai's story is surely one of the most exceptional. Living today in the Galil, Avi Sinai in his past was a member of Hizbollah for years who had even undergone special terrorist training in Iran.

"Israelis think they can 'solve' the conflict with Hizbollah, but they're mistaken. If you want to better understand the mentality of groups like Hizbollah or Hamas, think of Hitler who had planned to control the world with his thousand years Reich. Along the way, the Germans understood that they had to destroy the Jews. That's how it is with radical Islam today," says Avi.

'You only have to hear what speakers of Islam are saying and not stuff up your ears. The Hamas spokesman said, 'We'll conquer Rome, and afterwards, all of Europe. Once we finish with Europe, we'll conquer the two Americas. We won't forgo East Europe either. Of course, we have to destroy the Jews.'

"It's amazing how similar their talk is to the Germans before the Holocaust. But you shouldn't be surprised. Every Pesach night you say, 'In every generation they stand against us to destroy us.' Once it was Hitler, today it's radical Islam.

"You have to be naive to believe that a conflict over the Sheba Farm is what is motivating Hizbollah's hatred. What didn't you do so Hamas would have no reason to battle you in the south? With your own hands, you destroyed flourishing towns. You tore apart Israeli society. You thought Hamas wouldn't have a reason to fight or shoot at you. Did it stop -- or did it only get worse?"

Avi believes that most Muslims admire Jews as a special people, the "people of the book." However, their brothers who are driven with hate towards Israel are the ones in power, and the Jews are in great danger.

In his youth in south Lebanon, Avi once attended a lecture by an Arabic sheikh who quoted verses from the Koran calling for Israel's destruction. When he came home, he met his uncle, who noticed how stirred up he was. "Bring me a few old Korans," his uncle commanded him, "I don't care who printed them, as long as they are old."

Avi gave him the Korans. He was furious when he discovered that the verses which the sheikh had quoted didn't even exist in old Korans. His uncle told him, "He's making up verses."

Read more at Vos is Neias

DISCLAIMER: Some parts of this story seem implausible.

"Hitler" Image Found on Underwear

 

Next, the fashion retailer, has recalled a range of men's underwear after complaints it featured an image of Adolf Hitler.

A customer complained that the image on the underwear resembled the Nazi leader saluting as planes passed overhead.

Next said that it had investigated the complaint and found the image, among a series of cartoons, was inspired by a picture of Lenin, the former Soviet leader.

Read more at Telegraph

Biased Media Caption of the Day: Jewish Cave Man!

 
A Jewish settler prays inside a cave transfered into a wildcat outpost near the settlement of Kedumim on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus on May 26, 2009. A group of Jewish settlers believe that they will not be evacuated from the cave since it is not a built outpost but an already existing natural structure. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to tear down settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank in return for US backing on its stance on arch-foe Iran, local media reported. Under the 2003 international "roadmap" peace plan, Israel committed to dismantling outposts erected since March 2001 and a government commission later determined there were 26 such structures in the West Bank. Watchdog groups say the actual number of such outposts is more than 50. Getty Images

 
A Jewish settler prays outside a cave transfered into a wildcat outpost near the settlement of Kedumim on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus on May 26, 2009. A group of Jewish settlers believe that they will not be evacuated from the cave since it is not a built outpost but an already existing natural structure. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to tear down settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank in return for US backing on its stance on arch-foe Iran, local media reported. Under the 2003 international "roadmap" peace plan, Israel committed to dismantling outposts erected since March 2001 and a government commission later determined there were 26 such structures in the West Bank. Watchdog groups say the actual number of such outposts is more than 50. Getty Images

 
A Jewish settler walks outside a cave transfered into a wildcat outpost near the settlement of Kedumim on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus on May 26, 2009. A group of Jewish settlers believe that they will not be evacuated from the cave since it is not a built outpost but an already existing one. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to tear down settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank in return for US backing on its stance on arch-foe Iran, local media reported. Under the 2003 international "roadmap" peace plan, Israel committed to dismantling outposts erected since March 2001 and a government commission later determined there were 26 such structures in the West Bank. Watchdog groups say the actual number of such outposts is more than 50. Getty Images

Israeli Technology Helps Identify "Swine Flu" at Airports

 
Thermal imaging system at Narita Airport.

Israel's Opgal helps identify who's got flu

By Karin Kloosterman

How do you stop a virus like swine flu from sweeping the world? Well you could start at the airport. An Israeli company claims that this is a real possibility with its heat sensor technology that can detect fever in passengers travelling through an airport, a train station or other transportation hubs.

Opgal Optronics Industries' Fever Detection and Alarm System (FDA), can pinpoint people in a crowd that are suffering from elevated temperatures.

The first model of the product was brought to market during the global SARS epidemic, in 2003 and it later found a niche market among Asian customers a couple of years ago when Avian flu became a widespread problem there. The company sold more than 300 units to Asian nations.

Now the Karmiel-based company believes it's the perfect tool to halt the spread of swine flu or other pandemics that might threaten the world's health.

The FDA is an infrared thermal imaging device that can sense the temperature of the body and face in real time. Using sophisticated sensors and algorithms that consider ambient temperature, the FDA device can sense within a half degree centigrade if someone is suffering from a fever, says company CEO Dror Sharon.

Read more at Israel21c

Judge Sotomayor and the White Plains Menorah

 

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, ruled in favor of allowing a Chabad menorah in a city park. As a district court judge she struck down a city council resolution.

By Yaacov Behrman, lubavitch.com

President Barack Obama named Judge Sonia Sotomayor the new Supreme Court Justice. If confirmed by the senate, Sotomayor, 54, will succeed retiring Justice David Souter, becoming the first Hispanic ever appointed to the Supreme Court.

Obama introduced Sotomayor calling her an "an inspiring woman” who has the respect of her colleagues on the bench.

"My heart today is bursting with gratitude," Sotomayor said after being introduced by Obama.

In a case concerning a public menorah display brought before her in 1993, Sotomayor then a district court judge, ruled in favor of allowing a Chabad menorah in a city park and struck down a city council resolution barring "fixed outdoor displays of religious or political symbols in parks."

COLLive.com

Mazal Tov to NYPD Jew

NYPD's first Chasidic Police Officer Yoeli Witriol is from Williamsburg. Ruchel Zahava Ruchlamer comes from a Litvish background in Teaneck. Their wedding Monday was at Lubavitch.

Yoeli Witriol was born and raised in the close-knit Satmar community in Williamsburg. Ruchel Zahava Ruchlamer comes from a Litvish background in Teaneck, New Jersey. Yet when it came to going down the aisle, they went all-out Lubavitch.

He proposed to her at the Lubavitcher Rebbe's grave site in Queens, had the Chuppah at Lubavitch World Headquarters, 770 Eastern Parkway and the wedding celebration at the Razag Hall in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

That's practically going the whole nine yards for Chabad couples. For Satmar, this was unheard of just a while back when they vocally (and even violently) opposed Chabad's philosophy and engaging outreach.

More at COLLive.com, including a photo gallery of the wedding, complete with a dance of New York's Finest.

Little King of Palestine Freaks Out Over Alternative "2-State" Solution

 

Jordan summons Israeli ambassador over rightist bill

Amman deeply angered by MK Eldad's bill proposing creation of Palestinian state in Hashemite Kingdom. 'Two states on the two banks of the Jordan River,' the bill says

Jordan is up in arms over a bill proposed by MK Arieh Eldad (National Union), which calls for "creating two states on the two banks of the Jordan River, one for the Israelis and one for the Palestinians".

The bill is up for debate in the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Petra, Jordan's official news agency, reported Tuesday that Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Judeh summoned the Israeli ambassador to Amman and demanded the bill be withdrawn.

Judeh also took the opportunity to explain to the ambassador that Jordan "believes in establishing an independent and viable Palestinian state on Palestinian soil," a foreign ministry statement was quoted as saying.

Read more at YNet.

The Hashemite "Kingdom of Jordan" is "Palestinian soil." Duh.

Bibi Blows Off the French

 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu cancelled a meeting with French President Nicholas Sarkozy scheduled for next week, reportedly amid anger at France for its position on the final status of Jerusalem.

Additionally, sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that Netanyahu wanted to distance his recent - and highly publicized - meeting with US President Barack Obama from his relations with European countries.

A PMO official confirmed that Netanyahu postponed his European trip because he believed preparations for the visit were incomplete.

But statements released by the French Foreign Ministry provided an alternative reason for the cancellation. Ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said "The declaration which the Israeli prime minister issued yesterday derives from prejudice regarding the final status agreement," referring to Netanyahu's pledge on Jerusalem Day, last week, that Jerusalem would "never again be divided or partitioned."

"In the eyes of France," Desagneaux said, "Jerusalem needs to turn into a capital for two states," emphasizing that French President Sarkozy made the same point last year.

"Activities like destroying Palestinian houses and expulsion of Arab citizens encourage violence," the spokesperson said. "They are unacceptable, and against international law."

Read more at Jerusalem Post

Mrs. Sakharov Speaks Out in Oslo

 

Who remembers Soviet dissidents?

Yelena Bonner is the widow of Andrei Sakharov, the leading moral voice in the old Soviet Union. The old USSR has fallen (sort of) but Mrs. Sakharov is still a leading moral voice, cutting through all the crap. Here is the text of her speech to the Oslo Freedom Forum:

In his invitation to this conference, the president of the forum, Thor Halvorssen, asked me to talk about my life, the suffering I have endured and how I was able to bear it all. But today all that seems to me quite unnecessary.

So I will say only a few words about myself.

At the age of 14, I was left without my parents. My father was executed, my mother spent 18 years in prison and exile. My grandmother raised me and my younger brother. The poet Vladimir Kornilov, who suffered the same fate, wrote: "And it felt that in those years we had no mothers. We had grandmothers." There were hundreds of thousands of such children. Ilya Ehrenburg called us "the strange orphans of 1937."

Then came the war. My generation was cut off nearly at the roots by the war, but I was lucky. I came back from the war. I came back to an empty house. My grandmother had died of starvation in the siege of Leningrad. Then came a communal apartment, six half-hungry years of medical school, falling in love, two children and the poverty of a Soviet doctor. But I was not alone in this. Everyone lived this way. Then there was my dissident period followed by exile. But Andrei [Sakharov] and I were together! And that was true happiness.

Today, summing up my life (at age 86, I try to sum up my life every day I am still alive), I can do so in three words. My life was typical, tragic and beautiful. Whoever needs the details - read my two books, Alone Together and Mothers and Daughters. They have been translated into many languages. Read Sakharov's Memoirs. It's a pity his diaries haven't been translated; they were published in Russia in 2006. Apparently, the West isn't interested now in Sakharov.

THE WEST isn't very interested in Russia either, a country that no longer has real elections, independent courts or freedom of the press. Russia is a country where journalists, human rights activists and migrants are killed regularly, almost daily. And extreme corruption flourishes of a kind and extent that never existed earlier in Russia or anywhere else. So what do the Western mass media discuss mainly? Gas and oil - of which Russia has a lot. Energy is its only political trump card, and Russia uses it as an instrument of pressure and blackmail. And there's another topic that never disappears from the newspapers - who rules Russia? [Vladimir] Putin or [Dimitry] Medvedev? But what difference does it make, if Russia has completely lost the impulse for democratic development that we thought we saw in the early 1990s. Russia will remain the way it is now for decades, unless there is some violent upheaval.

During the years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has experienced incredible changes in an exceptionally short period. But has the world become better, or more prosperous for the 6 billion 800 million people who live on our small planet? No one can answer that question unambiguously, despite all the achievements of science and technology and that process which we customarily call "progress." It seems to me that the world has become more alarming, more unpredictable and more fragile. This alarm, unpredictability and fragility are felt to some extent by all countries and all individuals. And civic and political life becomes more and more virtual, like a picture on a computer screen.

Even so, the picture of life, formed by television, newspaper or radio remains the same - there is no end to the conferences, summits, forums and competitions from beauty contests to sandwich-eating ones. They say people are coming together - but in reality, they are growing apart.

And that isn't because an economic depression suddenly burst forth, and swine flu to boot. This began on September 11, 2001. At first, anger and horror was provoked by the terrorists who knocked down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and by their accomplices in London, Madrid and other cities, and by the shahids, suicide bombers who blew themselves up at public spaces like discotheques and wedding parties whose families were rewarded $25,000 each by Saddam Hussein. Later, [George W.] Bush was blamed for everything, and as always, the Jews - that is, Israel. An example was the first Durban Conference, and the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe, noted several years ago in a speech by Romano Prodi. Then there was Durban-2; the main speaker was [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad proposing to annihilate Israel.

Please read the entire essay, it is worth it.

h/t Harry's Place

Arabs Seethe over Jews Living in Jaffa

 

Plan to House Jews in Arab Sector Of Jaffa Seen as Threat to Coexistence

JAFFA, Israel -- Bemuna Co. has built "housing for the religious public" in places attractive to Jewish families, from the breezy hills of the Galilee in northern Israel to Jerusalem ridge tops overlooking the Old City.

So its latest plans are a puzzle: 60 apartments in the middle of a somewhat run-down neighborhood of mostly Arab residents in this city on the coast. There are no plans to market to the Arabs.

"We are a homogenous group. We do not want to live together with Arabs in the same building," lawyer David Zeira said during an Israeli Knesset hearing on the project last week. Rather, he said, Bemuna hopes to bolster the Jewish presence and "improve the population" in Ajami, a seaside neighborhood that is the center of Jaffa's Arab community.

A world away from such flash points as the Gaza Strip or East Jerusalem, the Bemuna project has exposed some of the fault lines that continue to separate Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens.

Arab residents of Jaffa, many of them descendants of those who stayed through the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, say poorer families are being forced to leave by rising property values and the expiration of long-term tenancy agreements set up by Israel after it seized the homes of Arabs who fled or were expelled.

Bemuna, they say, has added a religious dimension, using land acquired from the Israeli government and relying on Israeli housing laws that allow sellers to discriminate against Jews or Arabs in private property transactions

"The ideology behind this is really dangerous," said Asma Agbarieh Zahalka, a local political activist. "They want to Judaize Jaffa and ruin what remains of coexistence."

Read more at Washington Post

Who Owns the Yemenite Jews? Jewish Agency or Satmar?

 

The World Zionist Organization executive called on the communal umbrella of American Jewry to stop the fundraising effort meant to move Yemenite Jews to a Satmar community in Monsey, New York.

The Jerusalem-based WZO, whose leaders form part of the leadership of the Jewish Agency, disapproves of the United Jewish Communities' efforts on behalf of the move because the Yemenites will be joining an anti-Zionist community.

"Bringing Yemenite Jews to the Satmar community is an anti-Zionist activity, because it's bringing Jews to a place that doesn't really recognize the State of Israel," said Paula Edelstein, who sits on the WZO executive and is co-chair of the Jewish Agency's Immigration and Absorption Committee.

The WZO statement, which is being finalized and will only be released on Tuesday, "is a strong call for the UJC to stop its activities encouraging the immigration of Yemenite Jews to the US," according to agency and WZO spokesman Gil Litman.

Some 113 Yemenite Jews are expected to leave Yemen for the United States in the coming weeks, aided by the US State Department and Jewish refugee agencies in the US. Many of the remaining 160 or so Jews in the country are expected to eventually come to Israel, Jewish Agency officials believe.

The push to pull the Jews out of Yemen comes in the wake of attacks and threats against their property and lives made by radical Islamist groups or individuals. Most of the Jews currently live under the protection of the Yemeni government.

Read more at Jerusalem Post.

Maybe the Yemenite Jews own themselves? Maybe they remember what the anti-religious Zionists did to their children in the 1950's and want to prevent the same thing from happening again?

Babushka is no fan of Satmar, but believes the Yemenites should have "Freedom of Choice." At least the Satmar will not take away their kippot and shave off their peyot.

Abbas Demands Jews Stop Reproducing as part of "Peace Plan"

 

Abbas to press Obama on 'natural growth' of settlements

Palestinian president says focus of his meetings in Washington will be expansion of West Bank settlements and Jerusalem neighborhoods. Adds that any peace plan will have to based on 'the common denominator - ending the Israeli occupation that began in 1967 (and) to establish a Palestinian state

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday he would focus on Israel's refusal to stop the building of settlements when he holds talks with US President Barack Obama later this week.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuffed US calls on Sunday for a full settlement freeze and said he would not accept limits on construction within Jerusalem neighborhoods.

"We are aware of Mr. Netanyahu's positions and I'm not going to engage on this subject through the media. This is one of the main issues I'll take with me to Washington," Abbas told reporters after talks with Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon.

"Regarding the settlements, there are several United Nations resolutions that prohibit the settlements and it's clear and precise in the roadmap - that the entire world supported - that Israel must stop all forms of settlement including natural growth," Abbas said.

Read more at YNet.

The new American Girl doll: She's Jewish and she's "poor" (and if you buy all the accessories, you will be too!)

It's official. The newest American Girl doll is 9-year-old Rebecca Rubin, a Jewish-American girl who lives with her family on Manhattan's Lower East Side in 1914.

The much-anticipated latest addition to the American Girl series of historical characters, Rebecca goes on sale May 31, along with six books about her life. No cheap date, she costs $95 with one book, or $118 if accompanied by the complete set.

Rebecca joins 14 other historical dolls in the series -- from Kaya, a Nez Perce girl set in 1764, to African-American Addy, a Civil War doll, to World War II-era Molly, part of an Irish immigrant family. Her unveiling will include a tie-in at the Tenement Museum in New York City, and a harbor cruise with "kosher-style" food, according to USA Today.

She's a feisty girl, our Rebecca. In one book, she rescues her cousin Anna from the top of a stalled Ferris Wheel. In another, she marches in a garment workers strike and gives an impassioned speech about labor rights. But she also cooks, crochets, and dreams of becoming a movie star, just like a proper lass.

Rebecca lives with her Russian-immigrant parents, siblings and grandparents in a Lower East Side row house, just a step up from the tenements of Orchard Street, and they struggle mightily to save boat fare to bring more family over from the Old Country.

Read more at Jerusalem Post.

"She marches in a garment workers strike and gives an impassioned speech about labor rights" and THE TOY IS MADE IN FREAKING CHINA!

The hideous expensiveness of this toy and its accessories, together with the assimilationist, politically correct storyline, guarantees that this product will stay out of the hands of Babushka's 11 granddaughters. So who is the target market? A handful of Yuppies who read Heeb and The Forward.

The Zionist Mall has a collection of "nice Jewish" dolls priced at $85 and less.

Gali Girls, the Israel-made Jewish Girl doll, with a kosher storyline.