Jews: What does Obama say behind YOUR back?

What Obama says behind our backs...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly told US President Barack Obama that he could not "stand" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he thinks the Israeli premier "is a liar."

According to a Monday report in the French website "Arret sur Images," after facing reporters for a G20 press conference on Thursday, the two presidents retired to a private room, to further discuss the matters of the day.

The conversation apparently began with President Obama criticizing Sarkozy for not having warned him that France would be voting in favor of the Palestinian membership bid in UNESCO despite Washington's strong objection to the move.

The conversation then drifted to Netanyahu, at which time Sarkozy declared: "I cannot stand him. He is a liar." According to the report, Obama replied: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!" (YNET)

Hey Jewish voters in the USA - guess what Obama says behind your backs, every single day?


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The Boycott of Lod's Arab Taxi Drivers

Found this interesting tidbit tonight...on Yediot Ayalon/MYNET.

There is a taxi company in the Israeli city of Lod, which employs both Jewish and Arab taxi drivers. Upon the release of the 1027 terrorists in the "Gilad Shalit" exchange, some of the terrorists were Israeli Arabs...who returned to their hometown of Lod. The Arab taxi drivers partied publicly, honking and celebrating in the streets of Lod at the heroic release of their terrorist-brothers, Mohammad Ziada and Mochlis Borgial.

Ziada and Borgial were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for throwing a grenade onto a bus full of IDF soldiers. Luckily, the grenade didn't explode.

The Jewish residents of Lod, were disgusted by this behavior and started a boycott of their own; when calling the aforementioned taxi company, they openly request a Jewish driver. As a result, for the past 2 weeks, the number of calls to this particular taxi company has decreased dramatically, almost to the point of many drivers sitting around all day, doing nothing.

It's probably illegal under Israel law for the Jewish residents to boycott the Arab taxi drivers, and I wonder how long before someone is brought up on charges for this.

The Arab drivers do not see anything wrong with their support for the released terrorists:

"In the recent weeks, people specifically request a Jewish driver," said an anonymous driver. Like all the taxi drivers in this article on MYNET, every single driver spoke only on the condition of absolute anonymity for fear of hurting their livelihood.

"We feel are significant drop of work in the taxi station, and currently I am searching for additional work. On the other hand, this is infuriating. Who are these people boycotting the taxi drivers and telling them how to behave? Drivers have the freedom to behave how they wish. Its true that some of the drivers went to visit [released terrorist] Mochlis, because they are friends of his family. What's the big deal?"

Another driver commented, "We went to visit Mochlis just to wish him well and say, "Welcome home to your city", we just wanted to see him. But now we are talking about our livelihood, and we don't deal in politics."

"We the driver respect Jews and Arabs alike, but when a customer requests only a Jewish driver, it is very humiliating.

One Lod resident saw on TV the tax drivers that she usually drivers with, when they were celebrating the return of the 2 terrorists. "Even if there is no other taxi available, I will never go into one of those [Arab-driver] taxi. It was extremely offensive to their joy and celebration [when the released terrorists returned to Lod....]"

Like her, there are many similarly-minded residents. "Should I need to worry then they drive me, because they lifted the released terrorists onto their shoulders as heroes?", said one of the residents who now refuses to use that taxi service.

"Why did they behave like that -- I thought they respected their customers...their neighbors..."

The taxi station manager replied: "We don't understand politics and don't want our drivers will be politically active. We live here in mutual harmony between Arabs and Jews and see no reason for this issue... (MYNET)"

It's pretty telling that the Station manager has no clue why the behavior his drivers giving a heroes welcome to convicted terrorists might be a turn off to some people. To say "its all politics" shows how little they really understand what terrorism really is...

Here's a short video clip of the day the terrorists were released in Lod (note all the Palestinian flags being waved by the Israeli Arab residents of the city).



So...would you boycott these taxi drivers?



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More Palestinian Moral Bankruptcy

As if a society that supports terrorism isn't enough, the freed Palestinian terrorists who were exchanged by Israel for IDF solider Gilad Shalit, are now getting from the Palestinian Authority: Free Housing and Big Cash Stipends!

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has decided to build houses for the Palestinian prisoners who were released in the Gilad Schalit exchange deal between Israel and Hamas.

The new housing project will be funded by the Palestinian Investment Fund, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The PIF was established in 2003 as an independent investment company with the aim of strengthening the Palestinian economy through key investments.

The announcement came during a meeting between Abbas and some of the released prisoners in his office in Ramallah on Saturday.

Earlier, Abbas decided to award the prisoners financial grants of several thousand dollars for each inmate.

The prisoners will receive up to $5,000 from the PA and $2,000 from the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. (JPOST)

So where is the money coming from to build homes for the terrorists? The Palestine Investment Fund...(no corruption there). What are their goals (from their webpage):

PIF was established in 2003 as an independent investment company, which aims to strengthen the local economy through key strategic investments, while maximizing long-run returns for its ultimate shareholder; the people of Palestine.

PIF prudently invests through an investment strategy focused on long-term value creation. With an aim to generate high and stable returns through diversified strategic investments in partnership with international, regional and local partners, based on values of transparency, accountability, commitment and in line with its corporate social responsibility and sustainability objectives. PIF has a strong reputation across global markets as a trusted and responsible investment partner.

High and Stable returns by building homes for terrorists? Sounds like a solid investment...


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LatmaTV - Weekend Edition

Their song in the middle is haunting.




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Yeshiva Expels Students for Getting Driver Licenses

I found the following story rather bizarre.

The head of the prestigious Be'er Torah yeshiva has announced that he will expel 30 students from the institution after discovering that they hold driver's licenses.

The "expulsion letters" were issued a month ago, yet the yeshiva students refuse to comply with the demand.

A letter issued by yeshiva head, Rabbi Gavriel Yosef Levy, informed the students that as they breached the yeshiva's rules, they should find an alternate place to study in the winter term.

According to the yeshiva charter, holding a valid driver's license is forbidden. The charter's third chapter asserts: "A yeshiva boy shall not drive a vehicle and must not hold a driver's license."

According to the students, the institution's staff looked into the driver's license issue in cooperation with the Transportation Ministry. One of the expelled students told Ynet he was furious that his personal details in a government database were compromised.

The ministry issued the following response: "Entering the Transportation Ministry's database while pretending to be the owner of a license is an offense. The ministry is aware of the problem and seeks solutions that would prevent unauthorized parties from eliciting information about driver's license holders." (YNET)

On the one hand, the yeshiva is allowed to make whatever ridiculous requirements they wish for admission. If you don't like it, don't go there... (perhaps, similar to the weird requirements of certain yeshivot that require all their students to follow strict Ashkenazi customs, even the Sepharadim, even outside the yeshiva). Or perhaps, the Beis Yaakov school that expelled 9 girls for having non-kosher cellphones.

Is the yeshiva like the Belzer Chassidim, who forbid women to drive at all? Why doesn't the yeshiva want them to drive; is the process of learning to drive "bitttul Torah" (a waste of Torah time), is the yeshiva worried they will drive instead of being in yeshiva, or is it that yeshiva guys shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place, because it's not befitting a Torah scholar to drive (and they should be driven around?)

Yet even more distressing is that the Transportation Ministry cooperated with the Yeshiva. In the USA, the ministry would have been sued. Here, there's not much that can be done.

Oh well.

Hoping the yeshiva guys find another yeshiva soon...on the bright side; they can drive there.

Obligatory Joke:

Many years ago, the Lubavitcher Rebbe was being driven to upstate New York to the catskills one Friday. Somewhere along the NY State Thruway, the Rebbe asked his driver if he could pull over. Obviously the Rebbe's driver pulled over at the first opportunity. The Rebbe sighed and said, "How I wish you would let me drive...I've always wanted to drive the car, but I'm always being driven around. Please let me drive the car...even if just for a few miles."

The poor chossid driver had no choice...and he got out, opened the car door for the Rebbe, and sat in the back seat. The Rebbe, gleeful as a child, got behind the wheel and started driving.

It was only minutes before the speedometer's needle crept past 80 miles per hour, as the Rebbe was excitedly, getting into the driving. And then, the siren's wail broke the excitement, as a NY State Trooper called for them to pull over.

The Rebbe's car slowly pulled over to the side of the road, and the trooper got out of his car, and walked over to the driver's side.

A minute later the trooper was back at his car, calling his local commander over his radio.

"We have a serious political problem here boss...I pulled over a mega-serious VIP for speeding, and I don't know how to let him go."

"Who's the VIP?" The commander asked over the radio.

The trooper replied, "I have no clue...but his driver is the Lubavitcher Rebbe..."


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Israel's Elite SWAT team wins International Urban Shield 2011 Competition

For the second consecutive year since Israel's Police elite SWAT team, the "YaMaM," has participated in the prestigious Urban Shield counter-terror competition in the USA, the YaMam has once again won first place.

Similar to last year's impressive win, Israel's accomplishment remains strangely, highly under-reported. The only mention of this impressive achievement is on the Facebook page for Israel's police.

32 SWAT teams from the USA, the FBI and from other countries, participated in the non-stop 48 hour competition. The competition included counter-terror, dealing with serious crimes, hostage retrieval, and a variety of tactical and urban combat situations.

Last year's winners from Israel's YaMaM - CTU.

The Israeli winners for 2011.

More pictures of the YaMaM in action, at last year's post.

I find it curious that there is no English-language mention of this win anywhere on the internet (or even on the Urban Shield website) as of this posting. Help get the word out!

Update; Israel Hayom has just published about this as well...

For the second consecutive year, a team from Israel's Counterterrorism unit has taken first place in an international competition testing homeland security and readiness to respond to acts of terror.

The team swept the prestigious "Urban Shield" competition, held last week in California in the framework of a national emergency drill organized by the U.S. Homeland Security Office.

During the internationally acclaimed competition, combat teams were tested in a variety of anti-terrorist, extreme crime, hostage rescue, and tactical combat scenarios. An FBI team and a team of royal Jordanian guards were also among the participants.

The national emergency drill was created in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, with the aim of testing the preparedness of emergency services and anti-terrorist units should another terrorist attack occur.

Although this marked the competition's sixth consecutive year, Israel only began participating two years ago. It has now taken first place in both attempts.

Israel's Counterterrorism Unit is an elite unit in the Border Police, comparable to such global crime-fighting groups as U.S. SWAT teams, the French GIGN, and the German GSG-9, which was established after 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team were murdered at the 1972 Olympic games in Munich.

The Counterterrorism Unit is tasked with handling a number of security and civilian-related situations, and its members are trained in various types of drills and simulations -- some secret -- mainly focusing on terrorist attacks and hostage crisis situations.

The Counterterrorism Unit is one of Israel's most in-demand security units. Its members take on complex and dangerous missions, sometimes working in tandem with the Internal Security Agency. They arrest crime bosses and take on missions in some of the nation's most high-risk areas. The unit employs advanced hi-tech equipment and unique methods of operation, some of which were developed especially for the unit.

In September, the same Israeli team won first place in a handgun shooting competition for special IDF and police units. Other participants in that competition were the National Police Undercover Unit, the Border Police Undercover Unit, and several elite IDF units.

Police Commissioner Yochanan Danino congratulated the Counterterrorism Unit on winning the international competition.

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American Friends of Peace Now vs. The Jewish People

Next week, a landmark case goes before the Supreme Court in the United States. Despite the attempts of US Congress to recognize Jerusalem as the capital city of Israel, and the resolutions passed requiring the Embassy of the USA to be moved to Jerusalem...the US State Department refuses to print the word "Israel" when followed by the word "Jerusalem."

A US Citizen born in Jerusalem will not have his US Report of Birth indicate "Jerusalem, Israel", rather the country-less, "Jerusalem." Even sadder, the Obama White House webpage removed all references to "Jerusalem, Israel" and replaced them with the single word, "Jerusalem".

And now...the "American Friends of Peace Now" have decided to join the fray. They have asked to join the case next week, siding with the US State Department, insisting that Jerusalem NOT be recognized as the capital of Israel.

When the psalmist wrote, "If I forget Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its strength," I wonder if he ever thought that Jews would be demanding that the Supreme Court of the United States deny the connection between Israel and its capital city, Jerusalem.

I guess there's a reason they are called, "leftists."

Haaretz:

Americans for Peace Now, the U.S. partner of Israel’s leftist Peace Now organization, has filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in order to oppose listing “Israel” as home country in the passports of those born in Jerusalem.

Since Israel’s founding, the American government has not recognized any sovereignty over Jerusalem, be it Israel, Palestinian or Jordanian. As part of this policy, the U.S. embassy to Israel was established in Tel Aviv, despite a law passed in Congress, calling for the embassy to be moved to Jerusalem.

Furthermore, in passports of Jerusalem-born American citizens, the name of the city appears without any reference to a home country. On the other hand, passports of Tel Aviv-born citizens read “Tel Aviv, Israel”.

In 2002, Congress passed a law which states that any American citizen born in Jerusalem who makes a special request is able to request that “Israel” be written as their country of birth. Former President George W. Bush did not follow the law, stating that the law interferes with the president’s constitutional authority to “conduct the nation’s foreign affairs and to supervise the unitary executive branch.”

On the other hand, the law does not allow Palestinian residents of Jerusalem to list “Palestine” in their passports, despite regulations which allow Palestinians born in East Jerusalem before 1948 to list “Palestine”, with no reference to Jerusalem (Palestine was considered an official sovereign entity before the founding of the state of Israel).

Three months after the law passed, Menachem Zivotofsky was born in Jerusalem. His parents, both of whom are American citizens, requested his passport to list Israel as the country of birth. When the U.S. embassy refused, the family appealed to the U.S. Federal Court. A federal judge rejected the appeal, stating that the matter was a “political matter”.

The family refused to give up, and decided to appeal to the Supreme Court, which will decide next week on which authority is responsible for recognition of the sovereignty of foreign countries.

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Who Manufactures the World's Best Qassam Rockets?

Every Israeli knows what a Qassam rocket is -- the primitive rockets that our neighbors in Gaza have been lobbing at us for years.

What started as a tube with fins, loaded with solidified fertilizer as fuel, the "rocket" has improved over time and now causes mayhem in Southern Israel.

While Israel's best defense from a Qassam would be deterrence and the fear of serious Israeli reprisals, Israel has been instead working on defensive solutions such as the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system and defensive materials.

This led to the revelation of one of Israel's military secrets, as reported by "Israel Defense"

At the "HomeFront as the Civilian Frontline" conference this past week in Tel-Aviv, Israel Military Industries (IMI) CEO Avi Felder exposed one of the most carefully guarded "Top Secrets" in the military industry...Felder said that IMI develops the most powerful Qassam rockets in the world today.

Felder said that the IMI Qassams are produced to test and evaluate the damage caused by rockets when fired at rocket-proof shielding products from the IMI. The defensive rocket shielding materials are used in protecting Israel's Southern communities.

Felder said that over the past few days of Qassam rockets being shot from Gaza at the Israeli home front, the IMI-owned subsidiary, "Ashot Ashkelon" which is developing active and defensive systems against Qassam attacks -- is located in Ashkelon, a city sufferring from the threat of missiles. "Ashot Ashkelon" now uses the fortification developed by IMI so that they can withstand Qassam and Grad rocket attacks.

He said that IMI protective shelters are located right next to the production lines, proving a safe solution for employees who do not have time to run to bomb shelters when the air raid/color red rocket warning system sounds.

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Gun-Toting, Wild-Eyed Settlers Torch and Vandalize Jaffa Arab Restaurant

Haaretz, YNET, NRG...everyone's reporting it today.

Repeat as a mantra..."Price Tag"...settlers..."Price Tag"...settlers...

Residents of Jaffa reported on Monday morning that vandals set fire to an Arab-owned restaurant on Yefet Street in the city.

According to a Tel Aviv-Jaffa city council member, the phrases "price tag" and "Kahane was right" were scrawled on walls at the location.

Police were called to the Abu el-Abed restaurant on Yefet Street and opened an investigation into the incident.

This week, 20 olive trees belonging to an Arab family in East Jerusalem were cut down. A sign was found at the scene that read in large letters "price tag".

Earlier this month, two cemeteries in Jaffa were desecrated. Headstones were smashed and racist slogans were spray-painted on graves. The two cemeteries, one Muslim and the other Christian, were vandalized with graffiti that said “Death to the Arabs”, and “price tag”.

The term "price tag" refers to vandalism and revenge actions initiated by activists, usually against Palestinians, following terror attacks or state demolitions in West Bank settlements or outposts. (Haaretz)

"Abu Alabaz - 1949 - Palestinian-Lebanese Kitchen and Catering"
(You can be sure this is a recent sign;
Palestinians never referred to themselves as "Palestinians" in 1949)

What Haaretz failed to report, was that in the previous cemetery desecration in Jaffa this month, the police were pretty sure that Football hooligan fans were responsible -- "Police said the incident was "linked to a soccer group," and that they were not convinced it was carried out by right-wing elements. (JPost)"

They also conveniently forgot to mention that no charges have been filed against any settler or right-wing Israeli for the mosque arson attacks, and that the vast majority of alleged "price tag" attacks have not been linked at all to Jewish extremists. (For the record, the Muqata condemns this sort of activity)

Yet that's not all. The Al-Arab website had pictures of the atrocities...and plenty of invective against the alleged price-taggers.

Problem is, that their expert photography revealed a spray-painted scrawl that was out of place with a price tag, nationalist graffiti attack -- the name of the football team; "Barcelona" (you can also see this in the first picture above on the left-hand side)


99.9% of the settler movement is disgusted by vandalism...routinely suspecting them for alleged "price-tagging" is just as odious.

And its getting boring already.

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