What if Honest Reporting hadn’t revealed anything about Soliman Hijjy? Would he still be working for the Times? Sure. They’re only concerned about this kind of behavior when they get caught.
After the New York Timesterminated its relationship with a Gaza-based journalist who said he favored killing and burning Jews “like Hitler did,” the newspaper is looking into additional reported instances of its journalists praising Hitler on social media.
The same watchdog group, HonestReporting, that unearthed the post by Fady Hanona also dug up a 2012 Facebook post by a Times videographer, Soliman Hijjy, who HonestReporting said wrote “How great are you, Hitler.” Hijjy also shared variants of the post again in 2018 and 2020, HonestReporting said.
HonestReporting also expressed concern about social media posts made between 2011 and 2018 by Hosam Salem, a freelance photographer whose work has appeared in the Times.
The Times told HonestReporting it reviewed the concerns and took “appropriate action.”…
And, at least in Hijjy’s case, a video he created for the Times, “Gaza’s Deadly Night: How Israeli Airstrikes Killed 44 People,” was denounced when it came out as a “shocking” “hatchet job.” So the issue isn’t just the social media posts, it’s the nexus between the social media posts and the hate-filled agenda that filters through into the New York Times journalism….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-08-31 06:37:542022-08-31 06:40:45Yet Another Muslim Journalist Working for The New York Times Praises Hitler
It is mandatory for every Israeli over 18 to serve in the army (Israeli Arabs have a choice to opt out). Why? Because Israel has been under the threat of jihadist obliteration since the day of its birth. Even before that, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, lead the Arab Revolt to keep Jews out of the region.
Gadot’s tweet below led to a firestorm back in May during Operation Guardian of the Walls, when Israel was left with no other alternative but to defend its citizens from a barrage of Hamas rocket fire:
To Israel’s antagonists, Israel does not deserve to live “as a free and safe nation.” In their view, Israel only deserves to be obliterated, as documented in the charter of every major Palestinian organization, and as is evident from the attack on Israel by surrounding Arab nations on the day of its birth. Those nations were of one accord….
“It will be a war of annihilation. It will be a momentous massacre in history that will be talked about like the massacres of the Mongols or the Crusades.”
— Azzam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League,
October 11, 1947
Islamic antisemitism is rooted in Islam, and it spreads under the guise of opposing the State of Israel because of its status as an “occupying,” “apartheid” state, regardless of the falsity of these claims.
Israeli movie star Gal Gadot’s new Hollywood film will reportedly not appear on the big screen in Lebanon and Kuwait due to her connection to the Israel Defense Forces.
“Death on the Nile” was being released in the rest of the Middle East over the weekend, according to Deadline.
Gadot, 36, served in the Israeli armed forces for two years, as is required of all young Israelis, before she entered show business.
It’s not the first time the former Miss Israel’s nationality has caused controversy as tensions persist between the two warring nations. Lebanon also blocked her “Wonder Woman” films over her IDF ties.
The ban was in accordance with a law that boycotts Israeli products and bars Lebanese citizens from traveling to Israel or having contacts with Israelis.
Kuwait banned “Death on the Nile” after a barrage of protests on social media, according to The Daily Mail, which cited the Arabic language newspaper Al-Qabas….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-02-17 06:41:152022-02-17 06:44:38Lebanon and Kuwait ban Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s new movie because she served in the IDF
Israel is not an apartheid state, as numerous governments have acknowledged after Amnesty International’s libelous report. Israeli Arabs are part of the governing coalition and hold positions at all levels of Israeli society. Tlaib, not surprisingly, is perpetuating dangerous falsehoods.
by Houston Keene and Cameron Cawthorne, Fox News, February 8, 2022:
The campaign of “Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., has paid out $170,000 to an anti-Israel activist who has called Israel an “apartheid state” and has called for defunding the police multiple times.
Tlaib’s campaign has paid $147,000 to Unbought Power LLC, a political consulting and advocacy firm run by Rasha Mubarak, since March 2020. Tlaib’s leadership PAC, Rooted in Community Leadership, which lists Mubarak as a “treasurer,” has paid Unbought Power another $23,000 since October 2020, according to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings reviewed by Fox News Digital.
Mubarak, a “Palestinian Muslim American community activist,” has a history of making anti-Israel statements online and calling Israel an “apartheid state.”
“These aren’t clashes— it’s an ongoing occupation. These aren’t evictions— they are forced expulsions,” Mubarak tweeted in May of last year. “This isn’t a conflict— it’s settler colonialism, it’s ethnic cleansing, it’s oppression, it’s apartheid.”
“Say it loud. Say it clear. Palestine will be FREE,” she continued with the hashtag “#SaveSheikhJarrah.”…
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-02-14 06:40:362022-02-14 06:44:04Tlaib paid $170,000 to ‘Muslim American community activist’ who claims Israel is ‘apartheid state’
In the wake of the turbulence surrounding the 15 January 2022 Texas synagogue attack, it may be useful to take a step backward to review those events from a broader strategic perspective. John Guandolo at Understanding the Threat has done an excellent job explaining how this attack fits into the overall Islamic Movement jihad campaign against Western Civilization and the United States Constitutional Republic and the Jewish people in particular. Here, though, let us focus on the particular involvement of two international aspects: the Tablighi Jama’at Islamic revivalist/missionary organization and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency.
First, the event itself: from what we know as of this writing, a Pakistani jihadi with British citizenship named Malik Faisal Akram entered the Reform Jewish Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, TX (a Dallas-Ft. Worth suburb) around 10:40 the morning of 15 January 2022 during Shabbat services. The shul’s prayer and services schedule is helpfully posted online at its monthly calendar page. Services were being livestreamed for the benefit of congregation members praying from home, so much of the event and subsequent 10-hour stand-off with law enforcement was captured on audio, although apparently not on video.
Akram initially approached the closed front doors of the synagogue and was let in by Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, affectionately known by his congregation as ‘Rabbi Charlie”. At first Rabbi Charlie didn’t suspect anything untoward, but interrupting Shabbat services, decided to make tea for Akram. In a 17 Jan 2022 interview with CBS News, Rabbi Charlie recounted the moment when things turned terrifying. Reportedly, Akram pulled a gun and made claims about bombs. According to a portion of the synagogue livestream broadcast obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Akram is heard saying, “I’ve got these prisoners” and “I am going to die.” While his key spoken demand was the release from U.S. federal prison of the Pakistani jihadi known as “Lady Al-Qa’eda” – true name, Aafia Siddiqui – that was but a pretext for a broader objective. Akram claimed that he and Siddiqui would be “going to Jannah (Muslim belief of heaven) after he sees her,” according to a statement from the FBI on Saturday night.
What neither Rabbi Charlie, his congregation members, nor apparently Local Law Enforcement Officers (LLEOs) and the FBI have understood was that, with these statements, Akram was reciting his belief in core Islamic doctrine. As Robert Spencer wrote in PJ Media, antisemitism is deeply rooted in the Qur’an itself, where it is written that “Jews are called the strongest of all people in enmity toward the Muslims (5:82); they fabricate things and falsely ascribe them to Allah (2:79; 3:75, 3:181); they disobey Allah and never observe his commands (5:13), and Muslims should wage war against them and subjugate them under Islamic hegemony (9:29), among many other slanders.” Further, as Spencer writes, the abduction of infidels as hostages is also sanctioned in the Qur’an (Sura 47, Verse 4), where it is stipulated that Muslims may choose to kill hostages, enslave them, ransom them, or “show favor” and release them. Similarly applicable is Sura 9, Verse 111, which offers the promise of paradise to those who “kill and are killed” for Allah, in the act of jihad, thus becoming a shahid.
While it is a tremendous relief to know that Rabbi Charlie and all the other hostages got out of the situation alive and unharmed, their unfamiliarity with these Qur’anic passages may well have contributed to their unquestioning acceptance of interfaith dialogue associations that in retrospect may be seen as unwise. Indeed, as the synagogue’s Mission Statement declares, “we believe in interfaith inclusion” and “Tikkun Olam (Repair the World).” Further, as the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue’s Facebook pages show, the Rabbi and his congregation had promoted interfaith events, including a 2 November 2019 and 6 November 2021 “Peace Together Walk,” with a photo of the walk beginning in front of the Colleyville Masjid, also known as the “Colleyville Association of Mid-Cities”. The Islamic Center of Southlake also was a participant. Unfortunately, each of these mosques has Muslim Brotherhood/jihadist connections, as documented by Understanding the Threat. Just one of those connections, for example, is the Imam Siraj Wahhaj, of the Brooklyn, NY Al-Taqwa Mosque, who was specifically named in a list of the unindicted co-conspirators at the 1993 World Trade Center bombing trial.
Now, to the Tablighi-Jama’at and Pakistani connections. As we now know, Akram entered the U.S. through JFK Airport in late December 2021 with his British passport on the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP)’s visa waiver program. He would have obtained that entry permit through the CBP’s online portal. Once waived through Customs at JFK, Akram was free to travel onward anywhere in the U.S. that he wished. It is unlikely that CBP is aware of what Tablighi Jama’at is or that Akram was affiliated with it. CBP should have, but possibly didn’t know either about Akram’s criminal record, as revealed by his brother. As Ilana Freedman documented in her excellent October 2016 monograph, “Gateway to Jihad: Tablighi Jama’at,” Tablighi Jama’at (TJ) is a global Islamic proselytizing organization with millions of followers in at least 80 countries. Although TJ is jihadist, it is not known to commit terrorism per se, but rather sends its missionaries to preach in mosques and Islamic Centers to strengthen the commitment of Muslim faithful to the essential doctrine and law (shariah) of Islam. Such dawah efforts, however, in many cases, serve as a conveyer belt or gateway to kinetic jihad, as was the case with Akram.
Akram himself, born in the United Kingdom (UK) of a family that hailed from the Jhelum district in the Pakistani Punjab, reportedly had traveled abroad on just such missions. According to reporting from the Hindustan Times, in the Blackburn, Lancashire area of England where Akram grew up, he “served as the head of the Rondell Street Islamic Centre in the London area, also known as Reza Masjid, where largely Muslims of Pakistani origin prayed. He also prayed at the Eldorado Masjid that was frequented by Gujarati Muslims in the region.” Two teenagers, possibly Akram’s sons, were arrested by UK Counterterrorism police in South Manchester on Sunday 16 Jan 22 and held for questioning.
As we can see, the connections to Pakistan are many. Nevertheless, it must be said that any possible connections to the Pakistani government or to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency are premature at this point. It is instructive, though, to recall the many Islamic terror attacks in which ISI has been involved. We may begin with the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India, in which, according to the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) drawing on classified Indian government documents, the ISI was “heavily involved”. The following year, on 30 December 2009, according to declassified U.S. government documents, a Jordanian doctor reportedly recruited and dispatched by the ISI, detonated a suicide vest at the CIA’s Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost, Afghanistan, killing seven and injuring an additional six. Then, on 2 December 2015, U.S.-born Syed Rizwan Farook and his Pakistani wife, Tashfeen Malik carried out a deadly shooting attack at Farook’s office Christmas party in San Bernardino, CA. The couple had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State online and expressed support openly for Islamic jihad. Malik had attended college and the Al-Huda International Welfare Foundation women’s Islamic seminary in the Punjab before marrying Farook through an online arranged wedding that took place in Saudi Arabia in 2014.
Once again, while direct ISI involvement in this attack has not been publicly documented, the area of the Punjab where Malik studied is known as a stronghold of Deobandi jihadist groups, such as Lashkar-e Jangvi and Lashkar-e Taiba, both closely affiliated with the ISI. Then, in June 2016, Omar Mateen, who identified himself as “an Islamic soldier” in talks with a crisis negotiator, opened fire inside the Orlando, FL Pulse nightclub, killing 49 people and leaving 53 wounded. Mateen, age 29, was a U.S. citizen, born in Queens, NYC to Afghan immigrant parents. At some point, Mateen had attended the Islamic Center of Ft. Pierce, whose imam, Syed Shafeeq Rahman, quickly after the shooting, named Wilfredo Amr Ruiz, a local leader of the Hamas-related Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as the mosque’s new spokesman. Rahman, also a General Practitioner medical doctor, obtained his medical degree from the Ayub Medical College in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Finally, a brief mention must be made about the 2018 cybersecurity breach involving multiple Members of Congress. The Pakistani Awan brothers, who were given access to highly sensitive government information without a background check, were permitted to work remotely – from Pakistan – up to several months at a time, according to investigative reporter Luke Rosiak.
In summary, then, there are far too many Pakistani connections to jihadist attacks and operations, spanning many years, to ignore. Nevertheless, those connections would appear to be rarely noted and only perfunctorily investigated. Certainly, in this most recent attack on the Texas synagogue, there must have been an extensive support network that conducted the pre-attack casing and surveillance, recruited and prepared Akram, and arranged for his travel to and within the U.S., his lodging, and provision of the funding and knowledge for how to purchase a gun on the street. Clearly, the Muslim Brotherhood/CAIR network in and around the Dallas-Ft. Worth area has been vocal in campaigns to get the Pakistan-born convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqui released from prison. Siddiqui not only tried to kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan in 2008, leading to her conviction on terrorism charges in a 2010 Manhattan trial, but had been married to a nephew of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, who remarked on her “obsession” with jihad. Educated at MIT, Siddiqui earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Brandeis University in 2001, before returning to southwest Asia in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. She is serving her sentence at the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, Ft. Worth, located some 24 miles from the Congregation Beth Israel. Note: This does not automatically mean that CAIR was involved in the synagogue attack, but rather that it shares Akram’s antisemitic animus and purpose in obtaining Siddiqui’s release from prison.
This analysis is offered in the interests of encouraging the situational awareness of faith communities, law enforcement, and national-level security agencies alike. Comments such as that made by FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt DeSarno at a press conference following the end of the hostage crisis attest to the critical need for such education. Although roundly criticized later, that evening, DeSarno said that the “hostage taker was specifically focused on an issue not directly connected to the Jewish community” and added that there was “no immediate indication that the man had was part of any broader plan”.
The fact that UK police and counterterrorism officials are assisting their U.S. counterparts in the investigation does indicate that the overall investigation extends internationally. At the same time, comments such as made by National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Sunday 16 Jan 22, who said that it was “too soon to tell” if the Texas synagogue hostage situation was part of a “broader extremist threat” and that they were looking into “what this person’s motives were and whether or not there are any further connections” demonstrate just how far we yet have to go.
Clare M. Lopez is the Founder/President of Lopez Liberty LLC and serves as a senior advisory board member for the Near East Center for Strategic Engagement (NEC-SE).
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy demands answers from the Biden administration about how British synagogue gunman with criminal convictions was let into America
by Elizabeth Elkind and Jennifer Smith, DailyMail.com, January 18, 2022:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is demanding President Joe Biden’s White House answer how a UK national with a criminal history was allowed to fly to the United States where he held four people hostage at a synagogue in Texas over the weekend.
In addition to condemning the attack, he and other national Republican figures like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been grilling the administration over its handling of the incident.
Many accused the president of directing more federal law enforcement resources toward American parents protesting Critical Race Theory and mask mandates in public schools.
There is growing outrage and demand for answers as to how the British terrorist gunman who took four hostages at a synagogue in Colleyville on Saturday was even able to enter the US on a tourist visa when he was known to intelligence agencies in the UK.
The FBI has declined to comment on the matter.
Malik Faisal Akram, 44, flew to New York City from the UK on January 22, despite being known to MI5 and having a criminal record.
‘Over the past 48 hours, President Biden’s Justice Department has gone from denying the clear and religious, anti-Semitic implications of this attack to now backtracking to what we all already knew to be true. Now as more information becomes available, it only raises more questions,’ McCarthy said in a statement first sent to DailyMail.com.
The top GOP lawmaker in the House of Representatives accused Biden officials of ‘downplaying’ the attack and demanded to know why the FBI ‘initially disregard[ed] the role anti-Semitism played in this hostage situation.’
‘How was it that someone with an apparent criminal record and suspicious travel history was allowed into the United States to begin with?’ he also questioned. ‘What national security concerns remain?’…
Akram’s family say he had a criminal history but somehow, he was able to get an ESTA tourist visa – which are supposed to be off-limits to foreigners who have broken the law.
Akram spent two weeks at a homeless shelter in Dallas, during which time he was able to buy a gun on the street….
‘How long did the FBI know a radical Islamist foreign national with a criminal record was in the country? Were they working with him or his associates?
‘How did this person get a visa? Did he slip through the cracks because they were too busy surveilling your conservative grandma?’ Donald Trump Jr. tweeted.
‘They don’t want us to talk about how a known jihadist got past the FBI and into the country, obtained an illegal firearm, and took hostages at a synagogue,’ Jasec Posobiec said.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s former adviser, tweeted that ‘every journalist’ should be asking whether Biden changing vetting laws for tourists contributed to the incident.
The Independent reports that Akram was known to MI5 but that they didn’t consider him a severe threat.
It’s unclear what he said in his application for an ESTA tourist visa, which asks whether or not applicants have a criminal record.
The ESTA website claims checks will be carried out to see if an applicant has any undisclosed criminal convictions on file.
But according to social justice charity Nacro, the US authorities do not have access to criminal records held on the UK’s Police National Computer.
There was equal outrage in the UK, where lawmakers demanded to know how he was able to by-pass America’s immigration rules, which are known to be some of the strictest in the world.
Tory MP Bob Seely told MailOnline there seemed to have been a ‘dreadful’ error at the UK and US borders caused by an ‘intelligence failure’ and it needed to be looked at.
‘This is clearly a failure of intelligence sharing. It is absolutely dreadful that he has been allowed to go to the States and hurt people.
‘Clearly something has gone wrong somewhere,’ he said.
Another senior MP with knowledge of the security services voiced surprise that the background had not been picked up. ‘How did he get into the US?’ they said. ‘You get picked up for walking on the cracks in the pavement.’
Yesterday, his brother, Gulbar, demanded how he was allowed into America despite a long criminal record.
He said Malik was mentally ill and was mourning the death of his brother three months ago, reportedly from Covid.
The extent of his criminal record is not yet clear, but it may be that some of his offences may have been too petty or too old to stop him being turned away from the United States’ border.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-01-19 04:20:422022-01-19 04:22:33How did the Texas synagogue jihadi get a tourist visa to come to the U.S. despite having a criminal record?
Well, sure. All jihadis have mental health issues. Nothing they do has anything to do with Islamic texts or teachings. Don’t you know that by now, you greasy Islamophobe?
The feds on Sunday identified the gunman who was shot dead after taking four hostages in a dramatic 10-hour standoff at a Texas synagogue as 44-year-old Malik Faisal Akram, a British citizen.
The Blackburn Muslim Community in the U.K. confirmed Akram’s death in a Facebook post on Sunday afternoon, asking the community to “avoid taking part in the sin of backbiting” as authorities continue to investigate the attack, which President Joe Biden has called “an act of terror.”
The group shared a statement from Akram’s brother, identified as Gulbar, that condemned the attack.
“We would like to say that we as a family do not condone any of his actions and would like to sincerely apologize wholeheartedly to all the victims involved in the unfortunate incident,” he wrote.
Hours before the FBI’s announcement, a spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said they were “aware of the death of a British man in Texas and are in contact with the local authorities.”
“The FBI’s Evidence Response Team (ERT) will continue processing evidence at the synagogue,” the FBI wrote in its release. “At this time, there is no indication that other individuals are involved. The FBI’s North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force (NTJTTF), which includes member agencies from across the region, will continue to follow investigative leads. An FBI Shooting Incident Review Team (SIRT) will conduct a thorough, factual, and objective investigation of the events.”…
According to the Gulbar’s statement, the family was aware of Akram’s involvement during the crisis. They said that despite his “mental health issues,” they believed he would not harm his captives.
According to Gulbar’s post, the FBI is expected to fly to the U.K. and meet with the family later today.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-01-17 04:33:432022-01-17 04:34:30Texas synagogue gunman identified as Muslim from UK, Malik Faisal Akram who had ‘mental health issues’
Congregation Beth Israel Synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, was in the middle of Shabbat services that were being livestreamed on Facebook, when a gunman burst in and took hostages. As of this writing, the situation is ongoing, but some details have already emerged.
Amichai Stein of Kan, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation, reports that “The gunman says he is Muslim and holding at least 6 people says ‘he will kill people if anyone gets close to the synagogue.’” Before the livestream from the synagogue was cut off, the gunman could be heard ranting in a foreign language that, according to journalist and trial attorney Marina Medvin, turned out to be Arabic. Medvin noted that the gunman said, “Are you listening? I am going to die. So don’t cry for me…”
Hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas (near Fort Worth).
I just tuned to the synagogue’s Facebook live feed and heard a man with a foreign accent say: “Are you listening? I am going to die. So don’t cry for me…”
ABC is reporting one suspect has taken the rabbi and three others hostage at a synagogue in Colleyville, TX. The hostage-taker is claiming to be armed and says his sister is Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted in New York of trying to kill US military personnel (she’s incarcerated)
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-01-16 06:12:472022-01-16 07:21:53TEXAS: Muslim takes hostages at synagogue, says he will kill people if anyone gets close
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a member of the infamous group of four Congresswomen known as the “Squad,” which includes two Muslims — Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-American, and Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American – and Ayanna Pressley. Tlaib and Omar are consistently, virulently, anti-Israel; Ocasio-Cortez just a tad less so in her public pronouncements. She did not vote “No” with Tlaib and Omar on a bill to provide extra funding to Israel for its Iron Dome anti-missile defense, but after voting “Present,” she proceeded, in a fit of remorse, to have a good cry in Congress about that very vote.
Now it turns out that a recently-hired legislative assistant in her office, one Hussein Altamimi, has made some outrageous and false claims about Israel on Instagram.. Ocasio-Cortez has been asked to discharge him. Robert Spencer discusses the case here, and an additional report on Altamimi’s accusations against Israel, and the call on Ocasio-Cortez to fire him, is here: “ZOA calls on Ocasio-Cortez to fire staffer who called Israel ‘racist European ethnostate,’” JNS, January 7, 2022:
…”Hussain Altamimi has made false, hateful, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel accusations on Instagram,” ZOA national president Morton Klein said in a letter sent to Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday [Jan.5}. He added that Altamimi’s “vitriolic posts are likely to add to the atmosphere of anti-Semitism and hatred that has fueled increasing, frightening, violent attacks on Jews in New York and throughout the United States.”
Fox News reported that Altamimi, who joined Ocasio-Cortez’s office in November, shared on his Instagram story on Dec. 24 a post from an account called “Let’s Talk Palestine,” which falsely accused Israel of “apartheid” and of having a “racial hierarchy.” Altamimi accompanied the post by writing: “Israel is a racist European ethnostate built on stolen land from its indigenous population!”
In his letter to Ocasio-Cortez, Klein insisted that “the racist dictatorship in the area is the Palestinian Authority.”
As he explained, “the Palestinian Authority states that no Jews will be allowed to live in their entity; condemns Arabs to death for selling property to Jews; and pays Arabs’ lifetime pensions to murder Jews and Americans. The P.A. also names schools, streets and sports teams after Jew-killers.”
Klein said the ZOA urges Ocasio-Cortez to fire Altamimi, as well as “publicly condemn these hateful odious remarks” made by him.
Well, let’s see. Hussein Altamimi’s remarks are certainly unpleasant – “hateful” and “odious,” according to Morton Klein – but are they true? Altamimi first posted, with evident approval, a statement he came across at the site “Let’s Talk Palestine,” that accused Israel of being an “apartheid” state and of having a “racial hierarchy.” So forgive us the need to repeat, endlessly, the same rebuttal as we have posted a dozen times before.
In Israel, Arabs sit in the Knesset, serve on the Supreme Court, go abroad as ambassadors for their country. An Arab party, Ra’am, is part of the current governing coalition. The chairman of Israel’s largest bank, Bank Leumi, is an Arab. Jews and Arabs study together in universities, work in the same offices and factories, provide care to Jewish and Arab patients, and receive treatment from Jewish and Arab doctors and nurses, in the same hospitals. Jews and Arabs play on the same sports teams and in the same orchestras. They act together on the stage, on television, and the movies. None of that would be possible in a real “apartheid” state as South Africa was until the 1990s. There is only one difference in the treatment of Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs. Jews must, while Arabs may, serve in the military.
Is there a “racial hierarchy” in Israel? Do Jews lord it over Arabs? Nowhere, and in nothing. There is complete legal equality between Jew and Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim. There are no professions in Israel that Arabs cannot practice, unlike the Palestinians in many Arab lands, such as Lebanon, where they are shut up in camps, and prohibited from practicing dozens of professions.
Altamimi accompanied that post from “Let’s Talk Palestine” by writing in his Instagram: “Israel is a racist European ethnostate built on stolen land from its indigenous population!” Is Israel a “European ethnostate”? This is one of the staples of Palestinian propaganda – that “the Jews” all came to Israel from Europe, and are not indigenous to the Middle East; they have no business laying claim to any part of Israel. But we know that Jews have been living continuously for 3000 years in the Land of Israel; there is extensive archaeological evidence – pottery, coins, scrolls from the Dead Sea, ancient synagogues, mosaics, and so much more – of that Jewish presence. And Jews were not only in Eretz Israel, but spread from there across the Middle East and North Africa and into Europe. The Jews who remained in the Middle East and North Africa are called Mizrahi Jews; there is nothing “European” about them; in 2005 61% of Israeli Jews claimed Mizrahi or part-Mizrahi ancestry.
Less than one-third of Israeli Jews claim Ashkenazi or part-Ashkenazi ancestry, which would link them to Europe. Of course even those Ashkenazi Jews did not originate in Europe; like all Jews, they originated in the Land of Israel; through the centuries some Jewish populations appeared in Europe The only reason for Hussein Altamimi to make his preposterous claim that Israel is a “European ethnostate” is that he wants to deny the indigeneity of the Jews, the claim that they originated in the Land of Israel,, and are not outside invaders who came as European conquerors to the Middle East. There are whole museums of archaeology and anthropology that offer incontrovertible evidence that Altamimi has it wrong. But his narrative depends on the “white, European, colonial-settlers” coming from outside, arriving in Palestine where, in his narrative, the Muslim Arabs have been living for thousands of years, and proceeding to “steal their land.” No one has been able, for obvious reasons, to find any evidence of that Muslim Arab presence before the seventh century A.D., about 2300 years later than the Jews first appeared in the Land of Israel.
Hussein Altamimi claims that “Israel is a racist European ethnostate built on stolen land from its indigenous population!” Which is the indigenous population – the Arabs who came out of Arabia in the seventh century and conquered large swathes of the Middle East and North Africa, or the Jews who since 3000 B.C. had been living uninterruptedly in the Land of Israel? The Jews did not “steal [the Arabs’] land. It was the Jews who were dispossessed of their land by various conquerors – Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman Turk – but who finally, in the 20th century, were encouraged by the ideology of Zionism to return to the Land of Israel, not to “steal land,” but to buy it from Arab and Turkish landowners. The sums the Jews spent in this effort were exorbitant: in 1941, Jews buying scarcely arable land in Mandatory Palestine were paying more to their Arab owners than was then being charged for the richest farmland in the world, in Iowa. The Palestine Mandate, Article 6, calls on the holder of the Mandate, Great Britain, to facilitate Jewish immigration and to encourage “close settlement by Jews on the land.” In addition, “state and waste lands” were to be made available for Jews to settle on. The only time that Israel took land that it did not buy, or inherit as “state and waste land,” was in the immediate aftermath of the 1948 war. Arabs who had left the area, having been encouraged to do so by Arab broadcasts that promised that if they left the places where fighting was taking place in Palestine, they would soon be able to return with the victorious Arab armies. They left, but the “victorious Arab armies” never appeared. Israel saw no reason, since the Arabs who left were clearly not going to return, not to allow Jews to settle on these lands deserted by their owners. The Israelis did not “steal land” but put to use land that had been permanently abandoned. There is a difference.
Hussain Altamimi has made a series of damning charges. He claims that Israel is an “apartheid” state, but provides no evidence for this preposterous claim, for there is none. He insists there is a “racial hierarchy” in Israel, but again, offers no evidence for Jews lording It over, whether in law or in custom, Israeli Arabs. He calls Israel a “European ethnostate,” though almost two-thirds of Israel’s Jews are Mizrahis, descended from people who never left the Middle East and North Africa. He charges Israel with “stealing” land from the Arabs, ignoring the fact that all the land the Zionists acquired before the 1948 war was bought at very high prices from Arab and Turkish landowners. The land left by Arabs who fled just before, during, and after that war, was taken by the State of Israel and settled on by Jews. Those same Jews in many instances had fled for their lives from Arab lands, leaving them bereft of tens of billions of dollars in property. Israel put t use the land abandoned by Arabs. What else should Israel have done? Left those lands forever empty?
Hussain Altamimi has made a series of accusations against the Jewish state that are false. He has maligned the State of Israel. What does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plan to do? Will she shut her ears to those who have complained about Altamimi, or will she do the right thing, and look into his claims, and If she finds them to be false, say so publicly? Or will she remain silent, which will be interpreted as constituting an endorsement of his statements as true? The only honorable course for her is to investigate the truth or falsehood of his remarks, and when she finds them — as she surely will — to be false, both to denounce Hussain Altamimi’s lies, and to let him go. He won’t remain unemployed for long. Even now they are ready to take him on board as a “legislative liaison with Congress” at that samaritan institution, CAIR, where Israel-bashing is never out of style.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-01-11 06:24:562022-01-11 06:27:57Ocasio-Cortez: Comes the Moment to Decide
Apparently just an attention seeker, as he set a date of January 3 which passed without incident, but he should be investigated. Instead, he still rants on Twitter, while numerous defenders of freedom have been banned or shadowbanned.
by Hana Levi Julian, Jewish Press, January 3, 2022:
A Twitter user with the handle “Bowser @KoopaNot_” is threatening to murder Jews at synagogues in Los Angeles.
In the first tweet that appears to have now been deleted, “Bowser” wrote:
“in 2022 i’m gonna finally act upon my desires to kill ALL JEWS JANUARY 3, 2022 IM GONNA SHOOT UP THE SYNAGOGUE AT 5711 Monte Vista St Los Angeles, CA 90042 Highland Park MAY GOD PROTECT BUT HE DOESN’T LIKE JEWS ALLAH SHALL PREVAIL”
Twitter user threatens to “kill all Jews” and “shoot up the synagogue.” Jan. 3, 2022
A second tweet that was still up when JewishPress.com checked Twitter on January 3, 2022 at 9:50 pm Israel time, listed the synagogues where “Bowser” tweeted” “already got my bodies lined up”
A separate Twitter user replied to the tweet with a list of handles he appeared to have notified, including Twitter itself, the FBI, LAPD headquarters, FBI Los Angeles, Jewish talk show host Ben Shapiro, Chabad Lubavitch, and Jewish activists Ezra Friedlander and Yossi Gestetner.
A third tweet that also remained on Twitter showed a man who may have been the author, with an antisemitic caricature of a Hassidic Jew….
RELATED TWEET:
Threat to harm Jews- Twitter user @KoopaNot_ (which appears to be run by Greensboro, NC resident @reidtracy_) tweets his desire to "k!ll ALL JEWS" and lists a variety of synagogues in LA. pic.twitter.com/1H5FFMDKQy
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-01-07 03:42:562022-01-07 06:49:36@KoopaNot_ vows on Twitter to ‘act upon my desires to kill ALL JEWS,’ says he’ll shoot up Los Angeles synagogue
by Houston Keene, Fox News, December 30, 2021 (thanks to Henry):
FIRST ON FOX: A staffer for “Squad” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., referred to Israel as a “racist European ethnostate” on social media.
Hussain Altamimi joined Ocasio-Cortez’s office in November as a legislative assistant, posting shortly after a picture of him and the congresswoman on Instagram with the caption “New beginnings.”
Then, last week, Altamimi targeted Israel in an Instagram story calling the U.S.’s key Middle Eastern ally a “racist European ethnostate.”
“Israel is a racist European ethnostate built on stolen land from its indigenous population!” Altamimi wrote on Christmas Eve, according to a screenshot obtained by Fox News Digital.
Altamimi’s comments were in response to a post he shared from an account with the handle “Let’s Talk Palestine,” which claimed there is a “racial hierarchy” in Israel.
“This reveals the principle underpinning Israeli apartheid: It’s not about where you’re born,” the shared post reads. “It’s about whether you’re Jewish or non-Jewish. Your ethnicity determines your rights [and] level in the racial hierarchy.”
“Israel is an exclusive ethnostate, established to serve one ethnic group at the expense of another,” the post continued….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2022-01-01 05:55:492022-01-01 06:44:19Muslim staffer for AOC calls Israel ‘racist European ethnostate’ built on ‘stolen land’
The Simon Wiesenthal Center plans to unveil its list of the world’s top 10 anti-Semites during a news conference Tuesday morning. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) will be named alongside the Hamas terrorist group and its patron, the Iranian government, The Algemeinerreported Monday afternoon.
The three share one overarching goal – the elimination of Israel.
Iranian regime officials havesaid it for years. Hamas put it in its anti-Semitic charter. And top CAIR officials repeatedly have said they do not believe the Jewish state has a right to exist. CAIR co-founder and Executive Director Nihad Awad called Tel Aviv “occupied” in a speech last month, praying that, “inshallah [God willing], it will be free later.”
CAIR officials also repeatedly equated Israel’s military, the IDF, to ISIS terrorists, vilified “Israel [and] its supporters” as the “enemies of God and humanity,” and pushed anti-Semitic conspiracies linking programs which take American police leaders to Israel lead to “deadly police shootings” of Black people in America.
Recent remarks by CAIR’s San Francisco chapter director Zahra Billoo cemented CAIR’s place on the Wiesenthal Center list, The Algemeinerreported. Billoo told an American Muslims for Palestine conference that “polite Zionists,” which she defined as everything from the Anti-Defamation League to campus Hillels and “Zionist synagogues,” are “enemies” who “we need to pay attention to.”
CAIR defended Billoo, who announced last week that she was taking a sabbatical, in the wake of resulting criticism of her comments. CAIR said it was proud of “the courage she demonstrates in her civil rights work” and condemned what it called an “online smear campaign against our sister and colleague, Zahra Billoo.”
CAIR claims to be a civil rights group, Associate Dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper told The Algemeiner, but a statement “made by a top official at CAIR is openly anti-Semitic and the support given to her by CAIR helps mainstream Jew-hatred in the US.”
“Billoo is but one of venomous professional Israel and Jew-haters who use non-existent dots to create phony links between Israel and US social crises,” the Wiesenthal Center told The Algemeiner. “They always wrap their bigotry in the mantle of social justice. The goal is demonizing the Jewish state and silencing Israel’s supporters on campus and Capitol Hill.”
Among its missions, the Wiesenthal Center “confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations.”
The Wiesenthal Center designation comes as CAIR has tried to smear the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) as an “anti-Muslim hate group,” a phrase repeatedly parroted by mainstream news outlets including the Washington Post and Columbus Dispatch. CAIR also tries to smear IPT Executive Director Steven Emerson with an anti-Semitic “dual loyalty” accusation, falsely claiming he “collaborated with Israeli intelligence.”
In a statement given to news outlets, the IPT said that “Neither Mr. Emerson nor the IPT has ever worked at the direction of any government, foreign or domestic; and has never received any funding from any government, foreign or domestic. Nor have Emerson or IPT ever coordinated any activities whatsoever with any foreign government; any such allegations are false and defamatory.”…
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-12-30 04:44:282021-12-30 04:48:04Hamas-Linked CAIR to be Named Among Wiesenthal Center’s Top Global Anti-Semites
Elder of Ziyon notes: “Billoo declares that practically every Jewish organization in America is an enemy of Muslims. Not only that, but any organization that supports a two state solution is an enemy of Muslims. She doesn’t call them out explicitly, but that includes J-Street, that includes Peace Now, that includes Breaking the Silence. And she explicitly says that Hillels, the ADL, the Jewish Federations and even essentially all synagogues in America are the enemies of Muslims.”
Will this speech herald a crack in the coalition between Leftist Jews and Islamic supremacist groups? Stay tuned.
Original video:
MEMRI excerpt:
“CAIR Official Zahra Billoo: The Two-State Solution Is ‘Laughable’; Any Organization That Promotes It Is An Enemy; ADL, Jewish Federation, ‘Zionist Synagogues,’ Hillel Chapters Will Throw You Under The Bus,” MEMRI, November 25, 2021:
American activist Zahra Billoo, the executive-director of the San Francisco Bay Area branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA), said in a panel at the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) Annual Conference, which took place in Chicago on November 27, 2021, that the two-state solution is “laughable” and that any organization that supports it is an enemy. She told the audience that the Anti-Defamation League, Jewish Federation, “Zionist Synagogues,” and Hillel chapters on “our campuses” are not their friends. Billoo said that they will throw the Muslims under the bus. She further urged the audience to donate monthly to AMP, because if they pay U.S. taxes, this means that they financially support “apartheid” every month.
The panel was streamed live on the American Muslims for Palestine YouTube channel, and CAIR executive-director Nihad Awad also participated in the panel (see MEMRI TV clips 9208, 3536, 3701, and 5279). Attendees included Linda Sarsour (see MEMRI TV clips nos. 6935, 6808, and 6111), Lamis Deek (see MEMRI TV clip no. 3430), and Taher Herzallah (see MEMRITV clip no. 7071).
Zahra Billoo: “We need to pay attention to the Anti-Defamation League. We need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation. We need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues. We need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses, because just because they are your friends today, doesn’t mean that they have your back when it comes to human rights.
“So oppose the vehement fascist, but oppose the polite Zionist too. They are not your friends. They will not be there for you when you need them. They will take your friendship and throw your Palestinian brothers and sisters under the bus. Oh! You get along because you are all in Girl Scouts together? Talk to them about what is happening in Palestine, and see how that conversation goes.
“And so, when we think about Islamophobia and Zionism, let’s be clear about the connections. There is no difference between domestic policy and foreign policy when it comes to our human rights. There is no difference between domestic policy and foreign policy when it comes to those who seek to target us.
[…]
“By the way, you should be a monthly donor to American Muslims for Palestine. Build it into your budget and forget about it. Make it your monthly contribution, because you are contributing to the apartheid monthly. It is a part of your budget. You are paying your taxes, so you should be giving money to AMP monthly.
[…]
“The list goes on. Know who is on your side. Build community with them, because the next thing I am going to tell you is to know your enemies. And I am not going to sugarcoat that, they are your enemies. There are organizations and infrastructures out there who are working to harm you. Make no mistake of it. They would sell you down the line if they could, and they very often do behind your back. I mean the Zionist organizations, I mean the foreign policy organizations who say they are not Zionists but want a two-state solution. I am not a Palestinian myself, but it is my understanding that that is laughable. So know your enemies.”
That courageous titan of contemporary journalism, Dana Milbank, has an explosive scoop in Monday’s Washington Post: He has discovered that Rashida Tlaib, far from being the Squad firebrand and unhinged hard-Leftist that everyone takes her to be, is actually a Trump-supporting MAGA redneck who has imbibed anti-Semitism from the source and summit of Jew-hatred himself, Mr. Donald J. Trump. Yes, it sounds fanciful, and it is, but in Dana Milbank’s world, there is just no difference between “evil” and “Trump”; if there is something bad in the world, it must be the fault of the Bad Orange Man. What possible alternative explanation could there be?
In an opinion piece (of course, they’re all opinion pieces in the Post nowadays) entitled “Rashida Tlaib’s bigotry comes from the MAGA handbook, which really ought to be fitted out with a laugh track,” Milbank states: “It’s a classic Trump move: Blame a minority group for a sinister conspiracy, then deny responsibility when your supporters act on your baseless claim. Work ‘em into a lather, rinse and repeat.”
Milbank is just as surprised as everyone else at who is using this playbook: why, it’s one of the Satanic Trump’s most prominent victims! “Few,” he claims, and the laugh track should rise in volume here, “have been victimized by Donald Trump’s hateful tactics more than Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who with other members of ‘the Squad’ were told by Trump to ‘go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.’ So why is Tlaib now using the Trump playbook against others?”
Milbank notes that “Acts of antisemitism rose dramatically during the Trump presidency, reaching a high in 2019 and barely dropping in 2020,” without, of course, providing the slightest shred of evidence that this rise was due to anything said or done by the most pro-Israel president since the founding of the modern state of Israel. “In May 2021,” Milbank continues, without bothering to note the fact that by then Biden’s handlers had supplanted Trump in the Oval Office, “during the fighting between Israel and Hamas (and anti-Israel protests by left-wing demonstrators in the United States), anti-Jewish violence and harassment surged to more than double the previous year’s level.”
As long as we’re assigning blame, which president is more likely to incite anti-Semitism? One who strongly defended and aided the right of Israel to defend itself from genocidal jihadist enemies, or one who has appointed a large number of fierce opponents of Israel to all levels of his administration, abetted the spread of Palestinian jihad propaganda demonizing Israel, and even praised an open anti-Semite and promised to defend her family from alleged Israeli aggression? The claim that Trump was anti-Semitic was one of the principal Big Lies of the Left over the last four years.
Violent and anti-Semitic. Wow, I’m totally stumped. Is Khaled Awad a white supremacist? After all, what other ideology inculcates violence and anti-Semitism?
BRIGHTON (CBS) – College roommates of Khaled Awad, the man accused of stabbing Rabbi Shlomo Noginski eight times outside a Jewish school in Brighton Thursday, say he was “violent” and “very much anti-Semitic”….
Prosecutors said Awad has no record in Massachusetts, but has faced charges of battery and theft in Florida and was sent to a mental health facility there….
His former college roommates and friends at the University of Southern Florida, where he studied chemical engineering until very recently, say Awad had showed a propensity for violence.
“He started becoming violent,” said Eric Valiente, a friend of Awad’s.
His roommate Aidan says he and Awad were friends until Awad attacked him in their shared kitchen on day, prompting Aidan to move out and get a restraining order.
“We were friends, to be honest with you. I’m Jewish. And he knew that since I moved in,” said Aidan Anderson, the suspect’s former roommate.
Aidan and Eric say Awad’s beliefs towards certain cultures became evident early on.
“He was very much anti-Semitic. He would say like all types of Jewish jokes. I thought he was joking at first and then I started to see seriousness in his comments,” said Eric.
After the assault in fall of 2020, the friend distanced themselves from Khaled, but still say they’re shocked he would go so far as to assault a stranger with a weapon.
“He disgusted me at that point. I wanted nothing to do with the guy. At this point, I was a little scared of him. I was scared of what he was capable of because I realize he was a very dark person,” said Eric….
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Jihad Watchhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJihad Watch2021-07-04 07:20:392021-10-07 20:23:43College Roommates of Muslim Who Stabbed Rabbi in Boston Say He’s ‘Violent’ and ‘Very Much Anti-Semitic’
