JCPA Against Liberty for DC

Maybe we need a regular column to examine the leftie Jewish organizations fulfilling the will of their leftie masters at the DNC. On the heels of the APRPEH post, Cashing in on Obama which discussed the immigration reform advocacy of the JCPA, today we look at the JCPA's intervention in the District of Columbia's firearms policy.

Below, the JTA reported that the JCPA opposed a Senate amendment offered by Sen. John Ensign to comply with the new legal realities in the US post District of Columbia v. Heller.

The JCPA opposed Any attempt to "undermine" Washington's ability to regulate firearms reasoning that the District's right to regulate firearms would be impacted. Well, it occurs to me that the Supreme Court took care of the impeding of the District's firearms laws in Heller.

The Supremes in a 5-4 vote upheld a Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit finding that the 2nd Amendment actually means what it says and that the District needs to pay attention.

My question to the JCPA would be, "To what regulations are you referring? Those that were struck down by the courts?". The lefties in control in the District do have the right to regulate firearms, but within reason. They cannot prevent firearm ownership or make it close to impossible for legal firearm ownership and commerce. The JCPA seems to be opposed to legal firearm ownership and trade of firearms. Once again, we see the left campaigning against laws and court findings which uphold Liberty and law against the tyranny of the left. Be on guard, freedom loving Americans, more of this is coming during the Obama years.

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Interfaith letter opposes effort to ‘undermine’ D.C. gun laws - JTA

February 26, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Any attempt to "undermine" Washington's ability to regulate firearms should not be included in the District of Columbia's voting rights legislation, an interfaith coalition said.

In a letter to the U.S. Senate, the 31-member group, organized by the Jewish Coalition for Public Affairs and including more than a dozen Jewish organizations, said that "though proponents of such legislation claim it would restore Second Amendment rights in the District of Columbia, in actuality it prevents the 600,000 District of Columbia residents from enacting comprehensive, constitutional, common-sense regulations to reduce gun violence and ensure their community's safety."

On Wednesday, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) introduced an amendment that would repeal all of the district's gun laws enacted since the Supreme Court overturned Washington's law banning handguns last year.

The Senate could vote on a final version of the voting rights bill this week after a cloture vote limiting debate on the bill succeeded Tuesday. The legislation would permanently add two seats to the U.S. House of Representatives, one to the heavily Democratic District of Columbia and the other to Republican-leaning Utah until reapportionment in 2012. Utah had narrowly missed acquiring an additional seat after the last reapportionment in 2002.

In addition to JCPA, Jewish signatories include the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, Hadassah, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, Jewish Women's International, Jews United for Justice, the National Council of Jewish Women, Na'amat USA, the Union of Reform Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Women of Reform Judaism, Women's League of Conservative Judaism and Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring.

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WTOP coverage (less bias)

Cashing in on Obama

What bigger issue is there than immigration reform? It is on the minds of everyone, in constant debate in Congress and the subject of radio talk shows and newspaper editorials daily. Huh?

America is walking down a path to economic disaster, flushing billions of dollars down the drain in bailouts, and planning to spend dollars in amounts that most people only relate to in theory yet, in the minds of the leftie, Jewish mainstream organizations, immigration reform is THE key issue. During the past presidential election, the conservatives wanted to make immigration reform, a different immigration reform than that advocated below, an issue in the campaign however the presidential candidate was not on-board.

The leftist initiative seeks to re-design immigration enforcement policy to meet the standards of the false morality of leftism. At the heart of the effort is "to get Obama to issue an executive order or other directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement curtailing the use of raids as a primary tool of immigration enforcement". ICE raids, far from being immoral have been highly effective in upholding the law of the land and represent an effort to at the very least establish a deterant factor against hiring illegal workers.

The first step to understanding this problem is to employ proper terminology. In the eyes of the lefties, illegal workers are "undocumented immigrants". (see Enforcement Gone Bad - NYT where the unnamed editorial decries the effort to catch "undocumented immigrants". The editorial claims that illegally entering the US and over-staying visas is not a criminal offense). Immigrants, by definition are legally in the US. Those who are not legally in the US are not "immigrants". People who have not legally entered the US or are working illegally in the US are not "immigrants" but fugitives. Given that many or most of those working illegally in the US are using phony or stolen identities of American citizens are (or should be) felons (see article at bottom).

Not only leftist non-orthodox believe that fugitives have rights. I have even heard from leftie orthodox such as Saul Berman, that fugitives should actually be considered "gerim toshvim" and should be treated with the same rights as a resident alien. As stated above, if you are working in the US illegally, (like those employees of Agriprocessors whom Berman was discussing) you are violating multiple US laws in the process. So much for Dina D'Malchusa Dina. If so, what is the value of coming to the US legally especially when you can always find a leftie orthodox Rabbi to grant you the status of ger toshav despite the fact that you may be an identity thief.

APRPEH has discussed employment/SSN identity theft before. The bottom line is that American citizens who become a victim of this sort of fraud have to deal with not only the IRS, but the SSA, as well. The consumer must pay the SSA for what is known as a detailed wage earning statement which reports which companies and businesses reported income associated with their SSN. Standard operating procedure of these federal agencies is to have the consumer contact these employers. All this means possibly weeks of contacting companies and businesses, sending documentation back and forth and months more working with the federal agencies to correct records. Often a cost of this process is a delay in income tax refunds and extended time needed for proper tax filing.

Contrast the views of the Jewish main stream leftie groups with the case headed to the US Supreme Court in the second article below. The fugitive named in this case had been using phony identification to work and then purchased the identity of an American citizen. He was turned in to authorities under suspicion by his employer when he changed his personal identifying information that was on file with his HR department. The case hinges on whether the fugitive should have been charged with a higher crime of identity theft which carries a two year incarceration sentence or lesser charges. The fugitive claims he didn't know that the ID belonged to someone.

The other side of the argument is claiming it does not matter what the fugitive knew. The truth of course is that the fugitive knew he was illegally residing in and illegally working in the US. Indeed he was charged correctly as were the Agriprocessor employees referred to in the article. America must uphold the right to work for American citizen laws that are on the books. No intervening false sense of morality that blames ICE raids, labels as immoral the ID theft laws used as leverage for convictions should be granted legitimacy. American citizens, taxpayers, have rights too, to not be victimized - which might come as a shock to those advocating making it easier for more fugitive entry and illegals to work in the US. A little sympathy to the victims of crime would be nice from the lefties. What did we used to call it? Soft on crime? What the lefties call immoral is called by right thinking people - effective law enforcement.

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Jews stepping up efforts for immigration reform - JTA, Friday February 20, 2009
by Eric Fingerhut - JTA

Washington | It was the forgotten issue of the general election campaign, with the two U.S. presidential candidates barely mentioning it last fall. And with so much focus on the economy, it seems to have receded even more into the background.

But Jewish groups aren’t letting that stop them from making a big push for comprehensive immigration reform.

Several major Jewish organizations recently signed on to two new initiatives: a Jewish campaign aiming for “Progress by Pesach” on the immigration issue and the larger Interfaith Immigration Coalition working for the enactment of “humane and equitable” reform by the end of this year.

While Jewish groups are urging President Barack Obama and Congress to take action, they are focusing much of their attention on education and advocacy efforts in local communities, hoping to see pressure bubble up to Washington.

Melanie Nezer, senior director for U.S. programs and advocacy at the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, said the key to success in immigration reform is for local activists to let their representatives know how important it is — and that’s already starting.

“In the last year we’ve really started hearing from local communities that this is something that needed to be done,” Nezer said. “We really have the grass roots pushing a lot of this.”

In particular, she said, the impact of immigration raids on local communities — such as the one last year on the Agriprocessors kosher meat plant in Postville, Iowa, which resulted in hundreds of arrests — have demonstrated the “fallout” from problematic immigration policies “in a very direct way.”

Postville-like raids are a prime motivator of the Progress by Pesach initiative, in which groups including HIAS, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the National Council of Jewish Women, the Reform and Reconstructionist movements and the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly have joined with a multitude of local organizations. Among their goals is to get Obama to issue an executive order or other directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement curtailing the use of raids as a primary tool of immigration enforcement.

The organizations are aiming to collect 10,000 signatures by April 8, the first night of Passover, for a petition encouraging “humanitarian immigration reform” and decrying the “policy of relying on raids and enforcement tactics as the sole means of controlling immigration.” Visitors to the group’s Web site (www.hias.org/progress) also can send a letter to the president and members of Congress that contains similar language.

Coalition members argue that in addition to denying equal protection to those detained and splitting up families through jailing and deportations, the immigration raids also are expensive for the government and seriously impede businesses in a poor economy.

Many of the same national organizations, along with others, including United Jewish Communities and B’nai B’rith International, are part of the Interfaith Immigration Coalition.

The coalition’s platform in favor of “humane and equitable” immigration reform by the end of 2009 includes upholding family unity as a priority, creating a process for undocumented immigrants to earn legal status and eventual citizenship, restoring due process protections, reforming detention policies, and aligning the enforcement of immigration laws with humanitarian values.

“Throughout history, the Jewish community has been the quintessential immigrant community, often forced to flee from land to land to land,” said the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Rabbi David Saperstein. “Having struggled to adjust to societies that did not welcome our arrival, we understand many of the challenges faced by today’s immigrants.”

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Supreme Court hears immigrant's ID theft case 2/22/2009, 8:19 a.m. EST By MARK SHERMAN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ignacio Carlos Flores-Figueroa, an undocumented worker from Mexico, made a curious and undeniably bad decision. After working under an assumed name for six years, he decided to use his real name and exchanged one set of phony identification numbers for another.

The change made his employer suspicious and the authorities were called in. The old numbers were made up, but the new ones he bought happened to belong to real people. Federal prosecutors said that was enough to label Flores-Figueroa an identity thief.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments Wednesday on prosecutors' aggressive use of a new law that was intended to strengthen efforts to combat identity theft. In at least hundreds of cases last year, workers accused of immigration violations found themselves facing the more serious identity theft charge as well, without any indication they knew their counterfeit Social Security and other identification numbers belonged to actual people and were not made up.

The government has used the charge, which carries a mandatory two-year minimum prison term, to persuade people to plead guilty to the lesser immigration charges and accept prompt deportation. Many of those undocumented workers had been arrested in immigration raids.

The case hinges on how the justices resolve this question: Does it matter whether someone using a phony ID knows that it belongs to someone else?

The government, backed by victims' rights groups, says no. The "havoc wrecked on the victim's life is the same either way," said Stephen Masterson, a Los Angeles-based lawyer, in his brief for the victims' rights groups.

On the other side, Flores-Figueroa and more than 20 immigrants' rights groups, defense lawyers and privacy experts say that the law Congress passed in 2004 was aimed at the identity thief who gains access to people's private information to drain their accounts and run up bills in their name. Surveys estimate that more than 8 million people in the United States are victims of identity theft each year.

Flores-Figueroa acknowledges he used fraudulent documents to get and keep his job at a steel plant in East Moline, Ill. But he "had no intention of stealing anyone's identity," his lawyers said in their brief to the court. He traveled to Chicago and bought numbers from someone who trades in counterfeit IDs.

Had he been caught while using the fictitious name and numbers that went with it, he could not have been charged with the more serious offense.

Federal appeals courts in St. Louis, which ruled against Flores-Figueroa, Atlanta and Richmond, Va., have come down on the government's side. Appeals courts based in Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have ruled for defendants.

The government's use of identity theft charges in immigration cases was on full display in last year's raid on a kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa. Authorities charged 270 undocumented workers with identity theft, including its threat of two years in prison.

Chuck Roth, litigation director for the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago, called the charge "a bludgeon" that was intended to elicit guilty pleas to lesser charges. Roth's group joined one of the briefs supporting Flores-Figueroa.

All 270 workers accepted plea deals in which they also agreed not to contest deportation.

An additional 100 workers arrested in the same raid were using unassigned numbers and faced charges with little prospect of prison time.

The case is Flores-Figueroa v. U.S., 08-108.

Moonbats Say: Our Children Will Make Peace

Kumbaya. Let peace begin with me. Give peace a chance.

Child sacrifice is strictly forbidden by Torah. Isaac, after all was brought upon the altar and taken down. Do not harm the boy. Do not do anything to him. For now I know that you fear G-d. You have not withheld your only son from Him - Bereshis 22:12. The Jewish child is a precious, holy gift from HaShem. A parent is given a child with a holy neshama to nurture into a spiritually holy life. However, far too often, Torah truths and the political "beliefs" of the parents come into conflict, especially amongst the moonbat-left crowd. In such occasions, logic dictates that the Jew set aside "beliefs" and seek Torah guidance.

The story below is a testimony to the sickness of liberalism in the Jewish world which demands moral equivalency even to the point of denying the truth and the strengthening of the undoing of Israel's most basic right to exist. My comments to the article follow the story. For those who want to stop now before reading the account of moonbat madness, the bottom line is that Jews need to stand up and say Israel is for the Jews and that there is no such thing as palis.

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Young Muslims, Jews work toward peace
February 17, 2009

Groups try to bridge gap between religions

By Bob Smietana
THE TENNESSEAN

Shoshana Jaffa sums up the conflict in the Middle East like this: "Everybody wants to meet halfway, but no one knows where halfway is."

Jaffa was one of about 45 Jewish and Muslim teens and young adults who met Sunday at Congregation Micah in Brentwood (TN) to discuss the recent fighting in Gaza.

It's part of a dialogue between local Jews and Muslims aimed at building understanding between young people of different faiths. Organizers hope that if young people can learn to discuss the Middle East civilly, perhaps their parents can, as well.

In fact, there was just one rule in place at Sunday morning's meeting — no parents allowed.

"Adults can't have this conversation," Michael Pote, a Sunday School teacher at Congregation Micah, said to the interfaith group meeting in a classroom at the Brentwood synagogue. "Things like this don't happen, and it's a shame."

Pote says that Jewish and Muslim adults rarely discuss the Middle East conflict without ending in a shouting match. He and other organizers hope that young people can show their parents and faith communities a better way.

Sunday's meeting was part of an ongoing dialogue between youth groups at the Islamic Center of Nashville and two local synagogues, Congregation Micah and West End Synagogue in Nashville.

In December, a group of Jewish high school juniors visited the Islamic center for a lesson on the basics of Islam taught by the Muslim youth group. On Sunday, the Jewish teens returned the favor, leading a class on the basics of Judaism.

After the class, Pote, along with Rabbi Flip Rice of Congregation Micah, and Rashed Fakhruddin of the Islamic Center, led an hour-long discussion of the Middle East conflict. The students quizzed one another on everything from the history of Zionism to whether a two-state solution would solve the current conflict.

Several of the Muslim students wanted to know how much Israel's claim to Palestine was religious, and how much was political.

"Most of the people in this room do not believe that Israel is mine because it says so in our sacred texts," Rice said. "That doesn't mean that we don't want Israel to be there, but it's not a deed to the land."

When Rice asked the Jewish youth if any believe that Israel belonged to the Jewish people because the Bible says so, only one student raised her hand. On the other hand, several students said that while Jews had a right to their own homeland, the country should not exclude people of other faiths.

That idea is actually found in the Israeli Declaration of Independence, says S. Ilan Troen, director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

Still, Troen says that the religious connection of Jews to Palestine remains strong.

Students discuss history

During Sunday's conversation, the students also discussed the history of Zionism, which dates back to the 1890s. Inspired by the writings of Theodor Herzl, Jews began to move back to Palestine and buy land.

At the time, Pote said, Palestine wasn't viewed as a paradise on Earth.

"At that time, it was either desert or swampland," Pote said. "This was not ground where you'd say, 'Oh I have to live there.' "

Complicating matters, both the Jewish and Muslim students admitted, is the fact that Palestine has been ruled by outside powers for more than 2,000 years. Jews were forced from the land by the Romans beginning in 70 A.D., after a failed uprising. When large groups began to return around 1900, Palestine was ruled by the Turks, and then the British after World War II, until Israel's independence in 1948.

Sabina Mohyuddin, who helps lead the Muslim youth group, said it was important for the students to get a bigger picture on the conflict on Middle East.

"In the nightly news, it's two minutes. It won't do any justice to the whole issue," she said. Mohyuddin said that she encourages her students to read news accounts and history from different perspectives.

After the meeting ended, the Muslim students took a tour of the synagogue.

Amar Razali, a 22-year-old Muslim student who spent the discussion seated in front of a stained-glass window of the Ten Commandments in Hebrew,
said that he was surprised by how much Jews and Muslims have in common.

"We should focus on our similarities, and less on our differences."

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Back in December during Israel's Operation Cast Lead attack on the terrorist gang Hamas the Tennessean reported on simultaneous rallies in downtown Nashville Local Rallies Mirror Israel-Palestine Splitwhere Jews and Christians came together to support Israel's right of self-defense against random rocket fire into cities in Israel from Gaza. Local Arabs came together to complain that Israel was fighting back. Today, the Tennessean reports that children "can show their parents and faith communities a better way." Children can be taught to ignore the facts when their parents aren't around. For the Muslim side that might not be so bad. But for the Jewish side.....

This story is interesting in that we find local Jews, tied to the land of Israel by religion, by history and by law not knowing that fact. It is curious that a "dialogue between local Jews and Muslims aimed at building understanding between young people of different faiths " has any mention of international politics at all. Muslim youth, unless specifically connected to the land of Israel by all rights should merely be as connected to Israel as any youth anywhere, which should be scant to little.

Like all people, they, their families, their friends can travel to Israel as tourists and visit wherever they please. The Jewish youth on the other hand, contrary to the article's quotes are indeed, by religious obligation connected to the land of Israel and should not be afraid of saying so. Unlike the quote in the article,

"Most of the people in this room do not believe that Israel is mine because it says so in our sacred texts," Rice said. "That doesn't mean that we don't want Israel to be there, but it's not a deed to the land."

even the atheist David Ben-Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel testifying before the Peel Commission in 1937 said: "I say on behalf of the Jews that the Bible is our Mandate, the Bible which was written by us, in our own language, in Hebrew, in this very country. That is our Mandate. It was only recognition of this right which was expressed in the Balfour Declaration."

Ben-Gurion was only wrong in his citation of authorship but was quite correct in his logic. It is confusion over Jewish rights to the land and the pervasive liberal attitude to not say without hesitation that there is no such thing in history as an Arab Palestine which perpetuates the Arab Israel conflict. Let the youth meet, let them discuss common themes but let us not forget the truth, that Israel is the Jewish home land. Bring the kids together to feed the hungry and clean up the trash in the parks. Leave the political discussions out.

for review:
Daniel Pipes - Reader comment on article: The Forcible Removal of Israelis from Gaza

JCPA - AN ANSWER TO THE NEW ANTI-ZIONISTS:
THE RIGHTS OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE TO A
SOVEREIGN STATE IN THEIR HISTORIC HOMELAND


Front Page Magazine - How 'Nakba' Proves There's No Palestinian Nation

What Is Identity? Who Am I?

In honor of Data Privacy Day 2009, APRPEH presents the article from 2006 "It’s Me, and Here’s My Proof: Why Identity and Authentication Must Remain Distinct - Technet Microsoft - Steve Riley" mentioned last week by Bruce Schneier on Schneier on Security. Schneier's blog is a great place online to go for security information.

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When discussing identity we must first determine the audience to whom we are speaking. To some people identity is who they are. "My name is Ploni". To others identity might be a reflection of some important fact to which they identify answering the questions what they are, what they do. "I am a doctor", "I am a Republican", "I am a Jew". But is this really identity or something else?


Identity is defined in the information management and protection world as a way that an individual can be universally distinguished from another person and the access rights set for that person are enabled. Failure to authenticate identity results in denial of access.

For databases which the consumer visits, identity also means proof of identity and access level (authorization). In the article linked above, the reader will learn that identity is provided initially by the individual. Authentication is defined as proving who you are. Access is defined as setting user limitations. But of these three, identity and authentication can be faked by a perpetrator of identity theft. When the perpetrator acquires enough knowledge about the consumer to enter a less secure database - user name and password, we end up with hacked Paypal accounts and hijacked Facebook sites.

Truly secure databases will utilize two or multi factor authentication. This is how your ATM card operates. One factor is something you have (the card). One factor is something you know (PIN). Other factors could include some biometric or challenge question in addition to the PIN. Combining these authentications along with requiring them to change on a regular basis will provide the greatest level of security. None of this however will prevent a data breach. Only proper encryption of data can reduce the likelihood of stolen data being utilized by a perpetrator. Think of it this way. You cannot always prevent a traffic accident. But when you wear your seat belt and have an air bag, you can reduce the chances of serious injury to the driver and passenger when you do have an auto accident. Same with encryption. Not all encryption is equal and not all encryption is unbreakable. However, in the world of data theft when data is stolen, bought and sold daily - why bother wasting the time finding someone who can break the encryption (or steal the key).

However, in at least one high profile breach, the consumer information - encrypted and encryption key were stored on the same network.

{Avivah}Litan's sources in the financial industry have told her that thieves hacked into a as-yet-unknown system, and made off with data stored on debit cards' magnetic stripes, the associated "PIN blocks," or encrypted PIN data, and the key for that encrypted data.

The recommended multi-factor authentication will also not protect a consumer who's computer is vulnerable to key logger programs and malware. When your computer is transmitting all your user names, passwords, PINs, etc. to a fraud perpetrator along with what websites you visit, falling victim to at the very least account takeover is a sure bet. Real identity theft could be the result of your Social Security Number and Date of Birth being accessed from your computer. Computer security must be kept up to date. Again, this is the best protection possible but not fool proof.

In any event, data system designers need to think through these questions and try to solve the equation of security vs. user experience. While most people will say they want businesses they do electronic commerce with to be good stewards of their personal identifying information, the reality is that if the experience on that website is disappointing, the consumer will not come back again. Efficient access to identity and authentication on demand, along with storage or custodianship of information, information about us which we trust the custodian to protect, and policies which limit access to that information to an "as needed" basis is not the future of IT. It is the present. The future may look very different. The answer to the future of identity and authentication may be "you". I do not endorse stand alone biometrics mind you. But along with other authentications, maybe randomly applied authenticators along with private, trusted 3rd party identification warehousers, bio is coming.

It’s Me, and Here’s My Proof: Why Identity and Authentication Must Remain Distinct - Technet Microsoft - Steve Riley Published: February 14, 2006

The Gaza Cease Fire - Merely a "Lull"

Hamas: Member wounded in Israeli air strike - USA Today

The MSM, reporting from Gaza City is once again showing its bias against Israel. By reporting an Israeli reaction to an act of violence at the beginning of an article, the intent is to cast the IDF and Israel in the worst possible light. The roadside bomb which killed an Israeli soldier and wounded three others, mentioned initially in the second paragraph without explanation and then in the third paragraph where you finally see for the first time that the air strike, the lead idea in the report, was in response to an attack on an Israeli patrol.

The writer of the article then attempts to place a few doubts in the reader's mind as to the true nature of the exchange. First, the reader is told that Israel threatened responses to violations of the cease fire. This is written specifically to label one party "Israel" and not label the other party so that the accountability falls on Israel. Since withdrawing its troops, Israel has threatened to retaliate hard for any violations of the truce. Notice the way that a fact {Israel withdrew her military and will try to enforce the cease fire} is mangled into a statement breeding mistrust - a play on the sneaky Jew mythology. It seems to say, "those Israelis are just looking for an excuse to attack".

The reader then moves on to ...Gazans struggle to resume normal.... The reader is supposed to think, if only the Israelis would leave alone the peace loving arabians in Gaza, they would be able to re-build their homes and cities that were shattered by Israeli bombardment. No mention is made of Israeli cities trying to recover from bombings and shellings. Renewed warfare would return a wave of rockets into Israel.

After an attempt to rehabilitate Hamas as a reputable organization that would never think of confiscating money sent by donors to relieve the non-combatant population {never mind this was going on during the conflict} a minuscule attempt to remind the reader that Hamas is a terrorist organization with a wanted leader (Ismail Haniyeh) is easily overlooked given the drama of the article itself.

The writer's bias is on display as an attempt to sub-consciously remind the reader of the slant that Israel used "dis-proportionate" force is found in the next part of the report

After Tuesday's bomb blast, heavy gunfire was heard along the border in central Gaza and Israeli helicopters hovered in the air firing machine gun bursts, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli jet set off a loud sonic boom over Gaza City not long afterward, possibly as a warning.

For one measly little road side bomb, an IED after all, the IDF responds with overwhelming force and executes collective punishment. Oh, those evil Jews.

Its one thing to write the normally biased report and to write badly. Its another to report half facts and to ignore facts.

In the days immediately following the cease-fire there was shelling by Israeli gunboats and some gunfire along the border — including the killing of two men Palestinian officials identified as farmers — but there were no serious clashes until Tuesday.

Somehow forgotten was Hamas rocket attacks against Israel after the cease fire. See also Israel Matzav report and video.

Moving right along the reporter makes no effort to tell the reader that he is about to quote a major arabian death cultist. We are just supposed to assume he is another member of the respected and beloved religion of peace:

Although there was no claim of responsibility, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader, said Israel was to blame for continuing to fire into Gaza. Al-Masri said his group had not agreed to a full cease-fire but only to a "lull" in fighting.
"The Zionists are responsible for any aggression," he said.

Masri believes the cease-fire is a hudna. Hamas just needs some time to catch its breath, reload, rearm and rest a little while the international world gleefully rests on it laurels of once again interfering with the Israeli right of self-defense.

Masri is merely labeled "a Hamas leader" in the McPaper article. In a December 2007 article he is quoted as reported by JihadWatch as speaking to a Hamas rally,

In another speech to the rally, senior Hamas official Mushir al-Masri warned Israel to expect many casualties if troops invade the coastal territory in an attempt to stop almost daily rocket firing by militants into Israel.

"Jews, go back, because we have already dug graves for you," Masri said. Israel carries out regular raids on Gaza and has killed dozens of militants in the past month.

Finally, we have the summary paragraph:

Israel wants an end to Hamas rocket attacks and guarantees that Hamas will be prevented from smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt. Hamas has demanded that Israel and Egypt reopen Gaza's border crossings, which have been largely closed since Hamas took power. The crossings are Gaza's economic lifeline.

See the problem? Hamas, the terrorist organization with stated goals to kill Jews and destroy Israel has had it's border crossings legitimately shut off by Israel(not necessarily so successfully). The crossings are Gaza's economic lifeline. Since when has Hamas attempted to build any economic system? The first thing that happened when Israel withdrew from Gaza was the destruction of the business infrastructure that existed. Yet, this "factoid" in the article remains unquestioned. Worse, this false statement is meant to be the fulcrum's center point against Israel's demand that cities inside Israel should be free of random rocket and mortar fire. The writer is attempting to equate denial of weapons to terrorists with the use of those same weapons against civilian populations. In the mind of the antiJew, the Jews are just as guilty as their harassers - moral equivalency must reign. Both sides must come to terms.

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GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Islamic Hamas movement says one of its members has been wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip.
Tuesday's violence is the worst since the sides declared a cease-fire last week.

Hamas says the militant was struck as he was riding a motorcycle in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis. Residents say Israeli tanks and bulldozers have also entered the area where the roadside bombing took place and are leveling some farmland.

The airstrike comes hours after a roadside bomb along Israel's border with Gaza killed an Israeli soldier and wounded three others.

Palestinian militants detonated a bomb next to an Israeli army patrol along the border with Gaza on Tuesday, killing one soldier and wounding three in the first serious clash since a cease-fire went into effect more than a week ago.

Israeli soldiers briefly crossed the border in search of the attackers, and Israel's defense minister, Ehud Barak, called an urgent meeting of Israel's top defense officers, saying Israel "cannot accept" the attack.

"We will respond, but there is no point in elaborating," Barak said in comments released by his office.

The explosion jolted the calm that has largely prevailed since Israel ended a devastating three-week offensive on Jan. 17. Since withdrawing its troops, Israel has threatened to retaliate hard for any violations of the truce.

The flare-up came as Gazans struggle to resume normal life after the fighting, and as international donors discuss how best to help the territory rebuild. Gaza's Hamas leader said Tuesday the group — which is boycotted as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union — would not try to claim any of the reconstruction funds, an announcement that appeared aimed at clearing the way for money to start flowing.

The announcement from Ismail Haniyeh, who remains in hiding because of fears he could be assassinated by Israel, appeared directed at donors who concerned their funds could end up in Hamas' hands.

"Our aim now is to ease the suffering of our people and to remove the aftermath of the aggression in Gaza," the statement said. "Therefore we emphasize that we are not concerned to receive the money for rebuilding Gaza and we are not seeking that."

After Tuesday's bomb blast, heavy gunfire was heard along the border in central Gaza and Israeli helicopters hovered in the air firing machine gun bursts, Palestinian witnesses said. An Israeli jet set off a loud sonic boom over Gaza City not long afterward, possibly as a warning.

The Israeli military said the bomb targeted an Israeli patrol near the border community of Kissufim. It was not clear if it was planted after the cease-fire, or whether it was an older device. There was no claim of responsibility.

Not long after the bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border several miles away, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of Gaza's Health Ministry. Two other Palestinians were wounded. The military had no immediate comment, and it was unclear if the two incidents were related.

Israel closed its crossings into Gaza to humanitarian aid traffic after briefly opening them Tuesday morning. Gaza border official Raed Fattouh said Israeli officials informed him the closure was due to the attack.

Israel and Gaza militants have been holding their fire since Israel ended its offensive, which was aimed at halting rocket fire from the territory. Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire on Jan. 17, and that was followed by a similar announcement from Gaza militants.

In the days immediately following the cease-fire there was shelling by Israeli gunboats and some gunfire along the border — including the killing of two men Palestinian officials identified as farmers — but there were no serious clashes until Tuesday.

Although there was no claim of responsibility, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas leader, said Israel was to blame for continuing to fire into Gaza. Al-Masri said his group had not agreed to a full cease-fire but only to a "lull" in fighting.

"The Zionists are responsible for any aggression," he said.

Egypt is currently trying to negotiate a longer-term arrangement to allow quiet in the coastal territory of 1.4 million people, which has been ruled by the Islamic militants of Hamas since June 2007. Local experts believe the fighting caused some $2billion in damage.

Israel wants an end to Hamas rocket attacks and guarantees that Hamas will be prevented from smuggling weapons into Gaza from Egypt. Hamas has demanded that Israel and Egypt reopen Gaza's border crossings, which have been largely closed since Hamas took power. The crossings are Gaza's economic lifeline.

The Israeli offensive killed 1,285 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, according to records kept by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were also killed during the fighting.

The Vatican and Holocaust Denial

On the heels of Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino using Holocaust references to criticize Operation Cast Lead, a de facto admission that the Shoah did indeed occur, the Vatican strikes again with dishonoring and disgracing the memory of Jewish Martyrdom in Europe. Relations between the Vatican and world Jewry seem to be heading into a period of uncertainty after what seemed to be a time period of relatively decent relations fostered by the previous pontiff. It is noted in the story below the irony of a German born Pope seemingly insensitive to Holocaust revisionism and false application of imagery. The claim by the Bishop is

"people who are against uh -what is widely believed today as "quote unquote the Holocaust", I think those people conclude, the revisionists as they're called, uh I think the most serious conclude that between 200,000 and 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps but not one of them by gassing in gas chambers"

One could easily believe from the video, especially in terms of the Bishop being unable to define anti-semitism, that he might also conclude that those numbers 200,000 - 300,000 were far too few.


The Jewish world needs to get over dealing with the Vatican for now and just recognize that the children of the Nazis both in body and spirit are now in charge.

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German Jews condemn pope move over Holocaust denier - Reuters
BERLIN (Reuters) - Pope Benedict's rehabilitation of a bishop who has denied the full extent of the Holocaust is a slap in the face for the Jewish community, especially coming from a German pope, Germany's Central Council of Jews said on Monday.

"It's a deep shock," Dieter Graumann, the Council's vice-president, told Reuters. "I'm not imputing bad intentions to the Vatican or the pope, but in fact this is a slap in the face for the Jewish community."

"It's a provocation and I'm worried that dialogue between Jews and Catholics will now be frozen to some extent, that the process of reconciliation that has advanced so much over the past 50 years will be interrupted, if not aborted."

Pope Benedict on Saturday rehabilitated four traditionalist bishops who lead the far-right Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), which has about 600,000 members and rejects modernizations of Roman Catholic worship and doctrine.

One of the four, British-born Richard Williamson, has made statements denying the full extent of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jews, as accepted by mainstream historians.

"Especially from a German pope, I would have expected more understanding and sensitivity," Graumann said. "The fact that this comes from a German pope leaves a certain taste and provokes certain feelings."

In comments to Swedish television broadcast and widely available on the Internet, Williamson has said: "I believe there were no gas chambers." He said up to 300,000 Jews perished in Nazi camps, rather than the 6 million widely accepted.

Graumann said it had taken a long time and much effort to strengthen dialogue between Jewish and Catholic communities over the past decades, adding Pope Benedict's predecessor John Paul II had moved the process forward significantly.

"This dialogue is being overshadowed by what has happened," he said. "Those who rehabilitate anti-Semites are ... bringing anti-Semitism back into the church to some extent."

"It's without bad intentions but that's the actual effect," he said.

The four traditionalist bishops were thrown out of the Roman Catholic Church in 1988 for being ordained without Vatican permission. The Vatican said the excommunications were lifted after the bishops affirmed their willingness to accept Church teachings and papal authority.

(Reporting by Kerstin Gehmlich; editing by Ralph Boulton)

Reform Guilt - All Halacha Must be Stowed in Luggage

The Reformists are fighting El Al's decision to have seperate seating flights for religious Jews. Liberal Judaism can justify and tolerate every yetzer hara but has no tolerance for traditional Jewish observance. No - You may not ask for services which accommodate the most observant of Jews, even or maybe especially in Israel. The guilt of the non-religious Jew is brought to the surface upon seeing an observant yid talking Torah, doing mitzvas, dressing in "funny" clothes and embarrassingly un-modern. In a time when Jewish unity is so necessary, divisiveness such as this anti-charedim action is disheartening.

The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ)decision to question the legality of special flights is an antiJew position taken by Reformists and a cynical attempt to play socially divisive politics so close to the Knesset elections. With the polls showing electoral power shifting away from the left, Reformists pull out the social warfare card to help stir things up. Bashing the observant is typical leftist politics and their friends in the IMPJ will carry the water. After all, in their minds, we have to stop these favors for the charedim who take and don't give back.

El Al needs to stick to its plans and ignore those who meddle in the airlines business.

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Reform movement challenges legality of kosher flights.
Movement's legal branch asks transportation minister, El Al CEO to clarify plans to launch special flights for haredi public that would include separation between men and women - YNet
Kobi Nahshoni

The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ), which represents the Reform stream of Judaism in the country, has asked the Transportation Ministry and El Al Airlines to look into the legality of the airline's intention to launch exclusive flights for the haredi public.

According to the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), IMPJ's legal branch, the move represents "an illegitimate policy that violates Israeli law."

In a letter to Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and El Al CEO Haim Romano, IRAC Attorney Orly Erez-Likhovski wrote that "flights that institute separation between men and women should not be approved offhandedly."

According to Erez-Likhovski, the law in Israel prohibits any form of segregation based on gender, and therefore any agreement that infringes on this principle should be grounded on a solid rationale and adhere to the law.

A copy of the letter was sent to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz.

The Reform movement believes that these special flights are wholly unnecessary. "It's clear that if a haredi passenger asks not to be seated next to a woman, he can ask to switch seats," the letter stated.

"The fact that these arrangements often happen on flights illustrates that there is no need for such a compulsory gender-based segregation."

IRAC also noted that the kosher bus lines that are operated by the public bus companies are currently being reviewed by an inter-ministerial committee appointed by Mofaz, and that the a petition on the issue has also been filed with the High Court, with a ruling still pending.

The movement asked Mofaz and Romano to clarify how the separation on flights would be enforced, how many special flights would be introduced, are the fares expected to be lower and whether flight attendants would have to adhere to specific restricting dress codes.