Boker tov, Boulder!

Were Jews the target in San Francisco?

Yoni the blogger

Yesterday a Muslim named Omeed A. Popal aged 29 used his SUV as a weapon to kill one man and injure 14 more people in an incident that spanned more than an hour in time and covered many miles.

His attack started in the East Bay area, he then drove into what is identified as a Jewish neighborhood and ran over 14 more people.

I spent some time this morning in an attempt to find the identity of the man that was murdered and I can find no mention of his name or anything identifying him.

But we do know that the suspect targeted two people in front of the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco located on California Street.

We also know that Popal had just returned from a trip to Afghanistan, where he had met his bride to be as part of an arranged marriage. We also know that Popal was born in America according to what I have read.

Popal at the time of his arrest declared himself to be a terrorist.

This is the second major terror attack against targets identified as Jewish in America in about a month’s time.

Both attacks were carried out by Muslims.

But both the authorities and the Jewish community want to deny the truth of what these attacks are terrorism. Terrorism against Jews for the crime of being Jewish.

I have the sad duty to inform my fellow Jews that you as a whole, have learned nothing from our history and that we are following in the same pattern of the Jews of Europe 70 years ago.

We want to pretend that everything is normal and the only problem is that a few people have had some incidents of mental instability that has caused them to engage in criminal behavior....

Read it all, but I'll warn you, Yoni thinks you should "hold your nose and go buy a gun..."

See also the San Jose Mercury News: Cousin: Rampage driver became enraged after argument with mother

Hamid Nekrawesh told the Mercury News that he had gathered with Popal's extended family Tuesday night and had a lengthy conversation with Popal's mother, Zakia.

"I didn't know he had these mental problems until last night,'' Nekrawesh said Wednesday. "They were keeping everything pretty much within themselves.''

Popal is 29 years old, but Nekrawesh said he was under such strict control from his parents -- who believed they needed to protect him from America's "evil society'' -- that Popal probably felt his arranged marriage was a ticket to freedom....

His cousin didn't know he had homicidal mental problems until last night?

America's evil society?

Arranged marriage?

This is a nightmare, right? The only relief we get from it is when we're asleep.

State Dept. may have misunderestimated

"I question the benefit of permitting a person who headed a regime that is a leading sponsor of terrorism, permitted human rights abuses, including repression of women and religious minorities, and presided over Iran's secret nuclear program...to travel without restriction in the United States."

-- Virginia Senator George Allen in an open letter to Condoleezza Rice

via One Jerusalem

The UN's disproportionate response

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, flashes the victory sign ... Thursday, Aug. 31, 2006... (AP Photo/ISNA)

Power Line: The Time Is Now

.... Read as a whole, the IAEA report states flatly that Iran is not cooperating. The mullahs are basically telling the U.N. to get lost. The next move is up to us.

John Bolton says that the Security Council must now take action, in the form of sanctions. But the AP reports that the kinds of sanctions on the table are feeble at best:

The State Department has not said publicly what type of punishment it might seek. But U.S. and European officials have indicated they might push for travel restrictions on Iranian officials or a ban on sale of dual-use technology to Iran. The hope is to start with relatively low-level punishments in a bid to attract Russian and Chinese support, the officials have said.

President Bush said today that "the world now faces a grave threat from the radical regime in Iran." There is an obvious disproportion between the gravity of the threat and the meagre steps now contemplated to counter it.

Sons Shall Be Returned to Their Borders

YNet

Fifty days after Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were kidnapped by the Hizbullah and 68 days after Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas, some 40,000 people assemble at the Rabin Square in Tel Aviv for a rally calling on the government to bring to the kidnapped soldiers' release. [Arutz Sheva says 60,000.]

The captives' families as well as one of Ron Arad's friends went onstage during the rally dubbed "Sons Shall Be Returned to Their Borders." Short documentaries about the lives of the three captives were screened and artists performed quiet songs. Rami Kleinstein will perform a song he composed especially for the event (the song is called "It Isn't Over").

How to Kill a Crusader

Washington Times via Daily Alert

On June 15, 2006, Amer al-Najdi posted on the Islamist Al-Hesbah website a "Plan of Action for the Jihad Fighter: How to Kill a Crusader in the Arabian Peninsula," explaining "the security measures to be employed by the jihad fighter when he wants to kill a Westerner."

"Try as much as possible to look like someone who is not religious....It is greatly preferable to be shaven."

"Immediately get rid of everything in your car that indicates that you are religious, such as jihad cassettes."

"While you are carrying out the operation, be careful not to take your cell phone with you, especially if it has a camera."

"If the Crusader works at a company where you work, or at a company where someone you know works, strike him on his day off, or somewhere far...so as to distance you from suspicion."

"It is desirable to film the operation so it can be presented by the media, so that it has a broader impact."

Can't you just see the MSM already? "There was no evidence of any ties to Islamic fundamentalism." They'll eat it up, right out of the box.

Conversation with Yaalon

Okay, so it wasn't a conversation exactly. It was a Blogger Conference Call, and I was only one among many bloggers on the call. But still ...

It was fascinating to hear Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon's assessment of the current strategic situation in Israel. He began by stressing to bloggers that the two major attacks on Israel in these last weeks - by Hamas from Gaza and by Hezbollah from Lebanon - had no basis whatsoever in any territorial dispute.

Prior to the attacks, there was no Israeli presence in either the Gaza strip or southern Lebanon and there was no dispute over land or control of land.

When Israel was attacked, she exercised no control, real or imagined, over the territories from whence the attacks originated. In name at least, the Palestinian Authority was in control of the Gaza strip and the government of the sovereign state of Lebanon was in control of its southern reaches. In actuality, of course, Hamas was in control of Gaza and Hezbollah controlled south Lebanon.

There was not a single Israeli soldier in Gaza -- until June 25th, when Hamas came into Israel, abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, and brought him there by force. Likewise, there was not a single Israeli soldier in south Lebanaon -- until July 12th, when Hezbollah came into Israel, abducted Israeli soldiers Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser, and brought them there... by force.

To my mind, it seems very much as if these terrorists missed the excuse of Israeli "occupation" and so tried to recreate it, albeit on a small scale. But that is neither here nor there.

Point #1 having been duly stressed, I'm going to stop here for now, and blog other points in separate posts. Please bear with me as I experiment; I'm trying to find the most effective format in which to blog these calls. I'm thinking that in future, it might be more useful to be able to refer back to a specific idea, rather than the call itself, which contained so much.

I figure I can afford this luxury because

(1) Allen Roth has a great synopsis of the call at OneJerusalem, where there is also complete audio;

(2) the Amazing Atlas has a transcript;

(3) WestBankMama already beat me to the scoop: Boogie Yaalon "I'm More Afraid of the Corruption in Israel Than I Am Of the Iranians"; and

(4) Rick Richman has connected the dots, past, present and future:

... how different things would have been had Israel’s leadership at a moment of trial been Netanyahu, Sharansky, and Ya’alon -- all of whom left the government or were removed from it as a result of the disengagement plan -- instead of Olmert, Peretz and Halutz.

Fortunately, in a democracy, these things can be corrected.

The Big Answer

Soccer Dad has a round-up of blogging on the convention of MSM journalists in Jerusalem. One after the other, in widely differing fashion, we all note that the MSM is pushing a particular "narrative." You could fit it on a bumper sticker: Anybody but Israel.

The media would rather focus on the perspective of anyone else, be they Lebanese, Hezbollah, Palestinian or Fwench. Anyone else will do, it doesn't matter if they're liars, kidnappers, terrorists, anarchists, or wannabe suicide bombers. It is Israel that is anathema.

Melanie Phillips takes it a step further: "The western media are no longer merely producing questionable professional practices in reporting a war. They are now active participants in it ..."

The plain fact is that western journalists were sent to cover the war being waged against Israel from Lebanon as a war being waged by Israel against Lebanon.... the big answer is that the western media transmit the lies of Hezbollah because they want to believe them.

That's why Gd gave us the blogosphere... and just in the nick of time. We have yet to realize the full extent of its power. For the most part, we bloggers are still stuck in responding to the established media. That's absolutely necessary and I have no argument against it. There's a next step, however, and it's not too early to start thinking about it.

Back in the days when I was limited to writing letters to the editor, Esther Sarah taught me something very important. She told me that you don't want to spend your precious space restating your adversary's point of view; that only gives them another go at the public. Instead, you must refer to them only in passing, utilize them only as a flashpoint for getting your own perspective out to readers. We need to apply this logic to our blogs.

For instance, how many people read Steven Erlanger's anti-Israel statements in the original YNet report on the MSM convention? Let's say "x" number of people. Now, though, how many more people have read his thoughts at this blog, at Soccer Dad, at Mere Rhetoric, Deja Vu, Daled Amos, In Context, LGF and the rest? We have to look at the fact that we have multiplied his audience ... and consider the implicatons.

Remember the cliche that every knock's a boost? Or the one that says it doesn't matter as long as they spell your name right? Those of us who knock the MSM all day long need to realize that we are simultaneously giving them a boost. By incessantly repeating them, we are in effect recognizing, even reinforcing, their position as Authority.

We need to nudge and nurture the trend to the contrary: the ambitious efforts of Pajamas Media, the Blogger Conference Calls being offered by the generous and creative fellows over at One Jerusalem, the Atlas Vlogs... and I'm sure there's much more that I'm not even aware of yet.

If, as Melanie Phillips asserts, western (mainstream) media have become "active participants" in war, believing and transmitting the lies of Hezbollah, then we blogs must take care not to act only as their echo chambers. Somehow we have to move beyond that, and fast.

We have to engage in our own war ... for Independence.

Waaahhhh

Saturday's Salt Lake Tribune said that

Salt Lake City will allow local defense attorney Robert Breeze to hold a "Death to Israel" demonstration Wednesday despite concerns from the Jewish community.

Well, this is Wednesday, and I don't know what happened. Surely these protests were not that one: Thousands of anti-war protesters demand: "Give us the truth"

Some 4,000 protesters streamed into Washington Square surrounding The Salt Lake City/County Building downtown to protest the war in Iraq and President George W. Bush, who was scheduled to arrive this evening for an appearance before the national convention of the American Legion.

A few blocks south, uniformed military veterans and civilians spoke in support of the U.S. troops at a 300-strong Freedom Rally in Liberty Park.

I never knew Salt Lake City was so, well, active. Now back to this "Death to Israel" business (I'm biting my fingers so as not to type, whoops, UFB):

The permit will be approved next week, after the city and Breeze finalize where the demonstration, one of several planned for that day, will be held. It will run from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

From 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.? That's a 14-hour rally. Where do the antisemites get their strength?

Breeze, 52, said his goal is to protest "the torture and murder inflicted on Muslims by Israel and the penetration of the U.S. media by Israeli intelligence."

While he said his group - the Center to Prevent Corporate Media Lying - has other members and financial donors, Breeze wouldn't name them. And he acknowledged some of his past protests against media coverage of the Iraq war that he held in front of the KSL studios included paid participants from the homeless shelter. Some demonstrators Wednesday also may be paid.

Oy vey, this gets worse and worse.

When asked if he wants to see the elimination of Israel, Breeze said: "The President of Iran has an excellent idea. . . . I would like to see them move Israel to Virginia and put all the current Virginians in a concentration camp. Then we'll see how popular Israel is [in the United States]."

And last but not least, we have the "concerned," "frightened" and "deeply saddened" Jewish community.

Bill Tumpowsky, chairman of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said he expected the city would grant the permit. He and others remain concerned.

"We collectively stand in tremendous support of the First Amendment," he said. "This has many members of the Jewish community frightened. When you say, 'Death to Israel,' it speaks death to Jews. We're deeply saddened to see that form of ugly bigotry express itself here in Salt Lake City."

Deeply saddened? They should be furious! They should be collectively standing in tremendous support, not just for the First Amendment, but for their family! for their Jewish brothers and sisters in Israel.

Sometimes only Yiddish will do. Oy, es vert mir finster in di oygen. - Lit., It's getting dark in my eyes.

Lila tov.

In short, humanity is under attack

So conclude Behrooz Bahbudi and Walid Phares in today's Washington Post. But why read the paper when you can read a blog? :) Let me link you to the same piece posted at The Counterterrorism Blog:

Because for 11 years years, the American public wasn’t informed about the threat that lead to September 11 and because the classrooms and newsrooms of the United States were not educated enough about the global threat of “Jihadism,” we feel it is incumbent on individual citizens to educate themselves about this danger and mobilize to prevent a Future Jihad looming around the world and at home.

It is important that American citizens understand who the “Jihadists” are, what they want to achieve, and how they are proceeding. Without this knowledge, the American public will be unable to be part of the political debate about national security and the War on Terror. And if deprived from the support of an informed public, the US Government, now and in the future, cannot sustain difficult decisions pertaining to the defeat of the Terrorist enemy.

The authors go on to delineate (a) the ideology of the terrorists, (b) the two major "trees" of Jihadism -basically, the Wahabis and Muslim Brotherhood on the one hand, and Ayatollah Khumeini on the other- and (c) the "Axis" of Jihadism:

In many places and on different occasions the two blocs of Jihadism have established interim alliances: the regimes in Iran, Syria and Sudan and the organizations of al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Jemaa Islamiya, and many others have cooperated: against democracies and civil societies, they have formed an axis of Jihadism. This is what the American public and civil societies around the world are up against since the 1990s.

Read it all, even at the WaPo if you must. It's the clearest explanation you'll ever find under 800 words, and I think it will be very effective in convincing people that they need to learn more.

I was looking for the link to the Post for you just now, when I came across something else by Walid Phares. I did a double-take at the date and the title:
10 April 2006 - Are you ready for Hezbollah's Preemptive Terror?

Just listen to this, from April, before the Hezbollah-Israel war:

... to zoom [in] on Hezbollah's preparedness one can only observe the readying of its bases in Lebanon: Trucks are crossing the 62 (or so) open passages on the Lebanese-Syrian borders almost on a daily basis. Hezbollah has solidified its connections to Ahmad Jibril's group, to the Jihadi Salafists inside the Palestinian camps and in various neighborhoods. Nasrallah is warning Lebanese politicians including the current Prime Minister not to "collaborate with the Americans." Just last week, he stated that he would "chop off the hands, legs and extract the soul [sic]" of anyone who would dare attempt to disarm his militia....

... while some among us are still pondering about Ahmedinijad's future counter-strikes against the international alliance Hezbollah has already deployed its resources around the globe, including its media and psychological operations structures. However, one cannot but note that a series of small steps has been implemented by Washington in prevention for what is to come: Last week, the Treasury Department designated al Manar TV, Hezbollah satellite channel, as a terrorist tool.... "Al Manar was bringing the psychological training on suicide bombing and hatred deep into America and Europe's communities."

That tool is pinned down for now: But what about the rest?

According to Barbara Newman, a former producer for ABC's "20/20" and a senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, cells are omnipresent within the U.S. In her book, Lightning Out of Lebanon: Hezbollah Terrorists on American Soil, Newman warns [of] the "other army" ready to engage us.

In my book, Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies Against America, I not only project a Hezbollah upcoming wave, but I argue that it has already acquired its strategic targets....

Lots of homework tonight, boys and girls. I'd better let you get started. Tomorrow I'll tell you how Lt. Gen. Moshe Yaalon woke me up to something I was ignoring. on purpose. with good intentions. It's a long story, and I can't do it justice tonight.

I'm already dreading the election

This spooky bit is from David Horowitz, who's plugging his new book, The Shadow Party.

"Now it's our party! We bought it, we own it!" --MoveOn.org leader referring to the Democratic Party.

Radical leftist Eli Pariser -- one of the organizers and leaders of MoveOn.org -- made the above statement following the 2004 elections. How could Pariser make such a statement?

Simple. A cadre of leftist billionaires -- chief among them, megalomaniac George Soros -- contributed more than $300 million to liberal candidates and groups in 2004. Thus, as far as Pariser and his masters are concerned, what was once a great party of ideas and leadership sold itself to them in 2004.

A small but enormously powerful group of radical forces are undermining America's unity! And unless we get the word out far and wide, they'll fulfill their plan and come power in 2008. Why? Because right now, as it did 40 years ago, the radical left in America has in motion a plan to cost the United States a victory in war and topple a President in the process....

Read The Shadow Party and you'll discover that a small, powerful and radically left network of individuals and private organizations are in virtual control of the Democratic Party today. Through it they're influencing American politics. But they operate behind the scenes because they know the overwhelming majority of Americans don't and won't share their anti-American agenda.

I think I might read Destructive Generation: Second Thoughts About The '60's first. You know, work my way up to the present.