20100531

Ethically, who's who? Gazan Hamas tortured and obliterated legs of young Fatah men; Israeli doctors & nurses tend to their recovery

(Video: Time.com)

Eyewitness video of brutal ambush of Israeli troops at sea

Ron Ben Yishai recounts bloody clash aboard Gaza-bound vessel: The lacking crowd-dispersal means, the brutal violence of 'peace activists,' and the attempt to bring down an IDF helicopter 


"Our Navy commandos fell right into the hands of the Gaza mission members. A few minutes before thetakeover attempt aboard the Marmara got underway, the operation commander was told that 20 people were waiting on the deck where a helicopter was to deploy the first team of the elite Flotilla 13 unit. The original plan was to disembark on the top deck, and from there rush to the vessel's bridge and order the Marmara's captain to stop.


Officials estimated that passengers will show slight resistance, and possibly minor violence; for that reason, the operation's commander decided to bring the helicopter directly above the top deck. The first rope that soldiers used in order to descend down to the ship was wrested away by activists, most of them Turks, and tied to an antenna with the hopes of bringing the chopper down. However, Flotilla 13 fighters decided to carry on.




Navy commandoes slid down to the vessel one by one, yet then the unexpected occurred: The passengers that awaited them on the deck pulled out bats, clubs, and slingshots with glass marbles, assaulting each soldier as he disembarked. The fighters were nabbed one by one and were beaten up badly, yet they attempted to fight back.


However, to their misfortune, they were only equipped with paintball rifles used to disperse minor protests, such as the ones held in Bilin. The paintballs obviously made no impression on the activists, who kept on beating the troops up and even attempted to wrest away their weapons.


One soldier who came to the aid of a comrade was captured by the rioters and sustained severe blows. The commandoes were equipped with handguns but were told they should only use them in the face of life-threatening situations. When they came down from the chopper, they kept on shouting to each other "don't shoot, don't shoot," even though they sustained numerous blows.


'I saw the tip of a rifle'

The Navy commandoes were prepared to mostly encounter political activists seeking to hold a protest, rather than trained street fighters. The soldiers were told they were to verbally convince activists who offer resistance to give up, and only then use paintballs. They were permitted to use their handguns only under extreme circumstances.

The planned rush towards the vessel's bridge became impossible, even when a second chopper was brought in with another crew of soldiers. "Throw stun grenades," shouted Flotilla 13's commander who monitored the operation. The Navy chief was not too far, on board a speedboat belonging to Flotilla 13, along with forces who attempted to climb into the back of the ship.


The forces hurled stun grenades, yet the rioters on the top deck, whose number swelled up to 30 by that time, kept on beating up about 30 commandoes who kept gliding their way one by one from the helicopter. At one point, the attackers nabbed one commando, wrested away his handgun, and threw him down from the top deck to the lower deck, 30 feet below. The soldier sustained a serious head wound and lost his consciousness.


Only after this injury did Flotilla 13 troops ask for permission to use live fire. The commander approved it: You can go ahead and fire. The soldiers pulled out their handguns and started shooting at the rioters' legs, a move that ultimately neutralized them. Meanwhile, the rioters started to fire back at the commandoes.


"I saw the tip of a rifle sticking out of the stairwell," one commando said. "He fired at us and we fired back. We didn't see if we hit him. We looked for him later but couldn't find him." Two soldiers sustained gunshot wounds to their knee and stomach after rioters apparently fired at them using guns wrested away from troops.


2 errors

During the commotion, another commando was stabbed with a knife. In a later search aboard the Marmara, soldiers found caches of bats, clubs, knives, and slingshots used by the rioters ahead of the IDF takeover. It appeared the activists were well prepared for a fight.

Some passengers on the ship stood at the back and pounded the soldiers' hands as they attempted to climb on board. Only after a 30-minute shootout and brutal assaults using clubs and knifes did commandoes manage to reach the bridge and take over the Marmara.


It appears that the error in planning the operation was the estimate that passengers were indeed political activists and members of humanitarian groups who seek a political provocation, but would not resort to brutal violence. The soldiers thought they will encounter Bilin-style violence; instead, they got Bangkok. The forces that disembarked from the helicopters were few; just dozens of troops – not enough to contend with the large group awaiting them.


The second error was that commanders did not address seriously enough the fact that a group of men were expecting the soldiers on the top deck. Had they addressed this more seriously, they may have hurled tear-gas grenades and smoke grenades from the helicopter to create a screen that would have enabled them to carry out their mission, without the fighters falling right into the hands of the rioters, who severely assaulted them."  (YNet) 

Memorial Day - inside the visits to the Veterans Cemetery

On Memorial Day, we reprise encounters at the Los Angeles National Cemetery last Veterans Day with:

A Vietnam-veteran grandfather brings his grandchildren to visit their heritage - and instill a sense of American identity ...




... And a journalism co-ed, educated through her family trips to national memorials -  who bemoans the apathy of many college students to commemorate the holiday - while other friends of hers serve and died to defend our freedom.



20100530

Israeli navy stations nuclear missile submarines off Iran coast

Sunday Times quotes IDF official saying the 3 German-made long range submarines will gather intelligence, act as deterrent and potentially land Mossad agents.


(Video: Israeli Submarine Fleet)

The Sunday Times of London 
reports:
Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.
The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.
INS Dolphin was commissioned in 1999, 
INS Leviathan in 2000. 
The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.
The flotilla’s commander, identified only as “Colonel O”, told an Israeli newspaper: “We are an underwater assault force. We’re operating deep and far, very far, from our borders.”
Each of the submarines has a crew of 35 to 50, commanded by a colonel capable of launching a nuclear cruise missile.
The vessels can remain at sea for about 50 days and stay submerged up to 1,150ft below the surface for at least a week. Some of the cruise missiles are equipped with the most advanced nuclear warheads in the Israeli arsenal.
The deployment is designed to act as a deterrent, gather intelligence and potentially to land Mossad agents. “We’re a solid base for collecting sensitive information, as we can stay for a long time in one place,” said a flotilla officer.
Torpedo room with reserve stowage
The submarines could be used if Iran continues its programme to produce a nuclear bomb. “The 1,500km range of the submarines’ cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran,” said a navy officer.
Apparently responding to the Israeli activity, an Iranian admiral said: “Anyone who wishes to do an evil act in the Persian Gulf will receive a forceful response from us.”
Israel’s urgent need to deter the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah alliance was demonstrated last month. Ehud Barak, the defence minister, was said to have shown President Barack Obama classified satellite images of a convoy of ballistic missiles leaving Syria on the way to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, will emphasise the danger to Obama in Washington this week.
Tel Aviv, Israel’s business and defence centre, remains the most threatened city in the world, said one expert. “There are more missiles per square foot targeting Tel Aviv than any other city,” he said.

20100525

'Documentary "U.N. Me" depicts institutionalized corruption, complicity to terrorism, genocide,' director Ami Horowitz tells DemoCast in Washington

In a film that exposes the incompetence and corruption at the heart of the United Nations, filmmakers Ami Horowitz and Matthew Groff show how an organization created to enoble mankind now actually enables evil and sows global chaos. U.N. Me takes us on a harrowing and darkly humorous tour of the U.N.'s scandalous disregard for the people and principles it was founded to defend.

Director Ami Horowitz spoke with DemoCast.TV about his team's documentary at a preview held at the annual CPAC convention in Washington, DC.



The film addresses how the organization that ought to be leading the international effort to eradicate terrorism cannot, seven years after 9/11, agree on a definition of "terrorism."

Also, how the U.N.'s Human Rights Council prolonged the genocide in Darfur by attempting to discredit the urgent recommendations of its own investigative team.

Balancing these stories against exclusive interviews with former U.N. ambassador John Bolton, former CIA Director James Woolsey, former U.N. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer, Nobel laureate Jody Williams, and others, U.N. Me delivers an unforgettable account of how the world's foremost humanitarian organization has become the clubhouse of dictators, thugs, and tyrants.

Ami Horowitz will discuss the film following a screening by StandWithUs at Beverly Hills' Writers Guild Theater on Wednesday evening.

20100522

"Draw Mohammed Day" draws the spotlight back onto Islamic intolerance and intimidation

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, author of "Nomad - from Islam to America," discusses Muslim-sanctioned violence against critics and blasphemers with John Stossel on Fox Business Channel. As a result of the video which Ms. Ali produced with Theo van Gogh, in which shamed liturgically-sanctioned abuse of women under Islam, Ms. Ali lives under constant threat of death from Muslims.


She explains Comedy Central's imbroglio over South Park, which banned Mohammed, but slams on Jesus, Moses, and Israel in this DemoCast exclusive video:



Canadian editor, Ezra Levant, whose Western Standard magazine published 8 of the Danish cartoons in a story about the case, was prosecuted by the Alberta Human Rights Commission for hate-speech (likely to expose a person to hatred or contempt) in a 900-day "blasphemy" trial, in which he spent $100,000 on legal defense to avoid 9-months in prison.

Daniel Greenfield characterizes the problem in "Everybody Draw Mohammed" on Sultan Knish:

"What is freedom, if it is not the freedom to criticize, to ask questions and demand answers-- or to simply ridicule the high and mighty.

In the Dar Al Islam, for over a thousand years, that freedom has not existed. You could not question. Even today to question is to court a jail sentence, in even the "moderate" Muslim nations.

When Mohammed ordered the murders of poets and satirist who criticized him, he set the tone for over a millennium of bloodshed. The Muslim today who calls for the murder of cartoonists is not an extremists or a misrepresenter of Islam, he is following the conventional Islamic approach all the way back to the dawn of that faith under the guidance of its prophet.

And the media and Western defenders of Islam know it for the truth. If they truly believed that this was only the work of a tiny minority of extremists who could not tolerate free speech, why would they so aggressively censor it?

If it is only a tiny minority of extremists that are at fault, why did CNN and every major news organize refuse to show Mohammed cartoons, garbling them as if they were as offensive and unacceptable to them... as they are to Muslim believers?

When one examines actions and words, it is always the actions that tell the truth, not the words. When Comedy Central, which boasts of offending every religious group on earth, censors even the tamest and most disguised depictions of Mohammed, its actions speak or a deeper and more disturbing truth, than its words will reveal.

One does not fear this much or compromise this much in the face of a tiny minority of extremists. Not even if they are susceptible to bouts of hysterical violence. Violence after all comes with the territory.

How many media organizations are terrified of the tiny minorities of extremists that exist in most religions? The answer is very few. What is it that makes Islam special? Any honest foreign correspondent can answer that question easily enough.

Because it is not a tiny minority that they are dealing with. But a solid majority that is the product of a culture of religious indoctrination which is intolerant of free speech. And rather than confront this reality, they have chosen to run away and hide. Because confronting it would require addressing their own politics, which scapegoat national defense, while admiring Islamic radicalism. It is easier for them to silence themselves, than make the ideological sacrifices needed to deal with the threat to the underlying freedoms of the free world.

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day crowd-sources free speech by confronting the challenge that the mass media runs away from. It defends a heritage of free speech by vigorously confronting those who would deny it."

20100516

Former hippie, "Surfing" Rabbi Nachum Shifren, campaigns today to conserve traditional values in California

Op/Ed by Rabbi Nachum Shifren:

There we were, surrounded by insane, screaming Leftist psycho-phants-- this was true danger. "Fascists, Nazis, F...ing teabaggers," you name it, they hurled it at us. One of the indignant Latino activists had misspelled his protest sign!  Ever the teacher, I let him know about his error.

"F...you, you f'---ing Jew. Why don't you go back to Auschwitz and die like the rest of your 6 million brothers?" he bellowed hysterically.  I smiled back.

Are these the "meek", the "innocent", only wanting to come to "work" and make a better life for their families? Here assembled were the Greens, the "peaceniks", the "progressives", wanting only to have one world, one culture, one (humanity?)...sans the United States of America.

He didn't appreciate my being punctilious, when at issue was really the presence of over 20,000,000 illegal aliens in our country.



For anyone that is unfamiliar with this type of riffraff, let him get used to the coming battle that we face in this election year. The pressures will be enormous on us to transform our culture into some sort of polyglot banana republic. Each of us has the duty to fight this oppression and confiscation of the only place on earth where merit and individual freedoms are still what make us the most unique people on earth.

As you turn to your daily activities, far away from the frontal assault of the despots that would plunder and subjugate our nation, remember that I am the only conservative candidate dedicated to defeating multiculturalism, amnest, and Shariah Law in California. Let me hear from you in this fateful election year!

For info on our big campaign event May 16 at 7pm in Orange County's Villa Park featuring Cong. Dana Rohrabacher and OC Rep. Chairman Scott Baugh, see our website: www.RabbiForSenate.Com

Your Educational Candidate, lecturer and author, Rabbi Nachum Shifren, Candidate for California State Senate, District #26 this November.

20100514

Former US Amb. to UN John Bolton encourages Israeli-Americans to energize PR efforts, in the case that Israel is forced to pre-emptively strike Iran to prevent a multi-polar, nuclear Middle-East war

Franklin D. Roosevelt rationalized giving U.S. ships the right to pre-emptively strike Nazi U-Boats before America had been attacked at Pearl Harbor with the metaphor, "When you encounter a rattlesnake threatening to strike, you don't wait for it to happen."

Speaking at the Annual Israeli Leadership Council, Amb. John Bolton said that the West's diplomatic and sanctions failures have foisted an enormous, unfair burden on Israel.

He feels that the Obama Administration wrongly opposes pre-emptive military action against Iran by the U.S. - even though the U.S. military would have a greater effectiveness of setting-back Iran's nuclear weapons factories.
  

Also, since Obama officially opposes a pre-emptive military option against Iran, unilateral Israeli action would spur Obama to join multi-national condemning of Israel, putting Israel in line for U.N. and media vilifying.  As demonstrated during Israel's defensive Gaza Operation Cast Lead last year, Anti-Semitism towards Jews throughout the world grows as a result of such popular, condemning of Israel by goverment and media.



In this DemoCast-exclusive online newsvideo, Amb. Bolton states that it's time to lay the groundwork now to support Israel after the military strike. A pre-emptive strike would set-back the nuclear weapons program, and buy some time to effect regime change in Iran.

Amb. Bolton said, "If Israel strikes, it will not be disproportionate. Israel will be acting in its legitimate self-defense. That attack will also be in the interest of the United States."

"Israelis and Americans have in common an absolutely clear-eyed realism to threats of national security. That's what we need today, we need it here, and we need it in Washington, in particular."

20100511

Artist Lars Vilks attacked by Muslims during free-speech lecture in Sweden

STOCKHOLM – (AP)  A Swedish artist who angered Muslims by depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a dog said Tuesday he was assaulted while giving a lecture at a university. Lars Vilks told The Associated Press a man in the front row ran up to him and head-butted him during the lecture.

Vilks says his glasses were broken but he was not injured. It wasn't immediately clear what happened to the attacker.< n> said a group of about 15 people had been shouting and trying to interrupt the lecture before the incident. Many of them stormed the front of the room after the attack and clashed with security guards as Vilks was pulled away into a separate room, he said.



Swedish news agency TT said police detained two people during the commotion. police declined to comment. Vilks was giving a lecture about the limits of the freedom of expression in the world of art. The Swedish artist says he has received repeated over his drawing of Muhammad with a dog's body. A U.S. woman faces a life term on accusations that she pledged to murder Vilks. Colleen LaRose , was arrested in Oct. 15 upon returning to Philadelphia from Europe. She has pleaded not guilty to a four-count indictment.

20100507

'Only a strong Israeli-American alliance keeps the Jihad from dominating the middle-east & the world'- Caroline Glick video analysis


While Muslim Arab/Iran oil-barons buy influence among American lobbists, policy-makers and the media to shift US support towards Muslims and away from Israel (and sacrifice Palestinians for PR-value for demonizing Israel) - lucid strategic analyst, Caroline Glick explains (in this video) how keeping a strong Israel keeps Jihad from destablizing the Middle-East, and the world.  (Courtesy Center for Security Policy)

20100505

Mainstream media "Denying Jihad - Again" -says Robert Spencer of JihadWatch on

Robert Spencer writes in FrontPage Magazine: "Faisal Shahzad and his car bomb is yet another indication of the tenacity and persistence of the jihad against the United States – and of the continuing and even hardening resistance of American officials to the elementary step of even admitting that that jihad is being waged."  Read it all.

20100503

First Persian-American mayor commemorates 150th birthday of Theodore Herzl, forefather of Jewish nationalism, to advocate for vigilance against religious persecutors

    The City of Beverly Hills honored the memory of Theodore Herzl, the forefather of re-establishing Jewish self-determination in Judaism's homeland (known as Zionism).  Mayor Jimmy Delshad calls the Obama administration to prioritize America's protection of the Israeli and Iranian peoples from Islamist imperialists, especially the government of Iran.



    Beverly Hills Mayor Jimmy Delshad, the first Iranian-born elected official in America,  renamed the block of Clark Street adjacent to the Temple Emmanuel Jewish Day School as "Herzl Way" to be an inspiration to the public and students of this historic civil rights figure.
     
    On what would be Theodore Herzl's 150th birthday, Beverly Hills (the sister-city of Herzl's namesake city in Israel - Herzliya)  on Sunday, May 2nd, the City held a dedication ceremony, addressed by Israel's Consul General to Los Angeles, Mr. Jacob Dayan.  Israel's former Minister for Public Security, Avi Dichter, also attended the ceremony. 
        Temple Emmanuel's school choir entertained the audience, singing an inspirational, original composition about Israel's significance as a refuge from contemporary anti-Semitism. Mayor Delshad and Mr. Dayan joined the estimated 300 attendees for Israeli folk dancing and singing.  
         
        In the 1890's, in response to perpetual Jew-hatred in Europe, Theodore Herzl catalyzed the concept of seeking refuge for persecuted Jews by re-establishing sovereignty over Judaism's homeland - where Jews have been residing for 3,000 years - Israel.  Israel is the only country Judaism considers holy, and Jerusalem (the capitol of Judaism) was re-established as Israel's civic capital in Mr. Herzl's movement - called Zionism.