[RedState] Remember when a horde of illegal immigrants rioted at the southern border, clashing with National Guard troops in El Paso, Texas? They were arrested and charged shortly after the incident. It seemed as if at least some of these individuals would be facing some serious jail time.
But, it’s 2024, and nothing makes sense anymore.
A judge decided to grant these individuals a generous Easter president, ordering their release. Why? Because the district attorney’s office wasn’t ready to proceed with detention hearings for the defendants.
#6
El Paso was a mess. Its female DA was basically incompetent. Then they replaced her with a guy with twenty years experience, some of it as judge, and he can't make due dates. Something smells fishy. Par for the course in El Paso.
#7
They cancelled reservations at hotels before the Army-Navy game last December as well. The hotels are now filled with illegal immigrant families and turning into sh*tholes.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A few days ago, Moscow sent a note on anti-terrorism to Kyiv via a channel through Minsk, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported on March 31.
“The other day, Russia transmitted the corresponding note to the Kiev side through an established channel through Minsk,” the RIA Novosti department responded to a question about the procedure for transmitting the document on anti-terrorism.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not provide any other details.
As Regnum reported, on March 31, it became known that the Russian Foreign Ministry had submitted a demand to Ukraine for the extradition of those involved in terrorist attacks in Russia, including the head of the SBU Vasily Malyuk. It was clarified that Russia had revealed Ukraine’s involvement in the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, as well as in the terrorist attacks in which journalists Daria Dugina and Maxim Fomin (Vladlen Tatarsky) were killed, the attempted murder of the writer Zakhar Prilepin, the attempt to blow up the Crimean Bridge and other terrorist attacks on Russian territory.
The fight against international terrorism is the responsibility of every country; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded that the Kyiv regime immediately stop any support for terrorist activities and hand over all those responsible, as well as compensate the damage caused to the victims.
On March 25, the head of the SBU, Vasily Malyuka, hinted at the department’s involvement in murders and attempts on the lives of Ukrainian and Russian politicians and public figures, including war correspondent Vladlen Tatarsky and ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy Ilya Kiva.
The next day, the Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested the head of the SBU in absentia on charges of committing a terrorist attack.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] German authorities are ill-prepared for major cyber attacks. There are no structures in the country that would coordinate efforts to counter hackers in an emergency, said the head of the Federal Office for Security of Information Technology (BSI) Claudia Plattner in an interview with the newspaper Der Tagesspiegel.
According to Plattner, it is impossible to “call each other 16 times to find out what is going on where.”
“What should we do if, for example, the lights go out in Hamburg and Munich at the same time due to a cyber incident, resulting in the worst case from geopolitical tensions? Then we will need to do everything from the first second to overcome this crisis,” the official noted.
Plattner emphasized that the German authorities are not prepared for such incidents. At the same time, she complained that the creation of a common database with which the supposed body to combat cyber attacks could work was contrary to German law.
“The thing is impossible as defined, so therefore we should do nothing at all to harden ourselves.”
At the same time, Plattner called on the authorities to pay attention to the problem of ensuring cybersecurity.
As Regnum reported, on March 11, the online resources of many French government agencies were subjected to a powerful cyber attack.
It was noted that the attack began on the evening of March 10. Now access to government information resources has been restored, and the damage from the actions of hackers has been minimized.
BFMTV clarified that government agencies were subjected to a DDoS attack, in which numerous requests to an Internet resource lead to its overload.
In February, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces announced that it had information about cyber attacks of “Russian origin” on the country’s defense enterprises. According to the head of the ministry, Sebastien Lecornu, these cyber attacks are allegedly becoming more aggressive and occurring more often.
Previously, Russian media noted that “ Russian hackers ” have turned into a convenient “scarecrow” for American and European media and political strategists. The Kremlin said that no evidence of such attacks had ever been presented. Such accusations take on the character of some kind of mania or phobia, noted the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.
[IsraelTimes] Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... is licking his wounds after voters dealt him and his party their biggest electoral blow in a nationwide local vote that reasserted the opposition as a political force and reinforced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president’s chief rival.
Nobody has deserved his comeuppance more.
With most of the votes counted, Imamoglu led by 10 percentage points in the mayoral race in Istanbul, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... ’s largest city, while his Republican People’s Party (CHP) retained Ankara and gained 15 other mayoral seats in cities nationwide.
It marked the worst defeat for Erdogan and his AK Party (AKP) in their more than two decades in power, and could signal a change in the country’s divided political landscape.
In a post-midnight address, Erdogan called the resounding defeat a "turning point."
He tells crowds gathered at AKP headquarters in Ankara that his alliance had "lost altitude" across the nation and will take steps to address the message from voters.
"If we made a mistake, we will fix it" in the years ahead, he said. "If we have anything missing, we will complete it."
Erdogan, who in the 1990s was also mayor of his hometown Istanbul, had campaigned hard ahead of the municipal elections, which analysts described as a gauge of both his support and the opposition’s durability.
The results represent an even worse showing than losses that had been predicted by opinion polls due to soaring inflation, dissatisfied Islamist voters and, in Istanbul, Imamoglu’s appeal beyond the CHP’s secular base, analysts say.
"Those who do not understand the nation’s message will eventually lose," Imamoglu, 53, tells thousands of jubilant supporters, some of them chanting for Erdogan to resign.
"Tonight, 16 million Istanbul citizens sent a message to both our rivals and the president," said the former businessman, who is now widely touted as a likely presidential challenger.
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#4
The results represent an even worse showing than losses that had been predicted by opinion polls due to soaring inflation, dissatisfied Islamist voters and, in Istanbul, Imamoglu’s appeal beyond the CHP’s secular base, analysts say.
Not always better
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2024 10:04 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Foreign Ministry calls proposals for ‘cosmetic reforms’ in agency ‘meaningless,’ says nations should not resume funding, but instead divert money to other humanitarian efforts.
Or they could, you know, just stop treating the Palestinians like the lilies of thei field, and make them live by the sweat of their brow like the rest of us.
[RedState] Dangerous, as are most examples of foreign military adventurism. Time oftentimes reveals truth. Strange how that works.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
04/01/2024 00:20 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[300 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
...Oh, I FULLY expect a full-dress 'Allahu Ackbar!" human wave or mass truck bomb attack. And of course our ROE will forbid even loaded weapons, much less anything resembling self-defense.
#7
Depends on who defines happy DV. Failed mission, dead sailors, ruined ships, deeper engagement in Gaza, these sad events produce smiles in places in other parts of the world. Worst of all, there will be some inside the wire smiling along with them.
Not that anyone cares about what a noisy bunch of powerless Arabs shout in an Arab country where the king is pretty much an absolute monarch.
[IsraelTimes] Activists in Jordan call for further protests after days of demonstrations that have brought thousands onto the streets against the war in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and the country’s peace treaty with Israel.
Jordan, where nearly half the population is of Paleostinian origin, has seen regular rallies in Amman and elsewhere in solidarity with Gaza since the October 7 Hamas ...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... terror onslaught and subsequent war in Gaza.
Recent protests have seen rare festivities between demonstrators and security forces in the capital and in Jordan’s largest Paleostinian refugee camp.
The group Jordanian Youth Gathering urges people to return later Sunday to the Israeli embassy in Amman "to support the resistance in Gaza and demand the cancellation of the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty and cut all ties with Israel."
In 1994, Jordan became the second Arab country, after Egypt in 1979, to sign a peace treaty with Israel.
"No to a Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory," read one banner at Saturday’s embassy protest, where people have gathered every evening since the holy Moslem month of Ramadan began more than two weeks ago.
Security forces say they have arrested a number of protesters 20 kilometers (12 miles) north of Amman at the Beqaa refugee camp.
Public security front man Amer al-Sartaawi says in a statement that a "number of rioters" were arrested after "acts of rioting and vandalism, setting fires, and hurling stones at vehicles on the public road."
A second statement says women were among an unspecified number of people arrested at a protest the previous night near the Israeli embassy who had also caused disturbances and "attempted to assault" security forces.
#8
"“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries. Improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live. A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement; the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property – either as a child, a wife, or a concubine – must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the faith: all know how to die but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome.”
― Winston Churchill, The River War"
#10
The River War is a short but excellent read for anyone interested in Winston Churchill or military history. Young Winston tells of his time with the Lancers in Sudan chasing around some Islamo-nutter who fancied himself the Mahdi. Some nice maps of the campaign, as I recall.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas ...always the voice of sweet reason... is charging that the Paleostinian Authority sent security officers into Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... under cover of securing aid trucks.
The terror group’s al-Aqsa TV says six members of the force, who escorted aid trucks coming through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, were arrested and police forces were in pursuit to round up other members.
A senior Hamas interior ministry official tells al-Aqsa that the PA gambit was supervised by Majed Faraj, Ramallah’s chief of intelligence.
"The suspicious security force that entered yesterday with Egyptian Crescent trucks coordinated its operations entirely with the [Israeli] occupation forces," says the Hamas official, without providing evidence.
A PA official denies the Hamas accusations.
"The statement by the so-called Hamas interior ministry over the aid entry into Gaza Strip is incorrect," the official says in a statement.
The US has pushed for the PA to retake civilian administrative control of Gaza once Israeli forces pull out, a plan rejected by both Israel and Hamas.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is recovering following a successful hernia operation, doctors at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem say following the late-night procedure.
"He is awake, recovering and speaking with his family," says Prof. Alon Pikarsky, the hospital’s director of general surgery and the attending surgeon, in a short taped statement.
He says the operation went as planned.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, the hernia was discovered during a routine checkup on Saturday evening. His office did not say where in the body the hernia had been discovered, although they are most common in the abdomen and hip areas.
Netanyahu, 74, underwent full anesthesia during the operation.
Justice Minister Yariv Levin, who also holds the role of deputy prime minister, filled Netanyahu’s role temporarily while he was conked out.
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces says that following an assessment, a number of sites in the area surrounding the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... border will no longer be classified as part of the closed military zone.
Parts of the Re’im forest will be opened up, in addition to a number of agricultural areas in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai and Kibbutz Mefalsim.
The forest was the site of the Nova rave on October 7, where over 360 people were killed by terrorists.
#1
NationalSecurity Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on Monday on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to summon Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over reports that IDF troops had been endangered in the Gaza Strip.
The complaints had been made by parents of soldiers in the Egoz unit who stated their sons had been given instructions to avoid damaging Qatari buildings as much as possible, endangering their lives.
Bibi was Israel’s Trump — capable of reducing otherwise clever and thoughtful persons to frothing rage by his mere existence— long before The Donald entered politics. But this is beyond parody.
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Business Forum, which represents most workers in the private sector in Israel from 200 of the country’s largest companies, says employees will be permitted to participate in a protest in Jerusalem that is scheduled to start this evening and will continue till Wednesday, without sanctions.
"This is an emergency for Israel and those who are interested should be allowed to participate in the democratic act," the forum says in a statement.
Each company in the forum will set the terms for its own workers.
In addition, dozens of tech firms have also said their employees can join the protests without sanctions.
The organizers of the demonstration against the Netanyahu government are demanding elections, the cancellation of the Knesset recess scheduled to start on April 7, and the return of all hostages that remain in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
[IsraelTimes] The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court overturns the conviction of protest leader Gonen Ben Yitzhak, who lay under a water cannon to prevent its use during an anti-government demonstration in 2020.
Despite the cancellation of the conviction for obstructing police work, the court rules Ben Yitzhak perform 500 hours of community service.
“A morning that gives impetus to the protests,” Ben Yitzhak tells the Ynet news site.
#6
#5 Ever heard the expression "Perfidious Albion"?
Israel a parlamentary democracy. Means a government doesn't resign unless there is a vote of no confidence in the Knesset. As to the "protesters" - they're the usual few thousand bunch of toxic waste product of overindulgent society funded & organized by foreign.
I sure hope cops break some heads, and the f*cking judges have it explained to them that this is not America.
[IsraelTimes] Attack was third by PA security forces officer within a month; left-wing group defending Paleostinians from settler violence vows to continue work after 2 activists hurt in shooting
A gunman who carried out a terror shooting attack in the West Bank last week, wounding three Israelis, turned himself in to troops, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.
The suspect, 27-year-old Abu Rida al-Saadi, a member of the Paleostinian Authority security forces, gave himself up to troops who were searching for him in the Jericho area, the IDF said.
The weapon used in the attack in the Jordan Valley town of al-Auja was also seized, the IDF added.
It was the third time within a month that a terror attack was carried out by a member of the PA security forces, after a sniper attack near the settlement of Dolev and a shooting attack at a gas station near the settlement of Eli.
Three Israelis were maimed when the attacker opened fire toward school buses and cars in al-Auja on Route 90, the main north-south artery in the Jordan Valley on Thursday
An image from a dashcam video showed the gunman, who appeared to be dressed all in green, opening fire with an assault rifle.
Two bulletproof school buses and at least two cars were hit in the shooting.
Two of those injured in the attack were activists from the left-wing Looking the Occupation in the Eyes group, who had traveled to the West Bank to "defend Paleostinians from settler violence."
The group said the only way to combat violence was with nonviolence, and vowed "the activists will continue to come to the territory to accompany shepherds and to stand guard protecting communities suffering from oppression and violence."
Since October 7, the IDF has said, troops arrested some 3,600 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,600 affiliated with Hamas ...always the voice of sweet reason...
[IsraelTimes] Undeterred by the conflict keeping most away, a few hardy Christian worshipers from Israel and abroad experience the holiday under unusual circumstances
Jerusalem Old City’s Via Dolorosa was unusually quiet on Easter Sunday, as Bella Simanjuntak and two friends ascended the famous alleyway where Jesus Christ is believed to have been marched on his way to being crucified.
Simanjuntak and her friends — all agriculture students from Indonesia — are among the relatively few pilgrims undeterred by the war and related friction from making the Jerusalem pilgrimage, where they prayed for peace.
Like several other pilgrims interviewed for this article, Simanjuntak said she felt safe, inspired and fortunate to experience the Christian sites of the Old City without the crowds that usually occur here.
"I feel a mix of joy, gratitude and, of course, deep sorrow for Jesus Christ and how he suffered right here," said Simanjuntak, who comes from the city of Ambon in the province of Maluku in Indonesia, a predominantly Moslem country where only 11% of the population are Christians.
Simanjuntak, 26, came to study agriculture in the Arava region in Israel’s south in 2023, just before war erupted when Hamas ...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... bully boyz murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 253 on October 7, prompting Israel to launch a ground invasion of the Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip.
"Our government offered to bring us back, and we all said no," she said of the 100-odd members of her delegation from Indonesia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel. "Our visas would have expired, and it’s a very long process to get a new one. So we just stayed and it has been ok," Simanjuntak said.
Jerusalem’s Good Friday procession, which kicks off the three-day holiday of Easter commemorating Jesus’ crucifixion and celebrating his resurrection, attracted a fraction of the usual number of participants to the capital. A crowd of a few hundred people, most of them Christian Paleostinians, marched solemnly up the Via Dolorosa. Several men carried giant crucifixes as the participants recited and sang prayers in Arabic.
Ramadan, the month when observant Moslems fast during the daytime, coincides with Easter this year, contributing to the unusual stillness of the Old City because far fewer Moslem patrons go to the dozens of cafes and restaurants that dot the Old City.
Zaher from Tiberias and Christina from Austria, two Catholic pilgrims, were happy to find one open eatery — Celia, a kebab shop next to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The location is central to the Easter story because it is believed to be where Jesus was buried on Good Friday before he was resurrected three days later on Easter.
Christina, who declined to give her last name citing privacy concerns, spent the past three months walking to Israel from Greece as part of a pilgrimage that she had been conducting, on and off, since she set out from Spain in 2019.
"I don’t feel any tension, actually," said Christina, who added that, while she is Catholic, her main motivation for the pilgrimage was to promote peace.
Zaher noted that many Paleostinian Christians did not participate in the Easter festivities and events "not because they are afraid, but because they are simply sad. So they celebrate the resurrection and Easter, but on a smaller scale, at home or with family," said Zaher, who also declined to give his last name.
But for Zaher, he added, "the political story is separate from the religious one, which is far bigger and eternal." Zaher arrived in Jerusalem specifically for Easter, has participated in the Good Friday procession and is now ready to return to Israel’s north.
"I’m happy and grateful here, right now. I am also pained by the war, but that’s separate," he said.
Simanjuntak draws reassurance from the Israelis she knows in the Arava and their conduct in Jerusalem, she said.
"People tell us we have nothing to fear in the Arava and also here, I don’t see people reacting in fear. When you see the locals aren’t afraid, it really reassures you as a foreigner," said Simanjuntak.
Next month, Simanjuntak and other students are planning to visit Israel’s north, which currently is under frequent rocket attack by Hezbollah.
"We are not afraid. We want to see as much of the Holy Land as possible while we’re here," she said.
[IsraelTimes] The threat of rockets has caused northern worshipers to alter their plans on a holiday weekend that they are nonetheless determined to observe
Easter weekend is typically the highlight of the Da’abul family’s calendar. On the Christian holiday that marks Jesus’ resurrection, they take a road trip to his Galilee hometown of Nazareth, reconnect with their Maronite-Cathilic roots in the region, and enjoy its gorgeous springtime blossoms.
But not this year.
The war with Hamas ...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... in the south, and especially the exchanges of fire with Hezbollah that swiftly followed up north, made the family of four cancel their annual Easter trip and stay home Haifa, where they joined other Christians on one of the city’s two annual Good Friday processions.
Always solemn events, the Good Friday processions to commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion were especially muted this year with low turnout due to the war and the somber mood of the participants, who spoke of their desire for peace and prayed for the conflict to end.
"It’s a sad day during a sad time," said Maya Da’abul, who took part in the Maronite procession with her husband Imad and two teenage children, Kamal and Larene. It began at Haifa’s majestic Saint Louis the King Cathedral Maronites Church. A larger procession took place simultaneously around the Elias Cathedral of the Melkite Catholic, which has a larger community but a smaller hall, lit by candlelight.
In Jerusalem, hundreds also marched, many singing hymns as they made their way slowly through the Old City along the Via Dolorosa, the cobblestone path where tradition says Jesus bore the cross to his crucifixion. The tourists and pilgrims who usually attend the Jerusalem procession were mostly absent, adding to the sense of isolation that Israelis of all faiths have been feeling for the past six months.
On their Easter trips, the Da’abuls usually worship in Kafr Bir’im near the Lebanese border. Kafr Bir’im "is where our family comes from, before 1948," Maya said, referencing the expulsion of the village’s population by Israel during the War of Independence.
The expulsion of Bir’im, whose residents did not participate in any meaningful way in hostilities against Jews, is a painful episode in the history of Jewish-Christian relations in the State of Israel. It was carried out amid promises that residents, members of the Middle Eastern stream of Catholicism known as Maronites, could return, and the families of the displaced have for decades lobbied to be allowed to reestablish the village.
Independently of any grievances they have against Israel, the Da’abuls loathe His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... , the head of the Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah, which has launched thousands of rockets into Israel since October 7, killing about 20 people, including Arab Israelis.
"He’s holding us hostage, and it’s infuriating," Maya said.
ECONOMIC AND SECURITY FEARS
Also at the march, Hanna Afara, a 42-year-old father of three, speaks with quiet but seething anger about the war.
"My oldest, he’s 9, and he’s afraid to go out of his home after experiencing two warning sirens," said Afara, who lives in an older building with no communal shelter. "We’re all suffering right now, and that’s kind of the feeling here at the procession too."
Afara and his family had planned to visit Tiberias and worship at the nearby Church of the Multiplication, which boasts a restored 5th-century mosaic. But, like the Da’abuls, the Afaras stayed in Haifa.
"It doesn’t make sense to take the whole family up north right now," Afara said.
Part of Afara’s considerations for staying was to lower costs. The outbreak of war on October 7, when Hamas bandidosbully boyz murdered nearly 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 253, has hurt the four mills where he works.
"We used to make flour that would go to Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... but now there’s no more orders. So there’s less work, fewer shifts and no end in sight," he said.
In Jerusalem, the Good Friday procession attracted a fraction of the usual number, which normally includes thousands of foreign pilgrims.
"Comparing last year’s Easter festivities with this year is like night and day," Fayaz Dakkak, a Paleostinian store owner whose family opened the shop in 1942, told the News Agency that Dare Not be Named. His shop stood empty.
"Usually people are joyful today and kids are excited," he said. "But when you compare children here who have water and food and a family to what’s happening in Gaza, how can you be happy?"
The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip claims that some 32,000 people have died in Gaza as a result of the war set off by Hamas’s devastating October 7 terror attack. The number is unverified and does not distinguish between civilians and terror group operatives, of whom Israel says it has killed at least 13,000.
In the north, Hezbollah rockets continue to rain down. One of the rockets last week killed a 38-year-old resident of a Druze village near Kiryat Shmona.
Israel has killed more than 200 people, most of them terrorists, in retaliatory strikes in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... . More than 20,000 from Israel’s north remain displaced, even as the vast majority of the 60,000-odd evacuees from the area near the Gaza Strip in the south have returned home.
’IN HIS HANDS’
In Haifa, which has heard several warning sirens since October 7 due to inbound objects from across the border, residents are bracing for an escalation. Many remember the Second Lebanon War of 2006, when Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into Haifa, killing several people. According to one training scenario by the Israel Defense Forces’ Homefront Command, Hezbollah is capable of launching 4,000 rockets a day at Haifa.
The toned-down atmosphere during Good Friday didn’t prevent vendors from setting up shop along the processions’ routes, selling mostly children’s toys — including plastic toy rifles. At the Catholic procession, a priest heading the march tried to lighten the mood when he sprayed a bit of perfumed water on some children from an aspergillum, evoking shrieks of joy and laughter.
In the pleasant spring breeze wafting from the nearby Haifa Port, the citrus-scented liquid’s aroma blended with the incense billowing from another priest’s thurible.
The marchers sang prayers in Arabic as they made their way slowly through downtown Haifa, an ill-lit part of town with several churches and many stone-tiled homes that have been vacant since the flight of their Arab former inhabitants in 1948, amid heavy fighting between Arabs and Jews in the city. Haifa, where about 290,000 people live, has approximately 70,000 Arabs, evenly split between Moslems and Christians.
Immediately behind the priests, a group of men carried a giant wooden crucible, lowering it periodically to avoid touching power lines and overhanging traffic lights.
"Look, it’s Easter, when we celebrate God’s absolute power over life, death and everything we know," said Adel Antoine, a mechanic from Haifa’s Wadi Nisnas neighborhood, in reference to the fact that the holiday celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his Crucifixion. "So it would make little sense to fear this or that. We are in His hands, and that’s fine."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
...not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...always the voice of sweet reason...
...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
[IsraelTimes] The threat of rockets has caused northern worshipers to alter their plans on a holiday weekend that they are nonetheless determined to observe
