[Yahoo] The ShotSpotter gunshot detection system has worn a bullseye among progressives in Chicago for years.
Now, Mayor Brandon Johnson says he will make good on a campaign promise to get rid of the technology. But he won’t do so immediately.
Johnson announced Tuesday that the city contract with ShotSpotter would be renewed once more, keeping it in place until late September, a month after the Democratic National Convention comes to Chicago. Then it will get canceled.
Before the city decommissions ShotSpotter, “law enforcement and other community safety stakeholders will assess tools and programs that effectively increase both safety and trust, and issue recommendations to that effect,” the Johnson administration said in a statement.
Johnson’s decision was greeted with acclaim from his grassroots base that had kept up a steady drumbeat of pressure for him to cancel the contract, but the City Council’s more moderate wing expressed apprehension on how its absence will impact gun violence response times.
“Moving forward, the city of Chicago will deploy its resources on the most effective strategies and tactics proven to accelerate the current downward trend in violent crime,” the statement reads in part. “Doing this work, in consultation with community, violence prevention organizations and law enforcement, provides a pathway to a better, stronger, safer Chicago for all.”
It was not immediately clear what will supplant the acoustic sensors that are mounted on light poles throughout much of the South and West sides to alert police about the location of suspected gunfire.
The decision came after months of speculation over whether Johnson as mayor would lead with the same vision of shifting the city’s public safety strategy away from what he has described as overreliance on policing and surveillance, and toward “holistic” solutions. But it will surely further deepen the rift between him and pro-law enforcement interests, the latter of which have decried his crime-fighting philosophy as lacking accountability.
ShotSpotter gained special notoriety among Chicago activists in 2021, when a gunshot alert from a street in Little Village sent responding police running after 13-year-old Adam Toledo. An officer fatally shot Toledo during the chase.
Still, the support for ending it is far from universal.
Staunch ShotSpotter supporter Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, said Tuesday he is disappointed in the decision and thinks it will make responding to gun violence more difficult. There were almost 3,000 shootings in Chicago in 2023, according to police.
“We’re losing the ability of our police responders and our first responders to respond to scenes much quicker than our traditional call-in to 911,” said Taliaferro, a former Chicago police sergeant and chair of Johnson’s police and fire committee in City Council. “When you lose that, the ability to quickly respond, then you also decrease the ability to save lives.”
But in progressive corners of the city, activists and leftist aldermen hailed the scheduled end of ShotSpotter as yet another sign of Johnson’s electoral victory last year ushering in a new era in Chicago.
Kennedy Bartley, executive director of United Working Families, released a statement stressing how the activist community was instrumental in defeating ShotSpotter.
“Elections matter. Organizing matters,” Bartley said. “Today is a new day, where investments in evidence-based, holistic solutions that don’t just respond to violence but prevent it are driving our city’s public safety policy. We know a safer Chicago is on the horizon.” "Humina humina humina"
The #StopShotSpotter grassroots campaign also weighed in on the years-in-the-making victory, saying the “racist deployment” of the technology has harmed Chicagoans and warning the Police Department against replacing it with any similar devices.
[IsraelTimes] Opposition leader says decision to withdraw support from Azhar Ali, who claimed Israel deliberately allowed Oct. 7 onslaught, proves he meant what he said when he pledged reform.
Britannia’s Labour leader Keir Starmer insisted Tuesday the main opposition party has "changed" since it was plagued by antisemitism, hours after it withdrew support for a parliamentary candidate who made contentious remarks about Israel.
Azhar Ali was Labour’s candidate for a February 29 by-election in Rochdale, northwest England, following the death last month of sitting MP Tony Lloyd.
But a recording emerged over the weekend of him at a meeting of the local Labour party, in which he suggested that Israel deliberately allowed Hamas ...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... to attack on October 7 in order to justify invading 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... After initially standing by his candidacy following an apology, Labour announced late Monday that it would no longer back Ali’s bid to become an MP after "new information about further comments" emerged.
The party cannot now replace Ali as the nominations have closed. He will not sit as a Labour politician if still elected later this month.
Fascinating.
"Further information came to light yesterday calling for decisive action, so I took decisive action," Starmer told news hounds Tuesday, as he visited another constituency where a by-election will be held Thursday.
"It is a huge thing to withdraw support for a Labour candidate during the course of a by-election."
"It’s a tough decision, a necessary decision, but when I say the Labour Party has changed under my leadership, I mean it."
Starmer has made tackling antisemitism within Labour’s ranks a key mission since he became its leader nearly four years ago.
The party, now on course to win a general election due later this year, saw a spate of incidents under former left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.
A landmark October 2020 report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission ruled that Labour under Corbyn had broken the law in its "inexcusable" handling of complaints.
#2
Keir Starmer believes this is the only way to save the Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn’s Jew-hate scandals almost got the party shut down by the authorities. His wife is Jewish, and their children are being reared in the faith, so he is more sensitive on the topic than many.
[IsraelTimes] Details of some 600 people on a private WhatsApp group were leaked online; Jewish community leadership welcomes move as protection against ’shameful and dangerous practice’
The Australian government said on Tuesday it will outlaw doxxing — the malicious release online of personal or identifying information without the subject’s permission — after pro-Paleostinian activists published personal details of hundreds of Jewish people in Australia.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the proposed laws, which have yet to be drafted, would involve issuing take-down notices to social media platforms and imposing fines for the intimidation tactic.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had asked for legislation to be brought forward as part of a broader reform of privacy laws.
"The idea that in Australia someone should be targeted because of their religion... it’s just completely unacceptable," he said.
The government was responding to Nine Entertainment news reports last week that pro-Paleostinian activists had published the names, images, professions, and social media accounts of Jewish people working in academia and the creative industries.
Pro-Paleostinian activists distributed a nearly 900-page transcript that leaked from a private WhatsApp formed last year by Jewish writers, artists, musicians, and academics, Nine newspapers reported last week. The transcript was accompanied by a spreadsheet that contained the names and other personal details of almost 600 people, purportedly the group’s membership.
Author Clementine Ford, who was one of several activists who posted links to the leaked information, said that it shouldn’t be considered doxxing.
"This chat demonstrated extremely organized moves to punish Paleostinian activists and their allies," Ford posted on Instagram.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... some of those whose details were released have reported they suffered abuse online in the wake of the leak.
Dreyfus said the new laws would strengthen Australian protections against hate speech, but provided scant detail about how they would work.
"The increasing use of online platforms to harm people through practices like doxxing, the malicious release of their personal information without their permission, is a deeply disturbing development," Dreyfus, who is Jewish, told news hounds.
"The recent targeting of members of the Australian Jewish community through those practices like doxxing was shocking but, sadly, this is far from being an isolated incident," Dreyfus added.
There has been an increase in reports of antisemitism in Australia since the Paleostinian terror group Hamas ...one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... ’s devastating attack on Israel on October 7 and during the ensuing war.
The Australian government’s online safety watchdog defines doxxing, which is also known as "dropping dox" or documents, as the "intentional online exposure of an individual’s identity, private information or personal details without their consent."
Asked for his definition, Dreyfus said doxxing was the "malicious release, publicly, of personal information of people without their consent."
"We live in a vibrant multicultural community which we should strive to protect," he said.
The government’s plan to outlaw doxxing was welcomed by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which represents Australia’s Jewish community.
"We look forward to working with the government to ensure the full extent of the harm caused is understood and that the new laws effectively protect Australians from this shameful and dangerous practice," council president Daniel Aghion said.
Monash University cybersecurity expert Nigel Phair applauded the idea of a law against doxxing, but questioned how it could be enforced.
"It’s really difficult for policing agencies to police such laws when, really, they just don’t get the access to the data. Really, it’s the social media companies who bear the responsibility," Phair told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
"Our law enforcement agencies, dare I say, are already swamped with online investigations with the amount of crime that we have online. Adding this to it without any additional resources and the really integrated work with the social media platforms — it just won’t do much," he added.
Dvir Abramovich, chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission civil rights organization, said it has launched a campaign calling on the government to immediately introduce anti-doxxing laws.
"Governments do not need to wait for someone to be violent mostly peacefully attacked, killed or driven to suicide because of this malevolent doxing to act," Abramovich said in a statement Monday. "We know that people are often inspired to do crazy things when they are radicalized online, and this doxing is dangerous and will have real-world consequences.
"The deliberate online targeting and harassment of Australian Jews, akin to digital terrorism, has now reached fever pitch, and it’s clear that these anti-Israel bully boyz are determined to make our lives a living hell," he said. "It’s imperative that governments step in and protect the victims who have already been subjected to death threats and hold the perpetrators accountable."
Not waiting to see if they are actually convicted...
[IsraelTimes]Gay Paree cites spiraling West Bank violence in recent months, says onus is on Israel’s government to stop it.
But no French sanctions of the Palestinians who have been attacking for years, or for the Palestinian Authority government which has been pensioning those jailed for it.
The French announcement came after the United Kingdom on Monday said it was sanctioning four "extremist Israeli settlers" accused of committing human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... abuses against Paleostinians in the West Bank.
The United States had already announced punitive measures against one of them, as well as three others, on February 1 over what it called "intolerable" violence.
The European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... ’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in December that he would also propose similar measures. Gay Paree has backed that initiative and diplomats said they hoped that once its measures were in place it could speed up the European process.
A joint statement issued by the French, Polish, and German foreign ministers on Monday said settler violence against Paleostinians in the West Bank was unacceptable and "shall be sanctioned."
EU efforts have stalled so far due to objections from Hungary and the Czech Republic, diplomats say. But they say a compromise may be found later to let the measures proceed, possibly after more EU sanctions on Hamas ...a regional Iranian catspaw,... "Colonization is illegal under international law and must stop," the French foreign ministry said. "Its continuation is incompatible with the creation of a viable Paleostinian state, which is the only solution so that Israelis and Paleostinians can live, side by side, in peace and security."
In December, La Belle France’s then-foreign minister Catherine Colonna also announced sanctions against some violent mostly peaceful Israelis in the West Bank. In Israel earlier this month, current Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said that "settler violence" in the West Bank must stop.
[IsraelTimes] Progressive British Columbia minister Selina Robinson forced to step down after anti-Israel activists demand her ouster for calling pre-state Israel a ’crappy piece of land’
A Jewish politician in the Canadian province of British Columbia has lost her job and received a death threat after saying that pre-state Israel was "a crappy piece of land with nothing on it" during an online panel discussion. Police are also investigating an act of antisemitic vandalism ar her constituency office.
The incident reflects how fallout from the Israel-Hamas ...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... war, now in its fifth month, continues to spread far beyond the region as tensions soar between Jews and Moslems on Canada’s west coast.
Selina Robinson, the province’s minister of postsecondary education, was dismissed on February 5 by British Columbia Premier David Eby after he initially stood by her in the face of fierce protests.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... many Canadian Jews are decrying how Robinson has been targeted by anti-Israel activists and other politicians, including from her own New Democratic Party ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... (NDP).
Nico Slobinsky, the vice president for the Pacific region at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), voiced his dismay on social media.
"Saddened and concerned to hear that MLA [Member of the Legislative Assembly] Selina Robinson has received a death threat," Slobinsky wrote. "Grateful to the RCMP [police] for investigating. I can’t help but wonder if people are feeling emboldened after the events of the last few days."
Robinson, 60, represented the suburban Vancouver district of Coquitlam-Maillardville in the British Columbia legislature. Since first being elected in 2013, she has served in several ministerial positions including finance minister, and played a vital role in getting the province to adopt mandatory Holocaust education in its school system. Before entering provincial politics, Robinson headed the Jewish Family Service Agency in Vancouver and was a family therapist and a city councilwoman.
Two weeks ago, while participating in a webinar hosted by B’nai Brith Canada, Robinson lamented the lack of knowledge among young people about the history of Jews, citing both the Holocaust and the founding of Israel.
"We have a whole generation of 18- to 34-year-olds that have no idea about the Holocaust, they don’t even think it happened," she said. "They don’t understand that Israel was offered to the Jews who were displaced. So they have no connection to how it started. They don’t understand that it was a crappy piece of land with nothing on it. There were several hundred thousand people, but other than that it didn’t produce an economy; it couldn’t grow things, it didn’t have anything on it."
Some took umbrage at what they considered inflammatory remarks, igniting a firestorm of harsh criticism and demands for Eby to fire Robinson. They accused her of racism, colonialism, Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... and insulting Paleostinians. Initially, she insisted her "crappy land" reference was about the lack of natural resources in what is present-day Israel. Still, anti-Israel activists fueled a media frenzy as they clamored for her dismissal from the cabinet.
Eighteen Moslem leaders signed a letter, published online, saying NDP politicians would no longer be welcome in their communities as long as Robinson retained her job. The religious leaders had joined the National Council of Canadian Moslems, Paleostinian Canadian Academics and Artists Network, Faculty for Paleostine, Independent Jewish Voices Canada, the Jewish Faculty Network, Indigenous leaders and a federal member of Parliament (MP) in calling for Robinson’s removal from cabinet.
Among those actively promoting petitions with the same demand were a prominent Jewish couple, author and social activist Naomi Klein and her husband, filmmaker and former Al Jazeera TV host Avi Lewis, both long known as fierce critics of Israel.
Political factors also came into play. According to Rob Shaw, writing in Business in Vancouver, several activists in the anti-Robinson pile-on are long-time critics of the NDP who were "just using her predicament to settle old political scores."
Green Party MLA Adam Olsen criticized Robinson’s comments, connecting them to the politically charged Indigenous situation in Canada. In a blog post, he said Robinson’s "crappy land" comment "isn’t just hurtful, it’s a reflection of a racist ideology that fueled colonialism in BC for centuries."
Several NDP figures from across Canada also took aim at Robinson, including Ontario MP Matthew Green.
Green was a featured speaker at a November rally organized by Toronto4Paleostine, a group that publicly distributed candy on October 7 in celebration of the Hamas-led massacre that killed 1,200 people in southern Israel, most of them civilians, and saw 253 more kidnapped to 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. Green did not suffer any apparent consequences for making that appearance.
On February 5, the campaign against Robinson erupted into the streets as a group of about 50 protesters chanted, "Selina, Selina, you can’t hide, you committed genocide," outside a hotel in Surrey, 20 miles southeast of Vancouver, where the British Columbia NDP caucus was meeting.
Robinson subsequently issued a lengthy apology following up on a brief statement of contrition on X (formerly Twitter) a few days earlier.
"My recent comments have caused pain and distress within the Paleostinian community, the Moslem community and beyond," she stated. "I am very sorry. I bear full responsibility. My words were inappropriate, wrong, and I now understand how they have contributed to Islamophobia and anti-Paleostinian racism."
She added: "I know my comments have additionally caused pain, including among Indigenous communities, for perpetuating harmful narratives of colonialism. The experiences of First Nations people are not mine to manipulate. That was wrong and I’m deeply sorry."
Hours later — and three days after he had criticized Robinson’s comments but said she could remain in the cabinet — Eby yielded to those demanding her departure. He announced she had resigned, only admitting later in the week that he’d had a hand in it.
"My concerns that have led to Selina stepping down as minister relate to how her comments increased division in our province and the work she needs to do to bring people back together," Eby told a Vancouver news conference where Robinson was noticeably absent. "The perspective I have here is that Selina has a remarkable track record as a politician representing her community, representing the Jewish community, and that she screwed up. That screw-up was not a small one. And she caused a lot of hurt."
Later that day, after also offering to take anti-Islamophobia training, Robinson announced she wouldn’t seek reelection when British Columbia goes to the polls this year. Since then, she’s stayed out of the public eye, also refusing to speak to the media.
Some observers suggested Eby’s concern over his party’s prospects in the upcoming election led to a cold calculation on Robinson’s future in his cabinet. Satisfying the province’s Moslem community, which is nearly four times larger than its Jewish counterpart, offered the potential of more votes on election day for the leftist NDP, which is the most pro-Paleostinian of Canada’s main political parties.
Even before Robinson made her controversial comments about Israel, some pro-Paleostinian and NDP activists already had her in their crosshairs over unproven allegations she had used her role as minister to press a British Columbia college to fire an instructor for calling the October 7 Hamas atrocities "amazing" and "brilliant."
Adding insult to injury for Robinson, in the aftermath of her dismissal, vandals attacked her constituency office, defacing it with hateful graffiti saying "Zionism is Nazism," "Free Paleostine" and "We don’t accept your apology." A day later, Eby confirmed that police were also investigating a death threat against her.
With Canadian Jews already on edge due to a surge in antisemitism since October 7, the Robinson affair added to their concerns and frustration.
CIJA’s Slobinsky said Eby’s actions sent a "chilling message that Jewish leaders are held to a different standard than non-Jewish ones."
A few days before Robinson made her ill-fated remarks, Eby made an embarrassing faux pas that offended the Jewish community. On January 27, on the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, he issued a statement conflating the Holocaust with Islamophobia, asking the province to stand together "against the deeply troubling rise of Islamophobia" and saying, "We stand with the Moslem community throughout Canada on this sorrowful day of remembrance."
He later apologized, blaming a staff member for mistakenly posting a text intended for a different context on another date.
In a letter to Eby protesting his decision concerning Robinson, the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver asked why she wasn’t granted the same opportunity for forgiveness for her supposed mistake as Eby was for his, or other members from his NDP party when they made antisemitic comments in the past.
"We believe you have capitulated to a small but loud group of people," the rabbis wrote. "This is dangerous for our community and the strength of our province’s democracy. You bowed to pressure from the very same groups that have been at the centre of an unprecedented rise in antisemitism and hate directed at the Jewish community since the brutal, inhuman attacks of October 7. It feels like you have given in to bullies for political expediency."
Other Jewish groups also spoke out in anger.
"Facing an unprecedented increase in hate, the Jewish community in [British Columbia] is hurting," said Ezra Shanken, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. "The level of online vitriol aimed at Selina Robinson leading up to her resignation — which mirrors the reality faced by much of the Jewish community since the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks — shows worrying trends in our public discourse."
#2
Actually was a very stable , beautiful, and peaceful land before the European trash arrived.
Posted by: ACA JOE ||
02/14/2024 14:37 Comments ||
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#3
Which is why the Jews were famed round the world for draining the malaria swamps of the Galilee and making the scrubby waste of the Jordan Valley bloom, Aca Joe. You really are dreadfully ignorant.
#4
you left off: "Hateful piece of unconvincing shit"... or maybe that was my reading between the lines?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2024 19:38 Comments ||
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#5
I leave such embellishments to you, Frank G. You’re so much better at it. ;-)
Aca Joe’s ignorance of history extends to not understanding that the Holy Land was still pretty nice when the Byzantines ruled there — it was Arab Muslim conquest that ruined the place. Generations of being sheared like sheep destroyed all ambition in both conquered and conquerers, leading to that dreadful inshallah lassitude that Churchill observed elsewhere in the Ummah. Mark Twain had similarly tar observations, too.
[10 News] Incompetence returns
Austin will perform his duties remotely from home before returning to work at the Pentagon later this week Perhaps his first dooty should be finding a 'experience qualified' deputy.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2024 00:00 ||
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My take: This little play was put on to assure those paying attention that all personnel and reporting issues connected to Mr. Austins last medical FUBAR have been corrected.
[IsraelTimes] 16-page letter slams the school for allowing a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students to thrive for over 2 decades, including through antisemitic statements by faculty after Oct. 7.
The question is whether Columbia will respond in the hope of placating House Republicans until the Democrats return to power or if they will majestically ignore the summons as too trivial to merit attention, like Harvard. Because they certainly won’t change their Jew-hating culture without replacing a good portion of the tenured and untenured faculty and staff.
Columbia University’s handling of antisemitism is now the subject of an official Congressional committee investigation.
In a 16-page letter citing "grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Columbia’s response to antisemitism on its campus," the House Workforce and Education Committee, chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican, demanded Monday that Columbia furnish any and all documents related to antisemitic acts or incidents on campus by February 26.
It is the latest effort from the committee to hold universities accountable for antisemitism which, already present on many of these universities, mushroomed after the October 7 Hamas ...a regional Iranian catspaw,... terror onslaught. Most recently, a Jewish freshman at Columbia described being harassed by violent mostly peaceful anti-Israel protesters just outside of campus.
Aside from requests for documents directly relating to incidents of vandalism, assault, protest and harassment, the committee also requested information on foreign donations, including funding from Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i sources, according to the February 12 letter. The letter charges that "an environment of pervasive antisemitism" had been "documented at Columbia for more than two decades before the October 7, 2023, terrorist attack."
Columbia, which launched a task force on antisemitism on November 1, is the latest university to become the subject of a House investigation into campus antisemitism. It joins Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Columbia Jewish Alumni Association (CJAA) welcomed the move.
"Today was the first step. Today Congress acknowledged that ’pervasive antisemitism has been documented at Columbia for more than two decades’ and — like CJAA members — noted ’grave concerns regarding the inadequacy of Columbia’s response to antisemitism on its campus,’" reads a statement posted on CJAA’s website.
"Let that sink in. The letter sends a powerful message to both Columbia and colleges across America: failing to protect Jewish students and take action against antisemitism potentially violates Federal statutes and is, at its core, morally repugnant," the statement says.
Ari Shrage, one of CJAA’s founders, told The Times of Israel, "Columbia has been aware of antisemitism on campus for decades. Instead of addressing the issue 20 years ago, they swept it under the rug and the problem has gotten worse. I sincerely hope that they address the root causes rather than ignoring the problem and allowing it to become worse."
The House Workforce and Education Committee letter, addressed to all Columbia leaders, singles out university president Dr. Minouche Shafik, saying her words stand in stark contrast to her actions.
"Columbia has consistently allowed anti-Israel groups to violate university policies and shown its commitments on antisemitism to be hollow," says the congressional letter.
In addition to listing student-related incidents, the letter also addresses the numerous Columbia faculty who have reportedly made antisemitic remarks before and after October 7, when massive anti-Israel protests erupted following a Hamas-led massacre that saw 1,200 people killed in southern Israel, most of them civilians, and another 253 kidnapped to 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.
"For example, Professor of Modern Arab Politics Joseph Massad stands out for his lengthy record of antisemitic, anti-Israel, and pro-Hamas conduct," the letter points out.
In an October 8 article for the website The Electronic Intifada, Massad praised the "innovative Paleostinian resistance" and described the attack in terms such as "astonishing," "astounding," and "incredible."
The letter also details multiple incidents where the university allowed events to take place without consequence, even when those events violated university policy.
For example, although the university suspended its campus chapters of the anti-Israel groups Students for Justice in Paleostine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) on November 10 for violating student conduct codes — and, it can be noted, not because of their message — the groups continue to hold and publicize events.
"This stands at odds with President Shafik’s October 9, 2023, commitment that [the university’s] ’first priority has been to make sure everyone connected to Columbia is safe,’ and Columbia’s statement that ’President Shafik has repeatedly said that we will not tolerate antisemitic actions and are moving forcefully against antisemitic threats, images, and other violations as they are reported,’" says the letter.
A university spokesperson told The Times of Israel that, "We are committed to combating antisemitism and all forms of hatred. We have received the letter from Chairwoman Foxx and will cooperate fully with any investigation."
Relieved that Congress is taking action, Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at the Columbia University Business School and outspoken critic of the university’s handling of campus antisemitism since October 7, said he was "extremely shocked by the sheer magnitude and systemic nature of the antisemitism on campus."
"There was some stuff in that 16-page letter that I was unaware of; just seeing everything organized so clearly in a letter was a bit despairing because it highlighted to me how big the problem is and how unwilling the administration has been to deal with it," said Davidai.
"This is a pattern of behavior that if not platformed by the university, is at least willingly accepted. My hope is that now when Congress is involved, the president of the university will start backing up her vacuous emails with actual actions," he said.
[CollegeFox] Protesters at Cornell University demanding divestment from Israel took over the Mann Library on Thursday where they read off the names of Palestinians killed in the four-month-long Israel-Hamas war.
According to The Cornell Daily Sun, the approximately 100 activists of the Coalition for Mutual Liberation’s “Walk Out To a Die In” also chanted “Cornell is complicit in genocide.”
The protest was a direct response to the Student Assembly’s rejection of an Israeli divestment resolution on February 5.
Campus police eventually were called in to “remove and collect identification from the students” and to “refer [them] for disciplinary action.”
After the cops’ arrival, many of the demonstrators left the library to then occupy “other libraries and academic buildings.”
The activists were in violation of Cornell’s two-week-old “Interim Expressive Activity Policy” which says protests must “avoid disrupting classrooms, libraries, auditoriums, laboratories, living units, administrative offices and special event venues.”
Protest participant Nick Wilson of The People’s Organizing Collective called the new activity policy “absolutely absurd and draconian.” He specifically lamented the prohibition on candles — what “people are using to mourn the loss of civilian lives.”
#1
Another swamp creature. And for certain a London School red diaper baby.
Nemat Talaat Shafik, Baroness Shafik DBE HonFBA; Arabic: نعمت شفيق (born 13 August 1962), widely known as Minouche Shafik, is an Egyptian-born British and American economist who has been serving as the 20th president of Columbia University since July 2023. She previously served as president and vice chancellor of the London School of Economics from 2017 to 2023. She also serves on the board of directors of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Previously, Shafik served as deputy governor of the Bank of England from 2014 to 2017 and permanent secretary of the United Kingdom Department for International Development from 2008 to 2011. She has also served as a vice president at the World Bank and as deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund.
[GEO.TV] With the PPP and PML-N apparently "agreed" on coveted slots of prime minister and president, the Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... (PTI) Tuesday warned against the "misadventure" of forming a government with the "stolen votes".
Earlier today, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced backing the PML-N’s candidate for the prime minister's slot, adding that his party would not be a part of the federal government.
Addressing a presser, Bilawal said he was withdrawing from the candidacy for prime minister's post as "the PPP doesn't have the mandate to form the federal government".
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Khan, in his message from Adiala Jail through his family, cautioned against forming the next government with a "stolen" mandate.
"Such daylight robbery will not only be a disrespect to the citizens, but will also push the country’s economy further into a downward spiral."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2024 00:00 ||
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[GEO.TV] As part of his efforts to bring all political forces on the same page regarding the country’s economic agenda, PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ...former president of Pakistain, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in... has expressed his wish to see defiant PTI as part of the ongoing "reconciliation".
Addressing a joint presser flanked by former leadership of the Pakistain Democratic Movement (PDM), including PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, PML-Q’s Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and other leaders, Zardari said: "Everyone will have to be united on the economic agenda in the larger interest of the country."
The development comes hours after PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, during a presser in the federal capital, announced pulling out of the candidacy for the prime minister's post stating his party would back PML-N's candidate for the country's chief executive.
[GEO.TV] Amid ongoing efforts of major parties to forge alliances ahead of forming the next government, PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal expressed hope that the PPP would join the next federal cabinet.
Ahsan's statement came hours after Bilawal had announced supporting the PML-N candidate for the prime minister's slot, however, he clarified that his party would not be part of the next government in the Centre nor it would accept any federal ministries.
"It is impossible that only partner to bear all burden," said the former federal minister, adding, "The Peoples Party would join the next cabinet, Insha-Allah."
Commenting on Pakistain Tehrik-e-Insaf ...a political party in Pakistan. PTI was founded by former Pakistani cricket captain and philanthropist Imran Khan. The party's slogan is Justice, Humanity and Self Esteem, each of which is open to widely divergent interpretations.... , he claimed that the PTI is limited to a province as the former ruling party emerged as the largest party in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the February 8 polls.
He said that an experienced team is present to guide Maryam Nawaz in Punjab, who has been nominated for the chief minister's slot in the country's largest province.
The seasoned politician expressed hopes that his party would pull the country out of crises under the leadership of Nawaz Sharif ...served two three non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf, then by the courts... .
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2024 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[IsraelTimes] Some 100 relatives of Israelis held 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... will submit charges of kidnapping, sexual violence, torture and other allegations to the International Criminal Court on Wednesday.
Over the past four months, lawyers for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which is representing the hostages’ relatives, have prepared a legal submission demanding that arrest warrants be issued against the Hamas ...a regional Iranian catspaw,... leadership for the October 7 atrocities.
Several dozen lawyers together with around 100 representatives of the families of the hostages will file the complaint, while the forum says it expects several thousand Dutch Jews to turn up at the ICC for the submission.
It is believed that 130 hostages kidnapped by Hamas during its savage October 7 assault remain in Gaza — not all of them alive — after 105 civilians were released from Hamas captivity during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released prior to that. Three hostages have been rescued by troops, and the bodies of 11 hostages have been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military.
The complaint will include charges against Hamas leaders of "kidnapping, crimes of sexual violence, torture and other serious allegations," the forum said in a statement to the press.
Work on the submission to the ICC was led by Dr. Shelly Aviv Yeini of the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at the University of Haifa along with attorney Yuval Sasson from the Meitar Law Offices firm, which assigned several dozen lawyers to help draft the complaint.
The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights also participated in preparing the submission.
The forum said that the "short-term goal" of the complaint was to obtain arrest warrants against Hamas leaders, which, it added, would "exert significant pressure to have the remaining hostages freed and serve as a mechanism for bringing about justice to the victims and their families."
Prof. Robbie Sabel of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University noted that the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Kahn, has already stated that he is carrying out an investigation into Hamas’s actions, as well as Israel’s military operation in Gaza.
But he added that the submission by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum could help further advance the investigation into Hamas.
Sabel said that Khan has "a reputation for being a fair and reasonable lawyer" but added that he was "of course subject to public pressure."
He also cautioned that it typically takes a significant period of time for the ICC to issue arrest warrants after a complaint is filed.
The Paleostinian Authority accepted the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court in 2015, giving the court jurisdiction over Paleostinian citizens in Paleostinian territories, including Gaza. Israel has not ratified the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, and therefore sees itself as not subject to the court’s jurisdiction.
[IsraelTimes] Army said to identify terror chief, whose back is to camera along with family, by size of his ears and with AI; spokesperson says clip shows Hamas ...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... leaders only care for themselves
The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday released footage of what it said was Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar walking through a Gazoo
Continued on Page 49
#2
Sometime in the last century, I was on a firing range when a doe stuck its face out of clump of brush and trees on the right side. There was an immediate 'cease fire' ordered. Shortly there after a couple more doe exposed themselves and slowly crossed the range. Only then did the buck follow the does. That was a half hour out of range time.
“Israel lied!” screamed the NYT headline. “It wasn’t nearly as bad as they claimed — it was magnitudes worse!”
“Ooooooh, Jason - that frisson was your best yet.”
[IsraelTimes] Citing classified intelligence information, newspaper says tunnel under 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... ’s main hospital was twice as long as IDF has said, had water supply and apparent communications area.
A tunnel underneath the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City was used extensively by Hamas ...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... for military operations and is nearly twice as long as the Israel Defense Forces had revealed, the New York Times
...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... reported Tuesday.
According to the report, based on classified Israeli intelligence documents the Times reviewed and information made public by the IDF, Hamas "used the hospital for cover, stored weapons inside it, and maintained a hardened tunnel beneath the complex that was supplied with water, power, and air-conditioning."
It said the tunnel was at least 700 feet long, making it twice the length the IDF had publicly revealed. It extended far beyond the hospital, which is Gaza’s main medical complex, likely connecting to the larger tunnel network used by Hamas in Gaza City, and included "underground bunkers, living quarters, and a room that appeared to be wired for computers and communications equipment."
Amid the war on the Paleostinian terror group Hamas, Israel has presented evidence to back up long-standing allegations that Hamas used Shifa Hospital as a major operational hub and command center and that the hospital sat atop tunnels housing headquarters for Hamas fighters using patients as shields. The US has previously corroborated the evidence presented by Israel.
Israeli forces found the tunnel under the medical center by following ducts that ran from rooftop air-conditioning units connected to the hospital’s electricity supply, the report said. The IDF also discovered the hospital’s water supply was connected to the tunnel.
Images obtained by the Times showed the IDF found underground bunkers and living quarters in the subterranean space. In part of the tunnel that lay outside the hospital complex, soldiers found a room that appeared to have the infrastructure needed for computers and communication equipment. That part of the tunnel was not seen in a video released to the public by the IDF, the report said.
Israeli troops entered the hospital on November 5, making the medical center a major focus of the Israeli operation against Hamas in Gaza, which was triggered on October 7 when some 3,000 holy warriors stormed the border with Israel and unleashed an unprecedented attack on the country’s southern communities, killing at least 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 253 as hostages in Gaza. Over half remain as captives.
In response, Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas from Gaza and end the group’s 15-year rule, launching an aerial campaign and subsequent ground offensive to meet its goal.
Israel claimed before the raid that there was a large Hamas command and control structure under the hospital. It also published footage from the hospital’s own security cameras showing hostages were brought there on the day of the attack. But critics say the evidence so far does not back the assertion, according to the report. Critics say™
The IDF has said that it was not able to fully explore the booby-trapped tunnel complex under the hospital before it destroyed it. Israeli and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i officials, who asked not to be named, told the Times that there was a time constraint due to an approaching temporary weeklong lull negotiated for the end of November. The tunnel was destroyed before the IDF left the hospital on November 24.
Though Hamas and Gaza officials have claimed Israel planted evidence, they have not directly refuted Israeli claims, the report noted. US officials, citing their own intelligence assessments, backed the Israeli version. US intelligence agencies obtained information that Hamas fighters had largely evacuated the complex days before Israel’s operation and destroyed documents and electronics as they left, according to an American official in January.
Along with Shifa, Israel accuses Hamas of using other hospitals in the Strip for terror purposes.
The Times report also clarified that what Israel had said was a tunnel entrance at the Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics was a water storage area constructed in 2016 and cited engineering plans as well as images of the hospital being constructed.
The Times said that Shifa has a history of being used by Hamas fighters. In 2008, during a three-week conflict with Israel, a Times news hound saw Hamas fighters in civilian clothing inside the hospital. In 2014, during another bout of fighting with Israel, Hamas holy warriors held news conferences at the hospital and used it as a meeting spot with journalists due to it being considered a location safe from assault.
After the 2014 conflict ended, Amnesia Amnesty International reported that Hamas used some abandoned areas of Shifa, "including the outpatients’ clinic area, to detain, interrogate, torture and otherwise ill-treat suspects, even as other parts of the hospital continued to function as a medical center."
Two self-described pro-Paleostinian doctors from Norway who had worked in the hospital during the conflict refuted the claims and said at the time there were no Hamas fighters in the hospital.
[IsraelTimes] According to Wall Street Journal, Israel showed Egypt a proposal to get civilians out of Gaza’s southern city ahead of ground op; PM’s Office says several plans being discussed.
Amid growing international concern over the Israel Defense Forces’ plans to conquer 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’s southernmost city of Rafah, Israel has drawn up an evacuation plan for civilians along the coast, according to a Tuesday report.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the plan envisions 15 sites containing 25,000 tents each across Gaza, running from the southern edge of Gaza City down to the Al Mawasi area north of Rafah.
Israel has presented the plan to Egypt in recent days, the report said.
An official in the Prime Minister’s Office told The Times of Israel that there are several plans under discussion, none of which have been approved yet.
Rafah, which sits on the Gaza-Egypt border, is the target of the next IDF offensive, according to Israeli leaders. The US and regional allies have warned of the humanitarian dangers of the IDF moving into the city, in which more than 1 million Gazook refugees are sheltering.
Over the weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to provide "safe passage" for civilians out of Rafah without specifying where the large number of people massed near the border with Egypt would go.
Citing Egyptian officials, the WSJ report said that Israel expects the camps, which would include medical facilities, to be funded by the US and Arab partners.
Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UNs Paleostinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said on Tuesday that it had not been informed of any Israeli evacuation plan and was not a part of it.
"Where are you going to evacuate people to, as no place is safe across the Gaza Strip, the north is shattered, riddled with unwent kaboom! weapons, it’s pretty much unlivable," she said.
"Enough is enough. Any further escalation would be absolutely apocalyptic."
The United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... "will not be party" to any forced displacement of Paleostinians currently living in Rafah, the front man for Secretary-General António Guterres ...Portuguese politician and diplomat, ninth Secretary-General of the United Nations. Previously, he was the UN High Commissioner for Refugees between 2005 and 2015. He was the Prime Minister of Portugal from 1995 to 2002 and was the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party from 1992 to 2002. He served as President of the Socialist International from 1999 to 2005. In both a 2012 and 2014 poll, the Portuguese public ranked him as the best Prime Minister of the previous 30 years... said the previous day.
Netanyahu reportedly believes that, in the face of international pressure, Israel only has one month left to complete its operation in Rafah, aimed at dismantling the Hamas ...the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... terror group’s remaining operational battalions in Gaza.
According to a Channel 12 news report, the prime minister recently told the small war cabinet that the operation will need to be completed before the Moslem holy month of Ramadan, which begins around March 10.
Last week, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Netanyahu had directed the IDF to draft a plan for evacuating the civilians in Rafah so that the operation could move forward.
The PMO announcement came amid US warnings that Israel has not conducted the pre-operational planning necessary to ensure that civilians will be kept out of harm’s way and that failure to do so risks "disaster."
On Tuesday German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who will visit Israel on Wednesday, voiced concern about the looming offensive. She said Israel had the right to defend itself against terrorism, but this did not mean the expulsion of the population.
The Canadian and British foreign ministers also expressed concern over a Rafah operation on Monday.
US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences... is coming under growing domestic pressure to push Israel on a ceasefire in its war with Hamas, now in its fifth month, though he and other US officials have continued to stand behind Israel’s right to defend itself in the wake of the terror group’s devastating October 7 offensive.
On Tuesday, Biden’s National Security front man, John Kirby, stressed that the US "never said that they can’t go into Rafah to remove Hamas. Hamas remains a viable threat to the Israeli people. And the Israelis and the IDF, absolutely, are going to continue operations against their leadership and their infrastructure, as they should. We don’t want to see another October 7."
Rather, Kirby continued, "What we’ve said is we don’t believe that it’s advisable to go in in a major way in Rafah without a proper, executable, effective, and credible plan for the safety of the more than a million Paleostinians that are taking refuge in Rafah. They’ve left the north, and they certainly went south out of Khan Younis to try to get out of the fighting. So, Israel has an obligation to make sure that they can protect them."
As Israel was making plans to evacuate civilians from Rafah, senior Israeli officials were in Cairo on Tuesday for talks on a framework that would see the release of hostages held by terror groups in Gaza and achieve an extended truce. Senior officials from the United States, Egypt, and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... are also in the Egyptian capital to resume negotiations on a three-phase deal that would include a six-week pause in fighting.
An agreement would see respite following four months of war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, when bandidossnuffies slaughtered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped 253 hostages to Gaza while committing brutal atrocities.
In response, Israel launched an extensive military campaign aimed at eliminating the terrorist organization and returning the hostages.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says the Paleostinian corpse count in the Strip since the start of the war has reached 28,064 people. The figures cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include both civilians and Hamas members killed in Gaza, including as a consequence of terror groups’ own rocket misfires. The IDF says it has killed over 10,000 operatives in Gaza, in addition to some 1,000 bandidossnuffies inside Israel on October 7.
Yesterday, we learned that more than 30 pro Palestinian Harvard students had embarked on what the Crimson called a “12 hour hunger strike.” https://t.co/ver50KCZeS
[NAHARNET] Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun is worried about the situation in south Lebanon, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper said Monday, quoting Aoun's visitors.
Aoun told his visitors that the escalation in the south does not bode well as Israel might drag the U.S. into a conflagration, the daily said.
It added that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has informed Aoun that the entire city of Nabatiyeh has become a target for Israel.
Last week, an Israeli drone strike had seriously wounded a Hezbollah commander on one of the main roads into the city of Nabatiyeh, a region relatively far from the border.
On Saturday, an Israeli drone struck a car near the coastal town of Jadra about 60 kilometers from the Israeli border, making it one of the farthest inside Lebanon since Oct. 8. The strike killed at least two people and wounded two others. The previous farthest strike was the Jan. 2 attack that killed top Hamas official Saleh Arouri in Beirut.
Shiite Duo sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that Israel has decided to cross the red lines by targeting areas north of the Litani river, in an attempt to drag Hezbollah into war.
The targeting of Jadra was not only an assassination attempt, but it also signalled an expansion of the war, the sources said.
Britain's top diplomat David Cameron had said, during a visit to Lebanon earlier this month, that his country is proposing a plan to de-escalate tensions on the Lebanon-Israel border. Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper claimed that the British plan includes the installation of surveillance towers on both sides of the border to ensure that there are no violations of Resolution 1701.
Nidaa al-Watan said Monday, quoting the army chief's visitors, that Hezbollah has not agreed on building the surveillance towers.
[NAHARNET] Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to 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... was aimed at "informing his allies in Lebanon that Tehran is engaged in the international and Arab efforts to find a solution that would start by the halt of the Israeli aggression against 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," a media report said.
Abdollahian called for "giving a chance for a settlement based on halting the Israeli aggression against Gaza, revealing that contacts between Tehran and Washington have not stopped but have rather been intensified to prevent an expansion of the war," a prominent parliamentary source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
"The Sultanate of Oman is sponsoring the talks, in which Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... ’s ambassador to Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and officials from the State of Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... are sometimes participating," the source said.
Abdollahian called for "restraint in order not to give a chance to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who is insisting on escalation in the South to send a message to the countries that are pressing him not to expand the war on the northern front," Asharq al-Awsat said.
It also added that Abdollahian called for implementing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
[NAHARNET] Ex-PM and al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement leader Saad Hariri ...Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's assassination. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too.... met Tuesday at the Center House in Beirut with American Ambassador Lisa Johnson and Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan.
Johnson told news hounds as she left the Center House that the meeting with Hariri was "excellent". "I didn't get blown up. So there's that"
Hariri, who had withdrawn from political life two years ago, arrived Sunday night in Beirut to prepare for the 19th anniversary of the martyrdom of his father Rafik Hariri and his lover companions on February 14.
Hariri had resigned as prime minister after unprecedented nationwide protests broke out in 2019 to demand the wholesale overhaul of 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... 's political class.
He was designated the following year to form a technocratic government that would implement much-anticipated reforms, but he failed to broker a consensus and threw in the towel.
Media reports said Hariri will also meet with Parliament Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri ...Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... , who will seek to bring him together with ex-PSP chief Walid Wally Jumblat ...Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... .
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2024 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Great background for a Lebanon assignment:
https://www.state.gov/people/lisa-a-johnson
Lisa A. Johnson - United States Department of State
WebFeb 10, 2023 · She served as U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Namibia from January 2018 until July 2021 and as Charge d’Affaires in Nassau, The Bahamas from 2014-2017.
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.
[Yahoo] The 
...a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...former president of Pakistain, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in...
...served 
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...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...
...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...
