Here’s a talkback from YNet (sorry, I don’t have a link) in which a South African talks about ‘Palestinian’ claims of apartheid (Hat Tip:: Herb G).
I’m insulted. I’m extremly glad that this article come up in my google alert. I grew up with apartheid here. and for…
Arabs Fly Nazi Flag near Hevron
Residents of Gush Etzion astounded to see Nazi flag flying near the mosque of Beit Omar.
Hundreds of residents of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, were astounded Monday morning to see an oversized Nazi flag flying next to a mosque in the Arab town of Beit Omar.
The residents notified the IDF.
A resident, Uri Arnon, told the Tazpit News Agency: “I felt we were going back 75 years, losing our hold on the land. The Arabs no longer feel the need to hide their murderous tendencies, announcing out loud that they wish to annihilate us.”
An IDF spokesman said that the flag was hung on an electrical line, and that they were waiting to professionals to come and remove it. ( via Avi Mayer)
Apparently, no Arabs were offended enough by this flag to want to take it down themselves.
(From Tazpit News Agency)
US tax agency admits it put conservative groups under extra scrutiny, echoing ongoing lawsuit by Z Street that it was probed for being too pro-Israel
A pro-Israel group in the US says it was investigated by tax inspectors because of its Zionist slant, saying it suffered the same treatment as conservative groups, for which the IRS recently apologized.
The Z Street group has been suing the Internal Revenue Service since 2010, when it says a federal agent told the group’s lawyer that the IRS was “carefully scrutinizing organizations that are in any way connected with Israel.”
On Saturday, the IRS apologized for targeting groups based on political affiliations, following an official inquiry into whether the agency made illegal demands of conservative organizations.
“That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive and it was inappropriate. That’s not how we go about selecting cases for further review,” said Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS’s non-profits division.
Lerner said that about 300 groups were singled out for additional review, with about one-quarter scrutinized because they had “tea party” or “patriot” somewhere in their applications.
She said 150 of the cases have been closed and no group had its tax-exempt status revoked, though some withdrew their applications.
Z Street, which was founded in 2009 as a right-wing counterweight to the dovish J Street lobby and others, says that the IRS’s actions extended to pro-Israel groups that did not fit the Obama Administration’s line.
The IRS mea culpa points to “the same conduct the IRS agent told us (before she realized she shouldn’t) they were engaging in with respect to organizations ‘connected to Israel,’” Z Street head Lori Lowenthal Marcus told the BuzzFeed website.
Lowenthal Marcus alleged that the agent told her group that “a special unit” was checking whether her group was in line with administration policy, invoking a rarely used clause in the tax code that can be used to deny exempt status to extremist groups.
Writing in the Jewish Press on Saturday, Lowenthal Marcus wrote that another Jewish group, without any connection to Israel, had also been probed by the IRS for its beliefs on Israel.
“The IRS even took the position that because Israel is a country ‘where terrorism happens,’ the service was justified in taking additional time to determine whether Z Street was involved with funding terrorism,” she wrote.
The IRS said the activity was initiated by low level workers in Cincinnati, was not politically motivated and no senior officials were involved.
However, according to a draft of a watchdog’s report obtained Saturday by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner, senior IRS officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011.
The Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week.
According to the report, on June 29, 2011, Lerner learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog’s report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with “Tea Party,” ”Patriot” or “9/12 Project” in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says.
The 9/12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck.
Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups “immediately,” the report says.
Lerner did not say whether Z Street was among those targeted and the IRS declined to comment.
The pro-Israel group is scheduled to have a hearing in federal court in early July over the case.
Whoever bombed Boston
Whenever the culprit’s, or culprits’, name comes out, DO NOT repeat it when you write about the bombing. These sickos want attention. Do not give it to them. Refer to him as “the bomber,” “the culprit,” etc., but do not refer to him by his name.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Boston and particularly those injured following the explosions there.
Take a moment to recite a tehillim for those injured and killed at the Boston Marathon.
Psalm 20: www.chabad.org/6320&sc=fb
Psalm 130: www.chabad.org/6430&sc=fb
04/12/2013 09:48
IDF soldier Netanel Yahalomi is laid to rest Photo: Marc Israel Sellem/The Jerusalem PostThe Defense Ministry released its annual figures of fallen soldiers on Friday morning ahead of Remembrance Day, stating that 92 soldiers had fallen this year and a total of 23,085 have fallen in Israel’s wars since 1860.
Of those killed in the past year, 37 were IDF soldiers, 12 belonged to other security forces such as the police and 43 were IDF veterans who died as a result of disabilities they suffered while soldiers.
The Defense Ministry added that on Remembrance Day on Monday, more than 1.5 million people were expected to pay their respects at military cemeteries.
According to the Ministry, there are currently over 17,000 families who have lost a family member serving in the IDF, included in that number are nearly 5,000 widows and more than 2,000 orphans.
Recently, some of these bereaved families called on the state of Israel to bring forward the date of Remembrance Day for the Fallen of Israel’s Wars and Terror Victims, saying the transition to Independence Day, which takes place the day after, is too jarring.
There was a terrible accident in Haifa, Israel today that took the lives of six people and injured a number of others when a truck slammed into a line of cars.
As soon as the news hit the Arab world, particularly Israel’s ‘peace partners’ the rejoicing began:
Former British PM Margaret Thatcher, ‘staunch friend of Israel,’ dies
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who was considered a good friend of Israel despite a rocky relationship with Prime Minister Menachem Begin, has died.
Thatcher died Monday after suffering a stroke. She was 87. Thatcher suffered from dementia at the end of her life, which was dramatized in the 2011 movie “The Iron Lady.”
The only female to serve as prime minister of Britain, she also was the longest continuously serving prime minister in the 20th century, leading the country and her Conservative Party from 1979 to 1990.
Thatcher was supportive of Israel but had a troubled relationship with Begin, who served two terms in the 1980s. She called Begin the “most difficult” man she had to deal with, according to the Chronicle. She also strongly opposed Israel’s bombing of Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned her passing in a statement.
“She was truly a great leader, a woman of principle, of determination, of conviction, of strength; a woman of greatness,” Netanyahu said. “She was a staunch friend of Israel and the Jewish people. She inspired a generation of political leaders. I send my most sincere condolences to her family and to the government and people of Great Britain.”
Thatcher had a strong relationship with U.S. President Ronald Reagan and together they fought communism, leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Her cabinets included several Jewish members, including Nigel Lawson, Malcolm Rifkind, Keith Joseph and Leon Brittan, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah)
For more photos from the observation of Yom HaShoah, see the #YomHaShoah and #יוםהשואה hashtags and the a href=”Yad Vashem location page.
From sunset today to sunset tomorrow marks Yom HaShoah (יום השואה), a day to honor the memory of the six million Jews who died in the Holocaust.
Yom HaShoah is a national holiday in Israel, commemorated by speeches by the President and Prime Minister at Yad Vashem, the lighting of six torches by Holocaust survivors, prayers by the chief rabbis and two minutes of silence across the nation. While other countries have their own Holocaust days as well, many Jews around the world also observe the day at home and at important historical sites.
Those ‘brave’ Anonymous hackers attacked a web site for Israeli kids with cancer.
Several dozen sites belonging to Israeli NGOs have been damaged, the web vandals claimed, including that of Larger than Life, and NGO for children with cancer.“The website of Larger than Life has…
