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It Depends What Your Definition of "Tax Increase" Is
3 Comments / The Rising Tide / By Adam Weissman
Apparently "everything changes on Day 1" referred only to Spitzer's campaign promises. Remember when Eliot promised repeatedly not to raise taxes? Well, he's at it again.
If you plan to do any Christmas holiday shopping on the Internet, better get it in before November 30. On December 1, the Spitzer administration is going to start forcing Amazon.com and many other online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases originating in New York State.
As most everyone knows, in cyberspace you only have to pay sales tax when the retailer has a physical presence in your state. So, for example, I have to pay 8.375% sales tax on electronics purchased from BestBuy.com, but not from Amazon, because Best Buy has brick-and-mortar stores here.
Now, Spitzer is claiming that any Internet retailer with an affiliate program — and at least one affiliate residing in New York — has a "physical presence" in New York and must collect sales tax on all New York sales. In other words, if you put an Amazon link on your personal site that gets 50 hits on a good day and you live in New York, you are the physical embodiment of Amazon in the Empire State. And it's not just sales originating from the affiliate sites that are subject to sales tax. Once that physical presence is established, all sales from New York for that web retailer get taxed.
State officials estimate the new policy will bring in $100 million in new tax revenues each year. Of course, the masters of Doublethink also insist it's not a tax increase.
UPDATE: Just minutes after uploading the post above, I read that Spitzer is backing down on this Internet sales tax scheme… for now. Apparently his aides were worried the Republicans would talk mean about him again, like they did with the driver's license thing. The steamroller has become the steamrolled.
3 thoughts on "It Depends What Your Definition of "Tax Increase" Is"
according to the grapevine
Although Governor Spritzer had backed down from this latest folly to, as the article states, "force Amazon.com and many other online retailers to collect sales tax on purchases originating in New York State," the question that needs to be asked is: How can he do this when there isn't even a law that requires New York State merchants to collect sales tax? That bears repeating: There is no law in New York State (or any other State that imposes a sales tax) that explicitly requires anyone to collect sales tax. (There are, however, laws, along with penalties for noncompliance, that require anyone who collected sales tax to turn them in to the government.)
If this is so, then why don't the NYS Legislature fix this apparent anomaly by enacting such a law? They would, but except for a slight inconvenience. Namely, the United States Constitution and specifically the Amendment 13, which states: "1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
What does Amendment 13 have to do with collecting sales tax? Simple. The Legislature would violate this Amendment if it enacts a law to force merchants to be unpaid tax collectors, which would be a form of "involuntary servitude."
Also, an obscure part of the U.S. Constitution (well, obscure if you've never read the U.S. Constitution through), Article 1, Section 10, Clause 2 is another impediment to States from collecting sales taxes willy-nilly:
"No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Control of the Congress."
Now, the "ground rule" concerning collecting and paying sales tax in the instant case is, as expressed in the Serf City article: "[a]s most everyone knows, in cyberspace you only have to pay sales tax when the retailer has a physical presence in your state. So, for example, I have to pay 8.375% sales tax on electronics purchased from BestBuy.com, but not from Amazon, because Best Buy has brick-and-mortar stores here."
Other than this "ground rule," however specious it may be, Governor Spritzer cannot force New York State citizens to pay sales tax on goods they purchase outside New York State (let us not forget that a "sales tax" is a tax not on goods purchased, but on people based on the goods they purchased), or force merchants from outside New York State to collect sales tax from these citizens because he would then be laying an "impost or duty" on "Imports and Exports" between States. This is a no-no, according to Article 1, Section 10, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution.
So, since no merchant is required to collect sales tax, and since States cannot levy sales tax on items bought from other states (notwithstanding the "ground rule"), there is, however, one way Governor Spitzer can try to collect sales taxes. He can have employees from the Department of Taxation and Finance stop cars coming in from New Jersey crossings, such as the GW Bridge, and have these employees make drivers open any bags they have to declare their purchases and pay sales tax. These employees could also be stationed in malls or shopping centers throughout New York State where they would likewise force shoppers to open their bags and declare their purchases and pay sales tax. Unfortunately for the Governor, this can't be done unless Fourth Amendment search warrants, vis-a-vis the U.S. Constitution, are issued to each shopper first.
If you're now getting the idea that the U.S. Constitution is an impediment and inconvenience to Governor Spitzer and others of his ilk in government (read: politicians and bureaucrats) to collect sales taxes, that's because the U.S. Constitution is supposed to be an impediment and inconvenience to Governor Spitzer and others of his ilk in government, period.
jeanie mcdowell
these stories are beginning to make me wonder about politicians in general. We have a case here in brunswick county north carolina where a school board member had a restraining order taking out on him for threatning his mistress and he was married. You can view this under brunswick county north carolina school board member.
Business Tax Guru
I've been interested in taxations for lengthier then I care to admit, both on the individualized side (all my employed life!!) and from a legal stand since passing the bar and following up on tax law. I've supplied a lot of advice and corrected a lot of wrongs, and I must say that what you've put up makes complete sense. Please uphold the good work – the more people know the better they'll be armed to handle with the tax man, and that's what it's all about.


Learn Event Management at Zeal this term.
Learn Event Management. Industry standard tutors. Put on shows.
Learn Event Management with our industry standard tutors at our Zeal centers across New Zealand. Plan all ages gigs, school balls, fundraisers and more in a relaxed, inclusive environment.
You'll gain skills in budgeting, following schedules, working under pressure and health and safety. All of our courses end in an event that you'll plan with us.


← Freedom Through Personal Power!
Staying Grounded In A Sea Of Change.
If you keep saying yes to things that sound exciting you will further your cause even if not a one comes to pass in the everyday tangible world. Of course some of them will but there can be times when simply considering an idea is enough to get energy moving, even if it ends up going in a different direction to where you started. My Beloved and I were considering the possibility of sharing a market stall at a festival and we had a meeting to talk about it that was fun and inspiring. In the end we aren't going to do it but I have some positive energy moving from that experience that can now flow into other projects.
Just as well there are lots of positive bits popping up in the constant sea of change that still appears to be the energetic conditions of this particular time. The home environment that my Beloved and I are currently living in is not conducive to our being grounded and centred. Through nobody's fault we are temporarily sharing space and for us it makes it much noisier than we are accustomed to. Even though I love music I often just have silence, especially when in a quiet place. And I haven't watched television for 15 years!
But it is giving me good reminders about mindfulness and how spiritual practices can really support us when we are going through tough times. I spent some time this afternoon cleaning and I chose to think of it as a devotional practice. I saw myself radiating out love and harmony and peace as I worked, I could feel it flowing out of my hands. I thought of the gurus who say: Feed people. Serve people. Help people. Come back to basics and the things that are required to be happy and comfortable in our bodies, having a sense of purpose is just as important as getting food and rest.
It all matters and I am determined to keep riding the wave of change and adventure to the next exciting destination! Aho!
This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged being grounded, constant sea of change, devotional practices, Inspiration, love, mindfulness, positive energy, spiritual practice. Bookmark the permalink.


If you have been charged with a criminal traffic offense, you are facing serious consequences and have much greater concerns than restrictions on your driving privileges and payment of fines and increased insurance premiums. Serious traffic offenses carry serious penalties that can affect you for the rest of your life. Securing the skill of a traffic offense attorney experienced in handling serious traffic offenses in North Carolina is the best investment you can make to preserve your freedom and protect your future.
Careless driving is considered a lesser included offense of reckless driving, reckless driving is a lesser included offense of aggressive driving, and these three offenses can often be the source of some confusion. These driving offenses are each separate crimes under North Carolina law. Even so, these offenses are frequently referred to interchangeably.
Careless driving is commonly referred to as "Careless and Reckless Driving" and is often prosecuted as reckless driving. North Carolina law makes clear, though, that careless driving is a separate criminal offense from that of reckless driving or aggressive driving. Careless driving generally includes driving in a manner that could result in damage to another person or to property. A charge for careless driving implies that the driver lacked any motive or intent to cause injury or accident.
Reckless driving in North Carolina is defined broadly and gives law enforcement wide discretion in bringing criminal charges and a certain advantage in securing convictions. Reckless driving can be charged whenever a driver operates any "vehicle" in a manner that is carelessly and heedlessly in willful or wanton disregard of the rights or safety of others. In addition to proving reckless driving, a charge for aggressive driving requires proof of a speeding violation under North Carolina law. Charges for reckless driving and aggressive driving imply knowledge regarding the dangerous nature of the driving and a disregard for the safety of other people or property.
Classified as a Class 1 misdemeanor, a charge of aggressive driving is an even greater offense than reckless driving. All of these charges will result in a severe spike in your insurance premiums that can last for years.
The criminal defense attorneys at DeMent Askew & Johnson regularly defend charges of careless driving, reckless driving, and aggressive driving. We will thoroughly review the facts of your particular case with you, and we will get to work on your best defense right away. Even as we work with the prosecutor's office towards getting your charges dismissed or significantly reduced, our defense attorneys are first and foremost trial attorneys with the skills and experience to put together your best defense to prevail in the event of a trial. Call us today to speak with one of our traffic attorneys for a free consultation at 919-833-5555.


The U.S. Postal Service, which is seeking ways to boost the appeal of direct mail for marketers in a changing technological landscape, is considering including scannable codes on advertising mail. It would allow recipients to interact and provide feedback to advertisers, according to a new report from the USPS office of the inspector general.
In the proposed system, direct mail recipients would be able to use their smartphones to scan a code or symbol -- such as a QR code, image recognition code, or "intelligent mail" barcode -- to access a feedback form or other response mechanism, with coupons or other rewards offered as an incentive.
Inclusion of an interactive element would help make direct mail more competitive with digital advertising by offering greater measurement capability and more detailed information about consumer preferences. That, in turn, will enable better targeting.
Environmental concerns don't appear to be paramount, however, as the USPS announced in September 2012 that it was looking at ways to increase the volume of standard mail, including direct mail, which remains a key source of revenue as first-class mail volumes decline.
Advertising mail generated revenues of $16.9 billion for the USPS in 2013, according to the OIG, up 3% from $16.4 billion in 2012. That represents a quarter of total USPS revenues of $66 billion in 2013.
Over the holidays, the USPS announced that it had received permission from the Postal Regulatory Commission to raise rates for first class and standard mail, effective Jan. 24. Standard mail rates will increase 5.9%, including a 1.3% adjustment for inflation, while the cost of a first-class "Forever" stamp will increase from $0.46 to $0.49. According to the PRC, the rate hike is only temporary, and should be phased out after two years, when the effects of the economic downturn are expected to have passed.
1 comment about "USPS Considers Scannable Codes For Direct Mail".
Heidi Tolliver-Walker from Digital Printing Reports, January 12, 2014 at 11:52 a.m.
How is this any different from what the USPS is already doing in offering its QR Code and other mobile barcode promotions?


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Q: Handshake failed with Volley or Retrofit Android I'm making an app for Android 4.4 and above, and I'm trying to do an https request, I first tried with Retrofit and it gives me this:
V/error: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Handshake failed

I thoug it was something about the Retrofit API, but later I tried with Volley and it gives me this:
SSL handshake aborted: ssl=0xf311e9c8: Failure in SSL library, usually a protocol error
                                                          error:10000410:SSL routines:OPENSSL_internal:SSLV3_ALERT_HANDSHAKE_FAILURE (third_party/openssl/boringssl/src/ssl/tls_record.cc:562 0xd4fba9c8:0x00000001)
                                                          error:1000009a:SSL routines:OPENSSL_internal:HANDSHAKE_FAILURE_ON_CLIENT_HELLO (third_party/openssl/boringssl/src/ssl/handshake.cc:464 0xd7936bd8:0x00000000)
12-29 16:37:53.551 13763-14823/xxx.xxx.xx I/qtaguid: Untagging socket 47
12-29 16:37:53.571 13763-13763/xxx.xx.xx V/error: javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: Handshake failed

In fact, is the same issue, I don't know if I need add something to my app, due this request works perfectly with postman.
The weird thing is, before we migrate the services to the new server, I was working with a server with HTTP and it works perfectly. I don't know what I must add about security to my app.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


UKZN's Dr Stephen Ojwach, a Senior Lecturer in the School of Chemistry and Physics, attended the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Germany as one of 600 highly-talented young researchers chosen internationally from more than 80 000 nominees.
The Meeting stands as one of world's most revered and respected forums for the scientific exchange across not only the different disciplines, but also across generations and nationalities.
Now in its 63rd year, the 2013 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting was attended by 35 Nobel Laureates in Chemistry and was dedicated to the discipline.
'I was elated to be among the top young researchers selected to attend this prestigious event. The opportunity to come face to face with 35 Nobel Laureates in one meeting was a milestone in my career,' said Ojwach.
His experience at the Meeting and the composition of the Nobel Laureates allowed Ojwach to make the keen observation that 'Africa is far behind in research and more needs to be done on the African continent to improve the productivity and quality of research'.
The Meeting's programme included plenary lectures which were given by the Nobel Laureates on their Nobel Prize research, followed by discussion sessions where young researchers had the opportunity to have closer interactions with the Nobel Laureates.
The discussions proved to be a fruitful exchange as the Nobel Laureates fielded questions from young researchers touching on their research experience, the impact of winning the Nobel Prize and the requirements of becoming a Nobel Laureate.
The meeting also involved panel discussions covering various topics on energy and environment, green chemistry and communicating science.
Master classes offered selected young researchers the opportunity to present their research and then engage in detailed discussions with the Laureates. Science breakfasts also took place as an additional forum for more informal sessions.
Ojwach draws from Nobel Laureate Professor Dan Shechtman's experiences that mounting criticism from peers should not demoralise researchers but rather increase the desire to achieve their goals. Shechtman suffered years of rejection by leading scientists including the double-Nobel winner Professor Linus Pauling.
'The humility of the Laureates was gratifying, and from their research profile, I learned that it is of utmost significance that one carries out intensive research – more detailed research in a specific field – in order to gain international recognition and have an immense impact in one's respective research niche,' concluded Ojwach.
Image: Dr Stephen Ojwach and Professor Dan Shechtman during the 63rd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.


text:
package com.qihaosou.update;

import android.app.Dialog;
import android.content.DialogInterface;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v4.app.DialogFragment;
import android.support.v7.app.AlertDialog;

import com.qihaosou.R;
import com.qihaosou.app.Constants;

public class UpdateDialog extends DialogFragment {

    @Override
    public AlertDialog onCreateDialog(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        // Use the Builder class for convenient dialog construction
        AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(getActivity());
        builder.setTitle(R.string.newUpdateAvailable);
        builder.setMessage(getArguments().getString(Constants.APK_UPDATE_CONTENT))
                .setPositiveButton(R.string.dialogPositiveButton, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
                        // FIRE ZE MISSILES!
                        goToDownload();
                        dismiss();
                    }
                })
                .setNegativeButton(R.string.dialogNegativeButton, new DialogInterface.OnClickListener() {
                    public void onClick(DialogInterface dialog, int id) {
                        // User cancelled the dialog
                        dismiss();
                    }
                });
        // Create the AlertDialog object and return it
        return builder.create();
    }

    private void goToDownload() {
    	Intent intent=new Intent(getActivity().getApplicationContext(),DownloadService.class);
    	intent.putExtra(Constants.APK_DOWNLOAD_URL, getArguments().getString(Constants.APK_DOWNLOAD_URL));
    	getActivity().startService(intent);
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


There was a time when men did not rely on disposable razors and blades. When a man bought a razor, once it became dull, it was the job of someone to resharpen it. Most often than not the razor was taken to a barber, but sometimes the owners themselves would do the sharpening with a hone. There are primarily two varieties of hones that can be purchased today: natural and synthetic hones. It's a fact that when you've got the best straight edge razor, then it's your responsibility to keep it sharp. This article provides a brief introduction to the types and their advantages.
Natural stones are defined as those that are not manmade. They are mined from the earth, so in other words they are actual rocks. Some of the names that might sound familiar are Coticules, Eschers, Thuringens, Arkansas, or Japanese Naturals.
Usually when you purchase one, you receive a main stone as well as a slurry stone, which is a smaller stone of the same material. When the two stones are rubbed together with water the byproduct is slurry, a thin mixture of water with the particles of the two stones rubbing together. Using a slurry stone on the main stone creates slurry, which aids in the removal of steel in order to achieve keenness.
The slurry is used to speed up the honing process, so that as you progress you basically dilute the slurry and finish on water. Unlike most naturals that have no set grit, Japanese stones are a bit different in that their slurry stones actually are different grits, and it is the slurry stone that is primarily responsible for the sharpening.
Synthetic hones are manmade. Some of the names that might be familiar are Norton, Shapton, and Naniwa.
The advantage to using a synthetic is a more reliable stone because, for example, when you order a 1k stone, you get a 1k stone. There is no guessing game in the grits. Another consideration is that they are a more consistent hone because certain variables that might arise with the naturals are not an issue.
When honing a straight razor with synthetic hones to restore an edge, this is accomplished by using progressive stones. The most popular grits are 1k, 4k, 8k, 12~16k. Anything above 8k is for pure polishing and smoothing out the edge. One should be able to shave with an 8k edge. On the other hand, honing with a natural is currently at the center of a heated debate.
There are those that subscribe to the view that everything can be done with one stone. By first raising slurry on a coticule/escher, the honing process will begin sharpening the blade and throughout the progression the slurry is lightened until it is only water. Men often will use a synthetic hone for bevel setting, which is accomplished at the 1k or lower level. Again, some people will use synthetics for the entire honing process, and then switch to a natural for the finishing in order to achieve a smooth finish.
If you are on the fence about whether to purchase natural or synthetic hones, you should send your razor to be honed by one or the other and compare the shave. If you shave with a razor honed with a synthetic and then a natural, odds are you will feel a bit of a difference. Natural stones typically provide a smoother, less aggressive shave, while the synthetics are a crisper, brisk edge.
In all, both have their advantages and disadvantages. Each type of hone will be a challenge to learn properly, but you will be rewarded the satisfaction of sharpening your own straight razors and enjoying your morning shaves.


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The Palestinian Authority is a Genocidal Terrorist Entity and Should be Treated as Such - Guy Millière
Why not tell European leaders that the Palestinian Authority is still a genocidal terrorist organization? Why not ask them how they can agree to finance in the Middle East what they claim to reject with horror in Europe?
The PLO became the first terrorist organization to have a seat at the UN and diplomatic representation in a Western country.
Daniel Pipes suggested measures to move the conflict in a constructive direction without causing major conflagration: require the Palestinian Authority (PA) pay for all damages inflicted by terrorists, including a very high price for each stolen life; burying the dead terrorists without returning them to their families; severely limiting access to West Bank territories ruled by the PA; banning PA leaders from entering Israeli airports if they make inflammatory remarks and each time there is anti-Israeli violence, or even asking them to use Jordanian airports from now on.
The latest slaughter in the land of Israel took place in Halamish, Samaria, on July 21. A Palestinian stabbed to death a Jewish grandfather and two of his children. The grandmother was injured seriously. Countless similar attacks occurred in Israel in the recent and not-so-recent past.
Once again, thousands of Palestinian Arabs joyfully celebrated the murders. Some handed out candy.
The murderer was praised by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas. If he had been shot to death, he would have instantly become a martyr of Islam. A street in Ramallah would be named after him. His picture would be posted in storefronts in the territories occupied by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, and his family would be rewarded with a high "salary" for life.
The killer explained his crime by his willingness to "defend the al-Aqsa mosque" -- which in fact was never attacked or even threatened by Israel. He did not hide his hatred for Jews. In his last Facebook post, he described them as monkeys and pigs.
His mother showed her pride for her son and his actions.
The murders followed Muslim riots after Israel installed metal detectors at the Temple Mount entrances, as exist in other mosques worldwide -- in response to the murder of two Israeli policemen by Muslim terrorists who succeeded in bringing weapons to the site. The Israeli government did not prohibit access to the al-Aqsa mosque; it only wished to prevent further attacks. That a mosque could be used as a base for terrorist attacks seems to have been considered normal by the rioters.
Since then, the Israeli government decided to remove the metal detectors, as well as surveillance cameras that had been added later.
Although the rioting subsided, Israelis reacted negatively to their government's decision: polls showed that 77% of them strongly disapproved of the removal of the metal detectors, and thought that the Israeli government should not yield to threats and intimidation.
The director of public affairs at the Bar-Ilan University's Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, David M. Weinberg, said that it is "urgent, through resolute Israeli action, to deprive the Palestinian leadership of its delusion that he can bully Israel into retreat."
For now, Palestinian leaders have every reason to believe that there is no delusion, that terrorism and violence pay off. It would be hard to prove them wrong.
When the Arab and Muslim world waged conventional wars to destroy the Jewish state, Israel, despite its smaller number of soldiers, won every time and acquired a reputation for courage and invincibility.
In 1964, the Arab and Muslim world adopted a new strategy. It created the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The war became a terror war. Unpredictable attacks were launched against Jews in Israel, Europe, and North and South America.
The PLO presented itself as a "national liberation movement". A people was invented, the "Palestinians" -- actually ordinary Arabs -- that the PLO was supposed to "liberate". Attacks became more frequent. Soon, after intense propaganda, Israel was no longer perceived as a small country that the Arab world of 21 nations wanted to crush, but as a powerful country trying to annihilate a small people, deprived of everything. The world, believing this inversion of history, began to withdraw its sympathy from Israel.
Continuing to use terrorism and propaganda, the PLO also commenced a diplomatic offensive -- with the support of, the Arab world, the Soviet Union and Western countries, especially France. The PLO obtained an observer seat at the United Nations in 1972. A diplomatic delegation of the PLO opened in Paris in 1975. The PLO became the first terrorist organization to have a seat at the UN and diplomatic representation in a Western country.
After failing to overthrow the king of Jordan in September 1970 , the PLO retreated to Lebanon, led the country into a civil war, and used camps it built on Lebanese territory to carry out attacks against Israel. Israel intervened in Lebanon in March 1978, then in June 1982, and almost eliminated the PLO which, thanks to French President François Mitterrand, retreated to Tunisia. The Sabra and Shatila massacres in Lebanon, perpetrated by Christian militias, were falsely presented as if they had been Israel's fault. The PLO and the Palestinians were described as victims of the Israeli cruelty. Palestinian massacres such as the coastal road attack in March 1978 were completely forgotten.
The PLO continued to incite Jew-hate among Palestinian Arabs. The result was the "first intifada" (1987-1991). Israel won militarily, but lost the public-relations war: Palestinian terrorists used children as human shields so that the Israeli army could be portrayed as made of ruthless killers.
Concessions were demanded from Israel; Israel ended up succumbing to false hopes of peace. It agreed to participate in the Madrid Conference in 1991, and then, in 1993, entered the Oslo Accords. In them, Israel recognized the PLO and accepted the creation of the Palestinian Authority, a quasi-state ruled by the PLO, which promised to renounce terrorism.
Almost immediately, the Palestinian Authority launched innumerable, terrorist attacks. These decreased only when Israel began building a security fence in 2002. Terrorism, propaganda and especially lies had allowed the PLO to obtained a terrorist quasi-state accepted by Israel. Even though attacks never stopped, Israel was pushed to pursue the peace process as if there was no terrorism.
To this day, the Palestinian Authority launches relentless campaigns to spread murder and terrorism against Israelis. The most recent one began in September 2015, when PA President Mahmoud Abbas falsely claimed that the Jews' "filthy feet" were defiling the Temple Mount; he added that he welcomed "every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem". Tourists of all religions visit the Temple Mount compound -- although not the mosque -- by agreement with the PA.
Every day, the PA uses the schools and the media it controls to incite genocidal Jew-hate.
The Palestinian Authority, a terrorist organization with anti-Jewish genocidal goals, is all the while being subsidized to the tune of millions of dollars annually from the West, which, unhelpfully, presents it as more "moderate" than Hamas, the equivalent of saying that al-Qaeda is more "moderate" than ISIS. That is still insufficient reason to bankroll al-Qaeda.
When the PA leaders speak in the Western world, they may sound moderate. When they speak to Palestinian Arabs, however, they speak like the leaders of Hamas.
The only peace they contemplate is the "liberation" of all Palestine, "from the river to the sea" – in other words, the total destruction of Israel and its replacement by themselves, as any map of "Palestine" clearly corroborates.
The murderers of Jews, who in turn are killed by the Israeli Defense Forces, are considered by the Palestinian Authority as shaheeds, jihadi fighters who died for Allah : "martyrs".
Since the days of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, before the state of Israel was founded in 1948, Palestinians have been using the lie that the Jews are trying to destroy the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount as a pretext to stir up Muslim Jew-hate and uprisings, and they continually repeat the slander.
The removal of the metal detectors from the Temple Mount entrances means that more attacks will almost certainly occur. It is perceived as a victory by the leaders of the PA and other Islamic leaders.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he understands those who criticized the government's decision, and added that he had to take into account broader security imperatives. It is probably true. The Palestinian Authority leaders may well have hoped to ignite the entire region and launch a regional war.
Many Israelis, however, viewed the move as terrorism having dictated a retreat yet again. They know that the PA is an enemy that wants them dead. They heard what many of the rioters in Jerusalem were shouting: "Jews, remember Kaybar, the army of Mohammed returns" -- a reference to the massacre of a Jewish community in Arabia by the Islamic Prophet Mohammed in 628. They see that the conflict is essentially religious as well as political. According to Islam, all belongs to Allah -- especially places that were once under the rule of Islam, as the land of Israel was during the Ottoman Empire, and must be retaken and held in trust forever for Allah.
Islamically speaking, Muslims must never fully accept the existence of Israel on a land once conquered by Islam, and therefore, in their minds, obligated to be Islamic for eternity. The thought that Jews control a land that once was ruled by Islam is particularly repellent.
Even if Israelis accepted years ago that Muslims could pray on the Temple Mount, what they accept less and less is that Jews have no right to pray there. They see the Israeli decision to leave the Temple Mount and its management in the hands of the Muslim Waqf when Jerusalem was reunited in June 1967 as a tragic mistake that ended up creating an Islamic enclave on Israel's territory. Israelis, understandably tired of being attacked, are, as Daniel Pipes emphasized a few months ago, ready for an absolute Israeli victory, and an absolute Palestinian defeat.
Daniel Pipes suggested measures to move the conflict in a constructive direction without causing major conflagration: requiring the Palestinian Authority to pay for all damages inflicted by terrorists, including an extremely high price for each stolen life; burying dead terrorists without returning them to their families; severely limiting access to West Bank territories ruled by the PA; banning the PA leaders from entering Israeli airports if they make inflammatory remarks and each time there is anti-Israeli violence, or even asking them to use Jordanian airports from now on.
Israeli leaders could also speak more frankly. Why not tell European leaders that the Palestinian Authority is still a genocidal terrorist organization? Why not ask them how they can agree to finance in the Middle East what they claim to reject with horror in Europe? Do they want Israeli Jews dead, too?
Why not say bluntly that offering a state to the Palestinian Authority would be rewarding terrorism and murder -- far beyond what Israelis can accept, a few decades after the Holocaust? Are they hoping it will spare Europe more Islamic terrorism?
Telling all this to the Trump administration's emissaries is not necessary. The American administration already knows it. President Donald J. Trump told Mahmoud Abbas what no other Western leader dared to say. He knows that there is nothing to expect from the Palestinian Authority and that Jason Greenblatt's mission is destined to fail.
Telling all this to European leaders, however, is critical.
President Donald Trump told Mahmoud Abbas what no other Western leader dared to say. He knows that there is nothing to expect from the Palestinian Authority and that Jason Greenblatt's mission is destined to fail. Pictured: Trump and Abbas give a joint statement on May 3, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Image source: Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)
That Mahmoud Abbas could use a blood libel in a speech he gave at the European Parliament -- and receive a standing ovation -- in 2016 is as revealing of Europe's deepest wishes as it is of Abbas's.
That French President Emmanuel Macron could warmly embrace Mahmoud Abbas and thank him for working for "non-violence", when precisely the opposite is demonstrably evident, is just as revealing.
When Macron welcomed Netanyahu in Paris to attend the annual commemoration for the Vel d'Hiv deportations a few days after he met Mahmoud Abbas, the new French president denounced French behavior towards Jews during the German occupation, but seized the opportunity to emphasize the "urgent need" to create a "Palestinian state" with Jerusalem as its capital. Netanyahu politely replied that the Palestinian Authority did not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
Like many anti-Semites, French leaders, and many others in Europe, always seem ready commemorate Jews who are dead while contributing to the murder of Jews who are alive.
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10797/palestinian-authority-genocidal
The Real Race War - David Horowitz
by David Horowitz
(Not the fake one against "white supremacy.")
Reprinted from Breitbart.com.
The tragedy in Charlottesville could have been an occasion to stop and consider how the tolerance for politically correct violence and politically correct hatred is leading the nation towards civil war. Instead the media and the political left have turned this incident into the biggest fake news story of the summer, transforming its real lessons into a morality play that justifies war against the political right, and against white people generally.
The organizers of the "Unite the Right" demonstration in Charlottesville were repellent racists. But they came to defend a historic monument honoring a complex man and cause, and not to attack it or presumably anyone else. They applied for a permit and were denied. They re-applied successfully in a petition supported by the local ACLU. If they had come to precipitate violence, why would they have gone to the tedious trouble of applying for a permit? Who knows what – if anything – would have happened if that had been the end of the story and no one had showed up to oppose them.
What "Unite the Right" actually demonstrated was that the assortment of neo-Nazis, pro-Confederates and assorted yahoos gathered under the banner of the "Alt-Right" is actually a negligible group. This was a national show of strength that actually attracted only a few hundred people. Compare that to the tens of the thousands who can readily be marshalled by two violent groups of the left – Black Lives Matter and Antifa – and you get an idea of how marginal "white supremacists" are to America's political and cultural life.
Yet "white supremacy" and its evils became the centerpiece of all the fake news reporting on the event, including all the ludicrous attacks on the president for not condemning enough a bogeyman the whole nation condemns, and that no one but a risible fringe supports. Talk about virtue signaling! Omitted from the media coverage were the other forces at work in precipitating the battle of Emancipation Park, specifically Black Lives Matter and Antifa, two violent leftwing groups with racial agendas who came to squelch the demonstration in defense of the monument.
Unlike the Unite the Right demonstrators, the leftist groups did not have a permit for Emancipation Park (they had permits for two nearby parks). But why should they need a permit, since the havoc they had previously wreaked in Ferguson, Berkeley, Sacramento, Portland and other cities, was accomplished without permits, while their criminality was presented by the media as "protests," and their rioting went completely unpunished.
In short, there were two demonstrations in Charlottesville - a legal protest by "Unite the Right" and one protest by the vigilantes of Antifa and Black Lives Matter. Who started the fight is really immaterial. Both sides were prepared for violence because these conflicts are already a pattern of our deteriorating civic life. Once the two sides had gathered in the same place, the violence was totally predictable. Two parties, two culpabilities; but except for the initial statement of President Trump, condemning both sides, only one party has been held accountable, and that happens to be the one that was in the park legally.
What is taking place in the media accounts and political commentaries on this event is an effort by the left to turn the mayhem in Charlottesville into a template for their war against a mythical enemy – "white supremacy" – which is really a war on white people generally. The ideology that drives the left and divides our country is "identity politics" – the idea that the world consists of two groups – "people of color" who are guiltless and oppressed, and white people who are guilty and oppressors. This is the real race war. Its noxious themes inform the mindless, hysterical hatred for President Trump, and the equally mindless support for racist mobs like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. It is a war from which no good can come. But it won't be stopped unless enough people have the courage to stand up and name it for what it is.
[For Frontpage editor Jamie Glazov's essay on David Horowitz's life and work, click here.]
David Horowitz is the author of Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America, now in its tenth week on The New York Times' best-seller list.
Horowitz was one of the founders of the New Left in the 1960s and an editor of its largest magazine, Ramparts. He is the author, with Peter Collier, of three best selling dynastic biographies: The Rockefellers: An American Dynasty (1976); The Kennedys: An American Dream (1984); and The Fords: An American Epic (1987). Looking back in anger at their days in the New Left, he and Collier wrote Destructive Generation (1989), a chronicle of their second thoughts about the 60s that has been compared to Whittaker Chambers' Witness and other classic works documenting a break from totalitarianism. Horowitz examined this subject more closely in Radical Son (1996), a memoir tracing his odyssey from "red-diaper baby" to conservative activist that George Gilder described as "the first great autobiography of his generation."
Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267598/real-race-war-david-horowitz
Buyer Beware: "Kids 4 Peace" May Want Israel In Pieces - Micha Danzig
by Micha Danzig
The BSD movement sets its sights on child converts.
Recently, a well-known Jewish summer camp controversially decided to fly the PLO flag.
Adding to the controversy, the Camp raised the PLO flag shortly before the observance of the most solemn Jewish holiday of the year - Tisha B'Av and right after the slaughter of three members of an Israeli family, following days of PLO-incited rioting.
In response to the uproar caused by the decision to raise the PLO flag, the camp decided to issue an apology -- actually, it issued a fake non-apology, in which they "apologized" to anyone who "may have been offended."
The camp also tried to explain why it decided to raise the flag of an organization committed to the genocidal call of "liberating Palestine from the river to the sea." The camp indicated it raised the PLO flag after their "guests" from the "Kids 4 Peace" group requested the PLO flag be raised alongside the U.S., Canadian and Israeli flags.
Which raises the questions: What is "Kids 4 Peace" (K4P) and why is this group asking a Jewish camp to raise the PLO flag?
According to its website, K4P is a "global movement of youth and families, dedicated to ending conflict and inspiring hope in divided societies around the world."
Who could be against that? No wonder the camp agreed to raise the flag of an organization committed to wipe Israel off the map.
After all, if an organization named "Kids 4 Peace" with a mission to end global conflict and inspire "hope in divided societies around the world" asks you to put up a flag to welcome their kids, why not comply?
Of course, if K4P were really for "ending conflict and inspiring hope in divided societies around the world," one would expect to see information about its programs regarding the world's most violent conflicts.
But, according to the K4P website, the only conflict it appears to spend time on is the "Israeli-Palestinian conflict" – a conflict that has resulted in fewer fatalities over the last 50 years than those over the last 5 years in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan or Nigeria.
Of course, it is not just K4P's singular focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict that is inconsistent with its "global" mission.
As Jonathan S. Tobin recently noted in "It's Not About Flags: The Real Problem With Jewish-Palestinian Dialogue," one of the main problems represented by programs, such as those put on by K4P, is the "blind faith that so many Jews have," particularly in the American Jewish community, "in the value of dialogue programs."
As Tobin, a "journalist who has covered dialogue programs for decades," points out; it is "the lack of symmetry between the two sides" which makes these programs ill-suited for solving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Tobin further observes that as part of these dialogue programs, "[f]ew if any Palestinian participants ever express doubt about the justice of their cause or feel obligated to temper their anger at what they consider to be the sins of Zionism. But even supporters of Israel who engage in these programs generally feel compelled to express criticisms of Israel or to show respect if not sympathy for the Palestinian [counterfactual] Nakba narrative."
Another, however, potentially much bigger problem with K4P (than the asymmetry inherent in the programs it promotes) is that despite its sweet name and its even sweeter "mission," there is much reason to doubt its good faith when it comes to achieving a just peace (for Israel). In fact, given its background, and those of many of its directors and affiliates, it appears just as reasonable to conclude that K4P's real mission is to destroy Israel.
On its website, K4P notes it is part of the Alliance for Middle East Peace (AllMEP). This, in and of itself, should cause any Jewish camp, particularly one which identifies itself as "unabashedly pro-Israel" to reconsider working with K4P.
According to NGO Monitor, AllMEP includes a number of organizations that are unabashedly hostile to Israel's existence.
Those organizations include such anti-Israel groups as: One Voice International, Combatants for Peace and The Holy Land Trust -- a major BDS supporter, whose Executive Director has bragged about the group providing training to Hamas. According to NGO Monitor, Huda Abu Arquob, one of only two AllMEPS staff members, claimed Hamas is "not a terrorist organization" and accused Israel of attacking Islam. At the 2014 and 2015 J Street conferences, Ms. Arquob advocated for BDS. Despite all this, Fr. Josh Thomas, the Executive Director of Kids4Peace International, is an AllMEPS' board member.
Another long-time K4P director, Dr. Yakir Englander, is the Director of "Dialogue to Action" in Kids4Peace International. In a recent exchange of text messages with Sloan Rachmuth, an investigative researcher (who helped compile some of the research for this piece), Dr. Englander, in response to a question about K4P's work and its affiliation with pro-BDS groups, stated he did not "think BDS is the end of the world." In those same written communications, Dr. Englander referred to Holy Land Trust CEO, Sam Awad, as a person with "an amazing heart." Mr. Awad and HLT, however, regularly demonize Israel and encourage violence against Israelis. Awad has claimed Israel engages in "apartheid;" accused Israel of "ethnic cleansing," and has stated that non-violent demonstrations are "not a substitute for the armed struggle."
Unfortunately, given the company Dr. Englander's keeps, his glowing reference to Awad should not be surprising.
On the K4P "community portal" Dr. Englander is pictured arm in arm with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, who, according to The Clarion Project has preached that the first World Trade Center bombing was "a terrorist attack staged by the U.S. government and possibly Israel as a 'conspiracy' against Islam."
K4P, has claimed it is committed to "non-violent political change." Wahhaj is apparently also committed to "change," though not one that most parents of Jewish campers would embrace. Per the Clarion Project, the "change" Wahhaj wants, includes Sharia's implementation in the USA. Wahhaj has been quoted as saying, "Islam is better than democracy. Allah will cause his deen, to prevail over every kind of system, and you know what? It will happen."
In addition (and perhaps most concerning), K4P President, Reverend Diane Nancekivell is a regular donor to the Friends of Sabeel (Sabeel) whose mission is the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state; not "peace" between Israel and its neighbors.
The Sabeel North American Advisory Board includes such renowned Israel bashers as Rashid Khalidi and Cornel West. And Dr. Naim Ateek, the Sabeel founder has mendaciously referred to Jesus as a "Palestinian" and regularly justifies terrorism against Israelis. He has also invoked anti-Semitic imagery, referring to an "Israeli government crucifixion system" and to Jesus being "on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him."
According to both the ADL and NGO Monitor, one of Sabeel's main goals is to delegitimize Israel and its existence in churches throughout North America.
As a part of that effort, Sabeel promotes "Palestinian Liberation Theology." This "theology" is wielded by Sabeel like a sword to demonize Jews and to try and refute Jewish religious, historical and indigenous ties to Israel.
In furtherance of their mission against Jewish self-determination, Sabeel regularly organizes "Witness Visit Tours," which are endorsed and attended by representatives of such radically anti-Israel organizations as CodePink, JVP and ANSWER.
Another tour fan appears to be the K4P President Reverend Diane Nancekivell, who also attended the Sabeel hate-fest tour, which may be part of the reason for her regular donations to Friends of Sabeel and its plainly anti-Israel mission.
At the end of the day, what does all of this mean? It still may be the case that the majority of K4P employees mean well and truly want to bring about a just peace and end to the Arab-Israeli conflict. But given the incredibly suspect, anti-Semitic, and/or anti-Israel company much of the K4P leadership keeps and their apparently proud affiliations with many anti-Israel groups, it is at least just as likely that despite the sweet name and even sweeter mission statement, that K4P's mission is entirely consistent with the PLO flag and the mission it represents, Israel's elimination.
That would certainly explain why at a recent Kids 4 Peace event Jewish high school kids were treated to an evening with Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar, whose lyrics include: "Who's the Terrorist?" and where Nafar asserts Israel "raped the Arab soul,…"leading to the birth to terrorism." Apparently, K4P thinks it is appropriate to promote the fiction that before 1948 Arabs in the Middle East were peaceful and didn't regularly massacre Jews. That is something all Jewish organizations should know is an outright lie. It is also something all Jewish organizations should be well aware of before they decide on whether to allow K4P to work with the Jewish leaders of tomorrow.
Micha Danzig served in the Israeli Army and is a former police officer with the NYPD. He is currently an attorney and is very active with numerous Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, including Stand With Us, T.E.A.M. and the FIDF. He is also a frequent guest on the One America News Network, including shows like The Tipping Point and The Daily Ledger, where he is called on to discuss matters related to Israel and the Middle East.
Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267593/buyer-beware-kids-4-peace-may-want-israel-pieces-micha-danzig
Netanyahu's Great Challenge - Caroline Glick
by Caroline Glick
What can Netanyahu do to mitigate the impact of the probes on his ability to do his job?
Originally published by the Jerusalem Post.
Over the weekend, it was reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu supports legislation that would change the procedure for declaring war. The bill, supported by the government as well as by Netanyahu's opponent and former finance minister Yair Lapid, involves implementing lessons learned from past experiences.
Under the suggested law, the government will provide the security cabinet with blanket authority to authorize military operations at the beginning of its tenure. By limiting the number of people involved in decision making regarding actual operations, leaks can be minimized and the element of surprise can be protected.
Given the wide support the bill enjoys, and its substance, the media could have been expected to cover the move in a sober-minded way.
But alas, there was no chance of that happening amid the media circus surrounding the criminal probes of Netanyahu. The desultory probes were recently fortified by the deal Netanyahu's former chief of staff Ari Harow cut with the prosecution to incriminate his former boss in exchange for leniency in the ongoing corruption probe of Harow's alleged influence peddling.
Now, with Netanyahu's sworn enemies in the media and the political Left braying for his immediate resignation, the war powers bill, like everything else he is likely to initiate in the coming months and years, is being reported as nothing more than an attempt to change the subject.
None of the probes are expected to conclude any time soon. Legal experts assess they will stretch well into 2019. This means Netanyahu will be under a cloud of suspicion at least until the end of his current term of office. And that is not good for the country.
So what can Netanyahu do to mitigate the impact of the probes on his ability to do his job? The answer is complicated. On the one hand, it is fairly clear that he won't be able to do anything to end the probes and not because he is accused of doing terrible things. To the contrary, he is accused of doing ridiculously stupid and harmless things.
The police are conducting two investigations of the prime minister. In the first, they are investigating whether he received too many gifts from his friends. Specifically, they want to know if he received too many cigars from his friend Arnon Milchen and whether he received other presents from other friends.
The second probe relates to a deal he discussed but never made with his arch-nemesis Yediot Aharonot publisher Arnon Mozes under which Mozes would give less hostile coverage of Netanyahu and in exchange, Netanyahu would get Yediot's pro-Netanyahu competitor Israel Hayom to cut back its circulation. In the event, the talks went nowhere. In 2014 Netanyahu broke up his government and went to early elections in 2015 to prevent a bill – supported by 24 lawmakers in a preliminary vote – which would have bankrupted Israel Hayom from moving forward.
The 24 lawmakers that supported the bill received terrific coverage in Yediot. But none of them – including former justice minister Tzipi Livni – are under investigation. The police's lack of interest in Livni is particularly notable. She advanced the bill despite the fact that then attorney general Yehuda Weinstein determined it was unconstitutional. She based her decision on a legal opinion produced for her by Yediot's attorney.
FINALLY, THE third investigation doesn't involve Netanyahu at all. Instead his attorney, confidante and cousin David Shimron is under investigation. And according to investigative reporter Yoav Yitzhak, the probe unraveled this week when the state's witness was shown to have lied either to police investigators or to his own attorneys about Shimron's role in brokering a deal for Israel to buy new submarines from Germany.
Netanyahu supported the purchase, indeed, he touted it. His media foes allege that he only supported the purchase, which was opposed by the Defense Ministry, because Shimron was involved.
This allegation itself makes clear the absurdity of the probe.
If the investigation goes forward despite the collapse of the investigation, and Netanyahu is implicated, there is simply no way to prove that he supported the deal for corrupt reasons when he insists that he supported it because he believes Israel needs a modernized submarine fleet.
In other words, the third investigation is incapable of implicating Netanyahu regardless of its relative merits.
It is important to understand the inherent weakness of the probes because it shows us two important things. First, the investigators and the prosecutors do not care what the public thinks of their investigations. In a damning interview with the online Hebrew-language journal Mida last week, former police investigator chief superintendent Boaz Gutman confirmed the long alleged claim that police and prosecutors are motivated to investigate right-wing politicians rather than left-wing politicians because they want the Left restored to power.
As far as police investigators and prosecutors are concerned, it is they, rather than the public, that should decide who gets to lead Israel.
And this brings us to the second aspect we need to understand about the weakness of the probes. To date, politicized investigators and prosecutors have felt comfortable probing and indicting politicians for political reasons because since 1993, the mere act of indicting a politician has been the professional equivalent of a felony conviction.
In 1993, the activist Supreme Court ruled that then interior minister Arye Deri had to resign due to his recent indictment on corruption charges. The ruling, which had no basis in law, has since enjoyed the status of law. Politicians, who are later exonerated of all criminal charges, have repeatedly been forced from office, their reputations in tatters.
The power to remove politicians from office simply by indicting them gives the prosecution absolute power over the political system. The fear of indictment, perhaps more than anything else, has been sufficient to stop every significant attempt to pass laws to reform the unchecked legal system.
In recent weeks, coalition chairman MK David Bitan has told the media that Netanyahu has pledged not to resign if indicted in light of the trivial nature of the probes. Netanyahu's ability to remain in his position, in opposition to the non-binding norm dictated by the Supreme Court in 1993, will be a function of the public's view of him and of the investigations against him. And if Netanyahu is strong enough to stay, then his intention not to fold will have a salutary impact on the fairness of the investigations against him.
If the prosecutors realize they will have to win a case against a sitting prime minister rather than one they have already forced from office in disgrace, their decision about whether or not to indict Netanyahu will be based far more on the investigations' findings and far less on their political views than in the past.
Although prosecutors do not care what the public thinks of them, they do care what their colleagues think of them. And if they indict a sitting prime minister and then fail to convict him while he is still in office and popular, their colleagues will not think well of them.
So it all boils down to governing. But how should Netanyahu govern? If Netanyahu follows the lead set by prime minister Ariel Sharon when he and his sons were under investigation, and abandons his political base to appease the Left, he will harm his chances of remaining in power. Netanyahu will become as unpopular as Ehud Olmert was when he was indicted. He will not avoid indictment. And he will not be reelected.
If on the other hand Netanyahu is loyal to his voters and implements the Right's policy on Judea and Samaria – namely, applying Israeli law to Area C of Judea and Samaria in anticipation of the era that will begin when 82-year-old PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas dies – then he will not only be able to stay in office if indicted, he will win the next elections even if he is still enmeshed in criminal probes.
Caroline Glick is the Director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center's Israel Security Project and the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post. For more information on Ms. Glick's work, visit carolineglick.com.
Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/267607/netanyahus-great-challenge-caroline-glick
Islamic Relief Chairman Seems to Hate Jews and Love Jihad - Sam Westrop
by Sam Westrop
Islamic Relief received $370,000 from the U.S. government in 2016.
Please click here to sign a petition calling on the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to end its financial support for Islamist Relief.
IR-USA Chairman Khaled Lamada displaying the Muslim Brotherhood's four-finger "R4BIA" sign.
Islamist Watch has uncovered further evidence of anti-Semitism promoted by senior officials of Islamic Relief, the largest Islamic charity in America.
Although Islamic Relief is a designated terrorist organization in the United Arab Emirates, it enjoys the support of governments and other charities all around the world, including $370,000 from the U.S. government in 2016, along with millions of dollars from the UN, European Union, Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
As Islamist Watch has previously discussed, these public monies serve to subsidize Islamic Relief's funding of Hamas-linked organizations in the Gaza Strip. All across the globe, in fact, Islamic Relief branches are led by Islamists with close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist causes. Islamic Relief's U.S. branch (IR-USA) is no exception.
The current chairman of IR-USA is Khaled Lamada, a prominent Egyptian-American, who has a long history of involvement with Muslim Brotherhood organizations. He does not, in fact, shy away from publicly expressing his support for Islamist causes. His social media accounts are filled with Muslim Brotherhood insignia, including the notorious R4BIA sign – exhibited by Muslim Brotherhood supporters since 2013.
Worst of all, Lamada appears to hate Jews and admire violence against Israel. Writing and sharing posts mostly in Arabic, Lamada has circulated text praising the "jihad" of the "Mujahidin of Egypt" for "causing the Jews many defeats." He has republished claims on Facebook that praise Hamas for inflicting a "huge defeat" against the "Zionist entity."
Further, Lamada has circulated videos that claim the current leader of Egypt, President Sisi, is secretly Jewish, and that he opposes the Muslim Brotherhood on the orders of the Jews. The video further claims that Jews are sowing division among Egyptian Muslims by encouraging sexual activities. Lamada's only comment about these anti-Semitic conspiracies is: "I hope this is not true." Lamada has even disseminated claims that America is controlled by a Zionist lobby, which is working to demonize Muslims and plan an invasion of Sudan and the Nile Valley.
Lamada is not the only anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist running America's largest Islamic charity.
Yousef Abdallah, east coast operations manager for Islamic Relief.
Last month, Islamist Watch uncovered anti-Semitic social media posts by another senior official of IR-USA, Yousef Abdallah, who published a story romanticising "martyrs" who provided guns to "kill more than 20 jews" and "fire rockets at Tel Aviv."
Abdallah's other posts included references to Jews as "stinking," and claims that "the Jews put the outside wall of Al Aqsa [the mosque in Jerusalem] on fire." Abdallah also 'likes' a comment on his Facebook post that calls on God to wreak "revenge on the damned rapists Zionists. O God they are no challenge for you. Shake the Earth beneath their feet and destroy them as you destroyed the peoples of ʿĀd, Thamud and Lot."
Another (former) IR-USA staff member, Omar Shahin, preached in 2002: "You will keep on fighting with the Jews until the fight reaches the east of Jordan river then the stones and trees will say: oh Muslim, oh (servant) slaves of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him."
That IR-USA's chairman and his staff appear to hate Jews is not particularly surprising. That this extremist, terrorism-linked, Jew-hating charity has enjoyed millions of taxpayers' dollars and dinners at the White House, however, is utterly perplexing.
Sam Westrop is the director of Islamist Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum.
Source: http://www.meforum.org/blog/2017/08/islamic-relief-chairman-hates-jews-and-loves-jihad
Minimize Islamic Terrorism in America? Just Manipulate Statistics - A. Z. Mohamed
The attempt by the Left to minimize the dangers of the jihadists among us is not only counter-productive; it is immoral.
While Islamist terrorists have committed fewer attacks in America since 9/11 than "far-right-wing violent extremists," they have killed more victims. — United States Government Accountability Office report, released on April 6, 2017. Titled "Countering Violent Extremism: Actions Needed to Define Strategy and Assess Progress of Federal Efforts".
Both right-wing and Islamic extremists are the enemies of Western civilization; all must be investigated and penalized. The attempt by the Left to minimize the dangers of the jihadists among us is not only counter-productive; it is immoral.
Well before Donald J. Trump was elected to the U.S. presidency, many have been claiming that more Americans have been killed by "right-wing extremists" than by Islamic terrorists.
A study released in June 2015 by the New America Foundation on "Terrorism in America After 9/11" ostensibly gave credence to this assertion. Focusing on one graph in the study and the authors' summary of the statistics – that the "death toll [from attacks since September 11, 2001] has been quite similar to other forms of political, and even non-political, violence that Americans face today" -- a number of media outlets and progressive groups pounced on the data.
Referring to the New America Foundation findings, Time magazine's Joanna Plucinska reported:
"Since 9/11, white right-wing terrorists have killed almost twice as many Americans in homegrown attacks than radical Islamists have... [During this period], 48 people were killed by white terrorists, while 26 were killed by radical Islamists."
In March 2017, the self-described "multi-media network for the latest Progressive news, commentary and analysis," The Ring of Fire, also referred to the New America Foundation study. In a program titled "Right Wing Extremist Have Killed More Americans than Terrorists," broadcaster Farron Cousins said:
"In terms of people from Muslim countries coming to the United States committing any kind of act of terror, 50 people have died in the United States since 9/11 attacks. 254 have died since the 9/11 attack from right-wing extremists violence and acts of terror here in the United States."
He went on to state that right-wing extremists "are killing five times more American citizens than anyone from any Muslim country... coming into the United States."
More recently, on August 14, 2017 -- two days after a deranged white supremacist killed a woman and wounded 19 other demonstrators in Charlottesville, Virginia -- MSNBC also pointed to the New American Foundation study. The network's Stephanie Ruhle announced, "Between 2001 and now, we have seen three times more deaths caused by right-wing extremists than Islamic terrorists."
This repeated assertion is both disingenuous and politically motivated. Far more reliable is the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, released on April 6, 2017. Titled "Countering Violent Extremism: Actions Needed to Define Strategy and Assess Progress of Federal Efforts," the report illustrates that while Islamist terrorists have committed fewer attacks in America since 9/11 than "far-right-wing violent extremists," they have killed more victims.
On April 15, 2013, Islamic terrorists detonated two bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring several hundred others. (Image source: Aaron Tang/Wikimedia Commons)
A. Z. Mohamed is a Muslim born and raised in the Middle East.
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10851/islamic-terrorism-america
Nationwide anti-Google protests canceled due to antifa threats - Rick Moran
We are entering uncharted territory in American history
A nine city protest against Google and supporting free speech for Google employees was canceled after organizers said there were threats of violence from the "alt-left."
The media is trying very hard to connect the anti-Google demonstrations to the racists and Nazis who demonstrated in Charlottesville. In at least some respects, they were apparently successful.
Associated Press:
Protests planned at Google offices around the country over the firing of an employee who questioned company diversity efforts have been postponed.
A statement Wednesday on the "March on Google" website said Saturday's protests were being canceled because of threats from what it called "alt left terrorist groups."
The planned events in Pittsburgh and eight other locations were in reaction to Google's firing of a software engineer who argued that biological differences helped explain why women are underrepresented at the company.
Protest organizers didn't respond to requests for information about the alleged threats. A Pittsburgh public safety spokeswoman said organizers had informed them "of plans to cancel and why they were cancelling," but she wouldn't elaborate.
Police departments in Mountain View, California, where Google is headquartered, and Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the company has an office, said the organizers hadn't sought a permit after announcing planned events there.
Jeremy Warnick, a spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department, said the department knew of no possible threats. "Through our various public safety partners, there were no known threats made against the March on Google here in Cambridge," he said.
A couple of hundred nutcases in Charlottesville are being used as poster children for conservatism. Millions and millions of decent, moral Americans who find the ideology of the racists and Nazis as repugnant as anyone in America are being smeared by the left wing media because equating them with the right wing thugs will hurt Donald Trump and the Republican party.
So a demonstration against ideological group think at Google suddenly becomes an "alt-right" event put on by racists. The antifa and other violent leftist groups know they now have the entire right on the run and will continue to press their advantage, being enabled by a media as eager as they are to smear all supporters of President Trump as Nazis and kluxers.
We are entering uncharted territory in American history - a time when the First Amendment is under unprecedented assault by those who seek to impose an ideological conformity on America as rigid and limited as that found in Google, Inc. The diversity freaks wish to turn the entire country into Googlebots - docile, compliant, fearful of nonconformity, and terrified of the cost of stepping out of line.
And if opponents of this future want to fight against it, expect to be violently suppressed.
Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/08/nationwide_antigoogle_protests_canceled_due_to_antifa_threats.html
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The timing couldn't be better. Brooklyn-based ice cream chain Van Leeuwen is expanding to at 448 Amsterdam Avenue (81st-82nd) just as the ice cream season really gets going.
The company, which is known to be vegan-friendly, has said previously that they'd like to open in May, although it's unclear if they'll actually open their doors before the end of the month. They haven't responded to our latest request for comment on the timing.
Van Leeuwen is in the midst of a large expansion throughout the city. Here are their flavors.
Thanks to Carrie and Michelle for the photos.
They were open last night.
hope they might have some sugarfree treats???
They were open yesterday evening, May 24th.
I walked past Van Leeuwen last night and there were people in there queueing for ice cream. Could have been a soft opening though (no pun intended). Amorino on the other hand was fairly empty. Can they both survive so close to each other? I hope so!
They were open yesterday. Maybe it was a soft opening, but they were packed.
I'd appreciate clear information when NUTS are among the ingredients in an ice cream, as in Vegan Pink Lemonade ice-cream which would not be expected to have nuts in it. Nut allergies are serious, and without listed ingredients, those of us who are allergic to nuts will have to buy ice cream will have to shop elsewhere.
Have you contacted anyone at the company about this?
Anne, their website clearly notes that all vegan ice-creams are made with cashews and coconut. I had some of their vegan pistachio on the weekend and it was absolutely delicious and creamy. Im sure if you asked the staff in the store they would happily tell you the ingredients.
I wonder how much of their opening delay is caused from the City's red tape?
I've tried their ice cream when they sold from trucks. Outstanding stuff!
How expensive are the cones and cups?
It was open with a line of customers on Friday evening.
How much does a Van Leeuwen ice cream cone cost???
Around $4.50 for a small, $6.50 for a large.
A guy like me who always considers value, would rather spend $8 for 2 litres of Alden's Organic ice cream at Fairway, and eat my ice cream all week.
Your price guess is too low. I just walked by. The prices for a single, double and triple are $5.50, $7.50 and $9.50, respectively.
Seeing those prices (and the long line outside) I opted to try your suggestion. I headed over to Fairway and bought the Alden's. If others are interested, it is on the 2nd floor, not the 1st.
Open on Saturday afternoon (5/26). Note that they don't take cash. Vegan-friendly but not cash-friendly!
Cash is so last century.
if you have some of that useless last-century stuff lying around, I have use for some as coasters or some other things.
O.M.G. !! HOW VERY, VERY "2018 BROOKLYN"!
SOME of us may recall Olde Brooklyn, a place where "dese, dem, and dose" were comically common, a place with a working-class vibe AND a working waterfront, a place wit' ethnic nabes, and a place with a crappy-but-scrappy ball-team.
Don't forget the Kramdens and the Nortons!


C&C Large is a practical trolley in 12 mm-thick curved glass with 12 mm-thick glass shelf. With feet and castors, and details in aluminium, the table is highly versatile as a TV unit. Also available in extralight glass.


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