The story can be read here.

I’m not singling out Israel. I support Israel. I want to be known as a friend of Israel, but not with money you don’t have…We can’t just borrow from our kids’ future and give it to countries, even if they are our friends…I think they’re an important ally, but I also think that their per capita income is greater than probably three-fourths of the rest of the world. Should we be giving free money or welfare to a wealthy nation? I don’t think so.

This reminds Muffti a bit of a paragraph in the report by Walt and Mearsheimer from a few years ago:

Total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars.2 Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one‐fifth of America’s foreign aid budget. In per capita terms, the United States gives each Israeli a direct subsidy worth about $500 per year.3 This largesse is especially striking when one realizes that Israel is now a wealthy industrial state with a per capita income roughly equal to South Korea or Spain.

Source: Politico.

There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term to characterize what she reasonably believes are false accusations that her words or images may have caused a mentally disturbed individual to kill and maim. The fact that two of the victims are Jewish is utterly irrelevant to the propriety of using this widely used term.
****
Palin has every right to defend herself against these kinds of attacks . . . [s]till, we wish that Palin had not invoked the phrase “blood-libel” . . . . While the term “blood-libel” has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused, we wish that Palin had used another phrase, instead of one so fraught with pain in Jewish history.
****
Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a “blood libel” against her and others. This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries—and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today.
****
The term “blood libel” is not a synonym for “false accusation.” It refers to a specific falsehood perpetuated by Christians about Jews for centuries, a falsehood that motivated a good deal of anti-Jewish violence and discrimination. Unless someone has been accusing Ms. Palin of killing Christian babies and making matzoh from their blood, her use of the term is totally out-of-line.

Palin herself said:

It goes back to the Jewish people being falsely accused…A group of people being falsely accused of having blood on their hands.

Personally, Muffti thinks this whole pogrom is ridiculous. Sarah is right – mere rhetoric is not the problem and getting rid of it would be no final solution. The lamestream media has attempted a babi yar on right wing commentators and Muffti just hopes that the Gifford tragedy doesn’t end up being seen in retrospect as a kristallnacht for poor Palin. Her treatment is comparable to Dreyfus’. Fear not friends; this holocaust of accusations will end soon.

This probably won’t help the cool relations between Obama and Netanyahu. For Romney, it’s a mark of stature that he got a meeting — and a photo — with the Israeli leader, and it sets a bar for every other Republican passing through Israel to meet.

According to the Prime Minister’s office:

The two men discussed a series of issues, including advancing the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, which will be based on security, and the challenge to the international community posed by the Iranian nuclear program.

Another scientific field that is problematic is biology, or life and environmental sciences. When your doctrine is based on Darwin’s theory of evolution and its implications, you are standing on unreliable foundations – that is, there is no God, there was only something primeval, and then there are certain random developments which led to the apex of all creation, the human being.

If textbooks state explicitly that human beings’ origins are to be found with monkeys, I would want students to pursue and grapple with other opinions. There are many people who don’t believe the evolutionary account is correct

If they keep writing in textbooks that the Earth is growing warmer because of carbon dioxide emissions, I’ll insist that isn’t the case.

Not surprisingly, Israeli scientists were irate. Muffti’s favourite quote? From Prof. Hava Yablonka of Tel Aviv University:

[it's like] saying that space should be given in textbooks to the view that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it. It’s astonishing that the chief scientist of a government ministry can say such bizarre things.

Muffti has to agree – make what you like about creationist stories, it doesn’t really seem to fit the rubric of ‘science’ (unless you want to call it ‘bad science’). Then again there is a board of education that would love to have Gavriel Avital: Texas!.

When he was awarded it, the ADL showered him with adulation:

Fareed Zakaria has become a household name in analysis and commentary on a wide range of foreign issues and their implications on domestic policy…Whether reading his compelling commentary in Newsweek or other publications, tuning in to his eloquent analysis as a regular member of the roundtable on ABC’s ‘This Week With George Stephanopoulous’ or his weekly PBS show ‘Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria,’ he provides us with important information and insight,” Mr. Foxman said.

5 years later, Fareed has returned the award ($10,000 and plaque) over the ADL’s recent press release regarding the Mosque controversy in New York City:

The ADL’s mission statement says it seeks “to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens.” But Abraham Foxman, the head of the ADL, explained that we must all respect the feelings of the 9/11 families, even if they are prejudiced feelings. “Their anguish entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted,” he said. First, the 9/11 families have mixed views on this mosque. There were, after all, dozens of Muslims killed at the World Trade Center. Do their feelings count? But more important, does Foxman believe that bigotry is OK if people think they’re victims? Does the anguish of Palestinians, then, entitle them to be anti-Semitic?

(see the rest of his column here.)

In less eloquent words, Muffti thinks that Zakaria is asking Is the ADL on crack?

The ADL replied curtly in a press release:

Fareed,

You should know better than to link the Anti-Defamation League position on the Islamic cultural center/mosque with those of bigots. You certainly know that ADL takes seriously our commitment to combat all forms of bigotry, including that against Muslims, particularly since 9-11, especially the charge that all Muslims are terrorists.

In returning the ADL’s prestigious Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedom Prize, you seem to be throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.

A fellow Humphrey Prize recipient, Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten, wrote that while he thinks ADL’s position is a mistake, “it was an error committed out of an excess of compassion and not an expression of animosity” and “ADL, even if it occasionally errs, is an organization I regard as indispensable.”

Good people can legitimately disagree about what is the best approach on this issue. Rest assured that the ADL you “long admired” is the same one doing battle against the bigots, even if we hold different opinions on this issue.

There are clearly a few issues at play here – (1) whether or not the ADL’s position on the Mosque is in keeping with their general position qua their mission statement. (2) Whether or not perceiving a tension between the organization’s aims and it’s actions in this matter justify the returning of a self-proclaimed prestigious award. (3) Whether or not the ADL is on crack. Muffti thinks ‘unclear’, ‘up to the recipient’ and ‘yes’ respectively.

On the other hand, the ADL did come out on behalf of the anti-prop 8 proponents. (for those of you who haven’t kept track, Proposition 8 was a narrowly passed voter initiative to ‘protect’ marriage by constitutional amendments. Married people, fear for your relationships as the case is probably going to the 9th circuit and perhaps the supreme court).

Today’s decision is a ringing reaffirmation of the right of same-sex couples to enjoy the fundamental right to marry. We are gratified that the court has recognized that there is no basis for “singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license,” and that such discrimination is unconstitutional.

ADL stands committed to the principle of equal treatment for same-sex couples. With this ruling, California can once again proudly demonstrate leadership in this fight for individual liberty and freedom from discrimination for all.

Maybe they switched to blunts?

From CNN

An initial U.N. investigation of a cross-border skirmish between Israel and Lebanon showed Israeli forces were on their own side of the border when Lebanese troops opened fire, United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Wednesday.
An Israeli officer and several Lebanese soldiers were killed in the exchange of fire Tuesday across the volatile border.
“The U.N. announcement today clearly corroborates the Israeli version of events,” said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman in a written statement. “Our routine activity yesterday was conducted entirely SOUTH of the frontier — on the Israeli side — and that the Lebanese Army opened fire without any provocation or justification what-so-ever.”
UNIFIL said, “The investigations are still ongoing” and the findings will be released after they conclude.
Lt. Col. Dov Harari, an Israeli battalion commander, was killed in the fighting, according to an Israel Defense Forces statement. Another Israeli soldier was seriously wounded, it said.
A Lebanese army spokesman said at least two Lebanese soldiers were killed and several others were wounded.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that journalist Assaf Abu Rahal also was killed in the exchange of fire between Lebanese and Israeli soldiers.
Israel filed a letter of complaint with the U.N. secretary-general and the U.N. Security Council Tuesday after the incident.
“These attacks threaten stability, peace, and security in our region,” Israeli Ambassador Danny Carmon said in a letter to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, asking that the United Nations address the matter.
“In response to this grave incident that constitutes a blatant violation of U.N. Security Council resolution 1701, Israel exercised its right of self-defense, responding with the appropriate measures on LAF (Lebanese Armed Forces) positions in the area.”
Two separate narratives emerged in the aftermath of the incident, highlighting the tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Israel said the Lebanese fired on Israeli soldiers who were on the Israeli side of the border.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor said the incident was captured on video and that it all occurred on Israeli soil.
“This is all under Israeli sovereignty,” he said. “Somebody wanted to ignite fire and kill one of our soldiers and wound another. We responded in a military way. But this should serve as a warning: Don’t dare do this again.”
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned the Lebanese government against continuing provocations of Israeli forces and demanded an investigation into Tuesday’s violence. He said Israel would not tolerate attacks on Israeli territory.
“The IDF will continue to act firmly and determinedly to protect the residents of Israel and the sovereign borders of Israel,” Barak said in a written statement.
The Israeli military said its soldiers were on “routine activity” when the incident occurred. It issued a statement saying that the soldiers were in “an area that lies between the ‘blue line’ [the internationally recognized border between Israel and Lebanon] and the security fence, thus within Israeli territory.”
The Lebanese army’s account and a report from Lebanese media said, however, that the hostilities occurred when Israel wanted to remove a tree.
A Lebanese army unit stopped the Israelis, and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon intervened, the National News Agency said.
The Lebanese army said it asked the U.N. force to arbitrate the issue, but the Israeli forces didn’t comply and entered Lebanese territory. That led the Lebanese army to open fire, with Israeli forces returning artillery fire and hitting a house in the village of Odaise.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Israel violated U.N. Resolution 1701 in crossing the blue line and by bombing a Lebanese army checkpoint in Odaise. He said Israeli aggression needs “to be confronted, whatever the sacrifices are” and that he will pursue the issue diplomatically.
Israel fought a five-week war with Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 after Lebanese-based militants kidnapped two Israeli soldiers during a cross-border raid.
Resolution 1701, which was intended to resolve the 2006 conflict, bars Israel from conducting military operations in Lebanon. Israel has accused Lebanon-based Hezbollah, considered a terrorist group by the United States, of violating the resolution by smuggling arms into southern Lebanon.
In a televised speech marking the fourth anniversary of the summer war, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah accused Israel of never having stopped its attacks on Lebanon and said it is guilty of 7,000 violations of Resolution 1701.
“We salute the Lebanese army and we salute their commander, their soldiers and their officers for baptizing the land with their blood,” Nasrallah said. “Our young men were in Odaise and other neighboring villages in the south but we asked them to exercise restraint. We were ready to fight and defend our land.”
In the aftermath of the 2006 fighting, the United Nations deployed peacekeepers to the area. The U.N. troops were focused Tuesday on restoring calm, said spokesman Neeraj Singh.
Acting Commander Brig. Gen. Santi Bonfanti flew to Odaise and said the situation had quieted. The United Nations was urging Israel and Lebanon “to exercise maximum restraint,” Singh said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri discussed the potentially explosive situation with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Hariri’s office said.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stated Syria’s support for Lebanon “against the heinous aggression launched by Israel,” according to the Syrian state-run news agency SANA.
“This aggression proves once more,” he said, “that Israel has always been seeking to destabilize security and stability in Lebanon and the region.”
In Washington, the Obama administration expressed concern about the clashes and urged both sides to exert calm while the United Nations investigates.
State Department Spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters the State Department was in touch with the Israelis, Lebanese and the United Nations mission on the ground to establish the facts.
But Hezbollah leader Nasrallah predicted any U.N. investigation would not favor Lebanon.
“Israel wasn’t condemned for massacres that they have committed,” he said. “The U.N. will not condemn their aggression in Odaise.”
Still, he predicted, the incident is not likely to turn into another war. “I don’t believe that there is a likelihood of a[nything] close to war but there is reason for concern,” he said.

Any advice from our readers?

(1) Who cares, eh?

(2) At least two of the founding writers (Muffti and CK) are Canadian! So go drink a Molson, kiss a pretty lady/gent (or three, as per your tastes), play a bit of hockey, use some maple syrup, complain in mild ways about Americans, use the expression ‘eh’ at the end of sentences prolifically and expressively, add a ‘u’ into colour (etc.), watch Strange Brew and the Kids in the Hall, be overly courteous and celebrate the wonderful non-threatening glory and beauty that is Canada.

From Jpost

A march demanding the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit continued on its fourth day on Wednesday, passing through through Yokenam and Zichron Yaakov. The “Freedom March” reached Kibbutz Maagan Michael that evening.

Speaking in front of 5,000 supporters at the Zichron Yaakov municipality, Noam Schalit said “it may be that the family began this journey too late, after four years of waiting for Gilad and waiting for Israel’s prime ministers to return him, but unfortunately, it hasn’t happened.”

Schalit thanked the nation for supporting his family, and was hopeful that their voices would reach decision-makers in Jerusalem.

In the late afternoon, traffic jams were reported between Kibbutz Yagur and Yokenam as a result of the procession.

Popular Israeli singer Eyal Golan, along with 2,000 others joined the march from Zichron Yaakov to Kibbutz Maagan Michael, where Schalit’s parents stopped for the night.

The activists set out on their 11-day trek on Monday, aiming to reach Jerusalem and meet with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyhau next week.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu had urged Russia to press Hamas to release Schalit, who has been held captive by the group in Gaza for the last four years.

“Put heavy pressure on them,” Netanyahu told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was visiting Israel before heading on to Cairo.

“I think [the] British are behaving hypocritically and I don’t want to offend dogs on this issue, since some dogs are utterly loyal, who are they to judge us on the war on terror?” — Aryeh Eldad, MofK (National Union Party)

This is antisemitism disguised as anti-Zionism.” — MIchael Ben-Ari (National Union MP)

The Brits have booted an Israeli diplomat (suspected of being a Mossad agent) over forged British passports used in the assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh and are royally (snicker) peeved about it. Israeli officials have not admitted to, nor denied, being the perps of the murder and Leiberman in a short response said the tantalizing “We have never been given proof that Israel was involved in this affair.”

This doesn’t strike Muffti as anti-semitism or anti-zionism. This strikes Muffti as another serious political calculation with a lack of regard for the bigger picture issues at stake.

Source: The Guardian.

It’s a bit like a bad Troma joke but with better production.

The number of housing starts in the settlements rose in the fourth quarter of 2009, precisely when the government-ordered freeze on such activity should have pushed the numbers down.

Work was begun on 593 Jewish West Bank homes from October through December, a 73.3-percent jump over the first three months of 2009, when ground was broken on 342 homes, according to numbers released this week by the Central Bureau of Statistics.

The increase is even more dramatic – 84.7% – when the fourth quarter of last year is compared with the second, when work was commenced on 321 homes.

The tide, however, turned sharply in the third quarter, when work was started on 447 homes.

The numbers continued to rise in the fourth quarter, even though Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the cabinet imposed a 10-month moratorium on new settlement construction that took effect on November 29, which should have prevented any housing starts in December, and thus kept the fourth quarter tally down.

It was impossible from the CBS data to know how many new homes were begun in December. As of press time, the CBS had not responded to a Jerusalem Post query to clarify the matter.

These initial numbers represent the first official data on the impact of the freeze. It only covers one month of the freeze. The impact will be more apparent in May, when the CBS plans to release data on the first quarter of 2010.

Overall, according to CBS statistics, new settlement construction in the year 2009 fell within the overall pattern of past years.

The 1,703 housing starts in the settlements in 2009 marked a 19% drop from 2,107 in 2008. But that number was still higher than the 1,471 starts in 2007 and the 1,518 in 2006.

Out of the 1,703 housing starts last year, only 33.6%, 573, were public construction, and 1,130 were private. It was a drop from 2008, when 37.8% of the new construction was public.

Since the moratorium was put in place, inspectors from the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria have gone to all the settlements to monitor and ensure compliance. In some places they were initially met with stiff resistance by settlers who tried to block their entry by closing the community gates or by rallying in the middle of the road.

Last month, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna’i said 29 settlements were in violation of the freeze.

The civil administration and the IDF have handed demolition notices in cases of illegal construction and have threatened to demolish such work sites.

But to date, they have destroyed construction at only three sites where work was ongoing in violation of the freeze.

According to the terms of the moratorium, work was halted on all homes that lacked a foundation. But work was allowed to continue on 3,000 homes that did have foundations in place.

According to the CBS, the number of homes completed in the settlements also rose in 2009, to 2,077 homes, a 29.7% hike from the 1,601 West Bank Jewish homes that were finished in 2008. In 2007, 1,747 homes were finished and in 2006, 2,167 homes were completed.

Authorities are investigating vandalism at a University of California Davis dorm room occupied by a Jewish student.

The student this week found a two-inch swastika carved into her dorm room door. The freshman student, who asked not to be identified, told television station KXTV that she was scared and confused.

In letter sent Friday to students and faculty, UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi says the university will not ignore deliberate acts that demean and threaten others.

Campus authorities are searching for the vandal.

Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis…That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I.”

Mosab Hassan Yousef’s God these days is the Christian one, as he converted years back. The story is extremely interesting as Muffti is sure his book will be. Here’s the rest from the Times Online.

The son of one of Hamas’s founding members was a spy in the service of Israel for more than a decade, helping prevent dozens of Islamist suicide bombers from finding their targets, it emerged today.

Codenamed the Green Prince by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, supplied key intelligence on an almost daily basis from 1996 onwards and tracked down suicide bombers and their handlers from his father’s organization, the daily Haaretz said.

Information he supplied led to the arrests of some of the most wanted men by Israeli forces, including Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader often tipped as a potential president who was convicted of masterminding terrorist attacks, and one of Hamas’ top bomb-makers Abdullah Barghouti, who is no relation of the jailed Fatah chief.

Mr Yousef, a 32-year-old convert to Christianity who now lives in California, has revealed the intrigues of his years as a spy in a new book called Son of Hamas, much to the concern of Shin Bet, whose operations will be revealed in detail. While the revelations may give a boost to Israel’s intelligence service, whose external counterpart Mossad is still grappling with the diplomatic fall-out of last month’s Hamas assassination in Dubai, there will be concern that the account may give too many insights into the murky world of espionage.

However, Mr Yousef’s work will be far more damaging to Hamas, whose brutality he denounced. Dubai police have suggested that Mahmoud al-Mabhuh, the top Hamas militant found dead in a hotel room in the emirate on January 20, may have been betrayed by an insider from the Islamist movement itself.

And Mr Yousef had harsh words for the movement that his father helped form, and which now rules the Gaza Strip after a bloody takeover in summer 2007. “Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis,” he told the daily. “That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis.”

Mr Yousef’s former Israeli handler, identified only as Captain Loai, praised the resolve of his agent, whose codename derived from the colour of Islam – and Hamas’ – banner and from his exalted position within an organization that regularly kills those suspected of collaborating with the Jewish state.

“So many people owe him their life and don’t even know it,” he said. “The amazing thing is that none of his actions were done for money. He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives. His grasp of intelligence matters was just as good as ours — the ideas, the insights. One insight of his was worth 1,000 hours of thought by top experts.”

Mr Yousef, whose father is still in an Israeli jail cell, from where he was elected as an MP in 2006, went as far as tracking down would-be kamikazes himself in the streets of the West bank during the Second Intifada which erupted a decade ago and left thousands of Palestinians and Israelis dead. On one occasion he followed a bomber from Manara Square in the centre of Ramallah, just north of Jerusalem.

“We didn’t know his name or what he looked like — only that he was in his 20s and would be wearing a red shirt,” said the former handler. “We sent the Green Prince to the square and with his acute sense, he located the target within minutes. He saw who picked him up, followed the car and made it possible for us to arrest the suicide bomber and the man who was supposed to give him the belt. So another attack was thwarted, though no one knows about it. No one opens Champagne bottles or bursts into song and dance. This was an almost daily thing for the Prince. He displayed courage, had sharp antennae and an ability to cope with danger.”

Mr Yousef, who converted from Islam to Christianity a decade ago – in itself, a dangerous act – was arrested by the Israelis in 1996 and within a year had been recruited by Shin Bet, then released to begin working as an informant.

Speaking by telephone from California, Mr Yousef told Haaretz he worried that the Israeli Government might release some of the prisoners he helped put behind bars in exchange for Gilad Schalit, a young Israeli soldier abducted by Hamas from the Gaza border more than three years ago.

“I wish I were in Gaza now,” he said. “I would put on an army uniform and join Israel’s special forces in order to liberate Gilad Schalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Schalit. That must not be done.”

Israel could release 980 Palestinian prisoners in a possible deal to win the freedom of an Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas for three years, prosecutors disclosed Sunday.
The number from Israel’s State Prosecutor’s Office is the first official estimate of how many Palestinians could be freed in exchange for Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was captured in a 2006 Hamas raid near the Israel-Gaza border.
Prosecutors disclosed the number in response to demands, made by the families of Israelis killed by Palestinians, that the government disclose the terms of a potential deal with Hamas.
In papers filed with Israel’s high court, the prosecutor’s office said the government is considering an initial release of 450 prisoners in the first phase of a deal, with another 530 prisoners slated to be freed in a second phase. No prisoner names were released with the numbers.
Relatives of Israelis slain by Palestinians have petitioned the court to force the government to release more information about the details of a possible exchange. Many of them have been vocal opponents of plans to release prisoners they believe may commit acts of violence again.
Israel and Hamas have been negotiating Shalit’s release through third-party mediators from Egypt and Germany, but talks have started and stalled numerous times. Shalit’s freedom has become a condition for the Israelis to consider ending a blockade that has economically wounded the Palestinian territory of Gaza.
Speculation about a possible deal emerged last week after Israeli President Shimon Peres met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Egypt, and hinted that the talks could be at a critical juncture. But Israel’s government is obligated to publicly announce the list of any prisoners to be released and allow 48 hours for objections before a deal can take place.
Shalit was 19 when he was captured on June 25, 2006, by Palestinian militants from Gaza, including those from Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the territory. Israel immediately launched a military incursion into Gaza to rescue Shalit, but failed.
In October, Hamas gave Israel a minute-long “proof of life” tape of the captured soldier in return for the release of 20 female prisoners. The video showed Shalit sitting in a chair, reading a newspaper dated September 14, 2009, and saying he was in good health.

Muffti believed in the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, but dude did claim in court that ‘it was my pleasure and honor to serve God…I have no regrets’. Here is the story from Jpost.

The state on Thursday filed a 25-page indictment against US-born, alleged Jewish terrorist Ya’acov Teitel, which included two counts of premeditated murder and three counts of attempted murder and involved 14 separate incidents between 1997 and 2008.

The indictment was filed and will be heard in Jerusalem District Court.

Teitel’s lawyer, Adi Keidar, told the court he needed one month to study the evidence before his client would be ready to answer the charges.

The state’s representative, Saguy Ophir, told the court the indictment was based on Teitel’s confession and on forensic evidence based on a DNA sample that was found at the scene of one of the crimes.

As he walked into the courtroom, Teitel more or less confessed that he was guilty of the acts for which he was charged.

“It was my pleasure and honor to serve my God,” he declared. “God is proud of what I have done. I have no regrets.”

The indictment goes into great detail as to how Teitel smuggled a handgun into Israel during a visit he made in 1997, when he decided to avenge terrorist attacks against Israelis. He took apart the gun and hid the metal pieces in a video player that he carried on board the plane, while sticking the plastic parts in his pocket.

His first alleged killing took place on June 8, 1997. He obtained bullets for the gun by signing up for a target shooting exercise, renting a gun and purchasing 200 bullets of the same caliber that his own gun used, according to the indictment. He put 15 of the bullets aside. He then rented a car and parked it near the Holyland Hotel in Jerusalem. Teitel returned downtown by bus and headed towards east Jerusalem where he hailed an Arab taxicab. During the 15-minute ride to the Holyland Hotel, Teitel talked to the driver, Samir Balbisi, to make sure he was Arab. When they reached the hotel, Teitel kept talking until he saw that Balbisi was looking straight ahead. He took the gun out of his briefcase and fired one shot to the back of Balbisi’s head, all according to the indictment.

The second incident occurred on August 3, 1997, after Teitel had worked as a shepherd for a family in Sussiya in the South Hebron Hills.

According to the indictment, Teitel noticed that many Palestinians walked along the roads in the area and decided to kill one of them. He rented a car, loaded his pistol and drove towards Sussiya. At 6:30 p.m., he spotted Issa Massaf walking alone. On the pretext of asking him directions, Teitel got Massaf to approach the car and shot him in the chest, again all according to the indictment.

Other incidents for which Teitel was charged include:

• Attempted murder: On March 1, 2003, Teitel allegedly booby-trapped a flashlight with explosives and left it at the entrance to the courtyard of a Palestinian house. It was set to go off as soon as anyone turned the light on.

• Attempted murder: At around the same time, Teitel purportedly poured anti-freeze into bottles of juice and left them at a Palestinian village near the Eli settlement.

• Attempted murder: On March 20, 2008, Teitel allegedly left a booby-trapped Purim gift at the home of the leader of the messianic Christian community in Ariel, David Ortiz. His son Ami opened the wrapping and the bomb exploded, severely wounding him. He suffered burns, broken ribs, and shrapnel wounds throughout his body, including his eyes. Ami Ortiz spent several months in hospital and is still undergoing treatment.

One of the best-known of the alleged assaults by Teitel involved former Hebrew University professor and Israel Prize winner Ze’ev Sternhell. Teitel purportedly planted a bomb outside Sternhell’s home in Jerusalem and prepared it to go off when anyone opened the front door. Sternhell opened the door, the bomb exploded and he suffered shrapnel wounds to his thighs.

Teitel also allegedly targeted homosexuals and the police, who, in his opinion, deserved it for protecting the gay community during their parades in Jerusalem.

But, The clear abuse of photos of dead bodies from Dachau? Ugh. .

And one more offensive poster to boot:

Muffti really doesn’t know why people on the left or the right tolerate this kind of thing at rallies when it aids to their delegitimization – it’s awfully easy to ignore thousands of peoples’ legitimate concerns when you see an anti-semitic sign or someone comparing the attempt to cover more americans with concentration camp murder.

Yet more evidence that CNN is rather behind the curve…when you basically open up with a paragraph like this, one has to wonder if you are a real news organization or, more like, um, Jewlicious. Let’s see what light investigative reporting has shed:

A blogger writes about how one of Judaism’s holiest days ended, for her, in a strip club, while elsewhere a guy strolls into a tattoo parlor requesting a Star of David. Two women exchange wedding vows in a Jewish ceremony, and hipsters toss back bottles of HE’BREW, The Chosen Beer. A full-time software developer prepares to lead a group in Jewish prayer, as a PhD candidate in Jewish thought pens a letter criticizing Israel’s policies.

I’m shocked and amazed. If you want to find out about a magazine called ‘Heeb‘ that sometimes puts provocative pictures and messages on their cover, go check out CNN on New Jews.

Jon Gosselin’s actions haven’t been too kosher lately.
But now, given relationship dramas and bad press, the father in “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ is looking to a higher authority.
In a statement released to CNN, Gosselin said he is receiving “regular study sessions and counseling” with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, well known as a spiritual adviser to Michael Jackson.

Boteach, the author of the book “The Michael Jackson Tapes” and host of TLC’s “Shalom in the Home” series, has linked up with the beleaguered “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ for an upcoming seminar titled “Fame: Blessing or Curse?” to be held at a synagogue in New York City.
Gosselin said in his statement that he is “troubled to learn that the media has accepted as true the scurrilous rumor that I would appear in a reality television program with Nadya Suleman” and goes on to say that such reports are “utterly false.”

“I do however accept that some of my previous actions have in some way lent credence to such outrageous stories,” Gosselin said. “I am well aware that my behavior over the past few months has not always reflected my personal and religious values. I further accept that I have allowed myself to become somewhat severed from my own moral anchor and be carried away by the challenges of fame.”

For that reason, the father of possibly the most famous set of twins and sextuplets said he has sought the spiritual guidance of Boteach, who is himself no stranger to the camera.

Boteach bills himself as “one of the world’s leading relationship experts and spiritual authorities.”

According to his author bio in “The Michael Jackson Tapes,” Newsweek referred to him as “the most famous rabbi in America.” Among his achievements: a National Fatherhood Award.

Gosselin could certainly use the help.

Since his high profile breakup with his wife in August, the reality star has been slammed for reports of his involvement with other women and extravagant spending sprees.

Earlier this month TLC announced he would be cut from the show and that plans were under way for a “Kate Plus 8″ series. That show was put on hold after Jon refused to allow his children to be filmed. The network has since filed suit against him for breach of contract.
He and his estranged wife also headed to court after she accused him of looting their joint account of more than $200,000. A Pennsylvania judged ordered him to return $180,000.

Most recently, Gosselin’s girlfriend, Hailey Glassman, accused him of being “emotionally abusive” and throwing “mantrums” because of his frustrations.

Gosselin said in the statement that he regrets having “betrayed the moral principles that have always guided me” and said he is committed to making things right with Kate and his children.

He turned to Boteach, he said, because the rabbi has counseled others in similar circumstances. Gosselin said Boteach has made clear to him the “moral obligations inherent in celebrity.”

“It is my sincere desire to use the fame I have so unexpectedly acquired to highlight mature, responsible behavior as well as the joys of fatherhood and family,” he said. “I ask the public to please understand the challenges I face in living under constant public scrutiny, even as I am aware that I have at times courted that scrutiny.”