Thursday, February 01, 2018
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Fwd: Israel Opens Brutality Investigation Against Shin Bet
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <havanehama@aol.com>
Date: Jan 31, 2018 11:01 PM
Subject: Israel Opens Brutality Investigation Against Shin Bet
To:
Cc:
From: <havanehama@aol.com>
Date: Jan 31, 2018 11:01 PM
Subject: Israel Opens Brutality Investigation Against Shin Bet
To:
Cc:
Published on: Today 10:03 PM
By: JTA
This news will hopefully help Elisha Odess, the 19 year old Jewish teen from the Shomron who was arrested two years ago and brutally tortured by the Shuin Bet until he "confessed" that he was involved in the arson of an Arab house in the Arab village of Duma. There is no other evidence linking him to this event except for his forced confession which he gave after a week of unbearable torture. He has been held in jail without evidence under the purview of "Administrative Detention" which allows the Israeli government to hold a person prisoner indefinitely and with no legal recourse. May we finally see the end of this barbarism in the only democracy in the Middle East.
ISRAEL OPENS BRUTALITY INVESTIGATION AGAINST SHIN BET: Jerusalem -
Israel's Justice Ministry has launched an unprecedented criminal investigation against an interrogator from the Israel Security Agency over brutality allegations.
It marks the first time that an investigation has been opened since the Justice Ministry established a unit called Mivtan about 18 years ago to investigate complaints against the ISA, also known as the Shin Bet.
The complaint was filed against the ISA operative over an interrogation from 2015.
More than 1,100 complaints have been filed alleging misconduct and brutality by Shin Bet interrogators over the last 17 years, according to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, which called the statistic "highly unflattering." The committee did not file the complaint against the operative under the criminal probe, according to Haaretz.
Both Mivtan and the Police Internal Investigations Department, or Mahash, must approve the launch of a criminal investigation against a Shin Bet agent. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was involved in the decision to investigate this interrogator, Haaretz reported, citing two unnamed sources.
"We hope that this precedent will usher change in the Shin Bet's interrogations procedures, in line with their legal and moral obligations," the committee said in a statement. "Personal accountability will encourage interrogators to adhere to legal practices, keeping in mind that even detainees, be them Jews or Palestinians, maintain their rights and dignity.
Advertisement:
"By launching this unprecedented investigation, the Ministry of Justice sends a clear message that the Israeli Security Agency is not above the law and that interrogators crossing red lines will have to answer for their actions. The State of Israel acknowledges that torture is a prohibited and immoral practice, and that no justification can be made for the use of cruel or degrading treatment in breach of international treaties."
The Justice Ministry told Haaretz that 50 examinations of complaints were started in the last year.
"The process of examining the complaints has frequently led to different system-wide lessons being applied, or to disciplinary action being taken against investigators," the ministry said.
Monday, January 29, 2018
Letter to the Editor by Helen Freedman on Stephen Flatow's description of Shiva Call to Shevach Family in Havat Gilad. Yael Shevach asks money for Mikvah and Sefer Torah following her husband's massacre.
Letter to the Editor - The Jewish Press
From Helen Freedman
Stephen Flatow's description of his shiva call to the Shevach family in Havat Gilad accurately describes a community, built on private Jewish land, which has experienced discrimination from the Israeli government since its creation about 15 years ago. Struggling with the label, "illegal settlement", the residents have experienced sporadic electricity and water, which they must purchase themselves. These are basic necessities, which, if denied by Israel to the Gazans, would have the world screaming about inhumanity. If it's done to Jews it seems to pass unnoticed.
It took the murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a beloved resident of Havat Gilad, for attention to be paid. My organization, Americans for a Safe Israel, as well as the Israel Independence Fund, led by Aharon Pulver, have been the few, perhaps only, organizations that have tried to help the community.
I recently paid a late condolence call to Rabbi Shevach's widow, Yael. I was introduced to her by Ilana Shimoni, an ardent spokeswoman for the community whom we have befriended over the years. I marveled at Yael's strength of character and beauty during our meeting. The one thing the women asked for was help with building their mikveh. The women of Havat Gilad, who struggle with all the hardships the community presents, are entitled to have the comfort of a mikveh. They have already raised some funds for the project and are hoping to raise more.
Another wish expressed by Yael Shevach was for the donation of a Torah scroll in time for the shloshim for her husband. He was killed on Jan. 9 so the time is growing short.
For information about donating to the mikveh or the Torah scroll, please contact AFSI at212-828-2424, judy@afsi.org, or the AFSI website. If using the website to make a donation, just hit the DONATE button, use your credit card, and earmark the amount for Havat Gilad.
My Comments:
In this week's Yated Parshat Beshalach Shira. Volume 30 No. 4 Page 34 there was an article entitled "The President and the Rebbe" on the encounter of the Klausenberger Rebbe in Germany and General Eisenhower, the Commander of the American armed forces in Germany.
On Yom Kippur or the year 5706, 72 years ago, the general arrived at the shul in the refugee camp of Fedafing to meet the "holy man" and the leader of the Jews, whom he had heard much about.
The Rebbe was a survivor of the horrors and a man who had lost his entire family, became known for his superhuman strength.. The Rebbe had lost his wife and eleven children during the war, and he himself barely survived the death march.
...The refugee population gathered at the gates of the camp to greet him (Eisenhower), and the rebbe zt"l came out as well. He carried a braided challah and salt, which were served to the general, and he held a Sefer Torah in his arms....The People demanded that the Klasenberger Rebbe serve as the main speaker for the occasion...the Rebbe began speaking in an impassioned voice about the destruction and calamities aht had befallen the Jewish people, about the destiny of the Jews and our mission in this world as Hashem's chosen people. He gave his blessing to the visiting general, who had been granted the tremendous merit in taking part of the liberation of masses of innocent people who had been condemned to death. However, his words were directed mainly at his Jewish brethren.
"The Rebbe adjured all the Jews who were present for the occasion not to forget what our enemies had done to us. ...His speech made a tremendous impact. His listeners dissolved into tears...Adults wept like small children.. ..
"At the end of the ceremony the general asked the Rebbe, 'How can I be of assistance now?'
"The Rebbe replied through an interpreter that his only request was for Arba Minim for Yom Tov of Sukkos, which was only a few days away, for himself and for the other survivors. When General Eisenhower heard that response, he was overcome with awe, and he understood that the man standing before him was a truly holy man. There was no other way to explain the fact that a Jew in the DP camps could hear the commander of the American army saying that he was willing to fulfill any request, and yet could ask for nothing other than a lulav and esrog.
This kind of greatness is found in Havat Gilad. These settlers are the salt of the earth. May Hashem ease the sorrow and may Yael Shevach and the children know no more pain or suffering.
תנצב״ה
--
Sincerely,
Robin Ticker
Robin Ticker
Activist emails sent to my list are L'Ilui Nishmat Yisrael ben David Aryeh ob"m (Izzy - Kaplan) and Howard Chaim Grief great activists and lovers of Eretz Yisroel, Am Yisroel and the Torah. Yehi Zichronum Baruch. May their memories serve as a blessing.
Most of these emails are posted on Shemittahrediscovered.blogspot.com
Personal emails to individuals will not be posted to my blog.
Fwd: Daniel Greenfield's article: A Year of Russian Collusion . The left inevitably accuses the right of its own sins. Trump didn’t collude with Russia. Obama did.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Sultan Knish"
Cc:
From: "Sultan Knish"
Cc:
Daniel Greenfield's article: A Year of Russian Collusion
Posted: 29 Jan 2018 12:44 AM PST
September 2009.Obama hadn't even been in office for a whole year when he gave in to Moscow's biggest demand by dropping the missile defense shield for Poland and the Czech Republic. During his campaign, he had enthusiastically backed the defensive program, declaring, "We have to send a clear signal that Poland and other countries in that region are not going to be subject to intimidation and aggression."
Like all of his campaign promises that were based on political triangulation, law enforcement, counterterrorism, Jerusalem and gay marriage, it was a campaign lie to be thrown out after the election.
Putin praised Obama's sellout of our allies as a "brave decision." In his first year, President Trump touted the sale of Patriot missiles to Poland. That was a truly brave decision.
After the Russian invasion, Obama refused to provide Ukraine with military assistance. While he had handed out weapons to Islamist terrorists in Syria and Libya, the Ukrainians were only offered MREs. The same administration that covertly shipped a fortune in foreign currency on unmarked cargo planes to Russia's Iranian allies took months to meet Ukrainian requests for boots and spare tires.
The Trump administrated unapologetically approved the sale of sniper rifles to the Ukrainians.
"I'm aware of not only the extraordinary work that you've done on behalf of the Russian people," Obama had gushed during his meeting with Putin. There were no protests from the same media that has since then repeatedly suggested that Trump's praise for Putin indicated a soft spot for dictators.
Looking back at Obama's first year and Trump's first year, it's easy to assess who was giving Moscow more. It wasn't just missile defense. In the spring of '09, Hillary was in Moscow toting a misspelled Reset Button swiped from a swimming pool. But it was Obama who had first urged a "reset or reboot". That was the month he sent a secret hand-delivered letter to Russia offering to kill the missile shield. The Russians turned down his proposed deal, but he went through with the appeasement anyway.
Trashing missile defense was just one step in a larger effort to revive Jimmy Carter's defense policies. In his first year, Obama began the push to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. CTBT would have allowed the Russians (and everyone else) to build up their nuclear arsenals while crippling our own. The new START treaty was drafted in '09 and signed next year. And Russian violations of it were ignored.
It took a new administration to change that.
In his first phone call with Putin, President Trump blasted the START treaty as a bad deal that gave Moscow a free ride. Next month, the Pentagon officially came out and said what everyone knew.
This was a sharp contrast with the previous administration which had refused to detail Russian violations. It falsely claimed that it couldn't answer the question because "the New START treaty forbids releasing to the public data and information obtained during implementation of the treaty."
Before the Iran deal, the Russia deal had been Obama's legacy. And the same lies, echo chambers and spin that would be used to cover up Iranian violations were being deployed to mask Russian violations.
The Russians couldn't have been too surprised at Trump holding their feet to the fire. Trump had blasted the START treaty during the third presidential debate while Hillary Clinton had rambled on about cyberattacks. The Russians would have been far more concerned about nukes than keyboards.
That was the same debate where Hillary Clinton had accused Trump of being Putin's "puppet".
But if that's true, where are the concessions and the appeasement? Every tangible foreign policy issue that the commentariat at conspiratorial lefty media outlets like the Washington Post, the Huffington Post and ThinkProgress had seized on as evidence of Trump's collusion has come up short.
Remember when Trump was secretly conspiring to lift sanctions for Exxon-Mobil's Russian drilling project?
"Could Massive Russian Oil Deal with Exxon Explain Why Putin Appears to Have Meddled in US Election?", Democracy Now shrieked. "Trump-Putin Bromance: Election Hacking, Oil Drilling," the Huffington Post caterwauled.
ThinkProgress made them seem restrained. "Trump, Putin, and ExxonMobil team up to destroy the planet."
"Pick of Exxon CEO for Secretary of State clarifies why Putin wanted Trump elected: a $500 billion oil deal killed by sanctions," the sub yammered. Trump, Putin and oil represented "the gravest threat to humanity (and democracy) since the rise of the Axis powers".
Just one problem. Trump refused to let the deal happen. So much for that conspiracy theory.
Seizing on the potential Exxon deal was an act of desperation. The left was quick to juggle Russia collusion theories, but had trouble coming up with anything that Russia actually got from Trump.
Not only wasn't there anything like Obama's Year One windfall of appeasement, but Moscow was getting nothing but trouble. The new National Defense Strategy lists Russia as a major threat. It's a return to the Republican view of Russia as a geopolitical threat that Obama had mocked Romney for.
The Washington Post, which boasts a new Russia-Trump conspiracy theory every five hours, responded by claiming that Trump's policy of confronting Russia is exactly what Vladimir Putin wants. "Trump's strategy pushes confrontation with Russia, and Moscow is pleased," a Post op-ed declared.
What better evidence could there be that Trump is Putin's puppet than that he's standing up to him?
The new Russia conspiracy meme borrows the old Obama spin on Iran and ISIS which accused critics of "playing into their hands" by trying to fight them, instead of appeasing them. It was classic Orwellian spin. "Weakness is strength", "lies are truth" and "opposition is collusion". But it said something about the weakness of the collusion reality that the Post was forced to rely on such weak Rhodes-ian spin.
What had Trump done for Russia? Well he stood up to it. And that's exactly what Putin wants.
The media's case for collusion comes down to the hacking of Democrat emails. But while having Podesta's missives exposed to daylight was clearly a traumatic event for the Dems, it's not exactly up there with letting the Russians have a free hand in Europe. Or letting its Iranian allies go nuclear.
The media has blasted us with headlines about the meeting between Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer about the Magnitsky Act. But a year later, the Magnitsky Act is doing just fine. There's been no review. Obama had singlehandedly dismantled the Cuban embargo. If Trump had really wanted to, the sanctions on Russia would be a memory. But instead the sanctions keep on coming.
The media made much of Trump's signing statement to CAATSA criticizing its intrusion on his authority. Obama had repeatedly made similar objections, though using very different rhetoric, in signing statements to previous bills. When the administration missed the October 1 sanctions deadline, the media again rolled out the conspiracy theories. "The Trump administration is delaying Russia sanctions that Congress demanded," Vox bleated. The sanctions were sent in the very next day.
The media has come to specialize in spinning conspiracy theories out of process. It's safer to focus on the trees, because then they don't have to notice that there's no forest. But it's a sign of just how little it has to work with when it comes to real life policy as opposed to the conspiracy theories of its bubble.
"What did Putin want from Trump and what did he actually get?" a Newsweek article inquires. It's forced to conclude that the answer is nothing. Russia received a whole lot from Obama in his first year. Trump has dealt it a series of setbacks instead. Newsweek concludes that Putin helped elect Trump, but got nothing in return. That would make Putin rather stupid. And no one has yet accused him of that.
But that's what the current collusion conspiracy theories of the left have irrationally been reduced to. Putin helped elect Trump. And got nothing from Trump for it. Now it's time to impeach Trump anyway.
Backing Trump never made any sense. Republicans have traditionally been more hostile to Russia. And Trump's entire pitch was nationalism. Nationalist leaders in small countries might collaborate with Putin, but the nationalist leader of the United States could only end up on a collision course with Russia.
Obama's first year was a golden period for Russia because he didn't believe in national interests. Trump does. The left inevitably accuses the right of its own sins. Trump didn't collude with Russia. Obama did.
You are subscribed to email updates from Sultan Knish .
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.Email delivery powered by Google Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
