After last week’s monstrous mass-murder-by-truck in France, is it possible that American hoplophobes will finally begin to get that guns aren’t the problem — that vicious humans are the problem and that they’ll use any weapon to carry out their evil will? Give your opinion here or below.
I’m not sure which. I feel like doing both.
Let me tell you about just a couple days of last week.
On July 1st:
there was an attempted stabbing attack in Hevron at the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
An Arab terrorist tried to stab people by the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron before being shot by nearby IDF and Border Police forces.
The terrorist reportedly approached a Border Police post at an entrance to the site and pulled out a knife before she was shot. No one else was harmed.
The pieceful Falestinians rioted at the Qalandia checkpoint.
Three Border Police officers were lightly wounded by Muslim rioters at Qalandia checkpoint near Jerusalem on Friday afternoon.
The officers were struck by rocks hurled by Arab rioters, who were waiting for permission to enter Israeli territory from the Palestinian Authority, on their way to the Temple Mount’s Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Sort of like black lives matter in Columbia MO. Nothing says we are friends, and mean no harm and just want to have a reasonable conversation or go worship at our holy place (filled with rocks and rockets) like stopping a car in a parade or a riot.
The day before on 30th June:
Two people were stabbed at a market in Netanya
Two people have been seriously wounded in a stabbing attack in the coastal Israeli city of Netanya.
Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics who arrived at the scene in Netanya market said they found a 30-year-old woman in serious condition, and a second victim – a man in his 40s – with moderate injuries.
Both victims were given emergency first-aid treatment before being evacuated to Laniado Hospital.
The terrorist was shot dead at the scene, and was later identified as a resident of the nearby Palestinian Authority city of Tulkarem.
The day before that, on 29th June, under the “you’ve got to be kidding me” category:
Nine Israeli Activists had to be rescued from Ramallah
A group of nine Israeli leftist activists on Wednesday evening had to be rescued from the Palestinian Arab city of Ramallah, after locals attacked one of their vehicles.
The Israelis reportedly entered the city of their own volition to celebrate the nightly breaking of the Ramadan fast with local Arabs. Locals who noticed them hurled rocks and firebombs at one of their cars, which caught fire.
Something to chew on for those who sincerely believe in their “Coexist” bumper stickers. But yeah, this one is funny. No one died.
On July 1st, this is one of the two more horrifying stories I’ve for you:
Father murdered in front of is children
One person was killed and three others wounded in a shooting attack at the Adorayim Junction south of Hevron in Judea.
The fatality has been identified as 40-year-old Michael “Micki” Markrom HY’’D the nearby town of Otniel, who was traveling in his car with his family when it was targeted.
His wife Chavi was seriously wounded in the attack, and was evacuated to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital with multiple gunshot wounds to her upper body.
Two other family members were also wounded in the attack. Paramedics say in addition to the mother of the family, they treated a 13-year-old girl in moderate-to-serious condition suffering from gunshot wounds to her upper body, and a 15-year-old boy who was lightly wounded, presumably from the crash.
In case you don’t remember Otniel is where Dafna Meir HY’’D lived, she was stabbed to death in the doorway of her home, fighting to save her children. And the attack resembled closely to one that occurred last November when Rabbi Yaakov Litman HY’’D and his son Netanel HY’’D were murdered in that attack, as they were traveling with their family.
But for the pieceful Falestinians the activities weren’t over. They attacked the funeral procession.
Even as the funeral procession for Rabbi Michael Mark, terror victim, wound toward Jerusalem, locals would not leave them in peace: Arabs threw a stone from a passing car, striking one of the buses of mourners.
Thirteen year old Hallel-Yaffa Ariel HY’’D was murdered in her bed, in her home. Hallel was an amazing dancer who had preformed just the night before in Jerusalem. Also wounded in the attack was a 31 year old security guard from the town’s security squad. The security squad responded very quickly to the alert that the perimeter had been breached. The terrorist had locked himself in Hallel’s bedroom so he could stab her without being interrupted. He then lay in wait for security squads. Hallel’s father was one of them that came through the door to find his daughter. The terrorist then attacked a 31 year old member of the security squad. The young man is going to lose his eye, but he will live. The terrorist was then killed by the security squad. The young man’s wife works as a volunteer on the MDA ambulance and she ended up being on the ambulance to ride into the hospital with him. This interview is well worth watching. I love this woman’s spirit, and she tells how she happened to be in the ambulance and gives a report on her husband.
I can hear it now, you can’t you just can’t blame a group for the actions of one kid! Very true, I’m not.
Mother of Kiryat Arba terrorist proud of ‘martyr’ son:
“My son is a hero,” she says. “My son died as a martyr defending Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque. Praise be to God, he is united with the martyrs before him, and he is not better than them. God willing, all of them will follow this path, all the youth of Palestine.”
According to friends and relatives of Dipsh*t (I’m NOT giving his name), he had posted a slew of Facebook statuses in the weeks before the attack expressing his desire to die as a martyr. In some of them, he said he wanted to avenge his cousin, who was killed as he carried out a car-ramming attack near Kiryat Arba. One soldier was lightly injured in that attack, before other troops shot and killed the attacker.
Apparently this sort of thing does NOT violate Facebook community standards. Only pro-Israel, Conservative and some Second Amendment stuff violates the sensitive Facebook community standards.
Army arrests sister of Hallel’s killer
Like her mother, the murderer’s sister also publicly praised her brother’s act, and called for others to follow in his footsteps and kill “the accursed Jews.”
IDF arrests brothers of Hallel’s killer
During the night IDF forces arrested two brothers of 17-year-old Dipsh*t, the terrorist who murdered Hallel-Yaffa Ariel in Kiryat Arba.
Not exactly an aberrancy is old Dipsh*t?
So how do kids, a lot of them, who grow up to be adults and then parents turn out this evil and deluded?
One choice is the appeasement crowd.
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. ~~Winston Churchill
I would put the liberals and those who call the parts of Israel known as Judea and Samaria “occupied territory” in this group. Failing to learn from the withdrawal of the Gaza strip they think the peace will come if Israel just gives in.
How this works in real life.
Only muslims are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. Non muslims are not allowed to pray. Now this little drama plays out in variations every year on Ram-a-damn. The muslims store rockets, Molatov cocktails, firebombs, stones in the holy mosque. Then when anyone other than a muslim attempts to go to the Temple Mount the muslims pitch a hissy and attack them screaming, yelling and assaulting them with whatever potential weapons of murder they have stashed in the holy mosque. Then non-muslims are banned from the Temple Mount. Hissy fit success. So, this year as in the past, Netanyahu ordered the police to give in to the arab hissy fit and barred non-muslims despite the fact the Police had held their own and visitors were still being allowed up. In an immediate spirit of cooperation engendered by this cave in of principles, the pieceful Falestinians moved over and began to throw stones down at those in prayer at the Western Wall, the Kotel, onJune 28th. In real life, the appeasement thing doesn’t work well.
There’s the ever apparent media bias. And
CNN omits Judea and Samaria in report on terror
CNN publishes updated map of places in which terror attacks took place this month, fails to include attacks on Judea and Samaria.
Well, the UN chief Ban Ki Moon has been in Israel, maybe that’s helped?
Falestinian schools hide Judenrein maps during Moon’s visit. Then denies they were ever hidden. The maps showing no state of Israel, only Falestine. Of course UNRWA denies they have anything to do with any maps. Just because there is no longer an Israel on the map, does that really mean so much? UNRWA creating angry, entitlement, hate filled children for ages. Encouraging them to hate Judeo-Christian values and the people. Pretty much like the average university here.
Well, but what about Ban Ki’s visit? Help?
On June 29th–UN chief blasts ‘occupation’, calls Israel to work for peace. Not so much.
June 30th– The UN’s Middle East Quartet: As terror strikes Israel, Quartet set to criticize ‘settlements’
Settlements, that’s Judea and Samaria to humans. The UN doesn’t fit that category very often. The UN doesn’t think Jews should have houses being built in Israel.
Nor does the US State Department. From 6 July.
State Department blasts Israeli ‘systematic land seizures’
The State Department on Tuesday issued a scathing condemnation of Israel’s plans to build new housing units in Maale Adumim and in Jerusalem.
“If it’s true, this report would be the latest step in what seems to be a systematic process of land seizures, settlement expansions, and legalizations of outposts that is fundamentally undermining the prospects for a two-state solution,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby of the plans, which were announced Sunday following last week’s terrorist attacks against Israelis in Judea and Samaria.
July 4th— Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon: European applause killed Hallel-Yaffa Ariel
Danon drew a clear line between the horrific murder of Hallel-Yaffa Ariel last week and the speech of Mahmoud Abbas to the European Parliament a week earlier.
In that speech, Abbas revived an old blood libel and claimed that some rabbis had called on the government of Israel to poison Palestinian water supplies. Instead of immediate condemnation, the elected European representatives of democratic nations responded with loud applause.
Danon writes, “We were all shocked. How can he say that? Lie to the European Parliament like that? This is a blood libel! But that was not the worst. We well know the constant lies and incitement of Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority. Every morning we again see Abbas’ praise for terrorists through the Palestinian education system and state-run television.”
“But the main thing on this occasion was not the incitement, but the applause.”
Danon claims that such constant incitement turns teenage Palestinians into murderous monsters. In the twisted mind of a 17-year-old terrorist, the claim that rabbis want to poison the wells is justification enough to kills a young girl in her bed. But that does not necessarily mean that he will carry out such an attack.
“But when a monster like this then hears the applause of the Members of Parliament, his perverted ideology is confirmed by those who should be the most moral in the world. [He thinks that] if they cheer like this, they will also cheer for me.”
And not only that, they get paid. Yes indeed folks, the PA pays it’s terrorists to kills Jews, and whoever else is handy. If the IDF demolishes their house? No biggie the PA pays for a newer, bigger, fancier one to be built. This doesn’t seem to bother Ban Ki or the Meddle East Quartet. Is there any other country on the face of the earth that the UN feels so compelled to try and dictate policy?
So, where does the money come from that the PA uses to pay terrorists? Where does the power and encouragement backing it and Hamass originate?
You gave it to them. You and your family and friends. You gave up eating out once a week and paying to have your car washed and did it yourself at home. You gave up that cable sports channel, bigger cellphone data plan so that you could pay Dipsh*t to kill little 13 year old Hallel in her bed.
Do you think I’m making this up?
June 30th —Dear Diaspora Jews: Your money is killing us
But please do not simply make do with a deluge of angry or sad social media posts. You can act. In fact, you have a moral duty to act and not stand idly by as the blood of your brothers and sisters continues to flow.
Because the bloodthirsty terrorist who murdered young Hallel was, at least in some part, indoctrinated and encouraged courtesy of your own tax dollars – or pounds, or euros.
The Palestinian Authority is funded almost entirely by state donors, its most generous benefactors including none other than the United States of America, and a host of European states, chief among them the United Kingdom.
It is by now the worst-kept secret in the international aid industry (and what a lucrative industry that is) that a large portion of that money goes towards not just incitement and indoctrination – whether in schools and mosques, or official PA youth clubs and sporting events – but directly into the pockets of Palestinian terrorists and their families.
Your tax money is essentially bankrolling the murderers of our children.
And they’re not even shy about it.
Just recently, at an iftar meal to break the Ramadan fast in Ramallah, PA “Prime Minister” Rami Hamdallah vowed to increase spending to support “heroic” terrorists. This support, he boasted, included increasing the monthly wage paid to every terrorist imprisoned for carrying out an attack, as well as upping the cash prize awarded to every Palestinian family which offers up one of its children as a “martyr.”
The family of Hallel’s killer, 17-year-old Dipsh*t of Bani Naim, near Hevron, will also be paid by the PA for his despicable actions. With money from your back pocket. Just know that.
But that is truer still when it comes to the Palestinian Authority. Your governments fund them directly.
So take action, right now. Write to your local member of parliament or congress; to your ministers and prime ministers and presidents, and ask for accountability. Ask them to cut off funding to the Palestinian Authority until it can prove that not a penny will go towards funding and encouraging terrorism.
Write to your communal leaders, and to your local pro-Israel organizations, and demand they take the lead in rallying and lobbying for accountability and an end to your tax money funding Palestinian terrorism.
Spend at least as long as you took to vent on social media to write to your elected representatives and to others who can make a difference.
Please. It’s the least you could do.
Even the NY Post blasted the use of US taxpayer dollars being used to kill Israeli soldiers and children on July 1st.
“Meanwhile, hundreds of millions flow to the PA from the West, including America. Which means US tax dollars are, in effect, going to pay for terrorist acts,” adding “And here you thought we were fighting terror”.
The editorial board called upon congress to rescind funding for the Palestinian Authority, and thus “cut off US funding for Palestinian terror.”
“Congress should do all it can to curb the practice”.
“Sending US tax dollars to the PA, only to see them go to reward terror, is a moral obscenity.”
Look at the dates on these articles. All of this happened within a few days of each other.
A lot of this goes back to somethings many wise people have said. Rights come from G-d, not man. Moshe Feiglin talked about it in his interview and his recent webinar. Many Second Amendment people have pointed this out. We are our own first responders. Moshe said that he wanted Israelis to remember the real, original concept of freedom. I would like many Americans who have been indoctrinated otherwise to learn this truth. No matter how close the security squads, no matter how good, they may not get there in time. True freedom is Israel does what is best for Israel and is not dictated to by the UN, an anti-Israel US president or any Meddle East committee. No matter what Israel does she will not win their approval. They do not want to give their approval. They want her to live by their rules till she is obliterated. The same with US gun owners, peaceful law-abiding citizens just wanting to live their lives. The political parties, the NRA and other such type of Second Amendment organizations are willing to bargain and compromise our rights. You can’t appease these people. It will not work, and we will be in a deeper hole than we were before.
If Jews can not live safely in Israel as Jews, but instead are the target of US, EU & UK sponsored terrorism because they are Jews??? And this is what so many do not understand, or do not care about. This has nothing to do with territories, this has everything to do with the latest attempt at genocide. But no one wants to call it that. No one wants to admit that in this day and age such a thing could happen again. So heads are put under pillows, the media whitewashes, the politicians lie and excuse. And people bleed and die in their beds.
So much pain, sorrow and suffering. And we paid for it, we made it possible.
Do I scream or do I weep? Because my heart is breaking.
by Sheila Stokes-Begley
When many people go to Israel, the want to see the historical sights. I do as well, especially military museums. There will most likely be a column on that. A lot of people want to eat the fabulous
food. Yes, me too. They want to shop, I’m SO there, especially when you talk about Yafo. They want to swim, did that. But what I really, really, really, really wanted to do, was interview Moshe Feiglin. At
which most tourist are probably saying “Excuse me?” But that was one of my very highest hopes for this trip. And I was successful.
I first learned about the former MK (Member of Knesset) when in response to something I had written my wonderfully kind team mate Y.B. sent me a portion of a Torah Thought from Mr. Feiglin. I loved it! I asked for more info and Y.B. told me who had written it and who he was. I did online research and signed up for the Manhigut Yehudite newsletter and was soon getting my own copies of Torah Thoughts included with each newsletter which I very much looked
forward to receiving. Each newsletter included Torah and politics. Does it get any better? Well, also a Dry Bones Cartoon. That’s pretty good too.
Last year I got to interview Mr. Feiglin by phone, and it was a great interview. This year it was in person. I feel very blessed.
So why my fascination? My respect first blossomed when he was writing articles calling for the Israeli government to make it easier for everyday Israelis to get weapons permits. Gun Control? Or Citizen Control?
With all that has been going on in Israel, I had a lot of questions for Mr. Feiglin. Especially since he along with the support of a lot of everyday people have founded a new political party. Zehut, which means “Identity”. Zehut is unusual in that they also allow people from places other than Israel to join. And with that I tell you I am a proud card carrying member. Well, I will be when my card gets here, but I am.
My first question was why form Zehut? Was it in response to the betrayal of leadership in politics? They campaign on one platform and then when elected turn and go another direction?
Feiglin: The average Israeli feels disenfranchised from their Jewish identity and the concept of a Jewish state. (I believe he said in a recent poll that 80% of Israelis identify as Jewish first, and as an Israeli second). The disenfranchisement started with the Oslo accords and now takes the form of things like a Judge appointed to the High Court who refused to sing HaTikvah, the Israeli national anthem after being sworn in. It shows in an army which is now refusing to allow soldiers to grow beards, “too much Jewish”. And very sadly when a Yad Vashem guide pointed out that the murder of Gil-Ad Shaer,16, Eyal Yifrah, 19, and Naftali Fraenkel,16 had occurred in Gush Etzion because they were Jewish. (That would seem evident to
me, but I guess political correctness can run amuck anywhere). Israel is a Jewish democratic state, but 10% controls the power and it is eroding Jewish values.
I have a few questions about everyday Israelis being allowed to carry weapons. Why are there areas where people are not allowed to have carry permits? A buddy moved from Jerusalem where he could carry, to Tel Aviv and now he can’t. He’s no less qualified in Tel Aviv. Yafo which suffered a terrorist attack is certainly within walking distance of Tel Aviv, I’ve done so! Why aren’t the military allowed to carry off duty, and why after people are out of the military can they not automatically be allowed to carry a weapon? As it turns out, the answer to all these questions are the same. Mr. Feiglin is very good at seeing the big picture and summing it up.
Feiglin: Because the concept of freedom is wrong. It should be the concept that the right of self- defense is G-d given! In Israel they believe that the right is given by the state. And if the state can give you the right to self defense, they can take that right away. In America they had the right concept, although they are losing the mindset. They believed anyone should be allowed to own guns unless they showed they were not to be trusted with them. (I pointed out that the UN does not believe self defense is a human right at all. Considering how anti-Israel the UN is, that is really not a good
combination). Zehut believes in planting in the Israeli mind the concept of true freedom. That everyone is responsible to defend their life, that of their family and the nation. Of course, there are those that oppose this. When I was in the Knesset I fought for more people to be allowed to carry. There were 150,000 people licensed to carry. But the Knesset wants to decrease that till terrorism decreases. You have the state as “Big Brother”.
What about the shooting in Hevron? (Sheila’s article on this incident) WHY is this soldier being prosecuted? Didn’t the fact that the video came from B’Tselem raise suspicions? This produced a wealth of information. This is so much more to this than a simple case of Katie Couric media malfeasance. I really think you should go read Moshe’s whole article on this topic, but here is what we covered.
Feiglin: This is a war of Israelis and Jews. It’s the soul of the Israeli, for what comes first, a concept of citizen or Jewish state. It’s been going on a long time. For the Israeli (in this comparison, sounds to me like your typical “enlightened” leftist who doesn’t have good sense about how this will play out) it’s the citizen, not Jewish state or identity. It was certainly evident when the Eichmann trial took place in Israel in 1961. A Jewish writer Hannah Arendt wrote a book, “Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,”with basically the premise that Eichmann was just there, wrong place, wrong time. Can’t blame him, can’t blame anyone but Hitler. Anyone would have acted the same. Apparently some Israeli “intellectuals”
felt the need to agree. This kind of thinking is evident in the IDF today. The former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon recently said that “If someone rises to kill you, kill him first” is not the IDF’s strategy. The Deputy Chief of Staff equated those who subscribe to that value with Nazis. He would rather lose soldiers who protect citizens than kill terrorists. There is no difference in the value of the life of a person just out doing their shopping and the terrorist that comes to kill them. Certainly had nothing to do with ideology, right? But yet today some Arabs want to kill any Jew, soldier, civilian, man, woman, child or baby, it doesn’t matter. It IS the ideology. When Arafat was sick in Ramallah I had a sign on my car that said Hurry up and kill him before he dies. For someone that had that much blood on his hands to die in his own time is immoral. For terrorists to go to trial is immoral. A healthy Jewish response is you kill the attackers. You kill the terrorists that have
declared their own war on Jews. After the soldier killed the terrorist, the stabbings stopped. He did more than all the speeches.
What about the Temple Mount, Har HaBeit? Why are the Israeli police so quick to remove Jews? One young boy was even recently removed not for saying anything but because he had tears in his eyes. And for those that wonder, yes I did express my opinion of Moshe Dayan’s decision.
Feiglin: It has to do with losing identity. We must let Jews have their identity on the Temple Mount. There are those replacing Jewish identity, and they fear what Israel will become with it’s Jewish identity. Arabs do not really have an identity so much as filled with hatred. It’s in their textbooks, their schools, mosques, social media and how they are raised. If Israel disappeared from the map, there would be no more “Palestinian”. Their reason for being would be gone. The first Zionists were colonialists from Europe, and they just wanted to be one big happy family. They didn’t understand the Arab mindset. Most Israelis are Jews first, Israeli second but they are being led by a minority that doesn’t have that mindset.
What about the Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) or as I call it (BS) movement? Has it had an effect? Is it just plain anti-Semitism in increments?
Feiglin: BDS is about the delegitimizing of Israel. When did the holocaust start? (He did ask me this, and I thought for a second and answered “the night Hitler was conceived”) That was the correct answer. When Hitler spoke again and again against the Jews it had it’s effect. In 1939 or 1940 when Jews ran to their neighbors to hide, they were killed. It was about eliminating the right of Jews to exist. Israel has to attack Iran, there is a real danger of Jewish history being written in Jerusalem. Not Warsaw. It’s needed to make a moral point. There is a correlation between the speeches made in Iran 12 ½ years ago by Ahmadinejad and the delegitimization of Israel, and it’s growing.
My last question to him “We’ve had a possible Kenyan as a president, at least someone not really raised as an American, I think we should try having an Israeli for a President, would you run?”
Feiglin: I’ve been asked about the current election. My answer is it doesn’t matter which one wins. If Israel will do what is best for Israel, then all will be better.
I started this interview by telling him that I felt like I cared more about Israeli lives than some Israeli politicians did.
After talking to him, I am quite certain that is not how it is when it comes to Mr. Feiglin. He has a very sound political platform based on a Jewish identity in THE Jewish state, living by Jewish laws and principles. Laws that will protect the innocent, laws that will allow every citizen living their daily lives be it in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Be’er Sheva, Judea and Samaria to know their lives are worth defending and giving them the means to do so. It will allow the IDF to return to being the fine army it was meant to be and not a social experiment.
Zehut is a party based on knowing who we are, and what we are, and where we belong. And embracing it!
Honestly, I think there is a lesson in this for Americans as well. Because I’m very, very tired of having values that the majority of U.S. believe in being derided and told “that’s not who we are”.
Yeah, it is. And as the politicians and their compatriots in the media crank up to hype another round of gun control tripe, we would do well to remember it. It makes me think so much of “You can live
by G-d’s law or die by man’s.
I want to thank three wonderful people, Aryeh Sonnenberg who is the international director of Zehut and so warmly welcomed me when I joined. He put me in touch with Shmuel Sackett (who I got to talk with on the phone, really) who set the meeting up with Moshe. Shmuel also writes excellent articles. And I very much want to thank Moshe Feiglin for giving me an hour of his very valuable limited time. And since I often like to close with a video, this one is perfect!
It appears that all the politicians are jumping on the idea of a no-buy list based on terrorist watch lists. It’s not merely a “bipartisan” enthusiasm for violating your rights, it’s downright nonpartisan.
Obama certainly loves him some no-buy, thinking anyone who disagrees with him must be crazy. Which could conveniently get them added to the standard prohibited person list for a NICS check.
Clinton, of course, has long been committed to the destruction of Second Amendment-protected rights, and sees this as another in a long line of rationalizations for victim disarmament.
Trump is not only embracing the no-process idea, he’s asking the NRA to join and help him. Perhaps he momentarily forgot he’s no longer a Democrat.
At any rate, I’m sure that staunch defender of RKBA, the NRA, will set Mr. Trump straight…
Um. Oh. Wait a minute.
But we can count on the Libertarian Party to speak up for human/civil rights, can’t we?
Maybe not. LP Presidential nominee Gary Johnson has gone from “No, it is unconstitutional to deny someone’s rights” to “Gov. Johnson believes Second Amendment rights are too fundamental to be denied without due process“, a position he reiterated on Fox News just minutes ago as I type: terrorist watch lists are flawed, include innocent people, and should be fixed before we use them to revoke rights forever. We should be open to a “discussion” of broadening the definition of a prohibited person. The nicest thing I can say about that shifting position is that it’s awfully wishy-washy for the party that holds that “all individuals are sovereign over their own lives and no one is forced to sacrifice his or her values for the benefit of others.” A more accurate summation is unprintable on this web site.
If all these principled and brilliant people think a no-buy list for terrorist suspects is a good idea, maybe we should look at it more closely. Could those flaws I see actually be features?
That’s going to be tough to say, because a no-buy list of terror suspects doesn’t yet exist. What’s been introduced in Congress will be debated, amended, and marked up in assorted committees. We’ll have to guess, based on what does exist.
The starting point is that persons in the Terrorism Screening Database would be added to the prohibited persons list under 922(t)(1)(B)(ii).
The TSB (“watch list”) consists of…
…pretty much anything someone wants it to be. Including wives found to be troublesome by disgruntled hubbies, not to mention the occasional senator, peace activist nun, lesbians, and Cats, toddlers, and House Representatives. Heck, Nelson Mandela was on the list.
Note that the bill would flag such threatening people in a NICS check. Sale denied.
Scenario 1: Joe Terrorist wonders if they’re on to him. He strolls into his local Black Rifles R Us and tries to buy heat-seeking–bullet-piercing-bullet bullet-hose of a weapon of mass destruction. He gets denied. Since he knows he has a clean criminal and mental health record — but also knows he’s a secret terrorist — he figures out the obvious and goes on the lam. So much for that investigation. I’m sure the FBI will be happy.
Hmm. Maybe they’ll amend that to allow the sale, but will immediately notify the FBI so they can go pick him up in a timely manner.
Scenario 2: Omar Asshole buys a gun, and a few days later, before the feds show up, he goes on his rampage. Whoops. I’m sure that’ll be noted in someone’s annual performance evaluation.
Scenario 3: Billy Bob Hunter gets a downcheck on NICS. While he’s scratching his head puzzlement, the feds come and drag him in for questioning. Probably because his name shared too many common letters with a suspected terrorist. Or was a small government advocate, peace activist, senator…
Remember: this is based on the same source used to assemble the no-fly list that has enabled the TSA to capture exactly zero terrorists in nearly fifteen years.
But don’t worry, Billy Bob. If you’ve incorrectly been denied, you can always appeal to correct the record. Someday. Maybe. In the interim, what’s a violation of basic human/civil rights compared to terrorism? That’s what DC congresscritters call “due process.”
Something else to remember: Roughly 95% of NICS denials are false positives. If you believe that adding a known-corrupted list to that broken system will make it work better, you’ve never had to work with a legacy computer system.
But let us pretend it all works.
Scenario 4: Syed Jihad suspects they’re on to him. Following the lead of the majority of firearm-toting criminals, he has someone else buy his gun for him, or gets it on the street. FBI becomes aware of him when turn they on cable news the next morning.
If we take Feinstein et al at their word that this terrorist addendum to the NICS check is to stop terrorists then the best case scenario is that 1) a known terrorist 2) consciously chooses to purchase his weaponry via an FFL, 3) actually gets flagged, and either 4) is then stupid enough to delay his attack long enough for the feds to get off their butts and investigate (this assumes the sale proceeds to avoid tipping off terror-boy), or 5) gets denied and yet doesn’t opt for another technique like mowing down pedestrians with his car on his way home from the gun store.
Feinstein and King would have you believe that their little attack on basic freedoms would have stopped the Orlando Asshole‘s attack…
…even though he had no criminal record, and was not on the watch list, and acted faster than do the feds typically investigate denials.
A buggy system? Only if stopping real terrorists is the purpose. On the other hand, a watch list that allows individual immigration officers to ban their wives from the country with a simple fake data entry is made to order for listing those pesky “Oath Keepers, Other Liberty Groups” and taking away their tools of liberty. Instant prohibited persons. Objecting to a congresscritter who doesn’t properly represent your pro-freedom views in DC might be enough to get listed. So much for those calls to contact your representatives.
Yes; those are features. If your goal is a totalitarian police state with no meaningful constitutional protections for the subjects. It looks like Feinstein has finally found a way to force Mr. and Mrs. America to turn them all in. By nonjudicial, bureaucratic decree. This time with at least the passive backing of the Republican and Libertarian Presidential candidates, and the National Rifle Association, along with the Democrats.
In the wake of Some Asshole murdering and wounding more than a hundred people, the Pope is blaming guns*, while Prezzie Barrycade is attributing the tendency to do horrific violence on information on the Internet.
So, you see, it wasn’t the fault of a sick, racist, homophobic, violent person. That “assault rifle” (which wasn’t) was browsing websites, got hypnotized by machines dispensing jihadi domestic rhetoric, loaded itself up, picked up a pistol, grabbed the car keys, and drove to the night club.
By that “logic,” they should have tried the machine guns, gas chambers, and ovens at Nuremberg.
As a nation, we’ve seriously lost our way. We used to understand that there are bad individuals who do bad things by choice. We held the people responsible for their actions. Not the inanimate objects, the tools.
Now, craven “leaders” would rather avoid alienating a potential voting block, and attack “access to guns” instead of a violent ideology. All in direct conflict with reality: The night club was a gun-free zone. The law-abiding patrons were disarmed for the convenience of the mass killer; something we’ve seen all too often.
If the Obamas and Francises of the world have their way, we’ll keep seeing it.
And the useful idiots like Takei, Cher, Rock, and Moore can pretend all they want. But some day, they’ll be forced to look back, and echo the words of an elderly German man, haunted by guilt, who told me:
“We knew. We told ourselves we didn’t know, because we didn’t want to know.
“But we knew.”
* I find Pope Francis’ opposition to access to arms sadly ironic, given his support of liberation theology.
It’s interesting to me, the more I study and the more I ask the more questions I end up having.
For instance, Judea and Samaria or “occupied territories”? Since I truly believe words matter I decided to do a little investigating.
So what all is in Judea and Samaria that might sound familiar if only vaguely? Well, first you might want to know that while the place remain the same, the names get changed.
A quick but by no means comprehensive list:
Palestine as a term for Israel. This was given by the Emperor Hadrian in around 135 A.D. after he put down the second Jewish rebellion under Bar Kochba. He most likely chose it because it was close to the ancient enemies of Israel, the Philistines who no longer existed at this time. As a by the by, the original Philistines were not Arabic, they were Europeans, from the Adriatic sea next to Greece. There is no “p” in the Arabic language. Why would you call yourself something for which there is no letter?
Shechem, now called Nablus by Arabs, is where Avraham and Sarah first entered the land of Canaan. When Jacob returned to Isaac and Rebecca from his uncle’s house, he settled his family there. Joseph is buried in Shechem. His tomb has been burned and ransacked by the pieceful palestinians. Historically, Avraham traveled through Shechem on his way to Canaan and here offered his first sacrifice to G-d. After the conquest of Canaan, Joshua assembled the Israelites here and encouraged them to follow the Mosaic laws. During the period of the Judges, Abimelech was crowned king here.
Biblical Shechem was destroyed by the Assyrians in the 8th century BCE.
Lots of Jewish history there for a town called Nabulus by the Arabs.
Nazareth? Arab town now, and thanks to Arab MK s Jews don’t feel so welcome there, but the Mayor of Nazareth doesn’t appreciate their influence.
So now let’s take a look at Judea and Samaria, or as called by the left and the “falestinians” (no “P” remember) the “West Bank” or “occupied territories”. You can find a more complete list of towns with familiar names here if you’re interested.
What’s there? Ariel University, for one thing. A lovely university! It has beautiful grounds and very clever students. To get there you will need to go through a checkpoint, and coming out? Oh yes, the same.
Because some of the Arab inhabitants have a nasty hobby of trying to kill Jews. I guess stamp collecting isn’t big in Arab villages there. The grounds are lovely, the Professors I met were very nice. Our hostess, a Professor is a wonderful person. I very much enjoyed visiting with her. The grounds were spectacular and she gives credit to the amazing gardener and his staff. The university is attended by Arabs and Jews. If you speak fluent Hebrew and want to teach engineering, you should take a look as well. But the leftist press would have you believe that Israel is oppressing the pieceful falestinians. No, they own land as well.
The difference is, you don’t see Jews normally carrying out stabbing attacks, on the falestinians. And the cases where Jewish youth were blamed for fires? The fires turned out to have been set by Arabs, knowing the world’s media would be more than happy to play the home version of the game “blame Israel.” If you want an idea of the attacks that take place weekly in Judea and Samaria you can find it (for this week) at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/en/article/21009 That so many of these attacks were planned and carried out by very young teenagers is terrifying. The women and children barry says we have no need to be afraid of a perfectly capable and willing to kill.
So the world and the UN tell us that the violence is the result of the pieceful falestinians frustration with the lack of “piece talks” and a “two state” solution. They don’t want a “two state” solution. They want a “one state” solution and that “one state” doesn’t involve a little thing called “Israel”. The Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, BDS, or as I call it BS? Interesting origins.
As to being “occupied”, according to this article, when there are more Israeli troops present, not only does it decrease attacks, it protects civilian women from being stabbed in the doorway of their homes in front of their children. The reasons for this success might surprise you, it may not work for the reasons you think. Israel does take their “purity of arms” code very seriously. It’s an interview with six current IDF Colonels. The sad irony of this is that the world then condemns Israel for having more troops there and urges them to remove them. Even though it will cost more lives, falestinians as well as Jewish. So it’s not really about being safe or saving lives, is it?
Here’s the thing people don’t understand, when they use terms like “occupied territories” or “West Bank” it lends credence to the anti-Antisemitism. How so? Because the pieceful falestinians claim Jews don’t belong there. But it’s not really about “where” the Jews are, it’s the fact there are Jews. An example of this was the recent rape of a 20 year old mentally disabled Jewish girl by 3 Arabs, 2 of them from Shomron. They also spit and urinated on her while shouting anti-Antisemitism threats to her and her family if she told. How so sure it was these pieceful falestinians? One of them filmed it. But this occurred in Tel Aviv. One of the rapists said she didn’t belong in his land. While Jerusalem is the capitol of Israel, the direction challenged US government claims Tel Aviv is. So even in the poorest scenario, Jews don’t belong in the Jewish capitol on the one Jewish state?
Words matter, they can give credence to Anti-Semitic hatred. The Arabs that hate Israel, and by all means, not all of them do, are certainly aware of this. We need to be as well and not play unwittingly into their very bloody hands.
The fact that there are major CHURCH denominations that have jumped on the BDS/BS bandwagon is unbelievable to me. Perhaps they need to go back and see where some of the major events took place in the book they share with the Jews. And then they should remember after Saturday? Comes Sunday. Useful idiots.
As to why live there, just enjoy the views.
There was recently an incident in Israel that has really sparked controversy. Two peaceful palestinian Arab terrorists approached and pounced on a young 20 year old soldier at the guard post adjacent to the Tel Rumeida neighborhood and both stabbed him. They were “neutralized”, not killed, but “neutralized”. One of them was wearing a heavy coat despite the warm weather. And what, oh what, dear sheepdogs would that make one think? Well, if this isn’t the first thing that goes across your radar, pieceful palestinians are known to enjoy detonating bombs and themselves. Heavy coats cover such things. The pieceful palestinian terrorist that had just stabbed a young soldier began moving and several bystanders began saying “watch out, he has a bomb”. In fact the military WAS worried he had a bomb and had already placed a call for the sappers who had not yet arrived.
Now, how did this get to be such a big deal? There are LOTS of terrorist stabbing attacks in Israel these days. Well, this one was filmed by the anti-Israel, anti-semitic leftist NGO B’Tselem. Interestingly, without sound. Equally interesting to me, is how B’Tselem has been reported to be at the site of several of these attacks to film them. But that’s just me. But since it was filmed without sound, you don’t hear the bystanders warning he’s moving and might have a bomb. A soldier shoots the terrorist in the head. There is another video,
Politicians, and very sadly to me, the upper echelon of the IDF were quick to pounce on the young soldier. B’Tselem had released their video and version of events to the media and rather than investigating, politicians do what politicians shouldn’t do before investigating, they open their mouths and crap pours out. The young soldier was initially charged with murder, that has been downgraded to manslaughter. And he is still in custody.
Would you like to know who is siding with the soldier? Magen David Adom , emergency medical services in Israel, has said their rules were followed by their personnel on the scene. Their rules state that their medical crew does NOT approach a wounded terrorist until it has been cleared by security forces. Originally someone in the IDF had said the terrorist had been checked and there was no bomb. If that is the case, no one seemed to know it. Not MDA, not the bystanders and not the soldiers or the young soldiers commander who has also said there were concerns. Who else? Ramle Mayor Yoel Lavi
“The strategic security establishment of the state of Israel is dealing with a large number of stabbings and car ramming attacks, and instead of giving the response they are passing off the judgement and responses to a lone soldier,” said Lavi. In his comments he noted how the government has not put down the Arab terror wave, and instead left soldiers to deal with the threat on an individual basis.Lavi told Arutz Sheva, “when you pass along the judgement from the Chief of Staff to a soldier, mishaps are liable to occur. They aren’t succeeding in dealing with the terror, and instead pounce on an outstanding soldier and place him in handcuffs.””Instead of embracing the soldiers they put them in handcuffs, that isn’t how an establishment that loves its soldiers acts. The soldiers are acting in a complicated reality and the commanders aren’t giving any response.”
Who else? A whole lot o’ ticked off Israelis that are very tired of going to the market and seeing 60 year old women stabbed, or young fathers trying to stop a stabber being killed. Some of these attackers are young girls and boys.
So why am I, here in America writing about it? I’ve been thinking about Sally’s story in A Walk On The Dark Side. How Sally felt so vulnerable walking to her car and the group that started smashing car windows just as she got there. There is a thin blue line here in America that is suppose to separate and protect the innocent in society. That line of protectors is something that is world wide. Well, mostly. In civilized countries anyway. But it seems that the protectors are under attack. In Israel where the IDF and innocent civilians are the target daily of pieceful palestinians the soldiers are tasked with protecting themselves, each other and civilians. In America the Police, Sheriffs office and Highway Patrol the same.
But it seems the world has lost sight of values and what is important. Just in the last few years we’ve seen more than once politicians open their yap with things like “The Police acted stupidly”. Really? Report of a burglary? The rush to condemn the officer in Ferguson who shot a thug who was charging him? Gov. Jay Nixon opening his yap with “Justice for __________”. The young thugs family went to the UN to demand justice. The UN is quick to condemn Israel when she defends herself and her citizens. Even senile old communist Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders lied in his lament about Israel killing 10,000 pieceful palestinians. Apparently “The Bern” is unaware they use schools and hospitals to launch rockets. I guess anyone who has heard his speeches promising free goodies to everyone is aware he can’t do math. In case you don’t know it, the IDF has a “Purity of Arms” code they have to abide by. This article does a really good job of explaining what that has got them at this point.
The UN and the politicians are so concerned about the rights of terrorists and thugs. I want to know who is concerned about the innocent people affected by these criminals? Who is concerned about the Fogel family asleep in their beds and slaughtered? Who is concerned about the baby who had it’s head smashed in with a rifle butt? The family out shopping or standing at a bus stop? Who is concerned about the people that go to work, take care of their lawn and their families and just want to live out their lives? Apparently not the politicians, the upper echelons of law enforcement or military or the UN. Why aren’t they?
There was already a lack of law enforcement available in Sally’s part of town, how will this work out when the continued focus is on protecting the criminal and good people don’t want any part of making law enforcement or the military a career? Why do the job when every day in addition to the dangers you face, you face the danger of becoming a scapegoat in some politically correct blame game when some ignorant politician opens it’s yap. Will there be a fatal hesitation introduced into the response by law enforcement or the military because of political correctness at the expense of their lives or the lives of the civilians they are charged with protecting?
In Israel there has been a public outcry in defense of the soldier. In America I haven’t seen so much of that in defense of our law enforcement. Perhaps we are now going to be in a position where we need to defend our protectors.
But what I really sorrow over? Is when and why did the focus leave the innocent to favor the guilty.
Dear Mr. Nugent,
You recently wrote a column advocating the elimination of Islam in which you addressed the danger of allowing political correctness to stop the fight against Islamic terror. You finished with: “Never invite rats, mice or cockroaches into your home. Kill them all before they even get close. Exterminate them. Then let freedom ring for decades to come.”
While you are correct that PC “thinking” shouldn’t get in the way of doing the right thing, your invective gives the impression that you’re also willing to chuck out morals and common decency.
You pay brief lip service to the — correct, or we’d have already lost to 1.6 billion psychotic terrorists across the globe — idea that not all Muslims practice or support terrorism. And then you launch into a tirade that suggests wiping them all out: “As in a city dump, the world is infested with rabid rats. There is no cure for them, no turning them into civilized people. They need to be wiped out along with their devilish ideology.”
Genocide. And all the more troubling that you, an honorary member of The Zelman Partisans, the no compromise, no surrender Jewish RKBA organization, would use that “rat” imagery to promote such acts. As I recall, the Nazis demonized Jews during the Holocaust by referring to them as rats to be exterminated.
Humans are not rats. We shouldn’t be exterminating one another en masse. If not for moral reasons, then certainly for the pragmatic choice to avoid dangerous precedent. As David Codrea notes, demonizing an entire ethnic group is dangerous; something that a good TZP member must surely realize.
Self defense against radical Islamic aggresssion is another matter. Protection of life against predators is precisely why The Zelman Partisans advocates, promotes, and supports an individual right to keep and bear arms. Yamamoto’s apocryphal gun behind every blade of grass will work as well against freelance terrorists and run-of-the-mill criminals as it does against organized aggressors.
You speak of not letting “rats” into your home, and specifically state they should be killed first. Historically disturbing imagery aside, there is some limited truth in that. Islam does have a problem with violence. It’s at the root of Islam (at least partly dreamed up to justify raiding neighboring tribes). It’s something to which other faith systems have also been susceptible. Leslie Fish explains it thusly:
Just What’s Wrong With Islamophobia?
But just what is it that makes Islam such a danger to the world? Yes, its holy-book is full of really vicious commandments and examples, but the assorted gods know, and any Atheist can tell you, that the world’s other religions — especially the monotheistic ones — have plenty of traditions and holy-books full of vicious exhortations and bloodthirsty history, so why don’t they act on them the way Muslims feel obliged to do? Perhaps the answer lies in the religion’s relative youth. Islam is 700 years younger than Christianity, and 2000 years younger than Judaism. It never went through 2000 years of being kicked around half the world, always a powerless minority, as Judaism did. It never went through the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the secular revolutions as Christianity and Judaism did. In short, it never learned to criticize its own holy-book, never learned to accept the eternal presence of successful unbelievers, and never got the fundamentalist arrogance largely kicked out of it.
Based on my limited personal experience, the hypothetical average Middle Eastern Muslim is stuck, intellectually speaking, in an anti-technology Middle Ages (ironically, since Arabs were once noted for the pursuit of knowledge a la Al Gebra). This makes the more credulous among them susceptible to jihadist manipulation. Allowing them to immigrate to a modern and open culture, and assimilate into that culture would do far more to speed them towards the 21st century and a mature “Islamic Reformation,” than confirming their Koran-based fears that outsiders are the enemy by trying to exterminate them all.
In our existing American legal structure, legal immigration is limited, and a known demographic group with a notable subset prone to violence should be screened for those individuals who are a danger to Americans. You clearly, as do I, consider Muslims a potential risk pool. I prefer screening to the closed immigration and extermination which you ironically give the appearance of advocating. Advocating closed borders while supporting an advocate of open immigration can give casual readers the impression that you haven’t thought this through; the NRA board member isn’t the only energetic supporter of open immigration. I admit to certain concerns of my own about those illegals, seeking handouts rather than a hand up, suddenly gaining the ability to vote for victim-disarming Democrats. (In my personal view, eliminating the handouts would go far towards discouraging leeches, while allowing in those who want a chance to improve their own lot; in such an event, truly open borders would become a good thing for America.)
It is not all Muslims conducting, nor even condoning, violence. It is individuals and specific groups of individuals. Even in the Crusades, it wasn’t every single Christian in the world actively and willingly supporting the wars. It is not in our best interest to dehumanize the entire Muslim population; that was Al Qaeda’s own tactic in rallying support against America, largely starting the current phase of violent jihadism.
The Nazis demonized Jews (and other groups) to coalesce support for the party.
Americans demonized Hispanics to begin the War on Drugs (marijuana).
Americans demonized Blacks for the sake of gun control (“n—-rtown
Saturday night specials;” the media then stripped out the n-part as
being too obvious).
Armed individuals should deal with violent individuals, and Islam must grow up so it learns to follow that example.
And you, Mr. Nugent, must set that example yourself in actions and in careful choice of your words.
As for those who won’t learn, and turn to violence to abuse Americans’ hospitality…
We still have the right to keep and bear arms.
This article presents the personal opinions of Carl Bussjaeger and does not necessarily represent the views of The Zelman Partisans.
While the main focus of The Zelman Partisans is the right to keep and bear arms from a Jewish perspective, sometimes we just have to look a little further. Catholic Pope Francis is dancing in the blood of Brussels.
Pope Washes Feet of Refugees, Blames Brussels on Arms Industry
“Three days ago, there was a gesture of war, of destruction, in a city of Europe by people who don’t want to live in peace,” he said.“Behind that gesture there were arms manufacturers, arms traffickers, who want blood, not peace, who want war, not brotherhood,” he said. (emphasis added-cb)
If I were still a practicing Catholic, I wouldn’t be anymore.
Oddly enough, I had the impression the Brussels attack was carried out by violent Islamic terrorists. Daesh certainly seems to think so. I stand corrected: It was Smith & Wesson, or something like that.
When did S&W, Ruger, Remington, or whoever go into the homemade TATP bomb business? It doesn’t seem like a profitable product, since it’s already easy to make from readily available precursors. And shipping it around the world is problematic, what with it being so unstable as to spontaneously detonate as it ages.
It’s true that there was an initial report of shots fired, and some sort of “Kalashnikov rifle” or two being found at the airport, but that seems to have been dropped from the narrative. For now, the reports of the airport and train station attacks are bombs only.
Homemade bombs.
While some may dispute it, the fact is that Francis is a socialist. And he’s simply using the Brussels horror as an — irrational — excuse to attack those “evil capitalists” selling stuff. Even when they weren’t involved. Francis’ embrace of socialism is more than a little ironic, since socialism tends to be hostile to other faiths.
Francis has abandoned his old Christian faith for one that conservatively killed more than 129 million people in less than a century. And here he is helping that along by deflecting blame for dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries, from the terrorists who did it, to his real enemy: capitalism.
And naturally, as a pacifist-leaning blood-dancer (except when it comes to protecting his butt), he chose weapons manufacturers as his particular bugaboo in this case because socialism needs its victims disarmed.
Sadly, many Jews have also fallen for socialism and victim disarmament.
The Zelman Partisans have not.
On November 13, 2015 a terrorist attack in Paris killed 130 people – 89 of them at the Bataclan concert hall where the band Eagles of Death Metal was performing that night.
The band felt it was a sacred duty to return to Paris and perform as a sign of defiance – not allowing “the bad guys to win.”
And while you may not be familiar with their music, or may not even like it all that much, Eagles of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes told French channel iTELE that firearms were the equalizer that day.
“Did your French gun control stop a single f****** person from dying at the Bataclan? And if anyone can answer yes, I’d like to hear it, because I don’t think so. I think the only thing that stopped it was some of the bravest men that I’ve ever seen in my life charging headfirst into the face of death with their firearms.”
The interview is below. You can watch the entire thing if you want.
