Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Black Youth Homicides On the Rise
Black Youth Homicide On the Rise
One good thing about niggers is that it's always the niggers that kill themselves. When they're not rambling on about how the big, bad white man is mistreating the poor little "cullud" folks or targeting whites, they'll turn on themselves. So to all niggers, keep buying your guns and drugs and continue to eradicate yourselves from this precious little planet so that it will saves us the time and effort of doing it ourselves for you.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of young black men and teenagers who either killed or were killed in shootings has risen at an alarming rate since 2000, a new study shows.
The study, to be released Monday by criminologists at Northeastern University in Boston, comes as FBI data is showing that murders have leveled off nationwide.
Not so for black teens, the youngest of whom saw dramatic increases in shooting deaths, the Northeastern report concluded.
Last year, for example, 426 black males between the ages of 14 and 17 were killed in gun crimes, the study shows. That marked a 40 percent increase from 2000.
Similarly, an estimated 964 in the same age group committed fatal shootings in 2007 _ a 38 percent increase from seven years earlier. The number of offenders is estimated because not all crimes are reported, said Northeastern criminologist James Alan Fox, who co-authored the study.
"Although the overall rate of homicide in the United States remains relatively low, the landscape is quite different for countless Americans living, and some dying, in violence-infested neighborhoods," Fox said.
Seizing on President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration as an opportunity for more funding, Fox added: "There is an urgency for reinvestment in children and families. In essence, we need a bailout for kids at risk."
Obama will be the nation's first black president.
The study partly blamed Bush administration grant cuts to local police and juvenile crime prevention programs for the surge in crimes by young black men and teens. Incoming Vice President Joe Biden has promised funding to put 50,000 new police officers on the street to help bring violent crime rates back to a decade-long annual decline that began in the mid-1990s, after then-President Bill Clinton provided local officials with money to hire 100,000 new cops.
Nationwide, the number of murders and violent crimes overall dropped last year after increasing in 2005 and 2006, according to annual data compiled by the FBI. Overall, however, murders have risen by about 8 percent between 2000 and 2007.
The FBI reported 10,067 arrests in murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases in 2007. Half of the people arrested _ 5,078 _ were black. Almost 10 percent of black people arrested for murder were under age 18, the FBI data show.
The number of young white men who committed gun-related homicides also rose over the same period, the Northeastern study showed, but not as dramatically. In 2007, an estimated 384 white males age 14 to 17 shot someone to death, up from 368 in 2000.
The numbers of homicides committed by women and teenage girls _ whether black or white _ were relatively few, the Northeastern study found.
(Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
One good thing about niggers is that it's always the niggers that kill themselves. When they're not rambling on about how the big, bad white man is mistreating the poor little "cullud" folks or targeting whites, they'll turn on themselves. So to all niggers, keep buying your guns and drugs and continue to eradicate yourselves from this precious little planet so that it will saves us the time and effort of doing it ourselves for you.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of young black men and teenagers who either killed or were killed in shootings has risen at an alarming rate since 2000, a new study shows.
The study, to be released Monday by criminologists at Northeastern University in Boston, comes as FBI data is showing that murders have leveled off nationwide.
Not so for black teens, the youngest of whom saw dramatic increases in shooting deaths, the Northeastern report concluded.
Last year, for example, 426 black males between the ages of 14 and 17 were killed in gun crimes, the study shows. That marked a 40 percent increase from 2000.
Similarly, an estimated 964 in the same age group committed fatal shootings in 2007 _ a 38 percent increase from seven years earlier. The number of offenders is estimated because not all crimes are reported, said Northeastern criminologist James Alan Fox, who co-authored the study.
"Although the overall rate of homicide in the United States remains relatively low, the landscape is quite different for countless Americans living, and some dying, in violence-infested neighborhoods," Fox said.
Seizing on President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration as an opportunity for more funding, Fox added: "There is an urgency for reinvestment in children and families. In essence, we need a bailout for kids at risk."
Obama will be the nation's first black president.
The study partly blamed Bush administration grant cuts to local police and juvenile crime prevention programs for the surge in crimes by young black men and teens. Incoming Vice President Joe Biden has promised funding to put 50,000 new police officers on the street to help bring violent crime rates back to a decade-long annual decline that began in the mid-1990s, after then-President Bill Clinton provided local officials with money to hire 100,000 new cops.
Nationwide, the number of murders and violent crimes overall dropped last year after increasing in 2005 and 2006, according to annual data compiled by the FBI. Overall, however, murders have risen by about 8 percent between 2000 and 2007.
The FBI reported 10,067 arrests in murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases in 2007. Half of the people arrested _ 5,078 _ were black. Almost 10 percent of black people arrested for murder were under age 18, the FBI data show.
The number of young white men who committed gun-related homicides also rose over the same period, the Northeastern study showed, but not as dramatically. In 2007, an estimated 384 white males age 14 to 17 shot someone to death, up from 368 in 2000.
The numbers of homicides committed by women and teenage girls _ whether black or white _ were relatively few, the Northeastern study found.
(Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Hamas Hits Israel with a Dozen Missles
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Palestinian militants sent a deadly barrage of missiles flying deep into Israel on Monday, demonstrating that Hamas still had firepower three days into Israel’s punishing air offensive in Gaza. Three Israelis were killed and two seriously wounded. Palestinian health officials put the three-day death toll in Gaza at 364; the U.N. said the total included at least 62 civilians.
In Monday’s attacks, Israel focused its bombing on the houses of Hamas field operatives in a campaign meant to tear at the roots of the extremist group ruling Gaza. Israel’s defense minister promised a “war to the bitter end against Hamas” and allied militants.
Intensified rocket strikes by Gaza militants, which triggered the Israeli offensive, have revealed the expanding range of missiles that are making larger cities farther inside Israel vulnerable.
In a barrage Monday night, a missile crashed into a bus stop in Ashdod, 23 miles from the Gaza Strip. A woman died and two others were wounded, one seriously — the first casualties in the city of 190,000 residents.
Another Israeli was killed and one seriously wounded by a rocket strike in the Negev desert community of Nahal Oz, closer to the Gaza border. Earlier, a missile killed a construction worker in the city of Ashkelon. In all, four Israelis were dead since the Gaza offensive began Saturday, bringing to 19 the number of people killed in attacks from Gaza since the beginning of the year.
The targets chosen by Israel on Monday pointed to an intention to chip away at Hamas’ foundation. Israeli aircraft staged five separate strikes on the houses of field operatives, though there was no confirmation that any of them were killed.
A grainy video taken by an Israeli drone airplane showed several men loading a pickup truck with what the Israeli military said were medium-range Grad rockets. Moments later, a big explosion from an Israeli missile strike envelops the image.
One Israeli attack targeted a house in the Jebaliya refugee camp, killing seven people, but the Hamas activist was not there, Hamas security and relatives said. Another hit the Jebaliya home of Abdel-Karim Jaber, a Hamas political figure who is a senior administrator at Gaza’s Islamic University. He was not at home and it wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the strike.
In another air assault, an Islamic Jihad commander was killed as he was walking near his house, said Abu Hamza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s military wing.
Israel’s airstrikes on more than 320 sites since midday Saturday reduced dozens of buildings to rubble, overwhelmed hospitals with wounded and filled Gaza’s deserted streets with smoke and fire. The military said Israeli naval vessels had also bombarded targets from the sea.
On Monday, aircraft pulverized a house next to the home of Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh, a security compound and a five-story building at a university closely linked to the Islamic group — all symbols of Hamas strength in the coastal territory it has ruled since June 2007.
Israel’s offensive has rattled the Middle East and capitals around the world, triggering street protests and fiery speeches by adversaries of Israel like the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. In the day’s biggest outpouring of anger, tens of thousands of Hezbollah’s supporters stood in a pouring rain in a Beirut square to condemn Israel.
Stone-throwing clashes broke out in about a half-dozen spots in the Palestinians’ West Bank territory as well as in several Arab-populated areas inside Israel. Israeli police and soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at rioting youths, but it did not appear anyone was injured.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel’s offensive as excessive and demanded an immediate cease-fire. He said key international and regional players — including foreign ministers of the Arab League nations holding an emergency meeting Wednesday — must “act swiftly and decisively to bring an early end to this impasse.”
The U.S. government said it was “vigorously engaged” in trying to restore a cease-fire.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe defended the Israeli response, but added that the Bush administration was urging Israel to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
With Israeli troops and tanks massing on the Gaza border, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told parliament he wanted to strike a devastating blow against Hamas. However, later he indicated a ground assault was not inevitable, issuing a warning that he was giving Hamas a last chance to halt its rocket fire.
Short of reoccupying Gaza, however, it was unlikely any amount of Israeli firepower could completely snuff out militant rocket attacks. Past operations all failed to do so.
The Cabinet’s decision over the weekend to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers could be a pressure tactic. Military experts noted no full combat units had been mobilized and said Israel would need at least 10,000 soldiers for a full-scale invasion.
For the first time, Israel also hit one of a series of tunnels prepared by Hamas along the border with Israel for use in attacks on invading ground troops, several Israeli TV networks said. One tunnel was packed with explosives and several militants inside were killed, Channel 1 said.
Most of those killed in three days of airstrikes were Hamas members. A Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussen, said 180 members of Hamas security forces were among the dead.
But the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees expressed concern about civilian casualties. A rise in civilian casualties could intensify international pressure on Israel to end the offensive.
In New York, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said his agency had not been able to determine a precise number of civilian casualties, but knew of at least 62 women and children killed. He said 1,400 people had been injured.
Eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes Sunday night, Palestinian medics said.
Holmes said he was very worried about a shortage of humanitarian supplies in Gaza.
“Because of the effective blockade that’s been in place for many months now, and because of the increasing tightening of this blockade in recent weeks around Gaza, stocks of vital items are either very low or nonexistent, and that’s particularly the case, for example, with wheat flour,” he said.
Israel opened one of Gaza’s border crossings Monday to allow several ambulances and 62 trucks carrying medical supplies and food to cross.
“Obviously these supplies are better than nothing, but they remain wholly inadequate,” Holmes said, saying that his agency needed 100 truckloads of flour every day to meet needs.
In Gaza, some families left their apartments next to institutions linked to Hamas, fearing they could be targeted. Suad Abu Wadi, 42, kept her six children close to her on mattresses in her Gaza City living room. Her husband sat with them, chain-smoking. Abu Wadi said he had not said a word since seeing their neighbor carrying the body of his child, killed in an airstrike Saturday.
Gaza’s nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said 364 Palestinians had died and more than 1,400 wounded. Some of the injured were being taken to private clinics and even homes, he said.
Egyptian officials said ambulances were ferrying wounded Gazans to hospitals in Egypt from Gaza’s Rafah border crossing. Tariq al-Mahlawi, Egypt’s deputy health minister, said 32 patients had been brought in by nightfall and that 500 beds were ready to treat Palestinians.
Around mid-afternoon, ambulances ferried the wounded from Gaza toward the crossing in the border town of Rafah, where over a dozen Egyptian ambulances waited to take over the casualties.
Despite Israel’s battering attacks, sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day as more than 40 rockets and mortar rounds rained down.
Israeli security officials warned that the militants’ rockets are powerful enough now to reach Beersheba, a major city 30 miles from Gaza.
Mazal Ivgi, a 62-year-old resident of Beersheba, said she had prepared a bomb shelter. “In the meantime we don’t really believe it’s going to happen, but when the first boom comes people will be worried,” she said.
In Monday’s attacks, Israel focused its bombing on the houses of Hamas field operatives in a campaign meant to tear at the roots of the extremist group ruling Gaza. Israel’s defense minister promised a “war to the bitter end against Hamas” and allied militants.
Intensified rocket strikes by Gaza militants, which triggered the Israeli offensive, have revealed the expanding range of missiles that are making larger cities farther inside Israel vulnerable.
In a barrage Monday night, a missile crashed into a bus stop in Ashdod, 23 miles from the Gaza Strip. A woman died and two others were wounded, one seriously — the first casualties in the city of 190,000 residents.
Another Israeli was killed and one seriously wounded by a rocket strike in the Negev desert community of Nahal Oz, closer to the Gaza border. Earlier, a missile killed a construction worker in the city of Ashkelon. In all, four Israelis were dead since the Gaza offensive began Saturday, bringing to 19 the number of people killed in attacks from Gaza since the beginning of the year.
The targets chosen by Israel on Monday pointed to an intention to chip away at Hamas’ foundation. Israeli aircraft staged five separate strikes on the houses of field operatives, though there was no confirmation that any of them were killed.
A grainy video taken by an Israeli drone airplane showed several men loading a pickup truck with what the Israeli military said were medium-range Grad rockets. Moments later, a big explosion from an Israeli missile strike envelops the image.
One Israeli attack targeted a house in the Jebaliya refugee camp, killing seven people, but the Hamas activist was not there, Hamas security and relatives said. Another hit the Jebaliya home of Abdel-Karim Jaber, a Hamas political figure who is a senior administrator at Gaza’s Islamic University. He was not at home and it wasn’t immediately clear if anyone was hurt in the strike.
In another air assault, an Islamic Jihad commander was killed as he was walking near his house, said Abu Hamza, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s military wing.
Israel’s airstrikes on more than 320 sites since midday Saturday reduced dozens of buildings to rubble, overwhelmed hospitals with wounded and filled Gaza’s deserted streets with smoke and fire. The military said Israeli naval vessels had also bombarded targets from the sea.
On Monday, aircraft pulverized a house next to the home of Hamas Premier Ismail Haniyeh, a security compound and a five-story building at a university closely linked to the Islamic group — all symbols of Hamas strength in the coastal territory it has ruled since June 2007.
Israel’s offensive has rattled the Middle East and capitals around the world, triggering street protests and fiery speeches by adversaries of Israel like the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. In the day’s biggest outpouring of anger, tens of thousands of Hezbollah’s supporters stood in a pouring rain in a Beirut square to condemn Israel.
Stone-throwing clashes broke out in about a half-dozen spots in the Palestinians’ West Bank territory as well as in several Arab-populated areas inside Israel. Israeli police and soldiers fired rubber bullets and tear gas at rioting youths, but it did not appear anyone was injured.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel’s offensive as excessive and demanded an immediate cease-fire. He said key international and regional players — including foreign ministers of the Arab League nations holding an emergency meeting Wednesday — must “act swiftly and decisively to bring an early end to this impasse.”
The U.S. government said it was “vigorously engaged” in trying to restore a cease-fire.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe defended the Israeli response, but added that the Bush administration was urging Israel to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
With Israeli troops and tanks massing on the Gaza border, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told parliament he wanted to strike a devastating blow against Hamas. However, later he indicated a ground assault was not inevitable, issuing a warning that he was giving Hamas a last chance to halt its rocket fire.
Short of reoccupying Gaza, however, it was unlikely any amount of Israeli firepower could completely snuff out militant rocket attacks. Past operations all failed to do so.
The Cabinet’s decision over the weekend to call up 6,500 reserve soldiers could be a pressure tactic. Military experts noted no full combat units had been mobilized and said Israel would need at least 10,000 soldiers for a full-scale invasion.
For the first time, Israel also hit one of a series of tunnels prepared by Hamas along the border with Israel for use in attacks on invading ground troops, several Israeli TV networks said. One tunnel was packed with explosives and several militants inside were killed, Channel 1 said.
Most of those killed in three days of airstrikes were Hamas members. A Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussen, said 180 members of Hamas security forces were among the dead.
But the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees expressed concern about civilian casualties. A rise in civilian casualties could intensify international pressure on Israel to end the offensive.
In New York, U.N. humanitarian chief John Holmes said his agency had not been able to determine a precise number of civilian casualties, but knew of at least 62 women and children killed. He said 1,400 people had been injured.
Eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes Sunday night, Palestinian medics said.
Holmes said he was very worried about a shortage of humanitarian supplies in Gaza.
“Because of the effective blockade that’s been in place for many months now, and because of the increasing tightening of this blockade in recent weeks around Gaza, stocks of vital items are either very low or nonexistent, and that’s particularly the case, for example, with wheat flour,” he said.
Israel opened one of Gaza’s border crossings Monday to allow several ambulances and 62 trucks carrying medical supplies and food to cross.
“Obviously these supplies are better than nothing, but they remain wholly inadequate,” Holmes said, saying that his agency needed 100 truckloads of flour every day to meet needs.
In Gaza, some families left their apartments next to institutions linked to Hamas, fearing they could be targeted. Suad Abu Wadi, 42, kept her six children close to her on mattresses in her Gaza City living room. Her husband sat with them, chain-smoking. Abu Wadi said he had not said a word since seeing their neighbor carrying the body of his child, killed in an airstrike Saturday.
Gaza’s nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said 364 Palestinians had died and more than 1,400 wounded. Some of the injured were being taken to private clinics and even homes, he said.
Egyptian officials said ambulances were ferrying wounded Gazans to hospitals in Egypt from Gaza’s Rafah border crossing. Tariq al-Mahlawi, Egypt’s deputy health minister, said 32 patients had been brought in by nightfall and that 500 beds were ready to treat Palestinians.
Around mid-afternoon, ambulances ferried the wounded from Gaza toward the crossing in the border town of Rafah, where over a dozen Egyptian ambulances waited to take over the casualties.
Despite Israel’s battering attacks, sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day as more than 40 rockets and mortar rounds rained down.
Israeli security officials warned that the militants’ rockets are powerful enough now to reach Beersheba, a major city 30 miles from Gaza.
Mazal Ivgi, a 62-year-old resident of Beersheba, said she had prepared a bomb shelter. “In the meantime we don’t really believe it’s going to happen, but when the first boom comes people will be worried,” she said.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Israel Calls Gaza Assault "War to the Bitter End"
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israel obliterated symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what the defense minister described Monday as a "war to the bitter end," striking next to the Hamas premier's home, and devastating a security compound and a university building.
The three-day death toll rose to at least 315 by Monday morning, with some 1,400 wounded. The U.N. said at least 51 of the dead were civilians, and medics said eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate strikes overnight. Israel launched its campaign, the deadliest against Palestinians in decades, on Saturday in retaliation for rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns.
Since then, the number of Israeli troops on the Gaza border has doubled and the Cabinet approved the call-up of 6,500 reserve soldiers.
The strikes have driven Hamas leaders into hiding and appear to have gravely damaged the organization's ability to launch rockets, but barrages continued. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day.
One medium-range rocket fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon killed an Arab construction worker there Monday and wounded several others. He was the second Israeli killed since the beginning of the offensive.
On Sunday, Hamas missiles struck for the first time near the city of Ashdod, only 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Israel's heart in Tel Aviv. Hamas leaders have also threatened to renew suicide attacks inside Israel.
At first light Monday, strong winds blew black smoke from the bombed sites over Gaza City's deserted streets. The air hummed with the buzz of drone aircraft and the roar of jets, punctuated by airstrike explosions. Palestinian health officials said one strike killed four Islamic Jihad militants and a child.
Some Palestinians ventured outside for mourning. In northern Gaza, a father lifted the body of his 4-year-old during a funeral Monday for five children from the same family killed in an Israeli missile strike.
On Monday, the White House released a statement saying "in order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable cease-fire."
But in Damascus, Syria, a senior exiled Hamas official said there can be no talk of a truce with Israel until the assault ends and Israel reopens the Gaza crossings.
"We need our liberty, we need our freedom and we need to be independent. If we don't accomplish this objective, then we have to resist. This is our right," the official, Abu Marzouk, told The Associated Press in an English-language interview.
A a six-month truce between Hamas and Israeli expired earlier this month, but Hamas refused to extend it.
Most of those killed since Saturday were members of Hamas security forces, though the precise numbers remain unclear. A Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussen, said 180 members of the Hamas security forces were among the dead, and the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees said at least 51 of the dead were civilians. A rise in civilian casualties could intensify international pressure on Israel to end the offensive.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, told parliament Israel was not fighting the residents of Gaza. "But we have a war to the bitter end against Hamas and its branches," he said. Barak said the goal is to deal Hamas a "severe blow" and that the operation would be "widened and deepened as needed."
Israel's intense bombings — more than 300 airstrikes since midday Saturday — reduced dozens of buildings to rubble. The military said naval vessels also bombarded targets from the sea.
One strike destroyed a five-story building in the women's wing at Islamic University, one of the most prominent Hamas symbols in Gaza. Other attacks ravaged a compound controlled by Preventive Security, one of the group's chief security arms, and destroyed a house next to the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister.
Late Sunday, Israeli aircraft attacked a building in the Jebaliya refugee camp next to Gaza City, killing five children and teenagers under age 17 from the same family, Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. In the southern town of Rafah, a toddler and his two teenage brothers were killed in an airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander, Hassanain said. In Gaza City, another attack killed two women.
Some families fled their apartments next to institutions linked to Hamas.
Suad Abu Wadi, 42, kept her six children close on mattresses in her Gaza City living room. Her husband sat with them, chain-smoking. Abu Wadi said he said nothing since seeing their neighbor carrying the body of his child, killed in an airstrike Saturday.
Gaza's nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said that some of the over 1,400 wounded were now being taken to private clinics and even homes.
Abdel Hafez, a 55-year-old history teacher, waited outside a Gaza City bakery to buy bread. He said he was not a Hamas supporter but believed the strikes would only increase support for the group. "Each strike, each drop of blood are giving Hamas more fuel to continue," he said.
In Israel, 17 people have been killed in attacks from Gaza since the beginning of the year, including nine civilians — six of them killed by rockets — and eight soldiers, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry.
Israeli security officials have warned that the militants' range now includes Beersheba, a major city 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Gaza. Resident Mazal Ivgi, 62, said she had prepared a bomb shelter. "In the meantime we don't really believe it's going to happen, but when the first boom comes people will be worried," she said.
Israel began Saturday's assault by targeting Hamas security installations, and has broadened the attacks since then. On Sunday planes struck dozens of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, cutting off a key lifeline that had supplied Hamas with weapons and Gaza with commercial goods.
In Jerusalem, Israel's Cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reserve soldiers Sunday in apparent preparation for a ground offensive. The final decision to call up reserves has yet to be made by the defense minister, and the Cabinet decision could be a pressure tactic. Military experts said Israel would need at least 10,000 soldiers for a full-scale invasion.
The assault has sparked diplomatic fallout. Syria decided to suspend indirect peace talks with Israel, and the U.N. Security Council called on both sides to halt the fighting and asked Israel to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza. Israel opened one of Gaza's border crossings Monday, and about 40 trucks had entered with food and medical supplies by midday, military spokesman Peter Lerner said.
Egypt also opened its borders to Gaza and allowed trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to enter the Rafah terminal Monday. It was also taking in wounded Palestinians from Gaza, with more than a dozen Egyptian ambulances waiting at the crossing.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who heads a moderate government in the West Bank and is holding peace talks with Israel, issued his strongest condemnation yet of the operation, calling it a "sweeping Israeli aggression against Gaza" and saying he would consult with his bitter rivals in Hamas in an effort to end it.
Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters Monday, while "Hamas is looking for children to kill."
"Hamas is targeting deliberately kindergartens and schools and citizens and civilians because this is according to their values. Our values are completely different. We are trying to target Hamas, which hides among civilians," Livni said.
The carnage inflamed Arab and Muslim public opinion, setting off street protests in Arab communities in Israel and the West Bank, across the Arab world, and in some European cities.
On Monday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded four Israelis in a West Bank settlement before he was shot and wounded. It was not immediately clear if the attack was directly connected to the events in Gaza.
In Iraq, about 1,000 backers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr staged a protest Monday in Baghdad demanding Israel immediately stop its air assault. The political party of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attacks and called on Islamic countries to cut relations with Israel.
___
Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Ashkelon, Matti Friedman in Jerusalem and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
The three-day death toll rose to at least 315 by Monday morning, with some 1,400 wounded. The U.N. said at least 51 of the dead were civilians, and medics said eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate strikes overnight. Israel launched its campaign, the deadliest against Palestinians in decades, on Saturday in retaliation for rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns.
Since then, the number of Israeli troops on the Gaza border has doubled and the Cabinet approved the call-up of 6,500 reserve soldiers.
The strikes have driven Hamas leaders into hiding and appear to have gravely damaged the organization's ability to launch rockets, but barrages continued. Sirens warning of incoming rockets sent Israelis scrambling for cover throughout the day.
One medium-range rocket fired at the Israeli city of Ashkelon killed an Arab construction worker there Monday and wounded several others. He was the second Israeli killed since the beginning of the offensive.
On Sunday, Hamas missiles struck for the first time near the city of Ashdod, only 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Israel's heart in Tel Aviv. Hamas leaders have also threatened to renew suicide attacks inside Israel.
At first light Monday, strong winds blew black smoke from the bombed sites over Gaza City's deserted streets. The air hummed with the buzz of drone aircraft and the roar of jets, punctuated by airstrike explosions. Palestinian health officials said one strike killed four Islamic Jihad militants and a child.
Some Palestinians ventured outside for mourning. In northern Gaza, a father lifted the body of his 4-year-old during a funeral Monday for five children from the same family killed in an Israeli missile strike.
On Monday, the White House released a statement saying "in order for the violence to stop, Hamas must stop firing rockets into Israel and agree to respect a sustainable and durable cease-fire."
But in Damascus, Syria, a senior exiled Hamas official said there can be no talk of a truce with Israel until the assault ends and Israel reopens the Gaza crossings.
"We need our liberty, we need our freedom and we need to be independent. If we don't accomplish this objective, then we have to resist. This is our right," the official, Abu Marzouk, told The Associated Press in an English-language interview.
A a six-month truce between Hamas and Israeli expired earlier this month, but Hamas refused to extend it.
Most of those killed since Saturday were members of Hamas security forces, though the precise numbers remain unclear. A Hamas police spokesman, Ehab Ghussen, said 180 members of the Hamas security forces were among the dead, and the U.N. agency in charge of Palestinian refugees said at least 51 of the dead were civilians. A rise in civilian casualties could intensify international pressure on Israel to end the offensive.
Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, told parliament Israel was not fighting the residents of Gaza. "But we have a war to the bitter end against Hamas and its branches," he said. Barak said the goal is to deal Hamas a "severe blow" and that the operation would be "widened and deepened as needed."
Israel's intense bombings — more than 300 airstrikes since midday Saturday — reduced dozens of buildings to rubble. The military said naval vessels also bombarded targets from the sea.
One strike destroyed a five-story building in the women's wing at Islamic University, one of the most prominent Hamas symbols in Gaza. Other attacks ravaged a compound controlled by Preventive Security, one of the group's chief security arms, and destroyed a house next to the residence of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister.
Late Sunday, Israeli aircraft attacked a building in the Jebaliya refugee camp next to Gaza City, killing five children and teenagers under age 17 from the same family, Gaza Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. In the southern town of Rafah, a toddler and his two teenage brothers were killed in an airstrike aimed at a Hamas commander, Hassanain said. In Gaza City, another attack killed two women.
Some families fled their apartments next to institutions linked to Hamas.
Suad Abu Wadi, 42, kept her six children close on mattresses in her Gaza City living room. Her husband sat with them, chain-smoking. Abu Wadi said he said nothing since seeing their neighbor carrying the body of his child, killed in an airstrike Saturday.
Gaza's nine hospitals were overwhelmed. Hassanain, who keeps a record for the Gaza Health Ministry, said that some of the over 1,400 wounded were now being taken to private clinics and even homes.
Abdel Hafez, a 55-year-old history teacher, waited outside a Gaza City bakery to buy bread. He said he was not a Hamas supporter but believed the strikes would only increase support for the group. "Each strike, each drop of blood are giving Hamas more fuel to continue," he said.
In Israel, 17 people have been killed in attacks from Gaza since the beginning of the year, including nine civilians — six of them killed by rockets — and eight soldiers, according to Israel's Foreign Ministry.
Israeli security officials have warned that the militants' range now includes Beersheba, a major city 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Gaza. Resident Mazal Ivgi, 62, said she had prepared a bomb shelter. "In the meantime we don't really believe it's going to happen, but when the first boom comes people will be worried," she said.
Israel began Saturday's assault by targeting Hamas security installations, and has broadened the attacks since then. On Sunday planes struck dozens of smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border, cutting off a key lifeline that had supplied Hamas with weapons and Gaza with commercial goods.
In Jerusalem, Israel's Cabinet approved a call-up of 6,500 reserve soldiers Sunday in apparent preparation for a ground offensive. The final decision to call up reserves has yet to be made by the defense minister, and the Cabinet decision could be a pressure tactic. Military experts said Israel would need at least 10,000 soldiers for a full-scale invasion.
The assault has sparked diplomatic fallout. Syria decided to suspend indirect peace talks with Israel, and the U.N. Security Council called on both sides to halt the fighting and asked Israel to allow humanitarian supplies into Gaza. Israel opened one of Gaza's border crossings Monday, and about 40 trucks had entered with food and medical supplies by midday, military spokesman Peter Lerner said.
Egypt also opened its borders to Gaza and allowed trucks loaded with humanitarian aid to enter the Rafah terminal Monday. It was also taking in wounded Palestinians from Gaza, with more than a dozen Egyptian ambulances waiting at the crossing.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, who heads a moderate government in the West Bank and is holding peace talks with Israel, issued his strongest condemnation yet of the operation, calling it a "sweeping Israeli aggression against Gaza" and saying he would consult with his bitter rivals in Hamas in an effort to end it.
Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told reporters Monday, while "Hamas is looking for children to kill."
"Hamas is targeting deliberately kindergartens and schools and citizens and civilians because this is according to their values. Our values are completely different. We are trying to target Hamas, which hides among civilians," Livni said.
The carnage inflamed Arab and Muslim public opinion, setting off street protests in Arab communities in Israel and the West Bank, across the Arab world, and in some European cities.
On Monday, a Palestinian stabbed and wounded four Israelis in a West Bank settlement before he was shot and wounded. It was not immediately clear if the attack was directly connected to the events in Gaza.
In Iraq, about 1,000 backers of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr staged a protest Monday in Baghdad demanding Israel immediately stop its air assault. The political party of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned the attacks and called on Islamic countries to cut relations with Israel.
___
Associated Press writers Aron Heller in Ashkelon, Matti Friedman in Jerusalem and Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Judaism and Pedophilia
.
Pedophilia ‘Rampant’ In Orthodox Judaism
By Rev. Ted Pike
From its founding by the ancient Pharisees and still today, Orthodox Judaism is Judaism. [1] The state of Israel officially endorses Orthodoxy. For 2,000 years—since before such relatively recent variants as Conservative and Reform Judaism branched off—Talmud-believing Orthodox Judaism has been the spiritual center of gravity of the Jewish people. [2]
Now the Associated Press reports that the Orthodox Jewish community struggles to contain what has been a closely guarded secret: pedophilia. [3] AP says that, especially in areas most populated by Orthodox Jews (such as New York where 37 percent of Jews are Orthodox), widespread sexual molestation of children can no longer be denied. Yet “initiatives encouraging victims to come forward or offering support for those claiming they were molested encounter strong opposition, lead to death-threats in the Jewish community…”
In a previous e-alert, “Pedophilia: Thriving in Judaism’s Right Wing” [4], I related how an Orthodox Jew, Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn assemblyman, is attempting to address what AP calls “a taboo subject” among the Orthodox.
Since Hikind broached the subject on his radio show this summer, “dozens of people have come forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community which strictly follows Jewish law…Dov Hikind says as many as four people a day have come to him over the past three months with painful accounts of secrets often kept for decades, accusing more than sixty individuals.”
Yet the assemblyman and radio host faces increasing opposition from many Orthodox Jews who practice pedophilia, condone it, or look the other way. “His campaign has set off a firestorm in the Orthodox community, where people are reluctant to involve secular authorities. One rabbi said he got death threats for speaking out.” Hikind said:”In our community, people don’t talk about the things they’ve come to my office and revealed.” He said he encourages people who confide in him to talk to Jewish authorities. But none will, he said, for fear of ostracism.
“One rabbi and psychologist told Jewish media outlets he was hounded into quitting a task force on child molestation days after Hikind appointed him to lead it…Another New York rabbi told the Daily News this month that vicious fliers and death threat calls scared him into shutting down a sex abuse victims hot-line he had set up.”
Six former students are suing an Orthodox school in New York for allegedly covering up the abuse of Rabbi Yehuda Kolkol, charged with sexually molesting boys. He pled guilty to a lesser charge and was put on probation. Hikind has been subpoenaed to testify as to further evidence against Kolkol or other school staffers. [5] Michael Daud, lawyer for the six students, won $11.4 million in damages against a Catholic youth minister who raped two teens on Long Island. With an initial 60 cases of pedophilia emerging, Daud could win similar restitution through judgments against persons in the wealthy Brooklyn Orthodox community.
Why Do They Do It?
Actually, the existence of pedophilia is not Orthodoxy’s best kept secret. What truly cannot be uttered by the Jewish community or media worldwide is that the Talmud, Judaism’s highest legal authority, encourages pedophilia. If this fact became widely known, it could destroy Judaism as one of the world’s great religions. It would confirm millennia of “anti-Semitic” accusations (beginning with Jesus’ incendiary attacks on the Pharisees) that pharisaic Judaism is based on gutter values.
In my article “Pedophilia: the Talmud’s Dirty Secret” [6] I document that the greatest Talmudic sages repeatedly upheld the right of Jewish men to marry 3-year-old baby girls by having sex with them. The more Orthodox Judaism is, the more literally it follows every dictum of such rabbinic authorities. Shockingly, one of the most revered rabbis of the Talmud, Simeon ben Yohai, asserts “that a proselyte under the age of three years and one day may be married to a priest.” [7]
The Talmud says ben Yohai’s endorsement of pedophilia is “halachah,” binding Jewish law (Yebamoth 60b).
Pedophilia in Israel Today
In a related story, YnetNews.com says that in Israel, “in spite of efforts by welfare officials, local rabbis, state authorities are unable to curb rampant child abuse in ultra-Orthodox families.”
It says there emerges “One harrowing case after another, yet welfare officials stand by helpless: faced with a string of heart-wrenching cases of child abuse in the haredi [ultra-Orthodox]…”
“One recent disturbing case, for instance, in which a Netivot mother had sexually abused her son, only came to light when the son began attending boarding school and molested a fellow pupil. The social workers who handled his case quickly realized that the child had no idea that what he had done was wrong.” [8]
Incredibly, this, too, is sanctioned by the Talmud. In my article “Judaism and Homosexuality: A Marriage Made in Hell” [9], I document the Talmud’s repeated permission for women to have sex with boys under age nine. It says such relations are non-sexual and without moral implications. Sanhedrin 69b asserts that “if a woman sported lewdly with her young son [a minor], and he committed the first stage of cohabitation with her [penetration],” –the rabbinic school of the great Hillel (namesake of New York’s Jewish Hillel Theological Seminary) declared her “fit for the priesthood” (Sanhedrin 69b).
The Talmud gives the clear impression that boys under age nine are fair game for sexual predation by women and even men. Such passages are not obscure, infrequent, or difficult to find. They are readily encountered in perusal of Talmudic treatises Kethuboth, Yebamoth, and Sanhedrin.
The extreme devotion of Orthodox Jews to obedience to every jot and tittle of the Talmud powerfully inclines us to suspect that Talmudic sanction of pedophilia may underlie the problem of pedophilia in Judaism today.
Is There a Solution?
What can be done? Unlike pedophilia among Catholic priests—which largely results from unnatural repression of human need and is sternly disapproved by the Catholic Church—pedophilia in Judaism enjoys frequent, conspicuous, and enthusiastic support from Judaism’s greatest authority, the Talmud. No rabbinate would dare excise its pro-pedophilia passages. These shocking dictums are inextricably linked not only to the infinitely complex and tortuous legal arguments of Talmudic rabbis but also to the authority of its greatest sages. Every year in Israel, tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews gather in Meron, the birthplace of Simeon ben Yohai, to feast, dance and sing for three days in honor of his memory. Yet as I stated earlier, ben Yohai is the Talmud’s most influential promoter of pedophilia!
The rapidly growing power of ultra-Orthodox in Israel makes it unlikely that they will be lectured out of indulgence in pedophilia. Jewish social reformers and welfare workers confirm the difficulty, even physical danger, of such a task. Orthodox Judaism is now ascendant in its legalistic rectitude after two centuries of permissive Jewish religious experimentation (which they claim has resulted in worldliness and assimilation); its leaders are in no mood to weaken Talmudic authority.
More than 2,000 years ago, pedophilia was encouraged by the Pharisaic school of Hillel. It will be around for a long time to come. It is part of that state of “all uncleanness” that Christ said is intrinsic to Pharisaism (Matt. 23:27). It will endure until that day when Christ at last obtains a pure and repentant remnant of believing Jews out of the destruction of “the great harlot,” international Jewish control (Rev. 18). Then, Scripture promises, He “will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion” (Is.4:4).
Until that time, the prophet Isaiah still cries out from God, “Oh my people, they which lead thee, cause thee to err…” (Isaiah 3:12) Endnotes:
1. “The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent without a break through all the centuries from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single piece of that literature… and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism.” (The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Judaism, p. 474.)
2. Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Judaism, especially in New York and Israel, is commonly referred to as “Orthodox” by the Jewish community.
3. “US Child Sex Abuse Claims Divide Orthodox Community,” www.ynetnews.com, Nov. 24, 2008.
4. “Pedophilia: Thriving in Judaism’s Right Wing,” www.truthtellers.org, Oct. 23, 2008
5. Hikind’s response to Orthodox child abuse elicits sharp criticism from a former Orthodox Jew. Failed Messiah is written by ex-observantly Orthodox Jew Shmarya Rosenberg; his blog has made him one of Forward’s top 50 most influential Jews of 2008. Rosenberg began his blog as an observant Orthodox Jew but when his criticisms of Orthodox criminal activity “got him into hot water with the local Orthodox Jewish community, Rosenberg chose his blog and left his observance behind.” His index of blog posts includes over 700 entries about Orthodox crime.
In his blog, Rosenberg summarizes shocking research on rabbinic sexual abuse of children. He provides links to the case of an “alleged haredi child rapist [Avrohom Mondrowitz]“ who “fled the US for Israel at the urging of haredi leaders as he was being indicted for raping young boys. He lived safely in Jerusalem for over 20 years, under the protection of the Ger Hasidic community and its rebbes…”
Regarding the Kolko case, Rosenberg criticizes Hikind for wanting Brooklyn rabbis to deal with the problem and vowing to face jail rather than divulge victims’ names. “Many of these same rabbis have known about some of this evidence for years. Indeed, some of them have actively covered it up. Hikind is, in effect, asking criminals to help him protect the victims they hurt,” says Rosenberg.
He is also critical because Hikind wants rapists, “who are often rabbis, rebbes, and yeshiva teachers,” penalized by the religious community not the secular criminal justice system. “This means no sex offender registry for Hikind’s abusers. No closely supervised release. No sharing of information across neighborhoods and across countries. An abuser can simply skip Brooklyn for Israel (or for St. Louis, for that matter) and start abusing all over again.”
Rosenberg says Hikind’s reluctance to submit Jewish rapists to secular authority is horrifying. A child abuser may be set aside as psychopathic, conscience-dead, or a victim of abuse himself. But Hikind, according to Rosenberg, as a New York assemblyman, talk radio host, father, and leader in the Orthodox community, is not living up to his responsibilities; his personal response to the haredi abuses—refusal to actively aid secular prosecution—reveals volumes about the extent of participation in pedophilia in the Orthodox community and the power of influential Jewish pedophiles to silence opposition.
6. “Pedophilia: the Talmud’s Dirty Secret,” www.truthtellers.org, Oct. 11, 2006.
7. This summary of Ben Yohai’s position is found in footnote 13, page 321, Yebamoth 60b of the Soncino translation of the Babylonian Talmud. (The Babylonian Talmud, translated by rabbi Dr. I. Epstein, The Soncino Press, London)
8. “State Helpless in Face of Skeleton in Haridi Closet,” www.ynetnews.com, Apr. 3, 2008.
9. “Judaism and Homosexuality: A Marriage Made in Hell,” www.truthtellers.org, Sept. 22, 2006.
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this topic. Call (503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015
Read more Ted Pike at TruthTellers.org
Pedophilia ‘Rampant’ In Orthodox Judaism
By Rev. Ted Pike
From its founding by the ancient Pharisees and still today, Orthodox Judaism is Judaism. [1] The state of Israel officially endorses Orthodoxy. For 2,000 years—since before such relatively recent variants as Conservative and Reform Judaism branched off—Talmud-believing Orthodox Judaism has been the spiritual center of gravity of the Jewish people. [2]
Now the Associated Press reports that the Orthodox Jewish community struggles to contain what has been a closely guarded secret: pedophilia. [3] AP says that, especially in areas most populated by Orthodox Jews (such as New York where 37 percent of Jews are Orthodox), widespread sexual molestation of children can no longer be denied. Yet “initiatives encouraging victims to come forward or offering support for those claiming they were molested encounter strong opposition, lead to death-threats in the Jewish community…”
In a previous e-alert, “Pedophilia: Thriving in Judaism’s Right Wing” [4], I related how an Orthodox Jew, Dov Hikind, a Brooklyn assemblyman, is attempting to address what AP calls “a taboo subject” among the Orthodox.
Since Hikind broached the subject on his radio show this summer, “dozens of people have come forward with stories about children being molested in the Orthodox community which strictly follows Jewish law…Dov Hikind says as many as four people a day have come to him over the past three months with painful accounts of secrets often kept for decades, accusing more than sixty individuals.”
Yet the assemblyman and radio host faces increasing opposition from many Orthodox Jews who practice pedophilia, condone it, or look the other way. “His campaign has set off a firestorm in the Orthodox community, where people are reluctant to involve secular authorities. One rabbi said he got death threats for speaking out.” Hikind said:”In our community, people don’t talk about the things they’ve come to my office and revealed.” He said he encourages people who confide in him to talk to Jewish authorities. But none will, he said, for fear of ostracism.
“One rabbi and psychologist told Jewish media outlets he was hounded into quitting a task force on child molestation days after Hikind appointed him to lead it…Another New York rabbi told the Daily News this month that vicious fliers and death threat calls scared him into shutting down a sex abuse victims hot-line he had set up.”
Six former students are suing an Orthodox school in New York for allegedly covering up the abuse of Rabbi Yehuda Kolkol, charged with sexually molesting boys. He pled guilty to a lesser charge and was put on probation. Hikind has been subpoenaed to testify as to further evidence against Kolkol or other school staffers. [5] Michael Daud, lawyer for the six students, won $11.4 million in damages against a Catholic youth minister who raped two teens on Long Island. With an initial 60 cases of pedophilia emerging, Daud could win similar restitution through judgments against persons in the wealthy Brooklyn Orthodox community.
Why Do They Do It?
Actually, the existence of pedophilia is not Orthodoxy’s best kept secret. What truly cannot be uttered by the Jewish community or media worldwide is that the Talmud, Judaism’s highest legal authority, encourages pedophilia. If this fact became widely known, it could destroy Judaism as one of the world’s great religions. It would confirm millennia of “anti-Semitic” accusations (beginning with Jesus’ incendiary attacks on the Pharisees) that pharisaic Judaism is based on gutter values.
In my article “Pedophilia: the Talmud’s Dirty Secret” [6] I document that the greatest Talmudic sages repeatedly upheld the right of Jewish men to marry 3-year-old baby girls by having sex with them. The more Orthodox Judaism is, the more literally it follows every dictum of such rabbinic authorities. Shockingly, one of the most revered rabbis of the Talmud, Simeon ben Yohai, asserts “that a proselyte under the age of three years and one day may be married to a priest.” [7]
The Talmud says ben Yohai’s endorsement of pedophilia is “halachah,” binding Jewish law (Yebamoth 60b).
Pedophilia in Israel Today
In a related story, YnetNews.com says that in Israel, “in spite of efforts by welfare officials, local rabbis, state authorities are unable to curb rampant child abuse in ultra-Orthodox families.”
It says there emerges “One harrowing case after another, yet welfare officials stand by helpless: faced with a string of heart-wrenching cases of child abuse in the haredi [ultra-Orthodox]…”
“One recent disturbing case, for instance, in which a Netivot mother had sexually abused her son, only came to light when the son began attending boarding school and molested a fellow pupil. The social workers who handled his case quickly realized that the child had no idea that what he had done was wrong.” [8]
Incredibly, this, too, is sanctioned by the Talmud. In my article “Judaism and Homosexuality: A Marriage Made in Hell” [9], I document the Talmud’s repeated permission for women to have sex with boys under age nine. It says such relations are non-sexual and without moral implications. Sanhedrin 69b asserts that “if a woman sported lewdly with her young son [a minor], and he committed the first stage of cohabitation with her [penetration],” –the rabbinic school of the great Hillel (namesake of New York’s Jewish Hillel Theological Seminary) declared her “fit for the priesthood” (Sanhedrin 69b).
The Talmud gives the clear impression that boys under age nine are fair game for sexual predation by women and even men. Such passages are not obscure, infrequent, or difficult to find. They are readily encountered in perusal of Talmudic treatises Kethuboth, Yebamoth, and Sanhedrin.
The extreme devotion of Orthodox Jews to obedience to every jot and tittle of the Talmud powerfully inclines us to suspect that Talmudic sanction of pedophilia may underlie the problem of pedophilia in Judaism today.
Is There a Solution?
What can be done? Unlike pedophilia among Catholic priests—which largely results from unnatural repression of human need and is sternly disapproved by the Catholic Church—pedophilia in Judaism enjoys frequent, conspicuous, and enthusiastic support from Judaism’s greatest authority, the Talmud. No rabbinate would dare excise its pro-pedophilia passages. These shocking dictums are inextricably linked not only to the infinitely complex and tortuous legal arguments of Talmudic rabbis but also to the authority of its greatest sages. Every year in Israel, tens of thousands of Orthodox Jews gather in Meron, the birthplace of Simeon ben Yohai, to feast, dance and sing for three days in honor of his memory. Yet as I stated earlier, ben Yohai is the Talmud’s most influential promoter of pedophilia!
The rapidly growing power of ultra-Orthodox in Israel makes it unlikely that they will be lectured out of indulgence in pedophilia. Jewish social reformers and welfare workers confirm the difficulty, even physical danger, of such a task. Orthodox Judaism is now ascendant in its legalistic rectitude after two centuries of permissive Jewish religious experimentation (which they claim has resulted in worldliness and assimilation); its leaders are in no mood to weaken Talmudic authority.
More than 2,000 years ago, pedophilia was encouraged by the Pharisaic school of Hillel. It will be around for a long time to come. It is part of that state of “all uncleanness” that Christ said is intrinsic to Pharisaism (Matt. 23:27). It will endure until that day when Christ at last obtains a pure and repentant remnant of believing Jews out of the destruction of “the great harlot,” international Jewish control (Rev. 18). Then, Scripture promises, He “will have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion” (Is.4:4).
Until that time, the prophet Isaiah still cries out from God, “Oh my people, they which lead thee, cause thee to err…” (Isaiah 3:12) Endnotes:
1. “The Jewish religion as it is today traces its descent without a break through all the centuries from the Pharisees. Their leading ideas and methods found expression in a literature of enormous extent, of which a very great deal is still in existence. The Talmud is the largest and most important single piece of that literature… and the study of it is essential for any real understanding of Pharisaism.” (The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, article on Judaism, p. 474.)
2. Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox Judaism, especially in New York and Israel, is commonly referred to as “Orthodox” by the Jewish community.
3. “US Child Sex Abuse Claims Divide Orthodox Community,” www.ynetnews.com, Nov. 24, 2008.
4. “Pedophilia: Thriving in Judaism’s Right Wing,” www.truthtellers.org, Oct. 23, 2008
5. Hikind’s response to Orthodox child abuse elicits sharp criticism from a former Orthodox Jew. Failed Messiah is written by ex-observantly Orthodox Jew Shmarya Rosenberg; his blog has made him one of Forward’s top 50 most influential Jews of 2008. Rosenberg began his blog as an observant Orthodox Jew but when his criticisms of Orthodox criminal activity “got him into hot water with the local Orthodox Jewish community, Rosenberg chose his blog and left his observance behind.” His index of blog posts includes over 700 entries about Orthodox crime.
In his blog, Rosenberg summarizes shocking research on rabbinic sexual abuse of children. He provides links to the case of an “alleged haredi child rapist [Avrohom Mondrowitz]“ who “fled the US for Israel at the urging of haredi leaders as he was being indicted for raping young boys. He lived safely in Jerusalem for over 20 years, under the protection of the Ger Hasidic community and its rebbes…”
Regarding the Kolko case, Rosenberg criticizes Hikind for wanting Brooklyn rabbis to deal with the problem and vowing to face jail rather than divulge victims’ names. “Many of these same rabbis have known about some of this evidence for years. Indeed, some of them have actively covered it up. Hikind is, in effect, asking criminals to help him protect the victims they hurt,” says Rosenberg.
He is also critical because Hikind wants rapists, “who are often rabbis, rebbes, and yeshiva teachers,” penalized by the religious community not the secular criminal justice system. “This means no sex offender registry for Hikind’s abusers. No closely supervised release. No sharing of information across neighborhoods and across countries. An abuser can simply skip Brooklyn for Israel (or for St. Louis, for that matter) and start abusing all over again.”
Rosenberg says Hikind’s reluctance to submit Jewish rapists to secular authority is horrifying. A child abuser may be set aside as psychopathic, conscience-dead, or a victim of abuse himself. But Hikind, according to Rosenberg, as a New York assemblyman, talk radio host, father, and leader in the Orthodox community, is not living up to his responsibilities; his personal response to the haredi abuses—refusal to actively aid secular prosecution—reveals volumes about the extent of participation in pedophilia in the Orthodox community and the power of influential Jewish pedophiles to silence opposition.
6. “Pedophilia: the Talmud’s Dirty Secret,” www.truthtellers.org, Oct. 11, 2006.
7. This summary of Ben Yohai’s position is found in footnote 13, page 321, Yebamoth 60b of the Soncino translation of the Babylonian Talmud. (The Babylonian Talmud, translated by rabbi Dr. I. Epstein, The Soncino Press, London)
8. “State Helpless in Face of Skeleton in Haridi Closet,” www.ynetnews.com, Apr. 3, 2008.
9. “Judaism and Homosexuality: A Marriage Made in Hell,” www.truthtellers.org, Sept. 22, 2006.
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog organization.
TALK SHOW HOSTS: Interview Rev. Ted Pike on this topic. Call (503) 631-3808.
National Prayer Network, P.O. Box 828, Clackamas, OR 97015
Read more Ted Pike at TruthTellers.org
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
In Earmarks Lies Salvation? by Patrick J. Buchanan
On top of Bush's $455 billion deficit and hundreds of billions in bailouts for AIG, Bear Stearns, Fannie, Freddie and CitiGroup, Obama is talking up a new stimulus package of $500 billion to $1 trillion
In a deepening recession, what does the reasonable man do?
Seeing friends laid off, he will get rid of all but essential credit cards, dine at home more often, terminate unnecessary trips to the mall, put off buying a new car, give up the idea of borrowing on the vanishing equity in his house. He will begin to save and start paying down debt.
A company that has reached the limits of its credit and is staring at Chapter 11 will batten down the hatches, lay off nonessential workers, cut employee hours, put off expansion plans, cancel year-end bonuses and try to ride out the storm.
This is the natural behavior of people responsible for others in an economic storm of the magnitude of the category 4 hurricane heading our way. Yet, to see and hear our government, folks are doing exactly the wrong thing.
For the U.S. government is set to borrow on a colossal scale, unprecedented save in World War II, and to take America trillions of dollars deeper in debt to pick up the slack in the economy caused by the rational decisions of individuals and corporations.
In a deepening recession, what does the reasonable man do?
Seeing friends laid off, he will get rid of all but essential credit cards, dine at home more often, terminate unnecessary trips to the mall, put off buying a new car, give up the idea of borrowing on the vanishing equity in his house. He will begin to save and start paying down debt.
A company that has reached the limits of its credit and is staring at Chapter 11 will batten down the hatches, lay off nonessential workers, cut employee hours, put off expansion plans, cancel year-end bonuses and try to ride out the storm.
This is the natural behavior of people responsible for others in an economic storm of the magnitude of the category 4 hurricane heading our way. Yet, to see and hear our government, folks are doing exactly the wrong thing.
For the U.S. government is set to borrow on a colossal scale, unprecedented save in World War II, and to take America trillions of dollars deeper in debt to pick up the slack in the economy caused by the rational decisions of individuals and corporations.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Obama Concerns Liberals
Liberals are growing increasingly nervous – and some just flat-out angry – that President-elect Barack Obama seems to be stiffing them on Cabinet jobs and policy choices.
Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left.
Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss.
“He has confirmed what our suspicions were by surrounding himself with a centrist to right cabinet. But we do hope that before it's all over we can get at least one authentic progressive appointment,” said Tim Carpenter, national director of the Progressive Democrats of America.
OpenLeft blogger Chris Bowers went so far as to issue this plaintive plea: “Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration?”
Even supporters make clear they’re on the lookout for backsliding. “There’s a concern that he keep his basic promises and people are going to watch him,” said Roger Hickey, a co-founder of Campaign for America’s Future.
Obama insists he hasn’t abandoned the goals that made him feel to some like a liberal savior. But the left’s bill of particulars against Obama is long, and growing.
Obama drew rousing applause at campaign events when he vowed to tax the windfall profits of oil companies. As president-elect, Obama says he won’t enact the tax.
Obama’s pledge to repeal the Bush tax cuts and redistribute that money to the middle class made him a hero among Democrats who said the cuts favored the wealthy. But now he’s struck a more cautious stance on rolling back tax cuts for people making over $250,000 a year, signaling he’ll merely let them expire as scheduled at the end of 2010.
Obama’s post-election rhetoric on Iraq and choices for national security team have some liberal Democrats even more perplexed. As a candidate, Obama defined and separated himself from his challengers by highlighting his opposition to the war in Iraq from the start. He promised to begin to end the war on his first day in office.
Now Obama’s says that on his first day in office he will begin to “design a plan for a responsible drawdown,” as he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. Obama has also filled his national security positions with supporters of the Iraq war: Sen. Hillary Clinton, who voted to authorize force in Iraq, as his secretary of state; and President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, continuing in the same role.
The central premise of the left’s criticism is direct – don’t bite the hand that feeds, Mr. President-elect. The Internet that helped him so much during the election is lighting up with irritation and critiques.
“There don't seem to be any liberals in Obama's cabinet,” writes John Aravosis, the editor of Americablog.com. “What does all of this mean for Obama's policies, and just as important, Obama Supreme Court announcements?”
“Actually, it reminds me a bit of the campaign, at least the beginning and the middle, when the Obama campaign didn't seem particularly interested in reaching out to progressives,” Aravosis continues. “Once they realized that in order to win they needed to marshal everyone on their side, the reaching out began. I hope we're not seeing a similar ‘we can do it alone’ approach in the transition team.”
This isn’t the first liberal letdown over Obama, who promptly angered the left after winning the Democratic primary by announcing he backed a compromise that would allow warrantless wiretapping on U.S. soil to continue.
Now it’s Obama’s Cabinet moves that are drawing the most fire. It’s not just that he’s picked Clinton and Gates. It’s that liberal Democrats say they’re hard-pressed to find one of their own on Obama’s team so far – particularly on the economic side, where people like Tim Geithner and Lawrence Summers are hardly viewed as pro-labor.
“At his announcement of an economic team there was no secretary of labor. If you don’t think the labor secretary is on the same level as treasury secretary, that gives me pause,” said Jonathan Tasini, who runs the website workinglife.org. “The president-elect wouldn't be president-elect without labor."
During the campaign Obama gained labor support by saying he favored legislation that would make it easier for unions to form inside companies. The “card check” bill would get rid of a secret-ballot method of voting to form a union and replace it with a system that would require companies to recognize unions simply if a majority of workers signed cards saying they want one. Obama still supports that legislation, aides say – but union leaders are worried that he no longer talks it up much as president-elect.
“It's complicated,” said Tasini, who challenged Clinton for Senate in 2006. “On the one hand, the guy hasn't even taken office yet so it's a little hasty to be criticizing him. On the other hand, there is legitimate cause for concern. I think people are still waiting but there is some edginess about this.”
That’s a view that seems to have kept some progressive leaders holding their fire. There are signs of a struggle within the left wing of the Democratic Party about whether it’s just too soon to criticize Obama -- and if there’s really anything to complain about just yet.
Case in point: One of the Campaign for America’s Future blogs commented on Obama’s decision not to tax oil companies’ windfall profits saying, “Between this move and the move to wait to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, it seems like the Obama team is buying into the right-wing frame that raising any taxes - even those on the richest citizens and wealthiest corporations - is bad for the economy.”
Yet Campaign for America’s Future will be join about 150 progressive organizations, economists and labor groups to release a statement Tuesday in support of a large economic stimulus package like the one Obama has proposed, said Hickey, a co-founder of the group.
“I’ve heard the most grousing about the windfall profits tax, but on the other hand, Obama has committed himself to a stimulus package that makes a down payment on energy efficiency and green jobs,” Hickey said. “The old argument was, here’s how we afford to make these investments – we tax the oil companies’ windfall profits. … The new argument is, in a bad economy that could get worse, we don’t.”
Obama is asking for patience – saying he’s only shifting his stance on some issues because circumstances are shifting.
Aides say he backed off the windfall profits tax because oil prices havedropped below $80 a barrel. Obama also defended hedging on the Bush tax cuts.
“My economic team right now is examining, do we repeal that through legislation? Do we let it lapse so that, when the Bush tax cuts expire, they're not renewed when it comes to wealthiest Americans?” Obama said on “Meet the Press.” “We don't yet know what the best approach is going to be.”
On Iraq, he says he’s just trying to make sure any U.S. pullout doesn’t ignite “any resurgence of terrorism in Iraq that could threaten our interests.”
Obama has told his supporters to look beyond his appointments, that the change he promised will come from him and that when his administration comes together they will be happy.
“I think that when you ultimately look at what this advisory board looks like, you'll say this is a cross-section of opinion that in some ways reinforces conventional wisdom, in some ways breaks with orthodoxy in all sorts of way,” Obama recently said in response to questions about his appointments during a news conference on the economy.
The leaders of some liberal groups are willing to wait and see.
“He hasn’t had a first day in office,” said John Isaacs, the executive director for Council for Livable World. “To me it’s not as important as who’s there, than what kind of policies they carry out.”
“These aren’t out-and-out liberals on the national security team, but they may be successful implementers of what the Obama national security policy is,” Isaacs added. “We want to see what policies are carried forward, as opposed to appointments.”
Juan Cole, who runs a prominent anti-war blog called Informed Comment, said he worries Obama will get bad advice from Clinton on the Middle East, calling her too pro-Israel and “belligerent” toward Iran. “But overall, my estimation is that he has chosen competence over ideology, and I'm willing to cut him some slack,” Cole said.
Other voices of the left don’t like what they’re seeing so far and aren’t waiting for more before they speak up.
New York Times columnist Frank Rich warned that Obama’s economic team of Summers and Geithner reminded him of John F. Kennedy’s “best and the brightest” team, who blundered in Vietnam despite their blue-chip pedigrees.
David Corn, Washington bureau chief of the liberal magazine Mother Jones, wrote in Sunday’s Washington Post that he is “not yet reaching for a pitchfork.”
But the headline of his op-ed sums up his point about Obama’s Cabinet appointments so far: “This Wasn’t Quite the Change We Envisioned.”
Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left.
Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss.
“He has confirmed what our suspicions were by surrounding himself with a centrist to right cabinet. But we do hope that before it's all over we can get at least one authentic progressive appointment,” said Tim Carpenter, national director of the Progressive Democrats of America.
OpenLeft blogger Chris Bowers went so far as to issue this plaintive plea: “Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration?”
Even supporters make clear they’re on the lookout for backsliding. “There’s a concern that he keep his basic promises and people are going to watch him,” said Roger Hickey, a co-founder of Campaign for America’s Future.
Obama insists he hasn’t abandoned the goals that made him feel to some like a liberal savior. But the left’s bill of particulars against Obama is long, and growing.
Obama drew rousing applause at campaign events when he vowed to tax the windfall profits of oil companies. As president-elect, Obama says he won’t enact the tax.
Obama’s pledge to repeal the Bush tax cuts and redistribute that money to the middle class made him a hero among Democrats who said the cuts favored the wealthy. But now he’s struck a more cautious stance on rolling back tax cuts for people making over $250,000 a year, signaling he’ll merely let them expire as scheduled at the end of 2010.
Obama’s post-election rhetoric on Iraq and choices for national security team have some liberal Democrats even more perplexed. As a candidate, Obama defined and separated himself from his challengers by highlighting his opposition to the war in Iraq from the start. He promised to begin to end the war on his first day in office.
Now Obama’s says that on his first day in office he will begin to “design a plan for a responsible drawdown,” as he told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. Obama has also filled his national security positions with supporters of the Iraq war: Sen. Hillary Clinton, who voted to authorize force in Iraq, as his secretary of state; and President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, continuing in the same role.
The central premise of the left’s criticism is direct – don’t bite the hand that feeds, Mr. President-elect. The Internet that helped him so much during the election is lighting up with irritation and critiques.
“There don't seem to be any liberals in Obama's cabinet,” writes John Aravosis, the editor of Americablog.com. “What does all of this mean for Obama's policies, and just as important, Obama Supreme Court announcements?”
“Actually, it reminds me a bit of the campaign, at least the beginning and the middle, when the Obama campaign didn't seem particularly interested in reaching out to progressives,” Aravosis continues. “Once they realized that in order to win they needed to marshal everyone on their side, the reaching out began. I hope we're not seeing a similar ‘we can do it alone’ approach in the transition team.”
This isn’t the first liberal letdown over Obama, who promptly angered the left after winning the Democratic primary by announcing he backed a compromise that would allow warrantless wiretapping on U.S. soil to continue.
Now it’s Obama’s Cabinet moves that are drawing the most fire. It’s not just that he’s picked Clinton and Gates. It’s that liberal Democrats say they’re hard-pressed to find one of their own on Obama’s team so far – particularly on the economic side, where people like Tim Geithner and Lawrence Summers are hardly viewed as pro-labor.
“At his announcement of an economic team there was no secretary of labor. If you don’t think the labor secretary is on the same level as treasury secretary, that gives me pause,” said Jonathan Tasini, who runs the website workinglife.org. “The president-elect wouldn't be president-elect without labor."
During the campaign Obama gained labor support by saying he favored legislation that would make it easier for unions to form inside companies. The “card check” bill would get rid of a secret-ballot method of voting to form a union and replace it with a system that would require companies to recognize unions simply if a majority of workers signed cards saying they want one. Obama still supports that legislation, aides say – but union leaders are worried that he no longer talks it up much as president-elect.
“It's complicated,” said Tasini, who challenged Clinton for Senate in 2006. “On the one hand, the guy hasn't even taken office yet so it's a little hasty to be criticizing him. On the other hand, there is legitimate cause for concern. I think people are still waiting but there is some edginess about this.”
That’s a view that seems to have kept some progressive leaders holding their fire. There are signs of a struggle within the left wing of the Democratic Party about whether it’s just too soon to criticize Obama -- and if there’s really anything to complain about just yet.
Case in point: One of the Campaign for America’s Future blogs commented on Obama’s decision not to tax oil companies’ windfall profits saying, “Between this move and the move to wait to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, it seems like the Obama team is buying into the right-wing frame that raising any taxes - even those on the richest citizens and wealthiest corporations - is bad for the economy.”
Yet Campaign for America’s Future will be join about 150 progressive organizations, economists and labor groups to release a statement Tuesday in support of a large economic stimulus package like the one Obama has proposed, said Hickey, a co-founder of the group.
“I’ve heard the most grousing about the windfall profits tax, but on the other hand, Obama has committed himself to a stimulus package that makes a down payment on energy efficiency and green jobs,” Hickey said. “The old argument was, here’s how we afford to make these investments – we tax the oil companies’ windfall profits. … The new argument is, in a bad economy that could get worse, we don’t.”
Obama is asking for patience – saying he’s only shifting his stance on some issues because circumstances are shifting.
Aides say he backed off the windfall profits tax because oil prices havedropped below $80 a barrel. Obama also defended hedging on the Bush tax cuts.
“My economic team right now is examining, do we repeal that through legislation? Do we let it lapse so that, when the Bush tax cuts expire, they're not renewed when it comes to wealthiest Americans?” Obama said on “Meet the Press.” “We don't yet know what the best approach is going to be.”
On Iraq, he says he’s just trying to make sure any U.S. pullout doesn’t ignite “any resurgence of terrorism in Iraq that could threaten our interests.”
Obama has told his supporters to look beyond his appointments, that the change he promised will come from him and that when his administration comes together they will be happy.
“I think that when you ultimately look at what this advisory board looks like, you'll say this is a cross-section of opinion that in some ways reinforces conventional wisdom, in some ways breaks with orthodoxy in all sorts of way,” Obama recently said in response to questions about his appointments during a news conference on the economy.
The leaders of some liberal groups are willing to wait and see.
“He hasn’t had a first day in office,” said John Isaacs, the executive director for Council for Livable World. “To me it’s not as important as who’s there, than what kind of policies they carry out.”
“These aren’t out-and-out liberals on the national security team, but they may be successful implementers of what the Obama national security policy is,” Isaacs added. “We want to see what policies are carried forward, as opposed to appointments.”
Juan Cole, who runs a prominent anti-war blog called Informed Comment, said he worries Obama will get bad advice from Clinton on the Middle East, calling her too pro-Israel and “belligerent” toward Iran. “But overall, my estimation is that he has chosen competence over ideology, and I'm willing to cut him some slack,” Cole said.
Other voices of the left don’t like what they’re seeing so far and aren’t waiting for more before they speak up.
New York Times columnist Frank Rich warned that Obama’s economic team of Summers and Geithner reminded him of John F. Kennedy’s “best and the brightest” team, who blundered in Vietnam despite their blue-chip pedigrees.
David Corn, Washington bureau chief of the liberal magazine Mother Jones, wrote in Sunday’s Washington Post that he is “not yet reaching for a pitchfork.”
But the headline of his op-ed sums up his point about Obama’s Cabinet appointments so far: “This Wasn’t Quite the Change We Envisioned.”
Greece Suffers under Wave of Asylum Seeker-Caused Violence
The Greek far left, who have in the past been closely allied to the far left in Britain, has now seized upon the initial asylum seeker unrest and started riots of their own, providing the controlled media with a perfect excuse to hide the cause of the violence
The controlled media have excelled themselves once again by simply ignoring the real cause of the violent riots currently sweeping Greece, despite the facts being well-known and distributed via the Press Association newswire.
In their coverage to date, the media have all claimed that ‘youths’ are responsible for the violence in Athens and other parts of Greece and that it started after police shot and killed a ‘youth.’
The Press Association however reported a full day ago that the spark which led to the current unrest was caused by asylum seekers rioting after being told that no more applications were being processed that week.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Greece Suffers under Wave of Asylum Seeker-Caused Violence", url: "http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/2008/12/08/greece-suffers-under-wave-of-asylum-seeker-caused-violence/" });
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Source:Greece Suffers under Wave of Asylum Seeker-Caused Violencebnp.org.uk
The controlled media have excelled themselves once again by simply ignoring the real cause of the violent riots currently sweeping Greece, despite the facts being well-known and distributed via the Press Association newswire.
In their coverage to date, the media have all claimed that ‘youths’ are responsible for the violence in Athens and other parts of Greece and that it started after police shot and killed a ‘youth.’
The Press Association however reported a full day ago that the spark which led to the current unrest was caused by asylum seekers rioting after being told that no more applications were being processed that week.
SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Greece Suffers under Wave of Asylum Seeker-Caused Violence", url: "http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/2008/12/08/greece-suffers-under-wave-of-asylum-seeker-caused-violence/" });
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Source:Greece Suffers under Wave of Asylum Seeker-Caused Violencebnp.org.uk
Friday, December 5, 2008
SC slaying victim’s dad says execution won’t help
At the time of the shooting, police said Gardner and his co-defendants decided to kill a white woman as retribution for the mistreatment of blacks during slavery. They said a letter found during the investigation contained racial slurs and statements justifying revenge against white
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The father of a woman slain 16 years ago in what authorities initially said was retribution by five black men for centuries of racial oppression won’t make the trip to South Carolina to see his daughter’s killer put to death Friday.
“I’m not going to view the execution because it will just open old wounds,” said Clair McLauchlin, 76, who lives with his wife Patricia in Live Oak, a small town in northern Florida.
McLauchlin said the death by lethal injection of Joseph Gardner, 38, on Friday also won’t bring closure for his family, even after all these years.
“I can tell you right now, it will never be closed,” said McLauchlin, who expects to get a phone call from prison officials when the execution is carried out.
“He was sentenced to death, but he sentenced us to a life sentence when he killed her,” McLauchlin said. “It’s never going to change. It’s never going to go away.”
CHARLESTON, S.C. - The father of a woman slain 16 years ago in what authorities initially said was retribution by five black men for centuries of racial oppression won’t make the trip to South Carolina to see his daughter’s killer put to death Friday.
“I’m not going to view the execution because it will just open old wounds,” said Clair McLauchlin, 76, who lives with his wife Patricia in Live Oak, a small town in northern Florida.
McLauchlin said the death by lethal injection of Joseph Gardner, 38, on Friday also won’t bring closure for his family, even after all these years.
“I can tell you right now, it will never be closed,” said McLauchlin, who expects to get a phone call from prison officials when the execution is carried out.
“He was sentenced to death, but he sentenced us to a life sentence when he killed her,” McLauchlin said. “It’s never going to change. It’s never going to go away.”
Monday, December 1, 2008
Could Obama ‘Pull a JFK’ in Office? Kennedy-Obama Parallels Intriguing
Could Obama ‘Pull a JFK’ in Office? Kennedy-Obama Parallels Intriguing
By Michael Collins Piper — AFP
BARACK OBAMA ENTHUSIASTS who were angered by the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, are hoping Obama will “pull a JFK” and work around Emanuel—a hawkish advocate for Israel—and those powerful pro-Israel families in Chicago who helped elect Obama.
One of John F. Kennedy’s first appointments was Myer Feldman as his point man for Jewish and Israeli affairs—an important post, considering the Jewish lobby was suspicious of JFK’s commitment to Israel.
Says author Seymour Hersh, “the president viewed Feldman, whose strong support for Israel was widely known, as a necessary evil whose highly visible White House position was a political debt that had to be paid.”
However, JFK was determined to make certain that nobody—Feldman in particular—could circumvent any of his Middle East policy intentions: Hersh has written that “the president’s most senior advisors, most acutely McGeorge Bundy, the national security advisor, desperately sought to cut Feldman out of the flow of Middle East paperwork.”
Another JFK aide told Hersh:
“It was hard to tell the difference between what Feldman said and what the Israeli ambassador said.”
JFK had his own suspicions about Feldman, according to his close friend, journalist Charles Bartlett, who recalled visiting JFK at his home in Massachusetts where talk turned to Feldman’s Zionist agenda. JFK said, “I imagine Mike’s having a meeting of the Zionists in the cabinet room.” JFK’s brother, Robert Kennedy, later said Feldman’s “major interest was Israel” rather than the United States.
In fact, despite Feldman’s position in the White House, JFK was making it clear to the foreign policy establishment that he (JFK) was determined to find a path to Middle East peace, stopping Israel from building nuclear weapons of mass destruction, and helping the Palestinians violently displaced by Israel in 1948.
As part of his effort to stop Israel’s bomb program, JFK worked behind the back of James Angleton, the CIA’s liaison with Israel and a strong pro-Israel partisan. When JFK appointed a new CIA director, friend John McCone, he directed McCone to shut Angleton out of efforts to stop Israel’s nuclear weapons program.
Like JFK, Obama forged relationships with billionaire Jewish families closely tied to Israel and to the Jewish organized crime network dubbed “the Supermob” by investigative journalist Gus Russo. A Chicago politician, Obama had to rely on Chicago-based billionaire pro-Israel families—the Crowns and Pritzgers —whose “Supermob” origins Russo outlined in his book Supermob.
But, as the historical record shows, JFK bucked these interests when he became president. JFK captured the White House by narrowly winning a number of states in which the Chicago crime syndicate arranged vote fraud on his behalf. Although legend presents Chicago under the heel of Italian-American gangster Sam Giancana, Giancana’s nephew has revealed his uncle was no more than a front man for the real Chicago crime boss, Jewish mobster Hyman Larner, longtime partner of Meyer Lansky, chief of the national Jewish crime syndicate and its “Mafia” elements.
JFK’s contact with the Jewish lobby was New York financier Abraham Feinberg, a major fundraiser (along with the Crown family of Chicago) for Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Needing critical Jewish money and Jewish votes in the 1960 election, JFK met with Feinberg and other Jewish dollar barons at Feinberg’s home. Later, Feinberg and his cronies agreed to come up with $500,000 for JFK. Feinberg later claimed JFK’s “voice broke” and that “he got emotional” with gratitude.
However, according to Hersh: “Kennedy was anything but grateful the next morning in describing the session” to Charles Bartlett. Hersh noted that JFK had “driven to Bartlett’s home in northwest Washington and dragged his friend on a walk, where he recounted a much different version of the meeting the night before.”
“As an American citizen he was outraged,” Bartlett recalled, “to have a Zionist group come to him and say: ‘We know your campaign is in trouble.We’re willing to pay your bills if you’ll let us have control of your Middle East policy.’ Kennedy . . . also resented the crudity with which he’d been approached.”
“They want control,” JFK angrily told Bartlett. Hersh added that “Bartlett further recalled Kennedy promising to himself that if he ever did get to be president, he was going to ‘do something about it’”—that is, Jewish money dictating American elections and foreign policy.
(Issue # 48, December 1, 2008, AMERICAN FREE PRESS)
A journalist specializing in media critique, Michael Collins Piper is the author of The High Priests of War, The New Jerusalem, Dirty Secrets, The Judas Goats, The Golem, Target Traficant and My First Days in the White House All are available from AFP.
Subscribe to American Free Press. Online subscriptions: One year of weekly editions—$15 plus you get a BONUS ELECTRONIC BOOK - HIGH PRIESTS OF WAR - By Michael Piper.
Print subscriptions: 52 issues crammed into 47 weeks of the year plus six free issues of Whole Body Health: $59 Order on this website or call toll free 1-888-699-NEWS .
Sign up for our free e-newsletter here - get a free gift just for signing up!
Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
By Michael Collins Piper — AFP
BARACK OBAMA ENTHUSIASTS who were angered by the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff, are hoping Obama will “pull a JFK” and work around Emanuel—a hawkish advocate for Israel—and those powerful pro-Israel families in Chicago who helped elect Obama.
One of John F. Kennedy’s first appointments was Myer Feldman as his point man for Jewish and Israeli affairs—an important post, considering the Jewish lobby was suspicious of JFK’s commitment to Israel.
Says author Seymour Hersh, “the president viewed Feldman, whose strong support for Israel was widely known, as a necessary evil whose highly visible White House position was a political debt that had to be paid.”
However, JFK was determined to make certain that nobody—Feldman in particular—could circumvent any of his Middle East policy intentions: Hersh has written that “the president’s most senior advisors, most acutely McGeorge Bundy, the national security advisor, desperately sought to cut Feldman out of the flow of Middle East paperwork.”
Another JFK aide told Hersh:
“It was hard to tell the difference between what Feldman said and what the Israeli ambassador said.”
JFK had his own suspicions about Feldman, according to his close friend, journalist Charles Bartlett, who recalled visiting JFK at his home in Massachusetts where talk turned to Feldman’s Zionist agenda. JFK said, “I imagine Mike’s having a meeting of the Zionists in the cabinet room.” JFK’s brother, Robert Kennedy, later said Feldman’s “major interest was Israel” rather than the United States.
In fact, despite Feldman’s position in the White House, JFK was making it clear to the foreign policy establishment that he (JFK) was determined to find a path to Middle East peace, stopping Israel from building nuclear weapons of mass destruction, and helping the Palestinians violently displaced by Israel in 1948.
As part of his effort to stop Israel’s bomb program, JFK worked behind the back of James Angleton, the CIA’s liaison with Israel and a strong pro-Israel partisan. When JFK appointed a new CIA director, friend John McCone, he directed McCone to shut Angleton out of efforts to stop Israel’s nuclear weapons program.
Like JFK, Obama forged relationships with billionaire Jewish families closely tied to Israel and to the Jewish organized crime network dubbed “the Supermob” by investigative journalist Gus Russo. A Chicago politician, Obama had to rely on Chicago-based billionaire pro-Israel families—the Crowns and Pritzgers —whose “Supermob” origins Russo outlined in his book Supermob.
But, as the historical record shows, JFK bucked these interests when he became president. JFK captured the White House by narrowly winning a number of states in which the Chicago crime syndicate arranged vote fraud on his behalf. Although legend presents Chicago under the heel of Italian-American gangster Sam Giancana, Giancana’s nephew has revealed his uncle was no more than a front man for the real Chicago crime boss, Jewish mobster Hyman Larner, longtime partner of Meyer Lansky, chief of the national Jewish crime syndicate and its “Mafia” elements.
JFK’s contact with the Jewish lobby was New York financier Abraham Feinberg, a major fundraiser (along with the Crown family of Chicago) for Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Needing critical Jewish money and Jewish votes in the 1960 election, JFK met with Feinberg and other Jewish dollar barons at Feinberg’s home. Later, Feinberg and his cronies agreed to come up with $500,000 for JFK. Feinberg later claimed JFK’s “voice broke” and that “he got emotional” with gratitude.
However, according to Hersh: “Kennedy was anything but grateful the next morning in describing the session” to Charles Bartlett. Hersh noted that JFK had “driven to Bartlett’s home in northwest Washington and dragged his friend on a walk, where he recounted a much different version of the meeting the night before.”
“As an American citizen he was outraged,” Bartlett recalled, “to have a Zionist group come to him and say: ‘We know your campaign is in trouble.We’re willing to pay your bills if you’ll let us have control of your Middle East policy.’ Kennedy . . . also resented the crudity with which he’d been approached.”
“They want control,” JFK angrily told Bartlett. Hersh added that “Bartlett further recalled Kennedy promising to himself that if he ever did get to be president, he was going to ‘do something about it’”—that is, Jewish money dictating American elections and foreign policy.
(Issue # 48, December 1, 2008, AMERICAN FREE PRESS)
A journalist specializing in media critique, Michael Collins Piper is the author of The High Priests of War, The New Jerusalem, Dirty Secrets, The Judas Goats, The Golem, Target Traficant and My First Days in the White House All are available from AFP.
Subscribe to American Free Press. Online subscriptions: One year of weekly editions—$15 plus you get a BONUS ELECTRONIC BOOK - HIGH PRIESTS OF WAR - By Michael Piper.
Print subscriptions: 52 issues crammed into 47 weeks of the year plus six free issues of Whole Body Health: $59 Order on this website or call toll free 1-888-699-NEWS .
Sign up for our free e-newsletter here - get a free gift just for signing up!
Not Copyrighted. Readers can reprint and are free to redistribute - as long as full credit is given to American Free Press - 645 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Suite 100 Washington, D.C. 20003
Obama Names Hillary, Gates In Cabinet
CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama named former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of statae on Monday, and announced Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary, making President Bush's Pentagon chief his own in the drive to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq.
At a news conference, Obama also introduced retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security.
The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.
"The time has come for a new beginning, a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century," Obama said as his Cabinet picks stood behind him on a flag-draped stage.
"We will strengthen our capacity to defeat our enemies and support our friends. We will renew old alliances and forge new and enduring partnerships."
Obama said his appointees "share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America's role as a leader in the world."
"I assembled this team because I am a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opintions," he said. "I think that's how the best decisions are made. One of the dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in group-think and everybody agrees with everything and there's no discussion and there are no dissenting views. So I am going to be welcoming a vigorous debate inside the White House.
"But understand, I will be setting policy as president. I will be responsible for the vision that this team carries out, and I will expect them to implement that vision once decisions are made."
Gates' presence in Chicago made him a visible symbol of the transition in power from the Bush administration to one headed by Obama.
The president-elect, reprising a campaign vow, said he would give the military a new mission as soon as he takes office: "responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control." In his announcement remarks, he did not mention his oft-repeated pledge to withdraw most U.S. combat troops within 16 months, although he referred to it in response to a question several moments later.
Clinton, Holder and Napolitano all require confirmation by the Senate.
Jones, as a White House official, does not. Nor does Gates, already confirmed to his post.
Obama also appointed campaign foreign policy aide Susan Rice as his ambassador to the United Nations. Obama said he would make her a member of the Cabinet, an increase in stature from the Bush era.
Obama's announcements marked a shift in emphasis after a spate of appointments last week for his economic team, led by Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary.
He now has selected half the members of his Cabinet, and is making his picks at an unusually quick pace during his transition as he seeks to fulfill his goal of being able to "hit the ground running" when he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Obama introduced Clinton first, saying of his former presidential rival, "She possesses an extraordinary intelligence and toughness, and a remarkable work ethic. ... She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world's leaders, who will command respect in every capital, and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world."
Clinton will give up her seat as a senator from New York to join the Obama Cabinet. Her appointment was preceded by lengthy negotiations involving her husband, the former president, whose international business connections posed potential conflicts of interests.
The former president also agreed to disclose the donors to the foundation that built his library, as well as contributors to his international foundation.
She said to Obama, in a brief turn at the lectern, "I am proud to join you ... and may God bless you and our great country."
Sen. Clinton had scarcely finished speaking when her husband issued a written statement. "She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America's image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities," he said.
Gates said he was "mindful that we are engaged in two wars and face other serious challenges at home and around the world."
"I must do my duty as they do theirs," he said of the men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. "How could I do otherwise?"
He said he was "honored to serve President-elect Obama."
Gates' appointment fulfilled a campaign promise by Obama, the naming of a Republican to his Cabinet.
Holder vowed to revitalize a Justice Department staggered by scandal during the Bush administration, both over the dismissal of federal prosecutors and the administration's program of wiretapping as part of its war against terrorists.
Napolitano, like Clinton, must resign her current job. As a border state governor, she has experience with immigration issues, one of the pressing concerns that will confront the new administration.
Obama said Jones, his national security adviser, "will bring to the job the dual experience of serving in uniform and as a diplomat. He has commanded a platoon in battle, served as supreme allied commander in a time of war and worked on behalf of peace in the Middle East."
The event was unlike those of last week, when Obama was the only one to speak. This time, he called on each of his appointees to make remarks, beginning with Clinton.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden said each member of the team shares the goals and the principles of the new administration that "strength and wisdom must go hand in hand," and that America's security "is not a partisan issue."
Obama has settled on additional members of his Cabinet, although they have not yet been announced.
Among them are former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health and human services and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be commerce secretary.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asked about Clinton at a news conference in London, said Monday: "I think that she will bring enormous energy and intellect and skill to the position."
"Most important, I know her to be somebody who has what you need most in this job, which is a deep love for the United States of America," Rice said. She added, "As to advice, I'll give her that advice privately, and then she won't — and you won't — hear from me again."
___
On the Net:
Obama transition: http://www.change.gov
At a news conference, Obama also introduced retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security.
The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.
"The time has come for a new beginning, a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century," Obama said as his Cabinet picks stood behind him on a flag-draped stage.
"We will strengthen our capacity to defeat our enemies and support our friends. We will renew old alliances and forge new and enduring partnerships."
Obama said his appointees "share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America's role as a leader in the world."
"I assembled this team because I am a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opintions," he said. "I think that's how the best decisions are made. One of the dangers in a White House, based on my reading of history, is that you get wrapped up in group-think and everybody agrees with everything and there's no discussion and there are no dissenting views. So I am going to be welcoming a vigorous debate inside the White House.
"But understand, I will be setting policy as president. I will be responsible for the vision that this team carries out, and I will expect them to implement that vision once decisions are made."
Gates' presence in Chicago made him a visible symbol of the transition in power from the Bush administration to one headed by Obama.
The president-elect, reprising a campaign vow, said he would give the military a new mission as soon as he takes office: "responsibly ending the war in Iraq through a successful transition to Iraqi control." In his announcement remarks, he did not mention his oft-repeated pledge to withdraw most U.S. combat troops within 16 months, although he referred to it in response to a question several moments later.
Clinton, Holder and Napolitano all require confirmation by the Senate.
Jones, as a White House official, does not. Nor does Gates, already confirmed to his post.
Obama also appointed campaign foreign policy aide Susan Rice as his ambassador to the United Nations. Obama said he would make her a member of the Cabinet, an increase in stature from the Bush era.
Obama's announcements marked a shift in emphasis after a spate of appointments last week for his economic team, led by Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary.
He now has selected half the members of his Cabinet, and is making his picks at an unusually quick pace during his transition as he seeks to fulfill his goal of being able to "hit the ground running" when he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.
Obama introduced Clinton first, saying of his former presidential rival, "She possesses an extraordinary intelligence and toughness, and a remarkable work ethic. ... She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world's leaders, who will command respect in every capital, and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world."
Clinton will give up her seat as a senator from New York to join the Obama Cabinet. Her appointment was preceded by lengthy negotiations involving her husband, the former president, whose international business connections posed potential conflicts of interests.
The former president also agreed to disclose the donors to the foundation that built his library, as well as contributors to his international foundation.
She said to Obama, in a brief turn at the lectern, "I am proud to join you ... and may God bless you and our great country."
Sen. Clinton had scarcely finished speaking when her husband issued a written statement. "She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America's image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities," he said.
Gates said he was "mindful that we are engaged in two wars and face other serious challenges at home and around the world."
"I must do my duty as they do theirs," he said of the men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. "How could I do otherwise?"
He said he was "honored to serve President-elect Obama."
Gates' appointment fulfilled a campaign promise by Obama, the naming of a Republican to his Cabinet.
Holder vowed to revitalize a Justice Department staggered by scandal during the Bush administration, both over the dismissal of federal prosecutors and the administration's program of wiretapping as part of its war against terrorists.
Napolitano, like Clinton, must resign her current job. As a border state governor, she has experience with immigration issues, one of the pressing concerns that will confront the new administration.
Obama said Jones, his national security adviser, "will bring to the job the dual experience of serving in uniform and as a diplomat. He has commanded a platoon in battle, served as supreme allied commander in a time of war and worked on behalf of peace in the Middle East."
The event was unlike those of last week, when Obama was the only one to speak. This time, he called on each of his appointees to make remarks, beginning with Clinton.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden said each member of the team shares the goals and the principles of the new administration that "strength and wisdom must go hand in hand," and that America's security "is not a partisan issue."
Obama has settled on additional members of his Cabinet, although they have not yet been announced.
Among them are former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health and human services and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to be commerce secretary.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, asked about Clinton at a news conference in London, said Monday: "I think that she will bring enormous energy and intellect and skill to the position."
"Most important, I know her to be somebody who has what you need most in this job, which is a deep love for the United States of America," Rice said. She added, "As to advice, I'll give her that advice privately, and then she won't — and you won't — hear from me again."
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