"Last night, a terrorist shot at a bus in Jerusalem wounding 8 people, including a pregnant 30-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man who are in critical care. We pray for their full recovery," Israel's Foreign Ministry announced.


	According<a href="https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-714649"> to news reports,</a> the baby was delivered by emergency C-section while the mother is in "serious but stable condition - in a shooting attack targeting a bus near King David's Tomb near the Western Wall on Saturday night."&nbsp;

<blockquote>
	
		According to the report, four of the injured belonged to the same family and are part of the hasidic Satmar sect and were visiting Israel from Williamsburg, New York.&nbsp;

	
		A spokesperson for the US Embassy in Jerusalem confirmed that US citizens were among the victims of the terrorist attack, but had no further comment on the matter.

	
		Yosef Chaim HaCohen, a paramedic with United Hatzalah who lives near the scene, stated, “I parked the car near the house and heard gunshots and screams. The neighbors ran to me and shouted 'terror attack.’”

	
		MDA paramedic Shimi Grossman said: “This was a bus that left the Western Wall with worshipers heading toward the city. According to a passerby, a terrorist began to shoot indiscriminately toward the bus. When I arrived there was a great commotion, people ran in panic, MDA teams treated and evacuated a 30-year-old man and a 45-year-old man in serious condition, a 30-year-old woman in serious condition, a young man about 20 years old in moderate condition and 4 injured in mild condition.”

	
		Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum praised the attack as a courageous act of resistance
</blockquote>


	The&nbsp;Islamic terrorist, allegedly a man named Amir Sidawi, has been <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/suspected-terrorist-in-jerusalem-shooting-turns-himself-into-police/">arrested</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		Those wounded in the attack included a 35-year-old pregnant woman who was shot while sitting in a nearby car, Hebrew media reported. Her abdomenal injury was described by doctors as “complex” and her life was said to be in danger. Shaare Zedek hospital said she had undergone an emergency delivery and that the newborn was in serious but stable condition.

	
		&nbsp;The family’s father was said to be in serious condition, sedated and on a respirator, while the mother was in moderate condition.

	
		“It was a very difficult scene, the blood-soaked&nbsp;tzitzit&nbsp;and abandoned baby stroller will remain in my memory for many years,” said Moshe Levy from the United Hatzalah emergency organization, referring to knotted ritual fringes worn by observant Jews.

	
		The alleged perpetrator had reportedly waited for the bus’s arrival and fired the shots while passengers were boarding, then fled on foot to Silwan.

	
		“The bus was full, jam-packed. I stopped at a bus stop at King David’s Tomb and then I heard gunfire, people started yelling, people were hurt inside the bus,” the bus driver, Daniel Kanievsky, said.

	
		The driver said he had wanted to drive away but couldn’t because passengers were helping a wheelchair-bound woman board the bus, with the lowered ramp blocking the door from closing.
</blockquote>


	So another heroic and "courageous" act of Islamic terrorism.

Islamic Terrorist Opens Fire in Jerusalem, Pregnant Woman, Americans Wounded

"Last night, a terrorist shot at a bus in Jerusalem wounding 8 people, including a pregnant 30-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man who are in critical care.

Islamic Terrorist Opens Fire in Jerusalem, Pregnant Woman, Americans Wounded

From a New York Times article trying to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/13/trump-mar-a-lago-search/">justify this farce</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		In the spring of 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration, the government agency charged by law with maintaining the papers of former presidents, alerted Trump’s team to a problem. In going through materials transferred from the White House in the chaotic final days of Trump’s presidency, officials had noticed that certain high-profile documents were missing. Trump’s correspondence with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un that he had termed “love letters.” A National Weather Service map of Hurricane Dorian, which Trump had famously marked up with a black Sharpie pen to extend to Alabama.

	
		Under the Presidential Records Act, the items belonged to the American people. The Archives asked for them back.
</blockquote>


	We know who runs the National Archives and what they want.


	The&nbsp;National Weather Service map of Hurricane Dorian is one of those things that any proper lefty will recognize but that most conservatives have never heard of. It was one of the dumb TDS&nbsp;<a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/05/donald-trump-hurricane-dorian-alabama-1482815">obsessions</a>.

<blockquote>
	
		President Donald Trump has been widely ridiculed for insisting that Alabama faced a grave threat from Hurricane Dorian and for even showing off a&nbsp;Sharpie-doctored map&nbsp;that added the state to the storm’s potential path of destruction.

	
		But was he really wrong?
</blockquote>


	The damn map wouldn't be a priority for anyone except lefties. While foreign correspondence should be maintained, it doesn't justify this level of harassment.

<blockquote>
	
		On Jan. 17 of this year, Trump relented, allowing a contractor for the Archives to load up 15 boxes at Mar-a-Lago and truck them north to a facility in Maryland. The boxes contained some of the notable items of the Trump presidency that Archives officials had sought.
</blockquote>


	As it turned out, this was a mistake because it provided the "resistance" with the materials for planning this raid.

<blockquote>
	
		But as Archives officials sifted through the recovered documents, they began to suspect some records were still missing.&nbsp;They also realized some of the returned material was clearly classified, including highly sensitive signals intelligence — intercepted electronic communications such as emails and phone calls of foreign leaders.

	
		...&nbsp;By February, Archives officials had formally referred the matter to the Justice Department.
</blockquote>


	This was a month later.

<blockquote>
	
		“He gets his back up every time they asked him for something,” said another Trump adviser. “He didn’t give them the documents because he didn’t want to. He doesn’t like those people. He doesn’t trust those people.”
</blockquote>


	Can't imagine why.

<blockquote>
	
		In early June, a small knot of federal investigators arrived at Mar-a-Lago to discuss the document issue with Trump’s lawyers. It was clear they believed their mission was serious — the team was headed by Jay Bratt, chief of counterintelligence and export control, the division of the Justice Department that leads investigations into leaks of government secrets.

	
		Trump greeted the officials and offered a show of cooperation, said Bobb, who attended the meeting along with another lawyer for the former president, Evan Corcoran. “He pointed to the attorneys there and said, ‘anything they need, make sure they do it,’ ” she told Fox News.

	
		Bobb told The Post that the group toured the storage facility, opening boxes and flipping through the records inside. She said Justice Department officials indicated they did not believe the storage unit was properly secured, so Trump officials added a lock to the facility.
</blockquote>


	There was no reason for the escalation. This was a political move.

What the National Archives Wanted From Trump: A Weather Map

From a New York Times article trying to justify this farce.


	
		In the spring of 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration, the government

What the National Archives Wanted From Trump: A Weather Map

What does it take to get charged with first-degree attempted murder in New York?&nbsp;


	Stabbing a top target of Islamic terror <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/08/13/officials-ban-post-and-ap-from-arraignment-of-suspect-in-rushdie-attack/?lctg=6079a542373dd11b6e38368d">isn't enough</a>?

<blockquote>
	
		Authorities in upstate New York&nbsp;tried to bar the press&nbsp;from attending the arraignment of Hadi Matar, the New Jersey man accused of the stabbing of writer Salman Rushdie.
</blockquote>


	What were they trying <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/13/us/salman-rushdie-attacked-saturday/index.html">to cover up</a>?

<blockquote>
	
		The man suspected of stabbing renowned author Salman Rushdie in western New York pleaded not guilty Saturday to attempted murder in the second degree and other charges, his attorney says.
</blockquote>


	Right now this is being handled by the county prosecutor even though this is terrorism which is a federal issue. The feds poke their noses into places where they don't&nbsp;belong and then carefully avoid cases where they do.


	New York's penal code notes that murder in the second degree includes situation where "the defendant acted under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance for which there was a reasonable explanation or excuse, the reasonableness of which is to be determined from the viewpoint of a person in the defendant's situation."


	I'm not saying this is the rationale here, I don't know whether it is or not in play.


	Murder in the second degree and assault in the second degree are oddly light for what was an obvious murder attempt. Not to mention domestic terrorism.


	&nbsp;

Rushdie Stabber Only Charged With Second-Degree Attempted Murder, Authorities Try to Bar Press

What does it take to get charged with first-degree attempted murder in New York?&nbsp;


	Stabbing a top target of Islamic terror isn't enough?

Rushdie Stabber Only Charged With Second-Degree Attempted Murder, Authorities Try to Bar Press

One of the problems with federal authority is the constant overreach. Federal law enforcement was supposed to focus on cases with its purview. How is this <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/southern-baptists-say-denomination-faces-doj-investigation/">within its purview</a>?

<blockquote>
	
		The Justice Department (DOJ) has opened a federal investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the second-largest Christian domination in the country, following a report that alleged church leaders ignored survivors of sexual abuse.

	
		The DOJ investigation will include “multiple entities” of the SBC, and each entity intends to cooperate with the investigation, according to a&nbsp;statement&nbsp;from the SBC.
</blockquote>


	The DOJ had opened an investigation into sex abuse cases in the&nbsp;Catholic Church in 2018 and came up with nothing more than a defrocked priest "lying to the FBI" which is basically an admission that this was a waste of everyone's time but that the people in charge wanted to act like they had come away with something.


	The laborious grounds for a federal investigation of the Catholic Church in Philly was looking for whether priests had used child porn or if church leaders used church funds to cover up misconduct. That was somewhere between a fishing expedition and a very long reach. It was pretty obviously a case of the federal government looking for excuses to intrude into areas it had no particular reason to be. Never mind proposals to use racketeering charges.


	Using RICO against political and cultural opponents is obviously a dream.&nbsp;


	Now maybe this is all above board, but the SBC is conservative-leaning and under AG Garland, the DOJ has become a political machine targeting political opponents.


	It's unclear if the SBC investigation is national or by a local office, but either way there are basic questions about who is responsible and what the scope is. As the recent Mar-a-Lago raid reminds us, federal secrecy allows civil rights to die in darkness while political corruption thrives.


	The public deserves answers about the agendas behind the scenes.

Why is Biden's DOJ Investigating Southern Baptist Sex Allegations?

One of the problems with federal authority is the constant overreach. Federal law enforcement was supposed to focus on cases with its purview. How is this

Why is Biden's DOJ Investigating Southern Baptist Sex Allegations?

Compare Biden's statement on the Rushdie attack to his statement on the death of terror collaborator&nbsp;Jamal Khashoggi.&nbsp;

<blockquote>
	
		"Two years ago, Saudi operatives, reportedly acting at the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, murdered and dismembered Saudi dissident, journalist, and U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi. His offense — for which he paid with his life — was criticizing the policies of his government".
</blockquote>


	Here's Biden's statement on the recent Islamic terror attack on Salman Rushdie. See if you can spot what's missing.

<blockquote>
	
		"Jill and I were shocked and saddened to learn of the&nbsp;vicious&nbsp;attack on Salman Rushdie yesterday in New York. We, together with all Americans and people around the world, are praying for his&nbsp;health and&nbsp;recovery. I am grateful to the first responders&nbsp;and the&nbsp;brave&nbsp;individuals&nbsp;who jumped into action&nbsp;to render&nbsp;aid to Rushdie and&nbsp;subdue the attacker.&nbsp;

	
		Salman&nbsp;Rushdie—with his&nbsp;insight into humanity,&nbsp;with&nbsp;his unmatched sense for story, with his refusal to be intimidated or silenced—stands for essential,&nbsp;universal&nbsp;ideals.&nbsp;Truth. Courage.&nbsp;Resilience. The ability&nbsp;to&nbsp;share ideas&nbsp;without fear. These are the building blocks of any free and open society. And today, we reaffirm our commitment to those deeply American values in solidarity with Rushdie and all those who stand for freedom of expression."&nbsp;
</blockquote>


	There's a good deal of praise for Rushdie, but no condemnation of the attack and its backers in Iran. It would be awkward for Biden to condemn the regime he's collaborating with on a deal to legitimize its nuclear weapons program.


	And this is how you can tell what a statement is covering up about the author. Don't just look at what's there, but look at what's missing.

Biden Statement on Rushdie Attack Fails to Condemn Islamic Terrorism

Compare Biden's statement on the Rushdie attack to his statement on the death of terror collaborator&nbsp;Jamal Khashoggi.&nbsp;


	
		"Two years ago,

Biden Statement on Rushdie Attack Fails to Condemn Islamic Terrorism

On the morning of February 25, 2019, two prominent leaders of the New England Jewish community walked into a Boston police station to report that I had committed an anti-Jewish hate crime against both of them by threatening them with bodily harm. Robert Trestan, the New England regional executive director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Jeremy Burton, the executive director of Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/412966682/Ilya-Incident-Report-02-25-19?secret_password=700fjsxlmDWlsexNiRn6">told</a> the police that I was motivated by anti-Jewish bias, and that they were in fear for their physical safety as a result.


	But, when Boston Police Department (BPD) detectives <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/412966576/Memo-to-BPD-Civil-Rights-Unit-Detectives?secret_password=Cfs7iivPZhQ2j0Dyv8ZS">spoke</a> to my attorney, Jewish civil rights advocate Karen Hurvitz, they were surprised to learn that I myself am Jewish and that, like Trestan and Burton, I am the executive director of a Jewish 501(c)(3) non-profit, Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), which confronts anti-Jewish bias as part of its primary mission.


	In these troubled times, law enforcement cannot take reports of violent threats against Jewish leaders lightly. The level of urgency was upped several notches in this case because Messrs. Trestan and Burton, as prominent civic leaders in New England, have close personal relationships with Boston’s <a href="http://www.zimbio.com/photos/William+Gross/Robert+Trestan">chief of police</a> and <a href="https://www.boston25news.com/news/massachusetts/annual-community-seder-to-focus-on-unity-and-healing/499795064">mayor</a>, the Suffolk County <a href="https://twitter.com/rtrestan/status/1121564075673231360">district attorney</a>, the local <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/us-attorneys-office-and-anti-defamation-league-commemorate-5th-anniversary-federal-hate">U.S. Attorney’s office</a>, and the <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/names/2016/08/24/governor-police-chiefs-pols-attend-adl-event/zSLmrzWil5ey5QUYsixbgI/story.html">governor</a> of Massachusetts, among others. Mr. Trestan is a <a href="https://patch.com/massachusetts/needham/needham-resident-appointed-as-adl-regional-director">civil rights attorney</a>, had <a href="https://newengland.adl.org/news/robert-trestan-at-white-house-summit-on-extremism-anti-semitism-remains-at-the-core-of-extremist-ideology/">advised</a> the Obama White House on countering violent extremism, was <a href="https://bostonpolicefoundation.org/adl-executive-director/">honored</a> by the Boston Police Foundation, and <a href="https://www.mass.gov/news/baker-polito-administration-re-establishes-governors-task-force-on-hate-crimes">currently sits</a> on the governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes. Galvanized by the threat of prominent Jewish leaders being targeted by a dangerous criminal, scarce police resources were immediately mobilized to investigate the alleged threats.


	Once the BPD detectives learned that I was a Jewish community leader, they were, understandably, confused as to why two Jewish executive directors would call the cops on another one and falsely accuse him of an anti-Jewish hate crime. My attorney explained the likely motive: my recent <a href="https://thefederalist.com/2019/02/13/gop-governor-embraces-radical-muslim-cleric-somehow-makes-westboro-baptist-look-acceptable/">article</a> in The Federalist, in which I was highly critical of Trestan and Burton’s leadership. The article criticized Trestan and Burton for politicizing the Boston Jewish community’s vigil for the victims of the 2018 Pittsburg synagogue massacre by <a href="https://www.boston25news.com/news/tears-candles-and-action-a-moment-shared-on-boston-common/861890785">turning it</a> into an anti-Trump resistance rally.


	Worse, the article noted that they had invited a real anti-Semite – Hamas-linked Boston imam Yasir Fahmy, to promote his agenda at this vigil. The article came with video of Imam Fahmy preaching to Boston’s Muslims that the Jews of Israel are desecrating the Al Aqsa mosque on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount – a <a href="http://jcpa.org/al-aksa-is-in-danger-libel/">widespread</a> anti-Semitic slander that has led to murderous violence against Jews. Trestan’s ADL usually <a href="https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/un-turns-blind-eye-to-palestinian-violence-and-anti-semitic-incitement-at">censures</a> Arab and Muslim <a href="https://www.adl.org/blog/arabic-language-media-features-anti-semitic-cartoons-in-response-to-temple-mount-crisis">leaders</a> who resort to this sort of <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/jerusalem-and-the-temple-mount-status-quo">antisemitic incitement</a> over the Temple Mount, instead of inviting them to speak at a vigil for antisemitism’s victims.


	The article also revealed that Imam Fahmy preaches to Boston’s Muslims the same religious fundamentalist views about homosexuality that Mr. Burton loudly <a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-pride-attack-is-a-call-to-action-for-all-jewish-communities/">denounces</a> when they are preached by Jewish rabbis. Burton, who has written <a href="http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/paladinos-bias-and-the-charedim-time-to-speak-out/">heartbreaking</a> accounts of being driven close to suicide by the intolerance he faced growing up gay in the Orthodox Jewish community, appears to be relatively less anxious about the emotional health of gay Muslim youths at Imam Fahmy’s mosque. Instead of loudly denouncing Fahmy, a few weeks after the article came out, Burton came to Fahmy’s mosque to <a href="https://www.jcrcboston.org/ed-jeremy-burton-remarks-at-isbcc-khutbah-service-on-march-15th-2019/">praise</a> the hate preacher, calling him “my teacher, Shaykh Yasir.”


	The detectives saw what was really going on. “Tell me if I’m getting this correctly,” one of them asked my attorney. “All of them are Jews, but Feoktistov is more on the Right, and Trestan and Burton are more on the Left when it comes to politics?”


	I do not doubt that Messrs. Trestan and Burton were quite upset by the article and emails that I sent them about it. Most people do not enjoy criticism. Then again, most people do not try to get their critics arrested for it. According to the police <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/412966682/Ilya-Incident-Report-02-25-19?secret_password=700fjsxlmDWlsexNiRn6">incident report</a>, Trestan and Burton complained that “they receive emails regularly from the suspect (Ilya Feoktistov) that are offensive/ harsh in nature in regards to their work.” The <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/414390298/Trouble-on-the-Temple-Mount-Again?secret_password=f03WHldVYm1T5Ma6lIj0">email</a> that they claimed threatened them with bodily harm ended with this line:

<blockquote>
	
		“I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’”
</blockquote>


	To two non-Jewish Boston cops, this ‘disaster’ stuff, combined with Trestan and Burton’s misrepresentations to the police, might well sound like a potential threat. Instead, as the detectives learned, it was Jeremiah 18:11, a Bible passage included in the email under the apparently-mistaken assumption that Boston’s Jewish leaders know Jewish scripture. In the passage, the prophet Jeremiah criticizes the failures of the Jewish leaders of his time, predicting disaster for the entire people if their rulers continued to ignore threats to Israel’s safety. Ironically, Burton and Trestan now seem to mimic those corrupt ancient Jewish leaders, who responded to Jeremiah’s warning by having him arrested, saying:

<blockquote>
	
		“Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.” (Jeremiah 18:18.)
</blockquote>


	It is possible that Trestan and Burton are simply illiterate when it comes to their religion’s holy texts and had failed to distinguish Jewish scripture from an anti-Jewish threat; that they were then genuinely panic-stricken by the email and were compelled to report the Bible lesson as a hate crime. But I doubt it. Jeremiah is so well-known for preaching disaster that his name is <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jeremiad">synonymous</a> with the angry harangue against the <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/01/15/state-politicians-mark-martin-luther-king-day/Alo0FdOsfHgcDRRZVZGkgJ/story.html">powerful</a>. The part of Jeremiah (18:1-12) containing the verse is one of the most-quoted allegories in the Hebrew Bible – the piece of clay in the potter’s hand – and is <a href="https://hartman.org.il/Blogs_View.asp?Article_Id=1800&amp;Cat_Id=275&amp;Cat_Type=">part</a> of the traditional evening prayers on the holiest day of the Jewish year, Yom Kippur. Burton, who identifies as an Orthodox Jew, is himself <a href="https://twitter.com/BurtonJM/status/568893011859349504">fond of quoting</a> Jeremiah. Perhaps he and Trestan nevertheless didn’t get the reference. Or perhaps they knew what they were doing when they came up with their plot.


	Thankfully, once the detectives figured out that I had gotten “jussied” – that Burton and Trestan had filed a fake hate crime report against me for political reasons – I was off the hook. Unfortunately, there is little chance that these well-connected grandees are now going be held <a href="https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartIV/TitleI/Chapter269/Section13A">accountable</a>, like ordinary folks who file a false police report, by their own friends in law enforcement.


	Trestan and Burton’s misappropriation of the criminal process as a personal tool to quash public criticism is Kafkaesque by American standards, but lame compared to what people like them can do when the state allows them to denounce their fellow citizens for crimes of speech and thought. In the Soviet Union, it was common knowledge then that there were <a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/stukach">people</a> in that society who, for venal, malicious, or ideological reasons, would reach out to those with the legal authority to use violent force and secretly provide false denunciations against their foes or rivals. These people exist in every society. In the United States, however, the destructive influence of such people on the social and moral fabric is mitigated by due process, democratic norms, and, among those familiar with scripture, the commandment against bearing false witness.


	Like their 20th Century comrades in my former homeland, contemporary leftists are not bound by such restraints. Censoring speech and opinion that they do not like, to the point of resorting to false denunciations, has often become standard practice for the progressive movement within the spheres where it is dominant. Even as they steadily lose legitimacy in the Jewish community due to the growth of anti-Semitism on the Left, progressive Jewish leaders like Trestan and Burton demand ever greater authority to dictate proper opinions to American Jews.


	Recently, while defending Democrat Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib from charges of anti-Semitism, Burton <a href="https://www.jcrcboston.org/lessons-from-the-tlaib-controversy/">insisted</a>, emphatically and without irony, that the nation’s media and government must grant leftist Jewish leaders like him and Trestan, “leaders who represent the sensibility of our community,” the exclusive privilege “to determine what is, or is not, anti-Semitic.” Even without this privilege, leftist Jewish leaders like Trestan and Burton presume to appropriate anti-Semitism as an exclusive label for their political enemies; resulting in the absurdity of Burton telling Boston’s police that I am an anti-Semite, and telling Boston’s Jews that Rashida Tlaib is not.


	Crying “anti-Semites!” at their political opponents as the proverbial wolves will, at some point, stop working for progressive Jewish leaders if they continue to devalue the term for their own political advantage to the point of meaninglessness. Ultimately, the real wolf shows up, and all of us – except perhaps Trestan and Burton – have read how the story ends.

Bearing False Witness

On the morning of February 25, 2019, two prominent leaders of the New England Jewish community walked into a Boston police station to report that I had

Bearing False Witness

Newton, Massachusetts, a large Boston suburb, has an anti-Semitism problem in its public schools. Some Newton high school teachers, trained by Saudi and Qatari-funded curriculum mills, teach about the history of the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict in <a>ways</a> that the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ajc-praises-us-education-department-use-of-anti-semitism-working-definition-300706650.html">defines</a> as anti-Semitic.


	Influenced by anti-Semitic classroom portrayals of the Jewish state, some Newton students have bullied their Jewish classmates with Nazi <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvsD87-TBQE">comparisons</a>; and swastikas have <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2016/06/29/newton-principal-center-graffiti-controversy-transferred/t89QCNHsV8QnfKTRrKKkPN/story.html">appeared</a> at a <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/regionals/west/2017/02/08/swastikas-offensive-posts-reported-newton-north/Jr25lqsEHqTiwLwsatCN0I/story.html">couple</a> of schools.


	In response to the situation, local activists have been engaged in grassroots campaigns to remove the anti-Semitic elements in the Middle East curriculum. The campaign, initiated by APT, strongly supported by CAMERA, and recently joined by the group Education Without Indoctrination (EWI), has included an in-depth investigation of the curriculum by APT, a short APT <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_6w1nujk2Q">documentary</a> about the events, a scholarly <a href="https://www.schoolbias.org/">report</a> by CAMERA analyzing curricular materials, numerous published articles, as well as correspondence with the school committee, the school superintendent, and Newton’s mayor. More recently EWI initiated a lawsuit against the Newton School Committee over an illegal lack of transparency. National <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/08/13/anti-trump-teachers-conspired-reject-teaching-objectivity-students">news stories</a> have emerged about biased teaching in Newton schools.


	Now, after seven years of grassroots campaigns, Boston’s establishment Jewish leaders, who were for a long time reluctant to address the problem, have finally acknowledged it. On October 9, at a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.israeliamerican.org/boston/iac-events/newton-public-schools-middle-east-curriculum-panel-discussion-qa">public&nbsp;meeting</a> hosted by the&nbsp;Israeli-American Congress (IAC), the&nbsp;Jewish Community Relations Council, the New England branch of the ADL, and the&nbsp;Committee on Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), all discussed&nbsp;the biased Middle East curriculum at Newton schools. &nbsp;All the groups, including the IAC, agreed that the curriculum and the teachers who use it are promoting anti-Israel lies to Newton students. The event further augmented the mounting negative publicity and pressure on the schools and teachers to act. Instead of addressing the problem, the very next day the educational establishment in the city struck back.


	On October 10, Newton North High School teachers staged a protest against Jewish community’s concerns about their teaching. The protest was led by David Bedar and John Fitzgerald, two history teachers who have attended the Qatar-funded anti-Israel teacher trainings exposed by APT. The protestors, among whom were young children and Newton Schools Superintendent David Fleishman, ignored the concerns of the Jewish community, and portrayed the biased teachers, as opposed to Newton’s Jewish students, as the real victims of bullying and harassment. Some teachers were holding signs reading, “Defeat Hate, Defend Newton.” That the two missives are mutually exclusive never occurred to these teachers, who claim to teach critical thinking. Neither did the irony in a claim that exposing hate and civil rights violations by adult teachers against minority students amounts to bullying the teachers.


	None of the speakers at the rally addressed the substance of the Jewish community’s allegation that Newton teachers had taught anti-Semitic lies given to them as lesson plans at teacher workshops sponsored by the Jew-hating regimes of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. None mentioned that the Jewish community might be upset because teachers had handed out falsified primary documents, a Hamas Charter, for example, that erased Hamas’s call for the murder of all the world’s Jews; or a set of PLO propaganda maps with the PLO branding removed so that the students would think the maps were factual. The lesson for Newton students?


	The teachers coopted a reporter for the Newton Patch “hyperlocal news” website, Jenna Fisher, to engage in a slanderous and hateful attack against those representing the Newton Jewish community’s concerns. The way Ms. Fisher has it in the article, “Jewish community groups including the ADL, JCRC, Israeli-American Congress and CAMERA” aren’t at all interested in “good-faith discussion.” Instead, the Jewish groups are “bullying and harassing” the poor teachers.


	Ms. Fisher reserved her most serious libels for my organization, APT, and her go-to source for these libels was the Massachusetts branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/resources/profiles/the-council-on-american-islamic-relations-cair">According</a> to the FBI, “CAIR and its founders were part of a group set up by the Muslim Brotherhood to support Hamas,” an organization whose <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/what-would-hamas-do-if-it-could-do-whatever-it-wanted/375545/">charter calls</a> for the murder of every Jew on the planet. In 2009, a federal district judge <a href="https://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1425.pdf">ruled</a> that prosecutors in the largest terrorist fundraising trial in American history have established “at least a prima facie case as to CAIR’s involvement in a conspiracy to support Hamas.” CAIR has helped raise millions of dollars for Hamas terrorists. &nbsp;&nbsp;It’s not surprising that a Massachusetts organization connected to the genocidal Jew-hating terror group Hamas will make false and vicious claims against APT. &nbsp;What is surprising is that a reporter like Ms. Fisher, whether due to malice or incompetence, fails to see that.


	Sheikh Ahmed Mansour, an Al Azhar-educated moderate Islamic scholar sits on APT’s board of directors. CAIR’s associates in Egypt tried to have him killed. APT’s president, Charles Jacobs, was <a href="http://www.iabolish.org/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=19:dr-charles-jacobs&amp;catid=3:speakers-bureau&amp;Itemid=5">honored</a> by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow, Coretta Scott, for freeing tens of thousands of black African slaves – many of whom were Muslims – in the 1990s. Newton history teachers, on the other hand, minimize the significance of modern-day slavery in their lessons. According to a <a href="https://virtuecenter.s3.amazonaws.com/files/2012-08-27-17/MAR_Report_ADGC_Bilingual_072011_sa_LR_web.pdf">Gallup poll</a>, 88% of American Muslims say that CAIR does not best represent them. On the other hand, the Boston Jewish Advocate wrote in an <a href="https://www.thejewishadvocate.com/articles/marginalizing-disagreement-is-not-jewish/">editorial</a> early this year that “APT, which many members of the Jewish community support with their hearts, minds, efforts and dollars . . . clearly represents a significant segment of our Jewish community.”


	With their mindless slurs, Newton’s teachers have taught their students that race-baiting insults are preferable to good arguments in their classrooms. They and Ms. Fisher have now taken a stand in support of biased and hateful teaching, and against the Newton Jewish community’s concerns, while wrapping their intolerance in the mantle of fighting hatred. It remains to be seen how the school committee and the decent residents of Newton will respond.

Newton's Anti-Semitism Problem

Newton, Massachusetts, a large Boston suburb, has an anti-Semitism problem in its public schools. Some Newton high school teachers, trained by Saudi and Qatari

David Horowitz is a right-of-center Jewish civil rights activist who exposes terrorists, especially those who want to kill Jewish people. Recently, MasterCard and Visa <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/35068/credit-card-companies-restore-donations-paul-bois">temporarily blocked</a> David Horowitz’s organization, the Freedom Center, from taking online donations, accusing it of being a “hate group.” Meanwhile, top Hamas terrorist Husam Badran has been walking around Doha, Qatar with a Visa debit card, and, quite likely, a MasterCard credit card, in his wallet. Badran is a major money launderer and a mastermind of some of the designated terrorist group’s most heinous murders of innocent Jewish men, women and children. That, apparently, doesn’t stop him from holding Visa and Mastercard plastic.


	In April of 2016, Qatar National Bank (QNB), where Mr. Badran has kept an account since August 4, 2015, was hacked, with its entire customer database leaked on the Dark Web. I helped analyze it for Shurat HaDin, the indispensable Israeli law group renowned for representing Israeli terror victims in American courts. &nbsp;Within the database, I found Mr. Badran’s account and personally-identifying information. Shurat HaDin’s sources in Israel confirmed his identity and bank account information. His debit card is a Visa product called Visa Electron, and all the transactions he makes on it, including ATM cash deposits and withdrawals, are routed through one of Visa’s two payment processing centers in the United States. Visa did not respond to a request for comment for this column. Based on the Visa debit card number, it seems to be linked to a MasterCard credit card issued by the Qatari branch of United Bank Limited, a British bank.


	Mr. Badran’s credit history in Qatar is quite recent. He spent 2002-2011 in Israeli prison for his role in <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/pressroom/2002/pages/arrest%20of%20husam%20ataf%20ali%20badran-%20head%20of%20the%20hamas.aspx">orchestrating</a> the early Second Intifada suicide bombings of the Dolphinarium disco in Tel Aviv, of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem, of a Passover Seder at the Park Hotel in Netanya, of the Matza restaurant in Haifa, and several others. More than one hundred people were killed in these attacks, with hundreds more maimed and crippled. Previously the head of the Hamas military wing in the northern West Bank, Badran was released by Israel in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap in 2011. Once free, he moved to Qatar, where he became the terrorist group’s chief spokesman – and where he got himself Visa and, likely, Mastercard plastic.


	The <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/corbyn-who-sought-israels-demise-is-an-anti-semite-labour-must-kick-him-out/">anti-Semitic</a> British Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is currently under fire for <a href="https://www.jta.org/2018/08/20/top-headlines/corbyn-appeared-stage-2012-hamas-terror-chief">meeting</a> with Badran and other Hamas terrorists in Qatar shortly after Badran’s release by Israel. No wonder – from Qatar, Badran <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/after-arson-hamas-urges-lone-wolf-attacks-on-israelis/">issues</a> calls for the murders of Jewish civilians, <a href="https://english.palinfo.com/news/2018/1/10/Badran-The-Nablus-operation-heroic-and-daring">proclaims</a> successful murders as “heroic operations,” and <a href="https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Shin-Bet-Hamas-attempt-to-build-terror-network-in-West-Bank-thwarted-in-raids-407674">launders</a> massive sums of money for Hamas in the West Bank. Just a month before he opened up his Visa Electron account at Qatar National Bank, the Israeli Shin Bet security service <a href="https://www.idf.il/en/minisites/hamas/when-hamas-tries-to-establish-a-terror-network-we-stop-them/">revealed</a> – and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-hamas/israel-says-arrests-dozens-of-hamas-militants-in-west-bank-idUSKCN0PB4L620150701">global</a> media widely reported – that Badran was moving hundreds of thousands of dollars to a Hamas terrorist cell in Nablus through a complex terrorism financing and money laundering scheme.


	Husam Badran is not the only terrorist financier who has a Visa Electron debit card from Qatar National Bank. Yusuf Qaradawi, whom the Anti-Defamation League has <a href="https://www.adl.org/news/article/sheik-yusuf-al-qaradawi-theologian-of-terror">dubbed</a> the Theologian of Terror and who has <a href="https://www.memri.org/reports/sheikh-yousef-al-qaradhawi-al-jazeera-incites-against-jews-arab-regimes-and-us-calls-muslims">called</a> for Jews to be slaughtered “down to the very last one,” has had a Visa Electron debit card since he opened his account at the bank on September 20, 2006. Qaradawi is the <a href="http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/pressroom/2008/pages/defense%20minister%20signs%20order%20banning%20hamas-affiliated%20charitable%20organizations%207-jul-2008.aspx">chairman</a> of a Hamas charity called Union of Good, which has been <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/terrorist-illicit-finance/Pages/protecting-union-of-good.aspx">listed</a> as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist group by the U.S. Treasury Department since 2008. And yet I have found a total of twenty-nine different Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards issued to him and his family members through Qatar National Bank long after Qaradawi’s charity was designated. Two of his daughters even have Platinum and Titanium cards from the two payment processing giants.


	The financial compliance department at Visa, and, likely, the one at MasterCard, seem to have rather peculiar priorities. An Islamic terrorist can get himself some plastic right after he’s caught laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars for Hamas. At the same time, a Jewish civil rights activist can get himself blocked by Visa and MasterCard because he runs a group that criticizes Islamic terrorists. The Visa and MasterCard financial compliance departments might, for now, be more interested in cutting right-wing Jews off from the United States financial system; but it is terrorism financing that the United States federal government is after. Compliance executives at the largest payment processing giants in the world ought to understand the potential legal consequences of having Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood leaders as clients.


	Federal criminal statutes outlaw material support for criminal terrorist acts and for specially designated terrorist organizations. Providing debit cards to top leaders of Hamas like Husam Badran and chairmen of Hamas charities like Yusuf Qaradawi is almost certainly within the realm of material support for terrorist acts and groups as defined by these statutes and Supreme Court jurisprudence, which includes financial services, as well as expert advice or assistance. There is little to no doubt that Badran and Qaradawi themselves would be proven guilty of material support for terrorism due to their key roles in raising money for Hamas – if the U.S. government was able to catch them. Instead, the U.S. government can just go after Visa. Since Husam Badran presumably derives his personal income from his work for Hamas, the personal money that he deposits, withdraws, and spends using his Visa Electron card is therefore derived from the proceeds of material support for terrorism, which is a predicate crime under money laundering statutes. As a result, whatever part of that money he spends on promoting further terrorism financing or terrorist violence, makes him guilty of U.S. money laundering “promotion” crimes – and creates criminal liability for Visa and, likely, MasterCard as his financial institutions under several money laundering laws.


	Visa and MasterCard do not have to be aware of who Badran is or what laws he might be breaking with the help of their services in order to be criminally liable for taking him on as a client. If at least $10,000 of Hamas cash, in the aggregate, flowed through Visa’s payment processing centers in the United States, as all worldwide Visa payments do, Visa could be on the hook for violating the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986. Same for MasterCard. It could get even worse. According to federal regulations, a financial institution like Visa or MasterCard must file a Suspicious Activity Report when it “knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that” transactions totaling $5,000 or more involve funds derived from illegal activity. Failure to file is a strict liability criminal offense.


	What’s more, the USA PATRIOT Act requires financial institutions like Visa and MasterCard to maintain Know Your Customer programs. Every customer must be screened and due diligence research on each customer must be done to make sure that he will not pose a financial compliance risk to the institution by abusing its services to commit crimes. If such a customer or abuse is identified, even after he becomes a customer, the federal government requires financial institutions, under penalty of criminal law, to file a Suspicious Activity Report for aggregate transactions over $5,000 and, in some situations, to shut down the customer’s accounts.


	Lastly, U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions regulations forbid U.S. companies from facilitating transactions by foreign companies with specially designated terrorist individuals and groups, even when that facilitation is indirect and very limited. Visa and, likely, MasterCard, could therefore be liable for sanctions violations if its Visa Electron product facilitated Hamas payments to Badran and Badran’s material support for Hamas through Qatar National Bank in any fashion.


	It appears that Visa failed to obey all these laws in issuing Husam Badran his debit card, which, according to the hacked QNB database, does not expire until July of 2020 and is therefore possibly still being used. As a result, the executives and the employees responsible for this failure could be held criminally liable and face prison time. Visa or MasterCard’s license to operate could be pulled. And, most importantly, more American and Israeli civilians could be murdered by the Hamas terrorists who are financed and led by Husam Badran. Who else might be using Visa and MasterCard products served up by shady foreign banks in terrorist havens like Qatar? How wide-spread is this problem?


	Visa’s Know Your Customer programs and processes, mandated by federal law, have clearly failed to prevent its services from being used to materially support terrorism against Jews. The same seems to be&nbsp; the case with MasterCard. And yet, Visa and MasterCard seem more concerned about suppressing American Jewish civil rights groups than they do about their possible role in helping to finance the murders of Jews.


	David Horowitz ought to go after Visa and/or MasterCard. for potentially violating his civil rights. Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ought to go after the payment processing companies for potentially violating federal counter-terrorism financing and anti-money laundering laws. If probable cause exists, those individual employees and officers of Visa and/or MasterCard responsible, as well as the corporations themselves, should be criminally prosecuted. Terrorism financing is a serious and deadly crime. Speaking out against terrorism, on the other hand, is a blessed service to all of us. Visa and MasterCard need to be taught a lesson in how to tell the difference.

Visa, MasterCard and the War on The Freedom Center

David Horowitz is a right-of-center Jewish civil rights activist who exposes terrorists, especially those who want to kill Jewish people. Recently, MasterCard

<a href="/sites/default/files/uploads/2014/03/1unnamed.jpg"><img alt="1unnamed" src="/sites/default/files/uploads/2014/03/1unnamed.jpg" width="235" height="280" /></a>A young man from Brookline, Massachusetts poses for a photo somewhere inside the Palestinian territories. He’s got a bullet belt wrapped around his shoulders, wannabe-Rambo-style. Together with a young woman, he’s proudly showing off a terror group’s PK-class machine gun. A gun like that can take down a helicopter or pierce a Humvee’s armor. The AR-15 “assault” gun used to massacre the children of Newtown, CT is little better than an old hunting rifle compared to the firing power of this killing machine, whose likely main purpose is to massacre the children (and adults) of Israel.
The young man is Max Geller, leader and spokesman of Northeastern University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (NU SJP). The young woman is also a NU SJP member.
Last week, Northeastern suspended NU SJP after years of anti-Semitic vandalism, glorification of terrorist groups, calls for the destruction of Israel, and other actions by NU SJP’s leadership, all of which have created a hostile learning environment for Jewish pro-Israel students on campus.
NU SJP emerged as a belligerent presence at Northeastern when its members <a href="http://youtu.be/ppCV6EHksK0">crashed</a> a Holocaust Awareness Week event in 2011 by whipping out anti-Israel signs and yelling insults at the audience and speakers before storming out.
By 2012, NU SJP faculty advisor M. Shahid Alam was bragging to SJP members at one of the group’s meetings that anti-Israel activism on campus has made pro-Israel students afraid to speak out in support of the Jewish State. He <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9mmOilcDA4">can be seen</a> suggesting to NU SJP members that they should be proud to be called anti-Semites and that they should wear this label as a badge of honor.
During the 2012 Israel Apartheid Week, members of Students for Justice in Palestine vandalized the campus with anti-Semitic messages, specifically targeting and defacing the statue of a Jewish donor and trustee of the university.
Israel’s November 2012 operation against deadly rocket fire from Gaza gave NU SJP the opportunity to take their disruptive tactics into the Boston neighborhoods surrounding Northeastern. Protests organized by NU SJP shut down traffic in sections of downtown Boston’s dense Back Bay neighborhood, as its members marched from Northeastern’s campus to the Israeli Consulate. The protesters’ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Dv_PcP4aU">chants of choice</a> were: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” – a call for the destruction of the entire Jewish state, and: “Resistance is justified when people are occupied” – a justification of Palestinian terrorism against Israeli civilians.
At one such protest, NU SJP spokesman Max Geller decided to wear a headband with the emblem of Palestinian Islamic Jihad – the most violent Palestinian terrorist group. Geller has a penchant for fetishizing terrorists, having posted pictures of himself wearing a Hizbullah flag T-shirt and a T-shirt glorifying Hizbullah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah.
<div class="caption"><a href="/sites/default/files/uploads/2014/03/6unnamed.png"><img alt="6unnamed" src="/sites/default/files/uploads/2014/03/6unnamed.png" width="450" height="239" /></a> Image posting on Ryan Branagan's Facebook page.</div>
By 2013, NU SJP was beginning to get some pushback. After a series of <a href="http://www.shameonneu.com/">video exposes</a> by Americans for Peace and Tolerance detailing the anti-Semitic climate the group and sympathetic faculty created at Northeastern, the Zionist Organization of America <a href="http://shameonneu.com/docs/zoa_aoun.pdf">wrote a letter</a> to Northeastern’s administration asking that the university remedy the hostile campus environment for Jewish students. The administration commendably took action. Northeastern President Joseph Aoun made a campus-wide announcement that anti-Semitism will not be tolerated. NU SJP was put on probation.
The administration tried to come to a middle-ground resolution where NU SJP would maintain its status as a student group while at the same time moderating its behavior. The organization’s leaders were asked to meet with student life administrators and to sign a statement agreeing to follow campus rules. NU SJP refused to do either. Instead, its members and sympathizers began to lash out in increasingly threatening ways.
In September of 2013, Boston’s WBZ ran an investigative report featuring Jewish Northeastern students describing the threats and hostility they face on campus. NU SJP posted about the story on Facebook and the comments section under the online story was quickly flooded with anti-Semitic vitriol. A Jewish Northeastern student claiming that she too felt the hostility on campus was told that, “transfer is always an option… so is the oven.  … You need to take a shower, you filthy joo!” The comments <a href="http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/09/18/i-team-jewish-students-claim-discrimination-by-northeastern-professors/">remain published</a> on the WBZ website.
Responding to the WBZ report, Northeastern Law School grad and former NU SJP leader Andrew Pappone wrote: “At least the commenters on the article seem to be on the right side.”
Messages to Americans for Peace and Tolerance about Northeastern were more direct. One individual wrote: “you really need to die so allah can show you the right path … you Jews are all worthless to me, god bless Hitler for trying to do whats right … if i see a jew il tell him whats on my mind and if he has anything to say il decapitate him!! and il sit the rest of my life in jail with honor.” Nice.
Meanwhile, NU SJP continued to inflame the situation. Within two weeks in early 2014, it held two events with Jewish anti-Israel hate mongers Max Blumenthal and Ilan Pappe, who proclaimed from Northeastern’s podia that Israel must be destroyed.
On February 24, 2014, during this year’s Israel Apartheid Week, Northeastern students had fake eviction notices slipped under their dorm doors telling them that they were getting kicked out for no reason because that’s exactly what Israel does to the Palestinians. NU SJP then put out a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/nusjp/posts/10152319820839954">statement mocking </a> Northeastern Hillel’s reassuring message to Jewish students who felt threatened and isolated by this action.  In response, the administration suspended the group until 2015.
As one would expect, NU SJP is now playing the victim card, claiming that its free speech rights are being denied, and (echoing classic anti-Semitic memes) that it’s being repressed by an administration unduly influenced by certain “rich donors.” The anti-Israel blog mob is weighing in with its usual histrionics and rehearsing the “victim of Jewish pressure” theme.
Reflecting the moral confusion so common on campuses, Northeastern’s student newspaper is supporting NU SJP. Its <a href="http://huntnewsnu.com/2014/03/editorial-university-policies-amount-to-censorship/">editors bizarrely</a> claim that: "just because a rule [which NU SJP broke] is on the books it does not mean the school is right to enforce it."  According to the editorial, violations of campus rules are protected freedom of expression as long as such violations are motivated by a political purpose. Never mind that the political purpose in this case is to harass pro-Israel Jewish students.
Students for Justice in Palestine is a rogue <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3346/american-muslims-for-palestine-web-of-hamas">Hamas-linked</a> campus organization founded at UC Berkeley in 2000. It was at Berkeley in 2010 that SJP head Hussam Zakharia <a href="http://www.investigativeproject.org/3100/lawsuit-details-depth-of-berkeley-jewish-student">sent</a> a teenage Jewish girl to the hospital by smashing her in the back with a shopping cart for holding a sign that said “Israel Wants Peace.”
Like so many other radical organizations, SJP exploits academic freedom, free speech, and civic norms to promote an agenda of hate. Sadly, these days the only hatred tolerated on campus is the one directed at Israel and its supporters, and so administrations at dozens of other colleges continue to turn a blind eye to SJP bigotry. Hopefully, NU SJP’s justified suspension becomes a wakeup call for those schools as well.
Ilya Feoktistov is Director of Research at Americans for Peace and Tolerance.
Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>. 
<a href="http://horowitzfreedomcenter.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=caa6f67f1482e6214d83be62d&amp;id=c761755bdf" target="_blank">Subscribe</a> to Frontpage's TV show, The Glazov Gang, and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank">LIKE</a> it on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/glazovgang" target="_blank">Facebook.</a>

Northeastern U. Suspends 'Students for Justice in Palestine'

A young man from Brookline, Massachusetts poses for a photo somewhere inside the Palestinian territories. He’s got a bullet belt wrapped around his shoulders, 

<a href="/sites/default/files/uploads/2010/08/Rauf1.jpg"><img title="Rauf" src="/sites/default/files/uploads/2010/08/Rauf1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="261" /></a>
It’s now clear to most Americans that while Imam Feisal Rauf has the right to build his mosque wherever he desires, his decision to build it near Ground Zero is grossly insensitive, to say the least, and flies in the face of his reputation as a "moderate" bridge builder.  Let's take a closer look at whether Imam Rauf is truly a moderate Muslim leader whose teachings are in line with American principles.
New York Times’s Maureen Dowd insists that, “you have to be willfully blind not to know that the imam in charge of the project, Feisal Abdul Rauf, is the moderate Muslim we have allegedly been yearning for.” Others have suggested that Rauf can’t be a radical because he was selected to represent America to the Muslim world by President George W Bush. And many who have met him speak highly of his charm and apparent good will.
And yet, as we are by now well aware, Rauf has claimed that America’s policies “were an accessory” to 9/11, refuses to denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization, and proposes that our secular democracy be replaced with an Islamic state ruled by Sharia law. His supporters counter that the imam believes that the U.S. Constitution is already in line with Islamic law. Nonie Darwish, among others, <a href="/2010/08/27/sharia-for-dummies/">has exposed the gross absurdity </a>of that position.
A closer look at Imam Rauf’s published work on the topic of Sharia reveals a lot of what we need to know about this imam. His religious views are completely incompatible with the American social and political system.
In his book, What’s Right with Islam Is What’s Right with America, as well as during his numerous lectures at the Chautauqua Institute, Rauf postulated that the U.S. Constitution is the best embodiment of what he believes to be the second most important commandment from God: “Love thy neighbor.” But there’s a major caveat: according to Rauf, the American political system is missing the first and most important commandment: “Love thy God.”
It is on this specific assertion that Rauf departs from secular democratic ideals. Writing in Islam: A Sacred Law, What Every Muslim Should Know About Sharia, he points out the difference between the American government based on man-made law, and an Islamic system, which Allah authored:
<blockquote>God’s role in the explicit philosophical construct of the law makes a big difference between the modus operandi of a righteous Muslim judge in a Muslim court and a righteous Western judge in a Western court. […] The Muslim judge explicitly “reports to God.” The judge who sits in the Western court is only explicitly responsible to the Constitution, the interpretations of a civil law and its rules.</blockquote>

Rauf, then, is endorsing a theocracy in which there is no separation between religion and state. Indeed, he goes even further in his argument, claiming that religious Sharia law must govern all aspects of human life:
<blockquote>[S]ince a Sharia is understood as a law with God at its center, it is not possible in principle to limit the Sharia to some aspects of human life and leave out others. […]The sharia thus covers every field of law – public and private, national and international – together with enormous amounts of material that Westerners would not regard as law at all…</blockquote>
Among the fields of law Rauf claims must be governed by Sharia are laws controlling religious observances, criminal law (which, according to the Imam, “includes crimes such as murder, larceny, fornication, drinking alcohol, libel”), family law, and economic laws. According to him it is imperative that these laws be followed by all humanity for fear of displeasing God:
<blockquote>…if you don’t want to be accused by God of being a depraved, disbelieving wrongdoer, you’ve got to abide by "what Allah has sent down…"</blockquote>
Rauf’s book also describes the punishments that must be meted out to those who disobey Sharia:
<blockquote>Theft, for which the punishment according to the Quranic rule is: “As for the male thief and the female thief, cut off their hands, as a punishment for what they have earned, an exemplary punishment from Allah…”</blockquote>
<blockquote>The punishment for a fornicator, not bound by marriage, is according to the majority of jurists one hundred lashes of the whip and exile for one year.</blockquote>
Rauf diverges irredeemably from the core American principle separating religion and government in a secular democracy. For all the talk of his constitutional right to build a mosque, Rauf’s writings reveal his desire to ultimately extirpate the 1st Amendment (as well as the 21st) from the Constitution. No American, especially not self-described liberals like Maureen Dowd, should wish to see this happen.
Ilya Feoktistov is the Research Director of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, a Boston-based interfaith group devoted to promoting peaceful coexistence in an ethnically-diverse America.

The Ground Zero Imam's Troubling Texts

It’s now clear to most Americans that while Imam Feisal Rauf has the right to build his mosque wherever he desires, his decision to build it near Ground Zero

The Ground Zero Imam's Troubling Texts 

<a href="/sites/default/files/uploads/2010/02/muslimrrally3.jpg"><img title="muslimrrally3" src="/sites/default/files/uploads/2010/02/muslimrrally3.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="224" /></a>
Rabbi Marc Schneier is a leading exponent of Jewish-Muslim dialogue. As founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, he recently <a href="http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/guestvoices/2010/01/jews_muslims_can_defeat_common_enemies.html">described in Newsweek</a> the successes of his second annual “Weekend of Twinning of Synagogues and Mosques.” This interfaith initiative brings together “100 synagogues and 100 mosques” for a weekend of interfaith programming. Unfortunately for the Rabbi, he used, as a local example of mosque-synagogue twinning the case in Buffalo, NY – a case which shows just how easily Jews can be deceived by radical Muslims posing as “moderates.”
“…Coming just days after the horror of extremist violence at Fort Hood ,” wrote Rabbi Schneier, “the Weekend of Twinning was heartening evidence that most Muslims are moderates, and that majorities in both the Muslim and Jewish communities seek better relations…”
It may well be true that most American Muslims are moderate, but the Jews in Buffalo seem to have got themselves snookered.
As the Research Director of an organization that investigates and scrutinizes radical Islamic groups, I was approached last fall by concerned members of the Buffalo Jewish community who asked us to help them understand the recent local efforts to forge Muslim-Jewish interfaith relationships. We were told that some of the groups and individuals behind this initiative are known for being sources of viciously anti-Israel activity and rhetoric. Together, we began a long effort to collect information on the Twinning. What we found was that the entities behind the Buffalo interfaith effort are anything but moderate.
As Rabbi Schneier describes in his Newsweek article, the event was conceived and coordinated by Robert Stall and Othman Shibly – a Jewish geriatrician and a Muslim dentist who worked to provide free health screenings to people in the community without health insurance. The doctors became close after jointly attending a medical conference in Damascus, Syria. During a break in the conference, Dr. Shibly took Dr. Stall to a Damascus mosque and introduced him to a respected Syrian cleric, Sheikh Rajab Deeb. Sheikh Deeb had been the top disciple of Dr. Shibly’s own spiritual mentor, the recently deceased Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro.
In his efforts to convince Buffalo Jewish leaders to join the Twinning, Dr. Stall has characterized Dr. Shibly and his Syrian spiritual leaders as moderate and peace-loving men of faith. Writing to a concerned community member, Dr. Stall said that, “Dr. Shibly’s efforts to improve the world by having different faiths work together, side by side, competing to outdo one another in good works, is to a large extent based in [sic] the teachings of Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, a Syrian imam who was in many ways ahead of his time.”
As proof of Kuftaro’s progressiveness, Dr. Stall provided links to Kuftaro’s English language articles with titles like “Spirituality in the 21st Century.” Jewish leaders who participated in the Twinning Weekend must have been convinced – Kuftaro’s disciple, Rajab Deeb, was linked in via Skype to address the interfaith event participants through an interpreter.
It is unfortunate that Dr. Stall and the Jewish participants didn’t consult an interpreter earlier, for while the Sheikhs’ English-language websites are full of new-age fluff about interfaith spirituality, the Arab-language sections contained something different.
A video recording of Kuftaro’s August 18, 2003 sermon on “Islam and Terrorism” posted on his website began with a section on, “The control of the Jewish lobby on world opinion,” where he insisted that American claims of Syrian support for terrorism were, “suggested to them by the Jewish lobby, who are the killers of prophets.” Kuftaro has also said that “ Israel is a dagger in the heart of the Muslim nation” and in a meeting with Hamas leaders insisted that “all Muslims are obligated to do jihad upon the Zionists.”
In a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seoiIzPpwzc">video taped on July 5, 2002</a>, Kuftaro turned over his pulpit to Luis Farrakhan, who was visiting his mosque as an honored guest. On November 8, 2002, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ5IO8-GYQ0">he gave the same honor</a> to the neo-Nazi preacher William Baker. In online video of both events, Kuftaro looks on from the dais while both anti-Semites give lectures denouncing America and Israel in front of his congregation.
On the personal website of Sheikh Rajab Deeb, together with the audio of the sermon he gave at the Buffalo event, is a May 15, 2005 sermon titled, “Jerusalem is Ours.” In the sermon, Deeb claimed that the Holy Land is undergoing a so-called, “process of desecration through the delirious allegations of the presence there of the Jewish Temple .” About Jews, he said: “They want to remove and destroy every trace except for their footsteps and pollute every creed except their faith, and eradicate every race except their race, and they claim to be God’s Chosen People…”
In a position statement on Syria’s army, Deeb said:
“You must set up sophisticated weapons, which are appropriate to the times. The saber and spear were good predecessor weapons, which then evolved into the catapult. This development is still ongoing to the present age, where the weapons became firearms, then artillery, missile and aircraft, and then, with increased development, came the atomic and hydrogen bombs… His eminence [Sheikh Deeb] encourages the development of the national weapons industry; when the State possesses the secrets of these weapons, no enemy can resist it.”
Deeb’s support for Syria ’s national weapons industry is not surprising – in fact both he and Kuftaro have served as top clerics in Bashar Assad’s totalitarian government, known for spreading virulent Jew-hatred. Until Kuftaro’s death in 2003, he was the Grand Mufti of Syria and Deeb is currently the Chief Scholar in the Syrian Ministry of Religion. Considering that Syria has expelled all its Jews, hosts the top leadership of Palestinian terror groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and arms Hizbullah, the tenor of Deeb and Kuftaro’s sermons about Jews is also not surprising.
The Shibly family has promoted a similar pro-terror ideology in Buffalo . Dr. Shibly’s son Hassan Shibly is a prolific blogger who has written that Hizbullah should not be considered a terrorist organization. In a high-profile incident at the Rainbow Bridge in 2004, Hassan and Dr. Shibly’s wife Sawsan Tabbaa, were detained at the border after returning from the controversial “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” annual conference in Toronto . Responding to a discrimination lawsuit filed by the Shiblys against it, <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6225-2005Apr20.html">the Department of Homeland Security said</a> that: “In this instance, we had credible intelligence that conferences similar to the one from which these individuals were leaving were being used by terrorist organizations to fundraise and to hide the travel of terrorists themselves.” In 2007, <a href="http://nefafoundation.org/miscellaneous/FeaturedDocs/Tabaa_v_Chertoff_Opinion.pdf">the courts rejected the Shibly family’s claims of discrimination</a> and judged that the terror threat associated with the conference justified their detention.
What’s stunning here is that finding this information was not that hard. How is it possible that the Jews taking part in Buffalo interfaith efforts were so easily bamboozled? Surely, no one involved in this “twinning” business would have signed a contract to renovate his bathroom without such minimal due diligence. The answer is the deep obsession with politically correct ideology that pervades many liberal Jewish communities: “It just can’t be true that Islamic radicals would try to take advantage of our good will. If anyone even thinks of this as a possibility, he must be a “racist!”
And why would Islamic radicals pretend to be moderate in order to establish interfaith relationships with Jewish community? I believe that this and many other similar “Twinning Initiatives” around the country have an ulterior purpose. Already, the interfaith relationship as it currently exists in Buffalo is being exploited to intimidate local Jewish groups into forfeiting their freedom to vigorously advocate for Jews everywhere, including Israel . Shortly after the twinning, Dr. Shibly denounced a lecture by Israeli General Effie Eitam at the University of Buffalo . Writing to the event organizers, Dr. Shibly said: “It is so sad as we are trying to bring our communities together and make a historical step to join the national efforts of twinning mosques and Synagogues projects for common good, we get a slap in our face.” Likewise, when the Jewish community wanted to screen “Farewell Israel ,” a thoroughly-researched film about the dangers Israel faces, Shibly again invoked the interfaith threat: “This movie and other programs presented before were misleading and promote islamophobia. They destroy all the bridges and dialogues that we are building to promote peace, love and understanding.”
This type of disingenuous interfaith dialogue with Jewish leaders is also a strategic force-multiplier for extremists. The rest of American society tends to look to Jews on the topic of extremist bigotry and intolerance as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. By embracing radical Islamists in an official interfaith relationship, Jewish leaders give them a ticket into American institutions.
Interfaith dialogue between Jews and Muslims can be valuable. Yet dialogue is only productive when it occurs with partners who are honest about their true intentions. This doesn’t seem to be the case with Dr. Shibly and his Syrian government clerics. Instead of promoting peace and tolerance, legitimizing such entities through interfaith partnerships will only promote the hatred they preach when they think the Jews aren’t paying attention. Rabbi Marc Schneier and Dr. Richard Stall should be apologizing to the Buffalo Jewish community instead of congratulating themselves on a job well done.
Ilya Feoktistov is Research Director of <a href="http://www.peaceandtolerance.org/">Americans for Peace and Tolerance</a>.

The Buffalo Interfaith Bluff

Rabbi Marc Schneier is a leading exponent of Jewish-Muslim dialogue. As founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, he recently described in Newsweek

Frontpage Mag

ilya feoktistov

Bearing False Witness

Newton's Anti-Semitism Problem

Visa, MasterCard and the War on The Freedom Center

Northeastern U. Suspends 'Students for Justice in Palestine'

The Ground Zero Imam's Troubling Texts

The Buffalo Interfaith Bluff

FPM Series

Disloyal Military

Progressive Fascists

Racist Mayors

The Point

Islamic Terrorist Opens Fire in Jerusalem, Pregnant Woman, Americans Wounded

What the National Archives Wanted From Trump: A Weather Map

Rushdie Stabber Only Charged With Second-Degree Attempted Murder, Authorities Try to Bar Press

Why is Biden's DOJ Investigating Southern Baptist Sex Allegations?

Biden Statement on Rushdie Attack Fails to Condemn Islamic Terrorism

Events