Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Bill to ‘fix’ Iran deal backed by Dems, even deal supporters
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., right, accompanied by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., listening during a news conference about legislation on Iran policy and Middle East security, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2015, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Evan Vucci/AP Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – Top Democratic senators, among them both opponents and backers of the Iran nuclear deal, introduced a bill that would address what they say are the deal’s defects.
The Iran Policy Oversight Act of 2015, introduced Oct. 1 brings together Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., among just four Senate Democrats who joined Republicans in opposing the sanctions relief for nuclear restrictions deal when it was under congressional review, with seven Democrats who backed the deal.
The bill would increase defense assistance to Israel to counter potential Iranian conventional threats, enhance congressional oversight of the implementation of the deal and expedite new sanctions against Iran should it be implicated in terrorism.
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From The Times of Israel
Russia destroys Islamic State targets in Syria stronghold
Moscow says command post, bunker eliminated in Raqqa as its jets carry out 20 sorties on nine targets within 24 hours
Russian jets launched a fourth day of air raids in Syria on Saturday, hitting the Islamic State group’s main stronghold after claims Moscow was instead targeting moderate rebel factions.
The airstrikes destroyed an Islamic State command post near Raqqa as well as an underground bunker, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday, as Moscow pressed along with its bombing campaign in Syria.
“Over the past 24 hours SU-34 and SU-24M jets of the Russian airborne formation in Syria made more than 20 sorties over nine Islamic State infrastructure facilities,” the Defense Ministry said. A command post in the area of IS stronghold Raqqa as well as an underground bunker storing explosives had been destroyed, it added.
“Several Russian strikes hit IS positions west of Raqqa overnight and explosions were heard in the city,” Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.
Raqqa has acted as the extremist group’s de facto Syrian “capital” since 2013.
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From The Times of Israel
Palestinian child said shot by Israeli driver in West Bank
Source says 6-year-old hospitalized in Qalqilya with stomach wound; Israeli car hit by gunfire near Ma’ale Adumim
A six-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in his stomach by an Israeli near the West Bank city of Qalqilya on Saturday, a Palestinian source quoted by Hebrew media said. There was no Israeli confirmation of the incident.
According to the Palestinian source, the child was standing by the road when an Israel driver stopped, shot him and fled, the Israeli news website Ynet reported. It was not clear whether the child was throwing stones at cars, Ynet said. The boy was evacuated to hospital in Qalqilya; his condition was unclear.
The Hebrew-language Walla website quoted the Palestinian media as saying that the attack was carried out by a settler. Israeli officials had no information on the claim.
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been escalating since the start of the Jewish new year holiday on September 13, when Israeli police discovered pipe bombs during a preemptive raid at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Since the raid, there have been numerous clashes and riots in the capital and West Bank, culminating in the murders of Eitam and Naama Henkin near Nablus on Thursday.
Another Israeli couple said they came under fire as they drove through the West Bank, near Jerusalem late Friday.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu and Abbas agree: Blame the UN
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas took plenty of shots at each other.
But in their dueling dueling speeches to the United Nations General Assembly, the Israeli prime minister and Palestinian Authority president directed much of their fire at the same target: the assembled world leaders.
Netanyahu blamed world powers and international bodies for enthusiastically supporting what he sees as a misguided Iran deal. He began and ended his speech by calling on the U.N. to correct its record of hostility to Israel.
And in what has quickly become the speech’s iconic moment, the man known for his articulate words and clever turns of phrase glowered in silence at the General Assembly for 44 seconds — indicting the body for what he called its “deafening silence” on Iran’s threats to annihilate Israel.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Pink Floyd founder: Bon Jovi stands with ‘settler who burned the baby’
(JTA) — Roger Waters, a founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd and an activist in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, published an open letter criticizing rocker Jon Bon Jovi for performing in Tel Aviv on Oct. 3.
Waters, a frequent critic of Israel, published the letter in Salon on Friday, responding to Bon Jovi telling Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot last week that he is “excited to come” to Israel despite Waters’ efforts to deter musicians from performing there.
Waters has published similar open letters in Salon to other performers with Israel gigs, including Dionne Warwick, the Rolling Stones and Robbie Williams.
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From PressTV
Israeli troops shoot dead Palestinian in al-Quds
Israeli forces have shot dead a Palestinian in al-Quds (Jerusalem), claiming that he had attacked and stabbed several Israelis.
Israeli police spokeswoman, Luba Samri, said the Palestinian was killed on Saturday in the occupied al-Quds’ Old City.
Palestinian sources said two settlers were killed and two others were injured during clashes between the 19-year-old Palestinian, identified as Mohannad Rafiq Halab, and Israeli settlers.
Meanwhile, local Palestinian sources citing witnesses said some 100 settlers, backed by Israeli soldiers, stormed the village of Bourin south of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank earlier on Saturday.
According to witnesses, Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers who fired rubber bullets and tear gas at them. A number of Palestinians were injured in the clashes.
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From PressTV
Hamas to Palestinians: Take up arms to defend al-Aqsa against Israel
A top official of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says Palestinians must take up arms to protect the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), amid recent flare-up of tensions in and around the holy site.
“The only solution to defend the al-Aqsa Mosque and to prevent Israelis from carrying out their plans there is for West Bank and Jerusalem residents to take up arms,” Mahmud Zahar said in an interview posted on Hamas website.
Tensions have been on the rise in the occupied West Bank and al-Quds over the past several days, with Israeli forces attacking Palestinian protesters at the holy site.
On Friday, numerous attacks were reported on Palestinians in the West Bank as Israeli troops searched for a Palestinian whom they claimed had fatally attacked an illegal settler.
“Until now weapons have only served to protect the settlers and the occupiers,” said Zahar, adding that the West Bank enjoys “great human resources that can be mobilized at any moment.”
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From PressTV
Israelis ransack Palestinian homes, detain 7 in Nablus
Israeli forces have stormed several neighborhoods across the northern city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank and abducted seven people in fresh acts of violence against Palestinians.
The detentions came after heavily-armed Israeli soldiers raided homes in Nablus at dawn on Saturday as part of a search for those allegedly behind a recent shooting incident in the West Bank in which two Israelis were killed, Palestine’s Ma’an news agency reported. The Tel Aviv regime has blamed the incident on Palestinian resistance groups.
The break-ins have left several Palestinians injured.
Palestinian security sources said that over 40 Israeli military vehicles and intelligence forces raided the ad-Dahiya neighborhood of Nablus.
A resident of the Nazmi Hattab neighborhood was seriously injured by Israeli live fire in his chest.
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From PressTV
Israeli settlers attempt to set Palestinian houses on fire in West Bank
Israeli settlers have once again attacked Palestinian properties across the occupied West Bank, attempting to set houses on fire.
The attacks took place on Thursday night when settlers, backed by Israeli forces, stormed towns and villages across the occupied territories and injured several Palestinians.
The attacks came after two Israelis were killed in a drive-by shooting in the territory on Thursday night. The Tel Aviv regime has blamed the incident on Palestinian resistance groups.
According to local media, the Israeli military declared the northern Nablus region in the occupied territory a closed military zone following the attacks.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli forces also shot and injured a 28-year-old Palestinian in Bethlehem.
From PressTV
Israel kidnapped 562 Palestinians in September: Prisoners’ advocacy group
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) says Israeli soldiers “kidnapped” 562 Palestinians, including dozens of children, in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip in September alone.
The Palestinian body, which represents detainees and their families, said on Thursday that Israeli soldiers kidnapped 294 Palestinians, mainly children, in the occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem).
Those Palestinians were mostly transferred to prison, the PPS said, adding that the arrests were made after the Israeli extremists and soldiers intensified their invasions into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
The recent wave of violence, which started in mid-September in al-Aqsa Mosque compound, has seen Israeli settlers and soldiers attacking Palestinian worshipers following the deployment of Israeli troops to the area for the Jewish Rosh Hashanah New Year holiday.
It was also reported that the Israeli troops kidnapped as many as 56 Gazans, including 40 fishers who were attacked in Palestinian waters.
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From The Times of Israel
Top EU official warns of rising anti-Semitism in Europe
Resurgence of ‘age-old monster’ needs to be addressed to ensure safety of continent’s Jews, European Commission VP says
BRUSSELS — A senior European Union official has warned of rising anti-Semitism in Europe as attacks and threats against Jews continue in EU member countries.
European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans said Thursday that “in the last couple of years you’ve seen this age-old monster come up again in Europe.”
Speaking before a conference on religious intolerance, he said, “This is unacceptable. I thought we knew better. I wouldn’t have thought it would be possible… but it’s happening again.”
The EU’s fundamental rights agency says that anti-Semitic stereotyping is a reality in many countries and that some EU political parties are openly anti-Semitic.
Timmermans said that “it’s a vital question for the future of Europe that our Jewish community feels at ease and completely at home.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Kanye West’s Israel performance was bizarre
It’s not every day that a self-anointed god visits the Holy Land. That’s why some 20,000 Israeli fans showed up when rapper Kanye West performed at Ramat Gan Stadium outside of Tel Aviv on Wednesday night.
However, according to reports in Israeli media, the show was far from divine. West showed up 30 minutes late and performed by himself onstage to a recorded soundtrack. Sound problems plagued the hour and 20 minute set, and West didn’t interact with the crowd at all. In the Times of Israel, writer Stuart Winer remarked that that foreign artists normally say “Shalom” to hospitable Israeli fans, but West didn’t even offer as much as a “Good evening, Tel Aviv!”
The fans, mostly in the in the 14- to 24-year-old range, seemed pleased with the setlist, which included many of West’s biggest hits, such as “Stronger,” “Power” and “Runaway.”
Still, the nearly empty stage was conspicuous and strange. Commentators said that West had to expend an ungodly amount of energy onstage to keep the crowd engaged. In “FourFiveSeconds” — a studio collaboration between West, Rihanna and Paul McCartney — West sang Rihanna’s lines in addition to his own. In “Good Life,” he did the same with T-Pain’s lines.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Is it really a shock that 1/3 of Americans wouldn’t hide Jews?
Is the glass one-third empty or two-thirds full?
A poll commissioned by distributors of Holocaust film “Return to the Hiding Place” asked 1,000 Americans a question many Jews have pondered: “If you were living during World War II, would you have risked the imprisonment and death of yourself and your family to hide Jews?”
The results, as reported in The Hollywood Reporter (and various other publications that cited the Hollywood Reporter), were presented in a remarkably negative way: emphasizing the one-third of respondents who said “no,” rather than the majority — two-thirds — who said “yes.”
This strikes me as odd. In most poll coverage, it’s the majority that leads the news, not the minority. And in this case, what the majority said is noteworthy: They would risk the lives of themselves and their family to save Jews.
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From The Times of Israel
What people Google most on presidential hopefuls
Company releases search data on most popular queries; height, weight, net worth among the most asked questions
NEW YORK (AP) — Potential voters who take their curiosity about presidential candidates to Google are interested in Hillary Rodham Clinton’s age, Jeb Bush’s height, Chris Christie’s weight, Donald Trump’s net worth, Carly Fiorina’s marital status and Bobby Jindal’s birthplace.
Those were among the top questions that the Internet search engine was asked about each candidate over the past couple of months. The data, which is being released by Google this year for the first time during a presidential campaign, gives insight into what voters are thinking about that is different from what traditional pollsters provide.
The first lesson may be not to forget the basics: shortly after Google first released questions posed about each candidate, Republican Marco Rubio’s campaign released a video in which he answered some of them.
Google gets some three billion search requests each day and is beginning to see the value of compiling that information. For instance, conventional pollsters badly missed the breadth of David Cameron and his Conservative Party’s victory in the British elections this spring. Google didn’t necessarily predict it either, but picked up an intriguing increase in the amount of questions people were asking about the Conservatives in the days before voting, said Simon Rogers, data editor for Google’s News Lab.
Height is clearly a preoccupation of Google searchers. Besides Bush, that was the top question about Christie, John Kasich, George Pataki and Rand Paul. Age is also a popular query. Two of the top four questions about New Jersey’s Christie concerned how much he weighed and how much weight he had lost.
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From The Times of Israel
Obama ‘refused to oppose Palestinian UN statehood bid’
In latest sign of Washington-Jerusalem rift, White House said to have declined repeated request to come out publicly against unilateral PA move
US President Barack Obama reportedly refused calls by a top Democratic senator that he speak out publicly against a Palestinian statehood resolution at the United Nations.
A report in the Washington political journal Politico cited “White House officials and Senate aides,” who confirmed that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid tried on two occasions to obtain such a public commitment from Obama, and was twice rebuffed by the president.
Reid was seeking Obama’s commitment on the Palestinian issue to help shore up Democratic support for the Iran deal, which was opposed vehemently by Israeli leaders.
Obama’s refusal, the report said, “highlights how wide the gulf between the Obama administration and Israeli government has become.” The rebuff “unfolded in the context of a personal relationship between Obama and Netanyahu that’s become highly toxic, poisoning US-Israeli relations more widely.”
The US has long supported Israel’s position at the UN that Palestinian statehood could only be achieved through direct talks with Israel, rather than the unilateral strategy of turning to international organizations adopted in recent years by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
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From The Times of Israel
South Africa won’t push ‘anti-Semitic’ dual citizenship ban
Minister denies changes planned in policy, after Pretoria discussed law to prevent Jews from joining IDF
South Africa is not planning to ban dual citizenship, a senior official told Jewish organizations Wednesday, after the country’s government was said to be considering a policy meant to stop the country’s Jews from joining the Israeli army.
Dual citizenship is protected by the Citizenship Act, and the government has no plans to make changes to the policy, Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba said, according to a Thursday statement by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies.
The SAJBD and the South African Zionist Federation had accused senior ANC official Obed Bapela of anti-Semitism and unfairly singling out the country’s Jewish population.
The government does not tolerate anti-Semitism or other forms of racism, Gigaba told the SAJBD and SAZF leadership.
The meeting was convened in response to comments made by Bapela last month, in which he said the country would push ahead with plans for a dual citizenship ban.
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From The Times of Israel
GOP candidate Ben Carson warns of ‘Hitler’ in the US
Presidential hopeful says America could look like 1930s Germany if people don’t speak their mind
Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson said a Nazi Germany-like regime is not impossible in the United States if people are prevented from being allowed to express their opinions.
Speaking at a New Hampshire campaign event on Tuesday, Carson disputed the belief that “a situation like what took place in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s could never happen in America,” CNN reported.
“If you go back and look at the history of the world, tyranny and despotism and how it starts, it has a lot to do with control of thought and control of speech,” Carson told the crowd.
He said, “If people don’t speak up for what they believe, then other people will change things without them having a voice. Hitler changed things there and nobody protested. Nobody provided any opposition to him,” according to CNN.
Following the speech, Carson was asked by reporters if his comments were directed at President Barack Obama.
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