From The Daily Mail
Orlando shooter’s father is running for president of Afghanistan, has backed the Taliban, hosts talk show in California and visits the corridors of power in DC
- Seddique Mateen is the father of mass shooter Omar Mateen, 29
- Mateen Snr is an Afghan man who hosts the Durand Jirga Show
- The show is aired on YouTube channel Payam-e-Afghan, from California
- He visited Congress, the State Department and met political leaders during a trip to Washington, DC, in April
- He also attended a hearing on Afghanistan security while in the capital
- Pictures from 2015 show Mateen meeting Reps Charlie Rangel, Dana Rohrabacher and Ed Royce
- Police seen searching his home, located close to where his son lived
- See more Orlando shooting news at www.dailymail.co.uk/orlandoshooting
Mass shooter Omar Mateen’s father Seddique Mateen recently visited Congress, the State Department and met political leaders during a trip to Washington, DC.
Mateen, who made the trip in April, is seen in social media posts posing in front of the State Department and Democratic Foreign Services Committee offices.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel reportedly plans to wall off Gaza above and below ground
The Israel Defense Forces uncovers a terror tunnel running from the southern Gaza Strip to Israel, May 5, 2016. (Courtesy of IDF)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s defense establishment reportedly plans to build a concrete wall that goes tens of yards underground as well as above ground along the Gaza Strip border.
The plan will cost an estimated $568 million, less than previously estimated, according to a report Thursday on the front page of the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot.
In response to an attempt by The Times of Israel to confirm the report, the Defense Ministry said only, “We are not commenting on the matter.â€
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From The Times of Israel
Clinton issues stinging rebuke of ‘shameful’ Trump
Democratic nominee says remarks by presumptive GOP candidate over Orlando massacre show he is unfit, unqualified to lead
June 15, 2016, 2:57 am
Hillary Clinton unleashed a blistering assault Tuesday on her White House opponent Donald Trump, attacking the celebrity billionaire’s “shameful” comments about President Barack Obama and Muslims after the massacre in Orlando.
Clinton accused Trump of suggesting Obama sympathized with terrorists during a television appearance one day after Sunday’s shooting by a radicalized gunman.
“Just think about that for a second. Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States,” the former secretary of state told a crowd in Pittsburgh.
“What Donald Trump is saying is shameful. It is disrespectful to the people who were killed and wounded and their families,” she added.
“And it is yet more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief.”
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From The Times of Israel
GOP lawmakers distance themselves from Trump after Orlando remarks
Republican hopes for a ‘more presidential’ nominee fade as party’s divisions around him grow more acute
June 15, 2016, 2:48 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dismayed Republicans scrambled for cover Tuesday from Donald Trump’s inflammatory response to the Orlando massacre, while President Barack Obama and Democrat Hillary Clinton delivered fiery denunciations that underscored the potential peril for the GOP.
Republican hopes are fading for a new, “more presidential” Trump as the party’s divisions around him grow ever more acute.
Clinton, campaigning in Pittsburgh, said, “We don’t need conspiracy theories and pathological self-congratulations. We need leadership and concrete plans because we are facing a brutal enemy.”
In Washington, Obama said of Muslim-Americans: “Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to discriminate against them because of their faith?” After meeting with counterterrorism officials, a stern-faced Obama said: “We heard these suggestions during the course of this campaign. Do Republican officials actually agree with this? Because that’s not the America we want.”
Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans clearly did not agree with him. They were nearly as unsparing as the Democrats in their criticism of his boundary-pushing response Monday to the killing of 49 people at a gay club in Orlando, Florida, by an American-born Muslim who pledged loyalty to the Islamic State group.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Top officials put a Jewish stamp on the Rio Olympics
The Jewish trio in charge of the Rio Olympics: Carlos Arthur Nuzman is flanked by Sidney Levy, left, and Leonardo Gryner, Nov. 9, 2012. (Marcio Rodrigues)
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — Mazel tov! That’s perhaps how the big shots in charge of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the first to take place in South America, will toast victories when the competition gets underway Aug. 5.
Three of the top officials of the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee, including its president, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, are Jewish.
But in the run-up to the games, there have been more “oy gevalts” than mazel tovs as organizers deal with reports of unfinished venues, polluted swimming and sailing sites and, most of all, concerns about the mosquito-borne Zika virus.
In an interview with JTA, Nuzman said the number of Zika cases in Rio have dropped sharply in recent weeks, and are expected to fall even further during the dry months of the Brazilian winter, as Rio 2016 organizers emphasized at a news conference on June 7. Last month, the World Health Organization said there is no public health justification for postponing or canceling the Games.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Ex-Israeli defense minister Moshe Yaalon says he will run for prime minister
Moshe Yaalon speaking at a Tel Aviv news conference in which he announced his resignation from the Knesset, May 20, 2016. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Moshe Yaalon made it clear that he intends to run for prime minister of Israel less than a month after resigning as defense minister and from the Knesset.
“I intend to run for the leadership in Israel in the next elections,” Yaalon said Thursday during a speech at the annual Herzliya Conference.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israeli defense chief Avigdor Liberman to meet US counterpart Ashton Carter in Washington
Avigdor Liberman speaking at a news conference at the Knesset, May 18, 2016. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
(JTA) — Avigdor Liberman, Israel’s defense minister, will visit the United States to meet with his U.S. counterpart, Ashton Carter, in his first trip abroad since taking the post.
Carter and Liberman are scheduled to meet Monday. The meeting comes following concerns raised by the Obama administration over Liberman’s appointment last month, when his Yisrael Beiteinu party joined the government coalition.
Liberman, who will leave for the U.S. on Saturday, also reportedly will meet with the U.S. Armed Services Committee and the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders meet after she handily wins final primary in DC
Hillary Clinton, left, and Bernie Sanders shaking hands before the CNN Democratic Presidential Debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, April 14, 2016. (Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillary Clinton, after resoundingly winning the final primary in the District of Columbia, held a meeting with her rival for the Democratic presidential nod, Bernie Sanders, that both sides described as positive.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, took 79 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s primary to 21 percent for Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont.
Media counts for delegates for a week have assessed Clinton as the presumptive nominee, although Sanders, the first Jewish candidate to win major nominating contests, has yet to concede.
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From The Times of Israel
PM rejects ‘panic’ over reported cut in US missile defense aid
Opposition slams Netanyahu after White House rejects Congress’s bid to up funding; Netanyahu insists that budget will increase
June 15, 2016, 3:00 pm
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed widespread “panic†over reports implying the US government is refusing to increase financial aid for Israeli missile defense.
While not denying the reports, which prompted opposition politicians to harshly criticize Netanyahu, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office insisted that American aid for missile defense system protecting Israel would ultimately be increased rather than cut.
On Tuesday, the White House said itopposed a move by the House of Representatives to increase funding for Israeli missile defense procurement by an additional $455 million above the administration’s budget request for the 2017 fiscal year.
Due to “multiple misleading reports,†the Prime Minister’s Office on Wednesday issued a statement insisting “there is no cut in US aid.†Rather, there is an “internal debate†between Congress and the White House over the size of the annual increase to the American missile defense program.
Netanyahu is seeking to anchor this additional aid as a part of his ongoing negotiations over the extension of an US-Israel memorandum of understanding, which regulates US military aid to Israel, the statement noted.
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From The Times of Israel
White House opposes extra funding for Israel missile defense
AIPAC ‘deeply disappointed’ by administration’s objection to Congress’ move to expand funding for Iron Dome, Arrow, Sling
June 15, 2016, 5:45 am
WASHINGTON — The White House said Tuesday that it was opposed to a move by the House of Representatives to increase funding for Israeli missile defense procurement by an additional $455 million above the administration’s budget request for the 2017 fiscal year.
The announcement was greeted with disappointment by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) which emphasized the importance of the additional funding.
In a long letter sent to Congress on Tuesday, the Obama administration listed its numerous objections to the House’s version of the defense appropriations bill for the coming fiscal year.
The administration has criticized the bill for budgetary sleight of hand, complaining that it redirects funds from the overseas operations war chest toward other purposes in an effort to meet spending targets. In the letter, the administration complained that the legislation “fails to provide our troops with the resources needed to keep our nation safe.”
“At a time when ISIL continues to threaten the homeland and our allies, the bill does not fully fund wartime operations,” the letter continued. “Instead the bill would redirect $16 billion of Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) funds toward base budget programs that the Department of Defense (DOD) did not request, shortchanging funding for ongoing wartime operations midway through the year. Not only is this approach dangerous but it is also wasteful. The bill would buy excess force structure without the money to sustain it, effectively creating a hollow force structure that would undermine DOD’s efforts to restore readiness.”
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From The Times of Israel
Slamming his Muslim ban calls, Jewish Republicans still split on Trump
Some supporters have called on candidate to disavow his Muslim immigration ban policy, while others stand by him
June 15, 2016, 3:47 am
Jewish Republicans are criticizing Donald Trump for his renewed call to ban Muslim immigration, although few of his Jewish supporters seem to be reconsidering their endorsement of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
But at least one, celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, rescinded his apparent backing of Trump following the billionaire real estate magnate’s remarks.
One day after a Muslim-American gunman opened fire on an Orlando gay nightclub, killing 49 and wounding 53, Trump gave aspeech reiterating his proposal to temporarily ban Muslim immigration to the United States.
“I called for a ban after San Bernardino and was met with great scorn and anger, but now many are saying I was right to do so,†Trump said in the New Hampshire speech Monday, referring to the terror attack in Southern California last year carried out by a married Muslim couple who according to law enforcement were “inspired†by foreign terrorist organizations. “I will suspend immigration from areas of the world when there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States.â€
The Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen, was born in the United States to immigrants from Afghanistan.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish pilgrims in Ukraine trigger brawl by shooting local with BB gun
Haredi Orthodox Jewish men praying on the eve of Rosh Hashanah in Uman, Ukraine, Sept. 4 2013. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
(JTA) — Ukrainian police detained two Israelis who triggered a brawl in Uman by shooting a local man in the face with a BB gun.
The man was hit in the nose and lightly wounded by the plastic bullet Saturday night. There were no serious injuries.
“The visitors were drunk and they thought it was a good idea to shoot from the window of their hotel room with a BB gun at passers-by,†Uman Jewish leader Shimon Buskila told JTA on Wednesday.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
2 British women claim they were sexually abused by Sigmund Freud’s grandson
Sigmund Freud leaving Victoria Station after his arrival in London June 6, 1938. (AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) — Two elderly women in Britain said that they had been sexually abused, one of them as a child, by a late lawmaker who was a grandson of the Austrian Jewish psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud.
The accusations were leveled against Clement Freud, a celebrated British broadcaster and politician, to ITV in adocumentary scheduled to be aired Wednesday, the television channel revealed Monday.
Clement Freud, who died in 2009, was never convicted of the offenses, which fall outside Britain’s statute of limitations.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Netanyahu’s New York trip included $1,600 haircut
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel speaking at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Oct. 1, 2015. (Seth Wenig/AP Images)
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to New York last fall for the U.N. General Assembly cost more than $1.7 million, including a $1,600 haircut.
An itemized list of the trip’s expenses was released Tuesday by the Jerusalem district prosecutor’s office after a Ramat Gan attorney filed for the information under Israel’s Freedom of Information Law after being stymied in his efforts to see the list. Haaretz first reported the existence of the list and its contents in its main Hebrew-language edition Wednesday, and that thePrime Minister’s Office and Foreign ministry tried to suppress it.
Most of the expense of the six-day trip at the end of September and beginning of October was the flight, which cost $1.5 million. The prime minister does not have the use of a private plane and must rent one for such trips.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Stephen Colbert just drew a giant swastika on TV to mock Trump
Steven Colbert drawing a swastika on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” June 14, 2016. (Screenshot from YouTube)
America, 2016. Where a comedian mocks a major party’s presumptive presidential nominee by drawing a large Nazi symbol on television, and no one is really surprised.
The swastika, courtesy of CBS’s “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert, came after a routine ribbing of Donald Trump, who in the wake of Sunday’s terrorist attack in Orlando seemed to imply that President Obama may have willfully ignored the threat.
“We’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday. “There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable. There’s something going on.”
To Colbert, Trump’s claims sounded like “something my racist aunt would say at a picnic.” But to try to suss out Trump’s meaning, he turned to a glorified chalkboard he called the “Figure-it-out-atron 5000.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
20 senators urge posthumous Medal of Freedom for Rabbi Abraham Heschel
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A slate of 20 senators urged President Barack Obama to posthumously award Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the nation’s highest honors.
The letter made public Wednesday, spearheaded by Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, cited the role of Heschel, who fled Nazi-era Germany, in advancing the cause of civil rights through his friendship with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“In 1963, Rabbi Heschel met Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the two forged a deep friendship sharing theological and political ideas —Dr. King even came to refer to Rabbi Heschel as ‘my rabbi,’†said the letter. “Before an interfaith gathering on ‘Religion and Race,’ Rabbi Heschel declared that ‘racism is Satanism, unmitigated evil.’ Later that year, he sent a telegram to President Kennedy, asking him to declare a state of ‘moral emergency’ of racial inequality in the United States.â€
Heschel, a scholar at the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, joined King for his third attempt at a march in 1963 between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama, to protest segregation. Police viciously beat marchers in the first attempt, and King stopped the second march, fearing a repeat. Heschel had led a demonstration at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., demanding protection for the marchers.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Synagogue president wins Democratic nod in suburban Las Vegas district
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The president of a Las Vegas-area synagogue handpicked by the Democratic Party leadership to run in a competitive congressional district won the primary.
Jacky Rosen, a software developer who helms Ner Tamid, a Reform synagogue in Henderson, Nevada, and the largest in the region, handily defeated her rivals in Tuesday’s primary in the 3rd Congressional District. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that she won over 60 percent of the vote in a six-way fight.
Rosen had little name recognition or political experience, but Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., the Senate’s minority leader and the boss of Democratic politics in the state, picked her to run and lent her the backing of his fundraising machine.
Reid, who is retiring this year, wants to leave a strong party representation in the state as one of his legacies, and the 3rd District, with an influx in recent years of Democratic-leaning Latinos, is seen as a likely Democratic pick-up now that its incumbent, Republican Joe Heck, is running for Reid’s open U.S. Senate seat.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Michigan high schools required to teach Holocaust, genocide
(JTA) — Michigan public schools must teach about genocide, including the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, under a new law.
The legislation, which was signed into law on Tuesday by the state’s governor, Rick Snyder, calls for six hours of instruction about genocide between eighth and 12th grade. It specifically mentions the Holocaust and the Armenian Genocide, which began in 1915, but other mass killings must be taught, according to The Associated Press.
“Teaching the students of Michigan about genocide is important because we should remember and learn about these terrible events in our past while continuing to work toward creating a more tolerant society,” Snyder said in a statement following the signing.
“There are, unfortunately, other instances, of atrocities that would be beneficial for students to learn about regardless of whether they meet a certain definition. When and how to teach students about these events would be best left to the educational experts trained to do so.â€
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From Russia Today
Girl stabbed in France by man trying to ‘make sacrifice for Ramadan’
Published time: 14 Jun, 2016 20:57
© Christian Hartmann / Reuters
A teenage girl was seriously injured in a stabbing attack in western France when a man assaulted her on the street. The attacker, who has a history of psychiatric problems, claimed that he needed to make “a sacrifice for Ramadan.â€
The girl, 19, was stabbed two times in the wrist and once in abdomen, Rennes prosecutor Nicolas Jacquet told journalists, adding that her wounds are not life-threating.
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From The Times of Israel
Ex-London mayor Livingstone sticks with ‘Hitler backed Zionism’ claim
Rebuffing accusations of anti-Semitism in appearance before MPs, suspended Labour official derides ‘hysterical’ backlash, refuses to apologize
June 14, 2016, 10:35 pm
Former London mayor and senior Labour party official Ken Livingstone on Tuesday doubled down on his controversial claim that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler supported Zionism, a comment that led to his suspension from Britain’s opposition party in April.
Addressing members of a parliamentary committee tasked with investigating a growing number of anti-Semitic incidents within the Labour party, Livingstone declined to apologize for the remark, insisting his claim was historically accurate.
He said that in recent weeks “hundreds” of people have approached him to express their support for the statement.
“If I had said that Hitler was a Zionist, I would apologize for that, because it’s rubbish,†he told the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday.
“What I said was… that when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy was that the Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism. He wanted all the half-million German Jews out. At that stage, his view was to move them out by the autumn of 1933. He negotiated a deal with a German Zionist organization that did lead to 66,000 German Jews being moved to what is now Israel.â€
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From The Times of Israel
‘Stairway to Heaven’ lawsuit stars dead Jewish rocker
Court papers say the late Randy California taught Jimmy Page the intro to ‘Taurus,’ the song his estate claims was ripped off by Led Zeppelin
June 16, 2016, 4:44 pm
JTA — In 1968, a new British band called Led Zeppelin was opening for the American psychedelic rock group Spirit on a US tour. The headliner was fronted by a Jewish 17-year-old named Randy Wolfe, aka Randy California.
Nearly 50 years later, a lawsuit filed on behalf of the estate of Wolfe, who died in 1997, alleges that Led Zeppelin stole the famous riff used in “Stairway to Heaven†from Spirit’s song “Taurus.â€
The federal copyright trial began Tuesday in Los Angeles, with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant appearing in court.
How the case is decided could have implications for where the music industry draws the line between plagiarism and inspiration. Some money could also change hands. In the meantime, the high-profile trial is drawing new attention to Wolfe’s music.
Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, left, and singer Robert Plant at a press conference ahead of the worldwide theatrical release of ‘Celebration Day,’ a concert film of their 2007 London O2 arena reunion show, in New York, October 9, 2012. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
From The Times of Israel
Orlando gunman posted to Facebook during shooting rampage
Using phone from inside Pulse nightclub, Omar Mateen pledged allegiance to Islamic State, raged against ‘filthy ways of the west’
June 16, 2016, 8:27 am
In the midst of his deadly shooting spree at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub early Sunday, Omar Mateen took to Facebook to pledge allegiance to the Islamic State terror group, promising that more attacks would follow, according to a Senate committee letter released Wednesday.
Mateen, whose rampage left 49 people dead, apparently made a series of Facebook posts and searches before and during his attack on a gay nightclub, raging against the “filthy ways of the west” and blaming the US for the deaths of “innocent women and children.”
Mateen searched for “Pulse Orlando” and “Shooting” online on the morning of the carnage and posted on Facebook, “America and Russia stop bombing the Islamic state,” according to the letter first published by Fox News.
A survivor of the massacre said earlier that Mateen spoke about US bombings in Syria while carrying out the attack.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee sent the letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking the company to produce information on Mateen’s online activity and to provide a briefing to the panel. Facebook’s live video application was also apparently used by another Islamist who killed two police in Paris days later.
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