Saturday, July 28, 2012
Nancy Pelosi Falsely Claims President Obama's Been To Israel "Over And Over Again"
William Kristol in the Weekly Standard:
Daniel Halper has called attention to Nancy Pelosi's remarkable interview with Al Hunt on the topic of Barack Obama and Israel. I'd note one comment in particular: Pelosi's claim that President Obama "has been there [Israel] over and over again."
Wow. I'm involved with the Emergency Committee for Israel. We have an ad up in several states calling attention to the fact that President Obama, who's been quite the world traveler, has never visited Israel as president. Did we make a terrible mistake? Were we unjust to President Obama? Do we have to pull down the ad?
No, no, and no. Contrary to Pelosi's apparent claim, President Obama hasn't been to Israel over and over again. He's never been as president, which is certainly what Pelosi implied. Well, maybe he visited Israel "over and over" before becoming president, and that's what Pelosi meant to say? No. When he was senator,
Obama went on two trips to Israel, once with several other freshmen members of Congress, and then as a presidential candidate. And he'd never been interested enough in Israel to visit as a private citizen. So much for the notion that Obama's been "over and over again."
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So Pelosi is wrong, and the Emergency Committee is right. But Pelosi's resort to a whopper to try to reassure pro-Israel voters does suggest how worried Democrats must be about the reaction to Obama's attempt to create distance between his administration and Israel, as Obama's Israel policy gets more scrutiny.
Obamacare Contraception Mandate Declared Unconstitutional In First Federal Court Ruling
This court decision from Colorado District Judge John Kane said that the government’s arguments
“are countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the
free exercise of religion."
London Olympics Pauses To Honor Dead Brits, Once Again Refuses To Honor Israelis Killed At Munich Games
From the USA Today:
In the worst decision of the Opening Ceremony, the International Olympic Committee allowed one moment of silence to be held - just not the one that it should have permitted for the past 40 years.
See http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/london/story/2012-07-27/London-Olympics-Israelis-Munich-moment-of-silence/56545088/1 for the full article.
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Nancy Pelosi: Republican Jews "Being Exploited. And They're Smart People."
In an interview,
House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said that she believes Republican
Jews are "being exploited," but she was sure to add, "And they're smart
people."
"I think [Obama] will" win the Jewish vote, Pelosi said, when pressed
on the subject. "I think that he will, because the fact is when the
facts get out. You know, as many of the Republicans are using Israel as
an excuse, what they really want are tax cuts for the wealthy. So
Israel, that can be one reason they put forth."
The interviewer then added, "That’s why some of the Republican Jewish supporters are really active." Pelosi responded, "Well, that’s how they’re being exploited. And
they’re smart people. They follow these issues. But they have to know
the facts. And the fact is that President Obama has been the strongest
person in terms of sanctions on Iran, which is important to Israel. He’s
been the strongest person on whether it’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling, any
of these weapons systems and initiatives that relate to Israel. He has
been there over and over again."
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Friday, July 27, 2012
Iranian Backs Out Of Olympics Rather Than Compete Against Israeli
The Washington Post reports:
The Olympics are supposed to be a time when nations put aside their differences, no matter how large, and square off on the playing field for some intense yet friendly competition.
But for Iran and Israel, two countries that have each been on edge with anxiety about the other’s actions and intentions this summer, it appears that’s not going to happen.
Although Iran asserted Monday that its athletes would compete against Israelis in the 2012 Games, its team had left for London hours earlier without the one athlete who had the possibility of facing an Israeli opponent.
On Sunday, Iranian authorities announced that that athlete, Javad Mahjoub, a judo champion, was suffering from a “critical digestive system infection,” forcing him to take antibiotics and cancel plans for the Games, which begin Friday.
Mahjoub’s absence has led to speculation that Iran is maintaining its long-standing policy of not allowing its athletes to compete with Israeli opponents.
Mahjoub himself has acknowledged going to great lengths to keep from squaring off against an Israeli. In a 2011 interview with the Iranian newspaper Shargh, Mahjoub admitted to throwing a match against a German opponent, saying: “If I won, I would have had to compete with an Israeli athlete. And if I refused to compete with the Israeli, they would have suspended our judo federation for four years.”
Israel’s judoka in the 100-kilogram weight class, Ariel “Arik” Ze’evi, will be competing in his fourth Olympic Games. The 35-year-old won a bronze medal at the 2004 Games in Athens and is widely considered to hold one of Israel’s best chances of taking home a medal in London.
Ze’evi told the Associated Press last month that he did not understand athletes who bring politics into the sporting arena. “When you are doing judo, football, basketball, you have to show up on the field, do your best. It doesn’t matter who you fight,” Ze’evi said. “For me, I don’t have any problem to fight against a sportsman from any country, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria. . . . I really don’t understand it.”
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Israeli Olympic Team Says Lebanese Judo Fighters Refuse To Train Next To Them
Reuters reports
Olympic officials were forced to erect a screen between Lebanon's and Israel's judo fighters on Friday after the Lebanese refused to train on the same mat, the Israeli Olympic team said on Friday.
The incident arose after Lebanon's two judokas found themselves next to the five Israelis during practice at the official training venue in Redbridge, in east London, said Nitzan Ferraro, spokesman for the Israeli Olympic Committee.
"We started to practice. They came and they saw us - they didn't like it and they went to the organizers," Feraro told Reuters. "They put up some kind of wall between us. Everyone went on and there was no interaction between us."
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Thursday, July 26, 2012
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Monday, July 23, 2012
Egyptian Actors On Candid Camera Show Turn Violent When Told Channel Is Israeli
This is absolutely disgusting, but worth watching every moment. I'm not sure whether it is the behavior of the guests or the behavior of the hosts that is more revealing and appalling. The hatred of Jews that pervades the nations Israel is forced to have as neighbors should be recognized and opposed vociferously by every decent human being and every civilized government. Tweet
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Olympic Committee Refuses To Allow For 40th Anniversary Of Munich Attack On Israeli Athletes To Be Memorialized At Opening Of Games
The Associated Press reports:
IOC President Jacques Rogge won't budge: There will be no minute's silence for the Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich massacre at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. Rogge rejected the latest calls Saturday for a special observance to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches by Palestinian gunmen at the Munich Games.Tweet
Shots Fired From Egypt At Israeli Soldiers
Gunshots fired across the border from Egypt on Sunday hit an Israeli army bus but caused no casualties, a military spokeswoman said.
The attack, in the central sector of the porous desert frontier, may heighten Israeli fears of an erosion of security in the Egyptian Sinai given the political upheaval in Cairo.
A Sinai pipeline built to supply Israel and Jordan with gas was blown up in a separate incident on Sunday, the 15th such sabotage since the start of a popular revolt that toppled the U.S.-aligned Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in February last year.Tweet
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