Labels:
UNESCO
(Carl) The Obama administration has criticized the 'Palestinian Authority' for its doubletalk over its support of the Zayzafuna youth magazine. As you may recall, Zayzafuna published a piece in which it admired Hitler because he murdered Jews. The criticism came in a letter from the US ambassador to UNESCO to the organization's director general: More here.
Labels:
Drones»
Iran
(judeopundit.blogspot.com) What's an "electric jet engine"?Students of Islamic Azad University in the city of Heris, East Azarbaijan province built amateur surveillance drone with electric jet engine, IRNA reported on Monday.In other drone news, according to a Mehr headline, "Decoding drones not beyond Iran’s capabilities: defense minister":
Head of the technical team involved in manufacturing the drone Nasser Nazari Heris said in the ceremony to unveil the aircraft that it has been designed for 35 minutes reconnaissance mission at night.
He said that the aircraft is ultra-light working with two electric jet engines and is capable of flying with one engine.
Nazari Heris said in the meantime that it took four months to design and manufacture the drone.
Teammate Reza Danandeh said that the drone is capable of flying at maximum speed of 250 km and minimum 50 km per hour.
It can fly a distance of 10 km and operates at an altitude of 9,000 feet. The aircraft can transmit online scanning of the area to database on the ground.
Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi has said that Iran has very high capabilities in the area of defense, particularly in decoding unmanned aircraft.
Vahidi made the remarks during a televised interview broadcast live on Jaam-e-Jam TV network on Sunday night.
“Islamic Iran has very high capabilities in all areas of defense, (including) employing drones and decoding them, electronic warfare and anti-electronic warfare as well as countering covert wars against the Islamic Republic of Iran and by itself has achieved such a level of success under the most difficult circumstances and (under) comprehensive sanctions. Therefore, it will easily enhance (its capabilities) and maintain them,” he said. [...]
Labels:
Caliphate»
Jizya»
Nader Tamimi
(h/t EYE From MEMRI) Nader Tamimi: In the Levant, we are involved in a fierce battle, and we will bring about a change in Syria and in the Levant in its entirety. The infidels divided the Levant into four states, and we will reunite them into a single state. The Safavid enterprise that led to Iran occupying Iraq, along with the Americans and the Zionists, will end in the garbage bin of history. The Caliphate in the path of the Prophet will return. |
[…]We await the caliph who will address the leaders of the US and Europe and say: From the Emir of the Believers from Jerusalem… |
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Labels:
cartoonist»
Cyberbullies»
Cyberbully»
cyberstalking»
First Amendment»
Renton»
Washington State
(Volokh.com) Yes, the Renton (Wash.) city prosecutor’s office concludes, applying the Washington “cyberstalking” statute — an excellent example of the dangers of the broad “cyberbullying” and “harassment” statutes that I have often condemned. KIRO-TV reports:
The Renton City Prosecutor wants to send a cartoonist to jail for mocking the police department in a series of animated Internet videos.Here’s the potentially relevant text from Rev. Code Wash. 9.61.260:
The “South-Park”-style animations parody everything from officers having sex on duty to certain personnel getting promoted without necessary qualifications.... [Last week, the prosecutor filed] a search warrant accusing an anonymous cartoon creator, going by the name of Mr. Fiddlesticks, of cyberstalking (RCW 9.61.260). The Renton Police Department and the local prosecutor got a judge to sign off as a way to uncover the name of whoever is behind the parodies....
The series of web-based short cartoons feature a mustachioed street cop and a short-haired female bureaucrat. The dry, at times, witty banter between the two touches on some embarrassing insider secrets, some of which seem to match up with internal affairs investigations on file within Renton PD.
Cartoon Character of Officer: “Is there any reason why an anonymous video, with no identifying information that ties it to the department or city is being taken more seriously than officers having sex on duty, arguing with outside agencies while in a drunken stupor off duty, sleeping while on duty, throwing someone off a bridge, and having inappropriate relationships with coworkers and committing adultery?”
Cartoon Character of Bureaucrat: “The reason is that internal dirt is internal. The department will crucify certain people and take care of others.”
A criminal court document, uncovered by Team 7 Investigators, not only shows how badly the city of Renton wants to “out” the cartoonist (who goes by the name MrFiddlesticks), but states some of the fake character’s lines discuss real life incidents....
A person is guilty of cyberstalking if he or she, with intent to harass, intimidate, torment, or embarrass any other person, and under circumstances not constituting telephone harassment, makes an electronic communication [defined as transmission of information by wire, radio, optical cable, electromagnetic, or other similar means ... includ[ing] ... internet-based communications] to such other person or a third party: (a) Using any lewd, lascivious, indecent, or obscene words, images, or language, or suggesting the commission of any lewd or lascivious act ....Under the prosecutor’s view, any statement — including on a blog, in a YouTube video, in a newspaper article, on television, or whatever else — is a crime if it is made “with intent to harass, ... torment, or embarrass” the subject of the person “[u]sing any lewd, lascivious, indecent, or obscene words, images, or language.” A comedian’s joke that “lewd[ly]” or “lascivious[ly]” described President Clinton’s behavior with Monica Lewinsky, or for that matter Congressman Weiner’s behavior, would be a crime if it was made “with intent to ... embarrass” the President or the Congressman. The Hustler parody attacking Jerry Falwell, which the Supreme Court held to be protected against civil liability under the “intentional infliction of emotional distress tort,” would be a crime. Indeed, in this very case, the theory is that the videos are criminal because they described alleged police sexual misconduct using “lewd” or “indecent” words with the intent to torment or embarrass particular officers. (The theory expressed in the document — a search warrant application — is that the videos sufficiently identify the particular police officers who were involved in the incidents to which the video alludes.)
If the prosecutor is right that the statute should be interpreted this broadly, then it’s clearly unconstitutionally overbroad. Speech to the public doesn’t lose its constitutional protection because it’s intended to torment or embarrass. (It may lose such protection when it’s intended to be perceived as a true threat of criminal attack, but that’s not the issue here.) Nor does lose its constitutional protection because it uses “lewd” or “indecent” terms. And while one-to-one speech said to an unwilling listener may in some circumstances be restricted — which is the reason traditional telephone harassment laws, if properly crafted, may be constitutional — this rationale can’t be used to suppress speech said to the public, even if the people discussed in the speech are tormented or embarrassed by it.
Moreover, the statute would be clearly unconstitutional as applied to this video, and the prosecutor and the judge ought to know this. (The prosecutor is Renton Chief Prosecutor Shawn Arthur; the judge is James Cayce.) A search warrant can only be issued if there is probable cause to believe that it will uncover evidence of a crime; since the material described in the affidavit can’t be made criminal under the cited statute, given the First Amendment, the warrant ought not have been issued. The government is not permitted to use its coercive power to identify the author of this constitutionally protected video.
Thanks to Cory Andrews for the pointer. UPDATE: I originally said I didn’t know which judge signed this warrant, but that was a mistake on my part — Judge Cayce’s signature is right there on the last page.
Labels:
dignity of women»
feminism»
Rape
(Carl) The girls in this picture have no connection to this story. In fact, it's a sad comment on the state of our people that when I did a Google image search for 'Jewish girls' (no quotation marks), every one that came up before this one was arguably pornographic.
Seven Jewish girls between the ages of 11-18 have been abducted in the past month by Bedouin men in southern Israel. At least one was raped.
Seven victims last month alone are aged 11-18. These are only cases that were reported to police but many others are believed to have taken place without being reported.Some of you may recall that a few years ago, (Carl) posted the story of a woman whose rescue by the IDF was arranged by Yad l'Achim during Operation Cast Lead. Yad l'Achim is involved here as well:
Complaints were filed to the police in four cases of such abductions last month in Kiryat Malachi alone, and a fifth case of rape.
Voice of Israel radio said that all four cases of abductions in Kiryat Malachi involved young Bedouin men. The rape took place on the Ashkelon beach last weekend.
In one of the abduction cases, two men from the Bedouin city of Rahat, aged 40 and 24, were arrested, but one has since been released.
In the rape case, the main suspect is a resident of the Palestinian Authority who is illegally staying inside pre-1949 Israel. He has been charged and two other Arabs who were also present at the scene of the crime face lesser charges.
Voice of Israel's reporter in southern Israel, Asaf Kuzailov, said that the phenomenon is on the rise and is a well known one – to residents, to police and welfare authorities. It is confirmed by the Center for Assistance to Women in the Negev.
Police say that they can only get involved in cases where a specific complaint has been filed, and where there is evidence of abduction and abuse. Police and welfare elements note that the cases do not necessarily start as kidnappings. Often the relationships are consensual at first, with the Arabs plying the girls with money, gifts, attention and warmth that they lack at home. In other cases, the contention is that the girls who were taken to the Arab villages later returned home, and so the men cannot be charged with abduction.And you wonder why we don't want Jews renting homes to Arabs?
The abuse often begins at a later stage and by then it is hard to determine that the girls are not responsible for their actions, they said.
Voice of Israel reported a specific case of a girl they called Tania from Ashkelon, who fell in love with an Arab from Gaza and moved in with him. After she became pregnant she was tied up at home for days on end and beaten. This happened five years ago, and she is now back in Israel, but still suffers from trauma.
Yad L'Achim says about 1,000 cases of Jewish girls being held against their will by Arabs occur every year.
The Family Lobby, which blames a breakdown in parental -- and particularly paternal -- authority in the Jewish sector for the problem, noted that the Israeli feminist movement is completely under ultra-leftist control and therefore the women's organizations do nothing to raise public awareness of Arab predatory behavior against Jewish girls.
"While separation of buses in the hareidi sector and religious soldiers' requests to be excused from immodest performances receive top headlines for months on end, thanks to militant feminist politicians and journalists, actual rape and abduction of minor girls is swept under the rug by these groups because it is carried out by their Arab darlings," the group's chairman, Gil Ronen, said. "Unfortunately, nationalist and religious women have not made an effort to forge an independent agenda for their groups, and are content to be led by the ultra-leftists, who use them for bashing religious men and Jewish religion in general.
By the way, I believe that Yad l'Achim's annual appeal is in the next couple of weeks. If you're able to do so, you ought to consider making a contribution to them.
Labels:
Judea»
Judea and Samaria»
Samaria»
West Bank
(EOZ) Anti-Zionist activists are at it again, freaking out over a week-old story in Arutz-7:
According to a report in Israel National News, the commander of Israel Army Radio, the national radio station in Israel operated by the Israel Defense Forces, has determined that all the station’s reporters should refer to the West Bank as “Judea and Samaria.” The report states the decision was made as a result of complaints made by Israel Media Watch that the radio station’s referral to the area as the “West Bank” gives the impression to listeners that the territory does not in fact belong to Israel.
Israel Army Radio is a popular mainstream station in Israel listened to by people from across the political spectrum. It is thus significant that it is now being directed to use the same terminology used by the settler movement when invoking the Biblical, divine notion of “Greater Israel” that is completely detached from reality, diplomacy and human rights.
The author added:
I just chose to point out this news item since it is a good example of the “zeitgeist” in Israel, the slow unraveling of rhetoric that exposes the reality on the ground.I love how these guys believe that "West Bank" is a historic term and "Judea and Samaria" are modern, rightist settler terms, a phrase daring enough to ring alarm bells in their little heads that cannot conceive of a Middle East before the 1970s.
So here's a quick look through the news archives from the 1950s through the 1970s.
From a National Geographic News Bulletin, from 1956:
The Free Lance-Star, 1965:
The term "west bank" was used between 1948 and 1967, almost exclusively without capitalization.
Before there were any settlements, the Labor-led Israeli government called the area "Judea and Samaria" as this 1968 UPI article shows:
Soon, the anti-Israel crowd started to push the use of the term "West Bank" as a proper name. Note that happened after 1967, showing that it wasn't a Jordanian initiative, Here's an example of one of the earliest uses of the term as a proper name from an AP article written in 1971, referring to the "so-called West Bank:"
Soon the "so-called" part was dropped, but the two terms were used together for a while still. Here's one from 1974, still with lower-case, from UPI:But soon the Big Lie that only Israelis referred to the area as Judea and Samaria started to take hold. From Reuters, 1975:And this lie spread so quickly that only two years later AP accused Israel of trying to rename the "West Bank" to Judea and Samaria!
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how a lie is created.
So today the use of the correct historical term for the area is considered extremist, and the use of the anomalous term created when Jordan illegally annexed the area for 19 years is considered normative.
(To their credit, most leftist commenters to the article cited noted that there is nothing political about referring to the area as Judea and Samaria. Calling it The West Bank, on the other hand, is purely political - first to make it appear as part of Jordan and later to avoid giving it any Biblical connotation.)
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