Jewish Basketball Team Punished for being Kosher in Texas

(JC)(Arizona Jewish Post / JTA Ben Harris) A Texas school's basketball team have been denied its chance to compete in a state championship because the game has been scheduled for Shabbat.
Pupils at the Orthodox Jewish Robert M Beren Academy in Houston were left celebrating after they reached the semifinals of the state contest.
But their victory was short-lived after organisers refused to change the time of the match from 9pm on Friday – after sunset – despite an appeal lodged by the school to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools.
Edd Burleson, the association's director, said that when the school first joined the league they were advised that this problem could arise.
"If schedules are changed for these schools, it's hard for other schools," he told the New York Times.
The school's basketball coach, Chris Cole said. "One reason this is a big deal to many, is that no Orthodox Jewish team, from what we've heard, has ever won a state basketball championship."(Details)

Iran demands an explanation

(Carl)Iran summoned the Azerbaijani ambassador to the Islamic Republic on Tuesday, asking him to explain reports (which are true) that Azerbaijan entered into an arms deal with Israel on Monday that is worth $1.5 billion.

According to the report of Foreign Ministry website on Tuesday, following news concerning arms deal between Azerbaijan Republic and the Zionist regime worth around one and half billion dollars, Javanshir Akhundov was invited by the deputy FM Seyed Abbas Araqchi to the ministry and Iran asked for official explanation about the news.

The ambassador said that purchased equipment from the Zionist regime are solely to free occupied territory of Azerbaijan Republic and that the government will not allow these arms be used against another country, especially Islamic Republic of Iran.

He repeated his country's intention to develop relations with Iran and called for exchanging views to remove any kind of misunderstanding.

Considering declared policy by the Zionist regime on growing penetration in bordering countries with Iran and using these states' territories against it, the Iran’s senior diplomat warned against any kind of use of Azerbaijan Republic territory by the Zionist regime for terrorist acts against Iran.

Times of Israel adds:

The ambassador did not elaborate, but the “occupied territory” to which he was referring may be the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. According to Azerbaijan and the international community, the enclave is part of Azerbaijan. Since the end of the Azeri-Armenian war in 1994, however, the majority Armenian region has exerted de facto independence with Armenian military support.

Under the terms of the Israel Aerospace Industries deal, announced earlier this week, the Caucasus nation will receive planes, drones and an advanced missile defense system. The shipment of aerial drones will be accompanied by a large team of security and technology consultants, according to Maariv, which cited an Intelligence Online report.

I wonder which of Iran's other immediate neighbors are working on arms deals with us.

ok... who is going to admit that they had no idea what in the hell Nagorno-Karabakh is.... and is learning something here? I sure as hell just learned something.

Wikileaks (Stratfor): Israel traded Georgian UAV codes to Russia for Iranian Tor M-1 codes, Turkey gave Israel S-300 codes

Not sure how reliable a Mexican police officer is....but the US gov was ready to believe anything... which actually shows how little credibility the Obama administration has regarding their so called friend Israel. It should also be of note that while some of these cables are helpful to the Israelis... (Assange obviously released the less controversial of these cables first), a lot of the cables that are now trickling out are quite damaging. The real problem is that they show the United States government's real feelings towards Israel... much less then at issue is the damage Israel's rep, but more it is a reflection of Obama's true aliance... which is completely paranoid of a Jewish state. Obama is willing to believe anything.

(Carl) Wikileaks' Stratfor email dump is reporting that Israel gave Russia the codes for UAV's that Israel sold to Georgia in exchange for the codes for the Tor M-1 anti-aircraft systems that Russia sold to Iran. Again, I am putting this in chronological order:

PUBLICATION: ask me first
ATTRIBUTION: N/A
SOURCE DESCRIPTION: MX301 - Former Mexican cop, Latam military analyst,
writes for Jane's
SOURCE RELIABILITY: A
ITEM CREDIBILITY: 1
SUGGESTED DISTRIBUTION:
SPECIAL HANDLING: n/a
...
Ok, here's the really juicy part:
There is a private Mexican company called Idra that the government funded
to make UAVs. They are actually pretty high standard according to him and
beat out the Israeli UAVs in testing. My friend was consulting Idra at the
time and so he was privy to a lot of deals that were on the table. This is
the story --
The Mexican government is now paying some $25m (? can get the #s later)
for UAVs from Israel. Idra is basically like WTF, but the reason is
basically corruption. There is a deal b/w the Mexican interior ministry
and the Israelis where they're getting a hefty kickback.
This is the interesting part, though.
Idra had an offer to sell UAVs to Georgia (this was happening during and
after the war). The reason Georgia needed the UAVs is because the UAVs
they had bought from Israel had been compromised by the Russians. The
Russians got the data link for the UAV (there is some suspicion that the
Israelis after the war may have given this to them. Remember all the
intense mtgs b/w the Israelis and the Russians where the Russians got the
Israelis to back off of defense deals to Georgia in return for Russia
backing off Iran?). Anyway, the Georgians gave Idra a picture of one of
their crashed UAVs. The source explained though that if the UAV were
targeted, it would have been blown to pieces pretty much (it's like the
size of a car basically). But the picture he saw showed the UAV intact. He
inquired and basically what happened was that the Russians acquired the
data link to hack into the system and force the UAV into the ground. I
think they may have crashed another one too.
So, since the Georgian UAVs were compromised, they then tried to sell them
to the Azerbaijanis. I dont know if that deal went through. Idra backed
off the deal to Georgia because they were advised that it would raise a
lot of political complications between Mexico and Russia.
...
PUBLICATION: No, but ask first
ATTRIBUTION: N/A
SOURCE DESCRIPTION: MX301 - Former Mexican cop, Latam military analyst,
writes for Jane's
SOURCE RELIABILITY: A
ITEM CREDIBILITY: 1
SUGGESTED DISTRIBUTION:
SPECIAL HANDLING: n/a
Met with my Mexican source/friend again today and dude is getting shadier
by the day. We followed up on our past discussion on Russia compromising
the Israeli-made Georgian UAVs prior to the August war.
Here is what else I learned
One of the source's friends/colleagues -- formerly military i think but
now does private defense deals on the side (it's Mexico) contacted him in
July (prior to the Georgia war). Apparently the Georgians had contacted
this guy because they were frantically looking for a replacement for the
Israeli UAVs that were compromised....
Here is the most interesting part:
I inquired more about the compromised Israeli UAVs. What he explained was
that Israel and Russia made a swap -- Israel gave Russia the 'data link'
code for those specific UAVs; in return, Russia gave Israel the codes for
Iran's Tor-M1s.
I asked about the S-300 (source tracks a lot of defense deals for Jane's).
He doesn't think the Russians will give it to the Iranians. Besides, he
said... Israel and Turkey have been collaborating very closely on the
S-300s. He explain how about 8 years ago when Russia sold S-300s to Greece
to base in Crete (which were supposed to protect Cyprus), Russia delivered
those with a carrier so that Turkey wouldn't try to sink them. (things got
a bit noisy so i may have misheard some of this). The gist of what he said
is that Turkey has been cracking the S-300 since the Crete sale and has
been sharing intel on the S-300 with the Israelis to ensure that they
retain an advantage over Iran should Iran get them from the Russians.
as far as the Georgian UAVs go, they were interested in the Mexican ones
because the Mexican UAVs had something (forget the name. it was
auto-something' that basically backs up teh UAV system in case someone
hacks into it and immediately returns the UAV to base.

Hmmm.
By the way, that's a Tor M-1 at the top.

Now you see the true Wikileaks bias... and not the public relations we saw before.

Why Are These Jewish Foundations Funding Antisemitism?

(Listed by YidWithLid)

Analysis of the projection: Media Matters had the influence over the media

Donation
Jewish Foundation Donors To MMFA
$2,225,000
Stephen M Silberstein Foundation
$400,000
Pritzker Family Foundation
$400,000
Sandler Foundation
$362,500
Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, Inc.
$275,000
Bernard & Audre Rapoport Foundation
$250,000
Joseph H and Barbara I Ellis Foundation
$150,000
Community Foundation of the United Jewish Federation of San Diego
$85,000
Barbra Streisand Foundation
$55,000
Lear Family Foundation
$50,000
Rebecca and Nathan Milikowsky Family Foundation
$50,000
Scott A. Nathan Charitable Trust
$43,500
Jewish Communal Fund
$35,000
Beatrice Snyder Foundation
$35,000
Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland
$30,000
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund
$25,000
Leonard and Sophie Davis Fund
$20,000
Peter and Linda Solomon Foundation
$12,500
Engelberg Foundation
$5,180
Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties
$5,000
Glickenhaus Foundation
$5,000
Joseph & Florence Mandel Foundation
(MORE)

Barbara?

(Media Matters Firsters | Washington Free Beacon)At a book signing event Monday evening in Washington, D.C., Media Matters for America (MMFA) chief David Brock refused to distance himself from the borderline anti-Semitic language used by one of his senior employees.
We “don’t feed the trolls,” said Ari Rabin-Havt, MMFA’s executive vice president, when asked if Media Matters condones and stands by the use of the term “Israel firster,” a borderline anti-Sematic slur that is regularly employed by MMFA writer M.J. Rosenberg.
“I’m not going to get in a debate about tweets,” Rabin-Havt said, intervening to field a question that was directed at Brock.
Rosenberg, however, has not just used the epithet on Twitter. He regularly employs the phrase in articles published by the Huffington Post and other outlets.
And now the controversy is spilling into the Jewish nonprofit world.
Several of the nation’s most preeminent Jewish charities are facing criticism for donating hundreds of thousands of dollars to MMFA.
Five Jewish charities in some of the nation’s largest cities have donated nearly $600,000 to Media Matters since 2006, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller. The bulk of the donations came between 2008 and 2010.
A number of the charities in question are tied to the centrist Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella organization that includes some of the country’s largest Jewish nonprofits, including those in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C.
News of the donations surprised some Jewish and pro-Israel observers who have condemned Media Matters as a fringe outlier that promotes views contrary to those of the mainstream Jewish community.
Jewish donors “have no idea how this organization has turned into a bigoted group,” Alan Dershowitz, a prominent lawyer and Harvard professor who recently launched his own “personal war” against Rosenberg, told the Washington Free Beacon.
Since his hire in 2009, Rosenberg’s articles have focused on the power of the so-called “Israel lobby,” which he believes has placed a pro-Israel chokehold on the U.S. foreign policy establishment. Rosenberg has also appropriated the “Israel firster” phrase, a term that has its roots in the white supremacist movement.
Many Jews—particularly wealthy philanthropists—are unaware that Media Matters is condoning this type of content, Dershowitz told the Washington Free Beacon.
“Many Jews just couldn’t care less—and then there are … the M.J. Rosenbergs who work to destroy Israel,” Dershowitz said. “I would urge donors to reconsider their gifts.”
Asked if he was surprised to learn that Jews are fiscally backing Media Matters, Dershowitz responded, “Some Jews supported Mussolini and Stalin, so why should we be surprised?”
Of the five Jewish charities that have donated to Media Matters, the most prolific is the Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, which has given the group $362,500 since 2007.
CJP president Barry Shrage did not respond to multiple requests seeking comment. However, a statement on the organization’s website states that it is not directly responsible for the donations that were made to Media Matters through its funding arm.
“CJP is now—and has always been—one of Israel’s strongest supporters,” the statement said. “The grant in question was from a Donor Advised Fund, and not from CJP’s communal funding allocations.”
Donor-advised grants are primarily controlled by the funder.
“While owned and ultimately controlled by CJP, [donor advised funds] do not involve communal funds, but rather reflect the interests of those individual donors,” the statement said.
The CJP said that it does “reserve the right to reject a grant to organizations whose missions are in conflict with our own and we have done so on several occasions.”
Dershowitz, who has ties to the CJP, said that while he disagrees with their decisions to fund Media Matters, Jewish donors should be granted the freedom to give to any organization they choose.
Joe Berkofsky, communications director for JFNA, the umbrella group that oversees several of these charities, including the CJP, recommended that the WFB “contact the individual Federations, which in fact are the actual custodians of the funds.”
The other charities that have given to MMFA include: The Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego, the Jewish Communal Fund in New York City, the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties.
Each of these organizations either declined comment or did not return calls for comment.
A source close to JFNA described the entire funding controversy as “bullshit.”
“People request funds to be allocated from their endowment funds and donor advised funds that are housed at federations,” the source said. “They are not direct allocations by the federations. Federations serve as their philanthropic bank for donations to charities. Unless it’s Jews for Jesus or al-Qaeda, the requests are accepted.”
Jewish philanthropists and other experts said that although these charities have been directed by their funders to donate to Media Matters, they have a responsibility to exert oversight and prevent donors from making grants to organizations that subvert Jewish values.
“Media Matters is currently in the business of paying for and spreading anti-Israel and anti-Semitic invective, and these donations—which do not comport with Jewish communal values—are funding that organization and its work,” said Josh Block, a Middle East analyst and former top official at a pro-Israel group.
Block added that “these Jewish organizations have a special obligation to stand up and declare that funding groups using rhetoric that the ADL, AJC, and Simon Wiesenthal Center have all identified as anti-Semitic and anti-Israel is simply not appropriate—unless of course they agree with Media Matters and neo-Nazis that it is a good idea to call elected officials and other pro-Israel Americans ‘Israel firsters.’”
“I’m not surprised that federations are funding these far left liberal agendas,” said Richard Allen, founder of JCC Watch, an organization that tracks New-York based Jewish nonprofits. “I think there’s a group within these federations that is diverting Jewish community money for nefarious political purposes, and it needs to stop.”
Jewish philanthropists associated with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington—which did not donate to Media Matters but has taken heat for its funding of a local theater company that staged a series of plays condemned as anti-Israel—said that the funding dispute reveals a systemic problem.
“Sadly, Federations around the country are largely in the hands of secular liberals who have little sense of what’s actually Jewish, much less what’s pro-Israel,” said Michael Steinberg, a Maryland resident who stopped contributing to the Washington Federation for these reasons.
Louis Offen, another Washington-based philanthropist, added:  “I’ve got liberal tendencies, but they don’t go in the direction of support for [those who use the term] ‘Israel firsters’ and M.J. Rosenberg.”

Brooks says: First They Went After the Rockefeller Republicans (but he seems to be fine with going after Neo Cons)

(MRC)First they went after the Rockefeller Republicans, but I was not a Rockefeller Republican. Then they went after the compassionate conservatives, but I was not a compassionate conservative. Then they went after the mainstream conservatives, and there was no one left to speak for me.

Did you notice he doesn't care about Neo Conservatives? Yeah... you know them? They have a lot of Jews in their ranks. This guy has been using code for the longest time. You want to really know what the opinion is of the New York Times and PBS and what type of thread is woven between the two media source concerning Jewish autonomy and security from terrorism? Again... note he's quite happy for the Gestapo to come for the Neo-Cons

Jewish Viewpoint on Premarital Sex

(Devorah) Generally, Judaism has a liberal viewpoint about premarital sex and human sexuality. This liberalism however does not condone nor approve of premarital or extramarital sex but provides the proper guidelines and conditions on when it should be done by a man and a woman.
From Judaism’s point of view, sex is a natural act between a man and a woman and is almost similar to eating and drinking. However, they also hold the opinion that anything natural if done improperly, can become a harmful, offensive and shameful. If done in the proper context, eating and drinking can be satisfying and if done according to God’s commandments, it even becomes a holy act.
Similarly, Judaism sees premarital sex as being against the religious law and is immoral but proper sex is a sacred and blessed act.
The Torah states that it is not good for man to be alone. Judaism views the sacrament of marriage as the fundamental means to legitimize the companionship, intimacy and sexual relationship and love between a man and a woman.
Since marriage is meant to sanctify the union of a man and a woman, Judaism values sex and physical intimacy as a means of strengthening vitally significant marital bonds and as a way of obeying the commandments of procreation.
In as much as the Torah also states for mankind to be fruitful and multiply, the commandment therefore elevates sex within marriage to a holy and sanctified act as it is performed in accordance with the commandments.
Generally, the Torah does not approve nor condone premarital sex. The stand is such that some Rabbis go as far as proclaiming that even if an individual sins with his eyes, he or she can be deemed guilty of adultery. Judaism’s zealous viewpoint has led to the segregation between men and women during festive occasions, in public and even having separate days for visiting and paying homage to the departed.
The only time that premarital sex is sanctioned is when the act of sexual intimacy is intended as a mode of lawful betrothal. Between engaged couples who may want to live in together prior to marriage, the relationship is prohibited by tradition.
All told, Jewish Law strictly prohibits sexual relations outside of marriage or before marriage even between two consenting adults. The religious pronouncements on sexuality are very clear and strict that even sexual relations between a man and wife in the context of marriage are covered by certain provisions. Jewish Family Purity Laws specifically forbids sexual relations when the wife is ritually impure (niddah) and declares that couples have to firmly refrain from sexual relations during the wife’s menstrual cycle. The strict ruling even goes as far as declaring that physical closeness between the wife and husband should be avoided as well during the wife’s menstrual period. Sexual relations can only be acceptable approximately 12 or 13 days after the first day of the menstrual cycle but not until after the wife has performed the necessary ritual of purification, mikvah.
Judaism does not look upon sexuality as essentially dirty or evil as some religions do. In fact, they have a very liberal viewpoint about sex and the physical intimacy of a man and a woman if it is done with love, and within the vows of a marriage.

in a world where the progressive left see marriage as a more and more a professional business arrangement for those involved in family making… it has become very expensive to be married. It also is involved in all kinds of red tape and bureaucracy involved in associating government in your interactions. I consider myself a social conservative, but I can not see consummating a marriage without killing the natural attraction to a girl. While my intent is to be married… If I were to really love a person I would not want to involve society in what I do. Further I would not want to be associated with gay marriage… which obviously would categorize my attraction in a similar way. I can most certainly see why so called legal marriage today would not be necessary for religious reasons in a Jewish community that has a perspective that is hostile to heterosexuality and it’s inherent exclusive nature.