Egypt shuts down last remaining synagogue

As a new mosque pops up every few weeks in America, Egypt puts its last synagogue out of business. Jews lived in Egypt for a thousand years before the world had ever heard of Mohammed. Soon, both Jews and Christians will be erased from Egypt’s history. Springtime for Hitler continues.

Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, in Alexandria, Egypt. Built in 1354.

gatestoneinstitute.org:

Where religious fanatics have started by persecuting minorities, it has not been long before they turned on their own, accusing them of irreligiousness, heresy and insidious betrayal. The religious freedoms of all Egyptians are in peril.

Fears for the future of religious minorities in Egypt were accentuated last week when it was announced that the last synagogue in the country would be closed down. The Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, which had operated in Alexandria, was the last functioning center of Jewish life in the country. It is now clear that its cavernous halls, built in the nineteenth century, will not be open to worshippers hoping to mark Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services this year.

Traditionally, the synagogue has been managed by an Israeli rabbi of Egyptian descent who frequently returns to the country to lead services there. Although there are many synagogues around Egypt, the one in Alexandria is the only active one, the others having been turned into tourist sites.

This year, as Rabbi Avraham Dayan was making preparations for the High Holidays he was told that the Egyptian authorities could not guarantee the safety and security of those wanting to attend the synagogue. Dayan told Ynet:

“This year there have been some violent demonstrations in Alexandria, and they [sic] are afraid to take responsibility over people…We are trying to organize a quorum, but because of the security-related situation we are not really succeeding. We are still in touch with the Egyptian security organizations and are trying to make some progress.

Sectarian tensions across Egypt have been heightened ever since last year’s revolution, with Christian minorities bearing the brunt of the violence.

One of the unintended consequences of the Arab Spring is the guarantee of security – long assured by the region’s old dictators; it has been cast away by the tide of popular unrest sweeping the region.

The power vacuum and instability caused by the overthrow of Mubarak empowered Salafist and Brotherhood activists who increasingly stoke sectarian tensions. Last October, when Christian activists took to the streets of Cairo to protest their mistreatment, they were first involved in scuffles with radical Islamists before the army moved in. During the resulting crackdown, more than 25 Christian protesters were killed and more than 300 injured. It marked one of the most bloody and shameful sectarian episodes in Egypt’s recent history. A Copt protester, Alfred Younan, told Reuters:

Why didn’t they do this with the Salafists or the Muslim Brotherhood when they organized protests? This is not my country any more.

This kind of instability has meant the Jewish presence in Egypt has steadily declined over much of the last century, and has now dwindled to just a handful in Cairo and Alexandria. A study by Stanley Urman of Jews for Justice from Arab Countries has found that this exodus started with the first Nationality Code in Egypt, passed in May 1926.

The Code stipulated that an Egyptian born to a ‘foreign” father – even if the father had been born in Egypt and had been previously recognized as Egyptian – was only able to claim citizenship if the father could prove that he:

…belonged racially to the majority of the population of a country whose language is Arabic or whose religion is Islam.

This law effectively blocked Jews from claiming Egyptian citizenship and relegated them to a lesser legal status in their own country. Later, because the Jews were not officially Egyptian, the government was able to expel a number of them.

This problem was accentuated in 1947, when amendments were passed which stipulated that at least 75% of administrative employees in any company had to by Egyptian, while 90% of the overall workforce also had to be Egyptian. This, of course, struck against Jewish commerce in the country, placed stifling strictures on some of their business, and accelerated the departure of more Jews.

The news that Egypt’s last synagogue, the Eliyahu Hanavi, will now be unable to hold services effectively brings an end to any remaining semblance of Jewish life in Egypt. This is something which should concern not just Jews, but Muslims too, as it epitomises growing intolerance and persecution of a minority. Where religious fanatics have started by persecuting minorities, it has not been long before they turned on their own, accusing them of irreligiousness, heresy and insidious betrayal. The religious freedoms of all Egyptians are in peril.

Obama-Clinton prepare $Billion bailout of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

Is this the third or fourth billion dollar bailout of Egypt since Springtime for Hitler went into effect? I’ve lost track. And that’s on top of the billions that the U.S. already forks over to the Islamonazis.

U.S. debt just blew past $16 Trillion, and yet the Obama regime still has no problem flushing billions of dollars down Islamic crap-holes around the world.

Wall Street Journal- American diplomats are closing in on an agreement to dole out $1 billion in debt relief to Egypt, part of a gilded charm offensive that Washington hopes will help shore up the country’s economy and prevent its new Islamist leadership from drifting beyond America’s foreign-policy orbit.

A team of senior State Department economic officials have spent the past week in Egypt’s capital completing the terms of an aid package that President Barack Obama first announced last year after Egypt’s pro-democracy uprising rattled the country’s once-promising economic future.

The money has since sat in policy limbo as Egyptian and American diplomats disagreed over how the Egyptian government would allocate the funding and American politicians hesitated over the prospect of rewarding Egypt’s newly elected Islamist leadership.

As the recipient of $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid, Egypt has historically ranked among America’s top security partners in the Arab world. Its peace treaty with Israel has helped buttress regional security for more than 30 years.

But the election in June of Egypt’s new Muslim Brotherhood-backed president, Mohammed Morsi, has called the strength of the old alliance into question. However, Mr. Mr. Morsi selected Beijing last week for his first official trip outside the Middle East, followed by a trip to Iran—moves some observers saw as a deliberate snub to Egypt’s traditional Western backers.The arrival of an Islamist government followed by political upheaval and disconcerting moves on the international stage fueled questions over the reliability of Mr. Morsi as a U.S. ally. Morsi’s efforts at internal stability and his public criticism of Syria’s regime while visiting Tehran last week, which angered his hosts, have helped balance U.S. views of the new Egyptian leader.

U.S. diplomats say American funding for Egypt has been stalled by disagreements over how the government in Cairo will allocate the debt relief. The envoys currently in Cairo are negotiating over slightly less than half the money, which would be paid as a direct cash transfer to Egypt’s budget.

Video: Egyptian Cleric Safwat Higazi – “The day will come when we will be masters of the world”

These people are psychotic. Obama, Hillary, are you listening?

The only thing these people will ever be “masters” of is their women.

Aug 22, 2012 by MEMRITVVideos

Egyptian Christian murdered just hours after jihadist group offers “reward” for any Muslim who kills a Copt

Springtime for Hitler strikes again.

Barack and Hillary must be so proud. The blood of every dead Christian in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere is on their hands. Not that they give a sh*t.

Raymond Ibrahim – (h/t Weasel Zippers)

Hours after leaflets from Egypt’s jihadi organizations were distributed promising to “reward” any Muslim who kills any Christian Copt in Egypt, specifically naming several regions including Asyut, a report recently appeared concerning the random killing of a Christian store-owner.

According to reporter Menna Magdi, writing in a report published August 14 and titled “The serial killing of Copts has begun in Asyut,” unidentified men stormed a shoe-store, murdering the Christian owner, Refaat Eskander early in the morning. The son of the slain Copt said the murderers took advantage of the fact that his father was alone in the store at the time, adding that his father had no known quarrels with anyone. Only one witness saw one of the assassins as they fled the scene, who was dressed in Salafi attire.

Keep reading…

Video: Egypt energy crisis leaves residents in the dark

Wilting in the Arab Spring.

Aug 17, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish – Egyptian residents have been struggling to get by as officials say their energy infrastructure is unable to cope with national demand.

People are going for days without electricity due to the power grid repeatedly shutting down. In the sweltering summer heat some communities have seen power cuts last for days on end.

Video: Syrian rebels capture 48 Iranian Revolutionary Guards

Iran claims they are just “pilgrims.” Who in their right mind would make a pilgrimage to a major war zone?

American Thinker – Initially, Iran told the world that the 48 were “religious pilgrims.” But members of the Free Syrian Army who have claimed responsibility for holding them says they’re members of the elite Revolutionary Guards.

New York Times:

“They are Iranian thugs who were in Damascus for a field reconnaissance mission,” said a rebel leader, in a video that the rebels said showed the captives sitting calmly behind armed Syrian fighters. In the video, the rebels flipped through what they said were Iranian identification cards and certificates for carrying weapons, proving, the rebels said, that the hostages were not religious pilgrims.

The identities and motives of the captives could not be independently verified, and some rebel groups have not embraced the kidnapping or the theory laid out by the fighters in the video. Col. Malik al-Kurdi, a deputy commander of the Free Syrian Army – one of several competing umbrella groups involved in the fighting – said the brigade taking responsibility for the kidnapping appeared to have been acting on its own and did not tell the Free Syrian Army about the operation.

Iranian officials said the kidnapped Iranians were pilgrims, denying that any of them were members of the Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s Arabic-language channel Al Alam reported Sunday, quoting an unnamed government spokesman. On Saturday, Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, contacted the Syrian and Turkish foreign ministries, asking them to secure the release of the 48 Iranians.

In a statement, the Iranian Embassy in Damascus said that the abducted Iranians had traveled to Syria using a “private” tour company for a pilgrimage to the Shiite shrine of Sayyida Zeinab in the southeastern suburbs of Damascus, which is a mile or two from where fierce fighting has been raging in the neighborhood of Tadamon. While the video clip of the abducted Iranians showed only men, Iranian state news media said that women and children were also among those taken by the Syrian rebels.

So which is it, Rev Guards or pilgrims? It would not be beyond the Iranians to use the cover of a religious pilgrimage to smuggle members of the Quds force into Syria — even using women and children as part of the scheme. And there have been documented instances of Iranian fighters assisting in the crackdown.

But the rebels have been wont to make wild claims, so their credbility is barely better than the Iranian government. If they are members of the Quds force, it shows that Iran is about to take a more active role in the Syrian civil war. This would be in keeping with the Iranian statement that they will not let President Assad fall.

An Iranian entry into the war would be just about as bad as it gets from the standpoint of spreading the conflict to other nations.

Rebel group kidnaps, executes Syrian TV host

Once the rebels take over this will be an everyday occurrence. It wouldn’t be an Islamic revolution otherwise.

Beirut (via Atlas) – Syrian television presenter Mohammed al-Saeed, kidnapped from his Damascus home in mid-July, has been executed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

“The television presenter, a well-known figure on state TV, has been executed, and the Al-Nusra Front has claimed responsibility for the killing,” the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Al-Nusra, a little-known Islamist militant group, claimed the kidnapping and execution of Saeed in a statement on Friday.

“The heroes of western Ghouta [in Damascus province] imprisoned the shabih [pro-regime militia] presenter on July 19,” said Al-Nusra. “He was then killed after he had been interrogated.”

Posted on a forum featuring the al-Qaeda flag, Al-Nusra’s statement showed a photograph of Saeed looking frightened, with his back against a wall in an unknown location.

“May this be a lesson to all those who support the regime,” it said.

Contacted by AFP, state TV director Maan Saleh said: “We have no material proof of this killing.”

Last month, international media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders issued a statement on Saeed’s kidnapping, and urged his captors to release him.

“News media and journalists – both professional and citizen journalists – should not be targeted by any of the parties in a war or civil war,” it said at the time.

Egypt: Dahshour’s entire Christian community forced to flee for their lives

Obama and Clinton’s springtime for Hitler marches on.

Sameeha Wehba, 70, was reportedly the last Christian in Dahshour. (Photo: AP)

(The Blaze/AP) — When the angry mob was rampaging through town, storming her home and those of other Christians, the 70-year-old woman hid in her cow pen, pushing a rock against the door. There she cowered for hours, at one point passing out from tear gas being fired by police that seeped in.

When Sameeha Wehba emerged just before dawn, she found she was the only Christian left in this small Egyptian village just south of Cairo, the location of some of the country’s earliest pyramids.

Dahshour’s entire Christian community – as many as 100 families some estimate – fled to nearby towns in the violence earlier this week. The flock’s priest, cloaked in a white sheet to hide him, was taken out in a police van. At least 16 homes and properties of Christians were pillaged and some torched and a church damaged.

The violence was ultimately rooted in a dispute over a badly ironed shirt that escalated into a fight in which a Muslim was burned to death, sparking the rampage by angry Muslims.

“It was a devil’s moment,” Wehba said Thursday at the home of her Muslim neighbors, who have taken her in. “Whoever caused this was the devil’s son.”

The unprecedented exodus underscores how sectarian divisions are bubbling over in the wake of the revolution, in a country where 10 percent of the population is Christian.  (more >>>)

Israel US ambassador, Michael Oren: Iran behinds deadly cross-border attack

But don’t worry, according to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Iran, Egypt, and Hamas are nothing to get excited about. Nothing handing Jerusalem over to the terrorists wouldn’t cure.

Times of Israel – Iran was behind Sunday’s deadly cross-border incident in the south, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said late Sunday night.

Using social networking platform Twitter, Oren called the perpetrators of the attack, which left 16 Egyptian soldiers dead, “Iranian backed terrorists” who also wished to “massacre Israeli civilians.”

After shooting the Egyptian soldiers and commandeering two Egyptian military vehicles, the gunmen attempted to cross the border into Israel, but were stopped by the army and air force. The vehicles were destroyed and all the terrorists are believed to have been killed.

In a later tweet, Oren praised the IDF for its swift response to the incident and wrote that “the thwarted attack underscores the length to which the extremist regime in Iran will attempt to kill innocent Israelis.”

Israel has blamed Iran for being behind the Burgas bombing in Bulgaria last month, which claimed the lives of five Israelis and their Bulgarian bus driver. Intelligence officials also blame Iran for planning a series of terrorist attacks against Israelis over the last two years, many times using proxies, such as Hezbollah.

Last week, Indian police concluded that Iran was behind the February bomb attack in New Delhi against Israeli Embassy workers, which seriously injured Tal Yehoshua Koren, wife of the Israeli military attaché in India.

 

 

 

IDF foils assault on southern border after terrorists kill 16 Egyptian soldiers

Obama’s Middle East just keeps getting safer and safer.

An Egyptian armored vehicle commandeered by terrorists burning at the Kerem Shalom crossing on Sunday.

Times of Israel – A major effort by Gaza-based Palestinian terrorists to infiltrate into Israel was thwarted on the Israel-Egypt-Gaza border on Sunday night.

The gunmen killed at least 16 Egyptian soldiers and commandeered two Egyptian armored vehicles before attempting to cross into Israel; they were stopped by the army and the air force, and several terrorists were killed. The death toll was earlier reported as 15.

The army and the police continued searching the area overnight, and additional troops were deployed, in case any of the terrorists were still on the loose inside Israel.

No Israelis were reported injured in the attack. Israeli residents in the area were told to stay inside their homes late into the night.

The Israeli security forces had advance intelligence on plans for an attack, the IDF Spokesman Yoav Mordechai said. Maj.-Gen. Tal Russo, the O/C Southern command, was at the scene.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security forces for thwarting the attack, and said in a statement that Israel would track down “anyone who tries to harm us.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the IDF and Shin Bet security service had thwarted what could have been a grave attack, and praised their alertness and determined action.

Barak urged Egypt to take steps to restore security to the Sinai.

Video: Erick Stakelbeck & Michael Coren on Obama’s support for Islamists

Stakelbeck joins Michael Coren to discuss Obama’s miserable Middle East policy.

At least six jihadist groups now engaged in Syrian civil war

Gee, I wonder which one Obama and Clinton are going to prop up.

Bill Roggio via Weasel Zippers

Al Qaeda in Iraq has long had a strong presence in Syria, with the assistance of the Assad regime. The terror group has used Syria to recruit, train, and arm fighters to wage jihad. Syria also has served as a transit point for foreign jihadists entering Iraq.

The Al Nusrah Front has claimed credit for numerous suicide attacks, roadside bombings, ambushes, and complex assaults against security forces and government installations. Al Nusrah has been very active in Syria and has been linked to al Qaeda.

The Abdullah Azzam Brigades has a presence throughout the Middle East, including Syria, and was formed at the behest of al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi and al Qaeda emir Osama bin Laden. At the end of June, Majid bin Muhammad al Majid, the group’s emir, said that Syrians should support the uprising against the Assad regime, and that further rebellions against Muslim governments would follow.

The Al Baraa Ibn Malik Martyrdom Brigade, which is named after a suicide cell that joined al Qaeda in Iraq in 2005, said it had formed a martyrdom battalion and was prepared to carry out suicide attacks against Syrian forces.

The Liwa al Islam, or Brigade of Islam, took credit for the attack that killed the top two Syrian defense officials and Assad’s national security advisor. The Free Syrian Army also claimed credit for the attack, and both groups said it was carried out by a remotely detonated bomb, but the Syrian government maintained it was a suicide attack.

The Omar al Farouq Brigade includes Turkish “mujahideen” and is named after a prominent al Qaeda leader who was slain in Iraq in 2006. The group has implored Muslims to “fight together to save Syria, Somalia and Afghanistan.”

Syria: Islamist rebels terrorizing Christians in Damascus, execute entire family

In the Arab world there is never any team worth rooting for. They are all equally deranged.

Relatedly, see previous post: Video: Israeli expert – Islamist group, not Free Syrian Army, blew up Assad’s inner circle. It’s likely the same group.

Via Weasel Zippers

(AGI) Rome – The Fides news agency has reported on groups of rebel extremist Islamists “terrorising people in Damascus” especially Chrstians and Iraqi refugees. Fides has also reported the murder of an entire Christian family by militiamen from the “Islam Brigade”, “Liwa al-Islam”, the same group that claimed responsibility for the attack on Bashar al-Assad regime’s hierarchy.

According to the news agency, which is quoting sources in Damascus, these militias stopped the car of a Christian, a civilian state official called Nabil Zoreb, and forced the man, his wife Violet and his two children, George and Jimmy, to get out of the car and then shot them all at point blank range.

In the south-eastern part of Damascus, Islamist fighters from the Jihad al Nosra group, close to the Muslim Brotherhood, attacked the homes of Iraqi refugees, looting and burning down the houses, obliging the residents to flee.

Video: Egyptian Muslim movie stars go berserk on ‘Candid Camera’ show when told they are on Israeli TV

This is utterly bizarre. And creepy. And insulting. And so, so very typical of the entrenched hatred for Jews in the Muslim world, and their all-pervasive anti-Semitic propaganda.

These people are supposed to be ‘liberal’ and ‘open-minded,’ the best Egypt has to offer from the newly ‘democratic’ Egypt that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are promoting with words and billions in taxpayer dollars.

The Egyptian ‘stars’ are led to believe that the station they are on is not German, but Israeli, and then the fireworks begin. Aside from the obvious Jew-hatred and violence than unfolds, it demonstrates how truly stupid these people are. The prank is played on three different Egyptian actors.

Jul 23, 2012 by MEMRITVVideos

Iraq: String of bomb attacks kill at least 50, wound 144

Good thing Barack Obama won that war and made it safe for democracy.

A policeman stands guard at the site of a bomb attack in Kirkuk

BAGHDAD – A string of bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 50 people on Monday and wounded 144 more, police and hospital sources said, in one of the bloodiest days in the past weeks.

Violence in Iraq has eased since the height of sectarian slaughter in 2006-2007, but insurgents still carry out deadly attacks, especially around the capital, and deadly car bombs on Sunday shattered a lull in violence in the lead-up to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Saturday.

In Taji, 20 km north of Baghdad, six blasts, including a car bomb, exploded near a housing complex on Monday, killing 14 people and wounding 29, sources said. When police arrived at the scene, another blast killed 10 police officers.

Two car bombs struck near a government building in Sadr City, a poor Shi’ite neighborhood in Baghdad, and in the northern mainly Shi’ite area of Hussainiya, killing in total 16 people and wounding 73, police said.

In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, four car bombs killed four people and wounded 15 others. Explosions and gun attacks on security checkpoints in different parts of the restive eastern province of Diyala killed six people, including four soldiers and policemen, and wounded 30, police sources said.

Tensions have been high since the last US troops left in December, with ongoing political crises between Iraq’s main Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions.

On Sunday, car bombs in two towns south of Baghdad and in the Iraqi city of Najaf killed at least 20 people and wounded 80.

Last month at least 237 people were killed and 603 wounded in attacks, making it one of the bloodiest months since US troops withdrew.

UPDATE – Death toll up to 106 with over 200 injured in attacks spread over 15 cities.

Meanwhile, Obama on the same day comes out bragging that he ended the war.

Via ABC News:

Is it bad timing or irrelevant?

President Obama’s campaign today released a video praising the president for ending the war in Iraq. It turns out that today has proven to be the deadliest day of the year in that country.

A wave of attacks throughout Iraq – IEDs, explosions, and gunmen — has resulted in more than 100 people killed and more than 200 wounded.

Yesterday, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, al-Qaeda’s top leader in Iraq, released an audio message announcing, ”We are setting off a new stage of our struggle, with the launch of a plan named ‘breaking the walls.’”

On the other hand, none of the dead appears to be American – which may be all that U.S. voters, and many policymakers, care about.

White House orders Israel not to strike at Syria’s chemical arsenal

Because chemical weapons in the hands of Hezbollah, Iran, Al-Qaida, or Iraqi Shia would be so much more preferable than Assad being able to wrangle an extra month or so of propaganda.

Once that stuff disappears, it would be ten times harder to track. Israel’s best interest and safety is always the least important thing on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s minds.

Israel Hayom – The White House is now holding daily high-level meetings to discuss a broad range of contingency plans — including safeguarding Syria’s vast chemical weapons arsenal and sending explicit warnings to both warring sides to avert mass atrocities, according to the New York Times.

There was heavy fighting in Damascus and the surrounding areas on Sunday morning, with Syrian army helicopter gunships bombing three districts of the capital. Reuters reported that rebel forces had pulled back from the district of Mezze after coming under heavy aerial and ground bombardment by presidential forces. Some 300 people were reportedly killed in Damascus on the weekend, and a total of 400 across Syria.

U.S. administration officials have been in talks with officials in Turkey and Israel over how to manage a Syrian government collapse, according to the Times report, and the issue will be at the top of the agenda for Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s visit to Israel this week.

Officials told the New York Times that the administration has had regular talks with the Israelis about how Israel might move to destroy Syrian weapons facilities, though the U.S. does not support such a pre-emptive attack as it would risk giving Assad an opportunity to rally support against Israel.

Israel believes that Syria is currently still in control of its chemical weapons arsenals.

Defense official Amos Gilad told Army Radio on Sunday that while Israel is afraid Syria’s large chemical stocks could be seized by Lebanese terrorists, Al-Qaida-affiliated radicals or other unspecified “irresponsible elements” operating in Syria, “right now, they [the Syrians] are protecting these arsenals as best as they can.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the top of Sunday’s Cabinet meeting that Israel is closely monitoring the situation in Syria and are ready for any possible scenario.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak reiterated on Sunday morning that Israel is closely watching whether Hezbollah will move advanced weapons system out of Syria and into Lebanon and that “Israel would not tolerate this.” Barak said in television interviews on Friday evening that he has “ordered the Israeli military to prepare for a situation where we would have to weigh the possibility of carrying out an attack” against Syrian weapons arsenals.

Barak also said that he believes the fall of Assad is closer than ever because the attack on the Syrian defense establishment headquarters last week “dealt a massive blow to the Assad family. This blow will accelerate his exit.” On what may replace Assad, Barak said “no one can predict what will happen the day after Assad [goes]. The direction isn’t a positive one. There won’t suddenly rise up a western European democracy.”

Over 300 killed in Syria’s bloodiest day yet

May both sides win.

(The explosions begin at about 50 seconds in.)

Times of Israel – BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian activists say 310 people were killed across the country on Thursday in what was the single deadliest day of fighting since the beginning of the revolt against President Bashar Assad’s regime.

Syria’s civil war escalated dramatically in the past week as rebels closed in on the capital Damascus and launched their most serious blow yet on Assad’s inner circle, killing three top aides in an assassination.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday at least 93 of those killed Thursday were government troops.

The Local Coordination Committees, which documents civilian deaths, said 217 civilians were killed Thursday.

Death tolls are difficult to verify in tightly controlled Syria which places severe restrictions on journalists.

Syrian TV said troops recovered control of a rebellious neighborhood in Damascus Friday.

Massive blast kills 2 of Assad’s top officials

The writing is on the wall.

מנא ,מנא, תקל, ופרסין

Mene, Mene, Tekel u-Pharsin

(You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. – Book of Daniel 5:25-28)

Times of Israel – A massive blast struck the National Security building in Damascus on Wednesday, killing Syrian President Bashar Assad’s most trusted security official, his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, and his defense minister, Dawoud Rajha.

Several other senior officials were seriously wounded in the bombing, which took place as the regime’s top officials were holding security talks, and marked the most brazen rebel attack to date on the seat of government power.

Reuters said it was unclear whether Assad himself was present at the meeting.

State TV reported that Assad’s brother-in-law, Shawkat, who held the formal title of deputy chief of staff but who headed the president’s military intelligence hierarchy and was leading the fight against opposition forces, died after being hospitalized in critical condition.

Interior Minister Muhammad al-Shaar was seriously wounded but in stable condition. Syrian intelligence chief Hisham Bekhtyar was undergoing surgery after being wounded.

Rebel leader Riad al-Asaad said in a phone interview from his headquarters in Turkey that rebel forces planted a bomb inside a room where senior government officials were meeting.

Reuters reported that the bomber worked as a bodyguard for Assad’s inner circle. Initial reports spoke of a suicide bomber. Later reports, however, suggested that a bomb had been placed in the room where the top officials met, and was detonated either by a timer or by remote control.

Government officials claimed that America and Israel were involved in the attack.

The Syrian army released a statement saying its forces will continue to fight. ”Whoever thinks that by targeting the country’s leaders they will be able to twist Syria’s arm is disillusioned because Syria’s people, army and leadership are now more determined than ever to fight terrorism … and cleanse the nation from the armed gangs.”

According to the BBC, Damascus quickly appointed a new defense minister, Gen. Fahad Jassim Freij, who was previously the military chief of staff.

The capital has seen four straight days of clashes pitting government troops against rebels — an unprecedented challenge to government rule in the tightly controlled capital.  (more >>>)

Obama-Clinton offer Egypt over a billion dollars in additional aid

Clinton and Obama have already given Egypt billions in additional aid. This is on top of that. The Egyptian economy is in tatters. Tourism, their top money earner, is way down. The country would have already imploded if the Saudis hadn’t given them a huge cash infusion. America is going to be propping up Egypt forever, as the Muslim Brotherhood continues to plot against us.

Voice of America – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Tel Aviv after ending two days of talks with Egypt’s quarrelling civilian and military leaders. She offered them U.S. assistance for the struggling Egyptian economy without publicly taking sides in their ongoing power struggle.

A U.S. State Department official said Clinton discussed U.S. aid proposals at a meeting in Cairo Sunday with Egyptian military chief Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. The official said Tantawi told Clinton that reviving the Egyptian economy is a priority for his country. Clinton revealed details of the U.S. aid pledge on Saturday, when she held talks with Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi, who took office last month.

VOA correspondent Scott Stearns, who is traveling with Clinton, said debt relief is a major part of the U.S. package.

“In both her talks with President Morsi and Field Marshal Tantawi, she discussed the U.S. ability to help the Egyptian economy. The political instability here in Egypt has really hurt economic growth and tourism revenue. So U.S. President Barack Obama is proposing a package of debt relief that could go as high as $1 billion. Tantawi said that’s really the chief priority now; that’s what Egyptians need – a better economy,” he said.

Other U.S. aid proposals include a $60 million fund for Egypt’s small- and medium-sized businesses and $250 million in private-sector loan guarantees. Stearns said Egypt will have to negotiate the terms of the broader debt relief package with the United States, but that process cannot begin until Mr. Morsi forms a Cabinet.

Muslim clerics demand demolition of Egypt’s pyramids in name of Allah

Do it. We dare you. Show the world what a bunch of backwards barbarians you really are. Cut off your #1 source of income – tourism. You don’t deserve such monuments anyway.

FPM via Weasel Zippers

According to several reports in the Arabic media, prominent Muslim clerics have begun to call for the demolition of Egypt’s Great Pyramids — or, in the words of Saudi Sheikh Ali bin Said al-Rabi‘i, those “symbols of paganism,” which Egypt’s Salafi party has long planned to cover with wax. Most recently, Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sunni Sheikhs” and President of National Unity, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmoud, called on Egypt’s new president, Muhammad Morsi, to “destroy the Pyramids and accomplish what the Sahabi Amr bin al-As could not.”

This is a reference to the Muslim Prophet Muhammad’s companion, Amr bin al-As and his Arabian tribesmen, who invaded and conquered Egypt circa 641. Under al-As and subsequent Muslim rule, many Egyptian antiquities were destroyed as relics of infidelity. While most Western academics argue otherwise, according to early Muslim writers, the great Library of Alexandria itself — deemed a repository of pagan knowledge contradicting the Koran—was destroyed under bin al-As’s reign and in compliance with Caliph Omar’s command. [...]

Now, however, as Bahrain’s “Sheikh of Sheikhs” observes, and thanks to modern technology, the pyramids can be destroyed. The only question left is whether the Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt is “pious” enough — if he is willing to complete the Islamization process that started under the hands of Egypt’s first Islamic conqueror.

Nor is such a course of action implausible. History is laden with examples of Muslims destroying their own pre-Islamic heritage — starting with Islam’s prophet Muhammad himself, who destroyed Arabia’s Ka‘ba temple, transforming it into a mosque.

Keep reading…

Obama eagerly awaits September visit by Egypt’s new Islamist president

The new Muslim Brotherhood president will feel right at home in Imam Obama’s Islamist-infested White House. Maybe he’ll have Hillary and Huma Abedin give the Jew-hating Islamonazi special tour.

Islam-loving Reuters says that the Muslim Brotherhood renounced violence years ago. That is patently false and shows how in bed the media is with Islam, and the Muslim Brotherhood in particular.

REUTERS (h/t Weasel Zippers) — US President Barack Obama has invited Egypt’s newly elected Islamist president, Mohamed Mursi, to visit the United States in September, an Egyptian official said on Sunday, reflecting the new ties Washington is cultivating with the region’s Islamists.

Washington, long wary of Islamists and an ally of ousted President Hosni Mubarak, shifted policy last year to open formal contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood, the group behind Mursi’s win. Mursi formally resigned from the group after his victory.

Mursi’s success at the polls mirrors the rising influence of Islamists in countries across the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of revolts and protests against autocratic rulers who have led the region for decades.

“President Obama extended an invitation to President Mursi to visit the United States when he attends the UN General Assembly in September,” Egyptian aide Yasser Ali said after Mursi met US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in Cairo.

Israel has watched with growing concern the political gains of the Brotherhood, an inspiration for the Palestinian militant group Hamas. The 84-year-old Brotherhood renounced violence as a means to achieve political change in Egypt decades ago.

Keep reading…

Muslim Brotherhood set to lead new Libyan government

Funny how every country that Obama and Hillary Clinton touch end up being run by the Muslim Brotherhood.

UK Telegraph – While the elections for a 200-member National Congress is unlikely to grant a majority to any one faction, the Muslim Brotherhood and its Islamist allies are confident they can join their counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt at the helm of leadership.

Negotiations between the Muslim Brotherhood and a secular-based political movement led by former interim prime minister Mahmoud Jibril have focused on forming a post-election government as soon as the result is known.

An adviser to Mr Jibril said the former prime minister was likely to take the post of figurehead president with Mustafa Abu Shagour, currently interim deputy prime minister of the Muslim Brotherhood, taking the prime minister’s slot as head of government.

The Muslim Brotherhood would dominate the ministries.

In the run-up to the elections, Libya’s interim government has struggled to maintain law and order.

A threatened electoral boycott by federalists in Benghazi, the second city, has rattled Libya’s rebels turned leaders. Leading figures fear that large numbers in the city that triggered the rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi may shun the polls, undermining the legitimacy of the election.

Recent attacks on foreign diplomats in Benghazi by Jihadists, a series of ugly micro-conflicts between militias in the Nafousa mountains leaving 105 dead and 300 wounded in the last fortnight and fierce clashes between Arabs, Tebu tribesmen and Tuaregs in the south have put the country on edge.

“We need to ensure stronger and more capable leadership soon after the elections,” said a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood’s Justice and Construction Party. “That is what Libyans want – more security and stability and progress being made to improve their day-to-day lives. They don’t want deadlock.”

Any coalition government would grant a prominent place to the al-Watan party of Abdulhakim Belhaj, sources said. Mr Belhaj acknowledged that the talks were under way. He said: “I negotiate with anyone who cares about Libya and wants to unite it.”

Video: Syrian Islamist rebels toss regime “collaborator” from 3rd story window

More Arab spring cleaning.

Obama and Hillary Clinton want these people to be running the ‘new’ Syria. In the Arab world, there is no such thing as ‘a good guy.’ It is always a choice between two or more evils.

National Post via Weasel Zippers

A video posted on YouTube to the LiveLeaks website appears to show Islamists throwing a man to his death after forcing him from a third-floor window in Syria.

According to the site, the cameraman says, “This is what happens to all traitors who support the police or Shabbiha [Syrian government militia.]” The man, identified as Abu Wael Rashid, screams, “In God’s name, don’t!” as he is forced out of the window.

The video was shot last week at a block of flats in Nabk, 80 kilimetres north of Damascus. Both sides in the Syrian conflict have been condemned by human rights organizations for abuses, including torture

Meanwhile…

Assad loyalists shown with mustaches half-shaven off in humiliating video

Youtube clip features pro-regime men forced to sing praises of Free Syrian Army.

Times of Israel – A video uploaded to YouTube this week purports to show captured members of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s shabiha militia, with their mustaches half-shaven off, chanting “Allah bless the Free [Syrian] Army.”

The enforced shaving of the ostensible Assad loyalists, a mark of disgrace and humiliation in Arab culture, presumably took place after they were captured by Free Syrian Army forces.

It was not clear under what circumstances the pro-regime men were captured, nor could the authenticity of the video’s contents be confirmed.

The incident would hardly be the first case of retaliatory humiliation by either side in the Syrian conflict. Numerous videos uploaded to YouTube over the 16-month uprising against Assad have purported to show one side or the other mutilating or defiling the bodies of their opponents.

Video: Syrian refugees overwhelm Jordanian border

Arab spring cleaning.

According to Al Jazeera some 140,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan.

Jul 4, 2012 by AlJazeeraEnglish – Some 140,000 Syrian refugees have fled to Jordan, escaping the Shabbiha — gunmen loyal to President Assad. They are currently housed in two compounds in a border town, and the Jordanian government is considering opening more holding centres. There are now so many refugees that they’re overwhelming the border towns. But the government is reluctant to build proper camps. Politicians here are worried that the Syrian government would consider that a hostile act.

Video: Obama & Hillary’s new best friend, Egypt’s President Morsi – “Jihad is our path, the koran our constitution, death for the sake of allah is our aspiration”

Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Clinton love this guy. They have nothing but praise for Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Springtime for Hitler that they did so much to help promote. Now meet their good buddy:

Jun 28, 2012 by MEMRITVVideos – Mohamed Morsi during Elections Campaign: Jihad Is Our Path, Death for the Sake of Allah Is Our Most Lofty Aspiration, the Shari’a Is Our Constitution
The Internet, Misr 25 TV (Egypt) – May 13, 2012

Egypt sentences 5 businessmen to 15 years in prison for not overcharging Israel for natural gas

If you don’t screw the Joos, then you will be screwed.

This is what democracy looks like in Obama’s Arab Spring.

Arutz Sheva – A criminal court in Egypt today jailed a former Mubarak-era cabinet minister and a businessman for 15 years each for selling Israel natural gas “below market value.”

“The Cairo criminal court sentenced former oil minister Sameh Fahmi and fugitive businessman Hussein Salem to 15 years in prison each over the (Israel) gas deal,” a judicial source told AFP.

Salem, is a former partner in the East Mediterranean Gas Co (EMG), an Israeli-Egyptian consortium.

The men were accused “of exporting gas to Israel at below market value” undermining the interests of Egypt, the source added.

Israeli officials have said the paid competitive market rates for natural gas from Egypt under the deal, when viewed in relation to global markets.

Nonetheless, five former high ranking officials from the oil and gas authority received jail sentences ranging from three to 10 years on similar charges, the judicial source added.

Video: Liz Chenny warns about the Muslim Brotherhood, dismayed by Obama Administration’s admiration for them

Liz Cheney calls foul on the Obama Administration’s support for the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Jun 26, 2012 by cablenewsguy – Liz Chenny as always does an excellent job informing us about the dangers of the newly elected Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt and what it means for us, Israel and any other group or persons that the Brotherhood does not like.