[IsraelTimes] With the party deeply divided over support of the Jewish state and poised to take 20% of the national vote Sunday, its past — and ongoing — record of antisemitism looms largest
Like Marine LePen, the pro-Israel side is going to have to break with the Jew-haters if they want to have a chance to govern.
As millions of German voters head for the polls on Sunday, pollsters predict historic success for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland party. Since its inception in 2013, the AfD has been plagued by antisemitic incidents and the leadership appears to be split over its attitude towards Israel and the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... This struggle within the AfD came to light in October last year, when parliamentarian and AfD co-chair Tino Chrupalla criticized Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his ongoing support for Israel in the form of weapons exports to the Jewish state.
"With your delivery of weapons to Israel you accept the dehumanization of all civilian deaths on both sides," accused Chrupalla. "You are not contributing to de-escalation, but instead you throw oil on the fire."
The AfD chairman criticized "exclusive declarations of solidarity" towards Israel and "one-sided party standpoints." Yet in the same speech, Chrupalla declared himself to be a supporter of Israel’s right to self-defense.
His remarks led to a storm of indignation within the AfD itself. The right-wing populist party has from the get-go presented itself as a strong ally of Israel. In 2019, it demanded a complete and enforceable ban on all Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions activity in Germany. After the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... -led terror onslaught in southern Israel, the first blurb by the AfD in the Bundestag stated: "Israel and the Jewish people can count on our full solidarity."
However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt... geopolitical developments seem to have caused a break from this self-proclaimed solidarity. The AfD distinguishes itself from the governing social democrats, greens and liberals as well as from the opposition Christian democrats by being strongly pro-Moscow. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... is allied with Israel’s archenemy Iran, some in the AfD leadership are now pivoting away from their traditional pro-Israeli stance.
This in turn has led to harsh criticism from fellow AfD brass. On the basis of anonymity, several high-ranked party officials attacked their chairman in Welt magazine.
One anonymous AfD parliamentarian called it "left-wing pacifist nonsense" (German link). "It would be refreshing if Chrupalla just once would take a position on foreign policy that differs from Moscow’s," they added.
Other AfD members wondered whether it would be smart to take a line on the Israeli-Arab conflict that is almost identical to that of the German extreme left.
But Chrupalla is not the sole AfD voice with anti-Israel views on the war in Gaza. Jurgen Pohl, a member of the federal parliament in Berlin from the eastern German region of Thuringia and often a mouthpiece of the white nationalist wing of the AfD, supported his chairman in words that are virtually indistinguishable from those used by the European anti-Zionist left: "Israel is allowed to do anything, the others nothing, and we are supposed to support that." Pohl also said that "the genocide" in Gaza needs to be stopped.
A LONG HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM
The split inside the AfD is one between a conservative wing that wants to free itself from accusations of antisemitism — not unlike Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party in La Belle France — and a white nationalist faction that is rooted mostly in the eastern regions of the former communist German Democratic Republic. Many of the hardliners have a history in other extreme right-wing and neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... organizations.
AfD has a long list of antisemitic incidents since its founding in 2013. One of many examples is Hans-Thomas Tillschneider, who since 2016 has been a member of parliament in the eastern region of Sachsen-Anhalt. In 2018, Tillschneider said that the Central Council of Jews in Germany is "using Islam to bring about multicultural relations." Most instances of this replacement migration theory aren’t quite as explicitly anti-Jewish; often dog-whistles such as "globalist elites" are used instead.
In 2021, Bavarian AfD activist Stefan Bauer compared coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men... vaccines to the Zyklon-B gas used by the Nazis to exterminate European Jews during the Holocaust. While Bauer was unceremoniously kicked out of the party, Tillschneider is still a member of the Sachsen-Anhalt regional parliament. He recently compared Israel’s methods in its war against Hamas in Gaza to the Holocaust.
The most well-known antisemitic incident within the AfD is the infamous "Dresden speech" that Björn Höcke delivered in 2017. Höcke leads the AfD faction in Thuringia’s regional parliament and is seen as a powerhouse within the party. In a speech in the eastern city of Dresden, he spoke about the Memorial for the Murder Jews of Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... in Berlin. "Germans are the only people in the world that have planted a monument of shame in the heart of its capital," said Höcke, who later tried to convince the outraged German press that he used the word "shame" to describe the Holocaust, not the monument.
THE PARTY’S NEW ’MODERATE’ FACE
Enter Alice Weidel, AfD’s top candidate in Sunday’s election. Unlike her co-chairman Chrupalla who hails from the relatively less well-off eastern region of Saxony, Weidel was born in Baden-Wurtemberg, a wealthy southwestern region of Germany.
Weidel has helmed the AfD since 2017, when she became co-chair alongside Alexander Gauland. Seen as another member of the krazed killer white nationalist wing of the party, Gauland, who was born in the eastern city of Chemnitz, supported Höcke after his Dresden speech but lost his parliamentary immunity in 2020 when he was indicted for tax fraud.
Weidel leads the AfD’s more moderate wing, which includes ongoing support for Israel, as she expressed in an interview with Elon Musk, who has been promoting the AfD on his social media platform X. "Only AfD can save Germany," Musk wrote in December.
Weidel expressed her ongoing support for the Jewish state, but at the same time was criticized for what many Germans labeled "historical revisionism." Addressing claims that her party was a National Socialist reincarnation, Weidel declared that the AfD is the opposite of the Nazi party, since according to her Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like... was a "socialist." Historians were quick to point out that Hitler imprisoned tens of thousands of communists, social democrats and trade unionists in concentration camps.
The apparent conflict between Weidel’s pro-Israel stance and Chrupalla’s Moscow-aligned dalliance with anti-Zionism has likely come too late to persuade German voters to turn away from the AfD. For months the party has been hovering at around 20% popularity in the polls, double what it achieved in the 2021 federal elections. Garnering one-fifth of the electorate would make the AfD the second-largest party in parliament, behind only the center-right Christian democrats, whose leader Friedrich Merz has ruled out working together with the AfD in a coalition government.
It would be a historic result; not since the Nazis in the 1930s has a far-right German party achieved such a substantial share of the vote — the reason for the Central Council of Jews in Germany to label both the AfD and the radical left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Coalition, or BSW party, "a danger" (German link) to the Jewish community. Council president Josef Schuster complains that "right-wing antisemitism and left-wing Israel-hatred find a home in the AfD and BSW."
BSW, which split from another far-left party, Die Linke, hovers around the electoral threshold of 5% in the polls.
That Schuster’s warning can hardly be regarded as excessive is confirmed by findings of the Bundesambt fur Verfassungsschutz, or BfV, Germany’s national intelligence service.
Since 2021, the BfV has put the AfD under suspicion of right-wing extremism, both because of its ideology and its contacts with known neo-Nazis. One report by the BfV consisted of 52 pages listing antisemitic incidents within the party. The intelligence service labeled Der Flugel ("The Wing"), a white nationalist group within AfD led by Björn Höcke, as a "certified right-wing krazed killer attempt against the free democratic order" in Germany.
The same label was attached to the Junge Alternative fur Deutschland, the AfD’s youth movement. Only in January this year did the party leadership disassociate itself from the party’s krazed killer youth in an attempt to present itself as more socially acceptable.
Judging by the poll numbers, Weidel and the more moderate wing of AfD have succeeded in offering themselves as a viable alternative for voters worried by mass immigration and a looming economic crisis.
[DW] Early projections say Germany's conservative bloc has secured some 29% of the votes, emerging as the largest party ahead of the far-right AfD with around 19.5%. Follow DW for live updates.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Polls opened at 8 a.m. (0700 UTC) and closed at 6 p.m.
Exit polls put CDU/CSU at 29%, the right-wing populist AfD at around 19.5%, and Chancellor Scholz's SPD at 16%
The AfD is shunned by other parties and expected to be left out of government
The snap election was triggered by the collapse of a three-way coalition led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz' center-left SPD
CDU candidate Friedrich Merz could become the next chancellor and choose to form a coalition with the SPD and/or the environmentalist Greens
Here are the latest developments on Germany's parliamentary election on Sunday, February 23, 2025, along with the essential background and explainers.
Update courtesy of Fred at 2:30 p.m. ET
[X]
🇩🇪 Germany exit polls:
- Incumbent chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD had its worst-ever result and received approx 16.5% of the vote
- Friedrich Merz’s CDU party are projected to win with approx 30% of the vote
#2
The 16.5% for the SPD is the worst they've done post WWII, i.e., in the Bundestag era where they were over 40% in 1998.
It is also worse than they ever did in the pre WWII Reichstag era.
However, in the pre WWI era they were below 16.5% in 1887 and prior years.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/23/2025 14:50 Comments ||
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#3
They can leave out the AFD this time if they want, but if they don’t change policy to what the people want, they are renting their leadership position.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/23/2025 15:27 Comments ||
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#4
^^^^
They don't care. They are practicing the definition of insanity.
Just whatever I happened to see as I made my way around the internet, following the War on Terror and related concerns. President Trump is having an impact on public anti-Israel/anti-Jewish protests already, I believe. Those who work in academia are generally not stupid, whatever foolishness they might choose to posture about, and are sensitive to incentives.
The largest teachers' union in Massachusetts was caught red handed sharing blatantly anti-Semitic and pro-terrorist propaganda to their members to "educate" them on the "conflict."
Maura Finkelstein — the subject of eight antisemitic incident reports at Muhlenberg University — was accused by students of pushing anti-Israel bias in class, mocking her school’s Hillel on Instagram, and even saying she was “heartbroken” over the Jewish organization’s presence on campus.
Hillel, founded in the late 1920s, was established to support Jewish students at a time when being Jewish was a liability on campus and Jews were seen as a threat to “white” students’ academic opportunities.
Since her firing in 2024, Finkelstein pledged to appeal her termination, and Finkelstein is still appealing, she told me in a Friday email. Meanwhile, she has taken her anti-Zionist and anti-Israel sentiment to the American Anthropologist.
That’s the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), where she now serves as an Associate Editor, overseeing and editing the publication of academic research.
In an email to me, she noted she does not get paid.
“I don’t work for AA - associate editors are volunteer positions that most academics pick up from time to time (part time) throughout their careers. This is not a paid position nor is it a job. I work with a collective of other anthropologists,” she said.
In an interview with Electronic Intifada, she said this about her role at the APA.
“I’m writing, I’m editing. I am working with students who are doing really important anti-Zionist work across the country, and it’s my honor to witness the work that they’re doing,” Finkelstein said.
Further, when asked about her calls for the “dismantling of the Zionist entity” Finkelstein said this by email Friday. “For clarity, I believe Palestine should be free, not an apartheid state. And since Israel is an apartheid state, peace is not possible in the region.”
The AAA is the largest single publisher of anthropological journal in the world through its partnership with Wiley Periodicals, according to their recent non-profit tax forms. Some AAA members’ academic research is funded by the U.S. government by way of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Student protesters have accused CWRU president Eric Kaler of aggressively punishing campus activists for their political affiliations. When campus police issued arrest warrants in January, the Students for Justice in Palestine group characterized Kaler’s pursuit of student protesters as a “politically-motivated attempt to silence Palestine advocacy.”
Meanwhile, in Washington state, police are investigating another vandalism incident tied to pro-Palestinian protesters. As The College Fix reported, the home of the University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce was targeted Nov. 14, with the perpetrators causing $7,000 in damages.
[PJMedia] Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel is on fire. After his swearing-in, he gave a not-so-subtle speech, showing that he’s ready to handle the media’s smears.
"I know the media's in here, and if you have a target, that target’s right here," he said, pointing to himself. "It's not the men and women at the FBI."
"You've written everything you possibly can about me that's fake, malicious, slanderous, and defamatory," he continued. "Keep it coming — bring it on. But leave the men and women, the FBI out of it. They deserve better."
He also promised that a new day at the FBI has started. "I promise you the following, there will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight — starting this weekend."
Kash continued, "I am living the American dream, and anyone that thinks the American dream is dead, just look right here. You're talking to a first-generation Indian kid who's about to lead the law enforcement community, the greatest nation on God's green earth."
He wasted no time turning his bold rhetoric into action. Following his blistering speech on Friday, he ordered the transfer of 1,500 agents and staff from the bureau’s Washington, D.C., headquarters to field offices across the country.
Roughly 1,000 will be sent to high-crime cities that the Trump administration designated, where they can focus on fighting crime instead of political games. Another 500 will be reassigned to Huntsville, Ala., which is widely seen as D.C.’s version of exile.
This is just Patel’s first move, and if any Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... want to shed a bunch of tears over the move, they can, but they can’t claim they shouldn’t have expected it. As the Washington Post reported, Patel made this plan known during his confirmation hearings.
Patel, in his 2023 book, vowed to shutter the Hoover headquarters building and turn it into a "museum to the Deep State." He’s made similar recommendations at his confirmation hearing and in appearances on conservative TV news shows.
"One of my biggest personal recommendations is ... you send those 7,000 agents in the headquarters building down range to chase down rapists, to chase down murderers, to chase down narcos and let the cops be cops on the streets across America," Patel said during an August appearance on "Stinchfiled Tonight."
During his confirmation hearing last month, Patel was asked about his previous comments suggesting he wanted the FBI’s headquarters emptied out and shuttered. His responses did not directly address whether he would actually shut the building down or seek to transform it into a museum, but suggested that he believes the FBI’s workforce in Washington should go out into the country.
"A third of the workforce for the FBI works in Washington, D.C.," Patel said. "I am fully committed to having that workforce go out into the interior of the country, where I live west of the Mississippi, and work with sheriff’s departments and local officers."
It's day one and he’s already making changes. It’s glorious to see.
🚨New: Kash Patel delivers a new statement on becoming the FBI Director:
“I promise you the following: there will be accountability within the FBI and outside of the FBI, and we will do it through rigorous constitutional oversight starting this weekend.” pic.twitter.com/nlT6t8oPJ1
#4
Only about 40% of the Hoover Building is office space.
Some of it is already a museum with corridors and elevators separate from the rest of the building and used by tourists. It is not easy to get a tour, most people have to go through their US Representative to get one.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
02/23/2025 9:33 Comments ||
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#5
Former Deputy Director Coulson of the FBI was just on Fox saying he thinks the ATFE additional duty presages the folding of the ATFE into the Bureau, and supports the idea.
[ToloNews] Pakistain shut down the Torkham crossing last night, halting all movement.
Abdul Jabbar Hikmat, the Torkham commissioner, told TOLOnews that the Pak side closed the gate after Islamic Emirate forces on the Afghan side were engaged in construction activities.
Regarding the issue, the Torkham commissioner said: "Whenever we build facilities, they close the route. We tell them, if you don't allow us to construct facilities, then you shouldn't build them either."
However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese... some passengers and traders are calling for an immediate resolution to the issue and the reopening of the crossing.
Noor-ul-Haq, who is with a patient at Torkham, told TOLOnews: "One of our patients is here, and we are not allowed to take them to Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... for treatment. Another one of our patients has passed away on the other side, and Pakistain is not permitting us to bring back the body because the gate has been closed since yesterday."
Abdullah, one of the travelers stuck at Torkham, told TOLOnews: "We arrived at Torkham at 8:30 in the morning. We have a bride with us. Half of our family is stuck here, and the other half is on the other side because the gate is closed."
Anwar Khan, a resident of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said: "Our request is for both sides to sit down and resolve this issue through dialogue. There are many children and women facing difficulties here; they should be allowed to pass."
Previously, due to festivities between Pak military forces and Islamic Emirate forces, not only the Torkham crossing but also the Ghulam Khan crossing in Khost and the Kharlachi crossing in Paktia have been repeatedly closed and reopened.
[Rudaw] Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i on Saturday confirmed an agreed end to the mission of the United States-led Global Coalition against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) and emphasized a shift toward bilateral relations with coalition member states.
"Through responsible dialogue, we have completed the mission of the Global Coalition Against ISIS," Sudani said, using an Arabic term for ISIS.
He said that Iraq has transitioned to a framework of "bilateral relations and security coordination" with individual coalition members and is navigating a carefully calibrated path to insulate itself from "the repercussions of decisions that disregard our national interests."
After the fall of the regime of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... in neighbouring Syria, there were reports that Baghdad may ask US troops to stay in the country past the agreed upon deadline of September 2025.
Sudani made his remarks during a speech at the Baghdad International Dialogue Conference, a two-day event that began today under the theme "Communication for Development and Regional Stability." The conference was attended by key figures, including Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani and Mohammed El Hassan, acting head of the United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).
The prime minister highlighted Iraq’s role in regional diplomacy, noting Baghdad’s efforts in facilitating the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and Iran. Additionally, he reiterated Iraq’s commitment to the Development Road, a major railway and highway network designed to link the Persian Gulf to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... via The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... . He described the project as "an economic pillar for strengthening regional stability" and "a catalyst for fostering exchange between nations across multiple areas."
The US-led Global Coalition Against ISIS was established in 2014 to support Iraq in its fight against the terrorist group, providing military assistance, intelligence sharing, and training for Iraqi forces. While the territorial defeat of ISIS was declared in 2017, coalition forces have remained in Iraq at Baghdad’s request to assist in counterterrorism operations.
[IsraelTimes] Nael Obeid, a former Palestinian prisoner who was freed to East Jerusalem in last week’s hostage-prisoner exchange, has died after falling from high altitude near his home in Issawiya, according to local Palestinian outlets.
He was pronounced dead in Hadassah Medical Center near Mount Scopus.
Obeid was sentenced to seven life sentences and 30 years for partaking in a 2003 suicide bombing at Cafe Hillel in Jerusalem.
The details are vile. If you want to know, dear Reader, go read them at the link.
[IsraelTimes] Hamas made 2 hostages not going free watch release ceremony from a vehicle near the stage; Omer Shem Tov, abducted from Nova festival, was held alone in a tunnel for some 450 days
Four Israelis — Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen — who were freed from Hamas captivity on Saturday after more than 500 days in the Hamas terror group’s captivity were chained in the dark, starved, and psychologically abused in Gaza, they and their family members said upon their return.
Two further hostages — Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — who, suffering from mental illness, each entered the Gaza Strip of their own accord some 10 years ago — came home Saturday bearing evident psychological scars from their captivity, and were described by relatives as largely unresponsive upon their return.
The terror group paraded five of the six captives on stages in propaganda-filled ceremonies in two locations in Gaza, before handing them over to the Red Cross, while al-Sayed was released separately to the humanitarian organization later in the day, without a ceremony.
They are the last six living hostages scheduled to be released as part of the first phase of the three-part hostage-ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group, which in January stopped fighting in the Gaza Strip after fifteen months of war sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel, when terrorists killed some 1,200 people and dragged 251 people into Gaza as hostages. A final four phase one hostages, all believed to be dead, are set for release on Thursday.
[IsraelTimes] Ohad Yahalomi was injured in gun battle with terrorists; Tsahi Idan saw his daughter die in his arms; Itzik Elgarat told his brother ‘This is the end’; Shlomo Mantzur was murdered on Oct. 7
After the release of six living hostages on Saturday, only four of the 33 hostages set to be freed during the first phase of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... remain in captivity in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , with it being widely believed that they are dead.
The four are Ohad Yahalomi; Tsahi Idan; Itzik Elgarat; and Shlomo Mantzur, 85. All four were kidnapped during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, onslaught on southern Israel.
The four are set to be released on Thursday, according to the agreement mediated between Israel and Hamas by Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and the US.
According to Hamas’s past statements, the six hostages released on Saturday were the last to be returned under the first phase of the ceasefire deal who are alive, leading to the conclusion that the remaining four are dead. Israel has indicted that its own information matches the Hamas claims.
Israeli authorities announced earlier this month that Mantzur was killed on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza.
OHAD YAHALOMI
Yahalomi, 49 at the time of his kidnapping, was taken captive by Hamas bandidosLions of Islam from Kibbutz Nir Oz after he engaged in a shootout with button men in his house and was shot in the leg.
As the door handle to the family’s safe room was not locking properly, Ohad decided to protect his wife and children by sitting outside the door with a handgun.
After he was shot, the button men hurried wife Batsheva and their three children out of the house and onto mopeds, along with a foreign worker from the kibbutz.
Ohad told his family that he loved them, and to go with the terrorists.
Batsheva, 10-year-old Yael and the almost two-year-old toddler sat on one moped with a terrorist, while 12-year-old Eitan and the foreign worker sat on the other moped with another gunman.
As the bandidosLions of Islam headed toward Gaza, they saw two IDF tanks appear up ahead and the two mopeds veered away from one another. Batsheva lost track of Eitan on the other moped.
At some point, Batsheva and her two daughters were able to run, in their pajamas and flip-flops, for more than three hours. Batsheva eventually made it back toward the northern end of the kibbutz, which was less damaged than the other section.
"We were sure that Ohad would be there, but he wasn’t," she said.
Eitan Yahalomi, 12, was released on November 27 as part of a temporary ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and the United States between Hamas and Israel.
TSAHI IDAN
Idan, 49 at the time of his kidnapping, was taken captive by Hamas bandidostitle='insurgents '>Lions of Islam from his home in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, after his oldest daughter, Maayan, 18, was shot and killed through the safe room door.
The family of five had run into their safe room early in the morning of October 7, as sirens sounded and an "endless round of rockets" kept falling, said Gali Idan, Tsahi’s wife, in a Channel 13 interview.
The family began hearing bandidosLions of Islam in their house, and Tsahi held the safe room door shut, with help from Maayan.
The bandidosLions of Islam shouted, "Open the door" in English, and then a shot rang out, and Gali realized that Maayan had been shot and killed, falling into Tsahi’s arms.
In an emotional interview with newscaster Lucy Aharish on Channel 13, Gali and her younger daughter, Yael, recounted the traumatic events of that day.
At the time, Gali did not realize that the bandidosLions of Islam were filming the entire attack on their family.
When Maayan was shot, Tsahi let the door fall open, and he was broken, unable to function, Gali said.
Her two younger children were screaming and crying and somehow, she held it together.
"I was on automatic," Gali told Aharish. "I had to protect my other two children and Tsahi was broken."
In the Hamas video, the two younger children ask if the bandidosLions of Islam are killing them, and throughout, said Gali, "Tsahi doesn’t say a word."
"He’s very cool, he’s our support column, but this wasn’t him, it was a shadow of his usual self," she said.
The bandidosLions of Islam told the family to leave the room. At a later point, they took Tsahi. His younger daughter, Yael, asked the bandidosLions of Islam not to take him and kill him.
"They turned around and said, ’He’ll be back, he’ll be back,’" said Gali. "They promised Yael that he would return."
ITZIK ELGARAT
Elgarat, 69 at the time of his kidnapping, was in his Kibbutz Nir Oz home on the morning of October 7 when Hamas bandidosLions of Islam attacked his house, shooting him through his safe room door, injuring him, and taking him captive.
"I spoke to him at 10:30 in the morning," said his brother Danny Elgarat, a former Ashdod police commander. "He was hysterical and hurt in the hand."
Itzik had gone to lock the safe room door when the bandidosLions of Islam shot at the door. Danny, his brother, was on the phone with him at the time and could hear yelling in the background.
Itzik said, "Danny, this is the end, this is the end."
At 12:10, Danny Elgarat saw that his brother’s phone was located in Gaza.
Danny went down to Nir Oz days later, where he described smelling the burning plastic throughout the kibbutz and seeing the ruins of his brother’s home, which had been vandalized and torn apart.
Itzik Elgarat’s nephew, Ben Danzig, whose father Alex Danzig was also taken captive from Nir Oz, described Itzik as a good man who likes to work with his hands.
Itzik Elgarat has citizenship from Denmark and two children who live there.
SHLOMO MANTZUR
Mantzur was killed and taken captive by Hamas bandidosLions of Islam who broke into his Kibbutz Kissufim home on October 7, the IDF announced earlier this month. He was 85.
At least eight Kissufim residents and six Thai laborers were also murdered on October 7, and around four people were kidnapped and taken to Gaza.
Mazal, Mantzur’s wife of 60 years, was miraculously able to escape.
Mantzur was born in Iraq, and lived in Kissufim for most of his adult life, with Mazal.
He managed the kibbutz chicken coop for many years.
Mantzur was known as a modest man with a big heart and golden hands, who loved making things for his grandchildren.
He was beloved by his family and Kissufim community, a small, quiet kibbutz.
[IsraelTimes] Netanyahu demands guarantee that Hamas end ceremonies in which hostages are paraded in front of crowds before freeing inmates, nixing planned release of 600 prisoners Saturday
Israel said early Sunday that it was delaying the release of hundreds of Paleostinian prisoners who had been slated to go free Saturday until Jerusalem receives assurances regarding the end of "humiliating ceremonies" staged by Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... when hostages are handed over.
The statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office came after over 600 inmates had reportedly already boarded buses to leave Ofer prison, in the largest single-day release of the first-stage of the ongoing Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ceasefire. Instead, the inmates were told to disembark, their release on indefinite hold.
The prisoners had been slated to be let go as part of a deal for the release of six hostages who were freed by Hamas earlier in the day. But with Israelis fuming over the handling of the transfer of the bodies of mother Shiri Bibas and her two small children murdered in captivity, and new anger sparked by a propaganda video showing hostages being brought to a ceremony where other were being freed, Netanyahu said Israel would demand an end to the gauche fanfare before resuming freeing prisoners.
"In light of the repeated violations by Hamas — including the ceremonies that demean our hostages’ dignity and the cynical use of our hostages for propaganda purposes — it has been decided to delay the release of gunnies planned for yesterday until the next release of hostages is guaranteed, and without the humiliating ceremonies," read a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office sent just after 1 a.m. Sunday.
Israel’s announcement abruptly put the future of the truce into further doubt.
The Paleostinian Authority’s commission for prisoners’ affairs confirmed the delay "until further notice." News Agency that Dare Not be Named video in the West Bank showed prisoners’ families, waiting outdoors in near-freezing weather, apparently dispersing. One woman was shown walking away in tears.
Israel’s government didn’t respond to questions about the delay in releasing prisoners. Hamas accused Israel of violating the ceasefire deal, with spokesperson Abdel Latif al-Qanou accusing Netanyahu of "deliberately stalling."
Five of the six hostages freed Saturday had been escorted by masked, armed Hamas members in front of a crowd — a display that the UN and Red Thingy have criticized as cruel after previous handovers.
The six — Tal Shoham, Omer Shem Tov, Omer Wenkert, Eliya Cohen, Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed — were the last living hostages expected to be freed under the ceasefire ’s first phase, with a week remaining in the initial stage. Talks on the ceasefire’s second phase are yet to start.
All but al-Sayed, who like Mengistu had been held in Gaza for around a decade, were handed over in staged ceremonies. In one, Omer Wenkert, Omer Shem Tov and Eliya Cohen were posed alongside Hamas fighters. A beaming Shem Tov, acting under duress, kissed two button men on the head and blew kisses to the crowd.
The hostages were dressed up in fake army uniforms, though they were not soldiers when kidnapped.
The army later said al-Sayed had been released. The Bedouin Israeli entered Gaza in 2015, a year after Mengistu. Both had suffered from mental illness, according to their families, and were largely unresponsive after returning to Israel.
Israel had been slated to free 602 inmates, including 50 prisoners serving life sentences for deadly attacks against Israelis, and 60 serving long prison terms.
The roster included the longest-serving inmate likely set to be freed: Nael Barghouti, who has spent a total of 44 years in Israeli custody for killing 27-year-old Israeli bus driver Mordechai Yekuel in his vehicle near Ramallah in 1978. After 33 years in prison, Barghouti was freed in the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, but was arrested three years later and convicted on terrorism charges.
In total 47 Paleostinian prisoners re-arrested after the Shalit deal were set to be freed in this exchange.
Also set for release was Ammar Zaban, a prominent figure in Hamas who headed the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada.
Zaban, who will be deported, was sentenced to 27 life terms for his involvement in numerous terror attacks, including the 1997 suicide kaboom in Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market, which killed 16 people.
Nearly 100 of the ex-inmates were slated for deportation upon their release. An additional 11 prisoners detained before the war’s outset would be sent to Gaza, while 43 will return to their homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Another 445 inmates who were detained in Gaza following October 7 but were never charged were set to be free.
Ahead of the release, Israel Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi instructed guards to dress Paleostinian prisoners slated for release with shirts sporting a verse from Psalms written in Arabic: "I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and did not turn back until their destruction."
Prisoners were also made to wear bracelets that read, "The eternal people do not forget. I pursued my enemies and overtook them."
Twenty-three minors and one woman detained in the Strip were also set to be released in exchange for the bodies of Shiri Bibas, and her young boys Ariel and Kfir, according to Haaretz.
Israel says Ariel, 4 when he was kidnapped, and Kfir, who was 10 months old, were murdered by their captors in November 2023 after being kidnapped from their Nir Oz home on October 7. Shiri Bibas was also killed, though her body was only returned to Israel late Friday after Hamas initially sent the remains of a Gaza woman instead. Husband and father Yarden Bibas was kidnapped separately and released alive earlier this month.
Netanyahu had vowed Dire Revenge for "a cruel and malicious violation" after it was discovered that Shiri Bibas’s body had not been returned as promised. On Saturday evening, he lauded the release of the 6 living hostages today, calling it a "moment of joy and relief" for their families and Israel, but said Israel "will not forget and will not forgive" the murders of the three members of the Bibas family.
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned the murders will "not be taken lightly."
On Thursday, Hamas had put the Bibas’s coffins on a stage in Khan Younis in front of a giant poster of Netanyahu as a vampire, alongside the coffin of octogenarian peace activist Oded Lifshitz, also killed in captivity, as they paraded the four victims before cheering crowds, drawing widespread revulsion at the display.
Israeli officials had said Saturday night that the release of the prisoners would be delayed until Netanyahu finished holding security consultations regarding the return of the remaining Israeli hostages. An official said the meeting was focused "on the goal of returning all our hostages, alive and dead."
Under the ceasefire deal’s current first stage, Hamas is still slated to hand over four bodies of hostages killed in captivity in exchange for more prisoners. Some 2,000 inmates in total are set to be released as part of the first stage, a price that some in Israel, including far-right allies of Netanyahu, has said is too high, especially given the large number of terror convicts serving time for deadly attacks.
A second stage of the ceasefire, which would involve the release of remaining hostages for yet more prisoners, has yet to be worked out, with Israel indicating it could instead resume fighting in Gaza.
Hamas has said it won’t release the remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Netanyahu, with the backing of US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th and 47th President of the United States... ’s administration, says he’s committed to destroying Hamas’ military and governing capacities and returning all hostages, goals widely seen as mutually exclusive.
Families and others rallied Saturday night in Tel Aviv to pressure Netanyahu’s government for a deal.
Witkoff was slated to meet Saturday night with Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, the Walla news site reported.
[IsraelTimes] Families and supporters decry ‘psychological torture’ of dragging Evyatar David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal to handover ceremony; pair beg for deal to free them in likely coached remarks.
Hamas’ evil depravity knows no bounds. The inhumane treatment of innocent Israeli hostages forced to watch others return home while they were then taken back into captivity further exposes that this is a war is between good and evil.
…that the video was released, I was sitting a row in front of two brothers of the hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Eviatar David who saw this video at the exact moment that President Trump was speaking and acknowledging the hostages and their families.
We must continue to stand with these families and hostages who have been through the unthinkable and the unimaginable. Under President
@realdonaldtrump
, we will not rest until ALL the hostages are home and Hamas is eradicated.
“Hamas’ treatment of hostages, including its brutal murder of the Bibas family, further illustrates their savagery and is yet another reason why we are saying these terrorists must release all of the hostages immediately or be destroyed,” Rubio says on X.
#1
I won't believe Rubio or Trump until I see ALL the puppies, baby ducks, women and children single filed out of Gaza first! Netanyahu is bluffing, in his fury!
Glad to see there’s a process, but why more aid for Gaza, when it only goes straight into Hamas warehouses without stopping to be delivered to the unconnected languishing in tents in the south?
[IsraelTimes] Included in $5.3 billion of unfrozen US aid funds is $78 million in aid for Strip and $56 million for the Red Cross related to hostage-ceasefire deal
The Trump administration recently released $5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, mostly for security and counter-narcotics programs, including $78 million for non-food humanitarian assistance in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , and $56 million for the Red Thingy related to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , according to a list of exemptions reviewed by Rooters that included only limited humanitarian relief.
US President Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets... ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on January 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe.
The freeze sparked a scramble by US officials and humanitarian organizations for exemptions to keep programs going. Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... , who has said all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s "America First" priorities, issued waivers in late January on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the top US allies in the Middle East, and for life-saving humanitarian aid, including food. The waivers meant those funds should have been allowed to be spent.
Current and former US officials and aid organizations, however, say few humanitarian aid waivers have been approved.
Rooters obtained a list of 243 further exceptions approved as of February 13 totaling $5.3 billion.
The list provides the most comprehensive accounting of exempted funds since Trump ordered the aid freeze and reflects the White House’s desire to cut aid for programs it doesn’t consider vital to US national security.
The list identifies programs that will be funded and the US government office managing them.
The vast majority of released funds — more than $4.1 billion — were for programs administered by the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military affairs, which oversees arms sales and military assistance to other countries and groups. Other exemptions were in line with Trump’s immigration crackdown and efforts to halt the flow of illicit narcotics into the US, including the deadly opioid fentanyl.
More than half of the programs that will be allowed to go forward are run by the US State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, or INL, and are aimed at helping fight drug trafficking and illicit migration to the US, according to the list.
Those exemptions were worth $293 million and included funds for databases to track migrants colonists, identify possible Death Eaters and share biometric information.
A State Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Rooters could not determine if some exemptions had been granted but were not on the list.
Trump has long railed against foreign aid, which has averaged less than 2 percent of total federal spending for the past 20 years, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Trump has described the US "foreign aid industry" as "in many cases antithetical to American values."
Billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has led an effort to gut the United States Agency for International Development, the main delivery mechanism for American foreign assistance and a critical tool of US "soft power" for winning influence abroad.
In contrast to security-related programs, USAID programs received less than $100 million in exemptions, according to the list. That compares to roughly $40 billion in USAID programs administered annually before the freeze.
Exempted USAID programs included $78 million for non-food humanitarian assistance in Gaza, which has been devastated by war. A separate $56 million was released for the International Committee of the Red Thingy related to the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, the list showed.
The list did not include specific exemptions for some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, including Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... , Syria, Ukraine, Myanmar and Afghanistan, which means funds for those places appeared to remain stopped.
Security exemptions included $870 million for programs in Taiwan, $336 million for modernizing Philippine security forces and more than $21.5 million for body armor and armored vehicles for Ukraine’s national police and border guards, the list showed.
The biggest non-security exemption was $500 million in funding for PEPFAR, the flagship US program fighting HIV/AIDS, which mainly funds healthcare services in Africa and is credited with saving millions of lives. That compares with PEPFAR’s annual budget in 2024 of $6.5 billion. PEPFAR is administered by the State Department’s global health bureau.
’VERY DYSFUNCTIONAL’
A current USAID employee, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... , described the process for requesting exemptions as "very dysfunctional" and said the agency’s remaining staff have sought clarity on what criteria are being used. Rubio has said the Trump administration reached out to USAID missions overseas to identify and designate programs that will be exempted.
J. Brian Atwood, USAID’s administrator from 1993 to 1999, said reducing foreign aid to a narrow set of exemptions was shortsighted. "When people are starving or feeling desperate, they are going to become a security problem eventually," he said. "They’ll migrate or become an immigration problem, or they will be more inclined to move to terrorism."
The foreign aid that was paused by Trump had previously been approved by Congress, which controls the federal budget under the US Constitution. As a candidate and as president, Trump has said he opposes foreign aid for "countries that hate us" and would prefer to instead spend the money at home.
The exemptions in the list were granted before a federal judge last week ordered the Trump administration to restore funding for foreign aid contracts and awards that were in place before January 20. Rooters was unable to establish what exemptions, if any, had been granted since February 13.
Many of the unfrozen programs reflect Trump’s focus on drug trafficking, including funds supporting fentanyl interdiction operations by Mexican security units and efforts to combat transnational criminal organizations. Trump’s aid freeze has thrown a wrench into those efforts, however.
Rooters reported last week that the pause halted anti-narcotics programs funded by the INL Bureau in Mexico that for years had been working to curb the flow of synthetic opioids into the United States.
More than $64 million was released to support Haitian police and a UN-approved international security force that is helping Haiti’s government fight escalating gang violence that has displaced more than one million people.
The money covers supplies of small arms, ammunition, drones, night vision goggles, vehicles and other support for the force, according to the list. The force is led by Kenya and includes personnel from Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, Guatemala and El Salvador.
The Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, focused on preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, received 17 exemptions worth more than $30.4 million, the list showed.
Also released was $397 million for a US-backed program in nuclear-armed Pakistain that a congressional aide said monitored Islamabad’s use of US-made F-16 fighter jets to ensure they are employed for counterterrorism operations and not against rival India.
Some of the released funds were for small expenditures — including $604 for Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system to run biometrics registration programs in the Darien Gap, a treacherous 60-mile route linking South and Central America used by US-bound illegal migrants colonists.
#1
but why more aid for Gaza, when it only goes straight into Hamas warehouses without stopping to be delivered to the unconnected languishing in tents in the south?
I don't see how this decision could have any effect that wasn't bad. The Trump administration is rewarding atrocious behavior.
If there's any real humanitarian need, Qatar should pick up the tab.
If the US left was smart they'd attack Trump for being a weak appeaser.
Why doesn't he pressure Qatar into making a one sided deal on minerals, to compensate the world for a century of unprovoked MB aggression, they should ask.
#2
but why more aid for Gaza, when it only goes straight into Hamas warehouses
A mischievous person might take advantage of that fact. A lot of aid going every which way is hard to keep track of. With only a few loads, the task becomes smaller. Especially if every pallet has its own radio tracking beacon.
An electronic sniffer van drives through a neighborhood searching for telltale signals. The Brits already do a similar thing looking for unlicensed TV sets. Now you have a map with targeting coordinates for later, but in the meantime, places to set up CCTV to do facial recognition on passersby. Did you know that you can train a neural network to recognize people by their gait as well as their face?
Put up a Reaper drone for overwatch and on-demand interdiction, and Robert is your Dad's brother.
#3
Bless your devious mind, SteveS — I feel so much better now. I was very upset by the articles I posted overnight, though all that was predictable given what Hamas has always been.
[IsraelTimes] Beirut is gearing up for the funeral of Hezbollah leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> later today, with throngs expected to pack the city to send off the terror chief killed by an Israeli bomb in late September.
Since Saturday, roads into Beirut have been clogged with carloads of Hezbollah supporters travelling in from the movement’s strongholds in south Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... and the Bekaa Valley.
The funeral for Nasrallah, and his successor Hashem Safieddine, killed by Israel in early October, is set to take place at Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium on the outskirts of the capital, where giant posters of the two have been hung.
The stadium has a capacity of around 50,000 but Hezbollah organizers have installed thousands of extra seats on the pitch and many more outside, where mourners will be able to follow the ceremony on a giant screen.
The funeral is due to start at 1:00 p.m. and will include a speech by current leader Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... .
Hezbollah’s al-Manar television says the group is deploying 25,000 stewards for crowd control and 4,000 more to supervise the event.
A security source says 4,000 troops and security personnel will also be deployed to the area.
Hezbollah, a terror group which is also a major player in Lebanese politics, has invited top Lebanese officials including President Joseph Aoun to attend.
Its longtime backer Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... is to be represented by the speaker of parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iranian media reported.
Representatives of Iraq’s main pro-Iran factions are also expected to attend and additional flights have been scheduled between Baghdad and Beirut.
A single flight from Tehran was also given permission to land before dawn on Sunday, though service from Iran has been suspended over the threat of Israeli strikes on attempts to smuggle weapons or other goods to Hezbollah.
"It is only one flight, carrying official delegations from Tehran to participate in the funeral," airport chief Fadi al-Hassan tells AFP.
Civil aviation authorities say Beirut airport will close exceptionally from midday until 4:00 pm.
The US embassy has urged Americans to avoid the area.
[Rudaw] The interim government in Damascus has begun receiving over 15,000 barrels of oil daily and as much as one million cubic meters of natural gas from Kurdish-controlled fields in the northeast, an official told Rudaw on Saturday.
"We have reactivated the same contract and crude oil is being supplied from northeast Syria to the refineries in Homs and Banias," said Ahmad Sulaiman, the head of the Syrian oil ministry’s public relations office.
The "same old contract that was previously in effect has been reviewed and amended," he added.
The oil ministry had said earlier in February that they would be reviewing and assessing the legal validity of all oil agreements and contracts signed by the toppled regime of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... "The [crude oil] is being transferred by tankers and more than 15,000 barrels of oil are being transferred each day, in addition to [liquefied petroleum] gas used in homes and natural gas. Between 500,000 to 1,000,000 cubic meters of natural gas are being transferred to electric power generation plants," Sulaiman said.
Earlier this month, Sulaiman had told Rudaw that before the start of the civil war, Syria produced about 385,000 barrels of oil daily and production from Damascus-controlled areas now stands at 10,000 barrels per day.
The new leadership in Damascus is currently engaged in talks with the Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) about the future of the areas they control.
[Rudaw] An advisor for Yazidi affairs to the Kurdistan Region Presidency on Saturday criticized authorities at Syria’s al-Hol Camp for their "lack of collaboration" in facilitating the release of the large number of Yazidis being held in the camp that houses suspected Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) family members.
No rescue operations have taken place since the fall of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... ’s regime at the end of 2024, Khairi Bozani told Rudaw.
"We don’t even know who to negotiate with at this point... But I hope we can find a way to do something," he said.
ISIS murderous Moslems kidnapped more than 6,000 Yazidis, mainly young women and kiddies, when they seized control of Shingal in 2014. About 2,600 are still missing and Bozani said most are believed to be in al-Hol camp.
The camp houses tens of thousands of displaced people, including families of ISIS fighters, and has long been a source of security and humanitarian concerns. The sprawling facility is controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), but is difficult to secure and has been dubbed a breeding ground for terrorism. Bozani accused the SDF of not cooperating in efforts to locate and release Yazidi captives.
When ISIS swept through the Yazidi heartland of Shingal in northern Iraq, it killed more than 5,000 people in the space of a few weeks, mainly men and older women, and buried them in mass graves. Iraqi authorities are exhuming the graves and identifying the remains.
On Friday, the remains of 32 Yazidi genocide victims were handed over to their families at djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... ’s forensic office, ahead of a funeral ceremony scheduled for Saturday.
Bozani said that the exact number of Yazidi remains still awaiting identification in Baghdad remains unclear due to the lack of sufficient DNA testing facilities.
"DNA tests are one of the biggest obstacles in identifying the victims," he said.
"There is only one DNA laboratory in Iraq that the government relies on and it is not exclusively dedicated to Yazidi victims but to all atrocities committed in Iraq."
Speaking about Iraq’s new general amnesty law, Bozani expressed concerns that people who committed atrocities against Yazidis could be released.
"We are suspicious that people involved in the Shingal genocide will be acquitted," he said. "Even though the Federal Supreme Court has stated that those responsible for the Shingal atrocities will not be pardoned, we have no transparency on how the law is being implemented or which criminals might ultimately walk free."
The amnesty law provides opportunities for prisoners to request a retrial under certain conditions, but many critics say that loopholes could allow perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity to evade justice, further deepening the wounds of Iraq’s genocide survivors.
[KhaamaPress] The Deputy Commander of the Northeast Ground Forces of the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s Army announced that 100 more kilometers of the necessary infrastructure for the continued border closure project between northeastern Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Afghanistan have been completed.
Sadegh Noori added that despite the challenging weather conditions throughout different seasons, the project has made significant progress.
Iranian media reported on Friday, February 21, that this announcement came during Noori’s visit to the Iran-Afghanistan border assistance project. The report highlighted his remarks on the ongoing progress of the strategic border closure plan.
He emphasized that over the past year, during the initial stages of this strategic project, 50 kilometers of wall construction has been completed as part of the first phase.
According to the deputy commander, the closure and wall construction along the northeastern borders of Iran and Afghanistan is one of the most significant active projects in the country. It is being built based on the latest scientific, technical, and engineering methods by the army’s engineering forces.
This official further clarified that despite the difficult weather conditions throughout the year and the region’s unsuitable soil, significant progress has been made on the project.
The report mentioned that the overall project spans 953 kilometers, with over 300 kilometers already under construction in the first phase in the Khorasan Razavi region.
The border closure plan, which covers 300 kilometers between Afghanistan and Iran, was launched by the Islamic Theocratic Republic a year ago to prevent the illegal entry of migrants colonists and the smuggling of drugs into the country.
The ongoing construction of the border wall reflects Iran’s firm stance on controlling its borders and tackling illegal migration and drug trafficking. While the project faces challenges due to harsh environmental conditions, the progress made so far highlights the commitment of the Iranian military in implementing this key security initiative. The success of this project could set a precedent for future border management strategies in the region.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like...
...every time you hear the phrase 
...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
Light of the Alawites...
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
