Thursday, July 31, 2014

Gaza Operation Continues as Israel Calls Up 16,000 More Reservists

At Telegraph UK, "Gaza conflict: Israel calls up 16,000 more reservists as US supplies army with ammunition":
Israeli call-up comes in face of intense international pressure to curtail operations in Gaza, where more than 100 Palestinians died on Wednesday – but US agrees to provide Israel with new ammunition supplies.

Israel mobilised 16,000 additional reservists on Thursday to bolster its forces waging military operations in the Gaza Strip that left more than 100 Palestinians dead in a day.

The call-up came after Washington announced it had agreed to restock Israel's dwindling supplies of ammunition despite its sharp condemnation of an attack on a United Nations school in Gaza blamed on Israel's army.

"The army has issued 16,000 additional mobilisation orders to allow troops on the ground to rest, which takes the total number of reservists to 86,000," an army spokeswoman said.

Israel's security cabinet, which met for five hours Wednesday, unanimously decided to pursue attacks against Hamas "terrorist targets" and other operations to destroy a network of tunnels used by the Islamist movement between Gaza and Israel, public radio said.

Public radio quoted Major General Sami Turgeman, the senior officer for the Gaza region, as saying that the destruction of militants' remaining tunnels into Israel could be complete "in a few days".
More.

7 Facts About Operation Protective Edge

From the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:



Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Europe

Following-up from yesterday, "ADL's Abraham Foxman: 'Anti-Semitism on the Rise' in Europe; Protesters 'Want to Harm the Jews...'"

Here's another report from CNN:


Professors Suddenly Don't Like #ObamaCare Either

At iOWNTHEWORLD, "Leftist Intelligentsia and Academics Are Really Not All That Smaught, Are They?"

Abigail Disney Goes #BDS, Withdraws Investment from Israeli Company Over 'Occupation'

From Phyllis Chesler, at Big Peace, "DISNEY HEIRESS TAKES CODE PINK LINE, WITHDRAWS INVESTMENT FROM ISRAELI COMPANY OVER 'OCCUPATION'":
Abigail Disney, Walt’s great-niece and heiress, has just withdrawn her 12 million dollar investment in the Israeli Company Ahava because, she says, it is “stealing minerals” from an “Occupied West Bank.” Ms. Disney believes this violates both the 1970 Hague Convention and the Geneva Convention “by exploiting natural resources in occupied territories.”

Well—not exactly, and not so fast...
Continue reading.

The Real Immigration Crisis Is Not at the Border

A must-read essay from Michelle Malkin, "Want a real anti-poverty plan? Stop amnesty now!":
There are no longer two separate parties in Washington. There’s just one big Amnesty Inc. conglomerate addicted to Big Business donations and Big Government grievance politics. The Obama White House needs to buy off Hispanic voters, keep immigration lawyers employed and secure a left-wing permanent ruling majority. Establishment Republicans need to pay off the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, pander to minority lobbyists and curry favor with open-borders CEOS led by Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg.

The real crisis is not at the border. It’s being fomented inside our nation’s capital. The “border crisis” is a bipartisan D.C. catastrophe of craven politicians abandoning their constitutional duties to defend our sovereignty and put American workers first.
As always, RTWT.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Amid Ballooning Costs, Millions Raided from Other Programs to Deal with Illegal Alien Border Invasion!

We're running out of money to fund Obama's illegal scamnesty, as I reported earlier, "Illegal Alien Emergency Funding' Stalls as Dems Refuse Changes to 'Inapplicable' '08 Human Trafficking Law."

And now at the Los Angeles Times, "Budgets raided to address border crisis amid Congress' inaction":
Surveillance drones that hunt drug smugglers along the Mexican border could soon be grounded. Installation of pole-top cameras and ground sensors to intercept illegal crossings might be delayed.

About $44 million has already been diverted from the government's health-related accounts, including the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to pay for food, beds, clothing and medical care for the crush of unaccompanied minors who have crossed the Southwestern border.

And that's just the beginning.

With the expected failure of Congress to agree Thursday on emergency funds to cope with the border crisis, the Obama administration is shifting an additional $94 million from other government programs and accounts — some far removed from the immigration debate — to meet the swelling costs of caring for the children through the summer, according to congressional aides.

Congress is scheduled to leave town Thursday for a five-week break without acting on the president's request for $3.7 billion in emergency funding or agreeing on an alternative.

But border agencies say their existing budgets — sapped by added costs from overtime, detention and transportation for the children, more than 57,000 of whom have arrived since October — will start running dry before lawmakers get back in September.

Administration officials warn that the price of congressional inaction will be steep, estimating the cost of caring for each immigrant youth runs between $250 and $1,000 a day.

"Scary," Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, said about the agencies' budget outlook.

On Wednesday, officials at the Office of Management and Budget were putting together plans to scrounge up funds. But without congressional approval, President Obama is limited to moving around money only in small amounts. That probably means the redistribution will touch many different programs — a distressing prospect for officials in vulnerable agencies.

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has already diverted funds from immigration enforcement, and is now reviewing other programs in what he has described as a "dramatic" effort to locate money. Another casualty of the budget crunch might be new X-ray screening equipment to speed up truck cargo traffic at the border, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowske said in a recent interview.

"We have huge investments in technology to speed up people traveling lawfully into the U.S. and [for] cargo advancement," Kerlikowske said. "There is money in those programs, but we would have to reprogram to keep up with the money that is now being spent on the Southwest border."
More at the link.

And as I wrote earlier, "the Obama White House is mounting a demonic Alinskyite campaign of manufactured crisis, putting untold alien migrant lives at risk, to say nothing of the dozens upon dozens of American communities now fearing for their safety and trying to protect themselves from Third World diseases."

New Video of #UCLA Flooding: Up to 20 Million Gallons Spilled, No Injuries; Pauley Pavilion Court Ruined

RT has some really dramatic footage, "Flood surge soaks UCLA: 93-yr old pipe rupture unleashes 50ft geyser."

And from CBS News KCAL Los Angeles, "As new video continues to come in of Tuesday's massive flood at UCLA, a new picture is painted of what it was like to be amidst the millions of gallons of water":



Also, "Work Continues to Fix Street, Broken Water Main Near UCLA"; "Pauley Pavilion May Be Ready For Basketball Season After Flood Damage"; and "More Than 900 Cars Stuck In UCLA Parking Structures After Westwood Water Main Break."

That third report linked indicates that up to 20 million gallons of water may have spilled, almost twice the estimates from last night's report embedded above.

Europe Prepares Tough Sanctions Against Russia

Meh.

I'm pretty skeptical about any talk of European sanctions against Russia.

But here's Der Spiegel, "The Wake-Up Call: Europe Toughens Stance against Putin":
It took the shooting down of a Boeing jet carrying almost 300 people before the EU agreed on the first true economic sanctions against Russia. The Americans want further action, but it is impossible to know if punitive measures can sway Vladimir Putin.

It was the images. Absurdly tattooed pro-Russian fighters, cigarettes dangling from their lips and Kalashnikovs tucked under their arms, stomping around in the field of bodies and wreckage at the crash site, as if the dead children from the downed Boeing had nothing to do with them. Experts holding their noses as they opened a railroad car full of dead bodies. A seemingly endless convoy of hearses leaving Eindhoven Airport in the Netherlands. And Russian President Vladimir Putin took it all in without losing his composure.

It's usually the images.
It's part of the occasionally cynical business of political experts to refer to a tragedy of this magnitude, and to the endlessly repeated TV images of the suffering of innocent people, as a "game changer." It's the moment that divides the course of a crisis into "before" and "after" -- a time when the public and politicians hold their breaths and take a new look at the situation. But one of the unique features of the European Union is that in the "after" period, it often continues for a time to behave the way it did in the "before" period. Supporting evidence was provided by an exchange from last Tuesday, almost a week after Malaysian Airlines flight MH 17 was shot down:

Let's at least do an arms embargo, argued British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.

No, you can't even do financial sanctions, responded his French counterpart Laurent Fabius in the hearing room of the European Council building in Brussels.

Prior to the meeting, EU foreign ministers had seemed deeply disconcerted. But behind closed doors, the overriding objective was apparently not to determine how best to force Putin to back down, but how best to protect their own domestic economies...
More.

23-Year-Old Serbian Heart Doctor Swamped with Patients After Winning Bikini Competition

Actually, she's still in medical school, finishing up her program as a "trainee" and treating patients who apparently can't get enough.

At London's Daily Mail, "The cardiologist who's BREAKING hearts: Serbian doctor swamped with patients feigning illness after winning bikini competition."

'Death to Israel' Pages A-Okay at Facebook: Not Hate Speech Under Social Network's 'Community Standards'

I was over there this morning. Blazing Cat Fur links to a "Death to Israel" page on Facebook, and it's still totally available at this hour.

At BCF, "Facebook says calling for death to Israel isn’t hate speech because it’s a country."

No violation of Facebook's "community standards," I guess. Or, well, communist standards, pfft.

Israel Facebook photo ScreenShot2014-07-30at102711AM_zps55d5d71d.png

Israeli Public Opinion Poll: Overwhelming (91%) Support for Operation Protective Edge — #IsraelUnderFire

It's almost unanimous support for Israel's war of self-defense in Gaza.

At Arutz Sheva, "Poll: Overwhelming Support for IDF Operation, Netanyahu":
Ninety-one percent (91%) of Israeli Jews support Israel's self-defense campaign against terrorism in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge, according to a survey published Monday - and just 4.2% believe the operation is a "mistake."

Over 1,000 people were polled by Dr. Yuval Feinstein, a Sociology and Political Science researcher at University of Haifa, on their opinions regarding the operation and other current events. All participants were Israeli, Jewish, and over 18.

The survey also revealed that 85% of respondents would only support a cease-fire agreement if Israel eliminated every Hamas rocket and destroyed the full network of terror tunnels before agreeing to do so.

Seventy-seven percent (77%) of Israeli Jews polled "very strongly support" Operation Protective Edge's airstrikes on Gaza; 17% "support" the airstrikes; and 4.5% had "weak support" for the airstrikes. Just 1.5% of respondents opposed the airstrikes on Gaza.

Similarly, 50% "strongly support" the IDF's ground offensive in Gaza; 28% "support" the ground campaign and 14% have "weak support" for the campaign. By contrast, only 9% of respondents oppose sending ground troops into Gaza.

Eighty-two percent (82%) of respondents "strongly disagree" with the statement "Israel launching Operation Protective Edge was a mistake"; 11% only "slightly disagree." Just 7% of respondents "agree" or "strongly agree" with that statement.

As to the operation's success, 74% of respondents overall believe the IDF is "achieving its goals" in Gaza; of those, 23% "very strongly agree" and 51% "strongly agree." Just 22.5% of respondents were neutral on the issue and only 3% believe the operation is failing.

Ninety-five percent (95%) of respondents said the operation has "made them proud of the IDF, the State of Israel, and the Jewish people," and only 2% disagreed with that statement...
Wow.

For the rest of the world, if you're against Israel's self-defense operations, you're against the Jews in Israel. Man.

Still more.

Bruna Marquezine Brazilian Bikini Shots at Ibiza

She's another soccer WAG, girlfriend to Brazil forward Neymar.

At Egotastic!, "Bruna Marquezine Bikini Booty on a Yacht in Ibiza."

Also at London's Daily Mail, "Neymar continues recovery from injury on holiday with girlfriend Bruna Marquezine."

Three IDF Soldiers Killed in Booby-Trapped #UNRWA Clinic

At the Times of Israel.

And at Yid With Lid, "Three Israelis Killed In Booby-Trapped Gaza UNRWA Medical Clinic. Where's The UN Complaints?"

ADL's Abraham Foxman: 'Anti-Semitism on the Rise' in Europe; Protesters 'Want to Harm the Jews...'

This segment aired a couple of days ago. Wolf Blitzer, bless him, tries to get Abraham Foxman to agree that the Jew-haters are "just a small segment" of the protests. Foxman's not having it. He's not sure exactly what's going on, but we're seeing "a new dimension" of outright left-wing racism, inflamed by European imams preaching "death to the Jews."

Foxman has never come off as hardline Israel-backing "neocon." In fact, he's often criticized as being soft on Islamic jihad. But he's emphatic here. An excellent clip:



Phil Robertson of A&E's 'Duck Dynasty'

I just like the photo at this hit piece from the L.A. Times, "'Duck Dynasty' audience ebbs even as Phil controversy fades."

Actually, the audience is hardly "fading," but the "cultural elites" at the Times can't disguise their contempt for the Robertsons.

Phil Robertson photo photo19_zpsfc4903a4.jpg

Growing Backlash Against Celebrity Attacks on Israel

The Jewish Voice for Peace, the same useful idiots who staged the Seattle "die-in" this week, have organized a celebrity attack on Israel's right to self-defense, including some big names on the anti-American, anti-Israel left. See the press release, "Gloria Steinem, Chuck D, Jonathan Demme and Other Celebrities, Artists, Activists and Nobel Peace Laureates Stand Up for Palestinian Rights in New Video."

The video's here, "Freedom for Palestine: #GazaNames Project." Communist Angela Davis is the first far-left celebrity featured at the clip, followed by epic Jew-hating scum Roger Waters.

Meanwhile, Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz have published a strongly-worded open letter attacking Israel. See the Hollywood Reporter, "Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem Denounce Israeli 'Genocide' in Open Letter."

Ben Shapiro, at Truth Revolt, takes Hollywood Jews to task, "Hollywood Jews Ignore Hollywood Jew-Hatred."

But according to CNN, some powerful people in Hollywood are committed supporters of Israel, so speak out at your peril.

Heh, it usually goes the other way.




Gaza Civilians Lash Out at Hamas

Palestinians want a cease-fire.

Lisa Daftara, on last night's "The Independents" with Kennedy:



And here's her piece, at Fox News, "War-weary Gazans lash out at Hamas."



Congresswoman Kristi Noem: 'Harry Wants to Kill Our Bill' to Help Democrats 'This Election Cycle...'

Background at National Review, "John Boehner: Harry Reid’s ‘Deceitful and Cynical’ Ploy to Kill House Bill."




TERRIBLE! OUTRAGEOUS! Hamas Releases Graphic Propaganda Video of #Gaza Tunnel Attack at Kibbutz Nahal Oz

At the Jewish Daily Forward, "5 Israeli Soldiers Killed During Thwarted Attack on Kibbutz Nahal Oz: IDF Death Toll Rises to 53."

And at Arutz Sheva, "Five Soldiers Killed During Attempted Terrorist Infiltration."

Here's the propaganda video:



A longer, graphic version is here, "Hamas Posts Video of Deadly Attack on Israeli Outpost via Tunnel."