Prosecutors Search for More Potential Victims of D.C. Rabbi Charged With Voyeurism

 Barry Freundel

VIDEO: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/282487291.html

Prosecutors continue looking for more possible victims of an Orthodox rabbi accused of recording women in the ritual bath area next to Kesher Israel in Georgetown.

Rather than step forward themselves, some women are calling lawyers.

• Emails Reveal Activity at Towson U. After Rabbi Accused of Voyeurism

“I can tell you that the pain that our client is feeling is palpable, that just thinking about the invasion of her privacy, the breach of her trust, that evil lurked in the place you least expect it,” lawyer Ira Sherman said.

In a court hearing Wednesday, prosecutors said they need more time before making a plea offer to Rabbi Barry Freundel, who is charged with six counts of voyeurism. Detectives need until Thanksgiving to review all the video they seized as evidence from the rabbi's home and computers. 

They have about 10 years of videos they have to review. Women who wonder if they are victims are told to submit a photograph so detectives go through the painstaking process of reviewing the video.

A woman formerly a member of the Kesher Israel congregation said she used to urge young women to use the mikvah when they converted to Judaism but now regrets it.

“It's very upsetting and distressing that I might have in some unintentional way helped him in his, really all you can call it is an evil scheme,” Lisette Garcia said. “It's disgusting.”

• Woman Fears She Was Recorded in Shower by Rabbi

She believes there are more victims at the synagogue and the universities where the rabbi taught.

“I know for a fact,” she said. “Not just Towson, but Georgetown Law. Nobody is talking about those students. I saw students from Georgetown Law go in there. He drew students from University of Maryland, PhD candidates."

• Micro Cameras Found in Search of Rabbi's Towson U. Office

Emma Shulevitz reported her fears that she had been caught on camera and went public. As a result, she and her husband say, they were shunned and made to feel like snitches at their synagogue in Rockville.

“No one talks to us in that synagogue,” Jeffrey Shulevitz said.

“Well the president did speak to us and he said, Don't expect an apology,” Emma Shulevitz said.

Freundel will return to court for his next hearing Jan. 16.

Other possible victims can contact the U.S. Attorney's Office.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/video/#!/news/local/Prosecutors-Search-for-More-Potential-Victims-of-D-C--Rabbi-Charged-With-Voyeurism/282487291

The 23 State Solution!

The Middle East destroys itself 

Blame Israel; it's the cool thing to do. What a mess. The world needs someone to blame. Hey, why not the Jews?

After all, it’s all Israel’s fault. Everyone else knows that all the problems in the region would be solved if only the Middle East had just one more Muslim country.
What could possibly go wrong?

A quick review. After the passing of Muhammed in 632 A.D., his adherents, having left no sons, broke into a family feud over who were the real heirs apparent, the true followers.

The ensuing Shia-vs.-Sunni split rages on today and erupts throughout much of the 1.6 billion Muslim world, with seemingly more violence every day.

The rage is about piety, purity, politics, power, personality, territory, legitimacy and, of course, religion.

Take just a partial tour of the recent region.
Saddam Hussein, with his Sunni-minority Baathist party, brutally ruled over Iraq’s majority Shia country, until we toppled him. He was replaced by Nouri al Maliki, whose Shia government (backed by Shia Iran) got even by encouraging extreme violence against the country’s Sunnis and excluding them from any meaningful role in governance or life.

Iran meddles everywhere, sponsoring terrorist Hamas in Gaza, arming terrorist Hezbollah in Lebanon by way of Damascus, having backed the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and now supporting the Houthies who are progressing in the overthrow of Yemen (If only Iran became a nuclear state, I’m sure their behavior would improve!).

Al Qaeda and its allies are Sunni extremists who hate and want to destroy moderate Sunni governments for being, well, moderate. They despise the West as well.

ISIS, ISIL, IS Everywhere is an Islamic group so nasty they were thrown out of Al Qaeda for bad manners. They want to violently overthrow existing governments and establish an extreme religious Sharia Law Caliphate that recognizes no national boundaries. Among other things, they make rather violent home videos.

Then there’s the terrorist Nusra Front trying to dislodge the Alawite minority rulers in Syria (as are IS, and separately, scores of independent liberation groups as well as additional terrorist types. On the terror roster, these groups are metastasizing and taking the field so fast you need a new score card every day).
They are so brutal they almost create sympathy for the Assad dynasty of assassins who murdered hundreds of thousands of their own citizens with poison gas. (Interesting how one minute Assad is elected with 98% of the popular vote, and the next minute more people are trying to kill him than voted against him.)

In Turkey, there has been a reluctance to stem the genocidal slaughter of Kurds by ISIS on the Syrian side of their mutual border. This, out of fear those Syrian Kurds would like to join the Kurds on the Turkish side of their border and declare their own separate state.

Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia each understandably despise Shia Iran (whose operatives tried to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in D.C.), but are each other’s rivals for influence in the region.

Lebanon, whose prime minister was blown up, allegedly of course, by the Syrians, is wracked by Sunni-Shia-Christian strife and seems to struggle in finding a formula to govern.
Libya, never a bed of roses, has devolved into an ungovernable failed state since the killing of its hated tyrant, Moammar Khaddafy.

And Palestinian Fatah and Hamas seem to hate each other without a state.

The region is on fire. Violence, murder and mayhem prevail. Things must settle down.

Of the 22 Arab states, almost all are simmering, if not at full boil.

The world knows where the problem lies, and upon whose doorstep to lay the blame: The UN is focused like a laser on the Jewish nation.

Things would be wonderful if only Israel would get out of the way, and allow for a 23-State Solution.

Ackerman represented parts of Queens and Nassau County in Congress from 1983 to 2013. This originally appeared in the Oct. 30 issue of the Queens Tribune.

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/middle-east-destroys-article-1.2003410

Opportunities In Adversity!

THE UOJ ARCHIVES - NOVEMBER 4, 2008

When my father passed away, a part of me died forever. I tried to move on, and I did in many ways, but his death shook me like nothing else I could imagine. Every day I think about - what would daddy say about this - or would he approve of that.

Years passed, and his yahrzeit is a milestone. Not just because it's the anniversary of his death, but it was actually the turning point in my life.

Every day meant something important to me. I searched for meaning of my existence. I was starving for real answers - not the nonsense most people pacify themselves with, but real answers.

I conceptualized a new shul, a shul where people actually came to daven - and dragged a friend out of kollel to become the rabbi. A shul that is the pride of its community.

I created a fund for people that were not capable of taking care of themselves. They don't even know from where the help comes.

I became UOJ! Your children and grandchildren will be forever safer, and corrupt rabbonim, eyes twitching, and hands shaking, are looking over their shoulders for the big, bad, scary guy that despises evil and will destroy them for ruining a part of our future generations.

Everything looked different. I became unorthodox in my thinking, and acted upon my feelings with passion and new-found energies. I no longer permitted my mind to be on a leash. I searched. I learned. I read everything meaningful I could get my hands on that I wanted to read before - but was verboten.

I comforted as many people that sought my advice. I made mistakes - because I stepped too far outside the traditional box. But...I don't look back, because I learn from my mistakes; and to live life to the fullest --- one will always make mistakes. I look forward with anticipation of great things to come. I can't change the past, I am only capable of changing tomorrow.

The Democrats will control all three branches of government. Not good at all. To me - it's actually sickening, and I worry for my kids and their kids, but I can't change the facts. There will be a different America - an America that will have lost its identity, as it has under George W. Bush; but worse...much worse. A part of America died tonight, and chances are that we, as a country, will not recover the glory past.

Make your lives more meaningful. Do what you thought you could never do. Dig deep, you'll be amazed at the things you're able to do, that you thought were impossible. Be kinder, help as many people as you can. Read, learn meaningful things, love your children and family more. Give a damn! Do something positive tomorrow that you would not have done yesterday!

I miss my father and I will miss the America I grew up in.

November 4, 2008 - another yahrzeit that will probably live with me forever.

RIBBONO SHEL OLAM!

YIBONEI HAMIKDOSH!

Another 'pillar of the Jewish community'

Former Stanmore man and 'pillar of the Jewish community' jailed for instructing child abuse over Skype

Simeon Osen pleaded guilty to 13 offences of arranging and facilitating the commission of child sex offences during 2012.

A former Stanmore businessman and big name in the Jewish community has been jailed for nearly six years for instructing sexual abuse involving young children online.

A former Stanmore businessman and big name in the Jewish community has been jailed for nearly six years for instructing sexual abuse involving young children online.

Simeon Osen, 53, of Forest Lane in Chigwell, Essex used to lived in Stanmore, he pleaded guilty to 13 offences of arranging and facilitating the commission of child sex offences during 2012.

Harrow Crown Court heard today (November 6) that Osen who is Jewish and been described as, a 'pillar of his community', used online video tool, Skype to instruct girls as young as 10 years-old in the Philippines to penxxxxxx themselves, maxxxxx and expose their private parts.

He was sentenced to just under five years and 11 months in jail after pleading guilty to all 13 counts which included having indecent images.

Sentencing Osen was Judge Martyn Barklem, he said: "These children were for the most part pre pubescent, ranging from ages 10 years-old to 15 years-old. These children were not objects to be used for your sexual gratification, they are real children and real people.

"I accept that most of your life you have been a pillar of your community and it comes as no surprise that your extended family have turned their back on you despite your remorse. It is a complete revulsion."

The court heard how Osen would transfer money via Paypal for young girls in the Philippines to touch themselves via Skype.

Prosecutor, Rhiannon Sadler said: "He paid for sex shows involving children as young as 10 years-old, he would arrange the girls and direct them via Skype. Officers went through over 41,000 Skype messages which they discovered on Mr Osen's computers. He would negotiate ages, prices and what kind of acts he would like to see."

The court also heard how on one occasion Osen was watching a 13 year-old girl over Skype penxxxxxx herself, but he could not ejaxxxx because he was in his workplace and the cleaner was around.

The prosecution believe that over £5,000 was transferred from Osen's accounts to pay for these online sex videos, however the defence disagree with that sum.

Osen has also been ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life and has been given a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

The Met's Child Abuse, Exploitation and Sexual Abuse Command, began investigating Osen in 2013, following an allegation that he abused a 13-year old girl.

During the course of the investigation Osen's personal computers were examined and a quantity of images and movies of an indecent nature were found, including some categorised as extreme pornography.

A further computer seized from his work premises in Harlow revealed over 41,000 messages via online video chat with people in Manila, Philippines, during which Osen is directing the abuse of children.

Detective Constable Rachel Snow from the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse, Command said: "On the surface Simeon Osen was a successful business man with a family, but in reality he was a paedophile who was abusing children.

“I hope his arrest, prosecution and imprisonment today serves as a warning to other sex offenders in the UK, who think they can get away with abusing children anywhere in the world. This investigation is a very good example of the lengths the police and other law enforcement agencies will go to in order to find and secure the evidence to convict you.

“I also hope this case gives victims of sexual abuse, who may not have previously reported their ordeal to the police, the confidence to come forward.”

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/former-stanmore-man-pillar-jewish-8064710

Viral anti-street-harassment video spawns Jewish parody

A video titled "10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman" depicting street harassment of women went viral last week and while it was praised by some for highlighting the important issue, it also came under fire for its racial slant and selective editing. Due its viral nature, it has since spawned a whole host of parodies that have been featured all over the Internet.

It was only a matter of time until a Jewish parody came out and the person responsible for this "kosher" version is Scott Rogowsky, host of the live comedy show "Running Late." His "10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Jew" clip pokes fun at the original video and features him walking the streets of New York while being "harassed" by Orthodox Jews interrogating him about his religion.

Rogowsky encouters a range of mainly ultra-Orthodox Jewish men who ask him everything from "[Can you give me] a little Shehecheyanu or something?" "Are you Jewish? and "Sniff my etrog."

Since being posted on Sunday, the video has had over 100,000 views and has also received its fair share of compliments and controversies. Some social media users praised the video for being hysterical and on topic, whereas others labeled it "anti-semitic trash."

http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/49912-141105-viral-anti-street-harassment-video-spawns-jewish-parody

America faces most dangerous two years in 150 years

Obama still has two more years left in his final term.

Already, he has demonstrated again and again that he has no regard for the constitution or the legitimacy of laws when they do not suit his agenda. He flaunts his disregard for the constitutional process, dismisses laws he doesn’t like and rewrites others. 

He mocks the powers of Congress. The Supreme Court has slapped him down more than any president in recent times. All of this as he tells us he is an expert on constitutional law.

Now come his very explicit threats to pass more illegal and unconstitutional presidential edicts to grant amnesty to illegal aliens already in the United States. This, in turn, will issue invitations for millions more illegals to come streaming across the border.

It will not end at immigration. Unchecked power is addictive.

Disowned by Democrats and made to feel irrelevant in this election, President Obama’s enormous and unjustified ego is deeply wounded. He is frustrated and feels caged, cornered. This is when people like him are most dangerous.

Buoyant Republicans will make an effort to engage him.

But President Obama is not a listener. He is not a negotiator. He is not a learner. He will just take what he wants. It is easier that way.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s court-packing scheme during the Great Depression was nothing like the strains this president has put on Constitution. Indeed, not since the Civil War has America faced such a dire threat to her existence as a lawful, constitutional republic.

The difference in leadership between then and now could not be more striking.

To bind the union, Abraham Lincoln took an economic and political war and elevated it into something higher. He made it about emancipating slaves and won. And saved the Republic.

This president does the opposite. He got elected promising to elevate politics but instead finds unity and sows discord, often inciting racial divisions.

America’s only hope today is that President Obama finally turns to the bust of Lincoln he keeps in the Oval Office and listens.

⦁ Charles Hurt can be reached at charleshurt@live.com, or on Twitter at @charleshurt.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/5/hurt-america-faces-most-dangerous-two-years-150-ye/?page=2#ixzz3IAiEjcST 
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

No Longer Orthodox

HARD to find a silver lining in anything as scandalous as the “Mikvagate” accusations against Rabbi Barry Freundel. There isn’t a decent minded person in the world that does not feel the pain and violation of his victims and rage at the defilement of so sacred and private a ritual. Garnering quite a lot of the attention in this horrible story are the converts; so vulnerable, naïve and unprotected from predators in this intimidating and arduous process. Perhaps, just perhaps this could be a “teaching moment” and in some way create something good out of something bad.

Yet I am a bit skeptical and from what I have been reading in cyber chatter I am not alone. As is the habit in so many cases of abuse, those in authority tend to blame the “sickness” of the predator. Much lip service is given to sympathy for the victims, the accused’s family and of course his congregation. A committee will be appointed to investigate the circumstances and recommend changes. Yet, the problem in the eyes of the governing bodies and their committees will be the inability to prevent lone wolves bent on committing their evil deeds. Let us not forget that it is likely that anyone or any organization who should have been making sure this sort of atrocity doesn’t occur has probably lawyered up now in anticipation of lawsuits sure to come. Any findings will be in cryptic, litigation proof language. Such is the history of these scandals, see: Yeshiva University, NCSY, Torah Temima and others.

What we need to see from this scandal is a complete overhaul of the conversion process and the Orthodox attitude towards women’s issues but what we have gotten so far from the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is just further intransigence and a blatant submission to the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, an institution only the RCA seems to hold in any regard. This from Uri Heilmann of JTA quoting Rabbi Tzvi Romm, the RCA’s Administrator of Conversions saying:

“Romm outlined the basic requirements (for conversion): Shabbat and kosher observance; daily prayer; fluency with the blessings; wearing a head covering and tzitzit ritual fringes for men; and commitment to family purity observances – abstaining from sex during menstruation and immersing in the mikvah afterward. Hebrew reading skills also are usually required, and the person must be part of an Orthodox community.”

Translation – failure to follow those requirements disqualify one from becoming a Jew. Left unsaid but lingering in the air like the smell of sweaty socks is that if you are born to a Jewish mother and follow all of those rules but – say place a hidden camera in a mikveh, or you wrestle high school boys in your office until you orgasm, or you molest troubled teenaged girls in your care, or you psychologically abuse teenaged boys 6,000 miles from home, you are still a Jew and of course still Orthodox. Those are the rules and they cannot ever be changed. The same goes for granting women more representation in religious practice or for easing the plight of women chained by outdated, misogynistic laws. Oh, the cries of how far Orthodoxy has come is already ringing in my ears as I already anticipate being pointed to the creation of the “Yoetzet Halacha,” the women’s tefilla groups and various women’s Yeshivot.

I would applaud such “advances” if they were not accompanied but by hypocritical fundamentalism. The RCA will not grant a graduate of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah (YCT), membership in the organization. Their sin? Ordaining women. Let’s be clear, neither YCT nor its founder Rabbi Avi Weiss ever stated that ordained women could perform specific rituals designated solely for men. Yet mere ordination of women was a step too far. Imagine a world in which we accepted the YCT formula, it is fair to say we could have prevented the Freundel’s from exercising so much power over vulnerable women.

Some years back, the great Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, former President of the very Orthodox Bar Ilan University and legendary pulpit rabbi came up with a unique Halachic solution to the Agunah (chained wife) problem. So powerful were the forces of rabbinic hegemony that this great man was sidelined and ridiculed by the very institutions that he helped build and the rabbis whose path he paved.

The problem is not that Orthodoxy lacks solutions; the problem is that Orthodoxy lacks guts. Except for a few outspoken liberals, Orthodoxy has jumped the right wing shark. Those liberals I speak of by the way, are either never given any position of power or influence in organized Orthodoxy or they never cross certain lines so as to not be “Avi Weissed.”

In Israel the situation is no better. A bill that will grant local rabbis more authority in the conversion process that has enough votes to pass in the Knesset will be hindered by Netanyahu’s promise to the chief rabbinate to stall it in the administrative process. In a case of sheer irony, Arab parties are lining up with Haredi parties against the bill ostensibly to prevent more “Jews” in Israel. To the chief rabbinate a Ukrainian immigrant with a Jewish father is good enough to fight for the IDF and die for his adopted country but not Jewish enough to get married there. A good friend of mine reminded me recently that if the today’s rabbis were running things when Ruth followed Naomi back to Israel from Moab, we would never have had King David.

The time has come to drop the labels. One person’s Orthodoxy is another ones heresy. It’s also time to open up the floodgates. Judaism is complicated enough for those born into it, if someone wants to be a part of it, the time has come to let them in. We need more Jews not fewer. And when I say Jew I don’t care how often you pray or whether or not you eat at McDonald’s. And we need to free our women. We don’t have the right to criticize Islamic Fundamentalists and their treatment of women when our own women cannot get a divorce if her husband refuses to grant it to her. If we don’t fundamentally change (yes I know Orthodoxy is about staying put) then we are doomed.

Despite membership in an Orthodox synagogue, being a graduate of Yeshivot and having sent my kids to Yeshiva Day Schools I proudly say that I am no longer Orthodox, I am just a Jew. If that prevents you from eating in my kosher home, I’m ok with that.

Read more: No Longer Orthodox | Joel Moskowitz | The Blogs | The Times of Israel http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/no-longer-orthodox/#ixzz3I4VZCWF6
Follow us: @timesofisrael on Twitter | timesofisrael on Facebook

Obama Officials’ Insults Are Vulgar, But Their Policies Are Far Worse

The Obama administration officials’ vulgar treatment of Israel’s prime minister is troubling. But the policies behind their vulgarity – and reckless – are far worse.

Two officials were involved: one who used the epithet to describe Israel’s leader, and a second who agreed with the obscene remark. The point they were both making is that they consider Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “coward” because he won’t make the concessions that they believe might lead to peace.

What concessions, exactly? President Obama, Secretary of State Kerry, and other senior administration officials have said time and again that they want Israel to retreat to the 1967 armistice lines and permit the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. That would, of course, reduce Israel to just nine miles wide at its vulnerable mid-section, near Netanya. It would also almost certainly lead to a hostile Arab state — whether nationalist or Islamist — in Israel’s heartland.

What about Jerusalem? The White House and the State Department are very careful to refrain from saying explicitly that they want to redivide Jerusalem. They don’t say that out loud because they know it would infuriate millions of pro-Israel Christian and Jewish voters (not to mention almost all Israelis).

But “redivide Jerusalem” is exactly what the Obama administration is implying every time it condemns Israel for building apartments in so-called “East Jerusalem” and claims that such construction endangers peace. But the only peace it would endanger is one in which that part of Jerusalem is expected to be given to the Palestinians.

Otherwise, why would the White House be so upset if apartments are built in Ramat Shlomo, an Orthodox neighborhood in northern Jerusalem, or Gilo, a section of southern Jerusalem? The problem with Ramat Shlomo and Gilo is they are situated slightly beyond the old 1967 line.

Israelis naturally find the Obama administration’s characterization of such areas as “illegal settlements” laughable. Gilo is not a collection of trailers on some wind-swept hill. It is a modern, urban locale with more than 30,000 residents. Anyone who has driven in Jerusalem knows that Ramat Shlomo, Gilo, and the other neighborhoods denounced by the U.S. administration are physically indistinguishable from the rest of the city.

But the White House and State Department refuse to accept this reality. They are locked into a rigid ideological formula, according to which the 1967 line is sacrosanct and anything beyond it is “illegal” and “occupied.” And anything that is illegal and occupied, is expected to be surrendered.

There is, of course, nothing sacred about the 1967 armistice line. It was never an official border. It was simply the furthest point to which Jordanian troops managed to advance in the 1948 war. The Jordanian aggression in 1948 was illegal. The Jordanian occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem, including the Old City, from 1948 to 1967 was illegal. The Jordanian destruction of 57 synagogues in the Old City during the 1950s and 1960s was illegal. Jordan’s use of tombstones from the Mount of Olives cemetery as latrines in Jordanian Army barracks was illegal (not to mention repulsive).

When Israel won the 1967 war and reunited Jerusalem, it was correcting an outrageous historical injustice. Decent people everywhere should celebrate that the city has, since 1967, been ruled by a democratic government that respects the rights of all religions and safeguards the holy sites of all faiths.

And, indeed, the United States Congress has recognized it since 1992, when the House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution 113, celebrating “the reunification of Jerusalem.” That resolution asserted that Jerusalem “must remain an undivided city.”

Perhaps the Obama administration should be more frank about its true aim of re-dividing Jerusalem. Perhaps it should honestly acknowledge that it regards all construction beyond the 1967 line as illegal because it wants to Israel to give those areas to the Palestinians. xxx Perhaps they should say it plainly, and then see how it plays out among Israel’s voters, and America’s.

For here, in plain English, is what redividing Jerusalem would mean: The new capital of “Palestine” would include the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, the Mount of Olives cemetery, and most or all of the following “new city” Jerusalem neighborhoods: Ramot, French Hill, Gilo, Neve Yaakov, Ramat Shlomo, Har Homa and Givat Hamatos.

And that would be truly obscene.

Moshe Phillips and Benyamin Korn are members of the board of the Religious Zionists of America.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/11/03/obama-officials-insults-are-vulgar-but-their-policies-are-far-worse/

Netanyahu is no Coward, but Obama is a Liar

The real reason Israel did not attack Iran is just part of it.

PM Netanyahu has been a brave Israeli Prime Minister on the Iranian nuclear issue.  Why?  The entire present-day country of Iran is rung with huge difficult mountains.  In specific, the Zagros Mountains line Iran’s western borders and tower over 4,000 meters high.  For Israel, Iran’s multiple geographically and topographically nested nuke facilities are no Iraqi Osirik in the plains of Mesopotamia.  Iran is tough military nut to crack.  Prime Minister Netanyahu didn’t attack Iran, but not because he is a coward.  Israel didn’t attack Iran because:

1.Obama serially lied to Israel, and promised Israel the US wouldn’t allow Iran to construct a nuclear bomb. 

2. Obama also extorted and threatened Israel not to attack Iran.  

Netanyahu’s not a coward on Iran; but Obama is liar and an Iranian stooge.

This started in October 2008, not October 2014.  Claims that “ISIS aligned the US and Iran” just recently are pure idiocy.  Obama walked into the Oval Office in 2009 already aligned with Iran, and with Valerie Jarett having a direct telephone line to the Iranian Twelver mullahs.  “ISIS” is only a convenient excuse for Obama to come out of his Iranian closet.  Obama has protected the Iranian-terror state from the start   For instance, when there was the first Iranian uprising Obama doted over Iran's regime like a doting mother over her little new-born babe as Iran machine-gunned protesters in the streets.

Obama has always held an American military supply knife to Israel’s throat.  Obama withheld vital US Hellfire air-to-ground missiles from Israel when Hamas was actively firing Iranian M302mm Khaibar missiles into Tel Aviv; just imagine what American military supplies Obama would have withheld from Israel if Israel had violated Obama’s “don’t-attack-Iran-or-else” threats.  In retrospect, Bibi wasn’t a coward for not attacking Iran, he was a prescient military genius.  One never begins a war without having the supply chain to finish it. 

Imagine what horrific concessions in “Judea and Samaria” Obama could have extorted out of Israel if Israel was in the middle of a war with Iran/Hebollah/Hmas, and Obama had pulled the military plug on Israel as in the 2014 Gaza War?  This would expose Israel to a Hamastan 'WestBank' rocket state.  I have always believed Obama would betray Israel in any war, let alone an Israel-Iran war, so I never sided with a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran. 

Obama betrayed Israel on a defensive operation, letting Israel understood that it could never trust Obama in any war, let alone an offensive war against Iran’s nukes where Israel would have to project power over a thousand miles away.

Iran was never Israel’s problem; Iran is everybody’s problem.  It is Saudi Arabia’s, Egypt’s, Pakistan’s and America’s problem.  Why should Israel do the dirty work on Iran, and get all the blame and condemnation, where the Sunnis are likely to be attacked first?  Obama may have called Netanyahu a coward, but the unintended consequence of his insults will be to strengthen Israel’s military and strategic bonds with Saudi Arabia and Egypt.  Both the Egyptians and Saudis now see Obama will betray Israel as Obama has betrayed both of them.  

An extremely bad Obama-Iran nuclear deal must be very close at hand.  There’s a chance that the Senate may turn Republican, and hence may be a constitutional thorn to consummating an Iranian-nuke deal.  Obama may be forced to get the Iran-nuke-deal done after the congressional mid-term elections, but before the Republican majority Senate is sworn in in January.  A Republican majority Senate will likely constitutionally demand that any Iranian-nuke deal constitutes a treaty, and, therefore, must be put to a Senate treaty ratification vote.  

Obama may even have arranged a pre-emptive verbal attack on Israel to give Israel a taste of what may happen if Israel dares complain about Obama’s deal to empower Iran as a nuclear-weapons’ state.

The only silver lining is that Netanyahu and Saudi Arabia have now seen Obama’s betrayal on the Iranian nuclear track.  This means Obama is planning an even greater betrayal of Israel over the 'West Bank'.  Idisagree with Josh Ernst the White House spokesperson, actually the Obama insults were very “productive.”  Obama is exposed as a lying Iranian stooge before hoodwinking Israel on the 'West Bank'.  

Prime Minister can now show Obama he is the true hero of Israel by building not just a mere 1,000 homes in Judea and Samaria, but by building 100,000 homes in Israel’s sovereign homeland.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/15891#.VFJDpyLF--k

The world cannot stand the idea of Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem

The deafening silence of the international community after last week’s terrorist attack in Jerusalem that claimed the lives of two people – including a three-month old baby – is in blatant contrast to the world's irrational reaction just days later to news of planned construction projects in the same city.

One must look into the matter more deeply to discover what drives the United States and European Union to enthusiastically and automatically protest every single time Jews announce plans to build homes in their historic capital, while these very same countries are silent when two innocent people are deliberately mowed down by a terrorist driven by anti-Semitic hatred.

If it were simply a question of politics equitably applied by Washington and European capitals across the globe – who would thereby condemn every construction announcement in disputed territories located in the remotest reaches of the world – one might conceivably believe in their good faith. But this would require the creation of ministries of "condemnation-of-construction-in-disputed-territories" in all these countries that would have to be equipped with full-time staff. In this case, however, the hypocrisy and malice emerge from all directions. Even the UN Security Council convened an emergency meeting to discuss the matter, even as other parts of the Arab Middle East are ablaze. There are no other cases like this in the world and it is specifically the Jewish state that is being targeted.

The aging West is gradually losing its bearing and its values. And despite all the problems that have beset it, it still believes it has enough free time to examine the small state of Israel's land policies under a microscope. Unconsciously, the West is condemning Israel's life instincts while tacitly supporting its enemies' death wishes. The conflict unfolding in the Middle East today expresses the struggle between two cultures: one that’s productive, developing, inventive, innovating, building and planting, the other that’s destructive, pillaging and sowing death. Israel is firmly on the side of life.

"We love death as you love life," Arab Palestinian terrorist chiefs frequently tell Israelis in order to make themselves seem “original.” A surrealist sentence for a modern, rational mind that Westerners are beginning to understand. Yet when it comes to Israel, the old knee-jerk reactions always come back: assassins become "freedom fighters" and builders are accused of "being an obstacle to peace."

Building housing units in the city that has been the capital of the Jewish people for over 3,000 years is a sign of life, rebirth and a breath of fresh air nationally-speaking after 19 centuries of absence. Building in Jerusalem is undoubtedly one of the most tangible and symbolic signs of the Jewish people's reunion with their homeland. For the past 2,000 years, the faithful recite the following Jewish prayer thrice daily: "Blessed art thou, God, who brings Your people Israel back from exile" and "Blessed art thou, God, who rebuilt Jerusalem." These prayers from the dawn of time are being fulfilled before our eyes much like the biblical prophecies. Wonderful!

And we should stop all this because American, British, Belgian, French or Spanish leaders ask us to? It is true that they have a notable alibi: the left and the mainstream Israeli media that are far ahead of them and encourage them in their opposition with the eternal "now is not the right time to build." In his inaugural winter Knesset session address, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to force the left to face up to its hypocrisy: "We've listened to you for years and it's never been the right time to build in Jerusalem."

Twenty years ago, a French rabbi warned that one day the United States – Israel's great ally – would turn against it on the issue of Jerusalem since Jewish sovereignty over the holy city is unbearable for both the Christian West and for Islam. We are there now and this is the real reason, albeit hidden and subconscious, behind the international community's hyper reactivity to any announcement of new construction in the Israeli capital. The use of the term "provocation" is not a given in the international community's terminology. The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and the liberation of the Jews' historic birthplace were also "provocations" for all those who believed that the "Jewish question" was about to be "resolved."

Jerusalem has never been the capital of another state or another people and has never been more at the heart of the world's preoccupations since its rightful owners returned. During the 19-year Jordanian occupation of the city, between 1948 and 1967, there was never any question of making it a "Palestinian capital."

It is up to us, its rightful owners, to protect and develop our capital for the benefit of all its inhabitants, despite criticism and malicious condemnation.

Jerusalem is not only the capital of Israel, it is also the most precious capital of the entire Jewish people.

Shraga Blum is an independent journalist. He publishes a weekly press review in the "P'tit Hebdo" and political analysis on Israeli-French language sites.

http://www.i24news.tv/en/opinion/49207-141030-the-world-cannot-stand-the-idea-of-jewish-sovereignty-over-jerusalem