RUTHFULLY YOURS

During the first 24 hours of the Gaza war, Palestinian terrorists fired more than two hundred rockets into Israel. Yet only one Israeli was wounded, and none were killed. How is that possible?

When Israel fires missiles at enemy targets, they strike with pinpoint accuracy. Sometimes they hit a lone terrorist on a motorcycle, or a single, targeted apartment in the middle of a dense cluster of apartment buildings.

Yet when Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian terror groups fire rockets into Israel, the vast majority land in empty fields or parking lots or other uninhabited sites.

The difference is not that the Israelis have better aim. The difference is that the Israelis have the right equipment, and the Palestinians don’t.

Israel has the sophisticated computer systems necessary to ensure that their missiles lock on the desired target. The Palestinians don’t have that technology.

The reason they don’t is because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

That’s right, the much-maligned Israeli blockade–the focus of so much griping by the Arabs, by Palestinian support groups around the world, by the United Nations and even by the Obama administration. That blockade. It’s working.

Israel took a lot of heat for intercepting the Mavi Marmara, the ship of pro-Hamas extremists from Turkey and elsewhere that tried to bust the blockade of Gaza in 2010. In the aftermath of that episode, various groups adopted the blockade issue as their cause du jour.

In 2011, for example, a panel of five “independent human rights experts” for the United Nations declared that the blockade is “a flagrant contravention of international human rights law.” In 2012, the UN’s annual report on the Gaza situation called the blockade “collective punishment.” In 2013, the UN’s “humanitarian coordinator” for Gaza, James Rawley, claimed that “Gaza is becoming uninhabitable” because of the blockade. And just this part March, the commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency declared that the blockade “is illegal and must be lifted.”

The other usual suspects have chimed in as one might expect. Amnesty International has charged that the blockade is “suffocating Gaza.” Human Rights Watch has complained that the blockade is having “an awful effect.” The International Red Cross has declared the blockade to be a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

After years of working hard to comfort America’s terrorist enemies and erase U.S. borders, the nation’s perpetually embattled attorney general is suddenly concerned that Middle Eastern jihadists are working together to create undetectable explosives that could be used to blow up U.S. airliners.

Intelligence reports suggest Islamic terrorists in Yemen and Syria have joined forces to make the stealthy bombs and this development is “more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general,” Eric Holder said on ABC’s “This Week.”

The collaboration between Islamist militants in the two Muslim countries is a “deadly combination” of those who have technical skills and “people who have this kind of fervor to give their lives in support of a cause that is directed at the United States and directed at its allies.”

“It’s something that gives us really extreme, extreme concern,” Holder said.

Holder’s comments come as the U.S.Department of Homeland Security announced it was ratcheting up security measures at international airports. Individuals will now be made to demonstrate that their electronic devices such as cellphones and laptop computers are not bombs by turning them on at security checkpoints.

Such measures are “prudent steps that are necessary to protect the flying public,” Holder said.

Yet while Holder pretends to be a responsible adult, at the same time evidence has surfaced that security measures have been all but suspended at U.S. airports for newly arrived illegal immigrants in the southern states.

Breitbart Texas reports that illegals are being allowed to board commercial airliners without valid ID. “The aliens who are getting released on their own recognizance are being allowed to board and travel commercial airliners by simply showing their Notice to Appear forms,” said Hector Garza, a spokesman for Local 2455 of the National Border Patrol Council. (NBPC is the labor union representing about 17,000 Border Patrol agents and support personnel assigned to that law enforcement organization.)

There is no real medical history of those children…no records of inoculations, viruses, bacterial inections, tuberculosis…or what communicable illness they may be harboring. Where is the CDC on this? rsk

The Drudge Report posted two seemingly unrelated news items yesterday, which together could contain the seeds of death and global chaos.

The first is a Reuter’s report on the deadly Ebola outbreak in West Africa. As stated in the article the mortality rate for the current epidemic is 80%. However if the patients are hospitalized soon after becoming symptomatic, the mortality rate drops to just 25%. But currently there are no “magic bullets” or vaccines for treatment of the Ebola virus.

There is one sentence in the Reuter’s report that should give us all chills, “Weak local health systems and porous national borders were magnifying the infection risk.”

The second Drudge post, via Fox News, is titled, “Endless wave of illegal immigrants floods Rio Grande valley.”

FoxNews.com accompanied Texas lawmaker Louie Gohmert, a former judge and current Republican Congressman, to the site in the pre-dawn hours of Saturday. Gohmert, whose district lies some 550 miles northeast of what has become the most heavily-trafficked people-smuggling route in the world, has been to the location many times, but has never seen it so understaffed and overwhelmed.

In May 5,366 illegal immigrants were detained in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. Last month, that number skyrocketed to 30,380, according to a law enforcement document obtained by FoxNews.com.

Agents normally accustomed to working in the field waited at the bus, donning blue latex gloves as they examined the incoming illegal immigrants. They asked questions, searched belongings for contraband and tried to determine if the immigrants need medical help.

Most of the illegal immigrants appeared to be in clean clothes and good health — the biggest complaint FoxNews.com heard was from a child who had lost a shoe in transit. All looked very happy to have finally arrived on U.S. soil.

But appearances are deceiving, one border source said, “Many of them have scabies, lice and sometimes serious infectious diseases that have not manifested themselves yet,” the source said.

This is happening in American jails to an alarming degree. Read : The Fertile Soil of Jihad: Terrorism’s Prison Connection by Patrick T. Dunleavy (Sep 2011)

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/interview-with-patrick-t-dunleavy

Radical Islamists have found a new place for recruiting fresh followers: German prisons. In some jails, Muslim chaplains are successfully promoting a more moderate approach to the faith, but many more of them are needed.

The evening sun shines through the barred windows onto the 18 men. They’re wearing ruby-colored T-shirts and black pants. Some nudge each other’s shoulders out of sheer boredom, while others linger in groups at the corner of the sparse room. The men speak Turkish, Arabic and German. One keeps glancing out the window into the prison yard.

A man with a full beard and violet-colored turban strides before the prisoners, his colorfully striped linen robe flowing behind him. Husamuddin Meyer rolls out his prayer rug and begins to pray. Swaying back and forth, he seems almost to be singing the Arabic verses.

The men stand silently in two rows in front of Meyer, backs straight and eyes staring straight ahead. They then kneel, lowering their heads until their foreheads touch the ground. They repeat this four to five times before chanting, “Allahu akbar,” God is great. Meyer gestures with his hand and the prisoners form a semi-circle around him to listen to him telling a story from the Koran. Nobody interrupts.

Meyer is a Muslim chaplain; he wears a beard, a turban and a ring on his finger as prescribed by the Sunna. He also walks with a wooden cane, whose thud announces his arrival when he swiftly makes his way through the prison corridors. He visits the correctional facility in the central German city of Wiesbaden three times each week, where he prays together with Muslim prisoners and provides them with religious counseling.

Meyer is hoping to show the prisoners the path to Allah. More importantly, though, he is seeking to sway the faithful away from more radical interpretations of the Koran. He warns in particular against Salafism, the fundamentalist stream of Islam that is currently enjoying growing popularity among young men. When he discusses the issue, his generally pleasant voice suddenly hardens. “Salafism is like a disease,” Meyer says. “Once somebody has it, they start infecting others.”

A German man claims to be an Indian chief in the Amazon rainforest. His tales of El Dorado even impressed Steven Spielberg and Jacques Cousteau. His tales would be harmless if there weren’t three unsolved deaths connected to his fantasy world.

In the late 1960s, a man turned up in the Brazilian state of Acre, deep in the Amazon region. He was wearing a loincloth and a feather, carried a bow and claimed he was Tatunca Nara, chief of the Ugha Mongulala. No one had ever heard of an Indian tribe with that name. In addition, the man bore no resemblance whatsoever to an Indian. He was white and spoke with a strong French accent.

He said he had inherited the accent from his mother, explaining that she was a German nun who had been taken by the Indians. His people, he said, lived in an underground city called Akakor, and that German was one of the languages spoken there — a byproduct of the offspring of 2,000 Nazi soldiers who had once traveled up the Amazon in U-boats.

His story would have raised eyebrows anywhere else. But outlandish stories are not uncommon in the Amazon region, so no one paid much attention to Tatunca Nara. Otherwise, he made a friendly impression, and nothing much would have come of his appearance if it hadn’t come to the attention of Karl Brugger, a correspondent with Germany’s ARD television network at the time. He visited Tatunca Nara in Manaus and recorded his story on 12 audiotapes. Brugger called it: “The most unusual story I have ever heard.” It was a tale of extraterrestrial visitors, secret rites of the “ancient fathers” and incursions of the “white barbarians,” all described copiously and in great detail, and without interruption “from the year zero to the present.”

Even more surprising was the fact that Brugger’s book, “The Chronicle of Akakor,” enjoyed a certain level of success. In New Age circles, Tatunca’s stories were studied as if they were the Dead Sea Scrolls. They included lines like, “Five empty days at the end of the year are dedicated to worshipping our gods.”

Oceanographer Jacques Cousteau hired Tatunca as a guide when he explored the region with his boat, the Calypso, in 1983. The 2008 adventure film “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” is about a sunken city in the Amazon called Akator, and an Indian tribe called the Ugha Mogulala. The action figure for the film is dressed in a loincloth and a feather.

Does the original exist? Is Tatunca alive? This reporter recently traveled to Brazil in an effort to find the legendary man.

Obama at Iftar: ‘We Welcome That Debate’ on ‘Heart-Wrenching’ Images from Gaza, Israel Posted By Bridget Johnson

Guests included Muslim Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.), as well as Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.). Ambassadors from Arab and Muslim-majority countries were also invited.

President Obama told guests at the White House’s annual Iftar dinner tonight that “further escalation” in the Middle East “benefits no one, least of all the Israeli and the Palestinian people.”

Faced with criticism from some Arab and Muslim activists who think he has been too friendly toward the Israeli side, Obama addressed the conflict near the end of his comments, which largely honored “the traditions of one of the world’s great faiths.”

“For all of us, whatever our faiths, Ramadan is a reminder of just how much we share. The values of peace and charity, the importance of family and community — these are universal values. The command to love one another, to uphold justice, and to care for the least among us — these are common threads in our faith traditions,” Obama said.

“…In Islam, there is a hadith that says God helps the servant as long as the servant helps his brother. In other words, we’re summoned to serve and lift up one another, and that’s the lesson of several of our guests here tonight.”

Guests included Muslim Reps. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Andre Carson (D-Ind.), as well as Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.). Ambassadors from Arab and Muslim-majority countries were also invited.

“The pictures we are seeing in Gaza and Israel are heart-wrenching. People here in the United States care deeply about what’s happening there, and I know there are strong views, as well as differences, about how we should move forward, which is part of American democracy. We welcome that debate. That makes us stronger,” Obama said.

Republicans have played defense on immigration for so long that they’ve forgotten how to play offense. The waves of aliens, the dead children washing up on the banks of the Rio Grande, the thousands of free airline tickets for reunions with stateside relatives — all of these things are happening because left-wing control of the levers of power has been met by Republican ineptitude.

Shock and outrage at administration policies isn’t enough. The Republicans have provided no effective leadership in stopping the tsunami rolling north from Central America. But Republicans can control the issue, and the nation’s future, if they would lead.

The first step to leading is understanding what you are up against. This border crisis isn’t incompetence. It isn’t bungling.

It is a calculated effort to crash the immigration system and fundamentally transform the nation. It is an effort to accelerate demographic trends and forever alter the nation’s culture. Until the GOP comprehends the full measure of Obama’s purpose, the GOP will be trapped in a prevent defense, never moving past complaints about Obama’s incompetence.

To the Obama administration and open borders groups, the tidal wave across the border is not an accident, and it is not a crisis. It is not even limited to unaccompanied children.

There is a single simple cause behind the human tragedy at the border: Obama’s refusal to enforce the immigration laws. The steady flow became a tsunami after Obama implemented childhood amnesty (DACA) in 2012. This lawless immigration policy gave legal status to young illegal aliens by Obama edict.

But Obama’s lawless leniency went even further. The president publicly and proudly announced that he will not enforce other immigration laws. His presidential invitation spread like wildfire throughout Central and South America, and the lawless invasion grew worse.

If President Obama reversed these lawless policies, the border flood would stop. That’s precisely why he won’t reverse them. The border flood, the free airline tickets, the badgering of school districts that do not welcome the illegal aliens with open arms — all of these actions are calculated to revolutionize the demographics of the nation.

There has been considerable controversy among observers and commentators sympathetic to Israel in its latest round of hostilities with the terrorist belligerents of Hamas, the Gazan wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. One school of thought, whose tenets I share, advocates the total destruction of the terrorist infrastructure, thus eliminating the depressing spectre of sporadic and then continuing outbursts of rocket attacks, followed with metronomic regularity by the inevitable armed conflict and faux hudna every couple of years.

It is clear that Hamas will not relent in its purpose of terrorizing Israel’s civilian population and ultimately, as per its charter, of annihilating the Jewish State root and branch. The perpetuation of this status quo is not only tedious and wearily predictable, but finally unsustainable, for no responsible nation can permit its citizens to spend a portion of their lives hunkering down in bomb shelters.

An alternative thesis — or interpretation of Israel’s best interests — has been gaining momentum of late, and indeed appears to have superseded and eclipsed the more “hawkish” perspective. It seems to have become the prevalent meme governing current thinking on the Israeli dilemma, namely, that in destroying a known entity like Hamas, one creates a vacuum into which far more lethal and barbarous groups can step in and pick up where their predecessor left off—only to greater noxious effect. According to this line of thought, having to deal with even more pathological cadres like Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Al-Quds Brigade, the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ansar Al Sunnah, and possibly ISIS as well, would result in a collective feeling of nostalgia for the good old days when Hamas would be allowed to declare victory after being pummeled into semi-oblivion.

Thus, as National Post columnist Michael Higgins writes [1], “One of the biggest dangers Israel faces as it cracks down [on Hamas] is that it could be too successful.” Similarly, former chief of staff at Israel’s Ministry of Defense Michael Herzog argues [2] that Hamas at least “provides an address — you don’t have that with the Jihadi factions.” The belief that Israel should pull its punches, deliver a resounding though tolerable spanking to a mischievous and impertinent Hamas, and then let it live to kill, mutilate, and terrorize another day — business as usual — may to some seem realistic in the boiling cauldron that is the Middle East. The trouble is that political realism often founders on the reefs of actual reality. Such adiabatic thinking would be merely quaint or pixilated were it not potentially calamitous.

When one reflects that Hamas has not only fired missiles at Israeli population centers but has deliberately targeted the Dimona nuclear site in the Negev, we are experiencing what is called a “game changer,” rendering all presumably rational temporizing null and void. Hamas is not trying to prevent or preempt an Israeli nuclear strike, which it knows is not going to happen; it is, rather, hoping to create mass civilian casualties via the diffusion of nuclear waste materials. A red line has been crossed — and it is not an Obama red line the world has learned to safely disregard. In the words of Michael Snyder, editor of The Economic Collapse Blog (ECB), “The fact that Hamas is attempting to create a nuclear holocaust is

The absence of basic freedoms among Israel’s enemies means nothing to the Europeans.

Let’s drop the names “Hamas” and “Israel” and make a list of the characteristics of two imaginary warring entities. We’ll call them Entity A and Entity B.

Entity A
Declares that its raison d’être is to annihilate Entity B.

Sends missiles to explode in the most populated parts of Entity B in order to kill as many civilians there as possible.

Uses families and individual civilians as human shields to protect its own leaders from attack.

Tortures and kills domestic political opponents.

Has no political or religious freedom and has no freedom of speech, press, or assembly, and no independent judiciary.

Is a theocracy.

Violently oppresses gays.

Saturates its education and airwaves with a demonic hatred of Entity B.

Rated a 6 by Freedom House in its 2014 report on freedom in the world. Seven is the worst possible rating. Entity A ranks 6 in freedom, 6 in civil liberties, and 6 in political rights.

Barry Goldwater paved the way for a conservative renewal that culminate in the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980…..rsk
A Party for Free Men Barry Goldwater’s message for the Republican party in 1964 rings true today.
By Senator Barry Goldwater

Editor’s Note: This is the text of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 Republican National Convention acceptance speech. The 50th anniversary of the convention was yesterday.

To my good friend and great Republican, Dick Nixon, and your charming wife, Pat; my running mate and that wonderful Republican who has served us well for so long, Bill Miller, and his wife, Stephanie; to Thurston Morton, who has done such a commendable job in chairmaning this convention; to Mr. Herbert Hoover, who I hope is watching; and to that great American and his wife, General and Mrs. Eisenhower; to my own wife, my family, and to all of my fellow Republicans here assembled, and Americans across this great Nation.

From this moment, united and determined, we will go forward together, dedicated to the ultimate and undeniable greatness of the whole man. Together we will win.

I accept your nomination with a deep sense of humility. I accept, too, the responsibility that goes with it, and I seek your continued help and your continued guidance. My fellow Republicans, our cause is too great for any man to feel worthy of it. Our task would be too great for any man, did he not have with him the heart and the hands of this great Republican party, and I promise you tonight that every fiber of my being is consecrated to our cause; that nothing shall be lacking from the struggle that can be brought to it by enthusiasm, by devotion, and plain hard work. In this world no person, no party, can guarantee anything, but what we can do and what we shall do is to deserve victory, and victory will be ours.

The good Lord raised this mighty Republic to be a home for the brave and to flourish as the land of the free — not to stagnate in the swampland of collectivism, not to cringe before the bully of Communism.

Now, my fellow Americans, the tide has been running against freedom. Our people have followed false prophets. We must, and we shall, return to proven ways — not because they are old, but because they are true. We must, and we shall, set the tide running again in the cause of freedom. And this party, with its every action, every word, every breath, and every heartbeat, has but a single resolve, and that is freedom — freedom made orderly for this nation by our constitutional government; freedom under a government limited by laws of nature and of nature’s God; freedom balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the slavery of the prison cell; balanced so that liberty lacking order will not become the license of the mob and of the jungle.