Terror at Tapuach Junction
Photo: Wikipedia/ Tamar Jordanian
Evyatar Borowsky, a 31-year-old father of five, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian terrorist as he waited for a ride at Tapuah Junction in the West Bank. Pictures of Evyatar’s eldest son hugging his father’s corpse one last time as the body was being laid to rest have been circulating around the Internet. Since seeing that heartbreaking image of the poor child, I have been filled with sadness and rage.
The Palestinian terrorist who committed this murder had recently been released from an Israeli prison after serving a short stint for throwing stones at Israeli vehicles. Some analysts suggested that the attacker committed the murder in order to bring “honor” to his family’s name after his brother was arrested by the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) for collaborating with Israel. (more…)
Comments (1) »Wednesday, May 1st, 2013 at 4:07 PM | afarkas
The Delusional Power of Islamist Hatred
The mother of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, has said some pretty crazy things in the past few days. On the one hand, one well-known model of how human beings experience grief in five stages tells us that denial and anger are the first two steps. Mrs. Tsarnaev has lost one son and the other is likely headed to jail for a long time – or to death row. Her devastation is understandable and excusable.
What is neither understandable nor excusable is the steady stream of bizarre pronunciations coming out of her mouth. She started off saying that her boys had been set up. Now she is saying that the bombing didn’t happen at all and that the blood splashed all over Boston’s Boylston Street was paint.
Perhaps she has actual mental or emotional problems. Perhaps she has suffered a breakdown. But in a part of the world that promotes belief in crazy anti-Muslim conspiracies – from sharks trained by the Mossad to attack non-Israeli tourists in the waters off the Sinai peninsula to balloons from an innocuous Israeli celebration drifting across the Lebanese border and fictionally killing ever-escalating numbers of fictional children – the confluence of Islamist victimhood fetishism and inferiority complex has metastasized into a situation in which a growing number of people will believe just about anything that absolves Islamist terrorists and lays the blame at the feet of (insert villain of your choice here…America, Jews, Israel, Mossad, etc.).
We can dismiss Mrs. Tsarnaev as much as we want. There are a LOT of people who will believe her. And that should scare us more than the insanity of her rants.
Comments (34) »Friday, April 26th, 2013 at 7:25 AM | Stand For Israel
Education by Murder in Boston
Medical workers aid injured people at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Daniel Pipes, writing at his blog (but also printed in yesterday’s Washington Times), says that – while the Boston bombings will not result in immediate, serious policy changes – it is likely to result in more Westerners realizing that radical Islam is a threat to our way of life and our values:
Comments (14) »It will prompt some Westerners to conclude that Islamism is a threat to their way of life. Indeed, every act of Muslim aggression against non-Muslims, be it violent or cultural, recruits more activists to the anti-jihad cause, more voters to insurgent parties, more demonstrators to anti-immigrant street efforts, and more donors to anti-Islamist causes.
Thursday, April 25th, 2013 at 9:24 AM | Stand For Israel
Where We’re Headed
Photo: Flickr/ hahatango
After the Boston Marathon bombing and the manhunt that led to the capture of one alleged terrorist and the death of another, a few provocative observations and predictions:
This is not the last time that terrorism will strike on U.S. soil. Yesterday, a young man from the Chicago area was arrested at O’Hare airport boarding a flight to Turkey – his plan was to cross the Turkish border with Syria and go fight with al-Qaeda. Yesterday afternoon, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police announced that they had broken up a plot to bomb trains. The jihadists want to attack us. Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are great and staffed by bright, passionate, committed men and women. But they’re still human and, eventually, they’ll miss something. Unless we’re willing to substantially curb civil liberties (and we shouldn’t be), terrorism could become a fact of life.
Boston’s decision to lock down the city was understandable given that it was the city’s first taste of terrorism. But the message it sent was that you can bring an entire major American city to a grinding halt with $400 worth of parts and a total lack of human decency. Similarly, the reaction of some Bostonians – dancing in the streets and chanting “U.S.A.” – after the second suspect was apprehended amounted to treating a 19-year-old nobody like he was Osama bin Laden. If terror does become a fact of American life, we simply can’t keep reacting this way.
We should stop being nice about who and what is primarily responsible for acts of terrorism in the world. Radical Islamist terror is the problem. We need to name it – responsibly, of course. We also need to recognize that we can’t do much about it. It’s not about U.S. foreign policy (because that wouldn’t explain why there have been attacks in so many countries that don’t support our foreign policy). It’s not about Israel. It’s an illness within the Muslim world and, while we can vigorously try to lessen its terrible effects…
Read More » Comments (31) »Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 at 9:11 AM | Stand For Israel
Surviving Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Charged
Photo: Screen capture
The charges are in for the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing:
The Justice Department said Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, was charged in a criminal complaint unsealed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. It said he is “specifically charged with one count of using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (namely, an improvised explosive device or IED) against persons and property within the United States resulting in death, and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death.” The department said in a news release that the bombings resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to more than 200 others.
The question remains: What motivated Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother, Tamerlan (who was killed on Friday in a firefight with police), to carry out this vile attack? Were they working independently, or at the behest of a foreign terrorist group? Rest assured that, once the younger Tsarnaev recovers, law enforcement authorities will be asking him these questions. Let’s hope they get some straight answers — and that justice is done.
Comments (2) »Monday, April 22nd, 2013 at 2:19 PM | Stand For Israel
Still Waiting for Answers in Boston
Photo: Screen capture
As Americans wake up to news that one suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is dead and another still at large – and that both are of Chechnyan descent – Jonathan Tobin recommends caution:
Comments (19) »There is a long history of Chechnya being a source of Islamist terrorism, both against Russia and elsewhere. But until we learn more, this is not the time to jump to any conclusions about the motives of these killers or whether they fit the model of the Ft. Hood killer, an American who was inspired by Islamist ideology to carry out a deadly attack. An American media that has been bursting with impatience all week hoping to be able to put this tragedy in some perspective or to use it promote some sort of political agenda will just have to keep waiting.
Friday, April 19th, 2013 at 8:34 AM | Stand For Israel
Whoever Attacked Boston, Islamist Terror Still a Threat
Law enforcement authorities have still not identified the culprit in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing (Photo: Flickr/hahatango)
Barry Rubin writes that, regardless of the source of the terror attack in Boston, Americans shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking that Islamist terror isn’t a threat. In fact, says Rubin, American vulnerability is high (and grows with complacency), the intent of our enemies is undiminished, and their capabilities grow daily:
The relative success of law enforcement and intelligence agencies is clear, yet the intensity of any terrorist war is measured not by successful attacks but by the number of attacks. One should always remember, as an Israeli official working on this issue once told me in private conversation, that counterterrorism was the only profession where succeeding 99 percent of the time was to fail.
Comments (8) »
Thursday, April 18th, 2013 at 7:49 AM | Stand For Israel
We Remember: Park Hotel Passover Bombing, 11 Years Ago
We join the IDF in remembering the 30 lives lost in the horrible 2002 Park Hotel massacre. We pray for all those affected by such a terrible and hate-filled act of violence, and we continue to pray for the peace of Israel. “May there be peace within your walls and security within your citadels” (Psalm 122:7).
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013 at 2:34 PM | Stand For Israel
Honoring the Fogel Family
Two years ago today, Udi (36), Ruth (35), Yoav (11), Elad (4), and Hadas (3 mo.) Fogel were brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists while they slept in their home in the small Israeli community of Itamar.
The Fogel’s were killed by teenage cousins Hakim and Amjad Awad, in a horrible and hateful act of violence. Still, three children survived, and so today, on the anniversary of death of their parents and siblings, let us keep Tamar (12) Roi, (6) and Yishai (2) in our prayers. We ask that they – and all who are affected by such hate – may feel the comfort of the Lord.
“Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.”
Psalm 91:1
Photo: IDF
Comments (6) »Monday, March 11th, 2013 at 1:28 PM | Stand For Israel
Hezbollah Worried, Europe Should Be Too
Matthew Levitt and Magnus Norell of the Washington Institute on Near East Policy write that the attack on a group of Jewish tourists in Bulgaria last year has Hezbollah on the verge of being added to the European Union’s terrorist list – a long overdue step that will deprive them of significant funding and will probably expose Europe to greater Hezbollah attack.
Comments (11) »In a speech timed to mark the anniversaries of famous slain Hezbollah militants, Nasrallah’s only comment on the Burgas investigation was a passing non-comment: “I don’t want to comment on the Bulgarian accusation. This issue is being looked at in a patient and calm manner and we will see later how to deal with it depending on the outcome.” His only substantive comment was to warn of Hezbollah’s capabilities to strike at Israel should Jerusalem choose to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon in retaliation.
Thursday, February 28th, 2013 at 8:34 AM | Stand For Israel