Showing posts with label Bombings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bombings. Show all posts

October 4, 2019

Celebrating With Security

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Celebrating With Security."

Take a look around you at the new security measures and people risking their lives for yours and your family. Take a moment to thank them. But also, recognize that the security isn't there just for show, it's there because the hatred and threats have tangibly increased along with the ever present means to carry them out. It is critical that we continue our vigilance and the strengthening of our security measures, because those that hate us for who we are and for our faith are not going away, and unfortunately, they may even continue to grow in numbers and resolve. However, none of us should live in fear and be forced to stay away from our religious institutions, our Torah study, and prayer, but rather to the contrary, we need to stand up strongly--in defiance and in faith!

While I don't know what specific security measures we will see next Rosh Hashanah, I can say with almost absolute certainty that it will be more and not less and that you should definitely be taking notice.

(Image by Robert-Owen-Wahl from Pixabay)

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November 26, 2018

Boycott Airbnb

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, "Free, Free Israel."
While the Palestinians continue to terrorize Israelis not only with barrages of rockets, terror tunnels, vehicular rammings, shootings, stabbings, and suicide bombings, but also with their advocacy and pressure for a Boycott, Divestiture, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against us. Companies like Airbnb are actually falling for it and joining the terrorists against U.S. ally and friend, the democratic State of Israel.
It's time for Jewish people all over the world to demand "Free, Free Israel" and "End the terrorism!"

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Pixabay)
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November 13, 2016

U-Haul Rental Truck Terrorism

So true story...

This week I was walking in Downtown, D.C.

I see something strange, not usually there. 

There is a U-Haul van parked in front of the GW University School of Science and Engineering. 

Literally in front of the main doors.

A couple of it's wheels are actually sloppily on the sidewalk and it is in front of a fire hydrant in front of the very doors to the school.

But that's not all. 

All around the vehicle are oddly taped on posters as you see above. 

On some of the posters are antagonistic words about DOJ (the Department of Justice) and some even use the word "terrorist."

Well, after the devastating terror attack in 1995 against the Oklahoma City Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building with a massive homemade bomb concealed in a rental truck that killed 168 people and wounded almost 700, I decided it's probably a good idea to call the police. 

In the time that it took them to come, I was able to walk to the market place and to coffee...I know they are busy, but it seemed like forever. 

Finally, two patrol cars pull up...that's good. 

I go outside to meet them. 

The officer after briefly looking around (and not in) the vehicle looks at me as I walk over to him. 

I said, "I called you about this suspicious vehicle."

He goes sternly, "Well, what's suspicious about it?"

I described the obvious...how it was parked with wheels on the sidewalk, at a fire hydrant, right in front of the main doors to the school, and with all those (crazy) posters all around it and uses the word "terrorist".

Surprisingly to me, the officer responds, "That's not suspicious!" Then he concedes, "but I will give it a ticket."

He must've seen my face go into this contorted questioning look, but I thought the better of the situation and said with deference to him, "Well Sir, you're the expert!"

I thank him for coming out and walk away feeling disheartened at this security response just 15 years after 9/11 and when we are still fighting a gruesome war with ISIS and against global terrorism. 

Then just a few days later, look at the article I came across with a homeland security warning:

"ISIS Guide: Rent a U-Haul As A Weapon, Target Thanksgiving Day Parade or Political Rallies."

In the ISIS instructions, there is a picture of a U-Haul truck with the caption, "An Affordable Weapon" and the statement that "low security" gatherings "are fair game and more devastating to Crusader nations."

With all due respect for our esteemed law enforcement, perhaps we need to take these terrorist warnings more seriously, and frankly even without the explicit warning, a suspicious U-Haul in downtown DC in front of a major university probably deserves more than just a parking ticket! ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

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September 9, 2016

To Evil ISIS

I was thinking of holding this photo for "the next" big terrorist attack (G-d forbid). 

But it's just two days before 9/11, and I thought of all the victims of ISIS terror and said, why wait.

So this is to memorialize all the victims of ISIS, Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Taliban, Boko Haram, the PLO, BDS, and other vile terrorist groups.

For all the victims--men, women, and children--you brutally and ruthlessly:

Beheaded.

Crucified.

Hung.

Shot.

Stabbed.

Stoned.

Threw off of Roofs.

Burned Alive.

Ran over with tanks and other vehicles. 

Poisoned. 

Abducted.

Raped.

Tortured.

Imprisoned. 

Enslaved. 

Sold.

Made refugees. 

Bombed. 

Gassed.

For the mothers and fathers you made childless.

For the children you made orphaned.

For the husbands and wives you left widowed. 

May the one G-d in heaven recompense you for all your evil deeds, may he thwart all your plans and attempts to harm, kill, and destroy, and may he thrust his heavenly spear of judgement through your devilish hearts and straight into the endless depths of Hell. 

(Source Photo: America)
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February 25, 2016

Terrified Of Terrorism

Sure there are terrorism scares that are just hoaxes, and generally-speaking, we feel quite protected by our nation's values, wealth, and entrepreneurial spirit, by Homeland Security, and by being surrounded with the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and our friendly neighbors Mexico and Canada. 

So we can be very assured--no fear, right?  That's what we need and want to function normally in every day life.

But perhaps behind the veil of daily bravado is a not-so subtle fear about something really bad happening again--whether a 9/11 or a San Bernardino or a Boston Bombing or anything in between or even possibly more extreme, including attacks on our critical infrastructure (via kinetic means, cyber attacks, or EMP weapons) or even attacks with WMD (from anthrax to nukes in suitcases)--there is certainly plenty of attack vectors, means, and bad actors. 

It was interesting-scary, the other day, there was a video circulating on Facebook of a "radical Muslim"-like character with a turban or something distinctive (I can't really remember) and carrying a backpack. In scene after scene, the character goes up to innocent bystanders and throws his backpack in their direction. The people didn't know him or what was in the backpack or why he was throwing it in their direction. Yet, over and over again, the people jumped up hysterically in fear running for cover like there was very possibly no tomorrow. 

Similarly, we watch on the news almost daily of terrorist attacks around the world--school attacks, beach attacks, restaurants and cafe attacks, theater attacks, grocery store attacks, house of worship attacks, funeral attacks, ambulance attacks...and there literally is no end to this list of what and who is considered a legitimate target by terrorists--we all are.

In the last couple of weeks, there was surveillance captured of Muslim women visiting a number of synagogues in Miami around the same time and asking questions suspiciously--could they have been staking these out for possible future attack, similar to the attack on a Jerusalem synagogue with butcher knives, axes, and guns that massacred people praying and in devotion to their maker?

In the last half a year, we have seen terrorism morph in Israel from volleys of missiles indiscriminately shot at cities, tunnels to attack and abduct, and suicide/homicide bombings to become up close and personal butcher knife attacks in the throat, chest, and back of victims old, young, man, women. Everyone who is available to kill is being called to martyrdom, even the most little children being indoctrinated to slash and thrust a knife into any unsuspecting victim. 

So as we listen and watch the goings-on in the world and we say to ourselves those attacks happen in Paris and London and Turkey and Ukraine and Libya and Tunisia and Nigeria and Yemen and Lebanon and Syria and Iraq and Kuwait and Pakistan and Afghanistan and India and Indonesia and and and...but not [so much] over here. 

We say it, and we hope it, and we pray it, but in the back of our minds we instinctively fear otherwise. 

So while panic is certainly not helpful, perhaps phony bravado is not what is really needed either, but rather a renewed focus, investment, and commitment to our security--with more gates, guns, guards, intelligence, and advances in technology to stop the next attack(s). ;-)

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Irina Slutsky)

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October 12, 2015

Terrorism Knows No Boundaries

Another stabbing in Jerusalem--right in the back of the head!

So far 18 terror stabbings in Israel in less than 10 days.

You never know when it's coming until the blade sears through the air and into the head, neck, chest, or back of the victim.

In an apartment, at a shopping center, riding a bus, on the way to prayer--no one is safe!

Today, one 13-year old boy is in critical condition after being stabbed nearly a dozen times while riding his bicycle in Jerusalem.

The stabbing attacks are coming on top of shootings, stonings, bombings, molotov cocktails, and vehicular hit and runs.

The call for a third Intifada to terrorize and kill Jews in Israel is underway.

This on top of last year's Gaza War when thousands of rockets where fired targeting Israeli cities and critical infrastructure as well as terror tunnels coming under the border to murder and abduct Israelis.

But Israel is not alone in fighting a wave of global terror--it is engulfing the Middle East and farther--from Libya to Syria, Yemen to Turkey, Iraq to Afghanistan--and hundreds of thousands of refugees are streaming to Europe.

Bombing of markets, weddings, funerals, houses of worship, and even peace rallies.

Chemical weapons, beheadings, hacking off limbs, crucifixions, burning victims alive, abductions of women and children, slavery, and gang rape, are now virtually accepted items in the International news, and on a daily basis. 

Next in the mix--maybe some suitcase or missile-tipped nukes delivered by impassioned Jihadists?

For now, we are watching from our perch of safety and security here and in Europe, but what when what we witness happening "over there" eventually comes over here...

Have we become so used to and callous to all the terrorism that we barely even blink an eye anymore when we read, hear, or see it?

While terrorism knows no physical boundaries, perhaps with an ever-increasing tempo of sickeningly outrageous and barbaric terrorist acts, it knows no boundaries to our soul anymore either.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Facebook via Documenting Anti-Semitism)
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January 9, 2015

Cuddles Versus Lashes

Interesting juxtaposition of civilizations before us...

On one hand, we have people in the West looking for a hug and cuddle (even if oddly, they think they have to pay for one). 

While on the other hand, Islamist extremists are giving 1,000 lashes (the first 50 of which were proudly given today with more to come in the following weeks) for "opposition" blogging, and terrorists are killing hostages in a kosher grocery store in Paris and gunning down satirists making comics for Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Seems like somehow we just aren't mentally getting it (or maybe we can't stop "getting it" from the bad guys)!

Cuddles and lashes will never go together. 

You cannot cuddle a terrorist!

Yet, we ostensibly have terrible difficulty even calling them Islamist terrorists and extremists, even though that is what they are.

They are killing people with AK47s in Paris and bombings in London, hijacked airplanes targeting the World Trade Center and Pentagon, beheading journalists and gassing civilians in Syria, kidnapping women and children in Nigeria, and slaughtering schoolchildren in Islamabad

However, we are and will unfortunately continue to get our lashes from them, as the threats are not gone or dissipating, and the war is not won or maybe has barely even begun--although we are "war weary".

We must awake from our cuddling stupor and realign ourselves to the mentality of 1000 lashes. 

Appeasement will keep failing as the false thinking and broken promises of those who teach hatred and kill indiscriminately and barbarically will somehow just stop--they won't. 

Sadly, be ready for the enemy upping of the ante with bolder, more daring, crazier, and deadly attacks.

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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December 22, 2014

Peace To All Mankind

I liked this post in downtown Washington, D.C. inscribed with the following:

"May Peace Prevail On Earth."

It left me wondering, if Earth includes:

1) ISIS advances into large swathes of Syria and Iraq
2) Taliban attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan including the one that left 132 children dead in a Peshawar school last week.
3) Boko Haram kidnappings and killings in Nigeria including the hundreds of children taken and given as wives to their captors 
4) Al-Shabaab fighting in Somalia including attacks in the capital, Mogadishu
5) Hamas in Gaza and their barrage of rocket attacks on and terror tunnels into Israel
6) Hezbolah in Lebanon as a proxy for Iran-sponsored terror
7) Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons and threats to annihilate Israel off the face of the map.
8) Russia in Ukraine and Georgia and ongoing threats to Eastern Europe/NATO.
9) China's military build-up, including nukes, submarines, and anti-satellite weapons.
10) North Korea cyber attack on Sony and threatening "the White House, the Pentagon, and the whole U.S. mainland."

Peace is more than a wish, right now it seems like a dream. ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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