The Vicious Babushka

Doofus of the Day: Jewish Kid Explains Why He Supports Ron Paul

 

This is so humiliating.

Ron Paul signed off on racist, anti-Semitic newsletters.

The Hat Trick of Hate.

Beggars Charged $5 to Panhandle Inside 770

You're supposed to be charitable, but panhandlers in swarms are annoying!

By Gary Buiso, NY Post

It’s pay to pray at one Brooklyn synagogue.

Down-on-their luck panhandlers at the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights have to follow the 11th Commandment: Fork over $5 for the right to beg inside.

“If you want to collect, you have to pay. If you don’t pay, you go on the street. It’s very simple,” said one outraged panhandler. “Poor people collecting money have to pay? It’s like extortion.”

The beggars either position themselves by the stairwell, in the lobby, or inside the prayer area of the monolithic, four-story brick temple, which stands alongside the original Lubavitch synagogue.

All said they are unemployed, live nearby, and sometimes attend services at the bustling temple, where hundreds come to pray from morning until night every day.

They say their right to panhandle in the house of worship comes from a higher authority — Jewish law, which allows begging in synagogues and public events, including weddings, where food is set aside for beggars and uninvited guests.

Read more at NY Post

Personally I find the swarms of panhandlers very aggressive and intimidating! If you give a quarter to one, they are on you like a pack!

Are there any panhandlers in the street or inside St. Patrick's Cathedral or Temple Emmanuel? Or do the private security guards keep the entire block swept clean?

I notice also that this article from the NY Post relies on information about Chabad from the hate blog FailedMessiah, which would be like asking JihadWatch or Atlas Shrugs for information about Muslims.

UPDATE: Chabad has responded to the Post/FailedMessedUp accusations.

"Many of the tzedaka collectors are not unemployed people," one of them said, asking to remain anonymous as financials was Holtzberg's responsibility.

"What we have here is an open shul that anyone could come, spend the whole day here and collect for himself or an institution, and we are left paying the maintenance and electricity bills each month," he said.

He added that "what is being publicized is not honest."

Another gabbai, also asked not to be named, said: "They get free shelter, coffee, cake, a chance to raise money - $5 is not a percentage."

Palestinian TV Broadcasts Show Praising Baby Killers

 

Palestinian television aired an interview with the relatives of the Fogel family murderers earlier this month, praising the two cousins convicted with the brutal attack as "heroes."

The broadcast was aired as part of a weekly show on the Palestinian state-run station called "For You," which focuses on Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israel.

The show featured the aunt and mother of Hakim Awad, who along with his cousin Amjad was convicted of brutally stabbing to death five Fogel family members in an attack on their home in the West Bank settlement of Itamar on the night of March 11, 2011.

Hakim Awad's mother sent her regards to her son, proudly describing him as the perpetrator of the Itamar attack and that he was sentenced to 5 consecutive life sentences.

Awad's aunt then proceeded to describe her nephew as a "hero and a legend."

Read more at Haaretz.

Scary Jew Shadow: Very Creepy AP Photos of Holocaust Survivors

In this Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 photo, Holocaust survivor Gabriel Klein, 74, is photographed with a projection of himself on a wall at the Misgav Lakashish seniors' club in the orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. It's a huge question for observant Jews: How can one still believe in a merciful God after suffering through the worst genocide in history? Members of Israel's most devout group are unbowed in their faith. This week, as the world marks Holocaust Remembrance Day, they'll remember the victims as they always do - with prayer, study of scripture and a burning conviction in a grand plan that is beyond their earthly comprehension. AP Photo.

In this Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012 photo, Holocaust survivor Mordechai Cohen, 89, is photographed with a projection of himself on a wall at the Misgav Lakashish seniors' club in the orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem. AP Photo.

Doofus of the Day: Mitt Romney Tells Jewish Nursing Home Residents: Have a Pork Chop!

Mitt Romney chomps a pork chop.

WASHINGTON — Let them eat pork!

Mitt Romney is getting heat for a 2003 veto he cast as governor of Massachusetts to reject $600,000 in additional funds for poor Jewish nursing-home residents to get kosher meals.

At the time, Romney said he nixed the funding of about $5 per day because it “unnecessarily” would lead to an “increased rate for nursing facilities” — even as kosher nursing homes were complaining that state-funding-formula changes could force them to close their kitchens.

“I was outraged,” Jeffrey Goldshine, the retired CEO of a company that operated a kosher facility in Massachusetts, told The Post yesterday.

“For the elderly Jewish residents of a nursing home that have always been kosher — they should be entitled to continue.”

The Massachusetts Legislature approved an amendment to restore the $600,000 to finance the kosher meals allowing a “most vulnerable segment of our population’’ to “enjoy a special dignity,” according to the Jewish Community Council.

Read more at New York Post.

The Bridge Troll Launches Attack Advert Against Judge who Ordered him Jailed

 

From Detroit Free Press

The Ambassador Bridge company has aired another television ad in its campaign to defeat Gov. Rick Snyder’s proposed new bridge to Canada, this time directly criticizing the judge who threw bridge company leaders in jail this month.

The 30-second spot shows a photograph of Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards and, in a voice-over commentary, calls him “an activist Detroit judge” who put bridge officials in jail.

Edwards’ office said he would have no comment on the ad.

The ad implies that Edwards acted because Snyder recently appointed Edwards’ son to a judgeship in Wayne County.

Earlier this month, Edwards jailed bridge owner Manuel (Matty) Moroun and his top aide, Dan Stamper, president of the Detroit International Bridge Co., for civil contempt of court for the DIBC’s failure to complete the long-delayed Gateway project at the Ambassador Bridge as the judge ordered in February 2010.

In the new ad, the company says that it is the Michigan Department of Transportation that has refused to finish the project because “Gov. Snyder wants to build his own $2-billion bridge.”

And the ad implies that taxpayers will have to pay for the bridge even though Snyder has made clear that Canada will front Michigan’s portion of the cost and be paid back through future bridge tolls.

Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said the administration has found it “challenging” to counter the advertising onslaught, which she said totaled more than $5 million before this latest round began.

Read more at Detroit Free Press.

The Troll is whining that the state Department of Transportation is responsible for completing the access ramps, not him as the court ruled. The ramps could have been completed already if he had spent the money on his obligations instead of these attack ads.

Judge Rules Against Hartford, CT in anti-Semitic Zoning Refusal

Holocaust memorial defaced in Hartford, CT.

A Connecticut judge has ruled the city of Hartford cannot use its zoning rules to prevent a sect of Orthodox Jews from using a former church as their place of worship, a case observers say had anti-Semitic overtones.

Superior Court Judge Maria Araujo Kahn recently ordered the city's Zoning Board of Appeals to undo its decision upholding a zoning enforcement officer's initial "cease and desist'' order against Chabad Chevra.

The city has opted not appeal, recently allowing its 30-day filing window for the late December judgement to lapse, authorities say.

City officials, through a spokesman, declined comment Thursday.

In 2009, Chabad Chevra bought 100 Bloomfield Ave., which over the years had housed worshiping Catholics and later Baptists, to hold their worship, and to be a study and residence within walking distance of the University of Hartford campus.

"You have to question exactly why, all of a sudden, the ZEO and the ZBA tried to ban religious activities similar to the activities that had been going on in the same location for 58 years," said Farmington attorney Coleman Levy, whose firm represented Chabad Chevra in the case.

Read more at Hartford Business.

Snake Dies From Infant Bite

Baby and the snake he bit to death.

Infant who bit head off of reptile winds up unscathed; 'I screamed until neighbors came,' horrified mom says

An encounter between a snake and a baby ended in a surprising outcome Thursday, when the infant's mother walked into his room to find him chewing on the dead reptile.

The infant, Imad Gadir, whose family resides in Shfaram, was not hurt when he bit the unlucky coin snake, but was taken to Haifa's Ramabam Medical Center, just in case.

According to Imad's grandfather, Shaheen Shaheen, who recalled the family's tumultuous morning, the boy woke up when his father left for work at 6:30 am. The 1-year-old left his parents' bed and headed to his room, where he found the 35-centimeter (13-inch) snake. He then grabbed it and bit its head off.

"It wasn't a pretty sight," Shaheen said. "He's a baby, he didn't know what he was doing. He thought it was a game. I don't wish this kind of thing on anyone."

Read more at YNet.

FTC Shuts Down Acai Berry Weight Loss Scam Sites

They'll be back with some other weird old scam.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Expect to see fewer "newsy" online advertisements hawking acai berry diet pills.

Federal regulators announced settlements Wednesday with six online marketers who were accused of using fake news sites on the Internet to entice customers to buy acai berry weight-loss products. They promised rapid and substantial weight loss, sometimes claiming people could lose 25 pounds in four weeks without changing their diets or exercising.

The Federal Trade Commission says it was all a scam.

The FTC accused the marketers of designing websites that falsely appeared as if they were part of legitimate news organizations. They flashed investigative-sounding headlines and presented a reporter's "first-hand experience" with acai berry supplements.

The commission went to court in April, seeking temporary restraining orders against the marketers. All six have since taken down their sites pushing the pills.

Acai is a dark purple fruit from a palm found in Central and South America. The marketers advertised their supplement as a weight-loss aid, and often sold with a separate "colon cleanser" product.

Four other similar cases are pending.

"We have ongoing efforts to aggressively challenge deceptive advertisements over the Internet like the fake news sites attacked here, and our enforcement actions can potentially reach anyone in the chain between a seller and the consumer," said Steven Wernikoff, an FTC attorney in Chicago.

Consumers paid $70 to $100 for a supply of the pills, according to FTC attorney Matthew Wernz.

Read more at Associated Press.

A Synagogue Finds Refuge in a Mosque

Near the corner of Westchester Avenue and Pugsley Street in Parkchester, just off the elevated tracks of the No. 6 train, Yaakov Wayne Baumann stood outside a graffiti-covered storefront on a chilly Saturday morning. Suited up in a black overcoat with a matching wide-brimmed black fedora, the thickly bearded 42-year-old chatted with elderly congregants as they entered the building for Shabbat service.

The only unusual detail: This synagogue is a mosque.

Or rather, it’s housed inside a mosque. That’s right: Members of the Chabad of East Bronx, an ultra-Orthodox synagogue, worship in the Islamic Cultural Center of North America, which is home to the Al-Iman mosque.

“People have a misconception that Muslims hate Jews,” said Baumann. “But here is an example of them working with us.”

Indeed, though conventionally viewed as adversaries both here and abroad, the Jews and Muslims of the Bronx have been propelled into an unlikely bond by a demographic shift. The borough was once home to an estimated 630,000 Jews, but by 2002 that number had dropped to 45,100, according to a study by the Jewish Community Relations Council. At the same time, the Muslim population has been increasing. In Parkchester alone, there are currently five mosques, including Masjid Al-Iman.

“Nowhere in the world would Jews and Muslims be meeting under the same roof,” said Patricia Tomasulo, the Catholic Democratic precinct captain and Parkchester community organizer, who first introduced the leaders of the synagogue and mosque to each other. “It’s so unique.”

The relationship started years ago, when the Young Israel Congregation, then located on Virginia Avenue in Parkchester, was running clothing drives for needy families, according to Leon Bleckman, now 78, who was at the time the treasurer of the congregation. One of the recipients was Sheikh Moussa Drammeh, the founder of the Al-Iman Mosque, who was collecting donations for his congregants—many of whom are immigrants from Africa. The 49-year-old imam is an immigrant from Gambia in West Africa who came to the United States in 1986. After a year in Harlem, he moved to Parkchester, where he eventually founded the Muslim center and later established an Islamic grade school. Through that initial meeting, a rapport developed between the two houses of worship, and the synagogue continued to donate to the Islamic center, among other organizations.

But in 2003, after years of declining membership, Young Israel was forced to sell its building at 1375 Virginia Ave., according to a database maintained by Yeshiva University, which keeps historical records of synagogues. Before the closing, non-religious items were given away; in fact, among the beneficiaries was none other than Drammeh, who took some chairs and tables for his center.

Meanwhile, Bleckman and the remaining members moved to a nearby storefront location, renting it for $2,000 a month including utilities. With mostly elderly congregants, Young Israel struggled to survive financially and, at the end of 2007, was forced to close for good. The remaining congregants were left without a place to pray. During the synagogue’s farewell service, four young men from the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters in Crown Heights showed up. Three months earlier, Bleckman, then chairman of the synagogue’s emergency fund, had appealed for help from the Chabad.

“The boys from the Chabad said they came to save us,” said Bleckman. “We were crying.”

At this point, Chabad took over the congregational reins from Young Israel, with members officially adopting the new name Chabad of East Bronx. Still, for the next six to seven weeks, Bleckman said they could not even hold a service because they had nowhere to hold it.

When Drammeh learned of their plight, he immediately volunteered to accommodate them at the Muslim center at 2006 Westchester Ave.—for free.

Read more at Tablet.

EPIC WIN: Violinist, Interrupted by Someone's Cellphone, Improvises Ringtone

 

Jerusalem SOS - Al-Jazeera Praises Jewish-Arab Paramedic Service

 

Throughout this week, the Al Jazeera news network is running a short film about the Jewish Paramedic Service ‘United Hatzolah’. Entitled Jerusalem SOS, the film follows Jewish and Arab volunteer paramedics as they cross the “psychological divides” between their communities of East and West Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera, though a secular news service, has become the mouthpiece for Islamic Fundamentalism in recent years, most noticeably in airing the video messages of Osama Bin Laden, and their usual scathing denigration of Israel. The coverage of this film and the positive light it lends the Jewish state is intriguingly out of character for the Al Jazeera network.

How the film will be received in the Arab world is yet to be seen, but Head of United Hatzolah, Eli Beer, signaled this as a “learning experience for the Al Jazeera network and the Arab world,” noting that they are beginning to understand “all blood is the same.”

“There is nothing more important in the Torah than saving a life” Beer told The Algemeiner. “The lives of the Arab volunteers are changing as they too see this idea to be true.”

The United Hatzolah organization began accepting Arab volunteers in 2010. Until then the Red Crescent, aided by the International Red Cross, held an agreement with State Emergency Services [Magen David Adom] in Jerusalem that they would tend to their own communities in East Jerusalem. Hoping, however, for a unified paramedic service, several Arabs approached the United Hatzolah to volunteer.

Beer confided that within two weeks of officially enrolling in the service, two of the Arab paramedics treated two Israeli soldiers who were attacked by rioters. “And this,” he says, “is the goal of the organization; to save lives regardless of race and religion.”

Read more at Algemeiner.

Wow. Just wow. Al Jazeera is able to find something positive to say about the Haredim, while YNet and Haaretz think they are nothing but human garbage and vermin who need to be rounded up and sent to re-education centers.

2 Doofii of the Day: "The Guardian" Comes to the Defense of Irresponsible SHIP OF FAIL Captain

FAIL Meme for the 21st Century

By Bruce Hood of The Guardian

It seems Captain Schettino panicked. Who's to say you wouldn't?

The captain of the Costa Concordia will no doubt be vilified, but in the face of danger self-preservation is a natural reaction

Did the captain of the Costa Concordia jump ship? According to the transcript of the communication between Captain Francesco Schettino and the coastguard, it looks like he abandoned ship and then denied that he had left; latest reports from Italy have him claiming that he tripped and fell into one of the lifeboats by accident. Even if true, his story does sound like a typical example of someone who panicked in the face of danger and then came to realise that his actions would not be regarded as appropriate. After all, traditionally the captain is supposed to ensure the safety of his crew and passengers.

Schettino will undoubtedly be vilified for his actions – but how many of us can say that we would not have done the same thing? Self-preservation is an instinct, much in the same way that your instincts tell you to put your hands out for protection when you let yourself fall backwards. In the face of impending danger, our brains can swing into reflexive defence mode, operating much faster and more automatically than when they recourse to calm, rational reasoning. Respond first and ask questions later, is the message, rather than place yourself in harm's way.

This is the "fight-or-flight response", where our bodies flood with a cascade of hormones that mobilise the body for action. If we are not running away from danger, then we may be lashing out in anger. It's the same response that some of us experience when cut up in traffic, triggering that all-to-common road-rage phenomenon.

The "flight" impulse is usually accompanied by blind panic. When we panic, reason and balanced evaluation of the situation is by-passed by escalating, disorganised thoughts of terror that automatically intrude into consciousness. There can also be a sense of depersonalisation, a feeling that everything around is unreal. In short, when we panic, we feel that we are out of control and not our old self.

Read more at The Guardian.

Well, Mr. Bruce Hood, here is the critical difference between the Captain of a Ship and the average slob reading this blog post:THE CAPTAIN IS IN CHARGE! He is a Professional and his responsibility is for the lives and property of all the passengers and crew aboard his craft.

The Captain is supposed to be trained to respond in an emergency situation, that is why he was put in command! His training should override the panic instinct, that is why he is the Captain and not some untrained doofus. The same way that we, citizens of the United States, expect the President will display leadership in a national emergency and not hide in a bunker, sucking his thumb.

The theme song for this disaster should be "The Fail Will Go On."

In comparison, this is a Real Captain.

SHIP OF FAIL: Comparing the Titanic to Modern Ships (Titanic Trivia Page From Years Ago Compares "Titanic" to Costa Concordia)

The Titanic

Titanic: White Star Line
Maiden Voyage: 1912
Gross Tonnage: 46,000 tonnes
Length: 882.75 ft.
Beam: 92.5 ft.
Cruising Speed: 21 knots
Passengers: 2,500
Crew: 898

Costa Concordia

Costa Concordia: Costa Cruises
Maiden Voyage: 2006
Gross Tonnage: 114,500
Length: 952 ft.
Beam: 116 ft.
Cruising speed: 21.5 knots
Passengers: 3,700
Crew: 1,100

Holy. Freaking. Crap.

Found this page doing a Google image search for pictures of the Titanic, totally did not expect to find the Titanic and the Costa Concordia on the same page. In a Google search most of the images that show up first are from the Cameron movie, not pictures of the actual Titanic itself.

OK, it's creepy but not supernatural. Costa Concordia was added to that page because it happened to be one of the largest cruise ships on the planet. The Titanic went down because of hubris, but the Costa Concordia went down because of STUPIDITY.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff (A Modern Fairy Tale)

The Troll on the Bridge

Once upon a time, there were Three Billy Goats Gruff, and their names were Robbie, Rapey, and Stabby. The Three Billy Goats lived in the land of Detroit, which was very poor and they often did not have enough to eat, or good health care. But just across the river was the Land of Canada, which had low-cost pharmaceuticals and Free Health Care for All. So the oldest Billy Goat Gruff said to his siblings, "Let us go over the river to Canada, where we can frolic in the meadow and enjoy Free Health Care!" And the other Billy Goats said, "Yeah, let's go to Canada!"

So the littlest Billy Goat set out for Canada across the Bridge. Trip trap, trip trap. And the mean old ugly Troll who owned the Bridge yelled out "WHO'S THAT TRIP TRAPPIN ACROSS MY BRIDGE!"

"It is I, the littlest Billy Goat Gruff!"

"What's your name, Billy Goat Gruff?"

"My name is Robbie" said the littlest Billy Goat Gruff.

"Well if your name is Robbie," said the Troll, "I am going to rob you!"

"What's your name?" cried Robbie, the frightened little Billy Goat Gruff.

"My name is Matty," said the Troll.

"Well, then I will Matt you!"

"Oh ho," said the Troll and he showed Robbie the collection of mats in his Troll Cave, everything from $12.99 bath mats from Bed, Bath & Beyond to antique Persian prayer mats worth many thousands of dollars. "There is nothing you can mat me with that I don't already have!"

"Well then," said the littlest Billy Goat Gruff, "I have nothing for you to rob, Mr. Troll, Matty, sir! Why don't you wait for my sister, Rapey, and you can rob and rape her!"

"What kind of a sick perv are you," said the Troll, "you would give up your own sister for me to rob and rape?"

"But that's in the original story! The littlest Billy Goat Gruff tells the Troll to wait for the next Billy Goat!"

"Well OK then," said the Troll. "Now get out of here before I change my mind!" And Robbie, the littlest Billy Goat Gruff, scampered across the Bridge to Canada, where there was Free Health Care for All.

The Troll kind of liked the idea of robbing and raping the next Billy Goat, so he went into his Troll Cave and prepared a nice cocktail with some roofies. Then he looked around and decided that his Troll Cave was not romantic enough (Trolls need a very run-down and decrepit environment) and he looked for another Troll Cave that was even more ruined and destroyed. He looked at the old Clark St. Assembly Plant and the David Whitney Building, but what finally caught his eye was the Michigan Central Depot. "Aha!" cried the Troll. "This is the most devastated ruin in all of Detroit!" and he promptly bought the Michigan Central Depot as a Troll Hideout in which to do all his evil deeds.

Soon enough, Middle Billy Goat Gruff (actually a Nanny Goat for you nit pickers) came tripping over the Bridge. Trip trap, trip trap. "WHO'S THAT TRIP TRAPPIN OVER MY BRIDGE!" yelled the Troll.

"It is I, the Middle Billy Goat Gruff!"

"Are you the one they call Rapey?" inquired the Troll with a mean gleam in his eye. "Why don't we step into my Troll Cave and enjoy a cocktail together?"

"Oh no you don't!" cried Rapey, brandishing a can of Pepper Spray at the Troll. "Just you wait until my brother, the Biggest Billy Goat Gruff, shows up here. He will kick your ass!"

"My ass is very well protected," sneered the Troll. "I have a swarm of lawyer Trolls who will guarantee that I can rob and rape you and totally get away with it! Now drink this roofie cocktail!"

Rapey squirted the Pepper Spray directly into the Troll's eyes and scampered over the Bridge to Canada, where there is Free Health Care for All.

The Troll screamed in rage and anger and then called in his swarm of lawyer Trolls on how he could sue Rapey and get the rape and robbery that he deserved. But the lawyers informed him that since Rapey had fled to Canada, there was no way he could make her come back across the border.

The Troll vowed revenge and in the meantime he built a huge Duty Free Plaza underneath his Bridge. He built a huge fuel reservoir which he filled with Duty Free diesel fuel and gasoline, and a Duty Free Store which he filled with the finest Duty Free liquor, cigarettes, fragrances and cosmetics, but which he sold for pennies less than the retail price and kept the difference for himself. He blocked off all the access roads so that no one could pass over the Bridge without visiting the Duty Free Store (which prices were not any different than any other retail store, and higher than online).

The Troll took out his rage on the humble citizens of "Mexican Town" a little village in the shadow of the Troll's Bridge. Because the Troll had blocked all the highway access ramps, large container trucks rumbled through the narrow streets of the quiet village, creating monstrous traffic jams. The villagers banded together, formed a group called "Occupy The Troll's Bridge" and marching with torches and pitchforks, presented the Troll with court orders to remove the barricades and complete the highway access ramps. The Troll used the court orders to wipe his horny, gamy troll buttocks and jeered at the villagers: "Make me!"

The villagers met up with the oldest and the biggest Billy Goat Gruff, Stabby, and voted him the leader of their group. Followed by a phalanx of process servers and officers of the court, The Biggest Billy Goat Gruff set off across the Bridge. Trip, trap, trip, trap!

"WHO'S THAT TRIP TRAPPIN ACROSS MY BRIDGE!" yelled the Troll.

"It is I, Stabby, the Oldest and Biggest Billy Goat Gruff, with the villagers of Occupy The Bridge and a swarm of process servers and police officers and WE ARE ALL HERE TO KICK YOUR ASS!" shouted the Billy Goat Gruff. 

The Troll and his swarm of lawyer trolls put up a fight, but the Biggest Billy Goat Gruff, the villagers, police officers and Occupy the Bridge managed to overpower the Troll and cast him into a dark, dank dungeon where, they said, he would remain until the barricades were removed, the highway access ramps completed, and prices at the Duty Free Store brought down to reflect the Duty-Freeness.

"F*** YOU!" roared the Troll. "I like it in here! Anyway my swarm of lawyers will get me out tomorrow!"

The police officers then arrested Stabby the Billy Goat Gruff for carrying a concealed switchblade while attempting to cross an international border.

Egyptians: Jews are Banned From Visiting Rabbi's Tomb

Just wait for them to claim that this is an Islamic shrine.

Egyptian Islamists and other activists say they have vowed to prevent Israelis from making an annual pilgrimage to the tomb of a 19th-century Jewish holy man in the Nile Delta.

Pilgrimage opponents have decided to stage protests on roads leading to the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abuhatzeira in the village of Daymouta, 180 kilometers (112 miles) north of Cairo, said Gamal Heshmat of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group which is the country's best organized political movement.

He said that the late December and early January pilgrimage would be a "suicide mission" for Israelis, because of popular opposition to their presence in Egypt.

"Normalization (of relations) with Israel is forced on the people, and the visits too come against the will of people and despite popular rejection," said Heshmat, who recently won a seat in parliament in the country's first elections following the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak.

Egyptian activists have rallied against the pilgrimage every year for most of the last decade. Egypt's daily Al-Ahram newspaper reported Tuesday that 31 parties and groups had joined this year's campaign.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, denounced the attempts to block the pilgrimage. In a Tuesday statement, the center's Abraham Cooper accused the Brotherhood of trying to "curb religious freedom of Jews."

"In their worldview, there is no respect for the traditions for Jews, dead or alive," he said.

Vestige of once-prosperous Jewish community

A son to a chief rabbi of Morocco, Abu Hatzeira was revered by some Jews as a mystic renowned for his piety and for performing miracles. The elderly rabbi was making his way from his native Morocco to the Holy Land in 1879 when he fell ill and died in the Egyptian city of Damanhour near Alexandria.

According to tradition, his followers tried to move his tomb three times, and three times heavy storms prevented them.

After Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1979, Jewish devotees – mostly of Moroccan origin – have traveled annually to the site. But Egypt has limited the numbers of pilgrims.

In 2001 and 2004, two court orders banned the ceremony after opponents filed legal challenges.

Since then, both Delta residents and activist groups have denounced the ceremony. The residents complain of harassment by security forces deployed to protect the pilgrims.

Activists oppose the normalization of relations with a country that Egypt fought in four wars between 1948 and 1973, and also see the defiance of the court order as part of the Mubarak regime's general trampling of the rule of law.

In 2009, Egypt officially denied the pilgrims entry because the anniversary fell while Israel was conducting an offensive in Gaza.

A year later, the Israeli press reported that Mubarak accepted a request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to lift the limits on the number of pilgrims.

Read more at YNet.

Doofus of the Day: The Bridge Troll is Going to Jail

A Troll owns this bridge.

A Wayne County judge this morning sent billionaire Manuel (Matty) Moroun and his chief deputy at the Ambassador Bridge company, Dan Stamper, to jail until they are in compliance with his order to finish building ramps connecting the Ambassador Bridge to nearby expressways.

Lawyers sought stays of his order, but Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards denied the motion and others seeking the immediate release of the two men.

Wayne County sheriff’s deputies led both men out of court through a back door in the courtroom at 10:15 a.m.

Defense lawyers declined comment after the hearing but said they would appeal immediately to the Michigan Court of Appeals.

Michigan Department of Transportation Chief Operating Officer Greg Johnson said it would take at minimum a year to complete ramps, lanes and other unfinished elements of the project if the Bridge Company cooperated fully.

"We take no joy or satisfaction in seeing these men incarcerated," Johnson said, adding, the state only wants to see the project completed.

Earlier: Lawyers argue Moroun doesn't control bridge

Earlier in the hearing, Judge Edwards said, "It is clear" that the Detroit International Bridge Co. “does not intend to comply with the court order” to finish work delayed by more than two years.

A lawyer said Moroun was never informed of what he did personally that would justify imprisoning an 84-year-old and called the decision an egregious violation of Moroun’s constitutional rights. The lawyers presented a letter they said showed Moroun and Stamper were resigning immediately from the board of the company that owns the bridge.

“Now that they have resigned they have no power to do anything” associated with the bridge or the unfinished ramp work, defense lawyer Craig John argued.

John argued that Edwards and MDOT have set up “a moving goal line” throughout proceedings so that it has not been clear exactly what specifications the bridge company should follow to avoid contempt.

Assistant Michigan Attorney General asked Edwards to appoint a receiver to complete the project. He called the resignations irrelevant, and said testimony from Stamper has shown that both Moroun and Stamper are in control at the bridge.

Read more at Detroit Free Press.

Getting to the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit-area freeways is like going through a rat maze of detours and barricades. The Duty Free Shop (completely owned and operated by The Troll) does not contain any significant savings that can't be found online or at Macy's.

The Troll spent millions on an ad campaign against Governor Snyder's plan to build a second bridge to Canada, arguing that competition from a second bridge would harm...The Troll.

Babushka's future trips to Canada will be made through the Windsor Tunnel, or Port Huron.

More about The Bridge Troll.

Scheiße Christians Say to Jews

 

NJ Synagogue Bombing Escalated from Hate Crime to Attempted Murder

 

RUTHERFORD, NJ (CBSNewYork) – Authorities are investigating a firebombing of a northern New Jersey home attached to a synagogue as attempted murder and bias-related arson.

The fire was reported around 4:30 a.m. Wednesday at Congregation Beth El in Rutherford.

Police say someone through explosive devices through the window.

“Incendiary devices were used to attempt to start of a fire in the upstairs portion of the structure which is a residence,” Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli told 1010 WINS’ Steve Sandberg.

Rabbi Nosson Schuman, who lives in the home with his wife and five children, said he saw a flash of fire outside his bedroom window before his bedspread caught fire.

“The fire in the bedroom, I had to go put it out. My quilt was on fire. I had to put it out,” he told WCBS 880′s Sean Adams. “Got the kids out and realized that this must have been a continuation of the hate crimes that have been occurring throughout the area.”

Schuman said damage to his home and congregation were minimal. Rutherford Police Capt. Hal Ciser said no one was injured.

Authorities say multiple devices were tossed at the home, including Molotov cocktails and rigged aerosol cans. All appeared as if they were being aimed at the second floor of the house.

Officials say whoever did this was targeting Schuman.

“At this point it’s not just a hate crime and a bias crime. It’s now an attempted murder,” said Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli.

It comes just one day before a meeting between representatives of more than 80 synagogues, law enforcement and some Jewish day schools to discuss several incidents targeting Jewish temples in Bergen County.

There was a suspicious fire and two anti-Semitic graffiti incidents in the past few weeks.

The crimes have shaken the community, but Rabbi Neal Borovitz with the Jewish Federation of northern New Jersey says the police are doing all they can.

“Right after the first attack in Maywood, the chief of police in River Edge where my synagogue is located called me to remind me ‘Rabbi, I know you guys turn your lights off to save energy. I want you to keep them on all night,’” he told WCBS 880 reporter Marla Diamond. “We have to be more vigilant without being paranoid.”

Read more at CBS News.

Brooklyn Car Fire "Hate Crime" Revealed to be Insurance Fraud

Scam disguised as a "hate crime"

Police have told community leaders that car firebombings that rattled a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn were probably an insurance scam, and not a hate crime, the Daily News has learned.

Vandals on Nov. 11 torched three cars in Midwood, tried to set a fourth afire and scrawled messages of hate — swastikas, KKK and “f--- the Jews” — on a nearby van and benches.

The pre-dawn incident led to denunciations from Mayor Bloomberg and other elected officials.

To date, there have been no arrests and police have not definitively ruled out any motive.

But police sources said investigators now believe the graffiti was probably scrawled in a ruse to make the firebombings look like an act of hate.

“We’re investigating the possibility that some of the evidence was manufactured to make this look like a bias crime,’’ one source said.

Another source said investigators are “pretty certain” the cars were torched so someone could collect insurance money.

“We don’t think it’s about hating Jews,’’ the second source said.

The owner of one of the torched cars did not live in the neighborhood, a community source briefed on the investigation said.

“That’s what tipped off the detectives,” the source said.

A fourth source said beer bottles found at the scene appear to have been wiped clean of fingerprints, suggesting the work of someone meticulous, not someone lashing out in hate.

Read more at NY Daily News.