Lee Heidhues 10.27.2023

It’s a dangerous game America is playing.

The American military is using the Hamas terror attack on Israel and the cataclysmic response by the Jewish State against the people of occupied Palestine as a casus belli to wage war against Iran.

It is all smoke and mirrors pushed by American media cheerleaders like the New York Post and Wall Street Journal linking Iran to the Hamas terror attacks which killed 1400 Israelis in early October. This is historical American media behavior which has beaten the drums of war to justify action.

The latest action is the military action against Iranians and their proxies based in Syria.

Excerpted from Aljazeera 10.26.2023

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said at the United Nations that the US would “not be spared from this fire” if Israel’s bombardment of Gaza did not end.

“I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome [an] expansion of the war in the region,” Amir-Abdollahian said. “But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire.”

The United States has attacked two facilities in Syria used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran-backed groups, the Pentagon has said, following a series of attacks against US forces in Iraq and Syria.

The strikes came after President Joe Biden’s administration pledged to respond to attacks on US personnel that Washington has blamed on armed groups backed by Iran.

“The United States does not seek conflict and has no intention nor desire to engage in further hostilities, but these Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement on Thursday.

“Iran wants to hide its hand and deny its role in these attacks against our forces. We will not let them. If attacks by Iran’s proxies against US forces continue, we will not hesitate to take further necessary measures to protect our people.”

Austin said the “narrowly-tailored strikes” were in self-defense and were not connected to the Israel-Hamas war.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/27/us-attacks-facilities-in-syria-linked-to-iran-pentagon-says

Lee Heidhues 10.25.2023

Ambitious California Governor Gavin Newsom has come a long way from the Parking and Traffic Commission in San Francisco in 1996 as he swiftly moves up the political ladder.

Supervisor. Mayor. Lieutenant Governor. Governor.

Now global hopping politician as he seeks to burnish his credentials worldwide.

What’s next after his gubernatorial term expires in January 2027?

There’s a presidential election year in 2028? Perhaps, earlier if Joe Biden decides not to seek reelection next year.

Excerpted from The New York Times 10.25.2023

Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, in Beijing on Wednesday, as part of an ambitious weeklong mission to negotiate climate partnerships.

He also discussed the Chinese imprisonment of a California pastor, David Lin, and “a variety of human rights issues including Hong Kong, Tibet, Xinjiang and Taiwan,” the summary said.

Mr. Newsom raised the human rights issues in a separate meeting with Chinese leaders before he sat down with Mr. Xi, according to the governor’s office.

Mr. Xi met with Mr. Newsom in the Great Hall of the People, a grand building on the west side of Tiananmen Square where the Chinese leader often receives dignitaries. In an official summary of the meeting published by Chinese state media, Mr. Xi was quoted as saying he hoped Mr. Newsom’s visit would help promote ties between their countries.

The two-term Democratic governor wants California to set an aggressive pace for the United States — and the world — to cut carbon emissions that are dangerously heating the planet. Mr. Newsom’s moves to tackle the climate crisis have elevated his national profile, just as he is widely believed to be preparing for a White House run in 2028.

Mr. Newsom stressed in his meetings that China and California needed to work together to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and address the climate crisis, according to a summary provided by his office.

The governor raised issues beyond climate, his office said. He pressed Chinese leaders to stop the flow of chemicals that are used to make the fentanyl that is sold on the street in California, where fatal overdoses of the drug have soared in recent years. He spoke with Chinese officials about ways to increase the number of Chinese visitors to California, the summary added; the number of direct flights between the state and China is now about 15 percent of the number that were operating before the Covid-19 pandemic began.

Nicholas Burns, the American ambassador to China, joined in the day’s meetings, and said it was “a very positive and consequential day for the United States.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Newsom

Lee Heidhues 10.22.2023

As if San Francisco doesn’t have enough to deal with, already.

Continuing street protests in support of the Palestinian people decrying Israeli aggression in The Gaza Strip and West Bank which has killed nearly 5000 men, women and children. In response to the Hamas terrorist incursion into Israel in early October which took the lives, thus far, of 1400 Israelis.

In three weeks the mammoth Asia Pacific Economic Conference (APEC) will see The City taken over by the Feds and a swath of downtown turned into a high security garrison State.

What will The City do with its unhoused population? Having guests from 21 countries witness San Francisco’s systemic insoluble problem first hand. Unhoused sleeping and often drugged out on the streets isn’t good for the image. Nor is it good optics for this international city.

The APEC may be some kind of payoff to San Francisco’s political leadership; VP Kamala Harris, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Governor Gavin Newsom, the late Dianne Feinstein, and Mayor London Breed. These movers and shakers, alive and in the sweet hereafter, may love all the attention. The same may not be true for the average citizen.

Excerpted from The Standard 10.18.2023

“An impact to the normal daily lives of San Franciscans and visitors is unavoidable,” U.S. Secret Service Special Agent-in-Charge Jeremy Brown said at the press conference. “We have absolute confidence in this plan.”

San Francisco will be under tight security in mid-November akin to safety measures at the White House when dignitaries and world leaders come to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, federal officials said at a press conference Wednesday. 

Details of the security for the event were announced Wednesday by the U.S. Secret Service and will include a locked-down, four-square-block section of Downtown around the Moscone Center; closed streets; and shutdown transit lines—including the Central Subway—as well as limited air traffic over San Francisco. 

Nob Hill will also be a restricted zone, and part of the Embarcadero will be closed Nov. 15. 

Feds Release Security Details for San Francisco’s APEC Summit, Including Central Subway Closure

Lee Heidhues 10.22.2023

Trying to stay current with the violent events in Palestine/Israel is difficult for the diligent consumer of news.

Here in America the perspective is that of the government in Washington, elected officials and the mainstream media.

The only way to get a different perspective is to tune in to Aljazeera, based in Qatar. This network definitely looks at the world from Palestinian perspective. It is also true that Al Jazeera, a well funded network, has thorough coverage with correspondents and commentators throughout the region. Including inside Israel.

Embedded within the following article is a documentary: Israel-Gaza. The Fog of War

Excerpted from Aljazeera and Times of Israel 10.22.2023

The Times of Israel liveblogged events as they unfolded through Sunday, the 13th day of Operation Protective Edge. The IDF announced Sunday evening that 13 Golani Brigade soldiers died overnight in fighting in Gaza, raising the Israeli army death toll to 18. The soldiers were killed in heavy combat in the Hamas stronghold of Shejaiya, which also left 60 Palestinians dead, Gaza Health Ministry officials said. Israel said the neighborhood is a Hamas stronghold, and that the army had warned residents to evacuate it. At day’s end, PM Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would be neutralized, and US Secretary said he was heading to Cairo in a ceasefire bid. (Monday’s liveblog is here.) You can also follow @TOIAlerts on Twitter — we’re live-tweeting all the updates there as well.

The Israeli military has said one of its soldiers was killed by an anti-tank missile reportedly shot by the Palestinian armed group Hamas during a raid into the Gaza Strip by the Israeli Army.

Three other soldiers were injured in the raid on Sunday, said the statement that came as the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, announced on its Telegram account that it had pushed Israeli forces back into Israel.

One Israeli soldier was killed, while “one was moderately injured, and two were lightly injured as a result of an anti-tank missile”, the Israeli military said.

The military said the purpose of the raid was to locate Hamas captives in Gaza’s Khan Younis area and to “thwart terrorist infrastructure”

Israeli forces have been conducting raids across the border that they say are meant to clear the area and gather intelligence about captives being held by Hamas.

According to Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Khan Younis in Gaza, the raids are forcing Hamas to prepare for a long-speculated ground invasion by Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/22/israeli-soldier-killed-during-ground-raid-in-gaza-israels-army-says

https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-israel-hunts-for-terror-tunnels-after-soldiers-killed-abbas-to-meet-hamas-chief-for-ceasefire-talks/

Top photo: Israeli military casualties of its war against The Palestinian people in Gaza.

Lee Heidhues 10.21.2023

What is this all about?

A young Jewish leader in Detroit stabbed to death in front of her home.

Is it something insidious? A vicious act of antisemitism?

An all too familiar random crime in America?

The reality needs to be known.

Excerpted from Detroit Free Press 10.21.2023

A politically connected Detroit synagogue president was found stabbed to death Saturday morning outside her home in the city’s Lafayette Park neighborhood, east of downtown.

Police have not yet identified a motive, they said. They were called to a woman found lying on the ground unresponsive at about 6:30 a.m. and pronounced her dead at the scene, they said.

Samantha Woll, 40, led the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue and previously worked for U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, and on the reelection campaign of Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat.

Police said in an afternoon statement that they were investigating after finding a body stabbed multiple times in the 1300 block of Joliet Place. A trail of blood led to the victim’s home, where police said they believe the crime occurred.

Detroit Police Chief James White asked for patience in a statement released Saturday evening and said an update on the investigation would come Sunday. “Over the course of the last several hours, the DPD has mobilized many of its resources and has been leveraging every law enforcement and community resource it has to help further the investigation. Understandably, this crime leaves many unanswered questions.”

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2023/10/21/samantha-woll-dead-isaac-agree-downtown-detroit-synagogue-president/71271616007/

Top photo: Detroit police at the death scene of Samantha Woll – 10.21.2023

Lee Heidhues 10.19.2023

The German authorities are understandably sensitive regarding any protest which targets the behavior of the State of Israel.

Israel’s brutal military campaign against Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

Retribution for the barbaric October 7 Hamas attack inside Israel killing over 1000 citizens of the Jewish state.

Where this cycle of violence is headed is impossible to predict.

The only sure thing is that there will be more death and destruction.

The motives of protesters in Berlin and in cities world wide cannot be simply categorized.

There is support for the Palestinian people. Sadly there are also currents of antisemitism directed towards Jewish people and the State of Israel.

The authorities in Berlin are not making such fine distinctions. Given the history of Nazi Germany the police are quashing any protest which could be interpreted as antisemitic.

That is the official government policy.

Deutsche Welle 10.19.2023

At least 174 people were arrested and 65 police officers were injured at unauthorized pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Berlin on Wednesday night, according to a police spokesperson.

Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik told regional broadcaster RBB that the situation in Neukölln was “tense.”

Authorities had banned such protests, which have been called in response to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the militant group which killed around 1,400 Israelis in a terrorist attack two weeks ago.

Clashes broke out in the district of Neukölln between police and protesters who did not comply with orders to disperse.

Some attendees used pyrotechnics, set fire to barricades and pelted police with stones and bottles, law enforcement said.

According to police, several vehicles and a tree also caught fire during the incidnet. 

Police used water cannons, including to put out fires. The fire brigade also said it responded to several small fires.

The incident comes after after two Molotov cocktails were thrown at a Jewish community center in Berlin in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

Separately on Wednesday night, another gathering against violence in the Middle East was held outside the Foreign Office in Berlin. While 50 attendees had been registered, several hundred people showed up and the organizer subsequently called off the protest. 

Pro-Palestinian protests were also held in other German cities influding Frankfurt, where police used water cannons, and in Nuremberg.

Police broke up another pro-Palestinian protest in Berlin last weekend.

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-174-arrested-at-unauthorized-pro-palestinian-events/a-67145837

Top photo: Jewish citizens, destroyed during the Nazi Germany holocaust, push back against growing anti-semitic behavior in Berlin.

Lee Heidhues 10.18.2023

Hamas and Israel are two scorpions in a bottle with the citizens of The Gaza Strip fatally trapped by these venomous combatants.

It’s reassuring to know that The People in America coast to coast are taking to the streets in support of the Palestinian people.

The action moved to Washington DC while President Biden was in Israel making nice with Bibi Netanyahu. America’s political ruling class has stood by Israel for historical and geopolitical reasons. The ruling class must be shown there are limits in standing up for Israel.

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇱BREAKING: Jew protesters who breached the capitol and demanded immediate ceasefire are now clashing with the security.#PalestineGenocide #GazaHospital
#hospital #IsraelAttack #مستشفى_المعمداني #فلسطين_الان #غزة_تُباد #hamas #Israel #Gaza pic.twitter.com/PLPWA7Eo56

— وينستون (@Xwinston_) October 18, 2023

The Israeli government has decided there are no innocent bystanders.

There must be limits to the American support for the draconian Israeli military crackdown against the people of The Gaza Strip. The Israeli brutal reaction to the murderous assault by Hamas on Israel two weeks ago. Which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children by the American funded Israeli military.

Excerpted from The New York Times 10.18.2023

Hundreds of demonstrators descended on a congressional building in Washington on Wednesday afternoon to demand a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war, resulting in an estimated 300 arrests and restricting access to Capitol Hill.

The rally was organized by two Jewish anti-Zionist groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now, and about 400 of their members assembled inside the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building, led by about 25 rabbis reading testimonials from Palestinians in Gaza and reciting prayers. Outside, hundreds more chanted, “Cease-fire now” and sang in Hebrew and English.

Demonstrations are not permitted in congressional buildings. About 300 protesters were arrested, organizers estimated, though the Capitol Police would not comment on the number beyond saying on the social media platform X that three were charged with assault on a police officer. Protesters were restrained with zip ties and led into police vans.

Linda Holtzman, a rabbi from Philadelphia, said she was protesting because of her faith, values and Jewish history, a theme other attendees echoed. Rabbi Holtzman, who said she was concerned about violence intensifying against civilians in Gaza, said that her grandmother survived the Holocaust and that she was taught to fight for all human life.

“Where there is no justice, I have to be a voice for justice,” she said.

Lee Heidhues 10.16.2023

Brooke Jenkins is the political creature who rode into office after engaging in blatant Red Baiting to drive her predecessor Chesa Boudin from office in a 2022 Recall election laden with heavy undertones of antisemitism.

The San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has once again proved herself to be an embarrassment to San Francisco with her strident attacks on thousands of citizens advocating for the Palestinian people.

The DA’s social media posts were so over the top and incendiary that she was forced to delete them following a firestorm of criticism.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 10.16.2023

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has deleted a tweet in which she characterized a rally in support of Palestinians as a “pro-Hamas” event.

In a joint statement distributed on Monday morning, several organizations condemned San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins Jenkins’ post and analogized it to anti-Muslim rhetoric believed to have motivated the deadly stabbing of a 6 year-old Muslim boy in Illinois.

Wassim Hage, outreach coordinator for the Arab Resource and Organizing Center in San Francisco, accused Jenkins of intentional misrepresentation by conflating peaceful protesters with antisemitism and with a militant organization that the U.S. has on its terrorist watch list. The statement co-authored by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center noted, also, that Jenkins had cited no evidence tying the rally to the “Death to Israel” graffiti.

“The characterization is deliberately and recklessly incorrect,” Hage said, referring to the district attorney’s posts. He and others demanded accountability in the form of a public censure, a retraction, and possibly a probe by Breed’s office and the Board of Supervisors. 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/brooke-jenkins-hamas-tweet-deleted-18428837.php

Lee Heidhues 10.15.2023

The international sports world is not immune to the carnage in the Middle East started by Hamas terrorists and the ferocious reprisal response by the Israeli government of Bibi Netanyahu.

Where this confrontation is headed nobody knows.

When the sports world stands up and takes notice the story has reached deep into the world’s consciousness.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 10.15.2023

There’s a situation out there where thousands of innocent people are being murdered.”

Bayern Munich defender Noussair Mazraoui reportedly shared a video on Instagram in which he wished “victory” to the Palestinians in the conflict with Israel. 

In his post, the Moroccan national player shared a short clip featuring the image of a waving Palestinian flag accompanied by a prayer-like voiceover saying: “God help our persecuted brothers in Palestine, so that they attain victory. May God have mercy on the dead, may God heal their wounded.”

Mazraoui shared the post with the word Ameen (Amen) and a praying hands emoji. His club Bayern Munich has yet to comment.

Mazraoui is currently on the road with the Moroccan national team, which played Ivory Coast on Saturday and faces Liberia on Tuesday. Another Instagram post shared by Mazraoui features stories from four Moroccan teammates — the Bayern defenseman himself, plus Hakim Ziyech (Galatasaray Istanbul), Zakaria Aboukhlal (FC Toulouse), and 2019/2020 SC Paderborn midfielder Abdelhamid Sabiri (currently, Saudi Pro club Al-Fayha FC).

The accompanying text read: “Moroccan NT [national team] players Aboukhlal, Ziyech, Mazraoui & Sabiri have all posted stories in support of Palestine but you can only see the stories if you go to their profile, they’re trying to silence us, it’s literally us against the world!” All four shared the post on their own Instagram pages.

However, the 25-year-old later sent an additional post clarifying his previous messages, saying: “First of all I would like to say it’s really disappointing that I have to explain what I stand for.

https://www.dw.com/en/bayern-munich-defender-posts-pro-palestinian-video/a-67104478

Top photo:

Lee Heidhues 10.14.2023

This is intellectual terrorism.

Why are the Germans censoring a Palestinian award winning author? Her writing is far removed from the terror inflicted by Hamas and the resultant catastrophe Israel is inflicting on the men, women and children of Gaza?

The wanton terror Hamas inflicted on Israel, murdering over 1000 of its citizens, is now being repaid in a horrific manner by the Jewish State.

The Frankfurt Book Fair is engaging in a form of intellectual terrorism.

The unintended consequence of this intellectual terrorism will be that the work of Adania Shibli will be more widely read.

It is ironic that Ms. Shibli’s work is being censored “due to the war in Israel.” One of the first things the Nazis did after coming to power in 1933 was to engage in book burnings of work that did not comport with their warped philosophy.

Excerpted from The New York Times 10.13.2023

An award ceremony that was set to honor a novel by a Palestinian author at the Frankfurt Book Fair next week was canceled on Friday “due to the war in Israel,” according to Litprom, the German literary association that organizes the prize.

The novel, by Adania Shibli, is titled “Minor Detail” in English and tells the true story of the 1949 rape and murder of a Palestinian Bedouin girl by Israeli soldiers, according to its German publisher, Berenberg Verlag.

The controversy in Germany surrounding the novel began this summer when Ulrich Noller, a journalist on the Litprom jury, resigned over the decision to give the literature prize to Ms. Shibli’s novel. A literary critic with Die Tageszeitung, a left-leaning German newspaper, reignited the debate this week, accusing the book of portraying “the State of Israel as a murder machine,” though other German critics have praised the novel.

A German-language version translated from the original Arabic was published in 2022, and a previous English translation was nominated for a National Book Award in 2020 and the International Booker Prize in 2021.

The ceremony was intended to celebrate the novel for winning the 2023 LiBeraturpreis, a German literature prize awarded annually to an author from Africa, Asia, Latin America or the Arab world and presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the global publishing industry’s largest gatherings.

Organizers saying 10,000 people here protesting at Ferry Building, easily four city blocks filled with marchers

They’re chanting “Free Palestine” & “Long live the intifada,” calling for US to end military aid to Israel pic.twitter.com/TNlSpCnbUV

— Joe Rivano Barros (@jrivanob) October 14, 2023