I previously posted about the latest rash of scandalous photos coming out of Afghanistan showing U.S. military atrocities under Obama’s command, and wondering if the media would pick up on it the way they did when it was Bush’s army… Well, here’s a twist I wasn’t expecting: yes, one of the U.S. media, Rolling Stone, [...]
Jeffrey Goldberg, a correspondent for the Atlantic, cast a spotlight on yet another disgustingly overt example of pure bias in the mainstream media, particularly at the anti-Semitic Reuters newswire. He points to a Reuters news item which contains the following despicable sentences: Police said it was a “terrorist attack” — Israel’s term for a Palestinian [...]
In the [sparse] reporting of the Palestinians’ massacre of the Fogel family, several newspapers stand out with their distorted sense of “balance”, i.e., where they feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable describing the barbarity of the Palestinians without at least taking a swipe or two at the Israelis, no matter how patently irrelevant or disgustingly disrespectful it comes [...]
There Goes The Neighborhood
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There is a lot of buzz now about a possible visit by Libyan dictator/terrorist Moammar Qaddafi to New Jersey, of all places. As if New Jersey didn’t have enough problems already…
The Washington Post has this bizarre story:
Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi often brings a Bedouin tent along on his foreign trips, and he has pitched one in Cairo, in Rome and next to the Elysee Palace in Paris. But reports that he is planning to set up camp in suburban Englewood, N.J., next month have prompted outrage from U.S. lawmakers and a diplomatic scramble in Washington.
Rep. Steven R. Rothman (D-N.J.), whose district includes Englewood, said Tuesday that he had taken the matter to the State Department and the White House and that they had “strongly urged the Libyan government to have Mr. Gaddafi remain only in New York City” when he visits to address the U.N. General Assembly.
The topic dominated the daily State Department news briefing, with spokesman Ian Kelly saying officials are reaching out to members of Congress and local authorities about the tent. “We’re also talking to the Libyans to highlight the concerns that we have and the very raw sensibilities or sensitivities of the families who live in that area,” Kelly said…
Gaddafi’s planned visit next month would be his first to the United States since becoming Libya’s leader in 1969. He had initially asked if he could pitch his tent in New York’s Central Park during the U.N. session, but “we said no,” said Jason Post, a spokesman for New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I).
After reports in local newspapers that the Arab ruler would instead set up the tent on the grounds of a house owned by Libya’s U.N. mission in Englewood, a town of 29,000 about 12 miles from Manhattan, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) wrote to Clinton on Monday asking that Gaddafi’s visa restrict him to the area around the U.N. headquarters.
Rothman said the Libyans bought the Englewood house in 1982, when he was mayor of the town. At the time, the State Department sent the Libyan government a letter saying the residence was to be used only by the Libyan U.N. ambassador’s family and not by Gaddafi, Rothman said.
The congressman said he emphasized to federal officials that those restrictions “should not be waived under any circumstances.” His objections stem partly from concerns about local residents’ security and partly from “Gaddafi’s well-deserved reputation as a murderous dictator who had American blood on his hands,” he said.
Kelly, the State Department spokesman, said Tuesday that the Libyan government had not yet decided where Gaddafi would stay.
A Libyan Embassy spokeswoman, Nicole DiCocco, told the Associated Press that Gaddafi’s tent might be set up in Englewood, but only for social events, not sleeping. Reached Tuesday by The Washington Post, however, DiCocco referred calls to a public relations firm. A representative there, Molly Conroy, declined to comment.
As an even more bizarre twist to the story, it turns out that the would-be next door neighbor to Qaddafi during his stay is Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, one of the most well-known and outspoken rabbis.
The Jewish Week has that story:
When Libyan leader Moammar Kaddafi decided to set up camp, literally, in Englewood, N.J., during his upcoming visit to the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly next month, he likely did not realize that his next-door neighbor would be one of this country’s best-known and most outspoken rabbis, with a gift for media attention.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the author and host of a cable television show, “Shalom in the Home,” dealing with family conflicts, is in no “love thy neighbor” mood when it comes to Kaddafi, and he is making it known, including plans to sue the Libyan government for damaging his property.
Rabbi Boteach says he woke up one morning two months ago and noticed a disturbing sight on the grounds of his home. Eight large trees and a metal fence, which separated his property from his neighbor’s, were gone. The trees had been chopped down overnight, and the fence had been removed.
The perpetrators, claims Rabbi Boteach, were his neighbors, representatives of the Libyan government. The damage to his property and concurrent renovations on the neighboring home, a residence of the Libyan ambassador to the United Nations that had been in disrepair since the rabbi and his family moved to New Jersey a decade ago, led him to guess — correctly — why uncared-for property was suddenly being cared for: Libyan leader Moammar Kaddafi was coming.
Libya subsequently announced that Kaddafi, who has ruled the Arab nation in northern Africa since a military coup 40 years ago, would attend the opening of the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 15, and would live in a tent on the Englewood property during his U.S. sojourn.
Find somewhere else to stay, the rabbi said.
Rabbi Boteach announced at a press conference at his house this week that he is suing the Libyan government for damaging his property, and he wants an accounting of the high-tech surveillance apparatus that will likely be installed in the Libyan house as part of security measures before Kaddafi’s arrival.
Rabbi Boteach will sponsor a protest rally at his house, with the participation of local government officials, on Sunday at 11 a.m.
The Libyan Mission to the UN did not respond to a Jewish Week request for a comment on the controversy.
The suit — to be filed in a yet-to-be-determined court — “is a statement … I don’t want Kaddafi as my next-door neighbor,” Rabbi Boteach said. “I don’t want a terrorist living next door to me. I suggest he pitch his tent in the UN compound [in Manhattan]. They’re his hosts.”
(The Libyan leader’s request to camp out in Central Park was denied by city officials.)
The rabbi says he was angered by the welcome Kaddafi gave last week to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the only convicted bomber in the case of the Pan Am flight that exploded in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988. Two hundred and seventy people, including 189 Americans, were killed.
Al-Megrahi, suffering from terminal cancer, was released from Scottish prison, setting off furious protests in the U.S. and the West. Libyan television showed Kaddafi embracing the terrorist. “He clearly is a lover of terrorists, an abettor of terrorists, a champion of terrorists,” Rabbi Boteach told The Jewish Week in a telephone interview.
Englewood officials told Rabbi Boteach that the Libyan property there “was millions of dollars in arrears in property taxes, with the Libyan government claiming immunity from local taxation, even though the same claim was being made on a property in New York and an exemption is provided for only one residence,” he wrote last week in the Jerusalem Post. “Orthodox Jews account for a very large percentage of Englewood’s tax revenue, and since Kaddafi’s embassy refuses to pay a dime in taxation, it is our community which in no small measure finances the basic services of his mansion.”
A Libyan representative at the site, who said he was “under instructions” to be “very accommodating” to the rabbi, initially said the government would replace the trees and pay for the fence, Rabbi Boteach said. “It was supposed to be done immediately.” He later told the rabbi that the decision to repair and pay for the damage was to be the responsibility of the government. “It had been taken out of his hands.”
The trees are still missing, says the rabbi, who says he has not received any payment for the damage. “The government has been utterly contemptuous of the residents of Englewood.”
“Every dollar” the rabbi’s family receives from Libya “is one less dollar to plant bombs,” he said. “There are damages. I want the trees replanted,” the rabbi says. “I want to insure that my right to privacy is ensured.
“The community is united in not wanting Kaddafi,” Rabbi Boteach said. Including Englewood’s Muslim residents, he said. “American Muslims are God-fearing, decent, hardworking citizens, and I believe they share my hatred of terrorism.”