Gas Stations Across Iran disrupted ..... Blame Israel

 

Gas stations across Iran on Tuesday suffered through a widespread outage of a government system governing fuel subsidies, stopping sales in an incident that one semi-official news agency referred to as a cyberattack.

Gholam Reza Jalali, the commander of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, accused Israel of carrying out the attack.

"The Zionists are behind the severe disruptions" to the country's gas stations. On Monday, Jalali said Israel was incapable of significantly harming Iran.

An Iranian state television account online shared images of long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran. An Associated Press journalist also saw lines of cars at a Tehran gas station, with the pumps off and the station closed.

State TV did not explain what the issue was but said Oil Ministry officials were holding an "emergency meeting" to solve the technical problem.

The semi-official ISNA news agency, which called the incident a cyberattack, said it saw those trying to buy fuel with a government-issued card through the machines instead receive a message reading "cyberattack 64411," which is reportedly the digits comprising the phone number for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Most Iranians rely on those subsidies to fuel their vehicles, particularly amid the country's economic problems.

While ISNA didn't acknowledge the number's significance, that number is associated to a hotline run through the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that handles questions about Islamic law. ISNA later removed its reports.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the outage. However, the use of the number "64411" mirrored an attack in July targeting Iran's railroad system that also saw the number displayed. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point later attributed the train attack to a group of hackers that called themselves Indra, after the Hindu god of war.

Indra previously targeted firms in Syria, where President Bashar Assad has held onto power through Iran's intervention in his country's grinding war.

Iran has faced a series of cyberattacks, including one that leaked video of abuses its notorious Evin prison in August.

The country disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus – widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation – disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country's nuclear sites in the late 2000s.

Sticking their thumbs into Israel's Eyes ..EU official meets with groups designated by Israel as terrorist entities

 

Officials from the Office of the European Union Representative met Tuesday with members of the six Palestinian groups that Israel had designated as terrorist organizations.

The move was announced last week by Defense Minister Benny Gantz following an investigation that, according to Israeli officials, proves that the groups, which are ostensibly designed to promote human rights or operate as civil society organizations, are in fact linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP is a terrorist group designated, among others, by Israel, the United States, and the EU.

Posting through its special "EU and Palestinians" Twitter handle after the meeting, the EU representative's office said it took the matter seriously and asked Israel for an explanation as to why it decided to outlaw the groups.

It also tweeted that "past allegations of the misuse of EU funds by certain Palestinian CSO [civil society organizations] partners have not been substantiated."

US steps up pressure over settlements...Strongly Opposes Jews Building in Their Own Land

 

What a chutzpah!

In what was the Biden administration's harshest public criticism of Israeli settlement policy to date, the State Department on Tuesday said it strongly opposed Israel's plans for additional construction by Israel in Judea and Samaria, saying it was damaging for peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians.

"We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units tomorrow, Wednesday, many of them deep in the West Bank," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing.

"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution," Price said.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel on Sunday published tenders for about 1,300 new settlement homes beyond the Green Line and authorities are also expected to discuss proposals for another 3,000 homes.

Washington was continuing to raise its views on the issue directly with senior Israeli officials, Price said. He also said that Israel's plans to retroactively "illegal outposts" was "unacceptable."

Since President Joe Biden took office in January, US officials have emphasized that they oppose further expansion of Jewish settlements.

A senior Biden administration official said earlier this month that Israel was aware of the administration's view of the need to refrain from actions that could be seen as "provocative" and undermine efforts to achieve a long-elusive two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Former Trump administration Mideast envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt issued on Wednesday a strong rebuke of the administration's reaction to the Israeli construction. Greenblatt, who was one of the main architects of President Donald Trump's peace plan and visited the region frequently during his years in the White House, took to Twitter, writing: "Mistake on Biden Administration's part. So-called "settlements"-really neighborhoods/towns/cities-aren't [the] reason there's no peace. US should: stop using this as an excuse for why there's no peace; stop comparing Israel & PA actions-they're not the same. Also-nothing about Hamas??"

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had until Sunday mostly held off announcing new settlement construction since taking office in June, as he sought to ease tensions with Washington.

Florida ends investments in Ben & Jerry's Parent Company Unilever

 

Florida state entities will cease new investments in Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, as of Tuesday, because the ice cream maker plans to stop selling its product in Judea and Samaria.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in July triggered a 90-day review mandated by Florida law which mandates divestment from companies boycotting Israel. Ben & Jerry’s says it is ending its sales only in Judea and Samaria and is seeking the means to continue sales in Israel, but Florida law does not make the distinction between Israel and Judea and Samaria.

As of today, the 90-day review, during which companies may notify Florida of any plans to reverse course, ends. Unilever, which has disavowed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, has previously said it has no control over Ben & Jerry’s business decisions, due to an internal agreement between the conglomerate and the ice cream manufacturer’s independent board.

The ruling over new investments does not affect the $39 million Florida already has invested in Unilever, the Florida Politics website reported.

At least eight states have initiated reviews of investments in Unilever in the wake of Ben & Jerry’s boycott of Judea and Samaria.

The Gift of Tears

 Make sure you have tissues nearby when watching 

Facebook Suppressed Breitbart News Traffic by Twenty Percent

 

The Wall Street Journal has published internal material from anonymous sources at Facebook revealing that the company introduced tools that suppressed the traffic of Breitbart News by 20 percent, and other conservative publishers by double-digit margins. 

The company introduced two tools after the 2016 election that disproportionately harmed conservative publishers. 

The Journal highlights internal Facebook research showing that if both tools were removed, it would increase traffic to Breitbart News by 20 percent, the Washington Times by 18 percent, Western Journal by 16 percent, and the Epoch Times by 11 percent. Facebook eventually removed one of the tools while keeping the other — but it is unclear which of them had the most impact on traffic. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, one of Facebook’s researchers feared, “We could face significant backlash for having ‘experimented’ with distribution at the expense of conservative publishers.”

 The story also revealed that Breitbart News is relegated to a “second tier” of the platform’s News Tab, where it gets less exposure than its corporate establishment competitors. 

On top of this, Facebook is directly paying Breitbart News’s competitors, establishment media conglomerates including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times — while offering no such compensation to Breitbart News.

 Despite Facebook’s favoritism and financial support of its establishment competitors, Breitbart News continues to be wildly popular with Facebook’s users. In August, data from Facebook-owned social media analytics company Crowdtangle showed Breitbart News demolishes its competitors in generating engagement from Facebook’s users. The data showed Breitbart earned more Facebook engagement than The New York Times, the Washington Post, and HuffPo combined. Breitbart surpassed the Wall Street Journal and CNN by healthy margins as well.

Read more at Breitbart

Light Rail in Tel Aviv Completes First Full Test-Run

 

Message to Biden: Afghanistan Was Enough – Don’t Touch Jerusalem

 

Question: Why is Agudah quiet? Where is their outrage?

A broad coalition of Israeli organizations has expressed outrage in wake of the US’ intention to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinian Authority Arabs and is planning a series of events to protest the planned American consulate on Agron Street, situated in western Jerusalem.

Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar of the Sovereignty Movement warned that “establishing an American Consulate for the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem is the de facto partition of the city and its transformation into the capital of Palestine.”

They further noted that the position of all Israeli governments was and remains that a united Jerusalem is the indivisible capital of Israel.

“Jerusalem is not Afghanistan and we will not allow the sights from Kabul to be replicated in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria,” they said.

Sarah Haetzni, chairperson of the My Israel organization, said the government has the ability to prevent the American move.

“The Israeli government has the legal and moral authority to prevent the establishment of the Palestinian consulate in the heart of Jerusalem. The establishment of the consulate will constitute recognition of the partition of the city, and must be prevented regardless of the cost.”

Matan Peleg, CEO of the Zionist Im Tirtzu movement, said that “since the establishment of the State of Israel, there has never been a situation in which a foreign country imposed upon Israel the opening of a special consulate in its capital for the Palestinians. This is an extremely grave blow to Israel’s independence and a fundamental undermining of its position. It is inconceivable that the one undercutting Israel in this way is its closest ally.”

“On the other hand, it is worthwhile for the current American administration to remember that the US also needs allies. Israeli society is a friend of the American people. This is not something that one does to friends. We call upon the American administration – if it is so urgent for you to open a special consulate for the Palestinians – open it in Ramallah, not in Jerusalem,” he said.

Meir Deutsch, CEO of Regavim, added that according to the Geneva Convention, the host state is the one that must authorize the opening of a consulate for a foreign country.

“We demand that our elected officials act like a sovereign government and protect the national interests of the citizens of the country and not allow this consulate to open. United Jerusalem is the indivisible capital of Israel,” he declared.

Nili Nahori, of Israël is Forever, warned that “we will not allow the Americans to determine the fate of our capital. Our exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem will determine our sovereignty over the entire country.”

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton Klein stated that the ZOA “stands with Israel against the attempt to legitimize a terror-supporting regime by giving it a consulate in Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital.”

“Not only will this be a step towards the division of Israel, it will also be a prize to a regime that pays to slay, names streets after terrorists and negates the Holocaust. We call on the Biden Administration to stop pressuring Israel into allowing such an abomination which would only reward Palestinian Arab terrorism and their refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish State,” he said.

“The United city of Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel and only the State of israel. And as such, she alone should decide who opens what official offices in her capital,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Chairman of the Coordinating Council for Jewish Homeland.

The coalition plans to hold a protest in front of the former US consulate on Agron Street on Wednesday at 5PM.

Aryeh Savir, Tazpit News Agency

http://tazpit.org.il

Aryeh Savir is director of the International division of Tazpit News Agency.

‘Swear to god, true story,’ Biden says as he tells ‘false’ Amtrak story for 5th time

 

President Biden on Monday repeated — for the fifth time this year — a made up story to illustrate his closeness to Amtrak and a former conductor named Angelo Negri.

Biden told the tale — declared “false” by CNN — during a speech at the NJ Transit maintenance facility in Kearny, NJ, as he touted the $1.2 trillion Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill that would boost funding for Amtrak.

“I apologize because some of you have heard this,” Biden said as he told the reliable laugh line.

“When I was vice president I used to like to take the train home because my mom was very sick and dying. And I’d come home every weekend,” said Biden, whose mother died in 2010.

“I’m getting on one Friday and then one of the senior guys on Amtrak, Angelo Negri … walks up to me and he goes, ‘Joey baby!’ He grabs my cheek. And I thought the Secret Service was gonna blow his head off. I swear to God, true story.”

Biden continued: “I said, ‘What’s up, Ang?’ He said, ‘Joey. I read in a paper. I read in the paper, you traveled 1,000 — 1,200,000 miles on Air Force planes.’ Because they keep meticulous tabs of it.”

Biden said that Negri had done the math and said, “You know how many miles you travel on Amtrak, Joey? … 2,200,000 miles… So Joey, I don’t want to hear this about the Air Force anymore.”

Negri retired from Amtrak in 1993, meaning he didn’t work there when Biden was vice president from 2009 to 2017. He died in May 2014.

Biden usually says the story happened in his final year as vice president, but he didn’t include that detail Monday. His mention of his mother’s death suggests it may have happened earlier.

But there’s an additional factual issue: CNN reported in June that “Biden’s account simply does not add up. Biden did not reach the million-miles-flown mark as vice president until September 2015, according to his own past comments.”

It’s unclear if Biden confused mileage details, dates or the name of the Amtrak employee. The frequent retelling of the story comes as Biden’s critics accuse him of being in mental decline ahead of his 79th birthday next month.

The White House did not respond to The Post’s request for clarification.

Yeshiva Boys Dress Like Armed Arab Murderers to "bring joy to the Chassan Ve'Kalleh"

 

I am positive that there wasn't a person that attended that wedding that lost a loved one to an Arab savage.

What would the world have said if they dressed up in Nazi uniforms? Better yet, if goyim dressed up like that at a wedding? 

On videos that circulated throughout social media this past week, Yeshiva students can be seen dancing at a wedding to the sounds of Arab music, while in the middle of the circle numerous  yeshiva students danced while dressed like Arabs armed brandishing rifles.

After numerous attempts to figure out exactly what was taking place, the BeChadrei Charedim news site set forth to uncover the truth behind the incident that spread widely on the internet.

According to their report, the wedding took place in the Sequoia wedding hall in the town of Ma’aleh HaHamisha, and the armed Arabs that were seen in the video were actually Chareidi yeshiva students from the yeshiva in Meitzad, who put on Arab dress and brandished toy rifles that were intended to look like real ones.

The participant who spoke to BeChadrei Charedim added that the dance was planned in advance, and the students had been practicing for it for a number of days, all in honor to bring joy to the Chosson and Kallah.