More on the Manchester synagogue killings

The New Neo Posted on by

(1) Guess what? The aptly named perp Jihad Al-Shamie was no stranger to the criminal justice system in Manchester. He was out on bail for rape:

It is not clear when the rape took place, but it was being investigated by Greater Manchester Police — one of a number of crimes he is thought to have committed, a source said.

A number of crimes. What’s the number?

Investigators are also looking into whether Al-Shamie is behind menacing emails sent to conservative politician John Howell in 2012 after he defended Israel’s right to protect itself.

One of the emails the politician received came from a “Jihad Alshamie” who told him: “It is people like you who deserve to die,” the Telegraph reported.

The acorn doesn’t fall too far from the tree:

His father previously posted support for Hamas terrorists who slaughtered Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023.

(2) Some more details on the father – who is a surgeon:

Jihad Al Shamie’s surgeon dad, Faraj Al Shamie, posted a slew of posts on Facebook in support of the deadly 2023 attacks on the Jewish state, the Telegraph revealed — including one in which he described the atrocities as a “miracle by all standards.”

The posts emerged just hours after the dad fired off a statement distancing himself from the carnage his son — whom he had named Jihad — inflicted Thursday as the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Manchester celebrated Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. …

In one post penned the day of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, Al Shamie’s father said the Hamas terrorists who carried out the onslaught “prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that Israel will not remain.”

“Men like these prove they are God’s men on earth, and regardless of who leads them, this is the true compass for men confident of their victory even if their means are limited,” he wrote, according to translations shared by the Telegraph.

“May God protect Palestine and its heroic people. God bless you and may He bless you with true men from the lineage of true men.”

“The lineage of true men” – sadistic and barbaric murderers, whom the father is praising. And yet he’d like to distance himself from his son’s crimes. Profound skepticism is certainly in order.

(3) Here’s a completely out-of-touch thing Keir Starmer had to say:

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has urged people attending pro-Palestine protests this weekend to “respect the grief of British Jews”.

Starmer added the protests, planned for both Manchester and London, could cause further pain to mourners.

Earth to Starmer: “causing further pain to mourners” is a feature, not a bug, for the protesters. What Britain does he think he’s living in? 1950?

(4) Starmer also said this, which at least isn’t mealy-mouthed pap – although it is “mere words”:

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the “vile” assailant who “attacked Jews because they are Jews.”

He also promised protection for the Jewish community, but why would they believe him? He and the other British leaders have placated, appeased, rewarded, and empowered their own Jew-hating Moslems, who are numerous – and of course, as in the US, the Jew-haters also consist of many leftists, university students, and even people on the far right.

(5) One terrible thing that’s been revealed is that police shot one of the dead Jewish men (and wounded one other Jewish man), caught in gunfire meant for the perp Mr. Jihad himself. This is tragic and probably a result of some combination of poor police work/training and a chaotic crowd scene. The perp was thought to be wearing a suicide vest (although it turned out to be a dud) and was trying to enter the synagogue:

The police said they believed the two victims were huddled behind a door in the synagogue in the northern English city, trying to prevent the attacker from entering, when they were shot.

(6) This opinion piece makes it clear that no one should be surprised:

Antisemitism is surging in the United States, where I now live, and in Britain, where I was born and raised.

The fear that an attack might occur somewhere during Yom Kippur was not merely paranoia; it was the rational expectation of a community that has seen too much. …

Hours after the Heaton Park carnage, cars drove past the crime scene waving Palestinian flags. It was a grotesque celebration of Jewish death in the heart of Britain.

This pattern is not new. In recent years, Jewish blood has been spilled on Jewish holidays with sickening consistency.

The article goes on to list many such attacks.

[ADDENDUM: More on the victims; one of those killed was a security guard at the synagogue.]

[ADDENDUM II: And now I see that some people are saying that the bullet that killed the perp may have gone through him and the door and also hit one of the men behind the door.

The 5.56mm [that police used] is a high velocity weapon that can put a round through a half inch steel plate at 100m.]

Manchester synagogue attacker named

The New Neo Posted on by

Aptly named, I might add: Jihad Al-Shamie.

More:

Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a British citizen of Syrian descent, was shot dead by armed officers minutes after he targeted Heaton Park Synagogue on Thursday morning.

It is understood he entered the United Kingdom as a young child, before being granted British citizenship in 2006.

Two men aged in their 30s and a woman in her 60s have been arrested on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack, police added.

And is this unintentionally funny, in a bleak sort of way?:

Police said officers were ‘working to understand the motivation behind the attack’.

Book “bans” in schools

The New Neo Posted on by

The left loves to distort language in order to mislead the public. You might say it’s one of their favorite tactics, and it’s very effective.

One good example is the morphing of the term “illegal aliens” to “illegal immigrants” to “undocumented workers” and then to “migrants. And have you heard of the word “unhoused” to refer to homeless street people?

Another example has to do with “book bans.” The phrase conjures up Nazi book burnings and dystopic films like Fahrenheit 451, and it’s meant to do so.

But the current “bans” aren’t actual bans at all. They are about school libraries as well as what books to teach in classrooms. Students are completely free to read whatever books they wish (or whatever books their parents let them read, if parents still have control).

Removing a book from a school library or failing to put it there in the first place, or deciding it will not be part of the curriculum, amounts to not recommending it, and/or not facilitating exposure to it. This is a very different thing from banning something. But the left would like you to confuse the two. The linked article does mention schools, but the word “ban” nearly overrides it and is not only misleading but is almost certainly intended to cause an emotional reaction and a connection with Nazis and the like.

From the article:

A new report on book bans in U.S. schools finds Stephen King as the author most likely to be censored and the country divided between states actively restricting works and those attempting to limit or eliminate bans.

PEN America’s “Banned in the USA,” released Wednesday, tracks more than 6,800 instances of books being temporarily or permanently pulled for the 2024-2025 school year. The new number is down from more than 10,000 in 2023-24, but still far above the levels of a few years ago, when PEN didn’t even see the need to compile a report.

Perhaps they didn’t feel the need because a little while ago there were fewer “bans” because school libraries didn’t feel the need to stock books for children promoting homosexuality or trans topics, or to have Stephen King books in primary schools.

I don’t recall any controversial books in my school library, which was pretty small anyway. Nor were they in the children’s room of my local municipal library, which didn’t allow children into the adult section (not “adult” as in sex books, just adult as in grownups) until high school. And even then, the adult section was pretty tame as well.

[NOTE: Stephen King got into some recent trouble on “X,” with a lie he told about Charlie Kirk and which King ultimately retracted.]

Fatal attack on synagogue in Manchester, England

The New Neo Posted on by

It’s Yom Kippur, which is probably the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, and so a tempting target for any Jew-hater. And Jew-haters are legion, including murderous Jew-haters. Therefore we get this:

A car was driven into a crowd and a man stabbed at 9.31am on Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.

Laurence Taylor, the head of counter-terrorism policing, said … police had made two further arrests and knew the attacker’s identity, but would not release the information at this stage.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said four other victims are in a serious condition after the attack outside Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue in Crumpsall.

The force has now confirmed the suspect is also dead, after previously being unable to approach his body due to ‘suspicious items on his person’.

A picture of the alleged attacker showed a man with a beard and dark clothing standing outside the synagogue with unidentified objects strapped to his waist.

He can also be seen holding something in his hand. …

Earlier, hero rabbi Daniel Walker barricaded worshippers inside the building after the suspect crashed into the gate and began stabbing ‘anyone and everyone’.

One witness described him moving from victim to victim in a ‘robotic’ manner ‘like he had a job to do’ – targeting ‘anyone’ wearing a kippah [religious skullcap worn by observant male Jews].

He then tried to force his way inside before being shot dead by armed police at 9.38am.

Several things stand out here. One is that the attack occurred outside the synagogue, although the killer wanted to get inside as well. Another is that the carnage was inflicted by a vehicle and a knife. Still another is that two other men were arrested; this could mean that the perp was a “known wolf” affiliated with others.

When that article was written, the authorities hadn’t released the suspect’s identity but had declared the attack to be terrorism, as well as adding:

We believe we know their identity, but for safety reasons at the scene, we’re unable to confirm at this stage.

So they’re afraid someone will react – rioting? attacking police? attacking some other group? – if they learn who the killer was.

As far as I know, there still has been no official word on the killer’s identity. However, a subsequent article says this:

A knifeman who went on a ‘barbaric’ rampage slaughtering two people at a synagogue is an Islamist terrorist, it can now be revealed.

No explanation as to what the source of that information might be. But it’s certainly a good bet it’s true.

Starmer and other politicians have mouthed the usual platitudes. But they have let the situation come to this and even encouraged it by their own lies about Israel. They need the votes of the British Muslims; they don’t need the votes of British Jews, whose numbers are much smaller and who in the last twenty-five years have tended to vote conservative anyway (however, in 2024 they – like most of the population in general – swung to Labour in disgust with the Tories, but their swing was smaller than that of the British population in general).

The shutdown through Democrat eyes

The New Neo Posted on by

Or at least – through the eyes of a goodly number of Democrats I know.

I had a meal yesterday with about eight friends and acquaintances. All of them are Democrats, although I wouldn’t call any of them intensely political. Often politics doesn’t even come up at our gatherings, but it did yesterday, briefly. I usually stay quiet at those times because I’ve learned from experience that in this particular group my disagreeing would be an utterly futile gesture that usually just draws blank stares at best. They already know I’m on the right, by the way.

So ordinarily I just listen, and that’s what I did yesterday when the topic of the shutdown came up. The discussion lasted barely a minute, just enough time to make it clear that there was complete consensus on the subject, and it went like this: Trump especially, and the Republicans generally, are the awful culprits. Nope, it’s not Schumer’s shutdown to them. Not at all. Au contraire.

There was no mention of the role of Democrats. There was not a word of attention paid to all the previous times the government had shut down with the roles reversed, and why it might have been okay to blame the minority party back when it was the GOP and why – now that Republicans are the majority party trying to vote for funding – somehow they’re still to blame. There was no acknowledgement that some Democrats had voted with the Republicans this time. And there was nothing about the actual issues between the two parties on the funding.

After that brief minute the subject was changed, and we went on as before.

This kneejerk type of consensus opinion with very little content no longer surprises me at all. I am convinced that the majority of people who vote Democrat are not paying any more attention or giving it more thought than that. Nor do I think that a huge percentage of Republicans give it all that much more thought, either; it’s just that they come out on a different side and it’s one with which I tend to agree. The percentage of people who obsessively follow politics is high on many blogs, but it isn’t otherwise all that large on either side, at least not in my opinion.

You may say that a lower percentage of women than men follow politics closely, and that after all this group was composed of women. But, at least in my experience, about the same is true of men, for the most part, although it might be slightly more common among men than women to be very interested in politics.

Your mileage may differ.

NOTE: As an antidote, you might enjoy watching some of this:

Jane Goodall has died at 91

The New Neo Posted on by

Goodall was sui generis. Even as a young woman, she radiated a quiet calm that was both soothing and unusual. She had patience galore, which is probably why famed anthropologist Louis Leakey decided she would be well-suited to an intensive study of chimpanzees. It became her life’s work. Somehow she managed to have two marriages and a child, as well.

Goodall had a look of timelessness no matter her age, slender youngster or wrinkled elder. She died in the saddle, as it were, while on a speaking tour. She studied animals in a way no one before her had done, and she made remarkable observations: that chimpanzees used sticks as tools, for example.

It was after many years of studying chimpanzees that she made a truly horrific discovery, which was that they could be extremely violent with each other. This must have been profoundly difficult for her to learn, but she reported it nevertheless and didn’t flinch from its implications.

Goodall was a remarkable woman and a remarkable person. RIP.

New York’s Orthodox Jews back Cuomo even though they detest him …

The New Neo Posted on by

… because they detest Mamdani much much more.

Why don’t they back Sliwa? They know he has no chance, and they don’t want to waste their votes.

More:

Community groups and local leaders issued a joint announcement backing Cuomo, saying, “We believe it is essential to speak with one voice at this critical time.”

“We are deeply concerned about the direction that mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani would take our city,” the statement said, citing Mamdani’s statements about police, his past support for the phrase “globalize the intifada,” and his “socialist policies that we believe would create chaos” and put their communities at risk.

Signees included the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance, the Association of Crown Heights Shuls, the Staten Island Jewish Coalition, the Queens Jewish Alliance, and Crown Heights United, and several local community leaders.

On Monday, two other Jewish groups, Crown Heights United PAC and the Sephardic Community Federation, also endorsed Cuomo.

The Orthodox community is overwhelmingly Republican; I’ve read figures around 85%. It may just be one of the most Republican demographics in the US. But in New York City, Sliwa hasn’t a chance. Why do the Orthodox not like Cuomo? During the COVID years, he targeted and criticized them, among other things. But Mamdani is absolutely horrendous and has driven them to the Cuomo side.

And speaking of Jews, tonight is the beginning of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting, prayer, and repentance. It is probably the most solemn day of the year for Jews. It’s not customary to wish Jews a Happy Yom Kippur, but rather, to wish them an easy fast.

Shutdown theater: do the Democrats think voters have no memory?

The New Neo Posted on by

If so, maybe they’re correct. Maybe a lot of voters either don’t remember, or weren’t paying attention back then, or aren’t paying attention now, or some combination of those things.

But it strikes me that a great many people – even Democrats – might remember how bitterly the Democrats in Congress railed against previous shutdowns, with apocalyptic predictions, when they were the majority and Republicans the minority. And now the Congressional Democrats are acting like this shutodwn is necessary – and for what? Because continuing the Biden levels is so terrible?

It makes no sense, but politics often makes no sense – or is driven by other factors hidden by the walls of the sausage factory.

Of course, the Republicans could end the 60-vote threshold and make it a simple majority vote. Why don’t they? Perhaps they can’t get 51 to agree that would be a good step. Perhaps they think it sets a bad precedent – although I have little doubt the Democrats would do it if they had the majority and thought it was in their interests. Maybe the Republicans want a shutdown, perhaps to allow Trump to perform some layoffs, or perhaps they wish to highlight Democrat hypocrisy on the shutdown issue.

At any rate, here’s some information on what services are affected.