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California Shooting Leaves 12 Dead at Bar

A Marine Corps veteran who had served in Afghanistan fatally shot at least 12 people Wednesday night when he stormed a crowded country and western dance hall in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the authorities said.

The Ventura County sheriff, Geoff Dean, said that the gunman, Ian David Long of nearby Newbury Park, Calif., apparently took his own life after being confronted by officers responding to the Wednesday night attack. One officer, Sgt. Ron Helus, was killed when he entered the building to help. The gunman used a .45-caliber handgun that he purchased legally. It had been outfitted with an extended magazine.

The shooting came just over a year after 58 people were killed at a country music festival in Las Vegas when a gunman opened fire from a high-rise hotel room. There was an eerie parallel between the two shootings as some of the same people who emerged from the bar, the Borderline Bar & Grill, described having survived the shooting on the Las Vegas Strip. (Read more from “California Shooting Leaves 12 Dead at Bar” HERE)

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911 Operator Recounts Taking Rabbi’s Call During Shooting

The 911 operator who responded to the call from Tree of Life’s rabbi during the shooting has been hailed for saving the rabbi from the murderous rampage.

Allegheny County 911 operator Bruce Carlton gave instructions to Rabbi Jeffrey Myers as a gunman allegedly slew 11 people in Myers’s synagogue and reportedly kept the rabbi alive. Gunshots and screams could be heard in the background as Carlton tried to keep Myers away from the gunman, according to Carlton. It was the first call that left the responder physically shaken.

“It all seemed so surreal like it wasn’t happening. Time seemed to speed up, time seemed to slow down. Maybe after I disconnected with the rabbi and I was able to fully digest what I was reading because I was trying to keep the rabbi on the phone. One, for his safety and two, for officers’ safety.

“I tried to give as many updates as I could without compromising the police’s position. I tried to keep him on the phone without revealing his position. I didn’t want him to speak. I tried not to speak. I didn’t want the gunman to hear him. I didn’t want the gunman to hear me,” Carlton told CBS Pittsburgh.

(Read more from “911 Operator Recounts Taking Rabbi’s Call During Shooting” HERE)

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Shots Fired Into Republican Party Satellite Office

Florida law enforcement officials said on Monday that several shots were fired into the Volusia County Republican Party’s office in South Daytona, which resulted in shattered windows and damaged drywall.

South Daytona police Capt. Mark Cheatham said the shooting happened sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning, The Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.

“At this point we can confirm that at least four rounds were fired into the building,” Cheatham said. “We are working to see if we can get video from nearby businesses but so far we have no witnesses.” . . .

Republican State Rep. Tom Leek responded to the shooting by saying, “The state of our political discourse in America is an embarrassment to all parties and those involved in the political process.”

(Read more from “Shots Fired Into Republican Party Satellite Office in Florida” HERE)

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Ocasio-Cortez Blames Conservatives for Synagogue Shooting While Supporting Israel-Hating House Candidate

Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has no problem blaming right-wing media for Saturday’s synagogue shooting, but supports an Israel-hating fellow Democrat for Congress.

Just hours after the horrific attack on a Pittsburgh-area mosque, the 28-year-old former bartender tweeted that conservative media “amplify + provide platforms to conspiracy theories that target different groups (immigrants, Black communities, Jews, Muslims, LGBTQ+, the poor), then weave that hate together,” adding that “The violence this week isn’t an accident.”

But while she’s willing to peddle her own theories about a right-wing plot to use new media to drive people to acts of violence, the candidate has her own record of amplifying legitimate anti-Semites.

As pointed out by conservative columnist Seth Mandel, Ocasio-Cortez has also previously lent her support to fellow Democratic House candidate Ilhan Omar.

Omar has recently come under fire for her tweet in 2012 that said “Israel has hypnotized the world” and “may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”

Omar later doubled down on her statement, claiming that “drawing attention to the apartheid Israeli regime” is not anti-Semitic.

This comes as little surprise, seeing as Ocasio-Cortez is a card-carrying member of the strongly anti-Israel Democratic Socialists of America. She also accused the Jewish state of committing a “massacre” when defending itself from a Hamas attack disguised as a protest. She later backtracked on that a comment.

All of these points in the track record of the successor-apparent to Rep. Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., are documented facts, which a lot more than one can say about her unfounded speculation about conservative media. (For more from the author of “Ocasio-Cortez Blames Conservatives for Synagogue Shooting While Supporting Israel-Hating House Candidate” please click HERE)

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Atrocities Are Not Political Human Shields to Stifle Policy Debates

Why are innocent people killed by savages in this world? “Rise up, O Judge of the earth; render a reward to the proud. How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked exult?” — Psalm 94:2-3

That is the million-dollar question of this world. It is a question for which there will be no answer until God’s “feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives,” at which point the nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” Isaiah 2:4. That will only occur, of course, “at the end of the days” when people “shall say, ‘Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mount, to the house of the God of Jacob, and let Him teach us of His ways, and we will go in His paths,’ for out of Zion shall the Torah come forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” Isaiah 2:2-3.

But for us in this world, all we can do is take solace in the fact that there is a supreme being keeping score. “The Lord knows the days of the innocent, and their inheritance will be forever” Psalm 37:18.

There is simply nothing to say, no fingers to point, no accusations to make when one individual wicked person who shall not be mentioned commits mass murder. The perpetrator alone is the perpetrator, along with those who gleefully cheer his action. The rest of us should all be on the same side. We should not point fingers at God or our political opponents for responsibility of murder by a madman. Like it says in Leviticus, “And Aaron was silent” in the face of God taking his two sons from him on the day of sanctifying the sanctuary.

All we are left with as mere mortals who get together and form communities, societies, and countries is to do justice, deter evil behavior as much as possible, keep ourselves armed, trained, and protected, and pray for divine protection.

Let’s keep policy debates in the realm of politics and leave tragedy to the realm of grieving. Let’s not use grief to promote a political agenda that could not stand on its own two feet based on its own merits absent the political human shield of an atrocity to stifle debate.

If a murderer harbored various opinion on taxes, regulation, immigration, foreign policy, or abortion, his incoherent babbling should never have bearing on the public policy debates that divide us. Let’s continue debating them on their own merits. We should be able to continue debating whether open borders to our south and mass migration from the Middle East at record numbers are a prudent policy, regardless of the views of the Pittsburgh shooter, the same way leftists and George Soros have the right to continue promoting their anti-Israel views, even though those views were also shared by the shooter.

The media, liberals, and leftist Jewish organizations who claim to speak for all Jews are essentially saying Trump incited this evil act, hatred of George Soros fueled it, and because the demonic attacker said some things on immigration, we must all support an invasion of our sovereign country that has brought in endless gangs and drugs.

Trump’s administration is a collection of the most prominent Israel supporters in politics – from Vice President Pence and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton. In fact, if we are hell-bent on looking at the mass murderer’s ramblings rather than his deeds, let’s not forget that he was stoked by the Trump administration, in his mind, being taken over by Jews. After all, no administration has ever done more to fight against the nations of the world isolating Israel than Trump has.

Thus, the notion that Trump incited this is despicable.

Not only is the Left blaming Trump for neo-Nazis, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, is now essentially saying we must duct-tape our mouths and allow George Soros to continue transforming this country, lest we be called anti-Semitic. We must not “evoke” his name in the discourse of political debate.

I’ve never heard a more counterintuitive argument in my life. George Soros is one of the biggest funders of the BDS movement that is stigmatizing and endangering Jews throughout the world, particularly on college campuses. The pro-Palestinian propaganda shows up at every leftist cause, particularly open-border rallies. The notion that by criticizing George Soros we are somehow anti-Semitic is scandalous.

Also, the notion that American conservatives who support Trump to varying degrees are anti-Semitic is ridiculous: There is no issue that is more embedded in the tissue of conservative philosophy than support for Israel – to the point that it’s nearly impossible for a Republican running for office to win a primary without it. And that is exactly what enrages the neo-Nazi types, the people the Left seek to pin on conservatives.

On the Democrat side, it’s just the opposite. The mainstream of the liberal base – not just the fringe – is now anti-Israel.

So, these left-wing organizations that claim to speak for the people of the Bible should study the book they claim to represent and learn the facts about the people they ally with and the people they despise.

The stone-cold truth is that there will be evil haters of all stripes, including neo-Nazis, to some degree until the end of time. But no mainstream group in this country does anything but marginalize neo-Nazis. Law enforcement uses everything within the constitutional constraints to keep them in check. Sadly, it only takes one successful attack to wreak havoc.

Contrast this to the threat of Islamic supremacism growing in our country, just like in Europe. There were several hundred Islamists in the New York immigrant community who rallied in New York when Trump moved the embassy, shouting “Intifada” and referring to genocide of Jews. There are numerous mosques where the imams preach hatred against America and refer to Jews as subhuman. These mosques have prominent Muslim figures attending them who are respected by the media and the political class. These same leftist organizations couldn’t care less. Our body politic would do everything legal to marginalize a rally of hundreds of neo-Nazis chanting genocidal slogans against Jews and promoting anti-Semitism on college campuses. Somehow, when it comes to Islamists doing the same, conservatives stand alone in their concern.

Any American – Christian, Jew, atheist, or otherwise – is entitled to his own views on immigration or any other issue. But if liberals, including liberal Jews, want to envelop the policy goal of open borders with the tapestry of Jewish thought, it’s time we debate the effects of open borders on anti-Semitism based on its own merits. America is blessed to be the safest home for Jews in the world, certainly the safest outside Israel. Anti-Semitism is out of control in all corners of the world, particularly where there is a growing presence of Sharia supremacism. America has certain unique values, and despite the despicable actions of a few individuals, we seek to preserve those values. As Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts warned of the effects of mass migration during the debate over the Naturalization Act of 1790, “The citizens of America preferred this country, because it is to be preferred.”

But in the same way mass migration, as opposed to gradual and balanced immigration, will bring in the political views of the rest of the world, mass migration from parts of the world – Islamic or otherwise – that still believe in conspiracy theories about Jews will result in the same outcome. There is no right to immigrate, and this is indeed why Trump deported a low-level former Nazi even though he was in his ’90s and carried out on a stretcher. We shouldn’t bring in anti-Semites, white supremacists, or Islamic supremacists. Everyone stands to benefit from strong borders, but Jews in particular need strong borders when America is head and shoulders above all other nations in its treatment of Jews.

It is incumbent upon all of us to continue respectfully debating these issues on the merits and not to allow those issues that polarize us to change our common abhorrence of senseless hate and mass murder or to use the senseless hate and mass murder to shut down important debates. (For more from the author of “Atrocities Are Not Political Human Shields to Stifle Policy Debates” please click HERE)

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Jewish Doctors, Nurses Put Their Personal Feelings Aside to Help Save Synagogue Shooter’s Life

In a rather sad, ironic turn of events, Jewish doctors and nurses at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh had to turn a blind eye to the anti-Semitism that brought them to their newest patient, 46-year-old Robert Bowers. . .

“He was taken to my hospital and he’s shouting, ‘I want to kill all the Jews,’” said Dr. Jeffrey Cohen, president of Allegheny General Hospital and a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue, Fox News reported. “The first three people who took care of him were Jewish.”

One of the nurses who came to Bowers’ aid, was a Jewish nurse whose father is a Rabbi. . .

Cohen had a brief conversation with Bowers to ask him if he was in pain or needed anything. Bowers told Cohen he was fine and then asked who the doctor was.

“I said I’m Dr. Cohen, president of the hospital. Then I turned around and left,” he said. “The FBI agent who was guarding him said, ‘I don’t know if I could have done that.’ And I said, ‘If you were in my shoes, I’m sure you could.’” (Read more from “Jewish Doctors, Nurses Put Their Personal Feelings Aside to Help Save Synagogue Shooter’s Life” HERE)

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Trump: If Pittsburgh Synagogue Had Armed Guard, ‘Results Would Have Been Far Better’

President Donald Trump says the outcome at the Pittsburgh synagogue would have been different if there was armed protection.

The President announced that he will be traveling to Pittsburgh, but didn’t announce when he would be making the trip.

Before boarding Air Force One, Trump told reporters, “They had a maniac walk in and they didnt have any protection and that is just so sad to see. The results could have been much better.”

“The world has violence, the world is a violent world and you think when you’re over it it just sort of goes away, but then it comes back in the form of a madman, a whacko. I think one thing we should do is stiffen up our laws in term of the death penalty. When people do this they should get the death penalty, and they shouldn’t have to wait years and years. Now the lawyers will get involved and everybody’s gonna get involved and it will be 10 years down the line,” the President said. . .

The president was asked if gun laws needed to be revisited.

“This has little to do with it. If they had protection inside the results would have been far better. This is a dispute that will always exist I suspect. But if they had some kind of protection inside the temple, maybe it could have been a much different situation. But they didn’t and he was able to do things that unfortunately he shouldn’t have been able to do.”

(Read more from “Trump: If Pittsburgh Synagogue Had Armed Guard, ‘Results Would Have Been Far Better’” HERE)

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HORRIBLE: Media, Leftists Blame Jewish Conservatives, Trump Supporters for Pittsburgh Shooting

In the aftermath of a shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue which left 11 dead and at least 6 injured, including four first responders, leftists in the media raced to score political points, blaming Jewish conservatives and Trump supporters for the actions of a virulent anti-Semite.

The shocking statements peppered social media, as leftists scrambled to score political points. The strangest missive came from GQ reporter Julia Ioffe, who wasted no time in suggesting that conservative Jews who cheered President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to the capital city of Jerusalem were responsible for a sudden rise in anti-Semitism she clearly believes precipitated Saturday’s attack.

. . .

But she wasn’t alone in blaming American Jews, whose policies she disagrees with, for supporting policies that “led” to Satuday’s shooting. Leftists across social media may not have been as direct as Ioffe, but they were certainly thinking the same thing:

Perhaps the worst, though, was the Atlantic, which published its own piece blaming Jewish conservatives for Saturday’s violence and suggesting Jews who support the president or any pro-Israel policies be “shunned” from their religious communities.

(Read more from “Horrible: Media, Leftists Blame Jewish Conservatives, Trump Supporters for Pittsburgh Shooting” HERE)

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A 97-Year-Old, an Elderly Wife and Husband: These Are the 11 Victims of the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre

Just before 10 a.m. Saturday, suspected gunman Robert Bowers, 46, burst into the Tree of Life Congregation Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh and, yelling “All Jews must die,” killed 11 before himself being wounded and taken into custody.

The list of those killed Saturday included middle-aged brothers, an elderly husband and wife and a grandmother nearing 100. All were cherished members of a tight-knit Jewish community with deep roots in Pittsburgh history. . .

Those killed were Daniel Stein, 71; Joyce Feinberg, 75; Richard Gottfried, 65; Rose Mallinger, 97; Jerry Rabinowitz, 66; brothers Cecil Rosenthal, 59, and David Rosenthal 54; husband and wife Bernice Simon, 84 and Sylvan Simon, 86; Melvin Wax, 88; and Irving Younger, 69. . .

The Rosenthal brothers, Cecil and David, were long-time members of the Tree of Life synagogue, according to J.E. Reich, who grew up in the neighborhood the brothers called home. Reich said the brothers were developmentally disabled and lived together. The two had Fragile X syndrome, a genetic disorder that often results in mild to moderate intellectual disability.

Cecil Rosenthal loved to greet people at the door of the synagogue before services “not out of obligation, but out of joy,” said Reich, a reporter who has written for online websites such as Jezebel. (Read more from “A 97-Year-Old, an Elderly Wife and Husband: These Are the 11 Victims of the Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre” HERE)

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At Least 40 Shot in U.S. City in One Day

The Chicago Police Department reports that at least 40 people have been shot today in the city in what appears to be a barrage of gang-related activities. The total number of people shot this weekend is currently at 59 with 10 fatalities.

“We know that some of these incidents were targeted and are related to gang conflicts in those areas,” said Chicago Police Chief of Patrol Fred Waller said Sunday afternoon.

As reported by ABC7, police “said a group of people, three teens and five adults, were standing in a courtyard in the 1300-block of West 76th Street at about 12:40 a.m. when several people approached on foot and opened fire at the group. The victims range in age from 14-years-old to 35 years-old.” This attack in the Gresham neighborhood left all eight people severely wounded.

Other victims from shootings across the windy city include an 11-year-old boy, a 17-year-old girl, and a “32-year-old man who was shot four times and was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital.”

More than 4,000 people were shot in Chicago in 2016. This led President Trump to declare that he would send in the federal government to fix the problem if Chicago’s city government was unable to handle it. (Read more from “At Least 40 Shot in U.S. City in One Day” HERE)

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