American inmate killed in Israeli prison after shooting guards

Israeli special forces raided a prison in central Israel on Sunday, killing a notorious prisoner who was serving time for a gruesome murder carried out in the US.

Police identified the inmate as Samuel Sheinbein, an American who fled to Israel after murdering and dismembering another man in Maryland in 1997 and whose case sparked a high-profile row between the two allies.

Police special forces rushed to this prison in central Israel after Sheinbein stole a weapon and shot three guards, wounding two of them seriously. He then barricaded himself inside the compound where a standoff ensued, with counter-terrorism units dispatched to the scene. The inmate then opened fire again, wounding three more guards, before the forces shot him dead, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

Hospital officials said one of the wounded guards was fighting for his life. Police and the Israel prison service have opened investigations into the incident. Sheinbein’s lawyers told Israeli TV that their client was under duress and that the Israeli prison service has ignored their warnings.

Sheinbein, 34, was tried in Israel in 1999, two years after he fled to the country and successfully sought refuge from extradition, enraging Maryland authorities and briefly threatening US aid to the Jewish state.

An Israeli court sentenced Sheinbein to 24 years for his killing and dismemberment of 19-year-old Alfredo Enrique Tello Jr. Sheinbein was 17 at the time of the killing and could have faced a life sentence in Maryland. His extradition to Maryland was blocked after a yearlong battle between Israel and the United States over an Israeli law that prohibited it.

Following that embarrassment, Israel changed its laws to allow the extradition of Israeli citizens on condition that they are returned to Israel to serve any sentence imposed.

Sheinbein, of Aspen Hill, Maryland, confessed to strangling Tello with a rope and hitting him several times with a sharp object. Sheinbein then dismembered the body with an electric saw and burned it, authorities said. Another teenager charged in the killing, Aaron Needle, committed suicide while in jail in Maryland.

Sheinbein fled to Israel days after Tello’s remains were found in a garage. He successfully sought refuge under a law that prevented the extradition of Israeli citizens to foreign countries. Sheinbein had only passing contact with Israel, but his father, Saul, was born in the country and Sheinbein qualified for Israeli citizenship.

Israel refused to extradite Sheinbein, prompting protests from senior officials, including then-Attorney General Janet Reno. Some congressmen who had otherwise been friendly to Israel threatened to cut aid in response.

Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, who represented Sheinbein in 1997, bemoaned the “terrible tragedy” that befell the families of both the wounded guards and the shooter and challenged the system for how it has handled her client.

“When he was sentenced, he was 17, without a criminal background, a kid from a normal background,” she said. “It is hard to understand how after all these years in prison it was not able to help him rehabilitate.”

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler, who tried to extradite Sheinbein back to the US as a state’s attorney in the 1990s, said Sheinbein was a troubled young man whose mental health issues continued into adulthood.

Gansler said the timing of Sheinbein’s prison outburst was most striking because he was close to serving two-thirds of his sentence and becoming eligible for parole.

“He’s on the brink of being released from jail and then he goes on what basically seems to be a suicide rampage,” Gansler said. “So this was a young man who was still very troubled, and this ends a very tumultuous life.”

Gansler said Sheinbein’s death “brings actual closure” to the gruesome Maryland murder case. He expressed sympathy for the families of the Israeli guards, “and hopefully they all survive”.

Source: The Guardian
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Christian Arab IDF soldier: I would sacrifice my life for the sake of the State of Israel

Mona Liza Abdo, an Israeli-Arab soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, said she wasn’t required to enlist in the Israeli army, but her determination to protect Israel motivated her to volunteer, according to a profile and accompanying video on the IDF’s blog.

The IDF said, “As a fighter on Israel’s southern border, she rose through the ranks to become a commander, teaching soldiers how to combat terrorism and other threats. Just over a month ago, she honorably completed three years of service – one more than the required number for Israeli women.”

In an exit interview with Abdo, who is an Arab Christian from Haifa, the soldier said she would sacrifice her life for Israel.

“I keep the country of Israel safe, not only for the Jews but for the Arabs, too. And I would sacrifice my life for the sake of the State of Israel and all its citizens,” Abdo said.

“I joined the IDF because I am an inseparable part of Israel. I came to serve my country and my home,” she said. “My job as a commander in the IDF is to prevent terrorist attacks, smuggling operations and illegal entry into the country. I think if I prevent drugs entering the country, I not only protect the Jewish people but the arabs as well.”

Abdo’s mother, also interviewed in the clip, said she was overjoyed when her daughter told her that she wanted to enlist, which she described as a “mature decision.”

“This is our country and our home. Here we will live and here we will die. The roots of our fathers and our children are here,” her mother said.

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Dinesh D'Souza maligns Israel as bad guy in debate with Bill Ayers

Just recently I pointed out how the Obama administration’s prosecution of Dinesh D’Souza was an example of how Obama is using U.S. government and law enforcement agencies to hound his political opponents. While that is true, it doesn’t remotely mean that D’Souza is right about everything, or much of anything. When he and I debated at CPAC 2007 and on several radio shows, he stuck steadfastly to the dogma that Islam was a religion of peace, without remotely succeeding in establishing it, or being able to specifically name any of the “conservative Muslims” with whom he was advocating an alliance.
D’Souza embodies the abysmal and truly dangerous ignorance of the mainstream Right about Islam, jihad, and related issues — including, as you can see here, Israel. He hasn’t the faintest idea that Israel is on the front line of the global jihad or that the claim that it is an apartheid state is an invention of pro-jihad propagandists designed precisely to bamboozle and intimidate people like D’Souza into thinking that Israel is tainted and that his support for the Jewish State should be tentative at best.
There are far too many people who think like D’Souza, or worse, in the leadership of the Republican Party — which is why that party has been so spectacularly feeble and clueless in its response to Obama’s increasingly open support for Islamic supremacist forces both at home and overseas.
“Dinesh D’Souza Gets Israel Wrong in Acclaimed Debate with Bill Ayers,” by Sam Levine in PJ Lifestyle, February 3:
After their anticipated debate at Dartmouth College, Dinesh D’Souza and Bill Ayers took questions from the audience.
D’Souza’s answer to an audience member’s question about Israel was unfortunate (see 1:31:31 of the debate).
The audience member libeled Israel as an apartheid state, accused it of codifying into law discrimination against Arabs, then asked the debaters why the United States supports such a country.
The answer to this question is obvious.
Israel is not an apartheid state.
More than 1 million Arabs live in Israel and have full civil rights. Arabs constitute 10 percent of the Israeli parliament, and one sits on the Israeli Supreme Court. Arabs make up a large portion of the student population at elite Israeli universities where Arabs teach and have full tenure. The only place where Arabs have freedom of speech and association is in Israel.
Hundreds of gay Palestinian Arabs have actually fled to Israel because of fear for their lives due to their sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Abbas states openly that not a single Jew will be allowed in a future Palestinian state. In Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive. In Iran gays are hanged. There is plenty of apartheid in the Middle East, but it is not happening in Israel.
But did D’Souza mention any of this? Nope.
Instead, he tacitly agreed that Israel is an apartheid state by not challenging that accusation in his answer, and ranting on about how much different Israel is than the United States.
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