Activist blogger Pamela Geller is petitioning New York federal court to force the city’s Metro Transportation Authority to accept an anti-Hamas ‘MyJihad’ ad campaign.

Geller filed the lawsuit against the New York MTA on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.

Geller writes the ‘Atlas Shrugged’ blog and heads the pro-Israel American Freedom Defense Initiative. She is petitioning the court to force the MTA to accept a bus advertisement that includes the phrase “Hamas Killing Jews,” according to ABC News.

The MTA had rejected the ad last month, claiming it could incite violence. MTA director of safety and security Raymond Diaz released a statement on September 19, saying the ad “would lead reasonable observers to interpret it as urging direct, violent attacks on Jews, given turmoil in Gaza, Syria and Iraq and New York city’s heightened security concerns.”

Court papers indicate that Geller’s group planned to express its views with a series of ads on public issues, “including issues such as Islam’s hatred of Jews.”

According to Geller, the MTA agreed to display three out of four of the ads, Jewish Business News.com reported.

Excluded was one with the line, “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah.” “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?” Alongside the quote a face appears covered with a white and black-checkered keffiyeh.

The quote is a parody of an ad campaign by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which promotes the concept of “MyJihad” – namely, that “jihad” or “Islamic holy war” is an individual personal struggle, and not necessarily always about violent terrorism.

Geller’s lawsuit cites “ongoing terrorism by Hamas operatives against Israeli civilians in the name of Islamic jihad” and says the rejected ad is therefore timely.
The suit adds that the ad has been displayed in other cities – including Chicago and San Francisco – with no violent reactions.

The judge who will sentence former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for bribery admonished his lawyer for claiming that the conviction over %400,000 of money is only small change.

The prosecution on Monday asked the court to sentence Olmert to six years in jail and fine him more than $300,000.

Olmert’s attorneys, as expected, asked for a much lighter punishment, but his lawyer’s comment on the sum of the bribes says a lot about the workings of the minds of the political-legal-business establishment that has its hands in the taxpayers’ pockets.

Olmert took the stand to deny his guilt, and he no doubt believes he did nothing wrong because bribes are simply a means to justify the end of building businesses and personal empires in Israel. It is something like so-called religious leaders taking bribes to promote yeshivas and charities, all in the “name of God.”

Somewhere between the lines, there seems to be a violation of the Third Commandment, “You shalt not take the name of God in vain,” but let’s leave that for Him to decide.

Eli Zohar, one of Olmert’s attorneys, told the court that his poor and mistreated client “already has seen punished” by the heartless media that have caused him “insufferable damage” and “blackened his image,” which already was blacker than nothingness except for the die-hard leftist media and politicians who held out hope that the world can survive upside down.

The conviction, of course, was justice at its worst according to Olmert, partly because of the testimony of his former close aide Shuli Zakan, who finally decided it would be best to tell the truth – or as Olmert claims, to frame him – and spend a few less years in jail.

Olmert accused the media of creating a circus out of her testimony and making it impossible for him to receive a fair trial. He is right if the definition of a fair trial is “not guilty.”

Zohar had the audacity to tell the court that Olmert was charged with four counts of bribery but was convicted “only” on two charges,

What a righteous person! Such a great Tzadik, he is.

Not only that, but Zohar also stated that the $500,000 Olmert pocketed illegally is not such a significant sum of money. That just goes to show what is “big” money for the political-legal-business complex.

What’s half a million dollars? That was the attitude of Ephron, the landowner in Biblical Hebron when he negotiated with Avraham over the sale of the Cave Of the Patriarchs to bury Sarah.

The Arab understanding of “negotiations” hasn’t changed from then through today. After congenial talks in which Ephron told Avraham to take the land and after Avraham said, “Look, I know this game. How much do you want?” Ephron kept a straight face and said, “Oh, just some symbolic price, like 400 shekels of silver.” By some estimates, that is around $40,000 in today’s currency.

The judge was taken aback by Zohar’s comment and told him, “What are you talking about. That is a huge sum of money. This is not 20,000 shekels and not 50,000 shekels. I find it difficult accept your argument.”

In other words, Olmert is headed for the slammer – except for one big detail. After his sentencing May 13, He will appeal to the Supreme Court, and unless the justices break a record and give the case the priority it should have, Olmert may be out of jail for months or more.

A Jerusalem court has thrown out “showcase” indictments against three supposed “price tag” vandals and has hung another black cloud over the police and the office of the Attorney General, all of whom appear to be on a witch hunt.

The latest black eye for government prosecutors was dealt by Jerusalem Court Judge Avital Chen, who ruled there was no basis for charges that three youth from Samaria were planning to carry out some sort of attack  on Arab property.

The rejection of the government case came only a short time after a three-judge Jerusalem court unanimously ruled against the government’s charges of breach of public trust against Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who has been hounded on various charges for more than a decade.

Many rightwing leaders have charged that dozens of police arrests of supposed price tag vandals are an attempt to blame innocent people for crimes that they say are being carried out by Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents trying to make the nationalist movement look illegitimate.

Considering the increasing number and severity of price tag vandalism, the accusations against the Shin Bet sound like self-righteous paranoia.

On the other hand, leftwing activists have accused government prosecutors of purposely treating price tag vandals with soft gloves and failing to convict even one of them over the past three years. Given the proven cases of Arabs damaging their own olive orchards and then blaming Jews, it is not impossible to believe that the Palestinian Authority has ordered the “price tag” operations.

The indictments that were thrown out by the Jerusalem court are the first ones ever to be filed against supposed price tag vandals.

Three young Jewish boys were arrested in September 2011 while they were carrying tools, approximately 300 feet from a vehicle that was not theirs but in which police found bottles of gasoline. Police rejects the youth’s claims that they were using the tools for renovations on a nearby structure.

The police put one and one together and came up with what they thought was two. Government prosecutors at the office of the Attorney General also thought they had done their math and put together their first indictments that were supposed to show that they finally had the goods on price tag culprits.

The court also did its math and flunked the police and prosecutors.

Michael Ironi, a lawyer for the legal aid Honenu organization, said after the court decision, “It is a shame that the Attorney General’s office chose to conduct a trial against the defendants. From the beginning of the case the evidence seemed weak and circumstantial. The suffering caused to the defendants is also regrettable.”

Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz, who assisted in handling the case, stated, “Even from the beginning it was obvious that much ado was being made out of nothing and now the court has confirmed. It is unfortunate that in the process leading to their exoneration the rights of innocent youths were severely injured over a long period of time.”

The chase after Lieberman and dozens of alleged price tag vandals, despite being unsuccessful, also has a price tag.

“For over two years our lives have been a nightmare,” said one of the youth who finally was exonerated.

“They kept us in remand under severe conditions and falsely accused us of serious crimes,” he added. “If we had not had a religious appearance and the police and the Attorney General’s office had not been so eager to achieve ‘accomplishments’ at the expense of tarnishing the reputation of an entire population, we would not have gone through such a difficult, tortuous legal battle over something we never did.”

Police arrested two of the youth shortly before the Rosh HaShanah holiday in 2011 and convinced the court to extend their remand on the eve of the holiday. The third youth was charged the day after the holiday.

The name of “hilltop youth” in Judea and Samaria  has been muddied with accusations that have never been backed up with indictments, until the “showcase” charges that proved to be unfounded.

Every time a nationalist looks the wrong way at the police or says a bad word about Peace Now, leftwing leaders and media scream “Rabin,”  continuing 18 years of slander against all national religious Jews, and particularly their rabbis, for the assassination of Yitzchak Rabin by Yigal Amir, who lived in metropolitan Tel Aviv and not in Judea and Samaria.

It is no secret that Shin Bet agents infiltrate into communities in Judea and Samaria to incite youth to break the law and then fall prey to being informers to save themselves from prosecution.

It is hard to believe the rightwing claims that Shin Bet agents have carried out all of the price tag attacks to undermine the nationalist movement.

But it also is hard to believe that police continue to harass youth, often with middle-of-the-night arrests, and prosecutors cannot come up with even one indictment that holds any water.

The only missing key in the puzzle is the failure of most national religious leaders to conduct a campaign in their communities and yeshivas to preach against violence and anti-Arab vandalism.

If Jews indeed are guilty of the vandalism and if the police and prosecutors cannot do a better job than they did after investing thousands of hours to nail Lieberman for nothing, something is rotten in the office of the Attorney General.

The old adage suggesting that victory has a multitude of fathers, while failure, alas, is an orphan, can be applied yet again, this time to describe the grim aftermath in Shas following the heartbreaking loss of the Avigdor Lieberman-Aryeh Deri candidate for mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion (the name should be spelled “Leon,” but the campaign opted for this, more feline spelling).

So the bad guy in this story of glory and defeat is Israel Beiteinu strong man MK Avigdor Lieberman, soon to be either the previous and next Foreign Minister, or the next man with a serial number at the Ma’asiahu prison for white collar criminals—court decision on that one expected in two weeks.

But for now, Lieberman appears to be shouldering the shame of the mayoral loss, with attacks on him coming both from sore losers and sore winners. Yes, the winning incumbent, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat now and for the next 5 years, is not doing the gracious. not even pretending.

“Lieberman is a dishonest man, a fixer who wanted to turn me into a marionette and couldn’t,” Barkat told Ma’ariv.

According to the winner, Lieberman made it his life’s mission to destroy him, Barkat, who, apparently, remained pure as the driven Jerusalem snow: “I could have made a deal and appoint Vladimir Sklar CEO of the East Jerusalem Development corporation the way Lieberman insisted, and then I would have gotten wall-to-wall support,” he said. “I refused. I took a chance and paid a heavy price.”

In Israel, it seems, to the winner goes being spoiled.

MK Lieberman for his part has been denying the Sklar appointment story, arguing instead that in his feverish yearning to win, Barkat has sold the city out to the Haredim—specifically, former Haredi mayoral candidate Chayim Epstein has been saying he’s being appointed Barkat’s deputy mayor, with pay.

The nice appointment is considered to be his reward for keeping his name on the ballot even as it was becoming obvious he was going nowhere—and with that helped siphon off some of Lion’s Haredi votes. It’s a good theory.

But the worst thing for Lieberman was not the spectacle of the winner Barkat doing a victory dance in a fashion that would not go well over in the States, where the first thing a loser does is congratulate the winner, to be followed by the winner complimenting the loser. Over in the Jewish State, we win, we fillet the loser, fire up the barbie, have a beer.

The worst thing for Lieberman is how his own campaign has been badmouthing him. Ma’arive quotes Likud-beiteinu campaign workers who said “Lieberman pulled the rug from under all of us… He couldn’t deliver the goods… He didn’t deliver the Likudniks, and he especially didn’t deliver the Russians he promised… All the Israel Beiteinu voters in Jerusalem supported Nir Barkat… Israel Beiteinu used to have 2 seats in the city council – that’s now been erased… Even when combining the Liebrman and Likud votes, they barely make it past the blocking percentage…”

Finally, senior Aryeh Deri operatives put all the blame on Lieberman. The rift between Deri and Lieberman is serious. Last week, Deri told his listeners on Haredi radio station Kol Barama that they had to vote in large numbers, to secure a Shas-Lieberman partnership. Now, after the defeat, Deri told those same listeners that they lived up to his expectations—they awarded 35 thousand votes to Moshe Lion, but on the Likud-Beiteinu side the failure was overwhelming.

Deri’s seniors are angry at Lieberman, but they’re livid at Deri himself for falling prey to Lieberman’s machinations. It was a known thing that Lieberman could round up 10 thousand Russians in Jerusalem – that’s the number that voted for his faction in 2008. So how come all the Russians went for Barkat? Was Deri being naïve when he figured Lieberman for a solid real estate asset, when, in fact, that asset is infested with termites and about to fall on its own foundations?

Lieberman had nothing to tell his followers and the press other than his own version of you win some, you lose some. If he’s taken down by the court two weeks from now, it would mark a sea change in Israeli politics, an earthquake that could empower the right or the left, depending on whom you ask.

Even Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli has a right to privacy, and even Samsung does not have the right to invade it, a Tel Aviv court ruled Wednesday in a decision that will cost Samsung nearly $160,000.

Samsung’s Israeli importer Suny Electronics went ahead and used online broadcasts of her in its advertising campaign in 2006 but without her knowledge.

She sued for violations of her rights of privacy. It’s one thing to go on the air, but it is another matter to take the conversation and use it for a commercial campaign without a person’s knowledge, let alone permission.

Samsung decided to go head-to-head and battle it out in the court and even sued Bar Rafaeli for libel for writing to Samsung’s office in Korea about the misuse.

Tel Aviv District Court Judge Avi Zamir decided in her favor and ordered Samsung to fork over $113,400 to Bar Rafaeli  plus another $42,000 to cover court costs.

He threw out the libel suit but also dismissed the supermodel’s claim for personal damages from a market consultant, Globes reported.

“The image of models, their voices, bodies, and names are their personal assets, and no one has the right to use them for commercial purposes without their consent and without compensation,” Judge Zamir ruled.

He added, “These assets have the right to be protected. Every model, male or female, even if they chose to reveal themselves in an advertisement, even the broadest and most exposing, in any media, has the right not to have use made of these private assets beyond what was agreed, and without their explicit consent.

“Even deviations from existing agreements over the extent of the permitted use of these assets, damage them, damage that justifies financial compensation.”

Considering that Bar Rafaeli is a good sell for anything from apples to zebras, Samsung may have gotten more than its money’s worth for the free use of her conversations.

A unanimous and landmark Supreme Court ruling on Monday struck down a Knesset amendment to a law and declared that detaining African infiltrators  for three years without trial violates their human rights.

The effect of the decision is that nearly 2,000 illegal Africans will be able to leave their Negev prison in 90 days and move freely in Israel, most likely to southern Tel Aviv – unless the government decides to deport them.

Within the 90-day period, the government can determine if the illegal immigrants are entitled to be recognized as those seeking asylum or simply left their home countries to seek a better standard of living, in which case they can be sent home.

The amendment to the Prevention of Infiltration Law violates what is known is Israel as the Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty, a concept that the High Court has exploited for several years to allow it to dictate policies that often are the opposite from what the Knesset had legislated.

The unanimity in the 9-0 ruling, including  new Court President Asher Grunis who is viewed as being far away from the left-wing “bleeding heart” camp, underlined the conclusion that the amendment unquestionably violates human rights, despite the problems is poses to the country, as several justices noted.

However, Justice Grunis indicated that a shorter detention period would not be questioned by the court.

Justice Edna Arbel, who has sided dozens of times with “activists” and often against Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, admitted that the decision “will not be easy” for the public to swallow.

She also concede that the decision will be a difficult blow for south Tel Aviv, whose residents have suffered a higher crime rate along with the flood of approximately 50,000 African infiltrators into the relatively poor neighborhood.

“Their cries are in our hearts; their pain is our pain,” she wrote, but Likud Knesset Member and Knesset Interior Committee chairwoman Miri Regev reacted, “There are judges in Jerusalem, but the pain is in south Tel Aviv.” She added, “The High Court has sentenced the residents of south Tel Aviv to living in fear and has given infiltration a green light.”

But she agreed that the Knesset’s solution of simply throwing people into detention facilities for three years, without charges, is not a solution.

Even veteran MK Reuven Rivlin, former Speaker of the Knesset and who has often defended the legislature against High Court intervention, admitted that the Knesset has to be more careful in its legislation.

Minister of Interior Gideon Sa’ar said that Monday’s ruling makes it more difficult for Israel to deal with illegal infiltration.

To a large extent, the government is to blame for the situation. It ignored years of warnings that the daily flood of illegal immigrants was destroying Jewish life in Arad and Dimona, in the northern Negev, where the immigrants descended from further south.

It was only after tens of thousands of infiltrators inundated Tel Aviv that the government began to move, literally locking the gates at the border after the illegals had crossed into the country.

In virtually every democratic country, foreigners are not allowed to  enter without valid documents unless they are seeking asylum.

Egypt often solved the problem by simply killing them. Israel simply turned a blind eye until Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, in the previous government, ordered that a fence be built along the Egyptian-Israeli border. The result has been a near-zero rate of infiltration. Simultaneously, the government decided to do something with those already in the country and deported thousands who were not validated as seekers of asylum, mainly from Sudan.

Leftists, many of whom back any effort that will reduce the Jewish majority and the influence of the growing  religious minority in the country, challenged many attempted deportations.

They conducted a “Save the Children” campaign, playing on emotional heartstrings by protesting against deporting children who, at the country’s expense, already were being educated in Israel.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said after the ruling, “Alongside honoring the decision of the High Court of Justice, I, in cooperation with the Interior Minister and the Attorney General, intend to find ways that are in keeping with the decision and which will allow the implementation of our determined policy which has blocked illegal migration and has already repatriated thousands of illegal migrants.”