The scene of the attack. Photo: Screenshot.

A British soldier is dead, and two suspected terrorists were shot in a shocking daylight attack outside London Wednesday.

Some accounts say the soldier was shot, while other witnesses described the attack as a “beheading,” the London Telegraph reports, and ITV News obtained video of a man with bloody hands carrying knives and a meat cleaver and warning “you people will never be safe” and saying “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.”

He also said, “We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Other witnesses reported hearing the attackers shout “Allahu Akhbar” – God is Great – as they attacked the soldier outside Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolich. The victim was not in uniform.

The attackers left his body in the street and reportedly stayed nearby, “waving knives and a gun, and asked people to take pictures of them ‘as if they wanted to be on TV or something,’” the BBC reports.

Officials are calling it an Islamist terror attack.

Prime Minister David Cameron said the attack was “truly shocking” and called for an emergency meeting of security officials.

“Those meetings are not convened lightly,” writes BBC Home Affairs Correspondent Dominic Casciani. “The fact is that all available accounts point towards this being a terrorist incident carried out by someone inspired by al-Qaeda’s jihadist ideology. If that’s the case it would be the first such incident leading to a death of someone other than the perpetrator since the London suicide bombings of 2005.”

Writer Douglas Murray likens the attack to other Islamist murders, including the killing of Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh. “Over recent years, those who have warned that such attacks would come here have been attacked as ‘racists’, ‘fascists’ and — most commonly — ‘Islamophobes,’” Murray writes. “A refusal to recognise the actual threat (a growingly radicalised Islam) has dominated most of our media and nearly all our political class.

“Watching this roll out has made me — and most other ordinary people — feel sick. It should always have been obvious where such idiocy and denial would lead. It leads to Woolwich. It leads to a British soldier being decapitated in our capital city in broad daylight.”

The homepage of the new CAMERA website to aid pro-Israel students, www.CAMERAonCampus.org. Photo: CAMERAonCampus.org.

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) has launched a new website geared towards helping pro-Israel students “win the fight” on campus.

CAMERAonCampus.org, along with its student-oriented blog, In Focus, was recently launched by CAMERA’s campus department.

“This project grew out of repeated requests by students for a site that would provide them very specific information they need, with campus speakers, films, and books,” Aviva Slomich, CAMERA’s campus director, said in a statement.

The website will be resource for students looking to educate themselves about the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It includes a “Middle East Issues” section that addresses many hot topics such as Jerusalem, the BDS movement, Israeli construction beyond the 1949 armistice lines, and more.

“It combines an array of resources including quick access to information on pertinent Middle East issues such as Jerusalem and the security fence, student work, our online social media sites of Twitter and Facebook, and our new blog, which covers news on campus, current events, and includes student guest contributors. The site addresses issues the moment that they come up,” Slomich added.

The website will also be a tool for students looking to hold pro-Israel campus events. It features a reliable database of speakers and experts on Israel.

A “whose who” directory will identify reliable speakers to host on campuses and connect students with key experts on different topics,” Gilad Skolnick, editor-in-chief of CAMERAonCampus.org, said in a statement.

Ibragim Todashev. Photo: Orange County Sheriff.

A friend of Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot dead by an FBI officer last night while preparing to sign a confession to playing a role in the gruesome slaying of three Jewish men back in 2011, according to investigators cited by NBC.

The Chechen man Ibragim Todashev, 27 was being interviewed by law enforcement officers in his Orlando, Florida condo when he is said to have turned violent, pulling a knife on an agent.

“The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual,” the FBI said in a statement, adding that “During the confrontation, the individual was killed.” One official told ABC news that the FBI agent was stabbed several times, although the injuries sustained were not life threatening.

No suspects have been arrested in the unsolved murder of the three Jewish men, although In the wake of the Boston bombing, detectives developed DNA evidence linking bombing suspects Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar to the triple murder scene.

The triple homicide took place on the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The victims were found with their throats slit, and their bodies were covered in cash and marijuana.

One of those killed, Brendan Mess was said to be a close friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Another victim Raphael Teken was a graduate of the largely Jewish Brandeis University. The third, Erik Weissman was a devout Jew according to the Forward, and was a devoted member of his synagogue, according to Boston’s WCVB.

Watch a video report on the incident below.

Iranian sanctions may increase if the house passes a new bipartisan bill. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The House Foreign Affairs Committee has adopted a new package of sanctions against Iran to further discourage the country from using its nuclear research to build nuclear weapons. American Israel Public Affairs Committee praised the the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act (H.R. 850) and urged the House to pass the measure.

If passed, the bill will give U.S. President Barack Obama the power to bar businesses from operating in the U.S. if they have any significant commercial trade with the Islamic Republic. House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY) authored the bill. It will also expand penalties against those who violate existing Iran sanctions and increase sanctions specifically targeting human rights violations in Iran. The bill now has bi-partisan 344 co-sponsors.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Photo: wiki commons.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s handpicked successor Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, in addition to several reformist candidates including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, have been left off the list of approved presidential candidates by Iran’s Guardian Council for the June election.

Ahmadinejad, who has had a falling out with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he plans to appeal the decision.

“I believe the right of an oppressed man won’t be trampled at this level in a country where there is Velayat-e-Faqih [Islamic jurisprudence],” Ahmadinejad said, the Associated Pressreported.

Rafsanjani, on the other hand, was purportedly barred from the list due to his advanced age. But most analysts believe it is because of his support for reformist candidate Mir Hussein Mousavi in the contested 2009 election that launched widespread riots known as the “Green Revolution.”

While approved list of eight candidates includes several hardliners and loyalists to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, two candidates are seen as pro-reform: former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani and former vice president Mohammad Reza Aref, according to the Associated Press.

The Moore, OK tornado. Photo: Wikimedia commons

Politico – CNN’s Wolf Blitzer talks to an Oklahoma tornado survivor:

Blitzer: We’re happy you’re here. You guys did a great job. I guess you got to thank the Lord. Right?

Survivor:  Yeah.

Read full story.

Eric Garcetti, the first elected Jewish mayor in Los Angeles history. Photo: Neon Tommy/Wikimedia Commons.

Eric Garcetti will be the first elected Jewish mayor in the history of Los Angeles after winning 54 percent of the vote in a race decided early Wednesday morning.

Garcetti, a 42-year-old Democratic city councilman whose mother is of Russian Jewish descent and whose father is Mexican American, defeated city controller Wendy Greuel.

National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) Chair Marc R. Stanley said in a statement that NJDC is “extraordinarily proud that Garcetti is the first Jewish American elected to serve as the mayor of America’s second largest city.”

“Garcetti has a distinguished record of public service along with strong ties to the city. We wish him and his family a hearty mazal tov,” Stanley said.

The eclectic Garcetti has acted on television shows including All My Children and The Closer, in addition to being a Rhodes Scholar and serving for eight years in military intelligence for U.S. Navy Reserves.

Terrorist attack aftermath in Burgas, Bulgaria. Photo: Dano Monkotovic/FLASH90

Ynet – Germany says it supports adding the military wing of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah to the European Union’s list of terrorist groups.

Germany’s foreign ministry says the decision follows “discussions we have had with our partners following the terrorist attack in Burgas” on the Bulgarian coast last year that killed five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver.

Read full story.

IDF soldiers operate during a Home Front Command drill. Photo: wiki commons.

Times of Israel -  The Home Front Command on Wednesday was preparing for a massive military drill next week, to focus on coping with chemical weapons attacks. The nationwide exercise will drill the civilian population as well as military and emergency services.

The exercise was originally scheduled to take place three weeks ago but was postponed due to tension with Syria. The simulation, which is being run in conjunction with the emergency response services, starts Sunday morning as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces a week of national emergency preparedness.

Read full story.

From left to right, at the Victory Assembly of God Church's United Jerusalem Day Celebration on May 19 in Sharon, Mass.: Cathy Lanyard, executive director of American Friends of ALYN Hospital; Dr. Pat Robertson, chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), Pastor Joe Green, director of outreach ministries for Victory Assembly of God Church; and Rabbi Jonathan Hausman of Congregation Ahavath Torah in Stoughton, Mass. Credit: Victory Assembly of God Church. Photo: Victory Assembly of God Church.

SHARON, Mass.—One month after a large rock was thrown through the windows of a Sharon, Mass., church—in addition to swastikas being painted on the church doors and a banner for an upcoming Jerusalem Day celebration being shredded—the same rock was repurposed as a symbol of hope during an event featuring noted televangelist Dr. Pat Robertson.

At the Victory Assembly of God Church on Sunday, the rock, which was inscribed with the words of Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon forged against you shall prosper,” became the centerpiece of a renewed and undeterred Jerusalem Day celebration at the church.

“This is a time to celebrate our love for the Jewish people and for Israel,” said Robertson, chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) and host of its “700 Club” show.

“When people ask me why, as a Baptist, I have such love, I tell them it is because we worship a Jew who lived in Nazareth and died in the city of Jerusalem,” Robertson told the transfixed, capacity crowd of congregants, Jews from area synagogues, and Rabbis Jonathan H. Hausman, Barry Starr and Jonina Pritzker. Outside, Sharon police and fire department officials and a local security company maintained a tight presence, screening each entrant and confiscating phones and electronics.

According to its website, featuring a photo of the repurposed rock, the 250-member church seeks to “build relationships, strengthen families and encounter God through meaningful worship.”

Speakers at the event, which became a fundraising drive for Jerusalem’s ALYN Hospital, included Shai Bazak, consul general of Israel to New England, and Col. Amnon Meir, the Israel Defense Forces’ liaison officer to the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC).

Bazak explained that his first name, Shai, was an acronym for Jerusalem—appropriate because Bazak was born in 1967 just after the city’s reunification.

The rock thrown through the windows of Victory Assembly of God Church in Sharon, Mass., last month has been repurposed as a symbol of hope, inscribed with the words of Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon forged against you shall prosper.” Photo: Victory Assembly of God Church.

“It is a part of my name,” he said of Jerusalem, adding that when he suffers from any stress, a vein in his forehead forms his name’s first Hebrew letter, Shin. The gravestone of Bazak’s father on Jerusalem’s historic Mount of Olives cemetery reads “One of the liberators of the City of Jerusalem.”

“Jerusalem of gold, iron, war, peace, tears, hope, of children and of elderly people; everyone has a piece of Jerusalem in their heart,” Bazak said.

Meir, a veteran of the second Lebanon War, said, “It was tough, but I knew exactly what I had to do.” Now, however, Meir said he doesn’t know “what the future will hold for Israel.”

“And I can’t say, because I am an officer of the military,” Meir said. “But I can tell you that Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish people.”

ALYN (All the Love You Need) is a nonprofit rehabilitation center in Jerusalem for physically challenged and disabled children, adolescents and young adults. Cathy Lanyard, executive director of American Friends of ALYN Hospital, told the crowd, “Love never fails at ALYN. All the therapies in the world are meaningless unless you have the human touch, which is a recipe for miracles.”

Following Lanyard’s talk, the ushers came forward to take pledges from attendees to support the hospital, and the crowd broke out into a rousing rendition of “Heivenu Shalom Aleichem,” with music and dancing. Even a woman in a wheelchair pumped her fist.

After the event, Lanyard about her personal connection to her cause with JNS.org.

“In 1998, my daughter was in a car accident—her friend died, and she suffered two broken knees and could not walk,” Lanyard said.

The rock thrown through the windows of Victory Assembly of God Church in Sharon, Mass., last month has been repurposed as a symbol of hope, inscribed with the words of Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon forged against you shall prosper.” Photo: Victory Assembly of God Church.

Minette Brown, president of the ALYN board, was also in Sharon for the event.

“My great aunt and uncle, Malcolm and Dorothy Woldenberg, saw children with polio being passed in and out of windows as their only way outside the former hospital site in a monastery basement in Katamon (a Jerusalem neighborhood),” Brown told JNS.org. The Woldenbergs decided to make a donation, securing zoning exemption help from then-Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek in the process, to secure ALYN’s current site in the city’s Kiryat Yove neighborhood.

Fumio Taku, president of event cosponsor Christians and Jews United for Israel, began the afternoon with a reflection on the recent Boston Marathon bombings, which occurred only a few days prior to the vandalizing of the church. “One month ago, as I watched the Boston bombings, I thought of suicide bombings that occurred in Haifa and Tel Aviv when I was in Israel,” he said.

Also speaking on the Boston Marathon bombings, Pat Robertson quoted verses from the Koran. He Islamic theology has divided the world into a world of war, or one of submission to its doctrine—with no in-between.

“These two young men were not an aberration,” Robertson said of the Tsarnaev brothers, the bombers. “One book (the Bible) is about love and hope, the other (the Koran), their book, teaches hate and violence.”

But in Sharon, the beauty of the relatively recent friendship between the church and area Jewish officials and institutions was on full display. Pastor Joe Green, director of outreach ministries for Victory Assembly of God Church and previously a pastor and instructor in Florida as well as national outreach manager for CBN, said he had never even met a Jew, let alone a rabbi, prior to coming to Sharon. Looking at those around him on the podium, Green said, “God is doing something incredible in New England.”

The crowd, upon exiting, picked up brochures for ALYN’s Guardian Angels donor program, and for its Oct. 1-9 joint “Mission of Love,” which will tour Christian and Jewish sites in Israel, including the hospital. Attendee Sherry Alpert of Canton, Mass., told JNS.org, “Hearing such diverse Jewish and Christian clergy, including Rev. Robertson, speak of their common love of Israel was a privilege.”

Alpert, however, said she was “disappointed that more Jewish organizations did not see this event as a rallying cry both to fight anti-Semitism and support Israel.”

“Aren’t these the primary reasons most [Jewish organizations] exist?” she asked.

Green told JNS.org after the event that while many people don’t see the relationship between Christians and Jews as positive, the “incredible bonds” between the two faiths are “even stronger because of what happened in the past two hours.”

“On the way to the airport, Dr. Robertson told me that the sincerity of the group there today was uncanny,” Green said. “He could feel that it was a real development on the part of Jews and Christians for Israel.”