Seattle: The Most Anti-Semitic City in the US

Seattle, Washington is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1851 and with a rich settlement history that dates back to the end of the last ice age, it has been a city of diversity and a rich cultural heritage. But not any more. Seattle is now the first US city to declare it is ok to shoot up a Jewish Organization killing one woman and wounding 5 others (including heavily pregnant Dayna Klein).

When the defendant Naveed Afzal Haq began his shooting spree he shouted: "I'm a Muslim American! I'm angry at Israel!" Then the shooting began. But the jury in Seattle didn't buy that this was a hate crime or even murder or attempted murder.

A few jurors thought Naveed Haq was guilty, but many apparently weren't convinced that he went to the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle intending to kill anyone.

The jury's deadlock in the case centered mainly on whether Haq acted with premeditation or intent -- not so much whether he was insane, one juror said Thursday.

Though the jury split various ways on the 15 criminal charges, she said at least half weren't convinced he was guilty of first-degree murder in the shooting death of federation worker Pam Waechter or of trying to kill the five women who were wounded.

She said the six-man, six-woman jury spent much of seven days debating whether it had been proved Haq had gone to the Belltown office with premeditation -- or the intent to kill people -- and barely even got to the question of insanity.

Some jurors believed "he went there with a gun to take hostages and make a point" -- not to end lives, she said.

What do they think he was there for? Tea? He was there to maim and kill. He even practiced along the way to the building.

But instead we have a Jewish Organization, and a Jewish woman dead at the hands of a Muslim man.

On the five attempted-murder charges, the split differed greatly, in part because some jurors considered whether each woman was shot before or after Haq announced that anyone who called 911 would be killed.

Depending on the charge, as many as 11 jurors believed he should be found not guilty, and between one and three believed he should be found not guilty by reason of insanity. Up to six voted guilty.

Jurors unanimously found Haq not guilty of attempted first-degree murder in the shooting of Carol Goldman, the first victim, in their only verdict in the case. Some believed he shot her reactively when a colleague told her to call 911, the juror said.

Now if the defendant was a white man and the office that had been attacked was the NAACP, the verdict would have been different. The death penalty would have been invoked, the Main Stream Media would have had 100's of reporters there to cover the trial, we would have seen Reverend Al Sharpton screaming racism all over the place.

I don't hold out any hope that a retrial will have a different outcome. For this isn't the only sign of the anti-Semitism of Seattle.

Seattle to be first US city to divest from Israel?

Hat tip on this to Israel Matzav

The city of Seattle may have an initiative on its ballot in November that would require it to divest from its investments in Israeli corporations.

Initiative 97 spearheaded by a group called Seattle Divest from War and Occupation, links divestment from Israel with divestment from companies involved in the war in Iraq, such as Halliburton. It stipulates that city employee retirement funds ought not to be invested in corporations involved in Israeli settlements in the occupied territories — including the Golan Heights. The initiative also states that, in the event that Israel were to attack Iran without U.N. authorization, the city would be required to divest from Israeli government bonds.

Does that mean that when Iran nukes an Israeli city, they cannot respond to the attack? Or only if the UN gives the ok to do so?

And who is sponsoring this hatefest of Israel? The ANSWER Coalition, SNOW, the Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Green Party. The usual gang of left-wing moonbats and anti-Semitic, anti-Israel Muslim extremists.

I have no doubt that Initiative 97 will pass this November by a wide margin. Just as I have no doubt that Naveed Afzal Haq will be found Not Guilty by the next jury he faces. And it will then be legal under the law in Seattle, Washington to kill a Jew.

And that makes Seattle, Washington:
The Most Anti-Semitic City in the US.