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Austin synagogue arsonist sentenced to 10 years in prison
(JTA) – A man who pleaded guilty to setting fire to a synagogue in Austin, Texas, in 2021 was sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in prison.
The sentencing of Franklin Sechriest came after a series of victim impact statements from members of Congregation Beth Israel, a Reform synagogue. Normal federal sentencing guidelines call for a five-year prison term, but prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge David Ezra to sentence Sechriest to 10 years due to what they said was the “tremendous damage” he caused and his “deep-seated hatred of persons of the Jewish faith.”
Sechriest pleaded guilty in April to two federal charges, including the destruction of religious property, which is classified as a hate crime. He admitted to setting a fire in October 2021 that damaged the sanctuary’s historic front doors and stained glass windows, causing around $250,000 worth of damage. Investigators found antisemitic and racist material as well as bomb-making supplies in his car, and journals filled with hate speech in which he had written, “I set a synagogue on fire.”
“It was a solemn and sad day,” Jake Cohen, Beth Israel’s executive director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “No one wanted to be in this moment, be in this place. And yet we are grateful to the judge, Judge Ezra, for his thoughtful deliberation, for his respectful, kind, empathic words to our community.”
Cohen said the sentencing carried extra weight coming amid a charged national climate around antisemitism. Law enforcement and Jewish groups have reported a rise in antisemitic incidents, and multiple Jewish institutions have been targeted by vandalism, bomb threats and other criminal behavior in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel and Israel’s subsequent war against the terror group in Gaza.
“Across the country right now, all Jewish communities are on heightened alert due to rising antisemitism,” Cohen said, adding that the congregation had received a robocall from the Ku Klux Klan mere weeks ago. “Everyone feels the anxiety and questions whether hate can come to our doorstep.”
The fire came amid a spate of antisemitic incidents in Austin organized by the Goyim Defense League, a white supremacist group that holds antisemitic rallies and distributes literature promoting hatred of Jews. The group, which the Anti-Defamation League said was responsible for nearly 500 antisemitic incidents in 2022, had hung a banner reading “Vax the Jews” from an Austin bridge in the days before the synagogue fire and streamed a swastika-burning event shortly afterwards. The group’s founder told the Daily Beast that Sechriest was not associated with the Goyim Defense League.
The congregation’s board of directors supported giving Sechriest a plea deal.
Daniel Wannamaker, Sechriest’s attorney, told JTA that his client had already spent two years in county jail and would get credit for that time. Sechriest has waived his right to an appeal.
“It’s a tough case because it’s a heinous crime,” Wannamaker said, adding that he believed Sechriest, who has autism, had been influenced by a hate group online.
In court filings asking for a delay in the hearing, Wannamaker had said that his client suffers from “several mental and emotional conditions” and would need more time to process the significance of his sentencing. The judge denied his request.
“He’s on the spectrum and he just kind of fell into the trap of finding people on the Internet who I think just took advantage of his condition,” the attorney told JTA. “They groomed him and had him commit these acts. But he’s guilty, he accepted his responsibility, and now we just want him to get help, which he should be able to get in a federal facility that deals with mental health issues.”
Since the arson attack, Beth Israel has turned its social hall into a new prayer space, which it inaugurated during the High Holidays this year. Next week the synagogue will hold a “visioning process” to figure out whether to rehab the damaged prayer space or explore other options including relocating the congregation entirely. Whatever the synagogue decides, Cohen said, “it’s going to cost millions of dollars,” and leaders plan to launch a capital campaign. The congregation also recently commemorated two years since the arson.
“We’re going to do what Jews do and make lemonade from a really painful situation,” Cohen said.
The new space includes a Ner Tamid, or eternal flame, constructed from bits of the fire-damaged stained glass.
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The post Austin synagogue arsonist sentenced to 10 years in prison appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Quebec premier urges Montreal mayor to take a harder line on rioters after a weekend of violence
Quebec Premier François Legault wants Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to get her house in order. Speaking to reporters in Quebec City on Nov. 26, Legault talked about the violent demonstrations […]
The post Quebec premier urges Montreal mayor to take a harder line on rioters after a weekend of violence appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Israel-Hezbollah Truce Holds After Ceasefire Takes Effect
UN peacekeeper (UNIFIL) vehicle drives in Bent Jbeil, after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took effect, southern Lebanon, Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Aziz Taher
A ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah held on Wednesday after the two sides struck a deal brokered by the US and France, but Israel warned local residents not to return to the border area yet.
The ceasefire agreement, a rare diplomatic feat in a region wracked by conflict for months, ended the deadliest confrontation between Israel and the Iran-backed Islamist group in years, but Israel is still fighting its other arch foe the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Cars and vans piled high with mattresses, suitcases, and even furniture streamed through the heavily-bombed southern port city of Tyre, heading south where hundreds of thousands of people had been forced to flee their homes by the violence.
However, the Israeli army’s Arabic spokesperson cautioned southern Lebanon residents against moving south of the Litani river from 5 pm local (1500 GMT) to 7 am (0500 GMT), noting that Israeli forces were still present in the area.
Lebanon’s army, tasked with ensuring the ceasefire lasts, said it began deploying additional troops south of the Litani, into a region heavily bombarded by Israel in its battle against Hezbollah. The river runs about 30 km (20 miles) north of Israel‘s border.
Israel‘s attacks have also struck eastern cities and towns and Hezbollah’s stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and Israeli troops have pushed around 6 km (4 miles) into Lebanon in a series of ground incursions launched in September.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israeli forces can remain in Lebanon for 60 days and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military not to allow residents back to villages near the border, after four Hezbollah operatives were detained in the area.
The Lebanese army urged returning residents not to approach areas where Israeli forces were present for their own safety.
The ceasefire deal, which is designed to end a conflict across the Israeli-Lebanese border that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by Hamas’s invasion of southern Israel last Oct. 7, is a major achievement for the US in the waning days of President Joe Biden’s administration.
Diplomatic efforts will now turn to Gaza, where Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas, which led the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israeli communities. However, there were no hopes of peace returning any time soon to the Palestinian enclave.
Israel has said its military aim in Lebanon had been to ensure the safe return of nearly 70,000 Israelis who fled from their communities along the northern border when Hezbollah started firing rockets at them almost daily in support of Hamas in Gaza.
In Lebanon, some cars flew national flags, others honked, and one woman could be seen flashing the victory sign with her fingers as people started to return to homes they had fled.
Many of the villages the people were likely returning to have been destroyed.
Hussam Arrout, a father of four, said he was itching to return to his home.
“The Israelis haven’t withdrawn in full, they’re still on the edge. So we decided to wait until the army announces that we can go in. Then we’ll turn the cars on immediately and go to the village,” he said.
‘PERMANENT CESSATION’
Announcing the ceasefire, Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday shortly after Israel‘s security cabinet approved the agreement in a 10-1 vote.
“This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,” Biden said. “What is left of Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations will not be allowed to threaten the security of Israel again.”
Israel will gradually withdraw its forces as Lebanon’s army takes control of territory near its border with Israel to ensure that Hezbollah does not rebuild its infrastructure there after a costly war, Biden said.
He said his administration was also pushing for an elusive ceasefire in Gaza.
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters that the group “appreciates” Lebanon’s right to reach an agreement which protects its people, and hopes for a deal to end the Gaza war.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US would start its renewed push for a Gaza ceasefire on Wednesday.
Iran reserves the right to react to Israeli airstrikes on Iran last month but also bears in mind other developments in the region, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
Araghchi told reporters during a trip to Lisbon that Iran welcomed Tuesday’s ceasefire agreement in Lebanon and hoped it could lead to a permanent ceasefire.
The Israeli military said on Wednesday Israeli forces fired at several vehicles with suspects to prevent them from reaching a no-go zone in Lebanese territory and the suspects moved away.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to “act firmly and without compromise” should it happen again.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said that the group would retain the right to defend itself if Israel attacked.
The ceasefire would give the Israeli army an opportunity to rest and replenish supplies, and isolate Hamas, said Netanyahu.
“We have pushed them [Hezbollah] decades back. We eliminated [the late Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, the axis of the axis. We have taken out the organization’s top leadership, we have destroyed most of their rockets and missiles,” he said.
The post Israel-Hezbollah Truce Holds After Ceasefire Takes Effect first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Lebanon Truce Expands Area Free of Hezbollah Arms, Sharpens Terms of UN Resolution
Soldier stands guard next to poster with images of late Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and late senior Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, at the entrance of Beirut’s southern suburbs in Lebanon, after a ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed group Hezbollah took effect on Nov. 27, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani
A ceasefire deal agreed to by Lebanon and Israel expands the area expected to be free of Hezbollah‘s arms and spells out the Lebanese security forces entitled to carry weapons, sharpening language from prior UN resolutions on the matter in ways that appear to corner the Lebanese terrorist organization, diplomats and analysts said.
The deal, published by Lebanon‘s cabinet on Wednesday, runs to just over five pages of printed text and includes a map of southern Lebanon.
The area to be free of Hezbollah weaponry is delineated by a red line labelled “New 2024 line” that runs east-west across Lebanon.
It starts from a point on the coast about 25 km (15 miles) north of the Israeli border and runs eastward, mostly along the Litani River but then diverging from it north of the town of Yohmor, thus going beyond the area that UN Security Council Resolution 1701 said would be free of non-state arms.
Resolution 1701 ended the last round of conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.
The expanded zone includes Beaufort Castle, a Crusader-era fortress considered strategic because it commands a view onto the Israeli border, said retired army brigadier general Hassan Jouni.
The 2006 resolution also said there would be “no weapons without the consent of the Government of Lebanon” deployed across Lebanese territory.
The new ceasefire deal goes further, stipulating that only “official military and security forces” in Lebanon are authorized to carry arms.
It specifically names those forces as the Lebanese Armed Forces, the Internal Security Forces, General Security, State Security, Lebanese customs, and municipal police.
“Naturally it means a seriousness with implementation, so that there is no obscurity around this that could be interpreted in a different way,” said Jouni.
“It serves the interest of the Lebanese state and its official institutions, but it is not to the interest of Hezbollah.”
Officials in both the Beirut government and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which wields enormous political influence in Lebanon, have long referred to cabinet statements since 2008 enshrining the right to “resistance” as de facto official approval for Hezbollah‘s arsenal.
Two Lebanese officials told Reuters they did not find the added language in the new deal cause for concern, and said the most important achievement was a halt to the war.
But diplomats said the wording could give Israel more leverage than after 2006 to prevent Hezbollah from re-arming or redeploying fighters or weapons.
“Lebanon either didn’t have any other option, or they think they can outsmart it,” one diplomat from the region said.
A senior Western diplomat said Israel had such an upper hand, following months of heavy strikes that eliminated much of Hezbollah‘s top leadership and displaced more than 1.2 million people, that it could effectively dictate terms.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah was asked by a reporter on Wednesday about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statements that Israel retained military freedom of action and would strike Hezbollah if it violated the deal.
Fadlallah said the group would retain the right to defend itself if Israel attacked.
The post Lebanon Truce Expands Area Free of Hezbollah Arms, Sharpens Terms of UN Resolution first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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