Saturday, November 14, 2015

Main target in Paris attack: Jewish concert hall - Ari Yashar



by Ari Yashar


Bataclan Theater, where 82 of the over 128 were murdered, was owned by Jews, and previously had been targeted by radical Islamic groups.

Bataclan Theater in Paris, the concert hall where most of the bloodshed was seen on Saturday as 82 out of a total of more than 128 people were murdered in six coordinated attacks claimed by Islamic State (ISIS), was owned by Jews.

In the attack, four terrorists armed with assault rifles shouting "Allahu akbar" (Allah is greater) stormed in during a concert by the US rock group Eagles of Death Metal. They executed hostages one by one.

Three of them blew up their explosive belts in suicide attacks as anti-terror police ended the siege at 12:30 a.m. local time, while a fourth was shot by police. Next to one of the attackers, a Syrian passport of a man who entered Europe via Greece as a "refugee" was found.

The French magazine Le Point reported on Saturday that a member of the radical group Army of Islam told French security services back in 2011 that "we had planned an attack against the Bataclan because its owners are Jewish."

Bataclan Theater was also targeted back in 2004 when the Israeli hip-hop duo of Subliminal and Hatzel performed there, despite threats by Islamists that nearly closed the performance. In a 2006 repeat, the venue gave in to the pressure and canceled the show in advance, forcing the Zionist rap stars to perform elsewhere.

"Anti-semitic motives"

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Saturday expressed its outrage at the attack while noting on the Jewish connection of the concert hall.

"We join with the international community in loudly condemning these barbaric and heinous terror attacks, which have claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people going about their lives," said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO.

"Words cannot express our shock at these despicable attacks in Paris. This was an outrageous, cowardly and premeditated assault not just on the people of France, but on all freedom loving people around the world."

"While the investigation continues and the terrorists’ motivations are still unclear, we are deeply concerned at reports that the Bataclan Theater has long been a locus of anti-Zionist groups. We hope the French authorities will investigate the possibility that virulent anti-Semitism was a motive in the attack," added Greenblatt.

"Having been in Paris earlier this month, I can attest to the resolve and strength of the people of that great city, and know that they will emerge from this tragedy stronger and more united. We stand in solidarity with the French people during this terrible time, and support the efforts of the French government to locate and apprehend those behind the attacks and bring safety and security to all of France.  

"Earlier this year, Paris endured the brutality of the attack on Charlie Hebdo, an assault on free expression. We also saw the violent killing committed at Hyper Cacher, a heinous act of anti-Semitism directed squarely against the Jewish community, one of a series of murderous acts in recent years intended to terrorize French Jews. As happened after these incidents, we know that the City of Light will rise again from the darkness and prevail over those who would seek to use terror as a blunt instrument against freedom and democracy. In the aftermath of this attack we must all rise up and say, 'JeSuisFrancais!'"


Ari Yashar

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/203376#.VkeWaL-zdds

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Bankruptcy and Mud - Bassam Tawil



by Bassam Tawil

  • "If only we Arabs," they wrote, "who kill people cruelly and wholesale, cared as much about people as the Jews care about animals." We often hear Arabs privately saying, "the Zionists have never done to us what we do to ourselves."
  • Every Palestinian youth knows that the weekly riots at the "traditional friction points" serve as social events, later used by Palestinians operatives for propaganda.
  • As our elders have said for years: "Falastin ['Palestine' in Arabic] begins with falas [bankruptcy] and ends with teen [mud]."

Palestinian bloggers were amazed when Israelis protested the cruel slaughter of chickens in poultry-packing plants, and during epidemics. "If only we Arabs," they wrote, "who kill people cruelly and wholesale, cared as much about people as the Jews care about animals."

Civilian cameras often record events of startling cruelty carried out in Arab countries, in areas of conflict. We often hear Arabs privately saying, "The Zionists have never done to us what we do to ourselves." This is usually said by Syrians, who have hated the Jews for generations, when they give their thanks for the medical treatment they receive in Israel. Despite the hatred fostered by Hamas, after the most recent military operation, many Gazans admitted that the IDF did in fact warn civilians before attacking terrorist targets protected by "human shields."

The pictures of an armed Israeli soldier who did not strike back when he was viciously attacked by Palestinian women and children in Nebi Saleh, amazed many regional bloggers. "If such a thing had happened to us," they wrote on Twitter accounts, "the soldier would have killed his attackers without hesitation."

The pictures of an armed Israeli soldier who did not strike back when he was viciously attacked by Palestinian women and children, amazed many Arab bloggers.

As a Palestinian, I know that such situations are produced by Palestinians whose ability to stage them is professional and I know the source of their income. They cynically exploit the Israeli political "left," and enlist photographers to document the events for European-funded "Pallywood" media manipulation.

Every Palestinian youth knows that the weekly riots at the "traditional friction points" serve as social events, later used by Palestinians operatives for propaganda. Often, in the finest Hollywood tradition, parties are held after the "conflict action scenes."

The festivities sometimes include sex and drugs with the blond, blue-eyed volunteers from abroad, to celebrate another successful encounter with the Israeli security forces.

The escalating Palestinian riot routine takes into consideration that risks are few, because of IDF restraint in dealing with "civilians," as we saw in Nebi Saleh when the Israeli soldier who was attacked and bitten did not respond with gunfire to defend himself. Israel's restraint only makes the slaughter, rape and expulsion of Muslims at the hands of Muslims seem all the more vicious.

Many of the bankrupt European countries hostile to Israel now find themselves faced with a massive influx of Middle Eastern and African refugees. They are the brothers and sisters of the hundreds of thousands of murdered Muslims and the millions of refugees in tents, with only Allah ( s.w.a.t) to pity and protect them. Many die in leaky boats, in a desperate attempt to reach the safe shores of Europe. Those who do make it safely, join the Muslims in the Islamic enclaves where they have been plotting against their hosts for years.

The West has waited far too long to wake up to the realization that the Palestinian problem is not the cause of regional events. Therefore, The West's obsession with forcing a "solution" on Israel and the Palestinians will change nothing for the better, it will only expand the catastrophe to the doorstep of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the only islands of security and stability for Arabs, Christians and Jews in the Middle East.

In the shadow of the calamity of the refugees, we are slowly understanding that the issue of the return of the Palestinians to "Palestine," which we hang on to so frantically, is an anachronistic, politically manipulated mirage. There is nothing to be done but settle the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees as part of the overall settlement of all the Middle Eastern refugees -- if, that is, our Arab brothers ever succeed in extricating themselves from the swamp of the "Arab Spring."

What is strange is that the Gulf States, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which fund Islamic terrorism and pay the salaries of the radical clerics who incite murder and destruction, are silent when it comes to accepting refugees into their countries. Saudi Arabia has hundreds of thousands of empty, air-conditioned tents at its disposal, used only during the hajj pilgrimage. They could help shelter the millions of Sunni Muslim Syrian and Iraqi refugees. But Saudi Arabia does not open its gates to them, not even to a small number.

Now, by accusing each other for our refusal, hesitation and rejection of every proposal that might bring the Israelis to the negotiating table, we have finally managed to put an end to the "problem of Palestine." As our elders have said for years: "Falastin ['Palestine' in Arabic] begins with falas [bankruptcy] and ends with teen [mud]."


Bassam Tawil is a scholar based in the Middle East.


Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6801/palestinians-bankruptcy

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Sweden Descends into Anarchy - Ingrid Carlqvist



by Ingrid Carlqvist

  • "You have to understand that Swedes are really scared when an asylum house opens in their village. They can see what has happened in other places." — Salesman for alarm systems.
  • Since Parliament decided in 1975 that Sweden should be multicultural and not Swedish, crime has exploded. Violent crime has increased by over 300% and rapes have increased by an unbelievable 1,472%.
  • Many Swedes see the mass immigration as a forced marriage: Sweden is forced to marry a man she did not choose, yet she is expected to love and honor him, even though he beats her and treats her badly. Her parents (the government) tell her to be warm and show solidarity with him.
  • "Are the State and I now in agreement that our mutual contract is being renegotiated?" — Alexandra von Schwerin, whose farm who was robbed three times. Police refused to help.

Once upon a time, there was a safe welfare state called Sweden, where people rarely locked their doors.

Now, this country is a night-watchman state -- each man is on his own. When the Minister of Justice, Morgan Johansson, encourages breaking the law, it means opening the gates to anarchy. Mr. and Mrs. Swede have every reason to be worried, with the influx of 190,000 unskilled and unemployed migrants expected this year -- equivalent to 2% of Sweden's current population. The number is as if 6.4 million penniless migrants who did not speak English arrived in U.S. in one year, or 1.3 million in Britain.

And the Swedes are preparing: demand for firearms licenses is increasing; more and more Swedes are joining shooting clubs and starting vigilante groups. After a slight dip in 2014, the number of new gun permits has gone up significantly again this year. According to police statistics, there are 1,901,325 licensed guns, owned by 567,733 people, in Sweden. Add to this an unknown number of illegal weapons. To get a gun permit in Sweden, you need to be at least 18 years old; law-abiding; well-behaved, and have a hunting license or be a member of an approved shooting club. In 2014, 11,000 people got a hunting license: 10% more than the year before. One out of five was a woman.

"There is also a high demand for alarm systems right now," says a salesman at one of the security companies in an interview with Gatestone.
"It is largely due to the turbulence we are seeing around the country at the moment." People have lost confidence in the State, he added. "The police will not come anymore. Truck drivers say that when they see a thief emptying the fuel tank of their trucks, they run out with a baseball bat. It is no use calling the police, but if you hit the thief, you can at least prevent him from stealing more diesel. Many homeowners say the same thing: they sleep with a baseball bat under the bed. But this is risky: the police can then say you have been prepared to use force, and that might backfire on you."
The salesman, who asked to remain anonymous, also spoke of Sweden's many Facebook groups, in which people in different villages openly discuss how they intend to protect themselves: "Sometimes you get totally freaked out when you see what they are writing. But you have to understand that Swedes are really scared when an asylum house opens in their village. They can see what has happened in other places."

One blog, detailing the consequences for the local population when an asylum facility opens, is aptly named Asylkaos ("Asylum Chaos"). There is a list of companies the reader is prompted to boycott; the blog claims these businesses encourage the transformation of Sweden to a multicultural society, and are therefore considered "hostile to Swedes."

At another security company, a salesman said that every time the Immigration Service buys or rents a new housing facility, his firm is swamped with calls. "The next day," he said, "half the village calls and wants to buy alarm systems."

Ronny Fredriksson, spokesman of the security company Securitas, said that the demand for home alarm systems first exploded about six years ago, when many local police stations were shut down and police moved to the main towns. This, he said, could result in response times of several hours. "More and more people now employ the services of our security guards. Shopping malls and stores in the city come together and hire guards. We are kind of like the 'local beat' cops of old."

Even though Securitas makes big money from the increased need for home security alarms and security guards, Fredriksson says they also are worried about the effect on society:
"The problem is that we too need the police. When our guards catch a burglar or a violent person, we call the police but the response times are often very long. Sometimes, the detainees get violent and quite rowdy. On occasion, the police have told us to release the person we have apprehended, if we have his identity, because they do not have a patrol nearby."
Even before the massive influx of migrants in the fall of 2015, Swedes felt a need to protect themselves -- and with good reason. Since the Parliament decided in 1975 that Sweden should be multicultural and not Swedish, crime has exploded. Violent crime has increased by more than 300%, and rapes have increased by an unbelievable 1,472%.

The politicians, however, ignore the people's fear completely. It is never discussed. Instead, the people who express concern about what kind of country Sweden has become are accused of xenophobia and racism. Most likely, that is the reason more and more people are taking matters into their own hands, and protecting themselves and their families to the best of their ability.

All the same, some people do not settle for that. It seems some people are trying to stop mass immigration to Sweden. Almost every day there are reports of fires being set at asylum houses. So far, miraculously, no one has been hurt.

These fires are set not only by Swedes. On October 13, a 36-year-old woman living in Skellefteå was convicted of setting fire to the asylum facility in which she herself resided. The woman claimed she lit a candle and then fell asleep. Yet forensic evidence showed that a combustible fluid had been doused throughout the room, and the court found beyond a reasonable doubt that she herself had ignited the fire.


Left: The burned remains of a home for asylum seekers in Munkedal, Sweden, after it was torched last month. Right: There are nearly 2 million licensed guns, owned by 567,733 people, in Sweden.

The number of violent incidents at Sweden's Immigration Service facilities is now sky-high. In 2013, according to Dispatch International, at least one incident happened every day. When Gatestone Institute recently acquired the incident list for January 1, 2014 through October 29, 2015, that number had risen to 2,177 incidents of threats, violence and brawls -- on average, three per day.

The Swedish government, however, would apparently rather not talk about that. Foreign Minister Margot Wallström conceded, in an interview with the daily Dagens Nyheter that garnered international attention, that Sweden is, in fact, heading for a systemic breakdown:
"Most people seem to think we cannot maintain a system where perhaps 190,000 people will arrive every year. In the long run, our system will collapse. This welcome is not going to receive popular support. We want to give people who come here a worthy reception."
Symptomatic of Swedish journalists, this statement was tucked away at the end of the article. The headline was about how the political party that is critical of immigration, the Sweden Democrats Party (Sverigedemokraterna), is responsible for the asylum-housing fires. But foreign media, such as The Daily Mail and Russia Today, picked up Wallström's warning about a systemic collapse and ran it as the urgent news it actually is.

Nevertheless, in official Sweden, the imminent collapse is ignored. Instead, journalists exclusively focus on attacks by supposedly "racist" Swedes on refugee centers. To prevent new fires, the Immigration Service decided on October 28 that from now on, all asylum facilities would have secret addresses. And meager police resources will now be stretched even further -- to protect asylum seekers. Police helicopters will even patrol refugee centers. But considering there are only five helicopters available, and that Sweden's landmass is 407,340 square km (157,274 square miles), this gesture is effectively empty.

At a meeting with the Nordic Council in Reykjavik, Iceland, on October 27, Sweden's Prime Minister, Stefan Löfven, was questioned by his Nordic colleagues about the situation in Sweden. Löfven had recently said that, "We should have the option of relocating people applying for asylum in Sweden to other EU-countries. Our ability, too, has a limit. We are facing a paradigm shift." That comment led a representative of Finland's Finns Party (Sannfinländarna) to wonder, with a hint of irony, how mass immigration to Sweden, which for years Swedish politicians have touted as being so profitable, has now suddenly become a burden.

Another Finns Party representative, Simon Elo, pointed out that the situation in Sweden is out of control. "Sweden has great abilities, but not even the Swedes have abilities that great," Elo said.
When Löfven was asked how he is dealing with the real concerns and demands of the citizenry, his answer was laconic: "Of course I understand there is concern," Löfven said. "It is not easy. But at the same time -- there are 60 million people on the run. This is also about them being our fellow men, and I hope that viewpoint will prevail."

The daily tabloid Expressen asked Löfven about the attacks on asylum facilities. He replied, "Our communities should not be characterized by threats and violence, they should be warm and show solidarity."

As if such behavior can be forced.

Many Swedes see mass immigration as a forced marriage: Sweden is forced to marry a man she did not choose, yet she is expected to love and honor him even though he beats her and treats her badly. And on top of that, her parents (the government) tell her to be warm and show solidarity with him.
More and more Swedish commentators are now drawing the same conclusion: that Sweden is teetering on the brink of collapse. Editorial columnist Ivar Arpi of the daily Svenska Dagbladet, wrote an astonishing article on October 26, about a woman named Alexandra von Schwerin and her husband. The couple lives on the Skarhults Estate farm in Skåne in southern Sweden; they have been robbed three times. Most recently, they were robbed of a quad bike, a van and a car. When the police arrived, von Schwerin asked them what she should do. The police told her that they could not help her. "All our resources are on loan to the asylum reception center in Trelleborg and Malmö," they said. "We are overloaded right now. So I suggest you get in touch with the vigilante group in Eslöv."
What the police had called a "vigilante group" turned out to be a group of private business owners. In 2013, after being robbed more or less every night, they had decided to come together and start patrolling the area themselves. Currently, they pay a security firm to watch their facilities.

"On principal, I am totally against it," von Schwerin said. "What are the people who cannot afford private security to do? They will be unprotected. I'm sure I will join, but very, very reluctantly. For the first time, I feel scared to live here now. Are the State and I now in agreement that our mutual contract is being renegotiated?"

Commenting on the police's encouraging people to join vigilante groups, social commentator and former Refugee Ombudsman Merit Wager wrote:
"So, the Swedes are supposed to arrange and pay for their own and their families' security and keep their farms from being subjected to theft, even though that has up to now been included in the social contract -- for which we pay high taxes, to have police we can count on to protect us and apprehend criminals?! When did the social contract expire? October 2015? Without any notice of termination, since the tax-consuming party is not fulfilling its part of the deal? This should mean that our part of the deal - to pay taxes for public, joint services -- has also become invalid? If the social contract is broken, it is broken. Then it is musical chairs (lawlessness, defenselessness, without protection), and that means that each and every one of us should pay less taxes."
Ilan Sadé, lawyer and social commentator, wrote about the refugee chaos at Malmö Central Train Station on the blog Det Goda Samhället on October 27: "The authorities no longer honor the social contract." He described four large signs on display around the station that read "Refugee? Welcome to Malmö!" in four different languages.
"It is unclear who the sender of the message is, or, for that matter, who is in charge of the reception facility -- a number of barracks by the old post office in the inner harbor. Everything is utterly confusing. It could be Malmö City or the Immigration Service, but it might as well be 'Refugees Welcome,' or possibly a religious community. I think to myself that a government agency could not reasonably write like this, a correct and pertinent sign would say something like: 'Asylum seekers are referred to the barracks for information and further transport.' But I am probably wrong; Malmö City is the chief suspect communicant. ... The signs in and around the Central Station are symptoms of something incredibly serious: Role confusion and the decay of the constitutional state. And thus, that our authorities no longer honor the social contract."
In a post called Anarchy, blogger Johan Westerholm, who is a Social Democratic Party member and a critic of the government, wrote that the Minister for Justice and Migration, Morgan Johansson, is now urging authorities to "be pragmatic" about laws and regulations (concerning asylum housing for so-called unaccompanied refugee children). Westerholm stated that this is tantamount to the government "opening the gates to anarchy":
"Our country is founded on law; Parliament legislates and the courts apply these. Morgan Johansson's statement and his otherwise passive approach are testimony to how this, our kind of democracy, may fade into a memory very shortly. He now laid the first brick in the building of a state that rests on other principles. Anarchism."
If anarchy really does break out, it would be good to remember that there are nearly two million licensed firearms in Sweden. Sweden's shooting clubs have seen a surge in interest; many are welcoming a lot of new members lately.
Ingrid Carlqvist is a journalist and author based in Sweden, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of Gatestone Institute. Follow Ingrid Carlqvist on Twitter.
Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6865/sweden-anarchy

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Israel declares war on Palestinian Red Crescent - Nitsan Kedar



by Nitsan Kedar

Israeli officials demand explanation after Arab ambulance ignored dying Jewish victims of terror attack on Friday near Hevron.

Following reports that a Red Crescent ambulance passed by the site of Friday's deadly terrorist attack and ignored the victims as they lay dying, the Israeli government will be launching an international campaign against the organization, which in principle does not treat Jews - despite being bound to treat all casualties regardless off their identity.

Israel's Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency service, by contrast, regularly treats Palestinians.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ordered the foreign ministry to lodge a stern complaint with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva, under whose auspices the Red Crescent operates, demanding an explanation as to why the Palestinian ambulance ignored Israeli victims, contrary to all humanitarian and ethical practices.

A foreign ministry source told Arutz Sheva that "Israel will enact all necessary sanctions against the Red Crescent."

Netanyahu himself related to the incident in question this evening, during a press conference in which he condemned the terror attacks by ISIS in Paris.

"There was an incident yesterday, which appears to be very serious. The matter relates to an ambulance of the Red Crescent, which appears to have passed by the Litman family - (passed) by its dead and injured - and did not approach to give treatment. 

Netanyahu further noted that "no such thing" had ever occurred with Israeli emergency services "who provide aid without distinction to Jews, to Arabs, to everyone."

He added that if it became clear the incident was intentional, Israel will not remain silent and will use all the tools at its disposal against the Red Crescent.

Security sources say this is far from the first such incident. Red Crescent ambulances and other Palestinian medics have regularly ignored Israeli victims in need of treatment, in what appears to be a matter of policy.

In a deadly stabbing in October, which occurred right outside a Palestinian medical clinic in Jerusalem's Old City, Arab doctors and medics simply stood by while the Jewish victims bled to death, and as other Arab passersby abused the wife of one of the victims as she attempted to escape with a knife still embedded in her back.


Nitsan Kedar

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/203375#.VkeJTL-zdds

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

EU Priorities: How to Label Israeli Cucumbers - Michael Curtis



by Michael Curtis

This is what occupies the European Union's attention when it faces demographic destruction from the south and east.


Forty years ago, on November 10, 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 by a vote of 72 to 35, with 32 abstentions, determining that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”  The resolution called on all nations to oppose “this racist and imperialist ideology,” which those voting in favor considered a threat to world peace and security.

Because the vote was taken, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned that the United Nations was about to make anti-Semitism into international law, and that it was loosing a great evil on the world.  To all sensible observers, the resolution was based on hatred, arrogance, and anti-Semitism.

To a large extent, it was President George H.W. Bush who propelled action and personally introduced the resolution to revoke Resolution 3379.  He held that to equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism was to twist history and to reject Israel itself.  The United Nations could not claim to seek peace and at the same time challenge Israel’s right to exist.  On December 16, 1991, the U.N. General Assembly passed Resolution 46/86 by a vote of 111 to 25, with 13 abstentions, in a simple and unenthusiastic statement.  It decided to “revoke the determination contained in its Resolution 3379 of November 10, 1975.”

It is ironic that in the same week as the 40th anniversary of the infamous U.N. resolution, the 28-member European Union should issue its own form of discrimination against Israel.  After years of deliberation, the EU has been unable to decide on a common policy to deal with the hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants entering the countries of the EU, or on any quota to be allotted to the different member countries, or indeed on any foreign policy issue except Israel.

The EU was able to decide, on November 11, 2015, on an issue apparently more important than war or mass migration – namely, the issue of guidelines for the labeling of products coming from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, what it calls territories captured and occupied since June 1967.  The settlements must clearly label products as coming from them, not “Made in Israel.”  The EU asserted that it was their duty to inform European customers fully about the geographic origin of products so that buyers could make informed decisions.

This form of labeling of Israeli cucumbers is apparently more vital and more urgent than any contribution by EU countries to confronting the growing threat of Islamist terrorism to Europe, or other territorial disputes, let alone any attempt to stop the flow of Palestinian terrorism in Jerusalem and other cities.  

The labeling will largely be on fruits and vegetables – in effect, less than 1 percent of all trade from Israel to the EU.  What is the point?  Israeli settlements in the West Bank account for only 1.5 percent of Israel’s exports of goods and services to the EU, which in total now amount to $13 billion a year.  Israel’s exports to the EU have in fact grown 50 percent since 2005.

The EU had already taken prejudicial action against Israel in at least two ways.  It excluded products from the settlements from the customs exemptions that Israel had as an EU trading partner.  It also held in July 2013 that organizations in the settlements were not eligible for EU grants, funding, prizes, or scholarships.  This directive covers science, academia, economics, culture, and sports.  Both actions stemmed from the decision of foreign ministers of the EU that all Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

The reality is that this labeling process is not an economic policy, but a way to exert political pressure on Israel.  The essential if unspoken question is whether this labeling, akin to the yellow badge of Nazi days, is a form of anti-Semitism, since it might lead to a move to boycott the whole State of Israel, preliminary to the elimination of the state.  It is difficult to see how the labeling can contribute to a peace dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.
The EU did state that the labeling was not part of any plan for a complete boycott of goods from the settlements or from Israel.  However, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator who never negotiates and is now the PLO secretary general, wrote more menacingly that the labeling was a significant move toward a total boycott of Israeli settlements.  The Palestinian BDS movement heralded the EU action as a welcome sign that the EU was reacting to “Israeli intransigence.”

Unfortunately for both the proponents, Palestinians and others, of the BDS movement, and the decision makers of the EU, their bias and prejudice were made clear by Boris Johnson, the mayor of London since 2008 and a Conservative member of Parliament, who was visiting Israel.  Johnson, born in New York of British parents, is renowned as a flamboyant, witty, charismatic individual, famed for his skepticism of the value of the European Union.

In Tel Aviv on November 9, 2015, Johnson, who was paradoxically taking part in a Middle East trade mission, spoke of boycotters of Israel in a derogatory fashion.  His words should be repeated in the halls of the EU and elsewhere: “I cannot think of anything more foolish than to say you want to have any kind of divestments or sanctions or boycott against a country that is … the only democracy in the region … the only place that has, in my view, a pluralist, open society. “

Johnson might implicitly have been speaking to the foolish 343 British academics who last week wrote in the Guardian paper supporting a boycott of Israel.  The supporters of this “so called boycott are really just a bunch of corduroy-jacketed lefty academics who have no real standing in the matter.”

As a result of making this forthright statement, Johnson was forced to cancel a series of meetings with Palestinians, partly because of fears of security and partly because Palestinian groups themselves canceled invitations because of his remarks.

What better indication of the difficulty of making peace can there be?  Consider the crucial difference between Israel, an open society, and Palestinians, who refuse to discuss anything with anyone who has a difference of opinion with them.  How can Palestinians be prepared to enter into free, peaceful negotiations?

Another factor is the revelation that leftists in academia and in the media, politicians, charity organizations, and those interested in human rights buttress the Palestinian Narrative of Victimhood, a device that allows them to avoid peaceful negotiations with Israel.

Mayor Johnson was wrong on one point of his description of academics, since they rarely, if ever, wear corduroys these days, but he was not wrong in his assessment of these academics and cultural personalities, who have no real standing and whose real attitude may border on or have a touch of anti-Semitism.

All supporters of boycott of Israel might profit from attending to Johnson’s words.  A good British Conservative, the mayor remarked that there is something Churchillian about the country that Churchill helped to create.  In Israel there is the audacity, the bravery, the willingness to take risks with feats of outrageous derring-do.  Boycotters of Israel are not brave or audacious, nor do they take risks in urging Palestinians to come to the negotiating table.


Michael Curtis

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/11/eu_priorities_how_to_label_israeli_cucumbers.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

NY Times Whitewashes the Palestinian Child Death Cult - Ari Lieberman



by Ari Lieberman

Moral equivalency and victim blaming.




On October 12, two Arabs cousins, one 17 (some sources say 15) and the other 13 set out on a mission to hunt and kill Jews. Armed with knives, the felonious duo traveled to Pisgat Zeev, a quiet Jewish community in northern Jerusalem to carry out their act of savagery. 

Their first target was a 25 year old man who sustained serious injuries but nonetheless managed to escape his attackers. Their second target was a 13-year old boy on his bicycle who had just exited a candy shop. They stabbed him in the neck and kicked him in the head while he was on the ground before being chased off by bystanders. The boy was brought to the hospital in critical condition, hovering between life and death but miraculously recovered from his dreadful injuries.

The stabbing spree finally came to an end when police officers shot and killed the older knife-wielding assailant while the younger felon, Ahmed Manasra, was run over by a car driven by a civilian. Manasra was given life-saving treatment at Hadassah Hospital where he informed his treating physicians that he “went there to stab Jews.” That candid and horrifying admission was corroborated by CCTV footage showing both assailants armed with long knives prowling for their victims and then attacking them mercilessly. 

The two Arab terrorists who executed this cowardly attack were motivated by the same xenophobic factors that prompted white supremacist Frazier Glenn Cross, to carry out his murderous shooting spree at two Jewish affiliated sites in Overland Park, Kansas. Base anti-Semitism, inspired by age-old conspiracy theories, was the single motivating factor for both attacks. Anyone arguing otherwise is either naïve, delusional or deliberately mendacious.

The New York Times, the paper that played host to the notorious Max Blumenthal, a man admired by Frazier Glenn Cross, unfortunately falls into one of these three categories but probably the latter. Over the years, the Gray Lady has steadily evolved itself into a mouthpiece for Palestinian propaganda and conspiracy theories. Its writers who cover the Arab-Israeli topic area have readily acknowledged adopting the Palestinian narrative and throwing objectivity out the window.

Israeli (and US citizen) motorists murdered in Palestinian rock-throwing attacks are deemed unworthy of mention and when their murders are belatedly noted, they’re sanitized as simple “car accidents.” Palestinian terrorists killed while executing terrorist attacks are generally treated as victims killed by Israeli occupation soldiers in attention grabbing headlines. Only when delving deeper into the article is the reader informed of the actual circumstances of death.

The New York Times’ reporting of the October 12 Givat Zeev attack approaches the incident with the same remarkable deceitfulness. The juvenile felon who attempted to murder two people is portrayed sympathetically. 

Disregarding the weight of evidence, including Manasra’s own revealing admission to Hadassah doctors as well as actual CCTV footage of the incident, NYT reporters Rami Nazzal and Isabel Kershner give credence to the notion that Manasra was merely an unenthusiastic participant under his older cousin’s influence. They cite an absurd claim by Manasra’s lawyer that Manasra attempted to stop his cousin by shouting that the knife attack against the boy was “Haram,” Arabic for forbidden. Absent from their reportage was Manasra’s damning admission that he came to Pisgat Zeev to stab Jews. 

In an attempt to garner yet more sympathy for the terrorist, the authors note that following his capture, Manasra was subjected to taunts and verbal abuse by “Israeli passersby” and that an Israeli interrogator shouted “aggressively” at him prompting him to cry and “pound his head.” Meanwhile, the knifing victims of the brutal attack are given mere cursory mention. The authors place Manasra’s hurt feelings on the same pedestal as a slashed jugular. 

Perhaps even more absurdly, the authors rehash libelous Palestinian claims that Israelis are subjecting innocent Palestinians to extrajudicial executions and planting knives at the scene. Other than baseless Palestinian accusations, the authors provide not a scintilla of evidence to back such spurious allegations. The objective is to surreptitiously plant the idea of Israeli maleficence in the reader’s mind by regurgitating nonsensical Palestinian claims that amount to the modern day version of a Passover blood libel. I guess the blood found on the knives lying next to those dead Palestinians came from Israelis who stabbed themselves before framing the scene; clever Jews.

The article’s theme is one couched in moral equivalence where terrorist is portrayed as victim; a victim of his cousin’s overbearing influence and in a larger sense, a victim of the so-called Israeli “occupation” and Israeli policies with respect to the Temple Mount.  There is of course no mention of Palestinian incitement and base anti-Semitism broadcast repeatedly on Palestinian Authority media and “educational” outlets as well as in religious Islamic sermons. Jews in Palestinian society are routinely vilified as usurpers and depicted as apes, pigs and monkeys who “desecrate [the Al-Aqsa] with their filthy feet.”

This incessant brainwashing represents the core source for Palestinian terror and perpetuation of conflict. Of course the New York Times editors would dare not expose their readers to such information for that would run counter to the narrative the Gray Lady wishes to present. It is indeed a sad day for journalism. 


Ari Lieberman is an attorney and former prosecutor who has authored numerous articles and publications on matters concerning the Middle East and is considered an authority on geo-political and military developments affecting the region.

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/260769/ny-times-whitewashes-palestinian-child-death-cult-ari-lieberman

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Martin Indyk's latest low - Ruthie Blum



by Ruthie Blum

Indyk has always believed that an accord is possible between Israel and the Palestinians if the "two sides" would only trust one another.


Just when you thought you'd heard it all from professional peace promoter Martin Indyk, he goes and one-ups himself. The ability to do so when the policies he has espoused over the decades have consistently backfired is an accomplishment in and of itself. And it explains why he was appointed twice to serve as U.S. ambassador to Israel and also filled the role of assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs.

Indyk, author of "Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East," has always held the position that an accord is possible between Israel and the Palestinians -- if the "two sides" would only trust one another. This, of course, is why he was a perfect fit for Secretary of State John Kerry, under whom he was dispatched to Israel as an envoy to broker a deal.

Well, that didn't work out so well, and he quit after nine months to return to his full-time job as director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. He, like many peace processors, feels more at home presenting global strategies in a think tank than confronting the need for actual tanks in the real Middle East the rest of us occupy.

This is not to say that Indyk is uncomfortable in Israel. On the contrary, he loves visiting the country where he is treated like a king by the chattering classes, while enjoying a cappuccino or two from balconies overlooking the Mediterranean.

So it was no surprise that he attended the Israel Conference on Peace, hosted by the left-wing daily Haaretz at Tel Aviv's David Intercontinental Hotel this week, to wow the crowd with regurgitated slogans about why war keeps getting in the way of their aspirations for -- you know -- peace.

That he attributed this to Israeli intransigence was to be expected. His call on the public to grasp that a two-state solution is the only viable path -- and that the Palestinians would be true "partners" if only Israel would withdraw from more territory -- was also cause for a yawn, as was his dig at the Netanyahu government. 

"To allow your leaders to convince you that you are victims and have to live by the sword is to give way to hopeless future for your people," he said, repeating a line he has been spouting for years, and adding a lie for good measure: "The creeping annexation of land which is continuing apace will make it impossible" to come to an agreement with the PA. 

His failure to remember that Israel relinquished most of the land in question to the Palestinians, whose response was and continues to be to slaughter Jews, was par for the course. Indeed, nobody mentioned the irony of the fact that last year's Haaretz peace conference was interrupted by air raid sirens as Hamas fired rockets into Tel Aviv from Gaza, territory from which Israel had forcibly yanked out all Jews in 2005; and this year's gathering was taking place amid Palestinian stabbing, shooting, fire-bombing and car-ramming attacks.

Nor was Indyk's reference to late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin cause for pause. There is nothing as tried and true as resurrecting the dead to claim that if he had lived, things would have been different. You know, because, according to Indyk, Rabin "had the trust of the Israeli people, and the trust of Yasser Arafat." 

All one can do when faced with such a preposterous assertion is guffaw.

On the issue of Syria, Indyk engaged in similar sophistry, resting on questionable logic. "For the historical record," he said, "five Israeli prime ministers, including Netanyahu, offered a full withdrawal from the Golan. ... If you want to ask, 'Where would you have been if' -- you would have been where you are with Egypt today: A revolution and a counterrevolution later, you still have a peace treaty with them. Guess what? ISIS [Islamic State] is in the Sinai, but you have an arrangement with Egypt under which you can help fight ISIS."

Huh?

Israel tried to make peace with Syria by giving up the Golan Heights and was rejected. And this, like the bloody civil war in which pro-Assad regime forces and rebels are massacring each other, is Israel's fault?

Yes, Indyk bemoaned, had Israel reached a deal with Syria in the past, "It would have transformed the Israeli-Arab conflict in a dramatic way. We missed the opportunity for a comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbors -- Lebanon would have followed as well. Problems with Hezbollah would have been in an entirely different context. And the U.S. would have remained the dominant power in the region. You can trace the arc of the decline of American influence in the region to that moment, when we failed to get the Syrian deal."

Mr. Indyk, with all undue respect, the "decline of American influence" can be traced to the election of President Barack Obama. To blame Israel for that travesty goes beyond your usual chutzpah. Kudos for letting your immoral compass guide you to new low levels of discourse that, fortunately, most Israelis are no longer listening to.


Ruthie Blum is the web editor of The Algemeiner (algemeiner.com).

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=14327

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

US won't condemn EU decision to label settlement products - Yoni Hersch, Mati Tuchfeld, Nitzi Yakov, Hezi Sternlicht, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff



by Yoni Hersch, Mati Tuchfeld, Nitzi Yakov, Hezi Sternlicht, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Obama administration says European Union's decision to distinguish products made in Judea and Samaria from those made in Israel does not constitute boycott measure • Zionist Union MK: When the EU labels settlement products, it labels itself biased.


Produced in Mitzpe Shalem, west of the Dead Sea, Ahava cosmetics will now have to carry labels saying 'Made in the West Bank'
|
Photo credit: EPA


Yoni Hersch, Mati Tuchfeld, Nitzi Yakov, Hezi Sternlicht, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source:

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Breaking: Idiot 'shocked' by Paris attacks - Daren Jonescu



by Daren Jonescu

Who knew there were violent Muslims?  Apparently the head of Germany had no idea.


Who knew there were violent Muslims?  While online, watching the French news coverage of the multi-site terrorist attacks in Paris, I scrolled down to find a most telling update:

"Profoundly shocked"?  Really?  Does that mean that when she first heard there had been a terrorist attack in Paris, her immediate reaction was, "Who would do a thing like that?"  Perhaps that explains why she is so deeply offended that anyone would object to admitting up to a million unidentifiable Muslim refugees into her country.  Europe's leadership has clearly created an alternative reality for itself, in which public concerns about the Islamicization of Europe are simply the unfounded paranoia of closed-minded nationalists.

Speaking of nationalism, isn't it odd that Angela Merkel, leader of Germany's Christian Democratic Party, has taken her humanitarian stand specifically in favor of the only refugee population one could find that is associated by religious affiliation and political history with profound Jew-hatred and Holocaust trivialization?  It would be amusing, were it not so sad, to remember how pleased North American conservatives used to be with the "pro-business" Merkel.  An object lesson in why conservatives must stop confusing pro-business with pro-freedom – two very different positions, in fact.  If there is still a significant pro-freedom faction in Europe at all, one hopes its members are well beyond being "shocked" that Muslims could commit violence.

If there is such a thing as poetic justice, its gavel is going to come down very hard on all those national leaders who, in the name of political correctness (or worse), are currently importing massive populations of poor, unassimilated Muslims into their nations. 

Godspeed to France's latest victims of the West's politically correct collective suicide attempt.


Daren Jonescu

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/11/breaking_idiot_shocked_by_paris_attacks.html

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Backgrounder: Turkey's November 2015 Election - Gary C. Gambill



by Gary C. Gambill

Daniel Pipes argues that the results themselves are a prima facie indication of likely fraud.

 

The victory of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in a November 1 snap election took most informed observers by surprise.

Less than five months after losing its parliamentary majority for the first time in a regularly scheduled legislative election in June, the AKP captured 317 of 550 seats on this second try, securing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's grip on power through at least 2019. How did this turnabout happen?

Erdoğan's Problems

By all accounts, public antipathy toward President Erdoğan reached an all-time high this year.

After eliminating secularist control of the military and judiciary under the guise of liberal political reforms during the AKP's first decade in power, Erdoğan went on to "single-mindedly concentrate power in his own hands," writes Svante E. Cornell, research director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, in the Middle East Quarterly.



Demonstrators gather in Taksim Square on June 15, 2013.
Erdoğan's growing autocratic tendencies and ever more blatant corruption encountered intense opposition from varied sectors of Turkish society. The massive Gezi Park protests in the summer of 2013 signaled a level of popular discontent hitherto unseen in Turkey. As Damla Aras illustrates in the Middle East Quarterly, much of the diplomatic corps objected loudly to Erdoğan's excesses, as did a stream of defectors from the ruling party.

The most damaging pushback came from the Gülenists, a moderate, ostensibly non-political Islamist movement that acquired enormous influence within the Turkish bureaucracy in recent decades and had been quietly supporting the AKP since its rise to power. Police officers, judges, and others with Gülenist sympathies spearheaded a December 2013 corruption probe leading to the arrest of the sons of three government ministers and leaked wiretap recordings implicating Erdoğan's family.


Ekrem Dumanli, editor-in-chief of the flagship Gülenist daily Zaman, greets supporters outside an Istanbul courthouse in December 2014.
Erdoğan struck back with a purge of Gülenists from government and crackdown on its media and financial assets. The divorce led MEF Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow Efraim Inbar to speculate that "more conservative secular elements on the Turkish political spectrum might build an alliance with the influential Gülens to remove Erdoğan."

After serving since 2003 as prime minister, Erdoğan was elected president in 2014 with 52 percent of the vote against a split opposition. As MEF fellow 
Burak Bekdil explains in the Middle East Quarterly, he then aspired to transform this largely ceremonial position into a Russian-style super-presidency. For this, the AKP would need to win 330 seats in parliament so as to rewrite the constitution – a number that Erdoğan repeated endlessly in the lead-up to the June 2015 elections.

To the shock of many, the AKP won only 258 seats in the election, not enough even to form a government. After refusing to share power with the opposition in a coalition government, Erdoğan called new elections to replace the hung parliament. Calling the June election results a "mistake" that the Turkish people had to "correct" in a new vote, he set about changing their minds.

An Electoral Do-Over

MEF President Daniel Pipes argues that the Islamist grip on power in Turkey is so entrenched that the "the number of AKP seats in parliament hardly matters ... Erdoğan will do what it takes, legally or illegally, to become the new sultan." Having famously said when he was mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s that democracy is like a trolley – "you ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you step off," the November election would simply determine whether it was time to abandon this means to an end.

In any event, the AKP increased its percent of the popular vote from 41 percent to 49 percent. What accounts for this change?

Fraud

Daniel Pipes argues that the results themselves are a prima facie indication of likely fraud. "That about one in nine voters switched parties defies reason," he remarked, pointing out that public opinion polls in the weeks and months ahead of the vote showed no substantial increase in public support for the AKP (see table below).
While the opposition-dominated civil society organization Oy ve Ötesi (Vote and Beyond) found little hard evidence of fraud at the minority of polling stations it monitored, manipulation of the numbers at unmonitored stations would be simple to effect using Elector Record System (SEÇSİS) software.

Crackdown on Dissent


Hurriyet columnist Ahmet Hakan (left) and the men who brutally beat him last month (right) shortly before all but one were released.
According to Burak Bekdil, Erdoğan's decision to dramatically ramp up his regime's crackdown on freedom of expression in the aftermath of the June elections had a major impact on the vote. In the 226 days following Erdoğan 's election as president last year, 236 people were investigated for insulting him, including some of the country's leading media personalities.

Moreover, the government's media crackdown paralleled efforts by pro-Erdoğan street thugs to intimidate those who remained unrepentant, notes Bekdil (whose own newspaper, Hurriyet, was attacked in September by hundreds of club-wielding demonstrators led by AKP MP Abdurrahim Boynukalin).

Diversionary Domestic Violence

Erdoğan, who as MEF Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow Stephen Schwartz notes has "a magnificent capacity for judging the mood of the public," understood that the AKP needed to attract votes from nationalists and moderate Kurds in order to regain its parliamentary majority, and that violence was the best means of achieving this.



The Turkish electoral campaign was "characterized by too much violence and fear," said a monitoring delegation from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
In what MEF Wax Family Fellow David P. Goldman called a "transparent maneuver" to "elicit support from Turkish nationalists" (a strategy also discussed by Daniel Pipes), Erdoğan scrapped his government's fragile ceasefire with the PKK and launched major military operations against it.

In addition, the unprecedented scale of the violence "wore down Kurds with more loyalist sentiments to Turkey," suggests Burak Bekdil. This was particularly true after a twin suicide-bomb attack on a Turkish-Kurdish peace demonstration in Ankara killed 97 and injured nearly 250 people.

Whatever the cause, the election returns indicate that the AKP gained about 4.1 percent of the vote at the expense of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and another 1.4 percent at the expense of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Implications

Although Turkey is uniquely endowed with a political heritage conducive to democracy, as the distinguished historian Bernard Lewis explained in an early Middle East Quarterly article, the extension of the AKP's mandate until at least 2019 may well extinguish what's left of it. "Foreign capitals need to prepare for the unpleasant likelihood of a rogue dictatorship in Turkey," concludes Daniel Pipes.


Gary C. Gambill

Source: http://www.meforum.org/5623/backgrounder-turkey-november-2015-election

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.