Mortar shells explode in the Golan - Elad Benari

by Elad Benari

Three mortar shells from Syria explode in the Golan Heights. IDF retaliates.

View from Israeli Golan Heights of fighting in Syria (file)

Basel Awidat/Flash 90

Three mortar shells exploded on Friday afternoon in the Golan Heights. There were no physical injuries or damages. 

The IDF responded by opening fire at the sources of the mortar fire.

“The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm the sovereignty of the State of Israel and the security of its residents and views the Syrian regime as being responsible for what is happening in its territory,” the IDF Spokesperson said.

The first mortar exploded around 5:00 p.m. near the Syrian border. About an hour later, a rocket siren was sounded in the area, followed by the explosion of two more mortar shells.

The IDF said it was likely that the fire was not directed at Israel, but rather was spillover from the Syrian civil war.

The incident is the latest example of the Syrian war spilling over into northern Israel.

Earlier this month, a stray bullet fired by combatants on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights struck an Israeli girl, wounding her in the back but miraculously causing no serious damage.

Previous incidents included projectiles from Syria exploding in open regions in the Golan Heights.


Elad Benari

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/228405

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

Interview with a French savant: Islam's goals and the West's laziness - Giulio Meotti

by Giulio Meotti

A great French intellectual, Rémi Brague, talks about the coming down of a world, Islamist goals, Asian technology, Western civilization and culture.

It was a week of interviews for Rémi Brague, a great French medievalist with a chair at the Sorbonne University, a translator of Maimonides and considered one of the greatest intellectuals in France (he was awarded the "Ratzinger Prize" named after Pope Benedict). 

In Le Figaro, Brague castigated “Western indifference” to the persecution of Eastern Christians: “If the 'cleansing' should be completed, the survivors would lose the last trace of respect for the West. Moreover, the forces who want to drive Christians out of their ancestral lands would be wondering why not continue the work so well begun in the East ...".  

I asked this great French scholar to speak about Islam, the subject of his next book.

Where does your pessimism come from?

“It's nothing but my temperament”, Brague told me. “I tend to see the world through gray glasses. I see the current situation of public opinion, in this period of French elections, unattractive. The different candidates offer unrealistic measures and, at times, are simply stupid. I often think of the legend of Hamelin's magic piercing. The worst may be the image of France and the West that their words portray.". 

Western inaction is far from being complete. Is it a paralysis?

“That is an involuntary illness. On the contrary, laziness is a vice that is cultivated intentionally. Instead, it looks like holding a middle ground. Like drunken intoxication”.

According to Rémi Brague, “the West has known from the XIX century multiple 'infections'. The European and American élites believed that the progress of science would solve all the problems, that technology would guarantee the continuous improvement of living conditions and, in turn, solve the social problem. They justified expanding overseas, especially in Africa, through the 'civilizing mission' of the 'white race' that had the duty to lead its sisters on the path of progress ... It is now a reminder of a past that featured injustices or crimes. The West is consumed by remorse. It feels guilty, but it has ceased to believe in the forgiveness of sins”.

Why do you consider the non-violent means of Islam even more dangerous than bombs?

"The question everyone is asking is whether Islam is violent”, the French medievalist told me. “Some say yes, others see it, and words here act like a mantra, as a 'religion of love, tolerance and peace'. Both extremes forget the fundamental question, which is the goal pursued. The resources' issue is secondary. The goal of Islam has remained the same since the beginning and is the conquest of the world. It is to establish the kingdom of Allah through His Law. Conversion of hearts is of course desirable, but is a consequence rather than a prerequisite.

"Violence has the disadvantage of being noisy and sometimes spectacular. Terrorism can produce an astonishing effect. But it is likely to provoke suspicion among opponents, and perhaps their reaction. It may also be that violence is, therefore, a mistake.

"Money and oil can be used to finance terrorism, which affects in the short term. But they can also be used to finance a chair of 'Islamic Studies' at a prestigious university, which will be a propaganda chair, destined to remember the greatness of Arab culture. They can also be used to build mosques in which contempt for the West is preached, refusing to be corrupted by its decadent customs. Everything can be done without further verbal violence. This tactic is more patient, it will not satisfy the hot heads. But it could be more effective in the long run”.

In his writings and books, Brague transmits something like a collapse, the coming down of a world:

What worries you the most?

“Much depends on what we mean by 'culture'”, Brague told me. “Germans have familiarized us with the distinction between civilization (Zivilisation) and culture (Kultur). It flourished in the early XX century, for example in Oswald Spengler. The first word was the material size, the technology. And we reserved the second for literature, art, etc."

"Science and technology continue to spread in the world. Sure, they are parts of the West, but they have nothing specifically 'Western'. Asia has reached the West, and probably started to overcome it. Culture, in turn, continues to proceed. Creativity is not dead: we write, paint, and so on. What worries me most is what is between these two levels. The mass social practices, the morality in society and couples, the education of children, the family and school, the language, the good manners, the courtesy, in short everything that makes a society 'civilized.'”

And the laziness of the West Brague is pointing at can be seen from the current French elections. Few of the 11 candidates even refer to the fact that France is a country at war. In June 2016, the French army set up the Land Command for National Territory dedicated to conducting operational engagement in the homeland. It means preparing for mass civil unrest.

The "war" referred to by François Hollande in his November 2015 speech will not be one carried out in Raqqa, Syria, but a civil war carried out at home, in the Parisian ghettos. 

That war will be about the future of the Western civilization. 


Giulio Meotti,  an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter and of "J'Accuse: the Vatican Against Israel" published by Mantua Books.. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary.

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/20420

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

Europe: Making Itself into the New Afghanistan? - Giulio Meotti

by Giulio Meotti

The West used to be proud of being the land of the free. European museums, instead, are rapidly submitting to Islamic correctness.

• "Those (migrants) who come to seek freedom in France must participate in freedom. Migrants did not come to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia, but in Germany. Why? For security, freedom and prosperity. So they must not come to create a new Afghanistan," said Algerian writer Kamel Daoud. Right. But it is the European mainstream that is letting them turn our cultural landscape into another Afghanistan.
• The West used to be proud of being the land of the free. European museums, instead, are rapidly submitting to Islamic correctness. The exhibition "Passion for Freedom" at the Mall Gallery in London censored the light box tableaux of a family of toy animals living in an enchanted valley.
• "The Louvre will be dedicating a new section to the artistic heritage of Eastern Christians", then President Nicholas Sarkozy announced in 2010. But the project was scrapped by the museum's new management, with the approval of President Hollande's culture ministry. So today, the Louvre has a section dedicated to Islamic art, but nothing on Eastern Christianity.

Maastricht, in the Netherlands, is the picturesque city that gave its name to the famous treaty signed in 1992 by the twelve nations of the European Community at the time, and which paved the way for the foundation of today's European Union and the single currency, the euro.

Maastricht, however, is also the home of "Tefaf", the most important art and antiques fair in the world. The art work "Persepolis" by the Italian artist Luca Pignatelli was already scheduled when the commission ordered it removed. The work, built in 2016, combined a Persian Islamic rug and a female head. "We are all humbled and speechless", Pignatelli declared, pointing out that his work had initially aroused the enthusiasm of the commission. The fair's explanation was that Pignatelli's work was "provocative".

The officials of fair presumably did not want to offend Islam and possible Muslim buyers with Pignatelli's combination of the mat (used by Muslims for prayer) with the woman's face. "We are shocked, this is the first time this has happened and I think it is legitimate to talk about it", Pignatelli said. "If in Rome it can happen that you decide to veil art works to avoid offending foreign visitors, well, I do not agree". The reference is at the Italian government decision to veil the antique Roman statues to avoid offending Iran's visiting President Hassan Rouhani.

If Europe wants a future, it should be less ideological about Maastricht's treaty and more against Maastricht's capitulation to fear. The brave Algerian writer Kamel Daoud said:

"Those (migrants) who come to seek freedom in France must participate in freedom. Migrants did not come to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia, but in Germany. Why? For security, freedom and prosperity. So they must not come to create a new Afghanistan".

Right. But it is the European mainstream that is letting them turn our cultural landscape into another Afghanistan. The Taliban have killed artists and destroyed art works. The West used to be proud of being the land of the free.

European museums, instead, are rapidly submitting to Islamic correctness. The exhibition "Passion for Freedom," at the Mall Gallery in London, censored the light box tableaux of a family of toy animals living in an enchanted valley. Entitled, "ISIS Threaten Sylvania", it was eliminated after the British police referred to its "inflammatory" content. Previously, the Tate Gallery in London banned a work by John Latham that displayed a Koran embedded in glass.

The brave work of the artist Mimsy, "ISIS Threaten Sylvania", which satirized the brutality of ISIS, was removed from London's Mall Galleries after the British police defined it "inflammatory." (Image source: Mimsy)

Another British artist, Grayson Perry, admitted that he censored himself out of fear that he might end up like Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker slain by an extremist Muslim, Mohammed Bouyeri, for having made a film about women under Islam. "I have censored myself," Perry said. "The reason I have not gone all out in attacking Islamism in my art is because I have real fear that someone will slit my throat".

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London first showed, then withdrew, a portrait of the Prophet of Islam, a work of devotional art image of Muhammad. The photographer Syra Miah, a British native whose family came from Bangladesh, saw her work withdrawn from an Art Gallery in Birmingham after protests by a group of Muslims. The photo portrayed a half-naked woman, mentally ill, who lives under a bus stop in Bangladesh.

The Museum of Cultures of the World in Gothenburg, Sweden, opened with an exhibition entitled "AIDS in the Era of Globalization". In it, the artist Louzla Darabi exhibited a work, "Scène d'amour", that depicts a woman having sex with a man whose face cannot be seen. A verse from the Koran is written on it in Arabic. Less than three weeks after the inauguration of the exhibition, the museum removed the painting. The Hergé Museum in Louvain, Belgium, was planning an exhibition to pay tribute to Charlie Hebdo's cartoonists; that event, too, was cancelled.

French President François Hollande eliminated a section of the Louvre Museum dedicated to the Eastern Christians, who in the last two years have been decimated by the Islamic State. "The Louvre will be dedicating a new section to the artistic heritage of Eastern Christians", then President Nicholas Sarkozy announced in 2010. But the project was scrapped by the museum's new management, with the approval of Hollande's culture ministry.

Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya -- former head of the Louvre's Coptic section and one of the world's leading scholars on Eastern Christianity -- denounced the move. "The dramatic events we are currently seeing in the Middle East and Eastern Europe should instead spur us to do more to promote lasting cultural ties," Rutschowscaya wrote in her letter to Hollande. So today, the Louvre has a section dedicated to Islamic art, but nothing on Eastern Christianity.

Perhaps the Iranian ayatollahs were right in asking the Capitoline Museums in Rome to veil the nude statues during President Rouhani's visit. Perhaps the Islamic fundamentalists are wrong, the West is not as free as it claims. Perhaps we should apologize to the Taliban for criticizing their destruction of the great Buddhas of Afghanistan. According to the West's new cultural sanctimony, today these statues might be considered "blasphemous" too.

Giulio Meotti, Cultural Editor for Il Foglio, is an Italian journalist and author.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10208/europe-afghanistan

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

In Venezuela, looking more and more like civil war - Monica Showalter

by Monica Showalter

The only question now is how bloody it gets.

Two days ago, the death toll in Venezuela's gargantuan protests stood at three. Now it's jumped to 20.

In absolute numbers, it's appalling. But to some, it may not seem like much, given that Venezuela has one of the world's highest murder rates, or that millions and millions of people marched against the socialist regime, which has systematically shut down democracy and closed off all legitimate avenues for change by stripping the opposition-controlled legislature of power, corrupting the courts, and ruling by decree as poverty and narco-crime engulf the country.

The context tells another story – one of a growing civil war. Protesters are fighting back, given their powerlessness before the country's institutions. Grotesque violations of human rights and human decency are taking place, too – the kind that got Syria an air strike. Chavistas tear-gassing a maternity ward in a hospital? It happened, prompting the evacuation of more than 50 babies. Then there are the barricades, the burning garbage, the tossed Molotov cocktails – all the work of the protesters.

Yes, we have seen giant demonstrations in Venezuela before. But never with this level of violence, this continuous signaling of civil war, given that the Chavista side will never budge. Several more days of protests are planned against the socialist regime's outrages. The only question now is how bloody it gets.

Monica Showalter

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/04/in_venezuela_looking_more_and_more_like_civil_war.html

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

Palestinians: Hunger Strike or Smokescreen? - Bassam Tawil

by Bassam Tawil

It is an integral part of the Palestinian strategy to undermine, isolate, delegitimize and destroy Israel.

• It is an integral part of the Palestinian strategy to undermine, isolate, delegitimize and destroy Israel.
• It is not only Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who is in trouble. Marwan Barghouti, too, knows better than to air dirty Fatah laundry. What, then, is to be done? The traditional diversionary tactic: Direct the heat towards Israel.
• Stripped of its Western trappings, Barghouti's "hunger strike" is actually a struggle between Abbas and yet another Fatah pretender to the throne. And once again, Israel -- the state that supposedly so "mistreats" incarcerated Palestinian terrorists -- takes the heat.

Palestinians have an old habit of settling internal scores by diverting their grievances and violence towards Israel. This practice is clear to those who have been monitoring developments in the Palestinian arena for the past decades. It is an integral part of the Palestinian strategy to undermine, isolate, delegitimize and destroy Israel.

Those less familiar with Palestinian culture and tactics, however, have difficulty understanding the Palestinian mindset. Officials in Washington, London, Paris and other Western capitals rarely meet the ordinary Palestinian, the "man on the street" who represents the authentic voice of the Palestinians.
Instead, these officials meet Palestinian politicians and academics from Ramallah -- the "experts" who are actually accomplished con artists. Such Palestinians grasp the Western mindset very well, and use their understanding to twist Western officials any which way they want.

The Western reaction to the hunger strike declared on April 17 by Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails is a case in point. The strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, a senior Fatah official who is serving five life terms for his role in terror attacks against Israelis. Barghouti has been in prison for 15 years so far.

Remarkably, despite Barghouti's long-term imprisonment, this is his first hunger strike, apparently despite the poor incarceration conditions that have supposedly driven him to this move. Or might there be some other factor behind Barghouti's sudden acute discomfort?

The hunger strike is, in fact, completely unrelated to conditions in Israeli prisons. Rather, Barghouti's hunger strike is directly linked to a power struggle that has long been raging inside his Fatah faction. More than a move against Israel, the hunger strike is aimed at Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas (who is also chairman of Fatah).

The hunger strike declared by jailed Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti (left) is aimed at Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right). Barghouti's supporters accuse Abbas and his loyalists of sidelining the jailed Fatah leader and seeking to "bury" him.

Last November, Barghouti emerged as the biggest winner in Fatah's internal election. His status as a prisoner and his involvement in terrorism continue to be the main reason why he is so popular among Palestinians. Barghouti's victory in the election meant that he was now number two after Abbas, and many expected the PA president to appoint him as his deputy.

This past February, however, the Fatah Central Council, a body dominated by Abbas loyalists, delivered a deliberate slap in the face to Barghouti, ignoring his landslide victory and appointing someone else (Mahmoud Aloul) as Deputy Fatah Chairman. The appointment of Aloul enraged Barghouti's supporters, who rushed to accuse Abbas and his loyalists of sidelining the jailed Fatah leader and seeking to "bury" him.

Barghouti's wife, Fadwa, even went as far as accusing Abbas of "succumbing" to threats by Israel. Israeli officials had strongly criticized the result of the Fatah internal election, which the Barghouti won, calling it a vote for terrorism. Fadwa Barghouti said that her husband had won the first slot in the election, "which means he is number two in Fatah. There is no ignoring Marwan Barghouti's position."

The charges leveled by Barghouti's wife against Abbas are not the first. In the past, she has accused Abbas and the PA leadership of imposing a blackout on news concerning her husband. In a letter to Abbas, she expressed "regret and pain" over the failure of Abbas to help her in her campaign to secure the release of her husband. She also complained that neither Fatah nor the PA leadership had provided funds to support the campaign calling for her husband's release.

It is no secret that Abbas detests competition. He has been waging war against anyone who dares to challenge his rule, especially from within his own Fatah faction. Mohammed Dahlan, for example, a former PA security commander from the Gaza Strip and considered the number one enemy of the PA president, was expelled from Fatah on orders from Abbas. Dahlan, a Fatah parliamentarian, was stripped of his parliamentary immunity by Abbas. Dahlan is currently living in the United Arab Emirates, but is wanted by Abbas for "corruption" and "murder."

Barghouti, however, presents Abbas with an immediate problem. The Palestinian on the street will not tolerate the defamation, at least not in public, of any Palestinian sitting in Israeli prison. Abbas sees Barghouti as a real threat, particularly in the wake of public opinion polls suggesting that Barghouti could easily win any presidential election. Barghouti at large would be a nightmare for Abbas.

So, no love is lost between Abbas and Barghouti; the two are engaged in a behind-the-scenes power struggle. Barghouti wants to succeed Abbas, while Abbas is working hard to marginalize him. Palestinian sources say that Abbas is not happy with Barghouti's hunger strike. He believes Barghouti is trying to steal the spotlight from him, especially on the eve of his visit to Washington for talks with President Donald Trump. Abbas, who wants to be in the news all the time, cannot stand that Barghouti is grabbing the headlines and was even invited to write an op-ed in the New York Times.

It is not only Abbas, however, who is in trouble. Barghouti, too, knows better than to air dirty Fatah laundry. What, then, is to be done? The traditional diversionary tactic: Direct the heat towards Israel. Barghouti is suddenly concerned about his prison conditions and is demanding more privileges. Israel, he claims, imprisons Palestinians for their "peaceful resistance." Barghouti knows it is not popular to come out in public against Abbas. Similarly, Abbas is using the hunger strike to incite against Israel and demand that all Palestinian terrorists, including ones with blood on their hands, be released unconditionally. The hunger strike is a smokescreen for the real problems inside Fatah and has nothing to do with the conditions of prisoners in Israeli jails.

Stripped of its Western trappings, Barghouti's "hunger strike" is actually a struggle between Abbas and yet another Fatah pretender to the throne. And once again, Israel -- the state that supposedly so "mistreats" incarcerated Palestinian terrorists -- takes the heat.

Bassam Tawil, an Arab Muslim, is based in the Middle East.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/10245/palestinians-hunger-strike

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

CAMERA: Barghouti op-ed just the tip of the Times' iceberg - Hillel Fendel

by Hillel Fendel

Pro-Israel organization lists a long series of anti-Israel op-eds in the New York Times – including one surprise.

New York Times office

Flash 90

While The New York Times has been widely criticized for publishing five-time murderer Marwan Barghouti's op-ed without explaining his background, the op-ed in question is only the tip of the iceberg.

Research by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting (CAMERA) shows that since the start of 2017, readers of the Times' op-ed pages have been fed a steady diet of one-sided, anti-Israel rhetoric.

It began on January 6, when the Times published an article entitled "The Frightening Truth About Israeli Society." The article provided a long list of allegations that Israel is allowing itself to be diverted from its democratic values.

Three weeks later, an op-ed by Ayelet Waldman and her husband Michael Chabon suggested the country should be viewed as responsible for future Palestinian terror attacks. This was echoed more strongly last month when Larry Derfner's opinion piece stated that Israel should be blamed in any future war with Hezbollah or Hamas.

In the meanwhile, on February 11, Arab Knesset Member Ayman Odeh was granted a platform on which to write "How Israel Bulldozes Democracy." The piece accuses Israel of mistreating its Arab citizens; CAMERA critiqued it as "so egregiously misleading, so full of errors and distortions, that it feels like a theatrical attack against a cartoonish villain."

Finally, on March 1, an op-ed insisted that PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas actually "accepts Israel's Jewishness" and that Israel is manipulatively concealing Abbas’s "true position" by claiming otherwise. In fact, however, Abbas has repeatedly, explicitly, and emphatically rejected Israel's Jewishness in recent years. The newspaper, CAMERA states, has never corrected the false claim that Abbas accepts a Jewish state.

Strangely, CAMERA also mentions an op-ed by Hevron Jewish Community spokesman Yishai Fleisher as an example of The New York Times' one-sidedness against Israel. The organization found two faults with the article: "By publishing an Israeli who approvingly supports annexation of much of the West Bank… [the paper] "underscore[s] all those accusations that Israel is a land-hungry entity." In addition, the article included two criticisms of the Israeli Government.

Surprisingly, CAMERA lumps together criticism of the Government of Israel with criticism of and hostility to Israel in general. In fact, however, while the latter borders on anti-Semitism, the former is more than legitimate in any democratic society. 

Let us also note the context of the "criticism:" Fleisher was indicating that the government's PR policy ought to concentrate more on the actual issues of Jewish rights to Judea and Samaria than on its technological prowess and the like. Can this "criticism" of Israel be compared in any way to accusations of Israeli apartheid and the like?

Would CAMERA truly prefer that the Times not publish op-eds by members of Israel's nationalist camp? After all, an increasingly growing number of its members support Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. Does CAMERA mean to imply that any op-ed that does not push a soft right-wing view is in some way harmful to Israel?

Unfortunately, CAMERA does not reassure us that this is not the case, lamenting the fact that "there is no shortage of reputable, moderate voices who would point out that Palestinians have flaws and, most importantly, a great share of responsibility for the ongoing conflict." 

In conclusion, CAMERA chides the Times for the fact that "these voices are largely missing from the newspaper of record. As a result, while the anti-Israel invective flows, little pressure is placed on Palestinians to crack down on rampant hate speech, to accept the Jewish state’s right to exist, and to end the system in which anti-Israel violence is in effect rewarded by payments to the family of attackers."


Hillel Fendel

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/228346

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

The Bay of Pigs 56 Years Later - Humberto Fontova

by Humberto Fontova

When U.S. airstrikes could have destroyed a terrorist regime, freed a nation and altered history.

“Where are the planes?!” kept crackling over U.S. Navy radios exactly 56 years ago this week. The U.S. Naval armada (22 ships including the Carrier Essex loaded with deadly Skyhawk jets.) was sitting 16 miles off the southern Cuban coast near an inlet known as Bahia de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs). The question — bellowed between blasts from a Soviet artillery and tank barrage landing around him — came from commander Jose San Roman.

“Send planes or we can’t last!” San Roman kept pleading to the very fleet that escorted his men to the beachhead (and sat much closer to them than the U.S. destroyers Porter and Ross sat to the Syrian coast this week.) Meanwhile the Soviet artillery barrage intensified, the Soviet T-34 and Stalin tanks closed in, and San Roman’s casualties piled up.

By that date the terrorists who ran (and still run) Cuba had been operating terror-training camps for two years, had kidnapped, tortured and murdered dozens of American (to say nothing of tens of thousands of Cubans.) A year later they wantonly brought Western civilization a whisker from nuclear destruction. If foreign terrorists ever merited a MOAB, it was these-- based 90 miles from U.S. shores.

Crazed by hunger and thirst the Cuban freedom-fighters had been shooting and reloading without sleep for three days. Many were hallucinating. By then many suspected they’d been abandoned by the Knights of Camelot.

That’s when Castro’s Soviet Howitzers opened up again, huge 122 mm ones, four batteries’ worth. They pounded 2,000 rounds into the freedom-fighters over a four-hour period. “It sounded like the end of the world,” one recalled later to your humble servant here.

“Rommel’s crack Afrika Corps broke and ran under a similar bombardment,” wrote Haynes Johnson in his book, the Bay of Pigs. By that time the invaders were dazed, delirious with fatigue, thirst and hunger, too deafened by the bombardment to even hear orders. But these men were in no mood to emulate Rommel’s crack Afrika Corps by retreating. Instead they were fortified by a resolve no conquering troops could ever call upon–the burning duty to free their nation from Castroism….

They were mostly civilian volunteers known as La Brigada 2506, an almost precise cross-section of Cuban society of the time. The Brigada included men from every social strata and race in Cuba — from sugar cane planters to sugar cane cutters, from aristocrats to their chauffeurs. But mostly, the folks in between, as befit a nation with a larger middle class than most of Europe.

Short on battle experience, yes, but they fairly burst with what Napoleon and Patton valued most in a soldier: morale. No navel-gazing about “why they hate us” or the merits of “regime change” for them. They’d seen Castroism point-blank.

Their goals were crystal-clear: firing-squads silenced, families reunited, tens of thousands freed from prisons, torture chambers and concentration camps. We see it on the History Channel after our GIs took places like Manila and Munich.

Well, in 1961 newsreels could have captured such scenes without crossing oceans. When those Cuban freedom-fighters hit the beach at the Bay of Pigs, one of every 18 Cubans suffered in Castro Gulag. Mass graves dotted the Cuban countryside, piled with hundreds who’d crumpled in front of Castro and Che Guevara’s firing squads. Most of the invaders had loved-ones among the above. Modern history records few soldiers with the burning morale of the Bay of Pigs freedom-fighters.

Camelot’s criminal idiocy of cancelling airstrikes made the Brigada’s lumbering B-26s easy prey for Castro's jets and fast Sea-Furies -- and the troops and supplies below them were even easier prey. It was a turkey shoot for the Castroites.

This finally brought Adm. Arleigh Burke of the Joints Chief of Staff, who was receiving the battlefield pleas, to the brink of mutiny. The fighting admiral was livid. They say his face was beet red and his facial veins popping as he faced down his commander-in-chief that fateful night of April 18, 1961. “Mr. President, TWO planes from the Essex!” that’s all those Cuban boys need, Mr. President. Let me order…!”

JFK was in white tails and a bow tie that evening, having just emerged from an elegant social gathering. “Burke,” he replied. “We can’t get involved in this.”

“WE put those Cuban boys there, Mr. President!” The fighting admiral exploded. “By God, we ARE involved!”

Admiral Burke’s pleas also proved futile. But the betrayal was too much for the Cuban freedom-fighters’ enraged and heartsick American trainers at the base in Nicaragua. These American airmen had closely bonded with their Cuban band-of-freedom-fighting brothers. “Their fight our our fight,” later related Lieut Col. Joe Shannon. “We were in this thing together.”

So four of the American airmen suited up, gunned the engines and joined the fight—but in the  lumbering B-26 bombers the Brigada had been issued. These enraged and valiant pilots weren't pampered Ivy Leaguers. They were Alabama Air Guard officers, men with archaic notions of loyalty and honor. They had watched the decimation of the freedom-fighter pilots. They knew the odds. They went anyway.

All four died on that first mission. All four (Pete Ray, Riley Shamburger, Leo Barker, and Wade Grey) have their names in a place of honor alongside their fallen Cuban freedom-fighting comrades on The Bay of Pigs Memorial, plus streets named after them in Miami's Little Havana, plus their crosses at Miami's Cuban Memorial cemetery.

When Doug MacArthur waded ashore on Leyte, he grabbed a radio: "People of the Philippines: I have returned, “he declared in a strong but shaking voice. “By the grace of Almighty God our forces stand again on Philippine soil — soil consecrated in the blood of our two peoples."

Cuban soil was similarly consecrated.

The freedom-fighters’ spent ammo and lack of air cover inevitably forced a retreat. Castro’s jets and Sea Furies were roaming overhead at will and tens of thousands of his Soviet-led and armed troops and armor were closing in. The Castro planes now concentrated on strafing the helpless, ammo-less freedom-fighters.

“Can’t continue,” crackled over the navy radio handled by CIA trainer Grayston Lynch. It was Lynch’s friend San Roman again. “Have nothing left to fight with ...out of ammo…Russian tanks in view….destroying my equipment.”

“Tears flooded my eyes,” wrote multi-decorated WWII and Korea hero Grayston Lynch. “For the first time in my 37 years I was ashamed of my country.”

When the smoke cleared and their ammo had been expended to the very last bullet, when a hundred of them lay dead and hundreds more wounded, after three days of relentless battle, barely 1,400 of them—without air support (from the U.S. Carriers just offshore) and without a single supporting shot by naval artillery (from U.S. cruisers and destroyers poised just offshore)—had squared off against 21,000 Castro troops, his entire air force and squadrons of Soviet tanks. The Cuban freedom-fighters inflicted over 3000 casualties on their Soviet-armed and led enemies. This feat of arms still amazes professional military men.

“They fought magnificently and were not defeated,” stressed Marine Col. Jack Hawkins a multi-decorated WWII and Korea vet who helped train them. “They were abandoned on the beach without the supplies and support promised by their sponsor, the Government of the United States.”

Humberto Fontova

Source: http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/266440/bay-pigs-56-years-later-humberto-fontova

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

The UNRWA book battle - Jonathan S. Tobin

by Jonathan S. Tobin

UNRWA's proposed changes are a step in the right direction. The ‎PA's opposition is more proof that it is an obstacle to any hope for a better life for ‎both Israeli and Palestinian children.‎

It is an article of faith for the international community and the Jewish Left that the ‎Palestinian Authority is a moderate force that wants to make peace with Israel. ‎That belief has been undermined by many of the PA's actions and statements since ‎its creation after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, yet somehow it survives and forms the basis for many of the assumptions critics make ‎about Israel's government. 

The latest proof that the PA is a principle obstacle to ‎peace rather than its best hope has not received any attention in the Western press. ‎But a discussion of the conflict that has arisen between it and the United Nations ‎Relief and Works Agency speaks volumes about everything that is wrong ‎with the PA.‎

UNRWA is the world body that is devoted solely to aiding Palestinian refugees. ‎Unlike the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which is tasked with helping all other refugees around the world, UNRWA doesn't try ‎to resettle refugees or resolve their problems. On the contrary, since its creation ‎after the Arab failure to destroy Israel in its War of Independence, UNRWA has ‎helped to perpetuate the clash between Israel and the Muslim and Arab worlds and ‎championed the "right of return" that would spell Israel's end. Its schools and aid ‎projects have been hotbeds of radicalism aimed at erasing the existence of the ‎Jewish state and have even been used by Hamas. In particular, critics have noted ‎the way UNRWA schools in the West Bank and Gaza have curricula and textbooks ‎that teach up to 600,000 Palestinian youngsters to reject Israel's legitimacy and ‎glorify the struggle to destroy it. ‎

But, like the rest of the U.N., UNRWA has been feeling some pressure to ‎reform. The Trump administration has shown a willingness to throw its weight ‎around that directly contrasts with former President Barack Obama's support for the U.N. Under ‎new Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who previously headed the U.N.'s other ‎refugee agency, efforts to promote the libel that Israel is an apartheid state were ‎rejected. So when the Arab press reported leaks about a shift in UNRWA's ‎education policy, this seemed to indicate that even that agency was feeling some ‎pressure to change its ways.‎

According to those reports, UNRWA was planning to alter the textbooks it uses ‎in its schools. Among the planned changes, cities inside Israel would stop being labeled as Palestinian, a practice that instills a sense in readers that the Jewish state is ‎merely a colonialist intrusion built entirely on "stolen" Arab land. Other changes ‎included an effort to tone down praise of Palestinians who commit terrorism ‎against Jews and Israelis. Its teaching about Jerusalem would treat it as a city that ‎is as holy to all three monotheistic religions, rather than just Islam. That's significant because Palestinian efforts to claim that shrines such ‎as the Temple Mount and even the Western Wall are ‎exclusively Muslim were part of a campaign of incitement that led to the recent ‎‎"stabbing intifada." Perhaps just as significant is that the new texts would also seek ‎to correct gender bias that was part of the old books.‎

But rather than welcome reform, the Palestinian Authority has reacted with fury. ‎Last week, the PA announced that it was suspending ties with UNRWA over the ‎proposed changes, which have yet to be formally announced. It said the revisions ‎to the curriculum were an "affront to the Palestinian people, its history and ‎struggles" and that the suspension would continue until the agency's "positions are ‎corrected."‎

The PA Education Ministry issued the following statement:‎ "Any distortion of the Palestinian curriculum is a flagrant violation of the laws of the ‎host country, and any change to any letter to appease any party is a betrayal of the ‎Palestinian narrative and the right of the Palestinian people under occupation to ‎preserve its identity and struggle.‎"

The implications of the PA position for the prospects for peace in this or future ‎generations cannot be overestimated.‎

For more than a century, Palestinian national identity has been inextricably tied to the war on Zionism. Throughout two decades of failed peace negotiations, the ‎supposedly moderate Palestinian Authority has consistently rejected Israeli offers ‎of independence that would obligate it to recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish ‎state within any borders. Any chance that this will change rests not so much on ‎more Israeli concessions but on a sea change in Palestinian political culture. ‎Leaving aside the role of Hamas, unless the PA's future leaders are able to embrace ‎peace without fear that doing so will be seen as a betrayal, the failure of more talks ‎is foreordained. UNRWA's proposed changes are a step in the right direction. The ‎PA's opposition is more proof that it is an obstacle to any hope for a better life for ‎both Israeli and Palestinian children.‎

Jonathan S. Tobin is the opinion editor of JNS.org and a contributing writer for ‎National Review. Twitter @jonathans_tobin.‎

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=18863

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

Newly revealed records show Allies knew of Holocaust as early as 1942 - Eli Leon and Israel Hayom Staff

by Eli Leon and Israel Hayom Staff

Hat tip: Dr. Jean-Charles Bensoussan

Allied leaders had information about Nazi atrocities from the camps themselves and from resistance fighters, researcher Dan Plesch tells Independent newspaper • Member of Britain's war cabinet said Jews should not be considered a "special case."

One of the documents proving the Allies knew about the Holocaust but did nothing to stop it

 

An aerial view of the Auschwitz extermination camp

|

Photo credit: Gettyimages

The apathetic response of the world to the horrors of the Holocaust has been researched and covered extensively, but newly uncovered documents reveal just how deep the apathy ran. 

The documents, which have come to light for the first time in 70 years after being archived in the United Nations, reveal that the Allies were aware of the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews of Europe much earlier in the war than previously thought -- but did nothing to stop them. 

Based on the newly available U.N. documents, researcher Dan Plesch of the University of London wrote the book "Human Rights After Hitler." Britain's Independent newspaper interviewed Plesch, who said that prior to the discovery of the new material, the prevailing belief had been that the Allies found out about the slaughter of Jews in 1944, when they learned about the Nazi concentration camps. 

But Plesch explains that the Allies knew about the Holocaust some two and a half years earlier. They had received reports both from the camps themselves and from the resistance movements in Nazi-occupied areas. 

According to the Independent interview, by December 1942, the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union knew that at least 2 million Jews had been murdered by the Nazi regime and that 5 million more were in mortal danger. 

Moreover, at that stage, the three countries were already working on compiling a base of evidence to charge Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler with war crimes, but they still took no steps to intervene. 

The Independent reports that in March 1943, Viscount Cranborne, a British peer and minister in Prime Minister Winston Churchill's war cabinet, said that Jews should not be considered a "special case." Cranborne said the British Empire was already full of refugees and could not offer safety to any more. 

Plesch told the Independent that anti-Semites in the U.S. State Department rejected efforts by then-U.S. envoy to the United Nations War Crimes Commission Herbert Pell to help the Jews of Europe. Pell later said that some members of the State Department were concerned about what would happen to U.S.-German trade relations if the U.S. pressed ahead with war crimes charges against Nazi leaders. This public claim by Pell prompted the State Department to bring the Nazi leadership to trial at the Nuremberg proceedings. 

"Among the reason given by the U.S. and British policymakers for curtailing prosecutions of Nazis was the understanding that at least some of them would be needed to rebuild Germany and confront communism, which at the time was seen as a greater danger," Plesch writes in "Human Rights After Hitler." 

Plesch told the Independent that before the U.N. documents on which he based his book were made public, anyone who wanted to review them needed not only permission from their own government, but also from the U.N. secretary general. Generally, a few years would elapse between the bureaucratic runaround and the time researchers were actually granted access to the documents. 

Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Powers was the official who initiated the move to open the documents on the Allies' knowledge of the Holocaust. 

According to Plesch, the new evidence provides a "cartload of nails to hammer into the coffins" of Holocaust denial.

Eli Leon and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=41843&hp=1

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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

Tillerson accuses Iran of 'alarming provocations' - Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

by Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

As U.S. reviews its policy on Iran, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cautions that Tehran could become a threat like North Korea if left unchecked • Tillerson warns that all threats posed by Iran must be addressed, "and it is clear there are many."

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson | Photo credit: Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday accused Iran of "alarming ongoing provocations" to destabilize countries in the Middle East as the Trump administration launched a review of its policy toward Tehran.

Tillerson told reporters the review, which he announced on Tuesday, would not only look at Tehran's compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal but also its behavior in the region which he said undermined U.S. interests in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.

His tough words matched those of U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who said in a visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday that Iran's destabilizing influence would have to be overcome to end the conflict in Yemen.

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the review to evaluate whether suspension of sanctions related to the nuclear deal was "vital to the national security interests of the United States," Tillerson said

Though there was no sign the Trump administration intended to walk away from the deal, Tillerson twice cautioned that if left unchecked Tehran could become a threat like North Korea, which is also under pressure over its nuclear ambitions.

In a letter to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan released late on Tuesday, Tillerson declared that Iran was meeting its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal but there were concerns about Tehran's role as a state sponsor of terrorism.

"A comprehensive Iran policy requires we address all of the threats posed by Iran, and it is clear there are many," Tillerson told reporters at the State Department.

Tillerson said the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers failed "to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran and only delays their goal of becoming a nuclear state."

Iran has yet to comment on the Trump administration's review, but Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned in November that Tehran would retaliate if the United States breached the nuclear agreement.

Tillerson said one of the mistakes in the way the agreement was put together was that it ignored all the other serious threats Iran posed outside of its nuclear program.

"That is why we have to look at Iran in a very comprehensive way in terms of the threat it poses in all areas of the region and the world," he added.

"This deal represents the same failed approach of the past that brought us to the current imminent threat we face from North Korea," Tillerson said of the nuclear deal.

The nuclear agreement, negotiated during Barack Obama's presidency, placed limitations on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting economic sanctions against Iran.

Tillerson's notice to Congress was part of a 90-day process in which the president has to certify that Iran is complying with the nuclear accord. It is the first update under the Trump administration.

The next test of Trump's attitude toward the nuclear deal will be in May when he must decide whether to extend sanctions waivers for Iran first signed by Obama.

During his presidential campaign, Trump called the agreement "the worst deal ever negotiated" and said he would review it once he reached office.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Frederica Mogherini, said last month after meetings with senior Trump administration officials she was reassured in the talks that the U.S. was committed to fully implementing the deal.

Reuters and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=41861

Follow Middle East and Terrorism on Twitter

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