Élites are more dangerous to Israel than Islam - Giulio Meotti

by Giulio Meotti

The left is attempting to undermine Israel's rights to the holy land and its right to self defense.

Penning an article for the Financial Times, historian Simon Schama, a liberal belonging to the establishment, writes that “the problem of the left with the Jews has a long and unfortunate history” and that “criticism of Israeli government policies became a rejection of Israel’s right to exist”. Schama then asks: “Why is it so much easier to hate the Jews?”

This is an article that should be sent to all those intellectuals, journalists, writers, academics who for years, every day, in Italy and the West, demonized the Jewish State. The good people on the left who feel that it is natural, even just, that Israel suffers offenses to its territory and to its own people. An appeal from Italian professors to boycott Israel has just reached 328 signatures.

Yet there was a time when Leftist writers even visited Israel as a gesture of solidarity. A great novelist from Eastern Europe, the Czech Ladislav Mnacko, a Communist, a hero of Slovak resistance, “the red Hemingway”, at the outbreak of the war between Israel and the Arab states in 1967, dissented from the positions of the Soviet Union and likened Israel to Czechoslovakia’s fate under Nazi aggression. Mnacko was expelled from the Writers’ Association; he responded by emigrating to Israel. He was stripped of Czechoslovak citizenship. An intellectual hero. There are  no more like him.

Israel knows how to deal with terrorists from Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Lebanon and Sinai. The IDF is powerful and brave enough to defeat and stop any menace and threat, except for Iran’s nuclear bombs. What Israel is not able to defeat is the global Left’s attempt to undermine Israel’s rights over the holy land and to defend itself.

Israel can be attacked from south to north, from east to west, and survive the onslaught. But Israel cannot be permitted to become a pariah state, a rogue state, a clandestine state which people talk about with shame, as if it is a state poisoning the Mediterranean’s waters.

That’s why Mr. Shama is right. Because the global élites’ campaign to turn Israel into a temporary and illegitimate enclave is more dangerous than Al Qaeda and Iranian weapons.

To use the definition that August Babel gave for anti-Semitism, supporting Israel’s enemies at all costs and without reservations is the new “socialism of idiots”.


Giulio Meotti

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/18467#.VtH5v-azdds

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

The Next Syrian Refugee Crisis: Child Brides - Abigail R. Esman

by Abigail R. Esman

The onset of war and the mass displacement of millions of refugees has led to a dramatic rise in the number of girls married as children

UNICEF graphic

While the West debates the humanitarian problem of Syrian refugees flooding across its borders, the discussions repeatedly turn to the dangers they might pose: what if there are terrorists among them? How can we be sure? How can we save those in need of saving and still be safe ourselves?

Yet for many of these refugees, married off against their will, the terror has already begun. They are 11 and 13 and 14 years old. Some of them are pregnant. Some are already mothers at 14. Their husbands are 25 or 38 or 40. And there is no escape.
"Child marriage existed in Syria before the start of the conflict," reports Girls Not Brides, a global partnership aimed at ending child marriage worldwide, "but the onset of war and the mass displacement of millions of refugees has led to a dramatic rise in the number of girls married as children."

Indeed, since the start of the refugee crisis, UNICEF reports, as many as "one-third of registered marriages among Syrian refugees in Jordan between January and March 2014 involved girls under 18," with some as young as 11.

In many cases, these marriages are set up by well-meaning parents who believe their daughters would be safer in the asylum centers if married and so, less likely to be approached sexually by strange men. In other instances, the daughters are sold off by parents who can no longer afford to keep them, or given in marriage to men already planning to leave Syria in the hopes that, once the couple arrives in the West, the parents can then legally join them.

But girls married in their early teens and younger face dark futures, according to Girls Not Brides. They are more likely to live in poverty, often are physically and emotionally abused, are at higher risk for sexually transmitted diseases, and are vulnerable to complications during childbirth – some of them fatal.

The plight of refugee child brides, which some authorities now call a crisis, first came to light in October last year, when 14-year old Fatema Alkasem vanished from a refugee center in the Netherlands along with her husband. She was nine months pregnant at the time.

Alkasem's disappearance led to an emergency session of Parliament, and the ratification of a long-delayed bill that would automatically dissolve the marriage of a minor, even if performed legally in the country where the nuptials took place.  Under the revised law, the husbands of minors who continue living with their wives could be prosecuted for rape and deported. Where needed, the wives would receive special medical and psychological care and, wherever possible, placed in Dutch foster homes.

The impact of the case reached far beyond the Netherlands, where an average of three child brides arrives each week. With 15 million girls worldwide forced into marriage every year, and with child marriages among Syrian refugees skyrocketing, the problem of protecting these girls is now a global one.

But while the Netherlands has taken an aggressive stance to protect these young brides, who are often sexually abused, other countries are more circumspect, even as the crisis deepens. In Norway, for instance, officials determined in December that 61 underage migrants were already married when they arrived (including one 11-year-old girl). But it was the publicized tale of a 14-year-old girl arriving with her 18-month-old child and 23-year-old husband, also in December, that ignited public outcry and prompted new focus by the government on the issue. Police sought to prosecute the case on criminal grounds, noting that Norway's age of consent for sexual relations is 16. Yet others, such as feminist activist Unni Wikan, argued to the contrary, that Norway "might have to accept that underage refugees are married and have children." At this writing, the debate is still ongoing.

Opinions are also mixed in Denmark, where a January report of the country's asylum system revealed that 27 underage girls were married, including two 14-year-olds, one of whom was pregnant. Speaking to newspaper Metroexpress, conservative party spokesman Naser Khadir minced no words: "It's called pedophilia when a man gets a 14-year-old pregnant," he said. "We can give asylum to the 14-year-old, but we should kick the grown man out." The husband in this case is said to be 24.

In the interim, asylum-seekers under the age of 15 – Denmark's legal age of consent – are to be separated from their spouses and their cases reviewed by immigration officials.

But here, too, some believe that it is better to recognize such marriages. Prominent Danish imam Oussama El Saadi of Aarhus told Metroexpress that these marriages are "part of the culture" of the refugees, and so should be looked at "differently," according to the Copenhagen Post.

Whatever one thinks of such reasoning,  there is one urgent argument to support the idea that Europe should recognize these marriages, or at least find alternatives to simply rejecting them: the risk these girls face of becoming the targets of honor killings, murdered by their estranged husbands or even their own parents. A young woman who has been married – and especially one who has given birth – is no longer seen as "pure" in strict Islamic culture, thereby sullying her family's reputation. The only recourse, in far too many Muslim families, is to cleanse the family through her blood – or murder. Even if she were to be spared such a fate, a Muslim man would be unlikely to marry her in future.

These are concerns European governments must consider in helping these young women.

In the Netherlands, officials already are taking the threat of honor killings seriously. In an e-mail, Parliamentarian Aatje Kuiken, a member of the Dutch labor party (PvdA) who was instrumental in changing the minority marriage laws, said that special teams have been set up to focus on the issue, and give the girls extra protection where needed.  Hopefully, other countries will swiftly follow suit.

In Norway, however, officials are taking a different approach: providing classes for migrant men on the appropriate treatment of women. Such courses in European codes of behavior and ideas about sexuality and sexual norms, according to the New York Times, establish "a simple rule that all asylum seekers need to learn and follow: 'to force someone into sex is not permitted in Norway, even when you are married to that person.'"

Such classes currently are voluntary, suggesting that those men who most need them, those more inclined to insist on the social norms of their home countries, and who firmly maintain that their wives are their property, are actually the most unlikely to enroll. Still, the initiative offers hope and could provide a model for other states and the possibility of long-term progress – if not to change the lives of these young child brides, perhaps, one day, to change their daughters'.


Abigail R. Esman

Source: http://www.investigativeproject.org/5177/the-next-syrian-refugee-crisis-child-brides

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

Gay Rape, Masked Men and Sheep in Restaurants - Ingrid Carlqvist

by Ingrid Carlqvist

Translated by Maria Celander

One Month of Islam and Multiculturalism in Sweden: January 2016

• So far, nine out of ten people seeking asylum in Sweden have not had identification. They can then adapt their background stories to increase their chances of being granted asylum.
• Stockholm's Chief Press Officer had written that the police might be perceived as racist, and therefore should not report physical descriptions to the public. Ironically, it is journalists who have more or less forced the police to stop using descriptions such as skin color, by labeling the police "racist" every time a person of color appears on a wanted list.
• "There are those who wish to make this an issue of ethnicity. It is not. It is an issue that concerns culture and values. Our free and open society is founded on personal freedom, Western humanism and Christian ethics. These values must not only be upheld, they must be defended." — Ebba Busch Thor, leader of the Christian Democrat Party.

January 4: After an autumn of chaos, when huge numbers of asylum seekers flooded into Sweden, the government was finally forced to implement border controls on its border with Denmark. Now, only those with valid identification documents are allowed to board trains and ferries to Sweden -- effectively keeping people who have destroyed their IDs out of the country. How long it will take before most asylum seekers bring identification papers -- genuine or fake -- remains to be seen. So far, nine out of ten people seeking asylum in Sweden have not had identification. They can then adapt their background stories to increase their chances of being granted asylum.

January 5: The alternative news site Nyheter Idag reported that two 15-year-old boys living at an asylum house for "unaccompanied refugee children," in the small town of Alvesta, were detained on suspicion of raping a younger boy. When the victim reported the incident, the police were alerted and the 15-year-olds were brought in for questioning. One of them has confessed to some of the accusations.

January 6: In another case of homosexual child-rape, two men who claiming to be 16-years-old were arrested on suspicion of raping a boy at an asylum house for "unaccompanied refugee children" in Uppsala. The rape was discovered when the younger boy visited a hospital, along with his legal guardian. One of the suspected rapists was released after being questioned by police, but is still under suspicion. The other was remanded into custody.

The most publicized rape of a boy so far is now awaiting a verdict from the Court of Appeals. In December 2015, two 16-year-olds were sentenced by the District Court to juvenile detention for eight and ten months, respectively. The sentences stand out as extremely lenient, considering what was done to the 15-year-old victim. All involved parties came from Afghanistan and lived in the same asylum house for "unaccompanied refugee children." One day, the older boys asked the 15-year-old if he wanted to come to the store with them. On their way back, the older boys pushed the 15-year-old onto a muddy field, hit and kicked him, shoved mud into his mouth, and then raped him -- twice. They warned him that if he told anyone, he would lose his "honor." That night, however, the boy broke down and told the staff at the asylum house what had happened.

January 9: The alternative news site Nyheter Idag revealed that the respected daily newpaper Dagens Nyheter had covered up a story about the sexual assaults of girls and women (mainly by Afghan men) at the "We Are Sthlm" music festival in 2014 and 2015 -- after knowing about at least one of the incidents for a year and a half. Dagens Nyheter, which routinely brands alternative media sites "hate sites," hurried to place the blame on the Stockholm Police -- who partly accepted it. National Police Chief Dan Eliasson promised to investigate why the information had been kept secret.

January 10: An opinion poll showed that 59% of the Swedes support the border identity checks implemented a week earlier. Even in the southern province of Skåne, where many commuters are affected by trains delayed to and from work in Denmark, the identity checks have a solid approval rate. 62% of the people polled in Skåne said that they thought the border controls were a good thing.

January 11: The total number of asylum seekers to Sweden in 2015 was made public: close to 163,000. The most common nationalities were Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian. Afghan arrivals increased exponentially, especially in the form of "unaccompanied refugee children." 7,049 "children" sought asylum in Sweden in 2014. In 2015, that number had exploded to an unfathomable 35,369 -- 66% of which came from Afghanistan. Sweden has now decided to start age-testing asylum seekers claiming to be children. Until now, the "child's" word has been taken at face value. Officials at the Immigration Service were even instructed not to question anyone who appears to be under the age of 40.

January 12: Rumors flew among liberal Swedish editorial writers that it was, in fact, Russian president Vladimir Putin behind Nyheter Idag's big revelation about the sexual attacks at the music festival in Stockholm. Isobel Hadley-Kamptz, a former employee of the newspaper accused of the cover-up (Dagens Nyheter), tweeted:

"We know that Russia is actively working to spread disinformation in other countries to lower cohesion and trust. We also know that the populist right-wing campaign is operating on the thesis that society is not to be trusted (especially not the media). And yet, when a populist right-wing site with clear connections to Putin starts a campaign against DN [Dagens Nyheter] and the media, reasonable people go along with it?"

The idea of Putin's supposed involvement in the Swedish media business was apparently not considered strange by either Dagens Nyheter's editor-in-chief, Peter Wolodarski, or the prominent columnist, Andreas Ekström, of the respected daily newspaper Sydsvenskan, who both lent their support to the claim that Putin is a puppeteer of the Swedish media.

January 12: Middle-aged men pretending to be teenagers have the right to round-the-clock care in Sweden. The cost is astronomical, but never questioned. If you are 103 years old and Swedish, however, you do not have the same right. A woman recently learned this when she asked to be moved into a nursing home. She suffers from heart problems, angina and dizzy spells, and she has a pacemaker. She uses a walker, but because of the dizziness, her balance is off and she frequently falls. When home-care service helpers come in the evenings she feels uneasy: the caregivers are mostly complete strangers to her. But the municipality did not feel that these ailments were enough to allow her into a home with constant supervision. The 103-year-old woman had to sue the municipality in an Administrative Court, where she finally received a favorable verdict.

January 12: Another cherished myth turned out to be true: the one about police covering up crimes committed by immigrants. The Swedish police, when trying to track down criminals, have explicit instructions not to include descriptions of suspects which could be construed as "racist." Svenska Dagbladet broke the story after a confidential letter was leaked to the newspaper. The letter had apparently gone out to all police personnel in September 2015. Stockholm's Chief Press Officer had written that the police might be perceived as racist, and therefore should not report physical descriptions to the public. Ironically, it is journalists who have more or less forced the police to stop using descriptions such as skin color, by labeling the police "racist" every time a person of color appears on a wanted list.

January 13: The leader of the Christian Democrat Party (Kristdemokraterna), Ebba Busch Thor, wants to deport asylum seeker who are sex offenders -- even if they have grounds to be granted asylum. In an opinion piece in the conservative daily newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, she wrote:

"If asylum seekers to Sweden commit sex crimes, they should have their asylum application rejected and be swiftly dispatched out of the country. Even for people with residence permits, deportation should be a much more common legal effect.
...
"There are those who wish to make this an issue of ethnicity. It is not. It is an issue that concerns culture and values. Our free and open society is founded on personal freedom, Western humanism and Christian ethics. These values must not only be upheld, they must be defended."

January 14: An 18-year-old was indicted for a hand grenade attack against a police van in the Stockholm suburb of Tumba last year. He was charged with attempted murder and various other crimes: two aggravated robberies, weapons offenses, harboring a criminal, and one mugging.

January 16: The issue of possible media cover-ups of important news in Sweden kept engaging people. "The idea that the media covers things up," stated Jesper Strömbäck, a professor of media and communication studies, "is reminiscent of a conspiracy theory... To deselect, sometimes, certain information is about news values."

Strömbäck's statement led columnist Sakine Madon to ask her colleagues on Facebook and Twitter if they had ever been asked to tone down or avoid topics that could "benefit the [immigration-critical party] Sweden Democrats"? One experienced journalist replied that at several news organizations, there had been an unspoken policy not to favor the Sweden Democrats and thus contribute to "xenophobia."

But one does not reveal editorial secrets and get away scot-free. Ms. Madon had to endure a wave of harsh, and mostly unfair, criticism. She wrote in response:

"Instead of engaging in this childish mudslinging, journalists should ask themselves questions such as: What do we do about this problem? Where do we draw the line between activism and journalism? Should we be openly opposed to SD [Sweden Democrats] , or should we stick to being neutral?"

January 18: Two men were indicted for cruelty to animals, after they had slaughtered sheep according to halal slaughter [permitted Islamic method of animal slaughter] at a pizzeria in Falkenberg. Halal slaughter does not allow for stunning the animal, and is illegal in Sweden, so the men tried to sneak the two sheep into the restaurant. They were, however, observed by a witness. When the police arrived, the sheep were already dead and lying on the concrete floor in a pool of blood.

Left: A police van is riddled with shrapnel from a hand grenade attack in Stockholm last year. The four policemen in the vehicle at the time could have been killed if the van had not been armored. On Jan. 14, an 18-year-old was indicted for that attack. Right: The bloody knife used by two men to kill sheep according to halal slaughter [Islamic method of animal slaughter] at a pizzeria in Falkenberg. The men were indicted on Jan. 18 for cruelty to animals, because Swedish law requires stunning before slaughter, making halal slaughter illegal in Sweden.

January 18: The number of sexual assaults in public swimming pools skyrocketed in January. Newspapers were filled with stories about "cultural clashes" in public pools. Distressed pool staff members called for adults to take responsibility for the "unaccompanied refugee boys" who grope girls. On this particular day, an asylum seeking 16-year-old was arrested by the police when he, along with a gang of other immigrant youths, molested a 15-year-old Swedish girl. "At some point he tried to run his fingers under the bottom of her bathing suit. The youths also touched her breasts over the bathing suit and grabbed her legs," the county police officer in charge, Kenneth Sundin, told the local daily newspaper Upsala Nya Tidning.

January 18: Female bus drivers in Lessebo felt they had no choice but to call in sick after being harassed by newly-arrived migrants. The altercations have mostly been about migrants trying to use invalid tickets, and not accepting the driver's refusal to let them on board without proper travel documents. Evenings and nights have been particularly troublesome. According to one bus operator, the problems could have been avoided "if the Immigration Service staff had handed out written information in several languages that explained to the newly arrived immigrants what the rules are." Some drivers, to avoid trouble, simply let the migrants do as they pleased. One father, for example, demanded that as his wife had an appointment to visit a prenatal care facility, his whole family be allowed to travel for free. The driver was told to shut up, and finally gave in and let them ride the bus for free.

January 18: The National Alliance for Sexual Enlightenment (Riksförbundet för sexuell upplysning), RFSU, demanded mandatory sex education for all "unaccompanied refugee children." However, the Alliance did not want just any old dusty sex education -- it demanded that the classes should be conducted from a "norm-critical gender perspective."

After the recent reports about sexual assaults against women in Stockholm, Kalmar, Cologne and other places, RFSU said it felt that the time was right for young men from highly patriarchal societies to become "norm-critical."

In an op-ed, RFSU wrote: "Sex education built on a gender conscious and norm critical foundation has turned out to be a key factor not just to strengthen the youths' health, but also to counteract gender based violence. This is true of all young people, regardless of background. It is a right and a possibility that Sweden must not neglect."

January 19: The huge influx of young men to Sweden has given the country a skewed gender balance that is quite unsettling, according to Professor Valerie M. Hudson, of the Program on Women, Peace and Security at Texas A&M University. In the Swedish daily Göteborgs-Posten, she wrote: "My research shows that there are several negative consequences to society when imbalance in the gender distribution increases, something that Sweden needs to have a serious discussion about."

The imbalance is overwhelmingly due to immigration. The extremely large migration to Sweden in 2015, in which 71% of the immigrants were males, has increased the imbalance in gender distribution significantly. "From official immigration statistics," she went on, "one can conclude that at the end of 2015 there were 123 16-17-year-old boys for every 100 girls in the same age span." Comparatively, China, which has one of the world's largest imbalances in gender distribution, 'only' has 117 boys for every 100 girls in the same age group. "Having studied gender distribution in China and India for 15 years, it is amazing to me that Sweden has a worse imbalance than either of these two countries."

In the article, Professor Hudson also lists several reasons why gender imbalance is dangerous, and wonders: "How is it possible that Sweden, one of the most acknowledged feminist countries in the world, does not seem to care about such sharp fluctuations in gender distribution?"

January 19: At the school Sjumilaskolan in the Biskopsgården area of Gothenburg, anarchy is said to be prevalent. According to a report from the School Board (Skolinspektionen), the school's teachers are afraid of their own students. At Sjumilaskolan, about 60 languages are spoken; fewer than a third of the students pass all subjects; violence, threats and abuse are commonplace, and no adults at the school dare put a stop to any of the misconduct. Last semester, shootings occurred in the schoolyard, and now several students say that they do not dare to go to school anymore.

The School Board report states:

"Some teachers have told us that they themselves have been in verbal and physical conflicts with students, and that the teachers are sometimes afraid that students will kill each other. The teachers describe a general anxiety at the school, and also tell us that they feel there is a risk that riots will occur in the high school."

In November 2015, about a week after the School Board's inspection, there was indeed a riot at the school, during which students smashed chairs, tables and paintings in one of the classrooms, and the teachers had to call the police to stop the unrest. The School Board now demands that Gothenburg municipality immediately address the problems at Sjumilaskolan. If the problems have not been dealt with by April 29, the municipality will face a 700,000 kronor ($82,000) fine.

January 20: Former terror suspect Mutar Muthanna Majid demanded one million kronor ($117,000) in damages from the Swedish government. According to his lawyer, Peter Ataseven, "He was suspected of very serious criminal activity. But above all, he has suffered from the media coverage, since he was depicted as a terrorist and has had his name and picture publicized."

What prompted the Security Service to arrest Muthanna Majid on November 18 -- why he was suspected of preparing terrorist attacks, raising the threat level in Sweden to a four on a five point scale and unleashing a massive manhunt -- is still a mystery. The police at the time seemed confident, and most media outlets published the name and photograph of the suspect. The next evening, November 19, a large police force apprehended Majid at the asylum house in Boden where he lived. He was questioned, but three days later, the District Attorney decided to release him; he was no longer suspected of any wrongdoing.

January 24: The Stockholm police warned that they could no longer cope with the pressure of dealing with the Moroccan street kids running wild in the city. There are hundreds of young men from Morocco and other North African countries staying illegally in Sweden, mainly in Stockholm and Gothenburg.

SVT Nyheter, a public television news program, talked to a police officer who asked to remain anonymous:

"These guys are a giant problem to us. They steal things everywhere and beat up the security guards at the central train station. They grab girls between their legs and slap them when they protest. The police all know about this. The situation is abysmal – I would never let my children go to the train station; no policeman would."

A few days later, some vigilantes seemed to have decided to "clean up" the streets. According to several media sources, a large gang of masked men at the Stockholm central train station handed out flyers that contained messages along the lines of "enough is enough!" The flyers encouraged people to take the law into their own hands, find any street kids in the area and "give them what they deserve."

When the incident was widely publicized in the mainstream media, suddenly the street kids were renamed "unaccompanied refugee children." Strangely, the police have yet to receive a single complaint about abuse from the street kids, and there is a question if any attacks ever took place at all.

January 24: Mauricio Rojas, who for many years was the "integration policy" spokesperson for the Liberals, wrote in a column in Svenska Dagbladet:

"A country once characterized by a remarkable sense of solidarity -- all the things the Swedish welfare state represented -- has in a couple of decades been transformed into a multi ethnic community, where the bonds of fellowship between people have been significantly weakened."

Rojas, once an immigrant from Chile to Sweden, had been considered too rough on immigrants; he was therefore outmaneuvered by the Liberals. He left the Parliament -- and left Sweden -- in the fall of 2008, and moved to Spain. Now and again he makes an appearance in the Swedish immigration debate. Few Swedes would have dared write what he wrote:

"These changes raise concerns for many people and pose important questions about the future towards which we are heading, in terms of national fellowship. We know how things were, but no one knows how they will be, and there are many who feel that Sweden has lost its soul and become a multicultural chaos. That is why nostalgia and a painful sense of alienation are growing in this country, but also a desire to pause, or at least slow down, the speed of transformation."

January 24: Sweden's universities and colleges had looked forward to a replenishment of their budgets by a total of 303 million kronor (over $35 million), but the money has been withheld. According to Social Democratic Minister for Higher Education and Research, Helene Hellmark Knutsson, the money will instead go to covering the "hugely increased costs in 2016 due to the large number of people fleeing from war and terror, and seeking asylum in Sweden."

January 24: Another case of homosexual rape was uncovered at an asylum house, this time in the southern town of Ljungby. The police arrested a 22-year-old migrant, suspected of having molested a 15-year-old boy where they both lived.

January 25: 22-year-old Alexandra Mezher was stabbed to death by one of the residents at the asylum house for "unaccompanied refugee children" where she worked. The killer, Youssaf Khaliif Nuur, claimed to be 15 years old and from Somalia, and as in Sweden no medical age determination is routinely performed of those claiming to be children, the man was placed among teenagers. When the British newspaper, the Daily Mail, covered his detention and made fun of the Swedish authorities' having accepted his claim of being 15 years old, the Swedish mainstream media labeled the Daily Mail a "hate web site," much like the alternative Swedish media web sites, Avpixlat and Fria Tider. For some reason, the Daily Mail blocked most of their articles about the case for Swedish readers. Legal reasons were cited, but many speculated that government censorship was involved. In February, when the Immigration Service finally concluded that the suspected killer was not 15 but over 18 years of age, the correction was laconically reported by the Swedish media.

January 26: The Svea Court of Appeals increased the sentence for Congolese immigrant Loran Guy Mogi, who murdered his pregnant girlfriend, Therese Eriksson, in the town of Vårgårda. In the District Court, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison and deportation, but the Court of Appeals increased his sentence to life in prison: "Add to this," the Court of Appeals wrote, "that (the woman) was pregnant and that the pregnancy was rather far gone, which X (the accused) was well aware of. In the Court of Appeals' estimation this is a highly aggravating factor, because X by strangling the woman not only killed her, but also a budding life. In light of these facts, the court feels that the penalty value is life in prison."
 

 

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/7486/sweden-gay-rape-islam-multiculturalism

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

Consequences of American Retreat from the Middle East - Prof. Efraim Inbar

by Prof. Efraim Inbar

While Washington claims to be confident that Iran will play "a responsible regional role," leaders in Ankara, Cairo, Jerusalem and Riyadh see Iran as almost entirely unaltered from its pre-deal state in any meaningful political sense, with the potential to produce nuclear bombs in a short time.

BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 331, February 24, 2016

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The American retreat from the Middle East signals weakness, and encourages an Iranian quest for regional hegemony that was bolstered by the P5+1 nuclear deal. The most dangerous consequence of current American foreign policy in the region is the likelihood of nuclear proliferation. Moreover, the current American approach allows for Russian encroachment in the region, which enhances the power of the radical axis led by Iran. It also opens the way for the ‘Finlandization’ of the Gulf and the Caspian basin by Iran. US weakness in the Middle East inevitably will have ripple effects in other parts of the globe.

The US, under President Barack Obama, has signaled its intent to reduce its presence in the Middle East. The US fought two unsuccessful wars in the region – a frustrating lesson about the limits of its power. At the same time, US dependency upon Middle Eastern energy has been reduced thanks to domestic progress in fracking technology. Moreover, Washington has decided to “pivot” to China, an emerging global challenger, and also to cut defense expenditures, leaving fewer military assets available for projecting power in the Middle East. (For a while during President Obama's tenure, the US had no aircraft carriers in the eastern Mediterranean or in the Gulf at all, an unprecedented situation.) In addition, the American campaign against ISIS has been extremely limited, and has met with little success.

Unfortunately, this disengagement signals both fatigue and weakness.

Washington also has desisted from confronting Iran, and has gone to great lengths to accommodate it. President Obama's contention is that by completing a nuclear deal with Iran, he resolved one of the outstanding security issues in the region before leaving office. However the deal legitimizes a large nuclear infrastructure in Iran, and ignores the cardinal national security interests of at least two US allies: Israel and Saudi Arabia. The subsequent removal of international economic sanctions – with no reciprocal requirement for any change in Iranian regional policy – positions Iran to reap great financial benefits at no cost. President Obama's Iran policy has occasioned a dramatic change in the regional balance of power, yet Washington appears largely unperturbed.

Whereas US policy on Iran has been guided primarily by wishful thinking, the apprehensions of regional actors with regard to Iran's hegemonic ambitions have multiplied in response to the nuclear deal. While Washington claims to be confident that Iran will play "a responsible regional role," leaders in Ankara, Cairo, Jerusalem and Riyadh see Iran as almost entirely unaltered from its pre-deal state in any meaningful political sense, with the potential to produce nuclear bombs in a short time.

The gravest consequence of the US policy of disengagement from the region is the increased probability of nuclear proliferation. Powers contending for regional leadership, such as Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia will not stand idly by in the nuclear arena, particularly as the US is no longer seen as a reliable security provider. US attempts to convince regional powers to rely on an American nuclear umbrella in an attempt to prevent nuclear proliferation are likely to fail. The emergence of a multi-polar nuclear Middle East, which is a plausible consequence of the American nuclear accommodation with Iran, will be a strategic nightmare for everyone.

An emboldened Iran, which traditionally acts through proxies rather than through military conquest, might intensify its campaign to subvert Saudi Arabia, possibly by playing the Shiite card in the Shiite-majority and oil-rich Eastern province. The loss of that province would considerably weaken the Saudi state and might even bring about its disintegration.

Iran could use subversion, terrorist attacks and intimidation of the Gulf states to evict the thinning American presence completely from the Gulf. In the absence of American determination and ability to project force, Iranian superior power might ‘Finlandize’ the Gulf countries. We could also see also the ‘Finlandization’ of the Caspian basin, where Iran shares the coast with important energy producers like Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. The Caspian basin and the Persian Gulf form an “energy ellipse” that contains a large part of the world’s energy resources.

Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are very fearful of growing Iranian influence. It is possible that those countries, which adopted a pro-Western foreign policy orientation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, might decide to return to the Russian orbit, because Russia appears at present to be a more reliable ally than the US.

Russia is fully alive to the potential for a reassertion of a Russian role in the region in the wake of an American retreat. To that end, it has taken the major step of intervening militarily in Syria to assure the survival of Assad’s regime. The Syrian littoral is a vital base for enhanced Russian naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, and this preceded Russian air participation in the Syrian civil war. In addition, Russia wants to protect energy prospects that depend on Assad's survival. It already has signed exploration contracts with the Assad regime with regard to the recent gas discoveries in the Levant basin.

Syria has been an ally of Iran since 1979 – the longest alliance in the Middle East. The preservation of the Assad regime is critical to Iranian interests because Damascus is a linchpin to its proxy, the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Russia's efforts on Assad's behalf thus directly serve the interests of the Iranian regime. If successful, those efforts will further Iranian influence in the region.

Outside Syria, we may see Iran join Russia in supporting Kurdish political ambitions in order to weaken Turkey, Iran's rival for regional leadership. The Kurds are a thorn in Turkey’s side. Iran and Turkey are supporting opposing sides in the civil war in Syria, where the Kurds are carving out autonomous regions. Depending on how the war transpires, Kurdish national dreams might benefit from the power vacuum created by the disruption of the Arab statist structure and the American exit from the region.

As to Egypt, American reluctance to support the al-Sisi regime plays into Russian hands. The Russians are selling weapons to Egypt, negotiating port rights in Alexandria, and supplying Egypt with nuclear reactors. In Iraq too, we see the harbingers of a Russian presence in coordination with Iran, as American influence in that state continues to wane.

The rise of a more aggressive Iran – a direct consequence of the US retreat – may bring about greater tacit cooperation among Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. The big question is whether Turkey will join such an anti-Iranian alignment.

US weakness in the region inevitably will have ripple effects in other parts of the globe. American credibility is now subject to question, and allies elsewhere may determine that it would be wise to hedge their bets. Greater challenges await the US beyond the Middle East.

BESA Center Perspectives Papers are published through the generosity of the Greg Rosshandler Family


Prof. Efraim Inbar, director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, is a professor of political studies at Bar-Ilan University and a fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Source: http://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/consequences-of-american-retreat-from-the-middle-east/

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

Earthquakes of the Middle East - Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah

by Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah

Five years after the outburst of the so-called Arab Spring, the Middle East has changed radically. Not only have nation-states crumbled, transformed or become failed-states, the moderating forces which used to hold the structures together are no longer present, have switched their allegiance allowing new factors to appear and dominate the scene.

• The Middle East is experiencing tectonic and dramatic changes that are shaping its landscape into unexpected realities.
• Russia engaged its forces to defend the crumbling Alawite regime. Since the beginning of the Russian military intervention in late September, the Assad regime together with his strategic allies have succeeded not only to stabilize the regime but to regain lost strategic positions.
• Iraq today is struggling in its quest for self-identity. A year and a half after the Islamic State (IS) stormed Mosul and almost cut Iraq in half, Iraq is trying to recover and retake territory lost to Abu Bakr el Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State.
• The Islamic State, under attack by the Russians and the Western military coalition led by the United States, is feeling the crunch. Thousands of its fighters have been killed or incapacitated by the air raids.
• Five years after the ousting of President Mubarak, and following the Islamist Mohamed Morsi’s short presidency, Egypt under Field-Marshall Sisi is fighting to regain stability. Never in its modern history did Egypt have such tumultuous and unraveling events.
• Five years from now, what Middle East can we expect? It would not be adventurous to say that we will be confronted with a new map with new entities born or re-born.

Almost five years after the outburst of the so-called Arab Spring, the Middle East is still experiencing tectonic and dramatic changes that are shaping its landscape into unexpected realities. The more the Middle East is engulfed in crisis the more it is transforming into a different political layout far beyond anything in its history. As an allegory, one could imagine the Middle East as boiling magma erupting from the depths of the earth, transforming in its burning path each and every meter it passes before it stabilizes into a new landscape after it has destroyed everything in its way.

Those five years have witnessed every unimaginable drama that no analyst could have ever dreamt about: Arabs fighting Arabs; Sunni Arabs fighting Iran and Iranian-backed troops and political forces;  Sunnis fighting against Shiites; disintegration of nation-states; shifting alliances with the super powers; Western and Russian military intervention; Arab (Saudi Arabia, Qatar), Turkish, and Western intervention in local conflicts; the dominance of Russia and the slow shrinking of U.S. influence; Arab military intervention to assist failing fellow states unsuccessful in quelling internal rebellions; the elimination and persecution of Muslim sects; the disappearance of Christian communities; almost war between Russia and Turkey; and the rise of political Islam camouflaged as Jihadism on the ruins of former nation-states such as Syria and Iraq.  Extreme fundamentalism together with the brutal and outrageous  reality of the civil wars raging in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Lebanon have produced hundreds of thousands of victims, phantom cities, millions displaced and hundreds of thousands of refugees in foreign lands.

Where Do We Stand Today?

Syria and the Assad regime. By late September 2015, Bashar Assad was losing the war against the rebels assisted in their fight by the Saudi-Qatari Turkish-Western coalition. The rebels were on the outskirts of Assad hinterland in Latakia after defeating his forces in the northern part of the country facing Turkey. Assad was also losing the Golan to the Free Syrian Army and to the storming units of the jihadists. Even in Damascus it seemed that the suffocating siege carried out by the rebels was having a serious impact on Assad’s grip on his capital.

Then, as if by “magic,” Russia engaged its forces to defend the crumbling Alawite regime. Since the beginning of the Russian  military  intervention in late September, the Assad regime together with his strategic allies (Afghani forces brought by Iran, Hizbullah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces) have succeeded not only to stabilize the regime but to regain lost the strategic positions in the Latakia  province lost in 2012 which secured the borders with Turkey. The next targets appear to be the re-capture of the whole city of Aleppo, thus assuring the Assad regime a large enough “lebensraum” to enable Assad to negotiate from a strong position rather than as a defeated regime. The forces of the regime flanked by pro-Iranian proxies (Afghanis and Uzbeks) have also recaptured Sheikh Meskin, a strategic stronghold near Daraa in the south thus recovering almost the majority of the ground lost in the Golan. In greater Damascus, Assad’s forces have regained control of some of the suburbs which fell to the hands of the rebels.

However, even with this reverse of fortune, the Assad regime controls barely 30 to 40 percent of the previous Syrian Republic. Assad is at the mercy of his saviors, and his regime is totally dependent on the decision-makers in Moscow and Teheran. His freedom to maneuver is almost nonexistent. Whatever scenario unfolds, Syria will not return to be the former spearhead of Arabism in the Middle East.

Moscow’s intervention in Syria and its strained relations with Turkey following Turkey’s downing of a Russian warplane which purportedly trespassed over the Turkish border have probably headed off a Turkish military incursion into Syria. Moscow and Teheran have become the guarantors of Syria’s Alawite regime. It remains to be seen what sort of partnership will emerge between the two allies when they will have to confront one another on different political agendas.

The Russian military intervention has spared Lebanon another civil war. Indeed, the Assad regime’s success (assisted by Russian air raids and Hizbullah fighters) in blocking the jihadists from reaching the Mediterranean Sea through the port of Tripoli has defused a fragile situation that could have developed into an all-out war between Sunnites and Shiites in Lebanon. But this has not solved the constitutional and political deadlock in Lebanon.

Lebanon is without a president since 2014; the whole political body is paralyzed and no compromise appears on the horizon. Hizbullah, blocking the issue of presidential elections by preventing the meeting of a quorum in parliament, has chosen a candidate (Michel Aoun) and is adamantly opposed to any alternative. The opponents rallied around the former Sunni Prime Minister Saad Hariri and Christian Maronite candidate Suleiman Frangieh, Jr. and have also decided not to compromise. In the meantime the country is run by a caretaker government which could in fact last for a long time if there is no dramatic change in the equation of forces.

Iraq today is struggling in its quest for self-identity. A year and a half after the Islamic State (IS) stormed Mosul and almost cut Iraq in half, Iraq is trying to recover and retake territory lost to Abu Bakr el Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed Caliph and leader of the Islamic State. With the help of the United States, Russia, and Iran, Iraq has recaptured almost in their entirety two key cities lost a year earlier to the IS: Tikrit and Ramadi. However, Iraq finds itself partly invaded by Turkish forces in the north and de facto partitioned between an autonomous Kurdish Government in the north, a Sunni territorial entity led by the IS whose capital is in Rakka, Syria,  and a Shiite state which extends north of Baghdad until the borders with Kuwait, Iran and Saudi Arabia in the south.

Mosul Dam, largest dam in Iraq

At this point, Iraqi leaders are worried about the possible devastation Iraq would endure by the destruction of the Mosul Dam (formerly known as Saddam Hussein’s Dam) if it is not properly maintained. This problematic dam was built on soluble gypsum, and the U.S. Corps of Engineers warned already in the first years of the American presence in Iraq that the dam – “the most dangerous dam in the world” – could be a source of danger if it is not constantly reinforced with grout injections. Another scheme under discussion is the construction of a colossal wall to surround Baghdad to facilitate law enforcement in the area and to reduce if not to eradicate terrorist attacks originating in areas adjacent to Baghdad.

The Kurdish issue is also a thorny issue for Baghdad. Following unsuccessful negotiations, the Iraqi government allowed the Kurds to run the oil industry in the Kirkuk area and to monetize the oil produced to finance the Kurdish economy. However, the Kurds, aware of the weakness of the central government in Baghdad, courted and armed by the United States and the West, and encouraged by their victories against the IS in Iraq and Syria, are now considering a referendum on whether to declare an independent state. Although the Kurds say that it is only meant to take the pulse of the people and not to be implemented immediately, these noises are not welcome in Baghdad which sees the specter of secession becoming a reality in its northern provinces. It is clear that such a declaration would draw the ire of Turkey and Iran as much as Baghdad’s, and its consequences could carry a dire predicament to a potential Kurdish self-proclaimed independence.

The Islamic State, under attack by the Russians and the Western military coalition led by the United States, is feeling the crunch. Thousands of its fighters have been killed or incapacitated by the air raids. The French Defense Minister mentioned the number of 20,000 casualties which could mean a very heavy toll on the military structure of the IS.  However, even after losing Ramadi and Tikrit, the IS has enough energy to continue to fight in Syria and Iraq. During the year and a half since the declaration of the caliphate, the IS has succeeded to gain new territories in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, India, Afghanistan and the  North Caucasian region. Its franchises in Egypt, the Gulf States, and North Africa are expanding and are still very active. Of late, indications suggest that the IS is looking for a possible alternative to Rakka in the failed state of Libya. The vacuum created in Libya since the ousting of Qaddafi by the West which contributed to the disintegration of Libya offers now a safe haven for jihadists in North Africa, destabilizing North Africa and the African Sahel states. The number of IS fighters in Libya has doubled in a year (5,000 fighters as of today), and their main goal is to capture the oil installations in the area of Sirte after having made inroads in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. The growing IS presence in Libya has lit red lights in Europe and the United States. The possibility of a military Western and Russian military intervention in Libya is now closer to reality than before. Unlike Rakka, Sirte in Libya is less than an hour flight from the coast of Italy. Moreover, the IS has taken advantage of the enormous influx of refugees to Europe by introducing IS agents and operatives disguised as refugees, part of its strategy to wage terrorist attacks in the very heart of Europe.

The Changing Saudi Arabia. Far under the radar, and for almost a year, another conflict between Sunni Arabs and Arab Shiites backed by Iran has been unraveling. Saudi Arabia is leading an Arab military coalition against the Houthis in Yemen with little success. The military intervention by Saudi Arabia in Yemen was accompanied by a much-publicized campaign promising a swift end to the rebellion initiated by the Houthis against the elected government. However, even with the participation of allied Arab armies, including Egypt, Sudan and the Emirates, the Saudi campaign achieved very little in military accomplishments. At this point it appears that the war in Yemen will persist with no clear ending in the near future.

Pursuant to the Saudis’ confrontational policy carried out since the death of King Abdullah, the ascension of King Salman, and the nomination of his young son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman al-Saud, as minister of Defense of the kingdom, Saudi Arabia has join with Qatar to spearhead the effort to bring down the Alawite regime in Syria. Saudi Arabia has made no secret of its policy to arm and finance the Sunni rebels fighting against the Alawite-Iranian-Hizbullah coalition in Syria. Saudi Arabia has been active in trying to promote a “Pax Saudiana” by gathering in Riyadh and Geneva the main opposition factions to the Assad regime, but to no avail for the time being. Saudi Arabia went as far as declaring its readiness to send troops to fight ISIS in Syria and Iraq which considers the ruling Wahhabi family and regime in Saudi Arabia to be heretical.

In fact Saudi Arabia is facing a double threat to its regime – both initiated by outside factors. The first one is directed by Iran using the Shiite population in Saudi Arabia as a means to destabilize the kingdom, and the second one is inspired by the Sunni radicals in Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Map of Yemen and the strategic Bab el Mandeb Strait

Saudi Arabia has openly accused Iran of meddling in its internal affairs and pointed at Iran as a terrorist state undermining the stability of the Gulf region. The disaster that occurred during the 2015 Hajj, with the death of scores of Iranian pilgrims and the disappearance of several high-ranking Iranian officials who took part in the pilgrimage, poisoned even more the already strained relations between the two countries. The straw that broke the camel’s back was Saudi Arabia’s execution on 47 Shiites accused of terrorism including the Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr who was considered to be the spiritual leader of the Shiite opposition to the Wahhabi policy of persecution. Iranian mobs attacked and ransacked Saudi diplomatic missions in Iran, and Saudi Arabia answered by severing its diplomatic relations with Teheran. However, with the two countries understanding they were sliding towards confrontation, they chose to lower the flames for the time being and not to engage in an open conflict. Rather, both Iran and Saudi Arabia chose to continue their fight through their respective proxies. Saudi Arabia announces from time to time the uncovering of subversive schemes inspired by Iran. There has not been a month without the Saudis announcing the discovering of clandestine terrorist cells and without suicide attacks being carried out by jihadists associated either with Al-Qaeda or ISIS against “cult” Shiite mosques and military installations. Saudi Arabia is experiencing an unprecedented period of domestic instability due to terrorist activities carried out by Saudi recruits who joined the jihadist effort to destabilize the Kingdom. The Saudi “Patriot Act” (similar to the one enacted in the United States) meant to deter Saudis from joining the ranks of the Jihadists did not meet with great success. The Saudi volunteers in ISIS and Al-Qaeda remain one of the biggest contingents of fighters and carry the dubious title of being the highest number of volunteer suicide bombers. The Arab press today is full of innuendos relating to the possible abdication of the Saudi king to be replaced by his young and energetic son, Salman, the architect of the war in Yemen and of Saudi intervention in Syria.

On the other bank of the Red Sea, Saudi Arabia’s ally, President of Egypt Abd el-Fattah el-Sisi, is also fighting in order to survive the jihadist tide. Five years after the ousting of President Mubarak, and following the Islamist Mohamed Morsi’s short presidency, Egypt under Field-Marshall Sisi is fighting to regain stability. Never in its modern history did Egypt have such tumultuous and unraveling events. The domestic scene is the main issue for the Sisi government to tackle. The Muslim Brotherhood, far from conceding defeat to the army, is still trying to topple the regime. Thousands of them are in jail with several of them being tried before exceptional tribunals; hundreds are awaiting execution. In the meantime, they have managed together with ultra-extreme jihadists to create an atmosphere of uncertainty in Egypt, striking from time to time at institutional targets, high-ranking officials, and military and police installations. President Sisi himself said in an interview he had uncovered two assassination attempts against his life. However, unlike the past regimes, Sisi has engaged his army to fight and restore Egyptian sovereignty in Sinai where the local jihadists (Ansar Bayt el Makdess) have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State and changed their name accordingly to IS-Wilayat Sina (IS-Sinai Province). The events in Libya and the emergence of ISIS in that failed state are also a cause to worry. The Egyptian air force has struck several times at ISIS camps in Libya, and there is constant talk about a ground military operation in order to stabilize Egypt’s western borders with Libya.

Sisi must also focus his attention on events in Ethiopia where the government has decided to build a mammoth dam on the Nile called the “Renaissance Dam” whose basin when finished will create a serious problem for the Nile flow to Egypt. Negotiations are being held between Egypt and the countries to be affected by the dam with the Ethiopian government in order to try to minimize the impact of the dam on the daily life of the Nile basin countries. Under the Morsi presidency, leaks to the press reported a debate in parliament during which the bombing of the dam by Egypt was one of the options considered by some of the parliament members.

Sisi had to fight for the legitimacy of his presidency especially vis-a-vis Washington which considered a freeze on all military and economic aid to Egypt following what it perceived as a military coup against the “democratically elected President [Morsi].” The United States delayed the delivery of weapon systems, some of which were essential in the battle against the jihadists in Sinai, such as Apache gunships and F-16 aircraft. Sisi’s answer was to open up towards Russia and to sign with Moscow huge deals for weapons and nuclear electricity generation plants financed by Saudi funds. France also became a partner by selling Rafale aircraft and Navy frigates. Finally, Egypt struck deals with Europeans entities relating to its gas exploration program leaving American companies out of the room.

The more the Egyptian regime encountered bumps on its way, the more the regime became nervous and retaliated by limiting the freedom of expression. Draconian laws were enacted relating to the freedom of the press and the government made no secret of its zero tolerance to criticism, thus transforming what had been promised as a road map to democracy into a road map to military dictatorship. Egypt under Sisi reverted to the early days of the Nasser’s regime following the resignation of General Negi in 1954.

Where Will the Middle East Be in Five Years?

Five years after the outburst of the so-called Arab Spring, the Middle East has changed radically. Not only have nation-states crumbled, transformed or become failed-states, the moderating forces which used to hold the structures together are no longer present, have switched their allegiance allowing new factors to appear and dominate the scene. Such is the situation with the United States which is accused by almost all Arabs to be the source of the creation of ISIS, to have abandoned its traditional allies for the benefit of Iran, to have failed to assist friends in need and to have looked at the Muslim Brothers as an alternative to secular nation-states. As a result, Arab states are questioning U.S. policy and raising questions about its resolve to lead the military coalition against the Islamic State. Russia found the cracks in the geopolitical wall and easily replaced the United States with its traditional clients. Russia’s success in Syria is but another sign of the weakness of the United States in these dire times.

Five years from now, what Middle East can we expect? It would be foolish to prophesize. But it would not be adventurous to say that we will be confronted with a new map with new entities born or re-born. However, the future of the Middle East will remain conditional on the events and transformations that will affect the United States, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. In this equation there is no room for the IS: sooner or later, the traditional forces will destroy the entity. This does not mean that the jihadist, Salafist ideology will be eradicated and that jihadist cells will stop from being established. Unless the roots of the problem are dealt with – meaning the financing of religious institutions – the jihadist movement will continue its interaction with the financial institutions receiving their funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and even Morocco.

Col. (ret.) Dr. Jacques Neriah

Source: http://jcpa.org/article/earthquakes-of-the-middle-east/

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