IDF finds 4th Hezbollah tunnel under Israel-‎Lebanon border - Lilach Shoval, Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

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by Lilach Shoval, Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

Israel urges international community to impose sanctions on Hezbollah, Iran's proxy, over the tunnels.

A fourth Hezbollah terror tunnel breaching Israeli ‎territory from Lebanon has been exposed, the IDF said Sunday.‎

The tunnel was discovered as part of Operation ‎Northern Shield, launched by the IDF on Dec. 4 to ‎expose and neutralize Hezbollah tunnels ‎snaking across the border into Israel under the security fence. ‎

‎"Imagine terrorists digging an attack tunnel like ‎‎this toward your home, hacking away, inch by inch, ‎‎underground, in order to kill you and your family. ‎‎Israelis don't need to imagine. It's our job to ‎‎protect them," the IDF posted on its English-language ‎Twitter page.‎

The IDF did not disclose the tunnel's location, ‎saying only that it has lined it with explosives.

The IDF said any Lebanese soldiers or ‎Hezbollah operatives approaching the tunnel on the ‎Lebanese side of the border would do so at their own peril. ‎

Israel has called on the international community to ‎impose new sanctions on Hezbollah, Iran's regional ‎proxy, in the wake of the tunnels' discovery.‎

The IDF said Operation Northern Shield would continue until all Hezbollah tunnels ‎‎are exposed and neutralized. ‎

The Shiite terrorist group has yet to issue any ‎‎‎comment on the operation, but Lebanese President ‎‎Michel Aoun said that as long as the Israeli ‎‎operation does not infringe on his country's ‎‎sovereignty, it is unlikely to threaten the calm on ‎the border. ‎

‎"We take this issue – the presence of tunnels at the ‎border – seriously and Israel informed us ‎via the ‎United States that its intentions are not aggressive," said Aoun, a Hezbollah ally. He added that Israel has pledged to "continue to work" on ‎its ‎‎territory.

Lilach Shoval, Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/16/idf-uncovers-4th-hezbollah-tunnel-under-israel-%e2%80%8elebanon-border/

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How far will the IDF go? - Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror

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by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror

Hezbollah was preparing what would have been a brutal blow to the Israeli homefront in a future clash. Thanks to intelligence work and careful planning, Israel has managed to clip Hezbollah's wings.

Operation Northern Shield, encompassing the IDF's efforts to uncover and destroy Hezbollah attack tunnels crossing under the Israel-Lebanon border, has been made possible by technological advancements and accurate intelligence gathering. The operation followed a detailed plan outlined by operational officials, and if the plan is implemented as presented, it will undoubtedly achieve the desired effect. The desired being  neutralizing the big surprise that Hezbollah was preparing ahead of its next confrontation with Israel – attack tunnels that would allow it to strike at Israel's home front.

Hezbollah's aim was two-fold: to seize Israeli vantage points and stir panic inside Israel, thereby compelling the Israeli military force fighting Hezbollah's complex attack to turn back. And no less importantly, they sought to take over an Israeli community and abduct as many civilians as possible. Thus, at the end of the war, Israel's failure would continue to resonate for a long time after the fighting itself ends, because the hostage negotiations would take a long time and would bring Israel to its knees.

The operation currently underway in the north has the power to reverse this threat. Without a winning card up its sleeve, Hezbollah will need to consider its next step carefully. The many missiles (many of them advanced precision missiles) the organization possesses are still its main strength, and its ability to defend southern Lebanon tenaciously has not waned. But without the winning tunnel card, which would have catapulted Hezbollah's capabilities to a new level, its strength has eroded. This means the organization is more likely to be cautious and less likely to initiate a war in the near future.

Operation Northern Shield raises complicated questions about Israel's initiative and willingness to enter a war to prevent the threat it sees growing. When it comes to nuclear weapons, the accepted view in Israel – known as the Begin Doctrine, named after the late prime minister Menachem Begin, who implemented it when Israel bombed Iraq's nuclear reaction in the 1980s – is preventive. The same policy guided former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in 2007, when he decided to attack the nuclear reactor in Syria.

But when it comes to conventional weapons, Israel has launched a pre-emptive war only once – Operation Kadesh in 1956, when then-Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan launched a mission to keep Egyptian forces from acquiring the capability to overpower the IDF. The operation was a success and bought Israel 11 years of relative calm, at a difficult time when the country was also busy absorbing massive waves of new immigrants and building its economic and military infrastructure.

"Pre-emptive wars" are considered problematic. They are hard to legitimize, because they are by definition "wars of choice." In other words, sacrificing thousands of lives may not be necessary when the enemy isn't pounding at the gates. The country's citizens, like the international community, have a difficult time supporting wars if there is even the slightest possibility it won't erupt. Thus, for example, Israel allowed Hezbollah to grow exponentially stronger and acquire the best Syrian, Iranian and even Russian-made missiles – and deploy them.

Israel spoke in extremely lofty terms following its unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and after the Second Lebanon War in 2006, but hasn't done anything to stop Hezbollah's armament in Lebanon. Only in the chaos of the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011, did Israel decide to use force to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran – while its policy of non-intervention in Lebanon persists.

Can this operation – which is currently being carried out strictly from Israeli territory – spark hostilities on the other side of the border? The answer is a resounding yes, whether intentionally or otherwise. But even if the operation remains on Israel's side of the fence, it could, if Hezbollah's assets and dignity continue taking a hit, trigger a violent response.

Although the chances of this happening are presently low, this must be the IDF's working assumption and its war readiness should be adjusted accordingly. This situation, as stated, raises the question: How far the IDF is willing to go to impair Hezbollah's capabilities? Secondly, should a pre-emptive strike – say a large operation inside Lebanon – be considered after Hezbollah's tunnels are successfully neutralized? These questions require considerable thought.

Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Amidror

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/how-far-will-the-idf-go/

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PA leader orders rebuilding of terrorist’s home razed by Israel - Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

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by Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

PA President Mahmoud Abbas issues directive mere hours after elite IDF unit demolishes the home of Islam ‎Yusuf Abu Hamid, who killed ‎Staff Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky in May by dropping a marble slab on him

Mere hours after the IDF demolished the home of a terrorist who killed an Israeli soldier, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued a directive to rebuild the home, an official in Ramallah said Sunday.

The IDF 's Duvdevan ‎‎‎counterterrorism unit demolished the home of Islam ‎‎Yusuf Abu Hamid‎, who on May 24 dropped a marble slab ‎‎on 20-year-old Staff ‎Sgt. Ronen Lubarsky during a ‎routine ‎raid in the al-‎Amari refugee ‎camp, killing him.‎

Abu Hamid was arrested on June 13. His family ‎appealed to the High Court of Justice to prevent the ‎demolition, arguing that razing their home ‎constituted ‎‎"disproportionate punitive action."

However, ‎the petition was denied.

Israel demolishes the homes of terrorists as a deterrent measure to dissuade potential terrorists from committing attacks.

IDF troops destroyed Hamid's home with two controlled explosions in an operation involving dozens of ‎soldiers and military vehicles on Saturday night. The operation was complicated as the home ‎was located in the center of the densely populated ‎camp.

Residents of al-‎Amari‎ began clashing with the ‎Israeli forces almost immediately, and the troops ‎used crowd control measures to disperse them.

The demolition took place after Prime Minister ‎Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also acting defense ‎minister, ordered the IDF to step up its ‎counterterrorism efforts in the area in the wake of ‎the spike in terrorist attacks across Judea and ‎Samaria in recent weeks. ‎

The IDF has been ordered to demolish ‎terrorists' homes within 48 hours of the identification of an attacker, and to ‎step up raids and arrests. The Defense Ministry ‎has also decided to revoke the entry permits to ‎Israel granted to terrorists' relatives and ‎accomplices. ‎ ‎ ‎

Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/16/pa-leader-orders-rebuilding-of-terrorists-home-razed-by-israel/

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James Comey, Menace to Society - Patricia McCarthy

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by Patricia McCarthy

Like his pal Robert Mueller, Comey has long pretended to be non-partisan when in fact he is a vicious and supremely arrogant anti-Trump zealot.

Is there a person on earth more oleaginous than James Comey? The man known for his phonogenic and photogenic memory suddenly can hardly remember anything at all. In short, he lied, over and over again while being questioned by members of Congress recently. Given his memory deficits, he was most assuredly too incompetent and unaware to be head of the FBI . Yeah, right. He has a good memory and he's a practiced but bad liar. He thinks he is a cover-up artist. 

If there is any justice left in America, he will be charged with a panoply of crimes. He obviously should have been fired long ago, certainly on the first day of the Trump administration. Like his pal Robert Mueller, Comey has long pretended to be non-partisan when in fact he is a vicious and supremely arrogant anti-Trump zealot. In the talk he gave at the 92nd Street Y a week ago, he bragged about flaunting the process and took advantage of the "chaos" of an administration four days old. 

In collusion with John Brennan, James Clapper, Andrew McCabe, the Clinton campaign and the Obama administration, Comey orchestrated the agreed-upon plan to take Trump down and out before the election with their fake "dossier" and then, once Trump won, to see that he would not be inaugurated or would be removed from office posthaste. 

These are very dangerous people, these self-appointed guardians of their own radical agenda and the power they've attained to protect it. Not one of them cares about the citizens of this nation; we are a constant thorn in their sides. They hate that we have the right to vote and that our votes count. And when our votes don't go their way? They will find a way to reverse our decision. They will lie, cheat and steal any election they can, and they get away with it, year after year. Which is why they remain so stunned that they did not, could not, guarantee the election of Hillary Clinton. They are full of rage that their carefully -calculated and well-coordinated scheme failed. 

Comey is a classic narcissist in the same vein as Obama; arrogant and characterized by a profound sense of superiority. The left commonly calls Trump a narcissist, but he does not fit that list of symptoms nearly as perfectly as Comey. No narcissist could or would withstand the 24/7 personal attacks hurled at Trump every single day since he announced his candidacy. Not one; they would be suicidal. 

Trump shrugs the left's incessant vilification off like a bit of snow on his suit. Then he tweets his response, designed to inflame and inform. Trump does not lack empathy and is envious of no one. He is a successful, confident man who loves this country. He saw it going down the drain thanks to the progressive left, so he threw his hat in the ring. He won, despite the secret strategies of Comey and his pals to see that he would not, because a majority of Americans agree with him: the left is in the business of destroying America as founded and they have been phenomenally successful to that end. Someone from outside DC needed to step in and try to save us.

The intolerant progressives have virtually criminalized Christianity and Judaism while protecting Islam. Even left-wing Jews are now openly anti-Semitic. Progressives have been largely successful in outlawing the scientific notion of gender to embrace the sheer moonbattery of the "fluid gender" crowd. So besieged with the desperate plight of LGBT persons, millennials actually think they make up 40% of our population when they are only about 4.5%. For an even tinier percentage of people, elementary school bathrooms must be open to anyone and everyone, even men pretending to be women. 

Education, K - 12 and university is now all about, only about, indoctrination. Dead white males like Shakespeare, Dickens, and Twain, are verboten. Anyone who thinks their son or daughter will become educated on any university campus (except Hillsdale and a few others) is sadly misguided. They will return from college spouting all the race, class, gender, and climate change nonsense that is the stuff of "education" today. They will have learned nothing but contempt for all those people who do not agree with their newfound, professor-inculcated intellectual superiority. 

Our mainstream media is an arm of the Democrat/progressive (socialist) party. Our entertainment industry is as well. We are living in a tyranny, a dictatorship eerily similar to Orwell's dystopian 1984. No freedom of speech. Words no longer mean what they used to mean. 

All of which brings us back to James Comey, a self-appointed member of the Big Brother crowd. He/they will decide who can and will be President. He/they will decide what is justice and who deserves it. We most certainly have a two-tiered system of justice, one for Democrats and elites, quite another for persons without power or on the wrong side of the left. 

Hillary Clinton belongs in prison for her many, many crimes over the past thirty years, but she remains confident that she will never be charged with any crime. Comey, Brennan, McCabe, Strzok, Page, Yates, Rosenstein, and others all colluded to prevent Trump from winning the presidency, and to do so, created out of whole cloth a tale of "collusion with Russia." They covered up Clinton's many crimes. 

These people do not value the Constitution, truth, the law or honor, and yet Comey wrote all about his "Higher Loyalty." What a crock! Over the eight years of the Obama administration, the FBI, CIA, DOJ, and IRS became weapons of political power in order to destroy the Republican party. James Comey has been a charter member and prime mover in this "progressive" shift toward fascism in America. He is a menace, along with his partners in crime, to American society.

Image credit: Donkey Hotey

Patricia McCarthy

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/12/james_comey_menace_to_society.html

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A rabbi speaks out on Mark Lamont Hill and the rising tide of open anti-Semitism - Rabbi Neil Cooper

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by Rabbi Neil Cooper

It is not hard to make the historical analogy between the anti-Semitism that is reflected in the events of the past few weeks and events that occurred in Germany in the early 1930s.

[AT Editor’s note: With the kind permission of Rabbi Neil Cooper of Temple Beth Hillel Beth El, we publish a letter he wrote to his congregation about the recent upsurge of open anti-Semitism.]

Over the past several weeks, we have seen a resurgence of anti-Semitism. Here are a few examples from the news.

• The number of anti-Semitic and hate crimes perpetrated against Jews has risen over the past couple of years precipitously. Within the last few weeks alone, we have seen murderous attacks on Jews gathered for Shabbat services in Pittsburgh, perpetrated by one aligned politically with the extreme right. A similar attack with similar motivation and similar results intended was being planned in Toledo. Fortunately, that attack was prevented.
• Jewish students and faculty have become frequent targets on campus. From the extreme left, the office of Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, a Jewish professor of Holocaust education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti on November 28.
• Anti-Semitism, in the thinly veiled language of anti-Zionism, is becoming commonplace. Prof. Marc Lamont Hill, a professor of Media at Temple University and a contracted contributor for CNN News delivered a speech at the UN (available on YouTube) that calls for a Palestinian State “from River to Sea.” The Professor of Media here, who knows the power and meaning of the words he chooses, means the eradication of the Jewish State. And for those who differentiate between anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, the new Palestinian State that the professor and his supporters envision includes the expulsion, if not the termination, of all of the Jews of Israel. For Prof. Hill to distinguish here between the Israelis (all of whom are Jewish) to be excluded from the new State of Palestine, and Jews in general, is a distinction without a difference. In addition, this type of language and racist ideology is protected and defended Temple’s President Richard Englert who cites the concept of “academic freedom” defending Prof. Hill.

Marc Lamont Hill speaks at the UN (YouTube screen grab)

• Anti-Semitic views are also tolerated by the print media under the banner of “Freedom of the Press.” Syndicated Columnist for the New York Times Michelle Goldberg used her space recently to explain that legitimate criticism of Israeli policies is not anti-Semitic (a statement that any reasonable person would agree with). With that, she justifies the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel) Movement as a demonstration of a difference of agreement over policy. The BDS Movement, however, is an active and direct attack on the State of Israel. It is intended to undercut Israel’s economy and force Israel to pass new policies. The effect of BDS has been limited but it is the intent of BDS to cripple—if not destroy—the Jewish State. This is an action directed only at Jews, which is an act of anti-Semitism.
• The first Palestinian American, Rashida Tlaib, has been elected to Congress representing the 13^th District in Michigan. As a Congresswomen, she already stated her desire to see US military aid to Israel slashed. She is also a vocal proponent of BDS.
• There is currently a lawsuit that has been initiated against the Philadelphia Police Department alleging anti-Semitism against Jewish police officers.

It is not hard to make the historical analogy between the anti-Semitism that is reflected in the events of the past few weeks and events that occurred in Germany in the early 1930s. Listed above are examples of anti-Semitism finding its way into the culture and consciousness of the extreme political right and the extreme political left. It has found safe-haven in academia and on college campuses. It is protected within the news media. It has now found its place in Congress. It is alleged to be part of the culture of the PPD. In the UN, Israel is the most hated, most criticized and most condemned nation in the world. 

I bring this to you not as a call to arms and not to suggest that another Holocaust, God forbid, is around the corner. But in a world that is increasingly hostile toward Jews, we are living at a time when we have the power to resist, the power to refute and the power to make our voices heard. Unlike the political situation before WWII, we now can mobilize, raise our voices and put our pens to paper. In the face of all of this, we are not powerless this time. Today we can speak, write and protest.

Write a letter to the President of Temple University, Richard Englert, (1801 North Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122). Protest the fact that Prof. Hill is being wrongly shielded and protected from censure by the concept of academic freedom. He has been given license by the President of Temple University to espouse the obliteration of the State of Israel and condone the terrorist acts perpetrated by terrorists in the name of the Palestinians. 

Write a letter to the New York Times to protest and hold accountable a columnist who espouses BDS and believes it appropriate and moral, not simply to ignore the fact that Israel is the only functional democracy in the region, but to pressure Israel to change policies by way of BDS, threatening economic repercussions if Israel does not capitulate with the demands of those who are Israel’s enemies.

Israel is not perfect. There is much within Israel that the Israelis I know would like to change and many things that I would like to see changed. But change must occur through the democratic process—not by way of threats and blackmail. Moreover, Israel is neither the worst nor the only country that should be scrutinized. If repressive governments in nearly every other Middle Eastern country are not taken to task, if we make no demands on them, then singling out of Israel for special treatment and punishment is an expression of racism/anti-Semitism and hate.

Anti-Semitism has been part of the world since the beginning of the Jewish People. It is the oldest ongoing hatred in the world, and a hatred that we must view clearly and stand against. It is our task to watch for the shades of anti-Semitism, to point it out when it surfaces, to condemn it when we see it and to raise our voices against those who would be complicit. Anti-Semitism is part of this world. We do not and should not delude ourselves into thinking that one day we will live in a world devoid of anti-Semitism. Indeed, when we think that we have reached a moment in time when anti-Semitism no longer exists, that will be the moment when the next wave will begin.

Blessings from Israel,

Rabbi Neil Cooper

Rabbi Neil Cooper

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/a_rabbi_speaks_out_on_mark_lamon_hill_and_the_rising_tide_of_open_antisemitism.html

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A crisis in science - Robert Arvay

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by Robert Arvay

We're fast coming up on questions science cannot hope to answer.

Science is on the brink – of either a stunning breakthrough or the abyss of defeat. 

For centuries, science has progressed from superstition to discovery, and current predictions include the promise of solving nature's greatest mysteries. New discoveries, it is said, will lead to dramatic advances in technology that will usher in the dawn of the age of Star Trek. Flying cars, miracle cures, and servant-robots are just some of the astonishing changes that are expected – changes that will revolutionize our lives beyond our present ability to imagine. Could the earliest cavemen have imagined the impact that the discovery of fire would portend? Could they have imagined nuclear power?

But not all the predictions include Scotty beaming us up. There is a principle of diminishing returns, less additional profit for each additional dollar of investment. That principle may apply as mercilessly to science as it does to business. Worse yet, for the hopes and dreams of future Captains Kirk, is the image of a brick wall, or alternatively, of a vast canyon that cannot be bridged.

That brick wall may already have been encountered. It is something we all know about, yet most of us underestimate it. We all take for granted our consciousness, but science can no longer take it for granted. Science cannot explain consciousness. It cannot even adequately define our inward experience of it, despite the fact that we all have it. How do atoms give rise to organisms that can wonder about what an atom is?

We do explain it, but not in scientific terms. Science struggles with the question, and so far, it cannot leap across that grandest of canyons. 

Worse yet, for science, is the fact that science itself has made some astounding discoveries that indicate that consciousness may be not merely a result of atoms, but rather the foundation of them. The most popularized example of this is demonstrated in what is called the double-slit experiment, something every physicist knows about. Videos about it are well worth looking up. The main takeaway is that atoms seem, according to many scientists, to behave differently when a conscious observer is watching them. In other words, consciousness may be not a happenstance byproduct, without which the universe as we know it could exist, but rather an underlying principle of the cosmos. Read that slowly, because science may be flailing (and failing) to avoid that conclusion.

It is as if we had souls. It is as if in addition to physical reality, there is a spiritual reality. To many scientists, this is heresy.

Ironically, the acceptance of a new paradigm, a spiritual one, might actually rescue science, not end it. If science can look upon the human brain not as the generator of conscious thought, but rather as its instrument, then new avenues of research become available. Who knows what doors may be opened?

Who knew what the discovery of fire would bring about?

Robert Arvay

Source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2018/12/a_crisis_in_science.html

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20 Years of Muslim Christmas Terror in the Capital of Christmas - Daniel Greenfield

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by Daniel Greenfield

"This cathedral is Allah's enemy."

On the second day of Christmas, the only things stirring in some apartments in Frankfurt, Germany, were some Muslim refugees, the German cops smashing through the door and the chemicals in their kitchen bomb labs which they had been plotting to use to commit mass murder a year before 9/11.

It was the year 2000. And Muslim terrorism was far from unknown, but still a little bit exotic.

While the Algerian terrorists did not prove very cooperative, their home videos were very evocative, especially a shaky video videotape taken by Salim Boukari at the Christmas market in Strasbourg, France.

"This cathedral is Allah's enemy," the Algerian Muslim refugee narrated as he watched the cheerful shoppers outside the Strasbourg Cathedral.

"These are the enemies of Allah. They dance and are happy. You will go to hell, Allah willing."

As the home of the European Parliament and, around this time of year, the “Capital of Christmas” with lavish displays marketing to tourists from around the world, Strasbourg was a natural target.

The massive Al Qaeda terror plot in Strasbourg targeting the cathedral, Christmas market, possibly a synagogue and European Parliament building would have brought together Muslims from Spain, Germany and the UK in a grandiose plot that might have included the use of nerve gas and bombs.

Instead the Muslim refugee terror plot was broken up.

Boukari, who had tried to claim political asylum in the UK, had his conversation with Abu Doha, the terrorist mastermind and another refugee, intercepted.

Aeurobui Beandali, the bomb builder, was another refugee who had come to Germany as a minor, applied for asylum, and committed thefts and assaults. Despite a deportation order, he stayed in Germany and began selling drugs, carrying out robberies and then made it out to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. He then used that training to work on a pressure cooker bomb.

At the trial, Lamine Maroni, a Muslim refugee who had applied for political asylum, quoted the Koran, declared that non-Muslim were dirt, accused everyone in the courtroom of being Jews, and refused a lawyer because, "Allah will defend me."

Allah didn’t do a great job. But he didn’t have to. It was a European court, so the terrorists were only sentenced to between 10 and 12 years in prison. That was well below the legal maximum of 15 years. Maroni got 11. Boukari, who mocked the judges, got 12.

That means they’ve been free men for a while.

Abu Doha, the mastermind of the attack, had a special hatred for Christmas. The United States had been looking for him over the LAX bomb plot on New Year’s Eve. But Doha was another Muslim refugee who had applied for political asylum in the UK in the 90s. And his lawyer claimed that he couldn’t get a fair trial in America. When last we heard from him, he was in the UK under house arrest.

While the Strasbourg Cathedral bomb plot, as it came to be known, faded from memory, the threat never went away. It just fell to a new generation of Muslim terrorists to carry it out.

"This cathedral is Allah's enemy," a Muslim refugee had declared in Strasbourg in 2000. “You will go to hell, Allah willing.”

On December 11, Cherif Chekkat, a Moroccan Muslim terrorist, opened fire at the Christmas market in Strasbourg. As bullets cut through the shoppers, he cried, “Allahu Akbar”.

What North African terrorists had failed to do for Allah in Strasbourg in 2000, a North African terrorist was doing now.

Cherif Chekkat’s story echoes his Jihadist predecessors who had plotted mass murder in the same place. Like them, he was a criminal who turned to terrorism. Despite a reported 27 convictions for theft and assault, he remained on the loose.

On the morning of the attack, he was due to be arrested for attempted murder.

Like his Jihadist predecessors, Chekat had operated and been arrested in Germany. And had been deported last year from Germany to France.

But Chekkat was very different from the members of the Frankfurt cell, whose work he had completed, in one disturbing way. While they were mostly refugees who had migrated to Europe, he was born there. In the time between the original Strasbourg Cathedral bomb plot and the latest attack, a generation of homegrown Islamic Jihadis had been born and bred on European soil.

Chekkat and the 12,000 Islamists on the terror watch list are the new generation of Islamic terror. Despite the watch list and the Christmas market security zone, he was able to carry out his attack.

Eighteen years later, few meaningful precautions had been taken to stop Islamic terrorist attacks even though Christmas market terror plots have lately become ubiquitous in Europe.

In 2016, the Kindergarten bomber, a 12-year-old Iraqi boy, had planted a nail bomb in the Christmas market in the German city of Ludwigshafen.

That same year, a North Africa Muslim refugee drove a truck into the Berlin Christmas market killing 12 and injuring 56 until it came to a halt on a trial of blood with its back wheel resting against a market stand boasting of the "magic of Christmas".

And then there were the alleged failed Christmas bomb plots in the UK and Belgium. A total of 29 lone wolves were busted in Christmas terror plots in the UK, Australia, Brussels and France.

One of those plots was centered once again on Strasbourg with the arrests coming five days before the opening of its famed Christmas market. The seven arrests were announced in Strasbourg and Marseille preventing, what was described as, "a long-planned terror attack."

Four of the arrests were made in Strasbourg.

One of the arrested men had worked for the Strasbourg government on "special events".

The plot has been largely kept secret by French authorities, but was allegedly, “an action envisaged by the Strasbourg group for the first of December.”

Potential targets might have included the Christmas market on the Champs-Élysées, rather than in Strasbourg.

That same year, 7 Muslim settlers from Strasbourg were convicted of having gone off to join ISIS. The 7 were part of a group of 10. Of those 10, 2 were killed in the fighting in the region.
One man, Foued Mohamed-Aggad, came home, slipped past the authorities, and helped kill 90 people in France in the Bataclan attack.

After the long trail of Islamic terrorism leading out of Strasbourg, it was inevitable that a Muslim terrorist would strike in the French city and finish what the Frankfurt cell had started in 2000.

Death and terror had been deferred at the Christmas market for eighteen years.

And then Cherif Chekkat, one of the numberless North African Muslims crowding France’s terror lists, slipped past the security zone and opened fire, killing tourists in the “Capital of Christmas”.

The attack was inevitable.

Individual Islamic terror plots can be prevented, as had happened twice in Strasbourg, but the sheer momentum of Islamic terror is a relentless force whose motivating power is the Islamic population.

You can no more stop Islamic terrorism than you can stop crime or end poverty. But, unlike crime and poverty, Islamic terrorism is not a human condition. It is an Islamic condition. It is inevitable in Islamic countries and in those countries that choose to maintain Islamic populations with their infrastructure of Jihadist mosques and Islamist organizations interlinked with counterparts in their mother countries.

After the 2016 plot, Strasbourg’s Christmas market was sealed off. Pedestrians approaching the market were searched in security zones. It might have been enough. But it wasn’t.

Cherif Chekkat got through with a knife and a gun. He shouted, “Allahu Akbar” and began to kill.

Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries told a TV station that, "life must go on."

It's a familiar refrain in the cities targeted by terror.

And life will go on. Until the next attack. And the one after that. Until everyone learns the lessons of Strasbourg and the shadow of Islamic terror no longer hangs over the “Capital of Christmas.”

***
Photo from LenDog64


Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272226/20-years-muslim-christmas-terror-capital-christmas-daniel-greenfield

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Syrian Poet Adonis: Muslims Behave In A Way That Awakens Dormant European Racism - MEMRI

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by MEMRI

"we must not forget that the Muslims sometimes behave in ways that awaken this dormant racism. Muslims do not acknowledge the 'other.'"

Syrian poet Adonis was interviewed on Mayadeen TV (Lebanon) on December 2, 2018. Asked about the wave of Islamophobia in France, Adonis said that this phenomenon's roots date back to the Crusades, and that there are racist inclinations in Europe, even if they are sometimes dormant. He also said that Muslims sometimes behave in ways that awaken this dormant racism because they do not acknowledge others and they view them as different. He said that Islamic culture wants to impose itself wherever there are Muslims without taking into consideration the society that embraces it. He also argued that it was not anti-Islamic or racist for Germany to refuse to allow Saudi Arabia to finance German mosques, and that it would not be racist for France to announce that mosques are exclusively for prayer and not for cultural activity.

Following are excerpts:

Click here to view this clip on MEMRI TV

Interviewer: "How do you view the recent wave of Islamophobia in France? How do you see it? How do you understand it? What’s your take on it?"

Adonis: "We must admit that this [phenomenon] has ancient roots. It dates back to the Crusades. We must acknowledge this in order to see things more clearly. We must also admit that there are still racist inclinations in Europe. Even if they are hiding or marginalized, they still exist, and they awaken in different occasions. However, we must not forget that the Muslims sometimes behave in ways that awaken this dormant racism. Muslims do not acknowledge the 'other.'"

Interviewer: "In France, Muslims are oppressed. Nobody asked them to acknowledge the 'other.' They are pushed to the sidelines by the…"

Adonis: "The Islamic culture wants to impose itself wherever there are Muslims without taking into consideration the society that embraces it.

[…]

"A Muslim will never view the other as a partner, even if he is in this person's home. He always considers the 'other' to be different from him.

[…]

"Germany refused to allow Saudi Arabia to finance the mosques in Germany. They said that they do not want Saudi Arabia to finance the mosques. If France announced that mosques are for prayer only, and that they do not constitute cultural centers – how would that be anti-Islamic?

[…]

"How is such a thing offensive to Muslims? [If they said that] mosques should be a place for prayer, and respected that, but [decided] that it should not become a place for cultural activity, [because] culture belongs elsewhere… Why is this considered to be a racist position?"

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MEMRI

Source: https://www.memri.org/tv/syrian-poet-adonis-muslims-behavior-awakens-dormant-racism-islamic-culture

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Latest wave of terrorism can be contained, defense officials say - Efrat Forsher, Lilach Shoval, Daniel Siryoti and Ariel Kahana

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by Efrat Forsher, Lilach Shoval, Daniel Siryoti and Ariel Kahana

As hunt for Givat Asaf killers continues, IDF official says it is "only a matter of time" before they are caught.

Defense officials said over the weekend that the ‎latest wave of terrorist attacks can probably be ‎contained, and that while ‎copycat drive-by shooting attacks are a matter of ‎concern, it is unlikely they will spread outside ‎Samaria. ‎

Meanwhile, the hunt ‎for the terrorists who carried out ‎the shooting attack that killed two Israeli soldiers in Givat Asaf on Thursday continued ‎on Sunday.

‎"It's only a matter of time before we get our hands ‎on the cell's members," one IDF officer said.‎

A source familiar with the operation told Israel ‎Hayom that military activity was focusing ‎on thwarting future terrorist attacks, protecting ‎Jewish settlements and roads in the region, and ‎conducting raids and arrests.‎

The recent spate of terrorist attacks has prompted ‎the IDF to increase deployment across Judea and ‎Samaria, setting up 120 roadblocks in the area. Dozens of Hamas members suspected of terrorist ‎activity were arrested across the West Bank over the ‎weekend, the IDF said. ‎

The Diplomatic-Security Cabinet was expected to ‎devote most of its meeting Sunday to the uptick in ‎Palestinian violence. ‎

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is also currently the ‎acting defense minister, has ordered the IDF to ‎expedite the demolition of the homes of the ‎terrorists involved in last week's ‎attacks, as well as step up military ‎counterterrorism activities across Judea and ‎Samaria.‎

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud ‎Abbas is slated to visit Jordan on Monday, where he ‎will discuss "recent developments in the Palestinian ‎arena" with King Abdullah. ‎

An Israeli defense official told Israel Hayom that ‎Abbas has instructed Palestinian security forces to ‎crack down on the armed factions in the West Bank to avoid further escalations. ‎

As part of these measures, Abbas' security forces ‎barred Hamas operatives in the West Bank from ‎marking the terrorist group's 31st anniversary over ‎the weekend. ‎

In the Gaza Strip, which Hamas ‎rules, the event was marked with mass rallies. ‎ ‎ ‎

Efrat Forsher, Lilach Shoval, Daniel Siryoti and Ariel Kahana

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/12/16/latest-wave-of-terrorism-can-be-contained-defense-officials-say/

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The Canary in the French Mine - Amir Taheri

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by Amir Taheri

What is driving the "Yellow Vests"?

• My own unorthodox, and certainly unscientific, diagnosis is that the French, like most other people in rich countries, are simply bored, with a lot of time on their hands and little exciting to do.
• Another way is to see the "yellow vests" as the canary in the coal mine. They are telling us that something is wrong in France. Let's find out what.

The current "yellow vests" uprising in France, now in its sixth week, is different from previous protests for a number of reasons. Pictured: Protesters gather at Place de l'Opera on December 15, 2018 in Paris. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Normally, this time of the year, the Champs-Élysées avenue in Paris has a festive air with Christmas decorations and happy shoppers looking for last minute presents. This season, however, what the French like to boast about as "the most beautiful avenue in the world" looks more like a war zone. The reason is the phenomenon labeled "les gilets jaunes" or "yellow vests", a movement that started as a protest against an increase in the price of diesel and quickly galumphed towards an all-out attack on the French political system.

At first glance one might say: we have been there, done that and bought the T-shirt!

Setting fire to parked cars and city dustbins, shattering shop windows and looting stores are old tactics of French protest movements, as witnessed on numerous occasions, most recently 2003 and 2005.

However, the current uprising, now in its sixth week, is different from previous protests for a number of reasons.

The first is that the "yellow vests" started not in Paris but in the provinces. That in itself is quite new. Ever since it emerged as nation-state in the 14th century, France has always been a Paris-centered polity. The great revolution of 1789 started in the capital, as did its miniaturized successors in 1830 and 1848. The Paris Commune of 1871 was, as its name indicates, also a Parisian affair. The protests that led to the emergence of the Popular Front in 1936 was also the work of Parisian elites. Finally, the last great French insurrection, known as the May 1968 revolution, was also centered on the capital.

The second difference is that, unlike previous revolutionary and/or insurrectionary episodes, the "yellow vests" movement, mobilizing around 130,000 activists in 11 cities throughout the nation, has an unexpectedly small socio-political base, a fact camouflaged by the energy devoted to destructive activities. Because of its basically provincial persona, the movement reminds one of the old French tradition of rural revolts known as "jacqueries", first launched in 1380, in which poor peasants cast themselves as bandits to fight, and rob, their feudal barons.

Like historical "jacqueries," the current "yellow vest" campaign is capable of inflicting much economic damage but is unable to offer an alternative vision of society.

The third difference is that it comes in the context of a society in which, for the first time in history, a majority of people could be regarded as privileged, at least in relative terms.

A nation that had lived through almost four centuries of intermittent wars, including two world wars and half a dozen colonial wars, has been at peace for an unprecedented six decades. France today is one of the richest nations in the world with perhaps the most generous welfare system anywhere. It has the world's shortest work week, longest annual holidays, earliest retirement age, and some of the best education and health facilities in history. The French today are better fed, better housed, better clothed and better entertained than any time in their history. They are also in better health and live a staggering 20 years longer than they did at the start of their Fifth Republic.

Also worth noting is that France is perhaps the only country in the world where scores of small and medium-sized towns and cities have virtually all the facilities of a modern metropolis. Yet, opinion polls show that almost two-thirds of the French have some sympathy with the "yellow vests".

What is the cause of this paradoxical situation?

Some analysts have tried to explain things with reference to modern information technology. The "yellow vests" have organized themselves with smartphones via Facebook and Twitter accounts, we are told. But why should that make a difference? The great revolution of 1789 was fed with pamphlets, at the time the equivalent of pontification on Facebook. In 1968, leaflets and placards were used instead of pamphlets.

One may dismiss the "yellow vest" episode as nothing more than the latest manifestation of the French penchant for street protests and dislike for institutional politics, including the system of representative democracy. "The French just like to riot," one analyst quips.

Other analysts see the protest as an insurrection against Emmanuel Macron's presidency. Maybe.

But, leaving aside the looters, the extreme right gangs such as Black Blocs, leftist groups of anarchists and the professional "smashers" (les casseurs in French), the events of the past five weeks have appealed to wide sections of French society. Macron is designated as the target because he happens to be the president. And one of the unwritten functions of the president in the Fifth Republic is to act as a political punching bag. Macron himself is a product of the same energy, albeit in a non-violent version, that has produced the "yellow vests".

Some analysts see the virtual collapse of all traditional political parties as the reason for France sliding towards politics of revolt. Still others point to the reduction in the powers of national governments to devise and apply policies. Hampered by networks of shared sovereignty, notably the European Union, national governments have seen their margin of maneuver narrow down in the fields of economic, social, defense and foreign policies.

My own unorthodox, and certainly unscientific, diagnosis is that the French, like most other people in rich countries, are simply bored, with a lot of time on their hands and little exciting to do. Tens of thousands of people have already reached the peak of Everest, not to mention the dwarfish Mont Blanc which is as busy as Champs-Élysées at rush hour. Thousands go around the world in boat races. Each year, thousands publish novels and/or make movies. And everyone can be sure of getting his or her 15 minutes of fame on TV or, if not, at least Facebook and Twitter.

Schopenhauer recognized the threat of boredom to Western civilization more than a century ago. At least since the Industrial Revolution, Western civilization has aimed at the creation of an affluent society in which people did less work, consumed more and lived longer in peace. Boredom would be the by-product of such a society.

Another way is to see the "yellow vests" as the canary in the coal mine. They are telling us that something is wrong in France. Let's find out what.

This article was originally published by Asharq al-Awsat

Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the daily Kayhan in Iran from 1972 to 1979. He has worked at or written for innumerable publications, published eleven books, and has been a columnist for Asharq Al-Awsat since 1987.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13422/france-canary-mine

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