RUTHFULLY YOURS

Throughout Europe today if you listen carefully you can hear echoes of the sound of shattering glass.

On November 9, 1938, a date that came to be known as Kristallnacht, the full fury of the Nazi campaign against the Jews of Germany reached its climax with attacks on Jewish storefront windows, Jewish houses of worship, and Jewish bodies of men, women, and children.

The nightmare had not come out of the blue. Repressive measures against Jews had been building since Hitler took power in 1933. By stages, Jews had been forbidden the use of public spaces, fired from professions such as teaching, and relieved of their businesses. They were beaten and spat on in public and would soon be subject to the final solution. Those who were lucky enough to get out in time were few. Unwanted almost everywhere, they had no haven and nowhere to go except for the fortunate few who had relatives willing to assume financial responsibility for them and countries willing to grant them visas.

When World War II ended the world seemed to take pity on the surviving remnant of European Jewry but it still required unprecedented effort for Jews to achieve their own state—Israel, a haven, just in case Never Again should become a meaningless slogan.

Some Jews remained in the countries of Europe and chose to rebuild their lives there with varying degrees of success. Antisemitism was not dead—Jew hatred simply evolved into Israel hatred.

And now, seventy years after the end of the Second World War, waves of Muslim migrants are washing ashore in the countries of Europe. How long before their numbers enable them to take over their host countries? How long before Europe hears again the sounds of breaking glass and breaking hearts and bodies?

How long before we know the answers to these questions?

The mass migration from Islamic countries including Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and others, continues apace. Around three-quarters of a million migrants have entered Europe in the current wave. They generally travel through some combination of Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia and Hungary, but very few migrants come to rest in those countries. Almost all head for the richer nations of northern Europe. So far, Germany and Sweden have been the principal destinations of choice.

This has, of course, caused major disruptions in both countries. Germany may have reversed its policy of allowing the families of migrants to join them, while Sweden is now telling migrants they will have to find their own places to stay, or else be deported back to Germany or Denmark.

What makes Germany and Sweden so attractive, at least in part, is their welfare systems, which people in the Middle East correctly believe to be lavish. Norway, so far, has played only a minor role in the current migration, and wants to keep it that way. How to deter more immigrants than the nation can reasonably absorb? By letting them know welfare benefits are being cut: “Norway launches anti-refugee advertising campaign.”

German hospitals are increasing security to protect doctors and nurses from violent attacks by migrants who are unhappy with the medical treatment they are receiving.

Critics are warning that German taxpayers will end up paying billions of euros to provide healthcare for a never-ending wave of asylum seekers. This is in addition to the billions of euros already being spent to provide newcomers with food, clothing and shelter.

In addition to the massive economic and social costs, as well as the burden of increased crime, including a rape epidemic, Germans are now facing the risk of being exposed to exotic diseases — and tuberculosis.

Roughly 5% of asylum seekers are carrying resistant germs. In real numbers, this works out to around 75,000 newcomers with highly infectious diseases. — Dr. Jan-Thorsten Gräsner, director of the Institute for Rescue and Emergency Medicine.

Twenty types of vaccines are now in short supply, and 16 others are no longer available at all. Because of production bottlenecks, some vaccines will not become available until 2017.

Muslim women refuse to be treated by male doctors, and many Muslim men refuse to be treated by females. — Max Kaplan, director of the Bavarian Medical Board.

AKP supporters celebrated their victory on November 1 with chants of “Allahu Akbar” [“Allah is the greatest”], an Islamist slogan, indicating that for them the political race in Turkey is in fact a “religious war.”

The Turkish “Sultan wannabe” runs an empire of fear. The November 1 vote will only help make him even more despotic.

A recent study found that only a quarter of Turks were NOT afraid of Erdogan. According to the research, even some of his own supporters are afraid of him.

“The rapidly diminishing choice of media outlets and restrictions on freedom of expression in general impacted the process and remain serious concerns.” — Ignacio Sanchez Amor, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

The AKP’s setback in last June’s elections was because some nationalists disapproved of the AKP’s peace process with the Kurdish minority. In July, the government scrapped the peace process and ordered the military relentlessly to bomb the strongholds of militant Kurds in northern Iraq.