RUTHFULLY YOURS

Choudary’s supporters stood up in the gallery during sentencing and yelled “Allahu Akbar.”

A British court has sentenced radical cleric Anjem Choudary, former spokesman for the pro-Sharia Islam4UK movement, to five years behind bars for encouraging support for ISIS — prompting cheers of “Allahu Akbar” from supporters.

London-born Choudary, 49, and Islamic preacher Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 33 and also a London native, were convicted at the end of July.

According to a release from Scotland Yard, the two “invited support for a proscribed terrorist organisation, namely ISIL, also known as ISIS or the Islamic State, contrary to section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000” between June 29, 2014, and March 6, 2015.

Both received sentences of five years and six months in prison, with 15-year notification orders.

During the four-week trial, evidence “established that Choudary broadcast speeches online providing his rationale to recognise Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as the leader of the Islamic State,” Scotland Yard said. They said investigators combed through 20 years of material.

“Rahman uploaded a speech that claimed learned scholars would offer allegiance to Baghdadi and that they would support him so long as he complied with the Sharia Law, and another speech where he discussed Hijrah in which he encouraged people to take up jihad and migrate. Finally the court heard that Choudary and Rahman pledged their allegiance to ISIS using Mohammed Fachry, a convicted terrorist, to publish the oath that had been signed off by Choudary, on an Indonesian website.”

FROM THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE OF OUTPOST

http://www.mideastoutpost.com/archives/the-self-destruction-of-the-jews-rael-jean-isaac.html

Much has been made of the alleged self-destructiveness of Donald Trump who for two weeks lurched from gaffe to gaffe, but who speaks of the far more lethal self-destructiveness of organized Jewry in America? In this case what is involved is not off-the-cuff remarks but thought-out (incredibly foolish) policy positions.

There is nothing more detrimental to the future of Jews in America than a large, ever-growing Moslem population. So why do the major Jewish organizations seek to expand it? In 2013 the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) founded the Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees as a coalition of Jewish organizations. As a start, it agitated for increasing the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States to 100,000 in 2016, roughly four times the already much-expanded number proposed by Obama and significantly larger than the 65,000 requested by the UN Refugee Association. Although the Multifaith Alliance is still heavily weighted with Jewish organizations, others (scarcely noted for their friendship to Israel) have joined, among them Church World Service, the United Church of Christ, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

As far as Jewish organizations belonging to the Multifaith Alliance go, it’s a veritable who’s who of them, starting with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which includes the entire spectrum of Jewish outfits, ranging from Americans for Peace Now on the left to JINSA and American Friends of Likud on the right. Not content with their support through the President’s Conference, some of its members have underlined their support by also joining individually, among them the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York, the Union for Reform Judaism, the National Council of Jewish Women, Ameinu and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. A substantial number of individual synagogues have also signed on. Perhaps the most egregious participant is the ADL, given that it raises over $50 million a year on the basis of its stated mission to fight anti-Semitism and it is 100% guaranteed that the more the Moslem population grows, the more anti-Semitism will gain strength.

It’s not as if the evidence is not overwhelming as to what can be expected. Terrorism, which the Multifaith Alliance cavalierly dismisses as an overblown threat (indeed it claims existing vetting is vastly overdone) is merely the tip of the iceberg. France provides the template. University of Paris professor Guy Milliere writes that there are over 570 no-go zones in France (the government calls them ”sensitive urban zones.”) Hundreds of thousands of young Muslims live there, many imbued with a deeply rooted hatred for France and the West. Recruiters for jihadist organizations tell them, directly or through social networks, that if they kill in the name of Allah they will attain the status of martyrs. Twenty thousand people are in the government’s “S-files”, an alert system meant to identify individuals linked to radical Islam and because the task of following so many is overwhelming, most on the list go unmonitored (including the Carlie Hebdo murderers and Mohamed Merah, the killer at the Jewish school in Toulouse).

French President Hollande has no credible answer. His party depends on the Muslim vote (polls show 93% of Muslims voted for Hollande in the last election). Milliere reports that the most important left-wing think tank in France, Terra Nova, has published several reports explaining that the only way for the left to win elections is to attract the votes of Muslim immigrants and to add more Muslims to the population. Already Muslims made up about 10% of the French population; even more worrying, 25% of teenagers in France are Muslims. Unsurprisingly, Jews have been the favored Muslim target with the result, by now well known, that thousands are fleeing, so that in some areas of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Netanya you are more likely to hear French than Hebrew.

Rear Admiral Shaul Chorev (Ret.), Mary Landrieu, Admiral Ami Ayalon (Ret.), Seth Cropsey, Charles D. Davidson, Douglas J. Feith, Arthur Herman, Ron Prosor, Admiral Gary Roughead (Ret.) & Eytan Sheshinski

Authoritarian politics, energy and computer technology and war are rapidly transforming the Eastern Mediterranean.

Political instability — triggered by the Arab Spring — has made the region extraordinarily violent. Syria is disintegrating; millions of refugees from the conflict have spread across the region. Civil war has decimated Libya and Yemen. Turkey, a NATO member, is fighting thePKK and Islamic State as its increasingly authoritarian president transforms the country’s domestic politics. Further complicating the situation, Russia and Iran are capitalizing on American disengagement from the region to expand their military presence on the land, air and sea.

Nevertheless, the region has a few bright spots. Among the brightest are the large offshore energy reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean. Such reserves are already benefiting Israel and creating potential for cooperation between Israel and its neighbors.

Israel’s energy laws and policies were developed largely when the country was an energy importer. Israeli officials now have to develop a way to handle energy matters that can allow Israel to become not only a substantial energy producer, but an exporter. They must balance antitrust, security, environmental and other concerns while safeguarding Israel’s reputation as a fair and reliable home for foreign investment. They hope to take advantage of the resulting diplomatic openings and domestic job and business opportunities, use energy tax revenues for the public interest.

To address the range of energy and security questions relating to the Eastern Mediterranean, the University of Haifa and Hudson Institute sponsored a “blue-ribbon” commission of senior Israeli and American military officers, policy practitioners and scholars. The commissioners met in Israel and in Washington, D.C. in 2016 and drafted a comprehensive report that addresses Israel’s energy policy, security problems and opportunities in the region and the future of the US-Israel strategic partnership.

The case can be made that Israel and the United States continue to share strategic interests, but those with contrary views are increasingly vocal. It is sensible for Israelis and Americans to reexamine their assumptions about world affairs and how their ties might better serve their interests. This report delineates new avenues for bilateral cooperation while making the case that the United States has no realistic option to disengage or isolate itself from the Middle East.