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Ruth King

Far-right gains in Europe: Good for the Jews? By David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/far-right-gains-in-europe-good-for-the-jews/

Far-right parties made dramatic gains in the June 9 European parliamentary elections. Israel supporters celebrated, anticipating the exit of some of the worst purveyors of anti-Israel hatred. Even so, European Jewish Association (EJA) chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin advises caution.

While acknowledging that he isn’t sorry to see “the biggest antisemites” exit Europe’s parliament and saying he understands the excitement of many about the right-wing gains, Margolin told JNS that “the rise of far-right parties is something that requires all of us to be really careful; to analyze very carefully the situation.”

While Europe’s right has expressed support for Israel, that doesn’t necessarily translate into support for European Jewish life. “Many of them and, of course, many of their supporters, hate Jews no less than they hate Muslims,” he said.

It’s “absolutely” possible there could arise a situation where a far-right party’s rise will be good for Israel but bad for the Jews of that country, he said.

While many far-right parties support Israel, almost all, with the notable exception of Hungary’s Fidesz Party headed by Viktor Orbán, oppose ritual slaughter and circumcision.

Clinging to its values is what sustained the Jewish people for 3,000 years, Margolin noted, but those values are not congruent with far-right European values.

EJA is still sifting out those political actors it can work with from those it cannot. “We need to analyze what are the policies of the different political parties,” said Margolin. “We could work with some of them, but it has to be in a very specific, very practical, very detailed way.”

Herta Muller —They Turned into Monsters *******

https://truthofthemiddleeast.com/herta-muller/?fbclid=I

The writer and Nobel Prize winner read this text at the October 7 Forum of “Jewish Culture in Sweden” in Stockholm on May 25.
She is one of the greatest contemporary German writers. Now, Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller has written a shocking wake-up call to the West – The madness that has gripped parts of Western society since Hamas attacked Israel
They turned into monsters

In most narratives about the war in Gaza, the war does not begin where it began. The war did not start in Gaza. The war began on October 7, exactly 50 years after Egypt and Syria invaded Israel. Palestinian Hamas terrorists committed an unimaginable massacre in Israel. They filmed themselves as heroes and celebrated their bloodbath. Their victory celebrations continued back home in Gaza, where the terrorists dragged severely abused hostages and presented them as spoils of war to the jubilant Palestinian population. This macabre jubilation extended all the way to Berlin. In the Neukölln district there was dancing on the streets and the Palestinian organization Samidoun distributed sweets. The internet was buzzing with happy comments.

More than 1,200 people died in the massacre. After torture, mutilation and rape, 239 people were abducted. This massacre by Hamas is a total derailment from civilization. There is an archaic horror in this bloodlust that I no longer thought possible in this day and age. This massacre has the pattern of annihilation through pogroms, a pattern that the Jews have known for centuries. That is why the whole country has been traumatized, because the founding of the state of Israel was intended to protect against such pogroms. And until October 7, it was believed to be protected. Although Hamas has been sitting on the state of Israel’s neck since 1987. The Hamas founding charter clearly stated that the destruction of the Jews was the goal, and that “death for God is our noblest wish”.

Even though there have been changes to this charter since then, it is clear that nothing has changed: the destruction of the Jews and the destruction of Israel remain the goal and desire of Hamas. This is exactly the same as in Iran. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the destruction of the Jews has also been state doctrine since its foundation, that is, since 1979.

FBI Director Chris Wray defies the State Department on Iran Yoram Ettinger

http://bit.ly/3KM3rXS

FBI Director Chris Wray’s position on Islamic terrorism/Iran

FBI Director, Chris Wray reiterated – during his June 4, 2024 Senate testimony and April 11, 2024 House testimony – his warning of an October 7-like terrorism on the US soil:

“We have seen the threat from foreign terrorists rise to a whole another level after the October 7 [Hamas terrorism]….Increasingly concerning is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the [US] homeland, akin to the ISIS attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall in March, 2024 [137 murdered, 180 wounded]…. Nations such as the PRC, Russia and Iran are becoming more aggressive and more capable than ever before.  These nations seek to undermine our core democratic, economic and scientific institutions….

“We are in an environment where the threats from international terrorism, domestic terrorism and state sponsored terrorism are all simultaneously elevated…. We are paying heightened attention to how the events abroad could directly affect and inspire people to commit violence here in the homeland….

“Our top concern stems from lone offenders inspired by the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, as they pose the most likely threat to Americans.  In recent years, there have been several events in the US that were purportedly motivated, at least in part, by the Israel-Hamas conflict….

“Iran and its global proxies and partners, including Iraqi Shia militant groups, attack and plot against the US and our allies throughout the Middle East.  Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force has also provided support to terrorist organizations. And, Iran has supported Lebanese Hezbollah and other terrorist groups. Hezbollah has sent operatives to build terrorist infrastructure worldwide [including in Latin America all the way to the US-Mexico border]. The arrests of individuals in the US allegedly linked to Hezbollah’s main overseas terrorist arm, and their intelligence-collection and procurement efforts, demonstrate Hezbollah’s interest in long-term contingency planning activities here in the homeland….

“We continue to see the drug cartels [which intensely collaborate with Iran’s Ayatollahs and Hezbollah, that supply them predator unmanned aerial vehicles and tunnel construction equipment] push fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into every corner of the country, claiming countless American lives….

Terrorism in the name of religion must be eradicated -Moshe Dann

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-806327

Hamas and other terrorist organizations proclaim “Free Palestine” as code words for destroying Israel and committing genocide.

Unfortunately, the failure to understand what Hamas is has led many people to support it as an Islamic organization that embraces monotheism and a “national (Palestinian) liberation movement” – with disastrous consequences. It claims to be both but is neither.

The problem is that although Islam claims to have a moral code with values and ethics, it does not apply to non-Muslims (“infidels”). This became apparent on October 7. That’s why Muslims ignore and deny the massacre and support Hamas’s attack in the name of Islam. Infidels don’t matter and can be killed with impunity. Support for such savagery, moreover, is taught in mosques and Islamic schools and institutions around the world. Islamic leaders declare, “Death to Israel; Death to America.”

Is that consistent with Islamic claims to be monotheistic and connected to the tradition of Abraham?

Is that what Muslims believe that Allah/God wants?

Hamas and other terrorist organizations proclaim “Free Palestine” as code words for destroying Israel and committing genocide. To gain legitimacy and acceptance, they present themselves as representatives of Islam. For this reason, the majority of Islamic authorities, Muslims, and numerous non-Muslims support Hamas.

But Hamas is an Islamic totalitarian organization that opposes any form of individuality, creativity, or human rights. Life has no meaning outside of its rules. Although it uses Islamic religious terms, such as Jihad, to justify its atrocities, it is contrary to any genuine religious belief.

Secular coercion and double standards by Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/secular-coercion-and-double-standards/

Thousands of worshipers gathered at Charles Clore Park on Sunday morning to celebrate Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice. The practice at this location, where Tel Aviv meets Jaffa, is nothing new. The grassy open space along the coast of the Mediterranean, perfect for picnics and other outings, is a choice venue for nightly family break-fast barbecues during the Islamic month of Ramadan.

Nor is it out of the ordinary for Muslim-Arab citizens of Israel to engage in gender separation during prayers, which they did at the event in question—with physical barriers dividing between the men at the front and the women at back.

Two things made this annual religious ceremony at the location in question noteworthy. One is that this year, it included signs calling for a ceasefire, with the slogan: “The innocent people of Gaza are in Jaffa’s heart.” But even that wasn’t novel, judging by the behavior of Israel’s Arab citizens, including residents of Jaffa, during Operation Guardian of the Walls against Hamas in Gaza in 2021.

Far more significant was the apathy to the happening on the part of all the secular leftists who spent years blocking any attempt by Orthodox Jews to separate men and women in public areas. The adage that “it takes one to know one” is particularly apt here, as the chattering classes constantly accuse the right of opposing “freedom,” while being guilty of just that.

After the Knesset elections on Nov. 1, 2022, while Benjamin Netanyahu was in talks to form what would become the current governing coalition, the Religious Zionist and United Torah Judaism parties were demanding that legislation be enacted to enable gender segregation at publicly sponsored events without its being deemed discriminatory. Their aim was to prevent a repeat of a court-ordered cancellation in 2019 of a sold-out concert by renowned singer Motty Steinmetz at the Afula Municipal Park.

The ruling—one of many that backed anti-Orthodox appeals over the years—was spurred by a “Women’s Lobby” petition challenging the separate seating that had been arranged in advance for the mainly haredi audience.

China’s 170 Million Spy Balloons and other Venus Fly Traps How Communist China Plans to Rule the Rest of the World by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20707/china-plans-to-rule-world

“China owns $870 billion in U.S. Treasuries that finance our debt. And they either own or have a huge portion of the Chicago Stock Exchange, AMC movie theaters, General Electric’s appliance division, General Motors, and Smithfield Foods just to name a few. On another alarming note, folks. China owns 384,000 acres of American agricultural land. That’s a 30% increase just since 2019. And on top of that, they own land near an air force base in North Dakota. That’s a clear threat to our national security and that’s what the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill is going to address.” — US Rep. Mike Collins, July 23, 2023.

In 2023, Texas State Senator Lois Kolkhorst filed a bill, SB 147 that would ban “citizens, governments and entities from China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing land in the state, part of what she and other Republicans have said will help stem foreign influence in Texas.”

“What I fear most Americans do not realize the ambitions and goals of Xi Jinping. He and his thugs wish to bring our great nation under his control, and he’ll do whatever he can to accomplish that goal.” — Pastor Bob Fu, founder of ChinaAid, to promote religious freedom and rule of law in China, Midland Reporter-Telegram, March 7, 2023.

“… Communist Party leaders… they are also suffering under this brutal dictator Xi Jinping. Nobody’s safe, you know, many of his right-hand men, left-hand men are being ransomed, imprisoned, forced to commit suicide. You’re talking about hundreds, many, I mean senior leaders end up now in prison or being killed, so nobody feels safe in the Communist Party regime.” — Pastor Bob Fu, CBN News, January 2024.

Such an oppressive regime based on fear, punishment, and total control of human behavior would bring an abrupt end to a free way of life. The international community needs to stand up to this ideology that virtually enslaves humanity by using methods that might seem benign — such as technology.

This year, so far, more than 24,200 Chinese citizens have entered the U.S. illegally across the southern border, plus more than 5,000 across the US northern border, for a total of more than 66,000 for 2023-24 so far. Even if just 1% of them are here to subvert America, that amounts to more than 660 potential saboteurs.

The totalitarian ideology of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) includes instilling and exploiting fear to create discipline and generally control every step its population takes.

For Communist China, America’s 170 million TikTok users are the equivalent of having 170 million spy balloons. Meanwhile, cargo cranes from China with hidden listening devices are installed in US ports, and Huawei is an open line that could “disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications.”

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” — Sun Tzu, The Art of War, circa 5th century BCE.

Israel, Free World, in Increasing Danger Thanks to U.S. ‘Help’ by Guy Millière

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20706/israel-in-increasing-danger

Hamas not only uses its civilians as human shields, but may be the first government in history that wants to see its own people killed in order to blame another country, Israel, for their deaths. Meanwhile, Israel goes out of its way – seriously risking the lives of its soldiers – not to commit any crimes against humanity or indiscriminately bomb, as Russia does in Ukraine.

“Israel implemented more measures to prevent civilian casualties than any nation in history,” wrote John Spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

For decades, many of the countries of the Arab world have wanted to erase Israel from the map. Each time, they have failed. Their project consists of trying to destroy the Jewish state and kill every Jew, as Hamas’ 1988 Charter requires. No one in a Western country could support it without being seen as an anti-Semite.

A radical change occurred, however, in 1964. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded and the myth of “Palestinian cause” invented. Zuheir Mohsen (زهير محسن) a leading PLO member responsible for Damur massacre, admitted:

“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese.

“Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct ‘Palestinian people’ to oppose Zionism. For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva, and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”

A “national liberation struggle” was, in fact, fabricated by Soviet Union’s KGB, according to Ion Mihai Pacepa, who served from 1972-1978 as deputy chief of Romania’s foreign intelligence service and advisor to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. Pacepa said:

“The PLO and the Palestinian Narrative was dreamt up by the KGB, which had a penchant for ‘liberation’ organizations.”

“First, the KGB destroyed the official records of Arafat’s birth in Cairo, and replaced them with fictitious documents saying that he had been born in Jerusalem and was, therefore, a Palestinian by birth.”

“According to [Soviet leader Yuri] Andropov, the Islamic world was a waiting petri dish in which we could nurture a virulent strain of America-hatred, grown from the bacterium of Marxist-Leninist thought. Islamic anti-Semitism ran deep… We had only to keep repeating our themes — that the United States and Israel were “fascist, imperial-Zionist countries” bankrolled by rich Jews.”

Israel was no longer described as a small Jewish state besieged by much larger, powerful Arab countries filled with despicable intentions. Israel was suddenly presented as an “imperialist” power oppressing a small deprived people and supposedly having stolen their land. Anti-Israeli terrorist acts were presented as “resistance”. The aim was to seduce the West; and quickly seduced it was.

The Censorship-Industrial Complex and How It has the Internet in its Grip By Janet Levy

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/06/the_censorship_industrial_complex_and_how_it_has_the_internet_in_its_grip.html

Since the 1960s, the military-industrial complex has influenced and driven American policy to profit cynically from conflict and war.  But in this decade, a new complex has arrived, one that is far more dangerous to American values.  It is the censorship-industrial complex (CIC), which has gained tremendous control over the internet.

When the internet-backed World Wide Web was created in 1989, it democratized information and connectedness.  Through rapid commercialization, it unleashed unlimited possibilities and economic growth.  Equally, it became a haven of free expression, debate, and creativity.  These ideals crystallized into the five principles of the 2012 Declaration of Internet Freedom: non-censorship; universal access; freedom to connect and create; the right to privacy and control of personal information; and protection for technology and innovation.

But governments and the elites that control them were quick to move in, sensing the threat to their authoritarian instinct.  At work since 2016, the pernicious CIC gained strength during the Covid-19 pandemic, amplifying government-approved narratives that favored the agenda of the elites.  Furthering the advance to the Great Reset, it now works to color content and discourse in the leftist hues that disguise the intent and operations of the global elites.

Mike Benz, a former State Department official who now heads the Foundation for Freedom Online and is a staunch campaigner against the CIC, reveals that the complex is controlled by the State Department, the Defense Department, the CIA, MI6, and Brussels.  The turning points, according to him, were the Brexit referendum, the election of Donald Trump, and elections in the Philippines, in all of which the internet played an important role.  Therefore, it was decided to end free speech on the internet and control the flow of information.  Since the American government was hamstrung by the First Amendment, NGOs and fronts were enlisted for “doing the dirty work.”

How Left-wing Conspiracies Work When we hear such things in the months to come, remember that these mythologies are usually a warning: what the left is alleging is, quite often, precisely what the left is already doing. By Victor Davis Hanson

https://amgreatness.com/2024/06/17/how-left-wing-conspiracies-work/

Since 2016, there has been a clear pattern to left-wing conspiracies—beyond the obvious fact that they traffic in lies, stereotypes, and paranoia to serve precise political agendas.

We now know that the conspiracy to cook up the Russian-collusion hoax—Donald Trump allegedly conniving with Vladimir Putin to rig the 2016 vote—was perpetrated by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Its funding was hidden by the Democratic National Committee, the law firm Perkins Coie, and Fusion GPS.

The Russian “disinformation” laptop hoax—the notion that the same Russians four years later created a fake Hunter Biden laptop to smear the Biden family on the eve of the first 2020 debate—was jumpstarted by the Biden campaign’s then-chief foreign policy advisor, current Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

There was never much evidence that a wayward bat or pangolin in a meat market birthed the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the efforts of China, Western and international health officials, and Dr. Fauci’s health bureaucrats to spread that lie.

The January 6th riot was certainly wrong and buffoonish. But the idea that it was an insurrection aiming to violently overthrow the U.S. government was also a left-wing myth fueled by the Democratic House leadership and the media.

All these schemes have their commonalities:

1) They are aimed at achieving political objectives.

False claims of Russian collusion likely drained millions of votes from the 2016 Trump candidacy.

A later conservative poll found that Russian disinformation may have swung enough voters to ensure a 2020 Trump loss. It certainly saved Joe Biden in the first debate when he faced the American people and flat-out lied about the laptop, quoting “experts” that his own team had rounded up to legitimize his obvious untruths.

How Iranians View the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Whom do the Iranians see as the real source of their problems? by Farhad Rezaei

https://www.frontpagemag.com/how-iranians-view-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/

The Islamic Republic’s proxy war against Israel is well-known. Yet, less understood is the strong support for Israel among the Iranian people in its conflict with Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Lebanese Hezbollah. This paradoxical stance, puzzling to many observers, reveals a complex interplay of social and political factors. At its core, this support highlights a significant public sentiment against the Islamic Republic’s regional policies and proxy wars with Israel.

On October 7, 2023, Hamas and PIJ terrorists carried out a brutal attack against Israeli civilians, killing over 1,200, including infants, toddlers, and women, with expert sadism. They also took 150 civilians hostage, ranging from babies to Holocaust survivors in wheelchairs.

In response to this savage massacre, Israel initiated a counterattack against the terrorists to eliminate the terror groups. However, Israel’s retaliation drew global condemnation and incited violent actions by many Muslims against Jews in various countries, including the United States.

Surprisingly, many Iranians, both publicly and on social media, expressed sympathy and support for Israel and urged the Israeli government to eliminate Hamas, Hezbollah and the Islamic Jihad.

This raises the question of how the Iranian regime can sponsor terrorism against Israel while the Iranian people publicly support Israel and advocate for the elimination of groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad, all of which are sponsored by the regime. This paradoxical stance reveals a complex interplay of social and political factors, which this article aims to explore.

First of all, majority of Iranians regard groups like Palestinian Hamas and PIJ, and Lebanese Hezbollah as sources of their country’s political isolation and economic hardship. To understand the origins of this perspective, it is imperative to explore the Iranian regime’s costly and irrational proxy wars against Israel.