RUTHFULLY YOURS

Since 2006, when Bruce Bawer wrote his illuminating book entitled While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within, the situation has worsened tenfold. Not surprisingly, when his book was first published, Bawer was accused of Islamophobia. Yet as early as 1998, Bawer noted the widening divisions between the liberal and democratic policies of the Netherlands and the fact that “Dutch Muslims kept that society at arm’s length, despising its freedoms[.]”

In the late 1990s, Bawer and his male partner decided to live in Amsterdam because it seemed to him to be “the one place [he’d] ever been where homophobia really seemed to have disappeared.” He felt that the Netherlands had moved from the “foolishness of [American] fundamentalism,” and although he loved America “not because of its wealth or power, but because of its culture and values,” he wanted to really know what it meant to be an American by living elsewhere as a means of contrast.

Once in the Netherlands, Bawer began to appreciate “American virtues” that he’d always taken for granted – most importantly a “belief in the future.” He found that while he enjoyed the culture of Europe, he also saw that much of Western Europe was “bound up with a stifling conformity, a discomfort with excellence and an overt disapproval of those who strove too visibly to better their lot” – in short, “mediocrity.” He saw that France and Germany were “plagued by low growth and rising unemployment, a direct consequence of welfare state policies.” He also realized that Europeans “had been fed a zero-sum understanding of economics.”

In addition, he perceived that “fundamentalist Muslims were on the march and their numbers and power were large and growing rapidly – and the ultimate objective was far more than a ban on abortion or gay marriage.” A sea change was overtaking Europe that involved female genital mutilation, viewing women as property, and subsidies from the Dutch state as well as from Islamic governments that taught hatred of Jews, Israel, America, and the West. The very countries that these Muslims were living in were to be scorned, since they were meant to be replaced by a Muslim caliphate governed according to sharia law.

But surely, Bawer believed, this could not be permitted. He naively presumed that such contempt for pluralism, open-mindedness, democracy, and sexual equality would not be tolerated. Instead, political correctness, spineless leaders, and Islamic intimidation worked their magic so that in 1998, “Europeans were clueless” as to what was occurring under their very noses.

European Council President Donald Tusk appealed to economic migrants to stop coming to Europe, saying they shouldn’t try to risk their lives at the hands of smugglers as the path into the European Union constricts.

He was meeting on Thursday with leaders in Greece and Turkey, two countries that are playing a key role in the bloc’s efforts to stem the tide of migrants.

“I want to appeal to all potential illegal economic migrants wherever you are from: Do not come to Europe. Do not believe the smugglers. Do not risk your lives and your money,” Mr. Tusk said after meeting with the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens. “It is all for nothing. Greece or any other European country will no longer be a transit country.”

Balkan countries and Austria are restricting their borders, moves that have left huge numbers stuck at the Greece-Macedonia border. In the Greek town of Idomeni, more than 10,000 people are stranded at a camp built for 1,500 and more than 30,000 are stuck throughout the country.

Mr. Tsipras said his country would continue to try to help migrants, just not at any cost.

“Greece will not leave anyone helpless,” he said. Greece would “create centers for temporary hospitality,” but the country won’t become “a warehouse of souls.”

Greek authorities are trying to reduce the crush at the border with Macedonia and prepare new camps further south with the aim to distribute those stranded all over Greece. But many migrants say they fear they may be detained indefinitely in the new camps. CONTINUE AT SITE

Gheula Canarutto Nemni is a professor and novelist living in Milan, Italy. Her most recent novel ‘(Non) si può avere tutto’ Mondadori 2015 tells the story of an Italian Orthodox Jewish girl and her challenges in the professional world in Milan.

Her name is Faiza. She works for a major private hospital in Israel.We met a week ago, while I was there assisting a relative of mine.

Faiza is at the head of the intensive care unit, she runs from one patient to the other offering always a sweet smile together with very professional care.

Faiza lives in Shuafat, an Arab neighborhood in Jerusalem where there are frequent disturbances.She comes from a family of eleven, most of them graduates of Israeli universities. Between one patient and another, we share our visions about life.

“I love my life. I love living in Israel. I thank Allah every day for having given me the opportunity to grow up here,” she says. “I know that if it was not for this country, I would never be what I am.”

“Here you can choose,” she says while she is finishing her coffee during her break. She turns her head toward the Arab doctors and nurses. “Israel gives you the opportunity to express your human potential,” she adds.

I find out that in all Israeli universities and job sites, there are guaranteed places for Arab Israeli citizens.

There is something special in her eyes. You can feel her love for humanity.

Not for the first time the government of Germany is acting as if it owned Europe. On two occasions in the 20th century it sought to occupy most of Europe; this time, with almost equal arrogance, it is trying to bully the rest of Europe into not resisting the ongoing Muslim occupation. The consequences of its actions today, if not checked, are likely to be as tragic as those of its predecessors had been in 1914 and 1939.
For reasons that have never been rationally explained, German Chancellor Angela Merkel continues to pursue a two-track policy:
She wants to keep Germany’s borders open to migrants. In defiance of the demands by her Bavarian CSU coalition partners and others, she rejects any set limit on the number of newcomers. To their detailed warnings that her approach is untenable she responds by saying that letting millions of people into the country is good for Germany’s reputation (“we can stand by our values”);
At the same time she wants to redistribute migrants arriving in Germany throughout the EU through a system of Brussels-imposed compulsory quotas on all 28 member-countries (“I am fighting for this approach”), while admitting that there is no “Plan B”: she is not prepared even to consider any alternatives, such as cutting immigrant inflows.
Angela Merkel effectively wants to present the rest of Europe with two faits accomplis: that Germany will accept unlimited numbers of migrants, and that Germany will use her overwhelming influence in Brussels to force the rest of Europe to share the resulting cost and burden of improving “Germany’s reputation”—all in the name of maintaining “European unity.” Her calls for a “joint European solution” are nothing but demands for the rest of Europe to be obedient, sayJawohl! and facilitate the creation of Sharia-based no-go areas in Krakow, Bratislava and Budapest.