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Middle East: The Ghosts of Sovereigns Past by Naomi Linder Kahn

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17130/middle-east-sovereigns-past

The State of Israel continues to enforce Jordanian law [in the West Bank, or Judea and Samaria] — despite its clearly racist and backward underpinnings.

No matter what side of the political divide you view it from, a legislative and legal time-warp has trapped the residents of these territories – Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians – in amber for more than five decades. The result: legal chaos, injustice and incessant conflict.

Ironically, Israel’s legal reticence continues to fuel the endless conflict over the land itself… that could be avoided by simply completing the process of land survey and registration initiated by the Ottoman Empire and continued by the British Mandatory and Jordanian governments in turn.

Surveying and registering land ownership was not perceived as an act of sovereignty when the British caretakers undertook it; there seems no reason why it should be regarded that way now.

This same vacuum has made it impossible to formulate forward-thinking policy for land use, environmental protection, settlement policy, and perhaps most critically, a negotiated resolution of the status of the territory. Without establishing who owns what, it is impossible to proceed toward a just division of resources or a peaceful resolution of the conflict.

The time has come to banish the antiquated ghosts of Ottoman, Jordanian and British Mandatory rule, and to fill the legal void in Judea and Samaria with a modern, humanist, democratic system of law for everyone.

Now that the debate surrounding the extension of Israeli sovereignty to the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria has abated somewhat in light of the Abraham Accords, the time may be ripe to take a closer look at the legal status of these territories.

The picture that emerges might be surprising. More than a century after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the empire’s ghost continues to reign. More than 50 years after Israel’s victory in the Six Day War, more than 30 years after King Hussein of Jordan publicly relinquished all legal and administrative ties to this territory, and more than 25 years after Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel, officially relinquishing all territorial claims, the State of Israel continues to enforce Jordanian law — despite its clearly racist and backward underpinnings.

Desecrated and Defecated on: Churches in Europe under Islam A widespread—but wholly ignored—phenomenon. Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/desecrated-and-defecated-churches-europe-under-raymond-ibrahim/

A few days after Muslim migrants firebombed an 800-year-old Swedish church twice over the course of four days—once on Jan. 20, 2021 and another on Jan. 24—a Feb 4 report came out saying that 829 “hate crimes” against churches in Sweden have been reported between just 2012-2018, or about 138 attacks on average every year.

Thus the churches of Sweden join those of other Western European nations that have taken in sizeable Muslim migrants. In France, for example, two churches are vandalized every day.  According to a 2019 PI-News report, 1,063 attacks on Christian churches or symbols (crucifixes, icons, statues) were registered in France in 2018.  This represents a 17 percent increase compared to the previous year (2017), when 878 attacks were registered—meaning such attacks are only going from bad to worse.

They are also getting increasingly vile.  As one example, vandals used human excrement to draw a cross on the Notre-Dame des Enfants Church in Nimes in 2019 (pictured above); consecrated bread was also found thrown outside among garbage. One week later, vandals desecrated and smashed crosses and statues at Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur; they mangled the arms of a crucified Christ in a mocking manner and burned altar materials.

Similar reports are coming from Germany.  After reporting how four separate churches were vandalized and/or torched over the course of four weeks in 2019, PI-News, a German news site, explained: “In this country, there is a creeping war against everything that symbolizes Christianity: attacks on summit crosses,  on holy figures on the way, on churches and recently also on cemeteries.”

Although mainstream media regularly claim that the vandals—who are seldom caught to verify their identities—are “mentally ill” or part of “right wing extremist” groups, as the recent Swedish report states, PI-News offers a hint: “Crosses are broken, altars smashed, Bibles lit, baptismal fonts overturned, and the church doors smeared with Islamic expressions like ‘Allahu Akbar.’”

China Is at War With the World, And It’s Escalating Massive Microsoft hack shows Biden has no strategy for fighting a cyberwar that has already begun. Scott McKay by Scott McKay

https://spectator.org/china-hack-microsoft-solarwinds/

Until a few days ago, and until now for those not up on the latest developments in the tech world, hafnium was a word describing a barely known element on the periodic table included in the manufacture of control rods for nuclear power plants.

But thanks to our never-resting pals across the Pacific Ocean, hafnium now means something else.

There is a group of computer hackers based in China, and reportedly employed by that country’s communist government, which calls itself Hafnium — an indication that for all their technical prowess the Chinese are still far behind the West when it comes to creativity in describing their villainous ways.

The Chinese Hafnium hackers scored a massive coup against Microsoft late last month and into this month by infiltrating hundreds of thousands of Microsoft Exchange servers across the globe. That let the hackers download and read a whole lot of email; one can only imagine the amount of industrial and other espionage that resulted.

And it isn’t over:

When news hit earlier this week that Chinese hackers were actively targeting Microsoft Exchange servers, the cybersecurity community warned that the zero-day vulnerabilities they were exploiting might have allowed them to hit countless organizations around the world. Now it’s becoming clear just many email servers they hacked. By all appearances, the group known as Hafnium breached as many victims they could find across the global internet, leaving behind backdoors to return to later.

Switzerland: Voters Approve ‘Burqa Ban’ by Soeren Kern

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17161/switzerland-burqa-ban

The referenda reflect the determination of a majority of Swiss voters to preserve Swiss traditions and values in the face of runaway multiculturalism and the encroachment of political Islam.

Switzerland now joins Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden, all of which currently have full or partial bans on religious and non-religious face coverings.

“In Switzerland our tradition is that you show your face. That is a sign of our basic freedoms.” — Walter Wobmann, member of the Swiss People’s Party, the biggest political party in Switzerland.

“Some Muslims also understood that the niqab is a clear symbol of radical Islam.” — Jean-Luc Addor, member of the Swiss People’s Party.

“Saying yes to the ban on veiling is saying no to a totalitarian ideology that has no place in a democracy.” — Saïda Keller-Messahli, founder and president of the Forum for a Progressive Islam.

“The full veil, which turns the woman into a faceless being without an identity, is a symbol of misogynistic political Islam. It is the most visible symbol of an overall fascist ideology, which includes gender apartheid, but also anti-Semitism and gay hatred….” — Gisela Widmer, Swiss author and playwright.

Swiss voters have narrowly approved a proposal to ban face coverings in public spaces. The measure comes just over a decade after citizens voted to ban the construction of minarets, the tower-like structures on mosques that are often used to call Muslims to prayer.

The referenda reflect the determination of a majority of Swiss voters to preserve Swiss traditions and values in the face of runaway multiculturalism and the encroachment of political Islam.

Switzerland now joins Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Sweden, all of which currently have full or partial bans on religious and non-religious face coverings.

The binding referendum, approved on March 7 by 51.2% of voters, is popularly known as the “burqa initiative,” although the proposal does not specifically mention burqas or niqabs, the face-coving garments worn by some Muslim women. The ban encompasses most face coverings, including the bandanas and masks sometimes used by violent street protesters, and applies to all public spaces, including parks, restaurants, shops, and public transport.

The measure allows for some exceptions: health (anti-Covid masks); weather (scarves), safety (motorcycle helmets) and local customs (carnival costumes). Face coverings may also be worn inside houses of worship.

Chief justice Mogoeng told to retract and apologize for pro-Israel comments Andisiwe Makinana

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2021-03-04-chief-justice-mogoeng-mo

Chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng has been ordered to apologise for, and retract, pro-Israel comments he made during a webinar in June last year.

The Judicial Conduct Committee found Mogoeng guilty and ordered him to apologise unconditionally for becoming involved in political controversy through his utterances in the online seminar hosted by The Jerusalem Post on June 23 2020.

The committee further ordered Mogoeng to unreservedly retract and withdraw a statement he uttered after a public outcry over his initial comments. He said he stood by his comments and that he would not apologise or retract them — “even if 50 million people were to march every day for 10 years for me to do so, I would not apologise”.

“If I perish, I perish,” he said.

An NGO, Africa 4 Palestine, the SA Boycott Disinvestments and Sanctions Coalition (SA BDS Coalition) and a Durban-based Women’s Cultural Group (WCG) complained separately to the Judicial Service Commission about Mogoeng’s comments in July.

Never Again: The Time to Stop China’s Holocaust is Now By Janet Levy

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/03/never_again_the_time_to_stop_chinas_holocaust_is_now.html

As early as December 1942, the Allies knew of Nazi Germany’s massacre and horrific abuse of Jews and other populations the Nazis deemed inferior.  Two million Jews had already been killed by then.  But the Allies were slow to act against the unspeakable evil.  By the time the Second World War was over, the Nazis had exterminated 20 million people, including six million Jews.

Today, the world is again displaying that willful, unconscionable blindness.  It is doing nothing as Communist China forces Uighurs and other minority groups it finds politically or culturally undesirable into prison camps with marked similarities to Nazi concentration camps.

The Nazis killed their victims by gassing them, shooting them, and subjecting them to gratuitous torture and forced labor.  Thousands died of disease and malnutrition.  With highly organized teams, Josef Mengele, also known as the Angel of Death, conducted abominable medical and “eugenic” experiments on detainees.  Out of revulsion at what had happened in Nazi-occupied Europe, there were many proclamations of “Never Again.”  Never again would the world stand by and allow a genocide of such mammoth proportions and abject evil.

Despite that pledge arising from the carnage of the Shoah, the world seems indifferent to Communist China’s network of prison camps, where the atrocities being committed may well approach or surpass those of the Third Reich.  Staring us in the face is the possibility of another monstrous genocide. In addition to Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, other minorities, Christians, Buddhists, and Falun Gong practitioners are being shoved into these camps for re-education through brainwashing, rape, sterilization, involuntary abortions, torture, and forced labor.  Falun Gong adherents, a peace-loving group with over 100 million followers worldwide, banned since the 1990s, are being harvested for their organs to supply an ever-growing transplant industry.  Genetic experiments are being conducted to breed sought-after characteristics in humans and monkeys.  Replacing notions of Aryan superiority with Han Chinese supremacy, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is aiming to become the global hegemon by creating its own delusional version of a master race.

China Ramps up Pressure on Taiwan by Judith Bergman

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17111/china-pressure-taiwan

One of the “necessary means” that China employs against Taiwan is forcing the Taiwanese air force to be on constant alert… It is part of a strategy known as “gray-zone warfare” that aims to intimidate and ultimately exhaust Taiwan’s resolve to resist the Chinese takeover. Tensions in the region are now considered to be at their highest since the mid-1990s.

More recently, China has expanded its operations against Taiwan from the air to the sea.

The new law authorizes China’s coast guard to use “all necessary means” to stop or prevent threats from foreign vessels, including the use of fire weapons.

“I think the time has come to be clear: Replace strategic ambiguity with strategic clarity that the United States will come to the aid of Taiwan if China was to forcefully invade Taiwan or otherwise change the status quo across the [Taiwan] Strait.” — Senator Tom Cotton, Defense News, February 18, 2021.

“China must be, will be reunified” with Taiwan, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in January 2019. The goal of reunification is a basic tenet of China’s policy regarding Taiwan. It forms a central part of Xi’s nationalist doctrine, according to which, reunification is “a must for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation in the new era”.

“We are willing to create broad space for peaceful reunification, but will leave no room for any form of separatist activities”, he added. “We make no promise to renounce the use of force and reserve the option of taking all necessary means.”

One of the “necessary means” that China employs against Taiwan is forcing the Taiwanese air force to be on constant alert. Chinese jets made a record 380 incursions into the Taiwanese air defence identification zone (ADIZ) in 2020 — the highest number of incursions since 1996 — thereby forcing the Taiwanese air force constantly to scramble military aircraft to head off the Chinese incursions. It is part of a strategy known as “gray-zone warfare” that aims to intimidate and ultimately exhaust Taiwan’s resolve to resist the Chinese takeover. Tensions in the region are now considered to be at their highest since the mid-1990s.

German State Govt Says No Permit Needed for Islamic Call to Prayer Over Loudspeakers Everyone in the state will hear the multiculturalism five times daily now. Robert Spencer

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/german-state-govt-says-no-permit-needed-islamic-robert-spencer/

Here is some exciting news for those who are impatient for our glorious multicultural future to arrive. A cultural line has been crossed. And the implications of this, beyond the expected hosannas from the usual proponents of globalism and multiculturalism, are ominous. 

The German-language Junge Freiheit reported Monday that “according to the Hessian state government, muezzin calls can be made without a permit.” The Hessians have a bad record going back to serving as mercenaries in the British army during the American Revolution, and this isn’t any better. The state government explained in response to an inquiry from the Alliance for Germany (AfD), which opposes mass migration: “Contrary to the assumption of the questioner, no (immission control) approval is required for the Muslim call to prayer, with or without loudspeaker. Approvals were therefore not granted and can therefore not be withdrawn or revoked.” 

The AfD inquiry had noted that the Islamic call to prayer was broadcast over loudspeakers “in many cases with massive disapproval from the affected non-Muslim population, who saw the muezzin call as an expression of Islamic dominance and a violation of their own religious and cultural identity.”

The Hessian state government brushed such concerns aside and implied that the questioners were bigoted even just for raising such concerns: “In a society that gives room to different beliefs, there is no right to be spared from contact with deviating statements of faith or religious symbols, even under the aspect of so-called negative religious freedom.”

Biden Abandons Middle East Peace Empowering the PLO and Iran. Caroline Glick

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/03/biden-abandons-middle-east-peace-caroline-glick/

The Trump administration was on the verge of securing a peace agreement between Israel and Indonesia in its final weeks in office, according to a former senior Trump administration official involved in the efforts. The official divulged that the negotiations between Israel and the world’s most populous Muslim state were run by then-President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jared Kushner and Adam Boehler, then-head of the US’s International Development Finance Corporation.

Israel was represented by then-Ambassador Ron Dermer and Indonesia by Minister Mohamed Lutfi. To secure peace, Boehler told Bloomberg News last December, the US would be willing to provide Indonesia with an additional “one or two billion dollars” in aid.

Indonesia was interested in Israeli technology and even wanted the Technion to open a campus in Jakarta. It wanted visa-free travel to Israel and Arab and US investment in its sovereign wealth fund. Israel wanted Indonesia to end its economic boycott of the Jewish state. Direct flights from Tel Aviv to Bali were on the table.

The advantages of peace between Israel and Indonesia for both sides are self-evident. But such a peace would also pay a huge dividend to the US in its burgeoning cold war with China. An expanded strategic and economic partnership with the archipelago and ASEAN member would be a setback for China’s efforts to dominate the South China Sea, particularly with Indonesia playing a role in an Islamic-Israeli alliance led by the US.

“We got the ball on Indonesia and Israel to the first-yard line,” the official explained. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has dropped the ball on the ground and walked off the field.

On the surface, the Biden administration is interested in promoting peace. President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have praised the Abraham Accords, as well they should.

Joe Biden’s Minimum-Pressure Campaign Concessions to the Houthis encourage more Houthi attacks.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-minimum-pressure-campaign-11615332864?mod=opinion_lead_pos4

“Appeasement rarely works as a military or diplomatic strategy—especially not in the Middle East.”

Step one in the Biden Administration’s peace campaign in Yemen: Take the Houthis off the U.S. terror list and reach out to their patrons in Iran for a new nuclear deal.

Step two: End U.S. support for the Arab coalition supporting the internationally recognized government fighting the Houthis in Yemen, put U.S. arms sales to the Saudis on hold, and talk loudly about a “recalibration” of U.S.-Saudi relations.

Step three: The Houthis go on the offensive and on the weekend launch missiles and drones at several Saudi cities and Saudi Aramco facilitiies. The coalition says it intercepted most of the missiles and drones, but the attacks briefly caused an oil price spike. This incident followed other Houthi attacks and U.S. State Department lectures that the Houthis should cease and desist. They didn’t get the message.

Is anyone outside the U.S. State Department surprised? The Houthis are growing bolder as they understandably assume that the Saudis have lost U.S. support. Rather than negotiate, they’re looking to expand their territorial gains in Yemen and keep the military pressure on the Arab coalition. The attacks on Saudi cities and oil facilities are likely to increase, and sooner or later they could do serious harm.