RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15165/european-court-israel-labels

The Court of Justice ruling, which effectively encourages the strict French labelling requirements to be applied across the European Union, has been roundly condemned as reflecting the EU’s anti-Israel bias. Many commentators noted that of all the world’s many territorial conflicts — from Crimea to Northern Cyprus to Tibet to Western Sahara — the EU has singled out Israel as the only country subject to special labelling requirements.

“There are over 200 ongoing territorial disputes across the world, yet the ECJ has not rendered a single ruling related to the labeling of products originating from these territories. Today’s ruling is both political and discriminating against Israel.” — Israeli Foreign Ministry.

“It also goes against the international standard of trade set by the World Trade Organization… This is the worst kind of fiddling while Rome burns. The European court quoting Israel for its ‘breach of the rules of international humanitarian law’ whilst Hamas and its acolytes are bombing innocent civilian populations in Israel is one of the most perverse ironies I have witnessed in quite some time.” — Menachem Margolin, Chairman, European Jewish Association, Brussels.

The Court of Justice of the European Union, the EU’s highest court, has ruled that food products made in so-called Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights must be specifically labelled as such and may not carry the generic label “Made in Israel.”

The ruling, which singles out Israel, was presumably motivated not by concerns over food safety or consumer protection but by the EU’s anti-Israeli foreign policy preference. It has been roundly criticized as biased, discriminatory and anti-Semitic.

The labelling case has its origins in questions regarding the interpretation of EU Regulation 1169/2011, dated October 25, 2011, concerning consumer information on food products. The regulation was ambiguous on the issue of the labelling of food products from Israel.

On November 12, 2015, the European Commission, in an effort to clarify existing EU legislation on origin information of products from Israeli-occupied territories, issued a so-called Interpretive Notice. This directive stated that food products sold in the EU may not be labelled as “Made in Israel” if they are produced outside of Israel’s pre-1967 borders. The document explained:

“The European Union, in line with international law, does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967, namely the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and does not consider them to be part of Israel’s territory, irrespective of their legal status under domestic Israeli law.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15160/radical-persecution

The captives, some as young as five years old, were reportedly “tortured, starved and sexually abused.”

“The government of Pakistan failed to adequately protect these groups, and it perpetrated systematic, ongoing, egregious religious freedom violations; this occurred despite some optimism about the potential for reform under the new government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.” — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s, 2019 Report.

A first step towards eradicating this threat might be establishing an international interfaith coalition of Muslims, Christians and other religions, with chapters in every country, to stand up against religious persecution and on behalf of the right of every individual to harbor beliefs and engage in practices of his or her choosing.

On September 26, Nigerian soldiers liberated more than 300 men and boys — some as young as five years old — from what could be called a prison masquerading as an Islamic school in the city of Kaduna in northwestern Nigeria.

“Most of the freed captives seen by a Reuters reporter in the city of Kaduna were children, aged up to their late teens. Some shuffled with their ankles manacled and others were chained by their legs to large metal wheels to prevent escape…

“Reports carried by local media said the captives had been tortured, starved and sexually abused…

“One young man, Hassan Yusuf, said he had been sent to the school because of concerns about his way of life following a few years studying abroad.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/uprisings-against-the-mullahs-11574033887

The latest anti-regime protests in Iran look like a major political event, and judging by its vigorous and violent response the regime agrees. Now is a moment for the political left and right in the U.S. and Europe to unite in support of the Iranian people.

The protests erupted in several cities across the country in response to government increases of 50% in fuel prices. The increase raises the price of a liter of gasoline to only about 35 cents, or 50 cents a gallon. But the reaction to the increase reveals the desperation and anger of Iranians as the economy falters under the pressure of U.S. sanctions.

With parliamentary elections scheduled for February, the regime would only have reduced its fuel subsidies if it felt it had no choice. The mullahs must be short on cash as their oil sales abroad have been sharply reduced by Trump Administration sanctions. Oil sales are the regime’s main source of revenue.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini publicly supported the price increases on Sunday and called protesters “thugs.” The government shut down internet access across most of the country, which makes it difficult to assess the extent of the protests. But the reports and videos that have emerged show clashes that sometimes turned violent. Mr. Khameini also blamed loyalists of the former Shah, who was deposed 40 years ago.

The truth is that this turmoil is made in Tehran by the mullahs themselves. They could have used the financial windfall they received from the 2015 nuclear deal to invest in their own country. Instead they used those resources to spread revolution throughout the Middle East. They’ve continued to plow cash into developing ballistic missiles and arming Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Syria, and Shiite militias in nearby Iraq.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/muslim-ak-47s-and-bombings-turn-sweden-war-zone-daniel-greenfield/

This isn’t terrorism. It’s a war. And it’s going on every day in Sweden.

Sweden is reeling from a wave of shootings and bombings with 268 shootings just this year so far. And that’s in a country of 10 million people which has crime numbers on par with some American cities.

“Sweden may have the answer to America’s gun problem,” Vox declared in 2016. Or maybe not.

These shootings aren’t being carried out with handguns, but with AK-47s. The weapon so often used as a boogeyman by gun control advocates, but rarely featured in everyday gun violence, is a staple of Sweden’s gang war scene. Along with hand grenades and other explosives rarely seen in America.

A call by the police last year asking gang members to turn in their grenades worked as well as expected.

There have been 187 bomb attacks this year. In just 1 week in August, there were three major bombings. Much of the violence is concentrated in Malmo which experienced 58 bombings in 2017.

Malmo has a sizable immigrant and Muslim population. And it’s a center of gang violence.

Swedish authorities and its media rarely discuss or name the perpetrators, but the latest shooting left Jaffar Ibrahim, a 15-year-old boy, dead. Jaffar was shot in a Malmo pizzeria and had been part of a family of Syrian refugees who migrated to Sweden in 2016. Services for him were held in a mosque.

The shooting attack was preceded by a car bombing which was used as a diversion.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/hockey-broadcaster-don-cherry-keeps-his-independence/

Don Cherry has enjoyed a rich, varied, and polemical career as a hockey player, sportswriter, celebrated public figure, five-season coach of the Boston Bruins, longtime commentator for Hockey Night in Canada, and co-host of a between-periods segment called Coach’s Corner. No stranger to controversy, he has refered to progressives as “left-wing pinkos,” made disparaging comments about European hockey players, called separatist Quebecers “whiners” and lit into hockey icon Sidney Crosby for “diving.” Cherry was never one to mince words, whether commenting on hockey, politics, or public life.

During an airing on Saturday night November 9, two days before Canada’s Remembrance Day marking “the end of hostilities during the First World War and an opportunity to recall all those who have served in the nation’s defence,” Cherry sealed his broadcasting fate by embarking on what has been called a “rant” supporting the tradition of wearing poppies on Remembrance Day, to memorialize the lives of those who died serving the nation. “You people love—they come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey. The least you could pay [is] a couple of bucks for a poppy or something like that. These guys pay for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada. These guys pay the biggest price.”

Asked to clarify his remarks, he told Global News: “I do believe to this day that everybody in Canada should have a poppy on, out of honour and respect of the fallen soldiers that have fallen in the Second World War, Korea and the whole deal. Those people who gave their lives, at least we can buy a poppy.” And in an interview with the Toronto Sun, Cherry assured his critics that “his words were not racial or bigoted but patriotic and respectful of our troops. ‘I know what I said and I meant it. Everybody in Canada should wear a poppy to honour our fallen soldiers.’”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15166/destroying-christians

“These regulations [from 2006] stipulate that all places of non-Muslim worship must be licenced. However, the government has yet to issue any licence for a church buildings [sic] under this ordinance, ignoring applications from churches to regularise their status in accordance with the ordinance.” — International Christian Response, September 25, 2019, Algeria.

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board sought to deport a refugee family — a mother and three children — that had fled their native country of Nigeria after they were attacked and threatened with death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity…. “They face a ‘fatwa’ (a pronouncement of death) against them for converting to Christianity from Islam. They believe they face certain death if they are returned to Nigeria. They are quite fearful.” … Supporters of the family said the government was not taking the time to establish the family’s humanitarian status or perform a proper risk assessment. “They’re trying to boot [them] out of the country before then.” The family’s current status is unclear.

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: On September 22, the jihadi group, Boko Haram, released a video depicting the execution of two Christian aid workers. Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations, appeared on their knees, in front of three armed men, who proceeded to shoot them. Both Christians had gone to Maiduguri — near where they were captured — to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence. In the same video, and “speaking in the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says … that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture…” Responding to the executions, Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, said:

“Lawrence and Godfrey left Abuja for Maiduguri in search of opportunities to utilize their skills for the betterment of humanity and paid with their lives. We will never get their corpses to bury. The community will have to make do with a makeshift memorial to these young lives cut short so horrifically.”

Separately, a Christian pastor and the wife of another pastor were killed in two different raids by Muslim Fulani herdsmen. “After they had killed her [Esther Ishaku Katung], they were still demanding the ransom without telling her family that they had killed her,” a local Christian said. “It was only after the ransom was paid that it was found by her family that she had been killed by her abductors.” Her mutilated body was found dumped in the bushes.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15168/iraqi-genie

They claim since force cannot impose democracy, it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq and dislodge Saddam Hussein. They ignore the fact that though force cannot impose democracy, impediments to democracy can, and have been, removed by force.

Iraqi officials wonder how so many Iraqis, including many statistically-classed illiterates, manage to send and receive text messages on their smartphones. Those officials do not realize that even the poorest peasant is now able to pick up the rudiments of the alphabet and a vocabulary of a few hundred words to express his anger and passions and to coordinate action with those who share his concerns.

Tehran is wrong in toying with the idea of ending the uprising with a bloodbath as in Syria. Washington is wrong to think that yet another election with the same rules and same cast of characters would do the trick. The Najaf mullahs are wrong to believe that Iraqis will obey their fatwas as they did a generation ago. Tribal chiefs are mistaken in thinking the big “Sheikh” could secure a big cheque in exchange for calming down his kith-and-kin.

But, the fact remains that old tricks will not push that genie back into the bottle.

Although it is too early to speculate about the outcome for the Iraqi uprising, one fact is clear: What we witness is the result of a multiple misunderstandings, by participants in the current drama and those who watch from the sidelines.

There are, first, those who see Iraq as a secular version of the “original sin”. To them, toppling Saddam Hussein was the starting point of a journey that could only lead to hell.

They claim since force cannot impose democracy, it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq and dislodge Saddam Hussein. They ignore that though force cannot impose democracy, impediments to democracy can, and have been, removed by force.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15164/jeremy-corbyn-poses-a-potent-threat-to-western

By far the most likely casualty of a Corbyn government would be the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, where there is a strong likelihood that other member states of the alliance will be deeply reluctant to share highly sensitive material with a British prime minister who has spent his entire political career openly associating with regimes and groups that are utterly hostile to the West and its allies.

At the heart of his hard Left approach to foreign policy lies a deep hatred for the US and its role in safeguarding the interests of the Western democracies.

Thus Mr Corbyn’s instinct is to be more sympathetic to the views of Russia, Iran, North Korea and the Assad regime in Syria than Britain’s long-standing allies in Washington and Europe.

With the British general election now well underway, Britain’s allies need to give serious consideration about how they would deal with Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party’s hard left candidate, in the event of him becoming prime minister.

The prospect of Mr Corbyn entering Downing Street is of particular concern for the US given the current level of close cooperation that currently exists between Washington and London, especially regarding national security issues.

As one highly influential American security source told me earlier this week, “A Corbyn government would not just be a disaster for Britain. It would be a disaster for the US and other Western allies who work closely with London on a whole range of global security issues.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kongs-week-of-rage-boils-over-all-day-all-night-we-are-gonna-fight-11573803380

Antigovernment protesters and police shocked Hong Kong with some of the ugliest incidents in nearly six months of unrest this week, leaving the city’s leaders scrambling for a way to restore order under increasing pressure from Beijing.

A 70-year-old man died Thursday night after being hit in the head with a brick during a clash a day earlier. A 15-year-old boy was in critical condition on Wednesday, according to the Hospital Authority, which declined to comment on his current status. Local media said he sustained injuries after appearing to be hit in the head by a tear-gas canister. And police shot a 21-year-old protester on Monday; later, pro-democracy demonstrators set a man who argued with them on fire.

On Thursday in Brazil, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged a tough police response to the protests.

The Chinese government will “firmly support the Hong Kong police in strictly enforcing the law and firmly support the Hong Kong judicial bodies in severely punishing the violent criminals in accordance with the law,” Mr. Xi said. He made his comments on an international stage at a summit of leaders from emerging markets.

Clashes between protesters and police this week turned universities into battlefields, rendered highways and tunnels unusable, disrupted public transit and frequently left the city’s bustling financial district under a fog of tear gas. Shops across the city closed, further crippling an economy that has already tumbled into a recession. The Hang Seng Index, the city’s stock market, dropped 4.8%, its worst week since early August.