RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274429/swedens-impending-moral-and-economic-collapse-joseph-puder

The “Nordic Paradise” that was Sweden until a few decades ago, has become a virtual nightmare with the influx of thousands of migrants from the Middle East, most of them unwilling to assimilate. The homogeneous society that was once Sweden, with low crime, and strong work ethics, has turned into a multicultural society, replete with crime, social instability, and declining productivity.

For the many believers in the workability of social democracy, Sweden was a model of success and admiration. While personal taxes were high, the state provided its citizens with a lavish social welfare system and cradle-to-grave social services. Then came the flood of immigrants from the Balkans, and with it, changing economic circumstances. Swedish historian Johan Norberg explained, “Our economy was in a crisis, inflation reached 10%, and interest rates soared to 500%. At that point, the Swedish population just said enough, we can’t do that.” As Sweden approached the 1990’s, its economy encountered a serious fiscal and budgetary crisis. It required the almost endemic rule of the Social-Democratic government to enact drastic reforms, including extensive privatization, cuts in government spending, reduction of social services, and opening itself to a free market economy. It meant that the socialist experiment had to come to an end. The above moves created prosperity and economic progress for a while, albeit, individual taxes remained high.

The arrival of hundreds of thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants changed Sweden’s cultural scene, and adversely impacted on its economic wellbeing. The Danish historian and social commentator, Lars Hedegaard, observed in his 2014 book “Dangerous Words” that, “If there is any lesson to be drawn from history, it is that what you do not think will happen, does. Time and again. The final consequence of the West and, above all, Sweden’s immigration policy is that the economy will collapse — because who is going to pay for it all? And economic breakdowns once they happen, always happen very fast.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274476/palestinians-assault-mohamed-saud-embracing-two-caroline-glick

Israeli and Arab audiences alike were recently shocked to see footage of Palestinian teenagers in Jerusalem’s Old City assaulting, cursing, and spitting on Saudi blogger Mohamed Saud as he came to pray at Islam’s third holiest site, the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, and as he toured the Arab market in the Old City.

There was no reason for them to be surprised.

As independent Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh noted in an article for the Gatestone Institute, the assault on Saud was the predictable result of a campaign of incitement spearheaded by the Palestinian Journalist Syndicate (PJS). The PJS is affiliated with Fatah, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) faction that rules the Palestinian Authority (PA) under Fatah leader and PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Saud was the only member of a delegation of six Arab bloggers visiting Israel at the invitation of Israel’s Foreign Ministry who was willing to be identified by name. His willingness to visit the Jewish state openly made Saud a target for personal incitement by the PJS.

But as Abu Toameh noted, the PJS’s incitement, which involved young people calling Saud a “traitor,” a “dirty Zionist,” a “dog,” and a “normalizer” (that is, an Arab would seeks to normalize the Arab world’s relations with Israel), was part of a much larger campaign to block all relations with Israel.

Abu Toameh explained that the PJS calls for a boycott of Israeli journalists. Palestinian journalists who interview Israelis or work with Israeli journalists are similarly targets for boycott.

Arab regimes that permit Israeli journalists to cover events in their countries – as Bahrain permitted Israelis to cover its economic peace conference last month – are condemned.

When word got out that the delegation of Arab bloggers would be visiting Israel, Abu Toameh wrote, the PJS not only called for the delegation members to be attacked on the ground, but it also called for them to be boycotted and blackballed by their audiences in their home countries, and in the Arab world as a whole.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14625/turkey-adopts-eurasianism

Few observers back then warned that Erdoğan’s pro-West façade was fake and his deep adherence to political Islam, an enemy of the Western civilization, would one day urge him to seek non-Western alliances.

Turkey’s choice of a Russian-made air defense system that is primarily designated to hit NATO aerial assets is a reflection of its anticipation of an aerial military conflict with a NATO member in the future.

No doubt, the S-400 is also a sign of Erdogan’s disregard for Turkey’s increasingly problematic place in the Western alliance. Erdoğan’s ideologues keep on portraying the U.S. as an “enemy country,” and many Turks increasingly buy that line. Seven out of 10 Turks now report feeling threatened by U.S. power….

Ironically, it was an anti-Islamist, Kemalist Turkish general who first suggested that Turkey should align its foreign policy with the rising powers of Eurasia — all of Europe plus Asia. It was just eight months before President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) first came to power, and since then, has remained undefeated. The U.S. at the time was busy with the final touches on the military operation that would oust Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, in March 2003.

General Tuncay Kılınç, the powerful secretary general of Turkey’s National Security Council, said that Turkey should seek an alternative alliance with Russia and Iran. In November 2002, Erdoğan’s AKP came to power, pledging to pursue pro-EU, pro-West, liberal governance, and wrongly accusing Kemalist ideology of being an obstacle against liberal democracy — an incredible political story, to judge it 17 years later. Few observers back then warned that Erdoğan’s pro-West façade was fake and his deep adherence to political Islam, an enemy of the Western civilization, would one day urge him to seek non-Western alliances.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-russia-and-china-are-joining-forces-11564441072

Russian and Chinese military aircraft probed South Korean and Japanese air defenses last week, leading the South Koreans to fire more than 300 warning shots before the intruders departed.

This was just the latest manifestation of a deepening alliance between Russia and China. James Dobbins, Howard Shatz and Ali Wyne described the emerging alignment in an April essay in the Diplomat. In 2016, Russia displaced Saudi Arabia as China’s largest source of imported oil. In 2017, the two countries held their first joint naval exercise in the Baltic Sea. In June 2018, Xi Jinping called Vladimir Putin “my best, most intimate friend,” and later that year Chinese forces participated in the largest military exercise on Russian soil since 1981.

The departing director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, says the two Eurasian supergiants are as close as they were in the 1950s. From Venezuela to Syria to Serbia, they are working to frustrate the West. They are also increasingly cooperating in sub-Saharan Africa and have found ways to reduce their competition in Central Asia.

Many analysts discounted the prospects for deep Sino-Russian coordination. Mr. Putin’s overarching foreign policy objective has long been to build up Russia as an independent great power between Europe and China; a close alliance with a rising China works against this goal. Tensions along their lengthy border, commercial rivalries, and Russian suspicion of Chinese designs on its Far Eastern territories tend to drive the two countries apart. Given Russia’s slow decline and China’s rapid rise, some expected Russia would support Western efforts to balance China rather than undermine them.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/islamic-terrorists-boko-haram-kill-at-least-23-funeral-mourners/

Boko Haram — aka “The Deadliest Islamic Terrorist Group That Almost No One Talks About” — is at it again, this time opening fire on a crowd of funeral mourners in Nigeria’s Borno state.

The number of casualties is unclear, but this is from one of the first reports:

That number could be much higher, according to the BBC:

Eyewitnesses say militants on motorbikes and in vans opened fire on mourners in a village on the outskirts of the state capital, Maiduguri.

The death toll could be as high as 65, AFP news agency reports.

There has been an increase in attacks by Boko Haram and other Islamist groups in Nigeria and across the region.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed and more than two million displaced over the past decade of conflict.

Despite being perhaps the most frightening and murderous Islamic terror faction in the past several years, Boko Haram almost flies under the media radar relative to how prolifically evil it is.

They prey on the most vulnerable, so slaughtering funeral-goers is really nothing out of the ordinary for these monsters. When they are not kidnapping children, they are burning them alive.

The BBC also notes that the group “has splintered into competing factions” in the past few years yet still remains very active.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/07/28/decades-soft-iran-has-emboldened-ayatollahs/

Seizing another state’s vessel on the high seas is an aggressive act – arguably an act of war. Britain’s interception of American shipping in pursuit of its blockade against Napoleon, for example, led to the War of 1812, the burning of the White House and the Battle of New Orleans. So when Iran boarded a British-flagged tanker in the Straits of Hormuz this week, it was, at the very least, trampling on international norms and flouting maritime law. 

The attack was evidently intended as retaliation for the detention of an Iranian vessel in Gibraltar – with the critical difference that the earlier seizure was carried out in Gibraltarian waters, was authorised by local law, and was ordered in pursuit of internationally recognised sanctions against Syria.

Then again, the ayatollahs can hardly be blamed for trying their hand. From the moment they seized power in 1979, they have shown utter contempt for the accepted rules of national sovereignty, yet have paid little price.

What was the overture with which the Iranian Revolution announced itself in 1979? That’s right: the use of US diplomats as hostages. Think, for a moment, about quite how shocking it is to violate the sanctity of a diplomatic compound. When, to pluck an almost random example, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, staff at the British legation in Buenos Aires knew that they had nothing to fear. Even during the Second World War, when mutually hostile ideologies sought to extirpate each other, embassy personnel were peacefully evacuated through neutral states. Safe passage for ambassadors has been the basis of relations among states since the earliest civilizations. By disregarding that ancient taboo, the mullahs were signalling that they did not play by the same rules as the rest of us. They would not recognise the concepts of territorial jurisdiction and international law that bound other countries. They answered, in their own eyes, to a higher power.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/prominent-russian-activist-hospitalized-after-more-than-1-000-arrested-in-protest-11564326555

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was transferred Sunday to a hospital from jail, where he was being held for calling for unauthorized protests the day before that led to a police crackdown and the detention of more than a thousand protesters.

Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh, tweeted that the staunch Kremlin critic had suffered “acute allergic reaction, severe swelling of the face and redness of the skin,” and was receiving the necessary medical assistance, under police guard.

Ms. Yarmysh said the cause of the allergic reaction was unclear, but “for all his life, Alexei had never experienced an allergic reaction before.”

Speculation swirled on social media over whether Mr. Navalny, who last Wednesday was jailed for 30 days, might have been poisoned.

The situation drew comparisons to activist Pyotr Verzilov, who fell ill last September after attending proceedings against a fellow member of the Pussy Riot protest group. Mr. Verzilov was subsequently flown to Germany where doctors treating him said he had likely been poisoned.

Officials at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and officials at the hospital in Moscow where Mr. Navalny is being treated couldn’t immediately be reached to comment. There was no evidence that Mr. Navalny’s illness was anything other than an allergic reaction.

Leonid Volkov, one Mr. Navalny’s top lieutenants, tweeted that he had firsthand knowledge about unsanitary conditions at the jail.

https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/134023/british-legislator-johnson-will-withdraw-

British legislator Matthew Offord said on Tuesday that new British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will withdraw the United Kingdom from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which the United States left in May 2018, reimposing sanctions lifted under it alongside enacting new financial penalties against the regime.

“We’ve now got to face that the nuclear deal is all but dead,” Offord told i24 News after Johnson won the Conservative Party leadership race, which also made him prime minister with his party in the majority.

However, Offord said that a new agreement “can be a way forward by looking at what we can provide the Iranian regime without them losing face, but ensuring that they ratchet down their actions.”

Late last week, Iran seized two U.K.-owned oil tankers amid ongoing tensions in the region.

Earlier this month, Johnson warned Iran to “cease this madness” over violating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, adding that he’s “prepared” to reimpose sanctions on the regime.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-at-demonstrators-as-tensions-flare-11564319424

Police and demonstrators clashed in Hong Kong this weekend in some of the fiercest confrontations to rock the semiautonomous Chinese city, fueling apprehension that a summer of protests against the encroachment of Beijing is veering into dangerous new territory.

Late Sunday, a normally bustling commercial district was fogged over in tear gas as police with shields and gas masks fought to contain thousands of protesters, many clad in black and wearing yellow hard hats.

The day before, similar clashes unfolded in an outlying district of Hong Kong where a week earlier a group of thugs with sticks and rods beat up subway passengers, some of whom were returning from a mass march that day.

The sustained clashes at opposite ends of the territory marked the first time since protests began in June that such intense confrontations took place on back-to-back days. Adding to a sense of disorder, the demonstrations gained momentum even as police resorted to more aggressive tactics to tamp them down. That included making more arrests, deploying more tear gas, charging with riot sticks and firing nonlethal projectiles into crowds now adept at erecting barricades from dismantled fencing. Hong Kong police announced early Monday that they had made at least 49 arrests Sunday.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong demonstrators, previously known for civility, are now experimenting with more dangerous tactics like setting small fires in occupied roadways.

“For Hong Kong this is very serious, among the worst we have seen,” said Kin-ming Liu, a longtime Hong Kong journalist and opinion writer. “It looks very bad and I honestly don’t know how it will play out.”

Compounding the apprehension gripping this city is the widespread perception that its Beijing-backed leadership is unable to provide a political resolution to the unrest, which began two months ago in opposition to a planned law that would make it easier for Beijing to extradite Hong Kong residents for trial in mainland China.

With hundreds of thousands of marchers on the streets in June, the city’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam put the controversial extradition law on hold. But demonstrators, who want it scrapped entirely, were unsatisfied with what they saw as a half measure.

In the weeks since, the intensity of the protests has grown, adding to calls for Mrs. Lam to resign. Mrs. Lam has called for an end to violence and has said she has no plans to step down.

The embattled leader, who hadn’t been seen in public since last Monday, attended the graduation ceremony of the Military Summer Camp for Hong Kong Youth on Sunday, according to a government press release.

“Young people are the driving force of the development of Hong Kong,” Mrs. Lam said in the speech, while thanking the Hong Kong garrison of China’s People’s Liberation Army for its support of the camp.

The Chinese central government’s office responsible for Hong Kong and Macau said it would hold a news conference Monday to address the protests, which have stretched into their eighth weekend.

Foreign companies appear to be suffering. In a survey published Monday in Asia, the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong found that more international businesses are feeling pessimistic about short-term prospects for the city. Respondents said increased violence and political brinkmanship fueled the perception that Hong Kong is a riskier place to do business. The survey, which polled sectors in financial services, logistics and technology, found disrupted supply chains and consumption have caused short-term revenue hits for some companies.

The protesters’ rallying cries have become broader—including chants for a freer Hong Kong after Beijing chipped away at the rights and freedoms cherished by local citizens, making potential resolution more elusive. The city’s government has in the past few years outlawed a political party that advocated independence, ousted legislators, and prosecuted opposition activists.

Ray Chan, who is 28 years old, said the local government’s inability to find a resolution spurred him to take to the streets on Sunday night in Hong Kong. “We’re out here trying to force the action,” he said. CONTINUE AT SITE