RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14569/greece-undoing-damage

The new government took office with an apparent sense of genuine purpose… The new government has transferred the handling of illegal immigration from the auspices of the Ministry for Migration Policy to that of the Ministry of Citizen Protection, treating the issue as a national-security threat.

The Mitsotakis-led government is also reversing its predecessor’s course where foreign policy is concerned, stressing a desire to enhance Greek-American relations. One step in illustrating a closer alliance with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is the recognition of Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s transitional president in his battle against Nicolás Maduro. Another step is strengthening ties with Israel.

Greece now has a single-party government… which means that it will not be forced to compromise with Marxists and Social Democrats. This situation bodes well for the major economic and social reforms that Mitsotakis… was elected to undertake.

Mitsotakis deserves a chance at home and abroad to prove that opening up the economy while clamping down on forces that threaten Greek democracy can undo the damage done by years of socialist rule.

The July 7 elections in Greece have ushered in a new era of promise, with the victory of the center-right New Democracy Party leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, over the incumbent prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, head of the left-wing Syriza coalition.

The vote represented the Greek people’s frustration and disgust not only with the failures of the Syriza-led government, which wreaked havoc on the economy and state institutions, but with the accompanying widespread corruption and anarchy that overtook the country.

The new government took office with an apparent sense of genuine purpose, seemingly intent on exacting immediate change. The new Minister for Citizen Protection, Michalis Chrysochoidis, for example, set to work with the encouraging pledge to reform the police force. He announced that he would make law enforcement more efficient, through better recruitment policies, backup for anti-crime units and by enabling raids into virtual “no-go” zones, such as Exarchia, a hotbed of drug-dealers, anarchists and illegal immigrants.

https://www.jns.org/boris-johnson-becomes-uk-prime-minister-amid-brexit-tension

He has had warm ties with the British Jewish community and Israel stemming from his time as mayor of London, and later, as foreign secretary under former Prime Minister Theresa May.

Boris Johnson overwhelmingly was elected by his Conservative Party on Tuesday to become the next party leader and prime minister of the United Kingdom.

In his victory speech, Johnson, who defeated Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt in the party race, promised that he would “deliver Brexit, unite the country and defeat Jeremy Corbyn.”

Johnson, 55, who succeeded Theresa May, comes to power amid several crises wracking his country. He has to deal with a do-or-die Oct. 31 deadline to leave the European Union, known as “Brexit,” and the potential economic and political ramifications to arise from that. At the same time, he will need to push back against Iranian aggression, especially in the aftermath of the regime seizing two U.K.-owned oil tankers, as well as handle growing anti-Semitism in the country, especially within the rival Labour Party.

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.gatestoneinstitute.org/14584/eu-top-down-powers

An examination of von der Leyen’s main policy proposals reveals that she is calling for a massive expansion of top-down powers of the European Commission. Her proposals would substantially increase the role of Brussels in virtually all aspects of economic and social life in Europe — all at the expense of national sovereignty.

Von der Leyen warned that Brussels would overrule EU member states opposed to her tax overhaul… She called for a comprehensive “European Rule of Law Mechanism” to ensure the primacy of EU law over the national laws of EU member states. She warned that there would be financial consequences for member states that refuse to comply…. She called for a change in rules so that the EU could act even without the unanimous consent of EU member states.

“What you’ve seen from Ursula von der Leyen today is an attempt by the EU to take control of every single aspect of our lives. She wants to build a centralized, undemocratic, updated form of Communism that will render [obsolete] nation state parliaments, where the state controls everything, where nation state parliaments will cease to have any relevance at all.” — Nigel Farage, European Parliament, July 16, 2019.

Former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has been narrowly confirmed as the next President of the European Commission, the powerful administrative arm of the European Union.

In a secret ballot in the European Parliament on July 16, von der Leyen, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, received 383 votes, only nine more than the 374 required — the lowest margin since the position of President was established in 1958. She will take over from Jean-Claude Junker in November 2019 for a five-year term.

Before the vote, von der Leyen promised an ambitious left-leaning policy program on climate change, taxes, migration and the rule of law. Many of her pledges — which would require transferring yet more national sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels — appeared aimed at enticing support for her candidacy from Greens and Socialists in the European Parliament.

In the final vote, however, the Socialists were divided in their support for von der Leyen and the Greens formally opposed her. Interestingly, von der Leyen won with the support of eurosceptics in Central and Eastern Europe after she publicly criticized the way the EU has treated them due to their opposition to mass migration.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/14572/eat-irans-lunch

Diplomatic efforts notwithstanding, the free world must realize that the threat posed by a nuclear Iran would be different from any other nation obtaining such weapons.

At the very least, Iran, once it had both nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them, would not even have to use them: the threat to do so would be sufficient to blackmail other countries into doing whatever it asked. If it wanted to control the oilfields of Saudi Arabia or its holy cities, Mecca and Medina, how could Saudi Arabia resist?… What about the tempting oil fields of Abu Dhabi or Kuwait?

Since its revolution in 1979, Iran, often through its proxies such as Hezbollah, has dedicated its resources to expansion and terrorism — not only in Yemen, but also in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and by funding Hamas in the Gaza Strip — to create a geographical arc from Iran to the Mediterranean. Iran has also for years been expanding into South America, particularly Venezuela.

Iran has crossed a new threshold in nuclear enrichment. This means that the nine nations in the world’s nuclear weapons club soon might be forced to acknowledge a new member. Iran’s emergence as a nuclear weapons state, however, if it occurs, will not be merely an addition to the roster of nuclear powers — it will be a terrifying game-changer.

Iran has already reached uranium enrichment levels of around 4.5 percent, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, told the semi-official Fars news agency. Mr. Kamalvandi warned that enrichment could reach 20 percent in the future. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have confirmed Kamalvandi’s assertions.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in an apparent attempt to increase pressure on ongoing diplomatic negotiations, said that Iran would exceed some other unspecified limit in 60 days.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274398/there-any-hope-western-europe-mark-tapson

Years ago as I was awakening from my long Democrat slumber and educating myself about Islam, one of the most eye-opening books that I read was a 2006 page-turner titled While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West From Within, by a gay American living in Western Europe. Not only was it enlightening, but it made me an instant fan of Bawer’s compelling storytelling. In addition to following his subsequent books such as Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom, The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind, and even a thriller about Islamic terrorism called The Alhambra, I was fortunate and honored to become friends with Bruce through our mutual work for the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Now Bawer has released a new volume with a stark black cover titled Islam: The Essays, a massive collection of well over three hundred of his articles on this crucial subject dating from the fall of 2002 through the summer of 2018. Though he suggests that the reader undertake the book chronologically in order to understand the evolution of his understanding of the topic (“Early on, for instance, I refer to ‘fundamentalist Islam’; soon enough, I drop the word ‘fundamentalist,’ having realized that Islam itself, properly understood, is fundamentalist.”), Bawer is such an engaging, perceptive writer that one can open the book at random to literally any page and find it impossible to stop reading. A chilling chronicle of the Islamization of multicultural Europe over the last 17 years, Islam: The Essays is a must-have for FrontPage Mag readers and for others in need, like I once was, of awareness and insight into the Religion of Peace™.

Bruce Bawer was able to find time to answer a few of my questions about the book and about the Islamization of Europe today.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274353/tommy-robinsons-guilty-persecutors-bosch-fawstin

The way the UK government operates today makes me believe that the question it most asks itself is: Will this please or displease Muslims?

A few examples: last year, a Muslim “protestor” who cracked a police officer in the skull with his stick at a Tommy Robinson rally was spared jail, which pleased Muslims. Tommy Robinson was thrown in prison – twice – for the trumped up charge of “contempt of court” and “causing distress” to Muslim rapists, which pleases Muslims. Mohammad cartoons were absent from the UK’s Media “Freedom” Conference’s display of censored political cartoons, which pleases Muslims.

Tommy Robinson has been referred to as “the most hated man in Britain”. He’s also loved by many Brits for being one of the only prominent voices in the UK to speak out against Islam – and his country’s submission to it. But about him being the most hated man in Britain: hated by what standard? By the standard of the UK government and of the powerful and influential leaders who knew about and said and did nothing about decades of its young citizens being raped by Muslim gangs, which they euphemistically refer to as “grooming gangs”. They’ve disgraced themselves and their country by doing everything they can to defend Islam, and doing everything they can to vilify, criticize and legally punish Islam critics, exactly as an Islamic dictatorship would do.

Tommy Robinson is a fighter in a country that no longer fights. That’s one of the main reasons why he’s so hated. He’s a fighter in a country where many have given up, and where many are taught to believe that fighting is “uncouth”. His fighting spirit is rejected in a country where many are resigned to allow Islam and leftism to destroy it once and for all. Tommy Robinson is most hated by those in the UK who’ve given up on the UK, and they don’t want to be reminded of it by someone who condemns them for being the sellouts that they are.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/iran-claims-it-has-arrested-17-iranian-cia-spies-sentenced-some-to-death/

Iran said Monday it has arrested 17 Iranians accused of spying on the country’s nuclear and military sites for the CIA.

The alleged spies had “sophisticated training” and worked on “sensitive sites” in “economic, nuclear, infrastructural, military and cyber fields or their counterpart private sector,” the Iranian Intelligence Ministry’s director of counterespionage reportedly said at a rare press conference in Tehran.

All the alleged spies are reportedly Iranian nationals arrested in the past few months. Some of the 17 who resisted cooperating with Iranian intelligence will be locked up for a lengthy period, and some have already been sentenced to death, the counterintelligence director said.

President Trump denied Iran’s claims Monday morning, calling them “propaganda.”

“The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth,” the president wrote on Twitter. “Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do. Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/274333/deutschland-%C3%BCber-alles-bruce-bawer

No sane person could have witnessed the coronation this week of the new grand poobah of the European Union without recognizing just how utterly undemocratic – and dangerous – this institution is.

Her name is Ursula von der Leyen, a name that instantly communicates two important facts: (1) she is German; (2) she is a member of a hereditary elite.

To be sure, the “von” is courtesy of her husband, who belongs to an aristocratic family. But her own blood also runs blue. In addition to having a tony Teutonic lineage – she was born into the patrician Albrecht clan – she’s descended from a couple of the biggest slave traders in the American South. Her grandfather, Carl Albrecht, was a psychologist famous for his studies of “mystical consciousness.” Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was one of the very first bureaucrats to tread the corridors of power in what would later become the European Union 

Raised in Belgium, von der Leyen studied in Germany and Britain, and lived for a while in the U.S., along the way picking up degrees in economics and public health and also becoming a gynecologist. But she eventually settled on politics, hitching her wagon to Angela Merkel and climbing the ladder of power in Germany, getting herself elected to the Bundestag and serving in turn as Minister of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth; Minister of Labor and Social Affairs; and Minister of Defense. In the last-named position, she didn’t exactly cover herself in glory: as President Trump has pointed out, Germany has consistently failed to pull its weight in NATO; British journalist Andrew Neil recently referred to her as a “failed” Defense Minister and as “the second most unpopular politician in Germany.”