RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15116/turkey-boko-haram-weapons

The gist of their brief conversation in Turkish, according to the Arabic transcript, is that weapons were being transferred from Turkey to Nigeria — and that there was a concern that the weapons might kill not just Christians but Muslims.

According to [Egyptian TenTV host Nasha’t] al-Deyhi, this is proof positive that Turkey is the one supplying Boko Haram with its weapons — including sophisticated weapons — the source of which has long puzzled observers.

It appears that Erdogan’s sponsorship of terrorism may not be limited to neighboring Middle Eastern nations; it may have reached deep into Africa. A serious investigation with possible sanctions is in order.

Concerning Turkey’s increasingly suspect role in supporting jihadists — most recently, ISIS’s slain leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was found hiding in Syria’s “last refuge” for jihadi rebels, just three miles from Turkey’s border — one of the least mentioned is Turkey’s apparent alliance with the “other” ISIS, that in Nigeria, Boko Haram.

On a recent episode of bi’l waraqa wa’l qalam (“With Paper and Pen”), an Egyptian news program that airs on TenTV, its host, Nasha’t al-Deyhi, said:

Leaked information confirms that Turkey is a terrorist state; it supports terrorists — including with weapons. It supports terrorists with weapons. This time, however, not in Syria … Today’s leak confirms without doubt that Erdogan, his state, his government, and his party are transferring weapons from Turkey to — this is a shock, to where you may ask — to Nigeria; and to whom? — to the Boko Haram organization.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15115/middle-east-facades

The state-controlled media in Tehran are advising the “authorities” in Beirut and Baghdad to crush the popular uprisings “by all means necessary”. One of Tehran’s Iraqi propagandists even advised Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi “to kill leaders of sedition (fitna)” who had gathered in a restaurant in Baghdad.

In building their empire, the mullahs made a big mistake: they prevented the emergence of genuine local authorities, including national armies that could hold things together in a semi-autonomous way.

The Houthis, the Assad clan, Hezbollah, PMF and kindred groups are puppets in a surrealistic show scripted by faceless puppet-masters in Tehran. That they, in turn, hide behind secondary puppets, playing president and/or prime minister, makes for an even more absurd flight into fantasyland. Just over 1,000 years ago, Nizam al-Mulk noted that what appears legal is not necessarily legitimate and that being in office but not in power produces the worst kind of tyranny.

For the past two weeks or so, the state-controlled media in Tehran have been wondering how to cope with news of popular uprisings in Lebanon and Iraq.

In the first phase, the official line was that the protests reflected anger at poor economic performance and defective public services. The narrative echoed media coverage of last year’s popular protests in Iran itself. It was inconceivable that “the people”, always an abstraction, might not appreciate the blessings of the system, let alone revolt against it.

https://www.andrewbostom.org/2019/11/video-andrew-bostom-sharia-thirst-christian-persecution-islamic-antisemitism-center-for-security-policy-briefing-10-24-19/

Embedded video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFkZh0VzemE

Comp_LT2_CSP Pres_10.24.19 for video 

Introductory remarks: Relevance of the 9/11 jihad carnage to my study of Islam

The 9/11 attacks were the triggering event which inspired my 18-years of study of Islam with a focus on Islam’s doctrine regarding, and resultant Muslim behavior toward, non-Muslims. A friend of mine, like me also born and raised in Queens, New York City, was a fireman and a physical therapist, and we were classmates at the physical therapy program at SUNY-Downstate during 1979-1980. I got his firsthand account of the destroyed World Trade Center charnel house.

Equally important motivation for my study of Islam was Muhammad al-Gameia.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15105/trump-middle-east-priorities

President Donald Trump’s constant refrain about withdrawing US forces from the Middle East is… an enormous source of concern for Gulf leaders, who historically have relied heavily on the US to protect their interests. It is a measure of their disquiet that Russian President Vladimir Putin received a warm reception during his recent visits to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, as Arab governments sought to weigh up their options in the event that they can no longer rely on Washington to safeguard their security requirements.

Allowing Mr Putin a foothold in Syria is one thing; enabling the Kremlin open access to the oil-rich Gulf states is quite another, and is not a prospect that Mr Trump should entertain.

From Washington’s perspective, the Gulf states are vital allies in the Trump administration’s confrontation with Tehran. So, rather than constantly sending signals that he is no longer interested in supported America’s allies in the Middle East, the president should seek to reassure them that, while the nature of America’s military dispositions in the region may be changing, Washington’s support for its allies remains as strong as ever.

Mr Trump might do well to understand that having the Gulf states on his side is vital if he is to succeed in his campaign to force Tehran to renegotiate the flawed nuclear deal. Preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons is, after all, just as important for the Trump administration as destroying the terrorist masterminds that run ISIS.

After all the recent speculation that US President Donald Trump is seeking to end America’s long-standing involvement in the Middle East, the violent demise of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has demonstrated that the White House remains resolute in pursuing its enemies.

As Mr Trump said in the immediate aftermath of Baghdadi’s death in northwestern Syria at the weekend, killing or capturing the ISIS terrorist, the man responsible for overseeing the barbaric reign of cruelty that manifested itself under his so-called caliphate, had been his administration’s number one priority.

It was to this end that Mr Trump personally authorised US special forces to undertake their daring mission against Baghdadi’s hideout in Idlib province, close to the Turkish border, even though, in public, Mr Trump was insistent that he was intent on reducing America’s involvement in what he has described as the “bloodstained sand” of the Middle East.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2019/11/brexit-mess-katie/

“Katie – what on earth is happening with Brexit?”

It’s a question I have been desperate to answer and have found myself unable to answer — as one day of uncertainty has led into the next. The word ‘unprecedented’ is commonplace in the UK right now.

Trying to give an accurate update on Brexit has been like trying to sell yogurt in the desert. It is past its shelf life even before it reaches the store.

But despite the attempts by our Remain-leaning Parliament to frustrate the will of the people, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has finally found a way forward, albeit a long way from the “Leave” we were promised for Oct. 31. Even the ceremonial 50p coins minted for the occasion will be smelted down in despair.

Bojo has called a General Election for December 12, 2019 in the hopes of breaking the endless deadlock over Brexit. And despite a desperate effort by the opposition to allow 16-year-olds and 3 million EU foreigners (who do not have British citizenship) to vote, Boris has prevailed.

The British people will go back to polls and vote for a new government to take them into 2020. Boris believes it will give him the majority he needs and a fresh mandate to Get Brexit Done and get us out of the European Union — his battle cry since he entered the House of Commons.

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/2019/10/yes-virginia-there-is-famous-belgian.html

Yes, Virginia, There is a Famous Belgian …
… Or, rather, an infamous one.

His name’s Christoph D’Haese.  He’s Burgomeester (mayor) of the Belgian city of Aalst in old East Flanders, and a member of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, which, being translated, means New Flemish Alliance.

Once upon a time, in another city in what is now Belgium, live cats were thrown from a belfry tower to their deaths on a carnival day held during Lent.  That vile barbarism, a product of the Middle Ages, apparently persisted until 1817.

In Aalst during Lent there is also a carnival day.  

No, they don’t sacrifice cats. 

But they do sacrifice all pretensions to human decency by (would you believe this, post-Shoah!?) including hideous depictions of Jews in the carnival parade, depictions that would do credit to Julius Streicher and the rest of the Nazi fiends were those monsters still alive. 

Here’s how a senior American academic, Eliot A, Cohen, calling it out for the antisemitism that it is, described the obnoxious spectacle from last year:

“On Sunday, a float rolled down the streets of Aalst, a Belgian town, for carnival. It featured two grotesque caricatures of Hasidic Jews, hooked noses, hands reaching out for money, and a rat sitting on money bags. That’s 2019. A second float … —in Marburg, Germany, in 1936—featured celebrants dressed as Orthodox Jews. The only real difference is that the former was more elaborately and professionally executed, and if anything more grotesque.”
 To quote The Independent newspaper at the time:

 ‘A carnival parade which featured Jewish caricatures standing amid piles of money has been compared to Nazi antisemitic propaganda and provoked fierce criticism in Belgium. One float in the city of Aalst’s annual feast on Sunday was decorated with two huge figures of men with large sideburns, crooked noses and wearing shtreimels, a fur hat worn by some Orthodox Jews. One had a rat on his shoulder.

https://www.nationalreview.com/news/poll-nearly-half-of-british-jews-say-they-would-seriously-consider-fleeing-the-country-if-corbyn-is-elected-pm/

Forty-seven percent of British Jews would “seriously consider” emigrating if Labour party head Jeremy Corbyn is elected prime minister, according to a poll by Survation commissioned by the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC), a British-Jewish advocacy group.

The poll, which was shared with the Jewish News, also found that 87 percent of respondents believed Corbyn to be anti-Semitic.

Corbyn has a long history of association with Islamists and other anti-Semitic figures. In 2009, he invited Hamas members to speak in Parliament, while on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010 he hosted an event at Parliament during which a Jewish Holocaust survivor compared the Israeli government to Nazis. He also reportedly laid a wreath at the grave of a Black September terrorist who participated in the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

Corbyn has also failed to tackle anti-Semitism within the Labour party, according to an expose published in April of this year. The party received 863 complaints of anti-Semitism as of March but took action in only 101 of those cases. Members who have said such things as “Heil Hitler,” “F**k the Jews,” and “Jews are the problem,” have remained in the party despite complaints against them.

Two Jewish politicians have so far quit the Labour party, one of whom, Louise Ellman, wrote that anti-Semitism has “become mainstream in the Labour Party. Jewish members have been bullied, abused and driven out. Anti-Semites have felt comfortable and vile conspiracy theories have been propagated…The Labour Party is no longer a safe place for Jews.”

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https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15093/palestinian-leaders-silence-critics

Hamas justified the arrest of Qatoush by accusing him of “leaking security details.” It is not clear how a complaint about economic hardship has turned into a security-related case. In the eyes of Hamas, however, it seems that any Palestinian who dares to complain about the bad economy in the Gaza Strip is a “traitor” and a “security threat.”

From all accounts, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas are neck-and-neck in their competition to crush freedom of expression and crack down on the media.

“It is certain that the Arab Spring will arrive, sooner or later, to Palestine… The [ruling] Palestinian elite is mostly corrupt and tyrannical. With the exception of a few, the [Palestinian] elite is corrupt and incompetent — or both.” — Hani al-Masri, a prominent Palestinian political analyst, samanews.ps, October 22, 2019.

Criticism is fine, of course — if it is directed at the Palestinians’ arch-enemy, Israel. Otherwise, Palestinian journalists had best keep their criticism to themselves — lest the PA and Hamas decide to leave them in critical condition.

Facing growing discontent from their people, the leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas have resumed their crackdown on Palestinian journalists in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the past few weeks, several journalists were arrested by PA and Hamas security forces.

The arrests are seen by Palestinian journalists as part of the PA and Hamas programs to silence their critics and deter reporters from disclosing anything that reflects badly on Palestinian leaders. Any form of criticism, particularly from Palestinian journalists, has long been anathema to the PA and Hamas.