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Beyond belief More evidence of Britain’s inspiring stand for rationality and decency Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/

Here are three stories from the Telegraph illustrating Britain’s imaginative use of the language of “diversity” and “inclusivity”.

(Readers in Jerusalem can find below these reports a promised respite from the loss of reason.)

Damon Joshua, a sewage maintenance engineer employed by Severn Trent Water, felt so strongly about the October 7 Hamas massacre that he posted on his company’s intranet site, along with an Israeli flag:

One year ago our valued partners and friends, Israel, were horrifically attacked by a group of violent and disgusting terrorists. I can say with confidence today that the vast majority of STW’s employees stand in solidarity with our Jewish, Israeli and Zionist colleagues against the evil of Islamist terror.

He was promptly suspended and then sacked after a disciplinary hearing. The Telegraph reports:

At his disciplinary hearing he was told that the post had caused “significant offence” to three members of staff who complained about it. Managers concluded that “this offence is in relation to a protected characteristic, specifically religious belief” and dismissed him for gross misconduct. He was told that “the language used in the post caused offence to employees with different perspectives, particularly those with Muslim or Palestinian backgrounds”…

Mr Joshua claimed that in the disciplinary hearing that one of his managers asked “How do you think a Palestinian employee would feel reading this?” They also raised concerns that “the wording in the post explicitly suggests support of a particular geopolitical stance”. They told Mr Joshua his claim that the majority of STW staff supported Israel “creates exclusion and assumptions of solidarity”.

So to the managers of Severn Trent Water, opposing the barbaric savages of Hamas offends Muslims or “Palestinians” and is a form of prejudice against Islam.

Trump, the Mullahs and Skin in the Game Trump took out Qassem Soleimani for attacking the US Embassy. Who wants to be next? by Kenneth R. Timmerman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/trump-the-mullahs-and-skin-in-the-game/

Trump took out Qassem Soleimani for attacking the US Embassy. Who wants to be next?

You could call it the Donald Trump theory of international relations: getting skin in the game without sending US troops.

That’s what you saw when President Trump offered Zelenskyy the deal to exploit Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. The Z-man was obsessed with getting US “security guaranties” – a promise to send US troops should Russia attack again in the future.

Trump rightly said, no. Instead, he offered to put US companies on the front lines, essentially making those civilians a tripwire should Russia dare attack.

Similarly, last week Trump convinced both Putin and Zelenskyy to engage in a limited ceasefire by ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure, and then floated the idea that Ukraine should sell its power plants to U.S. companies as a deterrent to Russian attacks.

Now as a shareholder, I’m not sure I would want my company owning such a high risk asset. But still. The intent was clear: skin in the game.

Without skin in the game, we see what happens. On Friday, Russia launched waves of armed drones against the Black Sea port city of Odessa, sparking power outages, and the Ukes responded by allegedly blowing up a gas metering station near Kursk, Russia.

Both seemed to be pretty clear ceasefire violations. But with no skin in the game, neither attack has led to consequences, yet.

With NATO, President Trump is using a similar strategy.

Last week, he floated the idea of allowing a French (or other non-American) general to become the Supreme Allied Commander, the first time ever a non-American would command NATO. Some Republicans on the Hill were unhappy with that, but that’s because they don’t understand the notion of skin in the game.

Syria: Terrorists in Suits and Ties No Future for Christians or Other ‘Infidels’ by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21489/syria-terrorists-in-suits-and-ties

[Ahmed] Al-Sharaa, on taking power in Syria in December, originally professed to be a “moderate.” The Biden administration even lifted a $10 million bounty for his arrest, for previous terrorist activity linked to Al Qaeda, presumably in the hope of moderation actually being delivered. Since that time, however, al-Sharaa and his followers have appeared more as terrorists in suits and ties.

The country’s new constitution, published on March 14, stipulates that Islamic Sharia jurisprudence is the sole source of judicial decision-making. This constitution also asserts that Syria’s president must be a Muslim and that the executive branch has almost dictatorial powers. Moreover, the constitution includes no provision for protecting Syrian ethnic or religious minorities, which include Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze.

Sunni jihadist government forces are reportedly reveling in the massacre of the Alawites, and Turkey has already set up secret cells throughout Syria “to use as proxies abroad.” Christians throughout Syria are afraid that after the Alawites, they will be next. It is also possible that al-Sharaa’s HTS will be successful in uniting most of Syria under its control, then initiate a genocidal purge against Christians and the rest of the “infidels.”

Some of Syria’s minorities have been seeking help from nearby Israel. Some Druze community leaders even asked Israel officially to annex their villages. Israel has established a strategic “buffer zone” in areas of Syria adjacent to the countries’ shared border, to deter potential jihadist and Turkish attacks, and may yet again turn out to be threatened minorities’ greatest protector.

In December 2024, after an offensive lasting less than two weeks that swept through much of Syria, a Turkish-backed Sunni militia led by Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted the Assad regime, which had ruled the country for 54 years.

From March 6-9 – unchecked by al-Sharaa’s professedly “moderate” interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. The Alawite sect, which split off from Shia Islam in the ninth century, is regarded by other Shiites as heretical. To people who practice Sunni Islam — the religion of al-Sharaa and Turkey — all non-Sunnis are infidels. Alawites are estimated to be up to 10% of Syria’s population, and the deposed Assad family belong to the sect.

China Has Set Up Iran’s Next War in the Middle East by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21488/china-iran-middle-east-war

Iran, in short, has a nuclear weapons program because of China. For a long time, the international community looked the other way as the “atomic ayatollahs,” in violation of their treaty obligations, worked on building these fearsome devices. President Donald Trump, to his credit, is taking the issue head on.

Tehran almost certainly has [a nuclear bomb] by now. The Iranians themselves have made that clear. There is only a “one-week gap from the issuance of the order to the first test” of a nuclear bomb, according to an April 2024 public statement of a senior Iran lawmaker.

Diplomats from Russia, Iran, and China met in Beijing this month to support Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Tehran, bolstered by Beijing and Moscow, publicly said it had no desire to talk to Trump.

There are in fact conversations behind the scenes, but Iran nonetheless would not be as brazen if Beijing were not fully supporting it.

If Waltz is as good as his word — that Iran cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon — then China, by arming the ayatollahs with nukes, has made sure that the world’s next confrontation will be historic.

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon,” U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told ABC News’s Martha Raddatz on March 16th.

Waltz’s demand was in fact more comprehensive. He said that Iran must also hand over, among other things, missiles and uranium enrichment capability.

China helped Iran possess both. Beijing has set the stage for the next war in the Middle East.

The EU Must Stop Undermining Efforts to Save Itself by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21485/eu-undermining-iran-efforts

It is high time for Europe — while posing as the pinnacle of virtue — to stop hiding behind US and Israeli actions. The EU needs to cut off trade, impose severe sanctions, and isolate Iran completely. Anything less is complicity.

Even as Iran deepens its military alliance with Russia by supplying drones and missiles that are used to create scorched earth in Ukraine’s cities, the EU has refused to sever its financial connections to Tehran. Iranian-made Shahed drones have devastated Ukrainian infrastructure, yet European businesses are still trading with the very country producing them. This is not just hypocrisy — it is an active betrayal of Europe’s own security interests.

The EU would do well to take the following steps immediately: Sever all economic ties with Iran. No more trade, no more investment, no more financial engagement. Every euro that flows into Iran is a euro that strengthens a regime that threatens European, as well as global, stability. Impose the harshest possible sanctions. Target Iran’s energy sector, its financial institutions, and its military industries. The EU needs to make it clear that Iran’s actions will face an unbearable economic cost. Trigger the snapback sanctions.

If European leaders are too weak to act themselves, at least support those who are preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, devouring the region and “revolutionizing” the West. The EU needs to openly declare its backing of any Israeli military operation against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The European Union has spent years enriching Iran by choosing economic gain over security, morality, and strategic interests.

While the Iranian regime continues to fuel war, repression and terrorism, the EU has clung to its trade partnerships and business deals, while refusing to take meaningful action against a regime that actively threatens the continent’s stability as well as that of the globe.

The EU is not being naive — it is making a calculated choice to prioritize money over principles, over the safety of its own citizens, and over the security of its allies. This really needs to end. Iran is supplying weapons that kill Ukrainians, is on the brink of acquiring nuclear weapons and has been taking Europeans hostage with no consequences. The EU nevertheless continues to do business with Iran. The EU provides the regime with the economic resources it needs to expand its influence and finance its nuclear program, military operations and terror proxies.

Bangladesh’s Reign of Terror: Toward the Next Islamist Hub of South Asia? by Uzay Bulut

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21486/bangladesh-islamist-terror-hub

“Politics steadily worsens in Bangladesh. The economy is in free fall, law and order is in a cul-de-sac. The rule of law is under organised assault, with detained politicians, cultural activists and journalists unable to come by bail in court…. Bangladesh’s crisis is existential. All the values instrumen­tal to its emergence 50-plus years ago are systematically being jettisoned by a regime that lacks constitutional legitimacy.” — Syed Badrul Ahsan, veteran Bangladeshi journalist and commentator, December 6, 2024.

Some of the major groups, which were previously banned but, under Bangladesh’s new leadership of Muhammad Yunus, now encouraged, include: Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tawhidi Janata, Hefazat-e-Islam, at-e-Islami, and the Ansarullah Bangla Team.

Since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in August 2024, the government under Yunus has freed convicted Islamic terrorists, downplayed mass violence against minorities (mainly Hindus), and let jihadist mobs take over the streets.

More than 2,200 cases of violence against Hindus in Bangladesh were reported for 2024 alone.

These radical Islamic organizations share the same main goal: a global Islamic Caliphate. If this Islamic takeover succeeds in Bangladesh, the country will become another Islamic terror state — like Afghanistan under the Taliban and Syria under its new terrorist leader, Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa.

On March 7, thousands of members of Bangladesh’s banned Islamist militant group, Hizb-ut-Tahrir, defying police barricades, marched through the streets of Dhaka to demand that the country’s secular democracy be replaced by an Islamic caliphate. Demonstrators chanting “Khilafat, Khilafat” – a direct call for Islamic rule — gathered for the “March for Khilafat” procession outside the Baitul Mukarram Mosque after Friday prayers. The mob at the march turned violent — complete with stone-throwers who clashed with police. The police, in turn, fired back with tear gas and stun grenades.

Hizb ut-Tahrir, which has been banned in Bangladesh since 2009 for posing a threat to national security, organized this rally in defiance of a government ban on public gatherings.

Protests erupt in Turkey after Erdogan rival arrested

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yren8mxp8o?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Protests have erupted in Turkey after authorities detained the mayor of Istanbul, just days before he was due to be selected as a presidential candidate.

Ekrem Imamoglu, from the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), is seen as one of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s strongest political rivals.

Prosecutors accused him of corruption and aiding a terrorist group, calling him a “criminal organisation leader suspect”.

Police detained 100 people – including other politicians, journalists and businessmen – as part of the investigation, and the Istanbul governor’s office has imposed four days of restrictions in the city.

Imamoglu said online “the will of the people cannot be silenced”.

Protesters have taken to the streets and university campuses, and in underground stations, with crowds chanting anti-government slogans. It is a display of public anger not seen in years.

There were reports of clashes between protesters and police in Turkey’s largest city. Footage from Reuters news agency shows police using pepper spray to disperse crowds outside Istanbul University.

Thousands of people rallied in the cold in front of the city hall, shouting: “Erdogan, dictator!” and “Imamoglu, you are not alone!”

Germany: Toward a New Domination of Europe? by Drieu Godefridi

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21483/germany-domination-europe

By giving himself the right to spend an extra €500 billion over 12 years on infrastructure and climate change, and additional to that, spend “whatever it takes” for the German military — €40 billion more per year being the best available estimate — [Friedrich] Merz [the likely next chancellor] is assuming considerable power, the likes of which no German chancellor has had since 1945.

As the allocation of these resources is formulated in broad and vague terms, the chancellor will have immense power in the allocation of funds. In addition, the German military will be financed to the tune of €120 billion per year, giving it the potential to become the strongest force in Europe — France spends roughly €55 billion a year. Here again, the power of Germany and its chancellor is growing considerably.

It certainly seems as if Das Rheingold is emerging from the deep.

In the opera Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner, the Rhine Gold is a magical treasure guarded by the Rhine Maidens (Rheinmädchen). This gold can be forged into a ring that gives its holder unlimited power. By arrogating to himself the power to put Germany into debt in a way that no chancellor has done since 1945, Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor, will be taking on an unrivalled power: that of dominating Europe.

Germany has just announced the creation of a special “infrastructure fund” (Sondervermögen) of €500 billion ($545 billion) to be spent over a maximum of 12 years, and €40 billion in additional military spending per year, bringing the annual German defense budget up to 3%. The infrastructure fund, which will not be subject to the strict constitutional rules limiting government budget deficits and debt, is intended to meet urgent needs, overriding the budgetary constraints imposed by the “debt brake” (Schuldenbremse) enshrined in 2009 by then Chancellor Angela Merkel in the constitution.

The main reason given is the need to rearm Germany in the face of Russia’s war economy and its 1.2 million mobilized soldiers. In concrete terms, German public debt will rise from 60% of GDP to at least 80%.

British police are letting pro-Palestine vandals run riot An activist who destroyed a historic painting of Lord Balfour has faced zero repercussions.Nicole Lampert

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/17/british-police-are-letting-pro-palestine-vandals-run-riot/

This time last year, a female pro-Palestine activist took a blade and a can of red spray paint to the 100-year-old painting of Lord Balfour in Trinity College, Cambridge. The perpetrator targeted the painting because Balfour was a signatory of the Balfour Declaration – the British Empire’s 1917 recognition of the aim to establish a Jewish state.

The crime was filmed and posted online for all to see. The perpetrator had a distinctive hairstyle (two plaits), as well as what looked like a £1,400 Mulberry backpack – something your average criminal usually doesn’t sport. She was also very clearly part of an outfit called Palestine Action, which claimed responsibility for the attack. With just a tiny bit of police work and some political will, uncovering the identity of the perpetrator would not have been a monumental task. And yet, a year after the historic painting was destroyed, Cambridgeshire Police have ended their ‘investigation’. They said only that they hoped new information may one day come to light.

Palestine Action seems to attack anything to do with Israel – including charities, banks, arms factories and even a bust of Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizmann. The group was founded in the UK in 2020 by Huda Ammori and serial activist Richard Barnard. A recent Sunday Times investigation found that, since then, it has claimed responsibility for 356 direct actions. It has ram-raided factories with vans, broken into offices and smashed up equipment.

Palestine Action has vowed to continue its violent behaviour. Just this week, three activists occupied part of the Allianz offices in central London and covered the windows in red paint. They scaled the building to unfurl a banner demanding that Allianz ‘drop Elbit’, an Israel-based defence contractor, as an insurance customer. Police stood around for hours, apparently helpless to do anything, until the protesters were finally brought down and arrested.

The Israeli Jew kidnapped by British jihadi thugs The horrific ordeal suffered by Itay Kashti reveals a sickness at the heart of our society. Tom Slater

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/17/the-israeli-jew-kidnapped-by-british-jihadi-thugs/

‘My own personal October 7.’ That is how Itay Kashti describes his violent ordeal at the hands of three Jew-hating kidnappers in Wales last year. In a crowded field, Kashti’s kidnapping is easily among the most chilling acts of anti-Semitic violence we’ve seen perpetrated on these isles since Hamas’s pogrom in Israel 18 months ago.

This grotesque tale begins last August. Kashti, an Israeli Jewish music producer based in London, received an email from a man claiming to be a Polydor Records executive, inviting him to a songwriting retreat in Carmarthenshire. Kashti did a bit of due diligence, even speaking to the organisers, but didn’t notice anything unusual. An Airbnb was booked for him, along with a taxi to drive him there from his London home.

When he arrived at the rural cottage, he was jumped by three men wearing rubber masks and armed with an imitation pistol. The cabbie, who had helped Kashti in with his bags, was also attacked but managed to run away and call the police. Kashti, meanwhile, was handcuffed to a radiator, beaten and bloodied. Thankfully, his kidnappers’ amateurishness would save his life. They left him alone, and Kashti noticed he was chained to an unconnected pipe. He slipped free, found his phone and escaped into the shrubbery outside. He called his wife, and then the cops, who descended on the cottage and apprehended his tormentors.

Last week, the kidnappers were sentenced to eight years apiece at Swansea Crown Court. During their trial, the full, calculated horror of what had taken place was unfurled. Faiz Shah, 23, Mohammad Comrie, 23, and Elijah Ogunnubi-Sime, 20, were trying to extort money.