RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13648/india-muslims-divorce-law

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board has argued that the bill amounts to interference with religious law, and therefore violates the Constitution of India. This objection might be thought of as disingenuous. According to Article 44 of the Constitution, “The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India.”

By contrast, triple talaq is a unilateral, arbitrary tool in the hands of men against women, a condition what that is simply not acceptable in modern India.

For decades, Indian courts have upheld the precedence of Muslim women’s right to equality over Muslim Personal Law. The court ruled in 1985 that the denial of alimony was a violation of Bano’s fundamental rights, regardless of her religion, and that triple talaq ran contrary to those rights. In other words, Muslim women must enjoy the same rights as other women in India.

India’s Parliament must do the right thing for the country’s Muslim women, as it did nearly 64 years ago for the country’s Hindu women. Until the passage of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, Hindu women in India were not at liberty to divorce their husbands, while Hindu men were free to engage in polygamy. It will be a shattering miscarriage of justice if oppositionist politicians succeed in blocking this much-needed bill.

The Narendra Modi government in New Delhi deserves applause for passing the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018, which criminalizes the practice of “triple talaq” — a medieval, patriarchal divorce procedure still in use in many Muslim communities in India and abroad. All this procedure requires for a man to divorce his wife is to repeat the word “talaq” three times.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13646/palestinians-preparing-for-peace

If, in the eyes of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, normalization with Israel is an act of “treason,” a “crime” and a “big political and national sin,” the Trump administration may well be wasting its time and prestige on a peace plan that envisions peace between the Arab countries and Israel, at least at this time.

To achieve peace with Israel, Palestinian leaders need to prepare their people — and all Arabs and Muslims — for peace and compromise with Israel, and not, as they are now doing, the exact opposite. Shaming and denouncing Arabs who visit Israel is hardly a way to prepare anyone for peace, or the possibility of any compromise.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration and the international community would be doing a real service to the Palestinians if they start paying attention to assaults on public freedoms, including freedom of the media, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Holding Palestinian leaders accountable for their systematic abuses of public freedoms, assaults on journalists and incitement is the only way to encourage badly needed moderate and pragmatic Palestinians and Arabs to speak out.

While the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues to arrest and intimidate Palestinian journalists in the West Bank, its loyalists are also waging a campaign against Arab journalists who dare to visit Israel.

This month alone, the PA security forces have arrested nine Palestinian journalists, according to the Palestinian Committee for Supporting Journalists.

One of the journalists, Yousef al-Faqeeh, 33, a reporter for the London-based Quds Press News Agency, was taken into custody on January 16. On January 27, a PA court ordered al-Faqeeh remanded into custody for 14 days. His family said that they still do not know why he was arrested.

Al-Faqeeh’s wife, Suhad, said that PA security officers raided their house; when Yousef asked whether they had a search warrant, they proceeded to arrest him. “They took him to an unknown destination and did not provide a reason for his arrest,” she said. “They also confiscated his computer and mobile phone.”

https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/anti-semitism

The anti-Semitism that is so integral to European culture developed in a dominating hostile Christian environment over more than a millennium. This provided much of the cultural infrastructure of the Holocaust, which was executed by Germans with the help of many allies. During the Enlightenment and thereafter, many leading European thinkers expressed hatred towards Jews. In recent decades, the hatred towards Jews found in European societies mutated partly into anti-Israelism, which targets the Jewish state.

Saying that anti-Semitism is integral to European culture does not make one popular in Europe. This does not change even if one clarifies that this is not the same as saying that most Europeans are anti-Semites.

Yet the claim is not difficult to prove. European culture developed in a dominating, hostile Christian environment over more than a millennium. Major incitement against Jews initially stemmed from the Catholic Church. Later, several Protestant churches, including Lutherans, promoted Jew-hatred.

If powerful institutions and elites promote hatred over a very long period, that hatred comes to permeate the culture. In the 1960s, Christian historian and clergyman James Parkes analyzed the conflict between Christians and Jews during the first eight centuries of the Christian era. Concerning that period he concluded, “There was far more reason for the Jew to hate the Christian than for the Christian to hate the Jew – and this on the evidence of Christian sources alone.”

https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/egypt-tips-for-serious-travelers/

My “Letter from Egypt,” with a comprehensive analysis of the country’s political, economic and social situation is coming in a few days’ time. For starters, let me present our readers with a few practical tips on how to make the most of this incredible country without spending many thousands of dollars/euros and without being herded around with thousands of others.

Preliminary remarks: You don’t need to apply for a visa before traveling, they will issue one at the airport upon arrival for $25. Make sure to get an international driving license. Never pay the initial asking price for anything, and always assume that 50% or less is probably realistic. Carry enough cash at all times, as ATMs may be hard to find and are often out of service. Have plenty of small notes, 5 and 10 Egyptian Pounds (LE) for baksheesh — one LE is around 6 cents, $1 is ca. 17 LE. One dollar bills are more than welcome for heftier tips (bar tenders, pool attendants). Drink only bottled water, which is available everywhere and cheap. Start taking probiotics a week before leaving, and don’t stop until returning home. Get a prepaid SIM card from Orange EG when you arrive. Bring your own GPS with Egypt uploaded, better than Google Maps.

1. Make Hurgadha your holiday destination and base camp for a two-week, all-inclusive package tour in winter. It is on the Red Sea, away from the Nile Valley, but it It is the most economical and comfortable take-off point for ventures into central and southern Egypt, inc. Luxor, southern Nile Valley and Aswan. (For Cairo, Alexandria and their environs you’ll need another trip, or to relocate to a northern base after a fortnight at Hurghada.) Plan to go between early January and late February, when the prices are low, the temperature ideal (74-78F during the day, dropping to well below 50 at night), sunshine pleasant but not oppressive, and last-minute all-inclusive prices ridiculously low. (From mid-March on you risk dust storms.) My two-week package from Belgrade was 500 euros ($600). It’s truly All-Inclusive, inc. a three-hour return flight on Air Cairo’s new Airbus 320, a spacious room (more like a mini-suite, really) in a well-tended complex, and unlimited food, wine, beer and cocktails, 24/7. The Long Beach Resort is comfortable, safe, and clean; it’s pretty much the same with all other hotel complexes in Egypt’s premium Red Sea resort. The food is not Cordon Bleu, but it is wholesome, fresh and honest. For all three main meals it comes in the form of multiple table spreads (which included roast duck last Thursday, pan-fried sole Friday, filet mignon last night). The substantial Smörgåsbord of European and Middle Eastern delicacies contains something for every taste. In the morning the spread includes fresh eggs on demand (any style) that taste free-range, freshly squeezed juices, and an array of fresh salads and fruit. To burn the calories, a well-equipped gym is open 24/7, while two of the five pools are heated and mostly deserted.

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/01/the-lefts-embrace-of-antisemitism/

Until she spoke out against the plague of Jew hatred that has infected the British Labor Party of Jeremy Corbyn, Channel 4 game show hostess Rachel Riley was known chiefly for high heels and short skirts. Now, as detailed in a recent address, she is a designated target of the Left.

If you told me this time last year that, come January 2019, I’d be standing in Parliament, addressing a room full of people at a Holocaust memorial event, describing the hideous abuse I’ve been receiving daily since I started speaking about the growing problem of antisemitism in the UK, I wouldn’t know where to begin with my incredulity.

My own identity as a Jew has been a confusing one. As I often joke, my mum’s Jewish and my dad’s Man United, and we’ve worshipped far more often at the Theatre of Dreams than I’ve ever been to shul. As a child, I knew not to sing the Jesus bit in the assembly hymns but the bacon sandwiches mum would feed us meant I didn’t quite know where we fit into all of this.

But one part of my Jewish identity, that forms part of my very being, is the deep and irreparable sorrow I feel in relation to the Holocaust.

I’ve always known that having just one Jewish grandparent, in the lifetime of my own Jewish grandparents, was enough for some to feel justified in carrying out unspeakable acts of inhumanity against them, like ripping babies out of mothers’ arms and smashing them against walls.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13631/palestinians-jihad-against-peace

According to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an upcoming US-sponsored global summit to discuss the Middle East and Iran will “bring together dozens of countries from all around the world, from Asia, from Africa, from Western Hemisphere countries, Europe too, the Middle East of course.”

The Palestinian strategy is now based on inciting Arabs against their leaders. This is the message that Abbas and his officials are sending to the Arabs: “You need to join us in our campaign to stop our leaders from making peace with Israel. You must condemn any leader who seeks normalization with Israel as a traitor.”

Other senior Palestinian officials have gone further by warning the Arab countries that any form of normalization with Israel would be considered an act of treason

It now remains to be seen whether the Arab countries will surrender to the latest campaign of Palestinian incitement and intimidation.

Palestinian leaders have recently stepped up their efforts to stop Arab countries from normalizing their relations — or even signing peace agreements — with Israel.

The campaign comes against a backdrop of reports about the warming of relations between Israel and some Arab countries, including a recent visit to Oman by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The specter of peace between the Arab countries and Israel has become a nightmare for Palestinian leaders. Instead of worrying about building a better future — which the Palestinians desperately need — Palestinian leaders are feverishly working to thwart any attempt to bring the Arab countries closer to Israel.

As part of the “anti-normalization” campaign, the Palestinian leaders in the West Bank are now putting pressure on the Arab countries to boycott a US-sponsored global summit to discuss the Middle East and Iran, which is scheduled for next month in Poland.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a televised interview that the meeting would “focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and security here in this region, and that includes an important element of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence.”

The meeting, Pompeo said, will “bring together dozens of countries from all around the world, from Asia, from Africa, from Western Hemisphere countries, Europe too, the Middle East of course.”

Palestinian leaders are apparently convinced that the upcoming conference is part of a US effort to normalize relations between the Arab countries and Israel. Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and his senior officials and spokesmen in Ramallah consider anything the US Administration does or says as a “conspiracy designed to liquidate the Palestinian cause and national rights.”

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13607/turkey-imprisoning-dissidents

Erdogan did not hide the fact that his statements promising “freedom of faith, freedom of thought and freedom of opinion” were part of his “preparations for the 2019 local elections.” The Turkish president did, however, hide the fact that his words were completely false.

On December 19, Prof. Şebnem Korur Fincancı, president of the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey (TIHV), was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for being one of 2,212 signatories to an “Academics for Peace” petition in 2016. The petition called on the Turkish government to cease its violence against the Kurds in southeastern Turkey. Fincancı is one of 429 academics who, as of December 19, have stood on trial since December 5.

Erdoğan was not telling the truth when he declared that everyone in Turkey would enjoy “freedom of faith, freedom of thought and freedom of opinion.” In fact, Turkish jails and prisons are so packed with people imprisoned for expressing their beliefs, that the government just announced it will be building 228 more prisons over the next five years to accommodate the overflow.

Simultaneously, Turkey is stepping up its decades-long bid to become a member of the European Union. As part of this bid, Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul announced on December 11 that he would be unveiling a new strategy for judicial reform. Under no circumstances should the EU allow itself to be duped by such a transparently deceptive and deceitful move.

At a rally in Ankara over the summer, held by the women’s branch of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced:

“From now on, there will be no fight for freedom of faith, freedom of thought and freedom of opinion. Everyone will be free in their own faith [and] be free to live accordingly. [Everyone will be at liberty to] say whatever he [or she] believes in.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelan-spring-11548624135

The latest Venezuelan effort to topple dictator Nicolás Maduro is a pivotal moment in Latin American history, as the international community is acknowledging.

Democratically elected National Assembly President Juan Guaidó took an oath to become Venezuela’s interim president on Wednesday, as prescribed by the country’s constitution. Within hours he was recognized by the U.S. and some 20 other democracies, 11 in Latin America. Other governments warned Mr. Maduro that he has to leave.

More than words are at work. Last week the Bank of England blocked Mr. Maduro from withdrawing $1.2 billion in gold reserves. On Friday the U.S. gave Mr. Guaidó control of Venezuelan government accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and other U.S.-insured banks.

Not since the fall of the Soviet empire has a nation risen with such fury and determination to throw off the yoke of socialism. And not since then has Marxist misery been so clear for all the world to see. Venezuelans are experiencing what millions of Russians, Chinese, Cubans and countless others have suffered. Destitute and angry, they want it to end.

How ironic that some American politicians, like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and newly elected New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez want socialism for the U.S. The tide of history is going the other way.

The U.S. has promised the Guaidó government $20 million in humanitarian assistance. It is certainly needed. Venezuela’s socialist revolution, created by the late Hugo Chávez, has produced rising infant-mortality, malnutrition and even starvation. Running water, electricity and toilet paper are now luxuries. Venezuela suffers from hyperinflation, disease and rampant crime and corruption. Millions of hungry, jobless Venezuelans have fled to neighboring countries, the U.S. or Europe.

Venezuelans have made numerous attempts since 2002 to restore the liberties lost when Chávez used his majority backing to dissolve civil rights and a free press. But they were never able to persuade the military high command, infiltrated by Cuba, to break ranks with the dictator. If this time is different it’s because Mr. Maduro can no longer guarantee the interests of the top brass.

Mr. Guaidó is rumored to be backed by Venezuela’s military rank-and-file and midlevel officers. There are also reports that some commanders of detachments around the country no longer support Mr. Maduro.

The regime is unleashing repression and the international community wants to avoid more bloodshed. The U.S. has offered the military high command safe passage out of the country, and if international efforts to cut financial channels for the leadership are successful, many may find it an attractive option.

Over the weekend the European Union said it would recognize Mr. Guaidó as interim president if Mr. Maduro doesn’t agree to fair elections by Feb. 3. That seems dangerous and overly generous: This problem didn’t spring up last week.

Mr. Maduro claims he was elected in May for a second six-year term. The EU, the Lima Group—14 Western Hemisphere countries not including the U.S.—the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights all objected to that rigged election. The EU, the Lima Group and the Group of Seven refused to recognize the results.

Nevertheless, Mr. Maduro scheduled a swearing-in ceremony for Jan. 10. On Jan. 4 the Lima Group declared Mr. Maduro’s second term illegitimate and warned him not to proceed. He did anyway. On Jan. 10 Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freelandwarned Mr. Maduro that he would not be recognized: “We call on him to immediately cede power to the democratically-elected National Assembly until new elections are held, which must include the participation of all political actors and follow the release of all political prisoners in Venezuela.” CONTINUE AT SITE