RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/07/29/jeremy-corbyn-could-end-anti-semitism-row-instant-choosing-not/
The party leader fails to control bigotry because 
he sees Israel as the Middle East’s worst offender

Anti-Semitism is like a virus. It can spread fast among a population. The history of continental Europe shows that otherwise kindly and rational people can be encouraged to start spouting odious prejudice.

Even in this country we have seen episodes in the past 1,000 years when that virus has raged through society, with catastrophic results; and we have also seen how it can then go dormant. The spores of hate will wait beneath the floorboards. Then all of a sudden, one day, the disease can flare up – but not spontaneously, not without help.

When anti-Semitism takes hold again, it is because that virus has been potentiated by the stupidity or opportunism of politicians. When you look at what is happening in the Labour Party today – the real fear and distress of Margaret Hodge MP – it is clear that something is going badly wrong.

Last week, all three main Jewish papers cleared their front pages for a joint editorial claiming that Jeremy Corbyn presented an “existential threat” to the Jewish community in Britain. At the very least there has been a disastrous breakdown of trust; and no wonder.

You will find Labour councillors – representatives of the main party of opposition in this country – sharing stuff on social media about blood-drinking and baby-killing that properly belong to the pogroms of the Middle Ages. Go on to the social media pages of these suspended councillors and you will find Holocaust denial and other vile lies.

How could anyone peddle this kind of thing? There is outrage and bafflement and pain; and amidst it all we have a leader of the Labour Party who is so boneheaded that he refuses to close down the furore in the way that everyone is urging – which is to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that has been accepted by the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the judiciary, and 130 local councils.

There is clearly something about the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) wording that sticks in Corbyn’s craw. What is it?

It seems, incredibly, that Corbyn really does dispute their examples of anti-Semitic behaviour. In a nutshell, the IHRA says that it would be hurtful and anti-Semitic to claim that the state of Israel is a “racist endeavour”; or to draw comparisons between Israeli policy and Nazi Germany. Corbyn thinks it should be acceptable to say both.

It is easy to see why he has caused such offence to so many Jewish people. Of course it is legitimate, and in my view wholly proper, to criticise both the Israeli government and Israeli policy. The UK has been fierce in its denunciation of illegal settlements, of the destruction of Bedouin villages and Palestinian homes, and of the firing on unarmed protesters in Gaza.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/lying-about-amsterdam/

“Why, then, did Arre Zuurmond give such a dishonest interview? I don’t know the man, but when I read AFP’s story (before I saw Moran’s), my first thought was that this silliness was part of a desperate attempt at deflection – an effort to draw attention away from Amsterdam’s real problem. And that problem has nothing whatsoever to do with young guys from Britain, let alone from the Dutch provinces, roaming the inner city at night. No, it’s about the Islamic communities on the fringes of downtown and in the city suburbs. Hand me a map of Amsterdam and I’ll show you just how far you can go in any direction from the center of the city before you start risking real trouble. It’s not that far – heading west, it’s only a matter of four or five tram stops.”

Writing at this website on Saturday, Rick Moran summarized a report from Agence France Presse about Amsterdam. In an interview with the Dutch daily Trouw, that city’s official ombudsman, Arre Zuurmond, had complained that its “city centre becomes an urban jungle at night.” There are, in AFP’s words, “illegal car and bike races zooming through the streets, open drugs sales and general mayhem.” As Zuurmond put it: “Criminal money flourishes, there is no authority and the police can no longer handle the situation….Scooters race through the pedestrian areas. There is a lot of shouting. Drugs are being bought. There is stealing. People pee and even poop on the streets.”

Who are the culprits here? Zuurmond was clear on that one: “enticed by cheap travel, groups mostly of young men – mainly from elsewhere in the Netherlands or Britain – frequently roam the inner city’s canal-lined streets at weekends, on pub crawls or to celebrate stag parties drawn by easy access to drugs and the notorious Red Light district.” Zuurmond singled out for concern the downtown square called Leidseplein, where, he claimed, “The atmosphere is grim, and there is an air of lawlessness.”

Sorry, but this is all the purest of nonsense. I’m in Amsterdam quite frequently – most recently in June, when, as it happened, on several days in a row, I walked a great deal around parts of the city center, including Leidseplein and the fringes of the Red Light District. I did much if not most of my walking during the hours between midnight and six A.M. I like walking, and after forty years in New York City I know how to keep my eyes open – and I know Amsterdam well enough to know where I’m likely to be safe.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12773/germany-salafists

“Salafists see themselves as defenders of an original, unadulterated Islam…. As a consequence, Salafists want to establish a ‘theocracy’ according to their interpretation of the rules of sharia, one in which the liberal democratic order no longer applies.” — Annual Report of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

“Under the guise of humanitarian aid, Islamists succeed in radicalizing migrants. In the past, Salafists in particular tried to reach out to migrants. They visited refugee shelters for this purpose and offered assistance. The target group was not only adult migrants, but also unaccompanied adolescents, who, due to their situation and age, are particularly susceptible to Salafist missionary activities.” — Annual Report of Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).

The BfV report makes a direct link between the increase in anti-Semitism in Germany and the rise of Islamist movements in the country: “The ‘enemy image of Judaism’ therefore forms a central pillar in the propaganda of all Islamist groups…. This poses a significant challenge to the peaceful and tolerant coexistence in Germany.”

The number of Salafists in Germany has doubled over the last five years and now exceeds 10,000 for the first time, according to Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency. BfV estimates that Germany is home to more than 25,000 Islamists, nearly 2,000 of whom pose an immediate threat of attack.

The new figures are included the latest annual report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV), and presented by Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and BfV President Hans-Georg Maaßen in Berlin on July 24.

The report, considered the most important indicator of internal security in Germany, draws a bleak picture. The BfV estimates that the number of Islamists in Germany increased to at least 25,810 by the end of 2017, up from 24,425 in 2016.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12774/turkey-brunson-vilification

It appears that Pastor Andrew Brunson, as both an American and a Christian, has become a perfect scapegoat for the Turkish government and its media outlets. If Ankara were a genuine ally of the West, Brunson — who lived and worked peacefully at a small Protestant church in Izmir for 23 years — would not have been arrested in the first place, let alone robbed of his freedom and prevented from returning to the US.

Andrew Brunson, the American pastor detained in Turkey for two years on false terrorism and espionage charges, was released from prison on July 25, only to be put under house arrest until the resumption of his trial in October. The court ordered him to wear an electronic ankle-bracelet at all times and banned him from traveling outside Turkey.

Moreover, according to the Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig:

“President Trump thought he had a deal with Turkish President Erdogan to free Andrew Brunson, the American pastor imprisoned in Turkey for the last two years on what the administration considered bogus terrorism charges.

“As part of the deal, on July 14, Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to release Ebru Ozkan, 27, a Turkish woman who was detained in Israel on charges of acting as a smuggler for Hamas. The day after Trump and Netanyahu spoke, Ozkan was deported from Israel.

“Several U.S. officials insisted there had been no misunderstanding of the terms of the deal, but the Turks, transferring Brunson to house arrest, failed to send the pastor home.”

Brunson, detained in October 2016, is accused, with no evidence, of working for two groups that Turkey lists as terrorist organizations. One is a movement led by the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, referred to by the Turkish government as the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETO), and whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of organizing the failed military coup attempt in July 2016. The other is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). If convicted, Brunson faces up to 35 years behind bars.

Erdogan has made it clear that his intention is to make the US administration extradite Gülen in exchange for Brunson’s release. In September 2017, Erdogan said:

“America wants us to return a priest… You also have a priest. You should give him to us too. Then we will try and return the one here.”

Brunson’s 62-page indictment states, among other allegations:

“The suspect… under the guise of being an evangelical church pastor… acted as an agent of unconventional warfare, per the doctrine of intelligence and psychological warfare and… acted within a group of personnel, most of whom had received special training and had military and intelligence backgrounds.”

https://pjmedia.com/trending/britain-land-of-lost-hope-and-faded-glory/

I hate to say it, but I think I’m giving up on Britain. Go ahead, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, add my name to that ever-growing list of Islam critics who are banned from entering your country. I won’t be offended. In fact, I’ll be offended if you don’t ban me.

On his July 25 call-in show, UKIP founder and Brexit godfather Nigel Farage took up the issue of “grooming gangs” – you know, those groups of young Muslim men who have been raping young non-Muslim girls for years, decades even, in cities across the UK. The first one of these gangs to be publicly exposed, beginning in 2011, was in Rotherham, in South Yorkshire. That one gang, it turned out, had systematically and repeatedly raped about 1400 girls. Since then, reports have emerged about other such gangs in other British cities. In all or most of these cities, it has been discovered, police officials, journalists, social workers, politicians, and judges knew for years about the rapes but did nothing and said nothing for fear of being called racists.

This, then, is the topic Farage took up on July 25. And what question did he ask his listeners? Did he ask them whether the death penalty should be restored so that the rapists could get the punishment they deserve? Did he ask them what kind of disciplinary action should be taken against all those public figures who stood by silently while little girls were being sexually abused?

No. He asked them about Sarah Champion.

And who is Sarah Champion? She is the Member of Parliament for the city of Rotherham. Almost a year ago, on August 10, 2017, The Sun ran an opinion piece by her that began with the statement: “Britain has a problem with British Pakistani men raping and exploiting white girls.” She went on:

There. I said it. Does that make me a racist? Or am I just prepared to call out this horrifying problem for what it is?

For too long we have ignored the race of these abusers and, worse, tried to cover it up.

No more. These people are predators and the common denominator is their ethnic heritage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/27/world/europe/france-new-anti-
‘They Spit When I Walked in the Street’: The ‘New Anti-Semitism’ in France

PARIS — The solemn boulevards and quiet side streets of the 17th Arrondissement in Paris suggest Jewish life in France is vibrant: There is a new profusion of kosher groceries and restaurants, and about 15 synagogues, up from only a handful two decades ago.

But for residents like Joanna Galilli, this area in northwestern Paris represents a tactical retreat. It has become a haven for many Jews who say they have faced harassment in areas with growing Muslim populations. Ms. Galilli, 28, moved to the neighborhood this year from a Parisian suburb where “anti-Semitism is pretty high,” she said, “and you feel it enormously.”

“They spit when I walked in the street,” she said, describing reactions when she wore a Star of David.

France has a painful history of anti-Semitism, with its worst hours coming in the 1930s and during the German occupation in World War II. But in recent months, an impassioned debate has erupted over how to address what commentators are calling the “new anti-Semitism,” as Jewish groups and academic researchers trace a wave of anti-Semitic acts to France’s growing Muslim population.

Nearly 40 percent of violent acts classified as racially or religiously motivated were committed against Jews in 2017, though Jews make up less than 1 percent of France’s population. Anti-Semitic acts increased by 20 percent from 2016, a rise the Interior Ministry called “preoccupying.”

In 2011, the French government stopped categorizing those deemed responsible for anti-Semitic acts, making it more difficult to trace the origins. But before then, Muslims had been the largest group identified as perpetrators, according to research by a leading academic. Often the spikes in violence coincided with flare-ups in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, according to researchers.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-is-losing-the-trade-war-with-trump-1532729725?cx_testId=0&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=0#cxrecs_s

One thing came through loud and clear in President Trump’s press conference Wednesday with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. When they announced an alliance against third parties’ “unfair trading practices,” they didn’t even have to mention China by name for listeners to know who their target was. Cooperation between the U.S. and EU will squeeze China’s protectionist model, and even before this agreement, there’s been evidence that China is already running up the white flag.

Yes, China is acting tough in one sense, quickly imposing tariffs in retaliation for those enacted by the Trump administration. But while U.S. stocks approach all-time highs and the dollar grows stronger, Chinese stocks are in a bear market, down 25% since January. The yuan had its worst single month ever in June, and is well on its way to a repeat this month. Chinese corporate bonds have defaulted at a record rate in the past six months, yet this week China unveiled a new stimulus program designed to encourage even more corporate borrowing.

That’s probably why Yi Gang, a governor of the People’s Bank of China, took the extraordinary step of channeling Herbert Hoover, saying in a statement this month that “the fundamentals of China’s economy are sound.” And it’s why Sun Guofeng, head of the PBOC’s financial research institute, said, China “will not make the yuan’s exchange rate a tool to cope with trade conflicts.”

Weakening one’s currency is a standard weapon in trade wars, and one that China has often been accused of using—including in a tweet by Mr. Trump last week. Devaluation would be even more dangerous in this case because of China’s power to dump the $1.4 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities it holds. But by denying its intention to plunge the yuan, China has disarmed itself voluntarily. This was no act of noble pacifism; it had to be done. Devaluing the currency would risk scaring investors away, an existential threat to an emerging economy. For China, whose state-capitalism model has so far never produced a recession, such capital flight might expose previously hidden economic weaknesses.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12760/australia-immigration-model

“Europeans think it’s easy in Australia to control our borders, but they’re just making up excuses for doing nothing themselves.” — Major General (Ret.) Jim Molan, co-author of Australia’s asylum policy.

“We have got hundreds, maybe thousands of people drowning in the attempts to get from Africa to Europe… [The] only way you can stop the deaths is in fact to stop the boats”. — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

“My long experience in Australian politics has been that whenever a government is seen to have immigration flows under control, public support for immigration increases, when the reverse occurs hostility to immigration rises.” — Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

It must be crushing to live in a country where governance might be questionable at best, and economic opportunities limited, if that. People know they are risking their lives in search of a better break. But if the West is not to be overwhelmed, these problems seriously need to be addressed.

Four years ago, the Australian government sparked criticism after it ran an advertisement aimed at discouraging asylum seekers from traveling illegally to the country. “No Way”, the poster read. “You will not make Australia home. If you get on a boat without a visa, you will not end up in Australia. Any vessel seeking illegally to enter Australia will be intercepted and safely removed beyond Australian waters”.

It was an extremely tough message, but it worked. “Australia’s migration rate is the lowest it’s been in 10 years”, said Peter Dutton, Australia’s Home Affairs Minister. Speaking last week on the Today Show, Dutton added that the drop was about “restoring integrity to our border”. The Australians are apparently happy about that. A new poll just revealed that 72% of voters support Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s immigration policy. Australia, a Western democracy, has for years, tried to deal with a migration crisis from the sea.

“Europeans think it’s easy in Australia to control our borders, but they’re just making up excuses for doing nothing themselves,” said retired major general Jim Molan, co-author of Australia’s asylum policy.

In 2013, Tony Abbott was elected Prime Minister under the slogan “Stop the boats”. “Stop the boats” is now also the slogan of the new Italy’s new Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, who, since the formation of a new government last month, has been totally focused on curbing immigration from “the world’s most lethal” route: across the Mediterranean.

It would seem that the best possible model for Europe to implement is a skills-based immigration system to curb the illegal one.

http://www.tomgrossmedia.com/mideastdispatches/archives/001784.html
CONTENTS

ANTISEMITIC HATE POSTS ALLOWED BY FACEBOOK (KATE GIBBONS-THE TIMES OF LONDON

U.K.’S JEWISH PAPERS DENOUNCE LABOUR PARTY AS “EXISTENTIAL THREAT” (STEPHEN CASTLE- NEW YORK TIMES)

JEREMY CORBIN IS BLIND TO RACISM IN HIS PARTY (DANIEL FINKELSTEIN- THE TIMES OF LONDON)

LABOUR ACTS AGAINST MARGARET HODGE FOR CALLING CORBIN RACIST (PIPPA CRERAR AND HEATHER STEWART -THE GUARDIAN)