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Czech President Miloš Zeman: Warrior for Truth by Josef Zbořil

“If you want the unspoken truth, Islamic migration is not possible to integrate, and it is not capable of being assimilated into European culture. ” — Miloš Zeman, President of the Czech Republic.

“This country is ours. And this country is not and can not be for all.” — Miloš Zeman.

“In my opinion, much of the guilt lies on the current leadership of the European Union, which is totally incompetent, bureaucratic, causing the alienation of European citizens from European institutions… We do not need censorship, we do not need an ideological police, we do not need a new press and information office if we are to continue living in a free and democratic society…” — Miloš Zaman, 2016.

Czech President Miloš Zeman, it was recently said, is “a world leader guided by principles, a man not only knows right from wrong, but has never been afraid to voice it. ” Known for his longstanding support for the US, Israel and the Jews, he was the only European president publicly to support then-candidate Donald Trump before the US presidential election.

The historical relationship of Czechoslovakia, later the Czech Republic, towards Israel is most likely based on when the Czechs were overrun by Hitler in 1938, and learned the hard way that “appeasement never works”. Zeman defends the Czech presidents’ motto: “Truth prevails”.

A Euro-federalist and leftist, Zeman became known to the public in August 1989, three months before the Velvet Revolution, thanks to an article, “Prognostics and Perestroika.” In it, he criticized the totalitarian Czechoslovak régime at that time:

“The stolen future was not shared by a society which was not planning for itself but for which plans were being made…. Current events have already proven that long-term [economic] lagging has not contributed to the prestige of socialism. Also not contributing to it is a persistent unwillingness to admit its own responsibility for this lagging… There is nothing antisocialist about criticizing the incompetence of an uncontrollable power. On the contrary, there is nothing socialist about tolerance or even support for that incompetence.”

Thanks to this article, he was not only fired from his job, but in August 1989, was also invited to appear on the television show Economic Notebook, where he said:

“For the past forty years, we have dropped from tenth place in the world to around the fortieth. In some areas, even worse. For example, in the development of science and technology… we are today roughly at the level of Algeria or Peru, and far below Portugal, which is considered the most undeveloped country in Western Europe … I explain this development by [the government’s] having taken economic decisions that were casually accepted; there was no sound competition of alternative ideas, and even ideas that would have extremely cautious consequences were taken without any evaluation of their effectiveness.”

Guatemala follows U.S. to Jerusalem By Monica Showalter Please see note

In 1948 Guatemala’s ambassador to the United States, Jorge Garcia Granados (who was a friend of my father’s) lobbied for recognition of Israel. rsk

Apparently, there was nothing fake or merely symbolic about Guatemala’s support for the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem in its United Nations vote last week. Guatemala is moving its own embassy to Jerusalem, too.

According to the New York Post:

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s president announced on Christmas Eve that the Central American country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump in ordering the change.

Guatemala was one of nine nations that voted with the United States and Israel on Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

It’s enough to turn heads about the tiny Central American nation and give it our salute.

Because it’s rather courageous to be the first to follow the U.S. in places such as the United Nations. Guatemala’s act suggests it wasn’t just looking for goodies from the U.S. when it cast that vote, it really wanted to acknowledge the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Its president, Jimmy Morales, said as much, in his Christmas eve announcement of the event:

“Guatemala is historically pro-Israeli,” he said in Guatemala City. “In 70 years of relations, Israel has been our ally. We have a Christian way of thinking that, as well as the politics of it, has us believing that Israel is our ally and we must ­support it.

“Despite us only being nine in the world (in the UN vote), we have the total certainty and conviction that this is the right path.”

It’s true Guatemala would probably like some development help from Israel but just the fact that they are reaching out for it and not whining about something or other speaks well for them. A willingness to learn from Israel means a nation passes the Israel Test, as the brilliant George Gilder wrote of in his excellent book. Guatemala passes. Another reason too take a second look at Guatemala.
Apparently, there was nothing fake or merely symbolic about Guatemala’s support for the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem in its United Nations vote last week. Guatemala is moving its own embassy to Jerusalem, too.

According to the New York Post:

GUATEMALA CITY — Guatemala’s president announced on Christmas Eve that the Central American country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, becoming the first nation to follow the lead of U.S. President Donald Trump in ordering the change.

Guatemala was one of nine nations that voted with the United States and Israel on Thursday when the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a non-binding resolution denouncing Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

It’s enough to turn heads about the tiny Central American nation and give it our salute.

Because it’s rather courageous to be the first to follow the U.S. in places such as the United Nations. Guatemala’s act suggests it wasn’t just looking for goodies from the U.S. when it cast that vote, it really wanted to acknowledge the reality that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

Its president, Jimmy Morales, said as much, in his Christmas eve announcement of the event:

“Guatemala is historically pro-Israeli,” he said in Guatemala City. “In 70 years of relations, Israel has been our ally. We have a Christian way of thinking that, as well as the politics of it, has us believing that Israel is our ally and we must ­support it.

The Case against Mahmoud Abbas By Dan Calic

There’s been plenty of rancor since President Trump declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel. Some are saying his remarks have brought the peace process to a halt.

To such accusations I say, “what peace process?”

I submit that if anyone is guilty of why there is no peace process, it is none other than Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Unless you are spelling it p-i-e-c-e. The record shows that rather than p-e-a-c-e with Israel, he wants to take it apart piece by piece until it doesn’t exist anymore. In order to present the case, I will lay out the evidence to the court of public opinion.

Exhibit 1- Munich Olympics

Who will ever forget the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre where 11 Israeli athletes were held hostage by Arab terrorists and lost their lives. The financier of the operation was Mahmoud Abbas.

Exhibit 2- Holocaust Denial

In 1982, he wrote his PhD thesis entitled: “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism.” The topic was denial of the Holocaust. Such views are associated with anti-Semitism. Aside from Israel, 21 countries have made Holocaust denial a crime. The United States does not criminalize it.

In January 2005, he was elected to a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority. Here’s a short list of what’s taken place during his never-ending four-year term:

Exhibit 3- Rejects Recognition of Jewish State

While several Israeli prime ministers, including Benjamin Netanyahu have acknowledged acceptance of a ‘Palestinian’ state, Abbas has repeatedly said he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Demanding recognition of a Palestinian state while rejecting Israel’s right to exist proves he is not serious about peace. Moreover, he has no business talking about a “just solution. Most recently Abbas challenged Israel’s right to be recognized as a state by the international community saying it is “invalid.”

Exhibit 4- Right of Return

Abbas demands the “right of return,” for so-called “refugees” from the 1948 and 1967 wars, along with their descendants. Their numbers vary, but suffice to say this would eliminate the Jewish majority in Israel. Thus the only homeland the Jewish people have would cease to exist as such, and become the Middle East’s 23rd Muslim Arab-dominated country while the Jews would have none.

Exhibit 5- No Jews Allowed in Future Palestinian State

There are well over 1 million Arabs who live in Israel with full benefits of citizenship. They vote, own businesses, own property, are doctors, lawyers, professors, etc. They are elected to the Knesset and have even been members of the Supreme Court. They also have complete freedom of worship. There are mosques throughout Israel. Yet Abbas says not one Israeli [Jew], civilian or soldier will be tolerated in any future Palestinian state. Ironically, he’s accused Israel of being an ‘apartheid state.’

Exhibit 6- Fatah Constitution

He is head of the Fatah Party. Their constitution calls for the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

France’s Macron Submits to the Arab World A Gentle Christmas Day Word of Caution by Giulio Meotti

“This month alone, France voted twice in the United Nations to support Arab-sponsored resolutions against the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. ”

The tragic dead end of French fake “secularism” is that it allows public expressions of the Islamic religion in France, but prohibits the Christian ones.

Far from defending the Judeo-Christian values ​​on which France, the West and Europe itself was founded — such as individual liberties, freedom of expression, separation of the church from the state and the judiciary, and equal justice under the law — President Macron recently launched an apology for Islam before Arab-Muslim dignitaries.

The balance of Macron’s recent frenetic trips to the Arab world: lavish contracts, apologetic words to Islamists, repentance of the French colonial past and silence on anti-Semitism and radical Islam. Meanwhile, in France, authorities were busy dismantling its Judeo-Christian heritage.

Macron’s special envoy for heritage, Stéphane Bern, proposed charging a fee to enter French cathedrals and churches — as if they were museums.

In Abu Dhabi, members of the victorious Israeli judo team were recently made to mount the winners’ podium without their own anthem and flag. A few days later, French President Emmanuel Macron landed in Abu Dhabi, where he denounced as liars those who say that “that Islam is built by destroying the other monotheisms”. Macron did not raise an eyebrow about the anti-Semitism and racism displayed by the Emirati authorities. Macron merely praised Islam in a country that punishes with death those Muslims who convert to Christianity or profess atheism.

At the French naval base in Abu Dhabi on November 8-9, addressing some businessmen, Macron insisted on the importance of the alliance with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as an “essential partner with whom we share the same vision of the region and obvious common interests”. Such effusion seems more than the usual language of diplomacy. Macron is now showing a strategic empathy and commitment to the Arab-Islamic world. Is this statement a prelude to submission?

4 Dead and 8 Wounded in Christmas Carol Festival Attack By Tyler O’Neil

On Friday, a gunman opened fire at a Christmas carol celebration, killing 4 people and injuring 8 others. The attack in Nindem — a village in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna — cast a pall on a historic Christmas celebration recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. The attack may be connected to Boko Haram, a Nigerian Islamist group that has formally allied itself with the Islamic State (ISIS).

“Nobody should be allowed to truncate the right of citizens to live in peace and enjoy safety, or thwart their legitimate expectations of celebrating Christmas and the New Year in peace,” Samuel Aruwan, senior special assistant on media and publicity to Governor Nasir El-Rufai, said in a statement on Sunday.

The attack took place while the village took part in the 2017 Akwa Ibom State Christmas Carol Festival on Friday. About 10 million people from over 45 countries across the world were expected to follow the festival, which made the Guinness Book of World Records in 2014 for being the largest choir ever assembled for a Christmas carol, with 30,000 participants.

The 2016 edition had more than 9 million people from 38 countries who logged on to the program’s official website and Twitter handle in the first four hours of the event, according to the state’s commissioner for information and strategy.

“The government condemns this incident, and calls on all stakeholders to help uphold peace by working to avoid escalation and by supporting the security forces,” Aruwan added. He said the office of the governor “commiserates with the families of the victims in this sad moment.”

“It is important that all communities stand firm against any threat to peace, and reject those who might want to reprise the terrible events of December 2016,” the spokesman said.

RACHEL EHRENFELD: TURKEY IS NOT AN ALLY

On December 25, millions of Christians in countries whose leaders voted against the United States’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, as well as Pope Francis, who joined in the condemnation, will be celebrating the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, in the Holy Land of Israel. We wish them and our readers a Merry Christmas!

Growing numbers of Christian-majority countries seem too willing to rewrite history by adopting the newly invented Palestinian state’s lies, which include the denial of more than two millennia of Jewish presence in the Holy Land, even claiming that Jesus was not a Jew, but a Palestinian, and a Muslim!

The Christian identity of Europe has been eroded not only by growing secularism, but also by the threat of Islamist terrorism. And it all started with the Palestinians who from the beginning were in the business of extorting concessions from the West. They did it again on Thursday. Only this time, they didn’t even have to hijack passenger planes of any of the 128 countries that voted against the U.S. at the General Assembly. By now, most of the 128 countries that endorsed the Palestinians condemnation of President Donald Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem have learned to dread violence committed by the growing numbers of radicalized second-generation Muslims and refugees who often cite Palestinian lies – about Jerusalem, Israel, and the Jews – as a motive for terrorists’ attacks. Besides, their leaders oppose U.S. president Donald Trump and are mostly anti-Israeli. Then there is the financial motive. How can they justify spending billions of dollars on aid to the terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank? Moreover, they are greedy. They would rather do business with the mullahs in Iran, Turkey’s Muslim brother President Erdoğan, Qatar, and other Islamist entities.

The General Assembly’s condemnation of the U.S. for declaring the relocation of its Israel embassy to Jerusalem, the capital, came after several resolutions passed earlier by the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian U.N. purportedly cultural body, UNESCO. Last May, as Israel was celebrating its 69th Independence Day, 22 of the 58 member-countries in UNESCO passed a resolution denying the Jewish State of Israel’s legal and historical rights anywhere in Jerusalem or at any other Jewish holy sites that have repeatedly been documented for more than 2,000 years as belonging to the Israelites. Twenty-three countries that lacked the courage to openly resist the Palestinian-led Arab-Muslim initiative abstained. Most of the ten countries that opposed UNESCO’s deplorable resolution lacked the courage to oppose the General Assembly’s resolution. Why?

Catalan elections: the ghosts that won’t go away Nationalism is an idea whose time has come, gone, and come back again David Goldman

Yesterday’s election victory for Catalan separatists, including
humiliating losses for the ruling center-right Partido Popular,
denotes yet another setback for the grand project of European
unification and a challenge for a continent divided between a strong
north and a lagging south. The Catalan separatists won a thin majority
in the regional parliament, leaving them precisely where they were
before the Oct. 1referendum on secession from Spain – with a small
plurality in favor of breaking away and a large minority determined to
stay. The election result, though, has dire implications for Partido
Popular leader Manuel Rajoy’s minority government, and for European
cohesion in general.

Nationalism is a ghost that refuses to be exorcised. As Annette
Prosinger wrote in a front-page commentary in the conservative German
daily Die Welt. “This election was in reality a referendum on the
independence movement. The result will astonish all of those who bet
on the disenchantment of the Separatists. The magic is more tenacious
than people thought: It has overcome everything: The drop in tourism
and economic investment, the flight of enterprise from Catalonia, and
the rejection that the independence movement received from the EC. The
supporters of the independence movement were not unsettled by the fact
that none of the glorious promises of Carlos Puigedemont and his group
came true, and that prospering Catalonia has become a crisis region.”

The term “disenchantment” (in German, Entzauberung) is deeply fraught
in the German language: it was the watchword of the Romantic movement
that incubated European nationalism during the 19thcentury, calling
for the “re-enchantment” of a world left disenchanted by the
Enlightenment.

Europe: The Islamization of Christmas “An unbearable, involuntary submission to Islam” by Soeren Kern

Exalting Mohammed in churches effectively proclaims that Mohammed is greater than Jesus — The “Archbishop Cranmer” blog.

A school in Lüneburg postponed a Christmas party after a Muslim student complained that the singing of Christmas carols during school was incompatible with Islam. Alexander Gauland, the leader of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), said the school’s action was “an unbearable, involuntary submission to Islam” and amounted to a “cowardly injustice” toward non-Muslim children.

“The word ‘Christmas,’ a symbol of our faith and our culture, does not discriminate against anyone. Striking the emblems of Christmas does not guarantee anyone’s respect, does not produce a welcoming and inclusive school and society, but fosters intolerance towards our culture, our customs, our laws and our traditions. We firmly believe that our traditions must be respected.” — Milan politician Samuele Piscina.

This year’s Christmas season has been marked by Islam-related controversies in nearly every European country. Most of the conflicts have been generated by Europe’s multicultural political and religious elites, who are bending over backwards to secularize Christmas, ostensibly to ensure that Muslims will not be offended by the Christian festival.

Many traditional Christmas markets have been renamed — Amsterdam Winter Parade, Brussels Winterpret, Kreuzberger Wintermarkt, London Winterville, Munich Winter Festival — to project a multicultural veneer of secular tolerance.

More troubling are the growing efforts to Islamize Christmas. The re-theologizing of Christmas is based on the false premise that the Jesus of the Bible is the Jesus (Isa) of the Koran. This religious fusion, sometimes referred to as “Chrislam,” is gaining ground in a West that has become biblically illiterate.

In Britain, for instance, the All Saints Church in Kingston upon Thames recently held a joint birthday celebration for Jesus and Mohammed. The “Milad, Advent and Christmas Celebration” on December 3 was aimed at “marking the birthday of Prophet Mohammed and looking forward to the birthday of Jesus.” The hour-long service included time for Islamic prayer and was followed by the cutting of a birthday cake.

The West’s Steadfast Misunderstanding of Turkey and Islam by Uzay Bulut

Fundamentalist Muslims in Turkey — and elsewhere — do not see jihad, forced conversions or other forms of persecution against non-Muslims as criminal. On the contrary, their religious scriptures openly command them “to chop off heads and fingers, and kill infidels wherever they may be hiding,” among many other openly violent teachings.

Hence, what the rest of the world would describe as “genocide,” “massacre,” “terrorism,” or “ethnic cleansing” is viewed by radical Muslims as a “righteous” way of spreading Islam and of liberating kafir (infidel) lands. Erdogan is clearly such a radical, which is why he takes pride in his country’s criminal history, while chastising and rewriting that of other states, such as Israel.

The West’s misunderstanding of this knows no bounds.

Since the Trump administration’s official recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been ramping up his anti-Israel rhetoric, calling the country “a state of occupation and terrorism.”

This is worse than ironic. The Jews are not “occupiers” in their ancient native homeland, where they have lived for more than 3,000 years. Turks, on the other hand, 3,000 years ago were most likely in Central Asia, nowhere near the area that is now Turkey. To add hypocrisy to injury, Erdogan also said about his own country, “Let it be known that there has never been any holocaust or genocide in this nation’s past. There’s no campaign of ethnic cleansing, massacres, persecution, or torture in this nation’s history.”

Oh really?

The cities in today’s Turkey — most of which are in Anatolia (Asia Minor) and the Armenian highlands — were actually built by Greeks, Armenians, and Assyrians; and Jews have lived there since antiquity. Turkic jihadists from Central Asia invaded and conquered the Christian Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century, thereby paving the way for the gradual Turkification and Islamization of Anatolia and Armenia. The Ottoman invasion of Constantinople (Istanbul) in the fifteenth century brought about the complete destruction of the Byzantine Empire.

One single pro-US, pro-Israel Pakistani stands up against his countrymen By Richard L. Benkin

Earlier this month, the Pakistani National Assembly (N.A.) slavishly followed suit with most of the Muslim world and the United Nations (U.N.) General Assembly in condemning United States president Donald Trump’s declaration that recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “Debate” on the resolution was characterized by threats of violence and knee-jerk condemnation of the U.S. and Israel. The resolution itself called the U.S. move “a direct attack on the Muslim Ummah,” which is a significant term for it to use. Ummah is an Arabic word meaning “community” and is used to refer to a single, supranational community of Muslims with common interests that supersede any others. Its use implies that all Muslims would have the same or similar positions regarding the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Legislator after legislator dutifully condemned Pakistan’s major benefactor (the U.S.). Former – and disgraced – prime minister Nawaz Sharif cried: “To hand over [to Israel] the holy city of Jerusalem, known historically for over millenniums [sic] as Al Quds Al Sharif, is to add salt to the wounds of the people who have been suffering untold miseries for 70 years.” How misguided. The U.S. government did not hand over anything to anybody. Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, and as U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said, the announcement was “just reality” and something “the American people have asked for.” That’s how it works in a democracy but not how it works in places like Pakistan, where people are commanded to take the same position on every issue because they belong to the same, religious community.

Even in a country where dissent often carries a de facto death sentence, however, one member of Pakistan’s N.A. and that Muslim Ummah rose in opposition to the resolution. Mahmood Khan Achakzai, leader of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, dared to stand and speak truth to the lie that all Muslims find Israel odious and are “outraged” to the point of violence by American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Pakistan’s semi-official newspaper Dawn did indeed report that Achakzai “ridiculed” the resolution, but it and the Pakistani government tried to sanitize his comments and ignore his open support for Israel and the United States – for that opposition contradicts the narrative they are trying desperately to promote. Dawn led with a banner headline reading, “NA unanimously assails US move on Jerusalem” (it was not unanimous), and it attributed Achakzai’s opposition to mere procedural matters and his (and his party’s) stance of neutrality on all international matters and focus on Pakistan’s serious domestic issues. How can “a house that could not save the country’s Constitution save the Palestinians”?

According to my Pakhtun (Pashtun) sources, however, “his speech was stopped and cameras turned down.” His fellow party members told me he frequently responds to statements about “oppressed Palestinians” by pointing out that it is the Jews who face oppression and that the real focus should be how “Pashtuns are oppressed under the Pakistani army[.] … Gaza and West Bank [are] none of our concern.” That’s heresy for those who demand fealty from all members of the Muslim Ummah. In fact, one notable distinction between non-radical and radical Muslims, including people who may not throw bombs but provide ideological cover for those who do, is the latter’s insistence that Islam is a Muslim’s single identity of consequence. Achakzai’s public life has been devoted to the cause of self-determination for Pakistan’s various nationalities, as opposed to the single Pakistani state that was created on the basis of religion and is officially an Islamic Republic.

This is not the first time Achakzai has bucked Pakistan’s anti-U.S., anti-Israel wave in Pakistan’s parliament. When the rest of the Pakistani parliament rushed to condemn Israel for its war with Hamas in Gaza, Achakzai said Pakistan itself had become a Gaza and cited “human rights violations, internal strife, aerial bombardment and displacement of tens of thousands of people from North Waziristan Agency.” He refused to support Hamas and the Palestinians over Israel. According to other members of the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, his recent actions showed the resolution on the U.S. action and “support for Palestinians [to be] a laughing stock.”