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Radicals who blocked Israeli ship didn’t represent Syros, locals say David Isaac

https://www.jns.org/radicals-who-blocked-israeli-ship-didnt-represent-syros-locals-say/

The island’s leadership calls it “the crisis.” The scene at Syros last week, when passengers from an Israeli cruise ship were prevented from disembarking at the Greek island by anti-Israel demonstrators, rose to the level of an international incident.

Israel’s foreign minister called his counterpart to intervene. The ambassadors of Israel and Greece became directly involved. Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection promised to throw the book at anyone trying such a stunt again.

The stunt was tried again. On Monday, protesters, though fewer in number, gathered at the port in Rhodes to protest the arrival of an Israeli cruise ship. As it turned out, it was the same cruise ship that couldn’t stop at Syros—the MS Crown Iris operated by Mano Maritime, a Haifa-based shipping firm. This time, police were prepared, and the Israeli tourists disembarked peacefully.

Less reported is that the ship was received in a special ceremony by the mayor of Rhodes, the governor of the South Aegean Region, representatives of the Dodecanese Chamber of Commerce and other personages, who welcomed the passengers in a show of appreciation for Israeli tourism.

Greece is an enormously popular tourist destination for Israelis, to the point where many shopkeepers even speak some Hebrew.

There Goes The West

https://issuesinsights.com/2025/08/01/there-goes-the-west/

President Donald Trump has told Canada that if it recognizes Palestine as a state, it’s jeopardizing a trade pact with the U.S. The threat is more than leverage for talks. It’s a reminder that the West is giving up on civilization and needs to be rousted from its slumber.

“Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine,” Trump wrote Thursday on Truth Social. “That will make it very hard for us to make a trade deal with them.”

Canada is not the only Western nation that feels the need to recognize the terrorist-controlled Gaza Strip, which, with the Israel-occupied West Bank, is considered by some to be Palestine, a country that has never existed. Both France and the United Kingdom have said they will recognize Palestinian statehood next month. As loony as that sounds, there might be a practical reason for it. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron “are likely terrified of their local Muslim populations — and probably not without reason,” says Stephen Green.

It’s unfortunate, but more than 75% of the United Nations member countries already formally recognize Palestine. (But the U.N. doesn’t consider Hamas a terrorist group.) Now the holdouts in the West are beginning to surrender, even though Hamas, designated widely as a terrorist organization, governs the Gaza Strip.

Much of the West seems no longer interested in maintaining even a veneer of civilization. In the name of diversity, inclusion, and tolerance, and for the purposes of virtue signaling and assuaging their guilt for enjoying the benefits of civilization, Western “leaders” have actively imported migrants who have not just disrupted society but have taken it backward. They are ceding ground to those who actively despise everything about the West other than its wealth. The results have been appalling.

Adam Zivo Racial Hierarchies Are Gaining Traction in Canada A growing movement seeks to brand non-indigenous residents as “settlers” and relegate them to second-class citizenship

https://www.city-journal.org/article/canada-indigenous-identitarianism-settlers-race

It is increasingly fashionable in some progressive circles to label non-indigenous North Americans as “settlers,” mere guests on indigenous land. Who would have thought that blood-and-soil nationalism—the odious ideology that claims that only certain races belong to certain territories—would return, wrapped in the mantle of social justice?

This movement—call it “indigenous identitarianism”— is gaining traction across North America but has been especially influential in Canada, my home country. There, it has already begun to erode democratic decision-making in favor of race-based hierarchies. Americans would do well to look north to see how this path, if followed, could shape their own political and civic life.

Indigenous identitarianism generally posits that North America’s non-indigenous residents should be considered second-class citizens, either legally or symbolically. It suggests that they continually express gratitude for the “opportunity” to live on a continent “owned” by indigenous peoples.

To illustrate: Deanne LeBlanc, an award-winning academic at the University of British Columbia, wrote in a 2021 issue of the Canadian Journal of Political Science that non-indigenous Canadians should “consider themselves ‘foreigners’ in need of invitation onto Indigenous lands,” even if their families have lived on this continent for several generations. Similarly, Kaitie Jourdeuil, an academic at Queen’s University, published a 2022 article in The Conversation arguing that indigenous peoples should be given the right to make and enforce laws over 89 percent of Canadian land. That would mean some degree of disenfranchisement for millions of people.

Diplomatic Terrorism?: France’s Recognition of an Imaginary Palestinian State by Drieu Godefridi

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21788/france-recognizes-imaginary-palestinian-state

International law — particularly Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention — defines the criteria for statehood: a permanent population, a defined territory, an effective government, and the capacity to engage in relations with other states. Yet neither of the two Palestinian political entities meets these criteria.

By choosing to recognize a “Palestinian state” that clearly fails to meet these established criteria, France departs from any international law. Macron’s declaration is not a matter of legal recognition, but a political gesture — ideological and electoral — masquerading as diplomacy.

[T]his recognition serves as a reward for terrorism. It offers no humanitarian benefit. As US President Donald Trump put it: “What Macron says is irrelevant—it won’t change anything.” The sole concrete outcome is the political legitimization of a jihadist, anti-Semitic, genocidal movement.

On 24 July 2025, France announced its decision to recognize the existence of a “Palestinian state” in September. President Emmanuel Macron portrayed this move as an act of “justice” and “peace.” In reality, however, this recognition constitutes a geopolitical fiction — contrary to international law, flagrantly at odds with the facts on the ground, and laden with profoundly harmful moral implications.

1. What State?

International law — particularly Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention — defines the criteria for statehood: a permanent population, a defined territory, an effective government, and the capacity to engage in relations with other states. Yet neither of the two Palestinian political entities meets these criteria.

On one side stands the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by Mahmoud Abbas—a feeble administrative remnant, ostentatiously corrupt, loathed by his people and devoid of democratic legitimacy. No presidential election has been held since 2005. The PA’s limited authority extends over only a portion of the West Bank, and even there, it operates with the conditional consent of Israel and under the close oversight of the Israeli military, on which it depends for its own security.

Preparing for War, Xi Jinping Is Taking Back China’s Farms And Trying to Destroy America’s by Gordon G. Chang

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21789/china-farms-pathogens

Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping is mobilizing state entities, including, in this case, China State Shipbuilding Corp., in his all-of-society effort to achieve food security.

[T]his effort is another signal that he is preparing to attack.

There is one more element to Xi’s food plan: Attack American agriculture. In June, three Chinese nationals were charged with attempting to smuggle biological agents into the United States.

The Chinese attempts this year to smuggle pathogens may be only the latest incidents in a Chinese campaign to bring down American agriculture. China’s regime, it appears, has been trying to plant invasive species in America since at least 2020. That year, Americans in all 50 states received seeds, unsolicited, from China.

Xi Jinping cannot stop talking about fighting, and has been readying both the military and civilian society for conflict. Xi, in short, appears to be stockpiling grain in preparation for war.

Xi knows China cannot become self-sufficient, so he is, from all indications, making sure America is not either.

A Chinese state-owned ship-building company has converted a bulk carrier into a floating farm that will produce 2,800 tons of fish a year.

The 225-meter-long Zhe Dai Yu Yang 60001 is part of a “marine bread basket” project that “aims to boost the nation’s food security by repurposing old vessels for use in aquaculture.” Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping is mobilizing state entities, including, in this case, China State Shipbuilding Corp., in his all-of-society effort to achieve food security.

Why should anyone outside China care about Xi’s obsessive drive? Because this effort is another signal that he is preparing to attack.

The”Palestine state” extermination gambit Today’s surrender to evil comes in the guise of a human rights lawyer Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/thepalestine-state-extermination

Britain’s prime minster, Sir Keir Starmer, is widely thought to be boring but decent, technocratic but moderate, a bulwark of centrism against the crazies.

This is wildly mistaken. He is monstrous.

He said today:

The UK will recognise the state of Palestine by the United Nations General Assembly in September unless the Israeli government takes substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a Two State Solution. And this includes allowing the UN to restart the supply of aid, and making clear there will be no annexations in the West Bank.

Like French president Emanuel Macron who has also threatened to recognise “Palestine” at the UN in September, Starmer is thus rewarding Hamas for its barbaric and depraved pogrom in southern Israel on October 7 2023.

He is blaming Israel, not Hamas for the “appalling situation” in Gaza. This even though Hamas is responsible for the war by slaughtering 1200 Israelis and others on October 7; taking more than 240 of them hostage and still refusing to release around 50 of them after 22 months incarceration; and stealing food and other aid with the intention of starving Gazans to get patsies like Starmer to say what he’s just said.

Far worse, Starmer is now threatening the Israeli victims of Hamas. Like some mafioso who’s draped his sawn-off shotgun in a keffiyeh, he says that unless Israel stops the war by September he’ll recognise “Palestine”. He imposes no conditions, however, on Hamas. Israel alone gets the treatment.

Keir Starmer’s blackmailing of Israel is a depraved new low The PM says he will recognise Palestine unless Israel lays down its arms – what a grotesque betrayal of an ally. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/07/29/keir-starmers-blackmailing-of-israel-is-a-depraved-new-low/

With ‘allies’ like Keir Starmer, who needs enemies? Today the PM said Britain will recognise Palestine unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza. This, truly, is a new low for this government. It is moral blackmail masquerading as diplomacy. It is a barely veiled threat against a supposed ally. Starmer is essentially telling Israel that unless it lays down its arms, Britain will reward its enemies. This will go down in history as one of the most scandalous betrayals of a ‘friend’ of modern times.

Starmer says he will recognise Palestine in September, ahead of the United Nations General Assembly, unless Israel bows to his demands. Israel, he says, must call a ceasefire in Gaza, end the ‘appalling’ suffering there, and commit to a ‘wider peace plan’ that delivers a ‘two-state solution’. And if it doesn’t, Britain will join the 147 other nations that recognise Palestine. Shorter version: do as I say, or suffer the consequences.

The imperial arrogance is off the scale. Maybe Starmer thinks it’s the 1920s and there’s still a British Mandate for Palestine that lets London boss around the Jews and Arabs of the Middle East. To make such haughty demands of any ally at war would be bad enough – to make them of an ally that is fighting a brutal battle against an army of anti-Semites that hates the West as much as it does Jews is flat-out psychotic.

Like President Macron before him – who announced last week that France would recognise Palestine in September – Starmer has clearly not thought through his imperious actions. Where would this State of Palestine be? Who would govern it: the corrupt Palestinian Authority or the demented Jew-killers of Hamas? Starmer paid lip service to the need to disarm Hamas, but he cannot escape the sick fact that he is rewarding terrorism. That he is gifting the Palestinian territories with statehood less than two years after a neo-fascist army from those territories launched a barbarous assault on the Jews of southern Israel.

Hamas won’t hear Starmer’s criticism of its actions or his demand that it release the remaining hostages. It will only hear that killing Jews has benefits.

The Muslim Brotherhood: A Terrorist Organization That the US Must Designate as One by Khaled Abu Toameh

Recently, Jordan joined the list of countries that have banned the Muslim Brotherhood: Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Austria. The move came after Jordanian authorities announced that they had arrested 16 people suspected of planning attacks aimed at “targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotage.”
• The Muslim Brotherhood, in addition, has served as an inspiration for Islamist terror groups Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda. According to the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit international policy organization working to combat the growing threat exposed by extremist ideologies: “Before ascending to the highest positions of ISIS and Al-Qaeda, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, Osama bin Laden, and Ayman Zawahiri belonged to a common ideological precursor, the Muslim Brotherhood.”
• The Muslim Brotherhood has been able to fool many Westerners by pretending that most of its work is based on charity and humanitarian aid. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Mujama al-Islami (Islamic Center) in the Gaza Strip started as a charity and was even licensed by Israel.
• “Since the 1970s, the Muslim Brotherhood has been aggressively whitewashing its image. By doing charitable work, the Brotherhood pretends to be a humanitarian agency. The charitable work, however, is camouflage for the Brotherhood’s real mission — undermining Western society, promoting Sharia law, and pursuing global domination…. The Brotherhood will use any tactic, including subversion and violence, to dismantle Western societies.” — Pastor Michael Youssef, Daily Wire, June 24, 2025.
• Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would give US law enforcement and intelligence agencies the legal tools they need to protect Americans. It would allow them to:
• Freeze financial assets used to fund radical networks;
• Block the travel of known Brotherhood operatives;
• Investigate and prosecute U.S.-based affiliates;
• Expose front groups that serve as recruitment pipelines;
• And cut off the flow of resources from foreign governments and donors.
• Designating the Muslim Brotherhood a Foreign Terrorist Organization is vital not only for the national security of the United States, but also for combating Islamist terrorism around the world. If America’s Arab allies have reached the conclusion that the Muslim Brotherhood is a dangerous Islamist terror organization, there is no reason why the US and other Western countries should continue to pretend that it is all about charitable and humanitarian work.

Niall Ferguson: Milei’s Man-made Miracle

https://www.thefp.com/p/niall-ferguson-mileis-manmade-miracle-argentina-economy?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

The great English lexicographer Samuel Johnson said of the actor David Garrick that his demise “eclipsed the gaiety of nations and impoverished the public stock of harmless pleasure.” If the Argentine president Javier Milei were ultimately to fail in his bid to extricate his country from a century of economic underachievement, I would feel the same way. Happily, I don’t think he will.

Since he burst onto the Latin American political scene a few years ago, Milei has added immeasurably to both the gaiety of nations and the public stock of harmless pleasure. With his shaggy sideburns and loopy facial expressions, there is more than a hint of the Mad Hatter about him.

Yet there is a method to Milei’s madness. While the world fixates on Donald Trump’s populist cocktail of reciprocal tariffs and big, beautiful deficits, Milei is delivering a man-made miracle that should gladden the heart of every classical economist and quicken the pulse of all political libertarians.

Consider what Milei has achieved in just a year and a half.

When he was sworn in as president in December 2023, the Argentine economy was a seemingly incurable basket case. In 2023, its gross domestic product had shrunk by 1.6 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Perhaps more strikingly, per capita gross domestic product (GDP) on an inflation-adjusted basis was lower than it had been in 2007. Public finances were in disarray. The last time the government had run a surplus was in 2008. The IMF estimated total public debt at around 90 percent of GDP, but the important thing was how much of that debt—more than $40 billion—Argentina owed to the IMF, the culmination of no fewer than 22 programs.

Posh Twats for Palestine How Israelophobia became the favoured hobby of the filthy rich. Brendan O’Neill

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/07/21/posh-twats-for-palestine/

I knew it. As soon as I saw that cast member of the Royal Opera House smugly unfurl his Palestine flag, I knew he’d be some privileged they / them with either blue blood or blue hair. And I was right. His name’s Daniel Perry, he’s a they / them, he was educated at a £48,000-a-year high school, and he calls himself a ‘queer dance artist’. Now all we need to discover is that he has ADHD and he really will be a walking checklist of middle-class twattishness.

Mr Perry has got the pro-Palestine set salivating with infantile glee after he whipped out his flag during the curtain call for Verdi’s Il Trovatore on Saturday evening. A stage manager tried to snatch it from him but Perry yanked it back with all the wild-eyed frenzy of a bloke determined to trend online. He got his way. He’s being gushed over by the internet’s Sun-starved army of armchair Israelophobes. ‘Hero!’, they yelp from their bedrooms, the unbelievably sad bastards.

The Telegraph has Perry’s backstory. He attended an eye-wateringly expensive school in leafy Hertfordshire. He’s nonbinary – sorry, they’re nonbinary. He’s a self-styled ‘queer’ dancer. He seems blissfully unaware that if he ever set foot in Gaza the only pirouette he’d be doing is a mid-air one as Hamas hurled him off a tall building. He recently wore a ‘Free Palestine’ t-shirt to a performance of Cabaret, the musical about the Weimar Republic that foreshadows the rise of the Nazis and the burning of the Jews.

It didn’t take any special insight on my part to guess that this flag-waving irritant would turn out to be a knob of the most insufferably bourgeois variety. Because they’re all like that. Perry belongs to that most vexing clique of preening ‘activists’ – let’s call them Posh Twats for Palestine.

They’re everywhere. Venture into London on a Saturday afternoon and you’ll soon be swarmed by affluent tits in keffiyehs talking rubbish about Israel. Our leafier campuses have been all but colonised by plummy youths screaming the new lie (‘Israel is committing genocide!’) with the same demented fervour with which they once hollered the old lie (‘Transwomen are women!’). The am-dram arseholes of Palestine Action loved to splash around their red paint while wanging on in cut-glass tones about the unholy wickedness of Israel. The government calls them terrorists but they’re something far worse: rich theatre kids.