RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Islamic State document said that since the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, Spain “has done everything to destroy the Koran.” It said that Spain tortured Muslims, including burning them alive. Therefore, according to the Islamic State, “Spain is a criminal state that usurps our land.” The document calls on jihadists to “reconnoiter airline and train routes for attacks.” It also calls on followers to “poison food and water” with insecticides.

“We will kill any ‘innocent’ Spanish infidel we find in Muslim lands, and… whether we are European in origin or not, we will kill you in your cities and towns according to our plan.” — Islamic State document, May 30, 2016.

“We will recover al-Andalus, Allah willing. Oh dear Andalus! You thought we forgot about you. I swear by Allah we have never forgotten you. No Muslim can forget Córdoba, Toledo or Xàtiva. There are many faithful and sincere Muslims who swear they will return to al-Andalus.” — Islamic State video, January 31, 2016.

“Spain is the land of our forefathers and we are going to take it back with the power of Allah.” — Islamic State video, January 7, 2016.

Islamic militants are stepping up a propaganda war against Spain. In recent months, Islamic State and other jihadist groups have produced a flurry of videos and documents calling on Muslims to reconquer al-Andalus.

Al-Andalus is the Arabic name given to those parts of Spain, Portugal and France occupied by Muslim conquerors (also known as the Moors) from 711 to 1492. Many Muslims believe that territories Muslims lost during the Christian Reconquest of Spain still belong to the realm of Islam. They claim that Islamic law gives them the right to re-establish Muslim rule there.

A recent Islamic State document includes a list of grievances against Spain for wrongs done to Muslims since the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa on July 16, 1212, when the Christian forces of King Alfonso VIII of Castile routed the Almohad Muslim rulers of the southern half of the Iberian Peninsula. More than 100,000 Muslims were killed in the battle, which was a key victory in the Catholic Monarchs’ “Reconquista” of Spain.

The document said that since the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, Spain “has done everything to destroy the Koran.” It said that Spain tortured Muslims, including burning them alive. Therefore, according to the Islamic State, “Spain is a criminal state that usurps our land.” The document calls on jihadists to “reconnoiter airline and train routes for attacks.” It also calls on followers to “poison food and water” with insecticides.

The document concludes: “The actions of your ancestors are the reason for our actions today.”

On July 15, 2016, Islamic State released its first propaganda video with Spanish subtitles. The high quality of the Spanish translation, both in writing and in syntax, led some analysts to conclude that that the translator’s mother tongue is Spanish and that the subtitling may even have been done inside Spain.

“[I]n spite of dire predictions by secularists, the [ruling] AKP did not introduce conspicuous efforts to Islamize Turkey. But since 2011, this has changed.” — Svante E. Cornell, in “The Islamization of Turkey: Erdogan’s Education Reforms.”

In 2014, Turkey’s government introduced a scheme which forcibly enrolled about 40,000 students at Islamic “imam schools,” and granted permission for girls as young as 10 to wear Islamic headscarves in class.

A new study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found that 43% of Turkish women aged between 15 and 29 were neither working nor receiving education.

One way the rise of Islamist authoritarianism in a country can be seen is by the rise in the number of mosques, religious schools and prisons — coupled with a sharp decline in the quality of education. Turkey is no exception.

Most recently, the Turkish government said that it would build 174 new prisons, increasing capacity by 100,000 convicts. This is Turkey’s reply to complaints that six convicts must share a cell built for three. Convicts say they must sleep in turns in their bunk beds.

Before that, Turkey’s government released nearly 40,000 convicted criminals, in order to make space for tens of thousands of suspects, including journalists, businessmen and academics, detained after the failed coup of July 15.

China and Russia completed an eight-day joint naval exercise in the South China Sea last week, and this time the location was also the message. The two autocracies are expanding cooperation and offering each other support in their territorial disputes, a trend that could fuel instability from East Asia to Central Europe.

Days before the drill, which focused on antisubmarine warfare and what a Xinhua dispatch called “island-seizing,” Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping held their 15th bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hangzhou. Mr. Putin announced support for Beijing’s aggressive sovereignty claims in the South China Sea and opposition to “any third-party interference,” an unsubtle reference to the United States.

Mr. Putin’s kowtow to Beijing carries some risks. Vietnam, which angrily opposes China’s behavior, is a major buyer of Russian arms and grants Russian forces access to runways and the strategic port of Cam Ranh Bay. Mr. Putin talked up ties with Hanoi and its neighbors when he hosted a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in Sochi in May, but cozying up to Beijing sends the opposite signal.

Mr. Putin also has plenty of reason to distrust China, which undermines his influence in Central Asia, asserts itself in the Arctic and may have designs on Russia’s Far East, where some two million illegal Chinese migrants work as miners, fishermen and farmers because Russia lacks the labor to tap its natural resources. Russian trade with China has fallen below expectations in recent years, and the $400 billion, 30-year bilateral gas deal signed in 2014 is stalled over pipeline construction.

Yet Mr. Putin is tilting toward Beijing anyway. He doesn’t have a better buyer for his gas and still hopes to hit $200 billion in bilateral trade by 2020, up from $68 billion last year.

Russia and the West are fighting to decide whether Syria will be run by Sunni Islamists backed by Saudi Arabia or Shiite Islamists backed by Iran. This insane civil war has burned up countless lives, not to mention plenty of dollars, rubles, euros and pounds. The only certain winners of this war, once the dust has settled, will chant “Allahu Akbar” and call for the death of the infidels.

Sadly this is nothing new. Russia got the PLO started before Bill Clinton decided to become its sugar daddy. Smuggling weapons to the Mujahedeen to fight the Russians got us into Afghanistan. Except these days it’s the Russians who, through the Iranians, are funneling weapons to the locals to fight us. Between us and the Russians, we’ve put wagonloads of weapons into the hands of Jihadis in Iraq and Syria. The consequences will be felt in Moscow, New York, London and Paris.

The West and the Warsaw Pact countries used to fuel foreign wars. These days the war is at home.

Russia and the NATO countries suffer from low birth rates and rising Muslim demographics, but are in a senseless competition to determine which emergent Caliphate will be able to draw its borders in territories it can’t populate. It’s a battle over a pittance taking place in a burning building.

Moscow has around 2 million Muslims. London has over 1 million. Both sides are at risk of losing their own capital cities to real invasions. The EU and Putin’s Eurasian dreams are both built on the Roman notion that the barbarians can be integrated and will make good foot soldiers and laborers.

France’s President Hollande has called for the creation of an “Islam of France”. Putin suggests that the Russian Orthodox Church has more in common with Islam than Catholicism. Obama preaches that, “Islam has always been part of America”. But such efforts at integration will always fail.

The popular European excuse is that Islamic terrorism represents a failure to integrate the terrorist. Islamic terrorism is indeed caused by a failure to integrate. The mistake is assuming that integration on a civilizational scale is possible. It’s not. You can integrate a few people. You can’t integrate a civilization.

Why has Onfray has become so popular among the French foreign fighters? Journalist David Thomson, a specialist in jihadi movements, explained that “Onfray is translated into Arabic and shared on all pro-Isis sites”.

Onfray recognizes that we are at war. But this war, to him, was was started by George W. Bush. He “forgets” that there were 3,000 American deaths on September 11, 2001. If you remind him that “Isis kills innocent people”, the philosopher will reply: “We have also killed innocent people”. It is the perfect moral equality between Isis and the West. Barbarians against barbarians! With his moral relativism, Onfray opens the door to Islamist cutthroats.

The French intellectual Thomas Piketty, after the massacres in Paris, pointed at “inequality” as the root of Isis’ success. Another well known German philosopher, Peter Sloterdijk, claimed that the September 11 attacks were attacks have been just “small incidents”.

Someone should have explained to him that all the terrorists were well integrated in the French and Belgian democracies, and living with welfare subsidies.

Famous representatives of European culture… also embraced Adolf Hitler’s dream. Their heirs now justify Jihad as the ultimate punishment for Western freedoms and democracy.

After September 11, 2001, the cream of European intellectuals immediately started to find justifications for Jihad. They evidently were fascinated by the Kalashnikov, “the weapon of the poor”. For them, what we had seen in New York was a chimera, an illusion. The mass killings were supposedly the suicide of the capitalist democracy and terrorism was the wrath of the unemployed, the disperate weapon of a lumpenproletariat offended by the arrogance of Western globalization. These intellectuals have sown seeds of despair in a large Western echo-chamber. From 9/11 to the recent massacres on European soil, the murdered Westerners were just the collateral victims in a war between “the system” and the damned of the earth, which only claim a place at the table.

One of these intellectuals is Michel Onfray. It is a while since we heard the expression: “Useful idiot”. It was cynically invented by Marshal Tito to designate Western sympathizers who justified the horrors of Communism. The French magazine L’Express used it for Onfray: “The useful idiot of Islamism”.

Recently in Iraq, 19 Yazidi girls were placed in iron cages and burned alive in front of a crowd of hundreds, for refusing to copulate with jihadis.

“Religious minority women under IS [Islamic State] control are often repeatedly sold from jihadi to jihadi. Once militants get tired of raping and abusing one particular girl, they usually sell them off to one of their militant buddies so they can rape and abuse them at their own pleasure.” — Samuel Smith, The Christian Post.

After their children were abducted by the Islamic State, a couple answered their door to find the body parts of their daughters and a video of them being tortured and raped.

“Christian girls are considered goods to be damaged at leisure. Abusing them is a right. According to the community’s mentality it is not even a crime. Muslims regard them as spoils of war.” — Local residents, Pakistan.

Islamic law, always harsh, is still harsher for women. According to the Koran, men have “authority” over women and may beat them if they are “disobedient” (4:34). According to Mohammad, the prophet of Islam, women are less intelligent than men — two women are needed to equal one man’s testimony — and the majority of hell’s population is made up of women, who are likened to donkeys and dogs in their ability to distract a man from his prayer and thereby annul it.

What, then, is Islam’s view of women who are “infidels”? They are at best “meant for one thing, the pleasure of the Muslim man,” as one Muslim told a group of young Christian girls in Pakistan before terrorizing and murdering one. In the Koran, (see 4:24), non-Muslim women seized in a jihad can be bought and sold as sex slaves for Muslim men, as the Islamic State has been doing.

Emily Fuentes, communications director for Open Doors, a human rights organization that advocates for persecuted Christians, said:

Unfortunately, more and more women are the target of [Muslim] terrorist groups. There are numerous international incidents of women being kidnapped, raped, and forced to convert from Christianity to Islam by radical extremist groups…. Many are also sold on the open market. This brutality is not only occurring in the Middle East but in Africa and in many other places. In many of these countries, women are subject to persecution because they are considered second-class citizens because of their gender. As minorities in both gender and faith, Christian women face double the persecution. Although we don’t have an exact number, we know that millions of women are being persecuted…. In these Muslim-dominated countries, Christian women are systematically deprived of their freedom to live and are denied basic human necessities.

Syria and its Russian allies pressed an assault on Aleppo amid what the United Nations called the most intense bombing in years of warfare there, and residents said hundreds of civilians have been killed since a cease-fire fell apart last week.

The surge in deaths came as a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend cited reports of “bunker buster bombs.” The bombs have left large craters in the rebel-held part of the divided city, Aleppo residents said, and caused shock waves felt blocks away from the point of impact.

The U.N. Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, told the Security Council on Sunday that he had seen videos and pictures of incendiary bombs “that create fireballs of such intensity that they light up the pitch darkness in eastern Aleppo, as though it was actually daylight.”

Rebels and opposition leaders blamed Russia, Syria’s key ally, for the bunker-buster bombs. The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

“The first time one struck, everyone thought there was an earthquake,” said Muhammad al-Zein, who helps oversee hospitals in the rebel-held part of Aleppo. “But the next day another one hit and we realized it was not an earthquake.”

Much of the death toll came in the four days since Thursday when the Syrian regime announced the start of a new offensive against Aleppo’s rebel-controlled neighborhoods.

President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to retake all of Aleppo and the offensive was the latest indication that he aims to win the war militarily despite repeated efforts by the U.S. and Russia to reach a lasting cease-fire and a diplomatic solution. Syrian state media reported that the army on Saturday seized control of an area north of Aleppo city called Handarat Camp. Within hours, rebels said they had retaken the territory.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on Sunday over the bombardment of Aleppo. The meeting, which lasted about three hours, was called jointly by the U.S., France and the U.K. Ambassadors of all three countries walked out when Syria’s representative began speaking. CONTINUE AT SITE

Plot abandoned; teen says she was shocked at Bastille Day truck killing

PARIS—Two young women suspected of planning an attack in France were detained by police in the southern French city of Nice, a person familiar with the investigation said Sunday, the latest sign that Islamic State is shifting its focus from the battlefield in Syria to orchestrating terror plots in Europe.

The two young women—17 and 19 years old—had been in contact with Rachid Kassim, a French recruiter for Islamic State, on the Telegram Messenger messaging app, the person said. Mr. Kassim, who is believed to be in Islamic State territory, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Mr. Kassim called on the women to attack specific sites in France to avenge the death of Abu Mohammed al Adnani, a founding member and chief spokesman for Islamic State, who was killed on a battlefield in northern Syria last month, the person added, without providing further details.

Even as Islamic State loses territory in Syria and Iraq, the mushrooming of small-scale terror attacks in Europe has allowed the militant group to keep people here on edge, without having to train and equip teams to pull off highly sophisticated operations.

Over the past year, a spate of terror attacks has left more than 200 people dead in France. CONTINUE AT SITE

A prominent Jordanian Christian writer was shot dead outside an Amman courthouse on Sunday, ahead of a scheduled court hearing for posting on social media a cartoon the government charged had offended Islam.

Nahed Hattar was struck by three bullets in front of the Court of Justice, the official Petra news agency said. He was rushed to the hospital and later pronounced dead. Police had captured the assailant and seized a weapon, it said, without releasing further details as to the shooter’s identity.

Mr. Hattar, who was in his 50s, was detained last month after he shared a cartoon on his Facebook page lampooning Islamic extremists’ view of heaven. He was charged with inciting religious tensions and racism, as well as offending religion under Jordanian laws.

The post sparked controversy across the country, with many Muslims accusing him of blasphemy and defaming religion.

The cartoon posted to Facebook depicted a white-bearded God wearing a crown and asking an Islamist, who is in bed with two women, if he needs anything. The man then asks God to get him wine, and for the angel Gabriel to bring cashews.

The depiction of God in any form is forbidden in Islam. The cartoon’s author hasn’t been identified.

Mr. Hattar’s death echoed recent attacks in Europe and the U.S. against journalists and artists for depicting the Prophet Muhammad in cartoons viewed as offensive to Muslims.

In 2015, two men were killed by police in a Dallas suburb after they opened fire outside a building where an exhibit that featured cartoon drawings of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

It came six months after militants stormed the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people including some of the publication’s most famous cartoonists. Many Muslims deemed Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad provocative, or even blasphemous. CONTINUE AT SITE

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Stopping the spread of breast cancer. In laboratory tests, researchers at Tel Aviv University and MIT have used gene therapy to prevent metastasis – the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body. 80% of women with metastatic cancer die from the disease within five years of being diagnosed.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Are-Israeli-researchers-a-step-closer-to-halting-the-spread-of-breast-cancer-468144

A cure for motion sickness. MotionCure from Israel’s Sidis Labs can provide relief from motion sickness within minutes. MotionCure’s combination of a neck collar and a travel pillow transmits customized pulses to the median nerve at the back of neck. These counter negative signals from the brain that upset the stomach.
http://www.israel21c.org/a-device-that-pulses-away-motion-sickness/ http://www.sidislabs.com/motioncure

Treatment for Sickle Cell Disease. (TY Atid-EDI) The first patient with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) has received a transplant of CordIn from Israeli biotech Gamida Cell. CordIn is an alternative for patients awaiting a suitable match for bone marrow transplants. Trials of CordIn are planned for patients with aplastic anemia.
http://www.gamida-cell.com/press_item.asp?ID=67&t=Gamida-Cell-Announces-First-Patient-with-Sickle-Cell-Disease-Transplanted-in-Phase-1/2-Study-of-CordIn%E2%84%A2-as-the-Sole-Graft-Source-

Patent for ocular neuro-protectant treatment. Quark is a US company with its R&D in Israel. The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Quark a key patent for its ocular neuro-protectant QPI-1007, covering the treatment of patients suffering from non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).
http://quarkpharma.com/?p=12340

Boost for colon X-ray capsule. Israel’s Check-cap, developer of the world’s first ingestible colon X-ray capsule, has announced three key news items. It is partnering with GE Healthcare to develop high-volume manufacturing. It also received $1.2 million from the Israeli government and $5.9 million from private sources.
http://ir.check-cap.com/2016-08-04-Check-Cap-Announces-Agreement-with-GE-Healthcare-for-X-Ray-Capsule-Manufacturing-Collaboration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDt36TW9d8Q
http://ir.check-cap.com/2016-08-02-Check-Cap-Awarded-1-25-Million-Grant-for-2016-From-Israels-Office-of-the-Chief-Scientist http://ir.check-cap.com/2016-08-08-Check-Cap-Ltd-Announces-5-9-Million-Financing

More treatments from Teva. Israel’s Teva has launched in the US the generic equivalent to Gleevec (imatinib mesylate) for the treatment of leukemia and other cancer-related diseases. Also, Europe has approved Teva’s CINQAERO (reslizumab) – the first intravenous anti-IL-5 biologic therapy for severe eosinophilic asthma.
http://www.tevapharm.com/news/teva_announces_launch_of_generic_gleevec_tablets_in_the_united_states_08_16.aspx
http://www.tevapharm.com/news/european_commission_grants_marketing_authorization_for_teva_s_cinqaero_reslizumab_08_16.aspx

Europe funds Israeli blood test for viruses and bacteria. The UN has prioritized fighting antibiotic resistance. Meanwhile, the European Commission has granted 2.3 million Euros to Israeli biotech MeMed to help develop its fast blood test that distinguishes between bacterial and viral infections – and thus significantly reduces the unnecessary use of antibiotics. (See Aug 2015 newsletter)
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Israeli-product-that-pinpoints-viruses-bacteria-gets-European-grant-467771 http://www.bbc.com/news/health-31941538

Device to seal burst arteries. (TY Atid-EDI) Israel’s InSeal Medical has received CE Mark approval for its InClosure VCD (Vascular Closure Device), designed to close large bore arterial punctures. These could be emergencies such as abdominal aortic aneurysms or in procedures such as heart valve replacements.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/inseal-medical-ltd-announces-ce-mark-approval-for-the-inclosure-large-bore-vascular-closure-device-589461411.html

Corneal edema treatment approved for the US. (TY Atid-EDI) The US FDA has approved the Hyper-CL contact lens for the treatment of corneal edema developed by Israel’s EyeYon Medical. The product is already approved for marketing in Europe. About two million people develop corneal edema annually.
http://www.eye-yon.com/press-eyeyon-medical-announces-receiving-fda-510-k-clearance/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rknqew9dhxk (See also previous newsletters)

Using Virtual Reality to prevents falls. Tel Aviv University researchers have proved that exercise using Virtual Reality (VR) systems can halve the number of incidents of falls in the elderly. Falls in adults aged 65 and over account for about 2% of all healthcare expenditures in high-income countries,
http://www.timesofisrael.com/virtual-reality-can-help-prevent-falls-in-elderly-israeli-team-finds/
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)31325-3/abstract

Pain relief machines for women in labor. Yad Sarah, the voluntary organization that lends out medical equipment and offers many other services to the ill, lonely and elderly, has bought hundreds of TENS machines. These provide pain relief for women in labor and will be lent to expectant mothers from Yad Sarah branches.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Health-Scan-TENS-for-free-467997