RUTHFULLY YOURS

BERLIN—Four acts of violence in seven days have shattered Germany’s calm and revived an emotional debate over the security implications of taking in more than one million migrants and refugees in the past 20 months.

Police identified asylum applicants as suspects in three apparently unconnected high-profile attacks in the past week, from an ax attack on a train last week to a knife killing and a suicide blast late Sunday.

Only the ax rampage, in which a teenager registered as an Afghan refugee wounded five people, has been identified as Islamist terrorism. But all four incidents—including a German-Iranian teenager’s shooting spree in Munich on Friday that killed nine—have put the European Union’s most populous country on edge.

“I thought Germany was safe—no shooting, no terror,” said Faruk Sazil, a 30-year-old of Turkish origin, who owns and runs a Munich kebab stand next to the McDonald’s where the shooting spree began Friday. “Now I don’t know. Who can know?”

Authorities say the Munich shooter had been treated for depression and was obsessed by mass killings.

If there’s one lesson to be learned on the 10th anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, it is that ‎brokered cease-fires and U.N. resolutions are not to be trusted in the Middle East, where the ‎definitions of “victory” and “defeat” are elusive.‎

For 34 days during the summer of 2006, Hezbollah pummeled the Jewish state with rockets, and the ‎Israel Defense Forces conducted airstrikes to destroy the infrastructure and weaponry of the ‎bloodthirsty Shiite organization, which — in typical Arab terrorist fashion — were strategically placed in ‎and around the homes and schools of civilians.‎

When the war was over, both sides declared victory, though then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s ‎announcement sounded feeble to most Israelis. The regular IDF soldiers and reservists who ‎participated in the fighting felt particularly deflated and bitter. When the war was over, their stories of ‎inadequate equipment and lack of training for the missions they were sent to conduct emerged to ‎everyone’s horror and disgust. One friend of mine recounted having to improvise all the time — for ‎example, by using chocolate spread as face camouflage, and operating a tank with which he was ‎completely unfamiliar.‎

The Winograd Commission, set up in the aftermath of the war, delved into these and other mishaps ‎on the leadership and military levels. But the real culprit was a false assessment, reached more than a ‎decade earlier, that the “conventional battlefield” was a thing of the past. According to this ridiculous ‎theory, it would be wasteful to expend energy and resources training for ground incursions, when the ‎era of high-tech sorties from the air was the wave of the future.‎

Still, analysts pointed to the major blow suffered by Hezbollah in the war, pointing to the “restoration ‎of quiet” in the north and the heavy losses incurred by the terrorist group. One such optimist was ‎Iranian-born, London-based Middle East expert Amir Taheri, who visited the Jewish state in May 2007, ‎less than a year after the war was over — on the eve of the release of the Winograd Commission’s ‎interim findings. ‎

Hamas was one of the many entities rushing to congratulate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his successful quashing of the attempted coup against his government last weekend. Like leaders of other countries worldwide, the heads of the terrorist organization ruling the Gaza Strip hailed Erdogan’s success as a “victory for democracy.”

Unlike those who waited for the military takeover to fail before applauding the autocrat in Ankara, Hamas was genuinely relieved. After all, the Islamist Palestinian group has no greater friend than Erdogan.

Thus, Hamas has been able to proceed with its summer activities in a particularly festive manner. Two of these activities are particularly worthy of note.

The first is a special exhibit marking the second anniversary of Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s 2014 incursion into Gaza to destroy the terrorist infrastructure — tunnels and missile-launchers — used by Hamas to kidnap and kill innocent Israelis.

Though Israel managed to decimate much of the infrastructure, leaving swaths of Gaza in ruins, Hamas did not feel defeated; nor should it have. No military match for the mighty Israeli army, it nevertheless succeeded in sending the Israeli populace into bomb shelters several times a day, while retaining political power and several tunnels and subsequently buckets of money and materials with which to keep its terror mill running.

To boost morale and demonstrate that it is doing its job properly, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades — amusingly known as Hamas’ “military wing” — has created a death-and-destruction Disneyland for family fun, free of charge. This consists of a display of various authentic weapons deployed in the slaughter of Israelis, and an extra-special tour of a tunnel bordering the Jewish state.

REUTLINGEN, Germany—A Syrian man used a long knife to kill a woman here on Sunday in an apparent personal dispute, and injured two other people before being detained, police said.

The suspect is a 21-year-old asylum seeker from Syria, the police said. The man was known to the police and had been charged in the past with assault.

The incident quickly made national news in a country on edge in the wake of a spate of violence across Europe that has fanned fears of a rising terror threat. Another asylum seeker, registered as a 17-year-old Afghan, injured five people in an ax attack last Monday in Würzburg, a two-hour drive from here.

But unlike the Würzburg assault, in which Islamic State claimed responsibility, the Reutlingen incident appeared to be the result of a personal dispute, police said.

“There is no evidence that it was religious or terrorist-motivated,” a police spokesman said.

Germans have been anxious amid a series of high-profile violence in Europe, including the July 14 truck attack in Nice, France; the Würzburg assault; and Friday’s shooting spree in Munich that killed nine.

The police initially described the man’s weapon as a machete but later said it was a long knife, likely a kitchen knife. They said the man and woman had some kind of personal dispute, but said they didn’t yet know the nature of their relationship. Police said they weren’t able to immediately identify the woman and didn’t know her nationality.

It also wasn’t clear when the man came to Germany. More than 300,000 Syrians have applied for asylum in Germany since January 2015, according to government figures. Reutlingen, a city of 110,000, is in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg.

CONTENTS
1. Germany’s first suicide bomb
2. Western Europe’s (still relatively small-scale) Islamist insurgency
3. BBC omits Muslim first name of attacker
4. CNN – if the same attacks happen against Israelis, it is not terror
5. AFP: no terror in Israel
6. In Paris too
7. Ex-Democrat congresswoman: Israel behind European terror attacks
8. Israel a “major cause of Isis” says British Lib-Dem politician
9. A no-fly zone
10. Turkey: Erdogan publishes photo of new government

We all know about Germany under Angela Merkel deciding to admit about a million immigrants from lands where jihadism, Sharia law, terrorism and hatred of women, Jews and gays are endemic.

Most of know that on New Years’ Eve last, some 1000 of the recent immigrants, predominantly young males from a culture of rape, began sexually assaulting hundreds of German young women in Cologne.

Fewer know that German police took days to acknowledge the extent of the mass rapes and sexual attacks and in this they and the German media have been following the lead of Sweden whose police and media, according to a recent article in Britain’s The Spectator, have been actively covering up the facts on the nature and extent of Muslim sexual attacks on their women.

German police declared within one day that the German-Iranian shooter who killed 9, including children, in the Munich mall attack this week acted alone, and inferred that this was mental illness not terrorism.

This happened during a period where police and security services were on “high alert” due to information about a possible terrorist attack. Unlike most shooters who are killed on site as they continue to shoot, this shooter was found a kilometer away from the mall, and police quickly said that not only did he act alone but that it was suicide. He had been walking around with a Glock 17 semi-automatic handgun and 300 rounds of ammunition in his rucksack. I ask whether it is reasonable to accept such a fast conclusion from police that it was suicide and not terrorism.

I do not understand why the country that makes Mercedes cars that can drive themselves cannot, during a period of high alert, protect public gatherings, or find a shooter in a dense urban environment and must rely on the killer committing suicide a kilometer away – unless of course your ideology says all Muslims are culturally equal to all Western Europeans and that it is appropriate to accept a million mostly unvetted, mostly Muslim, migrants during wartime (radical Islam has declared war, and Hollande accepts this but not Obama and it would seem that Merkel does not accept it either). The ideology of tolerance (which I term “tolerism” in my book of that title) says that tolerance and compassion and empathy, and yes, “submission” to a million demographic soldiers of the Islamic retaking of Europe, will somehow ease the problem.

The perpetrator shouted, “Allahu Akbar” — the terrorist battle-cry. Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae, however, told a news conference there were no indications the gunman had links with ISIS, identifying the attack as a “classic shooting rampage” and not terrorism. Why do we insist that we are only worried about links to ISIS and not links to cultural jihadism and conquest?

Police were quick to emphasize that the shooter also shouted that he was a “German”, all but ignoring that he, or perhaps his parents, was, or were, from Iran, the major terrorist exporting nation in the world. Even if he was not directed by Iranian terrorists, one cannot say that he was not inspired by the constant anti-western propaganda and warlike statements coming out of Iran. One would think that Germany, in light of its crimes during the Nazi era but also due to its role in selling chemicals to Iraq and Syria for its chemical weapons program, and, as disclosed in a report by the World Nuclear Organization, providing 24% of the parts for the Iranian Busheir 1 nuclear plant, be more diligent in pursuing world peace by stopping its tolerance for Islamic warmongers.

In recent months the Kremlin has hinted that keeping Assad in power is not its primary concern. Rather its main objective in Syria is to keep its strategically-important bases in the country.

This has led to suggestions that, in return for building closer relations with Turkey, Moscow might be prepared to do a deal whereby Assad is removed from power and Russia’s military interests in the country are safeguarded.

If that outcome could be achieved, then Russia and Turkey would be able to forge a powerful partnership, one that would pose a serious threat to Western interests in the Middle East and beyond.

The deepening diplomatic pact between Turkey and Russia represents yet another damning indictment of the Obama Administration’s ability to maintain relations with Washington’s traditional allies in the Middle East.

Western diplomats regard the decision by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to restore relations with Moscow last month as part of a carefully-coordinated attempt by Ankara to build a new power base in the region.

For decades Turkey, a key NATO member, has said that it wants to forge closer ties with the West, to the extent that Turkish diplomats insist that Ankara is still serious about joining the European Union.

But the increasingly hard-line Islamist approach taken by Mr Erdogan in the wake of the failed military coup, which has seen tens of thousands of judges, academics and journalists forced from their jobs, has caused the Turkish government to realise the prospects of maintaining relations with its Western allies are remote so long as it continues with the current crack-down.

This had led Mr Erdogan to embark on a campaign to reach out to countries such as Russia, which he regards as a viable alternative to the U.S. in protecting Turkey’s interests in the region.

BERLIN—Authorities said a 27-year-old Syrian man tried to enter an outdoor concert in southern Germany and then blew himself up, injuring 12 people, in what appeared to be this country’s first suicide bombing in years.

The bombing took place in central Ansbach, a small town in the state of Bavaria that was hosting a concert that attracted 2,000 people on Sunday night.

Just after 10 p.m., the man sought to enter the concert but couldn’t get in, Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told reporters early Monday morning in Ansbach. Investigators believe the man then set off a bomb that killed him and injured 12, three of them seriously, Mr. Herrmann said.

No one had life-threatening injuries, officials said.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the man was only seeking to kill himself or also to hurt others, Mr. Herrmann said.

But investigators were looking into whether the blast was motivated by Islamist extremism, he said.

The man had come to Germany two years ago and applied for asylum. His asylum application was rejected last year but he wasn’t deported because of the civil war in Syria, as is standard practice in Germany, Mr. Herrmann said.

The man was already known to the police, he said, because he had twice been treated in a hospital after trying to take his life. He was also known because of a previous drug misdemeanor, a police spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman said the police have formed a 30-person task force supported by state police, who would help analyze the explosive device, which was filled with metal clamps. The bomber’s mobile phone and other technical devices were also being analyzed and police were searching the refugee shelter where he resided, she said.

The German intelligence service recently reported many clandestine Iranian attempts to obtain dual-use chemical, biological and nuclear technology.

In the Iran nuclear deal, the parties decided to engage “in different areas of civil nuclear co-operation,” including construction and modernization of Iranian light water reactors, provision of technical assistance and on-the-job training. Meanwhile, Israel has been denied a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with the US.

Israel’s reported MOU requests on security assistance, missile defense, and regional qualitative military advantage are justified.

The terms of any U.S.-Israel agreement must withstand comparison to the concessions offered Iran in the JCPOA and show unequivocally that Israel, a trusted ally and major strategic partner, fared better in negotiations than an unconstrained enemy.

The one-year anniversary of the signing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Western powers and Iran focused public attention on the regime’s activities and Obama Administration policies and actions regarding this avowed enemy. Virtually unnoticed, despite the linkage to Iran-related developments, were reports that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is being pressured to set aside reservations and accept the terms the White House is offering for the Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S.

As recent developments show, such an acquiescence would be mistake. There is cause for concern.

Iran continues to take Americans and other Westerners hostage, indicting three dual-nationals just days ago on unknown charges. This remains a troubling pattern of diplomatic blackmail, negotiation by coercion. Last month in Lebanon, a so-called parliamentarian for Hezbollah, a terrorist surrogate of the Iranian regime, called for “Israeli civilians to be kidnapped in a future war with Israel.” He “boasted” that Hezbollah’s missiles “can now reach Tel Aviv from Iran, not just Damascus, Beirut, or Cairo.”

The German intelligence service recently reported on numerous Iranian attempts to clandestinely obtain dual-use chemical, biological and nuclear technology. The report by the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), the domestic intelligence service of the Federal Republic of Germany, also noted “a further increase in the already considerable procurement efforts in connection with Iran’s ambitious missile technology program, which could, among other things, potentially serve to deliver nuclear weapons.”

In early May, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, reportedly revealed at a conference in Tehran that the regime had test-fired a high-precision ballistic missile “with a range of 2000 kilometers and pinpoint accuracy of 8 meters.” In March, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched two Qadr medium-range ballistic missiles. On one of them, in Hebrew, was inscribed the phrase, “Israel must be wiped out.”

“I am a soldier of the Caliphate and am launching a martyrdom operation in Germany. … I have lived among you, lived in your homes. I planned this in your own land. And I will slaughter you in your own homes and in the streets. … I will slaughter you with this knife and sever your necks with an axe, if Allah permits. ” – Germany’s axe-attacker, in an Islamic State video.

“Künast should not be watching so many bad movies. Who would believe that if someone attacks the police with an axe and a knife, the police are supposed to shoot the axe out of the attacker’s hands? That is really clueless and stupid. If police officers are attacked in this manner, they will not engage in Kung Fu. Unfortunately, it sometimes ends in the death of the perpetrator. This will not change.” – Rainer Wendt, Chairman of the German Police Union.

The Bavarian Criminal Police Office has now launched an internal investigation to determine if police were justified in shooting a jihadist.

A 17-year-old Afghan asylum seeker brandishing an axe and shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is the greatest”) seriously injured five people on a train in Würzburg, Bavaria. The assailant was shot dead by police after he charged at them with the axe.

The teenager, who had claimed asylum after arriving in Germany in June 2015 as an unaccompanied minor, had been placed with a foster family just two weeks before the attack as a reward for being “well integrated.”

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said police had found a hand-painted Islamic State flag in his room at his foster home in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt. They also found a farewell letter to his father which read: “Now pray for me so that I can take revenge on these infidels. Pray for me that I can get to paradise.”

Shortly after the attack, the Islamic State released a video purporting to show an Afghan asylum seeker holding a knife and making threats against Germany:

“In the name of Allah, I am a soldier of the Caliphate and am launching a martyrdom operation in Germany.

“Here I am. I have lived among you, lived in your homes. I planned this in your own land. And I will slaughter you in your own homes and in the streets.

“I will make you forget about the spectacular attacks in France, if Allah permits.

“I will fight to the death, if Allah permits. I will slaughter you with this knife and sever your necks with an axe, if Allah permits.”

In the video, the Islamic State identified the attacker as Muhammad Riyad, who can be heard speaking Pashto, a language spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. But German media identified the attacker as Riaz Khan Ahmadzai. The discrepancy raised questions about the teenager’s true identity.