RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/help-lebanon-remove-hezbollahs-stranglehold-and-its-dangerous-missile-stockpiles/#slide-1

If Hezbollah does capitalize on this disaster, it will only accelerate Lebanon’s economic collapse, and hold the country hostage in a future war with Israel.

Beirut has been ravaged by a massive explosion, likely caused by careless handling of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse at its port. As the city is still picking through the debris and thousands search for loved ones, countries such as Turkey, Iran, Qatar, France, and Israel are rushing to provide support. Yet looming over Beirut even now is the presence of the terrorist group Hezbollah with its network of 150,000 missiles, many stored in civilian areas throughout the country.

While Hezbollah has not been blamed for the August 4 warehouse fire that led to the massive explosion, it is alleged to have imported and stored similar stockpiles of dangerous munitions and chemicals, such as ammonium nitrate, used in explosives. Hezbollah also helped create the corrupt and negligent political system whose lack of accountability enabled the careless storage of these deadly chemicals for years. For instance, a new report by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies asserts that Hezbollah siphons off billions from around the world into a kind of black market. Money is laundered through Lebanon, allowing Hezbollah to function as a kind of parallel state, one with its own terror army, missiles, companies, financial services, and social services

The recent explosion in Lebanon must invite increased scrutiny of the role Hezbollah has played in eroding state institutions and enabling the kind of shoddy negligence that led to this disaster. To shield itself, Hezbollah will scramble to respond, likely either casting blame or portraying itself as riding to the rescue. It has done this before. After launching an attack on Israel in 2006, Hezbollah used the war’s devastation to entrench and enrich itself. It did the same with the Syrian civil war in 2011, using the war next door as an excuse to send fighters to Syria and essentially conduct Lebanon’s foreign policy in place of the government.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/belarus-on-the-brink-11596756409?mod=opinion_lead_pos3

Belarussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is facing the most serious challenge to his quarter-century rule, but he won’t leave without a fight. Instability in the country of 9.5 million could open another front for Russian aggression along the European Union’s border.

Mr. Lukashenko prevented several rivals from running in this Sunday’s presidential election. But Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the wife of a banned candidate, has presented a surprisingly robust challenge. Tens of thousands have attended rallies to support Ms. Tikhanovskaya, who is running on pro-democratic reforms that would bring Belarus closer to the West. She also promises to resign after six months and order a fresh election.

Like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Mr. Lukashenko rules as an authoritarian but tries to derive legitimacy from unfair elections. Both men have seen their once genuine popularity decline thanks to economic mismanagement, frustration with curtailed political freedom, and especially a bungled response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Like his Russian counterpart, Mr. Lukashenko won’t accept any outcome but victory in rigged elections.

Independent observers have been detained while documenting thousands of election-law violations in early voting. If opposition supporters feel they’ve been robbed, as they almost certainly will, expect protests. Mr. Lukashenko won’t hesitate to violently suppress dissent, but the depth of public disdain means the demonstrators won’t back down easily.

https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/HJS-British-Muslim-An

Dear friends,
 

I am delighted to launch HJS’ latest work on the scourge of anti-Semitism in the UK, authored by Dr Rakib Ehsan.  We have focussed specifically on anti-Semitism within the Muslim community.  Sadly, the results are by no means reassuring.
 
The research finds that 44% of British Muslims admit to believing that British Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the UK  – a common form of anti-Semitism.  Just 13% could bring themselves to say that Jews were more loyal to the UK than Israel.

These shocking findings are not limited to so-called ‘dual loyalty’.  More British Muslims believe that Jews have too much control over the global banking system (34%) than do not (23%).  The same is true for politics, entertainment, the arms industry, and the media.  

There is no category of enterprise, that we polled, in which more British Muslims disagreed with the statement that Jews had too much control than agreed with it.  Similar polling of the public at large reveals that these levels of belief are far in excess of the wider population’s views.