Displaying posts published in

November 2019

The “Great Pleasure in Destroying Christians”: The Persecution of Christians, September 2019 by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15166/destroying-christians

“These regulations [from 2006] stipulate that all places of non-Muslim worship must be licenced. However, the government has yet to issue any licence for a church buildings [sic] under this ordinance, ignoring applications from churches to regularise their status in accordance with the ordinance.” — International Christian Response, September 25, 2019, Algeria.

Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board sought to deport a refugee family — a mother and three children — that had fled their native country of Nigeria after they were attacked and threatened with death for leaving Islam and converting to Christianity…. “They face a ‘fatwa’ (a pronouncement of death) against them for converting to Christianity from Islam. They believe they face certain death if they are returned to Nigeria. They are quite fearful.” … Supporters of the family said the government was not taking the time to establish the family’s humanitarian status or perform a proper risk assessment. “They’re trying to boot [them] out of the country before then.” The family’s current status is unclear.

The Slaughter of Christians

Nigeria: On September 22, the jihadi group, Boko Haram, released a video depicting the execution of two Christian aid workers. Lawrence Duna Dacighir and Godfrey Ali Shikagham, both members of the Church of Christ in Nations, appeared on their knees, in front of three armed men, who proceeded to shoot them. Both Christians had gone to Maiduguri — near where they were captured — to help build shelters for people displaced by Islamic extremist violence. In the same video, and “speaking in the Hausa language, the middle one of the three terrorists says … that they have vowed to kill every Christian they capture…” Responding to the executions, Pastor Pofi, a cousin of the two executed Christians, said:

“Lawrence and Godfrey left Abuja for Maiduguri in search of opportunities to utilize their skills for the betterment of humanity and paid with their lives. We will never get their corpses to bury. The community will have to make do with a makeshift memorial to these young lives cut short so horrifically.”

Separately, a Christian pastor and the wife of another pastor were killed in two different raids by Muslim Fulani herdsmen. “After they had killed her [Esther Ishaku Katung], they were still demanding the ransom without telling her family that they had killed her,” a local Christian said. “It was only after the ransom was paid that it was found by her family that she had been killed by her abductors.” Her mutilated body was found dumped in the bushes.

Old Tricks and the Iraqi Genie by Amir Taheri

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15168/iraqi-genie

They claim since force cannot impose democracy, it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq and dislodge Saddam Hussein. They ignore the fact that though force cannot impose democracy, impediments to democracy can, and have been, removed by force.

Iraqi officials wonder how so many Iraqis, including many statistically-classed illiterates, manage to send and receive text messages on their smartphones. Those officials do not realize that even the poorest peasant is now able to pick up the rudiments of the alphabet and a vocabulary of a few hundred words to express his anger and passions and to coordinate action with those who share his concerns.

Tehran is wrong in toying with the idea of ending the uprising with a bloodbath as in Syria. Washington is wrong to think that yet another election with the same rules and same cast of characters would do the trick. The Najaf mullahs are wrong to believe that Iraqis will obey their fatwas as they did a generation ago. Tribal chiefs are mistaken in thinking the big “Sheikh” could secure a big cheque in exchange for calming down his kith-and-kin.

But, the fact remains that old tricks will not push that genie back into the bottle.

Although it is too early to speculate about the outcome for the Iraqi uprising, one fact is clear: What we witness is the result of a multiple misunderstandings, by participants in the current drama and those who watch from the sidelines.

There are, first, those who see Iraq as a secular version of the “original sin”. To them, toppling Saddam Hussein was the starting point of a journey that could only lead to hell.

They claim since force cannot impose democracy, it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq and dislodge Saddam Hussein. They ignore that though force cannot impose democracy, impediments to democracy can, and have been, removed by force.

Jeremy Corbyn Poses a Potent Threat to Western Security by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15164/jeremy-corbyn-poses-a-potent-threat-to-western

By far the most likely casualty of a Corbyn government would be the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network, where there is a strong likelihood that other member states of the alliance will be deeply reluctant to share highly sensitive material with a British prime minister who has spent his entire political career openly associating with regimes and groups that are utterly hostile to the West and its allies.

At the heart of his hard Left approach to foreign policy lies a deep hatred for the US and its role in safeguarding the interests of the Western democracies.

Thus Mr Corbyn’s instinct is to be more sympathetic to the views of Russia, Iran, North Korea and the Assad regime in Syria than Britain’s long-standing allies in Washington and Europe.

With the British general election now well underway, Britain’s allies need to give serious consideration about how they would deal with Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party’s hard left candidate, in the event of him becoming prime minister.

The prospect of Mr Corbyn entering Downing Street is of particular concern for the US given the current level of close cooperation that currently exists between Washington and London, especially regarding national security issues.

As one highly influential American security source told me earlier this week, “A Corbyn government would not just be a disaster for Britain. It would be a disaster for the US and other Western allies who work closely with London on a whole range of global security issues.”

Two Parties, Many Paths By Richard Baehr

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/11/two_parties_many_paths.html

How America’s Political Parties Change (And How They Don’t), by Michael Barone, Encounter Books, 2019, 130 pages

Before American media began to worship at the feet of the statistics gurus (Nate Silver and others), Michael Barone was generally regarded as  the writer with the  greatest  insight into American politics, past and present. Barone’s  biennial “Almanac of American Politics”, a thick collection of essays and voting histories on the 50 states, and every Congressional district, provided the best short survey on how American politics was changing at the regional,  state and Congressional district level, with analyses of the current officeholders – Governors, Senators, Congressmen, and descriptions of the places they represented.  If you met Barone, as I have a few times, he could startle you by describing politics at a granular level – even down to towns or neighborhoods. 

But the failure of pretty much every public opinion poll or statistical forecast to accurately predict the  results of the 2016 Presidential election results has not diminished the enthusiasm for data analytics, now one of the hottest areas of study in colleges and universities. In Michael Barone’s latest book on America’s two major political parties , he addresses the  history of the two parties, the 2016 results, the forecasting failures and what may lay ahead for the two parties.

The Houellebecqian Moment By Daniel Tenreiro

https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/11/book-review-serotonin-michel-houllebecq-sociopolitical-moment/

The French provocateur’s latest novel, Serotonin, comes as his longstanding concerns have begun to manifest in the liberal societies he so harshly criticizes.

We are living in the imagination of Michel Houellebecq. The bête noire of French literature has spent decades deploring the erosion of Western mores that he believes resulted from the sexual revolution of the 1960s. His last novel, Submission, revolved around the election of a theocratic Muslim to the French presidency. Released on the same day as the Charlie Hebdo massacre, it was on one hand reviled as an Islamophobic tirade and, on the other, heralded as a prophetic portrayal of the decline of Europe. His latest, Serotonin (deftly translated into English by Shaun Whiteside), resumes the prophetic style, but his predictions seem less fantastical now.

Indeed, the rise of populism in the U.S. and Europe might as well have been choreographed by Houellebecq. The election of Donald Trump, Britain’s vote to withdraw from the European Union, and the rise of populist parties across Europe all constitute a repudiation of the ideology Houellebecq has railed against since the 1990s. And he is not displeased to see the “liberal world order” crumbling, as he explained in an essay for Harper’s earlier this year titled “Donald Trump Is a Good President.”

ATTORNEY GENERAL BARR TO THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY*****

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/11/16/barr-rips-war-of-resistance-against-trump-in-partisan-rant/23862462/

In a speech before the conservative Federalist Society, Barr rebuked lawmakers for probing President Donald Trump’s potential power abuses, suggesting their efforts are illegitimate.

“The sheer volume of what we see today ― the pursuit of scores of parallel investigations through an avalanche of subpoenas ― is plainly designed to incapacitate the executive branch, and indeed is touted as such,” Barr said. “The costs of this constant harassment are real.”

Barr went on to invoke the ideologies of Fisher Ames, a Federalist Party politician who served as a congressman representing Massachusetts in the 1790s. Paraphrasing Ames, Barr suggested that progressives are behaving like zealots, treating “politics as their religion:”

Their holy mission is to use the coercive power of the state to remake man and society in their own image, according to an abstract ideal of perfection. Whatever means they use are therefore justified because, by definition, they are a virtuous people pursing a deific end. They are willing to use any means necessary to gain momentary advantage in achieving their end, regardless of collateral consequences and the systemic implications. 

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Good results in sepsis treatment trial. As reported previously (see here)Israel’s Enlivex Therapeutics has developed Allocetra which rebalances the immune system. Allocetra was given to six patients suffering from severe sepsis at Hadassah hospital in Jerusalem. All survived.
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-11/04/c_138528152.htm
 
Amazing medical innovations.  Great video by Naftali Hananya about Israeli medical innovations previously reported in this newsletter. It highlights nano eye drops to restore vision (see here); Savicell’s lung cancer test (see here); the multiple myeloma treatment XPOVIO (see here); and Relivion’s migraine headset (see here);
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh3b5z1rqKM
 
Teva launches anti-cancer treatment. Israel’s Teva is launching Truxima, a biosimilar for Rituxan – Roche’s oncology treatment. It is initially targeted at non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma patients but also could treat rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3773475,00.html
 
Early diagnosis of autism. Professor Ilan Dinstein of Israel’s Ben Gurion University has developed a method of detecting children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the early age of 18 months. He tracks eye-movements of children watching films. ASD children have significantly more idiosyncratic gaze patterns.
https://aabgu.org/bgu-professor-making-strides-in-autism-early-diagnosis/#8230;-early-diagnosis/
 
Another discovery about memory. Researchers from Ben-Gurion University working with Spanish scientists have discovered that single-cell organisms such as amoebas are capable of developing memory capabilities. The breakthrough could help treat patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
https://aabgu.org/memory-breakthrough-could-help-dementia-patients/
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5589348,00.html
 
Seven joint UK-Israel medical projects. The British-Israel research organization BIRAX is granting funds of £2.8 million to seven, new, three-year bilateral scientific research projects in the field of ageing. These focus on vascular, brain and eye diseases, plus diabetes and involve precision medicine and Artificial Intelligence.  
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/271385
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3773637,00.html
 
Sheba’s Innovation Center. (TY Stuart) Israel’s Sheba Medical Center has launched its ARC Innovation Center, with world-class medics plus top technology experts developing new approaches for treatment and rehabilitation. It is the first hospital in the world to provide a virtual reality rehab facility.
https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-israeli-hospitals-innovation-center-brings-personal-medicine-to-life/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbnRwXllIlM
 
The robot will see you now.  Israeli startup Diagnostic Robotics has developed an Artificial Intelligent Emergency Room triage robot that assesses the urgency of each patient to determine their priority in seeing a human doctor. The robot also provides the doctor with a preliminary diagnosis and recommendations.
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3773621,00.html
 
Volunteer paramedic delivers 3 babies in 48 hours. Israel’s Issachar Weiss is a volunteer paramedic for Magen David Adom in the Tel Aviv area. He delivered one baby at 4:30am Sunday in Givatayim, another at 5am Monday in Bnei Brak and a third at 5pm Monday in Hatikvah Tel Aviv. It may be a new record.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/volunteer-paramedic-delivers-3-babies-in-48-hours/
 

Breaking Down the Fallout from Marie Yovanovitch’s Testimony By Andrew C. McCarthy

Breaking Down the Fallout from Marie Yovanovitch’s Testimony She did not move the needle on impeachment, but the main event has always been 2020. There were fireworks aplenty, but the most important development during former U.S. ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s testimony at Friday’s House impeachment hearing was an undetonated bomb. Or was it just a dud? Ambassador […]